24 July 2019
LightSail 2 unfurls its sails and soars through space
... to travel past Venus via nothing more than the momentum gained from the massless light particles (photons) bombarding the sail, which stream constantly from the Sun. The probe had no steering mechanism though...
12 August 2019
Communicating water-powered CubeSats tested in space by NASA
... need to point its beam with sufficient accuracy and precision so that the target can receive as many photons as possible into the collector, another seemingly innocuous Earthly feature can cause problems; cloud cover. If just...
04 December 2019
Giant planet found orbiting a white dwarf for the first time
... has a temperature of 28 000 degrees Celsius (five times as hot as the Sun), in just 10 days. The high-energy photons crammed inside the dead star are gradually blowing away the planet's atmosphere and while most...
01 April 2020
Biohybrid can turn CO2 into new products for use on Mars or Earth
... to kick-start a chemical reaction. "These silicon nanowires are essentially like an antenna: They capture the solar photon just like a solar panel," said project leader Peidong Yang, professor of chemistry and the S. K. and Angela...
21 December 2020
Innovative design could see CubeSats "steam-powered"
... exposed surface area", according to Jack Miller, R and D engineer for the ThermaSat program. "Using a combination of photonic crystals and gold-tinted mirrors the completely inert capacitor reaches a blistering operating temperature of 1,052 K (778...
22 January 2021
Russia develops instrument to search for precious metals on the Moon and Mars
... this by first recording both the "flight" of a high-energy cosmic-ray particle, and then the gamma-photon that is emitted from the element when struck by the cosmic-ray, Mitrofanov explained. The device is also...
