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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Why striving for perfection counts in a space suit. Must the U.S. invest more in space to maintain a competitive edge with China? Cooperation in space may be in the best interest of the U.S. as well as China, says policy expert. Photos headed for London auction depict earliest U.S. strides in space. Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana credits NASA, military, state of Florida and commercial space sector with transition to multi-user spaceport. Mars One backs off robotic precursors. Scientists detect link between size of super massive black holes and dark matter. Moon, Mars and Venus converge in the night sky on Friday. NASA checks space suit components before spacewalks to establish International Space Station docking ports for commercial crew vehicles. NASA cameras capture fireball over Pennsylvania. NASA readies new mission to study Earth’s magnetic field. Europe’s Arianespace eyes a commercial launch per month in 2015.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Why can’t we design the perfect spacesuit?
Universe Today (2/18): It comes down to a choice between protecting the astronauts as they launch and land and their desire for mobility during a stroll on a planetary surface or floating outside a space station. The challenge of meeting both objectives, however, has not kept experts from trying to achieve perfection to support future human deep space exploration.
U.S. must invest to keep ahead of China in space, hearing told
Reuters (2/18): China is gaining on the U.S. in space, both in the civilian and military arenas, experts tell Congress’s U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission. China’s investments are part of a long-term strategy to shape the international geopolitical system to its interests and achieve strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific. They also reflect an enthusiasm for space exploration that is fading in the U.S., according to the report.
Johnson-Freese: Why Wolf is wrong about U.S.-China space cooperation
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/18): U.S. China space policy expert Joan Johnson-Freese says a Congressional ban on U.S./Chinese space cooperation runs counter to national interests. The ban’s major proponent, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, of Virginia, has retired, and it’s unclear where Wolf’s successors stand on the separation issue.
Slide show: NASA’s sun struck golden age
New Yorker (2/18): In London next week, a collection of 700 early low resolution NASA photos will go to auction. They tell a gritty story, starting with the launch of the first U.S. satellite in 1958 through the final Apollo moon landing in 1972.
Cabana: Cape’s multi user spaceport taking shape
Florida Today (2/18): In an op-ed, Robert Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, credits cooperation between NASA, the Pentagon, the state of Florida, the state’s commercial development interests and the U.S. commercial space sector with assisting the center’s transition to a multi user spaceport.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Why Pluto matters: A short history of a small (non-)planet
Time (2/18): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is on course to carry out the first flyby of Pluto in July. Why does that matter? Pluto, discovered by young astronomer Clyde Tombaugh 85 years ago, is but one of many small icy bodies of its type, it turns out.
New Horizons spots Pluto’s smaller moons for the first time
Washington Post (2/18): NASA releases New Horizons mission photos that reveal small moons of Pluto named Hydra and Nix.
Mars One suspends work on robotic missions
Space News (2/18): Mars One, the Dutch nonprofit that hopes to settle Mars in the mid-2020s with colonists, has quietly stopped work on a pair of robotic precursor missions, a lander and a Mars orbiting communications satellite, according to the report. They were to launch in 2018. Mars One says it is focusing current efforts on criticisms from MIT students over weaknesses in its ambitious plans.
Super massive Diet: Black holes bulk-up on dark matter
Discovery.com (2/18): Astronomers find a link between the size of massive black holes at the center of galaxies and the dark matter surrounding them.
Moon, Venus, Mars meet in Friday night sky: How to see it
Space.com (2/18): Friday’s night sky will feature the moon, Mars and Venus in close proximity.
Low Earth Orbit
ISS spacewalks help set stage for commercial capsules
Florida Today (2/18): NASA looks to Friday for the first of three closely linked spacewalks outside the International Space Station to begin reconfigurations of the orbiting lab’s U.S. segment. The changes will prepare two docking ports for use by future U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. A delay in the first spacewalk is possible as engineers assess a corrosion issue in a life support system component that is part of the hardware that circulates air and cooling water in the suits. Two faulty pumps were returned to Earth last week for analysis. U.S. astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Terry Virts are to conduct the spacewalks.
NASA video shows a fireball burning through the skies of Pennsylvania
Washington Post (2/18): The U.S. space agency’s All Sky Fireball network captured images of a meteor blazing through the skies of Pennsylvania earlier this week.
Magnetic field laboratory being readied for launch
Spaceflightnow.com (2/18): NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale mission is nearing a March lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The collection of four small satellites will study explosions within the Earth’s magnetic field.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Arianespace on pace for one launch per month in 2015
Spaceflightnow.com (2/19): The French based launch services company has the payloads for at least 11 launches this year from Guiana Space Center using the Ariane 5, a Soyuz derivation or the lighter weight Vega.
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