Science

This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features an interview with Carol Marsh, who was recently honoured by the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II for her work on diversity and inclusion. Edinburgh-based Marsh talks about her role as deputy head of electronics engineering at the aerospace and defence company Leonardo and about her efforts to

WASHINGTON — The initial elements of NASA’s lunar Gateway are facing cost overruns and delays primarily because NASA has changed the requirements of the program since awarding contracts last year. A Nov. 10 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) concluded that delays to the program, created by changes NASA made to its plans

WASHINGTON — The Export-Import Bank of the United States is evaluating nearly $2 billion in applications to finance space industry sales as it seeks to return to a field that has changed significantly over the last few years. The Ex-Im Bank had been a major source of financing for commercial satellites and launches prior to

WASHINGTON — A Senate appropriations bill would provide NASA with only a small fraction of the funding it requested for lunar lander development, putting any chance of returning humans to the moon by 2024 in jeopardy. Senate appropriators released a set of fiscal year 2021 spending bills Nov. 10, including the commerce, justice and science

SAN FRANCISCO – Radar satellite operators continue to see the long-term promise of commercial markets and near-term demand from government customers, according to panelists speaking Nov. 10 at the virtual World Satellite Business Week conference. “We do still believe in the commercial market but it’s not as mature as we would have hoped,” said Payam

Chilling out: radiative cooling could boost solar cell performance. (Courtesy: Shutterstock/ermess) Cheap and simple radiative cooling technologies can significantly increase the performance and lifespan of concentrated photovoltaic systems, according to researchers in the US. They found that a simple radiative cooling structure can increase the voltage produced by the solar cells by around 25%. It

WASHINGTON — Executives of major launch companies said they doubted there was sufficient demand for more than a few small launch vehicle developers, citing their own efforts to provide rideshare launch services for smallsats. During a panel discussion at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week Virtual Edition conference Nov. 9, Tory Bruno, chief executive and president

Raymond says the Space Force will work closely with the civilian space community and the commercial space industry. WASHINGTON — Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, on Nov. 9 released a vision document that lays out long-term priorities and goals he intends to pursue during his time in

Nobel laureates Gérard Mourou, Stefan Hell and Theodore Hänsch have warned in an open letter to the European Commission that cuts to photonics would be disastrous for Europe’s technological goals and damage its competitiveness. (Courtesy:Shutterstock/seahorsetwo) Three Nobel-prize-winning physicists claim that the European Commission is planning to “drastically cut” funding for photonics in its next €100bn

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this composite image of Earth in October 2015 while orbiting 134 kilometers above the moon’s farside crater Compton. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University Exploitation of the space domain is driving profound changes in U.S. national security and economic strategy. As military and economic activity expands beyond GEO, so too will the

WASHINGTON — A key senator says she will continue to push for passage during a lame-duck session of a NASA authorization bill that supports the Artemis lunar exploration program, but not necessarily the agency’s goal of return humans to the moon by 2024. In a talk Nov. 6 at a conference organized by the University

100 not out: the Institute of Physics celebrates its centenary When the Institute of Physics (IOP), which publishes Physics World, was founded in 1920, it was to serve as a voice for the fledgling physics community in the UK. Before then, physics had mostly been conducted by a tiny band of elite researchers at a

SAN FRANCISCO – Maxar Technologies plans to launch its first two WorldView Legion satellites as early as September 2021 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. “We continue to make progress on the integration, assembly and test of all six spacecraft and instruments, and we expect to go into

HELSINKI — The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully carried out its first launch since the COVID-19 outbreak Saturday sending the EOS-1 Earth observation satellite and nine smaller payloads into orbit. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C49 (PSLV-C49) lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on the Indian island of Sriharikota at 4:42 a.m. Eastern Nov. 7

The flow of optical power in and around the seven-nanoparticle “gear” of the optical matter machine. Courtesy: N Scherer A new device that converts laser light into mechanical work could be used to manipulate nano-scale objects for applications in nanofluidics and particle sorting. The device, which is based on a self-assembled hexagonal array of nanoparticles

HELSINKI — Chinese rocket firm Galactic Energy successfully sent a small satellite into orbit Saturday with the first launch of its Ceres-1 launch vehicle. The Ceres-1 four-stage solid rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near the Gobi Desert at 2:12 a.m. Eastern Saturday. First indications of launch came from spectators posting footage

WASHINGTON — With the successful launch of 10 satellites, Earth observation company Satellogic says it can now move ahead of its rivals in providing high-resolution imagery. A Long March 6 rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center at 10:19 p.m. Eastern Nov. 5 and successfully deployed 13 satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. The