Best laid plans: Eight embarrassing failures of the Space Age

On October 19, the ESA's unmanned Schiaparelli Mars lander went silent after an attempted landing on the Red Planet that probably ended in an explosive impact on the surface. Over the years, we've seen many missions end in ways that remind us that space travel really is rocket science, so let's look at eight most embarrassing failures of the Space Age.

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New metamaterial shrinks when the heat is on

It's one of the basic facts of science: Heat something and it expands. But a team of scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL) Additive Manufacturing Initiative in partnership with the University of Southern California, MIT, and the University of California, Los Angeles have gone counterintuitive and invented a 3D-printed material that shrinks when heated. Developed as part of DARPA's program to study materials with controlled microstructure architecture, the lightweight metamaterial exhibits what the researchers call "negative thermal expansion."

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Sudden impact? Latest data points to parachute problem for ESA's Mars lander

ESA's Schiaparelli lander module remains out of contact while mission control in Germany seeks answers as to the fate of the unmanned probe. Data transmitted today from the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mothership suggests Schiaparelli's parachute may have opened too early during atmospheric entry on October 19 causing the module to crash on the surface of the Red Planet.

.. Continue Reading Sudden impact? Latest data points to parachute problem for ESA's Mars lander

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3D printing hackers down drone with self-destructing propellers

In the near future, an F-35 fighter plane on a routine flight kicks in its afterburners and it goes supersonic. Suddenly, there's an almighty bang as one of the turbine blades in the jet engine disintegrates and within seconds the US$85 million plane is tearing itself to pieces. Is it an accident or sabotage? According to researchers at Ben-Gurion University (BGU), this scenario could be an example of a new type of cyber warfare where saboteurs can fool 3D printers into creating self-destructing parts that are indistinguishable from the real thing.

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Britain's latest ballistic missile sub named as construction begins

As work begins on Britain's next generation of nuclear ballistic missile submarines, the first in her class has been given an historic name. According to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, the Queen today gave the royal assent for the largest-ever Royal Navy submarine to be christened HMS Dreadnought – the ninth such vessel in over 450 years. The date of the naming was chosen to mark Trafalgar Day and the 56th anniversary of the launching of the first British nuclear submarine, also named Dreadnought.

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Images suggest Schiaparelli Mars lander exploded on impact

It looks as if the Schiaparelli Mars landing ended not with a whimper, but a bang. According to ESA, images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) indicate the unmanned spacecraft exploded on impact with the Martian surface after falling from as high as 13,000 ft (4,000 m). Part of the Exomars 2016 mission, contact was lost with the demonstrator module on October 19 when it attempted a soft landing in the Meridiani Planum near the equator.

.. Continue Reading Images suggest Schiaparelli Mars lander exploded on impact

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ExoMars set for Mars rendezvous after communications failure

The ExoMars 2016 mission is set for its rendezvous with the Red Planet on October 19. On Sunday at 4:42 pm CEST (14:42 GMT), the Schiaparelli module successfully separated from the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), and Monday morning at 4:42 am CEST (02:42 GMT) the orbiter executed a crucial course correction after a heart-stopping glitch that caused the spacecraft to lose communications with Earth. Despite this, ESA says both the TGO and Schiaparelli are currently healthy and on course.

.. Continue Reading ExoMars set for Mars rendezvous after communications failure

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Antares booster makes a comeback as OA-5 blasts off for the ISS

Almost two years after a disastrous liftoff explosion, Orbital-ATK's Antares booster is back in service. At 7:45 pm EDT, an improved Antares 230 rocket blasted off from the MARS Pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Island facility in Virginia carrying the commercial OA-5 mission to deliver an Enhanced Cygnus unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS). The launch, which was delayed 24 hours due to bad weather, went off without incident beyond a five minute hold to address a possible engine malfunction.

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Unmanned Warrior puts the future of marine warfare to the test

The world got a look at what the Royal Navy of 2036 might look like as Unmanned Warrior 2016 kicked off on October 3 off the West Coast of Scotland. Including 50 machines, 400 participants from the government and private industry, and 150 VIP visitors, the Navy says it's the first ever large scale demonstration of marine robotic systems and not only showcases new technology, but tests the ability of unmanned vehicles to work with one another as well as with conventional naval ships.

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Starlight found to be a key ingredient in forming the stuff of life

To have life, you first need organic molecules, but where did these come from? It's a big question that isn't easy to answer, but data from ESA's Herschel Space Observatoryindicates that ultraviolet light from stars may be a key factor in turning interstellar gases into complex molecules. According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, infrared observations of the Orion Nebula show that starlight could be what drives the formation of precursor chemicals that become the building blocks of life.

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No satellites needed for next-gen navigation system that uses "signals of opportunity"

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a great navigation aid – unless you lose the signal while negotiating a complicated spaghetti junction. That's bad enough for conventional cars, but for autonomous vehicles it could be catastrophic, so the University of California, Riverside's Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence, and Navigation (ASPIN) Laboratory under Zak Kassas is developing an alternative navigation system that uses secondary radio signals, such as from cell phone systems and Wi-Fi to either complement existing GPS-based systems or as a standalone alternative that is claimed to be highly reliable, consistent, and tamper-proof.

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US Navy's largest-ever destroyer joins the fleet

Under clear skies and to the music of brass bands, the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) has formally been commissioned into the United States Navy. On Saturday at 6:20 pm EDT, Captain James A Kirk took command of the next-generation multimission Zumwalt-class destroyer at North Locust Point in Baltimore before a crowd of Navy officers, government officials and invited guests. After reading his official orders, Captain Kirk had the US flag and commissioning pennant raised on the superstructure of the Zumwalt, marking the ship's entry into active service.

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New Horizons forecasts clouds on Pluto

It's been over a year since new Horizon's historic flyby of Pluto in July 2015, but it continues to send back data from that brief encounter as it heads out of the Solar System. At the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences and European Planetary Science Congress meeting in Pasadena, California, NASA scientists revealed evidence from the unmanned deep space probe that indicates Pluto may have clouds and that its next destination in the Kuiper belt may be more like Pluto than previously thought.

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Contact lost with Schiaparelli lander as ExoMars 2016 arrives at the Red Planet

Today was a mixed bag for ExoMars 2016. While the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived safely at Mars, contact has been lost with the Schiaparelli lander module. According to ESA, the joint European/Russian TGO carried out a 139-minute engine burn starting at 13:05 GMT today that placed it in an elliptical orbit around the planet. However, mission control in Darmstadt, Germany lost contact with Schiaparelli shortly before it entered the Martian atmosphere at 14:42 GMT and has not been reestablished.

.. Continue Reading Contact lost with Schiaparelli lander as ExoMars 2016 arrives at the Red Planet

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Tracing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko back to its likely origins

ESA's Rosetta unmanned deep-space probe may have made comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko its final resting place, but researchers are tracing things back to where it all began. Using statistical computer analysis, astronomers Mattia Galiazzo and Paul Wiegert of Western University in Ontario, Canada have reconstructed the orbit of the comet as it's changed over hundreds of thousands of years. Their findings indicate the comet is a recent visitor to the inner Solar System and had its origins out in the Kuiper Belt beyond Pluto.

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Cessna Citation Longitude super mid-size jet completes maiden flight

The business jet market has shown healthy growth in recent years and Textron has reaffirmed its desire to join the big hitters as its Cessna Aircraft Company subsidiary announced that its latest Citation Longitude has successfully completed its maiden flight. On October 8, the super-midsize jet took to the sky from Cessna's east campus Beech Field Airport in Kansas with experimental test pilots Ed Wenninger and Stuart Rogerson at the controls. During the two-hour flight, the flaps, landing gear, pressurization, stability, and control systems were put through their paces.

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Curta calculator: The mechanical marvel born in a Nazi death camp

If you've ever spent time thumbing through back issues of magazines like Scientific American or New Scientist, you may have came across adverts for the Curta – a strange little device that resembles a pepper mill. It cost a shocking amount of money and was claimed to perform all sorts of arithmetic functions purely mechanically and with incredible precision. Rather than being a scam in the order of upmarket X-ray specs, the Curta lives up to the claims and the story behind its creation has its roots in a Nazi death camp.

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Disney's one-legged robot hops into action without a tether

Bipedal robots, such as Boston Dynamics' Atlas may be able to balance on one leg, but Disney Research has gone one better and built a one-legged hopping robot. This unidexter automaton isn't the first hopping robot, but it's the first to not rely on a tether or external power source to keep bouncing.

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"Space brain" could make manned trips to Mars rather forgettable

If getting to Mars isn't hard enough, scientists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) say that cosmic radiation could cause astronauts on long deep space missions to develop symptoms of dementia. Rodent tests indicate that exposure to high-energy particles produce cases of "space brain" marked by long-term neurological damage, cognitive impairment, and diminished judgment.

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ESA gives Schiaparelli probe final commands ahead of Mars landing

With arrival at Mars set for October 19, ESA mission control in Darmstadt, Germany is busy making last minute adjustments for the Exomars 2016 mission. One key milestone completed last week was the uploading of final instructions for the computer aboard the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator spacecraft. The new commands will tell Schiaparelli when to separate from the Trace Gas Orbiter mothership, then guide the unmanned lander during its descent and touchdown on the surface of Mars.

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BAE shows off Next-Generation Bradley Fighting Vehicle prototype

BAE Systems has unveiled the possible successor to the US Army's veteran Bradley Fighting Vehicle at the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) annual meeting in Washington DC. The Next Generation Bradley concept vehicle is designed to demonstrate an improvement in the Bradley's capabilities while keeping down costs.

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"Janus particle" microbots guided by the light

Microbots have made great strides in recent years as scientists and engineers work on creating cell-sized robots that can swim through the bloodstream and act as tiny medical commandos. However, such tiny automata are tricky to steer and control, so researchers led by Clemens Bechinger of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems are taking a page from nature and developing simple microswimmers that can mimic the light-seeking behavior of some bacteria.

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MIT applies soft touch to robots with programmable 3D-printed skins

Spectators of the DARPA Robotics Challenge finals in 2015 would have noticed that many of the competing robots were padded up for protection in case they took a tumble. MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) is looking to build customizable shock-absorbing protection into robots by using 3D printing to produce soft materials that not only dampen the impact of falls, but also allows them to carry out safer, more precise movements.

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New Shepard rocket survives successful in-flight capsule escape test

It was an unexpected double success for Blue Origin, as the private spaceflight company carried out its first in-flight test of its crew capsule escape system this Wednesday. At about 8:42 am PDT, the unmanned capsule touched down on the floor of the West Texas desert after successfully rocketing away from its New Shephard booster. But in an unexpected twist, the reusable launch stage also survived and landed safely for the fifth time after a brief journey into space.

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Hubble reveals Mars-sized plasma balls shooting from a dying star

NASA say a seemingly impossible star is shedding light on one the galaxy's more perplexing structures. The red giant V Hydrae has been shedding gigantic "cannonballs" of energetic plasma once every 8.5 years over the past 400 years, but closer examination suggests the culprit is an invisible companion.

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ESA experiment aims to prevent "sick" spaceships

In 1992, cosmonauts aboard Russia's Mir space station discovered that their orbital habitat was overrun with a fungus growing in the view ports and behind control panels like some alien invader. To prevent a similar outbreak aboard future space missions, ESA is carrying out an experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) to study the antibacterial properties of various materials in space.

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Mercury joins Earth in tectonically active club

Mercury is known for being the smallest planet in the Solar System, but, according to NASA, it's also the only one besides Earth that's tectonically active. Unlike Venus and Mars, which are basically cold, dead rocks, images from the unmanned MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft show that Mercury has small, cliff-like formations that suggest that the planet is contracting, which means that it has a hot, cooling interior.

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Coaxing salt pollution to "bloom" from the ground for easy removal

Salt pollution is one of the most serious and persistent environmental problems worldwide – not the least because once it gets into the soil, it's extremely difficult to get out. Now a team of scientists at North Dakota State University (NDSU) has come up with a way to chemically coax the salt out of soil to form crystalline "blooms" that can be harvested like so many saline cauliflowers.

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Now fish can charge their own tracking tags

Self-powering technology is showing up in a lot of places from clothing to tires, but fish seem to have been left out – until now. Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington have developed a piezoelectric self-charging tracking tag that generates electricity from the fish's own movements, allowing researchers to keep tabs on them more accurately for longer periods of time.

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World's oldest computer music recording restored

The world's oldest known recording of computer-generated music has been restored to its former glory by a team from the British Library. Taken from an acetate cut recording made by the BBC in 1951, the selection of three songs was generated by the University of Manchester's Computing Machine Laboratory's Ferranti Mark I computer in that year and was recently restored with the help of a programming manual written by Alan Turing.

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SpaceX fingers helium as cause of Falcon 9 rocket explosion

SpaceX has released the preliminary findings into the Falcon 9 accident on September 1 that destroyed the unmanned rocket and the Amos-6 satellite on Launch Complex 40 (LC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. According to the company, the "anomaly" that caused the explosion is still uncertain, but it has narrowed things down to the cryogenic helium system used to feed the second stage engine.

.. Continue Reading SpaceX fingers helium as cause of Falcon 9 rocket explosion

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Bell leverages V-22 experience for new V-247 Vigilant unmanned tilt-rotor

At the National Press Club in Washington, DC, Bell helicopter has unveiled its new V-247 Vigilant tiltrotor drone for the US Marine Corps. Like the company's V-22 Osprey, the Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) can lift off and hover like a helicopter, yet has the range and speed of a fixed-wing aircraft. According to Bell, the Vigilant can carry out combat reconnaissance missions from land bases without runways or from small ships with flight decks.

.. Continue Reading Bell leverages V-22 experience for new V-247 Vigilant unmanned tilt-rotor

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Wearable sensors improve troop tracking and situational awareness without GPS

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has unveiled a new wearable sensor technology designed to keep track of squaddies and prevent friendly fire incidents. Under development by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Dismounted Close Combat Sensors (DCCS) system will allow commanders to track troops without GPS, while providing better situational awareness.

.. Continue Reading Wearable sensors improve troop tracking and situational awareness without GPS

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Royal Navy’s T26 GCS next-gen warship unveiled
Raytheon Jam-Resistant GPS Antennas