With the long-term on-orbit operation of space stations, extravehicular status monitoring and surface inspection tasks have imposed higher demands on the motion planning capabilities of manipulators. Space redundant manipulators, when performing visual monitoring tasks, must simultaneously satisfy multiple complex constraints including kinematics, dynamics, obstacle avoidance, and end-effector line-of-sight, making this a typical nonlinear non-convex optimal control problem. Although sampling-based methods can rapidly generate collision-free paths, they struggle to guarantee dynamic feasibility in high-dimensional systems and often yield poor-quality paths. Optimization-based methods, while capable of directly generating high-quality trajectories, are highly sensitive to initial solutions and lack effective warm-start mechanisms. Therefore, how to merge the rapid search capability of sampling-based methods with the precise solving advantage of optimization-based methods to plan high-quality executable trajectories under complex constraints for space manipulators has become a key challenge in advancing the intelligent development of space robotics.

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has successfully secured the hosting rights for the 2028 Magnetospheres of Outer Planets (MOP) Conference. As the premier global symposium in space physics, MOP has been held biennially since the 1970s and will make its historic debut in Hong Kong in 2028, more than half a century after its inception. Jointly hosted by the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA) and the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) at HKU, this landmark event marks a major milestone in establishing Hong Kong’s leadership in space and planetary sciences across the Asia-Pacific region and globally.

Some stars that survive repeated close encounters with supermassive black holes produce flares that mysteriously grow dimmer each time — and Syracuse University astrophysicists have now traced the reason to the star's own spin.

The near-Earth asteroid Apophis will make an extremely close flyby of Earth on April 13, 2029, at a distance of approximately 38,000 km—an event that occurs on average only once every 7,500 years, offering an unprecedented opportunity for planetary science and planetary defense. However, significant uncertainties remain regarding the physical parameters of Apophis, such as its shape, spin state, internal structure, and material composition, and predictions of tidal effects—including potential orbital changes, spin acceleration, surface material displacement, and dust ejection during the flyby—are highly dependent on model assumptions. Although multiple nations have planned exploration missions, how to coordinate global observational resources within the limited time window, optimize rapid-response mission architectures, and translate scientific understanding into effective planetary defense strategies remain critical challenges to be addressed.

With the intensifying space confrontation in geostationary orbit (GEO), the U.S. GSSAP (Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program) satellites have conducted hundreds of close-range observation operations on dozens of on-orbit satellites in the vicinity of GEO. The acquisition of multi-aspect information from non-cooperative targets has thus become a critical component of space security assessment. Close-range spacecraft operations, which employ relative motion configurations such as fly-around, hovering, and drifting flight, provide an effective technical means for approaching and observing targets to obtain multi-aspect payload information. However, existing studies predominantly focus on the control design of a single relative motion configuration, which fails to satisfy the complex mission requirements of multi-aspect observation. The combination of multiple models for observation presents multiple challenges, including smooth switching between modes, fuel optimization, strategy design algorithms, and analysis of payload parameter effects. Therefore, how to coordinately plan a sequential combination of multiple close-range operation models under minimum fuel constraints to efficiently acquire multi-aspect information of non-cooperative targets has become a key bottleneck in enhancing space situational awareness capabilities.

As humanity gets closer to the possibility of long-term interplanetary travel, psychologists have started to raise concerns about mental health wellness in astronauts. Researchers at Texas A&M University conducted research on sailors in an isolated environment to address these concerns with virtual reality technology and by introducing other senses to the experience, such as smell and touch.

Before people can mine resources on the Moon, asteroids, or Mars, they need to answer a few key questions: What is there? How much is there? And where can it be found?

A team led by SETI Institute research scientist Pablo Sobron is looking into a new way to answer these questions without having to land, drill, or bring samples back to Earth. Supported by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, the project is testing whether Raman spectroscopy—a technique already used in planetary exploration at close range—could be used from orbit or during fast flybys to identify minerals, water, and other materials.

The idea, called Interworld Slingshot Resource Surveys, suggests using a small spacecraft with one remote-sensing tool to study several places, such as the Moon, a near-Earth asteroid, and Phobos, which is one of Mars’s moons.

“The thing most likely to stop space mining may be that we cannot afford to prove there is anything worth mining. Land in the wrong place and you can lose an entire exploration program or a company, and nobody has enough money to keep sending spacecraft and hoping for the best. We are asking whether Raman can give us an affordable way to put an X on the map before anyone commits to landing. And if the physics works, this may become much more than a mining tool; it could give us a new way to explore places like Europa and Enceladus for science.” -Pablo Sobron

In a new study published as a Letter in Physical Review D, Sohan Ghodla and Cosmin Ilie of Colgate University investigate whether supermassive black holes formed in the early Universe could ultimately produce a substantial fraction of the gravitational-wave background now observed by Pulsar Timing Arrays, or PTAs. Their results establish a direct connection between two seemingly very different observational frontiers: observations of unexpectedly massive black holes in the young Universe and gravitational waves produced by supermassive black-hole binaries billions of years later.