February 19, 2019

Florida Military Bases Could Lose Up To $177 Million to Trump’s Border Wall (Source: Tampa Bay Times)
President Donald Trump will pay for his much coveted wall at the southern border in part by taking $3.6 billion from military projects across the country and the world. The decision means Florida bases could lose up to $177 million for planned construction, more than all but eight other states, according to a list of eligible projects compiled by the House Appropriations Committee and provided to the Tampa Bay Times.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the influential Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies subcommittee, said the move is an indication that Trump feels the wall “is a higher priority than these projects.” (2/19)

Florida Governor Urges Trump to Base Space Force Command in Sunshine State (Source: Gov. DeSantis)
A tweet from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R): "Today, I am formally sending a request to @realDonaldTrump to place the headquarters for the Space Force Combatant Command here in Florida @NASAKennedy in Cape Canaveral. This is part of Florida's history and is a logical fit for our state." (2/19)

Space Florida Announces Space Transportation Call for Projects (Source: Space Florida)
Space Florida has announced its Call for Projects to solicit proposals to continue the development of space transportation infrastructure that supports Space Florida’s legislative intent and Florida spaceport territory master plans. Each year, Space Florida issues this Call for Projects to allow the aerospace industry the opportunity to submit projects for consideration into the subsequent year’s Work Program and Spaceport Improvement Program. This year, Space Florida will be accepting Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching Fund applications for fiscal years (FY) 2021 to 2025. Click here. (2/15)

Space Florida Retains Stake in Rivian Electric Truck Builder (Source: Chicago Tribune)
Rivian Automotive went through several names for the company after founding it in 2009. It was called Mainstream Motors on an interim basis and received seed capital from Florida-based Mainstream Engineering Corp., a company his father owned. Back when its headquarters was near Cape Canaveral, Rivian got an early leg up from $3.5 million in state funding. That included financing from Space Florida, which invested about $1.5 million in return for stock warrants that it has yet to exercise.

"Obviously, we would have liked them to have built a giant car factory on the Space Coast, but ultimately we expect them to develop technology" that will prove useful to the space program, said Space Florida's Dale Ketcham. Much of Rivian's workforce of about 750 employees is now spread across California and Michigan, with automated driving and software engineers in San Jose, battery geeks in Irvine, and traditional auto engineers just outside Detroit. It also has a small office in the U.K.

The company acquired its Normal, Ill., assembly plant from Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in 2017 for $16 million and was able to repurpose some of the equipment the Japanese automaker left behind. Rivian had seminal moment Friday, when it announced a $700 million funding round led by Amazon.com. Scaringe also is in talks with General Motors on some kind of partnership as well. Buy-in from Amazon and others will hand Rivian the cash to help bring its R1T pickup to market on time next year. (2/18)

UK Jump-Starts OneWeb-ESA Program with $23 Million Pledge (Source: Space News)
The U.K. Space Agency is providing funding to OneWeb to support an effort to connect its satellites into terrestrial 5G networks. The U.K., with its $23.3 million contribution, is the first of six ESA member states plus Canada to commit funding for the OneWeb Sunrise program that will study how OneWeb's satellite constellation can interoperate with 5G systems. Other aspects of OneWeb Sunrise include artificial intelligence for flying the satellites, new payload and user terminal technology, spectrum and signal interference management and active debris removal. (2/18)

Cygnus Demonstrates Alternative Capabilities (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The Cygnus cargo spacecraft that departed the International Space Station earlier this month is testing new technologies. Among the capabilities the Cygnus spacecraft has been demonstrating since leaving the station early this month is a new cubesat deployer that is mounted in the hatch of the spacecraft, and can be loaded with cubesats delivered to the station by other cargo spacecraft. The Cygnus is also being used for a Missile Defense Agency experiment where the spacecraft performs a series of maneuvers to test MDA tracking systems. (2/18)

Russia Works Again with Space Adventures to  Bring Tourists to ISS (Source: TASS)
Roscosmos will work with Space Adventures to fly more tourists. Roscosmos said Tuesday it signed a contract with the U.S. company to fly two tourists on Soyuz missions to the ISS by the end of 2021. The announcement didn't disclose the price that will be charged to customers or other details about the flight. Space Adventures regularly flew tourists to the ISS using seats available on past Soyuz flights, but the last such mission was nearly a decade ago. Singer Sarah Brightman was to fly to the station in 2015 but backed out for personal reasons. (2/18)

China Considers Space Solar Power Beaming (Source: Bloomberg)
China is interested in developing space solar power technology. A report in the state-run Science and Technology Daily said that scientists want to develop a solar power facility in space that, by 2030, could beam one megawatt of power to the ground. It's not clear from the report how much money and other resources the Chinese government is willing to spend on any space solar power program. (2/18)

AI Could Monitor Mars Crews (Source: GeekWire)
Future Mars crews might be monitored by AI systems. NASA research is examining the use of AI to determine the mental state of astronauts on long-duration missions and notice when their performance drops below a certain level. Other research, presented at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science last weekend, includes finding ways to maintain cohesion among crewmembers on long missions. (2/18)

Above Top Secret: the Last Flight of the Big Bird (Source: Space Review)
The last launch of a HEXAGON reconnaissance satellite, in 1986, ended in failure. Dwayne Day describes how that satellite also carried an additional top secret sensor and intelligence mission not previously known. Click here. (2/18)
 
Moon Racing (Source: Space Review)
This year is shaping up to be the most active in lunar exploration in decades. Jeff Foust reports on how, at least partially in response to those other missions, NASA is looking to speed up its own plans. Click here. (2/18)
 
Building a Better Booster (Source: Space Review)
In the conclusion of his two-part article, Jeffrey L. Smith looks at another case when a launch vehicle provider switched solid rocket booster providers, and why that attempt was far less successful than a most recent change. Click here. (2/18) 
 
Seeking the Future: the Fragility of the Patron (Source: Space Review)
Many of the best-known space startups have been created, and funded, by wealthy entrepreneurs. Roger Handberg discusses some of the limitations of this patron model that have already affected some of these companies. Click here. (2/18)

New NASA Team Dedicated to Finding Aliens (Source: Fox News)
A new NASA research team will be devoted to finding life beyond Earth launched this week in Silicon Valley and will seek to find concrete answers on how life began on Earth and where it could exist elsewhere. The “Center for Life Detection Science” will be part of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, and will bring together a “new consortium of researchers” from in and out of NASA with expertise in physical science, biology, astrophysics and beyond, the release states. (2/18)

Israel Heads to the Moon (Source: WMFE)
Only three countries have landed spacecraft on the moon — the United States, the former Soviet Union and most recently China. Now the country of Israel is poised to land a robotic spacecraft on to the lunar surface funded by public and private donations. The spacecraft is about the size of a kitchen-table. It is decked out in reflective gold material used to protect the vehicle from the drastic temperatures of a deep space mission. It’s name is Beresheet  which is Hebrew for “in the beginning.”

SpaceIL is an Israeli non-profit that has been working on the lander since 2011. Earlier this year, the team completed the design, testing and manufacturing of the spacecraft and sent it to the U.S. ahead of its upcoming launch on a SpaceX rocket. A few weeks ago, the Israeli scientists sent it from Israel to Cape Canaveral, Florida. (2/18)

What's at the Edge of the Universe? (Source: Gizmodo)
Because we can only see so far, we’re not sure what things are like beyond our observable universe. The universe we do see is fairly uniform on large scales, and maybe that continues literally forever. Alternatively, the universe could wrap around like a (three-dimensional version of a) sphere or torus. If that were true, the universe would be finite in total size, but still wouldn’t have an edge, just like a circle doesn’t have a beginning or ending.

It’s also possible that the universe isn’t uniform past what we can see, and conditions are wildly different from place to place. That possibility is the cosmological multiverse. We don’t know if there is a multiverse in this sense, but since we can’t actually see one way or another, it’s wise to keep an open mind.

The furthest planet that we’ve been able to observe is only about 25 thousand light-years away, though, so we could still eventually say hi to everyone we know might exist in the Universe so far. The furthest distance our current telescopes may have identified a galaxy from us is only about 13.3 billion light-years, though, so we can’t see what is at either of these ‘edges’ right now. So no one knows what’s at either edge! (2/18)

NASA Chief: SpaceX's Starship Tougher Than Any NASA Project, Ever (Source: Futurism)
The director of the Space Technology and Exploration Directorate at NASA Langley warned that Elon Musk’s proposed Starship design was going to be “orders of magnitude” more difficult than any NASA project in history. “It won’t be easy for us or SpaceX,” Walt Engelund said. His specific concern is Musk’s plan to cool the rocket by “bleeding” fuel through small pores. He asked what would happen, for instance, if a “bird poops on your rocket and it plugs up a few holes.”

“I’ve seen instances where you’ll get one clogged channel… and it will immediately result in burn-throughs,” the chief engineer told the business magazine. “A model will disappear in a hypersonic wind tunnel. It almost vaporizes, there’s so much energy and so much heat.” (2/18)

'River of Stars' Streaming Through the Milky Way Was Hiding in Plain Sight for 1 Billion Years (Source: Live Science)
One billion years ago, a cluster of stars formed in our galaxy. Since then, that cluster has whipped four long circles around the edge of the Milky Way. In that time, the Milky Way's gravity has stretched that cluster out from a blob into a long stellar stream. Right now, the stars are passing relatively close to Earth, just about 330 light-years away. And scientists say that river of stars could help determine the mass of the entire Milky Way..

Astronomers have seen these stars before, mixed in with lots of stars all around them. But until now, they didn't realize the stars were part of a group. The river, which is 1,300 light-years long and 160 light-years wide, winds through the Milky Way's vast, dense star field. But 3D-mapping data from Gaia, a European Space Agency spacecraft, showed that the stars in the stream moved together at roughly the same speed and in the same direction.

"Identifying nearby disk streams is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Astronomers have been looking at, and through, this new stream for a long time, as it covers most of the night sky, but only now realize it is there, and it is huge, and shockingly close to the sun," said astronomer João Alves. Though space is full of these stellar streams, they're often difficult to study because they're well-camouflaged amidst surrounding stars. Typically, these stellar streams are also much farther away. (2/19)

Georgia Conservation Groups Bring Spaceport Effort to Court (Source: Southern Environmental Law Center)
Georgia conservation groups and concerned residents are demanding answers from Camden County and Spaceport Camden consultants, charging that unlawfully withholding documents concerning public safety and environmental impacts leaves local communities in the dark about the project’s potential dangers to local families and sensitive ecosystems.

On behalf of One Hundred Miles, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit today in Camden County Superior Court against the County and Spaceport Camden consultants Andrew Nelson and The Aerospace Corporation for failing to meet requirements under the Georgia Open Records Request Act (GORA).

After refusing to grant repeated requests for specific documents, including debris field maps and an analysis estimating the number of human deaths that could occur if a rocket explodes on the launch pad or in the air, Camden County has continued to push Spaceport Camden forward. Without releasing any of the requested public safety information, the Camden County Commission submitted an application with the FAA in late January for an operator license required to conduct orbital and suborbital launches at the proposed commercial spaceport. Click here. (2/19)