In Today’s Deep Space Extra… The recent documentary The Last Man on the Moon stands as a tribute to American ambition.
Human Deep Space Exploration
The Last Man on the Moon…
The List (4/4): A new documentary, The Last Man on the Moon, portrays the life of Gene Cernan, who commanded Apollo 17, the most recent mission to venture into deep space with human explorers. Cernan, how 82, symbolizes the sort of stoic, self-made American whose way of life embodies the nation’s pioneering spirit.
Space Science
You could actually snooze your way through an asteroid belt
New York Times (4/5): Spacecraft transiting the asteroid belt face little threat of collision despite popular assumptions of an intense risk portrayed in popular video games and science fiction movies like Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Experts estimate the region between Mars and Jupiter counts 1 billion asteroids the size of a football field or larger. But the region is vast. NASA’s Juno spacecraft is currently in transit on the way to a July 4 encounter with Jupiter.
Did the sun steal Planet Nine?
Universe Today (4/4): Recent studies suggest the gravitational influence of a large, yet to be directly observed, planet in the distant solar system. Some astronomers believe Planet Nine may have been hijacked by the sun from another solar system.
Damaged Japanese spacecraft likely “beyond saving”
National Geographic (4/4): New images of Japan’s orbiting Hitori X-ray space observatory suggest the spacecraft is in fragments and unlikely to be recovered. Hitori, also known as Astro-H, was launched on Feb. 17. Steady communications was lost on Mar. 26.
Water ice on Ceres boosts hopes for buried ocean
Scientific American (4/4): Evidence gathered by NASA’s Dawn mission spacecraft mounts for the possibility of vast water ice on the dwarf planet Ceres. The latest evidence was spotted by Dawn on the slopes of a crater called Oxo. The origin could be an subsurface ice sheet. A liquid ocean may lie even deeper below the surface, adding to Ceres’ intrigue.
Black Hole jets hotter than expected
The Space Review (4/4): Russian physicists find a quasar with the Skeptr-R satellite that is defying all limits on high temperatures. Jets of material emerging from 3C 273 were measured at 179 billion degrees F.
Low Earth Orbit
How NASA turns astronauts into photographers
The Washington Post (4/5): NASA’s space travelers have a long tradition of taking the importance of photography seriously. Though the importance emerged during the earliest orbital missions, it gained great significance with The Blue Marble, an image of the Earth from the moon, shot by Apollo astronauts in 1972.
In Microsoft spotlight, astronaut Scott Kelly banters about HoloLens…
Geekwire.com (4/4): Just back from 340 days in orbit aboard the International Space Station, recently retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly joined the Microsoft Envision conference in New Orleans to share his experiences and tout the company’s Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset. The high tech eye ware “has incredible applications, not just in space but throughout all kinds of different industries,” Kelly said.
The challenges of commercializing research in low Earth orbit
The Space Review (4/4): As the International Space Station matures, the infrastructure aboard for commercial research activities and technical demonstrations is coming together. The Bigelow Expandable Activities Module, which is to launch aboard a re-supply mission late this week, is the latest example. Commercial companies are meeting NASA’s re-supply needs for space station crews; by late 2017, the U.S. private sector is to be launching astronauts to the orbiting science lab. Backers, including the nonprofit Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which is responsible for facilitating use of the space station’s U.S. National Lab volume, continue with efforts to convince a wider tech community of the benefits. But it’s a challenge. “They want to know if there is a gravitational impact on their bottom line,” said one of those involved in the effort.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Orbital presses U.S. lawmakers to end ban on retired missiles
Reuters (4/5): Orbital ATK supports a move to free decommissioned U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles for use as launch vehicles for commercial satellites as part of the National Defense Authorization Act set to take effect Oct. 1. The U.S. and Russia agreed to sideline the missiles in the 1990s. Competitors, who have invested heavily in new launch vehicles, oppose doing away with the ban of their use. A transition, however, would lower the amount spent by the U.S. Air Force on storage and support of the missiles, a total estimated at $17 million this year.
First launch from Russia’s new spaceport due on April 27
Itar Tass, of Russia (4/4): The first launch from Russia’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome is scheduled for April 27, Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, announced on Monday. A Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle is being prepared for the milestone. Construction of the new launch complex began in 2010.
Federal legislation to jump start space solar power
The Space Review (4/4): Environmental concerns will prompt a global transition away from fossil fuel as a primary energy source over the next century, writes Mike Snead, president of the Spacefaring Institute LLC. The move will lead to the creation of three new industries, he predicts: space-based sustainable energy production and delivery, space mining, and space faring logistics. Snead outlines a proposed policy and legislative formula.