Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. In late August, a half-dozen experts will start a yearlong Mars mission simulation atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii. European service module development paces the next unpiloted test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion capsule. What the Mars One’s red planet settlement strategy means for one couple. Might a search for alien life come up empty? Some experts wonder. False positives could become an obstacle in the search for habitable extra solar planets. NASA’s proposed Universal Stage Adapter will provide NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket with the flexibility for planetary science as well as human launches. Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura will fly with NASA’s airborne Sophia observatory mission in mid-September. NASA’s JPL celebrates the 50th anniversary of Mariner 4’s Mars flyby. NASA’s marathon astronaut Scott Kelly masters a Twitter Q & A from the International Space Station. Commercial space pioneer NanoRacks strikes deal with China to fly a DNA experiment aboard the International Space Station. The debate over imports of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine for U.S. national security launches may have roots in NASA’s early shuttle program. SpaceShipTwo crash conclusions raise question over U.S. suborbital passenger flight regulation.

Human Deep Space Exploration

Six scientists chosen for 365-day Mars trip simulation on Mauna Loa

Hawaii News Now (8/3): Six scientists will join a 365 day round trip Mars mission simulation at Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) mission simulation facilities on Mauna Loa starting Aug. 28. The team includes experts in space habitat architecture, food, astrobiology, flight control and planetary science. “The longer each mission becomes, the better we can understand the risks of space travel,” said Kim Binsted, HI-SEAS principal investigator. A four month simulation concluded on July 28.

Orion service module still seen as schedule driver

Spaceflightnow.com (8/3): The development of a European Space Agency service module for NASA’s Orion capsule will likely drive the schedule for the first unpiloted test flight of Orion atop the Space Launch System exploration rocket in the second half of 2018. Bill Hill, NASA deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, explained the time table to the NASA Advisory Council during a late July briefing. The test mission, currently planned between July and September of 2018, will send the capsule around the moon and back to Earth for a parachute assisted landing and set the stage for a manned test flight three years later. Without ESA’s service module, NASA officials said the first SLS/Orion flight known as Exploration Mission-1 could be delayed due to U.S. budget constraints.

Galaxy quest

Texas Monthly (8/3): Sonja Van Meter is among 100 potential settlers selected by Mars One, the Danish nonprofit, to settle the red planet in the late 2020s. Husband Jason Stanford explains his pride as well as the ups and downs of the selection process. “We’re just an ordinary married couple in an extraordinary situation, and we’re taking it one small step for man at a time,” writes Stanford.

The flip side of optimism about life on other planets

New York Times (8/3): Amid recent enthusiasm over Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner’s financial support for a push to search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and the recent discovery of the closest Earth like planet yet, Kepler 452b, comes doubt among some thinkers that there’s anyone else out there. Is there some kind of Great Filter that has kept all but us from advancing? Dennis Overbye examines the notion.

Is that really alien life? Scientists worry over false-positive signs

Space.com (8/3): The search for habitable planets beyond the solar system from afar seem likely to produce “false positives.”  Much of the search will depend on powerful space observatories that can look for signs of biological activity in the atmospheres of extra solar planets.

Unmanned Deep Space Exploration

USA set to adapt SLS for additional payloads

NASAspaceflight.com (8/30): NASA is seeking proposals for a structural Universal Stage Adapter (USA) suited to NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket that could accommodate payloads other than the Orion crew exploration vehicle. The space agency is seeking proposals that would accommodate payloads up to 105 metric tons.

‘Star Trek’s’ first Uhura joins NASA mission in September

Hollywood Reporter (8/3): Actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lt. Uhura in the original Star Trek TV series, will join a NASA sponsored SOFIA airborne infrared telescope observing mission this fall, NASA announced Monday. The Boeing SP 747 jumbo jet aircraft housing the telescope will take flight on Sept.15 from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.

Experts recall the first flyby of Mars 50 years ago

Pasadena Star News (8/3): Students and staff were among an audience assembled Monday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to mark a milestone, NASA’s Mariner 4 flyby of Mars on July 14, 1965. The celebration fell on the same day that NASA’s New Horizons mission spacecraft carried out the first flyby of distant Pluto. “Pluto is now a place, and Mars became a place…,” reflected Sarah Milkovich, a JPL science systems engineer.

Low Earth Orbit

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly answers Twitter questions from space

NBC News (8/3): On Saturday, International Space Station marathoner Scott Kelly took questions from Earthlings via Twitter. In the early stages of a 342 day mission, Kelly revealed he watches ESPN, considers the Houston Texans his favorite NFL team, uses an iPad and has grown accustomed to waterless bathing.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

For the first time Chinese research to fly on NASA’s International Space Station

Houston Chronicle (8/4): The commercial space company NanoRacks has negotiated an agreement to launch a Chinese space DNA experiment to the U.S. segment of the International Space Station by working around a Congressional ban on bi-lateral U.S./China cooperation. The research is expected to launch next year on a SpaceX re-supply mission.

The engine problem

The Space Review (8/3): Essayist Wayne Eleazer traces the genesis of the current difficulties over U.S. imports of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine for the United Space Alliance Atlas 5 and the urgency of launching U.S. national security payloads. The trail leads back to the decision to make NASA’s space shuttle the sole launch vehicle for U.S. space payloads, a restriction that was lifted in the aftermath of the 1986 shuttle Challenger loss, suggests Eleazer, a 25-year U.S. Air Force veteran with rocket propulsion expertise.

Suborbital

A failure of foresight and oversight

The Space Review (8/3): Essayist and TSR editor Jeff Foust examines the NTSB’s report on the fatal Oct. 31 test flight of SpaceShipTwo. The essay examines the strengths and possible weaknesses of policies and oversight meant to foster commercial human spaceflight. At this point, the investigative board has recommended that the FAA consider a less forgiving approach to its licensing practices.