Lifeboat Foundation

2016 was an indelible year for the telecom industry as it marked Mukesh Ambani led Jio’s foray into the sector which led to industry revenue getting caught in a downward spiral as old players’(Vodafone, Idea, Bharti Airtel) saw their profits and subscriber bases dwindling rapidly. The erstwhile flourished industry narrowed to a handful of players with 2019 opening up new challenging frontiers for the sector. It kept surfacing up in headlines owing to several significant developments, let’s dive into what kept India’s telecom sector abuzz throughout 2019.

A ‘golden house’ is orbiting Earth! SpaceX launched the unique spacecraft to orbit this morning. It is the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich ocean observatory, named in honor of former Head of NASA’s Earth Science Division who passed away of cancer in August. The satellite will soon beam the most accurate information of Earth’s oceans which will help meterologists and scientists forecast weather events, like hurricanes, track climate change and rising sea levels. “At NASA, what we do is, we use the vantage point of space to get a global view of the Earth. And in this case, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is going to give us a global view of the sea surface height,” Karen St. Germain Director of NASA’s Earth Science Division stated. “The changing Earth processes are affecting sea level globally, but the impact on local communities varies widely. International collaboration is critical to both understanding these changes and informing coastal communities around the world,” she said. Sentinel-6 is a joint project between NASA and the European Aerospace Agency (ESA).

The house-shaped satellite was deployed to orbit atop SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off at 9:17 a.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 4E at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Video. And it’s only the first step. Imagine a satellite that doesn’t need to rely on components it brought from earth. It can print out components for itself and for others; spare parts or upgrades for itself, other satellites and space stations.

Made In Space is building a satellite that can 3D print itself in space. If successful, their satellite could revolutionize how we design future spacecraft.

The next Falcon 9 mission will carry a satellite to keep a precise eye on our oceans.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX would like to further expanded testing of its Starlink satellite internet by connecting the network to aircraft.

SpaceX would like to further expand testing of its Starlink satellite internet by connecting the network to aircraft, the company revealed in a recent request to the Federal Communications Commission.

Elon Musk’s space company on Nov. 6 asked the FCC if SpaceX could add Starlink user terminals “on a Gulfstream jet for a period of up to two years.”

Continue reading “SpaceX wants to test its Starlink satellite internet network inflight with a Gulfstream jet” »

Elon Musk wants to connect all corners of the planet via space, but his thousands of orbiting routers may pose a risk to satellites and to science.

Small, boxy satellites are ridesharing their way into outer space—and may lead to important advances in laser communications and cybersecurity.

Caption :

MIT aerospace engineer Kerri Cahoy designs mini satellites for weather monitoring and space exploration.

Magnets are to be found everywhere in our daily lives, whether in satellites, telephones or on fridge doors. However, they are made up of heavy inorganic materials whose component elements are, in some cases, of limited availability.

Now, researchers from the CNRS, the University of Bordeaux and the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble)^[1] have developed a new lightweight molecule-based magnet, produced at low temperatures, and exhibiting unprecedented magnetic properties.

This compound, derived from coordination chemistry^[2], contains chromium, an abundant metal, and inexpensive organic molecules. This is the first molecule-based magnet that exhibits a ‘memory effect’ (i.e. it is capable of maintaining one of its two magnetic states) up to a temperature of 240 °C. This effect is measured by what is known as a coercive field, which is 25 times higher at room temperature for this novel material than for the most efficient of its molecule-based predecessors. This property therefore compares well with that of certain purely inorganic commercial magnets.