Stott: Such Great Heights
(Source: Pegasus)
In 2009, Nicole Stott ’92 spent 91 days in space, which gave her a new
perspective on life. Now she wants to share it with the world through
art. Click here.
(7/7)
Juno Was a Success—But There is
Precious Little Coming After It (Source: Ars Technica)
But the party is just about over. NASA, and more particularly the Obama
administration, have failed to invest in future planetary science
missions. Earlier this year, I had a chance to catch up with Casey
Dreier, director of space policy for The Planetary Society. Although
generally an ally to the science-minded Obama administration—the
society's chief executive Bill Nye often hobnobs with the
president—Dreier did not mince words about the The Planetary Society's
views.
"I think with President Obama you have a legacy of a missed opportunity
to really build on the foundation that he inherited, which was a fleet
of spacecraft from Mercury going out to Pluto," Dreier told me. "He had
an opportunity to build political bridges. There’s a very high level of
bipartisan support for that, and a huge amount of public engagement."
(7/7)
NASA Data Show Toxic Air Threat
Choking Indian Subcontinent (Source: Bloomberg)
The mega-city of New Delhi has tried everything from banning diesel
guzzling SUVs to taking about half the city’s cars off the streets in a
fight against air pollution. Officials may yet have to do much, much
more, based on National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite
research.
The research depicts how much sunlight is blocked by airborne
particles, providing a proxy for levels of pollution. The data show
parts of the Indo-Gangetic plain -- stretching across northern India
from eastern Pakistan on one side to Bangladesh on the other -- suffer
some of the planet’s worst haze in October through January after
monsoon rains end in September. (7/6)
Enterprise Florida Giving $1.8 Million
for Defense Projects (Source: POST)
This funding will strengthen Florida’s military bases ahead of any
potential Department of Defense realignment or closure actions, thereby
protecting the more than 774,000 jobs and more than $79.8 billion in
economic impact the defense industry supports in Florida.
This grant program is administered by Enterprise Florida, Inc. and are
awarded annually, on a project priority basis, to organizations and
communities working to protect, preserve and enhance Florida’s military
installations and missions. (7/7)
Harris Teams With exactEarth for
Maritime Geospatial Solutions (Source: Harris)
As a result of an ever-growing demand for immediate maritime domain
awareness, Harris has partnered with exactEarth to deliver a real-time
global tracking and information solution that optimizes a global
satellite constellation for AIS. We offer exactView RT Powered by
Harris, an advanced ship tracking solution with continuous global
coverage and real-time connectivity for unmatched maritime domain
awareness.
Although relatively new, satellite AIS technology has fundamentally
changed the landscape for monitoring the maritime domain. Improving
upon existing AIS technology already deployed aboard all large vessels
and many smaller vessels around the globe, satellite AIS is truly
revolutionary in providing a complete and global picture of the world’s
maritime shipping environment. (7/7)
Revive The Planetary Program
(Source: Register-Guard)
On Monday, NASA’s Juno probe slipped into orbit around Jupiter —
another in a series of technical triumphs that includes last year’s New
Horizons flyby of Pluto and the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars
in 2012. The past half-century has been a golden age of planetary
exploration, led by the United States.
But the golden age is coming to an end, a victim of budgetary
starvation by Congress and the White House. A measure of the next
president’s vision will be his or her willingness to revive NASA’s
planetary program. Vision is needed, because the fruits of missions
approved during the next president’s term won’t be harvested until
after he or she has left office.
New Horizons got the green light in 2001, was launched in 2006 and
reached Pluto nine years later. Juno was initially approved in 2003
and, after a two-year delay, was launched in 2011. It takes a decade to
plan, design and build a planetary probe — and if its destination is
one of the outer planets, it can take nearly that long for it to reach
its destination. Planetary exploration is not only a test of human
ingenuity, but of far-sightedness and perseverance. (7/7)
Japanese Scientists Will Test Out
"Space Elevator" Technology Very Soon (Source: Inverse)
The concept of a space elevator has been floating around (not
literally, of course) for more than a century. The idea is simple: you
travel into space in a vehicle that’s tethered to a cable attached to a
counterweight situated in a zero-gravity environment outside of Earth’s
atmosphere. You wouldn’t have to worry about using large rockets or
massive amounts of combustible fuel to propel yourself into space — you
would just use the cable to ascend and descend as needed.
It’s a ridiculous idea, of course (and rocket-less space launch tech
has a pretty poor track record so far), but that doesn’t mean serious
researchers haven’t tried to figure out whether it can be done.
Introducing: STARS-C (Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic
Satellite-Cube), a design for a space elevator headed by a team of
Japanese scientists at Shizuoka University. It’s basically a
micro-satellite that provides a cable connecting Earth with a space
station situated high above the planet’s atmosphere, in orbit. (7/7)
Space Florida Approves Road Money,
Loan in Space Deals (Source: Florida Politics)
The Space Florida board of directors approved three emergency measures
Wednesday to keep two huge spaceport developments in the works,
including a deal to use state money to help build a road and another to
provide short-term financing.
The board approved the road improvements, to cost up to $2.7 million,
to help provide transportation between Blue Origin’s planned rocket
manufacturing site in Space Florida’s Exploration Park industrial
center, and the company’s leased launch pad at the Cape Canaveral
Spaceport.
Space Florida also signed onto a bond deal for up to $3 million to
provide a short-term bridge loan to help OneWeb develop its satellite
factory at Exploration Park. This will allow the company to accelerate
its construction, according to Space Florida President Frank DiBello.
The third action involved granting the city of Titusville the power to
do building code inspections during the Blue Origin construction. (7/6)
GAO Remains Concerned About Potential
Weather Satellite Gap (Source: Space News)
While the first of a new generation of polar-orbiting weather
satellites remains on schedule to launch next year, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office is concerned that it may slip, increasing the
risk of a data gap.
In testimony before the House Science Committee’s environment
subcommittee July 7, David Powner, director of information technology
management issues at the GAO, argued that National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration had downplayed the risk of a gap that could
emerge if an instrument on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting
Partnership (NPP) spacecraft fails before the launch of the first Joint
Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellite next year. (7/7)
Astronauts Embark on a Training
Mission Deep Beneath the Earth (Source: National Geographic)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has created a program that challenges
astronauts to work together in an unexplored realm that can be as
perilous as space: a network of caves half a mile underground in
Sardinia, Italy. An international team of six astronauts from the
United States, China, Japan, Spain, and Russia began their descent in
early July. Their six-day mission is to establish a base camp while
conducting scientific experiments.
“Astronauts adopt the ‘buddy system,’ and both astronaut trainers and
instructors repeat the same mantras of ‘slow is fast,’ ‘check your
gear, and then trust it,’ and ‘always be aware of where you are and
where your buddy is,’” says the ESA website. “Their teamwork is an
example of what an expedition in an isolated, risky, and alien
environment should be.” (7/6)
Station-Bound NASA Astronaut is the
60th Woman to Fly into Space (Source: CollectSpace)
When Kate Rubins was born in 1978, only one woman had flown in space.
Now, 38 years later, Rubins is on the verge of becoming the 60th woman
to leave the planet. Launch on a Russian spacecraft, Rubins will spend
the next four months conducting science on the International Space
Station.
“There’s never been a time when I was a kid that I couldn’t remember
wanting to be an astronaut. It was always the standard ‘little kid’
answer when I was four, five, six, eight, 12 years old. I wanted to be
an astronaut, a biologist and a geologist,” said Rubins. A
microbiologist with a doctorate in cancer biology, Rubins will be the
first be the first researcher to sequence DNA in space. She was
selected to become a NASA astronaut in 2009. (7/6)
$22 Billion Prospects for the Small
Satellite Market (Source: Euroconsult)
We are on the cusp of a major revolution for the space sector and
overall space ecosystem, as more than 3,600 smallsats are expected to
be launched over the next ten years, a significant increase from the
previous decade. The total market value of these satellites is
anticipated to be $22 billion (manufacture and launch), a 76% increase
over that of 2006-2015. This rate of growth is unprecedented for the
space sector and will bring about fundamental changes as both new and
established industry players attempt to increase their capabilities in
order to gain market share.
Including all third-party and in-house manufacturers, around 200
organizations built a smallsat between 2006 and 2015; the coming decade
shows a similar pattern. Smallsat suppliers are entering the industry
to capitalize on demand with flexible COTS equipment, bringing down
costs and development times. Larger integrators focused on larger
missions do not necessarily have the capacity to create these smaller,
nominally lower-cost solutions at a profit or have the platforms
available to support small mission development.
In the next decade, launch services are expected to generate $5.3
billion, a 76% increase over the previous decade. Small-lift vehicles
in development will add further specialized supply. Prices from
Firefly, Rocket Lab and Virgin Galactic are not expected to undercut
existing supply prices. However, with smallsat operators impacted by
the launch bottleneck and affected by delays in ridesharing and the
like, despite the higher price per kg, the benefit of quicker and
dedicated access to space could be quite attractive for operators. (7/7)
Stakeholders Meet to Talk Safety, more
involving Spaceport Tucson (Source: Tucson News Now)
Sharing the skies safely was the topic of a meeting at Tucson
International Airport as Spaceport Tucson nears completion just south
of Tucson International Airport. A company called World View eventually
wants to use balloons to take people into space. Construction on
Spaceport Tucson is expected to be completed by the end of year. World
View still needs federal permission to send people into the
stratosphere from Tucson.
Down here on earth the Tucson Airport Authority wants to know more.
That's why the TAA Board held a study session with the FAA, some
commercial airlines, a private jet group, government and other local
officials. "One of the reasons we wanted to be here is so that the
tower can be in control of the airspace and make sure that there are
separation services," said World View Chief Technology Officer Taber
MacCallum. (7/7)
China Holds Space Military Exhibition
(Source: Xinhua)
China's largest military space exhibition by scale and technological
content opened in Chongqing Thursday. The exhibition was hosted by the
office of China's Lunar Exploration Project, the Moon and Space
Engineering Center of the State Administration of Science Technology
and Industry for National Defence, and the Center of Space Exploration,
Ministry of Education.
The exhibition covers an area of 100,000 square meters and has three
sections including land, sea, air equipment; space; and aviation. Tang
Yuhua, an official with the Moon and Space Engineering Center, said the
exhibition is expected to attract more young Chinese to learn about
China's achievements in aviation and space. (7/7)
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