Aerospace Corp. CEO sees winds of change in space procurement
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 14:48
In an interview with SpaceNews, Aerospace Corp. CEO Steve Isakowitz says unprecedented opportunities are emerging for national security space organizations to capture commercial innovation. Defense programs won’t transform overnight, he says, but change is definitely in the air.
The forecast for Mars includes otherworldly weather predictions
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 13:05
As scientists prepare for crewed research missions to nearby planets and moons, they've identified a need for something beyond rovers and rockets.
They need accurate weather forecasts. Without them, any trip to the surface may be one duststorm away from disaster.
A new Yale study helps lay the foundation for more accurate, otherworldly forecasts by taking a phenomenon related to Earth's jet stream and applying it to weather patterns on Mars and Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The study appears in the journal Nature Astronomy.
"I believe the first accurate forecasts of perhaps a few Mars days may be only a decade away," said lead author J. Michael Battalio, a postdoctoral researcher in Earth and planetary sciences in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "It is just a matter of combining better observational datasets with sufficiently refined numerical models.
"But until then, we can rely upon connections between the climate and weather to help anticipate dust storms."
On Earth, the regularity of storm systems in the middle latitudes is associated with what is called an annular mode—a variability in atmospheric flow that is unrelated to the cycle of seasons.
Oscar the Qube
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 12:18
Image:
Quantum technology or stage at a music festival? Both would have one thing in common: students.
Oscar-Qube, short for Optical Sensors based on CARbon materials: QUantum Belgium, is an experiment developed by a group of students from the University of Hasselt, Belgium. Part of ESA Education Office’s Orbit Your Thesis! programme, the experiment arrived at the International Space Station on Space X Dragon CR23 resupply mission yesterday.
This week, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will install the experiment in the Ice Cubes Facility that offers commercial and educational access to the microgravity environment of the Space Station.
Oscar-Qube’s mission is
State of Russia's ISS segment sparks safety concerns
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 10:43
In recent years, the Russian segment of the ISS has experienced a string of problems, including air leaks caused by cracks, raising questions about the safety of the rotating crews onboard.
"Around 80 percent of the inflight systems on Russia's segment have reached the end of their service period," Vladimir Solovyov, chief engineer of the Energia rocket and space corporation, told the RIA Novosti news agency.
Energia—a manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components—is the leading developer of Russia's section of the ISS, a joint venture with the United States, Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency.
"This means that literally a day after the systems are fully exhausted, irreparable failures may begin," Solovyov added.
Citing concerns stemming from ageing hardware, Russia had previously indicated that it plans to leave the ISS after 2025 and launch its own orbital station.
On Monday, Solovyov said that small cracks had been discovered on Russia's Zarya cargo module.
Space agencies support space traffic management but differ on how it should be developed
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 10:06
Leaders of national space agencies agree that space traffic management (STM) should be a priority but have differing views on who should be responsible for it.
Satellite data provide valuable support for IPCC climate report
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 08:25
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its latest assessment report laying out the accumulating evidence of the climate crisis. The report identifies Earth observing satellites as a critical tool to monitor the causes and effects of climate change and directly acknowledges the contribution of ESA’s Climate Change Initiative – a research programme that draws on observations from multiple satellite missions.
Russian cosmonauts to track air leaks with vibration sensors
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
Cosmonauts will install highly sensitive vibration sensors inside Russian segments at the International Space station in the hope of finding the cause of air leaks, a designer general at the state space firm Energia told Sputnik.
Vladimir Solovyov said the "scientific research" would seek to identify "vibration nodes" to see if they coincide with welding seams. He told Sputnik earlier that ESA has no plans to develop space tourism
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
Space tourism is good for space in general but the European Space Agency (ESA) is currently not planning to develop it, ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher told Sputnik.
"I think it is interesting to see that space is going into a wider domain, including space tourism. I consider this is good for the development of the space economy in general."Aschbacher said on the sidelines of the 36t Beyond Earth Releases Space Solar Power Report
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
The Beyond Earth Institute (BEI) unveiled "Catching the Sun: A National Strategy for Space Solar Power," a new report on Space Solar Power (SSP) today. SSP uses solar panels in space to collect power from the Sun to serve the energy needs of the people on Earth. The full report can be downloaded here.
"It is rare when a single project can help us achieve so many goals" said Tony DeTora, Be GOLD's bird's-eye reveals dynamics in Earth's interface to space
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
New research using data from NASA's Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk, or GOLD, mission, has revealed unexpected behavior in the swaths of charged particles that band Earth's equator - made possibly by GOLD's long-term global view, the first of its kind for this type of measurement.
GOLD is in geostationary orbit, which means it orbits around Earth at the same pace the planet Navy conducts test of second stage rocket motor for hypersonic missiles
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
The Navy has successfully tested a second stage hypersonic rocket motor, the branch said Thursday.
Navy Strategic Systems Programs successfully conducted the initial live-fire test of the second stage Solid Rocket Motor on Wednesday, in Promontory, Utah, the Navy SSP said in a statement.
The test was done as a step toward developing a common hypersonic missile for the Army and Na Rogue Space and Firefly Aerospace sign Launch Service Agreement
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
Rogue Space Systems Corporation, a U.S. company that is developing a smart spacecraft program and is planning to offer transport, and in-space services to the growing space market, and Firefly Aerospace, a leading provider of economical and dependable launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services, has announced they have signed a Launch Service Agreement (LSA). The agreement confirms that R AFRL extends capability for testing solid rocket motors with new equipment
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
The Air Force Research Laboratory's Rocket Propulsion Division has a new capability, a Split-Hopkinson Pressure Bar system, also known as a Kolsky bar, that measures stress at high strain rates and helps analyze material behavior under severe conditions.
"This system will give AFRL a new and unprecedented capability to test and gather data from any solid propellant we can manufacture," sai Mars mission to pause for about 50 days
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
China's Tianwen 1 Mars mission will be inactivated for about 50 days from mid-September due to an expected disruption of its communications with Earth caused by solar electromagnetic radiation, the mission's chief designer said.
During the period, which will end in early November, the Zhurong rover and the mission's orbiter will suspend their working mode, Zhang Rongqiao of the China Natio World's first space junk cleaner satellite successfully picks up orbital debris
Tuesday, 31 August 2021 07:51
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists' database, there are more than 3,300 functioning satellites in orbit and thousands of pieces of junk that can be traced, including discarded boosters, derelict satellites, and pieces that have fallen off of vessels.
In a major development that may ease concerns that dead satellites are being left to litter space, Japan's private firm Astroscal