Solar storms are back, threatening life as we know it on Earth
Monday, 24 May 2021 15:24
A few days ago, millions of tons of super-heated gas shot off from the surface of the sun and hurtled 90 million miles toward Earth.
The eruption, called a coronal mass ejection, wasn't particularly powerful on the space-weather scale, but when it hit the Earth's magnetic field it triggered the strongest geomagnetic storm seen for years. There wasn't much disruption this time—few people probably even knew it happened—but it served as a reminder the sun has woken from a yearslong slumber.
While invisible and harmless to anyone on the Earth's surface, the geomagnetic waves unleashed by solar storms can cripple power grids, jam radio communications, bathe airline crews in dangerous levels of radiation and knock critical satellites off kilter. The sun began a new 11-year cycle last year and as it reaches its peak in 2025 the specter of powerful space weather creating havoc for humans grows, threatening chaos in a world that has become ever more reliant on technology since the last big storms hit 17 years ago. A recent study suggested hardening the grid could lead to $27 billion worth of benefits to the U.S.
UK funds beam-hopping satellite for OneWeb-led consortium in 2022
Monday, 24 May 2021 14:54
TAMPA, Fla. — A OneWeb-led group has secured government funding to launch a beam-hopping satellite in 2022, demonstrating how a spacecraft could switch its coverage area in real-time to respond to surges in demand.
A race against time to replace aging military weather satellites
Monday, 24 May 2021 13:30
The U.S. Defense Department may finally be on track to replace its aging polar-orbiting weather satellites more than a decade after pulling the plug on an ill-fated effort to cram civil and military requirements into a single system.
Op-ed | Arming warfighters with advanced weather systems: What must happen next
Monday, 24 May 2021 13:07
Weather plays a critical role in current and future military operations. For our nation’s defenders, understanding the effect of weather conditions is essential to planning and safely executing successful missions across the Joint Force.
Cost and schedule overruns continue to grow for NASA programs
Monday, 24 May 2021 10:27
WASHINGTON — NASA suffered increasing cost overruns on its major programs again in 2020, a problem a new report says will be exacerbated by the pandemic.
The annual report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on major NASA programs, published May 20, found that costs of those programs grew by more than $1 billion in 2020, the fifth year in a row overall costs increased.
NASA rocket mission studying escaping radio waves
Monday, 24 May 2021 10:17
A NASA rocket mission, launching May 26, 2021, will study radio waves that escape through the Earth's ionosphere impacting the environment surrounding GPS and geosynchronous satellites, such as those for weather monitoring and communications.
Launching from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, a Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital sounding rocket will carry the Vlf trans-Ionospheric Propagation Experiment Rocket, or VIPER. The mission is scheduled for 9:15 p.m., Wednesday, May 26. The launch window is 9:15 p.m. to midnight EDT and the backup days are May 27-28. The launch may be visible in the mid-Atlantic region.
VIPER is studying very low frequency radio, or VLF, waves that are produced by both natural (e.g. lightning) and artificial means. During the day these waves are trapped or absorbed by the Earth's ionosphere. At night, however, some of the waves escape through the ionosphere and accelerate electrons in the Van Allen Radiation Belt.
"At night, the lower layers of the ionosphere are much less dense, and more of the VLF can leak through, propagate along the Earth's magnetic field lines, and end up interacting with the high-energy electrons trapped in the Van Allen Radiation Belts," said Dr.
First leap for beam-hopping constellation
Monday, 24 May 2021 06:46
Broadband satellites that can be completely repurposed while in orbit have just taken a leap forwards.
Air Force unveils exoskeleton to aid aerial ports in lifting
Monday, 24 May 2021 01:38
An exoskeleton, worn by U.S. Air Force aerial porters to assist in lifting objects with reduced strain, will make its debut at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., the branch announced on Wednesday.
The device, designed by Arizona State University and the Air Force Life Cycle Management and Air Mobility Command, will be used in an official capacity for the first time this week.
The Aer SES Government Solutions provides medium earth orbit satellite services for combatant command
Monday, 24 May 2021 01:38
SES Government Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, in close partnership with a key U.S. Government customer, designed, developed and fielded an O3b Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) reachback capability to provide mission-critical communications for a key combatant command.
The awarded task order for USD 11.8 million is against the single-award USD 516.7 million Blanket Purchase Agreement NASA additively manufactured rocket engine passes cold spray, hot fire tests
Monday, 24 May 2021 01:38
NASA is partnering with Aerojet Rocketdyne to advance 3D printing technologies, known as metal additive manufacturing, and its capabilities for liquid rocket engines in landers and on-orbit stages/spacecraft.
The Robotic Deposition Technology (RDT) team, led out of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is designing and manufacturing innovative and lightweight combusti Space Force looking to build new radar sites to track objects in high orbits
Sunday, 23 May 2021 16:08
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force next month will solicit industry bids for deep-space radar sensors that can track active satellites and debris in high orbits above 22,000 miles.
One or more contractors will be selected to develop prototype concepts for the Deep Space Advanced Radar Concept (DARC), a project started by the U.S.
China's first Mars rover starts exploring red planet
Saturday, 22 May 2021 23:07
China's first Mars rover, Zhurong, drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface Saturday, leaving the country's first "footprints" on the red planet. Zhurong's first successful drive made China the second country after the United States to land and operate a rover on Mars.
The six-wheeled solar-powered rover, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trun ASU student-built spacecraft to interact with the public
Saturday, 22 May 2021 23:07
NASA has selected an Arizona State University-designed spacecraft to fly as an auxiliary payload aboard a rocket launching between 2022 and 2025. It is among 14 small research satellites, called CubeSats, that were chosen for this opportunity through NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative.
The ASU CubeSat, named LightCube, is about the size of a toaster and will be deployed to low-Earth orbit (L SSTL Lunar to lead consortium for ESA Moonlight
Saturday, 22 May 2021 23:07
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) has been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) to lead a Phase A/B1 Study under ESA's Moonlight initiative that will shape the service provision and infrastructure to provide sustainable commercial Lunar data-relay services for communication and navigation around the Moon.
The Moonlight Phase A/B1 Study will define the service infrastructure and