Monday, August 20, 2012
8/20/12 News
Monday, August 20, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Two Space Station Spacewalks to be Broadcast on NASA TV
2. Forgot Your Badge? No Problem
3. Shuttle Knowledge Console
4. Job Opportunities
5. HSI ERG Meeting Tomorrow
6. Made in Orbit Challenge: NASA@work
7. Get Fit Anywhere, Happiness and Retiring Well
8. Excessing Property Containing Refrigerants
9. Training Opportunity: Building Bridges Toward LGBT Inclusion
10. Pre-Travel to Russia Seminar
11. Informal Learning with Intelligent Robotics Systems Development
12. Project Management Institute Clear Lake Galveston Chapter Presentation
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.”
-- Larry King
________________________________________
1. Two Space Station Spacewalks to be Broadcast on NASA TV
Astronauts and cosmonauts will perform two spacewalks outside the International Space Station this month. NASA Television will broadcast both events live. Coverage of the first will begin at 9 a.m. CDT, today, Aug. 20. Coverage of the second will begin at 6 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 30.
JSC team members with wired computer network connections can view the docking on NASA TV using onsite IPTV on channels 404 (standard definition) or 4541 (HD) at: http://iptv.jsc.nasa.gov/eztv/
It will also be on the normal JSC TV system on NASA TV public channel 4 or HD NASA-TV on channel 54-1.
The first spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 9:40 a.m. today will feature Expedition 32 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency in Russian Orlan spacesuits. They will float outside the Pirs docking compartment airlock for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to relocate a cargo boom from Pirs to the Zarya module, complete the installation of micrometeoroid debris shields on the Zvezda service module and deploy a small science satellite.
The second spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 7:15 a.m., Aug. 30, will feature NASA Flight Engineer Sunita Williams and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Akihiko Hoshide. The duo will don U.S. extravehicular mobility unit spacesuits for the first U.S.-based spacewalk since July 2011. It will be a six-and-a-half-hour excursion designed to replace a faulty power relay unit on the station's truss, rig power cables for the arrival late next year of a Russian laboratory module, and install a thermal cover on a docking port.
The spacewalks will be the 163rd and 164th in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Padalka has conducted eight previous spacewalks and will wear a suit bearing red stripes. Malenchenko has conducted four spacewalks and will wear blue stripes. For the U.S. spacewalk, Williams will wear a suit with red stripes for the fifth spacewalk in her career. Hoshide, wearing a suit with no stripes, will be conducting his first spacewalk. He is the third Japanese astronaut in history to conduct a spacewalk.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[top]
2. Forgot Your Badge? No Problem
An average of 18 employees forget their badge each day and have to stand in line for a temporary one. But that line should be a little shorter thanks to a new automated kiosk in Building 110.
Simply present a valid driver's license, and follow the instructions on the screen. No need to wait for help. The data is extracted straight from your license with no jams, license eating or assistance needed, unlike the old one. Plus the temporary badge changes color when it expires, making it easy for employees and security to know whether a badge is valid or not.
The kiosk is available during normal working hours for current civil servants and contractors and saves at least an hour a day of customer service interaction. We're not suggesting you forget your badge on purpose just to see it, but if you did, we wouldn't blame you!
Tifanny Sowell x32110 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/js/js4/external/badpro.cfm
[top]
3. Shuttle Knowledge Console
Hard to believe a year has passed since the final launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis, the final mission of the Space Shuttle Program. As part of JSC's ongoing Space Shuttle Knowledge capture process, the JSC Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) and the JSC Engineering Directorate are pleased to announce that many of the systems and subsystems developed and utilized during the program have been captured and retained for JSC users at the new Shuttle Knowledge Console - https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov
Systems such as, the Shuttle Drawing System, Subsystem Manager, Space Shuttle Flight Software, SSPWeb and many more can be accessed from the console. Questions about the new website can be directed to Howard Wagner in the JSC Engineering Directorate or Brent Fontenot in the CKO office. We would love your feedback on this new site. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation, and give us your comments.
Brent J Fontenot x36456 https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx
[top]
4. Job Opportunities
Where Do I Find Job Opportunities?
Both internal Competitive Placement Plan and external JSC job announcements are posted on both the Human Resources (HR) Portal and USAJOBS - http://usajobs.gov - website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...
To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop down menu and select JSC HR. The "Jobs link," will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.
Lisa Pesak x30476
[top]
5. HSI ERG Meeting Tomorrow
Do you work to develop or manage a system that interfaces to a human? Are you interested in learning more about including human considerations into the lifecycle of a design and networking with other like-minded employees at JSC? Then come to the JSC Human System Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) meeting!
We will meet Tuesday, Aug. 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Building 15, Room 267. Bring your lunch, and hear about all of the latest and greatest HSI activities that our community has been involved in this summer as well as opportunities available to JSC employees.
Deb Neubek x39416 http://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/HSI/SitePages/Home.aspx
[top]
6. Made in Orbit Challenge: NASA@work
Time is running out to submit your solution for our current challenge on NASA@work, "Made in Orbit: Satellite Assembly Demonstration Concepts." Viable solutions to this challenge will be considered for future funding as part of the NASA Small Spacecraft Technology (in the Office of the Chief Technologist). For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/smallsats.
To participate, jump on our site at http://nasa.innocentive.com and submit your solution today!
New to NASA@work? NASA@work is a collaborative, problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts from all centers across NASA.
Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 http://nasa.innocentive.com
[top]
7. Get Fit Anywhere, Happiness and Retiring Well
Several lunchtime wellness topics are being presented this week in a conference room near you!
Tuesday: Fitness from Anywhere
Time always runs short, even for running to the gym! Get fit anywhere without a Fitness Facility. Whether you walk, bike or run in your neighborhood, use calisthenics, balls or bands, you have choices about how to best use your time for Fitness.
Wednesday: The Science of Happiness
Ever tire of focusing on what's going wrong when you really just want to be happy? Learn about the science behind happiness and what research shows are the conditions that make human beings flourish.
Thursday: Retire with Confidence I & II
Defined your retirement goals yet? No time like the present to get on a healthy retirement path. Learn about retirement savings, risk, allocations, filling a retirement gap and retirement blind spots.
Enroll online at the link below!
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE108.aspx?Aug_Signup.pdf
[top]
8. Excessing Property Containing Refrigerants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now requires documentation that demonstrates complete removal of Ozone Depleting Substances from property prior to its excess. Some common property that contains these refrigerants will include appliances with cooling elements, household refrigerators and freezers, window air conditioners, water coolers, vending machines, ice makers and dehumidifiers. If refrigerants are suspected, contact work control prior to excess at jsc-wcc@mail.nasa.gov to receive required documentation.
Off-site initiators will need to provide proof of refrigerant evacuation, prior to excess. A list of EPA-certified refrigerant re-claimers is available at http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/608/reclamation/reclist.html and a sample form can be found at www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/608/recoveryform.pdf.
For further information, please contact R&U at jsc-excesspr@mail.nasa.gov or 281-483-7947.
Robert Blake x42525 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/jb/prodis.cfm
[top]
9. Training Opportunity: Building Bridges Toward LGBT Inclusion
The Out & Allied Employee Resource Group (ERG) in conjunction with HR, EO and EAP invites you to attend the Center's pilot training class entitled "Building Bridges Toward LGBT Inclusion."
Building Bridges Toward LGBT Inclusion is designed to help employees increase their level of awareness and understanding of LGBT: co-workers, peers, and allies. You will have the option to attend either the 10 to 11:30 a.m. or 1 to 2:30 p.m. session on Sept. 10, in the Building 30 Auditorium.
This training is open to all JSC team members, civil servants and contractors. Attendance rosters will be taken on the day of training (there is no requirement to pre-register).
We look forward to your participation as we strive to achieve excellence through fostering an environment that is inclusive for all.
Note: If you require special accommodation for a specific disability, please contact Janelle Holt at x37504 no later than 5 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Anthony Santiago x41501
[top]
10. Pre-Travel to Russia Seminar
Will you be traveling to Russia on a NASA-sponsored trip soon? Do you know what information you will need to provide in order to obtain a Russian visa? What other types of clearances are required, and how does one get them? Need to familiarize yourself with the procedures for Russian passport and immigration control, obtaining transportation from the airport to your accommodations as well as to and from your meetings? Would some tips on Russian etiquette and social or business customs be useful? For answers to these and other questions, join us at the JSC Language Education Center for the Pre-Travel to Russia Seminar on Friday, Sept. 14. This three-hour class runs from 1 to 4 p.m. in Building 20, Room 133. Please register through SATERN. Deadline for registration is Sept. 11.
Natalia Rostova 281-851-3745
[top]
11. Informal Learning with Intelligent Robotics Systems Development
Design and development of intelligent robotics systems is an excellent medium for science and engineering education. Robotics systems involve multiple engineering disciplines and can introduce challenging components rarely available in the daily classroom environment. Active participation in national and international competition is also an extension of traditional classroom study. Dr. Lei Wu of University of Houston-Clear Lake will introduce active robotics design and development in an academic setting and the promotion of science and engineering education through competition.
The presentation will start at noon and finish by 1 p.m. on Aug. 23 in the Discovery Room of the Gilruth Center. We will offer lunch at 11:30 a.m. for $8 (nine lunches still available); there is no charge for the presentation. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell at stewart.odell@ieee.org and specify whether you are ordering lunch. Lunch free for unemployed IEEE members; advise when reserving.
Stew O'Dell x31855
[top]
12. Project Management Institute Clear Lake Galveston Chapter Presentation
The Project Management Institute Clear Lake Galveston Chapter presents "Triple Your Chances of Project Success - Risk and Requirements," on Aug. 23, 6 to 8 p.m. The presenter, Lou Wheatcraft, identifies common requirement development and management risks that can have an impact on a project's success, possible consequences of these risks and strategies that help mitigate the risks in an effort to avoid the consequences of those risks. The meeting will be held at Mario's Flying Pizza Restaurant (618 W. NASA Road 1). Please make your reservation by noon on Tuesday, Aug. 21. Register online at http://www.pmiclg.org (preferred method). The cost of the meeting is $20 for members and $25 for non-members. Dinner is included. Email: VP-Programs@PMICLG.ORG Registration/social - 6 p.m.; Dinner - 6:30 to 7 p.m.; Program - 7 to 8 p.m. One professional development unit hour credit is achieved by attending this presentation.
Cheyenne McKeegan x31016
[top]
________________________________________
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:
· 9 am Central (10 EDT) – Exp 32 Russian EVA coverage (spacewalk begins at ~9:40 Central)
· Noon Central (1 EDT) – Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) Prelaunch Press Conference
· 1 pm Central (2 EDT) – RBSP Mission Science Briefing
Human Spaceflight News
Monday – August 20, 2012
An Aug. 7 photo mosaic from Curiosity reveals the huge robot and its exotic Red Planet landing site in crisp detail
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Cosmonauts to Take Spacewalk Outside Space Station Today
Space.com
Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station today (Aug. 20) to upgrade the massive orbiting complex. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko will conduct a 6.5-hour spacewalk to complete maintenance and repairs on the exterior of the space station. The cosmonauts are expected to exit the Pirs module in their Russian Orlan spacesuits at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). Today's work will be the first spacewalk of the station's Expedition 32 mission. Two other astronauts on the station's six-person crew will carry out a separate spacewalk for NASA on Aug. 30.
Space Agency Might Become State Corporation
The Moscow Times
The Federal Space Agency might be transformed into a state corporation, Vladimir Popovkin, head of the agency, said Thursday. "Under one possible scenario, we'll consider setting up a state corporation called Roskosmos similarly to Rosatom," he said. "We're preparing such proposals. Our country's prime minister and president have the final say."
Medvedev Sets September Deadline for Roscosmos Overhaul
Peter de Selding - Space News
The Russian government has given Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, until mid-September to propose ways to improve quality control in Russia’s space industry, particularly its launcher sector, in the wake of the Aug. 6 failure of a Proton rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in Aug. 14 remarks to Russian government and industry officials, said the number of failures in recent years is inexcusable for an industry in which the government continues to invest heavily. He said government space spending between 2012 and 2015 is scheduled to be 650 billion Russian rubles, or about $20.4 billion.
2 students' idea bound for space
From Pennsauken High to the space station
Rita Giordano - Philadelphia Inquirer
You never know where some chicken bones, science smarts, and perseverance will take you. In the case of two Camden County high school students, that would be out of this world. Literally. Or as Buzz Lightyear might say: "From Pennsauken to infinity . . . and beyond!" Shortly before the end of the school year, Michelle Wan and Lacy Smith, juniors at Pennsauken High School, learned that a experiment they had designed was one of 11 chosen nationally to be conducted aboard the International Space Station, orbiting 250 miles above Earth. The contest was the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program of the nonprofit National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. Blastoff could be in the fall.
Shuttle aircraft to arrive at WPAFB Wednesday
Barrie Barber - Dayton Daily News
A whale-shaped aircraft will soar through the skies of Dayton this week when NASA flies in a long-awaited space shuttle crew compartment trainer to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The public can watch the 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, landing of NASA’s Super Guppy at the museum’s runway, officials said. “The Guppy is a unique aircraft,” said David C. Elliott, a Super Guppy flight engineer and a project manager for the mission. “There’s only one of them flying in the world.”
Mars landing: Curiosity rover's journey a trailblazer
Philadelphia Inquirer (Editorial)
Rumors of NASA's death have been exaggerated. After the Obama administration proceeded with the scuttling of the ancient space-shuttle fleet, a host of doom-and-gloomers, including some of the most storied names in U.S. astronaut history, raised sand. They suggested that without manned flight, there really was no U.S. space program. But that was B.C. - before Curiosity, the probe sent to Mars, which for more than a week now has been beaming photographs of the Red Planet's landscape back to Earth. The rocky, mountainous terrain has been compared to the Mojave Desert, which has given a very different breed of NASA scoffers - those who believe man never really set foot on the moon - more ammo for their skepticism.
Space exploration has changed life on Earth
Prescott Daily Courier (Editorial)
As we view the images Curiosity has beamed back from Mars, one cannot help but wonder what the billions of dollars spent on space exploration has done for us. What is the benefit? One website, planetsave.com, takes a somewhat liberal approach, listing five things: promoting science education, advancing NASA's environmental research, eliminating Earth's overpopulation, looking for more natural resources, and "putting ourselves in perspective."
The time is right for ‘rules of the road’ in the cosmos
Michael Krepon - Washington Post (Opinion)
(Krepon is co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy institution, and is director of its Space Security program)
China is at the cusp of its “SALT moment” with the United States. Moscow and Washington were at a similar juncture in 1969, when the strategic arms limitation talks got underway. President Richard Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev decided to try to stabilize a competition in which both superpowers were poised to multiply their strategic offensive forces. The United States was on the verge of deploying national ballistic-missile defenses as well.
Traveling NASA multimedia exhibit visits Boston
Jill Michaels - Hudson Sun (New York)
“Destination Station,” NASA’s traveling multimedia exhibit about the International Space Station (ISS), will be visiting the Boston Museum of Science through Sept. 3. The space agency had also arranged several astronaut appearances in the Boston area to support the showcase. All NASA events are free, but a venue may charge its own entrance fee.
Sold American: Space auction aims to raise money for Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
Orlando Sentinel's The Write Stuff
Want Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise to visit your kids’ classroom? That’s currently going for $1,300. How about a pair of closeout gloves from Gemini XII. That’s going for $160. These are all items part of the a semiannual auction by The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a fund supported by former astronauts that awards 26 $10,000 scholarships each year to promising students pursuing science, technology, engineering or math degrees. The auction began August 17 at http://astronautscholarship.org/ and bidding lasts through Thursday, August 23 at 10 p.m.
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Tentative travel plans for Mars rover unveiled
William Harwood - CBS News
The Curiosity rover likely will spend the rest of the year monitoring the martian weather, collecting radiation data and analyzing rock and soil samples near its landing site in Gale Crater before it heads for its ultimate target, the rugged foothills of Mount Sharp just four-and-a-half miles, but many months, away, the project scientist said Friday. John Grotzinger told reporters the nuclear-powered rover continues to sail through its initial test and checkout phase with no major problems or anomalies. The latest successes to report include activation of a neutron generator in a Russian instrument known as DAN, for Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, that will be used to look for traces of sub-surface water when science operations begin in earnest.
Rover successfully test fires laser at target rock
William Harwood - CBS News
The Curiosity rover successfully test fired a powerful laser at a nearby rock Sunday, blasting it with rapid-fire million-watt pulses that vaporized the outer layers for spectroscopic analysis. The Chemistry and Camera instrument, known as ChemCam, hit the target rock, dubbed "Coronation," with 30 pulses of laser light over 10 seconds, according to a NASA update. Each pulse lasted about five one-billionths of a second.
Mars rover shoots rock with laser, set to drive to Glenelg soon
Amina Khan - Loss Angeles Times
The Mars rover known as Curiosity zapped its first target with its laser eye this weekend, NASA officials announced. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover has been stretching its limbs and testing its cameras since landing Aug. 5. Now, the rover has unleashed its laser on a nearby rock named Coronation, hitting the softball-size chunk with 30 pulses in a 10-second span. With more than 1 million watts of power in each 5-billionths-of-a-second pulse, the laser shots from the ChemCam instrument vaporize the rock into plasma. The device then uses its spectrometers to analyze the elemental composition.
NASA rover Curiosity shoots a Mars rock with laser
Associated Press
NASA's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock, aiming its laser for the sake of science. During the target practice on Sunday. Curiosity fired 30 pulses at a nearby rock over a 10-second window, burning a small hole.
Like NASA rover, family switches over to Mars time
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
For one family, an exotic summer getaway means living on Mars. Martian time, that is. Since the landing of NASA's newest Mars rover, flight director David Oh's family has taken the unusual step of tagging along as he leaves Earth time behind and syncs his body clock with the red planet. Every mission to Mars, a small army of scientists and engineers reports to duty on "Mars time" for the first three months. But it's almost unheard of for an entire family to flip their orderly lives upside down, shifting to what amounts to a time zone change a day.
Curiosity’s Worth Can’t Be Measured In Mere Dollars
Aviation Week (Editorial)
Mars is alluring for space scientists and elusive for space technologists. Earthlings have tried 40 times to fly by, land on or orbit the red planet. Only 16 times have they succeeded in getting any scientific data. Rockets blow up. Trajectories are missed. Engines sputter. Structures fail to unfold. Sensors conk out. Power runs down. With the distances daunting, the flight profiles complicated and the mission durations long, planetary spaceflight is fraught with peril.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
Cosmonauts to Take Spacewalk Outside Space Station Today
Space.com
Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station today (Aug. 20) to upgrade the massive orbiting complex.
Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Yuri Malenchenko will conduct a 6.5-hour spacewalk to complete maintenance and repairs on the exterior of the space station. The cosmonauts are expected to exit the Pirs module in their Russian Orlan spacesuits at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT).
Today's work will be the first spacewalk of the station's Expedition 32 mission. Two other astronauts on the station's six-person crew will carry out a separate spacewalk for NASA on Aug. 30.
For today's excursion, Padalka and Malenchenko will focus primarily on installing new micrometeoroid debris shields over parts of the Russian Zvezda service module and moving a hand-operated crane, called Strela-2, from the station's Pirs docking module to the outpost's Zarya control module.
The cosmonauts are moving the crane to clear the area by the Pirs compartment in preparation for a new Russian laboratory module. This new unit is slated to launch to the space station in 2013, NASA officials said.
Once these tasks are complete, the cosmonauts may have the opportunity to retrieve two science experiments from the outside of the station. These experiment panels are being used to assess how different materials react to the vacuum of space, said Dina Contella, Expedition 32 lead flight director at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
If Padalka and Malenchenko find themselves ahead of schedule, they may be asked to collect two of these experiment panels.
If there is extra time, the cosmonauts may also "launch" a small spherical satellite from the orbiting outpost. The satellite is part of a special Russian science experiment, and is designed to remain in orbit for three months before plummeting into Earth's atmosphere and burning up, Contella explained.
Padalka and Malenchenko bring considerable spacewalking experience to the table. Padalka has conducted eight previous spacewalks — six at the International Space Station and two at the Russian Mir space station. Malenchenko has completed four spacewalks — two at the International Space Station and two at Mir.
There are currently six spaceflyers living aboard the International Space Station: Russian cosmonauts Padalka, Malenchenko and Sergei Revin, NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
Williams and Hoshide are scheduled to perform their own 6.5-hour spacewalk on Aug. 30.
Space Agency Might Become State Corporation
The Moscow Times
The Federal Space Agency might be transformed into a state corporation, Vladimir Popovkin, head of the agency, said Thursday.
"Under one possible scenario, we'll consider setting up a state corporation called Roskosmos similarly to Rosatom," he said. "We're preparing such proposals. Our country's prime minister and president have the final say."
Meanwhile, the head of one of the country's leading space firms has resigned from his post following a series of mishaps involving engines produced by his firm.
Vladimir Nesterov, 63, formerly head of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, submitted his resignation letter in connection with the failed launch of two satellites earlier this month, Interfax reported Wednesday, citing a government source.
The resignation of Nesterov, who headed the space company that produces space equipment including Proton rocket boosters, comes shortly after Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that those responsible for the failures would be punished.
Medvedev, who made the comments at a government meeting on the space industry on Tuesday, said that 10 botched satellite launches had taken place over the past year and a half.
"Nothing of this kind happens anywhere in the world," Medvedev said.
The Khrunichev center was responsible for designing the Briz upper-stage engines that failed to lift two telecommunications satellites into orbit Aug. 6.
The Russian government is planning to invest 650 billion rubles ($20.3 million) in the country's space industry by 2015. Space flight was identified as a key economic priority during Medvedev's presidency.
Medvedev Sets September Deadline for Roscosmos Overhaul
Peter de Selding - Space News
The Russian government has given Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, until mid-September to propose ways to improve quality control in Russia’s space industry, particularly its launcher sector, in the wake of the Aug. 6 failure of a Proton rocket carrying two telecommunications satellites.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in Aug. 14 remarks to Russian government and industry officials, said the number of failures in recent years is inexcusable for an industry in which the government continues to invest heavily.
He said government space spending between 2012 and 2015 is scheduled to be 650 billion Russian rubles, or about $20.4 billion.
Medvedev, whose remarks were posted on the Roscosmos web site, said he found it particularly galling that a rocket or satellite failure results in no automatic punishment to the company building the hardware.
“It is possible to produce low-quality products,” Medvedev said, and bear “no financial responsibility” for their failure — “not to mention… disciplinary and other responsibilities. You need to decide who is to blame for the recent series of setbacks, where mistakes were made, and determine the degree of responsibility of all those implicated.”
Medvedev ordered Roscosmos Director-General Vladimir A. Popovkin to propose measures to improve industrial quality control and to reorganize the space agency in a month’s time.
“Both of these issues must be worked out at the government level in a month,” Medvedev said. “Then I will hold a meeting with all key business sectors. Other decisions will be taken. Let's start the discussion.”
Medvedev’s statement prompted widespread speculation in Russia that, in addition to a reorganization of Roscosmos, the government had ordered the dismissal of Vladimir Nesterov, general director of Khrunichev Space Center of Moscow, which builds most elements of the Proton rocket.
But as of late Aug. 16 Nesterov had not been dismissed, according to a statement from Khrunichev.
“The general director of Khrunichev can be appointed to his post, or dismissed, only by the Russian Federation President,” Khrunichev said in the statement, which was provided by its U.S. commercial Proton sales arm, International Launch Services (ILS) of Reston, Va. “Since the president has not signed a decree to dismiss him, Mr. Nesterov will continue to act as Khrunichev GD.”
Beyond Nesterov’s status, Khrunichev clearly has been feeling the heat of adverse government commentary since Aug. 6, when the Proton Breeze-M upper stage shut down prematurely and stranded Indonesia’s Telkom-2 and Russia’s Express-MD-2 telecommunications satellites in useless orbits.
Proton Breeze-M launches have been suspended since the failure. ILS had been planning to launch satellites for Intelsat of Washington and Luxembourg; EchoStar of Englewood, Colo.; Gazprom Space Systems of Moscow; and Satmex of Mexico in the next couple of months.
Responding to what it said were inaccurate reports of its track record, Khrunichev issued two statements on its web site Aug. 14 and 15 that detailed the company’s launch and financial performance since 2008.
In the past five years, Khrunichev said, it has launched 48 Proton rockets, four of which failed. One of these, in December 2010, was caused by a defect in the Block DM upper stage — hardware made not by Khrunichev but by RSC Energia of Korolev, Russia.
That December 2010 failure destroyed four Russian Glonass positioning, navigation and timing satellites and ultimately forced the dismissal of the head of Roscosmos and the appointment of Popovkin.
Khrunichev also builds the Russian Rockot small-satellite launcher, which has launched eight times since 2008 and failed once; and the Cosmos-3M vehicle, which has conducted five launches, all successful, since 2008.
Khrunichev has been the focus of a broad consolidation of Russian space-hardware builders in recent years and now controls almost the entire production line for major Proton components.
The company said it has added 17,000 employees as part of the government-ordered industry consolidation, including enterprises that were in bad financial shape and needed immediate restructuring.
Proton production rate has nearly doubled to 12 rockets per year, and the new-generation Angara family of rockets is scheduled to make its inaugural flight in 2013, both for the light-class Angara 1.2 and the heavy-lift Angara-5, both of which will operate from northern Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome.
Khrunichev reported revenue of 43.6 billion rubles in 2011, up 20 percent from 2010. The ILS Proton commercial sales business was responsible for most of the revenue, generating $777 million in 2011, an increase of nearly 22 percent from 2010.
2 students' idea bound for space
From Pennsauken High to the space station
Rita Giordano - Philadelphia Inquirer
You never know where some chicken bones, science smarts, and perseverance will take you. In the case of two Camden County high school students, that would be out of this world. Literally.
Or as Buzz Lightyear might say: "From Pennsauken to infinity . . . and beyond!"
Shortly before the end of the school year, Michelle Wan and Lacy Smith, juniors at Pennsauken High School, learned that a experiment they had designed was one of 11 chosen nationally to be conducted aboard the International Space Station, orbiting 250 miles above Earth.
The contest was the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program of the nonprofit National Center for Earth and Space Science Education. Blastoff could be in the fall.
It will be the fourth time since last year that the center has helped put students' experiments into space for implementation. Thousands of young people around the country have taken part in the hands-on program, but only about 50 entries have been selected.
The Pennsauken girls' idea: to compare the rates of bone decay in a microgravity environment and on Earth. The data could be useful to space travelers, Michelle said.
"I was saying, 'Why don't we do something to help the astronauts later?' " said Michelle, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, whose father is a chef.
Neither imagined their proposal would actually fly.
"We thought we would do the project, get the A, and that would be it," said Lacy, whose mother is a clerk in the county sheriff's department.
But last week, Lacy and Michelle were at school in white lab coats and goggles, assembling their experiment so it could be shipped out for its eventual trip to the space station, orbiting Earth at 17,500 miles per hour.
The chicken-bones experiment will be carried out according to the students' specifications by an astronaut, and the girls will perform the same experiment in Pennsauken. The results then will be compared.
Michelle and Lacy's triumph - the bone-decay experiment was chosen from more than 1,100 entries - is really more than one story. It is, to start, the tale of a chance partnership that grew into a friendship.
It's also the story of a nation in need of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professionals and efforts to enlist the younger generation.
And, not least, the bones' sojourn shows how the once-remote frontier of space has become accessible through technology and the emerging commercial aerospace field.
One of the missions of the program, using commercial space transportation, is to get an array of students engaged in the methods of real scientists.
"We're responding to a national strategy to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers," said Jeff Goldstein, director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, which also helps secure funds for experiments to go to space.
NASA supports many efforts to encourage students to pursue STEM, according to agency education spokeswoman Ann Marie Trotta. What is special about the Spaceflight Experiments program is that the work "is not an exercise," she said. "It's real."
Officials at Valley Christian School of San Jose, Calif., say theirs was the first school, in 2009, to send student microgravity experiments to the space station. Like Spaceflight Experiments, the school works with NanoRacks, a private firm that organizes shipments to the space station.
Werner Vavken, Valley Christian's head of applied math, science, and engineering, said the school could provide other schools a package that costs about $15,000 and includes training plus getting students' experiments into space.
Spaceflight Experiments also is using SpaceX, a spacecraft firm, to rocket the kids' experiments in space.
It isn't just earnest scientific endeavor that motivates the commercial firms. There is the cha-ching of big money to be made.
Since 2001, the Virginia-based Space Adventures has flown seven private people, from businessmen to the founder of Cirque du Soleil, into space for up to $35 million each, according to a company spokeswoman.
Still up for grabs is a seat on Space Adventures' circumlunar flight, which she said was at least a few years away. The price: $150 million. The company also is offering a space-walk experience - for $15 million - for those headed to the International Space Station.
Virgin Galactic, the brainchild of Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, has sold more than 500 tickets for suborbital flights into space, which would allow guests to experience six minutes of weightlessness and go from Earth to space and back in two hours. The first flight may blast off this year, according to a spokeswoman. According to its website, $200,000 will guarantee you to be among the first; $20,000 will get you on the waiting list.
Some space-activity observers predict that Bigelow Aerospace, founded by real estate mogul Robert T. Bigelow, may be the first to open outer-space hotels.
Spokesman Mike Gold said the firm would not be opposed to space-tourism opportunities. But of more interest, given microgravity's effect on organisms and matter, is opening a "new world for commercial and scientific research and development," especially in the biomedical area, he said.
"It creates new opportunities for testing that would not exist on Earth without investing more time and money," he said.
Which brings us back to Pennsauken. In the high school lab last week, the girls worked away, attracting quite a show of support.
Michael Ostroff, district science supervisor, had brought the chicken bones, mined from a Boston Market visit.
Superintendent Marilyn Martinez and principal Dennis Vinson were on hand, too, and proud.
So was Lacy's mother, Dori Foat; sister Natise DeBois; niece Makiyah; and best friend, Asia Brown, a rising senior at Camden High. Foat said she wasn't surprised that her daughter had won.
"Lacy's one, if she puts her mind to something, she can do it," she said.
The girls were not shoo-ins when they met in an otherwise all-freshman integrated-science class, which gives a sampling of several sciences and may be taken in lieu of physics.
Michelle, a strong science student who wants to be a nurse, was in the class because she had suffered health problems and physics seemed too taxing.
Lacy, an aspiring biologist, was a new kid and unhappy about it. Just moved from Camden, she was sad to leave the smaller Brimm Medical Arts, a magnet school that seemed more personal. She had taken physics there.
The only juniors in the class, they gravitated to each other. Teacher Peter Woodcock, present to help last week, was impressed by how hard and well they worked together.
"These girls never knew each other beforehand. It was a testament to them," he said.
"You talk about young people making an impact," he said. "This is making an impact on an international scale."
Shuttle aircraft to arrive at WPAFB Wednesday
Barrie Barber - Dayton Daily News
A whale-shaped aircraft will soar through the skies of Dayton this week when NASA flies in a long-awaited space shuttle crew compartment trainer to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
The public can watch the 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, landing of NASA’s Super Guppy at the museum’s runway, officials said.
“The Guppy is a unique aircraft,” said David C. Elliott, a Super Guppy flight engineer and a project manager for the mission. “There’s only one of them flying in the world.”
Depending on weather and wind conditions, the arrival could be delayed to later Wednesday afternoon or 9 a.m. Thursday morning, officials said.
“It’s all very weather dependent,” said Diana Bachert, museum spokeswoman.
Mission leaders will make a final call at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday and share any delays or changes on the trip’s arrival on the museum’s Web site at www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.
People who want to see the arrival should enter through the museum’s Springfield Street gate.
The historic flight will take off from Ellington Field near Johnson Space Center in Texas, stop to refuel at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., and head to Wright-Patterson for the final leg of the trip.
If the plane lands Wednesday, the oversized, 23,000-pound crew compartment trainer, a mockup of the nose and cockpit of the shuttle, won’t be unloaded until Thursday morning, mission officials said.
The trainer once used to hone astronauts skills is the heaviest shuttle artifact the aircraft has carried, Elliott said. The total weight of the cargo with a pallet will reach 35,000 pounds.
In the last two months, the crew took three trips to haul a full-sized mock-up of the space shuttle to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash.
The turboprop plane, which once hauled large jet parts to Airbus factories in Europe, has ferried major parts of the International Space Station and the shuttle, Elliott said.
NASA started flying the Super Guppy in 1996, replacing a 1950s version that carried giant Saturn V booster rockets for flights to the moon, he said.
The crew compartment trainer is a consolation prize of sorts for the Air Force museum. It lost out on attempts to land one of three retiring shuttle orbiters. Museum officials say a payload bay and a tail assembly will be built for the new display. Congress has set aside $3 million for the project.
Mars landing: Curiosity rover's journey a trailblazer
Philadelphia Inquirer (Editorial)
Rumors of NASA's death have been exaggerated.
After the Obama administration proceeded with the scuttling of the ancient space-shuttle fleet, a host of doom-and-gloomers, including some of the most storied names in U.S. astronaut history, raised sand. They suggested that without manned flight, there really was no U.S. space program.
But that was B.C. - before Curiosity, the probe sent to Mars, which for more than a week now has been beaming photographs of the Red Planet's landscape back to Earth. The rocky, mountainous terrain has been compared to the Mojave Desert, which has given a very different breed of NASA scoffers - those who believe man never really set foot on the moon - more ammo for their skepticism.
They can say what they want. Curiosity is for real, and so are its photographs. The first color images showed the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, named for the Australian banker and astronomer Walter Frederick Gale, who in the late 19th century viewed Mars using telescopes he built.
Curiosity's success, however, shouldn't be seen as some sort of victory for robots over man. The probe's eight-month trek to Mars was a step toward eventually sending a human on that same journey.
Manned spaceflight has not been abandoned, although responsibility for the development of the vehicles that will eventually take a human to Mars has been largely turned over to private enterprise.
It will be decades before such a flight occurs; the year 2030 has been staked out as the goal. In the meantime, Americans should pay close attention to the work being done by companies such as SpaceX, which in May successfully sent an unmanned spacecraft to the International Space Station, where it delivered a cargo of 1,500 pounds of scientific equipment and food.
NASA has contracted with SpaceX for an additional 12 flights to the ISS, with plans to eventually include astronauts among its delivery items.
Two other companies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp., have also been contracted by NASA to design and develop spacecraft that can replace the retired shuttles. SpaceX is adapting its Dragon cargo capsule for manned missions, while Sierra Nevada is developing a Dream Chaser plane similar to the shuttles, and Boeing is working on its CST-100 spacecraft.
It will take years to even get close to recovering the thousands of space-industry jobs that were lost with the shutdown of the shuttle program. But it's wrong to depict the United States as having ceded space exploration to the Russians, who in the interim are being paid to taxi U.S. astronauts to the space station, or to the Chinese, who have a mission to the moon in their sights.
The United States has simply decided to take a different, more cost-effective route to its goal. That route involves an increased emphasis on private industry, which has always played a huge role in developing America's space technology.
This country will get back into the business of launching men and women into space. As Artemis Westenberg, president of Explore Mars, put it, "Rovers and robots can only do so much." Meanwhile, enjoy Curiosity's snapshots.
Space exploration has changed life on Earth
Prescott Daily Courier (Editorial)
As we view the images Curiosity has beamed back from Mars, one cannot help but wonder what the billions of dollars spent on space exploration has done for us. What is the benefit?
One website, planetsave.com, takes a somewhat liberal approach, listing five things: promoting science education, advancing NASA's environmental research, eliminating Earth's overpopulation, looking for more natural resources, and "putting ourselves in perspective."
In fact, we appreciate the more tangible advances, according to Associated Press articles and Internet lists, including instant television - the first TV satellite took orbit in 1962; meteorology - weather forecasts are much more than folklore now; fuel cells - ignored until Apollo missions; medical health - space suits monitor it all; robotics - tiny sensors and automation help us everyday; and materials - the most dramatic is aerogel, which is featherlight and supports 4,000 times its weight.
The three advances - good and bad - that most of us can relate to are laptops - space missions require small computers; weapons - the V2 rocket changed warfare dramatically; and cellphones - who hasn't seen a flip phone and thought of the communication devices NASA uses (or "Star Trek")?
The next time you use a cordless power tool, drive on radial tires, drink a bottle of purified water or find your way thanks to a global positioning satellite, thank the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Consider all of the things we would not have, had Americans not accepted space exploration as a priority in the 1960s. Granted it was a race - to beat the Russians; however, through that competition, we have learned and implemented many improvements to our way of life.
Through the Apollo and shuttle programs, the demands on NASA and its contractors required advanced technologies. But it also has meant NASA had to receive what it needed.
Despite the Curiosity rover landing on the Red Planet, many people - and politicians - view NASA as a multi-billion dollar budget item we do not need. They chime in, "Put the money into social programs," or "Use the money to create jobs."
Haste would bite the hand that feeds us - and, as demonstrated, technology does create jobs.
Next up is the study of a deep-space galaxy that is giving birth to more stars in a day than the Milky Way does in a year. Do you wonder where that will take us? We do, too - and it is exciting to imagine.
The time is right for ‘rules of the road’ in the cosmos
Michael Krepon - Washington Post (Opinion)
(Krepon is co-founder of the Stimson Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy institution, and is director of its Space Security program)
China is at the cusp of its “SALT moment” with the United States. Moscow and Washington were at a similar juncture in 1969, when the strategic arms limitation talks got underway. President Richard Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev decided to try to stabilize a competition in which both superpowers were poised to multiply their strategic offensive forces. The United States was on the verge of deploying national ballistic-missile defenses as well.
The odds of success were limited, since neither country had a history of substantive engagement on these issues or of coordinating government positions for complex negotiations of this kind. When the talks began, SALT critics accused U.S. diplomats of negotiating against the Pentagon and with the Kremlin, while military members of the Soviet delegation warned U.S. officials against revealing “secrets” to Russian diplomats.
Nevertheless, in less than three years, Washington and Moscow reached an interim agreement on offensive forces and conclude the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The former was deeply flawed and the latter quickly lost Republican support. Yet these agreements helped keep the Cold War from becoming hot and, in due course, provided the foundation for much deeper and more stabilizing nuclear arms reductions.
China’s SALT moment with the United States will not involve nuclear arms control and reduction treaties. U.S. and Chinese nuclear arsenals are too dissimilar in size for negotiations, and Beijing is too sensitive about transparency to negotiate verifiable nuclear restraints, let alone arms reductions. Instead, it will focus on space, where the competition is heating up and the stakes are high. What happens in space will heavily influence whether relations between China and the United States become more dangerous or more cooperative.
The space and nuclear domains cannot be separated, one reason the SALT accords and subsequent treaties between Washington and Moscow contained provisions protective of monitoring satellites. When superpower space programs took worrisome turns — such as the Soviet testing of anti-satellite weapons in the 1970s or the Reagan administration’s Strategic Defense Initiative in the 1980s — nuclear negotiations either were badly impaired or ground to a halt. When the two governments accepted tacit restraints in space, they were able to reach agreements limiting and reducing nuclear arsenals.
China and the United States are becoming more dependent on satellites for national and economic security, and both have demonstrated the ability to destroy them. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) used a missile to destroy an aging Chinese satellite in 2007; the Pentagon demonstrated this capability against a failed U.S. intelligence satellite the following year. China’s anti-satellite test, labeled as an “experiment,” created a debris field that will endanger satellites and manned space flight for decades. Washington characterized its test, which did not create a hazardous debris field, as a public safety measure.
Space is becoming crowded with satellites and debris. All major space-faring nations can use ballistic missiles, missile defense interceptors, lasers and jammers to interfere with or destroy satellites. These capabilities provide the basis for mutual deterrence — or for the nullification of the benefits offered by this global commons.
The absence of rules of the road in space jeopardizes international, national and economic security. Three sets of rules are particularly important — norms that support debris mitigation, those that support space-traffic management and those that bar purposeful, harmful interference of objects in space. The need for these rules was further highlighted in February 2009, when a dead Russian satellite collided with a functioning U.S. communication satellite. Norms against reckless behavior exist on highways, the high seas and in the air — but not in space.
A major space treaty is not in the cards because “space weapons” can’t be properly defined and verified: Too many multipurpose technologies and military capabilities can be redirected against satellites. Calling for wide-ranging, unverifiable treaties addressing space is like championing agreements for “General and Complete Disarmament,” just like leaders in Moscow and Washington used to do before they were ready to engage in serious talks like SALT.
The Obama administration, the European Union, Japan, Australia and other countries are ready to agree on a code of conduct for responsible space-faring nations. China is calling for an unverifiable treaty banning the use of military capabilities in space — capabilities that the PLA is hard at work developing. Moscow has aligned itself with Beijing but is now hinting at a more pragmatic approach.
A window of opportunity is opening around a code of conduct if China’s leaders can bring the PLA on board, and if Republican leaders can see the wisdom of this initiative.
Traveling NASA multimedia exhibit visits Boston
Jill Michaels - Hudson Sun (New York)
“Destination Station,” NASA’s traveling multimedia exhibit about the International Space Station (ISS), will be visiting the Boston Museum of Science through Sept. 3.
The space agency had also arranged several astronaut appearances in the Boston area to support the showcase. All NASA events are free, but a venue may charge its own entrance fee.
Boston is the hometown area for eight current and former astronauts: Charlie Precourt (born in Waltham, raised in Hudson); Steve Bowen (Cohasset); Dan Burbank (considers Yarmouth Port his hometown); Chris Cassidy (born in Salem); Brian Duffy (born in Boston, raised in Rockland); Scott Tingle (born in Attleboro, raised in Randolph); Suni Williams (considers Needham her hometown); and Stephanie Wilson (born in Boston, raised in Pittsfield).
Burbank flew on the ISS from November 2011 to April 2012. Williams launched this year in July and will land back on Earth in November. Cassidy will blast off in March 2013.
Schedule of events
Aug. 27, 11 am EDT, Boston Museum of Science: Joe Acaba and Suni Williams, the U.S. astronauts currently flying aboard the ISS, will answer questions from students during a live NASA-TV broadcast.
For more information about these and other events, visit NASA’s “Destination Station” website at www.nasa.gov/destinationstation
Sold American: Space auction aims to raise money for Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
Orlando Sentinel's The Write Stuff
Want Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise to visit your kids’ classroom? That’s currently going for $1,300
How about a pair of closeout gloves from Gemini XII. That’s going for $160.
I’m kind of keen on a collection of matchbooks commemorating the Apollo missions. That’s going for $50, a little more my speed.
These are all items part of the a semiannual auction by The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a fund supported by former astronauts that awards 26 $10,000 scholarships each year to promising students pursuing science, technology, engineering or math degrees.
The auction began August 17 at http://astronautscholarship.org/ and bidding lasts through Thursday, August 23 at 10 p.m.
“The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is near and dear to the astronauts which is why we have all donated our personal items and time to this cause,” said Apollo 16 Moonwalker and ASF Chairman Charlie Duke. “The auction proceeds are vital to fulfilling our mission and providing scholarships to America’s brightest STEM students.”
In addition to the Haise classroom trip, there’s a slew of astronaut encounters up for grabs including:
– Studio Tour with Moonwalker Alan Bean
– Grand Cayman SCUBA/Snorkel Voyage with Moonwalker Charlie Duke
– Biplane Flight with Space Shuttle Astronaut Sam Gema
– Dinner with General Thomas Stafford at the Mango Tree
– Kennedy Space Center VAB & LLC Tour with Bob Crippen
And there’s dozens of memorabilia up for auction as well including:
– Gus Grissom Signed Postcard
– Scott Carpenter Autographed Vintage Aurora 7 Booklet
– Astronaut Autographed Vintage Mercury/Gemini/Apollo Spacecraft Booklet
– Apollo Astronaut Multi-Signed Saturn V Rollout Print
– FLOWN Apollo 11 Kapton Foil with Buzz Aldrin Autographed Photo
– Apollo 12 Crew Signed Cover
– Astronaut Multi-Signed Apollo 13 Lunar Map Segment
– Emergency Material Signed by Apollo 13’s Jim Lovell
– FLOWN Apollo 15 Gabon Flag
– Skylab I Crew Signed Cover
– Vintage Camp David Jacket from Astronaut Bill Pogue’s Private Collection
– Space Shuttle Enterprise ALT Engle/Truly Signed Vintage Lithograph
– Shuttle Art Concept Print Signed by Early Program Astronauts
– STS-6 Tracking Chart Signed by Paul Weitz
– FLOWN STS-61 Astronaut Shirt
– Eileen Collins Signed STS-114 Media Badge & Photo Presentation
And much, much more.
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Tentative travel plans for Mars rover unveiled
William Harwood - CBS News
The Curiosity rover likely will spend the rest of the year monitoring the martian weather, collecting radiation data and analyzing rock and soil samples near its landing site in Gale Crater before it heads for its ultimate target, the rugged foothills of Mount Sharp just four-and-a-half miles, but many months, away, the project scientist said Friday.
John Grotzinger told reporters the nuclear-powered rover continues to sail through its initial test and checkout phase with no major problems or anomalies. The latest successes to report include activation of a neutron generator in a Russian instrument known as DAN, for Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, that will be used to look for traces of sub-surface water when science operations begin in earnest.
"The excitement from the point of view of the science team is all the instruments continue to check out and we're very pleased to report the DAN instrument, which is a neutron generator, was turned on today and operated successfully," Grotzinger said. "That instrument operates by executing a one-microsecond pulse and it does 10 of those per second, and it did it for 15 minutes, roughly.
"At the same time that instrument was operating, the RAD (Radiation Assessment Detector) was listening to DAN and confirmed that it was operating."
The Rover Environmental Monitoring Station, or REMS, also was collecting data about the weather on Mars, showing a high temperature Thursday of a relatively balmy 276 degrees above absolute zero, or about 37 degrees Fahrenheit.
"It's really exciting to see this data come out," Grotzinger said. "It's really an important benchmark for Mars science because it's been exactly 30 years since the last long-duration weather station was present on Mars. That was when the Viking 1 lander stopped communicating with the Earth, that was back in 1982. So 30 years later, we're happy to be on the surface doing that monitoring again."
Engineers plan to carry out initial tests of the rover's drive-and-steering systems next week, with science operations focusing on getting as much data as possible from the rocks and soil at the landing site. Of particular interest is an area where Curiosity's sky crane rockets blasted away topsoil as the rover was lowered to the surface, exposing underlying rocks to its instruments.
One of those instruments, known as ChemCam, uses a powerful laser to vaporize rock and soil samples that are then analyzed by a telescopic spectrometer. Its first target will be a rock near the rover with a smooth, flat surface,
"There's a high-power laser that briefly projects several megawatts onto basically a pinhead-size spot on the surface of Mars," said Roger Wiens, the principle investigator. "With that much power density, it creates a plasma, or a little ball of flame or spark. ... So the telescope observes this flash and we can (observe) these flashes up to about 25 feet away. The telescope then takes that light and directs it into a spectrometer."
ChemCam also features a camera capable of photographing a human hair seven feet away.
"We have basically done everything with this instrument except for turning the laser on," Wiens said. "We've checked everything out, we've tested the spectrometer, we've taken some passive spectra ... everything checks out.
"In summary, we're really excited," he said. "Our team has waited eight long years to get to this date and we're happy that everything is looking good so far. Hopefully, we'll be back early next week and be able to talk about how Curiosity's first laser shots went."
Grotzinger said Curiosity will remain at its landing site for several more weeks before eventually heading to a nearby area dubbed Glenelg, a palindrome that takes its name from a rock formation in Canada. In high-resolution views from orbit, Glenelg features three different types of geology, including denser material thought to be part of an alluvial fan where water once flowed into the crater.
On the way to Glenelg, the rover likely will stop and analyze interesting soil and rock samples and Grotzinger made it clear that Curiosity will not be in any hurry.
"If we continue down the nominal path, and we're on track to do that, it's probably going to be a couple of days, sometime next week, you should hear about what will hopefully be a successful set of tests involved with first wheel motion," he said. "Toward the end of next week, we'll probably finish up ... continued instrument checkouts.
"Then we'll roll into a period of time called 'intermission,' and the first part of that is going to be some very specific science experiments that are going to be quite thorough and that will involve the Mastcam instrument, the ChemCam instrument and also first use of SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) to attempt to test the TLS (tunable laser spectrometer) instrument that's capable of making measuring of the composition of atmosphere. After that, assuming all is nominal, we intend to hit the road."
Grotzinger said he expects it will take a month to a month and a half to reach Glenelg, assuming no major problems and a few stops along the way.
"Probably we'll do a month worth of science there, maybe a little bit more," he said. "Sometime toward the end of the calendar year, roughly, I would guess then we would turn our sights toward the trek to Mount Sharp."
Gale Crater was chosen as Curiosity's landing site in large part because of Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mound of layered rocks that likely captures hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years of martian history. Curiosity will attempt to climb the lower slopes of Mount Sharp to look for signs of carbon compounds and evidence of past or present habitability.
A color photo released Friday shows the foothills of Mount Sharp in the distance, an image that clearly sparks Grotzinger's scientific curiosity with hills the size of multi-story buildings and valleys in between them 'being broad boulevards and highways."
"This is simply a thrilling image that underscores the reason we chose this landing site," he said. "That's about 7 kilometers away (4.4 miles) from where the rover is now. What's really cool about this topography is that the crater rim kind of looks like the Mojave Desert and now what you see here kind of looks like the Four Corners area of the western U.S., or maybe around Sedona, Ariz., where you've got these buttes and mesas made out of these layered, kind of light-toned reddish-colored outcrops, there's just a rich diversity over there.
"There should be hydrated minerals in all those layers. So ultimately, that's our goal. We've got stuff to do before we head there, but that's our broad, strategic plan right now."
Rover successfully test fires laser at target rock
William Harwood - CBS News
The Curiosity rover successfully test fired a powerful laser at a nearby rock Sunday, blasting it with rapid-fire million-watt pulses that vaporized the outer layers for spectroscopic analysis.
The Chemistry and Camera instrument, known as ChemCam, hit the target rock, dubbed "Coronation," with 30 pulses of laser light over 10 seconds, according to a NASA update. Each pulse lasted about five one-billionths of a second.
The laser beam created a visible spark of electrically charged plasma that was then observed by the instrument's telescope. The telescope, mounted on Curiosity's camera mast, fed the light through optical fibers to three spectrometers designed to record 6,144 different wavelengths of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light.
In a before-and-after image released by NASA, a tiny spot could be seen in an 8-millimeter by 8-millimeter frame that showed exactly where the laser beam hit.
"We got a great spectrum of Coronation, lots of signal," Roger Wiens, the ChemCam principal investigator at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in a NASA statement. "Our team is both thrilled and working hard, looking at the results. After eight years building the instrument, it's payoff time."
Deputy project scientist Sylvestre Maurice of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planetologie in Toulouse, France, said he was surprised "the data are even better than we ever had during tests on Earth."
"It's so rich, we can expect great science from investigating what might be thousands of targets with ChemCam in the next two years," he said.
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is a technique used on Earth to study the composition of targets in extreme environments. NASA said the tests Sunday in Gale Crater on Mars marked the first time the technique has been used on another planet.
While the test was primarily intended to help the science team characterize the complex instrument's aiming and performance, the data generated may provide immediate insights. Scientists plan to look for possible changes indicating differences between dust on the surface of the rock and its interior.
ChemCam was designed and built at Los Alamos and is a joint project between the U.S. Department of Energy and the French national space agency. It is one of 10 state-of-the-art instruments making up Curiosity's science payload that will look for carbon compounds and signs of past or present habitability during the rover's planned two-year mission.
Mars rover shoots rock with laser, set to drive to Glenelg soon
Amina Khan - Loss Angeles Times
The Mars rover known as Curiosity zapped its first target with its laser eye this weekend, NASA officials announced.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover has been stretching its limbs and testing its cameras since landing Aug. 5. Now, the rover has unleashed its laser on a nearby rock named Coronation, hitting the softball-size chunk with 30 pulses in a 10-second span.
With more than 1 million watts of power in each 5-billionths-of-a-second pulse, the laser shots from the ChemCam instrument vaporize the rock into plasma. The device then uses its spectrometers to analyze the elemental composition.
Like the initial photos taken by Curiosity’s cameras, the laser exercise was meant to test whether ChemCam was working properly. But it could provide some useful scientific insight. If the composition of the plasma seemed to change over those 30 pulses, then it could mean the laser was digging into successive thin layers of rock with each pulse.
Scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge have also picked their first drive-to spot – a place about 1,300 feet east-southeast called Glenelg, which is at the nexus of three different types of terrain. One of those types -- layered bedrock -- would be a tempting first target for Curiosity's drilling tool.
Before the engineers do that, however, they plan to test the rover’s wheels and send it on a test drive. Curiosity will roll several feet forward, and then turn 90 degrees and and back up so that it can check out its landing spot.
NASA rover Curiosity shoots a Mars rock with laser
Associated Press
NASA's Curiosity rover has zapped its first Martian rock, aiming its laser for the sake of science.
During the target practice on Sunday. Curiosity fired 30 pulses at a nearby rock over a 10-second window, burning a small hole.
Since landing in Gale Crater two weeks ago, the six-wheel rover has been checking out its instruments including the laser. During its two-year mission, Curiosity was expected to point the laser at various rocks as it drives toward Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain rising from the crater floor.
Its goal is to determine whether the Martian environment was habitable.
In several days, flight controllers will command Curiosity to move its wheels side-to-side and take its first short drive.
The $2.5 billion mission is the most expensive yet to Mars.
Like NASA rover, family switches over to Mars time
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
For one family, an exotic summer getaway means living on Mars.
Martian time, that is.
Since the landing of NASA's newest Mars rover, flight director David Oh's family has taken the unusual step of tagging along as he leaves Earth time behind and syncs his body clock with the red planet.
Every mission to Mars, a small army of scientists and engineers reports to duty on "Mars time" for the first three months. But it's almost unheard of for an entire family to flip their orderly lives upside down, shifting to what amounts to a time zone change a day.
Intrigued about abiding by extraterrestrial time, Oh's wife, Bryn, could not pass up the chance to take their kids — 13-year-old Braden, 10-year-old Ashlyn and 8-year-old Devyn — on a Martian adventure from their home near the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory where the Curiosity rover was built.
"We all feel a little sleepy, a little jet-lagged all day long, but everyone is doing great," Bryn Oh said, two weeks into the experiment.
Days on Mars last a tad longer. Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours — the definition of a day. Neighbor Mars spins more lazily. Days there — known as sols — last 39 minutes and 35 seconds longer than on Earth. The difference may not seem like much each day, but it adds up.
To stay in lockstep, nearly 800 people on the $2.5 billion project have surrendered to the Martian cycle of light and dark. In the simplest sense, each day slides forward 40 minutes. That results in wacky work, sleep and eating schedules. Many say it feels like perpetual jet lag.
The Oh family broke in slowly. A sign on their front door warns: "On Mars Time: Flight Director Asleep. Come Back Later."
Days before Curiosity's Aug. 5 touchdown, the children stayed up until 11:30 p.m. and slept in until 10 a.m. In the beginning, it wasn't much different from a typical day on summer vacation. As the days wore on, they stayed up later and later, waking up in the afternoon and evening.
One day last week, the family ate a 3 p.m. breakfast, 8 p.m. lunch, 2:30 a.m. dinner and 5 a.m. dessert before heading off to bed.
To sleep when the sun is out, their bedroom windows are covered with aluminum foil or cloth to keep out any sliver of light. In the hallway, a handmade calendar keeps track of the days and schedules are written on an oversized mirror. A digital clock in the master bedroom is set to Mars time.
Bryn Oh keeps a meticulous spreadsheet updated with her husband's work hours and the family's activities. They wear a wireless device that monitors their steps, calories burned and sleep patterns.
When David Oh tells co-workers on Mars time and friends on Earth time about the switch: "Some of them think it's really cool to have the kids along. Some who worked on other Mars missions have said, 'You're crazy.'"
Being night owls has its perks: Braden, Ashlyn and Devyn saw their first shooting star. The family went on night hikes in the hills around the neighborhood. They had a late dinner in Hollywood and gawked at street performers on the Walk of Fame with other tourists. They saw a midnight screening of a zombie film and then went bowling.
One night, Bryn Oh took the children biking in an empty parking lot. The youngest shed his training wheels, and for the first time, pedaled around.
Of the three, Ashlyn has the most difficulty sticking to the Mars rhythm. She tends to wake up too early and balks at naps.
"It's awesome, but it's tiring" she said.
Braden thrives on the weird hours. What teenager doesn't like staying up as late as possible and having frozen yogurt at midnight? He started a blog detailing the family's experiences.
Earthly sacrifices were made. The family traded a real vacation for a glorified staycation. Dental appointments, harp lessons and play dates were scheduled around when the kids were awake, which was a moving target every day.
Still, they managed to host a party a week after the landing, throwing a Mars-themed backyard barbecue complete with a cake shaped like Gale Crater, Curiosity's new home, and topped with candles shaped like stars.
Bryn Oh said it's easy to lose track of what day it is. A simple question like "What time is it?" is difficult to answer. Do you mean Earth time? Curiosity time? The time that their bodies think they're on?
For the mission workers, the schedule is also more grueling than in the past. Their work hours tend to whiplash around depending on when orbiting spacecraft fly over the rover landing site to relay signals to Earth. One shift sends up commands spelling out what Curiosity will do for the day; another pores over the pictures beamed back.
To cope, workers talk as if they're on Mars, saluting "Good morning" to one another even though it might be dark outside. Cots are available for siestas. There's also free ice cream — "a little pick-me-up in the middle of the night," said mission manager Mike Watkins.
Watkins said it's tough for anyone to stray from Earth time let alone a family.
"It's something they're going to remember the rest of their lives," Watkins said.
There have been growing pains. David Oh accidentally showed up to work an hour early one time. The youngest tended to get tired at night.
The family recently reached a milestone: Staying up through sunrise and sleeping during the day.
And just as the children get used to Mars time, they'll have to reboot later this month when they revert to their terrestrial ways in time for the start of school.
Curiosity’s Worth Can’t Be Measured In Mere Dollars
Aviation Week (Editorial)
Mars is alluring for space scientists and elusive for space technologists. Earthlings have tried 40 times to fly by, land on or orbit the red planet. Only 16 times have they succeeded in getting any scientific data.
Rockets blow up. Trajectories are missed. Engines sputter. Structures fail to unfold. Sensors conk out. Power runs down. With the distances daunting, the flight profiles complicated and the mission durations long, planetary spaceflight is fraught with peril.
With that in mind, imagine a grizzled senior manager at NASA years ago hearing the first pitch for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL): “We propose to build a nuclear-powered laboratory on wheels, fly it to Mars and drive it around. We're going to use a big disk to slow the spacecraft down. Mars doesn't have much of an atmosphere, but we'll use it as a brake. Next, we'll deploy a parachute to slow some more. Then, we'll cut the parachute and the disk loose. After that, we'll fire some rockets to really slow down. While we're doing that, we'll lower the lab on a rope. Then we're done landing. Except we don't want the rockets to crash onto the rover, so we'll have to cut the rope and fly that stuff away.” Even the description of the technique—sky crane—sounds like an engineering student's wishful way out of a bad design decision. Anyone with practical experience might be tempted to sarcasm: “Why not throw in a perpetual motion machine and make it out of unobtanium!”
But that essentially was the feat at a crater 154 million miles from Earth last week. Now, if things continue to go well, the rover Curiosity will begin exploring for a full Martian year (687 Earth days). With 10 science instruments and five times the mass of Spirit or Opportunity (the Mars Exploration Rovers), Curiosity is by far the most capable craft ever to reach the surface.
Obviously, there is much left to do. No one can be said to have mastered the art of building and operating spacecraft on another planet. But once again, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has proven it is without peers in planetary exploration.
Curiosity's landing has given the U.S. a big space win—and at just the right time. Since winding down the space shuttle program, NASA has been fighting a popular image of being rudderless. It is an unfair characterization in many ways that exaggerates the importance of human spaceflight. One reason NASA “abandoned” its own manned vehicle has to do with its efforts to foster the development of safe, less-expensive commercial means of space transportation—which we wholeheartedly endorse. And while it may not have been a bet-the-company undertaking for NASA's planetary science efforts, failure of MSL would have inflicted grave injury on its Mars program. It would have come just after the U.S. took its foot off the gas, opting out of partnering with the European Space Agency toward a Mars sample return.
It is tempting to portray Curiosity as a daring bet, a roll of the dice. NASA itself cast it as high drama, referring to the entry, descent and landing scheme as “seven minutes of terror.” The heart-pounding in the mission control center in Pasadena, Calif., was palpable. But to think of it only as derring-do sells NASA and the contractors behind MSL short. Even more impressive than the landing itself are the skills, techniques and capabilities that NASA developed to assure itself that it had reduced each of the myriad risks in this extraordinarily ambitious mission to a reasonable level. That know-how can be applied again.
Just as Thomas Edison's most important invention was not the light bulb, but the research and development enterprise at Menlo Park that produced many innovations, MSL's larger significance is in the organization, methodologies and skill sets built up to achieve this remarkable feat. It is a capability that NASA can turn to in the future (see p. 24)—if the U.S. is careful to nurture this precious asset.
The Mars Science Lab is exactly the sort of endeavor NASA should be undertaking (along with its chronically malnourished work in advancing aeronautics technologies). Planetary missions like this capture the imagination and can inspire a new generation to reach for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—which is crucial to future of the aerospace industry.
When Congress shortchanges the agency's science budget to fund high-overhead, government-developed-and-managed launchers or to preserve redundant capabilities in multiple NASA centers, it myopically focuses on the workers of today at the expense of the technologies and the workforce of the future.
The $2.5 billion NASA will end up spending on MSL is a far better investment for America—and ultimately for the aerospace industry—than speeding up the development of a heavy-lift launcher. NASA cannot do everything and still live within the sort of annual budgets it has been getting. And so, while one cannot draw a direct line between the two, to those who wonder why NASA is not doing more in manned spaceflight, our answer would be: Because it puts rovers on Mars, and given the choices, that is a good thing.
END
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment