Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Sept.22.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here):

** Cargo on Cygnus vehicle on next Antares  launch will include CubeSats from university groups sponsored by NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) initiative: Amateur Radio CubeSats among 15 Set to Launch on October 21 from Wallops Island – ARRL.org

15 CubeSats into orbit on October 21 as part of NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) Mission 25. Some will carry Amateur Radio payloads.

    • TJ REVERB, developed by students at Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Virginia, will carry a 145.825 MHz APRS digipeater.
    • HuskySat, a University of Washington – Seattle project, will be boosted into a 500-kilometer (approximately 310-mile) orbit via the Cygnus external deployment device. HuskySat will carry a V/U linear transponder provided in cooperation with AMSAT.

** China launch included CubeSat Taurus-1  (Jinniuzuo-1) with amateur radio transponder for involving students in satellite communications: Taurus-1 CubeSat with FM-to-Codec-2 Transponder Launched – ARRL.org

The Taurus-1 (Jinniuzuo-1) CubeSat carrying an Amateur Radio FM-to-Codec-2 transponder was launched on September 12 from China’s Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center. The CubeSat was developed by Aerospace System Engineering Research Institute of Shanghai for youth education and Amateur Radio.

** Students participate in CubeSat projects at the Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research (ACSER) at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia: Satellites to reveal sea state and much more than the eye can see | UNSW Newsroom

Professor Andrew Dempster of UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications has been developing and trialling a new type of receiver that looks for satellite navigation signals bounced from the Earth’s surface in a process called reflectometry.

…

As he explains, reflectometry looks at the GPS signals that come directly from satellites as well as where, and at what angle, the signals bounce off the earth’s surface. He and his colleagues have built four generations of receivers that are designed to look for these bounced GPS signals from satellites overhead.

“This most recent generation of our GPS receivers we have put into space aboard CubeSats,” Professor Dempster says, who is also director of the Australian Centre of Space Engineering Research.

The centre’s first project was the UNSW-EC0 QB50-AU02 CubeSat

… Over the past 5 years the team has seen over 100 members work on the project, including students, staff and volunteers. The project has produced at least 18 student theses, dozens of conference papers, launched new research areas for UNSW winning two new ARC grants, and the UNSW team alone has attracted many hours of media interest both locally and internationally. 

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-265 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • 2019 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Results
  • 2019 AMSAT Symposium Registration Savings Through October 11
  • IEEE GRSS Student Grand Challenge
  • IARU Coordination for Two Satellites
  • QO-100 Satellite, GNU Radio and SDR Talks Released
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

Mars Cube One (MarCO) lead engineer, Andy Klesh, joins us to chat how two tiny CubeSats gave us real-time data from the latest landing on Mars. We talk about what led to naming the spacecraft after the Disney characters Wall-e and Eve, and how both Wall-e and Eve lost contact with Earth just few hours before it was their time to shine.

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Introduction to CubeSat Technology and Subsystem:
Orbit Design, Debris Impact, and Orbital Decay Prediction

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – Sept.20.2019

Here is the latest Space to Ground weekly report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Microbiology 101: Where People Go, Microbes Follow | NASA

Microbes – bacteria and fungi – live everywhere, even the International Space Station. Scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center constantly monitor the station’s microbial community and now are testing using DNA sequencing to identify its tiny residents without returning samples to Earth – an important step to keep crews, and the places they visit, safe on future deep-space missions. Read more about space station microbiology: https://go.nasa.gov/2IbtgAL Learn more about the research being conducted on station: https://www.nasa.gov/iss-science

** T-60 Seconds with Jessica Meir

You’ve got to know a lot to earn a master’s degree in space science and a doctorate in marine biology, and that’s before you consider all you need to learn to become a NASA astronaut. As it turns out, little of that knowledge applied as astronaut Jessica Meir sat for a barrage of questions just before her launch to the International Space Station—take a look.

** SpaceCast Weekly Sept 20 2019

SpaceCast Weekly is a NASA Television broadcast from the Johnson Space Center in Houston featuring stories about NASA’s work in human spaceflight, including the International Space Station and its crews and scientific research activities, and the development of Orion and the Space Launch System, the next generation American spacecraft being built to take humans farther into space than they’ve ever gone before.

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Outpost in Orbit:
A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station

Activism, Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Sept.20.2019

A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):

Webcasts:

** Hearing: Developing Core Capabilities for Deep Space Exploration: An Update on NASA’s SLS, Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems – House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

** Want to do something big for space? Come to our Day of Action in D.C. – Planetary Society

** SETI Institute: Planetary Protection and the Origins of Life – “A discussion with Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak and Senior Researcher David Summers.”

** The Space Hotel/The Space Show – Wed, 09/11/2019 – John Batchelor and Dr. David Livingston talk with Anatoly Zak (RussianSpaceWeb.com) about the latest Russian space news and developments.

** The Space Show – Tue, 09/17/2019 – Kim Holder and John Jossy “provided us with their analysis of the SIS Space Settlement Conference. This was an in-depth discussion of the extraordinary two day event”.

** The Space Show – Mon, 09/16/2019 – Dr. Patricia Hynes “discussed the upcoming ISPCS Conference to be held in Las Cruces, NM from Oct. 9-10, 2019 with implications for commercial and exploratory space”.

** September 17, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

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The Case for Space:
How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up
a Future of Limitless Possibility

Rockets

Space transport roundup – Sept.18.2019

A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport (find previous roundups here):

** Blue Origin still planning for crewed New Shepard flights this year.

The last flight of the New Shepard took place on May 2nd. Jeff Bezos and other Blue management have been indicating that the first flights with people on board would take place this year after a few more uncrewed test flights. So it would seem that they must soon begin flying again and at a much higher rate.

** Virgin Galactic marks a milestone in the assembly of a new SpaceShipTwo: Virgin Galactic Announces Major Milestone in Manufacture of Next Spaceship – Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic announced today that it has mated the fuselage and cabin of its next spaceship to the completed wing assembly. In addition, the two tail booms have been mated to the spaceship’s rear feather flap assembly. The completion of these two milestones brings assembly of the next SpaceShipTwo, planned to enter service after VSS Unity, a major step forward.

The next spaceship being manufactured
The next spaceship (right) being manufactured next to the VSS Unity on the left.

Meanwhile, Virgin Orbit plans to air launch the first LauncherOne rocket this year as well (a military payload, however, won’t be flown till next year): Branson: Virgin Launch Of USAF Sat By End Of Year – Breaking Defense

** A Chinese Long March 4B rocket launched last week with two remote sensing satellites and a CubeSat that will test a drag-sail for accelerated de-orbiting:

** Lunar space elevator possible with current technology according to a recent study:

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to mankind’s expansion throughout the Solar System is the prohibitive cost of escaping Earth’s gravitational pull. In its many forms, the space-elevator provides a way to circumvent this cost, allowing payloads to traverse along a cable extending from Earth to orbit. However, modern materials are not strong enough to build a cable capable of supporting its own weight. In this work we present an alternative to the classic space elevator, within reach of modern technology: The Spaceline. By extending a line, anchored on the moon, to deep within Earth’s gravity well, we can construct a stable, traversable cable allowing free movement from the vicinity of Earth to the Moon’s surface. With current materials, it is feasible to build a cable extending to close to the height of geostationary orbit, allowing easy traversal and construction between the Earth and the Moon.

** Firefly begins firing tests  of dual Reaver engines. The Alpha rocket will use 4 Reavers on the first stage.

You have to beware when walking around Texas at night – you might run into fire breathing Reavers! Big milestone for the whole Firefly team yesterday with the first Dual Reaver engine test. This slow motion video shows the two engine startup sequence. Getting the engines to start simultaneously is critical. Quad Reaver coming soon!

Images of the engines on the test stand:

** The Space Show – Fri, 09/13/2019 –  Lars Osborne and Daudi Barnes discussed their company, Agile Space Propulsion, and “explained their propulsion systems, hypergolic fuel uses and why they stand out from other companies”.

** SpaceX:

*** Brief update on tests of the Crew Dragon abort system:   SpaceX highlights Crew Dragon SuperDraco thrusters as explosion investigation nears end – Teslarati

*** Next Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg no earlier than Feb. 2020: SpaceX’s first West Coast Falcon 9 launch in eight months now set for early 2020 – Teslarati

Speaking at 2019’s World Satellite Business Week, Raúl Kulichevsky – a director at the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), Argentina’s national space agency – confirmed that the country’s SAOCOM-1B Earth observation satellite making great progress towards that launch target.

*** Progress on the Starship orbital demonstrators appears to be accelerating at the Boca Chica Beach, Texas and Cocoa Beach, Florida facilities. Elon  Musk is expected to give a presentation on the Starship program on Sept. 28th at Boca Chica. He has said in tweets that the first suborbital test flight could happen as early as October for the Texas vehicle. Here are some items highlighting  activities at the two sites.

Texas – Starship Mk.1:

— Views of the Starship construction and launch site activities:

— What the final stack could look like:

— SpaceX is attempting to buy the homes of the small village near the launch site: SpaceX wants to buy a Texas hamlet to make way for its Mars rockets – Business Insider

It takes a small village to raise a Mars rocket — or at least it does in South Texas, where SpaceX has built an experimental spaceport around a community of residents.

Now, according to interviews with residents and a proprietary offer letter obtained by Business Insider, SpaceX is trying to buy as much of Boca Chica Village as it can and move people out. But many of those who live in the hamlet, also known as Kopernik Shores, say they may not accept the company’s offer.

Florida – Starship Mk.2:

— Preparations are underway for moving the Mk.2 vehicle from the assembly site to Pad 39A. Presumably, the three main structures  (the tanks/propulsion section, the nosecone, and the tip of the nosecone) visible in the photos and videos below will be moved separately. SpaceX wants to move Starship Mk2 to one of its Florida launch pads later this month – Teslarati

According to documents filed with local city and transportation authorities in recent months and cataloged by a few local news outlets and spaceflight fans, SpaceX is preparing to transport its East Coast Starship prototype – known as “Mk2” – as early as later this month.

Throughout August 2019, local resident, spaceflight fan, photographer, and cookie-baker Julia Bergeron did a significant amount of groundwork to flesh out an estimated route for Starship Mk2. Delivering the massive rocket prototype from Cocoa, Florida to SpaceX’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A facilities would involve a 30+ mile trip by road, cost-prohibitive due to the amount of work required. Confirmed by documents unearthed by local ClickOrlando journalists, SpaceX will instead transport the rocket a few miles by road before loading it onto a barge and shipping the vehicle the rest of the way to KSC.

— Construction is underway on a section of Pad 39A that will support launches of the Starship : SpaceX breaks ground on Starship, Super Heavy launch facilities at Pad 39A

As of September 14th, SpaceX has officially broken ground on what will likely be the first orbital-class Starship and Super Heavy launch facilities, coming in the form of an addition to the company’s NASA-leased LC-39A pad at Kennedy Space Center.

Based on environmental assessment documents published in August 2019, the modifications SpaceX plans to make to Pad 39A are surprisingly minor and could arguably take just a handful of months from start to finish. Once complete, SpaceX will possess dedicated Starship launch facilities in both Florida and Texas, although there is a strong chance that Pad 39A will be ready to support orbital launch attempts well before SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site is certified.

— A look at recent work on the propulsion section via www.USLaunchReport.com. Also includes views of the path along which the Starship will be moved.

— Aerial view below. Note the rings on the ground that will be used to build either another Starship or a Super Heavy Booster:

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Delta-v

General

Carnival of Space #627-629 at Urban Astronomer & Universe Today

The Urban Astronomer hosts Carnival of Space #627.

Topographic map of the Moon’s south pole in the Lunar South Pole Atlas published by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI). Via Carnival of Space #627.

And Universe Today hosts a combined Carnival of Space #628-629.

Layers Near Nilosyrtis Mensae

Located to the west of Nili Fossae at 24.5°N, 72.5°E, this image shows both layering and dunes within the old highlands of Mars. The site is not too far away from the landing site for the Mars 2020 rover, at Jezero Crater, and so may show some of the same characteristics that the rover could encounter. Credits: Lunar and Planetary Institute. Via Carnival of Space #628-629

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The Race to the Moon Chronicled in Stamps, Postcards, and Postmarks:
A Story of Puffery vs. the Pragmatic (Springer Praxis Books)

Everyone can participate in space