It’s another type of space race, to be the first company to get solar satellites into orbit.
U.S. companies are aggressively researching the technology, reports Yale 360. One firm called PowerSat in Washington state has filed for patents to link as many 300 shiny satellites together in space, beam the energy to one big satellite, then transmit the power back to Earth.
The star trek also includes using solar-powered thrusters to launch satellites into orbit 22,000 miles above our planet.
A California utility called PG&E also has signed a deal with Solaren for 200 megawatts of space-based solar power in 2016, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A Taurus XL rocket carrying a satellite intended to be using for monitoring carbon dioxide levels plunged back to Earth several minutes after taking off.
A covering for the satellite failed to release, and the rocket could not maintain its intended course with the extra weight. The satellite went down with the rocket in the ocean near Antarctica. It was designed as a remote orbiting carbon observatory that would revolve around the earth at a height of 400 miles.
Researchers plan to use satellites to predict the movements of an unusual culprit in China. Their target: a dangerous underwater snail.
Underwater snails don’t sound very menacing. But some snails carry a kind of flatworm parasite called schistosoma. The parasite causes schistosomiasis, the second most widespread tropical disease after malaria. In China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, there are billions of these snails, each one no bigger than the tip of your pinky finger.
“There are huge signs there that tell people not to go into the lake. People know about the dangers of infection, but they have to touch the water to some extent. It’s part of their lifestyle,” said Motomu Ibaraki, the US-based leader of the research project.
With the help of satellites, scientists will be able to track which areas have water conditions favorable to the snails. By keeping tabs on the probable whereabouts of the disease-carrying snails, health officials can ramp up the battle against schistosomiasis, sometimes also called “snail fever”.
A scientist named Tim Bean, who is a PhD student at the University of California Berkeley writes the following on a website: “I expect that ‘Counting Rats from Space,’ the proposed title of my thesis, will become an international phenomenon, spawning everything from a board game to a Top 40 dance hall burner.”
His dream might soon come true. Bean is one of the primary researchers on a project that will use images from Israeli defense satellites to obtain an accurate population estimation for California’s endangered Giant Kangaroo Rat–a keystone species. The study will be the first to use satellites to research an endangered species.
This Friday, John C. Mankins, a former NASA employee who is an expert on space solar power will make a big announcement about a potentially huge alternative energy breakthrough.
The basic idea is that satellites in space will collect solar energy and beam it down to the earth. Apparently, Mankin was involved with a project that successfully demonstrated a wireless power transmission between two Hawaiian [...]
British scientists are preparing to launch a revolutionary satellite that will provide precise measurements of the earth’s gravitational field, which will in turn provide exact measurements of ocean currents. So why is that important? Well, ocean currents transport heat around the planet— and that means that the currents have a huge impact on the earth’s climate.
