Aerospace & Defence

Spacewalking astronauts hooked up batteries Friday on the International Space Station's sprawling power grid. NASA reported that all three lithium-ion batteries were up and running, a successful start to the space agency's long-term effort to upgrade the aging solar power system. Before venturing out, Commander Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson got a hand from a robot that took care of most of the grunt work—Dextre, a hulking mach...

The Psyche mission, a journey to a metal asteroid, has been selected for flight under NASA’s Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system. Psyche includes prominent roles for Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) professors Maria Zuber (leading the Gravity investigation), Richard Binzel (asteroid composition expert), and Benjamin Weiss...

Certified to meet ASTM E595 NASA low outgassing standards, Master Bond EP46HT-2AO Black is well suited for the aerospace, electronic, optoelectronic industries and can be used vacuum environments. This two component system blends thermal stability with a high strength profile for a variety of bonding, sealing and encapsulation applications.

The University of Leicester is providing a type of X-ray mirror to the French space agency, CNES, for the Chinese-French satellite ‘SVOM’ which is designed to discover and study Gamma-Ray Bursts from newly formed black holes. SVOM will be launched into orbit in 2021. The mirror will become part of the X-ray telescope, which is essential in precisely locating these new discoveries.

An international team led by University of Leicester geologists has made the first estimate of the sheer size of the physical structure of the planet’s technosphere – suggesting that its mass approximates to an enormous 30 trillion tonnes. The technosphere is comprised of all of the structures that humans have constructed to keep them alive on the planet.

A long-standing collaboration between Dassault Systèmes and Airbus Safran Launchers has been confirmed. More than 700 engineers, including partners, are working on the development of Ariane 6, the European Space Agency’s next-gen launcher, across multiple sites in Europe. 

It has been announced that W. L. Gore & Associates' GORE Aerospace Ethernet Cables are now qualified according to the Society for Automotive and Aerospace Engineers (SAE) AS6070/5 for civil and military applications. This industry standard supports the AS50881 EWIS (Electrical Wiring Interconnection Systems) specification for high-speed data cables.

A partnership between BETA Transformer Technology Corporation (BETA) and CISSOID has developed compact and reliable Intelligent Power Modules (IPM). These modules are optimised for power converters and motor control within extreme environments, including aerospace, industrial, ground vehicles, automotive, and oil and gas.

For the first time, an optical clock has traveled to space, surviving harsh rocket launch conditions and successfully operating under the microgravity that would be experienced on a satellite. This demonstration brings optical clock technology much closer to implementation in space, where it could eventually allow GPS-based navigation with centimeter-level location precision.

Future explorers on the Moon and Mars could be outfitted in a type of astronaut's suit, a 'smartsuit' that will mitigate the pernicious effects of weightlessness and motor inactivity. On Earth, gravity is a force our bodies have to work against, which keeps our cells, bones and muscles strong. Over a long-term space flight, human bodies undergo dramatic changes. As there is no need to walk, stand or lift in microgravity, their muscles atroph...