The Urban Astronomer hosts the Carnival of Space #619. And the Citizen Science blog hosts the Carnival of Space #620.
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Carnival of Space #619 & #620 – Urban Astronomer & Citizen Science
Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – July.16.2019
A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:
** University built RFTSat to test space-based solar power microwave transmission system: Launch of RFTSat this Sunday! – The Propagation Group/Georgia Tech
This Sunday, a Falcon 9 rocket will launch a SpaceX Dragon capsule that will rendezvous with the International Space Station. Part of this mission will include RFTSat, developed by a team of Northwest Nazarene University (Boise, Idaho) led by Prof. Joshua Griffin and a team of Georgia Tech Researchers in ECE.
This CubeSat experiment will have a unique RF energy-harvesting radio designed and built by the Georgia Tech Propagation Group. PhD student researcher Cheng Qi has built a one-of-a-kind microwave backscatter reader and tag-sensor combo that will drive the mission science package.
The low-powered reader designed by our team deploys a sensor that unfurls a distance away from the spacecraft. The reader then energizes and receives backscatter information from the device using a 5.8 GHz transmission. The launch info can be tracked here. Interesting articles on the launch can be found here and here.
The project was funded by NASA, but could not have been completed without private matching funds from the Space Solar Power Institute. Complete with generator, retrodirective antenna, and rectenna harvester, the radio package qualifies as the first microwave space-based solar power satellite ever tested — despite the somewhat limited 1m range. You have to start somewhere!
* AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-195 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin
- 2019 AMSAT Board of Directors Election Ballots Sent
- New Orbitrack iOS app free for Apollo 11 Anniversary
- Help Needed – JAISAT-1 Telemetry
- Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for July 11, 2019
- How to Support AMSAT
- Upcoming Satellite Operations
- Satellite Shorts from All Over
General CubeSat/SmallSat info:
- Projects:
- Virginia CubeSat Constellation:
- LightSail-2 at The Planetary Society:
- BIRDS – Kyushu Institute of Technology:
- Chinese CAS-7B Satellite Carrying an FM Transponder to Launch – ARRL.org
- Blue Canyon Technologies Providing CubeSats In Support Of NASA CLICK Flight Demonstration Missions – Blue Canyon Technologies
- ÅAC Microtec confirms successful launch of NSLSat-1 – SpaceWatch.Global
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Space policy roundup – July.15.2019
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:
- Schedule:
- NASA human exploration programs:
- NASA management changes:
- Questions linger about reassignment of NASA exploration officials – SpaceNews.com
- Space Force’s Jupiter-Sized Culture Problem – WarOnTheRocks.com
- NASA administrator on recent personnel shakeup: ‘There’s no turmoil at all’ – The Verge
- Bridenstine: Concern about Cost & Schedule Realism Led to Gerstenmaier and Hill Reassignments – SpacePolicyOnline.com
- SLS/Orion
- ISS commercialization:
- US military space:
- International Space
- Canada:
- Europe:
- France:
- India:
- UAE:
- UK:
Webcasts:
** Space Policy Edition: Why Apollo Happened (with Roger Launius) | The Planetary Society
** The Space Show – Thu, 07/11/2019 – Leonard David talked about his new book, Moon Rush: The New Space Race
** The Space Show/Hotel Mars – Wed, 07/10/2019 – Allen Chen of NASA JPL talked about “the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission, new EDL tools & more”.
** July 12, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black
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One Giant Leap:
The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon
The Space Show this week – July.15.2019
The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:
1. Monday, July 15, 2019; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): No show on Monday which is now reserved for special programming.
2. Tuesday, July 16, 2019; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): We welcome back Douglas Messier of Parabolic Arc for news and updates.
3. Wednesday, Jul 17, 2019: Hotel Mars. See Upcoming Show Menu and the website newsletter for details. Hotel Mars is pre-recorded by John Batchelor. It is archived on The Space Show site after John posts it on his website.
4. Friday, July 19, 2019; 9:30-11 am PDT (11:30 am -1 pm CDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT): No show today due to Griffith Talk on the 18th.
5. Sunday, July 21, 2019; 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 pm CDT): We welcome back Rand Simberg and Bill Simon for Evoloterra in honor of the anniversary of Apollo 11.
Some recent shows:
** Sun, 07/14/2019 – Open lines discussion program with listeners.
** Fri, 07/12/2019 – Dr. John Brandenburg talked about “Death on Mars due to huge nuclear bomb explosions, advanced propulsion, beam technology, remote viewing of Mars, XE and Iodine isotopes in the Martian atmosphere, Woodward Mach thrusters & more”.
** Thu, 07/11/2019 – Leonard David spoke about “new book, “Moon Rush: The New Space Race
** Wed, 07/10/2019 – Hotel Mars with John Batchelor – Allen Chen of NASA JPL talked about “the upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission, new EDL tools & more”.
** Tue, 07/09/2019 – Dr. Namrata Goswami talked about “India’s space history & program, China space & lunar policy, US return to the Moon, deterrence as a goal, Space Force, commercial space development, international cooperation and more”.
** Wed, 07/03/2019 – Hotel Mars with John Batchelor & Dr. David Livingston – Space historian Dr. Roger Launius talked about the Apollo era and his new book, Apollo’s Legacy: Perspectives on the Moon Landings
See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs
The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.
Space transport roundup – July.14.2019
A sampling of recent articles, videos, and images dealing with space transport:
** SpaceX Starhopper demo vehicle prepared for first un-tethered low altitude flights at the SpaceX South Texas Launch Site. More in SpaceX section below.
** India scrubs today’s launch of the Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV Mk.3).
A technical snag was observed in launch vehicle system at 1 hour before the launch. As a measure of abundant precaution, #Chandrayaan2 launch has been called off for today. Revised launch date will be announced later.
— ISRO (@isro) July 14, 2019
More about the mission:
- Watch Live Launch of GSLV MkIII-M1/Chandrayaan2 on July 15, 2019 from 02:30 hrs IST onwards – ISRO
- GSLV-Mk III – M1 / Chandrayaan-2 Mission – ISRO
- Launch Kit at a glance – ISRO
- India seeks to join exclusive company with ambitious moon mission – Spaceflight Now
From SFN:
If everything goes according to plan, the three-in-one spacecraft will arrive in orbit around the moon around Aug. 5, then detach the landing craft around Sept. 2 or 3 to begin lowering its altitude in preparation for a final descent to the lunar surface as soon as Sept. 6.
“We are landing at a place where nobody else has gone,” said K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization.
Indian scientists are targeting landing of the Chandrayaan 2 lander at an unexplored site located on the near side of the moon at 70.9 degrees south latitude, closer to the moon’s south pole than any previous mission. The landing module is named Vikram for Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space program, and will deploy the Pragyan rover, named for the Sanskrit word for “wisdom.”
** Russian Proton-M rocket launched the Spektr-RG astrophysical x-ray observatory from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan: Russian Proton-M launches Spektr-RG observatory – NASASpaceFlight.com
** An Arianespace Vega rocket failed during the launch of UAE’s Falcon Eye-1 earth observation satellite:
- Vega Flight VV15 failure: Arianespace and ESA appoint an independent inquiry commission – ESA
- Vega suffers her first failure during Falcon Eye-1 launch – NASASpaceFlight.com
- Flight VV15: Mission failure – Arianespace
The $400M payout for the failure will be a real blow to the space insurance industry.
** A Russian Soyuz 2-1v launched four military satellites with little prior public notification: Soyuz 2-1v conduts surprise military launch – NASASpaceFlight.com
** Virgin Orbit executes successful drop test of LauncherOne rocket from the “Cosmic Girl” 747 carrier aircraft:
- Virgin Orbit Completes Key Drop Test Ahead of Orbital Test Flight | Virgin Orbit
- Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl conducts successful drop test with LauncherOne – NASASpaceFlight.com
- Wait for the Drop | Virgin Orbit
** EXOS Aerospace posts videos from recent launch in which the SARGE reusable rocket suffered a guidance glitch shortly after liftoff but still manages to return for a landing via paraglider:
** China’s Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology, Ltd wants to challenge SpaceX in reusable rocketry: Chinese rocket start-up aims at ‘SpaceX dominance’ – ecns.cn
Beijing-based private rocket start-up Galactic Energy Aerospace Technology Co has made a breakthrough in its “Pallas” medium liquid-propellant rocket, a step closer to the firm’s goal of forging a Chinese version of the Falcon 9 rocket manufactured by U.S. spaceflight company SpaceX.
…
The gas generator, which helps provide thrust to the rocket’s 40-ton engine that is powered by reusable liquid oxygen and kerosene, has completed seven ignition tests over the weekend, with an accumulated operation time of 380 seconds, according to Galactic Energy. The maximum single operation time lasted 100 seconds.
The company started developing the main rocket engine for the Pallas in December 2018, and it is the first Chinese rocket with engines that run on reusable liquid oxygen and kerosene.
Galactic Energy’s products include the Pallas family of medium-sized liquid rockets, named Pallas, and small solid rockets named Ceres.
The Ceres-1 is aimed at the low-orbit commercial small satellite market and is expected to fly in March 2020. The Pallas-1 is expected to launch in December 2022.
** Spaceflight takes advantage of two cargo spacecraft and the ISS to put six smallsats into their designated orbits : SEOPS Mission Preview – Spaceflight
Continue reading Space transport roundup – July.14.2019