March 30, 2019

Apollo 11 Found Water on the Moon — From Orlando (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Apollo 11’s astronauts found water on the moon – but there was no mystery about its origin. It came from Orlando. All of the water the Apollo 11 astronauts carried to the lunar surface on their historic 1969 moon landing originated in Orlando. To be precise, 160 gallons of water from Orlando. “Every drop will come from Orlando, via Cocoa, via Kennedy Space Center, via Apollo 11,” reported the Orlando Sentinel in a story published July 16, 1969 – the day Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched on their moon mission from Central Florida.

Al Buck was in charge of the astronauts’ water for the Apollo 11 mission. His official title in 1969 was Project Engineer, Environmental Health for Apollo Water.  “Buck and his crew start with plain tap water, which originates in Orlando deep wells and is piped to Brevard County and the spaceport,” the Sentinel story said. “The only difference between it and the water Orange and Brevard County housewives get when they turn on their kitchens’ faucets is that the water aboard Apollo 11 will be filtered and debacterialized.”

Buck explained that any particles or bacteria were removed before the water was placed aboard the Apollo 11 spacecrafts. “We make it super pure,” he said. Buck added that it still “tastes like” household tap water. “It’s not even flat,” the story said. In addition to the 160 gallons of water sent to the surface of moon for Armstrong and Aldrin to drink and use, there were also 50 gallons aboard the command module for Collins. (3/28)

Senate Reintroduces Space Frontier Act (Source: Space News)
A bipartisan group of senators has reintroduced legislation designed to reform commercial launch and remote sensing regulations, this time without a provision that led to the bill’s defeat last year in the House. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced March 28 the introduction of the Space Frontier Act. The bill is scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee during an executive session April 3 that will consider a number of other bills and nominations.

The bill closely follows last year’s version of the Space Frontier Act, which Cruz and then-Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) shepherded through the Senate. Most of the bill covers efforts to reform commercial launch and remote sensing regulations in parallel with rulemaking activities currently underway by the Commerce and Transportation Departments. The bill also authorizes an extension of the International Space Station from 2024 to 2030 and elevates the Office of Space Commerce within the Commerce Department to the Bureau of Space Commerce. (3/29)

Japan Wants to Send Telepresence Robots Into Space (Source: IEEE Spectrum)
GITAI is a robotics startup with offices in Japan and the United States that’s developing tech to put humanoid telepresence robots in space to take over for astronauts. Today, GITAI is announcing a joint research agreement with JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) to see what it takes for robots to be useful in orbit, with the goal of substantially reducing the amount of money spent sending food and air up to those demanding humans on the International Space Station.

It’s also worth noting that GITAI has some new hires, including folks from the famous (and somewhat mysterious) Japanese bipedal robot company SCHAFT. A quick reminder about SCHAFT: The company was founded by members of the JSK Laboratory at the University of Tokyo in order to build a robot to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in 2013. SCHAFT won the DRC Trials by a substantial margin, scoring 27 points out of a possible 32, 7 more points than the second place team (Florida's IHMC).

DARPA wasn’t the only one impressed with SCHAFT’s performance: Google was too, and it acquired SCHAFT (along with Boston Dynamics and a bunch of other high-profile robotics companies) soon after. Due to what seemed to be resistance from Google, however, SCHAFT did not compete in the DRC Finals, and we didn’t hear much from them until 2016, when they demonstrated a new walking robot. SoftBank attempted to buy SCHAFT from Google in 2017, along with Boston Dynamics, but reportedly the deal fell through after “one or more SCHAFT employees refused to be part of SoftBank.” (3/25)

Air Force Still Expecting More Than 30 Rocket Launches This Year From Florida (Source: Florida Today)
Three rocket launches down for the Space Coast, only 29 more to go. Or at least, that's what the Air Force hopes to achieve before the year is up. After 24 successful launches in 2018, the 45th Space Wing — which manages the Eastern Range, including Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station — expects to have 32 launches this year, bringing them closer to reaching their goal of 48 launches a year.

"Our drive is to go to 48. That's our ability to launch a rocket every week," 45th Space Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Doug Schiess said for the Air Force's State of the Installation event at the Tides Collocated Club on Friday.  SpaceX, which has already seen three launches this year, including two from Florida, is targeting 18 for 2019 — three less than last year. (3/29)

Florida Tech and NASA Plan Space Technology Day on May 23 (Source: Florida Tech)
On May 23rd  Florida Tech's Office of Research, in collaboration with NASA, will host Space Technology Day. Space Technology Day brings together professors, students, engineers, technologists and small-business owners and operators from around Florida to the Florida Tech campus to learn about and discuss NASA’s current and future space technology activities and its plans for exploring the Moon, Mars and beyond.

The event includes a keynote address by NASA's Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk, opportunities to engage with NASA program executives through breakout sessions, and a “Coffee & Space Fireside Chat” with NASA and Florida Tech students & faculty. Other invited NASA guests and presenters include NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Associate Administrator, NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Programs, Principal Technologists, Program Executives and Chief Engineers. This event is provided at no-cost to attendees but pre-registration is required. Click here. (3/29)

NASA is Paying 24 People $19G to Stay in Bed (Source: Fox News)
NASA has created the perfect job for anyone who really enjoys staying in bed all day, as long as they don't mind continuing to do just that for 60 days without a break. As UPI reports, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), in conjunction with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are undertaking an Artificial Gravity Bed Rest Study (AGBRESA).

The study hopes to figure out what effective countermeasures there are against bone and muscle atrophy when humans are placed in a weightless environment and how artificial gravity can have a positive impact. This is important for the astronauts who will eventually spend extended periods of time in space beyond the limited stays currently experienced aboard the International Space Station. (3/29)

Why Trump Wants to Go to the Moon So Badly (Source: The Atlantic)
NASA received far more funding in the Apollo days than it does now; at the moon program’s peak, the agency’s annual budget accounted for more than 4 percent of federal spending. It’s less than half a percent today. NASA has poured plenty into exploration efforts in the past several decades, but one president’s policies usually get yanked back by the next. Little gets done in the meantime.

The latest NASA budget, $21.5 billion, is the largest in years. But the Trump administration had requested $19.9 billion, and it was Congress, the final arbiter on funding, who added the extra cash. And in its request for next year’s allocation, the administration actually proposed scaling back funding. Pence said that to speed up the effort, the government would consider scrapping NASA’s own work and using commercial technology instead. “The first woman and the next man on the moon will both be American astronauts, launched by American rockets, from American soil,” Pence said.

In other words, the Trump administration wants to make the moon American again. The last president to set his sights on the moon, George W. Bush, called for a similar return in 2004, but he set the deadline for 2020, long after he’d leave the White House, taking his slogans with him. The fact that the Trump administration has picked 2024, the final year of a potential second term, is telling. Trump might be trying to produce a decisive accomplishment on a timeline that can’t be undermined by his successor. But the rush is also part of a larger attempt to produce as many showy achievements in space as possible to bolster Trump’s legacy, an effort that began soon after he took office. (3/29)