March 7, 2019

A Woman's Place in Aerospace (Source: Brit.co)
When NASA was preparing to send the first American woman into space, the agency's men had a few pressing questions. Specifically, what would happen when Sally Ride got a visit from Aunt Flo in low-earth orbit? (Theories ranged from "nothing" to "possible death.") Would a hundred tampons be enough to get her through the week? Women have been flying in space since the 1960s, when Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova spent nearly three days in orbit in June 1963. But space-faring women didn't really get off the ground until NASA opened its doors to women in the late 1970s. Since Sally Ride's historic 1983 space mission, 46 American women — and 15 more from other countries, including Great Britain, India, Israel, and Canada — have all orbited. Click here. (3/7)

Bezos on Mars: Musk Should Live on Mount Everest for a Year (Source: Insider)
During a recent talk, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, expanded on his grand vision of settling space. But in doing so, he pooh-poohed the goal of perhaps his biggest rival, the SpaceX founder Elon Musk, of settling people on Mars. "We have sent robotic probes now to every planet in this solar system, and this is the best one," Bezos said of Earth. "My friends who want to move to Mars? I say do me a favor: Go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first and see if you like it, because it's a garden paradise compared to Mars."

"The solar system can support a trillion humans," Bezos said. "Then we'd have 1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins. Think how incredible and dynamic that civilization will be." He acknowledged that that scenario is, of course, a long way off. But he said it's why he founded Blue Origin: The company's immediate goal is to develop reusable rockets, including a system called New Glenn, to dramatically reduce the cost of accessing space. Such future launch systems could establish a robust and relatively cheap "transportation network" in Earth orbit, Bezos said. (3/6)

Look Inside Lockheed Martin's Finished Prototype of Where Astronauts May Live in Deep Space (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The beds are built into the walls, the tables fold down and a robotic arm looms about the cabin. Like an RV in space, the module that astronauts may one day call their home very far away from home is closer to becoming a reality. At Kennedy Space Center, Lockheed Martin has finalized its version of what a deep space astronaut habitat could look like, with four beds, a greenhouse, space for computers and space for science. It’s tight — 13 feet wide and about 8 feet across inside, about the size of a van — and cylindrical, with just enough room for four astronauts to one day float around inside.

Lockheed’s design for the habitat is one of five in production under NASA’s NextSTEP contract, which also partnered with Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Space Systems, Orbital ATK and Bigelow Aerospace for a combined $65 million to design deep space lunar habitats. Texas-based NanoRacks is also part of the contract and working on repurposing the spent upper stage of rockets. The modules may one day be part of the space agency’s planned lunar version of International Space Station called the Gateway.

The Gateway would be less than a sixth of the size of the ISS and orbit the moon instead, serving as a base for lunar exploration and a jumping-off point for missions to Mars and beyond. Like the ISS, it’ll be put together in pieces, with habitats like the ones the contractors are working on being crucial parts of the entire ecosystem. Click here. (3/7)

Rocket Lab Targets Late March for Next Electron Launch (Source: Space News)
Rocket Lab is now targeting the second half of March for its first Electron launch of the year. The company said Wednesday it plans to launch the Radiofrequency Risk Reduction Deployment Demonstration, or R3D2, satellite for DARPA between March 16 and 30 from its New Zealand launch site. The launch was scheduled for late February but delayed because the prime contractor for R3D2, Northrop Grumman, needed additional time to complete verification and validation work for the spacecraft. Rocket Lab has previously stated it plans to carry out 12 launches in 2019, including at least one from a new launch site under construction in Virginia. (3/6)

Another Hubble Problem Fixed (Source: NASA)
A Hubble Space Telescope instrument is back in service after suffering a problem last week. NASA said the Advanced Camera for Surveys returned to its normal operational mode Wednesday, nearly a week after it was taken offline when its computer system failed to boot up normally. Engineers carried out a series of tests and found no further errors, indicating that the incident was a one-time anomaly. (3/6)

CubeSats Could Fill Space Weather Gaps (Source: Space News)
Small satellites may play a key role in avoiding gaps in space weather data. Many of the instruments the U.S. relies on to monitor solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other phenomena that pose a threat to satellites in orbit and technology on the ground are well beyond their anticipated life spans, and could fail before replacements are launched. Some researchers argue that cubesats and other smallsats could help fill in certain gaps, particularly for missions that can be carried out in Earth orbit. (3/6)

Exos Launches SARGE From Spaceport America, Missing 80 Kilometer Target (Source: Space News)
Exos Aerospace said the second flight of its SARGE reusable sounding rocket was a success despite failing to reach its planned altitude. The rocket, launched Saturday from Spaceport America in New Mexico, flew to an altitude of about 20 kilometers before gliding back to land about a kilometer from the launch site. The launch, carrying several small research payloads, had planned to go to an altitude of 80 kilometers, but gusty winds pushed the rocket outside of a safety circle intended to protect other facilities at the spaceport, triggering an early shutdown of the engine. (3/6)

France Helps India with Human Spaceflight (Source: PTI)
The French space agency CNES will help India on its human spaceflight program. A team from the Indian space agency ISRO will travel to France for training in microgravity research and space medicine to assist India's Gaganyaan program for flying people into space by 2022. The two countries also signed an agreement to develop satellites for maritime surveillance in the Indian Ocean. (3/6)

Russia and Luxembourg Discuss Space Resources (Source: TASS)
Russia will hold talks with Luxembourg about a space research agreement that could extend to space resources. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said discussions about an agreement started in January and that formal talks will begin in the "immediate future." Luxembourg has been a leader in space resources, passing legislation that grants companies operating in the country the rights to resources they extract from celestial bodies. Golikova noted that such regulations were lacking in Russia, but it wasn't clear if they would be part of the negotiations with Luxembourg for the space research agreement. (3/7)

Toyota, Japan Space Agency Plan Lunar Mission (Source: AFP)
Toyota is teaming up with Japan's space agency on a planned mission to the Moon, with the Japanese auto giant expected to develop a lunar rover. It will be the car manufacturer's first full-fledged entry into space exploration, after the company jointly developed a small robot sent to the International Space Station. Details will be announced by JAXA and Toyota Tuesday next week when the space agency hosts a symposium in Tokyo. (3/7)

Confronting The High Costs Of Space Observatories (Source: Aviation Week)
Following up on the legacy of NASA’s aging Great Observatories may depend on breaking a cost spiral that has already delayed successors like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and threatened the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) with outright cancellation. The competition for funding promises to increase as the space agency rallies the U.S. commercial sector and global partners to make a sustained return to the Moon, or possibly in response to a politically driven shift in national priorities.

There is likely no single solution or “silver bullet” capable of halting  or slowing the cost spiral, says Lee Feinberg, who has served as the optical telescope element manager for JWST at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center since 2002. Prior to that, Feinberg worked on science instrument development for the Hubble Space Telescope. Rather, effective cost control will likely require a handful of strategies that Feinberg outlined before a virtual Feb. 27 Future in Space Operations seminar entitled, “Breaking the Cost Curve: Applying Lessons Learned from the James Webb Space Telescope Development.” (3/5)

NASA Captures First Air-to-Air Images of Supersonic Shockwave Interaction in Flight (Source: NASA)
NASA has successfully tested an advanced air-to-air photographic technology in flight, capturing the first-ever images of the interaction of shockwaves from two supersonic aircraft in flight. The images were captured during the fourth phase of Air-to-Air Background Oriented Schlieren flights, or AirBOS, which took place at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

The flight series saw successful testing of an upgraded imaging system capable of capturing high-quality images of shockwaves, rapid pressure changes which are produced when an aircraft flies faster than the speed of sound, or supersonic. Shockwaves produced by aircraft merge together as they travel through the atmosphere and are responsible for what is heard on the ground as a sonic boom.

One of the greatest challenges of the flight series was timing. In order to acquire the image, NASA flew a B-200, outfitted with an updated imaging system, at around 30,000 feet while the pair of T-38s were required to not only remain in formation, but to fly at supersonic speeds at the precise moment they were directly beneath the B-200. The images were captured as a result of all three aircraft being in the exact right place at the exact right time designated by NASA’s operations team. (3/6)