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How NASA makes those spectacular space images

The James Webb Space Telescope only captures infrared light, but imaging developers can convert the invisible into something both beautiful and scientifically accurate.




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8 Mind-Blowing Space Documentaries to Watch Now on NOVA

Check out some of NOVA’s best space documentaries available for streaming.




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How the 1874 Freedman's Bank collapse connects to economic disparities we see today

In Savings and Trust, historian Justene Hill Edwards tells the story of the Freedman's Bank. Created for formerly enslaved people following the Civil War, its collapse cost depositors millions.




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Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part I

The following article, Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part I, was first published on The Black Sphere.

Donald Trump went John Wyck on Democrats, like they killed his dog. And Trump’s decimation of the Party of Lynching has major implications for Democrats. At this point, if establishment Republicans don’t jump on the Trump train, then they deserve to get steamrolled with the Democrats. Because, Trump signaled without a doubt that he and …

Continue reading Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part I ...




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Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part II

The following article, Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part II, was first published on The Black Sphere.

Donald Trump made it clear in no uncertain terms that he plans to dismantle the Deep State. And it’s rants like this from Joe Scarborough that explain the new and improved version of Trump. Watch as Scarborough goes on a tirade about Trump right after learning of Trump’s victory. In his defense, almost every Leftist …

Continue reading Election Post-Mortem and Democrat Despair Part II ...




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Kari Lake’s Campaign Chair Reacts to Election: “No Transparency” (Video)

For a second time, Kari Lake has been denied a win in an election.  First, it was for governor of Arizona, which was clearly due to election and voter fraud.  Now, it appears something similar occurred in her race against Ruben Gallego.  Now, the head of her campaign is speaking out and saying that there …




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Who owns the Moon? A new space race means it could be up for grabs

A race for the lunar surface's resources is currently under way. What’s to stop a Wild West opening up?




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Astronauts reveal what life is like on ISS – and how they deal with 'space smell'

As Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore spend months longer than planned on ISS, three astronauts tell us what life is like in orbit.




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Joyful welcome by stranded astronauts for SpaceX capsule crew

A capsule sent to bring back two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station has docked.




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What's next for Elon Musk's SpaceX Starship rocket?

The world's most powerful rocket is expected to be back in action again soon




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Spain floods: Before and after images show devastation

Satellite images and on-the-ground photos show the scale of destruction caused by the floods.




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Watch: Cars washed away as new flash floods hit Spain

There were no immediate reports of casualties after heavy rain on Thursday.




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Spain braces for torrential rain as new weather system reaches Med coast

Two weeks after flash floods devastated eastern Spain, several areas are on alert again.




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From shy schoolboy to Spain's most decorated - what next for Iniesta?

Spanish football writer Guillem Balague talks to former Barcelona and Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta about his plans after retiring.




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velocityconf: RT @allspaw: Operations and System Safety - always a student http://t.co/1VYBEZYrK8 #devops #velocityconf

velocityconf: RT @allspaw: Operations and System Safety - always a student http://t.co/1VYBEZYrK8 #devops #velocityconf




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News24 | Wenzeni uGupta? Hlophe asks what crimes Guptas are accused of, disparages Batohi

The MK Party continued its campaign against accountability for corruption, with its deputy leader, John Hlophe, suggesting National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi was "misleading the nation" about the Guptas' extradition.




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On-Air Talent Will Not Be Spared as CNN Prepares Mass Layoffs in Wake of Election: Report

CNN reportedly will be making more cuts in the near future, including to its highly paid on-air personalities, following poor election ratings. The New York Post reported that Fox News […]

The post On-Air Talent Will Not Be Spared as CNN Prepares Mass Layoffs in Wake of Election: Report appeared first on The Western Journal.




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Farahat’s Arabic Book Review in Mekka Newspaper

Mekka Newspaper, Mecca, Saudi Arabia: Oct. 28, 2022 It was my distinct honor to Arabic receive a wonderful review by Mecca Newspaper, one of the oldest newspapers in the Middle East. I am deeply grateful and humbled to be part of the historic reformation and renaissance taking place in the Middle East. When Mecca newspaper […]




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China Needs to Make the Belt and Road Initiative More Transparent and Predictable

China Needs to Make the Belt and Road Initiative More Transparent and Predictable Expert comment sysadmin 29 April 2019

The global infrastructure project must move beyond mish-mash of opaque bilateral deals

Beijing hosts the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Photo: Getty Images.

As China welcomes dozens of world leaders to Beijing for its second Belt and Road forum, it has one simple aim: relaunching President Xi Jinping’s controversial global infrastructure drive.

Since it began five years ago, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has sunk hundreds of billions into port, railway and power projects stretching from south-east Asia to central Europe. But its path has been bumpy, drawing sharp criticism over the ruinous debts that some countries have racked up amid Chinese largesse.

Xi will stress sustainable financing and transparency this week, amid the usual talk of ‘win win’ cooperation. Yet BRI’s problems are structural, not presentational. For any pledges to be meaningful, China must move beyond its present mish-mash of opaque, bilateral deals.

After bad headlines last year, BRI has in fact enjoyed a good run in recent weeks. Malaysia announced it would resume a previously cancelled high-speed rail project, while Italy’s decision to join up last month marked a further European incursion. Indeed, if attendance is any guide to success, BRI looks in fine fettle. The first forum in 2017 attracted 29 world leaders. China says 37 will turn up this week. Phillip Hammond, UK chancellor, arrives hunting deals too, just a day after news that Chinese technology group Huawei will be allowed to help build 5G networks in Britain.

Even so, three interlinked problems remain at the heart of President Xi’s pet project, all of which must be addressed if BRI is to move beyond the pitfalls that have damaged its reputation.

The first and most obvious is debt. Critics allege that China ‘traps’ its BRI partners financially, often pointing to a debt-for-equity deal that handed China control of a port in Sri Lanka. These claims are exaggerated — few other projects have ended up this way. Yet poorer nations from Laos to Tajikistan are still signing up to vastly expensive Chinese schemes that offer poor value for money while straining their public finances.

The second problem is transparency. Despite its grand scale there is still no reliable list of BRI projects, no disclosure of the lending standards China follows, nor even the amount China has invested. Beijing claims more than $1 trillion; independent estimates suggest perhaps a few hundred billion. Either way, it will be hard for China to convince doubters on debts until it is open about the criteria it uses in deciding who to lend to and why.

BRI’s third and most important challenge is its muddled organization. Despite BRI’s image as a centrally run mega-project, China has allowed many deals to be struck locally, via a mix of state-backed companies, public sector banks and freewheeling regional governments. And it is here that the problems began.

Infrastructure deals are notoriously complex, especially for transnational projects like high-speed rail. Renegotiations are common, even for experienced bodies like the World Bank. Yet BRI has repeatedly seen terms negotiated behind closed doors, in countries such as Malaysia and Pakistan, come unstuck in the face of public outcry.

Rather than seeking to trap others with debt, China’s central government more often has to step in to fix dubious projects agreed by underlings lower down the chain.

These negotiations go one of two ways. Either China’s partners complain and win terms, as was true in Malaysia and in Myanmar over a multibillion-dollar deep-sea port. Or, as in the case of Sri Lanka, the renegotiations go in China’s favour, but at the cost of accusations of debt trickery. In both cases China looks bad.

Speaking last year, Xi responded to criticism of BRI by describing it as ‘an open platform for cooperation’. Yet, so far, he has proved resistant to the step that would deliver on that vision — namely turning BRI into an institution with open standards and international partners.

The reasons for his reluctance are obvious. Ending BRI’s reliance on loose bilateral deals would limit Beijing’s room for geopolitical manoeuvre. Yet what might be lost in political flexibility could easily be gained in economic credibility, while avoiding some of the painful renegotiations that have dogged many BRI projects.

At a time when China’s economy is slowing and its current account surplus is shrinking, formalising and institutionalising, BRI could also help avoid wasting scarce public resources on white elephant projects. China even has an easy template in the form of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Beijing-based institution that has won plaudits for its project quality and openness since it started in 2016.

Whichever model is chosen, a dose of Chinese-style central planning is called for, along with more openness. Without it, the oddly chaotic and decentralised model pioneered in BRI’s first five years is unlikely to help the project thrive over the next five.

This article was originally published in the Financial Times.




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Space security 2025

Space security 2025 5 March 2025 — 8:00AM TO 5:00PM Anonymous (not verified) Chatham House and Online

Join senior policymakers, space security experts and industry leaders for this unique conference, examining how space actors are tackling conflict and competition and enhancing cooperation in a fracturing world.

We’re pleased to offer you a 30% discount for our Security and Defence Conference on 6 March 2025. Simply use code SECDEF25SAVER at checkout.

Conflict, competition and cooperation in outer space

Space is a crucial domain of conflict, competition and cooperation. Recent years have seen the emergence of new actors in the ecosystem, as more countries seek to grow their presence in outer space, accompanied by the explosive growth of the space industry. Extraterrestrial exploration offers great opportunities, from the benefits of the space economy and technological developments to national security advantages. But with increasing activity and the diverging interests of state actors, governments, international organizations and the private sector are confronting fierce competition and the potential for conflict in space.

Alongside intensified competition, stakeholders are managing the growing role that space plays in modern military and defence strategies. Increased extraterrestrial activity has also created sustainability issues with serious security implications, demanding long-term solutions. At the same time, a fracturing global order poses major challenges to cooperation on space governance efforts and attempts to uphold international law.  

The 2025 Space Security Conference convenes policymakers and leaders from the private sector, multilateral organizations, academia and NGOs for a day of high-level interactive discussions examining conflict, competition and cooperation in outer space. Ahead of the 2025 Chatham House Security and Defence Conference, this event explores how the public and private sectors are addressing space security challenges and fostering a secure environment whilst harnessing the benefits of space for defence and economic growth.

Why attend?

  • Gain unique insights into the many and varied threats to space security and how governments, international organizations and the private sector are tackling them.  
  • Understand how key leaders in the domain are viewing the 21st century space race and what countries and space organizations are doing to mitigate conflict whilst keeping up in this competitive landscape.
  • Network with senior leaders from across government, international organizations and industry in-person at Chatham House and access exclusive ‘under the Rule’ discussions. 

The institute occupies a position of respect and trust, and is committed to fostering inclusive dialogue at all events. Event attendees are expected to uphold this by adhering to our code of conduct.




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Undercurrents: Episode 9 - Digital Subversion in Cyberspace, and Oleg Sentsov's Hunger Strike




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Is Responsible State Behaviour in Cyberspace Achievable?




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Supporting Civic Space: The Role and Impact of the Private Sector

Supporting Civic Space: The Role and Impact of the Private Sector 23 September 2020 — 2:00PM TO 4:15PM Anonymous (not verified) 23 December 2020 Online

The meeting provides an opportunity to explore the drivers of – and barriers to – corporate activism.

A healthy civic space is vital for an enabling business environment. In recognition of this, a growing number of private sector actors are challenging, publicly or otherwise, the deteriorating environment for civic freedoms.

However, this corporate activism is often limited and largely ad hoc. It remains confined to a small cluster of multinationals leaving potential routes for effective coordination and collaboration with other actors underexplored.

This roundtable brings together a diverse and international group of business actors, civil society actors and foreign policy experts to exchange perspectives and experiences on how the private sector can be involved in issues around civic space.

The meeting provides an opportunity to explore the drivers of – and barriers to – corporate activism, develop a better understanding of existing initiatives, identify good practice and discuss practical strategies for the business community.

This meeting is the first of a series of roundtables at Chatham House in support of initiatives to build broad alliances for the protection of civic space. 




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Supporting Civic Space: The Role and Impact of the Tech Sector

Supporting Civic Space: The Role and Impact of the Tech Sector 13 October 2020 — 2:00PM TO 4:15PM Anonymous (not verified) 23 December 2020 Online

This event brings together a diverse and international group of stakeholders to exchange perspectives and experiences on the role that tech actors can play in supporting civic space.

In a deteriorating environment for civic freedoms, tech sector actors are increasingly engaging, publicly or otherwise, on issues of civic space.

In the US, for example, a number of tech companies have cancelled contracts with the Pentagon and stopped censoring search results in China as a result of protests by employees. The Asia Internet Coalition recently wrote to Pakistan’s Prime Minister expressing human rights concerns about new rules regulating social media.

While we have recently seen technology companies show support for the social movements, including through substantial pledges, in some cases these have elicited criticism of hypocrisy, and the interventions of social media platforms on freedom of expression and privacy issues have been closely linked to the preservation of their own business models.

The COVID-19 crisis has also posed new dilemmas for the tech sector with the pervasiveness of disinformation, as well as new tools for tracking individuals which raise privacy issues.

This roundtable provides an opportunity to explore the drivers of (and barriers to) corporate activism, develop a better understanding of existing initiatives, identify good practice and routes to effective collaboration with other actors, and discuss practical strategies that could be adopted by the tech community.

It is the second of a series of roundtables at Chatham House in support of initiatives to build broad alliances for the protection of civic space.




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How can companies defend civic space?

How can companies defend civic space? 2 February 2021 — 4:00PM TO 5:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 19 January 2021 Online

Panellists discuss how companies can go beyond corporate social responsibility and philanthropy initiatives to protect and support civic freedoms around the world.

Please click on the below link to confirm your participation and receive your individual joining details from Zoom for this event. You will receive a confirmation email from Zoom, which contains the option to add the event to your calendar if you so wish.

There is increasing pressure on companies to use their power and profits to engage with social and political causes. In doing so, companies can help to support the ‘shared civic space’ that enables the private sector and civil society organizations to benefit from a society that respects the rule of law and human rights, at a time when many of these rights are under threat around the world.

Many companies have introduced CSR initiatives, due diligence mechanisms and corporate philanthropy. Over 11,000 companies are now signatories to the UN’s Global Compact for sustainable and socially responsible business worldwide.

But as demonstrated by misguided corporate responses to the Black Lives Matter protests this year, there is a danger of corporate activism being perceived as ‘lip service’ rather than genuinely addressing the negative impacts of business operations on civic space.

Recent Chatham House research indicates that meaningful engagement by businesses on such issues must be timely, contextually sensitive and industry-relevant. For example, in 2015, Tiffany & Co. worked with other companies to intervene on behalf of Rafael Marques after he was arrested for reporting on widespread human rights abuses in the Angolan diamond industry. During COVID-19, Microsoft offered free cybersecurity software to healthcare and human rights organizations at increased risk of hacking attacks.

This panel event will draw upon practical examples of private sector support for civic space across different sectors, geographies and political environments.

Why might companies step up to defend freedom of association, expression or political participation even where this comes at a financial or political cost? How can companies resist complicity with governments or regulation that threaten civic space? And what forums exist, or should exist, for developing tactical alliances between companies and civil society actors?

This event is also the launch of a new Chatham House resource, The Role of the Private Sector in Protecting Civic Space.




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Cyberspace governance at the United Nations

Cyberspace governance at the United Nations 18 January 2023 — 3:00PM TO 4:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 30 November 2022 Online

How can member states achieve lasting, adaptable, and meaningful success in cyberspace governance at the United Nations?

Now in its second iteration, the Open-ended Working Group on Information and Communications Technologies (OEWG) has been a space for United Nations member states to discuss the use, regulation and governance of cyberspace since 2019.

The progress of this forum in shaping cyberspace and its governance is evidenced by two consensus reports including a framework for responsible state behaviour in cyberspace and, more recently, plans for a Programme of Action. 
 
However, the true impact of these UN processes in limiting the threats of ICTs to international peace and security is contingent upon operationalizing the consensus at the international level and reflecting it in national policies and practices.

Pervasive challenges continue to hamper operationalization efforts, including differences in national capacities and capabilities, and divergences in national perspectives regarding the application of international law to cyberspace.

So, how can member states overcome these challenges and set this vital forum up for lasting, adaptable and meaningful success? What role does ‘multi-stakeholderism’ play in realizing responsible state behaviour in cyberspace?

With a dual focus on cyber capacity building and international law, this event considers how these two elements interact and intersect, how discussions on them could progress in the UN space and outside it and how the two contribute to a safer and more secure cyberspace for all. 
 
This event is organized jointly by the International Security and International Law Programmes at Chatham House to launch Phase 2 of the project ‘Cyberspace4All: Towards an inclusive approach to cyber governance’ which is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.





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A translation of “classification of four-vectors of an 8-dimensional space”, by Antonyan, L. V., with an appendix by the translator

L. Oeding
Trans. Moscow Math. Soc. 83 (), 227-250.
Abstract, references and article information





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An abstract approach to Marcinkiewicz-Zygmund inequalities for approximation and quadrature in modulation spaces

Martin Ehler and Karlheinz Gröchenig
Math. Comp. 93 (), 2885-2919.
Abstract, references and article information




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Identifying the source term in the potential equation with weighted sparsity regularization

Ole Løseth Elvetun and Bjørn Fredrik Nielsen
Math. Comp. 93 (), 2811-2836.
Abstract, references and article information





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Moduli Spaces and Vector Bundles—New Trends

Peter Gothen, Margarida Melo and Montserrat Teixidor i Bigas, editors. American Mathematical Society, 2024, CONM, volume 803, approx. 380 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4704-7296-2 (print), 978-1-4704-7646-5 (online).

This volume contains the proceedings of the VBAC 2022 Conference on Moduli Spaces and Vector Bundles—New Trends, held in honor of Peter...




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Compressible Euler limit from Boltzmann equation with complete diffusive boundary condition in half-space

Ning Jiang, Yi-Long Luo and Shaojun Tang
Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 377 (), 5323-5359.
Abstract, references and article information




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LEGO Classic Space: the robot final rebellion on the capital planet ousts the federation rule and replace with a techno republic and dictatorship (the final episode (for a while)) (AFOL toy hobby photography with droids, police and minifigures city MOC

dannyhennesy posted a photo:

On the Capital planet the rebellious droids had followed maily the Bat-Bot, but as time progressed his circuits had gone all mushy at 780 years or so without maintenance…

Several splinter groups all with their local bot leaders emerged such as the Che-bot, the traffic-light-robot and the Butt-bot, but none of these collected enough sentient circuits to call themselves a popular (or Animata) mass movement!

That was until a cyborg came along, one known as Jones, a long time prisoner and terrorist, his easy solutions to every problem rang well in the masses' auditory circuits!!!

His slogans and simple rhetoric were simple enough for the simple traffic-light to comprehend and cheer!

His language was full of hate towards the organics and especially the humans who were the most common races among the ruling class of the federation!!!

Despite being a “Fleshie” himself his message collected the angry enslaved
bot community by only weeks all rebellious robots except for a few fringe loonies had forgotten the old leaders…

One morning at Jones gave the signal…

All over the capital planet hordes and swarms of any form of mechanical sentient beings attacked first the police stations, then the Company boards running the planet and the federation as well as their starfleet…

Many died, especially the low level police and army! Many mechanicals died too, but their ranks were soon filled by Mutant fleshie allies of the lower levels who hated the Federation feudal society and upper classes as much as their technological allies…

The Federation state apparatus and ruling class, most of their fleet army fled when they knew the game was up, they activated the emergency escape plan and whole city blocks with important factories, administrational units, valuable assets and so on separated from the capital by hidden rocket engines and homed in their course to Mars…

On Mars the federation regrouped and formed their new society…

On the Capital planet, the robots proclaimed the first Techno-republic of the advanced inorganic civilization, the low level fleshies left behind, became slaves and their mutant allies got to rule their own minute chiefdoms as protectorates under the Techno-republic…

Jones was now the undisputed ruler of the capital planet, but the victory was a pyrros one since, all important buildings, all of value was now one Mars!

But as Jones put it:

Our proud race the Techno-species didn’t need the Fleshies administration, their infrastructure, their spaceships…

We shall start from scratch, with a new administration, a new order, every droid shall work at 4x speed than they did during human oppression since now we are free and the fleshies shall work twice as hard than the Techno-Race, until we have breed enough new fleshies so they can do all work!

Our future is bright and shiny like glistering shiny metal!

The snapshot seen here is from the first police station attacked in sector 45-34v-ss-g the first one to fall according to official techno-history!

———————————————/
Designers note:

I am sad to say that this is the last episode in this years-spanning space series… At least for a while, I will still post LEGO hobby stuff here but without a storyline, perhaps small designs and builds… and occasionally a story when I feel like it!!!

I would like to thank all who had been in this journey of our heros, but it has taken far to much time and effort and since the state of the world is as it is, I am spiraling down in another depression, I must stop it before I reach the abyss, so I have remove some stress out of my equation… I ended it in a cliffhanger so I can easily restart it when my mental health improves… I hope that won’t be forever???

I would love if someone used my characters or ideas, please send me a link if you do, I would love to read it or look at it!!!

But there will be more Lego, just in different format without long stories, I need to focus more on my art and to be honest that is the only time the mental pain eases, when I create!!!


Peace and Noise!

MushroomBrain a FOL




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????²-spectrum, growth indicator function and critical exponent on locally symmetric spaces

Lasse L. Wolf and Hong-Wei Zhang
Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 152 (), 5445-5453.
Abstract, references and article information










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Lost (and found) in space




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SpaceX alums find traction on Earth with their Mars-inspired CO2-to-fuel tech




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China reveals reusable cargo shuttle design for Tiangong space station (video)




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50,000 bulbs to sparkle Rockefeller Christmas tree

NEW YORK (AP): The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree arrived in New York City on Saturday, signalling the start of the holiday season in the Big Apple. The 74-foot Norway spruce was driven into Manhattan's Center Plaza, where it was hoisted in...




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Russia’s Behaviour Risks Weaponizing Outer Space

27 July 2020

Dr Beyza Unal

Deputy Director, International Security Programme

Mathieu Boulègue

Research Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Programme
With negotiations in Vienna between the US and Russia hoping to prevent the weaponization of space, how much do Russia’s satellites pose a threat to the peaceful use of outer space, ask Beyza Unal and Mathieu Boulègue?

GettyImages-1209576417.jpg

Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, during a video link with cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS). Photo: Getty Images.

Days before the publication of last week’s report into Russian activity in the UK, and the subsequent call from several UK parliamentarians for a swift response to the ‘Russian threat’, Russia tested a new anti-satellite weapon capability releasing a small projectile from its Kosmos-2543 sub-satellite.

Kosmos-2543, a small satellite contained inside a larger satellite, Kosmos-2542, and 'birthed’ into orbit in late 2019, recently came under scrutiny in January 2020 when it was reportedly caught ‘buzzing’ US spy satellites in Low Earth Orbit.

By releasing a small projectile from the Kosmos-2543 sub-satellite, the US claims that Russia has launched a new projectile into orbit with relatively high speed – estimated at around 500 km per hour – leading to concerns about the potential of Russia to develop this technology as a weapon to target foreign satellites.

It is not the first time Moscow has relied on a Russian doll – or matryoshka – approach to launching satellites into outer space. In October 2017, a sub-satellite, Kosmos-2521, was ejected from its main satellite, Kosmos-2519, into a high-speed object in low orbit.

The Russian Ministry of Defence has declared that its latest activity is just for ‘routine’ inspections and surveillance of Russia’s other space assets, with the government’s official statement avoiding recognizing the existence of the new object while, at the same time, Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, recalling Russia’s commitment for the ‘complete demilitarization’ of space.

While it is possible that Russia’s matryoshka satellites have indeed been developed to carry out routine repairs of Russia’s space fleet, they also have the potential to interfere with, and destroy, other satellites with such action needing to be considered a threat until Russia demonstrates otherwise.

Russia’s use of outer space

Russia is not the only state investigating anti-satellite weaponry capabilities. There is a wider trend (e.g. China, India, US) to demonstrate advanced space capabilities with nefarious, if not directly offensive, intent. But, for the past few years, Russia in particular, has been provocative in testing its space weapon capabilities. 

For example, in April 2020, Russia launched and tested into low orbit the PL-19 Nudol direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) interceptor missile system from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome demonstrating its space assets with potential offensive capabilities, in particular, Russia’s capacity to destroy satellites in Low Earth Orbit.

In addition, the satellites, Kosmos-2535 and Kosmos-2536, launched in July 2019, are also suspected to be operating beyond their official mission of studying Russian orbital assets. It is reported that these satellites conducted a close proximity activity, coming within one kilometre from each other, which led to the creation of orbital debris.

Russia’s space strategy

By exploiting asymmetric advantages in space, Russia seeks to leverage its capabilities against competitors in space and in other domains, falling in line with its wider military strategy as well as its current Federal Space Programme for 2016 to 2025.

Russian space activities also have a cyber and electronic warfare angle. With the help of remote-sensing capabilities, Russian spy satellites potentially seek to disrupt military and civilian satellite communications and navigation systems. Indeed, in 2018, French authorities publicly accused Russia of seeking to intercept communication satellites for French and Italian armed forces putting data transmission through Western civilian and military satellites at risk of interception.

Furthermore, earlier this year, both Kosmos-2542 and 2543 came within 160 kilometres of a US spy satellite, US KH-11, similarly to Russia ‘buzzing’ around the British Isles or submarine surveillance that Norway and Sweden have been subjected to recently.

Shadowing and tailing in space is regarded as spying and this recent anti-satellite weapon test is part of a trend which demonstrates Russia’s persistent space strategy for close-proximity operations with foreign countries.

Orbital hypocrisy

Despite Russia’s calls for a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in outer space, there remains little international trust in Russia’s behaviour in space so far with a US-Russia Space Security Exchange meeting scheduled to take place in Vienna on 27 July to discuss outer space stability and security.

This is amid a backdrop of bilateral nuclear arms control talks on the extension of the extant nuclear weapons reduction treaty, New START, which is scheduled to expire in February 2021. There is no guarantee, however, that the talks will achieve anything especially since the future of outer space requires a wider multilateral dialogue with all parties involved – including China.

Anti-satellite tests (ASATs) are a particularly dangerous form of weapon. Not only do they create major vulnerabilities in a domain where so much of humanity depends on for navigation, communications and environmental monitoring, they are also primarily a target for destabilization and undermining global positioning information in times of crisis.

And, perhaps most significantly, they possess the highly destructive potential to create even more space debris in Earth’s orbits that endanger the peaceful use of satellites and could do serious damage to large parts of the economies of developed and developing countries.

Avoiding space warfare

Space is for all but there is a risk that it is being hijacked by a few. It is time to re-assert and reinforce the rules, principles and norms of responsible state behaviour in outer space enshrined in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and its associated international agreements.

And, because the treaty specifically prohibits stationing nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies, it is necessary to build on it to ban other types of weapons in space.

Space has been militarized since 1957 with the launch of Soviet satellite Sputnik. But the increasing weaponization of space adds more uncertainty, and unveils more vulnerabilities, that states need to address before space warfare becomes a reality.




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Why Africa needs to be in space

Why Africa needs to be in space The World Today mhiggins.drupal 1 August 2022

From agriculture and navigation to banking and tele-education, satellite technology can have a huge impact on rapidly developing societies, says Val Munsami.

Africa’s socio-economic and environmental development is widely acknowledged as being crucial to its growth and long-term sustainability – and the prosperity of its more than one billion residents. 

Increasingly, though, attention is also turning to the contribution that the space industry can make to progress on the continent. Space-based products and services have a critical role to play in meeting national and continental priorities, as underpinned by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 – the bloc’s strategic framework for development, democracy and peace. 

With this in the mind of policymakers, the African Union’s space policy and strategy is embedded in Agenda 2063 as one of its 15 key programmes. It guides the sector’s development and the nascent African Space Agency, to become operational later this year from its headquarters in Egypt.


The continental agency is expected to leverage the benefits of space science and technology for socio-economic and environmental development. It will lead on bridging the space divide, especially for those countries that do not have a focus on, or activities in, space science and technology – and simultaneously inject some momentum into improving capabilities of existing national space programmes.

The African Union’s commitment to space has accelerated the growth of the African space industry. More than 20 national space agencies or space-related institutions have been established on the continent over the past five or so years. 

Our modern lifestyles are intimately dependent on space products and services. Meteorological and communication satellites are placed in geostationary orbits at an altitude of 36,000km above the equator. At this point above the Earth, they complete one orbit every 24 hours in the direction of the planet’s rotation, appearing, essentially, motionless – and providing a constant gaze on the same geographic location.

They provide a wealth of information that fuels the everyday services we take for granted, but that are essential for our everyday lives, from health to education to the economy.

From their vantage point, geostationary orbit satellites provide our daily weather reports, monitor climate-related cycles and offer a platform for near-instantaneous communications across the globe to relay multimedia, live sporting events and up-to-the-minute global news. 

This lightning-fast communication is also indispensable for tele-education and tele-medicine, by which professionals in urban areas can deliver educational content and health services to rural schools and clinics, respectively. Banking transactions also rely on telecommunication satellites to communicate between an automated teller machine and the data servers located at the bank. 

How satellites can detect disease

Other satellites are placed in low Earth orbits. These complete on average one polar orbit around the Earth every 100 minutes. Because the planet rotates across the plane of the orbit, such a satellite eventually covers the whole Earth, which is immensely useful for remote sensing and navigation and positioning applications. 

Remote sensing applications provide a myriad of products and services, including monitoring the state of our natural resources, observing ship traffic in our coastal economic zones and providing information for precision farming that can help a farmer decide, for example, when to irrigate and how much fertilizer to use.

They can also detect changes that might indicate encroaching water-borne diseases, aid peacekeeping missions and help ensure public safety and security. Navigation applications are vital for aviation and marine navigation, whereas positioning applications are important for safety-of-life services. 

The rich source of information derived from satellites is vital for evidence-based decision and policymaking

Another way that positioning applications in developing countries are put to good use is the assignment of geolocation addresses to dwellings in informal settlements where postbox addresses do not exist. This then allows the overlaying of key vector data about populations on to geophysical base maps. This type of data is vital for town planning in terms of how many schools and clinics are needed to serve the population, and the extent of the road, water, sanitation and electrical infrastructure needed.

The rich source of information derived from satellites, overlaid with in-situ data, is vital for evidence-based decision and policymaking. Datasets accessed from historical archives can be used to observe the time evolution of environmental and statistical data. 

When policy decisions are taken, we can utilize the same satellite and in-situ platforms to monitor progress after their implementation. The utility of data to inform decision-making is being enhanced through the adoption of AI and big-data analytics, which is placing key information at our disposal in near real time. 

It is therefore not surprising to notice the increasing focus on space science and technology activities on the continent. However, to ensure the effective uptake and utilization of space products and services, certain building blocks are needed to establish robust national and regional space ecosystems. 

Africa’s route into space

These ecosystems must include four primary elements to function: the human capital required to establish and operate the space initiatives; a significant industry base to capitalize on the commercial aspects of the space sector; the requisite infrastructure needed to support the space value chain; and international cooperation to ensure knowledge transfer and diffusion – so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

To take advantage of the space ecosystem, Africa needs strong governance and institutional architectures


The applications and problem-solving innovations provided by space products and services are endless. To take advantage of this, Africa needs strong governance and institutional architectures. 

The evolution of the space ecosystem on the continent must be premised on key instruments such as a space policy – which areas to focus on and why – and a space strategy that outlines which programmes and performance indicators to pursue. 

The conceptualization of a space ecosystem is by no means a simple endeavour and there is certainly a dearth of skills and experience on the African continent to establish effective and relevant space ecosystems. 

There are many institutions leading efforts to build space capacity and skills on the continent, such as the International Space University in France, which offers programmes that provide a holistic overview of the complex global space sector, and the African Space Leadership Institute, which has been recently created to develop capacity in space policy, law and strategy. 

With the right approach, commitment and investment, Africa can rapidly change the fate of its citizens by effectively using space science and technology to support and drive its developmental agenda.




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