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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Lockheed explains NASA’s multi-mission approach with Orion. Engineers eager to assess 3-D printers in space. China completes three person terrestrial lunar base testing. Essayist takes issue with National Research Council’s assessment of U.S. human space flight. Charon, Pluto’s far away moon, may conceal an ice covered ocean. Colorado enterprise looks to inexpensive robotic Mars sample return mission. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope starts search for a destination beyond Pluto for NASA’s New Horizons mission. International Space Station crew implementing new de-contamination procedures for experiments. Seismic studies point to vast amounts of water below the Earth’s surface. Sally Ride EarthKAM to receive award for student engagement. United Launch Alliance looks for domestic Russian rocket replacement. U.S. Senate budget language could stall NASA’s Commercial Crew Program initiative, according to editorial.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Lockheed execs defend all-purpose Orion
Space News (6/16): The National Research Council’s recent report on the future of human space flight urges a destination driven approach to hardware. Lockheed, NASA’s contractor for the Orion/Multi-purpose Crew Vehicle, defends the current approach flexible approach based on available funding. NASA’s human deep space outlook includes cis-lunar destinations, asteroids and the Martian realm.
Print me up, Scotty! 3-D printer ready for launch
Discovery.com (6/16): Printer developed by Made In Space to reach International Space Station in August. Already, satellites with 3-D printed components have flown in space. “Also, there is some hope that entire habitats could be printed robotically ahead of a future manned mission to the moon and Mars,” the website reports.
China’s ‘Lunar Palace’ for space research tested on Earth
Space.com (6/16): Two women and a man spend 105 days in China’s Lunar Palace 1, a ground-based prototype of a lunar base. The enclosure features volume to grow plants and recycle wastes.
Space policy via the rear view mirror
The Space Review (6/16): Essayist Dale K. Skran critiques the National Research Council’s recent report on the future of U.S. human space exploration. The lengthy report, chartered by Congress, rushes to dismiss the value of commercial space initiatives enabled by the International Space Station, writes Skran, who believes the lengthy NRC assessment also undervalued robotic space activities. Skran serves on the National Space Society’s policy committee.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
An Ocean—perhaps—on Pluto’s moon Charon
Air and Space (6/16): Charon, a moon of Pluto, may have an ocean below the frozen surface, say scientists.
Incredible technology: Private Mars mission could return samples by 2020
Space.com (6/16): BoldlyGo, of Colorado, suggests Mars sample return mission with a spacecraft that would dip into the atmosphere to collect dust in lieu of landing, digging and lifting off with rock and soil.
Hubble Space Telescope to start hunt for icy world beyond Pluto
National Geographic (6/16): The legendary space telescope will look for destinations beyond Pluto for NASA’s New Horizons Mission. New Horizons is on course to flyby Pluto in July 2015.
Low Earth Orbit
New decontamination system built in Alabama clears way for experiments on living things in space
Huntsville Times (6/16): The International Space Station introduces a new contamination system to support, plant, rodent and microbe experiments aboard the six person orbiting science laboratory. The improvement relies on ultraviolet light within an experiment chamber called a “glove box” as the decontaminant.
New York Times (6/16): Seismic studies suggest there is an ocean of water locked in minerals 400 miles below the Earth’s surface.
Sally Ride EarthKAM to Receive Award at International Space Station Conference
PR Web (6/16): Sally Ride EarthKAM, an International Space Station science and education activity, will receive a Top Results Award, at the 3rd Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference in Chicago. Named for Ride, the first U.S. female astronaut, EarthKAM enables students to take pictures of the Earth with cameras aboard the station.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
ULA begins search for new American rocket engine
Spaceflightnow.com (6/16): Search begins in response to Russia’s threat to halt the export of the RD-180 rocket engine used to power the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V. The goal is to identify and produce a domestic replacement by 2019.
Russian rocket deal needs wing-walking approach
The Hill (6/16): U.S. efforts to replace Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine deserve careful consideration, writes Peter Marquez, former director of space policy at the National Security Council for Presidents Obama and George W. Bush. He endorses a sustainable transition to a domestic rocket engine.
Editorial | Meddling threatens commercial crew
Space News (6/16): The U.S. Senate should strike language in NASA’s 2015 budget legislation that might restrict the development of U.S. commercial transportation services for astronauts headed to the International Space Station and back, according to the editorial. The wording seeks cost and pricing disclosures from potential fixed price contractors.
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