Category: Tech

On Saturday, a new batch of 53 Starlink satellites was launched into space by SpaceX. The company expanded its constellation of low Earth orbit satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:19 am EST and deployed the satellites 16 minutes after launch. SpaceX has been building Starlink for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. Starlink is a satellite-based global internet system whose internet proposal was announced in January 2015.

CEO Elon Musk said that its company had registered documents with the international regulators to establish nearly 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and eventually hopes to have 42,000 satellites in the so-called mega-constellation.

Its size and scope frighten astronomers, who fear that bright, orbiting objects will interfere with observations of the universe, as well as spaceflight safety experts who now consider Starlink the number one collision danger in Earth’s orbit.

The rocket’s reusable first stage was successfully returned to the Atlantic Ocean on the “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship after it had been used for multiple launches, including the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

On Tuesday, the United States of America’s newest extreme weather satellite was launched to improve wildfire and flood forecasting across the western half of the country. From Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the satellite blasted into orbit on an Atlas V rocket at 21:38 GMT.

The satellite will be monitoring extreme weather including landslides, dust storms, and hurricanes. The GOES-T spacecraft will also track lighting, coastal fog, and climate change 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and may even be able to detect wildfires before they are recorded on the ground. After months of testing, the satellite will be releasing its first image next year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designed this satellite. It’s the third of four weather satellites worth $11.7 billion that are among the most advanced satellite ever created by NOAA.

According to the NOAA program director Pam Sullivan, the satellite will provide continuous coverage of weather and hazardous environmental conditions in the Western Hemisphere. He said, “These observations are even more critical in a time when the US is experiencing a record number of billion-dollar disasters”.

Tanzania unveils a new non-invasive EDE method to detect Covid-19 infection. The EDE technology was launched at the Zanzibar International Airport.

Exponential D examination (EDE) uses the electromagnetic rays that come from the human body. EDE can capture every sign of change that pulls towards the Covid-19 virus which can tell if the person is scanned positive or negative.

The EDE technology was introduced by the local government which is the first scanning method in Africa to detect the virus in the human body. It is a big success for the nation as it will be a huge relief from PCR tests for travelers. Travelers will no longer have to get PCR or arrive 2 hours before their flight.

The president of Zanzibar Hussein Mwinyi said, “When it comes to conducting Covid tests, there have always been a lot of problems, and you know all these tests were really invasive, but this is the first non-invasive test but also the first test of its kind in Africa. So for us, it’s a huge success for Zanzibar”.

The EDE technology was tested on nearly 20,000 people with a 93% accuracy rate before it was launched at the Zanzibar International Airport.

Ethiopia began to produce electricity from its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) for the first time in history. It is a massive hydropower plant that is built on the River Nile that neighbors Sudan and Egypt.

On Sunday, Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the electricity production from the mega-dam which is considered as a milestone in the controversial multibillion-dollar project.

Prime Minister toured the power generation along with his high-ranking officials. He pressed a series of buttons on an electronic screen to initiate the production.

Abiy said, “Ethiopia’s main interest is to bring light to 60% of the population who is suffering in darkness, to save the labor of our mothers who are carrying wood on their backs in order to get energy”.

This project is said to cause severe water shortages downstream to which the prime minister assured them that his country did not want to harm the interests of neighboring countries.

However, Egypt’s foreign ministry accused Ethiopia of “persisting in its violations”. He said that in accordance with the preliminary deal signed between the three nations in 2015. The deal prohibited any of the parties from taking unilateral actions in the use of the water from the river.

India and Germany commit to promoting green growth and cleantech. Embedding economic growth and development with the preservation of the natural assets that provide us with resources and environmental services is considered green growth.

India’s External Affairs Minister Mr. S. Jaishankar said that he held a “constructive meeting” with Svenja Schulze- Germany’s Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development. He tweeted on Sunday regarding their meeting through his Twitter handle. It is worth mentioning that among renewable energy countries, India ranked third in 2021.

On Friday, Mr. Jaishankar arrived in Germany to take part in the Munich Security Conference 2022. He said that they discussed their respective development partnership outlook and share a commitment to promoting green growth and cleantech.

Mr. Jaishankar also held talks with the Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to German Chancellor Jens Ploetner and tweeted that he had a good meeting with him regarding a useful review of global development.

He also met his counterpart for Ireland, Simon Coveney. He tweeted regarding the meet, “COncluded the day meeting with FM @simoncoveney of Ireland. We have worked closely together at UNSC. Ireland can play a greater role in our EU engagement”.

Six African countries, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia are selected to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccine against the COVID-19 infection.

On Friday, the European Union and African Union have chosen these six countries in a summit meeting. These six countries will build their own vaccine in factories as part of a bid The World Health Organization launched last year. The bid replicated what is believed to be the most effective licensed shots against the coronavirus.

WHO’s Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told in the Brussels summit meeting that despite 10 billion vaccine doses having been administered worldwide, billion of people are still unvaccinated.

As per the WHO data, only 11% of the population in Africa is fully vaccinated as compared to the world’s global average of 50%. Only 1% of the vaccine against the virus was produced in Africa.

He called out for an urgent increase in the local production of shots in poor countries. He added that the tragedy is that billions of people are yet to benefit from this life-saving vaccine.

This is the first time WHO has supported efforts to reverse-engineer a commercially-sold vaccine, circumventing a pharmaceutical industry that prioritizes providing drugs to rich states over those living in poverty.

On Tuesday, as part of a push to reduce Europe’s reliance on foreign companies and secure key communications services and surveillance data against outside interference, the European Commission unveiled a $6.8 billion satellite communications plan.

The aim of the EU proposal was to build and operate a space-based state-of-the-art connectivity system, improve the resilience of EU telecommunication infrastructures, and help counter cyber and electromagnetic threats. The program is set to be launched next year by the EU.

In a statement, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said, “Our new connectivity infrastructure will deliver high-speed internet access, serve as a back-up to our current internet infrastructure, increase our resilience and cyber security, and provide connectivity to the whole of Europe and Africa”.

In the aftermath of the Russian and Chinese advances in outer space and an increase in satellite launches, this step was taken. The exponential growth of satellites and debris caused by commercial operators like SpaceX and its Starlink network has also contributed to a fast-growing satellite population.

Six billion euros will be provided by a 2.4 billion euro contribution from the EU from 2022-2027, as well as by countries in the EU, the European Space Agency, and private investments.

Meanwhile, NASA raises concerns regarding the SpaceX satellite deployment plan.

Researchers found new antibodies that can directly interfere with and block the cell-to-cell transmission of SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19. FuG1 is the antibody that targets the enzyme furin that is used by the virus for its efficient chain of infection in cells of the human body.

In the journal Microbiology Spectrum, this approach was described recently that could be added to existing SARS-CoV-2 antibody cocktails. It can help for greater functioning against the emerging variants.

From the University of California, the senior author of the study Jogender Tushir-Singh said, “We developed an approach that interferes with the transmission chain of SARS-CoV-2. The Covid-19 vaccines are a great lifesaver in reducing hospitalizations and severe illness. Yet, we are now learning that they may not be as effective in controlling the transmissibility of the virus”.

Specifically, they found that engineered FuG1 antibody interfered with the SARS-CoV-2 virus’ ability to become highly transmissible by competitively interfering with its furin function.

Cellular functions are affected by furin, which is found in every cell in the body. The enzyme breaks down proteins into smaller parts. According to the researchers, furin does this by cutting or cleaving the polybasic peptide bonds in the proteins.

On Monday, The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully stationed its earth observation satellite EOS-04 along with two other satellites in the intended orbit. this was the first launch mission in 2022. It followed a smooth countdown of 25 hours and 30 minutes in early morning skies with the workhorse launch vehicle, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C52) along with three satellites onboard. it blasted off at 5:59 towards the sky amid the dark.

According to ISRO, the important flight events took place exactly as planned- stage and strap-on ignition, heat shield separation, stages, and strap-on separation and satellite injection. The three satellites- EOS-04, INSPIREsat-1, and INST-2TD- post-flight of 17 minutes, and 34 seconds were injected successfully into a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529km. ISRO said the orbit achieved for the three satellites was “very close” to the intended orbits.

At Bengaluru, the two solar arrays of EOS-04 deployed automatically and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) assumed the control of the satellite after its separation. Satellites will begin transmitting data in the coming days after they are brought up to their final operational configuration.

PM Modi congratulated space scientists on the launch of the PSLA C52 mission

On Thursday, a $5billion plan was unveiled by the Biden administration to build thousands of electric vehicle charging stations. In November, the congress party approved the funding to staters as part of a $1 trillion infrastructure.

Although efforts to win substantial funding for electric vehicles have stalled by Congress, the White House is trying to encourage Americans to shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles. $615 million will be made available by the administration in 2022. However, the states must first submit plans and win approval from the federal.

U.S Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a press conference, “We are not going to dictate to the states how to do this, but we do need to make sure that there are meet basic standards, it is going to be customized, which is exactly why we have the states coming to us with plans rather than the other way around”. He said that the US faces different EV network challenges in rural and urban areas.

Biden government aims to sell 50% of vehicles that are electric or plug-in hybrid electric models by 2030. He also wants to install 500,000 new EV charging stations. However, he has not supported an end to new gasoline-powered vehicle sales by 2030.