In Today’s Deep Space Extra… A new report outlines international objectives for lunar exploration. Large numbers of stars within the Milky Way galaxy may be suited to host rocky planets with life-friendly environments.
Human Space Exploration
New report outlines international approach to lunar exploration
SpaceNews.com (11/5): An updated version of the Global Exploration Roadmap report, developed by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG), a cluster of 24 space agencies, largely follows NASA’s Artemis plans. The report calls for a human return to the Moon in 2024, a sustained and vibrant lunar presence in the coming decades, and the use of the Gateway. The ISECG includes the Japanese space agency, JAXA, as well as many European national space agencies.
The International Space Station at 20 offers hope and a template for future cooperation
Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space
The Conversation (11/4): The International Space Station has served as a template for international cooperation and a base for a broad range of scientific research and investigation. As it continues to operate, the orbiting science lab is providing a foothold for future commercial space investment and activity.
Space Science
Astronomers trace mysterious space radio waves to a source within our galaxy
The Verge.com (11/4): Earlier this year astronomers caught their first glimpse of an X-ray radio burst originating from the Milky Way. A collection of Earth- and space-based observatories helped to track the source of the fast radio burst to a special kind of neutron star. The findings were published in the journal Nature.
NASA’s Juno mission may have found lightning sprites in the atmosphere of Jupiter
Slashgear.com (11/1): NASA’s Juno spacecraft has discovered sprites in the Jovian atmosphere using its ultraviolet spectrograph instrument. Sprites had long been suspected to happen in Jupiter’s atmosphere, but this is the first time that evidence that they exist has been found. A lightning sprite is a brief but powerful electrical discharge that also happens high in Earth’s atmosphere.
More than half of all sunlike stars in the Milky Way may have a habitable planet
Space.com (11/2): In line to publish in the Astronomical Journal, a new study suggests the Milky Way galaxy abounds with stars, about 200 billion, and that about seven percent of them are like the sun and capable of hosting Earth-like planets. The study, led by a researcher from NASA’s Ames Research Center, is based on observations with NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which operated between 2009 and 2018, and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia space observatory, which is studying stars in the Milky Way.
Other News
“Women in Space”: Lisa Callahan to chair World Space Week 2021
Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin and Coalition Board Member, Lisa Callahan
Spacewatch.global (11/4): Lisa Callahan, Lockheed Martin’s Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Civil Space, has been named Honorary Chair of World Space Week 2021 by the World Space Week Association. Set for October 2021, the “Women in Space” celebration will seek to inspire young women from around the world to pursue STEM studies and careers in the space industry. It will also celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of women to sciences and the space sector.
Hardware forces ULA to scrub Atlas V launch; SpaceX next on the schedule
Coalition Member in the News – United Launch Alliance
Florida Today (11/4): A launch pad hardware issue prompted United Launch Alliance (ULA) to postpone by 48 hours the launch of a U.S. national security payload atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on Wednesday. The launch has been reset for Friday evening. The change allows SpaceX to proceed with the launch of a GPS satellite atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday. The SpaceX launch was delayed from October due to issues with its rocket’s Merlin engines that prompted NASA to re-plan the launch of the Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station.
With Senate win, Mark Kelly is fourth astronaut elected to Congress
Collectspace.com (11/4): Newly elected to the U.S. Senate from Arizona on Tuesday, former NASA astronaut and naval aviator Mark Kelly addressed supporters in Tucson. Kelly defeated incumbent Martha McSally, previously a U.S. Air Force combat pilot, who was appointed to fill the term of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain. “This mission does not end when the last vote is counted. It is only the beginning,” Kelly told the gathering.
A mission to ‘Mars’ at the HI-SEAS habitat: Live updates
Space.com (11/4): Space.com’s Chelsea Gohd is offering a chance to follow along as she participates in a simulated human mission to Mars at the HI-SEAS habitat in Hawaii. The analog with research teams will last for two weeks as they simulate what it would be like to live and work on Mars.