In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Experts debate the effectiveness of a new cabinet-level National Space Council and other changes the administration of President-elect Trump might bring to U.S. space exploration planning.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Is creating a National Space Council the best choice?
The Space Review (1/3): Discussion of a Trump administration cabinet-level National Space Council as a policy coordinating body continues to reverberate as the president-elect’s transition activities draw to a close later this month. However, space historian John Logsdon believes the council’s usefulness would depend on the political clout of its presumed chair, Vice President-elect Tom Pence, and his personal commitment to U.S. space leadership. The council’s most recent reign was 1989-93. President Obama assigned the coordinating role instead to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The path to the infinite economy
The Space Review (1/3): Essayist Andrew Gasser urges the Trump administration to temper the role of Congress in space policy, one he believes is best exercised by NASA and the U.S. private sector through Space Act Agreements intended to hasten the design, development, test and evaluation phases of mission hardware development.
How Trump could really disrupt NASA and the space program
Washington Post (1/3): The new U.S. president may lean more heavily on the U.S. aerospace industry as contractors to carry out the agency’s space exploration objectives, according to an analysis. Yet, it remains difficult to predict, at this point, what the new president and his administration plan to emphasize.
Space Science
White House releases National NEO Preparedness Strategy
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/3): President Obama’s interagency National Science and Technology Council has prepared a National Near Earth Object Preparedness Strategy, a step forward in preparing a defense for a possible impact from an asteroid. The strategy “outlines objectives for enhancing U.S. preparedness in hazard and threat assessment, decision-making, and response,” according to Spacepolicyonline.com. “It defines seven strategic goals for federal research, development, deployment, operations, coordination and engagement.” Spurred in part by the February 2013 meteor explosion over Chelybinsk, the earliest phases of the strategy stress detection and characterization of potential impact objects. NASA has been working on identifying asteroids that approach the Earth as small as 140 meters across.
Curiosity has found weird purple rocks on Mars
Seeker.com (1/3): Purple hued rocks spied in Mars’ Gale Crater by NASA’s Curiosity rover have scientists talking. The color reveals mineral activity yet to be explained.
NASA is launching a new mission to study super massive black holes
Inverse (1/3): NASA will look to 2020 for the launch of the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer. Working with the Italian Space Agency, NASA hopes to gain new insight into black holes, neutron stars and pulsars by analyzing their X-ray emissions. The mission including the launch is estimated at $188 million.
New Horizons now just two years from its next target a dark mysterious rock
Ars Technica (1/3): Best known for its first ever flyby of distant Pluto in July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is well on its way to a second destination in the solar system’s Kuiper Belt. The spacecraft should reach the object 2014 MU69 on January 1, 2019.
Low Earth Orbit
ISS’ power generation system to get crucial update
Spaceflight Insider (1/3): Robotic activities kicked off outside the International Space Station on New Year’s Eve are leading to an important upgrade to the solar power system of the six-person orbiting science lab. NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson will join the effort on Friday with a spacewalk to replace external power storage batteries. A second spacewalk planned for January 13 by Kimbrough and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet will help to wrap up the exchange of six lithium ion batteries for a dozen nickel hydrogen batteries.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Boeing and SpaceX win four more NASA orders for space taxis, with one big ‘if’
Geek Wire (1/3): On Tuesday, NASA agreed to purchase four more crew launches to the International Space Station from Boeing and SpaceX — if their spacecraft achieve agency certification. Each company had contracts for two flights previously. The two companies will attempt to achieve certification with test flights currently scheduled for late 2017 through 2018. Initially, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program envisioned astronaut launches by Boeing and SpaceX in 2015.
China’s busy space launch schedule rivaled the U.S. in 2016
Seeker.com (1/3): China surged past Russia in 2016 in the number of space launches, tying the U.S. with 22 orbital launches. Russia has been the world’s leader in the field since 2004. “As for the rest of the world, Europe’s Arianespace finished the year with 11 launches, India had seven, Japan four, Israel one and newcomer North Korea launched one orbital rocket as well,” according to the report.