August 28, 2021

From Puerto Rico to Space: 1st Satellite Made by Puerto Rican Students Set for Launch (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
After several years of hard work, a group of Puerto Rico students aim to see the launch of the first Puerto Rican-made satellite into space. The group from the School of Engineering of the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Bayamón campus, have provided their CubeSat NanoRocks-2 project, known as PR-CuNaR2, to NASA to fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket when it looks to launch from Kennedy Space Center early Saturday morning. (8/27)

Astra Aborts Launch Attempt in Alaska (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
The commercial space company Astra aborted its third orbital launch attempt from Alaska just before liftoff Friday. The company did not immediately confirm when it will try again to launch its compact two-stage launcher sized to haul small satellites into space, but another countdown could come as soon as Saturday. The mission’s launch window opens at 5 p.m. EDT each day. Astra has clearance to launch the mission through Sep. 11. (8/28)

Space Memorabilia Dealer Launches 'Clothing Label' to ISS (Source: Space.com)
A small, space-bound payload is about to give new definition to what it means to be a "high-end" fashion label. Packed among the science experiments launching on SpaceX's 23rd commercial resupply services (CRS-23) mission to the ISS is a small stash of NASA logo-adorned labels. After at least six months being exposed to the vacuum of space, the tags will return to Earth where they will then be sewn to t-shirts and other garments. "And the best part? You can own one (or more)!" The Space Collective, an online space memorabilia dealer, promotes on its website. (8/27)

Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow With Trillions of Organisms (Source: New York Times)
The ocean has always glowed. The Greeks and Romans knew of luminous sea creatures as well as the more general phenomenon of seawater that can light up in bluish-green colors. Charles Darwin, as he sailed near South America on a dark night aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, encountered luminescent waves. He called it “a wonderful and most beautiful spectacle.” As far as the eye could see, he added, “the crest of every wave was bright” — so much so that the “livid flames” lit the sky.

Now, scientists report that ocean bioluminescence can be so intense and massive in scale that satellites orbiting five hundred miles high can see glowing mats of microorganisms as they materialize in the seas. Last month in the journal Scientific Reports, eight investigators told of finding a luminous patch south of Java in 2019 that grew to be larger than the combined areas of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. (8/27)

SDA Opens Contest For First Operational Constellation (Source: Breaking Defense)
The Space Development Agency (SDA) plans to award a January 2022 contract for a set of roughly 144 data relay satellites that, once on orbit, will represent the start of the agency’s plan to cover the Earth in a new multifunctional network. SDA Director Derek Tournear said this week that the request for proposals (RFP) to industry will be released on Monday Aug. 30 for the new sats, which make up what the agency calls “Tranche 1” of its planned National Defense Space Architecture. (8/28)

Hurricane Ida-Spawned Storms Force SpaceX to Scrub Florida Launch to ISS (Source: Florida Today)
Storms spawned by Hurricane Ida's slow churn near Florida forced SpaceX to scrub the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center early Saturday, setting the stage for a 24-hour turnaround. Just under 10 minutes before the planned 3:37 a.m. launch, a SpaceX launch director called the scrub as conditions continued to worsen around pad 39A. (8/28)

A Schedule Better Suited for Artemis (Source: Space News)
NASA’s inspector general issued a report on the agency’s program to develop new spacesuits for both ISS spacewalks and Artemis lunar missions. The usual one-two punch of technical problems and funding shortfalls led the inspector general to conclude that the suits won’t be ready for the Artemis 3 lunar landing mission until at least April 2025, missing the 2024 goal for the mission.

The only question now, it seems, is by how much to stretch out the schedule for Artemis. Too little and you run the risk of having to delay it again; too much and you risk losing the urgency and momentum built up over the last couple of years. Those may be the calculations the agency’s leadership is making now.

There may be bigger changes in the works, such as selecting a second company to develop a lunar lander, something NASA has supported but currently lacks the funding to pursue. An extended schedule could provide more time to get a second lander funded and in development or adjust when and how the lunar Gateway is developed. That revised schedule would also ensure that NASA gets all the elements needed for Artemis back in sync. There’s no use to rush to develop a lunar lander, or landers, if the spacesuits the astronauts on board would wear won’t be ready in time. (8/20)

NASA's Perseverance Plans Next Sample Attempt (Source: NASA)
In its search for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, NASA’s Perseverance rover is once again preparing to collect the first of many rock core samples that could eventually be brought to Earth for further study. This week, a tool on the rover’s 7-foot-long robotic arm will abrade the surface of a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” allowing scientists to look inside and determine whether they want to capture a sample with the rover’s coring bit. Slightly thicker than a pencil, the sample would be sealed in one of the 42 remaining titanium tubes aboard the rover.

Should the team decide to acquire a core from this rock, the sampling process would be initiated next week. The mission attempted to capture their first record of the crater floor on Aug. 6 from a rock that ultimately proved too crumbly, breaking into powder and fragments of material too small to be retained in the sample tube before it was sealed and stored within the rover. (8/26)

Boeing R&D Protects Military Satellite Constellation (Source: Air Force Magazine)
Two programs to help prevent or mitigate the jamming of communication signals from satellites could become operational in 2022 and 2023, according to a top defense contractor. Boeing's Mitigation and Anti-Jam Enhancement and Protected Tactical Enterprise Service represent coming security enhancements to the Wideband Global SATCOM constellation. Rico Attanasio of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security said these enhancements include the ability to "geolocate interferers and mitigate them with beam shaping" to help limit potential disruptions to the 10-satellite constellation. (8/26)

Titan’s Strange Chemical World Gets Simulated in Tiny Tubes (Source: WIRED)
Titan’s chemical cycle is composed of liquid methane, an organic molecule made from one carbon and four hydrogen atoms. Researchers believe this swirling mixture of methane, combined with the moon’s nitrogen-laden atmosphere, surface water ice, and maybe some energy from either a volcano or a meteor impact, might have been the perfect recipe to create some kind of simple life form. That’s why Titan is one of the potential hot spots for life in the solar system, along with Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.

Several expeditions are preparing to launch to these faraway worlds in the coming decade: a European mission to Europa in 2022, NASA’s Europa Clipper in 2024, and the innovative NASA Dragonfly copter to Titan in 2027.

But before these spacecraft depart, scientists want to get an idea of how planetary chemistry on these moons work. Now a researcher has re-created Titan’s environment in a small glass cylinder and mixed organic chemicals under the same temperature and pressure conditions found on that moon. Organic molecules that are liquid on Earth—such as methane and benzene—become solid icy mineral crystals on Titan because it’s so cold, sometimes down to –290 Fahrenheit. (8/27)