December 11, 2017

China Launches Algerian Satellite (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
China successfully launched a Long March 3B rocket on Sunday, December 10 with the first Algerian geostationary communications satellite, known as Alcomsat-1. Liftoff took place at 16:40 GMT (11:40 a.m. EST) from the Launch Complex 2 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center (XSLC) in China’s Sichuan Province. (12/10)

Russia Says Satellite Could Have Caused Radioactive Pollution (Source: Space Daily)
Russian scientists on Friday said radioactive pollution detected in Europe in September was not linked to one of the country's nuclear facilities and speculated that a satellite could be the cause. Scientists at the Nuclear Safety Institute looked into the origin of "extremely high" readings of radioactive ruthenium reported in some parts of Russia by the meteorological service.

Results shown to journalists in Moscow on Friday did not pinpoint the source of the pollution, but scientists dismissed suggestions that Mayak, a facility in the Russian Urals that processes spent nuclear fuel, was the origin. "While we still cannot say with certainty what caused the release, we cannot rule out that a space object such as a satellite or a fragment of one containing Ruthenium-106 re-entering the atmosphere could have been such a source," a statement by the scientists said. (12/8)

UK Taking Steps to Boost Space Startups (Source: Space News)
The British government is taking steps to make the country a haven for space startups. At a conference last week, the U.K. Space Agency announced it would provide £200,000 ($268,000) to kickstart four new space technology business incubators. The new incubators will bring the total number of U.K. space startup clusters to 15. The largest, in Harwell, currently hosts 80 companies, with a goal of growing to 200 companies by 2030. (12/10)

Bacterial Community on ISS Resembles Homes (Source: UC Davis)
Microbiologists at the University of California, Davis who analyzed swabs taken by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) and compared them with samples from homes on earth as well as the Human Microbiome Project found that the microbial community in this unique habitat was very diverse and more closely resembled that of homes than of humans. This study, titled "A microbial survey of the International Space Station (ISS)" was published today, Tuesday December 5th, in PeerJ, a peer-reviewed open access journal.

This work was part of a nationwide citizen science project called Project MERCCURI. The project is a collaboration between UC Davis and other organizations including Science Cheerleader, a group of current and former professional cheerleaders pursuing careers in science and math. (12/5)

This Company Has the Largest Fleet of Orbiting Satellites in Human History. Here's What It Plans to Do Next (Source: Inc.)
Having an eye in the sky can be helpful. Planet Labs has more than 200. The San Francisco-based startup was founded by three NASA employees in 2010. Their work hinged on a simple question: What if we launched phones into orbit? "We thought the cost of satellites had far too many zeros on the end," says Will Marshall, Planet Labs' co-founder and CEO.

"Smartphones have 90 percent of what you need to make a satellite. So our question was, could we make a smartphone work in space?" The newly formed Planet Labs team got to work creating a compact, pared-down satellite. The result isn't quite the size of a smartphone--but, at 10 inches long and four inches tall and wide, it's far smaller than many of the school bus-size ones currently in orbit. Click here. (12/8)

Fashion on the Final Frontier: The Story of the Spacesuit (Source: New Atlas)
Ever since NASA retired the silver lam̩ Mercury spacesuits of the early 1960s astronauts have fallen a little behind in the fashion department, but now a new generation of spacesuits is being developed for both the public and private sectors. Suiting up for the final frontier isn't just about looks of course, it's about surviving and working in one of the harshest environments possible Рan environment that will kill you in just 20 seconds without some high-tech protection. So what exactly is a spacesuit, and what will the spacefaring fashionistas of the future be wearing? Click here. (12/7)

Breaking the Glass Ceiling in Space (Source: The Hindu)
Naoko Yamazaki was always going to reach for the stars. As a little girl in the 1970s, Ms. Yamazaki used to sit on her living room couch in Japan’s Chiba prefecture, not far from Tokyo, and watch science fiction anime, dreaming about space. Over three decades later, on April 5, 2010, she donned an orange space suit and boarded the space shuttle Discovery. Eight and a half minutes later she had breached the “final frontier”, her childhood dream became a reality. Ms. Yamazaki became the second Japanese woman (and 54th woman globally) to have flown to space. To date, 60 women have accomplished this feat, some 10% of the total number of astronauts. (12/9)

China and US Quietly Hold Third Civil Space Dialogue (Source: GB Times)
Beijing quietly hosted the third China-US Civil Space Dialogue on November 30, with the two sides exchanging plans for human and robotic space exploration, and discussing engagement through multilateral mechanisms. The meeting was co-chaired by Tian Yulong, secretary-general of China National Space Administration (CNSA), and Jonathan Margolis, assistant secretary of state of the US Department of State. The dialogue is an initiative designed to facilitate exchanges between China and the United States on a range of space-related issues, working around and filling a void created by an effective US Congressional ban on NASA dealing with Chinese entities.

As Marcia S Smith observed upon the establishment of the dialogue, NASA and the and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are prohibited from expending any funds to “develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any Chinese-owned company.” The prohibition was inserted in 2011 by Rep. Frank Wolf, then Chairman of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, into the appropriations bills that fund NASA, and has since been retained.

China has been effectively barred from joining the International Space Station (ISS) project due to US objections, citing possible technology transfer to a Chinese space programme which is entwined with the country's military, as well as concerns over espionage and human rights abuses. At the same time, proponents of cooperation with China state the need for dialogue on issues including the long-term sustainability of the space environment as human reliance and use of outer space grows. (12/11)

Trump to Send Astronauts Back to the Moon -- and Eventually Mars (Source: CNN)
President Donald Trump wants to send astronauts where no man has gone before. During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump will authorize the acting NASA administrator Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. to "lead an innovative space exploration program to send American astronauts back to the moon, and eventually Mars."

"The President listened to the National Space Council's recommendations and he will change our nation's human spaceflight policy to help America become the driving force for the space industry, gain new knowledge from the cosmos, and spur incredible technology," deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley said Monday. (12/11)

Breakthrough Listen Will Check Interstellar Object to Make Sure it’s Not a Starship (Source: GeekWire)
Was that cigar-shaped, fast-moving interstellar object a spaceship? Almost certainly not, but Breakthrough Listen will check just to make sure. The Breakthrough Listen campaign, which checks celestial targets for radio signals from intelligent civilizations, will turn the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia toward the object, known as ‘Oumuamua, for 10 hours of observations starting Wednesday.

Scientists will check for emissions across four radio bands, during four key “epochs” based on ‘Oumuamua’s period of rotation. ”Oumuamua’s presence within our solar system affords Breakthrough Listen an opportunity to reach unprecedented sensitivities to possible artificial transmitters and demonstrate our ability to track nearby, fast-moving objects,” Andrew Siemion, director of the Berkeley SETI Research Center, said. “Whether this object turns out to be artificial or natural, it’s a great target for Listen.” (12/11)

UCF Researcher Works to Explain Mars Clay (Source: UCF)
“The basic recipe for making clay is you take rock and you add heat and water,” said Kevin Cannon, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Central Florida who led the research while completing his Ph.D. at Brown University. “This same material used for ceramics and pottery on Earth is also found on Mars, and now we think it may have formed beneath a thick steamy atmosphere just after the planet formed.” New research suggests the clays formed during the creation of the Martian crust itself, long before any water could have flowed on the planet. The scattering of the clay would be the result of impacts on the Red planet years after its initial formation.

Cannon and his co-authors, planetary scientists at Brown, said the scenario offers a means of creating widespread clay deposits that doesn’t require a warm and wet climate or a sustained hydrothermal system on early Mars. State-of-the-art climate models suggest an early Mars where the temperature rarely crept above freezing and where water flow on the surface was sporadic and isolated. (12/7)

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Space Plane Aces Free-Flight Drop Test (Source: Space.com)
Sierra Nevada Corporation's privately built Dream Chaser space plane aced a critical test Saturday (Nov. 11) during a successful free-flight over California's Mojave Desert. The uncrewed Dream Chaser made a smooth landing at Edwards Air Force Base during the free-flight test at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, NASA officials said in a statement. Earlier this year, officials at the Armstrong center, where Dream Chaser is being tested, said the space plane would to be dropped from an altitude of 12,500 feet by a Columbia 234-UT helicopter for this test.

Sierra Nevada is developing Dream Chaser to deliver supplies to the space station for NASA under the agency's Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) program. Under that agreement, Sierra Nevada will fly at least six cargo delivery missions for NASA by 2024, agency officials said in the Nov. 11 statement. Two other companies, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, will use their own spacecraft to fly delivery missions for NASA as part of the CRS-2 program. (12/11)

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