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Category: satellites – Page 2

Space sensor could spot hidden nuclear weapons in orbit with 99% accuracy

In 2024, a U.S. government official warned that Russia could be developing a new satellite designed to carry nuclear weapons into space. The statement followed the launch of a suspicious Russian satellite into low-Earth orbit in 2022, just a few weeks before the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A nuclear detonation in low-Earth orbit—the region about 100 miles to 1,200 miles above Earth’s surface—would release trillions of highly energetic electrons that would destroy many of the satellites in space, disrupting telecommunications networks, GPS, space-based internet and more.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans the placement of nuclear weapons in space, but there’s currently no way to verify satellites don’t contain nuclear weapons. In fact, no verification methods have even been proposed in unclassified, peer-reviewed literature.

Why Scientists Think This Is Our Strongest Evidence of Aliens

Did we find evidence of aliens in old astronomical records?

We might not be alone in the Universe. While combing through data from 1949, scientists spotted something impossible: strange, vanishing lights. They look exactly like satellites, but were documented decades before humanity ever launched anything into space. What could they be? Could this be evidence of advanced alien technology?

0:00 Evidence of Aliens?
1:18 Nuremberg Sighting 1561
3:45 Verifying Claims.
4:38 Vanishing Objects.
7:08 Is There Another Explanation?
8:31 Are They Real?
10:45 UAP and Nukes.
13:38 Another Explanation?
16:46 Academic Debate.
18:17 Is It Conclusive?

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In a First For Science, A Satellite Has Identified What It’s Seeing From Space

The standard approach to satellite imagery is to snap huge batches of pictures and beam them back to Earth, where they can be sifted through by human operators and the best available algorithms.

It’s all worked well so far, but the time, transmission bandwidth, and energy required are starting to become bottlenecks. Modern satellites are simply capturing more pixels than scientists have time to look at.

However, the YAM-9 satellite has just done something different: It has identified and described features in its image scans without needing to check back with ground control.

Sound waves reconstruct Alaska fireball path after cameras miss key details

When a bright fireball streaked across the Alaska sky last spring, the usual tools scientists rely on to track such events—cameras and satellites—did not provide a detailed picture. But the meteoroid left behind something else: low-frequency sound waves that traveled hundreds of miles and were captured by a dense network of earthquake and volcano-monitoring sensors on the ground.

Using those signals, a Sandia National Laboratories-led team of researchers, students and citizen scientists reconstructed the object’s path through the atmosphere, where it broke apart and where debris likely fell.

In a study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, the team showed how low-frequency sound waves, faint ground vibrations, weather radar data and publicly shared videos can be combined to reconstruct a fireball’s path even when optical coverage is sparse or incomplete.

Orbital files plans for 100,000 orbital data centers

TAMPA, Fla. — Five-month-old startup Orbital has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy up to 100,000 data center satellites, aiming to bring 10 gigawatts of computing power from space to meet rising artificial intelligence demand.

The filings submitted June 24 add a few more details for a constellation the Los Angeles-based venture first outlined earlier this month, when it emerged from stealth with $5 million in pre-seed funding ahead of a demonstration mission next year.

They include plans to deploy 100-kilowatt-class satellites in low Earth orbit at altitudes of 500–850 kilometers, with solar arrays and radiators spanning around 100 meters and a dry mass of 1.5−2.5 metric tons.

Orbital Data Centers Are Seductive on Paper, but They Face Daunting Challenges in Reality

But there is a vast difference between launching satellites and operating an industrial-scale computing infrastructure in orbit. Space is unforgiving. Radiation damages electronics. The electronics generate enormous amounts of heat, and getting rid of that heat is surprisingly difficult in space. Repairs are extraordinarily expensive, and every pound launched into orbit still carries a significant cost.

We are engineering professors who study data-center design and space systems engineering. Building a space-based data center will involve considerations from both sides.

First off, consider what goes into an Earth-based data center, like those that you’ve probably begun to see pop up everywhere. These facilities power cloud computing, video streaming, online banking, scientific computing, and increasingly, artificial intelligence. But a data center is much more than a room full of servers.

Rocket Lab to acquire Iridium

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab is acquiring satellite telecommunications company Iridium for $8 billion as part of its effort to become an end-to-end space company.

The companies announced an agreement June 29 under which Rocket Lab will acquire Iridium for $54 a share in cash and stock, valuing Iridium at $8 billion. That is a 24% premium over the closing price of Iridium’s shares June 26. The deal is projected to close in mid-2027 pending regulatory and other approvals.

Iridium operates a constellation of 66 satellites, with 14 on-orbit spares, that provides phone and data services using L-band spectrum. That includes aviation tracking services from Aireon, which Iridium acquired in May for $367 million by purchasing the 61% stake it did not already own, as well as a recent push into positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT, services.

FTC gives Musk the OK to acquire SpaceX alumni startup Mesh

Mesh Optical came out of stealth in February when it announced that it raised a $50 million Series A led by Thrive Capital.

Before founding Mesh Optical, the startup’s co-founders, Travis Brashears, Cameron Ramos, and Serena Grown-Haeberli, developed the optical communication links that keep thousands of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites interconnected.

The Mesh co-founders saw an opportunity to develop optical transceivers for terrestrial data centers, as light-based hardware is faster and more energy-efficient than traditional electrical-based systems.

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