Science

Queen’s University Belfast team Kevin Prise, Shannon Thompson and Stephen McMahon are modelling laser-accelerated proton delivery to investigate the potential contribution of inter-track interactions in ultrahigh-dose rate proton therapy. (Courtesy: Shannon Thompson) Laser-accelerated proton (LAP) beams may offer a delivery mechanism for proton therapy that has a smaller physical and financial footprint than cyclotron accelerators.

WASHINGTON — Astra is still planning to conduct a first launch of its Rocket 4 vehicle before the end of the year as it scales up production of spacecraft electric propulsion systems. Astra said in a March 30 earnings call that it was making steady progress on the new vehicle, development of which it accelerated

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea will spend 874.2 billion won ($674 million) on space programs this year to expand its domestic space industry, develop a next-generation launch vehicle, and bolster space defense capabilities. It is a 19.5 percent increase from the previous year, and the most South Korea has ever budgeted for space. Details

Sidney Perkowitz explores what everyone’s favourite new talk partner has to say about physics Tread carefully ChatGPT has lots of answers – but they’re not always right. (Courtesy: iStock/Thapana Onphalai) The art of conversation may be dead, but you wouldn’t know it from the attention being paid to ChatGPT. It’s not a person with sparkling

TAMPA, Fla. — The launch of the first commercial satellites in AST SpaceMobile’s cellphone-compatible broadband constellation has slipped into 2024, the company said March 31 as it disclosed rising costs for developing the network. AST SpaceMobile had planned to launch the first five BlueBird satellites it is building in-house on a SpaceX Falcon 9 before

WASHINGTON — Lunar rover developer Astrolab has signed an agreement with SpaceX to transport its first rover to the moon on a future Starship flight. Astrolab said it has arranged to fly the Flexible Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover it is developing as a payload on a Starship lunar lander mission scheduled for as soon

[embedded content] Ever wondered what helium or iron sound like? Well, now you can find out thanks to Walker Smith from Indiana University and colleagues, who have used a technique called data sonification to convert the visible light given off by the elements into audio. They did this by building a computer code that converted

WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit announced late March 30 it was laying off the vast majority of its employees after failing to raise additional funding, putting the launch company’s future in jeopardy. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Virgin Orbit announced it was laying off approximately 675 employees, or 85% of its workforce. The company

HELSINKI — A major Chinese state-owned defense contractor is preparing to launch the first satellite for a very low Earth orbit constellation.  The China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC) told Chinese state media in early March that its first satellite for a constellation of very-low Earth orbit (VLEO) satellites will launch in September. VLEO

Quantum science and technology have been developing by leaps and bounds over the past few decades, so it is not surprising that quantum experiments are now being done in space. In this episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast Lisa Wörner and Jan-Michael Mol of the Institute of Quantum Technologies of the German Aerospace Center

WASHINGTON — NASA and Boeing have pushed back the first crewed launch of the company’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft with astronauts on board until at least late July because of certification paperwork that has taken longer than expected to complete. In a call with reporters March 29, officials said they had rescheduled the Crew Flight Test

TAMPA, Fla. — SES confirmed March 29 it is in talks about potentially merging with rival satellite operator Intelsat.  “At this stage, there can be no certainty that a transaction would materialise,” SES said in a brief statement. Both companies have previously acknowledged paying close attention to a wave of consolidation sweeping across their industry.

Before and after: example of image denoising as applied to atomic resolution imaging of a gold nanoparticle. On the left is the original experimental data as captured. On the right is the same image after reconstruction with the proposed algorithm. The data were acquired at low-dose (372 electrons/pixel). The reconstructed image is now practically noise

WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin is establishing a new company that will offer communications and navigation services for what it foresees to be a growing number of government and commercial lunar missions. Lockheed announced March 28 the creation of Crescent Space Services LLC, a subsidiary that will offer a service called Parsec, a network of satellites

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force has received no official communication from the White House regarding the relocation of U.S. Space Command’s headquarters, Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers March 28. The contentious issue of where Space Command’s headquarters will be permanently located came up during a hearing of the House Appropriations Committe’s defense

Reactor reactions: the SNO+ detector has seen antineutrinos from distant reactors when it was filled with pure water. (Courtesy: SNO+) For the first time, pure water has been used to detect low-energy antineutrinos produced by nuclear reactors. The work was done by the international SNO+ collaboration and could lead to safe and affordable new ways

WASHINGTON — Several military allies of the United States in the Middle East have expressed interest in creating their own space forces, and have sought advice from the U.S. on how to accomplish this goal, Col. Christopher Putman, commander of U.S. Space Forces Central, said March 27. “We have a lot of nations that see

TAMPA, Fla. — OneWeb is turning its attention to finalizing ground stations after launching a final batch of satellites needed to provide broadband services globally, executive chair Sunil Mittal said March 27. Mittal said the British operator has rolled out “most of the critical ground stations” required to launch commercially across all markets it has