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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The U.S. Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee listens Tuesday as experts debate whether the moon or Mars represents the best next destination for U.S. space explorers. Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin is among those calling for the exploration of Mars. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the subcommittee, calls on colleagues to make human space exploration a national priority. Some experts find Russia’s space ambitions too deeply rooted in a Soviet past. Ambitious and visionary, the Dutch nonprofit Mars One is finding its aspirations of colonizing the red planet on shaky grounds. NASA looks to an orbital companion for the Mars 2020 rover mission. India, Russia partner for a 2015 robotic moon mission that includes a lander and rover. Google Lunar X Prize contestants may share a rocket ride to the moon for a NASCAR like sprint. NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover transmits imagery of a recent drill site at the base of Mount Sharp. What would life be like on the large asteroid Ceres? U.S. astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts start a spacewalk outside the International Space Station early Wednesday. Russia says it will remain an International Space Station partner through 2024. Sky watchers in the U.S. West watch as Chinese rocket body crumbles and burns up in the night sky. NASA’s most recent Earth science mission, SMAP, unfurls space antenna. New Mexico considers drone, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as part of future Spaceport America activities.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Let’s go back to the moon. No, Mars. No, the moon. The debate continues.
Washington Post (2/24): Policy experts disagree on whether U.S. human space exploration goals should be focused on the moon, or Mars. Apollo 11 lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin urges the U.S. to focus on Mars in testimony before the U.S. Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee on Tuesday.
Ted Cruz advocates for human space exploration
USA Today (2/24): U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who chairs the Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee, urged lawmakers and policymakers to make human space exploration a national priority during a hearing Tuesday. Cruz also urged colleagues to ensure the U.S. establishes its own commercial means of launching astronauts to the International Space Station.
Cruz looks to Mars, banters with Buzz Aldrin and other astronauts at first hearing as chairman
Dallas Morning News (2/24): U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, new chair of the U.S. Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee, urges policy makers and NASA to embrace an exploration agenda.
Russia’s space program struggles to innovate as industry reform looms
Moscow Times, of Russia (2/24): Russia’s space aspirations may be too rooted in the country’s Soviet past, say some experts. Russia’s space industry has been unable to restructure its scientific and technological base to allow for new ideas to flourish. It has failed as well to attract new talent, according to the report.
Red Planet or bust? Private Mars One mission faces earthly challenges
NBC News (2/24): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit with aspirations of settling Mars in the mid-2020s with a global lineup of colonists, faces a sudden round of terrestrial challenges. Those range from the loss on contracts for pre-cursor missions to the loss of a reality TV deal that was to finance much of the venture.
Mars One destined for dreamland: Our view
USA Today (2/24): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit that has solicited applications globally for volunteers eager and qualified to start a human Martian settlement in the mid-2020s, is over reaching, according to a USA Today editorial.
A clear and audacious goal: Opposing view
USA Today (2/24): Reaching Mars with humans will require risk taking, writes Mason Peck, an unpaid advisor to Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit that is focused on starting a colony of human settlers on the red planet in the mid-2020s. A Cornell University professor, Peck is also a former NASA chief technologist, who believes the risk tradition ushered the U.S. to the moon.
Mars One loses television deal
Space News (2/24): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit that plans to colonize Mars in the mid-2020s loses a primary funding mechanism, a documentary television deal, according to the report.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA eyes new Mars orbiter for 2022
Space News (2/24): The new Mars communication satellite would trail the NASA Mars 2020 rover to the red planet. The rover’s assignment includes collecting and caching samples of the soil for the eventual return to Earth. The orbiter could feature some new high tech: high-power solar-electric propulsion or an optical communications package that could greatly improve transmission speed and capacity over radio frequency systems, according to Jim Watzin, NASA’s Mars exploration program director.
India, Russia planning to launch a research station towards the Moon in 2015
TASS, of Russia (2/24): Russia and India cooperate for a 2015 lunar mission. Chandrayaan-2 includes an lunar orbiter and a Russian surface rover. The rover will analyze the lunar soil’s chemical composition and relay the results to Earth through the orbiter.
‘NASCAR on the Moon’: 2 teams partner in private moon race
Space.com (2/23): Competitors in the Google Lunar X-prize may share a rocket launch of their mobile robotic spacecraft to the moon’s surface. Once on the moon, the privately financed robotic rovers could literally race to a finish line in the pursuit of a $20 million prize.
Curiosity Rover shows off its digs on Mars in a selfie
NBC News (2/24): Engineers assemble a collection of photos from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover into a single image illustrating a recent drilling spot, Mojave 2, at the base of three mile high Mount Sharp.
What would it be like to live on dwarf planet Ceres in the asteroid belt?
Space.com (2/24): NASA’s Dawn mission is on course to maneuver into orbit around the major asteroid Ceres in early March. What would it be like to live on a main belt asteroid circling the sun between Mars and Jupiter?
Low Earth Orbit
Live coverage: Astronauts set for another spacewalk
Spaceflightnow.com (2/25): NASA’s Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts embark on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station early Wednesday. The two astronauts are preparing docking ports for future U.S. commercial crew vehicles.
Russian space agency endorses ISS until 2024
Spaceflightnow.com (2/24): Russia is committing to membership in the International Space Station partnership through 2024, the Russian federal space agency announced on Tuesday. President Obama instructed NASA to extend station operations from 2020 to 2024 early last year. Russia says it will salvage its newest ISS modules as the cornerstone for a new space station of its own after 2024.
Spaceweather.com (2/24): Sky watchers in the American West witnessed the fiery break up of a Chinese rocket body Monday night. The Chinese rocket was launched in December.
SMAP observatory unfurls large science antenna structure
Spaceflightnow.com (2/24): NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive Earth Sciences mission spacecraft deployed its unusual gold mesh reflective antenna on Tuesday. The Earth orbiting spacecraft designed to monitor the moisture in soil on global scales was launched Jan. 31.
Suborbital
Special report: Spaceport America vows to move forward
KVIA.com, of El Paso (2/24): New Mexico’s Spaceport America looks to operators of drone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as possible tenants to bring in needed revenues. The October 2014 crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo has slowed the prospects for commercial suborbital passenger flights and spaceport revenues. State legislators are considering a bill that would initiate the spaceport’s sale.
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