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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, engineers and scientists develop mining techniques to sustain humans on other planets. Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit, intrigues with plans to establish human colony on Mars by 2025. Neil deGrasse Tyson ponders new Cosmos television series. NASA’s Spirit rover marks 10 productive years on Mars. NASA Moon buggy competition embraces new planet focus. University of Arizona readies landmark NASA asteroid mission. Major astronomy conference opens in Washington, with future budgets as well as discovery a discussion topic. China commemorates December moon landing. The sun flares. European Space Agency to cut International Space Station budget by 30 percent. U.S. Air Force/Boeing bring X-37B operations to former shuttle hangar at the Kennedy Space Center. India successfully test launches home grown cryogenic rocket stage. 2013 Russian space industry reforms promise big changes in 2014. The 113th Congress returns to Washington.
Human Deep Space Exploration
USA Today/Florida Today (1/5): NASA calls it the “Swamp Works.” But this modest indoor test facility filled with simulated lunar soil is helping engineers and scientists develop the mining techniques for oxygen and water that could sustain human life on another planetary body.
Dreamers who dare to explore buoy the rest of us
Nashville Tennessean (1/5): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit seeking to settle Mars with Earthlings by 2025, receives an endorsement from the publication in an op-ed. Mars One pared more than 200,000 global applicants for migration to the red planet to 1,058 in late December. “I was intrigued, a bit jealous,” writes the newspaper’s community conversations editor.
Beating bacteria on Earth — and in Space
NASA (1/3): Bacteria have demonstrated an increased virulence in the weightless environment of space. The question is why. The implications could impact future human deep space exploration as well as how we cope with infections on Earth. A new investigation headed to the International Space Station this week aboard an Orbital Sciences cargo capsule may provide new clues.
Neil deGrasse Tyson to lead viewers on ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’
Los Angeles Times (1/3): Until the March premier of his ‘Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey’ on Fox and National Geographic, the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City is all about finding teachable moments. “I see myself as a servant of the public appetite for the universe,” says Tyson.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
10 years on Mars: NASA rover mission celebrates 10th Martian birthday
Space.com (1/3): Friday marked the 10th anniversary of NASA’s Spirit Mars Exploration Rover landing on the Red Planet. The still functional Spirit was joined by the larger Curiosity rover in August 2012. Spirit’s January 2004 landing was accompanied by the arrival of a second MER rover, Opportunity.
UA busy working on mission to asteroid
Arizona Republic (1/3): University experts are focused on the 2016 launch of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. The $1 billion effort is nearing the critical design review phase.
New details: First of the year Asteroid strike
Coalition for Space Exploration (1/5): The impact occurred over the mid-Atlantic on New Year’s Day. Asteroid 2014 AA, only three meters across, was spotted before its arrival by astronomer Richard Kowalski who believes the object burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere because of its small size.
Huntsville Times (1/3): For two decades, the Marshall Space Flight Center hosted high school and university competitors in the Great Moon Buggy Race. The competition has moved on and is now called the NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge. The first of the revised competitions is scheduled for April.
‘Super Bowl of Astronomy’ conference kicks off Sunday
Space.com (1/4): The American Astronomical Society gathers in Washington D.C. this week for its 223rd meeting, a five-day “Super Bowl” of space science.
Astronomers’ bold visions clash with limited budgets
Spacepolitics.com (1/5): Washington AAS meeting likely to include lots of discussion about budget restrictions.
The Obama legacy in planetary exploration (Op-Ed)
Space.com (1/4): NASA’s planetary sciences program and its research base are being pushed asunder by spending constraints, writes Mark Sykes, CEO of the Planetary Science Institute. The damage could take a decade to reverse, writes Sykes.
China moon rover stamps and medallions celebrate country’s first lunar landing
Collectspace.com (1/3): In China, the postal service and banks mark the successful lunar landing of the Chang’e-3 mission with commemorative stamps and medallions.
Spaceweather.com (1/3): The sun grows active, unleashes coronal mass ejection headed for Earth. More activity likely.
Low Earth Orbit
ESA says it is on track to reduce its Station costs by 30 percent
Space News (1/3): The European Space Agency plans a 30 percent reduction in its International Space Station operating costs by 2015, as compared to 2010 spending. Details are not clear on forthcoming constraints.
Astronauts work to make water that burns
Discovery.com (1/3): Among the many experiments under way aboard the low gravity International Space Station is an evaluation of “super critical water.” Part vapor and part liquid, this substance could play a role in the disposal of liquid wastes.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
KSC lands secret Air Force X-37B space plane, jobs
Florida Today (1/4): NASA’s former shuttle Orbiter Procession Facility-1 hanger will serve as the new home to the U.S. Air Force X-37B unpiloted reusable space plane, according to the Boeing Co, which is involved in launch preparations. The decision could mean hundreds of jobs for Central Florida, according to the newspaper.
Fully domestic Indian rocket launches Geo satellite
Space News (1/5): India successfully carries out the test launch of a rocket with an indigenous cryogenically fueled upper stage, a breakthrough. The test launch Sunday was originally planned for 2013. A communications payload aboard was placed into geosynchronous transfer orbit.
Big changes ahead for the Russia space program in 2014
Parabolic Arc (1/5): After a series of rocket failures, Russian authorities developed a strategy to improve efficiency and quality control in 2013, with new leadership and industry consolidation. “It’s a bold plan that is either crazy or crazy brilliant,” according to the website. Oleg Ostapenko and Igor Komarov lead Russia’s new United Rocket and Space Corp. Reforms are likely to include major job losses.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week Ahead
Congress returns to work with a full plate of Space policy issues for 2014
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/5): Much awaits the House and Senate on space issues as the two legislative bodies reconvene this week. Pending issues include appropriations for space agencies in 2014, a new NASA authorization measure and third party commercial launch liability protection.
Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources. The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories. The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content. The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra. For information on the Coalition, visit www.space.com or contact us via e-mail at [email protected].