Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. European space officials express interest in joining with NASA for a future Europa mission. Partnered with the European Space Agency, Russia is ready for another Mars mission attempt. The New Horizons spacecraft, NASA’s Pluto explorer, keeps the imagery coming. The Chandra X-ray space telescope watches a black hole merger. NASA’s Kepler space telescope rebounds from a mechanical set back to continue alien planet discoveries. France and Germany express doubts about a 2020-2024 extension of International Space Station operations. British astronaut Tim Peake prepares for a mid-January spacewalk. Space News goes bi-weekly, loses two key staffers.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
ESA wants to be a part of NASA’s mission to Europa
Spaceflightnow.com (1/5): Leadership of the European Space Agency has expressed interest in joining a NASA-led mission to the Jovian moon Europa with an orbiter and possible lander. An earlier NASA led multinational mission, Galileo, characterized Europa as an ice and ocean covered moon of Jupiter. The U.S. Congress has urged NASA to pair a lander with an orbiter on the future Europa Clipper mission.
For Russia’s space program, 2016 may be a make-or-break year
Ars Technica (1/5): Joined with Russia, the European Space Agency is prepared to launch a critical planetary science mission in 2016. ExoMars 1 will place an orbiter around Mars and transport a prototype lander for a rover the two space agencies plan to launch to the Martian surface in 2018.
What we’ve learned about Pluto so far
New Yorker (1/5): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft dashed close by Pluto during a space exploration first in mid-July. However, the probe’s work is hardly over. Images and data from the flyby continue to stream back to Earth as New Horizons seeks its next destination.
Pluto’s floating mountains, intriguing structures fascinate scientists
Spaceflightnow.com (1/5): NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has transmitted just one quarter of the data it gathered during an unprecedented July 14 flyby of Pluto. The stream of data reveal craters, mountains and other features once unimagined.
Milky Way has burping black hole neighbor
Discovery.com (1/5): NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory watched as a black hole at the center of a neighboring galaxy erupted in the midst of a merger with another star. Scientists attending the American Astronautical Society meeting in Kissimmee, Fla., presented the imagery on Tuesday.
NASA’s Kepler comes roaring back with 100 new exoplanet finds
Space.com (1/5): NASA’s near seven year old Kepler space telescope, the centerpiece of a mission focused on the discovery of planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way galaxy, has rebounded from a setback of two years ago. Since a setback involving the loss of reaction wheels, a critical part of the aiming mechanism, Kepler has identified more than 100 alien planets, according to presentations Tuesday before the American Astronomical Society in Kissimmee, Fla.
Low Earth Orbit
France, Germany admit to second thoughts about sticking with ISS
Space News (1/5): In Europe, France and Germany have second thoughts about extending operations of the six person International Space Station from 2020 to 2024, as proposed by the U.S. White House in early 2024. Russia, Japan and Canada have already signed on to the extension.
Tim Peake to go on six-hour spacewalk to repair International Space Station
The Guardian, of England (1/5): British astronaut Tim Peake is set to carry out a Jan.15 spacewalk outside the International Space Station with NASA astronaut Tim Kopra to replace a solar power voltage regulator that failed in mid-November. Peake, Britain’s first professional astronaut, was among three U.S., European and Russian astronauts launched to the station on Dec. 15 for a five to six month stay.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
Big changes at Space News, Inc.
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/5): The space trade publication Space News will transition from weekly to a bi-weekly publication.