Iranian Launch Fails to
Deliver Satellite (Source: AP)
An Iranian satellite launch ended in failure early Tuesday. The Simorgh
rocket lifted off from the Imam Khomeini Space Center carrying a small
satellite called Payam. However, the Iranian government said a problem
with the rocket's third stage prevented the payload from reaching
orbit. The launch was the first of two that Iran was planning to carry
out. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo previously warned Iran from
performing the launches, which he argued were a cover for a ballistic
missile development program. Many outside observers, though, see few
links between the satellite launches and missile development. (1/15)
Maxar Replaces CEO
(Source: Space News)
Maxar Technologies replaced its chief executive Monday. The company
announced that Howard Lance was leaving the positions of president and
CEO, and would be replaced by Daniel Jablonsky, who had been president
of DigitalGlobe, a division of Maxar. Lance led Maxar for less than
three years during a time that it was shifting from a Canadian to an
American company, a process that included the acquisition of
DigitalGlobe. Maxar has suffered from a number of recent problems,
including soft demand for geostationary orbit satellites that led the
company to consider divesting Space Systems Loral, as well as the
failure earlier this month of the WorldView-4 satellite. (1/15)
Bridenstine and Rogozin
Discuss US/Russia Cooperation (Source: Space News)
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine spoke with his Russian counterpart
by phone Monday. The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said
that Dmitry Rogozin talked with Bridenstine, with the two emphasizing
cooperation on the International Space Station and other projects. The
call came 10 days after NASA announced that a visit to the U.S. by
Rogozin had been indefinitely postponed after congressional criticism.
NASA confirmed the call took place but referred media to the Roscosmos
statement, citing the ongoing U.S. government shutdown. (1/15)
General Atomics
Acquistions Bring Focus on Space Business (Source: Space
News)
General Atomics is winning business in the smallsat market after the
acquisition of two manufacturers. General Atomics acquired Miltec and
the U.S. subsidiary of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., using them to
form the basis of a smallsat business unit that is offering a satellite
bus called Orbital Test Bed. The company recently won three government
contracts from the Air Force and NASA for payloads using that bus, in
part using hosted payloads approaches. (1/15)
Satellogic Plans to
Launch Remote Sensing Constellation From China (Source:
Space News)
Satellogic announced Tuesday that it will launch a constellation of
remote sensing satellites on Chinese rockets. The Buenos Aires-based
company said it plans to launch 90 satellites on as many as six Long
March 6 rockets, starting in the fall of 2019 and continuing through
2020. The constellation will enable the company to collect
multispectral imagery of the entire planet with weekly revisit times.
The satellites also carry a hyperspectral payload, which the company
says is primarily experimental for now. (1/15)
JSC Workers Protest
Shutdown (Source: KPRC)
Furloughed NASA employees are planning to hold a rally today outside
the gates of the Johnson Space Center. The protest against the ongoing
partial government shutdown, now in its 25th day, is being organized by
the local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees.
Those employees are increasingly worried about how they will make ends
meet as the shutdown continues with no end in sight. (1/15)
Giant Leaf for Mankind?
China Germinates First Seed on Moon (Source: Guardian)
A small green shoot is growing on the moon after a cotton seed
germinated onboard a Chinese lunar lander, scientists said. The sprout
has emerged from a lattice-like structure inside a canister after the
Chang’e 4 lander touched down earlier this month, according to a series
of photos released by the Advanced Technology Research Institute at
Chongqing University.
“This is the first time humans have done biological growth experiments
on the lunar surface,” said Xie Gengxin, who led the design of the
experiment, on Tuesday. Plants have been grown previously on the
International Space Station, but this is the first time a seed has
sprouted on the moon. The ability to grow plants in space is seen as
crucial for long-term space missions and establishing human outposts
elsewhere in the solar system, such as Mars. (1/15)
Repairing, and Building,
Future Space Telescopes (Source: Space Review)
While the James Webb Space Telescope is not designed to be serviced
after launch, large space telescope missions that follow likely will.
Jeff Foust reports that some astronomers and engineers are looking
beyond merely servicing telescopes in space but rather assembling them
there. Click here.
(1/15)
Why the Chang’e-4 Moon
Landing is Unique (Source: Space Review)
Earlier this month China landed its second spacecraft on the Moon, and
became the first country to land on the lunar farside. Namrata Goswami
warns that, despite these achievements, the West continues to
underestimate China’s space program. Click here.
(1/15)
Bulgarians Still Dream
About Space Four Decades After Their First Crewed Mission
(Source: Space Review)
Besides being the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, 2019 marks the 40th
anniversary of the first Bulgarian in space. Svetoslav Alexandrov
recaps that country’s history in spaceflight and how, after a hiatus,
it is trying to become more active in space again. Click here.
(1/15)
Small Thrusters for Small
Satellites: Trends and Challenges (Source: Space Review)
As interest in smallsats grows, so does the need for propulsion systems
that can make such spacecraft more capable. Researchers from Singapore
and Australia examine the current state of research in smallsat
propulsion technologies. Click here.
(1/15)
Antarctica Ice Melt Has
Accelerated by 280% in the Last 4 Decades (Source: CNN)
A pair of new studies released on Monday share a same ominous message
-- that our planet's ice is melting at an alarming rate, which is bad
news for global sea levels. Antarctica's crucial ice sheet has been
melting for at least a 39 year period. Ice is disappearing faster in
each successive decade. Ice loss in Antarctica has increased from 40
gigatons (a gigaton is one billion tons) per year from 1979-90 all the
way up to 252 gigatons per year from 2009-17, a 6-fold increase.
And that melt-rate has been accelerating in the most recent decades, up
280% in the second half of the nearly 40 years compared to the first
half. Understanding Antarctica and the delicate balance of ice melt
draining into the Southern Ocean, and the replenishing snowfall over
the continent's interior, is critically important when estimating how
much seas will rise around the globe as a result of global warming. The
continent holds a majority of the planet's ice and if melted, would
cause the average sea level to rise 188 feet (57.2 meters).
One study looked at 176 different basins around Antarctica where ice
drains into the ocean and found that the rate of melting is increasing,
especially in areas where warm, salty water intrudes on edges of the
ice sheets. The study did not find a corresponding increase in the
long-term trend of snowfall accumulation in the interior of Antarctica,
which had been previously believed to counter the ice loss and minimize
sea level rise. The imbalance between melting ice and replenishing
snowfall means the continent is out of balance and thus increasing sea
levels as the excess meltwater flows into the ocean. (1/14)
New Technique More
Precisely Determines the Ages of Stars (Source: ERAU)
How old are each of the stars in our roughly 13-billion-year-old
galaxy? A new technique for understanding the star-forming history of
the Milky Way in unprecedented detail makes it possible to determine
the ages of stars at least two times more precisely than conventional
methods, Embry-Riddle researchers reported this week at the American
Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting.
Current star-dating techniques, based on assessments of stars in the
prime or main sequence of their lives that have begun to die after
exhausting their hydrogen, offer a 20-percent, or at best a 10-percent
margin of error, explained Embry-Riddle Physics and Astronomy Professor
Dr. Ted von Hippel. Embry-Riddle’s approach, leveraging burnt-out
remnants called white dwarf stars, reduces the margin of error to 5
percent or even 3 percent, he said. (1/10)
Air Force Turns to
Nontraditional Contracting for Space Technology Projects
(Source: Space News)
The Air Force just over a year ago formed a Space Enterprise Consortium
to expedite the development and prototyping of satellites, ground
systems, space sensors and other technologies that U.S. adversaries are
advancing at a rapid pace.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson hailed the SpPEC as a successful
business model that cuts red tape considerably compared to traditional
defense contracting. The consortium so far has started 34 projects
worth about $110 million and has been authorized to fund nearly $400
million in additional projects over the next four years. (12/31)
UAE Space Agency Adopts
National Plan for the Promotion of Space Investment
(Source: Satellite Pro Me)
The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) has launched a National Plan for the
Promotion of Space Investment. Aiming to increase domestic and foreign
investment in the UAE space sector and encourage local investment
vehicles to consider funding opportunities in the space sector, both
domestically and globally, the initiative promises to transform the
nation into a regional hub for commercial space activities and advanced
research and development. (1/14)
NASA's Deep-Space
Nuclear-Power Crisis May Soon End, Thanks to a Clever New Robot in
Tennessee (Source: Business Insider)
The US government says a new robot is poised to help it create a
reliable, long-term supply chain of plutonium-238, a radioactive
material NASA requires to explore deep space. NASA uses Pu-238 to power
its most epic space missions— among them New Horizons (now beyond
Pluto), the Voyagers (now in interstellar space), and Cassini (now part
of Saturn).
As Pu-238 radioactively decays and generates heat, devices called
radioisotope power sources convert some of that energy into
electricity. Because Pu-238 takes centuries to cool down, the
contraptions can keep a robot humming for decades. But Pu-238 is
human-made and one of the rarest and most valuable materials on Earth.
In fact, the last time anyone manufactured it in earnest was during
Cold War-era nuclear-weapons production. Today, NASA has perhaps three
missions' worth of the stuff left before the supply runs out. (1/14)
SpaceX Layoffs Include
577 Positions at California Headquarters (Source:
Bloomberg)
SpaceX is taking the ax to its headquarters in California. Hours after
launching its first rocket of the new year on Friday morning, the Elon
Musk-led company told employees that roughly 10 percent of SpaceX’s
workforce would be laid off. Stunned workers were sent home early to
await notification to their private email addresses about their fate.
The vast majority of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s more than
6,000 employees are employed at its headquarters and rocket factory in
Hawthorne, California, and hundreds of others are based in Seattle,
Florida, Washington, D.C. and Texas. Some 577 positions will be cut in
Hawthorne, according to Jan Vogel, executive director of the South Bay
Workforce Investment Board. Those cut include production managers,
avionics technicians, machinists, inventory specialists and propulsion
technicians. (1/13)
Experts Worry Government
Shutdowns Will Drive NASA Employees to the Private Sector
(Source: Houston Chronicle)
NASA employees have endured three government shutdowns in the past
year, each time halting their groundbreaking work as political
skirmishes in Washington, D.C., are hashed out. The first two came in
the beginning months of 2018, but they were short: more of an
annoyance, really.
But the current closure — which started Dec. 22 and has no end in sight
— has been beyond frustrating for many, not just because of money lost
but because of work delays. It’s been enough of a hindrance that some
experts worry it could drive NASA engineers to the fast-growing space
projects in the private sector. (1/14)
Iran Is Preparing a
Launch. But Is It For a Space Rocket Or a Missile?
(Source: NPR)
"We're seeing all kinds of activity," says Jeffrey Lewis, a scholar at
the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, who is
analyzing the images as they come in. In recent days, he has noticed
cars and trucks moving around the site. "We saw a large number of fuel
trucks show up, suggesting that there is fuel being moved to the site,"
Lewis says. "We can also just see all kinds of activity at both launch
pads."
Iran has said publicly that its motives are peaceful. It soon intends
to launch several satellites for communications and remote-sensing as
part of the nation's long-running space program. But in a statement,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo recently called the planned launches
"provocative." He said these launches, if they happen, are really about
developing intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The technology
used by Iran, he said, is "virtually identical" to what's needed for an
ICBM. So which is it? (1/14)
China Ready to Cooperate
with Russia in Operating its Future Orbital Station
(Source: TASS)
China is ready to cooperate with Russia in operating its yet-to-be
created orbital station and to let some other countries participate in
similar projects, the secretary-general of the China National Space
Administration, Li Guoping, told a news conference on Monday. "Russia
is one of China’s main partners in space cooperation," he said adding
that the two countries held annual meetings devoted to cooperation in
space exploration. Both countries, he said, were pushing ahead with
joint aerospace projects in accordance with China’s program for
2018-2022. (1/14)
Scottish Skyrora's Rocket
Launch Bid Moves Closer to Lift-Off (Source: The National)
In a major development in what has been dubbed the new space race, a
groundbreaking 3D-printed rocket engine is nearing completion thanks to
a partnership between Edinburgh-headquartered Skyrora and
Hampshire-based Frazer-Nash Manufacturing. The engine will be tested in
the coming weeks at Spaceport Cornwall. It will be the first advanced
liquid-fuel engine tests by a British small-satellite launcher to take
place in the UK since the legendary Black Arrow program in the 1960s.
Frazer-Nash has used innovative techniques to create the nickel alloy
“upper stage” rocket engine components that will eventually power and
manoeuvre Skyrora rockets and payloads once they reach orbit. Additive
manufacturing (AM), also referred to as 3D printing, is a process of
creating a three-dimensional part layer by layer. It works by adding
material to create the desired shape, instead of having to remove
material through methods such as machining. (1/12)
Chinese Use Space
Radiation to Mutate Food Crops (Source: Space Safety)
Exposure to radiation is one of the well-studied hazards of
spaceflight. But what if you could turn that hazard to advantage?
That’s what China has attempted to do by sending plant seeds to space,
then cultivating the resultant mutations. In early experiments begun in
1987 Jiang Xingcun, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
discovered that spaceflight can increase mutation rates by hundreds of
times that experienced on Earth. 12% of seeds sent to space in
satellites manifested mutations of some kind in such experiments.
Since that time, China has sent more than 400 plant seed species to
space. The method has produced giant eggplants, half-meter long
cucumbers, and peppers with improved yields and reduced seeds, among
other products. Of course, not all mutations produce favorable results.
“It’s not like that after traveling in space for a few days, the seeds
will turn out with all the desired traits we want,” said Liu Min, a
scientist who specializes in seed technology and consults for the China
Academy of Space Technology. Scientists must isolate desired genes from
the well-travelled seeds via a breeding program.
The drive for advancing seed mutation is rooted in the need to feed
China’s growing population. Currently, more than half of vegetable
seeds planted by Chinese farmers are imported. Chinese agronomists are
anxious to provide domestic alternatives. Scientists have also
investigated Cobalt-60 induced mutations, but the radioactive material
is hazardous and hard to come by. (1/14)
Dark Matter Hunters Are
Looking Inside Rocks for New Clues (Source: WIRED)
A subterranean paleo-detector would work in a manner similar to current
direct-detection methods, according to Freese and her colleagues.
Instead out outfitting a lab with a large volume of liquid or metal to
observe WIMP recoils in real time, they would look for fossil traces of
WIMPs banging into atomic nuclei. As nuclei recoil, they would leave
damage tracks in some classes of minerals.
If the nucleus recoils with enough vigor, and if the atoms that are
perturbed are then buried deep in the earth (to shield the sample from
cosmic rays that can muddy the data), then the recoil track could be
preserved. If so, researchers may be able to dig the rock up, peel away
layers of time, and explore the long-ago event using sophisticated
nano-imaging techniques like atomic force microscopy. The end result
would be a fossil track: the dark matter counterpart to finding a
sauropod’s footprint as it fled a predator. (1/14)
Space Startups' New
Mission: Entertaining Earthlings (Source: Nikkei)
Want to check crowd sizes at Disneyland, find out the best time to view
cherry blossoms or, perhaps, arrange a romantic night watching shooting
stars? Japanese space startups say they will soon have the answers.
These young companies are diversifying beyond specialties like weather
forecasting and astronomical observation, recognizing their technology
can be used for other practical -- and sometimes not so practical --
pursuits.
"Isn't it helpful if Google Maps update every 10 minutes?" asked
Shunsuke Onishi, CEO of Fukuoka venture iQPS. The small company -- it
has a team of 11 people and 100 million yen ($910,000) in
capitalization -- aims to place 36 mini radar satellites into Earth's
orbit as early as 2024 and create a virtually real-time map. "We want
to create a world where people can check how crowded Tokyo Disneyland
is before going there, for instance," Onishi said. (1/14)
Japan Space Agency to
Monitor Deterioration of Infrastructure Via Satellite (Source:
Yomiuri Shimbun)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has developed a system to
efficiently monitor the deterioration of infrastructure — such as river
embankments, airports and harbors — using the Advanced Land Observing
Satellite Daichi-2. According to JAXA, it can monitor a wide area at
once, which is expected to significantly reduce the amount of labor
needed for inspections. The system will be available for a fee to the
central government, local governments and private companies, to improve
their disaster prevention measures
The Daichi-2 sends radio waves to the ground and measures reflected
waves. The features of the reflected waves change according to the
shape of the land, allowing the detection of shifts in the ground. JAXA
applied this function to develop a system that can detect the sinking
and collapse of embankments, airports and harbors. It began an
experiment to verify the technology in cooperation with companies in
fiscal 2014. (1/13)
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