April 24, 2019

At Last, Scientists Have Found The Galaxy's Missing Exoplanets: Cold Gas Giants (Source: Forbes)
In the early 1990s, scientists began detecting the first planets orbiting stars other than the Sun: exoplanets. The easiest ones to see had the largest masses and the shortest orbits, as those are the planets with the greatest observable effects on their parent stars. The second types of planets were at the other extreme, massive enough to emit their own infrared light but so distant from their star that they could be independently resolved by a powerful enough telescope.

Today, there are over 4,000 known exoplanets, but the overwhelming majority either orbit very close to or very far from their parent star. At long last, however, a team of scientists has discovered a bevy of those missing worlds: at the same distance our own Solar System's gas giants orbit. These are the properties that the very first exoplanets had: the so-called "hot Jupiters" of the galaxy. They were the easiest to find because, with very large masses, they could change the motion of their stars by hundreds or even thousands of meters-per-second. Similarly, with short periods and close orbital distances, many cycles of sinusoidal motion could be revealed with only a few weeks or months of observations. Massive, inner worlds are the easiest to find.

A large team of scientists, led by Emily Rickman, conducted an enormous survey using the CORALIE spectrograph at La Silla observatory. They measured the light coming from a large number of stars within about 170 light-years on a nearly continuous basis, beginning in 1998. By using the same instrument and leaving virtually no long-term gaps in the data, long-term, precise Doppler measurements finally became possible. A total of five brand new planets, one confirmation of a suggested planet, and three updated planets were announced in this latest study, bringing the total number of Jupiter-or-larger planets beyond the Jupiter-Sun distance up to 26. (4/23)

Mark Cuban-Backed Rocket Startup Signs Asian Customer (Source: Forbes)
Relativity Space, the Mark Cuban-backed startup that is building 3D rockets, already has another contract -- one with mu Space, a satellite and space technology company based in Thailand. Relativity will launch a satellite to low Earth orbit in the second half of 2022, aboard its Terran 1 rocket. This news comes just weeks after Relativity announced it will launch an undisclosed number of Telesat's satellites, in pursuit of a broadband constellation. More astoundingly, Relativity is signing customers even though it hasn't launched a single rocket yet. (4/23)

Thai Satellite to Launch on 3D-Printed Rocket from Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Click Orlando)
The manifest for a 3D-printed rocket soon to be blasting off from the Space Coast continues to grow with the announcement Tuesday that a Thailand-based space company has selected Relativity Space's Terran 1 rocket to launch its satellite. Based in California, Relativity Space has patented 3D printing to build its rocket in less than 60 days, cutting down hardware parts and costs to launch. The company's rocket will launch from from Cape Canaveral Air Station's Launch Complex 16, beginning at the end of 2020, company leaders say.

Relativity CEO Tim Ellis and Jordan Noone, a former SpaceX development engineer, founded the company in 2015 with the end goal of 3D printing rockets on Mars. On April 5, the aerospace startup aiming to disrupt the way rockets are built announced its first official launch contract with the Canadian satellite operator Telesat. On Tuesday, Asian space technology company mu Space announced it also will fly a satellite on Terran 1. (4/23)

China to Build Moon Station in 'About 10 Years' (Source: Phys.org)
Beijing plans to send a manned mission to the moon and to build a research station there within the next decade, state media reported Wednesday, citing a top space official. China aims to achieve space superpower status and took a major step towards that goal when it became the first nation to land a rover on the far side of the moon in January. It now plans to build a scientific research station on the moon's south pole within the next 10 years, China National Space Administration head Zhang Kejian said during a speech marking "Space Day", the official Xinhua news agency reported.

He also added that Beijing plans to launch a Mars probe by 2020 and confirmed that a fourth lunar probe, the Chang'e-5, will be launched by the end of the year. Originally scheduled to collect moon samples in the second half of 2017, the Chang'e-5 was delayed after its planned carrier, the powerful Long March 5 Y2 rocket, failed during a separate launch in July 2017. China on Wednesday also announced its Long March-5B rocket will make its maiden flight in the first half of 2020, carrying the core parts of a planned space station. (4/24)

The Moon's Surface Is Totally Cracked (Source: Live Science)
Is the moon all it's cracked up to be? Yes — and then some. New analysis of the lunar surface reveals that it's far more fractured than once thought. Since the moon formed 4.3 billion years ago, asteroid impacts have scarred its face with pits and craters. But the damage goes far deeper than that, with cracks extending to depths of 12 miles (20 kilometers), researchers recently reported.

Though the moon's craters have been well-documented, scientists previously knew little about the upper region of the moon's crust, the megaregolith, which sustained the bulk of the damage from space rock bombardment. In the new study, computer simulations revealed that impacts from single objects could fragment the lunar crust into blocks about 3 feet wide, opening surface cracks that extend for hundreds of kilometers. This suggests that much of the fracturing in the megaregolith could have come from single, high-speed impacts, leaving the crust "thoroughly fractured" early in the moon's history. (4/23)

AST and Science Launches First Nanosat, Plans Production at Midland Texas Spaceport (Source: Space Daily)
AST and Science has announced that its first satellite, designated BlueWalker 1, has been successfully launched, stabilized in orbit and is ready for operations. The BlueWalker 1 nano-satellite was launched into orbit on a PSLV-C45 launch vehicle from the Datish Dhawan Space Center in India April 1. The satellite is functioning satisfactorily and is ready to move into full operation. BlueWalker 1 is flying in a stable low-Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of about 500 miles.

It will serve as a testbed for AST and Science patented technologies in space over the next several years. "The new technology, which is being tested and validated on the BlueWalker satellites, will be used for the satellite modules that we will produce at our new manufacturing plant in Midland, Texas," Avellan added. "This factory has the capacity to build up to 100,000 satellite modules per year." Earlier this year, AST and Science opened a new U.S. office in the Washington, D.C. area and a design center for RF and electronics in Israel, complementing the corporate headquarters and 85,000 sq. ft. high-volume manufacturing plant in the Midland Space Port Business Park. (4/24)

Nepal's First Ever Satellite Launched (Source: Space Daily)
Nepal's first ever satellite was launched into space on Thursday morning, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli confirmed. Nepali Prime Minister Oli expressed happiness over Nepal's entry into the global space age while thanking all those involved in developing the first ever Nepali satellite. The satellite was designed and built at the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan by two Nepali students.

The research satellite, which has been named NepaliSat-1, was launched at the Wallops Island spaceport in Virginia, according to authorities at the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). NAST is setting up the ground station in Nepal for receiving data sent by the satellite soon. (4/23)

Marsquake! NASA InSight Lander Detects a Shimmy on Mars (Source: C/Net)
There's a new field for scientists to study: Mars seismology. NASA's InSight lander gently placed a seismometer on the surface of Mars late in 2018. On April 6, the effort paid off with what could be the first detection of a marsquake. A marsquake is like an earthquake, except it happens on the red planet. French space agency CNES (The National Centre for Space Studies) built the seismometer and released its first findings Tuesday.

NASA was a little more circumspect with its own release, calling the event the first "likely" marsquake. The marsquake was no more than a faint rumble, but CNES says it's the first event that appears to be coming from the interior of Mars and not from wind shaking the instrument. The quake matches up with data from similar quakes detected by NASA's Apollo missions on the moon. (4/23)

Wanted: Companies to Build Spacecraft, Sensor Payloads, and On-Board Data Processing for Small Satellites (Source: Military Aerospace)
U.S. intelligence researchers are surveying industry for companies able to design and build small satellites (smallsats) spacecraft, sensor payloads, on-board computer processing, and other subsystem technologies that range in maturity from basic concepts to demonstration by simulation. Officials of the U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA) in Washington have released a request for information (IARPA-RFI-19-05) for Innovative Technologies for Small Satellites project.

IARPA experts want information on innovations in space-based research to mature the state of the art for smallsats. This RFI is asking industry for capability statements on smallsats, subsystem technologies, and data collection and processing capabilities that are assessed to be at Technology Readiness Levels 1 to 6. IARPA is the research arm of the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (4/11)

DoD Practices Starliner At-Sea Recovery at Port Canaveral (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
In a critical first for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule, the crew transportation vehicle is putting DoD and Air Force rescue teams through their paces as they seek to understand and refine what will be needed to rescue a Starliner crew from the capsule should an off-nominal landing in the water occur. The test is a critical part of Starliner’s certification to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule went through similar tests last year, and NASA has conducted similar exercises with its Orion spacecraft.

Starliner itself will nominally land on land in the American southwest, but in-flight aborts/off-nominal emergency returns from orbit will/could result in Starliner splashing down in the ocean. Despite the planned difference in an off-nominal vs. nominal landing of Starliner, the equipment sea rescue personnel would use for Starliner is the same as it is for Dragon and Orion. After Starliner splashes down in the ocean and members of the 304th Rescue Squadron reach the spacecraft, the first thing the team will assess is the orientation of the craft. If Starliner has landed upside down or tipped upside down after landing, the first and foremost action will be the right the spacecraft.

The DoD Human Space Flight Support Office Rescue Division has practiced the basics of the procedure on both Orion and Dragon. Moreover, part of today’s test – this afternoon – will be purposefully capsizing the Starliner mockup so teams can practice the righting process. Once the capsule is righted, or if it lands in the correct upright orientation, the next order of business would be for rescue teams to gauge the stability of the craft in the given sea states (wave heights, winds, etc.). If warranted, the rescue team will deploy a stabilization collar around the base of Starliner to help control the craft during rescue operations. (4/23)