In Today’s Deep Space Extra… NASA experts say the technologies for productive human exploration of Mars are starting to emerge.
Human Deep Space Exploration
We Could Have Reached Mars in the ’70s. Here’s Why We Didn’t
Inverse (9/4): NASA possessed the technologies to reach Mars with humans in the Apollo program’s aftermath. But not until recently has the space agency focused its efforts on the capabilities that humans require to live and work productively in the Martian realm, according to a panel of space agency experts gathered for a Star Trek: Mission New York Event over the Labor Day weekend. “It’s really technology that drives exploration,” said Jeffrey Sheehy, of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “And so that’s why this is the right time to start mounting a plan to go to Mars.”
Aerojet Rocketdyne tests Orion abort system jettison motor
Spaceflight Insider (9/1): The powerful jettison motor Aerojet is developing for the NASA/Lockheed Martin Orion capsule generated 45,000 pounds of thrust during an Aug. 31 ground test in Rancho Cordova, Calif. Orion is in development to launch astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration. During the launch phase, the spacecraft ascends under an abort motor designed to propel the capsule and its crew away from a launch vehicle emergency. The jettison motor lifts the abort motor and a protective shell from Orion after first stage separation during nominal flight.
Space Science
NASA Aims at an Asteroid Holding Clues to the Solar System’s Roots
New York Times (9/5): The first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, NASA’s Osiris Rex, is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Thursday. The planned 7:05 p.m., ET, liftoff will initiate a seven-year round trip to the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. Osiris will spend two years mapping Bennu and selecting a sample collection site. Osiris-Rex’s sample return capsule is to descend into the Utah desert by parachute in September 2023 with up to four pounds of soil and rock from the asteroid.
There it is – Philae Lander Found
Universe Today (9/5): Philae, the long-lost lander component of the European Space Agency’s nearly complete Rosetta mission to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, has been found. It was located in close-up imagery of the comet’s surface taken by the Rosetta orbiter on Sept. 2. Rosetta rendezvoused with 67P in August 2014 and released Philae for what turned out to be a rough landing on Nov. 12, 2014. Communications ended as battery power faded and shade at the crash site prevented solar panels from recharging the batteries. As Rosetta neared the sun, there was a final burst of communications in June and July of 2015.
Juno reveals that Jupiter’s north pole is ‘like nothing we have seen or imagined’
Los Angeles Times (9/2): Jupiter shows a new side to NASA’s Juno probe in photos transmitted to Earth late last week. Launched in 2011, Juno maneuvered into an elliptical polar orbit around the solar system’s largest planet on July 4. The spacecraft soared just 2,500 miles over the planet’s cloud tops on Aug. 27, revealing the north pole as never before.
A Teen Might Pick The Landing Site For NASA’s Next Mars Rover
National Public Radio (9/4): Raleigh, N.C. high school student Alex Longo has NASA experts listening to his suggestion that the next Mars rover, Mars 2020, land within the red planet’s Gusev Crater to explore and gather soil and rock samples that could one day be returned to Earth for study. Longo, who would like to be the first person on Mars, was smitten with space exploration in 2005, when he watched a space shuttle launch.
Dawn probe points to ice volcano and thin atmosphere on dwarf planet Ceres
Geek Wire (9/1): Ahuna Mons, a three-mile-high peak on the large asteroid Ceres, was likely created through volcanic activity, eruptions of ice and mud as recent as a few hundred million years ago. NASA’s Dawn mission spacecraft has been orbiting Ceres in the main asteroid belt since the spring of 2015.
Higher orbit will help Dawn address science questions about Ceres
Spaceflight Insider (9/3): NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has returned to a high orbit for its extended mission at the dwarf planet Ceres, a resident of the main asteroid belt. At an orbital altitude of 910 miles instead of its most recent 240 miles, Dawn will reserve the fuel its needs to keep an eye on possible subsurface processes at work on Ceres for two more years.
Low Earth Orbit
China Readies New Space Station, New Heavy Lift Rocket for September Launches
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/5): Tiangong-2, China’s new space station, is being prepped for a mid-September launch. The first launch of China’s new Long March 5 rocket, which approaches the lift capability of the U.S. Delta 4 rocket, is planned for mid-September as well.
Chinese officials silent after Long March rocket failure
Spaceflightnow.com (9/2): China’s Long March 4 lifted off Aug. 31, with the country’s news outlets saying nothing of the fate of an Earth-observing satellite. The U.S. Air Force, which tracks objects in Earth orbit, said Sept. 2 it had not detected a deployment.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
SpaceX Blast Threatens to Leave NASA in a Bind
Wall Street Journal (9/5): The Sept. 1 launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. that destroyed a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with an Israeli communications satellite during preparations for a pre-launch test will challenge efforts by the U.S. to initiate private sector astronaut launch services. NASA could be forced to purchase more seats aboard Russia’s Soyuz rockets beyond 2018, according to the report. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program participants, Boeing and SpaceX, planned uncrewed and crewed test flights of their human spacecraft in 2017-18. The cause of the Sept. 1 blast that also damaged a U.S. Air Force launch pad has not been determined.
SpaceX Falcon 9 explosion a reminder of crew risks
Florida Today (9/3): A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch pad explosion early Sept. 1 has a veteran former NASA astronaut wondering if a human crew could have survived the event had astronauts been atop the launch vehicle rather than a communications satellite. “The question is, would the escape system be able to react in time,” notes Mike Lopez-Alegria. NASA plans further testing of the abort system in development as part of the future Boeing and SpaceX crew transport systems that are to launch U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station.
Business Insider (9/3): A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded early Sept. 1 during preparations for a pre-launch test firing of a Falcon 9 rocket with an Israeli communications satellite. The blast, thought to originate with the rocket’s second stage oxygen tank, imparted damage to Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., one of two Central Florida launch pads under the company’s jurisdiction. SpaceX is one of two companies that launches supplies to the International Space Station and one of two companies participating in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, an effort to establish private sector launch services for space station astronauts. The FAA is supervising the probe.
NASA Inspector General Doubts Routine Commercial Crew Flights Before Late 2018
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/1): U.S. commercial launches of astronauts bound for the International Space Station aboard Boeing and SpaceX vehicles are likely to experience technical problems that will slow the first missions to no sooner than late 2018, according to NASA’s Inspector General. The IG called for more timely NASA responses to hazard reports coming from the two companies. The development activities are led by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Roscosmos to develop space tourism in 2 years
TASS, of Russia (9/3): Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, intends to launch passengers into Earth orbit within two years, agency manager Igor Komarov told the TASS news agency. Russia will do so with foreign partners, who Komarov did not disclose. Russia has worked previously with Space Adventures, of the United States, to launch a few commercial astronauts to the International Space Station.
Suborbital
Jeff Bezos to Receive $250,000 Prize
Washingtonian (9/2): Blue Origins’ Jeff Bezos will receive this year’s Heinlein Prize for Accomplishments in Space Flight Activities in ceremonies Sept. 14 at the Air and Space Museum in Washington. Blue Origin has successfully tested re-usable space vehicles and is on a course to begin launching paying passengers next year.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of September 5-9, 2016
Spacepolicyonline.com (9/4): Seated in Russia’s Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft, NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and cosmonauts Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin are to descend to Earth in remote Kazakhstan on Tuesday at 9:14 p.m., ET, after nearly six months at the International Space Station. NASA plans the launch of the first U.S. asteroid sample return mission, Osiris-Rex, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Thursday at 7:05 p.m., ET. In Washington, the U.S. House and Senate reconvene to address the 2017 budget.