3rd December 2018: Hello Bennu !

Practical details about Bennu and OSIRIS-REx

are available at a glance
on the "asteroidmission.org" website.

Link to: "www.asteroidmission.org/objectives/bennu/"

26th November 2018: "InSight" mars mission day

Essential preliminary information relating to the mission

can be found in the JPL "InSight Landing Press Kit".

Link to: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Press Kit

Robotic Refueling Mission 3 (RRM3)

NASA is now ready for the next experimental step

in its meticulously systematic research

towards developing a reliable outer space filling station.

                          Link to: "NASA to Launch New Refueling Mission, Helping Spacecraft Live Longer and Journey Farther"

End of partnership between Luxembourg Government and Planetary Resources Inc.

As a result of the sale of Planetary Resources Inc. 

the Luxembourg Société Nationale de Crédit et d'Investissement

no longer holds any shares in the company,

which now belongs to ConsenSys.

Link to: RTL/Today

Planetary Resources Inc. has changed hands

As announced on the Planetary Resources website on October 31st

"Blockchain venture production studio ConsenSys, Inc.

has acquired the pioneering space company Planetary Resources, Inc.

through an asset-purchase transaction. "

Link to: Planetary Resources' press release

Link to: Related article by Jeff Foust

Update on Luxembourg and the space sector

Detailed essential information on Luxembourg's role and place

 in the space sector so far

has been packed into an in-depth report

by Kristi J. Bradford for the CSPS,

the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy.

Link to: A Model for Space Sector Growth: A Luxembourg Case Study

LSA ready to support another three space startups

Made in Space, Hydrosat and CubeRover

should soon be present in Luxembourg too.

Link to: 27th September article in The LUXEMBOURG TIMES

LSA Luxembourg Space Agency

As of today tiny Luxembourg has its own small-scale "space agency".

"Luxembourg, September 12, 2018 – The Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) officially launched operations today with the goal of promoting the further economic development of the Grand Duchy’s space industry by attracting businesses, developing human resources, providing innovative financial solutions and supporting educational and research infrastructure.

Unlike many similar organisations abroad, Luxembourg's space agency will not directly conduct research or launch missions, but foster collaboration between key players in the space industry, with the core mission of accelerating the emergence of innovation-driven businesses."

Link to: Full article on RTL

(Scroll down RTL webpage for text in English entitled:

Luxembourg launches business-focused national space agency)

Bennu now within reach of PolyCam

 OSIRIS-REx is getting closer and closer to the asteroid.

Link to: "NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Begins Asteroid Operations Campaign"

The boon of going to the moon

 Ian Whittaker  and Gareth Dorrian 

have highlighted some very good reasons
 why the moon should be first on our galactic itinerary.

Link to: "Five reasons to forget Mars for now and return to the moon"

Will the Force be with the Space Miners?

As Paul March-Russell indicates in his 16th August article for The Conversation

there are times when current politics and science fiction seem to overlap.

Link to: "Donald Trump’s Space Force plans analysed by a sci-fi expert"

Parker Solar Probe: cool-headed science and technology

NASA have recently published an easy to understand article by Susannah Darling

(with accompanying video material)

providing a detailed explanation as to why the Parker Solar Probe

will be able to cope with heat and extreme temperatures.

Link to: Traveling to the Sun: Why Won’t Parker Solar Probe Melt?

Seeds for weeds in microgravity

A promising experiment involving the humble weed "thale cress" (Arabidopsis thaliana)

is presently being conducted in NASA's advanced plant habitat

on the International Space Station.

Link to: "EMSL A matter of gravity: Understanding how plants grow in space"

[For background information on the scientific value of thale cress 

there is an old article from The INDEPENDENT

that remains quite topical and stimulatingly informative.

Link to: "The INDEPENDENT Salad days: the secret life of thale cress"]

Bright flash and loud sonic boom

Purdue University News Service has provided a short, useful note 

on a meteoroid that exploded 

over the city of Lipetsk in western Russia in June. 

Link to: Purdue University News

Hayabusa2 has reached its destination

Japan’s Hayabusa2 space explorer is presently

 at about 20 kilometres from asteroid Ryugu 

(some 280 million kilometres away from Earth)

scanning the surface for suitable touchdown places.

Link to: June 2018 article in The Japan Times

"Spacish, Spacian or Spacese"

Agreeing on a common language

allowing individuals to communicate efficiently

with their fellow human beings 

in the alien territories of outer space

remains one of the great hurdles to cross 

for future astro- and cosmonauts.

Link to: Elizabeth Howell's related article in SPACE.COM

Let us grow lettuce and cabbage in space

It's not that easy being green 

in a space traveller's canteen.

Link to: "Gardening in Space - a Challenge for NASA"

NASA's inscrutable ways: discard to replace?

Why has NASA's Lunar Resource Prospector fallen from grace?
Loren Grush, writing for The Verge, is trying to find an answer.

Link to: "NASA scraps a lunar surface mission — just as it’s supposed to focus on a Moon return"

Rick Tumlinson now "chairman emeritus" of DSI

Although Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of Deep Space Industries, is moving on,

this does not mean he is turning his back on the space resources company

that he helped to found in 2012.

Link to: "Stepping Away - Stepping Up"

Easter 2018: Tiangong-1 (Heavenly Palace-1)

"Like the phoenix that rises from its ashes"

Link to: "Backgrounder:Tiangong-1, pioneer of China' s space station"

Link to: "Tianhe-1, the core module of China’s space station unveiled"




Link to: "ESA reentry expertise"

Falcon Heavy and a dummy named "Starman"

Ian Whittaker, writing for The Conversation,

has clearly been impressed by Elon Musk's latest achievement,

but he has not let himself be carried away

by the dummy in the cherry-red roadster

looking for alien hitchhikers in the galaxy.

Link to: "Falcon Heavy: SpaceX stages an amazing launch – but what about the environmental impact?"

Link to: February 7th article by Tarik Malik in "Space.com"

Link to: "Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities"

GovSat-1

Since yesterday GovSat-1 has been up in the sky,

and in a good two weeks' time

of "orbit-raising procedures and in-orbit tests"

it should be ready to become operational

at 36,000 kilometres above the equator

and remain so for the next 15 years.

Link to:"Orbital ATK-Built GovSat-1 Multi-Mission Satellite Successfully Launched"

Link to: "GovSat-1 Successfully Launched on SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket "

Heading for Ryugu and Bennu

There has been a meticulously detailed update this week

by Stephen Clark in Spaceflight Now

on JAXA's Hayabusa 2 and NASA's OSIRIS-Rex

journeying towards asteroids Ryugu and Bennu

to collect samples for return to Earth.

Link to: "Asteroid missions on track to reach their destinations in 2018"

Chinese space research laboratory in Luxembourg

On 16th January 2018

a Memorandum of Understanding was signed 

between the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy

 and the National Space Science Center 

of the Chinese Academy of Sciences

 to establish a Research Laboratory of Deep Space Exploration in Luxembourg.

Link to: National Space Science Center (NSSC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

"More than just rockets"

"particle.scitech.org.au"

have just published a refreshingly stimulating article

on challengingly futuristic options

for travelling faster and further into deep outer space,

entitled The Trouble with Rockets.

Link to: Rocky McGellin's January 2018 article