In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Lawmakers press NASA for Artemis Moon landing details. NASA’s first return to the Moon with astronauts, Artemis 3 is unlikely prior to late 2024.
Human Space Exploration
Skepticism abounds on Moon-by-2024 goal at House hearing
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/18): Pressed by legislators Wednesday during a U.S. House Space Subcommittee hearing on the status of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), Orion and ground launch systems, Ken Bowersox, the agency’s acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations, raised doubt about efforts to accelerate a human return to the surface of the Moon by 2024. Among his concerns was a lack of appropriations so far by the House and Senate on a $1.6 billion supplemental budget request by the White House for the 2020 fiscal year, much of it needed to develop commercial landers and ascent vehicles for the 2024 and subsequent human Moon landings. The 2020 fiscal year begins October 1, and Congress has not approved a spending plan.
NASA manager casts doubt on 2024 moon landing by astronauts
Associated Press via ABC News (9/18): During testimony before the U.S. Space Subcommittee on Wednesday, Ken Bowersox, NASA’s acting associate administrator for human exploration and operations, stressed to lawmakers that the timing for the agency’s return to the surface of the Moon with human explorers depends of sufficient funding and meeting technical challenges. Bowersox, a former NASA astronauts, hesitated to commit to 2024, the target date set by the White House in late March. “There is a lot of risk in making the date, but we want to try to do it,” he told that panel.
No date set yet, but NASA targeting second half of 2024 for human Moon landing
Space.com (9/17): When in 2024 is NASA aiming to return to the surface of the Moon with human explorers as the focus of the Artemis initiative established earlier this year? While there is not yet a specific date, NASA is estimating the latter half of the year, Greg Chavers, acting deputy program manager for human landing systems at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, told a September 12 gathering at Marshall
Orion spacecraft to face simulated rigors of space in last major testing before Artemis I
Aerotechnews (9/18): The Orion crew capsule assigned to NASA’s Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed launch of Orion around the Moon and back to Earth for an ocean splashdown and recovery, will soon head to NASA’s Plumbrook Station in Sandusky, Ohio. There it will undergo rigorous thermal vacuum testing to expose the spacecraft to the vacuum and temperature extremes of actual spaceflight. After testing, the capsule will return to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for launch integration.
Artemis updates
America Space (9/17): With some detail, the publication examines challenges and options faced by NASA is it moves out to achieve the goals of the Artemis initiative, returning human explorers to the surface of the Moon by 2024 and at the lunar south pole.
Roscosmos found out causes of hole in Soyuz MS-09, but will not disclose them
Sputnik International (9/18): Russia’s MS-09 Soyuz crew capsule was found to be the source of an air leak detected within the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) last August 30. The leak was further traced to damage in the wall of the Soyuz crew transport capsule. It was quickly patched by Space Station cosmonauts. During a presentation earlier this week, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, said an investigation determined the cause of the damage. But he would not disclose the findings. Earlier, a manufacturing defect was ruled out.
SpaceX prepares to break ground on Starship launch facilities at Pad 39A
Teslarati (9/18): Soon, SpaceX plans to break ground on launch facilities for the StarShip and Super Heavy rockets at Launch Pad 39A, which the company leases from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Eventually, SpaceX plans to launch the rockets from facilities in south Texas as well as Florida’s Space Coast.
How to feed a Mars colony of 1 million people
Space.com (9/18): Researchers have identified five major consumable resources that human explorers would need at Mars, energy, water, oxygen, construction material and food. Food is the most likely requirement not currently available on the red planet, according to the study’s University of Central Florida study lead. With no farm and dairy, the alternatives for a large settlement that could not be resupplied easily from Earth include vegetables and insect farms and lab grown meat.
Space Science
Chandrayaan-2: ISRO panel to release report on Vikram lander soon
Indian Express (9/18): The fate of India’s Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lunar lander has largely been a mystery since communications with the spacecraft was lost September 6, U.S. time, as it was making an autonomous powered decent to the surface of the Moon at the south pole. However, an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) assessment of the lander’s fate and possible causes will be concluded soon. The Vikram lander and its companion Pragyan rover were to operate until the start of the south pole lunar night, which begins September 20-21. Temperatures then drop too low for the solar powered hardware to function.
New video shows mice go nuts in space
Discovery Magazine (4/11): Occupants of the rodent habitat aboard the International Space Station (ISS) reveal how the brain and body struggle to adapt to weightlessness.
The Milky Way’s supermassive black hole reached record brightness this year
Science News (9/17): Scientists say Sagitarius A, the massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, is shining brighter than ever observed. In May, the black hole was twice as bright in infrared wavelengths as previously observed at its brightest over 20 years ago. The findings, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letter, indicate that matter, likely gas and dust, was falling into the black hole. Sagitarius A quickly dimmed after the episode.
Other News
New coalition seeks to improve space safety
SpaceNews.com (9/18): The new Space Safety Coalition, a collection of more than 20 active satellite operation organizations, released a list of best practices for space situational awareness and space traffic management ahead of the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies conference meeting in Wailea, Hawaii. The 17 page document builds on existing guidelines and standards to avoid the risk of collision and creation of additional orbital debris.
Deadline closing for names to fly on NASA’s next Mars rover
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (9/18): NASA is offering to send the names of millions of people to Mars aboard the Mars2020 rover, which is scheduled to liftoff for the Red Planet in July 2020. After a scheduled landing in February 2021, the rover will collect samples of soil and rock at Jezero Crater for return to Earth in the future to see if they contain evidence of past or present biological activity. The deadline to submit names is September 30. More than 9.4 million folks have so far.