Daily Archives: December 15, 2019

A self-destructing robot will be sent into orbit on the world's first space cleanup mission, European scientists announced Monday, a fresh approach to fixing up the galaxy's junk graveyard.

Our orbit is filled with garbage, including chunks of dead satellites, discarded rockets, and paint flecks that have fallen off them. The mission, named ClearSpace-1, will take the first step in tidying up this extraterrestrial wasteland, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

A four-armed robot, developed by Swiss startup ClearSpace, will latch onto debris before diving back down to Earth, where both machine and junk will "burn up in the atmosphere," according to the ESA.

The robot's mission will target a cone-shaped part of an ESA rocket that was left in space in 2013. If all goes well, follow-up missions will target larger objects, before eventually trying to remove multiple pieces of junk at once.

"This is the right time for such a mission," said ClearSpace founder Luc Piguet in an ESA press release. "The space debris issue is more pressing than ever before. Today we have nearly 2,000 live satellites in space and more than 3,000 failed ones."

Work on the project will begin in early 2020, and go through a series of tests at low orbit before an official launch in 2025.

Why is space junk such a problem?

Our orbit looks like a graveyard of space rubbish. Ever since the space age began in 1957 with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 satellite, there has been more junk than working satellites in space, according to ESA.

ESA estimates there are about 170 million pieces of space debris orbiting the Earth. Apart from dead satellites, there are also spent rocket boosters and bits of machinery scattered by accidental collisions.

And they are not just floating around peacefully some pieces are moving faster than a bullet. Because they move so fast, even the tiniest piece of cosmic junk poses an enormous threat to other satellites and spacecraft.

"Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships ever lost in history were still drifting on top of the water," said ESA Director General Jan Woerner in the press release. "That is the current situation in orbit, and it cannot be allowed to continue."

These collisions are dangerous for manned space flights, but could also impact our daily lives we rely on satellites for essential information like weather forecasts, communications and GPS.

These pieces of debris can take centuries to leave our orbit if they leave at all. The problem is already so severe that it is self-perpetuating; even if we were to stop all space launches immediately, the amount of junk would continue to grow because existing pieces of debris often collide and break into smaller pieces, ESA said.

What has been done about it?

For years, NASA, ESA, and other space agencies have been studying debris removal technologies. Some of the ideas proposed include using nets to gather junk, harpoons to spear and retrieve objects, and robotic arms.

For a long time, we simply didn't have the technology to address the issue but recent years have seen progress. For example, Japanese scientists are now developing a type of satellite that uses magnets to catch and destroy debris. Just last year, an experimental device designed in the UK successfully cast a net around a dummy satellite, a promising step forward.

Another obstacle is figuring out how to fund these projects. The UK device cost 15 million euros ($17 million) and that's cheap for space travel. The ESA ClearSpace mission has a budget of about 100 million euros ($111 million).

Cleanup is just one part of the solution prevention is another. Independent companies like SpaceX are starting to design their satellites to intentionally plunge back toward Earth at the end of their lives instead of drifting in orbit.

But so far, it's been mostly up to space organizations to self police and invest in being good patrons of the galaxy. There are no existing formal international rules to hold satellite operators accountable for debris creation or general carelessness in space.

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Europe is sending a robot to clean up space. Why is the junk there in the first place? - KTVQ Billings News

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Attendance at Morgan Stanley's now annual space summit is only one barometer, but it shows that investor interest in the extraterrestrial became serious this year.

"We tripled the investor count" from last year's conference, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas told CNBC about Tuesday's event. "We ran out of room."

Jonas, known on Wall Street for his early calls on Tesla, has recently been looking at the fast-growing space industry. This was Morgan Stanley's second space-focused gathering for investors.

The event comes as the space industry undergoes widespread transformation, as both aerospace giants and private capital continue to invest billions of dollars in new technologies and opportunities. Earlier this year, CNBC published an investor's guide to space, in which several Wall Street analysts predicted space will be the next trillion-dollar industry.

"Investor interest in space is really, really growing," Jonas said. "[But there are still] knowledge gaps and, in the public support for space, that's what's had been lacking."

Morgan Stanley's event on Tuesday featured multiple panels, fielding questions from investors.

According to the day's agenda, Jonas hosted a range of discussions. They included presentations on: Capital formation (with early stage investors Razor's Edge Ventures, Seraphim Capital, In-Q-Tel and RRE Ventures); Japanese startups (featuring the CEOs of ispace, Astroscale, ALE and Synspective); National security (with the leaders of Parsons, HawkEye 360 and Jacobs); Earth imaging satellites (with Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies); Rocket launchers (led by U.S. based Rocket Lab and Italian builder Avio); and Broadband (with ViaSat and Intelsat).

A telecommunications satellite built by Maxar-owned Space Systems Loral.

Maxar

The day also featured two keynote speakers: Kevin O'Connell, director of the Office of Space Commerce, and George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic.

The space tourism company made its public debut only a few weeks ago and Jonas cited that as one of the two key changes he's seen this year. While Jonas noted that Virgin Galactic is small, he says "it's still something" and pointed to the attention its brought to space as a place of business.

"We're going to need those private-to-public moments that help accelerate" investor interest, Jonas said.

The past decade has seen nearly $25 billion in private capital invested in space companies, according to investment firm Space Angels, and Virgin Galactic is expected to be just the first of a new generation to join the currently small group of public, pure-play space companies. But Jonas' explained that a second key change means that going public is not necessarily the only way institutional investors may benefit from this young crop of space companies. He noted an increasing ability and willingness for Morgan Stanley's clients to invest in private companies directly.

While a number of investors came with background and previous knowledge of the space industry, Jonas said his rough estimate was that as many as half were looking at space for the first time. "There's only one Wall Street space summit," Jonas said, and he plans to continue hosting the New York City event at Morgan Stanley's headquarters, hoping to see even higher investor attendance next year.

A photo of the moon taken by SpaceIL's Beresheet spacecraft in orbit.

SpaceIL

The Commerce Department's O'Connell, who leads the recently established Office of Space Commerce, spoke to Jonas' point that the knowledge gap in finance has dramatically closed over the past decade. Attendees told CNBC that O'Connell is confident in the finance community's understanding in the wide variety of space businesses. He thinks investors are more sophisticated today than they used to be, making them more judicious about investing in space.

O'Connell's top concern lies in the uncertainty of who will be the creditors or insurers for ambitious private projects aimed at the moon or Mars. He said that space doesn't have any mortgage bankers and questioned whether that role would fall to the government by default. O'Connell also wondered aloud if another institution would take on the risk of backing these typically expensive and high risk missions.

While flying people to space comes with great risk, it also brings the greatest reward. Jonas acknowledged that it is difficult to quantify the dollar impact of human spaceflight. But Virgin Galactic, Boeing, SpaceX and Blue Origin each expect to fly astronauts in 2020.

"I think that's going to have a tremendous impact on public support," Jonas said. "Human spaceflight is an innovation catalyst."

Additionally, he argues that there are few greater inspirations than those who have been to space and returned to Earth to tell others about it.

"There's no substitute for having someone who says 'I was there and I saw it," Jonas added in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk on the Street."

Earlier this week, Jonas' firm gave Virgin Galactic an overweight rating, recommending the company to Morgan Stanley investors. Jonas not only sees value in the company's core space tourism business, but he assigned a greater value to its plans for hypersonic, point-to-point travel, citing it as a potential disrupter of the airline industry.

Jonas said at the summit that some of the feedback he got from investors questioned the parallels between the space tourism and hypersonic businesses. According people present who spoke to CNBC, Whitesides spent much of his time addressing concerns about Virgin Galactic's skillset to develop hypersonic technologies which he believes have a close connection.

Whitesides' first reason was simply that, for at least the next few years, Virgin Galactic will be the only company flying people on a winged craft at near hypersonic velocities.

VSS Unity glides home after her second powered flight

Virgin Galactic

He then discussed the technological parallels he sees, explaining what hardware and technology he expects Virgin Galactic will be able to apply to hypersonics.

Whitesides noted the company already has experience testing and flying lightweight structures that are both reusable and experience hypersonic-like trajectories, key to providing any long distance travel service. He expects Virgin Galactic will learn even more in the next few years as it begins space tourism flights at higher rates. He noted that Virgin Galactic's spacecraft have human pilots, similar to what a hypersonic airliner likely will.

The CEO said there is work to be done on the structural side of a hypersonic aircraft, such as ceramic composite materials, adding that Virgin Galactic may partner with other companies in developing those structures. Whitesides expects propulsion will take the longest time to develop for a hypersonic aircraft. While he did not disclose Virgin Galactic's choice of propulsion, he ruled out rocket power, saying he's excited about other types of propulsion.

Jonas asked the room which of the attendees had flown on the supersonic Concorde before it stopped flying in 2003. Whitesides was then asked to explain how Virgin Galactic's hypersonic aircraft would be different than the Concorde. Fundamentally, the much higher velocity means a hypersonic aircraft would greatly reduce total travel times compared to supersonic, Whitesides replied. Secondly, Whitesides noted the Concorde was designed in the 1960s and that there have been numerous technological improvements since then.

Whitesides outlined Virgin Galactic's 2020 goals, which are to get the company's facilities in New Mexico running, begin commercial operations, and fly founder Sir Richard Branson. He said Virgin Galactic expects to scale its operations in 2021, when it will have two spacecraft and notably increase its revenue.

The company has just has a few more test flights to complete before flying Branson, the CEO said. While the company has just over 600 passengers signed on to pay $250,000 per person, Whitesides thinks his company could increase its prices substantially for first commercial flights.

Sir Richard Branson stands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) trading in New York, U.S., October 28, 2019.

Richard Branson Virgin Galactic IPO NYSE

Virgin Galactic's demand pipeline looks full for the next several years. Even when Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin begins similarly flying people to the edge of space, Whitesides thinks both companies will have more than enough demand for flights. He's previously categorized Virgin Galactic's space tourism flights as an "out-of-home luxury experience," which Whitesides said is the fastest-growing part of the luxury market.

"Globally, we think around 2 million people can experience this over the coming years at this price point. Over time, we'll be able to reduce that price point and at that point the market just explodes. It's 10 times as many at 40 million people," Whitesides said in October.

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft are built to fly for 10 years, he said at Morgan Stanley's event. With about $1 billion invested in development, Whitesides said the per unit cost of building additional spacecraft is relatively low, and Virgin Galactic aims to have a fleet of five spacecraft in a few years.

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Space investing became real this year as Morgan Stanley hosts packed NYC investor summit - CNBC

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, left, alongside the next in the company's fleet under construction.

Virgin Galactic

Morgan Stanley began coverage of Virgin Galactic's stock on Monday with an overweight rating, saying the space tourism company's shares will soar as it proves out a long-term plan of flying people around the world at hypersonic speeds.

"A viable space tourism business is what you pay for today but a chance to disrupt the multi-trillion-dollar airline [total addressable market] is what is really likely to drive the upside," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a note to investors.

Virgin Galactic shares rose 16% in trading to close at $8.42. That was its best day of trading since its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 28, although the stock remains about 35% below its most recent high.

Morgan Stanley's price target of $22 a share represents a 203% increase from Virgin Galactic's current levels. The company outlined a three phase plan to investors during its roadshow earlier this year. While Morgan Stanley gave a $10 a share valuation to Virgin Galactic's space tourism business, phases one and two of its plan, the firm sees $12 a share in value from phase three: Hypersonic point-to-point air travel.

"The shares feature biotech-type risk/reward where today's space tourism business serves as a funding strategy and innovation catalyst to incubate enabling tech for the hypersonic P2P (point-to-point) air travel opportunity," Jonas said.

Jonas, known on Wall Street for his early calls on Tesla, has recently been also looking at the fast-growing space industry.

Morgan Stanley forecast $800 billion in annual sales for hypersonic travel by 2040, or just about two decades from now. Virgin Galactic is in the early stages of exploring how the technologies it developed for space tourism might apply to hypersonic travel, with Boeing venture arm HorizonX recently investing $20 million into Sir Richard Branson's company specifically to explore hypersonics.

"While some investors have described high-speed hypersonic P2P air travel opportunity as 'the icing on the cake', we see Hypersonic as both the cake and the icing, with Space Tourism as the oven," Jonas said.

The firm is the third on Wall Street to begin covering Virgin Galactic's stock. Credit Suisse and Vertical Research Partners also have buy ratings.

Virgin Galactic expects to begin flying its first space tourism customers in the next six to nine months. Morgan Stanley estimates Virgin Galactic can ramp its flight offerings to serve more than 3,000 passengers by 2030, as Jonas says "the addressable market for space tourism, while niche, is supported by a range of industries (e.g., yacht charters and luxury cars)."

"Space Tourism's goal over the next year: be safe, stay funded," Jonas said. "We believe the key catalyst over the next 12 months will be sending even one customer to space and returning safely."

If the company does that, Jonas said Virgin Galactic will remain the leader among companies exploring the hypersonic travel market. In full, Morgan Stanley has a $60 bull case valuation on Virgin Galactic and a $1 bear case valuation.

"There are many risks and unknowns to the story including the possibility of fatal accidents, regulatory obstacles, limited market acceptance, competition, insufficient economics, and liquidity constraints," Jonas added. "Taken together, we think the risks are offset by the potential scale of the reward."

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Virgin Galactic shares to triple as it disrupts airlines with hypersonic travel, Morgan Stanley says - CNBC

A new report by the European Space Agency reveals that we are closer to human hibernated space travel than most might think. In fact, the ESA predicts that the suspended transport mode, typically associated with sci-fi flicks like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, and Passengers, could actually be possible in 20 years.

The reality of traveling safely in space in some deep, suspended coma-like state until you reach a final destination might be right around the corner.

Well, thats if the calculations by the European Space Agency (ESA) are correct.

According to a recent report by the Europe-based space organization, we are only about two decades from the point where human hibernated space travel could become a real mode of transportation.

The ESAs findings stem from a more comprehensive study aimed at exploring and developing new technology to enhance the capabilities of space travel for professional astronauts. The ESA and its SciSpacE Team have been using an existing mission to send six humans to Mars and back, to study the viability of human hibernation in space, to help enhance space travel in areas like weight reduction.

The research, now being headed by the ESAs Concurrent Design Facility (CDF), has been focusing on the logistics needed to bring the idea to reality, like protection against radiation and power consumption.

We looked at how an astronaut team could be best put into hibernation, what to do in case of emergencies, how to handle human safety and even what impact hibernation would have on the psychology of the team, says Robin Biesbroek, of the ESAs CDF team, in the ESA press release. Finally, we created an initial sketch of the habitat architecture and created a roadmap to achieve a validated approach to hibernate humans to Mars within 20 years.

Based on the ESAs report, the six astronauts could be transported to Mars in small individual pods that would double as cabins when the crew was awake. A drug would be administered to induce whats known as torpor, a tern used for the hibernating state.

The soft-shell pods would be darkened, with the temperature significantly reduced in the compartments to keep the astronauts cool during their projected 180-day Earth-to-Mars cruise.

The hibernating cruise phase would end with a 21-day recuperation period, according to ESA research. However, based on the agencys experience with animal hibernation, the ESA believes that the crew would not experience any bone or muscle wastage during hibernation.

Of course, the ESA still has a lot of research that needs to be done before any concrete plans are actually put in place to send astronauts on hibernated space trips. We aim to build on this in future, by researching the brain pathways that are activated or blocked during initiation of hibernation, starting with animals and proceeding to people, explains ESAs SciSpacE Team Leader Jennifer Ngo-Anh, in the press release.

In short, were a long way from the point where the average person will be able to book a hibernated space trip in a pod thatll be opened ten years later on Mars, with all their physical elements still intact.

For decades, the idea of hibernated human space travel has been limited to Syfy films like Alien and Passengers. The research being done by the European Space Agency (ESA) continues to shed new light on the real viability of the process, but it also highlights the advancements being made in transportation, in ways never imagined.

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Human Hibernation Could Be the Key to Future Space... - RIDE by Kelley Blue Book

KEY POINTS

Researchers from the University of Florida are looking to investigate the significant impact of space on plants. They believe their study will also reveal how space affects humans due to the biological similarities with plants.

Researchers Robert Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul have been studying the effect of space travel on plants since the 1990s. Through space shuttle test flights and experiments on the International Space Station, the researchers were able to investigate how plants react to microgravity conditions in low-Earth gravity.

One of the major changes they discovered is the orientation of a plants roots in space. On Earth, roots typically move downwards from the plants shoots. However, in space, the roots branch out at random angles.

For the next leg of their study, the researchers are planning on deploying their test plants further into space through suborbital flights. Through these kinds of spaceflights, the plants would be spending more time in microgravity conditions.

In addition, the researchers are hoping to identify the effect of gravitational transitions that occur in suborbital flights. One of the aspects that researchers are hoping to study is calcium signaling, which is a cellular response to external stimuli.

Our very first spaceflight experiment indicated that being in space changes some aspects of calcium signaling, Ferl said in a statement. And calcium signaling in particular is very similar between plants and animals, so we want to better understand that role in response to transitions in gravity.

The researchers are hoping that their study will provide important insights into the effects of space travel on biological processes. By experimenting with plants, the researchers believe their findings can also be applied to humans.

About half of the genes in our bodies encode the exact same proteins in plants, Paul explained. And thats very exciting because it means that as we look at how plants behave in the absence of gravity, we can translate many of those basic biological processes to humans.

Paul and Ferls plant experiments were launched via Blue Origins New Shepard rocket on Wednesday. The launch was carried out as part of NASAs Flight Opportunities program.

The glowing plant as a table light. Photo: MIT news

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Researchers Turn To Plants To Study Effects Of Space On Humans - International Business Times

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --Front Range Biosciences("FRB"), an agricultural technology company focused on breeding and nursery production of new plant varieties and seeds for the hemp and coffee industries, announced today their partnership with SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado, Boulder to send hemp and coffee tissue culture to space. The mission will transport plant cultures to space to examine zero gravity's effects on the plants' metabolic pathways.

The experiment, being targeted for transportation to the space station aboard the SpaceX CRS-20 cargo flight scheduled for March 2020, will look at how plant cells undergo gene expression changes or genetic mutations while in space. Front Range Biosciences is providing the plant cultures, while SpaceCells will provide expertise, management and funding for the project. BioServe has flight qualified hardware to house the plant cultures and facilities on board the International Space Station (ISS) to maintain the cultures under controlled conditions. BioServe will manifest and integrate the experiment and will work with the NASA astronauts to transfer experiment hardware to BioServe's incubator on board ISS and execute the experiment.

Up to 480 plant cell cultures will reside in a space-made incubator that will regulate temperature in their temporary home aboard the ISS for about 30 days. The environmental conditions for the cultures will be monitored remotely from BioServe's payload operations center at the University of Colorado, Boulder. After about a month, the cells will be returned to Earth, where researchers at Front Range Biosciences will examine the plant samples and evaluate their RNA to determine how microgravity and space radiation exposure altered the plants gene expression.

"This is one of the first times anyone is researching the effects of microgravity and spaceflight on hemp and coffee cell cultures," said Dr. Jonathan Vaught, Co-Founder and CEO of Front Range Biosciences. "There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to earth and if there are new commercial applications."

Ultimately, the results of the research could help growers and scientists identify new varieties or chemical expressions in the plant. This will also allow scientists to better understand how plants manage the stress of space travel and set the stage for a whole new area of research for the company and the industry.

With the advent of private space travel, an area of space research has emerged called "new space", where researchers are studying the effects of microgravity on a variety of organisms, including everything from disease cells to various plant varieties. SpaceCells is on the forefront of the commercialization of that research.

"We've been fortunate to be a leader in the new space industry and we're excited to explore these amazing opportunities with the team at Front Range Biosciences and BioServe," said Peter McCullagh, CEO of SpaceCells. "These are big ideas we're pursuing and there's a massive opportunity to bring to market new Chemotypes, as well as Plants that can better adapt to drought and cold conditions. We expect to prove through these and other missions that we can adapt the food supply to climate change."

Because of rising temperatures due to climate change, there are many environments on Earth that are unable to support crops that once thrived in those regions. Learning how plants respond to novel environments such as space can help companies like Front Range Biosciences breed crops to thrive in locations where they have not performed successfully in the past. Front Range Bioscience's partner for coffee production, Frinj, has developed coffee varieties and farming methods for growing coffee in Southern California. The project with SpaceCells USA Inc. will mark the beginning of FRB's genomics program in coffee. "We are excited to learn more about both hemp and coffee gene expression in microgravity and how that will inform our breeding programs," said Dr. Reggie Gaudino, VP of Research and Development at FRB.

The crew at Front Range Biosciences, SpaceCells USA Inc. and BioServe do not believe this will be the sole mission. Instead, the group plans on conducting a series of investigations that can boost the productivity and viability of terrestrial crops and plants.

"We envision this to be the first of many experiments together," said Louis Stodieck, Chief Scientist of BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "In the future, we plan for the crew to harvest and preserve the plants at different points in their grow-cycle so we can analyze which metabolic pathways are turned on and turned off. This is a fascinating area of study that has considerable potential."

About Front Range Biosciences Front Range Biosciences is an agricultural biotech company that specializes in tissue culture propagation and breeding of high-value crops at industrial scale to improve consistency and efficiency for clone and seed production. FRB developed the first Clean Stock program for cannabis and hemp and has an advanced breeding program for identifying and improving commercially relevant traits. FRB has global reach through facilities in Colorado, California, and Wisconsin, and a partnership with the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics in Barcelona, Spain. FRB's Clean Stock program provides a consistent supply of disease and pathogen-free plants to farmers and data-driven breeding solutions for creating new varieties of hemp, coffee, and young plants and seeds. FRB is located in Lafayette, Colorado.

For more information on Front Range Biosciences, please visit http://www.frontrangebio.comFor more information on SpaceCells please visitwww.spacecells.com

Media ContactRosie MattioMATTIO Communicationsfrb@mattio.com

SOURCE Front Range Biosciences

http://www.frontrangebio.com

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Front Range Biosciences to Send Hemp and Coffee Tissue Culture Samples to Space to Study Effects of Microgravity - PRNewswire