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Oct 5, 2020

Was the moon magnetized by impact plasmas?

Posted by in categories: energy, space

The crusts of the Moon, Mercury, and many meteorite parent bodies are magnetized. Although the magnetizing field is commonly attributed to that of an ancient core dynamo, a longstanding hypothesized alternative is amplification of the interplanetary magnetic field and induced crustal field by plasmas generated by meteoroid impacts. Here, we use magnetohydrodynamic and impact simulations and analytic relationships to demonstrate that although impact plasmas can transiently enhance the field inside the Moon, the resulting fields are at least three orders of magnitude too weak to explain lunar crustal magnetic anomalies. This leaves a core dynamo as the only plausible source of most magnetization on the Moon.

The Moon presently lacks a core dynamo magnetic field. However, it has been known since the Apollo era that the lunar crust contains remanent magnetization, with localized surface fields reaching up to hundreds of nanoteslas or higher and spanning up to hundreds of kilometers (1). Magnetic studies of Apollo samples and the lunar crust indicate that the magnetizing field likely reached tens of microteslas before 3.56 billion years (Ga) ago (1, 2). The origin of the strongest lunar crustal anomalies and the source of the field that magnetized them have been longstanding mysteries.

Although magnetic fields in rocky bodies are commonly explained by convective dynamos in their metallic cores, a convective dynamo on the Moon may not have had sufficient energy to produce the strongest implied surface paleofields (3, 4). This may imply that a fundamentally different nonconvective dynamo mechanism operated in the Moon or that a process other than a core dynamo produced such magnetization.

Oct 5, 2020

Have your cake and 3D print it, too

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, space

See how technology built for @Space_Station could advance humanity’s access to nutrition. #SpaceStation20th

Oct 5, 2020

SpaceX, L3Harris win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites

Posted by in categories: internet, military, satellites

SpaceX is developing a new satellite bus for the Space Development Agency based on the Starlink design.


WASHINGTON — The Space Development Agency awarded SpaceX a $149 million contract and L3Harris a $193.5 million contract to each build four satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The contracts announced Oct. 5 are for the first eight satellites of a potentially much larger Space Development Agency constellation of sensor satellites known as Tracking Layer Tranche 0. This is SpaceX’s first military contract to produce satellites.

Continue reading “SpaceX, L3Harris win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites” »

Oct 5, 2020

Single‐Atom Catalytic Materials for Advanced Battery Systems

Posted by in categories: materials, particle physics

Single‐atom catalytic materials with atomic sizes, good conductivity, and individual catalytic sites are designed for advanced battery systems, including lithium-sulfur batteries, zinc-air batteries,…

Oct 5, 2020

A single atom can function as either an engine or a fridge

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Scientists reported a single-atom energy-conversion quantum device operating as an engine, or a refrigerator, coupled to a quantum load.

Oct 5, 2020

The Secret is Out: Scientists Figured Out How Tardigrades Became Immune to Radiation

Posted by in category: biological

Japanese researchers have discovered the secret to one of the tardigrade’s most impressive abilities. Tardigrades are immune to high levels of radiation and it’s all because of a protein. It turns out, human biology may be capable of developing it, too.

Oct 5, 2020

A quantum leap In the drug development world

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Microfluidic chips that simulate human tissue enable us to conduct medical experiments in ways that could not have been even imagined only a few years ago. Two leading Israeli researchers report from the turbulent Israeli front line of the global ‘organ-on-a-chip’ sector.

Oct 5, 2020

Cognitive Electronic Warfare Could Revolutionize How America Wages War With Radio Waves

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI, space

The U.S. #military, like many others around the world, is investing significant time and resources into expanding its electronic #warfare capabilities across the board, for offensive and defensive purposes, in the air, at sea, on land, and even in space. Now, advances in #machinelearning and #artificialintelligence mean that electronic warfare systems, no matter what their specific function, may all benefit from a new underlying concept known as advanced “Cognitive Electronic Warfare,” or #Cognitive EW. The main goal is to be able to increasingly automate and otherwise speed up critical processes, from analyzing electronic intelligence to developing new electronic warfare measures and countermeasures, potentially in real-time and across large swathes of networked platforms.


The holy grail of this concept is electronic warfare systems that can spot new or otherwise unexpected threats and immediately begin adapting to them.

Oct 5, 2020

SkyWatch and Picterra combine imagery access with AI tools

Posted by in categories: business, information science, robotics/AI, satellites

SkyWatch Space Applications, the Canadian startup whose EarthCache platform helps software developers embed geospatial data and imagery in applications, announced a partnership Oct. 5 with Picterra, a Swiss startup with a self-service platform to help customers autonomously extract information from aerial and satellite imagery.

“One of the things that has been very difficult to achieve is this ability to easily and affordably access satellite data in a way that is fast but also in a way in which you can derive the insights you need for your particular business,” James Slifierz, SkyWatch CEO told SpaceNews. “What if you can merge both the accessibility of this data with an ease of developing and applying intelligence to the data so that any company in the world could have the tools to derive insights?”

SkyWatch’s EarthCache platform is designed to ease access to aerial and satellite imagery. However, SkyWatch doesn’t provide data analysis.

Continue reading “SkyWatch and Picterra combine imagery access with AI tools” »

Oct 5, 2020

China pushes ahead with giant 13,000 satellite LEO constellation

Posted by in categories: internet, policy, satellites, space

China is pushing ahead with developing a giant Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellation competing with SpaceX, Amazon and OneWeb, according to the Washington DC-based analyst Bhavya Lal and California State University’s Professor Larry Press.

Press, professor of information systems at the California State University, mentioned a recent Chinese spectrum filing in a blog of the CircleID website. China “has filed a spectrum application with the International Telecommunication Union for two constellations with the cryptic names GW-A59 and GW-2″ for a total of 12,992 satellites, Press said.

“We heard about an announcement of a constellation with nearly 13,000 satellites,” Bhavya Lal said in SpaceWatchGlobal’s Space Café webtalk last week. Lal is a senior space policy analyst at the IDA Science and Technology Policy Institute in Washington DC and was in the lead for IDA’s recently published report “Evaluation of China’s Commercial Space Sector”.

Continue reading “China pushes ahead with giant 13,000 satellite LEO constellation” »