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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA faces a challenging course as it weighs its next destination in space for human exploration. Will it be the moon, an asteroid, a Martian moon? 3-D printing raises the possibility of turning the soils of the moon and Mars into human shelters. NASA’s Curiosity rover finds evidence for salty, underground water on Mars. NASA Dawn mission images suggest bright spots on Ceres may have multiple sources. Raging methane storms raise dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan. Study suggests the Earth emerged from a deep freeze 2.4 billion years ago. United Launch Alliance selects Vulcan as the name for its new rocket, one that will feature reusable components. ULA’s Vulcan name selection quickly challenged. Stormy weather halts countdown Monday for next U.S. commercial re-supply mission to the International Space Station; a second attempt is scheduled for Tuesday at 4:10 p.m., EDT. Blue Origin spotlights New Shepard suborbital launch planning.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The “flexible path” made straight
The Space Review (4/13): NASA and the direction of U.S. space policy face a difficult course as the final years of the Obama Administration unfold, writes Roger Handberg, University of Central Florida political scientist. The space agency’s efforts to carry out a presidential directive to plan for the future human exploration of Mars are vulnerable to cautious budgeting and indifference among the emerging major presidential candidates, according to Handberg.
Should NASA’s next mission be to an asteroid or a Martian moon?
Houston Chronicle (4/13): What are the pros and cons of trading a deep space test flight of NASA’s solar electric propulsion technology to an asteroid for a mission to a Martian moon? The report finds pros and cons and predicts a fascinating debate as the year unfolds and a new U.S. presidential election approaches.
How 3-D printing is going out of this world
Wall Street Journal (4/12): Space agency engineers from the U.S. and Europe look to 3-D printing as a possible technique for turning the soils of Mars and the moon into structures for human explorers. Some of the advanced planning has been encouraged by an experiment aboard the International Space Station in which astronauts used a prototype 3-D printing device to make some simple hand tools.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Tiny and briny: Small amounts of liquid water might still be on Mars
Los Angeles Times (4/13): NASA’s Curiosity rover points to the possibility of a salty subsurface liquid water on Mars. There’s not much of the briny liquid, and it’s not suitable for biological activity, according to a report in Nature Geoscience. The water may be responsible for distinct streaks on sloped regions of the planet.
Mars might have liquid water, according to new findings
Washington Post (4/13): Findings from NASA’s Curiosity rover suggest super salty water forms and evaporates frequently on the Martian surface. The findings were reported in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Mystery of bright spots on Ceres grows
Nature News (4/13): After examining Dawn mission images of varied bright spots on the large asteroid Ceres, scientists suggest the bright features have differing origins, perhaps ice at the bottom of impact craters or some kind of active geological feature. NASA’s Dawn is moving closer to the surface of the asteroid after being captured by Ceres’ gravitational field in early March.
Violent methane storms on Titan may explain strange dunes
Space.com (4/13): The mysterious surface features on Saturn’s largest moon Titan may have been sculpted by strong methane-borne winds, say scientists who have studied data gathered by NASA’s Cassini mission spacecraft. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn for more than a decade. The dune features stretch for miles and rise more than 300 feet.
Low Earth Orbit
Earth was once a snowball locked in ‘crazy’ deep freeze
Discovery.com (4/13): The Earth experienced a surprising cold spell 2.4 billion years ago, according to a new study that examined oxygen isotopes in rocks exposed to melt waters. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
ULA’s Vulcan rocket embraces reusability, new upper stage
Aerospace Daily and Defense Report (4/13): United Launch Alliance, a Boeing and Lockheed Martin joint venture, will feature reusability in its new Vulcan rocket. ULA has a long record of placing national security payloads in orbit with the Atlas 5 and Delta 4, which will be replaced. Tony Bruno, president and CEO, says the new Vulcan will seek commercial customers as well.
ULA’s next rocket to be named Vulcan
Space News (4/13): United Launch Alliance announced a name for its planned successor to the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 rockets and other details at this week’s Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. ULA president and CEO Tony Bruno announces the crowd-sourced name Vulcan.
U.S. satellite launcher gets first Vulcan rocket request – change the name
Reuters (4/13): Paul Allen-backed Vulcan Aerospace informs United Launch Alliance that Vulcan is already trademarked.
Bad weather delays SpaceX rocket landing attempt, Dragon launch
Space.com (4/13): NASA and SpaceX will look to Tuesday afternoon for a second attempt to launch the sixth Falcon 9/Dragon cargo mission to the six person International Space Station. Monday’s initial launch attempt was halted late in the countdown by a lightning threat. The launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., is set for Tuesday at 4:10 p.m., EDT. Dragon is packed with 4,300 pounds of science equipment and other supplies.
Suborbital
Blue Origin’s suborbital plans are finally ready for flight
The Space Review (4/13): Blue Origin, through a recent announcement, lays out a test strategy for its New Shepard, a future suborbital passenger rocket. There’s more too, as the Seattle-based company develops future propulsion components for United Launch Alliance, a launch services provider with a record of placing U.S. national security payloads in orbit.
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