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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The Planetary Society outlines the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s post International Space Station Mars strategy. NASA disputes a news report that the agency is looking internally at a lunar return to extract resources as part of a Mars exploration strategy. An op-ed suggests the moon should be the next destination for U.S. astronauts, not an asteroid. Three-D Manufacturing is becoming an important contributor to future human space exploration and settlement of space. Yuri’s Night, an annual celebration of human space flight, is coming Saturday. Europe’s Rosetta probe gets a little too close to its comet companion. Streaks on the Martian terrain may have a water origin. NASA’s Opportunity rover reaches a new Martian vista. Scientists find a basis for the formation of life related molecular structures in deep space. Photos from Saturday’s brief lunar eclipse. The Story Time from Space organization raises money for science education. California legislators discuss a statute tribute for Sally Ride in Washington D.C. The European Space Agency and its prime contractor differ on cost responsibilities for Ariane 6. A high ranking Russian official ends a strike among construction workers at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Major space policy events planned for the week ahead
Human Deep Space Exploration
JPL study proposes low-cost human Mars missions in the 2030s
Space News (4/3): Internal studies led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggest U.S. explorers could reach Mars without a significant budget increase, according to a recent invitation only Washington workshop organized by the Planetary Society. The closed door presentation included a range of aerospace and planetary science experts. Afterwards, the organizers offered a broad public outline for a strategy to reach Mars orbit with humans in 2033 and the planet’s surface in 2039. The U.S. would have to end its participation in the International Space Station in 2024, however, to pay for the advances without a major budget impact.
NASA disputes Chronicle report that NASA is reassessing lunar surface plans
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/5): The Washington website reports NASA officials dispute a news report that states the space agency is re-evaluating the moon as a staging point for the agency’s future human Mars exploration plans. The report from the Houston Chronicle points to ice at the lunar poles as a resource for rocket fuels that would lower the mass that must be launched from Earth to reach Mars. The lunar terrain would also serve as a test bed for Martian habitats and rovers, according to the report. Includes a link to the April 3 Chronicle report.
We were supposed to be on Mars by now! Why aren’t we?
Huffington Post (3/30): Mars has become a consensus bottoms up rather than a top down destination for future human exploration, writes Chris Carberry, CEO, and Rich Zucker, director of political outreach, for Explore Mars, Inc., The organization will host a Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, starting May. 5.
Opinion: Asteroid Redirect Mission option “B” as in boondoggle
Spaceflight Insider (4/5): An op-ed rejects NASA’s recent Asteroid Redirect Mission refinement. Instead, the essay favors a human return to the moon as an intermediate step in the human exploration of Mars. The proposed Option B would robotically gather a boulder from the surface of a large asteroid and maneuver it into orbit around the moon, where U.S. astronauts could rendezvous with the big rock in the mid-2020s.
Space News (3/30): 3-D manufacturing in orbit, demonstrated aboard the International Space Station in late 2014, has opened an important door in the future settlement of space, writes Jason Dunn, co-founder of Made In Space, in an op ed. Made in Space provided the hardware and technology for the first demonstration of 3-D printing off the Earth.
‘Yuri’s Night’ celebrates manned spaceflight
Florida Today (4/4): Coming April 11: The annual Yuri’s Night event marks the 54th anniversary of the launching of the first human into space, Yuri Gagarin, on April 11, 1961. The cosmonaut’s single orbit of the Earth would start NASA on a series of human lunar expeditions. April 11, 1981 also marks the launch date for the first U.S. space shuttle mission.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Rosetta gets confused by rough comet ‘weather’
Discovery.com (4/3): The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission spacecraft was repositioned after a close approach that appears to have been “too close” to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Mar. 28. Rosetta, which rendezvoused with 67P last August, is following the comet around the sun, a space first. Rosetta was bombarded by comet debris, forcing the spacecraft into a temporary safe mode. Recovery followed Mar. 29-30.
Amateur astronomers get chance to support Rosetta mission
SEN (4/4): Amateur astronomers could play a key role in the observation of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft rendezvoused with 67P last August to follow it around the sun with close up observations. Amateurs could provide a distant view as 67P warms to form a brighter coma and tail.
Mars mystery: Does flowing water cause Red Planet’s dark streaks?
Space.com (4/3): Scientists puzzle over two kinds of Martian surface features. Recurring slope linae, or RSLs, spotted across the low and mid latitudes of the planet, appear to be made by water flows during warmer periods. The source of the water remains a mystery. But some research points to aquifers as a possibility. Slope streaks, a similar feature, may be created by dust avalanches. RSLs may host current life on Mars.
Opportunity arrives at alien gateway to clay minerals at Spirit of St. Louis Crater
America Space (4/3): NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity arrives at Spirit of St. Louis Crater and Marathon Valley on Mars. As part of its larger Endeavour crater investigations, Opportunity is exploring both features. They offer a chance for the 11-year-old rover to explore minerals apparently formed with the planet was warmer and wet.
Launch of BepiColombo mission to Mercury slips to 2017
Spaceflightnow.com (4/5): The joint European and Japanese mission to Mercury is delayed from 2016 by the late delivery of science instruments.
New York Times (4/5): Scientists gather increasing evidence that the seeds for life on Earth formed in interstellar space as well as the hearts of the oldest stars.
Total lunar eclipse photos for April 4, 2015
Space.com (4/5): The website presents photos from Saturday’s brief total lunar eclipse.
Low Earth Orbit
‘Story Time from Space’ raising funds to put kids’ science in orbit
Space.com (4/2): Story Time from Space, a small group of educators and their supporters, has several books on board the International Space Station, with titles like Max Goes to the Moon and Mousetronaut Goes to Mars that astronauts are reading aloud on video tape. Educator Patricia Tribe would like to add science experiments to the project to help make science in schools more engaging. The group is raising money through Indiegogo to fund the educational initiative.
California seeks to make way for statue of Sally Ride in U.S. Capitol
New York Times (4/5): California’s state legislators discuss a statute of the late NASA astronaut, scientist and educator Sally Ride at the National Statutory Hall Collection in Washington D.C.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
ESA, industry at odds over Ariane 6 funding responsibilities
Space News (4/3): The European Space Agency and its prime contractor for the new Ariane 6, Airbus Safran Launchers, face differences over who pays for what. The near $4 billion development is to lead to an inaugural launching in 2020.
Russia’s deputy PM puts end to strike at Far East spaceport over unpaid wages
TASS, of Russia (4/6): Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin ends a strike among construction workers over unpaid wages at Russia’s beleaguered Vostochny Cosmodrome work site.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of April 6-10, 2015
Spacepolicyonline.com (4/5): Several NASA Advisory Council sessions are planned this week in Washington. Meanwhile, the U.S. House and Senate are in recess.
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