Space Stories: Polaris Dawn Mission Starts, Report Blasts NASA, and Galaxies Are Larger Than We Thought

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—NASA: “NASA to Test Telemedicine, Gather Essential Health Data with Polaris Dawn Crew“

NASA researchers will soon benefit from a suite of experiments flying aboard a new fully-commercial human spaceflight mission, strengthening future agency science as we venture to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The experiments are flying as part of the Polaris Dawn mission which launched aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket earlier today…“Each mission, whether the crew is comprised of commercial or NASA astronauts, provides a key opportunity to expand our knowledge about how spaceflight affects human health,” said Jancy McPhee, associate chief scientist for human research at NASA. “Information gathered from Polaris Dawn will give us critical insights to help NASA plan for deeper space travel to the Moon and Mars.”

—Flying Magazine: “Report to Congress: Shortsighted, Aging NASA Faces Uncertain Future“

A report published Tuesday raises serious questions about NASA’s ability to effectively function as the nation’s preeminent space agency. The 218-page document, assembled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) at the behest of Congress, warns that NASA is prioritizing short-term missions and commercial contracts over the people and technology that make its out-of-this-world activities possible. Per the report, the space agency’s emphasis on near-term victories and overreliance on private contractors comes at the price of a strained budget, degraded infrastructure, and exodus of talented personnel.

—Astro3D: “Galaxies are Much, Much Bigger Than We Thought“

A shroud of gas stretches up to a million light years around every galaxy and is its first interaction with the wider Universe beyond. For the first time, scientists have photographed this halo of matter and examined it pixel by pixel. If this galaxy is typical, then the study, published today in Nature Astronomy, indicates that our galaxy is already interacting with its closest neighbour, Andromeda.