Carnival of Space 608

The Carnival of Space 608 is up at Everyday Spacer.

Universe Today – Space Weather Forecasts can now give Satellites One Whole Day of Warning when a Killer Solar Storm is Inbound by Evan Gough

Earth’s fleet of satellites is in a vulnerable position. When solar activity increases, high-energy particles are directed toward Earth. Our large fleet is in the direct path of all that energy, which can damage them or render them inoperable.

In order to protect the satellites from this dangerous weather, operators can put them into “safe mode” to reduce their vulnerability. This means shutting some systems down for a period of time.

Universe Today – The Closest Star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri, has a Planet in the Habitable Zone. Life Could be There Right Now by Matt Willams.

Multiple previous studies have been conducted to determine if nearby exoplanets could support life. Unfortunately, most of the research so far has indicated that the likelihood of habitability are not good. However, new work finds the four nearest exoplanets are more hospitable than ancient Earth. The nearest exoplanets experience less radiation than Earth did 4 billion years ago. Earth 4 billion years ago was able to support single-cell life.

Nextbigfuture – Momentus Water-Plasma Space Transportation Service

Momentus will have its first launch June 27, 2019. They have $9 million in seed funding and have $20 million in customer contracts. The first mission is called El Camino Real and is the pathfinder mission. They will use microwaves to heat water and generate double the ISP of regular chemical rockets. They have a product roadmap that will make it far cheaper and easier to move from low-earth orbit to any other orbit and even out to lunar orbits.

Nextbigfuture – SpaceIL Update on Moon Lander Crash Analysis and Next Mission Estimate

SpaceIL connected to the Space Access 2019 conference via Skype with a presentation by Yonatan Winetraub. Yonatan discussed the series of problems that lead to crash landing of their lunar mission and he indicated that they are very early in their plans for a second attempt for a moon landing.