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Archive for the 'Space & Satellites' Category

Google Buys D-Wave Quantum Computer

Posted by Sam Churchill on May 16th, 2013

Today Google announced they’re buying a quantum computer from D-Wave Systems. NASA’s Ames Research Center will host the computer at the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, which will house the machine. The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) will invite researchers from around the world to share time on it. Their stated goal is to study how [...]

Space Oddity

Posted by Sam Churchill on May 13th, 2013

On the eve of his return to Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield (twitter) released a video of himself singing David Bowie’s 1969 classic “Space Oddity”. The video has some stunning shots of the station zooming over our planet, as well as Hadfield’s acoustic guitar drifting through a module. On 12 May 2013, Hadfield turned over [...]

Orbcomm: World’s Largest Container Tracker

Posted by Sam Churchill on May 8th, 2013

Orbcomm, the low earth orbit messaging satellite company, specializing in two-way Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications, today announced that its ReeferTrak platform has been selected by seven new domestic and international transportation and logistics companies. ReeferTrak enables customers to proactively monitor, manage and remotely control their refrigerated transport assets. By leveraging the power of ReeferTrak’s temperature, fuel [...]

Scramjet Hits Mach 5.1

Posted by Sam Churchill on May 6th, 2013

On May 1, the last X-51A got its chance to soar, reaching Mach 5.1, during a record 370-second flight, notes Engadget. The third X-51A WaveRider failed to reach hypersonic speed due to a fin failure last August. According to the Wright Patterson Air Force base, the flying bomb hit Mach 4.8 about 26 seconds after [...]

NASA Launches 3 PhoneSats

Posted by Sam Churchill on April 26th, 2013

Over the weekend, NASA successfully launched into space three satellites consisting mainly of smartphones. The PhoneSats, have been transmitting signals to ground stations on Earth and will remain in orbit for as long as two weeks (#NASA_PhoneSat). The Phonesats took off from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia with three satellites; PhoneSat 1.0, dubbed [...]

RadarSat Dead, Solar Storm Erupts

Posted by Sam Churchill on April 12th, 2013

Canada’s Radarsat 1 satellite stopped communicating with Earth in late March, and officials fear the satellite may be lost for good, the Canadian Space Agency announced Tuesday. Controllers last heard from the spacecraft March 29, when engineers noticed Radarsat 1 was in safe mode, a semi-dormant state in which the spacecraft conserves energy, according to [...]