San Diego CA (SPX) Feb 15, 2021
Imagine fleets of small aircraft able to vertically take off and land from helipads in urban areas, transporting people to and from work; or shuttles with preset routes flying people to the airport or other major hubs. This futuristic system of flying taxis and shuttles is one step closer to reality thanks to a team of engineers led by the University of California San Diego. They received

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 17, 2021
Astronomers have tested a method for reconstructing the state of the early Universe by applying it to 4000 simulated universes using the ATERUI II supercomputer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). They found that together with new observations the method can set better constraints on inflation, one of the most enigmatic events in the history of the Universe. The metho

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Feb 17, 2021
The technological multinational GMV , European leader in Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST), has been chosen by the European Commission to lead a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) within the H2020 program to make proposals for a future European Space Traffic Management (STM) capability: EUSTM . Space activity has increased exponentially in recen

London, UK (SPX) Feb 18, 2021
The 33rd annual UKSEDS National Student Space Conference, to be held online on the 6th and 7th of March 2021, will feature talks from Kathyrn Lueders - NASA's Human Spaceflight chief, Dr Timiebi Aganaba - international expert on space law, and Dr Yuichi Tsuda - the project manager for JAXA's record breaking Hayabusa2 mission. The National Student Space Conference is the premier event for s

Bethesda MD (SPX) Feb 17, 2021
It is well known that the Straits of Gibraltar provide access to the Mediterranean Sea. In terms of strategic importance, this geographic phenomenon provides a control point for all seagoing traffic between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Is there an analogous strategic structure for access to space? For low-Earth orbit (LEO) traffic there is such a geographic phenomenon. Tha

Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 16, 2021
Russia is going to carry out more than 10 launches of Soyuz-2 carrier rockets from the Baikonur cosmodrome this year, Ruslan Mukhamedzhanov, the head of the Centre for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities, said on Monday. "Twelve launches will be carried out from this site [in 2021]. These are federal launches, and commercial launches [in the interests of UK commun

Lampoldshausen, Germany (SPX) Feb 16, 2021
On 14 February 2021, the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) will receive the first upper stage of the European Ariane 6 launcher. The fully functional test module will be subjected to extensive testing at DLR's Lampoldshausen site over the coming months. The aim is to verify that the rocket's upper stage is fit for flight - a major milestone on the way to it

Moscow (AFP) Feb 15, 2021
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was interested in tech billionaire Elon Musk's proposal that the two men chat on the audio chat app Clubhouse. Musk, one of the world's richest people, on Sunday tagged the Kremlin's account on Twitter along with the invitation. In a separate tweet in Russian, he added: "It would be a great honour to speak with

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Feb 18, 2021
Scientists from the Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering (CDISE) and the Skoltech Digital Agriculture Laboratory and their collaborators from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that enables processing images from autonomous greenhouses, monitoring plant growth and automating the cultivation process. Thei

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 18, 2021
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will be the agency's ninth mission to land on the Red Planet. Along with characterizing the planet's geology and climate, and paving the way for human exploration beyond the Moon, the rover is focused on astrobiology, or the study of life throughout the universe. Perseverance is tasked with searching for telltale signs that microbial life may have lived on Mar