China has proposals for gravitational wave observatories drafted, but will the government approve them? How will they affect the country’s rank in space research?
The scientists at LIGO may be celebrating, but they’re about to have some stiff competition.
The People’s Republic of China now has three projects lined up to investigate gravitational waves as reported by the state media yesterday. These projects were decided upon just days after US scientists confirmed Einstein’s prediction.
The giant nose is going to Mars.
The ExoMars probe will seek evidence of methane gas, which is seen as a crucial signpost of life.
Crazy stuff!
“If you’re behind the moon and hear some weird noise on your radio, and you know you’re blocked from the Earth, then what could you possibly think?”
In this intriguing short film, Goldilocks, Earth has been devastated by solar storms, prompting a search for another home planet for humanity. In orbit, a scientist named Kharon is working hard to adapt plants to a new world, fulfilling a promise to his long-dead wife.
There’s some hints of 2001: A Space Odyssey here, and this is an interesting short film with some striking visuals. There’s some stretches of the imagination here, starting with the very notion of a space station being a bit more secure for research in orbit than on Earth (you know, with a magnetic field to protect you), but we’ll let it slide.
In December, a shuttle resupply mission successfully reached the International Space Station. Among the cargo were two Microsoft HoloLens devices for use as a part of NASA’s Sidekick project. The goal of Sidekick is to enable station crews with assistance when and where they need it. According to NASA, this new capability could reduce crew training requirements and increase the efficiency at which astronauts can work in space.
We were thrilled to see some early pictures today of astronaut Scott Kelly with HoloLens at the International Space Station!
Richard Branson wants Virgin Galactic involved in everything from orbital flights to internet from space.
Two astronomers fought for credit when Neptune’s presence was confirmed in 1846: John Couch Adams from Britain, and Urbain Le Verrier from France. Both had used math and physics to predict Neptune’s position, but Le Verrier’s prediction turned out to be more accurate. See references.
Whenever, Mr Musk is ready to colonize space; Russia is ready to assist.
‘AI in perspective is not a fairytale,’ says deputy PM adding prototype astronauts will perform dangerous tasks.
A remotely-operated robot reproducing the minutest particulars of a human doing complicated work will be taken into space to do dangerous jobs in orbit. An operational prototype has been demonstrated to the Russian government’s military sci-tech curator.
Military robots under development in Russia won’t be limited to the battlefield only: space applications will have priority, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told reporters last weekend.
“We’ve launched work to create an avatar that will become a crewmember of the Russian national orbital station,” Rogozin said.
See even Space gets it — the importance of great Cyber Security is needed now.
The disruption of capabilities that space assets provide would have immediate, far-reaching and devastating economic, political, and geostrategic consequences. Over the past two decades, space vulnerabilities have grown dramatically in a manner commensurate with terrestrial dependency on space-based capabilities and enablers. This is true for both civilian and military activities. Purposeful interference with space systems could rather easily trigger a retaliatory spiral of actions that could compromise a safe and secure operating environment in space. Accordingly, having available a range of measures to prevent or preempt an incident, or even full-up conflict, is of rapidly growing importance to an increasing number of countries.
The interruption of space services through a cyber attack could involve large, and possibly very complex, knock-on effects. As the space and cyberspace domains are linked operationally—space cannot exist without cyber and cyber, in some cases, without space—and they permeate all other warfighting domains (i.e. land, air, and sea), cyber-related vulnerabilities of space assets are a major concern. Global effects would be virtually instantaneous.
Given these realities, space-dependent civilian governments are wise to be seeking new ways to engage in serious international discussions concerning how best to ensure responsible behavior in these two connected domains. Meanwhile, space-dependent militaries are, to varying degrees, bracing themselves for the worst by the establishment of crisis management mechanisms to address fast-moving security threats emanating from cyber-related vulnerabilities embedded in space systems and operations. In some cases, this mechanism includes taking proper account of growing government dependency on commercial providers as key parts of both military and civilian missions.