ESA investigates cultured meat as novel space food
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 09:55ESA is seeking proposals to investigate the application of cellular agriculture as a novel technique to produce food, in particular cultured meat, during future long-term space missions.
New Zealand latest nation to sign space agreement with NASA
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 07:00The Incredible Adventures of the Hera mission – Presenting Hera
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:53Meet Hera, our very own asteroid detective. Together with two briefcase-sized Cubesats – Milani the rock decoder and Juventas the radar visionary – Hera is off on an adventure to explore Didymos and Dimorphos, an asteroid pair typical of the thousands that pose an impact risk to planet Earth.
A passion for hypersonics propels success at AFRL Lab
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27An AFRL researcher grew up with two parents who worked as pharmacists, so he was initially interested in medicine as a young student. Once he reached high school, though, his passion for mathematics blossomed, thanks to one of his high school teachers. This teacher showed him that math has real-world applications and he was excited to learn more. 1st Lt. Jonathan "Luke" Hill turned his ent
Commercial UAV Expo Americas 2021
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27Commercial UAV Expo Americas is North America's leading trade show and conference focusing on the integration and operation of commercial UAS. Industries covered include Construction; Drone Delivery; Energy and Utilities; Forestry and Agriculture; Infrastructure and Transportation; Mining and Aggregates; Public Safety and Emergency Services; Security; and Surveying and Mapping.
NASA stacks elements for upper portion of Artemis II Core Stage
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) team fully stacked three hardware elements together May 24 to form the top of the rocket's core stage for the Artemis II mission. NASA and core stage prime contractor Boeing connected the forward skirt with the liquid oxygen tank and intertank flight hardware inside an assembly area at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. Teams had previously st
Quark-gluon plasma flows like water, according to new study
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27What does quark-gluon plasma - the hot soup of elementary particles formed a few microseconds after the Big Bang - have in common with tap water? Scientists say it's the way it flows. A new study, published in the journal SciPost Physics, has highlighted the surprising similarities between quark-gluon plasma, the first matter thought to have filled the early Universe, and water that comes
China's Beidou-related industry estimated to top 1t yuan by 2025
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27The value of industries related to China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System is estimated to exceed 1 trillion yuan (about $156.4 billion) by 2025, said an official with the country's satellite navigation administration. The figure was revealed by Yang Jun, deputy director of China's Satellite Navigation System Management Office, at the three-day 12th China Satellite Navigation
US Air and Space Forces budget released
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27The Department of the Air Force released its Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal, May 28, focusing on investing in people and capability, building the future force and delivering joint lethality and effectiveness. The Department's $173.7 billion request includes the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force budgets. The Air Force's budget of $156.3 billion is a 2.3% increase and the Space Force's b
MDA test does not intercept target
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27The U.S. Missile Defense Agency, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, conducted Flight Test Aegis Weapon System 31 Event 1 on May 29, 2021. The objective of the test was to demonstrate the capability of a ballistic missile defense (BMD)-configured Aegis ship to detect, track, engage and intercept a medium range ballistic missile target with a salvo of two Standard Missile-6 Dual II (BMD-init
Lockheed Martin tests Navy's Hypersonic Strike System
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:27The Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have conducted a significant live fire hypersonic strike system test in support of the U.S. Navy's Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) and U.S. Army's Long Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) programs. In this live fire ground test of the first stage solid rocket motor, the motor fired for the full trial duration and met performance parameters and objective
CryoSat reveals ice loss from glaciers in Alaska and Asia
Tuesday, 01 June 2021 06:00As our climate warms, ice melting from glaciers around the world is one of main causes of sea-level rise. As well as being a major contributor to this worrying trend, the loss of glacier ice also poses a direct threat to hundreds of millions of people relying on glacier runoff for drinking water and irrigation. With monitoring mountain glaciers clearly important for these reasons and more, new research, based on information from ESA’s CryoSat mission, shows how much ice has been lost from mountain glaciers in the Gulf Alaska and in High Mountain Asia since 2010.
Uncovering the Hidden Arctic
Monday, 31 May 2021 15:45The Arctic. Bitterly cold and crossed by blinding storms. Shrouded in darkness half the year. A place of legend where polar bears roam and gigantic icebergs plunge into the sea.
But the Arctic is changing. The six years ending in 2019 were the warmest ever recorded.
HIRAX: Looking deep into the universe for answers about dark matter
Monday, 31 May 2021 12:30How is matter distributed within our universe? And what is the mysterious substance known as dark energy made of? HIRAX, a new large telescope array comprising hundreds of small radio telescopes, should provide some answers. Among those instrumental in developing the system are physicists from ETH Zurich.
"It's an exciting project," says Alexandre Refregier, Professor of Physics at ETH Zurich, as he considers the futuristic-looking visualization from South Africa. The image shows a scene in the middle of the Karoo semidesert, far away from larger settlements, with rows upon rows of more than 1,000 parabolic reflectors all directed towards the same point. At first glance, one might assume this is a solar power station, but it's actually a large radio telescope that over the coming years should provide cosmologists with new insights into the makeup and history of our universe.
Destination Moon: Is it time for us to send astronauts back?
Monday, 31 May 2021 12:20The series For All Mankind (2019) is a fictional alternate history that imagines a world where the Soviet Union was the first power to send an astronaut to the moon. From that starting point, the two rival superpowers compete to establish their own lunar station.
Just a few short years later, the scenario is no fantasy. Fifty years after the Apollo 11 mission in 2019 the United States announced its intention to return to the Moon in 2024. In light of the concept of "New Space", this new ambition highlights a growing geostrategic competition, particularly given China's precipitous rise.
Artemis, one step ahead
To succeed on this mission, NASA has promoted the Artemis program, a consortium led by the United States that brings together eight other countries—Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. NASA and Brazil signed a statement of intent in December 2020 to join the program. Each participant will contribute to the completion of the mission with technical and scientific support.
NASA is also counting on the private sector, including the SpaceX Starship (SN1), to fulfill the human landing system (HLS) program.