February 4, 2024

NASA Investigating Whether It Could Hire Corporate Partners for Mars Missions (Source: Futurism)
JPL is having companies bid on different ways of completing the missions outlined in the document. The proposal assumes the possibility of leveraging "existing or soon-to-be-existing" commercial space systems to "accelerate Martian exploration." Unsurprisingly, JPL is also hoping for "substantially lower costs, while maintaining acceptable risk." The missions range from "smaller payload delivery" with payload mass of up to 44 pounds, to "larger payload delivery," involving payloads of up to 2,750 pounds. JPL is also looking to find new ways to boost communications between Earth and Mars, as well as enhanced orbital imaging. (2/3)

Space Exploitation vs Space Exploration: Humanity Has Much to Learn From the Voyager Probes (Source: The Register)
Could a project like Voyager happen now? Hunt is not so sure: "We have a problem with politics. The US is having a fundamental problem with funding its missions. The budget has been trimmed by Biden, trimmed further by the Senate, decisions are not being made because the election is coming, the pandemic affected establishments like JPL and others … so all these are factors.

"Furthermore, countries say 'Look, it's not just science you get out of this, what's the value to the economy? … We're not prepared to wait 10 or 20 years for something. We need quick results which are beneficial for the economy. (2/1)

Will Future Colonists on the Moon and Mars Develop New Accents? (Source: Live Science)
Human accents are a fascinating topic of research in themselves. Every person has at least some sort of accent, regardless of whether they realize it, and all of these accents can be traced to specific times, places, languages or groups of people here on Earth. But with the dawn of space colonies on the horizon, the way future interplanetary settlers will pronounce their words is uncharted territory.

"New accents emerge by imitation," Jonathan Harrington, director of the Institute for Phonetics and Speech Processing at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich in Germany, told Live Science. "We remember the sounds and words of a conversation, and these can have a small influence on the future way that we speak." (2/4)

Millisecond Pulsars Could Change Everything (Source: SciTech Daily)
It was when looking deep in the star cluster NGC 1851 that we spotted what appears to be a pair of stars offering a new view into the extremes of matter in the universe. The system is composed of a millisecond pulsar, a type of rapidly spinning neutron star that sweeps beams of radio light across the cosmos as it spins, and a massive, hidden object of unknown nature.

The massive object is dark, meaning it is invisible at all frequencies of light – from the radio to the optical, x-ray, and gamma-ray bands. In other circumstances, this would make it impossible to study, but it is here that the millisecond pulsar comes to our aid.

Millisecond pulsars are akin to cosmic atomic clocks. Their spins are incredibly stable and can be precisely measured by detecting the regular radio pulse they create. Although intrinsically stable, the observed spin changes when the pulsar is in motion or when its signal is affected by a strong gravitational field. By observing these changes we can measure the properties of bodies in orbits with pulsars. (2/3)

China's Smart Dragon-3 Rocket Launches 9 Satellites From Sea (Source: Xinhua)
China on Saturday launched a Smart Dragon-3 (SD-3) carrier rocket from the sea, sending nine satellites into planned orbit. The rocket blasted off from waters off the coast of Yangjiang, a city in south China's Guangdong Province. The Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center conducted the offshore launch. It was the 3rd flight mission to use an SD-3 rocket. (2/3)

How a Surge in Satellites Will Revolutionize Intelligence (Source: Foreign Affairs)
In 2023, the U.S. Department of Defense announced an ambitious plan to launch 1,000 satellites over the next decade. Over the same period, the National Reconnaissance Office, which runs the United States’ spy satellites, plans to quadruple the size of its fleet of a couple of dozen satellites. To prepare for this new era, the Biden administration should change the way the National Security Council (NSC) digests information and uses it to make decisions. A massive expansion of space-based surveillance will shape how the U.S. military operates around the world, and the sooner the U.S. government grapples with that future, the better.

Today, according to public sources such as space-tracking websites, the Pentagon and the intelligence community may operate roughly a half dozen satellites that detect visible light/infrared wavelengths and a half dozen radar satellites that can see at night and through clouds. These overhead systems are “exquisite,” meaning they cost at least hundreds of millions of dollars each. Although capable of collecting and promptly transmitting high-quality intelligence, there are not enough of them to solve the scale problem. Because not all points of interest can be watched at once, the United States effectively looks down at Earth through a set of high-fidelity soda straws. Click here. (2/2)

SpaceX Will Reap the Benefits of New Dragon Research Opportunity (Source: Tech Crunch)
SpaceX will become the co-owner of valuable data, biological samples, and possibly even patents and intellectual property related to human spaceflight, according to the terms and conditions of a new program inviting research on crewed Dragon missions. The company started quietly inviting proposals “for exceptional science and research ideas that will enable life in space and on other planets,” to be executed on orbit using its Dragon spacecraft capsule.

Specifically, SpaceX says it’s looking for research studies and experiments focused on fitness, or solutions to increase “efficiency and effectiveness,” and those focused on human health during long-duration spaceflight missions. Selected research study groups would have access to SpaceX’s crewed Dragon missions, opening up a whole new use case for one of the company’s core products. (2/2)

Event Horizon Telescope Spies Jets Erupting From Nearby Supermassive Black Hole (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers have observed a supermassive black hole in Earth's cosmic backyard as it blasts out jets of matter at near-light speeds. These outflows tell the tale of a battle for supremacy between magnetism and gravity. The discovery could help scientists better understand how black holes feed on matter and eject powerful jets that extend far beyond their host galaxies. (2/3)

Horizon or No-Rizon? Hunting for New Physics in Black Hole Event Horizons! (Source: Astrobites)
hat if there was no horizon and no singularity? Could we have objects that behave like black holes but have no event horizon? Today’s Astrobite explores a paper that seeks to hunt for these horizonless compact objects using the gravitational wave signal emitted when they collide! Click here. (1/31)

NASA Spacecraft Snaps Image of Ancient, Winding Rivers on Mars (Source: Mashable)
NASA's eye in the Martian sky has spotted evidence of dried-up, primordial rivers on Mars. The space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured a snapshot of another time, billions of years ago, when water flowed on the surface of a temperate Mars. The image of ridges in Aeolis Planum "tells a story of ancient rivers and a Mars very different to that of today," NASA wrote.

The meandering forms you see below are the result of water once filling these rivers with gravel, while finer grains surrounded the waterway when the banks overflowed. "The gravely river bottom and the fine-grained surroundings can lead to a strange phenomenon that geologists call inverted channels," the agency explained. "After the river disappears, the fine-grained surroundings can be easily eroded away leaving the gravely river bed as a high-standing ridge." (2/3)

NASA Puts Next-Gen Exoplanet-Imaging Technology to the Test (Source: NASA)
The Coronagraph Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will demonstrate new technologies that could vastly increase the number of planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) that scientists can directly observe. Designed and built at JPL, it recently passed a series of critical tests ahead of launch. That includes tests to ensure the instrument’s electrical components don’t interfere with those on the rest of the observatory and vice versa. (2/2)

Space Force to Put Firms Under Contract for Commercial Reserve by 2025 (Source: C4ISRnet)
The Space Force expects to begin identifying members for its Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve — an effort to scale up its use of commercial capabilities during a conflict — and get them under contract by 2025, if not sooner. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who provides civilian oversight for the service, approved the Commercial Space Office’s plan for the construct, known as CASR, last fall. Since then, the office has worked on an implementation strategy, which includes writing contractual language for companies that will participate in the reserve. (2/2)

The First Amateur Radio Station on the Moon, JS1YMG, is Now Transmitting (Source: ARRL)
Just before touchdown, SLIM released two small lunar surface probes, LEV-1 and LEV-2. LEV-2 collects data while moving on the lunar surface, and LEV-1 receives the data. The JAXA Ham Radio Club (JHRC), JQ1ZVI, secured amateur radio license JS1YMG for LEV-1, which has been transmitting Morse code on 437.41 MHz since January 19. The probe uses a 1 W UHF antenna with circular polarization and is transmitting "matters related to amateur business."

Radio amateurs have been busy analyzing JS1YMG's signal, with Daniel Estévez's, EA4GPZ, blog introducing the method and extraction results for demodulating Morse code from the signal, as well as extracting the code string. (2/2)

While Artemis II Schedule Remains Uncertain, NASA EGS Preparing to be Ready and Waiting for Stacking (Source: NSF)
At the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (EGS) program continues to prepare for the Artemis II circumlunar mission that was recently delayed to September 2025. EGS is finishing certification of new ground systems to support crewed launches of the agency’s Orion spacecraft with its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket beginning with Artemis II.

NASA recently disclosed new issues that the Orion program is working to resolve that are delaying the launch readiness of Artemis II by an additional 10 months. While Orion is working on those issues and determining how long it will take to resolve them, EGS has adjusted their near-term schedules for finishing their certification work and preparing SLS solid rocket booster (SRB) hardware to eventually be stacked for Artemis II. Depending on Orion’s progress, it is hoped that stacking for the mission could begin later this year. Click here. (2/3)

Botswana Rejects Starlink Satellite Internet Bid (Source: Business Insider)
Starlink submitted its application to launch in May 2023, but the regulator found that the company did not provide all the necessary information. To operate in Botswana, entities like Starlink are required to pay an application fee of P5,600, an annual license fee of up to P386,000 (~$28,500). Starlink's operation in Africa has not been all rosy as it is facing regulatory challenges on the continent. (2/3)

Atmospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 System Should Be Long Gone (Source: Universe Today)
The Trappist system has gained a lot of attention since its discovery in 2017, because at first blush it seems to be a perfect system for alien life. Plenty of warm terrestrial worlds, similar to our inner solar system. But one question was whether red dwarf stars are suited for habitable worlds. Red dwarfs are much cooler than the Sun, so any habitable world would need to orbit the star very closely. Red dwarfs are also known to have intense solar flares, which can bake nearby planets in X-rays and other dangers. Could life survive these threats over a span of billions of years? If Trappist-1 is typical, the answer seems to be no. (2/3)