July 28, 2020

Leveraging Microgravity to Improve Medical Diagnostics (Source: Space Daily)
What if a single drop of blood were all that is needed to provide reliable medical diagnostics in any setting on-or even off-Earth? This week, NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken, who recently launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on the historic SpaceX Demo-2 mission, are working on an investigation from Boston-based biotech startup 1Drop Diagnostics to enhance a portable device that can run diagnostic tests from anywhere using just one drop of blood. Click here. (7/17)

China's Probe Radar to Explore Internal Structure of Mars (Source: Space Daily)
After landing on Mars, China's Tianwen-1 probe will detect the surface and internal structure of the red planet by using its onboard radar equipment. A ground-penetrating radar, a key probe instrument, was developed by the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is expected to survey the Martian soil and ice, and to collect data about the structure beneath the planet's surface at depths of between 10 and 100 meters. (7/28)

Mars Helicopter Ready for Mission (Source: Space Daily)
After years of design tweaks and dozens of flight tests, engineers are confident the Ingenuity helicopter is ready to make history with the first flight by a powered aircraft on another planet. The mission is scheduled to launch from Florida on Thursday. If all goes as planned, the Mars helicopter will lift off from the Martian surface next April. But even if Ingenuity never makes it off the ground, the project won't be in vain, engineers said.

"Mars helicopter is a technology demonstration mission. It's a different type of mission because we're trying to prove that you can do something for the first time, so it's a different kind of mindset," Teddy Tzanetos, test conductor for the helicopter, told UPI. "Getting to Mars and doing a system check, that will be a victory. Separating from the rover, that's another victory. Every one of these milestones will be a reason to celebrate," Tzanetos said. The helicopter is perhaps the most anticipated part of this mission. (7/27)

ExoMars Orbiter Finds New Gas Signatures in Martian Atmosphere (Source: Space Daily)
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has spotted new gas signatures at Mars. These unlock new secrets about the martian atmosphere, and will enable a more accurate determination of whether there is methane, a gas associated with biological or geological activity, at the planet. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has been studying the Red Planet from orbit for over two years. The mission aims to understand the mixture of gases that make up the martian atmosphere, with a special focus on the mystery surrounding the presence of methane there. Meanwhile, the spacecraft has now spotted never-before-seen signatures of ozone (O3) and carbon dioxide (CO2), based on a full martian year of observations by its sensitive Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS). (7/28)

Mars 2020 Mission to be Guided by USGS Astrogeology Maps (Source: Space Daily)
When NASA's Perseverance rover lands on Mars next year, it will be equipped with some of the most precise maps of Mars ever created, courtesy of the USGS Astrogeology Science Center. Not only are the new maps essential for a safe landing on Mars, but they also serve as the foundation upon which the science activities planned for the Mars mission will be built.

"Exploration is part of human nature and USGS has a long history and enduring interest in researching planets other than our own," said USGS director and former NASA astronaut Jim Reilly. "These maps will help the Perseverance mission unlock the mysteries of the red planet's past and guide future missions." Perseverance is expected to launch this week. The mission's goals are to search for evidence of past life and habitable environments in Jezero crater and collect and store samples that, for the first time in history, could be returned to Earth by a future mission.

To safely land on the rugged Martian landscape, the spacecraft will use a new technology called "Terrain Relative Navigation." As it descends through the planet's atmosphere, the spacecraft will use its onboard maps to know precisely where it is and avoid hazards. For the navigation to work, the spacecraft needs the best possible maps of the landing site and surrounding terrain. (7/28)

BAE Wins Major Range Upgrade and Maintenance Contract (Source: Military Aerospace)
Test and measurement experts at BAE Systems will upgrade, repair, and maintain military radars, telemetry and optical range mission systems, flight termination systems, data acquisition systems, and Global Positioning Systems under terms of a $495.5 million six-year contract. Officials of the U.S. Air Force 45th Contracting Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., are asking the BAE Systems Technology Solutions and Services segment in Rockville, Md., to undertake the Instrumentation Range Support Program (IRSP).

This contract provides for serviceable components and subsystems for instrumentation tracking systems worldwide for foreign and domestic government agencies to include radars, telemetry and optical range mission systems, flight termination systems, data acquisition systems, and Global Positioning Systems (GPS). There are 27 ranges participating in the program; including Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA, Department of Energy, and six foreign ranges in the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Republic of Korea, and Switzerland. (7/27)

Space Force Delays Rank Structure Decision as Bill Moves Through Congress (Source: Space News)
The Space Force will delay final decisions about its rank structure and insignia. The Space Force currently uses the Air Force rank structure, but a provision in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act would require the new service to use Navy ranks. Space Force members come from the Air Force so the idea that they could be using Navy ranks caught many by surprise. During a Facebook Live event last week, Chief Master Sgt. Roger Towberman, the senior enlisted adviser of the Space Force, said the space service will continue to use the Air Force rank structure until this issue is resolved in the legislative process. (7/28)

Adaptable Satellites Planned for Military Constellation (Source: Space Daily)
The U.S. Air Force and a private technology company in Texas started to develop new satellites this summer that are capable of quick software changes in orbit to respond to threats and to carry out new tasks. Austin-based Hypergiant, which works on several kinds of artificial intelligence, has a formal but classified agreement to develop technology for the Air Force, with a potential $10 million contract in weapon systems support satellites, founder and CEO Ben Lamm said.

The company, founded in 2018, has about 200 employees and develops artificial intelligence for satellites, surveillance technology and other applications. For the new military satellites, the goal is to create a new constellation of 24 to 36 satellites, called Chameleon, that could be retasked to avoid debris, counter new weapons and block new cyberattacks or whatever conditions they might encounter, Lamm said. (7/27)

Hurricane Damage and Other Technical Issues Scrub Texas Starship Test (Source: Teslarati)
Technical issues scrubbed a static-fire test of the latest SpaceX Starship prototype. The test of the Starship SN5 vehicle at the company's Boca Chica, Texas, test site was first delayed because of a connector damaged by Hurricane Hanna over the weekend, then scrubbed by other technical glitches. The static-fire test will be the first for a Starship prototype since the SN4 prototype was destroyed in an explosion minutes after a test two months ago. (7/28)

Japanese Astronaut Assigned to Another Crew Dragon Mission (Source: NHK)
A Japanese astronaut has been assigned to another commercial crew mission. The Japanese space agency JAXA said that Akihiko Hoshide will be on the crew of the second operational Crew Dragon mission in the spring of 2021. NASA has not yet announced crew assignments for that Crew-2 mission or confirmed a launch date. JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi will be on the Crew-1 Crew Dragon mission, along with three NASA astronauts, scheduled to launch no earlier than late September. (7/28)

Walheim Leaves NASA Astronaut Corps (Source: NASA)
A NASA astronaut who was on the final space shuttle mission is retiring. Rex Walheim left NASA Monday after a combined 36 years of government service at NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Walheim was selected as an astronaut in 1996 and flew on three shuttle missions, including the final flight, STS-135, in 2011. He was most recently deputy director of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at the Johnson Space Center. (7/28)

New ‘Cognitive Radio’ System Could be a Game-Changer for Communication in Space (Source: Digital Trends)
Radio communications should travel perfectly through space, right? Well, not exactly, as it turns out. There’s plenty to interfere with radio communications away from the surface of Earth, including (but not limited to) cosmic noise and our planet’s fluctuating ionosphere that is perfectly capable of impairing the link between satellite and ground station.

To try and get around this problem, which could disrupt future space missions, researchers from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Penn State University have been working with NASA to test what they call cognitive radios. These smart radios use artificial neural networks to adjust their settings in real time, optimizing their ability to stay in contact even under challenging circumstances. As such, they could be game-changers in difficult space environments where getting a human to reconfigure them may be next to impossible. In the team’s tests, the cognitive radios were able to maintain a clear signal between the  International Space Station (ISS) and the ground.

“Our cognitive radio maps the relationship between the parameters and the performance values of the space communication system, as well as includes the environmental conditions such as the signal-to-noise ratio, using an approach called reinforcement learning neural networks,” Alex Wyglinski, professor of electrical engineering and robotics engineering at Worcester Polytechnic, told Digital Trends. (7/24)

Meet the First and Only Air Force Pilot to Shoot Down a Satellite (Source: Task and Purpose)
On Sep. 13, 1985, an Air Force pilot pushed his F-15A into a steep climb at near-supersonic speeds as he prepared to launch into history. The pilot had prepared many months for what he was about to do: fire a heat-seeking missile towards a satellite the size of a 1969 Volkswagen as it hurtled through orbit at five miles a second. Basically, he was about to hit a bullet with another bullet, which would require absolutely perfect timing. But the pilot was ready for it.

“After we left the tanker, I started getting very confident we were going to make our timing,” said Maj. Gen. Wilbert “Doug” Pearson Jr. (ret.), who was then a major. “Everything was looking just perfect as we flew out to the launch point.” The G-forces piled on as Pearson climbed 7 miles over the Pacific Ocean at nearly Mach 1. He was about 200 miles off the coast of southern California, but his target, an aging weather satellite, was still over Hawaii, more than 2,000 miles west. That was just fine for Pearson, whose aircraft carried the ASM-135, a missile purpose-built to hit that faraway mark.

At 38,100 feet, Pearson launched the missile, which blew through two rocket stages as it left the atmosphere. It then released a miniature homing vehicle that locked onto the satellite’s infrared image and rammed it at 15,000 miles per hour 345 miles above the Earth. Pearson was too far away to see the hit or the 285 pieces of debris that scattered into orbit. Mission control back at Vandenberg Air Force Base also couldn’t tell him, since they were not using a secure channel and the event was considered classified. Click here. (7/7)