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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit, commissions lander and communications satellite studies for its plans to start a colony on the red planet. NASA’s administrator says flagship planetary missions still possible. Talk at American Geophysical Union conference this week turns to concerns over NASA budget constraints. NASA’s Curiosity and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions revealing history of water on the red planet. Comet ISON fades. NASA Earth observing mission encounters funding difficulties. Juno spacecraft cameras follow Earth and moon interplay. Chelyabinsk meteor victim of pre-explosion violence. Scientists spot curious disruption in ring of Saturn. First NASA shuttle space station assembly crew reminisces. Cirque du Soleil welcomes Japanese aerospace engineer. Conflict over Russian rocket engines appears headed for trial.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Private Mars colonization venture contracts with Lockheed, SSTL for robotic precursor studies
Space News (12/10): Mars One announces contracts with Lockheed Martin and Surrey Satellite Technology, of England, for studies of a robotic lander and communications satellite that could be launched in 2018. The Dutch nonprofit is engaged in establishing a colony of Martian volunteers by 2025.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Bolden clarifies NASA’s position on flagship missions
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/10): NASA Administrator Charles Bolden clarifies the agency’s position on its most expensive, or flagship, science missions. The website shares credit with those who first published the new statement that seems to contradict earlier comments made by the administrator before the National Research Council. The latest statement was delivered to NASA officials attending the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco this week.
Top NASA scientists grapple with budget cuts: A struggle to keep new missions coming
Planetary Society (12/10): Concerns over future NASA spending on planetary science missions rises as a concern among scientists attending the American Geophysical Union fall conference in San Francisco. John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science, and Ellen Stofan, the agency’s chief scientist, offer assurances the agency is getting the most from missions in flight. Others are in development for destinations including an asteroid and Mars.
Curiosity determines ancient lake was habitable while MRO suggests water might still flow on Mars
AmericaSpace.com (12/10): Results from two NASA Mars missions, the Curiosity rover and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, suggest the red planet once had water flowing on its surface and hosted habitable environments. Observations by MRO also suggest that Mars hosts underground water that rises to the surface seasonally. The findings were presented at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco this week.
Does water still flow across Mars? Dark, mysterious tracks hold clues
Los Angeles Times (12/10): Images of the planet’s surface taken by the NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest water emerges from the subsurface and flows down crater walls.
Comet ISON appears to be ‘dead’: No special glow now from comet ISON in December.
USA Today (12/10): Comet ISON’s brush with the sun on Nov. 28 appears to have been devastating for the comet many once hoped would appear as a bright object in the darkened skies of the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere.
Over-budget ICESat 2 mission under review
From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA notifies lawmakers a technically challenging Earth observation mission has budget difficulties. Congressional notification is required when a mission exceeds its budget by 15 percent, according to Space News — the first news outlet to report the development.
Motion of Earth and moon recorded by Juno spacecraft
Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s Jupiter bound Juno mission sped past the Earth during an Oct. 9 flyby to gain a gravity assist. Cameras on the fast moving spacecraft caught the interplay between the Earth and the moon.
Russian meteor, from birth to fiery death: An asteroid’s story
Space.com (12/10): Scientists take an in depth look at the meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in mid-February. The impactor itself was once part of a larger planetary body that was shattered, say experts who presented their findings this week at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.
Cassini spies mysterious object named `Peggy’ at edge of Saturn’s rings
Wired News (12/10): NASA’s Cassini mission cameras spot odd disturbance in Saturn’s A ring.
Low Earth Orbit
ISS pioneers recall early days of space outpost
Florida Today (12/10): NASA’s first shuttle International Space Station assembly crew reminisces over their flight 15 years ago this month. Crew was led by Robert Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Video: Cirque du Soleil skip-rope artist is a real aerospace engineer
Orlando Sentinel (12/10): Japanese aerospace engineer turns to Cirque du Soleil as a performer in his quest for weightlessness. Yusuke Funaki developed small satellites and robot arms for the International Space Station, the Sentinel reports.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital’s RD-180 lawsuit headed for trial after judge rejects ULA’s motion
Space News (12/10): Orbital Sciences Corp. and United Launch Alliance may be headed for trial over access to the Russian made RD-180 rocket engine, after a Virginia judge declines to dismiss the case brought by Orbital. Orbital wishes to purchase the engines for use aboard the company’s family of rockets.
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