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Wednesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket likely to create potential for new missions, say industry experts. NASA faced with re-inventing itself in response to the U.S. political, financial environment, according to one former manager. Jupiter bound Juno spacecraft swings by Earth today. Regulators gather Environmental Impact Statement data for 2020 NASA Mars rover launch. Astronomers put a face on asteroid threat discussion. Hubble Space Telescope spots elusive moon of Neptune. U.S. space relations with China, Russia raise new issues, one over November conference on NASA’s Kepler planet hunting mission. Nobel Prize for physics goes to theorists who proposed existence of a fundamental mass particle. Prospects for long running U.S. government shutdown in Houston raise concerns among NASA contractors. Signs of a cracked universe. Infamous Russian meteor has signs of battered upbringing.
1. From NASAspaceflightnow.com: NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket promises to create demand for new missions, according to a panel of experts who addressed the Sixth Wernher von Braun Memorial Symposium in Huntsville, Ala., New demand beyond U.S. missions of human deep space exploration could support two SLS missions annually, according to aerospace experts.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/10/industry-leaders-sls-capability-new-missions/
2. From The Huntsville Times: It’s time for NASA to re-invent itself, suggests Wayne Hale, a former NASA space shuttle program manager, in remarks before the von Braun Memorial Symposium at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. “The current plan is fragile in the political and financial maelstrom that is Washington,” said Hale, who now serves as director of human spaceflight at Special Aerospace Services. Hale substituted for NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as the symposium’s key note speaker. Much of NASA has been furloughed by the U.S. government shutdown.
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/10/keynote_speaker_at_von_braun_s.html
3. From the Associated Press via The Houston Chronicle: NASA’s JUNO mission spacecraft will whip close to the Earth at mid-day Wednesday to pick up speed for its journey to Jupiter. Launched in 2011, Juno is scheduled to reach its orbital destination in 2016 to search for evidence Jupiter has a solid core among other goals.
http://www.chron.com/default/article/NASA-spacecraft-zips-by-Earth-en-route-to-Jupiter-4880329.php
4. From Florida Today: Despite U.S. government shutdown, NASA moves ahead with an Environmental Impact Statement as part of planning for a new 2020 Mars rover mission. Patterned after Curiosity, the future rover will carry a plutonium battery for power as it collects samples of Martian rock and soil.
5. From Discovery.com: Astronomers cite Asteroid 1950 DA as an example of a near Earth object that could pose a future collision threat to the Earth. Discovered 63 years ago, 1950 DA disappeared until it was re-discovered in late 2000.
6. From New Scientist: Planet Neptune’s inner moon, Naiad, was first exposed by NASA’s Voyager flyby mission. Subsequently difficult to detect, Naiad has re-emerged in imagery gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope.
7. From Spacepolicyonline.com: U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee responsible for NASA funding, clarifies legislation intended to keep the U.S. and China from bi-lateral discussions on space cooperation. The restrictions are keeping Chinese astronomers and their supporters from participating in a November conference on findings from NASA’s Kepler planet hunting mission at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Wolf has asked NASA to clarify the restrictions so that scientists from China can participate as independent researchers.
8. From U.S. News & World Report: The export status of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine may reflect strained relations between the U.S. and Russia. The United Launch Alliance Atlas V depends on the RD-180 for the launching of U.S. national security, science and commercial spacecraft. Recently, Russia announced it was reviewing its export policy with regard to the rocket engine.
A. From Itar-Tass, of Russia: Russia and China plan to present the U.N. with new draft proposals to discourage deployments of space weapons, according to a Russian envoy.
http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/906184.html
9. From National Public Radio: The Nobel prize for physics goes to Peter Higgs, of Great Britain, and Francois Englert, of Belgium, for their theoretical work on how particles of matter acquire mass. Much of their independent work on the issue dates to the early 1960s.
A. From New York Times: Nobel winning theory provokes search for “God” particle, which surfaced last year at Europe’s premier particle accelerator.
B. From Wired News: The world’s physics community continues to struggle with meaning of Nobel Prize winning discovery. The findings leave profound questions for string theory, multiple universes, or super symmetry.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/10/higgs-nobel-physics/
C. From Reuters: Explain dark matter, Nobel judges urge the global physics community.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/08/us-science-nobel-cern-idUSBRE9970WB20131008
10. From the Houston Business Journal: Prolonged U.S. Government shutdown threatens long lasting impacts to NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Larger numbers of contractors could joined furloughed civil servants, say economic and employment experts.
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/nuts-and-bolts/2013/10/in-limbo-shutdown-creates.html
A. From Florida Today: Furloughed NASA workers, both civil servants and contractors, volunteer to clean beaches at Cocoa Beach, Fla., during U.S. government shutdown.
B. From NBCNews.com: #ThingsNASAMightTweet has emerged as a gateway through the U.S. government shutdown for space community news.
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/how-science-minded-tweeters-are-getting-around-shutdown-8C11356137
C. From Nature News: A look at NASA missions affected by the U.S. Government shutdown.
http://www.nature.com/news/nasa-missions-struggle-to-cope-with-shutdown-1.13893
D. From the New York Times: A hobbled NASA carries on during the U.S. government shutdown, though forced to remain largely silent on the status of its many missions.
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/nuclear-power-and-the-shutdown/
11. From Scientific American: Is the universe cracked? New theoretical work suggests so. No proof yet, but evidence of cosmic strings would suggest defects left from the youngest era of the universe.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=cosmic-strings-cracked-cosmos
12. From Space.com: Recovered fragments from the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 15 suggest the object was well traveled and had experienced previous impacts, according to a new study.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/23112-russian-meteor-explosion-meteorites-cosmic-crashes.html
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