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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s recently unfolding budget good fortune for 2015: A precedent? NASA’s saves its best, the successful Dec. 5 test flight of the NASA, Lockheed Martin Orion capsule, for last in 2014. NASA’s space shuttle launch and entry space suits could fill early Orion mission requirement. NASA’s prototype Morpheus lunar lander finishes 2015 flight test series with a flourish. Russian, U.S. aerospace contractors discuss common docking strategy. SyFy’s Ascension mini-series probes 1960s nuclear star ship concept. Apollo 15’s Al Worden makes a space exploration prediction. NASA’s newest Mars mission probe, MAVEN, finds solar wind stripping away red planet’s atmosphere. Mercury up for crater naming. Sizing up the asteroid impact threat not easy. Russia ponders an independent space station. Aerojet Rocketdyne tests new CubeSat propulsion system using “green” propellants and 3-D printing technology.
NASA’s 2015 Budget
The Space Review (12/15): NASA has fared well during the difficult 2015 U.S. budget process, which brought the Senate and House together over the weekend. NASA’s share of the $1.1 trillion spending plan in effect through Sept. 30, is $18 billion. That compares to $17.65 billion for fiscal year 2014 and the $17.46 billion requested by the White House for 2015. Sequestration sought to push NASA spending below $17 billion for the current year. Essayist and TSR editor Jeff Foust, however, cautions the agreement is not a precedent. New tensions between the administration and Congress over the timely development of the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket for future human deep space exploration are likely, he predicts. A new Congress and leadership on key legislative oversight panels await.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Editorial | Saving the best for last
Space News (12/15): The year is ending on a positive note for space exploration enthusiasts, according to a Space News editorial. Those include the successful Dec. 5 Exploration Flight Test-1, a two orbit unpiloted test flight of the new NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration vehicle.
NASA evaluating modified shuttle ACES for asteroid EVA
NASAspaceflight.com (12/15): NASA looks to a derivative of the launch and entry pressure suits worn by NASA shuttle astronauts for duty aboard early Orion deep space missions. The distinctive orange protective garments could be used by astronauts assigned to repair the four person capsule and perhaps to gather samples from an asteroid during spacewalks.
NASA’s Morpheus completes successful final test at KSC
Florida Today (12/15): At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Morpheus, a prototype planetary lander for destinations ranging from the moon to an asteroid and Mars, takes flight for a final time in 2014 over a simulated lunar scape. The test flight carried out a key objective, as ALHAT, a laser guided Autonomous Landing and Hazardous Avoidance Technology package, controlled the descent.
Lockheed Martin, Boeing to explore deep space together with Russia
ITAR TASS, of Russia (12/16): Russian Space Corporation Energiya and two U.S. counterparts discuss the use of common docking systems for future human spacecraft, NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle and Russia’s Advanced Crew Transportation System. Russia is planning its first moon mission in 2028, the Russian news agency reports.
SyFy’s ‘Ascension’ takes 1960s nuclear spaceship idea to the stars
Space.com (12/15): Ascension, a SyFy Channel mini-series underway this week, examines a what if: What if Project Orion, a 1950-60s era look at using nuclear bombs as a propulsion source for an interstellar spacecraft with humans, had become a reality. This is not NASA’s current effort to develop a crew module called Orion for future human deep space missions.
The Space Review (12/15): Astronaut Al Worden, Apollo 15’s command module pilot, reflects on his career and the future of human space exploration. “My opinion is that we are genetically driven to go into space,” Worden tells Irish writer Shane Hannon. “We might take a thirty-year slow walk, a hiatus, or whatever you want to call it, but we’re eventually going to get back to it and we’re eventually going to go on and do these things that we’re talking about.” Look beyond a lunar return, Worden counsels.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
First results from NASA’s MAVEN may offer clues to how Mars lost its water
Christian Science Monitor (12/15): NASA’s latest Mars probe, MAVEN, goes right to work, confirming theories the solar wind swept away the red planet’s atmosphere. MAVEN reached Mars orbit in September. If Mars was once warmer and wetter, as many planetary scientists believe, conditions may have been right for microbial life.
Want to name a crater on Mercury? Enter this contest
NBC News (12/15): NASA’s Messenger mission to Mercury invites space enthusiasts to propose names for five craters on the planet closest to the sun. “Anyone can enter, as long as you play by the International Astronomical Union’s rules: The name should be that of an artist, composer or writer who was famous for more than 50 years and has been dead for more than three years,” NBC reports.
Assessing the asteroid impact threat: Are we in danger?
Spaceflight Insider (12/15): Sizing up the threat of an impact remains a challenge. Russia, which weathered an unpredicted meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk in February 2013, raised the question recently with speculation over 2014 UR 116, a much larger near Earth object that will not be a threat for another century.
Low Earth Orbit
Russia considers building its own space station: RIA
Reuters (12/15): Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency, considers assembling an independent space station, according to Oleg Ostapenko, the agency’s top executive. Tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine are cited as reasons. Russia and U.S. are the key partners in the 15 nation International Space Station. Currently, ISS operations are slated to conclude in 2020, though the U.S. is seeking a 2024 extension.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
3D printed rocket propulsion system for satellites successfully test-fired
Spaceflight Insider (12/16): Aerojet Rocketdyne’s CubeSat High-Impulse Adaptable Modular Propulsion System, or CHAMPS, undergoes ground testing. In space, CHAMPS will add maneuverability to small satellites, using “green” propellant and 3-D manufacturing technologies to open up new mission opportunities.
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