Space Based Starshades Will Make Large Ground Telescopes the Most Powerful Exoplanet Finders

Hybrid observatories will combine a 100 meter diameter starshade in space with a telescope on the ground. The Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE) would convert the largest ground-based telescopes now under construction (Giant Magellan Telescope, Thirty Meter Telescope, and Extremely Large Telescope) into the most powerful planet finders yet designed. No other proposed equipment …

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Arrays of Antennas Deployed From Cubesats for Massive Sensing Improvement

Accurate storm predictions not only save resources and money, but also lives. To build the next generation of predictive weather models, we need to measure a storm from space across time over its entire lifecycle, from water vapor to heavy precipitation. To capture the phases of a storm, measurements need to be made at multiple …

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Integrating Quantum Dot Instruments on Solar Sails For Breakthrough Distant Exploration

Missions to the outer planets are an important and exciting part of NASA’s goals because these scarcely visited worlds, particularly the ice giants Neptune and Uranus, undoubtedly hold secrets about our solar system. Unlocking these discoveries will enable us to better understand Earth and the formation and evolution of our solar system and countless others. …

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Cryospheric Quantum Rydberg Radar

Another NASA advanced concpet project is Cryospheric Quantum Rydberg Radar. This is especially interesting to Nextbigfuture because this overlaps with ColdQuanta’s QuantumRF work. Nextbigfuture interviewed ColdQuanta VP Max Perez about Atomic clocks and QuantumRF and Quantum computers. ColdQuanta has close to $100 million in funding and grants. ColdQuanta is doing advanced work with laser arrays …

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Cycler Satellites Will Shuttle Petabits of Info from Deep Space Missions

The Solar System Pony Express is a global, multi-spectral, high-resolution planetary surveyor supported by regular visits from a cycler satellite network to retrieve petabits of data for transit to Earth. The “courier” satellites use optical communications to receive 1-3 petabits from the surveyor at least once per year. They then travel close to earth where …

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