In Today’s Deep Space Extra… The European Space Agency plans to establish a committee to assess options for an independent human space program. Friday marks the first anniversary of the NASA Perseverance rover’s arrival at Mars.
Human Space Exploration
ESA to set up committee to study human space exploration options
SpaceNews.com (2/16): In a joint session, the European Space Agency (ESA) and European Union on Wednesday called for an effort to establish an independent European strategy for human spaceflight. ESA is to establish a high-level advisory group that will report on the progress toward the goal to the ESA Council of Ministers in November. It was French President Emmanuel Macron who urged the move, suggesting long term efforts might lead to a European Mars mission, or an International Space Station (ISS) like initiative. The committee will include non-space experts with the goal of looking at human space exploration from various perspectives, including economic, historical, and geopolitical.
Russian Progress freighter delivers 2.8 tons of supplies to International Space Station
Space.com (2/17): Russia’s Progress MS-19 resupply capsule autonomously docked with the Russian segment of the seven-person International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday at 2:03 a.m. EST, delivering nearly three tons of supplies and equipment. The space freighter was launched late Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Space Science
Celebrate Perseverance rover’s 1-year ‘Marsiversary’ with these events
Space.com (2/16): Friday will mark the one-year anniversary of the arrival of NASA’s Perseverance rover and its companion Ingenuity helicopter at Mars and the start of an exploration campaign of the Jezero Crater. Though with difficulty at times, Perseverance has already cored rock samples, and Ingenuity has flown 19 times, more than expected. Currently, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are plotting a Mars Sample Return mission intended to gather the rock and soil samples from Jezero cached by Perseverance and return them to Earth for study using the latest technologies.
NASA’s InSight Mars lander bounces back from dust storm, but its days are numbered
Space.com (2/17): InSight went into a protective safe mode on January 7, temporarily shutting down its instruments after a vast dust storm prevented the solar-powered lander from receiving enough sunlight. The spacecraft emerged from safe mode on January 19 and appears to be going back to normal. This is probably just temporary, however, as InSight is losing its battle with dust over the long haul. Indeed, the newly regained power level should let the lander continue science work just “into the summer,” according to a NASA update. InSight landed on Mars on November 26, 2018 to study the Martian core and mantle.
NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory suffers camera glitch, stalling science
Space.com (2/16): Launched by a NASA space shuttle in 1999, the Chandra X-ray Observatory has been forced to suspend observations due to a power issue associated with its high resolution camera and traced back to February 9. Originally developed for a five-year mission, Chandra could resume scientific observations as soon as by early next week, according to a NASA update.
Other News
Biden designates acting White House science officials
Spacepolicyonline.com (2/16): President Biden has decided to split the positions of director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Presidential Science Adviser between two personnel. Alondra Nelson will serve as the acting OSTP Director. Francis Collins, who just retired from the National Institutes of Health after 12 years, will serve as the Acting Presidential Science Adviser. The announcement follows the forced departure of Eric Lander, who was dismissed last week following allegations he treated staff with disrespect.
European Union advances broadband constellation despite negative assessments
SpaceNews.com (2/16): The European Union has introduced legislation to establish a secure European satellite communications satellite constellation despite objections. Internally, the Regulatory Scrutiny Board has twice objected based on multiple concerns, including the validity of the assessment data and climate impacts associated with the deployment. The project, however, intends to fill gaps in broadband access within Europe as well as Africa and provide secure communications for European governments and military organizations through quantum encryption technologies.
NASA drops plans to fly Earth science instrument as commercial hosted payload
Coalition Member in the News – Maxar
SpaceNews.com (2/16): NASA says it is no longer planning to fly GeoCarb, and Earth science instrument, as a hosted payload, stating that market research indicates there are no apparent options for commercial hosting that would allow the instrument to fly by the end of 2024. As a result, NASA is pursuing paths that include procuring a spacecraft and launch for GeoCarb. another NASA Earth science hosted payload, a pollution monitoring sensor called TEMPO, was able to find a commercial satellite, the Intelsat 40e spacecraft being built by Maxar Technologies for launch in January 2023.