February 10, 2019

Developing the Way for a Coast Guard Space Program (Source: Coast Guard Compass)
There is a new landmark at the Coast Guard Academy and it is helping to launch the Coast Guard into an era of space operations. The satellite communications ground station on the roof of Smith Hall was built by the Coast Guard Research and Development Center to support the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Polar Scout project, which successfully launched two CubeSats in December 2018, and will soon support a broad range of educational opportunities for cadets.

The Academy ground station joins a similar Coast Guard Research and Development Center-built station located in Fairbanks, Arkansas, and is part of the Mobile CubeSat Command and Control network. The Mobile CubeSat Command and Control network includes additional sites in Dayton, Ohio; Monterey, California; and Logan, Utah, which allows for frequent contact opportunities with the two Polar Scout CubeSats, named Kodiak and Yukon, as they pass overhead in Low Earth Polar Orbit.

The most visible element of the Academy’s Mobile CubeSat Command and Control network site is the 18-foot diameter fiberglass geodesic dome known as a radome placed on the roof of Smith Hall, which is made even more prominent by the large “USCGA” and “CGRDC” decals supplied by the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association. Although the Coast Guard may be new to space operations, access to advanced systems like the Academy ground station and more importantly the interest sparked among cadets, points to a bright future ahead. (2/6)

Last Kepler Images Capture Numerous Planetary Systems (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Numerous planetary systems, including a world just discovered by citizen scientists, are visible in the final images taken by NASA’s Kepler telescope on Sept. 25, 2018, just before it ran out of fuel after operating for nine-and-a-half years. Between Kepler’s “first light” image of star-filled regions in the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra, taken in 2009, and this “last light” one focused in the direction of the constellation Aquarius, the telescope discovered over 2,600 exoplanets, including the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven closely-packed terrestrial worlds, three of which are located in the parent star’s habitable zone.

Kepler used the transit method to locate planets, which involves searching for regular dips in light caused by a planet transiting, or passing in front of, its parent star. It monitored all stars in its field of view continuously so as to assure no transits were missed. In May 2013, when the second of Kepler’s four reaction wheels failed, its four-year mission of constantly monitoring 150,000 stars ended. A year later, the telescope was re-purposed for what became known as its K2 mission after mission scientists came up with a new method to search for exoplanets based on 80-day observations of specific regions of the sky. (2/10)

BIG Idea Challenge 2019 Finalists to Develop Planetary Greenhouse Concepts (Source: NASA)
No drive-through? No problem. University students are designing greenhouses so astronauts can grow their own food on Mars. NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) selected five university teams to participate in the 2019 Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. The challenge seeks to provide innovative ideas for the design, installation and sustainable operation of a habitat-sized Mars greenhouse, with the primary purpose of food production. An efficient and safe greenhouse design could not only assist with Mars missions, but also long-term lunar missions.

For this challenge, NASA is seeking novel concepts for a Mars greenhouse design that complement the unique design of the Mars ice home. The Mars ice home is a cost-effective habitat concept that provides the large flexible workspace needed for an early Martian outpost. This year’s BIG Idea Challenge teams will tackle both the crop cultivation, or food production, elements of the theme as well as the mechanical and aerospace engineering elements of the design. (2/4)

Scientists Want to Build a Space Station Inside an Asteroid (Source: Futurism)
Many space visionaries want to mine asteroids. But drilling in microgravity is hard, because exerting force on an asteroid will push you away from it. That’s what an inspired a far-out idea from scientists from University of Vienna: turning an asteroid into a space station and mining it from the inside out. The best type of asteroid to build a space station inside would be made of solid rock and rotating several times per minute, according the Viennese scientists’ research, which was published in the preprint server ArXiv in December.

The idea is that it would provide enough centrifugal force to let space miners chisel away at the asteroid from the center outward. Questions remain. Would digging a tunnel to place station inside an asteroid weaken it to the point that the spinning space rock rips itself apart? Would it stop spinning altogether as miners probe and dig? And if it’s so hard to drill into an asteroid from the outside, wouldn’t hollowing it out in the first place pose the same problems?

“The border between science and science fiction here is sort of blurry,” Maindl told New Scientist. “My gut feeling is that it will be at least 20 years before any asteroid mining happens, let alone something like this.” (2/9)