Scientists are using artificial intelligence to examine the expanse of space for possible signals or patterns suggestive of sentient life, marking the beginning of a new era in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). One of the most important concerns facing humanity is whether or not we are alone in the universe. This junction of cutting-edge technology and the long-standing search for cosmic companionship has the potential to completely transform how we approach this topic. A major obstacle in SETI research has been the enormous amount of data gathered from radio telescopes and other astronomical devices. It has taken a lot of time and effort for traditional methods to sort through this data and find intricate patterns that could point to purposeful communication. Here’s where AI becomes a game-changer.
-AI is being used in rovers and spacecraft to enable autonomous decision-making. With the ability to travel through difficult settings, react to unforeseen challenges, and carry out activities without constant human interaction, these intelligent systems make it possible to explore distant planets more effectively and adaptably. Artificial intelligence driven systems are essential in the field of space robots. These devices perform complex tasks with accuracy, whether they are on the surface of the moon or deep into space. Robotics powered by AI can do tasks like building structures and fixing satellites, expanding the frontiers of human discovery.
Natural Language Processing for Communication: Natural Language Processing (NLP) in AI improves communication between Earth and spacecraft. With the use of this technology, interactions can be more natural and efficient, which facilitates smooth cooperation between mission control and astronauts and streamlines communication procedures.
Exoplanet Discovery:AI’s contribution to the detection of exoplanets is amazing. Our knowledge of the cosmic neighborhood is being expanded by machine learning algorithms that examine light patterns from far-off stars, spotting minute changes that might point to the existence of new planets in distant solar systems.
Predictive Analysis for Space Weather: AI algorithms are used to examine space weather data, providing forecasts for solar flares and geomagnetic storms. Better planning for future threats to satellites, spacecraft, and terrestrial infrastructure is made possible by this foresight.
Artificial intelligence and space travel are developing simultaneously, and this combination of intelligences has the potential to provide previously impossible cosmic insights. AI is an outstanding example of innovation that is guiding humanity into a new era of cosmic exploration, whether it is delving into the depths of space autonomously or discovering the mysteries of far-off galaxies. The combination of AI creativity and human curiosity portends a time when space exploration will be done more accurately, efficiently, and intelligently, and will be a significant breakthrough in our quest to fully fathom the size of the cosmos.
We live in a time when launching a rocket is no longer something supernatural and something expensive, now everything has become much easier with this.Of course, where there are new technologies, there are also marketers trying to use these technologies. Just as the entire Internet lives on advertising now, so future space programs can be sponsored by displaying the logos of famous brands in the night sky.
It is assumed that space advertising will be able to use ultra-small satellites, cubesats, equipped with solar-reflecting sails, in the form of individual pixels. Together they will create a giant advertisement that will be visible from Earth to the naked eye. And it will cost quite inexpensively – cheaper than modern advertising campaigns involving big celebrities. At least, this is the opinion of one group of Russian researchers who have recently studied all the specifics.
CubeSats
According to scientists from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) and the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), space advertising will cost significant money, and few companies will be able to afford it. But it will still not be too expensive, and in the end it will be able to bring huge profits, and its “exclusivity” and cost will just help companies not to outshine each other in the sky, and leave more than enough free space for everyone.
“No matter how unrealistic it may seem now, here we show that space advertising based on 50 or more small satellites flying in formation is cost-effective,” write Shamil Biktimirov, Gleb Bely and Dmitry in the international scientific journal Aerospace.
The main factor that makes space advertising profitable is SpaceX’s reduced cost of launching rockets and low-cost cubesat satellites that weigh a kilogram or less, but can still be much brighter than the stars in the sky. Launching one such cubesat into orbit now costs $60,000, and if there are several dozen of them, such a satellite constellation is already becoming visible from Earth.
Currently, cubesats are mainly used by universities, schools and small groups of scientists to conduct private experiments in microgravity. But nothing prevents you from installing reflective material on them, and making them bright pixels on the “monitor” of the night sky. According to Russian researchers, fifty small satellites will be enough. That’s only about $3 million. For comparison, a 30-second Super Bowl slot costs $9 million.
According to calculations, space advertising will not cost much more. Even taking into account a number of unforeseen circumstances, the need to pay for a rocket launch, hiring a new team, paying for the development of a scheme for deploying material, testing the process, purchasing all licenses, and so on, the cost of such a very first advertisement should not exceed $65 million (and most likely an order of magnitude lower). ). This takes into account that each of the fifty satellites will have a reflector with an area of 32 square meters – the largest ever successfully deployed on cubesats. The whole procedure will take from one to three months, and then it remains only to monitor this satellite constellation.
The researchers calculated the possible optimal path for the constellation, assuming that it would fly over the cities, displaying ads over each for a little over a minute, and then move to the next location. Researchers estimated how much advertising with such coverage can usually cost, including on billboards.
Shamil Biktimirov, one of the authors of the study:
“The revenue estimate for this configuration is based on standard outdoor advertising spend, city population, and factors that limit the number of people seeing space ads: cloudiness, cold weather that keeps people indoors, and the city’s demographics.”
Based on all of these estimates, scientists have determined that cubesat space advertising could generate revenue of up to $2 million a day.
The main advantage here is that the fixed costs will be relatively low. In order for the system to work, the presence of sunlight is sufficient. At the same time, the theoretical coverage is the entire territory of the globe. What will be especially true for rich transnational companies that do not focus their PR efforts within one country.
For example, in Central Africa, even the most expensive Coca-Cola Internet advertising will not be seen by anyone, and on the distant islands of Polynesia you cannot install billboards, there are almost no roads there. And here – as soon as the product appears on the shelves, everyone will already be perfectly familiar with it. And the “recognition” and “familiarity” of the brand is, in fact, everything for the sake of which such wide-ranging campaigns are carried out.
At the same time, not everyone likes the prospects and economic feasibility of such an idea. For example, all astronomers are unequivocally in favor of the purity and immutability of our night sky. Artificial structures constantly falling into the frame can create many new problems when studying distant galaxies and stars. The time lapse of the night sky in the United States is constantly pierced by myriads of satellites.
If every major brand on the planet launches its own constellation into space, the work of scientists will become much more difficult. And, probably, the study of space by mankind is a more important task than the mass display of advertising in the sky 24/7. For example, this is the only way to detect asteroids that are on a collision trajectory with the Earth.
Connie Walker of NOIRLab, the US National Center for Terrestrial, Optical and Infrared Astronomy, told BBC News back in February:
“The number of artificial satellites continues to grow, and astronomy is now facing a tipping point. The amount of interference increases and we lose a lot of scientific data.”
By the end of the decade, more than 5,000 satellites will be above the observatory’s horizon at any given time. Many of them will be illuminated by the Sun. Such satellites are detected by even the simplest optical or infrared telescopes, depending on the time of day and season. That’s hundreds or thousands of noise in each picture.
This is now one of the main arguments that can prevent major brands from “joining” space advertising. No one wants to be branded as the main “litter” of the orbit and the enemy of astronomy. It’s almost certain that if launch prices don’t go up, eventually some company will decide to place their billboard in space. And if they make a lot of money from it, get a lot of publicity, and don’t get sued, space advertising might soon start to fill the sky above our heads, especially at dusk and dawn.
Every astronomy enthusiast who likes to look at celestial bodies in the sky understands that such a telescope can be quite expensive. Moreover, traditional telescopes are large, heavy, and not mobile enough. This is why the DWARF II telescope was created by TinyScope CAM, which enables users to pursue their interests without difficulty. This smart telescope gives users incredible detail of an object, at the same time being extremely small in size.
The developers took into account all the shortcomings of the previous model DWARF I and created an improved version of the telescope, which is so beloved by users. Moreover, they added the ability to control the telescope using a cell phone. The developers also said that in the nearest future they will provide API and documentation for developers. So they will allow users to develop and run their own programs on DWARF II.
Developers claimed that this cutting-edge telescope is able to take pictures of objects located deep in space, and moreover, it is even capable of taking photos of other galaxies. Due to the diagonal of the sensor of the IMX415 telescopic camera, the diagonal of the 35mm frame is approximately 6.7. Thus, on a 35mm camera, this 100mm lens is approximately equivalent to a 675mm lens. The Developers say that this should be enough for taking fantastic pictures of the Moon and other bigger galaxies. DWARF II can capture multiple images using 2-axis scanning technology and, later, stitch them together to form one image. In this case, The number of pixels can even reach one billion.
DWARF II is compact, and has the following technical characteristics:
Lens: 100 mm focal length, is optimized to the diffraction limit
Sensor: SONY IMX415 Starvis, 8 million pixels, high sensitivity
CPU/NPU: 4-Core Cortex-A7 1.5 GHz CPU, 2 TOPS NPU
To take a photo of any deep-sky object, traditionally, astronomical observation telescopes must be equipped with an equatorial instrument and a camera. All these equipment prices start at $1500 and can be even higher. So, it can be concluded that for ordinary users it will be quite costly. Whereas, DWARF II early bird price starts from $459.
Summarizing everything that was mentioned before, It must be said that DWARF II is an awesome, light, user-friendly, and compact telescope. In comparison with traditional equipment, it is very cost-effective. Moreover, it allows users to develop custom software, using their API. And in my opinion, this advantage allows them to gain experience that simply can not be achieved with traditional telescopes.
A scientific team from the Southwestern Research Institute in Texas have reported that there is a liquid ocean under the ice of Saturn’s moon Mimas. Previously, scientists believed that the satellite consists entirely of frozen water.
The Cassini space probe in the last days of its work recorded fluctuations in the rotation of Mimas. Usually, these phenomena indicate the geological activity of the body, which is able to maintain the internal ocean in a liquid state.
Ice moon geophysicist and lead author of the study, Dr. Alyssa Rhodes, said the surface of the moon does not betray the presence of an ocean underneath. She says it could be classified as a new type of ocean world.
In the solar system, there are bodies where the oceans are hidden under ice and rocks, for example, on the satellites Titan, Europa and Enceladus, as well as the planetoid Pluto. The Earth must be within a narrow range of distance from the Sun in order to keep the oceans liquid. However, the listed objects are in a wider range of distances.
Previously, scientists believed that Mimas was entirely made of ice, as craters on its surface indicated this. Enceladus and Europa are devoid of such depressions, they have cracks and other evidence of geological activity. The observation broadens the definition of potentially habitable worlds within the solar system and beyond, Rhodes notes.
The scientists concluded that tidal heating in the interior of Mimas must be high enough to keep the liquid from freezing, but still leave a sizable shell of ice that spans between 22.5 and 32.1 km.
Rhoden says the results of the study show the presence of an ocean on Saturn’s moon, but it is still difficult for scientists to reconcile the orbital and geological characteristics of Mimas with current understanding of its thermal and orbital evolution.
The researcher explains that this discovery will help to better understand the nature of the rings of Saturn and its satellites, as well as in the search for potentially habitable sea satellites, such as Uranus. Scientists promise to continue research on Mimas.
James Webb Space Telescope is often dubbed the long awaited ‘successor’ to famous Hubble Telescope. With its recent start on 25th of December 2021 let’s delve into the details of the telescope’s mission and elaborate on some differences between ‘Webb’ and ‘Hubble’.
Webb’s Origin and Development
The idea for a Next Generation Space Telescope was born in the 1990’s. It was planned to observe the Universe in the infra-red spectrum, which would allow to see space objects much farther or colder than Hubble could see. It was initially intended to launch in 2007, but in 2000’s it was still in early development. The first deadline was deemed impossible to meet, so the whole project was re-planned with the seven-fold expansion of the initial budget, and the launch was put-off to somewhere in the following decade. Eventually, the project’s budget exceeded $9 Billion, with European and Canadian Space Agencies contributing hundreds of millions of dollars, as well. Due to both, technical issues and factors independent of the space agencies, like the most recent Covid-19 Pandemic, the start of the mission of the Webb Telescope was scheduled for 2021. The Telescope was eventually launched from Europe’s Space Port in French Guiana on 25th December 2021.
Differences between other space telescopes
Hubble Space Telescope (left) compared to Webb (right)
One of the most significant differences between Webb and Hubble is the location of the mission. While Hubble is operating from Low-Earth Orbit, Webb will observe its targets from so-called ‘Earth – Sun Second Lagrange point’ (L2) which effectively means that it is few times further away from Earth than the Moon. Other very important difference is the wavelengths which telescopes utilizes. Hubble can see light varying in wavelength from ultraviolet to close infrared, while Webb can see much farther into infrared, which will be its main frequency of operation, just like Spitzer Space Telescope. Webb has also main mirror more than two times larger than Hubble’s with a diameter of 6.5 meters.
The difference between different wavelenghts (by Hubble Space Telescope)
The mission
Currently the Telescope is travelling to L2, where it will make its research. After its arrival to the orbit in late January 2022, the 6 months long preparation phase will follow. When Webb is finally calibrated, it may start its observations which are meant to last at least 5 years, but the Telescope may operate for as much as 10 years. From there it will look down in infrared on countless Nebulae, Star Clusters and Systems, providing new, clearer look on already known objects. One of the first Webb’s objectives is going to be evaluating on systems with potential exoplanets discovered by Kepler Space Telescope. Another goal may be searching for stars much older than we could previously see. Due to the redshift effect, the further away the object is, the more shifted to red it will be perceived by us. JWST is able to search for much older objects than Hubble, which tend to release more radiation in the infrared frequencies, due to its greater presence in infra-red spectrum.
Libration Points in Sun – Earth system. JWST will orbit around Second Libration Point
Conclusion
Webb’s Mission has just started, but its success is much anticipated. Its observations will verify countless theories regarding different space objects and provide many additional data which may be useful in the future. Even though, minor malfunctions may be handled by the Telescope itself, any major failure may lead to the end of the mission, because it is too far away to be repaired by a rescue team of Astronauts. Only Time will tell us what we will gain from James Webb Space Telescope…
With the development of rocket technology in the 40’s and 50’s it was obvious that humanity would soon try to reach to the Space. However due to the period of tensions between Democratic World (led by USA) and Socialist Block (led by USSR), we now refer to as the Cold War, both Superpowers instead of collaborating for the good of humanity on that matter started to compete. Eventually the US and Soviet Union would scramble for which country would first launch a satellite to orbit the Earth, whose astronauts would land on the Moon first etc. Eventually, due to USSR’s collapse in 1991 the Cold War came to an end, and with it the First Space Race as well.
The 90’s and the beginning of the XXI Century saw Space Agencies from many countries doing joint research on Mir and on International Space Station. Since the end of the Apollo program in 1972 no-one has set foot on the Moon, but unmanned spaceships and rovers are still exploring our Natural Satellite and other worlds, like Mars, as well.
However in the past decade mutual relations between the Powers started to deteriorate. Tension is steadily growing, as 2014’s Russian annexation of Crimea Penninsula was considered unlawful by the ‘Western World’, which imposed sanctions on Russian Federation. Furthermore, for the last few years America is de facto in the state of Trade War with China and implemented bans on Chinese high-tech companies.
The competition between the Powers seems to be more and more visible. The examples of that are most recent rovers on Mars: NASA’s Perserverance and CNSA’s Tianmen 1 which both launched in July of 2020. American landing on the Moon as a part of Artemis Program is scheduled for 2024 (which is unrealistic, as it was scheduled before COVID), and the works on apprioprate rocket and drive continue, while China is also planning to launch a manned space mission to the Moon in 2030’s. Taking some of the difficulties into account, like emergence of a global epidemic and constant funds shortages, it becomes obvious that by 2024 NASA won’t have sent its astronauts to the Moon. Moreover, some of the equipment needed for the project is still being developed and tested. This means, that there’s a chance of China being the first country to send astronauts to the Moon since Apollo program.
As International Space Station – home to astronauts from NASA, ESA, Roscosmos and others is steadily approaching the end of its mission, a question arises on the horizon: what Station will eventually replace it, and which Space Agency will be first to do so. The Country which first finishes building it most probably will make it available for others on their terms. For example, if PRC along with Russia manages to do it, then there’s a huge chance that during negotation of the terms on which American or European astronauts would gain access to the station tensions between those countries will rise even more.
On the other side there are commercial organizations like SpaceX or Blue Origin also looking to reinforce their presence in Space. 10 years ago those companies hardly had such level of importance and recognition as today. Recently those two were battling for a contract for a Lunar lander intended for the Artemis program. When Nasa after changing the details of contract choose SpaceX’s project, Blue Origin’s founder Jeff Bezos filed a lawsuit against the agency. Blue Origin eventually lost the case earlier this month.
To conclude, Global Superpowers – USA and China continue to compete against each other on many fields: technological, economic, diplomatic, with Space exploration being another proof of their rivalry. However, both countries’ leadership draw conclusions from the Cold War and understand, that they can’t allow mutual relations to deteriorate to the point of armed conflict. Recently, U.S. President Joe Biden held a virtual meeting with China’s Xi Jinping, during which they stated, that despite differences both countries want to avoid open conflict between each other. “”As I’ve said before, it seems to me our responsibility as leaders of China and the United States is to ensure the competition between our two countries does not veer into conflict, either intended or unintended. Just simply straightforward competition,” – said American President to his Chinese counterpart during the summit. Even during the Cold War both USA and USSR agreed on demilitarising the Space and halting nuclear tests there. The competition between both Superpowers or between private companies sometimes is a sign of rivalry or bad relations, however in this case it may also be considered a driving force, which speeds up development in the area. When Chinese Tianwen 1 succesfully landed on the Red Planet, NASA Administrator congratulated on success: “Congratulations to CNSA’s #Tianwen1 team for the successful landing of China’s first Mars exploration rover, #Zhurong! Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet.” All of this means that, even though we can consider this Competition the Second Space Race, it does not mean that Humanity will experience a military conflict outside the Earth any soon. Even term Star Wars, derived from popculture was just a catchphrase for American anti-ballistic defense system, which in reality didn’t saw any use. We are not having real Star Wars on Earths’ Orbit in near future.
Sources:
Congratulations to CNSA’s #Tianwen1 team for the successful landing of China’s first Mars exploration rover, #Zhurong! Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet. pic.twitter.com/KexElIu8OH
Relativity Space is an American aerospace manufacturing company. Their goal is not to just send rockets to space, but revolutionize entire process of how they are build and flown.
The most innovative thing that Relativity is doing is that they are building their own 3D-printers and using them. They are not just building printers to sell them or designing and buying someone’s printers, they combine both of these aspects.
The 3D-printer
3D-printing gives a lot of new opportunities. The cost of material to make a single rocket is valued to be 5 to 10 times lower that to make a normal one. This means a lot more expeditions could be made. It is also said by the Relativity that their rockets can be entirely made from raw material to flight in 60 days as normal made rockets take around 2 to 5 years to make. It ‘s a very big step up and can help a lot with testing bigger amount of rockets.
Aeon engine
All of the parts for the rockets are printed. Even the engine. Relativity Space developed their own engine called “Aeon”. It use liquid oxygen and liquid natural gas which are the best for rocket propulsion and also eventually in the future, the easiest to make on Mars.
The first 3D-printed rocket “Terran 1” demonstration launch is set for early 2022. In my opinion, if everything will work, this could be a very big step in technology. Exploration of space will become a lot more affordable and faster that ever.
Reading Time: 2minutesNasa conducted a test of the Crew Dragon crew capsule, made in collaboration with SpaceX and Boeing. The agency wanted to check key emergency procedures for crew safety. It was spectacular.
The emergency in-flight abort system has just been successfully demonstrated.
On January 19th a thrice-flown Falcon 9 sent an uncrewed Crew Dragon 12 miles into the sky and after about 84 seconds after launch, the rocket shut off its engines, and the vehicle’s own SuperDraco engines turned on, separating Crew Dragon from Falcon 9 at Mach 2.2 and getting a mile away in a matter of seconds.
It was a key test of safety procedures for the Crew Dragon capsule. It is a project whose point is to re-supply people to space regularly. This is the first action of that kind that can be repeated since the suspension of space shuttle missions.
The test that has been made on 19th January at the afternoon of polish time and has gone as planned. Its purpose was to simulate irregularities during take-off. The mission’s task was to perform a controlled disconnection of the Crew Dragon capsule from the Falcon 9 rocket, which carried the capsule into space.
Disconnection took place about a minute and a half after take-off. Fifteen seconds later, due to strong vibrations, the Falcon 9 rocket exploded spectacularly. However, the mission command center provided for this possibility. It was even said that there is a small chance that the rocket would survive the test.
However, it survived the most important part of the mission, the capsule disconnected from the rocket without problems and began a short flight on the engines built into it. Less than 6 minutes after take-off, four new-generation parachutes emerged from the vehicle, which were designed to slow down the capsule flight and make its launch not particularly uncomfortable for the potential crew. After 9 minutes, Crew Dragon fell into the ocean about 30 km from the start. Rescue teams started their work, whose task was to train the procedures of getting the crew out of the capsule.
I bet that 90% of people reading this article wished to become astronaut back in their childhood. To be honest, that was my wish too! Sadly, this article won’t be about bright future of space conquest, but rather grim reality of work in space sector.
Since beginning of space race, humanity has launched around 8100 satellites of which some 5000 remains in orbit. As you can imagine, Earth’s orbit has plenty of space and 5000 satellites should be as “big” concern as 5000 cars for a small town, so basically none. But… there are several circumstances that makes it a little bit more complex! Every artificial satellite needs to be delivered to space, which demands a big rocket that can get it into our orbit, then some parts must detach, and so on. Every step in orbit will leave new parts, and these parts will fly at speed of several thousand kilometers per second, and guess what. If you would get hit by screw at speed that high, it would be like you were hit by bolt of plasma, and same goes for every object in space.
As you may see in the picture above, this is what happens when spacecraft is hit by small debris. You might think that “come on there can’t be enough debris made by launching some satellites” and to be honest you are kind of right. Problem is that more than 95% of current object in orbit are so called zombies, serving no purpose, floating in space, waiting for impact with other body. When this happens, hundreds of small pieces burst into all directions, posing enormous threat to everything else. Sometimes government come up with “brilliant” ideas, for example Chinese government decided to test if their rockets can shoot down their own satellites – Turns out they can, however test also created enormous amount of space garbage. We could go on and on to see new examples, but let’s get to the point.
Everyday U.S. Military issues 21 warnings about space collisions. That is US alone, we can only guess that everyday there is more than one hundred warnings about space collision, so during whole year, there is at least more than 36 thousand warnings! This shows exactly how dangerous it becomes to travel into our orbit. Some specialist claims that every year we are getting closer to point of no retreat, and that means that Earth will become our jail, because we won’t be able to get safely into space.
But how can we fight with this threat you may ask? That is what you will find out in my next article!
Reading Time: 2minutesEach of us have at least once used such apps as Google Maps, Jak Dojadę or Snapchat. Their functions relay on geolocation. GPS is present in our lives and so do Chinese want. Late in November this year, China’s state space agency confirmed that Long March 3B rocked has been launch. On board: another two satellites for BeiDou, new global navigation system. China has been working on the system from 2000, launching new satellites from 2017. Only in 2018 the orbit has gained 11 new Chinese satellites. There are 19 of them total, which gives China possibility to start offering the global navigational services. CNSA (Chinese National Space Administration) has announced that the target number of satellites is 35. 5 geostationary and 30 non-geostationary satellites is enough to achieve the worldwide coverage.
Ilustration by Insights India
BeiDou in Chinese means Big Dipper, which is the name of one of the astronomical constellation. The system firstly was created to decrease dependence on American GPS system, especially when it comes to the military needs. Later on, CNSA decided to use it on commercial purposes and it will be available for private customers from 2020. The accuracy of restoring the location for private purposes will be about 10 meters. Interestingly, for military purposes, this accuracy will be only 10 centimeters. This approximation will also be maintained for authorized governmental purposes. In August this year, the BeiDou system was installed in around half of Beijing’s taxis. Chinese government’s goal is to have all of them guided by BeiDou by 2020. It also measures the speed within 0.2 millionth of thons per second and is able to provide clock synchronization accurate to 0.02 millionths of a second.
Launch of the latest two satellites in the Long March 3B rocket
This is just the beginning of gaining an influence in the world. The creation of this system is considered crucial for China in order to control the perception of the world. No wonder that companies such as Xiaomi, Huawei or OnePlus have decided to make their products compatible with the BeiDou system. Although Apple has not decided to become BeiDou friendly while launching the new products on September 12th, it is only a matter of time.In 2014 the suggestion appeared, that the system can be also able to navigate the drones to destroy foreign forces in case of the attack. It seems to me that CNSA has created a “rival” to the GPS but is it going to be as much successful? We are about to find out.
