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French President Emmanuel Macron has announced a five-year investment plan worth 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in quantum technologies, which he said would place his country among "the world s top three" in this field."With .
Posted by EarthSky in Space |
January 22, 2021
A commercial nanosat called SpaceTy Beihangkongshi-1 – launched November 2020 – has successfully used an iodine thruster to change its orbit around Earth. This new thruster might help clear space junk by steering small satellites, at the end of their missions, back into Earth’s atmosphere where they’d burn up.
Image via ESA.
For the first time ever, a telecommunications satellite has used an iodine propellant to change its orbit around Earth.
The small innovation could help to clear the skies of space junk, by enabling tiny satellites to self-destruct cheaply and easily at the end of their missions by steering themselves into the atmosphere where they would burn up.
PARIS, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced a five-year investment plan worth 1.8 billion euros (2.2 billion U.S. dollars) in quantum technologies, which he said would put France among the world s top three in this field. With this public-private commitment of 1.8 billion euros. of which one billion euros come directly from the state, France will have the key to be at least among the top three, Macron said after a visit to the Center for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies (C2N), a joint research unit of the French National Centre for Scientific Research and University Paris-Saclay. In addition, the envelope announced by Macron also includes European credits (200 million euros) and 550 million euros from the private sector, the local daily Le Monde reported.