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Thanks for reading Axios Space. At 1,403 words, this week's newsletter will take you about 5 minutes to read.
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
Data from Earth-gazing satellites is key for scientists hoping to understand and track disease outbreaks, including the unfolding coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: A satellite's view can allow health researchers to understand the context of an outbreak in a way other tools cannot, and it has the potential to help scientists predict when and where the next infectious disease outbreak may occur.
What's happening: Companies like Planet and Maxar are able to track empty parking lots, roads and businesses to understand the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Details: Scientists are in the midst of collecting data about possible ecological factors that may have led to the current pandemic.
The big picture: Satellite data can also help scientists predict when and how viruses may jump from animals into human populations.
Yes, but: Robust models require multiple data points and it will likely take more than a dozen outbreaks of these types of coronaviruses to accurately predict when and where the next might occur.
What's next: Scientists hope to eventually use machine learning and AI to help automate outbreak prediction by quickly analyzing the wealth of data beamed back from orbit.
Earth seen from space by night. Photo: NASA
OneWeb's bankruptcy, announced Friday, could mark the beginning of a shakeout for companies hoping to make a profit using constellations of small satellites to beam internet to people on Earth.
The big picture: Analysts have been concerned that the market for satellite internet likely can't support more than one or two companies aiming to develop these constellations.
Details: U.K.-based OneWeb has launched 74 satellites, and its bankruptcy — which was in part due to the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic — may mark a turning point for the market, industry analyst Tim Farrar told Axios.
Between the lines: OneWeb was the most high-profile satellite internet company advocating for other companies with large satellite constellations to go above and beyond in their efforts to reduce the creation of space junk.
The bottom line: OneWeb's bankruptcy doesn't mark the end of the line for the satellite internet market at large, but it could be a harbinger of things to come, with some analysts predicting a shakeout is inevitable.
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
In the last year, countries including the U.S., France, Russia and Japan took steps toward further militarizing their uses of outer space, according to a new report from the Secure World Foundation.
Why it matters: As space becomes increasingly key for militaries, nations are starting to find new ways to protect their military and research satellites, raising concerns that they might develop ways of destroying enemy satellites and making some parts of space unusable.
Details: Last year, France established its own offensive and defensive posture in space, as it looks to counter any threats to its own space-based assets.
The big picture: Space-faring nations have shied away from using destructive means to respond to threats to their satellites, but that could change in the future.
Between the lines: Demonstrating the ability to destroy a satellite may now become a signal to other nations that a country has major capabilities in space.
Pluto's icy mountains seen by New Horizons. Photo: NASA-JHUAPL-SwRI
Ice mountains as tall as the Rockies and a heart that may conceal a subsurface ocean of liquid water await us on Pluto.
Context: Scientists expected the dwarf planet to be cold and dead so far from the Sun, but when the New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in July 2015, they found a world rich with geology.
Details: Pluto's low gravity but high ice mountains make it the perfect destination for some solid climbing.
The big picture: Pluto's surprising geology has given scientists a new understanding of the diversity of bodies in our solar system, showing that even distant, cold worlds can play host to exciting new features.
The site for Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan China in 2017 (L). The hospital built in 2020. Photos: ©2020 Maxar Technologies
NASA tasks SpaceX with sending cargo and supplies to future lunar space station (Loren Grush, The Verge)
Virgin Orbit to begin mass producing ventilators (Michael Sheetz, CNBC)
Coronavirus raises interest in remote spacecraft operations (Jeff Foust, Space News)
The coronavirus pandemic, as seen from space (Axios)
Gif: Matthijs Burgmeijer
A video taken by amateur astronomer Matthijs Burgmeijer shows a comet with the potential to become visible to the naked eye in just a few weeks streaking brightly across a background of stars.
But, but, but: Understanding comet behavior isn't an exact science, and Comet ATLAS might break apart before it brightens enough to put on a truly spectacular show.
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