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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Can the nation’s visionary engineers, policy makers merge their efforts and find the resources to advance human space exploration? A Texas congressman with a passion for Europa and memories of the Apollo years is ready to try. More coming from NASA in February on the proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission. NASA’s Dec. 5 Orion flight test becomes a catalyst in U.S. space exploration plans. NASA’s Scott Kelly, Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko ready to spend one year in orbit to advance future human deep space exploration goals. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlines a path to Mars. Lone wolf works warp drive from Nebraska garage. Russia’s Duma considers merger of Roscosmos with major aerospace contractor to foster new efficiencies. Mars may harbor a hidden water reservoir, say scientists. Europe’s Philae lander may have clipped a crater rim as it descended to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in early November. NORAD ready to track Santa. NASA prepares to pick up the pace of Earth science mission launches. Arizona’s World View offers a glimpse of Earth from its forthcoming high altitude balloon passenger service.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The new space rescue mission: Saving NASA
Houston Chronicle (12/21): America’s earliest strides in the human and robotic exploration of space featured visionary engineers and policy makers on the same page with supporting national budgets. “Those in charge today no longer sit behind flight control consoles, conquering space. They’re at desks in Washington, D.C., politicians and bureaucrats who micromanage the agency’s budget and repeatedly move the goalposts,” the Chronicle concludes in a seventh and final report this year on NASA’s future. One of those policymakers, U.S. Rep. John Culberson, of Houston, however, may have the background to re-assemble the key elements.
NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission Gains Steam — If Not an Overarching Program
Spaceflight Insider (12/21): NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot points to a Mission Concept Review in February as the point where the agency will be ready to advance its proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission strategy. Two options are under consideration: option A would retrieve a small near-Earth asteroid with a robotic spacecraft capable of maneuvering it into orbit around the moon; option B would extract a boulder from a larger asteroid and maneuver to the same destination. Meanwhile, NASA will prepare for a visit to the small asteroid or boulder by astronauts in the mid-2020s.
Can NASA’s Orion program reinvigorate human spaceflight? (+video)
Christian Science Monitor (12/20): The future of U.S. human space exploration received a boost with the successful Dec. 5 unpiloted test flight of the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule, the publication reports. While NASA looks toward human missions to Mars in the 2030s, policymakers have yet to agree on what unfolds in the interim and whether to pledge adequate funding.
Video Shows Astronaut’s-Eye View of Orion Spaceship Ride
NBC News (12/19): On Friday, NASA presented video recorded Dec. 5 aboard the unpiloted Orion crew exploration capsule as it ended a successful two orbit test flight with a Pacific Ocean splashdown. The view matches that of astronauts had they been aboard.
Long Duration, For All Mankind: Kelly, Kornienko Get Ready for One-Year Mission
AmericaSpace (12/20): NASA’s Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko believe their upcoming one year mission aboard the International Space Station will further human missions to Mars. Their late March lift off will inform experts how the human body responds to the challenges of long duration spaceflight physically and mentally.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden
PBS (12/18): NASA Administrator Charles Bolden reflects on the space agency’s status. NASA envisions the human exploration of Mars and stands ready to shoulder a global leadership role in the space arena.
Working toward a warp drive: In his garage lab, Omahan aims to bend fabric of space
Omaha World Herald (12/21): Visionary Dave Pares, an adjunct instructor at the University of Nebraska, retreats to his garage to explore techniques for compressing the fabric of space, the cornerstone of a warp drive like that featured in the popular Star Trek series.
Duma proposes to merge Roscosmos with United Rocket Space Corporation
TASS (12/20): In a cost efficiency move, Russia’s legislature considers merging Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, with the contractor United Rocket Space Corporation.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Mars could have a reservoir of hidden water protected from surface
SEN (12/20): Studies of meteorites that originated from Mars reveal a chemical signature that suggests the planet possesses a reservoir of subsurface water and ice.
Grazing crater rim may have saved comet lander
Science News (12/19): The European Space Agency’s Philae lander appears to have brushed a crater rim as it made its approach to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12. The encounter may have kept the lander from additional landing difficulties. Philae is believed to be in the shadow of a cliff that prevents the lander’s solar arrays from recharging. That may change as the comet nears the sun.
Low Earth Orbit
‘Tis the season for NORAD to track Santa
Florida Today (12/20): It’s a tradition that dates back to 1955. NORAD, the U.S. North America Air Defense Command, will track Santa Claus as he leaves the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
NASA on Pace To Loft 13 Earth Science Missions by 2022
Space News (12/19): NASA’s intends to revive the agency’s Earth science fleet with new missions. Two are planned for January alone.
Suborbital
World View Captures Spectacular Sunrise with High-Altitude Balloon (Video)
Space.com (12/19): Arizona’s World View has plans for high altitude balloon passenger missions by 2016 that will offer views of the Earth. A sub-scale balloon recently returned a sample video of that view, including the Earth’s curvature.
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