Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 433

In its race towards competing with the US and Russia in becoming a space superpower, China has started its new 200-day simulation of living on another planet.

Four students from Beijing University have started a new 200-day isolation experiment called Lunar Palace 365, where they will live on the resources that they would have if they were on the Moon, or Mars. The students will have to generate life-giving oxygen from plants, recycle their own urine into drinkable water, and being conservative with their supplies.

The biggest test of all, will be the psychological side of being isolated from the world. In this world of instant gratification from social media, what will people do with 200 days away from smartphones, their friends and family, and the world at large? The test will show how they will react to not having sunlight for 200 days, which will effect both their physical and mental health.

China's launch of the heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-5 Y2, carrying its heaviest ever satellite, has failed on Sunday, China's official news agency Xinhua said.

The rocket lifted off at 7:23 PM local time, but 40 minutes after the launch, the state-run Xinhua news agency announced that the launch was a failure, without providing any further details.

"Anomaly was detected during its flight, and further investigation will be carried out," stated the agency.

Back in March, SpaceX successfully launched and landed an already used Falcon 9 rocket, which was the first time in history that an already used rocket was launched again.

This weekend, the company marked the second reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into orbit - the first geostationary communications satellite in Bulgaria's history.

Now, the company has published images of this historic launch.

SpaceX has successfully completed its second launch and landing this week. The two Falcon 9 launches and landings in 48 hours show the strength of SpaceX rockets, previously stating that the company intends to up the pace of its launches.

SpaceX's rocket took off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:25 PM Pacific Time, and launched ten satellites to low-Earth orbit for Iridium, a global leader in mobile voice and data satellite communications.

This is the second set of 10 satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch for Iridium's next-generation global satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT.

SpaceX has successfully launched and landed another Falcon 9 rocket. This mission marked the second reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage, having previously supported the Iridium-1 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in January of this year.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into orbit - the first geostationary communications satellite in Bulgaria's history.

Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 successfully landed on SpaceX's East Coast droneship 'Of Course I Still Love You,' stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA plans to send a spacecraft straight into the Sun next year. The space agency made the announcement during a news conference and a ceremony at the University of Chicago.

The mission begins in August 2018. Since this isn't a journey that a human can take, NASA will send a 10-foot high probe on the historic mission, since this will mark the first time humanity has reached the giant star.

NASA named the probe Parker Solar Probe in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker, which is the first time in the space agency's history a space vessel is named after a living person.

NASA has published an artist' concept of the Mars 2020 rover, which should join Opportunity and Curiosity rover on the Red Planet in 2020.

The Mars 2020 rover is intended to investigate an astrobiological relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and a potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.

The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth.

NASA's astronauts have successfully completed an emergency spacewalk after a key equipment failure on the ISS. The Expedition 51 astronauts had to fix a problem after a computer failure on ISS over the weekend.

Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA had to change out a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay box on the S0 truss that failed on Saturday morning. The cause of the MDM failure is not known. The data relay box is one of two fully redundant systems housed in the truss that controls the functionality of radiators, solar arrays, cooling loops and other station hardware. The other MDM in the truss is functioning perfectly, providing uninterrupted telemetry routing to the station's systems.

NASA pointed out that the crew was never in any danger.

Just two weeks after their last launch, SpaceX has successfully launched another Falcon 9 rocket.

The company launched a communications satellite that will complete Inmarsat's fifth-generation broadband network. The Inmarsat-5 F4 communications satellite is the heaviest object delivered by the company to space, for now.

Getting the 13,400-lb. (6,100 kilograms) heavy F4 into its intended orbit emptied the Falcon's fuel tanks, leaving no propellant for the landing attempt.

We've heard a lot about Tesla's solar roof tiles products, but the most important piece of information was missing - the price.

The company has now announced the prices, and they are lower than expected. Consumer Reports estimates that a Solar Roof for an average size U.S. home would need to cost less than $24.50 per square foot to be cost-competitive with a regular roof. The cost of Solar Roof is less.

Tesla says that typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for Solar Roof. The $21.85 per square foot price point was calculated for a roof where 35 percent of the tiles are solar (solar tiles cost more per square foot than non-solar tiles). A 14kWh Powerwall 2 is also an available option.