In Today’s Deep Space Extra… U.S. efforts to establish lunar-orbiting habitats might lead human space exploration in many directions.
Human Deep Space Exploration
A gateway to Mars, or the Moon?
The Space Review (3/27): Currently, NASA is working with a half-dozen commercial ventures on concepts for lunar-orbiting human habitats. These are test beds for hardware that could support human missions to the Martian environs in the 2030s and commercial space stations in Earth orbit, as well as more elaborate human activities on the lunar surface.
A short history of lunar space tourism
Space News (3/27): In late February, SpaceX made a surprise announcement when it unveiled plans to launch two space tourists on a voyage around the moon in late 2018. Other companies dating back to the last decade have announced similar plans, but they failed to materialize.
Space Science
Future of asteroid intercept mission depends on Congress
Space News (3/27): The Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) is a proposed NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) collaboration to demonstrate a planetary defense from a potential asteroid impact. The assessment involves two independent missions, NASA’s DART, which would smash the double asteroid Didymos’s small moon Didymoon in 2022; ESA’s AIM spacecraft would be in place to record the approach, impact and aftermath to help assess the strategy. In December, ESA’s ministerial council withdrew financial support, though the agency continues to assess lower cost alternatives. AIDA’s mission future should be clear when White House budget details are released later this month.
Juno spacecraft skims Jupiter’s cloud tops in its 5th flyby
Space.com (3/27): NASA’s Juno mission spacecraft successfully swept close to Jupiter’s colorful cloud tops early Monday, NASA confirmed late in the day. It was the fourth science pass for Juno, which was equipped with eight cameras and science instruments when it lifted-off from Earth in 2011. Juno completed the long transit last July 4, maneuvering into orbit around Jupiter. The investigation of Jupiter’s intense magnetic field and an atmosphere crowned by colorful cloud bands and spots is to continue through July 2018.
Far Side Astronomy: Orbiting telescope would use moon as shield
Space.com (3/27): Scientists from the University of Colorado are proposing DARE, the Dark Ages Radio Explorer, a lunar-orbiting observatory that would use the moon’s mass to shield interference from the Earth as it looks toward the furthest reaches of the universe. NASA is reviewing the project’s merits for funding.
NASA goes for the gusto to study Milky Way
Spaceflight Insider (3/27): NASA’s GUSTO mission will study interstellar gas emissions using an observatory lofted by a high altitude balloon from the Antarctic. A 2021 sendoff is planned where GUSTO will attempt to remain aloft for 100 to 170 days.
Low Earth Orbit
Docking port relocated at Space Station to support commercial spacecraft
Collectspace.com via Space.com (3/27): Using Canadian robotics on the outside of the International Space Station, NASA ground controllers have moved a former space shuttle docking component, Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), from the outside of the Station’s U.S. segment Tranquility to a space-facing location on the outside of the Harmony module. The move on Sunday sets up a Thursday spacewalk in which NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson are to attach heater and data cables as well as thermal protection and orbital debris shields to PMA-3. The work will prepare PMA-3 to serve as the base for a NASA/Boeing International Docking Adapter, which is to arrive at the Station by early next year to complete a new docking port for astronauts launched aboard Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Dragon.
SpaceX, SES ready for first launch of “flight proven” Falcon 9
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/28): A static fire test Monday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A has set the stage Thursday for the first launch by SpaceX of a Falcon 9 rocket with a previously flown first stage. Thursday’s launch period opens at 6 p.m., EDT. The payload is the SES-10 communications satellite.