March 25, 2019

More Efficient Satellite Launch Platform on the Horizon (Source: Phys.org)
An efficient and cost-effective satellite launch platform could soon be a reality in Australia thanks to a world first engine that's being developed by University of Sydney combustion experts. As part of a global industry research project, combustion experts from the University of Sydney's School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering are one step closer to developing a more efficient and cost-effective access to space platform for satellite launches.

Making up the University's Clean Combustion Group, Associate Professor Matthew Cleary, Associate Professor Ben Thornber, and Dr Dries Verstraete have joined the International Responsive Access to Space project, with the aim of building the world's first successful rotating detonation engine to send payloads into space. Led by DefendTex, the project was awarded a $3million CRC-P grant in 2018 as a federal government investment into developing Australia's space industry.

"Our preliminary findings from simulations of a model rotating detonation engine have led to some interesting findings about the stability of detonations in an annular channel, in particular with regard to the importance of designing the combustor geometry such that the detonation is stable and rocket thrust can be sustained continuously. This information is being fed to our collaborators who are now starting work on ground testing an engine," he said. (3/25)

Canadian Space Agency Confident in Rocket Being Used to Launch $1 Billion Satellite Despite U.S. Investigation (Source: Montreal Gazette)
Canada’s space agency says it still has confidence in the rocket selected to launch the country’s premier satellite system in late May even though the Pentagon is now investigating whether the spacecraft was properly certified. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has been selected to launch the Radarsat Constellation Mission or RCM, Canada’s new $1-billion surveillance system that consists of three satellites.

The likelihood of a launch failure is considered to be low but if that happened it would take four years for Canada to rebuild the radarsat satellites, according to documents obtained by Postmedia. That Canadian Space Agency assessment, however, was made in 2018, before the U.S. launched an investigation into the SpaceX rockets. SpaceX has already conducted a number of successful launches for the U.S. military. But in June 2015 one of its Falcon 9 rockets blew up shortly after lift-off. (3/24)

Minimal Cost of Creation of Russian Super-Heavy Booster is $11.6 Billion (Source: TASS)
The minimal cost of the creation of the Russian super-heavy rocket Yenisei, which is to be first launched in 2028, is 740 billion rubles ($11.6 billion), Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said. "I may name the minimal sum for you, but it is the sum for the first launch. The cost of all the works, including the creation of the launching pad for the super-heavy class, the building of the rocket, its preparation for the launch and the launch itself of a launching test vehicle, not even the craft, is about 740 billion rubles [$11.6 billion,]."

He specified that the Federal Space Program by 2025 has no funds for the creation of this program, but just includes the building of the Soyuz-5 rocket, the first stage of which will serve as a component for the super-heavy vehicle. The financing of the super-heavy rocket should be carried out under a separate program within the state program for the development of space activity, which would include resources for testing, designing, new headways, the launch of new development activities and land testing. (3/25)

Roscosmos Vows to Keep ISS in Orbit if NASA Withdraws From the Project (Source: TASS)
The Roscosmos state corporation will preserve the International Space Station (ISS) on the orbit even if the American side withdraws from the project, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said. "This is Roscosmos’ proposal. We believe that we can keep the station in case the Americans decide to withdraw from this project, through other countries and partners. We have technological and technical capabilities to keep the station on the orbit and fully provide both electric energy and water there," Rogozin said. (3/25)

Could Orion Ride Falcon Heavy to the Moon? (Source: Hackaday)
Interestingly, some quick back of the envelope math seems to indicate there’s another option on the table. Assuming NASA is willing to make some substantial deviations from the original mission parameters, it looks like the Falcon Heavy alone could potentially push the Orion most of the way towards the Moon itself without using the ICPS at all. This would not only make it easier to integrate the Orion hardware onto the Falcon Heavy, but would save the non-reusable ICPS for a future mission.

The Falcon Heavy should 'just' be able to put the Orion and its Service Module into GTO. Of course that doesn’t get you to the Moon, but it’s not quite that far off either. To reach GTO from Earth orbit, a spacecraft must increase its velocity by roughly 2.5 kilometers per second. By comparison, for lunar injection it needs to be accelerated by around 3.2 km/s. So how do we get the last 700 meters per second of acceleration? From the Orion itself.

The Orion Service Module is able to provide 1.8 km/s of delta-v. In theory, it should be able to complete the trans-lunar injection maneuver with enough propellant in reserve to perform any necessary course corrections. In this theoretical scenario, there may not be enough propellant to actually slow down and enter a lunar orbit as originally intended. In which case, Orion could simply make a loop around the far side of the Moon and then return to Earth. (3/25)

Astronauts Replace ISS Batteries During 6.5 Hour EVA (Source: CBS)
Two astronauts successfully completed a spacewalk Friday outside the International Space Station. Nick Hague and Anne McClain spent six hours and 39 minutes outside the station during the EVA, replacing a set of large batteries on the station's exterior that are part of the station's power supply. McClain and Christina Koch will perform another spacewalk this Friday to continue that battery replacement process. That spacewalk will be the first all-female spacewalk. (3/25)

Russia Still Searching for Cause of Soyuz Hole (Source: TASS)
Russia plans to perform additional tests to determine what created a hole found in a Soyuz spacecraft last year. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said "additional experiments in orbit will be required" because samples taken from the damaged Soyuz spacecraft during a daring spacewalk by two cosmonauts in December were insufficient. The small hole in the Soyuz orbital module, detected and patched in August, is widely thought to be from mishandling of the spacecraft during launch preparations, but Russian officials have yet to issue a final report on the incident. (3/25)

NASA Sees Science Potential For Lunar Gateway (Source: Aviation Week)
NASA has outlined a three-step strategy for achieving a sustained human return to the Moon’s surface by 2028, using partnerships forged with U.S. commercial as well as global space agency partners to first assemble a lunar-orbiting, human-tended Gateway. Both the four-person gateway, assembly of which is to begin in 2022 and end in 2024, and new human surface explorations are to forge technologies for moving on to Mars. Space science is expected to provide a common theme for the Gateway.

The White House’s fiscal 2020 budget proposal, presented to Congress on March 11, seeks $821.4 million for the Gateway, up from $450 million in 2019, for a total projected at about $4.4 billion through 2024. Once the lunar-orbiting post is assembled from NASA components as well as hardware elements supplied by Japan, Canada, Europe and potentially other international partners, it is to serve as a common base for reusable transfer, descent and ascent elements needed to reach the lunar surface with human explorers.

The transfer and descent module would undergo an uncrewed landing test flight in 2024 in the first phase of the landing initiative outlined by Bleacher. An uncrewed test flight of all three elements would follow in 2026, followed by a similar operation with astronauts two years later, he said. NASA is attempting to nurture commercial lunar participation through its Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, with nine companies selected for future launch services. This starts with small science and technology payloads as early as late this year and leading to human transportation capabilities. The total contract value is estimated at $2.6 billion over 10 years. (3/21)

NASA Looks to Speed Up SLS (Source: Space News)
The National Space Council will likely press NASA at its upcoming meeting to speed up its plans to return humans to the moon as the agency continues to study alternative approaches for the next flight of its Orion spacecraft. Scott Pace, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said March 21 the need for urgency in NASA’s return to the moon will be a theme of the council’s next meeting March 26 in Huntsville, Alabama. That meeting, announced March 20, will include two panels of experts who will weigh in on the status of those plans.

Pace said that study is “absolutely not a slam” on Boeing, the prime contractor for the core stage of the SLS, whose difficulties have led to the risk of further delays in EM-1. “What it is meant to say is that we need to keep our schedule commitments, and that we’re absolutely deadly serious about keeping those commitments to keep the American people engaged, to keep our stakeholders engaged, and keep our partners engaged.”

NASA is also working with Boeing to look at ways to speed up development of SLS to keep it on schedule for a 2020 launch. Bridenstine hinted about those studies in a March 15 tweet, saying teams were “working overtime to accelerate the launch schedule” for SLS. Neither NASA nor Boeing have since elaborated on those efforts, despite requests to both organizations for additional details. (3/22)

Amazon Plans Satellite Ground Stations (Source: Via Satellite)
Late last year, Amazon announced its new AWS Ground Station program, which shows a willingness to provide a new set of services to a new chunk of the commercial satellite supply chain. Through its integration, AWS Ground Station will give customers the ability to download data from multiple satellites at the same time and to continue downloading data even when unplanned outages like a weather event impact parts of the network. Senior Manager Shayn Hawthorne is Amazon’s project leader for AWS Ground Station.

Hawthorne describes Ground Station as a “game-changer” for the industry; the world’s first fully managed ground station as a service, which will make things easier for satellite operators to get their data back on Earth. Amazon’s vision is to democratize access to satellites and the enormous amounts of increasingly important data they’re collecting.

Substantial investments are required to build the ground stations needed to uplink and downlink satellite data. With AWS Ground Station, customers that have not traditionally had the financial resources to build and operate their own satellite infrastructure will be able to access satellite services on-demand. AWS Ground Station also wants to provide satellite customers with an easier and more cost-effective operational experience, complete with analytical data that can be integrated with applications and other cloud services running in AWS. (3/25)