October 14, 2017

KSC Visitor Complex Game Filled with Errors (Source: The Verge)
A video game at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex is designed to teach young people about space exploration, but it’s riddled with factual and typographical errors.

Cosmic Quest, developed by a gaming company called Creative Kingdoms, officially opened at the visitor complex in March 2016. The game costs $19.95, and allows players to “launch a rocket, redirect an asteroid, build a Martian habitat, and perform scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station.” But it doesn’t seem to have been properly vetted.

Cosmic Quest teaches players bad math about the size of solar arrays, and gives false instructions for an important process used to make fuel and water in space. It also screws up the name of a vital chemical element needed to power NASA spacecraft. Among the game’s typos are misspellings of the words “analyze” and “oxide,” and confusing the verb “affect” for the noun “effect.” (10/12)

Astronauts Film a Fidget Spinner Trick Video on the ISS (Source: The Verge)
The video features astronauts Mark T. Vande Hei, Joseph Acaba, Randy Bresnik, and Paolo Nespoli spinning a NASA-branded fidget spinner while also spinning themselves in the gravity-free environs of the ISS. There are probably valuable basic physics lessons about friction and Newton’s laws to be gleaned from what they’re doing, but I honestly can’t focus on them because my mind is too affected by the absolutely thumping royalty-free music NASA used for the video. Click here. (10/13)

NASA’s 1st Hispanic Female Flight Director Speaks at GiRL POWER Event (Source: Amarillo.com)
Ginger Kerrick, the first Hispanic female flight director at NASA and a Texas Tech University graduate, was the featured speaker at the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health Girl Power. The event is open to girls ages 10 to 13 and their mothers or the female adult in their life. 

“We want to empower, educate and prepare young girls for life’s challenges,” said Donna Fansler, executive associate of the Laura W. Bush Institute. GiRL POWER began in 2009 and usually attracts at least 300 girls and mentors. (10/11)

Space Coast-Based Rocket Crafters Adds Board Member (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Rocket Crafters announced that Dale Coxwell, CEO of Coastal Steel Manufacturing is joining its Board of Advisors. Coxwell is also the executive vice president and owner of Coastal Steel, on Florida's Space Coast.

Coxwell’s steel companies specialize in complex structures and components with a customer base that includes aerospace and defense. “Under Dale’s leadership, Coastal Steel Manufacturing has become a strategic partner in Rocket Crafters’ journey to change the way we access space. His team and facilities are at the center of our test stand and testing efforts. His advice will be important as we move forward,” said Sid Gutierrez, Rocket Crafters chairman and CEO. (10/10)

Satellite Imaging Startup Axelspace: Funding is No Problem For Us Now (Source: Space Intel Report)
Japanese geospatial imaging provider Axelspace, which plans a constellation of 50 100-kilogram medium-resolution optical imaging satellites, says access to capital beyond its successful $17-million first round of funding is not a problem. Yasunori Yamazaki said the company — whose downtown Tokyo offices include a full satellite production facility — has been successful in part because it is already generating revenue from two prototype satellites in orbit.

“We are well-funded, luckily,” Yamasaki said. “We have more [financing] in the pipeline,” Yamasaki said of a future funding round. Axelspace’s 50-satellite satellite constellation is intended to operate in a 600-kilometer orbit with a 2.5-meter ground sampling distance and a 60-kilometer swath width. (10/11)

Raytheon Moves Into Commercial Imaging Market with DigitalGlobe Camera Order (Source: Space News)
DigitalGlobe’s selection of Raytheon Space Systems to manufacture high-resolution imagers for the WorldView Legion constellation shows Raytheon is making headway in its effort to use expertise honed through decades of government work to attract commercial customers. (10/11)

SpaceX Flies its Third “Flight Proven” Rocket (Source: Ars Technica)
This was only the third time SpaceX has launched what it terms a "flight proven" booster. Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES has been one of SpaceX's most faithful customers, having previously employed a used booster. SES has repeatedly demonstrated confidence in the rocket company's ability to make reusable launch technology safe. And with three successful reuse flights, it will probably become easier for SpaceX to find customers for future "flight proven" rockets. (10/11)

Lying in Bed for the Sake of Science (Source: NASA JSC)
Twelve volunteers will arrive this week at the German Space Agency's (DLR) Institute of Aerospace Medicine's :envihab facility to lie in bed for a month in the name of science. NASA's Human Research Program, in partnership with DLR, is sponsoring investigations in this study to observe and analyze the effects of fluid pressure on astronauts' eyes and optic nerves.

This study, known as VaPER (VIIP and Psychological :envihab Research), is part of NASA's Flight Analogs Program. An analog environment is a situation on Earth that produces effects on the body similar to those experienced in space, both physical, mental and emotional. These studies are expected to help advance humans from lower-Earth orbit missions into deep space exploration. (10/10)

First Four Space Launch System Flight Engines Ready To Rumble (Source: NASA)
The flight preparations for the four engines that will power NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) on its first integrated flight with Orion are complete and the engines are assembled and ready to be joined to the deep space rocket’s core stage. All five structures that form the massive core stage for the rocket have been built including the engine section where the RS-25 engines will be attached. (10/11)

How Singapore Can Be a Space Power, with Small Satellites (Source: Channel NewsAsia)
In 1957, the first man-made satellite was launched into space by the Soviet Union. Since mankind’s first foray into space, we have not looked back.

Today, there are more than 6,000 satellites in space. In the earlier decades of satellite development, the key players were governments, especially those of large countries, whose use for satellites were primarily for weather monitoring, remote sensing of environmental conditions and surveillance.

In recent years, many commercial applications have emerged, such as the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites for asset tracking, and the provision of satellite television programs, telecommunication services and internet services. With its many applications, the annual market revenue for the satellite industry stands around US$260 billion. (10/9)

USAF Searching for Hypersonic Vehicle Materials (Source: Flight Global)
The US Air Force Research Laboratory is searching for leading edge materials for reusable and expendable hypersonic vehicles to support its high speed strike weapon program.

Air Force Materiel Command will consider thermal performance as it selects the material, according to the $2.3 million contract award to Integration Innovation posted 27 September on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Based in Huntsville, Alabama, Integration Innovation Integration has previously worked with the Defense Department and NASA on thermal protection systems supporting hypersonic vehicles. (10/13)

Ion Thruster Prototype Breaks Records in Tests, Could Send Humans to Mars (Source: Space.com)
A thruster that's being developed for a future NASA mission to Mars broke several records during recent tests, suggesting that the technology is on track to take humans to the Red Planet within the next 20 years, project team members said.

The X3 thruster, which was designed by researchers at the University of Michigan in cooperation with NASA and the U.S. Air Force, is a Hall thruster — a system that propels spacecraft by accelerating a stream of electrically charged atoms, known as ions. In the recent demonstration conducted at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio, the X3 broke records for the maximum power output, thrust and operating current achieved by a Hall thruster to date. (10/13)

To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (Source: The Academy)
The public interest in the outer edges of science and the understanding of phenomena has always been suffocated by mainstream ideology and bureaucratic constraint. We believe there are transformative discoveries within our reach that will revolutionize the human experience, but they can only be accomplished through the unrestricted support of breakthrough research, discovery and innovation.

To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science has mobilized a team of the most experienced, connected and passionately curious minds from the US intelligence community, including the CIA and Department of Defense that have been operating under the shadows of top-secrecy for decades.   

The team members all share a common thread of frustration and determination to disrupt the status quo, wanting to use their expertise and credibility to bring transformative science and engineering out of the shadows and collaborate with global citizens to apply that knowledge in a way that benefits humanity. Click here. (10/13)

Chicago Companies Launch Plans for Business in Outer Space (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Picture people living in outer space, breathing inside helmets, going about their daily activities. What are they wearing? At a cosmic cocktail party, are they drinking champagne? Lee Anderson needed to know. The Chicago-based fashion designer keeps a sketch pad full of fashion astronauts, as she calls them, in which she explores the idea of what an average person would wear in an otherworldly atmosphere.

It’s the intersection of fashion and space — something the founder of outerwear design company Starkweather has thought about a lot. As the space industry develops, Anderson wants her company to link the creative and scientific sides. Anderson’s not the only entrepreneur looking toward the stars. From one- to two-person startups to Fortune 500 companies, firms throughout the Chicago area are eyeing outer space as their next market. Click here. (10/13)

Russia May Adjust Space Program to Construct Super-Heavy Carrier Rocket (Source: Space Daily)
Russia may adjust its federal space program to facilitate funding of the construction of a super-heavy-lift launch vehicle (SHLLV), General Director of Russia's Rocket and Space Corporation Energia Vladimir Solntsev said on Tuesday. Solntsev said that Energia is jointly working with Roscosmos "on proposals to amend the federal space program" to get the necessary funding for the project.

"We are very hopeful that this will happen this year. Then, the next stage will be to strike a government contract with Roscosmos to develop a draft design of the super heavy-lift launch vehicle," Solntsev said.

According to Energia's head, the draft designing process will be underway between 2018 and 2019. So far, the experts have already made a preliminary estimate of the designing works, which are expected to be carried out jointly by several companies. (10/10)