August 14, 2017

Asteroid to Shave Past Earth on Oct 12 (Source: Space Daily)
A house-sized asteroid will shave past our planet on October 12, far inside the Moon's orbit but without posing any threat, astronomers said Thursday. The space rock will zoom by harmlessly at a distance of about 44,000 kilometers (27,300 miles) - an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. (8/14)

3-D Printing for Satellites? Harris Has a Plan (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The business of building satellites could get cheaper as companies turn to 3-D printing for their components. In Melbourne, Harris Corporation researchers say using that technology could cut the cost of producing small satellites — a specific and growing segment of the space industry — by up to $400,000 per satellite. Harris will for the first time research a new use for 3-D printers: creating circuit boards for satellites.

The firm plans to send 3-D-printed parts into space sometime during the next five years, an effort to demonstrate the technology’s viability to potential customers, officials with the defense and aerospace giant said.

The Harris project will be paid for through the Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership program, a 4-year-old effort meant to pay for joint space-related research that comes from the U.S. and Israel. The $250,000 Space Florida grant will be allocated over two years and matched by Harris, Israeli company Nano Dimensions and the agency that governs Israel’s space program. That will bring the total funding for the project to $1 million. (8/14)

SpaceX Lands Another One of its Falcon 9 Rockets on Solid Ground (Source: The Verge)
SpaceX has landed yet another one of its Falcon 9 rockets after launching the vehicle into space this afternoon. The rocket took off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport at 12:31PM ET, bound for the International Space Station. Around eight minutes after takeoff, the majority of the vehicle landed back on solid ground at the spaceport. It marks the 14th successful rocket landing for SpaceX, and the sixth time a Falcon 9 has successfully landed on solid ground post-launch.

In fact, SpaceX has yet to lose a rocket during a ground landing. The company has lost a few vehicles during ocean landings, when the rockets attempted to touch down on autonomous drone ships at sea. But all six Falcon 9s that have landed on solid ground have touched down just fine at SpaceX’s Landing Zone 1 — a ground-based landing site at Cape Canaveral. (8/14)

China Denies It's Searching for a Foreigner to Run its Giant Alien-Hunting Telescope (Source: Shanghaiist)
Aspiring astronomers looking for a well-paid gig, we have some bad news. Despite media reports that China is desperately looking for a qualified foreigner to run its world's largest radio telescope, completed in the hilly hinterlands of Guizhou province last year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has denied that there is any such job search ongoing. (8/14)

International Lunar Observatory to Offer a New Astrophysical Perspective (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Scheduled to be sent to the south pole of the Moon sometime in 2019, the International Lunar Observatory is expected to conduct the first astrophysical observations from the lunar surface. The mission managers hope that it will offer a brand new astrophysical perspective for scientists worldwide.

The International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) and Moon Express have recently inked a deal for the landing of the first International Lunar Observatory on the Moon. Under this contract, the mission named ILO-1 would land on the Malapert Mountain – a 3.1-mile tall peak in the Aitken Basin region that is bathed in sunshine most of the time and has an uninterrupted direct line of sight to Earth.

ILOA states that the main goal of the mission is to “expand human understanding of the Galaxy and Cosmos through observation and communication from [the] Moon”. To achieve this, ILO-1 will be equipped with a set of instruments for radio and optical astronomy purposes. (8/12)

This German Startup Wants to Put a Mobile Phone Tower on The Moon (Source: Science Alert)
It's been a while since anyone standing on the Moon needed to communicate with Earth - the last crewed mission took place in 1971. But recently we've had renewed interest in lunar missions, especially since the Moon is viewed by many as a stepping stone on our way to Mars. And one German startup aiming for our rocky satellite has announced they will set up a kind of cell tower once they get there.

PTScientists, one of the companies that originally signed up for the Google Lunar X Prize competition, is planning to deliver two rovers to the Moon, using their ALINA (Autonomous Landing and Navigation) module.

The rovers, developed in partnership with Audi, will have four-wheel electrical drive chains, rechargeable batteries, solar panels, and HD cameras. And they'll also need a way to transmit their data back to Earth. (8/11)

Starship Enterprise: The Extended Mission (Source: Air & Space)
Fred C. Durant, a former rocket engineer and U.S. Navy test pilot who served as an assistant director at the Museum until 1980, corresponded with Roddenberry throughout the 1970s. Durant pointed out that rocket pioneers Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard, and Hermann Oberth all acknowledged the 19th century science fiction author Jules Verne as an influence on their work.

“The Star Trek series represents the same kind of invitation to imaginative thinking,” Durant wrote in a 1975 letter. To prove it, Air & Space asked a panel of scientists, astronauts, and influencers what it is that has made Star Trek live long...and prosper. Click here. (8/13)