Musk’s SpaceX is prepping for its 7th test flight program which is expected to test payload deployment for the first time, carrying 10 mock Starlink satellites.
“I’m really happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the launch of PSLV 60 for the SpaDeX mission,” ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said shortly after the launch in a live webcast. “The rocket has placed the satellites in the right orbit.” If all goes well, the first docking attempt could occur by Jan. 7, he added.
The SpaDeX mission is made up of two satellites, a Target and a Chaser, on a mission to test autonomous docking technology in orbit. But ISRO hopes to do more than just test automatic docking gear.
After revolutionizing global internet access, Elon Musk’s Starlink is poised to take smartphone connectivity to the next level. The ambitious satellite service will soon enable users to make calls from virtually anywhere on the planet, all without the need for specialized hardware.
Starlink, a division of SpaceX, has announced its plans to introduce Direct-to-Cell, a groundbreaking feature that uses its vast satellite network to allow voice calls on regular smartphones. What sets this apart is its simplicity—there’s no need for modifications to your device. As long as your phone is LTE-compatible, you’re ready to connect.
This innovation could fundamentally change how we think about mobile communication. Imagine being able to make calls from the remotest corners of the Earth—whether you’re deep in a rainforest, sailing in the middle of the ocean, or trekking across deserts—with no cell towers in sight. Starlink’s satellite system makes this scenario entirely possible.
NASA has been monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth’s magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and southwest Africa.
This vast, developing phenomenon, called the South Atlantic Anomaly, has intrigued and concerned scientists for years, and perhaps none more so than NASA researchers.
Continue reading “NASA Is Watching a Vast, Growing Anomaly in Earth’s Magnetic Field” »
TAMPA, Fla. — Spacecoin said it is successfully communicating with its recently launched debut connectivity satellite, designed to test technology for a decentralized space-based network shared by multiple investors.
“We have established regular communication with the satellite,” Spacecoin founder Tae Oh said, following SpaceX’s Dec. 21 Falcon 9 rideshare mission to low Earth orbit.
The venture aims to start testing its CTC-0 small satellite early next year, initially demonstrating space-enabled text messaging to a specialized handheld antenna but ultimately directly to standard smartphones.
Scientists have found a way to directly convert sunlight into laser beams in space.
In the future, spacecraft could get rid of the limited fuel problem by tapping into the limitless energy of the sun.
Continue reading “Solar-powered lasers could usher a new era of space exploration” »
When two probes orbiting the sun aligned with one another, researchers harnessed the opportunity to track the sun’s magnetic field as it traveled into the solar system. They found that the sharply oscillating magnetic field smooths out to gentle waves while accelerating the surrounding solar wind, according to a University of Michigan-led study published in The Astrophysical Journal.
The sharp S-shaped bends of the magnetic fields streaming out of the sun, called magnetic switchbacks, have long been of interest to solar scientists. Switchbacks impact the solar wind —the charged particles, or plasma, that stream from the sun and influence space weather in ways that can disrupt Earth’s electrical grids, radio waves, radar and satellites.
The new understanding of magnetic switchback changes over time will help improve solar wind forecasts to better predict space weather and its potential impacts on Earth.
Launching in February 2025, NASAs PUNCH mission will study the Sun’s corona and solar wind with four satellites.
NASA and SpaceX plan to launch NASA’s PUNCH mission (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) in late February 2025 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The PUNCH mission consists of four small satellites designed to enter low Earth orbit and capture 3D, global views of the Sun’s corona. By studying how mass and energy in the corona become the solar wind, scientists hope to gain new insights into solar activity and its effects on space weather.
Dyson spheres and rings have always held a special fascination for me. The concept is simple: build a great big structure either as a sphere or ring to harness the energy from a star. Dyson rings are far more simple and feasible to construct and in a recent paper a team of scientists explore how we might detect them by analyzing the light from distant stars. The team suggests they might be able to detect Dyson rings around pulsars using their new technique.
Like their spherical cousins, Dyson rings remain for now, a popular idea in science fiction yet they are starting to appear more and more in scientific debates. The concept of the ring is similar to the sphere, a megastructure designed to encircle a star, harnessing its energy on a gargantuan scale.
It might consist of a series of satellites or even habitats in a circular orbit with solar collectors and unlike the spheres, require far less resources to build. The concept of the sphere was first proposed by physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson in 1960. Such structures might be detectable and reveal the existence of intelligent civilizations.
For centuries, gravity has been one of the most captivating and puzzling forces in the universe. Thanks to the groundbreaking work of Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, we have a robust understanding of how gravity governs the behavior of planets, stars, and even galaxies. Yet, when we look at extreme scenarios, such as the intense gravitational fields near black holes or the mysterious quantum world, our understanding starts to break down. New research and theories, however, suggest that the key to solving these mysteries may finally be within reach.
In our daily lives, gravity is a constant presence. It’s what keeps us grounded to the Earth, dictates the orbits of planets, and ensures that satellites stay in orbit around our planet. Thanks to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, scientists have been able to make highly accurate predictions about the movement of celestial bodies, calculate tides, and even send probes to the farthest reaches of the solar system.
Yet, when gravity’s effects become more extreme—such as inside black holes or during the birth of the universe—it becomes much more difficult to model. Similarly, when we turn our attention to the quantum realm of subatomic particles, Einstein’s theory breaks down. To understand phenomena like the Big Bang or the inner workings of black holes, physicists have long known that we need a new, unified theory of gravity.
