Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Feb.25.2019

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:

Webcasts:

** The Space Show – Sun, 02/24/2019 – Linda Plush, Executive Director of the Space Nursing Society, discussed human spaceflight medical challenges.

** Episode T+111: SpaceX, the Established Launch Provider – Main Engine Cut Off – “A tale of politics, protests, and contracts tells the story of how SpaceX is in transition—and maybe has already transitioned—from a scrappy upstart to an established launch provider.”.

** Episode 1104: Mars Done? – “After examining the current launch log book and going over some significant breaking news with the Mars Exploration Rover Mission and NASA’s current lunar aspirations, the team discusses the latest findings from the New Horizons mission. We then celebrate the naming of the European Space Agency’s Exomars mission rover.   The ExoMars set for a 2020 launch attempt will be called the Rosalind Franklin after the British chemist who helped discover the true nature of the structure of Deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.  Is the Mars One colonization effort finished after its bankruptcy filingor is it simply attempting to respawn? The team does its best to find out. In the final segment,  Mark Ratterman observes the passing of one of the Apollo Program’s unsung heroes and we ask help in seeking out anyone who may have had an impact on Apollo’s success to tell their story on the program.  We also mark the untimely passing of space flight historian and good friend, Kate Doolan. ”

** February 22, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

** Weekly Space Hangout: Feb 20, 2019: Dr. Emily Holt talks Archaeology and Ancient Astronomy

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Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – Feb.25.2019

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, Feb. 25, 2019: 2-3:30 pm PST (4-5:30 pm CST, 5-6:30 pm EST): We welcome Micah Walter-Range for Caelus Partners news and updates.

2. Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019: 7-8:30 pm PST (9-10:30 pm CST, 10-11:30 pm EST): We welcome back Bernie Taylor for a discussion about “adding “M” to the Drake Equation.

3. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 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, March 1, 2019: 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am – 1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back Dwight Steven-Boniecki on his documentary film project, Searching for Skylab.

5. Sunday, March 3, 2019: 12-1:30 pm PST (3-4:30 pm EST, 2-3:30 pm CST): We welcome an Open Lines discussion. All callers welcome, especially first time callers. All space, science, STEM and STEAM topics welcome.

Some recent programs:

** Fri, 02/22/2019 – Dr. Zina Jarrahi-Cinker gave “an introduction to the material graphene with a discussion of its uses and capabilities with a focus on space applications”.

** Wed, 02/20/2019 – Matt Bille back discussed “Project WHALES and the advancements with OceanLens software to help protect cetaceans (whales and dolphins)”.

** Tue, 02/19/2019 – Frank White talked about his “new book, The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect, creating a space philosophy, human space flight task forces, commercial space entrepreneurism and more.

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.

The Space Show - David Livingston
The Space Show – David Livingston
Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Feb.25.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** LunaH-Map Spacecraft – A CubeSat project at Arizona State University:

The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) is a 6U CubeSat mission recently selected by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to fly as a secondary payload on first Exploration Mission (EM-1) of the Space Launch System (SLS), scheduled to launch in July 2018. LunaH-Map is led by a small team of researchers and students at Arizona State University, in collaboration with NASA centers, JPL, universities, and commercial space businesses. The LunaH-Map mission will reveal hydrogen abundances at spatial scales below 10 km in order to understand the relationship between hydrogen and permanently shadowed regions, particularly craters, at the Moon’s South Pole. 

** KickSat-2 Update – Latest on the recently deployed CubeSat KickSat-2, which started as a Cornell student project funded with a Kickstarter, that release over a hundred “ChipSats” when it reaches a very low earth orbit (assuming it gets permission from the FCC to do so): KickSat-2 is Alive and Being Tracked – ARRL.org

KickSat-2 is scheduled to deploy up to 104 tiny Sprite satellites into low Earth orbit. The Sprites then would transmit on 437.240 MHz at 10 mW, communicating with each other via a mesh network and with command stations on Earth. The Sprites, which are less than 2 square inches, are expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere within weeks. Manchester did not indicate if attempts would be made to deploy the Sprites.

NASA calls KickSat-2 a technology demonstration mission that’s designed to demonstrate the deployment and operation of prototype Sprite “ChipSats,” also known as “femtosatellites.”

The FCC recently imposed a $900,000 penalty on a commercial concern, Swarm Technologies, for launching similar tiny satellites after the FCC had denied permission.

“These spacecraft are therefore below the size threshold at which detection by the Space Surveillance Network can be considered routine,” the FCC told Swarm Technologies.

Manchester had been trying without success to convince the FCC to allow him to deploy the Sprites from KickSat-2, but, apparently gun shy after the Swarm action, the agency denied permission at the last moment.

Once NASA adopted KickSat-2 as its own mission, however, the regulatory body shifted to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the launch went forward.

Zachary Manchester, who started the project while a post-doc at Cornell, is now an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering. Here is the REx Lab: KickSat Project page at Stanford.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-055 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • 50th Anniversary AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award (Limited Edition) Starts March 3rd
  • FalconSAT-3 Digipeater Waiting for Your APRS Packets
  • Qatar OSCAR-100 Web Receiver Now Live
  • AMSAT Journal January/February 2019 Is on Its Way
  • KickSat-2 is Alive and Being Tracked (Updated 2/19/2019)
  • Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Communications Training Course
  • IARU Region 1 Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) Announced
  • This Month in AMSAT History
  • AMSAT-SA Space Symposium March 16, 2019
  • HamSCI Workshop Receives National Science Foundation Grant
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Asteroids & Comets, Space Science, Space Systems

Japan’s Hayabusa-2 grabs sample of asteroid Ryuga

On Friday, Japan’s Hayabusa 2 spacecraft maneuvered down to the surface of the small asteroid Ryugu and landed just long enough to extract a sample of surface material.

From Spaceflight Now:

The spacecraft dropped a pair of Japanese robots to hop across Ryugu’s surface in September, then released a European mobile scout to land on the asteroid in October. The miniature landers became the first mobile vehicles to explore the surface of an asteroid. All three robots returned imagery and science data.

The shadow of Hayabusa 2 on the Ryuga asteroid.

Mission managers hoped to grab the first sample with Hayabusa 2 in late October, but officials postponed the descent to complete additional analysis and surveys after the spacecraft found the asteroid is more rocky and rugged than expected. Managers decided to deploy a target marker at their preferred landing site for Hayabusa 2’s first sampling attempt, helping the spacecraft navigate a narrow corridor to safely reach a location free of boulders, which could have endangered the mission.

“Ryugu turned out to be more difficult than we expected, so we decided to deploy all kinds of technologies that are available,” Tsuda said.

Hayabusa 2 could try to gather two more samples from other locations on Ryugu before departing the asteroid in November or December. The spacecraft must begin its journey back to Earth by the end of the year to return home in December 2020, when Hayabusa 2 will release a sample carrier to re-enter the atmosphere and parachute to a landing in Australia.

Find more about the project at:

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Space industry and microgravity R&D, Space Systems, The Moon

SpaceIL Beresheet lunar mission update + iSpace of Japan to launch lunar orbiter and lander

SpaceIL‘s Beresheet lunar lander, launched as a secondary payload on a Falcon 9 last Thursday evening, has completed its first engine firing, which will raise the altitude of the perigee (low point) of its highly elliptical orbit around the earth so that it doesn’t reenter the atmosphere.  First Israeli lunar spacecraft completes first maneuver – Israel National News.

The maneuver was made at a distance of 69,400 km from Earth for 30 seconds and will increase the spacecrafts closest point of approach to Earth to a distance of 600 km.

Beresheet continues its course according to plan and the next maneuver is scheduled for Monday night.

As seen on this video, the craft will need to carry out several engine firings to extend its orbit outward to the Moon and then go into orbit around it:

The glare of the sun has affected the craft’s star-tracker but otherwise the vehicle seems in good shape.

Scott Manley posted a video before the launch in which he discussed the SpaceIL mission:

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Japan’s ispace is another organization that began as an entrant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE and then continued after the GLXP ended. ispace, however, is a commercial company rather than a non-profit like SpaceIL. The company has raised nearly $100M in investments and has contracts with several companies and government institutions.

The latest contract is with the NGK Spark Plug company and involves testing a solid-state a battery under the harsh conditions on the Moon, particularly the extremely cold temperatures during the 2 week long nights.

The company currently is focused on the first two missions to the Moon:

Mission 1 will entail an orbit around the Moon, while Mission 2 will perform a soft lunar landing and deployment of rovers to collect data from the lunar surface.

ispace has contracted with SpaceX to carry its Lunar Lander (Moon landing spacecraft) and Lunar Rovers (Moon surface exploration robots) for the HAKUTO-R Program as secondary payloads on it’s Falcon-9 rocket. The launches for the first and second missions for HAKUTO-R will occur in mid-2020 and mid-2021, respectively.

Here is a video showing the phases of the mission to land on the Moon and deploy a small rover to explore:

This video introduces some of the people working at ispace:

And this video presents the company’s long term vision:

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