Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Could Mars be the new Jamestown? 3-D Printing emerging as a key space technology for deep space exploration. The Smithsonian Institution raises funds to restore historic space suits worn by Neil Armstrong and Alan Shepard. Presidential candidate Ted Cruz calls human deep space exploration a NASA priority. Mobile Launcher for NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket takes shape at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. NASA experts reject rumors the Earth is in danger from a September asteroid strike. Who could oppose costly defenses from an asteroid strike? NASA bears down on the selection of a landing site for its next Mars rover mission. NASA’s Cassini mission captures impressive images of Saturn’s moon Dione. Scientists reassess search for dark energy/dark matter. Nebraska’s Clay Anderson perseveres to become U.S. astronaut. July sets mark for highest temperature on Earth. NASA pursues extension of International Space Station commercial resupply services agreements with Orbital ATK and SpaceX. Ariane 5 launches Eutelsat and Intelsat communication satellites. India plans test of indigenous reusable rocket this year.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The next Jamestown
Air & Space Magazine (8/21): “I could see that the most extraordinary and most disruptive event in human history — the colonization of Mars — was about to occur far sooner than anyone could guess,” says Stephen Petranek, as explanation for his new book, How We Will Live on Mars. “Imagine the sense of pride in everyone on the home planet when they realize that humans can actually do this – settle on another planet in our solar system.”
Will 3D printing in space allow us to build new worlds?
PBS News Hour (8/20): Additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing, will make it possible for more humans to reach space, says Jason Dunn, whose company Made in Space was the first to demonstrate the fabrication of a equipment aboard the International Space Station.” Everything is falling into place that we can actually send people to Mars and to the moon and to the asteroids, that we can build entirely new worlds of our own like large space stations,” Dunn tells the PBS News Hour.” And that’s really the vision, is that we have the entire universe at our disposal to go out and explore.”
Smithsonian’s first Kickstarter a success: $720,000 raised to ‘reboot’ spacesuits
Collectspace.com (8/20):The Smithsonian Institution’s first Kickstarter campaign raises the funding needed to refurbish the historic space suits worn by Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong and Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, the first American in space.
What Ted Cruz thinks about manned spaceflight
Roll Call (8/20): “There’s no question that manned spaceflight, whether it be back to the moon, to Mars, and beyond, is a critical and vital component of NASA’s mission, and we must not lose sight of that in pursuit of political agendas,” 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz tells Roll Call on the campaign trail. The candidate for the Republican nomination and chair of a U.S. Senate oversight panel on space policy offers a belated answer to a question on the campaign trail from an Alabama boy scout.
Kennedy Space Center highlights progress of SLS mobile launcher
Spaceflight Insider (8/20): A $300 million NASA investment in a Mobile Launcher for the Space Launch System exploration rocket is coming together at the Kennedy. Space Center. The “ML” is designed to support the 5 1/2 million pound rocket designed to start humans on missions to deep space destinations. Contractors, at work since the conclusion of the space shuttle program in mid-2011, are now turning to the installation of the equipment that will provide electricity, fluids and cyrogenic propellants on the ML.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA: Earth not facing threat from asteroid
CNN (8/20): Worries from internet chatter of an Earth/asteroid collision in late September are unfounded, NASA’s experts in the field assure followers this week.
Preventing armageddon: The economic hurdles of asteroid defense
National Public Radio (8/20): Sounds like a great idea – ensuring the Earth will not be blasted by an asteroid – but who will shoulder the responsibility for an Earth defense and at what cost?
Where will NASA’s 2020 Mars rover land?
Space.com (8/20): NASA is following a deliberate course for the selection of a landing site for its 2020 Mars Rover. The rover has been tasked with gathering and preserving samples of the Martian rock and soil for eventual return to Earth. Recently, the Jezero Crater emerged as a promising sample collection site. The selection process, however, for sites with samples that can be returned to Earth is far from over.
Cassini probe’s final pass of Saturn’s moon Dione yields best images yet
NBCnews.com (8/20): NASA’s Cassini mission at Saturn captures impressive last opportunity images of the ringed planet’s moon Dione.
Where are all the dark energy and dark matter?
Space.com (8/20): Scientists narrow the search for dark energy and dark matter, the little understood forces behind the early rapid expansion of the universe and the mysterious matter that seems to hold vast galaxies together. The research efforts were reported in the journal Science.
Low Earth Orbit
Meet the NASA engineer who became an astronaut after being rejected 14 times
Popular Mechanics (8/20): Nebraska native and engineer Clay Anderson was turned down 14 times before he was accepted for training as a NASA astronaut. In The Ordinary Spaceman, his biography, Anderson explains how he overcame the odds to launch, live and walk in space.
July was Earth’s hottest month ever recorded
USA Today (8/20): NOAA declares July as the hottest month ever. Last July’s heat eclipsed the previous hottest months in July 2010 and July 1998.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Two innovations every space enthusiast needs to know
Washington Post (8/20): The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency sponsored XS-1 space plane and the ThothX space elevator are two imaginative projects that could reduce launch costs. The XS-1, a relatively small reusable space plane, would take flight 10 times in 10 days at a cost of $5 million per flight. The space elevator concept, recently patented by Thoth Technology, of Canada, would establish a 12 mile high spaceport for launches and landings. Humans ascend in an electric elevator.
NASA considering more cargo orders from Orbital ATK, SpaceX
Space News (8/20): NASA’s Space Station program extends long running contracts with Orbital ATK and SpaceX for resupply of the International Space Station, while the agency evaluates proposals for a second contract round. Initial contracts were awarded in late 2008.
Ariane 5 rocket lifts off with two communications satellites
Spaceflightinsider.com (8/20): A successful launch of an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana on Thursday places Eutelsat and Intelsat communications satellites into Earth orbit.
Re-usable launch vehicle to be tested this year, says Isro chief
The Times of India (8/21): India plans the test launch of a reusable rocket developed by its own engineers by the end of 2015, according to A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of the India Space Research Organization.