8/1/12 news

 
 
Hope you can join us at Hibachi Grill, on Bay Area Blvd. between Old Galveston Rd. and I45,  tomorrow for our monthly Retirees luncheon at 11:30.
 
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Analogs Take Center Stage in the August Roundup - Now Online
2.            'Summer of Curiosity' Mission To Mars - Robotic Support
3.            ISS Update: Mars Science Laboratory
4.            Russian Cargo Craft Final Undocking
5.            Feds Feed Families - Last Month
6.            Train-the-Trainer for Crane Operations and Riggings Safety Lift Certifying
7.            Train-the-Trainer for Forklift Certifying Officials
8.            Train-the-Trainer Aerial Platform-Certifying Officials
9.            Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training
10.          Facility Manager's Training
11.          Free Sugarland Skeeters Baseball Tickets
12.          A Thought-Provoking Video
13.          Employee Discount Program
14.          Starport Summer Boot Camp - Don't Miss It
15.          Beginner's Ballroom Dance - Great Discount
16.          Space Available - Cryogenic Engineering
17.          POWER of One Award
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ The point of tact is not sharp.”
 
-- Colleen Carney
________________________________________
1.            Analogs Take Center Stage in the August Roundup - Now Online
NASA is really good at simulating spaceflight missions in the darndest places -- like under the sea. Read more about NEEMO 16 and a suite of other Advanced Explorations Systems projects in this month's Roundup. Dive into the August issue now:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/
 
We're also buzzing about a new biology lab on station and Fusible Heat Sink technology, a breakthrough in thermal control for the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle.
 
If you're interested in improving your own health, see how two guys from the Commercial Crew Program did it with the motivation of a friendly wager -- and how you could, too, using services offered right here at the center. Also meet Adam David Burnett, an engineering technician for Robonaut with entrepreneurial stars in his eyes, in this month's Spotlight.
 
In addition, Roundup previews Curiosity's mission to Mars and reminds you to make sure you're STILL prepared in case a hurricane decides to descend on us this year. It's all in there, and more.
 
JSC External Relations, Roundup Office x33317
 
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2.            'Summer of Curiosity' Mission To Mars - Robotic Support
In celebration of the Mars Science Laboratory's arrival to the Red Planet later this summer, the External Relations Office is sharing a variety of activities and online resources with Johnson Space Center employees. JSC families are encouraged to complete the weekly activities that illustrate what's needed for a six month journey to Mars, a one year stay and a six month return trip to Earth.
 
All JSC families are invited to the Voyage Back to School event at Space Center Houston on Aug. 16 to celebrate their summer STEM experiences and Mars challenge results.
 
Week eight of the Summer of Curiosity Mission to Mars Challenge focuses on how robots will support astronauts living on the surface of Mars
 
Thanks to the Mars rovers, landers and orbiters, NASA has learned a tremendous amount of information about the Red Planet. These robots have been instrumental in exploring Mars and are assisting scientists as they look for a future location for the first human mission.
 
Robots have worked alongside astronauts for years and will continue to do so as we go beyond Earth orbit and explore the Solar System. NASA is currently developing and testing several robots that will support astronauts as they travel farther from Earth and many of them are developed right here, in our own backyard at JSC.
 
This week, families will learn about several types of robots NASA is developing and testing and then create and a Mars robot of their own
 
Please visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/johnson/student-activities/summ... for more information.
 
JSC External Relations, Office of Education x36686
 
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3.            ISS Update: Mars Science Laboratory
Check out an interview with Dr. Doug Archer of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) Science Team about the MSL mission, the Curiosity Rover and the SAM instrument.
 
Click here to watch the video: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=149570821
 
Curiosity, the car-size, one-ton rover is bound for arrival on Mars at 12:31 a.m., CDT on Monday, Aug. 6. The landing will mark the beginning of a two-year prime mission to investigate one of the most intriguing places on Mars.
 
Archer discusses SAM, which will analyze samples of material collected and delivered by the rover's arm. It includes a gas chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer with combined capabilities to identify a wide range of organic (carbon-containing) compounds and determine the ratios of different isotopes of key elements. Isotope ratios are clues to understanding the history of Mars' atmosphere and water.
 
 
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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4.            Russian Cargo Craft Final Undocking
The ISS Progress 47 resupply vehicle, loaded with trash, undocked from the International Space Station's Pirs docking compartment for the final time July 30 at 4:19 p.m. EDT. The cargo ship undocked on July 22, then re-docked July 28 at 8:01 p.m. in a test of the new Kurs-NA automated rendezvous system.
 
Watch the video here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=149552641
 
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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5.            Feds Feed Families - Last Month
We are down to the last month of the food drive and are nearly half-way to our goal! Time for the big push for all remaining teams. Many thanks to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer for filling the Food Bank truck last Friday! Awesome job! The total pounds collected is a secret until the competing AH/EA/JA/AM team weighs in on Aug. 17. We'll see if the competing team can also fill the truck! Stop by Starport Gift Shops for food to support your team and/or the center's total goal of 50,000 pounds!
 
Karen Schmalz x47931 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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6.            Train-the-Trainer for Crane Operations and Riggings Safety Lift Certifying
In order to assist with the transition of responsibility for certifying lift operators to line organizations, the Safety Learning Center is offering training for lift-certifying officials.
 
Date/Time: Aug. 6, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: Safety Learning Center, Building 226N, Room 174
 
This class is a train-the-trainer class for those certifying operators for crane operation and rigging safety. JSC line organizations and contractors are now responsible for ensuring their lift equipment operators are certified in accordance with the NASA Standard for Lifting Devices and Equipment 8919.9. The operators will need to be certified by individuals who are qualified and approved as lift-certifying officials. Qualifications for both operators and lift-certifying officials are listed at: http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/LIFT_Certification
 
Certifying officials need only to be approved for the lift types for which they certifying operators.
 
Register via SATERN Required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
Aundrail Hill x36369
 
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7.            Train-the-Trainer for Forklift Certifying Officials
In order to assist with the transition of responsibility for certifying lift operators to line organizations, the Safety Learning Center is offering training for Forklift certifying officials.
 
Date/Time: Aug. 6, from 8 to 11 a.m.
Location: Safety Learning Center, Building 226N, Room 174
 
Register via SATERN Required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
This class is a train-the-trainer class for those certifying operators for forklifts. JSC line organizations and contractors are now responsible for ensuring their lift equipment operators are certified in accordance with the NASA Standard for Lifting Devices and Equipment 8919.9. The operators will need to be certified by individuals who are qualified and approved as lift-certifying officials. Qualifications for both operators and lift-certifying officials are listed at: http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/LIFT_Certification
 
Certifying officials need only to be approved for the lift types for which they certifying operators.
 
Aundrail Hill x36369
 
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8.            Train-the-Trainer Aerial Platform-Certifying Officials
In order to assist with the transition of responsibility for certifying lift operators to line organizations, the Safety Learning Center is offering training for Aerial Platform-certifying officials.
 
Date/Time: Aug. 20, from 1 to 4 p.m.
Location: Safety Learning Center, Building 226N, Room 174
 
In this class is a train-the-trainer class for those certifying operators for aerial lifts. JSC line organizations and contractors are now responsible for ensuring their lift equipment operators are certified in accordance with the NASA Standard for Lifting Devices and Equipment 8919.9. The operators will need to be certified by individuals who are qualified and approved as lift-certifying officials.
 
Qualifications for both operators and lift-certifying officials are listed at: http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/LIFT_Certification
 
Certifying officials need only to be approved for the lift types for which they certifying operators.
 
Register via SATERN Required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
Aundrail Hill x36369
 
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9.            Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training
Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher Training covers updated pressure systems requirements, lessons learned, and written hazard analysis.
 
Date: Aug. 10
Location: Safety Learning Center - Building 226N, Room 174
 
Use this direct link to SATERN for course times and to register.
 
Certified Pressure Systems Operator - Time (CST) 9 to 11 a.m.
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
Certified Pressure Systems Operator and Refresher - Time (CST) 11:01 a.m. to 12:01 p.m.
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
Aundrail Hill x36369
 
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10.          Facility Manager's Training
The Safety Learning Center invites you to attend an 8 hour Facility Mangers' Training:
 
That provides JSC Facility Managers with insight into the requirements for accomplishing their functions.
 
* Which includes training on Facility Management, Safety, Hazard Identification and mitigation, legal, security, energy conservation, health and environmental aspects.
 
* Attendees of this course must also register in SATERN for a half day Fire Warden Training.
 
* Others that need Fire Warden training can register through the normal process
 
Date/Time: Aug. 22, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
 
Where: Safety Learning Center, Building 226N, Room 174
 
Register via SATERN required:
 
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
 
Aundrail Hill x36369
 
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11.          Free Sugarland Skeeters Baseball Tickets
Are you a Sugarland Skeeters fan? If so, we have an offer for you!
 
Come by Starport Gift Shops to sign up for FREE game tickets. Game dates are Aug. 1, 2, 13, 14 and 15. Game time is 7:05 p.m. each day. Gates open at 6 p.m. for fans to get warned up!
 
Limited supply. First come, first serve. See store for details!
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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12.          A Thought-Provoking Video
Want to see a thought-provoking video made especially for the JSC family of workers by Jacobs Engineering as part of the Stay Sharp, Stay Safe campaign? See the link below.
 
It's unforgettable -- and we hope you won't forget.
 
Stacey Menard x45660 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFfM1Pepmos&feature=plcp
 
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13.          Employee Discount Program
Did you know that Starport maintains an employee discount program for JSC employees, contractors, family and friends? You can save with:
 
- Discount tickets to local and nationwide attractions
- Leisure and travel discounts on hotels, resorts, cruises, car rentals and more
- Shopping discounts on computers, cars, books, clothing, gifts, jewelry, sporting goods and more
- Service discounts on cell phone carriers, energy services, eye care and more
 
Visit our website at http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/EmployeeDiscount/ to see the current discount offerings.
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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14.          Starport Summer Boot Camp - Don't Miss It
Don't miss a chance to be part of Starport's incredibly popular Boot Camp! The class WILL be filled up by this Friday, so register today!
 
Early Registration (Ends Aug 3):
- $90 per person (Just $5 per class!)
Regular Registration (Aug 4 - 12):
- $110 per person
 
The workout begins on August 13! Are you ready for 18 hours of intense workouts with an amazing personal trainer to get you to your fitness goal? DON'T WAIT!
 
Sign up today and take advantage of this EXTREME discount while it lasts!
 
Register now at the Gilruth Center Information Desk or call 281-483-0304 for more information.
 
Steve Schade 3-0304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
 
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15.          Beginner's Ballroom Dance - Great Discount
Do you feel like you have two left feet? Well, Starport has the perfect summer program for you:
 
Beginner's Ballroom Dance!
 
This eight-week class introduces you to the various types of ballroom dance. Students will learn the secrets of a good lead and following, as well as the ability to identify the beat of the music. This class is easy, and participants have fun as they learn. JSC friends and family are welcome.
 
Discounted registration:
- $90 per couple (Ends Aug. 3)
Regular registration:
- $110 per couple (Aug. 4 to 13)
 
Two class sessions available:
- Tuesdays, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. | Starting Aug. 14
- Thursdays, 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. | Starting Aug. 16
 
All classes are taught in the Gilruth Center's dance studio.
 
To register or for additional information, please contact the Gilruth Center's information desk: 281-483-0304
 
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...
 
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16.          Space Available - Cryogenic Engineering
Learning basic engineering and science skills, Cryogenic Engineering supplies a brief history of cryogenic engineering which includes useful design guidelines for selecting the right system, either for procurement or for in-house construction. Explains general rules concerning the properties and behaviors of cryogenic fluids and materials used in any cryogenic system. Discusses the thermal properties of materials at low temperatures. Elucidates the principles and techniques of high-quality insulation. Examines both proven and new techniques in the field of cryogenic instrumentation, provides examples and sample data calculations. Considers the processing and liquefaction of natural gas and more.
 
This course is open for self-registration in SATERN and is available to civil-servants and contractors.
 
Dates: Monday to Friday, Aug. 27 to 31
Location: Building 20, Room 205
 
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...
 
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17.          POWER of One Award
The POWER of One Award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for stand-outs with specific examples of exceptional or superior performance. Our award criteria below will help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal.
 
- Single Achievement: Truly went above & beyond on a single project or initiative
- Affect and Impact: How many were impacted? Who was impacted?
- Category: Which category should nominee be in?
- Gold: Agency Impact Award Level
- Silver: Center Impact Award Level
- Bronze: Organization Impact Award Level
- Effort and Time: Was additional time and effort in place?
- Mission and Goals: Were goals met?
- Stand Out: What stands out?
 
If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared on JSC Today.
 
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 https://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov
 
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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.
 
 
NASA TV:
·      2:15 pm Central (3:15 EDT) – 48 Progress launch coverage (liftoff at 2:35 CDT)
·      7:45 pm Central (8:45 EDT) – 48P docking coverage (docking at 8:24 CDT)
 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
 
Mars Science Laboratory Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) mission
Interview with Doug Archer of the MSL SAM Science Team about the mission, Curiosity rover and the SAM instrument
 
NEWS NOTE: Dist. may be delayed through tomorrow as I am on West Coast time
 
Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – August 1, 2012
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
Commercial Crew announcement this week?
 
Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc
 
Charles Lurio of The Lurio Report has emailed me saying that he has heard from a very reliable source that NASA will announce the next round of commercial crew funding on Thursday or Friday. This is no independent verification of this report. NASA is expected to make two full awards and one half award under Space Act Agreements to mature commercial launch systems and their spacecraft to transport crews to the International Space Station. This phase would be followed by one during which NASA would procure services using more rigorous Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracting methods.
 
Russian supply ship to launch & arrive at space station on same day
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
An unmanned Russian cargo ship launching to the International Space Station today is set to become the first spacecraft ever to dock at the orbiting laboratory on the same day as its launch, according to NASA officials. The Progress 48 cargo freighter is slated to blast into orbit atop a Soyuz rocket at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia, and will test a new docking procedure at the orbiting lab about six hours later.
 
Progress spacecraft to bring supplies to ISS quicker than usual
 
Itar-Tass
 
A Russian resupply spacecraft Progress with a cargo of supplies for the International Space Station (ISS) and its crew is to be launched from Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday. An official at the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) told Itar-Tass, "The launch of the carrier rocket Soyuz V with the spacecraft Progress M-16M attached to it is to be effected from Gagarin's launch site at 23:35, Moscow time". For the first time in the history of the orbital complex the spacecraft is to dock with the ISS within six hours (at 05:24, Moscow time, on August 2). Previously, Progress cargo spacecraft used to deliver supplies to orbit 48 hours or even longer than that after liftoff.
 
Visiting vehicles in the fast lane
 
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
 
Unpiloted visitors are nothing new for the International Space Station. Since August 2000, when Progress M1-3 docked at the aft port of the Zvezda control module, carrying supplies and equipment for the station’s first long-duration crew, almost five dozen robotic spacecraft have been despatched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Kourou in French Guiana, Tanegashima Island in Japan and Cape Canaveral in Florida, laden with food, water, mail, clothes, Christmas and birthday gifts, experiments and other supplies. Today’s scheduled launch of Progress M-16M – also known by its NASA nomenclature of ‘ISS-48P’ – looks, at first glance, like another relatively ho-hum cargo mission. Yet as with so many things in life, first glances are often deceptive.
 
Aerospace propulsion industry at crossroads
 
Guy Norris - Aerospace Daily
 
Space and air-breathing propulsion is at a “critical crossroads” in the face of shrinking budgets and fewer new program opportunities, NASA Acting Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot says. Speaking at the Joint Propulsion Conference here, Lightfoot says that to help counter these trends, the wider industry needs to be reminded about the criticality of propulsion technology as a whole. “Here’s my challenge: make propulsion relevant again. I think propulsion is being taken for granted. A lot of people don’t realize how important it is in our daily lives. More than ever before, the propulsion is at a critical crossroads as we ask how we go forward.”
 
Elon Musk of SpaceX: The goal is Mars
 
Patt Morrison - Los Angeles Times
 
As shipments go, it was routine — about half a ton of supplies — except it was delivered by the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX partnered with NASA in this new model, the brainchild of Elon Musk, who's behind Tesla electric cars as well. He left South Africa at 17, earned two U.S. undergraduate degrees and then made serial piles of dough pioneering online payment systems, including the one that became PayPal. Musk's persona inspired aspects of Tony Stark in the "Iron Man," but Musk's aspirations seem more like Buzz Lightyear's — to infinity, and beyond.
 
NASA technology helping Grand Lake teen recover
 
Britney Glaser - KPLC TV (Lake Charles, LA)
 
A Grand Lake teen involved in a horrible car crash two months ago is learning to walk and stand again, thanks to balance equipment developed by NASA.  Lake Charles Memorial Hospital is the only medical facility in the region housing the out-of-this-world technology, known as "Neurocom." The Neurocom system is a piece of technology first developed by NASA to help retrain astronauts with balance problems after leaving space. The Neurocom system can also be used to treat stroke and orthopedic patients, as well as prevent falls in older adults. Jasmine's treatment took about six weeks with one intense hour-long session each week.
 
Sally Ride biography scheduled for 2013
 
Associated Press
 
An authorized biography of astronaut Sally Ride, written by longtime ABC correspondent Lynn Sherr, is scheduled for publication next year. Simon & Schuster announced Tuesday that Sherr's book, currently untitled, will have the cooperation of Ride's family and of her partner of 27 years, Tam O'Shaughnessy. Ride, the first American woman to fly in space, died of cancer last week at age 61. The book will offer an extensive look at the professional and personal life of Ride, whose relationship with O'Shaughnessy was not widely known until her death. According to Simon & Schuster, Sherr will have "exclusive access" to Ride's family, and also will speak with friends, colleagues and NASA officials. Sherr reported on the space shuttle program for ABC news in the 1980s and became friendly with Ride. (NO FURTHER TEXT)
 
Former astronaut meets with students at space center
 
David Freese - St. Tammany News
 
Roughly 80 4-H students in grades 4 through 9, visited the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis Monday as part of NASA’s “Summer of Innovation” program. NASA Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin, a former American astronaut and engineer who served on board the space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist on STS-129, was on hand to tour the 4-H students around the space center.
 
Former astronaut to head new polar medical center
 
Houston Chronicle
 
A former Space Shuttle astronaut has been named to lead the new Center for Polar Medical Operations at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Scott E. Parazynski, who was selected by NASA for the astronaut corps in 1992, will oversee the medical screening and on-ice care of all personnel in the National Science Foundation's United States Antarctic Program, UTMB has announced. UTMB was selected earlier this month to manage the medical operations for the program, working for the National Science Foundation as a subcontractor for Lockheed Martin's Antartic Support Contract.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
Commercial Crew announcement this week?
 
Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc
 
Charles Lurio of The Lurio Report has emailed me saying that he has heard from a very reliable source that NASA will announce the next round of commercial crew funding on Thursday or Friday. This is no independent verification of this report.
 
NASA is expected to make two full awards and one half award under Space Act Agreements to mature commercial launch systems and their spacecraft to transport crews to the International Space Station. This phase would be followed by one during which NASA would procure services using more rigorous Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) contracting methods.
 
The competitors include:
 
·         ATK Liberty
·         Blue Origin Orbiter/ULA Atlas V
·         Boeing CST-100/ULA Atlas V
·         Excalibur Almaz
·         Sierra Nevada Corporation Dream Chaser/ULA Atlas V
·         SpaceX Dragon/Falcon 9
 
I had heard from a source during the NewSpace 2012 Conference that NASA’s announcement had been delayed from July because White House officials are not happy with one of the awards. It’s not clear precisely what that means, but speculation has focused on the possibility of ATK receiving an award for its Ares I-derived Liberty system.
 
Such a decision would complete the near total revival of NASA’s Constellation program, which the Obama Administration had attempted to cancel outright. After a Congressional push back, work has continued on the other elements of  Constellation — the deep-space Orion capsule and the heavy-lift Space Launch System.
 
Meanwhile, ATK has used the work it did on Constellation’s Ares I as the basis of a commercial launcher. Liberty’s first stage is a five-segment solid rocket motor derived from the system used on the space shuttle. It is topped with an Ariane 5 first stage. The capsule is a composite version of the deep-space Orion spacecraft that subcontractor Lockheed Martin is building for NASA.
 
An ATK award would anger many in the “NewSpace” community, who do not see the company as being very commercial and not impressed with the Liberty system. They will attribute such a decision to ATK’s lobbying efforts rather than the merits of its proposal.
 
I caution that this only speculation; there has been no confirmation.  It’s simply a possibility at this point.
 
Russian supply ship to launch & arrive at space station on same day
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
An unmanned Russian cargo ship launching to the International Space Station today is set to become the first spacecraft ever to dock at the orbiting laboratory on the same day as its launch, according to NASA officials.
 
The Progress 48 cargo freighter is slated to blast into orbit atop a Soyuz rocket at 3:35 p.m. EDT (1935 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in central Asia, and will test a new docking procedure at the orbiting lab about six hours later.
 
The vehicle is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station at 9:24 p.m. EDT (0124 GMT Aug. 2). If the demonstration is successful, Russia intends to use this same-day rendezvous and docking process for manned Soyuz flights to deliver new crewmembers to the massive orbiting laboratory.
 
Typically, after Progress and Soyuz vehicles are launched, they spend two days chasing the space station in orbit before automatically parking themselves at the complex. The new procedure, based on far more precise measurements, would reduce the amount of time astronauts would have to spend in transit, said Dan Hartman, NASA's space station manager of operations and integration.
 
"They're looking to eventually take this into the Soyuz phase," Hartman told reporters last week. "If you can get the crew to orbit in six hours and onboard the International Space Station, that could be a tremendous benefit over the two-plus days it takes today."
 
A quicker arrival
 
For manned Soyuz flights, arriving at the space station sooner could increase crew comfort by minimizing the time astronauts spend inside the cramped confines of the Soyuz capsule.
 
Reaching the station only hours after launch also would cut down the amount of food, water and other cargo needed for the journey, said space station flight director Chris Edelen.
 
"The quicker rendezvous that you have, the less consumables you would need for the first day, and the better crew comfort in a small capsule," he explained.
 
But preparing for a same-day rendezvous in space requires far more precise calculations at the time of launch.
 
"It does impose more constraints on the geometry — the orbital mechanics — of the launch, because you have less time to catch up to the space station," Edelen said. "You've got to basically launch and be in the right spot, and the space station has to be in the right spot."
 
NASA employed same-day rendezvous procedures between spacecraft during its Gemini program in the mid-1960s, but they did not involve docking.
 
Goods for the space station
 
The Progress 48 spacecraft will haul 2 tons of food, clothing and supplies for the station's six-person Expedition 32 crew. Station commander Gennady Padalka, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, will oversee Progress 48's launch and docking.
 
Padalka's crewmates – NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Sunita Williams, Russian cosmonauts Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Revin, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide – also will monitor the arrival of the unmanned cargo ship.
 
Once it arrives, Progress 48 will attach itself to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the space station. This parking spot was vacated by another of Russia's disposable cargo freighters, Progress 47, on July 30.
 
Before leaving the station, Progress 47 tested the upgraded automatic docking system that will be used on future robotic Progress and manned Soyuz vehicles. Progress 47, filled with trash from the space station, eventually will plummet back toward Earth and be destroyed as it travels through the atmosphere. At the end of their missions, the Progress vehicles are intentionally burned up as they re-enter the atmosphere, disposing of trash in the process.
 
NASA Television will broadcast live coverage of the Progress 48 launch beginning this afternoon at 3:15 p.m. EDT (1915 GMT). Live coverage of the spacecraft's arrival at the station will begin at 8:45 p.m. EDT (0045 GMT Aug. 2).
 
If Progress 48 is unable to carry out the same-day rendezvous and docking, Russian flight engineers have the option of reverting back to the normal two-day procedure, NASA officials said. In that case, Progress 48 would arrive at the space station Friday.
 
Progress spacecraft to bring supplies to ISS quicker than usual
 
Itar-Tass
 
A Russian resupply spacecraft Progress with a cargo of supplies for the International Space Station (ISS) and its crew is to be launched from Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday.
 
An official at the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) told Itar-Tass, "The launch of the carrier rocket Soyuz V with the spacecraft Progress M-16M attached to it is to be effected from Gagarin's launch site at 23:35, Moscow time".
 
For the first time in the history of the orbital complex the spacecraft is to dock with the ISS within six hours (at 05:24, Moscow time, on August 2). Previously, Progress cargo spacecraft used to deliver supplies to orbit 48 hours or even longer than that after liftoff.
 
"We have devised two docking technologies-- six hours and 25 hours after launch," a Mission Control Center expert explained. "We shall compare the two procedures and subsequently we shall be using the one that will prove better".
 
The expert said specialists "have been for several years engaging in the development of a new procedure, testing it down here on Earth, and discussing it with cosmonauts". If the endeavour to dock the spacecraft with the ISS within six hours proves inefficient, the spacecraft will follow a two-day procedure, the expert pointed out.
 
The Progress M-16M will carry over 2.6 tonnes of various supplies to ensure the functioning of the ISS and life support for the crew, including fuel and equipment for the ISS, oxygen, water, clothes, and food for the cosmonauts. Apart from standard cargoes, the spacecraft will deliver the first fermentator with mycorrhizzal fungi and cellular material for biotechnology experiments.
 
The spacecraft will also deliver parcels from families and presents for the crew. As usual is the case, the cosmonauts, along with standard food rations, will also get fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as candies and other sweets from psychologists and relatives.
 
Currently working aboard the ISS are Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin, and Yuri Malenchenko, as well as NASA astronauts Joseph Acaba, Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
 
The Progress M-16M is to approach the docking module Pier at 05:24, Moscow time, on August 2 in an automatic mode. If the attempt proves unsuccessful, a redocking is to be carried out on the night from Friday to Saturday, Aug 4.
 
Visiting vehicles in the fast lane
 
Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org
 
Unpiloted visitors are nothing new for the International Space Station. Since August 2000, when Progress M1-3 docked at the aft port of the Zvezda control module, carrying supplies and equipment for the station’s first long-duration crew, almost five dozen robotic spacecraft have been despatched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, Kourou in French Guiana, Tanegashima Island in Japan and Cape Canaveral in Florida, laden with food, water, mail, clothes, Christmas and birthday gifts, experiments and other supplies. Today’s scheduled launch of Progress M-16M – also known by its NASA nomenclature of ‘ISS-48P’ – looks, at first glance, like another relatively ho-hum cargo mission.
 
Yet as with so many things in life, first glances are often deceptive.
 
Progress has a storied history. Its development began in 1973 in response to the anticipated problem of resupplying and refuelling the Soviet Union’s Salyut 6 space station, whose cosmonauts went on to spend more than six months at a time in orbit. Modelled closely on the Soyuz spacecraft, its interior was redesigned to house several thousand pounds of foodstuffs, water, experiments and fuel for the station’s manoeuvring thrusters. Since its maiden voyage, Progress has seen many changes, but its role has remained largely unchanged…and the numbers speak for themselves. Between its first launch in January 1978 and today’s scheduled flight, no fewer than 139 Progresses have roared aloft. Only one has failed to reach its destination: the unlucky Progress M-12M, whose launch vehicle suffered an engine malfunction and re-entered the atmosphere over the Altai region.
 
In their book Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft, David Shayler and the late Rex Hall speculated that the term ‘Progress’ may have originated from the implication of having made significant progress in space station operations – which it certainly did – although the precise heritage of the name remains unclear. What is clear, though, is that aside from the technical and functional role of Progress over the decades, it has provided an indispensable psychological crutch for dozens of cosmonauts and astronauts; a crutch which has enabled them to overcome the profound isolation of the strange microgravity environment, far from family and friends.
 
Writing in 1998, astronaut Jerry Linenger recounted the sheer joy of receiving a shoebox full of goodies from his wife and children. “Once found, and munching on fresh apples that had also arrived in the Progress,” he wrote in his memoir, Off the Planet, “we individually retreated from our work and sneaked off to private sections of the space station, eager to peruse the box’s contents.” Fellow astronaut John Blaha once described similar excitement. “Once we found our packages,” he wrote, “it was like Christmas and your birthday, all rolled together, when you are five years old. We really had a lot of fun reading mail, laughing, opening presents, eating fresh tomatoes and cheese.” In more recent times, ISS crew members have done much the same. In February 2008, Peggy Whitson, commander of Expedition 16, remembered Dan Tani calling one Progress “the onion express”, as the latest delivery of letters from home and fresh foodstuffs arrived.
 
That psychological crutch will arrive somewhat differently today. If all goes according to plan, Progress M-16M will thunder into Baikonur’s skies at 3:35 pm EDT, beginning its journey to the space station. However, the similarities with its dozens of predecessors will end there, for it is scheduled to dock at the station’s Piers port at 9:24 pm EDT, that same evening…on only its fourth orbit, and less than six hours after launch. This is unprecedented. Although America’s Skylab crews accomplished rendezvous and docking within nine hours of launch, Progress (and Soyuz) followed a two-day profile, primarily designed to conserve propellant supplies. The goal is to use this new ‘fast-rendezvous’ approach for future Soyuz crewed flights, although Russian flight controllers have noted their intention to revert to a standard profile - docking at 6:14 pm EDT on 3 August – if something goes awry. It has been remarked that such fast rendezvous approaches are infrequently available during the course of the year and arise only every six months or so.
 
With the arrival of Progress M-16M, the station will play host to no fewer than six visiting vehicles: the two Soyuz-TMA spacecraft, belonging to the two halves of the Expedition 32 crew, together with Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3), Japan’s Kounotori H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-3) and Progress M-15M. Of these, ATV-3 – named in honour of Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi – has been present at the aft port of the Zvezda module since the end of March and is scheduled to be de-orbited on 27 August. Unlike Progress, the ATV boasts three times more capacity for bulk liquids and freight: up to 12,000 pounds of dry cargo, up to 1,900 pounds of water and up to 10,000 pounds of propellant. Its pressurised cargo segment is based upon Italy’s Multi-Purpose Logistics Module, but it utilises a Progress-style docking mechanism to berth at the Russian segment.
 
First launched in March 2008, ATV-1 (‘Jules Verne’) proved enormously successful and spent six months attached to the space station, before it was loaded with unneeded equipment and sent towards a destructive re-entry in the atmosphere. Its success led many to consider it a future mainstay of ISS operations. A second ATV (‘Johannes Kepler’) was launched in February 2011, followed by Edoardo Amaldi a year later. Unfortunately, in April 2012 the European Space Agency announced that only two more ATVs would be flown. These are named respectively for physicist Albert Einstein and astronomer Georges Lemaître and will be launched in February 2013 and February 2014.
 
If Edoardo Amaldi is the longest-lived visiting vehicle currently berthed at the station, at the opposite end, docked at the nadir port of the Harmony node, is Japan’s HTV-3. Like so many Japanese craft, which traditionally do not bear personal or other names, it is known as ‘Kounotori’, which transliterates approximately to ‘Oriental Stork’ or ‘White Stork’. According to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, this choice came about because the white stork traditionally carried ‘joyful’ things and thus precisely matched the HTV-3’s mandate of delivering essential supplies to the ISS. First launched in September 2009, followed by a second in January 2011, it arrives quite differently from Progress or the ATV. Rather than docking automatically, it approaches the station in steps and is grappled by the Canadarm2 manipulator arm and berthed onto Harmony.
 
In addition to its internal pressurised volume, the Kounotori possesses an external payload segment, accessible by mechanical arm after berthing. Since the retirement of the Shuttle, it is presently the only visiting vehicle with the capability of delivering large International Standard Payload Racks. When HTV-3 was grappled by astronaut Aki Hoshide last Friday, it marked the first time that a Japanese vehicle was berthed at the station by a Japanese crewman. Its cargo is illustrative of its scope: it ferried a high-tech aquarium aloft, capable of supporting three generations of fish for up to three months, as well as five small CubeSats. One experiment, a data recorder known as ‘i-Ball’, is designed to survive Kounotori-3’s destructive re-entry in early September, parachuting back to Earth and transmitting data for a short period via Iridium satellite.
 
The coming weeks and months will continue to be an exciting time for ISS visiting vehicles, long after Kounotori and Edoardo Amaldi are gone. The glorious triumph of SpaceX’s Dragon demonstration flight in May has effectively given the private company a green light to press ahead with its first dedicated cargo mission – currently scheduled for launch on 5 October – as part of the $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract signed with NASA in December 2008. Under the provisions of this contract – which will potentially expand in value to more than $3.1 billion – SpaceX will execute a dozen Dragon missions and transport a total of 44,000 pounds of payload to the station. Equipment in support of these missions, including the DragonEye proximity sensor, control panels and communications gear, arrived at the station aboard the Shuttle in 2009.
 
In the meantime, SpaceX pressed on with a successful test of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle in June 2010 and, six months later, with the maiden demo of the spacecraft itself, which performed two orbits of the Earth in a textbook three-hour flight. Last December, NASA approved SpaceX’s request to combine the final two flights of its demonstration trio into one mission – dubbed ‘COTS-2+’ – which unfolded with near-perfection from 22-31 May. Current projections call for the first Dragon cargo flight in October to last for about a month, with the spacecraft due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean as the only operational unmanned visiting vehicle capable of returning cargo to Earth.
 
The second recipient of the Commercial Resupply Services contract, Orbital Sciences, is also expected to despatch a demonstration flight of its Cygnus cargo craft towards the station before the end of 2012. However, such an ambitious schedule may prove unlikely, in view of the fact that the maiden voyage of Orbital’s new Antares booster – which will loft Cygnus – has been postponed from August until at least October. After launch, Cygnus will undertake a three-day rendezvous and perform numerous systems and functionality tests during final approach, before receiving authority to proceed within range of the Canadarm2 robotic arm for grappling and installation onto the nadir port of the Harmony node. Like Dragon, the Cygnus will spend about a month at the station. Unlike its counterpart, though, it is not intended to survive re-entry.
 
Less than five months remain before the final curtain falls on 2012; the first year in which the presence of the Shuttle is gone and the baton of supplying and sustaining the International Space Station has passed to governmental and private providers of unmanned delivery services. Today’s launch of Progress M-16M and its ‘fast rendezvous’ raises interesting possibilities about the delivery of future astronauts and cosmonauts to the orbiting laboratory within a matter of hours, rather than days, and the plethora of craft travelling between Earth and space make the station’s own future increasingly more secure.
 
Aerospace propulsion industry at crossroads
 
Guy Norris - Aerospace Daily
 
Space and air-breathing propulsion is at a “critical crossroads” in the face of shrinking budgets and fewer new program opportunities, NASA Acting Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot says.
 
Speaking at the Joint Propulsion Conference here, Lightfoot says that to help counter these trends, the wider industry needs to be reminded about the criticality of propulsion technology as a whole.
 
“Here’s my challenge: make propulsion relevant again. I think propulsion is being taken for granted. A lot of people don’t realize how important it is in our daily lives. More than ever before, the propulsion is at a critical crossroads as we ask how we go forward.”
 
Lightfoot also urges the propulsion industry to “look beyond technology to more of a systems-level approach. Propulsion for aviation and space cuts across several sectors of our economy. During these tight fiscal times, the industry needs to ask what should government’s role be in enabling the next develop in propulsion?”
 
Lightfoot says the industry needs to be considering bigger-picture questions about trades in affordability. “Do we quit chasing the last second of ISP [specific impulse, a measure of rocket performance] for cost?” Other questions need asking about the levels of risk tolerance and securing the industrial base “two to three layers down.”
 
Beyond this, Lightfoot says, the U.S. propulsion business needs to address the growth of international partnerships, particularly in space.
 
“We’re not going to get there without international partnerships. We’re working with DOD on how we’re going to do that.”
 
Top challenges for NASA remain improving access to space at lower cost and enhanced reliability. “So where does that lead rocket propulsion?” Lightfoot asks. “It remains a critical national requirement, but the industry is shrinking and the fact there are no major new development programs makes it hard to stay relevant. But this is our chance to have a group that looks at propulsion issues across the nation.”
 
Lightfoot has championed the formation of the National Institute for Rocket Propulsion Systems, which brings together industry, government and academic bodies to help shape space policy, and will meet at the Joint Propulsion Conference.
 
For NASA’s longer-term goals of going beyond low Earth orbit, key propulsion-related projects are among the more than 1,000 individual technology development studies being undertaken. Top propulsion priorities include programs now under way in cryogenic propulsion storage and transfer, solar electric propulsion, the hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator, nuclear cryogenic propulsion stages, composite cryotanks and solar sails. “Those are the kind of things we’re looking at first,” Lightfoot says.
 
Many of the programs are already at a test stage, says Lightfoot, who referenced the recent flight from Wallops Island, Va., of an inflatable heat shield. The unit survived to return intact. “I think we showed you can use a large inflatable re-entry shell,” he says.
 
Additionally, in June NASA completed a second round of robotic refueling demonstrations at the International Space Station, an asset that continues to provide a focus for propulsion development, both for longer-term, exploration-related research and for the raft of commercial companies striving to support cargo and human missions.
 
Elon Musk of SpaceX: The goal is Mars
The craft that made the first commercial flight to the International Space Station was the brainchild of Elon Musk, whose ambitions reach even farther into space
 
Patt Morrison - Los Angeles Times
 
As shipments go, it was routine — about half a ton of supplies — except it was delivered by the first commercial flight to the International Space Station. SpaceX partnered with NASA in this new model, the brainchild of Elon Musk, who's behind Tesla electric cars as well. He left South Africa at 17, earned two U.S. undergraduate degrees and then made serial piles of dough pioneering online payment systems, including the one that became PayPal.
 
Musk's persona inspired aspects of Tony Stark in the "Iron Man," but Musk's aspirations seem more like Buzz Lightyear's — to infinity, and beyond.
 
When the rover "Curiosity" lands on Mars on Sunday, will you be thinking, "That's what SpaceX will be doing one day"?
 
That's always been a goal of SpaceX. We're hoping to develop the technology to do that in probably 12 to 15 years.
 
Would you go to Mars?
 
I would. The first flight would be risky; if I felt comfortable that the company's mission will continue, that my kids have grown up, then I'd be on the first mission.
 
Did you choose the South Bay for SpaceX because of its aerospace tradition?
 
That's exactly the reason. I used to live in Palo Alto, and when I told my friends that I was moving to L.A., they all thought I was crazy. They view Southern California as being a little vacuous and Northern California as being more intellectual. But people in the Bay Area have forgotten that there's been a huge concentration of aerospace engineering talent here, for more than a century.
 
Is there a different entrepreneurial sense between north and south?
 
In Silicon Valley, startups are such a norm, and there are many success stories. In Southern California that's not so much the case. In the early days of aviation, Southern California was startup city. This was the huge entrepreneurial center.
 
People mention you in the same breath as Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic, but his space effort seems more tourist-driven and yours more industrial and scientific.
 
I've nothing against tourism; Richard Branson is brilliant at creating a brand, but he's not a technologist. What he's doing is fundamentally about entertainment, and I think it's cool, but it's not likely to affect humanity's future in a significant way. That's what we're trying to do.
 
The thing that got me started with SpaceX was the feeling of dismay — I just did not want Apollo to be our high-water mark. We do not want a future where we tell our children that this was the best we ever did. Growing up, I kept expecting we're going to have a base on the moon, and we're going to have trips to Mars. Instead, we went backwards, and that's a great tragedy.
 
Shouldn't government be doing projects like this?
 
Government isn't that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you've got to have commercial companies do it. The government was good at getting the basics of the Internet going, but it languished. Commercial companies took a hand around 1995, and then it accelerated. We need something like that in space.
 
SpaceX couldn't have gotten started without the great work of NASA, and NASA's a key customer of ours. But for the future, it's going to be companies like SpaceX that advance space technology and deliver the rapid innovation that's necessary.
 
But government can fund a space program without worrying about profits or stockholder returns. A commercial company could run into trouble, and there goes the program.
 
That's why I'm the majority shareholder in SpaceX. When I've recruited investors, I've made sure they're like-minded. SpaceX will create a great deal of value over the long term, but there will be times when that horizon is beyond what some investors would be comfortable with. I'm going to make sure I have sufficient control of the company to optimize for the very long term.
 
Should regular folks be able to buy a share of stock in space?
 
That's one of the top reasons I would take SpaceX public, in order to allow people to own a piece of the future. We don't actually need funding — we're doing well — but I do think we can broaden the base of support.
 
Neil Armstrong, the first human on the moon, was critical of private space ventures.
 
It was disappointing. He has never spoken to us or visited us, and we've made many invitations. I'm optimistic that he will visit us and learn more. We have a photo of the [SpaceX] launch signed by all the Apollo astronauts with the exception of Neil.
 
The movies provide us with two space future models: "Star Trek," where a government agency governs space, versus "Alien," where a private space mining company makes its own rules.
 
We need a new archetype. I've talked to James Cameron about this. He's got a script for a realistic Mars mission because there's not been a good Mars movie. That's another thing that bugs me: The Mars movies have been so bad. I mean, honestly! And it's going to be tricky getting funding for another Mars movie after" John Carter." It was a good comic book, and they totally screwed up the movie.
 
The plaque the NASA astronauts left on the moon says, "We came in peace for all mankind." Would that be true if there were a commercial free-for-all in space?
 
I think the body of regulation will grow — hopefully not too much. Sometimes we are a little over-regulated, and this can be difficult for new industry, particularly one that involves physical safety. There must be some ability to experiment to advance the state of the art. In the early days of aviation there was a great deal of experimentation and a high death rate. We don't want that — the public would not be accepting — but by the same token we can't have a situation where no deaths are ever allowed, because that would put innovation in a coffin too.
 
You gave the Caltech commencement speech in June. You said we should approach the future not from the perspective of the best way to make money but the best way to affect humanity.
 
There's nothing wrong with making money, provided it's done in an ethical and legal manner, which it mostly is. The things we read about in the newspapers are the exception, not the norm. But we need to consider what it's all about. What is the meaning of life? Are we doing things that extend the scope of collective human knowledge and understanding? We should do the things that lead us there.
 
What part of business do you dislike?
 
Sometimes the ways rules are set up make people do bad things. For example, the CO2 capacity of the atmosphere and oceans. We've not put a price on CO2 emissions, so the oil, gas and coal industry continue to pretend that CO2 dumping into the atmosphere is fine. [They say] that scientists disagree [about climate change].
 
The vast majority do not; you can find 2% of any group to disagree with anything — that the sun revolves around the Earth. We saw the same thing with the tobacco industry. The evidence was overwhelming, and yet the tobacco industry would say, "Scientists disagree." Naaah, not really!
 
Now, if the rules are set up correctly — and those who would lose if the rules were changed would fight them — then business functions well, and the economy functions well.
 
The whole CO2 thing — we're all culpable because we all do things that create CO2. Even though I've got companies trying to address the problem, I drive cars, I use more electricity than I should. It's tough to tell people you're causing long-term harm to the world, and even if you don't pay the penalty, your children or grandchildren will. So essentially we need to tax it, the way we tax cigarettes and alcohol, for the public good.
 
Apropos of Tesla Motors, you've said in 20 years half the new cars produced will be electric. What, we'll still have to drive cars? We won't move by means of molecular disassembly?
 
That'd be nice! There may be something cooler than a car in 20 years, but the most likely outcome is that we'll still have cars and they'll be predominantly electric.
 
Where will that electricity come from?
 
I think solar will be the largest source [he owns a solar company, SolarCity]. It's not obvious that solar will be a majority of power generation, but I think it'll be a plurality. [The rest will] come from a combination of some nuclear, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal. Power generated by burning hydrocarbons we'll use more sparingly, as it should be used, as something that's not going to come back; because it's not. We are being complete wastrels [with fossil fuel]. It's like some heir to a fortune who had nothing to do with creating the fortune and so gives no care to its consumption.
 
When you came to the U.S., it was the primary destination for the kind of enterprise you wanted to do. Is it still?
 
It is. If you want to have a significant impact on the world, the United States is the best place to do that. I'm not suggesting that things couldn't be better. We should be asking ourselves, have we made the environment better or worse? And I think it's really important that we stop sending college and graduate students back to their home countries.
 
Don't we have enough homegrown talent for those jobs?
 
If you're trying to create a company, it's like baking a cake. You have to have all the ingredients in the right proportion. There's certain special skills, especially in advanced engineering, that are the limiting factor in creating new companies; we send these people home after training them in our graduate schools.
 
One of the toughest things I've found is to recruit top-notch manufacturing talent. That's where I've had to go overseas. For a few decades, it just wasn't where the smartest kids in the class in America went. We had far too many smart people in the U.S. go into finance and law!
 
Speaking of finance, you must make Wall Street nervous with your companies' roller-coaster fortunes.
 
SpaceX has been profitable for four years and probably this will make it a fifth, and Tesla should be profitable next year and for the foreseeable future.
 
Profit is simply more money coming in than going out, and for a company where that's not true, it will cease to exist at some point, and it should.
 
California high speed rail is starting up, but you've proposed an alternative — maybe solar-powered, maybe on a pneumatic track — you call the hyperloop?
 
I've got to find the time to write up the details. I'm going to put it on a blog and open-source the idea. Why are we, in the center of high tech, doing such a bad job [with high-speed rail]? It's embarrassing. It says all sorts of wrong things about our state. I was thinking about what could be better, state of the art? That's where I came up with the idea for a fifth mode of Earth transport, apart from planes, trains, automobiles and boats. The hyperloop could go from city center to city center in not much more than a half-hour.
 
Commercializing space, electric cars — aren't you spread a little thin?
 
I've been going past the red line on the gauge for a while now. It's honestly not been fun, but I have to continue for a bit longer, because for Tesla in particular, we're at the stage where the company's survival is in question. The market has given us a good evaluation. We have great supporters and great detractors. The detractors have a point, that the last successful car company started in America 90 years ago. DeLorean and Tucker brought cars to market, but they were unable to scale up their production and reach profitability. The next six months will decide whether Tesla will be the first new [successful] car company in a century.
 
Do you think the last best hope of Earth isn't on Earth?
 
I'm reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States, for the century at least. But it's important we get out there and explore the stars, both for defensive reasons and ensuring the continued existence of [human] consciousness.
 
NASA technology helping Grand Lake teen recover
 
Britney Glaser - KPLC TV (Lake Charles, LA)
 
A Grand Lake teen involved in a horrible car crash two months ago is learning to walk and stand again, thanks to balance equipment developed by NASA.  Lake Charles Memorial Hospital is the only medical facility in the region housing the out-of-this-world technology, known as "Neurocom."
 
A simple toe raise has become a challenge for 17-year-old Jasmine Gray after enduring a head injury in a car crash two months ago.  "A truck hit our car head on and I hit the window and crushed parts of my face," said Jasmine.
 
When the truck hit the car Jasmine was riding in - she and three friends were sent to the hospital - changing Jasmine's view of the world around her.  "I had a fractured skull and a broken eye socket," she said.
 
The trauma took away Jasmine's ability to hear in her right ear and caused some deeper issues that landed her in the care of Dr. Nicholas Cronan with Memorial's Team Therapy.  "It knocked out not only the hearing portion of the ear, but also the inner ear, which controls the balance," he said.
 
The Neurocom system is a piece of technology first developed by NASA to help retrain astronauts with balance problems after leaving space. 
 
Dr. Cronan can manipulate the environment around Jasmine inside the balance module, changing the height, depth and angle.  "I stand on it and it moves and I have to try to keep balance and keep this little person in the box," she said.
 
For Jasmine, this equipment is being used to retrain her brain to listen to the functioning inner ear - getting rid of the vertigo and instability.  "I basically find what makes her moderately dizzy on a scale of one to 10," said Dr. Cronan, "I look for about a five and I make her do it over and over again until basically her brain builds up a tolerance to that stimuli."
 
Infrared goggles also show that Jasmine's eyes are no longer drawn to only the functioning inner ear side - a major sign of improvement for this teen with a personal message about driving safety to avoid the struggles she has endured.  "Be aware at all times of who's out there," she said, "and you should always wear your seatbelt."
 
The Neurocom system can also be used to treat stroke and orthopedic patients, as well as prevent falls in older adults. Jasmine's treatment took about six weeks with one intense hour-long session each week.
 
Former astronaut meets with students at space center
 
David Freese - St. Tammany News
 
Roughly 80 4-H students in grades 4 through 9, visited the Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis Monday as part of NASA’s “Summer of Innovation” program.
 
NASA Associate Administrator for Education Leland Melvin, a former American astronaut and engineer who served on board the space shuttle Atlantis as a mission specialist on STS-122, and as mission specialist on STS-129, was on hand to tour the 4-H students around the space center.
 
According to a release from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration out of Hancock County, Miss., the day capped off the 4-H club’s involvement with “Summer of Innovation,” a program that provides hands-on learning opportunities for middle school students and educators through STEM, or NASA-unique science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
 
The “Summer of Innovation” program also funded a rocket camp that took place over the summer at Cypress Cove Elementary School. Students who attended “Rocket Camp” were able to build homemade rockets and watch them soar to the sky during a hot week earlier this summer.
 
“Summer of Innovation” is a key component of the agency’s broader education program to increase student interest in STEM courses, particularly among students in underserved sectors of the academic community,” the release stated.
 
During the 4-H’s time at Stennis, Melvin empowered the students to follow their dreams and pursue their own goals.
 
He emphasized the importance of education, stating that it was key in turning dreams into reality.
 
“I saw this 7-year-old future astronaut who is beginning to dream and is inspired to follow that dream. It’s just inspiring to me to see that next generation of explorers who will grow to advance our civilization,” Melvin said.
 
The 4-H club’s visit included various activities hosted by Stennis Office of Education, including magnetic levitation cars, stomp rockets, and biospheres, is designed to reinforce fun and educational learning within STEM.
 
“We are so pleased Mr. Melvin chose to spend time with this group,” said Emma Seiler, coordinator for Stennis’ “Summer of Innovation” activities. “NASA has so much to offer children in the way of inspiration, and Mr. Melvin certainly serves as a great example of what you can do if you dream big and work hard.
 
Melvin earned his bachelor of science in chemistry from the University of Richmond in Virginia where he played wide receiver for the Spiders’ football squad.
 
Melvin would eventually be drafted into the NFL and play for the Detroit Lions in 1986. He would also spend time playing for the Dallas Cowboys and the Toronto Argonauts.
 
Melvin pulled his hamstring twice, once during training camp with the Lions and another time the following season with the Cowboys, which practically ended his football career.
 
Due to injuries he suffered while playing football, Melvin returned to school. He would earn his master’s degree in materials science engineering from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
 
Following his academic studies in Charlottesville, Melvin went on to join NASA in 1989 as an aerospace research engineer at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
 
He has served on two space shuttle missions, one in 2008 and one in 2009.
 
Melvin has tallied more than 565 hours in space. In 2003, he co-managed the former Educator Astronaut Program, which recruited individuals to eventually become fully-trained astronauts with the goal of connecting space exploration to students across the United States.
 
Former astronaut to head new polar medical center
 
Houston Chronicle
 
A former Space Shuttle astronaut has been named to lead the new Center for Polar Medical Operations at the University of Texas Medical Branch.
 
Dr. Scott E. Parazynski, who was selected by NASA for the astronaut corps in 1992, will oversee the medical screening and on-ice care of all personnel in the National Science Foundation's United States Antarctic Program, UTMB has announced.
 
UTMB was selected earlier this month to manage the medical operations for the program, working for the National Science Foundation as a subcontractor for Lockheed Martin's Antartic Support Contract.
 
"This is a tremendous opportunity for UTMB," Dr. David L. Callender, president of UTMB, said in a statement. "We are no strangers to the ice, having operated there for the last decade, providing critical medical support on occasion. This new agreement represents an expansion of the work we're already doing."
 
Of the appointment of Parazynski as the director of the new center, Callender said: "His remarkable career and professional accomplishments lend themselves to this new endeavor."
 
Under the agreement with Lockheed Martin, UTMB's Center for Polar Medical Operations in Galveston will manage health services at the three stations operated by the U.S. – McMurdo Station, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and Palmer Station – as well as numerous seasonal field camps and two marine research vessels operated year round.
 
In addition to providing medical staff, equipment and supplies on the continent, UTMB will also manage the required medical screening of the roughly 3,000 people who work at U.S. stations in the Antarctic each year. Another 300 people who 'winter over' at the bottom of the world, when weather conditions and continuous darkness make travel impossible, also require psychological evaluations.
 
"Antarctica is the most remote and extreme place on earth to live and work," Parazynski said in a statement. "It's our responsibility and privilege to assure those who are traveling there are physically up to the challenge and have the medical support they need once they get there."
 
Parazynski began mountain climbing in his teens, and has climbed in the Alaska Range, the Cascades, the Rockies, the Alps, the Andes and the Himalayas. On his second attempt to scale Mount Everest, on May 20, 2009, he became the first astronaut to stand on top of the world. Additionally, as part of a NASA-sponsored expedition to the high Andes, he conducted a scientific dive in the summit caldera lake of 19,700-foot Licancabur volcano, the world's highest lake.
 
Parazynski is also a commercial, instrument, multiengine and seaplane-rated pilot with over 2,500 flight hours.
 
END
 
 


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