July 19, 2024

Signs of Two Gases in Clouds of Venus Could Indicate Life (Source: The Guardian)
Hot enough to melt metal and blanketed by a toxic, crushing atmosphere, Venus ranks among the most hostile locations in the solar system. But astronomers have reported the detection of two gases that could point to the presence of life forms lurking in the Venusian clouds. Findings presented at the national astronomy meeting in Hull on Wednesday bolster evidence for a pungent gas, phosphine, whose presence on Venus has been fiercely disputed.

A separate team revealed the tentative detection of ammonia, which on Earth is primarily produced by biological activity and industrial processes, and whose presence on Venus scientists said could not readily be explained by known atmospheric or geological phenomena. (7/17)

China Launches Imaging Satellite (Source: Xinhua)
China launched an imaging satellite Thursday night. A Long March 4B rocket lifted off at 11:03 p.m. Eastern from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. It placed into orbit Gaofen-11 05, the latest in a series of high-resolution imaging satellites that may be used for both civilian and military applications. (7/19)

Astra Goes Private (Source: Space News)
Astra closed a deal to take the company private. The company announced before markets opened Thursday that it had completed an agreement with the company's co-founders to take the company private at 50 cents per share, ending public trading of Astra's stock. The launch vehicle and satellite propulsion company went public through a SPAC merger a little more than three years ago but lost more than 99% of its value as the market soured on SPAC deals and as Astra struggled with its small launch vehicle. (7/19)

Life on Enceladus and Europa Could be Easier to Find (Source: NASA)
Any evidence of life on two icy moons in the solar system could be easier to find that previously thought. A new study suggests that if the moons of Enceladus and Europa have life, amino acids could be preserved in ice as little as 20 centimeters below the surface on Europa and within a few millimeters of the surface on Enceladus. That means any future missions to those moons could easily dig deep enough into the surface to collect ice containing any of those biosignatures. (7/19)

'Hydrocarbon Sea': NASA's Cassini Spacecraft Discovers Massive Water Body on North Pole of Saturn's Biggest Moon (Source: Business Today)
A recent study using Cassini-Huygens mission data has unveiled fresh insights into the composition and behavior of the liquid hydrocarbon seas at Titan's north pole. Click here. (7/18) 

Maxar Worldview Satellites Produce First High-Res Images (Source: Space News)
Maxar Intelligence has released the first high-resolution images from its new WorldView Legion satellites. The images come from a pair of satellites launched in May on a Falcon 9. The satellites are capable of collecting 30 centimeter-class imagery, providing detailed views of the Earth's surface for a wide range of applications. Maxar said the commissioning and calibration process for the first two WorldView Legion satellites is still under way.  Maxar plans to launch the remaining four satellites of the WorldView Legion constellation by the end of the year. (7/19)

Amazon Kuiper to Demo Data Relay for NASA (Source: Space News)
Amazon is preparing to demonstrate data relay services for NASA using Project Kuiper satellites. The company recently completed initial in-orbit demonstrations after deploying a pair of prototype spacecraft last year. In a test planned for next spring, Amazon aims to transmit and receive representative data from a mission operations center created specifically for NASA's Communication Services Project (CSP) and the Kuiper production satellites Amazon is building in-house. Those upcoming tests will use production satellites that Amazon expects to start launching in the fourth quarter of this year. (7/19)

Bigger and Better Version of the SpaceX Starship (Source: Next Big Future)
SpaceX has a new version of the SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy Booster. The version 2 has different heat shield and flap placement. The Starship and the Super Heavy booster have both been made longer. The flaps are moved forward and are attached near the midline of rocket instead of closer to the bottom. The bottom of the rocket when it is coming in for a landing is the heatshield side. The rocket flips at the last minute to land on its rocket engines. (7/17)

Supermassive Black Holes Provide 'Hearts and Lungs' that Help Galaxies Live Longer (Source: Space.com)
Researchers think pulses from each black hole "heart" cause shock fronts that oscillate back and forth across both jets. This is similar to how a part of our body called the thoracic diaphragm moves up and down inside our chest cavities to inflate and deflate our lungs.

In galaxies, this respiratory-like action transmits the energy of the supermassive black hole-blown jets to the surrounding medium, like how on a cold winter morning you can breath out warm air into the colder air. Stars form when interstellar gas clouds cool and are allowed to condense. That means this "breathing out" can slow star formation, curtailing galaxies' growth. (7/18)

Where Will We Be in Space in 2049? A Look at Spaceflight Over the Next 25 Years (Source: Space.com)
Spaceflight and exploration have changed tremendously over the past 25 years. Since 1999, we've seen the birth of a vibrant private spaceflight sector, led by Elon Musk's SpaceX, and the rise of an ambitious and increasingly accomplished new space power: China. (India has made great strides as well.)

The next quarter-century promises to be action-packed as well, with humanity taking ever-greater leaps into the final frontier — perhaps all the way to the moon and Mars. Predicting the future is a fool's errand, but let's do so anyway. Here's a look at a few of the big-picture spaceflight trends that seem set to unfold between now and 2049. Click here. (7/19) 

Former Space Agency Leaders Horrified by Plan to Destroy Space Station, Say It Would Be Easier to Save It (Source: Futurism)
Jean-Jacques Dordain, who was the director general of the European Space Agency when the station was being built, and former NASA administrator Michael Griffin say its life should be extended instead, giving future scientists a chance to continue studying outer space. "As two among many builders of ISS, we recommend to those in charge to consider other options than destroying" the station, Dordain said.

Instead, he argued, the ISS should be transferred "to future generations... leaving them to decide" its fate, he added. To do it, Dordain and Griffin argue SpaceX's deorbit vehicle should be used to rescue the station, not destroy it. Such a rocket would increase the ISS's altitude, not lower it, allowing it to enter a stable orbit much farther from the Earth. The two space agency legends argued that boosting the ISS "from its present 400-kilometer altitude to an 800-kilometer altitude circular orbit requires a boost of about 220 meters per second, about the same as required for precise deorbit control." (7/16)

Russia May be Learning Dangerous Lessons From its Space Mischief, DIA Says (Source: Defense One)
The West may not be pushing back hard enough on Russia’s increasingly aggressive activities in space, a top U.S. intelligence official said. “Russia [is] actively targeting, through electronic warfare, the lower orbit domain, and, you know, having minimal repercussions,” said Lt. Gen. Jeff Kruse. “We need to make sure we understand what lessons Russia might be drawing from that. And then how do we want to change the environment so that we understand essentially that there may be repercussions with respect to that?”

Kruse also said Russian forces’ performance in Ukraine has revealed them to be fundamentally weak, and so Moscow may turn to asymmetric tactics. These might include targeting U.S. and even global space communications and navigation assets. “Their lack of potential superiority drives…asymmetric issues,” he said. (7/17)

NASA’s CAPSTONE is Testing “Autopilot” Software Suite for Cislunar Operations (Source: Space News)
Sent moonward over two years ago, NASA’s Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment — shortened to CAPSTONE — is busy as ever, presently trial-running techniques to enhance spacecraft operations in cislunar space. CAPSTONE, a microwave oven-sized cubesat weighing a modest 25 kilograms, is on task and operational in Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the moon.

NRHO is the intended orbit of NASA’s cislunar Gateway space station, which is meant to serve as an outpost for long-term human exploration of the moon and beyond. It will also allow crews to access the lunar south pole — an early priority zone for the space agency’s Artemis program. Experiments are primarily focused on autonomous Precision Navigation and Timing, said Gardner, and other operations in the cislunar domain including communication relay services as well as the rendezvous, proximity operations and docking of spacecraft.

CAPSTONE relies on the Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS), a real-time system for estimating absolute position and velocity for spacecraft operating in the cislunar environment. The cubesat is outfitted with a JPL-provided, onboard chip scale atomic clock to precisely determine the spacecraft’s coordinates in space and time. (7/15)

55 Years After Apollo 11 Moon Landing, NASA Still Stacks Space Future in VAB (Source: Florida Today)
Really, it's a rocket garage on a super massive scale − the VAB (short for Vehicle Assembly Building) is made up of four towering high bays in a giant one-story structure. Even though it is only one (big) story − the VAB's 525-feet height makes it the equivalent to a 50-story structure. That's taller than the Statue of Liberty and just under half the size of the Empire State Building. Click here. (7/19)

Curiosity Cracked Open a Rock on Mars And Found a Huge Surprise (Source: Science Alert)
A rock on Mars has just spilled a surprising yellow treasure after Curiosity accidentally cracked through its unremarkable exterior. When the rover rolled its 899-kilogram body over the rock, the rock broke open, revealing yellow crystals of elemental sulfur: brimstone. Although sulfates are fairly common on Mars, this is the first time sulfur has been found on the red planet in its pure elemental form. (7/19)

Astronomers Discover Unique Orbit of Rare Exoplanet with WIYN Telescope (Source: Space Daily)
Astronomers using the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope at the U.S. National Science Foundation Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program of NSF NOIRLab, have found an exoplanet with a highly unusual orbit. This planet is on a trajectory to become a hot Jupiter and has one of the most elongated orbits of all known transiting exoplanets, as well as a reverse orbit around its star. This discovery sheds light on the formation and evolution of hot Jupiters. (7/18)

China Plans to Launch Pilot Cities to Showcase BeiDou Applications (Source: Space Daily)
China is gearing up to promote the extensive use of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System by designating several pilot cities to highlight BeiDou's applications in mass consumption, manufacturing, and emerging sectors such as the Industrial Internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI), according to an announcement by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). (7/19)