Space Technology, Defense & Exploration

Search and Rescue (SAR) is receiving a lot of attention recently due to several high-profile incidents on land, in the air and at sea. Flight MH370 left Kuala Lumpur was bound for Beijing in March 2014 when it disappeared, with 239 people on board. Even after the largest and most …

The space is also becoming increasingly militarized many countries are developing killer microsatellites and other antisatellite weapons (ASAT) that could be used to damage other satellites.   Potential adversaries have the ability to focus on temporary, reversible effects such as jamming or dazzling which denies or disrupts the satellite versus …

Historically, there was a necessity for a third party that demanded a payment to perform transactions or submit information to ensure the accuracy of transactions and create a reliable history. Blockchain eradicates the need for an intermediary through creating a trustless medium of exchange and immutable public ledger. It creates …

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit electromagnetic radiation at regular intervals. They radiate energy across a broad range of frequencies, but they are most visible in their X-ray beams. Pulsars emit powerful beams in opposite directions as they spin. These beams are observable only when they’re pointed toward …

One of the biggest threats to the deployed aerospace and defense electronics systems is radiation. Outside the protective cover of the Earth’s atmosphere, the solar system is filled with radiation. The natural space environment consists of electrons and protons trapped by Earth’s magnetic field, protons and small amount of heavy nuclei …

Muons are subatomic particles that behave a lot like electrons but are around 200 times heavier. As the US Department of Energy explains, “Muons created in the atmosphere constantly hit every inch of the Earth’s surface and pass through almost any substance.”   Many scientists have noted that measuring the …

The current satellites mostly operate at lower frequencies like C- and X-bands each have 500 MHz of bandwidth and they are already crowded with users. Today, naval C- and X-band shipboard SATCOM terminals require supplemental EMI rejection filters to allow them to operate in a battle group environment, especially in close proximity …

There is virtually no part of a modern defense system that is not impacted in some way by optics and photonics, even when the system is not optically based. Modern defense systems are migrating toward optically based imaging, remote sensing, communications, and weapons.   Silicon photonics uses photons to detect …

Space situational awareness (SSA) is the foundational element of space security, and it entails keeping track of all natural and artificial space objects, energy and particle fluxes and understanding how the space picture is changing over time. SSA is a system of systems dealing with space surveillance, space weather and …