Humans need Earth-like ecosystem for deep-space living
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Can humans endure long-term living in deep space? The answer is a lukewarm maybe, according to a new theory describing the complexity of maintaining gravity and oxygen, obtaining water, developing agriculture and handling waste far from Earth.
Dubbed the Pancosmorio theory - a word coined to mean "all world limit" - it was described in a paper published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Slingshot Aerospace expands network to optically track LEO satellites
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Slingshot Aerospace, the innovative technology company dedicated to improving spaceflight safety and optimizing orbital operations, has announced a significant expansion to the Slingshot Global Sensor Network's low-Earth orbit (LEO) tracking capabilities. The company is expanding its LEO tracking capabilities to make its network the largest commercial optical sensor network for LEO observation i Tendeg selected by Lockheed Martin as strategic supplier of deployable antennas
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Aerospace deployable antenna provider Tendeg LLC is pleased to announce it has been selected by Lockheed Martin as a strategic supplier for several of the company's critical global security space missions.
Tendeg is an innovative manufacturer of spacecraft antennas and deployable structures with full-range aerospace engineering services, including design, analysis, prototyping and flight u Raytheon and SpiderOak collaborate to secure satcoms in crowded LEO
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Raytheon Technologies' (NYSE: RTX) BBN division and SpiderOak announced a strategic partnership to develop and field a new generation of zero-trust security systems for satellite communications in proliferated low-Earth orbit, or pLEO.
SpiderOak's OrbitSecure solution will be combined with Raytheon BBN's Distributed, Disrupted, Disconnected and Denied (D4) secure cloud solution to ensure r Ball Aerospace, Loft Federal and Microsoft to Collaborate on SDA's NExT Program
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Ball Aerospace, Loft Federal and Microsoft has announced that they are working together on the Space Development Agency (SDA)'s experimental testbed program, called NExT, that will carry 10 satellites with experimental payloads into orbit.
SDA announced the contract award on Oct. 10, 2022. Ball Aerospace is the prime contractor, leading payload and spacecraft integration and test. Ball Aer Sidus Space and L3Harris yeam for the DoD Mentor-Protege Program
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Sidus Space, Inc. (NASDAQ:SIDU), a Space-as-a-Service company focused on commercial satellite design, manufacture, launch, and data collection, is teaming with L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) for the Department of Defense Mentor-Protege Program (MPP).
DoD program helps businesses expand their footprint in the defense industrial base by supporting their partnering efforts with larger compa Battle for space power plays out in technology, science - politics and policy
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
The expanding use of outer space for human activities requires increasing attention to policies and governance, with a Flinders University space expert warning of an increasing need for a well-developed strategic plan to manage competing national interests.
In a new publication, Associate Professor Rodrigo Praino says the race to explore and possibly settle the Moon, Mars and control satel Civil engineers use public satellite images to study why the Jagersfontein dam failed
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
On 11 September 2022, a diamond mine waste storage facility, known as a tailings dam, failed in the town of Jagersfontein in the Free State province of South Africa. In the failure, one person was killed and multiple homes destroyed.
Tailings are the finely ground leftovers that remain after valuable metals are removed from rock ore. Tailings are generally transported jointly with water an Rocket Lab to launch NASA's cyclone-tracking satellite constellation from New Zealand
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (Nasdaq: RKLB) will launch NASA's TROPICS constellation across two dedicated Electron missions lifting off from Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand next month.
The TROPICS constellation (Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation Structure and Storm Intensity with a Constellation of Small Sats) will monitor the formation and evolution of tropical cyclones, including hurri Chinese FY-3 satellites enrich global soil moisture dataset
Thursday, 13 April 2023 06:58
Surface soil moisture (SSM) plays an important role in drought and flood monitoring, weather forecasting, among other natural resource activities, and is also critical in water and heat exchanges between land and atmosphere.
SSM can be measured by instruments in the field or by remote sensing techniques. Satellite observations from active and passive microwave sensors are best suited for t Relativity shelves Terran 1 after one launch, redesigns Terran R
Thursday, 13 April 2023 00:14
Relativity Space has decided to retire its Terran 1 small launch vehicle after a single flight that failed to reach orbit, focusing its resources on a revised version of its larger Terran R rocket.
Amid commercial boom, U.S. military lacks timely access to satellite imagery
Wednesday, 12 April 2023 21:39
Inmarsat and MediaTek expand direct-to-device partnership
Wednesday, 12 April 2023 20:45
Inmarsat and Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek announced plans April 12 to jointly develop technologies needed to enable more mass market devices to connect directly to the British satellite operator’s network.
3D-printed rocket maker to focus on bigger vehicle for commercial launches
Wednesday, 12 April 2023 19:32
Relativity Space, an aerospace startup that carried out the first test flight of a 3D-printed rocket, announced Wednesday that it will focus on a bigger rocket to compete for commercial launches with SpaceX and other companies.
The Long Beach, California-based company launched the world's first 3D-printed rocket, Terran 1, on March 22 from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Although it failed to reach orbit, the test flight proved that the rocket—whose mass is 85 percent 3D-printed—could withstand the rigors of liftoff and space flight.
Relativity Space said it was shifting its focus from Terran 1 to a larger, reusable 3D-printed rocket known as Terran R, with the first commercial launches scheduled for 2026 from Florida.
"Relativity is accelerating the company's focus on Terran R to meet significant and growing market demand," the company said in a statement.
"Terran R also represents a large leap towards Relativity's mission to build humanity's multiplanetary future, eventually offering customers a point-to-point space freighter capable of missions from the Earth to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
Russia will use International Space Station 'until 2028'
Wednesday, 12 April 2023 19:31
Russia said Wednesday it planned to use the International Space Station until 2028, an apparent reversal of an earlier announcement to quit the orbiting laboratory after 2024.
In July last year, Moscow said it was leaving the International Space Station "after 2024" as ties unraveled between the Kremlin and the West over Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said Moscow's participation in the international space project had been extended.
"By the decision of the government, the operation of the International Space Station has been extended until 2028," Borisov told President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting, referring to the Russian segment.
He said the "time has come" to discuss the creation of a Russian orbital station.
"Time is running fast and we cannot take a break from manned spaceflight under any circumstances," Borisov told the Kremlin chief.
The ISS was launched in 1998 at a time of increased US-Russia cooperation following the Cold War "Space Race."
ISS partners—the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan—are for the moment only committed to operate the orbiting laboratory until 2024, though US officials have stated they want to continue until 2030.