In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Space agencies and launch providers around the world are responding to coronavirus concerns. NASA and Japanese missions offer new insight into Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and asteroid makeup. Launch of China’s new Long March 7A rocket ends in failure.
Human Space Exploration
How NASA is preparing to launch humans to space as coronavirus pandemic worsens
The Verge (3/16): While each of NASA’s field centers is responding to the coronavirus threat with a three phase strategy that emphasizes telework, plans to launch NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and two cosmonauts to the International Space Station (ISS) in April on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan continue. The three fliers will observe the usual two week, pre-flight, health stabilization quarantine which could be altered to address the changing concern. Kazakhstan, in the meantime, has closed its borders after reporting its first case of the disease.
Space Science
Mars in limbo
The Space Review (3/16): As 2020 began, a July/August launch window was to feature the launch of four Mars missions, developed by five countries, two of them rovers to seek out evidence on the Red Planet for past, or even current biological activity. Last week, the joint European and Russian space agency EXOMars mission was delayed to deal with electronic and lingering parachute issues. Also known in Europe as Rosalind Franklin, the mission included a European rover and Russian lander. Still on track for summer launches are NASA’s Mars2020 rover, recently renamed Perseverance. China plans to launch a Mars orbiter, lander and rover. The United Arab Emirates’s (UAE) Hope Mars orbiter is to launch atop a Japanese rocket.
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot may be shrinking, but its thickness is steady
Space.com (3/16): A study led by a French researcher suggests the famous swirling landmark in the atmosphere of Jupiter is diminishing in size but not in thickness, which is estimated at about 105 miles. That suggests the Great Red Spot is not going away soon, according to findings published in the journal Nature Physics. The study teams looks forward to new data to come from NASA’s Juno mission, which has been orbiting the solar system’s largest planet to study the atmosphere since July 4, 2016.
The asteroid Ryugu has a texture like freeze-dried coffee
Science News (3/16): Now on its way back to Earth, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (ESA) Hayabusa 2 asteroid sample return mission has revealed a fluffy freeze-dried coffee like texture at Ryugu that may help to reveal how quickly the solar system’s planets formed, according to a report in the journal Nature. Launched in December 2014, Hayabusa 2 reached the carbon rich asteroid in June 2018 for a lengthy close-up surveillance and attempts to collect surface and subsurface samples of the asteroid. The probe left for Earth in late 2019 and is to drop off a sample canister into remote Australia at year’s end. Scientists hope studies of the material may help to explain how the Earth obtained its water and organics, the building blocks of life.
NASA picks four finalists for small missions to study the universe
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/16): The four candidates for Small Explorer and Mission of Opportunities will be narrowed to two flight opportunities through further evaluation. They would study volatile stars, galaxies and cosmic collisions. Sponsors include researchers from the University of Colorado, at Boulder; University of California, Berkeley; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; and the University of New Hampshire, Durham.
Other News
Launch of China’s new Long March 7A ends in failure
SpaceNews.com (3/16): The initial launch of the 7A version of China’s Long March 7 rocket with a classified payload failed to achieve a geosynchronous transfer orbit following liftoff on Monday. An investigation is underway. The failure was confirmed just before two hours into the planned mission. Because of potential engine commonalities with the Long March 5, the incident could have implications on plans by China to launch a Mars mission in July and assemble and Earth orbital space station, according to the report from Helsinki.
COVID-19: Guiana Space Center suspends launch campaigns
Arianespace (3/16): Arianespace, the French space agency and associated contractors have suspended launch activities from the European launch complex in French Guiana in response to coronavirus concerns. Normal operations will not resume until health concerns warrant.
The virus has gone global. So what happens to the launch industry?
Ars Technica (3/16): Other than the European launch site in French Guiana, launch activities around the world continue, including NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, though officials everywhere are monitoring the coronavirus outbreak carefully. Over the next month, Russia has two launches planned from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, including a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS), with NASA’s Chris Cassidy and two cosmonauts.
RAND study: U.S. Space Force has to define its mission
SpaceNews.com (3/16): Most, if not all Department of Defense (DoD) space activities should be consolidated within the new Space Force to ensure the new military branch is adequately funded and sized, according to an assessment from the Rand Corp, a federally funded research organization, in a study released on Monday. A key observation from the study notes that the Trump administration’s original proposal was to merge all Air Force, Army and Navy space activities under the Space Force. Congressional legislation, however, authorized only transfers of Air Force personnel to the new space branch of the military.