In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA, a commercial resupply services provider for the lunar Gateway, seeks proposals for Orion service module rocket engines. Landing on asteroid Bennu will be a challenge for NASA’s Osiris-Rex.
Human space exploration
NASA requesting proposals for Orion engine
SpaceNews.com (3/27): NASA is seeking proposals from potential suppliers of rocket engines for the Orion crew capsule’s service module, a propulsion source for maneuvering in and out of lunar orbit and abort scenarios. The new engines would supplant the initial engines salvaged from NASA shuttle program for the first five Space Launch System (SLS)/Orion missions.
SpaceX wins NASA commercial cargo contract for lunar Gateway
SpaceNews.com (3/27): NASA announced the selection of SpaceX on Friday to provide cargo missions to the Gateway, a lunar space station assembled to support future human exploration of the Moon’s surface. A new spacecraft, the Dragon XL, launched on the Falcon Heavy will provide the cargo transportation. The conical XL will remain docked for up to a year. NASA plans to spend $7 billion over 15 years on lunar cargo services and will likely name a second company.
Space Science
NASA is about to grab an asteroid sample and bring it home
Coalition Member in the Mews – Lockheed Martin
Air and Space Museum Magazine (April 2020): A look at the challenge NASA’s Osiris-Rex sample return mission will confront in late August as it descends to the surface of the asteroid Bennu. The approach must have the precision of fitting into an automobile parking space.
Lunar Gateway orbital outpost experiment will monitor radiation in deep space
SciTechDaily (3/22): The NASA planned lunar orbiting Gateway will host science activities. The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have selected their first. ESA’s will monitor cosmic and solar radiation levels continuously while in a highly elliptical orbit, NASA’s will monitor solar weather. Both are to be mounted on the first Gateway element, the Power and Propulsion Module.
If Pluto has a subsurface ocean, it may be old and deep
Science News (3/27): Ongoing studies of close up imagery of Pluto gathered by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft during the first ever close flyby in July 2015 suggest the Kuiper Belt Object has had a subsurface ocean since it formed about 4.5 billion years ago.
Other News
OneWeb files for bankruptcy amid coronavirus chaos, leaving satellite network’s fate up in the air
GeekWire.com (3/27): London-based OneWebb filed for bankruptcy on Friday and laid off workers. The proceedings are to hasten the sale of the broadband internet satellite company.
With launches on hold, ISRO designing ventilators, making hand sanitizers
Times of India (3/29): Launches from India are on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the meantime, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is developing and distributing ventilators and hand sanitizers to help address the threat.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of March 29 to April 11, 2020
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/29): The U.S. House and Senate are in recess except for pro forma sessions through April 30, a period that would normally include activities dealing with the administration’s proposed 2021 budget, including for NASA spending. NASA’s International Space Station (ISS) Advisory Committee will convene virtually on Monday. Looking ahead to April 9, NASA’s Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner remain scheduled to liftoff for the International Space Station (ISS) to take charge through October.