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Today’s Deep Space Extra for Thursday, October 20, 2016

October 20th, 2016

In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Presidential contender Donald Trump favors exploration as NASA’s core mission, according to his advisers. In Europe, experts assess the fate of the Schiaparelli lander. Communications with Earth were lost Wednesday as Schiaparelli descended to the Martian surface as part of the joint European/Russian ExoMars mission.

Human Deep Space Exploration

Op-ed | Trump’s space policy reaches for Mars and the stars

Space News (10/19): NASA’s core mission must be distant exploration and science, writes Robert Walker, the former U.S. congressman, and Peter Navarro, a University of California, Irvine professor, in an op-ed. The two men serve as policy advisers to Donald Trump.

Trump would reinstate White House Space Council

Spacepolicyonline.com (10/19): Ahead of his visit with Florida’s aerospace industry next week, advisers to the presidential candidate say Donald Trump would re-establish a cabinet level White House Space Council to shape future space policy. The council, established with the creation of NASA in 1958, has not functioned since the George H.W. Bush presidential administration.

Space Science

ExoMars mission hits snag after scientists lose contact with Mars lander

PBS News Hour (10/19): Uncertainty loomed late Wednesday over the fate of the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander. Schiaparelli is part of a joint European/Russian multi-mission initiative called ExoMars to deliver both an orbiter and landers to the red planet to seek evidence of biological activity. The Trace Gas Orbiter successfully achieved orbit around the red planet on Wednesday. Less certain was the fate of Schiaparalli, the prototype for a lander that is to be launched in 2020 to study the Martian surface for evidence of life.

Europe’s probe feared lost on Mars

Nature News (10/19): Signals from the European/Russian Schiaparelli lander ended abruptly on Wednesday during the closing phase of a six-minute descent to the Martian surface. Experts on Earth were monitoring the difficult, drama filled operation. They were aided by signals relayed directly to receiving stations on Earth as well as through Europe’s Mars-orbiting spacecraft, Mars Express. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter attempted to make contact with the lander as well. “ESA scientists have yet to unravel what happened, but admitted that the situation did not look good,” Nature News reports.

How even a failed Mars landing humanizes us all

Time (10/19): The uncertain fate of the joint European/Russian ExoMars mission’s Schiaparelli lander raises anew the challenge of reaching the Martian surface with spacecraft. The European Space Agency received broken communication regarding the lander’s fate after it plunged into the Martian atmosphere on Wednesday. ESA was sorting through the communications from U.S. as well as European Martian orbiting spacecraft that were assigned to monitor the risky descent.

NASA spacecraft loses computer before close encounter with Jupiter

Reuters (10/19): NASA’s Jupiter-orbiting Juno spacecraft entered safe mode early Wednesday as it made a close pass over the cloud tops of giant Jupiter. The spacecraft’s science instruments were turned off in response. It was the second setback within a week. On Friday, mission managers decided not to adjust Jupiter’s orbital period from 53.4 days to 14 days in order to troubleshoot a concern over a pair of sluggish helium valves in the propulsion system. Mission managers believe they can gather their science without the shorter orbital period — if necessary.

Astronomers are seeing more signs of undiscovered Planet Nine’s influence

Geek Wire (10/19): A yet undiscovered distant planet in the solar system, also known as Planet Nine, may have altered the orbital plane of most planets, according to a research effort soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Pluto may have clouds, new data indicate

New York Times (10/19): Distant Pluto may have clouds in its skies, according to a scientific presentation before an American Astronomical Society gathering this week in Pasadena, California. The finding comes from NASA’s New Horizons mission spacecraft which carried out the first close fly-by of Pluto and its moon Charon in July 2015.

NASA’s JPL looks to boost power from nuclear batteries

Spaceflight Insider (10/19): Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed improvements to the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) design used by spacecraft sent to remote destinations in the solar system where there is insufficient sunlight to generate electricity. The advance would enhance the flow of electricity from a radioactive power source like plutonium. Terrestrial applications are envisioned as well.

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