October 7, 2019

Ekipazh: Russia’s Top-Secret Nuclear-Powered Satellite (Source: Space Review)
Interest in space nuclear power systems appears to be growing again in Russia, based on announcements of new projects. Bart Hendrickx discusses what is known about one such project, which may be used for electronic warfare in space. Click here. (10/7)
 
God’s Eye View: HEXADOR and the Very High Resolution Satellite (Source: Space Review)
A half-century ago, the NRO studied a plan to build satellites capable of producing very high resolution images that would otherwise only be possible form aircraft. Dwayne Day examines what we know about this program and why it was never developed. Click here. (10/7)
 
The Satellite Industry Catches a Cold (Source: Space Review)
The satellite industry has been the foundation of the overall commercial space industry, but has been suffering from depressed demand. Jeff Foust reports on initiatives to deal with a changing market to stimulate demand and deal with new competition. Click here. (10/7)
 
On Objections to Space Force Naval Rank (Source: Space Review)
Brent Ziarnick revisits a recent essay on why the proposed US Space Force should use a rank structure like the US Navy, rather than the Air Force, addressing several criticisms and alternative structures. Click here. (10/7) 

Intelligent Alien Creatures Could Hide Deep Undersea on Distant Water Planets (Source: Sputnik)
Scientists and space enthusiasts have been debating for decades whether intelligent life exist in outer space. The basic point in almost every such discussion is our home planet - the Earth is teeming with life. Even the most aggressive environments on our planet, like a deep undersea fracture or the freezing Arctic and Antarctic icy deserts, are swarming with various species, producing hope for theorists that the same could be happening on distant planets scattered in our galaxy.

According to Alan Stern with NASA’s long-range New Horizons space probe, purported water worlds could provide, on one hand, the kind of stable environment for intelligent life forms; shielded from space radiation and catastrophic asteroid impacts. On the other hand, a liquid planet could be also a shielded prison for intelligent species. It would be very complicated for intelligent aquatic creatures to launch spacecraft filled with water. (9/30)

NASA Opens Competition to Build Human-Rated Lunar Landers (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Companies have until Nov. 1 to submit proposals to NASA for a human-rated lander that could be ready in time to carry astronauts to the moon’s surface by the end of 2024, and the agency is leaving open the option for contractors to develop a descent craft that would bypass the planned Gateway mini-space station in lunar orbit, at least for the first landing attempt.

The lunar lander, or Human Landing System, is critical to the Trump administration’s goal of returning humans to the moon’s surface by the end of 2024. NASA named effort after Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, after Vice President Mike Pence announced the 2024 goal in a speech March 26.

In the interest of speed, NASA has also relaxed requirements for the early human-rated lunar landers to be reusable. NASA eventually wants to reuse landers on missions ferrying astronauts between the moon’s surface and the Gateway space station in lunar orbit, where the spacecraft could be refueled for multiple landings. And NASA has limited the time for companies to submit their proposals to one month. (10/7)

SpaceX to Replace Falcon 9’s Titanium Grid Fins With Steel on Starship’s Super Heavy Booster (Source: Teslarati)
Following a question on Twitter about how SpaceX intends to manufacture the truly massive grid fins shown in renders of Starship’s Super Heavy booster, CEO Elon Musk revealed that SpaceX will build them out of welded steel. With Falcon 9 Block 5, aluminum grid fins were phased out entirely in favor of larger titanium fins, necessitated by exceptionally high-speed reentries that nearly melted through the aluminum fins on several occasions. Now, SpaceX wants to move from titanium to steel fins for its next-generation Starship launch vehicle.

According to Musk, the high-quality carbon fiber composites SpaceX was originally pursuing cost something like $130,000 per metric ton, translating to a truly gobsmacking cost – accounting for unavoidable wastage – of $400M-$500M or more just to buy the materials needed to build a single Starship and Super Heavy booster. Steel, on the other hand, is quite literally 50 times cheaper, costing SpaceX around $2500 per ton, or as little as $10M in structural materials for each ship/booster pair. (10/6)

Here’s an Example of the Crazy Lengths NASA Goes To Land Safely on Mars (Source: Ars Technica)
If all goes well, the Mars 2020 mission will launch toward the Red Planet next July. Then, after a six-month cruise to Mars, a lander carrying a 1-ton rover will detach from the spacecraft and attempt to make a soft landing in an ancient lake bed named Jezero Crater. Most likely, it will all go well despite the enormous challenge of safely sending spacecraft to Mars. Historically, about 50% of missions have failed. But NASA has gotten pretty good at this stuff, and there's a reason for that. The agency works really hard at getting all of the details right.

To increase the odds of success, the Mars 2020 mission will have an added technology called Terrain Relative Navigation, essentially an autopilot. And this autopilot has been meticulously developed. An engineer named Andrew Johnson at NASA JPL has spent most of the last 15 years working on the technology that will guide the 2020 spacecraft's flight for just 10 seconds. Click here. (10/7)

ISS Produces First Lab-Grown Meat (Source: Guardian)
Lab-grown meat has been successfully cultured in space for the first time. The Israeli food technology startup Aleph Farms grew the meat on the International Space Station, 248 miles (339 km) away from any natural resources. Bovine cells were harvested on Earth and taken to space, where they were grown into small-scale muscle tissue using a 3D bioprinter. The method relies on mimicking a natural process of muscle-tissue regeneration occurring inside a cow’s body. (10/7)

Astronaut Mark Kelly Makes Gains as Candidate for US Senate Seat (Source: Arizona Republic)
Mark Kelly, the Democrat and retired NASA astronaut who is vying to unseat Republican Sen. Martha McSally, outraised her for the third straight quarter and has eclipsed his first two previous fundraising quarters. Kelly raised more than $5.5 million during the third quarter, his campaign told The Arizona Republic on Monday, bringing his total raised to nearly $14 million. (10/7)

NASA Seeks Industry Input on Hardware Production for Lunar Spacesuit (Source: Space Daily)
When the first woman and next man step foot on the Moon in 2024, they will be wearing the next generation of spacesuits designed to give astronauts enhanced mobility to accomplish their exploration tasks on the lunar surface. NASA is currently designing and developing a new spacesuit system, called the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit or xEMU, for use during Artemis missions at the Moon and adaptable for other destinations near and far.

In a request for information (RFI) published on Oct.4 2019, NASA is seeking Industry feedback to help refine and mature the acquisition strategy for production and services for lunar spacesuits to enable a steady cadence of Artemis missions over the next decade and beyond.

The agency is prepared to build and certify the initial spacesuits to support a demonstration in a spaceflight environment on the International Space Station in 2023 and the first trip to the lunar surface in 2024, as part of the Artemis III mission. After Artemis III, NASA plans to transition responsibility for production, assembly, testing, sustaining and maintenance of a fleet of flight and training spacesuits and associated hardware to U.S. Industry. (10/7)

NASA Astronauts Conduct Spacewalk to Replace ISS Batteries (Source: CBS)
Two NASA astronauts performed a spacewalk Sunday to continue work replacing batteries in the International Space Station's power system. Christina Koch and Andrew Morgan spent seven hours outside the station, successfully replacing batteries at one end of the station's truss. The two, working faster than expected, replaced more batteries than originally planned. The station's old nickel-hydrogen batteries are gradually being replaced with more powerful lithium-ion batteries. (10/6)

SDA's Top Priority is to Deploy a 250-Satellite or Larger Communications Constellation (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) has a five-year plan that includes a large satellite constellation. That plan, in a budget proposal that seeks $11 billion over the next five years, includes building a 250-satellite or larger communications network that would support a missile defense constellation and other capabilities provided by satellites in low orbits. The Pentagon in its 2020 budget requested nearly $150 million to get SDA off the ground, a figure supported by the Senate but cut by the House in their respective defense appropriations bills. (10/7)

France's Cailabs Raises $8.8M for Optical Comm Systems (Source: Space News)
A French startup developing optical communications systems for space and other industries has raised $8.8 million. Cailabs says it has developed a technology that controls the shape of light within optical fibers, enabling a thousandfold increase in data speeds. The French Armed Forces Ministry and aerospace giant Safran's venture capital arm, Safran Corporate Ventures, participated in the round, which was led by Supernova Invest. Cailabs released last year a component called Tilba that it says helps laser signals travel between Earth and space with less atmospheric disturbance. (10/7)

Astronomers Find Evidence of Powerful Black Hole Flare at Milky Way's Center (Source: BBC)
The center of the Milky Way "exploded" three and a half million years ago, astronomers report. The powerful event, known as a Seyfert flare, is linked to the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy and left an imprint on a stream of gas outside the galaxy detected by astronomers. The finding suggests that the center of the galaxy is far more active than previously thought. (10/6)

X-57 Experimental Electric Aircraft Lands at NASA (Source: AIN)
NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, took delivery of the agency’s X-57 all-electric experimental aircraft on Wednesday. This is the first of three configurations for an all-electric aircraft, known as Mod II, according to NASA. Its Mod II aircraft replaces the traditional piston engines on a baseline Tecnam P2006T with electric motors. NASA engineers will now begin ground testing the X-57, to be followed by taxi and, eventually, flight tests. (10/4)

Asteroid Swarm: NASA Detects 16 Space Rocks Hurtling Toward Earth (Source: Express)
NASA has just detected a swarm of 16 asteroids, which are hurtling toward Earth. These asteroids will arrive starting early on Tuesday. Although most of these asteroids will approach Earth from very safe distances, one of them is expected to fly close to the planet. According to CNEOS, 2019 T1 will zip past the planet from 0.00378 astronomical units or roughly 351,000 miles away, which is just slightly greater than the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The next group of asteroids will enter Earth’s locality on October 9. (10/7)

NASA Shares Incredible 3D Map of the Moon (Source: Space.com)
A stunning new NASA animation of the lunar landscape, called the CGI moon kit, is composed of data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The agency released it online to make data more accessible to 3D artists, according to a statement from NASA. Click here. (10/5)