Copernical Team
A new era of spaceflight? Promising advances in rocket propulsion
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has recently commissioned three private companies, Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin and General Atomics, to develop nuclear fission thermal rockets for use in lunar orbit.
Such a development, if flown, could usher in a new era of spaceflight. That said, it is only one of several exciting avenues in rocket propulsion. Here are some others.
Chemical rockets
The standard means of propulsion for spacecraft uses chemical rockets. There are two main types: solid fuelled (such as the solid rocket boosters on the Space Shuttle), and liquid fuelled (such as the Saturn V).
In both cases, a chemical reaction is employed to produce a very hot, highly pressurized gas inside a combustion chamber. The engine nozzle provides the only outlet for this gas which consequently expands out of it, providing thrust.
The chemical reaction requires a fuel, such as liquid hydrogen or powdered aluminum, and an oxidiser (an agent that produces chemical reactions) such as oxygen.
ESA competition to springboard SMEs into international markets
Today, ESA opened its Global Space Markets Challenge. This competition is intended to be a springboard into international markets for small promising space-based companies in Europe, specialised in upstream and downstream activities.
Space debris: feel the burn
It might be counter-intuitive, but designing satellites to better fall apart is one of the key strategies to combat space debris. Developed by ESA’s Clean Space initiative, the approach is called ‘Design for Demise’ and involves making sure that derelict satellites will break up and burn up fully as they reenter the atmosphere.
Nanostructured device stops light in its tracks
Understanding how light waves oscillate in time as they interact with materials is essential to understanding light-driven energy transfer in materials, such as solar cells or plants. Due to the fantastically high speeds at which light waves oscillate, however, scientists have yet to develop a compact device with enough time resolution to directly capture them.
Now, a team led by MIT resea Scientists at NREL report new synapse-like phototransistor
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed a breakthrough in energy-efficient phototransistors. Such devices could eventually help computers process visual information more like the human brain and be used as sensors in things like self-driving vehicles.
The structures rely on a new type of semiconductor - metal-halide perovskites - Skyborg ACS has successful first flight
The Skyborg leadership team conducted a two-hours and ten minute flight test April 29 of the Skyborg autonomy core system (ACS) aboard a Kratos UTAP-22 tactical unmanned vehicle at Tyndall AFB, Florida.
Termed Milestone 1 of the Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation (AAAx) campaign, the ACS performed a series of foundational behaviors necessary to characterize safe system operatio Perseverance rover captures sound of Ingenuity flying on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has for the first time captured the low-pitched whirring of the Ingenuity helicopter's blades as it flies through the rarefied Martian atmosphere.
The space agency on Friday released new footage shot by the six-wheeled robot of its rotorcraft companion making its fourth flight on April 30 - this time accompanied by an audio track.
The nearly three-minute-long v Air Force announces successful simulated hypersonic 'kill chain' test
A B-52 bomber conducted a successful test of the simulated hypersonic kill chain, using a hypersonic weapon to neutralize a target, the U.S. Air Force said.
The test was a "successful simulated hypersonic kill chain employment from sensor to shooter and back," during the Northern Edge 21 exercises in Alaska, an Air Force statement said on Thursday.
As the B-52 traveled from Barks International cutting-edge SWOT satellite to survey the world's water
How much water sloshes around in Earth's lakes, rivers, and oceans? And how does that figure change over time? The upcoming Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission plans to find out. Targeting a late-2022 launch date, this SUV-size satellite will measure the height of Earth's water. SWOT will help researchers understand and track the volume and location of water - a finite resource - a US DoD close to finalizing recommendations for Space Force National Guard
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) called on the US Department of Defense to provide the US Congress with recommendations for a potential Space Force Reserve element. Presently, members of the National Guard are conducting space missions in seven US states and the territory of Guam.
Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the US National Guard Bureau, revealed on Tuesday that he bel 
