Thuraya | Tom Cruise | Airbus | European Parliament | Thomas Pesquet | ESA | Long March 5B | Elon Musk | Iridium | Copernicus Sentinel-6 | KSAT | Starship SN4 | Roscosmos | Xenesis | SkyTraQ
issue 16
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Hi friends 🖖;
Everyone, especially Age of Empires enthusiasts 😉, has already heard about the archaeological periods that have marked our civilization. Thus the Stone Age characterizes the prehistoric period when men made various stone tools, the Bronze and Iron Age marks the mastery of metallurgy, the colonial period refers to the establishment of contact with the New World etc.
However, there exist also similar classification, but on a more macroscopic scale. A classification that allows us to compare all the civilizations of the universe, whether on Earth or on other planets. The question we can ask ourselves is "What criteria can we use to compare/classify different universe civilizations?" Well, as it turns out, the answer is quite unanimous:
Kardachev's scale: Kardachev is a Soviet astronomer born in 1932 and considered one of the pioneers of the SETI program. For him, the ranking can be done according to the ability to access energy. Thus, a civilization is of:
Type I if it consumes all of its planet's energy.
Type II if it catches the energy directly from a star.
Type III if it has access to all the energy in its galaxy.
Carl Sagan, the famous American astronomer, refines these rankings and quantifies the thresholds with the equation K = (log10 W - 6)/10 where W is the power consumption. For example a Type-2.3 civilization is able to access 10^29 Watts (cf issue 16 for the order of magnitude).
Zoltan Galántai, a polish scholar, prefers two other scales:
Based on the assumption that a civilization that masters nanotechnology would not need much energy, the first one is based on the ability of miniaturization.
The second scale is based on the ability to survive natural disasters, both intra-planetary and cosmic. Thus:
Type-I would be able to survive a local natural disaster such as a flood.
Type-II to a continental disaster such as a drought.
Type-III to a global disaster like the fall of a comet.
Type-IV is a multi-planetary civilization, which makes it resilient to the vast majority of disasters.
finally Type-V is an immortal civilization
To go further, I highly recommend the book “Physics of the Future” and “The Future of Humanity”by Michio Kaku.
Thank and as always, have a great week!
🛰 Here is what you missed
👉 Thuraya, the Emirati mobile satellite operator, successfully passed certification and verification tests to connect the Airbus H145 and H135 helicopters…[+]
👉 KSAT, a ground station service provider, unveiled the market's first commercial mobile ground station for free space optical communications…[+]
👉 Tom Cruise will work with SpaceX and NASA on a film shot directly in space. No further details are known about this feature film except that it will be, not surprisingly, an action movie in the ISS…[+]
👉 The Chinese Long March 5B rocket launched a prototype of a new manned flight capsule supposed to carry 6 astronauts and 500kg of cargo into LEO orbit. Another version is planned for deep space. It is the latter which is concerned by this launch and all tests, including on-orbit testing and re-entry into the atmosphere, were successful…[+]
👉 The COVID-19 pandemic makes it difficult to attract customers to its new generation Iridium constellation. Desh, the CEO, said "the coronavirus is slowing equipment sales into the hard-hit aviation, maritime and oil markets. Sales and activations of satellite phones and specialized texting devices are also down amid widespread stay-at-home orders and the temporary closure of many retailers"…[+]
👉Seven members of the European Parliament asks the European space commissioner Thiery Breton for a recovery plan as the European space sector could shrink by 1 billion euros in 2020, almost 12% of the revenue. “The Covid-19 pandemic is leading to a sharp economic slowdown and to a dramatic reduction of international trade […] This situation will have a heavy toll on the European space sector, and may lead to rapid capability and capacity loss, including highly specialized technical and managerial skills, that will take years to rebuild if they are not promptly mitigated.”…[+]
👉SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype fires rocket engine for 1st time. "Starship SN4 passed static fire" twitted Elon Musk…[+]
👉Russia plans to return to the moon after 44 years. "The Luna-25 spacecraft is currently in the assembly and first trial stages," affirms Kolmykov, head of Lavochkin Scientific Association at Roscosmos; to the President Vladimir Putin…[+]
👉After a first training phase at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany, European and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet began training at NASA's Johnson Space Center for his mission to the ISS in 2021. Mission for which ESA is asking the world to help finding a suitable name…[+]
👉Copernicus Sentinel-6, the Earth observation satellite built by Airbus, passed acoustic tests in the chambers of the Space Test Centre in Germany. This campaign consists of testing whether the satellite will withstand the impact of rocket noise during launch…[+]
👉Airbus and Xenesis have signed a new contract for the development of a payload for the Bartolomeo module of the ISS. This will consist of a demonstration of the Xen-Hub, an optical link module targeting 10Gbps…[+]
👉Elon Musk has decided to name his new son “X Æ A-12”…😳😳…His wife comments on twitter "X, the unknown variable, Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence), A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent”…[+]
👉SkyTraQ introduces its 12mm x 16mm PX1122R chip, with multi-band positioning RTK receiver for centimeter-level accuracy. The chip processes GPS/QZSS L1/L2C, Galileo E1/E5b, GLONASS L1/L2, and Beidou B1I/B2I simulataneously…[+]
🍪 Cookie of the week
Three poetic pictures of the ISS passing in front of the Moon taken by a “not-so-amateur” astrophotographer can be found here…Do not hesitate the check the other pictures in the profile, quite breathtaking!
Here you are debriefed 👌. Rendezvous next week!
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