August 15, 2017

Made In Space Tests Space Printer (Source: Space.com)
A California startup has achieved a milestone in the development of robotic space assembly technology. Made In Space said it successfully tested a 3-D printer in conditions that mimicked the temperature extremes and vacuum of space. The printer is part of Archinaut, a concept the company is developing to use 3-D printers and robotic arms to assemble large structures in space. (8/15)

Russia Seeks Increased Launch Rate at New Spaceport (Source: Tass)
Russia wants to double the number of launches from the new Vostochny Cosmodrome in 2018. The new spaceport in Russia's Far East has not hosted a launch yet this year, but two Soyuz launches are planned there in December. Roscosmos head Igor Komarov said he would like to see four or five launches from Vostochny in 2018, and later growing to 10 launches a year. Komarov said four to six launches a year are required to maintain normal spaceport operations. (8/15)

26 Years Ago, Florida Launched a Rocket at a Total Eclipse (Source: SPACErePORT)
The solar eclipse of July 11, 1991 featured a point of maximum totality in Nayarit, Mexico, just south of Mazatlan. At high noon, at the moment of perfect eclipse, the Spaceport Florida Authority (now known as Space Florida) launched a Super Loki Viper suborbital rocket toward the sun. It was an eerie sight to behold as the bright daylight turned to night and a lightning-fast column of flame shot skyward.

The rocket carried an 'imaging radiometer' developed by a researcher at the Florida Institute of Technology. As the rocket's non-propulsive payload stage approached its ~200,000 foot apogee, a small charge ignited to push two staves forward on either side of the radiometer instrument. The staves sheared two pins and pushed the nosecone away, exposing the radiometer instrument to the sun's glowing corona.

The Nayarit launch site became an adjunct facility for Florida's Spaceport Authority, hosting one other launch as the state agency tried to work through a large inventory of surplus Super Loki rockets with other launches at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Cape San Blas on Florida's Gulf Coast, and at Sheboygan, Wisconsin. (8/15)

A New Way to Measure the Invisible Substances That Dominate the Universe (Source: The Atlantic)
In a much-anticipated analysis of its first year of data, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) telescope experiment has gauged the amount of dark energy and dark matter in the universe by measuring the clumpiness of galaxies—a rich and, so far, barely tapped source of information that many see as the future of cosmology.

The analysis, posted on DES’s last week and based on observations of 26 million galaxies in a large swath of the southern sky, tweaks estimates only a little. It draws the pie chart of the universe as 74 percent dark energy and 21 percent dark matter, with galaxies and all other visible matter—everything currently known to physicists—filling the remaining 5-percent sliver. (8/8)

Key Things to Watch for During the Total Solar Eclipse (Source: Mashable)
As the moon passes in front of the sun on August 21, bringing the first total solar eclipse to the contiguous United States since 1979, people around the country are going to be treated to one of the biggest scientific moments of the year. And everybody can take part. Click here. (8/15)

NASA Astronaut Jack Fischer Gets Attacked by Fruit Punch (Source: CNET)
Liquids behave very differently in microgravity than they do down on Earth. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer demonstrated a particularly odd and entertaining property of tropical punch in a video showing how to make a wet mess while floating around the International Space Station. Click here. (8/15)

Time for NASA to Stop Playing Favorites with Elon Musk's SpaceX (Source: The Hill)
In the Trump era, one of the few things that both sides of the aisle can agree on is distaste for cronyism, especially when it is the government picking winners and losers. Ironically, one of the biggest offenders is NASA, a bipartisan agency that is generally loved by Americans. One big beneficiary of the agency is Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX.

In June 2015, SpaceX cost taxpayers $110 million when one of its Falcon 9 rockets exploded on a mission to resupply the International Space Station. The company received all but 20 percent of the payment it would have received for completing the mission successfully. Though two years have since passed, the cause of the rocket’s failure remains unclear.

NASA assured the public that the agency would release a public summary of the results from its investigation by this summer. But just weeks ago, NASA announced that it will no longer to do so. “NASA is not required to complete a formal final report or public summary since it was an FAA licensed flight,” a spokesman claimed. Yet for some reason, the agency has been known to treat other companies differently. Click here. (8/14)

Air Force Space Command Initiative Destroys Barriers to Bolster Airmen Innovation (Source: AFSPC)
In a move to encourage Airmen to come forward with innovative thinking, a new decision panel will allow Airmen at all levels within Air Force Space Command to present ideas that could enhance the mission, save time, increase customer satisfaction, save the Air Force money, or anything that can improve the way things are done within the Air Force.

The new AFSPC Shark Tank-like panel is a rapid process method used to review ideas from Airmen at command staff and wing levels. “Our Airmen are the experts; this gives us an opportunity to hear directly from them,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, AFSPC commander.

Any Airman wishing to present an idea should prepare a simple bullet background paper that includes the proposal title, summary of improvements and an actionable decision for AFSPC leadership to review. When the proposal receives a wing commander or equivalent endorsement, AFSPC will provide an opportunity to the Airmen to bring their proposals directly to AFSPC leadership. (8/15)

Next-Generation Space Suits Could Allow Astronauts to Explore Mars (Source: The Verge)
Space suits are crucial for keeping crew members alive, and shielding them from the harsh vacuum of space during trips outside the International Space Station. And when we travel beyond lower Earth orbit — perhaps to the Moon or to Mars someday — suits will be a necessary tool. In the season premiere of Space Craft, we dove into the world of space suit design to find out what it takes to make an interplanetary ensemble. Click here. (8/15) https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/15/16145260/nasa-spacesuit-design-mars-moon-astronaut-space-craft

A GIF of Every Successful — and Failed — SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing Attempt (Source: The Verge)
SpaceX has been successfully landing its Falcon 9 rockets for more than a year now. It’s a goal that CEO Elon Musk has talked about since founding the company 15 years ago, and yet it still feels like SpaceX achieved it at lightning speed. The company even relaunched a landed rocket for the first time ever in March, paving the way to real rocket reusability. Here’s a GIF recap of all the successes and failures. (8/15)

Did Ukrainian Rocket Engines Power North Korean ICBMs? (Source: New York Times)
North Korea’s success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia’s missile program, according to an expert analysis being published Monday and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies. Analysts who studied photographs of the new rocket motors concluded that they derive from designs that once powered the Soviet Union’s missile fleet. The engines were so powerful that a single missile could hurl 10 thermonuclear warheads between continents.

But since Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from power in 2014, the state-owned factory, known as Yuzhmash, has fallen on hard times. The Russians canceled upgrades of their nuclear fleet. The factory is underused, awash in unpaid bills and low morale. Experts believe it is the most likely source of the engines that in July powered the two ICBM tests, which were the first to suggest that North Korea has the range, if not necessarily the accuracy or warhead technology, to threaten American cities.

“It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine — probably illicitly,” Mr. Elleman said in an interview. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.” Editor's Note: Yuzhmash developed the Zenit rockets formerly used by Sea Launch, is marketing the Cyclone-4 for use at a proposed Canadian spaceport, and first-stage portions of Orbital ATK's Antares rocket. I suggested last year that the U.S. should embrace Ukraine and Yuzhmash/Yuzhnoye as a manufacturer of rocket engines to rival the Russian RD-180. Instead, with Russia having cut off most of its legitimate business, it appears Yuzhmash engines might be heading to North Korea. (8/14)

Thrift Shop Bargain Hunters Find Rare NASA Flight Suits (Source: News6 Orlando)
Talia Rappa and Skyer Ashworth turned summer bargain shopping at a Titusville Thrift store closeout into the stuff of NASA collectors' legend when the central Florida college students paid 20 cents each for five rare NASA flight suits that experts say could be valued at $5,000 each or more. “They were kind of in a weird corner," Rappa told News 6. “He (Skylar) pulled them all out at first, then brought the whole handful over to me.”

The five blue NASA flight suits, along with a white “control suit,” were in the bottom of a plastic bin tucked under some forgotten winter sweaters. According to experts at the American Space Museum, the astronauts' names and flight dates on the white labels seem to match the time astronauts George “Pinky” Nelson, Robert A. Parker, and Charles D. Walker. They flew shuttle missions between 1983 and 1985.

Rappa, a junior at UCF studying astrophysics, told News 6 she has always been fascinated with space travel and would love to be part of the MARS mission. When the 20-year-old looked at the suits close up, she admits her “jaw dropped.” Ashworth, 24, who was recently accepted into a college aerospace program at Eastern Florida State College, told News 6 the space program is in his family DNA. (8/15)