Facebook and Google Plan Undersea Cables to Connect Southeast Asia and America
Facebook and Google are planning two new undersea internet cables to connect South East Asia to North America.
The project with regional telecoms companies aims to supply faster internet to Singapore and Indonesia.
This comes after Facebook withdrew three projects to connect the US to Hong Kong with similar cables, following government concerns over spying.
The cables require regulatory approval from the national governments involved.
"Named Echo and Bifrost, those will be the first two cables to go through a new diverse route crossing the Java Sea, and they will increase overall subsea capacity in the trans-Pacific by about 70%.
The cables will be the first to directly connect North America to the main parts of Indonesia.
Echo is due to be completed by 2023, in partnership with Google and Indonesian telecoms company XL Axiata. Bifrost is planned to be completed a year later.
Scientists Built a Perfectly Self-replicating Synthetic Cell
Scientists have crafted a single-celled synthetic organism that divides and multiplies just like the real thing. The advancement could someday help researchers to build miniscule computers and tiny drug-producing factories, all out of synthesised cells.
Of course, that future likely won't be realised for many years to come.
"There's just so many ways in which this coming century of biology could potentially change our daily lives for the better," said senior author Elizabeth Strychalski, leader of the Cellular Engineering Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For example, Strychalski and her colleagues plan to engineer living sensors that can take measurements from their surrounding environments, monitoring the acidity, temperature and oxygen levels nearby.
These sensor cells could also be manufactured to produce specific products — namely medicines — and could potentially be placed inside the human body itself.
Mar 29, 2021
NISAR: ISRO and NASA Joint Mission Satellite to Track Climate Change, Disaster
NISAR Project: A major earth satellite is all ready to help people know more about climate change and help with disaster management. In a release, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that the satellite will be equipped with the largest reflector antenna, space agency has ever launched. The project called NISAR, a joint mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has huge goals regarding studying climate change.
The SUV-size Earth satellite is expected to track subtle changes going on in the Earth's surface. The satellite will provide spot warning signs of volcanic eruptions along with monitoring groundwater supplies. It will also be tracking the melting rate of ice sheets and its impact on the sea level rise. The Earth satellite will also be observing shifts in the distribution of vegetation across countries. According to NASA, these kinds of changes have not been monitored for the entire globe and with NISAR, NASA is aiming to tap this field with the help of ISRO.
Mar 28, 2021
India likely to have Sky Eye GISAT-1 in Geostationary Orbit in April
The launch of India's first Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT-1) to be placed in geostationary orbit will happen sometime during the first or second week of April, said K. Sivan, Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The GISAT-1 launch slated for March 28 got slightly delayed as some technical issues were observed in the satellite and the rocket. The issues observed issues have to be addressed even if they are minute ones. The GISAT-1 will be the country's first sky eye or earth observation satellite to be placed in geostationary orbit.
Originally the GISAT-1 was slated for launch on March 5, 2020 by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-F10 (GSLV-F10).
Mar 25, 2021
LG Electronics to Step Up Development of 6G Network Technology
LG Electronics has joined forces with two other partners to develop next-generation 6G network technology.
LG signed a partnership with Keysight Technologies, a US-based electronics test and measurement firm, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), South Korea's leading research university.
Under the agreement, the three sides will cooperate in developing technologies related to terahertz, a key frequency band for 6G communications. They target to complete 6G research by 2024. LG said that the 6G network is expected to be commercialised in 2029.
LG established a 6G research centre with KAIST in 2019 and signed an agreement with the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science last year to study 6G technologies.
Keysight Technologies is a major supplier of 6G terahertz test equipment. It has been providing equipment to LG and KAIST's 6G research centre.
Mar 24, 2021
Russia Launches 38 Foreign Satellites
Russia has successfully launched 38 foreign satellites for the 18 countries into orbit after the successful launch from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Though, the launch was delayed due to the technical issues.
These satellites were successfully placed into orbit from the countries including Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Italy, Germany and Brazil. Among the 38 satellites, one was Challenge-1, which is the first satellite indigenously made in Tunisia. It was created by Telnet Telecommunications Group.
The launch of 38 satellites in one go by the Russia is of great significance in the light that, the Russian Space Sector is lagging behind ever since the fall of Soviet Union. It also lagged behind the international competitors because of several by corruption scandals and the technological stagnation. In the year 2018, Russia had launched a Soyuz rocket carrying the Russian cosmonaut and a NASA astronaut. But this mission was failed mid-flight and the crew had to carry out the emergency landing.