February 20, 2021

What NASA Landing on Mars Means for Business on Earth (Source: The Hustle)
Since the 1960s, NASA’s Mars programs have led to countless innovations, including materials for heart surgeries, methane-leak detectors, and — importantly — carbonating beer. With Perseverance, it’s no different: Honeybee Robotics developed drill bits for the rover’s robotic arm that were also commercialized for use with standard drills; Tempo Automation simulated designs for NASA’s circuit boards and then discovered the technology’s utility in the broader circuit manufacturing process; Tech in Photon Systems’ spectroscopy tool for Perseverance is being tested for use in pharmaceuticals, food processing, and wastewater management. (2/19)

Space Force Says New Anti-Jamming Upgrade Coming in 2022 (Source: C4ISRnet)
The Space and Missile Systems Center completed three virtual tests of a new anti-jamming capability for satellite communications in the final months of 2020, the center announced Feb. 17. The mitigation and anti-jam enhancement program will provide advanced anti-jamming support for Wideband Global SATCOM, which provides satellite communications to American war fighters around the world.

Once operational, the capability will allow the WGS constellation to pinpoint and mitigate attempts to jam its signal. “The MAJE system will double the anti-jam capabilities for 16,000+ users,” Maj. Shawna Matthys, WGS-11+ program manager, said. The system will provide software and hardware upgrades to the Army’s Global SATCOM Configuration Control Element, the ground system used to detect, identify, locate and mitigate interference with WGS satellites. (2/18)

NASA's Rover is on Mars. What Happens Next is Up To Washington (Source: Politico)
America’s space program has long been plagued by drastic shifts in mission that accompany the inauguration of a new president or the election of new congressional leaders. But some space leaders on Capitol Hill hope to change that and give the Mars Sample Return Mission a better shot at outliving any one congressional term.

“We’re not the president. We can’t be John Kennedy and say ‘at the end of the decade,’” Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), who chairs the House space subcommittee, said in reference to Kennedy’s moonshot speech that birthed the Apollo program. “But we can do the congressional equivalent.”

Beyer, who was elected head of the House space panel last week, said he is eager to talk to the full committee leaders “right away” about passing a congressional resolution to show bipartisan support for funding the remainder of the Mars Sample Return effort, a three-part mission that’s expected to cost about $4 billion, in addition to the $2.7 billion already spent on the Perseverance rover. (2/18)

Colorado Represented on NASA’s Latest Mars Mission by Companies Large and Small (Source: Denver Post)
Colorado was well represented when NASA’s Perseverance landed on Mars Thursday. The rover is carrying equipment and technology developed by some of the state’s largest aerospace companies as well as a Broomfield business that is making its first foray into space. The aeroshell containing the car-sized Perseverance was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems at its Jefferson County complex. It’s the 10th aeroshell, a two-part structure, that the aerospace company has built for a Mars mission.

Air Squared, which designs and produces oil-free air compressors and vacuum pumps, built an air compressor for a device called Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, or MOXIE. The device, a little bigger than a car battery, is expected to draw in carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and convert it to oxygen. Sierra Nevada Corp. provided components being used on the rover, including a brake that will enable its safe and stable descent onto the Martian surface, the company said in a news release. This is the company’s 14th Mars mission. (2/18)

Space Coast Vaults to Second on Milken Institute’s Best Economic Performing Cities Index (Source: Space Coast Daily)
The Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area continues to rocket up the rankings of the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities, rising to second in the prestigious index for 2021, which tracks where America’s jobs are created and sustained. The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index tracks the economic performance of approximately 400 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas using an outcomes-based set of metrics which include job creation, wage gains, and high-tech GDP growth to evaluate the performance of these cities.

From 2018 to 2020, the Space Coast jumped an astounding 47 spots to make the top 10. This year’s report attributes the Space Coast’s continued ascent to strong wage and job growth, which are third and eighth in the nation, respectively. According to Milken, “the Space Coast improved on last year’s breakout performance, transforming one-year gains into long-term jobs and wage growth. This continued success is largely due to a diversified, high-tech industrial base, including a significant part of the national aerospace and defense industries.” (2/19)

General Atomics Awards Contract to Firefly Aerospace to Launch NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols Mission (Source: Parabolic Arc)
General Atomics has awarded a contract to Firefly Aerospace Inc. to launch a GA-EMS developed Orbital Test Bed (OTB) satellite carrying NASA’s Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) instrument. Firefly’s Alpha rocket is scheduled to launch the payload from Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2022. (2/18)

Florida Space Day/Week Planned Virtually This Week During State Legislative Session (Source: SPACErePORT)
Space industry leaders from around the state will gather online and in Tallahassee on Feb. 21-26 to raise the state legislature's awareness of space industry issues and promote full funding for Space Florida in the state's budget. This year in consideration of COVID-19 protocols at the State Capitol, the 28th Annual Florida Space Day has been expanded to a virtual week.

The aerospace industry generates billions of dollars in annual economic impact and employs thousands of high-tech workers throughout Florida. Our virtual Florida Space Day events will offer the opportunity to hear some inspirational messages from Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez, Astronaut Winston Scott, and others. Check the Florida Space Day website for events and times.

Partners for the 2021 event include ACT, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Air Force, ASRC Federal, Astronaut Scholarship Program, BLUECUBE Aerospace LLC, Boeing, BRPH, Caliburn International, Craigtech Inc., Delaware North, Energy Florida, FAMU, FIT, Florida Makes, Harris Corporation, ISS National Laboratory, Jones Edmunds, Lockheed Martin, Michaelis Foundation, NASA, Northup Grumman, Rocketcrafters, Space Coast EDC, Space Florida, Space X, and ULA. Lockheed Martin’s Director of Government Relations for Florida, Joe Mayer, is the 2021 Florida Space Day Chair. (2/19)

DoD Announces Investigation Into Space Command Move (Source: KOAA)
The Department of Defense Inspector General has announced plans to investigate the decision to move the home of U.S. Space Command from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama. In a memorandum sent to the Secretary of the Air Force, the Inspector General said the objective of the investigation is to "review the basis for selecting Huntsville, Alabama, as the preferred permanent location of the U.S. Space Command headquarters."

The memo went on to say the Inspector General will evaluate the extent to which the Department of the Air Force, complied with DoD and Air Force policies during the location selection process, used objective and relevant scoring factors to rank the six candidate locations, and calculated the cost and other scoring factors accurately and consistently among the six candidate locations. (2/19)

Scrap the Space Launch System (Source: Bloomberg)
Why is the U.S. government building a space rocket? In particular, why is it building a space rocket that has cost nearly $20 billion and counting, is years behind schedule, relies on outdated technology, suffers by comparison to private-sector alternatives, and has little justification to begin with? That’s the question President Joe Biden should bear in mind when pondering the future of the Space Launch System, the two-stage, heavy-lift rocket that aims to bring American astronauts back to the lunar surface and then — someday in the distant, hazy, not-too-specific future — to Mars.

Initiated in 2011, the SLS was the result of unfortunate compromises and unholy politics. By congressional mandate, it was built using technology and components that dated to the early space-shuttle era. That requirement all but ensured that the new rocket would be hugely expensive, heavily reliant on traditional aerospace contractors and — in all likelihood — antiquated before it ever reached a launchpad.

Perhaps predictably, the program has been plagued with problems from the start. A report last year from NASA’s inspector general warned of “rising costs and delays,” “shortcomings in quality control,” “challenges with program management,” “technical issues,” “development issues,” “infrastructure issues,” “performance issues” and more. A watchdog report in December found “uncertain plans, unproven cost assumptions, and limited oversight.” (2/18)

Telesat to Set Up Satellite Operations Campus in Gatineau as Part of $400M Deal (Source: Ottawa Business Journal)
After reaching a deal with a European manufacturer to build a multibillion-dollar fleet of satellites that will deliver high-speed internet around the world, Ottawa-based Telesat plans to build a major campus in Gatineau to oversee the network’s operations as part of a $400-million investment from the province. Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to be finalized in the next few months, the Quebec government will receive a $200-million equity stake in the cutting-edge satellite network, dubbed Lightspeed. The province will also provide Telesat with a $200-million loan. (2/18)

Israeli Research Satellite Launching to ISS (Source: Jerusalem Post)
Tel Aviv University (TAU) announced that the first nanosatellite to be wholly designed, developed, assembled and tested at an Israeli university will be sent into the Earth's orbit aboard a NASA rocket on Saturday, February 20, 2021. The rocket will dock first at the International Space Station (ISS) and astronauts will release the satellite into orbit from there. The nanosatellite, about the size of a shoebox, will measure cosmic radiation around the earth. (2/19)

The Case For and Against Planet 9 (Source: Astronomy Now)
For the past several years, astronomers have been searching for an unseen planet beyond the orbit of Pluto, a presumed world with 10 times the mass of Earth that could be responsible for the seemingly clustered orbits of small Trans-Neptunian Objects, or TNOs, in the extreme outer solar system. So far, “Planet 9” has eluded detection. Now a research team suggests selection bias may have played a role in the original justification for Planet 9.

TNOs are so distant and dim they can only be detected, if seen at all, when their orbits carry them relatively close to the inner solar system. Napier’s team analysed 14 other extreme TNOs discovered in three surveys and concluded their detection was based on where they happened to be at the time and the ability of the telescopes in question to detect them. In other words, the clustering seen in the orbits of the original TNOs cited in support of Planet 9 may have been the result of where the bodies happened to be when they were observed.

TNOs may well be uniformly distributed across the outer solar system without any need for the gravitational influence of an unseen planet. “It is important to note that our work does not explicitly rule out Planet X/Planet 9; its dynamical effects are not yet well enough defined to falsify its existence with current data,” the researchers write. Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin, the original proponents of Planet Nine, beg to differ. “Can their analysis distinguish between a clustered and uniform distribution, and the answer appears to be no,” Batygin said. (2/16)