SpaceX wins $150 million contract to launch Space Development Agency satellites
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 22:43WASHINGTON — SpaceX has been awarded a $150.4 million contract to launch as many as 28 satellites for the Pentagon’s space agency, the Defense Department announced Dec. 31.
The contract is to launch a mix of small and medium spacecraft of different sizes that the Space Development Agency is acquiring from multiple vendors.
Discovery boosts theory that life on Earth arose from RNA-DNA mix
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09Chemists at Scripps Research have made a discovery that supports a surprising new view of how life originated on our planet. In a study published in the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, they demonstrated that a simple compound called diamidophosphate (DAP), which was plausibly present on Earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny DNA building blocks called deo
NASA video shows Perseverance rover's planned 'terror' landing on Mars
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09NASA has shown what it will look like when its Perseverance rover touches down on Mars, a challenging sequence that the agency describes as "7 minutes of terror." The Perseverance rover was launched in the summer and is scheduled to arrive on Mars in February. Once it reaches Mars' atmosphere on its way to Jezero Crater, it must slow down from its speed of 12,000 mph in a span of
Ripples in space-time could provide clues to missing components of the universe
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09There's something a little off about our theory of the universe. Almost everything fits, but there's a fly in the cosmic ointment, a particle of sand in the infinite sandwich. Some scientists think the culprit might be gravity-and that subtle ripples in the fabric of space-time could help us find the missing piece. A new paper co-authored by a University of Chicago scientist lays out how t
Army research leads to more effective training model for robots
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09Multi-domain operations, the Army's future operating concept, requires autonomous agents with learning components to operate alongside the warfighter. New Army research reduces the unpredictability of current training reinforcement learning policies so that they are more practically applicable to physical systems, especially ground robots. These learning components will permit autonomous a
European space and digital players to study satellite-based connectivity system across EU
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09The European Commission has selected a consortium of European satellite manufacturers, operators and service providers, telco operators and launch service providers to study the design, development and launch of a European-owned space-based communication system. The study will assess the feasibility of a new initiative aiming to strengthen European digital sovereignty and provide secure co
NASA Helps Bring Airport Communications into the Digital Age
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09Some of the best entertainment at the airport is all the action outside the window. Loaded luggage carriers zip past on their way to planes. Fuel trucks come and go. Catering trucks restock galleys. During winter, de-icing crews and snowplows add to the bustle. This organized chaos is overseen by the ground-control managers as part of an airport-wide effort to ensure the safety of all grou
Arianespace orbits the CSO-2 military observation satellite for France
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09For its 10th and final launch of the year, Arianespace used a Soyuz rocket to orbit the CSO-2 defense and security observation satellite for the French CNES space agency (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales) and DGA defense procurement agency (Direction generale de l'armement), on behalf of the French armed forces. With this launch, Arianespace has once again demonstrated its ability to ens
Subsea permafrost is still waking up after 12,000 years
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09In the far north, the swelling Arctic Ocean inundated vast swaths of coastal tundra and steppe ecosystems. Though the ocean water was only a few degrees above freezing, it started to thaw the permafrost beneath it, exposing billions of tons of organic matter to microbial breakdown. The decomposing organic matter began producing CO2 and CH4, two of the most important greenhouse gases. Thoug
A new TanSat XCO2 global product for climate studies
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09Since CO2 has been recognized as the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas owing to its significant impact on global warming and climate change, there have been a substantial number of studies that have focused on investigating the status of CO2 in the atmosphere in the past and present, and how it will change in the future. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (24th Conferen
Faster, greener way of producing carbon spheres
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09A fast, green and one-step method for producing porous carbon spheres, which are a vital component for carbon capture technology and for new ways of storing renewable energy, has been developed by Swansea University researchers. The method produces spheres that have good capacity for carbon capture, and it works effectively at a large scale. Carbon spheres range in size from nanomete
High-brightness source of coherent light spanning from the UV to THz
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09Analytical optical methods are vital to our modern society as they permit the fast and secure identification of substances within solids, liquids or gases. These methods rely on light interacting with each of these substances differently at different parts of the optical spectrum. For instance, the ultraviolet range of the spectrum can directly access electronic transitions inside a substance wh
Scientists and philosopher team up, propose a new way to categorize minerals
Wednesday, 30 December 2020 06:09A diamond lasts forever, but that doesn't mean all diamonds have a common history. Some diamonds were formed billions of years ago in space as the carbon-rich atmospheres of dying stars expanded and cooled. In our own planet's lifetime, high-temperatures and pressures in the mantle produced the diamonds that are familiar to us as gems. 5,000 years ago, a large meteorite that struck a carbon-rich
NSTXL’s contract to manage Space Force technology projects on hold pending review
Tuesday, 29 December 2020 22:33WASHINGTON — The recent selection of NSTXL to manage space technology projects for the U.S. Space Force is being reexamined following revelations that a Texas court ruled the company acted fraudulently in a dispute with a business partner.
White House releases planetary protection strategy
Tuesday, 29 December 2020 21:04WASHINGTON — The White House released a national strategy for planetary protection Dec. 30, outlining new assessments to prevent terrestrial contamination of other worlds and vice versa.
The National Strategy for Planetary Protection, developed by an interagency working group led by the National Space Council and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), outlines work to be done over the next year to update planetary protection policies, considering both scientific advances as well as growing private capabilities in space exploration.