Copernical Team
Gravitational lenses could allow a galaxy-wide internet
As Carl Sagan once said, "The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars." And our first emissaries to the stars will be robotic probes. These interstellar probes will be largely autonomous, but we will want to communicate with them. At the very least, we will want them to phone home and tell us what they've discovered. The stars are distant, so the probes will need to make a very long-distance call.
Currently, we communicate with space probes throughout the solar system via the Deep Space Network (DSN). This is a collection of antenna stations located around the world. Each station has one large 70-meter dish and several smaller dishes. Such large radio dishes are necessary because the signals from a space probe are rather faint, and they grow fainter with increasing distance.
When we start sending probes to other stars, we're going to need an interstellar communication network.
Paraguay's first satellite deployed from the International Space Station
On March 14, the Paraguayan Space Agency (AEP) deployed a satellite from the International Space Station to help track a tiny parasite that causes Chagas disease. The satellite, Guaranisat-1, is the first developed and put into orbit by Paraguay. An estimated 8 million people in Mexico, Central America, and South America have Chagas disease, which if untreated can be life-threatening. Large-scale population movements from rural to urban areas of Latin America and other parts of the world have increased the geographic distribution of the disease.
Guaranisat-1 is part of the Joint Global Multi-Nation Birds Satellite project, or BIRDS, supported by the nation of Japan and the Kyushu Institute of Technology or Kyutech.
The same sea level for everyone
Maps generally indicate elevation in meters above sea level. But sea level is not the same everywhere. A group of experts headed by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has developed an International Height Reference System (IHRS) that will unify geodetic measurements worldwide.
How high is Mount Everest? 8848 meters? 8844 meters? Or 8850 meters? For years, China and Nepal could not a Warming drives 'fundamental' changes to ocean, scientists warn
Climate change has wrought major changes to ocean stability faster than previously thought, according to a study published Wednesday, raising alarms over its role as a global thermostat and the marine life it supports.
The research published in the journal Nature looked at 50 years of data and followed the way in which surface water "decouples" from the deeper ocean.
Climate change has Florida company licenses NASA tech that keeps electronics cool
From shutting down unexpectedly to exploding, electronics can wreak havoc when they overheat. A Florida-based company called Protodromics LLC has licensed a NASA technology that takes advantage of a physical force called electrohydrodynamics (EHD) to pump water or other fluids and cool overheated electronics. Due to the technology's low power consumption, modular nature, and small size, it can b US military must accelerate use of artificial intelligence, JAIC chief says
The U.S. military must scale up its artificial intelligence use or be left behind by adversaries, Lt. Gen. Michael Groen told an industry conference this week.
Data must be standardized, cloud services must be adopted and AI must be integrated into military operations, Groen, chief of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told the National Defense Industrial Association c Pentagon extends contract options for nuclear microreactor prototype
The Department of Defense awarded contract options this week to two companies to create a final prototype for a transportable advanced nuclear microreactor.
BWXT Advanced Technologies and X-energy, both of which won contracts last year to develop portable nuclear reactors, will continue that work under the new options, according to a Pentagon press release.
The teams are working Dubai reports launch of DMSat-1 Atmospheric Monitoring Microsatellite
Dubai Municipality announced the successful launch and deployment of DMSat-1, an atmospheric monitoring microsatellite built by Space Flight Laboratory (SFL). DMSat-1 launched Tuesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket.
SFL developed DMSat-1 under contract to the Dubai-based Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The 15-kg AFRL directed energy industry days
The Air Force Research Laboratory Directed Energy Directorate will host a Virtual Briefing for Industry to introduce the new Directed Energy Technology Experimentation Research (DETER), Advanced Research Announcement (ARA) April 13 - 14 from 10 a.m. to noon Mountain Standard Time each day.
"We are looking forward to hosting our first briefing for industry days," said Marcella Cantu, DETER Engine of Atlantis
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The second European Service Module that will power the Orion spacecraft on a crewed flyby of the Moon is fitted with a special engine at Airbus facilities in Germany.
This engine belonged to Space Shuttle Atlantis, and is one of five refurbished engines to be paired with the first five European Service Modules. Technicians carefully install the engine in Airbus’ cleanroom.
ESM is the powerhouse of NASA’s Orion spacecraft. It will provide critical functions such as the propulsion system to get astronauts to the Moon, and the consumables astronauts need to stay alive.
ESM-2 will fuel the crewed Orion spacecraft during a