In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Rocket engine for the first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System exploration rocket and Orion capsule with astronauts test fired Thursday.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Engine used on penultimate space shuttle flight relit for NASA’s new rocket
Collectspace.com (3/10): A shuttle heritage rocket engine roared to life for 500 seconds at NASA’s Stennis Space Center on Thursday. The rocket engine, which has flown five times to space previously on NASA shuttle missions, will be joined by three more of the upgraded Aerojet Rocketdyne engines to help launch the future Exploration Mission-2, the first test flight of the Space Launch System exploration rocket and an Orion capsule with four astronauts. The capsule will circle the moon and return to Earth for an ocean splashdown and recovery. EM-2 could fly in the 2021-23 time frame.
Russia thinks it can use nukes to fly to Mars in 45 days if it can find the rubles
Wired (3/10): Russia discusses a nuclear rocket engine as a propulsion source for a future expedition to Mars. A spacecraft with the rocket could reach Mars in six weeks. A prototype may launch in 2025. Funding is an issue.
Put an anchor in it: How astronauts could tackle walking on asteroids
Orlando Sentinel (3/10): An anchoring device conceived by students at the Missouri University of Science and Technology would permit spacewalking astronauts to explore a boulder lifted from the surface of an asteroid as part of NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission. The boulder would be collected with a robot spacecraft and maneuvered into orbit around the moon, where NASA astronauts launched aboard an Orion spacecraft atop a Space Launch System rocket could visit.
Space Science
Our space flight heritage: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter marks ten years of discovery
Spaceflight Insider (3/10): MRO has circled the red planet for a decade, all the while casting a powerful reconnaissance camera at the Martian surface. The observations hint at a history in which water flowed across the planet’s surface. The planets subsurface may host reservoirs of water as well.
NASA Rover on Mars may have ringside seat to Europe’s ExoMars mission
Space.com (3/10): NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover, now 12 years on the surface of Mars, may be positioned perfectly to witness the arrival of the joint European/Russian ExoMars mission spacecraft scheduled to lift off atop a Russian launch vehicle on Monday. The joint mission features an orbiter and a prototype lander for a future rover mission. The new lander is named Schiaparelli.
How an amateur meteorite hunter tracked down a fireball
New York Times (3/10): Volunteers with the nonprofit American Meteor Society track down fragments from recent fireballs using doppler radar data from NASA, dash cams and other aids.
NASA wants to send your art to an asteroid
Space.com (3/10): NASA seeks digital art work candidates as part of OSIRIS REx, an asteroid sample return mission scheduled to lift off in September. OSIRIS REx will travel to the asteroid Bennu and back. The art submission deadline is Mar. 20.
Low Earth Orbit
GAO: “DOD is at a crossroads for space”
Spacepolicyonline.com (3/10): The U.S. Department of Defense has reached a cross roads in its supervision of military space programs and costly procurements, according to the General Accountability Office, the audit and watchdog arm of the U.S. Congress. Lawmakers discussed the matter in a closed session earlier this week.
PSLV deploys next satellite for Indian navigation network
Spaceflightnow.com (3/10): India’s latest Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle placed a satellite navigation spacecraft into Earth orbit early Thursday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
ULA’s parent companies still support Vulcan with caution
Space News (3/10): Executives from the United Launch Alliance partnership, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, told a Satellite 2016 conference audience in Maryland they remain supportive of the new Vulcan rocket, though uncertain how to transition from imports of the Russian RD-180 rocket engine that powers the first stage of the vulnerable Atlas 5 launch vehicle to a domestic replacement for the Vulcan. Congress and the U.S. Air Force have struggled with sanctions over imports of the RD-180 and its role in the launching of national security payloads.