Boffins propose fiber-optic network for the Moon
To detect seismic waves, sillyResearchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the US are proposing the deployment of a fiber-optic network on the Moon to probe our natural satellite's interior...
View ArticleRussia plans to put a nuclear reactor on the Moon – with China's help
Roscosmos has had a few problems landing on the lunar surface recentlyRoscosmos and China are considering putting a nuclear reactor on the Moon, according to the Russian space agency's boss.…
View ArticleWant to be a NASA astronaut? Applications are open
Time flies for The FliesNASA has wheeled out its latest set of astronaut graduates, dubbed "The Flies," and announced that it is accepting applications for the next batch of astro-wannabes.…
View ArticleToyota, Samsung, accelerate towards better EV batteries
Korean champ promises solid state kit that makes Li-Ion look flat by 2027Samsung’s SDI battery-making unit has announced it will start mass production of solid state batteries in 2027, and that the...
View ArticleBeijing plans at least three new rockets – maybe reusables too
With over 100 launches planned this year alone, matching Musk makes senseChina's Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has promised to launch three new rockets this year alone, and may also...
View ArticleGrab a helmet because retired ISS batteries are hurtling back to Earth
'Luminous phenomena' on the cards, but half a ton of debris could surviveA pallet of used batteries from the International Space Station (ISS) is due to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at some point in...
View ArticleAn engine that can conjure thrust from thin air? We speak to the designer
Chatting to Anmol Taploo about the race to develop tech for satellitesInterview Will satellites be capable of generating their own thrust with propellant created out of thin air one day? Scientists at...
View ArticleUK and US lack regulation to protect space tourists from cosmic ray dangers
Damage to DNA, mutations, uncontrolled cell division and malignancy. Is space tourism worth the risk?International regulations governing space flight lack rules to protect space tourism passengers from...
View ArticleStratolaunch's air-launched test vehicle hits supersonic speed
TA-1 test ticks off all the primary objectives, but hypersonic flight will have to waitStratolaunch has finally completed the first powered flight of the Talon-A test vehicle – TA-1 – which was dropped...
View ArticleNASA's FY2025 budget request means tough times ahead for Chandra and Hubble
But Artemis is still OK, so that's alright thenNASA has published its budget request for the fiscal year 2025, and it is not good news for the Hubble Space Telescope or the Chandra X-ray Observatory.…
View ArticleJapan's first private satellite launch imitates SpaceX's giant explosions
KAIROS detonated a few seconds after clearing the launchpadVideo On another bad day for Japan's space industry, the nation's first private satellite launch failed within seconds of launch.…
View ArticleVoyager 1 starts making sense again after months of babble
Veteran spacecraft shows signs of sanity with poke from engineersEngineers are hopeful that the veteran spacecraft Voyager 1 might have turned a corner after spending the last three months spouting...
View ArticleThird time is almost the charm for SpaceX's Starship
Booster hit the water hard and monster rocket lost during re-entry, but otherwise a success!SpaceX has launched its third Starship Super-Heavy rocket on a test flight that went almost entirely to plan.…
View ArticleCaffeine makes fuel cells more efficient, cuts cost of energy storage
Boffins show less platinum may be needed for long-lived power sourceAdding caffeine can enhance the efficiency of fuel cells, reducing the need for platinum in electrodes and significantly reducing the...
View ArticleSwift enters safe mode over gyro issue while NASA preps patch to shake it off
Gamma-ray burst watcher almost two decades past use-by dateNASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has dropped into safe mode after one of the spacecraft's three gyroscopes showed signs of degradation.…
View ArticleEuropean Space Agency to measure Earth at millimeter scale
Awards contracts for spacecraft to bring the IoT to spaceThe European Space Agency has committed €76.6 million ($83 million) toward the development of Genesis – a flying observatory that will provide...
View ArticleEuclid space telescope needs de-icing
Warm water and a scraper not an option when you're 1.5 million kilometers from homeLess than 12 months into its six-year survey mission, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Euclid telescope is...
View ArticleDARPA tasks Northrop Grumman with drafting lunar train blueprints
Um. Let's successfully land on Moon without immediately faceplanting first, amirite?All aboard the space train – DARPA has commissioned defense contractor Northrop Grumman to figure out what would be...
View ArticleWorld's first Neuralink patient enjoying online chess, long Civ 6 sessions
While excited by the implant, Noland Arbaugh says it's not perfect and there's still work to be doneNeuralink's first human patient is now a public figure, with the company publishing a video yesterday...
View ArticleLabor watchdog wants SpaceX's gag clauses to blow up like its exploding rockets
This is why Big Biz wants to dismantle America's crucial regulatorsThe US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has challenged SpaceX's severance agreements, alleging the paperwork unlawfully limits...
View ArticleIntricate mission to de-ice a space telescope is go: Euclid's 'eye' is clear
100 minutes of heating to melt a frozen heart... 1.5 million kilometers away from EarthBoffins at the European Space Agency (ESA) are very pleased with themselves following confirmation that the...
View ArticleBoeing and subsidiary file trade secrets lawsuit against Virgin Galactic
Oh, and there's small matter of an alleged $26M in unpaid billsUpdated Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation have sued Virgin Galactic, alleging the space tourism company has...
View ArticleNASA gives IXPE observatory the Ctrl-Alt-Del treatment to make it talk sense
Hardware misbehaving in orbit? Time for a reset on the avionicsNASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) space observatory has had a problem, prompting engineers on the ground to hit the reset...
View ArticleHyperfluorescent OLEDs promise more efficient displays that won't make you so...
Novel design might also help reduce those annoying burn-in issuesA recent paper published in Nature demonstrates that hyperfluorescent OLEDs could significantly reduce the energy required to display...
View ArticleJapan's moon lander sparks joy by making it through a second lunar night
Brief awakening brought mixed news and familiar sceneryJapan's Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) late last week revealed that its Moon lander had – somewhat unexpectedly – mostly survived a second lunar...
View ArticleAlibaba signs to explore one-hour rocket deliveries
Chinese space startup claims it has the tech to make it happen. Yeah, rightAlibaba's Taobao e-commerce platform is exploring one-hour delivery by – wait for it – rocket.…
View ArticleUS reckons it's about time the Moon had its own time zone
What's a few microseconds between friends? Quite a lot actuallyNASA, which isn't known for timeliness, has been tasked by the White House with implementing a Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC) zone for the...
View ArticleBoffins build world's largest astronomical digital camera to map the heavens
3.2 glorious gigapixels to make 'the greatest movie of all time'Construction of the LSST Camera, destined for the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile has been completed at the SLAC National Accelerator...
View Article65 years ago, America announced the names of its first astronauts
The Mercury 7: 'Not one of us knew what he was in for'Sixty-five years ago this week, NASA introduced its first astronauts, saying they'd be launched into space in the agency's new capsule. They were...
View ArticleNASA taps trio of companies to build the next generation of lunar rover
At $4.6 billion, this Moon malarkey is getting expensiveNASA has selected three companies to develop designs for a lunar terrain vehicle (LTV) to transport astronauts around the Moon.…
View ArticleBlue Origin to fly another 90-year-old into outer space
Ed Dwight, almost America's first Black astronaut, will ride New Shepard rocketBlue Origin has announced the crew flying on its NS-25. Former US Air Force Captain Ed Dwight is among the six aiming to...
View ArticleIndustrial robots make people feel worse about jobs and themselves
Study finds workers' sense of meaningfulness and autonomy declines with automationRobots may make companies more productive, as some studies have suggested, but they make people feel that their jobs...
View ArticleSolar eclipse darkened skies, dampened internet traffic
Byteflow dropped by around half under some of the path of totalityCloudflare has measured the state of the internet during the solar eclipse that was visible on Monday across a swathe of North America,...
View ArticleCHIPS Act hangover sees most US science agency budgets cut for 2024
2025 unlikely to see more money flow as Congress turns off the tapAn increase in federal spending for the sciences in the US was short-lived, as the 2024 budget has seen significant cuts for many...
View ArticlePeter Higgs, daddy of the Higgs boson, dies at 94
The particle bearing his name lives onObituary In a world dominated by instant gratification, Peter Higgs, who died earlier this week, had to wait more than half of his 94-year lifetime to see his...
View ArticleDigital Realty ditches diesel for salad dressing in US to cut datacenter...
Hydrotreated vegetable oil to power bit barns stateside after successful Euro trialDatacenter operator Digital Realty is replacing diesel with hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) at sites in the US in a...
View ArticleNASA tries to jog Voyager 1's memory from 15 billion miles away
Since you can't get a soldering iron out there, the fix will be in softwareEngineers at NASA have pinpointed some corrupted memory as the cause of Voyager 1's troubles and are working on a remote fix...
View ArticleNASA needs new ideas and tech to get Mars Sample Return mission off the ground
Current plans are too expensive and slow, meaning China could win race to score red rocksNASA still wants to proceed with its Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission but needs its cost to drop – so it's...
View ArticleNASA confirms Florida house hit by a piece of ISS battery pack
Who needs aircon when you have NASA to punch holes through your home?NASA has confirmed that a piece of space junk that crashed through a Florida home in March was a fragment of a discarded ISS battery...
View ArticleChina scientists talk of powering hypersonic weapon with cheap Nvidia chip
Jetson module can efficiently process computational fluid dynamics modelsAnalysis Researchers in China have reportedly demonstrated how a low-cost Nvidia Jetson module could theoretically be used to...
View ArticleNASA confirms nuclear-powered Dragonfly drone is going to Titan
Whew! Relief for boffins as rotorcraft slated to arrive at Saturn moon in 2034NASA has finally confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission will be heading to Titan, one of Saturn's Moons, meaning the...
View ArticleBoston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas is dead, long live the ... new commercial Atlas
If the plan was to make this all-electric droid look mildly terrifying, mission accomplishedVideo Atlas, the humanoid robot that's been a centerpiece of Boston Dynamics' robot lineup for nearly a...
View ArticleMars helicopter sends final message, but will keep collecting data
One last software update installed safely, reconfigured it as 'stationary testbed'NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter concluded its mission on Tuesday, sending a final signal in its role as a companion to...
View ArticleNASA will send astronauts to patch up leaky ISS telescope
Thermal shield damage is screwing with daytime observations of X-ray burstsNASA is sending astronauts out to fix an X-ray telescope on the International Space Station (ISS) after the instrument...
View ArticleNASA solar sail to be Siriusly visible in orbit from Earth
Look out for a new star next weekNASA is to send a solar sail demonstrator into orbit next week, and there is a good chance that the sail, measuring 860 square feet (80 square meters), will be visible...
View ArticleA knotty problem: Boffins working on fuel-efficient trajectories for space...
Not yet the London Underground style efficient schematic we want, but it's a startBoffins at the UK's Surrey Space Centre have devised a way of determining the optimal route for spacecraft that doesn't...
View ArticleFAA now requires reentry vehicles to get licensed before launch
Commercial operators must try VardaThe US Federal Aviation Administration is updating its launch license requirements: if you're launching something designed for reentry, you'll need a license for...
View ArticleVoyager 1 regains sanity after engineers patch around problematic memory
All from billions of miles awayNASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has begun returning usable engineering data after engineers devised a way to work around a damaged memory chip.…
View ArticleSpaceX workplace injury rates are rocketing
Musk outfit's figures almost 10 times worse than industry averagesWorkplace safety data reported to the US government for 2023 indicates that SpaceX's injury rate continues to surpass the industry...
View ArticleJapan's Moon lander makes it through another lunar night
What do we say to the God of Death? Not todayJapan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) has woken up again, having survived three lunar nights.…
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