Satellite News
NASA releases video of Perseverance landing
The Perseverance rover is in good condition on the surface of Mars, NASA officials said Feb. 22, showing off stunning video from its landing on the red planet last week.
Exploration News
ESA Plans Mission to Explore Lunar Caves
In a first step towards uncovering the Moon’s subterranean secrets, in 2019 we asked for your ideas to detect, map and explore lunar caves. Five ideas were selected to be studied in more detail, each addressing different phases of a potential mission. Through these five Sysnova studies, three mission scenarios were developed – one to perform a preliminary scout of entry pits and underground caves from the Moon’s surface, one to lower a probe into a pit and access the first part of a cave,
ESA Moves Forward With Harmony
Following the selection of three Earth Explorer candidate missions to enter a first feasibility study in September 2018, ESA has chosen one of the candidates, Harmony, to move to the next phase of development. Harmony is envisaged as a mission with two satellites that orbit in formation with one of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellites to address key scientific questions related to ocean, ice and land dynamics.
Launcher News
SpaceX blames failed Falcon 9 booster landing on heat damage
A Falcon 9 booster failed to land after its most recent launch Feb. 15 because of “heat damage” it sustained, but a SpaceX official said he was confident that the boosters can be reused 10 or more times.
NewSpace News
Blockchain Transaction Tested By J.P. Morgan Via The GOMX-4 Smallsat Constellation
Artistic rendition of GOMspace1 constellation smallsats on-orbit. GomSpace and J.P. Morgan have successfully used the GOMX-4 satellites for an in-orbit demonstration (IOD) and tested tokenized value transfer in space. The IOD from GomSpace enabled J.P. Morgan to test the world’s first bank-led, tokenized value transfer in space, executed via smart contracts on a blockchain network […]
Mega-Sized 3D Printer Heading To Orbex For Their Rocket Builds
Orbex has commissioned AMCM to build the largest industrial 3D printer in Europe, allowing this UK-based space launch company to rapidly print complex rocket engines in-house. The custom-made, large volume, 3D printer will allow Orbex to print more than 35 large-scale rocket engine and main stage turbopump systems annually, as the company scales up its […]
ClimaCell Building A Weather Constellation ClimaCell, a leading weather intelligence platform, has announced Operation Tomorrow Space. To improve global forecasting technology and capabilities, ClimaCell has designed proprietary, radar-equipped smallsats and will start launching dozens of them into space over the coming years. ClimaCell’s radar-equipped smallsat constellation represents a first in the history of the weather industry. While weather-focused satellites have […]
Spaceflight Celebrating Ten Years Of Smallsat Launch Accomplishments
Spaceflight Inc. is celebrating their 10th anniversary. Since the company’s founding, the company has launched more than 300 satellites across 36 missions on eight different launch vehicles. During Spaceflight’s 10 years in business, the company has evolved from launch brokerage to providing comprehensive launch and mission management services for payloads of all sizes, across a […]
DARPA orders six satellites from Blue Canyon Technologies for Blackjack program
Blue Canyon has received a contract option worth $26.5 million to produce six satellites for DARPA’s Blackjack program.
Redwire acquires Deployable Space Systems
Redwire has acquired Deployable Space Systems (DSS) Inc., the Santa Barbara, California, the rapidly growing Goleta, California, company that manufactures various structures and mechanisms including the Roll-Out Solar Array.
Space Safety News
U.S. to support international effort to set rules of behavior in space
Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt said U.S. diplomats and military leaders are drafting language in support of an international effort to adopt rules of behavior in space.
L3Harris Technologies Awarded 2nd Year of Space Object-Tracking Modernization Contract
L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has been awarded $89 million for option-year two of a U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command contract to continue maintaining and modernizing infrastructure to track objects in space. The Maintenance Of Space Situational Awareness Integrated Capabilities (MOSSAIC) program has an estimated contract value of $1.2 billion over 10 years. “MOSSAIC improves the systems the Space Force and Space Command use to better understand the location and behavior of objects
Imaging space debris in high resolution
Matan Leibovich (New York University), George Papanicolaou (Stanford University), and Chrysoula Tsogka (University of California, Merced) introduce a new method for taking high-resolution images of fast-moving and rotating objects in space, such as satellites or debris in LEO. They created an imaging process that first utilizes a novel algorithm to estimate the speed and angle at which an object in space is rotating, then applies those estimates to develop a high-resolution picture of the target.
Greener way to get satellites moving
ESA initiated the Green Liquid Apogee Engine for Future Spacecraft project, GRACE, to evaluate more environmentally friendly thruster options with testing culminating in a sustained 60-second thruster firing., at Poland’s Institute of Aviation, RACE assessed various options, finding the most effective bipropellant combination used ‘high test peroxide’ (HTP) as oxidiser – a much purer version of the same chemical used to bleach hair, which is split into oxygen and water steam using a catalyst – plus TMPDA fuel. Thales Alenia Space in the UK provided requirements and guidelines for design and testing – including the provision of a 500 Newton kerosene-powered thruster, used as a model for the GRACE demonstrator.
Science & Technology News
Some Earth Life Could Already Survive on Mars
Mars’ surface is a harsh environment for life. But life on Earth is notoriously resilient as well. No one is quite sure yet how microbes from Earth would fare on the Martian surface. However, the impact of a potential transmigration of microbes to the red planet could be immense. Not only could it skew any … Continue reading “Some Earth Life Could Already Survive on Mars” The post Some Earth Life Could Already Survive on Mars appeared first on Universe Today.
Orbit Fab and Benchmark Space Systems to partner on in-space refueling technologies
Two startups are partnering on technology that they hope can jump-start the market for in-space refueling of satellites.
