Military/Aerospace Electronics

Subtle electrolyte changes can maintain power density in electric aviation batteries, according to the University of Michigan. While extended capacity retention is key for vehicle traction batteries, electric aviation demands power density retention from its batteries. “Both takeoff and landing require high power, and landing is more challenging because you’re not fully charged,” said Michigan engineering professor Venkat Viswanathan. “To ...

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awards Lockheed Martin a $4.6 million contract to develop AI tools for “dynamic, airborne missions” potentially involving unmanned combat planes. The award is part of Darpa’s Artificial Intelligence Reinforcements (AIR) programme. Specifically, the award is to provide advanced Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and AI agents for live, multi-ship, beyond visual range (BVR) ...

In September, Glasgow will be hosting Space-Comm Expo Scotland 2024, and the organisers have announced its lineup of keynote speakers from across government, aerospace, defence and academia. For example, the event will be hosted by Executive Chair of Space-Comm Expo, Will Whitehorn, former President of Virgin Galactic, Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University and Chair of Seraphim Space Investment Trust. There ...

Sift, a startup providing an “observability platform” for hardware sensor data, has raised $17.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Google Ventures and brings Sift’s total funding to $25 million. The investment will be used to increase its staff, build up its infrastructure and add AI/ML capabilities, said the company. Based in El Segundo, California, Sift ...

Microchip has announced its first 64bit processors, picking the RISC-V instruction set for the initial parts: an octa-core for space and a industrial quad-core. Although, “future PIC64 families will include devices based on RISC-V or Arm architectures”, said the company. PIC64-HPSC is the family name of the space processors, which have come out of a 2022 deal with NASA to ...

Honeywell is buying CAES Systems Holdings from private equity firm Advent International for approximately $1.9 billion in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition is intended to “enhance Honeywell’s defense technology solutions across land, sea, air and space”, said the company. Specifically, for Honeywell’s Aerospace Technologies business, it will include new electromagnetic defence systems for end-to-end radio RF signal management, and introduce ...

ispace has announced that its US subsidiary – ispace technologies US – has signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC). The former is a space transportation specialist and the latter a provider of communications ground stations headquartered in Solna, near Stockholm. They will be working together for the operation of the APEX 1.0 lunar lander, for iSpace’s ...

Astrobotic, a lunar logistics company, has unveiled its Lunar Surface Proving Ground (LSPG) – a constructed moonscape for testing- at its facility in Mojave, California. Measuring 100mx100m, the “high-fidelity 3D test field” mimics the topography and optical properties of the Moon’s surface, said the company. The site will be used for testing spacecraft and rover sensors, for example lunar landing ...

The Munich-based satellite launch service company Isar Aerospace has extended its Series C funding round by €65m – it now totals €220m ($230m) – with backing from the NATO Innovation Fund. “Access to space is critical to the technological sovereignty of Europe and the UK,” said Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner of the NATO Innovation Fund. “Space technologies like Isar’s hold ...

CRT display technology is well-established and is still prevalent in maintaining effective flight operations. Dave Ketchum looks at the science behind CRT display technology in aircraft. Being able to pilot an aircraft requires having confidence in the onboard technology. One type of technology that is frequently used for this purpose, and has been for many years, is the cathode ray ...