After Boeing’s failed attempt to bring satellite internet into commercial aviation it now seems possible that the idea might still have a chance after JetBlue Airways has announced plans to bring In-flight high-speed Internet service to more than 170 of ...
Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Propulsion Laboratory are developing new plasma thrusters designed for satellite course corrections. Smaller, less expensive, and more energy efficient than traditional chemical rockets, the Mini-Helicon Plasma Thruster ...
Inexpensive Satellite Bandwidth under Development
A team of researchers funded by the European Union has developed methods for optimizing satellite bandwidth, potentially dropping the combined cost of satellite phone, television, and internet services to as little as 50 Euros a month. The Integrated Multi-layer Optimization ...
The Orbital Menace – Space Garbage
We have all heard about the challenges and dangers involved in space travel. Even though the space shuttle is equipped with the finest technology money can buy, and staffed with the best and most highly trained astronauts, nobody can guarantee ...
High-Speed Internet in…Trains
Scientists from the University of York in England are taking mobile entertainment to the next level with a new technology, designed to significantly broaden the range of services currently available to train passengers worldwide. The researchers, from the Department of ...
ESA’s Gravity Mission ‘GOCE’
In September 2008 the European Space Agency plans to launch a satellite called the Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer. The spacecraft will allow scientists to learn more about Earth’s gravity field, expanding our knowledge in several fields of ...
GLAST – Exploring the Extreme Universe
NASA has developed a new observatory telescope that could help scientists understand some of our universe’s best-kept secrets. The Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) was successfully launched by NASA aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force ...
Swift Catches Exploding Star
NASA’s scientists recently used the Swift Satellite in order to see a star explode and become a supernova. Although over the past 100 years astronomers have observed thousands of supernovas, every time it was seen, it was only after the ...
The Sky is Falling or Much Ado About Nothing
On March 24th the World Wide Web was flooded with a photograph of a large spherical object, which reportedly had fallen from the sky, landing in a farming area in central Brazil. The story was first published by Daniel Drehmer, ...
U.S. Successfully Destroys Satellite
“At 10:26 p.m. EST today, a U.S. Navy AEGIS warship, the USS Lake Erie, fired a single modified tactical Standard Missile-3, hitting the satellite approximately 247 kilometers (133 nautical miles) over the Pacific Ocean as it traveled in space at ...