Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. U.S. lawmakers again face a 2016 budget impasse and possible shutdown. Life on Mars: the pluses and minuses. A European/Russian Mars lander will attempt to make red planet water. NASA’s Dawn spacecraft finds signs of water vapor on asteroid Ceres. Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft achieves orbital perch around Venus. U.S. Air Force X-37B crosses 200 day point in Earth orbit on secret mission. China launches a communications satellite. Memories of NASA’s first space station vision date to the pre-Cold War era. U.S. Sen. John McCain, chair of the Armed Services Committee, urges tougher ban on imports of Russian rocket engines.

2016 U.S. Budget

Short term CR introduced to keep government open 5 more days
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/10): A U.S. government shutdown looms on Friday, the final day of a House/Senate/White House budget continuing resolution, or CR, that has kept federal agencies, including NASA and other civilian and military space activities, running at 2015 levels since the end of the fiscal year. On Wednesday, Congressman Hal Rogers, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, introduced a bill outlining a five day extension of the CR that would permit lawmakers to complete work on an omnibus 2016 spending measure. The measure would keep the federal government running through the remainder of the 2016 budget cycle.

Human Deep Space Exploration

What it’s like to live on Mars: Report from a simulated Martian research station
Scientific American (12/10): Christiane Heinicke is one of six men and women living in a simulated Martian habitat on the slopes of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa. Their year-long stay in a 36 foot dome got underway in August. What’s it like so far, working in isolation and with 40 minute communications delays with their Mission Control? “We might say that we are cooperative, but are we as cooperative as last week?” she writes. “Not being able to talk to someone directly can be tough and time-consuming, but we have learned to value every message from home.”

Mars moisture-farming mission gets approval for 2018 launch
New Scientist (12/9): The joint European/Russian ExoMars mission rover, scheduled to launch in 2018, will carry an experiment that could reclaim water from the planet’s very thin atmosphere. The process is a candidate for use by future human explorers launched to Mars.

Unmanned Deep Space Exploration

Dwarf planet Ceres may harbor clouds of water ice
Science (12/9): Close-up images of the asteroid belt’s largest occupant, Ceres, taken by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft reveal a surface haze of ice particles and dust in the midst of the large crater Occator. A study of the observations, published in the journal Nature, suggests the large asteroid Ceres is behaving like a comet.

Mystery solved? Ceres’ bright spots likely made of salt
Space.com (12/9): NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has detected signs that the large main belt asteroid Ceres has bright spots comprised of hydrated magnesium salts, a mineral sold as Epson salts on Earth. Dawn maneuvered into orbit around Ceres in March and began moving gradually closer to examine the asteroid’s mysterious bright spots and search for evidence of ice and perhaps subsurface water.

Japanese spacecraft Has New Eyes on Venus: Photos
Space.com (12/9): Japan’s well-traveled Akatsuki/Venus Climate Orbiter delivers new close-up images of cloud shrouded Venus. Akatsuki was successful Monday in maneuvering into orbit around Venus. The first attempt in December 2010 failed, sending the spacecraft into an orbit around the sun until experts figured out a way to use still functioning reaction control system thrusters on Akatsuki to steer into orbit.

How far can Akatsuki space probe unravel the mysteries of Venus?
The Japan News (12/10): The answer to the longevity of Japan’s Akatsuki/Venus Climate Orbiter mission depends on its ability to function well past its design life, survival with a depleted fuel supply and Japan’s declining budget for space operations. Launched in May 2010, the spacecraft failed in its first opportunity to steer into orbit around Venus seven months later. It succeeded this week after engineers developed a comeback strategy.

Low Earth Orbit

U.S. Air Force’s X-37B space plane wings past 200 days in orbit
Space.com (12/8): The U.S. Air Force’s uncrewed reusable space plane has surpassed 200 days in Earth orbit on its latest secret mission. Developed by the Boeing Co., the winged X-37B launched on its latest mission May 20. The payloads include an experimental propulsion system.

China launches new communications satellite
Xinhua, of China (12/10): The just launched China Satellite Communications Co., Ltd, spacecraft will provide voice, data and radio and TV transmission services. The “ChinaSat 1C” satellite took flight early Thursday from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

This is NASA’s very first idea for a Space Station
Popular Mechanics (12/9): Before it had the shuttle and spacewalking astronauts, NASA’s vision of a space station was to occupy the remains of a rocket placed in Earth orbit.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

McCain will consider wider Russian engine ban
Space News (12/9): U.S. Sen. John McCain touts tougher restrictions on the U.S. import of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine, a crucial source of propulsion for the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5. The Atlas 5 launches U.S. national security, science as well as commercial payloads. McCain chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.