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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket development is on track for key 2017 flight test. NASA’s Orion capsule participates in Pacific recovery drill ahead of December flight test. NASA hails asteroid mission as precursor for human Mars exploration. Tyson on the value of human space exploration. New offices open in Huntsville for NASA’s Space Launch System development team. China sets flight test for lunar soil sample recovery vehicle. NASA likes outcome of late June Mars entry, descent and landing test flight. Jovian geysers could be key to alien life discovery. NASA’s International Sun Earth Explorer glides close to the Earth and moon to start new mission, thanks to passionate citizen science team. NASA’s New Horizons scopes Pluto, Charon. U.S., Indian missions close in on Mars. Science learning more than entertainment. Erratic sun deserves more attention. NASA’s postpones U.S. Space Station spacewalks. U.S. Navy names research vessel for Sally Ride, America’s first female astronaut. NASA invests in new technologies. Small satellite developers meet with suppliers to discuss future needs. China launches an Earth observing satellite. NASA to name commercial crew partners soon. Major space activities planned for the coming week.
Human Deep Space Exploration
SLS manager says program still on track
Spacepolitics.com (8/8): NASA’s Space Launch System is meeting its development milestones and is on track for its first unpiloted test flight with an Orion capsule in December 2017, Todd May, the agency’s SLS program manager, tells the 17th annual Mars Society gathering in Houston on Friday. A recent assessment from the U.S. General Accountability Office that questioned whether the SLS development is adequately funded, was based on information that is out of date, he said. “We’re just clicking off the milestones,” May told the convention.
Orion sails through successful test with aid of Navy’s USS Anchorage
Spaceflightinsider.com (8/8): Working in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego, Calif., NASA refines its Orion space capsule recovery strategy. The capsule is preparing for its first unpiloted test flight in December.
NASA bets on asteroid mission as best path to Mars
Science News (8/8): NASA sticks with plans for Asteroid Retrieval Mission despite outside doubts. Still to come, a decision by the agency’s planners on whether to robotically capture a small asteroid or a boulder from a larger asteroid. Either way, the object would be maneuvered into a stable orbit around the moon and made available to U.S. astronauts.
CNN (8/10): Tyson addresses the values of exploration and U.S. leadership in the exploration of space.
First look: NASA’s new $39 million Huntsville building dedicated to future human space flight
Alabama.com (8/8): NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center opens new office building for workers assigned to development of the space agency’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. SLS, now moving from design to production, is intended to start human explorers on future deep space missions.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
China to test recoverable moon orbiter
Xinhuanet, of China (8/10): China plans the flight test of a lander that could be sent to the moon to gather samples and return the materials to Earth. The test is planned before year’s end.
NASA reveals early results of LDSD “flying saucer” test flight
Spaceflightinsider.com (8/8): NASA engineers and project managers outline accomplishments from late June flight test of technologies that promise to increase the mass of payloads launched to the Martian surface. The saucer shaped Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator was launched from Kauai in Hawaii. More tests flights are planned next summer to overcome a parachute failure.
NASA’s flying saucer takes a supersonic flight, and you can tag along
Los Angeles Times (8/8): NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory develops video of June 28 test of the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator. The test vehicle demonstrated technologies for landing on Mars.
How to look for alien life in space geysers
New York Times (8/10): The search for alien life can begin with our own solar system and notably Europa the ice and ocean covered moon of Jupiter, according to op-ed based on observations from the Planetary Society’s Bill Nye.
ISEE-3 completes lunar flyby, begins a citizen science program
Universetoday.com (8/10): NASA’s International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 spacecraft, launched 36 years ago, passed close to the Earth and moon this past weekend to begin a new mission of citizen science. A small team of engineers had hoped to command the revived probe into an orbit around the moon for a new mission but were unable to re-activate the propulsion system. Nonetheless, the aging instruments on board will continue to collect and transmit their observations from orbit around the sun.
New Horizons mission catches Pluto and Charon waltzing
Scientific American (8/8): Still nearly a year from a first ever encounter with Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft captures the dwarf planet and one of its moons, Charon, in a gravitational embrace, with an onboard camera.
Mars-bound probes built by India and NASA are nearing the Red Planet
Space.com (8/8): India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is on course to maneuver into orbit around the red planet on Sept. 14. NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, which will seek an understanding of how the planet’s atmosphere withered away, will steer into orbit on Sept. 21.
UA astronomer: Enough with the lectures
Arizona Daily Star (8/10): Active learning is the key to improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Math skills in the U.S., writes University of Arizona professor Chris Impey, who concedes that lectures can be only so much entertainment. “Do you want the students to be entertained or to really learn the material?” notes a colleague. “All the evidence points to the fact that students need to be engaged and fully understand the concepts instead of memorizing a bunch of facts.”
Extreme space weather threatens to leave the U.S. in the dark
Washington Post (8/9): Earthlings need greater awareness of a temperamental sun and the harm that could come from its activity cycles, according to an editorial. Costly disruptions to power distribution and communications may be more of a threat then we realize.
Low Earth Orbit
NASA postpones U.S. spacewalks from Space Station over battery issue
Space.com (8/8): NASA postpones a pair of U.S. spacewalks outside the International Space Station when it discovers a possible problem with fuses in the batteries that power the space suits. The excursions had been planned for Aug. 21 and 29. New batteries will be delivered in September aboard the next SpaceX Dragon cargo mission, delaying the spacewalks into the fall.
NASA to wrap up look into ‘close call’ spacewalk incident
Florida Today (8/8): NASA’s spaceflight officials expect this week to conclude their lengthy evaluation of a July 16, 2013 incident in which the NASA spacesuit worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano flooded with water from the cooling system. The shuttle era garments are necessary to resume U.S. spacewalks for maintenance activities outside the International Space Station.
Navy christens new research ship for Sally Ride, first U.S. woman in space
Collectspace.com (8/10): U.S. Navy christens its latest research vessel for the late Sally Ride, America’s first female astronaut.
‘Orbiting rainbows’ and 4 other wild space tech ideas win NASA funding:
Space.com (8/8): NASA selects five projects from its Innovative Advanced Concepts program for additional funding. One could enable deep space mapping of asteroids with galactic cosmic rays. Another would greatly improve the resolution of planetary objects imaged from far away. Another would lower the mass of telescopes on interplanetary spacecraft.
Small-satellite entrepreneurs, suppliers part ways on pricing
Space News (8/8): Small satellite developers urge suppliers to tailor equipment and prices to needs of diminutive spacecraft during Logan, Utah convention.
Spaceref.com (8/6): Universal Space Network facilitates efforts to establish communications standards for growing wave of small satellites.
China launches remote-sensing satellite
Xinhuanet (8/9): China launches an Earth observing satellite on Saturday.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
3 commercial companies compete in new space race
Houston Chronicle (8/10): NASA is expected to choose soon among Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada for final development of commercial crew space transportation systems. New domestic commercial carriers would end U.S. reliance on Russia to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The U.S. lost its ability to launch astronauts as the shuttle retired three years ago.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of August 11-15, 2014
Spacepolicyonline.com (8/10): Washington area workshops and an International Space Station docking are among the activities planned this week.
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