Satellite observations of unique, finger-like dark features on steep slopes of the mid-southern latitudes of Mars hint at dense briny water flows during the summer season, according to findings from 11 researchers associated with NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Odyssey missions.
HOUSTON — Orbital Sciences Corp. successfully completed its first NASA-contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station early Feb. 18, as the Dulles, Va.-based company’s “Orb-1” Cygnus capsule was unberthed from the U.S. segment Harmony module and released with Canada’s robot arm at 6:41 a.m. EST. The resupply craft is scheduled for a destructive re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 1:20 p.m. EST on Feb. 19.
NEW DELHI — India’s first manned space flight program has received a major boost with a higher budgetary allocation and development of a crew module structural assembly. The federal interim budget, announced on Feb. 17, increased the allocation for the human space flight program from 92 million rupees ($1.5 million) to 170 million rupees. The increase comes days after state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) handed over the crew module to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
HOUSTON — The terrifying Chelyabinsk explosion over Russia one year ago has significantly altered the debate over efforts to detect and deflect asteroids that pose an impact threat to the Earth, according to one of the nation’s top experts in the field. “It was a wake-up call for the world,” said David Morrison, senior scientist at NASA’s recently established Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), at the Ames Research Center Feb. 14.
Rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are sending the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to explore north-facing rock layers, after discovering the source of a tiny rock fragment that triggered an unusual lawsuit. Dubbed Pinnacle Island, the 1.5-in.-wide red-and-white rock turned up in a rover image collected Jan. 8 in a spot where it had not been four days earlier. After collecting more images, JPL experts concluded that the rock had broken loose from a larger rock that was hit by one of Opportunity’s six wheels and rolled downhill.
SPACE SPENDING: Government spending on space programs worldwide dipped last year for the first time since 1995, according to Euroconsult, dropping $800 million total (1%). The consulting company said this was “a direct result of the cyclical nature of countries’ investment in space-based infrastructures, combined with governments’ belt-tightening efforts during tough economic times.” But the advisors said there are positive signs for industry, starting with growing international activity in space.
An irony is playing out here over the U.S. government's fiscal 2015 budget: Not since the last recession ended has there been such widespread acknowledgement in Washington of where federal spending is headed, thanks to the so-called Ryan-Murray budget deal in December and 2014 appropriations, which became law Jan. 17. But Congress increasingly will be unable to do anything about it as 2014 continues.
When it comes to the fiscal 2015 budget request from the Obama administration, if you like your current major aerospace and defense program, you can keep it—for now. With the politically charged nature of final 2014 appropriations and their late-cycle passage Jan. 17, and next month's release of the 2015 request and accompanying long-term budget blueprint, more than the usual high-level information is already known about the White House's formal request as far as 2018.
To paraphrase an old joke, everybody likes to monitor weather from space, but nobody does anything about it. Now comes a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher with training in aeronautical engineering and atmospheric science, pushing a $3 million experiment to determine if jet engines on the ground can generate enough updraft to start rainfall in drought-stricken areas.
BEIJING — The rover of China’s Chang’e 3 lunar mission is showing signs of life after almost being declared dead. Jade Rabbit, as the rover is known, is again receiving signals from the Earth, Chinese media report.
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft, already the longest-working spacecraft ever dispatched to the red planet, is maneuvering to take on a new task: global observations of seasonal variations in fog, clouds and surface frost in the thin atmosphere after sunrise. What’s more, the solar-powered spacecraft, launched in April 2001 as a $297 million, three-year mission, is forecast to function for another decade or so serving as a communications relay for other Mars spacecraft, just as it did for the Curiosity rover’s dramatic August 2012 landing.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has awarded a €60 million ($82 million) contract to Ariane 5 prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space to continue definition and feasibility studies this year for Europe’s next-generation Ariane 6 launcher. The Phase B1 studies will “pinpoint the detailed architecture developed so far and consolidate the launcher’s main characteristics,” the company—formerly EADS-Astrium—said in a Feb. 12 news release. The results of these studies will be unveiled in November during an ESA System Requirements Review (SRR) of the Ariane 6.
HOUSTON — The first of Planet Labs’ 28-strong fleet of Earth observing CubeSats leaped into orbit from the International Space Station’s spring-loaded deployer mechanism early Feb. 11. The first four of the San Francisco-based Planet Labs’ Dove Sats emerged from the launcher outside the orbiting science laboratory’s Japanese Kibo module in pairs at 3:32 a.m. and 7:41 a.m. EST.
NASA and French space agency CNES have formalized a cooperative agreement on the primary instrument that will fly aboard the U.S.-led InSight mission to Mars. As NASA’s 12th Discovery mission, the $425 million InSight (Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) aims to land a sophisticated geophysical observatory on the surface of Mars to study its structure and composition.
U.S. commercial remote sensing services provider Skybox Imaging has awarded Space Systems/Loral (SSL) of Palo Alto, Calif., a contract to build an advanced constellation of small Earth observation satellites for operation in low Earth orbit.
PARIS — A combination of new competition from U.S.-based Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and an unfavorable euro-dollar exchange rate means European governments may need to increase subsidies for operations of the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicle at Europe’s Guiana Space Center (CSG) in Kourou, French Guiana.
NASA I.T.: NASA’s Inspector General (IG) is faulting a $2.5 billion, four-year agency effort with HP Enterprise Services to transition computer support from a field center-based framework to organization-wide oversight. Now at its mid-point, the effort has led to difficulties with IT security and timely software patches, according to a recent audit. NASA IG Paul Martin urges careful consideration by NASA before exercising a three-year extension of the November 2011 HP contract.
Merging commercial human spaceflight missions into the air traffic control (ATC) system is a growing concern within the nascent industry and the government bureaucracies that ultimately will be responsible for regulating it, particularly as the industry approaches sending its first passengers to space.
Sixteen CubeSats carrying a range of engineering, science and educational projects developed by U.S. universities, nonprofits and NASA field centers are eligible for secondary payload flight assignments in 2015 through 2017, under the latest round of NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative selections.
U.S. Army Sauer Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., was awarded a $56,038,640 contract to build an operational readiness training complex at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif. Fiscal 2014 military construction funds in the amount of $56,038,640 were obligated at the time of the award. Estimated completion date is April 30, 2016. Bids were solicited via the Internet with 22 received. Work will be performed at Fort Hunter Liggett. Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville, Ky., is the contracting activity (W912QR-14-C-0006).
