Aerospace

Sea Launch has resumed its countdown for the launch of the Thuraya-3 mobile communications satellite, with liftoff now planned for Sunday, Nov. 18, at 7:37 am PST (15:37 GMT). The Sea Launch Commander is positioned alongside the Odyssey Launch Platform, at the launch site at 154 degrees West Longitude, on the equator. A day before liftoff, the launch team will erect the Zenit-3SL rocket on the launch pad and perform final tests on the launch system and the spacecraft before starting the terminal countdown. During final preparations for liftoff, the platform will be evacuated, with all…

Bats generate a measurably distinct aerodynamic footprint to achieve lift and maneuverability, quite unlike birds and contrary to many of the assumptions that aerodynamicists have used to model animal flight, according to University of Southern California aerospace engineer Geoffrey Spedding. The researcher, together with a multi-institutional team of scientists, found that bat flight is quite different from bird flight, particularly at very small scales. The team based its findings on new measurements of aerodynamic performance in the wing beats of a small species of bat. “Bats with a…

MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) - Thirty years ago the Soviet government issued a resolution on setting up a space-based system to search for ships in distress (known by its initials in Russian, KOSPAS) anywhere in the world. The quick location of such ships reduced by nearly tenfold the time of rescue operations in comparison with the usual methods and also reduced the risk of accidents involving rescue ships and aircraft themselves. For Russia, with its vast, sparsely populated areas and enormous expanses of ocean, creating an effective search-and-rescue system was of significant…

As NASA develops its next "flagship" mission to the outer solar system, Jupiter's enigmatic moon Europa should be the target, says Arizona State University professor Ronald Greeley. Although Europa lies five times farther from the Sun than Earth, he notes it may offer a home for life. Greeley, a Regents' Professor, heads the Planetary Geology Group in ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration. He is presenting the Europa proposal today (Feb. 18) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco. "Europa is unique in our solar system," says…

When they fly, insects use their vision for piloting, just like human pilots. The electric signals from their facetted eyes travel through specialized neurons to stimulate the wing muscles, which let the insects correct their flight and avoid crashes. Could these same neurons be used in a sort of "automatic pilot"? This is what Nicolas Franceschini, Franck Ruffier and Julien Serres have just shown. These biorobotics specialists from the Movement and Perception Laboratory (CNRS/Université de la Méditerranée) in Marseille, France have revealed an automatic mechanism called the "optic flow…

How can space inspire fashion? Has it inspired fashion throughout history? These were questions put to participants of a fashion workshop in Stockholm, timed to coincide with Christer Fuglesang’s trip to the ISS. As part of the ‘Space Base Stockholm’ (Rymdbas Stockholm) event, 7 – 12 December, a number of workshops were held. One of these was entitled ‘Fashion & Design’, a hands-on workshop culminating in a real photo shoot. Driving the show was Johan af Geijerstam, freelance project and production manager in fashion and PR. "As part of Space Base Stockholm, there was the idea to combine…

Russia's Federal Space Agency said Wednesday it hopes the Sea Launch project will be resumed despite the explosion of a Zenit-3SL rocket carrying a commercial communications satellite. "A Sea Launch Zenit-3SL vehicle, carrying the NSS-8 satellite, experienced an anomaly today during launch operations. Sea Launch will establish a Failure Review Oversight Board to determine the root cause of this anomaly," said a statement issued by Sea Launch. "A split second following separation from the launch tower, an emergency occurred causing the Zenit-3SL booster rocket to fall back onto the floating…

Probes designed to find life on Mars do not drill deep enough to find the living cells that scientists believe may exist well below the surface of Mars, according to research led by UCL (University College London). Although current drills may find essential tell-tale signs that life once existed on Mars, cellular life could not survive the radiation levels for long enough any closer to the surface of Mars than a few metres deep -- beyond the reach of even state-of-the-art drills. Elysium's frozen sea may be one of the best places to look for life on Mars. (Credits: ESA/DLR/Berlin/Neukum) The…

The International Space Station will likely remain operational until 2025, the head of the Russian spacecraft manufacturer Energia said Tuesday. "No one is going to sink or drop the ISS, as all countries realize that the station is becoming a full-scale industrial facility in space. Although it is scheduled for decommissioning in 2015, its operational life could be prolonged until 2025," Nikolai Sevastyanov said. He said Energia has proposed making the station permanent. "If we terminate its existence, it would be hard for mankind to implement such a project anew," he said. Sevastyanov said…

The first MiG-29KUB carrier-based fighter developed for the Indian Navy took off at the Russian Zhukovsky aircraft test centre on January 22.