Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will work together on concept studies of what its backers hope will become the first commercial mission to Mars, a Phoenix-class lander designed to demonstrate in situ resource utilization (ISRU) and thin-film solar arrays for future human missions.

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Crews traveling to Mars and back with today’s technology will face a 5% increase in their chances of developing cancer later in life, based on new data from NASA’s Curiosity rover released at the International Geophysical Union in San Francisco Dec. 9.

A remote-sensing satellite built by China and Brazil failed to reach low Earth orbit following a Dec. 9 launch atop a Chinese Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan space center in northern China, according to Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. In a Dec. 9 statement the ministry said the rocket carrying the CBERS 3 satellite malfunctioned after liftoff at 11:26 a.m. local time and that it failed to deliver the satellite to its intended Sun-synchronous orbit at 770 km altitude.

An International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Briz M rocket successfully orbited the first of four new all-Ka-band satellites Dec. 9 for London-based fleet operator Inmarsat, delivering the Boeing-built spacecraft to supersynchronous transfer orbit during a 15-hr. and 31-min. mission.

Scientists have found new evidence that ultra-low frequency (ULF) waves are a force behind the long-mysterious acceleration of highly energetic plasma particles within the Earth’s Van Allen Belts to near-speed-of-light velocities. The findings come from data gathered by NASA’s twin Van Allen Probes.

KEPLER REVIVAL: NASA has given the green light to continued work on a plan to extend its crippled Kepler Space Telescope mission by using an orbital maneuver to compensate for the loss of two of the spacecraft’s four gyro-like reaction wheels. “To be clear, this is not a decision to continue operating the Kepler spacecraft or to conduct a two-wheel extended mission,” Paul Hertz, head of NASA’s astrophysics division, said last week.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 501 successfully launched the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office’s classified NROL-39 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., at 11:13 p.m. Pacific Time on Dec. 5.