All articles tagged with #spacecraft
A new review from Space.com examines the theoretical feasibility of warp drives, highlighting the 1994 Alcubierre metric as the primary scientific basis for faster-than-light travel. While the concept allows spacetime to contract and expand around a vessel, practical implementation remains unproven due to unresolved issues regarding energy requirements and field stability.
A joint ESA/JAXA mission, BepiColombo, is nearing Mercury after nearly ten years of interplanetary cruise, with its twin orbiters poised to enter Mercury’s orbit and begin detailed science on the planet’s interior, surface composition, and exosphere.
NASA has trimmed Voyager 2's power needs by shutting off nonessential systems and using lower-power equipment on its plutonium-powered RTG, allowing the probe's remaining three science instruments to operate for at least another year despite razor-thin power margins; two instruments were already disabled since 2024, and Voyager 1 will receive the same power tweak soon. The spacecraft continue to transmit interstellar data, with Voyager 2 about 142 AU and Voyager 1 about 171 AU from Earth, and signals taking roughly 24 hours to reach us.
NASA's LINK servicing spacecraft, sent to boost the Swift Observatory, is spinning out of control after two of its three reaction wheels failed and its cold-gas thrusters misbehaved, disrupting communications. Engineers are working to stabilize and rendezvous with Swift, but if the mission fails, the observatory's orbit could decay, wiping out months of scientific data.
NASA's LINK servicing spacecraft, built by Katalyst Space Technologies, is grappling with attitude-control issues after two of its three reaction wheels failed, causing it to spin and experience intermittent communications as engineers work to stabilize it. LINK is intended to rendezvous with the aging Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to nudge it into a safer, higher orbit and extend Swift's life, since Swift has about a 50% chance of uncontrolled reentry by mid-2026. NASA paused on-board science on Swift to buy time, and future plans depend on LINK's health and updated guidance and propulsion to approach and capture Swift if feasible.
Avi Loeb argues that civilizations could transform interstellar objects like Oumuamua, Borisov, and ATLAS into spacecraft by converting their raw materials into self-contained probes. These hitchhiking crafts could depart their hosts and, with optimal trajectories, even seed life on other worlds, potentially visiting habitable zones around Sun-like stars within a billion years. The idea ties into the Galileo Project and UAP research, and Loeb suggests that humanity could become an interstellar species by leveraging naturally roaming material from other star systems.
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has awakened from a 321-day hibernation about six billion miles from Earth, with all systems reporting green health status throughout. The probe will downlink its health data and begin transmitting science data from instruments like the Venetia Burney dust counter, Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer, and Solar Wind at Pluto, with the ultraviolet Alice spectrograph set to map hydrogen in the outer heliosphere in coming weeks. Launched in 2006 and famous for Pluto flybys in 2015, it is expected to continue its mission toward the Kuiper Belt through the decade.
NASA's New Horizons completed a nine-year, 3-billion-mile voyage to Pluto, flyby in 2015 revealed a 1,000-km heart-shaped glacier of frozen nitrogen and a landscape so young it challenged prior models; now 5.7 billion miles away, the probe is in hibernation awaiting NASA's funding decisions, with data still trickling back and potential wake-up in 2026 if approved.
NASA has lifted the shelter‑in‑Dragon order for International Space Station crew, allowing astronauts to resume normal operations as the ongoing air-leak issue is monitored, with Dragon remaining a contingency option if conditions worsen.
NASA has declared the Mars orbiter MAVEN dead after six months of radio silence, ending more than a decade of atmospheric observations. The probe spun and drained its batteries after passing behind Mars, making recovery impossible; NASA expects MAVEN to drift for 50–100 years before reentry while four other Mars orbiters continue science.
NASA has declared its MAVEN Mars orbiter dead after six months of radio silence. Launched in 2013 to study Mars’ atmosphere, MAVEN went silent after passing behind the planet in December, then spun and drained its batteries. A NASA review board concluded the spacecraft is unrecoverable, ending more than a decade of atmospheric observations and its role in relaying data from other Mars rovers.
NASA and JPL are developing a radiation-hardened, palm-sized system-on-a-chip that could deliver hundreds of times more computing power than current spaceflight CPUs, enabling onboard AI, real-time data analysis, and autonomous decision-making for future missions. Early tests under radiation, thermal, and shock conditions are promising, with Microchip Technology as a partner and potential Earth applications.
NASA's asteroid-hunting Psyche spacecraft captured a striking crescent image of Mars as it nears a May 15 flyby; the 'crescent' is sunlight reflecting off Mars' day side with atmospheric/dust effects, not an eclipse. The maneuver will also serve as a gravity assist and instrument calibration on Psyche's path to the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2029.
A Geoarchaeology study of 15 Venus missions (1965–1985) suggests at least seven probes may have endured Venus’ extreme surface conditions to become long‑lasting space artifacts. NASA’s GEER lab tests indicate titanium and aluminum parts could survive the harsh environment, while seals would fail and sulfuric acid clouds would deform others. The Pioneer Venus Day Probe is highlighted as a prime candidate for future imaging, with upcoming missions DAVINCI and VERITAS planned for 2030–2031.
ESA's Proba-3 regained contact after about a month of silence thanks to a rare sunlight window that provided power to the tumbling coronagraph satellite; engineers will carefully re-power and test the two-satellite formation as they continue to study the solar corona.