Category: Tech

India and China are to collaborate soon in space after a joint commission on space cooperation for the Brics bloc was formed at a meeting of the leading space agencies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, on Wednesday, as reported by official Chinese media.

The BRICS remote sensing constellation will include six existing satellites chipped in by the space agencies of Brics countries including the CBERS-4, a combined development by Brazil and China, Russia’s Kanopus-V-type, and China’s Gaofen-6 and Ziyuan III 02. The Indian satellites Resourcesat-2 and 2A will be part of the “virtual constellation of remote sensing satellites”.

The video meeting held on Wednesday, among the leaders of the four-space agencies, is a sign of progress in the agreement for cooperation in remote sensing satellite data sharing signed in August 2021 under India’s chairship of BRICS. The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) stated in August last year that This would “contribute to strengthening multilateral cooperation among Brics space agencies in meeting the challenges faced by mankind, such as global climate change, major disasters, and environmental protection”.

The official Chinese report on the meeting did not provide a date or schedule for when the virtual satellite constellation will start functioning.

US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met on Monday in Tokyo and put forward their plans of working together to help a Japanese astronaut, accompanied by a US cosmonaut, to set foot on the lunar surface. The long-term allies aim to strengthen their partnership to combat China, which asserts to become a space power soon.

The two countries released a joint statement stating to work together on human and robotic missions on the Moon including a cumulative desire to see a Japanese astronaut on the surface of the moon in the near future and sign a contract for the same this year. It also said that both countries are committed to expanding the Artemis collaboration- a US-backed initiative to return astronauts to the moon and in due course send humans to Mars.

Biden said at a press conference that he was excited about the US-Japan space collaboration taking wings,  eyeing the Moon and Mars. Both countries are looking to establish close ties on space exploration after a warning issued by NASA officials regarding the flaring tension between the capitals of both countries. More than 12 Japanese nationals have travelled to space so far and the country’s space budget rose to 450 billion Yen in 2021.

On Friday, May 20, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station’s Harmony module for the first time at 8:28 p.m. EDT (5:28 p.m. (PDT).

A day before, On May 19, the spacecraft was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on a flight test at 6:45 pm to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex-42 at Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

NASA schedules a teleconference to update Starliner’s progress that will be streamed on NASA’s official website. The hatch opening will be done on Saturday and coverage will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app and on the agency’s website.

The departure of the Starliner is scheduled for Wednesday, May 25. It will be undocked and return back on Earth with a desert landing in the western U.S. More than 600 pounds of cargo will be aboard the spacecraft, including reusable Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System tanks that provide breathable air to station crew members. A future flight will return the refurbished tanks to the space station.

A crew of four members will be aboard Starliner later to increase the amount of science and research that can be performed in the orbiting laboratory.

On Tuesday, a two-seater flying trainer aircraft HANSA-NG successfully completed an in-flight engine relight test. Designed and developed by CSIR-NAL the aircraft was ferried to DRDO’s Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) facility at Challakere on May 16 after DGCA’s approval.

The flight test was carried out by Aircraft and System Testing Establishment’s (ASTE) test pilots Wg Cdr K V Prakash and Wg Cdr NDS Reddy which was monitored by Abbani Rinku, Project Director of HANSA along with the design team of CSIR-NAL and ASTE crew- Wg Cdr Senthil Kumar, Flight Test Director, Sq Ldr Sahil Sarin, safety pilot and Gp Capt M Rangachari, Chief Test Pilot.

NAL disclosed in a release that the test was carried out at an altitude of 7000-8000 feet with a speed range of 60 to 70 knots. A windmilling propeller and starter assisted start was used to demonstrate the aircraft’s in-flight relight capability. During this test flight, the aircraft’s handling characteristics and flight parameters were found to be normal.

According to CSIR-NAL, the in-flight engine relight test is considered one of the most critical and crucial milestones toward the certification of the aircraft by DGCA.

On Friday, four astronauts were brought home by SpaceX with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico.

The crew consisted of three U.S. astronauts and one German. Within 24 hours of leaving the International Space Station, they were bogging off the coast of Florida near Tampa. NASA demanded them back in Houston later in the morning.

Before saying their goodbyes to the seven astronauts remaining aboard the station, NASA’s Raja Chari, NASA’s Tom Marshburn, NASA’s Kayla Barron and ESA’s Matthias Maurer embraced each other. Mr Maurer said, “It’s the end of a six-month mission, but I think the space dream lives on”. Following a charter flight to the station for three businessmen, SpaceX brought up their American and Italian replacements last week.

After decades of resistance, the newly returned astronauts said the three visitors and an ex-astronaut escort who visited the station in April were a highlight of their mission.

Two crew launches and two splashdowns within a month. In less than two years since Musk started ferrying NASA astronauts, his company has launched 26 people into orbit. Among them, eight were space tourists.

There are three Russians, three Americans and one Italian up on the space station.

On Monday, the US government allocated more than $3 billion in infrastructure funding to finance electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing. The US Department of Energy will allocate these funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed by President Biden last year.

By 2030, Biden wants half of all new vehicles to be electronic, with an aim to boost unionized manufacturing jobs in important election battleground states, fend off Chinese competition in a fast-growing market, and cut climate-changing carbon emissions. Moreover, the administration is positioning the measures as a means to cut the long-term inflation pressures caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, these funds will not be used to develop new domestic mines to supply lithium, nickel, cobalt and other high-demand minerals needed for batteries. To support the mining and processing of those minerals, Biden invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act in March.

Biden’s national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said, “These resources are about battery supply chain, which includes producing, recycling critical minerals without new extraction or mining”.

These fundings are said to help establish and retrofit battery factories. Additionally, the infrastructure law allocates billions of dollars to purchase electric buses and install chargers for electric vehicles.

On Friday, a Singaporean Research scientist Wang Weimin wins a $100 k prize in a challenge to develop the best artificial intelligence (AI) model for detecting Deepfakes or digitally altered video clips.

Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence to simulate the likeness and voice of another person by generating highly realistic images and audio. In addition to creating entertainment content and Internet memes, it has also been used to disseminate misinformation.

In a five-month challenge, Wang’s model was 98.53 per cent accurate and beat 469 other teams around the world. The model could differentiate genuine video clips from those manipulated faces, voices, or both.

During the Trusted Media Challenge organized by AI Singapore, a national AI Programme office under the National Research Foundation, Wang, a graduate of the National University of Singapore, received first place and a prize of $100,000.

Wang, who works for ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant that owns TikTok, was also offered a $300,000 grant to commercialize his invention. However, he refused and plans to incorporate his AI model into his company’s BytePlus platform and provide Deepfake detection as a service to its clients.

He said, “Good or bad, Deepfake is an emerging technology that you simply can’t ignore”.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute developed a novel silver-based coating for implants that can reduce infection caused in patients sometimes.

The silver coating can be applied to devices like stents or catheters and is described as a “silver bullet”. The term is used to address the problem of bacteria caused for patients with medical device implants that often complicate conditions.

Professor at UBC’s Department of Pathology and laboratory medicine, Dr Kizhakkedathu said, “This is a highly effective coating that won’t harm human tissues and could potentially eliminate the implant-associated infection. It could be very cost-effective and could also be applicable to many different products”.

According to the study, silver has been proven as an effective antimicrobial and its use in implants and medical devices can be toxic. A study outlining the development was published last week by the journal ACS Central Science in which Dr Kizhakkedathi is also a co-senior author. It was discovered that the coating and its related technology eliminated such issues and honed a new way to prevent bacteria from adhering to devices and killing them.

On Wednesday, four astronauts were launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station from NASA in less than two days of completing a flight chartered by millionaires.

It was expected that astronauts would reach the space station on Wednesday night, 16 hours after the predawn launch from Kennedy Space Center that thrilled spectators.

NASA’s space operations mission chief Kathy Lueders said, “This is one of the most diversified, I think, crews that we’ve had in a really, really long time. Anyone who saw it realized what a beautiful launch it was”.

Jessica Watkins became the first black woman to be part of the first NASA crew comprising equally of men and women in the long-term spaceflight. In two years span, SpaceX has launched five crews for NASA and two private trips.

SpaceX and NASA officials said they’re taking it one step at a time to ensure safety. High winds delayed Monday’s splashdown, however, according to them, the private mission had no major problems.

The company is having busy weeks as it has just finished taking three businessmen to and from the space station as NASA’s first private guests. The three Americans and German will return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule one week after the new crew arrives. The space station also houses three Russians.

On Monday, the social media giant “Twitter” confirmed its sale to the Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk. With the deal to shut on $44 billion to be completed by this year, Twitter will become a privately held company.

Musk Tweeted, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated. I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spambots, and authenticating all humans”.

The CEO of Twitter Parag Agrawal said in a tweet that Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world and he is deeply proud of his team and is inspired by the work that has never been more important. Agrawal became Twitter’s new CEO nearly five months after founder and CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his post.

It comes nearly three months after Musk began buying Twitter shares, increasing his stake from 5% to more than 9% and signalling that he wanted to control the social media platform. Post announcement on Monday, the Twitters share rose more than 5% in afternoon trading.