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Friday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space-related activities. On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover digests its first soil sample, following a delay to assess some bright objects in the reddish dirt. Orbital Sciences Corp. looks to next spring for its first cargo delivery to the International Space Station. A NASA astronaut medication for motion sickness is finding wider application as a nasal spray. Concerns over global warming rise in the U. S. Commercial space enterprises cross a key threshold this year. More than a blue-green orb.
1. From Space.com: On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover digests its first sample of Martian soil. The small concentration is funneled to the rover’s Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument. The operation was delayed for a bit, while scientists discussed the identity of some strange bright objects close to the rover. The material may be man made and from Curiosity’s sky crane descent stage.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/18122-mars-rover-curiosity-swallows-soil-sample.html
A. From The Los Angeles Times: One passionate scientists envisions equipping a future Mars robotic mission with a DNA sequencer, something that would check the red planet for biological activity and beam the results back to Earth.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sn-looking-for-dna-on-mars-20121018,0,2801874.story
2. From Space News: Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA’s second commercial re-supply provider for the International Space Station, looks to March or April for its initial demonstration flight to the orbiting science lab. A pair of major test activities with Orbital’s Antares launcher/Cygnus capsule must go well first. SpaceX, the first provider, blazed the trail with a May mission. A SpaceX Dragon supply ship is currently docked to the station as well, marking the initiation of SpaceX’s commercial resupply services contract agreement with NASA.
http://www.spacenews.com/launch/121018-cygnus-debut-pushed.html
3. From The Houston Chronicle: A medication long used to help astronauts deal with motion sickness, scopolamine, is close to making its way to the public through a nasal spray. Clinical trials are in the works. The spray could alleviate the unpleasant side effects of some cancer treatments as well.
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Space-drug-could-help-alleviate-nausea-on-Earth-3961979.php
4. From The Los Angeles Times: Yale study reveals growing concern among Americans over global warming. The worries could be linked to economic difficulties.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-climate-change-poll-20121018,0,5956821.story
5. From Space.com: Those attending the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, N.M., this week, are finding their enterprise at a significant turning point. SpaceX’s successful commercial cargo delivery mission to the International Space Station signaled the change, say those gathered for the eighth annual conference.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/18127-private-spaceflight-turning-point.html
A. From The Las Cruces Sun-News: New Mexico, an emerging haven for personal spaceflight, should protect commercial space passenger companies with liability protection, Wayne Hale, NASA’s former space shuttle program manager, tells participants at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. Texas, California and Virginia are among states that have enacted informed consent legislation.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/dona_ana_news/ci_21787383/nm-laws-could-hamper-spaceport-wayne-hale-states
6. From The Coalition for Space Exploration: Some creative efforts by astronomers improve observations of the distant planet Uranus, revealing it to be more than a blue-green orb.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/blog/new-telescope-time-with-the-planet-uranus
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