Washington DC (UPI) Jan 1, 2021
A massive sunshield aboard the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope has been successfully unfurled in a crucial step for its operations, NASA says. The telescope's second, or starboard, sunshield mid-boom was extended late Friday as the observatory "passed another critical deployment milestone," the space agency announced. The deployment capped a two-day operation in which all

Minneapolis MN (SPX) Dec 30, 2021
Some engineered living materials can combine the strength of run-of-the-mill building materials with the responsiveness of living systems. Think self-healing concrete, paint that changes color when a specific chemical is detected or material that could reproduce and fill in a crack when one forms. This would revolutionize construction and maintenance, with wide-reaching economic and environmenta

Boston MA (SPX) Dec 21, 2021
When it comes to robots, bigger isn't always better. Someday, a swarm of insect-sized robots might pollinate a field of crops or search for survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building. MIT researchers have demonstrated diminutive drones that can zip around with bug-like agility and resilience, which could eventually perform these tasks. The soft actuators that propel these microrobot

London, UK (SPX) Dec 21, 2021
Researchers have incorporated phosphorene nanoribbons into new types of solar cells, dramatically improving their efficiency. Phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs) are ribbon-like strands of the 2D material phosphorous, which, similar to graphene, are made of single-atom-thick layers of atoms. PNRs were first produced in 2019, and hundreds of theoretical studies have predicted how their propertie

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 30, 2021
NASA's exploration requires research into how light affects both humans and plants: John Glenn's first trip into Earth orbit lasted just under five hours, but today, astronauts regularly stay six months or longer on the International Space Station. Experiencing over a dozen sunrises and sunsets each day means an astronaut's biological clock tends to be in the wrong time zone. And for longer deep

Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 01, 2022
The businessman revitalised the space company using his own funds back in 2017, when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Since then, the firm secured its first contracts with the US government and held a partially successful first launch of a satellite. The US government demanded Ukrainian software mogul Max Polyakov to sell his entire stake in the space company Firefly Aerospace, which man

Beijing (XNA) Jan 01, 2022
China launched a Long March 3B carrier rocket at Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province early on Thursday, marking the completion of the country's annual launch schedule. The rocket blasted off at 0:43 am and transported the Communication Technology Demonstrator 9 experimental satellite into a geosynchronous orbit, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, the nation's lead

Heidelberg, Germany (SPX) Jan 01, 2022
Astronomers have managed to link the properties of the inner planets of our solar system with our cosmic history: with the emergence of ring structures in the swirling disk of gas and dust in which these planets were formed. The rings are associated with basic physical properties such as the transition from an outer region where ice can form where water can only exist as water vapor. The astrono

London, UK (SPX) Jan 01, 2022
Northern hemisphere stargazers can look forward to what could be 2022's best meteor shower on 3-4 January. Observers enjoying dark skies could see 50 or more meteors an hour that night, as the Quadrantids shower reaches its peak. Meteors are the result of small particles entering the Earth's atmosphere at high speed, typically around 40 km per second for the Quadrantids. The pieces of debr

Washington DC (UPI) Dec 30, 2021
The zero-gravity conditions in outer space may hold the key to producing large batches of stem cells for medical research and treatment of various diseases on Earth, according to a paper published Thursday by Stem Cell Reports. Biomanufacturing, a type of stem cell production that uses biological materials such as microbes to produce substances and biomaterials suitable for use in resea