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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Mars, a NASA priority. Ensuring space bipartisanship. NASA, Lockheed Martin activate Orion. Kepler mission finds Earth-sized world. Signatures for alien life. European Gaia mission gets new launch date. Missing dark matter. Gravity as a catalyst for space policy. Canadian astronaut talks life on Earth. Scary lessons from Russian meteor. Swarm launch postponed.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Mars mission a priority: NASA leader
NBC Philadelphia (10/30): NASA’s priority is reaching an asteroid and Mars with human explorers, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden tells a Gettysburg College audience. The agency is looking beyond the temporary setbacks each federal agency is facing, he says in remarks this week.
Protecting NASA
Houston Chronicle (10/30): NASA merits protection from a surge in political partisanship, according to a Chronicle editorial. It suggests removing the agency from the annual budget cycle and 10 year appointments for NASA’s administrator.
NASA’s Orion spacecraft’s avionics — installed, tested, ready
Spaceinsider.com (10/30): NASA and Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor, activate the Orion crew capsule at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. An unpiloted launch of Orion is planned for September 2014. The activation of the capsule’s electronics is a confirmation of pre-flight integration.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Kepler telescope finds an impossible world
Astronomy Now (10/30): It’s a lot like the Earth, but this alien planet has temperatures much too high for life as known on Earth to flourish.
New found Earth-sized planet doomed
National Geographic (10/30): Recently confirmed Earth-like exo-planet too hot for life.
Astronomers find Earthlike planet, but it’s infernally hot
The New York Times (10/30): Earth-sized planet 400 light years away is like hell on Earth.
Exo-planet hunters may find ET by glut of alien corpses
New Scientist (10/30): Signatures of methane, ethane may be remnants life on alien planets, say scientists who modeled the sun’s future demise.
Arianespace shifts manifest to make room for Gaia
Spaceflightnow.com (10/30): Launch of European mission to study evolution of Milky Way galaxy moves to Dec. 20. Dual telescope spacecraft will observe stars from vantage point 1 million miles from Earth.
Dark matter still hiding: latest experimental sweep comes up empty
Scientific American (10/30): Evidence of dark matter collisions eludes the Large Underground Xenon detector in South Dakota. The findings come from the first three months of operations. Dark matter, which is thought to make up a quarter of the universe, cannot be seen or touched. Evidence for its existence comes from gravitational influences.
Low Earth Orbit
The space policy attraction of Gravity
Spacepolitics.com (10/30): Gravity, a high profile feature film with a space disaster theme, spurs policy discussions of China’s role in space and as a worthy exploration partner.
Astronaut Chris Hadfield brings lessons from space down to Earth
National Public Radio (10/30): Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield reflects on a distinguished career that led to a command of the International Space Station. In a new book, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Hadfield offers some of the lessons he learned in space.
Russian meteor’s two scary lessons
Discovery News (10/30): Simulations of February asteroid blast over Chelyabinsk, Russia suggests they be more frequent than estimated and potentially more damaging than a nuclear explosion.
Swarm launch postponed
European Space Agency (10/30): ESA’s Swarm mission launch from Russia is postponed for a week for repairs to the launcher’s upper stage. Swarm’s three satellite network will study the Earth’s magnetic field.
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