Breakthrough Starshot, a multi-faceted program to develop and launch practical interstellar space missions, successfully flew its first spacecraft - the smallest ever launched.

On June 23, a number of prototype "Sprites" - the world's smallest fully functional space probes, built on a single circuit board - achieved Low Earth Orbit, piggybacking on OHB System AG's 'Max Valier' and 'Venta' satellites.

The 3.5-by-3.5 centimeterchips weigh just four grams but contain solar panels, computers, sensors, and radios. These vehicles are the next step of a revolution in spacecraft miniaturization that can contribute to the development of centimeter- and gram-scale "StarChips" envisioned by the Breakthrough Starshot project.

The Sprite is the brainchild of Breakthrough Starshot's Zac Manchester, whose 2011 Kickstarter campaign, "KickSat," raised the first funds to develop the concept.

The Sprites were constructed by researchers at Cornell University and transported into space as secondary payloads by the Max Valier and Venta satellites, the latter built by the Bremen-based OHB System AG, whose generous assistance made the mission possible.

The Sprites remain attached to the satellites. Communications received from the mission show the Sprite system performing as designed.

The spacecraft are in radio communication with ground stations in California and New York, as well as with amateur radio enthusiasts around the world. This mission is designed to test how well the Sprites' electronics perform in orbit, and demonstrates their novel radio communication architecture.

Breakthrough Initiatives - including most notably, Breakthrough Starshot and Breakthrough Listen - are a set of long-term astronomical programs exploring the Universe, seeking scientific evidence of life beyond Earth, and encouraging public debate from a planetary perspective.

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Veritable shields against high-energy particles, planets' magnetic fields are produced by iron moving in their liquid core. Yet the dominant model for explaining this system does not fit the smallest celestial bodies. Researchers at the Institut de Recherche sur les Phenomenes Hors Equilibre and the University of Leeds have proposed a new model suggesting that turbulence in the liquid cores is d ... read more

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