In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Gateway strategy is unfolding as planned. Russia plans to assess the hardware life of its International Space Station (ISS) elements. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working toward a joint mission to return samples of Martian rock and soil to Earth for analysis.
Human Space Exploration
Gateway development remains on track
SpaceNews.com (9/17): The lunar orbiting Gateway that NASA plans to begin assembling in 2022 to support a 2024 human return to the surface of the Moon is proceeding as planned, Dan Hartman, NASA’s Gateway program manager, told a September 11 session of the Wernher von Braun symposium at the Marshall Space Flight Center. Initially, the module will consist of a commercial power and propulsion module and a modest habitat.
Roscosmos hopes to scrutinize service life of Russian segment of ISS by 2021
TASS of Russia (9/16): Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency, plans to contract for an engineering assessment of the future service life of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) should the life of the orbiting lab be extended beyond 2024.
ISS National Lab work continues amid NASA review
Space News (9/17): Oversight of the U.S. National Lab volume and elements of the International Space Station (ISS) came under NASA review in mid-August as NASA initiated efforts to transition its human spaceflight focus from low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he wanted to make sure the effort managed by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) is focused and adequately resourced. So far, the review has had little effect on the coordination of Space Station research, a CASIS official told an Arizona State University (ASU) commercial microgravity workshop.
Space Science
Meet the nuclear-powered self-driving drone NASA is sending to a moon of Saturn
National Public Radio (9/17): Dragonfly is a NASA dual rotor quad copter drone with a nuclear power source that is designed to explore the frigid desert like surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission is planned for a 2026 launch and arrival in 2034. Titan is laced with dunes and gullies and rich in organics, the building blocks of life, but much too cold for water to flow. The thick nitrogen atmosphere, however, supports lakes of liquid methane.
Jupiter’s lunar volcano could erupt this month
CNET (/17): Io is a moon of Jupiter well known for its volcanic activity. Io’s large Loki volcano is predicted to be on the verge of its latest major eruption, Julie Rathbun, senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, alerted the European Planetary Science Congress’ 2019 Joint Meeting in Geneva on Tuesday.
NASA, ESA officials seek formal approvals for Mars sample return mission
Spaceflightnow.com (9/16): As 2019 draws to a close, the two space agencies are continuing discussions and hoping for favorable funding to acquire and return to Earth the rock and soil samples gathered by NASA’s Mars2020 rover, which is to launch to the red planet in July 2020 and touchdown at Jezero Crater on the red planet in February 2021. The rover is to gather and cache up to 43 samples from an ancient stream delta. The multi-billion dollar joint NASA/ESA follow on mission would land at Jezero, retrieve the samples and ascend to Mars orbit to begin the journey back to Earth. On Earth the latest laboratory instruments could be used to examine the samples for evidence of past or current biological activity.
Astronomers detect the most massive neutron star yet
Space.com (9/16): Neutron stars are one form of a dense relic of a star that now longer shines. Extremely dense, neutron stars are about a dozen miles in diameter. The newly discovered neutron star, J0740+6620, with a white dwarf star companion lies about 4,600 light-years from Earth. It has jammed more than twice the mass of the sun into a sphere about 15 miles in diameter. That’s about as large as a neutron star can be without becoming a black hole.
Other News
Space companies have thousands of job openings, including at SpaceX, Blue Origin & more
CNBC (9/17): U.S. space jobs pay well and they are plentiful, according to Space Angels, a New York City investment firm that helps companies like Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic and satellite operators like Maxar’s Digital Globe and Planet Labs find talent. More than $20 billion has been invested in 435 space companies so far, with investments only accelerating in recent years, according to Space Angels. The median base pay for workers equals $86,000 annually.
EU agency starts space sustainability initiative
SpaceNews.com (9/16): The European Union (EU) is launching a new foreign policy initiative to promote ethical conduct in space operations with a focus on low Earth operations that are becoming increasingly congested to create a growing threat from space debris.