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Tuesday’s CSExtra features stories on the ongoing budget concerns, Space Shuttle Discovery begins to head home for a landing in Florida on Wednesday and China’s ambitious plans for an orbiting space station by 2020.
1. From Spacepolicyonline.com: The National Research Council releases Visions and Voyages for Planetary Science, 2013-2022, well reviewed recommendations for scientifically rich large, medium and small class robotic missions. The list is topped by the Mars Astrobiology Explorer Casher, a joint mission with the European Space Agency to examine Martian rocks for signs of microbial life. Other major missions include orbiters destined for Jupiter’s moon Europa and Uranus. However, each of these flagship missions is estimated to cost billions, and the NRC panel writes that smaller and medium class planetary explorations should not be sacrificed for the more expensive “flagship” programs.
http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1472:mars-beats-europa-in-nrc-decadal-survey-but-both-lose-to-smaller-projects-if-budget-constraints-severe&catid=67:news&Itemid=27
A. From Space News: Budgetary pressures will force NASA to push the NRC’s recommended Mars and Europa missions well beyond the current five year budget horizon.
http://www.spacenews.com/civil/110304-nasa-flagship-probes-back-burner.html
2. From Spaceflightnow.com: Shuttle Discovery departs the International Space Station on Monday after a nine-day stay. The shuttle’s six astronauts will head back to Earth on Wednesday, ending a successful 13-day mission.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts133/110307fd12/index2.html
A. From Discovery.com: Tuesday night and early Wednesday offer opportunities to spot Discovery and the International Space Station in the night sky over much of the United States. Discovery undocked from the space station on Monday and will attempt to land in Florida on Wednesday. Discovery retires after 27 years.
http://news.discovery.com/space/see-shuttle-station-in-flight-110307.html
B. From Collectspace.com: Discovery’s astronauts leaves their mission insignia on the space station, a tradition for visiting shuttle crews. Astronaut Alvin Drew called on the well known space artist Robert McCall to provide the inspiration for the STS-133 insignia. McCall did the same for the patches symbolizing the first shuttle flight and last Apollo mission.
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030711a.html
3. From Space.com: China outlines ambitious plans for an orbiting space station by 2020. As a prelude, the Chinese plan to launch the Tiangong-1 laboratory module this year as a platform to experiment with rendezvous and docking techniques using unmanned as well as piloted spacecraft.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11048-china-space-station-plans-details.html
4. From Space.com: The south pole eruptions on Saturn’s moon Enceladus are generating more heat than expected from earlier estimates, according to measurements made with NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. The region produces more heat than Yellowstone National Park.
http://www.exploredeepspace.com/11063-saturn-moon-enceladus-heat-power.html
5. From the Los Angeles Times: NASA distances itself from a research paper by Marshall Space Flight Center astrobiologist Richard Hoover. Hoover claims evidence for indigenous bacteria in meteorites.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-alien-life-20110308,0,5561322.story
6. From Space News: In an op-ed, Owen Garriott, the former NASA astronaut, and Dr. Alan Stern, a former NASA Associate Administrator for Science, endorse work on commercial crew transport vehicles as a less expensive and ultimately safe means of human transportation to Low Earth Orbit.
http://www.spacenews.com/commentaries/110307-commercial-human-spaceflight-safer.html
7. The U. S. Air Force X-37B reusable unmanned space plane could become a “frequent flier.” Missions of up to 270 days are possible.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av026/110307otv3/index.html
8. Three from Monday’s edition of The Space Review:
A. In “A Dark Future for Exploration,” regular contributor Louis Friedman paints a grim outlook for robotic as well as human space exploration based on tight budgets, the current economy and opposing views in Congress and the White House over NASA’s future. Without a vibrant exploration agenda, NASA could lose its currency. he writes. The context for Friedman’s essay was Monday’s release of the Planetary Sciences Decadel Survey, Visions and Voyages for Planetary Science, by the National Research Council.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1795/1
B. In “Debating a Code of Conduct for Space,” TSR editor Jeff Foust outlines the difficulties in reaching a consensus on what represents mutual respect among nations in space. Two of the topics include the proliferation of space debris and guidelines for non interference with the satellites of other nations. The policy documents include the U. S. National Space Strategy released in February and the European Union’s Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities from 2008.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1794/1
C. In, “What Future for Intelligent Life in the Universe,” writer Stephen Ashworth, a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, urges a deep look at the merits of the space colonies proposed by the late Gerald K. O’Neill. Man made colonies in space may make much more sense than searching for planetary surfaces that humanity can settle, Ashworth writes.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1792/1
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