Новости за 10.02.2020

Washington DC (UPI) Feb 10, 2020
Two "critical" software defects found after an unpiloted test flight of the Boeing Starliner capsule in December could have caused destruction of the vehicle had they not been corrected by ground controllers, NASA said Friday. "The two software issues are likely are only symptoms, not the root problem," Douglas Loverro, associate administrator of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mis

Bern, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
Next milestone in the commissioning of CHEOPS: After the successful opening of the space telescope cover on January 29, 2020, CHEOPS has now taken its first images of the sky. CHEOPS is a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Switzerland, led by the University of Bern, in collaboration with the University of Geneva. The tension was high: In front of a large screen at the hou

Paris (ESA) Feb 10, 2020
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station plan to install a high-speed radio link to enable almost real-time connections with Earth. The upgrade to the ESA Columbus laboratory will relay data from experiments on the Station back to Earth almost instantaneously. The fridge-sized device will fly to the Station aboard Northrop Grumman's 12th Cygnus supply ship on 9 February.

New Delhi (Sputnik) Feb 10, 2020
The DRDO is seeking to boost the power of all of its systems and the deal is expected to provide much needed support to the Indian missile industry. India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday announced a crucial tie-up with Russia's Rosoboronexport to develop an igniter that will meet the "futuristic requirements of high-performance propulsion systems". Th

Bonn, Germany (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
For the first time, researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Strasbourg have simulated the formation of galaxies in a universe without dark matter. To replicate this process on the computer, they have instead modified Newton's laws of gravity. The galaxies that were created in the computer calculations are similar to those we actually see today. According to the scientists, their assumption

Aalborg, Denmark (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
GomSpace's subsidiary in North America signed a contract valued at 4.5 MSEK with the University of Arizona to deliver satellite elements and related services to support their CatSat high-gain antenna mission. Named for the University of Arizona Wildcats, CatSat satellite mission will demonstrate a game-changing ultra-lightweight, high-gain antenna developed by FreeFall Aerospace based on t

Kirkland WA (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
Systima Technologies has announced the expansion of its workforce and new facility construction in Washington State. The expansion is in response to the United States Department of Defense (DoD) needs for advanced composite and energetic systems (ordnance systems) for high priority programs. Systima is adding two new campuses located in the nearby city of Maltby, WA and further north in Po

Tehran (AFP) Feb 9, 2020
Iran said it "successfully" launched a satellite Sunday but failed to put it into orbit, in a blow to its space programme that the US alleges is a cover for missile development. The attempted launch of the Zafar - "Victory" in Farsi - comes days before the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and crucial parliamentary elections in Iran. Arch foes Iran and the United States have a

Chicago IL (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
Back in 1972, NASA sent their last team of astronauts to the Moon in the Apollo 17 mission. These astronauts brought some of the Moon back to Earth so scientists could continue to study lunar soil in their labs. Since we haven't returned to the Moon in almost 50 years, every lunar sample is precious. We need to make them count for researchers now and in the future. In a new study in Meteor

Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 10, 2020
NASA is sending a new laser-toting robot to Mars. But unlike the lasers of science fiction, this one is used for studying mineralogy and chemistry from up to about 20 feet (7 meters) away. It might help scientists find signs of fossilized microbial life on the Red Planet, too. One of seven instruments aboard the Mars 2020 rover that launches this summer, SuperCam was built by a team of hun

Webster TX (SPX) Feb 10, 2020
Recently, we at Nanoracks announced that we are now offering small satellite deployment opportunities on SpaceX dedicated rideshare missions - and our first mission is targeted for Q4 2020. We've been very busy - and now just a few spaces still remain on our port, and we want to give you the best deal possible! We're selling discounted rates through April 2, 2020 - giving you the opportuni

Washington DC (Sputnik) Feb 10, 2020
Since 2016, Lockheed Martin has been working in collaboration with NASA on a new supersonic X-59 QueSST for the space administration's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator program, scheduled for test flights in 2022. NASA's new experimental supersonic X-plane will be flying across the US by the end of 2020, a representative of Lockheed Martin, who was commissioned to build the plane, said on Frida

Washington (AFP) Feb 8, 2020
Multiple software issues and a poor radio link doomed a test flight of Boeing's crew capsule late last year, NASA said Friday, revealing for the first time a glitch that could have destroyed the spaceship on its re-entry. The Starliner's December 20 mission, an uncrewed test flight, was ended early when it failed to engage its thrusters on time, due to a previously reported faulty timer.

Oakland US (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
DNV GL has launched a new online tool, Solar Resource Compass, that aggregates solar irradiance from many leading data providers to help users make more informed decisions about the data available and the variance between data sources. Solar Resource Compass also leverages analytics developed by DNV GL over the last 20 years to identify outliers to help users avoid selecting the wrong data for a

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
The power conversion efficiencies of organic solar cells (OSCs) based on blends of electron donor (D) and acceptor (A) semiconducting materials now exceed 16%. However, it is still lower than that of highly efficient inorganic SCs such as GaAs and perovskite. The charge generation efficiency in OSCs nowadays is nearly 100%, thus reducing the energy loss in output voltage is critically impo

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
Producing thin-film solar modules requires much less energy than conventional wafer-based Si PV modules, and therefore their energy payback time is much shorter. Chalcopyrite-structured compounds of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGSe) are an important class of materials for thin-film PV, because CIGSe absorbs incident light much better than silicon, and so a very thin layer grown on a

Guelph, Canada (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
Canadian Solar Inc. has signed a multi-year module supply agreement with Lightsource BP to deliver 1.2 GW of high efficiency polycrystalline solar modules for projects in the US and Australia. Lightsource BP is a global market leader in the development, acquisition and long-term management of large-scale solar projects and smart energy solutions. The projects will be using Canadian Solar's

Stanford CA (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
Photosensitizers are molecules that absorb sunlight and pass that energy along to generate electricity or drive chemical reactions. They're generally based on rare, expensive metals; so the discovery that iron carbenes, with plain old iron at their cores, can do this, too, triggered a wave of research over the past few years. But while ever more efficient iron carbenes are being discovered, scie

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
Today's defense electronics systems rely on radio frequency (RF) mixed-mode electronics - those that integrate RF, analog, and digital circuits onto a single chip - to interface RF signals with digital processors. This technology supports critical communications, radar, and electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, as well as being widely used to support commercial telecommunications. The Depa

Nicosia (AFP) Feb 7, 2020
Cyprus has signed contracts for weapons orders to bolster its defences at a time of heightened tensions with Turkey over maritime gas deposits, its defence ministry confirmed Friday. "Contracts were signed related to upgrading specific weapons systems at an estimated cost of 240 million" euros, the ministry said in a statement. "Given the sensitivity of national security issues, no furth

Ottawa (AFP) Feb 7, 2020
The cost of constructing a government-owned pipeline to the Pacific coast that would open new overseas markets for Canadian oil has jumped 70 percent, the management company announced Friday. Design changes, additional regulatory processes and delays caused by environmental activists' protests and legal challenges drove the pipeline costs to $9.5 billion (Can$12.6 billion), up from a $5.6 bi

Hong Kong (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
Generating electricity from raindrops efficiently has gone one step further. A research team led by scientists from the City University of Hong Kong (CityU) has recently developed a droplet-based electricity generator (DEG), featured with a field-effect transistor (FET)-like structure that allows for high energy-conversion efficiency and instantaneous power density increased by thousands times c

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Feb 05, 2020
Researchers at The University of Tokyo have used computational methods and analysis of recent experimental data to demonstrate that water molecules take two distinct structures in the liquid state. The team investigated the scattering of X-ray photons through water samples and showed a bimodal distribution hidden under the first diffraction peak that resulted from tetrahedral and non-tetra

Madrid, Spain (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
A robust communication network between an unmanned aerial vehicle and the ground control station is paramount for the successful execution of a BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operation. Although the VECTOR autopilot, UAV's most advanced flight control system is fully capable of executing an entirely autonomous mission, a solid and reliable data or video link is essential. It facilitates the

Boston MA (SPX) Feb 07, 2020
The future of computation is bright - literally. Researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), in collaboration with researchers at McMaster University and University of Pittsburgh, have developed a new platform for all-optical computing, meaning computations done solely with beams of light. "Most computation right now uses hard materials s