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Tuesday’s CSExtra offers the latest space related reporting and commentary from around the world. Solar activity is on the upswing with Earthly consequences. NASA prepares to launch the prototype for a new generation of weather and climate research satellite. China’s versatile Chang’e 2 lunar probe shoulders a new mission. Commentaries on NASA’s changing outlook toward robotic missions to Mars and the prospects that space based propellant depots can advance deep space exploration. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center opens the VAB to tourists. A look at the passion behind Copenhagen Suborbitals. Opportunity looks for winter shelter.
1. From Discovery.com: The Earth’s magnetic field was struck Monday afternoon by a Coronal Mass Ejection unleashed by the sun earlier this week. The impact triggered a geomagnetic storm, created a dazzling auroral display and may have impacted satellites in geo-stationary orbit.
http://bit.ly/vompLH
2. From Spaceflightnow.com: NASA’s trailblazing National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project mission is set for a Friday lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The $1.5 billion mission will introduce a new generation of satellite instruments that promise to improve weather forecasting as well as studies of climate change.
http://bit.ly/tnNzdd
3. From Space.com: China’s sturdy Chang’e 2 lunar probe is in position for new mission — studies of the sun and the Earth’s magnetic field. After mapping the moon, the versatile spacecraft began its travels to the second sun-Earth Lagrange point in June.
http://bit.ly/rFcJxk
4. Two essays from Monday’s The Space Review examine NASA’s future robotic exploration of Mars and the prospect for space propellant depots.
A. In “Recalling the Mars Flagship,” Louis Friedman, a space scientists and frequent TSR contributor, finds a troubling development in Europe’s recent invitation to Russia to replace NASA’s significant role in 2016-2018 Mars missions. NASA, facing budget challenges of its own, is unable to commit the resources. Friedman questions the wisdom of a diminished U. S. role in the exploration of Mars and compares it to the decision by the Chinese emperor Zhu Gaochi in 1424 to recall the country’s global sailing ships. Europe became the benefactor in the discovery of new territory and resources. Friedman suggests a delay of NASA’s Space Launch System as a source of funding for the Mars activities.
http://bit.ly/tUOzp9
B. In “Propellant Depots: the fiscally responsible and feasible alternative to the SLS,” Andrew Glasser, president of the Tea Party in Space, outlines the party’s position on NASA’s look at space-based propellant depots. The analysis is complex, but Gasser makes a case for depots as an alternative to the SLS heavy lifter for starting missions of deep space exploration.
5. From Collectspace.com: The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex plans to add the Vehicle Assembly Building as a stop on its tour of the former space shuttle launch site. The VAB tourist stops will begin Nov. 1.
http://bit.ly/v3qTww
6. From Wired.com: The strange and compelling story of Copenhagen Suborbitals, an effort by two men to launch a commercial human space transportation business. The first test launch was accomplished largely with donations presented in response to their inspired goals.
http://bit.ly/uCsdHQ
7. From the Coalition for Space Exploration: An update on the Mars rover Opportunity’s travels through Endeavour crater. NASA operators seek a winter parking spot for more than 7-year-old rover.
http://bit.ly/sZGhFi
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