Vietnam Halts Scuba Diving off Popular Island to Protect Coral

Monday, 27 June, 2022

Vietnam has banned swimming and scuba diving at a popular central tourist spot in an attempt to revive its damaged coral reef, officials said Monday.

The communist nation boasts more than 3,200 kilometers of coastline with crystal clear waters, vibrant sea life and sandy beaches that are a huge tourism draw, AFP said.

Coral reefs across Southeast Asia have been badly hit by global warming, with scientists warning their degradation could have devastating environmental and economic knock-on effects.

Recent photos taken off Hon Mun island -- about 14 kilometers from the city of Nha Trang and popular with divers thanks to its diverse ecosystem -- showed the reef bleached and damaged.

"The Nha Trang bay management authority decided to halt swimming and scuba diving activities in areas around Hon Mun island," officials said.

In a statement they said the ban was to "evaluate the condition of sensitive area so that an appropriate plan to enact the sea conservation area" could be made.

Effective from Monday, the ban would last "until further notice", they added.

Around 60 percent of the coastal bed in the area was covered by living coral in 2020, according to state media, but more recent findings showed that had shrunk to less than 50 percent.

Previously local authorities blamed the shrinking ecosystem on climate change, noting that powerful storms in 2019 and 2021 had damaged the coral.

They also blamed illegal fishing, dredging, construction of industrial parks and waste disposal.

Divers expressed anger over the decision to close the waters.

"Swimming and diving activities were the least influence on the coral reefs, compared to other activities," diver Nguyen Son, from Ho Chi Minh City, told AFP.

"The ecosystem (around Hon Mun) should have recovered after two years of pandemic," said diver Trinh Ngoc Sang.

"Without proper management, the fishing vessels came in and destroyed the sea bed," he told AFP, recalling the sight of rubbish and dead coral during a recent dive.

"It would take dozens of years for the coral reefs to be restored, so they want to close it throughout?"

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that 4.5 million people in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region could be affected by damaged coral reefs.

The reefs support about 25 percent of marine biodiversity.

Vietnam's decision follows a similar move in Thailand, which restricted access to Maya Bay -- immortalized in the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach" -- to give the local ecosystem a chance to recover.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3726746/vietnam-halts-scuba-diving-popular-island-protect-coral.

Canadian Gold Miners Find Rare Mummified Baby Woolly Mammoth

Sunday, 26 June, 2022

Miners in the Klondike gold fields of Canada's far north have made a rare discovery, digging up the mummified remains of a near complete baby woolly mammoth.

Members of the local Tr'ondek Hwech'in First Nation named the calf Nun cho ga, which means "big baby animal."

Paleontologist Grant Zazula said the little tyke, which retained its skin and hair, "is beautiful and one of the most incredible mummified ice age animals ever discovered in the world."

"I am excited to get to know her more," he said in a statement.

The baby mammoth's remains were discovered during excavation through permafrost south of Dawson City in Canada's Yukon territory, which borders the US state of Alaska.

The animal is believed to be female and would have died during the ice age, more than 30,000 years ago when woolly mammoths roamed this region alongside wild horses, cave lions and giant steppe bison.

The discovery marks the first near complete and best-preserved mummified woolly mammoth found in North America.

A partial mammoth calf, named Effie, was found in 1948 at a gold mine in Alaska's interior.

A 42,000-year old mummified infant woolly mammoth, known as Lyuba, was also discovered in Siberia in 2007. Lyuba and Nun cho ga are roughly the same size, according to the Yukon government.

It noted that the Yukon has "a world-renowned fossil record of Ice Age animals, but mummified remains with skin and hair are rarely unearthed."

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3724866/canadian-gold-miners-find-rare-mummified-baby-woolly-mammoth.

Cuba Zookeepers Celebrate Birth of Rare Baby White Rhino

Saturday, 25 June, 2022

The zookeepers at Cuba's National Zoo are especially proud of Ale, a pudgy, gray-brown baby white rhinoceros born earlier this month on the outskirts of capital Havana.

For starters, he's cute. Baby rhinos look similar to adults, but have a stub in place of the horn and thus, are more docile in appearance.

But the white rhino is also a threatened species, and zoos the world across have been asked to reproduce them in captivity in the hope of creating a gene bank that will help preserve the species should it go extinct in the wild.

"It is a great privilege for us to be able to contribute to the rescue of a species as threatened as the white rhinoceros," said Alexander Arango, a Cuban zoo specialist in exotic wildlife, as he watched the newborn graze on a patch of grass beside his mother, Katherine.

Cuba, says Arango, now has the second largest population of white rhinos of any zoo in Latin America - a total of 8 – thanks to Ale and the birth of his sister, Mel, in 2019. Before that, it had been nearly two decades since the previous birth.

In a Caribbean island nation with limited resources and far from Africa, the increasing success in reproduction is a point of pride, the zookeepers told Reuters.

White rhinos, among the largest land mammals, have suffered in recent years as poaching has increased across their home range, primarily across southern Africa. That has put more pressure on zoos to maintain the species, the zookeepers said.

Cuba's National Zoo is a favorite attraction for Cubans, with 1,473 specimens of more than 120 species, including large animals such as elephants, rhinos and giraffes.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3723276/cuba-zookeepers-celebrate-birth-rare-baby-white-rhino.

Water scarcity in Jordan threatens nature reserve of rare Arabian gazelle

Melissa Pawson

April 25, 2022

The famous Arabian oryx, a distinctive white gazelle with long black horns, is not hard to spot in the Shaumari reserve. From across the scrubland, a herd of around 20 oryxes could be seen clustered around a water pipe where a small leak has caused the vegetation to grow up green and lush.

The oryxes' survival depends on the careful management of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) at Shaumari reserve. Previously extinct in Jordan, 11 of the gazelles were reintroduced to the reserve in the east of Jordan in the late 1970s. The population has since grown to around 110 individuals in what has been hailed as a successful reintroduction program.

However, ensuring the oryxes’ well-being has been getting harder in recent years, said reserve manager Ashraf Al-Halah. “The plants here do not depend on rain, they depend on floods. But we’re noticing a change in the flooding frequency,” he told Al-Monitor.

Al-Halah explained that while the semi-arid area used to get around four or five floods a year, the water has decreased. “We received just one this year, and the last year there was none,” he said.

The lack of water is putting animal populations at risk. Al-Halah blames increased water harvesting outside the reserve.

According to Al-Halah, the RSCN was not consulted by the authorities when water collection ponds were constructed nearby, including one pond just three kilometers away in 2015.

Al-Halah said that talks on the impact of water collecting on the reserve have begun this month between the RSCN and the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Al-Halah added that until surveys are conducted, they will not be able to start negotiations about a potential solution.

Last summer, there was a row between the RSCN and the Energy Ministry over the ministry’s plans to start copper mining in the Dana Nature Reserve. The mining plans have since been put on hold.

Al-Halah warned, “If we destroy these treasures, or destroy this heritage, it cannot be recovered.” He cannot envision a solution that doesn't involve the decommissioning of the nearby water collection ponds. He said, “We will take the conclusions [of the surveys, when done] to the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Water and tell them [that] this will destroy us,” he said.

Downstream lies the Azraq wetlands reserve, an oasis that serves as a crucial stopover for migratory birds. The wetlands are also drying out dramatically.

“This is the first year I witnessed no flooding,” said Hazem Hreisha, who manages the Azraq wetlands reserve. “This is the problem. The wetlands depend on permanent freshwater.”

The Azraq wetlands used to be fed by a natural spring. However, as the groundwater was depleted, the spring dried up in the early 90s.

The oasis is now supplied by water pumped in by the Jordan Water Authority under an agreement signed in 1993, for the provision of 1.5 to 2.5 million cubic meters annually. Hreisha told Al-Monitor that the RSCN paid the water authority a one-time fee of $250,000 to secure the agreement.

However, the reserve is currently only receiving 600,000 cubic meters per year and the flow often stops on summer days. Hreisha explained that the oasis has shrunk to a tenth of its original size and needs more water to be restored to being a resilient ecosystem.

“This is the government’s responsibility,” he added. “It’s not a large quantity to provide.”

When asked if the RSCN is communicating with the Water Ministry and Irrigation about the deficit, Hreisha replied, “Every year.” He said, “They respond that they have a lot of commitments with the local community.”

As millions around the world show their support for the environment on Earth Day, Hreisha said he hopes international advocacy will pressure the government to prioritize Jordan’s nature reserves.

According to UNICEF, Jordan is the second most water-scarce country in the world. Ministry of Water and Irrigation data states that each person in the kingdom has access to around 61 liters of water per day, compared to the roughly 350 liters used by the average American.

Dawoud Isied is a hydrogeologist and CEO of Straight Light Consultants, an environmental firm. He told Al-Monitor that the current situation in the wetlands is not sustainable. “If the government needs more water, they will stop [pumping to the reserves] for people. Humans are the priority.”

He added that over-pumping is heavily straining Jordan’s water resources. He said that the Azraq basin can safely provide 30 to 35 million cubic meters per year, but twice that amount is being taken.

Isied said that destroying the water collection ponds around the reserve would not necessarily recharge the depleted aquifer, though decommissioning some would help. He said, “The sustainable solution is to use [what floodwater still comes], which is around 40 to 60 million cubic meters a year,” to recharge the aquifer and bring water to the wetlands.

Isied explained that his company has been testing a method called managed aquifer recharge in another area, with some success. “That is, I hope, the solution to the water problem in Azraq,” he said.

Engineer Hesham Halal Al-Hesa, director of the Dams Administration in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation, told Al-Monitor that the water collection sites around Azraq actually benefit the local area. He stated that larger solutions than simply ending collection at the ponds are needed to address the country’s water scarcity.

Bewilderingly, he added that the Azraq area actually needs “more water harvesting because it recharges the aquifer and [provides] drinking water for the animals … and controls flood risk management.”

Al-Hesa added that the ministry is searching for additional water resources as well as working on “efficient management of water distribution.”

Al-Monitor was directed to contact an engineer in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation who is the point of contact for the project, but no responses were forthcoming.

Hreisha feels the Ministry of Water and Irrigation should be doing more to ensure the future of the reserves. “This is part of the natural heritage in Jordan,” he said. The ministry “should provide and also search for new techniques, new technologies, new alternative resources.”

Source: al-Monitor.

Link: https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/04/water-scarcity-jordan-threatens-nature-reserve-rare-arabian-gazelle.

Will Arab Disputes Postpone Algeria Summit?

Monday, 29 August, 2022

Disputes between Arab countries and differences over the reinstatement of Syria are threatening to postpone the upcoming Arab League summit, scheduled for Algeria in November.

Algeria has been preparing to host the 31st summit since 2019. It will be the first in-person summit for Arab leaders since the coronavirus pandemic.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stressed earlier this month that the summit will be a success “because it seeks Arab reconciliation after years of division and fragmentation.”

Syria’s return?

Algeria politician and lawyer Mohammed Adam Mokrani noted, however, that Syria’s return to the Arab fold will be among the main hurdles at the summit.

In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, he said that Algeria has for months been supporting Syria’s return seeing as it is founding member of the Arab League.

Syria was suspended in wake of its regime’s brutal crackdown on peaceful protests that broke out in 2011.

Syria’s return has not been advocated by all Arab countries. Mokrani suggested the issue could be put up to a vote during the summit so that it would not remain as a sticking point or a reason to postpone the meeting.

Moroccan former MP Adil Benhamza described the situation in the Arab world as “extremely divided”.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that the pandemic was used as an excuse to postpone summits in the past, but it can no longer be used to justify repeated delays.

Several other issues could prompt the delay, among them the dispute over Syria’s return, he added.

Dr. Hassan Abou Taleb, of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, said it would be “very difficult” to hold the summit given the “major disputes over how to handle Syria and Algeria’s efforts to end the boycott against it.”

There is no Arab consensus over this issue and leaders appear unwilling to even discuss it at the summit, he noted.

Hussein Haridy, Egyptian former Assistant Foreign Minister for Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Affairs, said it was “difficult to predict” whether the summit will be held on time.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that numerous developments have taken place in the Middle East since the last regular summit was held, so the Algeria meeting must be held to allow Arab leaders to agree on how to address them.

“Failure to hold the summit on schedule will send an unwanted message to regional and international powers that Arab leaders lack the joint will to address regional and international developments and pressing financial and political affairs,” he warned.

However, he said that Algiers’ insistence on reinstating Syria’s membership “in spite of the opposition of influential Arab powers” may ultimately lead to the postponement of the summit.

On the official level, Arab League Assistant Secretary General Hossam Zaki had last month stated that no specific time can be set regarding Syria’s return to the organization.

Its return is not imminent, but it is not far either, he said.

An Arab diplomatic source said this position has not changed.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to Asharq Al-Awsat, the source confirmed that preparations are still underway to hold the summit on schedule in spite of Arab disagreements.

Maghreb tensions

Another sticking point at the summit is the tensions between Morocco, Algeria and recently Tunisia.

Rabat and Algiers had severed relations in wake of the dispute over the Western Sahara.

Over the weekend, Morocco summoned its ambassador to Tunis after Tunisian President Kaies Saied received Polisario Front movement chief Brahim Ghali.

Morocco said Tunisia's decision to invite Brahim Ghali to a Japanese development summit for Africa that Tunis is hosting this weekend was “a grave and unprecedented act that deeply hurts the feelings of the Moroccan people”.

Tunisia, in response to Morocco's decision, announced it was recalling its ambassador to Rabat for consultation.

Tunisia's ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement early on Saturday that the country maintains its complete “neutrality over Western Sahara issue in compliance with international legitimacy”.

In a terse foreign ministry statement, Morocco said it would no longer take part in the Africa summit. It also accused Tunisia of having recently “multiplied negative positions” against Morocco, and said its decision to host Ghali “confirms its hostility in a blatant way”.

Abou Taleb said relations between the Maghreb countries are “very strained”, posing a challenge for plans to hold any Arab summit.

The tensions may lead to countries even lowering their level of representation or calling for the delay of the meeting altogether, he added.

“The Arab region is boiling with tensions and crises, casting doubts that the summit will be held as scheduled,” he stated.

Mokrani and Benhamza speculated that Morocco may even skip the summit given its dispute with Algeria.

The diplomatic source stressed that Algeria was determined to hold the summit and would not allow disputes to hinder it even if it had to make concessions over Syria’s reinstatement.

Algeria wants to use the summit to demonstrate its “strong return to the international and regional scene. It may therefore abandon its demand over Syria to avoid being held responsible for the failure of the summit,” he explained.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3842626/will-arab-disputes-postpone-algeria-summit.

Cities of the future may be built with algae-grown limestone

Boulder CO (SPX)

Jun 24, 2022

Global cement production accounts for 7% of annual greenhouse gas emissions in large part through the burning of quarried limestone. Now, a CU Boulder-led research team has figured out a way to make cement production carbon neutral-and even carbon negative-by pulling carbon dioxide out of the air with the help of microalgae.

The CU Boulder engineers and their colleagues at the Algal Resources Collection at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been rewarded for their innovative work with a $3.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E). The research team was recently selected by the HESTIA program (Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere) to develop and scale up the manufacture of biogenic limestone-based portland cement and help build a zero-carbon future.

"This is a really exciting moment for our team," said Wil Srubar, lead principal investigator on the project and associate professor in Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering and CU Boulder's Materials Science and Engineering Program. "For the industry, now is the time to solve this very wicked problem. We believe that we have one of the best solutions, if not the best solution, for the cement and concrete industry to address its carbon problem."

Concrete is one of the most ubiquitous materials on the planet, a staple of construction around the world. It starts as a mixture of water and portland cement, which forms a paste to which materials such as sand, gravel or crushed stone are added. The paste binds the aggregates together, and the mixture hardens into concrete.

To make portland cement, the most common type of cement, limestone is extracted from large quarries and burned at high temperatures, releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide. The research team found that replacing quarried limestone with biologically grown limestone, a natural process that some species of calcareous microalgae complete through photosynthesis (just like growing coral reefs), creates a net carbon neutral way to make portland cement. In short, the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere equals what the microalgae already captured.

Ground limestone is also often used as a filler material in portland cement, typically replacing 15% of the mixture. By using biogenic limestone instead of quarried limestone as the filler, portland cement could become not only net neutral, but also carbon negative by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it permanently in concrete.

If all cement-based construction around the world was replaced with biogenic limestone cement, each year, a whopping 2 gigatons of carbon dioxide would no longer be pumped into the atmosphere and more than 250 million additional tons of carbon dioxide would be pulled out of the atmosphere and stored in these materials.

This could theoretically happen overnight, as biogenic limestone can "plug and play" with modern cement production processes, said Srubar.

"We see a world in which using concrete as we know it is a mechanism to heal the planet," said Srubar. "We have the tools and the technology to do this today."

Limestone in real time

Srubar, who leads the Living Materials Laboratory at CU Boulder, received a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2020 to explore how to grow limestone particles using microalgae to produce concrete with positive environmental benefits. The idea came to him while snorkeling on his honeymoon in Thailand in 2017.

He saw firsthand in coral reefs how nature grows its own durable, long-lasting structures from calcium carbonate, a main component of limestone. If nature can grow limestone, why can't we? he thought.

"There was a lot of clarity in what I had to pursue at that moment. And everything I've done since then has really been building up to this," said Srubar.

He and his team began to cultivate coccolithophores, cloudy white microalgae that sequester and store carbon dioxide in mineral form through photosynthesis. The only difference between limestone and what these organisms create in real time is a few million years.

With only sunlight, seawater, and dissolved carbon dioxide, these tiny organisms produce the largest amounts of new calcium carbonate on the planet, and at a faster pace than coral reefs. Coccolithophore blooms in the world's oceans are so big, they can be seen from space.

"On the surface, they create these very intricate, beautiful calcium carbonate shells. It's basically an armor of limestone that surrounds the cells," said Srubar.

Commercializing coccolithophores

These microalgae are hardy little creatures, living in both warm and cold, salt and fresh waters around the world, making them great candidates for cultivation almost anywhere-in cities, on land, or at sea. According to the team's estimates, only 1 to 2 million acres of open ponds would be required to produce all of the cement that the U.S. needs-0.5% of all land area in the U.S. and only 1% of the land used to grow corn.

And limestone isn't the only product microalgae can create: microalgae's lipids, proteins, sugars and carbohydrates can be used to produce biofuels, food and cosmetics, meaning these microalgae could also be a source of other, more expensive co-products-helping to offset the costs of limestone production.

To create these co-products from algal biomass and to scale up limestone production as quickly as possible, the Algal Resources Collection at UNCW is assisting with strain selection and growth optimization of the microalgae. NREL is providing state-of-the art molecular and analytical tools for conducting biochemical conversion of algal biomass to biofuels and bio-based products.

There are companies interested in buying these materials, and the limestone is already available in limited quantities.

Minus Materials, Inc., a CU startup founded in 2021 and the team's commercialization partner, is propelling the team's research into the commercial space with financial support from investors and corporate partnerships, according to Srubar, a co-founder and acting CEO. Minus Materials previously won the university-wide Lab Venture Challenge pitch competition and secured $125,000 in seed funding for the enterprise.

The current pace of global construction is staggering, on track to build a new New York City every month for the next 40 years. To Srubar, this global growth is not just an opportunity to convert buildings into carbon sinks, but to clean up the construction industry. He hopes that replacing quarried limestone with a homegrown version can also improve air quality, reduce environmental damage, and increase equitable access to building materials around the world.

"We make more concrete than any other material on the planet, and that means it touches everybody's life," said Srubar. "It's really important for us to remember that this material must be affordable and easy to produce, and the benefits must be shared on a global scale."

Source: Space Daily.

Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Cities_of_the_future_may_be_built_with_algae_grown_limestone_999.html.

Maine looks to grow space economy, for students, research and business

 by Brooks Hays

Washington DC (UPI)

Jun 7, 2021

Maine leaders have long been searching for ways to keep more of high school and college graduates from leaving the state. But lobstering and forestry, two stalwarts of the Maine economy, aren't what they used to be.

Enter the new space economy.

"There's something sexy about space," Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-funded nonprofit, told UPI.

Maine -- and its plethora of acreage, far from the light pollution of the Eastern Seaboard's major metropolises -- has always been a great place to gaze at the stars, but not necessarily to launch rockets.

The miniaturization of satellites and the rockets needed to put them into orbit, however, has changed the calculus. The barrier to entry is now low enough that space, or at least low-Earth orbit, is no longer the exclusive playground of national space agencies and giant defense companies.

States not traditionally associated with the aerospace industry -- Maine and Michigan, for example -- want in on the game.

Build it and they will come

In April, Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed LD 1923 into law, establishing the Maine Space Corp., a public-private partnership tasked with growing the state's aerospace industry.

When law goes into effect in August, the corporation will get to work filling leadership roles and codifying their goals and governance. Then it will begin crafting a strategic plan for the construction of the Maine Space Complex, which will feature launch sites, an innovation hub and a data analytics center.

Last year, a Maine-based startup company, bluShift Aerospace, launched the state's first rocket. Though it didn't quite reach space, it successfully showcased the capabilities of the company's "bio-derived" solid fuel.

bluShift, which hopes to begin launching small satellites using its carbon-neutral rockets, is one of several companies that Maine officials reached out to as they considered strategies for capturing a slice of the new space economy.

"We've been thinking about how to take the state to the next level for some time now," Shehata said.

More than a spaceport

Before pushing ahead with LD 1923 and the Maine Space Corp., Shehata and the consortium worked with members of the legislature to ensure Maine had built-in interest from businesses, researchers and community leaders.

"We knew that one of the critical assets that Maine has is geography in terms of being on the Eastern Seaboard and one of the positions to launch small satellites into polar orbits," Shehata said.

"But our primary concern has been whether we can capitalize on this new space economy in a way that utilizes our unique assets, spurs economic growth and workforce development, and do so in a way that would allow us to keep our students here in the state."

Surveys and market research revealed a healthy dose of local demand, but they also confirmed the suspicions of Shehata and others that a spaceport wasn't enough.

"What we're doing is more than a spaceport," Shehata said. "In addition to spaceport, we decided we needed to have this innovation center and data analytics hub to make sure we have a more complete complex."

All three units will collect fees and will be able to survive financially on their own, Shehata said, but the three hubs will operate collectively, as a coordinated, cohesive entity.

Building a more complete complex was key to ensuring the state developed infrastructure that could be used by a diversity of groups, said state Sen. Mattie Daughtry, the bill's lead sponsor, from communication providers to student engineers.

Stakeholder diversity

"This is not about putting out an 'open for business' sign or attracting Elon Musk- and Jeff Bezos-style launches," Daughtry told UPI, speaking of the bill. "It's about creating a leadership council that ensures all the different parties and stakeholders are working together."

For states without a long history of aerospace activity, a multifaceted approach is essential, said Dylan Taylor, a major investor in the new space economy and CEO of Voyager, a space exploration firm.

"The best strategies are integrated approaches where education, technology development, infrastructure, capital availability and the political support all dovetail around the industry," Taylor told UPI in an email. "Multi-stakeholder coordination is the key to success."

Global data, Maine applications

In addition to engaging Maine's students, Shehata and Daughtry cited the importance of bridging connections between the Maine Space Corp. and Maine's industries on the ground.

Ali Abedi, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Maine, who testified in support of LD 1923 earlier this year, is working to design and build small satellites outfitted with microspectral cameras.

"We can use those cameras to study the concentrations of phytoplankton in the water, so that could be useful to Maine's aquaculture industry," Abedi told UPI. "We can also use data from these cameras to study urban heat island effects.

"The third application is monitoring different forests. By studying the colors in different parts of forests, we can see where diseases might be spreading and harming the forest canopies."

Small satellites launched in Maine could be used to study forest, fields, cities and water bodies all over the globe, while also helping researchers monitor the Pine Tree State's own natural resources.

"We have to make sure that the value of the space complex comes back to the various sectors in Maine's economy," Shehata said.

The world economy is increasingly data driven. If companies in Maine can find a way to collect valuable information from low-Earth orbit, it won't be difficult to find customers willing to pay for it -- at least, according to Taylor's logic.

Data, Taylor said, is the draw.

"Now that we have a reusable, reliable and relatively inexpensive launch, there has been a flourishing of launching hardware into space," Taylor said in an email. "This in turn is generating a treasure trove of spaced-based data.

"With this data, entire new business models are being created. The capabilities are extraordinary, as evidenced by some of the space-based data that came out of the Ukraine conflict from the private sector."

Much of the data collected by small satellites launched from the Maine Space Complex won't be for sale -- it will be free, available to students at Maine's universities for all sorts of research purposes.

Broad benefits

Non-space industries will also benefit from work being done at the complex's innovation hub, supporters of the bill said.

"We already have companies right here in Maine that are pushing for climate-neutral launches and climate-friendly fuels," Daughtry said.

The work could aid broader efforts to reduce the United States' carbon footprint, she said.

For many in the new space economy, miniaturization is essential. Efforts to squeeze more tech into smaller confines require electronics and instruments to be as efficient as possible.

"Efforts to build more power-efficient circuitry or low-power radio communication systems with greater data efficiency can benefit other areas of technology," Abedi said.

Financing and the future

It will cost $50 million to $250 million to construct the Maine Space Complex, according to Shehata, but the Maine Space Corp. won't be starting from scratch.

Officials expect to utilize some existing infrastructure, including a pair of military facilities no longer in use -- Brunswick Naval Air Station in Southern Maine and Loring Air Force Base farther north, near the Canadian border.

It's not clear how the Maine Space Complex will be funded, but Shehata said the public-private partnership is likely to pursue federal grants, seek out commercial partners and perhaps even issue bonds.

The grant consortium that Shehata oversees will help the corporation get organized and provide some initial seed funding.

"We are going to basically provide back-office services to the corporation with additional funds that we are securing from the federal government to build up the infrastructure, and then in a few years, we will step aside and establish a strategic partnership with the corporation," he said.

It's about the kids

Supporters of LD 1923 and the Maine Space Complex expect the project to be financially sustainable without direct support from the state treasury and Maine taxpayers, but Shehata and Daughtry said facilitating collaboration is the primary goal.

"The goal is to be having a statewide effort on this," Daughtry said. "The thing that I am really excited about are the links between the space complex, space companies and academics.

"I'm really interested to see how high school students use some of these low-cost devices."

Shehata suggests the Maine Space Complex could bring more than 5,500 high-paying jobs to the state by 2042.

If a high school student gets a chance to study the state's resources using data captured by a satellite launched from Maine, maybe that engagement motivates them to pursue an engineering degree at the University of Maine.

And if the Maine Space Corp. is successful at capturing a slice of the new space economy -- expected to be worth $1.5 trillion by 2040 -- maybe, just maybe, upon graduation, that student won't have to look outside the state for a job in the aerospace industry.

Source: Space Daily.

Link: https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Maine_looks_to_grow_space_economy_for_students_research_and_business_999.html.