In Today’s Deep Space Extra… U.S. research and development spending is falling behind, while China’s accelerates, according to an MIT expert. Concerns grow over NASA’s lack of a permanent administrator as the agency transitions its focus from low Earth orbit to deep space.


Human Space Exploration

Revisiting “non-interference zones” in outer space

The Space Review (1/29): Significant technical, economic, and business hurdles aside, efforts to return to the moon that include commercial interests face a challenge. For instance, could mining activities or habitats on the moon or an asteroid be sheltered or reserved in the interests of safety and investor confidence from a competitor? As a concept, Non Interference Zones might address concerns raised by current law, including the Outer Space Treaty, writes Cody Knipfer, a George Washington University grad student.

Racing to space, together

Christian Science Monitor (1/29): Space exploration and science are entering a new age, one in which the Cold War era of competition between the U.S. and former Soviet Union is giving way to cooperation and competition. Seventy five nations have space initiatives of some kind, however….”There is no space race like the original space race,” says Michael Neufeld, a senior curator in the Space History Department at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

 

Space Science

Falling short on science

New York Times (1/26): The Internet, Global Positioning System and 3-D printing are all fruits of basic U.S. research. In an op-ed, MIT’s Maria Zuber warms the U.S. is in danger of losing its global leadership in such pursuits because of uncertain federal budgets. Meanwhile, other nations, including potential adversaries, are pursuing the U.S. traditional R and D model. China’s spending on research and development has grown an average 18 percent annually since 2000, while in the U.S. by an annual growth rate of just 4 percent, writes Zuber.

Earth may have housed life over 4 billion years ago when it was bludgeoned by asteroids

The Express of the UK (1/29): Perhaps, the Earth hosted life forms as long as 4 to 4.6 billion years ago, a period in which the planet was undergoing an intense bombardment by asteroids, according to researchers from the Southwest Research Institute, of Colorado.

NASA television to air live coverage of upcoming rare lunar eclipse

NASA (1/29): The Earth’s moon promises worth a look on Wednesday, when it enters a rare “blue blood phase.” The phase features a lunar eclipse and a blue moon at the same time. NASA TV will cover, starting at 5:30 p.m., EST.

The era of extremely large telescopes

The Space Review (1/29): The science community is counting on larger and larger telescopes to address such timeless questions as what are our origins? What is the universe made of? How are we evolving? and Where are we going? TSR editor Jeff Foust looks at struggles with tradition as well as technology and money to assemble three such ground-based observatories in the optimum locales of Hawaii and Chili.

 

Other News

Trump’s NASA nominee stymied in Senate

Wall Street Journal (1/29): U.S. Senate confirmation of President Trump’s nominee to lead NASA, Oklahoma congressman and U.S. Navy aviator Jim Bridenstine, seems increasingly unlikely and unlikely because of opposition largely along party lines. An illness confronting a key Republican lawmaker, concerns among Florida lawmakers over the fate of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and the outcome of a 2017 Alabama special election appear to be factors contributing to Bridenstine’s opposition.

NASA has gone a year without a formal leader with no end in sight

Ars Technica (1/29): Former NASA Administrator and four time shuttle astronaut Charles Bolden is expressing concern the space agency and its nearly 18,000 civil servants have gone a year without a congressionally confirmed administrator. The White House nominee, Jim Bridenstine, an Oklahoma congressman and U.S. Navy aviator, continues to face opposition before a politically divided U.S. Senate. Robert Lightfoot, a civil servant, has served ably as acting administrator, according to Bolden, who led the agency for seven years. However, if NASA’s heading is to pivot from low Earth orbit to deep space, an administrator capable of leading the agency’s personnel is crucial, says Bolden in an interview.

China to launch its first privately developed rocket In June

China Money Network (1/29): China may log the nation’s first commercial space launch. OneSpace, a Beijing startup, may take flight by June.