Daily Archives: January 1, 2021

Japanese Researchers Are Working to Create Wooden Satellites

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You might think metal satellites burn up on re-entry, but as it turns out, it’s not that simple. “We are very concerned with the fact that all the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere burn and create tiny alumina particles which will float in the upper atmosphere for many years,” Takao Doi, an astronaut and Kyoto University professor, told the BBC when speaking about the project. “Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth.”

Wood, however, would entirely burn up upon re-entry without leaving harmful substances in the atmosphere—or perhaps scattering dangerous debris. According to Nikkei Asia, another reason the researchers are experimenting with wood is that it doesn’t block electromagnetic waves or the Earth’s own magnetic field. That means wooden satellites could have simpler builds, as components like antennas could be placed inside the satellite itself.

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According to the World Economic Forum, there are roughly 6,000 satellites currently in orbit, of which 60% are actually defunct. Meanwhile, 990 satellites are estimated to be launched every year for the next decade. The WEF also notes that there are more than half a million pieces of space trash larger than a marble currently floating around the Earth and 20,000 pieces of debris that are larger than a softball. These pieces of trash aren’t static. They are actually moving at speeds up to 17,500 miles per hour, the speed necessary to remain in orbit and not fall back to the Earth itself. According to NASA, more space junk presents an increasing danger of collision to all types of spacecraft, including the International Space Station, shuttles, and any other type of vessel that may carry humans.

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The problem of space clutter is only getting worse, as both Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Amazon’s Project Kuiper race to launch thousands of satellites into orbit to provide low-cost internet. Meanwhile, astronomers have also expressed concern that these satellite constellations could potentially disrupt their ability to observe the cosmos. It’s unclear how much wooden satellites would alleviate the problem, but hey, it’s gotta be better than sticking more metal junk up there.

Source: Japanese Researchers Are Working to Create Wooden Satellites

Ticketmaster To Pay $10 million After Illegally Hacking Rival’s System

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Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation, have agreed to pay out $10 million dollars to a competitor after admitting to hiring a former employee to hack into the rival company’s computer network.

According to a statement issued by the Justice Department on Wednesday, the five criminal counts facing Ticketmaster stemmed from a plot to infiltrate the computer system of ticket-seller rival CrowdSurge in a self-described attempt to “cut [the company] off at the knees.”

“Ticketmaster employees repeatedly — and illegally — accessed a competitor’s computers without authorization using stolen passwords to unlawfully collect business intelligence,” acting US attorney Seth DuCharme said in the statement. “Further, Ticketmaster’s employees brazenly held a division-wide ‘summit’ at which the stolen passwords were used to access the victim company’s computers.”

The hacking plot was first reported in 2017, shortly after CrowdSurge filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation. At some point prior to that filing, Live Nation had apparently recruited an employee named Stephen Mead, whom the company had poached from CrowdSurge in 2013, to turn on his former employer, offering data analytics and insider secrets to top executives in an attempt to hobble the competitor.

Mead’s knowledge of his former employer’s passwords was so extensive that it enabled him to log in to the company’s backend during a 2014 Live Nation summit, where he reportedly offered executives a “product review” of CrowdSurge’s operations and led a demonstration of the smaller company’s internal systems.

In a statement to The Verge, a Ticketmaster spokesperson said that the company was satisfied with the terms of the settlement, and stressed that both Mead and Zeeshan Zaidi — Ticketmaster’s former general manager of artist services — had both been terminated as a result of an investigation into the wrongdoing.

Source: Ticketmaster To Pay $10 million After Illegally Hacking Rival’s System