Orbex, a UK-based private, low-cost orbital launch services company, has developed what it calls an "advanced, low carbon, high performance micro-launch" rocket called "Orbex Prime" and states that it already has a customer to fly on it.

Built with 3D-printed engines and a carbon fiber-and-graphene body, Orbex Prime will utilize renewable "bio-propane" as its fuel of choice. The two-stage rocket will be designed to carry up to 150 kilograms of payload, contained within a 1.3-meter fairing, into Sun Synchronous Orbit. Orbex even says its Prime rocket will be "80% reusable", although it is rather unclear how this would be executed.

The Graphene Flagship recently launched an Airbus-Backed Project for graphene-based thermoelectric ice protection systems. Now, Versarien announced that it has been selected to participate in that project.

The Project, which is categorized by the Graphene Flagship as a Spearhead, large-scale commercialization project, aims to develop graphene-based thermoelectric ice protection systems and to advance the technology readiness level of graphene in these systems.

The Graphene Flagship has announced the launch of eleven new "Spearhead Projects", each developed to take graphene-enabled prototypes to commercial applications. Now, the Graphene Flagship has committed 45 million Euro to invest in eleven commercialization projects led by key industrial partners in Europe such as Airbus, Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Lufthansa Technik, Siemens, and ABB. Notably, the project partners will also co-fund the projects with a further combined contribution of 47 million Euro, showing their interest in the development of graphene-enabled products.

The newly launched projects combine the results of the Graphene Flagship's innovative scientific research with the ambitions of commercial partners for marketable applications. This initiative will bring the number of companies involved in the Graphene Flagship to 78, which makes up nearly half of the whole consortium.

The Graphene Flagship has announced the GICE Spearhead Project - development of a graphene-based thermoelectric ice protection system, that will aim to advance the technology readiness of graphene in such applications.

If ice accumulates on the wings, propellers or other surfaces of an aircraft, control can be dangerously inhibited. Thermoelectric ice protection systems prevent this from happening, using an ultra-thin conductive coating layer to generate heat when current is applied. The GICE project will attempt to use graphene to improve existing technology for this application.

2D fab, together with SAAB and Blackwing Sweden, developed new graphene-enhanced components for the aviation industry that offer increased lightning strike protection and strength.

The project, called Multigraph, was launched in 2017 with the mission to create better components for the aviation industry. The aim was to use graphene’s multifunctional properties to increase the mechanical strength and electrical conductivity of the materials used, the latter reducing the amount of maintenance required due to lightning strikes.

Haydale has launched a range of graphene-enhanced prepreg materials for lightning-strike protection, utilizing functionalized graphene to improve the electrical conductivity.

The material has been developed in collaboration with Airbus UK, BAE Systems, GE Aviation and Element Materials Technology Warwick, within the NATEP-supported GraCELs project where the first iterations of materials were developed and subjected to lighting strike tests. The consortium is now looking to manufacture a demonstrator component using the materials developed to establish composite manufacturing protocols as a showcase part for commercial purposes.

Peter J Sarre, Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Astrophysics at the University of Nottingham in the UK, has released a fascinating work that infers, based on previously unassigned optical and infrared astronomical observations and comparison with laboratory data on graphene oxide (GO), that GO is a significant component of interstellar dust.

Dust particles play a major role in the formation, evolution and chemistry of interstellar clouds, stars, and planetary systems. Commonly identified forms include amorphous and crystalline carbon-rich particles and silicates. Also present in many astrophysical environments are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), detected through their infrared emission, and which are essentially small flakes of graphene.

Rice University team under chemist James Tour has transformed their laser-induced graphene (LIG) into self-sterilizing filters that grab pathogens out of the air and kill them with small pulses of electricity. This may be of special interest to hospitals, where according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, patients have a 1-in-31 chance of acquiring a potentially antibiotic-resistant infection during hospitalization.

The device reportedly captures bacteria, fungi, spores, prions, endotoxins and other biological contaminants carried by droplets, aerosols and particulate matter.

Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) and pressure vessel manufacturer Infinite Composites Technologies have collaborated to develop a composite material for space exploration.

The partnership saw the use of AGM’s graphene technology in two resin systems for cryogenic pressure tanks. These vessels are currently being explored by Nasa for use in several spaceflight missions, as well as International Space Station Experiments (MISSE), Artemis and Lunar Gateway programmes.

Researchers from Chalmers University of Technology have demonstrated a graphene-based detector with the potential to revolutionize the sensors used in next-generation space telescopes. Beyond superconductors, there are few materials that can meet the requirements for making ultra-sensitive and fast terahertz (THz) detectors for astronomy. Chalmers researchers have shown that engineered graphene adds a new material paradigm for THz heterodyne detection.

"Graphene might be the only known material that remains an excellent conductor of electricity/heat even when having, effectively, no electrons. We have reached a near zero-electron scenario in graphene, also called Dirac point, by assembling electron-accepting molecules on its surface. Our results show that graphene is an exceptionally good material for THz heterodyne detection when doped to the Dirac point," says Samuel Lara-Avila, assistant professor at the Quantum Device Physics Laboratory and lead author of the paper.