November 10, 2017

Cyber Experts Say Threats to Satellites are Legion (Source: Space News)
If your company or organization uses a network, there are people who want to hack it. If you haven’t tried to stop them, those hackers are probably already in your network. That was the message from cybersecurity experts at the CyberSat Summit Nov. 7 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. Satellites are just another target in a cyber world rife with perpetrators.

“It’s not if, it’s when,” James Turga, executive assistant director of the FBI’s Information and Technology Branch, said about getting hacked. Turga said around 1.4 million new phishing sites form every month, and ransomware sold on a hidden level of the internet known as the “dark web” has gone up 2,500 percent. (11/8)

NASA Discovers Mantle Plume Melting Antarctica From Below (Source: Newsweek)
A mantle plume producing almost as much heat as Yellowstone supervolcano appears to be melting part of West Antarctica from beneath.

Researchers at NASA have discovered a huge upwelling of hot rock under Marie Byrd Land, which lies between the Ross Ice Shelf and the Ross Sea, is creating vast lakes and rivers under the ice sheet. The presence of a huge mantle plume could explain why the region is so unstable today, and why it collapsed so quickly at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago. (11/8)

NASA Moves Up Critical Crew Safety Launch Abort Test (Source: NASA)
NASA’s Orion spacecraft is scheduled to undergo a design test in April 2019 of the capsule’s launch abort system (LAS), which is a rocket-powered tower on top of the crew module built to very quickly get astronauts safely away from their launch vehicle if there is a problem during ascent.

This full-stress test of the LAS, called Ascent Abort Test 2 (AA-2), will see a booster, provided by Orbital ATK, launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying a fully functional LAS and a 22,000 pound Orion test vehicle to an altitude of 32,000 feet at Mach 1.3. At that point, the LAS’ powerful reverse-flow abort motor will fire, carrying the Orion test vehicle away from the missile. Timing is crucial as the abort events must match the abort timing requirements of the Orion spacecraft to the millisecond in order for the flight test data to be valid.

Editor's Note: This launch will be conducted at Space Florida's Launch Complex 46 at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. (11/9)

ULA Not Rushed to Select Engine for Vulcan (Source: Space News)
The CEO of United Launch Alliance said he's under no pressure to make a near-term decision on the engine that will power the Vulcan rocket. Tory Bruno said Thursday that there was plenty of time for the company to select an engine and still have the vehicle ready to meet timelines set by the U.S. Air Force for new EELV-class rockets. ULA is considering both Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 and Blue Origin's BE-4 engine for Vulcan, but Bruno has previously stated the BE-4 is the preferred choice assuming it completes a series of engine tests that started last month. (11/9)

Echostar Developing OneWeb Ground Segment (Source: Space News)
Echostar, which is developing elements of the ground segment for OneWeb's constellation, doesn't see that system as a competitor to its geostationary satellites. Pradman Kaul, president of Echostar's Hughes Network Systems division, said in a conference call with investors that Echostar plans to use its GEO satellites to serve markets with a high density of subscribers, while OneWeb is better suited to remote areas.

OneWeb signed a $190 million contract with Hughes this week for gateways capable of tracking multiple satellites and performing handoffs of traffic from one satellite to the next. Hughes was one of the companies making an initial investment in OneWeb in 2015. (11/9)

China Plans Space Launch From Ship Platform Next Year (Source: GB Times)
China will attempt its first launch of a rocket from a ship next year. That plan involves the launch of a Long March 11 small rocket from a modified freighter. That approach would increase the performance of the rocket by being able to launch closer to the Equator. The proposed sea launch is one of several launch vehicle initiatives underway in China, including development of a reusable spaceplane whose first launch is planned for 2020. (11/9)

China and the US are Both Shooting for the Moon (Source: Space Daily)
On the face of it, it looks like two of the world's biggest powers are racing to get astronauts back on the lunar surface. China is aiming to land crew on the moon by 2036, while US Vice President Mike Pence has announced that the US will return there too.

But declaring that a new space race is underway is probably the single quickest way to irritate space policy geeks - and for good reason. In practice, the situation is much more complex. While the American and Chinese programmes are clearly not unrelated, they have a lot more to do with domestic politics than foreign relations. China and the US are not in a space race, but they do have a fascinating relationship above the atmosphere. Click here. (11/10)

Indian Moon Mission Launch in 2018 (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Chandrayaan-2 – India’s second mission to the Moon – will be ready for launch sometime in the first quarter of 2018, noting that the spacecraft is currently in its final stages of integration. Chandrayaan-2 mission will consist of an orbiter, a lander, and a six-wheeled 44-pound rover. The orbiter will be inserted into a 62-mile lunar orbit from where it will release the lander for a soft landing on the lunar surface. The lander will then deploy the rover that will move around near the landing site in a semi-autonomous mode for about two weeks. (11/10)

Russian Space Firm to Team With US Boeing on Lunar Program (Source: Tass)
Russia’s Energiya Rocket and Space Corporation plans to cooperate with the US Boeing in manufacturing docking assemblies under the Deep Space Gateway (DSG) international program to create a near-Moon station. Roscosmos and NASA signed a joint statement in Australia in September, which reflects the partners’ intention to work jointly on implementing space exploration initiatives. The two sides intend to prepare creation of a crew-tended near-Moon station. (11/10)

GPS Satellites Could Help Find Dark Matter (Source: Cosmos)
Astronomers have ground a new use for GPS satellites: as a dark matter detector. Scientists said that sheets of dark matter, not detectable by telescopes or similar instruments, might reveal their presence as they pass by the Earth through variations in the timing signals from the GPS satellites as the dark matter interacts with the atomic clocks on the satellites. An analysis of 16 years of GPS data has not yet turned up any evidence of dark matter, though. (11/10)