December 14, 2017

Legal Questions About Blue Origin Financial Incentive From County (Source: Florida Today)
Brevard County's previously approved $8 million incentive to rocket maker Blue Origin will be coming due in April. But there now is a dispute among Brevard officials over whether the county can legally borrow the money so it can make its payment to Blue Origin.

The company has pledged to create 330 jobs by the end of 2026 at its nearly completed facility and at its related operations. The Blue Origin facility is at Space Florida's Exploration Park complex at Kennedy Space Center. An orbital launch complex that includes development and construction of a launch pad and associated facilities also is part of Blue Origin's overall project.

Brevard County Clerk of Courts Scott Ellis — who would among those to have to sign the paperwork for the deal — said he questions the legality of the county borrowing money to pay the incentive to Blue Origin. Ellis plans to challenge the plan in court. "It is unlawful for a government in Florida to issue bonds for operational expenses," Ellis said. "The 'grant' is clearly not a capital expense. The county has no property interest in the Blue Origin facility." (12/14)

A-P-T Wins NASA Contract for Safety, Mission Assurance Support (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded the Safety and Mission Assurance Support Services III (SMASS III) contract to A-P-T Research, Inc. of Huntsville, Alabama, for a broad range of services at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington, Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and various sites supported by Kennedy’s programs and projects.

SMASS III is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with a two-year base period and three one-year options. The total potential value of the contract is approximately $52 million. The services to be performed include safety and mission assurance risk assessments, inspections, investigations, engineering analyses, and evaluations of work performed by other government contractors and NASA organizations. SMASS III customers include NASA’s Commercial Crew, Launch Services and International Space Station programs. (12/13)

SpaceX Double Re-Use With Falcon/Dragon Combo (Source: SFGate)
SpaceX doubles down on the concept of recycling spacecraft that the company has flown and landed back on Earth. In the year's final mission for NASA, SpaceX reuses both a rocket and a capsule that it’s fired off before. Making space missions work more like commercial airline flights dramatically reduces costs — less money gets wasted discarding rockets and spacecraft after single launches. SpaceX’s success in this pursuit has made it one of the world’s most richly valued private companies. It’s also won over customers including NASA. (12/13)

ISS Crewmembers Return to Earth (Source: CBS)
A Soyuz spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan early this morning with three space station crewmembers on board. The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft landed at 3:37 a.m. Eastern, nearly three and a half hours after undocking from the station. The Soyuz returned to Earth the American astronaut Randy Bresnik, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy. Three new ISS crewmembers will launch on another Soyuz spacecraft early Sunday. (12/14)

NOAA Administrator Nominee Advances Despite Democrats' Concerns (Source: Space News)
A Senate committee advanced the nomination of Barry Myers to be NOAA administrator on a party-line vote. The Senate Commerce Committee voted 14-13 Wednesday to send Myers' nomination to the full Senate. Democrats on the committee, led by ranking member Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, said they were still concerned about conflicts of interest Myers might have from running AccuWeather, a private weather-forecasting company owned by family members. Nelson, though, acknowledged that it is likely that Myers will be confirmed by the full Senate. (12/14)

Spending Bill Funds Full-Year DOD Funds, Partial-Year for Other Agencies (Source: House Approps)
House appropriators released late Wednesday a new spending bill that includes full-year funding for the Defense Department. The bill would serve as a continuing resolution (CR) for most of the federal government through Jan. 19, but fund national defense programs for the rest of 2018 fiscal year to address concerns about the effects an extended CR would have on defense programs. The government is currently operating on a CR that expires Dec. 22. (12/14)

Brooks Reveals Cancer Diagnosis, May Miss Votes (Source: Roll Call)
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), a key House member on space issues, said he will undergo surgery for prostate cancer. Brooks said Wednesday he was diagnosed with "high-risk" prostate cancer in October and scheduled the surgery for Friday, the day after the House originally planned to adjourn for the year. Brooks said he made the announcement to explain why he will miss votes scheduled for next week when the House schedule was later changed. Brooks, whose district includes the Marshall Space Flight Center, is the vice chair of the House space subcommittee. (12/14)

Lockheed Martin and Japan's NEC to Bring AI Capabilities to Space Data (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin has signed an agreement with Japanese company NEC for artificial intelligence software to analyze space data. The software, called system invariant analysis technology, collects data to learn the behavior of systems and identify inconsistencies. Lockheed said it sees a number of uses of of the software, including monitoring satellite performance and changes in the environment. (12/14)

Another Rocket Engine Test For 3-D Print Component (Source: NASASpaceFlight.com)
An RS-25 test Wednesday demonstrated a 3D-printed engine component. The test of the engine at the Stennis Space Center was declared a success even though the engine shut down 70 seconds early because of a "facility issue" and not a problem with the engine itself. The test demonstrated a 3D-printed vibration dampening device, known as a pogo accumulator assembly. The use of 3D printing sharply reduces the number of welds needed to manufacture the component, reducing its overall fabrication time. (12/14)

Dawn's Final Ceres Flybys (Source: Space News)
NASA's Dawn spacecraft will wrap up its mission next year by flying closer than ever to the dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft will move into an elliptical orbit around Ceres in the spring, taking it to altitudes as low as 30 kilometers above the surface. Scientists will use those close passes to collect high-resolution images of selected areas of the surface as well as collect more accurate chemical composition data. In that orbit, the spacecraft will likely exhaust its remaining supply of hydrazine propellant, used for attitude control, in three or four months. (12/14)

Scientists: Be Careful Labeling Exoplanets as "Earth-Like" (Source: Space.com)
Scientists should be more careful about talking about "Earth-like" planets, one researcher warns. At a conference last month, Elizabeth Tasker said use of terms like "Earth-like" and "most habitable planet" could actually undermine future searches by suggesting scientists know more about the actual habitability of those exoplanets than they actually do. Many other factors, such as radiation levels, magnetic fields and chemical composition, are critical to habitability but can't yet be measured for exoplanets. (12/14)

Post Office Releasing Sally Ride Stamp (Source: CollectSpace)
The U.S. Postal Service will release a Sally Ride stamp next year. A preliminary design of the stamp unveiled Wednesday features a painting of Ride, the first American woman in space, with a shuttle launching in the background. The post office will also issue a four-stamp set next year for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, with engineering representing by a diagram of an Apollo spacecraft. (12/14)

Blue Origin Begins Moving into Massive Rocket Factory at KSC (Source: Florida Today)
Blue Origin has begun the process of moving into its massive rocket factory at Kennedy Space Center's Exploration Park, according to a NASA official's comments during a conference at Port Canaveral this week. The private rocketry company bankrolled by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos was granted a temporary certificate of occupancy for a portion of its massive facility on Space Commerce Way Monday morning and began moving in by Tuesday.

"If you haven’t been on Space Commerce Way to see their beautiful, ginormous – that’s the only way to describe it – facility where they’re going to be manufacturing a rocket ... incredible facility, and they are moving in there today," said Nancy Bray, director of spaceport integration and services at Kennedy Space Center, during a Tuesday transportation conference at Port Canaveral.

Full occupancy of the 750,000-square-foot factory just south of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be granted by Space Florida, which manages KSC's Exploration Park, at a later date. "This is an important step in what continues to be a long journey for the full development of Exploration Park and all that it means to the area and state," said Dale Ketcham, chief of strategic alliances at Space Florida. (12/12)

Why Boeing Can Make a Brash Prediction About Beating Elon Musk to Mars (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Chicago-based Boeing has reason to be brash. Aside from being an important supplier to NASA, the Chicago-based company’s current run of upbeat financial and business fortunes makes it a favorite to win the space race to Mars. More than bragging rights, a successful Mars initiative will boost the company’s stature and business prospects and create more jobs.

Boeing is building NASA’s Space Launch System, a design that Muilenburg touted in an October speech as the “largest and most powerful rocket ever built.” A test flight is expected in 2019, according to Boeing. The rocket project’s ultimate mission is to propel a capsule, designed for deep space and carrying American astronauts, farther than ever before. One scenario has astronauts rocketing to a lunar space docking system and then going to Mars before returning to Earth. (12/12)

Designing Future Human Space Exploration on Hawaii's Lava Fields (Source: Space Daily)
On the lava fields of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, a team of NASA researchers and partners have been busy doing science in a most unusual way. They were studying the biology and geology of this remarkable terrain while simulating a realistic mission to the surface of Mars. The conditions were so real that many of the expected challenges of otherworldly exploration were recreated, including a communications delay of several minutes, and limited bandwidth for transmitting data.

"Our project is a unique integration of science, operations and technology research in service of future human spaceflight," said Darlene Lim, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley, and principal investigator of the Biologic Analog Science Associated with Lava Terrains project, called BASALT. "Our goal is to design the exploration of the future, and when you add science to the mix, that changes everything!" (12/13)

Trump Policy Promises Moon, Mars, and Beyond - Will This Time be Different? (Source: Space Policy Online)
President Trump signed his Space Policy Directive 1. Surrounded by administration officials, commercial space industry representatives, and current and former astronauts, Trump promised to return astronauts to the Moon and go on to Mars and beyond. The words echo those of his two Republican predecessors, who did not achieve those goals.  The question is whether the third time will be the charm.

During a brief White House ceremony this afternoon, Trump said the directive “will refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery. It marks an important step in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term exploration and use. This time we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to many worlds beyond.”

Trump did not set a timeline for returning to the Moon or reaching Mars or mention cost. Completing those programs and building new capabilities needed for human trips to the lunar surface will cost a lot of money.  That has been the downfall of previous efforts. Time will tell if the Trump Administration requests the requisite funding and if Congress appropriates it. The President’s FY2019 budget request, due to Congress the first Monday in February, will hold important clues. (12/13)

Long-Range Space Exploration Possible Only Via International Cooperation (Source: Belta)
Long-range flights to explore outer space will be possible only thanks to international cooperation, says Vladimir Aksenov, a USSR pilot cosmonaut, President of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Sergei Korolev Union, during the second congress of Belarusian scientists in Minsk on 12 December. Cooperation of several countries is needed. Long-range flights represent the next stage in space exploration. They are impossible without joint efforts and the implementation of joint programs.”  (12/12)

Trump's Proposed Budget Cuts NASA Funding Close to an All-Time Low (Source: Business Insider)
The idea of putting people on the moon is a bit of a shift for the space agency. In 2010, President Obama said he wanted NASA to be orbiting Mars by the 2030s, and to send humans to an asteroid by 2025, with crews charting destinations "beyond the moon." Simply getting back to the moon presents less of a logistical challenge for NASA, as they already sent 12 men to the lunar surface in the late 60s and early 70s.

But where the agency will get the cash to return remains an open question. The roughly $18-19 billion federal dollars the agency gets every year is less than half of one percent of all federal money. Trump's proposed 2018 budget calls for that total to decrease by roughly $200 million, while Congress has agreed to give the space agency $19.5 billion next year.

Despite being banned from inclusion on the International Space Station, China has an ambitious plan to send people to the moon by 2036. The Indian space program is also planning its own unmanned mission to the moon in the first quarter of 2018, on a very skinny budget. Trump said landing on the moon again will inch Americans closer to the ultimate goal of Martian exploration. He added that such a mission would be good for jobs and military research, too. But another country could easily beat the US space agency at its own game. (12/13)

Galileo Navigation Network Nears Completion (Source: ESA)
Europe has four more Galileo navigation satellites in the sky following their launch on an Ariane 5 rocket. After today’s success, only one more launch remains before the Galileo constellation is complete and delivering global coverage. This week's mission brings the Galileo system to 22 satellites. Next year’s launch of another quartet will bring the 24‑satellite Galileo constellation to the point of completion, plus two orbital spares. (12/13)

Arctic Warmth is the New Normal (Source: NOAA)
The Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region of recent past decades. Despite relatively cool summer temperatures, observations in 2017 continue to indicate that the Arctic environmental system has reached a 'new normal', characterized by long-term losses in the extent and thickness of the sea ice cover, the extent and duration of the winter snow cover and the mass of ice in the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic glaciers, and warming sea surface and permafrost temperatures. (12/13)

Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity (Source: HobbySpace)
“The mysterious bright spots on Ceres, which have captivated both the Dawn science team and the public, reveal evidence of Ceres’ past subsurface ocean, and indicate that, far from being a dead world, Ceres is surprisingly active. Geological processes created these bright areas and may still be changing the face of Ceres today,” (12/12)

Return to the Moon (Source: NeuroLogica)
We should only set our sights on Mars after we have a stable moon base. There are several reasons for this. First, colonizing the moon is much easier than Mars. The moon is three days away from Earth, while Mars is 9 or more months. We don’t even have the technology at this point to protect martian astronauts from the radiation they would be exposed to on the trip. Going to Mars is a logistical and technological problem perhaps an order of magnitude more difficult than going to the Moon.

Being close to Earth also means that resupply and rescue missions would be much more feasible. If something goes awry on Mars, good luck to you. Don’t expect help anytime soon. For a moon base, however, we could theoretically have a rocket on standby, something that could launch within a week, and be on the moon in another three days.

All of the main issues we would confront on a Mars colony would also exist on a moon colony, and so once we developed the knowledge and technology to have a self-sustaining base on the moon, we could use that knowledge to then build bases and colonies on Mars. A moon base would need proper shielding, an energy source, and sources of food, water, and oxygen. (12/12)

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