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Does this image make you anxious or are you already tracking where all the wires go? If the latter, you might have what it takes to be an astronaut!

It is an exciting time for space. With NASA’s latest rover safely on Mars and ESA’s call for the next class of astronauts, the space industry is teeming with possibilities. 

This image taken in ESA’s Columbus laboratory on the International Space Station is a snapshot of the many opportunities in space research and exploration.  

In the centre is the Biolab facility, a fridge-sized unit that hosts biological experiments on micro-organisms, cells, tissue cultures, small plants

Using a 25-year record of satellite observations over the Getz region in West Antarctica, scientists have discovered that the pace at which glaciers flow towards the ocean is accelerating. This new research, which includes data from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission and ESA’s CryoSat mission, will help determine if these glaciers could collapse in the next few decades and how this would affect future global sea-level rise.

The coming of 5G promises much more than simply better-than-wi-fi smartphone connectivity; it should enable a wide range of novel services, including asset tracking, autonomous driving and drone flying as well as the internet of things. Highly precise localisation is needed to make such innovations feasible however. ESA has led a major project assessing the potential of 5G and satellite navigation in combination and next month a webinar will make its initial findings public.

Beijing (XNA) Feb 23, 2021
China has been making continuous progress in the satellite navigation and positioning industry with significant moves and industrial applications in more diversified fields. The following facts and figures offer a glimpse of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and China's latest moves to boost the sector: + China has recently released six documents detailing technical requir

New Delhi (Sputnik) Feb 19, 2021
Indian's armed forces will be equipped with around 5,5000 state-of-the-art software defined radios as the system currently in place has limited or no data transmission capability. India's Defence Ministry has announced that it will replace the army's Combat Net Radio (CNR) with state-of-the-art software defined radios (SDRs), which will be manufactured by Indian companies. Currently, CNR i

Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 19, 2021
Defense industry leaders have long indicated that Russia's advanced fifth-generation Su-57 fighter, equaled by only a handful of other jets in the skies, will have several special weapons designed for it. Russia's stealthy Su-57 is reportedly undergoing tests on its ability to carry a new hypersonic weapon, according to sources inside Russia's military-industrial complex. Russian med

Montgomery AL (The Conversation) Feb 19, 2021
The U.S. Space Force has a serious role to play in the modern world. Its stated mission is to train and equip personnel to defend U.S. interests in space. Given the increasing military and economic importance of space, the USSF is likely to grow in importance. But a quick internet search shows that for most people, the Space Force is more a meme than a military branch. It has been the subj

Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Feb 23, 2021
Astronomers have long been looking into the vast universe in hopes of discovering alien civilisations. But for a planet to have life, liquid water must be present. The chances of that finding scenario have seemed impossible to calculate because it has been the assumption that planets like Earth get their water by chance if a large, ice asteroid hits the planet. Now, researchers from the GL

Beijing (XNA) Feb 23, 2021
The lander and the rover of the Chang'e-4 probe have been switched to dormant mode for the lunar night after working stably for the 27th lunar day, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration. The lander was switched to dormant mode at 1:30 p.m. Friday (Beijing Time) as scheduled, and the rover, Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2), at 1:48 a.m.

Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 23, 2021
Phobos and Deimos are the remains of a larger Martian moon that was disrupted between 1 and 2.7 billion years ago, say researchers from the Institute of Geophysics at ETH Zurich and the Physics Institute at the University of Zurich. They reached this conclusion using computer simulations and seismic recordings from the InSight Mars mission. Mars's two moons, Phobos and Deimos, have puzzled