Tag: NASA

Trump Leaves a Lasting Mark on Space

Article by Miriam Kramer                                           December 15, 2020                                         (axios.com)

• President Trump put the American space program front-and-center during his tenure. Building upon years of work by the space industry, the Trump administration helped open up new commercial opportunities in orbit. But some question whether those gains are sustainable in the long term.

• “I think the space program is in better shape now than it was when he took office,” says John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Trump consistently prioritized NASA funding in his budget proposals and relaunched the National Space Council which holds agencies accountable for their work with space. His administration extended the reach of commercial partnerships in space, outsourcing that work to private companies in a trend that is likely to continue far into the future. And Trump created Space Force.

• Most of the criticism of Trump’s space policy is due to the political rhetoric accompanying them rather than the substance. Trump consistently politicized NASA’s wins, claiming credit for the Obama and Bush-era policies, and framing NASA’s accomplishments as ways to “make America great again,” Logsdon said. That has put off some space allies, including Russia, which has yet to sign on to NASA’s Artemis Accords’ plans for the exploration of the Moon.

• The Trump administration moved the ball forward for the US space enterprise, to be sure. But credit also goes to those in the space industry who went before and did years of ground work. Commercializing space with private rockets and spacecraft has taken time and funding from a number of previous administrations. The Space Force was an idea long before Trump took office.

• Some experts are also concerned that some of the progress made in commercializing space may not be sustainable. Landing people on the Moon is an entirely new level of difficulty for any private company. Some lawmakers have expressed concerns about whether a human lander built by private companies would be as safe as one built by NASA. And the market for space services may be limited to government customers, at least for the foreseeable future, as the private market for those kinds of missions isn’t clear.

• Biden will need to decide what his administration will build on when it comes to Trump’s space policies. Some suggest the new administration should continue with the Artemis Moon missions, commercial opportunities, and Space Force while changing the rhetoric around space accomplishments.

 

President Trump put the American space program front-and-center during his tenure, defining priorities in orbit and beyond that will outlast his four years as president.

The big picture: The Trump administration helped open up new commercial opportunities in orbit, building on years of work by the space industry. But some question whether those gains are sustainable in the long term.

What’s happening: “I think the space program is in better shape now than it was when he took office,” John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told me.

• Trump consistently prioritized NASA funding in his budget proposals and relaunched the National Space Council, which aims to hold agencies accountable for their work with space.
• The Trump administration also extended the reach of commercial partnerships in space. Instead of NASA building a human-rated lunar lander, for example, the agency is outsourcing that work to private companies in a trend that is likely to continue far into the future.
• “[Space] may be one of the least controversial areas of his legacy,” Michael Gleason of the Aerospace Corporation told me.
• And perhaps his biggest move was standing up the U.S. Space Force.
“While some of the Trump administration’s space policy decisions and initiatives have generated criticism, that is more due to the political rhetoric accompanying them than the substance.”
— The Secure World Foundation, in a briefing document

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NASA Reveals the Companies That Will Collect Moon Resources

Article by Brittany A. Roston                                   December 4, 2020                              (slashgear.com)

• NASA previously revealed intentions to tap commercial companies to collect space resources on behalf of the space agency, starting with Moon rocks. This is a part of NASA’s plan to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and establish a permanent lunar base under the Artemis program. In September, NASA published a solicitation targeted at private companies for proposals on how they could help the space agency acquire space resources.

• NASA wants to use commercial companies in a big way in order to make the missions affordable while boosting innovation and sustainability. Though the space agency largely uses American companies for these programs, it has also sought international support.

• On December 3rd, NASA announced that it will work with ispace Europe of Luxembourg, Masten Space Systems of California, Lunar Outpost of Colorado, and ispace of Japan under this program. The total contracts for the collected materials will amount to $25,001 USD.

• In a statement, NASA acting associate administrator for international and interagency relations, Mike Gold, said: “These awards expand NASA’s innovative use of public-private partnerships to the Moon. We’re excited to join with our commercial and international partners to make Artemis the largest and most diverse global human space exploration coalition in history. Space resources are the fuel that will propel America and all of humanity to the stars.”

 

NASA has announced the private companies it will use to collect ‘extraterrestrial resources.’ The space agency previously revealed intentions to tap commercial enterprises for space resource collection, underscoring its continued work with private businesses to speed up its missions and cut down costs. The arrangement will kick off with these companies collecting lunar regolith.

      NASA’s Mike Gold

Back in September, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the space agency sought resources from beyond our planet as a ‘key’ part of its sustainable Moon mission goals. Though it is doubtful that NASA will manage to return humans to the Moon by 2024, it will eventually send its astronauts to the lunar surface.

NASA has used commercial companies in a big way as part of its relatively new Artemis program, something Bridenstine had said was a way to make the missions affordable while boosting innovation and sustainability.

Though the space agency largely utilizes American companies for these deals, the space resources ambition is one that has sought international support. At that time, NASA published a solicitation targeted at private companies for proposals on how they could help the space agency acquire space resources.

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Moving to the Moon – What Will the First Extraterrestrial City Look Like?

Article by Steve Cowan                                  December 1, 2020                                (freenews.live)

• The Chinese probe “Chang’e-5” has successfully collected lunar rock and soil samples from the Moon, and is on its way back to Earth. This feat marks another stage in China’s ultimate plan to establish a permanent base on the Moon. Russia’s Roscosmos and NASA are also planning “lunar cities”.

• The last time humans were on the Moon was on December 14, 1972 when American astronaut Eugene Cernan walked on the lunar surface. In the coming years, we will inevitably witness a substantial increase in the Moon’s active development. However, unlike in the past, space agencies find it too expensive to launch heavy rockets whenever they want to visit the Moon. Today’s space programs will be more inclined to create permanent bases both in the Moon’s orbit and on the lunar surface.

• The Moon is attractive for several reasons. First, as an outpost for flights to other planets in the solar system. Secondly, as a source of minerals – primarily helium-3 which is used to produce thermonuclear fuel. Third, scientists plan to place a radio telescope on the Moon’s far side, protected from Earth’s interference. Using this telescope, scientists hope to discover the ‘cosmic microwave background’ allowing them to reconstruct the events of the universe during the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Fourth, and perhaps the most important benefit of establishing a Moon base, will be to test experimental technologies that will assist human migration to other planets in the future.

• While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty does not specifically regulate the use of space resources, an unratified December 1979 UN General Assembly Agreement does attempt to address the activities of states on the Moon and other celestial bodies. However, on April 6, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order approving the commercial development of resources by the US on the Moon and other planets and asteroids of the solar system.

• The first problem with everyone wanting to colonize the Moon is not about science, but the legal and commercial aspects of everyone aiming to use the same locations and resources at the South Pole of the Moon (although it would be technically easier to make shuttle flights to and from an orbital space station). The South Polar Region is ideal because it contains relatively large “cold traps” where permanently shaded areas hold water ice which is essential for everything from drinking and growing food, to obtaining oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Also, it is never dark at the South Pole so you can continuously recharge solar panels. On the rest of the Moon’s surface, the night lasts for two weeks.

• Moon base developers suggest that mirrors can be fixed on craters’ edges and direct sunlight to shaded areas. The heated ice will turn into steam, which will go through a pipeline to an electrolysis plant where it is split into hydrogen and oxygen. Experts estimate that there are up to ten billion tons of ice in the cold traps near the South Pole. The water and oxygen needed to sustain a base with only four people would require several tens of tons of water per year.

• Ice can also be found in miniature cold traps, up to a centimeter in diameter, mostly in the circumpolar regions. Up to forty thousand square kilometers of the lunar surface could be covered in water ice. More recently, the SOFIA stratospheric Observatory’s infrared telescope detected signs of molecular water ice filling the voids between the grains of minerals in the lunar soil. If this ice could be harvested, the list of places to build a lunar base would expand significantly.

• The composition of lunar soil is 43 percent oxygen. By combining oxygen with hydrogen taken from other sources or delivered from Earth, you can produce water. For Moon dust to decompose in order to extract the oxygen, it needs to be heated up 900 degrees Celsius (1652 degrees Fahrenheit) which takes a lot of energy. Scientists suggest using giant mirrors that focus sunlight on the shell of a small reactor. Still, it would take years for a lunar facility to generate enough water fuel to send just one Apollo-sized spacecraft into lunar orbit.

• Despite all the difficulties, the European Space Agency (ESA) has already allocated funds to the British company, Metalysis, to finance the extraction of oxygen from lunar regolith. The company, along with scientists from the University of Glasgow, said that they successfully extracted 96 percent of oxygen from artificial lunar soil in experiments on Earth, turning the rest into useful metal powders.

• Unlike the Earth, the Moon does not have an atmosphere and a magnetic field. So structures in lunar bases must protect human inhabitants from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and a stream of meteorites. Shelters could be covered with a multi-meter layer of lunar soil, or the base could be located within a canyon or cave. Scientists have proposed a lava tunnel under the Marius Hills in the central part of the Ocean of Storms.

• The lunar base buildings themselves could be built using 3D printing from regolith particles, or with bricks made by melting regolith using a focusing solar reflector. Researchers calculate it would take three years to manufacture enough regolith bricks to build a two thousand square meter structure. Once built, the base could use a Sun reflector to illuminate residential premises and greenhouses. As part of a closed ecosystem, greenhouse plants would process organic waste and convert carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen. Astronauts on the International Space Station are already hydroponically growing and eating leafy green vegetables on board the station.

 

Yesterday, the lander of the Chinese probe “Chang’e-5” successfully separated from the orbital module and started landing on the Moon. It must collect and deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth. This is the next stage of an ambitious program, the ultimate goal of which is a permanent base on the satellite. Roscosmos and NASA are also planning “lunar cities.” About what will be the first human settlement outside of our planet is in the material.

  Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan

To Leave, To Return

The last time humans landed on the Moon was 48 years ago. Then, on December 14, 1972, American astronaut Eugene Cernan, after walking on the lunar surface, said: “We are leaving as we came, and with God’s help, we will return.”

Over the past few years, several countries have declared their readiness to resume lunar programs. The Moon is attractive for several reasons. First, as an Outpost for flights to other planets in the Solar system-it is easier to start from it than from Earth.

Secondly, as a source of minerals-primarily helium-3: it can be used to produce thermonuclear fuel.

Third, on the Moon’s far side, scientists plan to place a radio telescope protected from earth’s interference. And with its help, they discover the cosmic microwave background, which they hope to reconstruct the events of the “dark ages” of the Universe-the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

And last, perhaps most important, the Moon’s base should become an experimental testing ground for testing technologies for human migration to other planets.

Therefore, in the coming years, we will inevitably witness the Earth’s satellite’s active development. But it is too expensive to send heavy missiles there every time. Today, no space agency will finance the sending of crews, as in the Apollo program. Everyone is inclined to create permanent bases — first in the Moon’s orbit and then on its surface. But this is not an easy task.

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What a Joe Biden Presidency May Mean in Orbit and Beyond

Article by Ian Whittaker and Gareth Dorrian                                 November 11, 2020                                       (theconversation.com)

• Donald Trump set bold goals for space exploration during his time in office – from crewed missions to the Moon and Mars to a Space Force. Joe Biden has pledged to sign Executive Orders that will undo most of the Trump administration’s work – in the same way that Trump undid most of Obama’s work. But Biden has been relatively quiet on space policy. So how is space exploration likely to change going forward?

• During the Trump administration, NASA committed to the return of astronauts to the Moon in 2024 under the Artemis program. This builds on the Constellation program which was implemented by Republican president George W Bush in 2005 but was subsequently cancelled by Democratic president Barack Obama due to its high cost and difficulty.

• In a document released by the Democratic Party entitled “Building a Stronger, Fairer Economy”, the Democrats “support NASA’s work to return Americans to the Moon and go beyond to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system.” Canada, the European Space Agency and Japan are all formal partners in the construction of the Lunar Gateway – a lunar orbiting outpost designed to support multiple expeditions to the Moon’s surface. It would be difficult for a Biden administration to unilaterally withdraw from the project.

• The Trump administration also pushed for a first crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s. An independent report by the Science and Technology Policy Institute in 2019 stated that a crewed Mars mission in the 2030s is currently unfeasible. It is unlikely Biden will try to resurrect this any time soon, especially since confronting the COVID-19 pandemic will likely drain discretionary funding.

• Viewing space as a potential war zone, the Trump administration formed Space Force. With a public approval rating of only 31%, Americans aren’t too impressed with the Space Force. But there are doubtlessly many difficulties of reintegrating Space Force back into the US Air Force. It is therefore likely that Space Force will remain in a Biden administration, possibly with reduced focus.

• US human spaceflight policy rarely survives a change in a Presidential administration. NASA’s chief, Jim Bridenstine, appointed by Trump, has already announced he is stepping down, saying that he wanted to let somebody with a “close relationship with the president” take over. Still, the success of the crewed SpaceX launch to the International Space Station means the commercial crew program is likely to keep running – taking the burden off NASA.

• Biden has made it clear that tackling climate emergency is a priority. While this is likely to be focused on industrial pollution limits and renewable energy sources, it does suggest that space policy could be more focused on Earth environmental observation satellite missions such as oil spills, deforestation and carbon emissions.

• Changes notwithstanding, many scientists will breath a sigh of relief at the prospect of not having to fight the kind of anti-science position that we have seen from Trump during his time in office.

 

Donald Trump set bold goals for space exploration during his time in office – from crewed missions to the Moon and Mars to a Space Force. By contrast, his successor Joe Biden has been relatively quiet on space policy. So how is space exploration likely to change going forward?

It is clear is that there will be change. NASA’s current chief, Jim Bridenstine, has already announced he is stepping down. And we know that US human spaceflight policy rarely survives a change in presidency.

That said, the amazing success of the crewed SpaceX launch to the International Space Station (ISS), however, means the commercial crew programme is likely to keep running – taking the burden off NASA. Indeed, the first operational flight of the Crew Dragon by commercial company SpaceX is due for launch on November 15, with four astronauts bound for the ISS.

During the Trump administration, NASA also committed to the return of astronauts to the Moon in 2024 under the Artemis program. This is due for its first test launch (uncrewed) next year with Artemis-1. This builds on the Constellation program which was implemented by Republican president George W Bush in 2005 but was subsequently cancelled by Democratic president Barack Obama due to its high cost and difficulty.

The only substantial clue as to the direction of a Biden presidency with regard to astronaut flights to the Moon can be found in a document by the Democratic Party entitled “Building a Stronger, Fairer Economy”. In one paragraph, the Democrats state that they “support NASA’s work to return Americans to the Moon and go beyond to Mars, taking the next step in exploring our solar system.”

No detail is offered on possible timelines. But, with international cooperation now a major feature of the Artemis program, it would be difficult for a fledgling Biden administration to unilaterally withdraw from the project. For example, Canada, the European Space Agency and Japan are all formal partners in the construction of the Lunar Gateway – a lunar orbiting outpost designed to support multiple expeditions to the surface.

The programme is also rapidly advancing research, particularly in terms of building materials, power supplies and food production. Just this week, the European Space Agency awarded a contract to the British company Metalysis to develop techniques to simultaneously extract oxygen and metals from lunar soil.

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NASA Posts Cryptic Tweets Hinting at Extraterrestrial Communication

Article by John Diente                                  October 29, 2020                                   (ibtimes.co.uk)

• On October 28th, NASA’s official Twitter account posted: “PSST… Uh, did anyone hear…that?” Was it related to finding water on the Moon? Was it the discovery of extraterrestrial life? In this 2020 year, we wouldn’t be surprised.

• This was followed by another post from an affiliated Twitter account, NASA Earth, saying: “Hmmm… From here at home we’ve just been hearing a lot of creaks and distant crackling.” The NASA Solar System Twitter account replied: “Did It sound intergalactic, planetary? If it’s loud and pulsating, we blame Jupiter.” The Mars Insight Lander Twitter account continued: “It sounded like something kind of eerie and otherworldly… unlike anything I’ve ever heard…” Finally, a post from Chandra Observatory said: “According to my data and calculations, I am in fact also hearing sounds.”

• No, Earth hasn’t been contacted by chatty aliens. This was NASA’s way of promoting SoundCloud’s curated playlist titled “sinister sounds of the solar system” as a Halloween stunt. The description reads: “You’ve heard the creaks, cracks, and cackling noises of our universe before. Using data from our spacecraft, our scientists gathered NEW sinister sounds from the depths of space in time for Halloween.”

• The Halloween stunt drew mixed reactions from those who were initially deceived by the communication. Some found it an amusing and innovative approach for publicity, while others claim it affects the credibility of future announcements from NASA and its partners.

 

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) made a groundbreaking announcement this week when its top researchers reported the presence of water molecules on the lunar surface. Evidently, with its upcoming Artemis program already projected to bring humans back to Earth’s neighbouring natural satellite by 2024, the excitement is at an all-time high for those involved. With all that attention on the agency, its latest tweet apparently caused both fear and excitement for those who read it.

What prompted the reaction was a Twitter post from NASA’s official account that stated: “PSST… Uh, did anyone hear…that?” Although most did not immediately jump into conclusions, a fair share of people reportedly thought it had something to do with the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Given all unfortunate events in 2020, many of its followers speculated that it might have been bad news.

It was immediately followed by posts from other official accounts affiliated with the agency. One such message was from NASA Earth which wrote: “Hmmm… From here at home we’ve just been hearing a lot of creaks and distant crackling.” It then started to become clear that the original post was just ruse after its other outlets responded. “Did It sound intergalactic, planetary? If it’s loud and pulsating, we blame Jupiter…,” according to NASA Solar System.

The Mars Insight lander Twitter account continued: “It sounded like something kind of eerie and otherworldly… unlike anything I’ve ever heard…” Finally, a post from Chandra Observatory said: “According to my data and calculations, I am in fact also hearing sounds.” Eventually, SoundCloud’s account shared a link to a curated playlist titled “sinister sounds of the solar system.”

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NASA Craft Lands on Asteroid 200 Million Miles Away

Article by Liz George                                 October 28, 2020                                  (americanmilitarynews.com)

• On October 27th, a NASA probe craft landed on the asteroid ‘Bennu’, located beyond Mars 200 million miles from Earth. A video of the event (see below) shows an arm of the craft making contact with the asteroid to suck up a sample of the extraterrestrial rock to bring back to Earth – a planned part of the ‘Osiris-Rex’ mission.

• Bennu was rockier than researchers anticipated, adding complications to the already precarious landing. Large boulders and rock fields made it difficult to land and the safest spot was still fairly rugged. Still, the Osiris-Rex probe (pictured above) successfully completed its 4-hour descent. “I can’t believe we actually pulled this off,” the NASA mission’s principal investigator Dante Lauretta said. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”

• With the camera focused on the spacecraft’s extended sample-collecting arm, viewers could see the arm make contact with the asteroids surface, sending a flurry of dust and particles into the space surrounding it. (see videos below) The asteroid’s surface is a type of sandy dust known as ‘regolith’. During the landing, the arm of the spacecraft shot nitrogen gas at the asteroid, stirring up the rubble in the surrounding space before collecting the regolith sample.

• When Osiris-Rex landed, it crushed the rock beneath it. Lauretta said this could make the collection of a good sample more likely, as the sampling instrument is more likely to collect swirling, crushed rock. “These rocks might be very weak compared to what we’re used to on Earth,” Lauretta said. Meteorites that do land on Earth’s surface must be durable enough to make it through the Earth’s atmosphere. Bennu’s rock may very well be different from the extraterrestrial rock samples NASA has already collected.

• The probe needs at least 2.1 ounces of the regolith before it returns to Earth. If NASA/Lockheed Martin determines that it did not collect enough regolith from Bennu, the spacecraft will give it another try on a backup site from a different part of the asteroid early next year. The rock collected from Bennu could assist scientists in designing a plan to redirect it if its future path includes a potential impact with Earth.

 

                      Dante Lauretta

A NASA spacecraft landed on an asteroid flying through a stretch of space 200 million miles from Earth last Tuesday.

In a video of the maneuver, the spacecraft is seen making six seconds of contact with the asteroid, called

                     asteroid ‘Bennu’

Bennu, in order to suck up a sample of the extraterrestrial rock. NASA released footage on Wednesday that showcased the precarious operation.

Dubbed Osiris-Rex, the mission sought to return the sample of the asteroid back to earth, Business Insider reported. Bennu was rockier than researchers initially thought, however, adding complications to the already precarious landing. Large boulders and rock fields made it difficult to land and the safest spot was still fairly rugged.

image of probe arm gathering rock

Despite the uneven surface on Bennu, the Osiris-Rex probe successfully completed its 4-hour descent.

“Transcendental. I can’t believe we actually pulled this off,” the mission’s principal investigator Dante Lauretta said during NASA’s live broadcast expedition. “The spacecraft did everything it was supposed to do.”

With the camera focused on the spacecraft’s extended sample-collecting arm, viewers could see the arm make contact with the asteroids surface, sending a flurry of dust and particles into the space surrounding it.

The asteroid’s surface rubble is a type of sandy dust known as regolith. During the landing, the arm of the spacecraft shot nitrogen gas at the asteroid, stirring up the rubble in the surrounding space before hopefully collecting a sample of the regolith.

 

59 second video of OSIRIS-REx touching the Bennu asteroid (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)

 

2:19 minute ‘OSIRIS-REx’ orbiting a few hundred meters from Bennu asteroid (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)

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NASA Commander to be Sworn into US Space Force From the International Space Station

Article by Sandra Erwin                                October 28, 2020                                    (spacenews.com)

• NASA astronaut and US Air Force colonel Michael Hopkins is the commander of an upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Hopkins is also planning to transfer to the US Space Force.

• “If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station,” said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the US Space Force. Raymond is working with NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on the details of a planned transfer ceremony as a way to highlight the decades-long partnership between DoD and NASA.

• NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission is scheduled to launch on November 14th from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The crew of four includes Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission specialist Soichi Noguchi (all 4 pictured above).

• For more than 60 years, men and women from the five military branches have helped fill the ranks of the NASA astronaut corps. Hopkins was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 2009. Like hundreds of other Air Force airmen, Hopkins is voluntarily transferring to Space Force. He will be the first member of the Space Force to serve in NASA’s astronaut corps.

 

      Michael Hopkins

WASHINGTON — NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, a U.S. Air Force colonel and the commander of the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, is transferring to the U.S. Space Force and is expected to be commissioned aboard the International Space Station.

         the International Space Station

“If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station,” said Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force.

Col. Michael “Hopper” Hopkins is the commander of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission scheduled to launch Nov. 14 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The crew of four includes Hopkins, NASA astronauts Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency mission specialist Soichi Noguchi.

Col. Catie Hague, a spokesperson for the chief of space operations, told SpaceNews that the service is working with NASA to schedule a transfer ceremony once Hopkins is on board the International Space Station.

Hopkins, like hundreds of other airmen who are now in the Space Force, is transferring voluntarily. He was selected by NASA to be an astronaut in 2009.

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There’s More Water on the Moon than Previously Thought

Article by Kate Sheehy                                    October 26, 2020                                      (nypost.com)

• NASA scientists have found more water on the Moon, beyond its frigid poles, in the form of “glass beads’’ about the size of a pencil tip in the soil. Said Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics director, “This discovery that water might be distributed across the lunar surface and not limited’’ to ice at the poles, as the space agency thought, raises the possibility that it could be “accessible as a human resource.”

• Enough water was detected in a cubic meter of sunlit soil to fill a 12-ounce bottle, said Casey Honniball of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Honniball believes the water may have come from a combination of hydrogen molecules in solar rings mixed with oxygen in the Moon’s powdery soil. “We think the water is trapped in these glass beads … which protects and preserves [it].’’

• The discovery was made by a Boeing 747SP jet-turned-space laboratory known as SOFIA, or ‘Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy’. SOFIA, is a data-collecting aircraft that has been examining the Moon since 2018. “[N]ow that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observation,’’ SOFIA scientist Naseem Rangwala said.

• In 2018, NASA found water in the form of ice around the Moon’s poles. The water ice formed in permanently shadowed craters where temperatures never go above minus 250 degrees. But the newly discovered ice beads have been found in the soil within sunlit areas. Scientists still have to determine what form the newly discovered water is in, how much of it exists and whether it can be extracted.

• Water on the Moon could be used for everything from drinking, to the extraction of oxygen to breath, to the manufacturing of rocket fuel. With enough water to support a Moon base, man could eventually planet-hop around the galaxy. “It’s far easier to travel when you don’t have to carry everything with you for the entire trip,’’ said Jacob Bleacher, head of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA.

• NASA plans to send the first woman along with a man to the lunar surface in 2020 to prepare for putting humans on Mars in the 2030s. Scientists say they will use SOPHIA to search for potential water on other heavenly bodies, too, such as asteroids.

 

                        Paul Hertz

NASA scientists have found more water on the moon than previously thought — a crucial discovery that

could help greatly fuel deep-space exploration, the agency revealed Monday.

The water — which was discovered for the first time in areas outside the moon’s sunless frigid poles — is possibly trapped in “glass beads’’ about the size of a pencil tip in the soil, scientists said at a press conference.

“This discovery that water might be distributed across the lunar surface and not limited’’ to ice at the poles, as the space agency thought, raises the possibility that it could be “accessible as a human resource,’’ said Paul Hertz, NASA’s astrophysics director.

        Casey Honniball

Enough water was detected in a cubic meter of sunlit soil to fill a 12-ounce bottle, said Casey Honniball of NASA’s

            Naseem Rangwala

Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

She said the water may have come from a combination of hydrogen molecules in solar rings mixed with oxygen in the moon’s powdery soil.
“We think the water is trapped in these glass beads … which protects and preserves [it],’’ Honniball said.

The stunning discovery was made by a Boeing 747SP jet-turned-space laboratory known as SOPHIA (sic), the Sratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.

The data-collecting spacecraft typically tracks stars — but its operators decided to use it to examine the moon starting in 2018.
“It’s incredible that this discovery came out of what was essentially a test, and now that we know we can do this, we’re planning more flights to do more observation,’’ SOFIA scientist Naseem Rangwala said in a statement.

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The World of Back Engineered UFO Technology

Article by Ryan Dube                                   October 16, 2020                                  (topsecretwriters.com)

• When one considers the world of reverse engineering, it is often assumed that this is done in secret government DARPA facilities. Nicholas Evans points out in Military Gadgets: “…airplane, tank, radar, jet engine, helicopter, electronic computer, stealth technology and internet, none of these that transformed warfare in the 20 and 21st century owed their initial development to the military but were accelerated into service by DARPA.” With an annual budget of $3.5B, compared to that of NASA at $22.6B, DARPA is limited to what it can afford to do.

• In 1987, Robert Lazar went on television claiming to have been part of an operation that worked on alien technology at the S-4 facility in Nevada where at least nine alien spacecraft were parked. He claimed EG&G hired him to help reverse engineer the technology. In the process, Lazar discovered a rusty, heavy substance he called “Element 115” that powered the alien spacecraft as an energy source which would produce anti-gravity. A vehicle producing this anti-gravity distortion could alter its own relation to the space around it, allowing it to dramatically shorten the distance between itself and its destination. As element 115 is not naturally found on Earth, Lazar suggested that our stocks of the element 115 were a gift from an off-planet civilization to be used as fuel for our own spacecraft.

• In 2004, a team of American and Russian scientists succeeded in producing element 115 as an unstable isotope, confirming the existence of such an atom. However, the isotope has virtually none of the qualities that Lazar described. Even ufologist Stanton Freidman debunked Lazar saying that there’s no evidence he ever attended CalTech or MIT as claimed. Other academic physicists and engineers found the alleged propulsion system to be “critically flawed”.

• In 1997, Philip Corso published the book, The Day After Roswell (co-authored by William J. Birnes), relating how he stewarded extraterrestrial artifacts recovered from a crash at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, at the direction of the first Director of Central Intelligence, Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter. Different parts of the Roswell craft were sent to various defense companies, who reverse engineered their properties, and that this led to the development of achievements such as accelerated particle beam devices, fiber optics, night vision equipment, lasers, integrated circuit chips and Kevlar material. Corso also said that the Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980’s was meant to disrupt the electronic guidance systems of incoming enemy warheads, as well as enemy extraterrestrial spacecraft.

• A DuPont lab chemist, Stephanie Kwolek, is credited, however, for inventing the liquid crystalline that could be spun into fabric known as Kevlar. And the contractors who reverse-engineered these technologies were told that the parts were stolen from Russia. The ‘Klass Files’ and reviewer Tom Mahood say that much of Corso’s account has minor factual flaws, or are simply “uncheckable”. Said Mahood about Corso, “Is it some sort of “disinformation”? Many will say it is, but I don’t know. Honestly, I’m not completely sure just what to make of it. I know it’s not the truth, that he’s likely a loon, but beyond that….”

• Richard Boylan includes the TR3-B triangular craft among twelve US classified aircraft that employs anti-gravity technology. The November 2000 issue of Popular Mechanics identifies it as a ‘Lenticular Reentry Vehicle, a nuclear-powered flying saucer – the first version of which allegedly went operational in 1962’. defense industry alleged insider Edgar Rothschild Fouche claimed that the TR-3B generates an intense magnetic field that reduces its weight by 89 percent. But that it does not have a an antigravity propulsion system. It merely uses the Biefeld-Brown effect to reduce its weight so that more conventional propulsion systems such as scramjets can give it amazing speed.

• ‘Morphing metals’ are materials which have the ability to bend on command, “sense” pressure, transform from liquid to solid when placed in a magnetic field, and shape-memory polymers. Memory materials are used in alloys like Nitinol, which have the stiffness of steel but can return to its previous shape when heat is applied. Anna McGowan, program manager at NASA’s Langley Research Center, says that “This is technology that most people aren’t aware even exists.”

• NASA science teams at the Langley Research Center are currently working on intrinsically “smart materials” which can perform self-diagnosis and self-repair. These “self-healing” materials are human-made (not alien-made) of long-chain molecules called ionomers which react to penetration, such as a bullet, by closing behind it. The implications of this technology for space flight are tremendous.

• Philip Corso, Robert Lazar and Richard Boylan all claim that our latest technologies come from the reverse engineering of alien craft and artifacts. But each of these technologies have seemingly verified ‘human sources’ that prove otherwise. Consequently, there is no fast, hard evidence to support any of these reverse engineering tales. Instead, these stories generate questions about the creators of these tales and their motives for doing so.

• [Editor’s Note]   And the deep state spin on debunking alien technology continues…..

 

         Stephanie Kwolek

The world of reverse engineering is indeed a strange one. It’s a landscape of claims and counter claims. Fantastic stories and skeptical analysis. The characters are legendary and the truth elusive.

              Robert Lazar

One constant is the proposition that DARPA may be the agency responsible for any advances in the technology. While DARPA does have a hand in a lot of advances in technology, they only push projects forward – they don’t do the work.

As noted by Nicholas Evans in Military Gadgets: “…airplane, tank, radar, jet engine, helicopter, electronic computer, stealth technology and internet, none of these that transformed warfare in the 20 and 21st century owed their initial development to the military but were accelerated into service by DARPA.”

And they work with a limited budget.

A quick look at the DOD fiscal 2020 budget report shows the research budget for DARPA at a little less than 3.5 billion per year. NASA had a 22.6 billion per year operating budget of which the shuttle takes a third.

                       TR3-B craft

Robert Lazar and Element 115

     Edgar Fouche

Back to the characters.

In 1987, Robert Lazar shocked the world when he went on television claiming to have been part of an operation that worked on alien technology. Lazar said that the government has possession of at least nine alien spacecraft at a base called S-4.

He claimed EG&G hired him to help reverse engineer the technology in the alien craft for use in U.S. military vehicles and power production. In the process, he discovered a rusty, heavy substance he called “Element 115” that powered the alien spacecraft.

        Philip Corso

Lazar explained how the atomic element 115 (or ununpentium (Uup)) served as a nuclear fuel for the propulsion of the

      Anna McGowan

alien craft. Element 115 provided an energy source which would produce anti-gravity under particulate bombardment.

As the intense strong nuclear force field of element 115’s nucleus was properly amplified, the resulting effect would be a distortion of the surrounding gravitational field. A vehicle producing this distortion could alter its own relation to the space around it, allowing it to dramatically shorten the distance between itself and its destination.

Lazar speculated that element 115’s probable absence on Earth was due to the fact that the supernovae in Earth’s region of the galaxy were insufficiently massive to produce nuclei of this density. He postulated that other parts of the universe could be richer in this element. Lazar indicated stocks of the element 115 were a gift from an off-planet civilization to be used as fuel for our own spacecraft.

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DOD Outlines Space Strategy

Article by David Vergun                                   October 7, 2020                                (defense.gov)

• In June, the US Defense Department released its Space Strategy Summary document (see here) laying out the DoD’s four-pillar strategy for space activities within the next decade and beyond.

• The first line of effort, says Justin T. Johnson, the acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, is for the Space Force to build a comprehensive military advantage in space.

• The second effort is to integrate space in the joint force of the US Space Command and with allies and partners, to organizes military exercises and prepare for battle in space, should that become necessary.

• The third effort is to shape the strategic environment. This includes educating the public about off-planet threats, promoting responsible activities in space, and putting adversaries on notice that harmful meddling will be met with a deliberate response from the United States military.

• The fourth effort, said Johnson, is to work with allies, partners, industry and other US agencies such as NASA, the FAA and the Commerce Department, to help streamline regulations for the space industry, which the DoD relies upon. The Space Development Agency is the key strategist in this regard. Allies and partners are excited to work with the United States Defense Department. Already, 20 nations and 100 academic and industry partners are collaborating with the DoD.

• “China and Russia are aggressively developing counter-space capabilities specifically designed to hold US and allied space capabilities at risk,” said Johnson. “China and Russia have made space a warfighting domain” by deploying systems that could potentially knock out US satellites – satellites which are vital to the missile warning system; precision, navigation and timing; and weather forecasting.

• In addition to the military aspect of space, Johnson notes that space is vital to US and global commerce. “Our $20 trillion US economy runs on space.”

 

In June, the Defense Department released its Space Strategy document. That document lays out the department’s four-pillar strategy for work that

                 Justin T. Johnson

needs to be done in space within the next decade and beyond.

Justin T. Johnson, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, discussed that strategy at a virtual Heritage Foundation event today.
The first line of effort, he said, is for the U.S. Space Force to build a comprehensive military advantage in space.

The second effort is to integrate space in the joint force and with allies and partners. That mission is primarily the responsibility of U.S. Space Command, which organizes exercises and prepares for the fight in space, should that become necessary, he said.

The third effort, he said, is to shape the strategic environment. That includes such things as educating the public about threats, promoting responsible activities in space and putting adversaries on notice that harmful meddling will be met with a deliberate response from the department at the time and means of its choosing.

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Virginia Rocket Launch Site is About to Grow With the Most Successful Startup Since SpaceX

Article by Christian Davenport                                   October 2, 2020                                (washingtonpost.com)

• Over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, down past Chincoteague toward the southern tip of the Eastern Shore, sits an isolated spit of shoreline near a wildlife refuge. Wallops Island, Virginia is home to one of the most unusual and little known rocket launch sites in the country.

• Wallops Island contained a naval air station during World War II. In the late 1950s, with the dawn of the Space Age, the air station morphed into the Wallops Flight Facility, serving as a test site for the Mercury space program. The facility has now reinvented itself yet again as a modern commercial space industry rocket hub launching national security missions for Rocket Lab, and is soon to launch missions to the International Space Station for Northrop Grumman. The Wallops facility is poised to become the second busiest launch site in the country, behind Cape Canaveral, which itself is on track to launch 39 rockets into orbit this year.

• Over the last 25 years, the state of Virginia has pumped $250M into the ‘Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport’. In addition, NASA has made $15.7M in upgrades to the site, including a mission operations control center, which opened in 2018. The state also contributed $15M to repair a launch pad after an Antares rocket exploded in 2014.

• Perhaps the most successful space upstart since Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Rocket Lab first considered Cape Canaveral. But Wallops was the winner because it had a facility nearby where the company could process its payloads, get the satellites ready for launch and then mate them to a rocket quickly. “The whole facility is designed for rapid launch,” said Rocket Lab CEO, Peter Beck. “And that’s a real requirement out there right now from our national security and national defense forces, to have an ability to respond to threats quickly.”

• At 60 feet tall, Rocket Lab’s ‘Electron’ rocket may be about a quarter of the size of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. But the company hopes it will be a workhorse, launching once a month from Wallops, in flights that should be visible up and down the Mid-Atlantic. The Electron rocket has already had 14 successful launches to orbit from its launch site in New Zealand, earning a reputation for quick turnaround in an industry where getting rockets ready to fly was once a months-long endeavor. The Pentagon and NASA have taken notice.

• NASA has hired Rocket Lab to launch a small satellite to the Moon in 2021 to gather data about the thin lunar atmosphere, as a precursor for human missions. Instead of launching large, expensive satellites that stay in orbit for years and are targets for potential adversaries, the Pentagon is interested in putting up swarms of smaller, inexpensive satellites that could be easily replaced. Both NASA and DARPA are looking at Rocket Lab’s Wallops facility as a launch base having the desired short turnaround time between launches.

• While the number of launches at Wallops now is relatively low, the cadence could grow dramatically, especially as Rocket Lab gets going. And Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations for the US Space Force, has made it clear the department wants to rely heavily on the private sector. “We have developed a significant amount of partnerships in the national security space business,” said General Raymond during a recent event. “We share some of those partners. We share an industrial base.”

• Wallops wants to capitalize on the growth says Dale Nash, CEO and executive director of Virginia Space. “[W]e can get a few more launchpads close together in here.” “We’re urbanizing.” “One launch a month will not be a big deal.” “Once a week, once we get going, won’t be a big deal either. … We have the capability to grow to 50 or 60 launches a year.”

• Richard Branson has also gotten into the small rocket business with ‘Virgin Orbit’ that would launch a small rocket by dropping it from the wing of a 747 airplane. But while the space industry has made strides, there are still more failures than successes, especially in the early attempts to build small rockets. Rocket Lab has been the unlikely success story. Founded by Peter Beck in 2006, it today has a significant backlog of launches.

• Initially, Beck said, the company planned to ditch its rockets in the ocean, as had been the practice for decades. But like SpaceX, Rocket Lab intends to recover its first stages so they can be reused for future flights for greater efficiency. But instead of flying the boosters back to land and then firing the engines to slow it down, as SpaceX does, Rocket Lab is going to have its booster deploy a parachute to slow it down as it falls back through the atmosphere. Then it would have a helicopter retrieve it with a grappling hook.

• In addition to the NASA moon mission, Beck has long been intrigued with Venus, and planned to send a probe there to look for signs of life. The Venus mission, tentatively scheduled for 2023, would be largely self-funded and launch most likely from New Zealand. “If you can prove that there is life on Venus, then it’s fair to assume that life is not unique but likely prolific throughout the universe,” tweeted Beck.

 

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — Over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, down past Chincoteague toward the southern

                           Peter Beck

tip of the Eastern Shore, sits an isolated spit of shoreline, near a wildlife refuge, that is home to one of the most unusual, and little known, rocket launch sites in the country.

Born as a Navy air station during World War II, it has launched more than 16,000 rockets, most of them small sounding vehicles used for scientific research. But the Wallops Flight Facility, which at the dawn of the Space Age played a role as a test site for the Mercury program, is about to reinvent itself at a time when the commercial space industry is booming and spreading beyond the confines of Florida’s Cape Canaveral.

After the Federal Aviation Administration last month granted Rocket Lab, a commercial launch company, a license to fly its small Electron rocket from the facility, Wallops could soon see a significant increase in launches as the company joins Northrop Grumman in launching from this remote site. While Rocket Lab is largely focused on national security missions, Northrop Grumman launches its Antares rocket to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station on cargo resupply missions at a rate of about two a year, including a picture-perfect launch from the Virginia coast Friday at 9:16 p.m. Northrop also launches its Minotaur rocket from Wallops.

            Dale Nash

Rocket Lab wants to launch to orbit as frequently as once a month from Wallops, which would make the facility the

                Wallops Island, Virginia

second busiest launch site in the country, behind Cape Canaveral, which is on track to fly 39 rockets to orbit this year.

Hoping to give birth to another rocket hub on the Eastern Seaboard, the state of Virginia has over the last 25 years pumped some $250 million into what it calls the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, most of that coming in the last decade, said Dale Nash, the agency’s CEO and executive director of Virginia Space. NASA has also made some significant upgrades to the site, including a $15.7 million mission operations control center, which opened in 2018.

The state also contributed to the $15 million it took to repair a launchpad after an Antares rocket exploded in 2014.

The efforts paid off when Rocket Lab, perhaps the most successful space upstart since Elon Musk’s SpaceX, announced last year it would launch its Electron rocket from here. Once NASA signs off on the company’s autonomous flight abort system, it should be cleared to launch, with a mission coming potentially before the end of the year.

Initially, Rocket Lab looked at Cape Canaveral, of course. But there are already a lot of big companies stationed there — Boeing, the United Launch Alliance and SpaceX. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin is renovating a pad there while building a massive manufacturing facility nearby. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

“We ran a competitive process,” Peter Beck, Rocket Lab’s chief executive, said in an interview. In the end, Wallops was the winner because it had a facility nearby where the company could process its payloads, get the satellites ready for launch and then mate them to a rocket quickly.

“The whole facility is designed for rapid launch,” Beck said. “And that’s a real requirement out there right now from our national security and national defense forces, to have an ability to respond to threats quickly.”

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Texas Company Aims to 3D-Print Buildings on the Moon

Article by Mike Wall                                      October 2, 2020                                   (space.com)

• The Austin-based company ICON, known for 3D-printing houses here on Earth, just launched Project Olympus to develop a space-based construction system to help get a foothold on the Moon and Mars. “From the very founding of ICON, we’ve been thinking about off-world construction,” said ICON CEO Jason Ballard. “I am confident that learning to build on other worlds will also provide the necessary breakthroughs to solve housing challenges we face on this world.”

• Project Olympus recently signed a four-year, $14.55M Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) deal with the U.S. Air Force to expand the capabilities of its 3D-printing tech. NASA is contributing 15% of the SBIR funding.

• NASA’s interest in ICON’s 3D-printing construction tech is tied to the Artemis program for manned lunar exploration and permanent base on the Moon by 2030. Making this happen will require extensive use of lunar resources, including water ice (for life support and rocket fuel) and moon dirt (for building materials). A similar devotion to “living off the land” will likely be necessary for sustained human exploration of Mars.

• ICON will partner with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to test a variety of processing and printing technologies using simulated lunar soil. “We want to increase the technology readiness level and test systems to prove it would be feasible to develop a large-scale 3D printer that could build infrastructure on the Moon or Mars,” said Corky Clinton, associate director of Marshall’s Science and Technology Office. “The team will use what we learn from the tests with the lunar simulant to design, develop and demonstrate prototype elements for a full-scale additive construction system.”

• ICON is also teaming with two architecture firms on the program – SEArch+ (Space Exploration Architecture) and Denmark-based BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. “To explain the power of architecture, ‘formgiving’ is the Danish word for design, which literally means to give form to that which has not yet been given form,” said Bjarke Ingels, creative director at the BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group. “This becomes fundamentally clear when we venture beyond Earth and begin to imagine how we are going to build and live on entirely new worlds.”

• “With ICON, we are pioneering new frontiers – both materially, technologically and environmentally,” Ingels said. “The answers to our challenges on Earth very well might be found on the Moon.”

 

                         Jason Ballard

A Texas company aims to take its innovative homebuilding approach into the final frontier.

Austin-based startup ICON, known for 3D-printing houses here on Earth, just launched Project Olympus,

                 Corky Clinton

an ambitious effort to develop a space-based construction system. The program will eventually help humanity get a foothold on the moon and Mars, if all goes according to plan.

“From the very founding of ICON, we’ve been thinking about off-world construction. It’s a surprisingly natural progression if you are asking about the ways additive construction and 3D printing can create a better future for humanity,” ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard said in a company statement.

“I am confident that learning to build on other worlds will also provide the necessary breakthroughs to solve housing challenges we face on this world,” Ballard said. “These are mutually reinforcing endeavors.”

Project Olympus will get a boost from a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract that ICON recently signed with the U.S. Air Force to expand the capabilities of its 3D-printing tech.

The four-year deal is worth $14.55 million, according to the Austin Business Journal. (You can find the outlet’s story

           Bjarke Ingels

here, but it’s behind a paywall.) NASA is contributing 15% of the SBIR sum, ICON representatives told Space.com.

NASA’s interest in ICON’s tech makes sense. The space agency is working, via its Artemis program of crewed lunar exploration, to establish a long-term human presence on and around the moon by the end of the 2020s. Making this happen will require extensive use of lunar resources, including water ice (for life support and rocket fuel) and moon dirt (for building materials), NASA officials have stressed.

A similar devotion to “living off the land” will likely be necessary for sustained human exploration of Mars, an ambitious goal that Artemis will inform and advance, NASA officials have said.

As part of the newly announced SBIR deal, ICON will partner with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to test a variety of processing and printing technologies using simulated lunar soil. The research will build upon tech that ICON demonstrated in 2018 during NASA’s 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, company representatives said.

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NASA Needs Your Help in the Search for Alien Life

Article by Becky Ferreira                                  October 2, 2020                                 (vice.com)

• Since the 1990s, scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets throughout our galaxy contain a dizzying variety of extraterrestrial environments, some of which may host life.

• On September 29th, NASA launched the citizen science project ‘Planet Patrol’ on Zooniverse, inviting volunteers to join the hunt for new exoplanets by examining images snapped by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which has been in orbit around Earth since 2018.
• Veselin Kostov, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the SETI Institute in California, said the project has already attracted more than 1,600 participants who have collectively delivered 100,000 individual classifications in just three days.

• “Citizen science projects are a great way to engage our built-in, never-ending curiosity about the world we live in,” says Kostov. Planet Patrol can also “promote a sense of a community pursuing the common goal of understanding the universe and our place in it.”

• The TESS satellite is designed to spot exoplanets as they pass in front of the stars they orbit, causing the star’s brightness to fade slightly. If these light dips occur at regular intervals, it’s a good sign that a planet may be present. Once the existence of an exoplanet has been confirmed, scientists can conduct follow-up observations that reveal basic properties of the distant world, including whether it might be habitable. For this reason, exoplanet-hunting is an important component of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI).

• Scientists use automated software and machine learning to sift through the hundreds of thousands of pictures TESS takes each year. These systems can flag likely exoplanets to a certain extent, but they have trouble recognizing “imposter” false transit events. For instance, binary systems that contain two stars can produce a light dip, or instrument and/or astrophysical noise that distort the TESS images, which automated processing software might accidentally catalog as an exoplanet candidate. “The human eye is very good at quickly and reliably spotting such image distortions,” says Kostov.

• Planet Patrol participants are tasked with evaluating the quality of TESS images used to distinguish between potential false positives and bona-fide planet candidates. It’s the latest of several exoplanet-hunting platforms that have benefitted from the time and dedication of amateur space enthusiasts, such as Planet Hunters and Exoplanet Explorers. Says Kostov, “My hope is that the project sparks a continuous interest in exoplanets in particular and in astrophysics in general.”

 

Since the 1990s, scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets, which are worlds that orbit stars other than the Sun, revealing that our galaxy

                       Veselin Kostov

contains a dizzying variety of extraterrestrial environments, some of which may host life.

Now, NASA is inviting volunteers to join the hunt for new exoplanets by examining images snapped by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which has been in orbit around Earth since 2018.

On Monday, NASA launched the citizen science project Planet Patrol on Zooniverse, enabling anyone with an internet connection to spot and classify likely exoplanets in TESS’ starry images.

Veselin Kostov, a research scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and the SETI Institute in California, said the project already has more than 1,600 participants who have collectively delivered 100,000 individual classifications in just three days.

“Citizen science projects are a great way to engage our built-in, never-ending curiosity about the world we live in—be it our own planet or a planet a hundred light years away,” said Kostov in an email.

Planet Patrol can also “promote a sense of a community pursuing the common goal of understanding the universe and our place in it,” Kostov added, which is especially welcome at a time when many people are stuck at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

TESS is designed to spot exoplanets as they pass in front of the stars they orbit, which is known as a transit. Transits cause the star’s brightness to fade slightly, and if these light dips occur at regular intervals, it’s a good sign that a planet may be present.

 

1:02 minute NASA “Planet Patrol” video (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)

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Saturn’s Moon Has New Ice and Scientists Aren’t Sure Why

Article by Chris Ciaccia                               September 24, 2020                                 (nypost.com)

• With its global ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, is a promising lead in the search for worlds where extraterrestrial life could exist.

• The NASA Cassini space probe spent 13 years circling Saturn, taking pictures and data of and its moons which were relayed to Earth before it was sent crashing into the planet in 2017. Researchers has used Cassini’s readings of its ‘on-board Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer’ (VIMS) to look at heat signatures on Enceladus to create a map of the moon.

• In 2005, Cassini observed that the southern hemisphere of Enceladus had more than 100 geysers shooting “out enormous plumes of ice grains and vapor from an ocean that lies under the icy crust,” according to a NASA statement. The new research, published in the scientific journal Icarus, revealed more recent images showing that the northern hemisphere of Enceladus has been resurfaced with ice.

• “The… south pole is young, which is not a surprise because we knew about the jets that blast icy material there,” said study co-author, Gabriel Tobie, VIMS scientist with the University of Nantes in France. “Now, thanks to these infrared eyes, you can go back in time and say that one large region in the northern hemisphere appears also young and was probably active not that long ago, in geologic timelines.” The southern geysers are believed to have caused the moon’s “tiger stripes” – evenly spaced fissures, approximately 81 miles long and 22 miles apart.

• It’s unclear how the icy resurfacing occurred or when it occurred. The ice could have come from icy geyser jets or by a more gradual movement of subsurface ocean rising to the surface through fractures in the crust. In 2017 Cassini detected the presence of hydrogen in Enceladus’ atmosphere, which could be meaningful as a “potential source for energy from any microbes,” said Cassini project scientist Linda Spilker. The next year, scientists announced that they had found complex organic molecules, the “building blocks” for life, on the moon.

• In June, NASA announced its ‘Dragonfly’ mission to explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, which could potentially host extraterrestrial life.

 

              Enceladus ‘tiger stripes’

Enceladus, Saturn’s mysterious moon that could support life, could be more geologically active than previously thought, according to a new study.

The research, published in the scientific journal Icarus, looked at new images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft and found the northern hemisphere of

         Gabriel Tobie

Enceladus has been resurfaced with ice.

In 2005, Cassini observed that the southern hemisphere had more than 100 geysers shooting “out enormous plumes of ice grains and vapor from an ocean that lies under the icy crust,” according to a NASA statement. However, the new images point out it is happening in the northern hemisphere as well.

With its global ocean, unique chemistry and internal heat, Enceladus has become a promising lead in our search for worlds where life could exist.
The researchers used Cassini’s on-board Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) to look at heat signatures on Enceladus and created a new map of the moon to come up with their findings.

“The infrared shows us that the surface of the south pole is young, which is not a surprise because we knew about the jets that blast icy material there,” said study co-author, Gabriel Tobie, VIMS scientist with the University of Nantes in France, in the statement. “Now, thanks to these infrared eyes, you can go back in time and say that one large region in the northern hemisphere appears also young and was probably active not that long ago, in geologic timelines.”

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NASA Seeks Out Self-Funded Explorers to Mine Moon Dirt

Article from Bloomberg News                               September 11, 2020                                 (scmp.com)

• Although NASA’s Artemis program aims to land astronauts on the Moon in 2024, the space agency has put out a general offer to procure Moon rocks from anyone who plans on going to the Moon before then, whether they be private corporations or other nations’ space programs. They’ll only get paid $15,000 to $25,000, but they don’t need to actually bring the rocks back to Earth. Just tag and document them as sold. NASA isn’t as interested in Moon rocks as they are in setting a legal precedent for mining resources on the lunar surface that would allow NASA to one day collect ice, helium or other materials useful to colonies on the Moon and, some day Mars.

• Activities beyond the Earth are governed by the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to which the U.S. is a signee. The 1967 Treaty bars extraterrestrial military bases or nuclear weapons, and basically requires nations to explore in peace and clean up their own mess. The treaty stipulates that outer space is not subject to “national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means”. But it does not specifically address space mining. “It’s time for regulatory certainty to extract and trade space resources,” says NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.

• The winning bidder will collect about a pound of lunar regolith (ie: ‘rocks’), photograph it, document its location and then “conduct an ‘in-place’ transfer of ownership of the lunar or rocks to NASA. NASA will sort out the retrieval plans for the material at a later date. NASA will pay only for the lunar material that is collected. The contractor will be responsible for all costs associated with the mission.

• India is planning a second try at landing a rover on the Moon after its first attempt failed in September 2019. A $100M privately funded Israeli mission to land on the lunar surface failed in April 2019. In March 2018, Google and the XPrize Foundation ended its $30M lunar competition after multiple private teams were unable to launch and land a small rover on the Moon and to drive it at least 1,640 feet.

 

Nasa wants to buy some moon rocks, and it’s seeking out companies to make space mining trips so that it can establish a legal framework for its galactic aspirations.

    NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine

The agency is soliciting bids from explorers anywhere on Earth who are willing to finance their own trips to the moon and collect soil or rock samples without actually returning the material to earth. The effort is meant to set a legal precedent for mining on the lunar surface that would allow Nasa to one day collect ice, helium or other materials useful to colonies on the moon and, eventually, Mars.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration also wants to demonstrate the potential for “in situ resource utilisation”, or using locally sourced materials for future space missions, it said on Thursday. Nasa anticipates paying roughly between US$15,000 to US$25,000 per moon contract, agency Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, though final pricing will be determined by the competition.

Activities beyond the earthly plane are currently governed by the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Signed by the United States, it bars extraterrestrial military bases or nuclear weapons and basically requires nations to explore in peace and clean up their own messes.

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China Leads Charge in Space Race

Article by Brandon J. Weichert                              September 3, 2020                                   (washingtontimes.com)

• China yearns to displace the United States as the dominant space power, and to inspire its people to make China a global hub of scientific research and development – the cornerstone of a knowledge-based economy. By placing the first rover on the dark side of the Moon in 2019, and by being the first nation to construct a lunar colony or to land ‘taikonauts’ on Mars, China is telling the world that it is truly the leader of today’s knowledge-based economy.

• But as China ascends, America is in decline. In 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, a Harris Poll asked young people in both the United States and China what they wanted to be when they grow up. Most of the American youth surveyed said they wanted to be professional “Vlogger/YouTubers” when they grow up. The Chinese youth overwhelmingly aspired to be astronauts.

• In the 1970s and 80s, China made great wealth by becoming the world’s sweatshop. In the 1990s, China invested that wealth in infrastructure to build a large middle class and a stable economy. This was all part of China’s long-term plan to ultimately become the dominant knowledge-based economy in the world. Today, China is at the forefront of quantum computing, biotech, alternative energy, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and space technologies.

• In 2018, the head of China’s lunar program, Ye Peijian, put their national space ambitions this way: “The universe is an ocean, the Moon is [an island], Mars is [an island]. If we don’t get to [these islands] now, even though we’re capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won’t be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough [to go to the Moon and beyond].”

• Meanwhile, American leadership oscillates between indifference and abdication on the matter of space policy. President Donald J. Trump has developed a truly robust national space policy, but his policies and his new military branch, Space Force, are only met with derision by bureaucratic lawmakers. Democrats on Capitol Hill have already stated that Trump’s plans to return American astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024 will not be fiscally possible. NASA’s director of manned spaceflight challenges the very notion of successfully returning astronauts to the Moon before the decade is over.

• The future belongs to the country that wants it more. Without higher levels of funding, the Space Force will never mature into the robust force it must become to defend American interests in the strategic high ground of space. The American nationalist call to greatness is being squelched by the globalist demand for mediocrity. Without the embrace of nationalism in the United States, the country’s national mission in space will end in failure and its people will stop dreaming. America’s greatness will erode at every level.

• [Editor’s Note] How could America fall behind in the space race you ask? It was by design. Just after the Roswell crash in July 1947, Truman appointed twelve military, intelligence and scientific officials to form a secret group whose purpose was to hide from the public all evidence of the advanced extraterrestrial beings that were visiting the Earth, and to hide the fact that we were building our own space fleets and colonizing the solar system. This group is known as Majestic 12, and it still exists in the dark corridors of the deep state government’s power elite.

MJ-12 would use any means available to keep the truth from the American public, from ridiculing anyone who claimed to have seen a UFO or an alien being (and basically ruining their lives), to directing deep state funded media, scientists and academia to never take sightings seriously. The result has been generations of Americans who are conditioned to scoff at and ignore anything pertaining to UFOs and extraterrestrials. The deep state government doesn’t want people interested in exploring space. The deep state driven military hawks and corporate owners want to have space all to themselves – and the advanced space technology that goes with it. They simply deny that any of it exists. Deep state legislators routinely reject spending on space endeavors and laugh at the notion of a Space Force. They want to keep a lid on the enormous fraud that has been perpetrated on an unwitting public since World War II.

On the other hand, the Chinese have encouraged space exploration for both its national pride and to usurp American geopolitical and exopolitical dominance. Indeed, the deep state has become entrenched within the Chinese government as well, and will try to keep its space empire a secret. But how long can it be before countries such as China, Russia and India have pushed their way into deep space, and these ubiquitous deep state Secret Space Programs become obvious? The deep state won’t be able to hide the truth for very much longer.

 

On the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landings, Harris Poll asked young people in the United States and China what they wanted to be when they grew up. The results were strange. Most American youth surveyed — the young people who belonged to the only country to have ever placed astronauts on the lunar surface — admitted that they wanted to be professional “Vlogger/YouTubers” when they grew up. It was the Chinese youth

                          Ye Peijian

who overwhelmingly aspired to be astronauts.

Speaking to Chinese state media in 2018, the head of China’s lunar program, Ye Peijian, outlined the Chinese view of their national space strategy in explicit geopolitical terms, specifically in naval terminology: “The universe is an ocean, the moon is the Diaoyu Islands [sic], Mars is Huangyan Island. If we don’t get there now even though we’re capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you won’t be able to go even if you want to. This is reason enough [to go to the moon and beyond].”

China made great wealth by becoming the world’s sweatshop in the 1970s and ’80s. Throughout the 1990s, it reinvested that wealth into building out the infrastructure needed to both support an enlarged middle class and to ensure that China moved up the international development ladder.

China’s leadership never intended to remain just an industrial power subordinated to the United States in the post-industrial, knowledge-based
economy. China planned to become the dominant knowledge-based economy in the world. They have pioneered many innovations in the new industrial economy, notably 5G Internet, but are also heavily invested in quantum computing, biotech, alternative energy, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and space technologies.

For China, these new scientific innovations are not merely about making more money or even gaining a military edge over the West (Beijing certainly does care about those things). More than that, though, China yearns to displace the United States and dominant space power simply out of national pride.

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Japan Vows to Work Closely on Lunar Exploration With the US

Article from Kyodo News                            August 26, 2020                              (english.kyodonews.net)

• In August 26th, US and Japanese officials met in Tokyo to further discuss Japan’s role in the NASA-led joint lunar exploration project culminating in a return to the Moon in 2024, actual exploration of the lunar surface beginning in 2028, and ultimately the international ‘Artemis’ lunar habitat project. This will be the first time that humans walk on the Moon since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

• The meeting was attended by Scott Pace, executive secretary of the US National Space Council, Gen. John Raymond, chief of Space Force, and Japanese government officials from the Cabinet Office, Defense Ministry and other Japanese agencies.

• Pursuant to a lunar cooperation accord signed in July 2020, the US and NASA acknowledged opportunities for “Japanese crew activities” on the ‘Gateway’, a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, as well as participate in activities on the lunar surface.

• US officials also acknowledged Japan’s new ‘Space Operation Squadron’, an Air Self-Defense Force space unit monitoring threats to Japanese satellites in outer space. Japanese officials acknowledged the significance of the US Space Command and Space Force.

• Tokyo and Washington also touched on “growing concern for threats to the continuous, safe and stable use of outer space,” a veiled reference to the growing space capabilities of countries such as China and Russia.

 

                       Scott Pace

Japan and the United States on Wednesday pledged to work closely on a lunar exploration project led by

           Gen. John Raymond

the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration after Tokyo joined it last month.

In a joint statement issued after a meeting in Tokyo, the two governments said they “reaffirmed their commitment to Artemis,” the multilateral project intended to return humans to the Moon by 2024 and establish sustainable lunar surface exploration with NASA’s commercial and international partners by 2028.

The two sides “also acknowledged opportunities for Japanese crew activities” on the Gateway, a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon, as well as on the lunar surface, as highlighted in a lunar cooperation accord they signed in July, the statement said.

The last humans to walk on the Moon were American astronauts from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

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NASA, FEMA Prepare for Sept 20 Asteroid Impact on California Coast

Article by Shepard Ambellas                               August 21, 2020                                (intellihub.com)

• In 2017, NASA and FEMA initiated a supposed fictitious response scenario for an asteroid hitting southern California on September 20, 2020. But is it just a drill? Or is it actual preparation for a real event while avoiding public panic?

• We have seen past situations when such a “drill” actually went “live”. In July 2017, a bombing drill became the actual London bombing. On September 11, 2001, a ‘military exercise’ became the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings in NYC. Last March, in a White House press conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blurted out that the coronavirus pandemic was a “live exercise” playing out. (see video here) In the background, a disgusted President Trump is heard to mutter, “You should have let us know.”

• The ‘exercise’ goes like this: A fictitious asteroid is discovered in the fall of 2016 heading in the direction of the Earth. The asteroid is estimated to be between 300 and 800 feet in size. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory gives it a 2 percent chance of impacting the Earth on September 20, 2020. NASA tracks the asteroid over the following three months using ground-based telescope observations, and the probability of impact climbs to 65 percent. The observations are put on hold for another four months due to the asteroid’s position relative to the Sun. When the observations resume in May 2017, the impact probability jumps to 100 percent. By November 2017, the asteroid’s impact is calculated to hit somewhere in Southern California or just off the coast in the Pacific Ocean.

• However, NASA recently listed a real asteroid, dubbed 2017 SL16 discovered in 2017 (see here), as making a close approach to Earth on September 20, 2020. This raises a major red flag.

• NASA, FEMA, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, the U.S. Air Force, and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services have all been participating in this four year ‘exercise’. “By working through our emergency response plans now, we will be better prepared if and when we need to respond to such an event,” said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.

• Previous tabletop simulations included a scenario where the asteroid is somehow deflected away from the Earth. But in this scenario, NASA JPL said that “the time to impact was too short for a deflection mission to be feasible”. Instead, they role play the forced mass evacuation of Los Angeles.

• “Scientists from JPL, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and The Aerospace Corporation predicted impact footprint models, population displacement estimates, information on infrastructure that would be affected…” according to the NASA simulation report, “… as well as other data that could realistically be known at various points throughout the exercise scenario.”

• “[U]nlike any other time in our history, we now have the ability to respond to an impact threat through continued observations, predictions, response planning and mitigation,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “It’s not a matter of if – but when – we will deal with such a situation.”

 

The National Aeronautics Space Administration and FEMA in 2017 devised and initiated a supposed fictitious scenario in which the two agencies would drill down on an asteroid that’s set to impact the Earth in or just off the coast of California on September 20, 2020, but is this so-called “exercise” really just a drill?

                       Craig Fugate

NASA claims “the simulation was designed to strengthen the collaboration between the two agencies, which have Administration direction to lead the U.S. response” but could the drill actually go live like so many other drills have in the past? (i.e. the July 7, 2007, London bombing, the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, and others)

    Thomas Zurbuchen

“It’s not a matter of if–but when–we will deal with such a situation,” Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Thomas Zurbuchen said. “But unlike any other time in our history, we now have the ability to respond to an impact threat through continued observations, predictions, response planning and mitigation.”

The exercise was designed to create “a forum for the planetary science community to show how it would collect, analyze and share data about a hypothetical asteroid predicted to impact Earth. Emergency managers discussed how that data would be used to consider some of the unique challenges an asteroid impact would present-for preparedness, response and public warning,” according to NASA.

Representatives from NASA, FEMA, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, the U.S. Air Force, and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services attended the initial meeting and will be participating throughout the 4 year long exercises which is set to come to a head on Sept 20, 2020.

“It is critical to exercise these kinds of low-probability but high-consequence disaster scenarios,” FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said. “By working through our emergency response plans now, we will be better prepared if and when we need to respond to such an event.”

The exercise simulates a possible impact four years from now in which, according to NASA, “a fictitious asteroid imagined to have been discovered this fall with a 2 percent probability of impact with Earth on Sept. 20, 2020. The simulated asteroid was initially estimated to be between 300 and 800 feet (100 and 250 meters) in size, with a possibility of making impact anywhere along a long swath of Earth, including a narrow band of area that crossed the entire United States.”

12:11 minute video on the 11/20/20 asteroid simulation (‘End Times Productions’ YouTube)

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Scientists Use Moon as Mirror to Detect Extraterrestrial Life

Article by Claire Bugos                             August 10, 2020                            (smithsonianmag.com)

• In January 2019, there was a total lunar eclipse. During a two-day period, light from the Sun passed through the Earth’s atmosphere and hit the Moon, and was reflected back toward the Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to intercept and gather data from this ultraviolet light. Though similar ground-based studies have been done before, this is the first time that scientists have used a space telescope to capture ultraviolet wavelengths. From this data, scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency are able to analyze the Earth’s own atmospheric spectrum. They reported their findings in an article published August 6 in The Astronomical Journal. (see 3-minute NASA video below)

• The main focus was on the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation. During the eclipse, Hubble detected lower amounts of UV radiation from the light reflected off the Moon than is present from unfiltered sunlight. Therefore, the Earth’s atmosphere absorbed some of it. If they can simulate this with a distant exoplanet, they can determine whether that planet’s atmosphere contains ozone. And along with oxygen, the detection of an ozone layer is considered an indication of possible life on that planet.

• Using this unique method, scientists can simulate observations of exoplanets. When an exoplanet crosses in front of its star, the star light is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere, creating a “halo” effect. Chemicals in the atmosphere filter out certain colors of starlight. Therefore, scientists can determine that planet’s atmospheric composition.

• “But how would we know a habitable or an uninhabited planet if we saw one?” queries Allison Youngblood of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and lead researcher of Hubble’s observations. By developing a model of the Earth’s chemical spectrum, scientists can use this as a template for categorizing the atmospheres of exoplanets in other solar systems.

• The age of the planet is also be taken into account when determining its ability to host life. Earth had low concentrations of oxygen for more than a billion years, while organisms used photosynthesis to build the ozone layer. So it may be challenging to detect ozone in younger planets. Still, ultraviolet may be “the best wavelength to detect photosynthetic life on low-oxygen exoplanets,” says Giada Arney of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and a co-author of the study.

• The Hubble telescope was launched in 1990, even before astronomers first discovered exoplanets. While its ability to observe extraterrestrial atmospheres is “remarkable,” NASA says future observations of Earth-sized planets will require much larger telescopes and longer observational periods, which the James Webb Space telescope, scheduled to launch in 2021, will provide.

 

In the quest to discover life beyond Earth, scientists are harnessing a very large and proximate tool—the moon.

     Allison Youngblood

During a total lunar eclipse in January 2019, the moon acted like a giant mirror, reflecting sunlight that had passed

                   Hubble Telescope

through our atmosphere back toward Earth, reports Chelsea Gohd for Space.com. The Hubble Space Telescope, which was positioned between the Earth and moon, intercepted the reflected ultraviolet light for scientists to analyze.

Scientists from NASA and the European Space Agency studied the reflected light from a lunar eclipse during a two-day window. They reported their findings in an article published August 6 in The Astronomical Journal.

For the first time, scientists used a space telescope to capture ultraviolet wavelengths. Though similar ground-based studies have been done before, using a space telescope for this observation allows scientists to simulate future observations of exoplanets, Space.com reports.

            Giada Arney

The goal was for the telescope to detect the Earth’s ozone layer. The ozone molecule that makes up the Earth’s protective layer absorbs ultraviolet radiation. During the eclipse, Hubble detected lower amounts of UV radiation from the light reflected off the moon than is present from unfiltered sunlight, meaning the Earth’s atmosphere must have absorbed some of it, according to a NASA press release.

If scientists are able to detect an ozone layer or oxygen on a neighboring exoplanet, there’s a possibility that the planet may harbor life. On Earth, oxygen is often produced by life forms, especially those that photosynthesize. If scientists detect an oxygen-rich atmosphere on an exoplanet, especially if the amount of oxygen varies seasonally, there is a chance that it also hosts life. But scientists would need to further analyze the atmosphere using other tools before determining if it’s life-hosting, Allison Youngblood of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, and lead researcher of Hubble’s observations, says in the press release.

3-minute video “Hubble Views Moon to Study Earth” (‘NASA Goddard’ YouTube)

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White House Report Outlines Strategy for Space Exploration and Development

Article by Jeff Foust                                   July 23, 2020                                 (spacenews.com)

• On July 23rd, the White House released a new National Space Council report entitled, “A New Era for Deep Space Exploration and Development”, which outlines how various government agencies, as well as international and commercial partners, will play a role in implementing a national space policy to include a return to the Moon and human missions to Mars.

• The report, requested in August 2019 by Vice President Mike Pence as chairman of the National Space Council, builds on an existing ‘SPD 1’ policy directive and a 2018 National Space Strategy which calls for a sustainable return to the Moon and “peace through strength in the space domain.” It’s not just about NASA or Space Force. It’s about an integrated approach to space exploration and development.

• Space exploration strategy will focus on three major functions: a) commercializing low Earth orbit activities; b) creating a permanently occupied Moon base; and c) sending humans to Mars.

• To accomplish this, the report identifies five roles for the government: a) to create a “secure” space environment with space traffic management; b) support commercial activities in space; c) fund the research and development of key space technologies; d) back space-related scientific activities; and e) being a “reliable customer” to the private space industry by investing in space infrastructure.

• The report outlines how existing policies will be implemented by NASA and other government agencies such as the Departments of Commerce, Defense and Transportation. Providing an idea of how the US government should proceed in the development of space should prove useful when forming international partnerships. “This is hopefully a useful communications tool for dialogue with other space agencies, expressing strategic intent,” said one government official.

• A ‘Users’ Advisory Group’ argued for more attention to academia in the strategy, which was later incorporated into the report. NASA feedback led to more discussion about ‘Low Earth Orbit’ commercialization.

• But the report warns against moving ahead too quickly. “Some people argue that humanity is destined to develop space settlements and become a ‘multi-planetary species,’” the report states. But in order to develop space commerce and habitation, we first need to develop both the technical knowledge of the use of space resources as well as economic rationales to sustain such settlements. “At present, we do not yet know if any of these conditions are possible,” the report concludes.

 

WASHINGTON — A new National Space Council report argues that the exploration and development of space must be an integrated effort that involves not just NASA but other government agencies, as well as international and commercial partners.

The report, “A New Era for Deep Space Exploration and Development,” released July 23 by the White House, is intended to outline how various government agencies will play a role in implementing national space policies, including a human return to the moon and eventual human missions to Mars.

   Vice President Mike Pence

“Although NASA is, and will remain, the primary United States Government entity for civil space exploration efforts, other departments and agencies have increasingly important roles to play in space,” the report states.

The report builds on existing policies, in particular Space Policy Directive (SPD) 1, which called for a sustainable return to the moon led by NASA with various partners, as well as a 2018 National Space Strategy, a broader space policy document that called for “peace through strength in the space domain.”

A senior administration official, speaking on background, said that the new report was intended to emphasize an integrated approach to space exploration and development. “A lot of people weren’t aware of how our approach on space was not just about NASA, not just about Space Force,” the official said. “The point of the report was to build on SPD-1 and also to paint a whole-of-government picture about what we were doing.”

The report describes three major areas of effort in that overall space exploration strategy: commercializing low Earth orbit activities, returning humans to the moon permanently and then sending humans to Mars. Those elements, the report says, also support science and education.

To carry out that strategy, the report identifies five major roles for government: promoting a “secure and predictable” space environment that involves both addressing space traffic management as well as regulatory reforms, supporting commercial activities in space, funding research and development of key space technologies, investing in private space infrastructure by being a “reliable customer” and backing space-related scientific activities.

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How a NASA Scientist Explains the Truth Behind Moon Conspiracy

Article by Sebastian Kettley                              July 8, 2020                               (express.co.uk)

• On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong (pictured above) and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to stand on the surface of the Moon. A popular story is that Armstrong encountered an extraterrestrial presence on the Moon’s surface that forced NASA to drastically alter its lunar plans. Three Apollo missions were canceled, and Apollo 17 became NASA’s final Moon landing in 1972. The space agency’s goals were refocused on constructing an operational space station in low Earth orbit. An unused Saturn V rocket from one of the canceled missions was repurposed and transformed into Skylab – the US’s first space station – which was operational for about 24 weeks between 1973 and 1974. For the past twenty years, astronauts have been living on the International Space Station.

• The seeming lack of progress in NASA Moon missions led many to question whether the Moon landings ever happened at all, or if something had prevented the agency from returning. On December 18, 2007, the NASA Lunar Science Institute was asked directly whether the reason that NASA had not gone back to the Moon was because Armstrong saw alien base camps on Moon. Astrophysicist and interim director for the institute at the time, Dr David Morrison answered, “Although you would never know this from the distorted perspective of some groups that post crazy claims on the internet, there is no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens; no aliens or alien artifacts were seen on the Apollo or any other human space missions; and such false claims are irrelevant to the space policy of the United States or NASA.” “Fringe groups who believe in UFOs and aliens do not influence NASA space policy, fortunately.”

• In November 2017, Dr Morrison was asked again if it was true that Armstrong saw an alien base camp on the far side of the Moon, and whether other “missionaries” had been sent to the Moon as well. Dr Morrison replied, “It is not true. …There were no aliens on the Moon. Armstrong and other Apollo astronauts saw no evidence of aliens either on the near-side or the far-side of the Moon.” “You seem to be confusing science fiction with reality.” And “they were not missionaries,” Morrison added.

• “Believe me,” said Dr Morrison, “reality is more interesting than this sort of fantasy. And in addition, it is real.” Morrison claimed that the Apollo program was cut short as a result of drastic budget cuts that made the Moon landing effort unfeasible.”There are many complex issues that have determined our human space program for the past 30 years, mostly dealing with politics, technology, and availability of funding.”

• [Editor’s Note]  We know from several sources that Armstrong did see extraterrestrial craft during his visit to the Moon in 1969. Because he was under a strict non-disclosure order, he became close-mouthed and reticent to discuss his feat for the rest of his life, which is strange being the first man to walk on the Moon (as far as the mainstream public is aware).

We know why Armstrong remained quiet about his encounter with alien craft. The question here is why is Dr Morrison claiming that “there were no aliens on the Moon…(there is) no evidence of aliens either on the near-side or the far-side of the Moon,” “… (there is) no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens…or alien artifacts…”? Is he lying as directed or simply ignorant of the truth? We have learned that the NASA space agency is really two organizations. The NASA that the public sees is merely a front for the Uber-NASA that is far more advanced than its public counterpart. The secret Uber-NASA is one of a handful of secret space programs run by the US government, and one of many out in deep space. This distinction was made at the space agency’s inception in the late 1950s. They brought in former Nazi rocket scientists to create a public space program to get to the Moon using out-dated rocket technology, just to appease the masses. Behind the scenes however, the former Nazis struck a deal to provide the American military-industrial-complex (deep state) with advanced anti-gravity/electromagnetic spacecraft technology so long as American industry assisted the Nazis with the development of the breakaway German colony’s own space fleet under the ice of Antarctica.

High-level NASA administrators know about this hidden history and are sworn to secrecy. Lower level NASA administrators and scientists do not. I would guess that Dr Morrison is not aware of NASA’s secret space program, and is simply regurgitating the disinformation and propaganda that the deep state has instilled into his and the entire mainstream mindset.

 

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to stand on the surface of the Moon. Three years later, NASA astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of Apollo 17 were the last to do so. In the 50 years since the Moon landing, human space exploration has been limited to low Earth orbit as humans have been living on the International Space Station (ISS) for close to 20 years now.

   NASA’s Dr David Morrison

The seeming lack of progress in sending crews to the Moon has led many to question whether the Moon landing ever happened at all.

Even more bizarrely, many people have suggested over the years NASA did go to the Moon but something has prevented the agency from returning.
A popular myth among online conspiracy theorists is Mr Armstrong saw something on the Moon’s surface that forced the US space agency to drastically alter its plans. Namely, some people believe the astronaut encountered an extraterrestrial or alien presence on the Moon.

On December 18, 2007, NASA was challenged to address the theory, putting to rest rumours of an alien base on the Moon.

A question posed to the NASA Lunar Science Institute read: “If this is not true that Armstrong saw alien base camps on Moon then why no NASA plans for a base station at Moon and there have been no moon missions for the past 20 years or so?”

The question was answered by Dr David Morrison, an astrophysicist who at the time served as the interim director for the institute, now the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute.

He said: “Although you would never know this from the distorted perspective of some groups that post crazy claims on the internet, there is no scientific evidence for UFOs or aliens, no aliens or alien artefacts were seen on the Apollo or any other human space missions, and such false claims are irrelevant to the space policy of the United States or NASA.

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How NASA Exposed Truth Behind ‘Spacecraft From Another World’

Article by Sebastian Kettley                        June 30, 2020                             (www.express.co.uk)

• In 1972, Apollo 16 was NASA’s fifth successful Moon landing. As astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke were leaving the Moon, looking out of the Command Module window they saw a UFO – “saucer-shaped object with a dome top” – passing over the Moon.

• Said NASA: “The object appears momentarily near the Moon. As the camera pans, it moves out of the field of view. It reappears as the camera pans back.” The object was only seen for four seconds, but was recorded on a 16mm video camera, appearing in about 50 frames of the film.

• UFO expert Donald Ryles says, “This footage, if it is authentic, is quite amazing.” And in a 2003 article in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, Japanese engineer Hiroshi Nakamura says, “We believe that the object is a large extraterrestrial artefact. This is the only hypothesis that is consistent with the data.”

• But in a 2004 analysis report, using digitized Apollo 16 footage with high-resolution scans for a detailed analysis, NASA’s official explanation was that the object was not an alien UFO, but rather an extravehicular activity floodlight boom sticking out from the Command Module. “[T]he object appeared to move slightly with respect to the Moon, because of parallax brought about by slight camera motions and the nearness of the object to the camera. Said NASA: “All of the evidence in this analysis is consistent with the conclusion that the object in the Apollo 16 film was the EVA (spacewalk) floodlight/boom. There is no evidence in the photographic record to suggest otherwise.”

 

astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke

The unidentified object (UFO) was briefly filmed by the crew of NASA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972 – the fifth successful Moon landing. Peering through the window of NASA’s Command Module spacecraft, an alien object appears to pass over the Moon. According to the US space agency, some have described the UFO as a “saucer-shaped object with a dome top”.

NASA said: “Beginning their return from the Moon to an April 27, 1972, splashdown, astronauts John Young, Thomas Mattingly and Charles Duke captured about four seconds of video footage of an object that seemed to look a lot like Hollywood’s version of a spacecraft from another world.”

The UFO was recorded on a 16mm video camera, appearing in about 50 frames of the film.

NASA said: “The object appears momentarily near the Moon.

“As the camera pans, it moves out of the field of view. It reappears as the camera pans back.”

In total, the object was only seen for four seconds through the Command Module’s window.

But the brief appearance was enough for alien enthusiasts to get excited.

UFO expert Donald Ryles said: “This footage, if it is authentic, is quite amazing.”

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Virgin Galactic to Help Train Astronauts for NASA

Article by Paul R. La Monica                          June 22, 2020                              (weny.com)

• On June 22nd, Virgin Galactic announced that it has signed a deal with NASA to train private astronauts and coordinate trips to the orbiting International Space Station. Virgin Galactic will develop a new private orbital astronaut readiness program to identify candidates who will pay for a trip to space, arrange for their transportation and provide ground and orbital resources.

• Virgin Galactic will probably use the services of SpaceX or Boeing to actually get astronauts to the space station. Boeing has invested $20 million in Virgin Galactic. The company’s own SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane that is incapable of making it to the cislunar ISS. Virgin Galactic says it has already received about 600 reservations for suborbital flights at the approximate price of $250,000 per seat.

• Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic will continue to use SpaceShipTwo for suborbital training flights, ranging from private citizens to government-backed scientific and technological research missions, to allow passengers to become familiar with the environment in space, such as G-forces and zero-G.

• Enthusiasm for space commerce is apparent in the stock market. Virgin Galactic stock shares have soared, even though the company continues to lose money. There is even a publicly traded investment fund with a ‘UFO’ brand that invests in companies catering to the business of space travel and exploration, having Virgin Galactic at the top of the list. Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s ‘SpaceX’ and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ ‘Blue Origin’ also have space travel companies.

 

      Virgin Galactic’s ‘SpaceShip Two’

SpaceX won’t be the only private company bringing people to the International Space Station. Virgin Galactic announced Monday that it has signed a deal with NASA to train private astronauts and coordinate potential trips to the ISS.

Shares of Virgin Galactic soared more than 10% on the news. The stock has surged nearly 45% so far in 2020, largely due to optimism about demand for private space travel, even though it continues to lose money.

As part of Virgin Galactic’s deal with NASA, the company will “develop a new private orbital astronaut readiness program,” it said in a statement.

                   Sir Richard Branson

“This program will include identifying candidates interested in purchasing private astronaut missions to the ISS, the procurement of transportation to the ISS, on-orbit resources, and ground resources,” the company added.

Virgin Galactic will likely need the services of SpaceX or aerospace giant Boeing, which is developing the Starliner space capsule and has invested $20

million in Virgin Galactic, to actually get astronauts to the space station.

Virgin Galactic’s own SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital spaceplane that is incapable of making it to the ISS, and the company has only sent five people to space on two suborbital test flights. The company says it has already received about 600 reservations for suborbital flights at the approximate price of $250,000 per seat.

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My Dad Launched the Quest to Find Alien Intelligence

Article by Nadia Drake                               June 22, 2020                           (nationalgeographic.co.uk)

• In the spring of 1960, with a budget of less then $2,000 and access to an 85-foot radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, a 29-year-old astronomer named Frank Drake set out to look for signs of intelligent alien life beyond Earth. For three months, the telescope scanned its targets and found nothing more than cosmic static.

• Back in the 1960s, astronomers knew of no worlds beyond our solar system. But Drake reasoned that other worlds might be populated by civilizations advanced enough to broadcast their presence to the cosmos, as we on Earth had been doing for decades. “Searching for intelligent life was considered bad science in those days,” says Drake, who just turned 90 years old.

• So Drake designed an experiment called Project Ozma, after the princess in L. Frank Baum’s Oz series. Even though Ozma failed to find evidence of extraterrestrial technologies, the project was the first step toward solving a monumental mystery. In 1961, the National Academy of Sciences asked Drake to convene a meeting at Green Bank to further discuss the search for intelligent life. While organizing that meeting, he casually came up with the now-famous ‘Drake Equation’, a framework for estimating how many civilizations might be detectable in the Milky Way galaxy.

• Project Ozma was transformed into the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or ‘SETI’. “There were radio astronomers all over the place who wanted to do SETI searches,” says Drake. But SETI projects in the US, Australia and Europe failed to gain ground. “It still had this problem of being considered flaky stuff.”

• In the Soviet Union, however, astronomers learned of Ozma and eagerly started scanning stars for signs of life. “There were far fewer restrictions on what Soviet scientists could do. They had kind of steady budgets because of the way the centralized communist government worked. They could kind of do whatever they wanted,” said science historian Rebecca Charbonneau of the University of Cambridge.

• The Soviets and Americans would meet to exchange ideas about searching for intelligent life. While the Cold War raged, U.S. and Soviet astronomers worked congenially in competition to first detect extraterrestrial life. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the relationship morphed into friendship within a global community.

• SETI had been funded by NASA. But by the 1990s, Congress began to cut federal funding for SETI projects, calling it “Martian hunting” and a waste of taxpayer dollars. The nonprofit SETI Institute, founded in 1984 at the University of California, Berkeley, was on its own.

• But in 1995, astronomers discovered the first ‘exoplanet’ outside of our own solar system. It was a Jupiter-like world, called 51 Pegasi b, orbiting a sun-like star. But it was considered inhospitable for life as we know it. Since then, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets with many having conditions favorable to life. We’ve learned that planets vastly outnumber stars in the Milky Way, providing billions of places for intelligent alien civilizations to exist.

• In 2015, a 10-year, $86 million project called Breakthrough Listen was funded by Silicon Valley tech investor Yuri Milner to harnesses the world’s sharpest radio telescopes, such as the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Observatory in Australia, to search the nearest million stars for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. Now, halfway through its tenure, it has yet to find any. It will soon add to its search the MeerKAT array of radio dishes in South Africa.

• Astronomers have expanded their search parameters beyond interstellar radio signals. They now also look for optical pulses, waste heat generated by powerful civilizations, and any other signs known as ‘technosignatures’. One of these projects is called PANOSETI, designed to scan the entire sky for fleeting but intense flashes of optical and infrared light. Led by Shelley Wright, an astronomer at the University of California, San Diego, the project will capture information about transient astronomical phenomena such as supernovae —and, just maybe, artificial transmissions.

• Today, some say that SETI is in the midst of a renaissance. Large projects are kicking off, funds are materializing, and astronomy courses now include a broader perspective on humanity’s place in the universe. If SETI can maintain its current momentum, astronomers are optimistic that future projects could be even more ambitious – maybe even installing a radio telescope on the far side of the Moon, the only place in the solar system where Earth’s constant transmissions don’t overwhelm radio signals from the cosmos.

• SETI astronomers believe that they may soon discover another extraterrestrial civilization. Or we may be the only active civilization at this moment in time. Other civilizations may have risen and fallen during the 13.8-billion-year history of the universe. It make take a few million more years for nascent lifeforms on exoplanets to evolve complex metabolisms and technological intelligence.

• In any case, the answer to Frank Drake’s question of “where are the extraterrestrials” has the potential to change the course of humanity’s future. Drake says that he didn’t anticipate how captivating the search would be, or how SETI would grow into the enterprise it is today, although it still hasn’t completely shed the “giggle factor”. Public funding is difficult. The field has relatively few dedicated practitioners, and it has yet to fully infiltrate the halls of academia. But momentum is gathering.

• [Editor’s Note]   I have no doubt that Frank Drake was sincere in his initial Ozma quest to detect errant radio signals from space to try to discover other intelligent civilizations in the galaxy. Likewise, Frank’s daughter Nadia has every reason to be proud of her father. But just like the rest of us, the Drakes and other honest astronomers have been obstructed by the deep state. While from the 60s to the 80s, the deep state allowed NASA funding of SETI efforts, they knew that technology embargo and the ‘giggle factor’ which the deep state had imposed on the scientific community would prevent SETI from finding anything or being taken seriously. By the 1990s, conventional technology was rapidly developing, so the deep state government cut off funding and infiltrated these programs with counter-productive deep state operatives. Those who now run SETI are only interested in using the project for disinformation purposes – to satisfy the public that smart people are working diligently but fruitlessly to discover evidence of another intelligent civilization in our galaxy, because these extraterrestrial beings simply don’t exist. In reality, intelligent extraterrestrial worlds permeate this galaxy and the entire universe. The elite deep state hierarchy has secretly been working with these extraterrestrials since World War II. During the past seventy years, they have developed a handful of secret space programs, including bases and colonies on the Moon, on Mars, and on celestial bodies throughout the solar system and beyond. As Richard Dolan famously put it, our shadow government has created a ‘breakaway civilization’, concealed from the people on Earth who serve as unwitting slaves to generate an industrial economy for these elite ‘puppet masters’ to utilize for their own purposes, which excludes the rest of us.

 

     Frank and Nadia Drake

In the spring of 1960, a 29-year-old astronomer with streaks of preternaturally white hair and a devil-may-care attitude set out to tackle one of humanity’s most existential questions: Are we alone in the universe?

Frank Drake, then an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, was gearing up to search for radio whispers from faraway civilizations that might be sailing the cosmic sea. For such a grand quest, he had a budget of £1,600 and access to a radio telescope thought to be sensitive enough to detect transmissions from any potentially broadcasting extraterrestrials.

          Nadia Drake

“Searching for intelligent life was considered bad science in those days,” says Drake, who just turned 90 years old—and is better known to me as Dad.
At the time, looking for evidence of alien technologies was still squarely in the camp of schlocky science fiction. But for my dad, it was worth taking a risk to find out if the cosmos is as richly populated as Earth’s teeming oceans—or if humanity is adrift in a profoundly quiet interstellar expanse.

Humble and curious, with a knack for quiet mischief, Dad is committed to his science, still writing research papers and serving on committees. My early memories are full of trips to observatories and conferences, and the singular pleasure of staring through telescopes at the twinkling sky. I was never bitten by the academic astronomy bug, though.

               Rebecca Charbonneau

It wasn’t until I began working as a science journalist that I realised just how risky and revolutionary Dad’s early work really was.

First light

Astronomers knew of no worlds beyond our solar system back in the 1960s, but Drake reasoned that if planets like Earth orbited stars like the sun, then those worlds might be populated by civilisations advanced enough to broadcast their presence to the cosmos. His logic made sense: For the last century, Earthlings have been making these sorts of announcements all the time in the form of TV and radio broadcasts, military radar, and other communications that leak into space.

               Shelley Wright

So he designed an experiment to search for signals coming from worlds that could be orbiting the nearby stars Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti. He named the experiment Project Ozma, after the princess in L. Frank Baum’s Oz series—an homage to an adventure tale populated by exotic and unearthly beings.

Before sunrise on April 8, 1960, Drake climbed an 85-foot radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, jammed himself inside a trash-can-size piece of equipment, and launched humanity’s first scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence—now known as SETI. For three months the telescope scanned its targets and found nothing more than cosmic static. The stars were stubbornly quiet.

“That was a disappointment,” Dad told me a few years ago. “We’d hoped that, in fact, there were radio-transmitting civilisations around almost every star.”

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