On May 16th, NASA announced that forty-five and a half million dollars is going to be awarded to eleven companies under the terms of NextSTEP E contracts. NASA has been developing a plan for manned lunar exploration. A space station dubbed the Gateway will be placed in orbit around the Moon.
With President Trump and Vice President Pence publicly pushing for a U.S. manned landing on the Moon in the next five years, there is a lot discussion of lunar exploration in the popular press. Ultimately, the companies and nations interested in the exploring the moon want to build permanent manned bases there.
In addition to writing this weekly blog on space issues, I write a blog about nuclear issues every week day. In my nuclear blog, I have often talked about the greed and incompetence of some companies in the nuclear industry. Le Creuset is a French Company that sold nuclear components and reactor vessels made of substandard steel for decades before they were caught.
Graphene is form of carbon where a single layer of carbon atoms is laid out in a hexagonal grid. Graphene has many amazing properties. It is the strongest material ever tested. It can conduct electricity and heat efficiently. It is almost transparent and yet it is surprisingly opaque for a material that is only a single atom thick.
There are many practical reasons to launch satellites including Earth sensing, astronomy, preparing for deep space missions, carrying out low gravity research on chemistry and biology, etc. There are also strategic reasons such as control, command and communication of men and equipment on the ground during war as well as placing weapons in orbit for use in conflict.
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Beyond concerns about space debris, there are worries expressed by national governments and international regulatory bodies that the current view of space as a neutral and conflict-free zone is being eroded by ASAT tests. This may mark a serious decline in global security.
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In my last couple of posts, I talked about the dangers of attacks on U.S. military satellites and how it could hamper our ability to detected missiles launches from enemies. While I was working on these posts, there were news stories about India’s experiment with an antisatellite missile that they used to shoot down one of their own satellites.
Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
Part 1 of 2 Parts
Tethers Unlimited is a U.S. private aerospace company with its headquarters in Bothell, Washington. They carry out research and development of new products and technologies for space, sea, and air. TU was founded in 1994 to research and develop space tether technology. Applications of space tethers include removal of orbital debris and momentum exchange tethers for moving payloads to higher orbits.
