A Tech Agenda For the Next U.S.
President (Source: Aviation Week)
This is your aerospace technology agenda, President (fill in the
blank). Follow it, and the U.S. will stay ahead of its adversaries and
competitors, air travel will stay affordable and profitable, and the
industry will continue to win exports and create jobs. Click here.
(8/29)
Abner, Heard, Ray and Spence to
Receive Lifetime Achievement Awards (Source: NSCFL)
The National Space Club Florida Committee (NSCFL) will present its 2016
Lifetime Achievement Awards to Charles Abner, Marshall Heard, Gary Ray
and Michael Spence. They will be recognized for their distinguished
roles in the space community at the September 13, monthly luncheon
meeting. 1st LT S. Kyle Futch, 5th Space Launch Squadron, 45th Space
Wing will also be recognized as the 2016 Rising Star Honoree. The event
will be held at the Radisson at the Port, Cape Canaveral, at 11:30 am.
(8/29)
Russian 'Starshot' Billionaire May
Switch Destination to Proxima B (Source: Science Alert)
Back in April, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner pledged $100 million
toward a crazy plan to visit another star system. The mission -
Breakthrough Starshot - aims to get this done by propelling teeny, tiny
spaceships to 20 percent the speed of light with powerful lasers.
Milner and famed physicist Stephen Hawking initially said their
destination would be Alpha Centauri: a star system located some 4.37
light-years (25.7 trillion miles) away from Earth. But the
groundbreaking discovery of a nearby planet could switch things up for
Starshot. Astronomers on Wednesday announced they’d discovered an
Earth-like and potentially habitable world, called Proxima b, circling
Proxima Centauri - a red dwarf star that’s about a trillion miles
closer than Alpha Centauri.
"The discovery ... provides an obvious target for a flyby mission,"
wrote Avi Loeb, a physicist at Harvard University and a Starshot
mission advisory committee chair. "A spacecraft equipped with a camera
and various filters could take colour images of the planet and infer
whether it is green (harbouring life as we know it), blue (with water
oceans on its surface) or just brown (dry rock)." (8/26)
Juno Completes First Jupiter Orbit
(Source: CBS)
NASA's Juno spacecraft completed its first orbit of Jupiter with a
close flyby of the planet Saturday. Juno passed 4,200 kilometers above
the planet's cloud tops on closest approach Saturday at 9:44 a.m.
Eastern. The spacecraft operated as planned during the flyby, project
officials said. The flyby marked the end of Juno's first orbit after
arriving at the planet July 4, and is also the closest the spacecraft
will get to the planet during its prime mission. A maneuver on its next
flyby in October will put the spacecraft into a 14-day orbit for the
main phase of the mission. (8/28)
India Tests Scramjet Engine
(Source: PTI)
India's space agency ISRO successfully tested a scramjet engine Sunday.
A sounding rocket lifted off early Sunday and accelerated the
experimental scramjet to supersonic speeds, allowing the engine to
operate for five seconds on the brief suborbital flight. ISRO declared
the test a key milestone in its long-term efforts to develop
air-breathing propulsion systems for use on future reusable launch
vehicles. (8/28)
New Test Finds No Damp Soil at Mars’
Seasonal Dark Streaks (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
A new study using data collected by NASA's Mars Odyssey mission
indicates that there is little water to be found in seasonal dark
streaks on Mars. The dark streaks, known as recurring slope lineae or
RSL, have been a hot topic in planetary exploration since they were
first discovered in 2011.
The new study uses ground temperature data collected by Mars Odyssey’s
Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS). While these findings do not
contradict previous studies that identified the presence 0f hydrated
salts at these flows, the temperature measurements identify an upper
limit for how much water is present at these darkened streaks: about as
much as in the sands of Earth’s driest deserts. (8/29)
Despite Setbacks, FIU Students’
Satellite Destined for Space (Source: FIU News)
A team of mechanical engineering students designed and created a
satellite that won a NASA-sponsored competition, and as a result, will
launch into space in about two years. But the journey to the great
beyond, once complete, would have taken nearly a decade to realize.
Pradeep Shinde, a doctoral student at the College of Engineering and
Computing, has been reaching for the stars since 2009. Back then, while
working toward his master’s degree at FIU, Shinde was part of the first
team of students who created the first generation of a CubeSat to
compete in the FUNSAT Design Competition. FUNSAT, which stands for
Florida University SATellite, challenges students to design an actual
system in the first year, and complete flight model construction in the
second year as part of the contest.
The competition is sponsored by the Florida Space Consortium, a
NASA-sponsored program administered by the University of Central
Florida and the Florida Space Institute. Its main goals are to promote
an interdisciplinary project for systems engineering; support a
test-bed for advanced technologies; and promote career development for
Florida students in the aerospace field. (8/25)
New Weather Satellite is a Game
Changer — If it Can Survive the Journey to Launch (Source:
Washington Post)
The lid on a white, RV-size box is lifted off with painstaking care to
prevent damaging the multimillion-dollar, next-generation weather
satellite housed inside. Two dozen engineers and technicians in white
jumpsuits surround the container in a 10-story airlock. I watch as the
specialists execute their specific jobs. One controls the crane that
raises the lid inch-by-inch; another is carrying a molecular air
sampler. Two attach ropes to the lid to guide it.
They are meticulous. Any disturbance — a misplaced step, exposure to
the wrong air molecules, an uncontrollable sneeze — has the potential
to leave the U.S., and the rest of the world for that matter, without
critical weather observations that save lives. If it successfully
launches in November, the NOAA satellite will monitor things like
hurricanes and blizzards from space with higher resolution than any
other U.S. satellite of its kind. It will be a game-changer for weather
forecasting. Click here.
(8/25)
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