Fifty years since the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (1968 – 2018): UNISPACE+50

In June 2018 the international community will gather in Vienna for UNISPACE+50. UNISPACE+50 will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. It will also be an opportunity for the international community to gather and consider the future course of global space cooperation for the benefit of humankind.

UNISPACE+50 will consist of two main parts:

  • A UNISPACE+50 Symposium, aimed at the broader space community, on 18 and 19 June; and
  • A special UNISPACE+50 High-level Segment of the 61 stsession of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) on 20 and 21 June.

From 22 to 29 June, COPUOS will revert to its regular session.

Read more at: UNOOSA

Next Generation Russian Crew Vehicle Enters Initial Testing

The Russian Federatsiya project – which is preparing the path for the launch of a new crewed spacecraft – passed a major milestone when it recently entered aerodynamic testing. The tests involved a model of the future spaceship and its Launch Abort System (LAS) fitted with numerous pressure sensors. Another milestone was achieved when work on the interior of the spacecraft was conducted, as noted by Roscosmos in recent days.

The development path for this new spacecraft – which is also referenced as “Federation” in its English translation – began in February 2009, when Roscosmos issued a solicitation for a spaceship intended for Lunar manned missions.

They called it PPTS (Prospective Piloted Transport System), which was also known as the Future Manned Transportation System.

Read more at: NASA Spaceflight

US Spacewalkers Feustel and Arnold Complete EVA Double

Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold stepped outside of the International Space Station for the second of two related EVAs, completing the primary objectives of upgrading cooling system hardware and installing new and updated communications equipment for future dockings of commercial crew spacecraft. The first spacewalk (EVA-50) was completed last month ahead of the second on June 14, both of which were incident free and fully successful.

These two spacewalks were the eighth and ninth of Feustel’s career, and the fourth and fifth of Arnold’s,  for what was the 210th and 211th spacewalks in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. Feustel moved into third place during the second EVA, in the all time EVA spacewalk duration table

Read more at: NASA Spaceflight

Here’s a Look at the Martian Storm That is Killing NASA’s Opportunity Rover

NASA’s Opportunity rover has reached a critically low battery level due to the dust storm currently encircling Mars. Initially spotted on May 30th, the massive tempest now covers a quarter of the Red Planet, blocking light and threatening to end Opportunity’s 14 year life.  Dust storms on Mars pose numerous threats to robotic, solar-powered rovers. When light from the Sun hits the surface of Mars and heats it, the air nearest the surface also becomes warmer while the air higher in the atmosphere remains cool. As the warmer air rises, taking dust with it, the clash between the cool and warm air incites the storms. The most powerful storms arise during Mars’ summer when the radiative heat from the Sun is greatest. Thankfully, because Mars has a tenuous atmosphere just 1% as dense as Earth’s, the wind speeds of the most severe Martian storms rarely exceed 60 miles per hour.

Read more at: Forbes

NASA is Really Worried About its Mars Rover

Millions of miles from Earth, tucked inside a rust-colored, rocky valley, a space robot is sleeping.

nasa’s Opportunity rover is currently hunkered down on Mars as a dust storm of unprecedented size swirls around the planet. As of this week, the tempest spans 14 million square miles, about one quarter of the entire planet, according to nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The storm blocked sunlight from reaching the surface of continent-sized regions, including the valley where Opportunity resides. And it could last for weeks.

Read more at: Atlantic

Can Humans Prevent Bacteria From Contaminating Mars?

As humanity watches Earth’s major powers prepare to colonize the Solar System, most of the questions are practical—how will we provide space settlers with enough energy to survive? How are we going to get there? How much will a ticket cost? Will we be able to reproduce on other planets.

Astrobiologists, meanwhile, are asking a very different set of questions: Is there bacterial life on other planets, and if so, how can we keep invasive Earth bacteria from destroying it.

This is more than a theoretical problem—NASA has already crashed Cassini into Saturn to prevent the spacecraft from potentially contaminating Titan, and despite giving Juno a second lease on life, it too will eventually be ordered to make a kamikaze dive into Jupiter.

Read more at: Outerplaces

A Meteoroid Smashed into the Side of a Crater on Mars and Then Started a Landslide

In 2006, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) established orbit around the Red Planet. Using an advanced suite of scientific instruments – which include cameras, spectrometers, and radar – this spacecraft has been analyzing landforms, geology, minerals and ice on Mars for years and assisting with other missions. While the mission was only meant to last two years, the orbiter has remained in operation for the past twelve.

In that time, the MRO has acted as a relay for other missions to send information back to Earth and provided a wealth of information of its own on the Red Planet. Most recently, it captured an image of an impact crater that caused a landslide, which left a long, dark streak along the crater wall. Such streaks are created when dry dust collapses down the edge of a Martian hill, leaving behind dark swaths.

Read more at: Universe Today

To Improve Space Clothing, German Astronaut will Work Up a Sweat

Alexander Gerst, a German astronaut for the European Space Agency, is about to sweat for science.

Gerst, who arrived at the International Space Station as part of the European Space Agency’s Horizons mission on June 6, will help conduct the first experiments to explore how the human body, clothing and climate interact, in relation to comfort, under zero-gravity conditions.

Central to the study, known as SpaceTex2, will be the examination of three shirts, each with a different cooling performance, that were developed following the original SpaceTex experiments on the space station in 2014.

Read more at: Space.com

Airbus Performing Orion ESM Checkout for Trip to U.S. Launch Site

Airbus Defence and Space is in the home stretch of work to ship the first European Service Module (ESM) to its Florida launch site for integration with the rest of the hardware for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. When fully assembled and tested, Orion will be launched on the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) test flight to orbit the Moon and return.

ESM-1 is now undergoing subsystem functional testing at its Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) facility in Bremen, Germany, following completion of most hardware that can be installed on-site. Also known as Flight Model-1 (FM-1), the module will be flown to the Kennedy Space Center this summer to begin the sequence of steps to put together the full Orion spacecraft.

Read more at: NASA Spaceflight

SpaceX to Launch Most of its Starlink Internet Constellation from Cape Canaveral

If SpaceX’s ambitious communications goals coalesce, the company will operate a mega-constellation of thousands of internet-beaming satellites in low Earth orbit – and most of those will be launched from the Space Coast, according to environmental documents released by NASA.

Federal documents obtained by FLORIDA TODAY early this month indicate that SpaceX is planning on launching most of the constellation’s first batch, or 4,425 minifridge-sized satellites, from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Launch Complex 40 in the coming years.

“SpaceX plans to launch more than 4,000 satellites with the intention that most of these satellites will be launched from LC-39A and LC-40,” the draft environmental impact assessment for SpaceX’s future KSC expansions reads. “Short- and long-term moderate adverse effects would be expected.”

Read more at: Florida today

Congress Considering Space Traffic Management Legislation

As the White House puts the finishing touches on a new space policy dealing with space traffic management issues, the House is considering legislation of its own on the topic.

During an appearance at a Secure World Foundation panel discussion on the subject June 11, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, said legislation was in development to address the issue of monitoring objects in orbit and providing warnings to satellite operators of potential collisions.

“We also have another bill coming up on some of the same subjects that you are going to be discussing here,” he said after mentioning the passage in April of another commercial space bill, the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act.

Read more at: Spacenews

Job Openings – Space Traffic Controllers

In the not-too-distant future an international regulatory and enforcement agency may be looking for Space Traffic Controllers to fill hundreds of positions for well-trained professionals. It is likely that these positions will be located in an international metropolis such as Washington, Paris, London, Hong Kong, Rome or Moscow.

Applicants must pass a rigorous training program including many hours in class and in simulators. They will probably be required to have prior training in spacecraft dynamics and orbital mechanics.

Read more at: Space daily

In-orbit Services Poised to Become Big Business

A transition is happening in the satellite business. Fast-moving technology and evolving customer demands are driving operators to rethink major investments in new satellites and consider other options such as squeezing a few more years of service out of their current platforms.

Which makes this an opportune moment for the arrival of in-orbit servicing.

Sometime in early 2019, the first commercial servicing spacecraft is scheduled to launch. The Mission Extension Vehicle built by Orbital ATK on behalf of subsidiary SpaceLogistics, will the first of several such robotic craft that are poised to compete for a share of about $3 billion worth of in-orbit services that satellite operators and government agencies are projected to buy over the coming decade.

Read more at: Spacenews

Russia Wants to Blast Space Junk with Laser Cannon

Russian. Space. Lasers. That’s right, Russian scientists are developing cosmic guns capable of blasting some of the half-million bits of space junk orbiting our planet into oblivion.

Precision Instrument Systems — a research and development arm within the Russian space agency, Roscosmos — recently submitted a proposal to the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for transforming a 3-meter (10 feet) optical telescope into a laser cannon, the RT network reported.

Scientists at Russia’s Altay Optical-Laser Center will build this debris-monitoring telescope. Then, to turn it into a debris-vaporizing blaster, the researchers plan to add an optical detection system with an onboard “solid-state laser,” according to the Sputnik news agency.

Read more at: Space.com

Female Applicants Fail to Qualify for Russia’s Cosmonaut Team — Source

Female applicants have failed to qualify for a group of 13 candidates, from whom new members of Russia’s national cosmonaut team will be selected, a source in the domestic space industry told TASS on Thursday.

“Thirteen persons have been cleared by the main medical commission and the final stage will involve selection at the inter-departmental commission, which will be held in late June,” the source said, specifying that “there are no females among the thirteen candidates who have been cleared for the final selection stage.”

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the Cosmonaut Training Center declined to comment on this information.

Read more at: TASS

Do we Need a Single International Language in Space?

Nowadays, most humans leaving Earth must do so through Russian territory. Space fliers ride on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which lifts off from a special parcel of Russian territory in Kazakhstan. Their spacecraft mission is commanded by a Russian citizen and a large chunk of their destination — the International Space Station — has modules and operations in Russian, too.

This means that all astronauts going to the ISS, no matter how many languages they speak, also need to learn Russian. And astronauts and cosmonauts all over the world need to learn at least some English to work with NASA. English is a challenging language for foreigners to learn.

Do we need an international space language? Experts say it may be time to consider it, especially since the ISS could run out of funding and wrap up operations in the 2020s and the space world is changing rapidly.

Read more at: Space.com

We Control the Space Station

Cooper and her colleagues do mission planning, analysis, and real-time operations of the station’s motion control system.

The job: Attitude Determination and Control Officer. The International Space Station is a spacecraft, which is ordinarily controlled by onboard software. During dynamic events, however, such as spacecraft rendezvous and crewed dockings and undockings, it must be controlled by operators in Mission Control. It is constantly crewed, with three to six in residence at any given time. People may not realize, says Cooper, what dockings with supply ships or crew ships require. “We may need to turn the ISS to fly backwards or belly-forward so the approaching spacecraft can reach a certain docking port.

Read more at: Air and Space

SpaceX’s Ultimate Ace in the Hole is its Starlink Satellite Internet Business

In a 2018 report on the current state of the satellite industry, the rationale behind SpaceX’s decision to expand its business into the construction and operation of a large satellite network – known as Starlink – was brought into sharp contrast, demonstrating just how tiny the market for orbital launches is compared with the markets those same launches create.

First and foremost, it must be acknowledged that SpaceX’s incredible strides in launch vehicles over the last decade or so have been explicitly focused on lowering the cost of access to orbit, the consequences of which basic economics suggests should be a subsequent growth in demand for orbital access. If a sought-after good is somehow sold for less, one would expect that more people would be able and willing to buy it. The launch market is similar, but also very different in the sense that simply reaching orbit has almost no inherent value on its own – what makes it valuable are the payloads, satellites, spacecraft, and humans that are delivered there.

Read more at: Teslarati

Tory Bruno, the Other Rocket Man

Tory Bruno resists the temptation to trash-talk Elon Musk, for the most part. Holding back can’t be easy. Among space enthusiasts, Musk and the company he founded, SpaceX, are the disrupters, the swashbuckling innovators whose cheap, reusable rockets will pave the way for an explosion of orbital commerce and creativity. Old Space, according to this construction, stays hopelessly mired in the past.

Bruno is in charge of the establishment empire striking back. The imperium in this case is United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of America’s two aerospace titans, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, mashed together a dozen years ago to create a reliable national delivery service for U.S. military spacecraft and NASA. Reliable ULA has been, its Delta and Atlas rockets completing 122 successful launches as of last fall, and five more since.

Read more at: Air and Space

Alphabet, Others Help Sunnyvale ‘Space Catapult’ Startup Raise $40M to Fling Rockets into Space

A Sunnyvale startup with a new spin on getting rockets into space has raised $40 million to develop its space catapult idea.

The Series A funding of SpinLaunch Inc. ended up being bigger than was reported a few months ago and includes money from Alphabet Inc.’s GV (formerly Google Ventures), Airbus Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Founder Jonathan Yaney and his team apparently have a working prototype for their “kinetic energy launch system,” but are keeping many details under wraps. The catapult uses electricity to get a rocket spinning at 5,000 miles an hour — fast enough to fling it past the Earth’s atmosphere where rocket engines can take over.

“Some people call it a non-rocket launch,” Yaney told Bloomberg. “It seems crazy. It seems fantastic. But we are actually using relatively low-tech industrial components to break this problem into manageable chunks.”

Read more at: Bizjournals

Aeolus: Wind Satellite Weathers Technical Storm

They say there is no gain without pain, but when the European Space Agency (Esa) set out in 2002 to develop its Aeolus satellite, no-one could have imagined the grief the project would bring.

Designed to make the most comprehensive maps of winds across the Earth, the mission missed deadline after deadline as engineers struggled to get its key technology – an ultraviolet laser system – working for long enough to make the venture worth flying.

But now, 16 years on, the Aeolus satellite is finished and ready to ship to the launch pad. And far from being snuck out the back door at night in embarrassment at the huge delay, the spacecraft will be mated to its launch rocket with something of a fanfare.

Read more at: BBC

This Tech Expert Says NASA’s Asteroid Data is Flawed—Now Scientists are Backing him Up

NASA is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to scientific research: Between the Hubble and Chandra telescopes, the multiple Mars rovers rolling across Mars’ surface, and the International Space Station, they’ve pulled in more data about space, the Solar System, and our galaxy than just about anyone else.

One of NASA’s proudest accomplishments is the NeoWISE database, a catalog of around 158,000 asteroids and near-Earth objects that lists their diameter and reflectivity.

The database is one of the cornerstones of NASA’s ongoing mission to protect the Earth from an asteroid impact, but now the data from NeoWISE has come under fierce criticism from a former Microsoft chief technologist named Dr. Nathan P. Myhrvold, who has accused NASA of using shoddy methods and even doctoring data.

Read more at: Outerplaces

Re-generatively Cooled RL10 Thrust Chamber Assembly Test Validates 3D Printing Process

Aerojet Rocketdyne recently achieved a significant milestone by successfully completing a series of hot-fire tests of an advanced, next-generation RL10 engine thrust chamber design that was built almost entirely using additive manufacturing; commonly known as 3-D printing.

“This recent series of hot-fire tests conducted under our RL10C-X development program demonstrated the large-scale additive manufacturing capability we are maturing to help reduce the cost of this legendary engine system while continuing to provide reliable performance,” said Aerojet Rocketdyne CEO and President Eileen Drake.

“This marks another important milestone in our effort to fully qualify components built with additive manufacturing for use in many of our production engine systems.”

Read more at: Space daily

Sample Return Technology Successfully Tested on Masten Xodiac Rocket

Just a sample will do.

Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California, flight tested its pneumatic sampler collection system, PlanetVac, on Masten Space Systems’ Xodiac rocket on May 24, launching from Mojave, California, and landing to collect a sample of more than 320 grams of top soil from the surface of the desert floor.

“The opportunity to test a technology on Earth before it is destined for another planet allows researchers and mission planners to have confidence that once the technology arrives to its space destination it will work,” said Ryan Dibley, NASA Flight Opportunities program campaign manager. Flight Opportunities program funded the test flight.

Read more at: Parabolic arc

Senate Appropriators Join House in Boosting NASA’s Budget, Rejecting Trump Cuts

The Senate Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee approved its FY2019 bill today, allocating $21.3 billion for NASA. Although that is somewhat less than the $21.6 billion approved by its House counterpart, it is still significantly higher than the Trump Administration’s request.  Among its actions, the Senate subcommittee rejected Trump proposals to eliminate four Earth science programs, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), and programs funded in NASA’s Office of Education.

This is the first CJS subcommittee markup led by Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas).  He assumed chairmanship of the subcommittee in April after Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) succeeded Thad Cochran as chairman of the full committee and moved over to chair the Defense Subcommittee.  Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire) is the top Democrat on the subcommittee.

Read more at: Space policy online

ESA Council Decides on the Completion of Ariane 6 and Endorses Start of Transition from Ariane 5 to Ariane 6

The ESA Council met today in Paris to discuss the path towards the future exploitation of Ariane 6.

In view of the progress made in the Ariane 6 programme, Participating States have decided on the completion of the development up to full operational capability and agreed to fund industrial incentives associated with the development of Ariane 6 and P120C solid rocket motor.

Participating States also committed to start with the first step of the Ariane 6 and P120C Transition Programme. This programme supports the evolution from Europe’s Ariane 5 to full operational capability of Ariane 6.

Read more at: ESA

Who Owns What in Outer Space

In 2015 Congress passed a law to legalise mining in outer space—the first of its kind in the world. Firms that some day manage to mine asteroids for resources like water or precious metals would henceforth be allowed to own, process, and sell anything harvested. The nascent space-mining industry was thrilled. The boss of a firm called Planetary Resources compared it to the Homestead Act of 1862—a law that gave up to 160 acres in the American West to any plucky settler willing to venture forth. More recently Wilbur Ross, the commerce secretary, has talked about creating a more “permissive” regulatory environment in space and turning the moon into a “gas station” for further exploration.

Other countries are following suit: Luxembourg passed a similar measure last year and earmarked €200m to invest in space-mining companies. But not everyone is pleased. At the UN committee dealing with outer space, Russia condemned the American move, citing America’s “total disrespect” for international law. Critics say America is conferring rights that it has no authority to confer. There are indeed legal grey areas. Who owns what in outer space?

Read more at: Economist

The Unsung Astronauts

The journey to outer space for American astronauts for the past seven years has begun at a Soviet-era launch site in Kazakhstan, deep in Central Asia. There, they pay homage to Russian cosmonauts and graciously participate in the rituals of their hosts, even the tradition of urinating on the right rear tire of the bus that ferries them to the rocket.

The landscape is barren and desiccated, resembling the moon or some distant celestial body, a reminder that the astronauts are a long way from Cape Canaveral.

Now, human space flight is returning to the place where the American Space Age was born.

Read more at: Washington Post

Elon Musk and the Failure of Our Imagination in Space

Long before mastering the mechanics of spaceflight, men imagined sending other men into the cosmos. Cicero, de Bergerac, Godwin, Poe, Verne, Wells: the tone of their tales was sometimes satirical, and the transportation methods varied—moon geese, a space cannon—but, generally, the gender of the space travellers did not. One exception is “Somnium” (Latin for “dream”), the astronomer Johannes Kepler’s treatise on the heliocentric universe disguised as a story, published posthumously, in 1634. In it, a teen-ager discovers that his mother has a celestial mentor, a daemon, whom she summons to take them to the moon. The daemon’s criteria for moon trippers are harsh: “We do not admit desk-bound humans into these ranks, nor the fat, nor the foppish,” he explains. But “dried-out old women” can make for good spacefarers, since “they are accustomed to riding goats at night, or pitchforks.” Witches, he means. It’s a joke, one that came back to haunt Kepler when his mother was accused of witchcraft.

Read more at: Newyorker

NASA Creates, and Fills, High-level Position Dedicated to Exploration

One of NASA‘s principal functions is to provide leadership in space exploration, and now the agency has a position that is the embodiment of that responsibility. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s new Administrator, recently named Steve Clarke as the agency’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration. In a release issued by the agency on Monday June 11, 2018, Bridenstine provided a broad outline of Clarke’s responsibilities, something for which the new Deputy Associate Administrator may be well-suited.

“He’ll help integrate near-term and long-term lunar exploration with science missions and other destinations, including Mars,” noted the NASA Administrator. Clarke will facilitate interaction between different departments within the agency, as well as with commercial partners and the scientific community.

Read more at: Spaceflight Insider

NASA Glenn Director Janet Kavandi May Get a Promotion

NASA Glenn Research Center Director Janet Kavandi may be up for a promotion.

The new head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – Jim Bridenstine – is telling Washington, D. C., space industry gatherings that he wants Kavandi to be his deputy. The post has been vacant since President Donald Trump took office.

A former astronaut, Kavandi has been NASA Glenn Research Director since 2016 after serving as its deputy director for a year. “While the President has not yet nominated a deputy administrator for the Agency, Dr. Kavandi is honored that the NASA Administrator expressed his confidence in her,” said a Friday morning statement from NASA Glenn Research Center spokeswoman Jan Wittry.

Read more at: Cleveland

The Origin of Civilian Uses of GPS

Several articles in recent years have discussed the adoption of GPS for civilian use. They assert that the Reagan Administration reacted to the destruction of Korean Airlines Flight 007 by opening GPS for civilian uses. For example, Sarah Laskow wrote in The Atlantic in 2014 that Reagan “decided to speed up the timeline for civilian use of GPS.”

Sebastien Roblin wrote for War is Boring in 2017: “And two weeks after the accident, Reagan announced he was making Global Positioning System technology freely available for civilian use due to the mind-boggling navigational errors which led to the tragedy. Prior to that, GPS had been reserved for the military. Of course, GPS would likely have ended up in civilian use one way or another—but the Flight 007 catastrophe was the catalyst that finally made civilian GPS a reality, and may have facilitated its earlier adoption.”

Read more at: Space review

UK Rebuffed Over Galileo Sat-nav Procurement

The UK space industry, fighting to be part of the European satellite-navigation system, Galileo, has suffered another Brexit setback. Delegations to the European Space Agency have approved the procurement of the next batch of spacecraft, despite British calls to delay. The decision means UK companies will find it hard to win any contracts.

As it stands, no deal has been agreed between London and the EU-27 to allow Britain continued participation. Even if this is eventually negotiated, any decision will probably come too late for UK firms to make the kind of bids for satellite work they have in the past.

Read more at: BBC

Pompeo Warns N.Korea Peace Goal Still Faces ‘Risks’

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un understands that denuclearisation must happen “quickly”, but he warned there are still risks that peace will not be achieved and sanctions must be maintained for now.

Washington remained committed to the “complete, verifiable and irreversible” denuclearisation of North Korea, Pompeo said, after the historic US-North Korea summit in Singapore drew criticism for its vague wording on plans for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.

“We believe that Kim Jong Un understands the urgency… that we must do this quickly,” he said of the effort to have North Korea abandon its atomic arsenal.

Read more at: Space daily

NASA Flies Large Unmanned Aircraft in Public Airspace Without Chase Plane for First Time

NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, successfully flew its first mission in the National Airspace System without a safety chase aircraft on Tuesday. This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private pilots.

Flying these large remotely-piloted aircraft over the United States opens the doors to all types of services, from monitoring and fighting forest fires, to providing new emergency search and rescue operations. The technology in this aircraft could, at some point, be scaled down for use in other general aviation aircraft.

Read more at: Space daily

“Safe Passage to Mars” Design Challenge

“Safe Passage to Mars” is a design challenge for undergraduate students. Enabling safe space exploration of Moon, Mars and beyond requires the application of the concepts of Engineering Psychology to design and build hardware (tools, devices, or equipment) which can mitigate critical human performance issues associated with long-duration spaceflight.

Read more at: ISSF

Quality Assurance for Space Projects

26 – 29 June 2018 – Athlone, Ireland

The course is designed to provide the participant with an understanding of basic principles of Quality Management, Quality Assurance and Quality Control, as they are usually applied to space projects. You will find the full description of the course in the IAASS Professional Training Courses Catalog (download from the right bar on this page). Please register for attendance at the course by sending a completed Space Quality Assurance June 2018 – Booking Form to Catherine Lenehan by e-mail: catherine.lenehan@gltechnology.ie

Read more at: IAASS

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