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Today’s Deep Space Extra

August 16th, 2018

In Today’s Deep Space Extra… ICARUS opens new small animal venture in space. Earth has mini moons and they solve asteroid mysteries. X-37B space plane almost 1 year in orbit.

Human Space Exploration

Spacewalkers toss nanosatelllites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor

Spaceflightnow.com (8/15): A lengthy spacewalk on Wednesday by Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev equipped the ISS with ICARUS, a GPS device intended to track small animals along their migratory tracks. This a Russian/German led endeavor.

 

Space Science

A mystery in the mesophere

Spaceweather.com (8/15): The mystery appears solved by a sustained presence of these high altitude clouds long after they should retreated. Experts believed that is due to an abundance of high altitude moisture.

Earth has mini moons and they solve asteroid mysteries.

Space.com (8/15) Mini moons, which come and go from the Earth’s province because of their small size, could provide new insight into the genesis and evolution of asteroids.

 

Other News

Bridenstine-Rogozin meeting not set yet

Spacepolicyonline.com (8/15): Statements and predictions that NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is close to a face to face meeting with his Russia counterpart Demitry RogozIn, in October appear premature.

Mysterious X-37B military space plane nears 1 year in orbit

Space.com (8/15): The secretive spacecraft’s flight began September 7, 2017 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) atop a SpaceX Falcon rocket. Other than a payload designed by the U.S. Air Force to evaluate oscillating heat pipes for thermal control, little has been released to describe the mission. The end of mission timing has not been announced.

The U.S. Air Force’s X-37B miniature space plane has winged past 340 days in orbit performing secretive duties during the program’s fifth flight

Space.com (8/15): The robotic craft’s latest mission, known as Orbital Test Vehicle-5 (OTV-5), kicked off on September 7, 2017, with a launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. No details on when it might end.

Spinning heat shield concept could provide a lightweight way to survive atmospheric reentry

Universe Today (8/15): A student research project at the University of Manchester may offer an alternative to large deployable and inflatable spacecraft heat shields. This prototype for a heat shield relies centrifugal forces to stiffen flexible, lightweight materials. The prototype, which is the first of its kind, could reduce the cost of space travel and facilitate future missions to Mars, according to the researchers.

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