Space News & Blog Articles

A recent study published in Frontiers in Physiology examines how vibrating wearable devices, known as vibrotactors, can be used to help astronauts cope with spatial disorientation when in space, which results from the lack of gravitational cues, or natural sensory perceptions, they are accustomed to using when on Earth and despite the rigorous training the astronauts undergo to combat the symptoms of spatial disorientation. This study was conducted by a team of researchers at Brandeis University and holds the potential to help develop more efficient methods to combat spatial disorientation, especially with long-term missions to the Moon, and even Mars.

Not to make anyone feel old, but it’s been over 11 years since NASA’s Curiosity Rover landed on Mars. The rover has now seen the sun rise on Mars over 4,000 times. During this time, the rover has driven almost 32 kilometers on Mars, making its way up the flanks of Mount Sharp while studying the ancient history of water on Mars.

A supernova explosion is a cataclysmic explosion that marks the violent end of a massive star’s life. During the event, the star releases immense amounts of energy, often outshining the combined light from all the stars in the host galaxy for a very brief period of time. The explosion produces heavy elements and spreads them out among the stars to contribute to the formation of new stars and planets. The closest supernova in recent years occurred in the Large Magellanic Cloud in 1987 (SN1987A) and now, a team of astronomers have searched through mountains of data to see if they can detect gravitational waves from the remnant. 

Saturn’s ocean moon, Enceladus, is attracting increasing attention in the search for life in our Solar System. Most of what we know about Enceladus and its ice-covered ocean comes from the Cassini mission. Cassini ended its exploration of the Saturn system in 2017, but scientists are still working through its data.

Landing safely on an asteroid is no mean feat. Despite several recent successes, there have also been notable failures – most famously, the Philae lander to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Admittedly, that was an attempt to land on a comet rather than an asteroid, but those two bodies share many of the same landing hazards. One of the most prevalent of those is “inhomogenous” gravity. To tackle this problem, researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China recently released a paper detailing a framework for performing “soft landings” on asteroids, which might help make exploring these rocky worlds much more accessible.