The new science results indicate that a large quantity of the Red Planet’s water is trapped in its crust rather than having escaped into space.

PASADENA, Calif. (NASA PR) — Billions of years ago, according to geological evidence, abundant water flowed across Mars and collected into pools, lakes, and deep oceans. New NASA-funded research shows a substantial quantity of its water – between 30 and 99% – is trapped within minerals in the planet’s crust, challenging the current theory that due to the Red Planet’s low gravity, its water escaped into space.

Early Mars was thought to have enough water to have covered the whole planet in an ocean roughly 100 to 1,500 meters (330 to 4,920 feet) deep – a volume roughly equivalent to half of Earth’s Atlantic Ocean. While some of this water undeniably disappeared from Mars via atmospheric escape, the new findings, published in the latest issue of Science, conclude it does not account for most of its water loss.

GREENBELT, Md. (NASA PR) — Twenty-seven asteroids have been named in honor of African American, Hispanic, and Native American astronauts, and one cosmonaut, who have helped expand our horizons beyond Earth and to inspire the next generation of space explorers.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, March 16, 2021 (Southwest Research Institute PR) — One of the most profound discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans beneath layers of rock and ice are common in our solar system. Such worlds include the icy satellites of the giant planets, like Europa, Titan and Enceladus, and distant planets like Pluto.

MOSCOW (Skoltech PR) — Researchers from Skoltech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have analyzed several dozen options to pick the best one in terms of performance and costs for the ‘last mile’ of a future mission to the Moon – actually delivering astronauts to the lunar surface and back up to the safety of the orbiting lunar station. The paper was published in the journal Acta Astronautica.

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (NASA PR) — NASA is targeting a two-hour test window that opens at 3 p.m. EDT Thursday, March 18, for the second hot fire test of the core stage for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

LAUREL, Md. (NASA PR) — The Artemis program will return NASA to the Moon with robotic and human missions. Before humans set foot on the Moon again, NASA will test a range of technologies on the surface. The demonstrations, everything from reliable power systems to possibly even in-space construction systems and landing pads, will expand NASA’s lunar technology toolbox.

HOUSTON (NASA PR) — Astronauts experience various aspects of social isolation and  confinement during their missions, and NASA researchers are working to develop methods and technologies to mitigate and counteract potential related problems on future spaceflight missions.

As many around the world are staying at home in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, NASA is preparing for its next spaceflight simulation study. Researchers are seeking healthy test subjects to live together as a small crew in isolation for eight months in Moscow, Russia.

by Tracy Vogel
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

GREENBELT, Md. — NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has chosen three companies to participate in a new partnership to test and evaluate satellite servicing technologies.

Altius Space Machines of Broomfield, Colorado, Honeybee Robotics of Longmont, Colorado, and Orbit Fab of San Francisco will provide cooperative robotic grapple fixtures and data to be studied by NASA’s Exploration and In-Space Services projects division (NExIS, formerly known as the Satellite Servicing Projects Division) engineers. The engineers will utilize robotics facilities at Goddard via Space Act Agreements to collect data on the performance of the companies’ fixtures.

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — From activities in low-Earth orbit to NASA’s Artemis  program, the commercial space industry has emerged as an innovator in areas of space access, commerce, and exploration. In an effort to address the growth of commercial space over the past decades and inform the relationship between government and industry for the future, NASA will host a virtual event Wednesday, March 17, through Friday, March 19, with a final session Thursday, March 25.

NASA and the Rise of Commercial Space: A Symposium Examining the Definition(s) and Context(s) of Commercial Space will address such topics as legal and entrepreneurial frameworks, advancements during the space shuttle era, and new trajectories, while examining the historical context surrounding questions such as “How will humanity explore the Moon and Mars?” and, more fundamentally, how to define commercial space.

SpaceNews reports that China plans to construct a fifth spaceport to support the nation’s growing commercial launch sector. The spaceport is included in China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which covers 2021-25. Dou Xiaoyu, a deputy to the National People’s Congress (NPC), the top Chinese legislative body, and a vice chairperson at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC), a giant state-owned enterprise, called for a Chinese commercial spaceport project in order to meet […]

With the goal of contributing to the supply chains of companies offering commercial Lunar delivery services, Mission Control will develop and test a payload data management system to improve quality of service for payload customers.

OTTAWA, Ont. (Mission Control PR) — Mission Control Space Services Inc. (Mission Control) is pleased to announce a $1.16 million (US $931,850) contribution award from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to develop and commercialize a novel computing system for Lunar missions. This technology development funding is part of the CSA’s Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program and is intended to help Mission Control enter the supply chains of companies offering commercial Lunar missions. In this project, Mission Control will develop a dedicated flight computer that can be easily installed on Lunar spacecraft to manage data from multiple payloads and offer edge computing.

LOS ANGELES (Relativity Space PR) — Relativity Space announced today that it has been awarded its first orbital launch contract with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), facilitated by the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). This contract was awarded as a Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) Launch Enterprise follow-up effort to the DoD Space Test Program (STP) Rapid Agile Launch Initiative (RALI) to identify capable commercial solutions for low-cost, responsive access to space “as a service” using launch systems with capacity between 450-1,200 kg to low-Earth orbit (LEO). Relativity’s entirely 3D-printed launch vehicle, Terran 1, meets the DoD’s needs for disruptive launch solutions to orbit.