Tag: Solar Panels
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Solestial Awarded NASA SBIR Ignite Contracts to Develop Next Generation Solar Arrays
Solestial, the solar energy company for space, announced that it has been awarded $849,954 for a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (“SBIR”) contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The winning proposal titled, “Next Generation Silicon Based Solar Arrays for Space Stations and Other Permanent Space Infrastructure,” comes on the heels of a…
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Aerojet Rocketdyne Propulsion Plays Crucial Role in Lucy’s Asteroid Flyby Mission
Thrusters supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne, an L3Harris Technologies company, placed NASA’s Lucy spacecraft right on target for its successful November 1 flyby of Dinkinesh, a main-belt asteroid. This flyby was a critical dress rehearsal for Lucy’s primary mission of making the first-ever close-up observations of Trojan-belt asteroids starting in 2027. Lucy passed within 265 miles…
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Space Solar Partners with Thales Alenia Space to Deliver Space-Based Solar Power
One of the leading space-energy companies, Space Solar has announced an innovation partnership with Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), to continue their collaboration on the first commercial space-based solar power (SBSP) system. The agreement reflects the strategic alignment of the two companies toward SBSP and recognition of the…
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NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 Safely Returns to Earth from International Space Station
After splashing down safely in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 completed the agency’s sixth commercial crew rotation mission to the International Space Station. The international crew of four spent 186 days in orbit. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, as well as UAE (United Arab Emirates)…
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NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Gets Final Science Instrument for Lunar Surface Mapping
NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer is nearing completion now that its second and final cutting-edge science instrument has been added to the small spacecraft. Built by the University of Oxford in England and contributed by the UK Space Agency, the Lunar Thermal Mapper (LTM) joins the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3), which was integrated with…
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DCUBED Announces World-First In-Space Manufacturing Demonstration Mission
DCUBED, the German NewSpace hardware manufacturer, has announced that it is to demonstrate in-space manufacturing as part of a demonstration mission expected in Q1 2024. This will be the first time ever that a product has been manufactured in free space. The demonstration will see the production of a roughly 30-centimetre, 3D-printed truss structure, and is…
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NanoAvionics, RIKEN and Mitsui Bussan Aerospace Collaborate on X-ray Observatory Launch
RIKEN, Japan’s largest comprehensive research institution, Mitsui Bussan Aerospace, and mission integrator Kongsberg NanoAvionics have announced their collaboration on the astronomical NinjaSat1 X-ray observatory mission. The aim of this two-year mission in a low Earth orbit (LEO) is to observe X-ray photons from bright X-ray objects in the universe. The NinjaSat team aims to observe…
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NASA’s Trio of Mini Rovers to Demonstrate New Autonomous Robotic Technology
NASA is sending a trio of miniature rovers to the Moon to see how well they can cooperate with one another without direct input from mission controllers back on Earth. A teamwork-minded experiment to demonstrate new technology, the CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) project marks another step the agency is taking toward developing robots…
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Solestial’s 20-Kilowatt Solar Blanket to Power Atomos’s Orbital Transfer Vehicles
Solestial, the solar energy company for space, and in-space logistics provider Atomos Space announced a multi-mission sales agreement for a minimum of 20 kilowatts of Solestial’s ultrathin, low-mass, radiation-hardened solar blankets. Solestial’s photovoltaic system will be demonstrated on Atomos’s first mission, scheduled for February 2024, and then will provide primary power for Atomos’s solar-electric orbital…
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ESA Selects Thales Alenia Space to Conduct Feasibility Study for SOLARIS Initiative
Thales Alenia Space, the joint company between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has been chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA) to conduct a feasibility study for the SOLARIS initiative, which will determine the viability of a project to provide clean energy from spaceborne solar power plants to meet requirements down on Earth. Europe is…