In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Space Launch System Green Run hot fire scheduled for March 18. Perseverance rover initial exploration successful.
Human Space Exploration
Mark your calendars – second SLS Hot Fire now March 18
Coalition Members in the News – Aerojet Rocketdyne, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/10): NASA announced Wednesday that it is looking to March 18 for a second attempt at the Space Launch System (SLS) hot fire test, the last step in the Green Run series. The first attempt on January 16 ended prematurely in response to conservative parameters designed to protect the core stage, which is the same one that will be launched to space during the Artemis I mission. If the second attempt goes well, the core stage will move from NASA’s Stennis Space Center to the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), where it will be prepared for Artemis I.
Space Science
The Perseverance rover has recorded the 1st laser sound on Mars. It’s a ‘snap!’ not a ‘pew!’
Space.com (3/10): Scientists on Wednesday reported a success in the initial exploration of Jezero Crater on Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover, which touched down on February 18. The rover’s SuperCam has begun to assess the chemistry and geology of the landing site, a former lake and stream delta. Percy’s mission is to gather samples of the terrain for return to Earth to determine if Mars once hosted biological activity. SuperCam’s laser, spectrometer, microphone and camera instrument suite will help to determine where to sample.
NASA preparing to fly Ingenuity Mars drone, enabling future airborne missions
NASAspaceflight.com (3/10): NASA’s Perseverance rover, functioning as planned after a successful February 18 landing at Jezero Crater on Mars, is 30 to 60 days away from another early milestone. That is at least one and potentially a series of test flights by Ingenuity, a small drone-like helicopter designed to assess whether airborne flight is possible in the thin Martian atmosphere.
Newfound super-Earth alien planet whips around its star every 0.67 days
Space.com (3/11): NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is searching for planets outside our solar system, including those that could support life. The mission finds exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars — events called transits. The newfound exoplanet TOI-1685 b is yet another case in point. Astronomers found it circling a dim red dwarf star about 122 light-years from Earth. “Circling” is too ordinary a world for TOI-1685 b’s motion, however; the alien world whips around its parent star once every 0.67 Earth days.
Opinion
Artemis will accelerate the commercial space sector
SpaceNews.com (3/11): As the first flight of NASA’s Artemis program approaches, criticism continues around the cost of a return to the Moon by pointing to private sector alternatives. In a new op-ed, Christian Zur of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the critique does not consider that the private sector is actually the workforce behind all of NASA’s launch vehicle and crew module development. “As in earlier eras of government supported technology, the economic growth will come once new capabilities become cost effective and accessible” says Zur, adding that “to date, the lunar surface has immeasurable potential but doesn’t offer products to customers. Not yet anyway.” Zur says the success of Artemis in opening the lunar surface and later Mars will be followed by economic enterprise.
Other News
Rocket Lab will directly challenge SpaceX with its proposed Neutron launcher
Ars Technica (3/10): SpaceX and its work to develop the reusable Falcon 9 rocket may soon have a competitor in Rocket Lab, based in Long Beach, California and which recently unveiled plans for the development of the Neutron rocket. Neutron will be human rated, but Rocket Lab has no immediate plans to work on a crew capsule.