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Today, contemporary Telugu cinema has very little time to ponder and think about the early times of Telugu cinema, from the days of films being in Kolhapur and Calcutta, to creating a strong base in Madras (now Chennai.)
Many have been the founding stalwarts of Telugu cinema, who distinguished themselves with their monumental contribution to the development of the art and craft of making films.
Watch Telugu Full Movies Here:
In an era of male domination, where the technicians involved in acting, direction, music direction and studio production and producing were all men, there was a great lady who distinguished herself in all these crafts and created an indelible mark on the canvas of Tollywood forever as the ‘only’ multifaceted personality.
Dr. Bhanumathi: A self made woman
Dr. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna (1925-2005) is this empress, who achieved mastery over all the 24 crafts of filmmaking with her sheer effort. A trained carnatic musician, a peerless singer, the first ever Telugu film woman director, a studio owner and producer of classic films, a short story writer and a great administrator—Dr. Bhanumathi has done it all.
Dr. Bhanumathi was a witness to the development of Telugu cinema from its early stages, as she made her debut in 1939 at the age of 14, as the lead actress of Vara Vikrayam. This movie was a telling statement about the dowry system and was directed by C. Pullayya.
We relive five gems from Dr. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, on her 94th birth anniversary on September 7th, 2019.
The Hall Of Fame
- Malliswari (1951) (Telugu)
The Telugu classic by director B.N. Reddy was a great musical, which was set in the Vijayanagar empire era of the 15th century, starring Dr. Bhanumathi and N.T. Rama Rao as the leads. The movie told a simple love story of a young couple who are separated due to their financial status. Bhanumathi played the role of the protagonist Malliswari, also known as Mallamma, who accidentally ends up as the chief lady attendant of the Empress of Vijayanagar empire, Tirumala Devi. The film displayed the phenomenal acting and singing skills of Dr. Bhanumathi with the music of legendary S. Rajeswara Rao.
The movie is still considered the magnum opus of Dr. Bhanumathi and her admirers consider the singer-music director combination of Bhanumathi and S. Rajeswara Rao as the best of the era.
- Vipranarayana (1954) (Telugu)
The film is a historical one set in 9th century Tamil Nadu and tells the story of a foremost devotee of Lord Vishnu, Vipranarayana, who falls from grace due to a beautiful courtesan, but rises to be one of the great poet devotees of Vishnu. Dr. Bhanumathi played the role of a courtesan and sang beautifully, under the direction of her husband and famous director Ramakrishna. The movie is still one of the classics and Dr. Bhanumathi’s skills as an actor and singer shone brightly again. Dr. Bhanumathi produced this movie under her own production banner, the Bharani Pictures.
Again, it was the combination of Dr. Bhanumathi and S. Rajeswara Rao which gave classic songs in this movie.
- Chandi Rani (1953) (Telugu, Tamil and Hindi)
Dr. Bhanumathi was a daring and domineering personality whom even the great thespians of the time, Dr. M.G. Ramachandran and Sivaji Ganeshan, held in high respect in Tamil for her genius. She became the first woman director in Telugu with a trilingual, Chandi Rani, which she produced under her home banner. She also acted in this movie in a double role. The film had many firsts for this lady—she was the first South Indian actress to star in a double role, the first woman director from the South who directed a film in three languages and the first lady producer to direct a film.
This folklore fantasy was a smashing hit in Hindi too, with N.T. Rama Rao and Dr. Bhanumathi regaling their fans. The songs by C.R. Subbaraman were chartbusters.
- Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum (1955) (Tamil and Telugu)
The famous Arabian Nights fable was made in Tamil in 1955 as Alibabavum 40 Thirudargalum and dubbed in Telugu as Ali Baba 40 Dongalu. Dr. M.G. Ramachandran and Dr. Bhanumathi acted in the roles of Ali Baba and Marizana and the movie was a thumping success in both languages.
With this movie, Dr. Bhanumathi achieved another personal milestone of becoming the first actress who acted in the first color film of the South. This movie was made in gevacolour, with its processing done in London.
- Palnati Yuddham (1966) (Telugu)
The movie told the real life story of the Battle of Palnadu, which involved a caste feud between the Kapus and the Reddys in the coastal belt of Andhra Pradesh. The film starred Dr. Bhanumathi as the lady warrior politician Nagamma (Reddy caste,) who hatches a plan for the war. Dr. Bhanumathi displayed great skills as an actress, with her range of emotions of a lady ascetic who turned a warrior due to her preceptor’s order to fight N.T. Rama Rao’s character, Brahmanaidu (Kapu caste.) Dr. Bhanumathi’s role is remembered till today by her fans.
Dr. Bhanumathi won the National Award for Best Actress for this movie in 1967, when the Award was not officially designated as the Best Actress Award, but given as a certificate of merit to the best actress across the Country.
Dr. Bhanumathi, the administrator
The multifaceted personality she was, Dr. Bhanumathi was appointed as the Director Principal of the Tamil Nadu Government College of Music by the then Chief Minister and her colleague, Dr. M.G. Ramachandran. She held the post for a full term of three years, during which she conducted great reforms in the music curriculum. Her term is remembered for her administerial skills.
The amount of respect and adulation Dr. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna received as an administrator and actress is unparalleled in the history of South Indian cinema. Dr. Bhanumathi was also a great humanist who ran schools in Chennai under her name, free of cost for poor children. She did so for more than 50 years and these schools still remain today.
Many in Telugu also know her as a great short story writer who was distinguished in the genre of humour. Her anthology of short stories Attagari Kathalu won the State Sahitya Academy Award of Andhra Pradesh in 1966 for best short story writing.
The Government of India issued a honorary stamp in her name in 2013 as part of the Great Indian Personalities Of Indian Cinema stamp series, as a part of the centenary celebrations of Indian cinema.
The only award Dr. Bhanumathi missed receiving was the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for her immense contribution to Indian cinema as an actress, singer, music director, director, story writer and producer.
Dr. Bhanumathi Ramakrishna will always be remembered as an inimitable personality who lit the Telugu industry with her glistening versatility.
She is rightly called the One and Only Bhanumathi!


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The Montgomery county school board passed a policy detailing the amount of money private organizations can donate to public schools. The board approved of the policy on Thursday, November 21, after a year of controversy between school communities.
According to a Washington Post article from November 24, the original policy was abstract and had no limit on the dollar amounts schools could receive from the PTA or other private donations. Residents had become concerned about the fairness of the new policy and raised alarm that some communities would be able to provide a superior education for the students in the wealthier school districts. Others argued that money donations would bring about stronger community bonds.
Blair PTSA President Marilyn Shoenfeld says that some schools are at an advantage. "[The new policy] gives a legs-up for upper-county schools," Shoenfeld said. According to Shoenfeld, people in the Blair cluster think that Blair has the potential to raise as much money as other schools, however in down-county schools people are not as affluent as in other parts of the county.
In some communities, PTAs worked to raise money for playground equipment; other schools around Montgomery County provided much monetary support to their schools. Parents at Wood Acres Elementary School raised $180,000 for landscaping, a compass rose floor design and higher-grade roofing material to match the neighboring homes.
The Wood Acres improvements brought the boards' attention to the budget. Three community meetings were held over the summer to receive public input.
The new policy allows for private groups to give money to public schools for playground equipment, stadium lighting, theatrical equipment, and landscaping. According to the Washington Post, projects that will cost more than $50,000 must be reviewed and voted for by the school board.
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The Future of Cities in a Low Carbon World
With more than half of humanity living in urban areas, the future of cities is the future of the climate agenda. Officials from Aberdeen & Cape Town share the journey of their cities towards net zero carbon emissions. Barney Crockett, Lord Provost of Aberdeen City Council, and Phindile Maxiti, Mayoral Committee Member for Energy and Climate Change, City of Cape Town, explore various decarbonization initiatives across sectors and explain how cities are driving change.
In Innovation Agora - Highlights
Play video Let’s Talk about the B-word: How blockchain is revolutionizing the energy industry
Let’s Talk about the B-word: How blockchain is revolutionizing the energy industry
(2021) Blockchain technology promises to have far-reaching economic and social implications. Through equal access, a global peer network, transparency, security, and collaboration--blockchain will transform the energy industry.
Play video Cybersecurity: Protecting energy Infrastructure
Cybersecurity: Protecting energy Infrastructure
Increased digital connectivity between operational facilities and equipment leads to an imbalance of cybersecurity threats as well as threats to sensitive proprietary data. How are cybersecurity risks growing as the industry digitalizes?
Play video Taking practical action on carbon emissions: A conversation with Pratima Rangarajan, CEO of OGCI Climate Investments
Taking practical action on carbon emissions: A conversation with Pratima Rangarajan, CEO of OGCI Climate Investments
(June 16, 2020) Dr. Pratima Rangarajan, Chief Executive of OGCI Climate Investments, discusses carbon pricing and COVID-19 recovery plans, and announces a new investment program for long-lasting impacts on climate change.
Play video Digital Transformation: The Next Phase
Digital Transformation: The Next Phase
(July 9, 2020) Leading experts in energy and technology discuss the next wave of digital transformation across industry and explore the gains to be further realized in strategic collaborations, value chain efficiency, and business integration.
Play video Voices of Innovation: Susan Hockfield & the technology story of the 21st century
Voices of Innovation: Susan Hockfield & the technology story of the 21st century
(July 7, 2020) Susan Hockfield, President Emerita of MIT, explores how the convergence of biology and engineering will be the defining technology story of the 21st Century,
Play video Geothermal: A New Revival?
Geothermal: A New Revival?
(2021) Clean, renewable geothermal is a reliable power source that can adapt to small & large scale installations. How have technological advancements helped kickstart a revival and reintroduced geothermal to the renewable energy mix?

domain: news


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Emerald Laser Lead / Front of House
Hayley has been with Light Touch for 3 years now, starting as front of house and now our Emerald Laser Lead. Hayley has exceptional customer service skills and is often the first face you will see on a visit to the clinic. Ready to welcome our clients with a smile and refreshments, Hayley will make sure your trip to Light Touch is a memorable one.
Hayley is here to advise you on all things Emerald laser, answer any questions you may have before starting your weight loss and wellness journey with us. One of the core values at the heart of Light Touch Clinic is the patient experience, and Hayley is integral to ensuring that everything we do here is executed with the patient in mind.
When outside of work, Hayley loves to be outdoors and soak up time with family, as well as making time for regular visits to the gym.

domain: medical


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Digital TV News: UEC
Altech UEC manufactures 20 millionth set-top box
Mar 6, 2014 – South Africa's Altech UEC has celebrated the production of its twenty millionth set-top box in February 2014. The biggest market for Altech UEC at the moment is the rest of Africa due to the roll-out of DTT.
News categories: Altech UEC, Danie du Toit, Africa, Market Research, Set Top Box, Terrestrial
Altech UEC implements $5 million manufacturing upgrade
Aug 20, 2013 – Altech UEC has further expanded its capabilities with a R50million [US$4.8 million] investment in state of the art equipment to meet the continuing demand for terrestrial set-top boxes, satellite decoders and smart TVs.
News categories: Altech UEC, Finance, Satellite, Set Top Box, South Africa, Terrestrial
Entone FusionTV enables United Fiber to offer TV and cloud services
Apr 10, 2013 – Entone has announced that United Services, a subsidiary of United Electric Cooperative (UECI), has selected its FusionTV solutions to power the delivery of advanced video services in Northwest Missouri and Southwest Iowa under its 'United Fiber' brand.
News categories: Entone, United Electric Cooperative, Digital TV, Infrastructure, IPTV, Middleware, Set Top Box, USA
MultiChoice and Altech UEC launch locally developed 2-tuner HD PVR in South Africa
May 18, 2012 – MultiChoice (JSE: NPN)(LSE:NPSN) has announced the introduction of the Altech UEC (Jo'burg: ALT) supplied 2-tuner HD PVR 2U into the South African market. The HD PVR 2U offers one recording environment and one viewing environment, independent of each other.
News categories: MultiChoice, Altech UEC, Personal Video Recorder, Satellite, Set Top Box, South Africa
36 bidders for South Africa's DTT STB tender
May 9, 2012 – South Africa has announced the results of its tender for the production of set-top boxes to be provided to subsidised households. Bids were received from 36 STB manufacturers plus 4 service providers offering to facilitate the migration process.
News categories: Digital TV, Set Top Box, South Africa, Terrestrial
Altech Opens World Class Factory for the Manufacture of Digital Set-Top Boxes
Aug 2, 2011 – Altech UEC (Johannesburg: ALT) has consolidated six buildings on two sites into a single, 13,500m2 state-of-the-art factory at Mount Edgecombe as South Africa begins its migration to digital terrestrial television (DTT).
News categories: Altech UEC, Set Top Box, South Africa, Terrestrial
Altech UEC rolling out VAST-Certified STBs in Australia
Jul 8, 2010 – Altech UEC has confirmed that they have been appointed to supply High Definition (HD) satellite STBs for the initial phase of the Australian Viewer Access Satellite Television, or VAST service.
News categories: Altech UEC, Australia, Digital TV, DVB-S2, MHEG-5, Satellite, Set Top Box
Altech UEC STB Underpins Successful TopTV Launch in South Africa
Jun 8, 2010 – Altech UEC (Johannesburg: ALT) has confirmed that the South African satellite subscription service provider, TopTV, has successfully launched UEC's purpose built STB in what has become one of the most successful Pay TV launches in recent times.
News categories: UEC, TopTV, Digital TV, Satellite, Set Top Box, South Africa
UEC set-top boxes for Eastern Australia satellite TV in-fill service
Apr 14, 2010 – The Australian Government has announced that VAST, a Southern Cross Media and Imparja joint venture, will provide digital TV services to viewers in eastern Australia who cannot receive DTT. Altech UEC will be the initial supplier of set top boxes.
News categories: Southern Cross Media, Imparja, Altech UEC, Australia, Digital TV, Regulation, Satellite, Set Top Box
- Nearly 1 billion TV sets Internet connected by 2020
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- Bouygues Telecom Android TV STB powered by Marvell ARMADA 1500 PRO
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- Viaccess-Orca selected by Telekom Romania for IPTV and OTT multiscreen
- SMiT and Verimatrix present IPTV solution based on CI+ 1.4 at IBC 2014


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domain: artistic


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Building 6, No. 590, Rui Qing Road, Zhangjiang Modern Medical Device Park, Pudong New District, Shanghai 201201 (People’s Republic of China)
Phone: +0086 021 50720050
Fax: +0086 021 50720037
Department/ Name Address
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Number of employees 100-499
Sales volume < 1 Mio US $ Export content max. 25% Year of foundation 2000 Area of business Electronical Equipment / Medical Technology Company Profile A&S ----- Exploiter in ultrasound therapy field A&S is a high-tech company that develops, manufactures and markets the large medical devices. In 2001, A&S was approved the quality system certificates --- ISO9001 and ISO13485 by TÜV. Our medical devices mainly include High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation Knife (HIFU System), Digital Multifunctional X-ray Machine, Dual Energy X-ray Bone densitometer, and Digital Universal Lithotriptic Medical Table. Our key product --- HIFU System got the approval of State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) of P.R.China in 2002 and Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) approval in Korea in 2007, and Digital Multifunctional X-ray Machine obtained CCC (Certificate for China Compulsory Product Certificate) in 2007. A&S cares for your life and health. A&S will take all efforts for the technical progress and take care of human's health.


A project within openSUSE that I think is absolutely fantastic is called the “openSUSE Package Installer.” This allows you to install packages from various third party vendors such as the “Packman” repository or other “community repositories” of the openSUSE Build Service. What this means is, the multi-step process of adding repositories and installing the desired software can be greatly simplified, at least, from a user perspective.
Bottom Line Up Front: OPI is absolutely fantastic and makes short work of installing software available through the Open Build Service. This is a tool that I now use to quickly search and install the software I need to get my computer to do the things I want it to do. It probably won’t change my procedures for all the bits of software I install but it sure will make short work of future software searches.
There is a fantastic documentation on the openSUSE wiki that spells it all out clearly and really renders this entire article kind of useless but my excitement over its use compels me to continue with writing this blathering.
Within the terminal run this:
sudo zypper install opi
Alternatively, if you really want to install it the graphical way; which I don’t understand why because it is a terminal program, use the point-and-click, graphical installation method.
Once installed, there is not much more you need to do to get going with it. Just use it.
The use of this is so simple and straight forward there is not a whole lot to say here. You type in “opi” and whatever it is you want to install. Some examples could be: sublime, vscode, zoom, even teamviewer. This can be used to install multimedia codecs as well by simply typing sudo opi codecs although, I can’t exactly vouch for that at this time but I am told it works smashingly well.
I have used OPI to install a few things quite nicely. Some of those being to install syncterm, NsCDE, and vscodium
It worked out as simply as this:
sudo opi vscodium
Then I was asked:
Do you want to install VS Codium from paulcarroty_vscodium repository? (Y/n)
Pressing Y will begin the installation process.
Just as you would experience in running zypper in the terminal, you will see the refreshing of your repositories as the software is prepared for installation.
Retrieving repository 'Visual Studio Codium' metadata ................[done] Building repository 'Visual Studio Codium' cache .....................[done] Loading repository data... Reading installed packages... Resolving package dependencies... The following NEW package is going to be installed: codium 1 new package to install. Overall download size: 116.1 MiB. Already cached: 0 B. After the operation, additional 332.8 MiB will be used. Continue? [y/n/v/...? shows all options] (y):
Pressing y and hitting enter will initiate the downloading and installation of vscodium
Retrieving package codium-18.104.22.16806-el7.x86_64 (1/1), 116.1 MiB (332.8 MiB unpacked) Retrieving: vscodium-22.214.171.12406-x86_64.rpm .............[done (4.2 MiB/s)] Checking for file conflicts: .........................................[done] (1/1) Installing: codium-126.96.36.19906-el7.x86_64 .....................[done] Do you want to keep the repo "vscodium"? (Y/n) y
The choice of whether or not to keep the repo you downloaded the software is a cool feature because there are many instances I can think of where I may not want to keep it. In this case for vscodium, I want to ensure it stays updated and working nicely with openSUSE Tumbleweed.
What I Like
This makes for short work on installing software outside of the official repository. It does a great job of unifying software installation user experience in openSUSE. It saves a lot of time on searching for specific repositories to set up to then install the desired software.
The terminal interface has fantastic syntax and is easy to understand. For better or worse, there are not any options to mess you up when installing anything. OPI does one thing, search for and give you options to install software from the various Open Build Service repositories.
When there are multiple options, you are given an easily understood set of options.
sudo opi mgba [sudo] password for root: 1. mgba 2. mgba-sdl 3. mgba-debuginfo 4. mgba-sdl-debuginfo Pick a number (0 to quit):1 You have selected package name: mgba 1. Emulators ? | 0.10.0 | x86_64 2. home:Dastingo ! | 0.10.0 | x86_64 3. home:KAMiKAZOW:Emulators ! | 0.10.0 | x86_64 4. home:raptir ! | 0.8.1 | x86_64 Pick a number (0 to quit):
Not only do you select the specific package but then the repository from where you want to get the software. This is super cool and super handy.
What I Don’t Like
The lack of options doesn’t allow me to set the auto-refresh flag to “yes” on a repository that is being added. Not a big deal, I would just like the option. Changing the autorefresh flag is pretty trivial so this is not a big deal at all.
OPI is such a fantastic bit of software that I am a bit puzzled by why it isn’t installed by default. I would like to see some of these capabilities, somehow, rolled into Discover to make available in a graphical tool to install software. I also think it would be great if Discover could perform the “zypper dup” function for Tumbleweed as well but I realize that is a bit of a pipe dream at this point.
Regardless, OPI is fantastic and a simply brilliant tool to install software on openSUSE from unofficial sources in the Open Build Service. It does such a great job of simplifying the installation by reducing the number of steps involved with installing software on openSUSE.
2 thoughts on “OPI | OBS Package Installer”


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Over 35,000 attempt record 17-km long Swami painting
- Why Germanwings flight A320 might have crashed over the French Alps
- Indian Navy surveillance aircraft crashes in Goa; two officers missing
- Section 66A: 21 individuals whose petitions changed the system
- Government is willing to compromise on land bill: Venkaiah Naidu
- A little reminder: No one in House debated Section 66A, Congress brought it and BJP backed it
More than 35,000 schoolchildren and teachers attempted a world record by drawing an over 17-km long painting on the theme of 'Swami Vivekananda and Bharat' here Sunday. The event was organised by Swami Vivekananda Sardh Shathi Samaroh Samiti as part of celebrations to mark his 150th birth anniversary.
Students from 300 schools from the city and nearby villages assembled at Samta Ground for the event. The drawing of painting started at 8 am and went on till 10.30 am.
The students and around 500 teachers drew paintings on twin themes of Swami Vivekananda and Bharat (India) on canvas with acrylic paint. As many as 60 rays of canvas measuring hundreds of metres were set up on bamboo sticks. The rays originated from a circular structure of canvas around the main stage.
"In all, 35,710 students and teachers participated in drawing 17,857-metre long painting of Swami Vivekananda and Bharat or India. This is a new world record," state education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama announced as the time for drawing concluded.
"We had informed the authorities of Guinness World Records last month. Now, we shall send them photographs and video evidence of the event seek a certificate of the record of the longest painting of the world. We are expecting the certificate in next three to four days," Bhargav Bhatt, convener of the Samiti, said.
Incidentally, the exiting record of the longest painting was established in the city in 2008 when around 8,000 people drew a 7.2-km long painting.
Besides Chudasama, Energy Minister Saurabh Patel, Vadodara MP Balkrishna Shukla, local MLAs, mayor Jyoti Pandya, district collector Vinod Rao and municipal commissioner Ashwini Kumar attended the event.
The participants were charged Rs 50 each. Organisers said they would be given certificates of participation.
Incidentally, this is likely to be the second world record effort within a month. On January 12, two private schools had created a world record by forming the largest human torch with help of 1,600 students.


text:
Put on your hiking boots and join Cape Camino on a two-day hike through the Swartland in aid of StreetSmart SA from Friday, 16 to Sunday, 18 July.
“We are delighted to partner with Cape Camino on this personal pilgrimage in aid of helping our most vulnerable children living on the streets,” says Zaid Adams, chairman of StreetSmart SA, an organisation helping street children rebuild their lives through public donations throughout the Western Cape and Gauteng.
You don’t need to be super fit to embark on this 2-day excursion. Hikers can either cover 20km per day on foot or opt for 10 km per day with lifts available for the rest of the way.
The weekend starts with a sleep over at Riebeek Kasteel on Friday to savour some of the local fare before hitting the trail to Gouda through wheat fields and farmlands on Saturday morning. Breakfast will be provided en route prepared by a local farmer. The Smuts family, your overnight hosts in Gouda, will welcome you with their warm hospitality and a home cooked meal.
On Sunday the second day’s hike to Tulbagh starts after breakfast. Hikers who can’t manage the 20km stretch to Tulbagh can opt for a tractor and trailer ride at the 10 km mark. This StreetSmart fundraiser will culminate with lunch at Tulbagh’s popular Paddagang restaurant.
The price of R3 850 per person sharing for the 2-day hike, includes chaperones, a contribution to StreetSmart SA, 2 nights shared accommodation, breakfasts, meals, luggage transfers, a Camino passport and a T-shirt. Lifts during the hike for people not walking the full distance, snacks and return transport from Tulbagh are excluded.
For bookings and further details email: firstname.lastname@example.org
For more information on StreetSmart SA visit: www.streetsmartsa.org.za

domain: travel


text:
Hitler already showed traits that characterized his later life: inability to
establish ordinary human relationships, intolerance and hatred of especially
the Jews, a tendency toward denunciatory outbursts, readiness to live in a
fantasy-world and so to escape his failure.
He learned to loathe brilliant, charming, cosmopolitan Vienna for what he
called its Semitism. More to his liking was homogeneous Munich, his real home
after 1913. To this man of no trade and few interests World War I was a welcome
event which gave him some purpose in life.
So Adolf Hitler went to Munich, Germany and when World War I began in 1914, he
volunteered for service in the German army. Hitler was twice decorated for
bravery, but only rose to the rank of corporal.
When World War I ended Hitler
was in a hospital recovering from temporary blindness possibly caused by a
poison gas attack.

domain: history


text:
Battlefield 4 getting shown off behind closed doors
Despite not having officially announced it yet, EA seem to be showing off Battlefield 4 to select individuals behind closed doors.
One of these individuals is J Paul Raines CEO of GameStop who tweeted about what he saw saying, "Got to see Battlefield 4 today and all I can say is wow. Thanks EA for the sneak peek. Can't wait for you all to see it."
EA aren't denying this and they even retweeted the comment suggesting that they're almost ready to reveal it. Could it be making an appearance at today's PlayStation event?
Battlefield 4 was unofficially announced last year when EA revealed that beta codes for it would with Medal Of Honor: Warfighter as a pre-order incentive. If EA runs true to form we expect Battlefield 4 will be released at the end of October.
- Techland announces a Dying Light modding contest alongside new updates for the toolset
- 2K announces the Evolve Proving Grounds tournament in conjunction with ESL
- Broken Age: Part 2 arrives for backers 24 hours ahead of the full launch
- Halo Championship Series Cup 1 cancelled due to continued online problems
- Dirt Rally announced as a PC exclusive, hits Steam Early Access
- PC benchmarking app arrives for Final Fantasy XIV players to make sure they can run Heavensward
- [UPDATE] Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro collaboration Silent Hills looks like it has been canned
- Gears Of War Xbox One remaster looks like it's coming
- Batman: Arkham Knight will have GTA V-style character switching

domain: game


Stand outside and take deep breath. Do you know what you’re breathing? For most people, the answer is simple – air. And air, which is essential to life as we know it, is composed of roughly twenty-percent oxygen gas (O²) and seventy-eight percent nitrogen gas (N²). However, within the remaining one-percent and change are several other trace gases, as well as few other ingredients that are not always healthy.
After almost seventy years of spaceflight, space debris has become a rather serious problem. This junk, which floats around in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), consists of the spent first rocket stages and non-functioning satellites and poses a major threat to long-term missions like the International Space Station and future space launches. And according to numbers released by the Space Debris Office at the European Space Operations Center (ESOC), the problem is only getting worse.
In addition, space agencies and private aerospace companies hope to launch considerably more in the way of satellites and space habitats in the coming years. As such, NASA has begun experimenting with a revolutionary new idea for removing space debris. It is known as the RemoveDebris spacecraft, which recently deployed from the ISS to conduct a series of Active Debris Removal (ADR) technology demonstrations.
This satellite was assembled by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. and the Surrey Space Center (at the University of Surrey in the UK) and contains experiments provided by multiple European aerospace companies. It measures roughly 1 meter (3 feet) on a side and weighs about 100 kg (220 lbs), making it the largest satellite deployed to the ISS to date.
The purpose of the RemoveDebris spacecraft is to demonstrate the effectiveness of debris nets and harpoons at capturing and removing space debris from orbit. As Sir Martin Sweeting, the Chief Executive of SSTL, said in a recent statement:
“SSTL’s expertise in designing and building low cost, small satellite missions has been fundamental to the success of RemoveDEBRIS, a landmark technology demonstrator for Active Debris Removal missions that will begin a new era of space junk clearance in Earth’s orbit.”
Aside from the Surrey Space Center and SSTL, the consortium behind the RemoveDebris spacecraft includes Airbus Defense and Space – the world’s second largest space company – Airbus Safran Launchers, Innovative Solutions in Space (ISIS), CSEM, Inria, and Stellenbosch University. The spacecraft, according to the Surrey Space Center’s website, consists of the following:
“The mission will comprise of a main satellite platform (~100kg) that once in orbit will deploy two CubeSats as artificial debris targets to demonstrate some of the technologies (net capture, harpoon capture, vision-based navigation, dragsail de-orbitation). The project is co-funded by the European Commission and the project partners, and is led by the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), University of Surrey, UK.”
For the sake of the demonstration, the “mothership” will deploy two cubesates which will simulate two pieces of space junk. For the first experiment, one of the CubeSats – designated DebrisSat 1 – will inflate its onboard balloon in order to simulate a larger piece of junk. The RemoveDebris spacecraft will then deploy its net to capture it, then guide it into the Earth’s atmosphere where the net will be released.
The second CubeSat, named DebrisSat 2, will be used to test the mothership’s tracking and ranging lasers, its algorithms, and its vision-based navigation technology. The third experiment, which will test the harpoon’s ability to capture orbiting space debris, is set to take place next March. For legal reasons, the harpoon will not be tested on an actual satellite, and will instead consist of the mothership extending an arm with a target on the end.
The harpoon will then be fired on a tether at 20 meters per second (45 mph) to tests it accuracy. After being launched to the station back on April 2nd, the satellite was deployed from the ISS’ Japanese Kibo lab module on June 20th by the stations’ Canadian robotic arm. As Guillermo Aglietti, the director of the Surrey Space Center, explained in an interview with SpaceFlight Now before the spacecraft was launched to the ISS:
“The net, as a way to capture debris, is a very flexible option because even if the debris is spinning, or has got an irregular shape, to capture it with a net is relatively low-risk compared to … going with a robotic arm, because if the debris is spinning very fast, and you try to capture it with a robotic arm, then clearly there is a problem. In addition, if you are to capture the debris with a robotic arm or a gripper, you need somewhere you can grab hold of your piece of debris without breaking off just a chunk of it.”
The net experiment is currently scheduled for September of 2018 while the second experiment is scheduled for October. When these experiments are complete, the mothership will deploy its dragsail to act as a braking mechanism. This expandable sail will experience collisions with air molecules in the Earth’s outer atmosphere, gradually reducing its orbit until it enters the denser layers of Earth’s atmosphere and burns up.
This sail will ensure that the spacecraft deorbits within eights weeks of its deployment, rather than the estimated two-and-half years it would take to happen naturally. In this respect, the RemoveDebris spacecraft will demonstrate that it is capable of tackling the problem of space debris while not adding to it.
In the end, the RemoveDebris spacecraft will test a number of key technologies designed to make orbital debris removal as simple and cost-effective as possible. If it proves effective, the ISS could be receiving multiple RemoveDebris spacecraft in the ftureu, which could then be deployed gradually to remove larger pieces of space debris that threaten the station and operational satellites.
Conor Brown is the external payloads manager of Nanoracks LLC, the company that developed the Kaber system aboard the Kibo lab module to accommodate the increasing number of MicroSats being deployed from the ISS. As he expressed in a recent statement:
“It’s wonderful to have helped facilitate this ground-breaking mission. RemoveDebris is demonstrating some extremely exciting active debris removal technologies that could have a major impact to how we manage space debris moving forward. This program is an excellent example of how small satellite capabilities have grown and how the space station can serve as a platform for missions of this scale. We’re all excited to see the results of the experiments and impact this project may have in the coming years.”
In addition to the RemoveDebris spacecraft, the ISS recently received a new tool for detecting space debris. This is known as the Space Debris Sensor (SDS), a calibrated impact sensor mounted on the exterior of the station to monitor impacts caused by small-scale space debris. Coupled with technologies designed to clean up space debris, improved monitoring will ensure that the commercialization (and perhaps even colonization) of LEO can begin.
When Elon Musk of SpaceX tweets something interesting, it generates a wave of excitement. So when he tweeted recently that SpaceX might be working on a way to retrieve upper stages of their rockets, it set off a chain of intrigued responses.
SpaceX will try to bring rocket upper stage back from orbital velocity using a giant party balloon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2018
SpaceX has been retrieving and reusing their lower stages for some time now, and it’s lowered the cost of launching payloads into space. But this is the first hint that they may try to do the same with upper stages.
Twitter responders wanted to know exactly what SpaceX has in mind, and what a “giant party balloon” might be. Musk hasn’t elaborated yet, but one of his Twitter followers had something interesting to add.
Quinn Kupec, a student at the University of Maryland’s James Clark School of Engineering tweeted to Musk:
If you're proposing what I think you are, an ultra low ballistic entry coefficient decelerator, then you and @SpaceX should come see what we have at the @UofMaryland . We've been working on this for awhile and just finished some testing pic.twitter.com/nJBvyUnzaK
— Quinn Kupec (@QuinnKupec) April 16, 2018
Universe Today contacted Mr. Kupec to see if he could help us understand what Musk may have been getting at. But first, a little background.
An “ultra low ballistic entry coefficient decelerator” is a bit of a mouthful. The ballistic coefficient measures how well a vehicle can overcome air resistance in flight. A high ballistic coefficient means a re-entry vehicle would not lose velocity quickly, and would reach Earth at high speeds. An ultra low ballistic entry coefficient decelerator would lose speed quickly, meaning that a vehicle would be travelling at low, subsonic speeds before reaching the ground.
To recover an upper stage booster, low speeds are desirable, since they generate less heat. But according to Kupec, there’s another problem that must be overcome.
“What happens when these things slow down to landing velocities? If your center of gravity is offset significantly behind your center of drag, as would be the case with a returning upper stage, it can get unstable. If the center of gravity of the re-entry vehicle is too high, it can become inverted, which is obviously not desirable.”
So the trick is to lower the speed of the re-entry vehicle to the point where the heat generated by reentry isn’t damaging the booster, and to do it without causing the vehicle to invert or otherwise become unstable. This isn’t a problem for the main stage boosters that SpaceX now routinely recovers; they have their own retro-rockets to guide their descent and landing. But for the upper stage boosters, which reach orbital velocities, it’s an obstacle that has to be overcome.
“My research is specifically focused on how high you can push the center of gravity and still maintain the proper flight configuration,” said Kupec.
But what about the “giant party balloon” that Musk tweeted about?
Musk could be referring, in colorful terms, to what’s called a ballute. The word is a combination of the words balloon and parachute. They were invented in the 1950’s by Goodyear Aerospace. They can arrest the descent of entry vehicles and provide stability during the descent.
“…the balloon would have to be 120 ft. in diameter, and made of a high-temperature fabric…” – Professor Dave Akin, University of Maryland
Universe Today contacted Professor Dave Akin of the University of Maryland for some insight into Musk’s tweet. Professor Akin has been working on reentry systems for over 2 decades.
In an e-mail exchange, Professor Akin told us, “There have been concepts proposed for deploying a large balloon on a cable that is towed behind you on entry. The balloon lowers your ballistic coefficient, which means you decelerate higher in the atmosphere and the heat load is less.” So the key is to scrub your speed before you get closer to Earth, where the atmosphere is thicker and generates more heat.
But according to Professor Akin, this won’t necessarily be easy to do. “To get the two orders of magnitude reduction in ballistic coefficient that Elon has been talking about the balloon would have to be 120 ft. in diameter, and made of a high-temperature fabric, so it’s not going to be all that easy.”
But Musk’s track record shows he doesn’t shy away from things that aren’t easy.
Retrieving upper rocket stages isn’t all about lowering launch costs, it’s also about space junk. The European Space Agency estimates that there are over 29,000 pieces of space junk orbiting Earth, and some of that junk is spent upper stage boosters. There have been some collisions and accidents already, with some satellites being pushed into different orbits. In 2009, the Iridium 33 communications satellite and the defunct Russian Cosmos 2251 communications satellite collided with each other, destroying both. If SpaceX can develop a way to retrieve its upper stage boosters, that means less space junk, and fewer potential collisions.
There’s a clear precedent for using balloons to manage reentry. With people like Professor Akin and Quinn Kupec working on it, SpaceX won’t have to reinvent the wheel. But they’ll still have a lot of work to do.
Musk tweeted one other thing shortly after his “giant party balloon” tweet:
And then land on a bouncy house
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2018
No word yet on what that might mean.
Elon Musk’s “giant party balloon” tweet: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/985655249745592320
Quinn Kupec’s tweet: https://twitter.com/QuinnKupec/status/985736260827471872
One of the technological hurdles of our age is to get people and equipment into space more cheaply. SpaceX gets a lot of the headlines around that, with their reusable rockets. And so does Blue Origin, to some degree. Now a small start-up affiliated with Purdue University is tackling the problem and making some headway.
The company is called Leo Aerospace LLC and they’re using balloons to lower the cost of putting micro-satellites into orbit, rather than reusable rockets. The balloons will be reusable, but the rockets won’t.
Leo Aerospace plans to revive a decades-old method of putting satellites into space. They’re using hot air balloons to lift the rocket and its micro-satellite payload 18 km (11 miles) above Earth. At that altitude, there’s 95% less atmosphere. This means much less drag on the rocket, which translates into smaller rockets with less fuel. This is an intriguing idea, if not for the unfortunate name.
The rockoons will be used to launch rockets into sub-orbital and orbital flights. Sub-orbitals are often used by researchers because it gives them access to zero gravity and to vacuum, both of which are necessary for some experiments. According to Leo Aerospace, there’s something revolutionary about their plans.
“We’re targeting the microsatellites by saying, ‘You don’t have to ride-share with anyone. We can guarantee you will be our only payload and we will be focused on you.’” – Drew Sherman, Leo Aerospace’s Head of Vehicle Development.
They intend on targeting micro-satellite developers. Micro-satellites are often hitch-hikers on larger payloads, which basically means they’re second-class customers. They have to wait until there’s room for their micro-satellite on a traditional rocket carrying a larger payload. This can mean long delays of several months, and that micro-satellite developers have to compromise when it comes to the orbits they can obtain. It can also make micro-satellite missions difficult to plan and execute efficiently and economically. Micro-satellites are becoming more and more capable, so having a launch system tailor-made for them could indeed be revolutionary.
“We’re targeting the microsatellites by saying, ‘You don’t have to ride-share with anyone. We can guarantee you will be our only payload and we will be focused on you,’” said Drew Sherman, Leo Aerospace’s head of vehicle development. “‘We will work with you exclusively to get you into orbit. You won’t have to worry about other payloads or getting dropped off in the wrong spot.’”
The flexibility of the rockoon system that Leo Aerospace is developing will be intriguing for micro-satellites. Rockoons will give micro-satellites the flexibility they need to operate efficiently. The launch can be scheduled and adapted to the needs of the individual satellite. “Our goal is to give people access to space. The only way to do that right now is to help people get their satellite into orbit. That’s where we want to leave our mark,” said Abishek Murali, Head of Mission Engineering at Leo Aerospace.
“Our goal is to give people access to space.” – Abishek Murali, Head of Mission Engineering at Leo Aerospace
The rockoon itself is a hybrid of a balloon and a rocket. The hybrid design takes advantage of physics by using the balloon to float the rocket 18 km high before launching the rocket. The rockoon has Leo Aerospace’s own patent-pending technology to control the pitch and angle of the launch, allowing for precision launches.
Rockoons were first used by the US Air Force back in the 1950s. But this next generation of rockoons, coupled with modern micro-satellites, will be much more capable than the 1950s technology.
Currently, Leo Aerospace is in the development and funding phase. They’ve obtained some funding from the National Science Foundation, and from a venture capital firm. They have about half of the $250,000 they need. They plan to conduct their first sub-orbital flight in 2020, and to launch their first micro-satellite into orbit in 2022. They intend to use existing approved launch sites.
Leo Aerospace was founded by five then-students at Purdue University. Leo started as a club, but the former students have turned it into a business. And that business seems to have a bright future. They conducted a customer discovery and market validation study and found a large demand for a better way to launch micro-satellites.
“We want to be part of the space market,” Murali said. “People are interested in space and creating technologies that not only can operate in space but also help people back on Earth. What we’re trying to do is help them get there.”
But they still need a better name than “rockoons.”
It’s easy to imagine the excitement NASA personnel must have felt when an amateur astronomer contacted NASA to tell them that he might have found their missing IMAGE satellite. After all, the satellite had been missing for 10 years.
IMAGE, which stands for Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration, was launched on March 25th, 2000. In Dec. 2005 the satellite failed to make routine contact, and in 2007 it failed to reboot. After that, the mission was declared over.
It’s astonishing that after 10 years, the satellite has been found. It’s even more astonishing that it was an amateur who found it. As if the story couldn’t get any more interesting, the amateur astronomer who found it—Scott Tilly of British Columbia, Canada—was actually looking for a different missing satellite: the secret ZUMA spy satellite launched by the US government on January 7, 2018. (If you’re prone to wearing a tin foil hat, now might be a good time to reach for one.)
After Tilly contacted NASA, they hurried to confirm that it was indeed IMAGE that had been found. To do that, NASA employed 5 separate antennae to seek out any radio signals from the satellite. As of Monday, Jan. 29, signals received from all five sites were consistent with the radio frequency characteristics expected of IMAGE.
In a press release, NASA said, “Specifically, the radio frequency showed a spike at the expected center frequency, as well as side bands where they should be for IMAGE. Oscillation of the signal was also consistent with the last known spin rate for IMAGE.”
“…the radio frequency showed a spike at the expected center frequency…” – NASA Press Release confirming the discovery of IMAGE
Then, on January 30, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab (JHUAPL) reported that they had successfully collected telemetry data from the satellite. In that signal was the ID code 166, the code for IMAGE. There were probably some pretty happy people at NASA.
So, now what?
NASA’s next step is to confirm without a doubt that this is indeed IMAGE. That means capturing and analyzing the data in the signal. That will be a technical challenge, because the types of hardware and operating systems used in the IMAGE Mission Operations Center no longer exist. According to NASA, “other systems have been updated several versions beyond what they were at the time, requiring significant reverse-engineering.” But that should be no problem for NASA. After all, they got Apollo 13 home safely, didn’t they?
If NASA is successful at decoding the data in the signal, the next step is to attempt to turn on IMAGE’s science payload. NASA has yet to decide how to proceed if they’re successful.
IMAGE was the first spacecraft designed to “see the invisible,” as they put it back then. Prior to IMAGE, spacecraft examined Earth’s magnetosphere by detecting particles and fields they encountered as they passed through them. But this method had limited success. The magnetosphere is enormous, and simply sampling a small path—while better than nothing—did not give us an accurate understanding of it.
IMAGE was going to do things differently. It used 3-dimensional imaging techniques to measure simultaneously the densities, energies and masses of charged particles throughout the inner magnetosphere. To do this, IMAGE carried a payload of 7 instruments:
- High Energy Neutral Atom (HENA) imager
- Medium Energy Neutral Atom (MENA) imager
- Low Energy Neutral Atom (LENA) imager
- Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) imager
- Far Ultraviolet (FUV) imager
- Radio Plasma Imager (RPI)
- Central Instrument Data Processor (CIDP)
These instruments allowed IMAGE to not only do great science, and to capture great images, but also to create some stunning never-seen-before movies of auroral activity.
This is a fascinating story, and it’ll be interesting to see if NASA can establish meaningful contact with IMAGE. Will it have a treasure trove of unexplored data on-board? Can it be re-booted and brought back into service? We’ll have to wait and see.
This story is also interesting culturally. IMAGE was in service at a time when the internet wasn’t as refined as it is currently. NASA has mastered the internet and public communications now, but back then? Not so much. For example, to build up interest around the mission, NASA gave IMAGE its own theme song, titled “To See The Invisible.” Yes, seriously.
But that’s just a side-note. IMAGE was all about great science, and it accomplished a lot. You can read all about IMAGE’s science achievements here.
Orbital debris (aka. space junk) is one of the greatest problems facing space agencies today. After sixty years of sending rockets, boosters and satellites into space, the situation in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) has become rather crowded. Given how fast debris in orbit can travel, even the tiniest bits of junk can pose a major threat to the International Space Station and threaten still-active satellites.
It’s little wonder then why ever major space agency on the planet is committed to monitoring orbital debris and creating countermeasures for it. So far, proposals have ranged from giant magnets and nets and harpoons to lasers. Given their growing presence in space, China is also considering developing giant space-based lasers as a possible means for combating junk in orbit.
One such proposal was made as part of a study titled “Impacts of orbital elements of space-based laser station on small scale space debris removal“, which recently appeared in the scientific journal Optik. The study was led by Quan Wen, a researcher from the Information and Navigation College at China’s Air Force Engineering University, with the help of the Institute of China Electronic Equipment System Engineering Company.
For the sake of their study, the team conducted numerical simulations to see if an orbital station with a high-powered pulsed laser could make a dent in orbital debris. Based on their assessments of the velocity and trajectories of space junk, they found that an orbiting laser that had the same Right Ascension of Ascending Node (RAAN) as the debris itself would be effective at removing it. As they state in their paper:
“The simulation results show that, debris removal is affected by inclination and RAAN, and laser station with the same inclination and RAAN as debris has the highest removal efficiency. It provides necessary theoretical basis for the deployment of space-based laser station and the further application of space debris removal by using space-based laser.”
This is not the first time that directed-energy has been considered as a possible means of removing space debris. However, the fact that China is investigating directed-energy for the sake of debris removal is an indication of the nation’s growing presence in space. It also seems appropriate since China is considered to be one of the worst offenders when to comes to producing space junk.
Back in 2007, China conducted a anti-satellite missile test that resulted in the creation over 3000 of bits of dangerous debris. This debris cloud was the largest ever tracked, and caused significant damage to a Russian satellite in 2013. Much of this debris will remain in orbit for decades, posing a significant threat to satellites, the ISS and other objects in LEO.
Of course, there are those who fear that the deployment of lasers to LEO will mean the militarization of space. In accordance with the 1966 Outer Space Treaty, which was designed to ensure that the space exploration did not become the latest front in the Cold War, all signatories agreed to “not place nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies or station them in outer space in any other manner.”
In the 1980s, China was added to the treaty and is therefore bound to its provisions. But back in March of 2017, US General John Hyten indicated in an interview with CNN that China’s attempts to develop space-based laser arrays constitutes a possible breach of this treaty:
“They’ve been building weapons, testing weapons, building weapons to operate from the Earth in space, jamming weapons, laser weapons, and they have not kept it secret. They’re building those capabilities to challenge the United States of America, to challenge our allies…We cannot allow that to happen.”
Such concerns are quite common, and represent a bit of a stumbling block when it comes to the use of directed-energy platforms in space. While orbital lasers would be immune to atmospheric interference, thus making them much more effective at removing space debris, they would also lead to fears that these lasers could be turned towards enemy satellites or stations in the event of war.
As always, space is subject to the politics of Earth. At the same time, it also presents opportunities for cooperation and mutual assistance. And since space debris represents a common problem and threatens any and all plans for the exploration of space and the colonization of LEO, cooperative efforts to address it are not only desirable but necessary.
Have you noticed that weather forecasting has gotten much better in the last few years? Thanks to weather satellites, weather stations, and better forecasting techniques. How do scientists predict the weather with any kind of accuracy days or even weeks in the future.
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What’s the weather doing? Is it going to rain today? How much? What about temperatures? We depend on modern weather forecasting, thanks, in part to the vast network of weather satellites. What instruments do they have, what orbits do they use.
Visit the Astronomy Cast Page to subscribe to the audio podcast!
If you would like to support Astronomy Cast, please visit our page at Patreon here – https://www.patreon.com/astronomycast. We greatly appreciate your support!
If you would like to join the Weekly Space Hangout Crew, visit their site here and sign up. They’re a great team who can help you join our online discussions!
In 2015, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner established Breakthrough Initiatives, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In April of the following year, he and the organization be founded announced the creation of Breakthrough Starshot, a program to create a lightsail-driven “wafercraft” that would make the journey to the nearest star system – Alpha Centauri – within our lifetime.
This past June, the organization took a major step towards achieving this goal. After hitching a ride on some satellites being deployed to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Breakthrough conducted a successful test flight of its first spacecraft. Known as “Sprites”, these are not only the smallest spacecraft ever launched, but prototypes for the eventual wafercraft Starshot hopes to send to Alpha Centauri.
The concept for a wafercraft is simple. By leveraging recent developments in computing and miniaturization, spacecraft that are the size of a credit card could be created. These would be capable of carrying all the necessary sensors, microprocessors and microthrusters, but would be so small and light that it would take much less energy to accelerate them to relativistic speeds – in the case of Starshot, up to 20% the speed of light.
As Pete Worden – Breakthrough Starshot’s executive director and the former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center – said in an interview with Scientific American:
“This is a very early version of what we would send to interstellar distances. In addition, this is another clear demonstration that it is possible for countries to work together to do great things in space. These are European spacecraft with U.S. nanosatellite payloads launching on an Indian booster—you can’t get much more international than that.”
Professor Abraham Loeb also has some choice words to mark this historic occasion. In addition to being the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, the Chair of the Astronomy Department and the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard University, Prof. Loeb is also the chairman of the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee. As he told Universe Today via email:
“The launch of the Sprite satellites marks the first demonstration that miniaturized electronics on small chips can be launched without damage, survive the harsh environment of space and communicate successfully with earth. The Starshot Initiative aims to launch similar chips attached to a lightweight sail that it being pushed by a laser beam to a fifth of the speed of light, so that its camera, communication and navigation devices (whose total weight is of order a gram) will reach the nearest planet outside the solar System within our generation.”
The craft were deployed on June 23rd, piggybacking on two satellites belonging to the multinational technology corporation OHB System AG. Much like the StarChips that Starshot is proposing, the Sprites represent a major step in the evolution of miniature spacecraft that can do the job of larger robotic explorers. They measure just 3.5 by 3.5 cm (1.378 x 1.378 inches) and weight only four grams (0.14 ounces), but still manage to pack solar panels, computers, sensors and radios into their tiny frames.
The Sprite were originally conceived by Zac Manchester, a postdoctorate researcher and aerospace engineer at Cornell University. Back in 2011, he launched a Kickstarter campaign (called “KickSat“) to raise funds to develop the concept, which was his way of bringing down the associated costs of spaceflight. The campaign was a huge success, with Manchester raising a total of $74,586 of his original goal of $30,000.
Now a member of Breakthrough Starshot (where he is in charge of Wafer design and optimization), Manchester oversaw the construction of the Sprites from the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. As Professor Loeb explained:
“The Sprites project is led by Zac Manchester, a Harvard postdoc who started working on this during his PhD at Cornell. Sprites are chip-size satellites powered by sunlight, intended to be released in space to demonstrate a new technology of lightweight (gram-scale) spacecrafts that can communicated with Earth.”
The purpose of this mission was to test how well the Sprites’ electronics systems and radio communications performed in orbit. Upon deployment, the Sprites remained attached to these satellites (known as “Max Valier” and “Venta”) and began transmitting. Communications were then received from ground stations, which demonstrated that the Sprites’ novel radio communication architecture performed exactly as it was designed to.
With this test complete, Starshot now has confirmation that a waferocraft is capable of operating in space and communicating with ground-based controllers. In the coming months and years, the many scientists and engineers that are behind this program will no doubt seek to test other essential systems (such as the craft’s microthrusters and imagers) while also working on the various engineering concerns that an instellar mission would entail.
In the meantime, the Sprites are still transmitting and are in radio contact with ground stations located in California and New York (as well as radio enthusiasts around the world). For those looking to listen in on their communications, Prof. Loeb was kind enough to let us know what frequency they are transmitting on.
“The radio frequency at which the Sprites that were just launched operate is 437.24 MHz, corresponding to a wavelength of roughly 69 cm,” he said. So if you’ve got a ham radio and feel like tuning in, this is where to set your dials!
And be sure to check out Zac Manchester’s Kickstarter video, which showcases the technology and inspiration for the KickSat:
Further: Breakthrough Initiatives
When it comes to the future of space exploration, some truly interesting concepts are being developed. Hoping to reach farther and reduce associated costs, one of the overarching goals is to find more fuel-efficient and effective means of sending robotic spacecraft, satellites and even crewed missions to their destinations. Towards this end, ideas like nuclear propulsion, ion engines and even antimatter are all being considered.
But this idea has to be the strangest one to date! It’s known as a ferrofluid thruster, a new concept that relies on ionic fluids that become strongly magnetized and release ions when exposed to a magnetic field. According to a new study produced by researchers from the Ion Space Propulsion Laboratory at Michigan Tech, this concept could very well be the future of satellite propulsion.
This study, which was recently published in the journal Physics of Fluids, presents an entirely new method for creating microthrusters – tiny nozzles that are used by small satellites to maneuver in orbit. Thanks to improvements in technology, small satellites – which are typically defined as those that weight less than 500 km (1,100 lbs) – can perform tasks that were once reserved for larger ones.
As such, they are making up an increasingly large share of the satellite market, and many more are expected to be launched in the near future. In fact, it is estimated that between 2015 and 2019, over 500 small satellites will be launched to LEO, with an estimated market value of $7.4 billion. Little wonder then why researchers are looking at various types of microthrusters to ensure that these satellites can maneuver effectively.
While there are no shortage of possibilities, finding the one that balances cost-effectiveness and reliability has been difficult. To address this, an MTU research team began conducting a study that considered ferrofluids as a possible solution. As noted, ferrofluids are ionic liquids that become active when exposed to a magnetic field, forming peaks that emit small amounts of ions.
These peaks then return to a natural state when the magnetic field is removed, a phenomena known as Rosenweig instability. Led by Brandon A. Jackson – a doctoral candidate in mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University – the MTU research team began to consider how this could be turned into propulsion. Other members included fellow doctoral candidate Kurt Terhune and Professor Lyon B. King.
Prof. King, the Ron & Elaine Starr Professor in Space Systems at Michigan Tech, has been researching the physics of ferrofluids for many years, thanks to support provided by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). In 2012, he proposed using such ionic fluids to create a microthruster for modern satellites, based on previous studies conducted by researchers at the University of Sydney.
As he explained in a MTU press release, this method offers a simple and effective way to create a reliable microthruster:
“We’re working with a unique material called an ionic liquid ferrofluid. When we put a magnet underneath a small pool of the ferrofluid, it turns into a beautiful hedgehog structure of aligned peaks. When we apply a strong electric field to that array of peaks, each one emits an individual micro-jet of ions.”
With King’s help, who oversees MTU’s Ion Space Propulsion Laboratory, Jackson and Tehrune began conducting an an experimental and computational study on the dynamics of the ferrofluid. From this, they created a computational model that taught them much about the relationships between magnetic, electric and surface tension stresses, and were even surprised by some of what they saw.
“We wanted to learn what led up to emission instability in one single peak of the ferrofluid microthruster,” said Jackson. “We learned that the magnetic field has a large effect in preconditioning the fluid electric stress.”
Ultimately, what they had created was a model for an electrospray ionic liquid ferrofluid thruster. Unlike conventional electrospray thrusters – which generate propulsion with electrical charges that send tiny jets of fluid through microscopic needles – a ferrofluid electrospray thruster would be able to do away with these needles, which are expensive to manufacture and vulnerable to damage.
Instead, the thruster they are proposing would be able to assemble itself out of its own propellant, would rely on no fragile parts, and would essentially be indestructible. It would also present advantages over conventional plasma thrusters, which are apparently unreliable when scaled down for small satellites. With the success of their model, the AFOSR recently decided to award King a second contract to continue studying ferrofluids.
With this funding secured, King is confident that they can put what they learned with this study to good use, and scale it up to examine what happens with multiple peaks. As he explained:
“Often in the lab we’ll have one peak working and 99 others loafing. Brandon’s model will be a vital tool for the team going forward. If we are successful, our thruster will enable small inexpensive satellites with their own propulsion to be mass produced. That could improve remote sensing for better climate modeling, or provide better internet connectivity, which three billion people in the world still do not have.”
Looking ahead, the team wants to conduct experiments on how an actual thruster might perform. The team has also begun working with Professor Juan Fernandez de la Mora of Yale University, one of the world’s leading experts on electrospray propulsion, to help bring their proposal to fruition. Naturally, it will take many years before a prototype is ready, and such a thruster would likely have to be able to execute about 100 peaks to be considered viable.
Nevertheless, the technology holds promise for a market that is expected to grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years and decades. Facilitating everything from worldwide internet access and telecommunications to scientific research, there is likely to be no shortage of smallsats, cubesats, nanosats, etc. taking to space very soon. They will all need to have reliable propulsion if they want to be able to stay clear of each other do their jobs!
Michigan Tech also has patents pending for the technology, which has applications that go beyond propulsion to include spectrometry, pharmaceuticals, and nanofabrication.


In Chapter 2 of his new book The Next Story, Tim Challies writes about the changes wrought by the invention of the telegraph:
Gone was the idea of news as “functional information”. Very quickly arose the notion of news as entertainment. Instead of newspapers filled with in-depth analyses of local affairs, consumers demanded papers filled with interesting but irrelevant snippets of information, often from faraway places. “News from nowhere, addressed to no one in particular” gave people much to talk about but little to act on. It entertained and outraged, but demanded no response, no action. Neil Postman writes about the great loop of impotence this created: “The news elicits from you a variety of opinions about which you can do nothing except offer them as more news, about which you can do nothing.” People knew lots of facts, but had intimate knowledge of very little. Their knowledge about the world far surpassed their knowledge of the world.
Let us, as Christians, diligently guard against becoming mere know-it-all know-nothings. In both worldly and spiritual affairs, our goal should not be to gather vast amounts of trivia: an entire reservoir of trivial information is not worth an ounce of real, genuine thought – the kind of thought that produces action.
Shallow thinking will never take you anyplace worth going.
In the words of John Piper, “You don’t need to know a lot of things for your life to make a difference; but you do need to know a few great things, and you need to live for them with all your might.”
(This topic reminds me of yet another quote, this time from Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451. Read it here.)