37th Space Symposium in CO to include 10,000 Participants, 15 Heads of Space Agencies
The Space Foundation 37th Space Symposium is being held in-person and online April 4-7 at Colorado Springs, perhaps seeing up to 10,000 space professionals and decision makers from 25+ countries. On April 5, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy will give plenary remarks, followed by ‘Artemis and the Industry: Building the Space Economy’ panel discussion with Lauren Smith, James Free, James Reuter, and Thomas Zurbuchen. The 75-minute Heads of Agency Symposium features (L-R) Josef Aschbacher (ESA), Philippe Baptiste (CNES), Paul Bate (UKSA), Lisa Campbell (CSA-ASC), Sang-Ryool Lee (KARI), Walther Pelzer (DLR), Giorgio Saccoccia (ASI), Hiroshi Yamakawa (JAXA), and Pam Melroy (NASA). The Heads of Agency: Nations to Watch has members from Mexican Space Agency, Azercosmos, Portuguese Space Agency, Egyptian Space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, Australian Space Agency and Romanian Space Agency. Part of the Space Exploration track will see ‘Beyond ISS: Commercial LEO Destinations’ with Axiom, Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra Space representatives; and ‘Commercial Opportunities in Lunar Exploration’ with Firefly Aerospace, Astrobotic, NG, Redwire, and Swedish Space Corp. IAF Salon Luncheon will have Christian Feichtinger, Joseph Aschbacher, Pascale Ehrenfreund, Davide Petrillo and others. Also ongoing will be a large exhibition center, Space Law 101 event, Space Law Workshop, Space Force / DoD talks, and the Space Generation Fusion Forum 2022 running April 1-4, for international students and young professionals, led by the Space Generation Advisory Council. (Image Credits: SF, SGAC, et al)
MONDAY
☆ Apr 4 — ISS, ~405-km LEO: Expedition 67 crew of 7 to welcome 4-member Axiom-1 private Astronaut crew mid-week; transferring cargo from/to 5 spaceships currently docked: Cygnus NG-17, Progress 79P and 80P, Soyuz MS-21, Crew-3 Dragon.
☆ Apr 4 — Tiangong Space Station, ~370-km LEO: Shenzhou 13 Taikonauts preparing to return to Earth mid-April; continue to work with Tianzhou-3 cargo while Tianzhou-2 set to burn up in Earth atmosphere after successful 6,640-kg cargo transfer.
Highlights…
o NewSpace: Virgin Galactic promoting test pilot Kelly Latimer to Flight Test Director, flights to resume this year; Synspective of Tokyo, freshly funded with US$100M investment, on track to deploy 30 SAR satellite constellation by 2026.
☆ Solar System:Perseverance Mars rover en route to Jezero Crater delta to collect samples in exobiology search, which will be returned to Earth via 2-lander return mission launching 2026; Salt water may ferry oxygen under Europa ice shell within ‘chaos terrain’ covering 1/4 of world, per UT Austin computer modeling.
☆ Galaxy: Hubble detects most distant star yet via gravitational lensing, Earendel (“Morning Star”) is 28B LY away, born 12.9Gya; International team proposes new 25,500-byte METI effort, Beacon in the Galaxy, which may be sent into universe with FAST and/or Allen Telescope Array.
o Global: Chinese Academy of Sciences approves Einstein Probe, wide-field X-ray telescope to launch mid-2023 to 600km LEO; Singapore is latest Artemis Accords signatory; Roscosmos Luna-25 on track for 2022 landing at Boguslawsky Crater after successful precision landing tests.
● USA: Administration budget proposal for FY23 includes US$26B NASA funds, $7.5B appropriation for Artemis, $480M for CLPS; NASA Astrobiology Program preparing to search for life with 2024 Europa Clipper, 2027 Titan Dragonfly Missions.
● Hawai’i: Gemini North team studying asymmetric spiral galaxy NGC 772, thought to be skewed by neighboring dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 770; PISCES continues Women in Space talks, newsletters and HI-related space advocacy.
21st Century Hawai’i Astronomy on Display with IfA Open House, Pōwehi Day, ILO-X Moon Camera Naming Contest
Celebrating 50 years of discoveries with UH88 telescope, University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy at Mānoa opens its doors to the public April 10, with Open House hours 11:00-16:00. Astro events to be offered throughout the day include straw rocket building with Hawaii Space Grant Consortium, CubeSat demo with Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory, Lego, sundial and star map building. Bishop Museum will provide a portable planetarium for Astronomer-led shows. April 10 is also Pōwehi Day, the 3rd annual observance since official proclamation by Governor David Ige in 2019, which cites the “long and rich history of naming celestial objects extending back thousands of years” and how “James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and Submillimeter Array atop Mauna Kea have been a critical part of this [Event Horizon Telescope] experiment”. The groundbreaking radio imaging of Messier 87 was the first black hole to be directly observed, while Andrea Ghez of UCLA / Keck Observatory received a Nobel Prize for determining stellar orbits governed by super massive black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our Galaxy. The International Lunar Observatory Association of Kamuela aims to land the first Hawaii-led mission to the Moon, with the science education goal of capturing the first image of the Milky Way Galaxy Center from the lunar surface. Launching this year via SpaceX Falcon 9, landing aboard Intuitive Machines Nova-C, ILO-X instrument suite of dual imagers will be named in part by Hawaii students participating in the ILOA Moon Camera Naming Contest. (Image Credits: IfA, ILOA, IM, Canadensys, EHT, Wikipedia)
o Apr 4-8 — ESA, CNES, DLR, Bundeswehr University Munich,Noordwijk, The Netherlands:NAVITEC 2022; open forum for space and terrestrial satellite navigation technology designers, developers, integrators, users, universities and agency representatives.
☆ Apr 4 — Moon: 3.4° SE of Pleiades, 19:00.
☆ Apr 4 — Mars: 0.31° SE of Saturn, 16:00.
☆ Apr 4 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 FG3: Near-Earth Flyby (0.032 AU)
☆ Apr 4 — Apollo Asteroid 2022 EN2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.047 AU)
☆ Apr 4 — Apollo Asteroid 2019 GN20: Near-Earth Flyby (0.094 AU)
Continued From… o Nov 4 – Jun 29 — Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Problems, NASA Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA),Moscow, Russia: Mixed gender, international crew of 6 participating in 8-month space / lunar simulation mission SIRIUS-21 (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station).
● Mar 24 – May 26 — International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA Hawai’i),Online / Hawai’i Islands:ILO-X Moon Camera Naming Contest for HI Schools.
☆ NET Apr 5 — Arianespace,Launch Soyuz / Galileo 29 & 30,Sinnamary, French Guiana: Arianespace Soyuz rocket, designed VS28, to launch 2 Galileo satellites for Europe Galileo navigation constellation; Postponed.
● Apr 5 — NASA, Broadcast:Live Coverage of NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy plenary remarks 12:25 EDT, followed by ‘Artemis and the Industry: Building the Space Economy’ panel discussion at 37th Space Symposium.
☆ Apr 5 — Moon: 7.0° N of Aldebaran, 13:00.
☆ Apr 5 — Apollo Asteroid 2012 TV: Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)
☆ Apr 5 — Apollo Asteroid 350751 (2002 AW): Near-Earth Flyby (0.057 AU)
☆ Apr 5 — Apollo Asteroid 2015 TM143: Near-Earth Flyby (0.066 AU)
● Apr 9 — AIAA LA-LV Section, Hybrid / Manhattan Beach CA and Online:The advent of interplanetary small spacecraft; by Andy Klesh, Lunar Trailblazer Project Systems Engineer at NASA JPL.
● Apr 9 — Paragon Space Development Corp., Los Angeles CA:Yuri’s Night LA; 18:00-24:00.
☆ Apr 9 — Moon: 5.7° S of Castor, 00:00; 2.17° S of Pollux, 06:00.
● Apr 10 — Pōwehi Day,Statewide Hawai’i: Recognized proclamation to celebrate the first-ever imaged black hole M87* by Event Horizon Telescope collaboration involving Mauna Kea Observatories, given the Hawai’ian name Pōwehi; imaged in April 2017 and released Apr 10, 2019.
● Apr 10 — Institute for Astronomy Mānoa,Honolulu HI:IfA Open House; 11:00-16:00.
● Apr 10 — The Space Show,Online / Tiburon CA: Dr. David Livingston hosts Chris Carberry of Explore Mars Inc.
☆ Apr 10 — Moon: 3.7° NNE of Beehive Cluster, 10:00.
☆ Apr 10 — Apollo Asteroid 2017 TO2: Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)
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