September 30, 2023

NASA’s New Horizons to Continue Exploring Outer Solar System (Source: NASA)
NASA has announced an updated plan to continue New Horizons’ mission of exploration of the outer solar system. Beginning in fiscal year 2025, New Horizons will focus on gathering unique heliophysics data, which can be readily obtained during an extended, low-activity mode of operations. While the science community is not currently aware of any reachable Kuiper Belt object, this new path allows for the possibility of using the spacecraft for a future close flyby of such an object, should one be identified. It also will enable the spacecraft to preserve fuel and reduce operational complexity while a search is conducted for a compelling flyby candidate. (9/29)

Japan’s ispace Opens Denver Headquarters as Companies Chase Moon Market (Source: CNBC)
It seems like everyone wants to go to the moon these days, with serious lunar programs underway in China, India, Japan and the United States. One company is pushing to tap two of those markets: Tokyo-based lunar lander company ispace is rebooting its U.S. subsidiary, aiming to be a key transportation provider in the nascent moon business.

In Denver, Colorado, ispace is cutting the ribbons today on a new U.S. headquarters. The company’s invested over $40 million to date in the subsidiary, which allows ispace to sell to NASA – one of the biggest sources of moon money currently – without violating export control regulations. While the Japanese side of the company is working on flying its “Series 1” lunar lander again after April’s crunching first mission, the U.S. side is developing a separate lander it’s now calling “Apex 1.0,” scheduled to launch on the company’s third overall mission. (9/28)

SpaceX Sent More Starlink Satellites to Orbit Friday Night (Source: Florida Today)
The 230-foot rocket vaulted away from Launch Complex 40 at 10:00 p.m. along a southeasterly trajectory that hugged Florida's coastline. The booster completed its 10th trip to the edge of space and back with a drone ship landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The rocket's upper stage continued on to loft 22 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit. Since beginning dedicated operations to build out the nearly globally spanning constellation, SpaceX has launched about 5,200 of the flat pack satellites and has expanded its service offering to every continent. (9/29)

NASA Battery Tech to Deliver for the Grid (IEEE Spectrum)
Technologies for space are designed to be tough, safe, and long-lasting. So what happens when you bring the battery chemistry deployed on the International Space Station, nickel-hydrogen, down to Earth? “[It’s] the most durable battery ever invented,” says Jorg Heinemann. Nickel-hydrogen batteries, he says, can last for 30,000 charge cycles, are fireproof, and outperform lithium-ion batteries on a number of key metrics for energy storage at the large scale. The California-based startup EnerVenue has redeveloped nickel-hydrogen batteries—a NASA satellite battery tech—for deployment in grid-scale energy-storage facilities. (9/24)

Cathie Wood Sinks $1.8 Million Into Struggling SpaceX Partner (Source: The Street)
Velo3D is a tech company that employs an innovative method of 3D metal printing to manufacture high-end hardware and parts for specific use cases, including spaceships and rocket engines. The company, with a market cap of only $224 million, has been partnered with Elon Musk's SpaceX since 2018, after the space exploration company tried (and failed) to acquire Velo3D  (VLD) . SpaceX now uses Velo3D and its machines to create specific parts for its Raptor engineers. Its customers additionally include Honda, Honeywell and Lockheed Martin.

Following the surprise resignation of the firm's CFO Sep. 26, Velo3D's stock plummeted 19% in a single day, tumbling from $1.40 per share to $1.14. Velo3D shares, down more than 36% for the year, have been struggling lately; the last time the company broke a share price in excess of $6 was in March 2022, when it briefly hit $10. Velo3D narrowly missed analyst loss projects for the second quarter of the year and failed to deliver on revenue projections. Still, the company reported $25 million in revenue for the quarter, a 28% increase from the year-ago period, and record new customer demand. (9/28)

Is it Life, or is it Volcanoes? (Source: Universe Today)
Astronomers are working hard to understand biosignatures and how they indicate life’s presence on an exoplanet. But each planet we encounter is a unique puzzle. When it comes to planetary atmospheres, carbon is a big piece of the puzzle because it has a powerful effect on climate and biogeochemistry. If scientists can figure out how and where a planet’s carbon comes from and how it behaves in the atmosphere, they’ve made progress in solving the puzzle.

But one of the problems with carbon in exoplanet atmospheres is that it can send mixed signals. Carbon, in this context, means all of the major species of carbon, things like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane (CO2, CO, and CH4.) A new study investigates the diversity of these chemicals in the atmospheres of exoplanets similar to Earth orbiting stars similar to the Sun. Click here. (9/28)

NASA Picks SpaceX to Launch Pair of Space Weather Satellites (Source: NASA)
NASA has selected SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, and its Falcon 9 rocket to provide the launch service for the agency’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission, a pair of small satellites that will study space weather and how the Sun’s energy affects Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere. (9/29)

China Plans Second Megaconstellation, G60 Starlink with 12,000 Satellites (Source: South China Morning Post)
China is pushing ahead with the construction of a second satellite megaconstellation to provide broadband internet services and compete with SpaceX’s Starlink. G60 Starlink, which is backed by the Shanghai municipal government, will eventually comprise more than 12,000 satellites in low earth orbit. Its potential size is similar to Guo Wang, or National Network, a separate constellation consisting of some 13,000 satellites and commonly known as China’s answer to Starlink. It is now under construction by the state-owned Guo Wang company. (9/30)

Intuitive Machines Opens $40M Production Center at Houston Spaceport Ahead of Moon Mission (Source: Houston Business Journal)
Houston-based Intuitive Machines has completed its Lunar Operations and Production Center and is preparing to send its first lunar lander product to Florida in support of a NASA mission. Intuitive Machines broke ground on the $40 million center at the Houston Spaceport in December 2021. The center spans 12.5 acres and includes 125,000 square feet of office and production space, including 45-foot cranes intended to move the landers through the facility. Kansas City-based Burns & McConnell designed and built the center. (9/29)

Fancy a Trip to Space From Spain? (Source: Majorca Daily)
They say that Spain has everything under the sun...and soon you will be able to go up into space. Spanish company, Halo Space, plans to take 10,000 tourists up into space within a decade from a Spanish base. The company is offering a five-hour balloon flight during which passengers will reach an altitude of 35 kilometers. The space capsule combines comfort, modern design, and advanced aerospace technology to deliver passengers safely to the edge of space and back in style. The price tag is around 150,000 euros, more than your package holiday but Halo Space says that the experience is out of this world. (9/30)

How Methane Studies on Earth Could Inform the Search for Alien Life in Our Solar System (Source: Space.com)
On Earth, massive amounts of methane are trapped within white, cage-like chemical structures. These deposits are primarily found in permanently frozen polar regions as well as on the seafloor, but the key here is that they're not specific to our planet. Similar reservoirs are known to exist on bodies across the solar system — from planets and their moons to comets zipping by.

And even though scientists think such deposits ultimately influence the composition of these worlds' ocean waters and atmospheres it remains an open question whether they arise from biological processes. Many experts have long wondered how those methane cages remain stable under high-pressure ocean water conditions. Now, a team of researchers studying one of these methane deposits — plucked from the seafloor off the coast of Oregon — have discovered a previously unknown class of proteins that seems to play an important role in stabilizing the structure of the deposits. Click here. (9/29)

Students Search Desert for Lost Rocket After Attempted Launch to Space (Source: New Scientist)
A team of students from Imperial College London is in limbo after losing the £150,000 rocket they launched towards space on 24 September. Volunteers are scouring the Mojave desert in California for evidence that will establish whether the mission was successful or not. The Karman Space Program (KSP) was founded by students two years ago with the aim of breaking through the Kármán line, 100 kilometers above Earth’s surface. (9/29)

Alien Life in Universe: Scientists Say Finding it is 'Only a Matter of Time' (Source: BBC)
Many astronomers are no longer asking whether there is life elsewhere in the Universe. The question on their minds is instead: when will we find it? Many are optimistic of detecting life signs on a faraway world within our lifetimes - possibly in the next few years. And one scientist, leading a mission to Jupiter, goes as far as saying it would be "surprising" if there was no life on one of the planet's icy moons. (9/29)