NASA is reporting that the MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, in orbit around Mars, experienced a loss of signal with ground stations on Earth on Dec. 6.
Besides studying the atmosphere of Mars, MAVEN serves as a comms relay station for rovers on the Martian surface such as Perseverance and Curiosity.
Other orbiters can pick up the slack for now. The rovers can also communicate directly with earth at low data rates.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/maven/2025/12/09/nasa-teams-work-maven-spacecraft-signal-loss/
1/n
FCC opens 30-day review for SpaceX’s 15,000-Satellite VLEO Constellation, at ~325 km altitude.
For D2D service to unmodified smartphones.
Lower altitude, smaller footprint, smaller antennas, more satellites, ...
The application was submitted on Sept 19, 2025, and amended on Nov 25, 2025.
Comments/petitions are due by January 5, 2026, just around the holiday season.
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
https://news.satnews.com/2025/12/09/fcc-opens-review-for-spacexs-15000-satellite-vleo-constellation/
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-1018A1.pdf
1/n
In March 2024, the FCC had rejected a similar application from SpaceX for a VLEO constellation below 360 km altitude. That filing was intended as a lower latency Starlink data service.
But it appears that in Nov 2024, the FCC granted permission for 7,500 satellites at 340-360 km altitude, for D2D service, subject to some conditions. Permission for an additional 22,488 satellites was deferred.
🤔
https://spectrum.ieee.org/starlink-vleo-below-iss
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-222A1.pdf
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-1193A1.pdf
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
FCC opens 30-day review for SpaceX’s 15,000-Satellite VLEO Constellation, at ~325 km altitude.
For D2D service to unmodified smartphones.
Lower altitude, smaller footprint, smaller antennas, more satellites, ...
The application was submitted on Sept 19, 2025, and amended on Nov 25, 2025.
Comments/petitions are due by January 5, 2026, just around the holiday season.
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
https://news.satnews.com/2025/12/09/fcc-opens-review-for-spacexs-15000-satellite-vleo-constellation/
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-1018A1.pdf
1/n
Dec 7 had the earliest sunset of the year, even though the shortest day is on Dec 21.
This is because solar noon does not occur at clock time 12:00 p.m. Because of orbital eccentricity and axis inclination, it occurs earlier or later according to the Equation of Time.
E.g., for Philadelphia –
Dec 7: Sunrise 7:09 – Sunset 4:35 (9:26h), Solar noon 11:52
Dec 21: 7:18 – 4:38 (9:20h), 6m shorter, Solar noon 11:58, shifted by 6m
Sunset Dec 21 = 4:38 = 4:35 – 0:03 + 0:06
🌅
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time
Here is a link to a GOES-19 SUVI time-lapse video covering the past 11 hours. One can see eruptions of plasma that loop along the magnetic lines of force; some material falls back to the surface, other escapes into space.
https://helioviewer.org/?movieId=210Y5
8/n
Chances are excellent for some good aurora viewing tonight in the upper- and mid-latitudes, esp. in the latter half of the night in Canada and northern U.S. states, due to the anticipated passage of the CME from 06 December.
Keep those cameras ready!
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
9/n
RE: https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/115678760670618588
Outstanding and eye-opening reporting by ProPublica -
"The reality is that hospitals are businesses, first and foremost.
It’s not the pharmaceutical industry that is most responsible for driving up the nation’s health care costs; it’s the hospital industry. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently reported that hospitals account for ~33% the $4.9 trillion the nation spends on health care. Retail and prescription drugs - only 9%."
https://fosstodon.org/@ProPublica@newsie.social/115678761391954395
NEW: In a five-part series, “Sick in a Hospital Town,” ProPublica’s Ginger Thompson pursues the question:
Why are people in Albany, Georgia, so sick when its most powerful institution is a hospital?
Start with Part 1 here: https://projects.propublica.org/albany-georgia-hospital/part-one/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#Georgia #Health #Healthcare #Journalism #Hospital #Poverty #COVID
Some insightful articles at Asimov Press -
A Most Important Mustard. On the origins of Arabidopsis thaliana - https://www.asimov.press/p/arabidopsis
The Penicillin Myth - https://www.asimov.press/p/penicillin-myth
Mitochondria Are Alive - https://www.asimov.press/p/mitochondria
What Makes an Experiment Beautiful? - https://www.asimov.press/p/beautiful-experiments
Animalcules and Their Motors - https://www.asimov.press/p/flagella
Read Something Wonderful (about Biology), A curated list of 100+ essays about biology and science - https://www.asimov.press/p/read-biology
#Science
"In 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a “Bermuda style” home in Palm Beach, FL, pledging that it would be his principal residence. Just 7 weeks later, he got another mortgage for a neighboring property, attesting that it too would be his principal residence.
In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence. Instead, they were used as investment properties and rented out."
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-mortgage-fraud-florida-principal-residences
#UsPol
2/n
“Given Trump’s position on situations like this, he’s going to either need to fire himself or refer himself to the DOJ,” said Kathleen Engel, a Suffolk University law professor and leading expert on mortgage finance. “Trump has deemed that this type of misrepresentation is sufficient to preclude someone from serving the country.”
LoL!
As the saying goes for trump and other authoritarians - "For my friends and me everything, for my enemies the law."
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-mortgage-fraud-florida-principal-residences
#UsPol
3/n
An excellent summary from Thom Hartmann of how we got here from Franklin Roosevelt to Reagan to trump and an optimistic look at what lies ahead.
"So now Donald Trump tells our young people that it’s time to make take the next big step — to reject democracy — as the logical outcome of the Reagan Revolution.
A new, progressive America is being birthed from the ashes of the Reagan Revolution and the GOP and its billionaire owners can’t stop it much longer."
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/reagan-and-trump/
#UsPol
1/n
"In 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a “Bermuda style” home in Palm Beach, FL, pledging that it would be his principal residence. Just 7 weeks later, he got another mortgage for a neighboring property, attesting that it too would be his principal residence.
In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence. Instead, they were used as investment properties and rented out."
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-mortgage-fraud-florida-principal-residences
#UsPol
2/n
An excellent summary from Thom Hartmann of how we got here from Franklin Roosevelt to Reagan to trump and an optimistic look at what lies ahead.
"So now Donald Trump tells our young people that it’s time to make take the next big step — to reject democracy — as the logical outcome of the Reagan Revolution.
A new, progressive America is being birthed from the ashes of the Reagan Revolution and the GOP and its billionaire owners can’t stop it much longer."
https://www.rawstory.com/raw-investigates/reagan-and-trump/
#UsPol
1/n
AkaSci 🛰
️