Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘satellites’ category: Page 74

Jan 26, 2022

SpaceX’s Starship Will Be Capable Of Capturing Satellites To Be Repaired In Orbit Or Returned To Earth

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, robotics/AI, satellites, sustainability

SpaceX’s Starship will be a multipurpose launch vehicle, capable of returning astronauts to the Moon to build a permanent base and enabling humanity to build a sustainable colony on Mars. It is expected to become the world’s most powerful rocket-ship. “Starship was designed from the onset to be able to carry more than 100 tons of cargo to Mars and the Moon. The cargo version can also be used for rapid point-to-point Earth transport. Various payload bay configurations are available and allow for fully autonomous deployment of cargo to Earth, Lunar, or Martian surfaces,” the company said.

SpaceX’s Starship launch vehicle has many potential uses and capabilities that will enable access to space like never before. The cargo version of Starship will be able to launch entire satellite constellations in a single launch inside its payload bay. For perspective, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 can carry up to 60 Starlink in a tight configuration inside its 5.2-meter diameter fairing, Starship will be able to carry 400 Starlink to deploy in a single launch inside its fairing. Starship will be capable of deploying giant spacecraft to space inside its clamshell-like fairing, which has an outer diameter of 9-meters –“the largest usable payload volume of any current or in development launcher,” the company says. SpaceX also plans to design an extended Starship volume capability for payloads requiring up to 22-meters of height.

Starship will also be able to capture already in orbit to be repaired or brought back to be disposed of on Earth, according to SpaceX’s Starship User Guide. “Fully-reusable Starship and Super Heavy systems are expected to allow for space-based activities that have not been possible since the retirement of the Space Shuttle and Space Transportation System, or have never been possible before. With a fully reusable Starship, can be captured and repaired in Orbit, returned to Earth, or transferred to a new operational orbit,” SpaceX’s vehicle guide says. This will be possible with Starship’s large clamshell-like cargo door mechanism that opens and closes, as shown in the image below. The clamshell door can be modified to “chomp up” old and space junk orbiting Earth. “We can fly Starship around space and chomp up debris with the moving fairing door,” SpaceX founder Elon Musk said in July 2021.

Jan 26, 2022

Out-of-control SpaceX rocket will smash into the moon in weeks

Posted by in categories: climatology, satellites

A SpaceX rocket that launched nearly seven years ago is now on course to crash into the moon, astronomers have predicted.

The Falcon 9 booster was launched in February 2015 as part of a mission to send a climate observation satellite 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth, but since running out of fuel, the 4.4-ton (4 metric tons) rocket has been hurtling around space in a chaotic orbit.

The rocket is now expected to hit the far side of the moon while traveling at a blistering speed of 5,771 mph (9,288 km/h) on March 4, 2022, according to Bill Gray, the developer of software that tracks near-Earth objects.

Continue reading “Out-of-control SpaceX rocket will smash into the moon in weeks” »

Jan 22, 2022

SpaceX Starlink: Why humanity needs to act now before it’s too late

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

We will soon need to make some difficult choices.


Given current trends, that number will be reached within a year or so. There are ways to mitigate the effect of these streaks. Painting the satellites and adding reflective panels could reduce their brightness, particularly at infrared wavelengths that are important for near-Earth asteroid detection.

But the study points out that the mitigation strategy currently proposed by Starlink won’t be sufficient to avoid an impact on astronomy.

Continue reading “SpaceX Starlink: Why humanity needs to act now before it’s too late” »

Jan 21, 2022

Elon Musk Offering Satellite Internet to Tsunami-Hit Tonga

Posted by in categories: climatology, Elon Musk, internet, satellites

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is offering to send Starlink internet terminals to Tonga after an underwater volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami cut off communication links.

Jan 20, 2022

Synchronizing time in modern warfare — down to billionths and trillionths of a second — is critical for mission success

Posted by in categories: energy, military, satellites

High-tech missiles, sensors, aircraft, ships, and artillery all rely on atomic clocks on GPS satellites for nanosecond timing accuracy. A timing error of just a few billionths of a second can translate to positioning being off by a meter or more. If GPS were jammed by an adversary, time synchronization would rapidly deteriorate and threaten military operations.

To address this scenario, DARPA has announced the Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) program, which aims to create optical atomic clocks with low size, weight, and power (SWaP) that yield timing accuracy and holdover better than GPS atomic clocks and can be used outside a laboratory. ROCkN will leverage DARPA-funded research over the past couple decades that has led to lab demonstration of the world’s most precise optical atomic clocks. ROCkN clocks will not be as precise as the best lab optical clocks, but they will surpass current state-of-the-art atomic clocks in both precision and holdover while maintaining low SWaP in a robust package. https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2022-01-20

Jan 19, 2022

Engineering plants to talk via bioluminescence

Posted by in categories: drones, engineering, food, mobile phones, satellites, sustainability

What if plants could tell us when pests are attacking them, or they’re too dry, or they need more fertilizer. One startup is gene engineering farm plants so they can communicate in in fluorescent colors. The result: a farmer’s phone, drone, or even satellite imagery can reveal what is happening in hundreds of acres of fields …

That leads to better food, fewer crop failures, and more revenue for farmers.

Continue reading “Engineering plants to talk via bioluminescence” »

Jan 19, 2022

SpaceX successfully completes first launch of 2022 from Florida

Posted by in categories: internet, satellites

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 6 (UPI) — SpaceX kicked off a surge in launch activity Thursday with the successful launch of 49 of the company’s Starlink communications satellites from Florida, heading south along the state’s coastline.

Five SpaceX missions may launch in the next month on the southern polar trajectory, flying closer to the Florida coast toward Miami than most launches, according to the U.S. Space Force.

Continue reading “SpaceX successfully completes first launch of 2022 from Florida” »

Jan 18, 2022

New AI navigation prevents crashes in space

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, satellites

What do you call a broken satellite?

Today, it’s a multimillion-dollar piece of dangerous space junk.

But a new collision-avoidance developed by at the University of Cincinnati is getting engineers closer to developing robots that can fix broken satellites or spacecraft in orbit.

Jan 17, 2022

4,500 year-old avenues lined with ancient tombs discovered in Saudi Arabia

Posted by in category: satellites

Archaeologists have discovered a 4,500-year-old highway network in Saudi Arabia lined with well-preserved ancient tombs.

Researchers from the University of Western Australia have carried out a wide-ranging investigation over the past year, involving aerial surveys conducted by helicopter, ground survey and excavation and examination of satellite imagery.

In findings published in the Holocene journal in December, they said the “funerary avenues” spanning large distances in the northwestern Arabian counties of Al-‘Ula and Khaybar had received little examination until quite recently.

Jan 17, 2022

Elon Musk Shares Crucial Starlink Data That Will Enable Big Leap Over Global Broadband

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, satellites

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation’s (SpaceX) ch8ef executive officer Mr. Elon Musk has shared the latest details for his company’s Starlink satellite internet constellation. Starlink is SpaceX’s internet service which uses low Earth orbit (LEO) small satellites to beam down the Internet to its users. Due to a rapid cadence of launches, SpaceX has ensured that Starlink is the world’s largest internet constellation in service, and the company is currently upgrading the satellites with laser based connectivity. This will allow Starlink to expand its coverage and reach areas that cannot be served without ground stations to connect the satellites and the users to internet servers.

Starlink Will Soon Start To Operate Laser Links Between Satellites Confirms Musk

Mr. Musk shared the latest details through his social media platform Twitter, as he outlined the number of Starlink satellites currently in orbit and his company’s plans to activate newer spacecraft capable of optical communication. These are crucial for evaluating the internet service’s current capacity, which has come under fire from rivals in proceedings for spectrum sharing and licensing currently underway at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Page 74 of 185First7172737475767778Last