May 23, 2022

China, U.S. are Racing to Make Billions From Mining the Moon’s Minerals (Source: Seattle Times)
The inability of the U.S. and China to cooperate on space risks not only an arms race, but also clashes over extracting potentially hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of resources on the moon and elsewhere. “Our concern in the West is more about who sets the rules of the road, particularly access to resources,” said Malcolm Davis. At the center of the dispute is the U.S.-drafted Artemis Accords, a nonlegally binding set of principles to govern activity on the moon, Mars and beyond.

The initiative, which NASA says is grounded in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, forms the foundation of the space agency’s effort to put astronauts on the moon this decade and kick-start mining operations of lucrative lunar elements. China and Russia have led opposition to the accords, vowing greater space cooperation in early February as part of a “no limits” partnership when Putin visited President Xi Jinping in Beijing shortly before the war began. They are jointly promoting an alternative project on the moon they say is open to all other countries.

Beijing wants any rule-making to be settled at the U.N., where it can count on support from a wider group of countries eager for friendly ties with the world’s second-biggest economy. “It’s time the U.S. woke up and smelled the coffee,” the official China Daily proclaimed. China has good reason to be suspicious of U.S. efforts in space. American legislation first passed in 2011 prevents NASA from most interactions with its Chinese counterpart, and the U.S. has blocked China from taking part in the International Space Station. (5/21)

Starliner Could Keep ULA Atlas Flying Beyond Vulcan (Source: Space News)
Future Starliner missions will continue to launch on Atlas 5 rockets even as United Launch Alliance moves to retire the vehicle. NASA and ULA officials said last week that Boeing's contract for launches of the spacecraft cover all six operational, or post-certification, missions after a crewed test flight scheduled for as soon as late this year. With an anticipated flight rate of just one Starliner per year, that contract would mean Atlas 5 would need to operate well into the latter half of the 2020s. ULA said it has plans in place to ensure Atlas 5 operations as long as needed for Starliner, even as it transitions to the Vulcan Centaur. (5/23)

SpaceX Private Placement of Stock Seeks to Raise $1.7 Billion (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX seeks to raise $1.7 billion in a new round at a higher valuation. The private placement would value the company at $127 billion, up from $100 billion last fall. The new funding round is in addition to a secondary sale of stock by company employees and other existing shareholders recently announced. (5/23)

China Launches Three Commsats on Long March 2C Rocket (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
China launched three communications satellites into low Earth orbit Friday. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off at 6:30 a.m. Eastern Friday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and placed three spacecraft into orbit. Two of the satellites were built by Chang Guang Satellite Technology Co. Ltd., which previously has focused on remote sensing satellites. A third, described as a technology demonstration satellite, was built by the China Academy of Space Technology. (5/23)

Industry Groups Urge Congress to Reauthorize NASA (Source: Space News)
Industry groups are calling on Congress to pass a NASA authorization bill. A letter last week by a dozen organizations said that it was time for Congress to pass a new authorization to reflect changes at the agency since the last bill was enacted in 2017. The letter did not take a position on what should be included in the bill or how it should be passed. A House-Senate conference committee started work earlier this month on hammering out differences between competitiveness bills they separately passed, with the Senate version, but not the House one, including a NASA authorization. (5/23)

Space Force Plans for Involvement in Different Theater Commands (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force is working on getting components of the service included in various theater commands. An initial priority for the Space Force is to include a component in Indo-Pacific Command because of the "pacing threat" posed by China, said Space Force Lt. Gen. Chance Saltzman last week. Those plans, he said, require approval from the secretary of defense, which remains pending. Space Force personnel deployed in various theaters are assigned to Air Force components for the time being. (5/23)

Eutelsat Reports Third Quarter and Nine-month Revenues of €285 Million (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Eutelsat Communications reports revenues for the Third Quarter and Nine Months ended 31 March 2022. Eva Berneke, Chief Executive Officer of Eutelsat Communications, said: “The Third Quarter saw robust delivery, with an improvement in Broadcast trend and strong double-digit growth in both Fixed Broadband and Mobile Connectivity whereas Government Services inevitably reflected the geopolitical environment in the Middle East.  (5/22)

US and Japan Aim for Lunar Landing (Source: Space Daily)
Japan and the United States said Monday they want to put the first Japanese astronaut on the Moon as the allies deepen cooperation on space projects. No non-American has ever touched down on the lunar surface, and Japan has previously said it hopes to achieve a Moon landing by the end of this decade. President Joe Biden, after his first face-to-face meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, said the nations will work together in the US-led Artemis programme to send humans to the Moon, and later to Mars. Biden said he was "excited" about the collaboration, including on the Gateway facility, which will orbit the Moon and provide support for future missions. (5/23)

SpaceX Dragon Hypergolic Leak Risked Crew, NASA Investigation Underway (Source: Space Explored)
SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has been very successful since its first crewed launch on Demo-2. While reuse is paramount to SpaceX’s mission, the Dragon capsule heat shield has started to cause issues once again that could put astronauts at risk. SpaceX’s Dragon capsule hasn’t been totally free of issues up to this point, but the issues have been comparably minor.

SpaceX made NASA aware of the issues with Axiom’s Crew Dragon heat shield, which has led to an NESC inquiry taking place in relation to the excessive wear. Last year, it became known that SpaceX was planning to reuse its thermal protection system for Dragon between launches – both the backshell and the primary heat shield. Heat shield reuse requires in-depth inspection, though the possibilities with inspection are limited, and the number of times an ablative heat shield can be reused is limited.

The most serious issue affected the spacecraft during its return to Earth. Hypergolic propellant made its way into the Crew Dragon Endeavour’s heat shield, according to sources at SpaceX and NASA. While SpaceX would like to reuse the thermal protection system, the safety of astronauts must always be a top priority. If that means spending the extra expense and time between missions to replace the entire heat shield rather than relying on a potentially sub-par inspection, it is always worth it. (5/23)

The Space Industry is on its Way to Reach $1 Trillion in Revenue by 2040, Citi Says (Source: CNBC)
Citi expects the space industry to reach $1 trillion in annual revenue by 2040, with launch costs dropping 95% to unlock more services from orbit. The global space economy’s value reached $424 billion in 2020, having expanded 70% since 2010. Despite the optimistic outlook on the space economy’s future, Citi emphasized that much about the industry remains speculative, “such as space-based solar power, moon/asteroid mining, space logistics/cargo, space tourism, intercity rocket travel, and microgravity R&D and construction.”

“Revenue from manufacturing, launch services and ground equipment will make up the majority of the revenue growth in the satellite sector,” Citi said. “However, the fastest growth rate is expected to come from new space applications and industries, with revenue forecast to rise from zero to $101 billion over the period.” (5/21)

How NASA’s DAVINCI Probe will Withstand the Hellish Conditions of Venus (Source: Digital Trends)
When it is dropped into the atmosphere, DAVINCI will be in a race against time to gather all the information it needs before the heat and pressure destroy its components. To keep the probe active for as long as possible, it is spherical and covered in a thick titanium shell to withstand the pressure and insulate against the heat. Then there’s more insulation inside this shell, made of special materials including astroquartz, a type of fiber made from fused quartz.

The interior is designed to keep components thermally isolated from the exterior as well, to prevent heat from being transferred from the shell. It’s then filled with carbon dioxide gas to protect the high-voltage electronics from sparking and to stop any Earth gases from leaking in during launch. Overall, the probe, which the team calls the descent sphere, is about one meter across. It will be released from an orbiter with a parachute to slow its descent, though the atmosphere helps with this because it’s so thick that it’s more like dropping the probe through water than through air.

The descent sphere will be falling through the atmosphere and sampling all the way down, to build up a picture of the atmosphere from the top to the bottom. Inside the sphere will be instruments like spectrometers, similar to the instruments on the Mars rovers Curiosity and Perseverance, which can measure the chemical composition of samples by looking at the wavelengths of light that they absorb. But unlike the Mars rovers, which can take hours or days to collect and carefully analyze a sample, DAVINCI will have to do its sampling and analysis in a matter of minutes. (5/22)