Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA features photos of a space suit prototype for future planetary explorers. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft completes the last of four course change maneuvers for a post Pluto, Jan. 1, 2019 rendezvous with a Kuiper Belt Object. SETI researchers say a strangely dimming exo-planet is not broadcasting evidence of intelligent life. A NASA spacewalk of Friday alters an International Space Station thermal control system. Provocative Russian satellite maneuvers warrant a space code of conduct, according to an editorial. British astronaut Timothy Peake expects to serve as an inspiration to U.K. youth interested in traveling to Mars. A look at NASA’s most experienced space travelers. Japan expresses interest in advanced environmental control, life support systems for extended International Space Station operations. China launched an Earth remote sensing satellite on Sunday. A look at major space related activities planned for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA unveiled a new prototype of the crowd sourced spacesuit astronauts will wear on Mars
Quartz (11/6): NASA presents photos of its Z-2 space suit prototype for use by astronauts on planetary surfaces, perhaps Mars. NASA still has another decade or two to finalize the suit design if it wants to meet its goal of putting humans on Mars by the 2030s, according to the report.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
New Horizons conducts final course correction for New Year’s Day flyby of next KBO in 2019
America Space (11/6): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft carried out its fourth and final maneuver to set a course for a rendezvous with the Kuiper Belt Object 2014 MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. New Horizons conducted the first ever close flyby of Pluto on July 14.
SETI researchers find no sign of aliens at KIC 8462852 …yet
NBC News (11/6): Last month, unusual dimming observed with the Kepler space telescope raised questions in some quarters over whether an extrasolar planet 1,500 light years from Earth, KIC 8462852, may have origins in intelligent life. Theories suggested the dimming was caused by a cloud of comets, or an alien structure. Follow up observations by SETI with a radio telescope suggest nature is responsible.
Low Earth Orbit
Short on time, astronauts complete complex spacewalk
CBS News (11/6): U.S. astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren reconfigured parts of the thermal control system for the International Space Station during a near eight hour spacewalk on Friday. The work restored an ammonia coolant flow through the primary radiator on the Station’s oldest solar power truss segment. The change removed the flow through a backup radiator that has been in use for three years. It was the second spacewalk in nine days for the two men.
Editorial | Russia’s orbital provocations
Space News (11/6): Russia’s Luch satellite and its recent close proximity activities near Intelsat communications spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit are irresponsible, even unacceptable, according to a Space News editorial. Russia’s activities warrant efforts to establish a voluntary international space code of conduct, if the world’s space powers are to avoid a costly race to weaponize Earth orbit, writes Space News.
Britain’s first astronaut for 24 years hopes to inspire Mars interest
Reuters (11/6): Tim Peake, who is in line to become the first astronaut from Great Britain to visit the International Space Station, hopes his flight will serve as an inspiration for his country’s youth. His December launch will start a six month mission.
These astronauts are NASA’s longest-duration space fliers
Discovery.com (11/7): The U.S. space marathoners include representatives of the U.S. military services and medical profession. Scott Kelly, the current record holder for the longest mission by a U.S. astronaut and accumulated time in space by an American, is commander of the International Space Station. Kelly is working his way to a near year-long stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
JAXA may develop new life-support system for International Space Station
Kyoto International (11/7): The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is weighing the contribution of environmental control and life support systems, some for the purification of the air and water, to help extend proposed operations of the International Space Station from 2020 to 2024. The hardware could be smaller and more power efficient than current systems. The U.S. has proposed the extension of station activities to its major partners, Europe, Russia, Japan and Canada.
China launches Yaogan-28 remote sensing satellite
Xinhuanet (11/8): The Yaogan-28 satellite was carried into orbit on Sunday by a Long March-4B rocket for land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention, according to the report.
Suborbital
Spaceport master plan calls for new hangar, lease space
KRWG-TV via Associated Press (11/6): Spaceport America unveils a new revenue generating master plan that includes a new launch area hangar and 300 leasable acres.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of November 9-13, 2015
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/9): NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman will be speaking in the Washington area this week. The U.S. Senate is in session this week, except for Veteran’s Day on Wednesday, the House is not in session.