November 1, 2017

Bridenstine Grilled on Climate Change Stance (Source: New Republic)
Congressman Jim Bridenstine, Trump’s controversial nominee to lead NASA, was repeatedly grilled about his past denial of human-caused climate change at a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday. Democratic senators Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Tom Udall of New Mexico pointed out that, if Bridenstine wants to lead one of the top climate science agencies in the world, he should accept the scientific consensus on global warming.

But this line of questioning, and Bridenstine’s response, clearly bothered Republican Senator Mike Lee, who insisted that even NASA doesn’t agree on the consensus. In fact, NASA’s position is that it is currently “scientifically acceptable general principle” that humans cause climate change. Lee wasn’t the only Republican senator to use the hearing to attack the truth. James Inhofe, the Senate’s notorious snowball-wielding climate denier, said, “This 97 percent stuff has been debunked completely and everybody knows that.” (It hasn’t, but it’s more complicated than often portrayed.)

The downpour of climate denial from Republicans came as Bridenstine tried to walk back his own denialism. He said he agreed with the scientific consensus. He explained, accurately, how an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leads to an increase in precipitation intensity. “It’s very real and happening,” he said. “I’m happy to say that to you and anyone else because it’s the truth.” At other times, though, Bridenstine slipped into his old ways; at one point, he said “sun cycles” could be impacting global climate trends. (11/1)

SpaceX to Launch the First Falcon Heavy in December (Source: Popular Mechanics)
SpaceX is targeting late December for the maiden flight of the highly anticipated Falcon Heavy, the launch vehicle that is poised to become the most powerful operational rocket in the world. The launch would occur no earlier than December 29. SpaceX has three more launches planned for 2017. (11/1)

Garrett Flips on Ex-Im Support (Source: Space News)
The former congressman tapped to be president of the Ex-Im Bank has had a change of heart about the lending institution. In an advance copy of an opening statement he will give today at a Senate Banking Committee confirmation hearing, Scott Garrett said he supports the bank's mission and assured that the bank will "fully operate" under his leadership. Garrett was a critic of the bank while in the House, voting against reauthorization measures. Industry groups oppose Garrett's nomination while supporting four other people picked for the board in the hopes the bank will be able to once again approve large deals, including for satellites and launches. (10/31)

Asteroid Mining Could Start 10-20 Years From Now (Source: Phys.Org)
Mining space rocks for valuable resources can become reality within two decades, according to J.L. Galache of Aten Engineering. However, still many challenges must be overcome to make it happen that soon. Galache is an asteroid astronomer currently serving as Chief Technology Officer of Aten Engineering and as an adviser to Deep Space Industries (DSI).

He has designed and directed asteroid data projects with NASA's Frontier Development Lab and Oracle. He was also Acting Deputy Director, and head of Strategy and Innovation at the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center. Galache founded Aten Engineering, which provides technical solutions in the areas of detection, discovery, follow-up and characterization of asteroids. The company's ultimate goal is to pave the way for future human exploration of the solar system via in-space resource extraction and utilization.

Aten Engineering aims to be first with ideas that could shape the future of asteroid mining. Galache is convinced that a good concept will fuel the success of this industry, attracting potential investors and making the exploitation of space resources a reality. (10/30)

The Space Industry Will Be Worth Nearly $3 Trillion in 30 Years, Bank of America Predicts (Source: CNBS)
Bank of America Merrill Lynch sees the size of the space industry octupling over the next three decades, to at least $2.7 trillion. "We are entering an exciting era in space where we expect more advances in the next few decades than throughout human history," the firm wrote in a report on Monday.

As the cost of space access plummets, BofAML joined Morgan Stanley among Wall Street investment banks bullish on the extraterrestrial industry. Both put the space market today at around $350 billion, but BofAML's outlook is nearly triple Morgan Stanley's expectation of a $1.1 trillion market by 2040. Click here. (10/31)

Russia May Select First Crew for its Federation Spacecraft Next Year (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Russia may soon reveal the names of the cosmonauts assigned to the first space mission of the country’s next-generation spacecraft known as "Federation." According to the spacecraft’s manufacturer, RKK Energia, the crew could be selected as early as the first half of 2018. (11/1)

Space That Never Was is One Artist’s Vision of a Never-Ending Space Race (Source: The Verge)
There’s something appealing about space artwork, whether it’s the cover of a zany science fiction novel, or promotional art cooked up by NASA. Recently an art blog from Polish concept artist and illustrator Maciej Rebisz caught my eye. Titled Space that Never Was, it’s an engrossing collection of illustrations that look at what humanity’s future could have been in the solar system. Click here. (10/21)

How Japan's Election Results Will Shape The Balance Of Power In Space (Source: Forbes)
Aside from its implications on the ground, Prime Minister Abe’s commanding electoral victory in Japan's recent snap election will have a significant impact on the balance of power in space. Of course, every capable country is moving to advantage itself in the new frontiers of security, but few are as well poised as Japan, which is already one of the world’s most advanced space powers.

Three strands in Japan’s space strategy tell us how and where it is headed. First, Japan is not mincing words about the expanding importance of national security space, and what it could mean for the country’s independent capabilities for defense. From the passage of the Basic Space Law in 2008 to iterations of Cabinet decisions on the Basic Space Plan in 2016, Japan has been moving legal and policy building blocks in this direction. Simply put, it has put everyone on notice about its determination to shape the emerging power balances in space. Click here. (10/31)

We May Have Found 20 Habitable Worlds Hiding in Plain Sight (Source: New Scientist)
There could be more habitable planets out there than we thought. An analysis of data from the Kepler space telescope has revealed 20 promising worlds that might be able to host life.

The list of potential worlds includes several planets that orbit stars like our sun. Some take a relatively long time to complete a single orbit, with the longest taking 395 Earth days and others taking Earth weeks or months. The fastest orbit is 18 Earth days. This is very different to the very short “years” we see around smaller stars with habitable planets like Proxima Centauri.

The exoplanet with a 395-day year is one of the most promising worlds for life on the list, says Jeff Coughlin, a Kepler team lead who helped find the potential planets. Called KOI-7923.01, it is 97 per cent the size of Earth, but a little colder. Click here. (10/30)

Back to Darwin’s Warm Little Pond (Source: Air & Space)
Just as many researchers had come to accept the idea that terrestrial life originated at hydrothermal vents in the ocean, new research calls that hypothesis into question, and revives Darwin’s old idea of the origin of life in a warm little pond. Computer modeling by the researchers suggests that the chemical building blocks of life were brought to Earth by meteorites and deposited in small bodies of water on the continents, where they readily assembled to form long-chained molecules such as RNA or DNA.

This assembly would have occurred very fast—within a few cycles of the ponds drying out and becoming filled with water again. Thus, the resulting RNA or RNA-like molecules would likely have appeared very early in Earth’s history. Since most of the meteoric infall of organic building blocks occurred prior to 4.17 billion years ago, the authors believe the first self-replicating RNA molecules (the so-called “RNA world”) would also have formed by that time—within 200 to 300 million years of Earth becoming habitable.

However, Pearce and colleagues leave the door open to a slightly different scenario. If early Earth was cold rather than warm, the wet-dry cycles could have been replaced with freeze-thaw cycles. These also would be well-suited for the assemblage of long-chained RNA molecules, but based on what we know of our planet’s evolution, a warm or hot early Earth seems more likely. (10/30)

Embry-Riddle Researchers Capture Light to Probe the Exosphere (Source: ERAU)
Tucked behind the tennis courts on Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, a large blue shipping container crowned by a mysterious-looking scientific instrument is being used to capture light and better understand the very edge of space. “You can think of the instrument as a tunable filter – a way of selecting specific wavelengths of light for study,” explained Edwin Mierkiewicz, associate professor of physics and winner of a National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Award.

The instrument, specifically known as a Fabry-Perot spectrometer, acts somewhat like a prism, separating light into different colors, depending on its wavelength. Beginning at the orbit of the International Space Station and stretching nearly halfway to the Moon, the thin uppermost region of our atmosphere, called the exosphere, serves as a transition layer between the Earth and outer space. Investigations of the exosphere could ultimately provide new clues to how atmospheres change over geological time-scales on various planets – including Earth, Mierkiewicz noted. (10/24)

How Does Your Space Garden Grow? (Source: Absolute Knowledge)
Friday morning, astronauts onboard International Space Station have succeded to show us how plants grow in space, by harvesting three varieties of leafy greens and installing their next generation of plant research. Three different plant varietes are simultaneously growing in the Veggie chamber for the first time. On the same day, October 27, Joe Acaba (astronaut on ISS) harvested Mizuna mustard, Waldmann’s green lettuce and Outredgeous Red Romaine lettuce, successfully providing a salad for himself and for the rest of the crew. (10/31)