A north-east school has partnered with solar and space physics experts from Northumbria University for a project supported by a Royal Society Partnership Grant, which aims to bring academic research and STEM careers to life. Year 7 pupils are among those from Whytrig Middle School in Seaton Delaval who have already visited the university’s Northumbria Space Technology Laboratory (NSTL) to ...
The Aerospace Corporation is claiming a landmark in small satellite comms by demonstrating the first optical crosslink between a pair of CubeSats in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Flashlight Laser Crosslink Dubbed “Flashlight Laser Crosslink” it potentially enables small satellites to operate collaboratively in formations. This could unlock new possibilities for commercial and government missions, says the non-profit organisation, which operates as ...
The European Space Agency’s Φsat-2 satellite has completed its commissioning and begun delivering data. The craft is testing onboard AI for Earth observation, efficiently processing and compressing the Earth observation images. The 6U CubeSat, with its multispectral camera, will be capable of detecting wildfires, ship movements, and marine pollution, for example. Having launched in August 2024 from the Vandenberg Space ...
ALIGN is the Autonomous Laser Intersatellite Gigabit Network project and the consortium behind it has successfully built and tested its first CubeSats, containing a high-speed laser communications system. It is a dual laser, inter-satellite free-space optical (FSO) communications device. And it aims to provide an alternative to existing low-speed radio frequency (RF) high-power transceivers currently used in CubeSat operations. The ...
We're talking about the low-cost design of ICs, AI infrastructure, weight-conscious projects, and another historic step towards space launches from the Shetlands...
Aiming to add function to weight-constrained cube-sats, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have integrated flexible electronics into a self-deploying boom, adding only 0.25g of mass. “It’s difficult to get commercial electronics integrated into these super thin structures,” said Illinois professor Xin Ning, who added that anything the team made had to be “able to withstand the harsh environment ...
Ubotica, the space AI specialist, has announced its CogniSAT-XE2 hardware platform to support the use of AI in space, for in-orbit data analysis. Building on its existing CogniSAT technology, the mechanical and power envelope of CogniSAT-XE2 (with a PC/104 form factor) is compatible with small satellites such as to CubeSats and delivers increased compute performance per Watt, it says. The ...
A planning application notice for Prestwick Spaceport has been filed, flagging the spaceport’s progress among the UK’s seven spaceports that are jockeying to achieve the first satellite launch from UK (or European) soil. The Proposal of Application Notice (POAN) is described as the first step in the planning process for Glasgow Prestwick Spaceport, which says it signals the intent to ...
Teledyne e2v and Centre Spatial Universitaire de Grenoble (CSUG) will be demonstrating an image analysis system for CubeSats at Space Tech Expo next week. Called QlevEr, the system is designed for 6U (100 x 200 x 300mm) Earth observation CubeSats, reducing link bandwidth by processing images into simplified binary maps before transmission to the ground. “There is scope for this arrangement to ...
Lockheed Martin has completed environmental testing of the cubesats for its geostationary ‘Linuss’ mission, intended to demonstrate how small satellites can be used to regularly upgrade satellite constellations by adding capabilities and extend spacecraft lives. “Space is a dynamic domain and our customers are demanding the ability to upgrade spacecraft on orbit – to provide greater capabilities and more mission flexibility,” ...
