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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The pace and popularity of space exploration have gained a new momentum, notes an op-ed. NASA’s Kepler space telescope scores new alien planet finds. Two new Kepler discoveries bear impressive resemblance to Earth. New space observatories will improve the alien planet search. Mars One, a Dutch nonprofit, plans a small Martian greenhouse experiment. Some scientists are intrigued by similarities of sedimentary formations on Mars to those on Earth, which are linked to biological activity. Curiosity rover mission gets new science chief. Launch attempt for next International Space Station re-supply mission possible early Friday.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Cosmic renaissance: Why space is popular again (op-ed)
Space.com (1/7): The contemporary course of space exploration is up and down like the stock markets, notes author Nicholas Thurkettle in an op-ed. However, there is a momentum unlike any time in the past. “No single event is unifying or galvanizing, but they happen, and happen and happen, fantastically ordinarily, all the while building the road to that next moment that will reaffirm the idea of outer space in the human consciousness with all the optimism space lovers like ourselves already feel,” he writes.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
1,000 alien planets! NASA’s Kepler space telescope hits big milestone
Space.com (1/6): NASA’s Kepler space telescope records its 1,000th alien planet confirmation. The milestone was unveiled at the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle on Tuesday. Another 3,200 discoveries by Kepler are considered alien planet candidates that will undergo further scrutiny.
Kepler finds two planets with a striking resemblance to Earth
Los Angeles Times (1/6): Two of the Kepler space telescope’s latest finds rival the most Earth-like exoplanets identified to date. The NASA observatory was launched in 2009.
So many Earth-like planets, so few telescopes
New York Times (1/6): Eight new Kepler space telescope planet discoveries orbit their stars in a region known as the habitable zone — distances where water, if present, could exist as a liquid. Liquid water is considered a prerequisite for life as we know it on Earth. Despite Kepler’s remarkable record for success at discovering planet candidates, current technologies do not permit scrutiny of their environments and whether any of them host life. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, in line for launchings in 2017 and 2018, will advance the field, the Times reports. A third observatory formed around a former U.S. space satellite is under development as well.
Tiny greenhouse could fly plants to Mars in 2018
Space.com (1/6): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit that seeks to colonize the red planet with humans starting in the mid-2020s, has announced plans to send a European plant growth experiment to Mars as part of a robotic 2018 precursor mission. Plants could be a source of nutrition for prospective settlers as well as part of a life support system strategy. The Seed experiment was selected from a university level competition. Seed proposes to send seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana, a flowering plan commonly used in space-science experiments.
Has Curiosity found fossilized life on Mars?
Discovery.com (1/6): NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover examined the Yellowknife Bay area of Gale Crater in late 2012. The scrutiny of sedimentary rock at the site produced images of soil structures similar to those found on Earth, including evidence of an ancient lake. Turning to a research study published in the journal Astrobiology, Discovery reports hints of structures also associated with biological activity on Earth.
Mars rover Curiosity mission gets new science chief
Space.com (1/6): NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover science team has a new leader, Ashwin Vasavada, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He succeeds John Grotzinger, of Cal Tech. The science team numbers about 500 worldwide.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
SpaceX CRS-5 launch scrubbed for Tuesday – UPDATE
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/6): A technical issue early Tuesday prompted a delay in the launching of the fifth SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station. The next opportunity to launch 5,100 pounds of supplies to the six person orbiting research lab is Friday at 5:09 a.m., EST.
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