Hello Steemians!
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine says that they are considering a branding possibility for their rockets and use astronauts for commercial purposes, such as borrow their image for commercial advertising to make some money, considering that new Donald Trump administration has not provide any increase regarding the loans destined to them until the year 2023.
Until now, any type of advertising involvement related to its own facilities and employees has always been banned by the US space agency, a strategy adopted to avoid influencing in any way its activities by private companies.
A curious thing about don’t have any relationships with private companies, is that they are often sent to the ISS (International Space Station) of the “sugar-ball chocolates” for really long time, which are actually of a well known brand of candy that they prefer to don’t advertise.
Into the new strategy they are thinking about, was also taken into consideration to bring the “common people” closer to their missions, so as to make them well known and try to bring them into popular culture.
On the other hand this wouldn’t be really a news, as in Russia have already put advertising in their ISS and have received in the past sponsorships for their rockets, such as that of a very famous US restaurant chain specialized in Pizza production, that would have paid a million dollars to print his logo on one of their rockets and sent one of his pizzas to the Space during a refueling mission.
In addition to all that, there is the problem of private agencies, which may want to hire astronauts who work for NASA and could offer them favorable working time and higher salaries.
The revenues from the sponsorships would cover a small part of the expenses related to space missions, so it would only be a costs cut for contracts that would involve the “space traffic”.
These proposals have not naturally gone unnoticed, critics are pointing the finger at NASA, accusing it that using these sponsorships could compromise its image which has always avoid about interests regarding multinationals.
Another news come from the National Agency for Space and Aeronautical activities, it’s called Adept (Adaptable Deployable Entry Placement Technology), and consists in a heat shield, similar to a huge umbrella, which would serve to shield the space probes from the heat developed during the act of “piercing” the earth’s atmosphere.
Now still in the testing phase, it is composed of a layer of very thick carbon fibers that are braided and subsequently assembled on a flexible frame, so it would be easily loaded on a space rocket and would allow the return of samples collected on other planets, such as Mars.
Now let’s move on to a big problem that could prove to be really disturbing during space travel, the “space trash”, which in reality is not really trash, which could cause collisions that could have very serious consequences.
Therefore the idea of creating the NanoRacks-Remove Debris, it is a sort of harpoon that would be able to capture the biggest objects scattered in space on the rockets trajectories, this project is coordinated by the professor Guglielmo Aglietti, director of the space center in Surrey, Great Britain.
This system, at a cost of 15 million dollars, would be sent in orbit by the International Space Station, equipped with a 3D camera able to map the position and the speed of debris. Thanks to the provision of a real network, they would be able to capture objects wandering up to one meter in size.
The NanoRacks-Remove Debris will be tested soon, it will be transported to the spacecraft Dragon on Iss station, the research by Aglietti shows that by removing the larger objects the possibility of collisions can be reduced considerably, the cameras will resume operations and transmit the images on the Earth where the debris recovery operations will be coordinated.
One of the problem is that many of the objects thrown into space are still in orbit around the Earth and together with their fragments they represent a spatial and earthly threat. These debris can also cause collisions and potential damage to the operating satellites.
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