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Space Exploration

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U.S. generals planning for a space war they see as all but inevitable

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A ship in the Pacific Ocean carrying a high-power laser takes aim at a U.S. spy satellite, blinding its sensors and denying the United States critical eyes in the sky.

This is one scenario that military officials and civilian leaders fear could lead to escalation and wider conflict as rival nations like China and Russia step up development and deployments of anti-satellite weapons.

If a satellite came under attack, depending on the circumstances, “the appropriate measures can be taken,” said Lt. Gen. John Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.

Entire article: https://spacenews.com/u-s-generals-planning-for-a-space-war-they-see-as-all-but-inevitable/
 
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Anyone watch the meteor shower? I saw one last night just walking around, but didn't set up anywhere to Star Gaze. Will be happening for a few more days.

You'll have the best view of the Geminid meteor shower overnight Monday
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/13/1063657564/geminid-meteor-shower-when-to-watch
The Geminid meteor shower, which lights up our sky every December, will be at its most visible late Monday into early Tuesday morning.

Although the moon will brighten up the sky and make it harder to see the Geminids this year, astronomers say from about 2 a.m. to sunrise, no matter your time zone, will be prime viewing time.

"Rich in green-colored fireballs, the Geminids are the only shower I will brave cold December nights to see," Bill Cooke, the lead for NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said in a statement.

The Geminids — which appear to emanate from the constellation Gemini — come from debris left behind by a celestial object known as 3200 Phaethon. Scientists believe 3200 Phaethon is either an extinct comet or an asteroid.

Because of their density, Geminids can get as low as 29 miles above the Earth's surface before burning up, according to NASA.

Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere will have the best show, though the Geminids can be seen from almost anywhere on the planet. Night owls in the Southern Hemisphere may simply see fewer meteors as the shower will be closer to the horizon.

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The moon will be about 80% full Monday night, NASA said, and its brightness will wash out the fainter Geminids until the moon sets around 2 a.m.

The Geminids will last until Dec. 17.
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This article has, by far, the most disappointing disparity between what the title implied and what it's actually about:

Planet shares begin trading on New York Stock Exchange
by Debra Werner — December 8, 2021
https://spacenews.com/planet-goes-public/
SAN FRANCISCO – Planet completed its merger with special purpose acquisition company dMY Technology Group IV and began trading shares on the New York Stock Exchange Dec. 8 under the ticker symbol PL.

Shares in San Francisco-based Planet Labs Public Benefit Corp. closed up 5 percent to $11.35 on its first day of public trading.

With roughly $590 million from the merger and private investment in public equity, Planet is preparing to invest in sales, marketing and software as it seeks to bolster its revenue and customer base. Planet reported $113 million in 2021 revenues for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31 and currently serves about 700 customers.

Over time, Planet intends to grow that customer base from 700 “to 7,000, 70,000, 7 million,” Robbie Schingler, Planet chief strategy officer, told SpaceNews. “That’s the opportunity for the Earth-observation community, not just Planet.”

Still, with about 200 Earth-imaging satellites, Planet plays an important role in the Earth-observation sector. The company founded in a garage in Cupertino, California in 2010, now employs about 700 people and captures daily, global imagery of Earth’s land mass. Rather than selling raw imagery, Planet relies on cloud computing and machine learning to create data products it sells through subscriptions.

Planet’s journey from startup to initial public offering took about twice as long as its founders expected, Schingler said. Along the way, the company, now based in San Francisco acquired BlackBridge, Terra Bella, Boundless Spatial and VanderSat.

By establishing itself as a Public Benefit Corp., Planet is formally adopting the vision of its founders to work toward “a more sustainable, secure and prosperous world,” Schingler said. When making major decisions, Planet’s board and directors will take that mission into consideration, he added.

At the same time, Planet intends to profit financially.

Will Marshall, Planet co-founder and CEO, estimated that the company is having “about one percent of the impact that it can, both commercially as well as the impact for the planet,” Schingler said. With additional funding and people, Planet can accelerate its effort to create “a more prosperous world, where the global economy works for people and the planet, not the other way around,” Schingler said.

In addition to selling its own products and services, Planet is encouraging entrepreneurs to tap into its imagery and data streams.

“There’s a huge amount of new opportunities for entrepreneurs to be building sense-making application not just for scientists and not just for the intelligence community, but for communities, for countries that don’t have their own satellites and for just about every vertical market that exists,” Schingler said.
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Parker Solar Probe makes historic pass through Sun's atmosphere
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Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmoson Twitter
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59661827

The US space agency (Nasa) is calling it a historic moment - the first time a spacecraft has flown through the outer atmosphere of the Sun.

The feat was achieved by the Parker Solar Probe, which dipped, for just a short while, into a region around our star that scientists call the corona.

It occurred in April, but the analysis of data has only now confirmed it.

Parker had to withstand intense heat and radiation but gathered new insights on how the Sun works.

"Just as landing on the Moon allowed scientists to understand how it was formed, touching the Sun is a gigantic stride for humanity to help us uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the Solar System," said Nicola Fox, the director of Nasa's heliophysics science division.

The Parker Solar Probe is one of the most audacious missions ever mounted by the agency.


Launched three years ago, its goal is to make repeated, and ever closer, passes of the Sun.

The spacecraft moves at colossal speed, at over 500,000km/h (320,000mph). The strategy is to get in quick and get out quick, making measurements of the solar environment with a suite of instruments deployed from behind a thick heat shield.

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IMAGE SOURCE,S R HABBAL AND M DRUCKMÜLLER
Image caption,
The diffuse corona is only visible to us on Earth during a total solar eclipse
On 28 April this year, Parker crossed what is termed the Alfvén critical boundary.

This is the outer edge of the corona. It is the point where solar material that is normally bound to the Sun by gravity and magnetic forces breaks free to stream out across space.

Parker encountered the boundary at about 13 million km (8 million miles) above the visible surface, or photosphere, of the Sun.

The probe's data suggests it actually passed above and below the boundary three separate times in the course of five hours, according to Stuart Bale from the University of California, Berkley.


"We saw the conditions change completely," he told reporters. "Inside the corona, the Sun's magnetic field grew much stronger, and it dominated the movement of the particles there. So the spacecraft was surrounded by material that was truly in contact with the Sun."

Researchers are fascinated by the corona because it's where some key processes take place that currently defy explanation.

One is what seems to be counter-intuitive superheating. The temperature of the Sun at its photosphere is roughly 6,000C but within the corona it can reach a staggering million degrees or more.

It's also within this region that the outward flow of charged particles - electrons, protons and heavy ions - suddenly gets accelerated into a supersonic wind. Again, the mechanism is a puzzle.

"The problem is that the fingerprints of the physical processes giving rise to the solar wind are erased by the journey the solar wind makes from the solar corona to Earth and beyond," explained Nour Raouafi from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "It's the reason we have Parker flying through this mysterious region to tell us what is going on there."

The Parker science team will gather much more data as the probe ventures ever deeper into the corona on future flybys of the Sun. It should eventually get to within 7 million km (4 million miles) of the photosphere in 2025.


Parker's insights, and those that come from other solar observatories, have direct relevance for everyone living on Earth.

The biggest outbursts from the Sun can rattle our planet's magnetic field. In the process, communications may be disrupted, satellites can be knocked offline, and power grids will be vulnerable to electrical surges.

Scientists try to forecast these "storms" and Parker promises new and valuable information to help them do that.

The latest results from the mission are being presented at the the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans.
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Virgin Orbit adds Spire satellite to next launch
by Jeff Foust
https://spacenews.com/virgin-orbit-adds-spire-satellite-to-next-launch/
WASHINGTON — Virgin Orbit will fly a Spire cubesat in addition to several other payloads on its next LauncherOne launch, scheduled for no earlier than Dec. 22.

Virgin Orbit announced Dec. 9 that Spire’s ADLER-1 three-unit cubesat had been added to the manifest for that upcoming launch, called “Above the Clouds” by Virgin Orbit. The satellite, whose name is derived from Austrian Debris Detection Low Earth (orbit) Reconnoiter, was developed in partnership with the Austrian Space Forum and Findus Venture GmbH. It will collect data on the environment of “micro” space debris in low Earth orbit using a short-range radar provided by Spire.

In the statement, Dan Hart, chief executive of Virgin Orbit, said only 20 days elapsed between initial discussions and the agreement to add the satellite, and from there 36 hours to get Federal Aviation Administration authorization to add the satellite to the mission and integrate it onto the vehicle.

“Spire’s recent addition to Above the Clouds is a great example of the flexibility of LauncherOne’s capabilities, the agility of both our teams, and the flexibility and support of the FAA in enabling rapid and responsive deployment of satellites to low Earth orbit,” Hart said.

Virgin Orbit announced the mission in November. At the time the two customers were the Defense Department’s Space Test Program (STP) and Polish satellite manufacturer SatRevolution. STP is flying several smallsats from government agencies to test communications and navigation technologies, as well as a university payload. SatRevolution is flying its STORK-3 imaging satellite and SteamSat-2, a satellite that will test water-fueled thrusters developed by British company SteamJet Space Systems.

In the statement about adding the Spire satellite, Virgin Orbit said the launch is scheduled for some time between mid-December and mid-January. According to a notice to mariners published by the U.S. Coast Guard Dec. 8, the company is planning a launch between 5 and 8 p.m. Eastern Dec. 22, with backup dates of Dec. 23 and Jan. 8–10.

The launch will be the fourth flight of LauncherOne. An inaugural launch in May 2020 failed to reach orbit when the rocket’s first-stage engine shut down several seconds into flight. The company reached orbit on its second launch in January, followed by another successful launch in June.

Virgin Orbit is also nearing conclusion of its merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The merger, announced Aug. 23, would turn Virgin Orbit into a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq and raise up to $483 million to fund the company’s expansion.

The two companies announced Dec. 8 that the Securities and Exchange Commission had declared effective the registration statement for the merger, a key step to completing the deal. Shareholders of NextGen are scheduled to vote on the merger Dec. 28, with the companies completing the deal “as soon as practicable” after the vote.
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