In just over 5 years: Perseverance completes a 'marathon' on Mars
Communications company AST SpaceMobile, which has research labs in Israel, successfully launched three new-generation satellites for its satellite communications array, designed to provide internet services from space directly to smartphones. The three BlueBird 8-10 satellites were launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Shortly after launch, the rocket's first stage landed on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean, completing its 29th launch with a successful landing.
[Image: Successful launch of BlueBirds 8, 9, 10 (Photo: Business Wire/AP)]
The rocket's second stage placed the satellites as planned in low Earth orbit. These are enormous satellites, each weighing more than six tons, with an array of folding antennas that unfold in space over an area of 223 square meters.
More articles from the Davidson Institute for Science Education: The bee has a problem – and it solves it The secret of the nudibranch's colorfulness The factory closed – can we breathe easy?
The company launched its first satellite swarm about a year and a half ago, also on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It launched the first new-generation satellite, BlueBird 6, from India at the end of last year. The second in the series, BlueBird 7, was launched about two months ago on a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket, but was placed in too low an orbit due to a malfunction in the rocket's second stage and was lost. Wednesday's launch increased the company's second-generation satellite array to four. "Each BlueBird satellite launch expands our ability to provide continuous broadband connectivity to smartphones directly from space," said AST President Scott Wisniewski a few days ago. The company plans to reach at least 45 active BlueBird satellites this year, and expand the array to about 100 satellites by 2028.
Marathon on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover completed a cumulative driving distance of 42.2 kilometers on Mars this week, becoming the second wheeled vehicle in history to surpass that distance. It did so in just over five years, having landed on Mars in February 2021. The planetary driving record still belongs to the Opportunity rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004 and took no less than 11 Earth years to complete a marathon distance. It eventually lasted until 2018, traveling more than 45 kilometers cumulatively.
[Image: Perseverance on Mars (Photo: NASA)] [Image: The planet Mars (Photo: NASA)]
One of the main differences between new-generation Mars rovers, Perseverance and Curiosity, and their predecessors like Opportunity is that the new ones are equipped with a nuclear generator and are not dependent on solar energy. Opportunity relied on solar panels to generate electricity for driving and operating its systems, so it could only drive after several hours of standing in sunlight and was idle during the Martian winter.
Perseverance does not need recharging before driving and can operate year-round. Additionally, during part of its mission, it was aided by the first Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, which arrived with it. The helicopter, which performed 72 flights before being grounded in 2024, scouted the rover's operating area during its flights, helped its operating team choose interesting research sites, and helped plan efficient routes to them, allowing the rover to travel to its destination relatively quickly.
Saudi Influence
For the first time, a Saudi representative has been appointed to a senior position in the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). Muwia Al-Shahrani, Director of Space Systems and Infrastructure at the Saudi Space Agency, was elected as First Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The committee, established in 1959, is the oldest international body for coordinating policy on space matters, and currently has 110 member states, including Israel, which joined in 2015.
The committee's plenary meets annually in Vienna to discuss issues such as dealing with space debris, the danger of asteroid impacts on Earth, and legal regulation of space activities. The First Vice-Chair is one of the five bureau members who manage the committee's work and its subsidiary bodies, influencing its policy and UN policy on space matters.
[Image: A position influencing UN space policy. Al-Shahrani (left) moderating a panel at the LEAP conference in Riyadh, 2024 (Photo: Saudi Space Agency, SSA)]
Senior Saudi officials said the appointment reflects international confidence in the kingdom's contribution to space and its support for the UN. The appointment also illustrates, in their words, Saudi investment in space and the country's extensive effort to strengthen its international cooperation in civilian and environmental space fields.
End of an Era on the California Coast
The U.S. Department of Defense demolished the historic launch facility at Vandenberg Base in California to make way for a modern launch pad to be built by SpaceX. The SLC-6 launch facility is famous mainly for the missions that were never launched from it. It was built in the 1960s to launch small space stations for the U.S. Air Force as part of the MOL program, but the program was canceled before a single mission was launched. Later, the facility was adapted for Space Shuttle launches, with the idea of launching the shuttle's security missions from there while civilian missions would launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida. However, after the assembly buildings for the shuttle were built alongside a dedicated launch pad, the program was frozen following the Challenger disaster in 1986 and eventually canceled, with no shuttle ever launched from California.
It was only from 1995 that rockets were first launched from the site, initially by Lockheed Martin, and later by Boeing and ULA, which Boeing joined. The last launch from there was a Delta 4 rocket in 2022.
[Image: Originally intended for military Space Shuttle launches, eventually will be used by a private company. Demolition of facilities at the SLC-6 launch site in California (Photo: U.S. Space Force photo by Staff Sgt. Daekwon Stith)]
In 2023, SpaceX leased the site, intending to turn it into a launch facility for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, including two landing pads for the rockets' stages. Launches from there are planned to begin in 2030. On Tuesday this week, the launch pad, launch tower, and nearby assembly buildings were demolished in a series of controlled explosions.
"The SLC-6 facility represents six decades of American innovation and our commitment to maintaining space superiority," said Colonel James Horne, commander of the Vandenberg Space Force Base. "We are not just updating infrastructure; we are enhancing the capabilities of our space industry to ensure the United States is prepared to protect its national interests and meet the challenges ahead in the coming decades."
Continuing to Explore Exoplanets
The European Space Agency has decided to extend the CHEOPS space telescope's operations until the end of 2029. CHEOPS studies planets in other solar systems and is mainly designed to measure the size of such planets. The telescope was launched at the end of 2019 for a mission expected to last 3.5 years. In 2023, ESA extended its operations, and now the agency's science committee has decided to extend it again, thanks to its proper functioning and scientific achievements.
[Image: Its accuracy exceeded all expectations. Illustration of the CHEOPS space telescope in orbit around Earth (Illustration: ESA/ATG medialab)]
The space telescope is a collaboration between ESA and Switzerland, built and operated under the leadership of the University of Bern. "CHEOPS' accuracy exceeded all expectations, and the telescope has become a central component in the toolkit of astronomers studying exoplanets, from Europe and around the world," said Dr. Christopher Broeg, the mission's principal investigator. "The telescope bridges space missions focused on discovering such planets, like Kepler and TESS, with next-generation missions like PLATO, as well as missions designed to study atmospheres of such planets, like the James Webb Telescope and future Ariel mission. The renewed extension of the mission is proof of the telescope's importance and scientific success." One telescope he did not mention is the Israeli ULTRASAT space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2028, which is expected to assist in studying atmospheres of planets in other solar systems.
Among the discoveries attributed to CHEOPS are the first detection of a flattened-shaped planet and a "reverse" solar system where a rocky planet is farther out than gas giants. "Extending the mission allows us to continue long-term observation programs, thoroughly examine planetary systems, and discover rare phenomena that can only be detected through ongoing research," Broeg added.
