May 16, 2019

Disney: Epcot’s Space-Themed Restaurant Will Open This Year (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Walt Disney World visitors will be eating at Epcot’s space-themed restaurant in the near future, the company says. The experience, featuring virtual views above Earth, will be operating by the end of 2019, according to a post on the official Disney Parks Blog. The restaurant was initially announced in summer 2017. There has been no announcement about its name. And, so far, few details have shared about its menu or price point. It has “developed a menu that features internationally inspired cuisine, more than 1,000 bottles of the world’s finest wines and a wide selection of craft beer." (5/16)

It’s Hard for Women to Be Hired, Promoted or Taken Seriously in the National Security Establishment (Source: New York Times)
For women, people of color and transgender people, sexism, discrimination and harassment are often barriers to being hired, promoted or taken seriously in the national security bureaucracy — overseas and at home. While the numbers have improved in the Foreign Service, where women hold about 40 percent of all officer jobs, and the State Department, where 40 percent of the senior posts are held by women, they hold only 20 percent of senior civilian jobs at the Pentagon.

Women are particularly underrepresented in senior positions dealing with nuclear issues, according to a study by New America, part of a growing effort involving various groups and individuals to make the fields more welcoming to women. Part of the problem is the discipline itself, the study found. Policies involving the building, deployment, targeting and use of nuclear weapons have long been the province of an insular, innovation-averse group of men. (5/15)

University of Hawaii Satellite Chosen for NASA Space Mission (Source: Space Daily)
A satellite designed and developed by researchers and engineers at the University of Hawai'i (UH) at Manoa is among 16 small research satellites from 10 states that NASA has selected to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard space missions planned to launch in the next three years. In August 2018, the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) in the UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) received $3.9M from NASA in support of a two-year project to develop the Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI) CubeSat. (5/16)

Embry-Riddle Students Construct and Hot Fire Liquid Rocket Engine (Source: ERAU)
Mission accomplished! Composed of seven Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University engineering students, Team Tiber Designs has successfully fired the Prescott campus’ first liquid rocket engine inside a brand new test facility as part of their senior capstone project in the College of Engineering. The project was named Janus and Testcell 3.

“Hot firing for the first time was literally the greatest accomplishment of my life,” added Kurtz. “We went from the conex box being delivered to successfully hot firing Embry-Riddle’s first liquid rocket engine in exactly 90 days.” Although this group of team members are graduating, the project is set for a new team of students to continue forward. The next step is to qualify the engine for flight with a 10-second hot fire. (5/15)

NASA Awards Florida Researchers $1.7M Grant to Develop Tools to Help Water Utilities Allocate Resources (Source: FSU)
Researchers from Florida State University, in partnership with a network of scientists and stakeholders from throughout the state, have been awarded a $1.7 million grant from NASA to develop cutting-edge climate prediction tools that could benefit Florida water supply utilities. FSU climate experts and their collaborators will use NASA Earth Science satellite and modeling products to provide actionable, localized climate information to regional water utilities in order to aid them as they make critical decisions about water resource allocation.

These new tools will provide improved insight into climate’s effect on systems and operations essential to state water utilities, such as the flow of rivers and streams and the storage and recovery of water in aquifers. University of Florida Water Institute affiliate faculty will spearhead the initiative. Professor of Meteorology Vasu Misra will lead FSU’s efforts on the project, “Integrating NASA Earth Systems Data into Decision-Making Tools of Member Utilities of the Florida Water and Climate Alliance.” (5/15)

Mayo Clinic Aerospace Medicine Experts Look Ahead 50 Years After Apollo 11 (Source: Mayo Clinic)
"Historically, Mayo Clinic has been closely involved in aerospace medicine," says Jan Stepanek, M.D., director of Aerospace Medicine at Mayo Clinic's Arizona campus. "Former Mayo staff members set up the first testing of the seminal astronaut corps, and Mayo researchers did a lot of work for the moon and space shuttle missions. … Our involvement goes back to the beginning of the U.S. space program and continues to the present day."

The growth of commercial spaceflight has opened the door to new research and opportunities for space medicine. Alejandro Rabinstein, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic's Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit, is among Mayo researchers working with NASA to learn more about the effects of extended space travel such as a long trip to Mars, on the human body. Dr. Rabinstein has been investigating the feasibility of putting astronauts into a hypothermic torpor for extended space travel, which could limit metabolic demands on the body and make the trip more psychologically tolerable.

Among other Mayo aerospace research underway is a stem cell study that has been aboard the International Space Station since December 2018. Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic specialist in transfusion medicine and regenerative medicine, says that Mayo Clinic and NASA hope to learn more about the long-term effects of cosmic radiation on humans in space. The study will remain in orbit for about a year. Dr. Zubair led a previous stem cell study that was aboard the Space Station for a month in 2017. That experiment investigated the genetic effects of extended time in space and the findings will report on chromosomal changes and the impact on DNA. (5/15)

Musk Says SpaceX Starlink Internet Satellites are Key to Funding His Mars Vision (Source: CNBC)
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained on Wednesday how the company’s Starlink satellite network will serve as the company’s key money-maker, unlocking his vision of sending astronauts to Mars. For the first time, Musk spoke to the network’s timeline and gave details about how the company’s satellites work. Musk also confirmed that SpaceX has the capital required to complete the project’s first major phase.

Starlink represents the company’s ambitious plan to build an interconnected internet satellite network, also known as a “constellation,” to beam high-speed internet to anywhere on the planet. The full Starlink network would consist of 11,943 satellites flying close to the planet, closer than the International Space Station, in what is known as low Earth orbit. “We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships,” Musk said. “We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship.” (5/15)

Lunar Goldrush: Can Mining the Moon Become Big Business? (Source: Telegraph)
Amid the recent boom in extraterrestrial exploration, a new frontier for private companies and space agencies appears to have emerged: mining the moon for precious resources. Once thought to be a beautiful but largely barren rock, the moon is now believed by some to be a treasure trove of rich materials that could play a vital role in the Earth’s future.

For instance, space agencies hoping to mine the moon say oxygen in its regolith – or lunar soil – could be used to power life support and fuel rockets in space, while rare metals could be ferried back to Earth to be used in everything from gadgets to construction. What has got the industry most excited, however, is the Helium-3 isotope that is blanketing the lunar surface. (5/16)

Ted Cruz Warns Space Force is Needed to Battle Space Pirates (Source: Yahoo News)
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, issued a dire warning about space pirates Wednesday in support of appropriations to fund Space Force, President Trump’s proposed off-planet expansion of the U.S. military. “Since the ancient Greeks first put to sea, nations have recognized the necessity of naval forces and maintaining a superior capability to protect waterborne travel and commerce from bad actors,” said Cruz, adding, “Pirates threaten the open seas, and the same is possible in space. In this same way, I believe we too must now recognize the necessity of a Space Force to defend the nation and to protect space commerce and civil space exploration.” (5/15)

Baseball League Ballparks to Honor Apollo 11 (Source: CollectSPACE)
The National Air and Space Museum and Major League Baseball are teaming up to mark the Apollo 11 50th anniversary. Full-sized replica statues of Neil Armstrong's spacesuit will go display next month in 15 major league ballparks, based on a 3D-scan of the suit performed by the museum as part of a recent restoration. One team, the Washington Nationals, is planning an "Apollo Night" during a game in July. (5/15)

Musk Provides Tech Details for Starlink Satellites (Source: Space News)
Musk said SpaceX views 1,000 satellites as the point when Starlink becomes economically viable. Limited service could begin with as little as 420 satellites, or seven launches, with 12 Starlink launches enough to ensure coverage of the United States. Musk said each launch will deploy a terabit of "usable capacity," far more than existing geostationary satellites. The Starlink satellites will communicate with ground terminals the size of a "small to medium pizza" using phased-array antennas, but he did not disclose the cost of those terminals. (5/15)

Senators Debate Space Traffic Management Roles (Source: Space News)
At a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee, members debated which agency — the Commerce Department or the FAA — should take the lead in civil space traffic management work, although witnesses agreed that the Air Force should be relieved of its current responsibility in providing space situational awareness information to satellite operators. (5/15)

ESA Funds Ariane 6 Upper Stage Prototype (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency has agreed to fund development of a prototype of a next-generation upper stage for the Ariane 6. ESA awarded contracts this week to ArianeGroup and MT Aerospace to develop Prototype of a Highly Optimized Black Upper Stage (PHOEBUS), an upper stage made of lightweight carbon composite materials. That could lead to development of an upper stage for the Ariane 6 called Icarus intended to increase the rocket's payload capacity. Icarus could be ready by the mid-2020s if fully funded at the ESA ministerial meeting later this year. (5/16)

Japanese Probe Aborts Asteroid Marker Drop (Source: Jiji Press)
Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft aborted a maneuver Thursday to drop a target marker in a crater on the asteroid Ryugu. The spacecraft was descending towards a crater that it created with an explosive device last month, but automatically aborted the descent at an altitude of 50 meters without dropping the marker. The cause of the aborted maneuver wasn't reported. The marker is intended to help the spacecraft target the crater in a later maneuver where it would descend to the surface to collect material excavated by it. (5/16)

Iceye Inks SAR Imagery Deal with Asia Pacific Satellite (Source: Space News)
Iceye has an agreement with a South Korean company to deliver synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. Under the memorandum of understanding with Asia Pacific Satellite Inc., Iceye will provide SAR images from its planned constellation of smallsats, which will be used by government and commercial customers in the country. Iceye launched its second satellite, Iceye-X2, last December and expects to have up to five more satellites in orbit by the end of this year. (5/16)

A "Dense Bullet of Something" Blasted Holes in the Milky Way (Source: Futurism)
Scientists say that something mysterious punched gigantic, cosmic “bullet holes” in parts of the Milky Way. There’s a string of holes in a long stream of stars called GD-1 that suggests that some yet-undiscovered thing blasted its way through, according to research presented last month. Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Ana Bonaca, the scientist who discovered the cosmic crime scene, suspects that the gigantic “bullet holes” may have been carved out by invisible dark matter.

Unfortunately, the culprit of this celestial shooting seems to have gotten away with it — Bonaca told Live Science that there’s no evidence at the crime scene beyond the size of the gaps in the stellar stream. “We can’t map [the impactor] to any luminous object that we have observed,” Bonaca told Live Science. “It’s much more massive than a star… Something like a million times the mass of the Sun. So there are just no stars of that mass. We can rule that out. And if it were a black hole, it would be a supermassive black hole of the kind we find at the center of our own galaxy.” (5/16)

Space Coast Symphony Honors Space Achievements (Source: Florida Today)
The Space Coast Symphony Orchestra closed its 10th Anniversary season by reaching for the stars with the multi-media “Cosmic Trilogy” concert. To celebrate the achievements of NASA, conductor and artistic director Aaron T. Collins conducted the orchestra in a program reprising highlights from the innovative film trilogy and partnership with NASA that began seven years ago with The Planets, Earth Odyssey, and most recently, The Cosmos. The Symphony program featured images of far distant galaxies, nebulae and other astronomical wonders as the audience was treated to selections from Holst's epic The Planets, Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, and Dvorak's popular New World Symphony. (5/15)