Gothenburg, Sweden (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, have succeeded in creating tiny vehicles powered by nothing but light. By layering an optical metasurface onto a microscopic particle, and then using a light source to control it, they succeeded in moving the tiny vehicles in a variety of complex and precise ways - and even using them to transport other objects. Light has an inher

Springfield VA (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) just launched the Demonstration Phase (Phase 4a) of its MagQuest Challenge to develop novel data collection approaches for the World Magnetic Model. The WMM ultimately ensures the accuracy of navigation because it corrects for differences in magnetic forces at a user's location. The model is used by thousands of systems for mobile navigation app

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
The Earth is heating up. The effects of human-caused global climate change are becoming more and more apparent as we see more record-breaking heat waves, intense droughts, shifts in rainfall patterns and a rise in average temperatures. And these environmental changes touch every part of crop production. NASA, along with partner agencies and organizations, monitors all of these environmenta

Washington DC (UPI) Sep 29, 2021
If astronauts are to set up a base and spend extended periods of time on Mars, they're going to need to be able to synthesize water and grow their own food. Growing conditions are quite different on the Red Planet, so scientists on Earth have been conducting experiments to better understand how plants will behave in Martian regolith. New research, published Wednesday in the journ

London, UK (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
A new round-trip commercial space transportation service from 2022, backed by ESA, will enable companies to manufacture in space very pure and more capable materials, discover new pharmaceutical drugs and bring them back for use on Earth. Space Forge, based in the UK, is working with partners to develop ForgeStar - a reusable suitcase-sized vehicle that can be lofted to space and which wil

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
In the Middle Bronze Age (about 3600 years ago or roughly 1650 BCE), the city of Tall el-Hammam was ascendant. Located on high ground in the southern Jordan Valley, northeast of the Dead Sea, the settlement in its time had become the largest continuously occupied Bronze Age city in the southern Levant, having hosted early civilization for a few thousand years. At that time, it was 10 times large

Vandenberg SFB CA (SPX) Sep 27, 2021
Landsat 9, a NASA satellite built to monitor the Earth's land surface, successfully launched at 2:12 p.m. EDT Monday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. A joint mission with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Landsat 9 lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 3E. Norway's Svalbard satellite-monitoring ground station acquired s

Washington DC (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
DARPA, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force, completed a free flight test of its Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) last week. The missile, built by Raytheon Technologies, was released from an aircraft seconds before its Northrop Grumman scramjet (supersonic combustion ramjet) engine kicked on. The engine compressed incoming air mixed with its hydrocarbon fuel and began igniting th

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 28, 2021
According to "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World," approximately 811 million people around the world were undernourished in 2020. Although proper nutrition is the cornerstone of good health, it is something many people still do not have access to. To help overcome this global challenge, MealCubes recreate the world's healthiest meals in the convenience of a few tasty candies t

US Air Force Academy CO (SPX) Sep 29, 2021
The Space Force held its first Robotic Process Automation Workshop to explore how to effectively leverage bots to execute repetitive processes, as part of efforts to modernize the world-class fighting force at the speed of relevance. Permanent staff from the U.S. Space Force Space Operations Command, Headquarters U.S. Space Force, Air Force Personnel Center, and Air Force Reserve Personnel Cente