Space policy roundup – Nov.23.2020 | Space-for-All at HobbySpace

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):

Schedule:
- What’s Happening in Space Policy November 22-28, 2020 – SpacePolicyOnline.com
Biden space:
NASA programs:
NASA Management:
Lunar programs:
- Memorial spaceflight: Cremated remains flying to the moon on private lander in 2021 | Space.com
Congressional space:
- Space traffic management bill clears Senate committee – SpaceNews
- Senate Committee Approves SPACE Act, But Without a Bureau of Space Commerce – SpacePolicyOnline.com
Space benefits:
- How space exploration will help to address climate change | TheHill
- Need a way out of recession? Look to the stars – CityAM
Commercial space:
ISS:
- Ground-Breaking SpaceX Crew-1 Commercial Flight Enhances International Space Station Productivity – National Space Society
Regulation:
- FAA: Commercial space launch regulations ‘in final coordination’ – SpaceNews
Space law:
- Growing Interest in Moon Resources Could Cause Tension, Scientists Find – Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian/
- Opinion | To boldly go … responsibly – POLITICO
Spectrum:
- The U.S. Senate Promotes Private Sector Development of Next-Generation Satellite-Based Technology to Deliver Broadband Connectivity to the Unconnected – AST SpaceMobile
Space traffic:
- The need for US leadership in remediating space debris – The Space Review
- Commerce Department drafting space traffic management concepts as it awaits funding – SpaceNews
Weather & remote sensing satellites:
- GeoOptics and Spire Global win NOAA weather data contracts – SpaceNews
US Defense space:
Space and cybersecurity :
- #SpaceWatchGL Opinion: Quantum Technology and Impact of the Global Space Security – SpaceWatch.Global

International space

Webcasts:

** A New Doorway to Space | NASA – NanoRacks to add new airlock for the ISS to enhance both commercial and government activities on the station:

Opening another portal to receive more shipments and deploy more satellites and experiments is the challenge a private company took up – Nanoracks LLC, headquartered in Webster, Texas. With support from NASA, the company built a new and different kind of doorway into space.

The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock Module will serve as another door to space, helping to move larger payloads inside and outside the station. This will alleviate one bottleneck slowing down the deployment of new small satellites and CubeSats from the space station. Bishop will also significantly increase the amount of research that can be done in low-Earth orbit – research that helps us better understand the space environment but also has implications for Earth imaging, medical research, and biomanufacturing.

** Sunday, Nov.22.2020 – Rob Ronci and Trent Tresch talked about “for news, updates, and policy discussions regarding the Caelus Foundation“, which advocates “for broad participation in the space domain and to engage and empower people around the world to build a space-centric community through their decisions and actions“.

** The Space Show – Tuesday, Nov.17.2020 – Dallas Bienhoff discussed cislunar development and also “possible ideas for the new administration and NASA, Artemis, Mars, returning to the Moon, space tugs, the Gateway, private sector advances, and much more“.

** Cislunar, Proliferated Leo and Accelerating Innovation – Constellations Podcast – YouTube

Listen to Colonel Eric Felt talk about what the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) is doing to keep the U.S. competitive edge in space. Building a strong team is important and he believes that is part of the secret sauce that makes the AFRL so successful. Learn about cislunar and XGEO and why these are exciting areas to be studying. Col Felt reflects that the growing interest in cislunar and XGEO comes down to commercial activity, resources and political advantages. He said there are cost and performance advantages coming from proliferated LEO and that every mission in the future that can be done from LEO will be done from LEO. With so many thousands of satellites going up, a high level of automation will be essential for their management; however, there will be limits to this kind of autonomy – especially in a war fighting scenario.

** Luxembourg teams up with ESA to create a unique “European Space Resources Innovation Centre” to be established in the Grand Duchy | Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

Luxembourg just entered a strategic partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to create a “European Space Resources Innovation Centre”, or ESRIC. Unique of its kind, ESRIC aims to become an internationally recognised centre of expertise for scientific, technical, business and economic aspects related to the use of space resources for human and robotic exploration, as well as for a future in-space economy.

Based in Luxembourg, ESRIC will partner with public and private international players in this field to create a hub of excellence for space resources in Europe. The creation of ESRIC was part of the Luxembourg government initiative SpaceResources.lu launched in 2016 to establish an ecosystem favourable to the development of activities related to the exploration and use of space resources.

ESRIC’s activities will focus on space resources research and development, drawing together excellence from public research and its facilities, with private sector initiative and efficiency. The centre will also contribute to economic growth by supporting commercial initiatives and start-ups, offering a business incubation component and enabling technology transfer between space and non-space industries.

** E42 – Early NASA Recruitment for Women and African Americans (with Angie Bukley and Alan Ladwig) – Aerospace Corp – Center for Space Policy & Strategy (CSPS)