Boeing Developing Simulation and
Analytics Lab in Huntsville (Source: Boeing)
Boeing has begun construction on a 7,000-square-foot addition to its
research and technology center in Alabama. Known as the Center for
Applied Simulation and Analytics (CASA), the new lab space will serve
as a hub for Boeing, its research partners and academic collaborators
to create and develop simulation and analytics technologies, providing
advanced simulation of Boeing products from concepts through operations.
"This lab will help us create flexible and affordable environments for
modeling, simulation and analytics research," said Steve Swaine. "Our
goal is to bring the best and brightest in the support and analytics
industry together in one location and give them all the tools they need
to create the most effective simulations and analysis methods for
validating new technologies." (12/12)
Actor Seth Green Designs Mission Patch
for ISS Science Experiments (Source: CollectSpace)
Looking at the latest mission patch bound for the International Space
Station, you would never know it was designed by actor Seth Green. The
six-sided emblem displays no apparent references to the celebrity's
well-known roles and projects. There are no call outs to "Austin
Powers," "Family Guy" or even "Robot Chicken." But, in fact, the patch
does include a subtle nod to Green's personal character.
"Honestly, my first thought was the yellow and blue from BSG
[Battlestar Galactica]," Green explained, describing what inspired him
to choose the patch's colors in a video released by the Center for the
Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS). The non-profit invited the
actor to design the insignia representing its payload of sponsored
science experiments flying to the space station in 2015. (12/9)
NASA to Host Info Session on Antares
Explosion Impact (Source: DelMarVa Now)
NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility will host an information session for the
public from 6-8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Wallops Visitor Center to
provide updates on environmental remediation work completed and
underway following the Antares rocket launch failure in late October.
Subject matter experts from Wallops’ environmental team will be on hand
to answer questions about the mishap’s environmental impact on Wallops
Island, as well as testing and remediation efforts conducted to date
and planned for the future. In addition, launch and range safety
officials will be available to speak about safety processes and
procedures before, during and after launch operations. (12/11)
ESA and China Plan Crude Oil Experiment
(Source: ESA)
ESA is finalising its first experiment on a Chinese space mission:
small containers of crude oil will help to improve our understanding of
oil reservoirs buried kilometers underground. The package has already
passed a gamut of testing at ESA’s Technical Center, ESTEC, in
Noordwijk, the Netherlands, including the temperature shifts of orbital
flight and the vibration and shocks of launch and reentry.
Known as the ‘Soret Coefficient in Crude Oil’ experiment, it consists
of six sturdy cylinders, each containing a milliliter of crude oil,
pressurised to 400 times our normal atmospheric level – among the
highest pressure items ever made for space. (12/11)
Florida's Final 2014 Launch Slides to
Dec. 19 (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The planned Dec. 16 launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket and its
Dragon spacecraft has been delayed three days - to no-earlier-than Dec.
19. NASA has stated the cause for this most recent delay was to ensure
that everything possible was done while the booster was on the ground
to ensure success. This latest slip was noted on the website for the
United States Air Force’s 45th Space Wing. (12/11)
Commercial Space Industry Regroups
After Accidents (Source: Roll Call)
Two accidents in the commercial space industry this year — an unmanned
rocket that exploded shortly after launch in the fall and an
experimental suborbital craft that broke apart during flight shortly
after — are almost sure to come up the next time a congressional
committee discusses the private spacecraft market. But, experts say the
incidents won’t have much of an effect on the sector’s increasing
expansion.
Thus far, members of Congress, who have largely cheered the development
of the commercial space business, haven’t jumped on the incidents as a
reason to clamp down on the industry. After the Orbital Sciences
explosion, Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson said, “space flight is
inherently risky,” but commercial space ventures “will ultimately be
successful.” He expressed similar thoughts on the Virgin Galactic
accident.
Experts are hoping other lawmakers take similarly deliberative
approaches; some have expressed frustration about the way the recent
accidents have been reported. (12/11)
Ponds or Pounding are Both Possible
Origins of Life (Source: New Scientist)
It's hard to think of two more wildly different possibilities: did life
on Earth get its start amid the gentle bubbles of a "warm little pond",
as Darwin put it, or was it born amid the colossal blows of space rocks
slamming into our young planet? Click here.
(12/11)
Budget Deal is Good for Planetary
Science (Source: LA Times)
An omnibus spending package is up for a vote in Congress this week –
and supporters of NASA are cheering it on. If approved in the House and
Senate, the federal spending appropriations for the 2015 fiscal year
would give the space agency enough funding to send the Mars 2020 rover
to the Red Planet on time and to invest in a flagship mission to
Jupiter’s moon Europa. The bill would provide NASA with $18.01 billion.
Within that amount, planetary science would get $1.437 billion, a
$157-million boost. (12/10)
XCOR Presents New Platforms For
Suborbital Science (Source: XCOR)
XCOR Aerospace presents new instruments for solar observation and
atmospheric phenomena measurement. Both instruments – the Southwest
Research Institute’s (SwRI) Solar Instrument Pointing Platform (SSIPP)
and KickSat’s sprite, will demonstrate future platforms for commercial
suborbital science. The SSIPP will examine solar wave dynamics above
the Earth’s atmosphere while onboard the Lynx. The KickSat sprite,
which is generically known as a chipsat, is only the size of a couple
of postage stamps, but has many capabilities of larger spacecraft such
as memory, sensors, radio transceiver, and solar cells. (12/11)
NASA Still Faces Challenges, GAO Says
(Source: Washington Post)
Many in the space community are still beaming over last week’s launch
of Orion, the historic unmanned test flight that NASA said touched off
a “new era” in human space exploration. But at a congressional hearing
Tuesday, a government watchdog report and some skeptical members of
Congress brought some of the grandiose talk of a trip to Mars down to
Earth, saying that the program still faces daunting challenges that
NASA has struggled to overcome.
The Government Accountability Office’s Cristina Chaplain said in
testimony that the agency’s human exploration program is plagued by
“inconsistent and unrealistic schedule goals,” as well as “significant
technical and funding issues.”
Regarding SLS, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said it could cost at least
$10 billion to develop “this monstrous rocket project.” Even then, he
said, it “won’t have a real mission until we go to Mars, which could be
two decades or three decades from now, depending on if we can ever get
over the technological hurdles we haven’t gotten over yet.” Meanwhile,
the program would continue to eat up much of the budget and take away
from other endeavors, Rohrabacher said. “We made a wrong decision when
we went down this road,” he said. (12/11)
MoonMail: Company Launches Program to
Land Mementos on the Moon (Source: CollectSpace)
A commercial "lunar logistics" company working to send robotic landers
to the moon is inviting the public to 'mail' their keepsakes and
personal mementos on one-way trips to the lunar surface. Astrobotic
Technology on announced the launch of its new "MoonMail" program, which
offers to send heirloom rings, family photos, locks of hair and other
small personal items on the company's first private moon mission set to
launch in the next few years. (12/11)
NASA’s Flight Research UAVs
(Source: Aviation Week)
NASA is making increasing use of small unmanned aircraft for flight
research to reduce costs and risks. Here are some recent examples of
new technologies being tested in small packages. Click here.
(12/18)
NASA To Weigh Several Factors in
Decision on Asteroid Mission Option (Source: Space News)
NASA will weigh several factors when it makes a Dec. 16 decision on a
plan for its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), including how well each
option supports later human missions to Mars, according to the agency
official who will make that decision. NASA Associate Administrator
Robert Lightfoot said he will use a “matrix” of variables when deciding
between two options for carrying out the robotic portion of ARM.
In one approach, called simply Option A by NASA, a robotic spacecraft
would shift the orbit of a small near-Earth asteroid, up to ten meters
in diameter, into an orbit around the Moon. The alternative, Option B,
would use a robotic spacecraft to grab a boulder a few meters across
from a larger asteroid and move that into lunar orbit. Click here.
(12/11)
Could Mankind Really Survive 100 Years
in Space? (Source: NBC)
A hulking spaceship the size of the Empire State Building, powered by
nuclear explosions meant to carry human beings all the way to another
solar system. It could never happen, right? That was the idea behind a
very real plan called Project Orion, drawn up by physicist Freeman
Dyson in the late 1950s. It's also the concept behind a new SyFy show
called "Ascension." The series wonders, "What if President John F.
Kennedy had taken Dyson seriously and launched a giant spaceship
towards another star?" Click here.
(12/11)
Colorado Space Roundup Focuses Eyes on
Top Aerospace Prize (Source: Denver Post)
If there's one thing Colorado aerospace proponents like, it's talking
about where the state ranks in the national aerospace race. Colorado is
currently the No. 3 space economy in the nation, according to the
Colorado Space Coalition. The state has about 400 aerospace-related
companies and about 170,000 aerospace-related jobs, the greatest
per-capita rate of any state, according to data from the Metro Denver
Economic Development Corporation.
However, Colorado wants to be No. 1, and gatherings like the Colorado
Space Roundup are one step toward getting there, Johansson said. The
annual event brings together the key players in the state's aerospace
economy — or, as Johansson calls them, "competimates" — to discuss how
to best move the industry forward.
Central to this effort is the development of an educated, homegrown
workforce. However, this is not just the responsibility of the state's
universities, said Brian Sanders, deputy director of the Colorado Space
Grant Consortium, a statewide program funded by NASA that gives
university students hands-on experience with space programs. (12/11)
Taking the Cube Quest Challenge
(Source: Make)
The NASA Centennial Challenges Program is the agency’s flagship program
of technology prize competitions—from lunar landers, to astronaut
gloves, to airships. Back in 2011 we even partnered with NASA to
develop inexpensive science kits for suborbital flights for the MAKE
Space Challenge.
Amongst the latest challenge announcements from the agency is the Cube
Quest Challenge which offers a total of $5 million to teams that can
design, build, and deliver small spacecraft capable of operating near
and beyond the moon. The Challenge is designed to encourage development
of technology to allow deep space exploration using small
spacecraft—like CubeSats. Click here.
(12/11)
Spaceport America Launches Online Shop
to Help Pay Bills (Source: KQRE)
The launch of commercial flights to space from Spaceport America was
supposed to help the economy here take off. However, after years and
years of delays, the Spaceport is trying other things to make money,
like starting a new online store. The Spaceport sent out a newsletter
this month to let people know about the online shop, encouraging
everyone to do their holiday shopping on the site. You won’t find
tickets for a flight to space, but it does have everything from shirts
and coffee mugs to shot glasses. (12/10)
Rewards Offered for Return of
Delaware’s Apollo 11 Moon Dust (Source: Dover Post)
Former NASA investigator Joe Gutheinz is offering a cash reward of up
to $10,000 for the return of Delaware’s Apollo 11 lunar samples. His
reward is in addition to a similar, $10,000 offer from the H2 Channel’s
“Lost History” program, which featured a story about stolen lunar
samples on Nov. 21. Gutheinz said his offer is good only through Jan.
9, 2015, and will be paid once NASA and the Delaware officials can
verify the lunar rocks are the actual sample stolen in 1977.
Gutheinz said he has not been able to uncover any additional clues
about who took the sample, but said it was “most likely stolen by a
young white male who either still has it hidden away or has lost track
of it over the decades.” The Texas-based attorney has made similar
offers for other, missing lunar material. “I may be a retired NASA
senior special agent, but I still care about protecting the history and
treasure of NASA,” he wrote. (12/10)
President Obama Praises NASA's Orion
Spaceship Test Flight (Source: Space.com)
The first test flight of NASA's Orion crew capsule represents a big
step along humanity's path to Mars, President Barack Obama said
Tuesday. The president took note of the spaceflight success, which
marked the farthest a human-spaceflight vehicle has traveled since the
end of NASA's Apollo program in 1972.
"I'm sure you were all as proud as I was to see Orion's first sucessful
flight test last Friday," President Obama said Tuesday during a speech
to the Senior Executive Service, a group of high-ranking federal civil
servants. "America was already the first nation to land a rover on
Mars," Obama said. "When an American is the first human to set foot
there, we'll have Julie and her team to thank. And at that point, I'll
be out of the presidency, and I might hitch a ride." (12/10)
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