NASA's Psyche spacecraft passed its six-month checkup with a clean bill of health, and there's no holding back now. Navigators are firing its futuristic-looking electric thrusters, which emit a blue glow, nearly nonstop as ...
Space Exploration
May 22, 2024
0
92
It has been believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, must be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall ...
Space Exploration
Jan 24, 2023
4
3820
Imagine an aircraft engine that has no moving parts, produces no harmful exhaust and makes no noise. That's what researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US have created by adapting a technology ...
Engineering
Nov 22, 2018
0
101
This greyscale, mottled image shows a patch of the moon's surface, and features an intriguing shape towards the top of the frame. This was actually made by a spacecraft – it marks the final resting place of ESA's SMART-1 ...
Space Exploration
Sep 4, 2018
0
2
As NASA's Dawn spacecraft prepares to wrap up its groundbreaking 11-year mission, which has included two successful extended missions at Ceres, it will continue to explore—collecting images and other data.
Space Exploration
Jul 17, 2018
0
78
When we think of space travel, we tend to picture a massive rocket blasting off from Earth, with huge blast streams of fire and smoke coming out the bottom, as the enormous machine struggles to escape Earth's gravity. Rockets ...
Space Exploration
Nov 4, 2015
10
152
NASA's Dawn spacecraft is healthy and stable, after experiencing an anomaly in the system that controls its orientation. It is still in its second mapping orbit 2,700 miles (4,400 kilometers) above dwarf planet Ceres.
Space Exploration
Jul 7, 2015
0
25
The NASA spacecraft Dawn has spent more than seven years travelling across the Solar System to intercept the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. Now in orbit around Ceres, the probe has returned the first images and ...
Space Exploration
Mar 9, 2015
16
808
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn will be the first mission to successfully visit a dwarf planet when it enters orbit around ...
Space Exploration
Mar 2, 2015
0
63
A NASA spacecraft is about to reach the end of a nearly eight-year journey and make the first rendezvous with a dwarf planet.
Space Exploration
Mar 2, 2015
1
41
