Rubio Meets with Space Industry
Leaders at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space Florida and the Economic Development Commission of Florida's
Space Coast hosted a roundtable meeting for Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL),
the former presidential hopeful who is now campaigning to keep his
Senate seat. Rubio met with local aerospace officials from companies
like Northrop Grumman, SpaceX, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and United
Launch Alliance.
Some highlights of the discussion included comments from SpaceX that
they may grow their presence in Florida due to their success in landing
Falcon rockets. It apparently makes sense to keep the rockets in
Florida rather than sending them to California or Texas for
refurbishment, so more infrastructure and jobs could come to the Space
Coast.
Also, Space Florida discussed the need for nitrogen and helium gas
pipelines to serve the growing needs of ULA, SpaceX and other
launchers. This commercially driven requirement, along with things like
rebuilding the bridge from Titusville to KSC, is too low a budget
priority for NASA or the Air Force, so again comes the notion of
putting a spaceport authority (Space Florida or possibly a federal
entity) in charge of running the Cape Canaveral Spaceport...with NASA
and the Air Force transitioning to some form of 'tenant' status. (8/19)
Texas Congressman Launches Mission to
Reboot Space Program (Source: Texas Standard)
It’s been a long time since kids sat with parents on living room
couches watching live pictures from Mission Control in Houston. Even
though NASA no longer looms in the American imagination as much as it
once did, with a Mars expedition in the works and the rise of Space X
and Blue Origin among others, a powerful case can be made that a
renaissance is just around the corner.
Houston-area U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, who’s chair of the House Space
subcommittee, has launched a new mission on Capitol Hill. Babin says he
wants to establish a bipartisan caucus to “advocate and protect” the
space program. “The work, the funding, our workforce, our capabilities
– all at the NASA Johnson Space Center, which Houston is home to, and
also to the space industry across Texas,” he says.
In Babin’s district, he says 14,000 employees work at Johnson Space
Center. “We’ve seen some ups and downs over the last few years of our
space program,” he says. “NASA’s overall budget is less than one-half
of one percent of our federal budget. The nation’s investments in space
drive our technology, advancements and inventions we have there… It’s
hard to match the bang for the buck that we get (out of it).” (8/19)
Air Force, ULA Launch 2 Military
Surveillance Satellites on Delta Rocket (Source: Space.com)
The U.S. Air Force has launched two more satellites designed to help
keep some of the nation's most valuable military space assets safe and
secure. The third and fourth satellites in the military's
Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) lifted off
atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Medium rocket from Florida's
Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (8/19)
More Evidence Emerges That Life's
Building Blocks are Scattered Throughout Space (Source: Mashable)
A team of scientists have tracked the development of molecules known as
"life's building blocks" in a nebula far from Earth, adding to an
ever-growing field of research that could one day help us figure out
exactly how life formed in our solar system. Scientists peered deep
into the Iris Nebula — located 1,400 light-years from our planet —
using powerful observatories to figure out exactly how the molecules,
called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), are distributed in the
dusty region.
The medium-sized PAHs — which are "flat molecules consisting of carbon
atoms arranged in a honeycomb pattern, surrounded by hydrogen,"
according to NASA — actually appear to grow larger when ultraviolet
light from the large star at the nebula's center hits them. Instead of
being destroyed like the small PAHs, the medium PAHs combine when
irradiated, growing into larger complex organic molecules, according to
NASA. (8/17)
Florida Tech Researchers Explore the
Possibilities of Growing Plants on the Red Planet (Source: FIT)
A little more than a year after the Buzz Aldrin Space Institute was
created at Florida Institute of Technology with the mission to get
humans to Mars, researchers are already looking at realistic ways we
can grow food on the Red Planet.
Though difficult, it’s possible with the addition of fertilizers and
leaching out the perchlorates to grow various plants in a Martian
soil–eventually. Florida Tech scientists have partnered with scientists
from NASA who have experience growing plants in space on the
International Space Station and whom are also interested in growing
plants on Mars. Florida Tech’s Drew Palmer, an assistant professor of
Biological Sciences and his team are are leading the charge in
developing a Martian Garden here on campus. (8/17)
Industry Remains Optimistic About
Continued Growth of Cubesats (Source: Space News)
Despite concerns about reliability and access to launch vehicles, the
small satellite industry expects the number of cubesats to continue to
grow as they find new commercial and government applications. Bill
Doncaster of SpaceWorks Engineering said his company was maintaining a
forecast issued earlier this year that predicted about 200 satellites
weighing between 1 and 50 kilograms would launch this year, a number
that would break the record of 158 set in 2014.
SpaceWorks, in a similar forecast last year, forecast 163 such
satellites would launch in 2015, but only 131 actually flew. “That was
an anomaly based on available launch slots,” he said. He noted that
both Antares and Falcon 9 rockets, which have launched many such
spacecraft on cargo missions to the International Space Station, were
recovering from launch failures. “The number of opportunities was
somewhat limited.” (8/17)
How to Succeed in the Asteroid
Business Without Really Mining (Source: WIRED)
To support a prototype mission, Deep Space Industries has partnered
with Luxembourg. Yes, the country. Why … Luxembourg? It’s known for
finance and banking, says Meagan Crawford, Deep Space Industries’
director of communications, and has “a deep background in mining and
the steel industry, as well as a vibrant high-tech industry.”
After Prospector-X (hypothetically) proves its technology, Deep Space
Industries plans to launch the real deal, the 50-kilogram Prospector-1.
This spacecraft will—by the end of the decade, the company
says—actually go to an asteroid and appraise its value, using a
mid-infrared camera and a neutron spectrometer to see up to three feet
below ground.
But that money is a long ways away. Which is why it’s important to
realize that Prospector-1’s bones are a “solar system exploration
platform,” says Crawford. That platform doesn’t have to be
mine-oriented. Once Deep Space Industries has its own Prospector-1, it
plans to sell other copies of the platform to other entities.
Businesses, sure. But also nations. “Countries that don’t have their
own space programs who are looking to break in to the space industry,”
says Crawford. (8/17)
Small Satellites: Obvious Benefits But
Also Concerns (Source: National Defense)
Commercial technology companies are providing key imaging and
communications services via small satellite systems that may provide
cost-effective options for boosting the United States’ space
resiliency, and they’re developing them faster than the U.S. military
can, experts said.
More satellites in operation will also mean sharing increasingly less
available radiofrequency spectrum. “Most of them need to communicate
using radio signals. … You’re dealing with congestion, not just between
satellites, but between satellites and the Earth,” Weeden said.
If it were a question of two planes about to collide in mid-air, the
Federal Aviation Administration would be authorized to regulate how
each aircraft moved and operated in relation to the other. But there is
currently no such global agency for space systems that has the power to
order an operator to move one system away from another to avoid a
collision, Weeden said. (8/17)
NASA Hopes to Hand the ISS to a
Commercial Owner by Mid 2020s (Source: Tech Crunch)
NASA is giving us some more insight into its plans to get humans to
Mars, under the blanket mission called ‘Journey to Mars,’ and during
the press conference, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for
Exploration Systems Development Bill Hill revealed that the current
hope is to hand off control of the International Space Station to a
commercial owner by sometime around the mid 2020s.
“NASA’s trying to develop economic development in low-earth orbit,”
Hill said, speaking on a panel of NASA staff assembled to discuss the
upcoming Mars mission. “Ultimately, our desire is to hand the space
station over to either a commercial entity or some other commercial
capability so that research can continue in low-earth orbit, so that
research can continue in low-earth orbit.”
The timing fits with the end of The U.S. Government’s current funding
of the ISS program, which was extended by President Obama’s
administration from its original deorbiting date of 2016 through 2020.
Operations were prolonged through 2024 to help give NASA a platform
from which to run its near-Earth preparatory missions leading up to the
ultimate manned mission to Mars. (8/17)
Ixion Initiative to Study Conversion
of Rocket Upper Stages into LEO Habitats (Source: Via Satellite)
NASA has selected the Ixion Initiative Team, comprised of NanoRacks,
Space Systems Loral (SSL), and United Launch Alliance (ULA) to
participate in the agency’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration
Partnerships 2 (“NextSTEP-2”) program. The Ixion Team is a new addition
to NASA’s NextSTEP effort, and will begin by conducting a comprehensive
feasibility study evaluating the conversion of rocket upper stages into
habitats.
This approach offers a pathway that is more affordable and involves
less risk than fabricating modules on the ground and subsequently
launching them into orbit. The Ixion Team proposes demonstrating this
low-cost concept via the conversion of a Centaur rocket upper stage,
which will be attached to the International Space Station (ISS). The
Ixion Team will leverage the habitat as a proving ground for a variety
of private-sector activities. (8/17)
Former ISRO Chief: Money Given for
Human Spaceflift Mission is Peanuts (Source: Business Standard)
Eminent space scientist G Madhavan Nair has said India must take steps
to undertake human space flight mission without delay, stating such a
venture would give a new "life and vigor" to entire research activities
in ISRO. Nair termed as "very unfortunate" the government's stand on
the mission. He said the government is yet to give a formal approval to
the mission, even a decade after a meeting convened by ISRO which was
attended by 80 senior scientists who favoured initiation of such a
project. (8/17)
UK Military Orders Third High-Altitude
Pseudo Satellite From Airbus (Source: Space News)
The British Defence Ministry on Aug. 17 said it had exercised an option
for a third solar-powered, high-altitude surveillance and
communications platform from Airbus Defence and Space, with flight
trials to begin in mid-2017. The Airbus Zephyr-S aircraft, one of
several designs of what are called high-altitude pseudo satellites, or
HAPS, is designed to operate for up to 45 days before landing for
refurbishment and to provide a range of persistent surveillance and
communications services. (8/17)
Air Force Sent GSSAP Satellite to
Check on Stalled MUOS-5 (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force said Aug. 18 it sent one of its high-orbiting space
surveillance satellites to check on a Navy communications satellite
that ran into propulsion problems about halfway to geosynchronous
orbit. Following a June 24 launch, the fifth satellite in the Navy’s
next-generation narrowband communications constellation, known as the
Mobile User Objective System, had been expected to reach geosynchronous
orbit and a test location about 35,400 kilometers above Hawaii by July
3. (8/17)
Lego Contest Winners Dream of Future
Space Exploration (Source: Space.com)
Four winners have been announced in a space-themed Lego building
challenge, created in collaboration with NASA. The "Mission to Space:
Build Your Future" challenge asked participants to use Legos to create
a scene that imagined how humans might explore other planets or space
destinations one day. Four winning entrants were selected by judges
from Lego and NASA, according to a video message on the Lego website.
The winning designs included a moon house, a home on Mars, a spaceship
and a "laboratory expedition module." Pictures of the winning builds
are on the Lego website, in a gallery that includes the other contest
entries. This isn't the first time NASA and Lego have teamed up for a
space-themed building contest, and Lego regularly hosts build
challenges on their website. (8/17)
Star Caught Exploding After Long
Hibernation (Source: Mashable)
In 2009, astronomers watched as a star suddenly and unexpectedly
brightened. This brightening event, which happened in the V1213
Centauri star system, grew more and more luminous over the course of
several days, putting on a show for people on the ground. But that
extreme brightening didn't come from just anywhere.
A new study in the journal Nature this week tracks the evolution of the
star system's brightening and eventual fading using data collected by a
telescope, which just happened to be keeping an eye on its part of the
sky. Astronomers think that a brightening event like the one that
happened in 2009 occurs when a white dwarf star pulls matter from a
companion star onto its surface, causing instability and an explosion
known as a "classical nova" which makes the star glow more brightly
than usual. Click here.
(8/17)
Satellite Images Can Map Poverty
(Source: Science)
You can fix the world's problems only if you know where they are.
That’s why tracking poverty in Africa, for example, is critical for the
United Nations, which launched a global poverty campaign last year. But
gathering the data on the ground can be dangerous, slow, and expensive.
Now, a study using satellite images and machine learning reveals an
alternative: mapping poverty from space. Click here.
(8/17)
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