Veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones recaps the historic Artemis I mission after the Orion capsule made a successful return to earth and outlines what this means for the lunar return program. The Habitable Worlds Observatory was announced Monday at the latest American Astronomical Society meeting, and its goal is searching for signs of life on habitable exoplanets. Space.com said on Friday that the observatory will need a powerful coronograph, which is an instrument that allows scientists to study faint objects. Mark Clampin, the director of NASA's astrophysics division, reportedly said that the agency would approach the project as if it faced a strict launch window, building on previous technology used for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as well as Webb. FILE - In this April 13, 2017, photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Reach for the stars because you might just become one! Drina Shah has a fascination with space exploration and engineering. Engineering and space exploration are two things that Drina Shah finds fascinating. Shah was given the chance to work on the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative Project while he was in high school. She was one of eight students from her school to become a finalist out of six schools from around the country.

NASA wants to push the concept of Swarm intelligence to new heights. Swarms of drones have gotten a lot of time in the spotlight lately, mostly for their use in potential military operations. The U.S. military is testing out swarm operations in simulations, while the British Army is using live drones operating in swarms during actual training operations. Other militaries are also interested in deploying swarms. One of the biggest advantages a swarm of drones has when performing military operations is its resiliency.

Swarms of drones have gotten a lot of time in the spotlight lately, mostly for their use in potential military operations. The U.S. military is testing out swarm operations in simulations, while the British Army is using live drones operating in swarms during actual training operations. Other militaries are also interested in deploying swarms. One of the biggest advantages a swarm of drones has when performing military operations is its resiliency. If a swarm enters combat and several individual drones get shot down or otherwise incapacitated, it really doesn't reduce the combat effectiveness of the swarm, nor the tactics that it uses.

A group of researchers is using artificial intelligence techniques to calibrate some of NASA's images of the Sun, helping improve the data that scientists use for solar research. The new technique was published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics on April 13, 2021. A solar telescope has a tough job. Staring at the Sun takes a harsh toll, with a constant bombardment by a never-ending stream of solar particles and intense sunlight. Over time, the sensitive lenses and sensors of solar telescopes begin to degrade.

A new weapon in the fight to protect species from extinction has been launched, in the form of a a NASA space laser satellite that will monitor Earth's forests. Gedi - pronounced Jedi, a reference to Star Wars - will use lidar technology as it soars over the dark and light side of the planet. The device, which is the size of a fridge, will help scientists understand why forests are declining and experts hope this will help them reverse the trend. By working out the spread and density of tropical and temperate forests, scientists can work out which habitats and therefore species are most at risk. A NASA space laser satellite that is the size of a fridge will map and monitor Earth's forests to protect at risk species from extinction.

Chile's Atacama Desert contains Earth's closest Mars-like conditions: It's extremely dry with high UV radiation from the sun. So naturally, NASA has made the area it's go-to practice facility for tests and experiments that they may one day perform on the red planet. Recently, scientists from NASA's Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies completed their second season of tests. The tested KREX-2 rover was able to rove, drill, and detect life signs all at the same time. Such multi-tasking robotic rovers could ultimately help scientists to figure out if there was (or still is) microbial life forms under Mars' surface.

There was a primitive ocean on Mars that held more water than our Artic Sea and alien hunters believe to have spotted signs that life once inhabited the ancient sea. Nestled in the dust of the Gusev crater, appears to be a round broken sea shell that could be'evidence of Mars having an ocean with living creatures'. This is the second sighting of a sea shell this week and, combined with the fossilized fish seen in the dust, conspiracy theorists believe this is proof life did in face exist on the red planet. Nestled in the Gusev crater appears to be a round broken shell that could be'evidence of Mars having an ocean with living creatures' seen in images from the Nasa Curiosity Rover. Pareidolia is the psychological response to seeing faces and other significant and everyday items in random stimulus.

Finding water on Mars has been a dream of scientists for decades and could prove an essential resource for any human pioneers looking to colonise the red planet. Now Nasa is hoping its Curiosity Rover may finally be able to settle the question of whether the liquid still exists on the planet's surface. Scientists are dispatching the robot to explore a feature on a sandy hillside they believe could be their best chance yet of finding water on the red planet. Scientists are hoping to send the Curiosity Rover to investigate dark streaks that appear on the nearby Mount Sharp during the Martian summer. Last year Nasa confirmed'dark fingers' spotted by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were likely to be made by liquid moving across the planet's surface.

The James Webb telescope will be the world biggest and most powerful telescope when it launches in 2018. Nasa describes it as a'time machine' that can peer back 200 million years after the Big Bang. This week, Nasa engineers in Maryland got a little closer to launch with the completion of testing on its science cameras and the installation of the final flight mirrors. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope completed primary mirror sits in the cleanroom at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and supported over it on the tripod is the secondary mirror After over a year of planning, nearly four months of final cold testing and monitoring, the testing on the science instruments module of the observatory was completed. They were removed from a giant thermal vacuum chamber at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland called the Space Environment Simulator.