Just a Girl 🎵 (That Wants to Prioritize Planetary Defense)
And other ways that women have had it up to here this week
Hello Celestial Citizens and Continuum readers,
None of you would even believe me if I said I didn’t want humans to go back to the moon, but for the same reason I love those revolutionary orcas off the coast of Spain, I live for a good rebel moment. So naturally, when I saw the headlines about women not wanting to send humans to the moon or Mars - I needed to dig in. But perhaps unsurprisingly, these headlines turned out to be total bull**** and use women as a punching bag for anyone that seems to not prioritize human spaceflight. So yes, I want humans to go back to the Moon and then on to Mars (and so do plenty of other women by the way)…but when a Pew research poll said that “just 9 percent of female respondents listed sending humans to the Moon as a "top priority" for NASA, and 7 percent of women said the same about sending humans to Mars,” I think it’s also really important to highlight that only 16% of men stated sending humans to the Moon as their top priority. Changes the vibe a bit, right?
Now, I think it’s valid to say that we need to be working hard to get a lot more people engaged in space exploration – but acting like women are some outliers here on the basis of gender is wildly irresponsible. And not to brag to the space community or anything, but you kind of need us or none of this whole moving humanity to the stars thing is going to work. So, I wouldn’t light that fire with women right now.
Here’s what doesn’t help – dropping a misleading stat with no comment or context (women said it wasn’t their top priority, not that they were against it) on Twitter and hope for anything more than a modern-day Battle of the Sexes - looking at you Eric Berger. Just what we need, more women being told they support planetary defense only because they are the more cautionary gender. Cool flex, bro.
In the same way that everything the eye beholds for the last month has been hot pink and Barbie-themed – and all of us collectively chant the rallying cry “he’s just Ken” — we have entered a girl power moment that seems only rivaled by the energetic era of Gwen Stefani, the Spice Girls, TLC, and Destiny’s Child. Bless these Gen Z’rs that have brought back a thoughtfully revised 90s moment. Even Taylor Swift is making moves that can be seen from space.
Expecting unsubscribes after this one, but what can I say? This Space Barbie has opinions. And now, the space beat you came here for…
Top Headlines
Asteroid City — Yesterday, the Pew Research Center published a study that suggests US citizens and NASA are not on the same page when it comes to mission priorities. While broadly speaking the public supports the space agency, deep space exploration appears to be far more important to NASA than it does to the American people, who would much prefer a focus on Earth — namely, saving it from asteroids and other dangerous space objects. Perhaps influenced by last month’s Wes Anderson film — which pokes fun at a faux desert settlement within an asteroid’s crater — 60% of U.S. adults put asteroid defense missions at the top of the list. NASA’s budget request for 2024 did include $210 million towards a surveyor mission designed to detect and track hazards like asteroids and comets, but compare this to the $8 billion the agency requested for Artemis.
The Latest in NASA Money – Budget allocation disagreements will only be exacerbated because of the House suspending the debt limit a few weeks ago. Now, the Senate committee that manages NASA, NOAA, and the NSF has released a bill summary allocating only a portion of the space agency’s 2024 request at $25.0 billion. We know, “only” twenty five billion dollars may sound like an oxymoron, but when the request was for $27.185 billion, that’s over $2 billion worth of programs that will not receive support. This amount is also less than what NASA received for 2023 ($25.384 billion), and a far cry from the $816.7 billion Department of Defense budget from 2023. While some projects will no longer get their day in the sun, it’s fairly clear that Artemis-connected initiatives are safe and sound. On the same day as the Senate committee’s summary release, NASA announced a $50 million robotic research mission called DIMPLE, or Dating an Irregular Mare Patch with a Lunar Explorer. DIMPLE will study the history of a section of terrain on the near side of the Moon created by volcanic activity. Also not feeling the sharp edge of a budget ax are the three Orion spacecraft for Artemis 2, 3 and 4, which posed together for a group photo last week. If they had three more modules, they could pull off an awkward prom pic!
Sing ‘er Praises — In another loss for the agency, NASA’s Marshall Center said goodbye to its first female director this week. Jody Singer is retiring after over 38 years with the agency, during which she has led the Marshall team — one of NASA’s largest — in creating human transportation and habitation systems that have been and will continue to be integral to Artemis and beyond. Not only was Singer the first woman to serve as NASA Marshall’s Director, but she was also the first woman to project manage the Reusable Solid Rocket Booster Project back between 2002 and 2007, meaning she was very involved in the historic Columbia shuttle safely returning to flight after its tragic accident in 2003. As a deputy, Singer was also on the ground floor of NASA’s own heavy lift rocket, also known as SLS (Space Launch System). Needless to say, it will take a lot to fill Singer’s shoes, which is why the agency is conducting a “nationwide search” for her replacement.
Three’s Company – It’s getting crowded in the Space Force’s pool of heavy lift launch providers, as just last week the U.S. national security branch added a third spot in their available contracts. Former winners of the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract — back when the program was only considering two providers at a time — were SpaceX and ULA. The Force believes this bump from two to three providers will “increase resiliency,” which makes sense in the somewhat volatile world of the commercial space industry. The additional contractor could also gift the Force with a more diversified group of launch locations. Unlike NASA’s Senate committee, the committee behind the Space Force’s budget is encouraging this expansion, making room for companies like Blue Origin who may have attractive heavy rocket contenders in the coming year.
Better Regu-Late Than Never — There is legislation in the works for commercial space regulation, as the U.S. adapts to a growing industry. On July 13th, the House Science Committee held a hearing during which the industry could offer their ideas (grievances?) for the bill, which would ideally deal with spaceflight safety and oversight clarity without reducing industry competitiveness. Of course, the “learning period” rule was at top of mind, the restriction that keeps the FAA from heavily regulating new companies while they’re developing. While there’s obviously a case for more commercial regulation — particularly when it comes to human explorer safety, as made abundantly clear by the recent OceanGate tragedy — the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) worries that ending the learning period in October of this year as scheduled will be nipping industry maturation in the bud, and actually negatively affect safety in the long run.
The Cool Factor — Recently, Australia’s Square Kilometer Array (SKA) Pathfinder telescope led to the discovery of a brown dwarf, and at 797 degrees Fahrenheit, it’s the coldest ever discovered to emit radio waves. If 797 degrees sounds, well, not cold, just know that an average terrestrial campfire burns around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Sun sits pretty at around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are simply too small and cool to be able to achieve nuclear fusion like the sun and other stars. But are we writing them off too quickly? The introduction of more and more instruments designed to study invisible energy — like radio waves — may just illuminate an entire universe of activity we never knew.
The JWST Download
To celebrate a stacked first year, the JWST pulled out the big guns with a dreamy capture of the nearest star nursery to Earth.
Space may be giving California a run for its money in hosting the next gold rush. The JWST detected a rare kilanova, a collision of two neutron stars powerful enough to produce gold.
Scientists are using the JWST to study stars formed from dark matter as opposed to nuclear fusion. One scientist calls these massive stars — which can continue to expand —“puffy beasts.”
The presence of carbon dust in a galaxy that existed only 1 billion years after the Big Bang is shaking up theories about how long it takes for life-building elements to form. We’ll have to see how the...dust settles on this new discovery.
And if we’re right about how long it takes for carbon to form, perhaps we’re wrong about the date of the Big Bang, as a recent study projects.
The JWST gets the Netflix treatment in a new documentary premiering on July 24th. And for once, the on screen subject cost more than the Netflix executives behind the project.
A Global Space
India - The ISRO launched the highly anticipated Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander on July 14th, expected to make a Moon rendezvous in late August. This is the nation’s second lunar lander launch, and if successful, the Chandrayaan-3 will not only redeem a failed attempt from 2019, but it will also make India the fourth nation to land on the moon, and only the second country to robotically land a rover on the rocky body this century, after China.
Russia — Also competing for lunar landing merits is Russia, who placed their Luna-25 spacecraft at the Vostochny Cosmodrome launch pad this month and just announced a launch date of August 11th. While the nation is no stranger to lunar landings, the Luna-25 will aim to land on more difficult terrain in the circumpolar region of the Moon in order to gather soil samples from the south pole. The launch comes nearly 50 years after the series’ previous mission, Luna-24 returned to Earth with soil samples back in 1976.
Venezuela & China — China’s International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) gained one of its first partners with Venezuela signing a declaration this past week. The two nations have collaborated in the past, such as on a joint communications satellite launch back in 2008. The ILRS — a parallel mission to NASA-led Artemis — may not yet have as many international partners in place when compared to Artemis, but Venezuela has a lot to offer, including a satellite control ground station that will now be available to ILRS missions. China also presented a preliminary plan at the 9th International China Commercial Aerospace Forum, outlining how they will place two astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.
JAXA — Japan’s solid fuel Epsilon S rocket experienced an explosion during a test last Friday. Not only did the engine fire damage the spacecraft, but it also did a number on JAXA’s test facility in Noshiro, though thanks to strict safety protocols, there were no personnel injuries. While a setback like this typically encourages more stop-downs and careful assessment, it may also put the pressure on other projects to actually go faster. On that note, JAXA is moving full steam ahead with a sped-up approach on their H3 rocket, adopting SpaceX’s “block upgrades” method to slash development time.
United Kingdom— As launch schedules become busier and busier in countries like the United States and China, a Parliament committee in the United Kingdom worries that an archaic launch licensing system risks their place in the space race. For instance, Spaceport Cornwall may have hosted a January launch from Virgin Orbit (RIP), but it took 15 months for the company to get the license from the Civil Aviation Authority, apparently standard for the CAA. While the Parliament committee supports the CAA’s efforts, they are pushing for ways to streamline the process.
Australia — The Australian Space Agency is asking the public to avoid touching a mysterious chunk of metal that washed up on shore north of Perth last Sunday. The agency and local officials believe it to be a rocket fragment — such as a fuel cylinder — but others speculate the debris could be from nine year-old missing flight MH370. Regardless of its terrestrial or extraterrestrial origins, Australian authorities will need to complete a full chemical analysis before deeming it, at the very least, risk-free.
Space Reads!
Can’t get enough stellar content? Here are some longer format space morsels we’ve been enjoying:
The National Science Foundation is giving up on fixing their giant collapsed telescope in Puerto Rico, committing the observatory to “educational” purposes. But will this education make up for the brain drain resulting from over 100 scientists leaving the island in search of new jobs?
As more and more humans head into the final frontier, artificial gravity solutions may save many from a long-term toll of microgravity.
Even brighter than supernovas are LFBOTs, or luminous fast blue optical transients, explosions so hot that they emit blue light. For lack of a cool term like supernova, though, scientists have resorted to animal references. Read about what the Cow, the Koala, and the most recent Finch have taught the astronomy community over the last few years.
Like that old smoke detector your landlord refuses to replace, an object known as GPM J1839-10 has been lighting up every 22 minutes since 1988. Pretty cool — if we knew what it was.
And that’s a wrap on this week in space news! Keep an eye out this coming Monday for MOONSHOT, our paid subscriber newsletter covering the commercial space sector. A big thank you to Tess Ryan for writing this edition with me and for keeping up with the cosmos! We hope you enjoyed reading Continuum this week and will share it with your friends. And if you really, really like us, then consider becoming a paid subscriber or gifting a subscription to someone that you’re taking to go see Barbenheimer this weekend.
Keep it celestial people,
Britt
CEO of Celestial Citizen & Creator of Continuum
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