Selection of the most interesting space news for breakfast: NASA will launch a probe with “life” into deep space. Scientists have invented a new way to extract oxygen for a mission to Mars, and we tell you how to destroy a satellite without a single shot.
“That’s the good thing about science: It’s true whether or not you believe in it. That’s why it works.”― Neil deGrasse Tyson
Secret of James Webb’s vivid photos revealed
JWST collects only infrared and near infrared light, which the human eye is not able to see. Where do the bright colors in the photo come from? Image editors from the James Webb team are tasked with converting the telescope’s infrared image data into the visible spectrum with red, blue and yellow filters. Of course, the processed images are not literally what the telescope saw, but they are very much the same as the real colors if they were seen by the human eye.
Starlink to provide the US Air Force with Internet in Europe and Africa
SpaceX has signed a contract to provide the US Air Force with satellite Internet in Europe and Africa. One of the most important reasons for choosing this operator was its opportunity to work in Ukraine. Selection criteria:
- satellites operating in medium and geostationary orbits;
- large groups, because they can provide stability in hacker attacks and the use of anti-satellite weapons;
- Ukraine, which continues to repel Russia’s attack. And the only company that demonstrated the ability to perform tasks in this situation was SpaceX.
Materials older than the Solar system were found in samples from the Ryugu asteroid
Grains of silicon carbide older than the Solar System were found in samples of the material of the Ryugu asteroid delivered to Earth by the Hayabusa-2 spacecraft. Other minerals in its composition indicate that it was formed far from the Sun.
Getting oxygen with magnets to help in the flight to Mars
A new method of separating the phases of matter using magnets will allow building a compact installation that will provide oxygen. This will help build a system to provide them to people during the flight to Mars. The fact is that water and hydrogen are diamagnets, which are magnetized by substances so that the field begins to push them out. At the same time, the magnetic susceptibility of these two substances is different. And this allows them to be separated not only from oxygen, but also from each other. Thus, a relatively simple oxygen separation plant can be created.
NASA to launch probe with “life” into deep space
During the launch of the NASA Artemis I mission, which is scheduled for August 29, the new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket will deliver to the Moon not only the next-generation NASA Orion capsule, but also 10 tiny Cubesat satellites. One of these Cubesat will present the BioSentinel mission, which will be the first long-term biological experiment in deep space. As amazing as it may sound, the samples of life forms on board the Cubesat are simple yeast. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the experiment will provide unprecedented data on the impact of distant space on terrestrial life forms.
Photo of the week
The Perseid meteor shower occurs annually in mid-August, when the Earth passes through the dust trail of comet Swift-Tuttle. Crashing into the Earth’s atmosphere, these remnants of the comet give birth to bright traces in the form of fiery streaks in the sky. To an observer, they look as if they radiate from the constellation Perseus, hence their name.
Interesting figure — UAH 600 million
Serhiy Prytula’s Charitable Foundation has signed an agreement with ICEYE. It will give the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine full control over one of its SAR satellites, which is already in orbit. The agreement was implemented at the expense of donations collected on June 22-24 during the “People’s Bayraktar” campaign organized by the Prytula Foundation together with blogger Ihor Lachenkov. Since Baykar provided Ukraine with three Bayraktar TB-2 drones for free, this made it possible to use UAH 600 million collected for the purchase of a satellite.
Something to read on the weekend
Ukraine has its own satellite in orbit, which will help us defeat the enemy. To protect the satellite from the threat from Russia, we should be aware of weapons that can destroy the enemy satellite. Last week we talked about weapons that can destroy an enemy satellite. This week we continue this topic. We recommend you to read the article “How to destroy a satellite without firing a single shot“. We explain how to disrupt the operation of the device without destroying it, as well as how to prevent it.
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