As ESA celebrates the 100th launch of Ariane 5, the Agency’s worldwide ground station network is also marking ten years of providing vital tracking services to launchers soaring out of Kourou. ESA’s Earth-orbiting satellites and probes out in the Solar System are ultimately dependent on a small network of ground antennas, keeping them connected to…
Synthetic Training Environment and the Digital Revolution in the Army
Hardly a day goes by without a very honest question being asked of the Synthetic Training Environment Cross-Functional Team: “What is the Synthetic Training Environment, or STE?” Whether it is staffers on Capitol Hill or training capability users at a military installation, all intuitively seem to know there is something revolutionary and disruptive about the…
How a Tiny Curiosity Motor Identified a Massive Martian Dust Storm
There is no shortage of eyeballs, human and robotic, pointed at Mars. Scientists are constantly exploring the Red Planet from telescopes on Earth, plus the six spacecraft circling the planet from its orbit, and two roving its surface. So when dust filled the atmosphere during the recent planet-wide dust storm, observations were plentiful. NASA’s Mars…
Software Finds the Best Way to Stick a Mars Landing
Selecting a landing site for a rover headed to Mars is a lengthy process that normally involves large committees of scientists and engineers. These committees typically spend several years weighing a mission’s science objectives against a vehicle’s engineering constraints, to identify sites that are both scientifically interesting and safe to land on. For instance, a…
Air Force Technical Applications Center Uses Failure to Evolve
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company and captain of industry once said, “Failure is the only opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.” One Air Force organization is taking Ford’s words to heart. The Air Force Technical Applications Center is emphasizing to its workforce the importance of learning through failure. In…
Vector Awarded Patent for Enhanced Liquid Oxygen-Propylene Rocket Engine
Vector a microsatellite launch company comprised of New Space and enterprise software industry veterans from SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Sea Launch and VMware, announced that the company received a U.S. patent for its enhanced liquid oxygen-propylene rocket engine. Vector is the first and only launch provider to utilize propylene fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) in an…
New Army Technology Guides Soldiers in Complete Darkness
Researchers at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory developed a new type of thermal imaging camera that allows Soldiers to see hidden objects that were previously undetectable. Dr. Kristan Gurton, an experimental physicist in the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate, and Dr. Sean Hu, an electronics engineer in the Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate, are leading…
Speech Recognition Technology for Air Traffic Controllers
The popularity of air transport continues to grow, placing an even greater workload on air traffic controllers (ATCOs). Their predicament can be improved through an automatic speech recognition system closely integrated with an arrival manager developed by EU and SESAR funded researchers. One of the greatest hurdles to introducing higher levels of automation in air…
ICoast Eyes Better Online Access with Satellite Broadband
Abu Dhabi’s Yahsat on Monday launched its satellite broadband service in Ivory Coast in a bid to boost internet access in this west African nation where only 27 percent of the population is online. Named YahClick, the service offers broadband internet connectivity to businesses, government agencies and remote areas of the country. “This broadband satellite…
Hoverfly’s Advances All-Weather Design with LiveSky SENTRY
Hoverfly Technologies Inc., a tether-powered drone manufacturer, announced its all-weather LiveSky SENTRY line of tether-powered UAS. The all-weather LiveSky SENTRY is designed to meet IP54 and MIL-STD-810 standards and is now a military-grade tether-powered UAS available for any mission. IP54 standards define the level of protection for extreme conditions like dust, water and moisture and MIL-STD-810 defines U.S…
Shadow NAV Helps Guide Combat Divers Underwater
The US Navy oftentimes conducts underwater missions that have poor visibility and are nearly impossible to see. In order for the mission to be successful there needs to be accurate underwater navigation, and now the Shadow NAV does just that with a head-up display, according to Marine Services. The hands-free Shadow NAV is fitted to…
MAVEN Selfie Marks Four Years in Orbit Around Mars
Today, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft celebrates four years in orbit studying the upper atmosphere of the Red Planet and how it interacts with the sun and the solar wind. To mark the occasion, the MAVEN team has released a selfie image of the spacecraft at Mars. “MAVEN has been a tremendous…
BAE Systems Develops “Wearable Cockpit” to Aid Future Pilots
BAE Systems is aiming to shape future intuitive technologies for pilots with a “wearable cockpit” design. “In terms of future concepts, we are looking at what we are calling a ‘wearable cockpit’. Here, you remove many of the physical elements of the cockpit, and replace it with a virtual display, projected through the helmet. Essentially,…
Origami Opens Up Smart Options for Architecture on Moon and Mars
Origami and high-performance textiles are transforming architecture plans for smart human habitats and research stations on the Moon and Mars. Initial field tests of the MoonMars project’s origami prototype will be presented at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2018 in Berlin by Dr. Anna Sitnikova. MoonMars is a collaboration between the International Lunar Exploration…
S.S. White Technologies highlights custom flexible shafts for aerospace
S.S. White Technologies, a designer and manufacturer of flexible shafts and related assemblies, highlights bespoke flexible shaft solutions for aerospace applications. Flexible shafts transmit rotary motion much like a solid shaft, but can be routed over, under and around obstacles where a solid shaft cannot be used. Flexible shafts are used in a variety of […]
India Becomes a Launchpad for the World
India is shaping up to become a bigger player in the modern race for space – which is all about satellites and their various uses. In the past ten years, an increasing number of foreign satellites have been propelled from Indian rocket launch sites. September 16 saw the latest launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre…
Two Tiny Hopping Rovers Race Toward Near-Earth Asteroid
The Japanese “Hayabusa2″ space probe released two rovers Friday, September 21, ready to explore the near-Earth Ryugu asteroid. According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) via Phys.org, “If the mission is successful, the rovers will conduct the world’s first moving, robotic observation of an asteroid surface.” The two MINERVA-II1 rovers, dubbed ROVER-1A and ROVER-1B, will collect…
The Way of the Future: 3D Printing
On August 24, 2018, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon (DDG 93) faced a problem that didn’t have a quick solution: A bolt from a hangar bay door roller assembly was stressed to the point of breaking, rendering the door unable to perform its basic task of opening and closing. In order for Chung-Hoon…
NASA iTech Semifinalists Rethink Terrestrial Technologies for Space
Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and 3D printing are just a few of the technology threads pitched during the third cycle of the NASA iTech competition. With an eye on how these promising ideas could benefit space exploration, NASA has selected 25 competition semifinalists. An initiative by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), iTech aims to find innovative ideas that have…
Advancing Local Terahertz Oscillators to Enable Cosmic Observations
NASA is developing a new type of detector that will provide insight into the formation and structure of the universe. Many of the radiative and mechanical interactions that shape the interstellar medium of galaxies and drive galactic evolution (e.g., shock waves from stellar winds and jets, supernova explosions, etc.) are best observed in the 4.744…
Researchers Prepare to Explore Extreme Lunar Environments
As the United States prepares to visit the surface of the Moon once again, scientists from the RIS4E node of NASA’s Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), led by researchers from the Stony Brook University College of Arts and Sciences, are partnering with Astrobotic Technology to demonstrate the robotic technologies needed to explore and study our nearest neighbor’s most interesting…
Glider Uses Machine Learning to Soar to Nearly 2,300 Feet
An autonomous glider, created by University of California San Diego researchers, uses machine learning to glide through the sky via atmospheric thermal plumes. “This paper is an important step toward artificial intelligence—how to autonomously soar in constantly shifting thermals like a bird. I was surprised that relatively little learning was needed to achieve expert performance,”…
In-flight aerospace cables are the focus of W.L. Gore’s 2018 APEX booth
W. L. Gore & Associates Inc. will exhibit an extensive collection of Gore Aerospace cables and materials for in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) at the APEX (Airline Passenger Experience Association) Expo in Boston, September 24-27, Booth 801. For decades, Gore has provided the aerospace industry with new and trusted solutions that deliver failure-free performance in […]
Watch This Space Net Catch Earth-Orbiting Debris
The RemoveDEBRIS satellite has lived up to its name. The spacecraft showed a successful demonstration of its on-board active debris removal (ADR) technology Sunday, September 16, 2018. During the experiment, the net captured a deployed target that simulated a piece of space debris. “We are absolutely delighted with the outcome of the net technology. While it…
Airplane Distress Signals Go High-Tech
Next-generation satellite technology is proving instrumental in advancing search and rescue operations in the sky and at sea. New equipment to speed up adoption of the technology has successfully been developed and is now in operation. Rapid search and recovery in plane and ship disasters is crucial for saving lives. From the ill-fated Air France…