August 16, 2022

Astrobotic Bids for Masten Space Systems Assets (Source: Space News)
Astrobotic Technology, a lunar lander developer, has made a formal bid for “substantially all” of the assets of Masten Space Systems, another lander company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month. In a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Delaware Aug. 14, Masten said it received a “stalking horse” bid of $4.2 million for Masten’s assets, including a SpaceX launch credit worth $14 million, from Astrobotic. The agreement, in effect, sets a minimum price for the sale of those assets but does not prevent Masten from seeking higher bids through an auction process that runs through early September. (8/16)

Asteroid Impacts Might Have Created Some of Mars’ Sand (Source: Science News)
Sand on Earth is continuously being created by the slow erosion of rocks. But on Mars, violent asteroid impacts may play an important role in making new sand. As much as a quarter of Martian sand is composed of spherical bits of glass forged in the intense heat of impacts, a new study shows. Since windblown sand sculpts the Martian landscape, this discovery reveals how asteroid impacts contribute to shaping Mars, even long after the collisions occur, researchers suggest. (8/16)

J-Space Partners with Virgin Orbit to Bring Sovereign Air-Launch Capability to South Korea (Source: Space Daily)
Virgin Orbit has signed an agreement with South Korean investment group J-Space. The agreement will allow the companies to assess candidate spaceport launch sites in South Korea, with the goal of providing satellite launch services from there using Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne System. The cooperative effort is designed to act as a catalyst to the burgeoning Korean small satellite and space solutions market, stimulate local economic growth, and provide the South Korean government with a flexible and responsive launch capability in support of a wide range of mission applications.

In pursuing its mission to transform the space industry in South Korea, J-Space looks to leverage Virgin Orbit's unique mobile launch system and its capability to offer nations a turnkey small satellite launch capability that can quickly become fully operational, thereby satisfying commercial, civil government, and defense requirements. (8/10)

Antaris Close Seed Funding Round to Accelerate Development of Software Solutions for Space (Source: Space Daily)
Antaris, the software platform provider for space, announced the company has closed a $4.2 million seed round of funding. The round also includes investment from leading space tech investors Lockheed Martin Ventures, HCVC, E2MC and Ananth Technologies. Funding will primarily be used to onboard new talent and accelerate development of the Antaris Open Space platform, which includes modular satellite design tools, True Twin virtual satellites, integration with verified manufacturing partners and interfaces to a comprehensive suite of mission control solutions. (8/11)

NASA Might Cancel Mission to Massive ‘Gold Mine Asteroid’ — Here’s Why it Shouldn’t (Source: The Hill)
NASA had planned to send a probe to the asteroid 16 Psyche in 2022. It is sometimes called “the golden asteroid” because many people believe it contains an abundance of valuable metals. Unfortunately, NASA recently announced a launch delay because of the need to review software. The probe may launch in 2023 or 2024 to arrive at 16 Psyche in 2029 or 2030, respectively. The mission may be canceled altogether since the delay would cause further cost.

Regardless of the extra cost, the mission to 16 Psyche should proceed as soon as possible for two reasons: scientific and commercial. According to NASA, scientists believe that the asteroid may be “the partial core of a shattered planetesimal — a small world the size of a city or small country that is the first building block of a planet.

The second case for proceeding with the mission is commercial, presuming 16 Psyche is a treasure trove of metals and other resources that would be useful for maintaining technological civilization here on Earth. Until recently, scientists thought that 16 Psyche was a solid hunk of metal, iron, nickel, gold and platinum. A recent article in Smithsonian suggested that the market price of the asteroid’s metals is $10 quintillion, hence the name “golden asteroid.” Other estimates have gone as high as $700 quintillion. (8/14)

Two New Innovation Challenges Emerge in DoD, as the Competition Trend Continues to Rise (Source: FNN)
Two more military organizations are jumping on the bandwagon and putting their most creative thinkers up to face a panel of judges, who will ultimately award cash to build out big ideas. U.S. Central Command, the organization in charge of military operations in the Middle East, is starting its first-ever Innovation Oasis. It’s probably not too surprising that the command is embracing the idea. CENTCOM chief Gen. Erik Kurilla previously headed the XVIII Airborne Corps, which has had several iterations of innovation challenges.

CENTCOM is simply looking for new ideas. The Innovation Oasis isn’t giving out a specific directive for what innovations it wants to see, it’s keeping the field wide open. The five best ideas will go before a panel on Oct. 12. Judges will include officials from Google, NASA, SpaceX and people inside the military. (8/12)

China's Reusable Spacecraft Remains in Orbit (Source: Space News)
A Chinese reusable experimental spacecraft remains in orbit nearly two weeks after launch. The vehicle, called a "reusable experiment spacecraft" by Chinese officials, launched Aug. 4 on a Long March 2F rocket into an inclined, elliptical low Earth orbit. The vehicle passed directly over an air base Monday where a similar spacecraft landed on a 2020 mission, but the spaceplane remains in orbit according to U.S. tracking data. While there is little information about the mission, the project appears to fit into space transportation development plans outlined by CASC, China's main space contractor, and its major subsidiaries to develop reusable launch vehicles and spaceplanes. (8/16)

NASA Accelerates SLS Rollout at Cape Canaveral Spaceport (Source: NASA)
NASA's Space Launch System will head to the pad ahead of schedule. NASA said Monday that the rollout of the SLS and Orion spacecraft from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Complex 39B would begin as soon as 9 p.m. Eastern tonight. NASA had been targeting just after midnight Thursday for the rollout. NASA didn't explain why it moved up the rollout, but it gives crews additional schedule margin at the pad for preparations for the Artemis 1 launch, which remains planned for Aug. 29. (8/16)

Pandemic and Ukraine War Complicated Smallsat Supply Chains (Source: Space News)
The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have dealt the smallsat industry's supply chains a one-two punch. Companies in the field say electronics, thrusters and other components are in short supply because of growing demand and the effects of the pandemic and war on the broader supply chain. It often takes two or three times as long as before the pandemic to acquire materials, components and subsystems. Some fear that, if the problems continue, there will be a domino effect "and the whole NewSpace industry will come close to collapse," in the words of one executive. (8/16)

Rocket Lab Readies for Synspective Satellite Launch (Source: Rocket Lab)
Rocket Lab says its next launch will carry a radar imaging satellite for Japanese company Synspective. Rocket Lab said Monday the Electron launch is scheduled for a window opening in mid-September from New Zealand. The launch will be the 30th for the Electron, and the Synspective satellite will be the 150th launched on that vehicle. (8/16)

Microchip Technology Developing Processor for NASA (Source: NASA)
NASA awarded a contract to Microchip Technology Inc. to develop a new high-performance processor for space applications. The fixed-price contract, worth $50 million, covers work on a processor up to 100 times faster than existing space-rated devices. Microchip will contribute "significant" costs to its development. The announcement didn't disclose when the new chip would be ready for NASA or other space applications. (8/16)

Manufacturing in Northeast Florida: 'Our Strongest Sector' (Source: Jacksonville Daiy Record)
Manufacturing may be the next fastest-growing business sector in Northeast Florida, based on current interest in the area from companies looking for the best place to open or expand their operations. The trend is driven by how the coronavirus pandemic changed the office market, said Aaron Bowman, senior vice president of business development at JAXUSA Partnership, the regional economic development division of JAX Chamber.

“Manufacturing is probably our strongest sector post-COVID. Before, about 65% of the inquiries were from companies that needed office space. Now, that has flipped. About 65% is related to manufacturing, transportation and logistics,” Bowman said. Bowman specializes in recruiting advanced manufacturing and aerospace firms. He recently returned from the annual Farnborough International Airshow in England, where he saw a change in how prospects view Northeast Florida. “There is an amazing amount of interest from aerospace companies. When we went there 10 years ago, we were begging for meetings. This year, people were asking us for meetings. We had 27 in three days,” Bowman said. (8/11)

NASA HQ Building Refinanced (Source: SpaceRef)
Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm, announced it recently led the $275 million financing of NASA’s Washington, D.C. headquarters at 300 E. Street SW. The property is owned by Hana Alternative Asset Management and managed by Ocean West Capital Partners. Proceeds from the financing provided the partnership with attractive fixed rate pricing on debt to be repaid on an interest only basis until the loan’s 2028 maturity date (coterminous with NASA’s lease). Through this financing, the partnership recapitalized its equity interest in the property and effectively monetized what is currently the 6th largest GSA lease in the country. (8/15)

D-Orbit SPAC Merger Bites the Dust (Source: Space News)
Poor market conditions have pushed space logistics company D-Orbit to scrap plans to go public by merging with Breeze Holdings Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The Italian company had hoped to raise $185 million from the deal to expand staff and accelerate investments in ION Satellite Carrier, its orbital transfer vehicle (OTV) that completed its first commercial mission in late 2020.

However, “financial markets have changed substantially” since the deal was announced Jan. 27, Breeze CEO Douglas Ramsey said Friday, amid rising interest rates, soaring inflation, and an ongoing war in Ukraine. A rough macroeconomic backdrop also led to U.S.-based Tomorrow.io canceling plans in March to accelerate its constellation of commercial weather radar satellites with a SPAC merger.

D-Orbit’s growth trajectory remains on track despite market conditions “beyond our control,” its CEO Luca Rossettini said on Friday. Earlier in the week, the company signed a deal to launch 20 nanosatellites over three years for Swiss startup Astrocast with ION. (8/15)

Here's How Mars Could Play A Key Role In Asteroid Mining (Source: SlashGear)
NASA is actively soliciting concepts and working models that could one day turn the dream of asteroid mining into reality. Take for example Mini Bee, a proposal that entered the Phase III studies within the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program back in 2019. The plan is to harvest water vapor and volatile chemical compounds from an asteroid using a technique called optical mining, collecting target materials into a containment unit attached to the spacecraft.

However, sending a spacecraft to near-Earth asteroids is not the most economical idea, given their smaller size and mineral density. On a similar note, sending retrieval units to larger asteroids that are further away and maintaining a chain of transport between them and Earth won't exactly be cheap either.

This is where Mars and satellites come into the picture, providing closer access to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Asteroids in our nearby asteroid belt are large and abundant, which means mining them would be easier and economically reasonable if a base was established on Mars or its natural satellites Phobos and Deimos. It might sound fantastical, but a few experts ran the numbers and propose that a Mars-based asteroid mining base would be the optimal strategy for asteroid mining. (8/15)

US To Deploy Lockheed’s ‘Discrimination Radar’ That Will Keep An Eye On Both Indo-Pacific & Space (Source: Eurasian Times)
The US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) is winding up tests of its new Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR) as part of a significant defense upgrade against inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) to fend off a potential nuclear attack on mainland US from North Korea. "From the testing so far, we are seeing positive results for what this radar can do for us, discriminating threats to the continental US to make ground-based interceptor engagements more lethal,” skaid Brig. Gen. Joey Lestorti. (8/14)

SpaceX Gets $1.9 Million Air Force Contract for Starlink Services in Europe and Africa (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command awarded SpaceX a $1.9 million one-year contract to evaluate Starlink internet services in Europe and Africa starting this month. The contract is for hardware and services in support of military airlift units based at Ramstein Air Base, Germany. It includes satellite terminals and internet services for an operational evaluation of the service at fixed sites and by mobile users who need to connect devices to the internet.

The Air Force Special Operations Command’s contracting office said this was a sole-source contract as SpaceX was the only bidder that could provide the required service and that had shown it could operate in a hostile electronic environment. The general requirement was for a commercial satellite internet solution using low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites with available services in Europe and Africa to support the Air Force’s 86th Airlift Wing. (8/15)

Russia Unveils Model of Proposed Space Station After Leaving ISS (Source: Guardian)
The Russian space agency has unveiled a physical model of what a planned Russian-built space station will look like, suggesting Moscow is serious about abandoning the International Space Station (ISS) and going it alone. Russia wants to reduce its dependency on western countries and forge ahead on its own, or cooperate with countries such as China and Iran, after sanctions were imposed by the west as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos presented a model of the space station, nicknamed “Ross” by Russian state media, on Monday. (8/15)

Blue Origin Scraps New Glenn Recovery Ship, Finishes First ‘Test Tank’ (Source: Teslarati)
After four years of halting work, Blue Origin has fully abandoned a transport ship it once intended to convert into a landing platform for its orbital-class New Glenn rocket. Blue Origin purchased the ship for an undisclosed sum – likely several million dollars – sometime in mid-2018 , and Jeff Bezos named the vessel Jacklyn after his late mother. Small teams of workers would occasionally work on retrofitting the roll-on/roll-off cargo ship for a future life as a rocket recovery asset but made very little visible progress despite working on Jacklyn for several years.

Now, a few months after Blue Origin said company was evaluating “different options” for New Glenn booster recovery, Jacklyn has left Florida’s Port and the ship will be scrapped. According to an unconfirmed report, Blue Origin may ultimately use the same contractors as SpaceX to turn existing barges into ocean-going rocket-landing platforms. Blue Origin had hoped that a large, keeled ship would allow it to recover its expensive booster even if seas were stormy downrange. However, after 107 successful SpaceX Falcon booster landings on flat-bottomed barges that are exceptionally sensitive to wave conditions, just a tiny fraction of launches have been delayed by the ocean. Click here. (8/15)

Colorado Universities Offer Space Medicine Degree (Source: CPR News)
The world’s billionaires are donning spacesuits. Celebrities who made their names pretending to explore the vast cosmos have now actually seen the curvature of Earth. Tom Cruise plans to shoot a film in space. And all of these people letting go of the surly bonds of Earth means a higher need for an earthly necessity — doctors. Dr. Arian Anderson, a physician who works with NASA to mitigate human medical risk in space, said with the growth of space travel, there comes a need for people aside from engineers to put on spacesuits.

“We have seen a lot of really successful missions with Blue Origin, with SpaceX and with Virgin Galactic,” Dr. Arian Anderson said. “All of a sudden you have this need for like, ‘Hey, what happens if there is a medical event in space?’ Or ‘Hey, how do we reduce the risk of our customers going to space?’” So, the University of Colorado — which already exists a mile closer to the stars — wants to prepare the first generation of potential space doctors.

Starting in fall of 2023, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora will offer a joint MA-MS program to prepare the first generation of astronauts equipped with a medical degree. The idea for the joint degree has roots in a course designed by the CU School of Medicine that simulated what it's like to tend to patients and survive on a harsh environment like Mars. The course has been funded by a CU System grant that can be used to purchase technology a campus or department cannot afford. (8/15)

Tunisia’s First Woman Astronaut to Fly to ISS in March 2024 (Source: TASS)
Tunisia’s first woman astronaut, who will also be the first Africa’s representative onboard the International Space Station (ISS), is expected to make a spaceflight in March 2024. On August 13, Women’s Day in Tunisia, eight women candidates for a space flight were presented. They are currently undergoing medical examination. Six of them will go to Russia for the final stage of pre-qualification to choose two best candidates: one will be a member of the main crew, the other one - of the standby crew. (8/14)

Future Astronauts May Breathe Easier in Space Thanks to Magnets (Source: Daily Beast)
Scientists just paved the way for a technique to produce breathable oxygen on the ISS using magnets—a potentially much cheaper strategy than the technologies currently used. The goal isn’t simply to cut the costs of supporting astronauts in space right now, but to make the entire endeavor of human space travel more accessible down the road.

Oxygen is manufactured on the ISS through a process called water electrolysis, where electricity from solar panels splits water into a mixture of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. The issue with separating oxygen out from water in microgravity is not, counterintuitively, gravity. Rather, the difficulty lies in the buoyancy produced by the state of constant free fall. The current solution relies on a series of pumps and a centrifuge to spin the mixture at high speeds. But these contraptions are difficult to repair, massive, and voluminous.

Researchers decided to test out a magnet-based alternative. Initially, they had planned to study water electrolysis, but they chose to strap a magnet to the side of a syringe and test its ability at herding air bubbles out of solutions like chemicals and extra-virgin olive oil. Of course, the next big step is to actually test this out in space. Romero-Calvo said he and his team are looking to do just that. If their extraterrestrial trials go well, scientists will have gotten one step closer to making life outside Earth a reality. (8/15)

War in Ukraine Highlights the Growing Strategic Importance of Private Satellite Companies (Source: The Conversation)
Satellites owned by private companies have played an unexpectedly important role in the war in Ukraine. For example, in early August 2022, images from the private satellite company Planet Labs showed that a recent attack on a Russian military base in Crimea caused more damage than Russia had suggested in public reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the losses as evidence of Ukraine’s progress in the war.

Soon after the war began, Ukraine requested data from private satellite companies around the world. By the end of April, Ukraine was getting imagery from U.S. companies mere minutes after the data was collected. While experts have long known that satellite imagery is useful during a conflict, the war in Ukraine has shown that commercial satellite data can make a decisive difference – informing both military planning as well as the public view of a war. (8/15)

Chief Communicator: How Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura Helped NASA (Source: Space Review)
Nichelle Nichols, the actress best known as Lt. Uhura on Star Trek, recently passed away. Glen Swanson examines the role she played after the original TV series helping NASA diversify its astronaut corps. Click here. (8/15)
 
Small Launchers Struggle to Reach Orbit (Source: Space Review)
Sometimes the first launches of new rockets fail to reach orbit, as was the case with India’s SSLV earlier this month. Other times, Jeff Foust reports, it’s the business cases for small launch vehicles that struggle to gain altitude. Click here. (8/15)
 
Roe v. Wade: the Space Case (Source: Space Review)
The US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the case that established abortion rights, has impacts that could extend into space. Vanessa Farsadaki discusses potential implications for the ruling for long-duration spaceflight. Click here. (8/15)