April 6, 2020

A Comet May Have Destroyed This Paleolithic Village 12,800 Years Ago (Source: Smithsonian)
Abu Hureyra is an important archaeological site in Syria, known for artifacts documenting early adoption of agriculture in the region. It may also be recognized as the only known human settlement to have been hit by a fragment of a comet. The site, now under the waters of Lake Assad, was quickly excavated between 1972 and 1973 before construction of the Tabqa Dam flooded the area. During the excavation, archaeologists realized that there were really two sites, one on top of the other. The first was a Paleolithic settlement of hunter-gatherers, and the second was a farming town, with new buildings of a different style.

A new analysis of samples of soil and artifacts salvaged from the original excavation has revealed a surprising finding: The Paleolithic village at Abu Hureyra was indirectly hit and destroyed by fragments of a comet that slammed into Earth about 12,800 years ago. The researchers think that upon entering Earth’s atmosphere, the already-fractured comet likely broke up into several more pieces, many of which didn’t reach the ground. Instead, they produced a string of explosions in the atmosphere known as airbursts.

Each airburst was as powerful as a nuclear blast, instantaneously vaporizing the soil and vegetation underneath and producing powerful shock waves that destroyed everything for tens of kilometers around. The village at Abu Hureyra was hit by one of these shock waves. A multidisciplinary group of scientists has now found that some soil samples from Abu Hureyra were filled with tiny pieces of melt glass—small bits of vaporized soil that solidified quickly after the explosion. They found melt glass among the seeds and cereal grains recovered from the site, as well as splattered in the adobe that covered the buildings. (4/6)

The Plan to Shoot a Steamy Romance in Space (Source: Ozy)
But in late 1997, Russian director Yuri Kara approached the Mir’s custodians with an idea: He’d pay a hefty sum to send two actors to the station in 2000 to shoot scenes for a film, to be released in 2001 on the 40th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s historic spaceflight. An ode to the Russian space program, the film might galvanize support for the craft. Kara openly acknowledged that he’d need about $30 million just to shoot on the Mir, and a total budget of about $200 million, tying Titanic as the most expensive film ever shot at that point. Oh, and a number of the shoots would reportedly be sex scenes.

Kara never got to make his steamy sci-fi romance before the Mir deorbited in 2001. Yet outlandish as his plot may sound, he got close to making it a reality. His is the story of a 20-year-old near miss that makes modern private space ventures feel less fanciful than they’re often portrayed as being. Kara openly acknowledged that he’d need about $30 million just to shoot on the Mir, and a total budget of about $200 million, tying Titanic as the most expensive film ever shot at that point. Kara’s proposal didn’t come entirely out of left field. Starved for capital, Russian authorities had been courting private funding for the Mir for years, and by 1997 had allowed its cosmonauts to endorse everything from Israeli milk to Pepsi Cola in commercials shot on the station to score a little scratch. (4/6)

Astra Trims Staff to Survive Pandemic Until Next Year (Source: CNBC)
Rocket builder Astra, a San Francisco-area startup, recently reduced its staff through a mix of furloughs and layoffs in order to survive delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a person familiar with the situation told CNBC. Astra cut its overall headcount to about 120 employees from about 150 last month, the person said. The majority of the dismissed workers were furloughed for three months, with only a handful laid off permanently.

Given Astra’s financial position – it has customer contracts for a few dozen launches and had raised about $100 million from investors including ACME Capital, Airbus Ventures, Canaan Partners and Marc Benioff – the person said that the company’s leadership expects it has enough cash to last until the first quarter of next year. Astra was previously hoping to close a new round of funding in the next few months. But investors across the U.S. have frozen new deals, instead focusing on helping existing portfolio companies survive. (4/4)

Unusual Ozone Hole Opens Over the Arctic (Source: ESA)
Scientists using data from the Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite have noticed a strong reduction of ozone concentrations over the Arctic. Unusual atmospheric conditions, including freezing temperatures in the stratosphere, have led ozone levels to plummet – causing a ‘mini-hole’ in the ozone layer. The ozone layer is a natural, protective layer of gas in the stratosphere that shields life from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation – which is associated with skin cancer and cataracts, as well as other environmental issues. The ‘ozone hole’ most commonly referenced is the hole over Antarctica, forming each year during autumn. (4/6)

How a Pandemic Prepares Us for Exploring and Living on Mars (Source: CNN)
s people around the world rethink many aspects of their lives to combat the coronavirus pandemic, NASA experts say that knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe and healthy will help us prepare for landing on another planet. After all, NASA's robotic explorers are already on Mars paving the way for future astronaut-led missions to the Red Planet -- and those expeditions] will require a level of safety planning that would put a germophobe to shame.

Astronauts don't want to carry Earth bacteria to the surface of Mars because it could contaminate the environment, or even show up as a false positive of life on the planet. And they also have to be careful to quarantine any samples returned. It requires a level of care and caution we haven't had to exercise in our daily lives -- until now. Click here. (4/6)

Xplore Wins Award From Air Force to Study Navigational Tools for Moon Missions (Source: GeekWire)
Seattle-based Xplore has won a $50,000 award from the Air Force to develop an architecture for keeping track of missions between Earth and the moon. The three-month study is being funded through the Air Force’s AFWERX technology innovation program, a partnership involving the Air Force Research Laboratory and the National Security Innovation Network. The Air Force wants to develop systems for position, navigation and timing, or PNT, that would extend a GPS-like tracking system to cislunar space — that is, the domain of space extending to the moon.

Without such a system, it would be extremely difficult for spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon to identify their precise position. That’s expected to become increasingly important as NASA and commercial companies send new waves of probes to the moon, establishing the infrastructure for crewed missions to the moon by as early as 2024. There are also national security implications for monitoring traffic in cislunar space.

Lisa Rich, Xplore’s founder and chief operating officer, said the Air Force’s interest in cislunar navigational systems meshed perfectly with the requirements for Xplore’s Xcraft spacecraft, which is meant to take on missions to the moon as well as Mars, Venus, asteroids and other deep-space destinations. The first Xcraft is due for launch as early as next year. (4/6)

Accion Raises $11 Million to Refine its Dime-Size Spacecraft Thrusters (Source: Space.com)
The company announced in February that it had completed its latest funding round, raising $11 million to expand the company's productions and staff. The latest funding, which was co-led by Boeing Horizon X ventures and Shasta Ventures, brings Accion Systems' total funding to $36 million since the company's start in 2014, $14 million of which is from contracts with NASA and the United States Department of Defense. (4/5)

The Stuff That Psyche Is Made Of (Source: EOS)
The metallic asteroid Psyche appears to contain more rock than previously thought, shedding new light on possible scenarios for its formation in the early solar system. Psyche is a large, peculiar asteroid that orbits the Sun in our solar system’s asteroid belt. Although most asteroids are made primarily of rock or ice, Psyche is abundant in metal, suggesting that it could be the remnant core of an early planet. Now Elkins-Tanton et al. report that Psyche may have a higher ratio of rock to metal than previously hypothesized.

In preparation for a NASA mission to Psyche set to launch in 2022, the researchers reviewed and analyzed reports on the latest observations of the asteroid, including data from mass and volume calculations, radar measurements, and investigations of Psyche’s spectral signature. The analysis suggests that Psyche, which is about 226 kilometers in diameter, has a density of 3,400–4,100 kilograms per cubic meter. And although earlier observations suggested that the asteroid consists almost entirely of iron and nickel, it now appears that those metals make up only 30%–60% of its volume, with the rest consisting of silicate rock and pore space. (4/6)

Two More Seattle-Area Blue Origin Workers Infected (Source: CNBC)
Jeff Bezos’ space venture Blue Origin confirmed that two more employees in the Seattle-area have tested positive for coronavirus. “Blue Origin’s Human Resources team will remain in close communication with these employees throughout their recovery period to make sure they are getting the care and support they need,” Blue Origin’s head of communications Linda Mills told CNBC. The Seattle region is a hot spot for coronavirus cases in the U.S., with companies such as Boeing and Amazon also reporting employees have tested positive. (4/6)

SpaceX Crew Flight Could Bring Astronauts for Three-Month ISS Stay (Source: CNBC)
The upcoming SpaceX commercial crew test flight could stay at the International Space Station for two to three months. In an interview, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that Demo-2 mission, with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on board, will likely stay at the station for an extended period to provide additional crew for the station, which will have only three people on board at the time. That mission is scheduled for launch in the latter half of May, pending resolution of an investigation into an engine shutdown in a Falcon 9 launch last month and completion of Crew Dragon parachute tests. That mission would be followed in August by the first operational Crew Dragon mission, Crew-1, with four NASA and JAXA astronauts on board. (4/6)

NASA Marshall Could be Closed for Several More Weeks (Source: Space News)
Officials with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center expect it will be several weeks before personnel can start working on site again. In a virtual town hall meeting last week, center leaders said the center would likely remain at Stage 4 of NASA's pandemic response framework, limiting access only to the most essential personnel, through April, based on the social distancing guidance from the White House. Even if that guidance expires at the end of April as currently planned, the center will likely "not immediately" reopen for other personnel, taking cues from NASA Headquarters and local officials about when and how to do so. While that has halted progress on programs like the Space Launch System that require personnel at the center to work on hardware, projects that can be done via telework, like work on the Human Landing System lunar lander program for Artemis, are continuing. (4/6)

China Rocket Uses Grid Fins and Parachutes to Minimize Ground Hazards (Source: Xinhua)
China is using recovery systems to guide the crash landing of rocket stages. On a Long March 3B launch last month, the rocket's booster stage was equipped with parachutes and grid fins to guide its descent back to Earth after stage separation. The system enabled a more precise landing site of the stage, allowing teams to find the debris in just 25 minutes, rather than the hours or days previously required. Engineers hope the system can reduce the size of hazard zones for falling debris by 85%. (4/6)

ESA Resumes Space Mission Control (Source: Space News)
The European Space Agency is resuming operations of four space science missions placed on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. ESA announced last week that the Cluster, ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, Mars Express and Solar Orbiter missions would resume operations after being placed in a safe mode March 24. ESA said that one employee at the mission control center in Germany tested positive for COVID-19 and, as a precaution, about 20 other employees who had been in contact with that person were asked to self-quarantine. Those people had primarily been working on those four missions, hence the decision to suspend operations. None of those employees showed symptoms of the disease, and the person who was diagnosed with COVID-19 is recovering. (4/6)

Last Original-Version Dragon Returns (Source: Florida Today)
The last original version of the cargo Dragon spacecraft will return to Earth Tuesday. The CRS-20 Dragon mission will depart the ISS Tuesday morning, one day later than previously planned, and splash down in the Pacific Ocean several hours later. Future SpaceX cargo missions to the station will use a version of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific. (4/6)

Rashomon’s Fire: Another Perspective on Apollo 1 From NASA Official Paul Dembling (Source: Space Review)
Different people involved in historical events have different recollections of what happened. Dwayne Day demonstrates that from an interview with another NASA official who was at an infamous Senate hearing after the Apollo 1 accident. Click here. (4/6)
 
What is the Future for Commercial Suborbital Spaceflight? (Source: Space Review)
Earlier this year, both Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic appeared to be finally ready to start flying people to space by the end of the year. Jeff Foust reports that the pandemic has put those plans into question. Click here. (4/6)
 
The US Space Force’s Long War (Source: Space Review)
The Space Force has had some stumbles in the months since its establishment, but appears to have general public support. John Hickman argues one challenge the Space Force faces is changing how the public perceives spaceflight itself. Click here. (4/6)
 
Space Force: the Struggle Continues (Source: Space Review)
While the US Space Force was formally established last December, it’s still struggling with some organizational and policy issues. Taylor Dinerman discusses some of those issues and their importance to the nascent service. Click here. (4/6)

Private Companies Find Role in Developing Nuclear Power for Space Travel (Source: Space.com)
Space is about to go nuclear — at least if private companies get their way. At the 23rd annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference (CST) in Washington, D.C., in January, a panel of nuclear technology experts and leaders in the commercial space industry spoke about developments of the technology that could propel future spacecraft faster and more efficiently than current systems can.

Nuclear technology has powered spacecraft such as NASA's Mars rovers, the Cassini mission and the two Voyagers that are currently exploring the outer reaches of our solar system. But those fuel sources rely on the passive decay of radioactive plutonium, converting heat from that process into electricity to power the spacecraft. Instead, the CST panelists discussed Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP), a technology developed in the 1960s and '70s that relies on the splitting, or fission, of hydrogen atoms. Although fission is associated with more warlike images, the panel's experts emphasized the safety of nuclear thermal propulsion, which would use low-enriched uranium.

An NTP-powered spacecraft would pump hydrogen propellant through a miniature nuclear reactor core. Inside this reactor core, high energy neutrons would split uranium atoms in fission reactions; those freed neutrons would smack into other atoms and trigger more fission. The heat from these reactions would convert the hydrogen propellent into gas, which would produce thrust when forced through a nozzle. (4/6)

White House Releases Executive Order On Space Resource Use (Source: NASA Watch)
President Trump signed an Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. This order addresses U.S. policy regarding the recovery and use of resources in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. Dr. Scott Pace, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, said: "As America prepares to return humans to the Moon and journey on to Mars, this Executive Order establishes U.S. policy toward the recovery and use of space resources, such as water and certain minerals, in order to encourage the commercial development of space." (4/6)

Branson Shifts $1.1 Billion Galactic Holding Between Tax Havens (Source: Bloomberg)
Richard Branson moved assets from the U.S. to the British Virgin Islands, highlighting his use of tax havens at a time one of his businesses sought a state bailout because of the coronavirus pandemic. Filings show a Delaware-based company for his $1.1 billion stake in Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. transferred shares in the space-travel firm on March 16 to the Caribbean territory where Branson, 69, lives. Residents in the BVI pay no income or capital-gains taxes while the U.S. state is known for preserving the privacy of its corporate owners. (4/6)

After Problem-Plagued Test Flight, Boeing Will Refly Crew Capsule Without Astronauts (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
Boeing ’s Starliner crew capsule will fly a second time without astronauts after software problems and other issues plagued a first test flight in December, preventing the ship from reaching the International Space Station. The CST-100 Starliner crew capsule was expected to fly with astronauts for the first time this year, capping a multibillion-dollar NASA-funded development program. But a mission timing error caused the spacecraft to burn too much fuel to enter orbit after an otherwise successful launch Dec. 20 prevented the capsule from docking with the space station.

Beleaguered by back-to-back crashes and the subsequent global grounding of the 737 MAX passenger jet and more recent headwinds from the slump in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic, Boeing said it would fund the unplanned crew capsule test flight “at no cost to the taxpayer.” Boeing told investors earlier this year it was taking a $410 million charge against its earnings to cover the expected costs of a second unpiloted test flight. (4/6)