Short Takes – 9-9-25 – Space Geek Edition

NGSO set to disrupt In-Flight Connectivity Landscape. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Overall, the number of connected aircraft is set to exceed 67,700 by 2034. Airlines are now actively assessing ways to monetize this IFC revolution as players increasingly move towards providing either full or partially free IFC services. As the market enters this new phase, NGSO [non-geostationary satellite orbit] adoption will redefine connectivity standards in aviation. To remain competitive, players must adapt quickly with a focus on hardware innovation, strategic alliances, and service differentiation.”

The business case for resting among the stars. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Meanwhile, Mitchell sees a vast untapped potential beyond the premium tier, pointing to an estimated 80 million human and pet remains currently sitting in U.S. households.”

The race back to the moon: What if China lands its astronauts first? Space.com article. Pull quote: “Allen Cutler, president and CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, noted in his testimony that whoever emerges as the leader in lunar exploration will set the rules for the rest going forward in terms of the use of space resources, lunar governance and the formation of international partnerships.” Does not really answer the title question.

China proposes flyby mission to asteroid Apophis during 2029 Earth encounter. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The science objectives of CROWN/Apophis, according to Jian-Yang Li of Sun Yat-sen University, who presented the proposal at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) and Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) joint session in Helsinki, Sept. 8, would be to measure the fundamental properties of a potentially hazardous asteroid and the effects of its close encounter with planet Earth. It would aim to observe how movement of material on Apophis is induced, any dust activity, and how it interacts with the terrestrial magnetosphere.”

Office of Space Commerce loses 40% of budget in rescission. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The clawback of funding, sources said, will particularly affect how the office works with industry on the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS, a civil space traffic coordination system. While the office handles commercial remote sensing regulation and the promotion of the space industry, most of its budget is devoted to the ongoing development of TraCSS.”

Safety, progress, and the need for Artemis 2.0. SpaceNews.com commentary. Pull quote: “SLS, on the other hand, is too expensive to risk breaking, too fragile to test aggressively and too politically protected to be challenged. Instead, it sits, generating paperwork until it is launched once and discarded, only to be replaced by another pad queen a year later as teams forget what they had just learned. That isn’t progress. That’s bureaucracy masquerading as engineering.”

1st known interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua is an 'exo-Pluto' — a completely new class of object, scientists say. Space.com article. Pull quote: “"Because we had hardly seen such objects in the solar system, we weren't expecting objects like this," Desch told Space.com. "But we should have. Fragments of icy surfaces from Pluto-like dwarf planets were almost certainly ejected from our solar system, and 'Oumuamua made us come to grips with how much material must have been ejected."”