NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

January 2, 2025

Solar Analemma 2024

Recorded during 2024, this year-spanning series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an analemma, the figure-eight curve was captured in exposures taken only at 1pm local time on clear days from Kayseri, Turkiye. Of course the Sun's position on the 2024 solstice dates was at the top and bottom of the curve. They correspond to the astronomical beginning of summer and winter in the north. The points along the curve half-way between the solstices, but not the figure-eight curve crossing point, mark the 2024 equinoxes and the start of spring and fall. Regional peaks and dormant volcano Mount Erciyes lie along the southern horizon in the 2024 timelapse skyscape.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

White to move and mate in two #608 - Jimmy Carter and NASA

Tuesday, December 31, 2024 at 3:00:06p PST

President Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) had a long and healthy relationship with NASA; interesting they both share their birthdays - Oct 1.

One of the lesser known facts is that Carter saved the Space Shuttle program. Under a lot of budget pressures, he increased NASA’s budget and funding for development and completion of the Space Shuttle, even though he was not supportive of space exploration by humans. www.nbcnews.com/…

Here is a pic from Oct 1, 1978, when the Carter family visited NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.

At a special ceremony held in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA Kennedy, President Jimmy Carter awarded Congressional Space Medals to Neil Armstrong and five other astronauts.

Carter’s wrote this eloquent statement addressed to a civilization a billion years in the future.

The words are still flying etched on the Golden record aboard the twin Voyager spacecraft, over 20 billion km away.

Now let’s be inspired by the legacy of Jimmy Carter and solve today’s puzzle composed in 1924 (!) by noted Belgian-born American chess player George Koltanowski (1903 - 2000).

Possessed of an incredibly powerful memory, Koltanowski set the world's blindfold record on 20 September 1937, in Edinburgh, by playing 34 chess games simultaneously while blindfolded.

Over 52 years, he published an estimated 19,000 chess columns for the San Francisco Chronicle.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/12/31/2294454/-White-to-move-and-mate-in-two-608-Jimmy-Carter-and-NASA

China beats Starklink with 10X faster 100 Gbps space-ground laser transmission

Updated: Jan 02, 2025 05:36 AM EST

The race to establish satellite-to-ground laser communications is heating up. Recently, China achieved a major milestone, which puts it ahead of Elon Musk’s Starlink.

The nation successfully attained a 100 gigabit per second data transmission rate in satellite-to-ground laser communication.

This unprecedented speed — ten times faster than their previous record — opens doors to a new era of space-based technologies.

Chang Guang Satellite Technology, the company behind the Jilin-1 constellation, accomplished this feat. Jilin-1 is reported to be the “world’s largest sub-meter commercial remote sensing satellite network.”

As per South China Morning Post (SCMP), the data was transmitted between a mobile truck-based ground station and one of the 117 constellation satellites in Earth’s orbit.

“Musk’s Starlink has revealed its laser inter-satellite communication system but hasn’t deployed laser satellite-to-ground communication yet.

We think they might have the technology, but we’ve already started large-scale deployment,” Wang Hanghang, the company’s head of laser communication ground station technology, told SCMP.

Hanghang added: “We plan to deploy these laser communication units across all satellites in the Jilin-1 constellation to improve their efficiency, with a goal of networking 300 satellites by 2027.”

Truck-based mobile ground station

With technological advancement, satellites are getting smarter and better at capturing detailed information. However, sending all that data back to Earth using traditional methods is becoming a bottleneck.

Satellite communication, especially with lasers, is a more efficient and affordable solution.

For this reason, Chang Guang Company decided to focus on laser communication technology in 2020.

Chang Guang developed a compact laser communication terminal — roughly the size of a backpack — capable of transmitting data both between satellites and from space back to Earth.

This advanced terminal was incorporated into the payload of a satellite (designated Jilin-1 02A02) launched in June 2023.

Since the ground station is mounted on a vehicle, it can be moved to avoid bad weather and turbulence, making the data transmission more reliable.

Multiple receiving stations will be established across China to improve remote sensing image data acquisition efficiency.

However, the achievement was not straightforward. For this achievement, the team overcame various technical hurdles, including atmospheric disturbances, the rapid movement of the satellite, and maintaining precise laser beam alignment.

Rapid progress in laser communication

In the last few years, the company made rapid progress in developing high-speed laser communication technologies — both for space-to-ground and inter-satellite data transmission.

For instance, the system had previously achieved a 10Gbps data transfer rate from space to Earth in October 2023.

SCMP stated this latest achievement of 100Gbps transmission rate is said to be equivalent to transmitting ten full-length movies within a “single second.”

This development in satellite-to-ground laser communication will significantly enhance China’s space capabilities. It will pave the way for improved satellite infrastructure, including navigation, 6G internet, and remote sensing.

Other countries, like the US and France, are also actively working on this technology. For instance, NASA’s TBIRD system achieved a record-breaking 200Gbps transmission rate in 2023.

China’s progress in space lasers is a big deal in the global space race, and it will have a huge impact on the future of technology and how we communicate.

https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/china-beats-starklink-with-laser-transmission

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3293038/china-beats-starlink-hi-res-space-ground-laser-transmission-6g-standard

https://www.businessinsider.com/nato-plan-to-defend-undersea-internet-from-sabotage-using-satellites-2025-1

NATO is working to reroute data through space, fearing Russia could slice undersea internet cables

Jan 2, 2025, 12:15 AM PST

A series of recent mysterious cases of cables severed in the Baltic Sea, blamed by Western officials on Russian sabotage, has highlighted their exposure to attack.

On Christmas Day, a Baltic undersea power cable and several telecommunications cables were severed underscoring the threat.

Officials in Finland are investigating a Russia-linked tanker, that they say may have severed the cables by dragging its anchor for dozens of miles across the seabed.

The incidents have sparked a race to safeguard the infrastructure, whose security many analysts say has been neglected.

Planning a HEIST

At the forefront is a NATO-funded project: the Hybrid Space/Submarine Architecture Ensuring Information Security of Telecommunications, or HEIST.

The initial test project is due to cost some $2 million, including $400,000 from NATO. It is being developed by academics alongside the satellite broadband firms Viasat and SpaceX.

If tests are successful, countries and companies would then buy into the network to fund a much wider rollout.

'Redefine the backbone of the internet'

The core idea is simple: To use satellites to transmit some data, making the West less reliant on undersea cables.

"Our ultimate ambition is to redefine the backbone of the internet," said Gregory Falco, an engineering professor at Cornell University working on HEIST.

"Instead of requiring all of our data to flow through subsea cables (of which 95% of the internet is reliant on) we would like to enable an ecosystem of options," he said.

"While one may argue that submarine communication cables are very efficient, they are not very resilient to natural or human-made threats."

"Overall, any measures to increase the resilience of our communications architecture is fundamentally needed.

The multilayered approach of the HEIST program is a good start," Melanie Garson, Associate Professor in Conflict Resolution & International Security at University College London told BI.

Backup and deterrent

The plan works by fitting existing cables with sensors to detect disruptions, either from sabotage or natural events and accidents.

In an outage, they would automatically re-route the data via a network of satellites.

It could act as a deterrent, giving hostile vessels less incentive to approach the cables in the first place.

Falco said the tech would be tested in January. From there, the plan is to have "end-to-end functional capability" by December 2026, he said.

SpaceX already has its vast network of Starlink satellites beaming internet around the world to commercial customers and some militaries.

But the service doesn't feature the rerouting concept HEIST is investigating.

Neither SpaceX or Viasat responded to requests for comment from Business Insider.

The threat to the cables is intensifying

In the meantime, Russia poses a threat to the cables, and has a motive to damage them.

Russia, analysts say, could seek to punish the West for its support for Ukraine by targeting crucial infrastructure like the cables.

Business Insider in August reported that a secret Russian undersea sabotage unit, the GUGI, had been surveilling the cables, which analysts warned that the West is ill-equipped to defend.

1/2

>>22278076

Space is dangerous, too

Though having two methods is better than one, satellites are hardly immune from disruption themselves.

Space weather events and collisions with debris (including manmade "space junk") can damage satellites — as well as attacks by rival powers like China.

Russia, for its part, would likely target satellites if direct fighting were ever to break out between it and the US, experts have warned.

In response, the race is on to defend satellite systems as well, with the Pentagon seeking to employ anti-jamming technology should they come under attack.

Falco told BI a key part of the HEIST project ensuring the backup satellites themselves were secure, too.

Priorities

And there are formidable technical challenges.

A combination of satellites and subsea cables has long been used for communicating highly sensitive data. However, figuring out how to reroute the data is a challenge on a different scale.

Falco said that, at first, HEIST would need to focus on the highest-priority data because it would be impossible to transfer everything.

Another computer science expert working on HEIST, Professor Henric Johnson of the Blekinge Institute of Technology, agreed that the challenge was substantial.

He cited the complexity of integrating the technology into existing infrastructure while staying ahead of quickly evolving threats.

"Adversaries are continuously developing new attack vectors, such as exploiting supply chain weaknesses or leveraging advanced AI tools, which require ongoing updates and refinements to the system," he said.

Johnson said that HEIST shouldn't be seen as a quick fix but as part of an ongoing process to secure Western infrastructure.

"It's important to acknowledge that security is a continuous process. HEIST is not a one-time solution but part of an evolving strategy to adapt to emerging risks," he said.

NATO did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

2/2

>>22278089

I encountered something similar on another installation.

>>22278145

Probably just a coincidence