Military/Aerospace Electronics

The UK Space Agency is funding a new initiative to secure foreign direct investment (FDI) opportunities for the UK. It will be supporting the Department for Business and Trade and various space cluster representatives across the nation. Basically, it is to encourage startups and established companies from around the world to set up, or expand, their space operations within the ...

NASA has awarded a $4m contract to the University of Hawaii to develop – in collaboration with Leonardo, Markury Scientific, and Hawaii Aerospace – ultra-sensitive infrared sensors to help observe distant planets and their atmospheres. Specifically, it is the university’s Institute for Astronomy (IfA) that will be working on the technology, along with the Southampton offices of Leonardo, with the ...

Northumbria University is collaborating with Lockheed Martin for research into the role played by ‘nanojets’ and the reconnection of the Sun’s magnetic field lines for generating the Solar Corona’s heat. In a bid to gather more evidence about how often nanojets occur and how they impact coronal heating, Northumbria PhD student Ramada Sukarmadji, under the supervision of Dr Patrick Antolin, ...

ESA has begun the controlled destruction of its Aeolus global wind-measuring satellite. Launched in 2018, the 1.3 tonne satellite has already worked 18 months longer than its planned three year mission, but is now running out of orbit-maintaining fuel. Matter and radiation released by recent solar flares and coronal mass ejections have temporarily increased drag in space, and ESA is ...

XCAM is collaborating with UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) to observe the global thermospheric winds that impact radio and GPS communications. The space mission – dubbed WindCube – will involve the first wind measuring interferometer to be carried on a small 6-U LEO CubeSat, with XCAM providing an advanced imaging camera system. The Northampton-based company designs and manufactures highly ...

Spire Global, the space services company with offices in Glasgow, has signed an agreement with OroraTech, a specialist in space-based thermal intelligence, to build, launch and operate an eight-satellite constellation. The constellation is described as the first dedicated to tracking and monitoring wildfires. Once operational, it will feature real-time detection capability, continuous situational awareness and predictive insights to help detect ...

The Teledyne e2v team designed and manufactured the 36 sensors for the visible wavelength camera on the Euclid spacecraft, due to be launched on Saturday, which aims to determine the properties of dark energy and dark matter. Euclid is designed to explore the evolution of the dark universe. Over six years, it will make a 3D-map of the universe by ...

Safran Electronics & Defense and Terran Orbital have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to study the production of a new electric propulsion system – based on Safran’s PPSX00 plasma thruster – for LEO satellites. The aim, they say, is to make spacecraft more resilient and maneuverable at faster delivery rates and lower costs, for both governmental and commercial customers. And ...

Leonardo is bidding to make engineering roles more accessible to diverse job applicants across the UK, through a collaboration with STEM Returners. Following a successful pilot programme, the company is scaling up the inititative to hire 25 “returners” before October. Open to all, it presents a chance to move into a career with Leonardo in engineering roles spanning systems, software, ...

The UK government is providing £2.1 million of funding, through the UK Space Agency (UKSA), to boost UK-based involvement in space technologies such as harnessing solar power for reusable spacecraft and new propulsion systems. The initial nine projects involve work at Lancaster University, the Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey, Swansea University, University of Strathclyde, Durham University (two ...