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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest space activities making headlines around the globe: NASA nudges Shuttle Discovery’s final mission deeper into 2011, while it repairs and investigates small cracks in the ship’s external fuel tank. Seismometers left on the moon by the Apollo astronauts provide new information about the lunar core. Experts suggest its time for a space code of conduct, starting with a restraint on space debris. One of NASA’s Congressional oversight committees gets a name change. Scientists identify a potential source of dark matter.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA shuttle managers need more time to investigate and repair the cracks in shuttle Discovery’s external fuel tank. Thursday, they delayed the launch of Discovery’s final mission again, moving out of the next launch window, which extended from Feb. 3 to Feb. 10. No new date was established, but the next window extends from Feb. 27 through March 6. The date could be advanced some, but February is a busy month for the launching of Russian, Japanese and European cargo capsules to the station. Meanwhile, engineers continue to investigate why the cracks appeared during a Nov. 5 launch scrub.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/110106delay/
A. From the Orlando Sentinel: Discovery’s final mission is one of three flights the space agency would like to carry out in 2011 before the shuttle program retires. However, funding for the third flight, a prospective mid-2011 mission to the International Space Station using Atlantis, may encounter funding resistance from Congress.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/os-discovery-delayed-again-20110106,0,5739650.story
2. From Space.com: Using data produced by seismic instruments placed on the moon by the Apollo astronauts, scientists determine that like the Earth the moon has a solid core surrounded by molten material. The data gathered between 1969 and 1972 was re-assessed using contemporary computer analysis. Scientists from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Arizona State University lead the effort. http://www.exploredeepspace.com./scienceastronomy/moon-core-apollo-data-110106.html
3. From Space.com: Several countries raised the idea of a space code of conduct in 2010. Several policy experts suggest what such a handbook might include, starting with a restraint on orbital debris. The swirling man made material circling the Earth poses a hazard to astronauts aboard the International Space Station as well as growing numbers of satellites.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/news/defining-misconduct-in-space-110106.html
4. From Spacepolitics.com: The new Congress gives the House Science and Technology committee, which has oversight over NASA, a new name: the Science, Space and Technology Committee. Some in Washington suggest that means NASA will receive more scrutiny from the Republican dominated House.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2011/01/06/authorizers-versus-appropriators/
5. From Scientific American: Scientists suggest that the mysterious dark matter that influences the behavior of galaxies might include newly discovered particles known as sterile neutrinos.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-whole-lot-of-nothing
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