OUTER SPACE
Celestial Ventures and The Celestial Foundation are excellent places to go to find opportunities for a startup, company, an Interplanetary communications individual, universities, institutions, and more when looking for collaborate on investments in space. Celestial Ventures is a venture capital firm specializing in preseed, seed, and angel round investing in Space startups. Space is far more than just the launch. Space will be defined by the various activities that encompass human endeavors. Celestial Ventures goal is to enable the startups seeking to bring those applications to reality. Feel free to explore the different components of the Space ecosphere on their website. Find your niche and collaborate with them on how together, this aspiration can be brought to reality. Startups, interested individuals, universities, institutions, and companies are encouraged to reach out. Space is far more than the launch: Interplanetary Comms, FoodTech, Planetary Observations, Cadence Dynamics, SpaceTech, Subterranean Life Support Systems, Hydrothermal Utilizations, Biological Substrate Management, Advanced Propulsion, CIS Trifecta, ISRU, Lane & Sector Management, and so much more. Celestial Ventures is where you can invest in space by investing in you! Visit their websites at https://celestial.ventures for space investment opportunities and https://celestial.foundation to learn more about The Celestial Foundation, which is a whole new approach to space.
Now that you know more about Celestial Ventures and The Celestial Foundation, let’s talk about the importance of Interplanetary Communications in the future. Interplanetary communications are a vital part of any space exploration mission. This includes communication between astronauts and mission control, as well as transmission of data collected by the spacecraft’s experiments. Despite this, it can take minutes or even hours for information to reach a planet due to its constant motion and long distances. This can be especially frustrating during a space voyage.
Communication between Earth and Mars
Currently, communication between Mars rovers and Earth relies on radio signals transmitted from large antennas, such as those in NASA’s Deep Space Network. This technology is effective but suffers from long transmission times and limited bandwidth. The DSN is also susceptible to interference from solar activity, which Investing in space can cause a loss of connectivity between the two planets. Moreover, the constant motion and distance between the planets add to this delay. It can range from a couple of minutes (Earth-to-Mars) to a few hours (Pluto-to-Earth). As such, the current DSN is not capable of providing a full-time communication link with Mars. The solution is to deploy a base communication tower on Mars to connect to a geostationary satellite that can relay messages back to Earth. This would enable data transfer rates up to ten times higher than what is possible with radio communications. This would allow astronauts to be more productive and provide a better quality of life in space.
Communication between Earth and Moon
As engineers and scientists prepare to send humans further into space, including a lunar landing and a deep-space gateway mission, they must understand how long distances will affect communication. They must also consider how the explorers' language may change over the course of these long voyages. The explorers' ability to stay in touch with Earth will require them to use radio technology that can operate reliably over the long distances. This technology must be radiation hardened, able to withstand the intense levels of radiation that can be emitted by other spacecraft and celestial bodies like the Sun. Satellite orbits must be carefully planned so that the lander can always get simultaneous coverage from three different satellites, especially when it's at its furthest from Earth (the apoapsis). Additionally, the satellites need to cover the polar regions as well as the equator, where there are likely to be permanent settlements. This is because there are more sources of water in those areas, allowing the astronauts to produce their own food and rocket fuel.
Communication between Earth and Venus
Although a crewed Venus flyby adds substantial complexity and cost to any mission to Mars, the comparative planetology benefits are significant. A Venus science focus also provides meaningful, specialized, human-in-the-loop activities that cannot be accomplished during the largely uncrewed systems test flight of a Mars mission. Improvements in understanding of Venus are critical to interpreting observations of Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. In addition, improved knowledge of Venus is required to understand terrestrial planet formation and evolution. Several scientific questions remain unanswered, including those requiring ground-based and spaceflight measurements. These questions include, among others, the nature of the planetary atmosphere, surface and in-situ observations, and processes that drive the climate of this unique planet. The NRC Planetary Decadal Surveys and the VEXAG have developed and maintained a priority list of Venus-specific goals that are not addressed by current missions. These goals could be addressed by a New Frontiers class mission, which is a competed category of NASA Principal Investigator-led missions that typically cost less than $1B.
Communication between Earth and Mercury
As spacecraft traverse the solar system, they are unable to communicate directly with Earth. The long distances and motion of the planets between them make communication extremely difficult unless a relay satellite can assist. A key challenge is minimizing the look-ahead angle (the distance between the telescopes on the planetary probe and the Earth ground terminal) while maintaining good mutual acquisition of the two terminals. This requires careful selection of telescope (optical antenna) designs and a thorough understanding of the physics behind transmission line losses, optical aberrations, thermal gradients, and ionizing radiation.
Mercury's highly elliptical orbit around the sun makes direct communications with the surface of this planet nearly impossible except for brief periods during transit, which occur twice each year at points corresponding to Mercury's nodal and ascending nodes in the orbit. Such transits take place a few days apart and can last up to 88 Earth hours, so it's critical that the communications link be available as long as possible. Now that you know more about the importance of Interplanetary Communications in the future, it is time to go back to the websites of Celestial Ventures and The Celestial Foundation today!
