November 11, 2017

‘The Space Industry is Changing’ and NASA Must Evolve (Source: CNBC)
A new era is dawning in space, and NASA, despite decades of tight budgets, wants to remain the industry's leader. "The space industry is changing," said Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations. He does not expect "to get another huge budget like the Apollo missions," and says NASA will focus on "orchestrating human spaceflight," instead of conceptualizing, funding, building and operating all on its own.

"In the past, NASA would pick one company, give them a contract and throw money into it to ensure success," Gerstenmaier said. He wants NASA to drop the hope he believes many in the organization have: That if NASA just dreamed up the right program, then taxpayers would fund it. "The days of getting funding that's three or four percent of GDP are long behind us," Gerstenmaier said. (11/10)

How NASA is Tracking Solar Activity to Look for Weird Behavior (Source: Newsweek)
In September, NASA announced it had released its biggest solar flare for 12 years. This was pretty unusual considering it is supposedly heading into a period of quiet, where activity on its surface becomes muted—also known as the solar minimum. Scientists' understanding of the sun is relatively limited. NASA is currently planning a mission closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before. The mission will explore the sun’s outer atmosphere.

What we do know is that the sun operates on 11-year cycles, where activity peaks and wanes. The solar minimum is the period when fewer sunspots (active regions on the surface) appear, while the solar maximum is when most sunspots are recorded. The last solar minimum was in 2008. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) tracks activity at the sun over these cycles and plots to get a longer term understanding of the sun’s overall output. This is called the Total Solar Irradiance. Click here. (11/11)

Bigger Plans for Cygnus, Cargo Module Will Provide Lab/Hab Space (Source: Washington Post)
Orbital ATK has big ambitions for its Cygnus spacecraft and will soon get to demonstrate what it can do. On its current mission, Cygnus will be carrying 7,400 pounds of food, clothing and experiments to the ISS. But this time, the spacecraft will be more than a cargo and trash hauler; it would become a temporary room on the space station, giving the astronauts an additional 27 cubic meters to do their work. On this flight, the Cygnus will be outfitted so that it would be able to support science experiments and other research on the orbiting laboratory.

The step is part of an effort by Orbital ATK to eventually turn Cygnus into a habitat that could help NASA explore deep space, including the region around the moon known as cislunar space. The company has a contract from NASA to continue turning it into a habitat for astronauts that could connect with NASA’s Orion spacecraft, giving astronauts more room. (11/11)

Virgin Galactic Promises New Mexico that 2018 will be the Year (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Virgin Galactic Vice President Richard DalBello was in Sante Fe, NM on Wednesday with an optimistic message about the company’s plans to fly tourists to space from the state-owned Spaceport America. “We think we’re at the beginning of a very exciting period,” he told a legislative committee in Santa Fe. “We know you’ve waited a long time and we are coming.”

If that sounds familiar, it should. Like a baseball manager who says “we’ll get ’em next year” when his team’s quest for World Series glory once again falls short, DalBello is the latest in a line of company officials who have ventured to New Mexico over the past decade to assure everyone that the state’s $225 million investment in the spaceport will soon pay off. The new next year is now 2018. (11/10)

Blue Origin On Course for New Glenn Debut in 2020 (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
With their large production facility at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport nearing completion of its initial build, construction of their launch pad and testing facilities proceeding well, and a successful first firing of their BE-4 engine, Blue Origin is on track to meet the company’s stated goal of debuting their New Glenn heavy lift launch vehicle sometime in 2020.

Blue Origin is making impressive strides toward their anticipated debut within the orbital space community – with manufacturing facilities, control buildings, launch pad, and testing facilities all making excellent progress toward the company’s stated date of NET 2020 for New Glenn’s introduction.

According to information released by Blue Origin, New Glenn’s first stage will be powered by seven of the company’s BE-4 engines, producing 3.8 million lbf (1.72 kgf) at liftoff. The first and second stages will each burn commercially available, not pure, methane as well as liquid oxygen (LOX) while the optional third stage will burn LOX and liquid hydrogen (LH2). (11/10)

What's Next For Aerospace And Defense? (Source: Seeking Alpha)
Aerospace and defense led markets sharply higher following Trump's election and the idea of fiscal stimulus - lower taxes, higher defense spending - it ostensibly promised. However, as political headwinds continued to mount this year, markets began to price out fiscal stimulus, and "Trump Trade" began to unwind, leaving many advisors to ask, "What now?" Investors may want to consider the following. Click here. (11/10)

Portuguese Company Embarks on Domestic Satellite Project (Source: Space News)
Tekever, a Portugal-based company with business interests ranging from clean energy to defense and logistics, is pulling together a team of domestic companies and organizations to build the first made-in-Portugal satellite. That small satellite, called Infante, is a precursor to a constellation of 12 spacecraft in low-Earth orbit for remote sensing and telecommunications services.

South Africa Tackles Crime at Sea with Ship-Spotting Satellites (Source: Nature)
A test version of the Integrated Vessel Tracking Decision Support Tool was launched on 7 November by the South African Oceans and Coastal Information Management System (OCIMS), at its annual meeting in Cape Town. The tracking system, which has taken US$1 million and 5 years to develop, combines data from satellites, vessel transponders and radar to monitor ships in real time and spot any that might be engaged in criminal activities, such as illegal fishing or smuggling. (11/10)

UAE and Germany Sign Space Accord (Source: MENA FN)
The UAE Space Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the German Aerospace Centre to collaborate on exchanging information and expertise in the fields of space science, research, technology, and regulation. (11/9)

Russia Might Create Transport System for Deep Space Gateway (Source: Tass)
Russia considers creating a gateway and transport system as a contribution to the international program for developing a near-moon station Deep Space Gateway. "Energia and Roscosmos are currently actively interact with space agencies and foreign partners to work out the concept of the program, its target missions, possible elements provided by partners, and interface standards," the press service said.

"As a contribution of the Russian side, along with the future transport system, a gateway module is considered that will provide meaningful functions for the targeted use. In addition, it is possible to develop other elements of the platform together with partners," Energia said. (11/10)

Milner Discusses His Plan to Look for Life on Saturn Moon, Plus His Russia Connections (Source: GeekWire)
Russian billionaire Yuri Milner laid out his vision to send the first privately funded mission to look for life at the Saturnian moon Enceladus — but first he had to address less lofty matters. Milner has been in the news for because newly published confidential documents known as the “Paradise Papers” revealed that two firms controlled by the Russian government backed his early investments in Facebook and Twitter. He noted that the Russian investments were paid back several years ago. “From my standpoint, that’s the end of the story,” Milner said. He said the “Paradise Papers” controversy hasn’t had any effect on his space projects.

Over the past couple of years, Milner has pledged $100 million to boost the radio search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, and another $100 million to send swarms of nano-probes through the Alpha Centauri star system. The latest twist is a plan to bring the search for life beyond Earth closer to home. "The most promising recent candidate is Enceladus, one of the moons of Saturn,” Milner said.

Milner said he and other interested parties have been discussing what it would take to find a “smoking gun” for biochemical activity at Enceladus. “We formed a little workshop around this idea: Can we design a low-cost, privately funded mission to Enceladus which can be launched relatively soon, and that can look more thoroughly at those plumes, try to see what’s going on there?” he said. The time frame for the mission he has in mind is still up in the air. The mission’s potential price tag is also yet to be determined. (11/10)

Air Force General Says China is Advancing in Space Five Times as Quickly as the US (Source: CNBC)
Air Force lieutenant general Steve Kwast believes a "Kitty Hawk" moment will begin a new era in space. But while the U.S. still leads every other country in space, Kwast cautions that edge is whittling away. "In my best military judgement China is on a 10-year journey to operationalize space. We're on a 50-year journey," Kwast told CNBC.

Kwast, who is also the commander and president of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, says the United States must "bring together the right talent to accelerate the journey" in a Manhattan Project-like meeting of minds. He says this would push the space industry to an moment like Wright Brothers had when they completed the first successful airplane flight in 1903, in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. (11/10)