VTOL technologies could be the future of individual transport: investor Tim Draper is convinced of this and decides to invest in two companies that develop futuristic concepts
of Andrea Bai published on 28 December 2020 , at 18: 21 in the Science and Technology channel
Tim Draper , US investor known for financially participating in the support of Tesla and SpaceX , has decided to embark on a new bet and invest in the companies JetPack Aviation and Gravity industries, two companies operating in the field of technologies that can make indiv flight a reality identical.
Gravity Industires in particular has risen to the honors of chronicle for a suit-jetpack similar to Iron Man, and which allows the wearer to be able to launch into flight at particularly high speeds. A suit with similar characteristics has also been developed by JetPack Aviation , which however is working on a sort of “motorcycle” flying, automated and stabilized, called “Speeder”. This vehicle is capable of speeds of 250 miles per hour and can accommodate up to two passengers.
The two companies are deepening and developing VOTL technologies – Vertical Take Off and Landing – which significantly simplify two of the most complicated aspects of flight, namely take-off and landing. The possibility of carrying out these two operations vertically eliminates the need for take-off and landing runways, thus making the practice of flying more free from constraints. In general it is believed that VOTL technologies could represent the turning point, in the future, to alleviate the congestion of land transport thanks to the vertical space, just like skyscrapers.
“I think that we now live in a two-dimensional transportation company, and both of these companies have figured out how to make VTOL technology more practical so that anyone can fly and land anywhere. They are fun and exciting. Right now we are stuck in cars, cars. long distances require going to the airport and getting on a plane. Imagine being able to just put on a suit, take off and fly wherever you want to go. I think VTOL technology is what we’re looking for, “commented Draper.
Tim Draper did not invest only in Tesla and SpaceX: among the other successful bets were those in Skype , Baidu, Twitter, Coinbase and Twitch .
When Richard Garriott was one of the first private individuals to travel to the International Space Station in 2008, only a handful of people knew what he was Had luggage. He spent part of the ashes of actor James Doohan on the space station, fulfilling his and his family’s wishes.
Doohan played by 1966 to 1994 the chief engineer of the spaceship USS Enterprise Montgomery Scott in the television series Star Trek, in German Raumschiff Enterprise. The figure was better known under the nickname Scotty, which was mainly used by Captain Kirk: “Beam me up, Scotty” or in the German equivalent: “Scotty, beam me up.”
Beam me up, Scotty! James Doohan died in 2005 at the age of 85 years. Two official requests by the family to bring Doohan’s ashes to the ISS were denied. The 59 – year old private entrepreneur Garriott finally smuggled part of the remains on board during a twelve-day mission. He hid it along with a laminated photo of the actor in the Columbus module of the space station under a panel in the floor.
James Doohan’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame shortly after his death on 20. July 2005
(Image: AllyUnion, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
So far, the public did not know about the action. “His family was delighted that the ashes made it up there, but we were all disappointed that we couldn’t speak about it publicly for so long. Now it’s been enough time for us to do it,” Garriott told the British newspaper The Times. Chris Doohan, the actor’s son, thanked Garriott for his dedication. It would have meant a lot to his father.
It was not the first attempt to get the remains of James Doohan into space, but it was the first successful attempt. Also in the year 2008 part of its ashes started with the SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket. However, the start failed after a few minutes. In the year 2012 another launch including Doohan’s ashes with the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket succeeded. According to the Times, Doohan has meanwhile 70.000 Times circled and covered 2.7 billion kilometers.
Elon Musk always aims high. With Tesla, the serial founder has given the auto industry a shock; SpaceX’s spaceships bring people and material to the International Space Station (ISS). And in the underground of Las Vegas, The Boring Company (TBC), founded by Musk, is drilling a tunnel system that will use self-driving Teslas to connect the famous “Strip” with the city center and the airport.
Insane? Vegas! Sounds crazy. But the “Las Vegas Loop” is more than the pipe dream of an eccentric billionaire, it is a concrete infrastructure project. A first section is to be opened in the spring 2021: Two tunnels that connect the city’s “Las Vegas Convention Center” (LVCC) with a 980 Millions of US dollars will be connected to the extension building west of the old exhibition center. And that’s just the beginning.
In May 2019 the Las decided Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) opposed conventional rail transport and gave the green light for the round 52 Million US dollars (42 million euros) expensive tunnel project. The LVCVA had taken quite a risk: TBC has nothing to show apart from a 1.8-kilometer test tunnel in a suburb of Los Angeles. A comparable project in Chicago is encountering resistance from residents and local politicians, while others are only in the preliminary planning stage. Las Vegas is more open to crazy projects.
The tunnel connects the old with the new exhibition center. Below the planned route to the Hotel Encore.
(Image: Clark County)
TBC has set itself the goal – also with regard to Musk’s Hyperloop project to improve the technology of the tunneling machines so that tunnels can be built faster and more automatically than before. Beat the snail: Faster than a snail, is the motto. Because Teslas are used with autopilot, TBC can reduce the tunnel diameter from 8.5 to a good 4 meters, which saves time and money. To connect the LVCC, the company is building the tunnels, including the stations and operating technology, and will also be responsible for driving operations. The company is already looking for driving and operating personnel on its website.
First drilling At the 15. November 2019 the first excavators and the big drilling machine arrived. The first tube was drilled three months later, and the second tube was completed in mid-May 2020. The distance of about 1.3 kilometers leads from the east entrance of the “South Hall” under the main hall and the adjacent Paradise Road and ends at an above-ground station west of the new hall. The core of the facility is the underground “train station” in front of the main hall, which is about to be completed.
Almost finished: The underground train station under the old exhibition center.
The west hall with 55. 700 square meters of exhibition space and the new transport system should originally be put into operation at CES 2021. The work is as good as complete, but the CES is only taking place virtually due to the corona pandemic. “The West Hall was finished on schedule, but when it can be officially opened is uncertain in view of the pandemic,” said a spokeswoman for the LVCVA. When major trade fairs – the previous CES came in January 2020 around 170. Visitors – can take place again is uncertain.
It is also open whether the system has the desired capacity of up to 4400 passengers per hour. The fair visitors are to be driven through the tunnels in semi-autonomous Teslas with up to 250 km / h. Initially, Model 3 and Model X are used with a safety driver. “We made it a lot simpler,” Musk explains on Twitter. “At the moment there are basically only Teslas in a tunnel, which is much more profound than it sounds.” At the above or below ground “stations” the cars let the passengers out and pick up new ones in order to then thread themselves back into the tunnel traffic.
The ashes of the late James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery Scott on the original Star Trek television series, have been aboard the International Space Station for 12 years— and the Times of London has the fascinating backstory of how it happened. Doohan died in 2005 at the age of 85, and his family wanted to fulfill his wish of getting on the ISS.
Official requests to bring Doohan’s ashes on the ISS were denied, but Richard Garriott— one of the first private citizens to travel on the space station— managed to smuggle some of Doohan’s ashes into the space station’s Columbus module. Garriott says he took a laminated a picture of Doohan and some of his ashes and put it in under the floor of the Columbus. He didn’t tell anyone about the scheme— only he and Doohan’s family knew until now.
“It was completely clandestine,” Garriott told the Times. “His family were very pleased that the ashes made it up there but we were all disappointed we didn’t get to talk about it publicly for so long. Now enough time has passed that we can,”
It’s not the first time Doohan’s ashes have made into the heavens. A portion of his ashes were aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 1 rocket in 2008, but that rocket failed minutes after launch. And in 2012, an urn with some of Doohan’s ashes flew into space aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9. According to the Times, Doohan’s ashes have traveled some 1.7 billion miles across space, and have orbited the Earth more than 70,000 times.
Doohan’s son Chris thanked Garriott for smuggling his late father’s ashes aboard the ISS. “What he did was touching—it meant so much to me, so much to my family and it would have meant so much to my dad,” he said.
Years after his death, Scotty is still boldly going… well, you know the rest.
2020: Science stories, moments, memories, and ephemera
_README.txt
_VERGE_SCIENCE_YOUTUBE_SHORTCUT
artemis_accords.pdf
bank_message.mp3
DM_2_Goodbye.mp4
dream_nightmare.mp3
essential_workers_1
essential_workers_2
nature_meme_1.jpg
nature_meme_2.gif
nature_meme_3.jpg
nature_meme_4.jpg
phosphine_1.xlsx
phosphine_2.jpg
ppe_design
quarantine_cheer_1.mp4
quarantine_cheer_2.mp4
Robot_swab.mp4
slack_montage.jpg
smoke_cyclones.jpg
smoke_san_francisco.jpg
zoom_team.gif
zoonotic_virus_associations_1.jpg
zoonotic_virus_associations_2.xlsx
2020: SCIENCE STORIES, MOMENTS, MEMORIES, and EPHEMERA
Compiled by The Verge, a science and technology news website that existed in 2020
The following files were selected by Verge staff in November 2020. The stories contained are by no means exhaustive; they are a few snapshots of life in 2020.
Within this file folder are the original assets included in the time capsule, as well as a video exploring the capsule’s storage medium: synthetic DNA.
————————
artemis_accords: Established a common set of principles to govern the civil exploration and use of outer space; signed October 13th, 2020.
bank_message: Bank phone menu recording, October 2020.
DM_2_goodbye: Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken saying goodbye to their families before launching to space.
dream_nightmare: Audio from interview with Black aerospace engineer Kayla Watson. Captured during a conversation concerning the simultaneous launch of the NASA / SpaceX DM-2 mission and widespread protests in response to the death of George Floyd.
essential_workers: Self-portraits of health care professionals after working a shift while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).
Nature_memes: Nature returning to urban settings during COVID-19 lockdowns, real and imagined.
phosphine: Alleged detection of phosphine gas in cloud layer of Venus suggestive of extraterrestrial life (full paper).
ppe_design: Open-source design for 3D printable face shield, designed to protect health care workers from COVID-19 during nationwide equipment shortage (Prusa Research).
quarantine_cheers: Community ruckus in London to support frontline health care workers during coronavirus lockdown, spring 2020. Captured by Verge senior editor Tom Warren.
Robot_swab.mp4: Prototype robot auto-swabber for COVID-19 nasopharyngeal swab test (Brain Navi).
slack_montage: Series of messages within Verge Science team from late January 2020.
smoke_cyclones: Confluence of wildfire smoke and multiple tropical cyclones over North America, September 14th – 16th, 2020.
smoke_san_francisco: Apocalyptic skies over San Francisco, September 9th, 2020. Photo by Verge senior video director Vjeran Pavic.
zoom_team.gif: Verge Science team self-portrait, October 2020.
zoonotic_virus_associations: Map of virus-sharing “network” among wild and domesticated mammalian species (full paper).
In addition to SpaceX, other companies with large satellite constellations also want to provide better Internet access. OneWeb has now launched dozens of satellites.
(Image: OneWeb)
The European rocket operator Arianespace has sent further satellites into space for better Internet supply on earth. On Friday evening (local time), a Russian Soyuz rocket took off from the Vostochny spaceport in the far east of the country, as the Russian space agency Roskosmos announced on Twitter. On board were 36 satellites from the British communications company OneWeb.
Further starts planned It was not the first start of this kind: Overall will be 672 Satellites put into near-earth orbit are now 110 above, Arianespace announced . The satellites are intended to provide a high-speed network for the Internet on earth, by sea, on land and in the air. In addition, further starts are planned until the end 2022.
The OneWeb group, which has been saved from bankruptcy, plans to start commercial services by the end of 2021. The competition is fierce: Billionaires like Tesla boss Elon Musk with his space company SpaceX also want to set up satellite networks for Internet supply. The Vostochny spaceport around 2022 kilometers east of Moscow was only 2016 opened.
The Starlink satellite internet of the US company SpaceX owned by Elon Musk has received the first frequencies for use by the Federal Network Agency. It is the first frequency assignment in this country for a mega constellation of satellites that are supposed to bring Internet access in poorly covered regions. SpaceX has now launched hundreds of satellites for the project, and the first customers in the USA can already test the offer. The frequency assignment in Germany is initially limited to one year so that adjustments can be made afterwards.
Tens of thousands of satellites planned SpaceX had started building Starlink at the end of 2019 and wants to use the satellites to join remote regions of the world provide affordable internet access. Starlink is supposed to simulate a complete network structure in space. Customers need a small antenna that connects to the satellites, SpaceX supplies a WiFi router. All in all, the company has already launched almost 1000 satellites into space, initially several thousand and later even several tens of thousands. Other companies want to follow suit and set up their own networks, such as Amazon with the Kuiper project.
The Federal Network Agency now assures that the frequency allocation contains regulations, “that the coexistence and ensure trouble-free operation with other applications in the same and adjacent frequency range “. It is about directional radio, radio astronomy and geostationary satellite applications. Starlink has also received frequency assignments for several earth stations that are to serve as gateways. Overall, this step created the legal frequency requirements so that broadband internet can be offered via satellite in Germany, “says network agency boss Jochen Homann. Further details on frequency allocation in Germany are to be published in the official gazette of the Federal Network Agency.
Beta test and criticism After it was unclear for a long time how much money SpaceX would charge for Internet access, the beta test shows in the USA in a first direction: In the “better-than-nothing-beta”, customers are offered speeds between 50 and 150 Mbit / s promised, as well as latencies of 20 to 40 ms. Also there will be short periods of time without any connection. Whoever wants to participate should pay monthly 99 US dollars (85 Euro) and for the equipment once 499 US Dol lar (about 425 Euro). Most recently, SpaceX had secured funding of almost one billion US dollars from the US telecommunications regulator FCC, but there is criticism of the approval process, which did not focus on remote areas.
Criticism of Starlink as a whole has been around for a long time from science: Astronomers have been pointing out for months that the immense number of satellites is having a growing influence on their work and determines Could make research areas much more difficult. In the meantime there is a dialogue that is supposed to help counteract the most massive consequences. SpaceX has already begun redesigning the satellites to make them less visible in the night sky. Even so, the constellations cannot be completely hidden and radio astronomers had recently reported concerns.
Today, Amazon revealed the design of the antennas its customers will use to tap into the company’s upcoming massive satellite constellation, Project Kuiper, designed to provide broadband internet coverage from space.
The antenna, which is a phased-array design, underwent development and testing this fall, according to the company. With a diameter of just 12 inches across, the antenna is “smaller and lighter than legacy antenna designs,” Amazon claims. Testing showed the antenna can provide “maximum throughput of up to 400 Mbps.” The company also notes that the antenna can be used to stream 4K-quality videos from geostationary satellites, spacecraft that are located about 22,000 miles above the Earth.
Amazon Kuiper’s satellites will be much closer to Earth, though. In July, Amazon received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to launch a constellation of 3,236 satellites for Project Kuiper, with the spacecraft flying at altitudes ranging from 590 kilometers, or 366 miles, to 630 kilometers, or 391 miles. With so many satellites orbiting close to Earth, Project Kuiper aims to beam low-latency, broadband internet coverage to individual users on the planet below. The goal is to provide coverage to remote areas and regions that do not have access to traditional high-speed internet.
Project Kuiper engineers testing the Ka-band phased array antenna.Image: Amazon
Amazon is one of a number of companies focused on launching a massive internet-from-space constellation. Notably, SpaceX is eyeing the same goal with its Starlink initiative, a proposed constellation of nearly 12,000 satellites that will also provide broadband internet from low to medium Earth orbits. SpaceX has already launched nearly 1,000 of its Starlink satellites and has even begun initial beta testing, providing select customers with at-home antennas to tap into the satellites and receive internet coverage. Amazon has yet to launch any satellites, nor has the company revealed on which rocket the satellites will launch.
Amazon argues that by making its user terminals smaller, it will reduce the cost of making the hardware as well as lower the price point for customers to opt into the program. The company claims it was able to go small by overlaying “tiny antenna element structures” over one another.
Antenna testing at Project Kuiper HQ in Redmond, Washington.Image: Amazon
“If you want to make a difference for unserved and underserved communities, you need to deliver service at a price that makes sense for customers,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said in an Amazon blog post today. “This simple fact inspired one of our key tenets for Kuiper: to invent a light, compact phased array antenna that would allow us to produce an affordable customer terminal. It’s incredible to see such a small form factor delivering this type of speed and performance.”
The 12-inch diameter makes the Amazon antenna much smaller than the Starlink antenna based on photos of the SpaceX user terminals that beta-testers have posted to Reddit. To test out SpaceX’s Starlink hardware, beta-testers had to pay an upfront cost of $499 for all of the equipment and then an additional $99 a month. Amazon has not revealed its prices for Project Kuiper, but the company did vow to invest $10 billion into the program.
ESA Themis is the name of the rocket reusable that will be developed by the European space agency to meet the needs of the market that want increasingly cheaper and more eco-sustainable launches. The first suborbital test since 2023.
by Mattia Speroni published 16 December 2020 , at 16: 50 in the Science and Technology channel ESA SpaceX
SpaceX revolutionized the way we think about space launches with its rockets reusable (first stage and fairing for the moment) Falcon . Now that the road has been opened, others are thinking of “launch” in this enterprise: for example Roscosmos with Amur, Rocket Lab with Electron but also ESA with the new Themis . Of course, we are still in the pre-prototype phase , to see the actual capacities it will be necessary to wait until 2023 when there should be the first flight.
André -Hubert Roussel (CEO of ArianeGroup) stated “Themis will lead to the experimentation and development of low cost launch solutions, while contributing to the energy transition towards a more eco-responsible space launcher sector “.
ESA Themis: aims to reduce costs to go to space
The idea behind ESA Themis is the same that led go on Elon Musk with the Falcon rockets: reuse most of the components to reduce the costs of individual launches. This will allow you to run more launches and do it at lower prices. Europe could not stand by and watch Russia and US private companies move forward without at least trying to argue.
As reported by ESA itself, the 15 December 2020, has signed a contract from 33 million euros with ArianeGroup which will begin the development of the technologies needed to complete the first flight of Themis . The place chosen for the realization is France while the test area (with “i jumps” at low altitude) is expected in Sweden. In the 2023 there will instead be the suborbital tests that will take place in the Kourou spaceport, in French Guiana.
At the base of the ESA Themis reusable rocket there will be the engines called Prometheus which will be fundamental for the initial tests and the static fire . The initial specification of this oxygen / liquid methane (or hydrogen) engine is 1000 kN of thrust (variable) and the ability to turn off and on allow it to be used for core, booster and second stage. The on-board computer will also allow real-time monitoring of the thrust so as to allow the necessary corrections for the return.
The first information on ESA Themis speak of a high rocket 30 meters and 3.5 meters wide. It is therefore a cross between a Falcon 1 (about tall 20 meters) and a Falcon 9 (about 70 meters high). However, we remind you that this version will be demonstrative only.
FTC requests information on the handling of user data from Facebook & Co The US authority for competition law and consumer protection Federal As part of an extensive investigation, Trade Commission asked a total of nine well-known social networks and video streaming companies to provide information on their business practices in connection with the use of user data. Companies include Amazon, Facebook, Reddit, Snap as the parent company of Snapchat, Twitter, Google parent Alphabet, YouTube, Discord, and Bytedance as the TikTok owner. In detail, the FTC is interested in user tracking and the extent to which personal data and demographic information are used for advertising purposes.
Automated AI decisions should be contestable In view of the increasing influence of algorithms on business, society and politics, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights FRA has spoken out in favor of stricter regulation of systems for artificial intelligence. “AI is not infallible,” said the agency’s director Michael O’Flaherty. It is made by people – and this mistake also happened. Therefore, citizens should know “when AI is used, how it works and how automated decisions can be challenged”.
Our weekday news podcast delivers the most important news of the day compressed into 2 minutes. Anyone who uses voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant can also hear or see the news there. Simply activate the skill on Alexa or say to the Google Assistant: “Play heise top”.
Airlines prepare for a new start The outgoing General Director of the global airline association IATA, Alexandre de Juniac, has once again put huge pressure on to restart the aviation industry in to accelerate the coming months with the help of mass corona rapid tests. The pandemic took the airlines with it almost last year, but so far only a few have gone under. Only if the corona vaccines, which are about to receive European approval, are distributed quickly and significantly more passengers are allowed to travel with the help of negative rapid tests, the IATA expects by the middle of the year 2021 a recovery in ticket demand.
ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer should 2017 Fly to the ISS with SpaceX Matthias Maurer should 2021 to be flown by SpaceX to the International Space Station as the second ESA astronaut. The German will then live for six months on the outpost of humanity and carry out scientific experiments, said the European Space Agency. Maurer was 2015 accepted into the ESA astronaut corps and has been since 2017 officially part of the team. He is the only one in the group – to which Alexander Gerst also belongs – who has not yet been in space.
Matthias Maurer is to be flown by SpaceX to the International Space Station as the second ESA astronaut in autumn 2021. The German will then live for six months on the outpost of humanity and carry out scientific experiments, the European Space Agency ESA has now declared.
Maurer was 2015 has been accepted into the ESA astronaut corps and has been since 2017 officially part of the team. He is the only one in the group – which includes Alexander Gerst – who has not yet been to space.
“Cosmis Kiss”: Maurer’s mission badge shows, among other things, earth and moon connected by a human heartbeat and a stylized ISS. A red point points to Mars.
(Image: ESA)
The love of space As the ESA now explains, Maurer was selected by representatives of NASA, CSA, ESA and Roskosmos for his first trip to the ISS. On the SpaceX Crew-3 flight, he is to accompany NASA space travelers Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn, a fourth place is still vacant. Maurer’s mission will be titled “Cosmis Kiss”, which is also to be understood as a “declaration of love for space”, as he puts it: “The name stands for the special connection that the ISS has between the inhabitants of the earth and the cosmos. ” The model for the badge was, among other things, the Nebra Sky Disc as the oldest known realistic representation of the night sky, as well as the Pioneer badges and the Voyager Golden Records.
(Source: ESA) Matthias Maurer is 50 years old and comes from the Saarland. He studied materials science and engineering, 2004 he received his doctorate in materials science. When the ESA 2008 set up its current astronaut corps, it was one of 8500 applicants and made it into the top 10. But since only six were selected, he had to wait. In the meantime, however, he has been preparing for his first flight into space for years. Before he finally gets going next year, his colleague Thomas Pesquet will fly to the ISS for his second stay. The French flies in the SpaceX Crew-2 mission with the US astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur and the Japanese Akihiko Hoshide.
As most of the world slowed to a pandemic-induced halt this year, the space industry rocketed forward. A pair of astronauts launched to orbit on a private spacecraft for the first time. Three separate missions blasted off to Mars. And a robot hundreds of millions of miles from Earth grabbed the largest sample of an asteroid ever captured.
Looking back on 2020, space turned out to be a relative bright spot in a particularly dark year. Boosted by government contracts and increased demand in some sectors, the private space industry pushed through the chaos of this year. At the same time, public exploration missions scrambled to meet rigid timetables. And both groups managed to triumph while adhering to rapidly changing public health restrictions around the globe.
Despite the turmoil, the world launched more than 1,200 satellites this year, according to spaceflight tracker Jonathan McDowell — more than in any other year past. And while many of those satellites were either small in size, or bulk satellites from SpaceX, the numbers are indicative of just how much the space economy has grown in the previous years — and how resilient spaceflight has become even when faced with a pandemic.
“Governments around the world have increased their focus on space as a priority, either for national defense like in the US, or for exploration,” Carissa Christensen, founder and CEO of Bryce Space and Technology, a space analytics and engineering firm, tells The Verge. Even during a pandemic, that emphasis continued, she says.
The space world wasn’t completely immune to COVID-19, though. When the pandemic first got underway, many companies had to slow down or pause their activities as they adjusted to new social distancing guidelines, staggered shifts, and new cleaning practices. Europe temporarily ceased flights out of its spaceport in French Guiana in mid-March, and some satellite launches suffered delays as travel restrictions made it difficult to transport hardware. Engineers even turned off some instruments on spacecraft already in space to reduce the labor needed to keep them running.
ULA’s Atlas V rocket launched NASA’s Perseverance rover to Mars in July.Image: NASA
A few companies suffered major losses, too. Bigelow Aerospace, which aims to build inflatable space habitats, let go all of its employees in late March, citing lockdown restrictions. And certain sectors of the satellite industry suffered slowdowns, especially those that provide communications and services for cruise and maritime industries, as well as airlines, says Christensen. “Some of the changes in travel patterns have had an impact on satellite operators,” she says.
But other areas of the satellite world saw a huge increase in demand this year. Governments and industries sought out data from companies that provide high-resolution imagery of Earth and geospatial intelligence, says Chad Anderson, CEO of angel investment and venture capital firm Space Angels. People were eager to learn more about how the pandemic has impacted travel and what new global trends have emerged on Earth in 2020.
“In times of uncertainty, businesses and leaders are really hungry for information and insight, which is exactly the type of data that space companies provide,” says Anderson. “So as the world gets more uncertain, and as anxiety goes up, people are clamoring for more information.”
Not only did the government seek more data from the industry, but in the US, it classified many aerospace companies as “essential,” since they held contracts with NASA or the Department of Defense. This allowed companies to continue to bring employees on site to continue working on all their projects, both government-related and commercial.
The US government also provided a lifeline in the form of contract payouts, Anderson says. Government agencies restructured how they paid out their contractors, providing more money at the height of the pandemic. That kept a lot of organizations afloat until investment picked back up again, Anderson says. And after a second quarter slowdown, the third quarter of 2020 became “one of the biggest quarters on record for investment and growth in infrastructure space,” he says.
Satellite imagery from Planet reveals theGreat Mosque of Mecca on January 25th, 2020 (L) and March 10th, 2020. Image: Planet
Of course, much of the spotlight in space this year was on SpaceX’s first crewed mission to the International Space Station. On May 31st, two NASA astronauts — Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — flew to space on the company’s new Crew Dragon capsule, marking the first crewed launch to orbit from US soil since the end of the space shuttle program. Thousands of viewers from all over the world tuned in to the launch, providing a hopeful distraction for a suffering public.
SpaceX’s flight was just the headliner of a massive year in space-related accomplishments. Three missions launched to Mars from three separate countries, including NASA’s new Perseverance rover, equipped with tools to look for life on the Red Planet. NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission grabbed what could be the largest sample of an asteroid ever retrieved. And China landed its third robotic mission on the Moon, in a quest to bring a sample of lunar dirt back to Earth.
Some of these achievements were more or less an exercise in weird timing. All three Mars missions had to get off the ground this year, or they’d miss the window to reach the Red Planet. If they hadn’t launched this summer, they would have been forced to wait until 2022, resulting in loss of time and money. OSIRIS-REx, on the other hand, has been in space since 2016, with longstanding plans to grab a sample of an asteroid this year. Postponing the grab for too long just wasn’t an option, as the vehicle has limited fuel on board.
“Some of that was just very good luck — or very bad luck, depending,” says Christensen. “You’ll have a five, seven, 10-year program, and it launches when it launches. So I think that for the exploration program, it’s kind of a reflection of a long schedule.”
Still, the fact that these major achievements happened during the pandemic is a testament to the strength of the people who run their spacecraft. NASA engineers told tales of racing to get Perseverance off the ground just in time, while adhering to stricter guidelines and new work from home policies. And it wasn’t just them. Everyone in the space world was still grappling with the pandemic here on Earth, while trying to keep their space robots launching and functioning.
While the humans of Earth are doing their best to stay in one place, we’re still thrusting our way into the cosmos — a sign that we’ll continue to explore the stars even in times of incredible adversity. “It was definitely a bright spot in an otherwise horrible year, and more is on the way,” says Anderson.
On Tuesday night, SpaceX successfully launched another batch of the company’s internet-from-space Starlink satellites to orbit, using a very space-hardened Falcon 9 rocket for the job. This launch marked the rocket’s seventh flight to space and back — the first time SpaceX has flown such a seasoned vehicle to orbit.
The Falcon 9 took off at 9:13PM ET from SpaceX’s launch site at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with 60 Starlink satellites in tow. After a quick trip to space, the first stage of the Falcon 9 — the bulk of the vehicle that contains the main engines and most of the fuel — separated from the rest of the rocket and came back to Earth. It then performed one of SpaceX’s signature rocket landings, touching down on one of the company’s drone ships in the Atlantic.
Before this flight, the Falcon 9 had boosted two communications satellites to orbit on two separate missions, and SpaceX had also used the vehicle to launch four separate Starlink launches. It wasn’t just the rocket that had flown before either. The rocket’s nosecone, which surrounds the satellites during the climb to space, was also used before for previous flights. One half of the nosecone — or payload fairing — had flow once before, while the other half had flown twice before this launch.
By now, SpaceX has made these launch and landing routines a fairly regular sight out of Florida, with each new mission adding numbers to the company’s resume. Last night’s launch was notable for being SpaceX’s 100th Falcon 9 launch ever. It also marked the company’s 23rd launch of this year and the 67th time SpaceX has recovered one of its Falcon 9 boosters following a launch.
Those numbers are only expected to grow, with more launches slated this year. And with yesterday’s rocket successfully landing, an eighth flight is perhaps in the future.
Tesla CEO according to Bloomberg Bilionaires Index surpassed the assets of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, behind only multi-billionaire Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
of Lorenzo Tirotta published on 24 November 2020 , at 17: 21 in the web channel Tesla
The electric car company Tesla in the last year has seen an exponential growth, between September 2019 and 2020 the value of the single share has grown by 750% . Company CEO Elon Musk owns the 20% of Tesla shares and saw its assets increase by more than 7 billion at Wall Street close on Monday 23 November.
Elon Musk becomes the second richest man in the world thanks to Tesla
Musk’s estate as reported by Bloomberg Bilionaires Index amounts to approximately 128 billions of dollars, a figure that allowed him to surpass the co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates and take second place, behind only the founder of Amazon Jeff Bezos with his 182 billions of assets. Musk in January 2020 was the 35 ° richest man on the planet, in less than a year thanks to the Tesla share price he managed to earn the podium. Bill Gates was first in the charts for many years until in 2017 he was ousted by Bezos. Microsoft co-founder has assets of 127 billion dollars but they would be many more, considering that from 2006 to today donated to charity to his foundation ben 27 billions of dollars.
The British newspaper The Guardian stated that Tesla with 500 billions of dollars ha the highest market capitalization of any other car manufacturer , remembering that it started at the beginning of the year with less than 100 billions.
Musk is also founder and owner of SpaceX , an aerospace company with l ‘goal of increasing reliability and reduce the costs of launches to space and the utopia of developing technologies capable of colonizing and making human presence on Mars possible. SpaceX is the first private aerospace company and recently had good success by launching 4 astronauts into the International Space Station aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Tesla’s shares rose exponentially when the company managed to enter the S&P index 500 of the main US companies . Three-quarters of Musk’s net worth comes from Tesla stock.
Elon Musk has passed Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world’s second richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Tesla CEO’s net worth now sits at around $128 billion, after increasing by $100 billion this year. There is a sizable gap between Musk and the number one spot, which is currently held by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who has a reported net worth of around $182 billion. In January, Musk ranked 35th on the list, Bloomberg reports.
For an idea of how the wealth of these men compares to the average American household, check out this amazing data visualization produced earlier this year in which every pixel represents $1,000.
Musk’s rapid ascent up the list has mainly been driven by Tesla’s share price. The car company currently has a market cap of almost $500 billion, after starting the year at under $100 billion. The Guardian reports that Tesla has the highest market cap of any car company in the world, despite producing a fraction of the cars of more established automakers. This year it expects to produce 500,000 cars, compared to around 10 million for a company like Toyota. Around three quarters of Musk’s net worth consists of Tesla shares, according to Bloomberg.
Musk’s other major venture, SpaceX, has also seen recent success. Last week the company transported four astronauts to the International Space Station aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. It follows the company’s first crewed flight to space in May this year.
Bill Gates sat atop the Billionaires Index for years until he was overtaken by Jeff Bezos in 2017. Bloomberg notes that Gates would probably have a higher net wealth right now if he hadn’t given so much money to charity, including the over $27 billion he’s donated through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2006.
Gates and Musk have had some high-profile disagreements this year. In September, Musk said Gates had “no clue” about the viability of electric trucks, after the Microsoft co-founder said that electric semi-trucks, along with electric cargo ships and passenger jets, will “probably never” be practical. Earlier this year Gates told CNBCthat Musk should avoid making big predictions about areas he’s not familiar with, after the Tesla CEO downplayed the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Musk overtook Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week when he became the third-richest person on the Billionaires Index. Zuckerberg has since fallen to fifth in the rankings after he was overtaken by French businessman Bernard Arnault.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
