TUI’s “Trusselator” technology enables on-orbit additive construction of high-performance composite truss structures to support solar arrays, antennas, and other space system components. (Credit: TUI)
BOTHELL, WA, 7 March 2014 (TUI PR) – NASA announced today that it has selected Tethers Unlimited, Inc. (TUI) for award of a $750,000 contract to continue development of its “Trusselator” technology. The Trusselator is a device for in-space additive manufacture of high-performance truss structures for systems such as large solar arrays and antennas.
Under funding from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, and now NASA’s Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, Tethers Unlimited is developing a set of technologies called SpiderFab™ to enable on-orbit fabrication of spacecraft components. The SpiderFab architecture integrates elements of 3D printing, automated composite layup, and robotic assembly to create large, light-weight structures. The SpiderFab robotic systems will integrate these structures with solar cells, reflectors, and other elements to create football-stadium sized antennas, multi-hundred kilowatt solar arrays, and other large components for space systems. Manufacturing them on-orbit will enable affordable creation of space systems that are larger and provide higher performance than current technologies, which require antennas and arrays to be built on the ground and then launched inside a rocket.
“Developing the Trusselator device is the key first step in implementing the SpiderFab capability for in-space manufacturing. Our goal with this effort is to dramatically reduce the costs of building large systems in space,” said Dr. Rob Hoyt, TUI’s CEO and Chief Scientist. “In the new SBIR effort we will develop a prototype Trusselator designed to operate in the vacuum environment of space and test it in our new space simulation facility.”
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 108 research and technology proposals from U.S. small businesses that will enable NASA’s future missions while benefiting America’s new high technology-driven economy right here on Earth.
The selected proposals now will enter into negotiations for contract awards as part of Phase II of the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program. The selected aerospace technology and innovation projects have a total value of approximately $87 million, supporting 99 U.S. firms in 26 states.
Space.com has an update on plans by Airbus (nee EADS Astrium) to develop a suborbital space plane, which has apparently not gotten to the scale model air drop stage of development:
Europe’s biggest aerospace manufacturer, Airbus Group, plans to drop its scale-model prototype prototype Spaceplane from an altitude of 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) over Singapore in May. If that trial goes well, another unpowered drop test — this time from 100,000 feet (30,480 m) — should follow next year, officials said. You can see concept photos of the European space plane here….
After years of saying nothing about the project, Airbus has revealed that this May a helicopter will hoist the scale model — which at 15 feet (4.6 m) long is one-quarter the size of the actual Spaceplane) — to about 10,000 feet, at which point it will be dropped. The vehicle will be remotely controlled for a sea landing east of Singapore in the South China Sea.
Christophe Chavagnac, Spaceplane programs manager and chief engineer at Airbus’ Defence and Space division, spoke exclusively to Space.com about the project.
“This first one [test], it will be remotely controlled from the ground,” he said. “What we are looking for is to validate the Spaceplane itself, and the Spaceplane itself is in a gliding mode.”
The International Space Station, backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth’s atmosphere. (Credit: NASA)
The New York Times has a story about a crystal growth experiment led by Lawrence J. DeLucas of the University of Alabama at Birmingham that will fly to the space station aboard a Dragon cargo vehicle later this month:
Today, he is a principal investigator on a $6 million project that is to fly aboard the International Space Station. The experiment will include 100 proteins with poor results on earth so far. The same crystal-growing experiment will be conducted on the ground at the same time under the same conditions (plus gravity).
After four and a half months, the space crystals will return to earth. The analysis will then be conducted double-blind, meaning that the scientists analyzing the crystals will not know which ones were grown on earth and which in orbit.
The 100 proteins are set to travel to the space station in March aboard a rocket run by SpaceX, a private company, and return to earth in August. The analysis will then take a year.
At the end, Dr. DeLucas said scientists will have a good idea of how useful zero-G is for this type of research. “What I hope is,” he said, “once and for all, we can say, ‘Look, if you fly a protein, here’s the percent chance that it’s going to get improvement.’ ”
Seth MacFarlane (creator of Family Guy) and Ann Druyan introduce the host of Cosmos A Spacetime Odyssey – world renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.
RROxiTT lead roboticist Alex Janas stands with the Oxidizer Nozzle Tool as he examines the work site. (Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn)
GREENBELT, Mary. (NASA PR) — NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer – a type of propellant – into the tanks of satellites in space today.
Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.
LONG BEACH, Calif. (Space Tech Expo PR) — An astronaut holding the world’s record for the most spacewalks during a single mission, a private company planning to reach mars, aerospace industry titans alongside startup ventures, key military and NASA space officials, and thousands of engineers and executives are all planning to visit the Long Beach Convention Center April 1-3, 2014 for what is shaping up to be the biggest commercial space confab ever to hit the Los Angeles region, Space Tech Expo 2014.
JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata works on the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL., March 6, 2014 (CASIS PR) – The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) today released a Request for Information (RFI) that seeks to identify equipment capable of supporting future materials science experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. The RFI solicits entities capable of serving as implementation partners and/or hardware providers for such research.
Thyroid cancer cell line FTC-133 after four hours of exposure to simulated microgravity. Nuclei are stained blue, components of the cytoskeleton stained green and red. (Credit: Team Daniela Grimm)
HOUSTON (NASA PR) — In space, things don’t always behave the way we expect them to. In the case of cancer, researchers have found that this is a good thing: some tumors seem to be much less aggressive in the microgravity environment of space compared to their behavior on Earth. This observation, reported in research published in February by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal, could help scientists understand the mechanism involved and develop drugs targeting tumors that don’t respond to current treatments. This work is the latest in a large body of evidence on how space exploration benefits those of us on Earth.
Mojave Air and Space Port. (Credit: Douglas Messier)
By Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
For the past two weeks, officials at the Mojave Air and Space Port have been investigating a mystery: Why did long-time Chief Financial Officer Erika Westawski suddenly resign on the morning that a financial audit was to begin?
Westawski’s sudden departure caught everyone at the airport by complete surprise, CEO and General Manager Stu Witt said. Airport staff and an outside financial team have been working on an emergency audit to determine if anything is amiss with the airport district’s finances.
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