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Monday’s CSExtra includes reporting and commentary on activities shaping the future of space exploration. This edition includes a look back at the weekend as well as a glance ahead. The U.S. may be much closer to achieving a commercial space transportation system than assumed by many. A lame duck Congress convenes in Washington this week, with NASA budget matters among the unfinished business. Scientists involved in measuring changes in the glacial ice sheets of Antarctic and Greenland grow concerned over a lack of satellite observation. Proposals for one-way trips to Mars cause a stir. The body of 16th century astronomer Tyco Brahe is exhumed to solve a mystery.
1. From Florida Today, Nov. 14: In a special report, Space Inc., Florida Today presents an assessment of the commercial space industry, from Boeing to Bigelow Aerospace, from Los Angeles to Cape Canaveral. “Our four-month analysis found that U.S. private industry is more than capable of developing spacecraft to fly U.S. astronauts to and from low Earth orbit. What’s more, U.S. aerospace companies already are developing, testing and launching prototypes. Their plans are not just PowerPoint presentations and engineering drawings. Commercial companies are cutting metal, assembling engines, testing steering thrusters, and in some cases, spacecraft already are orbiting the Earth,” the newspaper reports.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101114/NEWS02/11140318/Space-Inc-moving-closer-to-launch
A. From Florida Today: An editorial accompanies Florida Today’s special report on the promise of commercial space. Congress needs to recognize and support NASA’s new direction and emphasis on commercial space development, the newspaper writes.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20101114/OPINION/101112017/1007/Our-views-Closer-to-reality-Nov-14–
2. From Spacepolitics.com, Nov. 13: Congress returns to Washington this week, with many of its members defeated in elections earlier in November. Some are pledging to make NASA a priority before a final adjournment. Yet to be passed and sent on to the president is a NASA appropriations bill for the 2011 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1. Until passage of a budget, NASA and other agencies are operating under a continuing resolution that restricts spending and program emphasis at 2011 levels and commitments.
http://www.spacepolitics.com/2010/11/13/congress-returns-and-more/
A. From the Houston Chronicle, Nov. 14: Expect lots of rhetoric but little action as Congress returns to Washington this week for a lame duck session. NASA’s desire for an additional shuttle mission in mid-2011 using Atlantis could require a controversial cut in the agency’s Earth sciences budget, according to the Chronicle.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7294842.html
B. From SpaceNews.com, Nov. 12: Last week, NASA revealed $1.5 billion in new cost growth for the James Webb Space Telescope, the designated successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science, and others in the astrophysics community warn the cost growth endangers other high priority NASA projects in their field.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/101112-jwst-cost-imperils-priority-projects.html
C. From Spacepolicyonline.com, Nov. 14: A look at events this week with an influence on space policy. They include a Senate hearing on Thursday in which lawmakers will examine the status of NASA’s 2011 Authorization bill, which was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama before the Nov. 2 congressional elections.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1218:events-of-interest-week-of-november-15-19-2010&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
3. From the New York Times, Nov. 13: Scientists are measuring worrisome amounts of glacier melt in Greenland and Antarctica. But their efforts to assess the rise in sea level pales in comparison to the scope of the task. Meanwhile, satellites like NASA’s ICEsat, which expired in August, await replacements in a dire budget environment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/science/earth/14ice.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=NASA&st=cse&scp=2
4. From Spacefightnow.com, Nov. 12: At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, engineers find a third stringer crack on the external fuel tank assigned to the shuttle Discovery. Discovery’s final mission was postponed on Nov. 5 when a hydrogen leak developed on a fuel tank vent line fixture. Technicians also discovered a 20-inch crack in the tank’s insulating foam. A check under that foam produced two 9-inch cracks in the metal stringer section of the tank earlier in the week. The latest crack measures three inches. Managers are formulating a launch pad repair strategy. Discovery’s next launch window opens Nov. 30 and extends through Dec. 6. http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/101112crack/
5. From Spaceflightnow.com, Nov. 14: A Russian Proton provides a commercial launch for Sky Terra 1, the first satellite for a Virginia company, Light Squared. The company is developing a Fourth Generation wireless network.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/proton/skyterra1/launch/
6. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and others, Nov. 15: Scientists from the University of Washington and Arizona State make the case for a one-way trip to Mars by humans who are prepared to begin colonization. The two scientists are among contributors to a special section on the exploration of Mars that appears in the Journal of Cosmology.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/15/AR2010111500355.html
A. From Discovery.com, Nov. 12: Scientists and engineers evaluate an unmanned Martian airplane, the Aerial Regional-scale Environmental Surveyor. This drone would fly over the Martian terrain searching for sources of methane gas in the atmosphere. The origin of methane may be biological.
http://news.discovery.com/space/ares-mars-airplane-hunt-life.html
7. From the Los Angeles Times, Nov. 14: Teens compete for scholarships to the California Institute of Technology by doing some graduate student level research. The competitors include a 17-year-old who used a NASA space telescope to measure neon and sulfur creation in a distant star forming region.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-science-kids-20101114,0,3971188.story
8. From the Houston Chronicle, Nov. 12: In an editorial, the newspaper supports an expanding effort by the Obama Administration to identify asteroids that pose a collision hazard to the Earth and strategies to deflect them.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/7292307.html
9. From the Associated Press via the Orlando Sentinel and others, Nov. 15: In Prague, scientists unearth the remains of the 16th Century astronomer Tycho Brahe. Brahe died suddenly in 1601 after disagreements with the Danish king. Brahe’s observations and calculations set a foundation for modern astronomy. He may have been poisoned.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/sns-ap-eu-czech-danish-astronomer,0,1491703.story
10. From Space.com, Nov. 13: NASA Chief Astronaut Peggy Whitson discusses life on the International Space Station. Her reflections help to mark the 10th anniversary of a continuous human presence on the orbital outpost earlier this month. Whitson, who spent two long stints on the station, see progress in mitigating the bone loss that astronauts experience in weightlessness and organizing time for scientific research.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/news/iss-anniversary-peggy-whitson-astronaut-101112.html
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