January 18, 2022

An ‘Atomic Fountain’ Has Measured the Curvature of Spacetime (Source: Scientific American)
A group of physicists announced that they’ve been able to measure the curvature of space-time. The experiment is part of an area of science called atom interferometry. It takes advantage of a principle of quantum mechanics: just as a light wave can be represented as a particle, a particle (such as an atom) can be represented as a “wave packet.” And just as light waves can overlap and create interference, so too can matter wave packets.

In particular, if an atom’s wave packet is split in two, allowed to do something, and then recombined, the waves might not line up anymore—in other words, their phases have changed. They created an “atomic fountain,” consisting of a vacuum tube 33 feet tall ornamented with a ring around the very top. They controlled the atomic fountain by shooting laser pulses through it. With one pulse, they launched two atoms up from the bottom. The two atoms reached different heights before a second pulse shot them back down. A third pulse caught the atoms at the bottom, recombining the atoms’ wave packets.

The researchers found that the two wave packets were out of phase—a sign that the gravitational field in the atomic fountain wasn’t completely uniform. “That … in general relativity, can be understood, actually, as the effect of space-time curvature,” Roura told Space.com, referring to one of Albert Einstein’s most famous theories. Since the atom that went higher was closer to the ring, it experienced more acceleration thanks to the ring’s gravity. In a perfectly uniform gravitational field, such effects would cancel out. (1/17)

Florida Lawmaker Calls for Creation of Task Force on Futuristic Air Travel (Source: Florida Politics)
Republican Rep. Jason Fischer wants transportation leaders to start thinking about the future. In the upcoming 2022 Legislative Session, Fischer is pitching a bill that aims to ready the state for an emerging means of transportation: electric air travel. The bill (HB 1005) would create Florida’s first Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Task Force, a collective of local and state leaders tasked with exploring the possibility of air travel using vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. eVTOL aircraft — which uses electric power to hover, take off and land vertically — would capitalize on underutilized flight paths in Florida. (1/5)

Steven Mnuchin’s Liberty Strategic Capital to Invest $150 Million in Satellogic and CF Acquisition Corp. V (Source: Satellogic)
Satellogic, a leader in sub-meter resolution satellite imagery collection, currently 70 centimeters, and CF Acquisition Corp. V, a SPAC sponsored by Cantor Fitzgerald, have secured an additional $150 million private placement commitment from Liberty Strategic Capital, a private equity firm founded and led by former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. This investment brings the total committed capital coming into Satellogic in this series of transactions to more than $265 million. (1/18)

Palomar Survey Instrument Analyzes Impact of Starlink Satellites on Astronomy (Source: Space Daily)
Since 2019, SpaceX has been launching an increasing number of internet satellites into orbit around Earth. The satellite constellation, called Starlink, now includes nearly 1,800 members orbiting at altitudes of about 550 kilometers. Astronomers have expressed concerns that that these objects, which can appear as streaks in telescope images, could hamper their scientific observations.

To quantify these effects, a team of researchers studied archival images captured by the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), an instrument that operates from Caltech's Palomar Observatory near San Diego. ZTF scans the entire night sky every two days, cataloguing cosmic objects that explode, blink, or otherwise change over time. This includes everything from supernovae to near-Earth asteroids. The Zwicky team members say they decided to specifically study the effects of Starlink satellites because they currently represent the largest low-Earth orbit, or LEO, constellation, and they have well-characterized orbits.

The findings show 5,301 satellite streaks appear in archival images taken between November 2019 and September 2021. The streaks are most apparent in so-called twilight observations, those taken at dawn or dusk, which are important for finding near-Earth asteroids that appear close to the sun in the sky. ZTF has discovered several asteroids of this nature, including 2020 AV2, the first asteroid spotted with an orbit that fits entirely within the orbit of Venus. (1/18)

China Launches Classified Satellite on Long March 2D Rocket (Source: Space News)
China launched a classified satellite over the weekend in the country's first launch of the year. A Long March 2D lifted off at 9:35 p.m. Eastern Sunday and placed the Shiyan-13 satellite into orbit. Chinese state media provided no information regarding the payloads or uses of Shiyan-13, which is in an orbit of 357 by 1,297 kilometers inclined at 98.7 degrees. The launch was the first of more than 40 planned for this year by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., following up on its 48 Long March launches last year. (1/18)

SpaceX and NASA Lunar HLS - Uncrewed Demo 1 Flight (Source: #TeamSpace)
This is an animation of what it may look like when SpaceX and NASA test the planned Human Landing System for the Artemis program. From Starbase to the moon's surface, I try to show all the major milestones needed to make this a reality. I hope for this to be entertaining and somewhat educational. This is highly speculative and will have many inaccuracies, missing or incorrect hardware, and milestones that are wrong or missed. The development of SpaceX's Starship has been at such a fast pace I could never keep up with the changes. Click here. (1/17)

NASA Safety Panel Requests Review of Human Spaceflight (Source: Space News)
NASA's safety advisers are calling on the agency to review how it manages its human spaceflight efforts. The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, in its annual report published last week, said that the evolving relationship NASA has with industry makes it "crucial for NASA to strategically evaluate the path ahead" for those programs. It questioned the "disaggregated" way NASA's human space exploration efforts are run, with separate programs for SLS, Orion and ground systems, and recommended creating an integrated Artemis program led by a single program manager. It also recommended NASA create a "board of directors" led by senior headquarters officials and center directors, and development of a long-term strategic vision. (1/18)

Blustaq Developing Enterprise Data System for Space Force (Source: Space News)
Blustaq, a technology startup that is developing an enterprise data system for the U.S. Space Force, has lined up a new investor. The O'Neil Group, a real estate and asset management company based in Colorado Springs, said Tuesday it is making a strategic but undisclosed investment in Blustaq. That company, also based in Colorado Springs, won a $280 million contract from the Space Force last year to develop a cloud-based data repository known as the unified data library, or UDL. Blustaq says the new investment is critical to meet the growing demand from DoD customers as the company plans to double in size over the next 18 months. (1/18)

Optimism Among Space Investors for Long-Term Growth (Source: Space News)
Space industry officials are offering some cautious optimism about investment in the field. At a conference last week, some executives noted that space companies that went public last year through SPAC mergers have been performing poorly on the stock market, which they said could be due to investors not appreciating the challenges such companies face. However, one investor said he was "grossly optimistic" about the industry in the long term because of the potential for decreasing space access costs to create exponential growth. (1/18)

Japan's H3 Rocket Debut Delayed with Main Engine Defects (Source: Kyodo)
Japan's new H3 rocket is unlikely to launch this quarter as previously predicted. Japanese industry sources say newly discovered defects with the rocket's main engine will delay the launch, with no clarity on when the launch can be rescheduled. There are concerns, though, that the delay could be "prolonged." The H3 is intended to be the successor to the H-2A rocket, but with a lower cost that would make it more competitive commercially. (1/18)

New Mexico Whistleblower Revises Lawsuit Against Spaceport America (Source: Santa Fe New Mexican)
A former New Mexico state official is revising his lawsuit against the state regarding issues at Spaceport America. Zach DeGregorio, the spaceport's former chief financial officer, originally filed the suit without legal representation, naming the state's governor and many other officials as defendants. He alleged that they conspired to ensure the New Mexico Finance Authority maintained the ability to refinance spaceport bonds rather than use private sector alternatives. DeGregorio has since hired two law firms to represent him, who are revising the suit to remove many of the original defendants, instead limiting the suit to the his direct employers. State officials have declined to comment on the suit. (1/17)

Perseverance Rover Dumps Mars Sample (Source: NASA)
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover is dumping a sample it tried to collect but could not properly stow. The tube containing the sample, collected last month, could not be stored in a "bit carousel" on the rover because of pebbles in the way. Rover controllers determined the best way to deal with the problem was to simply dump the contents of the tube back on the surface of Mars, a process not originally contemplated when designing the mission but one that is simple to perform. Scientists hope to make a second attempt soon to collect a sample from the same rock. (1/18)

Data-Relay System Connects Astronauts Direct to Europe (Source: Space Daily)
Astronauts on board the International Space Station are connecting straight to Europe at light speed, thanks to the European Data Relay System. An upgrade to the communications system is delivering broadband internet speeds similar to those enjoyed by families on Earth. It means that experiments on board the International Space Station can be monitored from Europe in close to real time. Until now, data from investigations into the effects of radiation on seeds and biomining research had to be stored on hard drives and returned to Earth many months later. (1/18)

MDA Awarded Contract for Lunar Landing Sensors (Source: Space Daily)
MDA Ltd. has announced a contract with an undisclosed US-based space company for a key landing sensor for a 2023 mission to the Moon. This award was made as part of the company's project involving NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative. "Momentum is building as governments and private sector organizations work hand in glove on a shared mission that will take us back towards the Moon and beyond," said Mike Greenley, Chief Executive Officer of MDA. (1/18)

Curiosity Measures Intriguing Carbon Signature on Mars (Source: Space Daily)
After analyzing powdered rock samples collected from the surface of Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover, scientists have announced that several of the samples are rich in a type of carbon that on Earth is associated with biological processes. While the finding is intriguing, it doesn't necessarily point to ancient life on Mars, as scientists have not yet found conclusive supporting evidence of ancient or current biology there, such as sedimentary rock formations produced by ancient bacteria, or a diversity of complex organic molecules formed by life. (1/18)

Solar Power, Going Down (Source: Space Daily)
A concept image of a future in-orbit demonstrator for space-based solar power. Sunlight up in Earth orbit is ten times more intense than down on Earth's surface, so the idea is to fly dedicated satellites to capture solar energy, then beam it down to Earth - and potentially the Moon or other planets further into the future. A new ESA Discovery project is looking into a key part of the space-based solar power process: how to convert a large amount of solar power into a useful form, then transport it down to the ground as efficiently as possible?

The basic concept dates back more than a century to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, one of the original prophets of space travel, then developed in detail by Czech-born engineer Peter Glaser from the 1970s onward. ESA has been collecting new ideas for technologies and concepts to advance the development of space-based solar power through its Open Space Innovation Platform. (1/14)

quub to Demonstrate Cybersecurity with Smallsat (Source: Space Daily)
Launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on January 13, quub's pocketqube smallsat will serve as a proof of concept for the prevention of data hacks. Data breaches cost millions of dollars every year. IBM's annual Data Breach Report indicates that the average worldwide cost per breach in 2020 was $3.86 million. In the U.S., the average cost per breach was $8.64 million. IBM cites Internet-of-things (IoT) devices and third-party breaches as among several key cost-amplifying factors. As IoT devices become ubiquitous the electronic transmission of sensitive data must keep pace. (1/12)

ESA Whittles Wannabe Astronauts Down From 23,000 to 1,391 (Source: The Register)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has completed stage one of its latest astronaut selection process, with 1,362 astronaut and 29 parastronaut applicants making the cut. The group, which started as 23,000 wannabes, will now be invited to participate in a battery of psychological, performance, and personality tests followed by psychological interviews and medical testing for the ones that make it that far. (1/18)

Satellite Images Show Tonga Volcano's Aftermath (Source: BBC)
The massive volcanic eruption and tsunami in Tonga has caused catastrophic damage, with homes destroyed and many communities covered in a thick layer of ash. The Tongan government says the country has been hit by an "unprecedented disaster." Communications with Tonga have been severely disrupted. Satellite images and aerial photographs show the scale of the destruction. Click here. (1/18)