Navigating NASA's first mission to the Trojan asteroids

In science fiction, explorers can hop in futuristic spaceships and traverse half the galaxy in the blink of a plot hole. However, this sidelines the navigational acrobatics required in order to guarantee real-life mission ...

OPALS project uses laser beams for Earth-space communications

(Phys.org) —You may know opals as fiery gemstones, but something special called OPALS is floating above us in space. On the International Space Station, the Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) is demonstrating ...

Integrated optical vortices on a chip (w/ Video)

An international research group led by scientists from the University of Bristol and the Universities of Glasgow (UK) and Sun Yat-sen and Fudan in China, have demonstrated integrated arrays of emitters of so call 'optical ...

Research continues on secure, mobile, quantum communications

Researcher Dr. David H. Hughes of the Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, N.Y. is leading a team investigating long-distance, mobile optical links imperative for secure quantum communications capabilities in theater.

Space Station video now live on Internet -- mostly

(AP) -- NASA has started beaming live video from just outside the International Space Station, but there's a catch: The online feeds are available only when the station's crew is asleep or off duty.