TYB
Spring father of two dead from fentanyl overdose will have ashes sent to space
December 26, 2024 7:17am CST
In 2022, David and Melanie Jinkins, like any parents, weren't ready to say goodbye to their son.
"Kindyn came into this world a little early, he was two-months premature, and unfortunately he left early too, at 27," said Melanie.
His parents say he died after taking a pill he didn't know was laced.
"He passed away from an accidental drug overdose, fentanyl," said David Jinkins.
His parents say Kindyn had a passion for space and a dream to make it accessible to the average person.
"He was in school to work for SpaceX," said Melanie Jinkins. "He wanted it to be affordable for everybody, he wanted to further our technology."
They decided to honor his dream by sending Kindyn's ashes on a Celestis Memorial SpaceFlight.
Melanie says she'd rather her son be in a seat on a rocket, but this is a true tribute to what he believed in.
Kindyn will be on the Serenity flight. It will be the 24th memorial flight the Houston-based company is launching. They've also launched two flights to the moon and one to deep space.
"The flight is going to launch in mid-2025 on a Falcon 9 rocket," said Colby Youngblood, President of Celestis Memorial SpaceFlights.
The capsule with Kindyn's ashes will be attached to a satellite which will orbit the Earth for three to five years. The satellite will then be decommissioned.
"As it enters Earth's atmosphere, and it burns up - becoming a shooting star," said Youngblood.
He says their services fall in the price range of the average American funeral.
"We love our job, we love what we do, and it brings a lot of joy to us to see the closure we can bring to these families," he said.
Kindyn's parents say this is something they know their son would want, something that captures what his life work was aiming for.
"I can't tell you how grateful I am for that. I can't," said Melanie Jinkins.
Youngblood says they are still accepting reservations for the Serenity flight. You can find out more about their organization here.
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/spring-father-honored-ashes-sent-space-celestis-memorial-spaceflight
https://missions.celestis.com/
Just a fraction of the hydrogen hidden beneath Earth's surface could power Earth for 200 years, scientists find
December 26, 2024
A mountain of hydrogen is lurking beneath Earth's surface — and scientists say that just a fraction of it could break our dependence on fossil fuels for 200 years.
New research suggests the planet holds around 6.2 trillion tons (5.6 trillion metric tons) of hydrogen in rocks and underground reservoirs.
That's roughly 26 times the amount of oil known to be left in the ground (1.6 trillion barrels, each weighing approximately 0.15 tons) — but where these hydrogen stocks are located remains unknown.
Most of the hydrogen is likely too deep or too far offshore to be accessed, and some of the reserves are probably too small to extract in a way that makes economical sense, the researchers suspect.
However, the results indicate there's more than enough hydrogen to go around, even with those limitations, Geoffrey Ellis, a petroleum geochemist at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and lead author of the new study, told Space.com's sister site, Live Science.
Hydrogen is a source of clean energy that can fuel vehicles, power industrial processes and generate electricity.
Just 2% of the hydrogen stocks found in the study, equivalent to 124 billion tons (112 billion metric tons) of gas, "would supply all the hydrogen we need to get to net-zero [carbon] for a couple hundred years," Ellis said.
The energy released by that amount of hydrogen is roughly twice the energy stored in all the known natural gas reserves on Earth, Ellis and his co-author Sarah Gelman, also a USGS geologist, noted in the study.
The results were published Friday (Dec. 13) in the journal Science Advances.
To estimate the amount of hydrogen inside Earth, the researchers used a model that accounted for the rate at which the gas is produced underground, the amount likely to be trapped in reservoirs, and the amount lost through various processes, such as leaking out of rocks and into the atmosphere.
Hydrogen is created through chemical reactions in rocks, the simplest being a reaction that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, Ellis said.
"There's actually dozens of natural processes that are capable of generating hydrogen, but most of them generate very small amounts," he said.
Until recently, researchers didn't realize that hydrogen accumulates beneath Earth's surface.
"The paradigm throughout my entire career was that hydrogen's out there, it occurs, but it's a very small molecule, so it easily escapes through small pores and cracks and rocks," Ellis explained.
But when scientists discovered a huge cache of hydrogen in West Africa, and then another in an Albanian chromium mine, that paradigm shifted.
It's now clear that hydrogen does build up in reservoirs in the Earth, and the new study suggests some of those accumulations could be sizable.
"I was surprised that the results were larger than I thought going in," Ellis said. "The takeaway is that there is a lot down there."
But it's important to note that there is huge uncertainty surrounding these results, he said, as the model showed there could be anywhere from 1 billion to 10 trillion tons of hydrogen down there.
(The most probable value, based on the assumptions of the model, was 6.2 trillion tons.)
Hydrogen is projected to account for up to 30% of the future energy supply in some sectors, and global demand is expected to rise fivefold by 2050.
The gas is produced artificially through electrolysis of water, where water molecules are broken down with electric currents.
When renewable energy is used, the product is called "green hydrogen," and when fossil fuels are used, it's known as "blue hydrogen."
The benefits of tapping natural hydrogen are that it doesn't require a source of energy to produce, and underground reservoirs can hold the gas until it is needed.
"We don't have to worry about storage, which is something that with the blue hydrogen or green hydrogen you do — you want to make it when electricity is cheap and then you have to store it somewhere," Ellis said.
With natural hydrogen, "you could just open a valve and close it whenever you needed it."
The big question that remains is where exactly all this hydrogen is located, which will affect whether it is accessible.
Ellis and colleagues are making strides toward narrowing down the geologic criteria needed to form accumulations underground, and the results for the U.S. could be published early next year, he said.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/earth/just-a-fraction-of-the-hydrogen-hidden-beneath-earths-surface-could-power-earth-for-200-years-scientists-find
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ado0955
China suffers commercial rocket failure but sets record for annual launches
December 27, 2024
A Chinese commercial Kinetica-1 solid rocket failed late Thursday, with the launch attempt setting a new domestic record for launches in a calendar year.
The Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1) solid rocket lifted off at 8:03 p.m. Eastern Dec. 26 (0103 UTC Dec. 27) from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Area at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Rocket operator CAS Space confirmed the failure hours after liftoff.
“We can confirm that the first two stages were nominal. Stage 3 lost attitude three seconds after ignition and the self-destructing mechanism was activated,” CAS Space said in a statement.
It added that the investigation into the cause of the anomaly is ongoing. CAS Space is a launch spinoff from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, aiming to secure contracts to launch domestic and international payloads.
Aboard were an undeclared number of satellites.
These are known to include CASAA-Sat from the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (LAM), supported by French space agency CNES, a cubesat intended to study the South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly, and DEAR-3 (B300-L01), a 300-kilogram cargo spacecraft from Chinese commercial space firm AZSpace.
The spacecraft carried science payloads.
The Kinetica-1 failure is the first loss of the solid rocket. The previous five missions were all successful, with the previous launch taking place in November.
CAS Space is planning the first launch of its kerosene-liquid oxygen Kinetica-2 rocket in the second half of 2025. The rocket will launch the Qingzhou low-cost cargo spacecraft.
2024 China launch breakdown
The launch was China’s 68th launch attempt of 2024, surpassing the national record of 67 launches in a calendar year, set in 2023.
The 68 launches include two failures, both of commercial solid rockets: Kinetica-1 and Hyperbola-1 from iSpace in July.
China is second for launches in 2024 behind the U.S., with over 150 launches including Rocket Lab launches from New Zealand, and ahead of Russia, with 17 launches.
U.S. launches were dominated by the SpaceX Falcon 9, while Russia’s annual launch activity continued to decline, from 25 in 2021, 22 in 2022 and 19 in 2023.
China overall fell well short of a 100 launches forecast by state-owned main space contractor CASC early in the year. This number included around 70 launches from CASC and around 30 launches from commercial actors.
Both CASC and commercial companies such as Landspace (Zhuque-2), Galactic Energy (Ceres-1) and Orienspace (Gravity-1) fell short of planned numbers of launches.
CASC’s launch manifest is opaque, meaning assessing causes of a lower than expected launch cadence is difficult.
China is working to address a bottleneck in access to launch facilities, including new commercial launch areas at Wenchang and Jiuquan and sea launches.
Despite the advance in launch numbers, China appears to have remained reliant on older rockets and smaller solid rockets. Nearly half (32) of all launches used hypergolic Long March 2, 3 and 4 series rockets.
Light-lift solid rockets accounted for 17 further launches (five Ceres-1 launches, four Kinetica-1, four Kuaizhou-1 rockets, two Jielong-3 rockets, one Hyperbola-1 and one Kuaizhou-11).
Jiuquan was the busiest Chinese spaceport, supporting 21 launches, with 19 from Xichang. There were six sea launches, in addition to 13 launches from Taiyuan and nine from Wenchang.
The launches included debut flights for the commercial Gravity-1 solid rocket from Orienspace, the enhanced methalox Zhuque-2E from Landspace, the enhanced Kuaizhou-1A solid rocket from CASIC/Expace and the Long March 6C and Long March 12 from CASC’s Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST).
The Long March 6A upper stage meanwhile suffered a number of debris-creating events.
China also sent a national record of more than 260 spacecraft sent into orbit in 2024, well beyond the record 221 spacecraft launched in 2023.
This is in part due to the first launches for the Qianfan (Thousand Sails) and Guowang (National Net) megaconstellation projects.
Both are expected to drive further increases in Chinese launch activity in the coming years.
https://spacenews.com/china-suffers-commercial-rocket-failure-but-sets-record-for-annual-launches/
Spacecoin deploys first satellite for decentralized space connectivity
December 27, 2024
Spacecoin said it is successfully communicating with a recently launched debut connectivity satellite, designed to test technology for a decentralized space-based network shared by multiple investors.
“We have established regular communication with the satellite,” Spacecoin founder Tae Oh said, following SpaceX’s Dec. 21 Falcon 9 rideshare mission to low Earth orbit.
The venture aims to start testing its CTC-0 small satellite early next year, initially demonstrating space-enabled text messaging to a specialized handheld antenna but ultimately directly to standard smartphones.
Oh spun the venture out of U.S.-based software firm Gluwa, which specializes in providing financial services to emerging markets using blockchain, a distributed ledger technology often associated with cryptocurrencies that acts like a digital record book.
For Spacecoin, the Creditcoin blockchain platform would help manage a constellation of small satellites by securely tracking operations and facilitating payments without a central authority.
CTC, the shorthand symbol — or ticker — for Creditcoin, functions as the transaction medium within the network.
Oh said the network would be more secure without a centralized authority and censorship resistant.
“By having a decentralized platform, you don’t need to get third party [government or telco] permission,” he said, “you can get directly connected to your content provider, person, or the machine that you want to communicate with.”
He said anyone who adheres to Spacecoin’s open standards — and willing to invest in building and deploying at least one satellite — can participate as a connectivity provider within the network.
An investor would get a pro-rata share of revenues, depending on how much their satellites are used within the broader constellation.
“Let’s say you were a Nigerian telco and launching satellites just to cover Nigeria,” Spacecoin CEO Stuart Gardner said in an interview, “as those satellites traverse and leave Nigerian airspace [they] sit idle until they come back around to target the Nigerian region.
“But, by being part of a broader constellation, as those satellites pass over other areas and other jurisdictions where we have customers, your satellite can then start to provide a service to those regions as well.”
Seeding the network
The CTC-0 prototype was based on Bulgarian manufacturer Endurosat’s 8U model, about eight times the size of a standard cubesat measuring 10 centimeters a side.
CTC-1 slated to launch next year would be 16U, according to Spacecoin, and the venture plans to start transitioning from nanosatellites to microsatellites to significantly boost performance from CTC-2.
“We will also be open-sourcing our designs for our payload and technology,” Gardner added, “so that other satellite companies, manufacturers, or other people who are interested in the space economy can participate in the network.
“Over time, as other companies join our network, it starts to become increasingly decentralized.”
Using funds from Gluwa, Gardner said the startup already has several other satellites in the works to help seed the constellation next year.
Initial satellites would be designed to provide connectivity in the hundreds of kilobits per second range, enabling text messaging and connectivity for small tracking and monitoring devices.
Depending upon the performance of initial satellites, future spacecraft will eventually be geared for higher data rates to support voice calls.
The venture declined to detail the number of satellites it is planning and when they could launch.
Gardner said the venture has already identified low data rate business cases for the roughly 2.6 billion people in the world without internet.
“One of the prospective clients we’re speaking to in India told us that they have 20 million fishermen in southern India who every day go out to sea with zero connectivity,” he said.
“And they are very interested, even at the most basic level, if they can provide SMS capabilities … to these fishermen.”
According to Spacecoin, sharing infrastructure via blockchain protocols could help the company reduce monthly internet costs to around $1-2 per user in emerging markets.
Initial tests would take place in Nigeria, which is among the first countries to approve the venture’s Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) spectrum license in the S and L bands.
Spacecoin is not the only company seeking to leverage blockchain capabilities in orbit.
The startup also faces competition from established and global MSS connectivity providers Viasat and Iridium.
Meanwhile, SpaceX and others are seeking to use cellular frequencies to provide direct-to-smartphone connectivity in partnership with local telcos.
https://spacenews.com/spacecoin-deploys-first-satellite-for-decentralized-space-connectivity/
True Anomaly achieves milestone with Jackal satellite deployment
December 26, 2024
Space technology startup True Anomaly announced a key milestone after successfully deploying and establishing communication with its Jackal satellite on its second mission.
True Anomaly is seeking to carve out a niche in the defense and national security market with spacecraft designed for military orbital operations and space domain awareness.
The Jackal satellite launched Dec. 21 on SpaceX’s Bandwagon-2 rideshare mission was the company’s third spacecraft sent to orbit.
The first two launched in March 2024 to low Earth orbit to demonstrate rendezvous and proximity operations, but communication was lost with the satellites shortly after launch.
True Anomaly’s co-founder and CEO Even Rogers said in a statement Dec. 23 that Jackal’s second mission was successful.
“We have now successfully contacted, downlinked data, and commanded Jackal, our Autonomous Orbital Vehicle, via Mosaic, our software platform, as it makes laps around the Earth,” he said.
‘Learnings from first launch’
In the company’s second mission, the Jackal is serving as a testbed for upgraded hardware and software.
“The team incorporated many of the learnings and product improvements from its first launch,” said Rogers.
This mission gives the company momentum as it prepares to execute a more complex one under contract with the U.S. Space Force.
True Anomaly is slated to participate in the Victus Haze mission in 2025, part of the military’s Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) program.
The program aims to demonstrate advanced in-orbit rendezvous and proximity operations, with True Anomaly’s Jackal working alongside a Rocket Lab spacecraft.
Over the next year, True Anomaly plans to continue refining Jackal’s capabilities, said Chief Strategy Officer Frank DiPentino. The company manufactures its satellites in Centennial, Colorado.
https://spacenews.com/true-anomaly-achieves-milestone-with-jackal-satellite-deployment/
Hearing Loss, Asthma Won't Disqualify Air Force and Space Force Recruits Under New Policy
December 26, 2024 at 3:04pm ET
Department of the Air Force recruiters will now offer waivers for future airmen and Space Force Guardians with certain diagnoses of asthma, hearing loss and food allergies, a major policy change that could open up service to more civilians.
The change, announced publicly this week, is expected to open up service to around 600 new applicants each year, the Department of the Air Force said in a news release.
"We are constantly evaluating how we can bring in the best talent while ensuring our members can serve effectively and safely," Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, the commander of the Air Force Ascensions Center, said in the release.
"By expanding waiver criteria for manageable health conditions, we can access a wider pool of qualified applicants without compromising mission readiness."
The new waivers come as the Air Force managed to scrape by its active-duty recruiting goals, in large part due to policy changes for recruits ranging from allowing higher percentages of body fat to permitting certain tattoo sizes.
Under the prior policy, all cases of asthma no matter the severity were disqualifying conditions for service, Col. David Gregory, director of the Accession Medical Waiver division at the Air Force Ascensions Center, said in the news release.
Now, applicants with diagnosed asthma can join. "provided they do not require daily preventive medication, and their rescue inhaler use is kept to a minimum," the service explained.
In addition to waivers for asthma, the service will now start waiving some circumstances of hearing loss.
If one ear has "moderate hearing impairment" and the other ear "meets the standards of mild hearing impairment," a waiver can be considered, the Air Force said in the release.
Applicants with diagnosed food allergies will also now be considered for a waiver, "provided there has been no anaphylaxis or serious systemic reaction," the service said.
Retired Chief Master Sgt. Eric Benken, the Air Force's top enlisted leader from 1996 to 1999 under former President Bill Clinton's Department of Defense, told Military.com in an interview Thursday that the changes were "long overdue."
"I trust the medical community of the Air Force to know when someone is deployable, when they're not deployable," Benken told Military.com. "I always felt that, in some cases, it was far too restrictive."
These new waiver changes followed the Department of the Air Force missing its recruiting goal in 2023, by 10%, for the first time since 1999.
In 2024, several policy changes led the way for the service to hit its active-duty goals, barely skating by with 39 extra enlisted recruits to hit its benchmark of 27,100 new service members.
Increasing the Department of the Air Force's body fat composition requirement up to 26% for men and 36% for women brought in a staggering 5,196 new recruits across the Air Force, Space Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard, Military.com previously reported.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/12/26/hearing-loss-asthma-wont-disqualify-air-force-and-space-force-recruits-under-new-policy.html
https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4015908/daf-updates-waiver-policies-for-asthma-hearing-loss-food-allergies/
https://techacute.com/bird-inspired-drone-can-walk-hop-and-fly/
https://actu.epfl.ch/news/bird-inspired-drone-can-jump-for-take-off/
New Bird-Inspired Drone “RAVEN” Can Walk, Hop, and Fly into the Future
Friday, December 27, 2024
Researchers at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have designed an innovative crewless aerial vehicle that mimics the movement of birds, setting a new standard for drone versatility.
Named RAVEN, short for Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments, this drone combines the ability to walk, hop, and leap into flight, granting it access to areas previously challenging for conventional drones.
This breakthrough could transform how we use drones across multiple industries with potential applications in disaster relief, delivery services, and infrastructure inspection.
A flight inspired by nature
The inspiration behind RAVEN came from observing how birds like crows and ravens transition seamlessly between walking, hopping, and flying.
Won Dong Shin, a PhD student at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems (LIS) in EPFL’s School of Engineering, played a key role in translating these natural movements into engineering reality.
“Birds were the inspiration for airplanes in the first place, and the Wright brothers made this dream come true, but even today’s planes are still quite far from what birds are capable of,” Shin explained.
“Birds can transition from walking to running to the air and back again, without the aid of a runway or launcher. Engineering platforms for these kinds of movements are still missing in robotics.”
RAVEN’s unique design uses lightweight but functional robotic legs with flexible feet and joints.
These innovations allow the drone to walk over uneven ground, hop across gaps in terrain, and jump up to heights of 26 centimeters before taking flight, all while maintaining stability and energy efficiency.
Addressing key challenges
Traditional drones have long been constrained by their reliance on runways or large open spaces for takeoff, limiting their use in cluttered or inaccessible environments.
RAVEN solves this problem with its ability to execute a vertical “jumping takeoff,” which combines kinetic speed and potential height for an efficient transition into flight.
“Translating avian legs and feet into a lightweight robotic system presented us with design, integration, and control problems that birds have solved elegantly over the course of evolution,” said Professor Dario Floreano, head of LIS.
“This led us to not only come up with the most multimodal winged drone to date but also to shed light on the energetic efficiency of jumping for takeoff in both birds and drones.”
These capabilities also make RAVEN ideal for navigating rugged terrain, confined urban spaces, or remote areas.
By eliminating the need for smooth surfaces or human intervention during launch, the drone can operate effectively in settings that have traditionally posed challenges to UAVs.
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Applications and beneficiaries
RAVEN’s potential applications are incredibly diverse. Its innovative and multifunctional design offers opportunities to transform multiple industries.
Its capabilities make it a valuable asset across various fields, paving the way for new advancements and solutions.
Disaster relief: During emergencies, first responders often have to access difficult terrain, such as collapsed buildings or mountainous areas.
RAVEN’s ability to traverse landscapes and deliver essentials like medical supplies or communication equipment could save lives.
Delivery services: The rise of ecommerce and logistical demands in urban and rural areas has fueled interest in delivery using drones.
RAVEN’s capability to maneuver around tight spaces or difficult landscapes makes it a promising tool for “last-mile” deliveries.
Infrastructure inspection: Industries like construction and energy often require routine inspections in hazardous or remote locations.
RAVEN’s design allows it to explore hard-to-reach areas, reducing the risks to human inspectors while improving efficiency.
Scientific research and exploration: From tracking wildlife to surveying rough terrain for ecological studies, RAVEN could support researchers conducting fieldwork in environments inaccessible to humans or traditional drones.
Looking ahead
The team is refining RAVEN’s design, particularly its landing capabilities, to expand its usability further.
“Avian wings are the equivalent of front legs in terrestrial quadrupeds, but little is known about the coordination of legs and wings in birds—not to mention drones,” Floreano remarked.
These results represent a first step towards a better understanding of multi-modal flying animals’ design and control principles and their translation into agile and energetically efficient drones.
RAVEN highlights how biomimicry, or taking inspiration from nature, can lead to engineering breakthroughs with real-world impact.
Whether delivering medicine to remote areas or inspecting infrastructure after a disaster, this bird-inspired drone is primed to make a significant difference in robotics and beyond.
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Drone Show Cancellations
Drone show canceled at The Market Common NYE celebration
December 27th 2024 at 10:52 AM
https://wpde.com/news/local/drone-show-canceled-at-the-market-common-nye-celebration-safety-restrictions-live-music-entertainment-food-drink-vendors-childrens-activities-ball-drop-stunning-jumbotron
Central Park drone show scrapped after drone mishap in Florida injures young boy
Published: Dec. 27, 2024, 11:18 a.m.
https://www.silive.com/news/2024/12/central-park-drone-show-scrapped-after-drone-mishap-in-florida-injures-young-boy.html
Drone show element of Dallas' Reunion Tower NYE show scrapped, officials say
Updated: 11:19 AM CST December 27, 2024
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/reunion-tower-dallas-nye-drone-show-sky-elements-drones-update/287-94f04722-d0e6-4516-aaa7-cf02e83b7830
Elon Musk says US needs many hypersonic missiles, long-range drones: 'Anything manned will die very fast'
December 27, 2024 7:32am EST
Business titan Elon Musk asserted that the U.S. needs a significant stockpile of hypersonic missiles and long-range air and sea drones.
"America needs a large quantity of long-range drones (air, surface water & submarine) and hypersonic missiles.
Anything manned will die very fast in a drone war," Musk declared Thursday in a post on X.
The comments complimented comments he made in a tweet last month: "Future wars are all about drones & hypersonic missiles.
Fighter jets piloted by humans will be destroyed very quickly," he opined.
Musk has specifically targeted F-35 fighter jet, calling it "a s— design."
"The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people.
This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes.
And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed," he declared in a post in November.
In another post last month, he exclaimed, "Some US weapons systems are good, albeit overpriced, but please, in the name of all that is holy, let us stop the worst military value for money in history that is the F-35 program!"
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Musk, along with former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial effort to expose government waste and advocate for spending cuts.
Musk has been sounding the alarm about the nation's profligate spending.
"Terrifying [to be honest]," he wrote last month regarding America's massive national debt.
The national debt exceeds $36.1 trillion, according to fiscaldata.treasury.gov.
"We either fix this or go de facto bankrupt," Musk warned in a post on Thursday.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/elon-musk-says-us-needs-many-hypersonic-missiles-long-range-drones-anything-manned-die-very-fast