April 11, 2018

Florida's Share of 2015 Defense Spending Topped $1,230 Per Person, Below National Average (Source: Pew)
Florida ranks third behind California and Texas in population. A new Pew Charitable Trusts report on per-capita defense spending revealed that in 2015 defense spending nationwide averaged $1,510 per person (Florida's was $1,230). Florida's per capita share of defense contracts, salaries and wages that year was $868, substantially less than California and Texas. However, Florida's per capita share of defense retirement benefits and nonretirement (healthcare) benefits topped $354, substantially higher than California and Texas, suggesting that Florida remains a more popular retirement destination. Click here. (4/11)

Human Explorers Seem Likely Part Of Finding Life On Mars (Source: Aviation Week)
Even with its recent push to return astronauts to the lunar environs, NASA has not given up on landing astronauts on Mars and assessing what they can do to address the question of whether the red planet hosts or once hosted life.

The agency’s Mars Human Landing Sites Study effort, formally initiated in October 2015 with the identification of 47 candidate Exploration Landing Zones that may address the life issue as well as host potential in situ resources from which explorers could covert oxygen for life support and rocket propellants for their return to Earth.

There’s much to be done. The ongoing discussion among agency experts continued May 5 with the latest in a series of virtual “hangouts,” this one continuing a December 2017 forum on how humans could accelerate the discover of Martian life, past or present. All seemed convinced machines cannot do it alone. Click here. (4/10)

SpaceX Aims for Crewed Dragon Capsule Splashdowns Off Florida's Coast (Source: Space News)
All SpaceX Dragon splashdowns to date have been in the Pacific, in waters off the coast of Baja California several hundred kilometers southwest of the Port of Los Angeles. With upcoming crew missions, SpaceX plans to shift the primary landing site to waters just off the coast from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

According to an October 2017 document included in the draft environmental assessment, SpaceX plans to carry out three landings a year of its existing Dragon spacecraft in the current Pacific Ocean zone from 2018 through 2020, as well as three landings a year of its Dragon v2, or Crew Dragon, in the Atlantic zone. Starting in 2021 SpaceX would shift to flying Dragon v2 spacecraft exclusively, for crew and cargo, with all missions splashing down in the Atlantic. In those scenarios the Gulf of Mexico would serve as a backup landing site. (4/10)

Satellite Images Data to Help Predict India's Economic Indicators (Source: Economic Times)
The government is working on a project to make available latest satellite images and information to frame economic and development indicators to help policymakers come up with need-specific solutions across sectors like health, education, agriculture, sanitation and employment based on real-time data.

Most of the current policy-making is based on once-in-a-decade census data, which is available with a big lag and is prone to error. The NITI Aayog is planning to collaborate with IIT-Delhi on a high-end project under which machine-learning tools can be developed to study and analyse satellite images up to district level, a senior government official told ET, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The idea is to predict key socioeconomic indicators using satellite image data. “IIT-Delhi has done a lot of work in this regards and we may firm up some kind of collaboration with them soon,” the official added. An IIT-Delhi professor confirmed the development to ET, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. (4/11)

Atlantic Ocean Circulation Slowing (Source: Washington Post)
The Atlantic Ocean circulation that carries warmth into the Northern Hemisphere’s high latitudes is slowing down because of climate change, a team of scientists asserted Wednesday, suggesting one of the most feared consequences is already coming to pass. The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation has declined in strength by 15 percent since the mid-20th century to a “new record low,” the scientists conclude. That’s a decrease of 3 million cubic meters of water per second, the equivalent of nearly 15 Amazon rivers.

The AMOC brings warm water from the equator up toward the Atlantic’s northern reaches and cold water back down through the deep ocean. The current is partly why Western Europe enjoys temperate weather, and meteorologists are linking changes in North Atlantic Ocean temperatures to recent summer heat waves.

The circulation is also critical for fisheries off the U.S. Atlantic coast, a key part of New England’s economy that have seen changes in recent years, with the cod fishery collapsing as lobster populations have boomed off the Maine coast. This study found that the AMOC has slowed over the past 150 years and similarly found that it is now weaker than at any time in more than a millennium. (4/11)

NASA's Planetary Science Chief Now Agency's Chief Scientist (Source: Space News)
The longtime director of NASA's planetary science division will become the agency's chief scientist next month. NASA announced Tuesday that Jim Green will take over as chief scientist on May 1, succeeding acting chief scientist Gale Allen, who is retiring. Green has served as director of the planetary science division at NASA Headquarters since 2006. As chief scientist he will serve as a principal adviser on science programs for senior leadership and be an advocate for them at the national and international level. (4/11)

White House: Dems Should Stop Obstructing Bridenstine Nomination (Source: USA Today)
The White House is not giving up on the nomination of Jim Bridenstine to be NASA administrator despite a lack of progress on his Senate confirmation. A White House spokesperson said Tuesday that "Democrats should stop their pointless obstruction" of Bridenstine and confirm him. His nomination appears to still lack the needed 50 votes, with all 49 Senate Democrats opposed and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) having previously expressed concern about the nomination. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is also still absent from the Senate. The current acting administrator, Robert Lightfoot, is scheduled to retire from NASA this month, and the administration has not yet identified a successor should Bridenstine's nomination still be pending. (4/11)

Shelby Takes Leadership of Appropriations Committee (Source: US Senate)
Sen. Richard Shelby is the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. The Senate approved his selection as chairman of the full committee Tuesday, succeeding Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican who retired at the end of March. Shelby, an Alabama Republican who has supported NASA exploration programs like the Space Launch System, is giving up his chairmanship of the commerce, justice and science (CJS) subcommittee than funds NASA, electing instead to chair the defense subcommittee. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) is the new chairman of the CJS appropriations subcommittee. (4/11)

Report Recommends SpaceX Approach for DOD Software (Source: Space News)
A new report is calling on the Defense Department to adopt software development practices used by companies like SpaceX. The Defense Science Board report backed the use of "iterative" software development, where engineers make rapid changes, ask for user feedback and adjust the software for the next increment, rather than traditional "waterfall" approach used for government programs. The report cited as one example SpaceX's use of "agile scrum" development architectures that provides a "continuous deployment pipeline" while still meeting stringent requirements for national security applications. (4/11)
 
Scientists and Entrepreneurs Lobby for NASA Lunar Program (Source: Space News)
Several dozen scientists and executives are asking Congress to fund NASA's new lunar exploration program. In a letter Tuesday to House and Senate appropriators, the group asked Congress to fully fund NASA's new Lunar Exploration and Discovery program, which will fund flights on commercial lunar landers and continued operations of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, as well as a separate program to support work on larger lunar landers. Those programs, the letter argues, "place U.S.-led lunar science and exploration at the core of a new era of lunar exploration program." (4/11)

Post-Brexit UK Seeks to "Future-Proof" Its Space Industry (Source: Space News)
A bill enacted in the United Kingdom last month is intended to "future-proof" the country's space industry from any effects from Brexit. The Space Industry Act is intended to streamline regulations and allow for commercial launches from British soil. Some experts, though, caution that the law offers only a skeletal framework for such activities, with uncertainty about the regulations needed to fill into the details. Britain's impending departure from the European Union, which could cut British companies off from some European space projects, is viewed by some as a key factor motivating passage of the act. (4/11)

Russia Gets Bargain Deal on Soyuz Rocket Order (Source: Tass)
Roscosmos appears to be getting a deep discount on Soyuz rockets it is ordering for future space station missions. Roscosmos is buying three Soyuz-2.1a rockets from the Progress Rocket Space Center for launches of Progress-MS cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. Roscosmos is paying only $58 million for the three rockets, according to published contract details. (4/11)

Investors Pour Nearly $1 Billion into Space Companies in Q1 (Source: CNBC)
The space industry started the first quarter of this year the way it ended the last – with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of private funding flowing into commercial space companies. There were 20 deals worth nearly $1 billion in the space industry in the first quarter, according to investment firm Space Angels — though $500 million of that was a single deal: A big investment from Fidelity Investments in Elon Musk's SpaceX to develop its constellation of 4,425 broadband satellites.

Small rockets – typically priced between $2 million to $5 million per launch – have been a dominant theme this year, especially thanks to Rocket Lab's first orbital launch of its Electron vehicle in January. With Vector and Virgin Orbit also pushing to reach orbital launch this year, these rocket builders are hoping to seize a part of the premium market to launch small satellites.

Companies focused on building and operating launch vehicles dominated first quarter investments, accounting for more than 72 percent with about $700 million, due to SpaceX's heavy fundraising. With its recent $35 million round, Relativity Space also stands out as it works to manufacture orbital rockets with massive, custom-built 3-D printers. (4/11)

Dark Matter Detection Breakthrough (Source: UW)
This week, the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) unveiled a new result, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, that places it in a category of one: it is the world’s first and only experiment to have achieved the necessary sensitivity to “hear” the telltale signs of dark matter axions. This technological breakthrough is the result of more than 30 years of research and development, with the latest piece of the puzzle coming in the form of a quantum-enabled device that allows ADMX to listen for axions more closely than any experiment ever built.

ADMX is based at the University of Washington and managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. This new result, the first from the second-generation run of ADMX, sets limits on a small range of frequencies where axions may be hiding, and sets the stage for a wider search in the coming years. (4/9)

The Rocket Fuel Rivalry Shaping the Future of Spaceflight (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Rocket science, it turns out, is no different than the rest of society. People have divided themselves up into two tribes. When it comes to space launches, there are two basic options for rocket fuel: solid and liquid. Solid rocket fuel is just that: a thick mix of fuel and oxidizer that is poured into a rocket booster, cooked to a pencil-eraser consistency, and set on fire during launch. The energy is directed through a nozzle, generating enough thrust to get a rocket into the air. Nuclear weapons in silos and submarines use these.

Liquid rocket engines feature tanks of fuel inside the boosters, one for fuel and another for oxidizer. The two substances, chilled to super-low temperatures so they don’t convert to gas, are mixed inside the engine at the time of launch, ignited, and routed through a nozzle. The result is a tongue of hot exhaust and thrust. This is the system that powers SpaceX’s rockets.

Each fuel comes with pros and cons, and engineers can show you charts graphs of the various thrust profiles to illustrate each approach. But don’t let the seeming simplicity of the stats fool you: The schism between solid and liquid is a clash of two different visions that are fighting for the future of spaceflight. Click here. (4/11)

To Keep the US Competitive, Space Regulation Needs Streamlining (Source: The Hill)
Startup launch companies and small satellite businesses have to spend their limited resources and a significant amount of time navigating a multi-agency process. To make things worse, overreach by these agencies can create unnecessary challenges, as seen in three recent examples. Click here. (4/11)

No, NASA Doesn’t Have a cloud Generation Machine — It Has Rocket Engines (Source: The Verge)
While scrolling through my Facebook feed this morning, I stumbled upon a video shared by an old high school classmate showing a giant NASA machine that can supposedly produce artificial clouds. The video features former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson talking in front of a large metallic chamber that’s spewing out fluffy white plumes. The video, titled “Artificial Clouds Generation System,” does make it seem like the machine is churning out clouds — but the rocket engines generating the plumes go unmentioned.

My former classmate isn’t the only one watching this video, either. It’s been shared more than 350,000 times already and garnered more than 71,000 likes. Plus, it’s not the only video that uses Jeremy Clarkson to claim that NASA is pumping out clouds. A quick Google search of “Top Gear NASA engine test” brings up a whole host of videos that claim NASA has cracked how to modify the weather. But NASA hasn’t. (4/11)

NASA, Mutant Astronauts, and the 'Space Gene' That Wasn't (Source: Bloomberg)
Why would NASA and a number of news outlets announce that identical-twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are still twins? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that even though Scott Kelly spent a year in orbit, such experiences don’t change people’s biological relationships. A couple may decide to no longer be husband and wife, sure -- but how could space de-relate you from your parents, siblings or twin?

It turns out NASA’s statement of the obvious was fallout from a bad case of mangled science communication. It started with an attempt on the part of the space agency to drum up publicity for some ongoing research about how Scott Kelly’s year-long stint in space affected his physiology.

It was an appealing story not only because he broke the record for long-duration space flight, but because scientists were able to compare samples of his blood, saliva and urine with his twin brother’s -- “the perfect nature versus nurture study,” as NASA described it. In promoting the research, NASA also introduced people to the term “space gene.” But in the end, the episode carried lessons for scientists about the hazards of attempting to coin new scientific jargon. (4/10)