Washington DC (UPI) Jan 22, 2021
Scientists have set a new record for stable laser transmission, successfully sending laser signals from one point to another without interference from the atmosphere. The record transmission was made possible by a new "phase-stabilization" technology, which utilizes free-space, self-guiding optical terminals featuring mirrors to combat interference issues like phase noise and beam wande

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 21, 2021
Contemporary robots can move quickly. "The motors are fast, and they're powerful," says Sabrina Neuman. Yet in complex situations, like interactions with people, robots often don't move quickly. "The hang up is what's going on in the robot's head," she adds. Perceiving stimuli and calculating a response takes a "boatload of computation," which limits reaction time, says Neuman, who recentl

Nottingham UK (SPX) Jan 20, 2021
The City of Nottingham is developing an intelligent energy management system (iEMS) for its Clean Mobil Energy project using OpenRemote's open-source IoT platform. This new data management solution will control the distribution of power between all system components, including a fleet of electric vehicles (EVs), battery storage and solar power. This enables the city's energy managers to ma

Stuttgart, Germany (SPX) Jan 22, 2021
With its BALIS project, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is developing the world's first fuel cell powertrain for aircraft with an output in the megawatt range. In doing so, DLR is taking another step towards making hydrogen-powered, emission-free flight possible. Steffen Bilger, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Transport

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency issued an open call for information from the space industry covering a laundry list of technologies. 

The “broad area announcement” published Jan. 25 asks companies to submit pitches for space technology projects that the SDA might be interested in funding if they meet specific needs.

SAN FRANCISCO – Albedo, the latest space company to join the well-known Y Combinator startup accelerator, plans to establish a satellite constellation offering Earth imagery with a resolution of 10 centimeters per pixel.

That’s the same resolution that caused a stir when former President Trump tweeted images of a heavily damaged Iranian launchpad in August 2019.

In December, China successfully conducted its first lunar sample retrieval mission. Chang’e-5 landed on the moon, deployed a rover who then dug up various pieces of the lunar surface, then returned to Earth with about 5 pounds of material.

For the first time in decades, the space industry is proving to be very popular again. With the recent successes of SpaceX’s crewed missions, the upcoming landing NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, Japan’s returned sample from the asteroid Ryugu, China’s lunar landing, and the test flights of Elon Musk’s Starship, public sentiment is becoming extremely positive again and enthusiasm seems to be nearing Apollo-era heights.

The rapidly rising global population, sustainability and climate change are among the challenges the agriculture sector faces in the business of producing food. Fortunately, information from satellites can help. A new commercial service – the first in the world – cleverly combines radar data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 and optical data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 to offer daily maps of field-scale crop biomass. Importantly, these maps are completely unimpeded by cloud cover. This new service allows farmers to better monitor and assess the growth of their produce, and, ultimately, make more effective decisions.

WASHINGTON — Electric propulsion company Phase Four flew its first plasma thrusters on two spacecraft that were part of a SpaceX dedicated rideshare launch Jan. 24.

Phase Four said its Maxwell plasma propulsion systems were on two of the 143 spacecraft launched on the Transporter-1 mission.