In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A new book and National Geographic television series coming in November will explore the challenges of human exploration on Mars.
Human Deep Space Exploration
How will we get to Mars? New book and TV series provide the details
Universe Today (10/27): A new book and National Geographic television series, both entitled Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet, debuting on November 14 will offer thinking from some of the nation’s best minds on the challenges of reaching Mars with humans. The presentations, the work of veteran space journalist Leonard David, feature a scripted dramatization of a first expedition in 2033. Hollywood producer Ron Howard, of Apollo 13 fame, produced the television series.
Election only the start of a long-term NASA transition
Space News (10/27): The next U.S. presidential administration will likely require much of 2017 to complete the NASA transition process, according to Michael French, agency chief of staff. The next administration’s priorities will likely emerge in the shaping of the 2019 fiscal year budget. Among the early issues will be a decision on whether to extend operations of the International Space Station beyond 2024, potential new station roles for commercial partners and whether NASA should seek to partner with China on space initiatives. French shared these thoughts during the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee in Washington earlier this week.
Space Science
This is the best view yet of Europe’s Mars lander crash site
Space.com (10/27): Schiaparelli crashed October 19 after its mission to Mars which began in March. Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which were examined by the European Space Agency, suggest thrusters on the spacecraft designed to slow the descent shutdown prematurely. The images show a parachute and heat shield as well as the impact site.
Universe Today (10/27): Last week, the Mars Curse claimed the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander making it an inglorious statistic. Only half of the flyby spacecraft, orbiters, landers and rovers launched by the U.S., the former Soviet Union and Russia, Europe and India have successfully reached the red planet since the first attempts in the early 1960s. NASA’s Viking 1 and 2 mission orbiters and landers broke the ice in the mid-1970s.
Iron-loving bacteria a model for Mars life
Space.com (10/27): If there is microbial life on Mars, it may be modeled after a rugged terrestrial bacterium found in water, Tepidibacillus decaturensis. This hypothesis appears in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Subsurface map of moon reveals origin of mysterious impact crater rings
Science (10/27): Scientists unravel the mysterious formation of Mare Orientale, a large lunar crater whose origins reach back 3.8 billion years. NASA’s GRAIL, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory spacecraft mission, is providing some answers as it orbited the moon from 2011 to 2012 with gravity sensors.
Low Earth Orbit
Multi-national Soyuz MS-01 crew prepares for weekend return to Earth
America Space (10/27): Russia’s MS-01 Soyuz spacecraft has been readied to descend to Earth late Saturday with three International Space Station crew members, NASA’s Kate Rubins, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and cosmonaut Anatoli Ivanishin. The capsule is to land in remote Kazakhstan, ending 115 days in orbit for the three astronauts. Russian-led recovery forces are prepared to greet the capsule quickly.
3rd trip to space: Peggy Whitson set to break more NASA records
USA Today (10/27): Veteran NASA astronaut and Iowa native Peggy Whitson prepares to set new records as she launches to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan in mid-November with European and Russian crew mates.
Shenzhou-11 silkworms start spinning cocoons on space lab
GB Times, of China (10/27): A half-dozen silkworms, subjects in a Chinese student space experiment, have begun to spin cocoons aboard the two-man Tiangong-2 orbiting space lab. The investigation is intended to determine whether the worms spin differently when there is no gravity.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Loverro: U.S. government needs to rethink how it works with private space ventures
Space News (10/26): If the commercial sector is to take on a larger role in U.S. space operations, both the military and commercial sectors must become more agile and enticing with their business activities, said experts from the two sectors. Doug Loverro, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, was among those who spoke as part of a Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted gathering to kick-off the think-tank’s new Aerospace Security Project to study air and space issues.