August 28, 2019

India Adjusts Lunar Probe's Orbit (Source: PTI)
India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is continuing to adjust its orbit around the moon. During a 20-minute maneuver early Wednesday, the spacecraft moved into an orbit that takes it between 179 and 1,412 kilometers above the moon. Chandrayaan-2's next maneuver is scheduled for Friday, about a week before the spacecraft's lander attempts to touch down in the south polar regions of the moon. (8/28)

Water as Propellant for In-Space Maneuvers (Source: Space News)
Using water to propel satellites is a technology picking up steam. Several companies are working on thrusters that use water, either heated into steam or broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, for spacecraft propulsion systems. One advantage of using water as propellant is that it can be easily flown on satellites without the handling challenges of alternatives like hydrazine. Water-propelled spacecraft could also eventually be refueled using water obtained from the moon or other solar system bodies. (8/28)

X-37B Military Spaceplane Breaks 179 Day Record in Space (Source: Washington Post)
The X-37B has set a new record for its longest spaceflight. The uncrewed military spaceplane this week broke the record of 719 days set on its previous mission, which ended in 2017. The Air Force has not disclosed how long the X-37B will remain in orbit on this mission, or what the vehicle is doing beyond testing a suite of technologies. (8/28)

Russia Offers Soyuz Seat for Turkish Cosmonaut (Source: TASS)
Russia has offered to fly a Turkish cosmonaut to the ISS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accepted the offer made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit the two made to the MAKS 2019 air show in Russia Tuesday. The cosmonaut would fly to the station in 2023, on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Turkish republic. (8/28)

Tennessee Woman, NASA Battling Over Moon Dust Gift Given by Neil Armstrong (Source: FOX17 Nashville)
A Coffee County woman says she has a gift from Astronaut Neil Armstrong, but NASA will not acknowledge what it is. In a lawsuit, Laura Cicco is trying to settle ownership and a title to a vial containing dust from the surface of the moon. This is a struggle because NASA claims private people cannot own lunar material.

Cicco’s dad, Thomas Murray was a pilot. “My father knew many, many important people,” says Cicco. According to flight logs that Cicco has, Murray would even fly with Neil Armstrong. “I used to sit on the stairs and listen to my parents entertain,” says Cicco. She says Armstrong gave a vial of dust to her family as a gift back when she was a 10-year-old. “I know what is in there, what I believe the story that was told to me. Again, I cannot legally say what it is, because I could go to federal prison,” says Cicco.

A few years ago, an elderly woman was trying to sell lunar material when a NASA agent seized what they called contraband from her while posing as a buyer. “I don’t want my children to have to look over their shoulders,” says Cicco. She worries a seizure could happen anytime and there’s no statute of limitations. Cicco says her whole quest is to get NASA to recognize what this is, so she can donate it to a museum. She wants children have a chance to learn about space and aviation from her experiences. (8/26)

India Space Chief Defends Spending on Space Programs (Source: India Today)
In an apparent rebuttal to those questioning Indias space program in the face of its battle against poverty, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman K. Sivan on Monday the country was doing well economically and its resources should be used for the benefit of common man. Today, opportunities are many and people are thinking that India is poor. And why the space technology is required for a poor country like India? Do you think India is poor? India is not at all poor, he said.

Indias economy was seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power, he said in his address at the convocation of ceremony of the Jain Deemed-to-be University here. "...we are number one in remote sensing satellite, we are the second largest producer of wheat, and the second largest producer of rice. Our IT industry is enviable in the world, the ISRO chief said. The scientist said today every moment of our life was one way or other connected with space technology. (8/27)

DoT, Fearing China/Russia Threats, Tests GPS ‘Back-Ups’ (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Transportation Department (DoT) has begun organizing field demos of technologies to provide back-up in case the Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS) goes dark, says DoT’s General Counsel Steven Bradbury. Bradbury explained that under Security Policy Directive 39 (issued in 2004), DoT is in charge of all civil GPS uses. It is also co-chair of the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT ExCom) with the Defense Department.

“Through this PNT ExCom,” Bradbury explained last week, “we’re working closely with DHS  [Department of Homeland Security] and other federal departments and agencies to address policy and technical issues including the security and resilience of GPS receivers... In light of the critical importance of GPS, DoT has asked for for submissions from technology vendors interested in providing GPS backup technologies, and we’re now organizing field demonstrations of those technologies,” he said.

DoD for years has been worried about the rapid spread and increasing capability, of jamming systems — particularly those of Russia and China. Indeed, Russia has used jamming technologies in conflicts in its neighborhood, and stands accused by several Nordic nations of using jamming to disrupt a NATO exercise in Norway in 2018. The Air Force is working on a number of initiatives to figure out how to better protect GPS and to make it more resilient in the event of an attack on the space-based system. (8/27)

They Once Worked at NASA. Now They Make Card Games. (Source: Washingtonian)
As aerospace engineers at NASA, Kristin and Andy Looney spent years working on VLSI computer chips, telemetry processing systems, and other high-tech tasks. But if you’re more into hobby shops than you are the Hubble telescope, you might know the couple for a different contribution: the card game Fluxx, which has sold more than 3 million copies since they debuted it in 1997.

Analog gaming had initially just been a fun pastime for the pair, who met at NASA in 1986. After they went from playing games to creating them, however, things started to get more serious. Andy invented a tabletop game called Icehouse, but it was hard to find a manufacturer, so they came up with a card game. The hook was that its rules constantly changed—in other words, were in flux. Fluxx quickly found an avid audience. “Our first fans were geeks, scientists, code monkeys,” Kristin says. There was something addictive about it, a quality the Looneys simply refer to as “magic.” (8/26)

Boca Chica Operations Show Spaceport Camden is Dangerous (Source: Spaceport Facts)
The FAA reviewed SpaceX’s recent problems with fires at Boca Chica. Those recent incidents indicated that SpaceX’s activities there are more dangerous than they originally expected. SpaceX sought a 656-foot maximum altitude for the test. After performing a hazard analysis for the proposed launch, the FAA only allowed 492-feet. The FAA also raised the third-party liability insurance requirement from $3 million to $100 million, because the risk calculations identified a risk envelope large enough to harm non-involved public like those living behind the launch site in Boca Chica.

Possibly, the revised risk zone extended to homes 5 miles to the north and northwest on South Padre Island and at Port Isabel. Instead of launching in front of private homes, rockets from Spaceport Camden will launch OVER them. Instead of launching near public parks and wildlife areas, rockets from Spaceport Camden will launch OVER them. Instead of launching on a trajectory where no people live, work, or play, rockets from Spaceport Camden will launch OVER them.

SpaceX can afford the cost of a $100 million liability policy for a rocket test that goes up 492 feet. Is it realistic to think that the startup launchers envisioned as users of Spaceport Camden -- if they develop launchable rockets -- will justify launching at Spaceport Camden where the insurance will be significantly more expensive than at any other spaceport? A worse-case will be if Camden allows experimental testing at the Union Carbide site irrespective of whether a spaceport site license is awarded. SpaceX pulled it off today, but on other days they've had explosions. (8/27)

USF’s Innovation Enterprise Infuses $582 Million Yearly into Florida’s Economy (Source: USF)
The economic impact of the University of South Florida’s innovation efforts have grown at a rapid pace, increasing by more than 45% over the last three years to $582 million annually, according to a new analysis by the Washington Economics Group. While the new analysis focuses solely on innovation, the USF System’s overall annual economic impact is measured at $4.4 billion. USF’s innovation enterprise sustains more than 4,000 public and private sector jobs (an increase of 35% from 2016), and returns more than $71 million in tax revenue to local, state and federal coffers (an increase of 37% since 2016). (8/27)

New Delhi in Talks With Moscow Over Rocket Engines for Indian Space Program (Source: Sputnik)
New Delhi and Moscow are negotiating the organisation of the India-based production of semi-cryogenic rocket engines using Russian technology for the South Asian country's space program, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan said. "Russia is offering its semi-cryogenic rocket engine technology to India under the 'Make-in-India' programme. The rocket engines could be made in India and used in our rockets", Sivan said. According to the official, this issue is currently under discussion, and no specific agreements have been reached yet. (8/27)

5 Reasons Why NASA’s 2024 Moon Landing Looks Unlikely (Source: MIT Technology Review)
The odds that NASA can accomplish its huge task in five years are looking longer and longer with each passing week. Back in March, Vice President Mike Pence made a surprise announcement: the government was directing NASA to put astronauts back on the moon within five years. This 2024 deadline was always going to be difficult to hit, but it has since morphed into an extremely unlikely scenario for the agency and its partners. Serious issues plague the program and its 2024 hopes.  Some of these obstacles are recent, while others have persisted since Donald Trump took office.

Artemis’s biggest problem is money—or a lack of it. The Trump administration began the year requesting $22.6 billion for NASA’s 2020 budget, which now includes an additional $1.6 billion request. Many experts believe that this budget, even with the extra bump, isn’t enough to accelerate Artemis's timetable. Budget issues have also created uncertainty around the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System. Development delays hit both pieces, and the first Orion mission (now called Artemis 1) will likely now be in 2021. NASA has faced endless criticism over how much wasted spending has gone into SLS, especially when cheaper launch systems have started to take off.

We've barely started on Gateway and a lunar lander. At best, by 2024, it will be only a bare-bones station from which astronauts could take a lander module down to the lunar surface. Many have called into question how useful Gateway will be—former NASA administrator Michael Griffin and Buzz Aldrin are two of the biggest names opposed to it. And NASA has no real plan for building and testing a lunar lander. The agency is turning to the commercial industry for one, which makes sense in this case. Asking a private company to build and test a lunar lander that needs to safely ferry astronauts in less than five years is a big ask. Much of the frustration directed toward a 2024 mission is simply because we don’t really know what the mission is for. (8/27)

NASA Activates Deep Space Atomic Clock (Source: NASA JPL)
An atomic clock that could pave the way for autonomous deep space travel was successfully activated last week and is ready to begin its year-long tech demo, the mission team confirmed on Friday, Aug. 23, 2019. Launched in June, NASA's Deep Space Atomic Clock is a critical step toward enabling spacecraft to safely navigate themselves in deep space rather than rely on the time-consuming process of receiving directions from Earth.

Developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the clock is the first timekeeper stable enough to map a spacecraft's trajectory in deep space while being small enough to fly onboard the spacecraft. A more stable clock can operate farther from Earth, where it needs to work well for longer periods than satellites closer to home. (8/26)

NASA Ames' Computer Powerhouse Gets a Major Upgrade (Source: Mountain View Voice
To fuel a future mission to the moon and someday Mars, NASA is facing a near insatiable demand for more computing power. On any given day, the NASA Ames's main supercomputer, with its 250,000 processors, is churning away at complex models to inspect a constellation of research. Its computer simulators test every inch of spaceship fuselage while also modeling global oceanic patterns and scanning distant star systems for signs of planets.

As many as 1,500 separate research projects and simulations are running simultaneously through NASA supercomputing nervous system, and that demand for data is expected to continue rising at a rapid pace. But like any large data center, keeping the lights on at NASA's supercomputing facility has been an ongoing challenge. The cost to power and cool thousands of computer nodes is immense, today requiring about 5 million gallons of water a day and about 6 megawatts of electricity, roughly the equivalent of 6,000 households.

Now NASA officials say they've figured out a new way to dramatically reduce those costs. In a successful new prototype, space agency officials say they have found a way to build smaller "modular" supercomputing hubs that can harness the natural winds coming off the bay shoreline. The move represents a break away from the traditional design of pooling ever-larger numbers of CPUs in tightly controlled facilities. NASA officials described the new modular processing units as being like "plug and play" add-ons that will easily allow them to scale up as technology advances and their needs for number-crunching increases. (8/26)

Emirati Women Lead UAE Space Aspirations (Source: Gulf Today)
Emirati woman make up 45 per cent of the UAE's space sector workforce, which reaffirms the government's commitment to encourage a more diverse career path for Emirati women, said Dr Mohamed Nasser Al Ahbabi, Director-General of the Emirates Space Agency (ESA). On Emirati Women's Day, which is observed on Aug.28, 2019, Al Ahbabi said that Emirati women also have a "strong presence" in the global space sector, are involved in the manufacturing of satellites and are contributing to research developments in the field - one which is gaining global interest due to its mission to serve humanity and the future of the world.

He pointed out that young Emirati women are actively partaking in the UAE's space programme, which is in line with the leadership's goal to empower women in all sectors and achieve gender balance. The UAE space sector has the highest female employment rates in the world, compared to international entities which have an average of 12 per cent female staff. (8/26)

SpaceX Launches Starhopper Prototype on ~15 Meter Hop at Texas Site (Source: Space News)
SpaceX's Starhopper vehicle performed its highest, and final, test flight Tuesday. The vehicle, an early prototype of SpaceX's next-generation Starship system, took off from a pad at the company's South Texas test site shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern, landing on another pad a short distance away nearly a minute later. The vehicle was planned to fly to an altitude of 150 meters, but the company did not immediately disclose the vehicle's peak altitude. The test will be the last flight for Starhopper, as the company moves on to "Starship Mark 1" prototypes under construction that could be ready for initial flights later this year. (8/28)

Dragon Spacecraft Departs Space Station, Splashes Down in Pacific (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft returned to Earth from the International Space Station Tuesday. The station's robotic arm released the Dragon spacecraft at 10:59 a.m. Eastern and, after departing the vicinity of the station, the Dragon reentered, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Long Beach, California, at 4:21 p.m. Eastern. The Dragon, launched to the ISS a month ago on the CRS-18 mission, returned more than 1,500 kilograms of experiments and other cargo. (8/28)

NASA Could Save $1 Billion By Removing Europa Clipper From SLS Manifest (Source: Space News)
NASA's inspector general is asking Congress to remove a requirement in law that the agency launch the Europa Clipper mission on the Space Launch System. In a seven-page letter Tuesday to Senate appropriators, Inspector General Paul Martin said that NASA could save up to $1 billion by launching Europa Clipper on a commercial vehicle. He noted that, while the fiscal year 2019 appropriations act requires NASA to launch Europa Clipper by 2023 on an SLS, the earliest an SLS will be available for the mission is 2025 because of requirements to use SLS for the Artemis program. Although the House version of a 2020 spending bill retains the SLS requirement for Europa Clipper, the Senate has yet to draft its version of the bill. (8/28)

European Mars Rover Assembled (Source: BBC)
Assembly of a European Mars rover is now complete. Airbus marked the completion of the Rosalind Franklin rover Tuesday at a factory in the United Kingdom where the vehicle was assembled. The rover will soon go to France for testing and later integration with the ExoMars 2020 spacecraft. The 300-kilogram rover is equipped with a drill designed to penetrate up to two meters into the surface to look for signs of microbial life. (8/28)

Germany Plans "Mini Launcher" for Small Satellites (Source: Bloomberg)
OHB plans to develop a small launch vehicle. The German aerospace company says it is working on a "mini launcher" for small satellites, with a goal of a first launch in late 2021. The company didn't disclose the projected launch price of the vehicle or its payload capacity. (8/28)