March 25, 2018

Tiangong-1 to Fall to Earth Over Easter Weekend (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
According to new calculations, China’s Tiangong-1 space laboratory will most likely fall to Earth over Easter weekend. More specifically, the European Space Agency and The Aerospace Corporation predict that the out-of-control spacecraft will re-enter the atmosphere between March 29 and April 4. (3/25)

[Florida] University Student Projects Launch From Virginia (Source: NASA)
Four university student projects were successfully launched on March 25, 2018, on a NASA suborbital sounding rocket from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The two-stage Terrier-Improved Malemute suborbital rocket carried the projects to an altitude of 107 miles. The projects then descended by parachute, landing in the Atlantic Ocean. The projects were recovered and will be returned to the students for analysis.

The undergraduate student teams’ projects from Utah State University, Logan; the University of Nebraska – Lincoln; the University of Kentucky, Lexington; and the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, were launched through the NASA Undergraduate Student Instrument Project or USIP. (3/25)

Tarter: We Will Discover Alien Life by 2100 (Source: Florida Today)
Though scientists have scanned the cosmos for signals from alien civilizations for a half-century, Jill Tarter likens mankind's micro-scale campaign to searching for fish in the world’s oceans — by withdrawing a 12-ounce glass of water. “We’re out in the boondocks. And our star, the sun, is only one of 400 billion other stars in the Milky Way galaxy," Tarter told a conference-room crowd Saturday afternoon.

"And our Milky Way galaxy is only one of about 200 billion other galaxies in the observable universe," she said. Tarter — whose astronomical career was portrayed by Jodie Foster in the 1997 movie "Contact" — served as closing speaker during the Florida Institute of Technology's third Cross Cultural Management Summit at Caribe Royale in Orlando.

“I think that in this century we are going to be finding life beyond Earth," Tarter told the audience. "We can discover it: We can find biomarkers on planets or moons of our solar system. We can find artifacts in the solar system as we explore. We can look for remote biosignatures in the atmospheres of distant exoplanets," Tarter said. (3/24)

3-2-1: How to Experience a Rocket Launch on Florida's Space Coast (Source: Lonely Planet)    
The NASA Space Shuttle may no longer be flying, but thanks to private investment, Florida’s Space Coast is busier than ever with regular rocket launches. Want to see one for yourself? These tips ensure you’ll be able to get the most out of your launch viewing experience.

Experiencing a rocket launch on the Space Coast is so much more than it appears on TV. The nervous energy as the countdown clock ticks down; that moment of hesitation when smoke begins billowing out the bottom of the rocket; the burst of flame the color of the brightest molten lava that begins to propel the rocket upward; and finally, feeling the roar in your chest as it achieves lift-off. It’s not just about the launch, though; it’s the entire experience. Click here. (3/24)

Spaceport America Prepares Visitors for Exciting Possibilities (Source: Albuquerque Journal)
Somehow it makes sense that the state known for perhaps the most curious of potential otherworldly encounters also was the first to turn to space when it comes to creating an otherworldly industry. But Spaceport America is not some pie-in-the-sky dream of an enterprise for companies seeking to exploit the riches beyond Earth’s atmosphere. It’s a place where real, cutting-edge science hits pay dirt and eventually the heavens.

What’s more, the complex rising amid the desert sands of southern New Mexico has become a destination spot settled on 18,000 acres next to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range. With the inclusion of Final Frontier Tours, which took over the tour operation in December, Spaceport America (spacesportamericatour.com) is looking to educate, enthrall and entice visitors about the potential of future space travel. (3/25)

New National Space Strategy Emphasizes “America first” Policies (Source: Space News)
A new National Space Strategy announced by the White House March 23 fits into an “America First” theme of the Trump administration, seeking to protect American interests in space through revised military space approaches and commercial regulatory reform.

The strategy was announced in a statement released by the White House. The strategy document itself has not been released, and an administration source says the release is intended to serve as the primary fact sheet for the strategy. The statement says the strategy is intended to outline how the administration will protect American interests in space, fitting into a broader “America First” theme of policies by the current administration. (3/24)

Air Force Stakes Future on Privately Funded Launch Vehicles. Will the Gamble Pay Off? (Source: Space News)
The schedule is getting tight for the U.S. Air Force as a 2022 deadline looms to bid farewell to the Atlas 5 and switch to a different rocket that is not powered by a Russian engine. The target date was mutually agreed by Congress and the Air Force in 2016, allowing what was considered sufficient time to find alternatives to ULA’s Atlas 5 that uses the Russian RD-180 engine. The solution they settled on was for the Air Force to sign deals with the space industry to co-finance the development of new rocket propulsion systems.

The program known as the “launch service agreement” fits the Air Force’s broader goal to get out of the business of “buying rockets” and instead acquire end-to-end services from companies. “We are on schedule to make LSA awards in July 2018,” said a spokesman for the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. The selected competitors will face a schedule that seems ambitious even by the standards of commercial space companies.

Vulcan Centaur is 75 percent privately funded, Bruno said. To remain a contender in the LSA program, it needs to be ready for certification flights by 2020. ULA has agreed to two non-government flights to certify Vulcan for national security missions. The certification could happen as early as 2020 or early 2021. Click here. (3/25)

Japan to Add Second Launch Pad to Support H3 Rocket (Source: Space News)
Seeking to double the number of launches it can conduct annually, Japan will add a second launch pad to the Tanegashima spaceport to support its next-generation H3 rocket. Speaking at the Satellite 2018 conference March 12, Ko Ogasawara, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ vice president and general manager for space systems, said current launch infrastructure is constraining the company’s ability to launch more than around four missions per year.

By comparison, Arianespace, SpaceX and United Launch Alliance, average twice that amount or more annually. Ogasawara said MHI has only one launch pad for H2A, the rocket it currently builds and launches mainly for domestic government missions. He estimated it takes roughly two months to refurbish the pad between missions, limiting the maximum number of launches Tanegashima can support. Ogasawara said MHI wants to be able to “launch two vehicles in three weeks” with H3, which starts service in 2020. (3/23)

Venus May be Home to a New Kind of Tectonics (Source: Science News)
Venus’ crust is broken up into chunks that shuffle, jostle and rotate on a global scale, researchers reported in two talks March 20 at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. New maps of the rocky planet’s surface, based on images taken in the 1990s by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft, show that Venus’ low-lying plains are surrounded by a complex network of ridges and faults.

Similar features on Earth correspond to tectonic plates crunching together, sometimes creating mountain ranges, or pulling apart. Even more intriguing, the edges of the Venusian plains show signs of rubbing against each other, also suggesting these blocks of crust have moved, the researchers say. “This is a new way of looking at the surface of Venus,” says planetary geologist Paul Byrne of North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

While Earth’s plates move independently like icebergs, Venus’ blocks jangle together like chaotic sea ice, said planetary scientist Richard Ghail of Imperial College London in a supporting talk. Ghail showed similar ridges and faults around two specific regions on Venus that resemble continental interiors on Earth, such as the Tarim and Sichuan basins in China. (3/23)

We Asked Astronauts if They Think Aliens Exist (Source: Mashable)
Jeff Hoffman has floated in the vacuum of space. He’s looked down at our planet from above, seen the whorls of clouds, the vast oceans, and the crowded cities as webs of light. Over five missions — including the first to the Hubble Space Telescope — Hoffman has spent 1,211 hours of his life in space. "I believe there is life elsewhere in the universe,” Hoffman said in an interview. Click here. (3/24)

Senator Nelson on the Way Forward to a Sustainable Space Future (Source: Via Satellite)
Few senators possess the historical perspective on the importance of space more than those who have served as astronauts, including the late John Glenn of Ohio, the first American to orbit Earth, and Bill Nelson, the Democratic senator representing Florida’s Space Coast, who became the second sitting member of the United States Congress to fly in space. As a Florida congressman, he spent six days orbiting the Earth onboard the space shuttle Columbia in January 1986 — 16 days before the Challenger disaster.

Today, as ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, Nelson helps oversee U.S. space policy, including NASA. In 2012, he sponsored the Space Exploration Sustainability Act, calling on NASA to sustainably expand permanent human presence beyond Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and to expand economic activity in space. Click here. (3/24)

Airbus Delivers New Life Support System for the ISS (Source: Airbus)
Airbus has delivered the ACLS (Advanced Closed Loop System), an advanced life support system to purify air and produce oxygen for the International Space Station (ISS). The system also produces water, more or less as a by‑product of the technology. ACLS was developed by Airbus for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is set to be used as a technology demonstrator on the ISS from summer 2018.

The ACLS extracts a portion of the carbon dioxide in the cabin atmosphere and, using hydrogen obtained from splitting water molecules, converts it to methane and water in what is known as the Sabatier process. Oxygen is then produced from this water using electrolysis. This increases overall system efficiency and reduces the need for supplies from Earth. The ACLS will now be installed in the HTV-7 space transporter at the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan and is due to be transported to the ISS in August 2018. (3/24)

3D Printing Rocket Engines in Spain (Source: Zero2Infinity)
FADA CATEC is supporting Zero 2 Infinity (Z2I) in the development of a new generation of rocket engines. This March, FADA CATEC has successfully 3D printed a combustion chamber for Zero 2 Infinity’s Bloostar engine. 3D printing the engine entails a dramatic reduction in cost, environmental impact, production time, and mass.

Z2I is thrilled to have the support of FADA-CATEC technologies’ and its professionals and is looking forward to working closely with them. The plans of the companies include using artificial intelligence (AI) and neural networks to optimize the cooling of the thrust chamber via structures that cannot be manufactured by any other means. (3/22)

Will Private Rockets Destroy the Ozone Layer? (Source: KUOW)
Private space companies like Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's Space-X are sending rockets into the upper atmosphere. Does more activity in space mean more pollution for Earth? That's a concern of listener Laurie McQuaig of Seattle. She asked us to investigate the issue, so reporter Katherine Banwell took the question to local science and tech expert. Alan Boyle. He says there's no need for concern at the moment — yet. Click here. (3/24) http://kuow.org/post/will-private-rockets-destroy-ozone-layer

Brazil Suspended from European Southern Observatory (Source: Physics World)
Astronomers in Brazil have voiced their disappointment after the European Southern Observatory (ESO) suspended the country’s membership following its failure to ratify an agreement struck in 2010. ESO had allowed Brazil to be an interim member giving astronomers access to the consortium’s telescopes, but from 1 April scientists will have to apply for time on a similar basis as non-ESO members.

Brazil’s road to membership of ESO began at the end of 2010 when former Brazilian president Luís Inácio Lula da Silva signed an agreement to join – his last official act as head of state. This signalled the country’s intent to become a full member of the organization but before it could do so, the agreement first had to be approved by Brazil’s National Congress and then ratified by the president of Brazil. (3/23)