Satellite sensors are used for Earth observation, navigation and positioning, telecommunications, military missions, and scientific research. Custom sensors have specialized capabilities, but commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products that use advanced technologies can reduce development and launch costs.&nbsp;If you’re selecting satellite sensors, consider these four factors.<ol start="1" type="1"><li>Sensor type</li><li>Performance specifications</li><li>Environmental considerations</li><li>Integration with satellite systems</li></ol>The following sections explain.<h2>#1 Sensor Types</h2>Satellites are equipped with a variety of sensors, including some that are redundant to ensure continued operations in the event of device failure. The type of sensor to select is a function of your application requirements and the device’s capabilities.<h3>Optical Sensors</h3><a href="https://www.mouser.com/c/sensors/optical-sensors/?srsltid=AfmBOopLoBeb_e87pPGBojAgJIghB1oK08NvEPMH4Vkz5TKRXeVkyrv-">Optical sensors</a> detect light within specific spectral ranges, such as visible and infrared (IR), for imaging, monitoring, and navigation. They are highly accurate, compact, lightweight, and can support high-bandwidth transmissions. For satellites with directional antennas, optical sensors are used for positioning, tracking, and alignment. For laser communications with ground stations, these satellite sensors support very fast transmissions. &nbsp;<h3>Radar Sensors</h3><a href="https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/what-is-sar">Synthetic aperture radar (SAR)</a> sensors combine multiple radar signals collected over time as a satellite moves in orbit. They support high-resolution imaging without the use of a large antenna. Unlike optical sensors, SAR operates in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Among their advantages, radar sensors can capture images regardless of lighting or cloud cover.<h3>Gyroscopes and Accelerometers</h3><a href="https://escies.org/download/webDocumentFile?id=1056#:~:text=Guidance%2C%20navigation%20and%20control%20systems,and%20stabilization%20of%20its%20attitude.">Gyroscopes</a> measure angular velocity and help satellites maintain their orientation in flight.<a href="https://metromatics.com.au/applications-for-accelerometers/#:~:text=Accelerometers%20in%20Space&text=Accelerometers%20measure%20the%20vibration%20and,of%20the%20vehicles%20during%20operation.">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://metromatics.com.au/applications-for-accelerometers/#:~:text=Accelerometers%20in%20Space&text=Accelerometers%20measure%20the%20vibration%20and,of%20the%20vehicles%20during%20operation.">Accelerometers</a> measure linear acceleration and can determine shock and vibration levels during launch, flight, and landing. There are also piezoelectric accelerometers, capacitive accelerometers, mechanical gyroscopes, ring laser gyroscopes (RLGs), and fiber optic gyroscopes (FOGs), each suited to specific applications.<h3>Magnetometers</h3><a href="https://www.pnisensor.com/understanding-magnetometers-and-their-uses/">Magnetometers</a> are sensors that measure changes in magnetic fields. They are essential for navigation and are used in conjunction with gyroscopes and accelerometers for attitude determination and motion tracking. Subtypes include fluxgate, optically pumped, SQUID, hall effect, magneto-resistive (MR), and Lorentz force magnetometers.<h3>Thermal Infrared Sensors</h3><a href="https://up42.com/blog/introduction-to-thermal-infrared">Thermal infrared sensors (TIR)</a> measure land surface temperatures and detect heat signatures. Unlike near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared radiation (SWIR) devices, TIR technology senses emitted energy rather than reflected energy. With their high spatial resolution, TIR sensors can attribute temperature values to specific features, such as urban heat islands.<h3>Radio Frequency Sensors</h3>Radio frequency (RF) sensors detect and measure RF signals for applications that include signals intelligence (SIGINT) and environmental monitoring. By triangulating signals from multiple orbital points,<a href="https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/09/05/what-are-radio-frequency-rf-monitoring-satellites/#:~:text=Advanced%20RF%20sensors%20aboard%20satellites,classification%20and%20detection%20of%20patterns.">&nbsp;</a><a href="https://newspaceeconomy.ca/2023/09/05/what-are-radio-frequency-rf-monitoring-satellites/#:~:text=Advanced%20RF%20sensors%20aboard%20satellites,classification%20and%20detection%20of%20patterns.">RF sensors</a> for SIGINT can identify distinct emitters and find their precise location. For environmental monitoring, RF sensors can track signals regardless of weather conditions.<h3>GNSS Sensors</h3>Global navigation satellite system (<a href="https://www.geo-instruments.com/technology/gnss-sensors/">GNSS</a>) sensors provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. As satellites orbit the Earth, they transmit a unique signal along with orbital parameters. Ground-based receivers use this information to calculate a user’s exact location. GNSS encompasses a variety of satellite-based systems, including the U.S. global positioning system (GPS).<h2>#2 Performance Specifications</h2>Satellite sensors differ in terms of performance specifications. Depending on the specific application, some specs may be more important than others. For example, Earth observation requires sensors with high spatial resolution to distinguish small objects on the ground from their surroundings.<h3>Frequency Range</h3>Frequency range is the range of frequencies over which a satellite sensor is designed to operate. It determines the sensor’s ability to capture specific signals, perform remote sensing tasks, or transmit and receive data. Different sensors are designed to operate within different frequency bands, such as the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band within the RF portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.<h3>Resolution</h3>Resolution refers to a sensor’s ability to distinguish between closely spaced objects or fine details. There are different types of resolution, including spatial, spectral, temporal, radiometric, and angular resolution. Satellite sensors with higher resolution can acquire more data, but they also need more storage and processing power. In addition, higher resolution sensors are more expensive.<h3>Sensitivity</h3>Sensitivity refers to the ability of a sensor to detect small changes or weak signals in the quantity it’s designed to measure. Depending on the type of space sensor, this quantity could be IR or visible light, magnetic fields, temperatures, or RF signals. With SAR sensors, sensitivity determines how well the radar can detect small, reflected signals from objects on Earth’s surface. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Power Consumption</h3>Sensor power consumption refers to the amount of electrical power that a sensor uses. It includes the power that’s consumed by the sensor itself for signal detection and the power used by supporting electronics for signal amplification, processing, or transmission. Because satellites have limited power availability, sensors with low power consumption are preferred.<h3>Weight and Size</h3>Sensor weight and size are important because satellites have strict payload limitations. These specifications can also affect larger design decisions and overall sensor performance. For example, the size of an optical sensor that’s used with a satellite’s camera determines how much light the camera has available to create an image. In turn, this affects image quality.<h2>#3 Environmental Considerations</h2>When selecting a satellite sensor, consider the environment in which it will be used. Outer space exposes sensors to extreme conditions, and repairing or replacing components can be challenging.&nbsp;<ul><li>Radiation Tolerance: Space environments expose sensors to high levels of ionizing radiation, which can degrade performance over time. Choose sensors and other electronic components that are radiation-hardened.</li><li>Temperature Variations: Satellites face extreme temperature fluctuations, and sensors need to function reliably under these changing conditions. Depending on whether a satellite is in sunlight or shadow, temperatures can range from -270°C to +200°C.</li><li>Outgassing and Vacuum: Choose sensors that are built from materials that do not outgas in the vacuum of space. Outgassing, the process by which materials release trapped gasses when exposed to vacuum pressure, can cloud optical lenses and interfere with signals.</li></ul><h2>#4 Integration with Satellite Systems</h2>When selecting satellite sensors, consider how the device will integrate with larger systems that are essential for continuous operations. There are several systems that are especially critical.<h3>Data Handling and Communications</h3>Command and data handling (CDH) systems acquire, process, store, format and downlink data to ground-based assets. They include various subsystems, such as telemetry and telecommunications (TTC). For real-time or delayed data transmissions, choose sensors that are compatible with the satellite’s onboard data handling system.<h3>Pointing and Stabilization</h3><a href="https://www.satnow.com/search/antenna-pointing-mechanisms">Antenna-pointing mechanisms</a> direct a satellite’s antenna toward a specific communication target. A control system receives data that’s acquired from sensors, calculates the required rotation of the antenna, and stabilizes the device. Depending on the sensor type and application, pointing and stabilization may also be used with high-resolution cameras.&nbsp;<h3>Power Monitoring</h3>Satellites have multiple subsystems, each of which requires different amounts of power. Each subsystem must receive the correct voltage and current, and without power spikes or other anomalies that can jeopardize performance. Power monitoring systems for energy generation and storage must work with satellite sensors and support the use of onboard solar panels and batteries.Are you looking for satellite sensors? <a href="https://www.mouser.com/c/sensors/?srsltid=AfmBOoroprtuwE_0UkwpJGlpiyyQxfRCl337OHfi9U8LZ_YkVUuPqpRZ">Visit Mouser Electronics.</a>

The Arctic Weather Satellite is collecting data in one of the regions of our planet that is most severely affected by climate change. ©OHB Sweden

Key Considerations for Selecting Satellite Sensors: Types, Performance, Environment, and Integration

How to Select Satellite Sensors: Five Key Considerations

AI is revolutionizing our ability to train cars to drive safely and to respond to unexpected events. | Shutterstock/Scharfsinn

An authority on autonomous robotic systems talks about the impact of AI on his field here on Earth and growing aspirations for autonomy in space.

The future of autonomous vehicles

Space deployment comes with a series of significant engineering challenges for the electronic and electrical systems that are going to be utilised. Engineers must therefore specify components for their designs that have all the necessary properties – particularly in relation to coping with the harsh environments they are going to be situated in, alongside the acute size, weight and power (SWAP) constraints involved. In this article, we will look at exactly what this will entail and give a detailed use case example to illustrate the points raised too.<h2 dir="ltr">Unique aspects of the application setting</h2>Though this must still be adequately addressed, it is not actually space itself that poses the biggest threat to component reliability. Instead, it is the process of getting it there that is likely to be the problematic part. During launch, a rocket’s payload can easily be subjected to 4-5g accelerations. On top of that, there are certain to be intense vibrational forces experienced. There is the potential for hardware to be exposed to very high levels of heat too. Should any damage occur at this stage, then the space deployed equipment might not be able to carry out its assigned functions as intended and the mission will end up being a failure.&nbsp;Once the hardware is finally in orbit, there will be other considerations. Among the most prominent is the temperature cycling that components will have to deal with – going from severe cold when traversing the dark side of the Earth, followed by periods in the Sun’s harsh thermal radiation. Another consideration is whether the chosen components will be detrimentally affected by the vacuum of space. Outgassing means that chemical substances could be emitted from these components, due to seepage from cracks or internal gaps. This might result in delicate instrumentation in close proximity to them being impaired in some way by the presence of unwanted contaminants. Once again, the mission could be jeopardised, meaning that all the expense and engineering effort that had gone into it would count for nothing. &nbsp;&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Sourcing interconnects for space&nbsp;</h2>The various factors just described make it very clear that the connectors and cabling being selected for space deployment must have superior operational characteristics. Consequently, it is vital that they are able to withstand prolonged mechanical stresses (in terms of both shock and vibration), as well as extreme temperatures. The remote nature of the application of course means that once deployed there is no opportunity to replace faulty interconnects. This is why chances cannot be taken on choosing anything other than a solution with the highest degrees of reliability and resilience to the most challenging of ambient environments.Having collaborated on a multitude of different projects in this sector over several decades, Harwin offers an extensive portfolio of space-qualified connectors and cables. Each of these has a heavy duty construction, so that prolonged reliability is assured. They can be provided with built-in shielding (both backshells and braids) to protect them from cosmic radiation.<h3 dir="ltr">Use case example</h3>A recent venture, on which Harwin worked with the Group of Astrodynamics for the Use of Space Systems&nbsp;(GAUSS), underlines the need for sourcing appropriate connectors and cabling. GAUSS is an established provider of microsatellite deployment solutions, as well as designing and manufacturing its own satellite hardware. The Italian company’s UNISAT platform enables the in-orbit-release of third-party pico/nano-satellites, with numerous CubeSats and PocketQubes being carried into space on each mission and then getting deployed directly from a purpose-built spacecraft. This approach has made it much more convenient and cost-effective for academic research groups to undertake space-based experiments and monitoring work, as they can reduce the upfront expense normally associated with ‘rideshare’ activities.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729852467851-wendy-1.jpg" style="width: 832px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 1: The UNISAT-7 pico/nano-satellite deployment platform from GAUSS (images courtesy of Gauss Srl)When the GAUSS team embarked upon the development of their latest UNISAT spacecraft, there were some key objectives that they wanted to achieve. The most important of these was to be able to expand the payload capacity. This would mean that a greater quantity of CubeSats and PocketQubes could be deployed. The engineering team at GAUSS looked at ways that they could make UNISAT-7 construction more lightweight than the previous models, so more of the assigned launch mass could be taken up by the payload.&nbsp;For it to be accommodated in the rocket, the UNISAT-7 spacecraft’s overall volume had to be kept as low as possible. Its total launch mass had to be kept down to no more than 32kg. All of the constituent electronics would be contained within an aerospace-grade aluminium honeycomb framework of 50mm x 50mm x 50mm dimensions. This would have carbon fibre sheets attached to it. The spacecraft’s power would be generated by banks of photovoltaic panels mounted onto its exterior.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729852521555-wendy+3.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 2: View of rocket used to deploy multiple satellites (image courtesy of GK Launch Services)Given that the UNISAT-7 needed to remain operational for up to 5 years, the ongoing integrity of the interconnect technology had to be beyond doubt. After sampling and testing connectors from a variety of different manufacturers, GAUSS engineers decided that going with units featured in the Harwin Datamate series would be the best tactic. Datamate and Datamate Mix-Tek connectors have shown themselves to be very effective when used in spaceborne equipment. These high-reliability (Hi-Rel) components are robust enough to cope with the difficult conditions posed by space launches. They can withstand 20G vibrations and 100G shocks, plus up to 125°C temperature levels. Their compact form factor means that they take up only minimal board space, leaving plenty of room for other devices.The 4-finger Beryllium Copper contacts incorporated into Harwin Datamate connectors allow them to always maintain a connection with their corresponding mating surfaces. The contacts in a standard Datamate mating pair carry up to 3A of current, while Datamate Mix-Tek contacts are 40A rated. The advanced locking features employed mean that industry-leading interconnect retention is attained.The low outgassing that these connectors exhibit is another important benefit. For instance, the moulded plastic used in them has a 1.01% total mass loss (TML) and a collected volatile condensable material (CVCM) figure of less than 0.01% when placed in the vacuum of space.Complementing their low profile, the availability of right-angle configuration Datamate versions addresses limited gaps between PCBs in space hardware designs. It means that connectors can be positioned at the edge of these PCBs, thereby avoiding the need for cabling to reach further into these boards. The upshot is that cables and connectors are much easier to access when the hardware is being assembled. Furthermore, cables do not need to be bent to such great angles – with less chance of them breaking in the process. &nbsp;Having been successfully trialled out by GAUSS, the selected Harwin connectors would play an integral role in the communication and data processing elements of the UNISAT-7, allowing all the related data to be transported. They would also prove essential to the spacecraft’s power systems.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729852579004-wendy+4.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 3: Connectors visible in the PCB stack of a small satellite (image courtesy of Gauss Srl)<h2>Conclusion</h2>Space hardware must be able to rely on the quality of interconnect technology that has been specified for it. Any cutting of corners here could lead to projects that may have taken years to prepare for and large amounts of money to fund falling short of the goals that they were originally set and not meeting expectations. That is why engaging with an expert in this area is definitely advised. This will mean the connectors and cabling can be recommended that are fully optimised for such purposes.

Space deployment presents significant engineering challenges for electronic and electrical systems, requiring engineers to specify components with properties suited to harsh environments and acute size, weight, and power (SWAP) constraints.

Implementing Effective Interconnects into Space System Designs

GPS is a critical tool in modern society, and there’s more that can be done to improve the coverage, safety, and security of the technology. | iStock/aapsky

An expert in global positioning technologies looks ahead to expand GPS’s capabilities to the moon and, perhaps, beyond.

The Future of GPS: Innovations and Impacts on Navigation

For humans throughout history, the sky has evoked thoughts of a vast emptiness, of a great vacant dome punctuated during the day by the sun, and at night by numerous tiny spots of light (and, periodically, by the moon). As we have ventured into space, both physically, with spacecraft, and optically, with a range of telescopic technologies, we now know that there is quite a lot of stuff up there.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MPXj6pBBrD0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>Simulations at Caltech model a new way for autonomous spacecraft to avoid collisions. This technology holds promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space. Credit: James RaganThis discovery has profound implications for the aerospace industry. Imagine, for example, a multibillion-dollar autonomous spacecraft that has been carefully designed and engineered for years is launched into space with precision calculations only to lose one of its thrusters and go sailing into an asteroid.Historically, engineers have dealt with the possibility of equipment failure on board spacecraft in two main ways: First, by having a "safe mode" in which the spacecraft can do the least amount of damage to itself while scientists on the ground look at the data, make a diagnosis, and develop a solution; and second, by equipping autonomous vehicles with redundant systems. These allow a spacecraft to, for example, shut off a malfunctioning thruster and start using backup thrusters.However, dangerous situations may crop up in space with little warning and insufficient time for space-to-ground communications. And though redundant systems have been quite effective, they add to the expense and heft of autonomous spacecraft.This is why experiments are being conducted in the laboratory of Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems and senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, to streamline emergency features on autonomous vehicles such that they can diagnose and safely respond to encounters with other objects in real time. With new algorithms on board, spacecraft can test their own equipment and predict which future actions are most likely to keep them operating safely.As one of the supervisors for this project, Fred Hadaegh, research professor in aerospace at Caltech and former JPL chief technologist, explains: "Having redundant systems is not always practical. It means the spacecraft has to be bigger, heavier, and more expensive than it would be otherwise. So, the idea here is that when a spacecraft encounters a problem, it can figure out what's not working and correct or adapt to that specific fault."Chung's lab houses, among other things, an advanced multispacecraft dynamics simulator facility. "The simulator occupies a large room with a really flat floor," explains James Ragan, a PhD student in the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories of the California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) and lead author of this paper. "The model spacecraft uses air bearings so that it moves across the floor with near zero friction. At rest, it seems to be floating, and if you push it in one direction, it will keep going until it hits something, which is what space dynamics are like."Ragan has programmed the robotic spacecraft simulator with what he and his co-authors call s-FEAST: Safe Fault Estimation via Active Sensing Tree Search. "Our s-FEAST algorithm rapidly 'dreams' about numerous possible futures that could result from actions it takes now," Ragan says. "Because the system is noisy, these futures are uncertain. There are multiple possible outcomes, which leads to a tree of possible branching futures. Each branch represents one possible way the future might happen, based on things the spacecraft controls—the test actions it selects—and also things it doesn't, such as observations coming from faulty sensors."Chung adds: "What is innovative about our s-FEAST method is that we systematically solve the chicken and egg problem of estimating vehicle states, such as positions and velocities, and inferring failures or degradations, which are intrinsically coupled to one another."When the spacecraft detects unexpected data, it turns to the s-FEAST algorithm, which runs test actions "similar to how you might carefully test your muscles when you feel an unexpected pain, and you want to figure out just what hurts and how to avoid actions that might further injure you," Ragan explains.s-FEAST simultaneously spins out a range of possible futures and from those selects the course of action that appears most likely to diagnose what went wrong and also to avoid danger. In the case of this model, danger amounts to a collision course with an asteroid.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aJ04dlgaP0o?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>"The key idea here is that s-FEAST isn't replacing all spacecraft operations. It's your emergency response," Ragan says. "The spacecraft receives an internal signal that something is wrong, so s-FEAST takes over all the spacecraft's computing power to quickly assess what's going on and take remedial action. Once the danger is pinpointed and addressed, s-FEAST hands control back to the spacecraft's ordinary computing environment."s-FEAST can also be used proactively. Say an autonomous spacecraft is about to take on a particularly risky or mission-critical action; s-FEAST can run a testing cycle to ensure that all systems are working properly before this action.Chung and his co-authors envision that the proposed method will establish a new way of making expensive space exploration safer and more cost effective. "Space systems make autonomous operations necessary since we cannot grab and fix spacecraft and Mars helicopters operating in a world far away from us," Chung says. "Space is our ultimate ‘proving ground' for any autonomy research we do for Earth-based vehicle systems."Not surprisingly, the s-FEAST algorithm that worked on the spacecraft simulator was adapted by the team to work on a ground track vehicle as well. Both experiments were successful, so s-FEAST technology holds great promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space."<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adn4722" target="_blank">Online Tree-based Planning for Active Spacecraft Fault Estimation and Collision Avoidance</a>" is published in&nbsp;Science Robotics as an online feature article. A preliminary version of this paper received the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eas.caltech.edu/news/jimmy-ragan-and-benjamin-rivi%C3%A8re-receive-2023-aiaa-guidance-navigation-and-control-best-graduate-student-paper-award" target="_blank">2023 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Guidance, Navigation, and Control Best Graduate Student Paper Award</a>. Co-authors are Ragan, Caltech postdoc Benjamin Rivière (PhD '24), Hadaegh, and Chung. This work is funded by the Aerospace Corporation, JPL, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Learning Introspective Control program, and the Technology Innovation Institute.

Simulations at Caltech model a new way for autonomous spacecraft to avoid collisions. This technology holds promise for autonomous vehicles on Earth as well as in space.

A New Approach to Autonomous Vehicle Safety

On 5 September 2024 at 03:50 CEST (22:50 local time), the new Sentinel-2C satellite was successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard the last Vega rocket in its original configuration.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1726012698757-image-2000-9ce0a3184832e9d2b679e4ad8caf68f9.jpeg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The Sentinel-2C satellite is lifted out of its transport container at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana&nbsp; Sentinel-2C is equipped with an optical multispectral instrument with a high resolution of up to 10 metres, that scans a swath 290 kilometres wide. This makes the satellite ideally suited for detecting changes in vegetation, compiling crop forecasts, mapping forests and determining the growth of wild and cultivated plants. The instrument is also used to monitor algae growth in coastal and inland waters, for example, as well as track sediment input in river deltas. Credit: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE/Optique vidéo du CSG–S. MartinThe Sentinel-2 mission consists of two identical satellites in the same Earth orbit. They complete one full orbit every 100 minutes, capturing all land surfaces as well as inland and coastal waters every five days. Sentinel-2C now replaces Sentinel-2A, which has been in space since 2015, making the satellite a crucial component in the long-term data provision for numerous applications.&nbsp;In Germany, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) is the principal authority responsible for Copernicus. The German Space Agency at DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) supports the European Earth observation programme on behalf of the BMDV at the European level and promotes its utilisation in Germany through specific measures. The Sentinel-2C satellite was built by Airbus in Germany.Sentinel-2C is equipped with an optical multispectral instrument offering a high resolution of up to 10 metres and scanning a swath 290 kilometres wide. This makes the satellite ideally suited for detecting changes in vegetation, enabling crop forecasting, mapping forests and determining the growth of wild and cultivated plants. The instrument is also used to monitor algae growth in coastal and inland waters, as well as track sediment input in river deltas.<h2>Researching climate change, improving disaster protection</h2>The data collected by Copernicus is crucial for researching and monitoring climate change, as well as supporting key areas such as disaster management and security policy. The data also serves as a foundation for significant international agreements on environmental and climate protection, for example as part of the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conferences and Sustainable Development Goals.Volker Wissing, Germany's Federal Minister for Digital and Transport emphasises the programme's range of applications: "With the launch of Sentinel-2C, Germany is demonstrating its leading role in global Earth observation. Its innovative instrument will play a crucial role in understanding climate change, combating it and dealing with its consequences. Our commitment to the Copernicus programme is an investment in cutting-edge technology and a sustainable future, as the satellite's precise data will support decision-makers worldwide in environmental policy measures."Walther Pelzer, DLR Executive Board Member and Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR, adds, "Copernicus is the largest and most successful Earth observation programme in Europe today, demonstrating the efficient cooperation between the European Union, European Space Agency (ESA) and national space agencies. With Sentinel-2C, we are securing its future and at the same time strengthening Germany's lasting position in the space sector."<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1726012832312-ezgif-7-5fa2653c65.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Snow and a calving glacier in Greenland&nbsp; This Sentinel-2 image shows an icy glacier tongue extending into a fjord (left). The mountainous landscape of northern Greenland is only partially covered by snow and ice, with ice floes breaking off from the glacier and floating on the water. Also clearly visible are the brownish, sediment-rich tributaries flowing into the fjord (right side of image). Due to the low position of the Sun at these high latitudes, even in summer, dark mountain shadows can be seen (left side of the image). Monitoring snow and ice masses is crucial for understanding climate change and predicting potential sea level changes. The image was captured on 21 July 2024. Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2<h2>Copernicus – an EU and ESA partnership</h2>Copernicus is a collaborative initiative between the European Union (EU) and the European Space Agency (ESA). Through Copernicus, the EU operates satellite-based information services for land (CLMS), oceans (CMEMS), atmosphere (CAMS), disaster and crisis management (CEMS), climate change (C3S) and civil security (CSS). An increasing number of German government agencies, researchers and innovative companies are also working with Copernicus data. The foundation of these applications and services lies in six satellite constellations, known as the Sentinels – meaning 'guardians' – operated by ESA in collaboration with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). In addition, a further six missions are currently being prepared, which will gradually expand the Copernicus fleet over the coming years. Among these is the Copernicus Anthropogenic Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Mission (CO2M), set to measure global greenhouse gas emissions from 2026 onwards. Copernicus also integrates satellite data from third parties, including from the German satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X. Data portals such as the Copernicus Data and Exploitation Platform – DE (CODE-DE for short) ensure users have easy access to Earth observation data and processing tools.

On 5 September 2024 at 03:50 CEST (22:50 local time), the new Sentinel-2C satellite was successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard the last Vega rocket in its original configuration. Sentinel-2C is equipped to recognise changes in vegetation, enabling crop forecasting, forest mapping and determining the growth of wild and cultivated plants, as well as monitoring algae growth in coastal and inland waters, as well as tracking sediment input in river deltas. Credit: ESA–S. Corvaja 

On 5 September 2024 at 03:50 CEST (22:50 local time), the new Copernicus Sentinel-2C satellite was launched from Kourou, French Guiana. Sentinel-2C is the third of four Sentinel-2 satellites and will replace Sentinel-2A, which is now almost ten years old.

A new era for Copernicus: the Sentinel-2C satellite launches

The Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS), an Earth observation mission, was launched on 16 August 2024 at 20:56 CEST (11:56 local time) on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. First contact with the satellite was made at 03:06 CEST on 17 August.The small satellite, with a total mass of just 150 kilograms, is starting its one-year mission. It uses a passive microwave radiometer to measure temperature and humidity profiles in the Arctic – a region where data has been insufficient for precise short-term weather forecasts.The data gathered by AWS will significantly enhance short- and medium-term weather forecasting in the northern polar regions. Given the significant influence of Arctic weather on global patterns, this data will also contribute to more accurate global weather forecasting.There is considerable interest in Germany and across Europe in using the data, as improved weather forecasts in the polar region will lead to significant improvements in forecasts on the European continent, particularly for prolonged periods of heat and cold.AWS is a precursor to the EPS Sterna satellite constellation, which is being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on behalf of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). EPS Sterna will comprise three generations of six small satellites in three Earth orbits, delivering precise weather data from the polar regions over the long term. The constellation will complement existing satellite systems such as MetOp-SG from EUMETSAT and JPSS from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).AWS will demonstrate the functionality of the satellite and its instruments, as well the benefits in terms of cost- and time-efficiency of the 'New Space' approach.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1725000886169-ezgif-5-c65039f59f.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">AWS was launched on 16 August 2024 at 20:56 CEST (11:56 local time) on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. First contact was made at 03:06 CEST on 17 August. Credit: SpaceX<h2>Fast, cost-effective and future-proof with German technology</h2>AWS was developed with completely new methods in order to achieve results cost effectively and on schedule, in line with the New Space approach. In particular, technical requirements and testing procedures were significantly simplified, leading to the completion of the satellite just 36 months after ESA awarded the contract to the main contractor, OHB Sweden. The project remained remarkably cost efficient throughout.Walther Pelzer, German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Executive Board Member and Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR, highlights the project's significance for the German economy and research community: "I am very pleased that we can strengthen Germany as a space centre with AWS. German research institutions and medium-sized space companies have played a major role in the satellite's development. The planned production of a total of 20 satellites as part of the EPS Sterna programme will result in numerous contracts for German SMEs in the long term."Germany is contributing around 18 percent of AWS's costs through ESA, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The EPS Sterna constellation will be operated by EUMETSAT and funded by the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV)."ESA has succeeded in developing a proto-flight model of the AWS in a very short time, demonstrating its operational readiness ahead of a potential future EUMETSAT programme. This showcases the ways satellites can be successfully and efficiently developed with the help of New Space approaches. This innovation ecosystem is precisely what we aim to advance with our space strategy," says Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy.Stefan Schnorr, State Secretary at BMDV, adds: "The new Earth observation satellite will provide us with more detailed insights than ever before into climatic developments in the Arctic – a region that is significantly impacted by climate change. AWS represents cutting-edge technology that sets new standards. The satellite will help further improve weather forecasts in Germany and Europe."The German Space Agency at DLR is coordinating the German contributions to ESA's efforts.

As the name suggests, the Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS) is designed to improve weather forecasting in the Arctic – a region currently lacking data for accurate short-term forecasts. AWS is equipped with a 19-channel, cross-track microwave radiometer that provides high-resolution humidity and temperature measurements of the atmosphere in all weather conditions. Credit: ESA/Mlabspace

The Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS) was launched on 16 August 2024 at 20:56 CEST (11:56 local time) aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. First contact with the satellite was made at 03:06 CEST on 17 August.

The next generation of weather satellites: Arctic Weather Satellite launches

An autonomous robot – a base on wheels fitted with computer vision technology that snaps images of grapevines in near real-time – rolls down a long row of plants in a vineyard at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York.The <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2022/11/autonomous-robots-help-modernize-grape-wine-industry" target="_blank">Cornell-developed “PhytoPatholoBot”</a> detects spectral signatures of three kinds of devastating grape diseases – powdery mildew, downy mildew and grapevine leafroll virus – leading to early management of pathogens without needing farmworkers to spot them. Ultimately, data collected by such robots will help to ground-truth NASA satellite data that could one day detect plant diseases from space.This was one of many research projects presented at a technology demonstration on Aug. 20, part of a three-day “Space for Ag Tour” by NASA leaders to better understand the remote sensing needs of Cornell AgriTech researchers, specialty crop growers and local stakeholders. NASA leadership visited Cornell’s main campus, Cornell AgriTech, sites in Niagara county and the Cornell Lake Erie Research and Extension Lab in Portland, New York.The tour was designed to foster two-way dialogue with growers and stakeholders to improve NASA Earth Science’s Earth-observing satellites and instruments for specialty crop agriculture and viticulture and foster a broader conversation about how to effectively translate research into practice.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1724648875297-0822_nasa1_0.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Yu Jiang poses with the PhytoPatholoBotas and UV light robot as part of the “Space for Ag Tour” at the Cornell Agritech campus. Ryan Young/Cornell University“My hope is that by having this Space for Ag Tour here, by showing them New York viticulture as well as what we have to offer here at Cornell, it can help grow the specialty crop footprint within NASA as well as their footprint in pest and disease research,” said&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/kaitlin-gold" target="_blank">Katie Gold</a>, the event’s main organizer and an assistant professor and the Susan Ekert Lynch Faculty Fellow in the Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section of the School of Integrative Plant Science (SIPS) at Cornell AgriTech, which is in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.&nbsp;“I think there’s amazing potential for the satellite data that’s being collected both now and in the future with the eventual launch of the Surface Biology and Geology satellite to be applied to specialty crops,” said Gold, who is an expert on ground-based and remote plant disease sensing and applied grape pathology. The meetings were intended to raise awareness among NASA leaders and scientists of the unique challenges facing specialty crops, including pests and diseases, so they can make those connections in their own research and applications, she said. &nbsp;“For NASA leadership, it’s an opportunity as they think long-term about observational needs and priorities that helps them make the case for the observations that are necessary, from a scientific perspective, to make an impact on the different concerns that farmers have,” said Alyssa Whitcraft, a research professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, whose work focuses on satellite remote sensing of agriculture. Whitcraft is the founding executive director of NASA Acres and co-founding deputy director of NASA Harvest, respectively the U.S. and international NASA consortia on food security and agriculture.&nbsp;Gold is the institutional lead for&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/news/2023/05/bringing-nasa-technology-down-earth-agriculture" target="_blank">NASA Acres at Cornell</a>.As part of the demonstrations,&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/yun-yang" target="_blank">Yun Yang</a>, assistant professor in SIPS’ Soil and Crop Sciences Section at Cornell AgriTech, described her NASA Acres-funded research to monitor plant water use using remote sensing, and understanding the impacts of agricultural practices on water resource sustainability.One of Yang’s research projects seeks to estimate water loss to evaporation and transpiration in California vineyards. Vineyard managers want to know how much and when to irrigate in spring based on groundwater depletion, which is a global issue, especially in California.&nbsp;Her team built an instrument to better monitor water fluxes on the ground, which provides validation for NASA Landsat satellite data that can be used to estimate water loss to evapotranspiration when farmers irrigate. By knowing how much water is used, based on a simple water balance, they can tell how much water is needed. Yang’s team has been developing a dashboard for users. “With this dashboard, we can really hand the technology we have to the growers,” Yang said. “And when they are in the field, we can easily check the information and help them manage irrigation.” &nbsp; &nbsp;Applied roboticist <a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/yu-jiang" target="_blank">Yu Jiang</a>, assistant professor in SIPS’ Horticulture Section at Cornell AgriTech, demonstrated the PhytoPatholoBot that he and doctoral student Ertai Liu developed with Gold with funding from NASA Acres and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture VitisGen3.&nbsp;The PhytoPatholoBot eliminates background noise from cloud cover or sunlight to provide a constant, high-quality image and has autonomous navigation using GPS. The bot provides a readout per row of vines with red areas denoting higher infection and white areas showing lower infection, and coupled with AI, allows for near real-time inferences of disease that growers may use to focus their treatment efforts on plants that need it most.“We can scan and scale all the field, we are also generating the results that are ready to be realized by the growers, and hopefully, while working together to integrate this data stream back to NASA to see if we can train remote sensing models and make a bigger impact for small grower stakeholders,” Jiang said. Additionally, researchers can use data from the robots to train NASA airborne sensing better than humans, Gold said.&nbsp;The hope is to use robots to automate data collection, to make it possible to gather measurements for millions of acres.&nbsp;Following Jiang,&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/sara-emery" target="_blank">Sarah Emery</a>, assistant professor of entomology at Cornell AgriTech, presented her work to develop risk maps for spotted lanternfly infestations, a growing threat to grape and other growers in New York.&nbsp;“We’ve been trying to understand how this insect pest is going to be moving across the landscape and develop a model to assess the risk to individual vineyards across New York state,” Emery said.&nbsp;In collaboration with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, the model being developed will overlay observations of spotted lanternfly (90,000 sightings have been recorded across the state) with maps of vineyards and locations of its preferred host, tree of heaven. Eventually, they plan to create a public-facing system so that growers can input their information and get back a level of risk.&nbsp;The hope is to use hyperspectral data (which allows for the identification of objects and materials by analyzing their unique spectral signatures) from satellites to identify light reflectance patterns of non-crop plants across the landscape to create risk maps at finer and wider scales. Emery has teamed with Gold and doctoral student Jaclyn Eller for the project.&nbsp;Also,&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/jason-londo" target="_blank">Jason Londo</a>,&nbsp;associate professor of fruit crop physiology and climate adaptation in SIPS Horticulture Section at Cornell AgriTech, described using hyperspectral and multispectral approaches to understanding plant stress in grapes and apples using drones. He hopes to one day use similar data from satellites, but needs better resolution to be able to detect stress on a tree-by-tree basis, he said.Other visiting NASA personnel included Karen St. Germain, division director of the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA.&nbsp;<a href="https://cals.cornell.edu/steven-wolf" target="_blank">Steven Wolf</a>, associate professor of natural resources and the environment in CALS, organized events at Cornell’s Ithaca campus.

Members of Yu Jiang’s team demonstrate the technology. Credits: Ryan Young/Cornell University

An autonomous robot – a base on wheels fitted with computer vision technology that snaps images of grapevines in near real-time – rolls down a long row of plants in a vineyard at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, New York.

From space to farm: readying NASA satellites to help growers

Nearly 15 years ago, a relatively small spacecraft about the size of a polar bear launched into space with a big mission: to map the entire sky at infrared wavelengths with a sensitivity up to hundreds of thousands of times better than previous surveys. The NASA mission, called <a href="https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/project/wise" target="_blank">WISE</a> (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), far exceeded expectations, scanning the skies not once but twice and leaving behind a massive trove of data covering more than 740 million asteroids, stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects. Ultimately, the telescope ran out of the coolant needed to chill its sensitive infrared detectors and was put into hibernation in 2011.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ay0iJYabcc?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>This video celebrates the legacy of NASA's NEOWISE mission, which has retired after more than a decade of discovering, tracking, and characterizing near-Earth objects.But that was not the end of the story for the little telescope that busted open the infrared skies. After WISE's coolant ran out and it warmed up, two of the spacecraft's four infrared-wavelength bands still worked—bands that exceled at finding faint near-Earth asteroids and comets. So, in 2013, after nearly three years of hibernation, NASA woke WISE back up. The spacecraft was given a new name—<a href="https://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/" target="_blank">NEOWISE</a> (Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer)—and a new goal: to aid planetary defense by surveying and studying asteroids and comets that stray close to our neck of the solar system."I remember a bunch of us huddling around a terminal in 2009 as the first WISE images came in," says Roc Cutri, lead scientist and task lead for NEOWISE at Caltech's IPAC astronomy center. "And then I remember doing the same thing when NEOWISE turned back on in 2013. We were thrilled all over again."<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1723854091746-NextLight-WEB.max-500x500.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Team members crowd around a computer to watch the first NEOWISE images come in, after the spacecraft was reactivated in 2013. Amy Mainzer can be seen looking at the screen, with Roc Cutri to the right and Beth Fabinksy below. Davy Kirkpatrick is in the foreground and Tim Conrow is behind the computer screen. Credit: Elaine CutriNow, those enduring infrared eyes, which faithfully scanned the entire sky a whopping 23 times and observed more than 190,000 solar system objects, have closed for good. Solar activity is causing NEOWISE to fall out of orbit. Explosive flares and other eruptions on our Sun cause Earth's upper atmosphere to heat up and expand, which has slowed the satellite down."The Sun is waking up again after being quiet for a long time," says Cutri, referring to our Sun's current solar maximum. "We appreciate the cooperation of the Sun because it's given NEOWISE more time to operate, but the spacecraft is destined to reenter our atmosphere and burn up." Mission specialists say this is likely to occur near the end of this year.Teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which manages the mission, and Caltech's IPAC, the center responsible for data processing and archiving, are now preparing for the mission's end. On July 31 of this year, the spacecraft stopped collecting images of the sky. After collecting the final images and returning the spacecraft to hibernation, NEOWISE engineers at JPL issued a final command to turn off the transmitter on August 8."This is a bittersweet moment. It's sad to see this trailblazing mission come to an end, but we know there's more treasure hiding in the survey data," said Joe Masiero, NEOWISE's deputy principal investigator and a scientist at IPAC, in a <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-neowise-celebrates-10-years-plans-end-of-mission" target="_blank">JPL news story</a>. "NEOWISE has a vast archive, covering a very long period of time, that will inevitably advance the science of the infrared universe long after the spacecraft is gone."During its decade-plus run, NEOWISE captured nearly 27 million infrared images. It discovered 215 near-Earth objects and observed thousands more (NEOs are defined as asteroids and comets that pass within 28 million miles of Earth's path around the Sun). In addition to near-Earth asteroids, it found tens of thousands of asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter.The mission spotted <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-wise-finds-earths-first-trojan-asteroid" target="_blank">Earth's first known Trojan asteroid</a>, which is an asteroid that rides along in the same orbit as our planet, and it discovered the celebrated <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/resource/comet-c2020-f3-neowise-over-utah/" target="_blank">comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE</a>, which adorned the night skies for onlookers in the Northern Hemisphere in the summer of 2020.What's more, the mission's legacy will live on in a new mission currently in development. NASA's <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/near-earth-object-surveyor" target="_blank">NEO Surveyor</a> (Near-Earth Object Surveyor), scheduled to launch in late 2027, will be the first purpose-built infrared space telescope dedicated to hunting hazardous near-Earth objects."When I first started working on the original WISE mission in 2003, it was clear that it would teach us a lot about asteroids and comets, but it wouldn't be able to see huge numbers of Earth-approaching near-Earth objects," says Amy Mainzer, a professor at UCLA and the principal investigator of both NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor. "We've leveraged what we've learned from WISE and its extension, NEOWISE, to develop a new mission, NEO Surveyor, that is optimized for finding the most dangerous asteroids and comets. While we're getting ready to say goodbye to NEOWISE, we're looking forward to getting its powerful successor up into space in a few years."<h2 data-block-key="18mj">Early Days</h2>Originally proposed as the Next Generation Sky Survey, WISE was selected for flight in 2004 and given its current name. It was designed to succeed past infrared sky surveys with a dramatically improved level of sensitivity, and to ultimately unveil hundreds of millions of hidden cosmic objects that had never been seen before.Infrared light, which has longer wavelengths than visible light, is invisible to our eyes. Our bodies are aglow with infrared light that we can't see. Many objects in the cosmos—asteroids, comets, cool stars, dusty planetary disks of debris, remote galaxies, and powerful quasars—shine brightly in infrared light but remain faint and hard to see in visible light. These objects tend to be older, cooler, obscured in dust, or hiding in the remote universe. Infrared surveys of the sky allow us to cast a wide net and catch these cosmic wonders.Caltech's first infrared sky survey, called the Two-Micron Sky Survey, scanned the skies from a telescope atop Mount Wilson in the late 1960s. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) followed next, surveying the skies in infrared light from space in 1983. Later, from 1997 to 2001, the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) mapped the whole sky from the ground. Caltech and IPAC, including the so-called <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/celebrating-50-years-infrared-astronomy-48629" target="_blank">Infrared Army</a>, a group of scientists who pioneered infrared astronomy, played a key role in these groundbreaking projects."Caltech has a great history in infrared astronomy, so it was natural for us to be involved in WISE," says Cutri, who remembers working on WISE mission proposals in the late 1990s with the mission's principal investigator, Ned Wright, an astronomy professor at UCLA.<h2 data-block-key="dpcgs">Rare Gems</h2>The two defining goals of the WISE mission were to find the closest stars to the Sun as well as the most luminous galaxies in the universe, both of which it achieved. In 2013 and 2014, astronomer Kevin Luhman of Penn State University used data collected by WISE to discover the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/closest-star-system-found-in-a-century" target="_blank">third</a>- and the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-spitzer-wise-find-suns-close-cold-neighbor" target="_blank">fourth</a>-closest star systems to Earth, lying 6.5 and 7.2 light-years away, respectively. Both systems contain cool stars known as brown dwarfs, and the fourth closest star, called WISE 0855-0714, also happens to be <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-spitzer-wise-find-suns-close-cold-neighbor" target="_blank">the coldest known brown dwarf</a> with temperatures nearly as cold as ice.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1723854129495-First-Brown-Dwarf-WEB.max-500x500.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Peter Eisenhardt, Davy Kirkpatrick, and Ned Wright happily inspect the first spectroscopically confirmed brown dwarf discovered by WISE. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Beth FabinskyIn total, the mission found more than half of the known 582 brown dwarfs in our solar neighborhood, or specifically within 65 light-years of the Sun. (Nearly 20 percent of those 582 brown dwarfs were found by citizen scientists using WISE/NEOWISE data in a program called <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marckuchner/backyard-worlds-planet-9" target="_blank">Backyard Worlds</a>.) Before WISE, little was known about these celestial orbs, which form like stars but lack the mass to sustain the fusion that powers stars. The first brown dwarf was discovered in 1994 by a team led by Caltech's Shri Kulkarni using the 60-inch telescope at Palomar Observatory."We knew WISE was looking at the right infrared wavelength to bust the field open," says Davy Kirkpatrick, the IPAC lead for the WISE/NEOWISE quality assurance team and a WISE science team member.Kirkpatrick remembers well the day he first laid eyes on <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-wise-mission-discovers-coolest-class-of-stars" target="_blank">the coolest class of brown dwarfs</a>, called Y dwarfs. Previously, these extra-feeble stars had only been theorized."Mike Cushing [an astronomer at the University of Toledo] and I rented a condo in Hawai'i near the Keck telescope to follow up on brown dwarfs identified by WISE," Kirkpatrick recalls. "I was reducing a good-looking spectrum, and then my mouth just hung open. The chemical signatures of the first Y dwarf were right there. I yelled, 'Mike come here, we got one!' and he came running over."Since then, the mission has discovered a total of 50 Y dwarfs, some of which were found during the NEOWISE phase of the mission (NEOWISE primarily focuses on asteroids and comets, but its data have also been used in a range of astronomy studies).<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1723854154435-06-WISE-YDwarf-PIA14720-WEB.max-1000x1000.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Artist's concept of a Y dwarf. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. HurtFarther from home, <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-wise-survey-uncovers-millions-of-black-holes" target="_blank">WISE uncovered tens of millions of actively feeding supermassive black holes</a>, also known as quasars (Caltech's <a href="https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/caltech-mourns-the-passing-of-maarten-schmidt-1929-2022" target="_blank">Maarten Schmidt</a> discovered the first quasar in 1963). These monstrous cosmic entities are often buried in dust, rendering them invisible to optical telescopes. But the growing black holes warm their cloaks of dust, causing them to glow at the infrared wavelengths seen by WISE."WISE has shown that many, and perhaps most, quasars are buried in smoky cocoons," says Peter Eisenhardt, project scientist for WISE at JPL. "Our largest catalogs of quasars now come from WISE." Among these objects are rare and particularly warm and bright ones nicknamed hot DOGs, for hot Dust-Obscured Galaxies. One of these is likely the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasas-wise-spacecraft-discovers-most-luminous-galaxy-in-universe/#:~:text=The%20new%20study%20reports%20a,incredible%20outpouring%20of%20infrared%20light." target="_blank">most luminous galaxy ever seen</a>, shining with the light of 350 trillion suns."IRAS showed us that the most powerful nearby galaxies shine brightest in the infrared because they contain a lot of dust," Eisenhardt says. "As soon as we began mapping the sky with WISE, we tried all kinds of ways to find the most luminous galaxies in the universe with its four infrared bands, but we weren't finding much. Then, in April of 2010, we came across an extremely powerful galaxy that showed up only in WISE's two longest wavelengths: the first hot DOG. We adopted that technique and six months later found the most luminous galaxy of them all."<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1723854176958-Most_Luminous_galaxy.max-1000x1000.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">This artist's impression shows galaxy WISE J224607.55-052634.9, likely the most luminous galaxy ever discovered. Credit: (NRAO/AUI/NSF) S. DagnelloIn addition to Y dwarfs, quasars, and hot DOGs, the WISE and NEOWISE catalogs are being used by astronomers around the world to study everything from comets and asteroids to distant clusters of galaxies. "WISE and NEOWISE data are now part of the astronomy landscape and are being used in over a thousand papers per year," Eisenhardt says.<h2 data-block-key="9aof1">Surprise Asteroid Hunter</h2>When mission specialists turned the spacecraft back on in 2013, they did not expect it would still be going strong more than 10 years later. A mission designed to survey the whole breadth of the cosmos both near and far will be remembered for a decade of asteroid discoveries.Thanks to NEOWISE's infrared vision, it will also be remembered for revealing a population of near-Earth objects that are extremely dark, like pieces of charcoal, and large, measuring hundreds of meters across, and in some cases larger. The mission's observations showed that such objects constitute a sizeable part of the overall NEO population."The dark objects make up a substantial fraction of the population, roughly a third, posing a challenge for ground-based telescopes searching for them in visible light" Mainzer says. "But they pop out in heat-sensitive infrared wavelengths."To find more of these hidden dark rocks orbiting in our solar system as well as many other asteroids left to uncover, the NEOWISE team developed the upcoming&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/near-earth-object-surveyor" target="_blank">NEO Surveyor</a>."One of the goals for NEO Surveyor is to find the medium-size asteroids, which could still be hazardous to our planet," Cutri says. According to NASA, only 44 percent of these medium-size asteroids (140 meters and larger) have been found. "The motto has been to find them before they find us."Like NEOWISE, NEO Surveyor's background data will also be used to study stars, galaxies, and other cosmic objects throughout the universe."When we started in the late '90s on this mission, if you told me that this spacecraft would still be taking data when I turned 60, and that we'd be working on a successor to the mission, I would have said, 'You are nuts,'" says Kirkpatrick, who plans to use the mission's data to look for even closer and cooler brown dwarfs than those discovered by WISE. "If anything, WISE and NEOWISE have taught us that just when you think you have reached the limit of what you can find, it is just the limit of the survey. More is out there to be found."<h2 data-block-key="37ubl">More about the Mission:</h2>NEOWISE and NEO Surveyor support the objectives of NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 directed NASA to discover and characterize at least 90% of the near-Earth objects more than 140 meters (460 feet) across that come within 30 million miles (48 million kilometers) of our planet's orbit. Objects of this size can cause significant regional damage, or worse, should they impact the Earth.JPL manages and operates the NEOWISE mission for PDCO within the Science Mission Directorate. The WISE principal investigator was Edward Wright, a professor at UCLA. The NEOWISE principal investigator is Amy Mainzer, also a professor at UCLA. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace &amp; Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado (now BAE Systems), built the spacecraft. Science data processing, archiving, and distribution is done at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

NEOWISE's enduring infrared eyes, which faithfully scanned the entire sky a whopping 23 times and observed more than 190,000 solar system objects, have closed for good

NASA's Infrared Survey Telescope Ready to Retire

Accenture is at the forefront of technological innovation with a focus on developing next-generation computing technologies. In a recent podcast, Dr. Eric Gallo, a senior principal at Accenture Labs, shared insights into the promising field of neuromorphic computing. This technology mimics how the human brain processes information and offers significant advantages in power efficiency and real-time data processing.&nbsp;As industries increasingly rely on edge computing, neuromorphic systems present a unique solution to the challenges of energy consumption and integration in smart devices. This episode of the BrainChip podcast explores Accenture's initiatives in neuromorphic computing. They also explore its applications in various sectors and the potential it holds for the future of edge intelligence.<h2 dir="ltr">The Rise of Edge Computing and the Need for Heterogeneous Computing</h2>Edge computing is rapidly gaining traction as industries increasingly rely on real-time data processing and intelligence at the edge of the network. As the industry matures, there is a growing understanding that a heterogeneous set of computing devices is necessary to achieve optimal results.Traditional computing architectures will continue to play a role, but they will make way for other specialized architectures that excel in different situations and locations. This will create a continuum where edge architectures, cloud architectures, and other specialized architectures work together to provide the right amount of compute power where it's needed most.Companies with edge devices are actively examining their AI strategies to avoid being left behind. While computing power is readily available, the ability to perform inference very close to the edge is a key focus for many organizations. This is where neuromorphic computing shines, offering a low-power solution for real-time data processing at the edge. This energy efficiency is not just a minor improvement; it’s a game-changer.&nbsp;Dr. Gallo highlighted how neuromorphic technology could potentially achieve power savings of up to 100,000 times compared to current methods. This opens up new possibilities for developing intelligent devices that can operate in environments where power is limited, such as in remote locations, wearable devices, or even deep space missions. Neuromorphic computing is still in its early stages, but its potential to transform industries is immense.<h2 dir="ltr">The Power of Neuromorphic Technology</h2>One of the most significant advantages of neuromorphic technology is its remarkable energy efficiency. Traditional computing systems often require a large amount of power to perform complex tasks. However, neuromorphic systems can achieve the same results while using only a fraction of that energy. This makes them ideal for applications where power is a critical concern.Dr. Eric Gallo explained that this technology could be a game-changer in various fields. For example, in defense, neuromorphic chips could be used to create advanced situational awareness systems for soldiers. These systems could process vast amounts of data in real time, helping soldiers make better decisions in the field without the need for bulky, power-hungry equipment.Neuromorphic technology could also enhance the intelligence of factory equipment in industrial settings. Machines equipped with neuromorphic chips could adapt to changing conditions on the fly, improving efficiency and reducing downtime. These chips can also be powered by small batteries or energy harvesters, making them suitable for environments where access to power is limited.As this technology continues to develop, its impact on different sectors will also grow. This will lead to more efficient and intelligent solutions.<h2 dir="ltr">Accenture's Neuromorphic Computing Initiatives in Space</h2>Eric Gallo believes that neuromorphic architectures can enable smart satellites and other space devices without the significant power and thermal constraints of traditional computing systems.Accenture is working towards demonstrating real-time neuromorphic computing in space. By leveraging the low-power capabilities of neuromorphic chips, Accenture aims to make space devices more intelligent and responsive.The space industry has traditionally relied on less advanced computing technologies due to the challenges of power and heat dissipation. However, with the emergence of neuromorphic computing, there is a sudden realization that space systems can be made much smarter without the usual constraints.<h2 dir="ltr">Accenture's Partnership with BrainChip</h2>Accenture has formed a strong partnership with BrainChip, a leader in neuromorphic computing technology. This collaboration uses the neuromorphic chip to explore practical applications in various industries. Dr. Eric Gallo, who leads Accenture's neuromorphic initiatives, has shared valuable insights from their work with this advanced technology.The chip stands out for its ability to save power compared to traditional computing systems. In practical tests, Accenture observed that systems using the chip consumed only a fraction of the power—about one-fifth—compared to conventional setups. This efficiency is important for applications where power resources are limited, such as edge devices and satellites.Working with BrainChip has allowed Accenture to access cutting-edge neuromorphic technology and gain practical experience in real-world environments. The partnership has been characterized by strong support and collaboration that enables both teams to tackle challenges and continuously improve their systems.<h2 dir="ltr">The Future of Neuromorphic Computing: Spanning Material Spaces and Scales</h2>One of the most exciting aspects of neuromorphic computing is its potential to span a wide range of material spaces and scales. Dr. Gallo envisions the possibility of creating tiny, biodegradable neuromorphic sensors that can be used in applications like water quality monitoring. These sensors could transmit data to small neural networks, which could then determine if there is a need for concern.At the other end of the spectrum, neuromorphic architectures are enabling large-scale neural networks like Spike GPT. These advanced systems demonstrate the versatility of neuromorphic computing, which can be applied from the smallest sensors to the most powerful artificial intelligence systems.Dr. Gallo emphasizes that anyone, even those without expertise in computing architectures, can get involved and contribute to the advancement of neuromorphic computing. The field is open to new ideas and innovations, and there are many opportunities for individuals to make meaningful contributions.<h2 dir="ltr">Final Words</h2>Looking ahead, the future of neuromorphic computing appears bright. Its ability to span a wide range of materials and scales opens doors for anyone interested in contributing to this exciting field. As organizations like Accenture lead the charge, we can expect to see more practical implementations that harness the power of neuromorphic technology, ultimately making our world smarter and more efficient. To learn more about the future of neuromorphic computing watch the full podcast above!

In this episode of the “This is Our Mission” podcast, Sean Hehir interviews Dr. Eric Gallo, a Senior Principal at Accenture Labs. They discuss the advantages of neuromorphic technology and its impact on edge computing, as well as advancements in SpaceTech. 

BrainChip Podcast Epi 34: The State of Neuromorphic Computing

Supplementary information related to <a href="https://article.murata.com/en-eu/article/multiplexing-and-multiple-access-1" target="_blank">FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA Multiple Access (1)</a> is presented below.<h2>&lt; Column &gt; How Multiplexing Works: FDM, TDM, and CDM</h2>A number of types of multiplexing are used for wireless communication, and the following are some of the most common:• Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) • Time-division multiplexing (TDM) • Code-division multiplexing (CDM)Figures 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3 are conceptual diagrams of these multiplexing techniques, with a focus on the transmission path portions enclosed in red dashed lines.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1722839179083-img0012-en.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 7-1: Conceptual Diagram of Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM)<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1722839190979-img0013-en.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 7-2: Conceptual Diagram of Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1722839204356-img0014-en.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 7-3: Conceptual Diagram of Code-Division Multiplexing (CDM)<h3 id="isPasted">Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM)</h3>Frequency-division multiplexing (FDM) is a multiplexing technology that assigns multiple data streams to different frequency bands, and transmits the frequency bands as channels simultaneously via a single transmission path.Figure 7-1 shows a general conceptual diagram of FDM. On the sending side, the frequency bands assigned to the multiple data streams are treated as channels, which are sent via a single transmission path using multiplexing. On the receiving side, the transmitted data streams are extracted by devices capable of selecting specific frequency bands. An example of the use of FDM for wireless communication is terrestrial digital television broadcasting in Japan. There is a single transmission path, the air, and signals containing image and audio data are broadcast from multiple television stations on different frequencies. On the receiving side, the user can view TV shows of their choice by selecting specific frequencies. FDM is also used for analog radio broadcasting.<h3>Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM)</h3>Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a multiplexing technology that divides up multiple data streams into time intervals assigned as channels, and transmits them on the same frequency via a single transmission path.Figure 7-2 shows a general conceptual diagram of TDM. On the sending side, multiple data streams from a device are divided into time slots and assigned to channels, which are sent via a single transmission path using multiplexing. On the receiving side, by dividing up the channels using the same timing as the sending, the transmitted data can be received by multiple devices. An example of the use of TDM for wireless communication is television broadcasting in Europe and North America.<h3>Code-Division Multiplexing (CDM)</h3>Code-division multiplexing (CDM) is a multiplexing technology that mixes with the data unique identifier codes for each device, combines the signals in a single frequency band, and then transmits the combined signals simultaneously via a single transmission path.Figure 7-3 shows how CDM works. The data is mixed (modulated) with periodic identifier codes that have a duration shorter than that of one bit of data to generate a modulated signal.*8 The multiple modulated signals from each device are added together as is, multiplexing them, and the multiplexed signals are sent via a single transmission path. On the receiving side, each device mixes in with the multiplexed signals the identifier codes used for modulation to restore (demodulate) the data and extract the transmitted data.&nbsp; There are no examples of the use of CDM as a standard for wireless communication, but adoption of the related multiple access scheme called code-division multiple access (CDMA) is widespread.*8 During transmission, the frequency bandwidth of the modulated signal ends up being wider than that of the original data stream (original signal). This characteristic provides advantages for communication applications, such as greater tolerance for external noise impinging on the transmission path.<h2>&lt; Column &gt; Explanation of the Terms FDD-LTE and TD-LTE Found in Smartphone Technical Specifications</h2>Sending and receiving take place simultaneously during mobile communications on smartphones or flip phones and phone calls on landline telephones, with a single channel being used for bidirectional transmission of audio data. Such bidirectional transmission can also be thought of as a type of multiplexing technology.Terms such as “FDD-LTE” and “TD-LTE” (TDD-LTE is typically shortened to TD-LTE) often appear in the technical specifications of products such as smartphones. FDD stands for “frequency-division duplex” and TDD stands for “time-division duplex,”*9 both of which refer to bidirectional transmission.&nbsp; Long-term evolution (LTE), on the other hand, is the telecommunications standard of the 4th generation mobile communication system (4G), and this also includes multiple access (OFDMA in the case of 4G). Therefore, “FDD-LTE” indicates both bidirectional transmission and the multiple access scheme used.&nbsp; It is somewhat complicated, but bidirectional transmission is not equivalent to multiplexing, so it is typical when writing about multiple access, which utilizes both bidirectional transmission and multiplexing, to mention the two separately.*9 FDD stands for “frequency-division duplex,” in which different frequencies are assigned to downloading (receiving of data by the device) and uploading (sending of data by the device) in order to implement bidirectional transmission (Figure 8-1). On the other hand, TDD stands for “time-division duplex,” in which the same frequency band is used for both downloading and uploading, the audio data is split up along the time axis, and sending and receiving of voice data alternates at very short intervals (on the order of milliseconds in the case of voice calls) in order to implement bidirectional transmission (Figure 8-2). Thus, strictly speaking, TDD does not provide simultaneous sending and receiving, although this results in no unnatural audible effects in the case of voice calls. Bidirectional transmission is explained in more detail at <a href="https://article.murata.com/en-eu/article/basics-of-wireless-communication-2" target="_blank">Basic Knowledge of Wireless Communication: Wireless Mechanism (2)</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1722839230983-img0015-en.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 8-1: Conceptual Diagram of Frequency-Division Duplex (FDD)<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1722839242889-img0016-en.png" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 8-2: Conceptual Diagram of Time-Division Duplex (TDD)

Supplementary information related to FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA Multiple Access (1) is presented below.

FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA Multiple Access: Effective Utilization of Signals (Bandwidth) in Wireless Communication (2)

<h2 id="isPasted">Essential Technologies that Enable Effective Utilization of Signal Bandwidth for Wireless Communication</h2>Everyday our smartphones transmit and receive audio, images, videos and other data. While many people are using the same signal band at the same time, transferring huge amounts of data, we have come to think this is perfectly normal. This is possible thanks to technologies that prevent problems when sending and receiving different types of data, such as the overlapping of data or interference from noise. This article uses graphical illustrations to describe two such technologies aimed at enabling efficient utilization of frequency bandwidth (or bandwidth for short),*1 which is to say the efficient utilization of radio signals:&nbsp; • “multiplexing,” which allows multiple data streams to be transferred at the same time, and&nbsp; • “multiple access,” which makes use of multiplexing technology to allow simultaneous connections with multiple users.Note that multiple access (also called “multiaccess”) is an important technique contributing to the 5th Generation Mobile Communication System (5G), which aims to support very large numbers of simultaneous connections (1 million connections per square kilometer), including connections to “things” such as home appliances and IoT devices.*1 The wider the frequency bandwidth (bandwidth) used for wireless communication, the higher the data communication speed (transmission speed). We plan to explain the relationship between frequency bandwidth and transmission speed in another article.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMjMyMjgxLWltZzAwMDEuanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Multiple users (devices) using mobile communications at the same time (illustrative photo)<h2 id="isPasted">Transmission of Multiple Data Streams by Wireless Communication</h2><h3>Multiplexing: Effective Utilization of a Single Transmission Path (Air)</h3>The basic model of a communication system, whether using wired or wireless communication,*2 can be represented as shown in Figure 1 (<a href="https://article.murata.com/en-eu/article/basics-of-wireless-communication-1" target="_blank">Basic Knowledge of Wireless Communication: Wireless Mechanism (1)</a>). In this model, the sending side, transmission path, and receiving side are conceived of as one unit, and the stream of data transmitted at a particular time is conceived of as one unit. (We will refer to this as “simple communication” for the time being.) Now, if the sender could send multiple streams of data to the receiving side simultaneously, the efficiency of data sending and receiving would increase. This is what led to the idea of transmitting multiple streams of data simultaneously over a single transmission path. This technology is called multiplexing.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMjUzMjE4LWltZzAwMDItZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 1: Configuration of Basic Model for Communication Systems*2 Generally speaking, the transmission path of a communication system is either cables or air, and such systems are classified as either wired or wireless communication based on the transmission path used for telecommunication.<h3>Multiple Access: Implementing Wireless Communication among Multiple Users without Interference</h3>If we think of multiplexing as sending multiple streams of data at the same time, superimposed on each other, we can say that for multiplexing the elements of sending side and receiving side do not exist. In the case of wireless communication, the element of “transceiving” (sending and receiving combined) can be added to multiplexing to allow multiple users to share a single transmission path to transmit multiple streams of data at the same time. This is called multiple access.*3Table 1 shows the relationship between multiplexing and multiple access. To enable comparison with multiple access, we will say that multiplexing uses one sending side and one receiving side. Also, since multiplexing has multiple channels*4 and multiple access also has multiple channels, we can say that multiple access is based on multiplexing.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMjc4OTEwLWltZzAwMDMtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Table 1: Relationship between Multiplexing and Multiple Access*3 In communication-related books and documents, as well as website content, multiplexing and multiple access are sometimes referred to without distinction, depending on what is being described. In the present article, multiple access is described as a technique that makes use of multiplexing to allow multiple users to share a transmission path to send and receive data.*4 Channel: As used here, this can be thought of simply as a route (communication path) along which a radio signal waveform carrying a single data stream travels. The term channel is used in this sense to refer to a signal line. In the case of wireless communication, one can describe a case in which 10 different signal waveforms are transmitted (multiplex transmission) as a communication path with 10 channels, for example.In actual wireless communication, rather than cases where a transmission path is being shared to transmit data from one user to another user, or from one user to multiple other users, cases where multiple users of a mobile communication system (Figure 2) or satellite communication system (Figure 3) share a transmission path are more common. Therefore, the discussion that follows focuses on the workings of multiple access. Multiplexing is explained in <a href="https://article.murata.com/en-eu/article/multiplexing-and-multiple-access-2#section-61975" target="_blank">&lt; Column &gt; How Multiplexing Works: FDM, TDM, and CDM</a>.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMjk5MDA4LWltZzAwMDQtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 2: Conceptual Diagram of Mobile Communication System<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMzE0ODE3LWltZzAwMDUtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 3: Conceptual Diagram of Satellite Communication System<h2 id="isPasted">How Multiple Access Works: FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA</h2>As we mentioned in the preceding section, multiple access is a technique that enables multiple users to communicate without interference by sharing multiplexed channels. The basic types of multiple access, from the least to the most advanced, are as follows: • Frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) • Time-division multiple access (TDMA) • Code-division multiple access (CDMA) Below we explain how each of these work, using conceptual diagrams of each type of multiple access and conceptual diagrams based on Figure 3 using satellite communication as an example.*5*5 Recent wireless communication standards, such as 4G-LTE mobile communication or Wi-Fi 6/6E and Wi-Fi 7 personal communication, use a scheme called orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) that is based on modulation and multiplexing technology called orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM).An explanation of OFDM is omitted here because it would require a background knowledge of complex subjects such as data multivaluation, quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), and the orthogonal properties of data signals on frequency spectra. We plan to cover this subject in another article.<h3>Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)</h3>FDMA divides up data streams from multiple users and assigns them to channels using different frequency bands, all of which share a single transmission path (Figure 4-1). Adoption of FDMA began in the 1980s, and it was used to carry cellphone and car phone calls under the analog 1st generation mobile communication system (1G).<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMzM1NzgzLWltZzAwMDYtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 4-1: Conceptual Diagram of Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)Figure 4-2 shows a conceptual diagram of the use of FDMA for satellite communication. Figure 4-2 shows an arrangement based on Figure 3 in which one sending side (earth station E0) and multiple receiving sides (earth stations E1 to E3) are used to transmit multiplexed data signals. The data signal from earth station E0, consisting of data streams targeted at earth stations E1 to E3, modulated and assigned to different frequencies arranged at equally spaced intervals within the bandwidth supported by the satellite relay, is sent in a manner that ensures that the adjacent signal frequency bands do not overlap (to prevent interference). When earth stations E1 to E3 receive these signals, they are divided up according to the frequency each station is able to receive, and the data streams are extracted.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMzU5NDg5LWltZzAwMDctZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 4-2: Example of Satellite Communication Using Frequency-Division Multiple Access (FDMA)<h3 id="isPasted">Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)</h3>TDMA divides up data streams from multiple users into uniform time intervals and assigns them to channels, all of which share a single transmission path (Figure 5-1). Adoption of TDMA began in the 1990s, and it was used to carry mobile phone calls (GSM, PDC, PHS, etc.) under the digital 2nd generation mobile communication system (2G).<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwMzc3MDE1LWltZzAwMDgtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 5-1: Conceptual Diagram of Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)Figure 5-2 shows a conceptual diagram of the use of TDMA for satellite communication. As in the preceding section, Figure 5-2 shows an arrangement based on Figure 3 in which one sending side (earth station E0) and multiple receiving sides (earth stations E1 to E3) are used to transmit multiplexed data signals.&nbsp; The data signal is sent from earth station E0, delimited by time frames and consisting of “slots” used as channels, excluding the standard burst signal*6 embedded in each frame, and each channel is assigned one of the data streams targeted at earth stations E1 to E3. Then, at each earth station from E1 to E3 the signal is divided up in a manner synchronized with the transmission timing of earth station E0, and the data streams are extracted.*6 Note that TDMA was adopted for satellite communication in addition to FDMA from around 1985.*6 To ensure stability and prevent interference with communication, TDMA requires that the channel switching speed, etc., be synchronized between the sending side and receiving side. Earth station E0 inserts a signal called a burst at the beginning of each frame for synchronization control.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwNDEwNzI0LWltZzAwMDktZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 5-2: Example of Satellite Communication Using Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA)<h3 id="isPasted">Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)</h3>CDMA generates signals in which the data streams of users are mixed with unique identifier codes, and the signals of all the users are overlaid within the same frequency band and conveyed via a single transmission path (Figure 6-1). CDMA is used to carry mobile phone calls under the 3rd generation mobile communication system (3G) introduced in the 2000s.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwNDI5MzM4LWltZzAwMTAtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 6-1: Conceptual Diagram of Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)Figure 6-2 shows a conceptual diagram of the use of CDMA for satellite communication. As in the preceding section, Figure 6-2 shows an arrangement based on Figure 3 in which one sending side (earth station E0) and multiple receiving sides (earth stations E1 to E3) are used to transmit multiplexed data signals.Earth station E0 mixes the identifier codes assigned to earth stations E1 to E3 on the receiving side with the data signals targeted at each earth station, generating signals with frequency bands wider than that of the original data signals, and adds them together to create a multiplexed signal that it sends to the satellite relay. Earth stations E1 to E3 each receive the multiplexed signals from the satellite relay, mix in the earth station identifier codes to divide up the signals, and extract data only from the signal that matches their own identifier code. Note that adoption of CDMA for satellite communication began in the 1990s.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIyMjIwNDQ5Njc0LWltZzAwMTEtZW4ucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Figure 6-2: Example of Satellite Communication Using Code-Division Multiple Access (CDMA)<h2 id="isPasted">Summary</h2>As we have seen, multiple access is an important technique for wireless communication, from the aspect of enabling wireless communication among multiple users without interference. Now we would like to delve into a little more detail before concluding this article.&nbsp; Multiple access schemes have become more advanced over time, evolving from FDMA to TDMA to CDMA, but it is no exaggeration to say that the increased frequency utilization efficiency*7 accompanying these advances has been a key aspect of the development of wireless communication. For example, achieving better frequency utilization efficiency in mobile communications makes it possible to increase both the number of users and the overall volume of data that can be transmitted.&nbsp; This is touched on briefly in this article, but the multiple access scheme used by 4G, the most widely used mobile communications system at present, is orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), which is said to provide twice the frequency utilization efficiency of 3G using CDMA. In turn, 5G uses non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA), which delivers even better frequency utilization efficiency than OFDMA.&nbsp; So, to repeat, multiple access, which has advanced with the aim of increasing frequency utilization efficiency, can be considered indispensable to future developments in wireless communication as well as expanded adoption.*7 Frequency utilization efficiency: As used here, this can be simply be understood as the data transmission speed (in units of bits per second (bps)/Hz) per unit of frequency bandwidth. Note that frequency utilization efficiency is sometimes referred to as spectrum efficiency or bandwidth efficiency.

Everyday our smartphones transmit and receive audio, images, videos and other data. While many people are using the same signal band at the same time, transferring huge amounts of data, we have come to think this is perfectly normal.

FDMA, TDMA, and CDMA Multiple Access: Effective Utilization of Signals (Bandwidth) in Wireless Communication

In the world of high reliability connectors, those destined for spaceflight face the toughest conditions. Missions can last years and travel huge distances with no chance for repairs. Connectors need to provide secure communications, even in the harsh environments found outside the atmosphere.The exploration of space is very much in the news. &nbsp;One of the largest programs in recent space history is the Artemis program. This program will see humanity return to the Moon, and its launch vehicle is the Space Launch System. &nbsp;Completing its first successful mission in December 2022, the SLS forms the largest component of the program. However, the latest steps in our return to the Moon are not the only exciting initiatives in space.The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched late in 2021. It is still sending us detailed images of galaxies born in the earliest days of the universe. &nbsp; The information that JWST has gathered is providing new insights into how stars and galaxies are formed. Its advanced capabilities will pave the way for some truly remarkable discoveries in the future. &nbsp;In addition to scientific missions, the last few years have also seen the beginning of an entirely new industry. Some of the richest people on Earth have offered tempting visions of commercial space tourism.&nbsp;These high-profile events, while they capture the imagination of the public, represent just a small part of the picture. &nbsp;The exploration and exploitation of space is an everyday activity. There were more than 220 space launches in 2023 alone [1], carrying science missions and satellites into orbit and beyond. &nbsp;<h2>The Toughest Environment</h2>Even though spaceflight has become more common, the conditions in which these systems must perform are unlike any other. Space represents possibly the single most demanding environment known to engineering. &nbsp;Any equipment used in spaceflight is exposed to a whole range of extremes, from high and low temperatures and harsh radiation to the rigours of launch [2] and the vacuum of space. &nbsp;The lack of atmosphere is especially unforgiving. On Earth, our atmosphere serves as a protective blanket that provides pressure, thermal insulation, and safety from harmful radiation. In space, this protection is stripped away, exposing equipment to potential damage.Without the atmosphere to protect it, an object in space receives the full force of the sun’s radiation. &nbsp;When equipment is bombarded by direct sunlight, its temperature can quickly become dangerously high. In contrast, the parts of a spacecraft that remain in shadow are very cold. &nbsp;These extremes of temperature need to be considered when selecting the materials to be used aboard space vehicles. &nbsp;There are other sources of radiation, including galactic cosmic rays which are highly ionizing. &nbsp;These can harm delicate instruments or sophisticated electronic circuits.<img width="602" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIxMzg2NzIwNjA2LTE3MjEzODY3MjA2MDYuanBlZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" alt="A large white object with a metal frameDescription automatically generated with medium confidence" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Connectors have been providing reliable service in space for decades &nbsp;Image credit: Author<h2>The Dangers of Outgassing</h2>The lack of atmospheric pressure also causes materials to behave in unique ways. &nbsp;Outgassing [3] is a process in which a gas that has become trapped inside another material is released. &nbsp;This is a common problem when plastic is exposed to a vacuum during spaceflight, but it is not limited to plastics alone. &nbsp;Some metals are also prone to sublimation in vacuum conditions, including zinc and cadmium, both of which are commonly used in conventional equipment design. &nbsp;&nbsp;In both cases, the gas that is released can cause damage. &nbsp; It may condense onto cold surfaces such as the optics and sensors of scientific equipment. &nbsp;This can degrade or even negate their effectiveness and put the entire mission at risk. Components also need to be mechanically robust as the launching satellites, probes and spacecraft into orbit exposes them to acceleration and vibration that can cause damage that might be undiscovered for months or years. Plastic components need to be manufactured of materials that exhibit high stability, even in vacuum conditions. &nbsp;To provide solutions for these demanding conditions, connectors designed for spaceflight connectors are amongst the most advanced in the industry. &nbsp;Manufactured to stringent standards and tested to prove their performance even in the vacuum of space, they are the very definition of high reliability connectors.<h2>Maximizing Endurance</h2>If the spaceflight environment is not tough enough, there is one additional aspect that contributes to the challenges of designing for spaceflight, and that is endurance. &nbsp;Missions to space, whether they are intended for commercial purposes or scientific, can last for years. &nbsp;If a piece of equipment fails, it is impossible to gain access to fix the problem. &nbsp; In these circumstances, designers and engineers depend on the reliability of each of the components that make up the equipment, no matter how small.Endurance also plays a key role in power planning. A long-range probe operates on a very strict power budget, and a component that introduces unwanted electrical resistance will risk jeopardizing the mission. &nbsp;The electrical contacts used in space-rated connectors will be made from the finest materials and manufactured to the closest tolerances. &nbsp; Contacts will be plated with gold to a thickness rarely seen in even the most demanding applications back on Earth. &nbsp; Gold plating ensures that the contact resistance is kept as low as possible to reduce power loss.Contacts with a low electrical resistance are important for other reasons. &nbsp;Despite the sophistication of the instruments mounted to space probes, the measurements being taken can be tiny. &nbsp;When scientists are looking for minute fluctuations within magnetic fields or are trying to isolate a radiation signature from the noise of interplanetary space, unwanted electrical resistance can prevent a critical signal from being collected.&nbsp;This is also the reason that manufacturers go to the trouble of reducing the magnetic signature of the components themselves to prevent interference with precision scientific experiments. Connectors designed for spaceflight applications use materials that provide the best possible performance. &nbsp;In just one example, the key feature of the D-subminiature connector is the trapezoidal shell that provides protection to the contacts and ensures correct mating. &nbsp;Traditional D-subs use shells made of steel, but versions destined for spaceflight use brass to minimize their magnetic signature. &nbsp;The shell also provides protection against electromagnetic interference (EMI) [4]. &nbsp;In the vacuum of space, unprotected by a blanket of atmosphere, equipment is exposed to solar radiation which can interfere with scientific observations or even damage sensitive instruments. &nbsp;The shells of many spaceflight connectors are gold plated in the same way as the electrical contacts to provide the best possible protection against EMI.<img width="601" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzIxMzg2NzIwNjE3LTE3MjEzODY3MjA2MTcucG5nIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" alt="Several different types of computer connectorsDescription automatically generated" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Spaceflight Connectors &nbsp;Image credit: Glenair <h2>Conclusion</h2>Connectors play an often-overlooked role in spaceflight applications. Space vehicles are typically manufactured from sub-assemblies which are brought together before launch. Connectors provide the vital interface between each system, during both the extensive testing regime before launch and the demanding conditions found in space. Spaceflight connectors are designed to some of the highest standards in the interconnection industry and, as a result, represent some of the most capable products available today.<h3>References</h3><ol start="1" type="1"><li><a href="https://www.spaceworks.aero/recap-of-all-global-launches-for-2023/" target="_blank">https://www.spaceworks.aero/recap-of-all-global-launches-for-2023/</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://blogs.nasa.gov/Rocketology/2016/02/25/think-youre-stressed-try-being-a-rocket/" target="_blank">https://blogs.nasa.gov/Rocketology/2016/02/25/think-youre-stressed-try-being-a-rocket/</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://blog.samtec.com/post/what-is-outgassing-and-how-is-it-tested/" target="_blank">https://blog.samtec.com/post/what-is-outgassing-and-how-is-it-tested/</a>&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/electromagnetic-interference" target="_blank">https://www.techtarget.com/searchmobilecomputing/definition/electromagnetic-interference</a>&nbsp;</li></ol>

Delivering the performance demanded by today’s space missions requires the ultimate in high-reliability connectors.

High Reliability Connectors in Space

The utilization of advanced 3D vision technology is critical in pushing the boundaries of robotic capabilities, especially in challenging environments such as space. Extend Robotics, dedicated to making robotic operations more accessible through extended reality technology, embarked on a comparative evaluation of 3D vision solutions to enhance their robotic interface software. This comprehensive test aimed to identify the most suitable 3D camera for demanding applications, including those required in extra-terrestrial conditions.&nbsp;Partner:<a href="https://www.extendrobotics.com/" target="_blank">Extend Robotics</a>&nbsp;Challenge:Extend Robotics aims to address the global skill mismatch caused by automation by making robotic arm programming more accessible. Their mission is to enable non-robotic experts to operate robots remotely using extended reality technology (MR/VR/AR). In their latest exploration project, they sought to demonstrate their technology’s capability to remove and replace satellite modules in a 27U CubeSat at the Catapult test facility for In-Orbit Service and Manufacturing. This project was part of their incubation with the European Space Agency’s Business Incubation Centre (ESA BIC UK).To achieve their goals, Extend Robotics needed a 3D vision solution that could handle extreme and challenging environments, including those found in space. They conducted a comparative test between three different 3D cameras to select the optimal hardware for these demanding applications.&nbsp;Solution:<a href="https://www.photoneo.com/motioncam-3d/" target="_blank">MotionCam-3D Color</a>Extend Robotics conducted extensive testing to evaluate the performance of Photoneo’s MotionCam-3D Color against other 3D cameras. The MotionCam-3D Color was tested under extreme light conditions, including a 5,000 watt light simulating the brightness of the sun in space. The camera’s ability to deliver high-resolution 3D scans in both extremely bright and pitch black conditions set it apart from its competitors.The MotionCam-3D Color utilizes Photoneo’s advanced Parallel Structured Light technology, which ensures unparalleled accuracy regardless of environmental light levels. This capability is crucial for space applications where lighting conditions can vary dramatically.By leveraging the MotionCam-3D Color, Extend Robotics can create precise and accurate 3D models necessary for their remote robotic operations. The model is projected in the virtual headset of the operator who can interact with it. This solution not only enhances the safety and efficiency of their technology but also enables the execution of physical tasks remotely, overcoming geographical limitations.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1720524677538-1720524677538.png" alt="" width="400" height="180" srcset="https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-400x180.jpg 400w, https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-1024x461.jpg 1024w, https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-768x346.jpg 768w, https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-1536x692.jpg 1536w, https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-2048x922.jpg 2048w, https://www.photoneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Extend_BLOG2-480x216.jpg 480w" sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Discussion:The integration of Photoneo’s MotionCam-3D Color into Extend Robotics’ system marks a significant advancement in remote robotic operations. The high-precision 3D vision capabilities of the MotionCam-3D Color allow for detailed scanning and modeling, which are essential for complex tasks such as satellite servicing.This collaboration highlights the importance of selecting the right 3D vision technology for demanding applications. Photoneo’s MotionCam-3D Color has proven to be the optimal solution for Extend Robotics, enabling them to push the boundaries of what’s possible in automation and robotics.Would you like to discuss how Photoneo technology can benefit your applications? <a href="https://www.photoneo.com/contact-us/?utm_source=Wevolver&utm_medium=Case%20Study&utm_campaign=Extending%20Robotics%20Capabilities%20in%20Space%20with%20Photoneo's%20MotionCam-3D%20Color" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Contact us</a> to explore how our advanced 3D vision solutions can enhance your projects.

Extending Robotics Capabilities in Space with Photoneo's MotionCam-3D Color

Extend Robotics leveraged Photoneo’s MotionCam-3D Color for its exceptional 3D vision technology, enabling precise remote operations in challenging environments like space. This innovative solution enhances robotic capabilities, allowing for high-resolution scans under extreme conditions.

The advent of cellular IoT connectivity revolutionized the way businesses were able to track assets and fleets around the world, and the exponential growth of connected devices continues at a rapid pace. The GSMA reports that between 2020 and 2022, the number of LTE-M networks increased nearly 30%. This increase demonstrates how fundamental connectivity has become to support the way businesses manage their fleets.&nbsp;But what happens when those fleets move outside the boundaries of cellular services? How can businesses circumvent issues when assets are in remote locations? Here we’ll discuss the benefits of satellite asset tracking, and how using satellite connectivity along with cellular should become standard for the future success of asset management enterprises.<h2>Combining Satellite and Cellular Connectivity for More Effective Asset Tracking</h2>The ability to track fleets on the move and on the ground in areas where cellular connectivity is reliable and readily available has significantly improved in recent years. But as companies expand their global presence, sending assets or fleets across oceans or into remote areas, cellular connectivity is no longer a viable or singular option for asset monitoring. In the shipping industry, for example, cellular connectivity allows companies to check ship location statuses from port to port, but not in between.&nbsp;Satellite tracking bridges the gap when ships are traveling across oceans, allowing for more efficient and effective fleet tracking. And while satellite services were once prohibitively expensive, demand has pushed prices down, and more satellite providers make the cellular/satellite connection financially viable. Now, the use of cellular and satellite networks offers a perfect balance between performance and price.Plus, when devices are on the move in remote locations—where cell towers are scarce or non-existent—satellite connectivity becomes the only reliable method to track assets and fleets.<h2>When The Assets You’re Tracking are People: NEYOS Otrac</h2>There are recognizable use cases for a combined cellular/satellite asset tracking—container shipping, as we’ve mentioned, and other supply chain logistics. But there are other use cases—ones in which the devices that need to be tracked are people.NEYOS, a manufacturer of a portable geolocation beacon, was founded following a life-threatening incident in which its co-founder was unable to reach emergency services while located on a mountain. Based on that experience, they developed the NEYOS Otrac, the first satellite and cellular geolocation beacon that allows the tracking of remote sporting activities, like ultra-marathons. And this tracker has become available at a time when ultra-marathoning is rapidly growing. Ultra marathon participation has vastly increased over the years—a staggering 345% in the last decade.&nbsp;As more people become interested in this activity, tracking participants becomes even more essential to ensure runner safety.NEYOS provides sporting event organizers the Otrac and a subscription connectivity plan that offers 4G cellular and satellite tracking ideal for monitoring in remote locations. Those tracking beacons are handed out to runners as part of their marathon safety protocol. If a runner participating in an organization’s event deviates from the planned course or experiences an emergency, the event organizers are immediately alerted through the Otrac security beacon and help can be dispatched promptly.<h2>Other Industries Benefiting from Using Cellular/Satellite Connectivity Combination&nbsp;</h2>The NEYOS beacon use case applies not only to ultra-marathoning, but also to many other remote sporting events, like sailing competitions, remote hiking and cycling, and rally raids. And it also benefits many more emerging industries thanks to its flexible use of both cellular and satellite connectivity. Another instance in which people need to be monitored is when companies dispatch lone workers to remote areas. Similar to sporting event participant tracking, using a monitoring device in conjunction with satellite connectivity gives businesses peace of mind that their employees can make emergency contact using their tracking device. Other sporting activities, like sailing competitions, or agricultural goods tracking—where food is monitored from farm, to port, to ship, then to store—also require both remote satellite and cellular services.<h2>Cellular/Satellite Tracking for Asset Management</h2>Businesses have benefited from asset tracking and management thanks to cellular IoT connectivity, but they need to look to the future in which assets are moving across areas without cell towers. Devices like the NEYOS Otrac, combined with cellular and satellite services provided by Monogoto and Skylo, ensure a smooth transition into the future of asset management.<h2>Scale and Innovate with Monogoto</h2>With Monogoto’s cloud best practices, developers and innovators can start small, with access to all APIs immediately, and scale with a truly global cloud offering. Secure, seamless connectivity across cellular, satellite, and private LTE/5G networks forms the foundation of the future of asset tracking. As the industry evolves, embracing connectivity advancements is key to unlocking new opportunities for growth. Monogoto stands at the forefront of this journey, offering cutting-edge connectivity solutions and developer tools that empower enterprises to innovate like never before.&nbsp;<a href="https://lp.monogoto.io/book-a-demo" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Book a demo</a> with Monogoto today and take the first step towards a revolutionary experience.

The advent of cellular IoT connectivity revolutionized the way businesses were able to track assets and fleets around the world, and the exponential growth of connected devices continues at a rapid pace. The GSMA reports that between 2020 and 2022, the number of LTE-M networks increased nearly 30%. 

How Combining Cellular and Satellite Connectivity Improves Asset Tracking

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space

James Webb Space Telescope aims to take us to the unexplored realm of our cosmic origins. From observing the formation of the first stars and galaxies to looking for the possibility of life on other planets, the telescope will play a major role in the future of space exploration.

space

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