WASHINGTON — Varda Space Industries secured a $48 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to test military payloads on the company’s reentry capsules. A California-based startup focused on in-space manufacturing, Varda Space developed a factory-in-orbit spacecraft — a compact, 120-kilogram satellite engineered to produce high-value materials such as pharmaceuticals in zero-gravity conditions.
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People carrying out disinfection work at a market in Wuhan, where covid-19 is thought to have originated, in March 2020 An Yuan/China News Service via Getty Images Five years ago, the covid-19 pandemic was getting under way – but we didn’t know it yet. So, what exactly happened? Many scientists are convinced that it began
From qubits to metamaterials: tech that led to Institute of Physics business awards 2024 – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — The new European Union commissioner responsible for space says he will focus on improving European competitiveness and security in space, including passage of a long-delayed space law. Andrius Kubilius formally started his tenure as the European Commissioner for Defence and Space on Dec. 1 after members of the European Parliament confirmed him among
A cockroach with an electronic backpack can be steered remotely Courtesy of Hirotaka Sato, Nanyang Technological University A robotic arm that can automatically turn cockroaches into controllable cyborgs could be used to create swarms of biological robots for search missions. Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues have previously shown that
Return to Helgoland: celebrating 100 years of quantum mechanics – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Nov. 30 launched the NROL-126 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 3:10 a.m. Eastern, the NRO said in a statement. Although the launch was scheduled and announced, there was no live broadcast of the liftoff
The UK experienced a record-breaking heatwave in July 2022 DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images We should brace for worse-than-expected heatwaves in the years ahead, as climate models are underestimating the potency of these events in some areas, including the UK and northern France, southern Australia and northern Canada. As the world warms further, these and
Delayed Big Bang for dark matter could be detected in gravitational waves – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded Raytheon a $196.7 million contract extension for the Global Positioning System Next Generation Operational Control System (OCX), a critical upgrade to the GPS infrastructure that is years behind schedule. The contract, announced Nov. 27 by Space Systems Command, targets the next software upgrade to be delivered by November
Someone’s kidneys could be a decade older, biologically, than their brain Christian Kitzmuller/Alamy Our organs appear to age at different rates, with our lungs and kidneys going through a burst of ageing in our 20s, decades before others, such as the uterus. Better understanding how organ ageing varies could help people adopt healthy habits that
The mechanics of squirting cucumbers revealed – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
HELSINKI — China has announced a strategic roadmap for advancing its Beidou positioning and navigation system by 2035, in a move which could have global implications. The country plans to complete key technology research for the next-generation Beidou system by 2025 and launch three test satellites around 2027, according to the “Beidou Satellite Navigation System
A robot inspired by Cheerios releasing alcohol fuel with a fluorescent dye Jackson K. Wilt et al. 2024 The same phenomena that let beetles float across ponds and cause Cheerios to cluster together in your cereal bowl can be harnessed to make tiny floating robots. One of these, the Marangoni effect, arises when a fluid with
Astronomers can play an important role in explaining the causes and consequences of climate change, says astrophysicist – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here
WASHINGTON — European officials say the Vega C rocket is ready for its return to flight next week despite a technical issue that will delay the launch of an Earth science satellite by at least a day. Arianespace announced Nov. 27 that the upcoming Vega C launch of the Sentinel-1C spacecraft would be delayed from
Bird flu has been spreading in wild animals for years but it is now adapting to humans Vuk Valcic//SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images The threat of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus adapting to humans has been inching closer towards becoming a reality all year, and we may be nearing an inflection point. Three H5N1
Mark Thomson and Jung Cao: a changing of the guard in particle physics – Physics World Skip to main content Discover more from Physics World Copyright © 2024 by IOP Publishing Ltd and individual contributors Read the original article here