September 8, 2018

USGS Wants to Help America Mine Asteroids, the Moon and Mars (Source: Newsweek)
There is big money floating around space—so much so we could be on the brink of a cosmic gold rush, with nations across the globe all hoping to cash in. Now, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has said it wants a piece of the action, with the agency saying it has been paying “close attention” to space resources for a number of years.

Laszlo Kestay, a research geologist at the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, told Space.com that as commercial ventures hoping to mine asteroids edge closer to reality, it is the the job of the USGS to get involved. "The USGS realized that our congressional mandate to assess natural resources extends to space," he told the website.

"At this point, we have done enough work to feel confident that the methods the USGS uses to assess mineral, energy and water resources on Earth can be used to assess space resources with minimal modification. We have also done enough preliminary work to identify some areas where humanity's lack of knowledge will result in exceedingly large uncertainties in assessments undertaken today." (9/5)

Orion's Third Flight Will Haul Two Pieces of a Space Station to Lunar Orbit (Source: Planetary Society)
NASA says astronauts will haul two pieces of a small space station to lunar orbit in 2024, during the second crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft. Plans for the station, which is now referred to as the Gateway, have been shaping up since 2017. The Gateway, Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule represent the core of NASA's plans to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars.

The Gateway is designed to host astronauts for short-term stays, serve as a waypoint for crewed surface missions and receive samples robotically collected from both the Moon and Mars. The first piece of the Gateway is a power and propulsion module, scheduled to launch on a commercial rocket in 2022. The first crewed Orion mission, a lap around the Moon that will not stop in orbit, is scheduled a year later, in 2023. Then, in 2024, another Orion crew will fly to lunar orbit and visit the power and propulsion module, with two more pieces of the Gateway in tow. (9/6)

Why Lockheed Martin is Designing a Tiny Home to Orbit the Moon (Source: The Verge)
NASA wants to build another space station, but this one won’t live in a close orbit around Earth. Within the last year, NASA has begun planning for a much smaller astronaut outpost in orbit around the Moon, a new destination dubbed the Gateway. The idea is for this space station, which will be a fraction of the size of the International Space Station, to serve as a place for astronauts to live and train for excursions to and from the lunar surface.

A crucial piece of hardware needed for this Gateway will, of course, be habitats — spaces for a handful of astronauts to do research, exercise, sleep, and eat. But what exactly does it take to build a habitat for deep space? NASA has tasked six companies with figuring that out, through the space agency’s NextSTEP program. Through a public-private partnership, companies like Boeing and Bigelow Aerospace are creating and executing their own designs for modules that could house astronauts in the environment around the Moon. (9/7)

Jocelyn Bell Burnell Wins $3 Million Prize for Discovering Pulsars (Source: Ars Technica)
When the Nobel Prizes roll around each year, inevitably there is chatter not just about who will win, but also about those in the past who should have won but didn't, particularly women scientists. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who discovered pulsars in the 1960s, is one of the names most commonly invoked. Now 75, she has just been awarded something arguably better: a $3 million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics.

BBC News reports that Bell Burnell will use the prize money to set up a special scholarship fund to counter "unconscious bias" in the physics community by making it easier for women, under-represented ethnic minority and refugee students to become researchers. "I don't want or need the money myself and it seemed to me that this was perhaps the best use I could put to it," she says. (9/6)

NASA Launches Mars Parachute Experiment From Virginia Spaceport (Source: DelMarVaNow)
A parachute test for a possible future mission to Mars was successfully launched on a NASA Black Brant IX suborbital sounding rocket at 9:30 a.m., Friday from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The rocket carried the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE). The payload descended by parachute and splashed-down in the Atlantic Ocean 28 miles from Wallops Island. After recovery it will be returned to Wallops for data retrieval and inspection. (9/7)

Ariane 6 On Track For 2020 Debut Following Key Design Review (Source: Aviation Week)
Europe’s largest space launch company is cruising to the first launch of its new Ariane 6 in 2020, with ongoing questions about whether that vehicle can remain viable in a rapidly changing market. And while Arianespace’s CEO Stephane Israel defends the Ariane 6’s versatility within different segments of the market, he says European space ministers will need a dose of “ambition” as they consider the future for European launch, given the level of U.S. competition. (9/7)