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Category: space – Page 504

Space WiFi? A new startup wants to give NASA’s moonbase an internet connection

If we are to set up a permanent base on the Moon, we will need some solid connection.

A space startup company is trying to make that happen. Aquarian Space recently announced receiving $650,000 in seed funding to develop a possible broadband internet connection that would link the Earth to the Moon, and maybe even Mars.

The company aims to deploy its first communications system to the Moon by 2024 in anticipation of increased demand from planned space missions to the Moon and beyond, both public and private ventures.

“In 2021 there were 13 landers, orbiters, and rovers on and around the moon,” Kelly Larson, CEO of Aquarian Space, said in a statement released Thursday. “By 2030, we will have around 200, creating a multibillion-dollar lunar economy. But this can’t happen without solid, reliable Earth-to-moon communications.”

First photos from James Webb telescope better than expected

Images of a very “boring” star are making waves across the astronomical world today – they are the first sent back from NASA’s James Webb telescope, and they have exceeded all hopes and expectations.

Having completed the self-assembly of its 18-segmented main mirror, the telescope has now taken exceptional images of an unexceptional star as a test of its capabilities. The star, known as HD84406, is 100 times fainter than what can be seen with the human eye. The star itself is of little interest, lovely though its image is – instead, astronomers are captivated by the spray of tiny dots scattered across the background. Each is a distant galaxy, and this is the first time we’ve ever been able to capture them.

In a virtual briefing, NASA officials expressed their overwhelming joy and relief at what these first images represent.