Science

Low-cost production: The 3D printed plasma sensor performs as well as more expensive, semiconductor sensors, and could prove ideal for use on CubeSats. (Courtesy: The researchers; edited by MIT News) Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a new 3D printing technique that could make it far easier to build detectors for measuring

LOGAN, Utah — Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace announced Aug. 8 that they will work together to develop a new first stage for Northrop’s Antares launch vehicle as well as a future medium-lift rocket. The new version of the Antares, called the Antares 330, will feature a first stage using seven Miranda engines under development

LOGAN, Utah — Four smallsats designed to study the solar wind will share a ride to space on a Falcon 9 with a NASA astrophysics mission in 2025. NASA announced Aug. 3 that the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission, a set of four smallsats, will fly as a rideshare on the

Enantiomers can be distinguished from one another using helical X-ray light. (Courtesy: Paul Scherrer Institute/Benedikt Rösner) A new optical technique that is very efficient at distinguishing between molecules that are mirror images of each other could have major applications in areas such as drug development, biochemistry and toxicology. Being able to differentiate between such molecules

SEOUL, South Korea — The Aug. 6 maiden flight of India’s newly developed Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) went awry with “some data loss” that occurred in the terminal stage of the mission.  India’s space agency ISRO is analyzing data to know what happened and also checking the status of the two satellites deployed from

HOUSTON — NASA is in talks with the Italian Space Agency to fly an Earth science instrument originally planned to go on a commercial smallsat. At a meeting of the Earth Science Advisory Committee Aug. 2, Greg Stover, program manager for NASA’s Earth System Pathfinder Program, said NASA was in talks with the Italian Space

Biofinder detected biological residues in fish fossils. (Courtesy: Misra, et al., 2022) A highly sensitive instrument has picked up strong bio-fluorescence signals from fossilized organisms that perished millions of years ago. According to its developers, the new Compact Color Biofinder would be similarly handy at detecting signs of life on other planetary bodies and could

HOUSTON — As NASA prepares to select the crew of the second Artemis mission, the agency’s chief astronaut says the entire astronaut corps, and not a previously announced subset, is eligible for that flight and future missions to the moon. At an Aug. 5 briefing at the Johnson Space Center about the upcoming uncrewed Artemis

SDA is seeking proposals for a demonstration of laser communications between orbiting satellites and aircraft in flight WASHINGTON — As it prepares to start deploying a mesh network in low Earth orbit, the Space Development Agency is seeking proposals for a demonstration of laser communications between orbiting satellites and aircraft in flight. The agency on

Stellar cluster: some Twitter users were fooled into thinking a slice of chorizo was a telescope image of a nearby star: (Courtesy: Amasuela-Luis Lafuente Agudín/CC BY-SA 4.0) We’ve all been amazed by the incredible images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. So when leading French physicist Etienne Klein tweeted an image of Proxima Centauri,

Since Vladimir Putin launched his war of conquest and genocide against Ukraine on Feb. 24, there has been a sea change in the West’s dealings with Russia. Businesses and governments have abandoned partnerships and trade at the cost of billions of dollars. NATO countries have sent billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment and assistance

WASHINGTON — Astra Space announced Aug. 4 it is canceling its existing small launch vehicle after its most recent failure and will focus instead on a much larger vehicle that may not be ready to fly customers until 2024. In its release of its second quarter earnings, Astra said it would stop flying its Rocket

In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast, Paul Motzki of Germany’s University of Saarland explains how artificial muscles have been used to create a new and environmentally friendly refrigeration technology. Also this week, Physics World editors chat about a breakthrough in the study of the promising semiconductor cubic boron arsenide, a new technique

TAMPA, Fla. — SES and Intelsat are in active merger talks as a wave of consolidation sweeps over the satellite industry, the Financial Times reported Aug. 4. The satellite fleet operators are discussing the structure of a potential combination to improve competition against SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation, the report said, citing sources that stressed there

WASHINGTON — Preparations for the first flight of the Space Launch System remain on track for a liftoff as soon as Aug. 29, NASA officials said Aug. 3. SLS managers and agency leaders said the work to prepare the SLS and the Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)

Taken from the August 2022 issue of Physics World, where it appeared under the headline “Hello interflexionality”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Robert P Crease relives the recent G4G14 meeting, where fun and science met That’s clever Delegates to G4G14 making a portrait of

WASHINGTON — The European Space Agency is ending efforts to restore operations of the Sentinel-1B radar imaging satellite that malfunctioned more than half a year ago and will instead move up the launch of a replacement. ESA said in an Aug. 3 statement that the agency and the European Commission, partners on the Copernicus series

WASHINGTON — Delays in starting production of RS-25 engines for NASA affected Aerojet Rocketdyne’s earnings in the second quarter, but the company expects to catch up on the program later this year. The company reported Aug. 1 net sales of $528.5 million in the quarter ending June 30, with net income of $16.4 million. Both