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Category: satellites – Page 46

Space Development Agency awards contracts to Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman for 72 satellites

WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency announced Aug. 21 it awarded contracts worth $1.5 billion to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to build and operate 72 satellites.

The Space Development Agency (SDA), an organization under the U.S. Space Force, is building a mesh network of military satellites in low Earth orbit.

The 72 satellites will make up a portion of SDA’s network known as Tranche 2 Transport Layer. SDA is building a large constellation called the proliferated warfighter space architecture that includes a Transport Layer of interconnected communications satellites and a Tracking Layer of missile-detection and warning sensor satellites.

Chinese firm launches satellite with AI-powered ‘brain’

The satellite’s developer says it has an onboard intelligent processing unit that allows it process data without sending it back to ground controlThe company hopes it could one day be used to monitor environmental conditions or support emergency relief efforts.

A Chinese company has launched a satellite that has powerful artificial intelligence at its core, with the final aim of creating a self-controlled spaceship.

The WonderJourney-1A, or WJ-1A, which blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia earlier this month, has an onboard intelligent processing unit known as the String Edge AI Platform.

Rocket Lab to launch pair of NASA Earth science cubesats

WASHINGTON — NASA selected Rocket Lab to launch a pair of cubesats in 2024 to monitor energy entering and exiting the polar regions of the planet.

NASA announced Aug. 14 it awarded a task order through its Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract to Rocket Lab for the launch of two 6U cubesats for the Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment, or PREFIRE mission.

The NASA announcement did not disclose the value of the task order. The agency stated in past awards done under VADR that the pricing is considered “proprietary” because the awards are competed in a closed environment, with only companies on the VADR contract eligible to bid on launches of taxpayer-funded missions.

Saturn-sized exoplanet discovered with TESS

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new giant exoplanet transiting a nearby M-dwarf star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-4860 b, is comparable in size and mass to Saturn. The finding is reported in a paper published August 2 on the pre-print server arXiv.

TESS is conducting a survey of about 200,000 of the brightest stars near the sun with the aim of searching for transiting exoplanets. So far, it has identified over 6,700 candidate exoplanets (TESS Objects of Interest, or TOI), of which 373 have been confirmed so far.

Now, a group of astronomers led by Jose Manuel Almenara of the Grenoble Alpes University in France, reports the confirmation of another TOI monitored by TESS. They identified a transit signal in the light curve of an M-dwarf star known as TOI-4860. The planetary nature of this signal was confirmed by ground-based follow-up photometric observations.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites will fly on the new Vulcan Centaur rocket in early 2023

Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce giant is set to rival Elon Musk’s Starlink service with its 3,200-internet satellite mega-constellation.

Amazon has announced it will now deploy its two Project Kuiper prototype satellites aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket this fall.

The satellites had been scheduled to launch on the debut flight of ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. However, delays to the new rocket’s maiden flight and time constraints related to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations have led to Amazon making the shift.

Project Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite broadband program, will launch two prototype satellites on an upcoming United Launch Alliance mission to test system performance in space.

Superconductor LK99 Update

Expand your scientific horizon with Brilliant! First 200 to use our link https://brilliant.org/sabine will get 20% off the annual premium subscription.

Today I have an update on the reproduction efforts for the supposed room temperature superconductor, LK 99, the first images from the Euclid mission, more trouble with Starlink satellites, first results from a new simulation for cosmological structure formation, how to steer drops with ultrasound, bacteria that make plastic, an improvement for wireless power transfer, better earthquake warnings, an attempt to predict war, and of course the telephone will ring.

Here is the link to the overview on the LK99 reproduction experiments that I mentioned: https://urlis.net/vesb75fq.

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00:00 Intro.
00:39 LK99 Superconductor Update.
03:03 First Images from Euclid Mission.
04:19 Starlink Satellites Leak Radiowaves.
06:13 New Cosmological Structure Formation Simulation.
08:27 An Ultrasound Platform to Levitate and Steer Drops.
09:43 Bacteria That Make Recyclable Plastic.
11:02 Better Wireless Power Transfer.
13:02 A New Earthquake Precursor.
14:34 War Predictions.
16:00 Learn Science With Brilliant.

#science #sciencenews

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SpaceX’s private control of satellite internet concerns military leaders: report

A number of military leaders around the world have expressed concerns to US officials over the dominance and control of SpaceX founder Elon Musk over satellite internet, according to a new report.

Over the past decade Musk’s SpaceX has changed the launch industry with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The company has pressed this advantage to establish itself as the leading player in satellite internet through Starlink.

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