March 4, 2024

Delays Trigger Concerns About NASA's Plan to Return Astronauts to the Moon Ahead of China (Source: CBS)
Decades after the U.S. began and won a space race with the Soviet Union, NASA is shooting for the moon once again – this time with China as a competitor. NASA's Artemis mission plans to send people back to the moon and establish an outpost at the moon's south pole. China's rapidly growing space program also has its sights set on the moon, with plans to send its taikonauts, or Chinese astronauts, there by the end of the decade. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has publicly expressed concern about China getting to the south pole first and staking a claim.

NASA is taking a different approach from the Apollo missions this time around. The agency is paying Elon Musk's SpaceX to take NASA's crews from the Orion Spacecraft down to the moon. In 2021, NASA signed a nearly $3 billion contract with SpaceX to use its new Starship mega rocket and lunar lander for the first Artemis astronauts. NASA's contract with SpaceX requires the company to make an unmanned lunar landing with Starship before  the mission with astronauts on board. To ensure that the U.S. will plant its flag on the moon's south pole first, NASA signed a new $3 billion contract last year with Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, to build another lunar lander.

George Scott, NASA's acting inspector general, is concerned about the cost of Artemis. While NASA's engineers have their heads in the stars, it's Scott's job to bring them back to Earth, particularly when it comes to costs. "I think it is safe to say, without significant reductions in cost, better cost controls, better planning, this Artemis program on its current trajectory is not sustainable," Scott said. The current cost estimate per launch in the Artemis mission is $4.2 billion. "That's an incredible amount of money per launch," he said. "A lot of that hardware is just going to end up in the ocean, never to be used again." (3/3)

Crew Launches to ISS From Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space News)
A new crew is on its way to the International Space Station after a launch Sunday night. A Falcon 9 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 10:53 p.m. Eastern and placed the Crew Dragon spacecraft Endeavour into orbit. That spacecraft, flying NASA's Crew-8 mission, is carrying three NASA astronauts and one Roscosmos cosmonaut to the ISS for a six-month stay, with docking scheduled for about 3 a.m. Eastern Tuesday. The launch was scheduled for Saturday night but postponed by weather. (3/4)

FY-24 Spending Bill Cuts NASA by 2% (Source: Space News)
A final fiscal year 2024 spending bill will cut funding for NASA. The bill, released Sunday by House and Senate negotiators, would give the agency $24.875 billion in 2024, 2% less than what it received in 2023 even before correcting for inflation. NASA had requested nearly $27.2 billion for 2024. The bill punts a decision on funding for Mars Sample Return, instructing NASA to provide a report 60 days after the completion of an architecture reassessment and allowing NASA to spend between $300 million and $949.3 million on the program. The bill adjusted spending on some other science, space technology and exploration programs. Congress is expected to pass the bill by Friday, when a stopgap funding bill expires. (3/4)

TSS Spacewalkers Repair Solar Panels (Source: Xinhua)
Chinese astronauts performed a spacewalk outside the Tiangong space station Saturday. Tang Hongbo and Jiang Xinlin spent about eight hours outside the station, making repairs to solar panels that had been degraded by impacts of small particles. They also performed an inspection of the exterior of the station's modules. (3/4)

Astra Founders Warn of Liquidation (Source: Space News)
Astra's board warns that if a deal to take the company private falls through, its only option is liquidation. The company, in an SEC filing late Friday, said it was reviewing a revised proposal by company founders Chris Kemp and Adam London, Astra's CEO and CTO respectively, to take the company private at $0.50 a share, a price two-thirds lower than their original offer in November. The board said that it has not been able to identify any other financing options for the launch and satellite propulsion company, and that if it cannot complete the deal to go private, it will have to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidate. Astra did not disclose a timeframe for completing a deal or going bankrupt. (3/4)

NASA Ends AIM Earth Science Mission (Source: NASA)
A NASA Earth science mission has ended after 16 years of operations. NASA said Friday it was formally ending the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission, nearly a year after a battery failed on the spacecraft. NASA said that multiple efforts to maintain power on AIM without that battery were unsuccessful, keeping the spacecraft from collecting data. AIM launched in 2007 to study noctilucent clouds in the upper atmosphere to better understand how they formed and how they are affected by other atmospheric phenomena. (3/4)

NSF Must Pick Only One of Two Ground-Based Telescopes (Source: Science)
The National Science Foundation (NSF) may only fund one new large ground-based telescope rather than two. The National Science Board, at a meeting last month, directed the NSF to move forward with support for either the Giant Magellan Telescope or Thirty Meter Telescope. Astronomers, through an initiative called the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope Program, had hoped the NSF would provide funding for both projects in exchange for a share of observing time. The board said the high cost of the telescopes led them to direct the NSF to move forward with one, with a cost cap of $1.6 billion. However, language in the fiscal year 2024 spending bill "strongly encourages" the NSF to support both telescopes. (3/4)

Could Fiber Optic Cable Help Scientists Probe the Deep Layers of the Moon? (Source: Space Daily)
An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth-but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers of our nearest neighbor in space? In Seismological Research Letters, Wenbo Wu of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and colleagues explore the idea of deploying a fiber seismic network on the Moon, discussing some of the challenges to overcome.

They also test this hypothetical network using artificial seismograms created from data collected by seismometers placed on the Moon's surface by the Apollo missions. Based on their results, Wu and colleagues say a fiber seismic network could identify the kind of seismic waves that would provide more information about the Moon's deep core structure. (3/4)

If You Go to Mars, Jeffery Hoffman Says, “Don’t Forget Your MOXIE!” (Source: The Varsity)
As Hoffman discussed, taking humans to Mars involves supporting astronauts for seven to eight months aboard a suitable spacecraft. The red planet’s air pressure is similar to Earth’s pressure — at 100,000 feet above sea level. Water does not exist as a liquid at this level, and altogether, this makes Mars very difficult for humans to explore. Rovers allow scientists to study places they cannot physically reach yet.

Hoffman is the deputy principal investigator of MOXIE, an experimental rover instrument on Perseverance, the rover that was launched in 2020. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment can create up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour using carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere. It splits oxygen from the carbon dioxide using an electrolyzer. MOXIE was created as a source of oxygen for future explorers on Mars to breathe and burn as fuel. It’s a small-scale demo version of a converter that will eventually support a small crew. (3/3)

Italy to Host Main Control Center for EU Satellite Constellation (Source: Reuters)
A space center in the heart of Italy is set to host the main control site for the low-orbit IRIS² (pronounced 'Iris squared') EU satellite constellation, Italy's industry minister said on Monday. The Fucino Space Center, close to the town of l'Aquila and one of the world's largest space centers for civilian use, will be expanded to include control operations for IRIS², Adolfo Urso said.

The center already manages the European satellite positioning and navigation system Galileo. IRIS² is designed to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink and Jeff Bezos' Kuiper. It is an array of up to 170 satellites that will secure communications for European Union governments and open new commercial broadband services to under-served areas between 2025 and 2027. (3/4)

New Funding to Put the UK at Heart of Next Generation Telecommunications Services (Source: Gov.UK)
The UK Space Agency has announced a £10 million funding competition that will help UK companies put their technologies at the forefront of a new generation of global telecommunications services, products and applications. The funding is part of the UK’s commitment to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Advanced Research in Telecommunication Systems (ARTES) program.

The £10 million investment is open to a diverse range of innovative products or components, systems or services, and any aspect of the space, ground or network segments. This could include breakthrough technologies such as the development of lasers to communicate in space, or for pioneering market opportunities, such as the use of space tech to boost the efficiency of global shipping and trade. (2/26)

NASA's Ice-Hunting VIPER Moon Rover Getting Ready to Slither to the Launch Pad (Source: Space.com)
NASA's next moon rover is one step closer to starting its lunar mission. The rolling robot, known as VIPER ("Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover"), is set to launch toward the moon later this year. And it just notched a milestone along that path. "All of VIPER’s flight instruments are installed, and the rover is more than 80% built!"  VIPER Project Manager Dan Andrews wrote.

VIPER will spend 100 days roaming the lunar south pole region, collecting data that will reveal where water ice is most likely to dwell and determining how easy these resources will be to access. In the process, VIPER will become the first-ever resource mapping mission on another body in the solar system. These resource maps will be a vital step in establishing a long-term human presence on the moon. (3/3)

Palantir and Voyager Partner on AI for Starlab (Source: Payload)
Palantir, the AI data and analytics unicorn, is getting more deeply involved in the space domain. The company announced yesterday that it had entered a strategic collaboration with Voyager Space to explore potential AI and ML demos in space, with an eye on Starlab development. Under the newly signed MoU, Voyager and Palantir will look for ways to incorporate advanced edge computing capabilities and AI/ML tech into Starlab in its nascent stages. That could include expanding space domain awareness and enabling allied nations doing business aboard the station to process and distribute data securely. (2/6)

ATMOS on Track to Fly its Space Cargo Return Capsule Prototype Following Additional €1.3M in Funding (Source: ATMOS)
ATMOS is on track to fly its space cargo return capsule prototype following an additional €1.3M in funding. This additional funding follows the oversubscribed €4 million seed funding round in June 2023 in preparation for assembling the prototype of its Phoenix return capsule to fly into space and back. The new investment will broaden ATMOS’ access to alternative launch providers, shortening the time to market for its sustainable IOD (In-Orbit Demonstration) service. (2/8)

Umbra Releases Over $4 Million in Free SAR Data (Source: Umbra)
Umbra, a vertically integrated space technology company, announced today that it has made over $4 million of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data available to the public via its Open Data Program, which launched on March 15, 2023. In less than a year, Umbra has already shared over 3,000 images with the public, surpassing the combined open data offerings of its two closest competitors by more than tenfold. (3/1)

The Last Thing The Space Force Must Reckon With (Source: Forbes)
For the first time in military history, the need for this separate service – the US Space Force – requires all of us involved to fully appreciate the complete paradigm shift required to prepare for and lead a military battle in this domain. The hallmarks of traditional military power involve mass, maneuver, and kinetic destruction.

For the Space Force, this must be replaced by a deep understanding of what software-defined operations means. The key to space dominance lies in mastering the space cyber domain, where layers of software on commercial hardware serve as the primary offensive and defensive weapons. The US Space Force is the first military branch in history that is software defined. At its core, it is a software defined service. (2/28)

Can Antarctica Serve as a Model for International Cooperation on the Moon? (Source: Space.com)
Multiple nations are targeting the moon as an off-Earth destination for long-term human presence. For NASA, getting a literal "leg-up" on the moon once again via its Artemis program is highly touted as the way to tromp and train for marching on to Mars. In many ways, such a future undertaking can be compared to Antarctica, home for many far-flung research stations. During summer months, roughly 5,000 people inhabit research outposts, a number that drops to approximately 1,000 in the winter.

Antarctica is governed by about 30 countries, all of which are parties of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty System. Can that bleak, standoffish polar scenery serve as a template for working on the moon, or even offer lessons on how best to cooperate in austere, remote environments? Click here. (3/3)

HyImpulse SR75 Rocket On the Way to Australia for Maiden Launch from the Koonibba Test Range (Source: Southern Launch)
Leading German rocket manufacturer HyImpulse has packed up their SR75 rocket ready for its maiden launch in South Australia in late April/early May 2024. Southern Launch is hosting HyImpulse at the Koonibba Test Range for the maiden launch of their SR75 single-stage rocket. The SR75 rocket uses HyImpulse’s unique propulsion technology which combines paraffin wax (candle wax) and liquid oxygen to create a hybrid rocket. (2/28)

Packing Starliner Cargo is a Balancing Act (Source: Boeing)
The CST-100 Starliner’s Crew Flight Test (CFT) to the International Space Station will carry 759 pounds (344 kilograms) of cargo, including 452 pounds (205 kilograms) from Boeing and 307 pounds (139 kilograms) from NASA. Boeing will have 25 bags and NASA will have 11 bags stored in the cabin where NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams will be seated. NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is backup spacecraft test pilot if either Wilmore or Williams is not able to fly. He also is pilot of the post-certification mission, Starliner-1, which will follow CFT.

Examples of Boeing cargo include vehicle supplies and tools, personal hygiene items for the astronauts and emergency life support equipment. NASA cargo includes food, clothing, exercise gear, medical supplies, photo/media equipment and crew personal preference items. Also on board will be creative space-themed masterpieces created by students from around the world through a partnership between Boeing and the Space Foundation. A thumb drive packed on board contains more than 3,400 different submissions from 66 countries, including 35 U.S. states. (2/28)

AAC Space Africa Wins SEK 2.3 M Satellite Order (Source; AAC Clyde Space)
AAC Clyde Space's subsidiary AAC Space Africa has won its first satellite order. AAC Space Africa will assemble, integrate and test two satellites. The order valued at 4.1 million South African Rands (approx. SEK 2.3 M) is scheduled for delivery in June 2024. "We are delighted that AAC Space Africa has received its first satellite order, a critical milestone in the growth of our company in Africa.  We look forward to seeing these satellites in space delivering their mission" says AAC Clyde Space CEO Luis Gomes. (2/28)

Bright Ascension and Third Planet Orbital Announce Partnership (Source: Bright Ascension)
Bright Ascension announces the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Third Planet Orbital Ltd, a supplier of off-the-shelf functionally standardized small satellite buses. The agreement commits both companies to pool our expertise and resources in order to identify and pursue promising opportunities within the fast-growing New Space industry. Together with Third Planet Orbital, we will form the foundations of a standardized integrated software and hardware platform. (2/29)

With Space Travel Comes Motion Sickness. These Engineers Want to Help (Source: CU Boulder)
In a corner room of the Aerospace Engineering Sciences Building at CU Boulder, Torin Clark is about to go for a ride. The associate professor straps himself into what looks like an intimidating dentist’s chair perched on metal scaffolding, which, in turn, rests on a circular base. The whole set up resembles a carnival attraction. Which, in a way, it is.

The team from the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is using this machine as one step in an experiment that seeks to recreate an experience that few people ever have: The shock of going from one gravity environment, like space, to another, like the surface of Earth. In particular, the group is tackling what happens when astronauts return home, landing in their spacecrafts in the middle of a choppy ocean. (2/29)

Ovzon Receives New Order from Swedish Space Corporation (Source: Ovzon)
Ovzon has received a new order for Ovzon’s SATCOM-as-a-Service from Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) for delivery during 2024. The total order value amounts to 6 MSEK. Ovzon's SATCOM-as-a-Service is recognized for its exceptional ability to support any critical mission by integrating highest degree of mobility, performance, and resiliency. This recent order emphasizes Ovzon and SSC´s joint commitment to serving primarily Swedish government organizations and agencies, with SSC remaining crucial in the effective deployment of this service. (2/29)