6/12/12 news

 
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Tune In to ISS Update This Week
2.            SpaceUp Houston Free Event on June 21
3.            This Week at Starport
4.            NASA G.I.R.L.S. Application Deadline - June 15
5.            Wellness ViTS -- 'Nutrition and Disease Prevention'
6.            Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Perhaps imagination is only intelligence having fun. ”
 
-- George Scialabra
________________________________________
1.            Tune In to ISS Update This Week
Tune in this week to the International Space Station Update at 10 a.m. on NASA TV for interviews with key NASA personnel and the latest on two analog missions preparing JSC for future exploration, and the next commercial demonstration flight to the station.
 
Today, NASA astronaut Stan Love will discuss the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 16 expedition as he supports the crew undersea in the Aquarius habitat. Love is part of the underwater mission's top side support team.
 
On Wednesday, NASA astronaut Mike Gernhardt will discuss progress of NEEMO 16 top side.
 
On Thursday, tune in to see a discussion with ESA astronaut and NEEMO 16 crewmember Tim Peake, who will be talking about the mission from the Aquarius Base. From 11:30 to 11:55 a.m., hear NASA Flight Director Mike Sarafin talk to kids in 5th to 10th grade in Galveston Independent School District via the Digital Learning Network.
 
During the 10 a.m. hour Friday, catch NASA Astronaut Alvin Drew and Jeremy Frank, Autonomous Mission Operations Test principal investigator, talking about the new analog mission, Autonomous Mission Operations, which focuses on communication delays during future deep space missions.
 
At 10:30 a.m., see an interview with Bruce Manners, NASA COTS Project Executive, discussing COTS and Orbital Sciences.
 
Check the latest ISS Update programming at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/update/index.html
 
If you missed the ISS Updates from last week, tune in to REEL NASA at: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReelNASA to get the full videos. Or, view the videos at NASA's video gallery: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html
 
For the latest NASA TV scheduling info, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.html
 
To follow along with the analog missions outside of ISS Update, visit:
http://www.facebook.com/NASA.AMO
and
http://www.nasa.gov/neemo
 
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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2.            SpaceUp Houston Free Event on June 21
Join SpaceUp Houston for the third Commercial Spaceflight Panel on Thursday, June 21, at the Lunar & Planetary Institute. The event will be from 7 to 9 p.m. and is open to the public. Registration is free.
 
SpaceUp Houston is an organization that advocates the communication and inspiration of space exploration to the general public.
 
For more information, visit http://spaceuphouston.org/commercial-spaceflight-panel-june-2012/
 
John Saiz x38864
 
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3.            This Week at Starport
Today is National Peanut Butter Cookie Day! Get a Supreme Peanut Butter Cookie for $0.99 with a $5 purchase in the cafes!
 
Father's Day is fast approaching so, stop by Starport Gift Shops for the perfect gift for dad! Select gift items are 20 percent off. And while you're there, stop by the Café to pick up a sweet treat for dad. Now taking orders for decorated cakes!
 
June 14 is Bring Our Children to Work Day! Take time out to play from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at both gift shops. Specials ranging from 20 to 75 percent off will be offered on select merchandise. And check out our Café specials just for kids.
 
Also, take advantage of our discount prices on local attractions: AMC Theaters, Kemah Boardwalk and Main Event! Discount tickets sold in Gift Shops.
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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4.            NASA G.I.R.L.S. Application Deadline - June 15
NASA is looking for the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators. Women@NASA has created a mentoring project that offers a one-of-a-kind experience for middle school girls. Participants will get to explore the possibilities of a career in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics through one-on-one mentoring from Women@NASA. Participants will complete online lessons with their mentors while virtually connected through Skype or Google Chat over a five-week period this summer. Encourage a young girl in your life to apply today! Application closes this Friday, June 15.
 
Ashlé Robinson x27874 http://women.nasa.gov/nasa-g-i-r-l-s/
 
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5.            Wellness ViTS -- 'Nutrition and Disease Prevention'
NASA's Health Promotion and Wellness Team invites you to attend Glenda Blaskey's agencywide Wellness ViTS presentation titled "Nutrition and Disease Prevention" TODAY at 10:30 a.m., Building 17 Room 2026.
 
If you are unable to attend in person the dial-in/webex information is as follows:
 
Dial In: 1-888-370-7263, passcode 8811760#
 
Webex: (Now from iPhones and other Smartphones too!)
 
1. Go to https://nasa.webex.com/nasa/j.php?ED=188391642&UID=0&PW=NNTZjNmExNGEy&RT=MiMx...
2. Enter your name and email address.
3. Enter the meeting password: Prevent6-12
4. Click "Join Now."
 
As with all previous Agencywide Wellness ViTS presentations, the slides used will be made available online here: http://ohp.nasa.gov/disciplines/fitness/index.html
 
Jessica Vos x41383 http://ohp.nasa.gov/disciplines/fitness/index.html
 
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6.            Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
PALMS training registration is now available in SATERN for EA employees.
 
PALMS is the Engineering Directorate's new Project Management tool for online project planning, scheduling and tracking. Closely integrated with Oasis, PALMS enables Web-based project collaboration, management and publishing of project schedules, resources and associated data products. To register for one of the monthly PALMS classroom training sessions, simply access SATERN and select one of these available courses:
 
PALMS Project Server Training for Team Members
SATERN Course ID: PALMS-02
 
PALMS Project Server Training for Project Managers
SATERN Course ID: PALMS-01
 
The courses are also listed under the Featured Items section of SATERN; https://satern.nasa.gov
 
Stacey Zapatka x34749
 
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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.
 
 
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
Alexey B. Krasnov, Director of Human Spaceflight, Roscosmos
 
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
 
The international space station (ISS) has been fully operational only for a couple of years but given that it took a decade to complete it already “feels old,” in the words of one of its European sponsors. The five station partners — the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada — have agreed to operate the orbital outpost until 2020 and hope that these remaining years will see a full harvest of science and technological research. Alexey B. Krasnov, director of human spaceflight at the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has been Russia’s point man for the space station for over a decade and knows first-hand how hard the coalition, and the station, were to create and maintain. He spoke to Space News staff writer Peter B. de Selding during a recent meeting of the station partners in Berlin…
 
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne about to be sold to private-investor group
 
Gregory Wilcox - Los Angeles Daily News
 
United Technologies Corp. is now in negotiations with one buyer to sell storied rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and a deal may soon be announced, sources said Monday. United Technologies put Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne on the market in March with the goal of striking a deal by the end of the year. Progress is apparently moving rapidly. "What we have heard from the aerospace community is that the sale is imminent. They all said it was great," said Kenn Phillips, vice president of the Valley Economic Alliance, which has been tracking developments with Rocketdyne. The potential buyer is said to be a private investor group.
 
On @ The 90: It's Time to Dream Again
 
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
 
An old adage goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We, as a society, have been indoctrinated into handing out fish. Slowly, but surely, we have been turned into a nation of freeloaders, food-stamps – and failure. NASA, the one agency that lights the fires of our imagination has been allowed to stagnate and wither under decades of neglect. A new movement is underway to halt this degradation – and it will only cost a penny. You can argue if you wish, but what you can’t deny is what Neil deGrasse Tyson states in this video – we’ve been on a downward slide in terms of space exploration since the end of the Apollo era. We’ve rewarded the amazing success that NASA gave us – with funding cuts that have caused the agency responsible to not just wither – but to be timid, afraid to be bold. Unwilling to do anything that might jeopardize its tenuous grasp on existence.
 
NewSpace is in the American tradition
 
Gary Oleson - The Space Review (Opinion)
 
(Oleson is an engineer at TASC, Inc. who supported NASA’s International Space Station program earlier in his career)
 
The successful flight of the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) late last month will kick off another round of debate over how much to spend on NASA support of commercial space enterprises, which some view as low priority or a threat to business as usual. In 2010, President Obama proposed a fundamental change in how NASA operates, shifting development of taxis to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station from the government to the private sector. Congress agreed, but last year gave the President less than half what he’d requested for these ventures: $406 million instead of $850 million, barely two percent of NASA’s $17.8 billion budget.
 
Tortillas in space: How a Tex-Mex favorite became a NASA staple
 
Marene Gustin - CultureMap.com
 
It’s been wild down in Clear Lake lately, with all the Shuttle-brating going on. Sure, it’s just a replica, but we were politically robbed — robbed I say! — of a real shuttle. Now the idiots up north can’t even take care of the real one. But I digress. What I really want to talk about are tortillas. In space.
 
Hall of Fame induction is part of Space Camp 30th anniversary celebration
 
Marian Accardi - Huntsville Times
 
It's a big week for Space Camp.
 
Space Camp turns 30 on Friday, and the 600,000th trainee is scheduled to come through camp during the week. To mark the 30th anniversary, a dinner and induction ceremony for the 2012 Space Camp Hall of Fame members are planned Friday night in the Saturn V Hall of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The inductees are retired Navy Capt. Robert "Hoot" Gibson, a five-time shuttle astronaut; NASA flight director Ed Van Cise; Dr. Liz Warren, International Space Station physiologist at Johnson Space Center; and Stephanie Abrams, a meteorologist and correspondent with The Weather Channel. They'll join 24 others on the Hall of Fame, established to honor graduates and former employees who have distinguished themselves in their careers or supporters who have made significant contributions to Space Camp programs.
 
A Martian Joined Ray Bradbury and Me for Dinner in Paris
 
Henry Fountain - New York Times
 
Ray Bradbury, who died last week at 91, was a masterly writer of science fiction and fantasy, and an extremely prolific one. He wrote at least a thousand words a day and implored others to do the same. Only slightly less well known is that he was also a prolific signer of autographs. And not just in his books, as I learned one evening two decades ago.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
Alexey B. Krasnov, Director of Human Spaceflight, Roscosmos
 
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
 
The international space station (ISS) has been fully operational only for a couple of years but given that it took a decade to complete it already “feels old,” in the words of one of its European sponsors.
 
The five station partners — the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada — have agreed to operate the orbital outpost until 2020 and hope that these remaining years will see a full harvest of science and technological research.
 
There is no consensus on what to do next in human spaceflight. A lunar colony, visits to asteroids or a further extension of the life of the current station are all being discussed. All five partners say that one of the most valuable products of the station has been the partnership itself — a coalition they hope to keep together on the way to everyone’s ultimate destination, which is Mars.
 
Alexey B. Krasnov, director of human spaceflight at the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has been Russia’s point man for the space station for over a decade and knows first-hand how hard the coalition, and the station, were to create and maintain. He spoke to Space News staff writer Peter B. de Selding during a recent meeting of the station partners in Berlin.
 
The space station has been fully operational for a couple of years now. Is it appropriate yet to be concerned about the lack of scientific results?
 
There have been hundreds of results in many areas and I think all the partners would agree that this is the case. This is one reason why the partners have agreed to use the station until at least 2020.
 
In addition to the science, the station is a platform that allows us to learn about operating space structures, managing system failures in orbit and optimizing redundancies — all skills we will need no matter what the next destination is in exploration. I agree that these things are very difficult to count, however.
 
But the value of an infrastructure in low Earth orbit will remain for quite some time, especially in the medical and biological fields. Really we have only just scratched the surface of what we can do, even though we will have been working in low Earth orbit for 50 years in 2020. We don’t want to tell the scientists working on the station that we will be finished with it in 2020.
 
How about after 2020? What does Russia want to do?
 
It is an open question and there are no easy answers. Right now we have low Earth orbit and the ISS and we want to fully use it at least until 2020. The question is: Is there a role for low Earth orbit after 2020? Are there priority objectives we have that cannot be reached by 2020? The answer looks like yes.
 
Then the next question is whether governments should be using taxpayer money to achieve these goals. We have new capacities in industry and commercial vehicles that might be capable of taking over some of these responsibilities.
 
In this case low Earth orbit would be not so much like a hotel as an industrial research facility that is producing commercial spinoffs. Up to now it is governments that have played this role, but it will be difficult for governments to continue doing this while they also plan exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Even with partners it will be difficult for governments to do both.
 
I think it is fair to say that whatever infrastructure follows the international space station will not be as large as the current station. I would not exclude the possibility of the next facility being man-tended, a free-flyer that can be a kind of placeholder. But the size of the current ISS will not be needed for the next-generation station.
 
Does Russia have a preferred goal beyond low Earth orbit?
 
There are multiple options and we have not settled on one. We acknowledge that there can be diverse paths toward the top. There are some very interesting things we can do on the Moon. There are Lagrange points and asteroids. For us the very top of the pyramid is Mars. The ISS can be useful for future exploration no matter what the destination.
 
Does the station’s hardware become unsafe after around 2020?
 
What we know is that most of the hardware could be flown until 2028. But it would need to be recertified, and recertification costs money and requires that we maintain a specific backlog of spare parts. Certainly this is technically doable.
 
We have asked the partners to give us some idea of their intentions by 2014.
 
Why so soon?
 
It is early, but here’s why we need it. I have a 10-year plan that needs to be approved for 2015-2025 and if we agree to recertify the station’s hardware to have it operate to 2028 I will need to take account of that in this 10-year budget plan.
 
We don’t need firm commitments then, but we need indications of what the partners want to do. We know this deadline might create some difficulties for our partners. We understand this. But we have to have some idea of what we are going to do for this 10-year budget.
 
Nearer-term, the United States and Europe agree that only two more Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo-transport vehicles will be built for the station. The last one will fly in 2014 and production is being shut down. Is that a problem for the station?
 
We do have an issue here. Not only is the ATV the only current vehicle that can guide the station into the atmosphere at the end of its life, it is also capable of delivering fuel to the station. When ATV is retired only the Russian Progress vehicle will be able to do that.
 
Do you regret that the decision was made in Europe and at NASA to end their barter agreement on ATV with the fifth model?
 
Each agency has a right to make its own decisions and we do not question that.
 
Is it Russia’s position that figuring out how to replace the ATV is NASA’s problem?
 
That’s not the way the partnership works. Legally of course, NASA is the station’s integrator and coordinator for its technical capabilities. But a problem for the station is a problem for the partners. We don’t just sit back and say, “OK NASA, it’s your job to deal with this.” There may be new vehicles in the coming years, and we hope commercial vehicles can play a role in station resupply.
 
There has been regular questioning of the station’s value in Europe and the United States, and recently the Japanese delegation said Japan wanted to reduce the station’s operating costs. Does this sentiment exist in Russia?
 
There has been a sharp increase in the budget for civil space research in Russia in the past few years and this increase has benefited human spaceflight activities. Our budget is about $1 billion a year now for ISS and other work related to human spaceflight. It has been a spectacular increase.
 
Should the current station partnership be expanded to other nations — China, India, Brazil and so on?
 
This is something that can be discussed. But there is no need to make an immediate decision on this. There is no urgency, and I should say here that, to my knowledge, China has not applied to be a member of the partnership.
 
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne about to be sold to private-investor group
 
Gregory Wilcox - Los Angeles Daily News
 
United Technologies Corp. is now in negotiations with one buyer to sell storied rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and a deal may soon be announced, sources said Monday.
 
United Technologies put Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne on the market in March with the goal of striking a deal by the end of the year. Progress is apparently moving rapidly.
 
"What we have heard from the aerospace community is that the sale is imminent. They all said it was great," said Kenn Phillips, vice president of the Valley Economic Alliance, which has been tracking developments with Rocketdyne.
 
The potential buyer is said to be a private investor group.
 
"These investors are interested in retaining the company on its current site, which is always good because jobs are not going to be moved and this investor is not interested in spinning off parts of the company, so I would say this is very positive," Phillips said.
 
Rocketdyne spokeswoman Erin Dick said she could not comment on the potential buyer.
 
"Certainly the (United Technologies) industrial folks have indicated that they hope to close the deal. Everyone is working very hard to make it happen sooner rather than later," she said.
 
Gregory J. Hayes, United Technologies vice president and chief financial officer, offered up an earlier target date for closing in an April investor conference call.
 
"We expect to sign a contract shortly for Rocketdyne," he said at the time.
 
The Hartford, Conn.-based company is selling Rocketdyne and several other business units to help pay for the $16.5 billion purchase of Goodrich Corp.
 
United Technologies chief executive Louis Chenevert said during an investor conference last month that he thought the Goodrich deal could close sometime after mid-July.
 
Rocketdyne did attract considerable tire-kicking from within the aerospace sector.
 
"There was lots of interest across the spectrum for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne," Dick said.
 
Rocketdyne, which dates back to the birth of America's space exploration, has facilities at Victory Boulevard and De Soto Avenue at Nordhoff Street. The company has said the Canoga Avenue operations will eventually be transferred to DeSoto. About 1,500 people work at the two facilities.
 
United Technologies is also selling Rocketdyne because of the clouded future of space travel.
 
It has owned the company for seven years after buying it from Boeing Co. for $700 million. In that time Rocketdyne has diversified in other fields, such as creating clean energy through coal gasification.
 
Drexel Hamilton analyst Richard Whittington said that this is a time of unease for the nation's space program.
 
"The U.S. government is not really in the launch business. They have basically pulled out. So (the future) is fairly guarded," Whittington said.
 
But the company still has a role in space.
 
Last September NASA said its next generation monster rocket would be powered by Rocketdyne liquid-hydrogen engines.
 
That plan calls for five Rocketdyne RS-25D/E engines producing more than 2 million pounds of thrust to launch the 34-story rocket, while the company's J-2X engine would propel the second stage of the spacecraft.
 
On @ The 90: It's Time to Dream Again
 
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
 
An old adage goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” We, as a society, have been indoctrinated into handing out fish. Slowly, but surely, we have been turned into a nation of freeloaders, food-stamps – and failure. NASA, the one agency that lights the fires of our imagination has been allowed to stagnate and wither under decades of neglect. A new movement is underway to halt this degradation – and it will only cost a penny.
 
You can argue if you wish, but what you can’t deny is what Neil deGrasse Tyson states in this video – we’ve been on a downward slide in terms of space exploration since the end of the Apollo era. We’ve rewarded the amazing success that NASA gave us – with funding cuts that have caused the agency responsible to not just wither – but to be timid, afraid to be bold. Unwilling to do anything that might jeopardize its tenuous grasp on existence.
 
There is a movement underway to get the train back onto the tracks, to reward NASA for all that it has given us – and it will only cost you a penny.
 
Penny4NASA is that effort and it is something that makes so much sense making it unbelievable that we have to fight for it. Why? Because, regardless of who you ask, the numbers are essentially the same as to how much out of every tax dollar goes to NASA – and those numbers are appalling. From the low-end it is four-tenth’s of a penny. The high end? Seven-tenth’s of one cent. The Penny4NASA campaign is striving to see that amount raised to one whole penny out of each dollar. Here is the way that it is described on the official Penny4NASA website:
 
Currently, NASA’s budget only represents about half of one penny of every dollar spent by the United States government annually. We are calling to have NASA’s budget increased to one penny on the dollar. That’s it, as crazy as that sounds, it is still only 1 penny of every dollar spent annually. As Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson says, “Right now, NASA’s annual budget is half a penny on your tax dollar. For twice that—a penny on a dollar—we can transform the country from a sullen, dispirited nation, weary of economic struggle, to one where it has reclaimed its 20th century birthright to dream of tomorrow.”
 
Now, before the anti-NASA howler monkeys start screaming about how we shouldn’t spend money on space, that we should only spend money “on Earth.” That “too much” is spent on NASA as it is. NASA gets a paltry $18.7 billion a year. More money is spent annually on frozen pizza, cigarettes and porn. More money is spent on Valentine’s Day cards and candy. For the measly amount we do invest? We get the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, the astronaut corps, all of the planetary probes and rovers – and all of the equipment is built here, on Earth – which helps us become a more technologically-advanced society. If we listen to the freeloaders, those seeking hand-outs and stop exploring so we can take care of those too lazy to take care of themselves – we will stop exploring. Every society that has gone down that road? Has withered, decayed and eventually collapsed.
 
Are we really willing to admit that we’d rather plunk down more on pizza, smokes and porn rather than our future? We as a nation, need to “man up” and give NASA the funding it needs. How much is the future worth to you? Do you really think you can buy a shining future on the cheap? $37 billion is the amount being sought for NASA’s annual budget - this is less than what Bernie Madoff swindled (estimated between $50 and $65 billion) investors out of, less than what is spent on gambling every year ($100 billion) less than what is spent on lottery tickets ($53 billion) and less than what we spend getting drunk annually ($57 billion). If we can’t look in the mirror and say, “We as a nation should spend more on our future than we spent on hooch, poker, lotto and getting scammed.” – then we deserve where we are going.
 
This On @ The 90 is more stringent, more angry and more blunt than perhaps any I’ve produced in the past, For the simple fact that America – is becoming a nation that used to explore. It is also the first without the usual lead image, it is uneeded and would only take away from the message. Penny4NASA shines a spotlight on this simple fact and seeks to reverse it. The videos here state “We’ve stopped dreaming.” They’re essentially correct. We have, in favor of entitlements and handouts we have given up on dreaming. If we’re wise, if we start thinking in the long term instead of the short term - we will support the efforts of Penny4NASA and turn our eyes to the skies, and our dreams, once again.
 
For more information, please visit: http://penny4nasa.org/
 
NewSpace is in the American tradition
 
Gary Oleson - The Space Review (Opinion)
 
(Oleson is an engineer at TASC, Inc. who supported NASA’s International Space Station program earlier in his career)
 
The successful flight of the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) late last month will kick off another round of debate over how much to spend on NASA support of commercial space enterprises, which some view as low priority or a threat to business as usual.
 
In 2010, President Obama proposed a fundamental change in how NASA operates, shifting development of taxis to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station from the government to the private sector. Congress agreed, but last year gave the President less than half what he’d requested for these ventures: $406 million instead of $850 million, barely two percent of NASA’s $17.8 billion budget.
 
Critics of commercial space enterprises do not understand that “NewSpace,” as this new industry is often called, is grounded in a long history of exploration and economic growth. It is space done the way Americans have always developed new geographic and industrial frontiers. New space is old America—it follows America’s traditional winning formula for developing new frontiers.
 
From the beginning, the American formula was for private enterprise—with support from government—to develop new frontiers. European governments built the ships and funded the voyages that explored the New World. Private enterprises then founded the trading posts and settlements—often with financial support from government.
 
As soon as the American Revolution was won, the new federal government began vigorous programs to advance economic growth, trade, and industrial development. The nation explored its western frontiers and provided military support for traders and settlers who followed the explorers. Federal and state governments supported the construction of roads, then canals, then railroads. They also took an active role in supporting new industries and financing new industrial technologies.
 
In the last century, the American government successfully supported the growth and viability of the aviation industry via the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA’s predecessor) and other agencies. The Internet is another example of a new frontier where government-supported development yielded a successful, revolutionary industry that has created new jobs and new wealth.
 
In today’s uncertain economic and budgetary climate, many question whether the space program has created sufficient return on investment and look to reduce our government’s financial investment in space. It is a fair question.
 
Our space program has yielded several new industries so far, including telecommunications satellites, Earth remote sensing, and geolocation. It also contributed many technological, scientific, and medical advances that have improved our quality of life, but no one can say whether the same funds directed to research in other areas might have produced more. What will count in the future is intentional, reproducible creation of value that makes use of the unique qualities of space. The American people will always be entitled to ask, “What have you done for me lately?”
 
Though few people realize it, research on the ISS has begun to produce powerful results. For example, microgravity-based vaccine development conducted on the space station resulted in a Salmonella vaccine that is currently undergoing clinical trials. Research to develop vaccines against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Streptococcus pneumonia, and other microbes is continuing. This is but the tip of the iceberg of potential space-based research. Value is there to be had.
 
American entrepreneurs are poised to lead the world in space development with everything from commercial taxi services to private space stations. No new authorizing legislation is needed for the government to do its part. In 1985, Congress mandated that NASA “seek and encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space.”
 
However, the United States is in an age of budget austerity and NASA is just one adverse budget away from losing its human spaceflight program. A government program to explore space that is seen as expensive and does not result in production of new wealth cannot be sustained forever. Its mandate to support commercial development is NASA’s opportunity to both increase national revenue from space and lower its own costs. Supporting commercial use of space is, therefore, the most important thing NASA can do right now to assure its own future and the nation’s future in space.
 
If commercial enterprise can develop sustainable markets, whether from tourism or biomedical research or energy production, then nothing will stop our exploration of space. Launch costs, spacecraft costs, and operations costs will all drop with new innovations and rising demand. This will enable American civilian, military, and commercial space enterprises to accomplish more with less money.
 
New wealth flowing from space will sustain itself and generate both political motivation and financial support for NASA’s programs. Even more important, a booming commercial space industry would employ thousands of well-paid American workers and re-establish the United States as the dominant exporter of space goods and services. This kind of success brings a golden age of space within our reach.
 
History tells us that if our commercial space enterprises succeed, then there will be no end to American exploration of space. American tradition shows us the way. Government support for space commercialization isn’t just an option. If we are to have a future in space, it’s a necessity.
 
Tortillas in space: How a Tex-Mex favorite became a NASA staple
 
Marene Gustin - CultureMap.com
 
It’s been wild down in Clear Lake lately, with all the Shuttle-brating going on. Sure, it’s just a replica, but we were politically robbed — robbed I say! — of a real shuttle. Now the idiots up north can’t even take care of the real one.
 
But I digress. What I really want to talk about are tortillas. In space.
 
One thing missing from the shuttle partying in Clear Lake/Seabrook/Weber was the kind of partying that used to go on at Tierra Luna Mexican Grill.
 
“It was just a great little place right outside the JSC gates,” says Charlie Justiz, an aviation specialist and science fiction writer (Specific Impulse, in stores now!) who spent three decades as a NASA pilot. He’s the guy who flew the 747 that the shuttles were strapped atop as they headed to Florida.
 
Tierra Luna, besides being right next to the JSC compound (that’s Johnson Space Center, you know how those NASA peeps are about acronyms), was a cool place for astronauts to hang out because it was owned by Adela Hernandez, wife of astronaut Jose Hernandez. He’d sometimes hang out there and wait tables with his wife and other family members.
 
The restaurant isn’t there any more; the Hernandez family closed it and relocated to California after he retired from NASA in 2010. He’s currently running for the 10th congressional district there. But even though Tierra Luna is gone, the NASA community still has a fondness for Tex-Mex. So much so that tortillas are a staple for space travel.
 
In "¡Ask a Mexican!" columnist Gustavo Arellano’s new book on the rise of Mexican food in America, Taco USA (available in stores now! No, I’m not getting a kickback for this. I just like that phrase) he starts with astronauts Hernandez and Danny Olivas eating breakfast burritos in space in 2009 on the International Space Station. That would be the ISS in NASA-speak.
 
(Quick aside about NASA acronyms: When Justiz and his wife Dayna Steele were expecting their first son, the NASA culture nicknamed the in-utero baby DACK. As in Dayna and Charlie’s Kid. It stuck and to this day the boy’s name is Dack.)
 
“Sure they taste great,” says Justiz. “But that’s not the reason tortillas are in space. It’s because bread has crumbs and tortillas don’t. You can’t have crumbs floating around and clogging up air vents. We’ve been sending them up for decades to the ISS and on the shuttles. We used to get them from a little tortilla place near El Paso.”
 
According to NASA’s website, tortillas have been in space since the 1980s but are now specially designed to last longer:
 
“Picture trying to make a sandwich with two slices of bread. In space, you’d need three hands to do it. Tortillas work great and are a favorite with the astronauts. On the ISS, they still taste good after being stored for up to 18 months! Add some picante sauce and hot sauce and you’ve created fajitas, one of the astronauts’ favorite meals.”
 
In fact, in 2000 University of Houston faculty Dr. Clinton L. Rappole, Dr. Elena Vittadini and Dr. Yael Vodovotz started a study to develop extended-life tortillas for long-duration space missions. I'm not sure, but I think this might be the first collaboration between the aerospace engineering and hotel and restaurant management departments. It’s a little dry but you can read about it here.
 
Anyway, having tortillas in space is tasty, nutritious, safe and gives one a sense of home.
 
Much better than those tasteless freeze-dried packs of food-like stuff NASA started out with. Plus with a tortilla the eating possibilities are endless. Wrap your eggs, meat, and even peanut butter into one and eat while you float around doing your work.
 
Here on earth we are even wrapping tortillas around other Tex-Mex staples. Have you seen Taco Bell’s new Beefy Nacho Burrito? “Bite into crunchy nacho chips, covered in warm nacho cheese sauce, delicious 100% real seasoned beef, and cool reduced-fat sour cream, all wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla for maximum portability.”
 
Hmmmm. Frankly I think I’d rather try one from the ISS.
 
Hall of Fame induction is part of Space Camp 30th anniversary celebration
 
Marian Accardi - Huntsville Times
 
It's a big week for Space Camp.
 
Space Camp turns 30 on Friday, and the 600,000th trainee is scheduled to come through camp during the week.
 
To mark the 30th anniversary, a dinner and induction ceremony for the 2012 Space Camp Hall of Fame members are planned Friday night in the Saturn V Hall of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration.
 
The inductees are retired Navy Capt. Robert "Hoot" Gibson, a five-time shuttle astronaut; NASA flight director Ed Van Cise; Dr. Liz Warren, International Space Station physiologist at Johnson Space Center; and Stephanie Abrams, a meteorologist and correspondent with The Weather Channel. They'll join 24 others on the Hall of Fame, established to honor graduates and former employees who have distinguished themselves in their careers or supporters who have made significant contributions to Space Camp programs.
 
Space Camp alumni and former staff and their families are invited to take part in the weekend's events.
 
"We've put an emphasis on reaching out to alumni," said Tim Hall, the center's strategist. "They really are making a difference" around the world.
 
Apollo 16 astronaut Charles "Charlie" Duke, the 10th man to walk on the moon, plans to attend the Hall of Fame dinner. Chicago chef Dale Levitski, the third season runner-up on the Bravo reality TV show "Top Chef," will be the guest chef that night.
 
The U.S. Space & Rocket Center is hosting an eBay fundraiser during the week before a silent auction at the Friday night event. Select items are listed on eBay until 9 p.m. Friday.
 
All funds raised will go to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Foundation Scholarship program to help send children to Space Camp or Aviation Challenge.
 
Nearly 100 items donated by more than 70 individuals, companies and charitable partners will be available to bid on during the auction, Hall said.
 
The items posted on eBay at USSRC_Foundation will include a Right Stuff Field Geologist print from Alan Bean that's signed by the Apollo 12 astronauts; a first-aid kit signed by astronaut Fred Haise; an Astronaut Barbie signed by astronaut Jan Davis; a Skylab I insignia signed by astronaut Paul Weitz; a framed checklist signed by astronaut "Hoot" Gibson; an Omega Speed Master watch; a football signed by Joe Namath; a script signed by the cast of the movie, "A Smile as Big As The Moon;" a copy of the book "A Smile as Big as the Moon," signed by actor John Corbett and the book's author, Mike Kersjes; a tour of Bryant-Denny Stadium; a University of Alabama football; a painting from artist Paul Calle; and a copy of the book "Falling to Earth" signed by astronaut Al Worden and author Francis French.
 
A Retro Night Social on Thursday will feature a special showing of the 1986 movie, "Space Camp." The film's producer, Patrick Bailey, will be a special guest.
 
A Martian Joined Ray Bradbury and Me for Dinner in Paris
 
Henry Fountain - New York Times
 
Ray Bradbury, who died last week at 91, was a masterly writer of science fiction and fantasy, and an extremely prolific one. He wrote at least a thousand words a day and implored others to do the same.
 
Only slightly less well known is that he was also a prolific signer of autographs. And not just in his books, as I learned one evening two decades ago.
 
I was working in Paris, and one day a colleague asked if I’d like to go to dinner with a longtime friend of his: Ray Bradbury, who happened to be in France on a consulting arrangement related to the new Disney theme park east of Paris.
 
John told me where and when to show up, and said I should bring a friend. And oh, he added, bring your Bradbury books: Ray loves to sign them, in fact carries around some felt-tip markers just for that purpose.
 
I’m not the type to ask for autographs, and anyway my two Bradbury books — “Fahrenheit 451” and “The Martian Chronicles” — were packed away somewhere. So I didn’t take any books along. Neither did my friend, or John’s.
 
That, it turned out, was no obstacle for Mr. Bradbury.
 
The five of us met at a bistro on the Left Bank, not far from Napoleon’s tomb. As Parisian bistros go, it was no better or worse than most, but a bit dressier, with white linen on the small square tables.
 
The evening began with red wine. We ordered food, and more wine. Pretty soon the food was gone, but the wine kept coming.
 
I know we talked about writing. Mr. Bradbury was so passionate about the subject, we couldn’t have not talked about it. Beyond that I don’t remember much, except that he was funny, effusive and genuinely friendly. We all laughed a lot at his stories.
 
Then, while regaling us with one of those tales — it might have involved some escapade with Walt Disney himself — he knocked over his wine glass.
 
We all stopped talking and stared at the purple stain seeping across the tablecloth. It was an irregular shape; to me it resembled an amoeba.
 
But not to Ray Bradbury.
 
“My, that looks like a Martian!” he shouted. Then he opened his sport coat, revealing five felt-tips of different colors lined up neatly in the inside pocket.
 
He grabbed the black one and started doodling on the tablecloth. I remember thinking that while the restaurant probably dealt with wine stains all the time, marker ink was another matter. But I wasn’t about to tell Ray Bradbury he shouldn’t draw on a tablecloth.
 
At first I couldn’t quite make out the drawing, but then I realized he was turning the stain into a face. An alien face, it appeared — he had added a couple of antennas.
 
The waiter, seeing the commotion, came over to clean up. When he started to remove the soiled tablecloth, Mr. Bradbury stopped him, mumbling something about having to autograph it first. He signed it and added the date for good measure. Then he made a show of presenting it to the waiter.
 
I’m pretty sure the guy didn’t know who Ray Bradbury was. But he accepted the gift of the restaurant’s own tablecloth as if it were a canvas from Picasso himself, and scurried off to give it to the manager.
 
At some point John must have said something to the manager, because the man came by before we left to thank Mr. Bradbury for the artwork. And a month or so later, when I stopped into the bistro, there was the tablecloth — prominently framed on a wall.
 
I went back again seven or eight years ago, and as happens all the time in Paris, the restaurant had changed hands and was completely remodeled. The tablecloth was nowhere in sight.
 
I just hope that it was saved from the remodeler’s sledgehammer, and that somewhere, somehow, there’s a Ray Bradbury original still hanging on the wall.
 
END
 
 


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