April 11, 2019

Intelsat In-Orbit Satellite Failure Includes Potential Debris Field (Source: Space News)
An Intelsat communications satellite has suffered back-to-back anomalies that have taken it out of service. Intelsat said April 10 that the propulsion system on the three-year-old Intelsat-29e satellite "experienced damage,"  the cause of which it did not identify, resulting in a fuel leak. The Boeing-built satellite was launched in January 2016 by Arianespace.

While attempting to restore services from the satellite, Intelsat said a second problem surfaced that resulted in a loss of communications with the satellite. Commercial space situational awareness company ExoAnalytic Solutions said its network of ground-based telescopes identified debris around Intelsat-29e on April 8. Intelsat-29e is the first of Intelsat's Epic series of high-throughput satellites. (4/11)

Japan's Astroscale to Expand Into US With Debris Removal Venture (Source: Space News)
Astroscale announced Wednesday it has raised $30 million and will open an office in the United States. The Tokyo-based company developing technologies to remove space debris said it added $30 million to a $50 million Series D round the company announced last fall, bringing the total it has raised to date to $132 million. The company says the funding gives it "more runway" as it works to demonstrate its capabilities and identify customers in an emerging, uncertain market. Astroscale will establish a U.S. office in Denver to better position it to win business from American companies and government agencies. (4/10)

Hyten: New DOD Space Development Agency Should Track Hypersonic Missiles (Source: Space News)
The head of U.S. Strategic Command says that the SDA should be given the task of developing satellites to track hypersonic missiles. Gen. John Hyten has been insistent that the Pentagon needs a layer of satellites in lower orbits to track targets much closer to Earth than the existing missile warning constellation that operates from geostationary orbit. Tracking hypersonic missiles, he said, requires global coverage and the most efficient way to get that, he said, is from a large constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit. The job of designing a space sensor layer for hypersonic defense will be assigned to the SDA, which has special authorities to acquire and test technologies with less red tape than traditional programs. (4/11)

DARPA Picks Three Companies for Quick-Response Launch Effort, Potentially From Florida (Source: National Defense)
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chose three competitors for a challenge prize that will ask small launch providers to send payloads to orbit and rapidly turn around and repeat the feat. Virgin Orbit’s subsidiary VOX Space, Vector Launch and a third entrant that is choosing to remain anonymous for the time being are vying for more than $27 million in prize money, DARPA’s Program Manager for the Launch Challenge Todd Master said during a briefing at the Space Symposium April 10.

Competitors will have 30 days to prepare for a launch from a site they may not be familiar with and integrate a payload with which they are also unfamiliar. They will then be asked to repeat the process from a second site within two weeks. Each of the three contestants received $400,000 for making it into the final competition. Making it to the final three required the teams to obtain a Federal Aviation Administration launch license, which is a stringent process. The $400,000 is meant to offset the cost needed to obtain the FAA license, Master said.

None of the three teams have ever reached orbit. VOX Space will take off from a runway and employ Virgin Orbit’s plane-launched system. The other two will use vertical launch systems, Master said. The teams will receive $2 million for the first successful launch. The first prize for those who can complete the second launch is $10 million, second place $9 million and third is $8 million. Editor's Note: The Cape Canaveral Spaceport and the Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville are among the potential launch sites for these new rockets. (4/10)

Air Force "Pitch Day" Offers Quick Funding for New Space Tech Ideas (Source: Space News)
The Air Force will offer technology development contracts on the spot at a "pitch day" even this fall focused on space. The upcoming "Space Pitch Day" would be the Air Force's second live pitch event following the inaugural one in New York City in March, where in one day 51 small businesses were awarded $8 million worth for contracts and were paid instantly by swiping a government credit card. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, said the Air Force wants to narrow the focus to space, and it is especially interested in technologies "that we didn't even know we needed." The Air Force is hoping candidates cover a wide range of space technologies, including satellites and small rockets. (4/11)

Arabsat CEO: Falcon Heavy Gives Our Satellite Extra Life (Source: Space News)
Arabsat chose SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket to launch its newest satellite in order to give the satellite a longer lifespan, said Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat’s chief executive. Arabsat chose the Falcon Heavy in order to extend the lifespan of the Arabsat-6A satellite beyond the 15 years a geostationary communications satellite is typically designed to last. “We needed more lifetime for the satellite, so we had the option: Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy, and we decided to go with Falcon Heavy,” he said.

Arabsat-6A is a large satellite, weighing 6,460-kilograms. Balkheyour said preliminary calculations show the satellite will get an extra boost from Falcon Heavy that should extend its life to between 18 and 20 years. Arabsat-6A is just the second to use Lockheed Martin’s modernized LM2100 satellite platform, which features over two dozen upgrades, including new avionics, flexible solar arrays and a reprogrammable mission processor. (4/11)

Space Investment Reaches New Record of $3.2 Billion (Source: Space News)
A new report concluded that space investment hit a record high of more than $3.2 billion in 2018. That total, exceeding the $3 billion recorded in 2016, came without a single deal larger than $1 billion, the report published by Bryce Space and Technology this week noted. The report found growth in both the amount of venture capital investment and the number of investors, especially outside the United States. Bryce expects investment will continue to grow in 2019, driven in large part by the development of broadband satellite megaconstellations. (4/11)

Vector Sues Lockheed Martin for Patent Infringement (Source: Space News)
Vector says it only reluctantly filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Lockheed Martin. Vector filed a complaint April 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging Lockheed Martin infringed on three patents related to GalacticSky, Vector's software-defined satellite technology. Vector co-founder Shaun Coleman said his company isn't eager to spend millions on litigation but was forced into doing so to protect its intellectual property. Lockheed Martin announced last month SmartSat, its own software-defined satellite project, and declined to comment on the suit. (4/11)

ESA-Russian Probe Fails to Detect Methane on Mars (Source: Nature)
The ESA-Russian Trace Gas Orbiter has failed to detect traces of a key gas in the Martian atmosphere. Initial results from the mission, published this week, indicated the spacecraft could not detect any methane in the atmosphere of Mars. That result surprised scientists given that other spacecraft, including the Curiosity rover and the Mars Express orbiter, have detected traces of methane, a gas that could have biological or geological origins. In one case last June, the Trace Gas Orbiter detected no methane at the same time that Curiosity detected it at concentrations 10 times above the threshold of detection for the orbiter. (4/11)

Alien Life Could Thrive On Four Earth-like Planets Close To The Solar System (Source: Forbes)
Alien life could be evolving right now on some of the nearest exoplanets to our solar system, claim scientists at Cornell University. Their proof is you. It's been presumed that the high levels of radiation known to be bombarding many of the rocky Earth-like exoplanets discovered so far by astronomers precludes life, but that theory is turned on its head by new research.

The researchers say that all of life on Earth today evolved from creatures that thrived during an era of much higher levels of UV radiation assault. So why not life on alien worlds? It also poses another question: does the evolution of life actually require high levels of radiation? They found that even for planet models with thin, unprotective atmospheres and those with ozone-poor atmospheres, surface UV radiation remains below early Earth levels, even during flares for the red dwarf stars they orbit. So any, or all, of them could support life. (4/11)

What Spy-Satellite Companies Can Teach NASA About Climate Change (Source: The Atlantic)
The sky has filled with eyes, and NASA is starting to notice. Over the past several years, venture-funded start-ups have hurled hundreds of inexpensive satellites into orbit. For-profit companies have used smartphone technology to make compact satellites that look down at Earth and monitor its every oceanic gurgle, erupting volcano, or forest conflagration. Hundreds of these satellites might gaze down at the same time; they are organized in what are called (rather poetically) “constellations.”

NASA has now taken heed of these new arrangements. Earlier this year, it asked 36 scientists to figure out whether imagery and data from three satellite companies could be put to serious scientific use. On Thursday, the San Francisco–based start-up Planet announced that it is one of the three companies participating in the pilot program.

Among NASA’s goals: Decide whether data from the three satellite companies can be used to create a dashboard of what are called “essential climate variables.” These core clues to planetary health—which include figures tracking the size of leaves, the health of Arctic permafrost, and the extent of groundwater reservoirs—could function as a kind of early-warning system for environmental upheaval. (4/11)

The First Detailed Study of How Mice Behave in Space Reveals Strange, Coordinated Zooming (Source: Gizmodo)
New research based on experiments done on the International Space Station shows that mice adapt quickly to microgravity conditions. Unexpectedly, however, some of the mice began to exhibit a rather curious circling behavior, zipping around the walls of their metal cage with reckless abandon. New research published today in Scientific Reports is providing the most comprehensive analysis to date on the behavior of mice in space. Studies of mice in space have been done before, including experiments done on the Space Shuttle, but the primary point of those efforts was to assess the viability of working with mice in microgravity. (4/11)

Prepare to Jump to Light Speed: Inside the Mission to Go Interstellar (Source: New Scientist)
The furthest tendrils of human activity, Voyagers 1 and 2, which launched in 1977 and are only now reaching the outer edge of the solar system, would be overtaken by this time tomorrow by an object flying at the speed of light. But getting to Proxima Centauri, our solar system’s nearest star, would take it four years and three months. It is a velocity well beyond our reach. The quickest we could currently get to Proxima Centauri, using our fastest rockets, is 80,000 years. Small wonder interstellar travel hasn’t been much of a priority. But what if we could get to the Proxima system in 20 years?

At a highly publicized press conference in 2016, a team claimed to have assembled the scientific know-how to make a mission to Proxima Centauri not only possible, but doable within our lifetimes. Breakthrough Starshot, backed by a Silicon Valley billionaire and tapping into NASA expertise, provoked mostly cautious enthusiasm. Three years later, with a better sense of the challenges and published research to support the team’s optimism, the plans are gathering speed. If they succeed, we could be a decade or two away from embarking on the most ambitious mission of all time, and discovering the truth about a solar system different from our own. (4/11)