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Revival of Australia’s Molonglo Radio Telescope
Australia's Molonglo Observatory was saved from retirement; now, it holds the promise of future radio observations.
The post Revival of Australia’s Molonglo Radio Telescope appeared first on Sky & Telescope.
Same rocket, new boost
The eighth flight of Europe’s rocket Ariane 6 will have a bigger boost: the P120C solid-propellant rocket motor, used as Ariane 6 booster so far, has been upgraded. The new P160C flying on Ariane 6 flight VA269 offers 10% more performance to orbit.
P160C was developed by Europropulsion under contract from ArianeGroup and Avio. Just like P120C, P160C comes in three main parts, its structure is made in Italy, the rocket engine nozzle in France and the igniter in Norway.
After being shipped to Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana, the P160C boosters are loaded with 14 tonnes more fuel than P120C and turned into Ariane 6 boosters before being attached to the rocket on the launch pad.
The development of Ariane 6 is another stellar example of European cooperation. The European Space Agency works with an industrial network in 13 European countries, led by prime contractor and design authority ArianeGroup. French space agency CNES manages the range operations at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. Arianespace is the launch service provider for this flight for Amazon.
What AI-herding scientists can learn from watching ‘sheepdog YouTube’
Controlling a small group of “noisy” sheep holds hints for computer algorithms
The one film to watch before seeing Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day
The one film to watch before seeing Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day
The 2026 World Cup will bring the heat. Here's how to keep cool
Extreme heat poses a risk to players, spectators and workers—find out where the danger is and how to keep cool
Vaping after quitting smoking is linked to lung cancer
Vaping after quitting smoking is linked to lung cancer
Ditching cigarettes for vapes may curb the cancer benefits of quitting
Ditching cigarettes for vapes may curb the cancer benefits of quitting
Tracking urban expansion in hazard-prone areas
The World Settlement Footprint (WSF) Tracker, and its dedicated online platform, have been officially released at an event at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC.
Air Pollution’s Daily Pulse Over the Northeast
- Earth
- Earth Observatory
- Image of the Day
- EO Explorer
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- About
Air Pollution’s Daily Pulse Over the Northeast
- Earth
- Earth Observatory
- Image of the Day
- EO Explorer
- Topics
- More Content
- About
Live: Earth From Space - ISS Live Stream | ISS LIVE FEED : ISS Tracker + Live Chat
Building in Space With Laser "Origami"
University of Florida researchers are exploring how lasers could help astronauts build structures on the moon using materials already available there, including lunar soil transformed into glass. The work, led by Victoria M. Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering and researcher with the UF Astraeus Space Institute, recently completed a research phase focused on laser forming, a manufacturing process that bends materials without physical contact.
On The Hunt For Cosmic Dawn And The Universe’s Very First Stars
After decades of searches, cosmologists are within reach of finding cosmic dawn. A longtime observational cosmologist explains.
Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary explorers, freewheeling to the Yardang unit!
- Curiosity Home
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- News and Features
- Multimedia
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- Mars Home
3 min read
Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary explorers, freewheeling to the Yardang unit! Navcam image from sol 4916 showing the rough drive direction. The yardang unit can be seen as a series of pale coloured hills in the centre of the image, at the very back. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Written by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Earth planning day: Friday, June 5th, 2026
In a very broad sense, Curiosity has two modes of doing science – one centred around a defined science campaign (such as the recent boxwork campaign) and the other as we move between campaigns. During a science campaign, with a very defined start and end location, every image and every workspace is carefully choregraphed to make sure we hit all of our science goals for the campaign. This is a lot of pressure!
But in between campaigns, the emphasis moves to driving towards the next major campaign. Our next major stop is the yardang unit, a series of intriguing wind sculpted, pale coloured hills which you can just see in the distance in the cover image for this blog. The rover planners (RPs) sometimes make our drives as long as they can and we drive as far as we can go, other times we stop a little short to look at interesting looking workspaces as we go. As part of the APXS team, I loved being part of the boxwork campaign and getting all the information we needed there … but as a geologist, there is something very special about this kind of exploring, the sense of being a planetary explorer, ambling along to see what the rocks will show us.
So we continue southwards, trundling over laminated bedrock which varies from predominantly pale coloured laminated bedrock to bands with abundant thin flaky, darker coloured, layers and patches. Some of the rocks stick out at strange angles, which make planning drives more challenging. This past week there has been abundant dark layers interbedded with the more dominant pale coloured rock, both in place and in fragments around the workspace. APXS and MAHLI characterized some of this darker material, for example at “Rio Bio Bio” and “Placilla de Caracoles” and some of the paler material at the brushed targets “La Primavera” and “Los Quemados.” ChemCam also analyzed both types of rocks along the way.
We are busily acquiring Mastcam and ChemCam LD-RMI (“Long Distance Remote Micro Imager”) images of everything even remotely interesting – and there are lots and lots of cool features around here. The wide open landscape here allows us to image features from several different angles and distances, such as “Mira Flores,” a small erosional outlier seen from a distance in this image and closer up here. Another great example is the “Kimsa Chata” trough which shows some amazing sedimentary structures, which may help us to determine if this was a desert or a lake or maybe something in between, such as a desert with some water moving through.
The Environmental Theme Group continues to populate each plan with environmental monitoring activities. Activities varied from dust devil monitoring in Gale crater to looking at levels of dust in the skies overhead. The weekend drive is planned to take us further into that drive distance shown in the cover image, to an area where the contrast between dark and light bedrock is more pronounced, and just beyond that, to an area which looks very smooth, with no jutting out blocks. From where we sit today, its impossible to say what it is but that is the fun of exploring – who knows what we will find? Stay tuned to find out over the coming weeks.
-
Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?
-
Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments?
Article
7 days ago
3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample!
Article
2 weeks ago
3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4893-4899: Drilling at Campo Marte and a Visit From the Psyche Spacecraft
Article
3 weeks ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary explorers, freewheeling to the Yardang unit!
- Curiosity Home
- Science
- News and Features
- Multimedia
- Mars Missions
- Mars Home
3 min read
Curiosity Blog: Sols 4913-4919: Planetary explorers, freewheeling to the Yardang unit! Navcam image from sol 4916 showing the rough drive direction. The yardang unit can be seen as a series of pale coloured hills in the centre of the image, at the very back. NASA/JPL-CaltechWritten by Catherine O’Connell-Cooper, APXS Strategic Planner and Payload Uplink/Downlink Lead, University of New Brunswick, Canada
Earth planning day: Friday, June 5th, 2026
In a very broad sense, Curiosity has two modes of doing science – one centred around a defined science campaign (such as the recent boxwork campaign) and the other as we move between campaigns. During a science campaign, with a very defined start and end location, every image and every workspace is carefully choregraphed to make sure we hit all of our science goals for the campaign. This is a lot of pressure!
But in between campaigns, the emphasis moves to driving towards the next major campaign. Our next major stop is the yardang unit, a series of intriguing wind sculpted, pale coloured hills which you can just see in the distance in the cover image for this blog. The rover planners (RPs) sometimes make our drives as long as they can and we drive as far as we can go, other times we stop a little short to look at interesting looking workspaces as we go. As part of the APXS team, I loved being part of the boxwork campaign and getting all the information we needed there … but as a geologist, there is something very special about this kind of exploring, the sense of being a planetary explorer, ambling along to see what the rocks will show us.
So we continue southwards, trundling over laminated bedrock which varies from predominantly pale coloured laminated bedrock to bands with abundant thin flaky, darker coloured, layers and patches. Some of the rocks stick out at strange angles, which make planning drives more challenging. This past week there has been abundant dark layers interbedded with the more dominant pale coloured rock, both in place and in fragments around the workspace. APXS and MAHLI characterized some of this darker material, for example at “Rio Bio Bio” and “Placilla de Caracoles” and some of the paler material at the brushed targets “La Primavera” and “Los Quemados.” ChemCam also analyzed both types of rocks along the way.
We are busily acquiring Mastcam and ChemCam LD-RMI (“Long Distance Remote Micro Imager”) images of everything even remotely interesting – and there are lots and lots of cool features around here. The wide open landscape here allows us to image features from several different angles and distances, such as “Mira Flores,” a small erosional outlier seen from a distance in this image and closer up here. Another great example is the “Kimsa Chata” trough which shows some amazing sedimentary structures, which may help us to determine if this was a desert or a lake or maybe something in between, such as a desert with some water moving through.
The Environmental Theme Group continues to populate each plan with environmental monitoring activities. Activities varied from dust devil monitoring in Gale crater to looking at levels of dust in the skies overhead. The weekend drive is planned to take us further into that drive distance shown in the cover image, to an area where the contrast between dark and light bedrock is more pronounced, and just beyond that, to an area which looks very smooth, with no jutting out blocks. From where we sit today, its impossible to say what it is but that is the fun of exploring – who knows what we will find? Stay tuned to find out over the coming weeks.
-
Want to read more posts from the Curiosity team?
-
Want to learn more about Curiosity’s science instruments?
Article
7 days ago
3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4900-4907: Pasadena, We Have a Drill Sample!
Article
2 weeks ago
3 min read Curiosity Blog, Sols 4893-4899: Drilling at Campo Marte and a Visit From the Psyche Spacecraft
Article
3 weeks ago
Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASA Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
All Mars Resources
Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire,…
Rover Basics
Each robotic explorer sent to the Red Planet has its own unique capabilities driven by science. Many attributes of a…
Mars Exploration: Science Goals
The key to understanding the past, present or future potential for life on Mars can be found in NASA’s four…
NASA Awards Contract for Construction Services in California
NASA has selected multiple small businesses for the Western Regional Multiple Award Construction Contract, which supports a broad range of facility enhancement, modernization, and sustainment work at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and other federal agencies in the region.
The contract provides general construction, modification, maintenance and repair, and demolition services, as well as new construction of buildings and facilities that incorporate Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design practices and building information modeling to support efficient and sustainable project execution.
The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price contract is a follow-on to the agency’s previous regional construction contract and has a potential value of $450 million over a five‑year period.
Contract awardees are:
- Abide International Inc.
- Able Heating and Air Conditioning
- Anderson Burton Construction Inc.
- Anna Lisa Luna Construction
- Barkley Andross Corporation
- Bibro Construction Company Inc.
- CM Construction Services
- CMS Construction Inc.
- FASONE
- G‑1 Lead Builders JV LLC
- Gideon USA
- Good‑men Roofing & Construction Inc.
- Groundlevel Construction Inc.
- IPI Construction Inc.
- Innovative Project Solutions Inc.
- Ironwood Commercial Builders Inc.
- J.I. Garcia Construction Inc.
- JG Contracting
- Lead Builders Inc.
- Martinez Construction Services
- MX Construction Inc.
- OCS Construction Services Inc.
- Patricia I. Romero Inc., doing business as Pacific West Builders
- Gustav Keoni, doing business as Precision Construction
- Prime MIK JV LLC
- Spectrum Builders and Renovations Inc.
- Sea Pac Engineering Inc.
- Sergent Construction
- Souza Construction Inc.
- TLI Construction Inc.
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
-end-
Jennifer Dooren / Jessica Taveau
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
jennifer.m.dooren@nasa.gov / jessica.c.taveau@nasa.gov
Dede Dinius
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
661-276-5701
darin.l.dinius@nasa.gov