Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA’s deep space exploration plans include women in prominent roles. Russian economic, foreign relations issues slow but don’t cancel plans for human lunar exploration. New NASA spending plan extends Mars and lunar missions. NASA honors U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski for her long running support. NASA’s Dawn mission takes its closest look at the asteroid Ceres. Sand dunes featured in latest photos from NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. International Space Station commander Scott Kelly features Texas in latest photos. Aerojet Rocketdyne brings 3-D printing technologies to new U.S. rocket engine development.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Would you go to Mars? Meet the four women astronauts who can’t wait to go
Glamour News (1/6): As NASA looks toward deep space and eventually Mars for new missions of human exploration, women are involved as never before. The agency’s most recent astronaut class was half women. “I had a fantastic view of the stars from the teeny town in Maine where I grew up,” explains marine biologist Jessica Meir, one of the four. “Maybe that’s why I wanted to be an astronaut from such a young age.”
Russia’s big plan to finally put cosmonauts on the Moon
Popular Mechanics (1/6): Economic difficulties have not halted Russia’s ambitions for human lunar missions, just postponed them, according to an assessment of changes that transitioned Roscosmos the federal space agency into a state corporation over the New Year. Falling oil prices and sanctions imposed by the West over Russian activities in Ukraine are to blame. However, cosmonauts launched aboard a new spacecraft and rocket could begin lunar explorations in 2029-2035. Russia has reached out for international partners.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA: Opportunity, LRO missions funded through 2016
Spaceflightinsider.com (1/6): Recently signed into law, the nation’s 2016 omnibus spending legislation included $19.3 billion for NASA. An increase, the total is enough to continue observations with the Opportunity rover on Mars, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter now circling the moon.
The out of this world legacy of supernova Mikulski
Rollcall (1/6): U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski was honored Wednesday at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in her home state of Maryland for her long running support of the space program. Mikulski is serving her final term, and her legacy reaches back to the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope. The lawmaker is also the namesake for a supernova.
Dawn spacecraft begins extensive study of dwarf planet Ceres from lowest orbit
AmericaSpace.com (1/6): NASA’s Dawn spacecraft achieved its final low altitude orbit around the asteroid Ceres in late 2015. At 240 miles across, Ceres with its distinctive bright spots is not the typical asteroid.
Curiosity rover eyes towering sand dunes on Mars (photos)
Space.com (1/6): NASA’s Curiosity rover, exploring at the base of Mount Sharp on Mars, offers new photos of Bagnold Dunes, an imposing sand dune like formation.
Low Earth Orbit
Astronaut Scott Kelly kicks off 2016 with new space photos of Texas and neighbors
Houston Chronicle (1/6): Marathon NASA astronaut Scott Kelly features his home state of Texas in new photos from the International Space Station. Kelly, in the midst of a near yearlong stay, leads a crew of six U.S., European and Russian astronauts and cosmonauts.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Aerojet Rocketdyne pushing forward with 3-D printed rocket engines
Spaceflightinsider.com (1/6): This week, the California company was awarded a $6 million contract under the U.S. Air Force Booster Propulsion Technology Maturation Broad Agency Announcement to advance the development of rocket engine components using 3-D printing technologies. The work is part of a plan to develop a domestic alternative to the import of Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine for the Atlas 5 rocket.