It’s called the South Atlantic Anomaly.
The closest radiation belt to Earth roams above South America. It is called the South Atlantic Anomaly and gives off high levels of radiation that has been known to destroy satellites.
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Diwata-2 was successfully launched to space on October 29, 2018 at 12:08 GMT+08 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan via H-IIA F40 rocket. It is one of the small satellites piggybacked with the main payloads IBUKI-2, also known as GOSAT-2 (JAXA’s Second Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite), and KhalifaSat, a remote sensing Earth observation satellite developed by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC) in the United Arab Emirates. The other small satellites are the Japanese-made Tenkou, PROITERES-2, Stars-AO, and AUTcube-2. Diwata-2 was inserted into the Sun-Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of 621 km, 43 minutes and 20 seconds after rocket lift-off.
On Oct 29, 2018 at 13:52 GMT+08, initial contact was established between Diwata-2 and the Ground Receiving Station (GRS) located at the Department of Science and Technology Advanced Science and Technology Institute (DOST-ASTI). Short telemetry data was received from the satellite on that day. Diwata-2 was initially tracked using pre-launch orbital parameters. As of 12:40 PM yesterday, October 31, 2018, the GRS can now read the satellite’s status, including vital signs such as fully charged batteries, normal power consumption, and good communication link. Commands were successfully sent and initial check procedures will continue throughout the first week from launch. Initial image captures from the cameras can be expected in the coming days.
Another milestone for Philippine space initiatives
The team, program collaborators and stakeholders celebrated in two major simultaneous events: one at the Tanegashima Space Center together with the Japanese partners, and one at the GT Toyota Auditorium in Quezon City with the public. Pocket viewing sessions were also held at the DOST Region VI office in Iloilo, Bicol State University, Cebu Technological University, and Caraga State University. Simultaneously, Japanese professors Dr. Tetsuro Ishida (from Hokkaido University) and Dr. Yuji Sakamoto (from Tohoku University) and Filipino scholars Gerwin Guba, Leur Labrador, Julie Banatao, Leonard Paet, and Paolo Violan who were part of the team who built the Diwata-2 in Tohoku University, were also tuned in.
KhalifaSat, the first-ever Emirati-manufactured satellite successfully launched into space from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Centre on October 29.
As well as KhalifaSat, the H-2A rocket also launched carrying Japan’s environment satellite, GoSat-2.
KhalifaSat is an Earth observation satellite set to monitor environmental changes, such as the effects of global warming in the North and South Poles.
China’s aerospace industry has traditionally been the domain of state-owned institutes and enterprises, but a huge amount of investment has poured into the private sector since 2015 when Beijing announced a national strategy to integrate military and civilian businesses.
Landspace Tech’s ZQ-1 took off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre at 4pm on Saturday carrying a small satellite for state broadcaster CCTVMission failed due to problem with rocket’s third stage, company says.
Scientists hope the world’s smallest satellites will boldly go where no probe has gone before.
Ben Bishop
During an interview at a Boston- area café, Zac Manchester apologized for not bringing along a copy of his latest satellite — one of many duplicates due to enter orbit this fall during a mission to the International Space Station. “Don’t worry,” says Manchester, a Stanford University professor of aeronautics and astronautics. “I’ll put one in an envelope and mail it to you.”
This discovery not only opened up an exciting new field of research, but has opened the door to many intriguing possibilities. One such possibility, according to a new study by a team of Russian scientists, is that gravitational waves could be used to transmit information. In much the same way as electromagnetic waves are used to communicate via antennas and satellites, the future of communications could be gravitationally-based.
The study, which recently appeared in the scientific journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, was led by Olga Babourova, a professor at the Moscow Pedagogical State University (MPSU), and included members from Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI) and the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN).
For the first time, astronomers have discovered what could be an exomoon, a moon outside our solar system. The exomoon was found around the gas giant exoplanet Kepler-1625b, which orbits a star 8,000 light-years from Earth.
Although moons are common in our solar system, which has nearly 200 natural satellites, the long search for interstellar moons has been an empty one. Astronomers have had success locating exoplanets around stars outside our solar system, but exomoons are harder to pinpoint because of their smaller size.
WASHINGTON — A Swedish company with plans for a geostationary communications satellite announced Oct. 16 a contract with SpaceX for a Falcon Heavy launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2020.
Ovzon of Solna, Sweden, has not yet purchased the satellite, but paid Eutelsat $1.6 million earlier this year to move one of its satellites to an unspecified Ovzon orbital slot to preserve spectrum rights at that location.
In a statement, Ovzon CEO Per Wahlberg said procurement of the company’s first satellite is “in the final stage,” and that production of an advanced onboard processor started earlier this month.
Speaking in a Satellite Innovation 2018 keynote, long-time SpaceX investor and board member Steve Jurvetson made a quiet but significant comment about the company’s Starlink satellite constellation efforts, stating that the first two prototype spacecraft – currently in orbit – “are working wonderfully.”
Standing in contrast to recent speculation that SpaceX’s Starlink project had experienced major failures with on-orbit hardware, Jurvetson may be a biased source but still has a major vested interest in SpaceX’s long-term success – supporting billions dumped into a satellite constellation with no real returns in sight would serve to seriously harm his significant investments in the company.
He would say that? Maybe, but @dfjsteve Jurvetson, early @SpaceX & @planet investor, told Satellite Innovation conference Oct 10, regarding SpaceX’s two Starlink test sats launched in February: pic.twitter.com/WHzJlPUEPA
