November 10, 2019

NASA Scientist Shows Dinosaurs Roamed Earth on The Other Side of The Milky Way (Source: Science Alert)
When dinosaurs ruled the Earth, the planet was on a completely different side of the galaxy. A new animation by NASA scientist Jessie Christiansen shows just how long the dinosaurs' reign lasted, and how short the era of humans has been in comparison, by tracing our solar system's movement through the Milky Way. Our Sun orbits the galaxy's centre, completing its rotation every 250 million years or so. So Christiansen's animation shows that last time our Solar System was at its current point in the galaxy, the Triassic Period was in full swing and dinosaurs were just beginning to emerge.

Many of the most iconic dinosaurs roamed Earth when the planet was in a very different part of the Milky Way. Christiansen got the idea to illustrate this history when she was leading a stargazing party at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Attendees were astonished when she mentioned that our Solar System had been across the galaxy when dinosaurs roamed. (11/8)

NASA Unveils its First Electric Airplane - a Work In Progress (Source: MSN)
NASA, most prominent for its many Florida-launched exploits into space, showcased an early version of its first all-electric experimental aircraft, the X-57 "Maxwell," on Friday at its lesser-known aeronautics lab in the California desert. Adapted from a Italian-made Tecnam P2006T twin-engine propeller plane, the X-57 has been under development since 2015 and remains at least a year away from its first test flight in the skies over Edward Air Force Base. But after attaching the two largest of 14 electric motors that will ultimately propel the plane - powered by specially designed lithium ion batteries - NASA deemed the Maxwell ready for its first public preview. (11/8)

Russian Scientists Propose Creation of Separate ISS Module for Sports, Medicine (Source: Sputnik)
The Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Science (IBMP RAS) considers it necessary to create a special module for sports and medical experiments at the International Space Station (ISS), IBMP deputy chief designer Yevgenia Yarmanova said. Currently, all gym machines of the Russian ISS segment are located in the Zvezda module, which also has sleeping cabins, a toilet, a central control pad and a dining table. (11/10)

Astronomers Worry About the Brightness of SpaceX's Starlink Satellite Megaconstellation (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX is planning to launch the second installment of its Starlink megaconstellation on Monday (Nov. 11), and astronomers are waiting to see — well, precisely what they will see. When the company launched its first set of Starlink internet satellites in May, those with their eyes attuned to the night sky immediately realized that the objects were incredibly bright. Professional astronomers worried the satellites would interfere with scientific observations and amateur appreciation of the stars.

"That first few nights, it was like, 'Holy not-publishable-word,'" Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Space.com. "That kind of was the wake-up call." SpaceX reassured astronomers that once the satellites settled into place, they would stop masquerading as the stars they are named for. McDowell wanted to confirm the accuracy of Musk's statement, so he asked an email Listserv of amateur astronomers to wait for the first batch of Starlink satellites to reach their final orbit, then compare the brightness of specific satellites to the stars around them.

Those observations started in July. McDowell hasn't completed an exhaustive analysis, but he said the preliminary results are concerning, with Starlink satellites regularly clocking in at magnitudes between 4 and 7, which is bright enough to see without a telescope. "The bottom-line answer is, you can consistently see these things," he said. The initial Starlink launch carried 60 satellites, but that's just a tiny fraction of what SpaceX has described as its long-term plan, of launching tens of thousands of the devices in orbit. "It's not going to be just the occasional interference, it's going to be continual." (11/10)

Next Three-Man Soyuz Crew Training to Have Space Station to Themselves (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The next three-man crew to launch on a Soyuz rocket — comprising two Russian cosmonauts and a veteran NASA astronaut — is training to have the International Space Station to themselves after their arrival at the orbiting research outpost in April, at least until new U.S. commercial crew ships enter service. The next Soyuz crew is scheduled to launch April 9 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to kick off an expedition planned to last around six-and-a-half months.

Cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov will command the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft, and Andrei Babkin will serve as the primary flight engineer. Both will launch on their first space missions. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy — making this third spaceflight — will join Tikhonov and Babkin on the Soyuz launch. Cassidy will become commander of the space station’s Expedition 63 crew once the Soyuz docks with the orbiting complex. “What we’re preparing for … is a six-month duration where it’s just the three of us,” Cassidy said. (11/9)

North Korea Targeted ISRO in Cyberattack (Source: The Quint)
A day after reports emerged suggesting that it was not just the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant but also ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) that was warned on 3 September of a possible cyber breach by a data-theft malware, the national space agency has confirmed that they were alerted. While an official at ISRO did say that they were alerted by CERT-In, he also added that their systems were “unaffected”. The alert of a possible intrusion into ISRO’s systems came during India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission, that commenced on 22 July and ended on 7 September. (11/8)

Spaceport America a Smart Oil-Boom Investment (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
I count myself fortunate to have been involved with Spaceport America since the early days, back in 2005. Even then, we knew Spaceport America held unlimited opportunity for New Mexico. We also knew it would require patience for that opportunity to come to fruition. Now, we see that potential in reach as we look ahead to 2020 and Virgin Galactic’s inaugural commercial space flight.

Commercial space tourism will be a world-changing industry. Those who travel into suborbital space will come back as astronauts. This opportunity is a dream come true for people worldwide. Currently, there are more people signed up to fly with Virgin Galactic than there are certified astronauts in the world. This means that people worldwide will be flocking to New Mexico in droves to fulfill their bucket-list experience of flying into space, and they’ll bring family and friends with them.

Not only will Virgin Galactic’s first – and subsequent – flights place New Mexico in the international spotlight, generating an incredible tourism boom, but they will also pave the way for additional growth and expansion. We can only imagine the many exciting space developments that will evolve from Spaceport America – vertical rockets carrying payloads into suborbital space, research projects evaluating the effects of space on things animate and inanimate, high-speed inter-spaceport travel, retrieving and reclaiming space junk and debris, rapid troop deployment and surely much more. (11/10)

Shetland Space Center Entrepreneur in Row Over £600k Public Loan (Source: Daily Record)
A businessman vying to build the UK’s first spaceport transferred a £610,000 public loan to another of his firms before it was liquidated. Former RAF officer Frank Strang’s Shetland FM, which managed accommodation for offshore workers in Shetland, collapsed last month with a huge sum outstanding to Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). The Scottish Government finance quango gave his Sella Ness-based firm the loan in 2017.

Last week, it said it could take legal action to recover the owed money. But father-of-two Strang, who is also the boss of Shetland Space Centre (SSC), has insisted he will pay back the loan. Latest accounts for Shetland FM – a facilities management firm based at Sella Ness on the main island in the Shetlands – show it transferred the six-figure loan to another of Strang’s companies, Saxa Vord Limited, in July 2017. Both companies list him and wife Deborah, 54, as being the only officers for the firms. The following December, Saxa Vord Limited changed its ownership structure so that it was largely owned by Temily Holdings Limited, which in turn is owned by his children Emily and Thomas. (11/10)

Orbiting Hotel With $5M Luxury Suites Needs Investors to Get Off the Ground (Source: Fox Business)
The billions it will cost to build the planet’s first luxury hotel in low Earth orbit could be well spent if the developers can prove that private space construction is possible and profitable. That’s the gamble that the Gateway Foundation is making with its Werner Von Braun Hotel, with an eye toward building even larger facilities like a spaceport and convincing other space-faring companies that it has the technology needed for megastructures such as orbiting factories and power plants.

It remains to be seen whether investors will get behind the idea. As an industry, space tourism is in its infancy. Nevertheless, space-based business is expected to be worth billions of dollars a year, according to several analyses. “We need to get investors to see how money can be made,” said John Blincow, president of Gateway and CEO of Orbital Assembly. “Von Braun is key to that because it’s a big hotel.” (11/9)

Is the UAE Set to See More Startups in the Space Sector? (Source: Gulf Business)
In the past two years alone, UAE investments in space have exceeded Dhs22bn, leading to the establishment of 57 space-related entities and the creation of 1,500 jobs. Much of that spending has been governmental – but there’s also been support for startups. Some of that has come in the form of open competitions to encourage the best startup talent to come forward. For instance, last year the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre’s (MBRSC) Innovation Challenge gave $60,000 to the top three out of 15 finalists.

Simply going to space is not enough for the UAE – there are also ambitious initiatives such as establishing a human colony on Mars by 2117. But before that, a probe is planned to be sent to the Red Planet in 2020 as part of the Hope Mars Mission. Should the probe make it to Mars (by 2021, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE), it’ll be the first sent by an Arab country. All these initiatives mean plenty of opportunity for startups – and again, they also require enormous amounts of financial investment and investment in new technologies. (11/9)

One Man’s Mistake, Missing Backups and Complete Reboot: The Tale of Europe’s Galileo Satellites Going Dark (Source: The Register)
Key details about the failure of Europe’s Galileo satellite system over the summer have started to emerge - and it’s not pretty. While one key official has sought to blame a single individual for the system going dark, insiders warn that organizational chaos, excessive secrecy and some unusual self-regulation is as much to blame.

Combined with those problems, a battle between European organizations over the satellite system, and a delayed independent report into the July cock-up, means things aren’t looking good for Europe’s answer to America’s GPS system. A much needed shake-up may be on its way. In mid-July, the agency in charge of the network of 26 satellites, the European Global Navigation Satellite Systems Agency (EGSA), warned of a “service degradation” but assured everyone that it would quickly be resolved.

It wasn’t resolved however, and six days later the system was not only still down but getting increasingly inaccurate, with satellites reporting that they were in completely different positions in orbit than they were supposed to be - a big problem for a system whose entire purpose is to provide state-of-the-art positional accuracy to within 20 centimeters. Billions of organizations, individuals, phones, apps and so on from across the globe simply stopped listening to Galileo. It’s hard to imagine a bigger mess, aside from the satellites crashing down to Earth. (11/8)