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Tag: Orbit

  • U.S. Space Force Deploying Space Fence

    U.S. Space Force Deploying Space Fence

    The newest branch of the U.S. military is wasting no time making its presence known as it prepares to deploy its Space Fence, according to Popular Mechanics.

    Space Fence is a radar system designed to track objects in orbit as small as four inches in diameter. It is a significant upgrade over the previous system, which could only track objects in low-Earth orbit, or 99 to 1,200 miles. Space Fence, on the other hand, can track objects in medium-Earth orbit (up to 22,000 miles) and geosynchronous orbit (beyond 22,000 miles). While the old system could track up to 2,000 objects, Spence Fence should be able “to detect five to ten times more.”

    As space flights become more common, debris poses a serious risk to spacecraft. Everyone remembers the catastrophes that happen in Sandra Bullock’s Gravity, and Space Fence should help spacecraft avoid those circumstances.

    The new radar system will also be able to track Russian and Chinese satellites, “predicting when their satellites will be over the United States and U.S. forces abroad.” Space Fence is based on the remote Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific and could be online as early as this month.

  • Joint Russian/U.S. Crew Leaves for Space Station

    The latest crew of the International Space Station left for orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:58 PM EDT today, for a six-hour flight, before docking to the Russian-made segment of the facility. One can watch the event in the clip posted by NASA Television below:

    NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins joins Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, to dock the Soyuz craft with the Poisk module, scheduled for 10:48 PM EDT. The crew is set to open the hatches at around 1 AM EDT, and will meet with three Expedition 37 crew members who have been living on the ISS since May. Said crew members are Commander Fyodor Yurchikin of Rosmosmos, Flight Engineer Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. The new guys will stay aboard the station until mid-march, and Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano will come back to Earth on November 11.

    According to NASA, the latest crew will pursue new investigations regarding human health and physiology in space. The long-term effects of a microgravity environment on the body will be examined – primarily how floating in space affects the immune system, and how the body changes shape, while in orbit. The crew is also set to conduct 11 investigations suggested by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. These experiments will examine microgravity oxidation, antibacterial resistance, cellular division, hydroponics, seed germination, photosynthesis and cooking in a microgravity environment.

    The International Space Station saw its first component put into orbit in 1998. It’s become the largest man-made satellite, and can be seen from earth with the naked eye, under the right conditions. The station functions for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars, and since the arrival of the first occupants on November 2, 2000, it eventually came to represent the longest continuous human presence in space.

    Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

  • Mars Orbiting Satellite Catches Breathtaking Images

    The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on August 12, 2005 with the express mission of taking hi-resolution photos of the Martian surface. The first photos were returned on September 29 2006 of the Martian surface. The photos below are of the sun rising over Mars over several days and they are breathtaking.

    The views of crepuscular rays sprayed across an alien planet makes one wonder about Mars and what mysteries it has. Did Mars have life millions of years ago that was destroyed? Is it as desolate now as it was a billion years ago? These are questions that we are looking to answer as we edge closer and closer to landing on Mars.

    The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera took this image of the Earth and the Moon at a distance of 88 million miles away from Mars.

  • Orbit: New Budget Windows Phone From ZTE

    Orbit: New Budget Windows Phone From ZTE

    ZTE has added a new Windows Phone called Orbit to its growing phone portfolio. The new budget smartphone is based on the latest version of Windows Phone and comes with 4GB of memory. It also has HD voice and a 5Mpx autofocus camera with LED flash. According to Senior Director of the OEM Division of Microsoft, Mark Linton, “Microsoft is excited to continue partnering with ZTE to bring new Windows Phones to market. We look forward to the availability of ZTE Orbit in major markets around the world in the second quarter of 2012.”

    Regarding the new smartphone from ZTE, Executive Vice President and Head of Terminal Division for ZTE, He Shiyou said, “The Windows Phone platform is as powerful as it is intuitive, enabling us to create and deliver exciting new devices that meet real consumer demand. Our partnership with Microsoft is a key component of our strategy to grow our share of the smartphone market. ZTE is proud to be at the forefront of device manufacturers who are using the Windows Phone platform.”

    Orbit will join the ZTE Tania, the first Windows Phone-powered smartphone launched earlier this year (January 18, 2012) by ZTE and expected to be available in stores around April. Tania is a cool new Windows Phone device with an amazingly small sized chassis measuring only 10.7 mm in depth. It has a 4GB internal storage and surprising 4.3 inch touch screen. ZTE plans to demonstrate the full portfolio of Windows Phone devices at Mobile World Congress.