September 12, 2019

What is Space-Time? The True Origins of the Fabric of Reality (Source: New Scientist)
Let's say you want to meet a friend for coffee. You have to tell them where you are going to be – your location in space – but you also need to let them know when. Both bits of information are necessary because we live in a four-dimensional continuum: three-dimensional space and everything within it, from steaming coffee machines to stars exploding in faraway galaxies, all happening at different moments of one-dimensional time.

“Space-time” is simply the physical universe inside which we and everything else exists. And yet, even after millennia living in it, we still don’t know what space-time actually is. Physicists have strived to work it out for more than a century. In recent years, many of us have been trying to figure out what might be the threads from which the fabric of reality is woven. We have ideas, each with its own selling points and shortcomings. But for my money, the most exciting one is the most surprising.

It is the idea that space-time emerges from a weird property of the quantum world that means particles and fields, those fundamental constituents of nature, can be connected even if they are at opposite ends of the universe. If that is correct, we might finally have found a bridge between the two irreconcilable totems of physics, placing us on the threshold of a theory of quantum gravity. We would also have the most startling demonstration yet that the world we see isn’t the world as it is. (9/12)

Mysterious Object From Interstellar Space ‘Approaching Our Solar System’ (Source: The Sun)
A mysterious object from deep space is fizzing towards the Solar System – and scientists have no idea what it is. Dubbed "C/2019 Q4", the high-speed body appears to be on a path originating from another star system that will see it fire past Mars in October. That would make it only the second interstellar visitor ever known to have reached the Solar System. The first, a cigar-shaped object called Oumuamua, careened past Earth in 2017. (9/12)

Pixxel Picks Soyuz-2 Rocket to Launch Demo Satellite (Source: GK Launch Services)
Pixxel has signed a launch contract with GK Launch Services for its first tech demo mission to be launched in Q2-Q3 2020 from Baikonur on GK-operated Soyuz-2 mission. The contract was arranged with the support of Precious Payload’s launch booking platform. Pixxel is an Indian space startup building a constellation of earth imaging satellites to provide global coverage every 24 hours. The startup is the only Asian participant in the Techstars Starbust Space Accelerator where it is working with JPL NASA, US Air Force, Lockheed Martin, SAIC and IAI among other space stalwarts. (9/12)

Smallsat Launch Services Feel Pricing Pressure (Source: Space News)
Companies that provide both dedicated and rideshare launch services for small satellites say that price remains a major factor for their customers, with pressure from growing competition to lower them. Companies working on many of the dozens of small launch vehicles currently under development have argued that the flexibility they provide, including giving smallsat operators control over when to launch and to what orbit, is worth the higher price such vehicles have over rideshare services, where smallsats are secondary payloads on larger rockets.

“We are a key part of a business plan for our customers, and that’s really the way launch needs to be looked at,” said Dan Hart, president and chief executive of Virgin Orbit, during a panel at Euroconsult’s World Satellite Business Week here Sept. 11. Virgin Orbit is developing an air-launched small rocket, LauncherOne, that Hart said should make its first orbital launch attempt in the middle of this fall.

Hart argued that the smallsat community has matured in recent years into businesses where price alone is not the only factor in selecting a launch provider. “The question is always, what is the capability and what is the total value of a launch in that business plan,” he said. “What we’re seeing is that the flexibility, the ability to get to the right orbit on time, which schedule assurance, and being focused upon as a customer, are really important equities to this now-growing community.” (9/12)

Made In Space to Step Up Off-Earth Production of Valuable Optical Fiber (Source: Space.com)
Off-Earth production of the valuable optical fiber ZBLAN will soon reach Phase 2, if all goes according to plan. California-based company Made In Space has already produced ZBLAN in orbit on four separate occasions, using a microwave-size machine that traveled to and from the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX Dragon cargo capsules. The results of these early tests were promising, Made In Space representatives said, so the company intends to ratchet things up. (9/11)

Putin Rebukes Officials Over Space Delays (Source: Space Daily)
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday gave a dressing down to space officials on a visit to Russia's long-delayed and corruption-tainted cosmodrome in the Far East. The Vostochny cosmodrome was originally supposed to be running manned launches from last year but the grand project has been consistently behind schedule. At a meeting with the head of the country's space agency Dmitry Rogozin and others, Putin asked for details on how close the spaceport is to completion.

"I expect a more responsible attitude from you and a dynamic pace when organizing work," Putin said in televised comments. "All the infrastructure being built on the ground here must meet the latest demands and standards to ensure launches of our advanced rocket systems," the president said. The cosmodrome in the Amur region is one of Russia's most important space projects, designed to reduce its reliance on the Baikonur launch site it rents from Kazakhstan to ferry astronauts. State television hailed it as "the country's main construction site". Russia hopes the facility will restore its Soviet-era supremacy. (9/6)

To Do Business, Reprogrammable Satellites Now the Requirement for Manufacturers (Source: Space News)
Manufacturers say software-defined satellites that can redesign beams and capacity have shifted from a wish-list feature to a requirement for operators. Satellite operators are still buying multi-ton geostationary satellites at below average rates, but for manufacturers to close even a limited number of sales, so-called “flexible” satellites that can dynamically move capacity around are a must-have. (9/11)

Towering Balloon-Like Structures Discovered Near Center of the Milky Way (Source: Phys.org)
An international team of astronomers, including Northwestern University's Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, has discovered one of the largest structures ever observed in the Milky Way. A newly spotted pair of radio-emitting bubbles reach hundreds of light-years tall, dwarfing all other structures in the central region of the galaxy. The team believes the enormous, hourglass-shaped structure likely is the result of a phenomenally energetic burst that erupted near the Milky Way's supermassive black hole several million years ago. (9/11)

Putin Has Warned of an Arms Race in Space – and We Should All Be Worried (Source: Independent)
Last week Vladimir Putin suggested that a new arms race might be developing between Russia and the United States – one that could spread into outer space. Putin’s comments, made at the Eastern Economic Forum, are just the latest indication that we are entering a new phase in the global space race. The launch of Donald Trump's US Space Command followed a campaign promise in 2018, but the French declaration that it will develop anti-satellite laser weapons took the international space community by complete surprise, marking a notable change in policy.

The announcements demonstrate the same overarching trend: the weaponization of space by powerful states. Space is already a battleground for terrestrial tensions, and these moves clearly stem from a growing competitive mentality and lack of trust between nations – and if we are not careful, they could have disastrous results.  The weaponisation of space has two main frontiers: anti-satellite technologies, which are used to disrupt or block satellite transmissions, and "space-based weapons", which are capable of targeting earth and other objects in orbit. (9/11)

Spaceport Charm Offensive (Source: Cornish Stuff)
The council’s leading Cabinet will be asked next week to approve providing capital and revenue funding for the project for a horizontal launch site from Newquay Airport. Under the plans the spaceport would be used to launch small satellites into orbit and has received backing from Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit firm. Earlier this year a £20m funding package was announced which would include £12m from Cornwall Council, £7.85m from the UK Space Agency and £2.5m from Virgin Orbit. (9/11)

NMSU and Spaceport America to Announce STEM Partnership (Source: KFOX14)
Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University will host a reception celebrating Spaceport America's new home in Las Cruces, as well as a new collaborative agreement between NMSU and Spaceport America. Spaceport America, the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport with research, testing, leasing, educational and commercial assets and New Mexico State University the state's land-grant and space-grant university that aims to serve the diverse needs of the state through comprehensive programs in education, research, extension and outreach, and public service will be partnering to provide advanced opportunities for aerospace and tourism students in New Mexico. (9/11)

NASA Glenn Director Janet Kavandi, a Former Astronaut, Retires (Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer)
NASA Glenn Director Janet Kavandi, a former astronaut who oversaw a growing budget and mission, has announced her retirement from NASA, effective Sept. 30. The patent-winning chemist turned astronaut joined NASA Glenn Research Center in 2015 as deputy director and became director the next year. Glenn’s budget climbed from $581 in fiscal 2015 to $850 million for fiscal 2019. (9/11)

Editorial: Is the Senate Ready to Protect American Interests in Space? (Source: The Hill)
Will America get the sixth branch of the military it deserves? The decision now rests with just four senators: Sens. James Inhofe (R-OK), Jack Reed (D-RI), Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT). The stakes are huge both for American national security and the economic destiny of key U.S. states. Space Force is not a partisan issue. The idea, first suggested by the 2001 Rumsfeld Commission, emerged from a bipartisan House in 2017 in response to significant threats to our infrastructure and an ossified and federated bureaucracy incapable of reacting to emerging threats from China and Russia.

America has already lost two years due to political litigation in Congress and Pentagon resistance. The House and Senate have passed different bills so they must be reconciled by a conference committee. Simply put, the House bill does the job, and the Senate version is wholly inadequate to protect American power and interests in space.

The deliberations of the committee are secret, but in this case, accountability for success or failure will be clear: with the president and Pentagon on board and the House fully on board, any failure to establish an independent Space Force in law will rest squarely on the shoulders of the senators on the conference committee. And that’s a dangerous place to be. Nobody wants to be on record as having been the one who “lost space” and enabled a “red moon.” (9/11)