Science

WASHINGTON — As Artemis 1 nears its conclusion, U.S. Space Command is using the mission to highlight its role in supporting NASA, even as the space agency considers alternatives to some of those services. The Orion crew capsule is scheduled to splash down at 12:39 p.m. Eastern Dec. 11 in the Pacific Ocean off the

WASHINGTON — Fifty years to the day after the last Apollo moon mission touched down on the lunar surface, NASA’s plans to return to the moon took a major step forward with the successful splashdown of the Orion spacecraft to end the Artemis 1 mission. The Orion spacecraft splashed down off the coast of Baja

Grounded: illustration of how SuperGPS would be rolled out in a city. (Courtesy: TU Delft/Stephan Timmers) Researchers in the Netherlands have created a ground-based alternative to global satellite navigation systems (GNSSs) – claiming that it could offer a far greater positioning and timekeeping accuracy in cluttered urban environments. The team’s SuperGPS system uses an atomic-clock

TAMPA, Fla. — The top Democrat and Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee introduced bipartisan legislation Dec. 8 to reform the Federal Communication Commission’s satellite licensing rules. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) and the ranking member, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), said their legislation is needed to modernize

WASHINGTON — As the Artemis 1 mission nears its conclusion, European Space Agency and industry officials praised the performance of the Orion spacecraft’s service module, which some see as a step towards a European crewed spacecraft. The Artemis 1 mission is set to conclude Dec. 11 with the reentry and splashdown of the Orion crew

Testing the new coronavirus detection system. (Courtesy: Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) A new electrochemical cell could detect airborne viruses like SARS-CoV-2 in near real-time, according to researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The device could be positioned on a wall or ceiling, or in air ducts,

TAMPA, Fla. — French satellite antenna maker Anywaves said Dec. 8 it has raised around $3 million to help capture more business from U.S. customers. Anywaves CEO Nicolas Capet said the funds from French investor Ylliade Groupe enable the company to accelerate sales and marketing efforts in the United States, where only 10% of its

York Space’s satellites will need filters to address a ‘noisy power supply’ issue WASHINGTON — The first launch of the Space Development Agency’s constellation planned for mid-December will slip to March 2023 due to an anomaly in York Space’s satellites that was identified during tests, the agency’s director Derek Tournear said Dec. 9. The Space

Listening in: the diarrhoea sensor installed over a toilet. (Courtesy: Maia Gatlin) This week’s Red Folder focuses on that humble yet crucial appliance, the toilet. Cholera, a bacterial disease that causes diarrhoea, affects millions of people worldwide and results in some 150,000 deaths per year, so identifying it early could help mitigate its spread. Yet

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX successfully launched 40 satellites for OneWeb’s rival broadband constellation Dec. 8 on a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 5:27 p.m. Eastern and released the satellites over three separation sequences about an hour and a half later. Following its part of a mission that

WASHINGTON — Just days after setting a launch date for its first launch from the United Kingdom, Virgin Orbit announced Dec. 8 it was delaying that mission for weeks because of technical and regulatory issues. In a statement provided to SpaceNews, Virgin Orbit Chief Executive Dan Hart said the company’s “Start Me Up” mission from

Howdy, partner: Space science and supercomputing meet at the SC Conference in Dallas, Texas, US. Every year, the biggest names in high-performance computing get together for the SC conference. This year’s edition, SC22, saw nearly 12 000 supercomputing experts and enthusiasts travel to Dallas, Texas, US to listen to lectures, collaborate with colleagues and meet

DoD is looking for ‘responsive access’ to cislunar space WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit is seeking proposals for commercial services to deploy and operate payloads in outer space beyond Earth orbit, an area known as cislunar space. DIU, a Defense Department agency created to bring commercially developed technology into military programs, is looking for

WASHINGTON — Teams led by Blue Origin and Dynetics, runners-up in NASA’s first competition to develop a lander to transport astronauts to the lunar surface, have submitted proposals for a NASA competition to select a second lander. Blue Origin announced Dec. 6 that it submitted a proposal for NASA’s Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) competition to

Courtesy: IOP Publishing Physics World is delighted to announce its top 10 Breakthroughs of the Year for 2022, which span everything from quantum and medical physics to astronomy and condensed matter. The overall Physics World Breakthrough of the Year will be revealed on Wednesday 14 December. The 10 Breakthroughs were selected by a panel of

Mynaric is designing an optical communications terminal for DARPA’s Space Based Adaptive Communications Node program known as Space-BACN WASHINGTON — Mynaric selected a cybersecurity tool from Redwire and BigBear.ai for an inter-satellite laser communications terminal it is developing for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the companies announced Dec. 6. Laser communications supplier Mynaric is

HELSINKI — Landspace is preparing for a test launch of its Zhuque-2 rocket in what could be a marker for the progress being made by Chinese commercial launch companies. The methane and liquid oxygen-powered Zhuque-2 is being readied for a launch attempt expected in the coming days and will take place at newly-built launch facilities

Catching the drips: the FRIB Decay Station Initiator. (Courtesy: Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) The first scientific results from the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University have been unveiled by physicists in the US. Heather Crawford at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and colleagues have synthesized new neutron-rich isotopes of three