Steely Dan – Home at last
An evening pause: The song is set to visuals from many Steely Dan concerts over the decades.
Hat tip Dan Morris.
Year: 2022
First delivery of new Starlink terminals arrives in the Ukraine
The first promised deliver by Elon Musk of new Starlink terminals arrived in the Ukraine today, only two days after promised.
Ukraine digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who tagged Musk in a request on Twitter on Saturday, posted that Starlink was “here” in Ukraine — with a photo showing more than two dozen boxes of the company’s user kits in the back of a truck.
Each Starlink kit includes a user terminal to connect to the satellites, a mounting tripod and a Wi-Fi router. It’s not known how many kits SpaceX is sending to support Ukraine.
Fedorov thanked Musk in his tweet; Musk responded: “you are most welcome.”
Ukraine-based Oleg Kutkov tweeted a screenshot of an internet speed test on Monday, saying “Starlink is working in Kyiv” and thanked SpaceX for the company’s support.
Two dozen Starlink terminals is only a drop in the bucket, but with a first delivery this quickly, many more are likely to follow, and make a significant difference in helping the Ukraine block Russia’s invasion.
Rocket Lab successfully launches Japanese radar satellite
Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully completed its first launch in 2022 as well as the first launch from a second launchpad in New Zealand, using its Electron rocket to place in orbit a Japanese commercial radar satellite.
At the moment of writing the upper stage has not yet deployed the satellite, though deployment should happen momentarily. UPDATE: Satellite deployed successfully.
The new launchpad gives Rocket Lab three launchpads, two in New Zealand (both operational) and one in Virginia (delayed due to the NASA bureaucracy but about to go operational).
Rocket Lab is now tied with five other rocket operations, 4 private and 2 government, all with a single launch in ’22. The leaders in the 2022 launch race remain unchanged:
8 SpaceX
4 China
2 Russia
The now U.S. leads China 12 to 4 in the national rankings. At this same point in 2021, the U.S. had only completed 8 launches, so the pace this year is significantly higher. If this pace is maintained, the U.S. will complete 72 launches, which will just break the country’s best previous year of 70 successful launches in 1966. This total would also more than double the average yearly launch total for U.S. since 1966.
Chandra’s camera remains in safe mode
Though engineers have improvised a work-around that has allowed most of instruments on the Chandra X-Ray observatory to resume science operations, the power supply problem in the telescope’s high resolution camera (HRC) that occurred on February 9th remains unresolved, leaving that camera in safe mode.
The Chandra science instrument and engineering teams continue to analyze the cause of the HRC power supply issue, as well as potential approaches to enable the HRC again. The spacecraft is otherwise healthy and operating normally.
Chandra has been flying now for more than two decades, well past its original mission. For it to begin to have these problems is not surprising, though it will be a great tragedy if it fails just as the James Webb Space Telescope is about to go operational. Ideally astronomers want data from both, as well as Hubble, to cover a wide swath of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the optical to the infrared to X-rays.
Today’s blacklisted American: Jan 6th demonstrator apparently commits suicide due to Biden administration persecution
Matthew Perna, now dead because he simply expressed an opinion
Blacklists are back and the Democrats have got ’em: Matthew Perna, one of the vast majority of demonstrators who came to the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to peacefully protest the installation of Joe Biden as president, has now apparently committed suicide at the age of 37 because of the Biden administration’s endless persecution, slander, and legal attacks against him.
From his obituary:
He attended the rally on January 6, 2021 to peacefully stand up for his beliefs. After learning that the FBI was looking for him, he immediately turned himself in. He entered the Capitol through a previously opened door (he did not break in as was reported) where he was ushered in by police. He didn’t break, touch, or steal anything. He did not harm anyone, as he stayed within the velvet ropes taking pictures.
For this act he has been persecuted by many members of his community, friends, relatives, and people who had never met him. Many people were quietly supportive, and Matt was truly grateful for them. The constant delays in hearings, and postponements dragged out for over a year. Because of this, Matt’s heart broke and his spirit died, and many people are responsible for the pain he endured. Matt did not have a hateful bone in his body. He embraced people of all races, income brackets, and beliefs, never once berating anyone for having different views.
China successfully launched rockets twice today
China successfully launched two rockets this morning, one a Long March-4C carrying an Earth observation satellite and the second a Long March-8, carrying 22 smallsats.
The Long March-8 is one of China’s next generation rockets, meant to launch from its coastal spaceport and use less toxic fuels. Also, according to the state-run press article, its manufacture process is aimed at allowing for a launch rate of once per week.
The leaders in the 2022 launch race:
8 SpaceX
4 China
2 Russia
The U.S. leads China 11 to 4 in the national rankings.
Musk activates Starlink in the Ukraine, will send terminals there
In response to a plea from the Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Elon Musk announced today that SpaceX has activated its Starlink internet constellation in the Ukraine and is sending more terminals there immediately.
How the terminals will be delivered, or who would receive them, was not made clear by Musk.
Ingenuity’s 20th flight a success
According to a tweet released tonight by JPL, the 20th flight of Ingenuity on Mars was a success, lasting 130 seconds and traveling about 1,283 feet.
The tweet includes a short video showing the helicopter taking off and then landing, at the same spot, which I am sure is not of this flight but from a previous test that simply went up and down. The flight just completed took off and headed mostly to the north, slightly west, and landed in a different spot entirely.
Expect more information to follow.
February 25, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold in two parts.
To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, go here.
» Read more
Russia suspends Soyuz-2 launches from French Guiana
Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, announced today that Russia is suspending all Soyuz-2 rocket operations with Arianespace at French Guiana in response to the sanctions imposed by the European Union (EU) over Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
In response to EU sanctions against our enterprises, Roskosmos is suspending cooperation with European partners over organising space launches from the Kourou cosmodrome and withdrawing its technical personnel… from French Guiana,” Dmitry Rogozin, chief of the Russian space agency, said on messaging app Telegram.
The next planned Russian launch from French Guiana for Arianespace is set for April, launching two EU GPS-type satellites. That launch is now in question. Russia only has 87 engineers in French Guiana, but whether Europe can launch without them is unlikely.
Russia’s other Arianespace commercial customer, the satellite constellation OneWeb, is owned jointly by the United Kingdom and private Indian investors and has a launch scheduled from Kazakhstan in March. While Russia probably intends to proceed with that launch, Arianespace, the EU, and the UK government might respond to Russia’s actions today by cancelling it in turn.
Meanwhile, there are hints coming from the Ukraine that Russia’s invasion is beginning to bog down. If so, expect Putin to try to negotiate a quick settlement, whereby he insists that the Ukraine abandon its effort to join NATO and commit to allying itself with Russia. Based on the poor support NATO provided in this war, expect the Ukraine to agree in some manner.
Seasick Steve – Roy’s Gang
An evening pause: Hat tip Mike Nelson.
Scientists: Martian topography in one region suggests the past existence of lakes and river networks, but not a large single ocean
Based on a just published paper, scientists using orbital topography data and imagery have concluded that more than three billion years ago on Mars ancient rivers in the transition zone between the southern cratered highlands and the northern lowland plains fed into numerous lakes in the lowlands, not a single large ocean as some scientists posit.
From their abstract:
The northern third of Mars contains an extensive topographic basin, but there is conflicting evidence to whether it was once occupied by an ocean-sized body of water billions of years ago. At the margins of this basin are the remnants of deltas, which formed into water, but the size and nature of this water body (or water bodies) is unclear, and detailed investigations of different regions of the basin margins are necessary.
In this study, we use high-resolution image and topographic datasets from satellites orbiting Mars to investigate a series of water-formed landforms in the Memnonia Sulci region, set along the boundary of Mars’s northern basin. These landforms likely formed billions of years ago, providing evidence for ancient rivers and lakes in this region. The geologic evolution of these rivers and lakes was complicated, likely influenced by water-level fluctuations, changes in sediment availability, and impact cratering. Our topographic analysis of these rivers and lakes suggests that they terminated in a series of ancient lake basins at the boundary of Mars’s northern basin, rather than supplying a larger, ocean-sized body of water. [emphasis mine]
The Memnonia Sulci region is in the cratered highlands just south of the Medusae Fossae Formation, the largest volcanic ash deposit on Mars. The region of study in it is marked by the blue dot in the overview map to the right.
The study does not preclude the possible existence of a northern ocean on Mars, but it says that at least in this region at the equator, it did not exist. Instead, the various river valleys drained into separate smaller and relatively short-lived lakes.