January 17, 2020

Strange Objects that "Look Like Gas and Behave Like Stars" Discovered Orbiting Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole (Source: CBS)
The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, is always up to something unusual. Now, astronomers have spotted strange new objects close by — and they aren't quite sure what they are. Using 13 years worth of data from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, astronomers were able to identify a new class of objects extremely close to the black hole, Sagittarius A*. The six objects, named G1 through G6, appear to be interacting with the black hole. "These objects look like gas and behave like stars," co-author Andrea Ghez said in a statement. (1/15)

Bezos and the Idea of a Factory in Space (Source: Live Mint)
As the prime mover of Blue Origin, a space venture, he has touched upon extra-planetary manufacturing as a concept earlier, notably in the context of a space carrier the company is developing to haul cargo to the moon. However, a lunar factory was taken as just another pie-in-the-sky—cool, but a little too dreamy. But what if it can be done? And what if it actually makes sense?

Consider the state of space rivalry. While Elon Musk’s SpaceX has lowered flight costs with easily-reusable crafts for space tourism, Blue Origin is reported to have a strategic edge with heavy payload lifting, the kind that would be needed to set up a production unit on some other celestial body. Conceivably, the big set-up challenge would involve getting equipment up there, exactly what Bezos’s company appears to be working on. As for land acquisition, while no government can lay claim to extraterrestrial land and resources under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, there is nobody out there to enforce it either, which means that finders get to be keepers. (1/15)

Ohio Will Help US Get Back to the Moon and Beyond (Source: Columbus Dispatch)
We’re explorers. It’s what humans do. Throughout our history, we’ve left the relative comfort of our homes in search of resources, discovery and knowledge. We’ll trek across vast mountains, sail uncharted oceans, take to the sky and hurtle across the expanse of space in our never-ending quest to explore. It’s this innate desire that brings us to the next frontier in human exploration: the Artemis program and our missions to the moon. Some say we don’t need the moon; they believe we need to go directly to Mars. But we need the moon if we are to successfully send humans to Mars.

And unlike Apollo, NASA’s Artemis program will send the first woman and next man to the moon in 2024 to establish a long-term human presence, creating a proving ground where we can learn from our closest cosmic neighbor. There, we’ll better understand how to live and work in deep space, we’ll develop the tools and processes needed for extended exploration, and we’ll use the moon’s resources, namely its vast amounts of ice, to produce the fundamental chemical elements required for space travel. This lunar education is the only thing that can truly prepare us for Mars. (1/15)

Scientists Sent Mighty Mice To Space To Improve Treatments Back On Earth (Source: NPR)
In early December at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, two anxious scientists were about to send 20 years of research into orbit. "I feel like our heart and soul is going up in that thing," Dr. Emily Germain-Lee told her husband, Dr. Se-Jin Lee, as they waited arm-in-arm for a SpaceX rocket to launch. A few seconds later the spacecraft took off, transporting some very unusual mice to the International Space Station, where they would spend more than a month in near zero gravity.

Ordinarily, that would cause the animals' bones to weaken and their muscles to atrophy. But Lee and Germain-Lee, a power couple in the research world, were hoping that wouldn't happen with these mice. The couple hope that what they learn from these mice will lead to new treatments for millions of people with conditions that weaken muscles and bones. Among those who might eventually benefit: children with muscular dystrophy or brittle bone disease, cancer patients with muscle wasting, bedridden patients recovering from hip fractures, older people whose bones and muscles have become dangerously weak, and astronauts on long space voyages. (1/16)

Earth Bacteria May Have Colonized Other Solar Systems (Source: Cosmos)
Could the Earth be a life-exporting planet? That’s the curious question examined in a recent paper written by Harvard University astronomers Amir Siraj and Abraham Loeb. The researchers take a novel twist on the controversial notion of panspermia – the idea, propelled into the mainstream in the early 1970s by astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe, that life might have started on Earth through microbes arriving from space.

The theory is generally discounted, although eminent astrophysicists such as Stephen Hawking conceded it was at least possible, and a major paper published in 2018 revived the topic big-time. In their paper, Siraj and Loeb reverse the standard assumption about the direction of the microbial journey and ask whether it is possible to that at some point Earth-evolved bacteria could have been propelled away from the planet, possibly to be deposited somewhere else in the Milky Way. (1/16)

China Launches 5G Satellite (Source: Space News)
China launched an experimental 5G communications satellite Wednesday night. A Kuaizhou-1A solid launch vehicle lifted off from a mobile platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:02 p.m. Eastern and placed the Yinhe-1 (Galaxy-1) technology verification satellite into low Earth orbit. The satellite, developed by Chinese company Galaxy Space, is expected to test Q/V- and Ka-band communications at up to 10 gigabits per second. The satellite is part of plans to establish a global 5G constellation based on the "low-cost, high-performance" Galaxy-1 small satellite platform. (1/16)

NASA Astronauts Replace ISS Batteries During 7.5 Hour Spacewalk (Source: Space.com)
Two NASA astronauts replaced batteries outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk Wednesday. Jessica Meir and Christina Koch spent seven and a half hours outside the station, resuming work to replace batteries in the station's power system that had been postponed when a battery charging unit malfunctioned after an October spacewalk. The work was successful despite a problem with a camera and light mounted on Koch's helmet that required Meir to remove it early in the spacewalk. The two astronauts are scheduled to perform another spacewalk Monday to complete the battery replacement work. (1/16)

ESA Seeks New Agreement With European Union (Source: Space News)
The head of the European Space Agency said a priority for him this year is negotiating a new cooperative agreement with the European Union. Jan Woerner said he hopes to complete later this year a new financial framework partnership agreement with the EU governing joint work on the Copernicus and Galileo programs. EU's next space budget, starting in 2021, is uncertain after a proposal last month to slash the prior proposed budget of 16.9 billion euros over seven years by up to 25%, but Woerner said that should not affect ESA's roles in those programs. Woerner and others added at the meeting they were optimistic the ExoMars 2020 mission would launch this summer after recent successful tests of a revised parachute system for the lander. (1/16)

Spire Releases Cubesat GNSS Data (Source: Space News)
Spire has released the first data from a pair of experimental cubesats. The two satellites, launched in December, collect Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) reflectometry data, measuring GPS and other navigation systems' signals that reflect off the Earth's surface. Those satellites, the company says, can measure soil moisture and ocean wind conditions, and can serve applications such as weather forecasting, agriculture, drought monitoring and flood prediction. (1/16)

Treaty's End Could Jeopardize US. Satellites (Source: Space News)
The end of an arms control agreement could put American satellites in jeopardy. A report by the Aerospace Corporation released Wednesday notes that if the New Start arms control agreement is allowed to expire in 2021, limits on U.S. and Russian nuclear arms will cease as well as prohibitions on interference with space-based "national technical means" that are used to verify treaty compliance. The United States might have to prepare for the possibility that Russia could try to interfere with both U.S. government and commercial remote sensing assets, the report argued. It could also mean that, without the on-site inspections currently allowed under the treaty, space assets will be in greater demand to monitor Russian nuclear programs, pulling those satellites away from other uses. (1/16)

Boeing Starliner Will Require "Minimal" Refurbishment Before Next Mission (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft that flew a shortened test flight last month will need only "minimal" refurbishment before it's ready for its next mission. Boeing engineers said Wednesday that the spacecraft, now back at the Kennedy Space Center, shows little external wear from its two-day orbital flight and likely will need on a modest amount of work to prepare it for its next mission, a crewed operational mission to the ISS. The cause of the timer anomaly that caused the flight to be shortened from more than a week to just two days remains under investigation. (1/16)

Virgin Galactic Promotes Palermo to COO (Source: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic has appointed a longtime executive as its first chief operating officer. Enrico Palermo started Wednesday as COO while keeping his previous job as president of The Spaceship Company, Virgin's wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary. Palermo, who has been with Virgin for 13 years, will "lead the execution of specific company strategies and initiatives" in his new role as COO, the company said. (1/16)

Bermuda Seeks Space Industry Role (Source: Royal Gazette)
Bermuda will host a space sustainability workshop next week as it seeks a bigger role in the space industry. The invitation-only workshop next week, held in conjunction with the Secure World Foundation, will bring together government and industry leaders to discuss space industry development and space sustainability issues. The effort is part of a broader strategy of diversifying Bermuda's economy. (1/16)

Plant-Powered Sensor Sends Signal to Space (Source: ESA)
A device that uses electricity generated by plants as its power source has communicated via satellite – a world first. Such sensors could be used to connect everyday objects in remote locations, enabling them to send and receive data as part of the Internet of Things. The device can inform farmers about the conditions of their crops to help increase yield, and enable retailers to gain detailed information about potential harvests. It transmits data on air humidity, soil moisture and temperature, enabling field-by-field reporting from agricultural land, rice fields or other aquatic environments. (1/15)

Argentine Smallsats Hitch Ride with Chinese Payloads on Long March Rocket (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Two Earth-imaging microsatellites built and owned by the Argentine company Satellogic launched on a Long March 2D rocket from China Wednesday, sharing a ride into orbit with two Chinese spacecraft. The ÑuSat 7 and 8 satellites — each about 45 kilograms (100 pounds) — lifted off on a two-stage, liquid-fueled Long March 2D rocket from the Taiyuan launch base in northern China’s Shanxi province. (1/15)