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Japan’s Hayabusa asteroid rovers send back first footage – CNN

This is an exciting accomplishment for Japan and JAXA, who partners with NASA on several projects, including the ISS.

“Japan’s intrepid, hopping asteroid rovers have sent back footage and high-resolution imagery of the surface of the celestial body they have been exploring, according to tweets from Japan’s space agency.”
— Read on edition-m.cnn.com/2018/09/28/asia/japan-hayabusa-rovers-first-video-intl/index.html

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Opportunity in Danger

If you have not already heard, the Opportunity Rover is caught in a very bad dust storm that has very seriously degraded the power generating capability of its solar panels. It is likely experiencing a low power fault right now, so this is the most serious power event Oppy has experienced in the last 14 years of the mission. There is some hope that the dust in the air will help to keep the rover from getting below its minimum operating temperature & so it may yet be able to wake up once the panels can collect enough energy to come out of the low power mode.

Mark

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Here’s What We Know About The Robots That Might Build Our First Homes on the Moon

iSpace is a good candidate to lead us to the moon, but it isn’t clear what are their plans, and $90 million isn’t all that much in space.

“Private companies are caught up in a race to the Moon. And they seem to agree on one thing: robot-built structures will help us colonize it.”
— Read on futurism.com/robots-build-lunar-base/

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Pres. Obama Announced Mars Goal 2030s

In a CNN op-ed published October 11, 2016 President Obama announced a goal to send humans to Mars by the 2030s.

We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of America’s story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition to one day remain there for an extended time. Getting to Mars will require continued cooperation between government and private innovators, and we’re already well on our way. Within the next two years, private companies will for the first time send astronauts to the International Space Station.

The next step is to reach beyond the bounds of Earth’s orbit. I’m excited to announce that we are working with our commercial partners to build new habitats that can sustain and transport astronauts on long-duration missions in deep space. These missions will teach us how humans can live far from Earth — something we’ll need for the long journey to Mars.

Moreover, the President announced the intention to work with commercial partners in order to develop key components. The Dallas Mars Society is excited and proud to hear the President actively encouraging the goals most important to our organization.

Below is some additional information on the announcement and Mars.

* The Dallas Mars Society does not endorse any political candidate or party.

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Clinton: I Support Exploration Of Mars

I was thrilled to see the following notice in the AIAA (American institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics daily news summary for September 13:
Clinton: I Support Human Exploration Of Mars.

Space News (9/13, Subscription Publication) reports that “in a response to a questionnaire on science policy topics released Sept. 13 by ScienceDebate.org,” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that she supports a manned mission to Mars, and quotes Clinton as saying, “A goal of my administration will be to…advance our ability to make human exploration of Mars a reality.” Space News notes that Clinton “broadly endorsed” NASA’s efforts, and said she would ensure NASA “has the leadership, funding and operational flexibility” to work with industry. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump “did not formally support a human Mars exploration program” in his response, but said that the federal government “should encourage innovation in the areas of space exploration.”

While the Mars Society is a non-partisan organization, the fact that a major party candidate is explicitly talking about sending humans to Mars is not only exciting in and of itself, but a sea change from the situation only a few years ago. As recently as a couple of election cycles back a Mars Society member got to ask the presidential candidates of one party during the primary season about sending humans to Mars and it was dismissed as a crank question. Our older members may remember a time back in the 70’s when a leading senator (who later became Vice President) led the charge to cancel the human space program in its entirety by cancelling the Space Shuttle, calling it a ‘senseless extravagance’. Now a vigorous space program and sending humans to Mars is becoming bi-partisan national policy. Politicians as odd a set of bedfellows as Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders have both advocated more spending on space exploration. While we are not there yet – the distance we have come is incredible. In no small part this change is due to the dedicated activities of the Mars Society and our like minded sister organizations – that means all of us. I look forward to the future.

– Kurt, President of the Dallas Chapter