Electric propulsion offers low thrust with high fuel efficiency, making it well-suited for longer missions. The new Aerospace EP3 vacuum chamber is the largest in the world for testing these devices. — The need for increased agility in the space environment has prompted research into forms of propulsion that are capable of meeting the objectives of increasingly ambitious missions. While electric propulsion has previously been used mainly for the station-keeping of satellites (keeping a spacecraft at a fixed distance from another spacecraft…

Aerospace is identifying opportunities to improve wildfire detection and monitoring capabilities, efforts that could ultimately protect biodiversity, infrastructure, and human life, as well as mitigate wildfires’ financially damaging effect. — In 2021, more than 2.5 million acres burned due to California’s wildfires. The estimated economic loss was between $70 billion and $90 billion in the United States, with over half of that attributed to a California wildfire season aggravated by drought and intensified temperatures. Boosting space surveillance abilities helps to…

Future human missions to the moon and Mars require understanding the space environment to ensure crew members are prepared. Analog missions — field tests that mimic space-like conditions — are some of the closest ways we gain critical knowledge of what working in and inhabiting space is like. — To anticipate the needs of future space missions and sustainable operations in cislunar and Martian environments, The Aerospace Corporation sponsored a two-week analog mission at The Mars Society’s Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in remote Hanksville, Utah, beginning Nov. 27.

SPARTA, released in October 2022, provides space professionals with a taxonomy of potential cyber threats to spacecraft and space missions. v1.2 delivers some significant updates. — Authors: Brandon Bailey, Brad Roeher SPARTA version 1.0 was released on October 19th, 2022 during the Value of Space Summit hosted by the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC). Subsequently, on October 28th, 2022, v1.1 was released containing some User Interface (UI) enhancements and a significant amount of updated…

Ever wonder what aerospace engineers think are the best STEM toys? We did too, so we asked some of our employees to weigh in. — With so many great STEM toys for kids, we decided to ask our employees at Aerospace for their recommendations this holiday season. We wanted to know what toys they loved, what their kids love, and what toys they wish they had growing up. The responses were overwhelming. From building sets…

The SPARTA framework offers space professionals a taxonomy of potential cyber threats to spacecraft and space missions. The PCSpooF academic research is mapped to the framework in an illustrative use case. — Authors: Adam Byerly, Gregory Falco, Brandon Bailey, Tim Dafoe, Brad Roeher Why SPARTA was created In 2013, MITRE created the ATT&CK framework to document common tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) used by adversaries against enterprise networks. While the framework assists organizations in better understanding, visualizing, anticipating, and defending against cyber-attack, its taxonomy of offense…

Massive commercial and government investment in space has created a gap between individual participant decision-making and best practices for the space ecosystem. —

The Aerospace Corporation exercised its industry expertise for the STP-3 mission, providing adaptive and crucial support where it mattered most. — The pace of innovation for space is accelerating, driving the need for more agile and responsive solutions to advance the nation’s space missions. Staying ahead in this contested environment requires moving faster and evolving how mission success can be achieved—prioritizing mission-critical areas of highest need while allocating resources and time…

A team of engineers is advancing lasercom technology to meet the rising needs and speed of the space domain. — Increased activities in space require moving faster, lighter and with higher precision. While space communications have traditionally relied on transmitting information via radio waves, The Aerospace Corporation is facilitating laser communication (lasercom) research and development. Previously, two AeroCubes successfully transmitted data via lasercom systems for the first time — a…