In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Exploration Mission-1 will place the agency’s Orion crew capsule atop a Space Launch System exploration rocket for a trip around the moon and back. The unpiloted test flight is planned for late 2018 and will set the stage for a similar deep space journey with astronauts.
Human Deep Space Exploration
SLS mission trajectory: Mike Sarafin outlines the ride uphill for EM-1
NASAspaceflight.com (7/7): NASA is closing in on a mission plan that in late 2018 will debut the launch of NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket with an unmanned companion Orion crew capsule for a flight around the moon and back to Earth.
Space Science
First detection of water clouds outside our solar system
Universe Today (7/7): Astronomers report the first discovery of water clouds outside the solar system. Oddly, it was made through observations of WISE 0855, a brown dwarf 7.2 light-years from Earth. The discovery was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Three’s company: Newly discovered planet orbits a trio of stars
Space.com (7/7): The planet designated HD 131399Ab lies 340 light-years from Earth. It orbits a star. In turn, the star and planet are orbited by two other stars. To an observer the trio of stars would rival the brightness of the full moon as seen from the Earth, according to the report.
Comm tests for Osiris-Rex conclude
Spaceflight Insider (7/8): NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission spacecraft is awaiting a Sept. 8 launch on a challenging mission to rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu, descend to the surface, collect a sample of the soil and return to Earth. The spacecraft recently cleared a critical communications check-out at its Kennedy Space Center launch site in Florida.
Japan’s Hitomi observatory made cosmic discovery before failing
Spaceflightnow.com (7/7): Launched on Feb. 17, Japan’s Hitomi X-ray telescope astronomy mission spacecraft failed in late March. However, the spacecraft managed to observe the Perseus cluster of galaxies prior to spinning out of control. The observations revealed how interstellar gas at high temperature responds to the presence of an unseen super massive black hole. The findings were published in the journal Nature.
Why Juno Jupiter mission is ‘hardest thing NASA has ever done’
Huffington Post (7/7): That’s the belief of NASA Juno mission principal investigator Scott Bolton, based on the challenges of a 35-minute maneuver late July 4 to place the spacecraft in a demanding polar orbit around the giant planet Jupiter. Then, there are the challenges of operating in Jupiter’s intense radiation and magnetic fields. Juno was developed to help determine how Jupiter formed and how its presence influenced the solar system’s other planets. Juno was five years enroute to its destination.
Can new equation calculate odds of alien life?
Seeker (7/7): In 1961, astronomer Frank Drake offered the “Drake equation” as a mathematical formula for establishing the number of intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. A new study proposes a change in the equation that is based on the notion that life’s origins on the Earth and possibly elsewhere was more than a “one shot” process.
Low Earth Orbit
GAO remains concerned about potential polar satellite weather data gap
Space News (7/7): The U.S. General Accountability Office warned Thursday that efforts by NOAA to launch new generations of global weather satellites could be delayed. Experts from the auditing arm of the U.S. Congress expressed their concerns that a failure of a single instrument aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft could happen before the planned launch of the first Joint Polar Satellite System spacecraft next year. The lapse could affect the quality of some weather forecasting data, auditors cautioned.
U.S. Air Force wants to shift more money into JICSpOC and troubled GPS ground system
Space News (7/7): The U.S. Department of Defense seeks additional budgeted funds for a next-generation Earth orbiting global satellite positioning system as well as additional funding to thwart trouble from Earth-orbiting satellites prepared to re-enter the atmosphere.