February 19, 2018

Falcon Heavy May Have Drastically Increased the Number of Asteroids We Can Mine (Source: Gizmodo)
Asteroid mining is about more than just heading up into space and bringing back a rock full of platinum—you actually need to land something on just the right asteroid. Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful rocket launched by Elon Musk-led SpaceX two weeks ago, may have changed the game, says one astronomer. “Instead of a few hundred we may have thousands of ore bearing asteroids available,” Martin Elvis from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told an audience at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Austin, Texas. (2/18)

When Will We Finally Find a Truly Earth-Like Exoplanet? (Source: Gizmodo)
Determining if an exoplanet is truly habitable requires actually figuring out what’s on the planet. Currently, telescopes like the space-based Kepler (currently operating the K2 mission) can detect planets by the way they periodically dim the light coming from the star they orbit. Others, like the ground-based Very Large Telescope, have tools that can directly image exoplanets. Scientists are working on new telescopes that might be able to actually tell if these planets have life on them. They’re a while away, but astronomers can dream.

NASA has proposed several new flagship missions, after the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, that might be able to look for these biosignatures. These include LUVOIR (the Large UV Optical Infrared Surveyor) and HabEx (the Habitable Exoplanet Imaging Mission0).

“They would be able to find small exoplanets in the habitable zones of sunlike stars and probe them to see if they have Earth-like conditions,” said Roberge at the press conference. “With a LUVOIR launch in the late 2030s, we may possibly be able to find a true Earth 2.0.” In the mean time, scientists must find more Earth-like exoplanets and figure out what biosignatures might look like. (2/16)

Rocket Lab's Second Silver Ball Will Remain on Earth (Source: Stuff)
Rocket Lab won't put a second "humanity star" into orbit, saying its hands will be full from now on launching commercial payloads into space. Spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said Rocket Lab expected to set the date for its first fully-commercial launch in about a fortnight and hoped to be launching a rocket a month by the end of the year. The United States company – founded by Peter Beck who grew up in Invercargill – delighted rocket fans in January when it conducted New Zealand's first successful space launch from the Māhia Peninsula, putting three shoe-boxed satellites into orbit for customers.

But the gloss was taken off for some when the company subsequently revealed the payload in its Electron rocket had also secretly included a meter-wide, silver carbon-fiber ball, with the hope it would draw people's eyes to the heavens. Beck did not rule out the humanity star project having a life longer than nine months when asked by Newshub in January, saying "we'll see how effective the message is".

It manufactured another identical object which it describes as a "full scale replica". But the company has decided that will remain grounded. It denied negative feedback was a factor in that decision, saying the bulk of the responses it had received to its humanity star were positive. "Ultimately, it is down to the fact we need the payload space for commercial customers." (2/16)

Telesat Considers Broadband Constellation (Source: Space News)
A Telesat executive said the company will make a decision on plans to manufacture its broadband satellite constellation in a couple of months. Speaking at a conference last week, Erwin Hudson said the company has been spending the last several months reviewing proposals from satellite manufacturers who bid on building Telesat's planned 117-satellite system. He said he expected the company to announce its selection in a couple of months. Telesat has been funding the project internally to date, but Hudson said he expected Telesat to discuss partnerships to help support its development in the second half of this year. (2/19)

Falcon 9 Gets NASA Certification for Medium-Risk Payloads (Source: Space News)
The Falcon 9, meanwhile, has won NASA certification to carry some science missions. NASA awarded the certification for "Category 2" medium-risk payloads last month, according to budget documents released last week. That certification was needed for SpaceX to launch NASA's TESS astronomy mission. The launch of TESS, which was scheduled for March 20, has slipped to no earlier than April 16 to give SpaceX "additional time for hardware readiness and to meet NASA launch service mission requirements," according to NASA. (2/19)