Space News & Blog Articles

Lucy is already well on its way to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. But that doesn't mean that it can’t make some improvements to its trajectory along the way. A new paper suggests it might be possible to nudge Lucy into a slightly different orbit, allowing it to pass an as-yet-undiscovered asteroid sometime during its exploration of the L5 cloud of Trojan around Jupiter. If completed, it could lend an entirely new research target to Lucy’s repertoire and further define the differences between the two Trojan clouds.

A team of astronomers have achieved a milestone in stellar physics by using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to peer beneath the surface activity of TRAPPIST-1, one of the most famous exoplanet host stars. Their study has revealed the hidden magnetic features on this volatile red dwarf, opening new possibilities for understanding both stellar behaviour and the habitability of nearby worlds.

As a child, I remember gazing up at the stars and dreaming of spacecraft journeying to distant worlds, those classic images of rockets blasting off toward unknown frontiers filled my imagination. But a mission to a black hole? That seemed beyond even the wildest science fiction. These stellar corpses were the stuff of theoretical physics books back then, mysterious objects so extreme that they devoured light itself. The idea that we might actually send something there, even a device smaller than a paperclip, makes you realise we're living in an era where the impossible is slowly becoming possible.

Thanks to the development of reusable rockets, rideshare programs, and other key innovations, the cost of sending payloads to space has steadily dropped in recent years. As a result, access to space is increasing for commercial space companies, universities, research institutes, and non-profits. To facilitate this trend, NASA has selected six companies through its Launch Services Program, which were awarded Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare Launch Services (VADR) contracts.

During the early days of our Solar System, giant impacts were common occurrences. Earth likely experienced such an impact that created our Moon, and Mars may have been struck by objects that created its asymmetrical surface features. But what about Venus?

3D printing is going to be a critical technology in space exploration, both for its ability to create almost any object, but also because it can utilize in-situ resources, at least in part. However, the more of those space resources are used in a print, the more the mechanical properties change from that on Earth, leading to problems with tensile or compressive strength. But a new paper from researchers at Concordia University hit a new milestone of how much lunar regolith can be used in a mixed feedstock for additive manufacturing, making it possible to use even more locally sourced material, and saving more launch cost, than ever before.