Science

Taken from the 2021 issue of Physics World Instrumentation and Vacuum Briefing. You can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Vacuum specialists are working closely with production engineers to make lithium-ion battery manufacturing more efficient – reducing costs and cutting carbon emissions, as Susan Curtis reports

Taken from the August 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “Infinitesimal to infinite”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. David Appell reviews Probable Impossibilities: Musings on Beginnings and Endings by Alan Lightman

WASHINGTON — Astra will introduce an upgraded version of its small launch vehicle on its next flight later this month intended to increase the vehicle’s payload capacity. In an Aug. 12 earning call, Chris Kemp, chief executive of Astra, said the launch, scheduled for a window that opens Aug. 27 from Pacific Spaceport Complex –

Space Systems Command’s first commander is Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, who previously was deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force on Aug. 13 official renamed the Space and Missile Systems Center as the Space Systems Command. The new command will be based at SMC’s campus at Los Angeles Air

Tortured writing: bizarre phrases in research papers could point to plagiarized work. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/PolyPloiid) If you happen to come across the phrase “counterfeit consciousness” in a research paper, it just might be a fake – according to an amusing news article in Nature. In it, Holly Else explains why Guillaume Cabanac at France’s University of

HELSINKI — A Chinese startup is aiming to developing spacecraft capable of supplying China’s space station, with a first small demonstration launch set for 2022. Beijing-based InterSpace Explore signed a deal Aug. 4 with Chinese private launch firm Galactic Energy for launch of the Zengzhang-1 demonstration returnable satellite on a Ceres-1 solid rocket in 2022.

WASHINGTON — The use of cubesats has grown dramatically in recent years, but some are wondering if the form factor has reached the limits of its usefulness. In a presentation at the 35th Annual Small Satellite Conference Aug. 10, Siegfried Janson, a retired Aerospace Corporation engineer who is now a consultant, reviewed the history of

If you built a very expensive telescope, would you hitch it to a balloon and fly it 40 km above the surface of the Earth? That is what Mohamed Shaaban at the University of Toronto and an international team will do next year when they launch their SuperBIT telescope on NASA’s superpressure balloon.  Shabaan explains

TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite broadband startup OneWeb has secured $300 million of strategic investment from Hanwha, the South Korean conglomerate with plans for its own megaconstellation. Hanwha bought an 8.8% stake in OneWeb through its defense division Hanwha Systems, which acquired British antenna startup Phasor Solutions last year as part of its growing space ambitions.

Any decision on whether to restart a rocket development will be driven by market opportunities HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A year after discontinuing the development of its OmegA rocket, Northrop Grumman is not completely ruling out a future attempt to get back in the national security launch market, company executives said Aug. 11. “We do continue

Electronic paper using ambient light. Image: Marika Gugole/Chalmers University of Technology Thinking of taking your e-reader on holiday this summer? Sitting around in the sunshine catching up on all the books you haven’t had time to read may soon be even more enjoyable thanks to a new reflective screen technology that works without a backlight.

WASHINGTON — Spacesuits that NASA astronauts will need to walk on the moon won’t be ready in time to meet a 2024 lunar landing goal, NASA’s inspector general concluded. In an Aug. 10 report, NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said the next-generation spacesuit the agency is developing for the Artemis program, known as the

WASHINGTON — A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket launched a Cygnus cargo spacecraft Aug. 10 carrying more than 3,700 kilograms of cargo for the International Space Station. The Antares 230+ rocket lifted off from Pad 0A at the Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia, at 6:01 p.m. Eastern. The launch took place at the

New perspective: artist’s conception of X-ray flares being created in the vicinity of a black hole. X-ray flares originating from behind a black hole have been observed for the first time – by an international team led by Dan Wilkins at Stanford University in the US. The wavelength-shifted X-ray flashes are believed to have originated

HELSINKI — Chinese firm Space Transportation raised more than $46.3 million for its hypersonic spaceplane plans in a new funding round announced Monday. Space Transportation, full name Beijing Lingkong Tianxing Technology Co., Ltd., completed its third round of financing, securing more than 300 million yuan, according to a press release.  The funds will be used

There are now 11 vendors in the OSP-4 program that will compete for 20 missions over the next nine years HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — ABL Space Systems Corp, Astra Space and Relativity Space will join a pool of launch providers that are eligible to compete for missions awarded under the U.S. Space Force Orbital Services Program

HELSINKI — China’s main spacecraft maker is developing a human landing system for lunar missions, according to an account of an official academic visit. The brief news report from Xiamen University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics July 1 (Chinese) names individuals leading projects pertinent to China’s human lunar landing plans and notably refers to the