- Biden-Harris Administration Announces $3.5 Billion for Largest Ever Investment in America’s Electric Grid, Deploying More Clean Energy, Lowering Costs, and Creating Union Jobs Energy.gov
- Biden administration announces $3.5 billion investment in U.S. electric grid CNBC Television
- Biden administration announces “largest ever” investment in US electric grid The Verge
- Biden announces $3.5B for projects nationwide to strengthen electric grid, bolster resilience AOL
- Biden administration to invest $3.5 billion to improve the resiliency of the electric grid CNBC
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: deploying
SpaceX launch to begin deploying SES’s O3b mPOWER network – Spaceflight Now
EDITOR’S NOTE: Watch our live streaming video of the Falcon 9 countdown and launch from Cape Canaveral with the first two O3b mPOWER broadband satellites for SES.
SFN Live
” alt=””/>
SpaceX is counting down to liftoff of a Falcon 9 rocket at 5:48 p.m. EST (2221 GMT) Friday from Cape Canaveral on a mission to boost two high-power broadband satellites for SES’s O3b mPOWER network toward a unique equatorial orbit some 5,000 miles above Earth.
Flying due east from Florida’s Space Coast, the Falcon 9 rocket will place the first two O3b mPOWER satellites into orbit to join SES’s 20 first-generation O3b internet satellites launched from 2013 through 2019.
Forecasters from the U.S. Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron predict a greater than 90% probability of favorable weather for liftoff, with only a slight chance of thick clouds that might create a threat of lightning. The weather team expects good conditions in the Atlantic Ocean for landing of the Falcon 9’s first stage booster on SpaceX’s drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” about 420 miles (670 kilometers) east of Cape Canaveral.
During Friday’s countdown, the Falcon 9 launcher will be filled with a million pounds of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants in the final 35 minutes before liftoff.
After teams verify technical and weather parameters are all “green” for launch, the nine Merlin 1D main engines on the first stage booster will flash to life with the help of an ignition fluid called triethylaluminum/triethylborane, or TEA-TEB. Once the engines ramp up to full throttle, hydraulic clamps will open to release the Falcon 9 for its climb into space.
The nine main engines will produce 1.7 million pounds of thrust for about two-and-a-half minutes, propelling the Falcon 9 and and the two O3b mPOWER satellite into the upper atmosphere. Then the booster stage — tail number B1067 in SpaceX’s fleet — will shut down and separate from the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
The booster will extend titanium grid fins and pulse cold gas thrusters to orient itself for a tail-first entry back into the atmosphere, before reigniting its engines for a braking burn and a final landing burn, targeting a vertical descent to the drone ship holding position in the Atlantic Ocean.
A successful rocket landing on the drone ship will mark the completion of the booster’s eighth flight to space. The booster debuted June 3, 2021, with the launch of a Dragon cargo mission to the International Space Station, and launched two astronaut crews into space on NASA’s Crew-3 and Crew-4 missions. It has also launched the Turksat 5B communications satellite, another space station resupply mission, and a batch of Starlink internet satellites. Most recently, the booster launched and landed Nov. 13 on a mission with Eutelsat’s Hotbird 13G television broadcasting satellite.
For the O3b mission, the Falcon 9’s upper stage will fire its engine three times to send the two Boeing-built broadband satellites into a higher orbit, closer to their final operating altitude about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) over the equator.
The first O3b mPOWER satellite will deploy from the rocket 1 hour and 53 minutes into the mission, followed separation of the second spacecraft 2 hours after liftoff. The satellites will unfurl their solar panels and switch on xenon-fueled thrusters to maneuver into their operational orbit, a process that will take until about April, according to SES, the Luxembourg-based company that owns the O3b network.
The two O3b spacecraft, when combined, weigh roughly 9,000 pounds (4,100 kilograms) in launch configuration, a Boeing official told Spaceflight Now.
The O3b mPOWER satellites will beam high-speed internet services around the world, providing “fiber-like” connectivity to users between 50 degrees north and south latitude, according to SES, the Luxembourg-based operator that owns the O3b fleet.
SES already has 20 O3b satellites in Medium Earth Orbit. They flew to space on Russian Soyuz rockets under a launch services contract with Arianepace.
The new O3b mPOWER satellites will operate in a similar Medium Earth Orbit, or MEO, over the equator as the original O3b satellites.
“SES’s O3b mPOWER system is a true gamechanger and will transform the way people think about connectivity,” said Ruy Pinto, chief technology officer at SES. “Delivering performance above all, O3b mPOWER will offer connectivity services to government organizations and enterprises based in the most remote regions. In times of natural disasters, when networks are disrupted, O3b mPOWER’s low-latency services can quickly restore critical communications networks.”
The original O3b satellites, built by Thales Alenia Space nearly a decade ago, had 10 user beams per spacecraft. The new O3b mPOWER satellites, built on Boeing’s 702 spacecraft platform, each have more than 4,000 beams that can be adjusted to focus bandwidth on high-demand areas.
SES has focused on developing broadband satellites for a MEO constellation constellation, which puts the relay stations closer to Earth than geostationary orbit some 22,000 miles over the planet. That reduces the latency, or lag, in internet signals compared to geostationary satellites. As few as three geostationary satellites could provide global coverage, but more satellites in MEO required to reach around the world.
But that number is still far fewer than the hundreds or thousands of internet satellites companies like SpaceX and OneWeb are launching into low Earth orbit. Satellites flying less than 1,000 miles above Earth reduce latency even further than MEO satellites, but many more spacecraft are needed for global coverage.
Boeing is contracted to build 11 O3b mPOWER satellites. More O3b mPOWER payloads are scheduled to launch on Falcon 9 rockets in 2023.
O3b stands for “Other 3 Billion” in recognition of the billions of people without access to reliable internet service.
“SES approached us with a vision to create global equity, by providing people with high-speed connectivity where it wasn’t economically or physically feasible to build fiber infrastructure,” said Jim Chilton, senior vice president of space and launch at Boeing. “We partnered to create a super computer constellation in space to meet that goal, and we can’t wait to see what SES does as the 702X platform’s first user.”
ROCKET: Falcon 9 (B1067.8)
PAYLOAD: O3b mPOWER 1 & 2
LAUNCH SITE: SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida
LAUNCH DATE: Dec. 16, 2022
LAUNCH TIME: 4:21-5:48 p.m. EST (2121-2248 GMT)
WEATHER FORECAST: Greater than 90% chance of good weather
BOOSTER RECOVERY: “A Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean
LAUNCH AZIMUTH: East
TARGET ORBIT: Medium Earth Orbit transfer
LAUNCH TIMELINE:
- T+00:00: Liftoff
- T+01:12: Maximum aerodynamic pressure (Max-Q)
- T+02:33: First stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
- T+02:36: Stage separation
- T+02:44: Second stage engine ignition (SES 1)
- T+03:22: Payload fairing jettison
- T+06:33: First stage entry burn ignition (three engines)
- T+06:55: First stage entry burn cutoff
- T+08:03: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 1)
- T+08:24: First stage landing burn ignition (one engine)
- T+08:47: First stage landing
- T+27:10: Second stage engine restart (SES 2)
- T+27:43: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 2)
- T+1:49:52: Second stage engine restart (SES 3)
- T+1:50:18: Second stage engine cutoff (SECO 3)
- T+1:53:19: First O3b mPOWER spacecraft separation
- T+2:00:19: Second O3b mPOWER spacecraft separation
MISSION STATS:
- 191st launch of a Falcon 9 rocket since 2010
- 200th launch of Falcon rocket family since 2006
- 8th launch of Falcon 9 booster B1067
- 163rd Falcon 9 launch from Florida’s Space Coast
- 106th Falcon 9 launch from pad 40
- 161st launch overall from pad 40
- 131st flight of a reused Falcon 9 booster
- 8th SpaceX launch for SES
- 57th Falcon 9 launch of 2022
- 58th launch by SpaceX in 2022
- 55th orbital launch attempt based out of Cape Canaveral in 2022
Email the author.
Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.
Russia is deploying more forces to bolster southern flank, according to Ukraine and geolocated videos
Russia will withdraw from the International Space Station project “after 2024” after fulfilling its obligations, according to the Kremlin readout of a meeting between the newly appointed head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
“You know that we are working within the framework of international cooperation at the International Space Station. Undoubtedly, we will fulfil all our obligations to our partners, but the decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov told Putin in the Kremlin-issued readout.
“I think that by this time, we will begin to form the Russian orbital station,” Borisov said.
Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades. The announcement comes as the war in Ukraine has deeply strained its relations with US and Europe.
Robyn Gatens, director of the International Space Station for NASA, said that NASA hadn’t received any official word from Russia about the decision to quit the ISS.
“The Russians, just like us, are thinking ahead to what’s next for them. As we are planning transition after 2030 to commercially operated space stations in low-Earth orbit, they have a similar plan. And so they’re thinking about that transition as well. We haven’t received any official word from the partner as to the news today, so we’ll be talking more about their plan going forward, ” Gatens said.
This is not the first time that Russia has threatened to abandon the ISS amid crippling US and European sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Borisov’s predecessor, Dmitry Rogozin, repeatedly threatened to do so before he was ousted earlier this month.
But this most recent threat has more teeth, and the apparent approval of Putin himself. According to the transcript of a meeting posted to the Kremlin’s website, Putin said “good” after Borisov told him that Roscosmos will begin to build its own space station after 2024.
Russia’s withdrawal would be a major blow to the ISS, a model of international cooperation for decades.
The news comes less than two weeks after NASA and Roscosmos announced a crew-exchange deal or “seat swap” that had been under negotiations for more than four years. Starting in September, two Russian cosmonauts will launch on US spacecrafts from Florida while two American astronauts will ride Russian rockets into space. It’s unclear if Russia’s decision to pull out of the ISS after 2024 will impact the crew-exchange agreement.
The ISS, which is a collaboration among the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency, is divided into two sections — the Russian Orbital Segment and the US Orbital Segment. The Biden administration announced in December that it was committed to extending the ISS from 2024 to 2030. But Russia — NASA’s number-one partner at the ISS — never signed onto it.
“The Russian segment can’t function without the electricity on the American side, and the American side can’t function without the propulsion systems that are on the Russian side,” former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman told CNN in February. “So you can’t do an amicable divorce. You can’t do a conscious uncoupling.”
Since then, NASA has been exploring ways of moving the space station without the assistance of the Russian segment. In June, a Cygnus cargo spacecraft demonstrated its ability to raise the station’s orbit. But whether the ISS would be able to survive without the Russians is still an open question.
NASA said in February it intends to keep operating the International Space Station — which was launched in 2000 — until the end of 2030, after which the ISS would be deorbited and crashed into a remote part of the Pacific Ocean. Commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research, NASA said.
Hear the director general of the European Space Agency here:
Deploying Space Bubbles To Block Out the Sun
If climate change has already gone too far, what could be our emergency solutions? Credit: MIT
“Space Bubbles” – The Deflection of Solar Radiation Using Thin-Film Inflatable Bubble Rafts
An interdisciplinary group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is exploring a space-based solar shield to reduce incoming radiation on Earth’s surface—hence combatting climate change.
As the Earth’s temperature increases, the question of humanity’s response to climate change grows more urgent: has our negative already impact gone too far? Is it too late for us to reverse the damage done?
A proposal currently being developed by a transdisciplinary team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (
Geoengineering might be our final and only option. Yet, most geoengineering proposals are earth-bound, which poses tremendous risks to our living ecosystem. Credit: MIT
This project is part of a solar-geoengineering approach—a set of technologies aiming to reflect a fraction of sunlight coming to the Earth—to contest climate change. Unlike other Earth-based geoengineering efforts, such as dissolving gases in the stratosphere for increasing its albedo effect, this method would not interfere directly with our biosphere and therefore would pose fewer risks to altering our already fragile ecosystems. The raft itself (researchers hypothesize a craft roughly the size of Brazil) composed of frozen bubbles would be suspended in space near the L1 Lagrangian Point, a location between the Earth and the sun where the gravitational influence of both the sun and the Earth cancel out.
This proposal addresses many questions: How to engineer the best material for the bubbles to withstand outer space conditions? How to fabricate and deploy these bubbles in space? How to make the shield fully reversible? What are the potential long-term effects on Earth’s ecosystem?
While addressing climate change necessarily requires lowering CO2 emission on the Earth, other approaches such as geoengineering could supplement such efforts if current mitigation and adaptation measures turned out to be inadequate for reversing the ongoing climate change trends.[1] In particular, solar geoengineering—a set of technologies aiming to reflect a fraction of sunlight coming to the Earth—has been theoretically proved to be a valuable solution for supplementing current efforts for CO2 emission reductions.[2]
Building on the work of Roger Angel, who first proposed using thin reflective films in outer space, we produced an innovative solution that is easily deployable and fully reversible. Credit: MIT
Solar geoengineering is one of the least extensively researched topics in climate science technologies. Most research efforts have concentrated on dissolving reflective chemical components in the troposphere or stratosphere that would offset the incoming solar radiation,[3] facing issues of irreversibility and further greenhouse effects. Space-based geoengineering provides an opportunity to solve the problem with no direct effect on stratospheric chemistry.
James Early[4] proposed the idea of a multilayer deflective film to be deployed at the Lagrangian Point (L1, see Figure 1a) in between the Sun and the Earth decreasing the incident sunlight by 1.8%. Roger Angel,[5] building on Early’s research, investigated the idea of a swarm of small spacecraft unfolding smaller shields, proposing an early feasibility plan for the technology. The main challenges associated with the above proposals are the complexity of pre-fabricating a large film, and transporting and unfolding it in outer space. Other ideas include creating a cloud of dust from asteroids[6] at L1, which poses the problem of keeping the material confined. Among the issues with the existing approaches: the amount of material needed, the difficulty of in-space fabrication, and the non-reversibility of such geoengineering projects.
The bubbles could be manufactured directly in outer space, forming an extensive deflective raft positioned at the Lagrangian Point between the Earth and the Sun. Credit: MIT
In general, most research has not moved from a rough feasibility study stage yet. In this proposal, we are bringing together an interdisciplinary team of MIT scientists to do a next level of feasibility. As a working hypothesis, we propose to explore the idea of shielding solar radiation by deploying a set of bubble rafts composed of arrays of interconnected small inflatable bubbles (see Figure 1b) close to the Lagrangian Point L1 in between the Sun and the Earth.
We believe that inflating thin-film spheres directly in space from a homogeneous molten material–such as silicon–can provide the variation in thickness that refracts a broader wave spectrum and allows us to avoid the necessity of launching large structural film elements. Spheres can be directly manufactured in space, optimizing shipping costs. Moreover, as bubbles can be intentionally destroyed by breaking their surface equilibrium, this would make the solar geoengineering solution fully reversible and significantly reduce space debris. Please note, however, that the bubble raft is only a working hypothesis at the moment, and it could be revised during the white paper preparation.
Interdisciplinary in its nature, the project involves an array of research problems in a number of disciplines, from the optics and mechanics of thin-films in space, to the impact of shading on the Earth, to the public policy implementation. Subsections below present the major challenges and preliminary strategies of tackling them [with disciplines involved]:
Material
A fundamental phase in this project is selecting the right material and technology to fabricate and maintain thin-film spheres in outer space conditions. In our preliminary experiments, we succeeded at inflating a thin-film bubble at a pressure of 0.0028 atm, and maintaining it at around –50°C (to approximate space conditions of zero pressure and near-zero temperature, see Figure 1c).
Further research will investigate the use of other types of low vapor-pressure materials to rapidly inflate and assemble bubble rafts (including silicon-based melts, and 
Figure 1 – (a) L1 Lagrangian point location as described in [5] (b) Bubble raft on a water surface (courtesy University of Wisconsin) (c) Frozen ~20 mm-diameter thin-film bubble at 0.0028 atm (experiment carried out at MIT). Credit: MIT
Mass density and cost efficiency
We will study whether a bubble-based shield is mass-efficient compared to other proposed shading solutions. As thin fluid spheres are inflated, the minimal thickness of the liquid film forming the shell can theoretically be as low as 20nm due to surface disjoining pressure and to the Marangoni effect. However, in order to deflect solar light, the shells’ thickness should be comparable to solar wavelengths (i.e. on the order of 400-600 nm). Our initial calculations, considering liquid-based spherical bubbles, suggest that the resulting raft’s expected mass density would be <1.5 g/m2, on par with the lightest shield proposed by Angel.[3-5] [physics, optics]
Position and stabilization of the raft
While at the L1 Lagrangian point gravitational forces from the Earth and the Sun cancel out, a wide and thin bubble raft would be significantly exposed to solar radiation pressure, suggesting that the optimal location should be identified slightly closer to the Sun, approximately 2.5 Gm from the earth. An active stabilization mechanism is needed and will have to be designed, preferably through geometry modification [aerospace engineering, planetary sciences, robotics]
At labs at MIT, they have tested bubbles in outer space conditions that could be one of the most efficient thin-film structures for deflecting solar radiation. Credit: MIT
Shading capacity
Previous geoengineering research[2,3] suggests that in order to reverse the effects of climate change incoming solar radiation should be reduced by 1.8%, even if smaller percentages would be enough for supplementing global warming mitigations initiatives on Earth.[7] A solar radiation reflection model will be built and used to determine the optical properties of the bubble raft, while a deeper analysis with climate models will identify the desired solar radiation reduction fraction. [physics, optics, climate sciences]
Space production and delivery
Possibly a significant advantage of a bubble raft is the possibility of in-situ assembly using space-based fabrication methods.. Bubbles can be rapidly inflated inside the production unit, then rapidly frozen and released into zeropressure and low-temperature space. The coordination of the process of delivery, raw material transfer, inflation, and the coordination of the resulting bubble rafts will be studied. Moreover, novel ways of shipping the material from the earth will be investigated, including magnetic accelerators (railgun) as already proposed in the literature. [aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, robotics]
Maintenance and reversibility
If a bubble raft is no longer needed, sheets of thin spheres are easy to destroy by breaking their surface equilibrium and collapsing them from their metastable equilibrium point to a lower energy configuration. This minimizes debris compared to other proposed approaches, and makes it safer and more resilient in case of impacts with other objects. The maintenance of such a fragile shield is a challenge, and an effective replenishment rate will be studied to ensure the shield maintains its size, together with strategies to guarantee a smooth end-of-life transition. [climate sciences, aerospace engineering]
Impact on Earth’s climate and ecosystem
Despite the remote location from Earth’s atmosphere, some studies suggest that complex phenomena may arise on Earth’s climate as a consequence of the reduction of solar radiation, such as the weakening of extratropical storm tracks.[8] This aspect will be further investigated with different solar radiation reduction fractions. Furthermore, a phase-out approach will be designed, to avoid an Earth’s ecosystem shock of a sudden termination of the geoengineering program when it will no longer be needed (studies identify the needed lifetime in a range from 50 to 200 years).[7] [environmental engineering, climate sciences]
Public policy implications
How to get the most synergies between emission cuts and solar geoengineering is a public policy problem that needs careful investigation. Moreover, research will be done on the following topics: how to overcome political opposition and political fear; how to avoid what has been referred to as a “moral hazard”;[9] how to make the project economically sustainable; how to open-source the solution design for a widespread engagement. [political sciences, economics]
In the next phase of the project, formal analyses and simulations of the aforementioned topics will be conducted, together with preliminary laboratory production experimentation. If indeed the bubble raft concept does turn out as the most valuable solution (from cost and mass density considerations), further research will be needed for improving the design, fabricating a test bubble raft in lower orbit, and, if successful, test the deployment in outer space.
In its largest extent, as discussed by Roger Angel,[5] the system could offset 100% of the effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We believe that once a technical solution is identified, implementation could happen before the end of the century, when the most severe consequences of climate change are currently predicted. In terms of cost, an initial estimate was suggested by Roger Angel as approximately 0.5% of global GDP over 50 years; furthering feasibility as proposed here will help us arrive at more accurate estimates. In short, we believe that advancing feasibility of a solar shield to the next level could constitute a supplementary plan for a low carbon transition on Earth–and in any case help us make more informed decisions in the years to come should geoengineering approaches become urgent.
Principal Investigators
- Carlo Ratti, MIT Senseable City Lab (lead)
- Charles Primmerman, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
- Daniela Rus, MIT CSAIL
- Gareth McKinley, MIT Mechanical Engineering
- Markus Buehler, MIT Civil and Environmental
Engineering Advisors
- Gabriele Santambrogio, European Laboratory for Nonlinear Spectroscopy
- Lawrence Susskind, MIT DUSP
References:
- Brown, P., Caldeira, K. (2017) “Greater future global warming inferred from Earth’s recent energy budget”, Nature 552
DOI: 10.1038/nature24672 - Keith, D. W., Wagner, G., Zabel, C. (2017) “Solar geoengineering reduces atmospheric carbon burden”, Nature Climate Change 7
DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3376 - Keith, D. W., Weisenstein, D. K., Dykema, J. A., Keutsch, F. N. (2016) “Solar geoengineering without ozone loss”, PNAS 113-52
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1615572113 - Early, J. T. (1989) “Space-based solar shield to offset green-house effect”, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 42
- Angel, R. (2006) “Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near the inner Lagrange point (L1)”, PNAS 103-46
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0608163103 - Bewick, R., Sanchez, J. P. , McInnes, C. R. (2012) “Gravitationally bound geoengineering dust shade at the inner Lagrange point,” Adv. in Space Research 50-10
DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2012.07.008 - MacMartin, D. G., Caldeira, K., Keith, D. W. (2014) “Solar geoengineering to limit the rate of temperature change”, Philosophical Trans. of the Royal Society A 372
DOI: 10.1098/rsta.2014.0134 - Gertler, C. G., O’Gorman, P. A., et al. (2020) “Weakening of the extratropical storm tracks in solar geoengineering scenarios”, Geophysical Research Letters 47
DOI: 10.1029/2020GL087348 - Lin, A. (2013) “Does Geoengineering Present a Moral Hazard?”, Ecology Law Quarterly 40-3