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Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 85

Nov 18, 2021

Smart Sensing Satellite Shows Power Of Brains In Space

Posted by in categories: food, internet, robotics/AI, satellites

A new European satellite will use machine learning to provide rapid, low-cost information on soil conditions to enable smarter agriculture. The project is a model for what novel sensors and artificial intelligence technology can do in a vehicle no bigger than a shoebox.

Edge computing is a fashionable buzz-phrase for the technique of shifting the processing power away from the server farms of the internet and out to where the data is being collected. According to some, edge computing is the next great tech revolution, and in the case of satellites, where communications bandwidth is severely limited, it could be transformational.

The Intuition-1 satellite program will provide soil data to drive European precision agriculture projects, which involve applying fertilizer only when and where needed rather than treating an entire field. Precision agriculture is both more economical and easier on the environment — the catch is that it requires detailed information about soil conditions on a small scale. At present, establishing levels of soil nutrients in sufficient detail involves taking samples from multiple locations and sending them to a laboratory for analysis. This typically takes about three weeks.

Nov 17, 2021

Russia’s missile test could have easily obliterated the International Space Station

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, satellites

In the wee morning hours of Tuesday (Nov. 16), the seven-person crew of the International Space Station (ISS) awoke in alarm. A Russian missile test had just blasted a decommissioned Kosmos spy satellite into more than 1,500 pieces of space debris — some of which were close enough to the ISS to warrant emergency collision preparations.

The four Americans, one German and two Russian cosmonauts aboard the station were told to shelter in the transport capsules that brought them to the ISS, while the station passed by the debris cloud several times over the following hours, according to NASA.

Ultimately, Tuesday ended without any reported damage or injury aboard the ISS, but the crew’s precautions — and the NASA administrator’s stern response to Russia — were far from an overreaction. Space debris like the kind created in the Kosmos break-up can travel at more than 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h), NASA says — and even a scrap of metal the size of a pea can become a potentially deadly missile in low-Earth orbit. (For comparison, a typical bullet discharged from an AR-15 rifle travels at just over 2,200 mph, or 3,500 km/h).

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Nov 17, 2021

To Save Earth, NASA Is Testing Hitting An Asteroid With A Spacecraft

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks, satellites

“We know of no asteroids that are coming in to hit the Earth,” Rivkin emphasizes. DART, he says, is part of a multi-pronged effort to examine the asteroid collision problem. “Asteroid impacts are really the only natural disaster that humanity can see coming years or decades in advance and do anything about.”

NASA calls DART its “First Planetary Defense Test Mission.” Rivkin is the DART investigation team lead at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, which is running the experiment for NASA.

Full Story:

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Nov 17, 2021

BREAKING ISS astronauts forced to board Crew Dragon and Soyuz to prepare for a possible evacuation

Posted by in categories: military, satellites

The United States said Monday it was investigating a “debris-generating event in outer space” after astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to prepare for a possible evacuation. It came amid unconfirmed reports that Russia had carried out an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) test…


“US Space Command is aware of a debris-generating event in outer space. We are actively working to characterize the debris field and will continue to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to maneuver satellites if impacted,” the agency said.

“We are also in the process of working with… the State Department and NASA, concerning these reports and will provide an update in the near future.”

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Nov 14, 2021

SpaceX launch starts deployment of new Starlink orbital shell

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

SpaceX shot 53 Starlink internet satellites into orbit on top of a Falcon 9 rocket Saturday from foggy Cape Canaveral, commencing a new phase of deploying the global broadband network with the first launch into a new “shell” some 335 miles above Earth.

The mission was the 31st Falcon 9 launch in two-and-a-half years dedicated to carrying satellites for the Starlink internet network, bringing the total number of Starlink spacecraft launched to 1,844.

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Nov 14, 2021

China is building a new ship for sea launches to space

Posted by in category: satellites

China is building a specially designed ship for launching rockets into space from the seas in an effort to boost its capacity to launch satellites and recover rocket stages.

The 533 feet (162.5 meters) long, 131 feet (40 meters) wide “New-type rocket launching vessel” is being constructed for use with the new China Oriental Spaceport at Haiyang, Shandong province on the Eastern coast.

Nov 13, 2021

Space startup wants to sling satellites into orbit with a huge centrifuge

Posted by in categories: energy, satellites

In a nutshell: In the 21st century, there’s a new space race, primarily between Tesla (SpaceX) and Amazon (Blue Origin). Both are concentrating on traditional methods of launching satellites into space—namely, big rockets. However, a small space startup called SpinLaunch is developing a cheaper and environmentally cleaner way of launching satellites.

SpinLaunch is using a gigantic centrifuge to shoot stuff into space. By “stuff,” we mean things that can withstand the G-force created by being spun at 5,000 miles per hour (over 10,000 Gs), which is a category of stuff that does not yet include satellites. However, it did launch a missile-like projectile tens of thousands of feet into the air last month, using only 20 percent of the accelerator’s power.

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Nov 12, 2021

Scientists may have just discovered the Moon’s large adult son

Posted by in category: satellites

A new study examines Kamo‘oalewa, one of Earth’s quasi-satellites that may have been ejected from the Moon in a collision that flung it out of our system.

Nov 11, 2021

SpaceX Unveils All-New Starlink Dish with More Mounting Options [PICS]

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

It is interesting to see Starlink evolve and move towards massive expansion. Currently, Starlink has only launched 64 laser satellites but this number should grow dramatically in the coming months. (All future Starlink satellites will include lasers.)

Their new Starlink dish will be a lot cheaper to produce which is important as originally the first Starlink dish cost $3,000 to make and SpaceX was selling it for $500. It has already gone through multiple generations and this rectangular dish should cost around $650 to make. (With the original dish, if they had sold a million of them, they would have lost 2.5 billion dollars which would have been painful.)


SpaceX has unveiled a new Starlink satellite dish, sporting a new rectangular design for customers in the United States. The company’s website is showing the new design for visitors showing U.S. IP addresses.

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Nov 11, 2021

Earth is being followed by a chunk of the Moon

Posted by in category: satellites

O,.o.


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.

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