April 22, 2020

The Best Moon in the Solar System May Be More Like Earth Than We Thought (Source: Popular Mechanics)
In 2034, NASA's Dragonfly mission will touch down on Saturn's moon Titan—our pick for the best damn moon in the entire solar system. The spacecraft will sink through the moon's thick atmosphere (just like the Huygens probe did 15 years ago) to explore the distant world's rivers, lakes, seas and skies. Titan is a familiar world. It's the only other body we've discovered so far that has liquid on its surface—only instead of liquid water like we have here on Earth, Titan is covered in lakes and rivers of methane and ethane.

But that's not the only similarity the moon has to Earth. Last month, astronomers reported Dragonfly might find another Earth-like feature on Titan: dust devils. These rotating columns of air form when small regions on a surface surface heat up. The hot air rises, and, if captured by wind, forms a swirling column, sweeping dust and other debris along with it. On Earth, dust devils are mostly innocuous, sliding somewhere between nuisance and novelty—like this one that formed on a Brooklyn baseball diamond in 2014.

We've also spotted dust devils on Mars. They're most common during the Martian spring and summer, when temperatures on the planet's surface are warm. The largest dust devils ever observed on the red planet reached heights of up to 5 miles, according to the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. They leave criss-crossing streaks across the planet's surface—some as long as 2.5 miles long and nearly 100 feet wide. But unlike most of the dust devils here on Earth, the electrically charged funnel clouds can cause serious damage, with crackling lightning and winds speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. (4/20)

SpaceX’s Mars City Has Come a Step Closer After a Series of NASA Missions (Source: Inverse)
A city on Mars? SpaceX has been training this whole time, Elon Musk declared Sunday. The SpaceX CEO took to Twitter to decry his company's slow rate of progress in sending humans to Mars to set up a city. The firm is currently working on the Starship, a fully-reusable rocket designed to transport humans to Mars and beyond, which Musk noted is step one of three toward reaching this goal.

Musk also explained how the company has been working on step two of three through its existing resupply missions. The second step is orbital refilling, which will enable the Starship to refuel in space and continue its mission to the red planet. Orbital refueling is key to reaching Mars with an efficient rocket design. The problem is similar to planning a cross-country road trip: you could design a car that can hold enough fuel for the whole trip, but it's more efficient to design a car with a smaller tank that can refuel at logical stops. Musk explained in September 2016 that without orbital refueling, a Mars spaceship would need to be five to 10 times bigger.

That means the Dragon capsules, which have powered SpaceX and NASA's resupply missions, have been quietly helping SpaceX build up the expertise to one day send humans to Mars. These "Commercial Resupply Services" missions, which spanned 20 launches over eight years from October 2012, enabled NASA to send science experiments and other goods to the International Space Station. The missions have helped propel SpaceX's work into the spotlight, sending up thousands of pounds of equipment for third parties to test their ideas in microgravity. (4/20)

Scientists Detect Rare Crash of Two Mismatched Black Holes (Source: Space.com)
Colliding black holes aren't always as evenly matched as scientists expected, according to a cosmic chirp astronomers have puzzled over for a year. On April 12, 2019, gravitational wave detectors picked up a signal of space-time ripples caused by colliding black holes — which in and of itself has gone from groundbreaking to nearly mundane over the past five years. But as scientists studied the detection more closely, they realized that it didn't match the signals they have seen so far.

Instead of two evenly matched black holes, the new detection seemed to be triggered by a lopsided merger in which one black hole was three or four times more massive than the other. Scientists affiliated with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the discovery April 18 at an online meeting of the American Physical Society. (4/20)

NASA Narrows Design for Rocket to Launch Samples Off of Mars (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
After years of studies, test-firings and a survey of U.S. industry in preparation for launch of a Mars Sample Return mission in 2026, NASA has settled on a solid-fueled design for a miniature rocket with a first-of-its-kind purpose: Launching a payload from Mars for a trip back to Earth. The small launcher is called a Mars Ascent Vehicle, or MAV. The MAV will play a key role in the Mars Sample Return mission being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency.

The first element of the Mars Sample Return mission is NASA’s Perseverance rover scheduled to depart Earth in mid-July. Perseverance will collect core samples from Martian rocks and store them in tubes for retrieval by a future rover that could launch as soon as 2026. One of the untried mission elements required for the Mars Sample Return program is the rocket that will boost the rock specimens off of the Red Planet.

Based on preliminary design constraints, the Mars Ascent Vehicle can be no taller than 9.2 feet (2.8 meters) and no wider than 1.9 feet (57 centimeters). Its total liftoff mass must not exceed 881 pounds (400 kilograms). Martian gravity is just 38 percent that of Earth, meaning a rocket designed to launch a payload into orbit can be much smaller on Mars. And the MAV only has to deliver some 30 to 35 pounds (14 to 16 kilograms) of payload into orbit around Mars. (4/20)

Astronomers Find a Beautiful Six-Planet System in Almost Perfect Orbital Harmony (Source: Science Alert)
By now, we have discovered hundreds of stars with multiple planets orbiting them scattered throughout the galaxy. Each one is unique, but a system orbiting the star HD 158259, 88 light-years away, is truly special. The star itself is about the same mass and a little larger than the Sun - a minority in our exoplanet hunts. It's orbited by six planets: a super-Earth and five mini-Neptunes.

After monitoring it for seven years, astronomers have discovered that all six of those planets are orbiting HD 158259 in almost perfect orbital resonance. This discovery could help us to better understand the mechanisms of planetary system formation, and how they end up in the configurations we see. Orbital resonance is when the orbits of two bodies around their parent body are closely linked, as the two orbiting bodies exert gravitational influence on each other. In the Solar System, it's pretty rare in planetary bodies; probably the best example is Pluto and Neptune. (4/20)

Virgin Galactic Dealmaker Defies IPO Lull with $720 Million Blank-Check Deal (Source: Reuters)
Virgin Galactic Holdings Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya on Tuesday raised $720 million for a new blank-check company, 20% more than its original target, after the coronavirus crisis upended plans last month. The IPO represents a rare example of a stock market debut braving the volatility fueled by the economic fallout of the pandemic. Only two IPOs have priced so far in April, compared to 14 a year ago, according data provider IPO Boutique. Both were biotechnology firms, a sector with a more specialized investor base.

Palihapitiya’s new firm, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp III IPOC_u.N, is a so-called special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that will use the IPO proceeds to buy a company in the technology sector, primarily outside of the United States. SPACs are typically more resilient to market jitters, because that they are akin to investors depositing money in an account while their management team searches for an investment. (4/21)

OneWeb Raises Satellites' Orbits Ahead of Bankruptcy (Source: @M_Ladovaz)
OneWeb is raising the last 34 satellites it launched before going bankrupt to a 600 kilometer orbit instead of their target 1,200-kilometer orbit. Massimiliano Ladovaz, OneWeb’s chief technology officer, said on Twitter that 600 kilometers is a “sweet spot in terms of radiation and flexibility” while OneWeb conducts a sale of its spectrum. “We want to preserve satellite life while our situation gets resolved,” he said. (4/22)

Orbcomm "Well Positioned" to Survive Pandemic (Source: Orbcomm)
Internet-of-things focused satellite operator Orbcomm says it is well positioned to weather coronavirus pandemic. The company is still manufacturing devices and shipping products with help from subcontractors. Most of Orbcomm’s 800 employees are working remotely. Orbcomm CEO Marc Eisenberg said the coronavirus pandemic and a reduction in travel has resulted in small revenue declines and a small drop in share price. “The business is not unaffected, but we are in a good position to ride out the storm and hit the ground running when markets recover,” he said. (4/22)

Survival of the Fittest (Source: Space News)
Up and down the supply chain, every aspect of the space business has been affected by COVID-19. Stay at home orders, sickness, shifts in investment priorities — all will contribute to the contraction. Even those companies deemed strategic are feeling the impact, and for many months to come, all will be playing catch-up. Of course the billionaires will be fine, and most large companies and government contractors will weather the storm based on their substantial reserves, contractual relationships and insider status. In fact, given their ability to lobby and work the Washington machine, some may actually thrive as trillions in bailouts flow — much of it to those with political influence.

Unfortunately, for many smaller space startups and entrepreneurial enterprises, COVID-19 is a potential deathblow. As in many other industries, the hard fact is that many space startups are simply going to go away in the next few months. While in some overly lush sectors such as launch companies this weeding of the garden is a good thing, in others we may be losing potentially important technologies or services.

Certainly, congressionally backed Small Business Administration (SBA) loans and financial assistance will help some. Yet legislative nuances and legal hurdles may block others. One example is the issue of VC funding levels and control. While still in flux, the current rules essentially pit venture capital companies investing in startups against the startups themselves. For example, if a VC owns above a certain percentage of a startup, it is counted as part of the investing firm and cannot apply for itself. (4/20)

A Giant Leap of Faith in Virgin Galactic Stock Will Pay Off (Source: InvestorPlace)
Price watchers might notice that Virgin Galactic's stock already launched and rocketed past the $37 mark in February. The share price peaked at around the same time that many other stocks topped out. The novel coronvirus’ impact on the economy has made it more difficult for businesses to expand, including Virgin Galactic. However, the share-price pullback could be viewed as a chance to reload in anticipation of the economy’s eventual return to a modified normalcy. It’s also an opportunity to get aboard a company with tremendous potential as the space-flight market is still in its infancy.

UBS said that a decade from now, the space-tourism market could potentially reach $3 billion. Therefore, one strategy for long-term investors would be to add shares of SPCE stock on each dip. The objective would be to hold the shares in anticipation of a rebound in the broader economy. Even an event as worrisome as the spread of the coronavirus can’t permanently eradicate the public’s desire for space travel. (4/21)

Iran Launches Military Satellite (Source: AP)
Iran announced Wednesday that it launched a small military satellite into orbit. The country's Revolutionary Guard said the three-stage Ghased rocket placed a satellite called Noor into a 425-kilometer orbit. It did not disclose details about Noor, including its size or mission, and the launch had yet to be independently confirmed by the U.S. or other countries. Iran had not previously disclosed development of Ghased, which the Iranian government said used a combination of liquid- and solid-fuel engines. (4/22)

Smallsat Alliance Seeks Government Support to Mitigate Pandemic Downturn (Source: Space News)
The smallsat industry is seeking government assistance to get through the pandemic. The SmallSat Alliance, in a white paper Tuesday, asked the Pentagon and Congress to increase investments in small satellite programs to shore up companies hit hard by the pandemic. Those investments, which the industry group said should be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, would support work on "hybrid space architectures" that combine commercial smallsats with traditional government satellites. The group, which represents about 45 companies, warned that the economic impact of the pandemic is making its members "particularly vulnerable to bankruptcy or foreign takeover." (4/22)

FCC and Ligado are Undermining GPS – and With It, Our Economy and National Security (Source: C4ISRnet)
Right now, the coronavirus is rightly our country’s most immediate concern. But the Federal Communications Commission has used the crisis, under the cover of darkness, to approve a long-stalled application by Ligado Networks — a proposal that threatens to undermine our global positioning system (GPS) capabilities, and with it, our national security.

The FCC granted Ligado (formerly known as LightSquared) permission to repurpose spectrum adjacent to GPS frequencies for a terrestrial cellular network — framing this proposal as essential to “winning the race to 5G.” But what Ligado has done is conflate two different and important spectrum issues: the sharing of mid-band 5G spectrum by DoD and commercial industry, and harmful interference of Ligado’s signal with the low-band GPS signals used in nearly every aspect of daily life. The result: some members of Congress, members of the administration, and the public are now confused about the real and immediate impacts of Ligado’s proposal.

The problem here is that Ligado’s planned usage is not in the prime mid-band spectrum being considered for 5G — and it will have a significant risk of interference with GPS reception, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The signals interference Ligado’s plan would create could cost taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and require the replacement of current GPS equipment just as we are trying to get our economy back on its feet quickly — and the FCC has just allowed this to happen. (4/22)

SpaceX Starship: Why Elon Musk is Not Worried About Early Failures (Source: Inverse)
An early test Starship exploded? It's not a big deal, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explained Thursday, as he shed light on the development process behind the ship designed to send humans to Mars. Musk explained how the company is working to build up production on the Starship rocket. The ship is expected to offer a fully-reusable design that makes it suitable for landing humans on Mars, refueling using the planet's resources, and returning home or venturing out further. The ambitious project has had its tumbles, but Musk explained he was not massively concerned about these early issues.

"Production is by *far* the hard part. That’s why I’m not super worried about early Starship failures. Initial serial numbers are suboptimal," he said. The comments speak to one of the most visible issues around the Starship project's early stages. Musk unveiled the first prototype "Mk.1" in September 2019, but video footage two months later showed that ship's top blowing off during a pressure test. SpaceX destroyed a second prototype "SN1" in February 2020, launching into the air during a super-cold cryo proof test. A third prototype "SN3" was destroyed this month, crumpling and collapsing during a similar test to the first two.

Musk has faced his fair share of headaches from production before. When his other firm Tesla started producing the mass-market Model 3 in July 2017, it expected to produce 5,000 per week by the end of that year. Musk ended up sleeping at the factory and going through "production hell," only to reach the target by the following summer – an episode that highlights the difficulties in predicting the early stages of production. The Starship will also need to ramp up production to meet its own goals. Musk is aiming to build 1,000 ships to reach his goal of making life multi-planetary. (4/16)

Robot is Helping Astronauts on the Space Station with Tasks, Stress and Isolation (Source: CNN)
Along for the ride with the astronauts on the International Space Station is a bit of a talking head called CIMON-2. Designed to interact with the astronauts, the ball-shaped robot is helping them manage tasks, stress and the isolation of living more than 200 miles above their home planet.
Isolation is something many people are dealing with on Earth due to the pandemic. The project leads for the CIMON project think that lessons learned in space during this experiment could be applied on Earth.

"While in space, CIMON provides a possible basis for social assistance systems, which could reduce stress caused by isolation or group dynamic interactions during long-term missions, for example, to the moon or Mars, not dissimilar to situations on Earth," Matthias Biniok, IBM project lead for CIMON in Germany, said. (4/21)

Firefly and Spaceflight Commit to Rideshare Launch (Source: Space News)
Firefly Aerospace has signed a launch agreement with Spaceflight for a rideshare mission next year. Spaceflight will provide payloads for the majority of the capacity of a Firefly Alpha launch in mid-2021, and will also contribute rideshare payloads for other Alpha missions. Firefly executives said they plan to perform tests on the two stages of the first flight version of Alpha in May and June, and then ship it to the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California for a launch later this year. Alpha will be able to place up to 630 kilograms into sun-synchronous orbits launching from Vandenberg. Firefly has used staggered shifts and telework to maintain progress during the pandemic. (4/22)

The Space Shuttle Was a Beautiful—But Terrible—Idea (Source: Gizmodo)
In 2005, then-NASA administrator Michael Griffin shocked the aerospace community when he openly criticized the Space Shuttle program, describing it to USA Today as a “mistake,” “just barely possible,” and “not the right path” for the United States. Griffin’s comments were astonishing, given that the program was still in full swing and very much celebrated by the American public. The shuttles would be permanently grounded just six years later, retired after 30 captivating but undeniably tumultuous years.

But the cracks in the program had formed long before Griffin publicly aired his grievances. The 1986 Challenger and 2003 Columbia disasters, which resulted in the deaths of 14 astronauts, caused many to question the concept and whether this 4.5-million-pound “space truck,” as it was pitched back in the 1970s, was worth the risk. Other blemishes appeared outside of these tragedies, as it became painfully clear that the program was failing to deliver on its promises.

That the Shuttle resulted in many technological and scientific advancements is undeniable. The question is whether those benefits were worth the costs, whether measured in lives, dollars, or the missed opportunity of not following a more fruitful space strategy. Regrettably, the only plausible answer is no. (4/22)

These are the Benefits of Space Exploration (Source: CNN)
Space exploration is expensive and has been a questionable investment at times. We take a look at how space impacts our lives, including advancements in health, climate, science and tech. Click here. (4/21)

SpaceX’s Next Falcon Heavy Launch on Track to Carry Multiple Military Satellites (Source: Teslarati)
According to one of the US Space Force 44 (USSF-44) mission’s satellite providers, SpaceX’s next Falcon Heavy launch remains on track for late 2020 and will apparently be carrying more than one military satellite to orbit. Successfully launched just 73 days apart in April and June 2019, SpaceX already has two twice-flown Falcon Heavy side boosters in storage at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, raising the possibility that one or several of the rocket’s next launches could reuse those some boosters.

However, NASASpaceflight.com has already confirmed that all three Falcon Heavy Flight 4 boosters will be new, likely representing 25-30%+ of all of SpaceX’s 2020 booster production output. That also means that publicly-visible Falcon Heavy Flight 4 launch preparations will start much sooner than later as SpaceX works to ship its new boosters from its Hawthorne, California factory to McGregor, Texas for routine acceptance testing and finally to launch facilities in Florida. (4/22)

Boeing Subsidiary Develops Completes Cubesat for DoD Mission (Source: Space News)
A Boeing subsidiary has completed work on a military cubesat that will launch on a Falcon Heavy later this year. Millennium Space Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing Phantom Works, said this week it completed development and integration of the Tetra-1 satellite. The satellite is based on Millennium Space Systems' ALTAIR line of small satellites, and will be the first to operate from geostationary orbit. The satellite will be part of the payload for the USSF-44 rideshare mission for the U.S. Space Force, set to launch in late 2020 on a Falcon Heavy. (4/22)

Spacebit Lunar Rover Startup Adapts During Pandemic (Source: Space News)
Lunar rover startup Spacebit is adapting its plans because of the business disruptions created by the pandemic. The company, with operations in six companies, is continuing to hire employees as it works on a miniature rover concept it intends to fly next year as a payload on Astrobotic's Peregrine lander. To prevent supply chain issues from halting progress, Spacebit is looking for ways to produce the rover with two sets of parts. Company founder Pavlo Tanasyuk said that, with the backing he and other investors have provided, Spacebit has enough money to continue its work for a year and a half. (4/22)

Russia Downplays COVID-19 Risk to ISS Crew (Source: Space News)
Roscosmos says it's "impossible" that the crew that launched to the International Space Station last week were exposed to the coronavirus by a Russian executive. Evegeny Mikrin, deputy CEO and chief designer of RSC Energia, tested positive for COVID-19 recently, and was seen at the launch close to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, who was in turn near the Soyuz MS-16 crew before launch. A Roscosmos spokesperson said it was "absolutely impossible" Mikrin could have infected the crew. NASA also was not concerned about any transmission, citing the quarantine the crew was in before launch, and said there were no plans to send coronavirus tests to the station to confirm the crew was not infected. (4/22)

NASA May Start Using Private Suborbital Flights to Train Astronauts (Source: Tech Crunch)
Astronauts may make a second home of space, but even they have a first time going up. NASA  is hoping to better prepare its crews for the challenges of space by sending them on suborbital flights from the likes of Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin — suggesting a potentially huge new market for the nascent private spaceflight industry. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in March explained that the agency was considering private carriers now mainly because previously the possibility simply didn’t exist.

“That’s a capability we as a nation have not had until recently,” he said. Indeed, it is not entirely clear we have it even now. Virgin Galactic  and Blue Origin have both demonstrated suborbital flights that have skimmed the very verge of space, but test flights and commercial flights to order are very different. While Virgin is already selling tickets, there’s no date set for the first flight with passengers. That flight will likely be this year, but without a reliable schedule and record of successful missions it’s hard to say that the capability is anything but aspirational at present.

The rocket-powered ascent out of the atmosphere and resulting minutes of weightlessness are a suitable venue for training, testing and other operations that might otherwise have had to take place in orbit. And that’s what NASA is hoping will take place — though no contracts have been signed just yet. (4/21)