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German cubesat to test quantum key distribution
August 19, 2024
Qube, a German cubesat is preparing to test quantum key generation and distribution via optical link.
Mission operators in Germany made contact with the 3.53-kilogram Qube approximately two hours after it launched Aug. 16 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rideshare.
Now, they are moving quickly through the launch and early operations phase (LEOP) of the mission.
“We have a planned LEOP of 3 months, but currently we seem to progress much faster than this conservative estimate for commissioning,” Klaus Schilling, president of the Center for Telematics at the University of Wurzburg, told SpaceNews by email.
“This is truly a milestone,” Harald Weinfurter, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich professor of experimental quantum physics, said in a statement.
“So far, there are no small satellites in Earth’s orbit that enable worldwide quantum key distribution.”
The Qube satellite was designed and built at the University of Wurzburg Center for Telematics.
The payload for quantum key distribution was supplied by the Ludwig Maximilian University, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg.
The German Space Agency DLR research center in Oberpfaffenhofen provided the satellite’s onboard laser communications terminal.
Government agencies, companies and academic institutions are eager to experiment with quantum key distribution for secure communications.
Due to the behavior of subatomic particles, attempts to intercept communications would be revealed.
“The use of quantum keys via satellite offers significant economic potential for achieving secure global communication,” Schilling said.
Quantum key distribution was demonstrated in orbit by the 635-kilogram Chinese Quantum Science Satellite Micius, launched in 2016.
The Germany consortium spend years miniaturing satellite components for a quantum cubesat.
A significant challenge was ensuring a cubesat could point accurately enough for a stable optical link with a ground terminal.
In addition, miniature quantum communication components must “remain fully functional at the extreme vibrations, temperature, and radiation conditions during launch and operations in space,” Christoph Marquardt, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg professor, said in a statement.
The Germany institutions are already planning Qube follow-ons.
QUBE-2, a six-unit cubesat with “a much stronger laser payload,” is slated to launch in the second half of 2025.
A feasibility study also is underway for CubEnik, two cubesats “connected by a rotational joint” to track two targets in parallel for quantum key delivery, Schilling said.
https://spacenews.com/german-cubesat-to-test-quantum-key-distribution/
Planet signs deal with NATO to supply satellite imagery
August 19, 2024
Earth imaging company Planet announced Aug. 19 it has inked a deal with NATO to supply satellite imagery.
The contract, signed with NATO’s Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), is set to provide the alliance with high-resolution data from Planet’s SkySat fleet as part of the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program.
Planet said it could not disclose the contract’s financial details.
The APSS program, launched in 2023, is a NATO initiative designed to create a “virtual constellation” by pooling together national and commercial satellite networks.
With 17 member nations committing over $1 billion over the next five years, this program is being touted as the largest multinational investment in space-based capabilities in NATO’s history.
The goal is to enhance the alliance’s ability to keep tabs on what’s happening on the ground and at sea.
This push for advanced surveillance capabilities has been spurred by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The war underscored the importance of real-time intelligence, with commercial satellite imagery playing a key role in Ukraine’s defense strategy, from tracking troop movements to coordinating responses on the battlefield.
“Planet’s tasking capabilities will empower NATO decision makers by providing imagery for use with detailed tracking and analysis of foreign military capabilities and activities, monitoring of military infrastructure, detecting movements, assessing threats effectively, filling missing intelligence gaps, and helping provide an unclassified common operating picture between allies,” the company said in a statement.
Planet operates a fleet of over 200 satellites that orbit the poles every 90 minutes, capturing the entire Earth’s landmass every day.
This includes approximately 150 Doves, which are small, medium-resolution satellites, and around 20 SkySats, which provide high-resolution imagery.
Laryssa Patten, an official from NCIA, highlighted the strategic importance of space to NATO, calling it crucial for everything from force navigation and missile launch detection to maintaining situational awareness and ensuring effective command and control.
For Planet, this NATO deal is the latest in a series of moves to strengthen its position in the defense and government sectors.
The company’s SkySat fleet, which offers high-resolution images and the ability to revisit locations multiple times a day, was initially developed to meet military and intelligence demands.
Since launching its defense-focused subsidiary, Planet Federal, in 2018, the company has been steadily expanding its government footprint.
The company secured a $146 million contract with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in 2022 as part of the NRO’s Electro-Optical Commercial Layer initiative, which taps commercial satellites for national security applications.
https://spacenews.com/planet-signs-deal-with-nato-to-supply-satellite-imagery/
https://www.sciencealert.com/famous-wow-signal-might-have-actually-been-a-natural-space-laser
https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.08513v1
Famous 'Wow!' Signal Might Have Actually Been a Natural Space Laser
20 August 2024
A super powerful space laser could be the source of a mysterious signal that has puzzled astronomers for nearly 50 years.
No, not a warning shot from an alien civilization, but rather the work of a hydrogen cloud and a neutron star; the dense core of a massive star after a supernova blew its viscera out into space.
A new hypothesis suggests that under the right circumstances, such an object could produce a signal just like one that surprised astronomer Jerry Ehman on 15 August 1977, prompting him to write the word "Wow!" on the printout.
The research, available as a preprint on arXiv, is undergoing revisions, but the findings so far are based on newly discovered detections of similar signals, suggesting that the team led by astrobiologist Abel Méndez of the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo is on the right track.
"Our latest observations, made between February and May 2020, have revealed similar narrowband signals near the hydrogen line, though less intense than the original Wow! signal," Méndez explains.
That original signal was spotted by Ehman in data collected by the Ohio State University's Big Ear radio telescope.
Lasting just 72 seconds in total, it was an extremely powerful flash of radio waves near the 1420 MHz hydrogen line, the wavelength emitted by hydrogen when it changes its spin orientation.
Given hydrogen's ubiquitous presence throughout the Universe, some scientists have speculated light at this frequency could serve as an easily recognized landmark on the electromagnetic spectrum, one technologically-advanced aliens might elect to use to signal their presence.
If the famous pulse was indeed a 'hello' from afar, it contained no modulation that could be decoded.
The Wow! signal didn't move, making it unlikely to be a nearby satellite, and also never repeated in the way we might expect of a deliberate transmission, ruling out repeat observations with improved technology.
What's more, many natural things emit radio waves with a wavelength of 1420 Mhz, so while we can't conclusively rule aliens out, it doesn't seem likely.
That leaves us with trying to find a natural explanation for the signal, which is what Méndez and his team have been attempting.
Specifically, they looked for brief emissions of narrowband radiowaves similar in frequency to the Wow! signal in archived data from the now-retired Arecibo Observatory's Radio Emissions from Red Dwarf Stars (REDS) project.
They found four records worthy of further investigation, spotted coming from the vicinity of a tiny red dwarf named Teegarden's Star just 12.5 light-years away.
Though fainter than the Wow! signal, they were similar enough that they could provide clues about the famous signal's origin.
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According to the team's analysis, the signals near Teegarden's Star are associated with interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen.
This points to a potential mechanism for the Wow! signal: a powerful flare of radiation traveling through a cloud of cold hydrogen, stimulating the gas to produce a powerful pulse of radiation close to 1420 MHz.
The end product would be a natural, astrophysical microwave laser, or maser, delivering an intense concentration of narrowband light at the hydrogen line that would look like the Wow! signal from afar.
As a red dwarf, Teegarden's Star is unlikely to be capable of producing a flare powerful enough to result in a flash of emission as strong as the Wow! signal, but other cosmic objects could be up to the job.
Neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields, known as magnetars, can erupt in flares so powerful we can detect them across intergalactic space, and are thought to be responsible for the mysterious signals known as fast radio bursts.
Another type of magnetar or neutron star called a soft gamma repeater could also be responsible. That's a type of star that periodically spits out gamma or X-radiation.
Either way, according to the team's model, the pulse of light travels through the hydrogen, resulting in a stimulated emission on the hydrogen band.
It's such a neat explanation. Such a concatenation of objects and events would naturally be quite rare; rarer still to be pointed in our direction.
So not only does the hypothesis explain the signal, it also explains why we have only ever seen it the one time.
"Our hypothesis accounts for all observed characteristics of the Wow! signal, introduces another source of false positives in technosignature searches, and suggests that this signal represented the first recorded astronomical maser flare in the hydrogen line," the researchers write in their draft paper.
"We will continue with Arecibo Wow! exploring our extensive sets of observations from Arecibo REDS.
Future studies will incorporate archival data from the Arecibo Observatory."
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Space Systems Command connects heritage, future during anniversary celebration
Aug. 19, 2024
Space Systems Command’s legacy began in 1954, when the U.S. Air Force was looking for a location for the service’s development of space capabilities.
Air Force leadership found Los Angeles County had the right combination of a technically adept workforce and military presence for a crash program to develop missiles, launch vehicles and satellites during the height of the Cold War.
For the past seven decades, what was originally formed as the Air Force’s Western Development Division by Air Force Gen. Bernard Schriever and a Space Force field command since 2021, has become the leading organization responsible for acquiring and delivering capabilities to protect U.S. strategic interests in space, including managing a $15.6 billion space acquisition budget for the Department of Defense.
“The Cold War and the Space Race (eras) are very similar to what we're getting after today, with the great power competition - we have to use innovation and game changing technologies to do this, and that's the heritage and legacy that SSC has and brings to the fight,” said Space Force Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant, SSC commander, during an Aug. 13 celebration of the command’s and Western Development Division’s 70th anniversaries.
The command’s success in an era of competition with other nations in space depends on its unique mix of active Guardians, Airmen and civilian staff, he said.
“We know we're going to have to keep up with game changing technologies and we know we're going to require amazing space force acquisition leaders, like you, to get after this fight,” Garrant told audiences at Los Angeles Air Force Base, where SSC is headquartered, and virtual at SSC operating locations across the United States.
“I'm excited to be your commander and watch you grow and get ready for our next anniversary, and everything that SSC is going to bring to the warfighters. Semper Supra!”
With a workforce of more than 15,000 personnel across 29 locations, SSC’s presence strengthens deterrence.
The command expects to support more than 150 launches in 2024 and as many as 200 in 2025.
During the celebration event, 15 SSC individuals and teams from across the command received awards recognizing their achievements in a variety of areas across project management, space acquisition innovation, time and budget savings on projects to bringing forward new capabilities for the command.
Those accomplishments are examples of the sort of capabilities the staff have delivered on in the three years since the command was created in 2021, said Air Force Col. Michelle K. Idle, SSC’s deputy commander.
“We're three years into this adventure called Space Systems Command, and the environment is just as challenging as it was when we stood up,” said Idle, who is responsible for managing the research, design, development, acquisition and sustainment of space and missile systems.
“The ‘front’ has not let up – it has evolved.”
Reflecting on today’s environment of Great Power Competition, Idle also discussed the growth in recent years of the space capabilities of both China and Russia, and the potential threats both could pose to U.S. military and civilian space operations.
China's space program has grown to become second to the U.S., supplanting Russia, in terms of operational satellites in Earth orbit.
“They're also heavily investing in counter-space capabilities, with an intent to pose a serious threat to our capabilities,” Idle told the standing room only crowd at LAAFB.
“Russia's right behind them … they're researching, developing, testing, developing counterspace systems; again, trying to disrupt and degrade the systems that we're putting up there to provide for our way of life and our warfighters.”
Along with the third anniversary of Space Systems Command and the 70th anniversary of the Western Development Division, the service is also celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Space Force, as well as the 10th (2024) class of the Schriever Wall of Honor, a monument at LAAFB named after Gen. Schriever that honors American space pioneers.
The induction ceremony for that event is set for Sept. 26 at SSC headquarters.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3877415/space-systems-command-connects-heritage-future-during-anniversary-celebration/
SPAFORGEN provides strategic advantage in space domain
Aug. 20, 2024
The first cycle of the Space Force Generation model is currently underway, poised to manage the battle rhythm of assigned forces and maintain the highest possible level of overall readiness for the service.
This model is driven by the need for Guardians to execute space missions in a highly congested and contested space domain.
U.S. Space Force Chief Master Sgt. Caleb Lloyd, Space Operations Command senior enlisted leader, links SPAFORGEN directly to the changing warfighting domain during a speech at the recent Air Force Sergeants Association Summit.
“When it comes to our operations, the threat must always be at the forefront of our conversations and decisions,” Lloyd said.
The Space Force’s focus is on implementing strategies to achieve a state of combat readiness to address all emerging threats.
This includes enhancing capabilities to protect and defend space assets and ensuring the force is prepared for potential conflicts in or through space.
This is done, in part, through the SPAFORGEN model.
“We are moving towards a fully integrated approach where space forces play a decisive role in joint and all-domain operations,” Lloyd said.
“Our objective is to establish and maintain control over the space domain, ensuring we maintain our strategic advantages and space superiority.”
Lloyd goes on to explain that, in order for SpOC to generate and present combat power they must have expertise in intelligence, cyberspace operations, space system operations, engineering and sustainment activities. SPAFORGEN integrates these skills into combat formations capable of operating as distinct units of action.
With that focus, SPAFORGEN is divided into three phases.
Each phase balances combatant command requirements, professional and personal development, and the wellbeing of the force.
“As we learn from this first cycle, we will continue to evolve the model, ensuring we remain ever ready to support and defend the joint force, our allies and our partners through any challenge the complex global environment may present,” Lloyd said.
SPAFORGEN is slightly different from other service’s force generation model because, unlike other domains, space forces are primarily employed-in-place.
However, the intent is the same, to ensure the service has the right mix of capabilities to face challenges characterized by the return to an era of great power competition.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3877582/spaforgen-provides-strategic-advantage-in-space-domain/
Chaplain Corps hosts annual summit, celebrates 75th anniversary
Aug. 19, 2024
The U.S. Air Force Chaplain Corps marked a significant milestone as it celebrated its 75th anniversary during its annual summit held in Arlington Aug. 6 - 8.
The summit brought together Chaplain Corps leaders and religious support teams from across the globe to reflect on the corps' history and a way ahead for the future with the theme
"Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future: 75 Years of Freedom, Faith, Ministry.”
Topics discussed during the summit included ways to address and support service members' mental and emotional well-being, enhancing interfaith cooperation within the Chaplain Corps, and embracing technological advancement to enhance spiritual care and expand outreach to adapt to the evolving needs of Air Force and Space Force members.
Maj. Gen. Randall Kitchens, Department of the Air Force chief of chaplains, highlighted significant events from the last three years that are indicative of how members of the Chaplain Corps are crucial to supporting Airmen and Guardians across the world, to include the COVID-19 pandemic and the withdrawal from Afghanistan as examples of times when chapel teams showed their importance in caring for Airmen, Guardians and their families around the world.
"Together, we have united like never before to care for Airmen, Guardians and families more than anyone thinks possible.
It has been a long journey through many twists and turns to better fortify the warfighter and family, reimage our [chaplain] culture and rebuild our readiness through our core capabilities of religious accommodation and services, spiritual fitness and leadership advisement,” Kitchens said.
Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and other department leaders shared their thoughts on the legacy of the Chaplain Corps and how it will influence the next 75 years during a panel.
They described the organization as a critical enabler to the wellbeing of service members and their families—at home and deployed.
"The legacy of the Chaplain Corps’ contributions are not always highly visible," Kendall said. “I am deeply grateful for the work that our chaplains do across the force.
You [reach] our people in a way that I don't think anybody else does, and [we] can't overstate your value to the institution, to the enterprise, and to our individual governments and their families.”
A panel of six retired chiefs of chaplains shared insights from their time in service and how they addressed the challenges service members have faced, such as the Air Force downsizing, 9/11 and the Global War on Terrorism. During those times, the religious support teams were ready to care for service members and their families.
“One of the most important things is that we take care of each other,” said retired Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Lorraine Richardson, a former U.S. Air Force chief of chaplains.
“The most important resource we have is other people and we can do that by building teams, and being ready and prepared is the more important thing because none of us can do it by ourselves.”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3877661/chaplain-corps-hosts-annual-summit-celebrates-75th-anniversary/
Nicole Shanahan - The TRUE History of Raw Milk
Aug 4, 2024
Some believe raw milk is a nutrient-rich superfood, while others, like The New York Times, label it a health hazard promoted by the right wing.
Imagine that, raw milk, a right wing thing. So, which is it?
We dove deep into the history of raw milk, speaking with leading scientists and award-winning farmers around the country to uncover the facts and dispel the myths.
What we found may surprise you.
Watch and decide for yourself…
https://x.com/NicoleShanahan/status/1819860823348588807
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBNSMYVLeD8
Missouri Man Claims He Saw UAP’s Being Chased by Military Jets?
August 19, 2024
This is one of the wildest stories I've seen shared from Missouri in years of unidentified aerial phenomena.
It's an eyewitness testimony from a man in Hazelwood, Missouri claiming that he saw multiple craft being pursued by military aircraft and that's only the beginning.
This new report from the National UFO Reporting Center is the most recent (as of this writing) from Missouri.
It comes from a man who's name is not provided saying that he and his twin brother were outside in Hazelwood, Missouri playing around with a laser pen to see how far it would project.
This encounter happened in early August 2024.
They apparently got "somethings" attention. Here's part of what he described:
"We both witnessed what looked at first like moving stars… moving erratically at first but then still it seems toward us.
They got extremely close within 5-10 miles out of the sky. We saw what looked like orbs some illuminated, orange. Yellow. White and some blue.
The ones that were orange and white moved fast in circles…"
It wasn't long after this that he saw military jets that appeared to be chasing the UAP's he saw.
"That’s when I noticed two to three military Air Force Jets…they looked to be chasing the crafts, spheres and orb light formations away and moving extremely fast."
He also shared video from his perspective in Hazelwood, Missouri showing part of what he witnessed which you can check out on the NUFORC site.
Judging by other comments he made in his report, it seems like this sighting has disturbed him greatly so perhaps he can get assistance in understanding exactly what he saw in the skies above Hazelwood, Missouri in early August.
https://101theeagle.com/hazelwood-missouri-ufo-sighting-report/
https://nuforc.org/sighting/?id=182489