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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA and its contractor team ready the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle for December test flight. Space community looks to 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 moon mission. A maturing private sector prepared to share cost, risk of future human deep space exploration. First human colonization of planet circling another star could rival a small town. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover sets new distance milestone. Dinosaurs wiped out by more than impact from comet or asteroid. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft finds Saturn’s moon Enceladus bursting with geysers. Mission to Europa could soak up planetary plutonium supplies. European supply capsule ready to lift off for International Space Station. Space Station research reveals “cool” flames. Engineers ready 3-D printer for space station trials. Meteor showers galore. United Launch Alliance Delta IV places U.S. Air Force payload into orbit. NASA reaching out to gamers. World View to add experiments to unpiloted balloon test flights later this year. NASA offers new whistle blower protections.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Orion launch abort system rotated to vertical
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/28): NASA and its contractors advance toward the first space test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle in December. The Dec. 4 two orbit unpiloted test flight will expose Orion to the re-entry conditions of a human deep space flight. Orion will be paired with the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket to start human explorers on missions to deep space destinations.
The Space Review (7/28): With the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon mission now fully in the rear view mirror, some in the space community are focused on addressing the 50th. In their estimation, a return to the moon would be fitting, but in a manner that points to grand deep space exploration goals in the next half century, according to Vid Beldavs, a Latvian essayist.
Exploration and the private sector
The Space Review (7/28): The U.S. private sector is ready to step up to the financial and technical risks of human deep space exploration, writes TSR editor Jeff Foust. “What’s needed is a discussion about the various roles and responsibilities of government and private actors in spaceflight,” writes Foust.
Want to colonize an alien planet? Send 40,000 people
Space.com (7/28): Experts now considering a jumbo jet of an interstellar spacecraft to colonize a planet circling a distant star.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity breaks off-world driving record
Space.com (7/28): Earlier this month, NASA’s Opportunity Mars Exploration Rover quietly established a new record for planetary roving — 25 miles, or 40 kilometers, eclipsing the previous record established by the former Soviet Union’s remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which covered 24.2 miles (39 km) on the moon back in 1973. NASA’s Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, reached the Martian surface in January 2004 with expectations they would explore for three months and cover just over a half mile, or one kilometer.
What did in the dinosaurs? That giant asteroid (or comet) had accomplices.
Christian Science Monitor (7/28): Scientists are finding the Earth’s dinosaurs succumbed to more than a giant asteroid or comet impact. A changing climate and volcanic activity contributed to their demise more than 60 million years ago.
Map reveals 101 geysers on Saturnian Moon Enceladus
NBC News (7/28): NASA’s Cassini spacecraft charts geyser eruptions coming from Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The source of the South Pole eruptions appears to be a hidden sea whose waters escape through cracks in a vast ice cover.
Europa Clipper would wash out other nuclear-powered missions
Space News (7/28): Plans for an ambitious U.S. led mission to the Jovian moon Europa would tie up all of the plutonium 238 available for other outer solar system missions, according to a senior NASA official. A robotic mission to the ice and ocean covered moon could launch no sooner than 2024.
Low Earth Orbit
ESA’S heaviest spacecraft Arianespace’s ATV-5 set to launch to ISS
Spaceflightinsider.com (7/28): The European Space Agency’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle re-supply ship is set to launch late Tuesday from French Guiana for the six person International Space Station with more than seven tons of fuel and other supplies. The capsule named for the Belgian physicist Georges Lemaître is expected to take two weeks to reach its destination. Lift off atop an Ariane V is set for 7:44 p.m., EDT
Researchers discover cool-burning flames in space, could lead to better engines on earth
Physics.org (7/29): Experiments aboard the International Space Station reveal new burning processes that may lead to more efficient automobile engines. The findings may lead to engines that burn fuel at cooler temperatures, emitting fewer pollutants.
New tool for space exploration: On board 3-D printer
Aviation Week & Space Technology (7/29): Silicon Valley based Made in Space Inc’s 3-D printer is manifested to fly to the International Space Station in September. Tests could advance new technologies for manufacturing equipment parts on deep space missions, recycling old components and perhaps building structures too difficult to launch. The National Research Council, however, has cautioned enthusiasts not to expect too much too soon from the emerging technology.
Best time to see 2014 meteor showers? Right about … now!
Los Angeles Times (7/28): Annual Perseid and the Delta Aquariids meteor showers merge in skies this week. In the best of circumstances, the two showers could produce an average of 120 sightings per hour.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Space surveillance craft launched by Delta 4 rocket
Spaceflightnow.com (7/28): United Launch Alliance places U.S. Air Force payloads into orbit atop a Delta IV rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., late Monday. ULA overcame a series of weather delays.
Space innovators seek Orlando gamer connection to boost struggling industry
Orlando Sentinel (7/29): NASA’s Kennedy Space Center reaches out to young gamers to forge new commercial ties.
Suborbital
World View to loft experiments on balloon test flights this year
Space.com (7/28): Planned unpiloted test flights of World View’s new high altitude passenger balloon will include experiments and educational opportunities. Passenger flights envisioned for late 2016.
NASA News
NASA moves to protect whistle blowers
The Hill (7/28): The U.S. space agency announces protections for contract workers that expose corruption in the Federal Register.
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