Wearable brain-machine interface turns intentions into actions
Thursday, 29 July 2021 10:28
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A new wearable brain-machine interface (BMI) system could improve the quality of life for people with motor dysfunction or paralysis, even those struggling with locked-in syndrome - when a person is fully conscious but unable to move or communicate.
A multi-institutional, international team of researchers led by the lab of Woon-Hong Yeo at the Georgia Institute of Technology combined wirel Earth's 'vital signs' worsening as humanity's impact deepens
Thursday, 29 July 2021 10:28 Write a comment
The global economy's business-as-usual approach to climate change has seen Earth's "vital signs" deteriorate to record levels, an influential group of scientists said Wednesday, warning that several climate tipping points were now imminent.
The researchers, part of a group of more than 14,000 scientists who have signed on to an initiative declaring a worldwide climate emergency, said that go Companies compete for payload to make air from moondust
Thursday, 29 July 2021 09:18 Write a comment
ESA is challenging companies in its Member States to design a compact plant to demonstrate the manufacture of oxygen on the Moon. Industrial teams are competing this summer to propose and prove designs through testing, with the winner set to be declared in September. This small piece of technology will evaluate the prospect of building larger plants to produce propellant for spacecraft, air for astronauts and metallic raw materials for equipment.
Companies compete on payload to make air from moondust
Thursday, 29 July 2021 09:18 Write a comment
ESA is challenging companies in its Member States to design a compact plant to demonstrate the manufacture of oxygen on the Moon. Industrial teams are competing this summer to propose and prove designs through testing, with the winner set to be declared in September. This small piece of technology will evaluate the prospect of building larger plants to produce propellant for spacecraft, air for astronauts and metallic raw materials for equipment.
Competing companies developing payload to make air from moondust
Thursday, 29 July 2021 09:18 Write a comment
ESA is challenging companies in its Member States to design a compact plant to demonstrate the manufacture of oxygen on the Moon. Industrial teams are competing this summer to propose and prove designs through testing, with the winner set to be declared in September. This small piece of technology will evaluate the prospect of building larger plants to produce propellant for spacecraft, air for astronauts and metallic raw materials for equipment.
Juice takes the heat
Thursday, 29 July 2021 07:00 Write a comment
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ESA's Jupiter Icy moons Explorer, Juice, has successfully completed rigorous thermal tests simulating the extreme coldness of space and the warmth of the Sun at ESA’s test centre ESTEC, in The Netherlands.
The spacecraft underwent a month of round-the-clock testing and monitoring in the Large Space Simulator, which recreates the vacuum of space and is able to simulate both hot and cold space environments. The spacecraft was subjected to temperatures ranging from 250 degrees to minus 180 degrees Celsius, showing that it can survive its journey in space.
Juice will launch in 2022 to our Solar System’s largest planet.
Rocket Lab returns Electron to flight with Space Force launch
Thursday, 29 July 2021 06:28 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab returned its Electron rocket to flight July 29 with the successful launch of an experimental satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
The Electron lifted off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand at 2 a.m.
Jupiter mission passes space vacuum test
Thursday, 29 July 2021 06:15 Write a comment
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Jupiter mission passes space vacuum test Intelsat returning JCSAT-RA satellite to Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 20:03 Write a comment
TAMPA, Fla. — Intelsat is seeking regulatory permission to hand the JCSAT-RA satellite back to Japan’s Sky Perfect JSAT as a commercial deal between the satellite operators ends.
The Federal Communications Commission must give its approval before the satellite can return to Japanese control, which an Intelsat spokesperson said is likely to happen later this year.
Space Force sees ‘advantages and opportunities’ in nuclear-powered space missions
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 19:27 Write a comment
WASHINGTON — Space vehicles powered by small nuclear reactors — a technology that NASA believes could help get humans to Mars faster — also could be used for military missions in deep space, the vice chief of the U.S.
R3-IoT gets funding for satellite-enabled sensor connectivity solutions
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 17:41 Write a comment
TAMPA, Fla. — Scottish startup R3-IoT is expanding to North America after raising early funds for connecting sensors and devices with satellite-enabled solutions.
The $4.3 million seed funding led by venture capital firm Space Capital puts R3-IoT on track to launch commercial services in November.
XMM-Newton sees light echo from behind a black hole
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 14:00 Write a comment
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For the first time, astronomers have seen light coming from behind a black hole.
Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, an international team of scientists led by Dan Wilkins of Stanford University in the USA observed extremely bright flares of X-ray light coming from around a black hole.
The X-ray flares echoed off of the gas falling into the black hole, and as the flares were subsiding, the telescopes picked up fainter flashes, which were the echoes of the flares bouncing off the gas behind the black hole.
This supermassive black hole is 10 million times as massive as our
Op-ed | Peace in the Era of Weaponized Space
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 13:47 Write a comment
We are on the verge of a new era in space security: the age of diverse and highly capable dual-use space systems that can serve both peaceful and anti-satellite (ASAT) purposes. These new systems, such as spacecraft capable of undertaking rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs), ground-based lasers capable of interacting with space objects, and actions in cyberspace, cannot feasibly be banned; nor should they be, as they promise immense civil and commercial benefits.
Will AI leave human astronomers in the stardust?
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 13:21 Write a comment
Machine learning is coming for astronomy. But that doesn't mean astronomers and citizen scientists are obsolete. In fact, it may mean exactly the opposite.
When you think of a galaxy, the first thing that comes to mind is a spiral. There's a dense cluster of stars in the core and some big, sweeping spiral arms out to the side.
But that's not the only kind of galaxy out there. Like people, galaxies come in all shapes and sizes. There's disk shaped ones and spherical ones, neat barred spirals and messy irregulars.
Galaxies, sorted
That shape isn't just important for your sense of aesthetics when you're picking a desktop wallpaper. It also tells us a whole lot about the universe, according to Mitchell Cavanagh, Ph.D. candidate at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).
"We call ellipticals early types because they're more prominent as you go out to higher redshifts in the earlier universe. Then your spirals, we tend to call late type because they're more common when we look at the more-recent universe at lower redshift galaxies close to us," Mitchell says.
Rocket tanks of carbon-fiber–reinforced plastic are proven possible
Wednesday, 28 July 2021 12:30 Write a comment
Future rockets could fly with tanks made of lightweight carbon fiber reinforced plastic thanks to ground-breaking research carried out within ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Program.
Building on earlier studies, MT Aerospace in Germany has demonstrated a novel design of a small scale tank made of a unique carbon-fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) that is not only leak-proof with liquid hydrogen, but also compatible with liquid oxygen, without the use of a metal liner.