The bright images in the sky that stopped traffic across the Southland came from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Friday. The rocket was carrying 10 satellites to low-Earth orbit, all which successfully deployed. (credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) lat.ms/2l0l8Xt
Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 156
Nov 19, 2017
First-of-Its-Kind Satellite Launches to Track Earth’s Weather Like Never Before
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: satellites
The first in a series of four advanced polar-orbiting satellites launched to space on its third try early Saturday (Nov. 18), turning its watchful eye to improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and Earth observations.
The new Joint Polar Satellite System-1 satellite, or JPSS-1, launched into orbit atop a United Launch Alliance-built Delta II rocket at 4:47 a.m. EST (0947 GMT), lighting up the predawn sky over its Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The successful liftoff came after two scrubbed launch attempts earlier this week due to high winds and boats inside the launch range restriction zone offshore.
“Things went absolutely perfect today,” NASA launch manager Omar Baez said after the JPSS-1 launch. “The nation’s got another wonderful weather asset up in space.” [The JPSS-1 Weather Satellite’s Mission in Pictures].
Continue reading “First-of-Its-Kind Satellite Launches to Track Earth’s Weather Like Never Before” »
Nov 18, 2017
AI could be the perfect tool for exploring the Universe
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: robotics/AI, satellites
Yes I agree.very good resource for this job!
In our efforts to understand the Universe, we’re getting greedy, making more observations than we know what to do with. Satellites beam down hundreds of terabytes of information each year, and one telescope under construction in Chile will produce 15 terabytes of pictures of space every night. It’s impossible for humans to sift through it all. As astronomer Carlo Enrico Petrillo told The Verge: “Looking at images of galaxies is the most romantic part of our job. The problem is staying focused.” That’s why Petrillo trained an AI program to do the looking for him. Petrillo and his colleagues…
Nov 16, 2017
World’s first ‘space nation’ Asgardia launches satellite into space
Posted by Carse Peel in category: satellites
Nov 13, 2017
What Happens If China Makes First Contact?
Posted by Brett Gallie II in categories: alien life, satellites
As America has turned away from searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, China has built the world’s largest radio dish for precisely that purpose.
Last January, the Chinese Academy of Sciences invited Liu Cixin, China’s preeminent science-fiction writer, to visit its new state-of-the-art radio dish in the country’s southwest. Almost twice as wide as the dish at America’s Arecibo Observatory, in the Puerto Rican jungle, the new Chinese dish is the largest in the world, if not the universe. Though it is sensitive enough to detect spy satellites even when they’re not broadcasting, its main uses will be scientific, including an unusual one: The dish is Earth’s first flagship observatory custom-built to listen for a message from an extraterrestrial intelligence. If such a sign comes down from the heavens during the next decade, China may well hear it first.
Nov 11, 2017
NASA to test ‘space lasers’ with latest launch
Posted by Carse Peel in category: satellites
NASA and aerospace firm Orbital ATK are launching laser equipped satellites into space on Saturday.
Nov 8, 2017
Quantum security from small satellites
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: quantum physics, satellites, security
Shoebox sized satellites could be the key to fast-track development of space quantum communication.
Oct 15, 2017
NASA Satellite Sees Overheated Tropical Forests Oozing with Carbon Dioxide
Posted by Brett Gallie II in categories: satellites, sustainability
NASA’s OCO-2 satellite has detected a dramatic spike in global atmospheric carbon dioxide, and overheated tropical forests are partly to blame.
Oct 15, 2017
The Future May Owe Itself to Blockchain Technology. Here’s Why
Posted by Saúl Morales Rodriguéz in categories: bitcoin, computing, economics, internet, satellites
Sending satellites into space is going to continue to get cheaper since SpaceX proved it could reliably launch refurbished rockets. This is going to open up space exploration to more entities allowing for the continued democratization of space. Other technological advances could make a global space centered sharing economy a real possibility.
The rise of the internet and the ubiquity of mobile computing devices have changed everything from travel and shopping to politics – think Uber, Amazon, and Twitter.
Oct 13, 2017
General Atomics ramping cubesat production, muses railgun smallsat launcher
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: drones, military, satellites
WASHINGTON — General Atomics is better known for building Predator combat drones and mining uranium than building spacecraft, but that could change as the company develops an interest in building defense-focused cubesats.
Also in the realm of possibility: using expertise from building railguns to design a large, electromagnetic cannon as a means to orbit small satellites.
Nick Bucci, vice president of missile defense and space systems for General Atomic’s Electromagnetic Systems Group, said the company has built 11 cubesats for the U.S. Army over the past seven years, and is gradually becoming more and more invested in space.
Continue reading “General Atomics ramping cubesat production, muses railgun smallsat launcher” »