In Today’s Deep Space Extra… At the Moon, future human explorers will learn to tackle the challenges of exploring Mars, according to policy makers and space veterans. NASA offers the public an upfront and personal opportunity to follow along as Mars InSight attempts a November 26 landing on the Red Planet. U.S. and Russian re-supply missions slated to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) just hours apart on Friday.
Human Space Exploration
Mars mission advocates see benefits in NASA’s lunar exploration plans
SpaceNews.com (11/14): Even those with some healthy skepticism are beginning to believe that NASA’s plans to resume human deep space exploration with journeys to the Moon could pave the way to future missions to Mars, territory humans have yet to visit. “You can buy down a lot of those long poles in a lunar campaign and get us to Mars much sooner than most people would probably think,” said Rick Davis, NASA’s assistant director for science and exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, during a panel discussion at the National Press Club in Washington earlier this week.
Our Moon is the hottest property in the solar system right now
Engadget (11/13): In the Apollo era, it was the U.S. and the former Soviet Union locked in a race to the Moon. NASA intends to return to the Moon in the 2020s, this time with international and private sector partners, including Russia. China, Japan, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Israel are among those from across the globe also now focused on lunar exploration. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has emphasized that this time the U.S. plans a sustained human presence in deep space, one starting with the Moon, then Mars.
Humans could be heading to Mars in 25 years, NASA says
USA Today (11/14): After addressing the obstacles of long duration spaceflight, NASA could be launching human explorers to Mars within a quarter century, say former astronauts and those involved in the scientific challenges.
Orion recovery team: Ready to ‘rock and roll’
NASA Kennedy (11/13): The Kennedy Space Center’s Exploration Ground Systems’ team recently completed a week long exercise with the Department of Defense (DOD) in the Pacific Ocean aboard the USS John P. Murtha for the testing of the recovery hardware and systems for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is to start human explorers on future missions of human deep space exploration and return them to Earth. “We had an amazing week,” said NASA’s Jeremy Parr, lead design engineer, was on hand to evaluate testing.
Space Science
Some strange science will launch into space this week for NASA
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Space.com (11/13): Northrop Grumman’s 10th resupply mission launch to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed by unfavorable launch weather at NASA’s Wallops Island Flight Facility from Thursday to Friday at 4:23 a.m., EST, at the earliest. About 7,400 pounds of supplies are headed to the Station, including tech demonstrations and science experiments that will attempt to recycle plastic wastes into tools and other equipment; assess the solidification of cement at varying gravity levels; attempt to grow protein crystals that could help to fashion a cure for Parkinson’s disease; analyze human perception in microgravity; and attempt to advance technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
NASA brings Mars landing, first in six years, to viewers everywhere November 26
NASA (11/13): NASA’s next Mars planetary science mission, Mars InSight, is on a course to land on the Red Planet on November 26. NASA plans live coverage for the 3 p.m., EST event over NASA TV and on its website, www.nasa.gov, and social media platforms. Once on the surface, InSight is to place sensors on the surface and in the subsurface to explore geophysical processes for the first time as part of a two year mission that will also keep tabs on the surrounding weather.
What to expect when InSight lands on Mars
Planetary Society (11/12): The Planetary Society breaks down the dramatic events as NASA’s Mars InSight Lander approaches Mars on November 26 for a landing after diving at high velocity into the thin atmosphere. Touchdown is expected at approximately 3 p.m., EST.
Ice age asteroid crater discovered beneath Greenland glacier
New York Times (11/14): A NASA glaciologists is among an international science team that has used satellite and airborne sensors to discover one of the Earth’s largest impact craters hidden well below the ice of Northwest Greenland. The impact depression created by an iron rich meteorite measures 19 miles in diameter and 1,000 feet deep. The discovery, described in the journal Science Advances, and led by scientists from the University of Copenhagen, took three years to verify.
Other News
Antares launch from Virginia delayed to Friday
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Spaceflightnow.com (11/14): Northrop Grumman and NASA on Wednesday postponed by 24 hours the launch of the company’s 10th NASA contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) because of clouds, winds and rain forecast for the Wallops Island, Virginia, launch site. The new time for launch is Friday at 4:23 a.m., EST, the opening of a 5 minute window. Weather could be an issue. A Russian Progress resupply mission is slated to launch to the Space Station as well from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday at 1:14 p.m., EST. The timing would place the arrival of both resupply vessels at the Space Station on Sunday.
India’s GSLV Mk.3 aces test launch, clearing way for lunar mission
Spaceflightnow.com (11/14): India’s GSLV Mk.3 launcher accomplished its second orbital test flight on Wednesday. The success prompted Indian officials to pronounce the rocket prepared for operational flights. The first could be that of the Chandrayaan 2 lunar lander, which could liftoff as soon as January.
ESA targets 2021 for Space Rider demo flight
SpaceNews.com (11/13): The European Space Agency 9ESA) plans the first qualification flight of its Space Rider space plane in 2021. Additional demos are planned before ESA turns development over to private industry. Ultimately, Space Rider is to expose payloads to the low Earth orbit environment for up to two months.
Tavares Strachan teams with SpaceX to launch satellite-sculpture into orbit
New York Times (11/13): An artistic space tribute to Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African American to train as an astronaut with NASA, is slated to launch next week as part of a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Lawrence perished in a 1967 jet crash.