Science and Tech

In a significant legal move, SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California regulatory agency, claiming that its actions regarding rocket launches are influenced by political bias. The lawsuit contends that the agency has been unfairly targeting SpaceX’s operations, impacting the company’s ability to conduct launches efficiently.

SpaceX argues that the agency’s regulatory process is not only inconsistent but also motivated by political agendas rather than objective assessments of environmental and safety standards. This claim emerges as SpaceX faces ongoing challenges related to environmental reviews and permits necessary for its launch activities.

The company seeks to expedite its launch schedule, which has been hindered by what it describes as unnecessary regulatory delays. The lawsuit underscores the broader tensions between innovative companies in the aerospace sector and regulatory bodies, as the industry grapples with balancing rapid advancement and environmental concerns.

Legal experts suggest that the outcome of this lawsuit could set a precedent for future interactions between aerospace companies and regulatory agencies, particularly in California, which is known for stringent environmental regulations. The case has attracted attention not only for its implications for SpaceX but also for its potential impact on the broader space exploration landscape.

As the legal battle unfolds, all eyes will be on how the court navigates the intersection of innovation, regulation, and political influence in the fast-evolving space industry.

BEIJING, APRIL 24China’s space agency is making final preparations to send a new crew to its space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put people on the moon by 2030.
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The three-member crew of the Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will relieve the current team who have been manning China’s Tiangong space station since last October.China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely due to the United States’ concerns over the People’s Liberation Army’s – the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm’s – involvement in the program. This year, the station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) introduced the three astronauts: Commander Ye Guangfu, 43, a veteran astronaut who was part of the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021; and astronauts Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, who will go to space for the first time.The Shenzhou-18 crew will spend about six months on the space station. They will conduct scientific tests, install space debris protection equipment on the space station, carry out payload experiments, and popularize science education, among other things, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA.Lin also said China was working toward eventually offering access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists.”We will accelerate the research and promotion of the participation of foreign astronauts and space tourists in flights with China’s space station,” he said. “We definitely expect to see astronauts of different identities on China’s space station.”The crew is set for lift-off at 1259 GMT from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in the country’s northwest.China conducted its first manned space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China’s due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities. However, China has broken out in some areas, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.The U.S. – the only country to have previously put astronauts on the moon – aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.Only four countries, the U.S., Russia, China and India, have landed spacecraft on the moon.

#Tiangong space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, MARCH 4Four astronauts headed to the International Space Station on Sunday where they will oversee the arrivals of two new rocketships during their half-year stint.
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SpaceX’s Falcon rocket blasted off from Kennedy Space Center, carrying NASA’s Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps and Russia’s Alexander Grebenkin.The astronauts should reach the orbiting lab on Tuesday. They will replace a crew from the U.S., Denmark, Japan and Russia, who have been there since August.

“When are you getting here already?” space station commander Andreas Mogensen asked via X, formerly Twitter, after three days of delay due to high wind.There was almost another postponement Sunday night. A small crack in the seal of the SpaceX capsule’s hatch prompted a last-minute flurry of reviews, but it was deemed safe for the whole mission.The new crew’s six-month stay includes the arrival of two rocketships ordered by NASA. Boeing’s new Starliner capsule with test pilots is due in late April. A month or two later, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser, a mini shuttle, should arrive. It is for delivering cargo to the station, but not passengers yet.Epps was originally assigned to fly Boeing’s Starliner, which got bogged down with problems and stalled. NASA finally switched her to SpaceX.She’s the second Black woman assigned to a long station mission. She said before the flight that she is especially proud to be a role model for Black girls, demonstrating that spaceflight “is an option for them, that this is not just for other people.”An engineer, she worked for Ford Motor Co. and the CIA before becoming an astronaut in 2009. Epps should have launched to the space station on a Russian rocket in 2018, but was replaced for reasons never publicly disclosed.Also new to space are Dominick, a Navy pilot, and Grebenkin, a former Russian military officer.Barratt, a doctor on his third mission, is the oldest full-time astronaut to fly in space. He turns 65 in April.”As long as we stay healthy and fit and engaged, we’re good to fly,” he said.Flight controllers are monitoring a growing cabin leak on Russia’s side of the space station. The leak has doubled in size in the past few weeks and the area has been sealed off, NASA program manager Joel Montalbano said. He stressed there is no impact to station operations or crew safety.

#astronauts
#International Space Station

KATHMANDU, MARCH 12A draft bill designed to manage IT and cyber security has underlined the use of innovative technology. It has stated that artificial intelligence, machine learning, block chain, and IoT should be used in a transparent, accountable, safe and respected manner.
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Such provision has been incorporated in the draft bill the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology released on Sunday. The Ministry has sought feedback on it within two weeks.In the bill, Nepal government has been asked to set up a centre for excellence for research and development of the new technologies such as AI, machine learning and block chain.

Similarly, structure for IT and cyber security has been provisioned in it, under which, establishment of directors’ committee having Minister for Communications and Information Technology as its head is stated.The document has incorporated a coordination committee under the coordination of Joint Secretary at ministry. The committee is to be established aiming at rapid response on cyber security and provide immediate assistance.Electronic records, data, originator of records, invocation of law of contract for electronic transaction, digital signature, public service delivery via electronic medium, technical audit of IT, vetting, operation, regulation and management of domain name, registration of IT industry and business, information/data safety and privacy, digital harassment, collection of personal details, establishment of cyber security centre, of data centre and cloud, are included in the bill.Critical IT infrastructures, cyber monitoring of critical IT infrastructures, cyber security audit and auditor for it, activities banned on cyber space, crime and punishment, use of digital forensic, and establishment of IT tribunal are other topics in the draft bill.Under the data safety, none is allowed to disrupt harmonious relations among federal units, nationality or national unity, dignity, national security, sovereignty, territorial integrity by means of electronic system.Cyber bulling, cyber harassment, production and distribution of indecent content, and cyber scam are banned on cyber space. Theft of data and code is punishable.The government would not collect personal data except as required by law. In case of the need to collect personal information, he/she would be informed mandatorily before it.As per bill, every government body and public corporation is asked to run its own website to provide service and share information. The development/design of website to be operated by these bodies would be similar and meet standard set by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.Similarly, any individual or office willing to register np domain needs to get it registered at the department, submitting necessary fee. The domain name needs to be renewed every two years.Those- individual or company- willing to provide cyber security service is also required to get license.The draft bill is available at https://api.giwms.gov.np/storage/22/posts/1710050856_14.pdf.

#IT and cyber security

TOKYO, MARCH 13A rocket that was supposed to become Japan’s first from the private sector to put a satellite into orbit exploded shortly after takeoff Wednesday, livestreamed video showed.
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Online video showed the rocket called Kairos blasting off from Wakayama Prefecture, in central Japan, a mountainous area filled with trees, but exploding midair within seconds.A huge plume of smoke engulfed the area, and flames shot up in some spots. The video then showed spurts of water trying to put out the blaze.

There were no reports of injuries, and the fire has been brought under control, according to the fire department in Kushimoto city, Wakayama,Tokyo-based startup Space One, behind the rocket launch, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Live footage on public broadcaster NHK relayed a voice announcing to the crowd gathered to watch the takeoff from a safe distance. NHK showed debris scattering from the sky, and later charred pieces strewn about on the ground. The cause of the problems was still under investigation, according to NHK.The launch was already delayed several times, with the last postponement coming Saturday, after a ship was spotted in a risk area, according to Japanese media reports.If it had succeeded, Space One would have been the first private company to put a rocket into orbit.Tokyo-based Space One was set up in 2018, with investments from major Japanese companies, including Canon Electronics, IHI, Shimizu and major banks.Japan’s main space exploration effort has been led by the government’s NASDA, which stands for The National Space Development Agency of Japan, this nation’s equivalent of NASA of the U.S. The agency is now called JAXA, or Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.Wednesday’s failure is likely to work as a setback for such private sector efforts. The rocket was supposed to have sent a satellite into orbit around earth to gather various information.

#Japan rocket launch

A divided U.S. appeals court said Meta Platforms (META.O), must face a class action by advertisers that accused the Facebook and Instagram owner of overcharging them by fraudulently inflating the number of people their ads might reach.In a 2-1 decision on Thursday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said advertisers could sue for damages as a group over Meta’s claims about the “potential reach” of their ads.
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Advertisers said the metric used measured the number social media accounts, not the lower number of actual people, and inflated the number of potential viewers by as much as 400%.The court also decertified a separate class seeking injunctive relief, meaning the advertisers cannot sue as a group, because it wasn’t clear that the main plaintiff had legal standing to sue.

A dissenting judge would have decertified both classes. The advertisers have estimated Meta could owe more than $7 billion of damages, court papers show.Meta and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.The Menlo Park, California-based company has said ads generate “substantially all,” of its revenue, which totaled $134.9 billion in 2023. Net income was $39.1 billion.Class actions afford potentially greater recoveries at lower cost than if plaintiffs are forced to sue individually.Circuit Judge Sidney Thomas wrote for the majority that because Meta provided the same alleged misrepresentation about potential reach, advertisers could try to prove that their alleged damages stemmed from a “common course of conduct.”The class covers potentially millions of individuals and businesses that have paid for ads on Facebook and Instagram since Aug. 15, 2014.Their lawsuit included a claim that senior executives knew that duplicate and fake accounts, including from bots, inflated the “potential reach” metric, but took steps to cover it up.Circuit Judge Danielle Forrest, in a partial dissent, said she would decertify the damages class because of individualized questions about what advertisers understood about what Meta was telling them before they bought ads.Geoffrey Graber, a lawyer for the advertisers, said he looked forward to taking the damages case to a jury.The case is DZ Reserve et al v Meta Platforms Inc, 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-15916.

#Meta Platforms

CAPE CANAVERAL, FEBRUARY 19Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar with a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day.
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The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun. The black hole powering this distant quasar is more than 17 billion times more immense than our sun, an Australian-led team reported Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy.While the quasar resembles a mere dot in images, scientists envision a ferocious place.

The rotating disk around the quasar’s black hole – the luminous swirling gas and other matter from gobbled-up stars – is like a cosmic hurricane.”This quasar is the most violent place that we know in the universe,” lead author Christian Wolf of Australian National University said in an email.The European Southern Observatory spotted the object, J0529-4351, during a 1980 sky survey, but it was thought to be a star. It was not identified as a quasar – the extremely active and luminous core of a galaxy – until last year. Observations by telescopes in Australia and Chile’s Atacama Desert clinched it.”The exciting thing about this quasar is that it was hiding in plain sight and was misclassified as a star previously,” Yale University’s Priyamvada Natarajan, who was not involved in the study, said in an email.These later observations and computer modeling have determined that the quasar is gobbling up the equivalent of 370 suns a year – roughly one a day. Further analysis shows the mass of the black hole to be 17 to 19 billion times that of our sun, according to the team. More observations are needed to understand its growth rate.The quasar is 12 billion light-years away and has been around since the early days of the universe. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.

#BLACK HOLE

LONDON, FEBRUARY 29You were walking next to a swimming pool when you slipped and dropped your phone into the water. Or it slipped out of your hand when you were next to a filled bathtub or toilet.
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However your smartphone got wet, you now need to dry it. But what do you do? There’s lots of advice on the internet, some of it conflicting. Apple inserted itself into the debate recently when it put out an advisory that included a warning against using rice.Here are some things to keep in mind next time your phone has an unintended encounter with a liquid.

What you should doDry off the exterior with a towel or clean cloth, even your shirtsleeve – anything that’s absorbent. Take out the SIM card and holder. If possible, remove the back housing and battery to wipe them dry. Also, if possible, turn the phone off.iPhones can’t be disassembled so Apple recommends tapping it gently against your hand with the connector ports facing down so liquid can flow out.Samsung, which is the biggest maker of Android phones, recommends using a cotton bud to get moisture out of the earphone jack and charging port. In contrast, Apple says cotton buds shouldn’t be inserted into iPhone openings.If it’s not water but another liquid – a drink, seawater or chlorinated pool water – Samsung advises soaking the phone in clean water for a few minutes then rinsing it to get rid of any impurities or salinity that could speed up corrosion of the circuitry inside.Both companies say it’s best to leave the phone out in a well ventilated area (perhaps with a fan) to dry it out. Google says leave the device to dry at room temperature.What you shouldn’t doDon’t use a hair dryer or compressed air on your phone. Don’t put it in a freezer – this might stop your device from short-circuiting but the problem will be back once you try to thaw it. And while this might seem obvious, don’t put your device in a tumble dryer or on top of a radiator.Don’t power it up or try to charge it with a cable – although wireless charging is OK if your phone has it and you really need to turn it on in an emergency.So what about using rice to dry your device? You may have heard that putting a phone in a bowl of rice will help draw out moisture. It’s been a tip that’s been out there for years.Apple, however, says that’s a no-no. The company warned against it in an advisory published in early January. It drew little attention at the time, but then people noticed the line that said: “Don’t put your iPhone in a bag of rice. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone.”Is there anything I can use besides rice?The best option is silica gel, a drying agent that can absorb lots of moisture. Silica gel beads are typically found in packets that are included with products like beef jerky, seaweed sheets or sneakers to keep them dry. You can also buy them in bulk online. This works best if you put them in an airtight box with your phone.When do I know it’s dry?It’s hard to tell but it’s best to wait as long as possible – at least a few days. Samsung advises bringing your device into a service center for inspection even after it’s been air-dried.Aren’t phones waterproof nowadays?Most phones nowadays are designed to be water-resistant, which means they can resist water entering critical areas for a certain amount of time. But beware, this isn’t the same as being waterproof.Apple says the iPhone 7 and and newer models are splash and water resistant. iPhone XS devices and up have the IP68 rating, which means they can be submerged for as long as 30 minutes and, depending on the model, as deep as 6 meters (20 feet). These models also pop up a warning if there’s liquid detected in key ports, and warn against charging. Samsung says most of its Galaxy Android phones feature the same rating, though the maximum depth is about 5 meters (16 feet).Google’s newer Pixel phones carry the same water resistance ratings, but Google warns that they aren’t waterproof and the water resistance will diminish over time because of “normal wear and tear, device repair, disassembly or damage.”

#smartphones