October 21, 2019

UAE Unveils National Space Strategy 2030 And National Space Investment Plan (Source: SpaceWatch Global)
The UAE Space Agency, UAESA, has announced the details of its National Space Strategy 2030 and National Space Investment Plan, complementing the regulatory and legislative framework of the UAE’s national space sector and in line with the strategic objectives of the Agency. The announcement was made during an official ceremony held in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.

During the ceremony, the UAE Space Agency shared details of its National Space Strategy, recently approved by the UAE Cabinet, chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The strategy aims to enhance the space sector’s contribution to the national economy and promote the UAE’s regional and international presence in the space sector.

It also strives to support the transition to a knowledge-based economy, create an effective regulatory environment, attract talent and develop human capacity, stimulate creativity among young people, as well as develop partnerships with industrial, educational, and research institutions while increasing international collaboration. (10/20)

Space Agencies Endorse Continued Cooperation in Lunar Exploration (Source: Space News)
Leaders of several national space agencies endorsed continued cooperation in space exploration, including missions to the moon, and said that effort should not come into conflict with separate work to address climate change. Speaking at a panel of agency leaders during the 70th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 21, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he expected more countries to join the agency’s return to the moon after commitments made earlier this year by Canada and last week by Japan. (10/21)

Could Chinese Astronauts Beat NASA Back to the Moon? (Source: Motley Fool)
NASA wants to return mankind to the moon by 2024. To do so, it'll need help from its "Space Launch System" (or SLS) contractors Boeing and Northrop Grumman, Aerojet Rocketdyne, and especially Lockheed Martin, which is building the Orion space capsule. Blue Origin and SpaceX -- two companies that are sometimes NASA partners, sometimes NASA rivals -- want to put boots on the lunar ground as well. And now comes a third entrant into this latest space race to get back to the moon: China.

China is actively working to develop its own "next-generation" spacecraft for human spaceflight between worlds. Following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union (and later Russia) and the United States, China became the third terrestrial nation to put astronauts in space when "taikonaut" Yang Liwei orbited Earth in Shenzou-5 in 2003. Now the state-owned China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) is building an even bigger 30-foot long, 22-ton yet-to-be-named spacecraft capable of carrying anywhere from four to six taikonauts on a voyage to the moon.

China plans to launch its new spacecraft on an unmanned test flight sometime in the first half of next year, flying atop a Long March 5B heavy-lift rocket. China says that to get the spacecraft the rest of the way to its destination, it first needs to develop a more powerful rocket -- the super-heavy-lift "Long March 9." For this reason, the country is targeting a crewed mission to the moon only sometime "in the 2030s" (although some Chinese sources have suggested earlier dates). (10/21)

Why Isn't Germany Taking Over the Moon? (Source: DW)
At a recent gathering in Berlin of space technology businesses the mood was upbeat. Yet while astronaut Matthias Maurer was stealing the show and beguiling schoolchildren and adults alike, there were important issues floating through the air. The biggest question wasn't about colonizing Mars, sending millionaire tourists to the moon or even mining it for minerals. The biggest question of all was: Why isn't tech wonderland Germany at the head of the space race?

Besides giants Airbus and OHB in Bremen, there are a lot of smaller companies and startups looking toward the stars throughout Germany. Standing above all these private companies is the European Space Agency (ESA), an organization made up of 22 member countries with a total budget of €5.72 billion ($6.39 billion) for 2019.

After France, the German government is its second-biggest cash contributor. For this money, Berlin was able to get two prizes: ESA Mission Control in Darmstadt and the astronaut training center in Cologne. This may sound like a big win, but they came at a steep price. Germany's contribution to ESA this year alone was €927 million. (10/21)

Australia Space is About to Get a Funding Boost But There Are Ethical Questions to Consider (Source: ABC.net.au)
There has been a lot of hype around space. Last year, the Federal Government announced the creation of a new Australian Space Agency (ASA), while the United States President, Donald Trump, has committed NASA to a five-year plan to go back to the moon and push on to Mars. To do that, Mr Trump wanted to increase the agency's $US20-billion budget for 2020 by $US1.6 billion, and Scott Morrison has pledged $150 million to secure Australian involvement in the project.

But the deadline has led some of the industry's most prominent supporters — including astronaut Andy Thomas — to express concerns. "Unrealistic schedule expectations can be very dangerous in the spaceflight business and we know that from experience," Dr Thomas told ABC Radio Adelaide last month. Climate change has also caused some to rethink human involvement in space. "Let's be clear. If we had the same enthusiasm and the same budget available for the technologies to solve some of the problems we have now, we'd probably be able to do it," said renewable energy advocate Giles Parkinson.

Mr Parkinson said he was not opposed to space exploration, but he questioned levels of investment at a time when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted dangerous warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius within decades. "The other thing that disturbs me is this idea that space travel might be our saviour," Mr Parkinson said. "It seems to be loading the dice and taking enormous risks to think that if we stuff this planet up, because of global warning and other environmental impacts, then we can all live happily on another planet." (10/18)

Aldrin Shares Latest Moonshot Vision: No To NASA’s Gateway, But Yes to China (Source: GeekWire)
Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin says there’s no need for the lunar-orbiting Gateway outpost that plays a key role in NASA’s vision to land astronauts on the moon by 2024. Instead, he envisions a differently configured transportation system that makes use of commercial rockets under the leadership of a “Space Exploration Alliance” that includes China as well as NASA’s current partners.

“I’m not a big fan of the Gateway,” Aldrin said today during a panel discussion presented by the International Academy of Astronautics in conjunction with this week’s International Astronautical Congress in Washington. “I do not believe we need a permanent structure around the moon.” Aldrin sided with critics who say the Gateway’s benefits as a way station for moon-bound astronauts are outweighed by its limitations and its multibillion-dollar cost. (10/20)

Getting Water From Waste In Space (Source: Forbes)
Crewmembers on the Space Station use a Water Recovery System to recycle their urine, condensation from cabin humidity and wastewater to reuse it as their clean drinking water. Without this process, 15,000 pounds of water and other consumables would need to be launched from Earth every year to support the six crewmembers living on the Station.

The Water Recovery System uses a low-pressure vacuum distillation process to recover water from urine. This occurs inside a rotating distillation assembly, which compensates for the absence of gravity and aids in the separation of liquids and gases in space. The water that’s recovered from the urine gets combined with all the other wastewater from hand washing and showering and all of that gets delivered to the Water Processor for treatment.

Before the crew can use the water that’s been recovered, it has to meet stringent purity standards. The Water Processor removes gas and solid materials such as hair and lint. Then a series of multi-filtration beds purify the water even further. Finally, a high-temperature catalytic reactor assembly removes the remaining organic contaminants and microorganisms. (10/21)

Quintillion, ATLAS Space Operations Expand Strategic Data Infrastructure in Arctic (Source: Parabolic Arc)
Quintillion Networks and ATLAS Space Operations today announced plans for North America’s highest latitude ground station, to be located 250 miles inside of the Arctic Circle in Utqiagvik, Alaska. Upon its completion in the first quarter of 2020, the new Quintillion-ATLAS 3.7 meter ground station will be put to use immediately by U.S. Government and commercial customers. By utilizing Quintillion’s existing fiber optic infrastructure, ATLAS adds this valuable and geographically diverse site to its growing global FREEDOM network to provide greater data access from space. (10/20)

Here’s Why Women May Be the Best Suited for Spaceflight (Source: National Geographic)
Physically and mentally, women have the right stuff for expeditions into deep space. So why send male astronauts at all? Before you raise an eyebrow at the prospect, remember that NASA recruited and flew only all-male crews for decades. In fact, in the 58 years that Earthlings have launched humans into orbit, about 11 percent of them—63 individuals—have been women. Women are generally smaller, suffer less from some problematic physical effects of spaceflight, and have some personality traits more innately suited for long-duration missions.

First, the weight advantage. Sending lighter humans into space is just plain smart because rocketing weight into space, and maneuvering once you’re there, requires fuel, which costs money. Sending six smaller women into space for months or years could be significantly less expensive than sending six burly dudes, and lower body weights are just a small part of it. Men seem to be less affected by space motion sickness but quicker to experience diminished hearing. Women appear to have a higher incidence of urinary tract infections (an issue not unique to spaceflight, as any woman will tell you). More significantly, men tend to have problems with deteriorating vision, which women don’t experience as often or as severely.

While cooped up in a cramped spaceship for months or years, how well would an all-female crew get along? In the few studies that have been done to identify factors in long-duration missions’ success or failure, scientists observed teams that experienced stressful Earth analogs such as desert survival treks, polar expeditions, and Antarctic winter-overs. They found that men tend to excel in shorter-term, goal-oriented situations, while women are better in longer-​term, habitation-type circumstances. “Women are acculturated to have a lot of those skills to begin with.” That doesn’t mean men can’t get along well on long-duration space missions; it just means that the traits crucial for success on those missions are more typically associated with women. (07/2019)

UC Berkeley Was About to Launch a Satellite. Then PG&E Said It Was Cutting Power (Source: WIRED)
Last Monday, just as the workday was winding down, Paula Milano received a phone call that threw her week into chaos. Milano, who helps run the Space Sciences Laboratory at UC Berkeley, had been gearing up for a satellite launch. But on the phone now was a friend of hers, with bad news: PG&E, the power company, was warning the school that its electricity could be cut Wednesday—making the campus one of more than 700,000 customers that would suffer the same fate.

The outage was a precautionary measure to keep forecasted high winds from jostling electrical equipment and starting the next massive wildfire. And it fell to this friend, who manages several buildings on campus, to piece together a plan for the coming plunge into darkness. Surely Milano’s lab could go without power for a while, right? “And I was like bleeeh—no man, no way,” she says. “We're launching a satellite on Wednesday.”

This Berkeley lab, which designed and built the satellite, needed to oversee the deployment of the instrument itself. It would be running mission control for the satellite from afar—assuming they had electricity. “If a scrub of the mission happens because of Berkeley, that's a huge black eye for us, and it's a huge public black eye for NASA,” Milano says. The good news was that the university runs its own cogeneration plant, or cogen, which could provide some of the campus’ buildings with power in the event of an outage. But Milano and Beckwith had no way of knowing for sure if it would offer a steady source of electricity. (10/15)

Space Traffic Controller Not A Job, But An Adventure (Source: Space Daily)
In the not-too-distant future an international regulatory and enforcement agency may be looking for Space Traffic Controllers to fill hundreds of positions for well-trained professionals. It is likely that these positions will be located in an international metropolis such as Washington, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Rome or Moscow. Applicants must pass a rigorous training program including many hours in class and in simulators. They will probably be required to have prior training in spacecraft dynamics and orbital mechanics.

In a fashion similar to that of air traffic controllers, space traffic controllers may not actually control spacecraft movements. Instead, they may oversee assigned segment of the low-earth orbital zone. Their main responsibility will be to detect and report possible conjunctions between pairs of operating spacecraft and between spacecraft and debris. Once detected, Conjunction Alerts would be sent to the appropriate satellite operators who are then responsible for taking evasive actions.

Today, most spacecraft are not easily maneuverable or unable to maneuver in response to Conjunction Alerts. However, once Space Traffic Management Regulations are internationally accepted by all space-faring nations, all satellites may be required to carry transponders and a minimum set of equipment enabling them to respond to Conjunction Alerts. Furthermore, all satellite operators may be required to receive licensing for approved orbital "slots" from the appropriate international agency. Of course, all this assumes that all space-faring nations can agree on a set of Space Traffic Management regulations and enforcement procedures. (10/18)

Virgin Galactic to Go Public Soon, Plans to Launch Space Tourism Internationally (Source: Space Daily)
Space tourism company Virgin Galactic is a subsidiary of the Virgin Group involved in developing commercial spacecraft and offering commercial trips to space as well as missions for scientific research. The trips will begin in New Mexico, but Virgin's founder Richard Branson has said he wishes to see the company rapidly expand internationally.

Virgin Galactic, Virgin's space tourism project, may be close to listing its shares publicly once its regular flights begin, billionaire founder Richard Branson told CNBC on Wednesday. "It's not long now" until Virgin Galactic lists, Branson said during an unveiling of the company's spacewear collection with Under Armour. Branson also confirmed that he will retain his majority stake once the company lists and has no intention of selling his shares. "I will retain control of the company," Branson said. "I will keep roughly 51%." (10/18)