Science

An Independent Working Group of Astronomers has submitted a report to Canadian Space Agency outlining recommendations on the future of space exploration in Canada with a focus on the effects of mega-constellations on the astronomy community.

The Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto announced today that American astrophysicist Juna Kollmeier, a well known and highly regarded observationally oriented theorist, will become the first woman to lead the Institute.

Earlier this month, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) disclosed $518 million of infrastructure funding it will give to universities across the country. Some of these projects have direct applications to space exploration, while others might be repurposed for astronauts and astronomy once the work becomes a little more advanced. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, …

The Canadian Space Agency today released a new Lunar Exploration Accelerator Program (LEAP) Science Instrument Letter of Interest (LOI), Request for Information (RFI) solicitation. This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support independent journalism. SUBSCRIBE TODAY

A University of Alberta-led space weather satellite is targeting a launch in 2025 or 2026 after receiving significant funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This page is for subscribers only. Already a subscriber? Log in. Fact-driven space news, columns, business, policy, technology and more. Support independent journalism. SUBSCRIBE TODAY

The Mars Perseverance rover systems checked out just fine, thank you very much, so mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab took it for a short drive, and planned another for late yesterday and today.

At a briefing on the status of the Mars Perseverance rover, NASA unveiled a stunning video of the rovers descent and landing. It’s a type of view we’ve never seen before on any spacecraft descending to the Red planet.

Getting to Mars and landing, though time consuming and difficult, was only the beginning. Now that the Perseverance rover is on the surface it’s time to check out its systems and prepare to get to work.

Watching NASA’s Perseverance rover mission control you could feel the tension through the screen as the rover entered the 7 minutes of terror landing phase. Once again though, as was the case for NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover in 2012, Perseverance nailed the landing and sent back its first picture after landing at 3:55 p.m. EST.

NASA’s newest generation of rover will touch down on Mars on Thursday (Feb. 18) if all goes to plan, virtually bringing hundreds of experts to the Red Planet’s surface as well.