iRocket’s plans for a fully reusable satellite launcher got a boost from the first flight test of IRX-100, a short-range missile the startup hopes will generate near-term revenue to support its orbital Shockwave vehicle.
Satellite Market Shifts as Data Service Revenues Triple Paris, France [October, 2025] – Released today, Novaspace’s 32nd edition of the Satellite Connectivity and Video Market report reveals a seismic shift […]
Solna, Sweden — October 2025 — ECAPS AB, Sweden’s leading propulsion technology provider, has announced successful testing of its new Fast-Start Thruster (FAST) technology, a major advancement that enables LMP-103S […]
Spending time in space has a big impact on the human body and can cause a range of health issues. Many astronauts develop vision problems because microgravity causes body fluids to redistribute towards the head. This can lead to swelling in the eye and compression of the optic nerve.
While eye conditions can generally be treated with medication, delivering drugs in space is not a straightforward task. Eye drops simply don’t work without gravity, for example. To address this problem, researchers in Hungary are developing a tiny dissolvable eye insert that could deliver medication directly to the eye. The size of a grain of rice, the insert has now been tested by an astronaut on the International Space Station.
This episode of the Physics World Weekly podcast features two of those researchers – Diána Balogh-Weiser of Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Zoltán Nagy of Semmelweis University – who talk about their work with Physics World’s Tami Freeman.
The composite shielding designed to protect spacecraft from debris impact was developed by Atomic-6 under a U.S. Space Force Small Business Innovation Research contract
Researchers in Japan and Taiwan have captured three-dimensional images of an entire geothermal system deep in the Earth’s crust for the first time. By mapping the underground distribution of phenomena such as fracture zones and phase transitions associated with seismic activity, they say their work could lead to improvements in earthquake early warning models. It could also help researchers develop next-generation versions of geothermal power – a technology that study leader Takeshi Tsuji of the University of Tokyo says has enormous potential for clean, large-scale energy production.
“With a clear three-dimensional image of where supercritical fluids are located and how they move, we can identify promising drilling targets and design safer and more efficient development plans,” Tsuji says. “This could have direct implications for expanding geothermal power generation, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and contributing to carbon neutrality and energy security in Japan and globally.”
In their study, Tsuji and colleagues focused on a region known as the brittle-ductile transition zone, which is where rocks go from being seismically active to mostly inactive. This zone is important for understanding volcanic activity and geothermal processes because it lies near an impermeable sealing band that allows fluids such as water to accumulate in a high-pressure, supercritical state. When these fluids undergo phase transitions, earthquakes may follow. However, such fluids could also produce more geothermal energy than conventional systems. Identifying their location is therefore important for this reason, too.
A high-resolution “digital map”
Many previous electromagnetic and magnetotelluric surveys suffered from low spatial resolution and were limited to regions relatively close to the Earth’s surface. In contrast, the techniques used in the latest study enabled Tsuji and colleagues to create a clear high-resolution “digital map” of deep geothermal reservoirs – something that has never been achieved before.
To make their map, the researchers used three-dimensional multichannel seismic surveys to image geothermal structures in the Kuju volcanic group, which is located on the Japanese island of Kyushu. They then analysed these images using a method they developed known as extended Common Reflection Surface (CRS) stacking. This allowed them to visualize deeper underground features such as magma-related structures, fracture-controlled fluid pathways and rock layers that “seal in” supercritical fluids.
“In addition to this, we applied advanced seismic tomography and machine-learning based analyses to determine the seismic velocity of specific structures and earthquake mechanisms with high accuracy,” explains Tsuji. “It was this integrated approach that allowed us to image a deep geothermal system in unprecedented detail.” He adds that the new technique is also better suited to mountainous geothermal regions where limited road access makes it hard to deploy the seismic sources and receivers used in conventional surveys.
A promising site for future supercritical geothermal energy production
Tsuji and colleagues chose to study the Kuju area because it is home to several volcanoes that were active roughly 1600 years ago and have erupted intermittently in recent years. The region also hosts two major geothermal power plants, Hatchobaru and Otake. The former has a capacity of 110 MW and is the largest geothermal facility in Japan.
The heat source for both plants is thought to be located beneath Mt Kuroiwa and Mt Sensui, and the region is considered a promising site for supercritical geothermal energy production. Its geothermal reservoir appears to consist of water that initially fell as precipitation (so-called meteoric water) and was heated underground before migrating westward through the fault system. Until now, though, no detailed images of the magmatic structures and fluid pathways had been obtained.
Tsuji says he has long wondered why geothermal power is not more widely used in Japan, despite the country’s abundant volcanic and thermal resources. “Our results now provide the scientific and technical foundation for next-generation supercritical geothermal power,” he tells Physics World.
The researchers now plan to try out their technique using portable seismic sources and sensors deployed in mountainous areas (not just along roads) to image the shallower parts of geothermal systems in greater detail as well. “We also plan to extend our surveys to other geothermal fields to test the general applicability of our method,” Tsuji says. “Ultimately, our goal is to provide a reliable scientific basis for the large-scale deployment of supercritical geothermal power as a sustainable energy source.”
HELSINKI — China added to its Guowang national broadband megaconstellation Wednesday with the 600th Long March rocket launch, marking a milestone in the country’s accelerating spaceflight cadence. A Long March 8A rocket lifted off at 9:33 p.m. Eastern, Oct. 15 (0133 UTC, Oct. 16) from launch pad 1 at the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center […]
A research team in Sweden has used real-time imaging technology to visualize the way that blood pumps around a pulsating artificial heart – moving medicine one step closer to the safe use of such devices in people waiting for donor transplants.
The Linköping University (LiU) team used 4D flow MRI to examine the internal processes of a mechanical heart prototype created by Västerås-based technology company Scandinavian Real Heart. The researchers evaluated blood flow patterns and compared them with similar measurements taken in a native human heart, outlining their results in Scientific Reports.
“As the pulsatile total artificial heart contains metal parts, like the motor, we used 3D printing [to replace most metal parts] and a physiological flow loop so we could run it in the MRI scanner under representable conditions,” says first author Twan Bakker, a PhD student at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization at LiU.
No elevated risk
According to Bakker, this is first time that a 3D-printed MRI-compatible artificial heart has been built and successfully evaluated using 4D flow MRI. The team was pleased to discover that the results corroborate the findings of previous computational fluid dynamics simulations indicating “low shear stress and low stagnation”. Overall flow patterns also suggest there is no elevated risk for blood complications compared with hearts in healthy humans and those suffering from valvular disease.
“[The] patterns of low blood flow, a risk for thrombosis, were in the same range as for healthy native human hearts. Patterns of turbulent flow, a risk for activation of blood platelets, which can contribute to thrombosis, were lower than those found in patients with valvular disease,” says Bakker.
“4D flow MRI allows us to measure the flow field without altering the function of the total artificial heart, which is therefore a valuable tool to complement computer simulations and blood testing during the development of the device. Our measurements provided valuable information to the design team that could improve the artificial heart prototype further,” he adds.
Improved diagnostics
A key advantage of 4D flow MRI over alternative measurement techniques – such as particle image velocimetry and laser doppler anemometry – is that it doesn’t require the creation of a fully transparent model. This is an important distinction for Bakker, since some components in the artificial heart are made with materials possessing unique mechanical properties, meaning that replication in a see-through version would be extremely challenging.
Visualizing blood flow The central image shows a representation of the full cardiac cycle in the artificial heart, with circulating flow patterns in various locations highlighted at specified time points. (Courtesy: CC BY 4.0/Sci. Rep. 10.1038/s41598-025-18422-y)
“With 4D flow MRI we had to move the motor away from the scanner bore, but the material in contact with the blood and the motion of the device remained as the original design,” says Bakker.
According to Bakker, the velocity measurements can also be used for visualization and analysis of hemodynamic parameters, such as turbulent kinetic energy, wall shear stresses and more in the heart, as well as for larger vessels in our bodies.
“By studying the flow dynamics in patients and healthy subjects, we can better understand its role in health and disease, which can then support improved diagnostics, interventions and surgical therapies,” he explains.
Moving forward, Bakker says that the research team will continue to evaluate the improved heart design, which was recently granted designation as a Humanitarian Use Device (HUD) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“This makes it possible to apply for designation as a Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) – which may grant the device limited marketing rights and paves the way for the pre-clinical and clinical studies,” he says.
“In addition, we are currently developing tools to compute blood flow using simulations. This may provide us with a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that cause the formation of thrombosis and haemolysis,” he tells Physics World.
Five years after the first countries signed the Artemis Accords, a growing group of nations continues to work on how to implement the guidelines contained in the document.
This was the second plane of satellites for Tranche 1 of the Transport Layer, part of a planned global network of data transport and sensor satellites known as the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture
Observe the fiery Southern and Northern Taurids, a pair of potentially flashy meteor showers that are set to peak this November 2025, all thanks to the debris of an ancient comet.
Learn how an unconventional folk cure landed one woman in the hospital, yet the idea that frogs hold pain-relieving powers isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.
Every new space mission runs into the same wall: physics and fragility. Physics, because the speed of light and contested spectrum make real-time decision-making from the ground impossible when you need it most. Fragility, because modern space systems are software-defined, interconnected, and therefore exposed to radiation-induced faults, cascading anomalies and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. The […]
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