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A near-Earth asteroid known as Kamo‘oalewa might be made of a stray chunk of the Moon, scientists have said.
Kamo‘oalewa is one of a mysterious and little-understood set of objects called quasi-satellites. It is an asteroid that orbits around the Sun but remains close to the Earth.
Continue reading “Earth is being followed by a chunk of the Moon” »
Sandia National Laboratories is developing an avocado-sized vacuum chamber made out of titanium and sapphire that could one day use quantum mechanical sensors to provide GPS-grade navigation without the need for satellites.
In only a few short decades, GPS has gone from a military technology to finding so many everyday applications that modern society is now dependent on it. However, GPS is not always available in places like high polar latitudes or in deep mountain valleys, and it can be jammed or spoofed.
The vulnerability of GPS and similar systems lies in their dependence on constellations of satellites that orbit the Earth. These satellites emit time-stamped signals that are synced to atomic clocks. Using these signals, a GPS receiver in something as small as a wristwatch can use the Doppler effect on the satellite signals as they pass overhead to make an extremely precise fix on the receiver’s position and velocity. If these signals are interrupted or corrupted, the system fails.
https://www.youtube.com/user/WWFClimate/featured.
*To date, most studies have focused on understanding how much carbon is stored above ground (in trees and other plants, for example). This research, however, revealed that when you look below ground and get into deeper levels of soil, there are massive deposits of carbon.*
Canada’s first-ever national carbon map reveals the location of billions — yes, billions — of tonnes of carbon stored in ecosystems across the country. This data, and how we use it, could alter the pace of climate change.
Saddle up.
Why use unsustainable rocket propellants for small satellite launches when you could just catapult them into space?
Continue reading “Medieval Space Flight? A Company Is Catapulting Rockets to Cut Costs” »
China’s military has built a fake US Navy aircraft carrier and other warships for possible missile target practice, according to new satellite images published Sunday.
The images, captured by Colorado-based satellite imagery company Maxar Technologies, show a full-scale outline of a carrier and at least two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers at what appears to be a new target range complex in the Taklamakan Desert, part of China’s notorious Xinjiang province.
One of the mockups included the funnels and weapons systems featured on the destroyers, according to an analysis by the US Naval Institute.
“We are absolutely losing some science,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tells The Register. “How much science we lose depends on how many satellites there end up being. You occasionally lose data. At the moment it’s one in every ten images.”
Telescopes can try waiting for a fleet of satellites to pass before they snap their images, though if astronomers are trying to track moving objects, such as near-Earth asteroids or comets, for example, it can be impossible to avoid the blight.
“As we raise the number of satellites, there starts to be multiple streaks in images you take. That’s no longer irritating, you really are losing science. Ten years from now, there may be so many that we can’t deal with it,” he added.
The year is 1,972 the final Apollo mission to the moon has just been completed and President Nixon has announced a new American Spacecraft. “This is the largest spacecraft ever launched by man, the first winged spaceship” “The world’s first reusable spacecraft” The Space Shuttle.
Capable of carrying several astronauts as well as large satellites into Earth’s orbit. This new idea for a reusable spacecraft was meant to drastically reduce the cost of getting into orbit, and although the Space Shuttle did complete hundreds of successful missions, it never really lived up to everything it promised to be.
Today, we have SpaceX making another attempt to cut the cost of getting into space. But what are they doing differently? How do we know the BFR won’t become another Space Shuttle?
Adding another dimension to the Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk rivalry.
Amazon will launch the first two of its Project Kuiper internet satellites in the fourth quarter of 2,022 in a bid to tap the market for internet satellite constellations, a press statement from the delivery giant reveals.
Amazon announced Project Kuiper last week, alongside a partnership with Verizon, which will provide its telecommunications expertise. The two firms are following in the footsteps of SpaceX’… See more.
Magnets on the end of a robot arm could help move debris or fix satellites without ever being touched.
But in recent years the government has signaled its intent to open up the sector to private players and last year passed a series of reforms designed to foster innovation and encourage new start ups. Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched the Indian Space Association, an industry body designed to foster collaboration between public and private players.
One of the companies that has been quick to pounce on these new opportunities is Agnikul, which is being incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai. This February, the company successfully test fired its 3D-printed Agnilet rocket engine, just four years after its founding.
While other private space companies like Relativity Space and Rocket Lab also use 3D printing to build their rockets, Agnikul is the first to print an entire rocket engine as a single piece. IEEE Spectrum spoke to co-founder and chief operating officer Moin SPM to find out why the company thinks this gives them an edge in the burgeoning “launch on-demand” market for small satellites. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
