ISS Research Advances
Neurodegenerative Disease Science (Source: CASIS)
An investigation, developed by a team of scientists from the Scripps
Research Institute, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, and National
Stem Cell Foundation, involved sending 3D models of the human brain
(neural organoids) to the orbiting laboratory to better understand
neurodegenerative diseases. The study, which was the first to use
disease-associated neural organoids in microgravity research, revealed
that the brain models matured faster than their identical counterparts
on Earth.
This experiment could be a tremendous benefit to neurodegenerative
research which is often hampered by the slow progression of the
diseases and the brain's unique structure, which makes drug delivery
difficult. In addition to allowing scientists to conduct their studies
in a condensed timeframe, saving years of research, it could provide
them with the opportunity to study the brain in ways previously
unimaginable. Results could allow scientists to discover new therapies
for these complex diseases more quickly and better predict their
effectiveness. (3/24)
Embry-Riddle Team Maps the Moon in
NASA Lunar Autonomy Challenge (Source: ERAU)
A team of four Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University students have been
selected to compete in NASA’s Lunar Autonomy Challenge, which tasks
students with developing navigational software for a rover to map the
moon’s terrain. The Embry‑Riddle team earned a spot among the
competition’s 31 top teams, which includes teams from Stanford
University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.
The undergraduates hope to advance to the final round in May for a
chance to win a top prize of $10,000. The competition challenges
students to use a digital twin of NASA’s lunar mobility robot, the ISRU
Pilot Excavator (IPEx), to create software that allows the rover to
virtually explore and map the lunar surface. (3/18)
Cassie Lee Joins OGC as Chief
Innovation Officer (Source: OGC)
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is pleased to announce the
appointment of Cassie Lee as its new Chief Innovation Officer (CIO).
Lee brings expertise in space-based remote sensing, emerging
technology, and engaging culture as a mechanism for transformation. In
this newly formed role, she will lead OGC’s growing aerospace
portfolio, support the organization’s research and development
programs, and help lead OGC in its mission to make the world work
better together. (3/20)
Pentagon Alert: Russia and China's
Space Warfare Tactics Close Critical Capability Gap (Source:
Sirotin Intelligence)
US military officials are closely tracking Russian and Chinese
satellite maneuvers that suggest aggressive testing of offensive space
capabilities. The Pentagon has observed Russian satellites practicing
"attack and defend tactics" in low Earth orbit, including exercises
where multiple satellites worked together to surround and isolate
another satellite, raising concerns about the narrowing capability gap
between the US and its adversaries.
Also, the US Department of Defense has reported that Russian satellites
recently engaged in coordinated maneuvers described as "attack and
defense" tactics in space. The activity centered around a trio of
Russian satellites known as Cosmos 2581, 2582, and 2583, launched from
the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in February 2025, demonstrating capabilities
that could potentially be used to target hostile spacecraft. (3/24)
SpaceX Launches Spy Satellite at Cape
Canaveral Spaceport (Source: Space.com)
SpaceX launched its third mission of the year for the United States'
spy satellite agency on March 24, the 19th anniversary of the company's
first-ever liftoff. The first-stage booster successfully landed back at
the spaceport. (3/24)
Black Holes May Obey the Laws of
Physics After All (Source: Space.com)
A team of scientists has developed a recipe for black holes that
eliminates one of the most troubling aspects of physics: the central
singularity, the point at which all our theories, laws and models
shatter. If you were going to design an object to preserve mystery
while being utterly troubling, you couldn't do much better than a black
hole.
First, the outer boundary of these cosmic titans is a one-way
light-trapping surface called an event horizon, the point at which a
black hole's gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape.
This means no information can escape from within a black hole, so we
can never directly observe or measure what lies at its heart. (3/24)
Canadian Region Considers Starlink
Alternative (Source: CBC)
The Government of the Northwest Territories is assessing alternatives
to Starlink but locals say the territory's only option won't work. Some
governments are ending their Starlink contracts as Canada fights a
trade war with the United States, and N.W.T. Premier R.J. Simpson said
the territory is looking to follow suit.
In the 2024/25 fiscal year the territorial government spent over
$400,000 on Starlink, using the technology to support road crews and
emergency responders across departments. But the territory is looking
at only one alternative, U.K.-based Eutelsat OneWeb — and some N.W.T.
providers say the company is too expensive and not as good as Starlink.
(3/24)
China’s Own Elon Musks Are Racing to
Catch Up to SpaceX (Source: Wall Street Journal)
China is pushing its commercial space industry to grow in a bid to spur
greater innovation and close the gap with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. At least
six Chinese rockets designed with reusability in mind are planned to
have their maiden flights this year. In November, the country’s first
commercial launch site began operating. Beijing and local governments
are giving private-sector companies cash injections of billions of
dollars. (3/23)
Ohio Bid to Land NASA HQ
(Source: Cleveland.com)
Euclid native Astronaut Sunita [Suni] Williams and Astronaut Butch
Wilmore splashed down back on earth off the Florida coast Tuesday after
months in space. Awaiting them was news that Ohio’s Governor and
members of Congress would next like to see NASA’s headquarters splash
down not off the ‘Gulf of America’ but off the ‘North Coast’ on ‘Lake
Ohio’ nearby a new HQ location at The Glenn Research Center next to
Cleveland Hopkins Airport. (3/23)
SpaceX Preps New Starlink Dishes,
Including One for Gigabit Speeds (Source: PC Magazine)
SpaceX is developing a new Starlink dish meant to offer gigabit
internet to customers, a big boost from current download speeds, which
are closer to 200Mbps. The dish was mentioned in a webinar for Starlink
resellers, according to a person who watched the presentation.
It appears customers will need to buy the new dish to access gigabit
speeds. SpaceX will also need to roll out its planned upgrade for the
Starlink constellation, which will involve harnessing a broader range
of radio spectrum for the satellite internet system. (3/24)
Scientists Scan Mysterious Planet as
It Drifts Through Space (Source: WIRED)
Not every large object in space forms part of a solar system. There are
some big objects that exist in isolation in space, without either being
a star or orbiting one. One of these, SIMP 0136, wanders aimlessly in
the Milky Way, about 20 light years away from Earth. It has a mass
about 13 times that of Jupiter, and is thought to have the structure
and chemical composition of a giant gas planet, though its true
characteristics have not yet been determined.
Such untethered objects are typically classified either as
“free-floating planets,” which form inside a star system, but are
thrown out by the gravitational force of another planet, or as “brown
dwarfs,” which form like stars in dense molecular clouds of gas and
dust, but lack the mass to undergo stable nuclear fusion like a typical
star (for this reason, brown dwarfs are sometimes also known as “failed
stars”). It is unclear yet whether SIMP 0136 belongs to either of these
categories. (3/24)
NASA's SPHEREx Space Telescope Begins
Skyward Mission After Shedding Protective Shield (Source: Space
Daily)
NASA's SPHEREx mission, newly launched into low Earth orbit on March
11, has taken a major step toward beginning its cosmic survey by
discarding its dust cover. On March 18, mission controllers
successfully directed the observatory to jettison the shield that
safeguarded the telescope's aperture from particles and moisture. This
crucial component, which measured roughly 25 inches by 16 inches (64 cm
by 40 cm), was designed to protect sensitive elements, including the
trio of mirrors central to SPHEREx's optical system. (3/24)
Chang'e-6 Samples Pinpoint Moon's
Oldest Crater to 4.25 Billion Years Ago (Source: Space Daily)
Chinese scientists have precisely dated the moon's oldest and largest
impact feature, the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, to 4.25 billion
years ago using lunar samples returned by the Chang'e-6 mission. This
result offers critical insights into the moon's formative history and
the early development of the solar system.
A research team led by Chen Yi from the Institute of Geology and
Geophysics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted the study,
which was published Friday in *National Science Review*. Their analysis
of the Chang'e-6 samples marks the first time scientists have directly
dated the SPA basin. (3/21)
SpaceX Targets End of Month for
Private Astronaut Polar Orbit Mission Fram2 (Source: Orlando
Sentinel)
With the drama around the first human spaceflight of the year behind
it, SpaceX is back to the business of sending private customers to
space. The Fram2 mission headed by a Chinese-born cryptocurrency
entrepreneur and three of his friends is targeting Monday, March 31 for
liftoff from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-A.
It would be the second human spaceflight of the year behind the Crew-10
launch for NASA from KSC earlier this month that set up the return of
another Crew Dragon on the Crew-9 mission from the International Space
Station. (3/24)
Space Force Declares Space Symposium
'Essential' (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Force has declared an upcoming major conference as
'essential' for the service. In a memo last week, the Space Force said
that next month's Space Symposium in Colorado Springs is "mission
essential" for those participating in conference sessions and others
"with scheduled industry engagements." Guardians who are based in the
area can attend so long as they cover their own transportation costs.
The declaration came after an executive order last month called on
agencies to cut nonessential travel, which caused a sharp reduction in
attendees at the AFA Warfare Symposium earlier this month. (3/24)
Kratos Plans Low-Cost Hypersonic Drone
for US Military Needs (Source: Interesting Engineering)
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is developing a low-cost
hypersonic drone capable of exceeding Mach 5, possibly combining
existing rocket propulsion with future air-breathing technology. The
drone, part of the Kratos Furies Family of Hypersonic Systems, aims to
be significantly cheaper than current systems, potentially operating in
unmanned strike craft, reconnaissance and testbed applications. (3/21)
Chinese Astronauts Perform Spacewalk
at TSS (Source: Space News)
Two Chinese astronauts performed a spacewalk outside the Tiangong space
station Friday. Astronauts Cai Xuzhe and Song Lingdong spent roughly
seven hours outside Tiangong on a spacewalk that ended at 8:50 a.m.
Eastern. Cai and Song installed space debris protective shielding to
the outside of the Wentian module, completing the deployment of
shielding carried out across a series of missions and activities. They
also installed and inspected equipment on the exterior of the station.
The spacewalk was the third by the Shenzhou-19 crew, who are expected
to return to Earth in about a month. (3/24)
Star Catcher Beams Energy Ahead of KSC
Tests (Source: Space News)
Star Catcher Industries said it conducted the first test of
technologies to beam concentrated solar energy. In a test in a football
stadium, the company beamed concentrated sunlight more than 100 meters,
successfully powering multiple off-the-shelf solar arrays. The company
intends to use that technology in space to transmit beams of sunlight
to spacecraft, increasing the power their solar panels can generate.
Star Catcher plans another test this summer, beaming power more than a
kilometer at the runway at the Kennedy Space Center. (3/24)
France's MaiaSpace Signs Launch
Contract with Exotrail (Source: Space News)
French launch vehicle developer MaiaSpace has signed its first
commercial contract. The company said last week it signed a deal with
Exotrail for multiple launches of that company's spacevan orbital
transfer vehicles, starting as soon as 2027. MaiaSpace is developing a
small launch vehicle that can place 500 to 1,500 kilograms into orbit,
depending on whether the first stage is recovered. Exotrail launched
its first spacevan vehicle on a SpaceX rideshare mission in 2023 and
has contracts for additional launches with Arianespace and Isar
Aerospace. (3/24)
Pangea Raises $25 Million for Space
Propulsion Development (Source: Space News)
Pangea Aerospace raised 23 million euros ($25 million) to further its
work on space propulsion systems. Pangea announced the Series A round
last week led by Hyperion Fund, a Madrid-based firm focused on
aerospace, cyber and defense. The company, with offices in Barcelona
and Toulouse, will use the funding to advance work on propulsion
systems like aerospike engines it is developing for use in future
launch vehicles. (3/24)
China's Ceres-1 Rocket Launches Six
Weather Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
A commercial Chinese rocket launched several satellites Friday. The
Ceres-1 rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at
7:07 a.m. Eastern, placing into orbit six Yunyao-1 satellites that
collect radio occultation data for weather forecasting. The launch was
the second in less than a week of the Ceres-1, a solid-fuel small
launcher operated by Galactic Energy. (3/24)
Norway Hosts Mainland Europe's First
Orbital Launch (Source: Space Daily)
A German start-up hopes to conduct Monday a test flight of its Spectrum
rocket from Norway's Andoya Spaceport, a first for Europe which is keen
to maintain its access to space. The launch from the Arctic space
center will be the first flight of an orbital launch vehicle from the
European continent, excluding Russia. Measuring 28 meters (92 feet)
high and two meters in diameter, with a payload capacity of one tonne,
the Spectrum will not carry any cargo on this launch and is not
expected to reach orbit. (3/24)
Starship Will Simply Never Work
(Source: Medium)
A collective cheer echoed throughout the internet on the 6th of March
as yet another Starship spectacularly exploded across the Caribbean
sky. Some of this derision came from the understandable backlash to the
now-outed billionaire nazi-sympathizer neo-fascist goon at the head of
SpaceX. But a surprising amount came from a chorus of disgruntled
engineers, physics teachers and people with common sense.
You see, SpaceX’s plans for Starship are demonstrably stupid. In fact,
it is so stupid in so many different ways a lot of us, myself included,
struggle to get a big-picture view and articulate why this moronic
giant phallus will never work. I want to correct that with this
article. So, come with me as I will lay out in glorious detail the 7
Deadly Sins of Starship and why this project is destined for the scrap
heap.
Starship is meant to be a heavy-launch vehicle with a payload capacity
of at least 100 tonnes to LEO. This specification is critical to every
contract Starship has received. However, Musk has stated that, due to
issues with thrust, Starship can only take 40–50 tonnes to LEO. That is
actually less than their already operational Falcon Heavy! Okay, so
what is going on here? Click here.
(3/22)
Scientists Think They Discovered What
Existed Before the Big Bang (Source: Brighter Side)
One such groundbreaking idea is the "Dark Big Bang" (DBB) theory,
proposed in 2023 by Katherine Freese and Martin Winkler from the
University of Texas at Austin. Unlike the conventional Big Bang, which
explains the birth of ordinary matter, the DBB suggests that dark
matter arose from a separate event.
This second Big Bang, occurring sometime after the first, would have
generated dark matter through the decay of a quantum field trapped in a
false vacuum state. In this model, the early universe consisted of two
sectors: the visible sector, filled with the familiar particles and
forces, and a dark sector, which remained cold and decoupled.
Eventually, the dark sector underwent its own phase transition,
analogous to the visible sector’s hot Big Bang. (3/22)
Curiosity Rover Cracked Open a Rock
and May Have Settled the 'Life on Mars' Debate (Source:
Earth.com)
While working its usual Martian shift, the rover stumbled upon, rather
drove over, a rock and cracked it wide open, revealing a sight never
before seen on Mars – a dazzling display of yellow sulfur crystals.
This unexpected discovery was relayed to a team of astounded
scientists, including Ashwin Vasavada, the Curiosity’s project
scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
“Finding a field of stones made of pure sulfur is like finding an oasis
in the desert. It shouldn’t be there, so now we have to explain it.
Discovering strange and unexpected things is what makes planetary
exploration so exciting,” Vasavada enthused. Researchers want to know
what factors created this elemental form and how it can exist alongside
other deposits that speak to the planet’s watery past. Its formation
requires specific conditions not previously linked to this Martian
location. (3/24)
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