Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

The movement to ban smartphones in schools widens

1:39 pm

The smart phone: Bad for kids
The smart phone: Proven very bad for kids

According to a detailed Washington Examiner story earlier this week, the campaign to ban smartphones in schools is expanding rapidly, with widespread bi-partisan support, backed up by studies and school reports that consistently show significant improvements in student behavior and learning when smart phones are banned.

Eight states have banned cellphone use in schools, with Florida being the first to do so when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill into law in 2023. The legislation in the Sunshine State allows teachers to ban cellphone use during classroom instruction and authorizes them to hold a student’s phone if it becomes a distraction.

Florida was followed by Indiana, Louisiana, Virginia, California, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Ohio in passing similar bans that have either been enacted or will be in the coming year. Each of the states that have passed bans has taken different approaches to implementing the policy.

Fifteen other states have proposed a ban, and an additional eight states are either doing test bans in selected regions or have issued recommendations endorsing bans. That makes for a total if 32 states out of 50 that are working to keep smart phones away from kids when they are in school.

The best aspect of this is the generally bi-partisan nature of the movement. While most of the initial action occurred in red states controlled by conservative politicians, blue states like California and Minnesota have also joined in. A Minnesota middle school for example was an early practitioner of the ban in 2023, finding it not only improved classroom participation, but the entire social atmosphere in the school improved. In California meanwhile Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law restricting smartphone that takes effect in July 2026. Even Washington, D.C. is debating legislation to institute a school ban.

The sooner the better. Kids don’t need smart phones. All they really need is a dumb phone to call their parents in case of an emergency. And when they are in school this is even less necessary. Spending their time staring at a screen is the worst way to learn to live with other humans, a learning experience that is probably their number one class assignment.

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Pits formed from sublimating underground ice on Mars?

12:29 pm

Pits formed from sublimating underground ice
Click for original image.

Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on October 31, 2024 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The science team labels this “Impact Ejecta with Marginal Pits,” though even on the full image I am not sure what the impact ejecta is. The pits themselves appear to have formed when near-surface ice sublimated away during the summer months. The location is at 59 degrees north latitude, deep within the Martian northern lowland plains. Since orbital data suggests much of those plains at this latitude has an ice table of some thickness near the surface, it is very reasonable to assume these pits formed when summer sunlight heated that ice, turning it to gas which eventually pushed out to form the pits.

But what about the impact ejecta? Where is it? And where is the crater from that impact?
» Read more

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Another Democrat demonstrates her stupidity and ignorance, demanding NASA’s acting administrator revoke Musk’s access to headquarters

9:57 am

Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-New York)
Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-New York), describing
her terror when ordinary Americans walked through the
Capitol on January 6th, almost all of whom simply took
pictures. Click for video.

Proving she knows nothing about the Constitution and the powers it gives to the President, congresswoman Grace Meng (D-New York) earlier this week sent a letter to NASA’s acting administrator Janet Petro demanding that Petro revoke any access to the agency’s headquarters by Elon Musk as part of his work auditing government operations as part of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Meng’s letter [pdf] is quite entertaining, especially because it repeats the new Democratic Party talking point that somehow because DOGE employees, including Musk, were “unelected” their access is inappropriate. How stupid. Except for the president, everyone who works in the executive branch of government is “unelected.”

That Meng also thinks NASA’s acting administrator has the power to block access to someone hired specifically by the president to do this work shows us how ignorant she is of the Constitution and basic law. Petro can’t cancel Trump’s orders, even if she wants to. Trump is her boss, and if he tasks Musk and DOGE to audit NASA’s books, she must comply.

There is only one part of Meng’s demand that makes some sense, where she demands Petro “set clear and public ground rules” to keep Musk from getting access to proprietary information of other space companies. Musk certainly has a conflict-of-interest issue at NASA, and such rules make sense. I am also quite sure that Musk is well aware of this issue, and will purposely leave the DOGE audit to others.

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Rocket Lab delivers its third service module for Varda’s orbiting capsules

9:35 am

Rocket Lab yesterday announced it has completed and delivered its third Pioneer service module used in conjunction with the capsules of the in-space manufacturing company Varda, which flies these capsules in orbit for a variety of customers.

The spacecraft will support Varda’s next orbital processing and hypersonic reentry mission, W-3. Earlier this month, the Company’s second spacecraft for Varda, W-2, successfully launched and is currently operating on orbit. Carrying payloads from the Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA’S Ames Research Center, W-2 will also conduct research to expand the capability and capacity of Varda’s pharmaceutical processing hardware in orbit before it’s hypersonic re-entry and recovery in South Australia.

Like its predecessors, W-3 is based on Rocket Lab’s Pioneer spacecraft, leveraging vertically integrated spacecraft components and subsystems, including spacecraft propulsion, flight software, avionics, reaction wheels, star trackers, separation system, solar panels, radios, composite structures and tanks, and more. The spacecraft will provide power, communications, propulsion, and attitude control for Varda’s 120kg manufacturing capsule, which uses microgravity conditions to develop products that are difficult or impossible to create on Earth.

That hypersonic test for the military is presently scheduled for March 2025. Meanwhile Rocket Lab is building the fourth service module for Varda, as part of a four-spacecraft deal.

If Varda begins generating revenues from these first four capsules, it will then likely sign another deal with Rocket Lab.

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Chinese pseudo-company GalaxySpace successfully tests its cell-to-satellite system

9:25 am

The Chinese pseudo-company GalaxySpace yesterday successfully proved its its cell-to-satellite technology works, using a smartphone to connect with one of its recently launched satellites.

At 10:28 a.m., a satellite from the constellation passed over the conference venue in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. On-site staff used their mobile phones to connect to the satellite via a terminal device installed on the rooftop. Through a gateway station in Beijing, they established a connection with personnel in Beijing and Thailand.

Calling Thailand was significant because it signaled the signing of a deal with a major Thailand telecommunications operator to provide this service to that country.

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French rocket startup signs Spanish rocket engine startup to provide attitude thrusters

9:15 am

The French rocket startup MaiaSpace, a subsidiary of Airbus, has awarded the Spanish rocket engine startup Arkadia Space a contract to provide the small attitude thrusters used to maintain the rocket’s course.

MaiaSpace hopes to do its first test orbital launch of its smallsat rocket in 2026, launching from a new commercial launchpad at French Guiana.

Arkadia’s thrusters are somewhat radical.

Arkadia Space, founded in 2020 in Castellón, Spain, develops hydrogen peroxide-based propellant systems for satellites and platforms with a mass of more than 50 kilograms. “The hydrogen peroxide-based propellant offers exceptional performance while significantly reducing cost and environmental impact compared to traditional hydrazine-based Reaction Control Systems,” according to the news release.

Hydrazine thrusters, while practical and lightweight, have the problem that the fuel is very toxic, and requires safety precautions to prevent injury to employees or the public. Using hydrogen peroxide instead likely reduces this issue significantly.

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Judge okays vote on whether SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility can incorporate as city

9:03 am

After reviewing the local petition submitted by SpaceX requesting permission, a local judge as signed an order allowing the citizens of Boca Chica to vote on whether they can incorporate as city in Texas.

The incorporation petition, [Cameron County Judge Eddie] Treviño explained, was duly signed by at least ten percent of the qualified voters of Starbase. Additionally, the petition satisfied the statutorily required elements and set forth satisfactory proof that Starbase contains the requisite number of inhabitants as required by law and the area to be incorporated is not part of another incorporated city or town.

Since the submitted petition met all statutory requirements, Treviño said he is required under Section 8.009 of the Texas Local Government Code to order that an incorporation election be held on a specific date and at a designate place in the community.

The election is set to occur during the general election on Saturday, May 3rd, 2025.

SpaceX itself had organized the petition and submitted it to the county in mid-December, noting that it already “…currently performs several civil functions around Starbase due to its remote location, including management of the roads, utilities, and the provision of schooling and medical care for the residents. Incorporation would move the management of some of these functions to a more appropriate public body.”

Expect the petition to be approved, making Starbase at Boca Chica one of the most spectacular company towns ever to exist.

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European underwater neutrino telescope detects most powerful neutrino ever

8:53 am

A European underwater neutrino telescope that is still under construction recorded evidence in February 2023 of most powerful neutrino particle ever detected.

KM3NeT’s two neutrino detectors — one off the coast of Sicily, the other near southern France — are still under construction but already collecting data. Both contain cables hundreds of meters tall, which are strung with bundles of light sensors anchored to the seafloor.

When cosmic neutrinos interact with matter in or near a KM3NeT detector, they spawn charged particles such as muons. As those muons careen through water, they give off feeble flashes of bluish light that KM3NeT’s sensors can pick up. Clocking when different sensors spot this light can reveal a particle’s path; the brightness of the blue hue reflects the particle’s energy.

On February 13, 2023, the detector near Sicily was run through by an extremely energetic muon traveling nearly parallel to the horizon. At the time, only 21 of the planned 230 sensor cables were in place. Based on the muon’s energy and trajectory, KM3NeT scientists determined it must have been spawned by a neutrino from space rather than a particle from the atmosphere.

Simulations suggest the neutrino’s energy was around 220 petaelectron volts. The previous record holder boasted around 10 petaelectron volts.

Tracking that trajectory backwards, astronomers say the particle came from a region of space where there are a lot of active galaxies, any one of which could be the source of the neutrino. It is also possible the neutrino came instead from an interaction of high energy cosmic rays and the photons from the faint microwave background left over from the Big Bang.

As noted very correctly by one scientist, “At this point, it’s very difficult to make conclusions about the origins,” says Kohta Murase, a theoretical physicist at Penn State not involved in the research. “It’s dangerous to rely on one event.”

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NASA announces March 12, 2025 as new launch date for next crew to ISS

9:47 am

NASA yesterday announced that it is now targeting March 12, 2025 as new launch date for sending the next crew to ISS, thus moving that date up about one week.

The earlier launch opportunity is available following a decision by mission management to adjust the agency’s original plan to fly a new Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-10 mission that requires additional processing time. The flight now will use a previously flown Dragon, called Endurance, and joint teams are working to complete assessments of the spacecraft’s previously flown hardware to ensure it meets the agency’s Commercial Crew Program safety and certification requirements. Teams will work to complete Dragon’s refurbishment and ready the spacecraft for flight, which includes trunk stack, propellant load, and transportation to SpaceX’s hangar at 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to be mated with the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket. This will be the fourth mission to the station for this Dragon, which previously supported the agency’s Crew-3, Crew-5, and Crew-7 flights.

Both NASA and SpaceX are touting this as a great decision because it will allow the present ISS crew (which includes the two astronauts initially launched on Starliner last year) to get home quicker.

The truth is that this decision really hides the fact that both the agency and company made a wrong decision to use a new capsule for this mission. SpaceX needed more time than expected to prepare it, and those delays pushed back both the launch of a new crew and the return of the old. So, while everyone is spinning this as SpaceX and NASA brilliantly improvising to get those Starliner astronauts home sooner, the real story is that their return had been significantly delayed by almost two months by SpaceX’s inability to get the capsule ready as promised.

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Firefly wins $8.2 million grant from Texas Space Commission

9:36 am

The new Texas Space Commission, established in 2023 by the state legislature and appropriated $350 million to encourage the development of a Texas aerospace industry, has awarded the rocket and lunar lander company Firefly $8.2 million grant.

Firefly said the funding will result in an additional 5,600 square feet of cleanroom space at its 50,000-square-foot spacecraft facility in Cedar Park, as well as added ground and test equipment, a spacecraft pressure proof test facility at the 200-acre campus in Briggs that has 200,000-square-feet of facilities, and upgraded infrastructure for mission operations and labs. The company’s Cedar Park headquarters is 28,000 square feet. The improvements are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

The 50 jobs will be added in engineering, quality assurance, manufacturing and spacecraft operations, according to the announcement. The grant also will enable the company to expand STEM outreach and internship programs, including working with the schools in the University of Texas System to provide hands-on experience in spacecraft development.

Though the commission was given $350 million to help industry, in truth the legislature allocated $200 million of that money to build a new “research and training facility” at Texas A&M. While this might help encourage engineering students to come to Texas and thus settle there within the industry, to me it looks like the commission was mostly created to distribute a very large chunk of cash to this one university.

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Orbex scouts Saxaford in advance of first launch

9:25 am

Map of spaceports surrounding Norwegian Sea
Spaceports surrounding the Norwegian Sea

Though no details have been released, a team from the British rocket startup Orbex has arrived at the Saxaford spaceport in the Shetland Islands to begin preparations for the company’s first launch there, now planned to occur before the end of this year.

Originally Orbex was going to do its launches from the United Kingdom’s other proposed spaceport in Sutherland on the northern coast of Scotland. It had obtained a 50-year-lease to build its own dedicated launch facility, had built its rocket manufacturing facility nearby, and had originally hoped to do the first test orbital launch of its Prime rocket in 2022.

Three years later the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had still not issued Orbex or Sutherland the necessary launch licenses. Faced with bankruptcy if it didn’t launch soon, in December the company announced it was switching its first launch to Saxaford, where the CAA had completed spaceport licensing. It hoped the CAA would thus be able to give it a launch license quickly. We shall see.

Note that the news is slow today. As much as I want to post lots of stuff, I can’t if nothing of significance appears to be happening.

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