January 24, 2023

How ESA Works With the EU to Advance European Space (Source: ESA)
ESA and the EU have been partners in European space for decades. ESA designed and developed the EU’s Galileo system – with its 28-satellite constellation and its global ground stations – that together provide a highly accurate, guaranteed global positioning service under civilian control, as well as more than 30 EU Copernicus Earth observation satellites that deliver data to improve the management of the environment, understand and mitigate the effects of climate change, and ensure civil security. ESA has also created the EU’s European satellite navigation system for aircraft.

Cyberattacks and geopolitics threaten today’s increasingly digital world, leading to the disruption of essential supplies such as power and water. In response, ESA has started work on supporting the EU’s new flagship space program – a highly secure, satellite-enabled connectivity system called Iris2 that will promote digital autonomy and provide a strategic asset for the EU. Click here. (1/24)

Europe is About to Launch its Biggest Space Project …But We Won’t Know Much for the Next 10 Years (Source: Cosmos)
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) has been confirmed for launch from the agency’s spaceport in French Guiana in April 2023. The mission will explore the large, frigid worlds that orbit Jupiter, Ganymede, Callisto and Europa. It marks Europe’s biggest space venture yet, spanning a decade of precise monitoring and calculations to send the JUICE spacecraft into orbit not only around three large moons, but also the largest planet in the solar system.

The mission won’t arrive at Jupiter for eight years. Once launched on the Ariane 5 rocket, JUICE will perform several flybys of the Earth, the Moon and Venus to sling the craft towards Jupiter. It will arrive at the gas giant midway through 2031 where it will begin 35 flybys of the three moons and then eventually swoop in on Ganymede – the largest of Jupiter’s satellites – in a final attempt to peer beneath the surface and study whether it could support simple lifeforms. (1/24)

How a 3-Centimeter Glass Sphere Could Help Scientists Understand Space Weather (Source: Phys.org)
Solar flares and other types of space weather can wreak havoc with spaceflight and with telecommunications and other types of satellites orbiting Earth. But to date, scientists' ability to research ways to overcome that challenge has been severely limited. That's because experiments they conduct in laboratories here on Earth are affected by gravity in ways that are quite different from conditions in space.

But a new study by UCLA physicists could at last help conquer that issue—which could be a big step toward safeguarding humans (and equipment) during space expeditions, and toward ensuring the proper functioning of satellites. The paper is published in Physical Review Letters.

The UCLA researchers effectively reproduced the type of gravity that exists on or near stars and other planets inside of a glass sphere measuring 3 centimeters in diameter. To do so, they used sound waves to create a spherical gravitational field and generate plasma convection—a process in which gas cools as it nears the surface of a body and then reheats and rises again as it nears the core—creating a fluid current that in turn generates a magnetic current. (1/23)

Army Space Capabilities Keep Soldiers Shooting, Moving, Communicating (Source: US Army)
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command focused on integrating Army space capabilities in many of its 2022 operations. In February, the United States and Europe intervened to help Ukraine with air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, radars, and more following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. USASMDC provided support to U.S. European Command’s response to operations in Ukraine through its Force Tracking Mission Management Center and by providing space operations support to combatant commanders through its 1st Space Brigade. (1/23)

Musk’s Sci-Fi Futurism Is Just Plutocracy With Space Travel (Source: Jacobin)
Elon Musk has cultivated an image as a down-to-earth billionaire who can propel us into a wondrous climate change–free future. But even his most ambitious visions leave the plutocratic status quo intact. As Musk’s star wanes, it’s worth revisiting the story that he told the world. It was a story that sent Tesla and SpaceX stocks to the moon, netted Musk billions of dollars in government contracts, and, at one point, made him the richest person in the world.

But it was also a story of glimmering optimism, where humanity solved its problems — including the biggest of all, climate change — instead of succumbing to them. In a world where governments, especially that of the United States, had functionally given up on any aggressive climate policy, Musk spun a yarn that filled the void. By reassessing it, we can learn about the failure to confront climate change and chart a path forward.

Musk increasingly appears to the public as a childish billionaire with poor impulse control, not the sci-fi sage over whom Reddit fawned and dubbed the “Real Life Tony Stark.” Musk offered complacency dressed up as futurism. He was a boring man who disguised himself as a visionary. He lied about his abilities, and now that the bill has come due, he is floundering. Click here. (1/23)

Musk Says His SpaceX Shares Could Have Also Helped Fund Taking Tesla Private (Source: Reuters)
Elon Musk told jurors on Monday he was sure he had locked up financial support from Saudi investors in 2018 to take his electric car maker Tesla private, and could even have used his stake in rocket company SpaceX to fund a buyout. At a trial in San Francisco federal court, the billionaire, who said he was tired from a lack of sleep, spoke quietly and calmly during roughly five hours of testimony. "With SpaceX stock alone, I felt funding was secured" for the buyout, he told a jury, referring to the aerospace company where he is also CEO, without giving any details. (1/23)

Space Is Going Commercial in Asia, but There’s a Rocky Road Ahead (Source: The Diplomat)
Space industry growth has implications for international business, international security, and the environment. The space ecosystem is gravitating to the Asia-Pacific as several regional countries make breakthroughs in the space domain. Australia is enlarging the space ecosystem in South Australia, and Japan is operationalizing commercial transactions of space resources. Notably, both countries coordinate with U.S.-led initiatives such as the Indo-Pacific Strategy.

In addition, another U.S. ally, South Korea, continues to make headway in the space race as Seoul develops its capabilities. Last year, in a first, South Korea demonstrated success with a homegrown rocket deploying multiple satellites into orbit. Also, in the region, India is instituting a new space policy to enable activities by non-government entities in the space sector. India is hosting an exciting space technology start-up drive, expecting an investment of over $300 million in 2023.

While space is creating opportunities for businesses and governments to realize their objectives, it is also rapidly developing headaches for governments and policymakers because it is largely ungoverned. International organizations and mechanisms such as the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) provide guidelines for nations to utilize their policies and frameworks to inform their national space-related policies. Click here. (1/20)

Satellite Constellations May Create Interference for Weather Monitoring (Source: Space News)
Meteorologists are worried that satellite constellations could interfere with weather observations. At a recent conference, meteorologists said that plans by SpaceX for its second-generation Starlink system and some other proposed megaconstellations could create radio-frequency interference in a band used to measure humidity in the atmosphere. It's unclear whether the Starlink uplinks would pose any danger to the meteorological observations. Still, scientists worry that interference from transmissions in nearby bands could swamp the passive signals they are trying to detect. The International Telecommunication Union declined to take up a proposal in 2019 to protect that spectrum. (1/24)

Charter Space Raises $1.2 Million for Satellite Mission Software (Source: Space News)
Charter Space has raised $1.2 million to provide program management software for satellite missions. The company's founders started Charter Space after struggling with "inefficient tooling and processes" during another satellite project at a startup that eventually failed. Charter is one of six space companies that participated in the fall 2022 Techstars Aerospace and Defense Accelerator. The London-based company plans to open a Los Angeles office this year. (1/24)

Startups Focus on Cost Cutting (Source: Space News)
Space startups are looking for ways to reduce costs as funding becomes more difficult to raise. After years of sky-high valuations and investor competition for shares of promising space startups, high interest rates and the threat of recession have made investors cautious. In response to a lack of new funding sources, space startups are cutting back on hiring, reducing travel and giving up leased office space. In one case, a startup used a speedboat restoration shop east of Los Angeles to test satellite propulsion systems rather than build a dedicated facility. (1/24)

Starship Fueling Test Conducted at SpaceX's Texas Starbase (Source: Space News)
SpaceX performed a fueling test of its Starship launch vehicle Monday. During the test, SpaceX loaded the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy booster with more than 4.5 million kilograms of liquid oxygen and methane propellants and went through a practice countdown without igniting its engines. The rehearsal was one of the last major testing milestones before SpaceX will be ready for an orbital launch attempt. Another upcoming test is a static fire of all 33 Raptor engines in the base of the Super Heavy. (1/24)

Don't Start a Launch Company (Source: SpaceFund)
SpaceFund has long lamented the saturation of the launch market, including a paper we published in 2019 about the coming oversupply in launch, even with the rising number of payloads using these launch vehicles. We’re carefully tracking the launch industry, with over 200 launch companies that have been added to our Launch Reality Rating database since its inception in 2018. Many of those companies have fallen off the list (bankruptcy, acquisition, ‘zombie’ status, etc.), but new ones continue to be added at a dizzying pace, with the current count at the time of this writing being 168 launch companies still alive around the world.

We believe no more than 30 of them will survive in the coming decade. Instead, if you’d like to start a space company, you should focus on ‘Blue Ocean’ strategies where “competition is irrelevant because the rules of the game are waiting to be set. A blue ocean is an analogy to describe the wider, deeper potential to be found in unexplored market space. A blue ocean is vast, deep, and powerful in terms of profitable growth.” Click here. (1/24)

ESA Warns of Gap in European Space Access (Source: Space News)
ESA leadership warned that Europe could temporarily lose independent access to space this summer. The final Ariane 5 launch is scheduled for June, while the Ariane 6 is set to debut no earlier than late this year, ESA officials said at a press conference Monday. The Vega C rocket remains out of service after a launch failure in December, with the outcome of an ongoing investigation expected in the second half of February but no schedule for returning the vehicle to flight. ESA is looking into ways to support development of small European launch vehicles, including signing contracts for launches of ESA satellites before the first launch. (1/24)

Spaceport Industry - 2022 Year in Review (Source: Izzy House)
The roar of the 2020s comes from the sound of launches into space. Space stations, satellites, Moon voyages, and suborbital transportation herald in this new era. Spaceports connect our world and are vital infrastructure for space transportation. They are the gateway to space. Here is a brief look into recent events in the past year that heralded in a new era for the space industry. Click here. (1/23)

UK Commits $62 Million for Space Tech Projects (Source: Space News)
The United Kingdom is providing $62 million to support advanced satellite communications technologies. The funding announced Monday by the UK Space Agency would be available for a wide range of projects, including new satellite constellations and the ground systems that support them. The agency expects to select winning projects this summer. (1/24)

Milky Way Found to be More Unique Than Previously Thought (Source: Space Daily)
Is the Milky Way special, or, at least, is it in a special place in the Universe? An international team of astronomers has found that the answer to that question is yes, in a way not previously appreciated. A new study shows that the Milky Way is too big for its "cosmological wall", something yet to be seen in other galaxies. The new research is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

A cosmological wall is a flattened arrangement of galaxies found surrounding other galaxies, characterised by particularly empty regions called 'voids' on either side of it. These voids seem to squash the galaxies together into a pancake-like shape to make the flattened arrangement. This wall environment, in this case called the Local Sheet, influences how The Milky Way and nearby galaxies rotate around their axes, in a more organised way than if we were in a random place in the Universe, without a wall.

Typically, galaxies tend to be significantly smaller than this so-called wall. The Milky Way is found to be surprisingly massive in comparison to its cosmological wall, a rare cosmic occurrence. (1/23)

Light Pollution Reducing Star Visibility (Source: BBC)
Light pollution is washing away the night sky. In a recent study, astronomers found that the night sky was brightening 10% a year from terrestrial artificial lights, a faster rate than previously measured. That means that in a region where 250 stars could be seen at night 18 years ago, only 100 stars are visible now as artificial lights overwhelm them. Astronomers had hoped that a switch to energy-efficient LED lighting would reduce pollution, but instead they said it appears it only encouraged people to use more lighting. (1/23)

Liquid Mirror Program to Revolutionize Telescope Designs (Source: Space Daily)
Today's glass-based ground and space telescopes are limited in their ability to provide resolved imagery of objects in geostationary orbit, 36,000 kilometers above earth. The cost to build and maintain complex optics large enough to effectively track items at that distance is prohibitive. Another key limitation of space-based telescopes is the escalating probability of in-orbit debris causing damage to solid lenses that cannot be repaired easily.

DARPA's Zenith program will investigate liquid-mirror technology as an alternative to glass or beryllium optics. Liquid-mirror telescopes (LMTs) operate on the physics principle that the surface of a fluid can form a paraboloid (3D-dish shape) that is ideal for focusing light. The advantages of liquid-mirrors over glass include easier and lower cost of fabrication, theoretical-max resolution (diffraction-limited), resilience to damage and potential ability to self-repair, elimination of regular costly mirror recoating and weather-protective domes, and scalability to much larger optics sizes. (1/23)

Our Solar System is Filled with Asteroids That Are Particularly Hard to Destroy (Source: Space Daily)
A vast amount of rocks and other material are hurtling around our Solar System as asteroids and comets. If one of these came towards us, could we successfully prevent the collision between an asteroid and Earth? Well, maybe. But there appears to be one type of asteroid that might be particularly hard to destroy. In a new study, we discovered that rubble pile asteroids are an extremely resistant type of asteroid and hard to destroy by collision.

Our results established that the huge impact that destroyed Itokawa's parent asteroid and formed Itokawa happened more than 4.2 billion years ago, which is almost as old as the Solar System itself. That result was totally unexpected. It also means Itokawa has survived almost an order of magnitude longer than its monolith counterparts. Such an astonishingly long survival time for an asteroid is attributed to its shock-absorbent nature. Due to being a rubble pile, Itokawa is around 40% porous. In other words, almost half of it is made of voids, so constant collisions will simply crush the gaps between the rocks, instead of breaking apart the rocks themselves. (1/23)

DARPA selects Aurora Flight Sciences for Phase 2 of Active Flow Control X-Plane (Source: Space Daily)
DARPA has selected Aurora Flight Sciences to move into the detailed design phase of the Control of Revolutionary Aircraft with Novel Effectors (CRANE) program. This follows successful completion of the project's Phase 1 preliminary design, which resulted in an innovative testbed aircraft that used active flow control (AFC) to generate control forces in a wind tunnel test.

Phase 2 will focus on detailed design and development of flight software and controls, culminating in a critical design review of an X-plane demonstrator that can fly without traditional moving flight controls on the exterior of the wings and tail. The contract includes a Phase 3 option in which DARPA intends to fly a 7,000-pound X-plane that addresses the two primary technical hurdles of incorporation of AFC into a full-scale aircraft and reliance on it for controlled flight. (1/23)

Ivanhoe Mines and SES Deploying Low-Latency Satellite Connectivity in Africa (Source: Space Daily)
The Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project in The Democratic Republic of Congo will continue to enjoy high-speed satellite-based connectivity services as part of a new agreement between Ivanhoe Mines and SES, the two companies announced. The enhanced partnership builds on a successful five-year relationship between SES and Ivanhoe Mines and comes at a time of significant investment in low-latency, high-capacity solutions in the region following the boom in the African mining industry. (1/23)

Earth's Inner Core May Have Started Spinning Other Way (Source: Space Daily)
Far below our feet, a giant may have started moving against us. Earth's inner core, a hot iron ball the size of Pluto, has stopped spinning in the same direction as the rest of the planet and might even be rotating the other way, research suggested on Monday. Roughly 5,000 kilometers  below the surface we live on, this "planet within the planet" can spin independently because it floats in the liquid metal outer core.

Exactly how the inner core rotates has been a matter of debate between scientists -- and the latest research is expected to prove controversial. What little is known about the inner core comes from measuring the tiny differences in seismic waves -- created by earthquakes or sometimes nuclear explosions -- as they pass through the middle of the Earth. Researchers analysed seismic waves from repeating earthquakes over the last six decades. They found that the inner core's rotation "came to near halt around 2009 and then turned in an opposite direction".

"We believe the inner core rotates, relative to the Earth's surface, back and forth, like a swing," they said. "One cycle of the swing is about seven decades", meaning it changes direction roughly every 35 years, they added. They said it previously changed direction in the early 1970s, and predicted the next about-face would be in the mid-2040s. (1/23)

Persistent Cooperation on the Space Station (Source: Space Review)
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NASA officials have emphasized that operations of the ISS remained unaffected. Jeff Foust reports that was put to the test when a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the station was damaged last month. Click here. (1/23)
 
Not-So Ancient Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident (Source: Space Review)
During the final Skylab mission, astronauts photographed a secretive base in Nevada, creating a headache for the CIA. Dwayne Day revisits that incident to explore the issue of secrecy and classification. Click here. (1/23)
 
What the United States Should Do Regarding Space Leadership? (Source: Space Review)
The United States is a leader in space, but that future leadership is not assured. Namrata Goswami argues that the US needs to revise its space priorities to address growing interest in using space for economic development. Click here. (1/23)
 
Mawu and Artemis: Why the United States Should Make Africa a Priority for Space Diplomacy (Source: Space Review)
Rwanda and Nigeria became the first African nations to sign the Artemis Accords last month. Nico Wood discusses why, despite this milestone, the United States needs to do more to work with African nations in space diplomacy. Click here. (1/23)

Space Florida: $5.9 Billion Economic Impact on Florida’s Economy (Source: Space Florida)
As the state's governor and legislature consider budget requests in advance of the state's annual Legislative Session, Space Florida announced that since 2007, the total economic impact of the state’s aerospace finance and development authority reached $5.9 billion. Over the next 5 years, Space Florida’s total economic impact is expected to be more than $5.3 billion, with an average annual impact of $1.1 billion.

Space Florida has been responsible for a steady increase in annual impact since its inception.  From 2007 to 2011, the state’s aerospace economic impact averaged $172 million annually, $487 million from 2012 to 2016, and $520 million from 2017 to 2022.

Frank DiBello, President and CEO, said, “Space Florida has made our state the ground node for the growth of an in-space and low earth orbit economy. Our capital projects coupled with our work to foster innovation, research and development, and support a talented workforce have diversified and deepened the industry, creating a robust and competitive aerospace ecosystem in Florida... No other state­­-no other entity-does it like Space Florida.” Click here. (1/23)

Pentagon Strategy Calls for Integrated Satellite Comm Networks (Source: Defense News)
As the Pentagon modernizes its satellite communications enterprise, its first task will be to develop standards to improve data sharing among SATCOM networks, according to an enterprise-level strategy released this week.

DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman approved the Enterprise SATCOM Management and Control Implementation Plan in December and released it publicly Wednesday. The document provides guidance for DoD agencies that design, operate and develop space-based communications capabilities and lays out a phased approach to modernizing SATCOM capabilities to improve collaboration with partners and make systems more resilient against threats. (1/20)

Boeing Holds Career Fair at Embry-Riddle Amid Increasing Demand for Staff in Aerospace Industry (Source: WESH)
Boeing, which already has a partnership with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, was on campus for a job fair. "They recruit a lot from there," student Lohit Talachutla said. Embry-Riddle students are in high demand as the aviation and aerospace industry responds to shortages while growing at the same time.

Boeing is on campus to fill a wide range of jobs across the country, and engineering aerospace sophomore Talachutla was one of many who jumped at the chance to get face time. Ninety-seven percent of Embry-Riddle students get jobs in their field or go into higher education within a year of graduating. (1/20)

Hubble Captures Rare Event: Star Eaten By a Black Hole 300 Million Light Years Away (Source: Good News Network)
Black holes are gatherers, not hunters. They lie in wait until a hapless star wanders by. When the star gets close enough, the black hole’s gravitational grasp violently rips it apart and sloppily devours its gasses while belching out intense radiation. Now, astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have recorded a star’s final moments in detail, as it gets gobbled up by a black hole.

The ‘AT2022dsb tidal event’ can’t be photographed up-close with Hubble because the munched-up star is nearly 300 million light-years away. But astronomers used Hubble’s ultraviolet sensitivity to study the light from the shredded star—which include hydrogen, carbon, and more, all forensic clues to the black hole homicide. About 100 tidal disruption events around black holes have been detected by astronomers using various telescopes. NASA recently reported that they spotted another black hole tidal disruption event on March 1, 2021, from another galaxy. Data was collected in X-ray light from an extremely hot corona around the black hole, after the star was already torn apart. (1/22)

NASA to Launch New Mars Sample Receiving Project Office at Johnson (Source: NASA)
NASA announced Thursday its new Mars Sample Receiving Project office, responsible for receiving and curating the first samples returned from the Red Planet, will be located at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The safe and rapid release of Mars samples after they return to Earth to laboratories worldwide for science investigations will be a priority.

The office will reside within Johnson’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science division, NASA’s organization with expertise in processing and curating extraterrestrial samples. Johnson will work with the agency’s Mars Exploration Program to develop and design plans for sample recovery and subsequent transition to science investigations. The project team will recover, contain, transfer, assess safety, curate, and coordinate scientific investigation of the samples collected by NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, which are expected to arrive on Earth in 2033. (1/23)