NASA to upgrade space station solar arrays
Monday, 11 January 2021 11:59WASHINGTON — NASA will start an upgrade this year of the solar arrays of the International Space Station to ensure the station has sufficient power to continue operating at least through the end of the decade.
Energy from solar wind favours the north
Monday, 11 January 2021 08:40Using information from ESA’s Swarm satellite constellation, scientists have made a discovery about how energy generated by electrically-charged particles in the solar wind flows into Earth’s atmosphere – surprisingly, more of it heads towards the magnetic north pole than towards the magnetic south pole.
Iceye to launch three SAR satellites on SpaceX rideshare flight
Monday, 11 January 2021 04:35SAN FRANCISCO – Iceye is preparing to send three Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites into orbit on the SpaceX Falcon 9 small satellite rideshare mission scheduled for launch Jan. 21.
With the upcoming launch, Iceye seeks to expand its constellation to include six SAR satellites.
Rolls-Royce and UK Space Agency launch study into nuclear-powered space exploration
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16The UK Space Agency and Rolls-Royce are joining forces for a unique study into how nuclear power and technologies could be used as part of space exploration. This new research contract will see planetary scientists work together to explore the game-changing potential of nuclear power as a more plentiful source of energy, capable of making possible deeper space exploration in the decades to
Researchers realize efficient generation of high-dimensional quantum teleportation
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16In a study published in Physical Review Letters, the team led by academician GUO Guangcan from University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) made progress in high dimensional quantum teleportation. The researchers demonstrated the teleportation of high-dimensional states in a three-dimensional six-photon system. To transmit unknown quantum st
Autonomous in-space assembly and manufacturing moves closer to reality
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16COSM Advanced Manufacturing Systems will begin working on final development and build of electron beam 3D metal printing systems for a variety of future in-space, lunar, and Martian applications. The work is funded by a SBIR contract from NASA to support the Artemis program's return to the Moon. The technology advanced by COSM uses an electron beam to deposit metal from a spool of wire int
Space Force joins U.S. Intelligence Community
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16The U.S. Space Force was designated the 18th member of the U.S. Intelligence Community in a ceremony featuring John Ratcliffe, National Intelligence director, the branch announced on Monday. The new service branch, founded in 2019, joins a group of government intelligence agencies and subordinate organizations that work separately and collectively to conduct intelligence activities in s
SEAKR demonstrates DARPA Pit Boss hardware on-orbit in 9 months
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16SEAKR Engineering, Inc. (SEAKR) is pleased to announce it realized on-orbit technology demonstration of Pit Boss supercomputing processing hardware in 9 months as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Blackjack Program. Pit Boss is an autonomous, collaborative, distributed space-based enterprise designed to self-task, process, and distribute tactically relevant informatio
Umbra Drops "Lab" and Prepares for Launch
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16The satellite intelligence company will now become "Umbra synthetic aperture radar satellite." Umbra's rebranding marks the beginning of the company's preparation of its first commercial satellite launches throughout 2021. The company said the simplified name reflects the evolution of its business focus from "a research and development laboratory" towards a "commercial satellite constellation op
Roman Space Telescope could image 100 Hubble ultra deep fields at once
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16In 1995, the Hubble Space Telescope stared at a blank patch of the sky for 10 straight days. The resulting Deep Field image captured thousands of previously unseen, distant galaxies. Similar observations have followed since then, including the longest and deepest exposure, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Now, astronomers are looking ahead to the future, and the possibilities enabled by NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Dynetics achieves critical NASA milestone and delivers key data on lunar lander program
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16Dynetics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, has submitted its proposal for Option A of the Human Landing System (HLS) for NASA's Artemis Program. The Dynetics team has also completed the HLS Continuation Review, a critical milestone during the 10-month base period, which NASA will use to assess progress on HLS hardware development and program plans. At the Continuation Review, Dynetics
A Tale of Planetary Resurrection
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16Years after its detection, astronomers have learned that a planet called KOI-5Ab orbits in a triple-star system with a skewed configuration. Shortly after NASA's Kepler mission began operations back in 2009, it identified what was thought to be a planet about the size of Neptune. Called KOI-5Ab, the planet, which was the second new planet candidate to be found by the mission, was ultimately for
A rocky planet around one of our galaxy's oldest stars
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16"They should have sent a poet," says Ellie Arroway in the film Contact as, suspended in outer space, she gazes upon a spiral galaxy. Almost all of the planets discovered to date (including the solar system planets) are confined to the plane of the Milky Way, unable to glimpse such a sweeping vista of our galaxy. However, astronomers at the University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA) usin
Astronomers find evidence for planets shrinking over billions of years
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16A team of astronomers led by University of Hawai?i Institute for Astronomy (IfA) graduate student Travis Berger has shown that an intriguing class of Neptune-sized planets shrinks over billions of years. From centuries of studying the planets within our solar system, astronomers have wondered how planets form and evolve to become the ones we observe them today. One of the most surprising f
Astronomers measure enormous planet lurking far from its star
Monday, 11 January 2021 02:16Scientists aren't usually able to measure the size of gigantic planets, like Jupiter or Saturn, which are far from the stars they orbit. But a UC Riverside-led team has done it. The planet is roughly five times heavier than Jupiter, hence its nickname GOT 'EM-1b, which stands for Giant Outer Transiting Exoplanet Mass. Though it is nearly 1,300 light years away from Earth, GOT 'EM-1b, or Ke