Fleet Space Technologies secures Australian defence space command contract
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06
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Fleet Space Technologies, an Australian space technology company, has signed a AUD$6.4 million contract with Australia's Defence Space Command. The agreement marks the company's first foray into the defence sector and will see Fleet's next-generation Centauri satellites used to develop and demonstrate a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications system.
The program, named ASCEND2LEO, w Mars reveals liquid core as scientists measure first seismic waves
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
Scientists have confirmed that Mars' core is liquid as seismic wave measurements have given valuable first-time clues about how the Red Planet was formed.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show Mars' core is a completely liquid iron-alloy core with high percentages of sulfur and oxygen, unlike Earth's core, which is a combination of a liquid Teasing strange matter from the ordinary
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
In a unique analysis of experimental data, nuclear physicists have made the first-ever observations of how lambda particles, so-called "strange matter," are produced by a specific process called semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). What's more, these data hint that the building blocks of protons, quarks and gluons, are capable of marching through the atomic nucleus in pairs called d Tracking changes to water, ecosystems, land surface
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
Merging data from multiple satellites, OPERA can help government agencies, disaster responders, and the public access data about natural and human impacts to the land.
Where are flood waters flowing after major storms? Where are the changes in tree and plant cover after droughts, wildfires, deforestation, or mining? How much did the land move during an earthquake or volcanic eruption? Scie Transforming nature conservation with the power of satellite imagery
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
Satellite imagery is changing conservation as we know it. By being able to take an inventory of the Earth's surface and observe changes, we can begin to understand ecosystem dynamics in an unprecedented level of detail. Satellite imagery is already supplementing traditional conservation research methods, and in some cases is even replacing them. High-quality satellite images can be used to rapid Viasat confirms ViaSat-3 Americas set to launch
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
Viasat Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global communications company, has confirmed the scheduled launch date for the ViaSat-3 Americas satellite is April 18, 2023 during an approximately one-hour long launch window opening at 7:29pm EDT. The ViaSat-3 satellite will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The satellite will be Aerojet Rocketdyne to provide propulsion for three additional Orion spacecraft
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 10:06 Write a comment
Aerojet Rocketdyne recently received a $67 million contract award from Lockheed Martin to provide propulsion systems for the Orion spacecraft that are planned to launch on Artemis missions VI-V3. This new work is an extension of the 2019 Orion Production and Operations Contract (OPOC). The Orion spacecraft recently completed a successful test flight during NASA's Artemis I mission, proving it is Falcon Heavy delay affects space station manifest
Tuesday, 25 April 2023 00:00 Write a comment
A delayed launch of commercial satellites on a Falcon Heavy could upend the schedule of flights to the International Space Station, including a private astronaut mission that was scheduled for early May.
Ursa Major to supply upper-stage engine for Astra’s new rocket
Monday, 24 April 2023 20:43 Write a comment
Rocket propulsion startup Ursa Major announced April 24 that Astra Space selected the company’s Hadley liquid engine to power the upper stage of its new Rocket 4 launch vehicle.
Report: Space Force could benefit from commercial data to monitor satellites and debris
Monday, 24 April 2023 19:39 Write a comment
The Space Force is investing in new sensors and technologies to better characterize objects in orbit, but is not taking full advantage of commercially available data and services, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
KMI advertises prices for debris removal
Monday, 24 April 2023 18:56 Write a comment
Kall Morris Inc. handed out a deck of cards at the Space Symposium to advertise prices the company plans to charge for grabbing space junk.
Is sex in space being taken seriously by the emerging space tourism sector?
Monday, 24 April 2023 18:19 Write a comment
What would a human conception in space mean for the sector? That's the situation posed by an international group of scientists, clinicians and other interested parties, who have authored a consultative green paper led by David Cullen, Professor of Astrobiology & Space Biotechnology at Cranfield University.
It highlights that the emerging space tourism sector has not openly considered or discussed the risks of sex in space or prepared suitable mitigation approaches. It argues it is unrealistic to assume all future space tourists will abstain from sexual activities—opening the possibility of human conception and the early stages of human reproduction occurring in space.
This appears to pose several risks, those of a biological nature such as embryo developmental risks and those of a commercial nature such as liability, litigation, and reputational damage. The authors recommend that an open discussion is now needed within the space tourism industry to consider the risks.
Open discussion on human conception in space tourism is lacking
Professor Cullen from Cranfield University led the work. He said, "Our starting point was a throwaway comment about sex in space, but when we checked, we were surprised the sector has not openly considered the risks and this led to the study.
Cultivating salad plants that can be grown on the Moon
Monday, 24 April 2023 17:48 Write a comment
NASA has finished its planning and is ready to go. Humans will soon be returning to the Moon—this time in a manned base. But, if this project is to succeed, astronauts must be able to grow their own food. Norwegian researchers are in the process of making this possible.
The lunar "soil," or regolith as geologists call it, is essentially a powder in which it is difficult to grow plants. As if this wasn't enough, the moon is characterized by temperatures that can reach 200 degrees during the day and fall to as low as minus 183 degrees at night.
So says SINTEF researcher Galina Simonsen. However, in spite of this, Simonsen and her colleagues working as part of the international project LunarPlant, which is being headed by NTNU Social Research and the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Space (CIRiS), believe that it will be possible to grow food plants on the moon.
UAE spacecraft takes close-up photos of Mars' little moon
Monday, 24 April 2023 16:07 Write a comment
A spacecraft around Mars has sent back the most detailed photos yet of the red planet's little moon.
The United Arab Emirates' Amal spacecraft flew within 62 miles (100 kilometers) of Deimos last month and the close-up shots were released Monday. Amal—Arabic for Hope—got a two-for-one when Mars photobombed some of the images.
Inmarsat Q&A | Mobile satellite services coming back stronger than a ‘90s trend
Monday, 24 April 2023 15:06 Write a comment
SpaceNews interviewed Peter Hardinger, Inmarsat’s chief technology officer, about how the operator plans to take advantage of emerging direct-to-smartphone capabilities that are breathing new life into the mobile satellite services industry.