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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Lava tubes on the moon could be shelters for human explorers. Former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison urges more students to pursue studies in science and engineering. Big Jupiter may have cleared a space for the Earth. The European Space Agency and NASA will attempt to blast a small asteroid as a planetary defense strategy. The Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory, two of NASA’s Great Observatories, probe Dark matter. NASA will develop new power sources for distant planetary probes. China’s lunar focus may delay efforts to explore Mars. NASA copes with escalating costs, budget delays for space communications. NASA opens International Space Station research data. Russia may ask university students to help complete construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome. Russia launches data relay satellite trio.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Lunar lava tubes might make underground moon cities possible
Space News (4/1): The moon’s lava tubes, formed from extensive volcanic activity, could afford natural structures suitable to support moon colonists, according to observational data gathered by NASA’s GRAIL mission spacecraft.
Former NASA astronaut says we’re all in a spaceship
Boston Globe (4/2): Retired NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, the first female African American in space, urged a Boston area student audience to pursue careers in science and engineering and support diversity in the two fields. Jemison compared life on Earth to space travel. “We’re on a spaceship now,” said Jemison.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Jupiter, destroyer of worlds, may have paved the way for Earth
Scientific American (4/1): Planet Jupiter’s influence on the architecture of the solar system may have created a place for the Earth.
We’re planning to shoot an asteroid to see what happens
Discovery.com (4/1): The European Space Agency, assisted by NASA, describes plans to rendezvous with the asteroid Didymoon and a companion moon, to demonstrate a planetary defense strategy. The encounter is planned for 2022.
Hubble and Chandra unveil mysteries concerning dark matter
America Space (4/1): Two of NASA’s Great Observatories reveal new properties of dark matter, which is believed to comprise most of the mass in the universe. Dark matter does not interact much with itself, scientists conclude.
Economist (4/4): NASA has arranged to resume production of plutonium fuel through the Department of Energy (DOE) for the radioactive thermal electric generators that power some of the agency’s deep space missions, among them Cassini at Saturn and the Curiosity rover on Mars. By 2021, its estimated the DOE should be producing about 2 1/2 pounds of plutonium annually for a more efficient version of the RTG, the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator.
China’s Mars exploration program facing delays
Space News (4/1): A Chinese space official says the country’s focus on the moon will delay exploration activities on Mars. China has concept studies underway for a Mars orbiter and lander with rover. “We are aiming at 2020, but still we don’t have the green light from the government” to proceed with the mission, said Wu Ji, director general of the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Costs soar on NASA communications upgrade program
Space News (4/1): NASA’s efforts to upgrade its space communications network is confronting cost and schedule issues, according to a U.S. General Accountability Office audit.
Low Earth Orbit
NASA creates open database of space station research
Huntsville Times (4/1): In an effort to facilitate more research aboard the International Space Station, NASA opens its research files, through a portal named Physical Science Informatics.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Ministry mulls using student labor to finish Beleaguered Vostochny cosmodrome
Moscow Times (4/2): Russian officials reach out to the nation’s university students for help in completing the construction of the new Vostochny cosmodrome. The project has faced significant delays amid reports of scandal. Vostochny would give Russia an alternative to the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as a launching site.
Rockot launcher deploys Russian data relay satellites
Spaceflightnow.com (3/31): On Tuesday, a Russian Rockot launcher departed the Plesetsk cosmodrome with three data relay satellites.
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