Daily Archives: March 9, 2021

California's Orbital Assembly Corporation reckons it will soon have the solar system's first luxury space hotel open in orbit, offering spacewalks, Beyonce concerts and fine dining to space tourists at US$5 million for three and a half days.

The company plans to take advantage of plummeting space launch costs which SpaceX's Starship could bring down to a few hundred dollars a kilogram to build a giant circular space station, some 700 feet (212 m) in diameter, assembled in orbit by semi-autonomous and remote controlled robots. A hub-and-spoke wheel design similar to the ones Wernher Von Braun wrote about in the 1950s, the Voyager Space Station (VSS) would rotate slowly, at one and a quarter revolutions per minute, to provide artificial gravity about as strong as the moon's.

The VSS plans to accommodate around 100 crew, as well as 300 visitors be they tourists, business travelers, scientists, astronauts just passing through or long-term residents. It would be powered by solar and supplied from Earth.

Orbital Assembly Corporation

And yes, this will be no ISS; the Orbital Assembly team is going for the space equivalent of luxury. "Fundamentally, Voyager is a spacecraft," said Orbital CTO Dr. Tom Spilker during a recent fundraising presentation, "but not like any that have come before it. We don't want the Voyager experience to be like being in an attack submarine... We're architecting for comfort, especially for first-time tourists with no astronaut training."

Forget your squeezy ISS food tubes, the VSS aspires to fine dining and five-star entertainment. "Youre going to have the top chefs making really, really good food," Orbital CEO John Blincow told the Washington Post. "And when you pay $5 million to go someplace, its not going to be burgers and fries ... We want to have Sting come up and play, and Beyonc. Therell be two shows every night. Thats part of the entertainment package."

Well, that and the view of mother Earth turning slowly below you, a sight that might even tear one's eyes away from a pop star. Or the ability to pop outside for a spacewalk, which is also on the cards.

Orbital Assembly Corporation

The team wants to start assembling the VSS, in space, around 2026 but first, it plans to put a small-scale 40-meter (130 ft) "Gravity Ring" in orbit to prove its semi-automatic robotic construction tools, which will handle the job of assembly in zero-gravity.

How much is this all going to cost? "We do have confidence," said Chief Scientist and CVO Dr. Jeff Greenblatt, "that because we're approaching this in a very modular fashion, our fabrication and assembly costs will be a lot lower than historical. So ... depending on launch costs and it could be on the low end we're definitely looking in the tens of billions of dollars for the full construction of the station. And I'll just leave it there, because it's still a bit speculative at this point."

For context, the 22-year-old International Space Station is widely regarded as the most expensive thing constructed in history, costing somewhere around US$150 billion and capable of accommodating seven people in microgravity.

But don't worry, says Orbital, the VSS will have an opportunity to take a stab at a "serviceable obtainable market" of about US$147 billion per year, split between tourism, media, entertainment, advertising, life science research, electricity sales, microgravity manufacturing, refueling facilities for long-range spacecraft, deep-space communications services and the ability to house and service teams supervising the construction of space telescopes.

Orbital Assembly Corporation

Chief Business Officer James Wolff, Esquire, laid down the hard word on the live stream: "because you are a friend and a supporter, we would like to give you the chance to participate in this opportunity before we go to the institutional and strategic investors." He then directed watchers to Orbital Assembly's Netcapital fundraising page, where the company managed to raise the maximum US$1 million the platform allows.

Just a few tens of billions to go, then, but it might give Orbital the ability to move up from its current mailing address, which, when I search for it on Google Maps, appears to be buried in a local shopping mall, nestled in somewhere behind a Miss Donuts, a Clippings Hair Design, a Pure Barre and the Alta Loma Dance Academy.

Orbital Assembly is not the only group dreaming big when it comes to rotating space stations. In 2019, we reported on the Gateway Foundation's Von Braun Rotating Space Station, and its idea of funding it with some sort of space lottery, with an equal degree of skepticism. Indeed, it seems Orbital Assembly hopes its experience building its first two space rings might put it in a position to bid for construction duties on the Gateway project.

Orbital Assembly Corporation

It does seem clear that rotating space stations will be a key part of humanity's extra-planetary aspirations over the coming centuries. This kind of artificial gravity could allow people to stay in space longer with fewer debilitating physical side-effects. But the kind of low-gravity testing the VSS could provide doesn't need a 700-foot ring; you could do it with two small modules tied together, rotating around one another in orbit. And the space dilettante market's appetite for five-million-dollar long weekend getaways on a space station is yet to be tested.

On the other hand, SpaceX is taking great strides in its efforts to bring down space launch costs, and somebody's going to build a rotating space station one day. So hey, maybe these are the guys. You can enjoy the full fundraising presentation below, although don't get yourself too fired up; the investment round is closed.

"First Assembly" Virtual Event

Source: Orbital Assembly Corporation

The rest is here:
Orbital Assembly plans to build Voyager rotating space station in 2026 - New Atlas

The next launch window for a NASA crew to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocketship has been pushed back by at least another two days, to no earlier than April 22, the space agency said.

SpaceX, the private rocket company of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, was previously scheduled to carry its second operational space station team into orbit for NASA in late March. But NASA announced in January that the target date had slipped to April 20.

The schedule was adjusted again on the basis of available flight times to the space station, driven by orbital mechanics, that would keep the astronauts need for sleep shifting to a minimum, NASA spokesman Dan Huot said on Monday.

The flight marks only the second full-fledged space station crew-rotation mission launched aboard a privately owned spacecraft a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket tipped with the Crew Dragon capsule it will carry into orbit.

The four-member SpaceX Crew-2 consists of two NASA astronauts, mission commander Shane Kimbrough and pilot Megan McArthur, along with Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and fellow mission specialist Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency.

After docking with the space station, they will join the four SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts who arrived in November, and cosmonauts carried to the orbiting outpost aboard a Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.

The newly arrived Crew-2 are to remain in orbit six months, while Crew-1 is due to return to earth by early May.

McArthur will become the second person from her family to ride a Crew Dragon into space. Her husband, Bob Behnken, was one of two NASA astronauts on the very first manned Crew Dragon launch, a trial flight last August marking NASAs first human orbital mission from U.S. soil in nine years, following the end of the space shuttle program in 2011. (Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sam Holmes)

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SpaceX launch of next International Space Station crew pushed to April 22 - Saskatoon StarPhoenix

by: Andrew SpadaMar 9, 2021

Introducing The Space Station, our exclusive Audius playlist focused on exposing new and exciting music from independent artists.

Since 2009, Dancing Astronaut has been sharing music for the love of it. Like many electronic music fans, we grew up on Soundcloud. We got our start sharing mash-ups, bootlegs, and remixes from then unknown artists who were pioneering a new style of sound on the internet. Unfortunately, those days are far behind Soundcloud, but our crate-digging and music-sharing obsession is still going strong. And, if youre anything like us, youre sick and tired of seeing the same artists populating every EDM playlist on Spotify.

So where do you turn? The answer is simple; AUDIUS.

Finally, there is new platform thats as exciting as Soundcloud felt during those early years.

Every week, well be updating The Space Station. On it youll find some familiar faces and plenty youve never seen before and thats the point. No label plants. No walled gardens. No slotting fees. Just good music, updated every week.

This week weve got exciting new music from The Reindeers, Dillon Francis remixing Daft Punk, a bad ass edit of Breachs classic Jack, a Kanye West bootleg from back before Kim ruined him, a house highlight from Nick Martinez, and over 30 other tracks that you wont find anywhere else.

Were looking for submissions from creators and producers to submit their music to us to be featured on the playlist. No matter the genre, let us hear what youre making.

Tags: Audius, The Space Station

Categories: Music

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The Space Station - An Audius Exclusive Playlist: Week 2 - Dancing Astronaut - Dancing Astronaut

While things on Earth werent so great, the conquest of space proceeded full speed ahead this year, led by SpaceX, which sent its first manned vessel to the International Space Station and added nearly 1,000 satellites to its Starlink constellation. Its commercial launch business could face increasing competition from up-and-comers Rocket Lab and Relativity Space. Rounding out our list are companies that identify and clean up space junk, and that offer an orbital view of wide range of human activity.

For flying past competitors in the space race

In May, SpaceX became the first private company to send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, the first crew to launch from U.S. soil in nearly a decade. Its Crew Dragon spacecraft carried a second crew of four astronauts to the ISS in November, with a third crew mission planned for 2021. In 2020, the company hit the 100-launch milestone for its Falcon 9 cargo rockets, and added nearly 1,000 satellites to its Starlink constellationand the Falcon 9 that delivered its last 60 satellites was on its 7th trip, a milestone in reusable rocketry.

For spotting space junk

Cofounded by a former NASA astronaut, LeoLabs uses proprietary radars to track objects in Lower Earth Orbit, the area 62 to 1,200 miles above Earths surface where some 2,000 active satellites operateup from 400 just a few years ago (and with 50,000 more planned for launch in the next few years). In 2020, the company introduced its Collision Avoidance Service, a subscription that alerts customers when their satellites are on course for a crash. SpaceX has signed on its Starlink sats for tracking, and LeoLabs also works with regulators, insurers, and the Department of Defense to make sure there are no surprises in space, says CEO Dan Ceperley. In 2021, the company will onboard two more radars, which will give the company the ability to track more than 250,000 pieces of debris, down to the size of a nut and bolt.

For monitoring methane leaks from space

Montreal-based startup GHGSat uses its own satellites to measure greenhouse gases from outer space, using spectroscopic sensing to detect even small leaks from oil and gas and other industrial emitters anywhere on Earth. In September, they successfully launched their second satellite, which has sensors that can detect methane emissions 100 times smaller than any other technology. Last March, GHGSats Risk Index, which predicts oil and methane leaks, was incorporated into Bloomberg terminals.

For bringing space-based transparency to industrial supply chains

Palo Alto-based geospatial analytics company Orbital Insight meshes cell phone geolocation with images obtained from satellites, drones, and balloons to give businesses a gods eye view of a range of human activity. That power can be used for good: In 2020, it scaled up a partnership with Unilever to monitor its sustainable palm-oil supply chain in Southeast Asia, using cell phone data from delivery trucks to track how raw materials get from farm to refinery, to make sure suppliers are not contributing to deforestation of virgin rainforest for new plantations.

For simulating space

Slingshot Aerospace specializes in situational intelligence, helping companies in aerospace and defense rapidly make sense of reams of data collected by radar and other observation technology aboard satellites, airplanes, and drones. The company works with NASA, the U.S. Air Force, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing, and in October was contracted by the U.S. Space Force to create a VR space simulator to for training. Called the Slingshot Orbital Laboratory, the simulator was made in partnership with VFX studio Third Floor, the special effects studio thats worked on projects including Gravity, The Martian, and The Mandalorian. In June, Slingshot launched a customized version of their earth mapping tool to help people in the Los Angeles area locate free or low-cost food during the pandemic.

For scaling small-load launch services

Since its first test flight in 2017, Rocket Lab has launched 96 small satellites into space aboard its Electron rockets. In 2020, the launch provider started offering a comprehensive commercial service that designs, builds, launches, and operates satellites as a bundled service. It launched its first in-house satellite in August. In 2021 NASAs Capstone project will use Rocket Labs Electron Rocket and its photon satellite launch platform to send up a lunar orbiter, which will test and verify the stability of the moon for the Lunar Gateway space station.

For aiding Human Rights Watch with its worldwide, high-res satellite images

With 130-plus mini satellites in orbit, Planet can deliver customers daily high-resolution images of any location on Earth. In 2020, it launched two news service: Rapid Revisit, which provides 50-centimeter-resolution satellite imagery updated between seven and 12 times per day, and Automated Change Detection. The company says bookings doubled this year, as customers made more remote check-ins of locations they would have visited in-person pre-pandemic. In December, Human Rights Watch used Planet imagery to monitor illegal rocket and missile fire by Armenian forces against Azerbaijan.

For getting 3D printed rocketry off the ground

In November, small-launch vehicle startup Relativity Space raised $500 million in one of the largest investments ever in a private space company, valuing it at over $2 billion. The money will go toward scaling up production of its 3D-printed Terran 1 rocket. In 2020, the company reported successful pressure tests of its 3D printed fuel tanks and a test firing of its Aeon 1 rocket engine. In June, it signed a contract with Iridium for up to six launches of the companys communications satellites. Its first rocket launch is planned for the end of 2021.

For seeing clearly through the clouds

In August 2020, San Francisco-based startup Capella Space launched the first of a planned constellation of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellites, becoming the only U.S. commercial provider of SAR imaging. SAR can render clear images of earth night or day, through fog, clouds, or smoke. In December, the company began offering Spot imaging mode, with 50 cm x 50 cm resolutionorders of magnitude sharper than any other commercial SAR imagery. Capella has contracts with the National Reconnaissance Office and the U.S. Air Force, and plans to lunch six more satellites this year. Its Capella Console on-demand satellite data service lets anyone with internet access acquire data already captured by the Capella-2, or submit a request for new observations.

For cleaning up space and spiffing up satellites

Japanese startup Astroscales first test of its system for removing defunct satellites and other space debris from orbit is set for launch on a Soyuz rocket in March 2021. In September, the company was tapped for a UK Space Agency-funded project, with partners including Fujitsu and Amazon Web Services, to work on optimizing trajectory planning for multi-object removal missions. Astroscale raised $51 million in a Series E in October, for total funding of $191 million, with the acquisition of satellite-servicing company Effective Space by its U.S. arm in June. The company is also moving into the related business of satellite life extension services.

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The 10 most innovative space companies of 2021 - Fast Company

LOWELL, Mass., March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RevBio, Inc., announced that it has been awarded the opportunity to conduct an in vivo research experiment on the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory (ISS National Lab). This experiment will examine the biomaterial's osteoconductivity when used in a microgravity environment where bone density and the ability to regenerate new bone tissue is significantly compromised.

"Given the competitive nature of this award, we are extremely excited about the opportunity once again to conduct research onboard the International Space Station," said Brian Hess, CEO of RevBio. "There is no other scientific laboratory like it since the data generated from this experiment may one day help show that Tetranite is effective in treating bone fractures and stabilizing orthopaedic implants in patients who suffer from osteoporosis."

This research builds upon a prior in vitro experiment the company conducted on the ISS National Lab which measured the biocompatibility and proliferation of osteoblast cells in the presence of Tetranite. Osteoblast cells are responsible for producing new bone in the body. This experiment was funded by a prior grant from CASIS (manager of the ISS National Lab) and Boeing through the MassChallengestart up accelerator program. In this new in vivo experiment, the bone healing process will be examined in live rodents using a calvarial, or skull-based, defect model. A side-by-side experiment will be conducted on Earth to examine the differences between healing under both normal and osteoporotic conditions induced by the micro-gravity environment of outer space.

Giuseppe Intini, DDS, PhD, Associate Professor of Periodontics and Preventive Dentistry at the University of Pittsburgh, and faculty member at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, will serve as the principal investigator for this study. "Tetranite is a uniquely osteoconductive biomaterial that is also adhesive and injectable," said Professor Intini, who studies the biology of bone. "If we are able to show that this novel scaffold can facilitate bone repair in space, new methods may be developed to treat or prevent bone fractures in osteoporotic patients on Earth as well."

About RevBio, Inc.

RevBio, Inc., formerly known as LaunchPad Medical, a clinical stage medical device company engaged in the development and commercialization of a patented, synthetic, injectable, self-setting, and osteoconductive bone adhesive biomaterial called Tetranite. The company is initially developing this technology for use in the dental market, and recently initiated two clinical studies for the use of Tetranite to immediately stabilize dental implants placed in sites that lack sufficient primary stability. The company is also working to develop adhesive applications for the broader orthopedics market. RevBio's Tetranite technology is not yet approved for commercial use. RevBio operates out of the Massachusetts Medical Device Development Center located in Lowell, MA, where the company manufactures, develops, and tests its products.

View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/revbio-awarded-funding-to-conduct-an-in-vivo-bone-experiment-on-the-international-space-station-301243630.html

SOURCE RevBio, Inc.

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RevBio Awarded Funding to Conduct an In Vivo Bone Experiment on the International Space Station - WFMZ Allentown

03/09/2021

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) reports that efforts to determine whats keeping the ham station in the ISS Columbus module off the air have been unsuccessful thus far. The radio equipment works, but no signal appears to be reaching the external ARISS antenna. The station, typically operated as NA1SS, has not been usable since new RF cables were installed during a January 27 spacewalk extravehicular activity (EVA) to support the commissioning of the Bartolomeo payload hosting platform installed last spring. During the January EVA, the coax feed line installed 11 years ago was replaced with another built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Airbus.

ARISS has scheduled a March 10 news conference to discuss efforts to restore operational capability to the Columbus module ham station. The news conference will provide insights into some of the cable troubleshooting already conducted, ARISS said. During a March 13 spacewalk (EVA), astronauts Mike Hopkins, KF5LJG, and Victor Glover, KI5BKC, plan to return the ARISS antenna feed line cabling to its configuration prior to the January 27 spacewalk.

ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said the ARISS team has been working closely with NASA and the ESA to identify what may have caused the radio anomaly keeping the ISS Columbus module ham station off the air.

This past week, astronauts on the ISS performed troubleshooting tests on all four new feed lines installed on the Columbus module. One cable was earmarked for the ARISS station, while the other three are for Bartolomeo. ARISS reported over the weekend, however, that it was unable to establish communication using any of the feed line cables connected to the ARISS radio system, which was tested in Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) mode.

The plan to return the ARISS cabling to its original configuration was a contingency task for a March 5 spacewalk, but the astronauts ran out of time. On March 5, astronauts Kate Rubins, KG5FYJ, and Soichi Noguchi, KD5TVP, worked on some other Bartolomeo cable/connector troubleshooting. If all goes well, the March 13 spacewalk will complete that work.

ARISS became aware of the station problem after a contact with a school in Wyoming, between ON4ISS on Earth and Hopkins at NA1SS, had to abort when no downlink signal was heard. For the time being, ARISS school and group contacts with crew members have been conducted using the ham station in the ISS Service Module.

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Spacewalk Could Return ARISS Ham Station in Columbus Module to the Air - ARRL

A journey to the outer space will no longer be limited to just astronauts. Moving beyond the plot of a sci-fi film, people can now plan a vacation outside the Earth as worlds first space hotel will soon be a reality. And by 2027, space enthusiasts can literally have an out-of-the-world experience as the interstellar resort will be operational.

Orbital Assembly Corporation (OAC), the company behind the ambitious project, recently unveiled new details about the resort, and the images and videos have created a huge buzz online. The one-of-its-kind luxury hotel named Voyager Station will be able to accommodate 400 people and will offer unprecedented views of our planet for tourists and researchers.

From the first look, the hotel which is projected to be the first commercial space station operating with artificial gravity resembles a giant wheel rotating outside the planet. Voyager Station is a rotating space station designed to produce varying levels of artificial gravity by increasing or decreasing the rate of rotation. Artificial, or simulated, gravity is essential to long term habitation in space, the official website explains.

According to the hotels website, this has been designed to merge business with pleasure. It will not only accommodate national space agencies conducting low gravity research but also space tourists who want to experience life on space station with the comfort of low gravity and the feel of a luxury hotel. However, it stresses that only a selected few can have this lifetime experience, and a trip to space cost up to $25 million.

The station will have a Habitation Ring, where a series of large, connected, pressurised modules will be placed. Modules will come in a variety, where privately owned modules will be used for villas, hotels, commercial activity and government-owned modules will be for scientific research, training, and staging facilities.

So, what all can people expect when visiting this luxury hotel? Well, other than spectacular views, people are not expected to fly around in spacesuits like astronauts living in International Space Station (ISS). Here, thanks to simulated gravity, people can enjoy amenities like toilet facilities, showers, and beds that function similar to what you are used to on Earth.

From high-end restaurants and bars to gyms and activity centers, the station is supposed to have it all. In fact, the Gymnasium and Activity (GA) module will transform into a concert venue where the biggest musicians on Earth will rock the station as it circles the planet, the website advertised.

The concept of Voyager Station was ideated in 2012 with the launch of the Gateway Foundation which established OAC in 2018 to realise the dream of building the first commercial hotel in space.

This will be the next industrial revolution, John Blincow, the founder of the Gateway Foundation, said. While he noted that this will innovate the space industry like never before, there are also formalities that still need to be worked out mainly the gravity aspect of travel.

If interested, now, the companies is also asking people invest in the project and make reservation for their future visit.

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Step inside the first space hotel, expected to open for business in 2027 - The Indian Express