NASA has ordered a pause on all work by key planetary and astrophysics science committees due to recent executive orders by President Donald Trump. In a series of memos sent from NASA headquarters late Friday (Jan. 31), the space agency directed the leaders of at least 10 planetary science assessment and analysis groups that cover … Read more
Hardware and software The following list summarizes the key hard- and software components used for acquiring the results. Laser: neoLASE neoMOS, 50 kHz–20 MHz, M2 = 1.15, 10 ps Laser power infrared: P = 41.3 W@1MHz, P = 28.1W@100kHz, green: P = 17W@1MHz, P = 11W@100kHz Receive telescope 1: Contraves, Cassegrain, d = 0.5 m, for monostatic setup Receive telescope 2: ASA, Ritchey-Chretien, d = 0.8 m, for bistatic setup Transmit telescope: Contraves, d1 = 0.07 m, monostatic … Read more
It’s not often that DJI is behind the curve, but even the world’s leading drone manufacturer isn’t going to be leading the pack all of the time. The DJI Neo is a sub-250 g beginner drone that can be flown autonomously, with the DJI Fly app, using the DJI RC-N3 Controller, and even flown as … Read more
SpaceX had a pretty good 2024. Elon Musk’s company broke its own record for most launches in a single year, continued pushing the boundaries of rocket reuse and made serious strides toward getting Starship, its next-generation megarocket, up and running. Oh, and Musk has apparently entered the inner circle of President-elect Donald Trump, wielding political … Read more
The past year was a big one for space. Skywatchers across the United States witnessed a total solar eclipse, SpaceX caught a giant rocket out of mid-air with a pair of chopstick arms, and telescopes on Earth and in space revealed to us images of the universe that have changed our very understanding of the … Read more
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered that the centaur called 2060 Chiron is an oddball. The object, which is a minor body that orbits the sun in the expanse between Jupiter and Neptune, has a mixture of ices and gases that make it stand out from other objects in the distant outer solar system. … Read more
NASA’s first two crewed Artemis moon missions have been pushed back to 2026 and 2027, respectively, and the move could have big ramifications for the agency’s Artemis program and competition with China for leadership in space. Artemis 2, which will send a crew of three Americans and a Canadian astronaut around the moon, was due … Read more
The U.S. Space Force celebrates its fifth anniversary today. The service was formally established on Dec. 20, 2019, when President Donald Trump signed it into law with the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that allocates U.S. military spending each year. Since then, the U.S. Space Force has grown to nearly 15,000 servicemembers and civilian … Read more
Napping after overfeeding on food is a dilemma many of us will be fortunate to face on Christmas Day. New research has shown that, billions of years ago, some early black holes also had to nap after overindulging. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers spotted a dormant supermassive black hole that existed just … Read more
“2001: A Space Odyssey” offered more questions than answers, and the movie’s ambiguous and metaphysical final act has subsequently been debated for well over half a century. But 40 years ago, in December 1984, a movie sequel had a decent stab at explaining some of the mysteries Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic — with its psychedelic … Read more