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Thursday’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from around the world. Representatives from NASA, Russia and the European Space Agency meet next week in a bid to overcome financial obstacles confronting a series of Mars mission. Updates on the latest U. S. and Russian Mars missions. NASA spacecraft find the water table in drought ravaged Texas falling. Scientists find justification in speculating the minor planet Pluto harbors an ice covered ocean. NASA purchases another in a series of communications satellites crucial to science missions. A spacecraft check list from the Apollo 13 mission sells for big bucks. A look at the Federal Aviation Administration’s role in regulating and nurturing the emerging commercial space transportation business.
1. From Spaceflightnow.com: Representatives from NASA, Russia and the European Space Agency will meet in Paris next week to discuss a cooperative strategy on future Mars missions. Russia entered the picture after NASA informed ESA earlier this year it could not finance the launching of a 2016 joint mission. The talks could further efforts to determine whether Mars hosts some form of life or once did. http://bit.ly/u5zjFI
A. From Space.com: NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission, launched last Saturday, deals with a planetary protection issue. The matter involves the sterilization of drill bits on the Curiosity rover used for the examination of Martian rocks. Planetary protection procedures are meant to reduce the possibility that organic matter from Earth contaminates Martian soil and rock samples. http://bit.ly/vX4sxD
B. From Spaceflightnow.com: Efforts earlier this week to raise the altitude of Russia’s soil sample return mission to the Martian moon Phobos fail. Russian statements on the status of the mission diminish. The probe has been stranded in Earth orbit since its launching on Nov. 8. http://bit.ly/tx1jq5
2. From the Associated Press via the Washington Post: A NASA satellite finds the underground water table in Texas falling in response to a long drought. The water table could take months to years to re-charge, say experts. NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or GRACE spacecraft, measures changing gravity levels based on variations in the water table. http://wapo.st/sOa6uJ
3. From Discovery.com: Scientists find a basis for speculating on the prospect of an ice covered ocean on distant Pluto based on recent discoveries involving the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. http://bit.ly/ub2srU
4. From Space News: NASA opts for the purchase of an additional Tracking and Data Relay communications satellite from the Boeing Co. The satellites serve as a primary communications link for the International Space Station and science spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope. http://bit.ly/ve5XAV
5. From the Huntsville Times: A spacecraft checklist from NASA’s Apollo 13 mission of 1970 brings nearly $400,000 at auction. http://bit.ly/uQWBEh
6. From Space.com: A look at the Federal Aviation Administration’s role in the regulation and nurturing of commercial space flight. There is risk, the FAA’s top space official acknowledges. http://bit.ly/tbX8Rd
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