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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System reinvigorates U.S. human space flight. Recovering Orion looks a lot like recovering Apollo. Buzz Aldrin: Mars as a human destination deserves more focus. Long time Downey, Calif., space museum struggles financially. Who is circling who? U.S. space entrepreneur seeks clarification on U.S. property rights beyond low Earth orbit. Dust settling over China’s lunar rover. Mysterious Mars rock, just a rock. New evidence for past Martian ocean. Chelyabinsk anniversary prompts attention to asteroid impact threat. Sun calms down for Valentine’s Day. NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter checks in with photos of the moon. India unveils capsule for human space flight. Orbital Sciences looks to commercial market for Antares, solar electric propulsion opportunity. Russia launches a Turkish telecommunications satellite. Rail extension through Kennedy Space Center could bring new port jobs. FAA finds absence of environmental issues with Blue Origin launches from West Texas. State lawmakers in New Mexico clash over use of Spaceport America tax. Major space related activities slated for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Rominger: SLS will reignite U.S. human space program
Spaceflight Insider (2/14): Work on the largest ever solid rocket boosters and core stage engine qualifications are helping to pave the way for the first launches of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, according to Kent Rominger, vice president of Strategy and Business Development for the aerospace company ATK and a former space shuttle commander.
Bringing Orion home: How the U.S. Navy will pluck our future astronauts from the sea
Planetary Society (2/14): A new generation of NASA recovery experts look to Apollo recovery strategies before the first missions of the new Orion spacecraft return to Earth from deep space with astronauts. The Orion landing strategy is counting on a splashdown in the Pacific and a U.S. Navy recovery. Currently, the first launch of Orion with astronauts atop the new Space Launch System heavy lift rocket is planned for 2021.
Buzz Aldrin: Space policy, cooperative efforts to Mars and the need to inspire future generations
Nature News (2/11): Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s aspirations point to a human presence on Mars by 2019 and eventual settlement. His target date is a half century after he joined Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong on the lunar surface. What’s holding humanity back? The lack of a unified focus on the Mars objective and spending on space technology, says Aldrin. The benefits include a greater youthful interest in the STEM fields, he suggests.
Bigelow: Moon Property rights would help create a lunar industry
NASAspaceflight.com (2/14): Property rights linked to private sector exploration could be key to new industries beyond low Earth orbit, maintains U. S. space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. Bigelow has asked the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to clarify whether a human lunar habitat has rights of protection from intrusion by others.
Downey space museum is struggling to survive
Los Angeles Times (1/14): Opened in 2009 as a tribute to the shuttle Columbia crew and the Apollo era, Downey, California’s Columbia Memorial Space Center, is struggling to attract visitors and donors. The city provided $8 million to open the museum and educational facility that is located on 177 acres once used to assemble Apollo hardware. Inspiration, an aging shuttle mock up, is headed back to storage as one consequence of the financial difficulties.
1 in 4 Americans doesn’t know Earth circles sun
USA Today (2/15): The misunderstanding is a troubling sign of the nation’s science IQ, according to USA Today. The findings were gathered by Phys.org and the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China’s lunar rover comes back to life
National Geographic (2/15): The fate of China’s Yutu lunar rover, also known as Jade Rabbit, seems settled. Chinese engineers managed to re-establish communications late last week, following a two week lunar night. “Yutu has come back to life!” said Pei Zhaoyu, the spokesperson for China’s lunar program.
Lunar rover wakes up after near-death experience
Spaceflightnow.com (2/14): Signals from China’s lunar rover suggest it has not succumbed to the cold temperatures of its first long lunar night. Engineers have yet to describe a mechanical issue that surfaced just before the rover was scheduled to begin a two week hibernation in late January.
Mystery of the Martian ‘jelly doughnut’ rock solved
Universe Today (2/15): The discovery in January of a small odd looking rock by cameras aboard NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover generated wide interest, largely on the Internet, and finally a law suit that suggested the stone had biological origins. Further review by NASA suggests the object of speculation is a rock tossed by a rover wheel between photos of the surface.
New evidence for ancient ocean on Mars
Astrobiology Magazine (2/15): Images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal boulders strewn across the planet’s dry northern plains, suggesting an underwater landslide long ago, reports Lorena Moscardelli, a University of Texas researcher, in the journal of the Geological Society of America.
NASA’s on alert for big scary asteroids. What about smaller ones?
National Public Radio (2/14): Saturday marked the first anniversary of the surprise small asteroid explosion over Chelyabinsk in Russia, an incident that prompted 1,500 requests for medical assistance. Spotting and tracking near Earth objects, from the largest to the smallest, is receiving greater priority. At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, astronomer Amy Mainzer is one of those on the trail using NASA’s WISE spacecraft, an infrared observatory.
How nuclear bombs could save Earth from killer asteroids
Space.com (2/14): Nuclear weaponry may offers a flexible solution to the asteroid impact threat to Earth, no matter the warning times, according to a presentation from Iowa State University researcher Bong Wie during a Feb. 6 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) meeting at Stanford University. The nuclear response would be coupled with a global warning system.
Spaceweather.com (2/15): Forecasts of an active sun over the weekend with intense glowing aurora on Earth prove otherwise as solar activity diminishes.
NASA Moon dust probe beams its 1st lunar photos to Earth
Space.com (02/16): NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) observatory checks in with Earth, sharing new photos of the moon.
Low Earth Orbit
India unveils astronaut capsule
Science Insider (2/14): The new Indian built spacecraft could carry two to three people into orbit for a weeklong stay, signaling the country’s intention to join the U.S., Russia and China as nations capable of originating and supporting human space flight. An unmanned test flight is expected in May or June. With formal government approval, human missions could follow in seven years, according to the report.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital eyes broader Antares business, GeoStar satellite platform upgrade
Space News (2/14): Orbital Sciences Corp. looks to commercial business for the company’s Antares rocket and an electric propulsion source for satellites.
Russian rocket carrying Turkish satellite blasts off from Baikonur
Ria Novosti (2/15): Russian Proton rocket launches a Turkish telecommunications satellite.
Port deal could create jobs, bring cargo trains to KSC
Florida Today (2/14): Proposed rail access through NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to Port Canaveral could spur an estimated 5,000 new jobs, though some raise security concerns.
Suborbital
No environmental hurdles for Blue Origin to test in Texas
Space News (2/14): Federal Aviation Administration makes environmental impact ruling favorable to Blue Origin for launches from West Texas through 2019.
Spaceport tax debate reaches climax in New Mexico this week
Spacepolitics.com (2/16): In New Mexico, some lawmakers are at odds over the allocation of local taxes collected initially to support construction of Spaceport America. The funds are now being used to service bond debt for the construction as well as to support operations and for education. Factions include those who believe it’s essential for tax funds to support early space port operations and those who believe the practice will unfairly extend the bond debt.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Space policy events for February 17-21, 2014
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/16): A look at major space related activities scheduled for the week ahead. In the U.S., Congress is in recess.
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