BLOG

Today’s Deep Space Extra for Thursday, August 11, 2016

August 11th, 2016

Please note, CDSExtra will be on vacation Monday, August 15 through Friday, September 2. Distribution will resume Tuesday, September 6.

 In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA enlists a half dozen U.S. companies to further efforts to develop a deep space habitat for astronauts.

Human Deep Space Exploration

NASA announces aerospace partners for its deep space habitats

The Verge (8/10): NASA increases to six the number of U.S. companies the agency is partnering with to develop a habitat for astronauts assigned to months- to years-long missions to Mars. The habitat would fly in lunar orbit with astronauts during the 2020s to prepare for the Mars mission. It could become the basis for commercial space stations in Earth orbit as well. Already involved in the development, Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Orbital ATK will be joined by newcomers Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems and NanoRacks in the endeavor.

Japanese engineers working on concrete for lunar base

Nikkei Asian Review (8/10): Commercial research efforts supported by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency could lead to technologies for the creation of lunar concrete that could enhance efforts to establish a human lunar base.

Space Science

Opening the space race to the entire world

Smithsonian Magazine (8/9): Smaller, less expensive satellites, generally known as CubeSats, are opening the exploration of space to nations and companies that once could not afford to explore.

Could the moon be America’s next economic frontier?

CBS News (8/10): Moon Express, a U.S. contender for the Google Lunar X-Prize, now has U.S. regulatory permission to carry out a commercial landing on the moon, perhaps opening a new economic frontier. The launch is expected in 2017.

Why haven’t we found any aliens yet?

Universe Today (8/10): The answer is complex, touching on technology, cosmic timing, even fear of making contact, according to the report.

Titan appears to have steep gorges and rivers like the Nile

Ars Technica (8/10): Observations from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn reveal that the moon Titan hosts a thick atmosphere of methane, which also flows in liquid form through deep canyons on the surface. Titan’s surface features are strikingly like those of the Earth. Titan’s liquid methane, a rich hydrocarbon, seems to play the same role as water on the Earth. The findings were published in Geophysical Review Letters.

Low Earth Orbit

Space Station cargo flights delayed; spacewalks on tap

CBS News (8/10): Two of the International Space Station’s partners have announced launch delays in upcoming re-supply missions to the six-person orbiting science laboratory. Orbital ATK will move its NASA-contracted Cygnus cargo mission launch from Aug. 22 to late September for further analysis of the company’s re-engined Antares launch vehicle. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will delay the planned lift off of its HTV cargo mission from Sept. 30 to possibly October to deal with a small propulsion system leak. Those and other scheduled changes in crew members in the coming weeks have not affected plans for an Aug. 19 spacewalk in which NASA’s Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins will install the first of two International Docking Adapters to the station’s U.S. segment to provide parking spots for future Boeing and SpaceX crew transportation capsules.

A NASA scientist’s bizarre theory for why astronauts lose their vision in space

Motherboard (8/10): Medical researchers puzzle over the reasons why some astronauts experience vision problems during long missions aboard the International Space Station. The cause may be linked to other underlying health issues, genetics and the shift of bodily fluids from the lower to the upper torso in the absence of gravity. Some astronauts suffer long-term changes.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

-->