November 27, 2020

Spanish Science Minister Calls for Better Regulation of Private Space Activities (Source: Sputnik)
The increased activity of private companies in space and the ensuing potential conflict of interests with public agencies has revealed the urgent need for an appropriate legal framework, said Pedro Duque, a former astronaut who now heads the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. "I think we need to stick to the working scheme of cooperation with the private sector in this area. The private sector is often developing the technology and it becomes part of the market and then the public sector has to engage in regulations so that the exploitation is reasonable", the minister said. (11/26)

Proof of Solar Thermal Propulsion: The Key to Interstellar Travel (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are prototyping a previously theoretical rocket design that could someday take spacecraft to interstellar space. Their plan? Use heat from the sun, rather than combustion, to power a rocket engine. Unlike a traditional engine that's mounted on the rear end of a rocket, the experimental solar-powered engine takes the shape of a flat shield made from black carbon foam. The engine would double as a heat shield, protecting the probe from the sun’s powerful rays, while coils of tubing filled with hydrogen lying beneath the surface absorb heat from the sun. (11/23)

Chief of Space Operations Discusses Need for Outreach to Partners, State of Space Force (Source: DoD)
The importance of space to the modern world cannot be underestimated, and the U.S. Space Force will be key to defending the ultimate "high ground," said Space Force Gen. John "Jay" Raymond, the chief of space operations for the new service. Other nations are realizing the crucial role of space, as well, and the general is meeting with allies and partners to build on long-established military-to-military relationships. Click here. (11/25)

The Biology of Spaceflight (Source: Cell)
As humankind reaches for the stars to journey to the next frontier in space, research on spaceflight biology is critical for understanding how living systems, including human health, may be affected by spaceflight and space exploration. This special collection on the biology of spaceflight, published in Cell and other Cell Press journals, includes research articles, short communications, and a review article that cover studies with model systems and astronaut samples. Click here. (11/25)

Israel's Next Satellite: A Smartphone in Space (Source: Israel Hayom)
Work is on track to develop and build Israel's next-generation communications satellite, ensuring that Israel will retain its independence in the critical domain of space-based communications, executives from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which is building the satellite, said. IAI announced on Jan. 3 that it had signed an agreement with the Israeli government for the development and construction of Israel's next communications satellite, dubbed "Dror 1."

"The Dror 1 is intended to meet the satellite communication needs of Israel for the next fifteen years," IAI said in a statement. The satellite "is comprised primarily of local Israeli technologies developed at IAI, including an advanced digital communication payload." ... "This is a fully digital satellite that can upload applications. It can broadcast data from one antenna and receive from another," said Shlomi Sudri. (11/26)

Black Holes So Big We Don't Know How They Form Could Be Hiding in the Universe (Source: Live Science)
Black holes can get big … really big. But just how big? It's possible they could top out at over a trillion times more massive than the sun. That's 10 times bigger than the largest known black hole so far. But could these monsters truly exist in our universe? A team of researchers has come up with a plan to go hunting for them. And if they exist, they could help us solve the mysteries of how the first stars appeared in the cosmos.

Astronomers have long been hunting for outliers: black holes smaller than five solar masses or in between stellar and supermassive black hole size. But a new paper (not yet peer-reviewed) poses a completely different kind of question: What if we took the biggest black holes and turned them up to 11? This entirely new class of black holes, would dwarf the supermassives. These "stupendously large black holes" would start at a trillion solar masses (10 times bigger than the current largest known black hole) and could possibly be even bigger. (9/28)

Musk Promoted Coronavirus Misinformation for Months, Then His Own Infection Kept Him From NASA Launch (Source: Business Insider)
Elon Musk's recent tweets revealed either a deep misunderstanding of how coronavirus testing and infection work, or a refusal to accept it. It wasn't the first time."The coronavirus panic is dumb," Musk tweeted on March 6. In the case of his own test results, Musk was not acknowledging the FDA's guidance about the antigen test he took. The agency says that in the case of a positive result, antigen tests "are highly accurate, but there is a higher chance of false negatives, so negative results do not rule out infection."

PCR tests, meanwhile, take longer to process but are the gold standard for diagnosis. Musk was still awaiting his PCR results when he started tweeting. He still has not shared those results, but he said on November 18 that he "def" had the coronavirus. In the months preceding his diagnosis, Musk insisted that the virus was not very deadly, that young people weren't vulnerable, and that doctors were misattributing deaths to COVID-19 instead of other causes. He sent employees back to work at his California Tesla factory.

But then, just days before Musk's rocket company made history, biological reality seemed to strike the second-richest person on Earth. Musk may finally be coming around to the truth of this pandemic. He did not, however, respond to Business Insider's request for comment. In a September interview on the podcast "Sway," Musk told interviewer Kara Swisher that he would not get the COVID-19 vaccine, nor want his family to do so. The reason he gave was that he was "not at risk for COVID, nor are my kids." He didn't elaborate further on that stance, and he didn't acknowledge that even if you are healthy, young, and less likely to experience severe symptoms, getting vaccinated can prevent you from spreading the virus to someone more vulnerable. (11/26)

European Space Agency Signs $102 Million Deal to Bring Space Trash Home (Source: New York Post)
The European Space Agency says it is signing a 86 million-euro ($102 million) contract with a Swiss start-up company to bring a large piece of orbital trash back to Earth. The agency said Thursday that the deal with ClearSpace SA will lead to the “first active debris removal mission” in 2025, in which a custom-made spacecraft will capture and bring down part of a rocket once used to deliver a satellite into orbit. (11/26)

Earth Just Got 2,000 Light-Years Closer to Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole (Source: C/Net)
At the center of the our galaxy there's a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. It has a mass roughly 4 million times that of our sun. Great news! It turns out scientists have discovered that we're 2,000 light-years closer to Sagittarius A* than we thought. This doesn't mean we're currently on a collision course with a black hole. No, it's simply the result of a more accurate model of the Milky Way based on new data.

Over the last 15 years, a Japanese radio astronomy project, VERA, has been gathering data. Using a technique called interferometry, VERA gathered data from telescopes across Japan and combined them with data from other existing projects to create what is essentially the most accurate map of the Milky Way yet. By pinpointing the location and velocity of around 99 specific points in our galaxy, VERA has concluded that the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A, at the center of our galaxy, is actually 25,800 light-years from Earth -- almost 2,000 light-years closer than what we previously believed. (11/26)

Scientists, Students Demand Action to Keep Arecibo Radio Telescope Operating (Source: ABC)
After the National Scientific Foundation (NSF) announced last Thursday the demolition and decommission of the iconic Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, scientists, experts and many Puerto Ricans have taken to digital platforms to plead with the government to save the 57-year-old observatory. Many including researchers and students are using #SaveTheAreciboObservatory and #WhatAreciboMeansToMe hashtags to share the observatory's impact in their lives and the scientific world. A Twitter account called Save the Arecibo Observatory has also been created.

"#WhatAreciboMeansToMe: More than a telescope," Kevin Ortiz, a physics student at the University of Puerto Rico, wrote on Twitter. For him, the observatory has had "an incalculable impact in the communities of PR." Organizations including the Planetary Society are also joining the conversation on social media. "Arecibo Observatory touched the lives of so many people. Its scientific achievements enriched our understanding of the universe and helped protect our planet from asteroids," the organization said in a tweet. (11/26)

SpaceX Uses Booster Seventh Time on Starlink Launch (Source: Space Daily)
SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 first-stage boosters for a record seventh time Tuesday night as the company launched more of its Starlink satellites from Florida. The rocket booster for the mission flew on four other Starlink launches, most recently in August, and two missions for other satellite companies. (11/24)

The Universe is Expanding Too Fast, and That Could Rewrite Cosmology (Source: New Scientist)   
There is something seriously wrong with our understanding of the cosmos. When we measure the rate at which the universe is expanding, we get different results depending on whether we extrapolate from the early universe or look at exploding stars in nearby galaxies. The discrepancy means that everything is speeding apart more quickly than we expect. The problem originally surfaced a few years ago, and the hope was that it would fade away with more precise observations. In fact, the latest measurements have made it impossible to ignore.

Cosmologists have been scrabbling for answers. They have played around with the properties of dark energy and dark matter, those two well-known, yet still mysterious, components of our standard model of cosmology. They have imagined all manner of new exotic ingredients – all to no avail.

The conclusion could hardly be starker. Our best model of the cosmos, a seemingly serenely sailing ship, might be holed beneath the water line. That has led some researchers to suggest taking the ultimate step: abandoning that ship and building a new standard model from the ground up, based on a revised understanding of gravity. (11/25)

Vega Failure Shouldn't Be Dismissed as a Vehicle Processing Error (Source: Quartz)
Last week saw the failure of a Vega rocket blamed on a manufacturing error when two cables were inadvertently swapped. Dave Rutkowski wrote in to say that it’s not so obvious that the problem wasn’t in the vehicle design. “Proper design would have keyed the connectors differently so they could not be swapped,” Rutkowski says. “As an example, the Ford oval that appears on the rear deck of all Fords is a plastic piece with three (not two) tabs that fit into three body holes,” he continues. “The holes are not symmetrically spaced so the oval can be inserted only one way.” Sometimes the path to excellent execution is just a better plan! (11/25)

Relativity's Valuation Linked to Manufacturing (Source: Quartz)
At this point, Relativity has raised more than $680 million, which is more than SpaceX or Rocket Lab required to get their first vehicles in orbit. Ellis says his company’s focus on its factory of the future explains some of the difference in timing and capital requirements. “We are intentionally understanding that we have to build the world’s largest 3D printing factory for aerospace,” Ellis says. “It’s like going from on-premise server to cloud, or going from internal combustion to electric. What Relativity is doing is at the forefront of the tradition to software-designed manufacturing.”

China to Begin Construction of Its Space Station Next Year (Source: Sputnik)
China is set to begin construction of its orbital space station next year, deputy head of the Chang Zheng 5 (Long March 5) launch vehicle project of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Qu Yiguang, told reporters. "Since the appearance of the Chang Zheng 5 launch vehicle, it has been determined that it will carry out the mission of launching China's largest spacecraft," Qu said. "Starting next year, we are going to start carrying out launches as part of the mission to build our country's space station," the official said. (11/25)

Moon Mission Tasked with Number of Firsts for China (Source: Space Daily)
The Chang'e 5 lunar mission will need to overcome a succession of challenges and difficulties before it can be declared a complete success, project insiders said. Mission spokesman Pei Zhaoyu said Chang'e 5 will be the first Chinese spacecraft to carry out sample collection and launch operations on an extraterrestrial body, and these maneuvers will be extremely demanding and sophisticated in terms of technology and engineering complexity.

After the samples are collected and packed into the ascender, it will need to be lifted into lunar orbit to rendezvous and dock with the combined orbiter and re-entry capsule in an exceptionally accurate, delicate manner. Otherwise, it will be damaged and fail to deliver the samples, he added. The last challenge, he said, will emerge during the re-entry process as the re-entry capsule will descend through Earth's atmosphere at a speed of 11.2 kilometers per second, much faster than almost all previous Chinese spacecraft. (11/25)

MOXIE Could Help Future Rockets Launch Off Mars (Source: Space Daily)
NASA's Perseverance rover carries a device to convert Martian air into oxygen that, if produced on a larger scale, could be used not just for breathing, but also for fuel. One of the hardest things about sending astronauts to Mars will be getting them home. Launching a rocket off the surface of the Red Planet will require industrial quantities of oxygen, a crucial part of propellant: A crew of four would need about 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of it to produce thrust from 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket fuel.

That's a lot of propellant. But instead of shipping all that oxygen, what if the crew could make it out of thin (Martian) air? A first-generation oxygen generator aboard NASA's Perseverance rover will test technology for doing exactly that. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE, is an experimental instrument that stands apart from Perseverance's primary science. One of the rover's main purposes is capturing returnable rock samples that could carry signs of ancient microbial life. (11/25)