In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA and its Journey to Mars await Trump transition team contact. U.S. and Russian lunar exploration advocates see new hope.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The Space Review (11/14): Those steps fall significantly to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose initial views on space policy emerged late in a campaign in which few seemed to expect him to prevail, writes TSR editor Jeff Foust in an op-ed. Broad direction that emerged before the balloting suggests the new administration may want changes and a theme that stresses a global space leadership that produces new technologies, security and jobs for the nation. A revived cabinet-level National Space Council would coordinate the effort.
NASA awaits transition and budget details
Space News (11/14): NASA awaits its first contact with President-elect Trump’s transition team, according to NASA’s Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for the agency’s Human Exploration and Operation’s Directorate. NASA, led presumably by a new administrator, hopes to maintain the momentum for the previous administration’s Journey to Mars, Williams told the NASA Advisory Council’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee during a meeting in Houston. The agency is also seeking budget clarity from Congress, Williams told the panel.
The moon may once again play a significant role in the U.S. space program.
Air and Space Museum Magazine (11/14): New moves by NASA suggest a rekindling of interest in the moon as an exploration destination and its potential polar resources, writes lunar exploration advocate Paul Spudis. Some of the moves involve commercial players like Moon Express and the Google Lunar X-Prize.
First Russian to land on moon in 2031
TASS, of Russia (11/15): Russia is taking steps to prepare for a human lunar landing by 2031, according to Vladimir Solntsev, CEO of Energiya, a Russian rocket and space corporation. The advance would start with a new human spacecraft and lunar test flights in 2026-27. The Russian enterprise is seeking U.S. and European participation. Solntsev says Russia also favors an extension of International Space Station operations from 2024 to 2028 and that discussions among the major station partners on the matter are already underway.
National Geographic’s ‘Mars’ offers a glimpse of our future
Inverse (11/14): The National Geographic channel’s six-part Mars documentary-style portrayal of the first human mission to Mars blends fiction and science. The first segment aired Monday night and focused on a 2033 landing by a small crew. “The $20 million, six-part television event pulled together an A-list team from the worlds of Hollywood and the scientific community,” writes Inverse in a critique that raises a few questions.
Anthropological reflections on space colonization
The Space Review (11/14): Those eager to see the colonization of outer space may wish to consult the science of anthropology for valuable lessons learned, writes Babak Shakouri Hassanabadi, an international law specialist. Settlers will form alliances and overcrowding may lead to psychological stressing. Over time, new cultures and values are certain to emerge.
Space Science
Supermoon shines big and bright over Earth
Seeker (11/14): Monday brought a rare supermoon, a full moon on steroids. Photos gathered far and wide prove the spectacle was impressive to say the least.
Carl Sagan’s crazy idea: Life inside a comet
Universe Today (11/14): If the human colonization of Mars seems a stretch… how about settling on a comet? The late astronomer Carl Sagan, who saw humanity someday struggling to survive, believed it made sense.
Electronic E.T.: Intelligent aliens are likely machines
Space.com (11/14): The alien intelligence many of Earth are seeking could turn out to be an artificial intelligence in which vulnerable biology has given way to machine forms. “Once you invent a thinking machine, you say, ‘Invent something better than you are,’ and you build that,” explained Seth Shostak, the veteran SETI astronomer. “‘Design something better than you are, and you build that, and so forth,” he explained. Most of the universe is older than the 4.5 billion-year-old solar system.
Low Earth Orbit
Carrier rocket with Soyuz MS manned spacecraft placed on launch pad at Baikonur
TASS, of Russia (11/14): Russia’s Soyuz MS-03 has been placed on a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch vehicle and its human cargo, NASA’s Peggy Whitson, the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pasquet and Russia’s Oleg Novitsky, are to lift-off Thursday for the International Space Station. They should dock on Saturday, when they will be welcomed aboard by NASA’s Shane Kimbrough, the current station commander, and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.
Think it’s hard to be an American astronaut? Try being French
Ars Technica (11/14): European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet beat the odds in his native France to secure a place in the European Space Agency’s modest astronaut corps. Thursday, he is to join NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Russia’s Oleg Novitsky, both space flight veterans, aboard a Soyuz rocket bound for the International Space Station. “Either you’re picked the first time, or 15 years later when there’s a second time, you’re too old,” said Pesquet, a former pilot for Air France.