In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA reports business as usual under President Trump, a budget continuing resolution and hiring freeze.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Business as usual at NASA two weeks into new administration
Space News (2/6): A budget continuing resolution that governs NASA spending through April continues to guide agency activities under President Trump. However, a government-wide hiring freeze is in effect.
Getting back to the historic sequence of opening our space frontiers
The Space Review (2/6): “As a nation we need to realize that space is a place for expanding trade, our culture, and national character, not just a grand laboratory, if we ever expect to reap the benefits of the space frontier,” writes Steve Hoeser, space systems engineer and one time chief technical advisor to the Strategic Defense Initiative office. In an op-ed Hoeser stresses an exploration strategy of expand and establish to enhance prosperity, security and leadership.
Four reasons President Trump could send U.S. astronauts to Mars
Forbes (2/6): President Trump may find that Mars exploration fits his “Make America Great” theme. Mars is the most Earth-like of the planets and could offer a second home in a planetary disaster; the journey could feed a tech boom; and it could benefit the new president politically. Loren Thompson, COO of the Lexington Institute, explains in an op-ed.
The Space Review (2/6): Eugene Cernan, the Apollo 17 commander who is often referred to as the last man on the moon, took on some of the Apollo program’s most difficult and risky assignments. “We will remember Eugene Cernan because he was, indeed, the last man on the Moon,” writes Anthony Young in an op-ed.
Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex plans expansion, new attractions
USA Today (2/5): Mars exploration will become a new theme for the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex near Titusville, Florida. A major expansion of the visitor center is planned over the next five years.
Space Science
Scientists propose first astrophysics mission to the Moon
Spaceflight Insider (2/7): University of Alabama researcher Richard Miller has proposed that NASA fund a lunar orbiting observatory equipped for long term studies of supernova. The Lunar Occultation Explorer would be launched in 2023, if NASA elects to pursue the project under its Medium-class Explorer Program.
Green comet approaches the Earth
Spaceweather.com (2/6): The small comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova should be visible from Earth using binoculars or a small telescope by February 11, the time of closest approach. Also, bright auroral activity is expected mid-week in response to new solar activity.
Jupiter snapshots show lots of spots
Geek Wire (2/6): New images from NASA’s Juno mission spacecraft at Jupiter reveal oval white spots at the large planet’s south pole. The spots are actually giant cyclones.
Brilliant fireball streaks over Milwaukee, wows skywatchers (videos)
Space.com (2/6): A bright meteor streaked across the skies north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, early February 6.
Faint, distant galaxies may have driven early universe makeover
Science News (2/6): The Hubble Space Telescope teams with gravitational lensing to observe small faint galaxies that assembled within 600 million years of the big bang. Small star systems played an important role in the electrical charge of the universe, reports a science team led by a University of Texas researcher.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
The International Space Station will get a new, private airlock in 2019
Ars Technica (2/6): Houston-based Nanoracks has reached an agreement with NASA for the installation of a cargo airlock on the U.S. segment of the International Space Station, possibly at the Tranquility module. Boeing will assemble and install a compatible berthing mechanism. The new hardware could be installed in 2019. Nanoracks expects to use the airlock to increase the numbers of small satellites it can launch from the Space Station.