September 8, 2019

Only 60% Lunar Missions In Last 6 Decades Successful, Says NASA (Source: NDTV)
Lunar missions undertaken in the last 6 decades has had a success rate of 60 percent, NASA has said. On Saturday morning, the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO) attempt at a soft-landing on the moon did not go as planned, with the ground control losing communication with Chandrayaan 2's lander Vikram during its final descent. ISRO officials said the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter is functional and will remain working for a year or more.

It was just last year that Israel's lunar mission - Beresheet - crash-landed on the moon in April. From 1958 to 2019, India as well as the US, the USSR (now Russia), Japan, the European Union, China and Israel launched different lunar missions - from orbiters, landers and flybys. The first mission to the moon was planned by the US in August 17, 1958, but the launch of Pioneer spacecraft was unsuccessful. The first successful mission to the moon was Luna 1 by the USSR on January 4, 1959. It was also the first moon flyby mission. The success came only in the sixth mission. (9/7)

An Astronaut is Urging NASA to Form a New Spacesuit Program Now if it Hopes to Get Back to the Moon in 2024 (Source: Business Insider)
NASA, you have a spacesuit problem. That was the crux of a message delivered on Friday by Sandra "Sandy" Magnus, a seasoned former astronaut, during an official meeting of spaceflight safety experts in Texas, on Friday. Magnus brought up the issue on behalf of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP). The group operates independently and is tasked with "evaluating NASA's safety performance and advising the Agency on ways to improve that performance."

Right now, NASA's only operational EVA spacesuits are aboard the ISS. They're each about 40 years old. The panel previously reported that NASA is struggling to upgrade the suits, let alone maintain them. "The problem does not lie simply in the fact that the suits are old; the fact that manufacturers of several critical suit components, including the very fabric of the suits, have now gone out of business," ASAP wrote in April. This in part led to the cancellation in March of what was supposed to be the first all-female spacewalk. (9/7)

European Space Agency Teams Up with NASA for Mission to Deflect Dangerous Earth-bound Asteroids (Source: EuroNews)
Researchers and spacecraft engineers are set to meet in Rome next week to discuss a common goal of how to deflect dangerous, Earth-bound asteroids. The ambitious, double-spacecraft mission, known as the Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA), will see experts from the US space agency, NASA, and the European Space Agency (ESA) come together. “It is vital that Europe plays a leading role in AIDA, an innovative mission originally developed through ESA research back in 2003, said Ian Carnelli from ESA.

"An international effort is the appropriate way forward – planetary defence is in everyone’s interest,” he added. Researchers are looking into the viability of diverting an asteroid by crashing a spacecraft into its surface, to see whether the technique is a viable method of planetary defence. In their sights is one of two double Didymos asteroids between Earth and Mars, which they aim to deflect the orbit of using the impact of one spacecraft. A second observer craft will survey the crash site and gather data on the effect of the collision. (9/5)

Are We All Wrong About Black Holes? (Source: Quantum)
Modern researchers insist that any candidate for a theory of quantum gravity must explain how the laws of black hole thermodynamics arise from microscopic gravity, and in particular, why the entropy-to-area connection happens. And few question the truth of the connection between black hole thermodynamics and ordinary thermodynamics.

But what if the connection between the two really is little more than a rough analogy, with little physical reality? What would that mean for the past decades of work in string theory, loop quantum gravity, and beyond? Craig Callender, a philosopher of science at the University of California, San Diego, argues that the notorious laws of black hole thermodynamics may be nothing more than a useful analogy stretched too far. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Click here. (9/5)

UAE Wants to Train More Astronauts for Arab World (Source: Sputnik)
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plan to train more astronauts for the Arab world, Yousuf Hamad Al Shaibani, the director general of the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), said on Monday. He was speaking on the occasion of the end of UAE future spacemen's examination training in Russia's Gagarin State Scientific Research and Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC). (9/4)

US Sanctions Iran's Space Agency, Space Research Center Days After Failed Satellite Launch (Source: Sputnik)
Iran stated on 29 August that a rocket had exploded at its Imam Khomeini Space Center due to a malfunction during testing, rejecting claims that the incident had been "manipulated" from outside. The US has imposed sanctions on the Iranian Space Agency, Space Research Center, and Astronautics Research Institute, the US Treasury said in a statement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has stated that Iran's space and research agencies were sanctioned for "engaging in proliferation-sensitive activities". He also stated that this is the first time that the US sanctions Iran's civilian space agency for activities advancing the ballistic missile program. The statement comes just days after Washington imposed sanctions on five people and five entities allegedly involved in two covert networks that supply Iran's missile program. (9/4)

Study Tests Performance of Electric Solid Propellant (Source: Space Daily)
Electric solid propellants are being explored for use in dual-mode rocket engines because they aren't susceptible to ignite from a spark or flame and can be turned on and off electrically. Researchers from the University of Illinois, Missouri University of Science and Technology, and NASA conducted experiments to understand the behavior of a high-performance electric propellant compared with a traditional propellant. "What we focused on is studying these types of propellants for electric propulsion systems--so, not the fire, smoke, and combustion you see in chemical rocket engines but for in-space electric pulsed plasma thrusters," said Joshua Rovey. (9/4)