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Category: satellites – Page 58

From swerving to sheltering in place, here’s how the International Space Station handles hazards on the increasingly cluttered space lanes.

The most recent maneuver happened last week when the ISS boosted itself into a higher orbit to avoid debris from a 2021 Russian anti-satellite missile test. It’s likely that such close calls will only get more common as humanity keeps cluttering up the space lanes with old satellites and bits of wreckage from collisions and missile tests. Here’s what you need to know about space debris and how to avoid it.

How does the International Space Station dodge space debris?

It’s tempting to picture astronauts piloting the ISS like it’s the Millennium Falcon, relying on their lightning reflexes (and maybe the Force) to swerve around bits of obliterated spaceships, often with mere inches to spare. The reality — like a lot of things in space flight — is much slower and happens over much bigger distances than Hollywood’s version. But it can still be extremely tense, as lives are at stake, and if something goes wrong, help is not on the way.

Continue reading “Space is increasingly hazardous — here’s how NASA dodges deadly debris” | >

The rocket startup will attempt to catch its Electron booster in mid-air and fly it back to dry land.

U.S. and New Zealand-based Rocket Lab will perform a second mid-air recovery attempt of its Electron rocket booster after the launch of a mission called “Catch Me If You Can,” a press statement reveals.

Rocket Lab to attempt another mid-air booster recovery.

Rocket Lab.

Continue reading “Rocket Lab will attempt to catch a rocket booster with a helicopter once again this week” | >

The SmallSat will use a four-laser reflectometer, with near-infrared wavelengths that are easily absorbed by water, to identify ice on the Moon’s surface.

In a few weeks, a small satellite will shine a light on the permanently shadowed craters of the Moon, looking for reservoirs of water ice that could be highly beneficial to astronauts.

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight, the size of a small briefcase, is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida between November 9 and 15 with the Japanese Hakuto-R lander and United Arab Emirate’s Rashid 1 rover.

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It’s known that water ice exists below the lunar regolith (broken rock and dust), but scientists don’t yet understand whether surface ice frost covers the floors inside these cold craters. To find out, NASA is sending Lunar Flashlight, a small satellite (or SmallSat) no larger than a briefcase. Swooping low over the lunar South Pole, it will use lasers to shed light on these dark craters—much like a prospector looking for hidden treasure by shining a flashlight into a cave. The mission will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in mid-November.

“This launch will put the satellite on a trajectory that will take about three months to reach its science ,” said John Baker, the mission’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Then Lunar Flashlight will try to find on the surface of the Moon in places that nobody else has been able to look.”

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“You’d be crazy not to, given their track record.”

Amazon is working toward the launch of two prototype satellites for its SpaceX Starlink-rivaling internet service, Project Kuiper. The delivery giant plans to launch these first two satellites at some point next year, and earlier this year, it penned what it calls “the largest commercial procurement of launch vehicles in history.”

Amazon signed that agreement, totaling 83 Kuiper launches, with United Launch Alliance (ULA), European firm Arianespace, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.

There’s one important caveat, though.

Continue reading “Amazon may have to turn to SpaceX for help launching its Starlink rival service” | >

TAMPA, Fla. — SpaceX started taking pre-orders Oct. 25 for a flat panel antenna that enables land vehicles to use its Starlink broadband service while in motion.

The company aims to make deliveries starting in December for an upgraded Starlink for RVs service, which currently only comes with a standard $599 Starlink dish designed for stationary use.

The flat panel antenna will cost subscribers $2,500 and is better suited for moving vehicles because its wide area of view can connect to more satellites, according to SpaceX. The company has warned customers that using any other Starlink dish on the go will void their limited warranty.

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“The project has certainly been a rewarding exercise in bringing art and science together.”

The magnetic signals from the ESA’s Swarm satellite project were turned into sound by researchers at the Technical University of Denmark. The outcome is quite thrilling for something that is supposed to protect us.

“The team used data from ESA’s Swarm satellites and other sources and used these magnetic signals to manipulate and control a sonic representation of the core field. The project has certainly been a rewarding exercise in bringing art and science together,” musician and project supporter Klaus Nielsen, from the Technical University of Denmark, explained the project in the ESA’s release. team used data from ESA’s Swarm satellites and other sources and used these magnetic signals to manipulate and control a sonic representation of the core field. The project has certainly been a rewarding exercise in bringing art and science together,” musician and project supporter Klaus Nielsen, from the Technical University of Denmark, explained the project in the ESA’s release.

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Put horror movies and games aside for a few minutes to listen to something truly unsettling this Halloween season. The has released audio of what our planet’s magnetic field sounds like. While it protects us from cosmic radiation and charged particles from solar winds, it turns out that the magnetic field has an unnerving rumble.

You can’t exactly point a microphone at the sky and hear the magnetic field (nor can we see it). Scientists from the Technical University of Denmark collected by the ESA’s three Swarm satellites into sound, representing both the magnetic field and a solar storm.

The ethereal audio reminds me of wooden wind chimes rattling as a mass of land shifts, perhaps during an earthquake. It brings to mind the cracking sounds of a moving glacier as well. You might get something different out of the five-minute clip.

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SpaceX has rolled out an upgraded version of its Rideshare program that will allow even more small satellite operators to send their spacecraft to orbit for extremely low prices.

SpaceX threw its hat into the growing ring of smallsat launch aggregators in August 2019 with its Smallsat Program. Initially, the company offered a tiered pricing scale with multiple rates for the different sizes of ports a satellite operator could attach their spacecraft to. For customers purchasing their launch services more than 12 months in advance, SpaceX aimed to charge a minimum of $2.25 million for up to 150 kilograms (~330 lb) and a flat $15,000 for each additional kilogram. Customers placing their order 6–12 months before launch would pay a 33% premium ($20,000/kg).

SpaceX may have sorely misjudged the market, however, because the company introduced a simpler, reworked pricing system just a few months later. SpaceX slashed prices threefold, removed most of the tier system, and added a portal that allowed customers to easily reserve launch services online. Compared to the first attempt, the new pricing – $1 million for up to 200 kilograms (~440 lb) and $5000 for each extra kilogram – was extraordinarily competitive and effectively solidified SpaceX as the premier source of rideshare launch services overnight. Save for an inflation-spurred increase to $1.1 million and $5500/kg, that pricing has remained stable for almost three years, and SpaceX’s Smallsat Program has become a spectacular success.

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