In Today’s Deep Space Extra… China’s new five-year space strategy includes robotic missions to the lunar south and north poles to look for water ice and other measures preparing China to lead the establishment of an international lunar research base. New research suggests water on Mars may have existed more recently than previously believed but may have flowed more than it pooled.
Human Space Exploration
NASA crew embarks on simulated mission to Mars to study isolation and confinement
CNN.com (1/29): Four volunteers have begun a simulated mission to the Martian moon Phobos at the NASA Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA). The 45-day simulation offers opportunities to study how the confinement and isolation affects crew members, including five-minute delays in communications with the Earth. This, the second of four planned mission simulations, is set to conclude on March 14. Participants are selected from volunteers who are healthy non-smokers between the ages of 30 and 55.
China lays out ambitious space plans for next 5 years
Space.com (1/29): A five-year space plan released by China on Friday, called “China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective,” includes an emphasis building upon recent accomplishments. Those include becoming the first space power to successfully soft land on the Moon’s far side in 2019 and return samples from the Moon in 2020. Two missions planned within the next five years would land at the lunar poles to explore for lunar ice, a significant future space resource. Looking ahead, China intends to lead an effort to establish an international research base on the Moon, though dates for the milestones leading to the goal are unclear.
Space Science
NASA to continue buying Earth-observation datasets
Coalition Member in the News – Maxar Technologies
SpaceNews.com (1/29): NASA’s Earth Science Division plans to continue the purchase of data through its 5-year-old Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program. “These commercial capabilities offer some cost-effective means to advance and extend our research and applications in conjunction with the data that we collect from NASA, our international partners and our other U.S. government agencies,” Kevin Murphy, NASA Earth Science Division chief science data officer, said January 27 at the American Meteorological Society’s annual meeting. Current primary data providers include Maxar Technologies, Planet, Spire Global and Teledyne Brown Engineering.
The last of Mars’ liquid waters flowed about 2 billion years ago
Ars Technica (1/28): Traces of salt deposits, especially chlorides, detected in the Martian crust are helping clarify when and how water once flowed on the surface of the Red Planet, thanks to a Caltech led research effort. The study data used by scientists Ellen Leask and Bethany Ehlmann came from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and spectrography. Findings suggest water primarily flowed in channels, perhaps as recently as 2.3 billion to 3.3 billion years ago and in a shallow form. The source could have been local ice deposits that melted on a seasonal basis.
Is the underground lake on Mars just volcanic rock?
Universetoday.com (1/28): In 2018, data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express orbiter offered possible evidence of a subsurface lake at the Martian south pole, though some researchers have suggested clays or other minerals would be a better explanation. More recently, the Mars Express researchers have reaffirmed their belief there is liquid water. However, a new study led by a University of Texas Institute for Geophysics scientist suggests the presence of volcanic rock is a better explanation. Planetary scientist Cyril Grima’s findings were published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. If liquid, the water would be laced with brine and in an environment with favorable temperatures.
Chance of flares today. Geomagnetic storm watch
Spaceweather.com (1/31): AR2936 is the designation for a new and rapidly growing large sunspot. As AR2939 turned towards the Earth, the possibility of a solar flare directed this way increased. Over the weekend, the sunspot was producing a flare every four to five hours. A coronal mass ejection (CME) which departed the sun on Sunday is forecast to reach the Earth on Wednesday.
Major Space Related Activities for the Week
Major space related activities for the week of January 30 to February 5, 2022
Spacepolicyonline.com (1/30): Thursday looks to be the big day this week for space policy related events. The National Academies Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Sciences (CAPS) at 1 p.m. EST will host the third in a series of meetings to review a Network for Life Detection (NfoLD) White Paper on Standards of Evidence for Life Detection. NfoLD is a Research Coordination Network supported by NASA’s Astrobiology Program. The upcoming live streamed session is focused on a discussion of whether the white paper includes a clear and transparent description of a process “for evaluating scientific claims that extraterrestrial life has been discovered.” At 2 p.m. EST Explore Mars, Inc. will host a presentation on James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) science opportunities with Nobel prize winning physicist John Mather, now a senior project scientist for the new observatory. Registration is available here. Meanwhile, in Washington, the U.S. House and Senate are in session this week with some mystery reigning over whether the White House is close to submitting a budget proposal for the 2023 fiscal year, which begins October 1 of this year. The federal government is currently operating under a 2021 continuing budget resolution (CR) for the 2022 fiscal year that began on October 1, 2021. That CR expires on February18, creating the possibility of a government shutdown.
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