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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA issues annual report listing technology “spin offs” from nation’s space program investments. ATK’s solid rocket booster, part of NASA’s new Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, is prepped for March 11 test firing. Mars One plans to settle the red planet: Are they too much for the human spirit?  The Planetary Society readies May test flight of innovative LightSail. New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern looks to July Pluto encounter. Asteroid BL86 accompanied by apparent small moon as it sails past the Earth. Europe’s Rosetta mission finds Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko porous enough to float in an ocean. Google Lunar X Prize Foundation issues milestone award money.  NOAA weather satellite spots major winter storm over U.S. Northeast. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program finds competition a cost saver.

Human Deep Space Exploration

2015 edition of NASA’s annual Spinoff publication shows space-inspired tech advances

Spaceflight Insider (1/27): The latest edition of NASA’s Spinoff details what NASA led space exploration does in research and technology that enriches fields from health and medicine to public safety and consumer products. Some of this year’s entries include shock absorbers to cushion buildings from the destructive forces of Earthquakes and lighting that promotes a more restful sleep wake cycle.

NASA marching towards milestone test firing of space launch system booster

Physics.org (1/26): ATK has secured its new five segment solid rocket motor to a Utah test stand for a March 11 firing. Two of the boosters will help to launch NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. The big rocket is intended to start U.S. explorers on future missions of deep space exploration. Designated Qualification Motor-1, the new ATK solid rocket motor was derived from the solid rocket boosters that launched NASA’s space shuttle.

ATK Iuka a player in NASA’s plan for deep space exploration

Associated Press via Houston Chronicle (1/27):  ATK personnel and facilities in Mississippi’s Iuka fabricated critical external paneling for the Dec. 5 unpiloted flight test of the NASA, Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule and its launch vehicle. “The mission marked a major milestone toward America’s new exploration journey to deep space,” said Bryan Warren, Sr. Communications Manager for ATK.

Mars One, the “Third Quarter Effect”, and our human journey into deep space

The Space Review (1/26): Neural feedback researcher John Putman questions the outcome of Mars One, a proposed mission led by a European nonprofit to settle the red planet in the next decade. The settlement strategy eliminates the reward of returning to Earth, reuniting with friends and family after a lengthy isolation, he writes. Inspiration Mars, proposed by U.S. businessman and space tourist Dennis Tito, may be a better alternative, he writes. Inspiration Mars proposes an Apollo 8 like flyby of the red planet by astronauts who then return to Earth.

Unmanned Deep Space Exploration

New phase of space travel hopes to set sail on sunlight

New York Times (1/26): The nonprofit Planetary Society is looking to May for the first of two test launches of LightSail, the organization’s solar sailing demonstrator. Launched as a secondary payload, LightSail will tag along on an Atlas 5 launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to test out the deployment mechanisms in Earth orbit. Unfurling tape measure struts are to deploy a 345 square foot solar sail. The flight will set the stage for a second test flight envisioned for 2016 in which a similar spacecraft will attempt to demonstrate that the force of sunlight can act as a space propulsion source.

Bringing Pluto into focus: Q&A with New Horizons P.I. Alan Stern

Space.com (1/26): NASA’s New Horizons mission just entered the encounter phase of the first ever flyby of Pluto on July 14. New Horizons’ principal investigator Alan Stern explains what is happening with the $700 million mission. “As ready as we are, as talented as this team is, we are flying into the unknown,” said Stern.

Flyby asteroid has its own moon

Discovery.com (1/26): As the large asteroid BL86 flew within 750,000 miles of the Earth early Monday, scientists discovered it has a small moon of its own.

New discoveries from Rosetta put comet 67P in focus

Spaceflightnow.com (1/26): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft finds the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko cracked and porous, so much so that it could float in an ocean rather than sink.

Millions paid by X-Prize Foundation for progress toward trip to Moon

New York Times (1/26): The Google X Prize Foundation adjusts to pay millions to private investors eager to explore the moon. A landing, a 1,640 foot traverse of the lunar surface by a private spacecraft as well as photo and video transmissions would we worth $20 million in prize money to the entrant able to achieve the feat by the end of 2016. On Monday, the foundation handed out $5.25 million in milestone prizes.

Low Earth Orbit

Monster winter storm spotted from space (photo, video)

Space.com (1/26): A major snow storm covering much of the northeastern United States is captured in images by NOAA weather satellites.  New York City and other major metropolitan areas have taken refuge.

Commercial to Low Earth Orbit

NASA, Boeing, SpaceX share more details on Commercial Crew plans

Space News (1/26): On Monday, U.S. private sector participants in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program presented new details on their test and operational plans. Astronauts could be launching to the International Space Station from the U.S. by 2017 under the plan. NASA issued contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in September. A third unsuccessful competitor, Sierra Nevada, challenged the awards. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, backed NASA’s awards in a ruling earlier this month.

Commercial space rides for U.S. astronauts to save millions: NASA

Reuters (1/26): NASA stands to save millions of dollars on astronaut travel to the International Space Station by nurturing competitive U.S. commercial crew transportation services, officials announce Monday.

Boeing, SpaceX launch 21st century space race

Houston Chronicle (1/26): NASA is counting on at least one of two U.S. companies to begin launching astronauts to the International Space Station before the close of 2017. They received NASA contracts in September to complete the development of individual concepts capable of carrying four astronauts and cargo to and from the six person orbiting science laboratory. NASA now pays Russia for the launchings.

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