In Today’s Deep Space Extra… The challenges of reaching Mars with human explorers hold economic dividends through the innovations that will be required to address them.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Kerner: Our path to Mars needs to look beyond the launch
Houston Chronicle (11/23): There’s more than the launch to overcome when reaching Mars for human exploration, according to an op-ed from Hannah Kerner, executive director of the Space Frontier Foundation. Within the article she notes the obstacles posed by solar radiation levels on the Martian surface as well as the extraction of subsurface water ice for use by explorers. But overcoming the obstacles could prove valuable to the private sector because of their applications to life on Earth, according to Kerner.
China’s secretive space program threatens NASA’s dominance
Forbes (11/28): China is counting on future human activities in low Earth orbit and the exploration of the moon and eventually Mars to pay big economic dividends in robotics, aviation and artificial intelligence, according to the country’s president, Xi Jinping.
Can Russia beat the U.S. to Mars?
Realnoe Vremya, of Russia (11/28): The Russian Space Research Institute looks to the 2040-50’s for the first human exploration of Mars, an international venture. The red planet will become a destination after 2030 when human lunar activities are anticipated. In the meantime, Russia is seeking efficiencies in its International Space Station operations by reducing the number of cosmonauts.
Space Science
After Scott Kelly’s flight, NASA plans five more one-year missions
Ars Technica (11/23): By spring 2017, NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, will mark the first anniversary of the 340-day mission to the International Space Station flown by now retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Korienko. Currently, the two agencies are discussing five additional two-person long duration missions before the end of space station operations in 2024. The findings, say researchers, will help reveal the physical and mental challenges of long duration missions of human exploration, like those planned for cislunar space and Mars.
ESA: Mars lander crash caused by 1-second inertial measurement error
Space News (11/23): The European Space Agency’s Exo/Mars Schiaparelli lander made a disappointing plummet to the Martian surface on October 19, bringing an abrupt end to a joint mission with Russia that also celebrated the successful arrival of a Mars orbiter. On November 23, ESA announced the most likely cause was an overwhelmed inertial measurement unit and subsequent delivery of bad data to the lander’s flight computer. Those led to the release of the lander’s parachute while Schiaparelli was 3.7 kilometers, or 2.3 miles, above the ground.
Roscosmos Says ESA not blaming Russia for Schiaparelli Mars lander crash
Sputnik International, of Russia (11/25): Roscosmos, Russia’s federal space agency, was not involved in the Schiaparelli lander failure, said the European Space Agency, the mission’s lead partner, in statements that pointed to an inertial measurement unit/flight computer problem. Russia furnished the launch in March and instruments on the companion Trace Gas Orbiter that functioned successfully.
Europe’s science ministers to decide on ExoMars rover
BBC (11/25): The European Space Agency’s governing body will be asked for full funding, $430 million U.S., if the agency is to keep the second phase of its European/Russian ExoMars robot rover on schedule. The rover is a centerpiece of efforts to find evidence of biological activity on the red planet by digging below the surface. Scheduled for an August 2020 launch on a Russian rocket, the rover development is on schedule but can only remain so with full funding, according to the report.
Cassini begins Saturn ring dives, kicks off mission finale
Space.com (11/24): Launched in 1997, the joint U.S./European Cassini mission reached the Saturn system in 2004. After many accomplishments at the ringed planet, including dropping a probe onto the surface of the moon Titan and discovering an ocean on the moon Enceladus, the spacecraft is ready for its “grand finale.” The finale extends from November 30 to September 15, 2017 as it embraces a series of close-up flybys of the giant planet’s outer rings and outermost moons. Cassini’s journey is to end with a plunge into the planet to avoid possible contamination of potentially habitable moons around Saturn.
Study shows Pluto should be counted among solar system’s ocean worlds
Spaceflightnow.com (11/24): Intense studies of data and imagery from NASA’s New Horizon’s mission to Pluto offer evidence of an ocean world. The findings come from studies of the dwarf planet’s curious alignment with the moon Charon.
Low Earth Orbit
China launches data relay satellite for future space station crews
Spaceflightnow.com (11/22): In support of future Shenzhou and Tiangong-2 space lab human orbital missions, China launched a fourth data relay satellite into geosynchronous orbit on November 22.
Destination Moon? Belgium joins the space race
Reuters (11/25): Belgium will establish a state space agency in 2017. The action will help Belgium regain its share of European Space Agency expenditures, according to science minister Elke Sleurs.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Destructive re-entry marks end to successful Cygnus OA-5 mission
Nasaspaceflight.com (11/22): Orbital ATK’s latest and most innovative NASA contracted re-supply mission carried out a planned destructive re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean late Sunday. Orbital’s Cygnus re-supply capsule departed the six-person International Space Station early November 21 for an extended, six-day solo mission to deploy Spire Global CubeSats to monitor maritime traffic and weather, as well as carry out SAFFIRE II, a fire safety experiment for NASA. Launched in mid-October, Cygnus delivered more than 5,100 pounds of supplies and research equipment to the station.
Britain endorses ESA, promises increased export-credit support for industry
Space News (11/25): Despite its surprise exit from the European Union, Britain vows to remain a force in the European Space Agency. The pronouncement comes just ahead of a ministerial meeting of ESA in Switzerland, where the talk will focus on a $12 billion multi-year funding strategy.
Inflatable house attached to ISS is doing well, says NASA
Inverse (11/23): Bigelow Aerospace’s Bigelow Expandable Aerospace Module (BEAM) began a two year evaluation aboard the six-person International Space Station in May. So far, the module — pressurized but not occupied by astronauts except for the occasional data gathering — is doing well, according to a NASA status report. NASA is evaluating several proposals for space habitats suitable for future Earth orbit space stations, lunar orbiting habitats or habitats shepherding explorers to Mars.
Suborbital
Spaceport America’s new director faces a tough challenge
Albuquerque Journal (11/25): The new Spaceport America director, Dan Hicks, expects to focus on business development, specifically in the areas of suborbital mission, payload-to-orbit and transportation capabilities. Can Hicks make the state-owned facility self-sustaining? The challenges he faces includes a shrinking state budget, slower-than-expected progress by anchor tenant Virgin Galactic, and an increasingly competitive space environment from which to draw customers.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
What’s Happening in Space Policy November 28 – December 2, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/27): The U.S. House and Senate reconvene with possible action on extending the current federal budget Continuing Resolution from December 9 to March 31 for further deliberations on spending by a new Congress and White House. The NASA Advisory Council meets for the final time this year in Palmdale, California. European Space Agency ministers convene in Switzerland to set funding priorities for the next few years.