Aerospace & Defence

The development of an NB-FPGA that incorporates NanoBridge metal atom migration-type switch technology has been announced by NEC and the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), which utilises TIA, an open innovation hub operated by five institutes in Tsukuba and Tokyo. This original NEC product featuring high radiation tolerance is expected to contribute to the use of LSIs in space.

Finding derelict spacecraft and space debris in Earth's orbit can be a technological challenge. Detecting these objects in orbit around Earth's moon is even more difficult. Optical telescopes are unable to search for small objects hidden in the bright glare of the moon. However, a new technological application of interplanetary radar pioneered by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has successfully located spac...

In an abandoned gold m­­­ine one mile beneath Lead, South Dakota, the cosmos quiets down enough to potentially hear the faint whispers of the universe’s most elusive material — dark matter. Shielded from the deluge of cosmic rays constantly showering the Earth’s surface, and scrubbed of noisy radioactive metals and gasses, the mine, scientists think, will be the ideal setting for the most sensitive dark matter e...

Astronomers announced that the ultra-cool dwarf star, TRAPPIST-1, hosts a total of seven Earth-size planets that are likely rocky, a discovery made by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in combination with ground-based telescopes. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope also has been observing this star since December 2016. Today these additional data about TRAPPIST-1 from Kepler are available to the scientific community.

A huge mass of glowing stardust in a galaxy seen shortly after the Universe's formation has been detected by a UCL-led team of astronomers, providing new insights into the birth and explosive deaths of the very first stars. The galaxy is the most distant object ever observed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and was seen when the Universe was only 4% of its present age, at about 600 million years old, when the first ...

A Yale-led team has produced one of the highest-resolution maps of dark matter ever created, offering a detailed case for the existence of cold dark matter - sluggish particles that comprise the bulk of matter in the universe. The dark matter map is derived from Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields data of a trio of galaxy clusters that act as cosmic magnifying glasses to peer into older, more distant parts of the universe, a phenomenon kn...

  The Space Data Association (SDA) and Analytical Graphics (AGI) have entered into a long term agreement to launch an upgraded Space Data Center (SDC) Space Traffic Management (STM) service, powered by ComSpOC.  

Sending a manned mission to Mars requires more than a powerful launch rocket. Prep work also includes learning how a three-year space flight could affect the human body. With funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), researchers at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues are using human stem cells to measure the effects of deep space radiation.

This summer, an ice chest-sized box will fly to the International Space Station, where it will create the coolest spot in the universe. Inside that box, lasers, a vacuum chamber and an electromagnetic "knife" will be used to cancel out the energy of gas particles, slowing them until they're almost motionless. This suite of instruments is called the Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL), and was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,...

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars endured the hottest, most turbulent atmospheric entry ever attempted in a mission to the Red Planet. The saucer-shaped MSL was protected by a thin, lightweight carbon fibre-based heat-shield material that was a bit denser than balsa wood. The same material, dubbed PICA (Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator), also protected NASA's Stardust spacecraft as it ret...