Lifeboat Foundation

Deep below the ground, radioactive elements disintegrate water molecules, producing ingredients that can fuel subterranean life. This process, known as radiolysis, has sustained bacteria in isolated, water-filled cracks and rock pores on Earth for millions to billions of years. Now a study published in Astrobiology contends that radiolysis could have powered microbial life in the Martian subsurface.

Dust storms, cosmic rays and solar winds ravage the Red Planet’s surface. But belowground, some life might find refuge. “The environment with the best chance of habitability on Mars is the subsurface,” says Jesse Tarnas, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the new study’s lead author. Examining the Martian underground could help scientists learn whether life could have survived there—and the best subsurface samples available today are Martian meteorites that have crash-landed on Earth.

Tarnas and his colleagues evaluated the grain sizes, mineral makeup and radioactive element abundance in Martian meteorites and estimated the Martian crust’s porosity using satellite and rover data. They plugged these attributes into a computer model that simulated radiolysis to see how efficiently the process would have generated hydrogen gas and sulfates: chemical ingredients that can power the metabolism of underground bacteria. The researchers report that if water was present, radiolysis in the Martian subsurface could have sustained microbial communities for billions of years—and perhaps still could today.

These amazing aerial shots provide a unique perspective of our planet.

Russia, China and other adversaries are launching attacks designed to damage or destroy US satellites and interfere with that critical infrastructure. CNN’s Jim Sciutto gets an exclusive look into how Space Force is fighting every day to defend against these technologies.

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SpaceX is reportedly partnering with Canadian tech startup Geometric Energy Corporation to launch a billboard into orbit around Earth.

The download speed is 100 Mbps and the upload speed is 13.89 Mbps.

“Starlink” is a satellite internet project of SpaceX. From 2,019 to 2,024 SpaceX plans to use five years to send thousands of satellites needed for networking into low-Earth orbit to form a “Starlink” network to provide internet services. Currently, there are 1,650 satellites on the “Starlink” network.

The Speedtest report shows that in the second quarter of this year, the average download speed of Starlink satellite internet services in the US market was 97.23 Mbps. This is not far from the average download speed of fixed broadband in the US, which is 115.22 Mbps.

Continue reading “SpaceX starlink allows users to download a movie in less than 1 minute” »

The space-faring firm’s satellite internet service promises connections with high speed and low latency — and data suggests the rollout pace is now increasing.

If you’re wondering just how advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems are getting, then know this: the US military is testing an experimental AI network tasked with identifying likely future events worthy of closer attention, and days before they occur.

The series of tests are called the Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE), and they combine data from a huge variety of sources, including satellite imagery, intelligence reports, sensors in the field, radar, and more.

Cloud computing also plays an important part in this setup, making sure that vast chunks of data collected from all over the world can be processed efficiently, and then accessed by whichever military officials and agencies need them.

The US military’s AI experiments are growing particularly ambitious. The Drive reports that US Northern Command recently completed a string of tests for Global Information Dominance Experiments (GIDE), a combination of AI, cloud computing and sensors that could give the Pentagon the ability to predict events “days in advance,” according to Command leader General Glen VanHerck. It’s not as mystical as it sounds, but it could lead to a major change in military and government operations.

The machine learning-based system observes changes in raw, real-time data that hint at possible trouble. If satellite imagery shows signs that a rival nation’s submarine is preparing to leave port, for instance, the AI could flag that mobilization knowing the vessel will likely leave soon. Military analysts can take hours or even days to comb through this information — GIDE technology could send an alert within “seconds,” VanHerck said.

The most recent dry run, GIDE 3, was the most expansive yet. It saw all 11 US commands and the broader Defense Department use a mix of military and civilian sensors to address scenarios where “contested logistics” (such as communications in the Panama Canal) might pose a problem. The technology involved wasn’t strictly new, the General said, but the military “stitched everything together.”

Up, up, and away.

Launching satellites is an expensive business — at least for now. But satellites are necessary in astronomy for one major reason — they get telescopes above the atmosphere.

Continue reading “238 Year-Old Technology Could Give The Best View of Space Ever” »