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The development of a completely novel type of telecommunications satellite has been approved. To be called Quantum and built in the UK, the 3.5-tonne spacecraft will break new ground by being totally reconfigurable in orbit.
Normally, the major mission parameters on satellites - such as their ground coverage pattern and their operating frequencies - are fixed before launch.
Quantum is a European Space Agency telecoms project. However, its development is actually a partnership with private industry, involving Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat and the manufacturer Airbus Defence and Space. The parties signed a contract on Thursday at the Harwell Science Campus in Oxfordshire.
The ultra-flexible payload of Quantum will be prepared by Airbus at its Portsmouth factory, and then integrated into the spacecraft bus, or chassis, at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford. SSTL is an Airbus subsidiary. Quantum should be delivered ready for launch in 2018.
The satellite will have the flexibility to take on new roles at any time - in coverage, in frequency band, and power use. If it needs to be moved, perhaps to fill in behind another satellite that has failed in orbit, it will simply mimic the profile of the lost platform. Part of this capability comes from the use of advanced, flat, phased-array antennas that can electronically change their shape. This is different from the curved, pre-shaped mechanical antennas incorporated into traditional satellites.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33460441
Original Submission
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2015, @04:49AM
Quantum is just a word to describe a certain way for us to estimate what may happen under a certain set of conditions. It's how we communicate a model describing approximately how the universe manifests itself to us under various conditions. The model may not be accurate under all conditions. It may need to be tweaked. There maybe other models that work better under different conditions (Newton for macroscopic objects, relatively under the right conditions). There maybe competing models. The quantum model may need modifications and there maybe competing quantum models that work best under differing conditions or still need further experiments to tweak.
Perhaps everything is quantum in the strictest sense of the word. Perhaps everything can ultimately be broken down to discrete discontinuous units. Maybe nothing is continuous. But to define the word quantum as whatever the universe happens to be is to defeat the purpose of naming the model so that we can refer to it in contrast to other models.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 10 2015, @07:41AM
nitpick:
Newtonian mechanics will never work better than quantum mechanics for any system, no matter how macroscopic. It's perfectly true that it's easier to work with, and for a wide range of systems we can't actually distinguish non-Newtonian effects, but that simply means that "Newtonian mechanics is just as good", not that "it's better".
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Friday July 10 2015, @08:18AM
nitpick:
You might define "better" as "more accurate". Someone else might define "better" as "easier to work with". If you tried to apply quantum mechanics when designing a house, you would rightly be called an idiot. In this case Newtonian mechanics is "better". Unless you are designing a very special house that is!