In Today’s Deep Space Extra… President-elect Trump’s transition team assigns its first NASA representative, Chris Shank, who worked for a previous agency administrator, Mike Griffin.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA gets first “landing party” member — Chris Shank
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/29): Chris Shank, who served under Mike Griffin, NASA’s administrator between 2005 and 2009, becomes the first member of President-elect Trump’s administration to serve on the NASA “landing party.” Shank, who has held positions in the aerospace industry and government and served in the military, has been a top staffer to the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee since 2013.
Smith, Babin question NASA assertion that scientists now support ARM
Spacepolicyonline.com (11/29): Chairs of the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee and its Space Subcommittee have asked NASA for documentation to back-up recent claims of new science community support for the agency’s proposed two-phase Asteroid Redirect Mission. Previously unpopular among some quarters of the space community and House appropriators, the nearly $2 billion initial phase would robotically gather a boulder from an asteroid and move the boulder into lunar orbit, where it could be visited by NASA astronauts launched aboard a Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule. The second crewed phase has not been costed. In 2010, President Obama proposed a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025 as a prelude to a human mission to the Martian environs in the 2030s. Supporters of the Mars objective are concerned the asteroid activities will stall efforts to reach the red planet.
Space Science
Culprit found in blurry astronaut vision mystery
Universe Today (11/29): Findings presented before the Radiological Society of North America this week point to a migration of the cerebrobalspinal fluid as the cause of Visual Impairment Intracranial Pressure syndrome, a blurring of the vision of astronauts who experience long periods of weightlessness while living and working aboard the International Space Station. The ailment, experienced by two-thirds of space station astronauts, is considered a possible obstacle to human deep space exploration. Noam Alperin, a professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, led a study that identified pressure from the fluid as a cause for a flattening of the eyeball and protrusions of the optic nerve. Once astronauts are weightless, bodily fluids migrate from the lower torso to the upper chest and head.
Russian space agency confirms plans to implement lunar sample-return mission
Sputnik International, of Russia (11/29): Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, confirmed plans on Tuesday to carry out a robotic lunar sample return mission in the 2020s. Earlier in the day, an official with Russia’s Institute of Astronomy, said the sample return project had been abandoned.
Lookin’ good, Mars! ExoMars’ first high-res photos are incredible
Space.com (11/29): The European Space Agency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, part of the ExoMars mission tandem that reached Mars in October, has transmitted its first images of the Martian surface. The search for life mission will compile a 3-D map of Mars as it orbits. The lander portion of ExoMars, Schiaparelli, crashed as it attempted to land on the red planet on October 19.
German X Prize team announces launch contract
Space News (11/29): Berlin-based PT Scientists has signed with Spaceflight Industries of Seattle to find a launch opportunity for its Google Lunar X-Prize entry, a lander with two rovers. PT Scientists faced a December 31 deadline for submitting a launch contract to the competition organizer. So far, just three of 16 prospective competitors for the $20 million Lunar X-Prize have arranged launch services.
Potentially habitable planet’s shadow spotted from Earth
Space.com (11/29): The planet K2-3d orbits a bright star 150 light years away. First spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, K2-3d was also studied by Japan’s Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, which helped uncover evidence that the planet could have liquid water on the surface. Once launched in late 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will enable astronomers to search for evidence of biological activity in the atmosphere of K2-3d.
Weird landscape shows that Mercury’s no ‘dead’ planet
Seeker.com (11/29): Data from NASA’s long running but now concluded Messenger mission to Mercury show the planet closest to the sun is more than once imagined. Mercury hosts water ice, organic chemistry, one of the solar system’s largest impact basins, a large canyon and volcanic flows. Launched in 2004, Messenger orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015.
Low Earth Orbit
Russia falls behind U.S. and China in annual space launches
Moscow Times, of Russia (11/29): Though 2016 has a month left, it appears the U.S. and China will surpass Russia in the number of annual rocket launches. Russia has led in the annual tally since the late 1960s. China has never surpassed Russia. The projected annual totals are U.S., 20; China, 19; Russia, 18. A slumping Russian economy and lapses in rocket performance appear to be the blame for the slide.
Research on Space Station is “excellent,” faces a backlog of requests
NASAspaceflight.com (11/30): Scientific research aboard the six-person International Space Station is growing — so much so that there is a backlog of work as well as a shortage of crew time. The total number of research activities undertaken so far total nearly 2,300, according to Sam Scimemi, NASA director of station operations, during a NASA Advisory Council panel earlier this month. The current crew of station astronauts has just over 300 investigations on its agenda.
NASA ends efforts to repair Space Station Earth science instrument
Space News (11/29): The Rapid Scatterometer, an experimental instrument positioned outside the International Space Station to survey the world’s oceans to collect wind speed and direction data, has ceased operations, according to NASA. The sensor experienced a power problem in August and recovery efforts have failed. An Indian satellite is currently flying with a similar data gathering instrument, and a comparable sensor, the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, was affixed to the Space Station in 2015.