March 31, 2018

Space Florida Updates Statewide Spaceport System Plan (Source: Space Florida)
In April 2013, Florida published the nation’s first Spaceport System Plan. The plan described the elements and functionality of Florida’s current and future spaceport system. It included the evolving space transportation industry’s place within the Florida Transportation Plan and its Strategic Intermodal System. Most importantly, it established system goals and an implementation approach for determining system-wide needs and identifying system-wide priorities for funding.

This 2018 update provides an interim update in preparation and expectation for a more comprehensive reassessment of the Florida Spaceport System Plan in 2019-2020. The Florida Spaceport System Plan will continue to provide a forward looking vision and planning tool for strategically managing Florida’s on-going initiative to be a world leader in global space transportation and the industries it supports. Click here. (3/14)

Embry-Riddle Research Project Tests How T-Cells Change in Space (Source: Florida Trend)
Around noon on Dec. 12, New Shepard, a reusable rocket developed by Blue Origin for the space tourism market, took off from the company’s launch pad in west Texas. The rocket didn’t carry tourists, but its payload did include 12 tubes of T-cells taken from mice and grown in a lab for a research project conducted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach in conjunction with the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Medical University of South Carolina.

T-cells develop from stem cells in bone marrow and play an important role in the body’s immune systems. T-cell therapy, in which a patient’s own T-cells are reprogrammed to attack tumors, is seen as one of the most promising potential treatments for cancer. The suborbital space flight exposed the Embry-Riddle T-cells to nearly 4 minutes of microgravity, in hopes of giving researchers better insight into how microgravity may change T-cells. Microgravity more closely mimics the physiological conditions inside a human body than do conditions in a lab.

Pedro Llanos, an Embry-Riddle assistant professor of Spaceflight Operations and principal investigator on the T-cell research, says his team is still evaluating the data collected from the flight. But the team says it has already seen evidence of changes in some subsets of T-cells compared with the control sample. The next step, the researchers say, will to be to see if they can replicate the results of the first experiment. Eventually, they hope to get actual mice with the T-cells in them onto the International Space Station to test the effects of microgravity over a longer period. (2/27)

Orbital ATK Preparing for Next Phase of NGL Rocket Development (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The progeny of NGL can be traced back to 2004, when then President George W. Bush announced the Constellation program, consisting of the crew launch vehicle known as Ares I –- a five-segment Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) rocket, atop which sat a Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Hydrogen (LOX/LH2) upper stage. Constellation program was cancelled by then President Barack Obama in favor of developing a more robust rocket that could carry both crew and cargo, the SLS.

Orbital ATK, the company that is now building the five-segment dual SRBs for SLS, continued to see a usefulness for the overall Ares I design. This initially translated in 2011 to the Liberty rocket, a five-segment SRB first stage with an Ariane V core serving as the upper stage.

By May 2016, this overall design was incorporated into Orbital ATK’s participation and contract award from the U.S. Air Force as part of the Air Force’s Rocket Propulsion Systems Development project to replace the Russian-made RD-180 engine used on ULA’s Atlas V rocket and to also streamline the EELV program to reduce the overall cost and increase efficiency of U.S. rockets used for national security and government missions. Click here. (3/29)

Europa Lander Concept Redesigned to Lower Cost and Complexity (Source: Space News)
Revised concepts for a proposed Europa lander mission could reduce its mass and cost by simplifying its science requirements and doing away with a dedicated communications relay. JPL's Kevin Hand said that feedback from a mission concept review last June led to changes in the design to reduce its cost.

The concept for the mission presented at that review involved the launch of the lander on a Space Launch System rocket no earlier than late 2025. The spacecraft would enter orbit around Jupiter in 2030 with a landing on Europa to follow no earlier than December 2031. The battery-powered lander would operate on the surface for at least 20 days, relying on a communications relay spacecraft in orbit to return data to Earth.

Hand said the project team looked at options to do away with the relay spacecraft by giving the lander a larger antenna to enable direct-to-Earth communications. That concept uses a flat-panel antenna 80 centimeters across, versus antenna smaller antennas 30 to 40 centimeters across intended for communications with the relay. One quadrant of that larger antenna has been built and tested at JPL, he said, with “encouraging” results. (3/29)

Mars One Is a "Money Grab" Where Everyone Loses (Source: Inverse)
Mars One financial data and interviews with participants and outside experts suggests without a modicum of doubt that the Mars One’s chief officers appear to be recklessly piloting a company in serious financial and strategic crisis.

At best, they are willfully ignorant about the company’s rapidly depleting resources, which are supplied to them by participants, supporter donations, and a shallow pool of investors. At worst, the project’s leaders are intentionally disregarding the chaos of their organization and taking participants along for a wild ride — but not one that’s going to Mars. Click here. (3/29)

Moon Direct: How to Build a Moonbase in Four Years (Source: Space News)
The moon is now within reach. Here’s it could work: The Falcon Heavy can lift 60 tons to LEO. Starting from that point, a hydrogen/oxygen rocket-propelled cargo lander could deliver 12 tons to the lunar surface. We proceed by sending two such landers to our planned base location, at one of the poles because there are spots at both lunar poles where sunlight is accessible all the time, as well as permanently shadowed craters where water ice has accumulated.

Such ice could be used to make hydrogen-oxygen rocket propellant, to fuel both Earth-return vehicles and other rocket vehicles that would allow exploratory access to most of the rest of the moon. The first cargo lander carries a load of equipment, including a solar panel array, high-data-rate communications gear, a microwave power-beaming set up, an electrolysis/refrigeration unit, two crew vehicles, and tele-operated robotic rovers. The second cargo lander brings out a 12-ton habitation module, loaded with food, spare spacesuits, scientific equipment, tools, and other supplies.

Once it has hab is landed, the rovers hook it up to the power supply. Now we send the first crew. A Falcon Heavy delivers another cargo lander to orbit, whose payload consists of a fully fueled Lunar Excursion Vehicle (LEV). This craft consists of a two-ton cabin like that used by the Apollo-era Lunar Excursion Module, capable of delivering it from the lunar surface to Earth orbit. A human-rated Falcon 9 then lifts the crew in a Dragon capsule to LEO where they transfer to the LEV. Then the cargo lander takes the LEV, with the crew aboard, to the moon, while the Dragon remains behind in LEO. (3/30)

How to Download the AR-Powered 321 Launch App (Source: Florida Today)
321 LAUNCH, an augmented reality spaceflight app, is now available to download for mobile devices. Thanks to AR, or the overlay of digital objects onto the real world made possible by mobile cameras, users can now explore spaceflight like never before – both as a standalone educational experience to assemble and launch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as well as real-time, live coverage of launches from the Space Coast. Click here. (3/29) 

After One Year, Reusable Rockets Becoming Routine for SpaceX (Source: Florida Today)
“Who cares whether it’s perfectly clean?” said Iridium's Matt Desch. “The long-term vision should be that these rockets are able to be landed and reused within days, so why waste the time to get paper towels and clean it?” SpaceX on Monday continues its pursuit of that vision with a planned 4:30 p.m. blastoff from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport by a previously flown — or “flight proven” Falcon 9 lifting a Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station for NASA.

The mission, following today's successful launch for Iridium, would mark the 11th time SpaceX has re-launched a rocket since its history-making first re-flight of an orbital booster a year ago. “I don’t want to get complacent, but I think we understand reusable boosters,” CEO Elon Musk said Feb. 6. What seemed very risky a year ago has quickly won buy-in from customers.

Six of SpaceX’s last nine launches have used pre-flown boosters, not including the Falcon Heavy test flight. “It’s becoming de rigueur now,” said Martin Halliwell, chief technology officer of Luxembourg-based SES, the first company to take a chance launching on a pre-flown Falcon. “It’s becoming commonplace, which is quite extraordinary in the time of a year.” (3/30)