Tropical Storm Forces Minimum 48 Hour
Delay for ULA Atlas Launch (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The flight of a United Launch Alliance (ULA ) Atlas V 551 rocket and
its payload of the fourth satellite of the Mobile User Objective System
– has been delayed due to what is currently Tropical Storm Erica. At
present, the mission is not expected to take to the skies any earlier
than Sept. 2.
The announcement, made late in the day on Friday, Aug. 28, came just
hours after a teleconference held with the key organizations involved
with the planned flight. During the hour-long exchange mission managers
noted that they were closely following the conditions down in the
Caribbean. (8/28)
NASA Seeks Proposals To Harness Deep
Space Solar Energy (Source: Law360)
A NASA program asked for proposals Wednesday for a contract worth up to
$3.65 million to develop technology that could harness solar energy
from more remote corners of the solar system, saying missions in the
near future will require such technology. (8/28)
RSC Energia Holds Contest to Name
Soyuz Spacecraft Successor (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Energia announces creativity competition for the best name of the
new-generation crew transportation spacecraft, which is planned to be
used for missions to the Moon. The competition time frame: August 30
through November 2, 2015. Its results will be announced on January 15,
2016. (8/28)
EU Provides $77 Million for SABRE
Engine R&D (Source: Parabolic Arc)
The European Commission has found that a £50 million (around €71
million) grant that the UK authorities intend to provide for designing
a SABRE space launcher engine is in line with EU state aid rules. SABRE
is a research and development (R&D) project carried out by UK
company Reaction Engines Limited (REL). The project aims to develop an
engine that would power a reusable airframe to launch satellites into
low Earth orbit, significantly reducing the costs of such space
missions.
The Commission found that the measure fosters aerospace R&D in
Europe while limiting distortions of competition in the Single Market.
The new engine would enable a vehicle to reach orbital velocity and
altitude from the Earth’s surface without jettisoning any hardware. The
objective is to render the technology less risky by significantly
improving each of SABRE’s numerous components and subsystems.(8/27)
New NASA Launch Command Center Planned
at Wallops Island Spaceport (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded a contract to Harkins Contracting Inc. of Salisbury,
Maryland, for the construction of a new Mission Launch Command Center
(MLCC) at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island,
Virginia. The new 14,174 square-foot facility will serve as the hub for
interfacing with and controlling rockets, their payloads and associated
launch pad support systems during flight operations at Wallops.
Recent operations underscoring the need for the new command center
include commercial cargo resupply flights to the International Space
Station, Department of Defense missions, and NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere
and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), the first lunar mission to
launch from Wallops. This award is a firm-fixed price contract with a
value of $5.6 million. (8/28)
13 Great Canadian Space Ideas
(Source: MacLean's)
Some of the most exciting new space technologies are coming out from
right here in Canada. Here’s a look at some of the best ideas that our
country has contributed to better understanding and harnessing space.
Click here.
(8/28)
NASA Selects New Horizons’ Next
Destination After Pluto (Source: The Verge)
After flying by Pluto on July 14th, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has
a new destination. The mission team has selected another object in the
Kuiper Belt — the region of icy bodies that orbits the edge of the
Solar System — for the probe to explore next.
The spacecraft's new potential target is called 2014 MU69; it's a much
smaller object than Pluto and orbits the Sun nearly 1 billion miles
beyond the dwarf planet. 2014 MU69 is an ideal candidate for further
exploration, because it will cost less fuel to reach than other Kuiper
Belt objects (KBOs), said New Horizons principal investigator Alan
Stern.
Using less fuel to get to the object means more will be available to
power the probe’s data-gathering instruments. The images and
information gathered by New Horizons will give scientists a much better
understanding of the worlds at the fringes of our Solar System. (8/28)
Asteroids Loom as the New Klondike for
Seattle Region’s Space Industry (Source: Geek Wire)
Seattle could profit from the rush for resources in outer space much as
it did during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s: by selling goods and
services to the fortune-seekers. At least that’s the vision laid out by
entrepreneurs who are laying the groundwork in Seattle — and in space —
for what they hope will be a multitrillion-dollar asteroid mining
industry. (8/28)
Congress, Don’t Make Us Hitch Rides
With Russia. Love, NASA (Source: WIRED)
Grounding human spaceflights was always supposed to be temporary as we
made the necessary transition to a new generation of spacecraft,
operated by American commercial carriers. Likewise, paying for seats on
Russian spacecraft to send our astronauts to the International Space
Station (ISS) was always intended to be a stopgap.
Had Congress adequately funded President Obama’s Commercial Crew
proposal, we could have been making final preparations this year to
once again launch American astronauts to space from American soil
aboard American spacecraft. Instead we are faced with uncertainty—and
we will continue to be so long as Congress resists fully investing in
Commercial Crew. (8/28)
NASA Mars Isolation Experiment
Starting in Hawaii (Source: The Telegraph)
Six people are about to shut themselves inside a dome in Hawaii for a
year, in the longest US isolation experiment yet aimed at helping NASA
prepare for a pioneering journey to Mars. The crew includes a French
astrobiologist, a German physicist and four Americans - a pilot, an
architect, a doctor/journalist and a soil scientist. They are based on
a barren, northern slope of Mauna Loa, living inside a dome that is 36
feet in diameter and 20 feet tall. (8/28)
Ice Sheet Bigger Than Texas,
California Found on Mars (Source: CBS)
Ali Bramson knew she was onto something when she spotted a "crazy
looking crater" on the face of Mars. Trying to explain the crater's
strange shape, Bramson, a graduate student at the University of
Arizona, and her colleagues zeroed in on the fact it was terraced,
rather than bowl-shaped like most craters of this size. Terraces can
form when there are layers of different materials in the planet's
subsurface, such as dirt, ice or rock.
In this area of Mars (Arcadia Planitia), there are a lot of terraced
craters," he said. "The craters may have formed at different times, but
they all have terraces, which indicates something weird is going on in
the subsurface."
In this case, there was ice - and lots of it. Beneath the surface, they
discovered an enormous slab of water ice, measuring 130 feet thick and
covering an area equivalent to that of California and Texas combined.
The ice was the result, the authors wrote, of snowfall "which can most
easily explain the thickness and widespread nature of the excess ice
observed." (8/28)
NASA Tech Aims for Precise Landings on
Mars (Source: Space.com)
Getting a robotic spacecraft to nail a pinpoint landing is still just a
dream for engineers, but a new technology could make it easier to reach
distant destinations with better precision. The new Mars landing
technology, which is being co-developed by scientists at JPL and the
University of Texas, compares pictures of the ground below to images
already stored in the spacecraft's computer, to figure out how close to
get to the landing site. (8/28)
Terminator-Style ‘Skin’ Quickly
Repairs Itself After a Gunshot (Source: New Scientist)
It’s only a speeding bullet. The novel material in the video above can
handle being pierced by a gunshot and instantly repairs the damage.
Developed by Timothy Scott from the University of Michigan and his
team, the self-healing “skin” contains a reactive liquid sandwiched
between two polymer sheets. When punctured, a chemical called
tributylborane in the liquid reacts with oxygen to make it harden,
sealing the hole within seconds.
Other self-healing plastics exist, but they take much longer to repair
themselves. The ability to instantly plug holes could be especially
useful to protect structures in space, where flying objects can
puncture spacecraft or orbiting habitats. The plastic could be
incorporated into their walls, creating a seal if the atmosphere inside
a vessel starts to leak out, putting astronauts at risk.
Other fabrics take a different approach: stopping projectiles
altogether. A futuristic tissue combining human skin cells with spider
silk can cushion a gunshot when fired at half speed. Pure graphene,
which is made up of layers of carbon one-atom thick, is being
investigated for use in bulletproof armour because it can handle blows
better than steel. (8/28)
How to Find 'Strange Life' on Alien
Planets (Source: Space.com)
Detecting signs of life very different from that of Earth in the
atmospheres of alien planets may be difficult, but it is possible,
researchers say. A team of scientists examined models of "super-Earths"
— exoplanets slightly larger than Earth — to determine how easily signs
of life could be spotted. They determined that such biosignatures could
be identified more easily on planets orbiting stars producing
relatively low amounts of radiation — but even then only if everything
worked out just right. (8/28)
Science and Religion Fight Over
Hawaii's Highest Point (Source: CNN)
Rising more than 6 miles from the seabed floor, Mauna Kea is the
tallest summit in the world. To native Hawaiians, the dormant volcano
is the most sacred land in the entire Pacific. It is the point where
the sky and earth meet. They believe it is the site of the genesis of
their people, and it is the burial ground for their most revered
ancestors. Considered a temple and a house of worship, native Hawaiians
believed the gods created Mauna Kea for them to ascend to the heavens.
To scientists, the mountaintop is the best location in the world to
observe the stars and study the origins of our universe. "The summit of
Mauna Kea may, in fact, be the darkest site anywhere in the world ...
which of course means you can see deeper into space," said Doug Simons,
executive director at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. (8/28)
Huntsville City Leaders Want Country's
First Commercial Spaceport (Source: WAFF)
The Rocket City is readying itself for another space boom. Huntsville
leaders are working with private space companies to test whether a
commercial space craft can land at Huntsville International Airport. It
could mean more jobs, major money, and North Alabama leading the way
yet again into the cosmos.
Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and the rest is history. Fast
forward nearly 50 years and the next chapter of American space travel
is evolving into the commercial sector and with it new history could be
written right here at Huntsville International Airport. Huntsville
leaders want to know if a commercial space craft, specifically Sierra
Nevada's Dream Chaser, can land on the runway next to airplanes and
make us the first in the country with that capability.
"Being able to land that craft that just comes out of low earth orbit
and being able to land it right here in Huntsville gives us unlimited
potential,” said Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle. Huntsville leaders are
currently paying for a two-prong study looking at logistics and
performance. (8/28)
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