November 3, 2019

Sizing Up the Contenders for NASA’s Lunar-Lander Program (Source: Ars Technica)
For the first time in a dog's age, NASA's human spaceflight program seems to be in a hurry. Although few in the aerospace industry expect the agency to meet its 2024 goal of landing humans on the South Pole of the Moon, this deadline has nonetheless spurred the space agency to move quickly with contracts on offer for a lunar space station, spacesuits, Moon cargo delivery, and more.

And then there is the space agency's grand prize. At the end of September, NASA asked industry to bid for large contracts—which eventually will be worth at least several billion dollars—to build a "human landing system" that will take astronauts from lunar orbit down to the Moon's surface. There is a lot to digest in these documents, which entail three-dozen attachments and several amendments. But now the time has nearly expired—the deadline for companies to respond is November 5. Click here. (11/1)

NASA, NOAA, FAA Space Office Appropriations Take Step Forward, But Not Defense (Source: Space Policy Online)
The Senate passed a package of appropriations bills including those that fund NASA, NOAA and the FAA’s space office. While there is no guarantee they will be finalized before the Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on No. 21, it is a positive development in the FY2020 funding saga  The Senate version of H.R. 3055 passed 84-9. The package of bills, or “minibus,” encompasses the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill, which funds NASA and NOAA (including the Office of Space Commerce); the Transportation-HUD bill that includes the FAA and its Office of Commercial Space Transportation; and two others.

 The House passed a package with those four bills plus one more (Military Construction-Veterans Affairs) in June. Milcon-VA bill is not in the Senate minibus, but the two chambers can now proceed to conference on the other four. The House and Senate have quite different views on a number of NASA activities though they are in sync in rejecting Trump Administration proposals to terminate several science programs and NASA’s STEM Engagement projects.

 That is not to say that getting a final deal will happen before the CR expires on November 21. The House is in recess next week and the impeachment inquiry will consume much of the chamber’s time when it returns. The FY2020 defense bill did not even get that far.  It is bundled into the Senate version of S. 2740 with three other appropriations bills: Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations, and Energy-Water.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell brought it up for a procedural vote today that required 60 ayes to pass, but the tally was 51-41 and the motion to proceed failed. (10/31)

Mold in Space: NASA Grant to Study Space Station Fungus (Source: UC Boulder)
The International Space Station has a problem with fungus and mold – and the University of Colorado Boulder is sending new research to space to find solutions. It is living and growing in secret aboard the station, hidden behind panels and inside pipes and conduit. It can live on almost any surface, and will slowly consume whatever it touches – plastic, metal, glass. It does not discriminate, and it is a real problem.

BioServe Space Technologies at CU Boulder is investigating potential fixes. The center has been awarded a $750,000 grant by NASA to increase our understanding of the organisms and investigate ways to stop them. On November 2, 2019, Northrop Grumman will launch a cargo resupply mission to ISS with BioServe’s experiments on board. (11/1)

Landlord Nixes Hawaii Spaceport Project on Big Island (Source: Hawaii News Now)
A Hawaii landowner has decided not to go forward with a satellite launch facility that would have been built by an Alaska company. Alaska Aerospace Corp. was in talks to potentially build Pacific Spaceport Complex Hawaii on W.H. Shipman land near Keeau on the Big Island. The company operates a similar satellite launch facility in Kodiak, Alaska. The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Thursday Shipman President Peggy Farias said the landowner ended discussions with Alaska Aerospace after determining the project would not be a suitable use of its land. (11/1)

Billion-Dollar 'Space Port' Business Could be Headed to Maine if State Legislator Has Her Way (Source: News Center Maine)
Tucked away in a corner of the former navy base in Brunswick, bluShift Aerospace is preparing to launch its most powerful rocket engine yet. Powered by biofuel, the engines will eventually launch nanosatellites – or "cube sats" – into orbit. Funded in part by NASA, the start-up company is part of a "New Space" industry slated to generate up to $68 billion by 2030. "For long enough people have thought of Mainers as, 'We do great lobster, we do, heck, we do great beer,'" Sascha Deri, founder of bluShift, said. "It's time for us to show the world that, 'No, we do a lot of really cool things too like, rockets.'"

Deri said Maine -- particularly the coast in Washington County -- is uniquely positioned geographically to launch such rockets. He envisions Maine capturing as much as 10 percent of that market. And legislation proposed by Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, is designed to start the process. Bellows has proposed studying the feasibility of a Space Port to attract aerospace companies and bring some that $68 billion to Maine. Potential launch sites include Loring Commerce Center in Limestone and as-yet unidentified sites along the coast.

"How often is there a new, emerging industry that could bring manufacturing jobs, engineering jobs, tech jobs, to our state and potent generate millions, if not billions of dollars in revenue?" Bellows said. The jobs, not just in the aerospace industry, but in restaurants and hotels to house cube sat customers, would be particularly welcome in Washington County. But with one NASA grant in hand and applications for a second $750,000 grant due in February, Deri hopes bluShift will soon be launching one rocket a month, and eventually one a week. Deri said if the Space Port develops quickly, bluShift is ready to take part. But he cautioned Bellows that a two-year planning phase is simply too long for bluShift. The company may not be able to wait, and may look to Nova Scotia or Alaska for space ports. (11/1)

Commercial Space Pilot Honored at Florida Space Mirror Memorial (Source: Spectrum News 13)
Two dozen fallen NASA astronauts are memorialized on sacred ground in Brevard County. But now, for the first time, a commercial space pilot will be honored five years after a tragic crash. It's always solemn at the Space Mirror Memorial located at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Created by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation years ago, it honors 24 NASA astronauts who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the pursuit of exploration. Some predated the space agency, working for the Manned Orbiting Lab, while others were T-38 pilots.

"They all worked for government. Mike Alsbury is the first civilian." Michael Alsbury was a pilot for the experimental spaceplane Enterprise run by commercial company Virgin Galactic. On October 31, 2014 he was killed, and pilot Peter Siebold badly hurt, when the craft broke up in mid-air and crashed in the Mohave Desert. (11/1)

Trials of Angara Rockets to Continue, Says Russian Space Agency (Source: TASS)
Air trials of Angara carrier rockets will continue, a source in the press service of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos told TASS on Saturday, adding that serial production is planned to start in 2023. "According to production plans of the state corporation Roscosmos, serial production of Angara carrier rockets is being set up and will be started in 2023 at the Polyot Production Association (Omsk). Currently resumption of air trials of that promising rocket is being prepared," the source said. (11/2)

Russia Replaces Angara with Soyuz 2.1 for 2021 Launch (Source: TASS)
The launch of three Gonets satellites in 2021 will be conducted on the Soyuz-2.1 rocket, not the Angara carrier, a source in the press service of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos said. "The launch of Gonets space vehicles planned for 2021 will be conducted on the Soyuz-2.1 carrier rocket. Previously the launch of those space vehicles were planned on the Angara carrier rocket," the source said. Soyuz-2.1 carrier rockets have been fully adjusted for Gonets satellites, the source added. (11/2)

Why Mars Base Tech Should Be Tested on the Moon First (Source: Space.com)
The coming generation of moon explorers should consider using lunar habitats as a test bed for future Mars missions, said a representative from the French space agency. Erwan Beauvois, a space operations engineer with the National Center for Space Studies, suggested that designers should work on designing an artificial ecosystem on the moon that would use bacteria, algae and other microorganisms to recycle air and waste and produce food. (Crewmembers on the International Space Station use a life support system instead that recycles water and oxygen but requires resupplies for items such as food.)

Once the bioregenerative system is established on the moon, Beauvois argued, we should apply that same concept to the Red Planet. "There's a long road leading to sustainability, but there are opportunities for technology transfer," Beauvois said. "A good moon program is a good Mars program. If you think of the space program as a road map, it can be coherent, and it is pretty beneficial to do this."

NASA and several other space agencies and private companies are eyeing the moon as the next frontier for space exploration. As NASA plans to put humans on the surface by 2024, entities ranging from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to private company Moon Express are discussing how to build settlements and land machines to work cooperatively, potentially building a new lunar economy in the process. NASA's eventual goal is to apply the lessons learned at the moon to launch human missions to Mars. (11/3)

China Launches New Earth Observation Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China on Sunday launched a new Earth observation satellite, Gaofen-7, which will play an important role in land surveying and mapping, urban and rural construction and statistical investigation, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The Gaofen-7, launched on a Long March-4B rocket at 11:22 a.m. (Beijing Time) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province, is China's first civil-use optical transmission three-dimensional surveying and mapping satellite that reaches the sub-meter level, CNSA said. (11/3)

Candian Spaceport Partners with U.S. Company to Recycle Rockets in Space (Source: CBC)
The company planning to build a rocket-launching facility on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore has partnered with a U.S. company to try to reuse parts of its rockets in space. Maritime Launch Services and Houston-based Nanoracks have signed an agreement to work on repurposing the upper stages of MLS's rockets — the parts of the vehicle that contained fuel and are released as it climbs into orbit.

With the help of NASA funding, Nanoracks has been studying ways to recycle space junk to create what it calls "outposts" throughout the solar system, including hotels, research parks, fuel depots and storage centers. "There's lots of things that you can be doing with the upper stages and our core belief at Nanoracks is you don't waste something in space — it's too precious," Jeffrey Manber, the company's CEO. (11/3)

Spaceport America: Time to Boost Staff, Infrastructure (Source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
Nearly 14 years have passed, in fact, since Sir Richard Branson and former Gov. Bill Richardson announced plans to build the world’s first commercial spacecraft launch and landing facility in New Mexico. And Virgin Galactic still isn’t quite ready, but Spaceport America says Branson’s company is closer than ever to sending paying customers into space — projecting the first flight will happen by summer.

There have been long delays, but given that expected timeline, Spaceport America CEO Dan Hicks said the time is now to increase staff and boost infrastructure so the port is ready when the day comes. He made that case at the Roundhouse last week, asking legislators to draw on the state’s oil and gas windfall to approve a budget increase.

“This window of opportunity is going to happen only once where we’re able to bring in more companies and more businesses,” Hicks said in an interview. “Now we’re really blessed as a state. We have the funding to really grow other sectors.” Though Virgin’s big-ticket item has yet to launch, there is already plenty of activity at the spaceport, which the state built south of Truth or Consequences at a cost of $218.5 million. While Virgin conducts test flights, the facility has engaged with a number of other tenants, including Boeing, EXOS Aerospace and SpinLaunch. (11/2)

Forget the Habitable Exoplanets—Here Are Some of Our Galaxy’s Freaks (Source: Ars Technica)
Let's face it, when it comes to the search for planets outside of our Solar System, Earth-like worlds get all of the attention. We want to know where life may exist elsewhere in the galaxy, right? And where better than water-bearing, moderately warm, reasonably sized planets around nice, steady stars? Even so, what is perhaps more remarkable than the search for habitable worlds is the diversity of planets scientists have found. NASA has now confirmed more than 4,000 exoplanets by two or more discovery methods, and the agency has another 4,600 candidates as potential planets.

All told, NASA has identified more than 3,000 planetary systems, finding planets of all shapes and sizes around all manner of stars. And there are some weird worlds out there. For example, there is the exoplanet TrES-2b, which is larger than Jupiter and orbits a star located 750 light years from our Sun. This is the darkest planet scientists have discovered, blacker than coal, with an atmosphere as hot as lava. (It makes the planet Mustafar, where Obi Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker fought a fateful duel in the movie Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith look like a garden world). Click here. (11/2)

Virgin Galactic’s Stock Offering Raises a Question: Do We Really Need Private Space Travel? (Source: Park Record)
The business world was aflutter over the initial stock offering of Virgin Galactic. It’s one of several space tourism companies out there. Jeff Bezos has a competing company called Blue Origin. Virgin Galactic is way out in front. They did a first test flight last February, and are preparing to send tourists into space within a few years. Instead of a giant rocket on a launch pad, the Virgin Galactic vehicle is launched from a special carbon fiber airplane, so it is partway up before the rocket shoots off. It’s more like a space Ferris wheel ride than a rocket launch.

Branson said that demand will far exceed capacity, and that so far, he has deposits from 603 people willing to pay $250,000 to get shot up into space for a grand total of 90 minutes. For what it’s worth, the median price for a single-family home in the U.S. is about $275,000. So for the price of a house, you can buy a 90-minute “out-of-home luxury experience” which is the fastest growing segment in the luxury market. Apparently you can reach a point where you have enough $200,000 watches, and so what else is a rich guy supposed to do? Space travel is really the only thing left. Bonfire of the vanities.

I’m skeptical. How luxurious can it really be? You have to share the ride with five other people, who might be total strangers. It would be very cool to take a 90-minute Virgin Galactic flight to look down on the flames consuming California. But somehow the connection between the future space flight and the future flames didn’t seem to figure into the discussion of private space travel. In fact, the most recent article on the environmental cost of private space flight I was able to find was from back in 2014. (11/2)

The Search For Life Beyond Earth (Source: Bloomberg)
For half a century, researchers have been scanning the sky for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, so far to no avail. But with regular discoveries of new planets around distant stars, the universe seems to be more friendly to life by the day. Click here. (10/31)

Starlink Is a Very Big Deal (Source: Casey Handmer's Blog)
The conventional satellite industry was unable to keep up with SpaceX’s steadily increasing capacity and decreasing costs on the Falcon family of launchers, leaving SpaceX in a difficult position. On the one hand, it was saturating a market worth, at most, a few billion a year. And on the other, it was developing an insatiable appetite for cash to build an enormous rocket with almost no paying customers, and then fly thousands of them to Mars for no immediate economic return.

The answer to these twin problems is Starlink. By developing their own satellites, SpaceX could create and define a new market for highly capable, democratized space communication access, provide a revenue stream and payloads for their own rocket even as they self-cannibalized, and eventually unlock trillions in economic value. (11/2)

Space Station Resupply Mission Successfully Launches From Virginia (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, upgraded to carry heavier payloads into orbit, lifted off Saturday from a launch pad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore with a Cygnus supply ship in pursuit of the International Space Station with fresh food, a collection of biological and technology demonstration experiments, a zero-g baking oven, and repair gear for an aging $2 billion particle physics experiment.

The 139-foot-tall Antares rocket launched at 9:59 a.m. EDT from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, with more than 8,200 pounds of cargo heading for the space station in orbit more than 250 miles  above Earth. Thanks to upgrades that debuted with Saturday’s mission, Antares rocket and the Cygnus cargo craft carried the heaviest supply load ever launched toward the space station by a commercial U.S. logistics vehicle. The supplies are due to arrive at the station early Monday. Two Russian-made RD-181 main engines powered the Antares rocket off the launch pad. (11/2)

A French Space Startup is Launching Wine Into Orbit (Source: Quartz)
If the space industry these days really is an opportunity on par with the dawn of the internet, Nicolas Gaume is a businessman built to take advantage. Gaume believes in the future. He founded his first technology company, which made video games, as a 19-year old in 1990. “I’ve built nine different companies in very different areas,” he told Quartz last year. “I was a millionaire, I was a billionaire, I was bankrupt, I was a millionaire again.”

Now, the French entrepreneur and his co-founder Emmanuel Etcheparre have a new company, Space Cargo Unlimited, which aims to perform biological research in the microgravity of Earth’s orbit. Begun in 2014, it plans to fly experiments on rockets made by Blue Origin and SpaceX as soon as next year. But, first, on Nov. 2, they will launch a dozen bottles of the finest wine to the International Space Station on a rocket built by Northrop Grumman. They are believed to be the first glass bottles flown to the orbiting laboratory.  The wine is research. The wine is also a lure.

That’s because the venture has a most unusual funding plan. Call it the Medici model: The research will be paid for in part by a luxury goods partnership that will deliver a customized chest full of objects flown to space to ultra-wealthy sponsors, called patrons, who back the project. The highlight of that chest will be a bottle of the wine. The idea is that this would be an artistic collector’s item unlike any other. (11/2)

There's Something Strange Going On Inside Neptune (Source: Space.com)
When Voyager 2 reached Neptune in 1989, just 12 years after setting off on its historic journey through the solar system, it discovered six new moons, took the first images of the planet's rings and noted a particularly violent storm. The storm was something of a surprise. In the southern hemisphere there was a swirling, counter-clockwise wind of up to 1,500 mph (2,414 km/h) — the strongest ever recorded. Astronomers called it the Great Dark Spot, and while it had gone by the time the Hubble Space Telescope looked at the planet five years later, they were keen to learn why the winds were so extreme.

"The progression of temperature as you go farther away from the sun shows Jupiter to be the warmest of the gas giants, Saturn next, then Neptune. Uranus is the one that is out of place," Del Genio said. "Yet that unusual result is associated with the fact that Uranus does not have a significant internal heat source." Neptune is finding a way to warm itself up to the level of Uranus, while the latter is unable to generate any extra heat other than that gleaned from the sun.

But just what is an internal heat source? In simple terms it is heat left over from the birth of the solar system when these planets were formed. The heat contracts out of the primitive solar nebula — an effect known as the Kelvin-Helmholtz contraction. "The extra heat source on Neptune [and Jupiter and Saturn] is largely due to gravitational contraction," said Joshua Tollefson, also of the University of California, Berkeley. "As the planet slowly gravitationally contracts, the material falling inward changes its potential energy into thermal energy, which is then released upwards out of the planet." (11/1)

How New Satellites Could Change the Internet (Source: Wall Street Journal)
The most reliable streaming providers have typically used cable to deliver content. But that’s all changing with the launch of new and better satellites that could one day give us 5G, low latency data. The Wall Street Journal speaks with the chief of the International Bureau at the FCC to discover how those changes are happening almost overnight. Click here. (11/1) 

Off-Earth Manufacturing Could Help Astronauts Explore the Moon and Mars (Source: Space.com)
Made In Space's new satellite-construction robot could herald a new generation of autonomous machines working on the moon — and perhaps even Mars. At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) here on Oct. 25, representatives from NASA and the California-based company Made In Space talked about the forthcoming opportunities for in-space manufacturing, which they say will reduce the costs and complications of shipping stuff around the solar system.

One of the big advantages of in-space manufacturing is that it allows the construction of components that are too big to fit atop a rocket, as well as fragile structures that cannot survive the rigors of launch, said Justin Kugler, Made In Space's vice president of advanced programs and concepts. He said designers can thus optimize for "the design and service life of a satellite, as opposed to surviving those first 15 minutes to get out of [Earth's] gravity well and the atmosphere."

One of the first major tests of this technology will be Archinaut One, a spacecraft Made In Space is developing with the help of $73.7 million in NASA funding. Archinaut One, which is expected to launch as soon as 2022, will 3D-print two 32-foot-long beams in Earth orbit, one on either side of the spacecraft. These beams will then unfurl solar arrays that can generate five times more power than traditional panels used by similar-size spacecraft, NASA officials said in July. Kugler said that Archinaut One will do more with less, because the craft will overcome traditional small-satellite power constraints. Made In Space will even use the opportunity to test a broadband-radio frequency instrument from Northrop Grumman, he added. (11/1)

Scientists Boot Up New Device to Map the Universe's Dark Energy (Source: Futurism)
Astronomers have long puzzled over the mystery of dark energy, a mysterious substance that appears to make up almost 70 percent of the universe and which seems to be intricately linked to the cosmos’ expansion. But a new experiment could shed light on the mystery of dark energy. Last week, scientists achieved “first light” — the first time an instrument or telescope collects light particles — with the Mayall Telescope’s Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI).

The new instrument will map the overall structure of the universe, up to about 11 billion light years from Earth according to a press release, to see how fast and how much it’s expanding — and perhaps give us clues about the nature of dark energy in the process. The device’s robotic array of 5,000 fiber-optic “eyes” is designed to automatically narrow its gaze at sets of galaxies and map their exact distance from Earth by gathering their light and splitting that light into narrow bands of wavelengths. And at a dizzying rate: it can cycle through 5,000 galaxies every 20 minutes. Astronomers are hoping to begin formal observations early next year. (10/30)

Is a New Particle Changing the Fate of the Universe? (Source: Live Science)
Astronomers around the world are in a bit of a tizzy because they can't seem to agree about how fast the universe is expanding. Ever since our universe emerged from an explosion of a tiny speck of infinite density and gravity, it has been ballooning, and not at a steady rate, either — the expansion of the universe keeps getting faster. But how quickly it's expanding has been up for a dizzying debate. Measurements of this expansion rate from nearby sources seem to be in conflict with the same measurement taken from distant sources. One possible explanation is that, basically, something funky is going on in the universe, changing the expansion rate.

One theorist has proposed that a brand-new particle has emerged and is altering the future destiny of our entire cosmos. One way to measure the expansion rate today is to look at nearby supernovas, the explosion of gas and dust launched from the universe's largest stars upon their death. There's a particular kind of supernova that has a very specific brightness, so we can compare how bright they look to how bright we know they're supposed to be and calculate the distance. Then, by looking at the light from the supernova's host galaxy, astrophysicists can also calculate how fast they are moving away from us. By putting all the pieces together, we then can calculate the universe's expansion rate.

In a recent paper published online in the preprint journal arXiv, theoretical physicist Massimo Cerdonio at the University of Padova has calculated the amount of change in the quantum fields needed to account for the change in dark energy. If there is a new quantum field that's responsible for the change in dark energy, that means there is a new particle out there in the universe. And the amount of change in dark energy that Cerdonio calculated requires a certain kind of particle mass, which turns out to be roughly the same mass of a new kind of particle that's already been predicted: the so-called axion. Physicists invented this theoretical particle to solve some problems with our quantum understanding of the strong nuclear force. (10/30)

The ‘Nuclear Pasta’ in Neutron Stars Could Transform Particle Physics (Source: New Scientist)
In about 5 billion years, oursun – a pretty average-sized yellow star – will turn into a red giant, its outer layers expanding and consuming the solar system. Eventually, as the gas is blown off, it will become a planetary nebula and leave behind a very faint, very dense object called a white dwarf. A teaspoon of white dwarf material would weigh 5 tonnes here on Earth. Only quantum pressure between electrons stands between a white dwarf and black hole status. While this might seem exotic, there is another, even more exciting end-of-life possibility for stars: the neutron star. (10/30)

Something About the Universe Doesn’t Look Right (Source: Futurism)
Scientists were having trouble nailing down the Hubble Constant, a number representing the speed at which our universe is expanding. At that time, new research proposed the number was 69.8 kilometers per second per megaparsec (km/sec/Mpc), while various other scientists had previously calculated it to be 72, 73.5, or 74. Now, a team from the University of California at Davis has published its own research on the Hubble Constant — and it concluded the number is 77.

The problem with all these discrepancies is that we really need to nail down the Hubble Constant if we want to understand, well, almost anything about our universe. “The Hubble constant is the cosmological parameter that sets the absolute scale, size, and age of the universe,” Wendy Freedman, the physicist who arrived at the 69.8 number, said. “It is one of the most direct ways we have of quantifying how the universe evolves.”

Each of the above studies approached the Hubble Constant problem in a different way — Freedman, for example, examined red giant stars to arrive at her number, while the team behind the new UC Davis study used gravitational lens systems. There’s a chance that mst, if not all, of these teams simply miscalculated — after all, they’re dealing with a lot of variables that could throw off their measurements. (11/1)

Commercial Satellite Revolution Brings Remote Parts of Our Planet to the Public Eye (Source: NBC)
Planet Labs operates the largest and least expensive fleet of satellites in history, selling photos of the globe to the public each day. Many of its devices are no larger than a loaf of bread and almost nothing can hide from its cameras – something Ken Dilanian tests in an experiment atop the NBC News Washington Bureau. Click here. (11/2)

SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Explosion Response Praised by NASA in New Briefing (Source: Teslarati)
During a recent NASA council meeting, SpaceX’s response to a Crew Dragon capsule’s April 20th explosion was repeatedly praised by the agency’s senior Commercial Crew Program (CCP) manager, her optimism clearly rekindled after several undeniably challenging months. On October 29th and 30th, NASA held its second 2019 Advisory Council (NAC) meeting, comprised of a number of (more or less) independent advisors who convene to receive NASA updates and provide a sort of third-party opinion on the agency’s programs.

Had that explosion never happened and the C201 IFA gone perfectly, Demo-2 could have potentially been ready for launch as early as August or September 2019. Instead, C201’s demise forced SpaceX to change capsule assignments, reassigning C205 to support Crew Dragon’s IFA, while C206 was moved to Demo-2. Nevertheless, as both SpaceX and NASA officials have noted, C201’s on-pad explosion has been viewed as a gift, for the most part, as the capsule failed in a largely controlled and highly-instrumented environment.

In fact, NASA manager Kathy Lueders complimented NASA’s involvement in the anomaly resolution process and repeatedly praised SpaceX’s response to Dragon’s explosion. Although the explosion was an undesirable result, SpaceX’s relentless prioritization flight hardware testing prevented a failure from occurring in flight. Performed alongside NASA, SpaceX’s subsequent investigations and experimentation have essentially brought to light a new design constraint, the knowledge of which many space agencies and companies will likely benefit from. (11/1)

From Alien Moons to Frozen Planets, NASA's New Mission Plans are Literally Cool (And Hot) (Source: SyFy Wire)
With Mars and the Moon pretty much getting all the attention when it comes to objects in space, we might have forgotten what other awesome things are floating out there, just waiting to be explored. NASA just released a new list of mission concepts for the Planetary Mission Concept Studies Program that go far beyond the usual suspects.

Sure, there are a few ideas involving Mars and the Moon in there (because why wouldn’t there be?), but there are also proposed missions for Mercury, Venus, Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus, dwarf planet Ceres, Neptune and its moon Triton, Pluto, and the strange things lurking in the Kuiper belt. While this doesn’t mean these missions are guaranteed to happen, the concepts have made it this far. Here are the coolest, and biggest, revelations from the proposal. Click here. (10/29)

Where Did Earth's Water Come From? (Source: Astronomy)
The source of Earth’s water has been a long-standing mystery; Meech herself has been trying to solve it for at least 20 years. Most of that search has focused on sorting out the various isotopes of hydrogen that go into making the water — or “the flavor of water,” as Lydia Hallis of the University of Glasgow calls it. One of those “flavors” is heavy water, a form of water that incorporates deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen whose nucleus contains one proton and one neutron. Normal hydrogen lacks a neutron, so water with deuterium weighs more than ordinary water.

By simulating conditions in the early solar system, researchers can calculate the ratio of heavy water to ordinary water when the planets were forming. On Earth, the observed ratio is higher than it would have been in the young solar system, leading many astronomers to suspect that the water was imported because the ratio should remain constant over time. Today, most scientists believe asteroids carried water to the young, dry Earth. Meech was suspicious of this idea because measurements of Earth’s deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratio, which is connected to the ratio of heavy water to normal, is generally based on the composition of today’s oceans.

Reservoirs with a high quantity of heavy water have a high D/H ratio, while deuterium-poor reservoirs show a lower ratio. But Earth’s ratio should have changed over time. Like most planets, Earth probably lost some of its atmosphere to space, and the lighter hydrogen would be easier to strip from the planet than its heavier counterpart. Geological processes, such as the evaporation of water from reservoirs such as lakes and oceans, can also change the ratio, as can biological reactions, because lighter isotopes are used differently than heavier ones in metabolic processes. All of these processes would give the modern Earth a higher D/H ratio compared with when the planet was newly formed. (04/2019)

Smart Gloves Will Give Mars astronauts the Power to Control Robots (Source: Inverse)
Even astronauts need a helping hand every now and again, and a new innovation in spacesuit technology from NASA and SETI may be just what they need for missions to succeed on the surfaces of the Moon or Mars. The group’s smart glove is designed to let astronauts control remote technology like drones with literally just a flick of the wrist. The glove was designed in part with the company Ntention and is inspired by the limited mobility that astronauts currently deal with in their spacesuits thanks to their stiff, pressurized nature.

The creation would not only give astronauts back some effective mobility in their gloved fingers but would also enable them to easily control the scouting and reconnaissance of drones in locations they otherwise wouldn’t be able to travel to. Dr. Pascal Lee, a planetary scientist with the SETI Institute and the Mars Institute, and director of the NASA Haughton-Mars Project at NASA Ames Research Center, tells Inverse that this technology has the potential to be one day adapted for the International Space Station. (11/1)