December 1, 2022

SpaceX Indefinitely Delays Second Falcon 9 Launch in Two Weeks (Source: Teslarati)
For the second time in less than two weeks, SpaceX has indefinitely delayed a Falcon 9 launch after discovering apparent issues with the rocket less than a day before liftoff.

Japanese startup ispace’s misfortune also marks the eighth time in less than two months that SpaceX has delayed or aborted a Falcon 9 launch for unspecified technical reasons less than 24 hours before liftoff. The streak of delays is unusual after 12 months of record-breaking execution, over the course of which SpaceX has successfully completed 60 orbital launches with just a handful of last-minute technical delays. (11/30)

Spire Global Appoints Frank Frulio as General Manager of Space Services (Source: Spire)
Spire Global has appointed Frank Frulio as General Manager of Space Services. With more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, he has a proven track record of sales, operations, and business development leadership in regional, national, and global markets. (12/1)

Photos Hint NASA Has the Edge, but China's Secrecy Makes the Lunar Race Hard to Call (Source: Business Insider)
China and NASA are racing toward the moon, each vying for the first human moon landing since 1972. Two recent launches show that NASA may have the edge, but there is no clear winner yet. NASA just launched its new lunar rocket for the first time on November 15, carrying the Orion spaceship, designed to ferry astronauts on future moon missions. Now Orion is circling the moon, uncrewed, in a test flight to ensure it can safely take human passengers next time. Click here. (11/30)

Calling All Space Detectives to Hack an Exoplanet (Source: ESA)
Transform your students into real space detectives with ESA Education’s first ever hackathon for secondary school students: Hack an Exoplanet! Help us profile two mysterious exoplanets by analysing data from ESA’s Cheops satellite. Click here. (11/30)

Sierra Space Hires Veteran NASA Astronaut and Former Head of ISS Medical Operations as Chief Medical Officer (Source: SpaceRef)
Sierra Space, a leading space company building the first end-to-end business and technology platform in space, today announced Thomas H. Marshburn, M.D., as Chief Medical Officer for the company’s Human Spaceflight Center and Astronaut Training Academy. Dr. Marshburn will report to Sierra Space President and former NASA astronaut, Dr. Janet Kavandi.

Dr. Marshburn, also a veteran astronaut, will be based out of Sierra Space’s facilities located at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He is a veteran of three spaceflights, STS-127, Expedition 34/35, and Expedition 66/67 as part of Crew-3. Prior to becoming an astronaut, Marshburn served as a Flight Surgeon, assigned to Space Shuttle Medical Operations and to the joint U.S./Russian Space Program. Dr. Mashburn went on to become the Medical Operations Lead for the International Space Station. (12/1)

Solid Rocket Boosters Meet Performance Targets in First-Look Data Review for Artemis I (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
The Artemis I launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport, marked the first time in 11 years that the Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) formerly used for the Space Shuttle program lit on a launch pad and hauled a spaceship out of Earth’s dense lower atmosphere. Like the Space Shuttle’s first flight in 1981, at the moment of ignition, the twin five-segment SRBs on Artemis I became the most-powerful solid rockets ever flown, and their performance looks to have been spot-on pre-flight predictions. (12/1)

Rocket Issue Delays SpaceX Lunar Launch for Japan (Source: Spaceflight Now)
SpaceX has indefinitely postponed the launch of a Japanese lunar lander because of an issue with the Falcon 9 rocket. The company announced late Wednesday it was postponing the launch of ispace's HAKUTO-R M1 lander, scheduled for early Thursday, "after further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review." SpaceX, which had delayed the launch a day for what it called additional prelaunch checks, did not provide a new launch date.

The ship that would be used to retrieve the payload fairing was heading back to port, suggesting an extended delay. SpaceX did not disclose any additional details about the issue that postponed the launch, including whether it was linked to another Falcon 9 launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base that was postponed two weeks ago and has yet to be rescheduled. (12/1)

France Joins ASAT Ban (Source: Space News)
France has joined the United States and other countries in banning destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) tests. The French government announced Tuesday it would not conduct such tests, which create large amounts of debris. France is the tenth company to make such a pledge, which started with the United States in April. The announcement came just before a meeting Wednesday at NASA Headquarters between French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, where they said they would continue to strengthen cooperation between their two countries on space but did not make any additional announcements along those lines. (12/1)

Space Force Receives First Images From New Missile Warning Satellite (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has received initial images from a new missile-warning satellite launched in July. Millennium Space Systems, the company that built the  Wide Field of View (WFOV) spacecraft, said this week that the spacecraft was working well in geostationary orbit and had achieved "first light" with its infrared sensor from L3Harris. That sensor will be calibrated over the next several weeks. WFOV will operate as an early warning satellite to detect ballistic missile launches. (12/1)

Hiber Seeks $1.5 Million Compensation After Astrocast Sale Falls Through (Source: Space News)
Dutch remote monitoring specialist Hiber is demanding $1.5 million from cash-strapped Astrocast after a planned sale of the company fell through. Astrocast announced plans to buy Hiber half a year ago, a deal contingent on Astrocast's plan to list shares on the Euronext Growth Paris junior stock market in France.

Astrocast, though, failed to complete that share listing by a Nov. 30 deadline, causing the deal to terminate and Hiber to make its payment demand. Astrocast said in May it needed to raise $45 million this year to fund expansion plans for growing its fleet to 20 satellites before the end of 2022, and to 40 in 2023 to improve coverage. It is relying on short-term debt from existing investors to fund current operations. (12/1)

Germany's Orora Tech Raises $15.4 Million for Thermal Infrared Cameras (Source: Space News)
A German startup has raised additional funding for development of satellites with thermal infrared cameras. OroraTech raised $15.4 million from new and existing investors in an extension of a Series A round announced Wednesday. The company launched its first satellite in January, whose thermal infrared camera performed better than expected. The company is working on a second satellite to launch next May as a precursor to an eight-satellite system planned for 2024. OroraTech says it's seeing strong interest in the satellite imagery for tracking wildfires and mapping urban heat islands. (12/1)

Soyuz Launches Russian Military Satellite (Source: TASS)
A Soyuz rocket launched a Russian military satellite Wednesday. The Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 4:10 p.m. Eastern and placed the Cosmos-2565 satellite into orbit. The satellite is thought to be an electronics intelligence satellite. The launch came two days after another Soyuz rocket launched a Glonass navigation satellite from Plesetsk. (12/1)

Arianespace Revises Contract to Allow Intelsat Mission (Source: Arianespace)
Arianespace has revised a contract with Intelsat for the launch of two satellites. Arianespace said Wednesday it will launch Intelsat's IS-41 and IS-44 GEO communications satellites on an Ariane 64 rocket in 2025. Both satellites are being built by Thales Alenia Space. The contract, Arianespace said, repurposed an existing satellite launch contract and added the second satellite. (12/1)

Inmarsat Reports Revenue Increase (Source: Inmarsat)
Inmarsat reported continued growth in the third quarter despite supply chain challenges and regulatory uncertainty. The company reported revenue of $367 million in the quarter, up 7% from the same quarter a year ago, while EBITDA rose 17% to $228 million. The company said that supply chain issues for communications equipment, including in the maritime sector, remain "challenging" although the problems show signs of easing. Inmarsat said it remained committed to its merger with Viasat as that deal faces a review by the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority. (12/1)

Lawsuit Alleges Age Discrimination at SpaceX (Source: The Verge)
A former SpaceX employee has filed an age discrimination complaint against the company. John Johnson, 62, said in an essay that he joined SpaceX in 2018 as an engineer but had his roles and responsibilities reassigned to other, younger workers after back surgery in 2020, even though those workers often lacked the skills to carry out that work. Johnson resigned from the company in June and filed an age discrimination complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission. SpaceX did not comment on the allegations. (12/1)

UK Rolls Out Rural Connectivity Pilot (Source: BBC)
The British government, a part-owner of satellite broadband company OneWeb, is rolling out a rural connectivity pilot project… with Starlink. The government said it will test Starlink systems at several locations in the country without terrestrial broadband access to determine if the service should be eligible for a broadband voucher scheme for remote connectivity. The government said it selected Starlink for the trial "given the readiness and availability of its technology." (12/1)

Boeing Looks Ahead to Future Core Stages and EUS Debut (Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com)
Following a successful first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) and its critical Core Stage, Boeing is looking ahead to “the SLS fleet” as the aerospace company moves to complete the next three core stages for Artemis missions II through IV. Meanwhile, design and materials orders are in work from Boeing for SLS’s new upper stage, the Exploration Upper Stage (EUS), which is set to debut on Artemis IV.

With Core Stage 1’s flight now in the books for Boeing, attention continues to be paid to the future core stages currently in production at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in Louisiana. In particular, Core Stage 2 is approximately 85% complete according to Zietsman, with engine installation work set for completion by the end of the year ahead of a planned spring 2023 shipment of the stage to the Kennedy Space Center.

However, the Core Stages for Artemis IV and beyond will be different from those that come before as they need to accommodate a much larger upper stage in the EUS. This new SLS configuration is called Block 1B whereas the version that uses the ICPS for Artemis missions I through III is called Block 1. Test articles for the EUS are currently in work, while Boeing prepares for the actual assembly process to begin. Like the Core Stage, the first EUS will head to the Stennis Space Center for a Green Run series of tests, including a full-duration hot firing of its four RL10C-3 engines. (11/30)

Sidus Space Gains AS9100 Rev D Certification (Source: Sidus Space)
Sidus Space has earned an enhanced AS9100 certification expanding the scope to include engineering. Sidus Space has been AS9100 certified in manufacturing since 2013. AS9100 certification sets the worldwide aerospace quality standards as well as the quality requirements of DoD, NASA and the FAA. AS9100 certification expands on the ISO9001 quality standards and adds additional regulatory requirements and notations pertaining specifically to aerospace quality needs. (12/1)

China Ready to Implement Moon Landing Project (Source: Space Daily)
China has made breakthroughs in the development of the new-generation crewed spaceship, new-generation manned carrier rocket, moon lander, and moon landing spacesuit, stepping closer to its moon landing goal, according to the China Manned Space Agency on Monday.

China has completed key technology research and validation of the manned lunar exploration project, forming a moon landing implementation plan with "Chinese characteristics," said Ji Qiming, an assistant to the agency's director, at a press conference ahead of the launch of the Shenzhou-15 manned space mission. (12/1)

Pulsar Fusion Funded by the UK Govt to Construct a Nuclear Based Space Engine (Source: Space Daily)
Pulsar Fusion, a UK rocket company that has seen its advanced space engines tested in the UK and Switzerland earlier this year, has been awarded funding from the UK Space Agency to develop 'Integrated nuclear fission-based power systems for electric propulsion.' Pulsar believes its pioneering green rocket technologies could one day be the key to propelling spacecraft beyond the solar system.

The project will be supported by Southampton and Cambridge Universities and Nuclear AMRC. Pulsar Fusion, based in Bletchley, Bucks., has its sights set on ultimately harnessing Nuclear Fusion for hyper - speed rocket technology. Pulsar however currently manufactures several types of advanced space rocket engines that are in use today. Amongst its creations is the largest and most powerful electric spacecraft engine in Europe which has been independently tested by the University of Southampton under another government funded scheme in 2021. (12/1)

Eutelsat Selects Thales Alenia Space to Build a New Flexible Software-Defined Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
Eutelsat Communications has selected Thales Alenia Space (Thales 67% and Leonardo 33%) to build a next-generation highly flexible, software-defined satellite (SDS). The Flexsat (for flexible satellite) will be based on Thales Alenia Space's cutting-edge 'Space Inspire' (INstant SPace In-orbit REconfiguration) product line, enabling seamless reconfiguration and instant in-orbit adjustment to offer an optimum level of customer service, maximising the effective use of the satellite resources. (12/1)

Communications System Achieves Fastest Laser Link From Space Yet (Source: Space Daily)
In May 2022, the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload onboard a small CubeSat satellite was launched into orbit 300 miles above Earth's surface. Since then, TBIRD has delivered terabytes of data at record-breaking rates of up to 100 gigabits per second - 100 times faster than the fastest internet speeds in most cities - via an optical communication link to a ground-based receiver in California.

This data rate is more than 1,000 times higher than that of the radio-frequency links traditionally used for satellite communication and the highest ever achieved by a laser link from space to ground. And these record-setting speeds were all made possible by a communications payload roughly the size of a tissue box. (12/1)

ONERA Acquires Two Satellite Platforms From NanoAvionics for its Nanosat FlyLab Mission (Source: Space Daily)
French aerospace lab ONERA (Office National d'Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales) has signed a contract with NanoAvionics, a space mission integrator and satellite manufacturer, for the procurement of two 8U and 6U nanosat platforms, dedicated to ONERA 's FlyLab mission.

The contract includes the supply of all the components necessary for the operation of the satellites, but also the integration of the payloads and the environmental tests. The two nanosat platforms feature NanoAvionics's standardized modular design and payload versatility to accommodating sophisticated missions such as FlyLab. NanoAvionics will also provide ONERA with the software and hardware to test, validate and operate the satellites. Delivery of the complete platforms is scheduled for early 2025 and launch the same year. (12/1)

AWS Successfully Runs AWS Compute and Machine Learning Services on an Orbiting Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced that it successfully ran a suite of AWS compute and machine learning (ML) software on an orbiting satellite, in a first-of-its-kind space experiment. The experiment, conducted over the past 10 months in low Earth orbit (LEO), was designed to test a faster, more efficient method for customers to collect and analyze valuable space data directly on their orbiting satellites using the cloud.

Providing AWS edge capabilities onboard an orbiting satellite for the first time lets customers automatically analyze massive volumes of raw satellite data in orbit and only downlink the most useful images for storage and further analysis, driving down cost and enabling timely decision making. (12/1)

AST SpaceMobile Announces Pricing of Upsized $75M Public Offering of Class-A Common Stock (Source: Space Daily)
AST SpaceMobile has announced the pricing of its previously announced public offering of its Class A common stock, par value $0.0001 per share (the "Class A Common Stock"). The Company has agreed to sell 13,636,364 shares of Class A Common Stock at a price to the public of $5.50 per share. The Company has granted the underwriter a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 2,045,454 shares of Class A Common Stock at the public offering price, less the underwriting discounts and commissions, solely to cover over-allotments, if any.

The gross proceeds to the Company from the offering, before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and other offering expenses, will be approximately $75.0 million ($86.25 million if the underwriter exercises its option to purchase additional shares in full). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for general corporate purposes. (12/1)

NASA Awards Contract for Mars Sample Return Systems (Source: Space Daily)
NASA has awarded a contract to Honeybee Robotics LLC of Longmont, Colorado, for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) - Capture, Containment, and Retrieval System (CCRS), Earth Entry System (EES), and Spin Eject Mechanism (SEM). The total value of this cost-plus-fixed-fee contract is $17,686,341. The period of performance runs from Nov. 30, 2022, through July 30, 2026.

Honeybee Robotics LLC will provide the personnel, services, materials, equipment, and facilities necessary to build the CCRS, EES, and SEM, as well as for the successful and on-time implementation of the design, analysis, development, development test, fabrication, assembly, verification, engineering data analysis, calibration, qualification, acceptance, delivery, and post-delivery support of the SEM. (12/1)

At NASA, France's Macron and US Vow Strong Space Cooperation (Source: Space Daily)
Paris and Washington pledged Wednesday to reenforce their cooperation in space, particularly on exploration and climate, during a visit by France's Emmanuel Macron to NASA headquarters alongside US Vice President Kamala Harris. The French president, on a state visit to the United States, highlighted the American lunar program Artemis, whose first uncrewed test mission launched in mid-November with participation of the European Space Agency (ESA). (11/30)

A HIIT Workout for Astronauts Can Benefit Non-Space Travelers Too (Source: Washington Post)
Exercise like an astronaut and you might avoid the unhealthy effects of sitting too much, according to recent studies about the benefits of space workouts. The research, which involved astronauts on the International Space Station and bed-bound volunteers in Houston, suggest that the right mix of scientifically tested exercises can stave off undesirable physical consequences from being weightless on the space station — or inactive for long hours on Earth.

“Exercise is quite potent in these conditions,” said Lori L. Ploutz-Snyder, the dean of the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology who was previously a lead exercise scientist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston and is co-author of the new research. But there is a catch. To faithfully re-create low-gravity workouts, we would need to run straight up a wall, like the cartoon Roadrunner, and weight train in bed. With a few tweaks, though, astronauts’ daily exercise routines can work on Earth and help us develop our own out-of-this-world fitness. Click here. (11/30)

Super-Distant Black Hole is Eating Half a Sun a Year and Blasting its Leftovers at Earth (Source: Space.com)
Astronomers have made the most distant observation of a black hole ripping apart a star and feasting upon it, thanks to a jet of stellar "leftovers" blasted directly toward Earth. Because the jet is directed straight at Earth, the violent destruction of the star by this black hole, which astronomers call a tidal disruption event (TDE), was observable in visible light. The discovery could therefore signal a new way to observe such extreme events that are usually only detected in high-energy light, like gamma-rays and X-rays. (11/30)

Kongsberg to Develop Flying Laboratory Cubesats for France (Source: Kongsberg NanoAvionics)
Kongsberg NanoAvionics won a contract from France's national aerospace research center, ONERA, to build, test and integrate cubesats called FlyLab for Flying Laboratories. The FlyLab cubesats, designed and operated by ONERA, will be equipped with fine attitude control systems and different propulsion technologies. FlyLab-1 carries an uncooled megapixel camera and a visible camera. FlyLab-2 will house VHF antennas and a software defined radio card to gather data on the ionosphere. (11/30)

Colorado Awards Grants for Economic Development (Sources: CO Office of Economic Development, Space News)
Kayhan Space won a $500,000 grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. The grant, part of a campaign to promote the growth and sustainability of advanced industries in Colorado, will help Kayhan accelerate development of autonomous satellite collision avoidance capabilities for its Pathfinder Max software platform, the company said.

Other winners include Outward Technologies ($250K) for lightweight optical systems for concentrating sunlight to power high temperature processes in space; Red Canyon Software ($75K) for a highly modular software solution that can be utilized by commercial spacecraft companies in their ground control and simulation test environments; and Estes Energetics ($250K) for a new advanced design and manufacturing method for solid rocket motor nozzles with complex, unique internal geometries.

These awards, and others outside the space sector, represent a total of $9,524,777 in funding. The Advanced Industries Accelerator Program received 98 applications this grant cycle, which were reviewed in a multi-stage process by committees of business, technical and financial experts in the seven advanced industries. Final recommendations were approved by the Economic Development Commission on November 17, 2022. (11/17)

Lunar Legos (Source: Space News)
The only astronauts on the first Artemis lunar mission are four Lego minifigures. Lego launched Command Pilot Kate and Mission Specialist Kyle, plus crewmates Julia and Sebastian as part of its educational programming called Build to Launch: A STEAM Exploration series. Also onboard was Shaun the Sheep, a stuffed animal in a European Space Agency flight suit. Shaun's flight as part of a British children's show, has been called a giant leap for lambkind. (11/29)

Physicists Create a Wormhole Using a Quantum Computer (Source: Quanta)
Physicists have purportedly created the first-ever wormhole, a kind of tunnel theorized in 1935 by Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen that leads from one place to another by passing into an extra dimension of space. The wormhole emerged like a hologram out of quantum bits of information, or “qubits,” stored in tiny superconducting circuits. By manipulating the qubits, the physicists then sent information through the wormhole, they reported today in the journal Nature.

The team, led by Maria Spiropulu of the California Institute of Technology, implemented the novel “wormhole teleportation protocol” using Google’s quantum computer, a device called Sycamore housed at Google Quantum AI in Santa Barbara, California. With this first-of-its-kind “quantum gravity experiment on a chip,” as Spiropulu described it, she and her team beat a competing group of physicists who aim to do wormhole teleportation with IBM and Quantinuum’s quantum computers.

When Spiropulu saw the key signature indicating that qubits were passing through the wormhole, she said, “I was shaken.” The experiment can be seen as evidence for the holographic principle, a sweeping hypothesis about how the two pillars of fundamental physics, quantum mechanics and general relativity, fit together. The holographic principle posits a mathematical equivalence or “duality” between the two frameworks. It says the bendy space-time continuum described by general relativity is really a quantum system of particles in disguise. Space-time and gravity emerge from quantum effects much as a 3D hologram projects out of a 2D pattern. (11/30)

How Will the Space Economy Change the World? (Source: McKinsey)
The passengers who boarded commercial flights just after World War II didn’t know that air travel would begin to soar over the next decade, nor did the masses who first logged onto the internet in the 1990s realize that computers would one day provide much of their news, entertainment, and social life. And today, few people understand that the space economy—broadly defined as activities in orbit or on other planets that benefit human beings—could soon transform how they live and work. Click here. (11/28)

Space Force Training Takes Shape as Service Turns 3 (Source: Air Force Times)
Space Training and Readiness Command knew it had a difficult road ahead. When it began its work in earnest in August 2021, the Space Force’s new training branch was immediately faced with pulling together scattered pieces of the Pentagon’s nearly 80-year-old military space enterprise into a singular training hub. STARCOM boss Maj. Gen. Shawn Bratton spent that first year hashing out how to bring people into the service, whether as a new recruit or from elsewhere in the military. Click here. (11/29)

Graphene Goes to Space and to the Moon (Source: Eurekalert)
Graphene Flagship Partners University of Cambridge (UK) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Belgium) paired up with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC, United Arab Emirates), and the European Space Agency (ESA) to test graphene on the Moon. This joint effort sees the involvement of many international partners, such as Airbus Defense and Space, Khalifa University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Dortmund, University of Oslo, and Tohoku University.

The Rashid rover is planned to be launched on 30 November 2022 from Florida and will land on a geologically rich and, as yet, only remotely explored area on the Moon’s nearside – the side that always faces the Earth. During one lunar day, equivalent to approximately 14 days on Earth, Rashid will move on the lunar surface investigating interesting geological features.

The Rashid rover wheels will be used for repeated exposure of different materials to the lunar surface. As part of this Material Adhesion and abrasion Detection experiment, graphene-based composites on the rover wheels will be used to understand if they can protect spacecraft against the harsh conditions on the Moon, and especially against regolith (also known as ‘lunar dust’). University of Cambridge researchers from the Cambridge Graphene Centre produced graphene/polyether ether ketone (PEEK) composites. The interaction of these composites with the Moon regolith (soil) will be investigated. (11/29)

Mars Rover Instrument, Cubesats, More Space Research Opportunities for Hawaii Undergrads (Source: University of Hawaii)
Undergraduate students at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa have the opportunity to get involved in space exploration and research through academic programs and internships offered through the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP). Three students who are currently enrolled in the Earth and Planetary Exploration Technology (EPET) certificate have explored research opportunities through internships with HIGP and Hawaiʻi Space Grant Consortium (HSGC) and have contributed to space exploration through fields such as physics and engineering. (11/29)

High Ambition as Business Schools Launch Space Programs (Source: Financial Times)
Space has not traditionally been a destination to enjoy delicious food. Without gravity to help clear their sinuses, astronauts are left with a dulled sense of taste. But, at BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo, associate professor of marketing Carlos Velasco and colleagues are working to develop more appetising meals for space travellers. “Space captured my imagination early in life and we saw an opportunity to tackle some of the challenges that space travellers may face,” says Velasco, a “multisensory marketing” specialist. “We want to position food — which is a multisensory experience in itself — beyond nutrition.”

Together with academics at the University of Sussex in the UK and Carnegie Mellon University in the US, his team at BI Norwegian has developed three concepts for use in zero gravity. These include a mixing pod where solid spices are dissolved into food for flavour and texture; a 3D printer that astronauts can use to make food that enhances the emotional experience of eating; and small bites with distinct flavours from different cultures or moments in life that are combined with virtual and augmented reality.

It might seem a lot of effort for the few people lucky enough to travel in space. “But research and development in the space industry often results in innovations that also provide solutions for humanity’s small and big challenges,” Velasco argues, citing inventions such as freeze-dried food, home insulation and water purification systems. Click here. (11/29)