C-Tech Club Space Chapter

Just received a message via the The Planetary Society that the White House is proposing a 25% cut to NASA's budget, including what the society describes as a "extinction level" 50% cut to science programs. I've done my part to write to President Trump and members of Congress, attached here for those interested to read.

For the first time ever, Space-Comm Expo 2025 is bringing together an unprecedented panel of global space agency leaders to explore how we can reimagine and enhance international partnerships in space. As space becomes more interconnected, the need for stronger, more effective collaboration has never been greater. This panel will tackle the real challenges of global cooperation - from resource and risk-sharing to technology transfer constraints - while uncovering innovative frameworks for future success. Register here to get your seat: https://lnkd.in/eESTjJSH

Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 is just one week away from its scheduled Moon landing on Sunday, March 2, following its launch on January 15. As it prepares for touchdown, the lander will complete its final lunar orbit maneuver on Monday, February 24. This maneuver will place Blue Ghost into a low, near-circular orbit, bringing it closer to the lunar surface. About one hour before landing, the spacecraft will execute its Descent Orbit Insertion burn, beginning its descent toward Mare Crisium, a basin on the near side of the Moon. NASA and Firefly will provide live coverage of the landing, starting at 2:30 a.m. EST on NASA+, approximately 75 minutes before touchdown. The event will also stream on Firefly’s YouTube channel, and updates will be shared through NASA’s social media and blog platforms as key descent milestones unfold. All 10 NASA instruments on board are in good condition and prepared to operate on the Moon’s surface. Some payloads have already gathered significant data during transit. Two notable achievements so far include: The Lunar GNSS Receiver Experiment (LuGRE) acquired and tracked Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals for the first time in lunar orbit – a new record! This achievement, peaking at 246,000 miles, suggests that Earth-based GNSS constellations can be used for navigation in transit to, around, and potentially on the Moon. It also demonstrates the power of using multiple GNSS constellations together, such as GPS and Galileo, to perform navigation. After lunar landing, LuGRE will operate for 14 days and attempt to break another record – first reception of GNSS signals on the lunar surface. The Lunar Environment Heliospheric X-ray Imager, or LEXI, telescope was turned on successfully shortly after launch on Jan. 15. The instrument has operated for several hours every day conducting checkouts and initial commissioning, operating for a total of more than 50 hours so far in preparation for collecting images from the lunar surface. Full Article: https://lnkd.in/gza-SmSt #LEXI #LuGRE #BlueGhostMission1 Excitement builds as Firefly’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 approaches its Moon landing at Mare Crisium. (Firefly Aerospace)

SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk said that NASA should deorbit the International Space Station “as soon as possible,” preferably in the next two years, to focus on missions to Mars. The sudden call by Musk to end the ISS years earlier than NASA currently plans, made on social media Feb. 20, threatens to further complicate the relationship between Musk, a close adviser to President Donald Trump, and the space agency and much of the space industry. “It is time to begin preparations for deorbiting the @Space_Station,” Musk posted on X, the social media site he owns. “It has served its purpose. There is very little incremental utility. Let’s go to Mars.” Asked to clarify if that meant deorbiting the ISS sooner than 2030, NASA’s current date for retiring the station, Musk said it should come down in two years. “The decision is up to the President, but my recommendation is as soon as possible. I recommend 2 years from now,” he posted. The comments, and the influence Musk currently wields in the administration, threaten to throw a wrench in NASA’s ISS transition plans. Those plans call for operating the station to 2030, by which time the agency expects at least one commercial space station to be ready do that NASA can continue the research and technology development activities it currently conducts on the ISS. As part of that effort, NASA awarded a $843 million contract to SpaceX in June 2024 to develop a spacecraft called the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV), based on the company’s Dragon spacecraft. The USDV would dock with the station and handle the final maneuvers needed to deorbit the station over a desolate area of the South Pacific to minimize any risk of damage or injury to the public. The spacecraft would launch to the station about a year before the planned deorbiting. In the procurement of the USDV, NASA stated its preference to have the USDV delivered for launch as soon as August 2028 with a requirement that it be delivered no later than May 2029. It is unclear if development of the USDV could be accelerated to meet Musk’s goal of a 2027 deorbit. An early deorbit would also complicate relationships with both other companies and organizations involved with the ISS and commercial space station successors as well as the station’s international partners, who have committed to participating on the ISS to 2030 except for Russia, which has so far announced its intent be a part of the station to 2028. One particular issue is that an early ISS deorbit would almost certainly mean a gap in permanent U.S. human presence in low Earth orbit. That is the stated goal of NASA’s LEO Microgravity Strategy released in December, which backed what it called “continuous heartbeat,” or having people in orbit continuously. NASA has previously discussed having an overlap between the ISS and commercial stations to allow for an orderly transition of research and equipment. #ISS #USDV #NASA The ISS as seen from a Crew Dragon spacecraft in 2021. (NASA)

???? Not just a pool, a whole new level of space & ocean research. Blue Abyss Global is building the world’s deepest pool in the UK! Details ?? https://lnkd.in/eVTJWifM?

Our #GhostRiders completed another lunar orbit maneuver with a 3 minute, 18 second burn early this morning. This maneuver moved the lander from a high elliptical orbit to a much lower elliptical orbit around the Moon. Shortly after the burn, Blue Ghost captured incredible footage of the Moon's far side, about 120 km above the surface.? ? In this orbit, the team will experience planned rolling comms blackouts as Blue Ghost goes around the far side of the Moon.?When on the near side, the team will continue to downlink data and finalize the plan for our next maneuver that will get Blue Ghost even closer to the lunar surface and keep us right on track for landing on March 2. #BGM1

NASA’s Polar Resources Ice Mining Experiment-1 (PRIME-1) is preparing to explore the Moon’s subsurface and analyze where lunar resources may reside. The experiment’s two key instruments will demonstrate our ability to extract and analyze lunar soil to better understand the lunar environment and subsurface resources, paving the way for sustainable human exploration under the agency’s Artemis campaign for the benefit of all. Its two instruments will work in tandem: The Regolith and Ice Drill for Exploring New Terrains (TRIDENT) will drill into the Moon’s surface to collect samples, while the Mass Spectrometer Observing Lunar Operations (MSOLO) will analyze these samples to determine the gas composition released across the sampling depth. The PRIME-1 technology will provide valuable data to help us better understand the Moon’s surface and how to work with and on it. The PRIME-1 experiment is one of the NASA payloads aboard the next lunar delivery through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative, set to launch from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center no earlier than Wednesday, Feb. 26, on Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander and explore the lunar soil in Mons Mouton, a lunar plateau near the Moon’s South Pole. Developed by Honeybee Robotics, a Blue Origin Company, TRIDENT is a rotary percussive drill designed to excavate lunar regolith and subsurface material up to 3.3 feet (1 meter) deep. The drill will extract samples, each about 4 inches (10 cm) in length, allowing scientists to analyze how trapped and frozen gases are distributed at different depths below the surface. The TRIDENT drill is equipped with carbide cutting teeth to penetrate even the toughest lunar materials. Unlike previous lunar drills used by astronauts during the Apollo missions, TRIDENT will be controlled from Earth. The drill may provide key information about subsurface soil temperatures as well as gain key insight into the mechanical properties of the lunar South Pole soil. Learning more about regolith temperatures and properties will greatly improve our understanding of the environments where lunar resources may be stable, revealing what resources may be available for future Moon missions. A commercial off-the-shelf mass spectrometer, MSOLO, developed by INFICON and made suitable for spaceflight at Kennedy, will analyze any gas released from the TRIDENT drilled samples, looking for the potential presence of water ice and other gases trapped beneath the surface. These measurements will help scientists understand the Moon’s potential for resource utilization. #CLPS #NASA #MSOLO #PRIME1 #TRIDENT Artistic rendering of Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lander on the surface of the Moon. (Intuitive Machines)

Did you know that DEEP Campus has a controlled body of water available for testing subsea equipment? The 80-meter-deep lake: ?? Is clean, clear and has great visibility. ?? Has surrounding infrastructure and lifting capabilities. ?? Is secluded and private. SMD recently tested their Quantum EV, a fully electric, highly efficient, work-class ROV, and had this to say about their experience… #DEEP #Campus #ROV #Testing

When people ask when our full-size rover FLEX is going to the Moon it is a somewhat uncertain future event. BUT I am so excited to share that our technology demonstration platform FLIP has a ride THIS YEAR!!! While it is our smaller rover, FLIP is still big, and very capable. We plan to survive several Lunar nights on battery energy alone and transit large distances on the Moon's surface while carrying out valuable science experiments and demonstrating unique components for our future FLEX vehicle. Going to be a wild year!!!! #seeyouupthere