Spacewalking cosmonauts on Wednesday flung tiny satellites into orbit and set up an antenna for tracking birds on Earth.
Russian Sergey Prokopyev released four research satellites by hand.
The first mini satellite tumbled away as the International Space Station soared 402km above Illinois. By the time the fourth one was on its way 14 minutes later, the station was almost to Spain.
Photo: AP
Two were the size of a tissue box, while the other two were longer.
With that quickly behind them, Prokopyev and Oleg Artemyev spent the next several hours installing the antenna for a German-led, animal-tracking project known as Icarus, short for International Cooperation for Animal Research Using Space.
The cosmonauts had to unreel, drag and connect long, white cables to provide power and data to the system.
At one point, Artemyev had to pull out a sharp knife to deal with a twisted cable.
“Can you give us some more difficult tasks please?” Artemyev joked as he routed the cables, a long and tedious chore.
The space station is an ideal perch for the antenna, compared with a typical satellite, project director Martin Wikelski of the Germany-based Max Planck Institute for Ornithology said.
That is because spacewalkers could fix something if necessary and the computer is better protected from space radiation, he said.
The project would start out tracking blackbirds and turtle doves already outfitted with small GPS tags, then move on to other songbirds, fruit bats and bigger wildlife.
Researchers have ear tags for big mammals like gazelle, jaguars, camels and elephants, as well as leg-band tags for larger birds such as storks, Wikelski said, adding that the tags are easy to wear and should not bother the animals.
Wikelski, who watched the spacewalk from Russian Mission Control outside Moscow, said researchers can better understand animal behavior through lifelong monitoring.
Among the things to learn: where the animals migrate and how they grow up and manage to survive.
“We also learn where, when and why they die so we can protect our wild pets,” he said in an e-mail.
The space station is also home to three Americans and one German. They have two spacewalks next month.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number