August 6, 2023

Why Taiwan is Looking Beyond Musk’s Starlink – to Britain (Source: The Telegraph)
On a remote archipelago off the coast of mainland China, 13,000 local residents were plunged into a digital blackout earlier this year. The outage on the Matsu islands, which are governed by Taiwan but located a little over 10 miles from China, was blamed on Chinese fishing vessels severing its undersea cables. Taiwan, which relies on subsea cables to remain connected to the global web, needs to “strengthen the security and resilience of the nation’s communications”, said Wen Lii, a Matsu-based politician, at the time.

In Taipei, the focus is on building or acquiring a satellite communications backup network that could weather future disturbances, natural disasters, or lingering concerns of conflict with Beijing. The obvious candidate is Elon Musk’s Starlink. But while Taiwan “would really like Starlink, they don’t trust Musk”, says Scott Bade. In December last year, Taiwan’s space agency announced plans for a resilient, low-earth orbit satellite network – of around 100 to 120 spacecraft – to reinforce its communications. Taiwan digital minister Audrey Tang said that OneWeb had been “very willing” to assist on a government-run project to set up an emergency network of satellite ground terminals. (8/5)

BRICS: Can it Form Multilateralism in Outer Space? (Source: Modern Diplomacy)
At a BRICS meeting in Hermanus, Moscow offered BRICS members-Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa the chance to participate in the construction of a joint module for its planned orbital space station. Many critics suggest that the growing partnership between Moscow and Beijing in outer-space poses challenge for the west. 

However, this article contends that the growing partnership between Moscow and Beijing in space exploration should not be seen as a challenge for the West but rather as a wake-up call for a more inclusive and peaceful approach to outer space, free from historical power struggles. By promoting collaboration among diverse nations, BRICS can pave the way for a more democratic system in space, while addressing concerns about potential militarization and other environmental issues in space. Click here. (8/6) https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/08/06/brics-can-it-form-multilateralism-in-outer-space/

SpaceX Targets Year’s 50th Falcon 9 Launch Tonight (Source: America Space)
SpaceX will fly its 50th Falcon 9 mission at the start of the year’s 33rd week, when a former crew-carrying booster lifts off tonight from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The three-times-used B1078 core—one of a trio of brand-new “single-stick” Falcon 9s to have entered the fleet in 2023 alone—is set to soar at the stroke of 9 p.m. EDT Sunday, laden with 22 Starlink “V2 Mini” internet communications satellites, destined for emplacement into low-Earth orbit. (8/6)

NASA Helps Spot Wine Grape Disease From Skies Above California (Source: NASA)
Withering molds, root-rotting bacteria, viruses, and other plant pathogens destroy an estimated 15 to 30% of global harvests every year. Early detection can make the difference between a failed crop and a treatable one. Using an airborne science instrument developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, researchers have found that they can accurately spot the stealthy signs of a grape disease that inflicts billions of dollars in annual crop damage. The remote sensing technique could aid ground-based monitoring for this and other crops.

Researchers from JPL and Cornell University focused on a viral disease called GLRaV-3 (short for grapevine leafroll-associated virus complex 3). Primarily spread by insects, GLRaV-3 reduces yields and sours developing fruit, costing the U.S. wine and grape industry some $3 billion in damage and losses annually. It typically is detected by labor-intensive vine-by-vine scouting and expensive molecular testing. The research team wanted to see if they could help growers identify GLRaV-3 infections early and from the air by using machine learning and NASA’s next-generation Airborne Visible/InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG). (8/4)

China Launches Four Rockets and Outlines Future Lunar Mission (Source: NSF)
China has picked up its launch cadence in the last two weeks as they continue to push forward in its ambitious 2023 launch schedule. Not only did they launch three rockets from the Chang Zheng family in a short period of time, but also Gushenxing-1 from Site 95A at Jiuquan joined the mix with the “Lemon Tree” mission. What’s more, the country outlined plans for its upcoming Chang’e-7 lunar mission. While on the surface of the Moon, the Chang’e-7 lander is planned to drill into the lunar surface in search of water ice. Click here. (8/4)

A Background ‘Hum’ Pervades the Universe. Scientists Are Racing to Find Its Source (Source: Scientific American)
In June, a new era in astronomy began with the apparent discovery of low-frequency gravitational waves, the ambient hum of spacetime ripples pervading the universe. Groups in the U.S., Europe, India, Australia and China are each working on their own similar experiments and are pooling their data together to improve the result.

With evidence for these never-before-seen gravitational waves now firmly in hand, all those disparate teams are now feverishly gathering more data for a grander goal: to understand exactly where this background hum is really coming from. Many experts suspect that the hum mostly emerges from pairs of supermassive black holes spiraling together in the gradual process of merging—but it could instead come from even stranger sources that might represent thrilling new branches of physics. “We’re right at the very beginning of the field,” says Chiara Mingarelli of Yale University, part of the U.S.-led collaboration, NANOGrav. (8/4)

L3Harris Lays Off 100 Engineers at Texas Plants (Source: Herald Banner)
In regard to layoffs that were reported at L3Harris' Greenville plant Thursday, a spokesperson for the defense contractor issued the following statement Friday afternoon: "As part of our continual assessment of resources against business requirements, L3Harris communicated a reduction of its workforce by approximately 100 engineering positions Thursday at its Greenville and Plano, Texas locations, while continuing to hire aircraft mechanics and electricians at our Greenville facility," the statement read. (8/4)

NASA Will Land Three Autonomous Mapping Robots on the Moon (Source: Extreme Tech)
NASA is headed back to the Moon, and this time the goal is to set up a long-term human presence on Earth's natural satellite. Astronauts spending time on and around the Moon may find an army of robotic helpers at their disposal, the first of which is being built and tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The CADRE project will deploy a trio of autonomous mapping robots on the Moon, and if successful, they could help NASA understand how best to build that army of bots.

The three CADRE (Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration) rovers are currently in the engineering prototype phase. NASA plans to deploy CADRE in 2024 via the CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The lander will touch down in the Reiner Gamma region of the Moon, but unlike past rover missions, NASA does not intend to control exactly what each robot does. Click here. (8/5) https://www.extremetech.com/science/nasa-will-land-three-autonomous-mapping-robots-on-the-moon

What's Up With Russia's Planned Amur Rocket? (Source: Ars Technica)
Where is the Amur rocket Russia promised? It has been nearly three years since Roscosmos unveiled plans to develop the "Amur" rocket, which had the goal of flying a fully reusable first stage. The methane-fueled rocket, as Ars reported at the time, looked quite a bit like SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, complete with grid fins and landing legs. Back then, in the year 2020, Roscosmos said the country aspired to start flying Amur in 2026.

A year-for-year slip ... So after nearly three years, where are we now? "We are currently looking at 2028-2030," said Deputy General Director Daniil Subbotin of RCC Progress, a Roscosmos company, in response to a question about the Amur vehicle recently. He was quoted by the Russian news agency TASS, in a report translated for Ars by Rob Mitchell. Subbotin said that right now the technical planning for the vehicle is ongoing, to be followed by development and flight testing. The chances of Amur flying in my lifetime, I would say, are probably less than 10 percent. (8/4)

SpaceX Successfully Runs Starship Test After Explosion During Earlier Attempt (Source: WCCF)
SpaceX continues to move towards its second orbital test flight as it conducted an important test earlier today to test the Super Heavy booster's pumps and turbines. This test, called a spin prime test, sees the rocket gush super cool propellants from its engines as they are pumped out without igniting them. The previous Starship booster, which was destroyed during flight, also ran a similar test, and it came with some fireworks that saw a large fireball light up at its bottom.

However, SpaceX has learned from experience this time as the test went without a hiccup to allow the firm to check off another item before more important tests, such as a static fire and a potential wet dress rehearsal which are the final few steps before a launch. The test started at roughly 10:13 am local time after Starship's Super Heavy booster had started venting out its propellants earlier. It lasted for roughly twelve seconds and saw plumes of cold propellants surging from the bottom of the rocket as it appeared that SpaceX had tested several engines on its rocket to ensure that their performance would be up to the mark when it comes to the second Starship orbital test flight. (8/4)