NASA pushes its Moon and Mars ambitions

“We’re doing both the moon and Mars, in tandem, and the missions are supportive of each other.”

Establishing infrastructure at a "gateway" in cislunar space — the region between Earth and the moon — has long been proposed as a way to get to Mars.

• Boeing's Peter McGrath said the region could be used to develop propulsion systems that can take humans further out to Mars. It could also help us study human factors related to Mars exploration, like the psychological impact of living far from home for longer durations or the effects of radiation on human health.
• "In cislunar space, you can prove you're Earth-independent. Right now we're not — the ISS [International Space Station] is not," said Westenberg.

The sticking point is the renewed focus on landing humans on the moon. Bridenstine said that will help the development of precision landing systems, habitats on the surface or in orbit, surface mobility technologies, and methane engines for Mars.

Some moon-related technologies could be relevant to Mars exploration, but others may not be, raising the question of how much should be invested in developing those technologies.

• Compact reactors to generate nuclear power lend themselves to early testing on the moon, according to Aerojet Rocketdyne's Joe Cassady. "That would be useful for the people who want to mine the moon," he said, adding it would also inform the technology's use for Mars exploration.
• Surface mobility (think: rovers and spacesuits): Some aspects of spacesuit design could be transferable between the moon and Mars, but moon dust and the Mars variety differ. "We could do a lot of stuff to make a perfect rover for the moon, but it may not transfer completely to Mars," said Cassady.
• Demonstrating surface systems for Mars on the moon would "take a lot of time and money" and while experimenting with mining technology is "probably a good thing to do on the moon...you can do a lot of that robotically," said McGrath.

"The big challenge is going to be not getting diverted into things that are solely useful for resource development on the moon," said Cassady. "I really don’t see it as an either or. I think we can make this work."

One key difference: The moon doesn't have an atmosphere — but Mars does, so a landing on Mars can take advantage of drag and is better practiced in high-Earth altitudes (above 100,000 feet).

“[The moon] is not exclusively the stepping stone,” says Eric Stallmer from the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, whose members include SpaceX (which is developing a rocket for getting people to Mars). “If there are commercial vehicles and opportunities available for Mars, it could bypass the moon.”

Go deeper:

• Putting a price tag on a manned mission to Mars (Quartz's Tim Fernholz).
• More on what Bridenstine said at the summit (per Elizabeth Howell at Space.com).
• The debate over setting a target date for getting humans to the Red Planet (Justin Bachman at Bloomberg).

Yes, but: Spacewalks are notorious for their complexity, so it's still possible that Koch and Meir's walk could change or be cancelled if something unexpected happens between now and October 21.

Details: The spacewalk is 1 of 5 planned to swap out batteries, with 5 others planned for later in the year to repair an astrophysics instrument on the outside of the station.

• The first spacewalk in the series is scheduled for Sunday. Koch and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan are expected to start the walk at 7:50 a.m. ET.

Background: The spacewalk comes after NASA canceled an all-female spacewalk in March due to spacesuit availability.

• That particular issue shouldn't be a problem this time, however, with two spacesuits configured for use by the women.

The latest: New York's health commissioner announced Thursday morning that "there are no longer any active cases in New York State associated with the initial measles outbreak from October 2018."

• But the commissioner added that New York health officials remain "vigilant" and are currently investigating several other new cases that are unrelated to the outbreak that just ended.
• 1 of the new cases is a person who just returned from overseas to Rockland County, which had declared in September that its initial outbreak had officially ended. Because this new case was "imported" from someone traveling in another country, this is not considered to be part of the same outbreak.
• Several other New York cases were reported in Nassau (2), Monroe (2) and Putnam (1) counties, according to the health commissioner.
• Meanwhile, the CDC says 31 states reported 1,243 individual patients, 131 of whom were hospitalized and 65 of whom suffered complications, including pneumonia and encephalitis. No one died in the U.S.

"The end of the New York state measles outbreak is a credit to the great work by local and state health departments, community and religious leaders, and other partners. However, this outbreak is a grave reminder that we need heightened vigilance around measles as well as other vaccine preventable diseases, and we continue to address the myths and misinformation driving these outbreaks."

What they're saying: Peter Hotez, professor of pediatrics and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, tells Axios that America's measles elimination status isn't as important as "the fact that we remain highly vulnerable" for 2 reasons.

1. There are "at least 100 geographic pockets in the U.S. where a high percentage of kids are not being vaccinated, together with measles cases now regularly imported from Europe where measles is even more widespread," Hotez says.
2. During the first and second quarter of next year, "we’ll again hit peak measles transmission season. [The] bottom line [is] nothing has really been done to combat the anti-vaccine movement in America, and we’re just as vulnerable to measles epidemics as we were this time last year."

What's next: The CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services are expected to have further information on the measles outbreak on Friday.

• The Pan American Health Organization’s regional verification commission will meet in the coming months to look over the U.S. data from this year and likely 2018 to make the final determination on the U.S.' elimination status, the CDC spokesperson said.
• PAHO declared recently that the U.K., Albania, the Czech Republic and Greece had lost their measles-free status.

Go deeper:

• Anti-vax movement targets Maine law on vaccine exemptions
• New measles cases decline in U.S., but the outbreak isn't over yet
• Measles in U.S. creeps back toward endemic status

Details: In the letter published Oct. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers reviewed lung biopsies from 17 patients, "all of whom had vaped and were suspected to have vaping-associated lung injury," the Mayo Clinic said.

• Lipids, fatty substances found in mineral oils were suspected as a possible cause of the lung injuries associated with vaping, but the researchers in this study found no evidence of this causing the tissue injury.

"While we can't discount the potential role of lipids, we have not seen anything to suggest this is a problem caused by lipid accumulation in the lungs. Instead, it seems to be some kind of direct chemical injury, similar to what one might see with exposures to toxic chemical fumes, poisonous gases and toxic agent."

Go deeper: U.S. investigates fatality from vaping as lung-related illnesses rise