Aerospace & Defence

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have designed a new nano material that can reflect or transmit light on demand with temperature control, opening the door to technology that protects astronauts in space from harmful radiation. Lead researcher Dr Mohsen Rahmani from ANU said the material was so thin that hundreds of layers could fit on the tip of a needle and could be applied to any surface, including spacesuits.

  The Queen’s Speech on the 21st June 2017, confirmed the Government’s commitment to realising the full potential of the commercial space sector to the economy by including the Space Industry Bill in its legislative programme for the next two years. 

Researchers combine gecko-inspired adhesives and a custom robotic gripper to create a device for grabbing space debris. They tested their gripper in multiple zero gravity settings, including the International Space Station. Right now, about 500,000 pieces of human-made debris are whizzing around space, orbiting our planet at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour. This debris poses a threat to satellites, space vehicles and astronauts aboard tho...

  A commercial deep sea to space research, training and test centre, called Blue Abyss, is in the middle of a multi-million pound regeneration vision to develop a science, innovation and technology park on part of a soon-to-close RAF base site in Bedfordshire.

  The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, aimed at detecting gravitational waves in space, has been approved by the European Space Agency at a meeting of its Science Programme Committee. After years of development and delays, the mission is now scheduled to go ahead in 2034.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has approved the design of the PLATO satellite. Researchers and engineers at KU Leuven and the University of Liège (ULg) will be closely involved in the development. Plato is a space mission dedicated to hunting tens of thousands of Earth-like exoplanets revolving around nearby stars similar to our Sun. The launch is scheduled for 2026. PLATO will consist of 26 identical telescopes – each wit...

When Apollo astronauts on the Moon spoke with Mission Control on Earth, there was a noticeable time gap between a statement from Tranquility Base and its immediate acknowledgment from Houston. The gap lasted almost three seconds, or ten times longer than human reaction times would account for. What was happening? The answer is simple: space. The Moon orbits far enough from Earth that light (and radio) take 1.3 seconds each way to travel the ...

Aerospace engineers from MIT have developed a laser sensing technique that can decipher not only where but what kind of space junk may be passing overhead. For example, the technique, called laser polarimetry, may be used to discern whether a piece of debris is bare metal or covered with paint. The difference, the engineers say, could help determine an object’s mass, momentum, and potential for destruction.

Researchers from Tohoku University have been trying to find out how the plasma flow is influenced by its environment via laboratory experiments. And in doing so, have made headway on research towards creating an electrodeless plasma thruster used to propel spacecraft. The universe is made up of plasma - a gas so hot that its particles are electrically charged. This makes it easily influenced by magnetic fields and forces, which can lead to c...

It is now possible to measure the magnetic field strengths of the hottest planets in the galaxy, new research has shown. Studying a class of planets known as 'hot Jupiters', experts from Newcastle University, UK, have shown the planets' magnetic field is responsible for the unusual behaviour of the atmospheric winds which move around it. Instead of moving in an eastward direction as has always been assumed, new observations have shown the winds v...