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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. As rough seas calm, the SpaceX Dragon supply craft departs the International Space Station early Tuesday for a Pacific Ocean splashdown. Scientists find a link between the Earth’s moon and the asteroid Vesta. Scientists refine their calculations of the small asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk in Siberia early on Feb. 15, injuring 1,500 people. Robert Bigelow’s visions of inflatable space stations and lunar bases and their mystical beginnings. Essayists urge action on complex issues of celestial property rights and find the commercial launch services market confronted by reliability as well as cost issues. ISON: comet of the century? Whither Voyager 1. Angry Birds stirs youthful interest in math and science.
1. From Space.com: As rough seas settle, SpaceX prepares for the return of its second unpiloted Dragon supply mission to the International Space Station. Splashdown of the capsule is expected at 12:34 p.m., EDT, on Tuesday. Rough waters in the Pacific off the coast of Baja., Calif., prevented a parachute return on Monday. Dragon is carrying research samples and other materials from the space station.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/20373-spacex-dragon-capsule-webcast.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: The Cape Canaveral, Fla., website is offering updates on Tuesday’s Dragon operations.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/falcon9/005/status.html
B. From Collectspace.com: LEGO toy bricks, used in educational activities aboard the space station, are among the equipment returning to Earth on Tuesday aboard the SpaceX Dragon mission.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-032513a.html
2. From The Coalition for Space Exploration: Planetary scientists find a common link between the Earth’s moon and the asteroid Vesta. Both were pummeled four billion years ago by a common group of asteroids. The impactors may have been accelerated towards their targets by a re-positioning of the solar system’s gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/telltale-clues-solar-system-impact-bombardment
3. From The New York Times: Experts from around the world size up the threat posed by the small asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia early on Feb. 15. “The people of Chelyabinsk were very lucky,” one of them informed a U. S. House hearing earlier this month.
4. From Space News: Bob Bigelow, founder of the aerospace company that bears his name, traces visions of inflatable space stations and lunar bases to his grandparents and a fateful encounter one night a long time ago.
http://www.spacenews.com/spotlight-bigelow-aerospace#.UVEDXRfQq6o
5. From The Space Review: Essayists tangle with property rights in space and look for a shift in the launch services competition.
A. In “Bringing space resources into the human economy,” Greg Anderson recommends a hard look at ownership rights, banks and support for international development as entrepreneurs turn to asteroids and planets for resources to expand the economic sphere. Anderson owns the Way Out blog.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2265/1
B. In “Price, reliability and other challenges facing the launch industry,” TSR editor Jeff Foust finds reliability gaining on cost, at least temporarily, in the global launch services competition. Interest grows worldwide in United Launch Alliances Atlas V and Delta IV, with their good records, as price competitive Russian launch services wrestle with recent mishaps.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2266/1
6. From Space.com: Comet ISON, forecast by some to glow brightly in the late November skies, may not live up to the “Comet of the Century” billing extended by some.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/20367-comet-ison-brightness-predictions.html
7. From Discovery.com: Experts clashed last week over whether NASA’s distant Voyager 1 spacecraft has “exited” the solar system after 35 years of flight. The solar system’s boundary is not as defined as it may seem.
http://news.discovery.com/space/voyager-marathon-puts-scientists-on-edge-130325.htm
A. From The Washington Post: Aboard NASA’s Voyager 1, recordings, images and a few words introducing life on Earth.
8. From The Associated Press via The Houston Chronicle: The popular Angry Birds online game nests at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where it will lure youngsters to the values of math and science.
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Heads-up-space-fans-Angry-Birds-roosting-at-NASA-4382082.php
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