Artificial satellites as a research area encompasses the scientific and engineering study of human-made objects intentionally placed into Earth or other celestial orbits for observation, communication, navigation, and experimentation. Research focuses on orbital dynamics and mission design, attitude determination and control, space environment interactions (radiation, plasma, micrometeoroids), and advanced materials and power systems for long-duration operation. It also includes development of miniaturized platforms (e.g., CubeSats), payload instrumentation for remote sensing and scientific measurements, formation flying and constellations, on-orbit servicing, autonomy and fault management, and the impacts of satellite proliferation on space traffic management and orbital debris mitigation.
A new U.S.–India satellite called NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) will provide high-resolution data enabling scientists to comprehensively monitor the planet's land and ice surfaces like never before, building ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 22, 2025
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24
NASA's Athena Economical Payload Integration Cost mission, or Athena EPIC, is a test launch for an innovative, scalable space vehicle design to support future missions. The small satellite platform is engineered to share ...
Space Exploration
Jul 21, 2025
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30
Satellites circling Earth have many different functions, including navigation, communications and Earth observation. About 8%–10% of all active satellites are military or "dual use" serving intelligence or reconnaissance ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 16, 2025
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41
Φsat-2, a miniature satellite, has completed its commissioning and has begun delivery of science data, using algorithms to efficiently process and compress Earth observation images, as well as detect wildfires, ships, marine ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 16, 2025
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28
The race to connect the world through satellite internet has created an unexpected casualty: our view of the cosmos. A new study reveals that major satellite constellations, including Starlink, BlueBird, and OneWeb, are significantly ...
Astronomy
Jul 15, 2025
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34
In October of 1957, the USSR launched the world's first artificial satellite into orbit around Earth. Today, we're combining Earth observation with image processing in the search for mineral resources.
Planetary Sciences
Jul 15, 2025
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21
A new U.K.-led satellite mission concept aims to strengthen the country's position in space weather observation and forecasting by deploying a suite of homegrown scientific instruments on a low-cost spacecraft in low-Earth ...
Planetary Sciences
Jul 8, 2025
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57
Not much can surprise someone who partook in four shuttle missions and three space walks during a 36-year career with NASA. Let alone, for someone who has spent their life studying space and space travel, the proposal of ...
Space Exploration
Jul 8, 2025
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1029
A new study published in The Innovation highlights the launch of Haishao-1 (HS-1), China's first low-inclination orbit synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite. This marks a breakthrough in global Earth observation.
Space Exploration
Jul 3, 2025
0
42
Two meteorological missions—Meteosat Third Generation Sounder-1 (MTG-S1) and the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission—have launched on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral in Florida, US.
Space Exploration
Jul 2, 2025
0
21
