SpaceX is launching a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a mini data center to the moon as part of Lonestar Data Holdings' mission to establish lunar data storage facilities. The project aims to protect sensitive data from Earth-based hazards and bypass data sovereignty restrictions through space-based storage solutions. The initiative faces challenges like latency and maintenance but offers advantages including natural cooling and potential renewable power operations.
DARPA has issued a special notice for research and development in large bio-mechanical space structures, with responses due March 27, 2025. The contract focuses on basic research in national defense R&D services, specifically targeting physical, engineering, and life sciences applications.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has called for the International Space Station to be deorbited within two years, significantly earlier than NASA's planned 2030 timeline. Despite SpaceX's $843 million contract to assist with the station's eventual deorbit, Musk argues there is little incremental utility in continuing operations.
Lox is a comprehensive astrodynamics API designed for space mission planning and analysis, offering both high-level interfaces and specialized tools. The framework provides Python bindings, extensive time management capabilities, and support for various orbital calculations and celestial body data.
NASA's workforce has decreased by approximately 10% in the past four weeks, with around 750 employees accepting deferred resignations and over 1,000 probationary employees being terminated. Field center directors have been instructed to prepare for potential additional significant workforce reductions, pending budget negotiations between the White House and Congress.
A critical analysis of NASA's 10 coding rules for embedded software programming discusses potential issues with their restrictions, especially around recursion, memory allocation, and function pointers. The analysis emphasizes how these rules, while potentially beneficial for spacecraft software, may lead to less maintainable code and argues against limitations that prevent common programming patterns.