22 February 2013
Kennedy Engineers Designing Plant Habitat For ISS
A group of engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is developing a plant habitat with a large growth chamber to learn the effects of long-duration microgravity exposure to plants in space.
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21 February 2013
Time for Europe to beef up asteroid vigilance: ESA
Europe must strengthen its watch for dangerous space rocks, the head of the European Space Agency's asteroid surveillance programme said Thursday, a week after a meteor struck Russia in a blinding fireball. Nicolas Bobrinsky, in charge of ESA's four-year-old Space Situational Awareness (SSA) programme, said his unit would inaugurate a centre in Rome on May 22 to coordinate observatories' sightings of passing asteroids.
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21 February 2013
India plans mission to Mars in 2013
India said on Thursday it will send a $70 million space mission to Mars this year to study the red planet's atmosphere.
The unmanned Mars orbiter mission, to be launched in October by the Indian Space Research Organisation, will undertake a 300-day journey to the planet to collect data about its climate and geology.
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21 February 2013
NASA Rover Confirms First Drilled Mars Rock Sample
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has ever drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from its interior.
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21 February 2013
A new round of tests on the next-generation J-2X rocket engine
NASA engineers conducted the first in a new round of tests on the next-generation J-2X rocket engine Feb. 15 at Stennis Space Center. The 35-second test continued progress in development of the engine that will provide upper-stage power for NASA's new Space Launch System, which will enable missions farther into space than ever.
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20 February 2013
The First Human Mission to Mars in 2018
A press release issued late today indicated that a new organization, Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by the first private space traveler, Dennis Tito, would make a major announcement next Wednesday, February 27th concerning a 501 day mission to Mars.
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20 February 2013
Russian Fireball Largest Ever Detected by CTBTO's Infrasound Sensors
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19 February 2013
Antares Engine Test Aborted; New Date TBD
The planned first stage propulsion system "hot fire" test of Orbital's new Antares medium-class rocket was halted in the final seconds of the countdown by the rocket's flight computer, which detected an anomalous condition. The Antares team will evaluate the data from the test to determine the nature of the abort. A new date for the test has not been determined.
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18 February 2013
NASA's MAVEN Mission Completes Assembly
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft is assembled and is undergoing environmental testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems facilities, near Denver, Colo.
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18 February 2013
Kazakhstan, Russia Compromise on New Space Port
The new Kazakh-Russian space launch facility, Baiterek, will be modified for the launch of Zenit carrier rockets, Kazakhstan's National Space Agency Kazcosmos head Talgat Musabayev said on Wednesday, indicating that the two sides have reached a compromise on the project.
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15 February 2013
Welcome Aboard Shenzhou 10
As we approach the launch of China's next human space mission, some questions still remain unanswered. This is not unusual for the relatively veiled nature of China's space program, but it does invite speculation. What exactly will we see when Shenzhou 10, the next spacecraft to fly, lifts off?
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15 February 2013
Orion Lands Safely on Two of Three Parachutes in Test
NASA engineers have demonstrated the agency's Orion spacecraft can land safely if one of its three main parachutes fails to inflate during deployment.
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11 February 2013
Public to vote on names for Pluto moons
The U.S.-led team that discovered two new moons of the dwarf planet Pluto says they're asking the public to vote on potential names for the distant worlds. The fourth and fifth moons of Pluto, named for the Greek god of the underworld, are currently known simply as P4 and P5.
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11 February 2013
Space Sciences Committee reacts
The European Space Sciences Committee (ESSC) today released its position on the perspectives for the European Space Agency's (ESA) scientific programmes. The position statement provides recommendations on the outcomes of the ESA council meeting at ministerial level, which took place on 26-27 November 2012 in Naples. The statement comments on the impact for science-relevant ESA's programmes resulting from the decisions (or lack of) taken in the Naples meeting. They assert that despite some of the positive outcomes of the 2012 Ministerial Council, they are concerned about a number of "non-issues" discussed at the meeting.
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10 February 2013
Astronaut Sends Chinese New Year Greetings from Space
"Happy Chinese New Year! May it be filled with joy and success," Hadfield wrote. "To celebrate, we sent a Progress spaceship to burn like fireworks in the sky."
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, a space station flight engineer, sent good wishes and amazing photos of China via online Twitter messages to celebrate the Chinese Year of the Snake, which began Sunday, Feb. 10.
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09 February 2013
Propellantless Space Drive Called "EmDrive" Made in China
It's a a propellantless microwave thruster that defies Newton's laws of motion
Chinese scientists have taken on a heavily criticized space drive idea that could one day launch satellites, deep space probes and even flying cars.
The research team hails from Northwestern Polytechnic University in Xi'an, and was led by Yang Juan. What they developed was a propellantless microwave thruster called EmDrive, which is a controversial idea because it goes against Newton's laws of motion -- and many have claimed to create a "propellantless" thruster before and failed.
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08 February 2013
A Possible Naked-eye Comet in March
In early March, Comet Pan-STARRS will pass about 100 million miles from Earth as it briefly dips inside the orbit of Mercury. Most experts expect it to become a naked-eye object about as bright as the stars of the Big Dipper.
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08 February 2013
ESA's cooperation with China is gaining wider attention
The German weekly magazine "Spiegel" in its English online version is reporting about ESA's cooperation with China. The article is also touching on the latest visit of an ESA delegation to Beijing.
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08 February 2013
New NASA Mission To Help Us Better Estimate Asteroid Impact Hazard
NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, and Regolith Explorer) will make the most precise measurements of the Yarkovsky effect to date by visiting a PHA called "1999 RQ36" or just "RQ36."
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07 February 2013
NASA and ATK Complete Avionics and Controls Testing for SLS Booster
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04 February 2013
ESA's Director for Manned Space Flight and Operations is outlining Europe's space cooperation with China
Talking to journalists at ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany, ESA's Director for Manned Space Flight and Operations, Thomas Reiter, was outlining the status of Europe's space cooperation engagement with China: "We have started to intensify the mutual exchange between our counterparts in China and Europe. Last year in May there was a first working meeting which was basically related on aspects of rendezvous and docking, life support systems and astronaut training. Then in November there was a visit of representatives from the Chinese Astronaut Training Centre at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. Just two weeks ago there was the counter visit of our specialists in China in order to see how they are training, what they are doing differently, what kind of requirements do they have. In parallel, our Director General agreed beginning of fall last year with his counterpart in China, Mr. Wang, that we start in a technical working group to look at possibilities to do scientific utilisation of their future manned missions, means scientific utilisation of their human rated starts of the Tiangong or even end of the decade on their space station and to look for technical compatibilities or incompatibilities that could be interesting in case at a later point in time, end of the decade, maybe a European vehicle or an international vehicle could dock to the Chinese Space Station. This is the status. We have not yet started any direct developments but we are at least trying to understand where are the links where are the possibilities that we have, where are the options for cooperation. Maybe one thing I should mention: in the area of space situational awareness we were actually proposing a cooperative mission with China in the area of space weather, the so-called Kuafu mission. China offered the possibility to bring a European payload on one of their satellites which was supposed to go to the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point L1 and to provide a launcher for two European-build satellites for polar orbiting sensors to follow developments of the sun and space weather. Unfortunately, due to the financial constrains we had this proposal did not find support in the Ministerial Conference. So we had, unfortunately to stop it. But China is very well aware that this was not due to a lack of interest but that this was caused by the overall economic situation. Maybe there is a way in the future to build on that but that I can not tell. For the moment we could not engage in that programme. But you see there are quite some links which are already lasting for many years and we are trying to consolidate that links.
At the moment it is really an understanding of how they are operating and which possibilities we have for the future. I think it is also important to see the political aspect to be a kind of mediator between other space agencies and China to combine European interests vis-a-vis China's space flight programme as a whole, not only human space flight, also other areas. ... it is paving the way for future cooperation. But, again, those need to be decided in our Ministerial Conference, maybe in 2014 or a later point in time.
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FOR FURTHER READING
25 February 2013
It’s time for a real policy on asteroids
The Russian meteor and separate asteroid flyby earlier this month reminded people of the threat near Earth objects pose to the Earth. Peter Garretson argues that this is an opportunity to developed a more detailed national policy about both the threat they pose and potential benefits these objects offer.
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25 February 2013
Turning ISS into a full-fledged space laboratory
The International Space Station is transitioning from a a complex space construction project to an advanced research laboratory. Jeff Foust reports on the efforts to demonstrate what research the station is capable of performing, and near-term prospects for some major discoveries made there.
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25 February 2013
US cooperation with China in space: Some thoughts to consider for space advocates and policy makers
The question of whether the United States should cooperate with China in some manner in space activities is often a hot topic, with arguments for and against involving international leadership, national security, and other issues. Christopher Stone says some strategic context, particularly regarding how China is advancing its technological capabilities in general, is needed to properly consider this issue.
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25 February 2013
The Last Pictures: Contemporary pessimism and hope for the future (part 2)
In the second part of his look at an unusual artifact installed on a recently-launched communications satellite, Larry Kales examines some similarities and differences between it and the items included on the Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft as symbols of our life on Earth, good and bad.
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25 February 2013
Review: Spacewalker
Jerry Ross might not be a household name, even in the space industry, but he is an accomplished astronaut, flying on seven Space Shuttle missions from 1985 to 2002. Jeff Foust reviews a book where Ross describes how he achieved, and carried out, a childhood goal of becoming an astronaut.
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18 February 2013
Skyfall: will a Russian meteor and an asteroid flyby change our minds about the NEO threat?
On Friday a meteor disintegrated in the skies of souther Russia, causing considerable damage to buildings in the city of Chelyabinsk. Jeff Foust examines whether that, and an asteroid flying close by the Earth the same day, will raise awareness enough about the threat posed by near Earth objects to generate increased government or private funding for search efforts.
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18 February 2013
The Last Pictures: Contemporary pessimism and hope for the future (part 1)
A recently-launched commercial communications satellite carried an unusual secondary payload: a collection of images created by an artist, designed to outlast humanity. Larry Klaes begins a three-part look at “The Last Pictures” and their significance.
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18 February 2013
From seven minutes of terror to seven months of science
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is now in its seventh month of operation on the Martian surface, as mission scientists and engineers deliberately put the rover through its paces. Jeff Foust reports on what Curiosity’s lead scientist says is likely in store for the rover in the coming months.
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18 February 2013
Are there going to be any women at this party?
Is there a major deficiency in the ten-year history of this publication? Dwayne Day sees a lack of female writers, which may be indicative of broader issues with the space advocacy community.
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11 February 2013
Asking the big questions for the next ten years
The Space Review started ten years ago seeking to take on the big issues facing spaceflight then. Today, Jeff Foust describes another set of big questions, some new and some familiar, facing government and commercial space endeavors for the next decade.
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11 February 2013
Ten years back, ten years forward
The future of human spaceflight is a key issue for the comping decade. Louis Friedman warns that we run the risk of ceding space exploration entirely to robots if we’re not able to inspire people today with human spaceflight.
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11 February 2013
Can Elon Musk retire on Mars in 2023?
Elon Musk has indicated in media reports his long-term ambition is to retire on Mars. Can he do it? Sam Dinkin looks ahead a decade and crunches the numbers.
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11 February 2013
Proliferating military space power in 2013 and beyond
A lot has changed in military space over the last decade, as more countries gain military space capabilities. Taylor Dinerman argues that this brings with it new risks over the next decade as well.
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11 February 2013
A ten-year experiment
The Space Review started as an experiment: would people be interested in long-form articles on space issues? Jeff Foust says that experiment is still in progress, ten years later.
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11 February 2013
Athena rising?
Lockheed Martin is making a new attempt to revive the Athena launch vehicle, getting endorsements, but as yet no contracts, from government agencies. Dwayne Day examines the long, and often rocky history, of this small launcher.
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11 February 2013
Future In-Space Operations (FISO): a working group and community engagement
A series of telecons, little known outside of a small part of the space community, have been actively discussing a variety of topics for future activities beyond Earth orbit. Harley Thronson and Dan Lester describe the origins and current activities of the Future In-Space Operations group.
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10 February 2013
A Long March into Space
This is a nice overview article by Joan Johnson-Freese on Chinese space activities but also on how the US is viewing China and Chinese space policy implications.
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