Week in images: 22 - 26 February 2021

Discover our week through the lens

Tokyo (AFP) Feb 26, 2021
Nami Hamaura says she feels less lonely working from home thanks to her singing companion Charlie, one of a new generation of cute and clever Japanese robots whose sales are booming in the pandemic. Smart home assistants such as Amazon's Alexa have found success worldwide, but tech firms in Japan are reporting huge demand for more humanlike alternatives, as people seek solace during coronavi

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 25, 2021
Electricity generated by fusion power plants could play an important role in decarbonizing the U.S. energy sector by mid-century, says a new consensus study report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which also lays out for the first time a set of technical, economic, and regulatory standards and a timeline for a U.S. fusion pilot plant that would begin producing

Kirtland AFB NM (AFRL) Feb 24, 2021
The Air Force Research Laboratory Self-Protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) Program is scheduled to receive the first major assembly of its three main subsystems later this month, with the remaining two subsystems set to be delivered later this year. The SHiELD program is developing a directed energy laser system that will reside in an air

Jiuquan, China (XNA) Feb 24, 2021
The third group of China's Yaogan 31 remote sensing satellites were sent into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China at 10:22 am (Beijing Time) Wednesday. The satellites were carried by a Long March 4C rocket. It was the 361st flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series, the launch center said. Having entered their planned orbits, the satellites

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 24, 2021
Over the past two years, DARPA's Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative (EEI) pilot program helped 30 pre-seed research teams raise over $100 million in U.S. investment, spin out a dozen new companies, establish numerous joint development agreements with corporate partners, and commission multiple manufacturing facilities. Today, DARPA is launching an expansion of EEI with the goal of accele

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 24, 2021
"That was your warmup. Now we're really in the thick of it." Daniel Korsun '20 is reflecting on his four years of undergraduate preparation and research at MIT as he enters "the thick" of graduate study at the Institute's Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC). The nuclear science and engineering student's "warmup" included enough fusion research on the SPARC tokamak to establish him as part of

Philadelphia PA (SPX) Feb 26, 2021
Litter is not only a problem on Earth. According to NASA, there are currently millions of pieces of space junk in the range of altitudes from 200 to 2,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, which is known as low Earth orbit (LEO). Most of the junk is comprised of objects created by humans, like pieces of old spacecraft or defunct satellites. This space debris can reach speeds of up to 18,000

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 26, 2021
The giant canopy that helped land Perseverance on Mars was tested here on Earth at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Test. Test again. Test again. Testing spacecraft components prior to flight is vital for a successful mission. Rarely do you get a do-over with a spacecraft after it launches, especially those bound for another planet. You need to do everything possible

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 25, 2021
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has delayed the first launch of its big New Glenn rocket until late 2022 because, the company said, it failed to win large government contracts recently. The company had planned to launch by this year, but lost billions of dollars in U.S. Space Force business to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance in an August decision by the governme