Science

Taken from the July 2021 issue of Physics World where it first appeared under the headline “Stephen Hawking: cosmic commodity”. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. Laura Hiscott reviews Hawking Hawking: the Selling of a Scientific Celebrity by Charles Seife

WASHINGTON — A growing number of spacecraft missions, as well as NASA’s Artemis program, are putting new pressures on the agency’s Deep Space Network of antennas that communicate with them. In a July 7 presentation to the steering committee of the planetary science decadal survey, Brad Arnold, manager of the Deep Space Network (DSN) at

WASHINGTON — NASA has awarded a contract worth $935 million to Northrop Grumman to build and integrate the first habitation module for the lunar Gateway. NASA announced July 9 it finalized a contract with Northrop Grumman to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module for the Gateway. That module, one of the first for

It takes energy to travel to, in, and around space. It also takes energy to act, live, and grow. Consequently, the establishment and sustaining of a permanent human presence in space will require a resilient, long-lasting, and secure source of energy. Of the options we have, solar is a popular one given our familiarity with

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration has started to use a new tool intended to better integrate commercial launches and reentries into the National Airspace System, reducing the disruptions those events have on aviation. The FAA announced July 8 that it formally started use of the Space Data Integrator (SDI) with the June 30 launch

WASHINGTON — Astranis announced that the first in its line of very small geostationary orbit satellites is entering its final assembly phase for launch in early 2022. The San Francisco-based company said July 8 that the communications payload for the satellite it’s building for Pacific Dataport Inc. (PDI), called Arcturus, passed an end-to-end test that

WASHINGTON — Planet announced July 7 it will go public in a $2.8 billion deal with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the second SPAC deal in the Earth observation sector in as many days. Planet said it will merge with dMY Technology Group, Inc. IV, a SPAC that raised $345 million in a public offering

Allison Kubo Hutchison We’ve already covered some important questions like do trilobites bites (spoiler: they don’t) but recent research has given insight into another important question: what is it like to be eaten by a baby T-Rex? The answer is it is between being eaten by a hyena and a crocodile. To get this result,

It’s a good thing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has plenty of time to prepare for its next generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites — because the changes the agency is contemplating are dramatic. Instead of flying satellites the size of pickup trucks like the current Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), NOAA is exploring the

Updated 5:30 p.m. Eastern to revise location of company headquarters. WASHINGTON — Earth imaging company Satellogic announced July 6 it will go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), raising the funding it needs to build out a constellation of 300 spacecraft. Satellogic said it will merge with CF Acquisition Corp.

WASHINGTON — The James Webb Space Telescope is one step closer to launch after a review of its Ariane launch vehicle, while NASA continues a separate review of the name of the spacecraft itself. The European Space Agency announced July 1 that it, along with Arianespace, had successfully completed the final mission analysis review for

WASHINGTON — NASA is taking a slow and deliberate approach to restoring operations of the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been out of service since mid-June when a payload computer malfunctioned. Hubble stopped science operations June 13 when the payload computer, which runs the telescope’s instruments, malfunctioned. An initial investigation suggested the problem was with

City University of Hong Kong is seeking the ‘brightest and best’ early-career physicists with a breadth of international research experience Global scholar: adaptability is one of the key attributes that Denver Li (above) is looking for in would-be recruits to his research team in the CityU Department of Physics. (Courtesy: CityU Hong Kong) Cool heads

NASA’s Human Landing System (HLS) program is the biggest bet the agency has made on the commercial space industry since the commercial crew program a decade ago. NASA decided to procure landing services rather than the landers themselves, awarding a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX April 16 to fund development of a lunar lander based

The memorandum with Libre Space Foundation is Space Command’s 100th commercial space situational awareness data sharing agreement. WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Command announced July 1 it has signed a data-sharing agreement with the Libre Space Foundation, a non-profit that promotes open access to information about space. “Space situational awareness, which requires these types of cooperative

Stable ticker: The payload of the Deep Space Atomic Clock mission, which launched in 2019, includes an atomic clock, a GPS receiver, and an ultra-stable oscillator. (Courtesy: NASA)”> Stable ticker: The payload of the Deep Space Atomic Clock mission, which launched in 2019, includes an atomic clock, a GPS receiver, and an ultra-stable oscillator. (Courtesy: