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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Space best explored with a public/private partnership, writes one vet. NASA’s Morpheus planetary lander prototype sails through recent test flights. White House to unveil proposed 2015 budget in early March. NASA’s Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover reaches 10 year mark on Martian surface, well beyond 90 day design life. Mysterious rock near Opportunity puzzles scientists. Mars may have supported neutral form of water early in its existence and other environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Russia to fund three new lunar probes. Atlas 5 carries NASA communications relay satellite into orbit late Thursday. Critics question science value of International Space Station. Collisions among space debris reach suspected tipping point. U.S. researchers point to collision avoidance strategy. Sierra Nevada, a participant in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, announces plans for unpiloted 2016 test flight, followed in 2017 by crew mission to the International Space Station. SPOT, of France, agrees to offer aging Earth imagery at no cost.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Guest column: Seek common space goal: Stop fighting, find ways to bolster government-private partnerships
Florida Today (1/23): The latest entry in an op-ed debate supports a public/private collaboration in the future exploration of space. Government backing can ease the risk, while the private sector brings innovation, writes Al Koller, a retired NASA manager.
Morpheus lander cruises through initial flight tests
Spaceflightnow.com (1/23): A pair of recent unpiloted flight tests of NASA’s Morpheus prototype planetary lander demonstrate progress in the agency’s quest to mount future missions of deep space exploration. The methane fueled Morpheus is demonstrating technologies for future robotic as well as human missions to a range of planetary surfaces.
President’s FY2015 budget request to be one month late
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/23): The White House looks to March 4 for the submission of its 2015 budget to Congress. Earlier this month, the Congress and White House agreed to a compromise spending strategy for 2014 that included $17.65 billion for NASA, with funds for elements of the space agency’s human deep space ambitions, the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, Orion crew capsule and associated ground systems.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Mars rover, still going 10 years later
USA Today (1/23): NASA’s Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover was expected to operate for 90 days as it touched down on the Martian surface in 2004. The golf cart sized rover is still functioning a decade later. So far, NASA is the only global space agency that has succeeded in placing a functioning spacecraft on the surface of the red planet.
Mars rover marks an unexpected anniversary with a mysterious discovery
New York Times (1/23): Opportunity’s longer than expected mission produces these results: Instead of one kilometer, Opportunity has driven 38.7 kilometers, or about 24 miles, exploring a series of ever larger craters, taking 170,000 pictures along the way, The Times reports. “It’s a well-made American vehicle,” said Raymond E. Arvidson, Opportunity’s deputy principal investigator.
Mars rover Opportunity finds mysterious ‘jelly doughnut rock’ on the Red Planet
Washington Post (1/23): NASA mulls an odd locking mineral feature on Mars that turned up a few weeks ago on the rim of Endeavour Crater, a spot called Murray Ridge, where Opportunity is spending its sixth Martian winter.
Ancient Mars may have been habitable for hundreds of millions of years
Space.com (1/23): Observations of the Martian terrain with NASA’s Opportunity rover suggest the red planet may have once been capable of supporting microbial life for hundreds of millions of years in the distant past.
Opportunity finds Mars had water to host life at dawn of its history
Los Angeles Times (1/23): On Mars, findings of clay minerals by Opportunity suggest Mars was capable of supporting biological activity early in its life.
NASA’s Opportunity rover: A decade of Mars exploration (op-ed)
Space.com (1/23): In an op-ed, NASA’s John Callas, who served as project manager for the Spirit and Opportunity Mars exploration rovers, explains the wild success of Opportunity’s long lived activities. “No one ever expected this to happen,” writes Callas. “Whatever the explanation, this is a grand accomplishment.” Opportunity, launched as a 90 day mission, is still going strong a decade later.
Russia to launch three spacecraft to the Moon
Pravada, of Russia, (1/23): The news service reports sketchy plans by Russia to develop two lunar rovers and an orbiter. The developments have been funded, according to one official.
Low Earth Orbit
ULA Atlas 5 launches NASA communications satellite
CBS News (1/23): NASA’s latest high data rate communications satellite, TDRS-L, lifts off successfully atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., late Thursday. From its final orbit at geosynchronous altitudes, TDRS-L will improve a range of satellite communications with spacecraft in lower orbits, including the six person International Space Station and NASA science missions.
Critics doubt value of International Space Station science
Orlando Sentinel (1/23): Critics question the science value of the International Space Station. The expressions of doubt follow by days White House support for a four year extension of space station operations, from 2020 to 2024. Advocates believe the orbiting science laboratory could operate much longer. Critics say NASA has not been able to fully utilize the station’s research volume.
Aviation Week & Space Technology (1/23): A new report from the U.S. Congressional Research Service suggests a major collision among Earth orbiting space debris is likely every five to nine years. Efforts to remove debris, if they were technologically feasible, may be warranted, according to the report.
STARE into the future: Space cops
Coalition for Space Exploration (1/23): Researchers at the U.S. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory work with ground and space-based assets to develop a strategy to avoid satellite collisions with orbital debris.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser books Atlas V rocket, starts ops on Space Coast
Denver Post (1/23): Sierra Nevada Corp. becomes the first of three companies working with NASA under a funding arrangement to develop commercial human transportation services to low Earth orbit to announce a launch date. On Thursday, the company says it plans to launch an unpiloted test mission in 2016 atop an Atlas 5 rocket. Sierra Nevada will also expand activities along Florida’s Space Coast, sharing Lockheed Martin facilities at the Kennedy Space Center. Boeing and SpaceX are also partnered with NASA to develop commercial crew launch services.
Florida Today (1/23): Sierra Nevada could return to orbit in 2017 with a crew of two astronauts destined for the International Space Station. The mission would end with a landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
France to make older spot images available to researchers for free
Space News (1/23): SPOT, the French commercial remote sensing enterprise, announces it will make archived imagery that is at least five years old available to non-commercial researchers at no charge.
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