Washington DC (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
As the Artemis campaign leads humanity to the Moon and eventually Mars, NASA is refining its state-of-the-art navigation and positioning technologies to guide a new era of lunar exploration. A technology demonstration helping pave the way for these developments is the Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) payload, a joint effort between NASA and the Italian Space Agency to demonstrate the

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Intuitive Machines, Inc. (Nasdaq: LUNR, LUNRW) and Nokia (NYSE: NOK, Euronext: NOKIA) have completed the final integration of Nokia's Lunar Surface Communication System ("LSCS") into the Athena lunar lander for the IM-2 mission. This mission aims to establish the first cellular network on the Moon, focusing on the lunar south pole region. Collaborating with Nokia Bell Labs, Intuitive Machi

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Collapsed stars, known as neutron stars, possess extraordinary density - a trillion times that of lead. Despite their significance, the surface features of neutron stars remain largely uncharted. Recent investigations by nuclear theorists have drawn parallels between mountain formation mechanisms on planetary bodies in our solar system and those on neutron stars. These findings suggest that neut

Paris, France (SPX) Jan 10, 2025
On January 8, 2025, the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission made its sixth flyby of Mercury, completing the final gravity assist needed to position itself for orbit insertion around the planet in late 2026. During this maneuver, the spacecraft flew just 295 kilometers above Mercury's night side before capturing stunning images of the sunlit northern regions. At 06:59 CET, BepiColombo passed over

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Researchers have completed the installation of a revolutionary "compound eye" instrument on the Subaru Telescope after years of meticulous effort. This cutting-edge device, known as the Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS), incorporates approximately 2,400 prisms strategically arranged across the Subaru Telescope's expansive field of view. This design allows simultaneous spectroscopic analysis o

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Radiation tests suggest that carbon-based organic solar cells could surpass traditional silicon and gallium arsenide cells in efficiency and durability for space applications, according to a University of Michigan study. Previous research primarily examined how radiation affected the energy conversion efficiency of organic solar cells. This new study delved into molecular-level changes tha

New Delhi (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Two Indian physicists have introduced a novel theoretical perspective that could reshape our understanding of the universe's composition and offer potential avenues to explore quantum gravity. Professor Pankaj Joshi of Ahmedabad University, India, and Professor Sudip Bhattacharyya of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), have proposed that the gravitational collapse of matter in the

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Jan 13, 2025
Chinese scientists are working on an innovative idea suggested by elementary school students: designing a flag capable of fluttering on the moon despite its airless environment. At the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), researchers from Beijing and Anhui province are collaborating on a new payload for the Chang'e 7 mission. The concept, sparked by the creativity of students from Cha

Frank Kendall: ‘We're going to need a much bigger, much more capable, much more powerful Space Force’