The new Hawaii space weather system makes this trip safer

The new Hawaii space weather system makes this trip safer

The University of Hawaii announced today that it will receive a grant for a $2.5 million research and development project to take place in both Honolulu and Mt. Haleakala, Maui. The project aims to help with electronics such as satellites and will offer benefits, among other things passenger traffic including about SpaceX and Blue Origin. This is done in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire and the University of Arizona.

UH said: “The project will measure the strongest particles emitted by the Sun, which are solar energetic particles and solar neutron particles. These particles can pose a risk to astronauts and lead to serious failure of electronics in space, such as satellites, and the technologies used in spaceflight by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. On Earth, solar storms can affect the power grid and disrupt radio communications.”

The new station at UH Manoa and another high-altitude site to be determined in Healakala, Maui, will both be built over the next three years. The project is designed for an imminent “solar peak” that is expected within the next three years. Solar maximum is the time of the sun’s greatest activity during its 11-year solar cycle.

Mt. Haleakala is one of the most magnificent and special places in all of Hawaii. We have stayed there many times and plan to return again soon with updates.

UH said Mt. Haleakala was chosen as the desired high-altitude location because more particles are detected at the monitor’s higher position above sea level. A system with 50 global locations is being planned.

UH Manoa Associate Professor Veronica Bindi, the project’s principal investigator, said: “Here locally, before you do an activity like hiking or surfing, you want to know something about the weather. The same applies to the planning of space missions. They want to know the weather will be nice, which means we won’t be dumping too many particles on our astronauts, instruments and assets in space.”

Travel beyond Hawaii.

SpaceX is a company that aims to enable commercial customers to travel. This year, three passengers will travel to the International Space Station on SpaceX. They are said to be paying $55 million each for their SpaceX rocket seats. We’re just saying that traveling to Hawaii seems relatively cheap in comparison.

According to Blue Origin, it seats six passengers (astronauts) in a “spacious and pressurized cabin [that] is air-conditioned for your comfort. Each passenger gets their own window seat for unparalleled views of Earth. The windows take up more than a third of the capsule area.”

Hawaii spreads its wings.

It’s great to see Hawaii taking a lead on new projects like this.

We welcome your thoughts.

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