Wednesday, August 15, 2012
8/15/12 news
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Come Hear Nicole Stott at TEDxSugarland
2. 'Summer of Curiosity' - Voyage Back to School Event
3. View the Earth from an Astronaut's Perspective
4. Recent JSC Announcement Correction
5. Blood Drive Today
6. Latest ISS Research
7. NASA Takes Major Step in Certifying Commercial Crew Transportation Systems
8. Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Center-Level IR&D Call for Proposals
9. Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
10. Train-the-Trainer Aerial Platform-Certifying Officials
11. ISS Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) User Forum
12. Facility Manager's Training
13. Closing the Communication Gap: Medical Error Prevention and Physician Behavior
14. Space Available - Cryogenic Engineering
15. Construction (CFR 1926) Safety & Health Provisions - ViTS - Aug. 31
16. Learn About Mobile Enterprise Application Development on Aug. 22
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.”
-- Harold Geneen
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1. Come Hear Nicole Stott at TEDxSugarland
How long has it been since your last TED event? Well, your wait is over.
Come hear Nicole Stott (International Space Station Expedition 20 and 21 and STS-128 and STS-133), as well as other thought leaders, share their ideas that are changing the world. TEDxSugarland will be held on Saturday, Aug. 25, at Clements High School in Sugar Land. For more information and to register, visit: http://www.tedxsugarland.com
Steven A. Gonzalez x36314 http://www.tedxsugarland.com
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2. 'Summer of Curiosity' - Voyage Back to School Event
Congratulations! Over the course of the last two months, you and your family have planned, designed and constructed many items needed for a human mission to Mars. Now that you have completed the Summer of Curiosity Mission to Mars Challenge, it is time to celebrate and showcase what you have created.
Your task for this week is to share what your family have accomplished by bringing the Mission to Mars drawings and models to the Voyage Back to School event at Space Center Houston on August 16th. Please contact Patricia Moore or visit http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/johnson/student-activities/summ... if you are interested in displaying models.
Please spread the word and invite your family and friends!! Celebrate the return to school and summer successes at the Voyage Back to School event at Space Center Houston. The event is FREE to the public and highlights NASA's Summer of Innovation initiative and the excitement of Mars exploration. Space Center Houston and JSC will host free STEM exhibits and hands-on activities to all families. Meet an astronaut, create a Mars lander, challenge your friends to a robot race, and much more!
For additional information visit http://www.spacecenter.org/SummerOfInnovation.html
JSC External Relations, Office of Education x36686
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3. View the Earth from an Astronaut's Perspective
Like most people, the astronauts have certain work tasks they find more enjoyable than others. Looking out the window and taking photos and videos of the wonderful views of Earth is one of their favorite activities, while living aboard the International Space Station.
To read more about it and watch an interview with Melissa Dawson, an Earth scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center, click this link: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/ceo_video.html
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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4. Recent JSC Announcement Correction
Correction to JSC Announcement published in JSC Today on Aug. 14:
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:
JSCA 12-021: Key Personnel Assignment - Colonel Robert L. Behnken, Ph.D.
Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.
Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx
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5. Blood Drive Today
Summertime typically brings a decrease in blood donations as donors become busy with activities and vacations. But the need for blood can increase due to these summer activities and the three major holidays--Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. Your blood donation can help up to three people. Please take an hour of your time to donate at our next blood drive.
You can donate at JSC on Aug. 15 to 16, at the Teague Auditorium Lobby or at the donor coach located next to the Building 11 Starport Café, from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. or at the Gilruth Center at donor coach located in parking lot, Aug. 16, from 7:30 a.m. to noon (Note time change).
The criteria for donating can be found at the St. Luke's link on our website http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm
Teresa Gomez x39588 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm
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6. Latest ISS Research
This week on ISS, Suni Williams completed a session of the Pro K experiment. The Principal Investigator is JSC's own Scott M. Smith.
The Dietary Intake Can Predict and Protect Against Changes in Bone Metabolism During Spaceflight and Recovery (Pro K) experiment tests the hypothesis that a diet with a decreased ratio of animal protein to potassium leads to decreased loss of bone minerals during flight. The specific goal for the study is to test this hypothesis by determining if the ratio of acid (animal protein) to base (potassium) precursors in the diet is correlated with bone metabolism and bone loss.
Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/Pro_K.html
Liz Warren x35548
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7. NASA Takes Major Step in Certifying Commercial Crew Transportation Systems
New details have been published about NASA's plans for certifying commercially developed spacecraft and launch systems that could support future crewed missions to the International Space Station.
The Commercial Crew Program (CCP) is facilitating the development of a U.S. commercial crew space transportation capability with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from the space station and low-Earth orbit. In order to eventually certify these systems for space station missions, CCP will take a two-phase approach to see that commercial missions are held to the same safety standards as government human space transportation system missions.
Learn more about the certification efforts now underway and also more about the two phases:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/ccp_certification_rollout.html
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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8. Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Center-Level IR&D Call for Proposals
The JSC Technology Working Group (JTWG) announces the annual solicitation for FY13 center-level Internal Research & Development (IR&D) proposals to support human spaceflight (HSF) IR&D activities at JSC.
Initial project duration will be about 12 months, with potential for future funding. A year-end poster presentation of results will be required. Projects of up to $100,000 each are expected to be authorized. An initial quad chart proposal shall concisely describe the project within a one-page limit. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. CDT on Aug. 30 to the drop box URL found within the Guidelines Document. Principal Investigators of proposals selected during the initial screening will be invited to brief the JTWG on Sept. 11.
Topic areas, guidelines and instructions with attachments are posted in the solicitation file link below.
Solicitation and drop box link:
\\Jsc-fs01\apo-strategic-investments\FY'13_Center_Level_IRD\Solicitation_Documents
Dave L. Brown x37426 \\Jsc-fs01\apo-strategic-investments\FY'13_Center_Level_IRD\Solicitation...
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9. Do You Know What's Going on Around the Space Industry?
Each day, you can keep up with all the news affecting NASA by reading the NASA News Summary. It is available on the Web at: http://www.bulletinnews.com/nasa/
It contains full-text links so that clicking the hypertext links in the write-ups will take you to the newspapers' original full-text articles. It also contains an interactive table of contents, so clicking a page number on the table of contents page will take you directly to that story. In addition to reading today's NASA news, you can also find older stories through the searchable archive of past editions. The website will also let you subscribe to receive a daily email of all the day's space news.
Brought to you by External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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10. 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
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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11. ISS Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) User Forum
The ISS EDMS team will hold the monthly EDMS General User Forum this Friday, Aug. 17, at 9:30 a.m. in Building 4S, Conference Room 5315.
If you use EDMS to locate station documents, join us to learn about basic navigation and searching. Bring your questions, concerns and suggestions, and meet the station EDMS Application Support Center team. The agenda can be found at:
http://iss-www.jsc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/act/showAgenda.cfm?AGEN_id=43685&RequestT...
LaNell Cobarruvias 713-933-6854 http://iss-www.jsc.nasa.gov/nwo/apps/edms/web
LaNell Cobarruvias 713-933-6854 http://iss-www.jsc.nasa.gov/nwo/apps/edms/web/UserForums.shtml
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12. Facility Manager's Training
The Safety Learning Center invites you to attend an eight-hour Facility Mangers' Training:
That provides JSC facility managers with insight into the requirements for accomplishing their functions.
* 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 who 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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13. Closing the Communication Gap: Medical Error Prevention and Physician Behavior
Please join us for the next NHHPC Member to Member Connect as Dr. Nate Gross, co-founder of Doximity, presents Closing the Communication Gap: Medical Error Prevention and Physician Behavior Analysis on Wednesday, Aug. 15, at 2:30 p.m. All employees are encouraged to attend in the Building 15 Conference Room 267!
Medical errors are the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, a majority due to miscommunication or failure to communicate at all. Recent efforts by the U.S. Government, such as the Health Data Initiative, have recognized and enabled the potential of entrepreneurship to solve unmet needs in health care with more speed and agility than larger public or private entities. One mobile technology startup in particular, NHHPC member Doximity, is taking a radical approach to modernize the physician communication that contributes to such medical errors. Webex information can be found at sa.jsc.nasa.gov to participate virtually.
Carissa Vidlak 281-212-1409 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov
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14. 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-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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15. Construction (CFR 1926) Safety & Health Provisions - ViTS - Aug. 31
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0066: This three-hour course is based on OSHA CFR 1926, Subpart C- 1926.20 - Requirements for General Safety and Health Provisions, OSHA CFR 1926.21 - Safety Training and Education and OSHA CFR - 1926.25 Housekeeping. During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely on a construction site. There will be a final exam associated with this course that must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit. Registration in SATERN is required.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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16. Learn About Mobile Enterprise Application Development on Aug. 22
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Innovation Speaker Forum featuring Norman Smith, SAIC Technical Fellow, assistant VP for Technology.
Subject: Emerging Technologies - Preparing for Mobile Enterprise Applications
Aug. 22, from 11:30 a.m.to 12:30 p.m.
Location: JSC Building 1/Room 560
Mobile Development is the development of applications for small, handheld devices allowing for increased application mobility and deployment.
- Everyone wants Mobile Apps
- Today's mindset is phone-specific
- Must take the Enterprise View
- Cross-platform apps
- Must consider security
- Access corporate data
- Apps must be managed
- Mobile Enterprise Apps must fit into enterprise architecture, implement security and require middleware development to manage data between device and enterprise.
- Learn why it is important for Mobile Enterprise Apps to follow enterprise standards and rules.
Della Cardona 281-335-2074
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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
Wednesday – August 15, 2012
Curiosity’s view looking south toward Mount Sharp. This is part of a larger, high-resolution color mosaic made
Tuesday from images obtained by the rover’s Mast Camera. www.nasa.gov/mars
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Space Station Crew Gears Up for 2 Spacewalks
Denise Chow - Space.com
Astronauts living on the International Space Station will cap a busy summer with a pair of spacewalks this month to upgrade and repair the exterior of their home in orbit. On Monday, two Russian cosmonauts, Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko, will venture outside the space station to perform a variety of maintenance tasks. Ten days later, on Aug. 30, American astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will also step out into the vacuum of space to complete their own list of tasks.
ISS crew to embark on two spacewalks in August
Agence France Presse
Four International Space Station crew members will embark on two spacewalks to install new equipment and replace defective installations, the US space agency NASA said Tuesday. Russia's Gennady Padalka and Yury Malenchenko will carry out a six-hour spacewalk on August 20, the lead flight director for the current ISS mission, Dina Contella, told reporters from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. On August 30, American Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide will leave the station for about six and a half hours to replace a faulty camera and cables. They will also install the equipment needed for the upcoming arrival of a Russian laboratory module at the ISS.
Europe's ATV-3 Spacecraft to Readjust ISS Orbit by 7.7 Km
RIA Novosti
Engines of European Space Agency’s ATV-3 space freighter will be switched on Wednesday to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said. The engines of the Edoardo Amaldi spacecraft, which is docked at Russia’s Zvezda module on the ISS, will fire at 8.00 p.m. (16:00 GMT) and remain turned on for 1,876 seconds.
Space Triathlon: Station Astronaut to Compete Where No One Has Before
Denise Chow - Space.com
As if holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut wasn't enough, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is preparing to compete in a triathlon … in space. Williams, who is stationed aboard the International Space Station, is planning to participate in the 26th annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon in September. But unlike the more than 5,000 athletes who will gather at Zuma Beach in California to swim, bike and run, Williams will compete while orbiting more than 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Earth. She left Earth July 17 for her second long-duration stay in the orbiting lab. Williams will participate in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in concert with CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, for a CNN special.
XCOR Aerospace landing in Florida
Rocket maker expected to bring 152 high-tech jobs to space center
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
XCOR Aerospace will build rocket engines and potentially a suborbital spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center in a move that brings Brevard County 152 space industry jobs and a prominent place in the burgeoning space tourism industry. The Mojave, Calif., company will offer details in an announcement at 10 a.m. Aug. 23 at the Astronaut Encounter Theater at the KSC Visitor Complex. An invitation to the announcement says XCOR will establish its new business in Florida, and the only Florida site the company seriously scouted was KSC. Contacted Tuesday, an XCOR spokesman declined to comment beyond the invitation.
Close Calls Are Near Disasters, Not Lucky Breaks
Ben Paynter - Wired.com
Almost a decade ago the space shuttle Columbia burned up on reentry into the atmosphere. The accident was as tragic as it was shocking. But should it have come as such a surprise? The root cause of the problem — foam insulation had flecked off the craft’s external fuel tank during blastoff — had been reported on 79 previous shuttle launches. So why was NASA unprepared when a briefcase-sized chunk smashed a thermal shield on a wing, setting up that fatal return trip? Engineers had even warned about this vulnerability when the ship was designed. Over time, though, as the odds played out favorably, the potential for disaster just became easier to ignore. It is the paradox of the close call. Probability wise, near misses aren’t successes. They are indicators of near failure. And if the flaw is systemic, it requires only a small twist of fate for the next incident to result in disaster. Rather than celebrating then ignoring close calls, we should be learning from them and doing our very best to prevent their recurrence. But we often don’t.
Medvedev Orders Space Industry Shake-Up
RIA Novosti
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government on Tuesday to work out a plan to improve Russia’s space industry organizations, after a string of mishaps that he said have compromised Russia’s image as a leading space power. During a meeting with cabinet and space industry officials on Tuesday, Medvedev gave them one month to present proposals on “practical steps” to be taken to improve the federal space agency Roscosmos and tighten controls on spacecraft production.
Griffin Takes Chief Executive Job at Schafer Corp.
Brian Berger - Space News
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has been named chairman and chief executive of Schafer Corp., an Arlington, Va.-based science and engineering services contractor. “We are excited to welcome Mike to Schafer Corporation,” Schafer board member John Gilligan, a former U.S. Air Force and Department of Energy chief information officer, said in an Aug. 14 statement announcing Griffin’s appointment. “His talents and expertise will complement an exceptional team and enhance the company’s continued ability to provide exceptional support and innovative technical solutions to our customers.”
‘Space shuttle tree’ lands at Coast Guard base
Shore News Today (Cape May County)
West Cape May donated a "space shuttle tree" to Coast Guard Training Center Cape May last week. Mayor Pam Kaithern presented the tree to Capt. Bill Kelly, commanding officer of Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, on behalf of the citizens of West Cape May during a ceremony at the training center. The tree is one of 35 trees germinated from seeds taken to space by NASA astronaut Gregory T. Linteris, a New Jersey native, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997.
Paul Ryan is the plan for space
Romney's VP pick and endorsement of his budget set direction for Space Coast
Matt Reed - Florida Today (Commentary)
Brevard County leaders say they’re waiting for Republican Mitt Romney to announce a plan for space. But the presidential candidate did that Saturday when he named Rep. Paul Ryan, the conservative budget chairman from Wisconsin, as his running mate. Ryan and his famous blueprint for balancing the federal budget are the space plan. Romney endorsed Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” plan’s numbers and strategy early on. U.S. Reps. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, and Sandy Adams, R-Orlando, voted in 2011 and 2012 to adopt them as the federal budget.
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Rover software successfully updated; mobility tests on tap
William Harwood - CBS News
Engineers successfully updated the Curiosity rover's computer software over the weekend and plan initial tests of the mobile science lab's ability to drive across the martian terrain within the next week or so, project officials said Tuesday. "We couldn't be happier with the success of the mission so far," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory deputy project scientist. "Most significantly at this point, since we're still in our commissioning phase, we have a fully healthy rover and payload."
Mars Curiosity Eyes First Moves Next Week
Guy Norris - Aviation Week
NASA is on track to move the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover for the first time on the red planet’s surface around the middle of next week, according to controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California. Preparations for the move come midway through Sol 9 on Mars (Aug. 14), as the MSL team nears the halfway point in the lengthy process of checking out and commissioning the rover’s 10 major science instruments and other avionics and mechanical systems.
Mars rover Curiosity's test drive set for next week
Dan Vergano - USA Today
NASA plans a first test-drive of its Mars rover Curiosity for next Tuesday, the start of a year-long trek to the foothills of a nearby Martian mountain. Some 5 miles away from Curiosity's Aug. 6 landing site, the canyons and buttes of Mount Sharp beckon the $2.5 billion rover. Curiosity is halfway through tests of its 10 science instruments and has completed an "intellect upgrade" of its steering computers, says mission engineer Jim Donaldson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
Mars Curiosity team curious to spy rover's pics
Hope rides high on eying 3-mile-high peak
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
Now outfitted with software for surface operations, the Mars Curiosity rover this week will train cameras on 18,000-foot Mount Sharp and beam back the first full-sweep photos of the ancient peak. “We’re dying to see that image also. We talk about it all the time around the control room,” mission manager Michael Watkins said Tuesday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “That’s a high priority for the team,” he said. “We hope to see that in a few days.”
Mars Rover Curiosity Survives 'Brain Surgery,' Set for 1st Drive
Mike Wall - Space.com
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has survived its four-day "brain transplant" in fine shape and is now gearing up for its first Red Planet drive, scientists announced Tuesday. Engineers upgraded Curiosity's flight software over the weekend, switching the rover's main and backup computers from landing mode to surface mode. The four-day overhaul temporarily halted Curiosity's science and instrument-checkout work, which had begun almost immediately after the rover touched down inside Mars' Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5. But those activities can resume later today, on the rover's ninth full Martian day — or Sol 9, in mission lingo — because Curiosity's brain surgery went well, researchers said.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Space Station Crew Gears Up for 2 Spacewalks
Denise Chow - Space.com
Astronauts living on the International Space Station will cap a busy summer with a pair of spacewalks this month to upgrade and repair the exterior of their home in orbit.
On Monday, two Russian cosmonauts, Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko, will venture outside the space station to perform a variety of maintenance tasks. Ten days later, on Aug. 30, American astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will also step out into the vacuum of space to complete their own list of tasks.
The two spacewalks are the only ones planned during the station's current Expedition 32 mission, NASA officials said. Williams and Hoshide will also be performing the first NASA spacewalk in more than a year. The last American excursion outside the orbiting complex was carried out by station astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan in July 2011, during the agency's final space shuttle mission.
"Things are going extremely well on the space station," Dina Contella, Expedition 32 lead flight director at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters during a news briefing today (Aug. 14). "The crew is in great spirits, looking forward to a pair of spacewalks coming up."
The Russian spacewalk is scheduled to last approximately 6.5 hours, beginning at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT).
The cosmonauts will install debris shields to protect parts of the Russian Zvezda service module, and will move a cargo crane from the Pirs docking module to the nearby Zarya module. The crane is being moved to make way for a new Russian laboratory unit that is scheduled to launch to space station and be installed in 2013, NASA officials said.
If the cosmonauts complete their main tasks ahead of schedule, they will retrieve two science experiments from the exterior of the station, and release a spherical satellite — part of a separate Russian experiment — into space.
Padalka and Malenchenko are both veteran spacewalkers. Padalka has conducted eight spacewalks — six at the International Space Station and two at the Russian Mir space station. Malenchenko has previously worked outside in the vacuum of space four times.
On Aug. 30, Williams and Hoshide will don their bulky white spacesuits and will embark on a 6.5-hour spacewalk of their own. Williams has conducted four previous spacewalks, but it will be Hoshide's first time venturing outside the orbiting lab, NASA officials said.
The NASA spacewalk, or Extravehicular Activity (EVA), is scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT) on Aug. 30.
The duo will be focused on replacing a faulty power box, running cables along the outside of the station to prepare for the new Russian module, and removing and installing a new camera on the space station's robotic arm.
While some of these spacewalk objectives were added recently to address unexpected malfunctions, such as to the camera on the robotic arm, the astronauts feel ready and confident that they can successfully execute all the tasks, said Kieth Johnson, lead U.S. spacewalk officer.
"What ends up happening is we change priorities and change tasks … that they looked at in their training a while ago," Johnson explained.
With these changes, one of the most important things that will be monitored by ground controllers is the amount of time spent on each task. With a full list of things to accomplish, it is important that the astronauts not fall too far behind schedule, Johnson said.
There are currently six spaceflyers living aboard the International Space Station: Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Revin, NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
ISS crew to embark on two spacewalks in August
Agence France Presse
Four International Space Station crew members will embark on two spacewalks to install new equipment and replace defective installations, the US space agency NASA said Tuesday.
Russia's Gennady Padalka and Yury Malenchenko will carry out a six-hour spacewalk on August 20, the lead flight director for the current ISS mission, Dina Contella, told reporters from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The cosmonauts, who have racked up a total of 12 spacewalks between them, will install a shield to protect one of the ISS modules from micro-meteorites and space debris. They will also reposition a telescopic crane.
On August 30, American Sunita Williams and Japan's Akihiko Hoshide will leave the station for about six and a half hours to replace a faulty camera and cables.
They will also install the equipment needed for the upcoming arrival of a Russian laboratory module at the ISS.
This will be Williams' fifth spacewalk and Hoshide's first.
The main challenge of the two missions will be to realize the tasks within the allotted time, said lead US spacewalk officer Kieth Johnson.
"We want to make sure we don't let the crew run long on a task," Johnson said. "We've timelined it so we can stop at various points to get them inside."
In the first spacewalk, the most difficult task for the cosmonauts will be moving the telescopic crane, Contella said.
In addition to the spacewalks, the current ISS team is preparing for the arrival of four cargo vessels -- two from Russia, one from Europe and one from Japan.
Europe's ATV-3 Spacecraft to Readjust ISS Orbit by 7.7 Km
RIA Novosti
Engines of European Space Agency’s ATV-3 space freighter will be switched on Wednesday to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.
The engines of the Edoardo Amaldi spacecraft, which is docked at Russia’s Zvezda module on the ISS, will fire at 8.00 p.m. (16:00 GMT) and remain turned on for 1,876 seconds.
“As a result, the average height of the ISS orbit will be raised by 7.7 kilometers, to 414.42 km,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
The maneuver will be carried out to ensure the best conditions for the landing of Russia’s Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the ISS, scheduled for October 15.
Corrections to the space station's orbit are conducted periodically to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to safeguard successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.
Space Triathlon: Station Astronaut to Compete Where No One Has Before
Denise Chow - Space.com
As if holding the record for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut wasn't enough, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is preparing to compete in a triathlon … in space.
Williams, who is stationed aboard the International Space Station, is planning to participate in the 26th annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon in September. But unlike the more than 5,000 athletes who will gather at Zuma Beach in California to swim, bike and run, Williams will compete while orbiting more than 240 miles (386 kilometers) above Earth. She left Earth July 17 for her second long-duration stay in the orbiting lab.
Williams will participate in the Nautica Malibu Triathlon in concert with CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, for a CNN special. While Gupta sticks to a more Earthbound experience of swimming in the Pacific Ocean, bicycling and racing through the streets of Malibu, Williams will run, pedal, and engage in a series of bench presses that will serve as the microgravity equivalent of swimming.
As part of her triathlon training, Williams participated from space in the Aug. 12 Falmouth Road Race, an annual seven-mile race from Woods Hole in the town of Falmouth, Mass.
Now she has roughly a month to prepare for the triathlon, which requires competitors to swim half a mile in the ocean, bike 18 miles and run four miles.
Astronauts on long-duration missions at the orbiting outpost exercise roughly two hours each day to combat loss of bone and muscle density. The space station is equipped with a specially designed stationary bike, treadmill (complete with harnesses to keep participants from floating away) and a machine called the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device, or ARED, which acts as a weightlifting machine.
In recent interviews with CNN and WCIA radio in Illinois, Williams described the progress of her training in space, and how her body is adjusting to exercise in the microgravity environment.
"Microgravity is nice to your body," Williams told WCIA. "You can float around, it feels good, but when you simulate gravity — when you're on either the treadmill or the ARED — it sort of hurts. So it's been a bit of an adjustment to get into the exercise."
During her first two weeks in space, Williams spent time familiarizing herself with the machines, which are either new or have been upgraded since she was last at the space station in 2007.
"The first two weeks we've sort of used as a just-get-used-to-the-equipment, get used to the protocols that we're doing," Williams said at the time. "So I think we're at that point that we're finally adapted and ready to start building on it. So, just watch out, because now I'm ready to really start preparing for the triathlon."
Williams told CNN that watching the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, which concluded this past weekend in London, helped provide motivation.
During the interview, Williams demonstrated how to use the space station's bike, which has pedals but no seat. A nearby computer controls the resistance and speed of the bike, and also logs the astronauts' heart rates as they ride.
"This is how I'm going to simulate the bike ride," Williams explained. "For the hills, I can increase my resistance to match the route that you're going to take, because I would assume that Malibu is not flat like Houston, right?"
For the swimming portion of the triathlon, Williams worked with experts in Houston to design a different exercise that she will be able to complete in orbit, said Kelly Humphries, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The exercise was created by Mark Guilliams, who works as part of NASA's astronaut strength, conditioning and rehabilitation group. It requires Williams to perform a type of modified bench press. That will serve as her swimming portion of the race, Humphries told SPACE.com.
Williams will use the station's bike to pedal 18 miles and then will strap herself to the treadmill to complete the final four miles of running.
This is not the first time Williams has competed in orbit in a major athletic event. In 2007 Williams ran the Boston Marathon from the International Space Station, finishing with an official time of four hours, 23 minutes and 10 seconds.
There are currently six people living and working aboard the space station. In September Williams will assume command of the station's Expedition 33 crew, becoming only the second woman to lead the orbiting outpost.
XCOR Aerospace landing in Florida
Rocket maker expected to bring 152 high-tech jobs to space center
Patrick Peterson - Florida Today
XCOR Aerospace will build rocket engines and potentially a suborbital spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center in a move that brings Brevard County 152 space industry jobs and a prominent place in the burgeoning space tourism industry.
The Mojave, Calif., company will offer details in an announcement at 10 a.m. Aug. 23 at the Astronaut Encounter Theater at the KSC Visitor Complex.
An invitation to the announcement says XCOR will establish its new business in Florida, and the only Florida site the company seriously scouted was KSC. Contacted Tuesday, an XCOR spokesman declined to comment beyond the invitation.
Scheduled speakers at the announcement include Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, KSC Director Robert Cabana, Space Florida President Frank DiBello, and Lynda Weatherman, president of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
Space Florida and the EDC have worked for years to get XCOR to Florida, an initiative known until recently only as Project Planet. That XCOR was Project Planet was confirmed in late July, as incentives for the company worked their way through the Brevard County Commission. On July 24, commissioners approved $182,400 in incentives to help the company open a facility at KSC. According to the company, the project would include hangar and flight operations, vehicle manufacturing, engine assembly and space tourism elements.
"The Space Coast has one of the premier work forces when it comes to aerospace and they certainly have one of the premier launch sites," XCOR Chief Operating Officer Andrew Nelson told FLORIDA TODAY at the time.
KSC last week issued a request for commercial proposals to use the 15,000-foot runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility, expected to serve as the focal point of XCOR’s operations.
The county incentives will act as a local match for nearly $1 million worth of state incentives under the Florida Qualified Target Industry Tax Refund Program. Space Florida, the state’s space economic development group, has committed to investing as much as $3 million in XCOR if milestones are reached, according to documents from the group’s meetings.
A representative from XCOR, which was founded in 1999, told Brevard commissioners the company hopes to open its KSC center in October 2014. The 152 technical jobs, created over five years, would have an average wage of $60,833.
XCOR builds, tests, sells and operates reusable, rocket-powered space vehicles and rocket engines that can be used for suborbital, orbital and deep-space applications. It hopes to launch small satellites to low-earth orbit from Florida, as well as having a role in environmental and military-related missions. The company is designing a second stage engine for United Launch Alliance, which operates at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
While development of the XCOR spacecraft is in the beginning stages, XCOR President Jeff Greason said he hoped to see test flights of the company’s two-seater, suborbital Lynx prototype by the end of 2012. A flight on the Lynx would cost $95,000.
Greason has headed up the development of 11 rocket engines and, earlier in his career, performed work that became the basis for the Pentium processor.
XCOR's interest in locating on the Space Coast is part of a renewed interest in space exploration after the end of the space shuttle program last July. Rocket Crafters, a Utah company, last month announced an effort to develop and fly a suborbital craft from Titusville that also could employ hundreds, or even thousands.
Close Calls Are Near Disasters, Not Lucky Breaks
Ben Paynter - Wired.com
Almost a decade ago the space shuttle Columbia burned up on reentry into the atmosphere. The accident was as tragic as it was shocking. But should it have come as such a surprise?
The root cause of the problem — foam insulation had flecked off the craft’s external fuel tank during blastoff — had been reported on 79 previous shuttle launches. So why was NASA unprepared when a briefcase-sized chunk smashed a thermal shield on a wing, setting up that fatal return trip? Engineers had even warned about this vulnerability when the ship was designed. Over time, though, as the odds played out favorably, the potential for disaster just became easier to ignore.
It is the paradox of the close call. Probability wise, near misses aren’t successes. They are indicators of near failure. And if the flaw is systemic, it requires only a small twist of fate for the next incident to result in disaster. Rather than celebrating then ignoring close calls, we should be learning from them and doing our very best to prevent their recurrence. But we often don’t.
Post-Columbia, Robin Dillon-Merrill and Catherine Tinsley, two researchers at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, have been attempting to figure out how our near-miss blind spot really works. In one study, they asked NASA employees and MBA students to rank different versions of a mission scenario. One described a highly successful project; the other project nearly self-destructed but was ultimately saved by a lucky break. Regardless, subjects ranked both missions as equally well done. Why? Most of us grade outcomes in binary terms. Success is good. Failure is bad.
“People don’t learn from a near miss, they just say, ‘It worked, so let’s do it again,’” Dillon-Merrill says. Other studies have shown that the more often someone gets away with risky behavior, the more likely they are to repeat it; there is a sort of invincibility complex. “For ego protection reasons, we like to assume that past events are a product of what we controlled rather than chance,” Tinsley adds.
Thanks to the Columbia, NASA is trying to address this problem. To fight the instinct to treat each near miss as a success, Ed Rogers, chief knowledge officer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, gives NASA managers a training exercise based on the Georgetown tests to show how they fall into the binary trap. The FAA, meanwhile, has gone further.
The agency realized that many reports of in-flight errors were probably being treated as one-off mistakes. Since there are so many variables that go into an in-flight close call, it was hard for safety officers to spot patterns. To fix this, they asked their partner, systems engineering firm Mitre, to look at each element of flight—including mechanical, procedural, and geographic. Mitre took the FAA’s database of crew and air traffic errors and combined it with in-flight mechanical information and terrain maps of areas planes generally fly over (and around).
The resulting visualization let them easily spot common, potentially dangerous errors. Airlines then make a variety of corrections, such as charting a longer descent into a turbulent airport. (Indeed, the FAA has seen an 83 percent drop in fatalities over the past decade, in part from preemptive fixes.)
The more reports, the better. According to the Process Improvement Institute, a risk analysis firm, across many industries there are between 50 and 100 near misses recorded per serious accident, and about 10,000 smaller errors occur during that time. To keep the intel coming, though, institutions need to embrace people’s baser instincts. People may be keen to report near misses right after an accident but are prone to falling out of the habit.
In a recent analysis of NASA flight data from real missions, researchers found reporting of safety issues spiked after Columbia but then dropped off—except for extremely high-profile missions where everyone knew the world would be watching. One way to combat this is to change how missions are talked about internally. In a follow-up test at Georgetown using fictional incidents, researchers found that NASA personnel and MBA student test subjects were both more likely to grade close calls realistically if they were told beforehand that NASA is “highly visible” and “safety first.”
Most accident investigations work backward to determine the causes. A more effective way to curtail disasters is to get better at spotting the near miss. One great success in near-miss awareness is Dow Chemical. The company has seen an 80 percent drop in serious accidents since it started a new program to push close-call reporting. The company is proof that modern disaster prevention can and should be about stopping trouble before it strikes, not cleaning up afterward.
Medvedev Orders Space Industry Shake-Up
RIA Novosti
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government on Tuesday to work out a plan to improve Russia’s space industry organizations, after a string of mishaps that he said have compromised Russia’s image as a leading space power.
During a meeting with cabinet and space industry officials on Tuesday, Medvedev gave them one month to present proposals on “practical steps” to be taken to improve the federal space agency Roscosmos and tighten controls on spacecraft production.
There have been seven failed launches of Russian spacecraft over the past 18 months, which resulted in the loss of seven satellites, Medvedev said. The situation represents a major challenge for a country that carries out 40 percent of global space launches, he added.
“If you compare this to the results of other leading space powers, you will see a colossal difference, unfortunately,” Medvedev said, adding that “nothing similar to this has ever happened” in any other country with a well-developed space industry.
The most recent failure came on August 7, when Russia’s Proton carrier rocket launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan failed to deliver two satellites onto their designated orbit because of a suspected mishap in the engines of its Briz-M booster.
The satellites – Russia’s Express MD2 and Indonesia’s Telkom-3 – have been lost in space as a result.
Last August, a similar problem caused the loss of a $265 million communications satellite, Express-AM4.
Such incidents, Medvedev said, weaken Russia’s image as a leading space power.
He pointed to existing problems in the space industry, such as worn-out production equipment, 90 percent of which has been in service for more than two decades, as well as a lack of production materials and young specialists in the space industry.
However, those problems alone cannot account for the recent mishaps, he said.
“We should understand who is to blame for a series of recent failures and mistakes that have been made and establish the level of responsibility for those guilty,” Medvedev told the officials.
Currently, all costs of failed launches fall solely on insurance companies, while employees of spacecraft design and manufacturing companies who produce flawed parts and equipment do not bear any financial or other responsibility, he said.
He added that he was planning to make some relevant decisions as early as Tuesday.
The premier also noted that the Russian government was planning to invest some 650 billion rubles ($20.44 billion) in the country’s space industry by 2015.
Griffin Takes Chief Executive Job at Schafer Corp.
Brian Berger - Space News
Former NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has been named chairman and chief executive of Schafer Corp., an Arlington, Va.-based science and engineering services contractor.
“We are excited to welcome Mike to Schafer Corporation,” Schafer board member John Gilligan, a former U.S. Air Force and Department of Energy chief information officer, said in an Aug. 14 statement announcing Griffin’s appointment. “His talents and expertise will complement an exceptional team and enhance the company’s continued ability to provide exceptional support and innovative technical solutions to our customers.”
In addition to the Air Force, Schafer’s customers include the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Department of Homeland Security and NASA, which Griffin ran from 2005 to 2009.
Griffin told Space News that he will continue to live in Huntsville, Ala., where he has worked as a University of Alabama engineering professor since leaving NASA.
“I’ll have an office [in Arlington], but my permanent office will be at the Huntsville branch, so no, I am not moving,” Griffin said in an Aug. 14 email. “I’ll be travelling a lot, of course, but that isn’t new.”
Schafer is part of a Raytheon Technical Services team vying for an Air Force launch range modernization and support contract potentially worth $3 billion over 10 years.
Recent NASA business includes a contract awarded last year to work with Denver-based UP Aerospace to provide launch and payload integration services for up to eight NASA suborbital launches during 2012 and 2013.
Griffin said his post-NASA employment restrictions will not interfere with Schafer’s pursuit of new space agency business. “I cannot, however, EVER work on anything that was an on-going contract while I was there,” he said.
Griffin replaces Tony Frederickson, the former L-3 Titan Group president who joined Schafer as president and chief executive in late 2009.
‘Space shuttle tree’ lands at Coast Guard base
Shore News Today (Cape May County)
West Cape May donated a "space shuttle tree" to Coast Guard Training Center Cape May last week.
Mayor Pam Kaithern presented the tree to Capt. Bill Kelly, commanding officer of Coast Guard Training Center Cape May, on behalf of the citizens of West Cape May during a ceremony at the training center. The tree is one of 35 trees germinated from seeds taken to space by NASA astronaut Gregory T. Linteris, a New Jersey native, aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1997.
“We’d like to recognize the service and sacrifice of men and women of the Coast Guard here in our community and across the nation,” said Kaithern. “This tree is a symbolic token of our appreciation for all you do for our community and the American people.”
According to Deputy Mayor Peter Burke, the West Cape May Shade Tree Commission won the tree in a lottery with other New Jersey cities at a New Jersey Shade Tree Federation meeting in Cherry Hill. West Cape May decided to donate the tree to the Coast Guard to signify the positive and beneficial relationship between the service and the citizens of West Cape May, he said.
“We are pleased to accept the role as caretaker for the tree and are pleased to plant it in a place of honor at the training center,” said Kelly. “We not only recognize the tree’s uniqueness, but the ultimate sacrifice made by the crew of the Columbia in the furtherance of science and human knowledge.”
U.S. Navy Cmdr. Miles Barrett, a chaplain aboard the training center, blessed the tree, and the guests remembered the loss of the Shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven in 2003.
The seeds for the space shuttle trees, which are Easter white pines, were taken up during the 22nd flight of Columbia, and they traveled more than 1.5 million miles while aboard the shuttle. The New Jersey Forestry Service actually cultivated and cared for the space shuttle trees until they were donated to the New Jersey Shade Commission.
Paul Ryan is the plan for space
Romney's VP pick and endorsement of his budget set direction for Space Coast
Matt Reed - Florida Today (Commentary)
Brevard County leaders say they’re waiting for Republican Mitt Romney to announce a plan for space. But the presidential candidate did that Saturday when he named Rep. Paul Ryan, the conservative budget chairman from Wisconsin, as his running mate.
Ryan and his famous blueprint for balancing the federal budget are the space plan. Romney endorsed Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” plan’s numbers and strategy early on. U.S. Reps. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, and Sandy Adams, R-Orlando, voted in 2011 and 2012 to adopt them as the federal budget.
What the Paul Ryan pick means for space:
Limited options
The Ryan plan would cap spending on science, space and technology at today’s levels (about $30 billion) for a decade. That’s generous compared to cuts of up to $100 billion per year to other “nonsecurity” spending, the document shows.
NASA would chug along with development of its massive moon rocket, updates at Kennedy Space Center, a new space telescope, privatized flights to orbit and robotic missions to Mars. Then, something — probably the rocket — will blow its budget and fall behind schedule, forcing the space agency to cancel something else.
My guess: NASA’s climate research.
Posey and Adams already have tried to kill it to steer more money to human spaceflight.
Security focus
The Ryan plan embraces the conservative principle that the federal government should do fewer things, quit entire programs.
For example, the Ryan plan contains no mention of government “investment” in technology to encourage growth — unlike President Barack Obama’s budgets, rejected twice by the House. It focuses instead on cutting tax rates to encourage private-sector investment in technology and scientific breakthroughs.
But national defense remains a perfectly appropriate function for the federal government, according to Ryan, Romney and other conservatives. The Ryan plan would grow military spending by up to $100 billion per year over the next 10 years.
“I’m excited about the visionary change a Romney-Ryan team will bring to Washington,” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, said in a prepared statement.
To sell space to other Republicans, Posey and Rubio would have to continue to frame the moon rocket and other projects as critical to defense — not as an investment in science and technology. Already, Posey touts space as the “military high ground” in every stump speech.
Different values
Members of the Obama team toured Brevard County on Friday and met for discussions on space and technology with the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast.
Jim Kohlenberger, former chief of staff of the White House Office of Science Technology Policy, touted NASA successes with its recent Mars landing and the docking of a SpaceX capsule with the International Space Station.
The Democratic plan is all about investment, science and commercialization.
“We leveraged the entrepreneurial spirit of the private sector so NASA could do the hard things,” Kohlenberger told FLORIDA TODAY Friday. “The right path is to get U.S. astronauts on U.S. rockets and flying from Florida as soon as possible … We don’t know what Romney’s plan is.”
The next day, Romney signaled his space plan when he introduced his running mate at a campaign event near a U.S. Navy warship in Norfolk, Va.
He might not have realized it yet.
“Governor Romney will provide the clear, decisive and steadfast leadership the space program requires,” said a vague statement released by his Florida campaign office. “As president, Romney will bring together leading officials, researchers and entrepreneurs to establish clear goals.”
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Rover software successfully updated; mobility tests on tap
William Harwood - CBS News
Engineers successfully updated the Curiosity rover's computer software over the weekend and plan initial tests of the mobile science lab's ability to drive across the martian terrain within the next week or so, project officials said Tuesday.
"We couldn't be happier with the success of the mission so far," said Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory deputy project scientist. "Most significantly at this point, since we're still in our commissioning phase, we have a fully healthy rover and payload."
Mission manager Mike Watkins said that with the successful installation of surface-optimized software, version R10, the initial phase of the rover's activation and checkout -- phase 1A -- is complete. Engineers are beginning phase 1B "and that includes a mobility checkout," he said.
"So (we will have) commissioned everything but the (robot) arm and the drill sampling system after about a week from now," he said. "That means there's a lot of science we can do. ... We can drive around, go to a better target, sort of use our remote sensing equipment. And then we want to go into a phase where we check out all the arm joints, take the arm out, stretch it, do its wake-up exercises.
"So I think the final completion of characterizing the sampling system is still a fair ways away, probably a month away or something. But after the end of this week or so, we have a lot of capability we're able to turn over to the science team."
Curiosity made a pinpoint landing on the floor of Gale Crater last Monday. Scientists expect to spend about a year studying the rocks and soil of the crater floor while Curiosity slowly makes its way to the base of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-tall mound of layered rocks about five miles away as the crow flies that represents a major mission objective.
If all goes well, Curiosity will climb the lower slopes of Mount Sharp in the second half of its planned two-year mission, crossing over beds that mark the transition from a warmer, wetter past to more recent drier environments.
"It's fair to say the science team and our rover drivers and really everybody are kind of itching to move at this point," Vasavada said. "The science and operations teams are working together to evaluate a few different routes that will take us eventually to Mount Sharp, maybe with a few waypoints in between to look at some of this diversity that we see in these images.
"It's going to take the good part of a year to finally make it to these sediments on Mount Sharp. So really, we're trying to just keep our eyes on the prize, finish these checkouts and then get going."
A high-resolution photo snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was released Tuesday, clearly showing Curiosity on the surface with radial blast patterns nearby where the rover's sky crane descent engines blew away topsoil. Another oblique view of Gale Crater, with Curiosity's actual landing site pinpointed, illustrated the upcoming drive to the base of Mount Sharp, including a field of sand dunes that must be traversed.
Using high-resolution orbital photography, the science team has identified at least six possible routes to the base of the mountain. But Curiosity will not get there in a hurry.
"Our goal and our scientific mission lies on the lower slopes of Mount Sharp," Vasavada said. "But part of understanding Mount Sharp is understanding the context around it and some of the features that have formed on the plains that we're at. So we'll spend a little time characterizing the most important units along the way."
But "characterizing" a rock formation will be a time-consuming process and even though the science teams plans to minimize the number of stops Curiosity makes on the way to Mount Sharp, it is expected to take about a year to get there.
"It's probably a few weeks of activity (for each targeted formation along the way) because it might mean acquiring a sample, for example, which takes a few weeks to find that place to get the sample, to deploy the arm, to acquire the sample and process it in our lab," Vasavada said. "So maybe two or three samples, perhaps, on the way, that's already a month or two.
"We're still evaluating the capability of the rover on the terrain that we now see from eye level. ... We estimate we can drive something like a football field a day once we get going and test out all our driving capabilities. And if we're talking about a hundred football fields away, in terms of 10 kilometers or so, to those lower slopes of Mount Sharp, that already is a hundred days plus."
Mars Curiosity Eyes First Moves Next Week
Guy Norris - Aviation Week
NASA is on track to move the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover for the first time on the red planet’s surface around the middle of next week, according to controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California.
Preparations for the move come midway through Sol 9 on Mars (Aug. 14), as the MSL team nears the halfway point in the lengthy process of checking out and commissioning the rover’s 10 major science instruments and other avionics and mechanical systems.
Toward the end of the initial instrument checkout phase, engineers will test the rover’s steering actuation system. This evaluation of the actuators on four of the vehicle’s six wheels is scheduled for Sol 13, and paves the way for the first planned movement on Sol 15.
“It will just be a short drive — a few meters,” says JPL MSL mission manager Michael Watkins. The initial maneuver will include a drive forward, followed by a turn and then backing up. “We want to turn in an area that we can see,” he says.
A new flight software load (version 10.0) optimized for surface operations was successfully uploaded between Aug. 10 and Aug. 13. The new load includes improved image processing for obstacles and other potential hazards, which will aid the rover’s driving autonomy, as well as software for controlling the tools at the end of Curiosity’s robotic arm. Although described earlier by NASA as a “brain transplant,” MSL avionics chief engineer Jim Donaldson says, “I prefer to think of it as an intellectual upgrade.”
Planning for the route that Curiosity will take as it searches for signs of former life on Mars is ongoing. The science team has several candidates in mind, including an exposed area of multiple sediments and rock types around 8 km from the rover. The ultimate target is a zone of exposed clays and sulfite-bearing areas on the lower slopes of Mt. Sharp, the central feature dominating Gale Crater, in which Curiosity landed on Aug. 5.
Although the target area is only a few kilometers away, the JPL team expects it to take around one year to navigate through dunes and around obstacles to make it “a few 100 meters up in elevation” on the slopes of the 5.5-km tall mountain, according to MSL deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada. Curiosity is expected to drive “something like a football field a day” and will “have to find a gap in the dune field to give us safe passage.” There will also be “some challenges that will slow us down,” he adds.
Mars rover Curiosity's test drive set for next week
Dan Vergano - USA Today
NASA plans a first test-drive of its Mars rover Curiosity for next Tuesday, the start of a year-long trek to the foothills of a nearby Martian mountain.
Some 5 miles away from Curiosity's Aug. 6 landing site, the canyons and buttes of Mount Sharp beckon the $2.5 billion rover. Curiosity is halfway through tests of its 10 science instruments and has completed an "intellect upgrade" of its steering computers, says mission engineer Jim Donaldson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.
"I think it's fair to say that our science team, and our rover drivers, really everybody, is kind of itching to move," says mission scientist Ashwin Vasavada of the JPL. The rover now rests on gravel-covered bedrock inside Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide dent in the Martian surface with Mount Sharp in its center, separated from the rover by a pair of broad sand dunes.
"This is pretty spectacular terrain," Vasavada said Tuesday at a briefing. "We don't see many vistas like this on Earth."
On a two-year mission, the rover will investigate the habitability of the Red Planet, looking for chemistry that might suggest Mars once could have supported life. Although the rover will sample a few rocks on the way, its real target is the foothills of Mount Sharp. The mountain is believed to be made of clay topped by a layer of sulfur-laced rock similar to deposits that NASA's still-working Opportunity rover found in 2004 on another part of Mars.
First though, the rover will have to start rolling across Gale Crater. Mission engineers will activate its six wheels this weekend for a tentative test drive on or around Tuesday, its 15th Martian day, or "Sol."
The test drive will likely cover only a few yards and then back up, says mission planner Michael Watkins of the JPL. The rover should travel about a football field's length a day as it heads for Mount Sharp.
Engineers are debating six paths to pass through sand dunes on the way to Mount Sharp. The rover will need to climb only part of the mountain to perform investigations with instruments that include a drill, laser and chemistry lab.
"We're trying to just keep our eye on the prize, finish these check-outs and get going," Vasavada says.
Mars Curiosity team curious to spy rover's pics
Hope rides high on eying 3-mile-high peak
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
Now outfitted with software for surface operations, the Mars Curiosity rover this week will train cameras on 18,000-foot Mount Sharp and beam back the first full-sweep photos of the ancient peak.
“We’re dying to see that image also. We talk about it all the time around the control room,” mission manager Michael Watkins said Tuesday at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
“That’s a high priority for the team,” he said. “We hope to see that in a few days.”
The car-sized Curiosity rover made a precision landing Aug. 6 at the foot of Aeolis Mons, which is taller than any mountain in the contiguous United States.
Three miles high, the mountain is known informally as Mount Sharp, dubbed so for Robert Sharp, an early pioneer of robotic interplanetary exploration.
Geologists consider it a Martian history book. The mountain comprises layer after layer of sedimentary material, strata that exposes the epoch-by-epoch geologic history of Mars.
New data also confirmed that just like a gold medal-winning Olympic gymnast, Curiosity stuck its landing.
After an eight-month, 350-million mile journey from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Curiosity touched down at the very foot of Mount Sharp, just a mile-and-a-half from its target within a tight landing zone.
Scientists still are staggered.
The eventual traverse to its prime science target — the lower slopes of the mountain — will be less than five miles.
“As a scientist on this mission, I’m still in awe of what the engineers here were able to do,” deputy mission scientist Ashwin Vasavada said Tuesday.
“To pick a site on Mars and get to it within about a mile and a half, we’re all still just incredibly amazed by that feat and how well it started this mission.”
Curiosity this week came through a “brain transplant” and now is electronically equipped for surface operations. “I’d like to call it an intellect upgrade, because the brain is the same,” said Jim Donaldson, chief engineer for the rover’s avionics systems.
With that complete, the extensive checkout of rover engineering systems and scientific instruments picked up again Tuesday. Equipped with 10 of the most capable scientific instruments ever launched to another planet, Curiosity aims to determine whether Mars is, or ever was, hospitable to microbial life.
Mars Rover Curiosity Survives 'Brain Surgery,' Set for 1st Drive
Mike Wall - Space.com
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has survived its four-day "brain transplant" in fine shape and is now gearing up for its first Red Planet drive, scientists announced Tuesday.
Engineers upgraded Curiosity's flight software over the weekend, switching the rover's main and backup computers from landing mode to surface mode. The four-day overhaul temporarily halted Curiosity's science and instrument-checkout work, which had begun almost immediately after the rover touched down inside Mars' Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5.
But those activities can resume later today, on the rover's ninth full Martian day — or Sol 9, in mission lingo — because Curiosity's brain surgery went well, researchers said.
"It came off pretty much without a hitch," Curiosity mission systems manager Mike Watkins, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters today. "All four days went as planned, so we're now 'go' to continue our checkout activities."
As part of the checkout process, Curiosity's handlers hope to turn the rover's wheels for the first time in the next week or so, Watkins added.
"We're going to test the steering actuators on Sol 13, and then we are going to take it out for a test drive here probably around Sol 15," Watkins said. "We're going to do a short drive of, you know, a couple of meters, and then maybe turn and back up."
Seeking habitable environments
Curiosity is the centerpiece of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL), which seeks to determine if the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life. To get at this question, Curiosity will analyze Martian rocks and soil with 10 different science instruments for the next two years or more.
The MSL team is interested in studying formations near the rover's landing site, which sits just downslope of an ancient alluvial fan — a feature likely created by water flowing downhill. But Curiosity's main target is the base of Mount Sharp, the mysterious 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) peak rising from Gale's center.
Mount Sharp's many layers preserve a record of Mars' changing environmental conditions going back perhaps a billion years or more, researchers have said. And Mars-orbiting spacecraft have detected evidence of clays and sulfates in the mountain's foothills, suggesting that Mount Sharp's lower reaches were exposed to liquid water long ago.
These foothills lie about 5 miles (8 km) from Curiosity's landing site as the crow flies, researchers said. The rover will have to pick its way through a dune field to get there, and it will likely make a few stops en route to study interesting rocks.
Curiosity can cover about 330 feet (100 meters) per day — about the length of a football field — so it will take the rover a while to reach its destination.
"It's going to take a good part of a year to finally make it to these sediments on Mount Sharp," said MSL deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL.
Itching to move
It will be another month or so until Curiosity and its instruments are fully vetted and the rover is ready to devote itself completely to science operations, Watkins said. But everything looks good so far.
"We have a fully healthy rover and payload," Vasavada said.
He and the rest of the MSL team are eager for Curiosity to really get rolling on the Martian surface.
"I think it's fair to say that the science team and our rover drivers and really everybody are kind of itching to move at this point," Vasavada said. "So the science and operations teams are working together to evaluate a few different routes that will take us eventually to Mount Sharp."
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