Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The Martian captures two Golden Globe awards. NASA human exploration and planetary science initiatives emerge well-funded from the nation’s 2016 budget impasse. Europe is so far slow to embrace Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner’s human lunar aspirations. The James Webb Space Telescope meets new milestones. Europe to try again to recover its Philae comet lander. NASA’s Fermi space telescope completes an all sky gamma ray survey. A pair of ocean worlds, Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus, are now eligible destinations under NASA’s New Frontiers mission competition. Britain’s Tim Peake will join NASA’s Tim Kopra for a Friday spacewalk. Space station zinnias bounce back. Vietnam’s defense ministry probes space junk crashes. Boeing outlines training plans for CST-100 Starliner astronauts. Florida looks to a big 2016 for commercial space. Canada contracts for a new International Space Station camera. Shuttle launches inspire young XCOR engineer. A look at major space related activities planned for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
`The Revenant’ wins best dramatic film at the Golden Globes
New York Times (1/10): The Martian captured two Golden Globe awards in ceremonies Sunday for best film comedy or musical and for Matt Damon as best actor in a film comedy or musical. The comedy or musical designations caused some confusion because of the life or death story in which Damon plays a future astronaut, Mark Watney, stranded alone on the red planet. “Comedy? But anyway,” Ridley Scott, the film’s director, remarked in accepting the best film trophy.
New budget bolsters NASA’s journey to Mars plans
The Planetary Society (1/8): A look at NASA’s 2016 funding features a favorable outlook for human spaceflight, including $2 billion for development of the Space Launch System exploration rocket and a new upper stage. The SLS could be ready for the first human test flight of the launch vehicle between 2021 and 2023. President Obama signed an omnibus spending bill in December that included $19.3 billion for NASA for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, $1.3 billion more than for 2015. The SLS is a potential launch vehicle for an unmanned mission to Jupiter’s ice and ocean covered moon Europa as well.
Europe hits snooze on Woerner’s “the moon awakens” push
Space News (1/8): Recently appointed European Space Agency Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerner’s enthusiasm for a multinational human lunar base on the moon’s far side has gathered little enthusiasm, according to the report.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Webb Telescope component completes critical tests as mirror installations continue
AmericaSpace.com (1/8): The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for a late 2018 liftoff, has finished electromagnetic interference testing for a key instrument as assembly of the giant light gathering mirror continues at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The designated successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is a joint effort between NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies.
Wake up Philae! Last-ditch effort to find Rosetta’s lander
Discovery.com (1/8): Scientists with the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission are making plans to revive the Philae lander, which sent silent shortly after landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. The last signal from Philae was received during July 2015.
NASA’s Fermi satellite completes map of the sky; finds mysterious, unknown monster
Forbes.com (1/8): NASA’s Fermi spacecraft has completed the first all sky map in gamma ray wave lengths, a six year effort. Scientists discussed the milestone at last week’s American Astronomical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Fla.
NASA expands frontiers of next New Frontiers competition
Space News (1/8): NASA has opened up Saturn’s moons Titan and Enceladus as potential destinations for $1 billion dollar New Frontiers class planetary science missions. NASA plans to accept proposals for Ocean World destinations as part of its 2017 New Frontiers competition. Both of the moons are believed to have surface conditions that may be habitable, liquid hydrocarbons in the case of Titan and a global ocean in the case of Enceladus.
Low Earth Orbit
Six-hour ISS spacewalk set for Friday
Florida Today (1/9): Britain’s Tim Peake is to join NASA astronaut Tim Kopra on Friday for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to replace a voltage regulator that failed in November. The spacewalk, the first for European Space Agency astronaut Peake, will also continue efforts to equip the station with docking ports for future U.S. commercial crew launch services providers.
Space Zinnias rebound from space blight on Space Station
Universe Today (1/10): Zinnia plants, which showed signs of wilt in their Veggie plant growth chamber aboard the International Space Station, have recovered by lowering the humidity in the air surrounding them. Station commander Scott Kelly offered the good news.
Mysterious ‘space balls’ crash in Vietnam
Christian Science Monitor (1/8): Vietnam’s ministry of defense rushes to identify the source for space junk that crashed at two sites.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
2016 a pivotal year for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner
Spaceflight Insider (1/9): Boeing’s 2016 strides are to include new training equipment for the astronauts assigned to travel to the International Space Station aboard the company’s CST-100 Starliner, one of two transportation services under development by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Immersive training equipment should be in place for the astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Center by early 2017.
Space industry’s leaders hope privatization powers 2016
Orlando Sentinel (1/8): Commercial space promises to thrive in Central Florida in the coming year thanks to more competition among launch vehicle providers. Activities in 2015 reached levels not seen since 2003.
Canada’s space agency announces $1.7 million contract for new space camera
Global News, of Canada (1/9): The Canadian Space Agency will invest $1.7 million on a new infrared vision system to inspect for external damage on the International Space Station due to impacts with orbital debris. The new imager, developed by the Neptic Design Group of Ottawa, will be mounted to Canada’s Dextre, a robotic extension that fastens to the end of the 58-foot-long Canadian robot arm.
Suborbital
XCOR engineer talks about being a rocket scientist
Midland Reporter Telegram, of Texas (1/9): As a child in Tampa, Anita Solanki drew inspiration for her career by watching NASA’s space shuttle rise into the skies of Central Florida. Today, Solanki, 26, serves as the lead hydrogen test engineer for XCOR Aerospace, which develops rocket-propelled spacecraft and aircraft, rocket propulsion systems and propulsion components.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of January 10-15, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/10): President Obama delivers the annual State of the Union address Tuesday night.