Lifeboat Foundation

It has been believed that Hall thrusters, an efficient kind of electric propulsion widely used in orbit, must be large to produce a lot of thrust. Now, a new study from the University of Michigan suggests that smaller Hall thrusters can generate much more thrust—potentially making them candidates for interplanetary missions.

“People had previously thought that you could only push a certain amount of current through a thruster area, which in turn translates directly into how much force or thrust you can generate per unit area,” said Benjamin Jorns, U-M associate professor of aerospace engineering who led the new Hall thruster study to be presented at the AIAA SciTech Forum in National Harbor, Maryland, today.

Continue reading “Plasma thrusters used on satellites could be much more powerful than previously believed” »

A new ultra-low-power method of communication at first glance seems to violate the laws of physics. It is possible to wirelessly transmit information simply by opening and closing a switch that connects a resistor to an antenna. No need to send power to the antenna.

Our system, combined with techniques for harvesting energy from the environment, could lead to all manner of devices that transmit data, including tiny sensors and implanted medical devices, without needing batteries or other power sources. These include sensors for smart agriculture, electronics implanted in the body that never need battery changes, better contactless credit cards and maybe even new ways for satellites to communicate.

Continue reading “Device transmits radio waves with almost no power—without violating the laws of physics” »

The team recreated a turbulent magnetic reconnection, suggested to be a trigger of solar flares.

On January 10, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory recorded a massive X-class solar flare. The blast hurled debris into space, and radiation from the flare triggered radio blackouts across the South Pacific. The solar outburst was the third X-class — the most powerful — flare in less than a week.

These intense bursts of radiation from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots can be dangerous — in February 2022, SpaceX lost 40 of its newly launched Starlink communications satellites due to a geomagnetic storm triggered by a solar flare.

SpaceX signed a new agreement with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to prevent Starlink satellites from interfering with astronomy.

SpaceX has long been criticized by astronomers for the brightness of its Starlink satellites. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, said in 2019 that SpaceX would ensure that Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. “We care a great deal about science,” he said in a tweet.

Exactly, potentially helping billions of economically disadvantaged people is the greater good. That said, we’ll make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. We care a great deal about science.

A group of hackers was able to take control of a decommissioned satellite and use it to stream a hacking conference’s talks and hacker movies.

On Saturday, at the DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas, Karl Koscher, one of the members of a hacking enthusiasts group called Shadytel, explained how he and his friends were able to legally stream from a satellite in geostationary orbit—35,786 km or 22,236 miles from the surface of the planet.

The satellite had been decommissioned and was about to be sent to the so-called “graveyard orbit,” a far-away orbit where satellites go to die.

Continue reading “Hackers Took Over a Commercial Satellite to Broadcast Hacker Movies” »

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — A rocket launch set for Monday, January 23 in Virginia will be visible to much of the east coast of the United States, according to NASA.

The 59-foot-tall Electron rocket from Rocket Lab USA is set to take off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility along the southeastern coast of Virginia sometime between 6 and 8 p.m.

The mission, named “Virginia is for Launch Lovers,” will deploy radio frequency monitoring satellites for Virginia based geospatial analytics company HawkEye 360. NASA said the mission will help foster a growing low-Earth space economy.

The world’s second-most powerful rocket—though it’s largest partially renewable rocket—yesterday blasted-off on a secret mission for the US Space Force amid spectacular views. Only the fifth flight of the company’s heavy-life Falcon Heavy rocket (though the second inside a few months), the event took place in twilight Sunday, with a satellite being successfully sent into geosynchronous Earth orbit (meaning it will orbit at the same speed as Earth rotates). Two side-boosters then returned to land in tandem on launch pads.

They were the 163th and 164th successful landings of an orbital-class rocket, according to SpaceX.

Continue reading “Watch The Spectacular SpaceX Rocket Launch As Boosters Return To Earth In Tandem” »

UltraAir will enable the exchange of large amounts of data using laser beams in a network of ground stations and satellites in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km above the Earth.

Aerospace corporation Airbus and Dutch high-tech industrial supplier VDL Group will jointly develop and manufacture a laser communication terminal for aircraft, known as UltraAir, according to a press release by the first company published on Tuesday.

The concept is based on a project led by Airbus and the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). The two companies will now prepare a demonstration of a prototype and a first flight test in 2024.

The satellite had an expected two-year-service life, but it blew past that mark. “For 21 of its years in orbit, the ERBS actively investigated how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols,” NASA said.

Spacefaring machines that come back to Earth are subject to an intense reentry process. NASA expected most of ERBS to burn up, “but for some components to survive the reentry.” The return trajectory over a body of water means anything that wasn’t toast likely fell harmlessly into the sea.

The satellite’s uneventful fall back to its home planet is a bit of good news at a time when orbital space is increasingly crowded with junk, debris and defunct satellites. ERBS went out in a blaze of glory after its distinguished service to science.