#WASHINGTON — #NASA will seek “out of the box” ideas in a bid to reduce the costs and shorten the schedule for returning samples from Mars.

In an April 15 briefing, agency officials announced they would solicit proposals from NASA centers and from industry on “innovative designs” to reshape its Mars Sample Return (MSR) effort after an internal review confirmed the ballooning costs of the overall program.

That review found that the current program would cost between $8 billion and $11 billion, the same range offered by an independent assessment completed last September. To fit that into the overall planetary science budget without affecting other programs would delay the return of samples from the early 2030s to 2040.

“The bottom line is that $11 billion is too expensive and not returning samples until 2040 is unacceptably too long,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the briefing.

To try to reduce costs and schedule, NASA will issue a request for proposals April 16 seeking ideas on alternative approaches for the overall MSR architecture or specific

#WASHINGTON — Military #satellites for decades have been built like a giant toolbox with all the functions crammed into one unit. But this type of monolithic design makes it expensive, complex and less adaptable. The Space Force is now “disaggregating” #satellites, breaking down the toolbox into smaller, specialized toolkits.

The idea of disaggregating military satellite capabilities has been talked about for years, but it’s only now becoming a practical reality thanks to lower launch costs, said Cordell DeLaPena, program executive officer for military communications, positioning, navigation, and timing at the Space Force’s Space Systems Command.

During a meeting with reporters last week at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, DeLaPena pointed to two key programs poised for disaggregation: the Protected Tactical Satcom (PTS) constellation for secure military communications, and the Global Positioning System (GPS).

In September 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a new rule for the disposal of upper stages after commercial launches. In short, for most launches to LEO and GTO, operators will either be required to conduct controlled reentries or move their stage to a higher disposal orbit.

As a researcher who has studied uncontrolled reentries for several years, I was pleased to see the FAA finally address the dangerous abandonment of upper stages. The new rule would reduce the growth in orbital collision risk; currently, there are over 2,000 derelict upper stages in orbit, with a net 36 more added each year. #spacenews.

#TAMPA, Fla. — Six-year-old European small #satellite maker Aerospacelab has bought #AMOS, a Belgian company that has provided optics for spacecraft and ground-based telescopes for more than four decades.

The companies did not disclose financial details in their April 15 announcement, but Aerospacelab chief strategy officer Tina Ghataore said the deal expands its workforce from around 200 to 330 people, mainly across Belgium, France and Switzerland.

The acquisition comes two years after Aerospacelab raised around $46 million from venture capitalists to build out a vertically integrated satellite manufacturing and operating business.

#WASHINGTON — The European Commission is delaying two key space initiatives, a space law and a contract for a #satellite constellation, until at least this summer.

At an April 9 meeting of an EU parliamentary committee, Theirry Breton, EU commissioner for the internal market, said the release of a legislative proposal for an EU space law, expected earlier this year, would be delayed likely until after parliamentary elections in June.

“We know we’re heading into an election campaign and we all understand that, therefore, things may take a little longer. Therefore, work will resume after the summer on this question,” he said of the proposed law, which he described as being “in the very early stages” and “not yet mature.

#WASHINGTON — Relativity Space, a company that builds launch vehicles using 3D printing technology, has secured an $8.7 million contract with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to explore real-time flaw detection in additive manufacturing.

Real-time flaw detection in 3D printing is the ability to identify defects as parts are being printed. This is an important technology as additive manufacturing works by laying down thin layers of material on top of each other so each layer adds to the potential for imperfections.

The two-year research contract is from AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The work for this project will be done at Relativity’s factory in Long Beach, California, using the company’s Stargate 3D printing platform, known for its large-scale metal printing capabilities.

“This effort with Relativity Space is in response to a congressional demand signal,” Adam Hicks, a physicist at AFRL’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, said in a statement to #SpaceNews.

Star Trek vs Star Wars Debate at 39th Space Symposium: Who Won?

#COLORADO SPRINGS — #Astroscale is moving into the next phase of an inspection mission as its #spacecraft approaches a derelict upper stage in low Earth orbit.

Astroscale announced April 11 that its Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan (ADRAS-J) spacecraft, launched Feb. 18, had moved to within several hundred kilometers of an upper stage from an H-2A launch in 2009 left in low Earth orbit and was now relying on its own sensors to continue its approach.

The mission milestone was a switch from absolute navigation, where the spacecraft was maneuvered by ground controllers based on knowledge of its position as well as that of the upper stage, to “Angles-Only Navigation,” where ADRAS-J detected the upper stage using onboard cameras and calculated its relative position.

#TAMPA, Fla. — Intelsat is in talks with the U.S. government to help fund 17 medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites to expand the operator’s multi-orbit broadband network.

CEO David Wajsgras said the company, which operates geostationary #satellites but also provides low Earth orbit (LEO) services via leased capacity from OneWeb, is due to pick companies to build its own MEO network before the end of June.

“We’ve been looking at multiple manufacturing partners for the bus, the sensors and for some of the modules,” Wajsgras told SpaceNews in an interview, “and determining the exact construct of the team that would put those satellites on orbit in approximately three-and-a-half to four years from now.”

#HELSINKI — The Queqiao-2 #satellite has completed function and performance tests in lunar orbit, clearing China to launch its upcoming lunar far side sample return mission.

Queqiao-2 completed on-orbit communication testing in recent days, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced April 12.

The spacecraft conducted successful communication tests with Chang’e-4 mission spacecraft on the far side of the moon April 6. This was followed by a test April 8-9 Beijing time with the Chang’e-6 spacecraft back on Earth, which is yet to launch.