Articles by: SPC

November 5-11, 2018 / Vol 37, No 45 / Hawai`i Island, USA

40 Countries Come Together at APRSAF 25 in Singapore

Singapore Space and Technology Association hosts the 25th Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum November 6-9 at the Sheraton Towers, coinciding with the Galaxy Forum in Hawaii. APRSAF is preceded by a Space Generation Workshop for young space professionals Nov 3-5, one of a series of worldwide workshops. APRSAF, one of the largest space conferences in the Asia-Pacific, draws attendees from 40 countries. Thursday Nov 8 a Heads of Space Agencies session brings together senior officials from Australia, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Thailand, Vietnam, and United Arab Emirates. A Country Reports Session includes representatives from Bhutan, China, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea. Friday is a Space Exploration Session with Japan and USA. International Lunar Observatory Association is hosting with SSTA, a Southeast Asia Benefactors’ Reception Feb 13 at the St. Regis Singapore Hotel. Singapore Space and Technology Association, led by Jonathan Hung, is a non-profit with a mission to foster development of space industry. SSTA will also host Singapore Space Symposia and the Global Space Technology Convention in Feb 2019. Singapore’s growing space industry has over 30 companies and 1,000 employees. IN.Genius has the goal to send Singapore astronaut to space via balloon, so far thwarted by high winds and low funding. Balloon astronaut candidate Yip Chuang Syn, a former F-15 pilot with Singapore Armed Forces, is chosen from 150 applicants. Equatorial Space Industries hopes to use Singapore’s strategic location as launch site. Upcoming Space Generation Workshops continue in Colombia, Mauritius and Costa Rica. (Image Credits: UAE Gov Website, APRSAF, In.Genius)

MONDAY

Highlights…
Nov 5 — ISS, 405-km LEO: Three Expedition 57 crew members configuring Life Sciences Glovebox, working with Electrostatic Levitation Furnace and Combustion Integrated Rack, performing Team Task Switching studies and reviewing procedures for Cygnus cargo freighter arrival; Veg-03G experiment begins its 28-day cycle for Red Russian Kale and Dragoon Lettuce.

Nov 5 — NewSpace: Astroscale, now with 3 international operation offices, raises US$90M for orbital debris removal projects; Landspace CEO Zhang Changwu confirms failure of 1st orbital rocket launch, company working to reconfigure operations / launch timelines; Fleet Space Technologies sending 2 small satellites to LEO aboard Rocket Lab “It’s Business Time” launch.

Nov 5 — Solar System: Unusual 1,500 km (~930 mile) smoky plume being observed for more than 1 month near Mars Arsia Mons volcano; BepiColombo on journey to Mercury sending data to Earth from monitoring cameras and magnetometer sensors; Hayabusa2 scouting Asteroid Ryugu for clear landing area.

Nov 5 — Galaxy: ESO observations give further evidence that center of Milky Way does indeed have a supermassive black hole; Kepler exoplanet data sets continue to be examined as craft in Heliocentric Orbit reaches its retirement due to fuel exhaustion; Hubble releases photo of Serpens Nebula 1,300 LY distant in Milky Way.

Nov 5 — Global: UAE Space Agency celebrates deployment of KhalifaSat, developing Astronaut class, Mars Hope mission, international collaborations; India small-scale landing test for Chandrayaan-2 keeps craft on track for Jan 2019 launch; China plans to launch Pakistan Astronaut to space in 2022.

Nov 5 — USA: EarthRise50 celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic EarthRise photo taken by Apollo 8 crew, proposes EarthRise Dinner hosting, other events looking toward 2068; NASA advancing parachutes for landing Mars 2020 mission, latest test deployed in four-tenths of a second; Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico observes 55 years of operation.

Nov 5 — Hawai’i: Thirty Meter Telescope receives Hawaii Supreme Court approval for building on Mauna Kea, environmental impact studies to continue into 2019; Maunakea Scholars Program initiated by CFHT to be offered on 6 Hawaii islands; PISCES to host Hawai‘i International Space Exploration And Robotics Challenge in Sep 2019.

= All times

for terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for international terrestrial events in local time unless noted.

= All times for space events, and…

= All times for international space / astro events in Hawaii Standard Time unless noted. Add 10 hours to obtain UT (‘Universal Time’).

Weekly Planet Watch – Evening Planets: Mercury (SW), Mars (S), Jupiter (SW), Saturn (SW), Uranus (E), Neptune (SE); Morning Planets: Venus (ESE).

ILOA Galaxy Forum Hawai’i, and New Worlds Institute Host Moon, Science, STEM Events

International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA) is planning Galaxy Forum Hawaii 2018: Kamuela with themes ‘Astronomy from the Moon’ and ‘Hawaii 21st Century Astrophysics’ on November 7. Mayor Harry Kim, and representatives from CFHT, W. M. Keck Observatory, Subaru Telescope, and EAO / JCMT will discuss future science projects during this Galaxy Forum – the 87th overall. These international events are typically free public education gatherings geared towards high school teachers, educators, astronomers of all kinds and students. ILOA will present its vision to support the already-standing world class observatories on Mauna Kea, and encourage collaborations toward future Galaxy observations from the Moon’s surface – with Aloha. New Worlds 2018 is being held Nov 9-10 in Austin TX with Steamspace ‘Cities in Space Student Competition & Conference 2018’, and the Cowboy Gala. Major themes include lunar enterprise, women 2.0 – Astronauts to entrepreneurs, space farming, finance and property rights issues. The morning of Nov 10 will focus on Luna with talks titled Return to the Moon (again), A New Plan for the Moon, Moon Direct, Commercial Lunar Missions, and Who Owns the Moon? Some of the featured speakers include Rick Tumlinson, Andy Aldrin, Lena de Winne, James Logan, Robert Zubrin, Michelle Hanlon, and Meagan Crawford. 500+ students will meet for the Steamspace event, allowing for interactions and discussion with next-gen explorers. Finalists for 2018 NewSpace Business Plan Competition will also be announced. (Image Credits: NWI, NASA, CFHT, ILOA, Steamspace, et al)

 Nov 5 — Parker Solar Probe, Heliocentric Orbit: Spacecraft reaches 1st perihelion today, 0.17 AU, at 22:37 EST.

Nov 5 — Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan), Mars Orbit: India ISRO orbiter reaches 5 full years / enters 6th year in Space today; launched Nov 5, 2013.

Nov 5 — SMi Group, London, United Kingdom: Small Satellites and Disruptive Technology Focus Day.

Nov 5 — Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST), NASA, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), CSA, JHU / APL, Annapolis MD: 30th Space Simulation Conference.

Nov 5-10 — Shanghai Key Laboratory for Astrophysics, Shanghai Normal University, Purple Mountain Observatory, Yunnan Observatory, Chinese National Science Foundation, Dali, China: Galaxy Evolution Workshop: The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Their Central Regions.

Nov 5 — Moon: 7.0° NNE of Spica, 14:00; 1.7° SSW of 1 Ceres, 22:20; 8.8° NNE of Venus, 23:00.

Continued from…

Nov 4-5 — Moon Village Association, National Space Society, University of Southern California, Los Angeles CA: 2nd International Moon Village Workshop; fostering cooperation for existing or planned global Moon exploration programs of public and private initiatives.

Nov 4-7 — Geological Society of America, Indianapolis IN: 2018 Geological Society of America Annual Meeting.

Nov 4-7 — International Association of Advanced Materials, Stockholm, Sweden: Advanced Energy Materials World Congress (AEMWC 2018).

TUESDAY

Nov 6 — Arianespace, Launch Soyuz / MetOp C, Sinnamary, French Guiana: Designated VS19, Arianespace Soyuz Rocket to launch MetOp C polar-orbiting weather satellite for ESA and Eumetsat using a Fregat upper stage; 19:47:27 EST.

Nov 6-7 — Institute for Research on Exoplanets, McGill Space Institute, Montreal, Québec, Canada: Workshop: The Future of Space Astronomy in Canada.

Nov 6-8 — Venus Exploration Analysis Group, NASA, Laurel MD: 16th Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) meeting; at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab.

Nov 6-9 — Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum, Singapore: The 25th session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF-25).

Nov 6 — Apollo Asteroid 2018 TF3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.021 AU)

WEDNESDAY

NET Nov 7 — Northrop Grumman, Launch Pegasus XL / ICON, L-1011, Skid Strip, Cape Canaveral AFS: Pegasus XL rocket to launch NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite into orbit.

Nov 7 — International Lunar Observatory Association, Galaxy Forum, Space Age Publishing Company, Kamuela HI: Galaxy Forum Hawai’i 2018: Kamuela — Astronomy from the Moon and Hawai’i 21st Century Astrophysics; featuring Mayor Harry Kim, representatives from ILOA, CFHT, Subaru, EAO / JCMT, Keck; 16:15-18:15.

Nov 7 — W. M. Keck Observatory, Kamuela HI: Keck Astronomy Talk: Dragonflies, Dark Matter, and the Hunt for Ghostly Galaxies; by Pieter van Dokkum from Yale University, 19:00.

Nov 7 — Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ: Lecture: Impact Origin of the Moon? by Professor Erik Asphaug.

Nov 7-8 — Space Studies Board of the National Academies, Irvine CA: Space Studies Board Meeting.

Nov 7 — Moon: New Moon, 06:02.

Nov 7 — Asteroid 4 Vesta: 3.1° S of Pluto, 15:49.

Nov 7 — Aten Asteroid 2010 VQ: Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)

Nov 7 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 NU2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.068 AU)

THURSDAY

Nov 8 — Rising Tide Capital, EarthRise50, J P Morgan Chase, Mack-Cali, et al, Jersey City NJ: Kickoff Event: RISE to Expand Opportunity.

Nov 8 — Lunar and Planetary Society, Houston TX: Seminar: The Origin of the Moon Within a Terrestrial Synestia; by Simon Lock of Harvard University.

Nov 8 — Consortium for Execution of Rendezvous and Servicing Operations (CONFERS), Washington DC: 2018 Global Satellite Servicing Forum (GSSF); featuring AGI, Thales Alenia, Virgin Orbit, Astroscale, Northrop Grumman, Chandah Space Technologies, and others.

Nov 8 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Lecture: What’s Next for Super-Earths? Population Demographics To Probabilistic Planetary Physics; by Angie Wolfgang of Penn State.

Nov 8 — British Interplanetary Society, London, United Kingdom: Lecture: Catching Stardust; by geologist and cosmochemist Natalie Starkey.

Nov 8 — Library of Congress – Science, Technology and Business Division, Washington DC: GRACE-FO and ICESat-2: NASA’s Leadership in Monitoring the Polar Regions from Space; by Thorsten Markus from NASA.

Nov 8 — Moon: 3.7° NNE of Jupiter, 09:00.

Nov 8 — Aten Asteroid 2010 VB: Near-Earth Flyby (0.082 AU)

FRIDAY

Nov 9 — STEAMSPACE, Austin TX: Cities in Space Student Competition and Conference 2018; over 500 students present their designs for living on the Moon and Mars; STEAMSPACE is dedicated to opening the space frontier in our lifetime to everyone beyond the boundaries of race, gender, ideological and socioeconomic difference.

Nov 9 — National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro NM: 34th Annual New Mexico Symposium.

Nov 9-10 — New Worlds Institute, Austin TX: New Worlds 2018 and Space Cowboy Gala; featuring Astronauts, Engineers, Entrepreneurs, Scientists, NewSpace, Space Agencies, and Artists.

Nov 9-10 — Geoscience Australia, Canberra, Australia: 3rd Meeting of the Asian Oceanian VLBI Group (AOV).

Nov 9 — Moon: 6.6° NNE of Mercury, 04:00; 8.4° NNE of Antares, 05:00.

Nov 9 — Mercury: 1.8° N of Antares, 02:00.

Nov 9 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 TL178: Near-Earth Flyby (0.055 AU)

SATURDAY

Nov 10 — Wilhelm und Else Heraeus Stiftung, Berlin, Germany: The Hubble Constant Controversy – Status, Implications and Solutions.

SUNDAY

Nov 11 — Rocket Lab, Launch Electron / “It’s Business Time” Multi-Payload, Launch Complex 1, Mahia Peninsula, New Zealand: Nine-day launch window opens for first fully commercial launch dubbed ‘It’s Business Time’ with two Spire Lemur 2 CubeSats and one GeoOptics CICERO satellite; live coverage available.

Nov 11 — National Space Society of North Texas, Irving TX: National Space Society of North Texas monthly meeting; 15:30.

Nov 11 — Moon: 1.4° N of Saturn, 06:00.