In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Jacobs engineering lab in Houston serves as a valuable prototyping lab where NASA addresses the technical challenges of future human deep space exploration.
Human Space Exploration
Jacobs engineers battle extraterrestrial challenges from Houston area
Coalition Member in the News
Houston Chronicle (8/10): Jacobs, a major engineering and science support contractor to NASA’s Johnson Space Center, provides a prototyping setting to address a range of challenges that face future human deep space exploration. They range from recycling water, to 3-D printing replacement parts and evaluating the micrometeorite environment of space. Jacobs Engineering Develop Facility workers are also helping to prepare the James Webb Space Telescope for a late 2018 launching as well.
Local company creates parts for NASA’s Orion spacecraft launch
Coalition Member in the News
ABC7 Eyewitness News of Los Angeles (8/10): Nearby Amro Fabricating Co. is but one of many small companies across the U.S. manufacturing components for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, a cornerstone of plans by the U.S. to launch humans on future missions of deep space exploration.
NASA ‘Cribs’: Tour an astronaut habitat for mock space missions (video)
Space.com (8/13): The Human Exploration Research Analog at NASA’s Johnson Space Center serves as a lab for studies of human interactions during future deep space exploration missions.
Image: Liquid propellant tanks for NASA’s powerful Space Launch System rocket
Physics.org (8/10): Engineers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility prepare to test the liquid oxygen tank designed for the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System, the powerful new rocket that is to start astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration.
Space Science
Science and technology to get boost from CRS-12 mission
Spaceflight Insider (8/13): NASA’s next contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station is set to liftoff Monday at 12:31 p.m. from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Weather conditions are favorable. A successful launch would place the SpaceX resupply mission at the Space Station early Wednesday. The cargo is primarily science, including efforts to advance a cure for Parkinson’s disease, techniques for bio engineering lung tissue and evaluating a prototype low Earth orbit military small sat reconnaissance satellite.
NASA watches the Sun put a stop to its own eruption
Physics.org (8/11): A Lockheed Martin led study explains for the first time how magnetic forces interrupted a solar eruption. The findings, based on data from solar observing satellites, were published in the Astrophysical Journal.
How to help NASA collect data during the upcoming solar eclipse
Howstuffworks.com (8/11): A phone app will enable the public to help gather cloud and temperature data during the rare August 21 total eclipse of the sun, which will be visible to many, including eager citizen scientists, in the U.S.
NASA has big plans for AI on Mars and beyond
Seeker (8/11): NASA is looking to wider application of Artificial Intelligence in computing its plans for future planetary science, even human missions. Already, the agency’s Curiosity Rover, roaming Mars since 2012, relies on AI to evaluate rock forms without direct instructions from Earth.
International Lunar Observatory to offer a new astrophysical perspective
SpaceflightInsider.com (8/12): Canaveral, Florida, based Moon Express plans to deliver a global lunar observatory to a peak at the moon’s south pole in 2019. The telescope will be sponsored by the International Lunar Observatory Association.
The ISS is getting a ruggedized computer upgrade
Engadget (8/11): When SpaceX’s rocket takes off on August 14th, it will be carrying a machine that could make things a lot easier for future astronauts embarking on deep space missions. That machine is the Spaceborne Computer, a high performance commercial off-the-shelf computer system running Linux that NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) “ruggedized” for use in outer space. It will stay aboard the Space Station for a year, so the two organizations can find out whether it’s tough enough to operate seamlessly amidst the harsh conditions computers are bound to encounter on their way to Mars and farther locations.
Other News
Chinese scientists aim to launch more quantum satellites
Xinhuanet of China (8/10): The 2016 launch of China’s Micius quantum satellite may be a first. Beijing is turning to quantum physics to establish the first hack proof global communications network.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related events for the week of August 13-September 1, 2017
Spacepolicyonline.com (8/13): The next NASA contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday at 12:31 p.m., EDT. The Station rendezvous is anticipated early Wednesday. A Russian spacewalk from the Station is planned for mid-morning Thursday. A rare total solar eclipse occurs Aug. 21, with lots of science news coverage anticipated. Meanwhile, the U.S. House and Senate are in recess until after Labor Day.