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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. It’s been a decade since former President Bush unveiled the Vision for Space Exploration. Scuttled after he left office, the VSE’s goal of reaching Mars with humans gathers momentum. NASA’s busy Vehicle Assembly Building closing to tourists. Launched nearly a decade ago, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission spacecraft exits electronic hibernation on Monday for an ambitious comet encounter this year. Even robotic missions to deep space can strain the pocket book. Morpheus, NASA’s prototype planetary rover is on a roll at the Kennedy Space Center. Google Lunar X-prize contestants look to crowd sourcing to help reach the moon. Former NASA chief Mike Griffin endorses space station extension plans. Can anyone name the space station crew? Russia says it’s close to agreement with NASA on more astronaut launches to the space station. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station light up for science. U.S./China to designate promising young researchers for joint meeting this year on space science. Cheap access to space: a must for the nation’s economic security?
Human Deep Space Exploration
A blurred vision, but a persistent goal
The Space Review (1/20): TSR editor Jeff Foust looks back at the Vision for Space Exploration, the post Columbia strategy presented by former President Bush, to propel U.S. explorers out of low Earth orbit. Eventually cancelled over funding and schedule issues, Bush’s VSE was intended to get humans to Mars, an objective that continues to compel the global space community.
NASA ending VAB tours at Kennedy Space Center in February
News 13, of Central Florida (1/21): As NASA makes room for Space Launch System activities at the Kennedy Space Center, it will close off visitor tours of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building. Prior to hosting work on the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, the VAB hosted assembly of the space shuttle and the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo missions.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Rosetta, ESA’s ‘sleeping beauty’ wakes up from deep space hibernation
European Space Agency (1/20): Launched in 2004, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission probe had been silent for 31 months. On Monday, and as scheduled, Rosetta signaled its deep space presence as it prepares for an encounter with Comet 67P Churyumov-Gersinko later this year. Rosetta will attempt to orbit the comet in August and deploy a small lander to its surface in November. Rosetta will attempt to spend a year along the comet as it swings around the sun.
Spaceflightnow.com (1/20): Signals from the $1.7 billion Rosetta spacecraft reached the Earth on Monday at 1:18 p.m., EST, through NASA’s Deep Space Network. Many of Rosetta’s pursuits are “first time,” and there will be drama, depending on how active Churyumov-Gersinko becomes as it approaches the sun.
The final frontier’s financial limits
New York Times (1/20): A squeeze on NASA’s planetary sciences budget attributed to pass cost and schedule issues with the James Webb Space Telescope has scientists associated with current planetary missions at Mars, Mercury and Saturn concerned about resources for mission extensions.
NASA’s Morpheus lander set for liftoff Tuesday
Florida Today (1/20): A new flight test is planned at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this week for the prototype Morpheus planetary lander. It would be the fourth flight for the unpiloted vehicle that is testing technologies for future human as well as robotic payloads on a range of planetary surfaces.
Google Lunar X Prize team launches crowd funding push
Space News (1/20): Competitors in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition turn to crowd sourcing in their bid to win a $20 million prize for robotic activities on the lunar surface.
Low Earth Orbit
Ex-NASA officials endorse ISS extension
Space News (1/20): NASA’s previous administrator Mike Griffin is among those supporting the extension of International Space Station operations announced by the White House earlier this month. Griffin, who faced the prospect of ending space station activities in 2016, endorse operations well beyond the 2020 to 2024 backed by the current administration.
CNN (1/19): “No Googling allowed: Who are Koichi Wakata, Oleg Kotov, Mike Hopkins, Mikhail Tyurin, Rick Mastracchio and Sergey Ryazanskiy?” asks CNN contributor Bob Greene. Most in the space community know. But for those who don’t, Greene explains the adventure that is life on the International Space Station.
NASA, Roscosmos to sign new transportation services contract by summer
Interfax, of Russia (1/20): Officials of the Russian federal space agency say they will reach agreement with NASA by mid-year on the launching of astronauts to the International Space Station through 2017 and perhaps beyond with Soyuz rockets. NASA is hopeful its Commercial Crew Program partners can take on the transportation task after.
Combustion continues to draw researchers to Space Station
NASA (1/17): Aboard the International Space Station, an absence of gravity reveals much about combustion. The latest in a series of research projects on the topic reached the space station aboard Orbital Sciences’ Cygnus re-supply craft.
U.S. and Chinese Academies of Sciences create forum for space science interchanges
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/17): Top science organizations in the U.S. and China agree to meet twice in 2014 as part of a Forum for New Leaders in Space Science. The sponsors are the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Delegates will be restricted to researchers younger than 40.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Achieving cheap access to space: the foundation of commercialization (part 1)
The Space Review (1/20): Author Charles Miller’s new book, America’s Space Futures: Defining Goals for Space Exploration makes a case for cheap access to space as a coming a basis for economic security. The global community is in the midst of a paradigm shift in which CATS will be critical, writes Miller in an excerpt.
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