6/21/12 news

 
Thursday, June 21, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Today -- AFGE Lunch-and-Learn
2.            TODAY! Women in the Workplace: Being an Influence Leader (Panel Discussion)
3.            Get Your IT Idea Funded: IT Labs Annual Project Call Deadline is Tomorrow
4.            Grab-and-Go Hurricane Tools
5.            Space Available - APPEL - Requirements Development and Management
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Don't hate, it's too big a burden to bear. ”
 
-- Martin Luther King Jr.
________________________________________
1.            Today -- AFGE Lunch-and-Learn
Come join us for the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Union Lunch-and-Learn today, June 21.
 
Open to all non-supervisory JSC civil servants. Come and hear what AFGE representatives have to talk about:
 
- Know your rights
- Union benefits
- Union representation
 
Event to be held between the hours of 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. in Building 45, Room 451.
 
Bridget Broussard-Guidry x34276
 
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2.            TODAY! Women in the Workplace: Being an Influence Leader (Panel Discussion)
Join us TODAY, June 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a panel discussion in the Building 30 Auditorium that both men and women will benefit from.
 
As part of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer Subject Matter Expert class series, leaders at JSC will share their personal keys to success, as well as recommendations for becoming an influence leader at NASA. Areas of discussion will include lessons learned, effective communication techniques, professional dress and helpful tips for men interacting with women in the workplace. Attendees will benefit from the leaders' personal insights gained on their trek to success. Guest panelists will be LA/Dot Swanson; AH/Natalie Saiz; EC/Trish Petete; YA/Vanessa Wyche; and LS/Mark Holden.
 
Donna Blackshear-Reynolds x32814
 
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3.            Get Your IT Idea Funded: IT Labs Annual Project Call Deadline is Tomorrow
NASA's IT Labs wants to fund your innovative ideas for IT-related solutions that can be used across all NASA centers. Proposals are due tomorrow, June 22. This is your chance to help solve challenging IT problems and introduce new technologies across the agency. IT Labs will fund a limited number of projects.
 
If you have an idea, please coordinate with the JSC Chief Technology Officer James B. McClellan in the Information Resources Directorate (james.b.mcclellan@nasa.gov or x45678) to submit a proposal on the IT Labs website at: http://labs.nasa.gov
 
IT Labs is the Technology and Innovation Program for the NASA Chief Technology Officer for IT and aims to leverage expertise across the agency to identify challenging problems, ideas and solutions and integrate IT solutions and innovations into the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO).
 
Note: Due to legal constraints, only civil servants may enter a proposal, but contractor services can be part of the proposal.
 
JSC IRD Outreach x45678 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/AboutIRD/cto/default.aspx
 
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4.            Grab-and-Go Hurricane Tools
Time to be prepared for hurricane season. People with medical concerns and their caregivers have additional considerations when planning for a storm. Come get the tools to get ready so you know you are prepared. "Grab-and-Go Hurricane Tools" will be presented on Tuesday, June 26, at 4 p.m. in Building 32, Conference Room 142.
 
JSC Employee Assistance Program x36130
 
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5.            Space Available - APPEL - Requirements Development and Management
This three-day course provides a firm foundation for the development and management of a project's product requirements. This course presents the participant with best practices that, when incorporated into the requirement development and management process, will help a project team develop a winning product—one that delivers what is needed, when it is needed, within the projected costs and with the expected quality.
 
This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including systems engineers and project personnel who seek to develop the competencies required to succeed as a leader of a project team, functional team or small project.
 
This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until June 25 and is open to civil servants and contractors on a space-available basis.
 
Dates: Tuesday to Thursday, July 10 to 12
Location: Building 226N, Room 174
 
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...
 
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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
Thursday, June 21, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
NASA: Private U.S. Spacecraft Could Save Agency Millions
Private craft could make trips far cheaper than buying astronaut seats on Russian Soyuz
 
Jason Koebler - US News & World Report
 
The head of NASA's manned flights told a Senate committee Wednesday that future trips to the International Space Station operated by private U.S. companies would save NASA money and bring millions of dollars to American enterprises. Since NASA ended the space shuttle program, its astronauts have been hitching rides aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, to the tune of nearly $63 million per seat. Last year, NASA struck a $753 million deal with Russia for 12 round trips to the space station. But the recent successful roundtrip flight to the space station by California-based SpaceX has given the agency hopes to resume flying aboard American aircraft as soon as 2015.
 
NASA Banking on Commercial Crew To Grow Space Station’s Population
 
Dan Leone - Space News
 
NASA is banking on its Commercial Crew Program to increase international space station (ISS) crew capacity to seven from the current six — something that could happen as soon as 2017 if Congress is willing to dramatically increase the program’s budget, the agency’s top human spaceflight official said. “We would definitely increase the crew size on ISS to seven crew members,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate said June 20 during a hearing before the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee. “We think that will increase the research capability onboard station and allow us to do more national lab research and be more effective in utilizing space station.”
 
Commercial Space Travel May Bring Science Benefits, Advocates Say
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
Launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard commercial spaceships may have its risks, but the payoffs from lower-cost flights to the orbiting outpost, and expanded scientific use of the microgravity environment, are expected to be considerable, industry officials told lawmakers Wednesday. William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration Operations Directorate, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science and Space to discuss the risks and opportunities associated with the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry.
 
US government, industry support launch insurance indemnification
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Witnesses representing US government agencies and the commercial spaceflight industry supported extending insurance indemnification for commercial spaceflight launches during a 20 June US Senate Science and Space subcommittee hearing. The indemnification is scheduled to expire on 31 December. The FAA, NASA and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) voiced their support for the extension, along with industry representatives from space habitat manufacturer Bigelow Aerospace and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
 
NASA tests capsule in vacuum chamber at Marshall Space Flight Center
 
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
 
What kind of carbon-fiber and epoxy and aluminum spaceship would you ride into the frigid near-vacuum of space? For NASA, the only answer is a spaceship that's been tested -- thoroughly. A new round of that testing for future composite capsules began this week at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center. The full-sized test capsule now at Marshall's Environmental Test Facility isn't a current-generation Orion capsule like those destined to fly on early missions of NASA's new heavy-lift rocket. Its inner layer is an aluminum honeycomb core, and the outer layer is carbon fiber. The test capsule was built in layers by Alliant Techsystems technicians in Iuka, Miss.
 
Mock asteroid mission on ocean floor 'incredibly realistic,' astronauts say
 
Mike Wall - Space.com
 
The ocean floor may seem a bit close to home for astronauts on a mission, but the underwater world provides a great dress rehearsal for a trek to an asteroid in deep space, two spaceflyers told NASA chief Charles Bolden Wednesday. Bolden checked in with astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger of NASA and Tim Peake of the European Space Agency as the pair floated outside the Aquarius research station, about 62 feet (19 meters) deep a few miles off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. Metcalf-Lindenburger and Peake are two of the four crewmembers on the 16th expedition of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations program, or NEEMO.
 
Excalibur Almaz signs MoU with Xcor
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Commercial spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Xcor to provide suborbital astronaut training. Xcor builds the Lynx, a horizontal takeoff and horizontal landing suborbital spacecraft. Flights aboard the Lynx will be used to acclimate and train astronauts who are destined for platforms refurbished by Excalibur Almaz that operate in microgravity and zero-gravity environments.
 
U.S. Rethinks Possible Competition with China in Space
 
Tiffany Kaiser - DailyTech.com
 
China's recent successful manned mission has started a space race debate. Now that China has successfully completed its first manned mission, the United States is worried that it may be left behind when it comes to space-related endeavors. With so many firsts under China's belt, the U.S. is getting a little worried. Some scientists, such as lunar geologist Paul Spudis say that China could renounce the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states that no one can claim national sovereignty in space. Spudis believes that potential resources on the moon, such as water, could tempt the country into renouncing the treaty. There are also worries about the U.S. government's space program. While the U.S. has the private sector (SpaceX) taking care of space-related business for now, there are concerns regarding the private sector's ability to uphold the American space effort without the government's support. The U.S.' funding for the space program has been quite low, even to the point where NASA urged Congress to provide the full $850 million for commercial crew vehicle development last October.
 
Why NASA Should Nab an Asteroid
 
Tom Jones - Popular Mechanics (Opinion)
 
(Jones is a former astronauts & author of Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir)
 
NASA and its partners snatch a small asteroid from deep space, bag it for delivery, and tow it into a safe orbit around our moon. There the captured asteroid creates an easy stepping-stone for astronaut explorers who want to explore an ancient rock from the dawn of the solar system, and creates a target for miners who might extract valuable water and metals. If successful, the grab demonstrates that humans could divert a dangerous space rock if necessary.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
NASA: Private U.S. Spacecraft Could Save Agency Millions
Private craft could make trips far cheaper than buying astronaut seats on Russian Soyuz
 
Jason Koebler - US News & World Report
 
The head of NASA's manned flights told a Senate committee Wednesday that future trips to the International Space Station operated by private U.S. companies would save NASA money and bring millions of dollars to American enterprises.
 
Since NASA ended the space shuttle program, its astronauts have been hitching rides aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, to the tune of nearly $63 million per seat. Last year, NASA struck a $753 million deal with Russia for 12 round trips to the space station. But the recent successful roundtrip flight to the space station by California-based SpaceX has given the agency hopes to resume flying aboard American aircraft as soon as 2015.
 
William Gerstenmaier, head of human exploration and operations at NASA, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that the agency "expects a cost reduction" aboard American spacecraft, "but it's too early to say what the cost reduction is."
 
"I believe the prices will be cheaper than what we have to pay for Soyuz," he said. The agency has planned to begin flying aboard an American company's spacecraft by 2017, but "some think they can provide a crewed flight earlier, in 2015."
 
Crewed flights aboard American-operated flights wouldn't just be good news for NASA, it could also be a boon for American companies.
 
"Every seat on the Soyuz has been sold, even as the price has increased over the years," said Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former astronaut and president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "The market demand for similar American seats could be five to 10 times that of the Soyuz."
 
As the Russian government does now, American companies could sell seats aboard their spacecraft to astronauts from countries that want to send manned missions into space, said Robert Bigelow, founder of Bigelow Airspace, a company trying to develop crewed spaceflights.
 
"We could help countries like Japan, which has had a robust human spaceflight program" but no manned spacecraft, Bigelow said. "Or we could help a country like Singapore, which would like to [develop a manned space presence] without breaking the bank. That's where we're going."
 
According to Gerstenmaier, future missions aboard commercial spacecraft would potentially last much longer than current missions aboard Soyuz craft, with astronauts staying aboard the space station for up to a year to "gain experience for the durations we'd need in space for Mars-type missions."
 
In fact, Gerstenmaier said he imagines a future where commercial companies operated most, if not all, American flights between Earth and the International Space Station, with NASA focused on further-flung missions.
 
"There's a role for commercial spaceflight in low-Earth orbit, and there's a role for us beyond low-Earth orbit. We need to keep doing all of these," he said.
 
NASA has said it plans to send manned missions to Mars by the mid-2030s.
 
Ranking member Kay Bailey Hutchison applauded NASA's and the private industry's efforts, but the Texas Republican added that the government should have supported companies aspiring to send manned missions to space much sooner—and needs to not make the same mistake again.
 
"We are paying a heavy price for the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and the reason we're paying hundreds of millions of dollars is because … we never had the adequate support to plan ahead," she said.
 
In an ideal world, private industry would have been able to step in with manned missions immediately following the retirement of the space shuttle program.
 
"We knew this was coming … we know what the next mission is going to be," she said, referring to a manned Mars mission. "We don't know what we're going to be finding, just like we didn't know what we'd discover when we went to the moon."
 
NASA Banking on Commercial Crew To Grow Space Station’s Population
 
Dan Leone - Space News
 
NASA is banking on its Commercial Crew Program to increase international space station (ISS) crew capacity to seven from the current six — something that could happen as soon as 2017 if Congress is willing to dramatically increase the program’s budget, the agency’s top human spaceflight official said.
 
“We would definitely increase the crew size on ISS to seven crew members,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate said June 20 during a hearing before the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee. “We think that will increase the research capability onboard station and allow us to do more national lab research and be more effective in utilizing space station.”
 
To do that, and to ensure that the privately operated astronaut taxis NASA is helping industry develop are flying by 2017, the Commercial Crew Program will need more than $800 million in annual funding from 2014 to 2017. Congress gave the program $406 million for 2012, less than half what NASA requested. The program is poised to fare somewhat better in 2013, with key lawmakers pledging $525 million of the $830 million the agency requested.
 
NASA currently pays the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, about $60 million a seat to ferry crew members to the international space station aboard Soyuz spacecraft. The U.S. companies competing to develop a domestic alternative to Soyuz are expected to beat that price, Gerstenmaier said.
 
“We expect there to be a cost reduction, but I think it’s a little too early for us to pick a particular value for a cost reduction,” Gerstenamier said. He added that NASA plans to buy seats on two commercial crew flights a year. The agency would book four seats on each flight, he said.
 
Congress and the White House have frequently disagreed about how to run the Commercial Crew Program. Earlier this year, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee, drafted legislation calling for NASA to immediately pick a single provider to build a crew transportation system rather than prolong competition with multiple large awards.
 
Wolf announced June 5 that he had dropped that demand after NASA agreed to fund no more than three providers, one of which would get half as much funding as the others. Wolf also insisted that the agency shift away from funded Space Act Agreements to more traditional government contracts once the next 21-month phase of the program concludes.
 
So-called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability awards are expected in mid-July, NASA administrator Charles Bolden said June 18. At least four companies are competing for an award: ATK Aerospace, Magna, Utah; Boeing Space Exploration, Houston; Sierra Nevada Space Systems, Louisville, Colo.; and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif.
 
Meanwhile, an industry witness at the June 20 hearing said space transportation prices will have to fall substantially before any business plan involving a payload — crew or cargo — becomes palatable to private enterprise.
 
“Those prices must come down from the sixty-plus-million-dollar range,” said Mike Gold, director of Washington operations and business growth for Bigelow Aerospace, North Las Vegas, Nev. “They must come down dramatically for there to be a business case from the private sector.”
 
Bigelow is developing inflatable space habitats that it wants to market primarily to foreign governments. The company has sent two prototype modules into space on Russian rockets but says it cannot afford to develop or fly an operational habitat until cheaper space transportation is available. Gold said Bigelow needs a domestic transportation option because it is too expensive to comply with U.S. export control policies; Bigelow spent about $1 million on export control compliance for the two Russian launches it bought.
 
Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation here, told lawmakers that the companies developing commercial crew taxis are counting on ISS service contracts to make their business cases close.
 
“We sort of need the [international space station] to be there for us,” Lopez-Alegria said. “We support whatever is necessary to ensure future use of the space station.”
 
Lopez-Alegria called on Congress to renew NASA’s waiver to provisions in the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act that bar the agency from buying space station-related goods and services from Russia. The current waiver expires in 2016 and, in addition to letting NASA buy Soyuz seats, allows the agency to barter with Russia for engineering and data analysis critical to keeping the station operational.
 
Gerstenmaier said without a new waiver, the United States will have to depend on Russian goodwill to secure needed engineering services.
 
“Maybe they would donate that engineering service and that research service without bartering for it, I don’t know if that’s the case or not,” Gerstenmaier said.
 
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), chairman of the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, offered strong support for granting such a waiver.
 
“We don’t have any choice, we have to pass that,” Nelson said at the hearing. “We simply can’t let that get in the way of us moving ahead with the space program.” He did not say whether the waiver would appear as stand-alone legislation or as part of another bill.
 
Commercial Space Travel May Bring Science Benefits, Advocates Say
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
Launching NASA astronauts to the International Space Station aboard commercial spaceships may have its risks, but the payoffs from lower-cost flights to the orbiting outpost, and expanded scientific use of the microgravity environment, are expected to be considerable, industry officials told lawmakers Wednesday.
 
William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration Operations Directorate, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Science and Space to discuss the risks and opportunities associated with the burgeoning commercial spaceflight industry.
 
By supporting the development of new private spaceships, NASA will be able to purchase flights to and from the space station with reduced cost and oversight.
 
"These two things are allowing NASA to focus its talents on the bigger goals: the utilization of the International Space Station and developing the next generation of hardware and skills that will allow us to extend human presence in the solar system beyond low-Earth orbit," Gerstenmaier said.
 
NASA is currently relying on Russian rockets and capsules to ferry American astronauts to and from the orbiting complex, but the agency is hoping to begin flights on homegrown commercial vehicles by 2017.
 
Gerstenmaier stressed that as these spacecraft undergo rigorous testing, there may be setbacks, and it is important for the government to understand the setbacks and not clamp down on the industry in ways that will stifle progress and innovation.
 
"We need to anticipate and not overreact to these problems," Gerstenmaier said. "These problems will occur and should not be viewed as a major failure."
 
The hearing included comments from Pamela Melroy, senior technical adviser in the Office of Commercial Space Transportation at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Gerald Dillingham, director of civil aviation issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office, Michael Gold, director of D.C. operations and business growth at Bigelow Aerospace, and Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
 
Several of the representatives spoke about the anticipated benefits of commercial spaceflight, which include being able to use the International Space Station to its full research potential, while also providing a platform for private companies to perform research and development in microgravity.
 
Scientific experiments, such as vaccine development, already occur aboard the space station, but having more cost-effective means of reaching low-Earth orbit could revolutionize certain industries, such as pharmaceuticals and materials science.
 
"That's just scratching the surface," Gold said. "We have to develop regular, robust and reliable access to space to bring that to fruition."
 
Once commercial vehicles are available, NASA intends to add another astronaut to the space station's typical six-person crew. This means purchasing four seats per flight, at an anticipated rate of two flights a year, Gerstenmaier said.
 
"We're still off investigating what makes sense," he said.  "It'll be on the order of about two flights per year with four confirmed seats on those flights, but we're looking at how we can use those seats effectively."
 
Today's hearing comes after NASA and the FAA announced earlier this week that they had signed an agreement to establish licensing standards for commercial missions to the International Space Station.
 
US government, industry support launch insurance indemnification
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Witnesses representing US government agencies and the commercial spaceflight industry supported extending insurance indemnification for commercial spaceflight launches during a 20 June US Senate Science and Space subcommittee hearing. The indemnification is scheduled to expire on 31 December.
 
The FAA, NASA and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) voiced their support for the extension, along with industry representatives from space habitat manufacturer Bigelow Aerospace and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
 
Through the indemnification, commercial launch providers are only required to purchase insurance for up to $500 million.
 
Under current legislation, the US government commits to pay for damage beyond a certain amount, determined on a per-flight basis, up to $1.5 billion. The liability shield allows launch providers to reduce costs and commercial spaceflight companies see it as critical to fostering a US commercial launch market.
 
"We didn't speak to anyone in industry who didn't think this should be extended," says GAO.
 
In other business, witnesses unanimously called for extending NASA's exception from a non-proliferation act meant to block missile transfers to Syria, North Korea and Iran. Failure to extend relief from the act would effectively prevent NASA from exchanging data and services with Russian space agency Roscosmos, upon which NASA depends to launch astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).
 
"The way we understand the restriction is it also doesn't allow us to barter. We barter for engineering information and other things," says NASA.
 
The witnesses made a strong call to fully fund NASA's commercial crew integrated capability, which would provide the US with a domestic means of transport to the ISS. (please check that this edit is correct)
 
"We support the highest possible funding for NASA's commercial crew programme in FY 2013 and beyond to ensure that this gap in American spaceflight capability ends soon and forever," says Michael Lopez-Alegria.
 
NASA tests capsule in vacuum chamber at Marshall Space Flight Center
 
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
 
What kind of carbon-fiber and epoxy and aluminum spaceship would you ride into the frigid near-vacuum of space? For NASA, the only answer is a spaceship that's been tested -- thoroughly. A new round of that testing for future composite capsules began this week at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.
 
The full-sized test capsule now at Marshall's Environmental Test Facility isn't a current-generation Orion capsule like those destined to fly on early missions of NASA's new heavy-lift rocket. Its inner layer is an aluminum honeycomb core, and the outer layer is carbon fiber. The test capsule was built in layers by Alliant Techsystems technicians in Iuka, Miss.
 
Marshall, where the bonding process for joining the layers was developed, is also where the conditions of space can be simulated in the Environmental Test Facility's vacuum chamber.
 
The plan is to seal the capsule in the chamber and drop the atmospheric pressure to the near-vacuum level the capsule would encounter in space. It will be filled with helium during the test.
 
In space, any unplugged leak could easily be fatal. So, in the tests, engineers will watch for small helium leaks, determine where they are and attempt to fix them.
 
The team has already completed 10 tests and will be testing the capsule throughout the summer. The data will be used as NASA tries to lower the weight of future spacecraft by increasing their amount of composite material. Lower weight in the capsule means more weight available for scientific or life-preserving cargo.
 
The first generation of Orion flight capsules is well on the way to production. NASA will test one in a drop test next month and launch an unmanned Orion to deep space in 2014. See Orion video below.
 
The test team for the Huntsville tests includes staff from Marshall; NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.; Goddard Space Flight Center in Md.; Kennedy Space Center in Fla.; and the Boeing Company in Huntsville.
 
Mock asteroid mission on ocean floor 'incredibly realistic,' astronauts say
 
Mike Wall - Space.com
 
The ocean floor may seem a bit close to home for astronauts on a mission, but the underwater world provides a great dress rehearsal for a trek to an asteroid in deep space, two spaceflyers told NASA chief Charles Bolden Wednesday.
 
Bolden checked in with astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger of NASA and Tim Peake of the European Space Agency as the pair floated outside the Aquarius research station, about 62 feet (19 meters) deep a few miles off the coast of Key Largo, Fla.
 
Metcalf-Lindenburger and Peake are two of the four crewmembers on the 16th expedition of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations program, or NEEMO. The main goal of NEEMO 16, which began June 11 and wraps up Friday (June 22), is to help NASA prepare for a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid.
 
This is a key priority for the space agency. Two years ago, President Barack Obama directed NASA to work toward getting astronauts to a space rock by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.
 
"Do you see this training as realistic?" Bolden asked Peake during Wednesday's call, which was broadcast live on NASA TV. "Is it something that you find beneficial, and adds some realism to your thoughts about what it will really be like when you get to go to an asteroid?" [Photos: NEEMO 16 Undersea 'Asteroid' Mission]
 
"It's been an incredibly realistic mission, yes, absolutely," Peake replied, as colorful reef fish swam around him and Metcalf-Lindenburger. "I don't think you can beat Aquarius, and what we've been doing down here, as far as a space analogue is concerned."
 
The NEEMO 16 aquanauts' activities focus on three core areas, NASA officials have said: dealing with communication delays, figuring out optimum crew sizes and coming up with ways to attach to and travel across an asteroid in deep space.
 
They've tested out asteroid-snagging tether systems on seabed "spacewalks," for example, with the underwater environment providing a decent approximation of what it would be like to work in space.
 
And NEEMO 16 crewmember Steve Squyres — a professor at Cornell University and the lead scientist for NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers — recently fastened his feet to a small submarine and was driven around from spot to spot, trying out a technique that could let astronauts explore an asteroid while keeping their hands free.
 
All of this work has been extremely productive, Peake said.
 
"We've had a fantastic mission. We've accomplished all of the objectives, and we've really collected a load of great data," he said. "I'm really looking forward to seeing the results of that data, and to seeing what the fruits of our labor will produce in the years to come."
 
The fourth NEEMO 16 aquanaut is Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui. He and Squyres sat inside Aquarius during today's phone call, staying as dry as Bolden did.
 
Metcalf-Lindenburger, who flew on the space shuttle Discovery's STS-131 mission in 2010, commands NEEMO 16.
 
Aquarius is the world's only undersea research station, according to NASA officials. It's owned by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and managed by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The station sits on a patch of seafloor next to coral reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) from Key Largo.
 
Excalibur Almaz signs MoU with Xcor
 
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
 
Commercial spaceflight company Excalibur Almaz has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Xcor to provide suborbital astronaut training.
 
Xcor builds the Lynx, a horizontal takeoff and horizontal landing suborbital spacecraft. Flights aboard the Lynx will be used to acclimate and train astronauts who are destined for platforms refurbished by Excalibur Almaz that operate in microgravity and zero-gravity environments.
 
Excalibur, which will use revamped Soviet space hardware to operate in low Earth orbit, cislunar and deep space. Hardware plans include two space stations and a capsule, left over from the Soviet Union's military Soyuz programme. The company has signed an unfunded Space Act Agreement with NASA in order to facilitate technical cooperation.
 
The Isle of Man, United Kingdom-based company revealed its detailed spaceflight plans only in May, when it announced plans to orbit a space station around the moon and use Russian launch vehicles to ferry people and supplies.
 
Neither Excalibur nor Xcor immediately responded to questions.
 
U.S. Rethinks Possible Competition with China in Space
 
Tiffany Kaiser - DailyTech.com
 
China's recent successful manned mission has started a space race debate
 
Now that China has successfully completed its first manned mission, the United States is worried that it may be left behind when it comes to space-related endeavors.
 
China initially launched its Tiangong 1 prototype space station module in September 2011 and linked its Shenzhou 8 spacecraft to it in November. Earlier this month, China completed its first manned mission to Tiangong 1 using its Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, which contained the country's first female astronaut.
 
With so many firsts under China's belt, the U.S. is getting a little worried. Some scientists, such as lunar geologist Paul Spudis say that China could renounce the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states that no one can claim national sovereignty in space. Spudis believes that potential resources on the moon, such as water, could tempt the country into renouncing the treaty.
 
There are also worries about the U.S. government's space program. While the U.S. has the private sector (SpaceX) taking care of space-related business for now, there are concerns regarding the private sector's ability to uphold the American space effort without the government's support. The U.S.' funding for the space program has been quite low, even to the point where NASA urged Congress to provide the full $850 million for commercial crew vehicle development last October.
 
However, the private sector has made strong contributions so far with SpaceX's Dragon cargo capsule making its first successful trip to the International Space Station (ISS) last month.
 
Others aren't quite as worried about China's position in the space race. According to Jeff Foust, an aerospace analyst, journalist and publisher, China's space program could potentially face some issues with coordination because it is ran by many different government agencies instead of just one.
 
Regardless, China is now a member of the space race and the U.S. may be taking the new potential competitor into consideration.
 
Why NASA Should Nab an Asteroid
 
Tom Jones - Popular Mechanics (Opinion)
 
(Jones is a former astronauts & author of Sky Walking: An Astronaut's Memoir)
 
NASA and its partners snatch a small asteroid from deep space, bag it for delivery, and tow it into a safe orbit around our moon. There the captured asteroid creates an easy stepping-stone for astronaut explorers who want to explore an ancient rock from the dawn of the solar system, and creates a target for miners who might extract valuable water and metals. If successful, the grab demonstrates that humans could divert a dangerous space rock if necessary.
 
Science fiction or a glimpse into our space future? Right now, a team of space scientists and engineers put together by the Keck Institute for Space Studies in Pasadena, Calif., is urging NASA to pursue this futuristic mission to help America's space agency achieve its mission of operating beyond low Earth orbit and the International Space Station. I was an astronautics and asteroid consultant to the team, which spent six months analyzing techniques for pulling off the asteroid grab. Our conclusion: NASA could execute this affordable mission within 10 years.
 
Team co-leader John Brophy, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab and Caltech, discussed the plan at AIAA's Global Space Exploration Conference in Washington last month. He said the team was surprised to find that the Asteroid Capture and Return (ACR) mission could be done using existing or near-term technology, and at a cost comparable to that of a Mars rover mission, roughly $2.6 billion over the next decade. And the 500 tons of crumbly, claylike asteroid material might eventually produce 100 tons of water, worth $2 billion at today's launch prices.
 
Brophy and his co-leaders, Louis Friedman of the Planetary Society and Fred Culick of Caltech, say the "Goldilocks" size for a target asteroid would be about 7 meters across—about the size of a garage (though a space rock of this size would have a mass of 500 tons). Asteroids this size are big enough that astronomers could spot a potential target using Earth-based telescopes, yet small enough that an efficient low-thrust electric propulsion system could nudge it toward the Earth–moon system. The current generation of asteroid-search telescopes should find about five attractive small-asteroid targets every year, and that's a drop in the bucket compared with the few hundred million or so that exist.
 
The asteroid-capture spacecraft, about the size of a typical communications satellite, would carry a pair of 40-kw solar arrays to power five Hall thrusters. Propelled by these ion engines, the craft would take about four years to reach the target asteroid. Rendezvous would occur millions of miles from Earth. Once alongside the space boulder, the robot craft would match its spin. It would then deploy an inflatable fabric bag to engulf the asteroid, stop its spin, then begin the two-to-four-year return trip, ending in a safe, high orbit around the moon. There it would be easily accessible to robot and astronaut prospectors but safely isolated from any chance of collision with Earth. (The object would be too small to penetrate our atmosphere anyway.)
 
The ACR mission would go after a water-rich C-type, or carbon-rich, asteroid. These bodies contain up to 20 percent water and up to 6 percent organic material that's similar to black, asphalt-like tar sands. The water and light elements in these bodies would be valuable as propellants, drinking water, breathing oxygen, and industrial chemicals for an off-planet economy. Plus, the residue left behind from further extraction of nickel and iron would be rich in prized cobalt and platinum-group elements. Altogether, a 7-meter C-type asteroid with a mass of 500 tons could produce up to 200 tons of water, 90 tons of metal (83 tons of iron, 6 tons of nickel, and 1 ton of cobalt), plus 200 tons of silicate rock valuable for their semiconductor elements and radiation shielding. Brophy says that an existing Atlas V booster is powerful enough to place the 18-ton robot craft into low Earth orbit to start its solar-powered journey. If it snared and returned 500 tons of asteroid material, the mass multiplication factor (or payback ratio) would be at least 28:1.
 
If a robot mission like this succeeded, it would put an intriguing, ancient, resource-rich body within reach of astronaut-carrying craft like Orion and its huge Space Launch System booster NASA is now tasked with building. Such a mission would be a major step forward in our ability to operate and move big scientific payloads (or astronaut craft) using solar–electric propulsion, a forerunner for piloted deep-space asteroid missions that NASA plans for the mid-2020s.
 
The ACR mission hits hot buttons in all three categories of deep-space objectives: scientific exploration, planetary defense, and space resources. In the final chapter of the ACR mission, NASA could boost commercial space partnerships by turning the object over to private mining firms for dissection and conversion to marketable products like rocket fuel. Snaring an asteroid would be a terrific way to jump-start the entire field of asteroid mining. If capturing an asteroid were incorporated into its deep-space plans, NASA could bring home the space bacon before 2025.
 
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