Tuesday’s CSExtra finds reports of a Senate inspired plan for compromise on NASA’s human exploration strategy that would accelerate work on a heavy lift rocket, while pursuing a cautious pace on commercial crew launch services. Scientists recover Japan’s Hayabusa capsule in remote Australia. Water was more plentiful than thought when the moon formed in the earliest days of the solar system. NASA researchers develop a more accurate method of tsunami prediction. Two Americans and a Russian prepare to lift off for the International Space Station from Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 5:35 p.m., EDT.
1. From the Orlando Sentinel: U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who chairs NASA’s Senate oversight subcommittee, proposes a roadmap for NASA in a letter U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who chairs NASA’s Senate appropriations subcommittee. The plan appears to be a compromise between the proposals of President Obama and those who wish to preserve NASA’s Constellation back to the moon program. Key elements include an extension of International Space Station operations until 2020; Mars as the ultimate exploration destination; work on a new heavy lift rocket commencing in 2011, not 2015 as President Obama proposed; an additional space shuttle mission in 2011. There’s more, Ares 1, the shuttle and Orion would figure in the heavy lift development, though Nelson is not clear exactly how.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/2010/06/nelson-maps-a-road-forward-on-space-without-constellation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+news%2Fspace%2Fspace_blog+%28Space+Blog+The+Write+Stuff%29
A. From Space News: The Nelson plan suggests missions to Lagrange points and lunar orbit as stepping stones to other deep space destinations including Mars.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/bill-would-direct-nasa-begin-work-heavy-lift-rocket-next-year.html
B. Florida Today: Nelson suggests a “walk before you run” approach to commercial crew launch services. A more nurturing approach by NASA would be required for implementation.
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100615/NEWS02/6150318/1006/news01/Nelson+advocates+caution+in+letter
C. Also from Florida Today: NASA names a new Constellation program manager, Dale Thomas. Thomas replaces Jeff Hanley, who was re-assigned in late May. Thomas has been the acting manager since them.
http://flametrench.flatoday.net/2010/06/nasa-names-new-constellation-program.html
2. From Spaceflightnow.com: In remote Australia, scientists recover the capsule returned by Japan’s Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission. The capsule re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere late Sunday.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1006/14recovery/
A. From the Daily Yomiuri of Japan: The newspaper takes a behind-the-scenes look at the efforts behind Hayabusa’s successful recovery. Controllers overcame three major failures, a fuel leak, loss of attitude control and the burn out of a crucial ion engine during the probe’s seven-year mission.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20100615TDY03T03.htm
3. From the National Geographic Daily News: Water was much more plentiful than once thought in the violent events that formed the Earth’s moon, according to the results of a new NASA-funded study.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100614-moon-water-hundred-lunar-proceedings-science/
4. From the Space Review: Two articles that were published before U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s proposed NASA road map became public on Monday afternoon:
A. “The Need to Elevate the Debate”: In his essay, Editor Jeff Foust writes that discussion over the future of the nation’s human space exploration program has stagnated. “The decisions that will be made by authorizers and appropriators in Congress in the coming months may reshape the agency and its future direction significantly. That makes this time perhaps the best opportunity in years for a discussion on the fundamentals of space exploration, and in particular human spaceflight. For now, though, that isn’t happening.”
The focus of the debate should be on the purposes of human exploration and how much to spend, Foust writes.
http://thespacereview.com/article/1645/1
B. “The True Benefit of Human Mars Exploration.” Frank Straftord, an Australian and the founder of Mars Drive, argues the world at large needs this mission to regain a “can do” outlook. Across the board, our culture is taking too long to solve its major problems, be they health care, a sluggish economy, or global warming, he writes. Each new technology applied to an ambitious Mars mission should pay dividends for the Earth. The lessons we learn from Mars should provide new insight into the Earth, Stratford proposes.
http://thespacereview.com/article/1644/1
5. From the AP via the Houston Chronicle: NASA develops a more accurate tsunami prediction method using differential GPS.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7053057.html
6. From the New York Times: On Tuesday, astronomers participating in NASA’s Kepler mission will provide a list of 350 stars that appear to harbor planets, perhaps some that are habitable. The find joins the ranks of 461 stars known to have planets that are considered not habitable. Kepler was launched in March 2009 to search for Earth-like planets around other stars — worlds’ occupying what is considered a habitable zone. In a potentially controversial move, Kepler astronomers will withhold data on the top planet candidates so they can have the summer to make more in-depth studies of their own.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/15/science/space/15kepler.html?ref=science
7. Three U.S. and Russian astronauts ready to launch for the International Space Station at 5:35 p.m., EDT on Tuesday.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-as-kazakhstan-space-launch,0,5407786.story
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