KentuckySpace is a non-profit enterprise involving a consortium of universities and private organizations pursuing space-related education, R&D, small satellite design and launch operations.
Kentucky Space is excited to have a presentation booth within the Kentucky BIO Pavilion at BIO in Chicago, IL. May 3rd – May 6th. The BIO International Convention is the largest global event for the biotechnology industry.
As part of the Kentucky Space Exomedicine research initiative, we are looking forward to meeting potential biotechnology partners interested in performing microgravity research on the International Space Station.
Recorded at the recent CubeSat Developer's Workshop, University of Kentucky graduate student Daniel Erb described CubeLabstm and the opportunities, based on this new standard, for low cost, repeatable microgravity research aboard the International Space Station.
What’s important to understand about this space research is that it isn’t about space. It’s about how earthly cells and molecules react and change in the micro-gravity environment of space. The economic and social implications of that research could be huge.
For example, most medical research about how humans react to micro-gravity has been focused on preventing harm to astronauts. But space could have beneficial effects on cells that might lead to more effective treatments for various diseases and conditions. Research already is being conducted on the space station to see how micro-gravity changes bacteria, which could lead to more effective vaccines for dangerous salmonella and staph infections.
'What could the applications of all of this be? The answer is, we don’t know, which is the foundation for all science,' Kimel said. 'Many scientific breakthroughs come when you’re looking for something else.'
Kentucky Space had the opportunity yesterday to talk about its work at the 6th annual Kentucky Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference in Lexington, which for one day was the undisputed intellectual capital of the commonwealth.
In brief presentations to the attendees at the first general session, Kris Kimel, president of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, which is the managing partner for Kentucky Space, described how breakthroughs in science bring wealth, not just jobs. For a state like Kentucky, which leans heavily on well known and traditional industries, supporting this kind of innovation is critically important. Locations with concentrations of technical and human capital attract talent and investment. It's a virtuous cycle.
Later in the day, Kentucky Space students Jason Bratcher and Samir Rawashdeh detailed the work being done in Kentucky Space to develop a particular kind of talent and unique technologies during an extended poster display by organizations and companies doing cutting edge work in the commonwealth. With the recent launches of Frontier-1 and Monday's Discovery flight playing on a looping video nearby, passersby, who work with nano-technologies, and in the medical and material sciences themselves, were sufficiently impressed and many lingered to chat. The words "Kentucky" and "Space" next to each other have a certain shock value. But given its emphasis on building small spacecraft doing low cost, high value science, given the recent successes in launching these Kentucky-built craft, given the potential for standardized research in "plug and play" micro-labs built by students in Kentucky and set to be delivered by the now-docked Discovery (video below), that unfamiliarity may not last. Long known for its product on grassy field and beneath eastern mountain, Kentucky, instead, could become a place where talented people choose to stay and find discovery overhead.
A new flight window for SOCEM has been confirmed for Saturday through Sunday, March 27 and 28.
"SOCEM," which stands for Sub-orbital Cubesat Experimental Mission,
is a test of the Terrier-Improved Malemute sounding rocket and Cubesat
launcher that may open new opportunities in fast access to space. Video of a recent test ejection may be seen here:
Kentucky Space's ejected "ADAMASat" payload will test components that will fly on
orbital missions slated for later this year.
ADAMASat can be followed on Twitter @KySpaceADAMASat
NASA TV broadcast this segment on its Wallops "SOCEM" mission, which has been posted to the UK Space Lab channel on YouTube.
Weather scrubbed last Thursday's launch. A new target launch date should be announced soon.
Via 62MileClub, DailyKos runs down a list of players in the new space race, complete with quite a few pictures and estimates of the funding and technology involved.
JPL has released a brief podcast of the sounds that can be heard from the Mars' rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
The picture above of a "PocketQub" was snapped on a recent trip to Morehead State University to talk with Profs. Bob Twiggs and Ben Malphrus. The personal satellite can be flown with whatever science or technology that can be put inside on missions measured in weeks or months at very low orbital altitudes, and vaporize on reentry into the Earth's atmosphere. This example is sitting on a magazine-sized brochure.
Taking a look at the business prospects for sub-orbital research payloads, the Space Business Blog noticed the work being done by NanoRacks and Kentucky Space to make microgravity research on the International Space Station an affordable and repeatable proposition. It likes, in particular, the modular nature of the solution and points out one very important benefit of using Cubelabs:
NanoRacks has developed a standard rack that plugs into a [mid deck locker] on station. NanoRacks worked with Bob Twiggs (co-creater of the CubeSat) from Kentucky Aerospace to build a standard experiment module called the CubeLab. Still 10cm-cubed, and plugs into their rack via a standard USB port. Very plug-and play! I like this. NanoRacks and Kentucky Space intend to offer this CubeLab technology as open-source for the benefit of the industry. One important nugget: the CubeSat has already passed significant ITAR hurdles, and since the CubeLab is based on similar technology to the CubeSat, a business using this open-source technology should have a significantly easier time attracting and working with international customers. NanoRacks goal is to offer Micro-gravity research opportunitis on the ISS, but I think the technology ports very well into the suborbital arena as well.
Space blogs typically focus on hardware and technology, but rarely on the business prospects for that hardware and technology in the developing frontier of commercial space. Read the entire piece from Space Business Blog.
The Google Lunar X PRIZE has announced a renewed emphasis on education, and points out the connection between new Moon race and lagging science literacy in the United States. Introducing herself, the new Education Manager for the prize, Chandra Gonzales, lays out the challenge:
One of the greatest challenges that I have seen in our education systems is the need to meet our world’s significant workforce shortages in the critical sciences, technology, engineering and math fields. Did you know that in the US alone, the Department of Education reported that only 18% of high school seniors are considered proficient in science and 5% of undergraduates earn degrees in science and engineering? I feel that it is imperative that educators work with industry to tackle this issue.
With a program built around teaching and flying the space sciences, Kentucky Space certainly understands the challenge as well. It's nice to see the Google Lunar X PRIZE connect "education to inspiration."