More than 10,000 people in the US and abroad are getting their internet from a network of SpaceX satellites, the Elon Musk-led company says.
The rocket-building firm touted the number in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission as it looked to expand the Starlink satellite internet service.
“Starlink’s performance is not theoretical or experimental,” SpaceX wrote in the Wednesday filing, adding that the network’s “performance is rapidly accelerating in real time as part of its public beta program” that launched in October.
SpaceX aims to provide access to high-speed internet in rural areas with Starlink, which costs $99 a month plus $499 for the equipment needed to connect to the network. The company said in August 2020 that “nearly 700,000 individuals” had expressed interest in Starlink.
While SpaceX warned early Starlink customers that the service could be spotty, the company said it is “meeting and exceeding” speeds of 100 megabits per second.
“Starlink continues to improve as SpaceX deploys additional infrastructure and capability, averaging two Starlink launches per month, to add significant on-orbit capacity alongside activation of additional gateways to improve performance and expand service coverage areas across the country,” SpaceX told the FCC.
SpaceX touted the number in a filing as it looked to expand the Starlink satellite internet service.Alamy Stock Photo
In the filing, SpaceX asked the feds to designate it as an “Eligible
Telecommunications Carrier,” which it needs to provide Starlink service in seven states including New York and Tennessee.
SpaceX won access to those states through an FCC auction to bring broadband internet service to rural areas, according to CNBC.
In 1972, the Space Race officially ended as NASA sent one last crew of astronauts to the surface of the Moon (Apollo 17). This was the brass ring that both the US and the Soviets were reaching for, the “Moonshot” that would determine who had supremacy in space. In the current age of renewed space exploration, the next great leap will clearly involve sending astronauts to Mars.
This will present many challenges that will need to be addressed in advance, many of which have to do with simply getting the astronauts there in one piece! These challenges were the subject of a presentation made by two Indian researchers at the SciTech Forum 2020, an annual event hosted by the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), RUDN University, and the American Astronomical Society (AAS).
The study that describes their research findings recently appeared online and has been accepted for publication by Advances in Aeronautical Sciences (publication date pending). Both it and the presentation made at the SciTech Forum 2020 were conducted by Malaya Kumar Biswal and Ramesh Naidu Annavarapua – a graduate researcher and Associate Professor of Physics from Pondicherry University, India (respectively).
Their research was also the subject of a presentation (video posted above) made during the 7th Session of the Space Biology Virtual Workshop hosted by the Lunar Planetary Institute (LPI) – which took place between Jan. 20th and 21st. As Biswal and Annavarapua indicated in their study and presentations, Mars occupies a special place in the hearts and minds of scientists and astrobiological researchers.
Next to Earth, Mars is the most habitable location in the Solar System (by terrestrial standards). Multiple lines of evidence accumulated over the course of decades have also shown that it may have supported life at one time. Unfortunately, sending astronauts to Mars will inevitably entail a number of distinct challenges, which arise from logistics and technology to human factors and the distances involved.
Addressing these issues in advance is paramount if NASA and other space agencies hope to conduct the first crewed missions to Mars in the next decade and after. Based on their analysis, Biswal and Annavarapu identified 14 distinct challenges, which include (but are not limited to):
The flight trajectory for Mars and corrective maneuvers
Spacecraft and fuel management
Radiation, microgravity, and astronaut health
Isolation and psychological issues
Communications (in transit and on Mars)
The Mars approach and orbital insertion (see Mars Curse)
All of these challenges experience some degree of overlap with one or more of the others listed. For instance, an obvious issue when it comes to planning missions to Mars is the sheer distance involved. Because of this, launch windows between Earth and Mars only occur every two years when our planets are at the closest in their orbits to each other (i.e., when Mars is in “Opposition” relative to the Sun).
During these windows, a spacecraft can make the journey from Earth to Mars in 150 to 300 days (about five to ten months). This makes resupply missions impractical since astronauts cannot wait that long to receive much-needed shipments of fuel, food, and other supplied. As Biswal told Universe Today via email, the distances involved also creates problems where astronaut safety and are power-generation are concerned:
“[I]n case of any emergency situation, we cannot bring back astronauts from Mars [as we could] in the case of LEO or Lunar Missions… Similarly, distance reduces the solar flux from Earth orbit to Mars orbit resulting in the deficit power production which is very significant to power vehicle and maintain thermal stability (As again the far distance may lead to low environment temperature causing hypothermia and frost formation (especially in mouth).”
In other words, simply getting to Mars presents multiple specific challenges that Biswal and Annavarapu included in their analysis. When talking about astronaut healthy and safety, there are several specific challenges that come into play here as well. For instance, the fact that astronauts will be spending an several months in deep-space creates all kinds of risks for their physical and mental health.
Artist’s impression of the Mars Base Camp in orbit around Mars. When missions to Mars begin, one of the greatest risks will be that posed by space radiation. Credit: Lockheed Martin
For starters, there’s the psychological toll of being confined to a spacecraft cabin with other astronauts. There’s also the physical toll of long-term exposure to a microgravity environment. As research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has shown – particularly, NASA’s Twin Study – spending up to a year in space takes a considerable toll on the human body.
Beyond muscle and bone density loss, astronauts who’s spent long periods aboard the ISS also experienced a loss in eyesight, genetic changes, and long-term issues with their cardiovascular and circulation systems. There have also been instances of psychological effects, where astronauts experienced high levels of anxiety, insomnia, and depression.
But as Biswal indicated, the single-greatest and most obvious challenge is all the radiation (solar and cosmic) that the astronauts will be exposed to over the course of the entire mission:
“[The] greatest dangers include the risk of prolonged cancer and its effects due to exposure to both interplanetary radiation (during Mars transit) and surface radiation (during extended surface stay). Then, the effect of radiation cause improper brain coordination function and other brain-related diseases; then the psychological effect of the crew during complete isolation. Since the crewed mission relies on the performance of astronaut, the astronaut experience more health-related issues.”
An illustration of a Moon base that could be built using 3D printing and ISRU, In-Situ Resource Utilization. Credit: RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018
In developed nations, people on Earth are exposed to an average of about 620 millirem (62 mSv) annually, or 1.7 millirems (0.17 mSv) a day. Meanwhile, NASA has conducted studies that have shown how a mission to Mars would result in a total exposure of about 1,000 mSv over a two and a half year period. This would consist of 600 mSv during a year-long round-trip, plus 400 mSv during an 18-month stay (while the planets realigned).
What that means is that astronauts will be exposed to 1.64 mSv a day while in transit and 0.73 mSv for every day that they are staying on Mars – that’s over 9.5 and 4.3 times the daily average, respectively. The health risks that this entails could mean that astronauts would be suffering from radiation-related health problems before they even arrive on Mars, to say nothing of the surface operations or return trip.
Luckily, there are mitigation strategies for the transit and surface parts of the mission, some of which Biswal and Annavarapua recommend. “We are currently developing a Mars subsurface habitat that could address all the health-related issues on the extended mission or permanent settlement on Mars,” said Biswal. “[T]he crewed mission should include faster production of crew necessities from in-situ resource [utilization] (ISRU).”
This proposal is in keeping with the many mission profiles that NASA and other space agencies are developing for future lunar and Martian exploration. There are already many existing strategies to keep crews protected from radiation while in space, but in extraterrestrial environments, all concepts incorporate the use of local resources (such as regolith or ice) to create natural shielding.
The local availability of ice is also seen as a must for the sake of ensuring a steady water supply for human consumption and irrigation (since astronauts on long-duration missions will need to grow much of their own food). Aside from all that, Biswal and Annavarapu emphasized how maintaining a fast flight and return trajectory will help reduce travel time.
There is also the possibility of leveraging advanced technologies like nuclear-thermal and nuclear-electric propulsion (NTP/NEP). NASA and other space agencies are actively researching nuclear rockets since a spacecraft equipped with NTP or NEP could make the journey to Mars in just 100 days! But as Bisawl and Annavarapu indicated, this raises the challenge of dealing with nuclear systems and more exposure to radiation.
Alas, all of these challenges can be addressed with the right combination of innovation and preparation. And when you consider the payoffs of sending crewed missions to Mars, the challenges seem a lot less daunting. As Biswal offered, these include proximity, the opportunities to study Martian soil samples in an Earth laboratory, the expanding of our horizons, and the ability to answer fundamental questions about life:
“We have always been fascinated to know where we have come from and if there is any life like us in other astronomical bodies? [W]e cannot execute a crewed mission to any other interplanetary destination due to mission risk and management.
“Mars is the only neighbouring planet in our Solar System we can explore, it [has] a good geologic record to answer all [of] our unsolved questions, and [we can] bring samples [back] to analyze in our terrestrial lab?’ And finally, it would be interesting to execute a human mission to Mars in order to demonstrate the extent of current technology and aerospace progression.”
Artist’s concept of a bimodal nuclear rocket making the journey to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in the Solar System. Credit: NASA
Since the early 1960s, space agencies have been sending robotic missions to Mars. Since the 1970s, some of those missions have been landers that set down on the surface. With the over forty years of data and expertise that’s resulted, NASA and other space agencies are now looking to apply what they’ve learned so they can send the first astronauts to Mars.
The first attempts may still be over a decade (or more) away, but only if significant preparations take place beforehand. Not only do a lot of mission-related components and infrastructure still need to be developed, but a lot of research still needs to be done. Thankfully, these efforts benefit from the kinds of thorough assessments we see here, where all potential risks and hazards are investigated (and counter-measures proposed).
All of this will hopefully lead to the creation of a sustainable program for Martian exploration. It might even enable the long-term human occupation of Mars and the creation of a permanent colony. Thanks to the efforts of many researchers and scientists, the day may finally come when there is such a thing as “Martians.”
This year’s SciTech Forum was a virtual event, where presenters shared their findings at two conferences that took place from December 8th to 10th. For more information, check out the IAA-AAS SciTech Forum 2020 website.
<p>It can be hard to conceptualize the total damage caused by Alzheimer's. The neurodegenerative disease is a <a href="https://ift.tt/3rmoapw" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">leading cause of death in the U.S.,</a> killing more than 100,000 people each year. And as Alzheimer's progresses in the brain it not only <a href="https://ift.tt/36JsCHc" target="_blank">erodes memory</a> but also causes troubling symptoms like agitation, paranoia, and aggression.</p><p>These burdens fall not only on patients but also on their loved ones, doctors, and caregivers. Economically, the cost of caring for Alzheimer's patients hit an estimated $305 billion in 2020, according to a <a href="https://ift.tt/2YJudZ4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">report from the Alzheimer's Association</a>. And that figure <em>doesn't</em> include an estimated $244 billion in unpaid caregiving provided by family and friends.</p><p>The number of Alzheimer's patients in the U.S. is expected to double by 2050, affecting about 14 million people. That's one reason why hospitals and health professionals are already working to bolster how they care for the elderly and Alzheimer's patients. It takes 15 years to develop new treatments, so today's research needs adequate funding.</p><p>"Caring for our older adults is a big responsibility, one that we take great pride in," <a href="https://ift.tt/2MUPwnJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health. "Our aging population will face health issues, including and especially Alzheimer's, that will require the right care at the right time. That's why we have increased our services, including at Glen Cove Hospital, and research at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research."</p>
<blockquote>... the real suffering comes from the changes that happen in the personality...</blockquote>
What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
<p>While the costs of Alzheimer's are clear, its exact causes remain frustratingly mysterious. Currently, there's no cure for the disease, nor treatments that stop its progression.</p><p>"Alzheimer's is this brain problem, and everyone sort of knows what's probably causing the problem, but nobody's been able to do anything about it," said Dr. Jeremy Koppel, a geriatric psychiatrist and co-director of the Litwin-Zucker Alzheimer Research Center.</p><p>But in recent decades, researchers have zeroed in on likely contributors to the disease. The brains of Alzheimer's patients reliably show two abnormalities: build-ups of proteins called abnormal tau and beta-amyloid. As these proteins accumulate in the brain, they disrupt healthy communication between neurons. Over time, neurons get injured and die, and brain tissue shrinks.</p><p>Still, it's unclear exactly how these proteins, or other factors such as <a href="https://ift.tt/3oQjHKe" target="_blank">inflammation</a>, may drive Alzheimer's.</p><p>"We are dealing with very complicated components," said Dr. Philippe Marambaud, a professor at the Feinstein Institutes and co-director of the Litwin-Zucker Alzheimer Research Center. "The actual culprit is not clearly defined. We know there are three possible culprits [tau, beta-amyloid, inflammation]. They're working in concert, or maybe in isolation. We don't know precisely."</p><p>Many Alzheimer's researchers have spent years developing therapies that target beta-amyloid, which can accumulate to form plaques in the brain. The Alzheimer's Association <a href="https://ift.tt/2voYmvs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">writes</a>:</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"According to the amyloid hypothesis, these stages of beta-amyloid aggregation disrupt cell-to-cell communication and activate immune cells. These immune cells trigger inflammation. Ultimately, the brain cells are destroyed."</p><p>Unfortunately, clinical trials of therapies that target beta-amyloid haven't been effective in treating Alzheimer's.</p>
Anti-tau immunotherapies: The holy grail of Alzheimer’s?
In brains with Alzheimer's disease, tau proteins lose their structure and form neurofibrillary tangles that block communication between synapses.
Credit: Adobe Stock
At the Feinstein Institutes, Dr. Marambaud and his colleagues have been focusing on the lesser-explored Alzheimer's component: abnormal tau.In healthy brains, tau plays several important functions, including stabilizing internal microtubules in neurons. But in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, a process called phosphorylation changes the structure of tau proteins. This blocks synaptic communication.Dr. Marambaud said there are good reasons to think anti-tau therapies may effectively treat Alzheimer's."The main argument around why [anti-tau therapies] could be more beneficial is that we've known for a very long time that tau pathology in the brain of the Alzheimer's patient correlates much better with the disease progression, and the loss of neuronal material in the brain," compared to beta-amyloid, Dr. Marambaud said. "The second strong argument is that there are inherited dementias, called tauopathies, which are caused by mutations in the gene coding for the tau protein. So, there is a direct genetic link between dementia and tau pathology."To better understand how this protein interacts with Alzheimer's, Dr. Marambaud and his colleagues have been developing immunotherapies that target abnormal tau.Immunotherapies, such as vaccines, typically target infectious diseases. But it's also possible to use the body's immune system to prevent or treat some non-infectious diseases. Scientists have recently succeeded in treating certain forms of cancer with immunotherapies, for example."We have developed a series of monoclonal antibodies, which are basically the therapeutics that are required when you want to do immunotherapy," Dr. Marambaud said.
<p>Currently, Feinstein Institutes researchers are conducting promising ongoing clinical trials with anti-tau antibodies, some of which are in phase III trials under the Food and Drug Administration. Patients receive these therapies intravenously over several hours and would undergo multiple rounds of treatment. It's similar to chemotherapy.</p><p>In the short term, it's more likely that anti-tau therapies would help to stabilize Alzheimer's, not cure it.</p><p>"Just stabilization of the disease's progression will save a huge societal, but also financial, burden," Dr. Marambaud said. "As research progresses, we would improve upon these stabilization approaches to make them more and more efficacious."</p><p>Even if anti-tau therapies don't prove to be the holy grail of Alzheimer's treatments, they could potentially alleviate severe behavioral symptoms of the disease, and potentially illuminate some of the mechanisms behind psychosis.</p>
Alzheimer’s and psychosis
Credit: Getty Images
When most people think of Alzheimer's, they tend to focus on the erosion of memory. But the darkest effects of the disease are often psychotic symptoms like agitation, aggression and paranoia, according to Dr. Koppel, who, in addition to researching Alzheimer's, spent decades treating Alzheimer's patients as a clinician."My research focus comes out of 20 years of sitting with Alzheimer's families and listening to what the primary issue is," said Dr. Koppel. "It's never memory. It starts out with memory as a diagnostic issue. But the real suffering comes from the changes that happen in the personality and the belief system that make Alzheimer's patients" ostracized or even become violent toward their loved ones.At the Feinstein Institutes, Dr. Koppel's research focuses on alleviating Alzheimer's-related psychotic symptoms through anti-tau immunotherapies. "It's our hypothesis that abnormal tau proteins in the brain somehow, downstream, impact the way that people think," Dr. Koppel said. "And the impact that it has is this paranoid, agitated, psychotic phenotype."Supporting this hypothesis is research on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative disease that involves the accumulation of abnormal tau. CTE, common among professional football players, also causes psychotic symptoms like agitation, aggression and paranoia.What's more, research shows that as Alzheimer's patients accumulate more abnormal tau in their brains, as measured through cerebrospinal fluid, they exhibit more psychotic symptoms, and are more likely to die sooner than patients with less abnormal tau.Given these strong connections between psychosis and abnormal tau, Dr. Koppel and his colleagues hope that anti-tau immunotherapies will alleviate psychosis in Alzheimer's patients, who currently lack safe and effective treatment options and are often given medication that is meant to alleviate psychosis in people with schizophrenia."We are giving medications to Alzheimer's patients that hasten their cognitive decline and lead to bad outcomes, like stroke and sudden death," Dr. Koppel said. "Nonetheless, the schizophrenia medications do treat some of the psychotic symptoms and aggressive behavior related to Alzheimer's disease, and for many families this is crucial. We just don't have many options, and we desperately need more."Beyond treating Alzheimer's patients, anti-tau immunotherapies may shed light on other mental illnesses."Alzheimer's may give us a window into what happens in the brain that makes people psychotic," Dr. Koppel said. "Once you have a biologic treatment for psychosis that gets at an underlying pathophysiology, believe me, you could look at schizophrenia in new ways. Maybe it's not going to be tau, but it may be a paradigm for treating mental illness."
The future of Alzheimer’s treatments
<p>Dr. Marambaud said the long-term goal of anti-tau immunotherapies is to prevent Alzheimer's. But that's currently impossible because scientists lack the biomarkers and diagnostic tools needed to detect the disease before cognitive symptoms appear. It could take decades before prevention becomes possible, if it ever does.</p><p>In the short term, stabilizing Alzheimer's is a more realistic goal.</p><p>"Our hope is that the treatments will be aggressive enough so that we can at least stabilize the disease in patients identified to be already affected by dementia, with cognitive tests that can be done by the clinicians," Dr. Marambaud said. "And even better, maybe reduce the cognitive impairments."</p><p>Dr. Marambaud said he encourages the public not to lose faith.</p><p>"Be patient. It's a very complicated disease," he said. "A lot of labs are really committed to making a difference. Congress has also realized that this is a huge priority. In the past five years, [National Institutes of Health] funding has increased tremendously. So the scientific field is working very hard. The politicians are behind us in funding this research. And it's a complicated disease. But we will make a difference in the years to come."</p><p>In the meantime, the Alzheimer's Association <a href="https://ift.tt/2QCHyj5" target="_blank">notes</a> that physical activity and a healthy diet can reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's, though more large-scale studies are needed to better understand how these factors interact with the disease.</p><p>"Many of these lifestyle changes have been shown to lower the risk of other diseases, like heart disease and diabetes, which have been linked to Alzheimer's," the association wrote. "With few drawbacks and plenty of known benefits, healthy lifestyle choices can improve your health and possibly protect your brain."</p><div><br></div>
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Public beta testing for SpaceX’s satellite-beamed internet service kicked off late last year for people in the US, Canada and the UK, and an FCC application (PDF) tells us a bit about how things are going so far. CNBC points out the filing, which seeks designation for Starlink as an eligible telecommunications carrier, and notes that SpaceX reports over 10,000 people are already using the service.
Starlink is seeking designation so it can access the millions of dollars it’s been granted from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund to provide service across a number of states. The letter also notes that SpaceX already has more than 1,000 satellites in orbit (it just launched a few more last night), and that its network is showing it can provide more than 100/20 megabits per second connections, as well as less than 31ms of latency for 95 percent of round-trip measurements.
SpaceX will launch another big batch of its Starlink internet satellites early Sunday (Feb. 7) on a record-tying mission, and you can watch the action live.
A two-stage Falcon 9 rocket topped with roughly 60 satellites for SpaceX's growing Starlink broadband constellation is scheduled to lift off Sunday at 4:31 a.m. EST (0931 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Shortly thereafter, the booster's first stage will come back down to Earth for a vertical landing.
The launch was originally slated to occur early Friday (Feb. 5), but SpaceX delayed the flight to allow time for additional rocket checks, as well as for the company to unload the payload fairings captured after another Starlink flight, which launched earlier today.
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Sunday's mission, known as Starlink 17, will mark the eighth orbital launch for this particular Falcon 9's first stage. That will tie the SpaceX rocket-reusability record, which was set last month during another Starlink liftoff.
Such extensive reuse is a key priority for SpaceX and its billionaire founder and CEO, Elon Musk. Full and rapid reuse of rockets and spacecraft is the crucial breakthrough needed to make spaceflight affordable and enable ambitious exploration feats such as Mars colonization, Musk has said.
Sunday's flight will be the second Starlink launch in just over three days. Early this morning, a different Falcon 9 launched 60 of the broadband satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is next door to KSC.
Falcon 9 launches 60 Starlink satellites to orbit – mission from pad 39A on deck pic.twitter.com/71cuCBgPNXFebruary 4, 2021
For a while, it looked like the two flights would be even more dramatically back to back.
The Eastern Range, the entity that oversees launches from the U.S. East Coast, granted approval for Starlink 17 to launch this morning, less than five hours after the other Starlink mission got off the ground. But SpaceX announced yesterday (Feb. 3) that it had decided to target Friday morning for Starlink 17, to allow more time for prelaunch checkouts. And now Starlink 17 has been pushed to no earlier than Sunday.
SpaceX has now launched nearly 1,100 Starlink satellites. But many more are likely to go up; the constellation may eventually harbor tens of thousands of spacecraft.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the new launch date for SpaceX's next Starlink mission. SpaceX postponed the launch to no earlier than Sunday (Feb. 7) to allow time for more rocket checks.
Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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