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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission strategy needs a revamp, according to op-ed. Evolving Mars workshop wrestles with essential elements of an international effort to explore Mars with humans. New alliance forms to influence space development. Upgraded NASA crawler-transporter displays Space Launch System muscle. NASA is close to competition for major new planetary mission. Scientists explain comet dynamics. Early U.S. space photos up for auction in London. Saturday’s U.S. spacewalk outside the International Space Station provides photo forum. A U.S. Senate panel may look at key issues in U.S. commercial space policy on Tuesday. European Space Agency managers are eager build on reusable launch vehicle test flight results earlier this month.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Let’s fix the Asteroid Retrieval Mission
Aviation Week & Space Technology (2/23): In an op-ed, Washington space policy veteran Marcia Smith assesses the status of NASA’s proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission, the good and the bad. The opportunity to demonstrate Solar Electric Propulsion earns praise. But U.S. policy makers should embrace another strategy for reaching Mars with humans on an affordable timescale rather than to attempt the capture of a small asteroid or a bolder from a large asteroid to steer into orbit around the moon, she writes. The lunar orbiting asteroid material would become an interim destination for U.S. astronauts. “The problem is explaining how that relates to the original intent of using a journey to an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars, where the distance from Earth is a critical element,” writes Smith. In 2010, President Obama directed NASA to plan for the human exploration of an asteroid by 2025, with a journey to the Martian environs a decade later. Money is an obstacle.
The Space Review (2/23): Essayists Harley Thronson and Cris Carberry present findings from the most recent Mars Affordability and Sustainability Community Workshop hosted by Explore Mars, Inc., and the American Astronautical Society. Expert participants believe an international effort with sustained funding at greater than inflationary increases is critical to the goal of exploring Mars with humans. The International Space Station is a key to human health and technology demonstrations. The station should be augmented with a long duration crew habitation module in lunar orbit. A high mass robotic sample return mission to Mars could address cross contamination risks and demonstrate a capability to land heavy payloads on the Martian surface in support of human explorers. NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission could be an effective way of demonstrating Solar Electric Propulsion, they write.
Crawler Transporter-2 upgraded in preparation for SLS
Spaceflight Insider (2/23): NASA’s Kennedy Space Center rolled out the heavy duty Crawler Transporter-2 on Monday. CT-2, with its long heritage, is under development to usher the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket from hangar to launch pad. Coupled with Orion, the SLS is to start U.S. explorers on future missions of deep space exploration.
Crawler-Transporter celebrates 50 years of KSC service
Florida Today (2/24): Built to move the Saturn V moon rockets, then the fully assembled space shuttles to their Florida launch pads, NASA’s giant Crawler-Transporter is marking a half century of service at the Kennedy Space Center. Weighing six million pounds, the Crawler Transporter has a top speed of 1 mile per hour.
Eleven organizations form Alliance for Space Development
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/23): A new alliance of organizations forms to influence the goals of space development and settlement. The National Space Society is among the founders.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA sets next $1 billion New Frontiers Competition for 2016
Space News (2/23): NASA’s Planetary Sciences Division plans to open a competition for its next New Frontiers mission sometime after the start of the 2016 fiscal year on Oct. 1. The agency plans to invest $1 billion in the mission proposal it selects. The first mission in the New Frontiers line was the New Horizon’s spacecraft, which is closing in on a July flyby of Pluto. The most recent is Osiris-Rex, which is due a launching next year on a sample return mission to the asteroid Bennu.
Comets are like deep fried ice cream, scientists say
Space.com (2/23): Comets have a “crispy” outer layer and a soft frigid inside because of a special kind of porous ice, according to NASA researchers. The scientists believe they have successfully recreated the conditions.
Rarely seen images from space including the ‘best selfie ever’
New York Times (2/23): Hundreds of photographs from the earliest days of the U.S. space program are up for sale. Thursday is sale day at a London auction for 1,100 images, including an early “selfie” of the Earth taken by a camera aboard a V-2 rocket launched from White Sands, N.M.
Low Earth Orbit
Photos from this weekend’s spacewalk
Spaceflightnow.com (2/23): NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts kicked off a series of three spacewalks outside the International Space Station on Saturday. The second and third excursions are planned for Wednesday and Sunday to initiate the installation of two docking ports for future U.S. commercial crew vehicles. Saturday’s photos illustrate the grand scale of their work.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Issues in commercial launch law
The Space Review (2/23): The newly named U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness will convene for the first time in the new session of Congress on Tuesday. While U.S. objectives in human space exploration will be a focus, the panel also plans a look at U.S. commercial launch policy and practices, writes TSR editor Jeff Foust. The discussion could turn to indemnification of launch services providers and FAA safety regulations concerning passengers on commercial launch vehicles, Foust notes.
Europe’s newly tested space plane aims for next launch in 2019
Space.com (2/23): After a successful suborbital test flight of the uncrewed Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle earlier this month, European Space Agency managers are looking to 2019-20 for a second test flight. Their goal is to develop a reusable launch vehicle.
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