#so the other two cubesats will be sent in two weeks.

[technology-revelation]

TROPICS Satellites Researcher Will McCarty of the TROPICS program in NASA's Earth Sciences Division said the missions are part of an innovation leap aimed at increasing the number of climate-focused satellites in space. To function properly, the four satellites must be launched in a period of up to 60 days, so the other two cubesats will be sent in two weeks. Originally, TROPICs missions were to be carried out through the European Space Agency's (ESA) unmanned Mars Express program, but were transferred to the Rocket Labs rocket in New Zealand.

[spaceexp]

NASA CubeSats Steer Toward Mars

NASA - MarCO Mission patch. June 2, 2018 NASA has achieved a first for the class of tiny spacecraft known as CubeSats, which are opening new access to space. Over the past week, two CubeSats called MarCO-A and MarCO-B have been firing their propulsion systems to guide themselves toward Mars. This process, called a trajectory correction maneuver, allows a spacecraft to refine its path to Mars following launch. Both CubeSats successfully completed this maneuver; NASA's InSight spacecraft just completed the same process on May 22. The pair of CubeSats that make up the Mars Cube One (MarCO) mission both launched on May 5, along with the InSight lander, which is headed toward a Nov. 26 touchdown on the Red Planet. They were designed to trail InSight on the way to Mars, aiming to relay back data about InSight as it enters the planet's atmosphere and attempts to land. The MarCOs were never intended to collect any science data; instead, they are a test of miniaturized communication and navigation technology that can blaze a path for future CubeSats sent to other planets.

Image above: An artist's concept of one of NASA's MarCO CubeSats. The twin MarCOs are the first CubeSats to complete a trajectory correction maneuver, firing their thrusters to guide themselves toward Mars. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Both MarCO-A and B successfully completed a set of communications tests in the past couple of weeks, said John Baker, program manager for planetary SmallSats at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL built both MarCO CubeSats and leads the mission. "Our broadest goal was to demonstrate how low-cost CubeSat technology can be used in deep space for the first time," Baker said. "With both MarCOs on their way to Mars, we've already traveled farther than any CubeSat before them." While MarCO-A corrected its course to Mars relatively smoothly, MarCO-B faced some unexpected challenges. Its maneuver was smaller due to a leaky thruster valve that engineers have been monitoring for the past several weeks. The leak creates small trajectory changes on its own. Engineers have factored in these nudges so that MarCO-B can still perform a trajectory correction maneuver. It will take several more weeks of tracking to refine these nudges so that MarCO-B can follow InSight on its cruise through space. "We're cautiously optimistic that MarCO-B can follow MarCO-A," said Joel Krajewski of JPL, MarCO's project manager. "But we wanted to take more time to understand the underlying issues before attempting the next course-correction maneuver." Once the MarCO team has analyzed data, they'll know the size of follow-on maneuvers. Several more course corrections will be needed to reach the Red Planet. Should the CubeSats make it all the way to Mars, they will attempt to relay data to Earth about InSight's landing. InSight won't rely on either CubeSat for that data relay, however; that job will fall to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Related articles: A Pale Blue Dot, As Seen by a CubeSat: https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-pale-blue-dot-as-seen-by-cubesat.html Atlas V Lifts Off Carrying InSight Mission: https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/05/atlas-v-lifts-off-carrying-insight.html Find more information about MarCO here: https://go.nasa.gov/marco_launch Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Andrew Good. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[romeyramshey]

IT’S BUSINESS TIME FOR ROCKET LAB, LAUNCHER OF SMALL SATELLITES

“Dear everyone,” wrote Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck during a reddit AMA in April, “I’m not building a bigger rocket any time soon.”

Beck seems to get asked about expansion a lot. He and his Kiwi-US space company don’t build craft whose names end in “heavy.” Their rockets don’t land after launch. They’re only about as tall as a five-story building and as wide as a bookshelf, and they heft just 500 pounds max into orbit.//// post free classified ads in USA ////

But that’s exactly the point. Rocket Lab manufactures its Electron rocket—which will launch its first non-test flight sometime in the next two weeks, with a launch window opening at 8:30 pm Eastern Time—because it matches the size of its payload satellites. Rocket Lab sells rides on space vehicles that are dedicated to smallsats, which usually have to piggyback on heavy rockets that don’t always fly to the right orbits for smallsats, and don’t launch often enough for companies planning big constellations. It’s like for years there has only been a Big ‘N’ Tall store, and finally someone has launched a petite boutique.

Earlier this year, on one Electron, Rocket Lab launched birds from Earth-imaging company Planet and ship-tracking and weather-data company Spire. But, though it had real payloads, that was technically a test flight. This time, Rocket Lab is doubling down with paying customers: Spire will return to the launchpad, joined by climate- and environment-monitoring company GeoOptics. The Electron will also heft an educational instrument from the Irvine CubeSat STEM program and a demo for NABEO, a drag-sail meant to deorbit smallsats so they don’t add to the growing heaps of space junk.

Sometime while the launch window is open, the Electron will lift off from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula, carrying these legit paying customers. The name of the mission? “It’s Business Time.” (The two test flights were named “It’s a Test” and “Still Testing.”—you get the bit.)/// free internet advertising sites ////

Rocket Lab moved from testing to operations faster than many rocket companies do—in around a year. And it didn’t even really break things along the way. While its first test launch didn’t quite reach orbit, it also didn’t explode. The second launch was held and then called off so many times that there are now official T-shirts screenprinted with a frustrated quote from the mission-control specialist: “I never want to hold again.” But the payloads did reach their intended orbits, and a previously undisclosed “kick stage” sent the Spire satellites into circular orbits.

It’s Business Time was originally slated to launch two months ago, with Spire and GeoOptics aboard, but when a motor controller behaved badly, the company called a halt to correct the problem. In the unexpected intermission, Rocket Lab added the educational and deorbiter missions to its manifest. (It’s business time, you know?)

Assuming that this newly rescheduled launch goes nominally, Rocket Lab plans to accelerate both manufacturing and liftoffs. Which is “easy,” because the company 3-D prints its engines. “If we need more engines,” Beck explains, “we buy more printers.” Which they might need to budget for: Rocket Lab wants to launch about one rocket per month by the end of this year, supporting a growing group of potential clients—scientists, kiddos, internet providers, the Defense Department—that want to launch smallsats. Consulting firm Northern Sky Research estimates that 5,000 will launch in the next decade, generating $25 billion of revenue./// free classifieds ads online ///

The private and academic sectors have been quick to crowd onto this diminutive bandwagon, embracing data that smallsats send back down. And while federal agencies, historically tethered to giant and swanky satellites, are still a little hesitant, NOAA has a beta program specifically to buy such smallsat data. So does NASA. That’s federal interest in data, but such interest also lubricates hardware and launch. Rocket Lab’s next takeoff will involve NASA’s Elana program—in which students make nanosatellites and send them to space. The company has garnered nearly $7 million in NASA money through its Venture Class Launch Services program.

The military and intelligence communities are interested in smallsat stuff, too. Those other N-acronyms—NRO, the National Reconnaissance Office, and NGA, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency—also want in on this shrunken-satellite data. And Rocket Lab got a (smallsat-sized) $100,000 small-business innovation research grant from Darpa in 2015. In October 2017, the DoD signed a $5.7 million contract with the company. In the part of the past that’s disappeared from its website, Rocket Lab did more work for Darpa and for the Army’s Operationally Responsive Space Office, now called the Space Rapid Capabilities Office.

All of this interest from so many parties about so many aspects of the smallsat sector perhaps explains why Rocket Lab was able to snag $75 million of private capital in its last funding round. And however you do the math, and provided this launch doesn’t include any fireworks, it’s definitely business time.

[ntrending]

NASA's next mission will give us InSight into Mars' interior

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/nasas-next-mission-will-give-us-insight-into-mars-interior/

NASA's next mission will give us InSight into Mars' interior

Of all the wonders in our solar system, there’s no place beyond our own planet that’s been studied more intensely than Mars. Since humans first took to the stars we’ve sent over 21 different spacecraft to study our rust-colored neighbor. Right now there are two rovers driving around inside of craters, and six satellites overhead. But all of this activity still isn’t enough—Mars is about to get one more resident.

In about a week NASA will launch a lander called InSight. This will be the first lander to touch down on the dusty surface in ten years since the Phoenix lander touched down near the north polar cap in 2008. Unlike the recent Curiosity rover, landers like InSight and Phoenix don’t rove around the planet. Instead, they explore their surroundings firmly planted in the place they landed.

While Mars has garnered attention for decades, there’s still a lot about it we don’t know. We know it has a core, but scientists are unsure how big it is or what it’s made of. It could be small and dense—made up of iron and nickel like our own core, or larger and made of several types of materials. Mars is often referred to as a dead planet, but it’s actually pretty active. It had active volcanoes just 50-100 million years ago, relatively recently in geologic terms, and researchers would love to know more about how they formed, and why they stopped erupting.

“Everything we’re doing with InSight is trying to understand how Mars formed and evolved,” says Mark Panning, co-investigator for the InSight mission. “In order to piece together the whole picture about how the terrestrial planets formed, we need to understand this basic part of Mars and its history.” InSight’s mission is to see below the surface of Mars to solve these big mysteries and that means it’s traveling with some highly specialized equipment.

How It Works

InSight will land in a region called Elysium Planitia, just a bit north from where the Curiosity rover roams. Once it lands, it will spend two months using its robotic arm to place its scientific instruments on the surface, the most sensitive one being the specially made seismometer. This isn’t just any seismometer, like those measuring earthquakes in California; this instrument is so sensitive that it can measure the movement of the ground by the distance of single atoms. If Mars quakes even an atoms distance-worth, InSight will catch it.

Next it will deploy its HP3 instrument which will hammer up to 16 feet into ground. HP3 is essentially a large thermometer that will stay in the soil for a full Martian year, or two Earth years. As Mars orbits the sun, the HP3 will monitor the flux of the the interior temperature of Mars.

Understanding the interior movements and heat levels of the inside of Mars can tell us a lot about how active Mars really is—and clue us into its history. There might be hot magma still flowing far down below the crust of the planet, or there could even still be signatures of active volcanoes. Team members refer to Mars as a “goldilocks” planet because it’s bigger than the moon but smaller than the Earth. The moon lost a lot of its heat early on while the Earth has retained a lot. Our planet is so active that the plate tectonics, volcanoes, and other geologic processes produced by this internal heat continuously erase the records from the earth’s very early history. Activity like this is driven by heat wanting to escape from the depths of a planet’s core. Mars lies somewhere between our own planets liveliness, and our small inactive moon, which makes it a great place to better understand the differences and similarities of small rocky bodies in our inner solar system.

Not only will InSight be the first spacecraft designed to study the interior of Mars, but it’s making history in a different way. For the first time, NASA has designed two cubesats, miniature satellites (about the size of a briefcase) to travel alongside InSight during it’s trip to Mars during which they will serve as communication relays. Once in orbit around the planet, hey will bear witness to InSight’s entry into the atmosphere pinging back data to NASA’s Deep Space Network, letting the mission team know the status of the landing process. This teamwork and long journey will give the MarCo cubesats the title holder for the first interplanetary cubesats ever launched into space. If this relay works the way the team hopes, it could change how planetary missions communicate during dangerous atmospheric entries in the future. Usually, spacecraft entering the atmosphere depend on the larger satellites for communication relays, but they only work once a spacecraft are at the planet. Cubesats like MarCo can track and update the mission along the way, adding a level of insurance to a mission.

Assuming all goes well with the launch and landing, InSight could give us a unique perspective into the famous planet next door. Not long after landing scientists will begin to piece together some of the biggest mysteries of red planet and in doing so help us learn more about our own place in the solar system.

When Does It Launch?

The launch window officially opens May 5th at 4:05 am PT. InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, making it the first planetary mission launched from the West Coast. The spacecraft will travel for six months to Mars where it’s due to land in Elysium Planitia on November 26th of this year.

Written By Shannon Stirone

[cryptoga-blog]

How the Blockstream Satellite Will Generate Bitcoin Adoption

http://www.cryptoga.com/market/how-the-blockstream-satellite-will-generate-bitcoin-adoption/

How the Blockstream Satellite Will Generate Bitcoin Adoption

Very last week Bitcoin Journal lined the announcement of Blockstream Satellite, a new provider that broadcasts real-time Bitcoin blockchain data from satellites in house to practically everybody on the world. At this time Blockstream Satellite covers throughout two-thirds of the Earth, and provider expansions are in the performs.

“Today’s launch of Blockstream Satellite provides even more individuals on the world the choice to take part in Bitcoin,” stated Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Back, when the announcement was made. “With more buyers accessing the Bitcoin blockchain with the free broadcast from Blockstream Satellite, we anticipate the international access to push more adoption and use instances for Bitcoin, whilst strengthening the overall robustness of the network.”

The idea of streaming the Bitcoin blockchain to the complete world from satellites in house had earlier been proposed by Jeff Garzik, but Blockstream’s implementation introduces some appealing tweaks: It depends on current professional satellites currently in orbit and leverages open-source software package, particularly GNU Radio and FIBRE, to lower prices.

The announcement of the Blockstream Satellite has been gained with sizeable interest from equally the blockchain and house communities, but also with doubts and lingering thoughts. Bitcoin Journal arrived at out to Adam Back and Chris Cook, Head of Satellite at Blockstream, to find out more.

You are in essence using current professional satellites as relays. Why is this solution superior than setting up, launching and running your possess satellites, now that cubesats and less expensive cubesat launch units allow executing so value effectively?

Chris Cook: Even though there have been lots of latest reductions in the value of cubesats and other lower earth orbit (LEO) satellites, it is even now a noticeably more pricey undertaking than using current satellites. As cubesats are not geosynchronous, they are always moving overhead. This means that you require lots of of them for total international coverage.

Additionally, lots of cubesats have a life span of only a handful of months ahead of they slide out of orbit. Either you require to constantly replenish them or you have to increase them into bigger orbit, equally of which increase prices.

Ultimately, we have not fully dismissed the idea of launching our possess satellites. However, deploying a international satellite network with current satellites appeared like a excellent very first move. It lets us to produce this provider to individuals throughout the planet promptly and value effectively.

What could you do with devoted custom made satellites that you are not able to do with the recent process?

Chris Cook: A devoted satellite would perhaps allow us to work a node on a satellite itself alternatively than [have it be] supported from a floor station.  

What if political pressures pressure your professional satellite provider vendors to cancel your contracts?

Adam Back: Since Bitcoin is currently greatly used and made available by using other means in lots of international locations close to the planet, the threat of the satellite broadcast of Bitcoin remaining canceled is not likely. The satellite network is delivering redundant, lower-value availability for data that is currently publicly available and downloadable by anyone more than the net. There are many satellites from distinct vendors in the Blockstream Satellite network.

Linked to that, does Blockstream Satellite (or a conceivable extension) allow improving on the privacy and anonymity of bitcoin transactions?

Adam Back: Blockstream Satellite lets passive receipt so there is basically no footprint of net traffic making it possible for your ISP or checking corporations analyzing the Bitcoin network to keep track of your node. This may perhaps make it attractive even for buyers with quickly house net to use Blockstream Satellite, the place they can then hook up and pin their wallet to their house node by using Tor.

For geographies the place superior-pace net is pricey or not available, they can hook up smartphone wallets more than WiFi or meshnet to satellite nodes, and broadcast transactions by using SMS gateways this kind of as SMSPushTX, by Pavol Rusnak, or bi-directional Ku or L-band net solutions (available commercially and unrelated to Blockstream Satellite) which can be pricey, but even the most pricey at $10/MB performs out to significantly less than one US penny per transaction, as Bitcoin transactions are tiny.

So, I have established up my Blockstream Satellite receiving station. I am not linked to the net. How do I ship a bitcoin payment?

Adam Back: See earlier mentioned by using SMS, or often individuals do have 2.5G or 3G data but at pricey data prices. Since Bitcoin transactions are tiny, the value of sending a transaction is tiny, even if receiving the blockchain would be pricey.

For shared tools, probably for a village or organization place, a bi-directional satellite net is also value-productive, once again for the reason that of tiny Bitcoin transactions. L-band BGAN is cell, and Ku band [Hughes receivers] are fastened satellite dishes.

Your FAQ suggests that transactions can be sent using other conversation channels this kind of as SMS. Do you work your possess SMS relays for bitcoin transactions or do you recommend using external solutions? If so, which kinds?

Adam Back: We do not at this time work an SMS gateway but Pavol does (see earlier mentioned). We are working with and encouraging Bitcoin fanatics and business people to construct out custom made infrastructure configurations and share setup tips on-line.

What are some of the progressive “killer apps” that you hope Blockstream Satellite could allow?

Adam Back: We see the Blockstream Satellite provider as one stepping stone to decentralizing Bitcoin by radically cutting down node value and hence scaling the skill for individuals to operate nodes.

The Blockstream Satellite provides lots of positive aspects for distinct types of network configurations:

No net or pricey net: Hook up a good phone wallet to a satellite node by using WiFi or meshnet

Partition protection: Use a satellite as a less expensive source of blocks, and cross test with other peers. In the occasion of an net partition, the satellite will routinely bridge the network outage

Privacy: Use Blockstream Satellite to get the Bitcoin blockchain with zero or lower network footprint. You can confirm the satellite data by using other peers, and in lower bandwidth problems, with as small data as an 80 byte SMS with the most latest blockheader

Fiscal sovereignty and stability: Blockstream Satellite reduces the value of jogging a whole node to nearly zero. By jogging a whole node and connecting your smartphone wallet and other wallets to it, you no lengthier require to have faith in 3rd get-togethers: As the indicating goes, “Don’t Trust. Confirm!”

Decentralization: 1 of the most appealing attributes of Bitcoin is that it is a permissionless and electronic gold-like bearer asset. To ensure Bitcoin stays permissionless, it is crucial that lots of individuals throughout lots of international locations, [including] men and women and tiny organizations, operate whole nodes. By radically cutting down the value of jogging a whole node, we hope lots of more individuals will, guaranteeing Bitcoin’s permissionlessness and reinforcing its bearer position.

In conditions of progressive apps, we intend to give a developer API to ship software data by using the satellite compensated in mBTC/KByte so that the developer group, startups and area business people can deliver new apps to industry.

We introduced phase 1 satellite coverage throughout two-thirds of the world’s landmass, and we have options for worldwide coverage by the finish of the 12 months. [As] Blockstream Satellite provides total Bitcoin coverage globally, it gets to be attainable to entry Bitcoin from a village without superior pace net and without grid power. Or with the proper tools, you could even entry Bitcoin on the move from an RV or boat with motorized dishes.

[swissforextrading]

Software developed at EPFL used to control a flotilla of satellites

19.05.17 - This past week, 28 CubeSats were released from the International Space Station (ISS). Eight of them are running EPFL software that was originally developed for SwissCube. Code name: QB50. This refers to the European research program begun in early 2016 with the aim of launching 50 miniature satellites – CubeSats – into orbit around the Earth. Their mission: to observe and measure the thermosphere, which is the layer of the atmosphere from 100 to 600 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Research institutes and universities from 23 countries are involved in the project, and their attention was focused on the skies this past week: on Monday, the ISS began launching the CubeSats that they developed. (Ejection d'un CubeSat. © NASA) Seven years ago, EPFL sent the SwissCube into space. That was the first Swiss satellite, and it was designed and built by students. EPFL may not have a satellite on board this time around, but it is involved in the control systems of eight of the 28 satellites that entered orbit this past week. “We developed satellite control software for SwissCube – called simply Satellite Control System (SCS) – that is extremely lean and sturdy,” says Muriel Richard, from EPFL’s Space Engineering Center (eSpace). “Using a secure and automated process, SCS encodes the instructions that need to be sent to the satellite, transmits them when the satellite is flying over a base station and receives information back from the satellite.” Eight organizations from seven different countries – Turkey, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel, Spain, Ukraine and China – chose EPFL's open-source software, which they adapted to their own needs. “This is extremely positive and a real boost for our work,” says Richard, who noted that SCS is also able to control larger satellites. EPFL’s software has been chosen for other ongoing projects as well. It will run CleanSpace One, a satellite that is being designed to de-orbit SwissCube so that it does not end up as more space debris. It will also control the first two prototypes of a planned constellation of 60 nanosatellites; the prototype launch, scheduled for next year, is being run by EPFL startup ELSE. These projects are helping to put EPFL at the center of a growing ecosystem of specialized space-related expertise. http://actu.epfl.ch/news/software-developed-at-epfl-used-to-control-a-floti (Source of the original content)