Short Takes – 6-4-25

Software suggests Rubin Observatory will discover millions of solar system objects. GeekWire.com article. Pull quote: “The software suggests that, over the course of a 10-year campaign known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, the Rubin Observatory will map more than 5 million main-belt asteroids, 127,000 near-Earth objects, 109,000 Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter’s orbit, 37,000 trans-Neptunian objects and about 2,000 orbit-crossing objects known as Centaurs.”

Measles Is Now Showing Up in Wastewater. Time.com article. Pull quote: “Wastewater surveillance is a useful public-health tool because it provides an objective glimpse into where a given virus is causing infections—often before traditional testing methods. For viruses like measles, which infected people shed in urine, feces, or saliva, it can provide a critical heads-up for health officials. “It gives us a finger-to-the-wind weather map of what is happening with infectious diseases,” says Dr. Marlene Wolfe, assistant professor at Emory and principal investigator and co-program director of WastewaterSCAN, an academic and commercial group that includes researchers from Stanford University, Emory University, and Verily (which is Alphabet Inc.'s research organization).”

Astroscale clears critical design review for OneWeb satellite removal demo. Spacenews.com article. Pull quote: “Mostly funded by Astroscale with support from the UK Space Agency, ELSA-M would use a magnetic mechanism to capture a defunct OneWeb satellite equipped with a compatible docking plate, then release it on a controlled path to burn up in the atmosphere.”

Second ispace mission ready for lunar landing attempt. Spacenews.com article. Pull quote: “In addition to those payloads, Resilience carries a small rover, Tenacious, developed by ispace’s European subsidiary. It is equipped with cameras and a shovel that will collect lunar regolith. That regolith sample will then be sold to NASA under a $5,000 agreement announced in 2020, part of an effort by the agency to establish precedence for rights to space resources.”

NASA’s budget crisis presents an opportunity for change. SpaceNews.com commentary. Pull quote: “However, those near-term compromises belie more fundamental longer-term changes to the agency. “Under this budget proposal, NASA would not have any operational vehicles in space within about five years for humans,” MacDonald noted at the same event. That accounts for the phasing out of SLS and Orion, cancellation of Gateway and retirement of the ISS.”

Pulled NASA nomination blindsides space community: ‘Major blunder’. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““NASA lost its mojo, they don’t know how to solve complex, interdisciplinary problems efficiently, they don’t know how to put together the right teams to solve those problems, they lost the ability to do that,” said Charles Camarda, a retired NASA astronaut.”