Tag: space

NASA: SpaceX, Blue Origin and 6 rivals to compete for lunar delivery contracts potentially totaling up to $10B in support of moon base project

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed SpaceX, Blue Origin and six other aerospace companies are eligible to compete for lunar delivery contracts with a combined potential value of up to $10 billion as the agency advances plans to establish a permanent base on the Moon.

NASA outlined the next phase of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, establishing a $10 billion spending ceiling over the next decade.

This development follows NASA’s May announcement of plans to establish a permanent human outpost on the moon by 2032.

The announcement was made Saturday at the MAX POWER aerospace expo and air show at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The expansion brings together private companies to deliver scientific equipment, technology and infrastructure to the lunar south pole.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said the moon’s infrastructure will be built “mission by mission.”

“We are building the Moon Base mission by mission,” Isaacman declared. “Today’s announcements expand nearly every part of that campaign, using the playbook that carried NASA through its greatest eras: fly often, learn, apply those lessons, and get more better and more capable with every mission. When our astronauts return to the Moon, they will arrive with the first elements of the Moon Base already waiting for them on the surface.”

NASA’s Program Executive for Moon Base Carlos García-Galán remarked that the program had made “incredible strides” toward completing the “near impossible.”

“In the eight months since Ignition, we’ve made incredible strides in accomplishing the near impossible: establishing a permanent outpost on the lunar surface,” said García-Galán. “We’ve consolidated numerous efforts into a streamlined program, evolving our human exploration architecture into an iterative and sustained campaign for Moon Base technology development and implementation. Most importantly, we’ve taken action, awarding new contracts and forging new partnerships to accelerate development.”

The multi-billion-dollar cap represents a maximum limit for future task orders rather than direct funding awarded upfront. As part of the initiative’s next phase, the agency has selected eight commercial partners to compete for upcoming moon delivery contracts.

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Robot successfully builds space structure in first autonomous construction demo

A robotic truss builder that was conceived, designed and built by Caltech researchers has successfully built a structure in space—without the help of astronauts—for the first time. The truss builder, part of DARPA’s Novel Orbital and Moon Manufacturing, Materials, and Mass-efficient Design (NOM4D) program, consists of an autonomous manipulator that picks up struts and joints held in nearby dispensers to repeatedly assemble identical sections, or bays, of a perimeter truss.

“This is the first time that a structure has been autonomously constructed in space,” says Sergio Pellegrino, the Joyce and Krent Kresa Professor of Aerospace and Civil Engineering, the Lynn Booth and Kent Kresa Department of Aerospace Leadership Chair, the executive officer for aerospace and a senior research scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA.

Pellegrino is team leader of Caltech’s Autonomous In-Space Tensioned Reflector Assembly (ASTRA) demonstration, a robotic builder that has spent the last six months in space, working to construct a 1.4-meter-diameter (4.6-foot-diameter) reflector antenna from composite fiber tubes, aluminum joints and a Kapton reflective surface.

According to DARPA, the autonomous robotic assembly is akin to piecing together a high-tech K’Nex or Tinkertoy structure. But the process of automating the build in space is nothing like child’s play.

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NASA’s 1.5 Ton Spacecraft Set For Imminent Uncontrolled Reentry

NASA’s space telescope that tracks gamma-ray bursts has experienced an “ongoing attitude control issue” according to the space agency. A separate report from solar tracker website SpaceWeather warns the spacecraft is expected “to fall out of the sky” in the very near term.

“NASA’s Swift observatory is about to fall out of the sky. The 1.5-ton spacecraft spent nearly 22 years observing gamma-ray bursts. Now it is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere within days, creating a fireball that could even be visible in daylight (magnitude -8 to -10),” SpaceWeather wrote on its website.

SpaceWeather continued:

NASA’s Space Weather Operational Readiness Development Center predicts reentry on Nov. 3rd at 16:18 UTC +/- 12 hours. The Aerospace Corporation says Nov. 4th at 09:30 UTC +/- 26 hours. Uncontrolled reentries are hard to pin down, and the orbit is decaying fast. Only in the final hours will we know for sure when and where it will re-enter.

Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and southern Mexico are in the potential re-entry zone. Swift’s orbit is tilted 21 degrees to the equator, so debris can only come down between latitudes 21N and 21S. That band is mostly ocean, so the odds still favor a harmless splashdown.

Most of Swift will burn up in the fireball. But according to chief scientist Brad Cenko, some tungsten pieces and the observatory’s mirrors could survive.

NASA tried to save Swift. In July, Katalyst Space launched a robotic spacecraft named LINK to rendezvous with Swift and boost it higher. The mission failed. Meanwhile, solar activity puffed up Earth’s upper atmosphere, dragging Swift down faster than expected.

Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA, told USA Today that the spacecraft played “a major role in advancing our understanding of the changing universe and was part of a revolution in astrophysics that showed how critical rapid-response observations are to the entire community,” adding, “Swift leaves us with an extraordinary archive of multiwavelength observations that will fuel new discoveries for decades more.”

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About That Russian Air Leak on the International Space Station…

It’s official: A persistent air leak in the Zvezda module of the International Space Station forced Russia to permanently seal off the Transfer Chamber (PrK) to one of the structure’s few docking ports from pressurized access. In the movie version, this is when Tom Hanks would click on his radio to announce, “Houston, we had a problem. Now we just have a complication. Or two.”

I’ll get to the complications in a moment — think of them as “space Jenga” for now — but first, you need to know how the Russians got to the point of crippling a vital ISS section.

Back in June, “in a moment of very high drama,” as Eric Berger put it for Ars Technica, “NASA directed its astronauts living on the International Space Station to briefly seek emergency refuge in a Crew Dragon spacecraft.”

The issue was “persistent cracks” in the PrK that provides access to the Russian docking port. The cracks started showing up in 2019, leading to minor air leaks. Berger added then that “Russian astronauts [sic] have been attempting various fixes, often using a sealant called Germetall-1.”

No, they did not try duct tape or Flex Seal. At least not that I’m aware of.

Whatever repair work the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, proposed at the time “spooked NASA officials, prompting them to take the extreme step of securing their astronauts inside Dragon in case of a depressurization event.”

AKA, in case something went kablooey and our astronauts needed to make an emergency trip home from a dying space station.

Nobody has said much since the June incident, and NASA officials reportedly stayed mum because they didn’t want to embarrass their Roscosmos partners. Or at least not cause them any further embarrassment. After all, it isn’t every day that you send your partner’s astronauts scurrying for the escape capsule. But the upshot is that both NASA and Roscosmos probably knew four months ago that the PrK’s leaks weren’t repairable, and that sealing it off was the only option. Now it’s official.

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Why Are Scientists Suddenly So Concerned About An Asteroid Hitting Earth?

Authorities assure us that we are perfectly safe and that no giant space rocks are heading our way. If that is true, why is a scenario that has been developed for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference “based around a hypothetical impact threat” from a very large asteroid? And why are scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory studying how to destroy a giant asteroid that is heading toward Earth using nuclear weapons? If there is no threat anywhere on the horizon, wouldn’t you think that those scientists would have something better to do with their time? On top of everything else, NASA recently concluded a secretive operation known as “OSIRIS-REx” in which a spacecraft visited an asteroid, plucked a piece off of it, and returned it to Earth. While the general public is being told that we are safe for decades to come, a tremendous amount of time, money and energy is being poured into preparing for a potential asteroid threat.

Do they know something that the rest of us do not?

I am convinced that there is far more going on behind the scenes than we are being told.

They never say anything that will alarm the general public, but at the same time they are pumping vast resources into “sophisticated planetary defense efforts” that are intended to protect our planet “from potentially hazardous asteroids”…

Would we be prepared if a potentially life-threatening object from space were on a collision course with Earth? And how much damage could an incoming asteroid actually cause?

Such questions remain at the forefront of increasingly sophisticated planetary defense efforts aimed at protecting our planet from potentially hazardous asteroids. Yet even if astronomers are able to identify a space object that might pose a threat, a significant number of uncertainties remain: the object’s size, composition, structure, and potential impact locations all must be considered, as these factors can dramatically influence what happens once an asteroid enters Earth’s atmosphere.

If there are no near-Earth objects that are a threat, why spend so much money on this?

We certainly have a lot of other very pressing matters that do require funding right now.

NASA is either wasting our money, or something else is going on.

Interestingly, NASA is a participant in the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference. An exercise is underway that simulates how authorities would respond to a “Tunguska-sized object” that is headed toward Earth…

Additionally, NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) regularly participates in planetary defense exercises designed to test these assessment methods, with current scenarios under development for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference that take a cue from one of history’s most concerning airburst events.

“The current exercise that is underway for the 2027 Planetary Defense Conference is based around a hypothetical impact threat from a roughly Tunguska-sized object,” Wheeler told The Debrief.

For those of you that are not familiar, in 1908 the Tunguska event flattened approximately 2,000 square kilometers in Siberia…

Tunguska event, enormous explosion that is estimated to have occurred at 7:14 AM plus or minus one minute on June 30, 1908, at an altitude of 5-10 km (15,000-30,000 feet), flattening some 2,000 square km (500,000 acres) and charring more than 100 square km of pine forest near the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in central Siberia (60°55′ N 101°57′ E), Russia. The energy of the explosion is estimated to have been equivalent to the explosive force of as much as 15 megatons of TNT – a thousand times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.

Why hold an exercise of this nature if there is absolutely no threat of this sort of event occurring for decades to come?

And why did NASA just send a small spacecraft to grab a piece of an asteroid known as Bennu and bring it back to Earth?…

On Sept. 30, NASA formally concluded OSIRIS-REx, the historic first U.S. mission to pluck a pristine piece of an asteroid and deliver it safely back to Earth.

The van-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft – whose name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer – visited and sampled Bennu, an ancient space rock holding pristine remnants from the dawn of our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. Among those cosmic relics are raw organic building blocks, the kind that may have seeded life on Earth.

“I have known this day was coming for a long time, but it is still difficult to see it arrive,” OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, who’s based at the University of Arizona, said in a post on LinkedIn. “I feel enormous pride in what we accomplished together, and real sadness that this journey has come to an end.”

That was certainly an impressive scientific achievement.

But it also cost a lot of money to do that.

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Space War Fears Rise As Russian Satellite Makes Dangerous Maneuver

US officials publicly accused Russia of threatening a Finnish-operated commercial satellite that provides imagery and intelligence to Ukraine and other nations, calling the move “deliberately reckless.”

In response to the accusations, made during a United Nations debate on October 21, Russia broadly described US claims as “absurd” and accused Washington of its own “aggressive military space ambitions.”

The back-and-forth came days after a Russian military satellite known as Kosmos-2612 moved “dangerously” near to ICEYE-X36, a satellite registered in the United States and operated by a Finnish company called ICEYE.

The Russian satellite came “exceptionally close” – within 200 meters, by some estimates – something that space officials and amateur satellite watchers said was extremely unusual.

“This was not a routine conjunction or ‘fly by,'” LeoLabs, an aerospace intelligence company, told RFE/RL. “The behavior is consistent with sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations.”

ICEYE-X36 carries a radar technology that can gather detailed terrestrial images, even through cloud cover. The Finnish company in January signed a contract with the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to provide intelligence.

Kosmos-2612 “exhibited threatening behavior by intentionally maneuvering dangerously close to a commercial satellite,” Brian Hardesty, an adviser to the US Delegation to the Conference on Disarmament, said during a meeting in New York of the UN First Committee, a body that debates arms control and disarmament issues. “These behaviors appear consistent with an on-orbit weapons operation.”

“The decision to conduct these activities was deliberately reckless,” he said.

Russia’s representative who could not be immediately identified, did not directly address the assertion.

“We call on member states to give the proper response to the aggressive military space ambitions of the United States,” he said.

He also referenced comments made last month by the secretary of the US Air Force, the top civilian official for that military branch.

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NASA Investigating Large Hole on Moon That May Open Into Enormous Cave

Beneath its pock-marked, craggy exterior, the Moon is thought to harbor a network of caves and tunnels from its volcanic past. Now, NASA has selected a mission to go investigate a promising window into our space rock’s subterranean secrets.

Gaping up at outer space, as if mugging for the orbital satellite cameras, is the Marius Hill Pit, a hole on the lunar surface that’s thought to be up to 150 feet deep and up to 300 feet across. Scientists believe it’s an example of a skylight — the collapsed roof of an underground lava tube, which forms a circular aperture in the ground.

If the feature is indeed a skylight, it could give scientists a peek at the Moon’s volcanic history. But scientists are also intrigued by the possibility of using these underground cavities as shelters for astronauts, or even the location of lunar bases.

Until now, the hole has only been investigated from orbit. The Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation (GIMLI) aims to do so from the ground. 

To determine if the hole opens up into a larger cave, the scientists at the Planetary Science Institute will equip a lunar rover with specialized instruments, including ground penetrating radar, seismic probes, and a sensor that measures the strength of the gravitational field called a gravimeter, to investigate it from the Moon’s surface. The rover will also use cameras to image the exposed portions of the pit.

“Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the Moon,” said Gareth Morgan, a Planetary Science Institute senior scientist and deputy principal investigator on the GIMLI program, in a statement.

Most of the instruments will be constructed by Honeybee Robotics. The project is being funded through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon program, and the spacecraft will come through a private company in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payloads Services initiative.

The area near the MHP has a rich history of volcanic activity, according to a PSI release, with exposed layers of regolith and lava flows. Studying these layers could reveal how lava once flowed across the Moon. 

But the Moon’s underground structures have gained appeal with scientists because of how they could serve as an ideal sanctuary for astronauts. With barely any atmosphere to speak of, the lunar surface is constantly bombarded with radiation. Seeking shelter underground would provide a natural shield against those nasty solar and cosmic rays, and offer an environment with more manageable temperatures — essential elements if we’re ever to establish a long term presence up there.

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Mystery Shrouds Destruction Of US Spy Satellite

A mysterious breakup of a decades-old American spy satellite has sent debris hurtling through low-Earth orbit, with the U.S. Space Force now tracking the fragments for potential threats to other spacecraft, according to Space-Track.

The satellite, known as USA 32, came apart on September 13 at approximately 5:13 p.m. ET, according to U.S. Space Forces-Space. Officials have not publicly determined what caused the nearly 40-year-old spacecraft to suddenly fragment.

“All tracked debris are being incorporated into routine conjunction assessment screenings to support spaceflight safety,” U.S. Space Forces-Space said in a notice. “No immediate threats have been identified; further analysis is ongoing.”

USA 32 had been circling Earth since the final years of the Cold War.

The National Reconnaissance Office satellite blasted into space aboard a Titan II rocket on September 5, 1988. Public records identify the spacecraft as an electronic and signals intelligence satellite designed to collect information from orbit.

USA 32 has also been identified as FARRAH III, part of a secretive family of American intelligence satellites whose name was inspired by actress Farrah Fawcett.

The satellite was traveling in an orbit roughly 480 miles above Earth when it broke apart. Officials have yet to disclose how many fragments were produced.

That uncertainty matters because debris traveling at orbital speeds can pose a hazard to functioning satellites even when the individual pieces are relatively small. Space Force tracking systems routinely monitor objects around Earth and screen their trajectories for possible collisions.

Exactly what happened to USA 32 remains a mystery.

A collision with an untracked object is one possible explanation for an unexpected satellite breakup. Aging spacecraft can also fragment because of failures involving batteries, pressurized tanks or other components. There is currently no public evidence establishing any of those scenarios as the cause of USA 32’s demise.

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Pentagon reveals secret space weapons are already in orbit — but won’t say what they do

The U.S. has weapons orbiting Earth that can be used to defend American forces from attacks in space, the Air Force secretary revealed this week in a rare public acknowledgment of capabilities the Pentagon has largely kept secret.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said Monday that the Space Force now has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” but declined to say what the weapons are, how they work or when they were deployed.

The carefully worded disclosure marks a shift in how openly the U.S. military talks about weapons in orbit as China and Russia develop their own capabilities to disrupt, disable or destroy satellites.

“Is there any question in the room, by anybody, about whether or not the Chinese or Russians have been developing these sorts of weapons?” Meink told reporters after his remarks at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland — right outside of Washington, D.C.

“For over a decade, we’ve been talking about the fact, and we have expressed concern, that the Chinese and Russians were developing weapons for space,” he continued. “We need to focus on making sure we can protect ourselves operating in that environment.”

Exactly what the U.S. has put into orbit remains a mystery.

The U.S. has previously discussed placing weapons in space, including plans to deploy space-based interceptors capable of destroying incoming missiles as part of President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense system.

But Meink’s disclosure goes a step further: The Space Force already has weapons in orbit for “space control,” a mission aimed at protecting U.S. access to space and, if necessary, denying an adversary the ability to use it.

The Pentagon has historically revealed little about the weapons developed for that mission, with publicly known U.S. counter-space capabilities largely based on the ground.

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