TYB
SpaceX Starlink Missions
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, November 7 for a Falcon 9 launch of 23 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is targeted for 3:13 p.m. ET with additional opportunities until 7:11 p.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This is the third flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-9 and one Starlink mission. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Just Read the Instructions droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-6-77
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 8 for a Falcon 9 launch of 20 Starlink satellites, including 13 with Direct to Cell capabilities, to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Liftoff is targeted for 10:14 p.m. PT, with backup opportunities available until 1:26 a.m. PT on Saturday, November 9. If needed, additional opportunities are also available on Saturday, November 9 starting at 9:51 p.m. PT.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This is the 11th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched NASA Crew-7, CRS-29, NROL-186, EarthCARE, Transporter-10, PACE, and four Starlink missions. Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-9-10
Space National Guard Could Become Reality Under Donald Trump
November 06, 2024 at 4:12pm ET
President Donald Trump's election win likely means the creation of a Space National Guard under his administration after he made creating the new reserve force a notable promise during his campaign.
Trump, who will soon be the second president in history who will have served two nonconsecutive terms in office, said during a National Guard Association of the United States conference in August that "as president, I will sign historic legislation creating a Space National Guard."
The idea has been strongly opposed by the Air Force, Space Force and President Joe Biden's administration, but it has been heavily pushed by bipartisan groups of lawmakers and National Guard lobbyists.
The National Guard Association of the United States, or NGAUS, told Military.com on Tuesday that it hasn't forgotten that promise.
"We look forward to working with the new administration to make the Space National Guard a reality," retired Maj. Gen. Francis McGinn, the association president, said in an emailed statement.
Debates over the creation of a Space National Guard aren't new, but received renewed support over the past year, including from the now president-elect.
Meanwhile, Space Force officials have pushed for a different part-time, active-duty service model which was signed into law in the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act instead of a traditional Guard or reserve model.
The issue reached a tipping point when an Air Force proposal earlier this year opted to transfer Air National Guard units with space missions into the active-duty Space Force, bringing swift condemnation from every governor in the country and bipartisan groups of lawmakers.
There have been prior legislative proposals, from lawmakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., aiming to create a Space National Guard, but they never made it far in Congress.
Trump told the NGAUS conference that Rubio is "very much a fan of yours" and added the lawmaker "loves" the plan of creating a Space National Guard.
Spokespeople for President-elect Trump and Rubio did not return requests for comment Wednesday asking about the idea.
The White House Office of Management and Budget, under President Biden, said in 2021 it "strongly opposes" the creation of a Space National Guard, saying it would balloon costs up to $500 million annually.
The National Guard Bureau has pushed back on that figure, claiming it would be $250,000 to replace Air National Guard units with space missions' name tapes, unit flags and signs.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on space policy, told Military.com in an interview Wednesday that the creation of a Space National Guard faces its best probability under a Trump administration – but added that it's not a guarantee.
"I think the odds have gone up that a Space National Guard gets created, but I think it's still not a sure thing," Harrison said.
"A lot of things get promised during campaigns where the candidate really has no intention of following through, and so this could be one of those things that he said when he was in front of an interest group, and he knew that it's what they wanted to hear."
Harrison added that the creation of a Space Guard would likely have to find its way into a future version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act legislation created by Congress and, if it does, it likely wouldn't be a big enough issue to warrant a veto.
Under Trump's first term, he signed the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act that created the Space Force – a promise he had made at prior political rallies and an initiative that he's continued to say was a major victory during his earlier time as commander in chief.
How the president-elect plans to utilize the military remains to be seen, but Trump has been vocal on the campaign trail about tapping it to respond to domestic "enemies from within" and fighting against "woke" ideology within the ranks, Military.com reported.
Harrison added that the Space Force could view Trump's reelection as an asset because of his role in creating the branch and therefore his understanding of the service's importance.
"It's probably a good thing, overall, for the Space Force that you've got a president that [has] bought into their existence," Harrison said.
"Whereas in the last administration, they appeared to not really understand that a Space Force had been created and weren't necessarily bought into it at the beginning, but then pretty quickly came around to it."
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/11/06/space-national-guard-could-become-reality-under-donald-trump.html
House announces UAP hearings for Nov. 13
Updated: Nov 6, 2024 / 06:59 PM CST
The House of Representatives has set a Nov. 13, 2024, date for the next hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs), aka UFOs, with a witness list that includes a former Navy admiral.
The hearing follows one held in the summer of 2023 after whistleblower David Grusch alleged the Pentagon has been operating a secret UFO retrieval program.
Held by the House Oversight Committee, the hearing, titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” will begin on the 13th at 11:30 a.m. ET, and one witness said to be there is retired Navy Rear Adm. Timothy Gallaudet, who has spoken about his experiences with UAPs and unexplained submerged objects.
A full witness list has not been released, and in previous hearings, witnesses have expressed fears of intimidation or stigma associated with speaking openly about UAPs.
The Defense Department has repeatedly denied that there are secret UFO or UAP programs in existence, though it did admit to plans for the Kona Blue program, which would have reverse-engineered UAP technology.
According to the Pentagon, the program was never stood up because no such technology was ever recovered.
A report from the department’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) said that most UAP reports were cases of mistaken identity involving drones or top-secret technology.
The office said there is no evidence that UAPs are alien in nature.
Following last year’s initial public hearing, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has continued to have closed-door hearings on the subject, expressing frustration at the lack of transparency around UAPs.
Recent reporting from independent journalist Michael Shellenberger revealed the existence of a whistleblower report that names, for the first time, an alleged Pentagon UAP program: Immaculate Constellation.
The individual whistleblower in that report has not been identified, and it is not clear if they will be among the witnesses in the upcoming hearing.
https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/house-uap-hearing-nov-13/
https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-exposing-the-truth/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT2iWKZr0qA
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/could-uap-save-us-from-ourselves-e09b1db07823
Could UAP Save Us from Ourselves?
November 7, 2024
Today, I hosted two academic professionals, Andrew Simmons from Washington DC and Lourdes German from Cambridge MA, who confessed that they had been following my search for extraterrestrial artifacts over the past few years.
They asked me how I came to pursue this search. I explained that my interest was triggered by the discovery of the first astronomical object from outside the Solar system, `Oumuamua on October 19, 2017.
This 100-meters-size object was anomalous in its inferred pancake-like shape and non-gravitational acceleration with no sign of evaporation. In short, `Oumuamua did not resemble familiar asteroids or comets from the Solar system.
`Oumuamua’s wake-up call revealed a research opportunity that I never encountered before in the preceding thirty years of my academic career.
The search for extraterrestrial artifacts could carry huge implications for the future of humanity but is largely abandoned by the scientific community.
Other transformative themes, like the search for the unknown nature of dark matter, often have a long history and are crowded with many competing practitioners.
This means that the prospects for making a unique contribution to their knowledge base is small. However, here was a research path not taken, to which I can make a major contribution.
My training was in theoretical physics, but I was willing to lead the experimental Galileo Project, aimed to collect evidence that could guide us towards a better understanding of our cosmic neighborhood.
The general public resonated with my agenda and was extremely interested in my research.
Paradoxically, the more attention I received from the world outside academia, the more intense were the push back and personal attacks I received from science popularizers, reporters, social media influencers or jealous scientists, who pretended to `defend’ science.
Their attempts to suppress the scientific collection of evidence through the Galileo Project reflected an anti-science bias, which is meant to protect cherished beliefs from the burden of attending to anomalies.
Andrew and Lourdes asked why is this research area avoided by the academic mainstream?
I reasoned that the public is definitely intrigued by the possibility that some Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) near Earth may reflect extraterrestrial technologies.
Surely, members of academia are drawn from the public, so deep down many of them must share this sentiment.
However, because of stigma they never discuss it openly. Paradoxically, the stigma is promoted by members of the SETI community who banned discussions about UAP in their conferences.
I started in an academic culture of chess players,’ where considering new possible signatures of dark matter is rewarded, but now I find myself amongmud wrestlers’ who resist thinking outside the box.
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They prefer to speculate that the anomalies of interstellar objects like `Oumuamua represent rocks of a type that we had never seen before but at the same time dismiss artificial interpretations as speculative.
Some of them ignore the vast collection of papers which attempted — with serious difficulties — to explain `Oumuamua’s anomalies, and suggest to forget the anomalies and move on.
They miss the fundamental lesson from the history of science that revolutionary knowledge first appears in the form of anomalies.
As of now, the academic gates in the search for technological signatures of extraterrestrial civilizations are occupied by gatekeepers who tolerate unsuccessful searches for radio signals but ban a possible technological interpretation of the anomalies exhibited by interstellar objects like `Oumuamua.
Whether the U.S. government has classified data on UAP that indicates an extraterrestrial origin will be discussed at the congressional hearing to be held next Wednesday, November 13, 2024.
Andrew and Lourdes asked me how would the academic community respond to disclosure of related government data, if it exists?
In response, I quoted Arthur Schopenhauer, who wisely stated: “All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Based on my experience, I added a fourth stage: “Finally, the early critics claim that they were first to propose it.”
As a scientist leading the Galileo Project, I wish to collect as much data as possible so that my critics will have no way out but to admit that at least one of the anomalous objects in our sky is of extraterrestrial technological origin.
But I am not delusional. If other astronomers will use the Rubin Observatory and the Webb telescope to conclude that a new object like Oumuamua is artificial in origin, they would still insist thatOumuamua could have been a natural rock.
This would constitute their version of the fourth stage.
Nevertheless, I am at peace with Schopenhauer’s forecast. What really matters is the knowledge that humanity will gain from a superhuman intelligence, including its technologies and scientific insights.
If we had the benefit of surveying all the inhabited planets in the ten-billion-year history of the Milky-Way, we could have found evidence for past civilizations that perished billions of years ago by self-inflicted wounds or natural catastrophes.
This knowledge would have allowed us to avoid their mistakes. Instead, by staying at our current vantage point and looking around, we could learn from the most accomplished civilizations which managed to reach us with their technological products.
This local search would be most effective if government agencies and private donors funded it on a larger scale. Without searching, we will surely not find anything.
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SETI Institute in the News: October Roundup
Nov 6, 2024
The SETI Institute continues to push the boundaries of space exploration and our understanding of the universe.
From deciphering alien messages to searching for extraterrestrial intelligence and developing cutting-edge technologies for planetary exploration, the SETI Institute's work is at the forefront of scientific discovery.
This month, we delve into the latest breakthroughs, including the successful decoding of an alien signal, the search for extraterrestrial life in distant planetary systems, and the development of autonomous mineral classification systems for future space missions.
Father-Daughter Duo Cracks Coded ‘Alien’ Signal From Mars
In collaboration with the European Space Agency, The SETI Institute spearheaded a unique experiment to simulate alien communication.
They beamed an encoded message from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to Earth, challenging the public to decipher it.
This cosmic puzzle, crafted by artist Daniela de Paulis, sparked global interest and ignited a collective effort to understand the potential communications from an alien civilization.
The message, a simple image with five amino acids displayed in a universal organic molecular diagram notation, accompanied by a few single pixel points appearing between the clusters and molecular diagrams - was finally cracked by a father-daughter duo, Ken and Keli Chaffin.
However, the true meaning of the message remains open to interpretation.
https://gizmodo.com/father-daughter-duo-cracks-coded-alien-signal-from-mars-2000516561
SETI Tests New Alien-Hunting Strategy, But TRAPPIST-1 Planets Remain Silent
The SETI Institute has pioneered a new strategy to search for alien signals in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system.
By utilizing planet-planet occultations (PPOs), researchers can target potential radio transmissions between planets.
While the recent search using the Allen Telescope Array didn't yield results, it proves the feasibility of this approach.
As the Square Kilometer Array comes online, scientists hope to detect weaker signals, similar to our own Deep Space Network transmissions.
This innovative method offers a promising avenue for future SETI research, expanding our understanding of the potential for extraterrestrial life.
https://www.space.com/seti-alien-hunting-trappist-1-planets-ppos
SETI Institute Researchers Engage in World’s First Real-Time AI Search for Fast Radio Bursts
In collaboration with NVIDIA, The SETI Institute has made significant strides in the field of radio astronomy by leveraging AI to detect faint radio signals from space in real-time.
This collaboration has led to the development of a groundbreaking system that can process vast amounts of data from telescopes and analyze it using AI.
This innovative approach can revolutionize the way astronomers search for extraterrestrial intelligence and study transient astronomical events.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/seti-institute-ai-fast-radio-bursts/
Autonomous Mineral Classification Enhances Planetary Exploration
Recent advancements in planetary surface missions are focusing on autonomous mineral identification.
Researchers at NASA Ames and the SETI Institute have developed a dual-band Raman spectroscopy technique combined with machine learning to accurately classify minerals on-site.
This technology allows rovers to make informed decisions about sample collection and exploration, improving mission efficiency and reducing analysis delays.
By enabling autonomous mineral identification, scientists aim to unlock the secrets of planetary geology and accelerate our understanding of the universe.
https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/autonomous-mineral-classification-enhances-planetary-exploration
https://www.seti.org/seti-institute-news-october-roundup