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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities: NASA affirms a May 16 launch date for shuttle Endeavour, but NASA’s final shuttle mission, aboard Atlantis, slips towards mid-July. The prospects for liquid water increase throughout the solar system, raising the possibility for life. NASA’s 10-year-old Genesis mission reveals surprises about the composition of the sun and inner planets of the solar system. NASA encourages a space fuel depot demonstration mission. Commentaries on the status of commercial space transportation and the need for public-private cooperation in the future exploration of space. Orbital debris poses a rising threat. Plans for a nuclear-propelled interstellar mission. NASA looks at a new form of nuclear electric propulsion for robotic missions to a comet and Saturn’s moon, Titan.
1. From spaceflightnow.com: On Monday, NASA affirms May 16 at 8:56 a.m., EDT, as the launch date and time for shuttle Endeavour’s 16-day mission to the International Space Station with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and external spare parts. The final flight of Endeavour has been stalled since April 29 by the failure of a hydraulic system heater failure. Mission managers say they’ve completed the troubleshooting.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts134/110509status/index.html
A. From Florida Today: As Endeavour’s final flight slips, so does the last mission for Atlantis. The Atlantis launching, on what will be the final NASA shuttle flight, is headed toward mid-July. The slip will keep some shuttle workers employed a little longer.
http://space.flatoday.net/2011/05/endeavour-set-for-may-16-launch.html
2. From the New York Times: During the past two decades, the prospects for liquid water in once surprising locales throughout the solar system have increased. That, too, has raised the possibility for life in some form on distant planets and moons.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/science/space/10water.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=NASA&st=cse
3. From the Los Angeles Times: New findings from NASA’s Genesis mission are challenging assumptions about the composition of the sun and the inner planets. Genesis was launched in 2001 to gather samples of the solar wind far from the Earth. When the probe returned to Earth, it crashed into the Utah desert because of a parachute failure. Nonetheless, many of the samples survived.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-genesis-solar-wind-20110510,0,223105.story
4. From Space.com: NASA will provide $200 million for a space fuel depot demonstration. The depot would store super cold liquid hydrogen and propellants in space for transfer to human as well as robotic spacecraft on their way to the moon, an asteroid or Mars.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11608-space-gas-stations-nasa-orbital-refueling.html
5. Two from The Space Review:
A. In “Commercial Space Skepticism” TSR Editor Jeff Foust examines the current credibility of the commercial space enterprise, which seems to be on the upswing. However, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation encountered obstacles last week during a House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee hearing, when members questioned the need for a budget increase. Foust looks at the hearing statements and recent claims of progress.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1841/1
B. In “Public-private partnerships for space,” regular contributor Louis Friedman looks back at his long involvement with The Planetary Society and its successes in tapping into the public fascination with space to take exploration in new directions. The future, however, holds new challenges, among them the rising costs of energy and health care. In the past, the Cold War space race and the wave of international cooperation that followed the fall of the Soviet Union, underpinned government investment. The future will require a new paradigm, one based on public-private partnerships, Friedman writes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1840/1
6. From Space.com: The rising level of orbital debris, forecast to triple in the coming years, poses a threat to future orbital activities, warns General William Shelton, commander of the U. S. Air Force Space Command. The Pentagon now tracks 20,000 pieces of man made junk that litter Earth orbit.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11607-space-junk-rising-orbital-debris-levels-2030.html
7. From Discovery.com: A representative from a collaboration between the Tau Zero Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society explains plans for an interstellar mission, Project Icarus. The mission will require fusion propulsion.
http://news.discovery.com/space/project-icarus-secondary-propulsion-overview-110509.html
A. From Spaceflightnow.com: Two of three proposed robotic planetary missions that NASA is considering within the next few years would use a new type of nuclear power generator, the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator, for a more efficient form of nuclear electric propulsion. The proposed missions would visit comet Wirtanen and Saturn’s moon Titan.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1105/09asrg/
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