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Wednesday, August 22, 2012
8/22/12 news
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Intermittent Network Connectivity: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Saturday, Aug. 25
2. Women's Equality Day Observance
3. Feds Feed Families -- Home Stretch
4. Latest International Space Station Research
5. International Space Station Ambassadors
6. Parent's Night Out -- Aug. 31 -- Register Now
7. View the Latest ISS Update: CCiCAP Meetings and the Boeing CST-100
8. Blood Drive Thank You
9. Recent JSC Announcement
10. Excessing Property Containing Refrigerants
11. Today: SAIC/SM&A Speaker Forum Tackles Mobile Enterprise App Development
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ The door that nobody else will go in at seems always to swing open widely for me. ”
-- Clara Barton
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1. Intermittent Network Connectivity: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. CDT Saturday, Aug. 25
Employees may experience intermittent connectivity while accessing network resources like the Internet, email or other NASA center resources from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 25. During this time, the JSC Information Resources Directorate will make some network infrastructure changes as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the JSC network. We anticipate the activity to last from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. However, the window is open until 8 p.m. in case we run into an unplanned situation.
We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.
JSC IRD Outreach x42974 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/default.aspx
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2. Women's Equality Day Observance
Aug. 26 marks the observance of Women's Equality Day, which not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment (giving women the right to vote), but also calls attention to women's continuing efforts toward full equality. Women have made significant contributions to JSC's mission. Join the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (OEOD) in saluting JSC's women and their accomplishments! Please go to OEOD's website at http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oeod/ to test your knowledge on women's equality.
Tu-Quynh (T.Q.) Bui x40266
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3. Feds Feed Families -- Home Stretch
Thanks to all the terrific folks in AH, BA, EA, JA, ISS, HA, AM and Jacobs Engineering for the outpouring of support last Friday in our "stuff the truck" event! We are now at more than 45,000 pounds and closing in quickly on our goal of 50,000 pounds.
It's not too late to contribute. Food bags and vouchers are still available in our Starport Gift Shops. Every pound pushes us closer to our goal!
K. Schmalz x47931 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/
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4. Latest International Space Station Research
Did you know that there are spiders aboard the International Space Station (ISS)?
YouTube Space Lab is a global science contest that challenges students to design experiments to be conducted on the ISS.
The spiders in space right now are jumping spiders that do not spin webs to catch their food; they jump on their prey! A student from Egypt proposed this experiment to determine if jumping spiders alter their predation technique in a microgravity environment.
You can read more about the experiment at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/YouTube_Space_... and see a video here: http://youtu.be/2YV1WHjNs4E
Liz Warren x35548
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5. International Space Station Ambassadors
Are you interested in building your communication skills to share information you have learned about International Space Station (ISS) research with those you meet throughout your work and daily life?
In this workshop, attendees will simulate different types of conversations with the general public and technical audiences.
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
1. Summarize ISS research objectives both as a U.S. National Laboratory and as a platform for international cooperation.
2. Summarize the funding process for ISS research and how new users can come forward if they are interested in the laboratory.
3. Explain why the ISS is such a unique and important laboratory.
4. Describe specific research and education accomplishments and benefits of the ISS.
Date: Thursday, Sept. 6
Time: 9 to 11 a.m.
Location: Gilruth Center Discovery Room
Audience: All NASA and contractor team members
Register for this class in SATERN.
Camille Alleyne x31239
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6. Parent's Night Out -- Aug. 31 -- Register Now
There are only two more Parent's Night Outs scheduled this year, so don't miss out on this great opportunity to spend an evening on the town! Enjoy a night out while your kids enjoy a night with Starport. We will entertain your children at the Gilruth Center with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie and dessert.
When: Aug. 31 from 6 to 10 p.m.
Where: Gilruth Center
Ages: 5 to 12
Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling.
Register at the Gilruth Center front desk. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Youth/PNO.cfm for more information.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. View the Latest ISS Update: CCiCAP Meetings and the Boeing CST-100
In this ISS Update, Commercial Crew Program Partner Manager for Boeing Gennaro Caliendo discusses the Integrated Systems Review meetings held in Houston this week and the CST-100.
The meetings are a part of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) milestones that have been set for its commercial partners. The meetings this week have been scheduled to review Boeing and the other commercial partners progress in their designs and to ensure that they meet system requirements.
Caliendo talks about Boeing's CST-100, a capsule design that will fly into low-Earth orbit and rendezvous with the International Space Station and land back on Earth using parachutes. It is designed to land on the ground using air bags, which is different than most capsules that are designed to land in water.
Learn more from the ISS Update video here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=150857161
JSC External Relations, Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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8. Blood Drive Thank You
Thank you to all those who took the time to donate at last week's blood drive. St. Luke's collected a total of 216 units of blood. Each donation can help up to three people -- so that's 648 lives.
Mark your calendar for the next blood drive from Oct. 16 to 18. For additional information, check out our website at http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm or contact Teresa Gomez at 281-483-9588.
Teresa Gomez x39588
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9. Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:
JSCA 12-022: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for Custodial Support Services Contract
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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10. Excessing Property Containing Refrigerants
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now requires documentation that demonstrates complete removal of Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) from property prior to its excess. Some common property that contains these refrigerants includes 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.
Offsite initiators will need to provide proof of refrigerant evacuation prior to excess. A list of EPA-certified refrigerant reclaimers is available at: http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/608/reclamation/reclist.html
A sample form can be found at: http://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
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11. Today: SAIC/SM&A Speaker Forum Tackles Mobile Enterprise App Development
Subject: "Emerging Technologies - Preparing for Mobile Enterprise Applications"
Date/Time: Today, Aug. 22, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Location: Building 1, Room 560
Learn about Mobile Enterprise Application Development.
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Speaker Forum featuring Norman Smith, SAIC technical fellow and assistant vice president for Technology.
Mobile Development is the development of applications for small, hand-held 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
Come 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.
NASA TV:
· 11:45 am Central (12:45 pm EDT) – Expedition 32 Social Media Event
· 1:30 pm Central (2:30 EDT) – Curiosity Rover Mission Update
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
CCiCap and the Boeing CST-100
Commercial Crew Program Partner Manager for Boeing Gennaro Caliendo discusses the Integrated Systems Review ongoing this week in Houston, which sets the baseline for what Boeing will be following for the next 21 months to measure how the baseline design of its CST-100 spacecraft meets its requirements.
Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – August 22, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
International Space Station orbit to be readjusted
RIA Novosti
Specialists of the Moscow Region-based Mission Control Center will on Wednesday carry out two maneuvers to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station, a spokesman for the center said. Both readjustments will be made by the European Space Agency’s Edoardo Amaldi Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 (ATV-3) resupply spacecraft, he told RIA Novosti.
Sarah Brightman 'in Talks Over Space Trip'
RIA Novosti
British singer Sarah Brightman is in talks with the space tourism firm Space Adventures to become the world's eighth space tourist, a senior Russian space official said on Wednesday. "I think that if we do come to a consensus, then theoretically it can happen," Alexei Krasnov, head of manned space missions at the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said. Krasnov could not give a timeframe or details. If the deal goes through, Brightman, the world's bestselling classical vocalist, can become the eighth private individual - and the second woman - to make the trip to the International Space Station.
NASA Wallops set to launch its biggest rocket
Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press
Virginia's "Space Coast" ambitions are getting a big boost as NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore prepares to launch the biggest rocket in its 67-year history. Called the Antares, the rocket is expected to become a workhorse in the commercial space industry over the next several years, ferrying cargo to the International Space Station. Since 1945, roughly 16,000 smaller rockets have launched out of Wallops. More than two years ago the commonwealth began to build a $145 million launch pad at its Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops to accommodate medium-size rockets. Construction is expected to wrap up in the next few days.
NASA Kicks Off Mock Asteroid Mission
Megan Gannon - Space.com
NASA began a mock asteroid mission this week in Houston to test out technologies that would allow humans to explore space rocks. The 10-day mission is part of NASA's Research and Technology Studies program, known as RATS, which has been held every year since 1998. It usually occurs in remote desert locations, often earning it the nickname Desert RATS. But RATS 2012 is being held at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), which houses tools and simulators that would be difficult to transfer to the field, NASA officials said.
Steak, Beans and Vests: NASA's Weird Traditions
Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News
JPL engineers eating handfuls of peanuts during Curiosity’s landing on August 5 was just the latest expression of a long standing legume-based tradition. But it’s far from the only tradition NASA has. There are loads, almost all of which have sprung up accidentally, and many have roots in the nation’s earliest space-faring days.
Museum of Flight dives into assembling space-shuttle trainer
Jack Broom - Seattle Times
Imagine you just brought something home from Ikea that was so cool you were undeterred by the note on the box saying "some assembly required." Now, just for fun, let's say you didn't actually bring it home yourself, but you had it delivered — in three shipments by air and nine by truck. Let's say it arrived in 22 pieces and that the three main sections alone weighed more than 32 tons. And that once you put the whole thing together, it would be 122 feet long, and at its highest point, more than 46 feet tall. Now you know how Chris Mailander is spending his summer.
Chasing Atlantis: An Upcoming Film about the Shuttle’s Legacy
Elizabeth Howell - Universe Today
Take five shuttle fans and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, mix in some artistic creativity, and you will understand the enthusiasm and love behind the Chasing Atlantis film production. Five Canadians made the trek to Florida to watch the final shuttle launch last year. They are wrapping up filming and interviews — which included astronauts and sci-fi stars — to discuss the legacy of the program. They plan to release Chasing Atlantis in November.
DOT Secures New Training Vessel for Kings Point
The Maritime Executive
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the Department’s Maritime Administration has secured a new training vessel for the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. In an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Academy will receive a space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship, the MV Liberty Star, which will provide a hands-on learning environment on which midshipmen can train using modern navigational technology, including dynamic positioning and advanced towing techniques.
Space shuttle rocket recovery ship setting sail for Merchant Marines
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A NASA sea ship that for 30 years retrieved space shuttle boosters after they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean now has a new mission to serve the Merchant Marines. On Tuesday, NASA signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Transportation Department's Maritime Administration (MARAD) to transfer the agency's solid rocket booster recovery ship, MV Liberty Star, to the National Defense Reserve Fleet to be used for training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.
Another Piece of Shuttle History Leaving Cape Canaveral
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
One of the iconic ships that ferried the space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters (SRBs) back to shore after they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean – will be leaving the shores of the Space Coast. NASA’s MV Liberty Star will be sent to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. This is part of a memorandum of understanding or MOU signed by NASA and the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration (MARAD). Under this agreement signed on Tuesday Liberty Star will be used by the National Defense Reserve Fleet – as a training vessel. In this capacity, the ship will be used by midshipmen at the Merchant Marine Academy. Liberty Star will be used to teach these midshipmen modern towing techniques and other required skills.
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Rover steering test complete; first driving test on tap
William Harwood - CBS News
With a broken wind sensor the only problem of any note aboard the Curiosity Mars rover, engineers planned to uplink commands overnight for an initial test drive, a short 10-foot move and a turning reverse maneuver to check out the robotic science lab's ability to roam its Gale Crater landing site, project managers said Tuesday. In two major milestones, engineers successfully tested the six-wheeled rover's steering system, commanding the four corner wheels to turn in place, and erected the lab's complex 7-foot-long robot arm and tool turret to test the appendage's drive motors and joints.
Mars rover ready to roll
Curiosity set to take car-length test drive today
James Dean - Florida Today
A few days after zapping its first rock with a laser, NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing for its first test drive on the Martian surface this morning. The six-wheeled, car-sized rover is expected to roll forward one car length, rotate 120-degrees to the right and then back up nearly the same distance. “You will definitely see tracks, and you will definitely see it move,” said Michael Watkins, Curiosity mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Mars Rover Curiosity Ready for Test Drive
Irene Klotz - Discovery News
After acing a steering test, NASA's new Mars rover will go for short drive on Wednesday, its first move since reaching the Red Planet on Aug 6. Curiosity won't break any distance records during its test drive, which is expected to last about 30 minutes. The one-ton, six-wheeled rover should travel about 10 feet forward, pivot its wheels and back up, reparking at a 90-degree angle from its starting point inside Gale Crater.
Mars Rover Curiosity to Take 1st Martian Drive Wednesday
Mike Wall - Space.com
After more than two weeks of sitting still, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is finally set to roll out on the Red Planet with its debut drive on Wednesday. Engineers successfully tested the rover's steering abilities Monday, and now they're ready to turn its six wheels for the first time since Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 5, officials announced Tuesday.
Martian Curiosity: How Do You Drive a $2.5 Billion Mars Rover?
Mike Wall - Space.com
Taking a 1-ton Mars rover out for a Red Planet spin may be an otherworldly adventure, but it isn't full of heart-pumping action like a video game. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is set to make its first test drive Wednesday (Aug. 22), then head out toward a spot called Glenelg in the coming days. Curiosity's drivers will guide the six-wheeled robot on the 1,300-foot (400-meter) trek to Glenelg — not with a joystick, but via commands uploaded on a daily basis.
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COMPLETE STORIES
International Space Station orbit to be readjusted
RIA Novosti
Specialists of the Moscow Region-based Mission Control Center will on Wednesday carry out two maneuvers to readjust the orbit of the International Space Station, a spokesman for the center said.
Both readjustments will be made by the European Space Agency’s Edoardo Amaldi Automated Transfer Vehicle 003 (ATV-3) resupply spacecraft, he told RIA Novosti.
The spokesman said the ATV-3 engines will first be switched on at 01:45 p.m. Moscow Time (0945 GMT) and will operate for 384 seconds to raise the station’s average orbit altitude to 414.8 km (257.7 miles).
The second maneuver will start at 05:17 p.m. Moscow Time (1317 GMT) and the engines will be on for 2088.5 seconds to raise the orbit to 420.6 km (261.3 miles).
The regularly planned reboost stopped "prematurely" on August 15 due to a temperature alarm in the vehicle's propulsion system, the ESA said.
The ATV-3, docked at the ISS's Zvezda module, was scheduled to raise the station's orbit by 7.7 kilometers (4.8 miles) to an altitude of 414.4 kilometers (257.5 miles), but raised it only by 5.1 km (3.2 miles).
The reboost was intended to ensure the best conditions for the landing of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M manned spacecraft on its return to Earth, due September 17, and the docking of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft with the orbital outpost, slated for October 15.
Adjustments to the station's orbit are carried out regularly to compensate for the Earth's gravity and to facilitate the successful docking and undocking of spacecraft.
The next adjustment is due September 12, the Mission Control Center’s spokesman said.
Sarah Brightman 'in Talks Over Space Trip'
RIA Novosti
British singer Sarah Brightman is in talks with the space tourism firm Space Adventures to become the world's eighth space tourist, a senior Russian space official said on Wednesday.
"I think that if we do come to a consensus, then theoretically it can happen," Alexei Krasnov, head of manned space missions at the Russian space agency Roscosmos, said.
Krasnov could not give a timeframe or details.
No contracts have been signed yet, he added.
If the deal goes through, Brightman, the world's bestselling classical vocalist, can become the eighth private individual - and the second woman - to make the trip to the International Space Station.
Brightman has not commented.
The previous tourists have paid the average of $30 million for their tickets.
NASA Wallops set to launch its biggest rocket
Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press
Virginia's "Space Coast" ambitions are getting a big boost as NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore prepares to launch the biggest rocket in its 67-year history.
Called the Antares, the rocket is expected to become a workhorse in the commercial space industry over the next several years, ferrying cargo to the International Space Station.
Since 1945, roughly 16,000 smaller rockets have launched out of Wallops. More than two years ago the commonwealth began to build a $145 million launch pad at its Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops to accommodate medium-size rockets. Construction is expected to wrap up in the next few days.
"We're getting close," said Keith Koehler, news chief at Wallops. "You can tell the difference in things around here. Whenever you're getting close to something that's new and exciting, you can just tell."
The Antares isn't the sort of giant rocket used to send astronauts and heavy payloads into space; those traditionally launch from Florida or California facilities which have the infrastructure to handle them.
But it does bump Wallops — and Virginia — closer to the big leagues and closer to Gov. Bob McDonnell's heady ambition of turning Wallops into "the best" spaceport in the country. Wallops is one of four spaceports in the U.S. licensed to send rockets into orbit. The others are in California, Florida and Alaska.
State, federal and private funds have been invested in the upgrade. Funding for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, which owns and operates MARS, jumped from just under $1.8 million in 2007 to more than $28 million in 2010, according to a state Department of Transportation review late last year.
When the Antares makes its initial test launch sometime in October, experts say it should be visible from Hampton Roads, weather permitting.
"We'll be able to see it from Washington, D.C.," said Barron Beneski, spokesman for the Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation. "Probably not as well as we'd like to. But certainly the Outer Banks, Virginia Beach, Norfolk — everyone will see it along the coast."
Founded in 1982, Orbital built the Antares and its Cygnus spacecraft under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA for 10 missions to resupply the space station. NASA is turning increasingly to the commercial sector to replace the retired space shuttle program.
A similar $1.6 billion contract went to SpaceX, one of a wave of entrepreneurial "new space" enterprises that made international news in May by becoming the first commercial spacecraft to visit the space station.
NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton has made effective use of Wallops over the years. In July, for instance, it launched a prototype inflatable heat shield that could make it easier to land heavy loads from orbit. Thursday morning, they plan to launch a small suborbital rocket carrying science experiments developed by college students.
"As far as in the future," said Langley spokesman Michael Finneran, "we're looking forward to their capability, because it will give us an opportunity to perhaps fly an experiment on launch vehicles that are going to be taking off out of there."
The Antares can launch about 13,000 pounds of cargo, or roughly the size of three Volkswagen Beetles, into low-earth orbit. By comparison, last year the biggest private rocket ever to lift off from the West Coast carried 50,000 pounds of cargo.
The October launch will be a shakedown cruise not only for the rocket and its spacecraft, but for the new launch pad and its accompanying liquid-fuel complex, which Beneski said is the first built from scratch in this country in 40 years.
Once operational, Beneski said, the Antares and Cygnus will begin delivering cargo ranging from food and water to science experiments "to the only six human beings that don't live on earth."
NASA Kicks Off Mock Asteroid Mission
Megan Gannon - Space.com
NASA began a mock asteroid mission this week in Houston to test out technologies that would allow humans to explore space rocks.
The 10-day mission is part of NASA's Research and Technology Studies program, known as RATS, which has been held every year since 1998. It usually occurs in remote desert locations, often earning it the nickname Desert RATS. But RATS 2012 is being held at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), which houses tools and simulators that would be difficult to transfer to the field, NASA officials said.
The crewmembers will test out NASA's prototype for its next generation of Space Exploration Vehicles, or SEVs, on a simulated mission to the asteroid Itokawa. In an Aug. 21 blog post for NASA, RATS crewmember Trevor Graff, a planetary geologist, explained that the vehicle sits in front of a large screen displaying the simulated asteroid. The virtual rock draws on data from Japan's Hayabusa mission to Itokawa and "looks and moves just like the real thing."
"This extremely realistic simulation allows us to fly around, approach, and anchor to the asteroid, all while monitoring our flight controls, propellant usage and many other factors," Graff wrote. "Once we approach or anchor to the asteroid, one or more of us will perform a simulated spacewalk, also known as an EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity)."
The crew can carry out a virtual spacewalk in two ways. Either they can put on special glasses in JSC's virtual reality lab, which provides an "immersive environment" with real time graphics and motion simulators, NASA officials said. Or the crewmembers can get strapped into NASA's Active Response Gravity Offload System (ARGOS), which uses a crane to simulate the weightlessness astronauts would feel while exploring an asteroid's surface.
The program also seeks to answer some practical questions about putting humans on a near-Earth asteroid, such as how astronauts would live in the SEV.
"Once we were done with our flying tasks, we settled in for our evening tasks. That involved making a freeze dried dinner, setting up our cycle and exercising, and filling out a bunch of data sheets," crewmember David Coan, an engineer with United Space Alliance, wrote in another NASA blog post after the first day of the program. "Exercising in the confined quarters was challenging, and we mostly stuck with using the cycle. We finished the night by configuring our bunks for sleeping, and shutting things down for the night."
Steak, Beans and Vests: NASA's Weird Traditions
Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News
JPL engineers eating handfuls of peanuts during Curiosity’s landing on August 5 was just the latest expression of a long standing legume-based tradition. But it’s far from the only tradition NASA has. There are loads, almost all of which have sprung up accidentally, and many have roots in the nation’s earliest space-faring days.
On the morning of May 5, 1961, flight surgeon Bill Douglas woke Al Shepard in the wee hours of the morning. The astronaut shaved, showered, then polished off a breakfast of filet minion, eggs, orange juice, and tea. The high protein meal was designed to fill him up while being low residue enough that he wouldn’t need to relieve himself for a few hours.
Shepard’s flight that morning was NASA’s first, the suborbital Freedom 7, and it was a striking success. So much so that the traditional pre-launch breakfast became steak and eggs for all the astronauts.
That’s changed a little in recent years, though high protein/low residue is still the ideal combination. Astronaut Mike Fincke opted for grilled lobster tails and a baked potato the morning of May 16, 2011, the day he launched on STS-134.
Mission control developed its own food-based tradition during the shuttle program. When the launch team was preparing for STS-1 -- the first orbital shuttle flight -- people would bring in covered dishes to share during prelaunch and postlaunch operations. NASA test director Norm Carlson joined in the potluck, and on April 12, 1981 -- launch day -- he brought a small crock pot of beans and cornbread. The launch was a success, and the beans and cornbread disappeared.
Carlson doubled his offering of beans and cornbread for STS-2’s November 12 launch, and again they were devoured after the shuttles reached orbit. He kept bringing in larger quantities of beans until it got to be too much. Instead, he set up an 18 quart cooker on the fourth floor of the Launch Control Center. The call of "Beans are Go!" became the traditional signal of a successful launch that was celebrated with a helping of beans made to Carlson’s recipe.
Years before launch beans became a staple for launch teams, flight director Gene Kranz’s wife Marta made vests a permanent fixture in mission control. The Gemini program saw NASA’s first multi-day missions, which meant mission control would have to operate in shifts. Each flight director led a team designated by a color; Kranz’s was the White Team. Worried that his youth would make it hard for his team to take him seriously -- he was just 31 when he ran his first shift during Gemini 4 -- he wanted an insignia to bring unity among his controllers. Marta suggested she sew him a white vest. She did, and it was a hit with the White Team.
Kranz’s vests became a tradition. Marta sewed him a new one for every mission and even had a second vest, usually a more festive one, sent to mission control for her husband to wear during splashdowns.
Another tradition thought to have originated during the Gemini program is the pre-launch card game between the mission commander and the tech crew. The mission can’t launch until the commander loses a hand. This game has been variously described as some variation on blackjack or a kind of five-card poker.
There are equivalent traditions in the Russian space program, many of which are directly related to Yuri Gagarin’s historic Vostok 1 flight.
Before leaving the Star City training complex near Moscow, Soyuz flight crews leave red carnations at the Memorial Wall in memory of the earliest cosmonauts. They then visit Gagarin’s office, which has been preserved just as it was the day he died in 1968. The cosmonauts sign his guestbook and ask his ghost for help on their mission.
Leaving their hotel rooms for breakfast on launch day -- the highlight of the meal being the traditional glass of champagne -- cosmonauts autograph the door. Before leaving the building, a Russian Orthodox priest blesses and sprinkles the crew with holy water.
They travel to the launch site in a bus adorned with a horseshoe for good luck. Before climbing into their Soyuz spacecraft, cosmonauts urinate on the transfer bus’ right rear wheel; female cosmonauts bring a vial of their urine to spill. This tradition is traced back to Gagarin himself who is said to have relieved himself on the bus before climbing aboard Vostok 1. But it’s a not an easy one to prove. With his every move was tracked and documented by camera crew, it’s hard to imagine Gagarin would have had the chance or freedom to urinate in the open. Not to mention the Soviet leaders would likely have found it an improper display for a national hero.
The culture of tradition might seem a little strange in a realm where hard science dominates, but it’s unsurprising that traditions of successful flights are repeated in the dangerous business of space exploration. Besides, there are worse rituals to take part in than games of cards, a breakfast of steak, and public urination before launching into space.
Museum of Flight dives into assembling space-shuttle trainer
At Seattle's Museum of Flight, the space-shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer, used to help prepare crews for all 135 U.S. shuttle missions, is being not just reassembled but transformed into a centerpiece exhibit.
Jack Broom - Seattle Times
Imagine you just brought something home from Ikea that was so cool you were undeterred by the note on the box saying "some assembly required."
Now, just for fun, let's say you didn't actually bring it home yourself, but you had it delivered — in three shipments by air and nine by truck.
Let's say it arrived in 22 pieces and that the three main sections alone weighed more than 32 tons. And that once you put the whole thing together, it would be 122 feet long, and at its highest point, more than 46 feet tall.
Now you know how Chris Mailander is spending his summer.
As the director of exhibits at the Museum of Flight, Mailander is coordinating work on the Full Fuselage Trainer, the NASA shuttle mock-up shipped here from Houston for permanent display at the museum.
Built in 1979, the FFT was used to help train the crews for all 135 U.S. shuttle missions, from 1981 until the program ended last year.
"What struck me when I first saw it was that it's really big," said Mailander, who made several trips to the Johnson Space Center in Houston to examine the FFT when it was in one piece, and to help shape the plans for its move and display.
Now, museum staffers and a crew from Seattle-based Pacific Studio aren't just reassembling the trainer, but transforming it into what's hoped will be a centerpiece exhibit to attract and enlighten visitors for decades.
The exhibit won't be ready for a couple of months, but Mailander this week allowed a look inside its two main sections:
• The 60-foot payload bay, which will be open to all museum visitors, with an elevator to allow wheelchairs access, and
• The cramped, two-level crew compartment, likely to open to small, special tours, which requires crawling through a three-foot-diameter hatch to get to its mid-deck, and then up a narrow metal ladder to the flight deck.
For now, museum visitors can see the shuttle-trainer sections from behind a rope barrier in the museum's $12 million Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, reached by a skybridge from the main museum building.
But after Labor Day, the gallery will be closed to visitors to expedite work not just on the shuttle trainer, but also on the interpretive displays that will accompany it.
Lighting is being added, as is a sprinkler system, needed because the trainer is made of wood.
Despite the challenges and delays that accompanied the move, Mailander said, "It has been very rewarding to see the FFT taken apart and moved here in good condition" and exciting to be designing exhibits to show it off.
He hopes the exhibit will be substantially complete for the museum's fundraising gala in late September, though it may be late October or November before the exhibit is open to the public.
The Museum of Flight, which had unsuccessfully applied to host one of NASA's four retiring space shuttles as the shuttle program ended last year, paid $2 million to have the trainer moved here and will spend about the same amount to complete the exhibit, Mailander said.
Museum of Flight officials hope to take full advantage of the fact that they can let the public inside the FFT. In contrast, the four museums that got the real shuttles must display them entirely out of reach.
In the payload bay, visitors will see into an airlock — essentially a large tube through which astronauts transferred from the shuttle to the international space station.
Videos will tell about the shuttle program and its accomplishments. And because a relatively small number of visitors will get inside the crew compartment, one video all visitors can see will include a 360-degree look inside the flight deck, showing its hundreds of switches, dials and levers.
In the trainer, those controls were not activated, but they gave the astronauts a sense of the shuttle's layout. Among the various training moves using the FFT was a drill in which astronauts had to get out through a 2-foot-square hatch on its top and then rappel down its side, in case the maneuver were required in an emergency.
Marc Dirnberger, lead fabricator for Pacific Studio, also had the chance to see the trainer in Houston and get a sense of its importance to the shuttle program.
One question being addressed with the exhibit, Dirnberger said, is how to treat minor nicks and scratches in the trainer's quarter-inch plywood.
Dirnberger said if the dings were made in the moving process, they'll likely get repaired. But if they were a normal result of NASA's three decades of use of the trainer, some of the dings may be left in place.
"The museum isn't asking us to make it pretty," he said. "We want it to be authentic."
Chasing Atlantis: An Upcoming Film about the Shuttle’s Legacy
Elizabeth Howell - Universe Today
Take five shuttle fans and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, mix in some artistic creativity, and you will understand the enthusiasm and love behind the Chasing Atlantis film production.
Five Canadians made the trek to Florida to watch the final shuttle launch last year. They are wrapping up filming and interviews — which included astronauts and sci-fi stars — to discuss the legacy of the program.
They plan to release Chasing Atlantis in November. Team member Matthew Cimone talked to Universe Today by e-mail about why they made the journey in the first place.
UT: What is your connection to space?
There were five of us in total. Matthew Cimone, Paul Muzzin, Melanie Godecki, Chris Bourque and Rebecca Mead. We ranged from total space geeks and sci-fi junkies to those who were simply interested in being part of an adventurous road trip.
- Matthew had a deep personal connection to shuttle in that he had a childhood dream of becoming an astronaut that was foiled by myopia. He now gives public speeches through his site No Borders From Orbit, which promotes awareness of social justice issues through a space sciences/science fiction lens.
- Paul is a filmmaker from Sheridan College in Ontario. Also a space aficionado, Matthew recruited Paul and Paul’s studio, Riptide Media, to help bring the documentary to life. Paul is serving as director and editor on the film.
- Melanie is a photographer by trade and came along to do production stills. Her favorite photographer, Annie Leibovitz, shot several shuttle and Apollo astronaut portraits, and so she was excited to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
- Matthew attended university with Chris and Rebecca and they both came to support the journey and by provided much needed second vehicle for our convoy. Despite our love of space, none of us had seen a shuttle launch in person. Matthew rallied together the group as his last opportunity to participate in the shuttle program and wanted to bring as many people with him as possible. You can only fit so many in two cars, but you can bring many more with you if have a camera.
UT: How did you get down there? What did you do while you were on site?
We drove the entire journey from Toronto to the Titusville/Cocoa Beach area. Along the way, we stopped at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to shoot prototype shuttle Enterprise before it was moved to New York City. We felt Enterprise, which marked the start of the shuttle program, also made a great start for our journey.
We left Toronto on July 4 and arrived in Titusville on the evening of July 5. Prior to Atlantis’ launch we shot everything we could on the Kennedy Space Center grounds, including Atlantis on the launch pad. The “space culture” in Southern Florida is undeniable. It permeates everything around you. Businesses are space themed, the Vehicle Assembly building and launch towers can always be seen on the horizon. And a huge percentage of the population is employed by the space industry or tourism related to space travel; a large concern in the shadow of Shuttle’s retirement
UT: Had any of you seen shuttle launches before, or visited the Kennedy Space Center before?
Matthew had been to the Kennedy Space Center as a young child, but only had vague memories of the journey. He admitted that after discovering he couldn’t make the air force, (a common route for astronauts to take to becoming part of the space program), he buried some of his interest in shuttle for many years. This was an awakening of sorts and a chance to reconnect with that childhood wonder of escaping Earth’s gravity.
Many of the team felt like big kids while wandering the halls of the Kennedy Space Center or the Smithsonian. But this was the first launch for all of us. It was an experience you’ll never forget, especially when you get hit with the rumbling shockwave even 15 kilometres away from the launch pad.
4) Who was interviewed?
We have been incredibly blessed by the interviews we conducted. We have sat down with Canadian astronaut and future International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield, 2003-2007 director of the Kennedy Space Center James Kennedy, American astronaut Story Musgrave, Star Trek: The Next Generation actor and Big Bang Theory guest star Wil Wheaton, a dozen NASA software and hardware engineers, and a host of interviews with those who had traveled the globe to see the shuttle launch.
What did we learn from these amazing individuals? Chris Hadfield spoke of the fragility of Earth. Wil Wheaton referred to space as the place where those who felt like they didn’t fit in at home would fit in. James Kennedy referred to the “I” in International Space Station.
We learned that space unifies and it humbles.We still treat the world, and its people, using the map we created when we only had sailing vessels – but not as if we have seen the world with space vessels. The colored maps and borderlines we teach do not exist when looking down on the Earth from above. And the social ills suffered by those across the planet are difficult to dismiss as somebody else’s problem when you can circle the globe in just 90 minutes.
Likewise, when you turn Hubble to the stars, you see that our planet is the only place we can inhabit that will support us and we don’t always treat it as such. Commander Hadfield described the Earth’s atmosphere appearing as thin as the “peel of an onion.” Our planet is fragile, and its people diverse but interconnected. Space provides a perspective that really galvanizes our planet. That unity of spirit was shown to be true as we stood with nearly one million people on the shores of Titusville who had come to see Atlantis fly.
In terms of the future, we are trying to negotiate an interview with members of the leadership team at new space asteroid mining company Planetary Resources.
5) How did you get into the VAB, and what did you see there?
During our trip, we had written the Chasing Atlantis Twitter account and site URL on our cars (along with various hand-drawn shuttles and stars that were somewhat recognizable). A NASA software engineer, Ryan Horan, saw our car with Paul shooting out the window as we passed by the sign for the Kennedy Space Center. He was interested in our project and sent us a tweet.
Ryan arranged for us to join one of the first tours following the reopening of the Vehicle Assembly Building to the public. It had been closed off since the start of the shuttle program in 1981. The building is monstrously huge. It will generate its own weather system inside, sometimes producing micro-rain clouds. Hung on the VAB walls dozens of meters in the air are banners dedicated to each mission, all signed by members of the crew and tourists who had come to wish the crews a safe journey.
Endeavour was parked inside. Endeavour’s landing was a precursor to Chasing Atlantis. Watching the orbiter fly in for its final landing (the second last shuttle mission) inspired us to see Atlantis. But that wasn’t our last journey to the VAB. We returned this past March to see both Discovery as well as Atlantis itself. We had “caught” the shuttle on take-off but in the VAB, we were only 30 feet away from the nose of this iconic vehicle.
6) How did you fund the film?
The film was completely self-funded as an independent project straight from credit cards and lines of credit. We will be posting an Indie-Go-Go or Kickstarter profile up in hopes of helping to cover the post-production costs related to things such as follow up interviews and the musical score.
The film is being produced through Riptide Media. Matthew provided the initial vision for the film and is writing the narration, while Paul is bringing the feature-length documentary to life through the incredible footage he shot and is presently editing. All of us still have day jobs. For example, Matthew currently works as a residence life co-ordinator at Simon Fraser University. The University has been supporting Matthew’s efforts with the film by promoting Chasing Atlantis through its networks. We expect Chasing Atlantis to be completed by November of this year.
UT: What has been the response to the film so far?
Outstanding! The interviews we secured alone demonstrate an interest not only in the film, but for sharing the experience of space travel and how it has influenced so many people. Of those we spoke to, we sensed a certain catharsis in being able to talk about shuttle and the transition to “what’s next”.
We recently showed an extended preview at the Polaris science fiction and fantasy convention in Toronto, Ontario. Our two sessions at the convention were standing room only, and brought forward many sci-fi and space fans who shared anecdotes about their first time seeing shuttle and hopes for a strong future for human space exploration.
UT: What is your goal in releasing the film?
We are sharing a personal journey, but one that we believe will resonate with a wider community of space and science fiction fans. As one Polaris convention goer told us following our preview, “It was like I was there with you.” That’s the feeling we wanted to convey. You can go to Discovery Channel for the technology. However, while the technology served as the backdrop for our story, Chasing Atlantis is really about people; about the pursuit of a dream, about taking risks and about exploration both of space but also of oneself.
UT: What do you think was the legacy of the shuttle program?
There is debate on the shuttle’s effectiveness. Being a reusable space vessel, it was intended to reduce the overall cost of bringing payloads to space. At the end of the program, space travel is still far more expensive than was anticipated; by a factor of thousands.
Shuttle also didn’t have the best safety record. Two catastrophic failures over the course of the program is a level of risk many deemed unacceptable.
However, the two accomplishments that stood out the most among our interviewees were the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. The ISS has allowed us to have a permanent human presence in space for over 10 years now, and is a platform for us to conduct research on the effects of long-term space travel on the human body. Hubble has provided us with an unprecedented understanding of the universe. It has provided astronomical vistas that define beauty, helped us better understand how planets are formed and shown us images of the most distant and earliest galaxies which began to take shape billions of years ago.
Without the shuttle, neither the ISS nor Hubble would’ve been possible.
UT: Is there anything else you would like to include?
A huge thank you to those who supported us in the creation of Chasing Atlantis, our first film. We invite anybody who has a passion for space, feels that the continuation of space exploration is important, or just wants to geek out to connect with us. You can find us online (www.chasingatlantis.com) , on twitter (@chasingatlantis and @riptidestudios), and on Facebook. Chasing is all about community, and connecting with that community that is truly important to us!
DOT Secures New Training Vessel for Kings Point
The Maritime Executive
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that the Department’s Maritime Administration has secured a new training vessel for the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY. In an agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Academy will receive a space shuttle solid rocket booster recovery ship, the MV Liberty Star, which will provide a hands-on learning environment on which midshipmen can train using modern navigational technology, including dynamic positioning and advanced towing techniques.
The agreement, signed today by the Department and NASA, outlines plans for the transfer of the vessel along with the Academy’s future relationship with NASA. MARAD will relocate the vessel from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to Kings Point, New York, this fall. The Maritime Administration is planning shipyard work to increase onboard berthing and fully convert the MV Liberty Star to a training vessel after its arrival at the Academy.
“Securing this modern vessel supports the goals outlined in the Academy’s new strategic plan and will ensure our midshipmen get the top-notch education and training they need to compete and win in a competitive global marketplace,” said Secretary LaHood.
“This past April, when we toured the Academy, I asked for three things and today we are batting 3 for 3: we have a new superintendent in place, we were able to increase capital funding in the senate appropriations bill and now we have a new training vessel on its way,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer. “We are righting this ship not only for the midshipmen currently attending, but for the generations of students who will come. The Merchant Marine Academy is getting back on course and I commend Secretary LaHood for his hard work, hearing our call and delivering promptly.”
Like all other Maritime Administration reserve ships, the Academy training ship will remain on call for occasional use – in this case NASA missions – allowing midshipmen to get at-sea experience with commercial crews.
“This agreement is a win-win for both Kings Point and NASA,” said Maritime Administrator David Matsuda. “The ship's high tech equipment and real world capabilities closely mirror what graduates will see entering the maritime workforce.”
“The acquisition of this state-of-the-art training vessel will help us provide the best education and hands-on experience for our future maritime leaders,” said Superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Rear Admiral James A. Helis. “There is nothing like real life experience to facilitate the learning process.”
Although midshipmen obtain the sea time needed for their U.S. Coast Guard license aboard commercial merchant ships during their “sea year,” the new training vessel will familiarize midshipmen with shipboard equipment and characteristics, and basic ship handling.
The Obama Administration has made a comprehensive effort to renew facilities and teaching infrastructure at our nation’s maritime academy. Since FY 2009, the Obama Administration has requested and Congress has appropriated more than $300 million for the Academy, which includes $239 million for operations and $61 million for capital improvements – including $23 million last year, the most funding ever secured for physical improvements at the Academy. The vessel will be a major component of a renewed waterfront at the Academy that includes a new pier.
Background of the MV Liberty Star
The MV Liberty Star was one of two vessels used by NASA to recover the space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters following the launch of a space shuttle mission. Propelled by two combined 2,900 horsepower diesel engines, the 176-foot long MV Liberty Star has a 6,000 mile range and a maximum speed of 15 knots. The ship’s controllable pitch propellers and auxiliary water jet thruster, combined with modern joy-stick dynamic positioning capability provide midshipmen a highly maneuverable training platform. The vessel has a 7,500 pound deck crane, which is an ideal tool for providing a basic understanding of modern cargo operations. It also has a fast rescue boat, which can provide midshipman critical experience in general launch operations. In addition, the vessel’s double towing winch, substantial towing H bitts, and a massive towing fairlead add significant new towing training capabilities to the Academy’s portfolio.
Space shuttle rocket recovery ship setting sail for Merchant Marines
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
A NASA sea ship that for 30 years retrieved space shuttle boosters after they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean now has a new mission to serve the Merchant Marines.
On Tuesday, NASA signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Transportation Department's Maritime Administration (MARAD) to transfer the agency's solid rocket booster recovery ship, MV Liberty Star, to the National Defense Reserve Fleet to be used for training at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, NY.
"Liberty Star served NASA well during the space shuttle program," Robert Lightfoot, acting associate administrator for NASA, said in a statement. "We know it will greatly benefit the Kings Point midshipmen, and we're proud that Liberty Star will continue to serve the United States with distinction."
Mission complete
The Liberty Star, which was one of two vessels that were designed to recover the shuttle's side-strapped solid fuel rockets, has been in service to NASA since 1981. It and its sister ship, the Freedom Star, would each track one of the twin solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that separated from the shuttle after about two minutes of flight, rendezvous with it at sea, and then tow it back to port for its reuse by the space shuttle program.
During its three decades recovering rockets, the 176-foot long (54 meter) Liberty Star was also used to tow shuttle external fuel tanks, which were loaded onto a barge, from their assembly facility in New Orleans to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.
The dual diesel engine ship was also used to occasionally support research operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and several universities.
In the past year, Liberty Star participated in recovery tests for NASA's Orion crew capsule, which is being developed to take astronauts to an asteroid and ultimately Mars. The ship supported the Crew Module Recovery Attach Fitting Test (CRAFT) to help develop the equipment to recover an uncrewed Orion flight test capsule after splashdown.
Most recently, Liberty Star sailed in conjunction with the May 22, 2012 launch of the first commercial spacecraft to lift off for the International Space Station (ISS). As Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX) Dragon capsule lifted off atop the company's Falcon 9 rocket, Liberty Star was used to track the booster's flight using NASA diagnostic radar systems.
With the shuttle program's end last year however, NASA no longer needed booster recovery vessels. Although the agency has plans to launch the shuttle-legacy rockets in the coming years with its new heavy-lift vehicle, called the Space Launch System, they will be treated as expendable and allowed to sink into the ocean.
From rockets to the real world
Liberty Star, in its role at the Merchant Marine Academy, will be used as a training vessel, providing an opportunity for the Kings Point midshipmen to have access to a ship with dynamic positioning, modern towing capabilities and other features that will expand their instruction.
NASA will continue to have access to Liberty Star if the agency requires its use and it is available.
"This agreement is a win-win for both Kings Point and for NASA," David Matsuda, Maritime Administrator, said in a statement. "The ship's high tech equipment and real world capabilities closely mirror what graduates will see entering the maritime work force."
Liberty Star is currently scheduled to depart the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 10 and arrive in New York on Sept. 14. NASA is working on identifying a suitable new use for Freedom Star.
Another Piece of Shuttle History Leaving Cape Canaveral
Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org
One of the iconic ships that ferried the space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters (SRBs) back to shore after they splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean – will be leaving the shores of the Space Coast. NASA’s MV Liberty Star will be sent to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y. This is part of a memorandum of understanding or MOU signed by NASA and the Transportation Department’s Maritime Administration (MARAD).
Under this agreement signed on Tuesday Liberty Star will be used by the National Defense Reserve Fleet – as a training vessel. In this capacity, the ship will be used by midshipmen at the Merchant Marine Academy. Liberty Star will be used to teach these midshipmen modern towing techniques and other required skills.
NASA will still retain access to Liberty Star if the space agency needs it and if it is available.
“Liberty Star served NASA well during the Space Shuttle Program,” said NASA’s Acting Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot. “We know it will greatly benefit the Kings Point midshipmen, and we’re proud that Liberty Star will continue to serve the United States with distinction.”
There are two SRB recovery vessels, MV Liberty Star and MV Freedom Star. Each of these vessels are currently operated by United Space Alliance (USA). According to a NASA press release, NASA is also looking for a suitable use for Freedom Star as well. As such, this vessel might also be leaving Florida in the near future.
Both SRB recovery ships were launched in 1981 and worked to recover the spent shuttle SRBs after they had completed their task of sending space shuttle crews to orbit. These ships were constructed at the Atlantic Marine Shipyard on Fort George Island in Florida. Each recovery ship is capable of towing approximately 60,000 pounds (27,000 kilograms).
“This agreement is a win-win for both Kings Point and NASA,” said Maritime Administrator David Matsuda. “The ship’s high tech equipment and real world capabilities closely mirror what graduates will see entering the maritime work force.”
The ships utilize auxiliary engines and other measures so when they coasted up the Banana River they would avoid harming Florida’s Manatee population.
These vessels have been used by other agencies as well as for other purposes by NASA. NASA’s sister organization, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, has used the recovery ships in the past. NASA has employed them in the agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to monitor launch vehicles during ascent.
With NASA’s Space Launch System or “SLS” set to launch its first crewed mission in 2017, NASA will need a recovery ship to retrieve the rocket’s boosters. It is unclear if NASA will employ one of these two vessels for that task or make some other type of arrangements.
MEANWHILE, ON MARS…
Rover steering test complete; first driving test on tap
William Harwood - CBS News
With a broken wind sensor the only problem of any note aboard the Curiosity Mars rover, engineers planned to uplink commands overnight for an initial test drive, a short 10-foot move and a turning reverse maneuver to check out the robotic science lab's ability to roam its Gale Crater landing site, project managers said Tuesday.
In two major milestones, engineers successfully tested the six-wheeled rover's steering system, commanding the four corner wheels to turn in place, and erected the lab's complex 7-foot-long robot arm and tool turret to test the appendage's drive motors and joints.
"The Curiosity rover and the ops team continue to hit home runs here," Mission Manager Mike Watkins told reporters. "We're in the middle of a really fantastic week. We have a pretty aggressive plan this week to do a lot more first-time science activities, as well as some critical engineering checkouts. I'm happy to say we've gotten through all of those successfully and on schedule."
The steering test was carried out on Monday, two week's after Curiosity's landing in Gale Crater. Animated GIF images posted on the Curiosity web page showed one of the back wheels turning left and right in a so-called "wheel wiggle."
"Everything's in fine shape and that means we're go for our first test drive tomorrow," Watkins said. "Everything looks go for that right now."
The rover first will drive about 10 feet straight ahead, stop, turn its wheels to the right and then back up in a 90-degree turn. The idea is to back up into an area that has already been photographed, one with no known hazards.
"The other thing we did the day before was our first test of robotic arm," Watkins said. "So we unstowed the robotic arm and took a look at the tools on the end of the arm. It's kind of a Swiss army knife there where we have a lot of instruments. ... We wanted to make sure all of that was working by doing these first motor checks, and all of that went successfully."
Images of the deployed arm were especially rewarding to the engineering team, Watkins said, because "we have looked at images like this so many thousands of times in our test environment and I always see the walls of the test lab there (in the background). Now to see the arm out there deployed with Mars out there in the background is just a great feeling."
Arm engineer Louise Jandura said it will take several weeks for the team to calibrate the arm's motions, to fine-tune the joint motors for the lower gravity on Mars and to fully check out and calibrate the instruments in the 73-pound tool turret on its end.
"The arm has already performed all these motions on Earth, but in a different gravity condition and that gravity does matter," she said. "Our turret at the end of the arm weighs as much as a small child and the differences in gravity change the amount of sag at the end of the arm.
"So as we want to go interact with targets in our environment and with the rover, we want to be able to fine tune these end-point positions. So it will take some time to put the arm through all its paces."
The arm is critical to the rover's science mission. The tool turret carries the equivalent of a geologist's hand lens, a sophisticated spectrometer, a sample scoop, a power drill and a dust removal tool. The percussive drill is capable of boring two inches into targeted rocks, collecting rock and powder for analysis by two instruments inside the rover's body.
"Curiosity uses the arm to maneuver all the instruments, the tools, at the end in much the same way we use our human arm to control tools in our hand," Jandura said. "And these tools allow us to get a closer look using the camera and the spectrometer at the end of the arm and to also pick up samples with our scoop, to acquire powered rocks with the drill and to process them ... inside the rover."
The only problem of any significance so far in Curiosity's checkout is the apparent failure of a wind sensor, one of two on short booms that extend out from the side of the rover's main camera mast. Engineers say the sensitive sensor may have been damaged during landing when Curiosity's sky crane descent engines kicked up dusty debris from the surface.
"We don't think the rover was blasted by particles from the ground, we don't see any evidence the descent plumes impinged upon the rover or even blasted rocks toward the rover," Watkins said. "But it does appear that some small rocks became lofted in the winds that were generated by the plumes during landing and probably just fell upon the rover deck.
"Now, putting two and two together you could come up with an idea that some of these rocks may have fallen on these exposed circuit boards and damaged the wires. That's just one potential cause. We don't know for sure and we don't really have a way of assessing that at this point any further."
The other wind sensor on the second boom is fully operational and the Rover Environmental Monitoring Station -- REMS -- team is working "pretty hard to understand how to use that remaining, fully operational boom, to best derive wind speed and direction," Watkins said.
Otherwise, the weather station aboard Curiosity is operating flawlessly, capturing data on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and other factors. For the curious, the air temperature at the rover's landing site ranges from a high of around 37 degrees Fahrenheit to an overnight low of minus 131 degrees.
After the rover's instruments and mechanical systems are fully checked out and calibrated, Curiosity will be commanded to begin a short drive to a nearby target of interest known as Glenelg, where three different types of geology are visible from orbit.
Engineers hope that eventually Curiosity will be able to cover about a football field per day, comparable to the progress achieved by NASA's older, and much less scientifically capable, Opportunity rover. But that's a pace that will take many weeks to achieve.
"Ultimately when we get everything fully checked out and we have our autonav and all of that working, I think there's a good chance we can drive the kind of distances that Opportunity has been driving, over a hundred meters in a sol (martian day) is kind of our goal," Watkins said.
"But it'll take us a little while to get up to that rate. So this first set of drives, not just the little test drive tomorrow but actually the drive to Glenelg, we'll probably do that in small chunks just to evaluate what's going on. My guess is those are going to go in 10- to 20-meter chunks. But eventually, we'll get up to over a hundred meters a day."
Mars rover ready to roll
Curiosity set to take car-length test drive today
James Dean - Florida Today
A few days after zapping its first rock with a laser, NASA’s Curiosity rover is preparing for its first test drive on the Martian surface this morning.
The six-wheeled, car-sized rover is expected to roll forward one car length, rotate 120-degrees to the right and then back up nearly the same distance.
“You will definitely see tracks, and you will definitely see it move,” said Michael Watkins, Curiosity mission manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Curiosity’s laser — a tool called ChemCam — successfully zapped a flat, fist-sized rock in its first target practice on Sunday, and shot more targets Monday.
“One thing we know for sure is that the ChemCam instrument is working better than we hoped,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity deputy project scientist at JPL.
The checkouts of rover systems and science instruments are mostly proceeding well, including tests of a tool-laden robotic arm that is critical to future attempts to analyze material samples.
One set of wind sensors, however, is believed to have been knocked out of commission during Curiosity’s Aug. 6 landing.
It’s not known for sure how the exposed, fragile circuit boards on a small boom extending from Curiosity’s mast were damaged. One possibility is they were hit by small rocks that fell on the rover as it settled on the surface.
“(Engineers) believe this is permanent damage, so that’s a little disappointing,” Vasavada said.
But another set of wind sensors mounted on a second boom is operating properly. It’s readings will only be limited when the wind is blowing from directly behind it.
“We could have flown the single operating boom and we would do very well,” said Vasavada. “We still retain nearly the full capability, just with a little bit of ambiguity in terms of wind direction.”
Curiosity’s short test drive will take about a half-hour. If it goes well, the rover will gradually build up to distances of as much as 330 feet in a day to perform science investigations.
“The Curiosity rover and the (operations) team continue to hit home runs here,” said Watkins. “We’re in the middle of a really fantastic week.”
Mars Rover Curiosity Ready for Test Drive
Irene Klotz - Discovery News
After acing a steering test, NASA's new Mars rover will go for short drive on Wednesday, its first move since reaching the Red Planet on Aug 6.
Curiosity won't break any distance records during its test drive, which is expected to last about 30 minutes. The one-ton, six-wheeled rover should travel about 10 feet forward, pivot its wheels and back up, reparking at a 90-degree angle from its starting point inside Gale Crater.
"Everything's in fine shape and that means we're go for our first test drive,” mission manager Michael Watkins said told reporters during a conference call Tuesday. "Everything looks go for that right now."
Ultimately, the rover will head to a three-mile-high mound of layered rock rising from the floor of Gale Crater, the remains of sediment that likely filled the basin long ago.
The goal of the $2.5 billion, two-year mission is to search for habitats that could have supported or perhaps still support microbial life.
The 400-plus member science team received its first bit of bad news this week. One of the rover’s two wind sensors is broken and likely out of commission for the mission.
Engineers believe delicate wires on the sensor's exposed circuit boards may have been broken by debris that rained down on the rover during its rocket-powered descent. The wind sensors extend like two fingers on the ends of miniature booms extending horizontally from the rover’s mast.
"It does appear that some small rocks became lofted in the winds that were generated by the plumes during landing and probably just fell upon the rover deck," said Curiosity deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"Some of these rocks may have fallen on these exposed circuit boards and damaged the wires. That's just one potential cause. We don't know for sure and we don't really have a way of assessing that at this point any further," he said.
The lose of one sensor may make it more challenging for scientists to determine wind speed and direction inside Gale Crater, located near the planet's equator.
"We'll have to work a little harder to understand when the wind may be coming from a direction that would be masked by (Curiosity's) mast ... but we think we can work around that," Vasavada said.
Scientists suspect that winds long ago circled inside the crater, transporting sediment that eventually built up Mount Sharp, which rises slightly above the basin's rim. Winds also likely play a role in forming and moving sand dunes that ring Mount Sharp today.
"We are trying to figure out how much sediment is going in today, how much is able to be carried out and then projecting that backward in time, using our computer simulations, to figure out basically how the mound came to be and what processes have shaped it and formed it and then eroded it over time," Vasavada said.
With a single wind sensor, "we can do very well," he added. "The only thing is there would be a small ambiguity if the wind were coming from directly behind the boom."
Mars Rover Curiosity to Take 1st Martian Drive Wednesday
Mike Wall - Space.com
After more than two weeks of sitting still, NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is finally set to roll out on the Red Planet with its debut drive on Wednesday.
Engineers successfully tested the rover's steering abilities Monday, and now they're ready to turn its six wheels for the first time since Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 5, officials announced Tuesday.
"Everything's in fine shape, and that means we are 'go' for our first test drive tomorrow," Curiosity mission manager Mike Watkins, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters Tuesday.
Curiosity's first drive on Mars will be a short one. The rover will move about 10 feet (3 meters) forward, turn in place to the right, and then back up a few meters. The whole operation should take the rover about 30 minutes, Watkins said
Taking it slow
The 1-ton Curiosity rover is the heart of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL), which seeks to determine if the Red Planet could ever have hosted microbial life. The rover is exploring a huge crater called Gale that's about 96 miles wide (154 kilometers) .
Curiosity's main target is the base of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 km) mountain rising from Gale Crater's center. Mount Sharp's foothills appear to bear clays and sulfates, suggesting the area was exposed to liquid water long ago.
But the rover's first big set of drives will take it away from its ultimate destination, toward a spot mission scientists have dubbed Glenelg. Glenelg, which is about 1,300 feet (400 m) from Curiosity's landing site, hosts three different geological formations that mission scientists are eager to investigate.
If all goes well with tomorrow's driving test and a few other checkouts, Watkins said, Curiosity could start heading for Glenelg around Sol 20 or so — mission lingo for its 20th full day on Mars. That corresponds roughly to Saturday (Aug. 25), since Sol 16 begins this evening.
The mission team eventually wants Curiosity to cover about 330 feet (100 m) or more of Martian ground in a big driving day, but that probably won't happen for a while.
"It's going to take us a little while to get up to that rate," Watkins said. "This first set of drives — not just the test drive tomorrow but actually the drive to Glenelg — we'll probably do that in pretty small chunks, just to evaluate, you know, what's going on and take a look at the processing algorithms. My guess is that those are going to go in 10- to 20-meter chunks."
In good shape
Researchers have been checking out Curiosity and its 10 science instruments since the rover landed, ensuring that it's ready for its two-year surface mission.
By and large, the checkouts have been going extremely well, team members have said. On Sunday (Aug. 19), for example, engineers deployed Curiosity's 7-foot-long (2.1 m) robotic arm for the first time and did motor checks on its many tools, which include a percussive drill and soil-scooping gear.
"All of that went successfully as well," Watkins said.
And on Friday (Aug. 17), Curiosity used its Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument for the first time on Mars. DAN measures the amount of hydrogen — an indicator of water — in the Martian soil by peppering the ground with neutrons and then observing the extent to which they scatter back.
Curiosity's ChemCam instrument — which fires a laser at rocks and then determines their composition by analyzing the vaporized bits — also got its first workout over the weekend. It's performing even better than anticipated, researchers said.
Curiosity's onboard weather station, which is called REMS (short for Rover Environmental Monitoring Station), has been switched on. From Aug. 16 to Aug. 17, it measured ground temperatures as high as 37 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) and as low as minus 131.8 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 91 degrees Celsius).
However, REMS is not working perfectly on the Martian surface. Wind sensors on one of the instruments' two booms have been damaged, perhaps by rocks deposited on Curiosity's deck during or shortly after landing, researchers said.
But wind sensors on the other boom are working fine, so the team doesn't anticipate too much of an impact.
"We still retain nearly the full capability, just with a little bit of ambiguity in terms of wind direction," said MSL deputy project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL.
Martian Curiosity: How Do You Drive a $2.5 Billion Mars Rover?
Mike Wall - Space.com
Taking a 1-ton Mars rover out for a Red Planet spin may be an otherworldly adventure, but it isn't full of heart-pumping action like a video game.
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is set to make its first test drive Wednesday (Aug. 22), then head out toward a spot called Glenelg in the coming days. Curiosity's drivers will guide the six-wheeled robot on the 1,300-foot (400-meter) trek to Glenelg — not with a joystick, but via commands uploaded on a daily basis.
"The rover may be powered off while we're actually doing our planning, and so we'll have eight or more hours to do our sequencing," said Jeff Biesiadecki of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Then we'll send up a command load to the rover and tell it step-by-step what it needs to do."
Team of drivers
Biesiadecki is one of 16 drivers for Curiosity, which touched down inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5. The rover is the heart of NASA's $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL), which aims to determine if the Red Planet could ever have supported microbial life.
The rover drivers don't just focus on moving Curiosity's wheels, Biesiadecki said. They also operate its 7-foot (2.1-m) robotic arm, which is equipped with a percussive drill and soil-scooping gear, among other tools. And the drivers work to make sure samples snagged by the arm get deposited into the analysis instruments on Curiosity's body.
Such activities are generally mapped out a day ahead of time by the rover science team, then written up as code by the drivers.
So Curiosity has its orders when it rises to greet each Martian day, or "sol." The rover team doesn't want to plan things out too far in advance, scientists have said, because priorities can change from sol to sol depending on what Curiosity finds.
Curiosity carries 17 different cameras to help it study and negotiate the Gale Crater terrain. The drivers are particularly interested in photos snapped by Curiosity's four navigation cameras, which sit on its head-like mast.
"We get a stereo view of Mars from those cameras," Biesiadecki told SPACE.com "Those [images] are a key element of helping us decide where we're going to go the next day, and what routes are safe. So basically, after the rover downlinks its imagery, then all our planning takes place."
Some autonomy
While Curiosity is ultimately dependent on its Earth-bound handlers, it does have an autonomous navigation mode that allows it a bit of freedom on the Martian surface.
"The rover is going to be able to choose its own path," Biesiadecki said of this mode. "It will take images as needed to look for obstacles along the way, and drive around them. The disadvantage is that it's much slower for it to do that."
Curiosity's autonomous mode will come in handy when the MSL team wants to send the rover somewhere not covered by the previous day's set of images, Biesiadecki said. But the drivers won't test out this capability right off the bat.
"Our initial drives are going to be in the much more 'do exactly what we tell you to do' mode," Biesiadecki said. "So that will be, 'Drive this many meters; stop, turn this much; take an image; drive this many more meters.'"
NASA officials have called Curiosity the most complex and capable robotic explorer ever sent to another planet. But driving it is similar to operating the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in January 2004, Biesiadecki said. Opportunity is still roving across the Martian landscape today, more than eight years later.
"We really tried to build on the experience that we had from MER," he said. "We've got the same drive pattern. We have the same engineering cameras onboard, for instance, and so that dictates a lot of how we do our work."
Taking it slow
Curiosity's first substantial drives will send it toward Glenelg, where three different types of geological terrain come together in one place.
Though Glenelg is just four football fields away, it'll probably take Curiosity a month or more to get there, mission managers have said. That's because Curiosity will take things slow initially, and scientists may want to stop along the way to do some science work.
Curiosity's ultimate destination, however, is the base of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5 kilometers) mountain rising from Gale Crater's center. Mars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted evidence of clays and sulfates in Mount Sharp's foothills, suggesting the area was exposed to liquid water long ago.
The interesting Mount Sharp deposits are about 5 miles (8 km) away from Curiosity's landing site as the crow flies, so getting to them will be quite a trek, especially since the rover is not exactly a speed demon. The MSL team hopes Curiosity can eventually cover 330 feet (100 m) or more of Martian ground in a big day of driving.
Biesiadecki and his fellow drivers are eager to get Curiosity headed toward Glenelg, and then on to Mount Sharp.
"For all rover planners, I think I can safely say we're itching to go, and Curiosity's ready to roll," Biesiadecki said.
END
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