Category: Space
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Tracking undetectable space junk
Colliding pieces of space debris emit electric signals that could help track small debris littering Earth’s orbit, potentially saving satellites and spacecraft.
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NASA advances U-M’s Mission Concept Study to photograph entire auroras from space
Two satellites could join NASA’s fleet studying the Sun and its impacts on Earth’s magnetic field.
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$9.7M for tools to improve forecasts of harmful space weather
Better forecasting could protect astronauts and instruments from solar eruptions that release damaging, high-energy particles.
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Megastorms leave marks on Saturn’s atmosphere for hundreds of years
Massive storms have appeared as “Great White Spots” on Saturn every 20 to 30 years since 1876. The impacts of those older storms have lasted in Saturn’s atmosphere for centuries.
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U-M’s space design and manufacturing draws second round of support from DARPA
Without the constraints of building on Earth, engineers look to expand the capabilities of what space structures can do.
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‘Principled action’
A retrospective on the impactful U-M career of departing dean Alec D. Gallimore.
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The storied history of a leading space propulsion lab
Alec Gallimore upcycled a lunar rover testing chamber into a world-class electric propulsion center.
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Tracking ocean microplastics from space
Microplastic pollution can be spotted from space because its traveling companion alters the roughness of the ocean’s surface.
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Plasma thrusters used on satellites could be much more powerful
It was believed that running more propellant through a Hall thruster would wreck its efficiency, but new experiments suggest they might power a crewed mission to Mars.
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Cyber vulnerability in networks used by spacecraft, aircraft and energy generation systems
A new attack discovered by the University of Michigan and NASA exploits a trusted network technology to create unexpected and potentially catastrophic behavior
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Gravity’s impact on bone cells—experiments heading to the International Space Station
Mechanical engineers at the University of Michigan are tackling mysteries of bone density loss in space and on Earth.
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Studying Earth’s defenses against solar storms
NASA undertakes a comprehensive look at a critical atmospheric buffer between us and the sun, powered in part by University of Michigan researchers and alumni.