January 15, 2019

Iranian Launch Fails to Deliver Satellite (Source: AP)
An Iranian satellite launch ended in failure early Tuesday. The Simorgh rocket lifted off from the Imam Khomeini Space Center carrying a small satellite called Payam. However, the Iranian government said a problem with the rocket's third stage prevented the payload from reaching orbit. The launch was the first of two that Iran was planning to carry out. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously warned Iran from performing the launches, which he argued were a cover for a ballistic missile development program. Many outside observers, though, see few links between the satellite launches and missile development. (1/15)

Maxar Replaces CEO (Source: Space News)
Maxar Technologies replaced its chief executive Monday. The company announced that Howard Lance was leaving the positions of president and CEO, and would be replaced by Daniel Jablonsky, who had been president of DigitalGlobe, a division of Maxar. Lance led Maxar for less than three years during a time that it was shifting from a Canadian to an American company, a process that included the acquisition of DigitalGlobe. Maxar has suffered from a number of recent problems, including soft demand for geostationary orbit satellites that led the company to consider divesting Space Systems Loral, as well as the failure earlier this month of the WorldView-4 satellite. (1/15)

Bridenstine and Rogozin Discuss US/Russia Cooperation (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine spoke with his Russian counterpart by phone Monday. The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said that Dmitry Rogozin talked with Bridenstine, with the two emphasizing cooperation on the International Space Station and other projects. The call came 10 days after NASA announced that a visit to the U.S. by Rogozin had been indefinitely postponed after congressional criticism. NASA confirmed the call took place but referred media to the Roscosmos statement, citing the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. (1/15)

General Atomics Acquistions Bring Focus on Space Business (Source: Space News)
General Atomics is winning business in the smallsat market after the acquisition of two manufacturers. General Atomics acquired Miltec and the U.S. subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., using them to form the basis of a smallsat business unit that is offering a satellite bus called Orbital Test Bed. The company recently won three government contracts from the Air Force and NASA for payloads using that bus, in part using hosted payloads approaches. (1/15)

Satellogic Plans to Launch Remote Sensing Constellation From China (Source: Space News)
Satellogic announced Tuesday that it will launch a constellation of remote sensing satellites on Chinese rockets. The Buenos Aires-based company said it plans to launch 90 satellites on as many as six Long March 6 rockets, starting in the fall of 2019 and continuing through 2020. The constellation will enable the company to collect multispectral imagery of the entire planet with weekly revisit times. The satellites also carry a hyperspectral payload, which the company says is primarily experimental for now. (1/15)

JSC Workers Protest Shutdown (Source: KPRC)
Furloughed NASA employees are planning to hold a rally today outside the gates of the Johnson Space Center. The protest against the ongoing partial government shutdown, now in its 25th day, is being organized by the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees. Those employees are increasingly worried about how they will make ends meet as the shutdown continues with no end in sight. (1/15)

Giant Leaf for Mankind? China Germinates First Seed on Moon (Source: Guardian)
A small green shoot is growing on the moon after a cotton seed germinated onboard a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said. The sprout has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister after the Chang’e 4 lander touched down earlier this month, according to a series of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at Chongqing University.

“This is the first time humans have done biological growth experiments on the lunar surface,” said Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the experiment, on Tuesday. Plants have been grown previously on the International Space Station, but this is the first time a seed has sprouted on the moon. The ability to grow plants in space is seen as crucial for long-term space missions and establishing human outposts elsewhere in the solar system, such as Mars. (1/15)

Repairing, and Building, Future Space Telescopes (Source: Space Review)
While the James Webb Space Telescope is not designed to be serviced after launch, large space telescope missions that follow likely will. Jeff Foust reports that some astronomers and engineers are looking beyond merely servicing telescopes in space but rather assembling them there. Click here. (1/15) 
 
Why the Chang’e-4 Moon Landing is Unique (Source: Space Review)
Earlier this month China landed its second spacecraft on the Moon, and became the first country to land on the lunar farside. Namrata Goswami warns that, despite these achievements, the West continues to underestimate China’s space program. Click here. (1/15)
 
Bulgarians Still Dream About Space Four Decades After Their First Crewed Mission (Source: Space Review)
Besides being the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of the first Bulgarian in space. Svetoslav Alexandrov recaps that country’s history in spaceflight and how, after a hiatus, it is trying to become more active in space again. Click here. (1/15)
 
Small Thrusters for Small Satellites: Trends and Challenges (Source: Space Review)
As interest in smallsats grows, so does the need for propulsion systems that can make such spacecraft more capable. Researchers from Singapore and Australia examine the current state of research in smallsat propulsion technologies. Click here. (1/15)

Antarctica Ice Melt Has Accelerated by 280% in the Last 4 Decades (Source: CNN)
A pair of new studies released on Monday share a same ominous message -- that our planet's ice is melting at an alarming rate, which is bad news for global sea levels. Antarctica's crucial ice sheet has been melting for at least a 39 year period. Ice is disappearing faster in each successive decade. Ice loss in Antarctica has increased from 40 gigatons (a gigaton is one billion tons) per year from 1979-90 all the way up to 252 gigatons per year from 2009-17, a 6-fold increase.

And that melt-rate has been accelerating in the most recent decades, up 280% in the second half of the nearly 40 years compared to the first half. Understanding Antarctica and the delicate balance of ice melt draining into the Southern Ocean, and the replenishing snowfall over the continent's interior, is critically important when estimating how much seas will rise around the globe as a result of global warming. The continent holds a majority of the planet's ice and if melted, would cause the average sea level to rise 188 feet (57.2 meters).

One study looked at 176 different basins around Antarctica where ice drains into the ocean and found that the rate of melting is increasing, especially in areas where warm, salty water intrudes on edges of the ice sheets. The study did not find a corresponding increase in the long-term trend of snowfall accumulation in the interior of Antarctica, which had been previously believed to counter the ice loss and minimize sea level rise. The imbalance between melting ice and replenishing snowfall means the continent is out of balance and thus increasing sea levels as the excess meltwater flows into the ocean. (1/14)

New Technique More Precisely Determines the Ages of Stars (Source: ERAU)
How old are each of the stars in our roughly 13-billion-year-old galaxy? A new technique for understanding the star-forming history of the Milky Way in unprecedented detail makes it possible to determine the ages of stars at least two times more precisely than conventional methods, Embry-Riddle researchers reported this week at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting.

Current star-dating techniques, based on assessments of stars in the prime or main sequence of their lives that have begun to die after exhausting their hydrogen, offer a 20-percent, or at best a 10-percent margin of error, explained Embry-Riddle Physics and Astronomy Professor Dr. Ted von Hippel. Embry-Riddle’s approach, leveraging burnt-out remnants called white dwarf stars, reduces the margin of error to 5 percent or even 3 percent, he said. (1/10)

Air Force Turns to Nontraditional Contracting for Space Technology Projects (Source: Space News)
The Air Force just over a year ago formed a Space Enterprise Consortium to expedite the development and prototyping of satellites, ground systems, space sensors and other technologies that U.S. adversaries are advancing at a rapid pace.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson hailed the SpPEC as a successful business model that cuts red tape considerably compared to traditional defense contracting. The consortium so far has started 34 projects worth about $110 million and has been authorized to fund nearly $400 million in additional projects over the next four years. (12/31)

UAE Space Agency Adopts National Plan for the Promotion of Space Investment (Source: Satellite Pro Me)
The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has launched a National Plan for the Promotion of Space Investment. Aiming to increase domestic and foreign investment in the UAE space sector and encourage local investment vehicles to consider funding opportunities in the space sector, both domestically and globally, the initiative promises to transform the nation into a regional hub for commercial space activities and advanced research and development. (1/14)

NASA's Deep-Space Nuclear-Power Crisis May Soon End, Thanks to a Clever New Robot in Tennessee (Source: Business Insider)
The US government says a new robot is poised to help it create a reliable, long-term supply chain of plutonium-238, a radioactive material NASA requires to explore deep space. NASA uses Pu-238 to power its most epic space missions— among them New Horizons (now beyond Pluto), the Voyagers (now in interstellar space), and Cassini (now part of Saturn).

As Pu-238 radioactively decays and generates heat, devices called radioisotope power sources convert some of that energy into electricity. Because Pu-238 takes centuries to cool down, the contraptions can keep a robot humming for decades. But Pu-238 is human-made and one of the rarest and most valuable materials on Earth. In fact, the last time anyone manufactured it in earnest was during Cold War-era nuclear-weapons production. Today, NASA has perhaps three missions' worth of the stuff left before the supply runs out. (1/14)

SpaceX Layoffs Include 577 Positions at California Headquarters (Source: Bloomberg)
SpaceX is taking the ax to its headquarters in California. Hours after launching its first rocket of the new year on Friday morning, the Elon Musk-led company told employees that roughly 10 percent of SpaceX’s workforce would be laid off. Stunned workers were sent home early to await notification to their private email addresses about their fate.

The vast majority of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s more than 6,000 employees are employed at its headquarters and rocket factory in Hawthorne, California, and hundreds of others are based in Seattle, Florida, Washington, D.C. and Texas. Some 577 positions will be cut in Hawthorne, according to Jan Vogel, executive director of the South Bay Workforce Investment Board. Those cut include production managers, avionics technicians, machinists, inventory specialists and propulsion technicians. (1/13)

Experts Worry Government Shutdowns Will Drive NASA Employees to the Private Sector (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA employees have endured three government shutdowns in the past year, each time halting their groundbreaking work as political skirmishes in Washington, D.C., are hashed out. The first two came in the beginning months of 2018, but they were short: more of an annoyance, really.

But the current closure — which started Dec. 22 and has no end in sight — has been beyond frustrating for many, not just because of money lost but because of work delays. It’s been enough of a hindrance that some experts worry it could drive NASA engineers to the fast-growing space projects in the private sector. (1/14)

Iran Is Preparing a Launch. But Is It For a Space Rocket Or a Missile? (Source: NPR)
"We're seeing all kinds of activity," says Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who is analyzing the images as they come in. In recent days, he has noticed cars and trucks moving around the site. "We saw a large number of fuel trucks show up, suggesting that there is fuel being moved to the site," Lewis says. "We can also just see all kinds of activity at both launch pads."

Iran has said publicly that its motives are peaceful. It soon intends to launch several satellites for communications and remote-sensing as part of the nation's long-running space program. But in a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently called the planned launches "provocative." He said these launches, if they happen, are really about developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The technology used by Iran, he said, is "virtually identical" to what's needed for an ICBM. So which is it? (1/14)

China Ready to Cooperate with Russia in Operating its Future Orbital Station (Source: TASS)
China is ready to cooperate with Russia in operating its yet-to-be created orbital station and to let some other countries participate in similar projects, the secretary-general of the China National Space Administration, Li Guoping, told a news conference on Monday. "Russia is one of China’s main partners in space cooperation," he said adding that the two countries held annual meetings devoted to cooperation in space exploration. Both countries, he said, were pushing ahead with joint aerospace projects in accordance with China’s program for 2018-2022. (1/14)

Scottish Skyrora's Rocket Launch Bid Moves Closer to Lift-Off (Source: The National)
In a major development in what has been dubbed the new space race, a groundbreaking 3D-printed rocket engine is nearing completion thanks to a partnership between Edinburgh-headquartered Skyrora and Hampshire-based Frazer-Nash Manufacturing. The engine will be tested in the coming weeks at Spaceport Cornwall. It will be the first advanced liquid-fuel engine tests by a British small-satellite launcher to take place in the UK since the legendary Black Arrow program in the 1960s.

Frazer-Nash has used innovative techniques to create the nickel alloy “upper stage” rocket engine components that will eventually power and manoeuvre Skyrora rockets and payloads once they reach orbit. Additive manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D printing, is a process of creating a three-dimensional part layer by layer. It works by adding material to create the desired shape, instead of having to remove material through methods such as machining. (1/12)

Chinese Use Space Radiation to Mutate Food Crops (Source: Space Safety)
Exposure to radiation is one of the well-studied hazards of spaceflight. But what if you could turn that hazard to advantage? That’s what China has attempted to do by sending plant seeds to space, then cultivating the resultant mutations. In early experiments begun in 1987 Jiang Xingcun, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, discovered that spaceflight can increase mutation rates by hundreds of times that experienced on Earth. 12% of seeds sent to space in satellites manifested mutations of some kind in such experiments.

Since that time, China has sent more than 400 plant seed species to space. The method has produced giant eggplants, half-meter long cucumbers, and peppers with improved yields and reduced seeds, among other products. Of course, not all mutations produce favorable results. “It’s not like that after traveling in space for a few days, the seeds will turn out with all the desired traits we want,” said Liu Min, a scientist who specializes in seed technology and consults for the China Academy of Space Technology. Scientists must isolate desired genes from the well-travelled seeds via a breeding program.

The drive for advancing seed mutation is rooted in the need to feed China’s growing population. Currently, more than half of vegetable seeds planted by Chinese farmers are imported. Chinese agronomists are anxious to provide domestic alternatives. Scientists have also investigated Cobalt-60 induced mutations, but the radioactive material is hazardous and hard to come by. (1/14)

Dark Matter Hunters Are Looking Inside Rocks for New Clues (Source: WIRED)
A subterranean paleo-detector would work in a manner similar to current direct-detection methods, according to Freese and her colleagues. Instead out outfitting a lab with a large volume of liquid or metal to observe WIMP recoils in real time, they would look for fossil traces of WIMPs banging into atomic nuclei. As nuclei recoil, they would leave damage tracks in some classes of minerals.

If the nucleus recoils with enough vigor, and if the atoms that are perturbed are then buried deep in the earth (to shield the sample from cosmic rays that can muddy the data), then the recoil track could be preserved. If so, researchers may be able to dig the rock up, peel away layers of time, and explore the long-ago event using sophisticated nano-imaging techniques like atomic force microscopy. The end result would be a fossil track: the dark matter counterpart to finding a sauropod’s footprint as it fled a predator. (1/14)

Space Startups' New Mission: Entertaining Earthlings (Source: Nikkei)
Want to check crowd sizes at Disneyland, find out the best time to view cherry blossoms or, perhaps, arrange a romantic night watching shooting stars? Japanese space startups say they will soon have the answers. These young companies are diversifying beyond specialties like weather forecasting and astronomical observation, recognizing their technology can be used for other practical -- and sometimes not so practical -- pursuits.

"Isn't it helpful if Google Maps update every 10 minutes?" asked Shunsuke Onishi, CEO of Fukuoka venture iQPS. The small company -- it has a team of 11 people and 100 million yen ($910,000) in capitalization -- aims to place 36 mini radar satellites into Earth's orbit as early as 2024 and create a virtually real-time map. "We want to create a world where people can check how crowded Tokyo Disneyland is before going there, for instance," Onishi said. (1/14)

Japan Space Agency to Monitor Deterioration of Infrastructure Via Satellite (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has developed a system to efficiently monitor the deterioration of infrastructure — such as river embankments, airports and harbors — using the Advanced Land Observing Satellite Daichi-2. According to JAXA, it can monitor a wide area at once, which is expected to significantly reduce the amount of labor needed for inspections. The system will be available for a fee to the central government, local governments and private companies, to improve their disaster prevention measures

The Daichi-2 sends radio waves to the ground and measures reflected waves. The features of the reflected waves change according to the shape of the land, allowing the detection of shifts in the ground. JAXA applied this function to develop a system that can detect the sinking and collapse of embankments, airports and harbors. It began an experiment to verify the technology in cooperation with companies in fiscal 2014. (1/13)

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