Science

Fuel gauges with higher accuracy could help ensure that satellites stay operational for longer and more is made of their time in orbit. Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory When a spacecraft launches, it uses roughly 75-90% of its propellant getting into orbit. The remaining fraction determines how long it can remain up there, but gauging

Acting Secretary of Defense Miller in a statement said DoD is “fully cooperating with the Biden transition team.” WASHINGTON — The Biden-Harris transition team this week is scheduled to meet with officials from intelligence agencies overseen by the Defense Department, including the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and Defense

WASHINGTON — A constellation of commercial satellites could serve as a communications relay system for future NASA missions, such as an orbiter later this decade to search for subsurface ice there. In recent presentations to advisory committees, NASA officials have discussed the possibility of working with industry to place several satellites into orbit around Mars

Good vibrations: artist’s concept of sound being transmitted in a fermionic superfluid. (Courtesy: Christine Daniloff/MIT) The acoustic properties of an ultracold fermion gas have been measured either side of the superfluid transition temperature in an experiment that has been described as “near perfect” and “beautiful”. The results could have significant implications for understanding everything from

SpaceX makes no secret of its driving goal to make humans a multiplanetary species. Given SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s fixation on Mars and fondness for Tesla ‘Easter eggs’ and other gags, it’s hardly surprising to see Mars mentioned in the terms of service (ToS) agreement for beta users of its Starlink satellite broadband service. However,

HELSINKI — China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft are preparing for a first-ever robotic rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, a major hurdle to delivering lunar samples to Earth. At 11:15 a.m. Eastern Saturday an ascent vehicle fresh off the moon and laden with samples will begin an approach phase with the orbiting Chang’e-5 service module, with both

Scratchy. My ultra-smooth gel pen made a distracting and mildly irritating sound that I can only describe as scratchy with each stroke. I became acutely aware of the process involved in forming each letter. I flipped a page in my memo pad to make room for more notes, but the loud, prolonged crinkling of the

All you need to know about the physics of smart speakers and why John Bell’s contributions to quantum physics are still making us think today Sounds good: the physics of smart speakers is the cover feature of the December 2020 edition of Physics World “Alexa, play some Christmas music.” “OK Google, turn on the fairy

WASHINGTON — Blue Origin has achieved a new milestone in the development of the engine that will power the lunar lander it seeks to provide for NASA’s Artemis program. The company announced Dec. 4 that it started a fourth series of hotfire tests of the thrust chamber for the BE-7 engine. That thrust chamber was

WASHINGTON — NASA has made awards to four companies worth exactly $25,001 to obtain lunar samples, part of an effort by the agency to establish a precedent for ownership and use of space resources. NASA announced Dec. 3 that it issued awards to ispace Europe, ispace Japan, Lunar Outpost and Masten Space System for the

Quantum advantage: the Gaussian boson sampling experiment at the University of Science and Technology of China. (Courtesy: Chao-Yang Lu) A optical circuit has performed a quantum computation called “Gaussian boson sampling” (GBS) 100 trillion times faster than a supercomputer could, according to researchers in China. This feat was achieved by Jian-Wei Pan and Chao-Yang Lu

WASHINGTON — The White House is asking Congress to remove language from an appropriations bill that would direct NASA to launch the Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System as a long-running dispute on how to launch the mission nears its conclusion. In a Nov. 30 letter to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of

Gen. John Raymond said the Space Systems Command will include a mix of legacy and nontraditional procurement offices. WASHINGTON — Gen. John “Jay” Raymond said the Space Force is close to finalizing the layout of its future acquisitions command, a large organization that will consolidate multiple agencies that currently operate independently.  “Our next big step

Researchers from MIT have come up with a new way to fabricate nanoscale structures using an innovative “shrinking” technique. The new method uses equipment many laboratories already have and is relatively straightforward, so it could make nanoscale fabrication more accessible. Image Credit: Illustration by Abigail Malate, American Institute of Physics Conventional nanostructure manufacturing techniques—ones that

Tri-state area: this megaflash contained a superbolt that was 1000 times brighter than normal lightning. It was observed by the Geostationary Lightning Mapper and covers much of Tennessee, extending into Alabama and North Carolina. Superbolts – the rare and most extreme form of lightning — can be more than a thousand times brighter than regular

WASHINGTON — Space Perspective, a startup planning to offer tourists trips to the edge of space in a high-altitude balloon, has raised $7 million in a seed round that will allow the company to test its technologies. Space Perspective announced Dec. 2 it closed the seed round, led by funds Prime Movers Lab and Base

The private sector is making large investments in technologies the government needs, and the military has a role to play in bolstering commercial space innovators.  WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force sees a “huge opportunity” to buy commercially developed technologies and services, said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations.  Speaking Dec. 1 at

In this interview, Johannes Handsteiner describes an experiment to test the foundations of quantum mechanics. Handsteiner was part of a team at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) in Vienna, Austria, that designed a Bell test experiment using light from now-ancient quasars. Handsteiner explains why his team went to such lengths to