July 22, 2019

We’ve Surrounded the Earth with Surveillance Satellites, But Who is That Good For? (Source: The Next Web)
It is no longer just advanced militaries and rich corporations who can keep tabs on what people are up to half a world away. Watchdogs such as Global Forest Watch, Global Fishing Watch, and SkyTruth are combing through satellite photos and radar scans to alert authorities to illegal clear-cutting, rogue fishing, mountaintop removals, and other environmental misbehavior.

Researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have exploited Amazon cloud servers to assemble millions of amateur birdwatcher reports into exquisite animated maps that plot the changing abundance of 122 bird species throughout North America. Ranchers are stapling health-monitoring microchips to their livestock. Beekeepers are sticking wireless sensors into their hives. Farmers are planting high-tech electronics into the soil along with their crops. Autonomous sailboats now ply the Southern Ocean to look for krill swarms, and AI-enhanced drones patrol elephant habitats in southern Africa to spot poachers on the prowl.

Radical transparency in our online lives has frayed, not tightened, the fabric of societies. And now, in the unrelenting march of technological monitoring, things are getting real. As sprawling webs of sensors, cameras, and satellites give some (but not others) a near-real-time view from everywhere, certain parallels to recent history are unmistakable—and unnerving. Data-gathering startups are popping up all over, but they are locked in cutthroat races to monetize what they tout as “intelligence.” Tech giants are “indexing the Earth” by hoovering up satellite images the moment they are released to public access and then pouring the data into vast archives. (7/20)

Construction of Orion Spacecraft for Artemis-1 Flight Completed at Florida Spaceport (Source: New Atlas)
Lockheed Martin says that it has completed the final assembly phase of the first full Orion spacecraft. At a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, US Vice President Mike Pence made the public announcement in front of the spacecraft at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

In addition to Pence, Saturday's ceremony included such dignitaries as Lockheed Martin's President, Chairman and CEO Marillyn Hewson, NASA's Administrator Jim Bridenstine, Kennedy Space Center's Director Robert Cabana, and Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis. The announcement comes a week after the crew capsule module and the service module built by ESA were stacked and then thoroughly integrated and tested. (7/22)

Red Wine Compound Could Help Astronauts Keep Their Muscle Mass (Source: New Atlas)
Harvard team set out to test how well one promising compound – resveratrol – might be able to reduce the effects of low gravity on the muscles of rats. To mimic that unearthly environment in the lab, the team fitted 24 male rats with a harness that suspended them by a chain from the ceiling of their cages. Using this technique, some rats experienced the equivalent gravity of Mars, while a control group just had normal Earth gravity.

In each of these groups, half drank normal water while the other half had theirs spiked with 150 mg of resveratrol per kilogram per day. All ate the same food, and the experiment ran for two weeks. Weekly the rats were weighed, and their calf circumference, front and rear paw grip force measured. After the 14-day period, their calf muscles were analyzed in more depth. Sure enough, the lower gravity conditions reduced the rats' grip strength, calf circumference, muscle weight, and slow-twitch fibers. But the resveratrol did manage to stave off the worst of those effects. Rats that received treatment retained paw grip equal to that of the Earth-gravity rats that didn't receive supplements. (7/18)

Halo Orbit Selected for Gateway Space Station (Source: New Atlas)
The NASA-led Gateway deep-space station will travel in cis-lunar space within a Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). It won't exactly orbit the Moon at all. Instead, it orbits a region of space that is one of the libration or Lagrange points. It's one of five spots where the gravitational pull of the Earth, Moon, and Sun balance out to act like a sort of cosmic sweet spot.

This promises both cheaper missions to the Moon and beyond, as well as regular timetables for visiting astronauts. With the gravitational forces of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun all in play, there are a lot of choices. Mission planners are keen on an NRHO orbit because it will make it easier to send up the component modules as well as the Orion manned spacecraft. In addition, the halo orbit will open a launch window between the station and Earth every week. (7/18)

Lunar Bricks Could Keep Moon Colonists Warm and Generate Electricity (Source: New Atlas)
Space engineers have long considered lunar soil as locally available material for building outposts on the Moon, and now ESA researchers are considering it as a means to store energy. The Discovery & Preparation study by the agency and Azimut Space aims to determine how the lunar regolith can soak up solar energy during the day, then use it to generate electricity during the 14-day night and protect equipment against freezing.

According to ESA, regolith can not only be formed into bricks, but these could be configured so they can become heat-storage bricks. To study this idea, the research team made artificial powdered regolith based on an analysis of rock samples brought back by the Apollo missions. This was then formed into bricks and heated under lunar conditions before attaching the bricks to a heat engine to generate electricity. "This is just the first step towards creating an innovative and sustainable method of heat storage and electricity generation that could make it possible for us to land on the Moon." (7/20)

NASA to Procure Lunar Lander Services (Source: Space News)
NASA has disclosed new details about how it plans to acquire lunar landers to achieve that 2024 deadline. In a presolicitation notice Friday, NASA said it will seek proposals for landers that initially will be able to take two astronauts to the surface for a 6.5-day stay in 2024. Those landers will be upgraded as soon as 2026, enabling larger crews and longer stays on the lunar surface. NASA plans to acquire lunar landing services, rather than the landers themselves, through public-private partnerships where companies will be required to contribute at least 10 percent of the costs of developing the landers. (7/22)

Vega Mishap Delays Ariane 5 Launch (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Arianespace had postponed an Ariane 5 mission scheduled for this week because of the investigation into the Vega launch failure. Officials said that the launch of the rocket carrying the Intelsat 39 and ERDS-C communications satellites, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, had been delayed to no earlier than July 30. The delay will give investigators time to review Ariane 5 components also used on the Vega, the small launch vehicle that failed in its most recent launch July 10. (7/22)

Souyz Launches Three to ISS (Source: CBS)
A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people arrived at the International Space Station six hours after launch Saturday. A Soyuz rocket lifted off at 12:28 p.m. Eastern Saturday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, placing the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft into orbit. The Soyuz spacecraft docked with the station at 6:48 p.m. Eastern. The Soyuz brought to the station NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov. Parmitano and Skvortsov will return to Earth in February 2020 with NASA astronaut Christina Koch, while Morgan will remain on the station until the spring of 2020. (7/22)

China's Space Station Module Reenters Safely Over Pacific Ocean (Source: Space News)
China's Tiangong-2 module reentered over the South Pacific on Friday as planned. Tiangong-2 reentered over the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area at 9:06 a.m. Eastern using its own propulsion, following an engine burn a day earlier to lower the spacecraft’s perigee. The maneuver follows the high-profile and uncontrolled re-entry of Tiangong-1 in April 2018, having lost contact with and control of the experimental space lab in 2016. Both spacecraft were designed as steppingstones for developing and verifying technologies for larger 20-metric-ton modules for the planned Chinese Space Station, which China plans to complete in the early 2020s. (7/22)

Majority of Canadians Proud of Country's Space Program (Source: Toronto City News)
Canadians are a proud bunch, particularly when it comes to the country’s space program according to a poll released Sunday. About 80 per cent of those surveyed said they are proud of Canada’s role in space exploration. Canadians also said the space program provides invaluable technological innovations, with 73 per cent saying the country benefits from the knowledge gained from the program. Canada’s astronauts are also greatly admired by Canadians, with 63 per cent of respondents saying the astronauts personally inspired them. The poll also revealed widespread support for funding Canada’s space program, with 68 per cent saying the federal government should keep supporting the program. About 17 per cent said it should be reduced or shutdown. (7/22)

China Invites Nations to Join in Moon Exploration (Source: China Daily)
In 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon, the astronomical body was for Chinese just a glowing orb overhead to gaze at and muse about. Now, fifty years later, China has become the first nation to land a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the moon. As the world celebrates the historic US moon landing on July 20, 1969, Chinese lunar explorers said their moon exploration program, including plans for a robotic lunar research station prototype by 2030 to prepare manned missions, is open to international cooperation.

The lunar research station will become a base for astronauts to visit briefly and ultimately for a long-term stay, according to Li Chunlai, director of the Ground Research and Application System of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Project, and three of his colleagues. NASA aims to put Americans on the moon again by 2024. The authors wrote that China is open to cooperation with NASA on lunar exploration. (7/22)

India Launches Lunar Lander (Source: Space News)
India successfully launched its Chandrayaan-2 lunar mission this morning. The GSLV Mark 3 rocket lifted off at 5:13 a.m. Eastern Monday from Sriharikota, India, releasing the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into an elliptical transfer orbit 16 minutes later. The launch was scheduled for more than a week ago but postponed by what the Indian space agency ISRO described as a "technical snag" with the rocket. Chandrayaan-2 will gradually widen its transfer orbit, arriving at the moon in early September. The mission includes an orbiter and a lander, which will attempt a landing in the south polar regions of the moon. (7/22)

Pentagon Assures Industry That SDA Woes are Temporary (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) is working to assure the industry that it will get past a rough start. The SDA will be holding an industry day Tuesday and will also be hosting a tabletop exercise later in July that Air Force officials have been invited to attend. The sudden departure last month of former SDA director Fred Kennedy sparked speculation that the agency was in disarray, and Congress denied a request to reprogram fiscal year 2019 funding for the agency. Former Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said at a conference Friday she remained skeptical of the SDA and its plans for smallsat constellations in low Earth orbit, concluding it's "not clear that the SDA can or should be saved." (7/22)

Inmarsat Facilities to Remain in UK (Source: Space News)
The new owner of Inmarsat says it will keep the satellite operator's major facilities in the United Kingdom. The Connect Bidco consortium told the British government that for at least three years it would keep Inmarsat's core network operations center and skilled engineering resources in the country once the merger, expected to close late this year, is complete. News of that commitment came two days after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority announced it was reviewing the Inmarsat buyout on antitrust and national security grounds. The review, prompted by a voluntary notice from Bidco, could lead the agency to modify or block the merger, though that outcome is not expected. (7/22)

Ruag to Produce Firefly Payload Adapters (Source: Space News)
Ruag Space will produce payload adapters for Firefly Aerospace's launch vehicles. Ruag Space said the purchase agreement starts with an order for six launches, but is structured as a multiyear deal without set quantities. The company has provided adapters for more than a dozen launchers, from small vehicles like the Electron and Vega to large ones such as the Atlas 5 and Proton. (7/22)

Rocket Lab Produces 100th Rutherford Engine (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab says it has now produced 100 of its Rutherford engines as it prepares for its next Electron launch. The company said it reached the production milestone recently, crediting a design that makes extensive use of 3D-printing technologies to enable it to ramp up production. Each Electron rocket uses nine Rutherford engines in its first stage and one in its second stage. The next Electron launch is scheduled for early August, carrying a BlackSky imaging satellite and several smallsat secondary payloads. (7/22)

Rocket Lab's Secret Payload Owned by Mexican Defence Agency (Source: Stuff)
An unidentified payload on the previous Electron launch is a satellite for the Mexican military. The New Zealand Space Agency said, in response to a records request, that the satellite whose identity was not disclosed in the June launch was Painini-1 and is owned by the Mexico Secretariat of National Defense. The satellite, which carries low-resolution camera, is intended to provide Mexican students with experience operating a spacecraft and analyzing images from it. The space agency said it's developing a policy "for the proactive release of information about approved payloads" to provide greater transparency. (7/22)

Spaceport Integration Is A Work In Progress (Source: Aviation Week)
There are now a dozen FAA-licensed commercial spaceport sites in the U.S. and more being contemplated. Still under development is a regulatory framework for how they fit into a national airspace system (NAS) structured on airports, air traffic control facilities and navigation aids. In December 2017, the FAA created a Spaceport Categorization Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), consisting of representatives of the aviation and space communities, to review a draft spaceport categorization approach. (7/22)

Two Australian Spaceports Nearing Construction (Source: Aviation Week)
An oddity in space history is that Australia, a stable democracy with plenty of low-latitude sites, has never had much of a space launch industry. The U.S. launches to low-inclination orbits from Cape Canaveral, 28 deg. from the equator, to get free velocity from the Earth’s rotation. But Australia has territory within 11 deg. of the equator. Finally, construction is due to begin in April on an equatorial space launch base in northern Australia. (3/22)

Diana, a Blockchain ‘Lunar Registry,’ Attempts to Tokenize the Moon (Source: Coindesk)
In honor of Neil Armstrong’s “small step,” one company is taking a “giant leap” for blockchain. On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Diana, a blockchain startup, is launching a “lunar registry” that attempts to place the lunar surface on a distributed ledger. The project is offering collective ownership of Earth’s only natural satellite through dividing the moon into 3,874,204,892 cells encoded on a blockchain by a 3-word address. Proof of stake in this “cadastral map” is represented by two tokens, dia and mond.

Following the launch of the Diana blockchain, the startup also plans to develop a decentralized autonomous organization and eventually an exchange to build an economy around the orbital celestial object. Dia, a native token distributed upon registration, will be exchangeable with mond, intended for transactions. Accordingly, registration costs will increase as more tokens are sold, which will “boost” the value of tokens for market participants and prevent speculation. Fifty percent of the tokens will be made publicly available, while less than 2 percent will be reserved for the founders and development team, and the rest will act as a reserve. (7/20)

Apollo Artifacts Fetch Millions at Auction (Source: CollectSpace)
Auctions of Apollo 11 items brought in several million dollars. An auction by Sotheby's included a set of videotapes of the landing that went for $1.82 million despite NASA debunking claims these contained lost video of the Apollo 11 moonwalk. A separate auction by Heritage Auctions included a gold medallion flown to the moon and back by Armstrong that sold for $2.055 million. However, a flight plan flown on the Apollo 11 lunar lander failed to attract a single bid at a Christie's auction despite estimates it would sell for $7—9 million. (7/22)

Trump Pits Apollo 11 Astronauts Against NASA Chief (Source: Space Daily)
President Donald Trump welcomed surviving Apollo 11 crew members Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins to the White House Friday, using the occasion to tell his space chief he would prefer to go straight to Mars without returning to the Moon. It is a theme he had touched upon earlier this month in a tweet, and this time drew on the support of the two former astronauts, who are taking part in celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of their mission, to make his case to NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

"To get to Mars, you have to land on the Moon, they say," said Trump, without looking convinced. Bridenstine launched into a well-rehearsed summary of NASA position: Earth's natural satellite is the right setting to perfect the technology needed to keep humans alive for long periods elsewhere, and will be a gateway for launching missions deeper into the solar system. Trump then turned to his right to ask Collins what he thought. "Mars direct," said the 88-year-old, without hesitating.

"It seems to me Mars direct, who knows better than these people?" replied Trump, forcing Bridenstine onto the defensive once again. The president mused that appointing Bridenstine had not been "that easy of a decision for me" and that he had not always supported Trump when he was a Republican congressman. (7/19)

OneWeb Opens Satellite Factory at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Airbus)
OneWeb Satellites – a joint venture of OneWeb and Airbus – today officially opened the world’s first high-volume, high-speed advanced satellite production facility to bring transformative internet connectivity to everyone, everywhere.

Historically, satellites are custom built, costing tens of millions of dollars to build, and taking more than a year to produce a single one. The OneWeb Satellites facility is the first to employ industrial-scale mass production techniques for satellites, enabling dramatically reduced costs and production times that can deliver one satellite per production shift or two a day, while significantly expanding internet connectivity and making space technology far more accessible.

“OneWeb Satellites and its partners are transforming the satellite and space industry.  By producing high quality satellites at a fraction of the cost and schedule of traditional manufacturers, we are not only enabling OneWeb to connect the planet, we are making space dramatically more accessible to everyone,” said Tony Gingiss, CEO of OneWeb Satellites. The facility’s production capabilities will first support the rapid scaling of the OneWeb network, starting with a constellation of 650 satellites and scaling to 1,980 satellites delivering global connectivity. (7/22)

The Moon is a Graveyard of Apollo Astronaut Trash. Here’s What We’ll Find When We Return (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The mission on the moon then over, astronaut Buzz Aldrin peeked out from the Apollo lunar module onto the powdery grey surface before him, the U.S. flag planted into it — just about the only color as far as the eye could see. But as the ascent engines on the spacecraft came to life, carrying him and Neil Armstrong up, up, up, Aldrin caught a glimpse of something. Did the exhaust blow the $5.50 flag from its lunar foothold? Maybe. Probably.

Images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera more than 40 years later proved Aldrin right. Unlike the other Apollo sites, there is no longer an American flag still standing at the place where humankind first made contact with the lunar surface now 50 years ago on July 20.

When people do return to our celestial partner, they likely won’t find standing the most famous item that was left behind — a symbol of the nation’s sacrifice and accomplishment. But they’ll find other things: Lunar landers and moon cars, camera gear and backpacks, a photo, maybe a few faded flags, some golf balls if they’re lucky. (7/21)