Science

Brig. Gen. Cothern: What type of launch vehicles will be needed “depends on the threats.” WASHINGTON — The launch vehicles the U.S. Space Force selected last month to fly its satellites — United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy — meet the national security needs for the foreseeable future, said

Taken from the September 2020 issue of Physics World. Members of the Institute of Physics can enjoy the full issue via the Physics World app. The lockdown measures imposed by many nations due to the COVID-19 pandemic have led to air pollution falling dramatically, thereby offering scientists a rare opportunity to study its links with

Northrop Grumman was the only bidder for GBSD after Boeing decided to drop out of the competition. WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force on Sept. 8 awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract to develop the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) intercontinental ballistic missile. The GBSD is the follow-on to the Minuteman 3

Topsy-turvy: plastic boats floating above and below a levitated liquid layer. (Courtesy: Benjamin Apffel et al./Nature) Physicists in France have made small objects float upside-down on the underside of a layer of viscous liquid levitating in air. Although their apparently gravity-defying demonstration breaks no laws of physics, they say it could shed new light on

HELSINKI — A Chinese reusable experimental spacecraft released an unknown object before deorbiting Sunday, ending a secretive two-day mission in low Earth orbit. The spacecraft launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert Thursday atop a Long March 2F rocket. Airspace closure notices issued a day earlier provided the only clue to

WASHINGTON — NASA and Northrop Grumman successfully tested Sept. 2 a solid rocket booster developed for the Space Launch System that incorporates improvements intended for future SLS missions. The five-segment booster, built by Northrop Grumman for the Flight Support Booster 1 test, ignited at 3:05 p.m. Eastern at a company test site in Promontory, Utah.

Simulated mountain and valley landscape created by buckling in graphene. Credit: Yuhang Jiang An international team led by researchers at Rutgers University in the US has found a way to create “flat” electronic bands – that is, electron states in which there is no relationship between the electrons’ energy and velocity – in graphene simply by

AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate will study the physics of very low Earth orbit, and will pursue sensor technologies for cislunar space WASHINGTON — The Air Force Research Laboratory announced Sept. 2 it will pursue two new space experiments — one will test the performance of satellite instruments in low orbits and the other is to

WASHINGTON — NASA’s Artemis program of human lunar exploration can help pave the way for human Mars missions, according to a new report, although some tweaks to those plans may be required. The report, released by the space exploration advocacy group Explore Mars during its virtual Humans to Mars Summit, is based on a workshop

Chemistry set: Google’s Sycamore processor. (Courtesy: Erik Lucero/Google) Simulating chemical processes is one of the most promising applications of quantum computers, but problems with noise have prevented nascent quantum systems from outperforming conventional computers on such tasks. Now, researchers at Google have taken a major step towards this goal by using the most powerful quantum

WASHINGTON — SpaceX on Sept. 3 launched 60 Starlink internet satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket while disclosing early testing results from the constellation for which it has now launched 713 satellites.  Falcon 9 lifted off at 8:46 a.m. Eastern from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and deployed the

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab announced Sept. 3 that it has placed its first Photon satellite into orbit, demonstrating the spacecraft’s technologies and the company’s ability to provide end-to-end space solutions. The satellite, called “First Light,” was launched as the kick stage of the Electron rocket that placed Capella Space’s Sequoia radar imaging satellite into orbit

Busted: microscope image of simulated lunar dust. (Courtesy: IMPACT lab/CU Boulder) The Moon is a dusty place, and this could be a real problem for future colonists. “Lunar dust sticks to all kinds of surfaces — spacesuits, solar panels, helmets — and it can damage equipment,” explains Xu Wang, who is a research associate in

WASHINGTON — The White House released a new space policy directive Sept. 4 intended to improve cybersecurity of space systems. Space Policy Directive (SPD) 5 is billed as the first comprehensive government policy related to cybersecurity for satellites and related systems, and outlines a set of best practices, but not firm requirements, that agencies and

By: Hannah Pell The Starting Line As I write this, twenty cars are sitting at the starting line of the Formula One (F1) 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone based in the UK. The drivers have just finished their formation lap, and the $10 million engines are idling at roughly 5000 rpm (for comparison, the

HELSINKI — China launched an experimental reusable spacecraft Friday following months of low-key preparations at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. A Long March 2F launch vehicle delivered the spacecraft into orbit following launch at an unspecified time.  Chinese state media Xinhua reported mission success just under three hours after the opening of the launch window

Freezing test. Credit: Nguyen Ba Duc Researchers in Vietnam have developed a transparent nanostructure with anti-icing properties that could keep objects such as aircraft wings and wind turbines ice-free in cold, damp conditions. The material, which is inspired by the structure of moth eyes, consists of a quartz substrate coated with a monolayer of nano-sized

New CSIS report looks at three key governance issues: orbital debris mitigation, rendezvous and proximity operations, and insurance requirements WASHINGTON — Commercial and government activities in space keep growing and yet nations are making little progress in establishing rules and norms of behavior, says the Center for Strategic and International Studies in a new report