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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s strategy for reaching Mars with human explorers struggles at five. Is reusability in propulsion essential to the exploration of Mars or the moon? The moon is an essential step to Mars, according to an op-ed. The timeliness of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission receives a reasoned endorsement. Venus for humans: experts have a plan. For the Hubble Space Telescope, it isn’t over at 25. India will fly solo as it prepares its second lunar mission, this time with a lander. NASA’s Charles Bolden and the U.S. Air Force Space Command’s William Shelton offer examples in integrity, personal courage. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is poised to release an album with songs performed from the International Space Station. Cosmic rays challenge conventional thinking on their source. Experts warn of U.S. policymakers charting a worrisome course for future national security launch services. Russia struggles with space revenues, but promises to say the course with the International Space Station. SpaceX says throttle valve problem foiled latest Falcon 9 first stage recovery attempt.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The Space Review (4/20): It was five years ago on April 15 that President Obama presented a long range vision for the human exploration of Mars as an alternative to the just cancelled NASA Constellation lunar initiative. TSR editor Jeff Foust looks at what’s happened since: NASA has yet to offer a detailed road map and likely will not until Obama’s successor takes office. In the meantime, an interim step to demonstrate Solar Electric Propulsion by robotically traveling to an asteroid to retrieve a boulder is steeped in controversy. The boulder would be maneuvered into lunar orbit as an interim destination for U.S. astronauts.
Moon and Mars are physically and fiscally feasible
The Space Review (4/20): Reusable launch systems, large for Mars and smaller for the moon, are key to confronting the cost obstacles of extending human exploration to deep space, writes John Strickland, a National Space Society board member and Space Frontier Foundation advocate. The private sector should be a key player in the development strategy, he writes.
Air & Space (4/20): The moon is an essential part of a U.S. strategy to explore Mars with humans, not a distraction, writes planetary scientist Paul Spudis. Spudis emphasizes the moon as a resource and staging site for the large amounts of propellant and large hardware that must be launched to Mars to support exploration.
The Space Review (4/20): NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission strategy receives the backing of Louis Friedman, former executive director of The Planetary Society. Alternatives such as sending a human mission to a destination in Mars orbit like the moon Phobos are too costly and will take too long to develop, he writes in an essay.
Incredible technology: NASA’s wild airship idea for cloud cities on Venus
Space.com (4/20): At NASA’s Langley Research Center, scientists have developed the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept, a proposal to explore and settle the Earth’s twin planet aboard high altitude helium filled balloons — escaping high surface temperatures and atmospheric pressures.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Hubble at 25: What’s next for the space telescope?
Space.com (4/20): The Hubble Space Telescope was launched a quarter century ago on April 24. NASA shuttle astronauts managed to overcome an optical flaw three years later, setting the orbiting observatory on a course of major discovery. Hubble was last overhauled by astronauts in 2009, and scientists are hopeful operations will continue through at least 2020, overlapping the scheduled launch of a powerful successor, the James Webb Space Telescope.
India’s second Moon mission to be fully homegrown
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report (4/20): India’s Chandrayaan-2 robotic lunar mission, scheduled for launching in two to three years, will forgo the planned use of a Russian lander. All components of the mission will be developed in India, according to the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization.
Low Earth Orbit
Profiles in courage: Sometimes it’s the last place you think
Huffington Post (4/20): In an op ed, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and U.S. Air Force Space Command Commander William Shelton earn praise for their integrity in advancing U.S. civil and national security interests in space.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield releasing album recorded in space
Rolling Stone (4/20): Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, now retired, will release later this year an album of songs he recorded while living and working aboard the International Space Station during 2012-13. Hadfield recorded guitar and vocal tracks while in orbit that were later enhanced by guest musicians on the Earth. He’s also remembered for performing David Bowie’s Space Oddity in what’s considered the first music video recorded in space.
Cosmic rays misbehave in space station experiment
Science News (4/20): The source of cosmic rays may not altogether originate in the explosion of distant stars. The prospect arises from studies of the high energy particles with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, an observatory positioned aboard the International Space Station.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Before decade is out all U.S. military satellites may be grounded
The Hill (4/20): A disconnect in policy threatens to leave U.S. national security interests without future launch services, according to an op-ed from Mark Albrecht, a former National Space Council executive secretary during the George H. W. Bush administration, and Howard Mitchell, a retired U.S. Air Force major general and director of operations for the Air Force Space Command. They cite the following problems: a ban on the import of Russian rocket engines for the Atlas V rocket; ongoing deliberations in Congress to fund a domestic replacement; a decision by United Launch Alliance to replace the Atlas V and Delta IV with a new rocket; and ongoing efforts by the Air Force to certify the SpaceX Falcon 9 as a competitor.
Roscosmos details Russia’s struggling space sector
Space News (4/20): Russia’s space sector is confronted by export declines linked to western sanctions, quality control issues as well as an aging workforce. Still, Russia is committed to maintaining its role in the International Space Station though 2024. So far, Russia is the only major partner to meet the U.S. request to extend station activities from 2020 to 2024.
Throttle valve blamed for Falcon 9’s unsuccessful landing
Spaceflightnow.com (4/21): SpaceX’s April 14 attempt to recover the first stage booster from a Falcon 9 rocket with an automated landing on a barge off Florida’s Atlantic coast failed because of an engine throttle valve problem, according to the report. Brought to you by the Coalition for Space Exploration, CSExtra is a daily compilation of space industry news selected from hundreds of online media resources. The Coalition is not the author or reporter of any of the stories appearing in CSExtra and does not control and is not responsible for the content of any of these stories. The content available through CSExtra contains links to other websites and domains which are wholly independent of the Coalition, and the Coalition makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or authenticity of the information contained in any such site or domain and does not pre-screen or approve any content. The Coalition does not endorse or receive any type of compensation from the included media outlets and is not responsible or liable in any way for any content of CSExtra or for any loss, damage or injury incurred as a result of any content appearing in CSExtra. For information on the Coalition, visit www.space.com or contact us via e-mail at Info@space.com.