NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA A planned spacewalk outside the International Space Station Tuesday was postponed after NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei was diagnosed with a pinched nerve, which NASA described as a “minor medical issue.” Vande Hei planned to head outside the space station Tuesday with Japanese …
Space station spacewalk postponed by astronaut medical issue Read More »
Fire and exhaust from the 32 rocket engine nozzles power a Soyuz-2.1b launcher off the ground at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos Another 34 satellites for OneWeb’s internet network successfully launched on a Russian Soyuz rocket Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, giving the UK-based company a fleet of 288 spacecraft. The …
Soyuz rocket delivers in ninth launch for OneWeb Read More »
Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming wave to a video camera while outside the Tianhe core module of China’s space station Friday. Credit: Xinhua Chinese astronauts Nie Haisheng and Liu Boming accomplished a nearly six-hour spacewalk Friday outside the core module of the country’s new space station, installing a coolant pump and lifting a …
Chinese astronauts complete second spacewalk outside space station Read More »
By Francois Barthelat Flying fish use their fins both to swim and glide through the air. Smithsonian Institution/Flickr The big idea Segmented hinges in the long, thin bones of fish fins are critical to the incredible mechanical properties of fins, and this design could inspire improved underwater propulsion systems, new robotic materials and even new …
Fish fins are teaching us the secret to flexible robots and new shape-changing materials Read More »
After valve problems caused it to miss an opportunity to launch earlier this month on a test flight to the International Space Station, Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule returned to a processing facility at the Kennedy Space Center Thursday after being removed from its Atlas 5 launcher at nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch …
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft returns to processing facility for valve work Read More »
A Long March 4B rocket launches a pair of Tianhui 2 mapping satellites. Credit: CASC China launched a Long March 4B rocket Wednesday carrying two Tianhui radar mapping satellites into orbit more than 300 miles in altitude. The two satellites will join a similar pair of spacecraft launched in April 2019, working in tandem to …
Maxar’s WorldView 3 satellite captured this view of Hamid Karzai International Airport on Monday, Aug. 16. The view shows crowds gathered around parked aircraft. Credit: Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies Maxar’s WorldView 3 commercial imaging satellite captured overhead views of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, earlier this week as thousands of people converged on the …
Maxar satellite images show thousands of people at Kabul airport Read More »
In this new release of our series showcasing the plenary and keynote talks from the IEEE/RSJ IROS2020 (International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems) you’ll meet Dr. Anya Petrovskaya (Stanford University), talking about driverless vehicles and field robots, and Prof. I-Ming Chen (Nanyang Technological University), whose talk is about food handling robots. Dr. Anya Petrovskaya …
#IROS2020 Plenary and Keynote talks focus series #3: Anya Petrovskaya & I-Ming Chen Read More »
Abstraction in programming has evolved our use of computers from basic arithmetic operations to representing complex real-world phenomena using models. More specific to robotics, abstraction has moved us from low-level actuator control and basic sensing to reasoning about higher-level concepts behaviors, as I define in my Anatomy of a Robotic System post. In autonomous systems, …
A European Vega rocket blasts off with nearly 700,000 pounds of thrust Monday night. Credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace – Photo Optique Video du CSG – JM Guillon A European Vega rocket launched from French Guiana Monday night with Airbus’s second Pléiades Neo remote sensing satellite, two European Space Agency CubeSats to track space weather, a student-built nanosatellite …
Arianespace launches second Pléiades Neo remote sensing satellite Read More »
