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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA is working toward a late March decision on the direction of the proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission: Option A, capture a small asteroid and maneuver it into lunar orbit; or Option B, pluck a boulder from a large asteroid. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness, calls on NASA to make space exploration and establishing a commercial means of transporting astronauts to Earth orbit top priorities. Bigelow Aerospace readies a key human space exploration technology, an inflatable module, for launch to the International Space Station in September. It’s time to expand the national conversation on human space exploration to development and settlement, according to an op-ed. Russia backs off the development of a rival to NASA’s Space Launch System. NASA’s Morpheus planetary lander prototype scores high in internal review. On Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover resumes its journey up Mount Sharp. Of late, evidence for lots of water on the moons of the outer planets accelerates. The European Space Agency listens for a response from the Philae lander. Is NASA’s Opportunity rover at the end of the line? Japan prepares for a joint mission to Mercury with Europe. A solar eclipse is coming Mar. 20. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly talks yearlong mission. A look at major space related activities scheduled for the week ahead.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA Langley awaits decision on Asteroid Redirect Mission
Daily Press, of Virginia (3/14): NASA executives looks to a late March decision on whether the proposed Asteroid Retrieval Mission will capture a small asteroid or a boulder from a larger asteroid. The decision, originally expected in December, could be postponed again. Either option is intended to prepare NASA for future human missions to Mars by placing the asteroid, or boulder, in orbit around the moon, where it could be reached by NASA astronauts.
It’s time to refocus NASA’s energies
Houston Chronicle (3/14): In an op-ed, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science, and Competitiveness, calls for an increased focus on space exploration, including support for development of NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket and Orion crew exploration vehicle. Both are cornerstones of current U.S. efforts to resume human deep space exploration.
Battle brewing over NASA funding
The Hill (3/15): NASA’s Earth Science programs are receiving a disproportionate share of NASA’s budget, according to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Space, Science and Competitiveness. Cruz intends to reflect his position, one that has already spurred disagreement, in a new authorization NASA measure. “Earth science directly relates to everything that we’re doing in exploration,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, of Florida.
One giant leap for…private, inflatable space housing
CNBC (3/13): Bigelow Aerospace founder Robert Bigelow is ready to demonstrate his company’s Bigelow Expandable Activity Module with a two year trial on the International Space Station. The inflatable module is being prepped for delivery to the station in September aboard a commercial re-supply mission. The module represents a technology that could be used on future human deep space missions. Aboard the station, it will be monitored for structural stresses and tolerance to radiation.
Op-ed | We need to expand the conversation about space
Space News (3/13): In an op-ed, Aaron Oesterle, Space Frontier Foundation space policy director, calls for a new discussion about space exploration, one that talks of space development and settling the space frontier. “People must be able to have access to space, and they must be able to get some sort of fundamental human value from space (again, things like a job and security),” he writes.
Russia puts off super-rocket, focuses on Angara upgrades
Sen (3/13): Budget pressures prompt Russia to drop plans for a super rocket comparable to NASA’s Space Launch System. As an alternative, Russia plans to upgrade its new but smaller Angara 5 rocket. The Russian space agency’s Scientific and Technical Council rendered the decision last week, a response in part to falling oil prices and Western sanctions, according to the report.
NASA dreams of future Morpheus project templates
NASAspaceflight.com (3/14): NASA’s efforts to develop a prototype for a future planetary lander score high in an internal review. The lander, assembled at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, flew at the Kennedy Space Center as well as Johnson between 2010 and 2014 and served as a “lean development” effort for a spacecraft that could place substantial payloads on the surface of a planetary body — like those needed to support human exploration.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Update: Curiosity uses arm and resumes journey up Mount Sharp
Spaceflight Insider (3/14): After overcoming a transient electrical short in a rock drilling device in late February, NASA’s Curiosity rover is on the move again on the red planet, rolling toward higher terrain on Mount Sharp.
The hunt for extraterrestrial liquid water intensifies
Discovery.com (3/13): Just last week, scientists offered new evidence for lots of water on the Jovian moon Ganymede and Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The findings follow recent evidence for an ancient ocean on Mars and simmering interest in a subsurface ocean on Europa, another moon of Jupiter’s.
Rosetta begins listening for signs of life from comet lander
Spaceflightnow.com (3/13): It may take a while, but European Space Agency engineers are hopeful of re-contacting the Philae lander on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Philae’s last contact was mid-November after the spacecraft settled to the comet’s surface. The current communications window that opened last week closes Mar. 20. There will be future opportunities, however, as the comet makes its closest approach to the sun on Aug. 13.
Is the Opportunity rover a mission ‘whose time has passed’? No
The Planetary Society (3/16): NASA’s Opportunity rover, which has been exploring Mars since 2004, is still gathering useful science at a low cost, the organization maintains in an op-ed. The space agency’s proposed 2016 budget would end operations of the golf cart sized rover and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to free funding for new missions, like InSight, the next NASA Mars Lander.
JAXA shows off orbiting space probe bound for Mercury in 2016
Asahi Shimbum, of Japan (3/16): The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will partner with the European Space Agency for a new mission to planet Mercury. The Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter will be launched in 2016 together with an ESA Mercury probe on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. They should reach the solar system’s innermost planet in 2014 for studies of the surface composition and atmosphere.
Our complete guide to seeing the solar eclipse in safety
Astronomy Now (3/15): March 20 will bring a solar eclipse, though to only a small part of the Earth. Much of Europe will witness a partial solar eclipse.
Low Earth Orbit
Astronaut Scott Kelly: Merchant marine to a year in space | video
Space.com (3/15): Kelly, awaiting a Mar. 27 lift off on a yearlong mission to the International Space Station with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, outlines his New Jersey upbringing, service in the U.S. Navy and his path to NASA’s astronaut corps.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of March 16-20, 2015
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/15): The week’s activities include legislative hearings in Washington and the annual Lunar and Planetary Science, Conference in Houston.
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