Oxygen extraction on the Moon.

It is the Mid-Autumn Festival today, which is a major festival across many East Asian countries and cultures, and it's especially important in Chinese culture. And the festival is also known as the Moon Festival, and the celebrations have their roots in the legend of the Moon Goddess, Chang'e. Hmm, that's a familiar name in the world of lunar exploration, isn't it? Today is September 17th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis, and this is T-minus. Sierra Space shares new lunar tech. SoftBank and IntelSat to launch a continuous communications network. The FAA proposes penalties against SpaceX. And our guest today is Paul Thomas, Space Innovation Lead at Accenture. Paul will be speaking to T-minus producer Alice Caruth about how Accenture works with businesses to integrate space into their offerings. It's Tuesday. Let's dive into today's Intel Briefing, shall we? And as alluded to in the headlines, Sierra Space shared details about a new tech development that is set to revolutionize future missions to the Moon and maybe beyond. The company unveiled its Carbothermol Oxygen Production Reactor, which successfully completed thermal vacuum testing at NASA's Johnson Space Center. The test marked the first time in history that oxygen has been extracted from simulated regolith, which is a lunar soil, using an automated standalone system in a simulated lunar environment. The technology, when scaled up, is designed to produce oxygen in bulk to support one of the primary objectives of NASA's Artemis program, which is establishing the first long-term presence on the Moon. The tests confirmed that Sierra Space's system can successfully handle regoliths that would be delivered from a lunar rover or robotic arm and automatically bring it into the reaction chamber, perform the Carbothermol Reduction Reaction Process to extract the oxygen from the minerals in the regolith, and then remove the processed regolith from the system so that the operation can be repeated. Sierra Space shared in the press release that by harnessing the natural resources found on the Moon, humanity can reduce reliance on Earth-based supplies and open up new frontiers for space exploration and commercialization. The company is focused on integrating oxygen extraction, electrical storage, chemical recycling, and hydrogen-oxygen engine technology into a framework for commercial lunar infrastructure. Wow, what an incredible breakthrough for sustainable future space exploration. Dang. And when two mega names in financing and communications collide, then you know the results are going to have far-reaching potential. That's how we felt this morning when we heard the news that SoftBank and IntelSat are collaborating to launch a single, and I quote here, "ubiquitous network," enabling customers to stay connected everywhere they go. SoftBank and IntelSat will jointly lead research and development of seamless 5G connections between terrestrial mobile networks and satellite communications networks. And as part of the collaboration, they're looking to develop a hybrid communication solution that allows users to stay connected via available networks, whether terrestrial or satellite, anywhere in the world, with the convenience of one device and one account. Design development, field testing, and commercialization of new hybrid network products between IntelSat and SoftBank will be conducted in phases. The resulting hybrid solutions will allow for existing satellite terminals to be used in the near term and newer 5G terminals to be used as they become available. The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed exactly $633,009 in civil penalties against SpaceX for allegedly failing to follow its license requirements during operations in 2023. And if you think that this is Starship-related, you would lose that bet. It is not. In May 2023, SpaceX submitted a request to revise its communications plan related to its license to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The proposed revisions included adding a new launch control room at Hangar X and removing the T-2-hour readiness pole from its procedures. But on June 18, 2023, SpaceX used the unapproved launch control room for the PSN/Satria mission and did not conduct the required T-2-hour pole. As a result, the FAA is proposing $350,000 in civil penalties, $175,000 for each alleged violation. In addition, in July 2023, SpaceX submitted a request to revise its explosive site plan related to its license to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The proposed revision reflected a newly constructed rocket propellant farm. And then on July 28, 2023, SpaceX used the unapproved rocket propellant farm for the EchoStar 24 Jupiter mission. As a result, the FAA is proposing a $283,009 civil penalty. So all in all, SpaceX has 30 days to respond to the FAA after receiving the agency's enforcement letters. LeanSpace has won the France 2030 umbrella project, valued at €10.5 million, along with partners SISEC and Constellation Technologies and Operations. The investment, which is backed by the French government, positions LeanSpace as the critical infrastructure to manage large-scale, dynamic, and highly secure satellite constellations, boosting France's role as a major supplier of space technology. LeanSpace has also announced plans to establish its U.S. office later this year, bringing its technologies to address complex missions to the American market. Planet Labs has signed a three-year contract with the German Space Agency at DLR. Planet will provide a series of Earth observation data products and services to the German Space Agency and to German researchers to help them further advance research and development. Through this new multi-year contract, Planet will not only be providing data access but also development support for the German Space Agency's Earth Observation Data Platform, which is called EO Lab, integrating planet data into the system and offering advanced services. The German Space Agency also aims to advance education in the country by leveraging Planet's satellite data sets in classrooms to teach scientific research methods. Lithuania's former Prime Minister, Andreas Kubilius, has been appointed European Commissioner for Defense and Space. The role will focus on the European defense industry while managing the EU's Galileo and Copernicus satellite programs. Kubilius will also manage the Iris-squared constellation, which is due to be deployed by 2027. Finland's ReOrbit has entered into a strategic agreement with Malaysia's UZMA-BearHad for a geostationary Earth Orbit communications satellite project. ReOrbit will partner with UZMA to provide a software-enabled "geo-communication" satellite that aims to bring connectivity and ensure consistent coverage across Malaysia. China has built a laser communication ground system with a 500-millimeter caliber antenna in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The system had been developed by the Aerospace Information Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is expected to significantly enhance the country's capacity for massive satellite data transmission. Space Built has announced that its Automated Radiation Measurement for Aerospace Safety, or ARMAS, sensor will be flying aboard Lone Star Data Holdings Freedom payload on the upcoming second Intuitive Machines mission to the Lunar South Pole. ARMAS will collect data in flight through CIS Lunar Space, and once the payload reaches the moon's surface, it will offer invaluable insights that are expected to support long-term human exploration and lunar settlement. And a reminder, Intuitive Machines' mission IM2 is expected to be carried out in January 2025. And for a space cybersecurity story, here's Dave Bittner from our sister podcast, The Cyber Wire, with the following story. The U.S. announced charges against Chinese national Song Wu for spearfishing government employees to obtain restricted aerospace software. Wu, still at large, allegedly posed as U.S. researchers and engineers to target NASA, Air Force, Navy, and private aerospace companies. He sought access to specialized software, including source code from NASA, for aerospace engineering. Wu, an employee of China's state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation, conducted the phishing campaign between 2017 and 2021, and faces wire fraud and identity theft charges. Additionally, the Department of Justice unsealed a 2021 indictment against Hai Wei, a Chinese national working for the People's Liberation Army, for hacking a U.S. communications company. Charges were also announced against Russian national Denis Postovoi for exporting drone components to Russia and other individuals for smuggling UAV parts to Iran. Thank you for that, Dave. And that concludes our briefing for today. As always, we've included links to further reading in our show notes, and today we've added three extra stories for you. One's an announcement on production from Minerik, one's on funding for size, haps, solutions, and one providing information on a watchdog group that's looking to sue NASA. Hmm. Hey, T-Minus Crew, if you're just joining us, welcome, and be sure to follow T-Minus Space Daily in your favorite podcast app. Also, if you could do us a favor, please share the intel with your friends and coworkers. So here's a little challenge for you. By Friday, please show three friends or coworkers this podcast. That's because a growing audience is the most important thing for us, and we would love your help as part of the T-Minus Crew. So if you find T-Minus useful, and as always, we really hope you do, please share this show so other professionals just like you can find it. Thank you so much for your support. It means a lot to us. You're at T-Minus. While I was out last week moving house, T-Minus Space producer Alice Garuth was pretty busy, and she spoke to Paul Thomas, Space Innovation Lead at Accenture. And Alice asked Paul how Accenture is preparing non-traditional space companies to use technologies that are being developed by the space industry to improve their business plans. We do believe every company will be a space company or is a space company to some extent already today. And that's why I opened to a lot of folks when you have the conversation. You explain that to them because pretty much everybody's using space technology today anyway, right? Even by using your mobile phone, by using a GPS system, even making a payment at an ATM or withdrawing cash, you're using space technology. Just a lot of people don't really think about it in that way. And the key thing for us really is as we understand the capabilities, especially when you think about Earth observation capabilities or communications capabilities that are being provided by satellites, there's a huge amount of data that's up there now and data that's evolving in terms of its sophistication of what it can do and can see and can enable and can connect. Where we see, I guess, the real opportunity here is for businesses going about their daily operations, thinking about how do they reinvent themselves? How do they optimize the way they do things? How do they future-proof, I guess, some of the things that they're doing? Or how do they do things in more sustainable fashions? There's all this technology that's already up there that is evolving and changing that they could be harnessing. And so our role is really helping companies understand those potentials. And then going beyond, and this is the real magic, is going beyond the art of the possible of what it can do to the nuts and bolts of, okay, but for you in your industry, with the problems that you may have today or you may have tomorrow, this is really how this technology can help you and how that technology can combine with other technologies both existing in you to really change the game for them. Can you give any examples of how you've worked with a non-traditional space company to really utilize the technology to really help people rethink the way that they're looking at their future plans for their business? Yeah, I mean, a great example is work that we've done with Duke Energy in the States. So that's a really great example where we've helped them to identify on greenhouse gas emissions around methane leaks. So something that is hugely beneficial for them to understand. And obviously they have ways to look at it before and companies in general from an operational perspective when they're looking at, I guess, protecting their assets or monitoring their assets and understanding where they may have leaks around some of those assets, there's traditional ways of going around and checking, physically going and sending people to look at these things and verify how they are. But we have this capability now through high-perspectual imaging to be able to see things that humanized can't see and actually be able to see huge amounts of land mass and pinpoint at any one time with a certain amount of frequency. You can revisit and look at things regularly and therefore identify changes of anomalies automatically. So taking that satellite data, applying certain algorithms and analytics onto that data, you can then create a real time or close to real time, depending on that frequency and depending on integration, but information that then you can act upon. And so through that we've been able to help identify those leaks and when they do occur and then figure out how you can automate fixing them. Another thing I think which is quite a good one is when we think about from a supply chain perspective, there's regulations that are coming into force in Europe around compliance of certain tradable commodities coming in and out of Europe. So it's the deforestation regulation. So the idea is it's setting rules around products sold or exported from the EU. So things made from cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood. And the goal is basically to mitigate deforestation and forest degradation to ensure that the products that are produced in these commodities are sourced sustainably. So that's the key mission of it, starting with those things. And they're talking about potentially putting fines on that of up to 4% of revenues of companies that are not being able to comply with this. And obviously with the EU, the enforcement's don't come in in the time that sometimes they think about and it might take a little bit longer, but you can see that's the way that things are going and that's the way that governments are thinking about helping to increase that sustainability and the responsibility that corporates have around sustainability. And so satellite imagery, being able to use that to identify and collect both historic and then real-time imagery of farming plots or forest areas, etc. Using potentially open source data, but as well as specific data from partners like Planet, for example, for greater precision. And then applying again land use classification techniques around that to flag things like deforestation, etc. We can really provide that view for these companies and enable that compliance, auditability, traceability, etc. And automate sort of reporting around them. So we're doing that for companies today as well. You guys get this kind of overview lookup of businesses and overview look of space. And you sort of said, we are imagining the future for a lot of these businesses as well. Is there anything particular you're thinking that you can see on the horizon that's coming up, maybe not available right now, but it's going to happen in the future in your preparing businesses to say, this is coming up, this is a future technology, and this is where we think we can apply it. Oh, there's so much. It's hard not to sound cheesy sometimes, right? Or when you just think about the infinite possibilities of space, right? And it's very just its nature. And then you think about what we can do and the applications for every industry both on our planet. And as we're going beyond our planet as well, which I think is a really interesting part because that starts whole new questions, philosophies, ethics, all these other things to think about as well that go with it. Yeah, so there's a lot there from a strategy perspective, we've kind of divided what we're doing into three kind of buckets. We look at what we call earth to space, space to earth, and the space and beyond. So simply put, earth to space is where we're working with traditional aerospace and defense companies. We're thinking about the folks that are building the equipment, building satellites, building the things that are going into space and enabling launches and operations and all these types of things. And how do we help them do things in certain ways? And we've worked in that industry for 40, 50 years now already. So we're part of a lot of those companies already. But it's helping bring some of the new technologies into that. So how do we help them reinvent by bringing GenAI technologies to them? How do we bring them next gen robotics, for example, humanoid robots? How do we bring them next generation computing capabilities like quantum, like HPC? How do we even bring them things like just augmented reality and other types of metaverse technologies that can help them do things? So we kind of have this bringing innovation to that industry as one sort of core component, I guess you could look at. Then we have the space to Earth, which moves into that remote sensing, the Earth observation, satellite security. We have a very big security division with an extension. And within that, we have a space division too, which is looking at satellite security. And then the third one, space in beyond, which is what you were asking about. And it's kind of the more future looking things. And I mean, there's a lot there. And I guess what we have to really think about is how much are we talking about the future of good to know, but this is 20, 30 years away, that might not impact you today, but you should maybe be cognizant of this potential future that may be versus what's the future for the next five, 10, 15 years that may be impacting you. And I guess the two key things, which are really recent for us right now that always stick in my head. So one is I look at Polaris Dawn and that whole capacity for human spaceflight, but going beyond again, the government space agencies to enable private exploration of space, private spaceflight and space-based research and development, building products, advancing products in zero gravity, for example, and in space to enable you to do things in better, or faster, or purer ways, for example. I think that's huge. And as the ISS is decommissioned and more of the space stations are then being created, that gives you more capacity, more potential for even more of these human spaceflight missions to these stations to occur, which increases the potential amount of research and development that goes with it and the opportunities of what commercialization of that looks like. I think that's going to be really, really interesting. I feel like people within the space industry completely get this and all of us are very excited about what's potentially coming in the future. But there's always this slight resistance coming from people outside of the space bubble. Have you guys ever come across a company that's like, "This doesn't apply to us," and you've had to really sit down and explain to them the benefits of what could come and what's potentially available to them? Yeah. I mean, it happens every day. You have people that are very, I guess, space pro, just by their nature and everything to do with space. They love and you have folks that are maybe not so confident or not so sure, a bit skeptical about it. And I think that's fine, right? That's what engages conversation and stimulates, I guess, growth of my assets is people being able to talk about it and think about it. I do think from the majority of cases, if not all the cases that I've had when we talk about this, it's really identifying where there's opportunities that are real for them today. So where I just spoke about with you now is me, in a way, envisaging what could happen and that gets me very excited because that's how I am. But I also know, if you think about when you talk about this to a company about how that might impact them or affect them, it's thinking about how do you then translate some of these potentials of where the technology is going or the potentials that the technology is enabling with what they're trying to do? What's their core mission? What's their metrics? What are the issues that they may be having today and how can this technology potentially help them? In those cases, that doesn't start with us colonising the moon, right? Or being able to mine on the moon. It starts with some more near-term things like, for example, looking at the satellite capabilities and what that can do to improve the business or connectivity. We work pretty much across everybody. We have folks that are very specialised in industries and that have been working in those industries and working with clients for decades as well. But we also have folks that are really rich and deep in terms of different technologies. So cloud integrations and working with ERP systems, for example, with new technologies. So if you think about what we're doing here within the space industry is that the ability that we have to then understand those industries and those, I guess, those needs, those concerns, those potential pressing issues that companies may be having, marry that with these new technologies from space and these other new technologies and the existing technologies that they have in their current legacy systems, for example. We're one of maybe the only companies that can really see that and connect all of that together and bring the boot together around it. I think that's really the place where Accenture sits is kind of unique in being able to bring that value to that space industry but also to every other industry at the same time. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. Space Tourism Company and Oreo collaborator Space Perspective has moved a giant leap forward towards its plans to take passengers to the stratosphere in its high altitude balloon and capsule. The company completed an uncrewed flight test from the deck of a customized ship MS Voyager off the Florida coast on Sunday. The flight demonstration began with a launch from MS Voyager, sending spaceship Neptune to an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet. And over the course of the six-hour journey, the spacecraft reached its peak altitude before performing a controlled descent and splashdown. The data collected from Development Flight 2 will help refine Space Perspective's digital twin technology. The technology will aid engineers in analyzing spacecraft systems, including the capsule structure and thermal control, and guide the development of future spacecraft designs. Data gathered from this flight demonstration will pave the way for the development of crewed flight tests. And I have to admit, there is something quite appealing about a leisurely flight to 100,000 feet and back again, versus the rather violent, directed explosion of a rocket launch. Tell you what, Space Perspective, as much as I'm a wimp when it comes to space travel, we at T-Minus enthusiastically volunteer to do a podcast from onboard spaceship Neptune once testing is complete. We'd be happy to give you the overview. And that's it for T-Minus for September 17th, 2024, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. And we're privileged that N2K and podcasts like T-Minus are part of the daily routine of many of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector, from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This episode was produced by Alice Caruth. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Iben. Our executive editor is Brandon Karp. Simone Petrella is our president. Peter Kilpey is our publisher. And I am your host, Maria Vermazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T-Minus. [END] [MUSIC]