November 25, 2022

Holiday Air Travel Means Fewer Rocket Launches From Florida's Space Coast (Source: Yahoo! News)
If you happen to be visiting Florida's Space Coast around the holidays hoping to catch a rocket launch, chances are you'll be out of luck. During peak holiday travel times, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Federal Aviation Administration works with space launch companies to minimize delays for commercial air travelers. That is because the FAA temporarily closes airspace around a launch site whenever a rocket launches.

"During launches and reentries, the FAA temporarily closes airspace to protect the traveling public, and re-routing aircraft can contribute to flight delays," the FAA said. With about 75% of launches happening at Kennedy Space Center or Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the air closures mainly affect the Southeast. California, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Alaska, Georgia and Alabama also have commercial launch operations that could cause airspace closures. (11/23)

Man Behind China's Lunar Project Unveils Deep Space Exploration Plan (Source: CCTV)
As the fourth phase of China's moon probe is underneath, the man behind China's lunar project talked about the country's deep space exploration and planned moon missions for the next 15 years. Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's Lunar Exploration Program outlined three plans for the country's lunar exploration for the next 10 to 15 years. Click here. (11/25)

NASA Must Confront a Familiar Enemy on the Moon: Dust (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
The moon is incredibly hot, and also incredibly cold. There’s radiation. A thin atmosphere. No air to breathe. If NASA ever establishes a lunar base — a long-term project advanced with the launch of Artemis I — it will have to confront these challenges to human habitation. But it’ll also have to figure out the dust. “This is not just fluffy dust that’s going to put a little coat on your ... hardware,” said UCF's Philip Metzger. “This is sandblasting, damaging; it’s rocks at high velocity, sand grains, high-velocity gravel.”

Lunar dust is made of gnarly little particles — jagged and sharp-edged grains that add up to a major problem for astronauts and just about any human-made object that’s supposed to land or take off from the moon. For years, NASA scientists have studied just how much damage that dust, along with lunar gravel and rocks, could cause, particularly when it gets kicked up by rocket engines and starts jetting about at speeds faster than a bullet.

One of the foremost institutions studying lunar dust and its potential effect on human missions is the Swamp Works, a NASA research lab co-founded in 2013 by Metzger, who is now retired from the agency but still collaborates on some projects. Based at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in a boxy building once used to train Apollo astronauts, the lab aims to rapidly pioneer and test technologies that would allow humans to live and work on other planetary bodies. (11/21)

Spaceport Cornwall Project Aims to Inspire Pupils to Join Space Race (Source: BBC)
Spaceport Cornwall has launched a new project aimed at inspiring children to pursue a career in the growing space sector. About 50 teachers gathered at the Spaceport in Newquay to learn more about the industry and how to develop the skills of their pupils. The Spaceport runs the programme in partnership with education group STEM Learning.

As part of the project, industry experts will also visit schools. Spaceport Cornwall is set to host the UK's first space launch, with the first mission is expected to be conducted by the Virgin Orbit company. (11/24)

UK's First Vertical Rocket Launch From Shetland 'Ahead of Schedule' (Source: STV News)
The first British vertical rocket set to be launched from the Shetland Isles is ahead of schedule, officials have said. SaxaVord Spaceport, located at Lamba Ness in Unst, Shetland, saw its first concrete base for a launch stool completed this month. A total of £19m has been spent on the project to date, with rocket stage testing expected to begin early in 2023.

The first phase of construction will see two launchpads – named Fredo and Elizabeth – developed, with the third – Calum – to be built in phase two. Preparation is now under way on the first building where rockets will be assembled. Construction work, which is employing more than 60 people on site, started at the end of March this year. (11/23)

Marsh Arranges Insurance for First Launch From UK Soil (Source: Marsh)
Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor, today announced that it has placed insurance for the first space rocket launch from UK soil. Arranged on behalf of Space Forge and placed with Beazley, the policy covers risk of loss to the Forgestar payload.

The launch – which is expected to take place this year at Spaceport Cornwall, one of the UK’s first domestic spaceports – will carry, among other satellites, Space Forge’s Forgestar-0 prototype space factory that can create materials that are not possible to make on Earth. Once operational, Forgestar will be the world’s first fully returnable and re-launchable satellite platform. (11/23)

Cyprus Looking to Create a Strong Space Ecosystem (Source: Cyprus Mail)
Cyprus hopes to formulate a strong Space ecosystem, general manager of the deputy ministry of innovation and digital policy Dr Stelios Chimonas said on Thursday. The deputy ministry published a written statement after Chimonas attended the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Council of Ministers, which was held in Paris between Tuesday and Wednesday.

According to the statement, the council discussed the ESA’s agenda for the next decade, with ministers stressing the importance of Europe’s independent access to Space in order to make the most of the possibilities and solutions it offers to immediately and effectively deal with global challenges, including possibilities for monitoring and mitigating the effects of climate change, as well as ensuring secure communications and radio navigation through European satellites.

For his part, Chimonas said that despite its small size, through the extensive cooperation it maintains with the ESA Cyprus seeks to further exploit its geostrategic position, and take advantage of the opportunities this creates, to build a strong space ecosystem in the country. To this end, Cyprus is promoting a series of reforms and initiatives, including the development of a National Space Strategy, based on the new EU Space Policy, ESA initiatives and the legislation on space activities on the basis of the relevant international conventions, he added. (11/24)

JAXA Reports Research Data Fabrication by Japanese Astronaut (Source: The Mainichi)
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) reported to authorities on Nov. 25 that research conducted under the supervision of astronaut and medical doctor Satoshi Furukawa was riddled with falsified or fabricated data, the Mainichi Shimbun has learned. Furukawa is slated for his second long-term stay at the International Space Station in around 2023, but JAXA plans to slap the astronaut and others with disciplinary measures over the wrongdoing.

According to the Japanese space agency and other sources, the research was carried out from 2015 to 2017 by a team directed by Furukawa and two others. They studied how much stress living in a confined space would cause to human bodies with the objective of using the test results for mental health management among astronauts at the space station.

Test subjects were recruited from the public, and they were asked to spend 14 days in a mock space station facility in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. The research team looked at the subjects' blood and urine samples and data on their mental states to measure their stress levels. A total of 42 people participated in the study during five sets of experiments, to which thousands of people had applied each time. (11/25)

Ukraine from Space – Incredible NASA Image Shows Devastating Effects of Russian Strikes (Source: Kyiv Post)
The U.S. space agency NASA has released a series of images that lay bare the extent of the energy crisis currently facing Ukraine as a consequence of continued Russian strikes against civilian infrastructure. As lights shine brightly in neighboring European countries, almost the whole of Ukraine is in darkness with just a few pinpricks of light visible.

Ukraine’s energy system suffered major blackouts and is still recovering after another large-scale Russian missile attack on Wednesday, Nov. 23. Fifty percent of Kyiv’s residents were still without power on Friday, according to authorities. Volodymyr Kudrytsky, the head of national electricity operator Ukrenergo, said repair work was continuing across the country, and that the grid had already “passed the most difficult stage” after the most recent attacks. (11/25)

The Hibernator’s Guide to the Galaxy (Source: WIRED)
Scientists are on the verge of figuring out how to put humans in a state of suspended animation. It could be the key to colonizing Mars. Click here. (11/24)

China Offers International Cooperation Opportunity via Chang'e Lunar Missions (Source: Xinhua)
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) on Thursday revealed the international payloads that will piggyback on the Chang'e-6 lunar exploration mission, and announced another call for international payload proposals for the Chang'e-7 mission. The CNSA has announced that it will carry scientific instruments from France, Italy and the European Space Agency/Sweden on the Chang'e-6 mission's lander, and a Pakistani payload on the orbiter.

At present, these four international payloads are technically feasible to carry, and all of them are on schedule for development work, it added. Since it announced the cooperation opportunity in April 2019, offering to carry 10 kg of payloads on both the lander and the orbiter of the Chang'e-6 mission, it has received more than 20 piggyback proposals, according to the CNSA. The Chang'e-6 mission, scheduled for launch between 2024 and 2025, will involve an on-site investigation, the retrieval of samples from the far side of the moon, and systematic and long-term laboratory research on samples collected. (11/25)

NASA's Artemis 1 Launched a Solar Sail Cubesat to an Asteroid. It May Be In Trouble (Source: Space.com)
A tiny asteroid explorer that launched on NASA's moon mission last week still hasn't phoned home. Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout was one of 10 cubesats that hitched a ride to space on NASA's Artemis 1 mission, which launched on Nov. 16. The spacecraft was designed to sail on sunlight to fly past a small asteroid dubbed 2020 GE about a year from now. But something seems to have gone wrong after the cubesat deployed.

"Following successful separation and deployment from NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) on Nov. 16, the Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) project team has not yet established communications with the spacecraft," NASA officials wrote in an emailed statement. "Teams continue working to initiate contact with NEA Scout." (11/24)

Putin: Russia to Send More Satellites to Space (Source: TASS)
Russia will increase the number of its Earth observation satellites, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. On Thursday, the president visited Applied Technologies of Artificial Intelligence, an exhibition of advanced artificial intelligence solutions held as part of the Artificial Intelligence Journey 2022 international conference. He was briefed about projects in various spheres, including on environmental monitoring of remote areas.

The project’s authors lamented that "the only serious obstacle <...> is access to satellite imagery," because they currently have to rely only on open-access foreign data. Therefore, they requested the president to make Russian satellite images - both present-day and archived ones - more accessible. "We are certainly going to increase the [satellite] constellation," the president said, adding that the request was "heard and understood." (11/24)

We May Finally Know How Blazars Act as Cosmic Particle Accelerators (Source: New Scientist)
Astronomers may have solved a major mystery about the supermassive black holes at the centres of some galaxies. A subset of these black holes called blazars blast out colossal jets of matter towards Earth, and we may now know how the particles in those jets reach such high energies.

Researchers have known about these jets for decades, but we have never been able to look into the heart of a blazar before to see how it accelerates particles. A new X-ray space telescope called the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) has made this possible for the first time. Yannis Liodakis at the University of Turku in Finland and his colleagues used it to look at a particularly bright blazar called Markarian 501.

There were two main models for how blazars accelerate particles: either via interactions within the black hole’s magnetic field or via shock waves propagating through the jets. The IXPE observations suggest it is shock waves. These are probably created through simple turbulence in the jet, when faster-moving plasma smashes into slower areas and gives up some of its energy. Previous observations have revealed strange knots of material moving around in the jets, and these new observations hint that those may be caused by shock waves. (11/23)

NASA’s Orion Capsule Captures Gorgeous Close-Up Pictures of the Moon (Source: New Scientist)
NASA’s Orion capsule has sent back stunning pictures from its maiden voyage. The pictures show the spacecraft flying just 130 kilometers above the moon’s surface, the closest approach of its entire mission. During the flyby, Orion passed behind the moon, putting it briefly out of contact with its operators and allowing it to take images of the moon’s far side, which is never seen from Earth. Click here. (11/23)

Jupiter's Moon Io Might Have a Hellish Magma Ocean Beneath Its Surface (Source: Daily Beast)
Io's possible super-hot sea of melted rock—which is unique in the solar system—could harbor secrets, weird mechanisms for forming moons and planets, and even recipes for exotic alien life. Only further scrutiny of the 2,200-mile-diameter moon will tell. Miyazaki and Stevenson aren’t the first scientists to make an educated guess at what lies beneath Io’s potentially 20-mile-thick rocky crust. It’s been the subject of heated debate for years. But their new peer-reviewed study of the moon’s mantle might be the most thorough yet.

Broadly speaking, planetary scientists reading the Galileo data assumed Io either has an underground magma ocean or a kind of sponge-like rocky outer mantle soaked in magma. A fresh look at the data led Miyazaki and Stevenson concludes it’s the molten sea. They based their conclusion on estimates of the mantle’s temperature via analysis of Io’s volcanoes, which can spew magma hundreds of miles into the moon’s sulfur dioxide atmosphere. The top of the mantle might register as hot as 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit. (11/24)

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Series Might Offer Satellite Communication Support (Source: XDA Developers)
Following in Apple's footsteps, Samsung is reportedly working on offering users satellite communication support on its next-gen flagships. A new report out of South Korea reveals that the company is working with U.S.-based Iridium Communications to provide satellite connectivity for the upcoming Galaxy S23 series.

Although Samsung hasn't revealed any details about the Galaxy S23 series officially, leaks suggest that the lineup will include three devices featuring minor hardware improvements over the Galaxy S22 series from last year. The phones will likely pack Qualcomm's latest flagship Snapdragon chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and offer a few camera improvements. In addition, a new report from ETNews (H/T Ice Universe) claims that the lineup might also offer satellite communications support. (11/24)