Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
As Earth’s closest orbit becomes overcrowded with satellites and space junk, companies are increasingly looking to the planet’s second-closest orbit for expansion – but it’s rife with danger.
Low Earth orbit (LEO), Earth’s closest orbit, is running out of room as tech companies, such as SpaceX, Amazon, and OneWeb, race to send up their own mega-constellations of communication satellites.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX plans to eventually launch 42,000 Starlink satellites into space, Amazon hopes to send 3,236 satellites, and OneWeb has plans for approximately 650 of its own satellites.
“I’m sure a lot of people think of space as being this vast space, no pun intended, so how are we possibly going to run out of room when we have these tiny little satellites compared to the size of the universe?” Tanya Harrison, the director of strategy at Planet Labs, told CTV’s Your Morning on Thursday.
“But the orbit altitudes that are actually useful for us here on the ground are quite limited.”
This is where medium Earth orbit (MEO) comes in.
Sending satellites a little farther to the next orbit when the lower one fills up makes sense in theory and is generally considered safer than risking collisions with fast-flying space junk.
However, this higher orbit isn’t exactly inviting.
“Medium Earth orbit is a little bit odd in that it has a really harsh radiation environment,” Harrison explained.
“Some of the satellites that are there end up going through what are called the Van Allen belts and these are high-radiation environments, where charged particles from things like the sun can get trapped, and then they just get spun up to the point where they can cause a lot of damage to satellites.”
Harrison said these charged particles fly through these belts and can tear right through solar panels and cause damage to electronics.
The few satellites that are currently in MEO are in specific regions called “slots” that scientists have deemed safe.
These satellites are mostly used for communication, according to Harrison, because MEO provides a larger footprint than LEO and a shorter delay time for communication signals than the even further geostationary orbit (GEO).
And while that sounds promising, these satellites must have extra protection against radiation than those in LEO, which is more costly.
“We have radiation hardened technology,” Harrison said. “We use it on deep-space missions all the time to places like Mars or Jupiter or Pluto, but it’s very expensive and very heavy, which means it’s really expensive to launch it in the first place.”
Because the launch costs are so much cheaper and there isn’t a need for protective shielding from the radiation, Harrison said she predicts that commercial companies will continue to send their satellites into LEO for the time being.
“I think for now, we'll probably see a lot of folks hanging out in low Earth orbit until it becomes much more critical, we're running out of space much more quickly, and then maybe medium Earth orbit will start opening up as a place where we invest in the technology that could bring the cost down of that rad [radiation] hardening and the launch cost to get there,” she said.
“We're not quite there yet in terms of a commercial revolution for wanting a ton of satellites in medium Earth orbit.”
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.