In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Apollo 11’s Buzz Aldrin predicts international effort to reach Mars with explorers by 2040.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Buzz Aldrin talks March madness and Mars exploration
CBS News (3/16): Aldrin predicts an international effort to return to the moon as the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing he shared with Neil Armstrong approaches in 2019. A new U.S. president could use the anniversary to set explorers on a course to a Mars landing by 2040, he said. Aldrin spoke at a gathering with ESPN sports analyst Dick Vitale at Space Center Houston to discuss the annual NCAA college basketball tournament underway this month.
Mars radiation risk: How would ‘The Martian’ hero fare?
Space.com (3/16): Calculations suggest that the fictional Mark Watney, stranded on Mars in the popular film The Martian, would fare better against a space radiation threat, than the rest of his astronaut crewmates, who abandoned the red planet in a surface crisis and headed back to Earth.
Get to Mars in three days? Here’s how that could happen
Discovery.com (3/16): A theoretical propulsion source using a laser in Earth orbit could generate photons that would propel a spacecraft with a reflective surface across interplanetary space in days. Potential destinations include Mars and objects much more distant.
Space Science
NASA into deep planning for Asteroid Redirect Mission
NASAspaceflight.com (3/16): Now aiming for a 2021 lift off, the robotic phase of the Asteroid Redirect Mission will attempt to retrieve a boulder from an asteroid and steer it into orbit around the moon. U.S. astronauts launched on the Space Launch System exploration rocket and Orion crew capsule would visit later in the decade. The asteroid targets include Bennu, 1999 JV 3 and 2008 EV5, which appears to be the leading candidate.
Mysterious bright patches on the dwarf planet Ceres may be coming into focus
Mashable (3/16): Bright spots on the surface of the large asteroid Ceres appear to change as the planetary body rotates, possibly because of evaporation. That suggests that ice or another volatile plays a role in the mysterious bright spots. Recent research suggested the mysterious patches are an Epson salt like compound left behind after subsurface water ice on Ceres is exposed by meteor impacts and evaporates.
Comet P/2016 BA14 to make historic flyby of Earth
Sky & Telescope (3/16): Two comets, with perhaps a common past, will pass historically close to the Earth on Mar. 21-22. They are P/2016 BA14 and 252P/LINEAR.
Low Earth Orbit
Soyuz crew transport arrives at launch pad
Spaceflightnow.com (3/17): Technicians at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan rolled the Soyuz TMA-20M launch vehicle and capsule to its launch pad on Wednesday. The spacecraft is undergoing preparations for launching on Friday at 5:26 p.m., EDT, with three new crew member for the International Space Station. NASA’s Jeff Williams and Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka expect to dock at 11:12 p.m., EDT, to start a six month tour of duty.
International Space Station to study meteors hitting atmosphere
Spaceflightnow.com (3/17): A new imager, Meteor, will head to the International Space Station aboard the Orbital ATK Cygnus commercial re-supply mission scheduled to launch late Mar. 22. Mounted inside the station, Meteor will make it possible for constant monitoring of space rocks and dust as they dive into the Earth’s atmosphere. Previous studies of the chemical composition of meteorites have been carried out from the Earth’s surface.
Is Iran preparing for a satellite launch? (video)
Space.com (3/6): Civilian cameras aboard the International Space Station suggest Iran is preparing to place a satellite in orbit with the Simorgh SLV rocket.
China, Russia planning space attacks on U.S. satellites
The Washington Free Beacon (3/16): Testimony this week from Pentagon and intelligence experts suggest that U.S. military satellites would be attacked by Russian or Chinese missiles, killer satellites, even lasers in a serious conflict. The vulnerable assets include GPS navigation, communications and reconnaissance satellites. The experts addressed the House Armed Service strategic forces subcommittee in Washington.