Space weather will delay your trains
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 17:22
Fluctuations in space weather are disrupting train signals and causing significant delays. A project investigating the effect of solar storms on railway signals will be presented this week at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2022) by Cameron Patterson, a Ph.D. student at Lancaster University.
The sun's tendency to affect technology on Earth, as well as in space, is known as space weather. In railways, electric currents caused to flow in the Earth by solar activity can interfere with the normal operation of signals, turning green signals to red even when there is no train nearby.
Patterson says: "Most of us have at one point heard the dreaded words: 'your train is delayed due to a signaling failure,' and while we usually connect these faults to rain, snow and leaves on the line, you may not have considered that the sun can also cause railway signals to malfunction.
SIRI-2 to qualify technologies for radiation detection in space
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 17:10
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory scientists launched the second Strontium Iodide Radiation Instrument (SIRI-2) instrument in December 2021 onboard Space Test Program (STP) Sat-6. SIRI-2, a gamma-ray spectrometer, will demonstrate the performance of europium-doped strontium iodide gamma ray detection technology with sufficient active area for Department of Defense (DoD) operational needs.
The first SIRI mission was launched Dec.
ESA fully cuts Mars mission ties with Russia, angering Moscow
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 15:37
The European Space Agency has officially terminated cooperation with Russia on a mission to put a rover on Mars, with Russia's space chief furiously responding by banning cosmonauts on the ISS from using a Europe-made robotic arm.
The ESA had previously suspended ties on the joint ExoMars mission, which had planned to use Russian rockets to put Europe's Rosalind Franklin rover on the red planet to drill for signs of life, due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
ESA Director-General Josef Aschbacher tweeted on Tuesday that because the war and resulting sanctions "continue to prevail", the agency would "officially terminate" ties with Russia on ExoMars and its landing platform.
The firebrand head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin issued an angry response.
"Has the head of the European Space Agency thought about the work of thousands of scientists and engineers in Europe and Russia which has been ended by this decision? Is he prepared to answer for sabotaging a joint Mars mission?" Rogozin said on Telegram.
Europe's upgraded Vega space launcher makes inaugural flight
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 15:36
Vega-C liftoff
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 13:50
Video:
00:06:42
Flight VV21 clears the launch pad to begin the inaugural mission of ESA’s new Vega-C rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
Vega-C lifts off on maiden flight
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 12:33
Europe’s new Vega-C medium-lift rocket lifted off on its maiden flight July 13, carrying an Italian physics satellite and six cubesats.
The post Vega-C lifts off on maiden flight appeared first on SpaceNews.
Vega C lifts off on maiden flight
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 12:33Europe’s new Vega C medium-lift rocket lifted off on its maiden flight July 13, carrying an Italian physics satellite and six cubesats.
The post Vega C lifts off on maiden flight appeared first on SpaceNews.
NASA's Webb reveals steamy atmosphere of distant planet in detail
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the distinct signature of water, along with evidence for clouds and haze, in the atmosphere surrounding a hot, puffy gas giant planet orbiting a distant Sun-like star.
The observation, which reveals the presence of specific gas molecules based on tiny decreases in the brightness of precise colors of light, is the most detailed of its kind to d Hopping space dust may influence the way asteroids look and move
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
Like corn kernels popping in a frying pan, tiny grains of dust may hop around on the surface of asteroids, according to a new study from physicists at CU Boulder.
That popcorn-like effect may even help to tidy up smaller asteroids, causing them to lose dust and look rough and craggy from space.
The researchers published their results July 11 in the journal Nature Astronomy. Their fin Machine learning 'phones home' for famous Martian rock
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
New Curtin-led research has pinpointed the exact home of the oldest and most famous Martian meteorite for the first time ever, offering critical geological clues about the earliest origins of Mars.
Using a multidisciplinary approach involving a machine learning algorithm, the new research - published in Nature Communications - identified the particular crater on Mars that ejected the so-ca Perseverance takes first core from the Delta
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
Perseverance has taken its first sample from the Jezero delta!
Since arriving at the delta, the rover has been observing and abrading different rocks to inform whether they are good candidate for our first core sample in this area. The first few rocks that were considered either fractured too easily or had surfaces that were too rough to safely place the drill. The team searched for a rock Maiden Flight of Vega-C: Top of new European rocket from Beyond Gravity
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
Beyond Gravity (formerly RUAG Space) delivered the payload fairing, the top of the new medium-lift European rocket Vega-C, which will launch tomorrow. Beyond Gravity also produced the launcher computer and the payload adapter system.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, 13 July, the new medium-lift European Vega-C rocket is scheduled to lift-off from the European spaceport in Kourou for its inaugural flig First encounter between the Ariane 6 central core and launch pad for combined tests
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
The Ariane 6 central core (composed of the core stage and upper stage), assembled on 23 June, left the Launcher Assembly Building for the first time, en route to its new launch pad, which was built under the supervision of CNES, the French space agency, at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana. This decisive and keenly awaited step was carried out by ESA and executed by an integrated ESA-ArianeGro What to know about NASA's $10B James Webb Space Telescope
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
NASA's $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has sent its first batch of images from space, providing a view of space farther from Earth than ever seen.
The images, released July 12, show infrared images from deep in the universe.
Here's a closer look at the history-making telescope, the largest and most powerful ever launched into space. This illustration depicts the telescope Hypersonics: Developing and defending against missiles far faster than sound
Wednesday, 13 July 2022 11:13
The challenges of the hypersonic era in military operations are immense. But so are the abilities of innovators who work together to solve them.
That was the message when Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles and Defense, a Raytheon Technologies business, spoke to investors about how teams are working across the company to solve the myriad science and engineering problems that come wi