June 6, 2021

NASA's Mars Helicopter Ingenuity Set for 7th Red Planet Flight (Source: Space.com)
NASA's Mars helicopter Ingenuity will take to the air again this weekend, if all goes according to plan. Ingenuity's handlers are prepping the 4-lb. (1.8 kilograms) chopper for its seventh Martian flight, which will take place no earlier than Sunday (June 6). The plan is to send Ingenuity to a new airfield, about 350 feet (105 meters) south of its current location on the floor of Jezero Crater.

"This will mark the second time the helicopter will land at an airfield that it did not survey from the air during a previous flight," NASA officials wrote in an update on Friday (June 4). "Instead, the Ingenuity team is relying on imagery collected by the HiRISE camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that suggests this new base of operations is relatively flat and has few surface obstructions." Data from the flight will be beamed home to Earth over the three days following the flight, they added. (6/5)

Furious Families Say SpaceX Rockets are Ruining Their Peaceful Homes (Source: Daily Mail)
There cannot be many more idyllic spots for those seeking the quiet life than Boca Chica, which sits on one of the most unspoilt beaches in the United States beside a wildlife refuge, 20 miles from the nearest town. A hand-printed sign on a black barrel by the road points the way to the little village – a cluster of 35 bungalows amid mesquite and palm trees.

Little wonder Celia Johnson and Cheryl Stevens fell in love with it as children, enjoying days out with their families, then, decades later, choosing it as the perfect spot for a peaceful retirement. They watched bobcats and coyotes stroll down the street, porpoises glide through the Bay of Mexico waters, and numerous bird species nesting by the mudflats. But things are different now. For billionaire tycoon Elon Musk has picked their remote slice of paradise as the base for launching missions to the Moon and Mars, declaring that he is 'creating the city of Starbase' in this pristine corner of Texas.

So now there is a giant rocket nose cone sitting at one end of their street, alongside towering cranes, fuel silos and gantries under construction. The streets are packed with lorries, on the kerb sits debris from rockets that have exploded, tourists throng to see the site, the beach is sometimes closed off, the road is blocked, sirens wail and residents are routinely evacuated before launches in case another test flight goes wrong. 'It's not just that we did not want this in our back yard – they stopped us using our own back yard,' said Stevens. She ditched her dream, and along with some other residents, accepted SpaceX's persistent offer to buy her home, and moved out in October. (6/5)

SpaceX’s CRS-22 Dragon Arrives at ISS with New Solar Arrays (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
Some 40 hours after launch, SpaceX’s CRS-22 cargo Dragon docked with the International Space Station with new science and solar arrays for the orbiting laboratory. Docking with International Docking Adapter 3 on the space-facing side of the Harmony module took place at 5:09 a.m. EDT (9:09 UTC) June 5, 2021. Aboard is more than 7,300 pounds (3,300 kilograms) of crew supplies, experiments and equipment for the seven-person Expedition 65 crew. (6/5)

Sirius XM-8 Satellite Enters Orbit After SpaceX Rocket Launch (Source: Newsweek)
SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched SiriusXM's SXM-8 satellite in the early hours of Sunday, the company has announced. SXM-8 was later deployed and has begun an elliptic orbit around the Earth. The $225 million satellite will replenish the fleet for SiriusXM, a New York-based broadcasting company that provides satellite radio programming. It is expected to provide service to its customers for 15 years.

An earlier launch for SiriusXM by SpaceX ended badly. SXM-7 was successfully launched in December but suffered an anomaly after reaching orbit. This was the reusable rocket's third mission, having been previously used in the company's two astronaut flights so far. NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on the Crew-1 (in November 2020) and Crew-2 (in April) missions. The first stage of the rocket returned to Earth and was later recovered by SpaceX's "Just Read the Instructions," an autonomous spaceport drone ship based in the Atlantic. (6/6)

Fridge for Astronaut Food Aces First Flight Tests (Source: Freethink)
The food astronauts eat has a shelf life that could limit our ability to send them on long-term missions — so Purdue University engineers designed a fridge for astronaut food that could make it last twice as long. The challenge: The canned and dried food astronauts eat while in space is good for about three years. That's fine for the average six-month-long visit to the International Space Station, but if we want to send astronauts on longer missions, it needs to last longer.

A refrigerator could extend the shelf life of astronaut food, but standard fridges don't work in microgravity. Purdue designed a fridge they believe would work in microgravity, allowing food to last five to six years in space. It doesn't require any oil, and it pushes the refrigerant liquid through the cooling system at a higher velocity, which minimizes the effect of gravity on the fridge's performance.

Purdue's fridge for astronaut food was put to the test during four flights. The plane produced microgravity conditions 30 times — for about 20 seconds each time — during each flight. That gave the researchers the opportunity to test many different parameters. They're still analyzing the data, but it appears their fridge works. (5/30)

Colorado Air National Guard Breaks Ground on Space Facility (Source: Gazette)
The Colorado Air National Guard's 138th Space Control Squadron will soon have a permanent facility to call its own, after a groundbreaking ceremony last month on Peterson Air Force Base. The squadron was created in May 2019 and is one of a few deployable space units in the air and space forces. It is part of the 233rd Space Group under the 140th Wing at the recently named Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora. (6/6)

Medical Emergencies In Space: Is Private Space Tourism Ready For A Worst Case Scenario? (Source: Discover)
The age of commercial passenger space flight is upon us. Efforts by companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing and Virgin Galactic aim to put paying individuals in space. The International Space Station expects to receive its first private crew early next year during the Axiom Mission 1, with the three tourists paying a sum of $55 million each to stay at the space station for eight days.

As the potential for private space travel grows, it’s only natural to wonder: What if something goes wrong? With more chances to send people into space comes greater potential for mishaps. In the time since we figured out how to launch humans into space, 18 people have died. Although it's pretty much impossible to find a working astronaut with a serious health issue, the case is not the same for tourists, especially if those tourists are older. 

Right now, there aren't any rules requiring space tourism companies to set or meet any health criteria for accepting passengers. There’s never been a major medical emergency on the space station, what's the plan for if one does happen there or on a space flight full of paying tourists? Or worse, what if someone dies? Click here. (6/5)

Making Sure Space Tourists Survive the Trip (Source: Business Insider)
"There are a couple days of training in advance of the flight," a Blue Origin spokesperson told Insider. "Some of the training includes learning procedures for getting into and out of the capsule, a mission simulation, and learning techniques for how to move around in zero-g." The National Aerospace Training and Research Center has "already trained nearly 400 future Virgin Galactic passengers for their trips," Glenn King, the director of spaceflight training, told AFP. The training takes two days and involves a morning of classroom instruction and using a centrifuge to simulate gravitational forces. Click here. (6/5)

Messages Scrambled by Black Holes Stand Their Ground Against Quantum Computers (Source: Physics World)
Black holes are nature’s fastest data-scramblers, and new research suggests that secrets thrown into them may be more secure than previously thought. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the US show that once a message has been scrambled by a black hole or another system with similar properties, not even a quantum computer can put it back together.

Scramblers are quantum systems that take local information and spread it across the entire system, generating quantum entanglement between distant regions. They crop up in various contexts in physics. While black holes are perhaps the most famous example, scramblers also exist in simple systems such as spin chains – 1D arrangements of quantum particles with coupling between nearest neighbours – and in “strange” metals, in which resistivity depends atypically on temperature.

Although the scrambling process is deterministic – a fixed input yields a fixed output – scrambling systems can give rise to tremendously complex behaviour, distributing information in seemingly random fashion. This emergence of apparent randomness is known as quantum chaos, in analogy with classical chaos theory, where similarly simple systems produce equally intricate dynamics. (6/4)

$17M Proposed for DOT Resilient PNT Initiatives (Source: GPS World)
The Biden administration’s budget proposal delivered to Congress last week includes $17 million for the small Department of Transportation (DOT) office responsible for leading civil positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) efforts for the nation. This is a marked increase over the $2 million allocated in 2020 and estimated $5 million being spent this fiscal year. At the same time, it seeks to repeal the National Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2018 that mandated DOT establish a terrestrial timing backup for GPS. (6/4)

Space Fund Seraphim in Countdown to London Stock Market Launch (Source: Sky News)
An arm of Seraphim Capital is working with bankers on plans for a public share sale that could raise in the region of £250m. City sources said on Friday that Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan were working with Seraphim on its initial public offering (IPO), the details of which could be confirmed within the next few weeks. Seraphim has a portfolio of nearly 20 companies, with current holdings including a stake in Arqit, a British-based quantum encryption company which last month announced a $1.4bn merger with a New York-listed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). (6/4)

Biden's 2022 NASA Budget Says Yes to Pretty Much Everything (Source: Planetary Society)
Mars. The Moon. Europa. Planetary Defense. Yes. Mars Sample Return? Yes. NEO Surveyor? Yes. Artemis? Yes. Europa? Yes. The 2022 Presidential Budget Request for NASA, released in full on May 28th, is the 2nd-best budget proposal for the space agency in 25 years. That would mean $24.8 billion for NASA, that's $1.5 billion, or 6.6%, more than provided by Congress last year.

The increases are spread around the agency, with no one directorate reaping the windfall. NASA's Deep Space Exploration, Science, Space Technology, and STEM Outreach programs are the biggest beneficiaries.

Are there things I would tweak? Sure. I'd up research funding for basic research. I'd direct more funds towards human Mars technology development, particularly for in-space nuclear propulsion. I'd provide a bit more funds to operating missions to enable more productive work. I'd spend more on replacing and revitalizing NASA's aging facilities (something that may be addressed through a separate infrastructure bill). But these are modest quibbles. When asked by NASA to fund its mission, the Biden Administration largely responded with "yes." (6/4)

NASA is Getting Serious About UFOs (Source: CNN)
NASA's new chief is setting up an effort to further study unidentified flying objects within his first month in office. Bill Nelson said it's not clear to anyone — even in the upper echelons of the US space agency — what the high-speed objects observed by Navy pilots are. "We don't know if it's extraterrestrial. We don't know if it's an enemy. We don't know if it's an optical phenomenon," Nelson said. "We don't think [it's an optical phenomenon] because of the characteristics that those Navy jet pilots described ... And so the bottom line is, we want to know."

Nelson added that he does not believe the UFOs are evidence of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. "I think I would know" if that were the case, Nelson said. But, he acknowledged, it'd be premature to rule that out as a possibility. Nelson's comments echo the findings of a new Pentagon report expected to be released later this month. Five sources familiar with the results of that study told CNN that US intelligence officials found no evidence that the UFOs are alien spacecraft, but investigators also have not reached a definitive assessment as to what these mysterious objects might be. (6/4)

Space Force Seeks $831.7M for Unfunded Priorities (Source: Defense One)
The Space Force is seeking an additional $831.7 million from Congress for improvements on Earth and in space that it says are necessary to continue building the force. Among the larger projects on the unfunded priorities list submitted by service officials to Congress this week are $83M for infrastructure at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado; $61M for new payload and propulsion systems; and $22M for space-rated satellite crypto systems. (6/4)

Space Force Assumes Command of Newly Named Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado (Source: KDVR)
Colorado’s Buckley Air Force Base is getting a new name, with an official ceremony happening Friday morning. The base is now officially Buckley Space Force Base. United States Space Force Col. Marcus D. Jackson assumed command of the base effective June 4, 2021. (6/4)

A Half-Million Pieces Of Space Junk Pose Real Threat To Astronauts (Source: Forbes)
t takes so little to knock out very valuable equipment, and it might have humans on it. Any collision with space debris can result in loss of mission, or loss of life, or both. Right now, we only track things that are about one centimeter and larger. The smaller pieces can destroy circuit boards, shred solar arrays, etc. Right now, according to NASA, there is at least a one in 160 chance in loss of mission, per mission. Over the next 10 years, it is estimated that there's a one in eight chance of a loss of mission, and, get this, a one in 60 chance in the loss of crew. (6/4)

Risks to Life and Property in Space (Source: Salon)
For space law to be effective, it needs to do three things. First, regulation must prevent as many dangerous situations from occurring as possible. Second, there needs to be a way to monitor and enforce compliance. And finally, laws need to lay out a framework for responsibility and liability if things do go wrong. So, how do current laws and treaties around space stack up? They do OK, but interestingly, looking at environmental law here on Earth may give some ideas on how to improve the current legal regime with respect to space debris.

Current space law has worked so far because the issues have been few and far between and have been dealt with diplomatically. As more and more spacecraft take flight, the risks to property or life will inevitably increase and the Liability Convention may get more use. But risks to life and property are not the only concerns about a busy sky. While launch providers, satellite operators and insurance companies care about the problem of space debris for its effect on space operations, space sustainability advocates argue that the environment of space has value itself and faces a much greater risk of harm than individuals on Earth.

But, as Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty declares that no state can own outer space or celestial bodies, it is not clear whether this interpretation would apply in the event of harm to objects in space. Space is shaping up to be a new frontier on which the tragedy of the commons can play out. Removing from orbit existing large objects that could collide with one another would be a great place for governments to start. But if the United Nations or governments agreed on laws that define legal consequences for creating space debris in the first place and punishment for not following best practices, this could help mitigate future pollution of the space environment. (6/5)

Seven Asteroids are Zooming Past Earth This Week — and One is the Size of a Skyscraper (Source: CBS News)
A "potentially hazardous" asteroid zoomed past Earth on Tuesday — and it's not the only one. In total, seven asteroids are expected to pass by our planet by the end of the week. The largest of the asteroids, named 2021 KT1, is approximately 600 feet, about the size of the Seattle Space Needle and taller than the Washington Monument. However, scientists believe it could be as large as 1,049 feet, comparative in size to New York City's Chrysler Building.

The asteroid is classified by NASA as a "potentially hazardous object" because it is a near-Earth object that is larger than 492 feet, and passed within 4.6 million miles of Earth. For reference, the average distance between Earth and the moon is about 239,000 miles. (6/4)

What If the Black Hole at the Center of the Milky Way is Actually a Mass of Dark Matter? (Source: Phys.org)
A team of researchers has found evidence that suggests Sagittarius A* is not a massive black hole but is instead a mass of dark matter. For several years the scientific community has agreed that there is a mass at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and that the mass is a supermassive black hole—it has been named Sagittarius A*. Its presence has never been verified directly, however, instead it has been inferred by noting the behavior of bodies around it.

In this new effort, the researchers suggest that another type of mass could produce the same reactions by other bodies and in fact could help explain some anomalies that have been seen. Back in 2014, astrophysicists were confronted with a problem they could not explain—a gas cloud that had been named G2 moved to a position close enough to Sagittarius A* that it should have been destroyed and pulled in by the black hole. Instead, the gas cloud continued on its way, unharmed. The researchers in this new effort suggest the reason G2 was able to survive its journey past Sagittarius A*, was because Sagittarius A* is not a black hole—it is a mass of dark matter. (6/2)

Shrinking Planets Could Explain Mystery of Universe’s Missing Worlds (Source: SciTech Daily)
Studying data from the Kepler space telescope, researchers found that planetary shrinkage over billions of years likely explains a yearslong mystery: the scarcity of planets roughly double Earth’s size. That’s the middle ground between rocky super-Earths and larger, gas-shrouded planets called mini-Neptunes. Since discovering this ‘radius gap’ in 2017, scientists have been sleuthing out why there are so few midsize heavenly bodies.

The new clue arose from a fresh way of looking at the data. A team of researchers led by Trevor David investigated whether the radius gap changes as planets age. They divvied up exoplanets into two groups — young and old — and reassessed the gap. The least common planet radii from the younger set were smaller on average than the least common ones from the older set, they found. While the scarcest size for younger planets was about 1.6 times Earth’s radius, it’s about 1.8 times Earth’s radius at older ages.

The implication, the researchers propose, is that some mini-Neptunes shrink drastically over billions of years as their atmospheres leak away, leaving behind only a solid core. By losing their gas, the mini-Neptunes “jump” the planet radius gap and become super-Earths. As time goes on, the radius gap shifts as larger and larger mini-Neptunes make the jump, transforming into larger and larger super-Earths. The gap, in other words, is the chasm between the largest-size super-Earths and the smallest-size mini-Neptunes that can still retain their atmospheres. (5/30)

NASA Announces Winners of 2021 Student Launch Competition (Source: NASA)
For the past nine months, 46 teams strived for success in NASA's 2021 Student Launch competition, one of NASA’s Artemis Student Challenges. Countless hours were poured into the design, simulation, construction, testing, and launch of rockets and payloads. On June 3, teams were awarded during a virtual ceremony, announcing the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as the winner of the Launch Division and New York University in New York City as the winner of the Design Division. (6/4)

ULA Delay's Atlas STP-3 Launch to Consider RL10 Engine Issue (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with the Space Force’s STP-3 mission has been delayed. ULA released an update on the Space Test Program-3 mission and the company’s Atlas V 551 rocket. Previously set for launch on June 23, 2021, from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, this mission is now delayed to evaluate the vehicle’s launch readiness.

According to ULA CEO Tory Bruno, the reason for the delay stems from the previous Atlas V launch and its Centaur upper stage’s RL10 engine. “Those watching the live feed, may have observed some ringing of RL10s’s new carbon nozzle extension,” Bruno tweeted, referring to the excessive vibrations in the upper stage’s engine. “While it did its job, boosting RL10’s eye watering performance even a bit higher, we want to make sure we fully understand that behavior before flying this configuration again.” (6/5)

Microscopic Superheroes to Help Protect Astronaut Health in Space (Source: Parabolic Arc)
It’s a classic superhero tale: Inconspicuous, underestimated, our hero is revealed to have powers beyond imagination! The hottest and coldest environments on Earth, decades without water, the powerful radiation of space – none of it is any match for…the tardigrade! “We want to see what ‘tricks’ they use to survive when they arrive in space, and, over time, what tricks their offspring are using,” said Thomas Boothby. “Are they the same or do they change across generations? We just don’t know what to expect.”

One option in the tardigrade bag of tricks could be producing tons more antioxidants to combat harmful changes in the body caused by increased radiation exposure in space. “We have seen them do this in response to radiation on Earth,” said Boothby, “and we think the ways tardigrades have evolved to withstand extreme environments on this planet may also be what protects them against the stresses of spaceflight.” (6/5)

Lockheed Martin Gets $1 Billion Contract for Operations of SBIRS Ground Systems (Source: Space News)
Lockheed Martin received a $1 billion contract to operate and maintain the ground control systems of the U.S. military’s Space Based Infrared System geostationary satellites, the U.S. Space Force announced June 4. SBIRS is part of the Defense Department’s missile warning network that detects ballistic missile launches. It includes a combination of two infrared sensors in highly elliptical orbit and five satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit.  Lockheed Martin has been the SBIRS primary contractor since the mid-1990s. The fifth satellite launched May 18. The sixth and final SBIRS is in production and projected to launch in 2022. (6/5)

Can Space Exploration Be Environmentally Friendly? (Source: Science Focus)
Lift-off is usually the most environmentally harmful stage of any space mission, with vast quantities of fuel burnt up in a matter of minutes. For instance, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 gets through 112 tonnes of refined kerosene, emitting about 336 tonnes of CO2 (the equivalent produced by your average car driving almost 70 times around the world). As well as greenhouse gases, rocket engines emit chlorine and particles of soot and aluminium oxide that destroy ozone. (6/4)

Golf, Whiskey … and Rockets? Scotland’s Tourism Scene Aims for the Stars (Source: National Geographic)
Space Hub Sutherland could become Europe’s first continental orbital spaceport, reviving an area in economic decline through new jobs and adding “rocket-spotting” to Scotland’s tourism profile, alongside the traditional offerings of whiskey, golf, and moors. The technology involved might even help the space industry become more climate conscious.

But while Scotland’s nascent space industry seems poised for take-off, challenges remain. Stakeholders must balance the economic future of Sutherland and the disruption of the area’s fragile and biodiverse environment, which is vital in the fight against climate change. In Sutherland—a 2,028-square-mile area home to around 13,500 inhabitants—population density drops to less than seven people per square mile and may become even sparser. With the decommissioning of Dounreay Nuclear Power Station and the North Sea oil industry in decline, jobs are becoming scarcer. Sutherland’s population may plummet by 11.9 percent in the next 20 years. (6/4)

FAA Approves Renewal of Oklahoma Spaceport License (Source: FAA)
After completing a comprehensive review, the FAA approved the renewal of the spaceport license for the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority. The license authorizes the Authority to operate a launch site at the Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark in Burns Flat, Okla., in support of FAA-licensed or -permitted suborbital missions by reusable launch vehicles. The license is valid for five years. There are currently 12 commercial FAA-licensed spaceports, located in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. (6/4)

FAA Clears Rocket Lab to Fly Again After Failed Launch (Source: Space.com)
Rocket Lab has cleared a big hurdle on its road back to the launchpad. The FAA has authorized Rocket Lab to resume launches, less than three weeks after its Electron booster suffered a major anomaly, representatives of the California-based company announced on Wednesday (June 2). But Rocket Lab still needs to finish its mishap investigation before it can start flying again. (6/4)

NASA Awards Universities $1.2M for Space Station, Suborbital Research (Source: NASA)
NASA has awarded $1.2 million to nine universities and organizations across the country for research and technology development projects in areas critical to the agency’s mission, including studying radiation effects and growing food for long-duration space travel. NASA’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) supports science and technology research and development at colleges and universities. All projects are applicable to NASA’s work in Earth science, aeronautics, and human and robotic deep space exploration. The schools will transfer research resulting from the projects to NASA, where it may be used as part of ongoing agency work. (6/4)

NASA Opens Doors to More On-Site Work, But Teleworking Here to Stay (Source: AL.com)
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville is moving one more step toward workplace normalcy post-pandemic for its nearly 6,000 government and contractor employees. But it looks like many of those workers will still be “encouraged” to telework indefinitely. The center said today it will move June 14 from Stage 3 to Stage 2 in the space agency’s framework for returning to on-site work as the COVID threat eases and vaccinations increase. (6/4)