In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine expresses confidence that NASA’s budgets are sufficient to return human explorers to the Moon. Space Station astronaut Ricky Arnold sequences RNA from space, a first.
Human Space Exploration
Going back to the Moon won’t break the bank, NASA Chief says
Space.com (8/31): During NASA’s Apollo era, the agency’s budget consumed 4.5 percent of the federal budget in order to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s directive to launch astronauts to the lunar surface and return them safely by the end of the 1960s. Today, NASA spends 0.5 percent. The lesser percentage should be within the range of what’s required for NASA to return to the lunar environs with human explorers under the current White House strategy, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, told a news media during a visit to the agency’s Ames Research Center last week.
Fracture on Soyuz spacecraft most likely caused by technological error
TASS of Russia (9/3): The small leak found and repaired aboard the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) last week was most likely caused by human error and not an impact from orbital debris or a micrometeorite, according to Dmitry Rogozin, the CEO of Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency.
NASA astronaut is the first ever to sequence RNA in space
Inquisitor (9/1): Amidst successful efforts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) late last week to locate and repair a small leak in the Russian segment, NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold managed a space first. Arnold successfully sequenced RNA, a capability that will help experts identify unknown microbes aboard spacecraft and to assess how the absence of gravity alters living organisms.
Space Science
Life on Mars? 40 years later, Viking lander scientist still says ‘yes’
Space.com (8/31): Gilbert Levin, the principal investigator for the “life detection” sensors aboard NASA’s Viking I and II landers that touched down on Mars in 1976, continues to maintain that the experiments he led did in fact detect biological activity. The larger science community’s search for Martian life continues.
NASA to soon start 45-day campaign to revive the Opportunity Mars rover
SpaceNews.com (9/1): With the Martian skies beginning to clear after a global dust storm dating to May, experts at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are formulating a 45 day campaign to re-establish communications with the Opportunity rover, which landed on the Red Planet in January 2004 for what was to be a 90 day mission. Opportunity, however, continued to explore until the dusty skies blocked sunlight from recharging the rover’s power storage batteries in June. Once skies have cleared sufficiently, JPL personnel will begin the 45 day campaign to re-establish contact by sending commands from Earth. Some believe 45 days may not be long enough.
Other News
‘We’ve righted the ship’: New space race fuels massive economic comeback on Space Coast
Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman
Orlando Sentinel (9/1): Florida’s Space Coast is undergoing an economic rejuvenation in the wake of the decision to retire NASA’s space shuttle fleet in 2011. Much of the surge can be linked to a growing commercial space industry seeking a home and a qualified workforce. Unemployment reached nearly 12 percent in 2010 as the shuttle’s retirement approached. In July, it has fallen to 3.9 percent, with the addition of more than 8,700 new jobs. Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and SpaceX are among the companies behind the surge.
Air Force soon to announce decision on future launch vehicles
Coalition Members in the News – Northrop Grumman, United Launch Alliance
SpaceNews.com (8/31): The U.S. Air Force is expected to contract with three and possibly four U.S. launch services providers this month under its Launch Services Program. The Air Force strategy supports the development of vehicle upgrades by about 2021, when it would settle on two launch vehicle providers, each expected to provide four to six launches annually. More competition for launch opportunities would follow.
NASA reorganization on hold, FFRDC report headed to OMB
Spacepolicyonline.com (8/31) NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will take more time to assess an agency re-organization that would link Space Technology Mission Directorate activities more closely with NASA’s future human Moon/Mars exploration plans. An assessment of whether more of NASA’s field centers should be re-organized as Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) has been forwarded to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Currently, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is the only field center with the FFRDC designation.
Telluride: ‘First Man’ launches into serious Oscar contention
The Hollywood Reporter (9/1): First Man, a new feature film based on the life of Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong could be headed for an Oscar Nomination. Some viewers, however, are wondering why the production chose not to include a scene of Armstrong and his lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin planting an American Flag on the Moon as they stepped to the surface for the first time.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of September 2-8, 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/2): The U.S. House and Senate return to action this week with much yet to accomplish in order to have a federal budget ready for the 2019 fiscal year that begins October 1. On Wednesday, The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to take up the White House nominations of James Morhard to be Deputy Administrator of NASA and Kelvin Droegemeier to head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Deliberations scheduled for last week were postponed. The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine is to report on a future exoplanet science strategy. On Thursday, NASA will host the U.S., Russian and Canadian astronaut crew assigned to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 20 for a news briefing.