August 2023 – Page 9 – NeRDs Moonbase

Intuitive Machines sets Nov. 15 launch date for private moon lander on SpaceX rocket

August 15, 2023 NeRD

A new private moon-landing mission could launch as soon as November. Intuitive Machines says its moon lander could be ready for liftoff as soon as Nov. 15, pending last-minute preparation. This so far positions the company to be the first private venture to safely touch down on the moon. “Our Nova-C lander is completely built,” Steve Altemus, co-founder and chief executive of Intuitive Machines, said in an earnings call Monday (Aug 15) attended by Ars Technica. “We will deliver a lunar lander ready to go in September.” The launch date on…

Record-breaking ‘failed’ star orbiting stellar corpse is 3,600 degrees hotter than the sun

August 15, 2023 NeRD

Astronomers have discovered a “failed” star that can’t sustain nuclear fusion in its core, but is 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius) hotter than the sun thanks to its proximity to a stellar companion. The failed star, also known as a brown dwarf, sits about 1,400 light-years from Earth and orbits an entity called a white dwarf. White dwarfs are cooling remnants of sun-like stars that didn’t exactly fail at their stellar duties of intrinsic nuclear fusion, but eventually ran out of fuel. Brown dwarfs are curious inhabitants of the…

Japan’s Interstellar Technologies aims to launch 1st orbital rocket in 2025

August 15, 2023 NeRD

A Japanese space startup has set a target for its first orbital rocket launch. Interstellar Technologies Inc. says it is now aiming to launch its Zero Rocket in 2025, with static fire tests due later this year as part of its test program. Zero will be 82 feet (25 meters) long with a 5.6-foot (1.7 m) diameter, slightly larger than Rocket Lab’s Electron vehicle. It will be able to lift around 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit and will launch from Japan’s Hokkaido Spaceport. Related: Japan’s Interstellar Technologies…

La NASA invita a los medios al lanzamiento de Psyche

August 15, 2023 NeRD

Ya está abierto el proceso de acreditación de los medios de comunicación para el próximo lanzamiento de la nave espacial Psyche de la NASA en su misión a un asteroide único y rico en metales que orbita alrededor del Sol, entre Marte y Júpiter.

NASA Invites Media to Psyche Launch, Mission will Study an Asteroid

August 15, 2023 NeRD

Media accreditation is now open for the upcoming launch of NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, for a mission to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

Wildfires in the Northwest Territories

August 15, 2023 NeRD

On August 8, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of dense plumes of smoke streaming from dozens of large fires in the Northwest Territories.

Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter

August 14, 2023 NeRD

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Physicists like me don’t fully understand what makes up about 83% of the matter of the universe — something we call “dark matter.” But with a tank full of xenon buried nearly a mile under South Dakota, we might one day be able to measure what dark matter really is. In the typical model, dark matter accounts for most of the gravitational attraction in the universe, providing the glue that allows structures like galaxies, including our own…

July 2023 was the hottest month on Earth since at least 1880 ‘by a longshot,’ NASA says

August 14, 2023 NeRD

In the wake of Hawaii’s tragic wildfires, responsible for the deaths of more than 90 people and counting, NASA experts gathered Monday (Aug. 14) to discuss the state of our planet’s climate emergency. The discussion was quite jarring. Not only did the panelists confirm that July of this year was the hottest month on a record dating back to the late 1800s, but also that the last five hottest Julys in this database occurred within the past five years. The agency further projects that next year will be hotter still. …

August Super Blue Moon guide 2023: The biggest and brightest moon of the year snuggles up to Saturn

August 14, 2023 NeRD

Moonwatchers get an extra treat this month with a Blue Moon. A Blue Moon is typically defined as the third full moon in a season that has four full moons, although the term is sometimes also used to refer to a second full moon in a single month. The Blue Moon will rise on the night of August 30, at 9:35 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, and will both a “Blue Moon” and a “supermoon” – not only is it the second full moon in…

NASA Announces Launch Service for Arctic Warming Experiment

August 14, 2023 NeRD

NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to provide the launch service for the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission, which aims to give researchers a more accurate picture of the energy entering and leaving Earth.