May 20, 2019

Preparing for the OmegA Rocket (Source: Northrop Grumman)
After assembly, the 12-foot-diameter and 80-foot-long stage rests on supports, wiring spilling from its forward end and leading to data collection points carefully located based on precise measurements. In the remaining days leading up to the static test, currently scheduled for May 30, technicians will finish attaching instrumentation gauges and data recorders that will measure key characteristics such as thrust, vibration and burn rate. Then they will practice conducting the test, running through and repeating each step of the countdown multiple times.

Performing these simulations ensures the team members have all the test systems calibrated and functioning properly. On test day, the entire test bay will roll back to expose the first stage motor attached to three “spacer” segments totaling 177 feet of white casing. When the countdown clock reaches zero, the igniter, housed in the forward segment, will rapidly ignite and pressurize the entire motor. The motor will continue to burn for approximately two minutes, producing more than two million pounds of thrust channeled through a vectorable nozzle. (5/20)

ULA Completes Final Design Review for New Vulcan Centaur Rocket (Source: ULA)
United Launch Alliance leaders and engineers completed an important milestone with the conclusion of the system Critical Design Review (CDR) for the company’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket. The system-level CDR is the final review of the design for the overall rocket. The system CDR was a week-long detailed review of the entire Vulcan Centaur system with the primary focus to verify all of the elements will work properly together as a system. As part of the certification process with the U.S. Air Force, Air Force representatives are included as part of the design review. (5/20)

NASA’s Full Artemis Plan Revealed: 37 Launches and a Lunar Outpost (Source: Ars Technica)
Last week, an updated plan that demonstrated a human landing in 2024, annual sorties to the lunar surface thereafter, and the beginning of a Moon base by 2028, began circulating within the agency. This graphic provides information about each of the major launches needed to construct a small Lunar Gateway, stage elements of a lunar lander there, fly crews to the Moon and back, and conduct refueling missions.

This decade-long plan, which entails 37 launches of private and NASA rockets, as well as a mix of robotic and human landers, culminates with a "Lunar Surface Asset Deployment" in 2028, likely the beginning of a surface outpost for long-duration crew stays. Developed by the agency's senior human spaceflight manager, Bill Gerstenmaier, this plan is everything Pence asked for—an urgent human return, a Moon base, a mix of existing and new contractors.

One thing missing is its cost. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has asked for an additional $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2020 as a down payment to jump-start lander development. But all of the missions in this chart would cost much, much more. Sources continue to tell Ars that the internal, projected cost is $6 billion to $8 billion per year on top of NASA's existing budget of about $20 billion. The plan also misses what is likely another critical element. It is not clear what role there would be on these charts for international partners. Click here. (5/20)

University of Florida Set to Become Home for Air Force Research in Assured Autonomy (Source: Aerotech News)
The Air Force Research Laboratory and the University of Florida kicked off a new university-led Center of Excellence for assured autonomy in contested environments May 13-14 at a meeting in Gainesville. The Air Force is interested in this research area because it needs its autonomous systems to be able to execute high-level mission plans with verifiable assurances despite uncertain adversarial environments.

In these contested environments, the integrity and availability of sensor information and communications are challenged, and key innovations are still needed to make tools that can operate with limited resources and also account for uncertainty and cyber-security.

The COE relies on a $ 6 million Air Force investment that brings together a diverse team of expert researchers to address the broad nature of research relevant to these challenges. The research team comprises a mix of researchers from the University of Florida, Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California Santa Cruz, and the Munitions, Sensors, and Space Vehicles Directorates within AFRL. All have histories of innovation for Department of Defense problems of interest. (5/17)

House Committee Holds Back Space Force Funding (Source: Space News)
House appropriators declined to include funding for the Space Force in its version of a defense appropriations bill. A draft of the report accompanying the bill, to be marked up by the full House Appropriations Committee Tuesday, said it wants the Defense Department to study alternative options to a Space Force. The Pentagon requested $72.4 million in its fiscal year 2020 budget to establish a Space Force headquarters.

House appropriators, though, said they're skeptical about cost estimates from the Pentagon that claim the Space Force will cost only $2 billion over five years. Appropriators say in the draft report that they support Defense Department efforts to advance the military's space capabilities but are not convinced that requires setting up a new military branch. (5/20)

House Committee Gives $22.3 Billion to NASA (Source: Space News)
House appropriators approved a spending bill Friday that provides $22.3 billion for NASA. The commerce, justice and science subcommittee favorably reported the bill on a voice vote, sending it to the full committee for a markup scheduled for Wednesday. Committee members emphasized increased funding in the bill for NASA Earth science programs and technology efforts like nuclear thermal propulsion, but made little direct mention of the amended budget request that sought an additional $1.6 billion for NASA's accelerated lunar return. (5/20)

House Committee Member Supports Expanding Access to SBIR Program (Source: Space News)
The ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee is supporting legislation to make companies backed by venture financing eligible for small business awards. Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said he is concerned innovative small businesses are being barred from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program precisely for being successful as their technologies are attracting private sector investment.

Companies with over 50 percent venture capital ownership are ineligible for SBIR grants, and while there is a process for obtaining waivers to that restriction, the Defense Department hasn't requested one in seven years. Among the companies affected by the restriction is Capella Space, a startup developing a constellation of radar imaging satellites that had an SBIR proposal rejected earlier this year. (5/20)

NASA Urged to Quicken Gateway Procurement (Source: Space News)
Companies argue that NASA needs to move ahead quickly on plans to procure one part of its lunar Gateway. NASA's new plans for a human return to the moon in 2024 call for the development of a "minimal" gateway featuring a power and propulsion element and a second module that would serve as a habitat and docking node. While NASA is reviewing proposals for the power and propulsion unit, it has yet to start the contracting process for the other module. Officials with companies that are studying prototypes of potential habitation modules said last week NASA needs to get that module under contract in the next year in order for it to be ready in time to support a 2024 landing. (5/20)

Japan Considers Gateway Support (Source: Nikkei)
The Japanese government may signal its formal intent to participate on the Gateway this month. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to sign an agreement on lunar exploration when President Trump visits the country next week. That cooperation could include providing modules for later phases of the Gateway and other technologies. The Canadian government announced its intent in February to provide a robotic arm for the Gateway, while Europe is weighing its role. The U.S. and Japan are also expected to sign an agreement regarding sharing of space situational awareness information. (5/20)

ILS Hopes to Keep Proton Competitive (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
International Launch Services hopes that closer cooperation with Roscosmos can make the Proton rocket more competitive. ILS is now owned by Glavkosmos, the arm of Roscosmos responsible for selling Russian space products on the global market. ILS hopes that the change gives it closer access to Roscosmos regarding issues such as pricing and schedules. ILS markets the Proton rocket, which several years ago was one of the mainstays of the commercial launch market but has fallen out of favor. ILS acknowledges it is a "tight market" but that the Proton will remain in service likely through the mid-2020s and remain available for commercial launches. (5/20)

Wisconsin Students Win American Rocketry Challenge (Source: AIA)
Madison West High School of Madison, Wisconsin today took home the top prize at the world’s largest student rocketry competition – The Team America Rocketry Challenge. The students from Madison West will now represent the United States at the International Rocketry Challenge at the Paris International Air Show in June, facing off against teams from France, the UK, and Japan. (5/18)

Lunar South Pole Atlas Is Reference for Mission Planners (Source: Space Daily)
The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), managed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA), has a new online resource available for the Moon's south pole. Given NASA's recent direction to implement Space Policy Directive-1 landing astronauts at the south pole by 2024, the LPI has compiled a series of maps, images, and illustrations designed to provide context and reference for those interested in exploring this area.

The highlight of the new online atlas is a set of 14 topographic maps derived from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) data. Dr. Julie D. Stopar, USRA staff scientist and director of the Regional Planetary Image Facility (RPIF) at the LPI, utilized these data to generate a series of south pole maps that can be used to visualize the terrain near the south pole. (5/20)

NASA Testing Method to Grow Bigger Plants in Space (Source: Space Daily)
In an effort to increase the ability to provide astronauts nutrients on long-duration missions as the agency plans to sustainably return to the Moon and move forward to Mars, the Veg-PONDS-02 experiment is currently underway aboard the International Space Station. The present method of growing plants in space uses seed bags, referred to as pillows, that astronauts push water into with a syringe. Using this method makes it difficult to grow certain types of "pick and eat" crops beyond lettuce varieties.

Crops like tomatoes use a large amount of water, and pillows don't have enough holding capacity to support them. As an alternative to the pillows, 12 passive orbital nutrient delivery system (PONDS) plant growth units are being put through their paces. The PONDS units are less expensive to produce, have more water holding capacity, provide a greater space for root growth and are a completely passive system-meaning PONDS can provide air and water to crops without extra power.

The 21-day experiment is a collaboration between NASA, Techshot, Inc., the Tupperware Brands Corporation, fluids experts at NASA's Glenn Research Center and Mark Weislogel at Portland State University. As a U.S. National Laboratory, the space station provides commercial companies and government agencies with the ability to test the experiment in a microgravity environment. (5/20)

Inside Swamp Works, the NASA Lab Learning to Mine the Moon (Source: WIRED)
For Jason Schuler, a robotics engineer at NASA’s Swamp Works, in Florida, it’s an obsession. He works on machines that can extract, pulverize, mold, analyze, and protect against extraterrestrial dirt. If future lunar explorers are to live off the land, they will need one of Schuler’s machines. Future moon missions could use lunar soil, or regolith, to make rocket fuel or to build useful structures. But that same regolith can also be a real annoyance. It can cause respiratory problems, cling persistently to almost any surface it touches, and render spacecraft unusable.

Swamp Works is one of the few places in the world with an enormous testbed that mimics the conditions on the lunar surface. Inspired by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, the lab responsible for several major aviation breakthroughs, Swamp Works was designed to bring the same agile spirit to NASA. And it’s where Schuler and about a dozen other researchers are prototyping robots to explore and mine the moon. In particular, they’re testing the Regolith Advanced Surface Systems Operations Robot, or Rassor, a four-wheeled contraption about the size of a motorcycle but only a fraction of the weight. Click here. (5/20)

EchoStar Selling Broadcast Business, Including Nine Satellites, to Dish for $800 Million (Source: Space News)
EchoStar Corp. on May 20 agreed to sell its waning broadcast satellite services business to Dish Networks for $800 million, reshaping EchoStar as a company whose primary focus is on internet connectivity. The sale includes nine satellites — half of EchoStar’s fleet when counting leased payloads — plus employees who handled satellite operations, associated properties, and licensing for an orbital slot.

Roughly 90 percent of EchoStar’s broadcast satellite services revenue comes from Dish contracts. EchoStar’s Satellite Services division, which counts broadcast revenue, shrank nearly 10 percent last year to $358 million, and had few avenues for growth, according to EchoStar. The business faced pressure from lower capacity pricing industrywide, compounded by difficulty attracting additional customers, since many saw Dish as a competitor. (5/20)