The Space Review

[Orionid]

From development to operations, at long last
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 16, 2020


A Falcon 9 carrying a Crew Dragon spacecraft with four astronauts on board lifts off November 15 from the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

Launches are the aspect of space activities that often attract the most attention, and understandably so: they are dramatic spectacles, controlled explosions that on occasion become uncontrolled. But while important, their glare can blind us to more important issues. The launch industry, for example, is just a small fraction of the overall space industry, with communications and other services provided by satellites generating far more revenue. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4071/1

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Review: Spacepower Ascendant
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020



Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy
By Joshua P. Carlson
independently published, 2020
paperback, 257 pp., illus.
ISBN 979-8655659230
US$19.99
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B08BWGPR8V/spaceviews

This week’s launch of China’s Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission will doubtless reinvigorate claims of a space race between the US and China, including those who believe the US is falling behind China in such a competition. The Chinese effort will likely be depicted as part of a grand strategy by China to harness the resources of the Moon (water, rare earth elements, helium-3, etc.), if not seize the Moon itself, to become the dominant power in space and therefore on Earth. If America does not respond, they argue, it risks ultimately being subservient to China.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4072/1

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In the new spectrum of space law, will Biden favor the Moon Treaty?
by Dennis O’Brien Monday, November 23, 2020


President-elect Joe Biden has said little about space, but his views on the Convention on the Law of the Seas from his time in the Senate could shape plans for the Artemis Accords and space resources. (credit: Adam Schultz/Biden for President)

The full spectrum of space law, from nationalist to internationalist, was on display at the Moon Village Association’s annual symposium earlier this month. But the question on everyone’s mind was, what will be the effect of Joe Biden’s election as the next President of the United States? He has already declared his intent to rejoin the Paris Climate Accords and the World Health Organization. A look at his Senate record gives us a hint concerning his space policy.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4073/1

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The space resources debate pivots from asteroids to the Moon
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020


Over the last five years, the issue of using space resources has shifted from asteroid mining to lunar exploration. (credit: ESA)

Five years ago this week, President Obama signed into law the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) of 2015. The bill, as its name suggests, primarily dealt with commercial launch issues, such as extending the indemnification regime for commercial launch liability and establishing a class of spaceflight participants known as “government astronauts” who would be treated differently than their commercial counterparts.

The CSLCA, though, is best known for a section that was once a standalone bill, the Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015. That section stated that any US company that extracted resources from asteroids or other celestial bodies beyond Earth would be entitled to them, “including to possess, own, transport, use, and sell the asteroid resource or space resource obtained in accordance with applicable law.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4074/1

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An iconic observatory faces its demise
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 23, 2020


A satellite image of Arecibo taken November 17, showing the damage to the giant dish caused by two broken cables that support the platform suspended over it. (credit: Satellite image ©2020 Maxar Technologies)

A few astronomical observatories are iconic, in the sense they are distinctive enough to be recognized in the broader culture. The Arecibo Observatory certainly qualifies, with its 305-meter main dish nestled in the terrain of Puerto Rico and a platform hosting receivers suspended above it, connected by cables to three towers. Few people might know much about the astronomy done at Arecibo (beyond, perhaps, its supporting role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence), but it became famous in movies like Contact and GoldenEye.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4075/1

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We were heroes once: National Geographic’s “The Right Stuff” and the deflation of the astronaut
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 23, 2020


Actor Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 movie The Right Stuff, an exploration of themes of American masculinity and heroism.

Several years ago, National Geographic ventured out beyond documentaries to start producing scripted dramas. So far none of them have hit a high mark—nothing on the order of “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” “Fargo,” or other prestige television. Most recently they produced “The Right Stuff,” based on Tom Wolfe’s famous book and currently streaming on Disney+. But whereas Wolfe’s book was an exploration of the qualities required of men in a new and highly dangerous job, exploring space, the series is focused on depicting the Mercury astronauts as a bunch of back-biting, egotistical, insecure, argumentative jerks. The differences may be explained by the needs of a multi-episode series, and our changing cultural views of heroism, but the result is unfortunately mediocre.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4076/1

[Orionid]

Review: Black Hole Survival Guide
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020



Black Hole Survival Guide
by Janna Levin
Knopf, 2020
hardcover, 160 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-0-525-65822-1
US$20.95
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/052565822X/spaceviews

So, how did you survive Black Hole Friday? That’s right, Black Hole Friday. A few years ago, NASA tried to coopt the post-Thanksgiving shopping “holiday” of Black Friday into an educational event online about black holes, complete with a hashtag: #BlackHoleFriday. It did so again this year, with various social media posts offering facts about black holes. It’s not clear many people paid attention, though, as they negotiated the Black Friday sales online or feasted on Thanksgiving leftovers.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4077/1

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Chesley Bonestell and his vision of the future
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020



Chesley Bonestell: A Brush with the Future
directed by Douglass M. Stewart Jr.
2018, 96 minutes
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7343526/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_2

Most people with even a fleeting familiarity of the early Space Age are familiar with the work of artist Chesley Bonestell, even if they don’t recognize the name. Long before the launch of Sputnik and Explorer 1, let alone the flights of Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn or the footsteps of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, Bonestell painted dramatic landscapes of the Moon and other worlds in our solar system, as well as the rockets and spacecraft that would take people to them. His artwork, along with the words of Willy Ley and the visions of Wernher von Braun, televised by Walt Disney, would shape American perceptions of space at the dawn of the Space Age.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4078/1

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A 4G network on the Moon is bad news for radio astronomy
by Emma Alexander Monday, November 30, 2020


Radio telescopes like the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory face threats of radiofrequency interference on Earth, and now from space. (credit: Jodrell Bank Obs./Anthony Holloway)

As you drive down the road leading to Jodrell Bank Observatory, a sign asks visitors to turn off their mobile phones, stating that the Lovell telescope is so powerful it could detect a phone signal on Mars.

Radio telescopes are designed to be incredibly sensitive. To quote the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan, “The total amount of energy from outside the solar system ever received by all the radio telescopes on the planet Earth is less than the energy of a single snowflake striking the ground.”
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4079/1

[Orionid]

The case for Apophis
by Jeff Foust Monday, November 30, 2020


NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, depicted here at the asteroid Bennu, could have an extended mission visiting another near Earth asteroid, Apophis, when it flies by Earth in 2029. (credit: NASA/GSFC)

On April 13, 2029—a Friday the 13th—the asteroid Apophis will pass remarkably close to the Earth, coming within 31,000 kilometers of the Earth’s surface, or closer than satellites in geostationary orbit. In late 2004, shortly after its discovery, astronomers projected at one point a 1-in-37 chance of a collision in 2029, but additional observations soon ruled out any impact. A small risk of an impact in April 2036 lingered for a few years, particularly if the asteroid passed through a narrow “keyhole” of space near Earth during its 2029 flyby (see “Sounding an alarm, cautiously”, The Space Review, May 31, 2005), but that, too, has since been ruled out.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4080/1

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Rolling the dice on Apollo: Prospects for US-Soviet cooperation in the Moon program
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, November 30, 2020


President John F. Kennedy viewing the Saturn I launch pad in 1963. NASA Administrator James Webb is at center. (credit: Cecil Stoughton, White House photographer)

On September 20, 1963, President John F. Kennedy gave a speech in front of the United Nations in New York City where he proposed a joint mission to the Moon with the Soviet Union. One year after the two countries had been to the brink of nuclear war, Kennedy wanted to cooperate with the Soviet Union on a major space project. The proposal was a surprise to many, seeming to come out of nowhere, and prompted backlash among Kennedy’s supporters in Congress, who worried that Apollo’s goals were being undermined.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4081/1

[Orionid]

Review: Operation Moonglow
by Jeff Foust Monday, December 7, 2020



Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo
by Teasel Muir-Harmony
Basic Books, 2020
hardcover, 384 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-5416-9987-8
US$32
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1541699874/spaceviews

In July 1962, huge crowds converged on a Tokyo department store for a special event. Over the course of four days, more than 500,000 people stood in long lines—going up nine flights of stairs, zigzagging across the store’s roof, and then going back down nine flights of stairs. What attracted so many people? Not a sale, or a celebrity, but a spacecraft: Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule that John Glenn flew in the first American orbital spaceflight five months earlier, and now on a round-the-world tour.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4082/1

[Orionid]

Review: The Art of NASA
by Christopher Cokinos Monday, December 7, 2020



The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions
by Piers Bizony
Motorbooks, 2020
hardcover, 192 pages, illus.
ISBN 978-0-7603-6807-7
US$50
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0760368074/spaceviews

Piers Bizony’s The Art of NASA: The Illustrations that Sold the Missions is an eye-popping, sumptuous coffee table book of full-color art—mostly vintage government and corporate work—that spans the early days of the American crewed space program all the way to present conceptions of orbital and planetary futures. The Art of NASA is a gorgeous, well-designed ode to visions of space flight, focusing on graphic illustrative art that appeared in brochures, newspapers, magazines, and, of late, on the web.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4083/1

[Orionid]

Learning from Chandrayaan 2 for India
by Ajay P. Kothari Monday, December 7, 2020


An illustration of India’s Vikram lander making its descent to the lunar surface. The spacecraft crashed attempting a landing in September 2019. (credit: ISRO)

Given the recent astounding success (so far) of Chang’e-5, as well as other missions by China and Japan, it might seem harsh to compare them to India’s Chandryaan 2 lunar mission launched last year. But this is not meant as a criticism, only a constructive conjecture. Yes, many aspects of Chandrayaan 2 were successful, for which India and its space agency, ISRO, should be proud. However, it is also apt to learn from what did not work, admit it and improve.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4084/1

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The cloth of doom: The weird, doomed ride of Ariane Flight 36
by Francis Castanos Monday, December 7, 2020


A version of the Ariane 4 rocket similar to the one lost in a 1990 launch failure caused by a “cloth of doom”. (credit: ESA)

This is a companion piece of sorts to Wayne Eleazer’s excellent series on rocket launch failures, and why they happened. It is a story involving rockets, satellites, an earthquake, and a couple of kitchen accessories. And a lot of bad luck. It all started with a natural disaster, which led to two further disasters, man-made this time.
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4085/1