February 8, 2018

Evidence for a Massive Biomass Burning Event at the Younger Dryas Boundary (Source: Space Daily)
Some 13,000 years ago, a cataclysmic event occurred on Earth that was likely responsible for the collapse of the Clovis people and the extinction of megafauna such as mammoths and mastodons.

That juncture in the planet's geologic history - marked by a distinct layer called the Younger Dryas Boundary - features many anomalies that support the theory of a cometary cloud impacting Earth. The collision triggered a massive biomass burning event, and the resulting soot, ash and dust in the global atmosphere blocked out the sun, which prevented photosynthesis - a phenomenon called impact winter. (2/8)

Researchers Validate Satellite-Based Earthquake Early Warning System (Source: Via Satellite)
A recent report in Seismological Research Letters suggests that researchers can use satellites to provide early warnings of earthquakes and tsunamis for Chile’s coastal communities. The module leverages ground motion data measured by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and could help determine the magnitude and epicenter of large earthquakes.

The early warning module, called G-FAST, uses ground motion data measured by Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to estimate the magnitude and epicenter for large earthquakes—those magnitude 8 and greater. These great quakes often take place at subducting tectonic plate boundaries, where one plate thrusts beneath another plate, as is the case off the coast of Chile and the U.S. Pacific Northwest. (2/6)

If the Big One Hits Soon, We Won't Have Any Warning (Source: Newsweek)
Whichever fault gives way first, scientists know the nightmare scenario will happen eventually—the only question is when. If it happens tomorrow, there won’t be any warning. “The way I know that an earthquake is happening is I feel shaking,” said Robert-Michael de Groot. And if people were going to know about shakes in advance, de Groot would be one of them, since he works with the U.S. Geological Survey's program to create earthquake warnings. USGS spent years developing a system called ShakeAlert, designed in the long run to offer an early warning of an earthquake, like the systems used in Mexico and Japan.

These systems don’t predict earthquakes, a feat scientists currently deem impossible. Instead, they exploit a quirk of how earthquakes work. The shaking people feel on the surface is the result of waves on energy flowing through the Earth—but those waves move much more slowly than the ones into which we encode our communications. If there’s enough distance between the source of the earthquake and the humans to be warned, the signal can arrive moments before the shakes do.

But right now, ShakeAlert is underfunded. In fact, President Donald Trump requested the project be tabled entirely in his administration’s fiscal year 2018 budget plan, although Congress has reinstated funding. Despite the struggles, it’s still being built, albeit more slowly than USGS hoped, and they are testing applications with a few targeted industries. (2/8)

Next for Falcon Heavy: USAF Certification (Source: Space News)
The next big test for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy many not be a launch but winning certification for national security missions. Gaining certification for such payloads could require as few as two, and as many as 14, successful launches, a spokesperson for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Command said. The wide range is based on the details of any certification plan for the rocket agreed to between SpaceX and the Air Force, where fewer launches could be replaced by more in-depth technical evaluations. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said after Tuesday's launch that the company's backlog of commercial customer should give the company enough of a track record to win Air Force certification. (2/7)

Mattis: DOD Needs Budget Deal (Sources: Space News, Washington Post)
Secretary of Defense James Mattis made a plea for a two-year budget deal being finalized in Congress. Mattis, in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, backed the budget deal reached in the Senate Wednesday, calling it vital to ensuring Defense Department programs are properly funded. The House and Senate are scheduled to vote on the deal today, which will include another stopgap funding measure for the government that will run through March 23 to give appropriators time to complete a final 2018 spending bill. (2/7)

Smallsat Operators Need Ground Stations (Source: Space News)
Small satellite operators are encountering problems setting up ground stations in multiple countries. Companies that are developing constellations of Earth-imaging satellites often seek to establish ground stations in various locations around the world to maximize the data they can collect. However, regulatory obstacles in each country can, in some cases, come into conflict with those in other countries like the United States, a NOAA official said at a conference this week. "We are working with about three to four other countries to figure out whose law takes precedence, and it's a hard problem," said Tahara Dawkins, director of NOAA's Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office. (2/7)

Judge Declines to Dismiss Orbital/Loral Lawsuit (Source: Space News)
A federal judge denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Space Systems Loral against Orbital ATK. The judge retained four of the six counts in SSL's suit against Orbital ATK over unauthorized access to information about its satellite servicing technologies. Two other counts were dismissed because they were superseded by laws invoked in the other charges. SSL filed suit last year after learning that an Orbital ATK employee accessed documents on a NASA server related to a satellite servicing technology demonstration award SSL has with NASA. (2/7)

Russia Dismisses Falcon Heavy "Trick" (Sources: Tass, Vice)
A Russian space agency spokesman dismissed the Falcon Heavy launch of a Tesla Roadster as an "excellent trick." Igor Burenkov told a Moscow radio station that he believed SpaceX launched the car to help Tesla, which is also run by Elon Musk. "Tesla is not doing very well. Everybody knows that. It was an excellent trick," he said. Other Russians, though, criticized Roscosmos on social media for falling behind SpaceX in launch vehicle technology. (2/7)

How Will the Tesla Roadster Fare in Deep Space? (Source: Space.com)
That Roadster, though, may not last long in the harsh environment of space. One scientist expects that solar radiation and cosmic rays will start breaking apart much of the car's plastics and carbon composite materials in a little as a year, ultimately leaving behind only its metallic frame and other inorganic materials. Another chemist was not nearly as pessimistic, expecting the Roadster to still be "somewhat recognizable" after a million years in space. (2/7)

NASA's Non-Tech Social Media Tteam is Demystifying Astro-Jargon for Over a Billion Followers (Source: Economic Times)
NASA's social media cell has four core members: Chief of digital communications & strategy John Yembrick, deputy social media manager Jason Townsend, and two social media specialists - Yvette Smith and Emily Furfaro. They oversee social media heads located in 10 different offices across the US, who usually hire parttime and full-time workers for different projects depending on the budgets.

None of the core teammates have a technical education background. They ask experts at NASA to break things down for them before posting anything online. A non-tech background helps them simplify information for everyone who isn't Sheldon Cooper. Given that the internet is ruled by cat videos, gifs, and memes: simplifying content isn't good enough, you ought to swag-ify it. Click here. (2/3)

Alabama Judge Grounds ULA Technician's Sex Bias Suit (Source: Law360)
A Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture on Tuesday escaped claims it let a supervisor sexually harass a technician and denied her jobs after she complained, when an Alabama magistrate judge ruled the worker was harassed but not to the point where it violated federal law. U.S. Magistrate Judge Herman N. Johnson Jr. granted summary judgment to United Launch Alliance LLC on worker Deborah Williams’ harassment suit, saying her supervisor’s comments were too infrequent and too mild to create a hostile work environment under Title VII. (2/6)

Russians Are Mocking Their Space Program After SpaceX Launch (Source: Vice)
The launch of Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday captivated much of the world. It also caused many Russians to suddenly see their own country’s shining history of space exploration in a cold new light. After all, their country put the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit in 1957, and the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into outer space four years later. But Musk launched a cherry-red Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun, where SpaceX has claimed it would stay for millions of years.

Naturally, Russians reacted by launching memes about Russia’s current space program and general state of affairs on social media. One Twitter user posted a decrepit playground spaceship under the caption, “your rocket.” And contrasted that with the Falcon Heavy as, “your mom’s friend’s son’s rocket.” Meanwhile, on VK, Russia’s massively popular homegrown social network, one user posted pictures of Russian cosmonauts being blessed by a priest and asking, “When will we catch up with SpaceX?” The priest mutters, “Quiet, quiet, kiss the cross.”

Some dove head-first into Russia's rising inequality and the excessive wealth among the country's billionaire elite. One user noted the millions of dollars and years of effort Musk has plowed into pioneering space technology, and lamented the comparison with the kinds of things Russia’s notorious 96 billionaires tend to spend their own money on. (2/7)

Wind Tunnel Components Roar Into Place (Source: ERAU)
Fifteen truckloads. Two forklifts. Two large cranes. A crew of eight people moving 202,480 pounds of custom-designed scientific research equipment destined for Embry-Riddle’s new advanced subsonic wind tunnel facility. On Jan. 22, 2018, a convoy of flatbed trucks relocated several massive components of the wind tunnel from the Sheltair Hangar at Daytona Beach International Airport, across airport property, to Embry-Riddle’s Research Park on Clyde Morris Boulevard.

The 16,000-square-foot wind tunnel facility, adjacent to Embry-Riddle’s John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex (MicaPlex), is scheduled to go live by the summer of 2018. One of the most technologically advanced subsonic wind tunnels in the United States, the Embry-Riddle facility will be capable of delivering windflow speeds up to 230 mph. It will also support a scientific flow measurement technique called Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). (1/29)

New Attractions in KSC Visitor Complex's Future (Source: PGAV)
Kennedy Space Center is the world’s premiere spaceport, and its Visitor Complex is a portal into the real-life, behind-the-scenes world of astronauts, rockets, and the exploration of space. PGAV Destinations developed a 10-year strategic master plan for future improvements to the site, including several significant new attraction elements and other enhancements to the visitor experience. Click here. (2/7)

Why Doesn't Canada Have a Rocket Program? (Source: CBC)
Once among the world's leaders in rocket engineering, Canada has ceded space rocketry to unlikely rivals such as New Zealand and Romania. Participants suggest the situation is bad and not getting better. The gap threatens Canada's ability to independently launch the satellites that are an increasingly important part of everyday life, such as those that monitor our atmosphere and changing climate. It is also forcing some of the country's most educated engineers to look for work outside Canada. (2/6)

Should Texas Give SpaceX Another $5 Million for its Brownsville Spaceport? (Source: Texas Standard)
SpaceX, is building a spaceport in Brownsville. It’s just taking a little longer than expected. Initial projections by SpaceX founder Elon Musk had rockets lifting off from the beachfront site by 2016. That hasn’t happened, despite receiving over $15 million from the state of Texas. Now, SpaceX is asking for more money to complete the project. In January, the company applied for another $5 million from the state.

Alexander Salter explains what this means for Texas’ space industry. Salter is an assistant professor of economics at Texas Tech University, a fellow at the Texas Tech Free Market Institute and a member of TTU’s brand-new Space Studies Hub. Salter takes a step back from the spaceport construction project to frame the issue.  “It’s generally not a good idea for state governments to be in the interest of picking economic winners and losers,” says Salter.  “We want government to be referee, rather than a player in the game.”

However, other states including Georgia, and even Puerto Rico are courting SpaceX with a variety of incentives.  “The risk,” Salter says of Texas not extending more incentives, “is…losing SpaceX’s business and the employment opportunities that it brings. The cost overrun compared to projected benefits is not out of line for similar projects.”  He says that it’s common for projects of this magnitude to take longer and cost more than initially projected. (2/7)

Canadian Team Developing New Rocket for Spaceport America Cup (Source: CBC)
UBC Rocket is a student engineering team that designs and launches its own rockets, one of which earned first place in its class at the Spaceport America Cup last year in New Mexico. Jackson said they're returning to the competition this year with a new rocket that will go three times higher than their prize-winning model and will break the sound barrier, a first for the team. (2/6)

Utah School to be Renamed to Honor NASA's First Black Female Engineer (Source: KTVX)
Tuesday evening the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education unanimously voted to approve a name change for Jackson Elementary School to "Mary Jackson Elementary School." The school was originally named after U.S. President Andrew Jackson, but it will be re-named to honor Mary W. Jackson, who in 1958 became NASA’s first black female engineer. Her story is among those recounted in the book Hidden Figures and in the film of the same name. (2/7)

Internal Logs Show White House Interviewed Science Adviser Candidates. But Who? (Source: Science)
White House officials appear to have interviewed at least three people last spring to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), a key post that remains vacant more than a year into the administration of President Donald Trump. That information comes from the appointments calendar of the de facto head of the office and its only political appointee, Michael Kratsios.

The calendar was obtained by ScienceInsider under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The names of the candidates were redacted for privacy considerations. However, the document provides evidence that the Trump administration took steps to fill the position of OSTP director within a few months of taking office. If true, that would address widespread concerns by scientists that the president has no interest in finding someone to coordinate the activities of some two dozen federal agencies on matters relating to research, education, and technological innovation. (2/6)

Musk Says SpaceX to Focus on BFR Following Falcon Heavy Launch (Source: Tech Crunch)
Elon Musk said at a press event for the just-launched Falcon Heavy that SpaceX will now begin focusing in earnest on “BFR,” the code name for its next big space launch vehicle. BFR (aka “big f*cking rocket,” in case you lack imagination) will be designed to be a vehicle capable of using a single stage to make it all the way to orbit, with fully loaded tanks.

Musk said that BFR might be ready for “short hopper flights with the spaceship part” of the rocket by maybe next year. These will essentially be flights of “increasing complexity,” with the intent being to go out of Earth’s atmosphere and then “come back in hot to test the heat shield,” because BFR’s primary purpose will require it to survive planetary entry, on Earth, Mars and beyond.

Musk added that of BFR’s design challenges, “the ship part is by far the hardest, because that’s going to come in from super-orbital velocity” around planets including Mars, which is “way harder than coming in from orbit.” (2/7)