In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Deep Space Gateway (DSG) could unite global government and industry on a course to the moon and beyond.
Human Space Exploration
The Deep Space Gateway (DSG) as a cislunar port
Coalition Member in the News (Astrobiotic Technology, Inc.)
Space News (10/31): NASA’s proposed Deep Space Gateway (DSG), a lunar orbiting habitat, is emerging at just the right time, to unite commercial as well as international interest in the moon as a destination with in situ resources to help foster future human deep space exploration, writes Astrobiotic Technology, Inc. CEO John Thornton in an op-ed.
NASA Orion mission to Mars: ‘We can go today,’ astronaut tells UTC Aerospace Systems
Coalition Member in the News (Lockheed Martin)
Mass Live (10/31): Former NASA astronaut and shuttle veteran Tony Antonelli, now with Lockheed Martin, NASA’s prime contractor for the Orion crew capsule, spoke Tuesday with news media gathered at the UTC Aerospace plant in Windsor Locks, Conn., where components for the spacecraft designed to help resume missions of human deep space exploration are made. “We can go today,” said Antonelli of Mars. “We just have to leverage the technology and tools we already have.”
Senate Commerce Committee touts bipartisan and community support for Bridenstine
Spacepolicyonline.com (10/31): The U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will host a hearing on Wednesday at 10 a.m., EDT, on President Trump’s nomination of Jim Bridenstine, the Oklahoma congressman and former Naval aviator, to serve as NASA’s next Administrator.
Space Science
NASA looking for private organizations to take over Spitzer mission
Space News (10/31): NASA is seeking a private operator for its Spitzer Space Infrared Telescope Facility, which was launched in 2003 as the last in the agency’s Great Observatory series. The transition to private operations would occur when funding ends in 2019. Responses to an October 12 RFI are due by November 17.
Curiosity tests workaround for its balky drill
Sky and Telescope (10/31): A replica of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Mars Curiosity rover left on Earth is helping engineers overcome a problem with a drilling mechanism that surfaced late last year. Drill samples of Martian rock are revealing what past environmental conditions on Mars were like. Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on Mars in 2012 and soon found evidence for past habitable environments.
Dinosaur-killing asteroid impact may have cooled Earth’s climate more than previously thought
American Geophysical Union (10/31): A new study re-evaluates the long term climate impact of the Chixulube asteroid impact an estimated 66 million years ago on the Gulf of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The blow is credited with wiping out the dinosaurs and more. The Earth may have cooled in the aftermath much more than previously thought, according to research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Monster planet, tiny star: Record-breaking duo puzzles astronomers
Space.com (10/31): Astronomers are puzzled over a first ever discovery, a Jupiter-sized gas giant planet orbiting close to a small red dwarf star about 600 light years from Earth. How common is the pairing through the Milky Way and beyond?
Other News
Ten commercial Earth-observing satellites launched aboard Minotaur-C rocket
Coalition Member in the News (Orbital ATK)
Spaceflightnow.com (10/31): Orbital ATK’s Minotaur C rocket premiered Tuesday afternoon, lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, to deploy 10 Earth imaging small satellites from two companies. It marked the first launch for a member of Orbital’s solid fuel Minotaur rocket family in six years.