The Space Resource Newsletter - January 2021
A radar image of the region where Apollo 15 landed, taken by the GBT-VLBA planetary radar. Credit: NRAO/GBO/Raytheon/NSF/AUI.
Welcome to The Space Resource monthly newsletter for January 2021. Virgin Orbit successfully launched their first payload to orbit, Blue Origin completed their 14th New Shepard flight, and SpaceX launched 134 satellites in a single launch. Most important though is the first space aged wine has returned from its year aboard the ISS, providing the select few tasters an out of this world experience. Although it’s only been one month, 2021 is off to an exciting start!
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Asteroids
The NASA Lucy mission preparing for October 2021 launch. Lucy will be the first spacecraft to visit and study the Trojan asteroids near Jupiter. The Trojans are interesting because they have been caught into one of two lagrange points around Jupiter, and promise to increase our understanding of asteroid formation and evolution. Lucy currently has two of three instruments integrated, including the Lucy Thermal Emission Spectrometer (L’TES) and L’LORRI. L’TES will be able to measure the far infrared energy emitted by objects, which will allow surface measurements, including material properties. L’LORRI is a high resolution camera. The final instrument to be integrated is L’Ralph, a color imaging camera and infrared spectrometer. Once launched in October 2021, Lucy will start a 12 year journey to eight Trojan asteroids.
CISLUNAR
Space aged wine returned from the ISS after a year in orbit. 12 bottles of French Bordeaux wine and 320 Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vine snippets splashed down off the coast of Tampa, FL aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. While this seems extravagant, Space Cargo Unlimited, the Luxembourg firm behind this, is seeking to understand how wine ages in microgravity and how vines adapt to gravity induced stress. One or two bottles will be opened for a wine tasting over the next few months. The wine was launched to the ISS in November 2019 aboard a Northrop Grumman supply capsule, and the vines were launched in March 2020 by a SpaceX Dragon capsule. In space agriculture and food processing is still vastly underexplored, so experiments like this provide more knowledge in how in-space food can be grown.
SpaceX deploys record setting 143 satellites in a single launch. This is the most satellites SpaceX has deployed in a single launch, comprising commercial, government, and ten Starlink satellites. Rideshare missions like this provide opportunities for in-orbit transportation services, such as that offered by Momentus. In a way, this would be like public transit, where you take a train between cities and then use a taxi to get you to your final destination. The satellites were delivered to a sun-synchronous orbit before the satellites then used their onboard propulsion to move themselves to their desired orbit. Momentus’ first Vigoride mission was supposed to be included on this launch, but it was delayed. Link.
Momentus’ first Vigoride launch was delayed until later this year. The delay is due to the FAA requiring more time to complete its interagency review. Vigoride is an in-space transportation system capable of adjusting the orbits of attached payloads. This mission will be released from a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage at about 525 km and then will use its onboard propulsion to increase its orbit to 570 km. Once there, it will deploy the attached CubeSats at their desired orbits. Once all payloads are released, the vehicle will deorbit itself, reentering Earth’s atmosphere within a year. Aside from this delay, Momentus’ CEO, Mikhail Kokorich, resigned in an effort to reduce US government concerns about foreign control of the firm. This has always been an issue for him because of his status as a Russian citizen. Dawn Harms, a former Boeing executive, will serve as an interim CEO.
OneWeb raises $400 million, yet cuts its constellation more than 85%. After returning from its Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year, OneWeb announced it raised $400 million from SoftBank and Hughes Network Systems. This amount is still insufficient to fund the full satellite constellation, which will likely require another $1 billion. The phase 1 constellation should be active by the end of 2021, covering latitudes above 50 degrees north. Phase 2 will provide full global coverage. This is the phase that had its size cut 85%, from 47,844 satellites to 6,372 satellites. While this will inevitably reduce the total bandwidth, the costs will be drastically less. Link.
SpaceX has now launched over 1,000 Starlink satellites. A tightly integrated process is really paying off. SpaceX has gotten its first stage turn around down to 38 days.
Mars
NASA InSight mission extended for two more years. The InSight lander has been operating on the Martian surface since landing in November 2018. This extension will provide the team funds until December 2022. Some of the key scientific work done by InSight include recording the seismic characteristics of Mars’ crust and mantle, identifying Marsquakes, and learning about Mars’ atmospheric dynamics and magnetic field. This fundamental data will bulk up the knowledge for building habitats, resource extractors, and processing equipment.
After a two year struggle, InSight’s “Mole” is abandoned. Even though InSight itself will continue to operate, the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3 or Mole) experiment will be halted. The 16 inch (40 cm) long device was supposed to hammer itself down 16 feet (5 meters) into the Martian soil, however, it only burrowed down half a meter. This experiment’s purpose was to measure subsurface temperatures. The Mole still provided valuable data into the soil structure of this area on Mars, something not possible from visual observations.
New methane fuel production process converts CO2 directly into methane. Researchers at the University of California Irvine are developing a novel process for producing methane based rocket fuel. The current leading process utilizes the Sabatier process that electrolyzes water to generate hydrogen and oxygen, then reacts them with carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere to produce methane and water. This two step process is extremely energy intensive. As @ToughSF calculated, 46.8 GJ of electricity per day would be required to refuel Starship once every two years, producing 420 kg of liquid methane. This new process uses anatomically dispersed zinc to catalyze carbon dioxide into methane within a single step process. While this process has only been demonstrated within the lab, any potential process that is more efficient would be very valuable. Link.
Moon
Intuitive Machines selects SpaceX to launch its IM-2 lunar lander. IM-2 is part of the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, which uses commercial partners to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar surface. IM-2 will land at the Moon’s south polar region where it will carry three NASA payloads, including Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment 1 (PRIME-1) that will drill below the surface for water ice. Both Intuitive Machines lunar landers will now use SpaceX for launch.
NASA awards nearly $1 million to universities to address lunar dust. The NASA BIG Idea Challenge for 2021 is focused on lunar dust mitigation. Seven university teams were selected, each with a unique concept for addressing the harsh characteristics of lunar dust. Lunar dust is like nothing encountered on Earth because of its extremely abrasive characteristics and adherence to most materials. The teams will have nine months to develop and test their concepts. Their final results will be presented at the ASCEND 2021 conference in late November 2021. Link.
Terrestrial
Virgin Orbit launches their first payload into orbit. This launch deployed the 70 foot (21.34 meter) long LauncherOne rocket from the wing of a Boeing 747 off the coast of Southern California, where it then ignited its first stage rocket. Upon reaching its desired altitude, the second stage circularized the orbit. The payload of this mission was a cluster of NASA funded university CubeSats. This was the second attempt at launching a payload into orbit, with the prior May 2020 attempt failing due to a breached high-pressure liquid oxygen line. Virgin Orbit’s key benefit is being able to launch a payload starting from any airport in the world. More flexible and adaptable launch capabilities are good for the space industry because it increases innovation and competition across the field. Link.
Blue Origin launches the 14th flight of New Shepard to space. This mission was performed in preparation for Blue Origin’s first passenger launch later this year. New Shepard was launched from Blue Origin’s West Texas desert launch facility. The rocket landed back under propulsion, where the passenger capsule used parachutes for its return to Earth.
NASA and ESA leadership changes. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstein completed his term on January 20th, allowing Steve Jurczyk, NASA associate administrator, to serve as the acting administrator. Bridenstein has now joined a private equity firm, Acorn Growth Companies, that invests in aerospace and defense firms. Additionally, ESA Director General Jan Wörner will step down at the end of February, four months early. Josef Ashbacher will take over Wörner’s office on March 1.
Crew announced for first completely private flight to ISS. The three crew members will spend eight days aboard the International Space Station, plus one or two days traveling there in a SpaceX Crewed Dragon capsule. Axiom is facilitating this for the crew, with each member paying $55 million. This price also includes 15 weeks of training. Despite the high price tag, this flight shows the interest people have in visiting outer space. Axiom stated that they are planning two private missions to the ISS per year, but there has been no word on when this next flight will take place.
Planetary radar successfully captures Apollo 15 landing site. This next generation radio telescope will be able to capture high resolution images of objects as far away as the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. This radar system spans across the United States, with the transmitting radar signal coming from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) receiving the reflected signal. The final system will utilize a 500 kilowatt radar system. This successful test comes at a good time given the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory, the prior largest radio telescope in the world. Active radar observatories allow the direct imaging of asteroids, including the ability to generate 3D models of them. Link.
NASA SLS hot-fire test unexpectedly ended early, risking Artemis I schedule. This hot-fire test was supposed to run the full eight minute launch profile with all four RS-25 engines firing. Unfortunately, the hydraulic system for one engine exceeded safety limits 67 seconds into the test, forcing all engines to shut down. This is a blow to the Artemis I schedule because this core was supposed to launch Artemis I later this year. Artemis I is an uncrewed test of the Orion spacecraft, which will be flown around the Moon. Ideally NASA performs this test again, especially because this rocket has never flown before. Complicating matters, however, is the fact that the core stage can only be loaded with fuel nine times, imposing potential conflicts for the actual flight. NASA has their work cut out for them!
