Scientists testing future technology to extend solar energy measurements
Friday, 16 December 2022 16:24
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Since July 2022, a miniature satellite about the size of a shoebox has been orbiting Earth and monitoring how much solar energy reaches the atmosphere. Now, scientists are finalizing their analysis of the first five months of measurements it gathered while in orbit.
The sun is by far the largest source of energy to Earth, dwarfing the energy generated by Earth's core, and it plays a major role in global climate. Precise and accurate measurement of how much solar energy is absorbed by Earth—Total Solar Irradiance (TSI)—is crucial to our understanding of Earth's climate system.
The CubeSat, called the Compact Total Irradiance Monitor-Flight Demonstration, or CTIM-FD, is on a one-year mission to develop and test new technologies for measuring TSI.
CTIM-FD was designed and built by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
A key part of this mission is to directly compare the measurements of CTIM against its larger counterparts to demonstrate that it can perform measurements just as precisely and accurately.
Christmas comes early for Aeolus with improved laser performance
Friday, 16 December 2022 16:19 Write a comment
ESA's wind mission continues to shine as engineers have worked their Christmas magic. With a switch back to its original laser, Aeolus is now shining more than twice as brightly with its best ever performance—just in time for the holidays.
It's another remarkable success for ESA's fifth Earth Explorer. Launched in 2018 after many technical challenges, Aeolus pioneered what none had pioneered before—directly measuring global wind profiles from space using a laser.
ESA Highlights 2022
Friday, 16 December 2022 14:00 Write a comment
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2022 was a year of many ‘firsts’ for space in Europe, seeing the first European female ISS commander, the launch of the first Vega-C rocket, Solar Orbiter’s first close encounter with our home star, the launch of the first Artemis mission working to bring humans back to the Moon, and first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Let’s take a look at the highlights and accomplishments of the European Space Agency during 2022.
Week in images: 12-16 December 2022
Friday, 16 December 2022 13:50 Write a comment
Week in images: 12-16 December 2022
Discover our week through the lens
Temperature rising on Soyuz, crew not in danger
Friday, 16 December 2022 13:47 Write a comment
On Thursday, Russia's space agency Roscosmos and the US space agency NASA said a coolant leak had been detected on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. The leak forced the last-minute cancellation of a spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts on Wednesday.
Roscosmos said that a number of tests had been conducted on Soyuz on Friday, and the temperature in the capsule increased to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
"This is a slight change in temperature," the space agency said in a statement.
The development was for now "not critical" for the operation of the equipment and the comfort of the crew, Roscosmos said.
The coolant leak could potentially affect a return flight to Earth by three crew members.
Sergei Krikalev, a former cosmonaut who heads the crewed space flight programme for Roscosmos, said the leak may have been caused by a tiny meteorite striking Soyuz.
Space has been a rare avenue of cooperation between Moscow and Washington since the start of Moscow's intervention in Ukraine in February and ensuing Western sanctions on Russia that shredded ties between the two countries.
Snowy Lapland and the white balloon
Friday, 16 December 2022 12:12 Write a comment
At this time of the year, the mention of Lapland conjures up visions of Santa getting his gift-laden sleigh and nine reindeer ready to take to the skies for the most important deliveries of all. However, the skies of Lapland have witnessed something rather different recently – a big white balloon, which may not provide the immediate gratification of a much-wanted Christmas present, but nonetheless plays a role in helping to safeguard our children’s future.
Maxar Technologies acquired by private equity firm in $6.4 billion deal
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:51 Write a comment
Maxar Technologies, a space company that gained global attention with its high-resolution satellite images of the Ukraine war, is being acquired by the private equity firm Advent International for $6.4 billion.
The post Maxar Technologies acquired by private equity firm in $6.4 billion deal appeared first on SpaceNews.
Falcon 9 launches ocean science mission for NASA and CNES
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:50 Write a comment
A Falcon 9 successfully launched an Earth science mission jointly developed by the United States and France to monitor water levels and the effects of climate change.
The post Falcon 9 launches ocean science mission for NASA and CNES appeared first on SpaceNews.
Tiny meteorite may have caused leak from Soyuz capsule
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
Russian and NASA engineers were assessing a coolant leak on Thursday from a Soyuz crew capsule docked with the International Space Station (ISS) that may have been caused by a micrometeorite strike.
Dramatic NASA TV images showed white particles resembling snowflakes streaming out of the rear of the vessel for hours.
The coolant leak forced the last-minute cancellation of a spacewalk by Juno exploring Jovian moons during extended mission
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
NASA's Juno mission is scheduled to obtain images of the Jovian moon Io on Dec. 15 as part of its continuing exploration of Jupiter's inner moons. Now in the second year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft performed a close flyby of Ganymede in 2021 and of Europa earlier this year.
"The team is really excited to have Juno's extended Planet makes its geospatial data available through Amazon SageMaker
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, has announced it is making geospatial data available through Amazon SageMaker, a fully managed machine learning (ML) service from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Now, Planet data can be directly embedded into Amazon SageMaker, allowing data scientists and ML engineers to acquire and analyze global, daily satellite Latest international water satellite packs an engineering punch
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
Set for a Thursday, Dec. 15 launch, the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite promises to provide an extraordinary accounting of water over much of Earth's surface. Its measurements of fresh water and the ocean will help researchers address some of the most pressing climate questions of our time and help communities prepare for a warming world. Making this possible is a scientific Radiation shielding: MAPbI3/epoxy composites exhibit superior performance
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
As the rapid development of aerospace and nuclear industries, higher requirements are raised for the service life of detectors and the safety of staff. Gamma ray with extremely short wavelength and strong penetration would cause the serious damage to the detectors and staff. Therefore, it is important to develop gamma ray shielding materials with outstanding radiation shielding performance. First Images Released From NOAA-21 VIIRS Instrument
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
Bright blue water in the Caribbean Sea and smog in Northern India appear in the first global image produced with data from NOAA-21's VIIRS instrument.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on NOAA-21 began collecting Earth science data on Dec. 5 as the satellite passed over the East Coast of the United States. Data for the global image was collected over a period MetTel Labs deploys VMware SD-WAN over Starlink
Friday, 16 December 2022 11:32 Write a comment
MetTel reports that its Customer Innovation Labs, the research and development unit of MetTel, has deployed its Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) service using the VMware SD-WAN solution over SpaceX's Starlink satellite service.
These technologies far outpace the growth of the overall IT market which Gartner predicts at 5.1% year-over-year in 2023. According to the 2022 Gartner M