July 10, 2021

Tencent Launches Mission to Explore Space Using AI (Source: China Daily)
Internet giant Tencent will join hands with the National Astronomical Observatories to find pulsars and explore the universe using artificial intelligence technologies. The star-exploration plan was announced by Tencent's chairman and CEO Pony Ma during the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on Thursday.

The joint program will leverage leading computer vision technology by Tencent's YouTu Lab, an in-house AI research house, as well as the computing might provided by Tencent Cloud, Ma said. The combination of cloud and AI can help process the massive troves data received by China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, which is also the world's largest single-dish and most sensitive radio telescope. (7/8)

Northrop Wins $3.8 Billion Contract to Sustain Air Force Minuteman III Missile System (Source: GovConWire)
Northrop Grumman has won a potential 18-year, $3.86 billion contract to help the U.S. Air Force sustain the ground subsystems of the Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system. The AF Nuclear Weapons Center received two offers for the program covering software maintenance, system engineering, test and assessment, modification, procurement and repair services. Work will take place at Hill AF Base in Utah, Malmstrom AFB in Montana, Vandenberg AFB in California, Minot AFB in North Dakota, Offutt AFB in Nebraska and FE Warren AFB in Wyoming. (7/8)

Goldilocks Planets 'With a Tilt' May Develop More Complex Life (Source: EurekAlert)
Planets which are tilted on their axis, like Earth, are more capable of evolving complex life. This finding will help scientists refine the search for more advanced life on exoplanets. Since the first discovery of exoplanets (planets orbiting distant stars) in 1992, scientists have been looking for worlds which might support life. It is believed that to sustain even basic life, exoplanets need to be at just the right distance from their stars to allow liquid water to exist; the so-called 'Goldilocks zone'. However, for more advanced life, other factors are also important, particularly atmospheric oxygen.

The scientists produced a sophisticated model of the conditions required for life on Earth to be able to produce oxygen. The model allowed them to input different parameters, to show how changing conditions on a planet might change the amount of oxygen produced by photosynthetic life. "The model allows us to change things such as day length, the amount of atmosphere, or the distribution of land to see how marine environments and the oxygen-producing life in the oceans respond."

"The most interesting result came when we modelled 'orbital obliquity' - in other words how the planet tilts as it circles around its star," explained Megan Barnett, a University of Chicago graduate student involved with the study. She continued "Greater tilting increased photosynthetic oxygen production in the ocean in our model, in part by increasing the efficiency with which biological ingredients are recycled. The effect was similar to doubling the amount of nutrients that sustain life." (7/8)

Space Florida Preparing Development of Spaceport's Horizontal Launch/Landing Capability (Source: Florida Politics)
Space Florida, the state’s agency assigned to promoting and building a space industry, now controls the runway through a long-term lease with NASA and has renamed it the Space Florida Launch and Landing Facility. Besides being capable of landing almost anything, the facility has a few other unique features that should appeal to space companies. It’s nowhere near any populated areas. It provides access to restricted airspace. It provides access to most of Florida’s commercial and government space launch operations.

Space Florida controls thousands of acres surrounding the landing strip, including at least 400 that can be developed. Dale Ketcham cautioned that the development will have to be space-oriented. Since the space shuttle program ended, the landing facility has been used ad-hoc for all sorts of purposes, even as a test track for NASCAR. The future should all be space stuff. “It would need to make sense to put out there,” Ketcham said. (7/8)

North Dakota Senator Attends SpaceX Launch of DoD Satellites (Source: Sen. John Hoeven)
Senator John Hoeven announced that the launch of SpaceX’s Transporter-2 releasing Space Development Agency (SDA) satellites is central to operations that Hoeven has been working to advance in North Dakota. The SpaceX rocket included five SDA satellites, two from General Atomics, an anchor tenant at Grand Sky Technology Park, which will be used to develop laser communication systems enabling low-Earth orbit satellites to communicate with unmanned aerial systems. 

Hoeven was at Cape Canaveral with SDA Director Derek Tournear and SpaceX Senior Director Gary Henry and reviewed the preparations leading-up to the launch of the satellites. The launch was postponed yesterday only seconds from launch due to a plane entering the airspace, and Hoeven had to return to North Dakota for meetings to address the historic drought faced by agriculture producers. (6/30)

NASA, Northrop Grumman Finalize Deal for lunar Gateway’s Crew Module (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
When astronauts finally get back to the moon, Northrop Grumman has been given the funds by NASA to build the place where they will stay while in orbit. The company finalized a contract with NASA for $935 million to develop the Habitation and Logistics Outpost (HALO), the part of the mini space station Gateway where crew will be able to live for short stays.

The Gateway is NASA’s planned orbiting way station for future lunar missions of the Artemis program that aim to have a repeated presence on the lunar surface, and prepare astronauts for eventual missions to Mars. The fixed-price contract calls for Northrop Grumman to develop the HALO hardware, attach it to the Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element being developed by Maxar Technologies on Earth and work with SpaceX to get it launched via a Falcon Heavy rocket by November 2024, and eventually get it into orbit around the moon. (7/9)