April 19, 2018

Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans? (Source: The Atlantic)
We’re used to imagining extinct civilizations in terms of the sunken statues and subterranean ruins. These kinds of artifacts of previous societies are fine if you’re only interested in timescales of a few thousands of years. But once you roll the clock back to tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years, things get more complicated.

When it comes to direct evidence of an industrial civilization—things like cities, factories, and roads—the geologic record doesn’t go back past what’s called the Quaternary period 2.6 million years ago. For example, the oldest large-scale stretch of ancient surface lies in the Negev Desert. It’s “just” 1.8 million years old—older surfaces are mostly visible in cross section via something like a cliff face or rock cuts. Go back much farther than the Quaternary and everything has been turned over and crushed to dust.

And, if we’re going back this far, we’re not talking about human civilizations anymore. Homo sapiens didn’t make their appearance on the planet until just 300,000 years or so ago. There are fossils, of course. But the fraction of life that gets fossilized is always minuscule and varies a lot depending on time and habitat. It would be easy, therefore, to miss an industrial civilization that only lasted 100,000 years—which would be 500 times longer than our industrial civilization has made it so far. (4/13)

The First Person on Mars 'Should Be a Woman' (Source: BBC)
A senior NASA engineer has said the first person to set foot on Mars should be a woman. Allison McIntyre, who puts prospective space travelers through their paces at Johnson Space Center in Houston, noted that all 12 people who have walked on the Moon were men. She believes women should be at the forefront if and when the agency sends its first human missions to Mars. (4/18)

Mysteries Surrounding July 14 Soyuz Flight Solved? Not Quite (Source: Space News)
For the first time since a Russian Soyuz rocket launched 73 satellites in July 2017, Glavkosmos is confirming a problem with the Fregat upper stage. “According to the telemetry, an anomaly was detected in one of the Fregat’s low-thrust engines,” Glavkosmos said. The new Glavkosmos statement solves the mystery surrounding the loss of cubesats sent into a 601-kilometer orbit, allowing the U.S. firm Astro Digital to win an insurance claim for the loss.

Roscosmos had previously claimed that none of the failures were caused by rocket problems, and has directed Russian startup Dauria Aerospace to return approximately $5 million paid it to build two remote sensing nanosatellites that failed to respond to commands after the launch. “Roskosmos helps a U.S. company get insurance and at the same time sends a claim to Dauria to return all the money,” Sergey Ivanov, Dauria chief executive, said. “It looks like Roscosmos is supporting a U.S. startup and ready to kill a Russian one.” (4/12)

New DARPA Challenge Seeks Flexible and Responsive Launch Solutions (Source: Space Daily)
DARPA announced the DARPA Launch Challenge, designed to promote rapid access to space within days, not years. Our nation's space architecture is currently built around a limited number of exquisite systems with development times of up to 10 years. With the launch challenge, DARPA plans to accelerate capabilities and further incentivize industry to deliver launch solutions that are both flexible and responsive.

"Current launch systems and payload development were created in an era when each space launch was a national event," said Todd Master, the DARPA Launch Challenge program manager for DARPA's Tactical Technology Office. "We want to demonstrate the ability to launch payloads to orbit on extremely short notice, with no prior knowledge of the payload, destination orbit, or launch site." (4/19)

Lockheed Martin provides Australia with Space Situational Awareness System (Source: Space Daily)
With space becoming an increasingly congested and contested domain, the Commonwealth of Australia has chosen Lockheed Martin's iSpace - intelligent Space - system to help with their Space Situational Awareness capability needs.

Lockheed Martin is providing the Commonwealth of Australia with an iSpace Space Situational Awareness training and demonstration mission system. iSpace collects data from a worldwide network of government, commercial, and scientific community space surveillance sensors to provide space situational awareness and space command and control.

Deployed within the Australian Space Operations Center, the iSpace demonstrator will provide key analytical tools to support derivation of future requirements for critical national defense missions. iSpace will fuse space surveillance data, including data from Australian sensors, into a recognized space picture that provides comprehensive knowledge of the space environment. (4/19)

The Unique Orbit of NASA’s Newest Planet Hunter (Source: NASA)
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite - TESS - will fly in an orbit that completes two circuits around Earth every time the Moon orbits once. This special orbit will allow TESS’s cameras to monitor each patch of sky continuously for nearly a month at a time. To get into this orbit, TESS will make a series of loops culminating in a lunar gravity assist, which will give it the final push it needs. TESS will reach its orbit about 60 days after launch. Click here. (4/19)

Doubtful of China’s Economic Numbers? Satellite Data and AI Can Help (Source: Quartz)
The Chinese government is notorious for doctoring its official statistics, from using messed-up methodology, to not reporting some key metrics, to out-and-out fabrication. Last year, the governor of one of China’s rust-belt regions admitted for the first time that the province had inflated GDP figures for years. “Officials produce the numbers, and the numbers produce officials,” he said at the time, referring to the idea that massaging data can help one get ahead in Chinese officialdom.

To measure China’s manufacturing expansion, investors usually pay attention to two sets of monthly data called the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI). One is released by China’s national statistic bureau, and the other is based on surveys performed by financial service company IHS Markit, and sponsored by news organization Caixin. Both seek information from companies on new orders and stock levels, among other things.

The Chinese Satellite Manufacturing Index (SMI), created by US company SpaceKnow since 2016, offers a different approach. The index uses 2.2 billion satellite snapshots taken of more than 6,000 industrial areas spanning half a million square kilometers of Chinese territory to get a numeric measure of how well the country’s manufacturing sector is doing. Published every other week, the SMI is read in the same way as the PMI, with the 50-point threshold separating expansion from contradiction. (4/16)

Senate Confirms Bridenstine as NASA’s Administrator After Months of Uncertainty (Source: GeekWire)
The Senate confirmed U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-OK, as NASA’s administrator today in a nail-biting vote along party lines. Bridenstine, 42, has represented his Tulsa-area district since 2013. During his time in Congress, he’s been a strong supporter of space commercialization. He’s the principal sponsor of the American Space Renaissance Act, which aims to beef up the military and commercial side of the space program.

His background includes service as a naval aviator and a stint as the director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and Planetarium. For a time, he also led a flying team in the short-lived Rocket Racing League. The White House named Bridenstine as President Donald Trump’s pick for NASA’s top post last September, sparking objections from senators such as Florida’s Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio.

“The NASA administrator should be a consummate space professional … not a politician,” Nelson, a Democrat, argued during the final hours of debate this week. Rubio, a Republican, initially voiced similar objections, saying last September that putting Bridenstine in  what’s traditionally a nonpartisan post could be “devastating to the space program.” (4/19)

The Return of a Secret British Rocket Site (Source: BBC)
Westcott Venture Park was once the centre of the UK’s Cold War rocket research. Left idle for years, it’s now enjoying a second wind as British firms unveil new 21st Century designs. Falcon Project makes research rockets and specialist fuels for the UK and US militaries but is perhaps best known for prototyping a hybrid rocket motor for the Bloodhound Supersonic Car.

Also on the site is rocket motor manufacturer Moog UK, whose Leros 1b engine powered NASA's Juno space probe into orbit around Jupiter last year – using a new motor technology which Moog has also seen flown on NASA Mars and Mercury probes. Click here. (4/19)

New Central Florida Elementary School Named in Honor of Sally Ride (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
renovated Orange County elementary school to open in August will be named for astronaut Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. The new Sally Ride Elementary School in south Orange will house students who had attended Durrance Elementary School and Cypress Park Elementary School.

Parents, students and staff from both schools suggested names, and Sally Ride was their top choice. The Orange County School Board approved the name last week. “I love the idea of naming the school Sally Ride Elementary School,” said board member Linda Kobert, whose district includes the school on 11th Avenue in Taft, just before the board voted. (4/18)

Proton-M Launches Blagovest 12L Satellite for Russian Aerospace Forces (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
The Russian military has expanded its fleet of communications satellites with the launch of the Blagovest 12L spacecraft on Wednesday. The military comsat lifted off atop a Proton-M launcher from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch was initially targeted for December 25, 2017, but problems with one of the satellite’s components forced Russia to postpone the mission several times. (4/18)

Texas Sound Test Could Herald Supersonic Flight (Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA will use Galveston as a testing ground for the future of supersonic air travel, seeing if residents of the island community will accept a quieter, less startling “boom” from jets flying faster than the speed of sound. NASA’s announcement Tuesday at Scholes International Airport comes two weeks after announcing that Lockheed Martin would build its Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator X-plane, with technology that reduces the loudness of a sonic boom.

Here’s how it works: pilots will begin the maneuver at 49,000 feet, diving at a 53-degree angle and accelerating to supersonic speeds during the dive. Most of that sound will go down toward the water. But the plane will still be traveling at supersonic speeds when it starts to pull out of the dive at 42,000 feet, meaning some of the sound will travel toward Galveston. By the time it reaches the island, it will be at the sound level expected from NASA’s X-plane.

The Houston Spaceport is hoping NASA's local tests will spur development for the cluster of aerospace companies it's seeking to create. It’s talking with two companies intending to build supersonic planes, said Arturo Machuca, general manager of Ellington Airport and the Houston Spaceport. He said being near the Gulf of Mexico where companies could test their aircraft without bothering people is just one of many benefits Houston could offer these manufacturers. (4/17)

Alaska Aerospace Corporation Denies Plans to Build More Launchpads at Kodiak Spaceport (Source: KTOO)
Some Kodiak residents are not happy with a proposed launch pad for the space technology company Vector Space at the Pacific Spaceport Complex. Locals worry any more development at the spaceport will deface the vistas and limit access to public land. AAC CEO Craig Campbell said there are currently no plans for building a launchpad for Vector and that AAC is committed to keeping the public land the spaceport sits on — open.

At the moment there is no long-term agreement between the two companies. Campbell said Alaska Aerospace Corporation is working on a deal with Vector on a potential rocket launch later this year, but nothing is set in stone. “We are looking to bringing them up here later this year, and hopefully conduct, at least their initial launches here and hopefully a long-term relationship where they’ll do commercial launches in the future from Kodiak.”

A that Vector posted was taken in an area of the spaceport where there are already three small pads that could be used by Vector to launch their small liquid-fueled rockets. Campbell said any modifications to them would be simple and if another launchpad was constructed it would be small and minimal. “It’d just be a square of dirt and gravel fenced off with, probably, lighting and, probably, a small concrete pad where the actual engine would ignite when it launches.” (4/17)

Virgin Galactic Releases Update on New Mexico Spaceflight Operations (Source: KRWG)
Virgin Galactic’s Executive Vice-President Jonathan Firth spoke to members of the Mesilla Valley Economic Development Alliance, or MVEDA. “People know that we’re testing our spaceflight systems in California and what they’re curious about and want information on often is what impact is Spaceport America is already having in the economy and what sort of value is being returned to the economy,” Firth said.

Virgin Galactic stated its in-state spending so far totals nearly $20 million, including more than $9 million in rent and associated fees at the spaceport since January 2013. The company has 33 full-time employees to-date at its Las Cruces office and plans to move at least 85 more employees from Mojave, California to New Mexico before starting operations.

Additionally, Firth said the company plans to make more local hires in the hospitality sector. Virgin Galactic stated it has agreements with New Mexico firms valued between $2.5 and $3 million.  But Firth didn’t have an exact number of how many people it will hire for guest-related activities. (4/17)

SpaceX Launches NASA Telescope From Florida, Lands Rocket Offshore (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
On a mission to search for planets outside of the Solar System, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched into space atop a Falcon 9 rocket on the first leg of the spacecraft’s multi-month journey to its final orbit high above Earth. TESS is a 772-pound satellite that has a primary goal of looking for exoplanets.

Liftoff of the Falcon 9 with TESS took place from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport’s Space Launch Complex 40. This was two days later than planned as the original launch date was called off to give SpaceX time to conduct additional analysis on its guidance, navigation and control systems.

The rocket's first stage successfully landed on the drone ship about 300 miles off the coast. This was the 13th successful drone ship landing and the 24th successful booster recovery overall, including the two Falcon Heavy side-cores in February 2018. In fact, since SpaceX’s first successful landing in December 2015, the company has failed in landing a first stage core only four times, including the failed landing of the Falcon Heavy core in February 2018. (4/18)