November 23, 2019

ULA Delta II Rocket Now Slated to Arrive at KSC Visitor Complex in 2020 (Source: Florida Today)
Immediately after a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket launched on its last mission from California last year, the aerospace company had a surprise announcement: using leftover components, a full version of the rocket would soon join the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Originally slated to arrive at the Visitor Complex for display by September of this year, ULA confirmed to FLORIDA TODAY last week that the rocket is being assembled but won't appear in the "garden" until next year.

"We are excited to be working on the final Delta II for display at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, as it is the perfect location for this historic rocket," ULA said in a statement. "The Delta II is in the process of being assembled for its new home at the Visitor Complex." If all goes according to plan, the turquoise-and-white, 132-foot-tall vehicle will arrive sometime in 2020. (11/22)

Physicists Have Finally Seen Traces of a Long-Sought Particle. Here's Why That's a Big Deal (Source: Live Science)
Scientists have finally found traces of the axion, an elusive particle that rarely interacts with normal matter. The axion was first predicted over 40 years ago but has never been seen until now. Scientists have suggested that dark matter, the invisible matter that permeates our universe, may be made of axions. But rather than finding a dark matter axion deep in outer space, researchers have discovered mathematical signatures of an axion in an exotic material here on Earth.

The newly discovered axion isn't quite a particle as we normally think of it: It acts as a wave of electrons in a supercooled material known as a semimetal. But the discovery could be the first step in addressing one of the major unsolved problems in particle physics. The axion is a candidate for dark matter, since, just like dark matter, it can't really interact with regular matter. This aloofness also makes the axion, if it exists, extremely difficult to detect. This strange particle could also help solve a long-standing conundrum in physics known  as "the strong CP problem." For some reason, the laws of physics seem to act the same on particles and their antimatter partners, even when their spatial coordinates are inverted. (11/22)

Brevard County Commission Honors Boeing Starliner Team for its Work on New Spacecraft (Source: Florida Today)
The Boeing Co. and its Starliner team were honored with a resolution from the Brevard County Commission. Commissioners cited Boeing for its work in developing what they called the first commercial spacecraft ever built in Brevard County — the Boeing CST-100 Starliner — which will transport astronauts to space in a reusable vehicle and return them to Earth.

"Starliner is designed to serve NASA astronauts and civilian passengers for transportation to the International Space Station, as well as other destinations in low-Earth orbit," the resolution read. "Starliner is making history, launching from Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to the International Space Station for an uncrewed Orbital Flight Test, followed by a Crew Flight Test led by Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson and crewed by NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Michael Fincke." (11/21)

FCC Announcement Unlikely To Be the Final Decision About C-Band Spectrum (Source: Space News)
The announcement this week by the head of the Federal Communications Commission that he will seek a public action of satellite C-band spectrum is unlikely to be the final word in that debate, industry officials believe.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced Nov. 18 that he will propose the commission conduct a public auction of 280 megahertz of C-band spectrum currently allocated for satellite communications for use by terrestrial 5G services. Such an auction, he wrote in a letter to members of Congress, “will afford all parties a fair opportunity to compete for this 5G spectrum, while preserving the availability of the upper 200 megahertz of this band for the continued delivery of programming.” (11/22)

Air Force to Revise Selection Criteria for Launch Procurement in Wake of Blue Origin’s Successful Protest (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force will change the criteria for evaluating launch providers that have submitted proposals for the National Security Space Launch program, the Air Force’s senior acquisition executive Will Roper announced Nov. 21. The evaluation criteria was one of a series of objections raised by Blue Origin in a pre-award protest filed Aug. 12 with the Government Accountability Office. GAO on Nov. 18 announced it sided with Blue Origin in that the basis for award set by the Air Force is “inconsistent with applicable procurement law and regulation, and otherwise unreasonable.”

In a request for proposals (RFP) issued May 3, the Air Force said it would make two awards by picking two independently developed proposals that, “when combined,” offered the best value to the government. Roper said the “when combined” clause will be removed in accordance with what GAO recommended. (11/21)

A Million People on Mars May Not Be Wishful Thinking (Source: Air & Space)
A sustainable, self-sufficient population of one million people can be achieved on Mars within 100 years, according to a new modeling study published by Kevin Cannon and Daniel Britt, both at the University of Central Florida. Their study drew on a plan sketched out by Elon Musk of SpaceX, which begins with about 12 people landing on Mars, followed by multiple ships carrying 100 to 200 passengers at every launch opportunity, roughly every 26 months. The population growth is envisioned to be sustained both by immigration and by births on Mars.

Based on Cannon’s and Britt’s analysis, four of the five major “consumables” necessary for a Martian settlement—energy, water, oxygen, and construction material—can be extracted from the Martian surface in economically practical concentrations. Only food is not obtainable from raw materials on Mars. So, how to solve the food problem? The authors suggest growing plants, insect farming, and cellular agriculture. Click here. (11/5)