April 25, 2021

Scientists Discover Small Black Hole Closest to Earth, Dub it 'the Unicorn' (Source: The Hill)
Scientists have discovered one of the smallest black holes yet that also happens to be the closest found near Earth, dubbing the rare black hole "the Unicorn." The black hole is reported to be nearly three times the mass of the sun and sits just 1,500 light years away from Earth. Black holes typically are not visible, so researchers were able to discover the Unicorn by analyzing data concerning changes in a nearby red giant star. (4/23)

15 French Volunteers Leave Cave After 40 days Without Daylight or Clocks (Source: The Guardian)
Fifteen people have emerged from a cave in south-west France after 40 days underground in an experiment to see how the absence of clocks, daylight and external communications would affect their sense of time. The group lived in and explored the cave as part of a project called Deep Time. There was no natural light, the temperature was 10C and the relative humidity 100%. They had no contact with the outside world, no updates on the pandemic nor any communications with friends or family.

Scientists at the Human Adaption Institute, which is leading the project, say the experiment will help them understand better how people adapt to drastic changes in living conditions and environments. As expected, those in the cave lost their sense of time. The team members followed their biological clocks to know when to wake up, go to sleep and eat. They counted their days not in hours but in sleep cycles. “It’s really interesting to observe how this group synchronises themselves,” Clot said earlier in a recording from inside the cave. Working together on projects and organizing tasks without being able to set a time to meet was particularly challenging, he said. (4/25)

Proxima Centauri Shoots Out Humongous Flare, with Big Implications for Alien Life (Source: Space.com)
cientists have spotted one of the largest stellar flares ever recorded in our galaxy. The jets of plasma shot outward from the sun's nearest neighbor, the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The flare, which was around 100 times more powerful than any experienced in our solar system, could change the way scientists think about solar radiation and alien life.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf — the smallest, dimmest and most common type of main sequence stars in the galaxy — located approximately 4.25 light-years from Earth. Its mass is only one-eighth of the sun's, and it is orbited by two exoplanets. One of these planets, Proxima Centauri b, is considered to be Earth-like and lies within the star's habitable zone — the distance from a star that could support the development of life, according to the researchers. (4/25)

Air Force Academy Renames Building to Honor Graduate Astronaut (Source: USAFA)
The Air Force Academy will honor Class of 1964 Distinguished Graduate retired Col. Frederick Gregory by renaming a building “Gregory Hall” after the distinguished Airman and NASA astronaut. Later this year, the Academy will rename the building formerly known as the Consolidated Education and Training Facility, which houses the dean of faculty’s astronautical engineering and civil engineering laboratories, as well as the departments of chemistry and biology. Gregory flew 550 combat rescue missions in Vietnam, earned competitive selection in the first class of space shuttle astronauts, and was the first Black American to pilot a spacecraft where he accrued 455 hours in space. (4/16)

Elon Musk's Economies Of Scale Won SpaceX The NASA Moonshot (Source: Forbes)
On April 17, when NASA revealed the result of its competition to develop a spacecraft to take astronauts back to the moon, it was clear that Elon Musk’s strategy of leveraging economies of scale had passed yet another milestone. Usually, NASA chooses more than one company for this type of arrangement, so as to cover its back and avoid any of them not being able to deliver its technology on time, but in this case it awarded the contract it in its entirety to SpaceX.

What made NASA choose SpaceX? Fundamentally, the aspect that differentiates Elon Musk’s companies: leveraging economies of scale. NASA’s $2.89 billion contract assures SpaceX the ability to develop, test and send two missions to the lunar surface: the second flight, which will be manned, is scheduled for 2024. But the value of the contract could be multiplied by a very important factor if, as expected, NASA continues, after this contract, to place its trust in SpaceX to continue sending regular missions to the moon to supply a base there with a permanent facility: in many ways, NASA’s contract is a major departure from what it has been proposing up to now.

This is precisely the most significant element of the decision, and where SpaceX had the biggest advantage: Blue Origin’s project was the most conventional, with a three-stage landing design, in line with NASA’s approach, but from which virtually no components were recovered. Dynetics delivered a more innovative and reusability-oriented proposal, but was unambitious, proposing to take just a few astronauts to the moon. (4/25)

China Aims to Launch Chang'e-6 Lunar Probe Around 2024 (Source: Xinhua)
China aims to launch the Chang'e-6 probe to collect samples in the South Pole-Aitken Basin on the far side of the moon around 2024, said a space expert on Saturday. Hu Hao, the chief designer of the third stage of China's lunar exploration program, told the China Space Conference, held in Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, that detailed designing on the mission is in progress.

China launched the Chang'e-5 probe in 2020, successfully bringing home 1,731 grams of moon samples. As the backup of the Chang'e-5 mission, the Chang'e-6 mission would also collect lunar samples automatically for comprehensive analysis and research. (4/24)

Recruiting in Trying Times: How Lockheed Martin Space Hired Thousands (Plus 700 Interns) in a Pandemic (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin Space hired 2,700 people plus 700 interns in 2020, a year unlike any other for human resources managers. Almost overnight, the prime contractor with about 23,000 employees switched from its traditional in-person approach to virtual recruitment, interviewing and training. SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner spoke with Lockheed Martin Space executives about the opportunities and challenges posed by heightened demand for talent amid a pandemic. Click here. (4/24)

Air Force Wants to Beam solar Power to Earth From Space (Source: Space.com)
Space-based solar power won't be just a sci-fi dream forever, if things go according to the U.S. Air Force's plans. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is developing a project called SSPIDR ("Space Solar Power Incremental Demonstrations and Research"), which aims to mature the technology needed to harvest solar energy in space and beam it down for use on Earth. Such a capability would be a big advantage on the battlefield, Air Force officials said.

The AFRL envisions sunlight-harvesting satellites equipped with innovative "sandwich tiles," which will convert solar energy into radio frequency (RF) power and beam it to Earth. Down here, receiving antennas will transform that RF energy into usable power. The AFRL won't build such an operational system, but it hopes to pave the way toward it with SSPIDR, a series of ground and flight experiments that help mature the required technologies. (4/25)

A Piece of Space Junk Zipped by SpaceX's Dragon Capsule on its Way to the Space Station (Source: Space.com)
The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-2 mission for NASA had a brief moment of suspense after their spectacular launch on Friday (April 23) when a piece of space debris passed unexpectedly close by their Crew Dragon capsule.  The space junk encounter, called a conjunction, occurred at 1:43 p.m. EDT as the four Crew-2 astronauts were preparing to sleep after a long day. Their Crew Dragon Endeavour docked at the space station early Saturday.

"For awareness, we have identified a late breaking possible conjunction with a fairly close miss distance to Dragon," SpaceX's Sarah Gilles told the astronauts about 20 minutes before the conjunction on Friday. "As such, we do need you to immediately proceed with suit donning and securing yourselves in seats." (4/24)

China's Moon Probe Will Carry French, Russian Gear (Source: ABC)
China will launch its next robot lunar lander in 2024, and it will carry equipment from France, Sweden, Russia and Italy, the official news agency reported. Plans call for Chang’e 6 to land near the lunar south pole and collect samples for return to Earth, the program’s chief designer, Hu Hao, said at a conference Saturday, according to the Xinhua News Agency. (4/25)

China Eyes Asteroid Defence System, Comet Mission (Source: Reuters)
China will hold discussions on building a defence system against near-Earth asteroids, a senior space agency official said on Saturday, as the country steps up its longer term space ambitions. CNSA's Zhang Kejian did not provide further detail. China has made space exploration a top priority in recent years, aiming to establish a programme operating thousands of space flights a year and carrying tens of thousands of tonnes of cargo and passengers by 2045. (4/24)

China’s Commercial Sector Finds Funding and Direction (Source: Space News)
China has experienced an explosion of commercial space companies since 2014, driven by the government opening up the space sector to private capital. According to Chinese publication Future Aerospace, there were 141 registered commercial aerospace companies in China by the end of 2018, in areas including launch, propulsion, satellite manufacturing, payloads and applications and ground stations. And investor enthusiasm for these space companies continues to rise.

2020 saw investment of $933 million (6 billion Chinese yuan) in China’s commercial aerospace sector, more than three times the $296 million in 2019, according to Chinese data platform Tianyancha. A trend is developing toward fewer but larger funding rounds. Major rounds in 2020 were remote sensing firm Changguang Satellite ($375 million), launch companies Landspace ($175 million), iSpace ($173 million) and Galactic Energy ($21.5 million), as well as satellite communications startups Commsat ($38 million) and Galaxy Space, which announced in November that it had completed a new funding round resulting in a new valuation of $1.2 billion. (4/25)

SpaceX Could Land Astronauts on the Moon in 2024, Elon Musk Says (Source: Space.com)
Elon Musk doesn't think NASA's 2024 moon-landing goal is out of reach. The space agency is working to get people back to the moon via its Artemis program, which aims to establish a long-term, sustainable human presence on and around Earth's nearest neighbor by the end of the 2020s. "I think it will happen. I think 2024 seems likely," Musk said Friday morning (April 23) in a news conference after the successful launch of SpaceX's Crew-2 mission, which is sending four astronauts to the International Space Station under a contract with NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

"We're gonna aim for sooner than that," he added. Indeed, Musk said he thinks Starship — a giant, reusable rocket-spaceship combo — could be flying people regularly by 2023. (4/24)

In Space, No One Will Hear Bezos and Musk’s Workers’ Call for Basic Rights (Source: The Guardian)
Musk says SpaceX will land humans on Mars by 2026 and wants to establish a colony by 2050. Its purpose, he says, will be to ensure the survival of our species. “If we make life multi-planetary, there may come a day when some plants and animals die out on Earth but are still alive on Mars,” he tweeted. Bezos is also aiming to build extraterrestrial colonies, but in space rather than on Mars. He envisions “very large structures, miles on end” that will “hold a million people or more each”.

Back on our home planet, Musk is building electric cars, which will help the environment. And Bezos is allowing us to shop from home, which might save a bit on gas and thereby also help the environment. But Musk and Bezos are treating their workers like, well, dirt. Last spring, after calling government stay-at-home orders “fascist” and tweeting “FREE AMERICA NOW”, Musk reopened his Tesla factory in Fremont, California before health officials said it was safe to do so. Almost immediately, 10 workers came down with the virus. As cases mounted, Musk fired workers who took unpaid leave. Seven months later, at least 450 Tesla workers had been infected.

Musk is virulently anti-union. A few weeks ago, the National Labor Relations Board found that Tesla illegally interrogated workers over suspected efforts to form a union, fired one and disciplined another for union-related activities, threatened workers if they unionized and barred employees from communicating with the media. Bezos isn’t treating his earthling employees much better. His warehouses impose strict production quotas and subject workers to seemingly arbitrary firings, total surveillance and 10-hour workdays with only two half-hour breaks – often not enough time to get to a bathroom and back. (4/25)

From Eno to Dua Lipa, Why Musicians are Fascinated by Outer Space (Source: The Guardian)
Wherever one stands on concept albums, space fantasy is a longstanding theme, especially for musicians who came of age during the space race and made early forays into prog rock. Hawkwind’s Space is Deep or Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive gave way to Roxy Music and David Bowie, who in turn inspired Jobriath, Sparks’ In Outer Space, Gary Numan and Duran Duran, each to some degree drawn towards a space-age conjunction with showbusiness. Click here. (4/24)