Enter outer space at your own risk?
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 13:42
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If you pay a company like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, or Boeing to go into space, perhaps even perform your own spacewalk, should those companies be bound by safety regulations issued by the FAA? Currently, the answer is “no,” thanks to a law that bans federal regulation of commercial space enterprises.
Space test shows magnolia may be best for wooden artificial satellite LignoSat
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 13:09 Write a comment
An international project led by Kyoto University tested and confirmed the high durability of space wood at the International Space Station—the ISS. The experiment results showed minimal deterioration and good stability of the samples selected for the wooden artificial satellite LignoSat.
The research group conducted a preliminary inspection involving strength tests and elemental and crystal structural analyses of the wood samples, retrieved from space by Astronaut Koichi Wakata and returned to Earth from the ISS on SpaceX CRS-26—a Commercial Resupply Service mission.
Despite the extreme environment of outer space involving significant temperature changes and exposure to intense cosmic rays and dangerous solar particles for ten months, tests confirmed no decomposition or deformations, such as cracking, warping, peeling, or surface damage.
Three wood specimens were tested and showed no deformation after space exposure. The experiment results also confirmed no mass change in each wood specimen before and after space exposure.
China calls for space station commercial cargo proposals
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:56 Write a comment
China’s human spaceflight agency is seeking to foster a commercial, low-cost transportation system to deliver cargo to and from its Tiangong space station.
Sales rocket for Zenno's fuel-free satellite pointing system
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
Zenno Astronautics (Zenno) reports has surpassed $75M in product sales (USD 48M) for its world-first superconducting magnetorquer for spacecraft attitude control, the Z01.
Built on Zenno's proprietary superconducting magnet technology, Z01 is a fuel-free satellite pointing system designed to significantly increases the range of capabilities for attitude control in space, including fully au Space Forge enables reusable satellites with new way of returning from space to Earth
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
Space Forge reveals their patent protected design of a planet-friendly reusable re-entry system, which will enable the low cost and reliable return of satellites to Earth.
Although the cost of launching satellites into space has become lower through the use of reusability, all current commercial space return vehicles use ablative heat shields which require replacement after every flight. S Terran Orbital PTD-3 enables 200Gbits space-to-ground optical link
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
Terran Orbital Corporation (NYSE: LLAP) announced a significant achievement in space-to-ground communication, successfully enabling a 200 gigabits per second optical link through the Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 (PTD-3) satellite. The NASA satellite hosts the TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) payload, funded by NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) and developed by MIT Linco LiveEO and Capella Space offer fast, high-res SAR imaging to asset managers
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
LiveEO, a market leader in Earth observation analytics and solutions for high-value infrastructure and energy asset monitoring, has announced a partnership with Capella Space, the world's leading provider of high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery. As the first certified Capella Analytics Partner, LiveEO will integrate all-weather, 24/7 SAR imagery from Capella Space into its adva Research announcement for technology development leveraging ISS is open for concepts
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
The International Space Station National Laboratory is soliciting flight concepts for technology development that would utilize the space-based environment of the orbiting laboratory.
This solicitation, "Technology Advancement and Applied Research Leveraging the ISS National Lab," is open to a broad range of technology areas, including chemical and material synthesis in space, bonding, tra InVADER mission to test its robotic laser divebot on a deep-sea expedition
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A team of scientists and engineers from the SETI Institute, Impossible Sensing, NASA JPL, and other institutions will test their innovative robotic laser system on a deep-sea expedition aboard the E/V Nautilus. The mission, called InVADER (In-situ Vent Analysis Divebot for Exobiology Research), aims to advance technologies to explore, characterize and sample the seabed here on Earth. In particul New deal inked to space test meta-optical surfaces
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
A new engineering study has been commissioned by the European Space Agency (under PECS, the Program for European Cooperating States), to prove the reliability of meta-optical elements for space use in a collaboration between the ESA, Bulgarian start-up company LaboraXpert and TMOS, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems.
In the first st EarthCARE, when a satellite sheds light on the clouds
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
EarthCARE is an important new satellite designed and built by Airbus to help scientists better understand climate change on clouds, aerosols and radiation. Under construction for the European Space Agency (ESA), Airbus successfully completed the Electro-Magnetic Compatibility tests in April 2023 and now this latest ESA "Earth Explorer" satellite is getting closer to launch next year.
The i Axiom Space's second crewed mission gets green light
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
Axiom Space's second, entirely private space mission is on track for a Sunday launch aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, officials said Monday.
The launch is planned for 5:37 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 39A. Should bad weather set in, controllers could try again the next day.
If the weather does not cooperate NASA Gears Up to Train Artemis II crew for Moon mission
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
The four astronauts who will fly on NASA's Artemis II flight are getting ready to begin their training in June, as NASA prepares for the first crewed mission on the agency's path to establishing a long-term presence at the Moon for science and exploration.
NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Hammock Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen will compl NASA's Juno mission closing in on Io
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 10:12 Write a comment
NASA's Juno spacecraft will fly past Jupiter's volcanic moon Io on Tuesday, May 16, and then the gas giant itself soon after. The flyby of the Jovian moon will be the closest to date, at an altitude of about 22,060 miles (35,500 kilometers). Now in the third year of its extended mission to investigate the interior of Jupiter, the solar-powered spacecraft will also explore the ring system where s Astra, Momentus face cash crunch
Tuesday, 16 May 2023 09:09 Write a comment
Two startups that went public through SPAC mergers say they are pressing ahead with plans despite warnings that they are running perilously low on cash.