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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. The Mars Society’s Robert Zubrin, a nuclear engineer, questions a recent assessment of the threat to humans from cosmic radiation. Science fiction writer Andy Weir, author of The Martian, visits NASA scientists and engineers. NASA says news of a Warp Drive breakthrough are unfounded. NASA engineers work with a prop airplane concept for a future Venus mission. Ceres bright spots look like ice. Google X-Prize nurtures commercial lunar landers. Hawaii’s Thirty Meter Telescope stalls over cultural concerns. Russia looks to Soyuz rocket difficulties in Progress 59 failure. Earth orbiting manmade junk: a menace to all. NASA backs commercial launch services for CubeSats as part of a small satellite revolution. U.S. suborbital commercial passenger launch services are making new strides – 2016 shaping up as critical.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Debunking the invalid claims of a space radiation paper
The Space Review (5/11): Robert Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, takes issue with a May research report that warns astronauts could face brain impairments from the galactic cosmic radiation exposures they accumulate during a round trip to Mars. Rodents served as subjects. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, based their conclusions on radiation exposures that were too high and induced too rapidly, writes Zubrin, a nuclear engineer. “Galactic cosmic radiation is not a showstopper for human Mars exploration, and should not be used as an excuse for delay,” he adds.
‘The Martian’ author Andy Weir takes a spin on NASA’s electric rover
Space.com (5/11): Weir’s science fiction novel imagines life stranded on Mars for a central character who manages to find the skills to survive until he can be rescued. Weir visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center recently to drive a prototype Martian rover, take a tour and visit with the scientists and engineers.
No warp drive here: NASA downplays ‘impossible’ EM drive space engine
Space.com (5/11): NASA responds to Internet visions of warp drive research as a means of whisking human explorers far into space. “While conceptual research into novel propulsion methods by a team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has created headlines, this is a small effort that has not yet shown any tangible results,” NASA officials told Space.com in a statement. “NASA is not working on ‘warp drive’ technology.”
Mars One execs dispute criticism of Red Planet colony mission
Space.com (5/11): The Dutch nonprofit with visions of establishing a small but growing colony on Mars in the late 2020s defends its selection processes for potential human settlers.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Venus plane pushed for next NASA Next Frontiers Mission
Space News (5/11): Northrop Grumman looks to an inflatable propeller driven flier for a lengthy mission at Venus focused on studies of the atmosphere.
Bright spots on Ceres may be made of smaller patches of ice
Science News (5/11): Bright spots on the large asteroid Ceres are likely ice, according to scientists linked to NASA’s Dawn mission spacecraft.
Google Lunar X-Prize: Creating a new generation of lunar landers
SpaceFlightInsider.com (5/11): The competition could have multiple companies reaching the lunar surface next year with commercially developed landers.
How a $1.4-billion scientific project ran into a cultural buzz saw
Los Angeles Times (5/11): Under construction atop Mauna Kea, the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope represents a partnership between Caltech, the University of California and a foreign university consortium eager for a ground based observatory that can rival the Hubble Space Telescope. Currently, the project is stalled by native Hawaiians who see their culture threatened.
Low Earth Orbit
Update: Progress 59P plunges to Earth, Soyuz rocket possibly to blame
Spaceflight Insider (5/11): Russia’s unfolding investigation into the April 28 Progress 59 launch difficulties may have repercussions for the country’s human as well as cargo transportation services to and from the International Space Station, according to the report. Russian flight controllers lost control of the Progress 59 and its more than three tons of supplies for the space station soon after it separated from the Soyuz launch vehicle’s third stage.
The Economist (5/10): Thousands of fragments from rocket launches racing around the Earth are a menace to future orbital space activities, according to the report.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
NASA seeks bids for small rockets to launch tiny satellites
Orlando Sentinel (5/11): NASA outlines efforts to nurture U.S. commercial launch services dedicated to placing CubeSats into Earth orbit. The small satellites would no longer have to launch as secondary payloads under the plan.
Op-ed | Launching the small-satellite revolution
Space News (5/11): Demand for services, new technologies and investor interest are merging to support a new class of small satellites as well as a new class of commercial small satellite launch services, writes George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic. The company is developing a suitable launch vehicle of its own, LauncherOne. “Smaller and cheaper satellites are important for national security, for the space industry and for our planet. They also happen to be great investments,” he writes.
Suborbital
Making good on the promise of suborbital spaceflight
The Space Review (5/11): Next year could be pivotal for a handful of U.S. suborbital passenger launch services providers, writes TSR editor Jeff Foust. In addition to Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, XCOR Aerospace, Masten Space Services and EXOS Aerospace Systems, with its acquisition of key Armadillo Aerospace assets, are making advances, writes Foust.
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