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Category: government – Page 88

Maxar eager to launch new satellites amid soaring demand for imagery over Ukraine

WASHINGTON – As Maxar Technologies’ satellites continue to collect images of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the company is working with customers so it can allocate more capacity to meet U.S. government needs, said Maxar’s CEO Daniel Jablonsky.

With four satellites in orbit, “a lot of times we don’t have a lot of spare capacity,” Jablonsky said in an interview last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

“But we made accommodations with some of our other customers to be able to surge capacity for the U.S. and allies,” he said. The company also gets about 200 requests a day for imagery from news media organizations.

Taiwan’s New Solar Panel ‘Sun Rock’ Will Deliver 1 Million kWh Per Year

Get in, we’re going to the threshold. Solar power is undoubtfully one of the most preferred renewable energy sources of the day. As the need for energy rises with the improving technology and the rising population, companies try to come up with the most efficient solutions that promise to meet the energy demand of the world.

Taiwan’s forthcoming Sun Rock could supply excess energy to the power grid

Taiwan’s government-owned power company, called Taipower, commissioned Sun Rock, with plans to use it as a visitor facility, in addition to a storage and maintenance center for renewable energy devices. But the most obvious and impressive feature of the forthcoming project is the facade, which will be almost totally smothered in solar panels (don’t worry, there will also be vents and windows to promote the natural exchange of light and air). But 1 million kWh is a lot — the U.S. government has found that an average household uses roughly 11,000 kWh annually, which will rise (because of course it will) before the Sun Rock is finished.

“The site for Taipower’s new facility receives a significant amount of solar exposure throughout the year, and so the rounded shape of Sun Rock is designed to maximize how much of that sunlight can be harnessed for energy,” said MVRDV in a New Atlas report. “The facade maximizes this solar potential with a series of pleats, which support photovoltaic panels (mixed in with windows, where required) on their upper surface. The angle of these pleats is adjusted on all parts of the facade to maximize the energy-generating potential of the solar panels.”

Taking Definitive Action on Your Sustainability Goals

This doesn’t mean you need to don an ushanka and start marching. You can start taking collective action by focusing on community groups and connecting with climate leaders. This will likely help you solve other issues, too, like waste disposal, recycling, and community clean-up projects in your locale.

Conclusion

Combating climate change requires all of us to reconsider our individual and collective climate responsibility. As an individual, you can do your part and let others know what you are doing. It has never been easier to connect with the world and share than it is today. You can join others in writing letters to the editor of your local newspaper, or your local and national government representatives. You can join groups like Citizens’ Climate Lobby and learn how to engage policy decision-makers. And in your daily routines, you can lead by example.

Australia launches Space Command to counter China

Australia gets its own space force.

The Australian government yesterday launched the Space Command, a new defense agency with echoes of the US’ Space Force that has been tasked with securing the country’s place in an “already contested” cosmos.

Australian Minister for Defence Peter Dutton said the new defense arm would be modest to start with, although he gave no detailed staffing or budget figures.

In a speech to the Australian Air Force, he said that space “will undoubtedly become a domain that takes on greater military significance in this century.”

Space is becoming more congested and is already contested, particularly as the boundaries between competition and conflict become.

Iron Dome laser-based option, Iron Beam, takes major step forward

TEL AVIV: Israel has made a small but significant step towards a laser-based system that is capable of intercepting missiles, with the announcement that the country’s “Iron Beam” system officially has a budget.

The program, which has existed in some form of R&D for more than a decade, has faced headwinds as a result of a long-running conflict between proponents and opponents of laser-based defense systems. But the technology appears to have matured to the point the government is now willing to put real money behind it.

Defense sources here say that the initial effort will be to develop an electric 100–150 kW solid-state laser that will be capable of intercepting rockets and missiles. The idea is to use two laser guns to create the needed power.

Russia Forcing Google To Delist VPN Websites, But 400,000+ Russians Are Downloading VPNs Daily

Russia is forcing Google to delist URLs associated with virtual private networks, or VPNs, but almost half a million Russians are downloading the technology that allows them to obscure their internet usage and access government-blocked websites.

Clearly, Russians are looking for uncensored information about their government’s war against Ukraine.

“Surfshark conducted an analysis showing that the Russian telecoms regulator (Roskomnadzor) has forced Google to delist more than 36,000 URLs that link to VPN services over the past month,” a Surfshark representative told me via email. (The company offers a VPN product.) “The most significant spike of requests was recorded amid the second week of the war, when the Kremlin banned various media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, while others left due to a ‘fake news’ law.”

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