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. …

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…

Aerospace is part of a collaborative effort to build the Astrocomb, a new tool that will strengthen the search for distant worlds and demonstrate the power of this next-generation technology. — Thirty years ago, astronomers made the first definitive observations of exoplanets, inspiring questions about the existence of Earth-like planets and the likelihood of lifeforms beyond the solar system. Since then, the number of detected exoplanets continues to rise, with over 5,000 currently confirmed and numerous more to be surveyed.

The ability to swap satellites into predefined launch configurations will provide more launch options and faster access to space. — For developers of mid-sized small satellites, the biggest hurdle is not building the satellite but launching these devices into space. A small satellite developer typically designs a customized satellite solution, then figures out a launch that meets their requirements. Once the launch is determined, the solution may be expensive, complicated…

What does the future hold for small satellites, and what technological hurdles need to be overcome to get there? — The rapid escalation of the production and launch of small satellites has revolutionized space. Aerospace has been at the forefront of CubeSat technology and the miniaturization of satellites since before the CubeSat standard was established — flying the world’s first containerized satellite over 20 years ago.

An alternate approach to the CubeSat provides the benefits of a small satellite with large surface areas that can be dedicated to antennas or instruments needing exposure to space. — A defining feature of a standard CubeSat is its containerization — the shape, volume, and design — which makes it rideshare-friendly. This shape has been important since these devices have historically comprised a minor part of a total payload. The small number of standardized sizes and shapes greatly simplifies integration…