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NASA is looking for fresh ideas to reduce the cost and shorten the schedule for Mars Sample Return. The agency announced Monday that it will seek proposals for studies on ways to bring back samples collected by the Perseverance rover faster and less expensively than the agency's current approach. That came after an internal study confirmed the current MSR architecture would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion and, to fit it within projected budgets without cutting other programs, would delay the return of the samples to 2040. NASA plans to have studies on alternative approaches done by this fall to allow it to determine the best way forward on MSR. NASA will spend $310 million on MSR in the current fiscal year, near the low end of the range included in a 2024 appropriations bill, and will request $200 million in 2025. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he has briefed key members of Congress about those plans and they were "quite understanding" of the situation, but in a statement late Monday California's two senators said the proposed funding levels for MSR "are woefully short" and called on NASA to work with Congress to balance the cuts to the program. [SpaceNews]
Smallsat manufacturer Aerospacelab is acquiring a Belgian company that produces optical systems for satellites. Aerospacelab said Monday it is buying AMOS, or Advanced Mechanical and Optical Systems, for an undisclosed sum. Space projects AMOS has worked on include polishing mirrors for ESA's dark matter hunting space observatory Euclid and providing multispectral instruments for the agency's Sentinel Earth observation satellite program. Aerospacelab says the acquisition will give the company critical capabilities across space and ground systems. [SpaceNews]
The Space Force wants to use commercial technology to disaggregate large military satellite systems into smaller, cheaper ones. The idea of disaggregating military satellite capabilities has been talked about for years, but it's only now becoming a practical reality thanks to lower launch costs, Cordell DeLaPena, an official with Space Systems Command, said at Space Symposium last week. Two key programs poised for disaggregation are the Protected Tactical Satcom (PTS) constellation for secure military communications and GPS. Disaggregation could involve smaller, less expensive PTS spacecraft as well as commercially developed "GPS light" satellites. [SpaceNews]
Switzerland is the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords. In a ceremony Monday at NASA Headquarters, Swiss government officials signed the accords, which outline best practices for sustainable space exploration. Switzerland is the 37th country to sign the accords since they were rolled out in 2020. [SpaceNews]
| | Scientific Discovery Begins with L3Harris
L3Harris is at the forefront of unraveling the universe's deepest secrets, like dark matter and distant exoplanets. From the iconic Hubble to the groundbreaking James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes and beyond, our cutting-edge imaging technology, integration and testing solutions have helped shape humanity's understanding of the cosmos and push the boundaries of scientific discovery for decades. Learn more. | | Other News
The problems with MSR are part of a broader range of challenges for NASA's science programs. Budgetary pressures are forcing NASA to make hard decisions on how to change or even cancel some missions. That includes restructuring a series of Earth science missions and canceling the Geospace Dynamics Constellation heliophysics missions, as well as proposed cuts to the Chandra and Hubble telescopes. Observers note that with budget caps in place for fiscal year 2025, NASA has little room to maneuver, and even after the caps expire in 2026 the agency faces a "slow bleed" of resources for science missions given projected slow growth in spending. [SpaceNews]
NASA confirmed Monday than an object that hit a Florida home was debris from the International Space Station. NASA said it analyzed the object that fell through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida, in March and concluded it was part of a battery cargo pallet that was discarded from the station in 2021. That pallet reentered in March, and the path and timing of the debris corresponded with the debris that hit the Florida home. The debris was made of the metal alloy Inconel and weighted about three-quarters of a kilogram. [NASA]
Google's flagship phone may soon be getting the same satellite connectivity features as the iPhone. The upcoming Pixel 9 phone will include a chipset that will enable communications with satellite networks, similar to the "emergency SOS" messaging feature on recent iPhones that connects with Globalstar satellites. Google has not revealed what company will provide the satellite connectivity, but one possibility is Skylo, which offers services using capacity on Viasat and Inmarsat satellites. [Ars Technica]
Astronomers have discovered the biggest stellar-class black hole in our galaxy. The black hole, designated BH3 and in a star systems 2,000 light-years away, has a mass 33 times that of the sun. Astronomers detected the black hole by noticing a wobble in the motions of another star, which it turns out is orbiting the black hole. The mass of the black hole suggests to astronomers it may have formed by the same processes that, in other galaxies, created gravitational wave events. [The Guardian]
| | Neutron Neutrality
"I don't own a social media company to start with. So that's a bonus. And I reserve my Twitter comments to factual elements of what happened. … I much prefer to just let the engineering and the execution do the talking. At the end of the day, everything else is just kind of hyperbole."
– Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck, comparing himself and his company to SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk, who also owns the social media network X, formerly Twitter. [Washington Post]
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