Space Budgets, Policy, Missions, Benefits, International Updates

Health Care Benefits:  5 health care developments that were born in space  Among the dividends from U.S. human space exploration are advances in health care, including robotic surgery and countermeasures for asthma and osteoporosis.

Asteroid Mission:  NASA closing out Asteroid Redirect Mission  NASA is closing out the once planned Asteroid Redirect Mission in compliance with direction from the White House and 2018 budget planning. Fostered by the Obama Administration, ARM was to robotically capture a large boulder from the surface of an asteroid and maneuver the rock into orbit around the moon, where it was to receive a visit from astronauts launched aboard a Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule. The agency, however, intends to continue advancing some key technologies involved in the ARM mission for future human deep space exploration, including solar electric propulsion.

Mars Exploration:  ASAP on board with NASA’s DSG as stepping stone to Mars  NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel has expressed support for the agency’s Deep Space Gateway,  a lunar orbiting, human tended space station planned for the 2020s.  The gateway would help to prepare astronauts for the next steps, the human exploration of Mars in the 2030s. The gateway would look to commercial and international partners to advance technologies for missions further from Earth.  (See also:  Roscosmos, ESA and NASA to play leading roles in lunar orbital station project; Mars samples may come to Earth via NASA’s deep space gateway; and Op-ed | Mars mania is completely rational)

China:  China’s cargo spacecraft completes second docking with space lab  China’s Tianzhou-2 cargo capsule has completed its second docking to the currently uncrewed Tiangong-2 space lab. The cargo craft separated early Monday. The linkups tested docking and refueling technologies that will be needed for China’s planned future Earth orbiting space station.  (See also:  Russian aerospace firm to cooperate with China on Lunar exploration missions and Xinhua insight: Moon or Mars? Heated discussion on human’s next stop)

India and Russia:  Russia may help India to train astronauts, deputy PM says  As India expands its space exploration ambitions, Russia could provide the expertise to train the country’s future astronauts, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Wednesday.

Exploration and 3-D Printing:  Made in Space talks ‘teleporting’ and the future of space-borne 3-D printing  In space and got something you need but forgot at liftoff?  Made In Space, Inc., has been working on a solution, 3-D printing, since placing its first additive manufacturing devices on the International Space Station in 2014 and 2016. An eventual goal of the company’s, Archinaut, is a class of small satellites equipped with the manufacturing feature and robotic assembly equipment to manufacture large structures in space instead of launching them.