In Today’s Deep Space Extra… More than Apollo, the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion spacecraft is designed to transport human explorers beyond the moon and back.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Insider exclusive: Lockheed Martin’s Jules Schneider talks EM-1 and Orion
Spaceflight Insider (2/22): Two years of activity are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to prepare the NASA/Lockheed Martin Exploration Mission-1 Orion spacecraft for a late 2018 uncrewed test flight, its first when paired with the Space Launch System exploration rocket. The three week EM-1 test flight will send the capsule around the moon and back to Earth. Orion is designed to surpass NASA’s Apollo capsule in capabilities to support future human deep space exploration missions, according to Jules Schneider Lockheed Martin Orion assembly, integration, and production manager. Added capabilities will support re-entries as well as launches to destinations beyond the moon.
Mars 2030: Explore your own virtual red planet
Discovery.com (2/22): A new virtual reality experience, Mars 2030, produced by the VR developer Fusion and set to debut in March, will offer a realistic look at the Martian surface experience based on information gathered from NASA and MIT. “NASA has provided us information to achieve the highest level of regard for scientific accuracy through direct contact with various teams working on the many facets of such a complex mission,” explains Julian Reyes, Fusion virtual reality producer and designer. Mars 2030 is to become available to the public later this year.
Remembrance of things past
The Space Review (2/22): Essayist Dwayne Day takes up for efforts in the U.S. to preserve the nation’s most significant pieces of space hardware, including the piloted spacecraft from the Apollo and space shuttle eras. Without similar resources, Russia has not fared so well, notes Day, who concludes the U.S. is exercising “…historical stewardship, and management, based upon careful prioritization and fiscal prudence.”
The true story behind Apollo 10’s “outer-spacey” music encounter
CBS News (2/22): Weird “music” heard by the crew of Apollo 10 during their 1969 lunar mission was traced to VHF radio frequency interference in the command and lunar lander modules. The audio surprise is featured in an upcoming episode of the Science Channel series, “NASA’s Unexplained Files.”
Space Science
NASA calling all kinds of artists for mission to send work into orbit
Denver Post (2/22): NASA invites submissions of sketches, poems, songs, videos and Instagram posts to ride along on OSIRIS-REx, an asteroid sample return mission undergoing preparations for launch in September to Bennu, a Near Earth Object. The terrestrial artwork will travel aboard a spacecraft designed to remain in space. Samples of Bennu may provide clues about the evolution of the solar system. The spacecraft is currently undergoing pre-launch testing at Lockheed Martin facilities in Colorado.
NASA will use repurposed spy telescope for wide-sky survey
Space.com (2/22): WFIRST, NASA’s next deep space observatory project, will incorporate optics provided by the National Reconnaissance Organization, to establish a wide field telescope for studies of dark energy and dark matter, while extending the search for habitable planets in Milky Way star systems. Given an official start on Feb. 18, the Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope should join make its way to the sun/Earth L2 Lagrange point in the mid-2020s.
China is racing to make the 2020 launch window to Mars
GB Times, of China (2/22): China is looking to an ambitious Mars mission in 2020, an initiative combining an orbiter, lander and rover. The hardware will be equipped to study the atmosphere for methane, a gas that could have biological origins, and probe the subsurface with ground penetrating radar. NASA’s Mars 2020 rover will be in route to the red planet during the same launch opportunity.
Moon mail: Earth’s moon rises on new U.S. postage stamp
Collectspace.com (2/22): The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a new lunar themed global “forever” stamp on Monday, entitled simply “The Moon.” The unveiling, which coincided with this month’s full moon, pays tribute to the moon’s constancy and inspiration.
Low Earth Orbit
Full moon and Jupiter rendezvous in the sky: How to see it
Space.com (2/22): Bright Jupiter and the full moon lurk together in the night sky early this week — visible where skies are clear.
Japan to join space-debris monitoring effort
Nikkei Asian Review (2/22): Japan has committed to join the U.S. and other nations in the surveillance of orbital debris that could pose a threat to active satellites and share the data with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France and Germany.
Suborbital
Relaunching a spaceship
The Space Review (2/22): Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rolled out last Friday, altered in appearance and in other more significant ways from its predecessor, which crashed during an October 2014 flight test over Mojave, Calif., claiming the life of one pilot and injuring the other. In addition to a new paint scheme, SpaceShipTwo features a lock on the mechanism that controls the feathering for re-entry. The premature release of the mechanism was linked to the crash. Virgin Galactic has also changed the solid fuel engine. Virgin Galactic pledges a flight test program responsive to milestones, not schedule.