1. Monday, Jan. 27, 2020; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): No special programming today.
2. Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020; 7-8:30 pm PDT (9-10:30 pm CDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT): No show today. It has been moved to Thursday of this week.
3. Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020: Pre-recorded Hotel Mars Program with John Batchelor. See Upcoming Show on The Space Show website for details.
4. Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020; 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST): We welcome Deep Prasad to discuss quantum computing and his new SETI organization in Silicon Valley.
5. Friday, Jan. 31, 2020; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. Namrata Goswami on China, Asia and national security space issues and news.
6. Sunday, Feb. 2, 2020; 12-1:30 pm PST, (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 pm CST): We welcome back Dr. Gilbert Levin and Barry DiGregorio with news updates for Viking, searching for life on Mars and more.
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):
Marcia Smith on Twitter: “Concluding paragraph from letter to members of the House SS&T cmte sent by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation this morning. CSF wants the bill withdrawn.” / Twitter
Jim Bridenstine on Twitter: “While there are challenges with the House Auth Bill (limited commercial partnerships, limited Moon activities, etc), consider the positives: – Strong, bipartisan support for Moon to Mars agenda – All major Artemis programs authorized – Includes Gateway to Mars More to come.” / Twitter
** Christopher Johnson – What the Public Needs to Know About Space Law – Cold Star Project
Space lawyer and Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center Christopher Johnson is on the Cold Star Project. With host Jason Kanigan, the Secure World Foundation space law advisor shares what the public needs to know about space law. Space law is a complex and often unclear subject, operating on corporate, national and international levels. Chris explains how space law approaches topics such as:
– Government regulation of services and nation state liability
– Planetary protection
– How space resources may be used
– Property rights on celestial bodies
– Achieving consensus on space policy and regulations
– Militarization of space.
** Charles Radley – Predicting Space Collisions and Avoiding the Kessler Syndrome – Cold Star Project
Space Initiatives Inc. president Charles Radley is on a mission to make collision detection between objects in orbit much more effective. The current technology is not as good as you might think, and there is an opportunity to improve space collision detection at an affordable investment. A major danger of orbital collisions is not just the crashing of one object into another, but a cascading series of impacts called the Kessler Syndrome. The worst outcome for a Kessler Syndrome incident is an orbital debris field blocking launches for generations. And it is not a fantasy.
** Obtaining oxygen and metals from lunar regolith: Nearly half of the chemical content of lunar dust is oxygen and most of the rest contains metals, both essential for sustainable lunar settlements. Here is a report from ESA on research into an efficient way to extract these resources from lunar regolith: ESA opens oxygen plant – making air out of moondust – ESA
ESTEC’s oxygen extraction is taking place using a method called molten salt electrolysis, involving placing regolith in a metal basket with molten calcium chloride salt to serve as an electrolyte, heated to 950°C. At this temperature the regolith remains solid.
But passing a current through it causes the oxygen to be extracted from the regolith and migrate across the salt to be collected at an anode. As a bonus this process also converts the regolith into usable metal alloys.
In fact this molten salt electrolysis method was developed by UK company Metalysis for commercial metal and alloy production. Beth’s PhD involved working at the company to study the process before recreating it at ESTEC.
On the left side of this before and after image is a pile of simulated lunar soil, or regolith; on the right is the same pile after essentially all the oxygen has been extracted from it, leaving a mixture of metal alloys. Both the oxygen and metal could be used in future by settlers on the Moon. Samples returned from the lunar surface confirm that lunar regolith is made up of 40-45% percent oxygen by weight, its single most abundant element. Credits: ESA
“At Metalysis, oxygen produced by the process is an unwanted by-product and is instead released as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which means the reactors are not designed to withstand oxygen gas itself,” explains Beth. “So we had to redesign the ESTEC version to be able to have the oxygen available to measure. The lab team was very helpful in getting it installed and operating safely.”
The oxygen plant runs silently, with the oxygen produced in the process is vented into an exhaust pipe for now, but will be stored after future upgrades of the system.
“The production process leaves behind a tangle of different metals,” adds Alexandre, “and this is another useful line of research, to see what are the most useful alloys that could be produced from them, and what kind of applications could they be put to.
The use of lava tubes on Mars as emergency shelters and storage has been advanced by researchers at the Antarctic Institute of Canada.
Lava tubes are formed from fast moving lava which later cools and forms roomy caves that might serve various functions for future human expeditions to the Red Planet.
Svetozar Zirnov, Daniel Polo, and Austin Mardon of the institute floated the idea at this week’s Seventh International Conference on Mars Polar Science and Exploration being held in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
Science fiction often imagines our future on Mars and other planets as run by machines, with metallic cities and flying cars rising above dunes of red sand. But the reality may be even stranger – and “greener.” Instead of habitats made of metal and glass, NASA is exploring technologies that could grow structures out of fungi to become our future homes in the stars, and perhaps lead to more sustainable ways of living on Earth as well.
The myco-architecture project out of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley is prototyping technologies that could “grow” habitats on the Moon, Mars and beyond out of life – specifically, fungi and the unseen underground threads that make up the main part of the fungus, known as mycelia.
“Right now, traditional habitat designs for Mars are like a turtle — carrying our homes with us on our backs – a reliable plan, but with huge energy costs,” said Lynn Rothschild, the principal investigator on the early-stage project. “Instead, we can harness mycelia to grow these habitats ourselves when we get there.”
Ultimately, the project envisions a future where human explorers can bring a compact habitat built out of a lightweight material with dormant fungi that will last on long journeys to places like Mars. Upon arrival, by unfolding that basic structure and simply adding water, the fungi will be able to grow around that framework into a fully functional human habitat – all while being safely contained within the habitat to avoid contaminating the Martian environment.
This video from the NIAC 2018 Symposium includes a presentation about the fungi construction starting at around the 1:25:00 point:
We propose a public/private partnership to develop and demonstrate space solar power at a sufficiently high technical level that commercial energy providers can subsequently build operational systems for high-energy-cost environments such as remote mining facilities. The outlines of the partnership are based on the successful Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program that helped develop the SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher/Dragon capsule and the Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares launcher and Cygnus spacecraft. The Space Solar Power Demo development described here features minimal NASA oversight, milestone-driven fixed-price payouts, minimal exit criteria, substantial commercial partner funding commitments, non-traditional contracts (e.g., Space Act Agreements with NASA), commercial partner choice of energy market and energy consumer, enabling system development (e.g., space robotics), and at least two winners.
** Settling the moons of Saturn: The Space Show – Tue, 01/14/2020 – In this interview, Janelle Wellons of NASA JPL talked about Titan and other moons of Saturn and commented on the possibility of someday putting human settlements on them:
** Weekly Space Hangout: December 18, 2019 – Anita Gale of Space Settlement Design Competitions
We record the Weekly Space Hangout every Wednesday at 5:00 pm Pacific / 8:00 pm Eastern. You can watch us live on Universe Today or the Weekly Space Hangout YouTube page. Tonight we welcome Anita Gale, retired Boeing Associate Technical Fellow with over 40 years of experience in Payload and Cargo Integration on crewed spacecraft, including Space Shuttle and Commercial Crew. She is currently an elected member of the National Space Society (NSS) Executive Committee. Anita co-founded Space Settlement Design Competitions which give high school students on six continents the experience of working on an aerospace industry proposal team to design and sell a space settlement in the context of “future history.” To learn more about the competitions, visit https://spaceset.org/ You can read Anita’s full bio at https://space.nss.org/anita-gale-biog…
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Christina Koch’s Memorable Moments: Part 1 (Repeat this segment shown last week along now with parts 2 & 3 below)
The longest single spaceflight ever by a female astronaut or cosmonaut is now 306 days long, with more to come. On top of adding to her total spaceflight time, NASA astronaut Christina Koch looks back over her long mission and recalls some favorite moments, including her favorite meal and most memorable view from orbit.
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):
** China Develops New-generation Reusable Manned Spacecraft – CCTV
Most equipment of China’s new-generation spaceships can be reusable as China has adopted a two-compartment design of service module and return module, while most valuable products are put in the return module. http://www.cctvplus.com/news/20200121…
** Laura Forczyk – Rise of the Space Age Millennials – Cold Star Project S02E15
Astralytical founder Dr. Laura Forczyk is on the Cold Star Project with host Jason Kanigan to talk about her new book, Rise of the Space Age Millenials. We also cover a number of other space topics, such as commentary on policy questions like: – reduced ISS crew size – NASA’s Commercial Crew Program – Space Tourism – US Space Policy – Megaconstellations and astronomer rights
** Laura Montgomery – US Space Law Regulations – Cold Star Project S02E14
Space lawyer and scifi writer Laura Montgomery is on the Cold Star Project, and we’re digging into how Congress, US agencies and operators work to create and enforce space regulations. With host Jason Kanigan, we discuss:
– the basics of how space law works in the US and for US citizens abroad
– how Laura’s FAA experience built and impacted her approach to space law
– the question of sovereignty in space law (“They didn’t say I couldn’t so I can”; OST Article 1 vs Article 2)
– the way regulatory and treaty issues can impact space law
– how human space flight is regulated in the United States of America
– how Laura’s space law practice has influenced her science fiction writing.
Laura Montgomery is Proprietor of Ground Based Space Matters, Adjunct Professor of space law at Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law, a former manager FAA space law branch (3 years) and senior attorney for commercial space transportation (18 years).
** Face2Face: Jack Dangermond and Scott Pace
Jack Dangermond Founder and President of Esri, discussing the evolution of the space industry during a conversation with US National Space Council’s Executive Secretary Scott Pace
** SpaceX Demo-2 astronauts speak to the media after Crew Dragon’s successful inflight abort test – NASASpaceFlight.com
NASA Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley held an informal press conference with the media following SpaceX’s successful inflight abort demonstration using the Crew Dragon spacecraft.