In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Talk of future human deep space exploration turned to the moon in 2017 as a step on the road to Mars. The existence of dark matter is questioned. Congress avoids a U.S. government shutdown.
Human Space Exploration
The moon shines brightly among NASA’s 2017 highlights
NASA (12/7): With the end of 2017 near, NASA is taking special note of the moon. This year, the Trump Administration declared its support for a human return to the lunar surface. On August 21, a total solar eclipse featured the moon moving across the solar disk, attracting enough attention to make it NASA’s biggest online event ever. Agency experts are responding to a National Space Council directive to assemble a strategy to resume human deep space exploration with the lunar environs serving as the next step.
Boeing’s Dennis Muilenburg says he’ll beat SpaceX to Mars; Elon Musk says ‘Do it’
Coalition Member in the News – Boeing
GeekWire.com (12/7): In an interview with CNBC, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg hints at a domestic space race to the red planet between his company, NASA’s prime contractor for the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage, and SpaceX, whose founder and CEO Elon Musk is known to make bold claims. “Eventually, we’re going to go to Mars, and I firmly believe the first person that sets foot on Mars will get there on a Boeing rocket,” Muilenburg told the business news outlet.
Space Science
New Russian lunar orbiter contracted to be built
SpaceflightInsider.com (12/6): A reported contract between the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos and the aerospace company NPO Lavochkin suggests Moscow intends to resume lunar missions with the Luna-Glob lunar orbiter. Moscow already plans to return to the moon’s south pole with a lander in 2019. More Russian robotic missions are planned, including a lunar sample return.
PTScientists ‘Mission to the moon’ to take care not to harm Apollo 17 landing site
Collectspace.com (12/7): The German company PTScientists is making plans to reach the moon with robotic rovers, touching down near the Apollo 17 landing site. Apollo 17 marked NASA’s final human lunar landing. PTScientists has pledged not to disrupt the historic site in an agreement announced Thursday with For All Mankind, a preservation group. Thursday marked the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission launch.
Does dark matter exist? Bold new study offers alternative model
Space.com (12/7): A Swiss researcher is proposing that perhaps dark matter, theorized to comprise as much as 80 percent of the matter in the universe, does not exist after all. Astrophysicist Vera Rubin proposed dark matter’s existence in 1978 to explain the angular momentum observed in the motion of galaxies.
The exo-planet most likely to support alien life might not be habitable after all
Seeker.com (12/7): Perhaps the potential for the presence of liquid water on rocky, Earth-like planets beyond the solar system is not the only factor that might make those distant worlds habitable, according to a pair of studies published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The behavior of the host star itself — perhaps a solar wind with destructive qualities — would be a significant factor. That may be the case with Proxima Centauri b, discovered in 2016 and four light years from the Earth and orbiting its star in the habitable zone.
The oldest, most distant supermassive black hole ever seen has been discovered by scientists
USA Today (12/6): Astronomers point to the discovery of the oldest and largest super massive black hole. The object is 800 million times the mass of the sun. The massive object appears to have formed less than 700 million years after the big bang.
How seconds of staring at the solar eclipse led to a world of hurt for one woman
GeekWire.com (12/7): An eye injury suffered by a young woman during the widely publicized August 21 solar eclipse serves as strong evidence for heeding the warning that observers should not stare directly at the sun during such solar events. The circumstances of the unidentified woman’s injury were reported in the by the Journal of the American Medical Association Ophthalmology.
Other News
Government shutdown averted — for two weeks anyway
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/7): Still unable to reach an agreement on a U.S. government budget for the 2018 fiscal year, the House and Senate have agreed to prevent a government shutdown by extending the current budget Continuing Resolution from December 8 to December 22. Currently, a further extension is anticipated until lawmakers can resume their deliberations on spending next year.
FAA offers National Space Council ideas for launch licensing reforms
Space News (12/7): The FAA has presented the recently re-established White House National Space Council with a strategy for streamlining the licensing of U.S. commercial space launch activity. George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, mentioned the action during a panel discussion on commercial space policy this week in Houston at the third annual Space Commerce Conference and Explosion. Vice President Mike Pence, the council’s chairman, asked for an assessment of U.S. commercial space policy streamlining within 45 days at the conclusion of the panel’s first session on October 5.