It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, October 03, 2026
Taste crucial to students’ support for climate-friendly school meals
Students in a new study were neither clearly positive nor negative about more climate-friendly school meals. Their attitudes depended largely on whether the food tasted good, was filling, and felt familiar. Support was somewhat higher for reducing the amount of meat in recipes than for having more all-vegetarian days.
The study was conducted in Lund Municipality, Sweden, by researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology. In fall 2021, researchers surveyed students in grades 4–9 at six schools. The main analyses included 1,268 students. The researchers also conducted qualitative sessions with 20 students at two schools.
The survey showed that positive attitudes toward climate-friendly school meals were most strongly associated with students themselves considering climate important when choosing food and with eating vegetarian food at school more often. Girls also expressed more positive attitudes than boys. Awareness that red meat has a larger climate footprint than vegetarian food was high even among students with more negative attitudes, and this awareness was only weakly associated with their attitudes.
Taste is key
“Students are aware of the climate footprints of foods, but when it comes time for lunch, other things become more important. Above all, they think about whether the food tastes good, fills them up, and feels familiar,” says Monica Hunsberger, associate professor of public health at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.
In the discussions, meat emerged as the norm for what many students considered a proper, filling meal. Vegetarian meals were judged against this norm and were better received when they resembled foods the students already knew.
Modified recipes
Students were somewhat more supportive of reducing the carbon footprint of school meals by reducing the amount of meat in recipes than of having more all-vegetarian days. Overall, attitudes were mixed: around four in ten students in the survey were neutral toward more climate-friendly school meals, while roughly equal proportions were positive and negative. In the discussions, students described reducing the amount of meat in recipes as easier to accept than having more all-vegetarian days. At the time of the study, the schools already had one or two all-vegetarian days per week.
The study was conducted in connection with an intervention, reported in an earlier study, in which the carbon footprint of school meals was reduced by 20 percent without affecting how much students ate or how satisfied they were with the food.
“Many school kitchens already work on modifying recipes so that they contain smaller amounts of ingredients with a high climate footprint, while also serving a high proportion of vegetarian dishes. This study suggests that such recipe reformulation can be a useful complementary approach for reducing climate impact while ensuring that the food is still appreciated by students,” says Erik André, doctoral student at Chalmers University of Technology and the City of Gothenburg.
An instrument built to study cosmic rays has turned out to be a powerful tool for investigating thunderstorms. Earlier observations with the GRAPES-3 muon telescope revealed that thunderclouds can develop electrical potential differences far greater than those ever measured directly. But they also uncovered a puzzle: the instrument detected many more thunderstorm events in the eastern part of its field of view than in the western part. A new study by the same team, published in JCAP, has now explained why.
The asymmetry does not mean that thunderstorms are actually more common to the east. Instead, it arises from the way the geomagnetic field affects the cosmic rays travelling through Earth’s magnetosphere, making GRAPES-3 more sensitive to thunderstorms from some directions than others. The result strengthens the case for using these cosmic-ray particles as a natural probe of thunderstorm electricity.
Cosmic rays are a continuous flux of extremely high-energy particles arriving at Earth from outer space. Most primary cosmic rays are protons. Because they are electrically charged, their trajectories are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field. When they enter the atmosphere, they collide with atomic nuclei in the air, generating showers of secondary particles.
Among these are muons, short-lived charged particles produced at high energies and travelling at speeds close to that of light. “The cosmic rays we detect at ground level consist predominantly of muons”, explains Sunil Gupta of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India, one of the authors of the study. “They’re highly penetrating particles”.
GRAPES-3, located in Ooty, India, includes a 560-square-metre muon telescope that records around four billion muons every day. Positive and negative muons do not arrive at the detector in equal numbers. Since primary cosmic rays are mostly positively charged, positive muons are also more abundant in the atmosphere. Physicists describe this imbalance using the muon charge ratio — the ratio of positive to negative muons — which is normally greater than one.
That imbalance allows GRAPES-3 to do something it was never originally designed to do: probe thunderstorms.
Using particles from space to look inside thunderstorms
Inside a thundercloud, electric charges become separated, producing intense electric fields resulting in large potential differences. When muons cross these regions, the electric field affects positive and negative particles in opposite ways, generally slowing positive muons while accelerating negative ones. If equal numbers of positive and negative muons were present, these effects would largely cancel each other out, leaving almost no detectable change in the total muon flux.
“If nature provided equal numbers of positive and negative muons throughout the field of view, we wouldn’t be able to observe the thunderstorm phenomenon with the current setup”, explains Hari Haran Balakrishnan of TIFR, first author of the new study.
Because positive muons are more abundant, however, thunderstorms produce a small but measurable change in the total muon flux, allowing researchers to infer information about the electrical potential inside the thundercloud.
“Muons are actually an ideal gift for doing these kinds of studies”, says Gupta. “They are like an electric current flowing through the atmosphere”. In an earlier study, the GRAPES-3 team had already obtained a striking result. “We could measure a potential of 1.3 gigavolts in a thunderstorm”, Gupta recalls.
The idea that thunderstorms might generate potentials on this scale is not new. As early as the 1920s, physicist Charles Thomson Rees Wilson, the 1927 Nobel laureate, suggested that thunderclouds could reach such enormous voltages. Yet direct measurements had previously reached only around 130 million volts — more than an order of magnitude lower.
The east-west mystery
Those observations, however, revealed another unexpected result. Between April 2011 and December 2020, GRAPES-3 detected 487 thunderstorm events. Of these, 81.5% appeared in the eastern part of its field of view, while only 13.7% appeared in the west — a difference of almost six to one.
Was there something unusual about the local weather? Apparently not. Using an independent array of instruments that monitors the atmospheric electric field, the researchers confirmed that actual thunderstorms did not show a comparable preference for the east.
The answer instead lies in the east-west effect, known for nearly a century. Because charged particles are deflected by Earth’s magnetic field, positively charged cosmic rays can reach the atmosphere more easily from some directions than others. Lower-energy positive particles arriving from the east are filtered out more strongly than those arriving from the west.
This directional threshold, known as the geomagnetic cutoff, varies significantly across GRAPES-3’s field of view.
To test whether this could explain the observed asymmetry, the researchers used computer simulations to model the production and propagation of muons through the atmosphere. The simulations showed that the balance between positive and negative muons changes with direction: the muon charge ratio is about 1.37 in the east and 1.14 in the west.
“It’s not that the voltage is different”, Gupta explains: thunderstorms to the east are not necessarily more electrically powerful. Rather, the larger imbalance between positive and negative muons in that direction makes GRAPES-3 more sensitive to their electrical effects.
The simulations support this explanation: when the direction-dependent muon charge ratio is included, a strong east-west asymmetry emerges, similar to that seen in the observations. When the same ratio is imposed in both directions, the asymmetry disappears.
Understanding this effect is therefore essential for using GRAPES-3 as a reliable probe of thunderstorm electricity.
Direct measurements of electrical potential inside thunderclouds are notoriously difficult. They generally require instruments carried by aircraft or weather balloons into or near active storms, making it challenging to sample a large, rapidly evolving phenomenon. Muons offer a different approach: they continuously pass through the atmosphere and can be monitored from the ground.
GRAPES-3 was built to study particles arriving from space and investigate cosmic-ray physics. Yet those same particles are now helping researchers understand one of the most familiar — and still surprisingly mysterious — phenomena on our own planet: thunderstorms.
Journal
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Article Title
The muon charge asymmetry and the directional distribution of thunderstorm events observed by the GRAPES-3 muon telescope
Article Publication Date
2-Oct-2026
Aerial view of the GRAPES-3 experiment with arrival of a simulated cosmic ray shower
Credit
The GRAPES-3 Collaboration
The GRAPES-3 collaboration
NASA Celebrates As Artemis Accords Surpasses 75 Signatories
Marking a significant expansion in the number of signatories to the Artemis Accords, NASA welcomed Albania, Croatia, Côte d’Ivoire, and San Marino, bringing total participation to 76 countries.
“Our momentum reflects a growing commitment to peaceful, responsible exploration and a shared understanding that the future in space will be shaped by those willing to lead,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. “Nearly one-third of all signatories have joined since the start of President Trump’s second term. As the President directs NASA to return Americans to the lunar surface and lay the groundwork for Mars, we are strengthening a coalition of partners who share our values and are ready to help shape the future of exploration.”
The recent surge in growth reflects one of the most rapid expansions of international cooperation in civil space history. Nearly 40% of the world’s nations are now collaborating with NASA to build a transparent, peaceful, responsible, and safe approach to space exploration. Nearly two-thirds of countries that signed the foundational 1967 Outer Space Treaty also have signed the Artemis Accords.
What began as an informal coalition of a small group of countries has developed into a large, structured community guided by the Signatories Group Method of Operations, adopted in 2024. Under this framework, the group meets twice annually, once at a technical workshop and once at a Principals’ Meeting during the International Astronautical Congress (IAC). Virtual sessions are added throughout the year to support implementation.
As a result, participating countries have advanced agreed-upon recommendations on noninterference, interoperability, scientific data sharing, and registration practices.
Two major workshops this year further strengthened technical alignment. Signatories reviewed their planned lunar landings and orbital missions and took part in hands‑on sessions focused on open science and practical tools for sharing lunar data. Experts from dozens of countries worked through real-world examples of how to make mission information easier to find, use, and share, from releasing lunar science data to adopting common standards that reduce interference between missions.
This year’s Artemis Accords Principals’ Meeting at IAC in Antalya, Türkiye, beginning Monday, Oct. 5, will be co-chaired by NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson and Major General Roberto Melgar Sheen, director of the Peruvian Space Agency (CONIDA). The meeting will examine ways to support emerging space nations and disseminate lunar debris‑mitigation recommendations.
NASA continues to put the principles of the Artemis Accords into practice. With the creation of the Moon Base, NASA has invited every Artemis Accords signatory to participate in our return to the Moon through scientific payloads, technology demonstrations, CubeSats, and other capabilities.
The United States, led by NASA and the U.S. Department of State, and seven other nations launched the Artemis Accords in 2020 to guide growing global interest in lunar activity. The accords established the first set of practical principles to enhance safety and coordination as nations explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Signatories commit to: Explore peaceably and transparently Render aid to those in need Enable access to scientific data Ensure activities do not interfere with others Preserve historically significant sites and artifacts by developing best practices
More nations are expected to join the Artemis Accords in the months and years ahead as NASA continues working with partners worldwide to secure a safe, peaceful, and prosperous future in space.
PSI-led team selected for NASA PRISM program to explore potential lunar cave
The Marius Hills Pit (MHP) on the surface of the Moon. MHP will be studied by PSI-led GIMLI, through the NASA PRISM program, to investigate a possible lava tube beneath the surface.
NASA has selected a Planetary Science Institute-led proposal to investigate whether a potentially large underground cave extends beyond the opening of a lunar pit. Such a cave may one day provide a safe haven for astronauts to escape the radiation and extreme temperature swings present at the lunar surface. The project will be funded through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program, which sends scientific instruments to the Moon on spacecraft provided by the Commercial Lunar Payloads Services (CLPS) initiative providers.
Led by PSI Associate Director and Senior Scientist Than Putzig, the selected project is the Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation, or GIMLI. PSI is partnering with Honeybee Robotics on the effort, who will build much of the equipment and instrumentation, which will be carried on a CLPS initiative provided lander and rover. The PSI work will be carried out in partnership with the Norwegian Space Agency.
“GIMLI represents the type of ambitious planetary science that PSI was built to pursue,” said PSI Director and CEO Amanda Hendrix. “Than and his team are taking a scientific question we’ve been studying from orbit and have developed a way to investigate it directly on the Moon. We’re excited to have PSI leading this effort and to be partnering with NASA and Honeybee Robotics to learn more about the Moon and its volcanic past.”
Observations from lunar orbit have provided compelling evidence that caves and lava tubes may exist under the Moon’s surface. GIMLI’s research will focus on the Marius Hill Pit (MHP), a large hole in one of the Moon’s most volcanically diverse regions. Like other lunar pits, MHP may serve as an opening to these underground spaces, which may have formed during ancient volcanic activity.
GIMLI will allow scientists to investigate MHP directly from the lunar surface.
“It’s long been a desire of mine to reintroduce intentional active-source seismic methods to planetary science, as it has essentially not been done since the Apollo astronauts conducted the first seismic surveys on the Moon,” shared Putzig. “Combining that method with ground-penetrating radar and gravity measurements makes it all the more exciting, as these methods together will allow us to get a much better understanding of subsurface properties — including the anticipated detection of a lava tube extending away from the Marius Hills pit.”
GIMLI will use tools including ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors, and a gravimeter to look beneath the surface, with cameras providing imagery of the surface and pit walls. Together, these instruments will not only search for an underground void extending from MHP, but if one exists, they will also help determine its size.
Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin company, will serve as a commercial partner to PSI, providing project management services and building the instrumentation for the active-source seismic system, gravimeter, and cameras. They will also work to integrate all instruments onto the lander and rover and, together with PSI, will lead their operations on the lunar surface.
Even if GIMLI does not find a cave or lava tube beneath the surface, the results and data could still help answer an important question: How did the pit form? Measurements of the surrounding subsurface could help answer questions around the origin of MHP, as well as providing a better understanding of the geology and volcanic history around the site.
The GIMLI team will also look beyond the pit itself. The geographic area has a long history of volcanic activity, and MHP walls expose layers of regolith and lava flows that are usually hidden underground. Studying those layers could reveal how lava traveled on the Moon and whether long periods of time separated eruptions.
Lunar pits are of interest for more than the geology preserved in their walls. The interiors of any potential underground spaces could also preserve a history of the volcanic processes that shaped the Moon.
“Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the Moon,” explained Gareth Morgan, PSI Senior Scientist and Deputy Principal Investigator on the GIMLI program. “Lava tubes are a common feature of basaltic volcanism on Earth, so identifying them on the Moon means we could use knowledge of such terrestrial caves to better understand lunar history.”
Beyond PSI and Honeybee Robotics, the team includes Co-Investigators from Boise State University, Johns Hopkins University, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the University of Oslo, with the ground penetrating radar being provided by the Norwegian Space Agency.
Located on Mount Wilson in California, the CHARA Array combines light from six telescopes positioned at different sites across the observatory grounds. By interfering the light together, CHARA achieves the resolving power of a much larger telescope.
MOUNT WILSON, Calif. — Astronomers using Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have found that nearby stars darken toward their edges more strongly at near-infrared wavelengths than predicted by several widely used models of stellar atmospheres, providing a new benchmark for understanding how stars are structured.
The research team measured how the brightness of 31 nearby stars changes from the center of each stellar disk to its edge. This effect, known as limb darkening, makes a star appear fainter at its edge than at its center. The observations show that limb darkening changes more strongly at near-infrared wavelengths than predicted by several widely used stellar-atmosphere models.
Limb darkening appears because stars are not uniformly bright disks. Light from near the center of a stellar disk comes from deeper, hotter layers of the atmosphere, while light from the edge comes from shallower, cooler layers and passes through more stellar material.
“We are not just measuring how large these stars are,” said lead author Narsireddy Anugu, a staff scientist at Georgia State University’s CHARA Array. “We are measuring how their light is distributed across the stellar disk, which directly tests stellar-atmosphere models.”
By observing the same stars simultaneously using two different near-infrared filters, the team measured how the center-to-edge fading changes with wavelength. As expected, the researchers found that limb darkening is weaker at longer wavelengths. However, the measured change was larger than predicted by several commonly used stellar-atmosphere models.
“This study demonstrates the powerful capabilities of our facility,” said Gail Schaefer, director of the CHARA Array. “By combining light from telescopes across the mountaintop, we can image stars with enough detail to see what their surfaces actually look like.”
Located on Mount Wilson in California, the CHARA Array combines light from six telescopes positioned at different sites across the observatory grounds. By interfering the light together, CHARA achieves the resolving power of a much larger telescope. Rather than capturing direct images of stars, CHARA measures how the contrast of the interference pattern changes with the spacing between telescopes. These measurements reveal both the size of a star and how the brightness changes across its surface.
The survey focused on 31 bright stars in late stages of their lives, where their outer layers have expanded outward. These evolved subgiant, giant and supergiant stars provide especially valuable tests of stellar-atmosphere models because the large convective motion in their extended atmospheres can produce complex brightness profiles.
Limb darkening affects measurements of stellar diameters. It also impacts how astronomers characterize the properties of exoplanets that transit across the surface of the parent star. The amount of light blocked by the exoplanet during a transit depends on the brightness across the stellar disk.
Across the sample, the limb-darkening strength decreased by about 38 percent going from near-infrared wavelengths at 1.6 micron to 2.2 micron. The atmosphere models tested in the study predicted the same overall trend — weaker limb darkening at longer infrared wavelengths but a smaller decrease of about 17 to 22 percent. The results show that current models capture the broad behavior, but do not fully reproduce the wavelength dependence.
The study offers a new empirical benchmark for testing stellar-atmosphere models in the near infrared. Additionally, the team found no evidence for surface features like large starspots or hidden companion stars in the sample.
Future work will extend the comparison to broader wavelength coverage, from the visible to near-infrared light. The team also plans to image smaller main-sequence stars, which are more difficult to resolve but are especially important for understanding transiting exoplanets around Sun-like stars.
Empirical H- and K-band Limb Darkening for 31 CHARA Stars: A Near-infrared Benchmark for Stellar-Atmosphere Models
Models of the bright star Procyon at two near-infrared wavelengths. The star appears brighter at the center and fainter near the edge, an effect astronomers call limb darkening. The CHARA measurements show that this center-to-edge fading is stronger at shorter wavelengths.
Limb-darkened model images for the sample of 31 stars observed with the CHARA Array in the near infrared (at 1.6 microns). Each star shows the measured decrease in brightness from the hotter center toward the cooler outer edge, an effect known as limb darkening. Colors indicate relative intensity. The stars are displayed at a common relative scale, while labels give their physical size in solar radii.
Credit
Courtesy: Georgia State University/The Chara Array
The CHARA Array on Mount Wilson combines light from six telescopes to achieve the resolving power of a much larger telescope. This allows astronomers to measure how the brightness of nearby stars changes from the center of the stellar disk to the edge.
Credit
Courtesy: Nic Scott/CHARA Array.
NTU Singapore launches CRIMSON-1 satellite to test next-gen perovskite solar cells and AI computing in space
The mission will evaluate how lightweight perovskite solar technology and on-orbit AI-based image processing perform in extreme environments
Front row, from left: NTU Satellite Research Centre Executive Director Mr Lim Wee Seng; School of Materials Science and Engineering Asst Prof Leonard Ng Wei Tat; and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Assoc Prof Leong Wei Lin, Assoc Prof Wen Bihan, Principal Research Engineer Mr Lim Sir Yang, with other members of the NTU research team and partners from Singfilm Solar.
NTU Singapore launches CRIMSON-1 satellite to test next-gen perovskite solar cells and AI computing in space The mission will evaluate how lightweight perovskite solar technology and on-orbit AI-based image processing perform in extreme environments
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has successfully launched a satellite carrying pioneering perovskite solar cells developed locally for testing in space, together with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities designed to analyse images directly in orbit.
The CRIMSON-1 satellite will gather real-world performance data on lightweight perovskite solar cells in the harsh environment of space, while also testing technologies that could help future spacecraft analyse raw data before beaming it back to Earth.
CRIMSON-1 is NTU’s 14th satellite launched into space and it is among the first projects supported by the National Space Agency of Singapore (NSAS) under Singapore’s Space Access Programme (SAP) as part of the national Space Technology Development Programme.
The programme gives Singapore researchers and companies opportunities to test technologies such as advanced materials, solar cells and edge computing systems in orbit, build flight heritage and shorten the path from laboratory development to space validation.
The satellite is also supported by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), which secured satellite spectrum and orbital resources from the International Telecommunication Union for its operation.
CRIMSON-1 was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Transporter-18 rideshare mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, United States, on 1 October.
Scientists from the NTU Satellite Research Centre (SaRC) worked with launch integrator Exolaunch, which provided launch capacity, mission management, satellite integration and deployment services, to deploy the satellite into space using its EXOpod Nova system.
Ms Ngiam Le Na, Chief Executive of the National Space Agency of Singapore, said: “Perovskite solar cells will provide a compelling advantage over conventional solar panels – their thin, lightweight properties make them particularly well-suited for space applications, where every gram matters. Missions like CRIMSON-1 represent a pathway for homegrown innovations to gain flight heritage needed to progress towards commercial application. By giving our researchers and companies the opportunity to test and validate their technologies in orbit, we are helping them build the credibility and track record needed to compete in the global space economy.”
Since 2022, the Singapore government has set aside S$210 million under the Space Technology Development Programme to support research and development in space technologies and build national capabilities.
NTU Deputy President and Provost Professor Christian Wolfrum said: “CRIMSON-1 carries next-generation perovskite solar cells and edge AI computing into orbit. These technologies can only be validated under real space conditions, and this is what NTU's satellite programme has been doing for three decades. CRIMSON-1 is our fourteenth mission.”
“What makes this possible is that NTU brings satellite engineering, artificial intelligence, and advanced materials research together in one place. The satellite was developed with local industry partners, so each mission builds capability not just in the university but across Singapore's space sector.”
Testing pioneering perovskite solar cells in orbit
CRIMSON-1 will test several next-generation perovskite solar cells developed by NTU researchers and Singfilm Solar, a deep-tech spin-off from National University of Singapore (NUS).
Perovskites are a class of next-generation materials that can be used to make lightweight solar cells with high power-generation efficiency using commonly available materials.
NTU has been a pioneer in perovskite solar cell research since a landmark Science paper in 2013[1], when a team showed that electrical charges could travel unusually long distances through perovskite materials, helping to explain their high solar-cell efficiency.
Since then, NTU researchers have scaled up perovskite solar cells towards module sizes[2] suitable for industry applications and developed prototypes aimed at improving their performance and stability.
However, for space applications, new solar technologies must prove that they can survive the physical stresses of a rocket launch and endure the harsh conditions of space while generating consistent power.
CRIMSON-1 will test the cells’ physical durability and efficiency after their journey from the ground into space and measure how much electrical power they generate in Low Earth Orbit.
The mission also marks the first time Singfilm’s technology will be flown in space, providing data that could support further development and validation of its solar technology for space applications.
NUS Assistant Professor Hou Yi, Founder of Singfilm Solar, said: “This mission marks the first spaceflight of a flexible perovskite solar module built on ultrathin glass and the first deployment of a Singapore-made solar module in orbit. It will provide valuable data on how our technology performs in the harsh environment of space, helping us advance lightweight solar power for future satellites and explore its application for space-based AI data centres.”
Building on NTU’s satellite achievements
Leading the mission is the NTU Satellite Research Centre (SaRC), the birthplace of Singapore’s satellite and space programmes. It is one of the few university-based centres globally that has developed end-to-end capabilities spanning spacecraft engineering, launch preparation, mission control and in-orbit operations.
Since the launch of X-SAT, Singapore’s first locally built satellite, in 2011, NTU has designed, built, tested and operated satellites ranging from small CubeSats to larger spacecraft and has launched 14 satellites into space.
Most recently, VELOX-AM, NTU’s 13th satellite launched in July 2023, completed its mission and deorbited in August 2026. Data and learnings from past missions have helped pave the way for CRIMSON-1 and NTU’s ongoing development of future satellite operations.
Complementing SaRC’s satellite engineering capabilities, NTU’s Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) applies satellite data to real-world challenges, from developing rapid maps of earthquakes, floods and other disasters to monitoring climate change and land sinking.
Developing AI for future satellite operations
Another CRIMSON-1 experiment will test edge AI computing, where data collected by a satellite is analysed directly on board instead of transmitting all the raw images back to Earth, which takes time and bandwidth.
During the mission, the satellite will run AI-based image-processing tasks in orbit while researchers study how well its computing system manages heat and power consumption under heavy workloads.
Analysing images in space could allow future satellites to identify useful information before transmitting data to Earth, reducing the amount of raw data sent through limited satellite communications links.
While CRIMSON-1 is testing AI processing in orbit, SaRC is also exploring how AI could help manage growing numbers of satellites from the ground.
Earlier this year, NTU and Japanese technology company Fusic Co., Ltd. announced a collaboration to explore AI-enabled ground systems that could assist satellite operators with mission scheduling, ground-station allocation, routine operations and earlier detection of technical problems.
Together, the two efforts will examine how AI could support both sides of future satellite operations: processing information autonomously aboard spacecraft and helping human operators manage missions from Earth.
###
[1] Xing, G., Mathews, N., Sun, S., Lim, S. S., Lam, Y. M., Grätzel, M., Mhaisalkar, S., & Sum, T. C. (2013). Long-range balanced electron- and hole-transport lengths in organic-inorganic CH₃NH₃PbI₃. Science, 342(6156), 344–347. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1243167
The CRIMSON-1 satellite (left) being integrated into the EXOpod Nova system, which deployed the satellite into space after the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was launched.
