Lifeboat Foundation

Cheap and quick to produce, the plasma sensors could help scientists predict the weather or study climate change.

🗑️ Space junk (space debris, space pollution, space waste, or space garbage) is defunct man-made objects in space (mainly in Earth orbit) that no longer serve a useful function.

👀 And here is how its number has changed over the past 60 years.

*As of January 2021, the US Space Surveillance Network reported 21,901 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth, including 4,450 operational satellites. However, these are just objects large enough to be tracked.

Continue reading “Space junk, 1962-2022 🛰️” »

SpaceX shared how it’s making its Starlink satellites less bright. The space exploration company published a document titled, Brightness Mitigation Best Practices for Satellite Operators that outlines how it’s working with the astronomy community to reduce light pollution.

New document from @SpaceX https://api.starlink.com/public-files/BrightnessMitigationBe…rators.pdf explaining what they have been doing to make their satellites less bright. I applaud SpaceX for their work on this (and for making the document public), while remaining concerned to see how bright the Gen2 Starlinks end up being.

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) July 29, 2022

The risk of satellite collisions would be extremely high after a major solar storm, experts say.

The chance of someone being killed by space junk falling from the sky may seem ridiculously tiny. After all, nobody has yet died from such an accident, though there have been instances of injury and damage to property. But given that we are launching an increasing number of satellites, rockets, and probes into space, do we need to start taking the risk more seriously?

A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, has estimated the chance of causalities from falling rocket parts over the next ten years.

Every minute of every day, debris rains down on us from space – a hazard we are almost completely unaware of. The microscopic particles from asteroids and comets patter down through the atmosphere to settle unnoticed on the Earth’s surface – adding up to around 40,000 tonnes of dust each year.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Innovation Unit is funding space projects that the agency hopes will spur commercial investments in satellite refueling technologies and support services for geostationary satellites.

“Imagine a world where every 18 to 24 months, you could simply upgrade the processor on a satellite in GEO the way that you upgrade your smartphone to take advantage of new processing power and new functionality,” said Steve “Bucky” Butow, director of the space portfolio at the Defense Innovation Unit.

DIU, based in Silicon Valley, is a Defense Department agency established in 2015 to help bring privately funded innovation into military programs.

Caption :

MIT researchers have demonstrated a 3D-printed plasma sensor for orbiting spacecraft that works just as well as much more expensive, semiconductor sensors. These durable, precise sensors could be used effectively on inexpensive, lightweight satellites known as CubeSats, which are commonly utilized for environmental monitoring or weather prediction.

WASHINGTON — L3Harris Technologies and Northrop Grumman Strategic Space Systems won a U.S. Department of Defense contract to furnish multimillion-dollar satellites that help detect, identify and target missiles and other cutting-edge threats, including hypersonics.

The Space Development Agency on July 18 said the companies will each produce 14 prototype satellites for the Tranche 1 Tracking Layer, a key component of the National Defense Space Architecture, which will consist of hundreds of satellites operating primarily in low-Earth orbit.

Together, the agreements are valued at more than $1.3 billion. The L3Harris deal came in at $700 million, making each satellite and related service package worth roughly $50 million. The Northrop Grumman deal came in at $617 million.