Space Coast Man Gets 5
Years in NASA Fraud (Sources: Florida Today, AP)
A Merritt Island man was sentenced to 60 months in prison for
fraudulently obtaining more than $4.4 million in NASA and other
government contract payments that should have gone to disadvantaged
small businesses. Michael Dunkel, 60, will also serve two years of
supervised release after leaving prison and pay a $12,500 fine and
almost $3 million in forfeiture. Dunkel had pleaded guilty on May 23,
2013, to one count of major government fraud.
Dunkel admitted he agreed to pay Security Assistance Corporation (SAC)
a fee in exchange for SAC allowing Dunkel to use its 8(a) status.
Prosecutors said that although SAC was required to perform at least 50
percent of the work on the contracts and had represented it would do
so, none of its employees performed any work. Dunkel submitted
fraudulent proposals and invoices, used a third-party company’s Federal
Employer Identification Number to prevent reporting of his contractor
income to the IRS, and did not pay any income taxes.
Dunkel is the eighth person convicted in the scheme. The five-year term
imposed at Friday's sentencing hearing was slightly less than the seven
years sought by prosecutors, who said that Dunkel, a commercial pilot,
profited personally from the scheme by $2.4 million. The money helped
fund a lifestyle that included two private airplanes, a $350,000 race
car and nearly a dozen other luxury vehicles and motorcycles,
prosecutors said. (3/1)
NASA Begins Process to
Rename Center for Neil Armstrong (Source: Collect Space)
With the flick of a digital switch, NASA's Dryden Flight Research
Center has been renamed for the late astronaut Neil Armstrong, the
first man to walk on the moon. NASA on Friday (Feb. 28) got off to an
early start adopting the new name, updating its website addresses and
social media handles, before the name officially goes into effect
Saturday (March 1). The redesignation comes two months after President
Obama signed legislation enacting the change and 20 years (to the day)
after the center's last renaming. (2/28)
U.S. Space Assets Face
Growing Threat From Adversaries (Source: Space News)
U.S. military and intelligence satellites face a growing threat from
nations actively developing counterspace capabilities, the head of U.S.
Strategic Command warned a Senate panel Feb. 27. U.S. Navy Adm. Cecil
Haney’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee marked the
third time in recent weeks that a senior U.S. military or intelligence
official has publicly sounded the alarm about the threats U.S. national
security space assets face from adversaries abroad. (2/28)
Satellite Financing Emerges as U.S. Export-Import Bank’s
Fastest-Growing Sector (Source: Space News)
Satellite financing has become the fastest-growing sector at the U.S.
Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank, rising from $50 million annually to $1
billion per year since 2010, Ex-Im Bank President Fred Hochberg said.
“You heard that right: Satellites are our biggest riser at Ex-Im,”
Hochberg said in a Feb. 20 speech to the Washington Space Business
Roundtable. “Not energy, not airplanes, not infrastructure —
satellites.”
The emergence of Ex-Im as a challenger, and occasional partner, to the
French Coface export-credit agency (ECA) has been one factor in the
rise of low-interest ECA satellite funding in recent years. Once used
mainly by customers of limited financial strength, ECA financing has
now become a tool for even the most well-heeled satellite fleet
operators. And on at least one occasion, Ex-Im approved a loan after
the decision to use a U.S. satellite builder had already been made by
the foreign customer. (2/28)
Tackling Tumors with
Space Station Research (Source: NASA)
In space, things don't always behave the way we expect them to. In the
case of cancer, researchers have found that this is a good thing: some
tumors seem to be much less aggressive in the microgravity environment
of space compared to their behavior on Earth. This observatio could
help scientists understand the mechanism involved and develop drugs
targeting tumors that don't respond to current treatments. This work is
the latest in a large body of evidence on how space exploration
benefits those of us on Earth.
Research in the weightlessness of space offers unique insight into
genetic and cellular processes that simply can't be duplicated on
Earth, even in simulated microgravity. "Microgravity can be
approximated on Earth, but we know from the literature that simulated
microgravity isn't the same as the real thing," says Daniela Gabriele
Grimm, M.D. To maximize use of the space station's unique microgravity
platform, in 2011 NASA named the Center for the Advancement of Science
in Space (CASIS) as manager of the station's U.S. National Laboratory.
By selecting research and funding projects, connecting investors and
scientists and improving access to the station, CASIS accelerates new
technologies and products with the potential to benefit all humanity.
CASIS recently requested proposals for research on the effects of
microgravity on fundamental stem cell properties. That request, says
Patrick O'Neill, communications manager, generated a terrific response
from the research community - larger than any other CASIS proposal to
date. (2/28)
Russia Moves to Reinforce
Space Ties With Kazakhstan (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia has tentatively approved a new agreement to strengthen space
ties with Kazakhstan, which currently hosts Russia’s largest launch
facility. The deal is set to provide a general framework to bolster
bilateral collaboration, even as Russia inches closer to completing a
new domestically based space center to reduce its dependence on its
former Soviet neighbor. (2/28)
China Pushing Ahead on
Hi-Res Satellite System (Source: Space News)
China’s push into high-resolution optical Earth observation through its
seven-satellite CHEOS system is slightly delayed but will see the
launch of a second satellite this year and three more satellites by
2016, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.
The China High-Resolution Earth Observation System, whose first
satellite, Gaofen-1, was launched in April 2013 aboard a Chinese Long
March 2D rocket, includes airborne instruments and what CNSA calls a
“near-space airship,” apparently a high-altitude balloon, equipped with
optical, laser and synthetic-aperture radar payloads, CNSA said. (2/28)
China Has No lunar Base
Project (Source: Xinhua)
The world's third country to soft-land on the moon has no plan to build
a lunar base there, a leading scientist of China's lunar probe mission
told Xinhua Saturday. But Ye Peijian, chief scientist of the Chang'e-3
program, also said that since man can land on the moon and stay there
briefly, there will be the day when they can stay there for long time.
(3/1)
China Capable of
Exploring Mars (Source: Xinhua)
China has the capability of exploring the planet Mars, Ye Peijian, a
top scientist with the Chang'e-3 program, the country's lunar probe
mission, told Xinhua. China is capable of sending a probe to circle
Mars and having it land on the planet, Ye said, adding that the country
has no problems with tracking control and communications technology.
China's space missions have seen systematic development. The Chang'e-3
lunar probe, a part of the second phase of the country's lunar program,
soft-landed on the Moon on Dec. 14, with the nation's first moon rover
Yutu (Jade Rabbit) aboard. Ye said China improved ground stations and
tackled many problems concerning control and communications especially
during the second phase of its lunar program. "But the time to go [to
Mars] will depend on the country's budget and decision," the scientist
said. (3/1)
UK Cadets Wanted as Space
Engineers (Source: BBC)
Apprentices are being invited to take one giant leap for mankind and
sign up for elite space engineering training. The first degree-level
apprenticeship in the field is being launched by Skills Minister
Matthew Hancock at the National Space Center in Leicester. The program
aims to encourage more scientists and engineers into the UK's space
industry, expected to be worth £30bn in the next two decades. (2/28)
The New Market Space:
Billionaire Investors Look Beyond Earth (Source: Financial
Times)
Here we are more than a decade into the 21st century and we’re still
not there. To be a child of the 1960s and 1970s was to daydream not
only about traveling in space but also about settling there,
indefinitely. National space agencies planned inflatable lunar cities.
Space was where we were all going to live and work – Moon bases and
hotels, everything in Stanley Kubrick’s futuristic 2001: A Space
Odyssey.
“Investment in commercial space flight has become one of the big trends
among the super-rich,” says Liam Bailey, head of global research at
Knight Frank. The property agency has identified more than 70 ultra
high net worth individuals (UHNWIs – people with at least $30m in net
assets) investing in commercial space travel, 13 of whom are
billionaires with a combined wealth of $175bn. Click here.
(2/28)
An Alien March Madness:
Is There Life in Space? (Source: New York Times)
It’s not an invasion from space, but it is an invasion about space. A
batch of programs related to the heavens and what might or might not be
lurking in them are coming in March, and the Science Channel gets
things started on Sunday with a week of offerings on the theme “Are We
Alone”? The answer, of course, is, “We have no idea,” but in exploring
the question the Science programs at least prove one thing: No camera
angle is too odd when the subject is extraterrestrials. (2/28)
Mars Flyby Schedule Reset
for 2021, But Will It Ever Fly? (Source: NBC)
A privately funded effort aimed at sending two astronauts flying past
Mars has officially shifted its target launch date from 2018 to 2021,
but the Inspiration Mars mission would still depend on a heavy-lift
NASA rocket that has yet to be built. Inspiration Mars' current plan
for a 582-day round trip was the subject of a congressional hearing
before the House Science Committee on Thursday.
The project, conceived by millionaire space tourist Dennis Tito, calls
for liftoff of NASA's Space Launch System with a modified Orion capsule
on Nov. 22, 2021, with a Venus flyby in April 2022, a Mars flyby in
October 2022, and then a return to Earth on June 27, 2023. Doug Cooke,
a former NASA executive who has served as an adviser to Inspiration
Mars, told lawmakers that the trip would give astronauts "40 hours of
looking at Mars" when it's at least as big as the moon as seen from
Earth.
Tito, a former space engineer, proposed the Inspiration Mars project
with the aim of kickstarting deep-space exploration a la Apollo and
inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers. He initially
laid out a 501-day mission taking off in 2018, but mission planners
determined that the requirements for the trip couldn't be met by then.
(2/28)
Taiwan Engineers Around
Export Restrictions, Winds Up with Better Satellite
(Source: IEEE Spectrum)
Since it launched its first satellite in 1999, Taiwan has been
operating at a disadvantage. It’s had to maneuver through a thicket of
export restrictions from European countries, such as France, Germany,
and the U.S. to acquire a key component, without which its satellites
would be lost. That component, a space-based GPS receiver helps fix the
flying direction for a satellite and accurately calculate which way a
spacecraft’s antenna should point.
Dealing with those countries' export restrictions regarding space
systems could take up to six months, and the lengthy process has
seriously hampered Taiwan’s satellite projects. Three years of hard
work by Lin’s team resulted in the creation of Taiwan’s first home
grown space-based GPS receiver. What’s more, the receiver is actually
better than what Taiwan had been able to import in several ways. (2/28)
No comments:
Post a Comment