This animation was created by using one day’s worth of data from Europe’s Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1) between March 18–19, 2023. Images of the full Earth disc are produced by MTG-I1 every 10 minutes. Credit: EUMETSAT/ESA
The Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1) was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on Dec. 13, 2022, and is the first of a new generation of satellites set to revolutionize weather forecasting in Europe, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).
Ocean microplastics have become a major source of concern, especially since they are so hard to track down, but researchers found an ingenious solution using satellites.
Ocean plastics have become a major source of concern for evironmental conservationists and public health professionals in recent years, and there hasn’t been a good way to track how these plastics are moving or their concentrations. But now, researchers from the University of Michigan have developed an ingenious way to track the ebb and flow of these microplastics around the world thanks to NASA satellites.
Solarseven/iStock.
Microplastics are the remnant pieces of larger plastics that have disintegrated over time due to chemical and physical processes, and are typically measured as less than 5mm in size. The underlying plastic compounds remain intact even as the plastic fiber or particle gets physically smaller, and plastics do not chemically decompose.
As per the company, traditional rovers may not be able to traverse everywhere and perform tasks like their drone-like hopper.
For decades, Earth’s natural satellite has been one of the most popular destinations for space exploration. The upcoming Artemis missions, along with the excitement on establishing a human settlement on the Moon, have collectively boosted the lunar economy market substantially in recent years.
Several startups have been preparing to offer their technological solutions to gain a better understanding of the valuable resources available and provide services to future astronauts.
A SpaceX rocket carrying more than four dozen Starlink satellites launched early Wednesday afternoon from the California coast.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off just after 1 p.m. California time from Vandenberg Space Force Base northwest of Santa Barbara. The rocket carried 51 Starlink internet satellites into low-Earth orbit.
You can watch the launch here.
Europe’s newest weather satellite has snapped an image of the Earth that reveals our planet’s incredible beauty, despite gathering clouds.
The image taken by Meteosat Third Generation — Imager 1 (MTG-I1) shows conditions over Europe, Africa, and the Atlantic to an incredible level of detail and demonstrates that the satellite is set to live up to its promise of revolutionizing weather forecasting including the prediction of severe weather.
They’re not a common thing right now, but the technology of solar sails has recently had some success. In particular, it’s had success in exactly the way JPL has been proposing it be used more—in combination with CubeSats. From 2019 to 2022, a crowdfunded CubeSat project called LightSail 2 run by The Planetary Society “successfully used sunlight alone to change its orbit around Earth,” according to the Society’s website. And just recently, NASA launched a sail-powered CubeSat called Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout as part of the Artemis I mission.
So, with recent functional missions to point to and inside knowledge of what it takes to complete a successful space mission—from engineering marvels to monetary considerations—the team from JPL is pitching we make a lot more use of this pairing through what they call the Sundiver concept.
“Together, small satellites with lightweight instruments and solar sails offer affordable access to deep regions of the solar system, also making it possible to realize hard-to-reach trajectories that are not constrained to the ecliptic plane,” the preprint reads. “Combining these two technologies can drastically reduce travel times within the solar system, while delivering robust science.”
The Sateliot “GroundBreaker” is the first of a constellation of over 250 spacecraft designed to communicate with terrestrial 5G cell towers worldwide.
SpaceX’s most powerful operational rocket soared to the skies once again for its sixth mission.
SpaceX launched its massive Falcon Heavy rocket for the sixth time ever on Sunday, April 30. Falcon Heavy lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday at 8:26 p.m. EDT for the ViaSat-3 Americas mission. It lifted three satellites to geostationary orbit.
Though it will eventually be overtaken by SpaceX’s Starship, Falcon Heavy is currently SpaceX’s largest and most powerful operational rocket.
SpaceX
Falcon Heavy lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida Sunday at 8:26 p.m. EDT for the ViaSat-3 Americas mission. It lifted three satellites to geostationary orbit.
According to the South China Morning Post, a Chinese private company is planning to develop a constellation of satellites akin to Starlink for Chinese hypersonic craft.
GalaxySpace.
Called GalaxySpace, according to some space experts, it is “somewhat unusual” for a commercial company to participate in China’s hypersonic program. This is because China’s hypersonic flight program is normally used for military purposes. Others hailed the action as a significant step forward, emphasizing how private sector innovation may enhance the nation’s space capabilities.
Remark: This article is from The Conversation France written by Victor DOS SANTOS PAULINO & Nonthapat PULSIRI (V&N) — Experts from Toulouse Business School and The SIRIUS Chair (France)
Lorsque nous parlons d’espace, nous pensons aux étoiles que nous voyons la nuit ou à de bons films de science-fiction. Or, l’espace comprend également tous les satellites et engins qui sont lancés depuis la Terre. Dans certains engins spatiaux, il y a des astronautes, comme l’Américaine Christina Koch ou le Français Thomas Pesquet, qui voyagent pendant plusieurs jours ou mois pour de nombreuses missions.
Pendant ce temps, plus de 8 000 satellites non habités opèrent sur les orbites terrestres pour améliorer la vie quotidienne. Par exemple, les satellites de communication contribuent à améliorer l’accès à Internet dans les zones blanches, les satellites d’observation sont essentiels pour les prévisions météorologiques et les satellites de navigation (GPS) sont indispensables pour les besoins de transport actuels et futurs tels que les véhicules autonomes.
Les progrès dans le secteur spatial offrent aujourd’hui de nouvelles opportunités dans la mise en orbite de constellations de milliers de satellites (par exemple, la flotte Starlink lancée par SpaceX, la société de l’homme d’affaires américain Elon Musk) ou encore dans l’exploitation minière spatiale et le tourisme spatial. Certains pays (dont la France et les États-Unis) ont par ailleurs annoncé que soutenir leur écosystème spatial constituait une priorité pour dynamiser l’économie.
