March 6, 2019

Four Steps to Global Management of Space Traffic (Source: Nature)
To adapt to a crowded and democratized space future, we will need some form of space traffic management. The US government is seeking to lead global efforts while developing policies to manage its satellites more effectively. This would not involve ‘traffic police’ directing satellites left or right, but a system more like the weather service. Satellite operators would share information and receive status reports and collision alerts. Companies would develop and sell services and apps based on the data.

An international regime for managing space traffic could in some ways mirror that for aviation: multilateral standards and practices for safety and communications, augmented by bilateral agreements covering certain economic activities and safety situations. But there are major differences between the control of space and of air traffic. Here, I outline the four main elements of a global management system for space traffic, and the steps needed to make it happen. Click here. (3/6)

Zero-G Offers Lunar Gravity Flight at Cape Canaveral Spaceport for Apollo Anniversary (Source: Zero-G)
Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing with Zero-G and special guest astronaut Dan Barry on July 20 from Space Florida's Launch & Landing Facility. This flight will consist of 11 lunar gravity parabolas so flyers can feel exactly what it’s like on the moon! Click here. (3/6)

X-60A Hypersonic Vehicle Completes Critical Design Review Ahead of Jacksonville Spaceport Missions (Source: AFRL)
The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Aerospace Systems Directorate, High Speed Systems Division, in partnership with Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc., is developing the X-60A vehicle. It is an air-dropped liquid rocket specifically designed for hypersonic flight research. X-60A program completed its Critical Design Review, a major milestone in the program. The program now moves into the fabrication phase. The initial flight of the vehicle, scheduled in about a year, is based out of Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida.

A key part of the X-60A program is that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration-licensed Cecil Spaceport provides a diversification in hypersonic flight testing to traditional Department of Defense flight test ranges. Additionally, this is the first Air Force Small Business Innovative Research program to receive an experimental “X” designation, in a long line of historical X-planes that includes hypersonic vehicles such as the X-15 and X-51A. Click here. (3/6)

Group Pitches for New Space Center Near Vandenberg Spaceport in California (Source: Lompoc Record)
A renewed push for a space center complex in the Lompoc Valley was formally launched Tuesday night as backers of the project unveiled details for an enterprise that one of them described as a potential “national treasure.”

The pitch was made to the Lompoc City Council as part of an information-only presentation. The interactive proposal included a short video that highlighted the entertainment and educational opportunities for the project, as well as the geographic benefits specific to the Lompoc Valley, which is home to the country's West Coast launch sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The presenters expanded on some of those same points and asked the City Council to enter into a 12-month exclusive negotiation agreement for the project. That request, which would give this project's leadership team exclusive rights on negotiations for the land during the agreement period, is set to be discussed by the council at a later date that hasn't yet been determined. (3/6)

Registration Opens for Inaugural Commercial Space Studies Program at Florida Tech (Source: Florida Tech)
In its first U.S.-based education partnership, International Space University has joined with the Center for Space Entrepreneurship at Florida Tech to launch an innovative graduate certificate program that will help prepare students and industry professionals for success in the rapidly evolving commercial space industry.

Known as the ISU-CSE Commercial Space Program, the 12-credit, four-course certificate program complements existing master’s degree-level programs in engineering, business and social sciences. Proven industry and academic figures, including NASA experts and private-sector pioneers, will serve as faculty members and lecturers. They will provide students with rigorous, practical training in space finance, policy, management, technology and entrepreneurship. Click here. (3/6) https://newsroom.fit.edu/2019/03/06/registration-opens-for-inaugural-commercial-space-studies-program/

Swiss Helicopter Maker Picks Louisiana for Production Site, Bringing 100-Plus Jobs (Source: Acaniana Advocate)
A Switzerland-based helicopter maker plans to assemble helicopters in Lafayette, employing 120 workers at an average annual salary of $55,000, plus benefits. The announcement was made Tuesday by Andreas Löwenstein, chief executive officer of Kopter Group AG, and Gov. John Bel Edwards. Kopter will lease an 84,700-square-foot facility from the Lafayette Regional Airport, which owns the helicopter assembly building on airport property beside the Evangeline Thruway that had previously housed a Bell Helicopter facility that closed in August.

Editor's Note: Interesting that the average salary is $55K for these new jobs in Louisiana. Similar recent aerospace expansion announcements in Florida came with annual salaries in the $70K range. (3/5)

Everything you Need to Know to sound well-educated about Mars (Source: Telegraph)
Mars has received quite a bit of positive press recently, between The Martian and a handful of upcoming NASA initiatives that will ultimately see our generation as the first to reach and possibly inhabit the red planet. After NASA confirmed evidence of water on Mars, there’s plenty of reason to be excited about the planet’s future, as thousands of applicants evidently were when they signed up to leave their loved ones behind to permanently settle on Mars.

It’s an exciting time to be alive, and science-fiction buffs are watching as technology increasingly validates what was once a distant fantasy. Need to brush up on your Mars knowledge? This infographic from NASA will tell you everything you need to sound well-educated about one of our closest planetary neighbors. (3/6)
Pentagon Plans Increased R&D Funding, For Hypersonics, Space Technology (Source: Bloomberg)
The Pentagon will request a research and development budget of $104 billion, the biggest in the department’s history, boosting spending in space and for hypersonic weapons, according to defense officials. The record request to be included in President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2020 budget on March 11 is about $9 billion more than Congress appropriated for R&D in the current fiscal year.

“Look at things like” hypersonic weapons that can travel as fast as five times the speed of sound or “what we’re going to go do in space,” Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in an interview last week with Bloomberg News. “I think you’ll see much bigger dollars in space.” While Shanahan, a former Boeing Co. executive, declined to discuss the budget specifics, other defense officials confirmed the increase from the $88 billion that had been projected for fiscal 2020 in budget documents last year. (3/5)

There’s Probably Another Planet in Our Solar System (Source: MIT Technology Review)
When it comes to exploring the solar system, astronomers have an embarrassing secret. Despite 400 years of stargazing, they have discovered only two large objects that would have been unknown to the ancients: Uranus in 1781 and Neptune in 1846. That’s not for lack of trying. The possibility of an unknown planet just beyond observational reach has attracted astronomers like moths to a flame. A few have been successful. Several astronomers together discovered Neptune after noticing that the other planets were being gravitationally nudged by an unknown mass.

But the hunt for a so-called Planet X continued until red-faced astronomers realized that the irregularities in Uranus and Neptune’s orbits were observational errors. This came to light only after  the Voyager 2 fly-by of these planets in 1986 and ’87. Other curious observations have also triggered wild goose chases. The discovery of anomalous features in Mercury’s orbit set astronomers searching for a mysterious planet they thought must be causing them, which they named Vulcan. But the search had to be abandoned when Einstein showed that Mercury’s orbital idiosyncrasies were caused by the sun and the way its huge mass warps space-time.

Unperturbed, astronomers have once again picked up the scent. This time the hunt is on for a distant body they call Planet 9. And today, Konstantin Batygin at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a few colleagues lay out the evidence for it that has emerged over the last two decades. The make a persuasive argument that a search is warranted. And they say, “It is likely that if Planet Nine exists, it will be discovered within the coming decade.” (3/5)

Days After Failed Trump-Kim Summit, North Korea Rebuilding Launch Site (Source: New York Times)
North Korea has started rebuilding the facilities it uses to launch satellites into orbit and test engines and other technologies for its intercontinental ballistic missile program, according to American military analysts and South Korean intelligence officials. The revelation comes days after the breakdown of the second summit meeting between the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and President Trump last week in Vietnam. It could be a first sign that North Korea is preparing to end its moratorium on missile tests, which Mr. Trump has claimed as a major diplomatic achievement. (3/5)

Climate Change and Population Growth are Making the World’s Water Woes More Urgent (Source: The Economist)
As it scours the universe for signs of extraterrestrial life, nasa has a motto-cum-mission-statement: “Follow the water”. About 70% of the human body is made up of water, it says, and 70% of Earth’s surface is covered in the stuff. “Water creates an environment that sustains and nurtures plants, animals and humans, making Earth a perfect match for life in general.”

If water is a proxy for life itself, it is perhaps not surprising that worries about the health and availability of supplies here on Earth can take on apocalyptic overtones. A scorching, arid future marked by a fierce, bloody struggle for a few drops of water is a standard theme of dystopian fiction and film-making. This report will examine how close such nightmares are to reality. It will look at the state of the world’s freshwater and at the increasing demands on it, and consider the ways they can be met.

The first thing to recognise is that the 70% figure is largely irrelevant to the debate. The sea it represents is salty, accounting for 97.5% of all the water on Earth. A further 1.75% is frozen, at the poles, in glaciers or in permafrost. So the world has to rely on just 0.75% of the planet’s available water, almost all of which is subterranean groundwater, though it is from the 0.3% on the surface that it draws 59% of its needs. (2/28)

NASA Reassessing Launch Debut Date for SLS (Source: Space News)
A NASA official said Tuesday that the agency is "reassessing" the 2020 date for the first launch of the Space Launch System, suggesting further delays are possible. Jody Singer, director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, said that 2020 remains the official launch readiness date for Exploration Mission (EM) 1, but that NASA is looking at whether that date still works to make sure they are "ready to go fly safely."

A report last October by NASA's Office of Inspector General concluded that NASA was unlikely to launch EM-1 by the middle of 2020 because of issues with the core stage of the rocket. Singer said NASA has been "overcoming challenges" with the rocket but that most of the vehicle, other than the core stage, is largely complete. (3/6)

NASA Preparing 2020 Budget Rollout (Source: NASA)
NASA's fiscal year 2020 budget proposal will be released next week. NASA announced Tuesday that Administrator Jim Bridenstine will formally roll out the budget proposal in a speech at the Kennedy Space Center March 11. The budget was scheduled for release last month but postponed by the five-week partial government shutdown. (3/6)

Dragon Outgassing Impacted Air Quality on ISS (Source: Sputnik)
The ISS crew reported detected elevated levels of isopropyl alcohol in the station after the Crew Dragon spacecraft docked there Sunday. A Russian industry source said the crew detected a "high concentration" of the chemical in the station's air after hatches between the spacecraft and station were opened, suggesting it was contamination from the spacecraft. The crew also noticed an "unusual smell" from the spacecraft, according that source. NASA has not reported any issues with the station or the spacecraft since the docking. (3/6)

ESA and China Plan Space Cooperation (Source: ESA)
The European Space Agency has approved plans to cooperate with China on a space science mission. ESA's Science Program Committee has given approval to proceed into full-scale development of the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, or Smile, mission. Scheduled for launch in 2022, Smile will study the interaction between the solar wind and the Earth's magnetosphere, particularly in the north polar regions of the Earth. China will provide two of Smile's four instruments and the spacecraft bus, while ESA will provide the other two instruments and the launch. (3/5)

Contest Will Put Artwork on New Shepard Flight (Source: Space.com)
The band OK Go is supporting a competition to fly student artworks on a suborbital spaceflight. OK Go is partnering with the Playful Learning Lab at the University of St. Thomas and Cognizant Technology Solutions for the "Art in Space" contest. Students ages 11-18 can submit ideas for art they'd like to perform in weightlessness. Winners will get their art flown on a future Blue Origin New Shepard mission. OK Go says they were inspired to support the contest after producing the video for the song "Upside Down & Inside Out" that involved multiple parabolic flights on a Russian aircraft that provided brief moments of weightlessness. (3/5)

NASA Seeks New Options for Science Instrument on Europa Clipper (Source: NASA)
NASA has decided to replace the current magnetometer on the upcoming Europa Clipper mission with a less complex instrument. The Europa Clipper mission, launching in the 2020s, will be the first dedicated and detailed study of a probable ocean world beyond Earth. Jupiter’s moon Europa, slightly smaller than Earth’s Moon, may host a liquid water ocean under its frozen shell, making it a tantalizing place to search for signs of life.

The mission’s initial planned magnetometer, called Interior Characterization of Europa Using Magnetometry, or ICEMAG, will not fly with the spacecraft because of cost concerns. Instead, NASA will seek options for a simpler version of this instrument. ICEMAG currently is in its preliminary design phase, and its flight hardware hasn’t been built yet.

The instruments on the Europa Clipper mission complement one another. Even without ICEMAG aboard, Europa Clipper’s suite of science instruments can help scientists understand the ocean’s properties and ice shell thickness. With a simpler magnetometer, these objectives are all the more likely to be met. A magnetometer will be useful for observing Europa’s magnetic field, helping scientists confirm the existence of Europa’s ocean, as well as determine its salinity and depth. (3/5)