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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Successful Orion test flight tops list of most important space stories at Space.com. Mars exploration advocates seek more on Orion’s red planet goals. NASA looks to early 2015 for key decision on Asteroid Redirect Mission options. One former astronaut bummed by asteroids as a human destination. NASA/Lockheed Martin merge old, new technologies for Orion. Congressional auditor outlines Orion’s cost challenges. Scientists find evidence Mars had a watery past in meteorite study. European Space Agency prepares to re-contact Philae comet lander in January. The story behind NASA’s Kepler space telescope revival. Might the minor planet Ceres be a haven for life? NASA’s Dawn will take a look. NASA X-ray space telescope takes focus on the sun. Made in Space prototype 3-D printer forges wrench aboard the International Space Station. Russia debuts Angara 5 launcher.
Human Deep Space Exploration
8 Most Important Spaceflight Stories of 2014
Space.com (12/22): Space.com places the Dec. 5 test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule at the top of its list of most important space developments in 2014. Orion is designed to start U.S. astronauts on future missions of human deep space exploration. The unpiloted early December test flight is the first of several before it launches with humans, a milestone currently planned for the early 2020s.
The Hill (12/22): The successful unpiloted test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion capsule on Dec. 5 awakened the public to the prospects of a new era of human deep space exploration. NASA and its partners, however, need to better outline how the agency’s current programs and equipment will lead humans to Mars, write two leaders of Explore Mars, Inc., an international nonprofit focused to the exploration of the red planet, in an op-ed.
The Space Review (12/22): NASA is taking a second look at extensibility, complexity and cost as it grapples with a key decision for its proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission. Will it attempt to capture a small asteroid with a robot spacecraft and maneuver it into orbit around the moon, or a boulder from a larger asteroid? The decision, expected in mid-December, now appears likely in January, ahead of an important Mission Concept Review planned for February. NASA wants an option that brings capabilities for an eventual human mission to Mars. Whichever asteroid option it chooses, the lunar orbiting asteroid or boulder is due a visit from astronauts in the mid-2020s.
What is Orion’s technological significance?
The Space Review (12/22): The Orion capsule successfully flight tested on Dec. 5 has a more commercial heritage than its space shuttle predecessor, writes Anthony Young, a commercial space business consultant. Orion’s computer processors, for instance, were selected for their ability to withstand radiation in deep space rather than for speed, he notes. The real push for new technology can be found in life support and propulsion systems.
Challenges for Orion and SLS: An Interview with GAO Director Christina Chaplain
Spaceflight Insider (12/22): Chaplain, a Congressional auditor who appeared before the House Space Subcommittee earlier this month, discusses the financial and development challenges facing NASA and the cornerstone Orion and Space Launch System heavy lift rocket programs underway to establish new human deep space exploration capabilities.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
San Diego Scientist Finds Relics of Past Water In Martian Meteorite
KPBS (12/22): A University of California, San Diego-led study of an ancient Mars meteorite suggests water flowed on Mars long ago in quantities that could fill smaller seas but not oceans. Today, the red planet is cold, dry and desert-like.
Scientific riches await Philae comet lander, if it wakes up
Spaceflightnow.com (12/23): The European Space Agency is looking to January for an attempt to re-contact the Philae lander, now believed to be parked in shadow on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Philae departed ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft for the comet landing on Nov. 12, one that went awry. Parked in shadow, Philae is unable to re-charge its batteries with solar power until it moves closer to the sun. Scientists are eager for the lander’s instrument suite to reveal more about the comet’s composition.
This is How NASA Fixed a Telescope Currently In Orbit
Time Magazine (10/22): Time examines NASA’s efforts to recover the Kepler space telescope and its mission to identify planets orbiting distant stars. The pointing system on the far away telescope was hobbled by multiple failures. Space agency engineers and scientists found a way to harness the power of the photon to aim the observatory.
Could the Dwarf Planet Ceres Support Life?
Space.com (12/22): NASA’s Dawn dual asteroid mission spacecraft is on course to swing into orbit around the minor planet Ceres, a relatively warm and wet body, given its place between Mars and Jupiter. A March arrival is planned. Water ice is believed to surround Ceres’ rocky core. Launched in 2007, Dawn has already visited the asteroid Vesta.
NASA’s Black Hole X-Ray Hunter Could Solve Solar Mystery
Discovery.com (12/22): NASA’s NuStar space telescope turns its X-ray vision to the sun.
Low Earth Orbit
Ratchet wrench ‘emailed’ to space station
Spaceflightnow.com (12/22): A 3D printer, developed by Made in Space and delivered to the International Space Station in September, recently produced a ratchet wrench, a glimpse into the future when human explorers far from Earth can call home for tools and spare parts. The ratchet produced Dec. 17 is an “uplink” that was designed, qualified, tested and printed in space in less than a week.
Commercial to Orbit
First Angara 5 rocket blasts off from Russia
Spaceflightnow.com (12/23): Russia’s new Angara 5 rocket lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome early Tuesday on a successful test flight of the new launch system for communications satellites and other payloads. Russia invested $2.9 billion over 22 years to develop the likely successor to the Soviet-era Proton launcher.
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