OrbitalHub

NASA dicit:

The OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid study and sample-return mission. The mission’s main goal is to obtain a sample of at least 60 grams (2.1 oz) from 101955 Bennu, a carbonaceous near-Earth asteroid, and return the sample to Earth for a detailed analysis. The material returned is expected to enable scientists to learn more about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, its initial stages of planet formation, and the source of organic compounds that led to the formation of life on Earth. If successful, OSIRIS-REx will be the first U.S. spacecraft to return samples from an asteroid. The Lidar instrument used aboard the OSIRIS-REx was built by Lockheed Martin, in conjunction with the Canadian Space Agency.

OSIRIS-REx was launched on 8 September 2016, flew past Earth on 22 September 2017, and reached the proximity of Bennu on 3 December 2018, where it began analyzing its surface for a target sample area over the next several months. It is expected to return with its sample to Earth on 24 September 2023.

Video Credit: NASA

NASA dicit:

MAVEN is the first spacecraft specifically designed to study the Mars upper atmosphere, in order to better understand the evolution of its climate. By measuring windspeed and direction near the top of the atmosphere, MAVEN has discovered that high-altitude wind currents are being disturbed by terrain features far below. This unexpected and surprising finding means that MAVEN can sense the presence of mountains and valleys on the surface of Mars while skimming the edge of space.

Video Credit: NASA/Goddard/MAVEN/CU Boulder/University of Michigan/Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer/Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Data Visualizer/Jonathan North (USRA): Lead Animator/Ernie Wright (USRA): Visualizer/Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC): Visualizer/Michael Lentz (USRA): Animator/Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Animator/Chris Smith (USRA): Animator/John/Blackwell (LPI): Animator/Dan Gallagher (USRA): Narrator/Michael Lentz (USRA): Art Director/Mehdi Benna (UMBC): Lead Scientist/Kali Roeten (UM): Scientist/Paul Mahaffy (NASA/GSFC): Support/Bruce Jakosky (LASP): Principal Investigator/Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Technical Support

Blue Origin dicit:

Blue Origin has been demonstrating the safety, reliability and robustness of the New Shepard vehicle through its flight program and is moving towards verifying the system for human spaceflight. An important part of preparing for our astronauts is rehearsing procedures for training and launch day, like entering the capsule on the tower, which is shown here.

Video Credit: Blue Origin

Blue Origin dicit:

We’re currently testing the newest member of the BE-3 family, BE-3U (upper stage), a variant of the BE-3PM propelling New Shepard. With a back-to-back turbine assembly and a larger nozzle, BE-3U is optimized to operate in the vacuum of space and generates 710 kN (160,000 lbf) thrust in vacuum.

Two BE-3U engines power New Glenn’s restartable upper stage, enabling the full range of customer missions including direct injection to geostationary orbit. Building on years of operational experience and rigorous testing, BE-3U will be one of the best understood rocket engines when it launches into space.

Video Credit: Blue Origin

NASA dicit:

Since 2008, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS, has drawn on Landsat data to monitor dozens of crops in the lower 48 states as part of NASS’s Cropland Data Layer program. The Cropland Data layer uses Landsat and similar sensors to identify what crop is growing where in the country. Separately, NASS uses NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard the Aqua and Terra satellites to monitor daily vegetation health and growth stage, all indicators of crop yield.

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA dicit:

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission has returned unprecedented data from near the Sun, culminating in new discoveries published on December 4, 2019, in the journal Nature. Among the findings are new understandings of how the Sun’s constant outflow of material, the solar wind, behaves. Seen near Earth — where it can interact with our planet’s natural magnetic field and cause space weather effects that interfere with technology — the solar wind appears to be a relatively uniform flow of plasma. But Parker Solar Probe’s observations reveal a complicated, active system not seen from Earth.

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center