December 7, 2021

ULA Launches Atlas V From Cape Canaveral Spaceport, Carrying Multiple Payloads (Source: Florida Today)
The most powerful variant of an Atlas V rocket shot off its Cape Canaveral pad like a laser beam early Tuesday, taking several payloads on a mission overseen by the Space Force. The RD-180 main engines and five solid rocket boosters generated more than two million pounds of thrust at 5:19 a.m. sharp, pushing Atlas past the lightning suppression towers at Launch Complex 41 faster than other rockets in its class. It marked United Launch Alliance's third Florida mission of the year.

The rocket's second stage was then expected to spend a whopping seven hours delivering the Space Test Program-3 mission, or STP-3, to a geosynchronous orbit some 22,200 miles above Earth. The mission took several payloads to orbit, including a NASA experiment to test data transmission using lasers. The agency says laser-based communications outstrip legacy radio systems as they deliver more data while using smaller, lighter hardware. The National Nuclear Security Administration, a Department of Energy agency, also boosted a payload designed to detect nuclear detonations high in the atmosphere. (12/7)

NASA, Partner to Highlight Passenger-Friendly Aviation Technology (Source: NASA)
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson visited Orlando International Airport in Florida on Nov. 24 and met with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) CEO Phil Brown. They discussed implementing NASA-developed flight scheduling technology that will improve dependability for passengers – which is especially important during peak holiday travel times. NASA’s Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2) was transferred to the FAA in September and will be implemented at airports across the country – including Orlando International – beginning in 2023. (11/22)

Japanese Duo Prepare for First Tourist Flight to Space Station Since 2009 (Source: Space Daily)
Two Japanese businessmen plan to become the first paying tourists to visit the International Space Station since 2009 by rocketing into orbit from Kazakhstan on Wednesday. Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who made his fortune in the fashion industry, booked seats for himself and his production assistant, Yozo Hirano, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft through Virginia-based spacecraft broker Space Adventures.

Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will pilot the Soyuz during its flight to the space station and upon its return 12 days later. NASA plans to broadcast live video of the launch planned for 2:38 a.m. EST Wednesday. The mission is part of a rapid expansion in space travel, Tom Shelley, president of Space Adventures, said in an interview. (12/6)

Yusaku Maezawa: Irreverent Billionaire Fascinated by Space (Source: Space Daily)
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, who blasts off for the International Space Station this week, is an irreverent space enthusiast who has made headlines for splashing the cash on modern art. The 46-year-old tycoon is the founder of Japan's largest online fashion mall and is the country's 30th-richest person, according to business magazine Forbes. But he is far from the traditional image of a staid Japanese businessman, with more than 10 million people following his Twitter account.

And he's a big spender, particularly when it comes to his twin passions: modern art and space travel. He hit the headlines in 2017 when he forked out a whopping $110.5 million for Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 painting "Untitled", a skull-like head in oil-stick, acrylic and spray paint on a giant canvas. It was a record price, but Maezawa insists he is just an "ordinary collector" who buys pieces "simply because they are beautiful". On December 8, Maezawa will become the first space tourist to travel to the ISS with Russia's space agency Roscosmos since Canadian Guy Laliberte, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, in 2009. (12/6)

Nanoracks Led Team Want to Build a Commercial Space Station (Source: Space Daily)
Nanoracks, in collaboration with Voyager Space and Lockheed Martin, has been awarded a $160 million contract by NASA to design its Starlab commercial space station as part of the agency's Commercial Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Development program. Starlab will enable NASA's initiative to stimulate the commercial space economy and provide science and crew capabilities prior to the retirement of the International Space Station (ISS).

"While today marks a major milestone for Nanoracks and our Starlab team, the impact goes far beyond this award," said Dr. Amela Wilson, CEO at Nanoracks. "To receive this support from NASA validates over a decade of Nanoracks' hard work forging commercial access to space, bringing over 1300 commercial payloads from 30 nations to the ISS. This opportunity opens far-reaching possibilities for critical research and commercial industrial activity in LEO. We are honored to be selected as one of three awardees to work with NASA, and we cannot wait to bring our existing global commercial customer base to Starlab." (12/2)

NASA’s Next-Generation Asteroid Impact Monitoring System Goes Online (Source: NASA)
The new Sentry-II system improves the capabilities of NASA JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies to assess the impact risk of asteroids that can come close to our planet. With Sentry-II, NASA has a tool that can rapidly calculate impact probabilities for all known NEAs, including some special cases not captured by the original Sentry.

To date, nearly 28,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) have been found by survey telescopes that continually scan the night sky, adding new discoveries at a rate of about 3,000 per year. But as larger and more advanced survey telescopes turbocharge the search over the next few years, a rapid uptick in discoveries is expected. In anticipation of this increase, NASA astronomers have developed a next-generation impact monitoring algorithm called Sentry-II to better evaluate NEA impact probabilities. (12/6)

Concerned About SpaceX, France to Accelerate Reusable Rocket Plans (Source: Ars Technica)
On Monday French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced a plan for Europe to compete more effectively with SpaceX by developing a reusable rocket on a more rapid timeline. "For the first time Europe ... will have access to a reusable launcher," Le Maire said, according to Reuters. "In other words, we will have our SpaceX, we will have our Falcon 9. We will make up for a bad strategic choice made 10 years ago."

The new plan calls for the large, France-based rocket firm ArianeGroup to develop a new small-lift rocket called Maïa by the year 2026. This is four years ahead of a timeline previously set by the European Space Agency for the development of a significantly larger, reusable rocket. Although the technical details are sparse, Maïa will not be Europe's "Falcon 9." It will have a lift capacity of up to 1 metric ton to low Earth orbit and be powered by a reusable Prometheus rocket engine, which is fueled by methane and liquid oxygen.

This engine, which remains in the preliminary stages of development, has a thrust comparable to a single Merlin 1D rocket engine, which powers SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. But since there are nine engines on the SpaceX rocket, it can lift more than 15 times as much as the proposed Maïa in fully reusable mode. France plans to soon call for projects on reusable micro-launchers, smaller than the Maïa project. Nascent startups French Venture Orbital Systems and Strato Space Systems are expected to compete, with the French space agency providing technical support to the winners and launch contracts. (12/7)

China's Galactic Energy Launches Five Satellites (Source: Space News)
Galactic Energy launched its second Ceres-1 rocket late Monday, becoming the first Chinese private firm to reach orbit twice. The four-stage Ceres-1 solid rocket lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center at 11:13 p.m. Monday, successfully placing five satellites into a roughly 500-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. Galactic Energy performed its first orbital launch in November 2020, making it at the time only the second Chinese private venture to reach orbit. Galactic Energy says it plans five launches in 2022. (12/7)

Ursa Major Raises $85 Million for Rocket Engine Development (Source: Space News)
Rocket engine developer Ursa Major raised $85 million in a Series C funding round. The round, announced Tuesday, was led by the investment management firm BlackRock with several other funds participating. The company said the new funding will help accelerate production to meet current demand and begin the development of its next-generation engines. Its engines have yet to support an orbital launch, but it says it has orders for more than 50 engines and has received several R&D contracts from commercial customers and the U.S. government through 2022. (12/7)

NASA Gets New Astronauts (Source: Space News)
NASA introduced a new class of astronauts Monday while its safety advisory group recommended changes in the planning and management of exploration missions. The 10 members of the astronaut class of 2021, six men and four women, will start two years of training in January, after which they will be eligible for flight assignments. NASA introduced the astronauts the same day that its Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, in a special meeting, offered several recommendations it says are vital to ensuring the success of future exploration efforts. Those recommendations include a new long-term strategic plan, creating a "board of directors" at the agency and consolidating the overall Artemis effort into a single program. (12/7)

DoD's SDA Makes Plans for CR Funding (Source: Space News)
The Pentagon's Space Development Agency (SDA) is making contingency plans for its programs if it doesn't get a full-year budget by February. Speaking at the SpaceNews Awards ceremony Monday, SDA Director Derek Tournear said that the agency assumes it will spend the first quarter of a new fiscal year under a continuing resolution (CR) that funds it at the previous year's levels. However, if it doesn't get fiscal year 2022 appropriations by February when the current CR expires, it could result in slips for the Tranche 1 satellites it is currently procuring as well as the Tranche 0 satellites scheduled to launch next year. (12/7)

BAE to Develop Hardened Chips for DoD Space Programs (Source: Space News)
BAE Systems announced Monday a Defense Department contract to qualify a new version of integrated circuit chips for use in space electronics. BAE will qualify radiation-hardened 12-nanometer chips, which are faster and more efficient than the current 45-nanometer chips used by the Pentagon for space applications. The company declined to disclose the value of the contract. (12/7)

South Korea's Hanwha Plans Small Launcher (Source: Space News)
South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group plans to develop a small launch vehicle. Hanwha Aerospace, an affiliate of Hanwha Group, said Monday it will work with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute on the project. The vehicle will be designed to place up to 500 kilograms into low Earth orbit, but other details, including budgets and schedules, remain undecided. This is the latest space project for Hanwha Group, which previously acquired a controlling stake in domestic satellite manufacturer Satrec Initiative and British phased array antenna-maker Phasor Solutions, as well as an 8.8% stake in OneWeb. (12/7)

JWST Fueled and Ready for Launch (Source: ESA)
The James Webb Space Telescope is fueled for launch. ESA said Monday that technicians in French Guiana completed loading the spacecraft's tanks with hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide used by its thrusters. The fuel is designed to support at least 10 years of operations of the spacecraft once it reaches the Earth-sun L-2 point after launch. (12/7)

Airbus to Build Ariel Exoplanet Telescope (Source: BBC)
Airbus will build an ESA spacecraft to study exoplanets. ESA said Tuesday it selected Airbus to build the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, or Ariel, spacecraft scheduled for launch in 2029. Ariel will study the composition of exoplanets by collecting data at visible and infrared wavelengths. The contract is valued at $225 million. (12/7)

DOD Grants UCF $1.5 Million for Hypersonic Propulsion Research to Compete with China and Russia (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The University of Central Florida is working on propulsion technology that can travel at least five times the speed of sound or greater as the U.S. chases China and Russia in developing the latest air defense technology. The Department of Defense awarded UCF researchers $1.5 million to advance its hypersonic propulsion technology in the hopes of surpassing China, which successfully tested new hypersonic missiles last August, a feat the U.S. has yet to accomplish.

“Hypersonics are the new set of technology that everyone is interested in weaponizing,” said Tom Dolan, UCF associate professor at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs. “The concern is that hypersonics could represent a complete revolution of technology that changes everything but we don’t know for sure.” (12/1)

A Biden Space Policy Takes Shape (Source: Space Review)
The National Space Council met for the first time last week in the Biden Administration. Jeff Foust reports on how the meeting, and a policy document released that day, show an emphasis on continuity, with some added attention in certain areas. Click here. (12/6)
 
How to Clarify Human Futures Beyond Earth (Source: Space Review)
One of the major questions regarding the ability of humans to live in space for extended periods is whether partial gravity levels, such as those on the Moon and Mars, are sufficient to keep people healthy. Joe Carroll examines the issue and how a concept for a rotating spacecraft could answer those questions. Click here. (12/6)
 
A New Era of Planetary Exploration: What We Discovered on the Far Side of the Moon (Source: Space Review)
Even though spacecraft have studied the Moon for more than 60 years, new technologies and instruments can provide new insights. Iraklis Giannakis discusses how ground-penetrating radar has helped scientists understand what’s going on below the surface of the Moon. Click here. (12/6)
 
Space at Expo 2020 (Source: Space Review)
Expo 2020 Dubai, the latest version of a world’s fair, is underway after a one-year delay. Jeff Foust tours the expo to look for space-related exhibits, from small moon rocks to a full-sized replica booster. Click here. (12/6)

The Great Neutrino Mystery Could Point to Missing Particles (Source: WIRED)
The simplest explanation of the LSND anomaly was the existence of a new, fourth kind of neutrino, dubbed the sterile neutrino, that mixes up all the neutrino types according to new rules. Sterile neutrinos would allow muon neutrinos to oscillate more readily into electron neutrinos over the short distance to the oil tank.

But as time went on, the sterile neutrino didn’t fit the results of other experiments. “We had our champion theory, but the problem was that elsewhere it fails miserably,” Argüelles-Delgado said. “We were very deep in the forest, and we needed to come out.”

Forced to retrace their steps, physicists have been rethinking what’s behind the muddle of hints and half results. In recent years, they’ve devised new theories that are more complicated than the sterile neutrino, but which, if correct, would thoroughly revolutionize physics—resolving anomalies in neutrino oscillation data and other major mysteries of physics at the same time. Not least, the new models posit heavy additional neutrinos that could account for dark matter. Click here. (12/05)

EAEU Countries Interested in Creating Eurasian Space Agency (Source: TASS)
The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are interested in the idea of creating the Eurasian Space Agency, Member of the Board - Minister in charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasian Economic Commission Sergey Glazyev said at the EAEU business forum Space Integration on Friday.

"The idea of the Eurasian Space Agency is really relevant and in demand," he said, commenting on a proposal of Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin. He added that, in his opinion, all countries of the union are interested in Roscosmos’ projects. Earlier at the forum, Dmitry Rogozin proposed to seriously discuss the possibility of creating a Eurasian Space Agency. "I would like us to seriously discuss this topic of developing the Eurasian Space Agency," he said. (12/3)

The NASA-China Space Race is About to Go Nuclear (Source: The Hill)
Recently, NASA and the United States Department of Energy put out a call for industry to propose designs for a nuclear power plant that could be deployed on the moon within the decade, according to Science Alert. In the meantime, Interesting Engineering reports that China has completed a design for its own lunar-based nuclear reactor. The two news items suggests that both sides of the current space race are very serious about returning to the moon and developing Earth’s nearest neighbor in a big way.

The Chinese lunar nuclear reactor is described as being capable of generating a full megawatt of electricity. According to Live Science, NASA requires that the lunar nuclear power plant generate just 40 kilowatts of power for 10 years, fit inside a 12-foot long by 18-foot-wide rocket, and weigh no more than 13,200 pounds. Presumably, if the moon base requires more than 40 kilowatts of power, more power plants can be launched and deployed ready for use. (12/5)

Rover Escapes From Sand Trap (Source: Space Daily)
The ExoMars rover used in the Earth-based Mars Terrain Simulator makes escaping from a sand trap look easy in this exercise. The rover initially has its front two wheels almost completely buried in sand, but easily escapes using its unique wheel-walking mode. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the 2 m drive - slow and careful being the key to getting out of a difficult situation.

Rovers on Mars have previously been caught in sand, and turning the wheels dug them deeper, just like a car stuck in mud or snow. To avoid this, the ExoMars rover Rosalind Franklin - and its replica - has a unique wheel walking locomotion mode. Similar to leg movements, wheel-walking combines motions of the deployment actuators (the legs) with the rotation of the wheels to progress without slippage. This motion gives very good traction in soft soils and high slopes, such as dunes. (12/3)

Missing and Worth Millions: Plucked From the Moon, Dozens of Lunar Rocks Have Disappeared (Source: Florida Today)
They are among the rarest items on Earth, worth millions of dollars on the black market. They've been at the center of stings, swindles and high-profile heists. Still others have been stashed away in garages or storage units untouched for years or possibly decades. They've been handled by presidents and kings, dictators and mercenaries, school kids and scholars.

One example is in the Oval Office at the White House. Another is buried somewhere in a garbage dump outside Dublin, Ireland. Yes, the Apollo moon rocks have continued to make intriguing journeys even a half century after making the quarter-million mile trip to Earth. Click here. (11/24)

SDA Approves L3Harris' Missile-Tracking Satellite Design (Source: Space Daily)
L3Harris Technologies has completed the final design review for the Space Development Agency's missile-tracking program. The company will continue with development and integration of four satellites for Tracking Layer Tranche 0 under a $193 million firm, fixed-price contract. L3Harris completed Critical Design Review in November, and the company will proceed through build, integration, test, and acceptance on the way to the launch phase in early 2023. (12/3)

High-Speed Lunar Surface Transportation (Source: Space Daily)
Proposed lunar surface mobility systems for human colonization appear to be severely limited in speed and payload capabilities. Roving vehicles are massive and move slowly over the rough lunar terrain, at a high cost of energy and life support supplies. Flying units, powered by chemical rockets are fast, but the price of speed is payload and range. On the other hand, a hopping transporter concept,conceived in the 1960s by Stanford professorHoward Seifert, could incorporate both the conservative use of fuel and a high average surface speed.

In fact, an early investigation of feasibility, with respect to performance capabilities, was carried out. The objective was achieved by studying the dynamic characteristics of somewhat idealized hopping vehicle configurations which were based on assumed conditions and mission requirements. Two schematicdesigns were investigated. One was a single-crew device assumed to be of minimum complexity and mass. This device is intended to extend the operating range of astronauts on short-duration lunar surface exploration missions.

The other design was a multi-crew transporter capable of making long-range and duration explorations of the lunar surface. Both vehicles employed the technique of accelerating up a thrust-leg, locking this leg to the main body at the end of acceleration, executing a classic ballistic parabola, and finally, decelerating down this leg to complete each hop. Energy could be essentially conserved in this process, thus providing for substantial payload capability, in addition to other performance advantages. (12/3)

Soon, 1 Out of Every 15 Points of Light in the Sky Will Be a Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
In order to find out how badly the night sky is going to be affected by sunlight reflected from planned satellite megaconstellations, we built an open-source computer model to predict satellite brightnesses as seen from different places on Earth, at different times of night, in different seasons. We also built a simple web app based on this simulation.

Our model uses 65,000 satellites on the orbits filed by four megaconstellation companies: SpaceX Starlink and Amazon Kuiper (United States), OneWeb (United Kingdom) and StarNet/GW (China). We calibrated our simulation to match telescope measurements of Starlink satellites, since they are by far the most numerous. Starlink has so far made some strides toward dimming their satellites since their first launch, but most are still visible to the naked eye.

Our simulations show that from everywhere in the world, in every season, there will be dozens to hundreds of satellites visible for at least an hour before sunrise and after sunset. Right now, it's relatively easy to escape urban light pollution for dark skies while camping or visiting your cabin, but our simulations show that you can't escape this new satellite light pollution anywhere on Earth, even at the North Pole. (12/5)

Shatner’s Blue Origin Flight Will Be Featured in Amazon’s One-Hour Special ‘Shatner in Space’ (Source: Variety)
William Shatner’s recent flight to space aboard a Blue Origin vessel will be explored in “Shatner in Space,” a one-hour special from Amazon Prime Video. The announcement was made by Shatner himself during one of the streamer’s Comic-Con Experience virtual panels on Sunday. The special will premiere on Prime Video on Dec. 15 in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and New Zealand. Additional territories will receive the special in early 2022. (12/5)

China's Manned Moon Landing Possible Before 2030 (Source: Xinhua)
It is "entirely possible" for China to perform a crewed lunar landing before 2030, said a senior Chinese scientist in deep-space exploration. "I personally think that as long as the technological research for manned moon landing continues, and as long as the country is determined (to achieve the goal), it is entirely possible for China to land people on the moon before 2030, " Ye Peijian said in a recent interview with the state broadcaster CCTV.

Chief designer of China's first moon probe Chang'e-1 and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ye noted that space exploration is not just a matter of science, but also something related to the future of a nation. "Countries that can lead in space technology have advanced technologies in various fields. In turn, space technology is something that can feed back to technologies in other aspects," Ye added. (12/5)

Saving Data From the Stars (Source: Dug)
For more than half a century, the Arecibo Observatory (affectionately called Arecibo in this article) in Puerto Rico was the largest single-dish telescope on Earth. Initially designed for atmospheric scientists to study Earth’s ionosphere, over the years the facility blossomed into one of the most iconic trailblazers in the fields of planetary science and radio astronomy.

And since then, the observatory has been a source of countless astronomical breakthroughs. From discovering the first-ever binary pulsar — a study that tested Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and earned its researchers a Nobel Prize in 1993 — to spotting the first planet outside our Solar System and mapping the surface of Venus and Mercury, Arecibo has been a gift that keeps on giving.

Even current space endeavours such as NASA’s asteroid-hunting mission, DART, and its asteroid-sampling mission, OSIRIS-REx, owe their success partly to the sea of data collected from observations made by Arecibo in the past five decades. Did you know that Arecibo was something of a pop culture icon too? It enjoyed a star-studded career as a backdrop for scenes in the James Bond film, Goldeneye, and the Jodie Foster Sci-Fi epic, Contact. (12/6)