Tag: University of Washington
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Paleontologists trace the evolution of tusks to toothy Triassic creatures
An artist’s conception shows a type of dicynodont known as Dicynodon. (Illustration by Marlene Hill Donnelly) Dental exams conducted on fossils from more than 200 million years ago suggest that the earliest true tusks were sported by breeds of weird-looking creatures known as dicynodonts. The evidence, laid out today in the Proceedings of the Royal…
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SpaceX provides a ride to the space station for ‘kidney on a chip’ and new solar arrays
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket lifts off, carrying supplies and science experiments into space. (SpaceX via YouTube) SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station today with more than 7,300 pounds of supplies and science, including an experiment from the University of Washington that takes advantage of zero gravity to study how our…
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How the pandemic is changing the protocol for NASA’s Mars landing — and how to watch it happen
First Mode senior systems engineer Mallory Lefland is part of the team that will be monitoring the entry, descent and landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. (NASA Photo / Bobak Ferdowsi) Veteran spacecraft engineer Chris Voorhees has witnessed six Mars landings in the course of his career, and…
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Robert Winglee, 1958-2020: UW’s ‘Rocket Man’ launched thousands of space and science careers
Robert Winglee on July 17, 2019, at the opening of the “ANGLes Challenge,” marking the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. (Mark Stone/University of Washington Photo) The global aerospace community and students across the Northwest have lost a researcher, mentor and “Rocket Man” who inspired and guided thousands of young people toward careers…
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Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin venture fleshes out plans for 2023 cargo delivery to the moon
An artist’s conception shows the human landing system that’s being developed by Blue Origin and its industry partners in the foreground, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander in the far background. (Blue Origin Illustration) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is working on a landing system that could put astronauts on the…
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Pentagon worries that satellite attacks could spark ‘mutually assured destruction’
Satellite constellations are becoming increasingly important for military communications. (DARPA Illustration) In the years ahead, the long-running nightmare of the nuclear Cold War — mutually assured destruction — could return in a new context on the final frontier, a Pentagon adviser said today at a Seattle-based space policy conference. Brad Townsend, a space strategy and…
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NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission serves as ultimate test for working from home (planet)
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Perseverance rover using the PIXL X-ray instrument to analyze rock on Mars. (NASA / JPL Illustration) The launch of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover marks the start of a seven-month-long journey involving tens of millions of miles of travel — but it also marks the end of an eight-year-long journey involving…
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University of Washington wins NASA grant to create spacey contest for Artemis Student Challenges
A NASA robotics team drives a test rover into Valentine Cave at California’s Lava Beds National Monument. The expedition was aimed at testing technologies for exploring lava tubes on the moon and Mars. (NASA Photo) NASA has awarded the University of Washington a $499,864 grant to develop a competition that calls on students to turn…
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ICESat-2 laser-scanning satellite tracks how billions of tons of polar ice are lost
This color-coded map shows the amount of ice gained or lost by Antarctica between 2003 and 2019. Dark reds and purples show large average rates of ice loss near the Antarctic coast, while blues show smaller rates of ice gain in the interior. (Smith et al. / Science / AAAS via UW) A satellite mission…
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Satellite mega-constellations stir a debate over avoiding catastrophic orbital crashes
An image of the NGC 5353/4 galaxy group, made with a telescope at Arizona’s Lowell Observatory on May 25, shows the trails of reflected light left by SpaceX’s freshly launched Starlink satellites as they pass through the telescope’s field of view. The brightness diminishes once the satellites reach their intended altitude. (Lowell Observatory Photo via…