Marshall Eubanks
Asteroid Initiatives LLC
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Asteroid Initiatives, LLC,was founded to unlock the economic potential of deep space through asteroid exploration and economic development.
Asteroid Initiatives has developed Pixie femtospacecraft, currently under consideration as a candidate for the CubeSat Opportunity Payloads (COPINS) of the ESA Asteroid Impact Mission. In this technology demonstration, a swarm of 40 Pixie femtospacecraft would be deployed to blanket the moon of the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos with a wide variety of sensors as part of the AIDA (Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment) asteroid defense test being jointly considered by ESA and NASA.
This technology will be an essential part of asteroid prospecting and mining, giving Asteroid Initiatives a lead in the commercial exploitation of space resources.
LiftPort Group
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LiftPort Group is a privately held Uited State corporation.
Founded in April, the company is focused on the construction of a space elevator using carbon nanotubes. LiftPort is focused on the implementation of space elevators, starting with a prototype Lunar Space Elevator (LSE).
U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO)
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The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is one of the oldest scientific agencies in the United States, with a primary mission to produce Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Department of Defense.
Located in Northwest Washington, D.C. at the Northwestern end of Embassy Row, it is one of the pre-1900 astronomical observatories located in an urban area; at the time of its construction, it was far from the light pollution thrown off by the (then-smaller) city center. The USNO operates the "Master Clock", which provides precise time to the GPS satellite constellation run by the U.S. Air Force. The USNO performs radio VLBI-based positions of quasars with numerous global collaborators, in order to produce Earth Orientation parameters.
The U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) provides a wide range of astronomical data and products, and serves as the official source of time for the U.S. Department of Defense and a standard of time for the entire United States.
