Seattle Based Company, Spaceflight announced it will be purchasing a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that will be set aside exclusively for launching other people's small satellites into orbit. Curtis Blake, the president of Spaceflight believes that by purchasing and manifesting this rocket, that Spaceflight will be positioned to meet the growing demand of the small satellite industry for having reliable access to space.

This is yet another way companies are trying to improve the customer satisfaction aspect of spaceflight. By emphasizing on access to space, companies are trying to make it easier and more efficient to travel to space and have the time and lower risk when it comes to launching various projects through satellites. RocketLabs made a platform for buying spaces on a rocket because they believe that there will be a market specifically for customer service. This customer service is what will make the user experience customizable for planning space expeditions.

NASA to Announce Huge Mars Scientific Discovery

By Christopher Waldeck, News Editor

NASA has been conducting an ongoing exploration of Mars. However, NASA has announced that they have made a major science finding during this exploration and this Monday, Sept. 28 at 11:30 AM they will be making this announcement live from the James Webb Auditorium in NASA headquarters in Washington. The announcement will involve many participants from NASA and the public will also be able to participate by asking questions through the hash tag #ASKNASA during the briefing.

News conference participants will be: 

Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters

Michael Meyer, lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters

Lujendra Ojha of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta

Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California and the Georgia Institute of Technology

Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) at the University of Arizona in Tucson

Recent missions to Mars have included the Mars Odyssey orbiter entering Mar’s orbit in 2001. During this missions, the Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected significant amounts of hydrogen in the upper regolith on Mars. It is believed that this hydrogen contained large deposits of water ice. This information would lead to much public speculation about the planet being suitable for possible life. This was followed by the Mars Express mission of the European Space Agency in 2003 that wasn’t heard from after being released in 2004. It was declared lost, but recently rediscovered in 2015. The cause of it’s demise was attributed to failing to fully deploy it’s solar panels and antenna.

Later missions came after the inception of the Mars Science Laboratory. The Mars Science Laboratory mission was launched on November 26, 2011 and it delivered the Curiosity Rover, on the surface of Mars on August 6, 2012. It is larger and more advanced than the Mars Exploration Rovers, with a velocity of up to 90 meters per hour. Experiments include a laser chemical sampler that can deduce the make-up of rocks at a distance of 7 meters. This is useful for examining the surface of Mars and the overall climate of the martian planet.

With so much exploration and discovery regarding the martian planet one has to wonder what the new scientific discovery is. It's especially intriguing that NASA is allowing the public to tweet and ask questions during the briefing. This could be a great way for NASA to tap into a mainstream audience of science lovers or because the discovery is related to a hot topic of discussion regarding Mars. 

My Interview With Wesley Falmer of NASA's CubeQuest Initiative

I had the pleasure of interviewing Team Mile's Wesley Faler of NASA's CubeQuest Initiative. This initiative is designed specifically for teams of scientists and small satellite engineers to to compete for a 5.5 million dollar prize towards building a small satellite project that can travel and collect data past the moon. It's an excellent initiative and Team Miles recently won the first round against the three other teams in Tampa, FL. Now they will move on to compete at MIT for the second round of the tournament. This interview provided me with insight into benefits and the science of small satellites from an expert in the field. The coolest part of this interview was by far learning about the various terminologies used for different types of machinery and tools involved in the building of small satellites. Some of the coolest types of functions have such simple names and some of the coolest names are actually just ridiculously simple tools. It was a fun interview and Wes is a man who is passionate about small satellites and also has great ideas towards the future when it comes to the evolution and expansion of this industry.

I think his interview provides more information regarding small satellites and is also a call for more exploratory research into how workers, organizations, and even the government and businesses can respond to this growing industry. It's really fun and interesting to see just where the small satellite industry can go.

How does one finance a small satellite startup?

1. There are a couple ways to finance a satellite startup. Sell space gizmos for money and services for working with home accessories.

What made you decide to get involved in small satellites?

2. Budget. Space dreamer all my life. 13 years ago I had started to dig into the small satellite industry ago. Five years ago I saw that my product could be ready. The affordability of small satellites also greatly impacted how I could experiment and carry out my dream. 

What makes small satellites cost less than regular satellites?

3. They fuel it and the payload is less. Fuel isn’t the cost. The cost is to make sure that the engineer doesn’t endanger the main cargo. Small satellite doesn’t have the ballistic mass to absorb dense material. You can’t use properties that can make things work.

Was this your first small satellite conference?

4. It was his second small satellite conference. He went to every conference and read every paper. What makes the rocket science rocket science is that everything effects everything.

What is the mission Plan?

5. Cube Quest. Aug. 1^st, the video awards for who won the competition. Satellite being broadcasted on missiontv. He had the chance to forge relationships with thermal relationship companies. Seal the deal on some strategic partnerships which is also important. 40-50 commercial parts on the CubeQuest satellite. Then the prototyping for the cubequest satellite. GT-2, Nasa’ tournament number two for Cubequest. Prototyping and science by December for the holidays. A month to write it and then a month for the review it. Pattern Centric apart. Technology maturation plan, have it all ready before it flys. Already to fly or has already flown. We applied that over all the casts to be done. 3,00o items in the final project. By providing a pattern, one can have a transportation pattern into getting the volunteers on cubequest.

You had mentioned different vernacular for small satellite talk. What do different terms stand for?

6. Thermal Knife

Little thread of wire that gets hot and melts the fishing lines.

Reaction wheel

Lunar with a weight on it. Electric motor spinning a weight.

Magnetorque

Flat loop of wire. In the earth’s magnetic field. Car to a flat sheet of coils and it interacts with the earth’s magnetic field.

What is NASA’s small satellite program?

7. NASA has a launch program specifically targeted to educational groups. I’m very pleased that the next generation can have their worldview shaped and get the hands to work on them. On the other hand, what happens to older workers. There needs to be a middle ground to help the students and help the middle ground or the small businesses that want to start an idea.

Right now it’s sharing an intellectual property with a university. It needs to fill the gap behind what goes to kids and small businesses as well. NASA has an excellent program, but the bar is higher for small business ideas and the benefits are less compared to what is given to kids.

What is a big challenge among technical workers in the field?

8. A lot of technical workers do their type of work, but they don’t learn new things and they remain stagnant. Nobody likes to stagnate. They are lifetime enthusiasts and are consistently learning. You could talk about what makes a great launch. Even if they don’t know they like to learn how to do it anyways

What is the most critical aspect of building small satellites?

9. The most critical aspect is to have a systems oriented viewpoint. Our school systems tend to teach people to be heavily specialized in some narrow ditch to add to a paycheck. The systems engineer are the inches between columns and they translate that from one specialization to another. NASA quizzes CubeQuest almost all the time. This is very critical to moving around in the industry. Pick a specialty like RF or Solar Panels.

There is also translating specific specialties. Institutions invent the specialties and they are trying to invent the same equations but they don’t communicate. Liberal Arts helps develop more than just equations.

What type of conventions have you been to?

10. A funny story. I had been working on my thruster, and I went to a maker fair. It’s a science fair for adults. Some people bring biohacking and balloons. I went to the Detroit one and talked to thousands about it over the course of a weekend. She was impressed by the rubix cube and asked what if it was a real satellite. I had to explain to them that it was a real satellite.

Are there other types of small satellites?

11. $50Sat. This is a Cubesat but a quarter of a cubesat. 5X5X5 is a pocket cube. A way to bring the launch cost down even further. Normal launch is 125,000 but pocketsat brings it down to 30,000. $50 is what cost to build the satellite itself. It’s tiny and flying for 300 kilometers. It’s radio is off the shelf from a smartphone. It took simpler parts and made something quickly and effectively.

What sizes are there for small satellites?

12. Business card size satellites. Septo sats. This whole spectrum of sizes. Nasa still thinks of them as the size of a sofa, but it’s mind blowing to have them at the size of a coffee cup. CubeQuest is trying to prove that this can be done.

What is the CubeQuest mission?

13. CubeQuest is to send something to the move or into deep space or go for the gold and prove you did it well.  So many different objectives like buying a car. Hard to to grocery shopping with a Ferrari. How do you prove that you did it well?

What else is NASA offering for this program?

14. NASA is offering similar classes for courses for CubeQuest. NASA provides guidelines of the courses that they want. They have the guidelines that they wanted. Win or lose going through that process is enough to build a spacecraft. CubeQuest gives it a goal and you reach it by filling it in. 

For more information on small satellites and the work of Team Miles. You can visit their website here.

Saudi Arabia Plans To Launch a Small Satellite Every Two Years!

            

            

           King Abdulaziz City For Science andTechnology(KACST) devised a 12 year space program. Under this program, a small satellite will be launched into space one every two to three years. The announcement was made by Prince Turki Bin Saud Mohammed, President of KACST during a speech on the summary on September 6, 2015. This day also marked the 30th anniversary of the launch of the spaceship Discovery by NASA. 

KACST was established in 1977 has had several scientific achievements. In 2012, KACST announced the first electrostatic generator in Saudi Arabia. On April 28, 2015, Arabsat and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) today announced contracts for Lockheed Martin to manufacture two A2100 communications satellites. In conjunction with the award, Lockheed Martin, KACST and TAQNIA Space Company, a subsidiary of the Saudi Technology Investment and Development Company (TAQNIA), signed an agreement to explore future design, manufacture, assembly and integration of satellites in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

According to SaudiGazette.com, Prince Turki said KACST is scheduled to implement its satellite program starting from 2019 through 2020, in collaboration with a team composed of experts from NASA, the German Space Agency and Stanford University.Following the first two launches, the university will enter into its long-term program of developing MDSS small satellite systems.

Prince Turki is the current president of president of KACST and received his PHD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He joined KACST as Director of the newly established Space Research Institute in 1997 before becoming Vice President of KACST in 2004. 

LauncherOne is raising the value for small satellites

Sir Richard Branson is currently boosting the promise of launching more space satellites with his LauncherOne. More seasoned satellite users are interested in small satellites because of there low cost, and quick development timelines. However, these satellites are largely dependent on a launch vehicle that is tailored to there capabilities and needs. This is an era were customization of space travel for these satellites is becoming the new trend as was shown at the Small Satellite Space News conference with RocketLabs and other startups looking to make the space race more customizable for customer needs.

Space Daily reports that the newest advance is being pushed by Virgin Galactic as it attempts to dramatically cut the cost of launching small satellites to the point that it would be affordable for innovators, businesses, universities, and nonprofits. Reducing the cost isn’t enough though as it also plans on accommodating the needs of the customers, a feat that can’t be achieved by larger and more expensive satellites. It’s just the latest innovation in this market that is picking up steam. However, the LauncherOne program has been in development for awhile.

The LauncherOne program was earlier moved to a manufacturing facility in Long Beach, California. It has garnered steam as the small satellite industry has begun to heat up. Sir Richard Branson also announced that his company is planning on boosting the capability of it’s satellite launcher allowing for a bigger payload mass and volume capacity. Virgin Galactic and Space X are just two major companies that are innovating the small satellite movement as well as numerous startups that are capitalizing on this trend.

GoPro Camera launched and lost in 2013 returns to reveal the Grand Canyon from Space

The footage above is from the story of five friends who decided to launch a GoPro into space in order to film the Grand Canyon from a weather balloon. It reached the stratosphere but encountered complications on it's way back down. 

A GoPro camera that was launched in 2013 returns to reveal the Grand Canyon from space. For five friends, a couple of months of planning required two years to get the GoPro back from space.The June 2013 expedition was designed to capture breathtaking aerial views of the Grand Canyon and its surrounding area via a GoPro, camcorder and Galaxy Note II launched on a weather balloon.

According to Fox News, After reaching a maximum altitude of about 18 miles, during a flight time of slightly more than 90 minutes, the payload fell to the desert floor – where it remained for about two years. The team was using the GPS on the smartphone to track the package, but they encountered a problem during the descent. The coverage map that they had been relying on wasn't working correctly and the phone never received it's signal when it made it's return back to Earth. 

The phone would be found by a woman who worked for AT&T while she was hiking. She returned the SIM card and was able to track down the owners of the Phone. Their footage captured the Grand Canyon from the Stratosphere before it crashed to Earth. The video on Youtube reveals the ascent and descent of the mission.

Here is a link to the original article on Fox News

Japan and the United Nations Seek To Expand Small Satellite Travel.

According to SpaceDaily.com,The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) agreed to cooperate in providing opportunities to deploy cube satellites (CubeSats) from the Japanese Experiment Module "Kibo" of the International Space Station (ISS). The size and cost of the technology used to make and deploy small satellites continues to expand to countries looking to expand their space programs.

Currently, Jaxa is looking to use the advantages of small satellites throught their Kibo program in order to aid developing countires when it comes to helping them improve the quality of their satellites so that they can improve their small satellite programs so they can be competitive as well. The economy necessary is allowing numerous opportunities for small satellites to take off. Previously we've covered numerous start ups and government programs that are using the economy and size of small satellites to obtain cost efficient means of launching satellites into space. 

Jaxa is looking to publishing information for those interested in expanding their knowledge and opportunities with small satellites soon via their UNOOSA's website. This will allow more opportunities for small satellite deployment as Japan enters the space race and provides opportunities for developing countries to do the same. 

Ardbeg reveals the results of their space whisky experiment

In October 2011, Ardbeg Distillery, on Islay, sent a vial to the International Space Station onboard space cargo. While the vial was making it’s way to space, another vial was kept at the Ardbeg Distillery for comparison. After, the experiment that distillery had noticed that the space samples were noticeably different in terms of aroma and taste.

For more information check out their article on BBC.

This article was published in the Scottish Business section and the experiment was conducted to observe what effect micro-gravity would affect the behavior of tarpenes, the building blocks for flavors in foods and whisky spirits.

First Dane goes into space

Original article from Reuters here

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark will send its first man into space on Wednesday and in keeping with the country's love of all things cycling, one of his jobs will be to test new equipment on Danish-made exercise bikes at the International Space Station.

Dubbed "Denmark's Gagarin" by European Space Agency officials after the first man in space, Andreas Mogensen will lift off at 0437 GMT (12:37 a.m. EDT) accompanied by Russian Sergei Volkov and Kazakh Aidyn Aimbetov on ESA's 10-day "sprint" mission.

The aim is to test equipment in areas of telerobotics and communications as well as monitoring the impact of space travel on Mogensen himself as his short voyage is unique in missions that normally last several months, according to ESA.

But he will also test out a new heart rate monitor and force-measuring pedals on exercise bikes built by the Danish Aerospace Company (DAC), according to the company's website.

The Danish exercise bikes -- with no seats as none are needed in gravity-free conditions -- were launched in 2001 and replaced or upgraded several times since. They are part of the way astronauts battle the negative impact of being in space.

DAC runs one of seven ESA control centers with a live link to the International Space Station, running medical experiments and monitoring vital statistics of astronauts.

At a pre-flight news conference at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan from where the Russian Soyuz space craft will launch, the upbeat Mogensen said he had specially shaved his right leg to allow Volkov to better apply electrodes to the limb for the experiments in space. No bicycles were mentioned.

(Reporting by Alexander Tange in Copenhagen and Shamil Zhumatov in Baikonur; Writing by Sabina Zawadzki; Editing by Mark Heinrich)