2019-08-19

Planning & Strategy.

• Human beings exploring space is something many of us space enthusiasts daydream about, but the technologies required are real, hard, and in many cases, not yet developed.
• In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) will be essential to enable manufacturing outside of our blue marble. MOXIE, launching on Mars 2020, will test ISRU oxygen generation for future use as propellant (allowing vacations to the red planet to not be one-way trips) and for life support.
• A common question I get is how space R&D benefits humanity. If you wonder about this, here is a list of spinoff technologies. Honorable mentions go to WD-40 and the gold plating technology that’s used on both the James Webb Space Telescope and the Oscars (though the dubious benefit of the Oscars to humanity is not lost on me).

Making & Manufacturing.

• Carbon fiber compositing robots play a crucial role in manufacturing large rocket parts. Composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs), nose cones, and even entire small rockets are made out of composite material to reduce weight. This niche market of gigantic part fabrication is so specific that it can become quite political. Last month, Swiss manufacturer RUAG got in the middle of SpaceX and ULA sparring about the manufacturing of longer nose cones required for future US Military missions.
• On-orbit manufacturing is (arguably) the future of inhabiting space. Launching resources into space (assembled or not) is a losing battle against the Earth’s substantial gravity well and dense atmosphere. Made In Space believes in this paradigm shift and is building Archinaut, a small spacecraft to assemble solar arrays for other craft in orbit.
• Asteroids are likely to be the primary long-term source of resources for on-orbit manufacturing. Asterank has a list of known asteroids, their composition, and their estimated value in today’s dollars.
• Marsha, a prototype of a habitat for living on Mars, is built out of biopolymer and basalt fiber—materials available on the red planet. AI Space Factory recently won NASA’s 3D printed habitat challenge after autonomously printing Marsha in 30 hours (except for the final skylight which dropped through the top when they ran out of time for one last layer).
• Satellite constellations demand a change in the previously-bespoke industry to allow mass manufacturing. Some manufacturers are taking cues from auto industry assembly lines.

Maintenance, Repair & Operations.

• RRM3 is a NASA mission to perform satellite refueling. Last week it was able to successfully demonstrate connection and sealing of propellant transfer hoses. The mission also happens to contain a cryocooler built by the company I worked at in high school. Multiple startups (1, 2) are going after this nascent market as well.
• A look back at the intricate Hubble repair mission in 1993. This team at Goddard Space Flight Center also happens to be the one now responsible for RRM3. Hubble’s launch in 1990, faulty mirror, and initial repair is one of my first well-defined memories of a space mission (Challenger is, sadly, the earliest one).
• An incredibly detailed look at the beating Curiosity’s wheels have taken from the rocky Martian terrain, forcing its operators to watch out for pointy objects, reroute the rover, and update the firmware to support differential wheel rotation speed. I find the thoroughness of this article particularly fascinating, partly just because everything in it has or will soon happen on another world.

Distribution & Logistics.

• Shipping large rocket stages is exceptionally difficult. SpaceX specifically chose the Falcon 9 diameter so that it could fit under every bridge between Hawthorn, CA and Cape Canaveral on a 40-wheel transport vehicle.
• Rideshares are the equivalent of a shipping service for smallsats. Smallsats have increased to 69% of the satellites launched in the past year and I see constellation deployment driving additional waves of growth in this segment. Increased demand has recently encouraged new entrants in the rideshare market (Arianespace, SpaceX) to compete with current players (Spaceflight, Rocket Lab).
• Cost per kg to LEO has gone down drastically from the $61,720/kg it cost for the Shuttle program.

Inspection, Testing & Analysis.

• A Crew Dragon capsule blew up during testing in April due to a check valve failure generating “corrosive bullets” of nitrogen tetroxide. This is why we test vehicles before putting humans on board.
• ExoMars 2020, a joint ESA-Roscosmos mission recently failed a 2nd parachute test. This test follows a failure last year and a 2016 mission that crashed due to parachute sensor failure in 2016. I worry that the failure will make the mission miss its every 26-month launch window next summer.

Tangents.

• Planetary Blocks are precisely crafted by designer Thomas Romer at Chop Shop Studio with help from Emily Lakdawalla of the Planetary Society. (The project is, perhaps amusingly to our readers, having some difficulty with manufacturing cubes of wood…)
• Propulsion Factory, an in-development game where you build and manage a rocket factory.
• Venus cloud cities could be more habitable long term than the unwelcoming environment of Mars, despite the hellish conditions on the Venusian surface.
• A practical video guide to landing the Space Shuttle, from space.

Making the Moon Camera, a project to replicate the original Apollo 11 Hasselblad.