The Space Review

[Orionid]

Losers and (sore) winners
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 24, 2020


While SpaceX won the Air Force launch competition using its existing Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, it will have to build a mobile servicing tower (right) at LC-39A to allow for vertical processing of payloads, as well as a stretched payload fairing for the Falcon Heavy. (credit: SpaceX)

In April 2014, Elon Musk declared war on the US Air Force. At a press conference in Washington, he announced that he was filing suit against the service, arguing that it had locked SpaceX out of future military launch contracts with a block buy of launches from rival United Launch Alliance. “Essentially, what we feel is that this is not right,” he said at that event. “National security launches should be put up for competition, and they should not be awarded on a sole-source, uncompeted basis.” (See “SpaceX escalates the EELV debate”, The Space Review, April 28, 2014.) (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4011/1

[Orionid]

Review: The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 31, 2020



The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking)
by Katie Mack
Scribner, 2020
hardcover, 240 pp., illus.
ISBN 978-1-9821-0354-5
US$26.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/198210354X/spaceviews

The end of the universe is probably one of the last things on everyone’s minds these days, given all the problems that make you wonder how we’ll get through just this year. It’s something that is (presumably) very far in the future, and also something we have absolutely no control over. But, perhaps, you are a little curious about how it will all come to an end—whether or not you want to accelerate the process. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4012/1

[Orionid]

From SSA to space recon: Setting the conditions to prevail in astrodynamic combat
by Maj. James Kirby, US Army Monday, August 31, 2020


The growing concerns about threats to military space assets requires a new mindset, adapted from terrestrial military reconnaissance, to help identify those threats in a timely fashion. (credit: DOD)

Traditional orbital analysis in support of the concept of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) has been historically focused upon the concepts of executing orbit determinations, state vector updates, and close approach analysis to support safety of flight. While these functions will remain foundational, the mindset and culture that has developed these procedures must change in the face of existential threats to our space capabilities. No longer may we be content with a solely a passive awareness of the domain, focused on collision avoidance and safety of flight; rather we must transform our perspective to merge the physics of Newton, Kepler, Lambert, Clohessy, Wiltshire, and Hill, and the reconnaissance principals and culture of Tzu, Buford, and Wellesley into concepts that shape maneuver warfare in this emerging warfighting Area Of Responsibility (AOR). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4013/1

[Orionid]

Collaboration is the cornerstone of space exploration
by Dylan Taylor Monday, August 31, 2020


NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, launched in late July, carried instruments from several companies and is just one example of the importance of international collaboration in space exploration. (credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

When Neil Armstrong proclaimed that landing on the Moon was “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” the resonance of its message not only alluded to the incredible undertaking that a moon landing entailed, but it also ignited the human imagination and the spirit of invention for what could now be possible. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4014/1

[Orionid]

Outer space needs private law
by Alexander William Salter Monday, August 31, 2020


NASA’s Artremis program and its proposed Artemis Accords has triggered debate about space governance. (credit: Dynetics)

The Cold War is back, and it’s headed into orbit. American tensions with China and Russia are escalating, especially since Russia’s suspected anti-satellite weapons test. The stakes are nothing less than a peaceful future in space. Operations in orbit and beyond require extraordinary precision and certainty. Any conflict can seriously hinder operational efficiency for both governments and businesses. Fortunately, there’s a solution that can benefit all parties: Giving private law a major role in ordering the cosmos. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4015/1

[Orionid]

Pick an agency, any agency
by Jeff Foust Monday, August 31, 2020


A report commissioned by Congress affirmed the administration’s choice of the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce as the lead agency for civil space traffic management. (credit: ESA)

When President Trump appeared at a meeting of the National Space Council at the White House in June 2018, the highlight was his announcement that the administration would seek to establish a Space Force as a separate military branch. It overshadowed his signing of Space Policy Directive (SPD) 3, which focused on space traffic management and assigned responsibilities to the Commerce Department (see “Managing space traffic expectations”, The Space Review, June 25, 2018). (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4016/1

[Orionid]

Review: The Smallest Lights in the Universe
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020



The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir
by Sara Seager
Crown, 2020
hardcover, 320 pp.
ISBN 978-0-525-57625-9
US$28.00
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0525576258/spaceviews

Science is done by scientists. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it’s something often forgotten in the announcements of discoveries, including in astronomy and related space sciences. Discoveries are often attributed—particularly in news headlines—to the spacecraft or observatories used to make them. But those discoveries are made not by spacecraft and instruments, but by people who operate them and analyze the data they produce. Those researchers, like the rest of us, are people with their own motivations to do such work, and struggles to overcome to achieve those discoveries. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4017/1

[Orionid]

Walking through the doors of history: unlocking a space tradition
by Kirby Kahler Tuesday, September 8, 2020


The shuttle mission stickers above the double doors at the O&C. (credit: K. Kahler)
In July 2019, I had the unique opportunity to revisit the astronaut walkout doors at the Neil Armstrong Operations & Checkout Building (O&C) at the Kennedy Space Center for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Fifty years ago, I was one of more than 3,500 journalists trying to get the “money shot” of the Apollo 11 astronaut walkout. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4018/1

[Orionid]

The Artemis Accords: a shared framework for space exploration
by Paul Stimers and Abby Dinegar Tuesday, September 8, 2020


NASA plans to seek international partners for the Artemis lunar exploration program, making an agreement like the Artemis Accords critical. (credit: NASA)

President Trump has made quite a mark on US space policy by announcing the Artemis program to send the first woman and the next man to the Moon in 2024 and creating the Space Force. The recent developments continue the role America has always played in space: a leader and partner in peaceful, cooperative international efforts. This is the spirit that has led to 20 years of continuous human presence in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and that sent American astronauts to the Moon a half century ago, not to claim territory, but “in peace for all mankind.” President Trump’s initiatives build carefully and squarely atop a foundation of policy that stretches across decades of bipartisan leadership. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4019/1

[Orionid]

Making the transition from the ISS
by Jeff Foust Tuesday, September 8, 2020


Axiom Space won a NASA award early this year to add commercial modules to the International Space Station, but NASA has put on hold a similar competition to support a free-flyer commercial station. (credit: Axiom Space)

In less than two months, the International Space Station will reach a milestone. On November 2, 2000, the Soyuz TM-31 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev, and American astronaut Bill Shepherd, docked with the Zvezda module of the International Space Station. Since that day the station has been continuously occupied, meaning that, barring a calamity of some kind in the coming weeks, the station will soon surpass 20 years with people on board. That is a major accomplishment for a program that struggled for years to get off the drawing boards and into orbit. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4020/1

[Orionid]

The future on hold: America’s need to redefine its space paradigm
by Stephen Kostes Tuesday, September 8, 2020


Constructing a cislunar infrastructure will drive renewed investment in education and training, and it will re-direct investment back into the historical drivers of job creation and economic growth.

A powerful school of economic thought today, led by economists such as Robert Gordon, suggests that, during the 1970s, the focus of technological innovation changed and, as a result, economic growth started to decline and wealth inequality began to rise. While there are many factors involved, it is interesting to note that this coincides with the end of the Apollo era. Along with severe budget cuts, this limited scope of innovation certainly took its toll on the space program. However, it also seems to have short-circuited our economy as well. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4021/1

[Orionid]

Review: Space Dogs
by Jeff Foust Monday, September 14, 2020



Space Dogs
Directed by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter
Icarus Films, 2019
91 mins.
https://www.raumzeitfilm.com/spacedogs-kino

Most readers are familiar with the tale of Laika, the first animal in space. A stray picked up off the streets of Moscow, Laika was flown on the second Sputnik satellite in November 1957, claiming yet another first for the Soviet space program. The flight was a one-way mission from the beginning, since Sputnik 2 has no capability to survive reentry. Laika, as later historical research revealed, likely died from overheating just a few hours after launch. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4022/1

[Orionid]

The West needs bold, sustainable, and inclusive space programs and visions, or else
by Giulio Prisco Monday, September 14, 2020


A Chinese concept for a lunar base. China’s long-term vision for space exploration and utilization poses a challenge to the US and its partners. (credit: CAST)

China is planning an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in the lunar south pole region, and recently revealed that it is seeking international partners.

I hope there’ll be international ILRS partners, but I guess they’ll play only a token role. Since I’m not too optimistic on the US Artemis lunar program (I’ll come to that), going to the Moon as guests of the Chinese may become the only plausible option for aspiring astronauts in the rest of the world. But of course, foreigners will be kept far from the really important things that China wants. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4023/1

[Orionid]

Star children: can humans be fruitful and multiply off-planet?
by Fred Nadis Monday, September 14, 2020


A Dutch startup, SpaceLife Origin, proposed a series of missions leading up to a baby being born in orbit, before backing off last year. (credit: SpaceLife Origin)

From his home in Cape Canaveral, Air Force pilot Alex Layendecker explained how he had been drawn to the study of sex and reproduction in space. “I had been immersed in the space environment in the Air Force, assigned to launch duty, and was simultaneously pursuing an M.A. in public health, and then at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and I was looking for a dissertation topic,” he recalled. “I decided that sex and reproduction in space had not received the attention they deserved—if we’re serious about discussions of colonization, having babies in microgravity—on Mars or other outposts of the Earth, then more needs to be learned.” His general recommendation was that because of the squeamishness of NASA to study sex in space, a private nonprofit organization, or Astrosexological Research Institute, should be founded for this research critical to human settlement of outer space. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4024/1

[Orionid]

Launch failures: fill ’er up?
by Wayne Eleazer Monday, September 14, 2020


A Proton launch in 2010 failed not because it ran out of propellant but instead because it had too much on board. (credit: Roscosmos)

One of the most common causes of airplane accidents is a pilot sitting there and letting the thing run out of gas. This type of mishap is much less common with space launches, but early propulsion system shutdowns due to the vehicle running out of propellant have occurred in some noteworthy cases.

The majority of liquid propellant space boosters ever launched have lacked a system with even as little sophistication as a bewildered pilot staring at a dropping fuel gauge. The engines were tested, the performance noted, and the required amounts of fuel and oxidizer calculated using simple formulas. For vehicles using liquid oxygen (LOX) as the oxidizer, that tank was topped off: a necessity since it kept boiling off until mere seconds before liftoff, when the vent valve was closed. The fuel was loaded based on the calculations, with a bit extra added to provide some margin. Thor, Titan, and Delta all used this approach, as did most foreign vehicles. (...)
https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4025/1