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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The case for human space exploration is strong, including the search for new resources and affirming the pioneering spirit. Spacewalking’s first half century reached quickly to the lunar surface. Amid criticism, Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit, slips the planning date for the arrival of the first red planet settlers. Early Friday, a rare solar eclipse moves across remote parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Rosetta’s up close and personal views of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Startup Moon Express envisions mining the moon. China will share telescope data. The moon’s shifty poles. Red Dwarf stars may be a good place for habitable planets. Bigelow’s expandable module is prepped for a spot on the International Space Station’s Tranquility module. U.S., Japanese, Russian crew preps for late May launch to the International Space Station. China, Europe discuss possible lunar orbiting deep space observatory. U.S. Sen. John McCain, chair of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, is not pleased with delays in developing a domestic alternative to Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine. Taking flight on SpaceShipTwo. XCOR gets a new CEO and a chance to be first with suborbital passenger flight.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Making a case for space exploration
Denver Post (3/19): Has U.S. enthusiasm for deep space exploration stalled? In an op-ed, United Launch Alliance rocket scientist George Sowers explains why it should not. The reasons include preserving a pioneering spirit, gaining access to new resources and forestalling extinction in the face of global disaster.
Walking on an alien world: The first 50 years of spacewalking (part 2)
America Space (3/19): Earlier this week, the world’s space powers marked the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk, a brief stroll in Earth orbit by Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. America Space looks back at what happened next as NASA pushed deeper into space with the Apollo program. Spacewalks were in integral part of exploring the moon.
Mars One delays timetable for red planet trips amid criticism
NBC News (3/19): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit with ambitions of starting a human settlement on the red planet, announces a two year delay as it wrestles with funding challenges and a recent round of criticism. The organization denies deceit in a global campaign to find prospective settlers. Difficulties in reaching agreements with a reality style video producer to generate revenues are responsible for the delay, which would place the first settlers on Mars in 2027.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Eclipse sweeps across Atlantic, visible only from remote islands
Reuters (3/20): The moon’s shadow fell across the face of the sun early Friday, providing a solar eclipse to a small part of the Atlantic Ocean. More in Europe, Africa and Asia witnessed a partial solar eclipse on the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere.
Rosetta is tailing a warming comet
New York Times (3/20): With close-up photos, the Times reports on the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft and its journey toward the sun alongside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
An audacious plan to mine the surface of the moon
Washington Post (3/19): Silicon Valley startup Moon Express is serious about soft landing a small spacecraft on the moon. The feat could win the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize. It would also place the small firm in the company of the three superpowers, the U.S., China and Russia. The company’s ultimate goal is the extraction of lunar resources, including platinum and He-3. The company is tapping into NASA expertise under a partnership agreement.
Data from China’s finest telescope released worldwide
Xinhuanet, of China (3/20): China on Thursday makes observation data from the country’s Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope available to scientists worldwide.
Lopsided ice on the moon points to past shift in poles
Science (3/19): Data from NASA’s Lunar Prospector suggests the moon’s poles shifted. The findings are based on the location of ice near the lunar north and south poles.
Search for potentially habitable worlds targets red dwarf stars
Space.com (3/19): Of late, red dwarf stars seem good places to look for planets in the habitable zone, in part because they are numerous in the Milky Way and stable.
Low Earth Orbit
Bigelow module ready to fly to Space Station
Space News (3/19): The changing face of the International Space Station’s U.S. segment this year will include the addition of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), an inflatable compartment that will enable NASA to study how well the structure stands up to the space environment. BEAM is slated to launch to the ISS in September for installation on the Tranquility module. Bigelow produced the module using NASA technology that could play a role in future human deep space exploration.
Soyuz TMA-17M crew ready for May launch to Space Station
America Space (3/19): NASA’s Dr. Kjell Lindgren, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Kononenko declare themselves prepared to lift off in late May for a five to six month stay aboard the International Space Station. All three will unite with the first year long residents of the space station, NASA’s Scott Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko.
China and EU pore over proposals for joint space mission
Nature News (3/19): Europe and China discuss a lunar orbiting observatory that can look back in the universe.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
McCain accuses Air Force of stalling on RD-180 replacement
Space News (3/19): U.S. Sen. John McCain, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the Air Force has “wasted a year doing very little” to end the Defense Department’s reliance on Russian rocket engines to launch national security satellites. Doing more means fostering a replacement for the import of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine.
Suborbital
Vanity Fair (4/15): The magazine offers a look at what suborbital passenger flight might be like aboard SpaceShipTwo, as seen through the eyes of aerobatic flight instructor William Langewiesche.
As new space grows up, a start-up rocket company gets a CEO
Houston Chronicle (3/19): XCOR gets a new CEO, Jay Gibson, with aircraft manufacturing experience at Beechcraft Corp., and a shot a beating Virgin Galactic into suborbital passenger flight. The company is moving its operations from Mojave, Calif., to Midland, Texas.
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