SpaceX’s new Starlink satellite internet service is being touted as a rural internet game changer. WSJ spent time with a few beta testers in a very remote area of Washington state to see if it’s truly the solution to the global broadband gap. Photo Illustration: Laura Kammermann.
Category: satellites – Page 109
Gorgeous NASA photo shows a volcano eruption in Iceland at night
The eruption of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano is so vibrant it can be seen from space, and satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above the ground have captured images of the eruption from orbit.
Using data from the Operational Land Imager on NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Landsat 8 satellite, NASA data visualizer Joshua Stevens pieced together a false-color image of the eruption. The image shows the eruption at 10:25 p.m. local time (2225 GMT) on March 22, three days after it started on March 19.
World’s biggest drone will send satellites into space on a rocket
Satellite delivery isn’t exactly cutting-edge tech these days. Lately it feels like SpaceX is doing that every week. Liftoff usually starts with a ground-based rocket, which is expensive and time-consuming to launch. Aevum believes its massive Ravn X drone can do it better, for less money.
At 80 feet long and 18 feet tall, the Ravn X is the world’s biggest drone, says Aevum. Driven by Aevum’s proprietary software, the drone would fly itself to a specified altitude, where it would launch a rocket to deliver a payload of small satellites to low Earth orbit. Click the video above for more on the delivery process.
The launch system is 70% reusable, Aevum said. CEO Jay Skylus hopes to get that close to 100%.
Rural Iowans seeing benefits from SpaceX Starlink internet
For many Iowans, the first they heard of SpaceX Starlink Internet is when the strange lights started appearing in the night sky in Spring 2020. Long “trains” of dots, each dot being a Starlink satellite.
“There’s all these lights and what looked to me like they were jets,” said John Dunnegan a resident living in rural Des Moines County, Iowa northwest of Burlington. “I thought we were being attacked by Russia. I thought ‘what is that?’ They were all in perfect file. I got on the internet started checking around, and found out what it was. It was Elon Musk’s Starlink.
SpaceX launches 60 new Starlink internet satellites, nails latest rocket landing at sea
There are now more than 1300 Starlink satellites in orbit.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched a new batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit early Wednesday (March 24) and nailed a landing at sea to top off the company’s latest successful mission.
The veteran Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 4:28 a.m. EDT (0828 GMT).
Yoav Landsman, Co-Founder, Moonscape — Sustainable And Responsible Lunar Services And Transportation
Sustainable and responsible lunar services and transportation — yoav landsman, co-founder, moonscape.
Yoav Landsman is the Co-founder of Moonscape (https://www.moonscape.space/), a lunar services and payload transportation company, that is focused on providing necessary services like communication relay and cutting-edge imaging, while delivering payloads to the Moon.
Moonscape’s vision is to support humankind’s effort of reaching the Moon in a sustainable and responsible manner, as humanity’s first step towards the rest of the solar system and beyond.
Yoav graduated from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, with a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering in 2002. During his last year of studying, he began working at the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) as a Satellite Engineer in the AMOS communication satellite command center. In this role, he helped modernize operations methods, and lead the absorption of new satellites to the fleet. Later he became the Head of the Satellite Engineering team at the Operations Center. In 2011, he became the Chief Systems Engineer of Israeli Aerospace Industrie’s then most advanced satellite, AMOS-6. At the same time, Yoav studied his master’s degree in the department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences at Tel-Aviv University.
Yoav left the industry in 2012 to put his passion and skill into education and public outreach. He became a sought-after lecturer and interviewee for science, technology, and everything involving space. In mid-2013, Yoav was recruited by SpaceIL to the role of Senior Systems Engineer of the Beresheet Lunar Lander. In 2019, Yoav was the Deputy Mission Director of the first ever privately funded lunar mission.
Worlds With Underground Oceans – Like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus – May Be More Conducive to Supporting Life Than Earth
Layers of ice and rock obviate the need for “habitable zone” and shield life against threats.
SwRI researcher theorizes worlds with underground oceans may be more conducive to life than worlds with surface oceans like Earth.
One of the most profound discoveries in planetary science over the past 25 years is that worlds with oceans beneath layers of rock and ice are common in our solar system. Such worlds include the icy satellites of the giant planets, like Europa, Titan, and Enceladus, and distant planets like Pluto.