January 4, 2024

Spacetime Ripples Detected in 2023 Continue to Puzzle Astronomers. Could They Be From the Dawn of the Universe? (Source: Space.com)
Scientists are still hunting for the source of the faint, persistent hum of gravitational waves discovered reverberating through the Milky Way last year. Those waves could point to more than one tantalizing source, new research suggests. The discovery team, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, or NANOGrav, collaboration, strongly suspects the ripples in space-time were created from merging supermassive black holes, each a billion times more massive than our sun.

These are known as binary pairs. If that's indeed the case, ongoing work would help estimate the locations of the celestial cosmic beasts, as well as their masses. Scientists are still hunting for the source of the faint, persistent hum of gravitational waves discovered reverberating through the Milky Way last year. Those waves could point to more than one tantalizing source, new research suggests.

The discovery team, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, or NANOGrav, collaboration, strongly suspects the ripples in space-time were created from merging supermassive black holes, each a billion times more massive than our sun. These are known as binary pairs. If that's indeed the case, ongoing work would help estimate the locations of the celestial cosmic beasts, as well as their masses. (1/3)

Gravitational Wave Observatory in Eastern WA Breaks Quantum Limit. Why it Matters (Source: The Columbian)
The LIGO Hanford Observatory near Richland is expected to detect 60% more cataclysmic cosmic events — like colliding neutron stars and black holes — thanks to a quantum limit breakthrough. Since the observatory was turned back on in May after three years of upgrades, including adding new quantum squeezing technology, it can probe a larger volume of the universe. “Now that we have surpassed this quantum limit, we can do a lot more astronomy,” said Lee McCuller. (1/3)

Space Photos Show Japan's Ground Splitting Open and Mass Destruction After Earthquake (Source: Business Insider)
Satellite images show mass destruction to Japan's west coast and inner cities after a series of powerful earthquakes hit the country on Monday. The Japan Meteorological Agency reported 21 earthquakes registering 4.0 magnitude or stronger striking central Japan in a span of just over an hour and a half. One quake was an estimated 7.6 magnitude quake, according to the JMA.

The change was enough that even the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's ALOS-2 spacecraft measured the shift, recording that the distance between it and the ground had shortened, the BBC reported. (1/3)

Starship, Starlink and More — SpaceX Poised for Huge 2024 (Source: Space.com)
Surprise, surprise: SpaceX plans to set more spaceflight records this year. Elon Musk's company launched 96 orbital missions in 2023, a big jump from its previous high of 61, which was set a year earlier. And SpaceX is planning another big leap in 2024, one that will take it well above the century mark.

"As we look to next year, we want to increase [our] flight rate to about 12 flights per month, or 144 flights," Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, said on Oct. 18 during a hearing of the U.S. Senate's Subcommittee on Space and Science. That works out to one launch every 2.8 days. Roughly two-thirds of SpaceX's launches in 2023 were devoted to building out Starlink, the company's satellite-internet megaconstellation. That trend will likely continue in 2024, for the network is nowhere near complete. (1/3)

NASA's VIPER Moon Rover Hits Key Milestone (Source: SciTech Daily)
The VIPER Moon rover is halfway built, with key milestones like payload integration and hardware acquisition achieved. The team is addressing design and hardware challenges, with final testing scheduled for 2024 to ensure mission readiness. The VIPER team is hard at work building the flight vehicle that will be going to the surface of the Moon this time next year! In fact, we’re about halfway through the build, and you can interactively watch the process and hear from experts on the team, in various livestreams throughout the process.

All the science instrument teams have delivered their payloads to the VIPER Systems Integration & Test team, which will install them into the actual flight rover. We also have taken delivery of most of the key pieces of hardware we acquired from our various external vendors. This is a very important milestone as well, since a large number of vendors of critical components have been quite behind schedule in their deliveries to the project. (1/3)

'Son of Blackbird': Secret US Hypersonic Jet to Allegedly Debut in 2025 (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Lockheed Martin's highly anticipated uncrewed hypersonic aircraft, the SR-72 "Son of Blackbird," is allegedly scheduled to take its first flight in 2025. Believed to be a top-secret project for the United States Air Force (USAF), the SR-72 is touted to reach over 4,000 mph (6,437 kph), making it the fastest plane ever developed. Its role will likely include activities similar to those of its veteran predecessor, the venerable SR-71 "Blackbird." (1/2)

Is Living on Mars a Billionaire’s Fantasy? (Source: Readly)
A base on the Red Planet might be filled with some annoying housemates, but that doesn’t mean we can’t aspire to setting up a permanent settlement there. Space settlement researchers occasionally find themselves arguing about the value of space. For the most gung-ho space advocates, it’s a theatre of all hope. It’s a way to get rich from asteroid resources, to save the environment by offloading people and industry from an overburdened Earth, and a chance to create a second home for humanity that could survive the death of our planet.

Others question why we spend so much on space when we have so many problems on Earth. Some wonder darkly if space billionaires are cultivating a Martian redoubt as a kind of off-world bunker, in case our planet is ruined by climate change or war. So how well do these arguments hold up?

Should we spend less up there and more down here? True, the space business is booming: estimates suggest it’ll be worth over one trillion dollars within the next two decades. But this money isn’t being thrown away on space fantasies. Most funds useful innovations: navigation, data transmission and environmental monitoring. So spending up there is spending for down here. (12/29)

From Lunar Dreams to Martian Innovations: Purdue's JARVIS Team Inspires the Next Giant Leap in Spacesuit User Interface (Source: Purdue)
Growing up listening to stories of space missions to the Moon inspired Purdue undergraduate, Gurmehar Singh, to dream of humanity settling down somewhere beyond Earth. NASA’s Artemis missions seek to land the first woman and next man on the Moon and establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon and ultimately, Mars. Students like Singh, a sophomore majoring in computer science and mathematics, can see where this dream fits into his next giant leap.

Singh is the team lead for JARVIS, a team from Purdue University, that has been recognized as one of the 11 finalists in NASA's SUITS challenge. Their objective is to create user interfaces, develop software for spacesuits, and design a mission control console specifically intended for deployment on the Martian surface. (12/18)

ESA's Tiny Pinhole Thruster is Ready for Production (Source: Phys.org)
The team led by Daniel Perez Grande, CEO and Co-Founder of IENAI Spain, have called their palm-sized thruster "Athena," not the most catchy title but neatly represents what it does—the Adaptable, THruster based on Electrospray powered NAnotechnology. The technology has been developed for ESA and, following a successful design stage and, if all goes to plan, a prototype will be available by the end of 2024.

The technology relies upon something known as an electrospray which has previously been used in mass spectrometry but has now found its way into space. Each thruster has seven emitter arrays that are etched onto silicon wafers, and each houses 500 pinhole emitters. Electrically charged particles from a conductive salt are sprayed out, propelled via an electrostatic field to produce the maximum amount of thrust, which can be of the order of 20 km per second. (1/2)

Virgin Galactic Lays Off Dozens of New Mexico Employees (Source: KOB4)
A company rep said it's focusing on production of its new Delta Class spaceship, and it's cutting back the workforce this month. In New Mexico, 73 employees will be affected, but the Spaceport will still have about 200 employees. (1/3)

SpaceX's First Direct-to-Cell Starlink Satellites Launched (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Among the 21 Starlink satellites launched Tuesday from California were the first six that will feature direct-to-cell capabilities. “This really is a big deal,” Musk said during the presentation. “Even if an entire region or country lost connectivity because of a severe hurricane or floods or fires or tornados, earthquakes… even if all the cell towers were taken out, your phone would still work.” (1/2)

Space Command Achieves Major Milestone, Marking Important Victory for Pikes Peak Region (Source: The Tribune)
Space Command announced in December that it has reached full operational capability, a milestone that played a major role in the political debate over keeping the command in El Paso County. Space Command head Gen. James Dickinson said the announcement is based on an in-depth evaluation of the command’s capabilities, including “our worst day, when we are needed the most,” he said, in a news release. (1/2)

Asian Space Race to Heat Up in 2024 as Japan, China, India Reach for the Stars (Source: Nikkei)
After another year of U.S. aeronautics company SpaceX dominating headlines about the industry, 2024 promises to bring an uptick in public and private space activity from countries such as China, India and Japan. Chinese launch startup LandSpace Technology plans to launch reusable rockets in 2025 in an approach that closely mirrors SpaceX, while India aims to begin a series of flight tests for an eventual crewed spaceflight in 2025. On Dec. 4, India laid out a vision of building a space station by 2035 and sending the first Indian to the moon by 2040. (1/3)

Human Aging, Battling Cosmic Dust and Why AI Should Be Tested in Space Soon (Source: The Messenger)
According to Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, time progresses differently for a moving clock — and according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, time advances more slowly for a clock embedded in a gravitational potential. The rate by which we age biologically is affected by both effects. This and other challenges are crucial to resolve if our exploration of space is to extend beyond the moon — and why artificial intelligence (AI) may be a key solution to interstellar travel.

Given our current technologies, it makes most sense for us to venture out of the solar system by launching small technological payloads at rocket speeds. AI would substitute natural intelligence, enabling the autonomous travel required by the large interstellar distances. With this perspective in mind, AI should be tested in space soon.

If probes from alien civilizations are discovered by the Galileo Project at Harvard (which I lead), they might teach us a few tricks that we had not imagined based on the limited 120 years of modern science that have elapsed since Einstein formulated relativity. If there are any shortcuts to interstellar travel, we had better find them sooner rather than later by studying the technological products of extraterrestrial civilizations that preceded us by billions of years. (1/2)

Is ULA for Sale? Reports Swirl as Crews Prep for Monday's Vulcan Inaugural Launch (Source: Florida Today)
United Launch Alliance may be purchased by Blue Origin or another potential suitor, the Wall Street Journal reported — and company officials are declining comment. Meanwhile, ULA crews continue preparing for Monday's historic maiden flight of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a pivotal landmark for the company.

Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported ULA has received buyout offers from Blue Origin and Cerberus, with Textron also showing interest. The report cited people familiar with the matter. ULA and Blue Origin operate under a long-term partnership, and Blue Origin built the pair of BE-4 engines that will power Vulcan's first stage. (1/3)

NASA Seeks Legislation To Facilitate Future Orbital Research (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy (OTPS) is recommending the agency work with Congress to pursue four changes to current oversight of U.S. National Laboratory research activities aboard the International Space Station (ISS) before they transition to future commercial stations in low Earth orbit. The changes are based on findings from this 154-page OTPS report released in December. (1/2)

GAO Sides with NASA Over L3Harris Protest on $554M Contract Award to Ball Aerospace (Source: Law360)
NASA's half-billion dollar contract with Ball Aerospace will move forward unhindered despite a protest attempt by rival contractor L3Harris to cancel the award, which it said was unfairly given. GAO found NASA acted properly when awarding thecontract for its GeoXO Sounder satellite program because the agency adequately considered how Ball's acquisition could affect proposal costs. (1/2)

LinkedIn Groups to Join in 2024 (Source: SPACErePORT)
Have you resolved to stay more connected in 2024? I manage multiple LinkedIn groups that might interest you. These include my SPACErePORT group, which shares news links about US spaceports and state-led space industry recruitment/development projects. Interested in Latin America's aspirations for space development? Join my Latin America in Space group. I also contribute regularly to the National Space Club Florida Committee group, focusing on Florida and local Space Coast space news and events. (1/3)