January 26, 2024

Lockheed Martin, Boeing Win Contracts to Design U.S. Military Narrowband Communications Satellites (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has awarded Lockheed Martin and Boeing $66 million contracts each to design a new narrowband communications satellite. The contracts are part of a competition to eventually build two satellites that will expand the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), a network of satellites used by the U.S. military to transmit voice and data communications. Over the next 15 months, the companies will create prototype satellites showing how they would meet the Space Force’s requirements for the MUOS satellites. (1/25)

Northrop Grumman Posts Earnings Loss on Gateway Module Development (Source: Space News)
Northrop Grumman has taken another charge against earnings for its contract to build a lunar Gateway module. The company disclosed Thursday in its fourth quarter earnings report that it took a $42 million charge on its contract to build the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO) module. Northrop took a $36 million charge on HALO in the second quarter and said the overall loss on the contract totaled $100 million in 2023. The company blamed "evolving" requirements for the module and overall Gateway as well as broader economic issues for the loss. Northrop received a $935 million fixed-price contract from NASA in 2021 to build HALO. (1/26)

European Organizations Team to Boost Space Industry Development (Source: Space News)
Three European organizations are joining forces to help space companies raise money. The European Commission, European Space Agency and European Investment Bank (EIB) announced an agreement this week to help more space companies get financing, including from a largely untapped multi-billion-dollar fund for strategic investments. That fund, the Strategic European Security Initiative, has awarded about a quarter of its eight billion euros to date, but only a fifth of that has gone to the space industry. The EIB says it will also proactively identify promising European space projects and offer them financial advice. (1/26)

Zeno to Work with DOE to Recycle Earthbound Radioactive Material for Space Applications (Source: Space News)
Zeno Power Systems will work with the Department of Energy to recycle decades-old radioactive material for space applications. Under the agreement, Zeno will have access to a large supply of strontium-90, a radioisotope created as a byproduct in nuclear fission reactors. The company will use the material to build radioisotope power sources for space and other applications. The company has several contracts to develop radioisotope-powered satellites for national security and space exploration missions, and expects to deliver its first satellite to the U.S. Air Force by 2026. (1/26)

International Campaign Required to Map and Monitor Atmospheric Methane (Source: Space News)
Satellites scheduled to launch this year will help fill gaps in tracking of atmospheric methane. A combination of government and commercial spacecraft will help scientists monitor emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Several of those spacecraft will launch this year, but scientists cautioned that the new satellites alone will not be sufficient to fill data gaps and better understand the sources and strengths of methane emissions. (1/26)

ESA Approves Two Space Science Missions (Source: BBC)
ESA has given formal approval to two science missions. ESA announced Thursday it agreed to proceed with development of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA will fly three spacecraft able to detect gravitational waves. The mission, scheduled for launch in 2035, will cost $1.9 billion and include contributions from NASA. ESA also approved a Venus orbiter mission, EnVision, slated for launch in 2031. (1/26)

Midland Development Corp. and MITRE Sign Agreement to Advance Spaceports (Source: MDC)
MITRE Corp. and the Midland Development Corporation (MDC), the economic development organization for Midland, Texas, signed an agreement to work together to accelerate their common vision for commercial space and high-speed flight operations in the United States. MDC and MITRE will cooperate on research and development projects and operational demonstrations that are of critical importance to enabling commercial space and high-speed flight operations at Midland International Air and Space Port. (1/25)

Korean Space Race: North, South Contest Satellite Supremacy (Source: DW)
Amid escalating tensions, North and South Korea are competing in a new realm: space. Each is rapidly advancing in satellite technology and space-based military strategies that could have ramifications for the peninsula. In mid-November, Kim Jong Un declared that his nation had entered a "new era of space power" after the successful launch of the Malligyong-1, North Korea's first domestically developed spy satellite.

Within hours of the launch — and in defiance of United Nations resolutions on the North's development of missiles or rockets — Kim claimed he had looked at images from the new satellite showing military bases in the US, Japan and South Korea. The North has not released any images from the satellite, meaning it is impossible to determine the capability of the vehicle's optics, although analysts have expressed skepticism. 

Not to be outdone, South Korea launched its first surveillance satellite in late 2023, the vehicle put into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that SpaceX, a private US aerospace firm, operates. Seoul is also developing its own launch vehicles and has announced ambitious plans to put satellites into orbit and even contribute to the exploration of the moon. (1/25)

A Lunar New Year (Source: Quartz)
Shortly after landing, JAXA reported the spacecraft’s solar cells didn’t seem to be working. One theory posits the spacecraft might have rolled after landing, explaining why the solar panels are pointing in the wrong direction. With this second lunar mission in jeopardy, 2024—which is shaping up to be the Year of the Moon—is not off to a great start. While there have been some recent successes (like India’s Chandrayaan-3 last summer), there have also been lots of failures (like Chandrayaan-2 in 2019). ispace, a Japanese company, crash-landed last year, mirroring the results of the Israeli firm SpaceIL in 2019.

Even the US and Soviet Union had their fair share of crash landings during their lunar race in the 1960s. Despite the intervening decades of progress, landing on the Moon is still hard—after all, it’s literally rocket science. With a handful of other attempts coming up this year (the next being Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C in February), hopefully someone can break the streak. And not all hope is lost for SLIM. The spacecraft’s twin rovers seem to have been ejected as planned and JAXA has their fingers crossed that sunlight might yet reach SLIM’s panels so the little lander can carry on. (1/25)

Two Nations, a Horrible Accident, and the Urgent Need to Understand the Laws of Space (Source: WIRED)
The Soviet Union’s 1957 surprise launch of Sputnik was, famously, the jump scare that startled the United States into a space race. But in a lesser-known series of events, Sputnik’s appearance also frightened many of Earth’s non-superpowers into taking decisive action. Facing the real possibility—just 12 years after Hiroshima—that Moscow and Washington were about to turn the commanding heights of space into rival platforms for mass annihilation, a group of diplomats at the United Nations began looking for a way to preemptively contain the two rivals.

As NASA and the Soviet Space Agency jockeyed to outdo each other’s rockets, a UN committee slogged for 10 years to come up with a treaty that could successfully balance the interests of Russia, the US, and the rest of the world, before it was too late. The result of their negotiations was called the Outer Space Treaty, and in 1967, 20 nations, including the US and the USSR, quickly ratified it. Among other provisions, the agreement gave all signatories free rein to operate in space “for peaceful purposes,” while barring them from claiming any of the cosmos as sovereign territory. Click here. (1/24)

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Officially Ends its Mission on Mars (Source: Science News)
After nearly three years, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, the first spacecraft to undertake a powered flight on another world, has ended its mission. Officials at the agency confirmed on January 25 that the history-making quad-copter has sustained damage to one of its rotor blades and is no longer capable of flying. “While we knew this day was inevitable, it doesn’t make it any easier,” said Lori Glaze, NASA’s planetary science division director, during a news conference on the status of the quad-copter. (1/25)

Investors Are Betting on Defense Startups. The Pentagon Isn't (Source: Wall Street Journal)
Venture capitalists have poured more than $100 billion into U.S. defense-technology startups since 2021, banking on government interest in upgrading the military. Persuading the Pentagon to buy from Silicon Valley has proven difficult. Washington and Silicon Valley have for years tried to forge a more lucrative partnership, and the rise of China and conflicts in Ukraine and Israel showcasing modern technology have made military leaders more anxious to modernize their arsenals. At the same time, many entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, who historically have shunned military work, are increasingly enthusiastic about becoming a part of the country’s war infrastructure.
(1/25)

New Biden Administration Actions Aim to Help Small Businesses Access Government Contracts (Source: Executive Gov)
The Biden administration has taken steps to make major government contracts more accessible for small businesses. These actions include the introduction of new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget and a Small Business Administration effort to enhance a technical assistance program, the White House said. OMB’s guidance is intended to push federal agencies to embrace strategies that would help small businesses to take part in multiple-award contracts, which account for almost 20 percent, or $160 billion, of government contract funds. (1/25)

NASA Fires Up Powerful Artemis Moon Rocket Engine in Key Test (Source: Space.com)
A powerful rocket engine for moon missions just fired up for the second time in less than a week. NASA completed a new test for the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket on Tuesday (Jan. 23), firing an RS-25 engine for about eight minutes (500 seconds) at the agency's  Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. It was the second RS-25 test of 2024, following one on Jan. 17.

Engineers are seeking to certify a variant of the RS-25, which uses technology from the space shuttle program, for more ambitious moon missions in the coming years. The current 12-test series is meant to get ready for the planned Artemis 5 mission that may fly as soon as 2029. (1/24)

ESA Unveils its Concept for a Permanent Base on the Moon (Source: New Scientist)
The European Space Agency has unveiled its Lunar Habitat Master Plan, a conceptual design for a scalable moon base. Commissioned by ESA’s Discovery programme and designed by architectural firm Hassell, the ideas will guide the agency’s technological development of such structures, so it can solve some of the issues moon dwellers could face in a future where research, exploration, tourism and prospecting may all form part of a lunar economy.

“More people on the moon in a sustainable way. This is a good picture to have in mind,” says ESA advanced manufacturing engineer Advenit Makaya, who was involved in the design process. The concept aims to address problems that might arise from having people on the lunar surface for extended periods. This includes protecting astronauts from the harsh environment, such as radiation and dust, and dealing with extreme temperatures, lack of water, oxygen and power.

The habitat is designed around a series of inflatable pods that would make minimal contact with the surface, reducing issues with abrasive dust. These would then be protected by a shell made of blocks, 3D printed using lunar soil, known as regolith, that can be interlocked into place over the pods to absorb radiation. We might also be able to get water or oxygen from the regolith. And to mitigate temperature fluctuations, and maximise solar power efficiency, the base would be built on the edge of Shackleton crater at the moon’s south pole where it would face the sun for longer. (1/25)

NASA Juno Spacecraft Picks Up Hints of Activity on Europa (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Juno spacecraft made a close flyby of Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa in 2022, revealing potential hints of present day surface activity. The spacecraft's Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), which is a star camera designed to assist Juno's onboard attitude determination, was used to image Europa's surface with high resolution while being lit up by Jupiter-shine, or sunlight scattered off Jupiter.

The SRU image from the flyby shows an oddly-shaped area of the icy surface, measuring 23 miles by 42 miles and resembling a platypus. In other words, it exhibits a "body" part in the north and a "bill" part in the south. Both areas — which are joined by a cracked neck-like formation — contain large ice blocks that are each about 0.62 miles in size and cast shadows. Comparisons with images of similar resolution from NASA's earlier Galileo spacecraft, which studied Jupiter from 1995 until 2003, suggest changes in the southern part of the "platypus" area. These hint that changes might have taken place on Europa's surface since the Galileo images were taken. (1/25)

Northrop Harnesses Machine Learning to Aid Space Force Missile Parsing (Source: C4ISRnet)
Northrop Grumman is developing software it says can simplify the high-stakes process of discovering, classifying and monitoring missile launches across the globe by leaning on pattern-recognition capabilities. The defense company is in the process of refining what it calls False Track Reduction Using Machine Learning for the U.S. Space Force, with eyes on delivery in early 2025. It is anticipated for use in the Space-Based Infrared System program, or SBIRS, and has potential application in other overhead persistent infrared assignments. (1/25)

New Colonies of Emperor Penguins Revealed by Bird Poop Visible From Space (Source: NBC)
Poop stains are rarely cause for celebration. But they are the reason Antarctic researchers have been able to identify four new colonies of emperor penguins — a species threatened with extinction by climate change. A scientist from the British Antarctic Survey used satellite imagery to spot tell-tale patches of the penguins’ guano (a technical term meaning bird poop), visible from space as a series of brown smudges against the vastness of the White Continent. (1/24)

Northrop Grumman Prepares the First Cygnus to Fly on Falcon 9 (Source: NASA)
With Starlink Group 6-38 being added late last week to the schedule from LC-39A, likely the final Falcon 9 launch of the month is expected the following day on Jan. 29 from the neighboring LC-40 pad.  This significant launch is for the NG-20 cargo mission — the first time a Cygnus spacecraft will fly aboard this launcher. This is the first of three missions purchased with SpaceX to fulfill Northrop Grumman’s Phase 2 contract to supply the International Space Station (ISS) until the new Antares 330 vehicle becomes operational.

Northrop Grumman is currently readying the Cygnus cargo module for launch. On board will be several experiments including 3D printing of metal parts and semiconductors in microgravity, remote control robotic surgery, and three new capsules which will gather data on different heat shields as they re-enter the atmosphere. (1/25)

How Space Force Could Use AI to Avoid ‘Operational Surprise’ on Orbit (Source: Breaking Defense)
Artificial intelligence holds promise as a key tool in helping the Space Force achieve what service chief Gen. Chance Saltzman has called “actionable space domain awareness” — that is, timely warning about hostile adversary actions — and avoid “operational surprise,” according to experts. “AI algorithms are really good at looking at a lot of streaming data and saying: ‘This is a change detection. … This is not nominal,” Lt. Col. Ashton Harvey, chief technology officer at the National Reconnaissance Office, said. (1/25)

New Branding Campaign Touts Space Coast as Place Where 'Tomorrow Launches Here' (Source: Florida Today)
The Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast has unveiled what it says is its first "regional brand" for Brevard County — a familiar name, with a new twist. The brand and slogan combination will be “Florida’s Space Coast: Tomorrow Launches Here,” EDC officials announced during their 2024 annual meeting Wednesday evening.

EDC President and CEO Lynda Weatherman said it "captures the essence of our community as a place that not only dreams of the future, but actively shapes it.” Weatherman said the brand was crafted through a collaborative initiative in the community, led by the EDC, a process that spanned about 1½ years. Click here. (1/25)

Hubble telescope spots Water Around Tiny Hot and Steamy Exoplanet in 'Exciting Discovery' (Source: Space.com)
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the atmosphere of a relatively small planet outside the solar system is rich with water vapor. Don't plan a vacation to this destination just yet, however. The planet's surface is hot enough to melt lead, meaning it's a steamy world inhospitable to life as we know it.

More specifically, the team behind this finding says the extra-solar planet, or exoplanet, named GJ 9872d exhibits Venus-like temperatures of 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius). But that doesn't make this discovery any less exciting. Though scientists have found water vapor in the atmospheres of many extra-solar planets before, the Hubble Telescope's observations of this hot and steamy world, designated GJ 9827d, represent the smallest exoplanet around which this vital element for life has been found thus far. (1/25)

Dark Matter Might Keep Itself Company, and That Helps Solve 2 Cosmic Puzzles (Source: Astronomy Magazine)
Maybe dark matter talks to itself, according to a new proposal, and that might just explain two cosmological mysteries at once. Some galaxies exist that seem to defy explanation, like one designated SDSSJ–946+1006, which has such a high density that it would be difficult, if not outright impossible, for collisionless dark matter to clump together enough to build it. Another mystery is the origins of galaxies known as gas-rich ultradiffuse galaxies. These galaxies appear to have little, and maybe even no, dark matter at all — they’re just fuzzy clouds of mostly normal gas.

Researchers investigated a model known as self-interacting dark matter, or SIDM. In this model, it still ignores regular matter, but it’s capable of weakly interacting with itself in a galaxy’s halo, with the cloud of dark matter that surrounds and infuses every galaxy. This extra interaction allows the dark matter to exhibit more variations, because it can distribute heat and energy within the halo more efficiently. (1/22)

Physics-Breaking 'Rogue' Objects Spotted by JWST are Emitting Radio Signals That Scientists Can't Explain (Source: Live Science)
In 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope helped identify hundreds of free-floating "rogue" planets that don't orbit a parent star. Now, astronomers have found that a pair of these planets may be producing enigmatic, hard-to-interpret radio signals. The rogue planets spotted by JWST lie in the Orion Nebula, a long-time observational hotspot for astronomers. In total, they number over 500. This discovery bonanza was possible thanks to JWST's ability to pick up infrared radiation emitted by these relatively young planets.

Bizarrely, though, about 80 of these planets exist as pairs. Similar in mass to Jupiter, the planets orbit each other at distances ranging from 25 to 400 times the distance between Earth and the sun. These tangoing duos, called Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs), pose a huge mystery for astronomers, because the existence of these worlds challenges current theories of planet formation. (1/25)

Melting Misconceptions: NASA's Startling Findings on Greenland's Ice Loss (Source: SciTech Daily)
A new, comprehensive analysis of satellite data finds more Greenland ice lost than previously estimated and that the majority of glaciers on the landmass have retreated significantly. The Greenland Ice Sheet has shed about one-fifth more ice mass in the past four decades than previously estimated, researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California reported in a new paper.

The majority of glaciers on the landmass have retreated significantly, and icebergs are falling into the ocean at an accelerating rate. This additional ice loss has had only an indirect impact on sea levels, but could hold implications for ocean circulation in the future. The analysis offers a comprehensive look at retreat around the edges of the entire ice sheet from 1985 to 2022, drawing from nearly a quarter million pieces of satellite data on glacier positions. Of the 207 glaciers in the study, 179 retreated significantly since 1985, 27 held steady, and one advanced slightly. (1/24)

NASA Selects Winners of Third TechRise Student Challenge (Source: NASA)
NASA is announcing 60 winning teams for its third TechRise Student Challenge, a nationwide contest to engage students in technology, science, and space exploration. The student teams will work together to turn their proposed science and technology experiments into reality ahead of NASA-sponsored suborbital flight tests this summer.

The challenge opened for submissions in August to students in grades six through 12 at U.S. public, private, or charter schools, including those in U.S. territories. The winning teams include more than 490 students representing 46 states and territories. Each team will receive $1,500 to build their experiments, a flight box to house it, technical support from Future Engineers, and an assigned spot for their experiments on a suborbital flight test scheduled for this summer. (1/24)