Category Archives: Space Exploration

The quest to win a $30 million race to the moon is just the first part of Moon Express' grand plan.

The Florida-based companyis developing an entire family of spacecraft designed to help usher in a new age of low-cost space exploration, from the moon to Mars and beyond, Moon Express representatives revealed today (July 12).

"That's where my heart is solar system exploration on a grand scale that democratizes and completely accelerates our evolution into the solar system through knowledge and discovery, not just a few expensive voyages sponsored by kings and governments, like in history," Moon Express CEO and co-founder Bob Richards told Space.com. "We need to get everybody going." [In Images: How Moon Express' Space Exploration Plan Works]

Artists impression showing the single-stage MX-1E spacecraft descending toward the lunar surface carrying a suite of science and exploration instruments. The MX-1E can deliver up to 66 lbs. (30 kilograms) to the lunar surface, Moon Express representatives said.

As its name suggests, Moon Express' vision starts with Earth's nearest neighbor. The company is one of five teams left in the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition, which will award $20 million to the first privately funded group to soft-land a robot on the moon, move it at least 1,640 feet (500 meters) across the lunar surface and beam high-resolution imagery and video back to Earth. (Prizes for several other accomplishments bring the total purse up to $30 million.)

The GLXP award will expire if nobody claims it by Dec. 31, 2017. Moon Express has signed a contract to fly its lander aboard Rocket Lab's new Electron booster but has yet to announce a launch date.

The two-stage Electron lifted off for the first time in late May. The maiden voyage was apartial success; the rocket's second stage failed to reach its desired orbit, according to Rocket Lab representatives.

"I think that first test flight bodes very well for Rocket Lab, and we're still rooting for them and hoping that they'll have an operational vehicle ramped up and ready for us by the end of the year," Richards said.

The MX-1E lander sits on the lunar surface in this artists illustration. Moon Express plans to the launch the MX-1E, which uses eco-friendly fuels, toward the moon later this year.

The GLXP mission won't be the last lunar voyage for Moon Express, if all goes according to plan. Its deal with Rocket Lab covers up to five launches, and Moon Express wants at least two more to occur in the next few years, Richards revealed during a news conference today.

The first post-GLXP mission, scheduled to launch in 2019, will set up a robotic research outpost near the lunar south pole and prospect for water and other resources. Then, in 2020, Moon Express will launch the first commercial lunar sample-return mission. That effort, Richards said, should prove out the company's technologies and its business model, which is centered around creating low-cost access to the moon's surface for a variety of customers.

The core piece of hardware to make all of that happen is a single-engine lander called the MX-1, which will launch on the GLXP flight. Moon Express aims to mass-produce the MX-1, sell it as a stand-alone lunar explorer and have it serve as a building block for three larger, more capable spacecraft the MX-2, the MX-5 and the MX-9, Richards said today.

The MX-2 combines two MX-1s into a single package, boosting the MX-1's payload capacity in Earth-moon space and potentially enabling missions to Venus or the moons of Mars. As their names suggest, the MX-5 and MX-9 incorporate five engines and nine engines, respectively, and broaden the exploration envelope even further, Richards said.

All of these spacecraft will be available in orbiter, lander and deep-space variations, and the MX-5 and MX-9 vehicles will also come in a sample-return configuration.

Artists impression of the MX-9 return vehicle launching from the moon toward Earth carrying lunar samples.

Moon Express has not revealed how much it will charge for any of these spacecraft. However, company representatives have said that, together, the MX-1 and Electron can deliver a lunar mission for less than $10 million (that's "cost," not retail). Electron flights currently sell for about $5.5 million apiece, putting the lander's raw cost at $4.5 million or less.

Therefore, the potential exists to cut space-exploration costs significantly for example, by an order of magnitude or so on MX-9 missions, Richards said.

"That's when you get a radical price reduction a collapse, really, of the costs down to hundreds of thousands of dollars a kilogram [of payload to the lunar surface] from the millions that it is today for smaller systems," he told Space.com. "I really hope that we're able to do for lunar access whatcubesatsdid for access to low Earth orbit."

The moon is the focus in the short term, but the company hopes its reach will expand as time goes on.

"We're not The Moon Express," Richards said. "We're Moon Express, so any moon will do."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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Moon Express Unveils Plan to Help Explore Solar System on a 'Grand Scale' - Space.com

Residents in West Texas and Southern New Mexico may not be aware of a massive volcanic crater in the area, but Kilbourne Hole is no secret to geologists and NASA researchers from around the nation. The National Natural Landmark is about 30 miles west of the Franklin Mountains and is known as a maar volcano.

About 24,000 years ago, there was lava, magma that came up from deep within the Earth, and it hit shallow groundwater in the aquifer that was here, explained Jose Hurtado, Ph.D., professor of geological sciences. It was a lot wetter back then. That water turned to steam and that steam built up immense pressure, and that pressure was released in a massive explosion that produced Kilbourne Hole. The explosion also threw out pulverized material exposed in layers.

Mother Natures unique imprint in the middle of the desert is what draws Hurtado and other researchers to the massive pit for exploration and research. The location has many rare minerals remaining, including olivine glass granules.

While he usually takes his students on the venture, Hurtado recently guided a group of NASA scientists and engineers, as well as a group of journalists, on a weeklong expedition.

The group is part of theRIS4Eprogram Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration (RIS4E) and was in the area to explore different techniques for merging science and space exploration.

This team brings together a diverse group of scientists and engineers to explore how portable instruments could be used by astronauts in the future, said Jacob Bleacher, research scientist with the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. The end goal is for us to find the problems with using the instruments here, in an environment where we can come back and test them again. We would like to make sure that the problems dont come up on Mars or the moon when the astronauts are there.

The fieldwork had been conducted on the big island of Hawaii, but for the next couple of years, it will be at Kilbourne Hole and nearby small shield volcano Aden Crater.

This location is a very important place, Bleacher said. Analogs, or sites that are similar to what we expect to see on other planets, are a very fundamental part of these test runs for humans going somewhere else in the solar system. UTEP is ideally located near the Potrillo volcanic field, which is where Kilbourne Hole is located. This volcanic field as a whole is ideal to look at because most of the other places we are looking at exploring, like the moon and Mars, theyre very volcanic dominated So understanding processes that can be studied firsthand here is very important to us.

NASA Astronaut Barry Butch E. Wilmore, a U.S. Navy captain, knows firsthand how important research and testing are to space missions.

You have to have procedures in place, systems in place, equipment in place ready to go do those things, Wilmore said. You cant just fire that up at the last minute. Even during Apollo it was decades prior that they were doing preparations for what eventually took place on the moon in the late 60s, early 70s, and thats exactly what we are doing now: getting prepared for what could happen decades from now.

To date, Wilmore has logged 178 days in space and has completed four space walks. He completed his first flight as pilot on STS-129, the final space shuttle crew rotation flight to or from the space station; served as flight engineer aboard the International Space Station for Expedition 41 and then as commander of Expedition 42. He was on the ground for the research at Kilbourne Hole.

I think the first time I saw it, I thought about landing and we picked a good spot, just from the visual of it, Wilmore recalled about his first impression of the crater. There are so many different layers. Its very interesting to see places like this and then come in here and assess how it all got here.

According to the Bureau of Land Management, Kilbourne Hole measures 1.7 miles long by well over a mile across, and is hundreds of feet deep. Wilmore and the team used various parts of the crater for testing and simulations. The astronaut said it is important to have a diverse group that includes students.

You dont have a small group of people do great things, it takes a nation, he said. Having these students and some journalists out here its a training ground for them to do what they are passionate about. The thought of space travel has inspired us for generations and it does these young folks as well.

Six of Hurtados students assisted with the NASA project. They helped guide members and observed and aided the geology expert with his assignment of flying a drone to collect data.

I think this is a great opportunity for students to get involved in research like this, make connections and overall get inspired to be part of future exploration, Hurtado said.

It was the fourth visit to Kilbourne Hole for UTEP doctoral candidate in forensic geology Valeria Martinez, but her first time working alongside NASA scientists and an astronaut.

To see the similarities [with Mars and the moon], its what makes every scientist excited, she said. Its not just a hole, its a crater and you can see the science behind it.

While there is no question the quest was exciting, Martinez said fieldwork is critical for students.

You can read about it, you can know it theoretically, but you have to be hands-on and see it for yourself, she said. You need the field geology in order for students to understand what theyre seeing, what theyre reading, so they can connect the dots.

Professor Timothy Glotch, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University leads the RIS4E team with the assistance of Darby Dyer, Ph.D., from Mount Holyoke College. Multiple project collaborators involved come from across the nation with diverse backgrounds and strengths. The program is one of nine nodes of NASAs Solar System Exploration and Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI). Read more aboutSSERVIonline.

Author:Lauren Macias-Cervantes UTEP Communications

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Local Volcanic Crater is Test Bed for Future Space Exploration - El Paso Herald-Post (press release) (registration) (blog)

What is the National Space Council and what will it do for the future of space exploration? A look back through history provides some possible answers.

Vice President Mike Pence speaks inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behind the podium is the Orion spacecraft flown on Exploration Flight test-1 in 2014.

NASA / Kim Shiflett

As President Donald Trump signed the order on June 30th re-activating the National Space Council, he suggested that the council would be a central hub guiding space policy. What are the prospects that, as Vice President Mike Pence recently claimed, With the guidance of the National Space Council, the United States of America will usher in a new era of space leadership that will benefit every facet of our national life? To gain a sense of the councils possible impacts, its useful to see this act in a historical context.

Its important first to understand that the National Space Council itself is just a committee of top-level administration officials. That committee, with Pence as its chair, will include the head of NASA, the Secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce, Transportation, and other cabinet departments, the Director of National Intelligence, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and, from the White House, the National Security Adviser and the Directors of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). The council will have a full-time staff of unspecified size, headed by an Executive Secretary. It is that individual, and his or her staff associates, who will be the key players in carrying out the ambitious tasks assigned to the council. The council will also have a part-time Users Advisory Group, composed of representatives of industries and other persons involved in aeronautical and space activities.

Given the senior status of its members, and the reality that they have many other things to do besides space policy, the space council is unlikely to meet frequently. When its members do gather, they will discuss and decide on proposals reflecting the work of council staff and resulting from interagency discussions of the diverse policy issues in the space sector.

This is the third time a National Space Council has existed. The first council was created on congressional initiative as part of the 1958 Space Act and existed until President Richard Nixon abolished it in 1973. Fifteen years later, Congress recreated the council, and it was activated in 1989, in the first months of the George H.W. Bush administration. That council was de-activated in January 1993 as part of President Bill Clintons campaign pledge to reduce the size of the White House and Executive Office staff by 25%.

The space council has had some success stories along the way. In 1961 the council organized the consultations that led to President Kennedys decision to go to the Moon, and in 1962 had a major role in shaping the framework for a commercial communications satellite industry. During the Nixon administration, the council had no visible impact on post-Apollo decisions, but in 1989, council staff working with NASA crafted the Space Exploration Initiative announced by President Bush. The council also took the lead in space engagement with Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Those successes, however, were not been enough to establish a space council as an essential element of space policymaking. Eisenhower, whom the Space Act had made the council chair, did not hire a staff and never called a council meeting. President Kennedy revised the legislation to make the vice president the council chair, but after 1961 he often bypassed Vice President Johnson and the space council staff in making his space choices, preferring to depend on his science and national security advisers. After Johnson became president, he gave little attention to space issues and his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, did not make space policy a major focus of attention. By the time Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, the council was essentially moribund.

The Nixon administration initially hoped to revitalize the space council, hiring Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders as Executive Secretary. Anders was able to carve out a useful lower-level role in post-Apollo decisions, but working through Vice President Spiro Agnew, who had no policy clout, as council chair was too much of a burden, and it was Anders among others who recommended in 1972 that the council be dissolved.

During the 1989-1993 Bush administration, as the council was re-activated, Vice President Dan Quayle took his role as chair seriously and assembled a politically astute, substantively qualified, and activist staff. The incoming Clinton administrations decision to de-activate the space council was more a case of change for changes sake than a negative judgment on the efficacy of the Council mechanism.

A concept image of SLS/Orion on the launch pad. NASA / MSFC

What does this compressed historical review suggest are the prospects for the Trump/Pence National Space Council? First of all, there is a pressing need for coherence in managing the increasing complex U.S. space enterprise. With NASA hoping to resume human travel to distant destinations, with national security dependent on space capabilities, with the space environment increasingly congested, competitive, and contested, and with a multi-faceted U.S. private space sector emerging, coordination becomes imperative. The time is ripe for a well-crafted national space strategy that takes all of these factors into account. The opportunity for the National Space Council to develop that strategy and oversee its implementation is clear.

That will happen only if the new council has the active support of President Trump and becomes a major element of Vice President Pences portfolio. Assembling a highly qualified Space Council staff is of course essential, but that staff can be effective only if it is seen as having White House political support as it attempts to influence agency behavior.

In July 6th remarks at the Kennedy Space Center, Vice President Pence quoted President Trump as saying that the United States was going to be leading in space like weve never led before.Whether this is more than rhetorical boasting is yet to be seen, but if renewed space leadership does become reality, it is likely that the revived National Space Council will be key to that achievement.

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Third Try at a National Space Council - Sky & Telescope

PEORIA, AZ - The Arizona Challenger Space Center in Peoria will close in August after its building was sold, but its operators don't plan on leaving the area.

Executive Director Beverly Swayman confirmed Tuesday that the space center will close on August 5.

The team will then have to clear the 28,000-square-foot building of its flight simulator, artifacts, and displays by September 30, a time-consuming and costly task, she said.

It is not clear who bought the building or how it will be used.

What is clear is that the space center has to find a new home.

Swayman said the space center is currently looking for a new space to move the center's exhibits, but also a space that will allow the center's programs and artifacts to grow.

"It's not just a memorial," she said. "It is a living, breathing entity."

"It isn't about a building. It's what happens inside that building," she added.

She said the space center was going to announce classes and workshops in robotics and coding soon. Those programs have been tabled because of the impending move.

The center's flight simulator alone will take three weeks to pack and move, and another two weeks to reassemble, she said, a cost estimated to be $300,000.

The cost to relocate the entire facility is estimated to be between $500,000 and $1,000,000.

"It's a formidable amount," she said. And not in their budget.

She said the former owner of the building said he would help with relocation costs, but the center will also be asking for the public's help.

The space center has been in talks with many areas, said Swayman, but has primarily spoken with representatives in Glendale, Peoria and Phoenix.

Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiersconfirmed through a spokeswoman that he has had "initial discussions" with a Board member for the space center and "is in support of them coming to Glendale." No specific sites have been identified.

Cathy Carlat, mayor of Peoria, said in a statement that she was "disheartened" about the space center's move and that she "has great respect for Challenger Centers throughout our nation, who bring hands on interest to kids in STEM subjects."

"It's unfortunate that this matter between the private properly owner and the Challenger Space Center has interrupted their mission. It is my hope that they will endeavor to carry on as an exciting space-based learning environment," the statement continued.

A ONE-OF-A-KIND MURAL

Relocating also means that the center's 360-degree mural painted by artist Robert McCall, reportedly his last before his death in 2010, will have to be left behind.

"We wish there was a way to bring the mural with us to our new location, but in consulting with preservation experts, the risk of damage would be too great to try to remove it from the existing building," Swayman said in a news release."We are hopeful that the new owners will appreciate the importance of this work and continue to make it available to the public."

The mural is valued at $500,000, but to Swayman, it is irreplaceable.

The space center,an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, opened in 2000 and pays tribute to space exploration and the astronauts lost in the 1986 Challenger disaster.

Swayman said the space center is one of four centers that are independently funded and the only one in the state. It is not funded by a university or government program.

It was supported by the Peoria Unified School District, but that funding was pulled in 2005, according to the GlendaleStar.com, who first reported on the center's closure.

MEMBERSHIPS, SCHOOL TRIPS AND CAMPS:

The Space Center said it is working with schools who have already booked field trips to the fall. The options include rescheduling the trip once the center moves or booking an outreach program.

Memberships and complimentary passes will be extended for the timeframe it takes to relocate, according to the release.

Summer Camps, including Cosmic Kids Camp, will still go on as planned.

Stargazing Nights previously scheduled for August and September have been canceled.

EXTENDED HOURS:

The center said it will also extend its hours prior to closing on August 5. The hours will be updated weekly on its website, http://www.azchallenger.org.

More here:

Arizona Challenger Space Center to close in August after building sold, now looking for new home - ABC15 Arizona

Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao, second from right, attends GLEX 2017. Credit: International Astronautical Federation

This articleoriginally appeared in the June 19, 2017 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

Beijing this month hosted the Global Space Exploration Conference, GLEX 2017, an occasion which China used effectively to declare its goals for space and call for further engagement with the space community.

Hosted by the International Astronautical Federation and Chinese Society of Astronautics , the event was the perfect setting, with around 1,000 participants, including heads of agencies, industry representatives, scientists and policy makers in attendance.

There were no startling new announcements from China, but together the presentations reaffirm what is a comprehensive and cohesive vision for space activities, which have both clear direction and apparent backing at the highest levels of policy making, and display growing confidence and capabilities.

Robotic and human roadmap

Chinas robotic exploration roadmap features the nations first independent interplanetary mission, to Mars in 2020, followed by near-Earth asteroid exploration, a mission to the Jupiter system, a Mars sample return around 2030 and a later mission to seldom-visited Uranus.

Except for Uranus, these missions have either been officially approved, are already being studied or are mentioned in key documents such as the space white paper released in December. But there are new, interesting details.

A presentation on Chinas deep space plans before 2030 by Li Chunlai, deputy chief designer of the Mars 2020 mission, emphasized the Jovian moon Ganymede as a main target for the Jupiter mission, noting its potential habitability, and identifying its ice layer, topography, morphology and structure for examination.

These efforts are joined by a lunar exploration program that will be expanded beyond the Change-5 sample return mission, scheduled for late November, to include at least three further probes likely to focus on the poles and possibly involving in-situ resource utilization objectives.

In human spaceflight, China remains committed to establishing a decade-long permanent presence in low Earth orbit with its Chinese Space Station. Sun Weigang, chief engineer at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), said launch of the 20-metric-ton Tianhe core module is on track for 2019, once the 5B variant of the new Long March 5 rocket is proven and ready.

Yang Liwei, who in 2003 became Chinas first astronaut to visit space on a Chinese spacecraft, revealed that 10-12 astronauts will be selected soon. Chinas third astronaut class, he said, will include two women and will look beyond just air pilots in order to meet the research requirements of the Chinese Space Station.

After this, China is very much looking to the moon, with Yang stating rather vaguely that it would not be long before a program to land Chinese astronauts or yuhangyuan on the lunar surface receives official approval and funding, though a mission is not expected before 2030.

To this end, China is studying development of a launcher to rival the United States Apollo-era Saturn 5/ Tentatively named Long March 9, it has planned lift capability of 140 tons to LEO. In addition, China is developing two versions of next-generation crewed spacecraft for deep space missions. Guo Linli of the China Academy of Space Technology presented a concept for a lunar base at Sinus Iridium, with analysis of the expected Change-5 samples to aid the next research steps, including generating oxygen from lunar soil.

Shen Lin, deputy chief researcher at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), revealed that the concept currently being considered for crewed lunar landings involves an Earth-orbit rendezvous following launches of a Long March 9 and a human-rated Long March 5B, before entering lunar transfer orbit.

The reaction to the plans was measured. Theyre clearly progressing in human spaceflight, and are now moving on to the Chinese Space Station, said Kathy Laurini, a NASA senior adviser for exploration and space operations. Looking to beyond-low-Earth-orbit exploration, they also recognize like we do that this is the next step, and its a worthy endeavor due to the benefits it will bring to our citizens.

Calls for cooperation, necessary competition

GLEX 2017 had opened with an address from Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao, which included the reading of a congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping. In a call for international collaboration that would be echoed throughout the event, both from Chinese speakers and agency heads, Xi declared that China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the international community for a better future for all humankind.

Xi has shown his support through speaking to orbiting Chinese crews and promoting the China space dream, a celestial twist on his political vision . However, help is needed from elsewhere.

Cooperation is one way in which China aims to achieve its science and exploration goals, which require serious resources and innovation. Partnerships could help China in reducing overall economic costs for its increasingly broad and diverse programs, also including its Beidou guidance and navigation satellite system, weather satellites and other Earth-observation systems. It also brings political benefits at home and abroad, valuable experience and potentially new technologies that could boost its progress.

The Chinese Space Station is to be opened to payloads and even astronauts from other nations especially developing countries where China tries to position itself as a global leader through an agreement with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Change-4, an unprecedented lander and rover mission to the lunar far side in late 2018, will feature science payloads from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

Chinas partnership with the European Space Agency continues to deepen, with further cooperation on space science and the Change lunar missions, and soon human spaceflight.

Karl Bergquist, ESAs international relations administrator, explained on the sidelines of the GLEX conference that ESA and the China Manned Space Agency are working towards a detailed agreement to fly a European astronaut on the Chinese Space Station once it is completed. China is open to coordinating its lunar ambitions with the Europeans as called for by ESA Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerners Moon Village concept.

This underlines the major progress that China has made in a relatively short time. While the number and rate of human spaceflight missions has been low, Chinas capabilities have developed rapidly to allow it to position itself as a major space power and leader.

The ultimate objective of Chinas cooperation push is likely to be achieving active partnership with the clear world leader, NASA. However, the issue of technology transfer, either sanctioned or illicit, that could benefit a space program that is closely tied to Chinas military, remains a clear barrier. Since 2011, U.S. law has banned NASA from engaging in bilateral agreements and coordination with its Chinese counterparts.

It was also apparent in Beijing that China understands it needs to compete in some areas.

Senior figures at CALT, the maker of the Long March family of launchers, underlined in a forum on low-cost access to space that it needs to reduce launch costs, referencing the staggering breakthroughs by U.S. private players SpaceX and Blue Origin. In reaction, CALT is researching reusability through the use of parachutes, re-startable engines and space shuttle-like horizontal landings, and examining its design, manufacture, launch site and management costs. These represent major challenges, but do not alter the fundamental plans.

Its nascent space science program has demonstrated cutting edge capabilities, and last week saw the launch of the fourth and final mission of an initial batch, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope. Development of and studies into the next two rounds of space science projects are already underway. Wu Ji, director of Chinas National Space Science Center in Beijing, stressed that now is the time for China, as a major economy and global power, to contribute to human knowledge.

Steven Eisenhart, senior vice president at the Colorado Springs-based Space Foundation, said China is making steady progress establishing a diverse space program. What were seeing now are plans that were laid out a long time back and are now being executedwith the progress being pretty consistent to what theyve been saying, he said.

While elsewhere debates over the moon and Mars continue, Chinas direction for the next decade and more looks set.

With backing from the political leadership, apparent consensus among the Chinese government, scientific and other space sector actors, the countrys steady yet impressive progress should continue.

See the original post here:

In Beijing, China rolls out the red carpet and a comprehensive space plan - SpaceNews

Chicago Tonight | WTTW

Chicago Astronomer to Create Plan for Human Exploration of Mars Chicago Tonight | WTTW Using the library's unique collections of materials on domestic and international policies governing space exploration, Walkowicz will create an inclusive framework for human exploration of Mars, according to a press release from the Library of Congress.

Originally posted here:

Chicago Astronomer to Create Plan for Human Exploration of Mars - Chicago Tonight | WTTW

WASHINGTON Vice President Mike Pence offered vague plans last week of sending Americans to the moon and Mars, while also announcing that the National Space Council, which will advise the president on U.S. space programs, will hold its first meeting in nearly 25 years later this summer.

Our nation will return to the moon, and we will put American boots on the face of Mars, Pence said Wednesday during a tour of the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The vice president did not offer any specific timeframe or exact details for either endeavor.

A week before Pences NASA visit, President Trump signed an executive order re-establishing the National Space Council, which was created in 1989 and dissolved in 1993. Pence will chair the council, which will include the secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce, Transportation and Homeland Security and the director of National Intelligence, among other officials.

Our National Space Council will reenergize the pioneering spirit of America and it will ensure that America never again loses our lead in space exploration and technology, Pence said.

President Trump in March signed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, a piece of legislation introduced by Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and a handful of others that added human exploration of Mars as one of NASAs key objectives. The legislation envisions completing a crewed mission to Mars in the 2030s. Trump during a videoconference with astronauts aboard the International Space Station in April said, Well do it a lot sooner than were even thinking.

NASA has requested $19.1 billion for fiscal 2018. A House appropriations subcommittee in June approved a spending bill that provides NASA with $19.9 billion for 2018. Lawmakers in both the House and Senate during NASA budget hearings earlier this year criticized proposed cuts as outlined in the administrations budget. The fiscal 2018 figure is within range of budgets for fiscal 2017 ($19.5 billion) and 2016 ($19.3 billion). According to Office of Management and Budget figures, NASA funding was at its height in 1966 ($43.6 billion in 2014 dollars). In 1969, the year the U.S. landed men on the moon, NASA was funded $27.6 billion (2014 dollars).

NASAs 2018 budget request lists $4.7 billion for space operations, including $1.5 billion for the International Space Station and $3.9 billion for exploration. According to agency documents, NASAs James Webb Space Telescope, which will be used to identify oxygen products and life forms on exoplanets, is on pace to launch in 2018. The telescope is expected to build on discoveries made by the Hubble Space Telescope, with greater capability in tracking longer wavelengths. The telescopes first target will be Trapist 1, a star with seven habitable, Earth-sized planets orbiting. LHS 1140B, a massive planet with earthlike features, is the second target.

Read the original here:

Big Space Exploration Dreams from Administration with Few Details Yet - PJ Media

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - JUNE 03: In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft onboard, launches from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on June 3, 2017 in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Bill Ingalls/NASA

Lawmakers are taking the defense budget to new heights by adding a new proposal for a separate military service known as the "Space Corps" in this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee for Strategic Forces released their proposals for Fiscal Year 2018 on June 20th, which included authorization of space, nuclear and missile defense capabilities to further protect U.S. national security.

The Space Corps' creation comes amid what Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, and Ranking Member Jim Cooper, D-Tennessee, said they would "take the measures necessary" to address ongoing delays and cost-overruns by the Department of Defense in a statement released after the proposals announcement.

Under the Secretary of the Air Force, the Corps would act as a separate military service responsibility for national security space programs in a move that Rogers and Cooper called a "critical step to fixing the National Security Space enterprise."

The NDAA also proposed the establishment of a U.S. Space Command as a new "sub-unified command within U.S. Strategic Command" in order to elevate the space mission to a four-star command and improve the integration of space forces.

The formation of the new military branch would be the first since the creation of the Air Force in 1947. The Space Corps would report to the Air Force much like the Marines currently fall under the Navy's purview.

This is not the first venture to outer-space for the U.S. military, however -- the Air Force Space Command was established in September of 1982 with the mission to "provide resilient and affordable space and cyberspace capabilities for the Joint Force and the nation."

The Trump administration has also shown a great deal of attention to bolstering U.S. presence in space exploration. Vice President Mike Pence, the chairman of the re-formed National Space Council, recently visited NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, vowing to employees that under President trump, "America will lead in space once again."

The House Armed Services Committee voted 60 to 1 in favor of the bill, it is now headed to the full House for a formal vote.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Congress aims to develop new military "Space Corps" branch - CBS News

James Carpenter just needed some fake Moon dirt. Carpenter, a lunar-exploration expert at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, works on a drill designed to hunt for buried ice on the Moon. His team recently ordered half a tonne of powdery materialto replicate the lunar surfacefrom a commercial supplier in the United States. But what showed up was not what the team was expecting. The physical properties were visibly different, says Carpenter.

His experience underscores a longstanding problem with artificial space soils, known as simulants: how to make them consistently and reliably. But now there is a fresh effort to bring the field into line. Last month, NASA established a team of scientists from eight of its research centres to analyse the physical properties and availability of existing simulants. And, for the first time, an asteroid-mining company in Florida is making scientifically accurate powders meant to represent the surfaces of four classes of asteroid. It delivered its second batch to NASA on June 28.

NASA is trying to conquer the Wild West of simulants, says Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Such materials are meant to mimic the mix of dust and broken rock that covers the surfaces of planets and asteroids. Engineers use the artificial soils to testspace-exploration technologies such as drills and rovers, and to determine whether astronauts could make structures by feeding space dirtinto 3D printersor by compressing it. Scientists use simulants to explore geological processes such as how rocks weather in space.

Over the years, space agencies and research groups have tended to make their own artificial soils as needed from mixtures of ash and grit, sand and crushed bricks, and even glass beads. This has led to a wild proliferation of soils; there are more than 30 lunar simulants alone. There are a lot of people out there creating their own simulant with no geology or materials-processing background, says Jennifer Edmunson, a geologist at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

But no artificial soil can re-create all the physical and chemical properties of a planet's surface. A mixture that was developed for engineers to drive rovers in would probably be terrible for studying the geochemical properties of the Moon.

Researchers do not always pay attention to those limitations, says Clive Neal, a lunar scientist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. We have no accreditation in terms of what this can be used for and what it cant be used for, he says. If you use it for the wrong thing you end up with misleading results.

In 2010, a panel of lunar scientists recommended that NASA develop a database that researchers could use to compare the characteristics of different simulants and pick the best one for each use. But the agency had no money to support such a project. The new working group aims to outline how much it would cost to produce a database covering simulants for all types of planetary bodies. Hopefully, well be able to develop this repository, says Brad Bailey, associate director of NASAs Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, who is based in Washington DC.

The database would include the four new asteroid simulants being made by the Orlando office of Deep Space Industries, an asteroid-mining company. NASA has ordered five tonnes over the next two years. Each simulant is based on a different class of meteorites called carbonaceous chondrites, which are thought to be chunks of asteroids.

To make fake asteroid dirt, technicians mix various mineralsincluding bronzite, which is sourced from jewellery suppliers as polished stonescompress them into bricks and then pulverize them. We have to do something that is basically equivalent to hitting a solid rock with thousands of meteorites over a long period of time, says Stephen Covey, the companys director of research and development.

Deep Space Industries delivered 512 kilograms of the first simulant to NASA in March, and 532 kilograms of the second type in June. The agency plans to use it in work on missions such as OSIRIS-REx, a spacecraft that is making its way to an asteroidto collect a sample and bring it back to Earth.

In Europe, Carpenter and his colleagues are still hunting for their perfect lunar soilbut they have given up on ordering it commercially. The researchers, who need 700 tonnes for a planned lunar habitat at ESAs astronaut-training centre in Cologne, Germany, are looking much closer to home. They have decided to grind up rocks from the nearby basalt mines of the Eifel region.

This article is reproduced with permission and wasfirst publishedon July 7, 2017.

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Why Researchers Need Better Space Dirt - Scientific American

Lot 102 Apollo 11 Contingency Lunar Sample Return Bag Used by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11 to bring back the very first pieces of the moon ever collected traces of which remain in the bag. The only such relic available for private ownership. Estimate$2/4 million. Courtesy Sothebys

Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

On July 20, 1969, these eight words crackled across the airwaves, holding the world entranced and altering forever the boundaries of what was considered possible.

The man speaking was Neil Armstrong, whose brevity marked the moment when the lunar module Eagle completed its perilous journey from Apollo 11 and touched down upon the surface of the Moon. The world waited on tenterhooks as hour after hour of checks were carried out. Finally, the hatch opened, and Armstrong descended the ladder to become the first human to set foot on the Moon, with the now immortal words: Thats one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

There cannot be many who have not, however briefly, glanced at the Moon and wondered what it must have been like for Armstrong to look back at the blue and green planet we call home. The landing may have happened almost five decades ago, but space exploration has not lost its allure. Even those of us who were not born when this momentous event unfolded are caught in its gravitational pull.

With this in mind, it seems only fitting that Sothebys New York has decided to host its first space exploration auction, featuring memorabilia from American-led space missions, exactly 48 years to the day after Apollo 11s lunar landing.

The space programmes are a huge source of inspiration for future generations around the globe, says Cassandra Hatton, space expert and senior specialist, books and manuscripts, at Sothebys New York.

Many of us remember watching in awe as Armstrong first set foot on the Moon, and remember vividly the excitement and sometimes tragedy associated with each launch. This is a field that requires no special background or training to appreciate, and anyone, regardless of their age, can share in the excitement. Space exploration unites us as humans in a common goal of escaping the bonds of Earth to explore what is beyond.

Although an American ultimately became the first person to land on the Moon, for many years Russia led space exploration. In 1957, it launched the worlds first satellite, Sputnik, and in 1961, Russian pilot and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man to orbit the Earth, beating his US counterpart Alan Shepard by 23 days. US president JohnF Kennedy ramped up the rivalry between the two countries in 1962, when he declared Americas intention of putting a man on the Moon. Issued as a rally cry, his words We choose to go to the Moon in this decade.... not because [it is] easy, but because [it is] hard marked the start of the so-called space race.

It is difficult to grasp just how huge a task this was at that time. Computing was still in its infancy, and many materials now deemed crucial to any sojourn into the vacuum of space had yet to be invented. To put this into context, the computer that powered the Apollo missions filled almost an entire room, could only execute eight instructionssimultaneously and had decidedly less memory than an Xbox 360 game console. That men trusted their lives to such basic technology seems beyond comprehension, and the crews, made up of experienced fighter plane test pilots, sat helpless inside their capsules, at the mercy of others to send them into and, most crucially, bring them home from the unknown. Although mixed with rhetoric fuelled by the Cold War between the US and Russia, Kennedys unwavering belief and commitment to lunar exploration is partly why the space centre in Florida still bears his name.

Innumerable items were created as part of this dash for the skies, but very few have so far been put up for sale. In 1993, Sothebys staged a Russian space history auction, offering 227 lots over three days, and generating sales in excess of US$6.8 million (Dh25m).

"Houston, We've Had A Problem Here." The Flown Apollo 13 Flight Plan Apollo 13. Flight Plan. Part No. SKB32100082-350. S/N: 1001. [Houston: Manned Spacecraft Center, March 16, 1970] Estimate $30/40,000. Courtesy Sotheby's

Attended by former Russian cosmonauts, with a mood best described as frenzied, the packed sales room jostled to snap up items such as Gagarins handwritten speech for $123,500 (Dh453,655); instructions for the finders of the returned Soviet space dogs Belka and Strelka for $10,350 (Dh38,000);and even a Lunokhod 1lunar rover, which sold for $68,500 (Dh252,000), despite having being left on the Moon since 1971, with no prospect of it ever making a return to Earth.

Crucially, the sale also offered Moon rock, which Hatton is quick to highlight to this day remains the only legal sale of Moon rocks to have ever occurred.

It is this legal provenance that holds the clue as to why most sales have so far offered Soviet, but not US items. Unlike the Soviet Union, which lost any claim to these space items when it collapsed, until recently, US law prohibited all sales of space items, as they were deemed to be owned by Nasa, and ultimately, the American government. This has now changed.

New laws were enacted, Hatton explains, allowing US astronauts who participated in the Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo missions clear title to any artefacts that they received during their missions, and thus, clear title to anyone that they sell or gift such items to.

This means that items that one would normally only find in museums are now available for private ownership.

Thanks to this fundamental shift in policy, the market is expected to open up, kicking off with the Sothebys Space Exploration auction next week. Alongside original charts, maps and engineering models, one item on offer is a photograph taken of Buzz Aldrin by Armstrong, on the surface of the Moon. This is one of the most defining images of the era. Signed by and with a note from Aldrin, it carries a reserve price of between $3,000 and $5,000 (up to Dh18,400).

Also available is a flag carried aboard Apollo 11 signed by Armstrong, Aldrin and the third astronaut on board, Michael Collins. In the years after the mission, Armstrong became uncomfortable with his signature changing hands for large sums, and in later years became so disillusioned that he refused all requests for an autograph. This signed flag is, therefore, estimated to sell for between $40,000 and $60,000 (up to Dh220,500).

Perhaps unexpectedly, the star listing of the sale is an unassuming bag marked Lunar sample return, which comes with a reserve price of between $2m and $4m (up to Dh14.7m).

Lot 116 Buzz Aldrin at Tranquility Base The Apollo programs most iconic image. Large color photograph taken by Neil Armstrong of Buzz Aldrin during their Apollo 11 moonwalk. Signed & inscribed by Buzz Aldrin. Estimate $3/5,000. Courtesy Sotheby's

Shedding light on what makes this so interesting, Hatton explains: The top lot in the sale is the very bag that Neil Armstrong used on the Apollo 11 mission to bring back the first samples of the Moon ever collected.

Called an outer decontamination bag, it still has traces of lunar dust inside it.

We thought that the anniversary date of this historic event was the perfect day on which to sell an artefact of such significance.

One nation that will no doubt be watching the sale with interest is the UAE one of the more recent arrivals to the field of space exploration. In 2014, the countryset out an ambitious plan to be the first Arab nation to send an unmanned probe to Mars, joining the ranks of only nine other nations with its own space programme, dubbed the Emirates Mars Mission.

Fittingly named Hope, the UAEs unmanned spacecraft for the Mars probe aims to gather data about the atmosphere, which it will then share with other research facilities.

Although Hope is on a serious scientific mission, there is a touch of poetry about it, too, timed as it is to arrive on the Red Planet in 2021, to coincide with the 50th anniversary year of a unified UAE.

Covering 60 million miles (equal to 156 non-stop journeys to the Moon) and reliant on solar power, Hope has a difficult voyage ahead of it.

Once in space, and with no air friction to slow it down, it will travel at 126,000kph for seven months to reach its destination.

Once there, transmissions back to Earth will take up to 20 minutes to arrive, meaning the craft must be capable of piloting itself. It must slow itself down enough to enter Mars orbit, where it will, at long last, be able to collect samples and data.

With a single orbit taking 55 hours and covering an ellipse of up to 44,000 kilometres, the entire mission is designed to take almost two years from launch to completion.

In the interim, enthusiasts can get their space fix from the upcoming Sothebys auction, and add to or build up a stockpile of cosmic collectibles.

The head of Sothebys Dubai, Katia Nounou, sums it up perfectly. From those aspiring to be astronauts to those simply reaching for the stars, were thrilled to offer the chance to get one step closer to the Moon this summer, she says.

We hope space exploration inspires all of our visitors to look back on mankinds immense achievements, and to reimagine the impossible as possible.

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