Satellites

A New Solution to the Space Junk Problem. Spacecraft with Plasma Beams to Force Space Junk to Burn Up

A Japanese-Australian team is developing a new way to remove space junk from orbit and sending it harmlessly towards Earth.

3 years ago

Look at all the Aerosols Pushed into the Atmosphere, from Fires, Volcanoes and Pollution. Even Sea Salt Thrown into the Air from Hurricanes

Using the Goddard Earth Observing System Forward Processing (GEOS FP) model, NASA recently released a visualization that showed all the…

3 years ago

A Satellite With a Harpoon, Net and Drag Sail to Capture Space Junk is in Orbit and Will be Tested Soon

The RemoveDebris satellite, a spacecraft designed to remove junk from orbit, recently deployed from the ISS to begin demonstrating its…

3 years ago

Musk Says that SpaceX will use a Giant Party Balloon to Bring an Upper Stage Back. Wait, what?

Elon Musks hints in a tweet that SpaceX wants to use "giant party balloons" to retrieve upper stage rockets.

4 years ago

Launching Rockets from Balloons is About to be a Thing, But We Need a Better Name than “Rockoons”

A new company is developing a hybrid rocket-balloon system to launch microsatellites cheaply from high altitude.

4 years ago

Now That NASA’s Missing IMAGE Satellite Has Been Found, Talking To It Is Going To Be Difficult

NASA has confirmed that their missing IMAGE satellite was indeed located by an amateur astronomer in Canada. But re-establishing contact…

4 years ago

China Has a Plan to Clean Up Space Junk with Lasers

A new study by a team of Chinese researchers considers whether a space-based laser station would be a good way…

4 years ago

Astronomy Cast Ep. 462: Modeling the Weather

Have you noticed that weather forecasting has gotten much better in the last few years? Thanks to weather satellites, weather…

4 years ago

Astronomy Cast Ep. 461: Measuring the Weather with Satellites

What's the weather doing? Is it going to rain today? How much? What about temperatures? We depend on modern weather…

4 years ago

Breakthrough Lofts the Smallest Satellites Ever, not Interstellar Yet, but a Step Forward

Breakthrough Initiatives achieved a major milestone with the recent deployment of their Sprite satellites, the smallest satellites in history.

4 years ago