Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced this week plans for Orbital Reef, a “commercially developed, owned, and operated space station” to be built in low Earth orbit. More so, the companies said the Orbital Reef will run a “mixed use business park” in space. The park will be ready within the decade..
Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced on Tuesday plans for Orbital Reef, a “commercially developed, owned, and operated space station” to be built in low Earth orbit. The station will start operating in the second half of this decade.
The companies said the Orbital Reef will be operated as a “mixed use business park” in space. With shared infrastructure that efficiently supports the proprietary needs of diverse tenants and visitors, and will feature a human-centered space architecture with world-class services and amenities that is inspiring, practical, and safe.
“The station will open the next chapter of human space exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a vibrant ecosystem and business model for the future,” the companies said.
But I have one question: who will collect the tax in Orbital Reef since I am not sure the US or Nigeria will claim jurisdictional control for tax purposes in space?. In other words, if Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder) finishes this thing and decides to move Amazon headquarters to space, what happens to Amazon corporate tax?
A nice comment on LinkedIn, by an expert, sharing below
A number of international conventions readily come to mind here. There is the international law principle of Common Heritage of Mankind to the effect that some territories, including space, are for all mankind and cannot be claimed by a nation or entity.
There is the Outer Space Treaty which came to force in January, 1967. It contains a whole lot of interesting provisions, e.g. that space shall be freely used and exploited by all nations; that no nation shall claim sovereignty over any part of the outer space or celestial bodies; states are responsible for their own activities and those of entities originating from such states. In that case, the country of origin of a space dwelling/ trading company takes responsibility, including tax regulations– my submission.
There is also the Declaration on Future Generations which, amongst others, emphasises the preservation of the common heritage of Mankind as well as the interest of Future Generations.
You may also wish to avert your mind to the issue of Mining of Celestial Bodies.
The US has enacted the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act in 2015. This gives US citizens and companies the right to explore and exploit space resources but no sovereignty rights granted. Pause.
As the space economy race heats up, Blue Origin and SpaceX seem to be exploring ways to outdo each other in order to grab a larger share of the emerging market.
Blue Origin and Sierra Space announced on Tuesday plans for Orbital Reef, a “commercially developed, owned, and operated space station” to be built in low Earth orbit. The station will start operating in the second half of this decade.
The companies said the Orbital Reef will be operated as a “mixed use business park” in space. With shared infrastructure that efficiently supports the proprietary needs of diverse tenants and visitors, and will feature a human-centered space architecture with world-class services and amenities that is inspiring, practical, and safe.
“The station will open the next chapter of human space exploration and development by facilitating the growth of a vibrant ecosystem and business model for the future,” the companies said.
Following the successful commercial space outing of SpaceX last year, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic have both recorded suborbital trips, increasing the frenzy as a horde of millionaires embrace luxury space trips as new hobby. With Space tourism expected to yield $1.1 trillion economy in 2040, rivalry has erupted between the companies, especially Blue Origin and SpaceX, who are also fighting to control space satellite internet.
Blue Origin was founded by Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos, while SpaceX was founded by world’s richest person, Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The billionaire duo has been competing to dominate the luxury trip industry. While Musk’s SpaceX currently leads the pack with orbital services, the Orbital Reef idea may be the game changer for Bezos’ Blue Origin.
Blue Origin said the idea is backed by space industry leaders and teammates including Boeing, Redwire Space, Genesis Engineering Solutions, and Arizona State University, and will open multiple new markets in space.
“Orbital Reef will provide anyone with the opportunity to establish their own address on orbit. This unique destination will offer research, industrial, international, and commercial customers the cost competitive end-to-end services they need including space transportation and logistics, space habitation, equipment accommodation, and operations including onboard crew,” the companies said.
This is a significant shift from Blue Origin’s original focus, which is to carry out suborbital commercial flights. The company successfully conducted its second commercial flight, onboarding 90-year old Start Trek actor, William Shatner, on October 13. Away from the well-established commercial flights, Blue Origin is embarking on a project that will provide alternative to the retiring International Space Station (ISS), and the Chinese Tiangong Space Station that is currently under construction.
“Seasoned space agencies, high-tech consortia, sovereign nations without space programs, media and travel companies, funded entrepreneurs and sponsored inventors, and future-minded investors all have a place on Orbital Reef,” the company said.
It explains that as the premier commercial destination in low Earth orbit, Orbital Reef will provide the essential infrastructure needed to scale economic activity and open new markets in space.
“Reusable space transportation and smart design, accompanied by advanced automation and logistics, will minimize cost and complexity for both traditional space operators and new arrivals, allowing the widest range of users to pursue their goals,” Blue Origin said. “The open system architecture allows any customer or nation to link up and scale to support demand. Module berths, vehicle ports, utilities, and amenities all increase as the market grows.”
The companies said the idea is being developed in collaboration with space agencies and research institutes, who bring proven capabilities and new visions to provide key elements and services, including unique experience from building and operating the International Space Station.
Mike Gold, Executive Vice President for Civil Space and External Affairs at Redwire, said among other things, the Orbital Reef will help life on Earth while enabling humanity’s journey to the stars.
“The Orbital Reef represents the next evolution of the commercial space paradigm by creating the first ever crewed private sector platform in low Earth orbit. The Orbital Reef will carry forward the singular legacy of the ISS, supporting innovative microgravity research, development, and manufacturing activities which will advance fields as diverse as communications and biotechnology,” he said.
One of the advantages of the collaborations with other space agencies, researchers and experts, is to lower the cost of maintaining and using the station services.
“This is exciting for us because this project does not duplicate the immensely successful and enduring ISS, but rather goes a step further to fulfill a unique position in low Earth orbit where it can serve a diverse array of companies and host non-specialist crews,” said John Mulholland, Boeing VP and program manager for the International Space Station. “It calls for the same kind of expertise we used to first design and then build the International Space Station and the same skills we employ every day to operate, maintain and sustain the ISS.”
On Thursday, 21st of October, 2021 news filled the air that an American actor; Alec Baldwin shot and killed a cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins and a director of the movie, Joel Souza on a movie set while they were shooting a movie scene. The cinematographer died before she was airlifted to the nearest hospital while the director who was standing close to the cinematographer survived but sustained injuries.
The actor, Mr Alec Baldwin who is an A list Hollywood actor is loved by many for his movies and topnotch acting skills mostly as a crime boss, he may likely go scot free for this incident (unlike people expected especially the lovers of the victims) because according to police investigations, he was handed over a prop gun for the scene without knowing that the prop gun contained some life ammunition’s, so this is clearly a case of a honest mistake on his part.
When an honest mistake is made and it results to death of another then it will be a case of manslaughter as distinguished from murder. Manslaughter can said to have taken place when there’s is no intent to kill or a premeditated plan to kill but death happened anyway, intent in law is called (mensrea) while the action is called ; actus res. When there’s both an intent to kill (mensrea) added with the actual action of killing (actus res), then murder is said to have been committed because it was premeditated.
In the charge for murder or manslaughter, what the court looks at is if there’s an premeditated plan or thought which is called (mensrea) to carry out the killing. When the jury or the judge determines that there’s was no mensrea, then the charge for murder will be dropped (which in most cases carries a capital punishment) for the charge of manslaughter which carries a lesser punishment.
Going back to the case Alec Baldwin, according to the police investigation, the killing of the cinematographer is not premeditated, neither was it planned, so legally he cannot be charged for murder since there was no mensrea to commit the crime. So the actor may soon be a free man and will likely not be heavily punished for the honest mistake.
Satellite has since inception in the world proven to be a veritable tech-driven tool in mankind’s day-to-day activity, and is presently gaining greater relevance by the day.
A satellite is a celestial object or spacecraft that orbits another object while serving for a particular purpose. It could be natural or artificial (manmade).
The Moon is a good example of a natural satellite that orbits the Earth. The world’s first ever artificial satellite – the Sputnik 1 – was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Since then, countless satellites have been launched into the Earth’s orbit.
So far, about 6,600 satellites have been launched by different countries around the globe. Survey shows that, by 2013, 3600 of them remained in orbit. Among these, only about 1,000 were operational, whilst the rest have lived out their useful lives and thus become mere space debris.
Research further indicates that approximately 500 operational satellites are in low-Earth orbit (at about 2000km altitude), 50 are in medium-Earth orbit or intermediate circular orbit (at about 20000km altitude), and the rest are in geostationary orbit (at about 36000km altitude).
It’s worth noting that satellites are used for many purposes. Common types include the weather satellites, navigation satellites, military cum civilian earth observation satellites, communications satellites, and space telescopes.
Moreover, space stations and human spacecrafts in orbit are equally known as satellites. This discussion, as long as it lasts, will border on communication satellites, particularly ‘television satellites’ as the topic implies.
A communication satellite, which is purposely deployed for telecommunications, is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecom signals via a transponder. It creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on the Earth.
The Beeptool satellite
It is used for television, radio, internet, telephone, or military applications, as might be the case. There are, at the moment, over 2,000 communication satellites in the Earth’s orbit, used by both private and government organizations.
Wireless communication via television, for instance, uses electromagnetic (EM) waves to carry signals. These waves require line-of-sight, and are thus obstructed by the curvature of the Earth. Hence, the prime purpose of communication satellites is to relay the signal around the curve of the Earth allowing communication between widely separated points.
A communication satellite uses a wide range of radio and microwave frequencies. To avoid signal interference, international bodies have regulations for which frequency range or band any firm is allowed to use.
Specifically, the Television (TV) satellite delivers TV programming using signals relayed from space radio stations. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic reflector antenna often referred to as a satellite dish, and a low-noise block (LNB) down-converter.
A satellite receiver then decodes the desired TV programme for viewing on a TV set. The receiving device can be in the form of an external set-top box known as ‘decoder’, or a built-in TV tuner.
On TV satellites, some transmissions and channels are unencrypted, hence are free-to-air or free-to-view, whilst many other channels are transmitted with encryption requiring a subscription.
Most homes these days are set up for Cable TV – a system that distributes television signals by means of coaxial or fibre-optic cables, though there’s a growing number who have opted for the more advanced Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) TV commonly called Satellite TV.
With newer technologies in satellite broadcast being developed, it has apparently overtaken cable pattern of broadcast. Meanwhile, there are two sides to satellite TV that you should consider before cutting your ties with cable providers.
Satellite TV has access to a wide range of channels and services, especially in geographic areas without terrestrial/cable TV. The ability to receive and send broadcast signals using satellite tech increases the possibilities of gaining access to channels from other countries that utilize similar tech for broadcasting.
It suffices to say that, with satellite tech, you are not restricted to only the channels on cable networks. DBS TV has high-quality audio and picture display compared to cable TV.
DBS TV possesses parental lock-out options. It takes the worry out of parents who are concerned at what their kids are watching while they are away. Most DBS TV receivers are now able to block certain channels from a TV set.
It equally has a WebTV option, contrary to cable TV that does not. Internet data can be transmitted wirelessly, thus DBS TV can receive internet service from your TV set. In addition, it has digital video recorders. With some satellite TV receivers, one can record shows or programmes directly to a hard-disk drive for playback later.
However, for initial investment, the receiver and satellite dish could be exorbitant. Similarly, multiple TV sets would require multiple receivers unlike in the case of cable TV, thereby making both installation and sustenance very expensive if one has more than one TV set at home.
Its installation techniques, which involved many technologies, might attract additional charges. Above all, DBS can malfunction in bad weather. Since the satellite dish is usually located outdoors, it becomes susceptible to malfunction owing to atmospheric conditions like rainfall, strong winds, snow, and lightning, or what have you. For instance, thunderstorms could pose a threat to, or even completely damage, the receiver.
However, it’s noteworthy that obtaining high quality products could help to curtail or prevent any of these anomalies. Hence, we are advised to invariably opt for products manufactured by reliable firms whenever we intend to upgrade our viewing pleasure. This precaution can best be adhered to by involving an expert when need be.
Whatever the case might be, the fact is that TV satellites remain the best mode of radio cum microwaves transmission. But it’s pertinent to note that its installation and day-to-day maintenance require sound and adequate professional attention.
Ordinarily, there should not be anything like fake news because news is a truth-driven information developed and distributed by a group of people or an individual who have the ability, capability and professional principles of generating and communicating what constituted the news to the public. However, the emergence of the new technologies and the failure of people to hold unto telling truth led to the addition of “fake” before news in recent times.
Apart from fake news, which is part of information pollution ecosystem, misinformation and disinformation are also key components of the ecosystem. From academic scholars to members of varied professional associations, especially those in the media and entertainment industry, misinformation is a concept that has the tendency of misleading the public despite an avalanche of elements of truth in the information. Disinformation, on other hand, does more harm than misinformation, is an attempt of a source to deceive the public using propaganda.
Considering how these components are being traded in the economic, social and political life of every country, our analyst and other partners in the Europe started regional research [focusing on West Africa] a few months ago with a specific focus on knowledge of and attitude of West Africans towards FMD in the sub-region. This piece presents part of the preliminary findings.
From over 200 citizens of the region, who participated in the first stage of the research, it emerged that the majority is familiar with fake news, political bias, misinformation, hate speech and media literacy than other components of fake news, misinformation and disinformation. Over 90% of the citizens are extremely worried about the FMD.
The more they are familiar with fake news and political bias, the more they have interest in taking a media literacy course or attending media literacy training. Their familiarity with media literacy as a course or training only led to having 2.7% interest in going through the course or training. The results further indicate that the more they are familiar with disinformation and hate speech, the more they are disinterested in learning media literacy or going through any training associated with it.
Looking at the preliminary outcomes, it is surprising that the citizens are not ready for media literacy course or training despite the fact that a large number of them are consuming news contents from social media and online bloggers, sources that have been established by a number of previous researches as conduits of fake news, misinformation and disinformation in the region.
Though, 46.5% of the citizens said media literacy course is not popular in the region, Mustapha Muhammadu Jamiu, the European Leading Investigator and Assistant Professor at the RUND University, Russia, notes that the results clearly indicate that there is a need for further studies on factors that could influence the citizens’ non-interest in having media literacy course or training.
