Tag Archives: satellites

2022 And NOT Another Year Closer To Private company Asteroid Mining

July 7, 2022 The Silo 2 Comments

It’s been eight years since an historic landing took place between an European Space Agency drone and a comet.(which looked suspiciously a lot like an asteroid to us!)

At that time a report from Deep Space Industries laid out their business plans up to 2020 and what they had committed to sounded more like science fiction than fact.

But it wasn’t and they’d already secured investors.

A 2019 announcement from NASA stating that it would be the National Space Administration in the lead instead ( NASA will soon begin hunting a nickel laden asteroid ) spoke volumes about not only the possibility of asteroid prospecting- but also to its inevitability in the private sector.

DSI concept of “coming soon” asteroid mining.

And yet, things have changed…..again.

In early 2020 Deep Space Industries (along with the only other asteroid mining company, Planetary Resources) were purchased by Bradford Space Group and ConsenSys Group respectively and all plans for private asteroid mining were shelved indefinitely. Deep Space Industries is now focused on developing space propulsion systems and ConsenSys is now focused on developing blockchain security applications for space technology.

What could have been- Deep Space Industries ambitious plan before the take over

Their plan was to send an entire fleet of prospector spaceships to Near-Earth asteroids in order to harvest them for precious metals and other undisclosed resources. (space rubies anyone?). Starting in 2015, Deep Space Industries were to begin their operation by sending three small spacecraft called FireFlies to selected asteroids near earth for sample taking and photo reconnaissance. One year later, bigger craft called DragonFlies were to leave on four year missions to retrieve asteroid samples and bring them back to Earth. An ambitious project to be sure and not surprisingly, the timeline had been regularly pushed back.

This press release from DSI said a precursor mission was scheduled to launch in 2017: “Recently, Deep Space Industries and its partner, the government of Luxembourg, announced plans to build and fly Prospector-X™, an experimental mission to low-Earth orbit that will test key technologies needed for low-cost exploration spacecraft. This precursor mission is scheduled to launch in 2017. Then, before the end of this decade, Prospector-1 will travel beyond Earth’s orbit to begin the first space mining exploration mission.”

Valuable materials exist in abundance in space and have strong economic potential. Using their tested indicators as investment attractors, Deep Space will move towards securing a commercial space operation and start into the next phase of its business plan. This involves concentrating firstly on processing rocket fuel from asteroid-harvested water.

This fuel, harvested and processed in space will save millions of dollars, since existing communications satellites will no longer be ‘thrown away’ when their fuel supply has been used up. (Satellites that can longer ‘move’ and stay in orbit by using their rocket engines are left to slowly fall towards earth and burn up in the atmosphere ).

Deep Space Industries past-CEO David Gump estimated that a satellite ‘refueled’ and saved from burn up is worth up to $8,000,000 per month. Those figures start to add up when you factor in the number of satellites in use and being launched every year. Another plan during this phase of their business operations is to return precious group metals such as platinum and gold back to earth.

After all, if you’re splitting up asteroids and discover metal commodities, why not bring it back down to earth?

Deep Space believed that other metals harvested from asteroids also have an in-orbit value. They are developing the Microgravity Foundry- a type of 3D printer that will be used to fabricate and machine metal parts in space from pure asteroid metal such as high strength nickel parts.

Deep Space cgi mockup of their planned 3D space printer.

Since this factory will operate in space and in zero gravity and produce parts in space, the idea of permanent space development and human habitation is economically feasible. Stephen Covey co-founder of Deep Space Industries and inventor of the Microgravity Foundry process: “What’s cool about the [3D] printer is that it can take its own parts, grind them up, and recycle them into new parts.”

Stephen Covey- inventor of the Microgravity Foundry process

Deep Space Industries past-CEO David Gump: “Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent space development. More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century- a key resource located near where it is needed. In this case, metals and fuel from asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is our strategy.” Company estimates place a value of 1 ton of raw asteroid material at a worth of $1,000,000 [usd] in orbit.

Buy outs over the last few years have all but ended the dream and it will be the various space agencies such as NASA and ESA that will fulfill Deep Space Industries abandoned plan. For the Silo, Jarrod Barker.

Supplemental: http://www.businessinsider.com/deep-space-industries-asteroid-mining-plans-2013-1#ixzz2Io8Qg8uc

Updates: Deep Space Industries aligns with Luxembourg Government, applauds space commercialization policy.

Mexican commercial space company MXSpace partners with Deep Space Industries.

NASA hunting nickel 16 Psyche asteroid worth quadrillions of dollars.

Culture

Albert Einstein’s Top Secret Aliens Document

June 3, 2022 The Silo 14 Comments

Albert Einstein (left) and Robert Oppenheimer (right) warned then-President Roosevelt about Nazi Germany's work on an atomic bomb. http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/a/atomic_bomb.htm — Albert Einstein (left) and Robert Oppenheimer (right) warned then-President Roosevelt about a number of security threats such as Nazi Germany’s work on an atomic bomb but what they sent along in 1947 was earth-shattering.

In June of 1947 Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer together wrote a TOP SECRET six page document entitled “Relationships with Inhabitants of Celestial Bodies”. Aliens?

It was in 1947 and it said the presence of unidentified spacecraft is accepted as de facto by the military.

It also deals with where do they come from, what should we do in the event of colonization and/or integration of peoples, and why are they here? Finally, the document addresses the presence of celestial astroplanes in our atmosphere as a result of actions of military experiments with fission devices of warfare. Einstein and Oppenheimer encourage consideration of our potential future situation and safety due to our present and past actions in space. How can we avoid a perilous fate?

Extract majestic document:

Relationships with extraterrestrial men presents no basically new problem from the standpoint of international law; but the possibility of confronting intelligent beings that do not belong to the human race would bring up problems whose solution it is difficult to conceive. In principle, there is no difficulty in accepting the possibility of coming to an understanding with them, and of establishing all kinds of relationships.

If these intelligent beings were in possession of a more or less culture, and a more or less perfect political organization, they would have an absolute right to be recognized as independent and sovereign peoples. Another possibility may exist, that a species of Homo sapiens might have established themselves as an independent nation on another celestial body in our solar system and evolved culturally independently from ours. Living conditions on these bodies let’s say the moon,-or the planet Mars, would have to be such as to permit a stable, and to a certain extent, independent life, from an economic standpoint.

Hypothetically other planets may have life forms. Water has been found on our Moon and Mars that can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen, using an electric current or the short wave radiation of the sun. The oxygen could be used for breathing purposes; the hydrogen night be used as a fuel. There is indication that the inhabitants of celestial bodies, or extraterrestrial biological entitle (EBE) desire to settle here.

1.If they are politically organized and possess a certain culture similar to our own, they may be recognized as an independent people.

2.If they consider our culture to be devoid of political unity, they would have the right to colonize. Of course, this colonization cannot be conducted on classic lines. A superior form of colonizing will have to be conceived, that could be a kind of tutelage, possibly through the tacit approval of the United Nations. We cannot exclude the possibility that a race of extraterrestrial people more advanced technologically and economically may take upon itself the right to occupy another celestial body.

The division of a celestial body into zones and the distribution of them among other celestial states. A moral entity? The most feasible solution it seem would be this one, submit an agreement providing for the peaceful absorption of a celestial race(s) in such a manner that our culture would remain intact with guarantees that their presence not be revealed. It would merely be a matter of internationalizing celestial peoples, and creating an international treaty instrument.

The presence of unidentified space craft flying in our atmosphere (and possibly maintaining orbits about our planet) is now accepted by our military. Military strategists foresee the use of space craft with nuclear warheads as the ultimate weapon of war. Attack no longer comes from an exclusive direction, nor from a determined country, but from the sky, with the practical impossibility of determining who the aggressor is.

When artificial satellites and missiles find their place in space, we must consider the potential threat that unidentified space craft pose. One must consider the fact that miss-identification of these space craft for an intercontinental missile in a re-entry phase of flight could lead to accidental nuclear war.

This document was written in 1947 but extremely relevant what with the recent United States declassified UFO release.

Read entire document: The Secret Einstein Oppenheimer Document

For the Silo, George Filer/ Ken Pfeifer MUFON NJ www.worldufophotos.org .

Sci-Tech

Canadian Detects And Tracks Over 4,000 Orbiting Objects

October 22, 2021 The Silo Leave a comment

When Port Dover astronomer Michael Earl thought about how to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, he did not know what he was in for. He decided that over the year 2007, he would detect and track 1,957 individual satellites. He managed to detect 2,053 of them; nearly 100 over his initial goal.

The project did not stop there. Mr. Earl decided to continue to determine how many of our orbiting satellites could be detected using retail telescopes and research-grade digital cameras.

Michael Earl stands near his CASTOR facility in Port Dover. This equipment was used to detect and track over 4,000 of our orbiting satellites. Image by Michael A. Earl and Jane E. Yaeger.

Mr. Earl has seen some of our most prestigious satellites, including the International Space Station, the Space Shuttles, all of the GPS satellites, Telstar, NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Canadian satellites Alouette, ISIS, Anik A1, CTS and Radarsat. He has spotted all of the satellites that all North American satellite TV subscribers point their dishes toward.

A decade ago, he spotted the famous Hubble Space Telescope only ten degrees above Port Dover’s southern horizon.

(see image) The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was seen to travel across CASTOR’s field of view at 4:16 a.m. on July 5, 2011. The HST is traveling right to left in this image, which is actually comprised of five 5-second images. The HST’s reflected sunlight is seen as streaks as the satellite orbits the Earth during the exposures. The small dots are stars in the constellation of Grus (the crane). The large clumps at the bottom are foreground trees. Image by Michael A. Earl / CASTOR.

The furthest man-made object he has seen is an old Soviet-era x-ray observatory called Astron. It was 196,000km away at the time, or half way to the Moon.

At the present time, there are a total of 16,000 catalogued satellites that are tracked regularly by the United States military. Mr. Earl has detected over 4,000 (one quarter) of these to date. This includes two thirds of all payloads and three quarters of all rockets orbiting us right now.

He has compiled his findings into a unique satellite catalogue.

This is the first such catalogue to be compiled within Canada. He is also the first in the world to detect over 4,000 individual satellites single-handedly.

Mr. Earl hopes that his satellite catalogue will be used by amateur and professional astronomers to determine which satellites can be detected using their own unique equipment. The catalogue could be used as an initial point of reference for optical satellite tracking research initiatives all over the world.

The Iridium 67 communications satellite is seen to flare as it reflects sunlight back to the CASTOR camera. For much of its orbit, Iridium 67 is invisible to the naked eye however once in awhile its high gain antenna reflects most of the sunlight that hits it. We see this as an easily visible flare from Earth. CASTOR has detected all 98 Iridium satellites. The arrow denotes the satellite’s direction of travel. The small dots are stars. The number next to the satellite denotes the NORAD satellite catalogue number. The compass at the upper left corner denotes the orientation of the image. The numbers at the bottom denote the time, date and exposure time of the image. Image by Michael A. Earl / CASTOR.

Today, astronomy can be used for much more than observing stars, nebulae and galaxies.

The science can also be used to observe and track our most important assets in space and motivate others to develop new satellite tracking initiatives.

The CASTOR Satellite Catalogue can be viewed in its entirety at Michael’s CASTOR Catalogue

Michael Earl’s CASTOR satellite tracking web site can be viewed at Michael’s Satellite Website.