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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting on NASA-led efforts to repair the cooling system aboard the International Space Station and new commentary on the future of human space exploration. Though planning still faces formal approval from NASA mission managers, astronauts could walk outside the station two more times in the next week in a bid to overcome a cooling system problem. And Congress may be in recess, but that has not slowed the debate over NASA’s future and a White House inspired commercial space initiative.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: The International Space Station’s mission management team will consider a new repair strategy for an external cooling loop. The new plan involves spacewalks on Wednesday and Sunday by Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson. The two astronauts encountered problems during spacewalking repairs on Saturday, when ammonia leaked from a quick disconnect fitting they were separating to removed a failed pump motor.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/station/exp24/100809replan/index.html
A. From the AP via the Washington Post: The cooling system problem is one of the most serious issues faced by the orbiting science laboratory since assembly began in 1998.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/09/AR2010080903701.html
2. From The Space Review and Space News: Experts ponder the future of human exploration, public interest in space exploration, promising new space technologies as well as the White House commercial space initiative in a fresh collection of space policy commentaries.
A. In “Griffin’s Critique of NASA’s New Direction,” Space Review Editor Jeff Foust writes that Mike Griffin, who championed the Constellation Program as the NASA administrator for the previous administration, has not followed the tradition of his predecessors, which was to hold his public comment on what transpired after his departure. Griffin has been outspoken in his criticism of the Obama Administration’s plans, most recently at an annual conference of the Mars Society in Dayton, Ohio.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1678/1
B. In “Public Interest in Space, by the Numbers,” Drew Hagquist, a Minneapolis lawyer and CPA who consults for start up companies, examines the public enthusiasm issue nation by nation for The Space Review. He looks at several criteria, government spending, percentage of GDP invested in space, and per capita spending on space. The answer of which countries are most supportive is not so clear, but Hagquist makes a case for India. http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1676/1
C. In “A milestone for solar sailing,” Kieran Carroll, a Canadian space engineer, examines the building interest and capabilities of a technology that relies on light energy to push a spacecraft. Writing for The Space Review, Carroll sees a critical milestone for the technology that was featured at a recent New York symposium. Japan is taking a lead.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1677/1
D. In a commentary for Space News entitled “Time to Reload in the Battle for the Frontier,” Rick Tumlinson, co founder of the Space Frontier Foundation, urges new support for the commercial space initiative unveiled by the Obama White House in February. He sees a lull in Congressional deliberations that could be used by opponents to stall the initiative.
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/100809-time-reload-battle-frontier.html
3. From Space.com: NASA is mounting a campaign that features use of the Global Hawk drone and other aircraft to examine the relationship between lightning and hurricanes. Are the discharges a sign of strengthening or weakening in tropical cyclones?
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/scienceastronomy/nasa-grip-lightning-100805.html
4. From Florida Today: Robonaut 2, or R2, a creation of engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, arrives at the Kennedy Space Center by truck on Monday. R2 will join the crew of NASA’s November shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Aboard the ISS, R2 will advance the working relationship between humans and robots inside and perhaps outside the space station.
http://space.flatoday.net/2010/08/robonaut-2-arrives-at-ksc-ahead-of.html
5. From Space.com: NASA cameras capture a fireball from the annual Perseid meteor shower, which is peaking this week.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/spacewatch/perseid-meteor-shower-bright-fireball-100809.html
6. The St. Petersburg Times of Florida examines the challenges of human missions to an asteroid, one of the long term exploration goals established by President Obama earlier this year. http://www.tampabay.com/news/science/space/article1114008.ece
7. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s Cassini mission to Saturn is likely to be extended until 2017, long enough for scientists to study the planet’s northern hemisphere from summer through winter.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1008/09saturn/
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