In Today’s Deep Space Extra…Lockheed Martin proposes a Mars orbiting habitat for astronauts by 2028, a Mars Base Camp from which human explorers could operate surface robots and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Human Deep Space Exploration

Lockheed Martin Wants to Send Humans to Mars in 12 Years
Popular Science (5/18): Lockheed Martin’s proposed Mars Base Camp could be in orbit around the red planet and prepared to house six astronauts by 2028. Lockheed presented the concept at the Humans to Mars Summit underway in Washington D.C. this week. “We think that orbiting Mars is a necessary precursor to landing humans on the surface,” Tony Antonelli, Lockheed Martin’s chief technologist for civil space exploration, and a former NASA astronaut, told Popular Science. “NASA has that in their plans, and we’re coloring in the details.” The base camp would rely on NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket, Orion crew capsule and Solar Electric Propulsion, all currently in development, as well as supporting technologies that already exist. Base camp astronauts would operate rovers and unmanned aerial vehicles on the Martian surface from the orbital base camp.

Companies building habitat prototypes ahead of Mars mission
USA Today (5/18): Six companies and perhaps more to come are partnered with NASA to develop an in space habitat that would house human explorers on their way to Mars and back or while orbiting the red planet. The habitats proposed by companies like Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK would expand the work space provided by NASA’s Orion capsule, which was developed to launch astronauts and protect them as they re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere. “Without a viable habitat to protect our astronauts from the inhospitable environment of space, we cannot achieve our goals for human deep-space exploration.” said U. S. Rep. Brian Babin, chair of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Space during a congressional hearing on Wednesday. Under NASA’s NEXTstep initiative, the habitats would be tested with astronauts in lunar orbit.

NASA and the author of ‘The Martian’ tell us exactly how we’ll get to Mars
Washington Post (5/18): Author Andy Weir and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden relayed a common vision for how the first explorers will reach Mars. The effort will likely be international with lots of space infrastructure already in place for support, the two men said during a Washington Post sponsored event, called Transformers.

Andy Weir Steals the Show at House Hearing, Wants Artificial Gravity
Spacepolicyonline.com (5/19): In testimony Wednesday before the Space Subcommittee of the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee, science fiction author Andy Weir backed artificial gravity as an important technology for human missions to Mars. The hearing topic was on NASA/commercial efforts to develop in space habitats for human deep space missions. Weir is best known for his recent novel The Martian, which became the basis for a movie of the same name. Both tell the tale of an astronaut stranded alone on the red planet.

Send Astronauts to Mars to Find Evidence of Life, NASA’s Top Scientist Says
Space.com (5/18): Human explorers will be a crucial part of efforts to determine whether Mars once harbored microbial life, NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan told a session of the Human to Mars Summit in Washington D.C. this week. The evidence may reside in fossil microbes, she told the gathering.

Space Science

Ancient asteroid impact was even bigger than the one that killed the dinosaurs, scientists say
Washington Post (5/18): Scientists have found evidence of a major asteroid impact hidden in an Australian rock formation. The devastation may have set a course for life as we know it now, they write in the journal of Precambrian Research. The Impactor may have been 11 to 18 miles across, perhaps at least twice the size of the asteroid impactor blamed for the demise of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The Australian impact is dated at 3.5 billion years ago.

Low Earth Orbit

China to debut new rocket and spaceport next month
Spaceflightnow.com (5/18): China is preparing its new Long March 7 launch vehicle for its first flight by the end of June. The launch from China’s new island spaceport in the South China Sea is to place the prototype for a new human spacecraft in orbit as well. The Long March 7 will burn a more environmentally friendly propellant, a rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen.

First German commander among astronauts named for station flights
Spaceflightnow.com (5/18): European Space Agency astronaut, and German native, Alexander Gerst has been named the second to command the six person, 15 nation International Space Station. Gerst’s opportunity is scheduled to come in September 2018.

Space shuttle external tank completes sea voyage, arrives in Los Angeles
CollectSpace (5/14): The barge carrying ET-94, a vintage space shuttle external fuel tank that will join the orbiter Endeavour display at the California Science Center of Los Angeles made port early Wednesday. The tank and barge made their way to California from New Orleans via the Panama Canal. When complete, the display will feature Endeavour, ET-94 and a pair of solid rocket boosters in the launch position.

Commercial to Orbit

House Passes FY2017 NDAA
Spacepolicyonline (5/19): The U.S. House passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2017 late Wednesday. Provisions would double to 18 the number of Russian RD-180 rocket engines that United Space Alliance can import for Atlas 5 launches, invest in the development of a domestic alternative to the RD-180 as well as a portions of a new launch vehicle to boost national security payloads into orbit

NRO planning shift to smaller satellites, new ground system 
Space News (5/18): Betty Sapp, who heads the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, said the security agency intends to turn to smaller satellites for its mission. “Cubesats, smaller sats, combined with affordable launch, are a huge enabler for us,” she told the GEOINT conference in Orlando, Fla.