Dawn McCoy – Nerd News Nightly https://nerdnewsnightly.com Geeky Tech News Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:23:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/satellite-dish.png Dawn McCoy – Nerd News Nightly https://nerdnewsnightly.com 32 32 Marketing Marijuana With AI https://nerdnewsnightly.com/marketing-marijuana-with-ai/ Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:23:25 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1325 It’s no secret that cannabis is becoming more accessible and accepted around the world. With]]>

It’s no secret that cannabis is becoming more accessible and accepted around the world. With its increasing popularity, the market for marijuana is growing at a rapid rate. But how can companies make sure they’re keeping up with this ever-changing industry? Enter: AI-driven marketing.

AI-driven marketing has become an invaluable tool for businesses in almost all industries, and now it’s being used to help promote marijuana products and services. By leveraging the power of machine learning, AI-driven marketing can help businesses stay ahead of their competition by targeting users with relevant content and offers tailored specifically to their needs.

If you’re curious about how AI-driven marketing can be used to market marijuana products and services, then read on! In this article, we’ll discuss how businesses can use AI technology to optimize their campaigns and boost their profits. We’ll also explore the potential implications of using artificial intelligence in this rapidly changing industry and what it means for the future of cannabis marketing.

Definition

It’s no coincidence that marketing marijuana with AI is becoming a popular topic. With the number of states legalizing the drug for recreational and medicinal purposes, it’s clear that society is becoming more open to its use. But what exactly does it mean to market marijuana with AI?

AI stands for artificial intelligence, which simply means that computers have been programmed to automatically carry out certain tasks. In this case, marketers are using AI algorithms to better understand their customers and target them with relevant advertising. For example, AI can identify people who have an interest in cannabis and target them with specific ads. Additionally, AI can track customer behavior and adjust campaigns accordingly.

AI also helps marketers ensure their messaging is effective by analyzing customer data such as age, location, interests, and purchasing behaviors. This allows companies to tailor their campaigns to reach the right audiences and maximize ROI. Ultimately, this opens up opportunities for businesses to make informed decisions about how they should market their products.

Benefits Of AI

Having discussed the definition of marketing marijuana with AI, let’s explore some of the benefits it can bring. Firstly, AI technology enables businesses to optimize their campaigns and target specific audiences more effectively. By analyzing customer data and preferences, AI can help businesses create personalized content for customers that is tailored to their interests and needs. This leads to increased customer engagement and increased sales.

Another advantage of using AI in marketing marijuana is that it allows businesses to automate their processes. By using AI-powered systems, companies are able to quickly produce high-quality content and track performance metrics in real time. This helps them measure the success of their campaigns more accurately, allowing them to make informed decisions about where they should be focusing their efforts.

Finally, AI also helps businesses save costs by automating mundane tasks such as data entry or customer support inquiries. This means that businesses can focus more resources on developing innovative strategies for reaching their target audience without worrying about wasting time on tedious tasks. With AI technology in place, companies are better equipped to maximize profits while minimizing time spent on manual work.

Challenges Of Marketing Cannabis

Marketing cannabis presents unique challenges that must be addressed with the utmost care and attention. The industry is still relatively new and faced with intense regulation, leaving marketers in a difficult situation. It can be hard to approach this topic successfully without running into legal issues or due to lack of knowledge.

The first challenge of marketing cannabis is understanding the various regulations imposed by state governments and local municipalities. Different states have different rules for advertising, packaging, labeling, and sales practices for cannabis products. Companies must comply with all relevant laws in order to operate legally.

Another challenge is the stigma attached to cannabis use, which can make it difficult for some people to accept its use even if it’s legal. Marketers need to be aware of this issue and create campaigns that focus on education and destigmatization efforts instead of simply selling the product itself.

Finally, there’s the challenge of using artificial intelligence (AI) to effectively market cannabis products. AI can help companies better understand their target audiences and develop more effective campaigns. However, AI also comes with its own set of ethical considerations that need to be taken into account before implementing it in any marketing strategy.

In order to market cannabis successfully, companies need to:
* Understand local regulations
* Promote destigmatization efforts
* Keep up-to-date on changing regulations
* Utilize AI responsibly
* Focus on customer education

* Leverage influencers and advocates

Current Strategies Used By Cannabis Companies

Cannabis companies have been utilizing a variety of strategies to market their products. Traditional advertising tactics are utilized to reach consumers, such as print and television advertising, radio, billboards, mailers and more. Social media has also become an effective tool for cannabis brands, allowing them to target specific demographics and create an engaging presence on the platform. Additionally, influencer marketing has become increasingly popular amongst cannabis companies, with influencers helping to promote products on their own channels.

In addition to traditional marketing tactics, cannabis companies have begun leveraging data-driven technologies in order to better understand their target audience. By collecting consumer data through surveys and other sources, they can gain insights into what potential customers are looking for in terms of product offerings and preferences. This allows them to tailor their messaging and create targeted campaigns that will resonate with their desired demographic.

By using these various strategies together, cannabis companies can reach a wider audience and increase brand awareness. They can also use the data collected from these campaigns to optimize future marketing efforts in order to maximize customer engagement and drive sales. As the industry continues to grow and evolve, it is essential for cannabis brands to stay up-to-date on the latest trends in order to remain competitive in this rapidly changing environment.

Potential Applications For AI In The Cannabis Industry

As the cannabis industry continues to expand, companies are looking for ways to make the most of their operations and maximize profits. Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers a unique set of opportunities for cannabis businesses to innovate and deliver an enhanced customer experience. AI can be used to make decisions quickly and accurately, analyze customer behavior, improve customer engagement, and optimize marketing efforts.

When it comes to using AI in the cannabis industry, there are several potential applications worth considering:
– **Inventory Management**: AI can be used to streamline inventory management processes by monitoring stock levels in real time and predicting demand. This could help businesses plan inventory needs more efficiently and reduce costs associated with overstocking or understocking merchandise.
– **Marketing & Advertising**: AI can be used to create personalized campaigns that target specific customers based on their preferences. AI-powered marketing tools can also analyze customer data in order to identify trends in consumer behavior and create targeted campaigns that will reach more people with greater effectiveness.
– **Customer Engagement**: AI can be used to improve customer service by providing customers with quick answers to questions or personalized recommendations based on their past purchases. This could help build strong relationships with customers and increase loyalty for your business.

AI has the potential to revolutionize the cannabis industry by improving operational efficiency, increasing profits, and enhancing customer satisfaction. With its ability to automate mundane tasks, provide accurate insights into consumer behavior, and generate personalized marketing campaigns, AI has a lot of potential when it comes to helping businesses succeed in this rapidly growing market. By leveraging the power of AI, cannabis companies can position themselves for long-term success while paving the way for a new age of innovation within this exciting industry.

Automation And Personalization Strategies

In order to maximize the potential of the marijuana industry, AI-driven automation and personalization strategies are essential for successful marketing. Automation allows for marketers to save time and effort by automating mundane tasks such as email campaigns, social media posts, and ad targeting. This streamlines marketing efforts and can save considerable costs. Personalization then takes automation one step further by using customer data to create a more tailored experience for each user. Through personalization, marketers can create content that speaks directly to the interests of an individual user, leading to more effective engagements and higher conversion rates.

AI-driven technology can also be used to develop better segmentation strategies. By gathering customer data, marketers can divide users into distinct groups based on their behaviors and interests. This allows them to create targeted campaigns that are more likely to receive positive results from the right audience. Additionally, AI-driven segmentation helps marketers understand their customers better so they can make informed decisions about how best to reach them with relevant messaging.

Overall, utilizing AI-driven automation and personalization strategies is a great way for marketers in the marijuana industry to efficiently reach their target audience with personalized experiences that generate positive results. With these tools at their disposal, marketers can easily access valuable customer insights while also saving time and money in the process.

Machine Learning And Predictive Analytics

It’s often said that data is the new oil and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the new engine – but what does that mean for the marijuana industry? Can AI be used to help boost marketing efforts, better target customers and improve customer experience? The truth is that AI has immense potential to revolutionize the way companies in this sector market their products.

Below are five ways machine learning and predictive analytics can be utilized to help cannabis businesses:

– **Predictive Analytics**: Predictive analytics can be used to analyze customer purchasing patterns and preferences, allowing businesses to tailor marketing campaigns accordingly. For example, if a customer buys a product from a certain brand regularly, marketers can use predictive analytics to create customized offers or promotions for them.

– **Customer Segmentation**: AI-driven segmentation can be used to identify customer segments with similar interests, needs, demographic characteristics or behaviors. This helps marketers create targeted campaigns that are tailored specifically for those particular segments.

– **Sentiment Analysis**: Sentiment analysis uses natural language processing algorithms to analyze text data from sources such as customer reviews and social media posts. It then uses this data to understand how customers feel about specific products or services.

– **AI Chatbots**: AI chatbots are an effective way of interacting with customers in real time on websites and social media platforms. By using natural language processing algorithms, these bots can respond quickly and accurately to customers’ queries and support requests.

– **Personalized Content**: Personalized content is an effective way of engaging customers through personalized emails or messages that contain information relevant to their interests or previous purchases. Machine learning algorithms can be used to automate the process of creating personalized content based on customer profiles.

By leveraging machine learning technologies such as predictive analytics, sentiment analysis and AI chatbots, cannabis businesses have the opportunity to increase engagement with their current customers while also attracting new ones. With more data at their disposal than ever before, marketers in this sector have unprecedented access into understanding their audience – allowing them to tailor campaigns appropriately for maximum effectiveness.

AI-Driven Content Creation

AI-driven content creation is revolutionizing the way marijuana marketers reach their target audiences. By leveraging natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and machine learning models, marketers can rapidly generate content that is specifically tailored to communicate with their customer base. AI-driven content takes the guesswork out of marketing for cannabis companies, allowing them to quickly create personalized content that resonates with their customers.

AI-driven content also enables marketers to monitor and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns in real time. By utilizing data from various sources, AI algorithms can assess user engagement metrics such as click-through rate and conversion rate to determine which messages are most effective in driving customer action. This valuable insight allows cannabis marketers to adjust their tactics on the fly and maximize ROI from their campaigns.

By taking advantage of AI-driven content creation, marijuana marketers can unlock a new level of control over their campaigns and make sure they are reaching the right people at the right time with the right message. With this powerful tool at their disposal, cannabis companies can confidently craft compelling messages that drive customer engagement and build brand loyalty.

Tracking And Measuring Performance

Using AI to track and measure performance is essential to the success of any marijuana marketing campaign. AI can help marketers identify potential customer segments, understand their preferences, and craft targeted messages that will be most effective in driving conversions. AI also provides insights into how customers interact with different campaigns, allowing marketers to adjust their strategies for maximum impact.

At the same time, tracking and measuring performance is a process that requires ongoing monitoring and analysis. By leveraging AI to automate this process, marketers can save time and resources while ensuring accurate results at all times. With detailed reports on campaign performance metrics such as reach, engagement, leads generated, sales conversions etc., marketers can easily identify areas of improvement and make adjustments accordingly.

Ultimately, Tracking and Measuring Performance with AI helps marketers ensure they are making the most of their marketing efforts while achieving maximum ROI. AI’s ability to provide timely insights into customer behavior allows marketers to make informed decisions quickly and easily- giving them greater control over their campaigns than ever before.

Ethical Considerations

Now that we’ve discussed tracking and measuring performance in marketing marijuana with AI, let’s move on to a related yet equally important topic: ethical considerations.

As marketers, it is our responsibility to ensure that any digital campaigns we craft are thoughtful, respectful and consider the implications of our work. To do this, here are four key points to keep in mind when crafting marketing campaigns for marijuana with AI:

Respect consumer privacy: Make sure you comply with all applicable data protection laws and regulations when collecting customer data.
Avoid deceptive practices: Be transparent about how customer data is being used and never make false or exaggerated claims about products or services.
Prioritize safety first: Ensure your campaigns prioritize public health by providing accurate information about the risks associated with marijuana use.
Follow industry standards: Familiarize yourself with best practices in the cannabis industry, such as responsible dosing guidelines for edibles and topicals.

These points provide a framework for creating marketing campaigns that are ethical, responsible, and respectful of the customer’s rights and safety. Furthermore, they will help protect your business from potential legal action if something goes wrong. It is also worth noting that while AI can be used to identify trends more quickly than humans can, marketers should still take care to review their campaigns manually before launching them to ensure accuracy and compliance with relevant regulations. Ultimately, taking these steps will help you create effective marketing campaigns while remaining mindful of ethical considerations.

To conclude, AI is an invaluable tool when it comes to marketing marijuana. It can help cannabis companies save time, money and resources while improving customer engagement and satisfaction. There are certainly challenges that must be addressed before the full potential of AI can be realized in the cannabis industry, but with the right strategies and considerations in place, AI could revolutionize the way marijuana is marketed.

But what will be the ultimate impact of AI on the cannabis industry? Only time will tell as more companies adopt this technology and begin leveraging its capabilities. What we do know is that AI has the potential to greatly improve marketing efforts within this ever-growing sector.

By taking advantage of machine learning, predictive analytics, and AI-driven content creation, cannabis companies can create more targeted campaigns and deliver a better experience for their customers. This can lead to increased sales and improved customer loyalty. With so much promise for the future of marketing marijuana with AI, it’s certainly worth exploring further.

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Best Looking Beard In Las Vegas – Terry Power https://nerdnewsnightly.com/best-looking-beard-in-las-vegas-terry-power/ Sat, 13 Nov 2021 00:19:26 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1294 Can we all agree that Clint Butler of digitaleer.com has the Best Looking Beard In]]>

Can we all agree that Clint Butler of digitaleer.com has the Best Looking Beard In las Vegas

If you feel good, you look good. The Barbershop allows you to live your best life, by double the amount of grooming and drinking in one unique Las Vegas location!

  • Beard trimmings: Looking more gentlemanly than grizzly? It’s possible to trim your whiskers and style your hair.
  • Shaving services Nothing beats a fresh shave. It’s a pleasure to have it done by a professional.

Here are the top voted Las Vegas beards.

1. Clint Butler Image

2. Kevin Heimlich Image

3. Chad Michael Lawson 

4. Riz Mo May be an image of 2 people and indoor

5. Terry Power Terry Power - Local SEO Consultant

 

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A mysterious and powerful radio signal from space is repeating itself https://nerdnewsnightly.com/a-mysterious-and-powerful-radio-signal-from-space-is-repeating-itself/ Wed, 20 Oct 2021 13:11:19 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1288 Outer space is chirping, and no one quite knows why. Known as fast radio bursts,]]>

Outer space is chirping, and no one quite knows why.

Known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs for short, these very brief yet incredibly powerful bursts of radio wave energy appear to be coming from all corners of the universe. And while astronomers can pick up such signals, they are, because of their brief duration, very difficult to study. Very few of them ever repeat; and since they only last a millisecond, telescopes can rarely focus on them in time to get a good look. Moreover, astronomers do not quite know exactly where they are coming from, or where the next one might land.

All of this uncertainty around fast radio bursts has only heightened their mystery.

But astronomers may have found some answers in a fast radio burst that, unusually, repeats — which has given them more opportunities to study the strange signals.

Dubbed FRB 121102, the first repeating FRB has revealed new insights about this mysterious phenomenon. According to a study published in Nature last week, an international group of scientists found 1,652 independent radio bursts from the same source over the course of 47 days between August 29 and October 29, 2019. The analysis is significant for being the largest set of FRBs ever recorded from a single source. At one point during observation, 122 radio bursts occurred in the span of one hour from the source.

“This was the first time that one FRB source was studied in such great detail,” said astrophysicist Bing Zhang, an astrophysicist at the University of Nevada–Las Vegas and one of the study’s corresponding authors. “The large burst set helped our team hone in like never before on the characteristic energy and energy distribution of FRBs, which sheds new light on the engine that powers these mysterious phenomena.”

Part of the mystery around FRBs is that they are relatively new to science. Scientists discovered the first FRBs in 2007, and have since turned to powerful radio telescopes to track down the bursts and search for clues on where they originate and how they are produced. One prominent theory on their origins is that they spawn from a type of incredibly dense neutron star called a magnetar, which have some of the strongest magnetic fields in the universe. Another theory posits that FRBs emerge from shock waves traveling at near light-speed outside a magnetosphere.

In a news release, Zhang said the latest observations “pose great challenges to the latter model.”

“The bursts are too frequent and — given that this episode alone amounts to 3.8% of the energy available from a magnetar — it adds up to too much energy for the second model to work,” Zhang said.

Pei Wang, one of the article’s lead authors from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), agreed.

“During its most active phase, FRB 121102 included 122 bursts measured within a one-hour period, the highest repeat rate ever observed for any FRB,” Wang said.

Indeed, in a separate study published in Nature in June 2020 suggested that some fast radio bursts could be coming from a magnetar in our galaxy nearly 10,000 parsecs away.

“Because magnetars are spinning quickly and have powerful magnetic fields, they have huge reservoirs of energy that can produce outbursts,” Alexandra Witze wrote in Nature. “One idea about the source of these outbursts is that something happening inside the magnetar — such as a ‘starquake,’ analogous to an earthquake — could crack its surface and release energy.”

While their precise causes remain a mystery, astrophysicists have mostly ruled out the possibility that these mysterious radio waves are coming from an alien civilization, as Salon has previously reported.

“It is unlikely that all FRBs are from alien civilizations due to the power requirements at cosmological distances, but possible,” Avi Loeb, the former chair of Harvard’s astronomy department previously told Salon.

Source: www.msn.com
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China’s New Space Station Is Powered by Ion Thrusters https://nerdnewsnightly.com/space-station-is-powered-by-ion-thrusters/ Thu, 03 Jun 2021 12:59:51 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1274 The country is betting big on electric spacecraft propulsion China’s first module of its upcoming]]>

The country is betting big on electric spacecraft propulsion

China’s first module of its upcoming Tiangong space station makes use of ion drives, technology that could vastly cut down the time it takes to travel to Mars — and greatly reduce the amount of fuel needed to make that trip, as the South China Morning Post reports.

The module, called Tianhe and launched in late April, is powered by four ion thrusters that use electricity to accelerate ions as a form of propulsion. In fact, the module could soon become the first spacecraft in history to transport humans using the technology, according to SCMP.

Ion drives are orders of magnitude more efficient compared to chemical propulsion. To keep the International Space Station in orbit for a year, the thrusters consume four tons of rocket fuel. With ion thrusters, it’d need just 400 kilograms to stay in orbit for the same amount of time, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A trip to Mars could be cut down from eight months to just 39 days.

China is betting big on ion thrusters, hoping to use them not just for its space station  but for upcoming satellite constellations and nuclear-powered spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to Mars as well, according to SCMP.

The technology has been around for decades, but mainstream adoption has been hampered by the fact that the thrust produced isn’t very significant. Scaling up the thrusters could end up putting astronauts in danger and shorten the lifespan of satellites.

But scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences may have cracked the code. One of its ion drives currently in development has been burning for more than 11 months straight, according to the newspaper.

A magnetic field makes sure the particles don’t create any damage or erode the engine, while a special ceramic material stops it from getting damaged by radiation.

“Space projects are usually very big,” an anonymous Beijing-based space scientist told SCMP. “A typical mission involves hundreds or even thousands of individuals. But the competition in space is essentially a competition over some very small but extremely important details.”

“The ion thruster is one of those areas where the devil is in the detail,” the scientist added.

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Belews Lake Boat Rentals – Now Open – Fishing Boat Rentals on Belews Lake -All American Boat Rental https://nerdnewsnightly.com/belews-lake-boat-rentals/ Sun, 16 May 2021 21:43:18 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1263 Belews Lake Boat Rentals Take your party on the water with a pontoon rental. All]]>

Belews Lake Boat Rentals

Take your party on the water with a pontoon rental. All American Boat Rental launches their new season this coming Mothers’ Day weekend!

Rent a pontoon boat for a leisurely cruising or fishing experience. A pontoon, also known as a “party barge,” is a great option for a larger group to cruise the water, have a picnic, fish and enjoy quality time spent together. Pontoons have a wide, stable deck with a lot of space and railings, making it the perfect boat for entertaining a family. A sunny day paired with beautiful scenery and good company makes for the perfect day on the water.

Whether you’re celebrating a birthday, Mothers’ Day, bachelorette or bachelor party, proposing to your soon-to-be significant other, or on a family vacation, a pontoon boat rental is the perfect venue.

Experiencing the water has never been easier. Their boats are ideal for 10-12 people. And since the on-board radios have Bluetooth Technology, you can bring your own playlist.

Belews Lake Boat Rentals

All American Boat Rental services Belews Creek, Hyco Lake, High Rock Lake, and Jordan Lake.

Contact All American Boat Rental to rent your next pontoon.

And, they offer Parasailing tours as well.

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English city wants to become global leader in launching flying taxis and cargo drones https://nerdnewsnightly.com/flying-taxis-and-cargo-drones/ Fri, 14 May 2021 12:36:06 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1251 Trial operations of flying taxis and cargo drones will begin in Coventry, England, before the]]>

Trial operations of flying taxis and cargo drones will begin in Coventry, England, before the end of the year as part of a plan to develop “aerial roads” for unmanned flights in urban areas.

The project, backed by 1.2 million pounds ($1.7 million) of government funds, involves construction of a centrally located hub that will host demonstration flights across the city of almost 400,000 people, according to Ricky Sandhu, founder of Urban-Air Port, which will operate the ground infrastructure.

While plans for flying taxis and logistics drones are gathering pace around the world, most will initially avoid heavily urbanized areas, such as Volocopter’s bid to provide coastal flights around Singapore and Lilium’s push to serve 10 boutique hubs across Florida. The U.K. plan will tap an air-traffic-management system devised by Altitude Angel to allow operators to safely transit cities.

The technology “will allow all users of the sky, from air-taxis and drone operators to general aviation and emergency service helicopters, to share the airspace safely and securely,” Altitude Angel Chief Business Officer Richard Ellis said in a statement Thursday.

Federal Aviation Administration head Steve Dickson told a House appropriations subcommittee hearing Wednesday that he expects advanced urban aircraft to be approved in the U.S. by 2023, with the first flights taking place the next year.

The Coventry project will see drones from Malloy Aeronautics and SkyFarer ply a number of routes to demonstrate the viability of carrying cargoes such as refrigerated medical supplies, while South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. will exhibit a flying taxi it’s seeking to commercialize by 2028 alongside demonstrations of arrival, departure, retail and entertainment facilities.

Safeguard Vertiports will meanwhile develop a certification program that meets U.K. Civil Aviation Authority regulations for safe operational turnarounds. The project will run for three or four months but talks under way to extend it by a year to allow a wider range of demonstration flights.

The hub, known as Air-One, will also function as a recharging center for ground-based electric transport including cars, bicycles and scooters. Sandhu said other U.K. cities have requested similar projects.

Royal Mail Plc earlier this week announced trial flights of a Windracers Ltd. delivery drone from the British mainland to the Scilly Isles that will take the craft miles beyond visual range. Parcels will be flown to the archipelago’s airport, with a smaller drone delivering them throughout the islands.

 

Resource:  fortune.com

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Space Tourism? A New Spaceplane Is Set to Take Its First Flight https://nerdnewsnightly.com/space-tourism/ Fri, 07 May 2021 13:13:20 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1242 We are about to enter a new era in spaceflight. A cargo spacecraft constructed and]]>

We are about to enter a new era in spaceflight. A cargo spacecraft constructed and operated by Sierra Nevada Corp. in Nevada aims to start Florida-based launches and landings for NASA in 2022, according to a recent press release shared on the company’s official website.

The Dream Chaser, which is an uncrewed, robotic spaceplane, will be lifted via a United Launch Alliance (ULA) rocket from Kennedy Space Center to execute flights to the International Space Station.

Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser to return on a landing strip like the space shuttle

The Dream Chaser will return via landing on the space center’s landing strip — earlier used for space shuttle landings — after it docks and delivers its cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The first in the series of Dream Chasers is being prepped for delivery to Kennedy Space Center once spring 2022 comes, said former astronaut Janet Kavandi, who is also an executive vice president of Sierra Nevada, during a Tuesday press conference that took place on the landing strip.

 

“When we first launch next year, 2022, at the end of that mission, we plan to come back and land here at this very runway,” said Kavandi.

Frank DiBello and Bob Cabana were also present at Kennedy Space Center. DiBello is the executive director of Space Florida, a development agency for space in the state — which manages the facility. Recently, Space Florida signed a contract to enable the use of its landing facility — and the Federal Aviation Administration also granted a license for the spaceplane to execute landings on the strip, said DiBello in a UPI report. This means, in addition to a NASA facility, Kennedy Space Center is becoming a multi-user, commercial spaceport, said Cabana.

Sierra Nevada also toured Kennedy, in addition to the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday and Wednesday — in search of a fitting building in which to process the Dream Chaser spacecraft between active launch flows, added Kevandi. “We’ll look first at existing facilities on government property, but we may also consider building something ourselves if needed,” she added.

Notably, the company will hire dozens of additional employees in the Florida region to process the spacecraft — in addition to other engineering necessities.

 

Sierra Nevada aims to build its own orbital ‘space platform’

In the last few years, much of the fame in space travel advances has gone to SpaceX, but Sierra Nevada is one of a multiplying number of commercial space firms competing for NASA business.

It lost out to SpaceX and Boeing to deliver astronauts to the space station via Dream Chaser, but that doesn’t mean it can’t execute supply runs. SpaceX, on the other hand, successfully lifted astronauts to the ISS in its Crew Dragon capsule in 2020, while Boeing is still aiming for a test flight of the Starliner capsule later in 2021.

However, Sierra Nevada won NASA contracts worth $2 billion to finalize the development of the Dream Chaser as a first-of-its-kind reusable cargo vessel — and it’s slated to fly at least seven cargo trips for the agency. The craft itself is only 30 ft (9 m) long — roughly one-quarter the space shuttle’s size. But in landing like a plane instead of splashing down in the sea like a SpaceX vehicle, science and other materials can return to Earth from the ISS at relatively breakneck speeds, according to Sierra Nevada and NASA.

Sierra Nevada also plans to build its own orbital space station — which has yet to be named. “We plan to launch our vehicles to a platform with inflatable modules where both uncrewed and crewed vehicles take people and cargo […] and then return safely to Earth,” said Kavandi in the UPI report. This is the latest in many NASA contracts Sierra Nevada has won since it was founded in 1963. While SpaceX and other private aerospace contenders like Blue Origin are already slated to play major roles as partners with NASA in its low-Earth orbit and moon ambitions, old hands like Sierra Nevada, Boeing, and ULA are still developing cutting-edge commercial space travel technology for the 21st century.

 

Source:  https://interestingengineering.com/

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Atmosphere-monitoring satellites to ride on Spaceflight’s new breed of the space tug https://nerdnewsnightly.com/atmosphere-monitoring-satellites/ Tue, 30 Mar 2021 12:14:25 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1220 Spaceflight Inc., a Seattle-based company, claims that it has won a NASA contract to handle]]>

Spaceflight Inc., a Seattle-based company, claims that it has won a NASA contract to handle the launch logistics for several satellites whose primary focus is on atmospheric drag. The twin CubeSats have the Low-Latitude Ionosphere/ Thermosphere Enhancements in Density (LLITED) mission and enter into space via the SpaceX Falcon 9 orbit in 2021. This launch will become the debut launch via Spaceflight’s Sherpa-LTC transfer vehicle, commonly known as a space tug or OTV.

This year, another space tug’s spaceflight type called Sherpa-FX successfully launched over twelve spacecraft following a Falcon 9 liftoff in January. Sherpa-LTC is a step ahead of the FX since it includes an in-orbit propulsion technological system. It is a chemical-based system under the Benchmark Space Systems development team and gives Sherpa-LTC a chance to move between various orbital positions. The company’s mission plan starts with a round of satellites liftoffs into the earth’s orbit. A shift will allow the Sherpa to enter into space and deploy the lilted satellites into another orbit.

The Spaceflight Inc. government business development director, Valerie Skarupa, stated that Spaceflight’s full-service offers with the Sherpa vehicles increase chances for universities, NASA, and various organizations to deploy satellites at various orbital destinations. There is news that another OTV type, the Sherpa-LTE, will enter the market with a powerful electric propulsion system.

Each of the LLITED spacecraft measures 4 by 4 by 6 inches, excluding their solar arrays. The mission planning teams have scientists and engineers from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, The Aerospace Corp., and the University of New Hampshire. These satellites will offer a thorough investigation of equatorial temperature and wind problems regarding the neutral atmosphere, ranging between 300 to 500 kilometers. Also, it will analyze the Equatorial ionization issues in areas with electrically charged particles.

The principal investigator for these satellites from Aerospace Corp. claims that the CubeSat mission includes investigating these situations simultaneously in the Equatorial Area, a milestone in the on-orbit satellite operation. With the well-detailed analysis, experts can better understand atmospheric density change and the capacity of drag satellites encounter. Spaceflight Inc. will mark its anniversary this year after ten years since its founding and have worked on about 350 satellites in 37 missions using eight launch vehicles.

Spaceflight inc. has an ambitious target and plans on handling logistics for ten launches. And one such launch occurred recently when Rocket Lab deployed seven satellites from the New Zealand launch site. The company was responsible for integrating and managing services for the BlackSky satellite. Spaceflight Inc. will venture into various projects this year and more in the future.

Source: themarketwriteup.com

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A planet in a triple-star system has been discovered https://nerdnewsnightly.com/a-planet-in-a-triple-star-system-has-been-discovered/ Fri, 26 Mar 2021 13:52:19 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1211 KOI-5Ab is a newly discovered planet in a triple-star system. It is a great example]]>

KOI-5Ab is a newly discovered planet in a triple-star system. It is a great example of the kind of astonishing discoveries that result from co-operation between large teams of astronomers using different types of telescopes and observation techniques.

There is a stereotype that “lone genius” scientists make discoveries without any help from others. This is propagated by the prestigious Nobel Prize, which is awarded to at most two or three scientists at a time.

But major discoveries, particularly in the fields of astronomy and physics, are increasingly achieved by teams of dozens or even hundreds of scientists combining data from multiple experiments and observation techniques.

How to find an exoplanet

One of the fastest-growing areas of astronomy research is the study of planets in other solar systems, called exoplanets. As of this writing, 4,367 exoplanets have been discovered. Trying to observe an exoplanet orbiting around a distant star is a bit like trying to see a firefly crawling on a searchlight, so the vast majority of exoplanets have been discovered using a variety of clever indirect techniques.

One of these is the radial velocity technique, which has been used to discover 833 exoplanets so far. This technique measures tiny shifts in the color of light from the star as it is gently tugged by its orbiting exoplanet.

Most of the early exoplanet discoveries were made using this technique. The first tentative detection of an exoplanet was by a Canadian team in 1988 using radial velocity. The first definite discovery of an exoplanet in 1995 earned the discoverers the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics.

Radial velocity was first, but now more than three-quarters of the known exoplanets have been discovered using the transit technique. This technique works by measuring a star’s brightness over time, watching for regularly repeated drops in brightness, which could be caused by a planet passing in front of a star during its orbit.

Thousands of planets

The Kepler Mission carefully measured the brightness of 180,000 stars every one to 30 minutes for four years using a space-based telescope. Almost 2,400 exoplanets were discovered (and over 400 more in the follow-up K2 mission). The Kepler Mission Team officially includes dozens of astronomers and support scientists, and dozens more were able to analyze the publicly available data for additional planetary discoveries.

The Kepler Mission measured its last exoplanet in 2018, and now the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is following in its footsteps. Instead of focusing on a single patch of sky, TESS monitors several patches of sky.

The downside to the simple transit technique is that there are other astrophysical effects that can cause the same periodic drop in brightness, like background stars that vary in brightness, or starspots (like sunspots). Because of this, when interesting signals are first discovered by transit surveys, they are dispassionately numbered as “objects of interest” until they are validated as real exoplanets by another exoplanet detection technique, often radial velocity.

Right now, the TESS mission has more than two thousand objects of interest and over 100 confirmed exoplanets. The validation process is where many of the really surprising, fascinating exoplanetary systems are teased apart by impressive feats of scientific collaboration and cooperation, and the TESS and Kepler teams maintain a coordination center to plan and share follow-up data.

Amazing exoplanet systems

Some of the really remarkable exoplanet discoveries to date include planets that orbit around a pair of stars (yes, like Tatooine in Star Wars), seven exoplanets in the same system all closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun, evaporating planets and a brown dwarf with rings that puts Saturn’s to shame.

All of these discoveries required a lot of additional modeling and data collection in order to understand the systems, but one of the most complicated exoplanet systems yet was announced in January 2020.

Kepler Object of Interest 5 (KOI-5) was one of the first batch of possible exoplanets sent down by the Kepler space telescope in 2009. But the first follow-up data quickly showed the system was complicated by an additional star and weird follow-up observations. Mission astronomers were gleefully (and perhaps slightly frantically) wading through possible exoplanet discoveries, so it was put aside and the data was left in the public archive. The same system was flagged again a decade later by TESS as a TESS Object of Interest (TOI-1241).

Previously thought to be science fiction, a planet in a triple-star system has been discovered

High-resolution imaging by one team of astronomers was combined with longer time baseline radial velocity data from another team and the story began to emerge: KOI-5 was a triple-star system with an exoplanet orbiting one of the stars. This discovery was presented at the January 2021 American Astronomical Society meeting, and a peer-reviewed paper is forthcoming.

I have been a user of various public data archives for exoplanet systems in my research and work, and I fully appreciate how open data policies maximize the scientific research output that can be accomplished with each dataset.

Complex orbits

Two sun-sized stars, designated A and B, orbit each other every 29 years in the middle of the system, while a third, smaller star orbits the two central stars every 400 years. The discovered planet is called KOI-5Ab, because it orbits star A, on an orbit that is tilted wildly away from the plane of the stars’ orbits.

Data from Kepler and TESS, which required the effort of dozens of astronomers working together, has revealed the size of KOI-5Ab: seven times the radius of the Earth. Another team of astronomers used radial velocity data to measure the mass of KOI-5Ab: 57 times the mass of the Earth. Combining these numbers gives the density, and tells us this planet is a gas giant planet, a bit smaller and denser than Saturn.

As someone who became an astronomer because I’ve always loved reading science fiction stories, I like thinking about what it would be like to visit an exoplanet like this. Being a gas planet, we couldn’t actually stand on the surface, but if we could hover on the edge of its atmosphere with our spaceship, what would we see?

A few exoplanets have been measured to be very dark, so imagine looking down to see dark brown and gray clouds swirling in turbulent stripes driven by ferocious winds. In the sky, you would see one sun, 17 times larger than our sun. There would also be another much smaller sun, only half a percent as bright as our sun (which would still be a thousand times brighter than the Earth’s full moon). This smaller sun would complete an orbit through the constellations in the sky every thirty years. The third star in the system would move much more slowly relative to the background stars, and despite its large distance, would still appear much brighter than the full moon in our sky.

Even in orbit over this planet, full darkness would only be available for brief snatches every couple hundred years when all three stars wandered into the same portion of the celestial sphere. This exoplanet system sounds like a science fiction story, but astronomers have been able to conclusively prove its existence.

Collaborative discovery

Astronomy is one of the better sciences for sharing data. We have the arXiv repository of freely accessible peer-reviewed papers, and standard practice is for telescope data to be publicly accessible in various databases after a short (usually one year) proprietary period.

The co-operation between astronomers using many different observation techniques has led to incredible discoveries like the KOI-5Ab system, and as long as satellites do not ruin ground-based astronomy, large team efforts and collaborations between telescope facilities will continue to produce astronomical discoveries remarkable enough to surpass science fiction.

 

Source:  sciencex.com

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Scientists Unveil Breathtaking Martian City That Can House 250,000 People https://nerdnewsnightly.com/scientists-unveil-breathtaking-martian-city/ Wed, 24 Mar 2021 22:46:31 +0000 https://nerdnewsnightly.com/?p=1208 It’s official — a company just drew up plans for the first human city on]]>

It’s official — a company just drew up plans for the first human city on Mars, according to a press release from ABIBOO.

Called Nüwa City, the first large-scale Martian settlement could house 250,000 people and be built along and into the side of a colossal cliff — where the people of Mars would have access to sunlight without risking overexposure to the deadly threat of cosmic radiation.

Most crucially, ABIBOO claims construction will start in 2054, with the first settlers moving in by the year 2100.

Most of the new renderings of Nüwa City depict room interiors (and the operative word seems to be luxury), and whether the 2100 goal is a realistic estimate is up for grabs. But it’s clear from the press release that ABIBOO did the work of considering how a city on Mars could function and ultimately prosper. The side of a cliff on the Red Planet will enable settlers to live in personal homes, with other areas committed to agricultural and energy purposes, where people may raise livestock or generate energy from the sun.

The aim is to build a self-sustaining civilization on the Martian surface capable of subsisting without the need to constantly ferry supplies from Earth, but exact plans on how this will happen have yet to be seen. But the going will be tough. Mars’ atmospheric pressure is less than 1% of Earth’s, the temperature is cold enough to melt tears, which would definitely shed from a person exposed to the lethal radiation that would seriously burn any skin nakedly exposed to cosmic rays.

“We had to do a lot of analysis based on computing and working with the scientists to try to understand what are the circumstances that we will face,” said Alfredo Muñoz, founder of architecture studio ABIBOO. “[W]e have to face challenges that are very specific to the conditions of Mars, one of them gravity, which is only one-third of the gravity on Earth.”

However, lucky for us, there’s CO2 and water in the surface of Mars.

“Water is one of the great advantages that Mars offers, it helps to be able to get the proper materials for the construction,” said Muñoz. “Basically, with the water and the CO2, we can generate carbon and with the carbon, we can generate steel.” Critically, the ABIBOO plans to use only Mars-sourced materials to build the first city on the planet.

The new Mars city project is involved in a larger scientific project organized by The Mars Society — with developmental work from the SONet network, which is an international team of scientists and academics. “The learnings that we are getting by developing a fully sustainable city on Mars brings us so much know-how ideas and insights, about things that we could do differently on Earth,” explained Muñoz.

A lot of people are very passionate about building a substantial human presence on Mars. From Carl Sagan to Robert Zubrin, and from Mars enthusiasts to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk — interest is far from waning. While some estimates from Musk appear to be a pinch unrealistic, the consensus is growing that any future city on Mars will ultimately need to be self-sufficient — otherwise, the future people of the Red Planet will never achieve independence from Earth.

Source: interestingengineering.com

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