Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. U.S. lawmakers back work led by NASA on a deep space habitation module in their 2016 spending bill. NASA marked 2015 with Space Launch System exploration rocket and Orion crew capsule strides. International legal experts find favor with new U.S. space mining legislation. Europe pushes for a human lunar base. A new government space corporation takes over in Russia. Russia adjusts lunar exploration plans as funding tightens. The Martian ready for an Oscar run. Star Wars: The Force Awakens, quickly becomes a global box office hit. James Webb Space Telescope mirror assembly reaches halfway point. NASA’s share of a 2016 U.S. spending bill keeps new Mars rover, Europa missions on track. Experts urge more focus on space weather hazards. The U.S. resumes Plutonium-238 production. U.S. Postal Service plans new space stamps. China orbits a high definition Earth observing satellite. Space visionaries claim 2015. United Launch Alliance orders 20 new Russian RD-180 rocket engines. U.S. Air Force pushes new rocket research. Major space conferences will mark start of 2016.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Spending bill to accelerate NASA habitation module work
Space News (12/28): NASA’s portion of the 2016 Omnibus spending bill calls on the agency to invest $55 million into efforts to develop and in space habitation module for future human deep space exploration. Congress and the White House reached an agreement on the spending measure in November. A prototype for the living quarters is to be ready by 2018 under the measure.
First steps on journey to Mars underway
Houston Chronicle (12/24): NASA’s Journey to Mars logged significant strides in 2015 with development of the Orion and Space Launch System crew exploration capsule and rocket. A joint flight test that will sent an unpiloted Orion capsule around the moon in late 2018 is planned.
First SLS work platform installed in KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building high bay 3
America Space (12/28): At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, engineers and technicians prepared the Vehicle Assembly Building for the elevated platforms needed to assemble the Space Launch System exploration rocket, the initial propulsion source for future human deep space exploration.
International Institute of Space Law OK with U.S. asteroid mining law
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/24): The International Institute of Space Law has rendered an opinion regarding new U.S. commercial space legislation that extends ownership rights to resources mined by citizens from asteroids and other planetary bodies. The law does not violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, according to the Institute’s board.
Lunar Leap: Europe is reaching for a Moon base by the 2030s
Space.com (12/28): The European Space Agency proposed a multinational “comeback to the moon,” with a mid-December gathering, “Moon 2020-2030 — A New Era of Coordinated Human and Robotic Exploration,” at the European Space Research and Technology Center in Noordwijk. Twenty-eight nations were represented at the session focused on sustainable advances in human exploration that build on past accomplishments.
Russia downscales lunar program as Roscosmos morphs into state corporation
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/29): With the New Year, Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, transitioned to a state run corporation, a change made in 2015 in response to problems with venerable launch vehicles and difficulties with the construction of a new cosmodrome. Funding constraints dealt with in the final weeks of 2015 will also prompt a rollback in Russia’s plans for human exploration of the moon.
Russian space agency cuts most projects related to Moon exploration
TASS, of Russia (12/29): Russia’s revamped federal space program drops projects related to human exploration of the moon between 2016 and 2025, a step back from efforts announced by Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in April 2014, according to the report.
Can ‘The Martian’ defy sci-fi history and win a best picture Oscar?
Los Angeles Times (12/29): The Martian could shatter an Oscar ban on science fiction productions because of the exploration drama’s near term setting and its pro humanity theme of leaving no man behind.
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ sails to $88.3M weekend, new records
USA Today (1/3): The Force Awakens, the latest chapter in the Star Wars saga, soars to box office heights nationally and globally 17 days after release.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
James Webb Space Telescope mirror installation reaches halfway point
Universe Today (12/28): Underway at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the installation now includes nine of the 18 segments that will form the light gathering mirror for the James Webb Space Telescope, designated successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The joint effort of NASA, the European and Canadian space agencies is scheduled to lift off in late 2018.
What NASA’s $1.3 billion budget increase means for JPL
Pasadena Star News (1/4): NASA’s share of the Omnibus 2016 appropriations measure equals $19.3 billion, a $1.3 billion boost. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, that means funds to further development of NASA’s Mars 2020 Rover, an orbiter and possible lander destined for Jupiter’s ice and ocean covered moon Europa. The 12-year-old rover Opportunity on Mars will continue its explorations as well.
Op-ed | Making space safer
Space News (12/29): Humanity faces a challenge, upping its game on predicting potentially costly, even catastrophic space weather activities and events, writes Daniel Baker, who directs the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder
The U.S. just produced its first plutonium-238 in nearly 30 years
Space News (12/23): The radioactive material from the U.S. Department of Energy will be used by NASA to power future robotic planetary science missions. The DOE halted production of the plutonium isotope three decades ago. NASA’s Mars 2020 rover is among the beneficiaries.
The moon, planets and Pluto to feature on new U.S. postage stamps in 2016
Collectspace.com (12/30): New 2016 U.S. postage stamps will feature the moon, the planets and NASA’s New Horizons first ever mission to distant Pluto. The announcement came in part to a request from New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern.
Low Earth Orbit
China launches HD earth observation satellite
Xinhuanet, of China (11/29): China successfully launched a high definition geosynchronous Earth observation satellite, Gaofen-4.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Space: The visionaries take over
Washington Post (12/31): A pair of U.S. commercial rocket landing demonstrations late in the year and NASA’s New Horizons Pluto flyby provided a much needed lift in 2015, writes columnist Charles Krauthammer.
ULA orders 20 more RD-180 rocket engines
Space News (12/23): United Launch Alliance announced a purchase order for more Russian made RD-180 rocket engines for the first stage of the Atlas 5 launch vehicle. ULA said it would use the Russian engines to serve existing and potential civil and commercial launch customers until a new U.S.-built engine is developed and certified, according to the report. The announcement follows passage of a $1.1 trillion U.S. spending bill for 2016 that eased a ban on using Russian engines to launch U.S. military and intelligence satellites for fiscal 2016, which ends Sept. 30.
U.S. Air Force awards more rocket research contracts
Space News (12/28): On the eve of the end of year holidays, the U.S. Pentagon awarded new research contracts for the development of a domestic rocket engine to replace imports of Russia’s RD-180. The awards included $3.1 million for Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia; $6 million for propulsion provider Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., and $5.4 million for Northrop Grumman of El Segundo, Calif.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of January 3-8, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (12/27): The New Year starts with meetings of the American Astronautical Society and AIAA in Kissimmee, Fla., and San Diego. The U.S. House returns to business on Jan. 5, the Senate on Jan. 11, a day ahead of President Obama’s State of the Union address.