Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX is already a household name around the globe, but there’s no shortage of other startups vying for their slice of the private spaceflight pie. Companies like the Jeff Bezos-led Blue Origin are doing some pretty impressive things, and a relatively new startup out of Japan just hit a big milestone as well.

The company, named Interstellar Technologies Inc, launched its MOMO-3 rocket into space over the weekend, reaching an altitude of over 100 kilometers before running out of steam and tumbling back down to Earth. The rocket, which is part of the company’s long-term plan of providing satellite launch services to commercial partners, is built using many parts that are readily available from a variety of manufacturers.

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and partners have demonstrated an experimental, next-generation atomic clock—ticking at high “optical” frequencies—that is much smaller than usual, made of just three small chips plus supporting electronics and optics.

Described in Optica, the chip-scale clock is based on the vibrations, or “ticks,” of rubidium atoms confined in a tiny glass container, called a vapor cell, on a chip. Two frequency combs on chips act like gears to link the atoms’ high-frequency optical ticks to a lower, widely used microwave frequency that can be used in applications.

The chip-based heart of the new clock requires very little power (just 275 milliwatts) and, with additional technology advances, could potentially be made small enough to be handheld. Chip-scale optical clocks like this could eventually replace traditional oscillators in applications such as navigation systems and telecommunications networks and serve as backup clocks on satellites.

Continue reading “NIST team demonstrates heart of next-generation chip-scale atomic clock” »

Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, wants to launch enough satellites to provide broadband web access anywhere in the world. The first 60 fly this week.

In the first of a dozen launches to set up its Starlink network that could provide high-speed internet all around the world…

SpaceX is now eyeing tonight for the lift-off of a Falcon 9 rocket towing the first of 60 Starlink satellites after postponing its planned Wednesday launch due to high winds.

Continue reading “SpaceX will send 60 satellites to orbit tonight in the first of a dozen launches to set up Starlink” »

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has published the first official photo of the company’s near-final Starlink design and confirmed that Falcon 9 will launch a staggering 60 satellites on May 15th.

Known internally as Starlink v0.9, this mission will not be the first launch of operational satellites, but it will be the first internal SpaceX mission with a dedicated Falcon 9 launch. Additionally, the payload will be the heaviest yet launched by SpaceX, signifying an extraordinarily ambitious first step towards realizing the company’s ~12,000-satellite Starlink megaconstellation.

SpaceX will launch dozens of ‘test satellites’ for its Starlink program next week as it ramps up efforts to create high speed global internet…

According to Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and CEO, the company will launch dozens of satellites next week as a demonstration for project Starlink.

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Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are still in their nascency, but analysis of BroadbandNow US market pricing data suggests that the technology could save American households more than $30 billion per year by intensifying broadband competition.

LEO satellites, such as the constellations planned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink project and Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper, promise to bring low-latency broadband internet to millions of Americans. LEO satellite orbit extremely close to earth, between 99 to 1200 miles versus 22,000 miles of traditional GEO satellites, which means less time to transfer information (lower latency) and a quality of service comparable to wired broadband cable and fiber providers. The arrays will be precisely mapped into massive constellations to maximize coverage.

LEO technology will offer robust internet access to underserved and rural communities lacking wired, low-latency broadband options. The arrival of this emergent technology is likely to drive down monthly internet prices for hundreds of millions of Americans.

Continue reading “Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Can Save American Households $30+ Billion with LEO Satellites” »

Developed by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Plasma Physics Division, in conjunction with the Spacecraft Engineering Department, the Space PlasmA Diagnostic suitE (SPADE) experiment launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the International Space Station onboard the SpaceX Dragon resupply mission (CRS-17), May 4.

Integrated onto the Space Test Program-Houston 6 (STP-H6) pallet, SPADE is designed to monitor background space plasma conditions on-orbit the International Space Station and provide early warning of the onset of hazardous levels of spacecraft charging.

The space environment is filled with a collection of electrically charged particles, plasma, and properties that depend on variable solar conditions. Satellite operations in space require continuous monitored plasma conditions and the results it has on spacecraft.

Continue reading “NRL tests sensor on-orbit the ISS to protect space-based assets” »

The idea is to place two or three satellites in circular orbit around the Earth to observe black holes. The concept goes by the name Event Horizon Imager (EHI). In their new study, the scientists present simulations of what images of the black hole Sagittarius A would look if they were taken by satellites like these.

More than five times as sharp

“There are lots of advantages to using satellites instead of permanent radio telescopes on Earth, as with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT),” says Freek Roelofs, a PhD candidate at Radboud University and the lead author of the article. “In space, you can make observations at higher radio frequencies, because the frequencies from Earth are filtered out by the atmosphere. The distances between the telescopes in space are also larger. This allows us to take a big step forward. We would be able to take images with a resolution more than five times what is possible with the EHT.”

Continue reading “Telescopes in space for even sharper images of black holes” »