Connect with us

Published

on

Tensions between Brazil and Elon Musk’s business empire ratcheted up further as the country’s telecoms regulator threatened to sanction his satellite broadband company Starlink hours after its top court stood behind a controversial decision to ban social network X from the country.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also backed the top court’s Judge Alexandre de Moraes’ decision to suspend X. The judge found that X allowed postings of hate messages and falsehoods about the country’s electronic voting system that undermined Brazil’s democracy.

“The Brazilian judiciary may have given an important signal that the world is not obliged to put up with Musk’s far-right ideology just because he is rich,” Lula said in an interview with CNN Brasil released on Monday.

Reacting to the judge’s earlier move to freeze Starlink’s accounts for possible use to pay fines owed by X, Musk said in an X posting that he would seek a reciprocal seizure of Brazilian assets, but did not say how.

Starlink on Monday again found itself in Brazilian authorities’ crosshairs by refusing to obey Moraes’ order for all internet providers to block domestic access to X.

A senior official at telecommunications regulator Anatel said sanctions against Starlink for noncompliance could include the revocation of its license to operate in Brazil.

Anatel commissioner Artur Coimbra told Reuters that the regulator is inspecting all Brazilian telecom operators to make sure they have shut down Musk’s messaging platform.

Starlink is the only company that has told Anatel it will not comply with the judge’s ruling, Coimbra said.

Starlink did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

It previously told Anatel it was refusing to remove X from its service until the freeze on its Brazilian bank accounts was lifted, the telecom regulator confirmed to Reuters earlier on Monday.

Moraes last week froze Starlink’s accounts after X did not pay fines imposed for failing to obey judicial orders.

Sixth Biggest Market

Earlier on Monday, a Supreme Court panel voted unanimously to uphold the suspension of X in the country for defying a court order.

Moraes last week ruled that X should be suspended in Brazil because it did not name a local legal representative as required by law and ignored a deadline for compliance.

Justices Flavio Dino, Cristiano Zanin, Carmen Lucia and Luiz Fux sided with Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Three of the justices on the panel said the suspension could be reversed if the platform complied with previous rulings.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the panel’s decision.

X was taken down for most Brazilians in the early hours of Saturday following Moraes’ decision although some people continued to access it through VPNs and other means. Moraes has also threatened to levy a fine of 50,000 reais ($8,902.66) a day on those using VPNs to access the social network, although it remains unclear how enforceable that threat is.

Brazil is X’s sixth-biggest market globally with about 21.5 million users as of April, according to Statista.

Moraes and Musk, who owns a controlling share in Starlink, have been locked in a months-long feud after the social media platform challenged orders to block accounts accused by investigators of spreading misinformation and hate.

While Moraes’ defenders see him as a crusader in the defense of democracy, critics accuse him of using heavy-handed methods on politicians and businessmen.

Musk has argued that Moraes sought to censor users and closed the X office in Brazil in August without appointing a new representative, triggering the suspension.

On Monday, Musk replied, “Exactly,” to a post that described the suspension as an attack on freedom of expression and Brazilians’ rights.

Chief Justice Luis Roberto Barroso, who was not on the review panel, said that removing legal representatives to avoid complying with court decisions “is a behavior that would not be acceptable anywhere in the world.”

X remained inaccessible for most users in Brazil.

© Thomson Reuters 2024

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Continue Reading

Science

How NASA Saved a Dying Camera Near Jupiter with Just Heat

Published

on

By

How NASA Saved a Dying Camera Near Jupiter with Just Heat

NASA’s Juno spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, had a huge problem when its JunoCam imager started to fail after sitting through the planet’s harsh radiation belts for so many orbits. Designed to only last through the initial few orbits, JunoCam astonishingly endured 34 orbits. Yet by the 47th orbit, the effects of radiation damage became visible, and by the 56th orbit, images were almost illegible. With few alternatives and time slipping away before a close flyby of Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, engineers made a daring but creative gamble. Employing an annealing process, they sought to resuscitate the imager by warming it up—an experiment that proved successful.

Long-distance fix

According to NASA, JunoCam’s camera resides outside the spacecraft’s radiation-shielded interior and is extremely vulnerable. After several orbits, it started developing damage thought to be caused by a failing voltage regulator. From a distance of hundreds of millions of miles, the mission team implemented a last-ditch repair: annealing. The technique, which subjects materials to heat in order to heal microscopic defects, is poorly understood but has been succeeding in the lab. By heating the camera to 77°F, scientists wished to reorient its silicon-based parts.

At first, efforts were for naught, but only days before the December 2023 flyby of Io, the camera unexpectedly recovered—restoring close-to-original image quality just in time to photograph previously unseen volcanic landscapes.

Radiation Lessons for the Future

Though the camera showed renewed degradation during Juno’s 74th orbit, the successful restoration has led to broader applications. The team has since applied similar annealing strategies to other Juno instruments, helping them withstand harsh conditions longer. Juno’s findings are now informing spacecraft design across the board. “We’re learning how to build radiation-tolerant systems that benefit both defense and commercial satellites,” said Juno’s principal investigator Scott Bolton. These findings would inform future missions, such as those visiting outer planets or working in high-radiation environments near Earth, in the Van Allen belts. Juno’s mission continues to pay dividends with unexpected innovations—a lesson in how a small amount of heat can do wonders.

Continue Reading

Science

NASA’s X-59 Moves Closer to First Flight with Advanced Taxi Tests and Augmented Vision

Published

on

By

NASA’s X-59 Moves Closer to First Flight with Advanced Taxi Tests and Augmented Vision

X-59 of NASA has been designed from the ground to fly at a faster speed of sound without making thunderous sonic booms, which are usually associated with supersonic flight. This 99-foot aircraft, which features a logically elongated design, jettisons the front windscreen and is now heading towards the runway. Pilots can see what is at the front through an augmented reality (AR) enabled closed-circuit camera system, which is termed by NASA as the External Vision System (XVS). NASA took control of an experimental aircraft and performed taxi tests on it during this month.

X-59’s Futuristic Design: Eliminating Sonic Booms with External Vision System

According to As per NASA, the test pilot Nils Larson, during the test, drove the X-59 at the runway by keeping a low speed. This is done to ensure the working of the steering and braking systems of the jet. Lockheed Martina and NASA would perform the taxi tests at high speed, in which the X-59 will move faster to make it to the speed at which it will go for takeoff.

Taxi tests are held at the U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 facility in Palmdale, California. The contractors and the Air Force utilise the plant for manufacturing and testing the aircraft. Lockheed Martin has developed this aircraft, whose Skunk Works is found in Plant 42.

Taxi Tests at Plant 42: NASA and Lockheed Martin Prepare X-59 for First Flight

Some advanced aircraft of the U.S. military were developed to a certain extent at Plant 42, together with the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 Raptor, and the uncrewed RQ-170 Sentinel spy drone.

SOFIA airborne observatory aircraft, which is a flying telescope called Plant 42, home recently retired. The space shuttle of the agency is the world’s first reusable spacecraft; these were assembled and tested at the facility.

Such taxi tests have started over the last months. NASA worked in collaboration with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for testing a scale model of the X-59 in the supersonic wind tunnel to measure the noise created under the aircraft.

Continue Reading

Science

Unusual Plasma Waves Above Jupiter’s North Pole Can Possibly Be Explained

Published

on

By

Unusual Plasma Waves Above Jupiter’s North Pole Can Possibly Be Explained

In recent observations, NASA’s Juno spacecraft has significantly detected the presence of a variety of plasma waves. The emergence of these waves on Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field is projected to be surprising, as their existence was never marked in the planetary magnetospheres. However, scientists might have come out with an explanation. Furthermore, the current studies have been questioned by scientists surfacing the activity at the North Pole. The article below will exemplify the findings and shed light on the plasmas. 

Uncovering Mystery at Jupiter’s North Pole 

According to a paper published in the Physical Review Letters, the scientists have uncovered the explanation behind the presence of these strange waves. They mainly suspect that the formation of these waves lies behind their evolution as a plasma, which later transforms into something different. 

Inside Jupiter’s Plasmas and Their Variants 

Plasmas are best referred to as the waves that pass through the amalgamation of the charged particles in the planet’s magnetosphere.These plasma waves come across in two forms: One, Langmuir waves, which are high-pitched lights crafted with electrons, while the other, Alfven waves, are slower, formed by ions (heavy particles). 

About Juno’s Findings

As unveiled by the Juno, the findings turned out to be questionable after the scientists noted that in Jupiter’s far northern region, the plasma waves were relatively slower. The magnetic field is about 40 times stronger than the Earth’s, but scientists were shocked to witness the results as the waves were slower. To analyse this further, a team from the University of Minnesota, led by Robert Lysak, identified the possibility of Alfven waves transforming into Langmuir waves. Post studying the data extracted from the Juno, the researchers then began to compare the relationship between the plasma wave frequency and number. 

According to Lysak’s research team, near Jupiter’s north pole, there might be a potential pathway of Alfven waves, which are massive in numbers, transforming into Langmuir waves. Scientists are also predicting that the reason behind evolution might be strong electrons that are shooting upwards at a very high energy. This discovery was made in the year 2016. Considering the current findings, the researchers indicate that Jupiter’s magnetosphere may comprise a new type of plasma wave mode that occurs during high magnetic field strength. 

Continue Reading

Trending