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NASA backs dozens of projects on the space frontier

Illustration: Blue Origin's Blue Moon Mark 2 lander on lunar surface
An artist’s conception shows the Blue Moon Mark 2 lander on the lunar surface. (Blue Origin Illustration)

NASA has selected proposals from 37 companies, including several with Seattle-area connections, to further its plans to establish a long-term presence on the moon and enable human exploration of Mars.

The companies applied to partner with NASA under the terms of an Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity, or ACO. The selected proposals aim to develop technologies for space transportation, planetary surface operations and lunar surface infrastructure.

“We are empowering American industry to become active partners in NASA’s missions to the moon, Mars and beyond,” Greg Stover, director of the Advanced Research and Technology Division in NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate, said today in a news release. “By tapping into commercial industry, NASA can rapidly develop key capabilities to support its most ambitious missions while fostering the nation’s robust space economy.”

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Cosmic Science

AI quest to decode ancient scrolls yields new revelations

Ashen scroll undergoing laser scanning
Scientists scanned scrolls that were buried in Mount Vesuvius' ancient eruption to decipher their content. (Credit: EduceLab / Univ. of Kentucky)

Scientists have given a status report on their efforts to use CT scans and artificial intelligence to decipher rolled-up papyrus scrolls that were buried in volcanic ash almost 2,000 years ago.

The researchers say they’ve found hints that one of the scrolls was written more than a century before the eruption, which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the year 79. Another partially deciphered scroll hints that the collection may well reveal previously unknown lore about Roman and Greek mythology.

It’s the latest chapter in a scientific quest that began 274 years ago.

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Universe Today

Prize-winning plan aims to protect space infrastructure

Illustration: Earth surrounded by web of satellites
Scientists say the growing web of satellites surrounding our planet is vulnerable to meteor storms. (OneWeb Illustration)

For decades, astronomers and policymakers have been working on plans to protect our planet from killer asteroids. But now there’s a new realm to protect: the thousands of satellites we’re putting in orbit.

And that’s just the start: Future off-world infrastructure, ranging from orbital fuel depots to moon bases, could be hit by asteroids, meteoroid storms or other threats from above.

A new proposal to identify such threats — and do something about them — has earned two researchers from the University of Edinburgh this year’s Schweickart Prize, which is named in honor of Apollo 9 astronaut (and planetary defense advocate) Rusty Schweickart.

“As human activity and vital interests rapidly expand into regions beyond the protective shield of our atmosphere, the number of passing objects capable of causing serious damage to both life and critical infrastructure increases dramatically,” Schweickart said in a news release. “Our Schweickart Prize winners this year have called for a comprehensive and systematic examination of this emerging reality.”

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GeekWire

The biggest worry about sex in space is what comes after

Illustration: Woman floating behind window of spaceship with view of Earth reflected in glass
Researchers aren't as concerned about sex in zero gravity as they are about risks for the resulting children. (Space Adventures Illustration)

Sex in space is the perfect subject for levity and double entendres, and the panelists at a Deep Tech Week session held at Thinkspace Seattle leaned into the humor early on.

“We can all imagine Newton’s Third Law dictates that, unrestrained, you get one thrust in and then you’re at the other end of the spacecraft,” said Shawna Pandya, chief of space medicine at the Florida-based Advanced SpaceLife Research Institute, or ASRI. Early pioneers in the field even designed a spacesuit customized for zero-G intimacy that was equipped with flaps and harnesses in strategic places — giving new meaning to the term “love handles.”

But the researchers at the June 12 session didn’t dwell on the mechanics of in-space intercourse. “I think the sex part will be the easiest part, operationally,” said James Logan, former chief of medical operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. “The problems are what comes after that.”

For that reason, the panelists left the levity behind and focused on the serious subject of pregnancy and fetal development in the challenging environment beyond our home planet.

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Fiction Science Club

Science and fiction have their say on UFO ‘Disclosure Day’

Emily Blunt and other actors in a scene from "Disclosure Day"
A TV meteorologist and experiencer (played by Emily Blunt) wields an alien artifact in "Disclosure Day." (Credit: © Universal Studios)

“Disclosure Day” is nigh!

We’re not talking about end times for UFO believers, but about this week’s debut of Steven Spielberg’s latest movie about space aliens.

“Disclosure Day” is something of a second coming for the classic alien sci-fi movie — or perhaps a third coming, given that Spielberg is already famous for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982).

The second-coming analogy is apt for another reason: The movie’s title plays off the expectation that the world’s governments will disclose all their secrets about alien contact, but only when they determine that their citizens are ready to hear them. “UFO believers await the day of disclosure with the same burning eagerness as a religious believer expecting the Messiah,” Adam Kirsch, a senior editor at The Atlantic, writes in a forthcoming book titled “We Want to Believe.”

Kirsch says such believers might greet Spielberg’s movie as evidence that Disclosure Day is truly nigh. “For people who are very deeply committed to this idea of disclosure, they will take it as confirmation that disclosure is something that is really going to happen,” he says.

Even Meg Charlton, the author of a newly published alien-abduction novel titled “Voyagers,” felt a sense of anticipation as she was writing the manuscript. “I did spend a lot of the book nervous that I would be scooped by first contact somehow, or full disclosure,” she recalls.

In a double-stuffed episode of the Fiction Science podcast, Kirsch and Charlton explore what science and fiction reveal about our obsession with alien visitors.

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GeekWire

SpaceX’s IPO could boost Northwest space ventures

SpaceX logo on Seattle Center building with Space Needle in background
SpaceX’s Seattle connection dates back to 2015, when CEO Elon Musk announced at Seattle Center that the company’s satellite operation would be based in the region. “What this represents is the official opening of SpaceX Seattle,” he said at the time. (GeekWire File Photo)

SpaceX’s initial public offering is likely to boost the company’s valuation to $1.77 trillion, promote CEO Elon Musk to trillionaire status — and benefit the Seattle area’s space community as well.

The $75 billion IPO, which will add SpaceX to the Nasdaq stock exchange, is expected to be the biggest initial public offering in history. It’ll provide more capital for expanding SpaceX’s satellite networks and putting the company’s Starship mega-rocket into operation. Shareholders, including some of the hundreds of SpaceX employees in the Seattle area, could get a golden opportunity to cash in.

There could also be a payoff for Pacific Northwest space ventures that are banking on the lower launch costs and higher payload capacity SpaceX is promising to deliver.

“The reality is that SpaceX is the elephant in the room — and for a real reason, which is that they’ve got the lowest cost of launch and will continue to do so when Starship is up and running,” said Brendan Wales, general partner at Fuse, a Seattle-based venture capital firm. “So, whether SpaceX is successful or not, it is very impactful on Seattle startups.”

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GeekWire

Founders on the tech frontier show off their gadgets

Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about the LaserWeeder system with a satellite in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)
Carbon Robotics CEO Paul Mikesell talks about the LaserWeeder system with a satellite in the foreground. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle)

Four founders of companies on the tech frontier got together this week at a Seattle conference for a show-and-tell about the hardware at the heart of their businesses. And like any good show-and-tell, their talks touched on strategy as well as gadgetry.

For example, consider the laser-powered weed zapper pioneered by Seattle-based Carbon Robotics. The LaserWeeder system takes advantage of optical sensors and artificial intelligence to identify and target the weeds among the crops as the robotic rig is pulled through a field. Carbon Robotics’ founder and CEO, Paul Mikesell, held up one of the LaserWeeder’s scanners during Monday’s DeepTech session at the downtown office of K&L Gates.

“We have it set up so this camera can see exactly what the laser shooting this way is going to hit, and every time we turn on that laser, the same pixel area in the camera is going to explode and blow up,” he said. “This device reminds me of a lot of science and technology that we had to tackle, but also, there’s a lot of pain that went into this thing.”

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GeekWire

FCC gives Amazon Leo more leeway on satellite schedule

View of Amazon Leo satellites in their dispenser in orbit
Amazon Leo satellites are folded up in their dispenser, ready for deployment in low Earth orbit. (Amazon Photo)

The Federal Communications Commission has freed Amazon from a requirement to deploy the first 1,616 satellites in its Amazon Leo broadband internet constellation by July 30.

The looming deadline had been a condition of the FCC’s 2020 license for the network, when it was known as Project Kuiper. But in January, Amazon asked for a two-year extension of that deadline, citing the limited availability of commercial launch opportunities.

Instead of pushing back July’s interim deadline, the FCC issued a conditional waiver. Amazon is still required to deploy all 3,232 of its planned Gen 1 satellites by July 30, 2029, as originally mandated. Amazon Leo currently has 331 satellites in orbit, with another 36 due for launch next week.

SpaceX — which operates Starlink, a rival satellite broadband network with more than 10 million subscribers — opposed giving Amazon more time. It argued that the FCC should make Amazon wait for a future processing round. But in an order issued on June 5, the FCC said its remedy was “tailored to ensure that Americans quickly benefit from multiple, facilities-based providers of next-gen satellite services.”

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Universe Today

SETI experts update their protocols for ‘Disclosure Day’

Array of radio telescopes with mountain in background
The Allen Telescope Array in California uses dozens of antennas to look for signals from an extraterrestrial civilization. (SETI Institute Photo)

An international committee of experts says it has updated its rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The revisions to the decades-old Declaration of Principles, created and maintained by the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Committee, come just days before the release of “Disclosure Day,” a movie about alien visitation directed by Steven Spielberg.

This is the first major update to the committee’s protocols in more than 15 years. “The information environment we operate in today is vastly more complex than it was in 2010,” committee chair Michael Garrett, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester, said in a news release. “In an era of deepfakes, automated misinformation and instant global connectivity, a single unverified claim could trigger confusion or panic. These new protocols ensure that scientists maintain the highest standards of evidence before making announcements to the world.”

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GeekWire

Space Northwest revs up a space business accelerator

Aerial view of Stoke Space HQ
Stoke Space has its 168,000-square-foot headquarters in Kent, Wash., where Mount Rainier can be seen on a good day. (Stoke Space Photo)

Space Northwest, a nonprofit association serving the Pacific Northwest’s space industry ecosystem, says it’s partnering with the Commercial Space Federation to launch a regional space business accelerator.

The initiative will begin with an executive roundtable scheduled this summer, followed by a 12-week accelerator program due to begin in autumn. The accelerator is expected to support up to 10 early-stage space companies with programming focused on commercial space markets, investment readiness, tech commercialization, growth strategies for commercial and government markets, and integration into the space industry’s global supply chain.

The accelerator initiative will receive local support from the City of Kent, which hosts Blue Origin. Stoke Space, PowerLight Technologies and other ventures targeting space applications. The city has a heritage in the space industry that goes back to Boeing’s role in building lunar rovers for NASA’s Apollo moon missions.

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