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Category: satellites – Page 193

Tiangong-2: Second space lab

China’s 2nd spacelab launches next week. Now, I wonder how QSS will be leveraged given the note on new communication capabilities as well as other types of experiments that can be conducted.

Chinese space agency is all set to launch its second spacelab Tiangong-2 next week. Long March 2F rocket will lift up the spacelab and both the entities have been transported to the launch pad located at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, yesterday. Tiangong-2 will test life support systems and refueling technology for its 60 ton modular space station.

Tiangong-2 will be placed in an orbit of 393 kilometers above the Earth and it will help in studying fundamental physics, biology, fluid mechanics in microgravity, space science and will monitor Earth from space. In addition, it has the capability to measure the topography of the oceans with very high precision which will enable scientists to study Earth’s gravity field.

Tiangong-2 has another payload named POLAR which is gamma-ray detector. It was developed by the collaboration of three countries — China, Switzerland, and Poland. POLAR will study Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), the most energetic event in the universe. According to reports, POLAR will work for two years and will observe a total of 20 GRBs.

US Air Force advances rocket technology

The United States is one step closer to eliminating its reliance on Russian technology to launch its military satellites.

The Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator, a U.S. Air Force technology effort focused on development of Oxygen Rich Staged Combustion rocket engine technology, has recently completed its first full-scale component test at 100-percent power.

The development of Oxygen Rich Staged Combustion technology has been deemed a critical technology for the nation to help eliminate the United States’ reliance on foreign rocket propulsion technology.

China’s Quantum Satellite Experiments: Strategic And Military Implications – Analysis

Additional insights on QSS planned efforts; and (as with any government program) there is more to this program than these insights.

While China’s quantum science satellite (QSS) project is part of the Strategic Priority Programme on Space Science, the country’s first space exploration programme intended purely for scientific research, its experiments have significant military implications.

By Michael Raska

On August 16, 2016 China launched the world’s first quantum communications experiment satellite into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert. The small satellite, recently named Micius after an ancient Chinese philosopher, is tasked to establish a hack-proof communication line – a quantum key distribution network, while performing a series of quantum entanglement experiments in space for the first time.

Letter: U.S. lags far behind China in quantum computing technology

The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 16 reported that China sent the world’s first quantum communications satellite into orbit. The newspaper also stated that China spent $101 billion in 2015 on quantum research and technology development. The satellite has the ability to greatly expand China’s ability to expand their unhackable communications.

Now we in the U.S. read almost daily about some U.S. computer system that has been hacked. Our current technology cannot be considered secure. So what is our government investing in?

According to the GAO, the U.S. spent over $10 billion on global climate change science and technology in 2014. Gave $400 million to Iran for who knows what, and spent about $200 million on quantum technology.

China Readies Next ‘Heavenly Palace’ for Mid-September Launch

China is readying its next piloted space mission, a multifaceted undertaking that will lay the foundation for the country to build a space station in Earth orbit in the 2020s.

Both Tiangong-2 (whose name means “Heavenly Palace”) and the piloted Shenzhou-11 spacecraft are now undergoing checkout at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China.

Tiangong-2, which is scheduled to launch in mid-September, is a true “space lab” that will verify key technologies for building China’s space station, according to its chief designer, Zhu Zongpeng. [Latest News About China’s Space Program].

CIA reveals Spacenet ‘AI in the sky’ that could constantly monitor activity on Earth

CIA reveals Spacenet ‘AI in the sky’ that could constantly monitor activity on Earth via high resolution satellites…

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi film — an AI that constantly monitors the Earth, looks for unusual activity.

However, CosmiQ Works, a division of the CIA’s venture arm, has revealed SpaceNet, a project with Amazon, satellite mapping firm DigitalGlobe and chip firm Nvidia to train algorithms to work out what’s happening on our planet.

The project will create a giant online database of hi-res images that AIs will be able to use to teach themselves — and started with images of Rio during the Olympics.

DARPA to establish satellite-servicing consortium to discuss on-orbit repair standards

A first step in establishing repair standards on satellite in space; wonder could we eventually see a version of the EPA or in space.

SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Defense Research Projects Agency plans to establish a consortium to discuss standards and practices for on-orbit satellite servicing as a corollary to Robotic Servicing of Geostationary Satellites (RSGS), an effort to develop robotic spacecraft to inspect, repair and move other satellites.

“Our fear was that we would create a robotic servicing capability through RSGS and when our industry partner went to Lloyds of London for insurance, someone would say, ‘You have no authority to conduct that mission,’” said Brad Tousley, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

Through the construction and operation of the International Space Station, the international community has established laws and regulations concerning government spacecraft conducting rendezvous and proximity operations with other government spacecraft as well as government spacecraft conducting rendezvous and proximity operations with commercial spacecraft.

Long March 2D launches world’s first quantum communications satellite

With this week’s overload of news flashes about the Quantum Satellite launch, I restrained from publishing too much repeat news on the launch. However, I came across an excellent article from NASAspaceflight.com that provides additional and good details about some of the initial “publically known” experiments that are to be conducted by the Chinese.

Of course, as with any government agency, not all information is shared.

https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/08/long-march-2d-quantu…satellite/

The Chinese have launched the first satellite that can achieve quantum communications between space and Earth. The launch of the Quantum Science Satellite – called Mozi – took place at 17:40 UTC on Monday using a Long March-2D (Chang Zheng-2D) launch vehicle from the 603 Launch Pad of the LC43 complex at the Jiuquan space center. Chinese Launch: The new satellite is dedicated to quantum science experiments. The Quantum Space Satellite, (or Quantum Experiments at Space Scale) will test the phenomena of quantum entanglement.

Operated by the China Academy of Sciences, this 500 kg satellite – announced as the name “Mozi” in honor of a fifth century BC Chinese scientist – contains a quantum key communicator, quantum entanglement emitter, entanglement source, processing unit, and a laser communicator.

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QUESS will relay transmissions between two ground stations (one in China, and the other in Europe) transmitting quantum keys.

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