The Space Hour

The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, and NASA are collaborating with eight American universities for the second year of the Mission Concept Program. The program provides universities with assistance in helping students gain skills focused on early satellite mission design, through mentorship and guidance from space professionals. I had the chance to speak with two folks who are a part of the program, Seth Sisneros is a systems engineer with AFRL's space vehicle directorate, and Emi Colman is deputy program manager for the lab's University Nanosatellite Program. 

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There are a lot of regulatory boxes you need to check to get your space project underway. This can be hard for companies with smaller budgets and legal resources. To help, the firm Aegis Space Law has created a regulatory calculator tool to help commercial space companies understand which regulations apply to them. To learn more, I got the chance to talk to Bailey Reicheldt who is a partner at Aegis.

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The more nations launch satellites into space, the more crowded the orbit layers become. Especially in the burgeoning low earth orbit. NASA has a Space Environment Sustainability Advisory Board to help guide policy for an area of space that's starting to look like the Beltway at rush hour. The board has defined the problem in terms of five challenges. Federal News Network's Tom Temin got more from the associate administrator for NASA's office of Technology, Policy and Strategy, Charity Weeden.

https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/nasa-space-sustainability-strategy-march-20-2024-tagged3.pdf?emrc=d1885c

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The professional organization AFCEA International has launched its 139 national chapter right in Orlando, Florida. It's meant to help facilitate connections for members of the space industry with government agencies. It's even calling it the Space Coast Chapter. To learn more about how this came together and what the chapter has planned, I spoke to Tony Brown, who is Director of the Products/Software Division for TM3 Solutions, Inc. and will be leading the new group.

https://spacecoast.afceachapters.org/

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You hear a lot about zero trust controls in government tech circles, especially here on Federal News Network. Could this approach to cybersecurity which requires constant verification before access to a system, be applied to protecting space assets. The U.S. Space Force certainly seems to think so. It recently granted a a $17 million contract to the company Xage Security to help the branch achieve zero-trust access control and data protection. To learn more, I spoke to Geoff Mattson, CEO of Xage Security. 

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So we're trying to send folks back to the moon and potentially mars. However, the longer people are out there, the longer they could potentially come down with something. Yes much like the fisherman and pioneers back in the day, even the most simple of conditions can become dangerous when you're far away from home. So obviously technology will be needed to help prevent, diagnose and treat anything crew members could potentially come down with. To help spark some innovation, the Canadian Space Agency recently wrapped up it's Deep Space Healthcare Challenge, in which the winner got half a million dollars in grant funding. To learn more about the ideas brought forth during the contest, I spoke to Annie Martin, she's the Health Beyond Portfolio Manager for the CSA. 

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/deep-space-healthcare-challenge-winner-addressing-medical-emergencies-in-space-and-on-earth-889164392.html#:~:text=Montreal%2Dbased%20MD%20Applications%20will,and%20medical%20emergencies%20in%20space.

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The concept of nuclear power kinda makes sense for space travel doesn't it? Taking a small amount of material and being able to harness energy from it to create a vast amount of heat, electricity, and power. I'm not breaking any news with that thought, as there have been and are currently a lot of smarter people that are trying to make that idea a reality. One of them is Robert O'Brien, who was recently appointed as the Director of the Center for Space Nuclear Research with the Universities Space Research Association. I got the chance to ask him about where things currently stand and how nuclear power could become more prevalent in the space field.

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Beginning today with the ISS National Lab. It's the government funded organization which manages all non-NASA research and investigations. It recently announced a new funding opportunity for in-space production applications, which can leverage the unique space environment to develop, test, or mature new products and processes. To find out more about the potential here and it's role overall in U.S. space research, I got the chance to speak with Ryan Reeves, who is a material scientist with the ISS National Lab. 

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I had the pleasure of hosting a panel on the potential uses of AI in space featuring:

MAJ Chris Krueger, USA - PhD Student, Designing Trustworthy AI Systems Fellow, The George Washington University

Ms. Chandra Donelson - Space Data and Analytics Officer, U.S. Space Force

Mr. Michael Nemerouf - Senior Engineering Specialist, Engineering and Technology Group, The Aerospace Corporation

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NASA has made it's latest grant awards for its Bridge Program, ran buy the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The program aims to improve diversity in the science and engineering communities, as well as NASA's workforce itself. I wanted to hear more about this program and some of the projects it's sponsoring this go round, and I did so by speaking with Padi Boyd, who is the director of the Bridge Program at NASA.

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