Friday, December 23, 2016

SpaceCast Notes - 11/23/2016

Notez 12/23/2016


Linkz


Canada declares goal of 50mbps internet & unlimited data for everyone
  • Broadband internet considered a “basic telecommunications service”
  • All canadians should be able to purchase 50/10 broadband and unlimited data
    • A $750 million fund will be set up to make this possible
    • Money will be distributed competitively, and can be spent on improving broadband networks
  • 18% of canadians don’t have access to 50/10 internet, the CRTC (equivalent to the US FCC) aims to bring this down to 10% by 2021
  • The CRTC did not set targets for pricing, but it already requires telecoms to sell wholesale access and sets wholesale rates
  • According to https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report, 10% of Americans lack access to 25/3 internet (no data on 50/10, also the existing data is from January 2016)


Tesla update requires Autopilot to follow speed limits (not on highway)
  • Previously, autopilot could be set to 5mph over speed limit on roads
  • Now the speed limit must be followed exactly on roads & non-divided highways
    • Of course, this can be avoided by driving manually
  • The restriction does not apply to divided highways, although Autopilot is still limited at 90mph overall
  • Received a mixed response from consumers, like most Tesla updates


China Launches carbon-monitoring satellite into orbit
  • TanSat mission took off aboard a Long March 2D rocket Image
    • Launched wednesday at 1:22 PM CST
  • TanSat satellite will use a near-infrared spectrometer to monitor carbon dioxide in atmosphere
  • Will track regional and global concentrations down to four ‘parts per million?’ (<- idk exactly what that means)  
    • if you have 1 million “parts” of atmosphere, 4 of them will be CO2; like with our rocket fuel we had 20 “parts” total, 13 oxidizer and 7 fuel
    • Right now the atmospheric CO2 concentration is just over 400 ppm
  • Will generate monthly maps of greenhouse gasses
  • Satellite operates in a polar orbit
    • Altitude of 700km and nearly circular
  • Will “enhance China’s voice in international climate change” according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences


Elon Musk brings up idea of using tunnels to combat road congestion

  • Series of tweets (see article) imply that Elon wishes to start a tunnel-boring company to get rid of traffic
  • Multiple layers of tunnels could be housed under large cities
  • This isn’t the first time Elon has brought up the idea
  • (try not to get political) perhaps constructing tunnels could be part of Trump’s infrastructure plan, especially since Elon is a part of Trump’s Strategic and Policy forum

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