February 8, 2024

Humans on Mars Could Conduct Far Better Science Than Any Machine (Source: Space.com)
The future of Mars exploration will be greatly enhanced by humans that make the sojourn to the Red Planet. The work that could be performed by astronaut crews on that distant world would far outstrip what mechanized Mars machinery can attain - but certainly at a far greater cost. To that end, NASA is blueprinting a moon-to-Mars strategy that identifies science as one of three pillars upon which the agency's quest for a sustained human exploration throughout the solar system is built. What's now being plotting out is the architecture for achieving that goal. (2/7)

Double Plumes Spotted on Jupiter's Cantankerous Volcanic Moon (Source: Gizmodo)
NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured new images of Jupiter’s moon Io during its latest flyby, coming within an eerily close distance of the most volcanically active world in the solar system for a second time in less than two months. The close encounter also shows what appears to be a pair of plumes erupting from the moon’s surface. (2/8)

SpaceX Starlink Was the Satellite Villain of the Skies. It's Taking a 'Money Hit' to Try and Fix the Problem (Source: Business Insider)
Of all the companies racing to claim this new frontier, SpaceX has calmed some of its critics by listening to them, working with them, and trying to darken its satellites. "Now we're making progress," said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who has been one of the most outspoken of Starlink's critics.

Starlink's experimental solutions dominated a recent conversation among astronomers — maybe because it's the only company that's been trying the fixes astronomers have suggested. "For me the focus is not on the call to alarm only, it's on the path to coexistence," said Patricia Cooper, a satellite-industry consultant who was formerly VP of SpaceX's government affairs for satellites.

SpaceX addressed the problem by essentially painting a bunch of the satellites black. That sort of helped. The satellites were less bright, but they were still too bright. Later that year, SpaceX tried using sun visors to block sunlight from hitting the bottom side of the satellites. That worked. The visored satellites were about one-third as bright as those that launched without visors. But they were still bright enough to mess with astronomers' data. Now SpaceX is looking into a "mirror film" that could further reduce brightness on its next Starlink generation. (2/7)

ArianeGroup Prepares to Ship Ariane 6 Maiden Flight Rocket to Kourou (Source: NSF)
The combined Ariane 6 launcher task force, consisting of ESA, CNES, and ArianeGroup, has reported on the progress of Ariane 6, the steps to launch, and the beginning of stage shipments to the launch site. The Canopée ship, which Ariane and ESA use to transport the massive rocket, will collect the first and second stages from France and Germany, respectively. ESA reports that the first flight remains on track, targeting a launch window between June 15 and July 31, 2024. (2/7)

Our Universe is Merging with 'Baby Universes', Causing it to Expand, New Theoretical Study Suggests (Source: Live Science)
Our universe is expanding at an ever-accelerating rate — a phenomenon that all theories of cosmology agree upon but none can fully explain. Now, a new theoretical study offers an intriguing solution: Perhaps our universe is expanding because it keeps colliding with and absorbing "baby" parallel universes. (2/7)

SpaceX Launches PACE From Florida (Source: Space News)
SpaceX launched a NASA Earth science satellite overnight. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport and placed into orbit NASA's Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, or PACE, spacecraft. The nearly billion-dollar spacecraft will collect data to monitor ocean biology as well as clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere. The launch was the first U.S. government mission to go to polar orbit from Cape Canaveral since 1960. SpaceX conducted the launch from Florida, rather than Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, at the request of the PACE mission team, which wanted to be closer to its home at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. (2/8)

BlackSky Wins $50 Million Indonesia Contract (Source: Space News)
Earth observation company BlackSky has won a $50 million deal from the Indonesia government. BlackSky will work with Thales Alenia Space to establish the building blocks of a sovereign Earth imaging satellite network tailored to Indonesia's national security needs. The Indonesian government will gain access to BlackSky's high-revisit imagery and analytics and will own two of BlackSky's next-generation Earth observation satellites. Thales Alenia Space was selected in December to deliver a dedicated Earth observation constellation to the Indonesian Ministry of Defense, combining both radar and optical sensors. (2/8)

Slingshot Gets New CEO (Source: Space News)
Space tracking company Slingshot Aerospace has a new CEO. The company announced Wednesday it hired Tim Solms, who has previously worked at Microsoft, Dell, VMware and most recently Dun & Bradstreet. Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and former CEO, left the company last year. The company operates a global network of ground-based telescopes to track space objects, and provides space traffic control software used by satellite operators to coordinate satellite maneuvers. (2/8)

Finland's Kuva to Establish Virginia Office (Source: Space News)
Kuva Space, a Finnish hyperspectral imaging startup, is establishing a U.S. office. Kuva Space U.S., based in northern Virginia, will allow the company to work with potential U.S. government customers for hyperspectral imagery. Former Iceye US CEO Jerry Welsh, a Kuva Space U.S. board member, is leading the company's efforts to enter the U.S. market. Kuva Space plans to launch its first two satellites later this year. (2/8)

Small Launchers Seek Niches to Compete Against SpaceX Rideshare (Source: Space News)
Small launch vehicle companies are looking for niches to allow them to better compete with SpaceX's Transporter rideshare missions. During a panel Wednesday at the SmallSat Symposium in California, executives of launch companies pointed to their ability to launch missions directly to specific orbits or provide other premium services to customers who are not price-sensitive. Transporter launches are significantly cheaper on a per-kilogram basis than dedicated small launch vehicles, and one executive from a small launch company argued that SpaceX started the Transporter missions with "the sole purpose of trying to kill new entrants like us." (2/8)

Japan Supports Startup Pale Blue's Development of Water Thruster (Source: Space News)
The Japanese government is funding work by a startup to upgrade a water-based satellite propulsion system. Pale Blue won a grant worth up to $27 million to develop a version of its Resistojet thruster for use on larger spacecraft. The current version of Resistojet was tested in space last March on a 6U cubesat, but the larger thruster would be used on spacecraft weighing up to 500 kilograms. The company plans to demonstrate ion and Hall effect thrusters, which use electricity and magnetic fields to accelerate propellant, to improve efficiency. (2/8)

Electron Rocket to Deploy Astroscale's Debris Inspection Satellite in Space Sustainability Effort (Source: Space Daily)
Rocket Lab announced a launch window for a landmark mission in collaboration with Astroscale Japan Inc. The mission, dubbed 'On Closer Inspection,' is set to commence during a 14-day window opening on February 19th NZDT, marking a significant step in the quest for orbital sustainability. The  deployment of the Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) satellite represents a critical phase in a broader orbital debris removal initiative. ADRAS-J's objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of approaching, inspecting, and gathering vital data on space debris. (2/8)

L3Harris Demonstrates Advanced SATCOM Prototype, Enhancing Satellite Data Access (Source: Space Daily)
L3Harris Technologies has recently concluded a pivotal demonstration of its Digital Beamforming Phased Array Antenna System (DPAAS) prototype, marking a significant advancement in satellite communications (SATCOM) technology. This prototype, stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, has demonstrated a remarkable capability to handle an average of more than 300 satellite contacts per day, including the capacity for up to eight simultaneous contacts. This development is a stark departure from traditional SATCOM ground antenna technology, which is limited to one satellite contact at a time. (2/8)

MethaneSAT Set to Transform Global Methane Emission Tracking with Advanced Technology (Source: Space Daily)
Ball Aerospace has marked a significant milestone in environmental monitoring by delivering the MethaneSAT satellite to Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, setting the stage for its launch next month. This pivotal mission, developed in collaboration with MethaneSAT, LLC-a subsidiary of the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)-aims to provide unparalleled insights into the scale and sources of global methane emissions, a critical factor in the fight against climate warming. (2/8)

Northrop Grumman to Revolutionize Space Missions with Next-Gen Cryocoolers (Source: Space Daily)
Northrop Grumman, a stalwart in aerospace and defense technology, is taking a significant step forward with its latest innovation in cryocooler technology. Cryocoolers, essentially specialized refrigeration units designed for space applications, are critical for maintaining the extremely low temperatures required for the optimal performance of sensors on satellites and space telescopes. This technology is instrumental in capturing high-resolution images of both Earth and the cosmos, with its reliability being paramount due to the infeasibility of repairs in space. (2/8)

India Plans Increase in Launch Cadence (Source: India Today)
India is planning a significant increase in its launch cadence. IN-SPACe, the Indian agency designed to promote private sector launch activity, said that 30 launches are planned for the next 15 months by the Indian space agency ISRO and its commercial arm, New Space India Ltd., as well as private ventures. Nearly half of those launches will be commercial. India carried out seven launches in 2023. (2/8)

Lucy Prepares for Earth Flyby en Route to Asteroids (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Lucy spacecraft has completed a key maneuver. The spacecraft fired its main engine for 36 minutes over the weekend after a six-minute burn last week. The maneuver puts the spacecraft on course to make a gravity-assist flyby of Earth late this year that will send the spacecraft to its destination, the Trojan asteroids that follow and precede Jupiter in its orbit around the sun. (2/8)

Does Mimas Have a Subsurface Ocean? (Source: Nature)
A moon of Saturn likened to the Death Star may have a subsurface ocean. Scientists studying the moon Mimas concluded that a wobble in its orbit around Saturn could only be explained if there is a liquid water ocean beneath its icy surface. The finding was surprising because, unlike some other moons known to have oceans, the surface of Mimas had not shown any signs of geological activity that hinted at the presence of an ocean. The surface is instead cratered, including one large one that makes Mimas look like Star Wars' Death Star. (2/8)

Red Tide, Manatees and Hurricanes: NASA PACE Spacecraft to Collect Florida Environmental Data (Source: Florida Today)
Algal bloom and red tide detection and prediction. The health of seagrass beds, a key food source for manatees. Coral reef bleaching. And even hurricane forecasting. Florida's shallow-water coastlines may be environmentally analyzed in unprecedented detail via NASA's PACE spacecraft, which launched Thursday from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Armed with a hyperspectral imaging radiometer and two polarimeters, PACE is NASA's most advanced ocean-color-detecting mission to date. (2/8)

NASA's Asteroid Samples May Be Crumbs From an Ancient Ocean World (Source: Gizmodo)
After months of frustration, NASA finally got the Bennu asteroid sample container open in January, revealing the large amounts of asteroid scooped up by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. Now, a top member of the mission says the distant hunk of space rock may be a planetesimal—a planet’s building block—that once belonged to an ocean world.

Dante Lauretta, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and principal investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission, told New Scientist that “my working hypothesis is that this was an ancient ocean world.” While “highly speculative,” as Lauretta told Space.com, that’s what the high levels of phosphates in the Bennu samples are suggesting. (2/7)

People Have Been Pretending to Live on Mars for 200+ Days Now, Proving Mark Watney Right (Source: AutoEvolution)
At the end of June 2023 four humans launched themselves head-on into a program NASA calls the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA). Centered around a habitat called Mars Dune Alpha and meant to simulate the conditions we're most likely to encounter over on Mars, the program is here to inform NASA on how it can back human missions to Mars.

When it announced the program, NASA said it would run three simulations, each with a different crew, to get a broader picture of what survival on Mars could require. By that it means looking not only at how astronaut life can be sustained but also at how crews will cope with unexpected events like equipment failure. That first crew I mentioned earlier just passed the halfway mark of their mission on January 11, 2024. By all accounts, despite their isolation, things seem to be going just as planned, and the people taking part have even pulled some Mark Watney stunts in there. Click here. (2/7)

Frustrated by the Constraints of Earth, a Team of California Scientists Took Tumor Research to Space (Source: Fortune)
When cancer progresses under stress, it’s due—at least in part—to a cloning gene it turns on, known as ADAR1, according to Jamieson. On previous missions, her team noticed that mini tumors sent to space activated the gene before tripling in size in just 10 days, a much faster rate of growth than seen on the ground. Further testing revealed that ADAR1 “proliferated wildly” in the space tumors as they grew with disturbing, unchecked rapidity.

On the last Axiom mission, Jamieson’s team sent up mini tumors treated with two types of anti-cancer medications that block ADAR1 in different ways. The drugs included fedratinib, which is already FDA approved for the treatment of blood cancers, but not solid masses.

Enthused by the results, Jamieson’s team began work on an experimental drug called rebecsinib that blocks ADAR1 activation in a different way—by preventing it from spawning malignant proteins. When Axiom 3 was launched last month, with it were breast cancer mini tumors treated with the new concoction. So far, researchers have found that it inhibits cancer growth significantly when compared to controls and is even more effective than fedratinib. (2/4)