1/I 2023Space resilience and the importance of multiple orbitsby Matthew Mowthorpe Tuesday, January 3, 2023
The OneWeb constellation, an example of a proliferated LEO system.A LEO constellation is hugely expensive to build and maintain, with much shorter lifespans than GEO satellites. While the US and EU have a scale that can potentially justify such sovereign constellations, most nations can’t justify this level of expense, which is likely to mean using one of the commercial providers, such as OneWeb or SpaceX. This puts a reliance in supporting the mission into the hands of a commercial operator, potentially reducing freedom of action. This is still of value to de-risk operations through diversification, but for resilience and to meet the threat requirement it still requires sovereign GEO satellites at the core.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4504/1The critical importance of resiliency for US missile warning satellitesby Brian Chow Tuesday, January 3, 2023
As the US military shifts from existing SBIRS missile-warning satellites to a new architecture, it cannot overlook the importance of resilience amid growing ASAT threats. (credit: Lockheed Martin)The first force design from the Space Warfighting Analysis Center (SWAC) includes a transition to a proliferated missile-warning (MW) & missile-tracking (MT) architecture. Thus far, announcements about the design have been focused on the promise of resilience in the new architecture, while little is known about the more urgent and important resilience during the transition to the new architecture. Let’s hope that the center will soon shed light on how to make the currently vulnerable MW constellation resilient during the transition, which will persist throughout this decade and likely into the 2030s. Otherwise, China, our pacing challenger, will have plenty of opportunities, including seizing Taiwan even without firing a shot well within this decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4505/1M is for MONSTER ROCKET: the M-1 cryogenic engineby Dwayne A. Day Tuesday, January 3, 2023
The M-1 was a powerful hydrogen/oxygen engine under development in the first half of the 1960s. Had it been pursued to flight test, the rockets it powered would have dwarfed the Saturn V. (credit: NASA)By the mid-1960s NASA was on a roll. The agency was consuming nearly four and a half percent of the federal budget—compared to less than half a percent today—and going full-bore to build Apollo and its required infrastructure in time to meet President Kennedy’s deadline for landing men on the Moon by the end of the decade.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4506/1After all, it’s rocket science (and bureaucracy)by Jeff Foust Tuesday, January 3, 2023
The Vega C on the pad before its ill-fated launch December 20. (credit: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique vidéo du CSG - JM Guillon)Last year was the most active one ever for spaceflight, in terms of launch activity. There were 186 orbital launch attempts worldwide in 2022, of which 179 were successful. That’s more than double five years ago, when there were 86 successful launches out of 90 attempts. That increase is thanks primarily to China and SpaceX: the country went from 18 orbital launch attempts in 2017 to 64 in 2022, while the company went from 18 to 61 launches in the same span.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4507/12/I 2023Review: A Brief History of Black Holesby Jeff Foust Monday, January 9, 2023
A Brief History of Black Holes: And Why Nearly Everything You Know About Them Is Wrongby Becky Smethurst
Macmillan, 2022
hardcover, 288 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5290-8670-6
US$29.95
Black holes probably exist. That was the conclusion of a study publicized last week that examined whether the phenomena widely believed to be black holes might instead be an ultracompact object formed of exotic matter, dubbed a “boson star”. The analysis, though, concluded that such a boson star would last for only a fraction of a second before exploding into a less dense object or collapsing into—you guessed it—a black hole.
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1529086701/spaceviewsA COTS-like alternative for planetary explorationby Louis Friedman Monday, January 9, 2023
Concepts like Rocket Lab’s private Venus mission might be a way to get around the budget pressures on NASA’s planetary science program. (credit: Rocket Lab)The recent projection presented by Dr. Lori Glaze, director of NASA’s planetary science division, at the Fall Meeting of the AGU was sobering and should serve as both a warning and a call for action to the planetary science community. She projected a flat budget for planetary science to at least late this decade, despite the growing requirements for the two flagship missions, Mars Sample Return and Europa Clipper, and the broader infrastructure issues raised by the Psyche program delay and post-pandemic supply chain issues. Already we have delays initiated in the smaller, but still large, planetary programs in Discovery and New Frontiers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4509/1To go to Mars, do a backflip at Venusby Jeff Foust Monday, January 9, 2023
While a human mission to fly by or orbit Venus would be designed to gain experience for a future human mission to Mars, there is also significant science it could do, such as teleoperating vehicles on the surface and in the atmosphere of the planet. (credit: JHUAPL/Caleb Heidel)NASA has made clear its long-term human spaceflight aspirations in recent years. The agency’s Artemis campaign will fly a series of crewed missions to the Moon that will become increasingly ambitious: larger crews, longer stays, and more infrastructure. Those missions, along with experience built up on the International Space Station and commercial successors in Earth orbit and on the lunar Gateway orbiting the Moon, will enable human missions to Mars, perhaps as soon as the late 2030s. The schedule and the specifics have yet to be worked out, but the framework is in place.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4510/1Moon denied: the 1993 Early Lunar Access proposalby Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 9, 2023
In January 1993, General Dynamics unveiled its Early Lunar Access proposal for returning Americans to the Moon. The company hoped that a new presidential administration would embrace its cheaper method of returning humans to the Moon using existing launch vehicles. But the Clinton administration was already skeptical of NASA's space station program and wary of new civil space expenditures. General Dynamics' study demonstrated that it was difficult to repeat Apollo without much larger launch vehicles. (credit: General Dynamics)Getting to the Moon is hard.
It has been more than half a century since the last humans walked on the lunar surface, or even ventured beyond low Earth orbit. Since that time there have been many proposals to do it again. In January 1993—30 years ago this week—there was a proposal known as Early Lunar Access, and it was an attempt to demonstrate that the Moon could be reached faster, and at less cost, than other proposals during that time period.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4511/13/I 2023Review: Dinner on Marsby Jeff Foust Monday, January 16, 2023
Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earthby Lenore Newman and Evan D.G. Fraser
ECW Press, 2022
paperback, 232 pp.
ISBN 978-1-77041-662-8
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1770416625/spaceviewsMost of the focus on human exploration of Mars has been how to get people there and back: rocket engineers, after all, like to talk about rocket engineering. Far less has been said, though, about how people will live and work there, particularly as initial expeditions evolve into permanent settlements.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4512/1China’s new space station opens for business in an increasingly competitive era of space activityby Eytan Tepper and Scott Shackelford Monday, January 16, 2023
China’s space station serves as both a research outpost and a geopolitical symbol. (credit: China Manned Space Engineering Office)The International Space Station is no longer the only place where humans can live in orbit.
On November 29, 2022, the Shenzhou 15 mission launched from China’s Gobi Desert carrying three taikonauts, the Chinese word for astronauts. Six hours later, they reached their destination, China’s recently completed space station, called Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” in Mandarin. The three taikonauts replaced the existing crew that helped wrap up construction. With this successful mission, China has become just the third nation to operate a permanent space station.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4513/1From the sand to the stars: Saddam Hussein’s failed space programby Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 16, 2023
The Al-Ta’ir satellite built by Iraqi scientists and engineers between 1988 and 1990. The satellite would have conducted communications experiments. (credit: Sarmad D.S. Dawood)During the 1980s, the government of Saddam Hussein sought to develop an indigenous space program and then ran head first into external political roadblocks that made this impossible. Although more than three decades have passed since the end of the Iraqi space program, and Saddam has been dead since 2006, there is still relatively little information available on the Iraqi space program. This article summarizes what is publicly known.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4514/1Unlocking the next great observatoriesby Jeff Foust Monday, January 16, 2023
The success of JWST, exceeding requirements in nearly every way, allows NASA to focus now on development of future large space telescopes. (credit: NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez)When astronomers gathered in Seattle last week for the 241st Meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), one of the largest conferences of astronomers, there was a celebratory mood among many there. The meeting was the first by the AAS since the release last July of the first science images from the James Webb Space Telescope that marked the start of a new era in the field after years—decades, really—of anticipation.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4515/14/I 2023Mawu and Artemis: Why the United States should make Africa a priority for space diplomacyby Nico Wood Monday, January 23, 2023
Officials from Rwanda and Nigeria sign the Artemis Accords during the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington in December. (credit: NASA)The Artemis missions represent the most ambitious human spaceflight program in history, demanding international contributions and coordination. As a prerequisite for participation, member countries are obligated to sign the Artemis Accords, a broad-based set of principles and guidelines to advance peace, transparency, and responsibility in space. Representatives from Rwanda and Nigeria signed the Artemis Accords in December 2022, becoming the first African nations to join the international program. The economic, social, and geopolitical potentials of the African continent pose a major opportunity for US space diplomacy, yet the United States has not adequately engaged with African nations. This diplomatic vacuum stems from a general lack of US prioritization of Africa and leaves it open to competition by China and Russia. By pursuing more African nations as partners in the Artemis Accords, the United States can capitalize on Rwanda and Nigeria’s momentum, demonstrate a sustained presence on the continent, and inspire a new generation of Africans through space.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4516/1What the United States should do regarding space leadership?by Namrata Goswami Monday, January 23, 2023
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi signed a space cooperation framework agreement January 13 at NASA Headquarters, but the two countries have offered different strategic visions for space. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)The domain of space is changing fast. Once the realm of elite astronauts and space scientists who had access based on state sponsorship or university-funded programs, today space is truly democratizing, being adopted by almost anyone with a passion and an inclination to do space, creating companies, networks, and investing in the development of space. Look no further than countries like India or Japan, long dominated by elite state-sponsored space institutions but now creating enabling structures, be it in regard to new organizations, regulations, and investment opportunities for private citizens to develop space capacities and collectively take their societies forward.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4517/1Not-so ancient astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incidentby Dwayne A. Day Monday, January 23, 2023
This photo of the secretive Groom Lake facility in the Nevada desert was taken by the Skylab 4 astronauts—who were instructed to not photograph the facility. Its existence created a stir within the US Intelligence Community in 1974. (credit: NASA)[Editor’s Note: This is an extensively revised and updated version of “Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident” from January 9, 2006.]On April 19, 1974, someone in the CIA sent the Director of Central Intelligence, William Colby, a memorandum regarding a little problem.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4518/1Persistent cooperation on the space stationby Jeff Foust Monday, January 23, 2023
A robotic arm inspects the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft after the Soyuz suffered a coolant leak December 14. (credit: NASA TV)Ever since Russia started an all-out invasion of Ukraine last February, the space community has wondered what it would mean for the future of the International Space Station. Russia is an essential partner on the station, but at the same time Russia and the West were rapidly unwinding cooperation elsewhere, from commercial launch to the Russian-European ExoMars mission.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4519/15/I 2023Review: Apollo’s Creedby Jeff Foust Monday, January 30, 2023
Apollo's Creed: Lessons I Learned from My Astronaut Dad Richard F. Gordon, Jr.by Traci Shoblom
G&D Media, 2023
paperback, 196 pp.
ISBN 978-1-7225-0640-7
US$19.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1722506407/spaceviewsMost astronaut biographies and memoirs follow a similar trajectory. Such accounts start with childhood and, perhaps, the first inklings of desire for traveling to space. That’s followed by pursuing a career in military, industry, or academia that sets the stage for applying to become an astronaut. Then there’s the astronaut selection and training process and the mission or missions they fly. At the end, perhaps, is a discussion of life after being an astronaut.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4520/1Our solar system is filled with asteroids that are particularly hard to destroyby Fred Jourdan and Nick Timms Monday, January 30, 2023
An image of the asteroid Dimorphos captured by NASA's DART mission minutes before impact last September, revealing it to be another “rubble pile” asteroid. (credit: NASA/JHUAPL)A vast amount of rocks and other material are hurtling around our solar system as asteroids and comets. If one of these came towards us, could we successfully prevent the collision between an asteroid and Earth?
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4521/1Space-to-ground capabilities are the answer to deterring invasion of Taiwanby Christopher Stone Monday, January 30, 2023
An illustration of a Chinese hypersonic glide vehicle. Such a vehicle, combined with a FOBS system, could pose a major threat to US forces in the Pacific and beyond. (credit: Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance)In September 2022, the Defense Policy Board met for “classified deliberations” on how China’s “fractional orbital bombardment systems and space-to-ground weapons could impact U.S. deterrence and strategic stability.” These systems were demonstrated in August 2021 when China launched a hypersonic glide vehicle, designed to defeat US missile tracking and defense systems, into an orbital path and then de-orbited to hit a target at a test range in China. While the board considered US response options, one option likely not included was the rapid development and deployment of a superior US equivalent space-to-ground weapon as a means of deterrence. This response option should be the direction the Defense Department pursues if the US intends to keep its defense treaty commitments to friends and allies in the Indo-Pacific and, indeed, plan to keep air and sea force projection capabilities as options in an anti-access fight.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4522/1Human spaceflight safety in a new commercial eraby Jeff Foust Monday, January 30, 2023
NASA administrator Bill Nelson lays a wreath during ceremonies last week at Arlington National Cemetery as part of NASA’s annual Day of Remembrance. (credit: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)Every year in late January, NASA reflects on its tragedies. The annual Day of Remembrance ceremonies across the agency commemorate the three human spaceflight fatal accidents that clustered in the same place in the calendar despite being spread out over decades.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4523/1
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