The Inmarsat I-4 F1 satellite, which provides services for East Asia and the Pacific regions, experienced an outage on Sunday, causing concern from farmers and industry groups regarding their backup systems. Inmarsat confirmed the outage resulted in a temporary loss of services from the satellite, but it immediately implemented service recovery procedures. The incident highlights the vulnerability of modern farming and other industries that rely on satellite technology for precision and efficiency. One of the consequences of the outage was that some farmers who used the Inmarsat service lost access to GPS services for precision farming. The downstream services included…
Author: Team Interstellar
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Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, has ordered the launch of a military spy satellite, which could allow the country to enhance its nuclear program and monitor the US and its allies. North Korea expects the satellite to play a crucial role in bolstering its defence capabilities, sovereignty, and legitimate right to self-defence. Kim made these remarks during his visit to the National Space Development Agency (NSDA), where he called for launching the country’s first military reconnaissance satellite within a specified time frame. Officials from the Reconnaissance General Bureau accompanied Kim during the visit. The US and other countries have…
Chinese researchers have conducted an experiment allowing an AI to control a satellite’s camera for a full day. During that time, it took photos of different locations on Earth. The experiment aimed to determine how artificial intelligence might help streamline the Earth’s observation satellites’ workflow and prevent them from aimlessly capturing troves of images that require copious amounts of processing back on Earth. The research team controlled the Qimingxing 1 satellite with a ground-based AI system. The AI autonomously chose areas on the surface to survey and capture images. However, the research team needs clarification on why the AI selected…
On 17th April 2023, under India’s G20 Presidency, a two-day precursor meeting of the G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM) was held in Shillong, Meghalaya. The purpose of this precursor event was to highlight the capabilities of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Space and explore avenues of multilateral space cooperation between the G20 countries. The inaugural program of the meeting was attended by Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Union Minister of State for Finance, Pankaj Chaudhury, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Prime Minister’s Office, who sent a recorded video, G20 Sherpa…
The European Space Agency (ESA) has taken a significant step towards developing commercial-scale space-based solar power plants by signing contracts for two parallel concept studies. These studies, led by Arthur D Little and Thales Alenia Space Italy, respectively, will serve as reference points for ESA’s new SOLARIS initiative. The SOLARIS initiative aims to mature the feasibility of gathering solar energy from space for terrestrial clean energy needs. The concept behind space-based solar power is to concentrate solar power in space where it is continuously available and in plentiful supply, free from local weather or darkness, and then send it wirelessly…
In this episode of Orbital Rendezvous on Interstellar, Kriti Upadhyaya, Founding Director of IndUS Tech Council brings forth her views of the India-US Space Cooperation in the wake of the inaugural dialogue of the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET). Hoe does the White House rank the following in terms of priority of the India-US Space Cooperation – Development, Economy, Security? Who carries greater weight, the State Department or the Department of Defense? Kriti answers more such questions from her base in Washington DC.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H) have established a Centre of Excellence called DIA-CoE to collaborate on seven technology projects related to the defence sector. The centre was inaugurated at the Technology Research Park in IITH on Sunday by DRDO Chairman Dr Samir V. Kamat in the presence of IIT-H Director Prof. B.S. Murty and Director of DIA-CoE, Shri G. Ramaguru. The seven verticals of technology projects undertaken at DIA-CoE include ultra-high temperature materials, additive manufacturing, space technologies, AI for defence, image processing, seekers and homing technologies, and nano-ornithocopter technologies. The centre…
Kenya launched its first operational earth observation satellite onboard a SpaceX rocket from the United States on Saturday, a live feed from Elon Musk’s rocket company showed. The satellite, developed by Kenyan engineers, will collect agricultural and environmental data on floods, drought and wildfires that authorities plan to use for disaster management and to combat food insecurity. The Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Taifa-1 satellite took off at about 0648 GMT without incident from the Vandenberg Base in California after three postponements due to bad weather. “We have the challenges that have been brought about by climate change, which the…
China successfully launched its first satellite dedicated to measuring precipitation on Earth, the Fengyun 3G (FY 3G), which is expected to improve the accuracy of global rainstorm early warnings on Sunday. Built by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), FY 3G is the 20th member of the Fengyun series of satellites and one of only three satellites in the world that can monitor precipitation from space. The China Meteorological Administration will build and operate FY 3G’s ground system. Previously, precipitation data were mainly collected through ground-based rain gauges and radar, which could not provide large-scale, high-precision information due…
China intends to build a lunar base from regolith, or soil, from the moon within the next five years, according to Chinese media reports. More than 100 scientists, researchers, and space contractors attended the Extraterrestrial Construction Conference in Wuhan, where they discussed ways to build infrastructure on the moon. Ding Lieyun, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that a team is building a robot named “Chinese Super Masons” to manufacture bricks from lunar soil. The Chinese plan to use the base for long-term lunar exploration and will be built with the help of robots, including the “Chinese…
