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Category: satellites – Page 90

Starlink is feeling the chill.

On Wednesday, Teslarati reported that SpaceX will likely host its second Starlink launch from the west coast of the U.S. as soon as Sunday, October 17. The mission is expected to launch 51 Starlink satellites, complete with optical interlinks that will enable the satellites to bring internet access to Earth’s poles.

It’s another moment of expansion for SpaceX’s under-construction internet constellation, designed to bring high speed and low latency access to almost anywhere in the world. The company first started signing up beta testers in mid-2020, and early reports suggested that users are receiving up to 150 megabits per second.

For the long term, SpaceX has plans for much faster access. A January 2021 presentation suggested the company’s long-term ambition is to provide speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second.

Continue reading “Starlink: SpaceX’s next launch will bring a huge upgrade to the service” | >

The term, “casualty risk” doesn’t literally mean humans will be smashed by falling satellites, but there is an increasing risk of satellite collisions, which could hinder or even spell disaster for future orbital missions. And, satellites de-orbited without control could pose a danger to property or the well-being of some on the surface.

In other words, it’s time to rethink the way we dispose of satellites.

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Continue reading “Scientists Say We Need to Rethink How We Dispose of Satellites” | >

Today’s world is one big maze, connected by layers of concrete and asphalt that afford us the luxury of navigation by vehicle. For many of our road-related advancements — GPS lets us fire fewer neurons thanks to map apps, cameras alert us to potentially costly scrapes and scratches, and electric autonomous cars have lower fuel costs — our safety measures haven’t quite caught up. We still rely on a steady diet of traffic signals, trust, and the steel surrounding us to safely get from point A to point B.

“If people can use the risk map to identify potentially high-risk road segments, they can take action in advance to reduce the risk of trips they take. Apps like Waze and Apple Maps have incident feature tools, but we’re trying to get ahead of the crashes — before they happen,” says He.

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A deep model was trained on historical crash data, road maps, satellite imagery, and GPS to enable high-resolution crash maps that could lead to safer roads.

Continue reading “Deep learning helps predict traffic crashes before they happen” | >

Earth imaging and data specialist Planet Labs on Tuesday announced a new line of imagery satellites, called Pelican, as the company prepares to go public later this year.

The Pelican satellites are meant to upgrade Planet’s existing constellation of 21 SkySat satellites in orbit, with launches beginning in 2022.

“It’s higher resolution, and having more satellites in space means that you actually end up having a higher revisit capability and [Pelican is] being designed for what our users want – which is speed and near-real time understanding about what’s happening,” Planet co-founder and chief strategy officer Robbie Schingler told CNBC.

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Rocket Lab USA Incsoared higher in after-hours trading Wednesday, following an announcement that the company has been chosen to fly an experimental solar sail into space.

NASA signed on with Rocket Lab RKLB, +10.43% to demonstrate the U.S. agency’s Advanced Composite Solar Sail System, or ACS3. The solar sail will be launched into space to demonstrate the efficacy of a technology that could be an alternative to satellites for specific duties.

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The CEO of SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The chief executive of satellite operator SES says consolidation of the satellite industry is more likely than ever to improve its overall return on investment, but that the structure of the industry might hinder such deals.

Speaking at the Satellite Innovation conference here Oct. 5 Steve Collar addressed growing perceptions that the industry is ready for a wave of deals like the unsolicited proposal by telecom magnate Patrick Drahi last week to acquire Eutelsat for $3.2 billion. While Eutelsat rejected the deal, it appeared to leave the door open for a revised, higher offer.

While not addressing that specific deal or others, Collar said he thought some kind of industry consolidation was possible. “I think it’s more likely than it’s ever been,” he said. “But, it’s been likely in the past and hasn’t happened.”

Continue reading “SES CEO thinks satellite industry consolidation likely” | >

This week’s episode is brought to you by The Space Force. For more information, please go to http://www.spaceforce.com #sponsored.

How much of your life is touched by space? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice break down the newest branch of the US military, The Space Force, with Charles Liu, Major General DeAnna Burt, and Dr. Moriba Jah. Is this one step closer to Star Wars?

Discover the alliance between astrophysics and the military. What ways are there to destroy a satellite? Charles Liu teaches us about electromagnetic pulses– EMPs– and how they disrupt electronics. Can people be safe from a detonated EMP, like in the movies? How do we protect ourselves against EMPs?

Next, we speak with Major General DeAnna Burt about her role within The Space Force and what it’s like to form an entire branch of the military from scratch. Who came up with the name Space Force? Is the creation of The Space Force an escalation of military tensions in the world? Is it a step towards war in space? Find out about geosynchronous robotic arms, kinetic kill vehicles, and what The Space Force really does to protect us against threats that exist already. We discuss satellites and just how much of daily life on earth is touched by space. How far does space go? Is The Space Force for the domain of the universe itself?

Continue reading “Space Force: A New Domain with Neil deGrasse Tyson” | >

A geomagnetic storm is set to hit the Earth and may affect satellites and electricity grids. The US government’s space weather tracking body has warned the public about the possibility of a geomagnetic storm, which is different from a solar storm. The phenomenon is caused by the solar wind and it will likely spark an aurora.

After the solar storm, here comes the solar wind! Over the past couple of weeks, reports have detailed the devastating impact that solar storms or coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can have on the Internet infrastructure on Earth. Now, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a Geomagnetic Storm Watch for Sunday, that is, September 26. A geomagnetic storm is set to hit the Earth. The US government’s space weather tracking body has warned the public about the possibility of a of G1 or G2-level geomagnetic storm. Among some of its effects on Earth is that it is expected to light up the skies in the form of an aurora, aka Northern Lights, and perhaps affect infrastructure.

For the uninitiated, a geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere that occurs when there is an exchange of energy from the solar wind into the space environment surrounding Earth. These storms result from variations in the solar wind that produces major changes in the currents, plasmas, and fields in Earth’s magnetosphere. According to SWPC, the largest storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, is shot outwards and it get directed at Earth.

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