Today’s Deep Space Extra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. NASA is closer than ever to reaching Mars with human explorers, Administrator Charles Bolden says during a Washington event discussing The Martian. Titusville, Florida’s U.S. Space Walk of Fame is a worthy addition to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for a look at the history of human space flight, according to op-ed. NASA engineers test a robotic rover that could search for water on the moon. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission measures gravitational forces that influence fault lines on the moon. A “super moon” is featured in a rare lunar eclipse coming Sunday. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station preview The Martian. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, the world’s most experienced space traveler, continues his research activities after returning from a six month stay on the International Space Station on Sept. 12.
Human Deep Space Exploration
NASA Administrator says agency closer to ever to landing humans on Mars.
The Space Reporter (9/19): Administrator Charles Bolden, speaking at an event spotlighting the soon to open film The Martian, proclaimed NASA closer than ever to reaching Mars with human explorers. At the Washington gathering, Bolden pointed to progress with the development of the Lockheed Martin Orion crew exploration capsule and the Space Launch System heavy lift rocket. The administrator also noted that NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has reached the midpoint of a yearlong mission aboard the International Space Station. Medical experiments with Kelly as a subject are examining the challenges of sending future explorers on month’s to year’s long missions to deep space destinations, including Mars.
Man on Mars? NASA says it’s happening — and soon
The Huffington Post (9/21): “We are farther down the path to sending humans to Mars than at any point in NASA’s history,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said at an event last week, according to Space.com. “We have a lot of work to do to get humans to Mars, but we’ll get there.” Bolden spoke with the space media last week in an event that recognized the soon to open film The Martian.
Marshall Space Flight Center turns science fiction into science fact
WHNT-TV, of Alabama (9/21): NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is developing the life support systems to recycle air and water for astronauts launched on missions to Mars.
An alternative space pilgrimage
The Space Review (9/21): A new museum and tribute to NASA’s early human space activities at the Kennedy Space Center has opened in Titusville, Fla., The U.S. Space Walk of Fame is a companion to the museum at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, writes TSR editor Jeff Foust.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
NASA tests lunar rover prototype with eye toward flying real thing
Space News (9/21): NASA engineers are combining efforts to develop the Resource Prospector rover, a mobile robot designed specifically to explore the moon’s surface for signs of water ice.
Life-hunting mission would bring samples back from Saturn moon Enceladus
Space.com (9/21): Life Investigation for Enceladus (LIFE), a concept mission would send a spacecraft flying through the geyser like spray rising from Saturn’s moon to retrieve samples. The samples would be returned to Earth for analysis. Enceladus might address questions of habitable environments in the distant reaches of the solar system.
Earth blamed for cracks in moon
New York Times (9/21): Using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, mission scientists find evidence the Earth’s gravity has influenced fault lines on the moon’s surface.
An eerie NASA video shows how Sunday’s ‘super blood moon’ will look like from the moon
Tech Insider (9/21): A NASA video provides a preview of Sunday’s lunar eclipse, which will occur with the moon closer to Earth and thus appearing larger than normal. Conditions will accentuate the reddish cast of the moon as the Earth’s shadow falls across the lunar surface. In the northern hemisphere, the eclipse starts shortly after 10 p.m., EDT, and lasts until almost 11:30 p.m.
Low Earth Orbit
ISS astronauts treated to screening of ‘The Martian’
CNET (9/22): U.S. astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren hosted a weekend preview of The Martian for the six astronauts and cosmonauts living aboard the International Space Station. The fictional story of an astronaut stranded on Mars but determined to survive opens in theaters on Oct. 2.
Russian cosmonaut takes part in post-flight experiment after 6 months at ISS
TASS, or Russia (9/21): After completing his recent six month stay aboard the International Space Station, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka continued to serve as a subject in experiments intended to reveal how he responded to long periods of weightlessness. As he landed on Sept. 12, Padalka logged a career world’s record 878 days in space over five missions.