Solstar Space (Solstar) announces Dr. Alan Stern as an expert advisor to support the development of the company’s forthcoming, space-based, internet connectivity systems.
Dr. Stern is scheduled to perform a research and training exercise during the upcoming Virgin Galactic spaceflight onboard Galactic 05 with a launch window that opens Thursday, November 2, for the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Galactic 05 will launch from The Gateway to Space at Spaceport America, located North of Las Cruces, New Mexico and South of Solstar’s Santa Fe, New Mexico, headquarters.
Dr. Stern’s first Virgin Galactic spaceflight will be a training and preparation flight for a subsequent flight, which may occur as soon as 2024, where he will be a NASA-selected researcher. The first mission will be used as training for Dr. Stern as he becomes familiar with Virgin Galactic spaceflight operations and the crew cabin, while also mitigating overview affect distractions for the planned 2024 research flight.
He will also conduct preliminary research for wearability of a biomedical harness and use of a foam mockup of a camera he will later use for NASA astronomical research. During the later NASA research flight, Stern will again wear the biomedical harness with a cuff and data recorder that will track his vitals throughout the mission. He will also take images to determine the image quality and sensitivity that can be achieved through the vehicle’s windows.
“I am honored to be re-joining the distinguished advisors and crew members of the Solstar Space team. Solstar’s communications solutions offer important new capabilities for suborbital research and education missions of the future, which is exciting.” — Dr. Stern
“I have had the opportunity to work with Dr. Stern for over a decade. His broad space experience and background as a world-class planetary scientist is valuable experience that will support Solstar’s mission to develop and deploy Space WiFi in LEO orbit, cislunar space, and on the lunar surface. His upcoming missions onboard VSS Unity are an example of the type of spaceflight missions Solstar plans to support with its Space WiFi in the future. The under development Space WiFi and narrowband Deke and broadband Slayton Space Communicators could be used to capture and provide real time feeds of biomedical data for medical and research professionals on Earth.” — Brian Barnett, Founder and CEO, Solstar Space.