In Today’s Deep Space Extra… European researchers deploy an Earth orbital debris elimination demonstration from the International Space Station. The White House has unveiled an inter-agency plan to ramp up the detection of asteroids and comets that could smash into the Earth as well as robotic strategies for altering their course. China appears ready to de-orbit its Tiangong-2 space lab. Martian dust storm goes global.
Human Space Exploration
U.S.-China space race puts moon back into the spotlight
Nikkei Asian Review of China (6/21): China as well as the U.S. has set its sights on the Moon as a destination for future human exploration. One reason is a resource, water ice that could be recovered and processed into the rocket propellants hydrogen and oxygen to enable deep space missions beyond the Moon without launching from the Earth at greater expense. Crater recesses at the Moon’s south and north poles appear to be promising repositories for water ice.
China appears to be preparing to deorbit its Tiangong-2 space lab
Space News (620): China’s Tiangong 2 space lab was launched in September 2016 to help China test life support, resupply and refueling technologies needed for a new larger space station. It hosted one crew for 30 days. Experts believe the 8.6 metric ton Tiangong 2’s orbit is being intentionally lowered to set up a controlled re-entry.
Space Science
Dust storm on Mars now covers entire planet
USA Today (6/20): Mars is now enveloped in its largest dust storm since 2007. NASA’s solar powered Opportunity rover, which settled to the Martian terrain in January 2004, remains silenced. Curiosity, which arrived in August 2012, is nuclear powered and so far mostly unaffected.
Remove DEBRIS launched from ISS to test ways to combat space junk
Coalition Member in the News – NanoRacks
Spaceflightinsider.com (6/20): Among the many science activities underway aboard the International Space Station was the deployment early Wednesday of the NanoRacks Remove DEBRIS satellite, a European led initiative to test orbital debris mitigation strategies using nets, harpoons and sail like devices that introduce drag to hasten destructive re-entries into the Earth’s atmosphere. The demonstrations are to unfold over one and a half years. The mounting debris in low Earth orbit poses a collision threat, a factor in future commercial space development.
Russia wants to blast space junk with laser cannon
Space.com (6/15): Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency, intends to pursue a laser strategy for removing mounting orbital debris fragments in low Earth orbit.
Japan’s Hayabusa2 asteroid probe snaps best pics yet of its target Ryugu
Space.com (6/20): Japan’s Hayabusa 2 is one of two asteroid sample return missions currently underway. NASA’s Osiris Rex is closing in on the asteroid Bennu later this year. Hayabusa 2 is on the final leg of its outbound journey to Ryugu and is offering new close up images. It should arrive about June 27.
Spaceweather.com (6/20): The sun marked Wednesday with the sudden appearance of a large sunspot, which could become active. The feature emerged during the sun’s “solar minimum” period. Thursday marks the first day of summer in the Earth’s northern hemisphere, the first day of winter in the southern.
Other News
NASA asteroid-watchers team up on emergency plan with White House, FEMA
CBS News (6/20): Sponsored by the White House Office and Science and Technology Policy, a new report lays out a 10-year initiative to improve national assessments and responses to the impact threat posed by Near Earth Objects (NEO), or asteroids and comets that pass close. The effort, briefed by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, would bolster efforts to discover and track NEOs that pose impact threats on regional as well as global scales. As part of the effort, the Department of Homeland Security will work to shore up preparations as well as a post impact response. NASA is working currently to identify threats 140 meters and larger, and a future goal could be 50 meters and larger. NASA also plans to demonstrate a planetary defense strategy, a mission that will smash into an asteroid to change its course.
White House releases Near Earth Object (NEO) action plan
Space News (6/20): A report released by the White House June 20 outlines a set of goals to address the small but “high-consequence” threat posed by near Earth objects (NEOs), but does not commit to spending more money to achieve them. The “National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan” document, released by the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy in cooperation with other federal agencies, including NASA, establishes goals for searching for NEOs and preparing for any possible impacts. It builds upon a strategy document released by the Obama administration in 2016.