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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. A look back 30 years at the debate over the future of space exploration looks a lot like the view ahead from the present. NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission plans focus primarily on new space technologies. U.S. Senators from Texas and Florida gain leadership posts in legislative oversight of the nation’s civil space agencies. Lovejoy’s brightness exceeding expectations. Mercury: small but tough. NASA’s Juno probe advances toward Jupiter in mid-2016. Astronomers eye distant black hole merger. NASA’s 11-year-old Opportunity Mars rover summits Cape Tribulation. The Hubble Space Telescope delivers detailed view of the Andromeda Galaxy. NASA, Nissan team to develop automated car technologies.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The debate about the future of human spaceflight 30 years on
Aviation Week & Space Technology (1/8): Three decades ago, the U.S. National Commission on Space offered a road map for space exploration. The commission’s executive director, Marcia Smith, looks back at the recommendations and ahead at what a similar panel empaneled today might recommend. The exploration of deep space ranks as the ultimate goal in either case. But as was the case then, it is what to do first that seems the most difficult challenge.
Redirecting asteroid not top objective of asteroid redirect mission, NASA official says
Space News (1/9): The goal of NASA’s planned Asteroid Redirect Mission is to develop technologies for future human deep space exploration, a top agency official involved in the effort explained to the NASA-chartered Small Bodies Assessment Group in Phoenix. The agency is studying the capture of a small asteroid for the mission or the bolder from a larger asteroid. In either case, the rock would be propelled into orbit around the moon, where it would become a destination for U.S. astronauts.’
Senate Commerce names subcommittee chairs: Ted Cruz for NASA, Marco Rubio for NOAA
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/8): In the U.S. Senate, Ted Cruz, of Texas, and Marco Rubio, of Florida, will chair subcommittees of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee responsible for NASA and NOAA.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Surprisingly bright comet Lovejoy dazzles sky watchers
Discovery.com (1/8): Lovejoy’s brightness is exceeding expectations.
Mercury may be sole survivor of planetary pile-up
New Scientist (1/8): The solar system’s inner most region was once crowded with planets, according Canadian astronomer Kathryn Volk’s model. It was also filled with violent collisions. Tiny searing Mercury was the lone survivor, Volk said this week in remarks before the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft on its way to unveil Jupiter’s mysteries
Spaceflight Insider (1/8): Launched in 2011, NASA’s Juno spacecraft is headed for an arrival at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. Once in orbit around the solar system’s largest planet, instruments aboard the spacecraft will study the composition of the atmosphere and whether Jupiter has a core.
Black holes inch ahead to violent cosmic union
New York Times (1/7): On Earth, scientists eagerly watch as two black holes race towards a violent merger. It may be a million years away but the great distances beg for attention.
AmericaSpace.com (1/8): On Mars, NASA’s long lived Opportunity rover reaches the summit of Cape Tribulation, revealing new vistas from the red planet.
Hubble Telescope captures best view ever of the Andromeda galaxy
Space.com (1/8): The Hubble Space Telescope delivers the most detailed views yet of the Andromeda galaxy. The new imagery reveals more than 100 million stars in the galaxy 2.5 million light years from Earth.
Low Earth Orbit
Nissan, NASA to work on autonomous car technology
Associated Press via New York Times (1/8): On Thursday, NASA, Nissan announced a five year agreement to work on autonomous vehicle systems that could be used in commercially available automobiles by 2020. NASA’s Ames Research Center will lead the space agency’s efforts.
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