April 8, 2018

Wreckage From Russian rocket on Mayaro Shore (Source: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian)
What was believed to be wreckage from an aircraft that washed ashore in Mayaro yesterday has been identified instead as parts of a stage rocket. Retired director general of the T&T Civil Aviation Authority Ramesh Lutchmedial positively identified the debris as parts from a rocket that was launched by the Arianespace Company, a commercial launch service provider, in French Guiana. (4/8)

Two Asteroid Missions Will Help Shape the Economy of the 21st Century (Source: The Hill)
Later in 2018, two robotic probes, launched by NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will each reach separate asteroids. The probes will extract samples from the asteroids before returning to Earth. These separate space missions will help to determine the composition the asteroids and test technology for retrieving their potential riches.

The NASA mission, OSIRIS-REx, will arrive at an asteroid called Bennu, orbiting the sun about 460 million miles away, in August. The probe will make a remote sensing campaign of Bennu, thought to be comprised of clays, volatiles, and some organic material. At one point OSIRIS-REx will come into contact with Bennu and collect loose particles that are thought to cover its surface. The probe will blast out of orbit around the asteroid in March 2021 and is scheduled to arrive back on Earth with its sample in September 2023.

In the meantime, the Japanese Hayabusa2 will arrive at an asteroid called Ryugu, a rare type of asteroid that contains both volatile material and water-bearing materials in June 2018. The Japanese probe will also examine Ryugu remotely and collect a sample before departing in December 2019. Hayabusa2 will arrive back on Earth in December 2020. (4/7)

Help Wanted to Operate and Maintain Air Force Deep Space Telescopes (Source: Space News)
The Air Force Space Command last week posted a “sources sought” notice for the operations and maintenance of a network of space staring telescopes known as the Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System. The Air Force is sizing up the market and not seeking bids yet. Responses are due April 23.

The notice came from the 21st Contracting Squadron at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. The squadron is looking for help providing 16-hour-a-day, seven-day a week operations of GEODSS sites at Socorro, New Mexico; Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory; and Maui, Hawaii.

According to the Air Force, the three sites provide nearly complete coverage of the Earth’s geosynchronous orbital belt and deliver nearly 80 percent of all geosynchronous observations. The data is sent to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, and to U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Intelligence Center at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. (4/7)

Interplanetary CubeSats Are Go! (Source: Scientific American)
With a launch window opening in May 2018 the robotic InSight probe is nearly on its way to Mars. If all goes well, in late November 2018 the lander will touchdown on the western side of Elysium Planitia, a broad plane sitting across the martian equator. This spot is about 600 kilometers north of where the Curiosity rover is roaming, and almost due south of the much more northerly location of the 42-year-old Viking 2 lander.

Insight’s primary scientific focus is on the interior of Mars. It’s sensitive seismometer is supported by a host of other instruments, including a thermal probe that should burrow up to 5 meters into the regolith, and an X-band transmitter to enable to precise tracking of the planet’s variations in spin and orientation. (4/7)

Schiess Tapped to Lead 45th Space Wing; Monteith to Retire (Source: Florida Today)
Air Force Brig. Gen. (select) Doug Schiess will take over leadership of the 45th Space Wing in August, replacing Brig. Gen. Wayne Monteith, who has announced plans to retire after completing a rare three-year command as "Shark 1." Monteith on Aug. 23 will turn over command to Schiess, who knows his way around Patrick Air Force Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as a former commander of the 45th Operations Group. (4/7)

Arecibo Observatory Transitions to UCF-Led Management Team, Only the Beginning (Source: UCF)
When the University of Central Florida took the helm of the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico on April 1, the university entered a new era. Faculty in the College of Sciences and at the Florida Space Institute in Central Florida Research Park already work on NASA missions and with commercial space companies on a variety of projects that involve asteroids, the moon and Mars. Many of those faculty are already working on plans to conduct more in-depth or completely new space research now that the observatory is available.

There are only two telescopes with radar capacity in the world and Arecibo is one of them. To have this type of technology at a researcher’s fingertips, is going to make UCF an even more attractive institution for space studies, Fernandez said. The UCF led team, which includes Universidad Metropolitana in Puerto Rico and Yang Enterprises, Inc. reached an agreement with the National Science Foundation to manage the facility for the next five years. (4/6)

Here’s Your Chance to Explore JPL (Source: Pasadena Star-News)
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has announced its next “A Ticket to Explore JPL” event will be on June 9 and 10. That may seem far off, but free tickets are available starting Saturday, April 7. The NASA field center said tickets are “limited” and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Those interested can reserve a maximum of five tickets, and each attendee’s name is required for reservation. (4/7)

Three Billionaires Are Racing to Space. Who Will Win? (Source: National Geographic)
They’re all ridiculously rich, they’re all men, and now they all have their sights set on the stars. Elon Musk wants to fly to Mars. Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, dreams of putting a colony on the moon. And Richard Branson wants to offer luxury space tourism under the Virgin banner.

What motivates these men? And shouldn’t they be spending their billions to make this planet a better place? Speaking from his home in Washington, D.C., Christian Davenport, author of The Space Barons, reveals the intense competition that animates these billionaires; discusses their different visions for exploring the cosmos; and explains why women are still so underrepresented in space. Editor's Note: What about Naveen Jain of Moon Express (net worth $8 billion) and Paul Allen of Vulcan Aerospace/Stratolaunch (net worth $21.5 billion)? (4/7)

Interior Secretary: SpaceX Wouldn’t Be Building Rockets if it Were Regulated! (Source: Ars Technica)
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has seen things in his time as a Navy SEAL—and he wants to keep them far away from your family. "I don't want your kids to ever see what I've seen," he told a dimly lit ballroom of offshore wind energy executives at a Westin Hotel in Princeton this morning. Zinke, sounding for a moment more like a left-leaning "no wars for oil" protestor than a Republican cabinet member, argued that producing energy in America was a moral imperative.

Zinke had recently toured SpaceX, and he couldn't conceal his awe at what the company was doing. When he visited the factory floor, Zinke saw a non-traditional work environment: music was playing, workers were sporting "flat-brimmed hats" ("Personally, I don't like them"), the average age was 28, and the excitement was unbelievable. And yet, despite the hats and the youth and the music, the company was actually launching rockets! To Zinke, this is proof that limited regulation leads to more innovation.

"We're just not very good at incorporating innovation" into our regulatory scheme, he said. If SpaceX were regulated, "they wouldn't be building those rockets." (Of course, SpaceX faces many regulations. The company has lobbied the Trump administration to have them reduced, saying in 2017 that "it requires heroics" to alter a rocket launch license, among other things.) (4/7)

Gene Therapy May Help Astronauts Going to Mars Resist Deadly Radiation (Source: Guardian)
An international group of researchers has come up with a new plan to help astronauts survive high-level radiation in space – and even get them to Mars without the deadly exposure expected during three years of space travel. Researchers with the artificial intelligence company Insilico Medicine who teamed up with international scientists say discoveries in gene therapy and drug creation could be beneficial to future astronauts on deep space missions. (4/7)

The First Antarctic Greenhouse Harvest May Lettuce Go to Mars (Source: Popular Science)
Lettuce on the moon might sound like the name of a prog-rock song, but that’s the eventual plan. This morning, Germany’s Aerospace Center DLR announced that their experimental Antarctic greenhouse had harvested its first crops: 8 pounds of salad greens, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes. It’s the first result of a project begun in January, when the greenhouse arrived in Antarctica, but there promises to be more to come. In addition to the veggies they just harvested, the scientists also planted strawberries, bell peppers, and a number of herbs. By May, DLR says they expect to be able to get about 10 pounds of produce per week.

Just like it would have to on the ISS or the Moon, the greenhouse is designed to be totally independent of its environment and run on an aeroponic model. The plants are nourished by a liquid nutrient solution instead of soil, and by specially designed LEDs in lieu of sunlight. “We are also adapting the air in the greenhouse to meet the needs of the plants as much as possible,” DLR spokesperson Daniel Schubert explained.

Editor's Note: University of Florida researchers Rob Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul went to Antarctica to support this effort. They both are frequent visitors to Kennedy Space Center where they specialize in plant growth research aboard the International Space Station. (4/5)

Secretive X-37B Military Space Plane Wings Past 200 Days in Orbit (Source: Space.com)
The U.S. Air Force's X-37B space plane has winged past 200 days in orbit on its latest clandestine mission. That mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle-5 (OTV-5), began Sept. 7, 2017, when the robotic spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster from NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida.

According to Air Force officials, one payload flying on OTV-5 is the Advanced Structurally Embedded Thermal Spreader, or ASETS-11, of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). This cargo is testing experimental electronics and oscillating heat pipes for long durations in the space environment. (4/6)

Excitement to Watch Rocket Launches is Growing. So is the Traffic. (Source: Florida Today)
The state’s big PR campaign promoting Space Coast rocket launches as a not-to-be-missed experience doesn’t feature scenes like the one many tourists endured during the last SpaceX launch: Huge traffic snarls. Spring break launch-goers on Monday found themselves trapped for up to three hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic as they tried  to reach the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, only to be turned away after it reached capacity at 2:30 p.m. — two hours before blastoff.

Adults and children were forced to abandon their cars to go to the bathroom on the side of State Road 405, State Road 3 and Space Commerce Way, while some walked long distances between cars and over grass bordering a muddy drainage canal to reach the Visitor Complex. Even buses carrying scientists with experiments launching on SpaceX’s Dragon capsule struggled to reach VIP viewing sites. Meanwhile, security to help manage the traffic flow appeared non-existent. (4/6)