In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) will continue to evolve and return to benefits to the American taxpayer. Cancelling WFIRST, an astrophysics priority, as proposed in NASA’s 2019 budget, will have negative impacts on science and raise concerns about the Congressionally-supported science decadal process that establishes space science priorities through the National Academies. ULA’s Vulcan rocket will incorporate novel reuse technologies. Canada’s space program could see a larger budget.
Human Space Exploration
How SpaceX and NASA’s rockets compare
The Hill (2/21): By looking at the numbers and requirements, NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) stacks up impressively against SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, when it comes to supporting future human deep space exploration and other missions. Discoveries made with the SLS will belong to the American taxpayer not a single private company, notes Jeff Bingham, a former Congressional staffer and space policy analyst, in an op-ed.
On second thought, the moon’s water may be widespread and immobile
NASA/Goddard (2/23): Water on the moon, a potential resource for human explorers, may be dispersed across the lunar terrain, though chemically bound, rather than collected as ice in crater recesses at the north and south pole. The data, published in Nature Geoscience, was gathered by U.S. and Indian lunar missions. Lunar water could be processed by settlers for drinking, oxygen for breathing and liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuels.
Space Science
Canceling NASA’s high-priority missions: Bad policy, bad precedent, bad for science
Scientific American (2/21): Two former NASA chief scientists questions plans outlined in NASA’s 2019 budget proposal to cancel the Wide-field Infrared Space Telescope, WFIRST, a dark energy observatory considered a top astrophysics priority by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, and other science missions. “These cancellations could potentially damage our ability to understand our own planet and the universe that surrounds us,” write Ellen Stofan and Waleed Abdalati. They note that advice provided by the congressionally established National Academies helps to ensure that NASA pursues the most significant science goals.
NASA Mars exploration efforts turn to operating existing missions and planning sample return
Space News (2/23): In May, NASA is to launch Mars Insight, a lander designed to assess the red planet’s interior. The Mars 2020 Rover will, like its predecessors, explore the terrain. But unlike any other Mars mission, 2020 is to collect and cache samples of the Martian soil for eventual return to Earth. NASA’s proposed 2019 budget for Mars, $601.5 million and down from the previous $647 million, includes money to develop the technologies needed to retrieve and deliver the samples to Earth.
Juno in good health; decision point nears on mission’s end or extension
NASAspaceflight.com (2/23): On Independence Day, July 4, NASA’s Juno mission will mark two years in orbit around giant Jupiter. However, subsequent plans to trim the orbit from a 53 to a 14 day period were fouled by a pair of sluggish helium check valves. Nonetheless, Juno is close to meeting its minimum science goals and in good shape. A mission extension is possible, if the funding is available.
Other News
SpaceX’s biggest rival has a ‘genius’ plan to cut its rocket launch costs more than 70%
Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Lockheed Martin, United Launch Alliance
Business Insider (2/24): The Boeing/Lockheed Martin joint venture United Launch Alliance (ULA) plans novel reuse technologies as it introduces the Vulcan rocket, starting in 2020. Those include a refuelable upper stage that could remain in orbit for months to take other payloads launched from Earth even deeper into space. The main engines of the first stage will detach, deploy an aeroshell and parachute to descend post-launch. The parachute can be secured by helicopter for return and reuse of the main engines.
Investigators say erroneous navigation input led Ariane 5 rocket off course
Spaceflightnow.com (2/23) Erroneous coordinate programming was responsible for the course deviation experienced by an Ariane 5 rocket launched from French Guiana on January 25. The error has required the two commercial communications satellite payloads, SES-14 and Al Yah-3, to take longer than intended to reach geosynchronous orbit. SES-14 is also carrying NASA’s first ride-share payload, an instrument called GOLD and intended to study interactions between the solar wind and the Earth’s thermosphere.
Canadian space program scientists hoping for lift off in federal budget
Canadian Press (2/24): Canada’s space R&D community is optimistic about a national budget set to be unveiled on Tuesday. “We do need to see a reinvestment in the Canadian space program,” said Gordon Osinski, director of Canada’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration and a member of the federal government’s space advisory board. His remarks accompany a rise in Canada’s spending on space since August.
New estimates for Tiangong-1 atmospheric reentry suggest late March-early April
GB Times of Finland (2/23): New analysis by U.S. and European experts suggests that China’s Tiangong-1 space lab will make an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere between March 24 and April 19. Launched in 2011, the lab hosted two Chinese astronaut crews in 2012-13 to test technologies for the new space station China is preparing to launch in the early 2020s. Tiangong-1’s orbit takes the 8 1/2 ton spacecraft as far north as Chicago and as far south as southern Argentina and Chile.
Russia’s Vostochny Cosmodrome bosses jailed for mass corruption
Moscow Times of Russia (2/26): Prison sentences have been announced in response to a fraud investigation into construction of the $5 billion Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia’s Far East. The construction has been successful in providing Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, with an independent launch complex. Prosecutors placed losses from embezzlement at $126 million. Four have been sentenced to prison terms.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of February 26 to March 3, 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/25): The 45th Space Congress meets in Cape Canaveral, Florida, starting Monday to discuss “The Next Great Steps.” A NASA Deep Space Gateway (DSG) Science Workshop is slated for Denver. Three U.S. and Russian astronauts are to depart the International Space Station in their Soyuz MS-06 late Tuesday for a landing in Kazakhstan. The NASA/GOES-S advanced geostationary weather satellite is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral on Thursday at 5:02 p.m., EST.