February 23, 2020

Daredevil Dies on Homemade Rocket (Source: Washington Post)
In December, buttressed by his conviction and advances in homemade rocketry, “Mad” Mike Hughes flipped on a camera and fantasized about the moment when he shows mankind that it lives on a verdant disk. The plan was simple: fire into the sky on a steam-powered rocket and trigger a balloon to carry him to the Karman line, the 62-mile-high barrier that separates the atmosphere and the cold vacuum of space, filming the entire way. “For three hours, the world stops,” Hughes said during a live stream.

Hughes, a self-styled daredevil, flat-Earth theorist and limousine stuntman, died Saturday when his jury-rigged contraption propelled him on a column of steam, spiraled through the air and cratered into the sagebrush outside Barstow, Calif. He was 64. “It was unsuccessful, and he passed away,” longtime collaborator Waldo Stakes told the Associated Press, declining to comment further. (2/23)

Will Colorado Springs Be Home to Starfleet Academy Someday? It Already Is (Source: The Gazette)
With President Donald Trump’s launching of Space Force last year, we began to wonder about the really important things like a motto, uniforms, and, of course, where the real-life Starfleet Academy might be built. Is it possible, we wondered, that Starfleet Academy might be based here in Colorado Springs, as Space Force and the U.S. Space Command are now (temporarily, at least)?

Gazette journalist Erin Prater reported last week that when the Air Force Academy’s Class of 2020 graduates this spring, roughly 60 cadets who study space operations will likely cross-commission into the Space Force, much as the U.S. Naval Academy commissions Marine officers. When it was created in December, Space Force was made a department of the Air Force, just like the Marines are part of the Navy. If you want to be a Marine officer, you don’t go to the nonexistent Marine academy, you go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. If you want to join the Space Force, your best bet right now, go to Air Force Academy. (2/22)

Starry-Eyed Kenya Ready for Race to Space (Source: Standard Media)
The race to space seems to have come closer home. Kenya has been part of it for a long time but has been jogging casually, and it seems like time is ripe to sprint. Kenya is among 31 African countries that have pitched their ideas with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to take advantage of the Broadcasting Satellite Service (BSS) that is on offer. By May 22, the countries should have submitted their final decisions on the slots they want to take up and the satellites they want to launch in space.

These satellites are being launched onto an orbit that has been under-utilised due to Africa’s few forays into space. Only 11 African countries have managed to have satellites orbiting around the earth, and the ITU intends to boost that number by 30. The ITU, together with the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) are guiding the countries in making good decisions on what kinds of satellites and what slots in the orbit they should take. (2/23)

India, US Eyeing Space Pact During Trump Visit (Source: NDTV)
Asked about possible cooperation in the area of space, he said the two sides are cooperating in Mars exploration, heliophysics, and human spaceflight. "On commercial front, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched 209 satellites from the US, on-board PSLV, as co passengers. ISRO and NASA are together building a microwave remote sensing satellite with dual frequency (L and S band) Synthetic Aperture Radar," he said.

"NASA will contribute L-band Radar, while ISRO will contribute S-band Radar and the satellite. This joint mission is planned to be realised for launch in 2022. This is the world' s first dual frequency SAR satellite," he said. The MEA spokesperson said ISRO is also working with US government agencies for cooperation in safety of spaceflight through exchange of situational awareness information. (2/20)

We Need to Figure Out Sex in Space, and Tech Can Help (Source: Fast Company)
While some people might be able to withstand a policy of total abstinence, it might be detrimental to the physical and mental health of others—especially as larger groups venture into space. Yet NASA seems afraid of tackling issues of intimacy and sexuality in space. In 2008, Bill Jeffs, spokesperson for NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said: “We don’t study sexuality in space, and we don’t have any studies ongoing with that. If that’s your specific topic, there’s nothing to discuss.”

Given what we know about human sexuality, this position seems irresponsible. It prevents research from examining basic questions about sexual health and well-being in space. For instance, how do we deal with hygiene and the messiness of human sex in zero gravity? How will we maintain a crew’s psychological well-being if people must endure long periods lacking in erotic stimulation and affection? Is imposed abstinence a reasonable solution, based on empirical evidence?

One solution could be to make erotic technologies available to crews and settlers in space. This could include sex toys—any object used for sexual enhancement or stimulation, which could be used for sexual pleasure and gratification. But sex toys do not address the social dimensions of human erotic needs. This is where erobots come in. The term erobots characterizes all virtual, embodied, and augmented artificial erotic agents and the technologies that produce them. Examples include sex robots, erotic chatbots, and virtual or augmented partners. Erobotics is the emerging transdisciplinary research studying human-erobots interactions and related phenomena. (2/22)

'Antarctica Melts,' NASA Says, Showing Effects Of A Record Warm Spell (Source: NPR)
Where there was a white ice cap, there are now brown blotches of land; melted snow and ice have created ponds of water. Those are the effects of the recent record high temperatures in Antarctica, according to NASA, which on Friday released stunning before-and-after satellite images of the northern Antarctic Peninsula.

The photos center on Eagle Island, part of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula that stretches toward South America. Satellites took the images just nine days apart, on Feb. 4 and Feb. 13. But dramatic changes took place in that time span. Two days after the first photo was taken, the area hit 18.3 degrees Celsius (64.9 degrees Fahrenheit) — matching that day's temperature in Los Angeles, NASA notes. "The warm spell caused widespread melting on nearby glaciers," the space agency says. "Such persistent warmth was not typical in Antarctica until the 21st century, but it has become more common in recent years."

On Eagle Island, the biggest loss of ice and snow came on Feb. 6, when an inch of snowpack melted, according to NASA's climate models. By Feb. 11, the island had lost 4 inches of snow. "I haven't seen melt ponds develop this quickly in Antarctica," Mauri Pelto, a glaciologist at Nichols College in Massachusetts, said in NASA's news release about the phenomenon. (2/21)

North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development Launched (Source: NSF)
The North American Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (NA ROAD) became a reality today at a signing ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa. This milestone brings the vision of the global Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) to North America and is the OAD’s eleventh Regional Office. The OAD promotes “Astronomy for a better world”, through the sharing of resources that promote STEM advancement, education, and workforce development through the inspiration of astronomy. OAD is an office of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF). (2/30)

Nanoracks Completes 17th Commercial Space Station CubeSat Deployment Mission (Source: Nanoracks)
Nanoracks has completed the Company’s 17th CubeSat deployment mission from the International Space Station using commercially developed and operated hardware. Nanoracks was the first company to offer commercial hardware and services for small satellite deployment in low-Earth orbit. Nanoracks’ 17th CubeSat deployment mission included satellites launched to the International Space Station on both Northrop Grumman’s NG-12 flight and the SpaceX CRS-19 mission. The deployer packs were then assembled together on orbit by the astronaut crew. (2/19)

Elon Musk’s Plan to Settle Mars (Source: National Review)
If Mars Direct may be likened to an evolvable version of the Apollo program, Musk’s plan is like D-Day. He needs a fleet. So he’s creating a shipyard to build a fleet. But why build a fleet before testing even one ship? There are several reasons. The first is that Musk wants to be prepared to take losses. By the time the first Starship is ready for its maiden test flight, he’ll have three or four more already built and on deck, ready to be modified to fix whatever caused the first to fail. Launch, crash, fix, and repeat, until it works, and then keep launching, improving payload and cutting turnaround time, advancing performance, flight by flight, ferociously.

But there is another reason to build a fleet. It’s to make Starships cheap. NASA built five space shuttles over a twelve-year period, each one costing several billion dollars. Musk is creating a shipyard designed to ultimately mass-produce Starships at a rate of 50 or more per year. That may sound crazy, but it is not impossible. In 1944, the United States produced escort aircraft carriers at a rate of one per week. Scores of separate teams worked simultaneously, each on its own part of the ship for a few days before passing the job on to the next team. If Musk set up a similar line with a workforce of 3,000, that would mean labor costs on the order of $6 million per ship, or between $15 to $20 million each, with materials and avionics included.

If he can get costs that low, then once the base on Mars is operational, with a growing industrial and greenhouse agricultural capacity, Starships carrying 100 passengers each could fly to Mars and stay there if necessary to provide housing, at a hardware cost per passenger of less than $200,000. So make the ticket price $300,000 — the net worth of a typical homeowner, or about seven years’ pay for an average American. In colonial times, working stiffs booked passage to America in exchange for seven years’ work. It’s a price many people can pay — and have paid — when they really want to make a move. All that is needed besides is Liberty to welcome the immigrants — if she is there, they will come, and prosper through their creativity. Click here. (2/22)

Nukes, Space Force, and Change (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Barbara Barrett was sworn in as the 25th Secretary of the Air Force in October 2019, only two months before the official stand-up of the U.S. Space Force as a part of the Department of the Air Force. Question: Let’s talk about the Space Force. How will the chain of authority work among you, Gen. David Goldfein, and Gen. John Raymond?

Answer: It’s two separate services under one Department, not unlike what you see in the Navy and Marine Corps, but with some differences. In giving testimony, for example, they go in order of the precedence of the services, by the age of the service. The Department of the Air Force has two components: the Air Force and the Space Force. One might think they’ll be called the Department of the Air & Space Force, to have better evidence of the parity, but that’s not what happened in the legislation. So they are peers, and that’s also the practicality of it. Click here. (2/20)

Trump's Personal Decision on Basing U.S. Space Command Brings Political Intrigue (Source: The Gazette)
President Trump threw more confusion into the overdue decision on U.S. Space Command. Trump told the public that a basing decision has moved from Pentagon committees to his desk, with decision by year's end. It’s a rare move and one most presidents have avoided, instead relying on Pentagon leaders to make basing decisions in an ostensibly nonpartisan process. The Air Force announced Colorado Springs as the command’s temporary home more than a year ago with a final decision by June.

Colorado emerged as a top choice for the command because most of the military’s space infrastructure and more than half of the troops for the Space Force are here. Rivals for the command, Alabama and Florida, have kicked off lobbying campaigns to wrest the command away from Colorado. It’s no surprise that Alabama, with Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, has worked to muscle the command to Huntsville. Past presidents have stayed away from that route for the same reason they avoid the Playboy Mansion: It’s going to make a lot of people unhappy.

While Trump will get credit from voters who win the base, he’ll get the blame elsewhere. So, he stands to gain in Alabama, with nine electoral votes, if he gives the command to Shelby. But with that same decision he’d lose ground in Colorado, nine electoral votes, and Florida, 29 electoral votes. If Trump gives the command to Florida, which was initially dropped as a finalist by the Pentagon, the politicians in the losing states will have grounds to declare it a crass political move to gain votes and favor in the president’s home state. (2/21)

We All Win if Oscoda Wins Michigan Space Race (Source: Alpena News)
I’ve heard some disappointment around town this week that Alpena wasn’t selected as the possible site for the proposed horizontal space launch facility. None of that disappointment was heard from this corner. I celebrate the announcement with our neighbors to the south, in Oscoda, as I know full well that the designation could very well still mean great things for all of us who call Northeast Michigan home. No one can argue with the fact that Oscoda, particularly by using part of the former Wurtsmith Air Force base, makes perfect sense for such a facility. Much of the infrastructure important to such a facility already exists there.

And let’s not forget that the horizontal launch pad is but one of the segments the Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association hopes to secure for Michigan in the future. A few weeks ago, association members announced they were accepting letters from communities interested in housing a control center for the spaceport. And the group also hopes to eventually secure a vertical launch pad, as well. (2/22)

Here Are The Three Things Driving Virgin Galactic’s Triple-Digit Rally: Space ETF Issuer (Source: CNBC)
It’s no secret that Virgin Galactic has taken off. The skyrocketing space tourism stock has gained a whopping 199% year to date and nearly 310% in the last three months as speculative investors piled into the name, leading some to label it Wall Street’s new Tesla. Explanations for the sudden surge have been few and far between, with Morgan Stanley analysts — who have an “overweight” rating on the name along with a $22 price target — calling for an “overdue” correction on Thursday.

The stock cooled off on Friday, falling nearly 7% in intraday trading after snapping an eight-day winning streak. For Andrew Chanin, there were three relatively clear drivers for Virgin Galactic’s monster move. "One being that more institutions are actually starting to pick up coverage on this, so, it’s actually getting a lot more attention from the banks; two, a potential short squeeze, and three, a scarcity factor,” Chanin said. “It’s one of the only pure-play ways that investors get exposure to space tourism.”

Chanin’s third reason for the move is perhaps the most significant: Virgin Galactic is essentially the only stock on the market focused squarely on space travel. Its closest publicly traded competitors are largely drone operators with penny stocks, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is privately held. (2/21)

NASA: Need Another Space Assignment? (Source: Space News)
Those on the Hill should listen to the distant echoes of the Space Race and learn. Reject the drumbeat of nationalism and antiquated governmental models. NASA is on the right course, with the right leadership and the support of our entrepreneurs and our international partners; let them do their job. Most importantly, embrace the most significant lesson of the 21st century: releasing space to free enterprise will secure prosperity for the next generation of Americans, just as releasing the internet from the grasp of government did for their grandparents. Click here. (2/21)

Coronavirus Isn't Stopping China From Launching Rockets (Source: Space.com)
China resumed satellite launches Wednesday (Feb. 19) amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, lofting a Long March 2D rocket in the country's first launch since the Chinese New Year. The Long March 2D rocket lifted off from the Xichang spaceport carrying four Xin Jishu Shiyan test satellites called XJS-C, XJS-D, XJS-E and XJS-F, all of which went into their planned orbits. The satellites, which were built by CASC subsidiaries, will test new technologies for Earth observations and communicating with one another. (2/21)

SLS Debut Slips to April 2021, KSC Teams Working Through Launch Sims (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Preparations continue at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first launch of the Space Launch System, or SLS rocket – NASA’s gigantic rocket the agency hopes to use to launch humans to the lunar surface and to the commercial-rocket constructed Lunar Gateway. But while Kennedy prepares for the rocket’s arrival and first mission, various NASA centers are now actively planning for a No Earlier Than 18 April 2021 launch for the rocket’s debut.

An important part of any rocket’s launch campaign, especially a maiden voyage, is the Launch Team undergoing numerous practice runs and countdown simulations of the launch campaign. This month, under the direction of Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis 1 Launch Director, the Florida launch team simulated critical portions of the SLS countdown to ensure everyone is ready to handle any situation launch day throws their way. The simulation occurred on 3 February inside the newly revamped Firing Room 1 at the Launch Control Center, located next to the Vehicle Assembly Building. (2/21)

How the Universe Could Possibly Have More Dimensions (Source: Space.com)
String theory is a purported theory of everything that physicists hope will one day explain … everything. All the forces, all the particles, all the constants, all the things under a single theoretical roof, where everything that we see is the result of tiny, vibrating strings. Theorists have been working on the idea since the 1960s, and one of the first things they realized is that for the theory to work, there have to be more dimensions than the four we're used to. Click here. (2/21) https://www.space.com/more-universe-dimensions-for-string-theory.html

InSight to Try to Push Mole Into Martian Surface (Source: Space News)
Engineers plan to use the robotic arm on its InSight Mars lander to push a heat flow probe into the surface, acknowledging that they have “few alternatives” if that effort fails. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrument team has spent nearly a year trying to get the instrument’s probe, or “mole,” to burrow into the surface.

The mole has an internal hammering mechanism that is designed to drive the probe as deep as five meters into the surface in order to measure the heat flow from the planet’s interior. The mole, though, stopped only about 30 centimeters below the surface. The mission has tried a number of ways to get the mole moving again, including removing the instrument housing on the surface to allow the lander’s robotic arm to try and fill in the hole created by the mole, as well as pin the mole to one side of that hole, increasing the friction needed for the mole to work its way into the surface. (2/21)

Isle of Man Marks Apollo 13 50th With New 'One Giant Leap' Stamps (Source: CollectSpace)
A former NASA manager who was in mission control on the night that Apollo 13 "had a problem" has worked with a small seabound kingdom's postal service to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the famed mission on a new set of postage stamps. George Abbey, who before becoming director of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston was a member of the Apollo 13 mission operations team in April 1970, collaborated with the Isle of Man Post Office to create "One Giant Leap, Exploring the Moon and Space," a limited edition set of eight stamps.

The postage features a photo of the Apollo 13 mission control room and scenes from the four successful lunar landings that followed the ill-fated mission to the moon. Set for release on Wednesday (Feb. 26), the "One Giant Leap" set also includes stamps for the Skylab orbital workshop, space shuttle and International Space Station. The new set is a follow up to the Isle of Man's "One Small Step" stamps issued in April 2019 to honor Apollo 11 and the missions that led to the first moon landing in July 1969. (2/21)

NASA Selects Proposals for Student Aeronautics, Space Projects (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded more than $39.8 million through the agency’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship Project to increase student and faculty engagement in STEM at community colleges, technical schools and universities across the nation. Each award has a four-year performance period and a maximum value of $760,000 for fiscal year 2020. The University of Central Florida (UCF) is one of the awardees, set to receive $700,000.

NASA awarded funds to 52 proposals aimed at attracting and retaining more students from institutions of higher education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. Awardees plan to use the funds to increase diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. Each selected submission aligns with goals of both the NASA mission directorates and the agency’s Office of STEM Engagement to enable contributions to NASA’s work; build a diverse, skilled future STEM workforce; and strengthen understanding of STEM through powerful connections at NASA. (2/21)

Let the Moon Rush Begin (Source: Washington Post)
The U.S. government legalized space mining in 2015, and other nations have taken their own approaches to lunar mining for profit. Although the United States signed a 1967 U.N. treaty that suggests no nation can claim sovereignty over the moon, the treaty was developed as an attempt at arms control during a time when the United States and the Soviet Union were landing probes. This Cold War relic is unlikely to prevent Washington or other governments from proceeding toward lunar activities.

I propose that NASA make the initial landings and prove that the hardware works. And that is where its duties would end. If the space agency can persuade Congress to give it the money to go on to Mars, let it, but there is too much real, practical work to be done on the moon for the rest of us to get distracted. After Artemis, a consortium led by the U.S. Department of Commerce, with commercial and international partners, should set as its first task building an outpost on the moon near water and oxygen supplies. This could act as a staging area much like St. Louis was for the pioneers on the American frontier.

For a fee paid to the consortium, commercial companies, governmental entities and scientific organizations could use this outpost to prepare their personnel and equipment to set forth across the lunar plains, valleys and hills. They could prospect for minerals and other resources in the great lunar outback and eventually plan the construction of observatories and hotels. As more is learned about lunar resources and sufficient business cases are made, towns like Coalwood West Virginia could spring up all over the moon. (2/21)