Science

Defect bits: representation of two n-bits along a defect line (shown in black). Shown are the orientations of the rod-like molecules that comprise liquid crystals. (Courtesy: Žiga Kos and Jörn Dunkel/Science Advances) Topological defects in liquid crystals are mathematically analogous to quantum bits, researchers in the US have shown theoretically. If a system based on

SAN FRANCISCO – With recent grants from government agencies, Dawn Aerospace is refining its nitrous-based satellite propulsion technology. Dawn, based in New Zealand and the Netherlands, announced in May the first in-orbit demonstration of its B20 thrusters on a D-Orbit ION Satellite Carrier. Since reaching that milestone, the company has been signing up new propulsion

TAMPA, Fla. — A U.S. appeals court Aug. 26 upheld the Federal Communications Commission’s year-old decision to let SpaceX deploy more satellites at lower altitudes to improve the Starlink broadband constellation’s performance.  The FCC’s decision allowed SpaceX to operate all its approved Ku-band and Ka-band satellites at around 550 kilometers above the Earth. Previously, SpaceX

“Researchers are often involved in big collaborations with people all over the world.” (Courtesy: Camille Attree) What skills do you use every day in your job?  The most useful skill I learnt during my studies, other than technical physics knowledge, was definitely programming. It comes into everything I do now; even simple every-day tasks often

WASHINGTON — The first flight of the Space Launch System will carry along with the Orion spacecraft 10 cubesats intended to carry out missions from prospecting for lunar ice to flying by an asteroid — if they’re not dead on arrival. Preparations continue for an Aug. 29 launch of the Artemis 1 mission, with NASA

Suborbital vehicle to combine with orbital spaceplane for fully reusable space transportation system HELSINKI — China has performed its first repeated use of a suborbital spaceplane as part of efforts to develop a fully reusable space transportation system. The suborbital vehicle launched vertically from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert on Friday,

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, we meet a trio of scientists who are involved in different projects at the Fraunhofer Centre for Applied Photonics in Glasgow, UK. David Stothard, co-head of lasers and laser systems at Fraunhofer, talks about the challenges of creating a device to detect leaks of hydrogen gas.

Pete Muend: Several commercial providers of space-based RF data will likely be announced next month WASHINGTON — The National Reconnaissance Office expects to select next month multiple providers of radio-frequency data collected by commercial satellites. RF data is used to track ships, vehicles or any devices that emit radio frequency signals.  Pete Muend, director of

SAN FRANCISCO – Team Miles founder Wesley Faler has spent more than a decade developing and refining the plasma thrusters set to fly for the first time on a cubesat launching alongside the NASA Artemis 1 mission. The Team Miles cubesat, one of ten secondary payloads mounted on a Space Launch System fairing, won its

Chilly worlds: mounds of snow-like frazil ice under the Antarctic ice shelf. According to this latest research, Europa’s ice shell could be made of the same stuff. (Courtesy: copyright Helen Glazer 2015/from the project “Walking in Antarctica” (helenglazer.com)) A study of Antarctic ice shelves suggests that the ice shell covering Jupiter’s moon Europa could contain

The report urges the U.S. government to lay out a national strategy for space that embraces the private sector as a key partner WASHINGTON — For four consecutive years, the “State of the Space Industrial Base” report has called out what it sees as outdated thinking in the U.S. government on the use of commercial

TAMPA, Fla. — Californian startup Epsilon3 said Aug. 23 it is building a software platform to help Axiom Space manage plans to deploy commercial modules on the International Space Station in 2024. The software startup is developing a set of operations and procedure management workflow tools as part of a multi-year deal with Axiom, which

Photons on demand: Helen Zeng performing optical measurements to characterize the hBN-solid immersion lens integrated single-photon source. (Courtesy: Helen Zeng) Single photons are a key foundation for many emerging quantum technologies, but creating the perfect single-photon source is challenging. This is particularly true when trying to develop compact systems that can operate outside the carefully

Aerospace study: ‘In crises and conflicts, commercial space actors risk getting caught in the middle of a tense and escalatory environment’ WASHINGTON — Experts have labeled the Ukraine conflict the first commercial space war due to the extensive use of private-sector satellites for imagery and for communications, with companies like SpaceX and Viasat becoming targets

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX has decided to use a mix of Falcon 9 and Starship rockets to launch the 30,000 satellites in its proposed second-generation Starlink broadband constellation. Launching some of the satellites with SpaceX’s “tested and dependable Falcon 9” will accelerate the constellation’s deployment to improve Starlink services. SpaceX director of satellite policy David

Obscured by a cloud: the bottom panel shows a time series of the expected ~400-day pulsation in the brightness of Betelgeuse (blue dashes) as well as the measured brightness (orange line). The top panel shows corresponding illustrations of the ejection and the obscuring cloud. (Courtesy:NASA/ESA/Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI) Further insights into the curious dimming of the

The Combined Force Space Component Command oversees U.S. and allied space operations, and coordinates space traffic management WASHINGTON — Space Force Maj. Gen. Douglas Schiess on Aug. 22 assumed command of U.S. Space Command’s Combined Force Space Component Command at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The CFSCC, with more than 700 personnel, oversees U.S. and

For decades, open systems architectures and open standards have helped accelerate innovation to end users in aerospace and defense applications through the development of interfaces that are open, key, and well-defined. Today, space system designers and developers are truly embracing the SpaceVPX (VITA 78) standard, which leverages the OpenVPX (VITA 65.0) architecture through its slot