In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Evidence of bi-partisan U.S. support for the human exploration of Mars is reflected in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, note Explore Mars leaders.
Human Space Exploration
Humans on Mars in 2033: A bipartisan vision
The Hill (7/26): Support from both major U.S. political parties led to passage as well as President Trump’s signature of the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 in March. It’s time to support the legislation’s call for a human presence of Mars by 2033 with modest spending increases, write Explore Mars executives Chris Carberry and Rick Zucker in an op ed. “Now is not the time to be timid,” according to the two men. “It is time for NASA and its industrial and international partners to truly enable humans to walk on the Martian surface within the next 16 years.”
NASA is building a prototype for a habitat in deep space by recycling an old cargo container
Washington Post (7/26): Donatello, an aging one time cargo carrier designed for flight aboard NASA’s space shuttle to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, will be converted into a ground based mockup of a deep space habitat for astronauts by Lockheed Martin. Working under a NASA contract, Lockheed will carry out the project at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center over the next 18 months. The effort could advance plans by NASA to establish a Deep Space Gateway, or lunar orbital habitat, during the mid-2020s.
Space Science
Reaching for the stars, breakthrough sends smallest-ever satellites into orbit
Scientific American (7/26): Ambitious plans by Breakthrough Starshot to launch small spacecraft in search of Earth like planets around the neighboring star Alpha Centauri by mid-century logged a milestone on June 23, when the initiative backed by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner launched a half dozen solar powered nanosatellites called Sprites into orbit aboard an Indian rocket.
Newly developed nanotube technology could revolutionize spaceflight
SpaceflightInsider.com (7/26): A new carbon nanotube material promises to add strength and elasticity to spacecraft structures that hold fluids and gases. The promising material was tested as a thruster component on a recent suborbital rocket launch from NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.
Big, dangerous comets are more common than previously thought
Space.com (7/26): The number of large long period comets, or comets that travel far to loop around the sun and return to the distant reaches of the solar system, has probably been underestimated, according to a study led by a University of Maryland researcher.
Atoms in your body may come from distant galaxies
Cosmos (7/27): A study led by Northwestern University astrophysicist Daniel Anglés-Alcázar and using supercomputer modeling suggests that much of the matter in the Milky Way, even us humans, likely originated in other star systems and migrated through a process called intergalactic transfer.
Other News
NASA targeting Aug. 20 for Atlas V launch of damaged TDRS-M satellite
Florida Today (7/26): NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M, which supports communications with the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope and other spacecraft, will be repaired and ready to launch from Florida on Aug. 20. A spacecraft antenna was damaged earlier this month during pre-launch processing.
Luxembourg’s new law lets space miners keep their plunder
Wired (7/26): It was a 2012 trip to NASA’s Ames Research Center that convinced Luxembourg’s minister of economy, Etienne Schneider, of the possibilities of space mining. On August 1, Luxembourg plans a new law that grants mining companies the rights to whatever they extract from asteroids. It may make Luxembourg attractive to companies confident they can mine space’s riches.