October 9, 2018

Aerojet Rocketdyne Successfully Tests Hypersonic DMRJ Engine (Source: Space Daily)
Aerojet Rocketdyne successfully tested a new dual-mode ramjet/scramjet (DMRJ) engine. When combined with a gas turbine engine as part of a turbine-based combined cycle propulsion (TBCC) system, this engine may provide the capability to propel a vehicle from a standstill into the hypersonic flight regime of Mach 5 or higher and back again. (10/9)

Astronaut Rick Searfoss Dies at 62 (Source: CollectSpace)
Rick Searfoss, a former NASA astronaut who launched on three space shuttle missions before serving as a test pilot for a commercial rocket plane, has died. He was 62. Searfoss died on Sunday, Sept. 29, at his home in Bear Valley Springs, California. The cause of death was not reported. An aspiring astronaut since his youth, Searfoss was serving as a flight instructor at the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California when he was chosen with NASA's 13th group of candidates.

Searfoss was appointed the chief judge of the Ansari X PRIZE, presiding over the $10 million contest won in 2004 by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne for the first privately-funded, suborbital crewed vehicle to fly into space. He was also one of two test pilots to qualify to fly the now-former XCOR Aerospace's EZ-Rocket, an experimental rocket plane and predecessor to the planned Lynx suborbital space plane.

He served as an instructor pilot at the National Test Pilot School at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, a consultant and motivational speaker. Searfoss also advised several Hollywood movies, including "The Core" in 2003 and "Oblivion" in 2013. He had a cameo appearance in the 2011 superhero movie "Green Lantern" starring Ryan Reynolds. (10/9)

Hubble Space Telescope is Limping After a Mechanical Failure (Source: Washington Post)
Two of NASA’s premier space telescopes, Hubble and Kepler, are currently out of commission — sad, if not entirely surprising, news for astronomers who depend on data from NASA’s aging fleet. The 28-year-old Hubble went into temporary safe mode on Friday after detecting a mechanical failure with one of its gyroscopes — the spinning instruments that keep the telescope pointed steadily toward its targets.

Meanwhile, Kepler, the powerhouse planet hunter that has detected some 4,000 new planets since it launched in 2009, has been in sleep mode since Sept. 26 to preserve dwindling fuel before its next data dump. Both telescopes are nearing the ends of storied careers in space. (10/9)

Jupiter’s Moon Europa Has Jagged Blades of Ice (Source: The Verge)
Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa, is a prime candidate in the search for life elsewhere in our Solar System — but landing a spacecraft on the moon may be even more difficult than we thought. Certain patches of ice on Europa could be rough and jagged, resembling sharp blades, according to a new modeling. And that may make it hard for future probes to touch down gently on the surface.

It’s possible that conditions in areas around Europa’s equator may be just right to form what are known as “penitentes.” These are unique ice formations found here on Earth in places like the Andes Mountains. Penitentes form on Earth when super-cold ice sits in direct sunlight for long periods of time, causing patches in the ice to turn directly from a solid to a gas. (10/9)

China Launches Reconnaissance Satellites (Source: Xinhua)
China launched a pair of reconnaissance satellites Monday night. A Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 10:43 p.m. Eastern Monday night and placed the two Yaogan-32 satellites into orbit. The satellites, whose launch was not announced in advance, will perform "electromagnetic environment surveys and other related technology tests," according to state media. The satellites are widely believed outside China to be reconnaissance satellites supporting the country's military. (10/9)

Army Could Lose Some Programs to Space Force (Source: Space News)
The Secretary of the Army said Monday he doesn't know yet what parts of his service, if any, would be moved to a new Space Force. Mark Esper said there are "ongoing discussions" about the role Army units would play in the establishment of a Space Force, with no decisions yet made. At least two proposals for establishing a Space Force have called for moving some or all of Army Space and Missile Defense Command to the Space Force. Esper noted that the Army is a "big user of space" and that it's important that, in any reorganization, "it's critical that we get it right." (10/9)

Spectrum Transfer for 5G Could Impact Satellite Plans (Source: Space News)
Intelsat says that it and other satellite operators may have to buy new satellites if they lose 200 megahertz or more of C-band spectrum in the United States. The operators have proposed a transfer of about 100 megahertz of capacity to terrestrial wireless providers, but some, including one FCC commissioner, have argued that 5G networks will require 200 to 300 megahertz of C-band capacity currently allocated to satellites. An Intelsat executive said last week that if that larger transfer goes through, it and other operators will likely have to build new satellites for operation at new orbital locations to make up for the lost capacity. (10/9)

Branson: Virgin Galactic Spaceflight is Weeks Away (Source: CNBC)
Richard Branson says Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo will be in space in "weeks, not months." Branson, in an interview Tuesday in Singapore, said the suborbital spaceflight company is "more than tantalizingly close" to actually reaching space, adding that he expected to fly "in months and not years." He didn't offer a more specific timeline, other than to say that "we have got a very, very exciting couple of months ahead." SpaceShipTwo made its last powered flight test in July. (10/9)

Japanese SpaceX Passenger Trusts in Musk (Source: AP)
The Japanese billionaire who announced last month plans to fly around the moon on a SpaceX vehicle said he trusts Elon Musk despite recent controversies. Yusaku Maezawa said at a press conference in Tokyo Tuesday that a lawsuit by the SEC, and subsequent settlement, over tweets by Musk about taking Tesla private had not shaken his confidence in Musk. "Twitter can get you into trouble," he said, describing SpaceX as "marvelous." Maezawa said last month he was buying a flight of SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket under development for a trip around the moon that will carry several artists along with himself. (10/9)

Rocketry Conference Returns to Space Coast (Source: NAR)
The National Association of Rocketry (NAR) will hold its annual technical conference inon March 1-3, 2019, on Florida’s Space Coast, epic home of the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, where 50 years ago next summer the first lunar landing mission was launched into history. The golden anniversary of that milestone will echo throughout NARCON 2019 as we explore today’s newest developments in all levels of rocketry, while seeking inspiration from the first-hand experiences of those who worked on Project Apollo.

NARCON 2019 will begin with an opening reception Friday night at the KSC Visitor Complex, feature multiple technical tracks of informative presentations on Saturday, and wrap up Sunday with an opportunity to tour Cape Canaveral and see all that is old and new again. We might even be able to throw in an astronaut appearance or two. Plus, how does walking barefoot on the beach under sunshine with temperatures in the low 70s sound even as the winter chill lingers in the North? Click here. (10/9)

What Are the Space Planes of the Future? (Source: Nanalyze)
There is no hard definition of a space plane, but as the name implies, it is a plane capable of flying through outer space or maybe achieving a low-Earth orbit. It combines the features of an ordinary aircraft – meaning the ability to land like an airplane – with the sort of bells and whistles required of a spaceship that operates in the hostile vacuum of space.

Bigger brains than are required for an MBA have been developing and building space planes since at least the 1930s, beginning with an Austrian engineer (and, ahem, Nazi) named Eugen Sänger whose work on rocket technology indirectly led to the creation of the American X-15. The X-15 was the first aircraft that passed the so-called Kármán line, the theoretical boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, pegged at 62 miles above the planet’s surface. Click here. (10/8)

Debating Reusability (Source: Space Review)
The landing and reuse of Falcon 9 first stages has become increasing routine, but that does not mean everyone is convinced reusable rockets always make sense. Jeff Foust reports on some objections to reusability, as well as a defense of reusability by a key SpaceX executive. Click here. (10/9)
 
Express Elevator to Hell: Missions to Explore the Sun’s Nearest Neighbor (Source: Space Review)
Later this month Europe will launch BepiColombo, the newest mission to the innermost planet, Mercury. Dwayne Day recounts some of the efforts after the Mariner 10 flybys in the 1970s to send followup missions to the planet, overcoming technical and other issues. Click here. (10/9)

Lockheed, Arizona State Eye New Space Science Mission Business Model (Source: Aviation Week)
Taking a page from the ride-share industry, Lockheed Martin Space and Arizona State University have set up a nonprofit research collaborative to plan, build and fly condo-style space science missions beginning with a multispacecraft flyby of near-Earth asteroids and other objects. The intent of The Milo Space Science Institute is to spearhead cutting-edge research by universities, companies and startup space agencies that may not have the money or technical expertise to conduct space research. (10/8)

Arizona's World View is Working on a Technology to Make Space Satellites Obsolete (Source: Business Insider)
About 1,900 active satellites are orbiting Earth as you read this sentence. World View Enterprises in Tucson, Arizona, thinks satellite-like capabilities can be achieved at a fraction of the cost. Their big idea: use giant autonomous balloons that operate in a world between spacecraft and aircraft. The six-year-old company is developing and launching pyramid-shaped platforms called Stratollites that dangle from the end of high-altitude balloons.

These balloons soar to about 20 miles high and exploit high-altitude winds to stay put or move. Here's what it's like inside World View, and how the company is working to not only disrupt a big chunk of the satellite industry, but also give tourists a taste of what it's like in space. Click here. (10/6) 

To the Moon, Mars … and Beyond (Source: New York Post)
As it celebrated its 60th birthday last week, NASA unveiled its new master plan for a return to the moon and manned trips to Mars and beyond. The 21-page National Space Exploration Campaign is the agency’s response to President Trump’s Space Policy Directive-1, telling NASA to launch an “innovative and sustainable program ... to enable human expansion across the solar system,” first with missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, leading to manned missions to Luna and eventually Mars.

Nearly 50 years after Neil Armstrong first walked the moon, mankind can’t go further out than LEO, where the International Space Station orbits. NASA aims to regain the ability to reach lunar orbit, first with the Orion craft being built jointly with the European Space Agency. Even as private companies develop the capability to carry all needed cargo and personnel as far as LEO, NASA will build the Space Launch System, “the most powerful rocket in history,” to send 140-ton payloads into deeper space.

That will allow it to start construction in 2022 of the moon-orbiting Gateway platform, which will host missions to the lunar surface and serve as a base for assembling craft to go beyond the moon. New technologies will be vital, including a way to power a manned interplanetary craft — almost certainly a nuclear drive supplemented by solar cells. Assuming engineers can solve such challenges, the agency aims to start sending crews to Mars orbit in the 2030s. (10/6)

Russian Scientists Start Research on Impact of Zero-Gravity on Humans (Source: Sputnik)
The Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Biomedical Problems has initiated research on the influence of zero-G on the human body during flights to the Moon and back; around 20 people will engage in a two-year study, said Elena Tomilovskaya, Head of the Laboratory of Gravitational Physiology of Sensory-Motor Systems.

The experiment will include two stages. During the first stage, ten people being tested will be lying in baths for three weeks. Doctors will supervise their health condition during the two weeks before the start of the experiment and during the two weeks after its conclusion. The second stage will start in the fall of 2019. During [the study], a similar experiment will be conducted, along with a series of rotations on a short-radius centrifuge, designed in the Institute of Biomedical Problems. (10/8)

Israel Space Agency Copying India's Model for Space Exploration? (Source: The EurAsian Times)
Is Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) trying to ape the model of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) to become the next deep space exploration superpower? Due to a private expedition to the moon, experts are wondering about the possibility of Israel joining the American NASA, Russian ROSCOSMOS,  Chinese CNSA, Indian ISRO, and other space agencies in the exploration of space.

The SpaceIL lunar lander is a go for launch as a secondary payload on a SpaceX Falcon 9 toward the end of 2018. If all goes as planned, the robotic lander – Sparrow, will cruise towards the moon on a slow course that will progressively raise its orbit around the Earth before being captured by the moon’s gravity and landing on the lunar surface by February 2019.

As per secondary research by EurAsian Times, the Sparrow will capture images, videos and conduct measurements of the moon’s magnetic field. NASA has signed an agreement with the Israeli Space Agency to include a laser refractor on the SpaceIL Sparrow. The American space agency has also arranged for the mission to use the NASA’s Deep Space Network. (10/6)

French Space Agency Opens UAE Office (Source: The National)
The French ambassador to the UAE has said the 'universe is the limit' for the growing partnership between the two nations - after the country's space agency opened an office in Abu Dhabi. Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) has become the first foreign space agency to set up a representation office in the UAE. The "milestone" move was made during a visit to the capital by CNES president, Jean-Yves Gall. (10/7)

Will Pluto Be the Last Habitable World? (Source: Scientific American)
Astronomers often talk about our Sun’s future and how it will likely bring about the end of the Earth. Specifically: like all hydrogen-fusing stars, the Sun gets gradually brighter with time as it converts more and more hydrogen in its core into helium (changing its own composition and therefore central temperature). But it will also eventually get to a point where the central hydrogen runs out, the core contracts, and the rest of the star responds. In what's termed the Red-Giant-Branch (RGB) stage, the outer envelope of the Sun will begin to inflate – growing over 100 times in radius over less than 100 million years if it doesn’t lose too much material.

At this point it's bye-bye to Mercury and Venus (even if their orbits expand due to stellar mass loss). But eventually the Sun will shrink again. This happens when its core of helium starts fusing, once more altering the balance and flow of energy in the star. Later, just as the core hydrogen ran out, the helium in the core will also run out – resulting in a new inflation of the outer envelope. This time the Sun gets even bigger. As an Asymptotic-Giant-Branch (AGB) object its radius might crank up to nearly a thousand times the present solar dimensions. Now it’s a distinct possibility that Earth and Mars get engulfed.

Except some other stuff is also happening throughout these phases. Energy is still being generated by fusion in shell regions around the core and the Sun is in fact going to lose quite a lot of its mass – literally blowing material away in a strengthened solar wind. This may mute the physical diameter it reaches as an RGB and then AGB star, but not by a great deal. It could be enough to save the Earth and Mars though. Because as the Sun loses mass the orbits of the planets will actually expand in order to conserve angular momentum. Click here. (9/28)

Babin Introduces Leading Human Spaceflight Act (Source: SpacePolicyOnline.com)
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) introduced legislation today to ensure continuous U.S. human spaceflight presence in low Earth orbit (LEO) and Johnson Space Center’s “leadership role as the home of American human spaceflight.” Babin’s congressional district includes JSC and he chairs the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and  Technology Committee.

Babin made the announcement at a subcommittee hearing where JSC Director Mark Geyer testified along with two other Center directors (Jody Singer from Marshall Space Flight Center and Bob Cabana from Kennedy Space Center) and Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations.

Babin said the bill: a) reaffirms JSC’s leadership role in the human spaceflight program; b) recognizes JSC is the logical Center to serve a lead role in program management, systems engineering, program integration, and operations for NASA’s human spaceflight program; c) promotes policy to lead to a permanent and continuous U.S. human presence in LEO; d) authorizes NASA to operate the International Space Station until 2030 or until a sustainable lower cost alternative is demonstrated; and e) directs NASA to start work with the private sector in developing commercial capabilities to meet America’s future needs in LEO. (9/26)