8/30/12 news

 
 
Thursday, August 30, 2012
 
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
2.            Astronaut Nutrition Data Feeds Several Studies
3.            Win a Prize: JSC Features and 'Roundup' Readership Contest
4.            Financial Wellness Counseling Continues Through September                                                                                                            
5.            NASA Night with the Houston Astros
6.            Back to School
7.            Hack:space: Alternative Onsite Collaboration Space
8.            Back by Popular Demand: Opening Up Your Organization to Innovative Tools
9.            Stairways & Ladders ViTS - 8 a.m., Sept. 21
10.          OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety & Health - Sept. 24-28, Building 226N, Room 174
11.          Flag Football is Back - Sign Your Team Up Now
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ I like to deliver more than I promise instead of the other way around. ”
 
-- Dorothy Uhnak
________________________________________
1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
You correctly guessed that the Building 45 library-to-clinic conversion is our next big construction project. We will literally turn the page to better health. Gabby Douglas was your favorite Olympian this summer. I still don't know how they do those triple flips on the balance beam.
 
Many, many tributes to Neil Armstrong started this week. Question one is asking if you remember his first steps on the moon? Working here? Too young? Question two is about all of the celebrity issues we've seen this past week. Which one of the celebrities listed had the toughest week? Randy? Lance? Vince?
 
Merle your Haggard on over to get this week's poll.
 
Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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2.            Astronaut Nutrition Data Feeds Several Studies
Studying the human body in spaceflight is a significant mission for NASA scientists and researchers. Often, what they discover can benefit people on Earth with the same or similar conditions. International Space Station crews continuously participate in human research investigations both on the ground and in orbit. Two current studies are Dietary Intake Can Predict and Protect Against Changes in Bone Metabolism during Spaceflight and Recovery, or Pro K, and Nutritional Status Assessment or Nutrition.
 
To read the full story and watch interviews with key personnel, click http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/astronaut_diet_video....
 
JSC External Relations Office, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
 
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3.            Win a Prize: JSC Features and 'Roundup' Readership Contest
The following questions are based on the most recent editions of JSC Features and "Roundup." Answer correctly, and you are automatically entered into each drawing. Prize winners will be announced Monday, Sept. 4. Content writers and Office of Communications and Public Affairs team members are not eligible. Email your answers to Neesha Hosein at: fareena.n.hosein@nasa.gov
 
JSC Features:
 
(Two-part question) Fill in the blank: Starport was previously known as _____, and name TWO of their "most memorable milestones."
 
"Roundup," August edition:
 
What crew "splashed up" on June 22 and encountered the sweet smell of success (and salt) ...?
 
 
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/roundup/online/
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/jscfeatures/
 
Neesha Hosein x27516
 
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4.            Financial Wellness Counseling Continues Through September
You've still got a little time to sharpen your financial fitness IQ with Exploration Wellness. Even though Financial Wellness classes conclude onsite today, complimentary personal financial counseling services will continue through September. Turn education into action by learning the appropriate steps to follow with an expert.
 
Final Classes Today:
Estate Planning Intro: basic terms and concepts of the estate planning process for you or a loved one
Estate Planning Advanced: learn what being the executor of an estate means, a series of planning worksheets will also be reviewed
 
Financial Counseling Continues Through September:
We realize that people are busy! Employees who wanted to attend classes but were unable to may take advantage of the complimentary financial counseling. Anyone who was able to attend class but has not scheduled their counseling session may still do so. Family members are encouraged to participate.
 
Enrollment details are at the link below.
 
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://www.explorationwellness.com/rd/AE108.aspx?Aug_Signup.pdf
 
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5.            NASA Night with the Houston Astros
Celebrate NASA Night at the Ballpark with discounted tickets! Game is Friday, Sept. 14, against the Philadelphia Phillies at 7:05 p.m. First 10,000 fans will receive an Astros fleece blanket, plus enjoy a post-game NASA-themed fireworks show. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ for ticket pricing and purchase information.
 
Shellly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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6.            Back to School
Back to school time is an exciting sometimes scary time of year. From preschool through high school, parents can help ease the transitions and promote a more pleasant, productive year. When is a child ready to stay home alone before or after school? How can I ease power struggles over homework or bedtime? For the new school year, join Gay Yarbrough, LCSW, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program for a refresher course on Parenting for Back to School.
 
Date: Aug. 30
Time: Noon to 1 p.m.
Location: Building 30 Auditorium
 
Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130
 
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7.            Hack:space: Alternative Onsite Collaboration Space
Need an alternative place to work onsite? Another collaboration space is open in Building 29, Room 237, for meetings, teleworkers or just people who want a change of location. White board tables, projector+screen, Liquid Galaxy and wireless available. The room cannot be reserved but is open for all collaborators. (Directions: http://open.nasa.gov/space/
 
Ali Llewellyn x40096 http://open.nasa.gov
 
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8.            Back by Popular Demand: Opening Up Your Organization to Innovative Tools
The SA Human Systems Academy is pleased to offer "Opening Up Your Organization to Innovative Tools." This is a repeat of the first course in the series, "Collaborative and Open Innovation: Techniques to Increase Your Productivity." This first course focuses on the philosophy that spurs innovation and self-assessment activities to help participants understand how to define where they are in the continuum and identify areas of improvement as well as tools for support. The goal is to ignite individual responsibility and contribution through self-awareness on the topic. This course will be held Wednesday, Sept. 5, at 9 a.m. in Building 15, Conference Room 267.
 
For registration, please go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
 
Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/
 
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9.            Stairways & Ladders ViTS - 8 a.m., Sept. 21
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0065: This course is based on OSHA CFR 1926.1050 through 1926.1059 Subpart X - Stairways and Ladders. During the class, the student will become familiar with the general requirements for working on stairways and ladders (OSHA CFR 1926.1051), OSHA CFR 1926.1052 (stairways), OSHA CFR 1926.1053 (Ladders) and OSHA CFR 1926.1060 (training requirements in the construction industry). The student will be shown the working guidelines, training requirements and inspection requirements for ladders. There will be a final exam associated with this course that must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
 
Registration in SATERN is required.
 
Shirley Robinson x41284
 
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10.          OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety & Health - Sept. 24-28, Building 226N, Room 174
This four-and-a-half-day course assists the student in effectively conducting construction inspections and oversight. Participants are provided with basic information about construction standards, construction hazards and control, health hazards, trenching and excavation operations, cranes, electrical hazards in construction, steel erection, ladders, scaffolds, concrete and heavy construction equipment. This course is based on the OSHA Training Institute Construction Safety course and is approved for award of the OSHA course completion card. Course may include a field exercise at a construction site, if feasible. A 30-hour Construction OSHA card will be issued. There will be a final exam associated with this course that must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
 
Registration in SATERN is required.
 
Shirley Robinson x41284
 
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11.          Flag Football is Back - Sign Your Team Up Now
It's football season, and that mean's Starport's Flag Football League is back! Sign your team up today!
 
Registration closing on Thursday, Sept. 6
- Flag Football (co-ed and men's)
 
Additional open league registrations:
- Closes Aug. 30 -- softball (co-ed and men's)
- Closes Aug. 31 -- basketball (Thursdays)
- Closes Sept. 5 -- dodge ball (co-ed)
- Closes Sept. 6 -- flag football, kickball and ultimate Frisbee
 
Upcoming Registrations:
- Sept. 6 to 27 -- soccer
 
Free-agent registration now open for all leagues. All league participants must register at: http://www.IMLeagues.com/NASA-Starport
 
For more detailed information about each league, please visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/ or call the Gilruth information desk at 281-483-0304.
 
All leagues will fill up fast, so don't wait!
 
Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports/
 
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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: UNDERWAY– Suni Williams (5th) & Aki Hoshide (1st) EVA coverage (starts ~7 CDT)
 
Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – August 30, 2012
 

Orion parachute test over the Yuma Army Proving Ground in Arizona Tuesday
 
HEADLINES AND LEADS
 
Station astronauts set for NASA spacewalk
 
William Harwood - CBS News
 
Space station astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide completed final preparations Wednesday for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Thursday to replace a balky power switching unit on the lab's solar array truss and install cables that will route electricity to a Russian lab module scheduled for launch next year. "This particular (power distribution) box has failed in such a way that it's passing power, but it can no longer be switched," said spacewalk officer Kieth Johnson at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "In order to do future operations, we need to take that box out and put one in that allows us to do that.
 
Space Station Astronauts to Take Spacewalk Today
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station today as part of the first planned NASA spacewalk in more than a year. American astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide plan to make several repairs and upgrades to the exterior of the orbiting outpost during their 6.5-hour spacewalk. The duo is scheduled to float out of the space station's Quest airlock at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT).
 
NASA Tests Gigantic Parachutes for the Next Manned Space Capsule
 
Rebecca Boyle - Popular Science
 
Even the space shuttle, which glided through the atmosphere and landed like an airplane, had parachutes to help slow it down — they’re the most effective drag-inducers out there. But you’d better be sure they work. NASA is testing the giant heavyweight parachutes being developed for the next space capsule that will ferry humans into orbit, Orion. Flying at 25,000 feet above the U.S. Yuma Army Proving Ground Tuesday, a C-130 Hercules dropped the little dart thing you see at the bottom, which simulates Orion’s parachute compartment. At 20,000 feet, the drogue chutes deployed, followed by small pilot chutes that ultimately deployed the three huge parachutes seen here. Each of the main chutes is 116 feet in diameter and weighs more than 300 pounds, according to NASA.
 
Another good day for NASA at YPG
 
Hillary Davis - Yuma Sun
 

 
The "lawn dart" has landed. NASA engineers conducted another successful airdrop test this week of Orion space capsule parachutes at Yuma Proving Ground. This time, instead of using a test object that looks like the capsule that NASA hopes will eventually take astronauts into space, scientists dropped a missile-shaped object. The Parachute Compartment Drop Test Vehicle (PCDTV), nicknamed the “lawn dart,” made its journey toward the desert floor from a C-130 Tuesday morning.
 
Obama Says Space Exploration a 'Big Priority' During Reddit Chat
 
Mike Wall - Space.com
 
During a surprise online chat Wednesday, President Barack Obama said keeping America's space program strong is a big priority for his administration. Obama hosted an "Ask Me Anything" session with the public on the popular social news site Reddit Wednesday. "Making sure we stay at the forefront of space exploration is a big priority for my administration. The passing of Neil Armstrong this week is a reminder of the inspiration and wonder that our space program has provided in the past; the curiosity probe on mars is a reminder of what remains to be discovered," Obama replied, referring to the 1-ton NASA rover that touched down on the Red Planet Aug. 5.
 
A year on the ISS: Good for tourists – and science
 
Victoria Jaggard - New Scientist
 
Is the ISS set to get its own phantom? Reports are swirling that diva of London's West End Sarah Brightman, whose angelic voice lofted her to stardom in the original stage cast of Phantom of the Opera, is to begin training to become the next space tourist to visit the International Space Station. But before Brightman can make the music of the night in orbit, US and Russian space agencies will have to find a way to clear a seat on the Soyuz capsule, right now the only way for humans to reach the ISS. Restarting rides for paying customers could be part of the impetus behind news that NASA is now mulling a longer tour of duty for astronauts on the space station: a full year at a stretch, beginning as soon as 2015.
 
Space competition experiments set for September
 
Associated Press
 
Science experiments from two Michigan high school students and a young man from Egypt are expected to be performed next month aboard the International Space Station. Organizers of the competition to have experiments done by astronauts 250 miles above Earth announced Wednesday that TV personality Bill Nye will host a live online video stream of the experiments Sept. 13.
 
Space shuttle boosters complete cross-country trip for future display
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
A football-field-long convoy trucking two space shuttle solid rocket boosters rolled up to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Wednesday, after a two week transcontinental road trip from Florida. The twin 149-foot long (45 meter) boosters are destined for a vertical display with NASA's space shuttle Endeavour. While the retired orbiter is set to arrive in Los Angeles next month, its launch pad-like exhibit at the California Science Center (CSC) won't be ready for several more years. Until then, Endeavour will be placed in a temporary, horizontal display while the rockets remain in storage at Dryden.
 
Honey in space
 
The Guardian (Canada)
 
Island Abbey Foods Ltd. has announced that its Honibe Honey Drop is going up to the International Space Station as part of the official Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Snacks For Space competition which identifies Canadian snack solutions for use in space. The Honey Drop, only one of a select few chosen from over 150 submissions, will be going into space as a novel food innovation and will provide the International Space Station crew with an alternative to the liquid honey currently used during their missions.
 
Let's Not Wait for Utopia Before We Send Humans to Mars
 
Chris Carberry & Artemis Westenberg - Huffington Post (Opinion)
 
(Carberry is Executive Dir. of Explore Mars, Inc. & Westenberg is President of Explore Mars, Inc.)
 
As we celebrate the success of the Curiosity rover on Mars and reflect on the remarkable life of Neil Armstrong, it's not hard to imagine what amazing achievements in space exploration can be accomplished/attained in the next few decades. However, not everyone is supportive of exploring space. Skeptics are often heard saying: "How can we explore space when there is so much poverty in the world?" Although poverty unquestionably is a problem in this nation and around the world, stopping our exploration of space is unlikely to reduce poverty. On the contrary, it would almost certainly be counterproductive to the worldwide poverty issue.
 
Congress, White House must work towards a strong space policy
 
Rep. Pete Olson (R-Tex.) - TheHill.com (Commentary)
 
Like millions of Americans, I mourn the loss of Neil Armstrong, a personal hero and a national icon. One of my earliest childhood memories was of watching the Eagle lunar module land on the Moon and later that night, my parents waking us to see history in the making as Neil stepped out of the “LEM” onto the lunar surface. It was an historic first step by a human being on another celestial body. The accomplishments of the Apollo moon missions are on my mind and even more so with the passing of Neil Armstrong. Why? Because leaving the Moon in 1972 with no planned return was like winning the Super Bowl, then skipping the playoffs for more than forty years. America's absence from the field of human space exploration is not the result of a lack of talent, but from a failure to develop a game plan and the visionary leadership to see it through.
 
MEANWHILE ON MARS…
 
NASA Mars rover begins trek to new destination
 
Associated Press
 
The Mars rover Curiosity is hitting the road. It headed east Tuesday, driving 52 feet toward a spot where it will use its robotic arm for the first time to drill into bedrock. It'll take weeks for the six-wheel NASA rover to reach the site called Glenelg about a quarter mile away. "It's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," mission manager Arthur Amador said in a statement Wednesday.
 
NASA Mars Curiosity rover starts rolling to Glenelg Intrigue
 
Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times
 
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover is on the move toward a key point of interest -- a spot about a quarter-mile southeast of its landing site that may become the rover’s first drill target. That spot, called Glenelg Intrigue, lies at the confluence of three different types of terrain -- and scientists working on the Mars Science Laboratory mission plan to use Curiosity to investigate what sort of geological history brings such different types of rocky material together.
 
Mars Rover Curiosity Begins 1st Long Martian Drive
 
Space.com
 
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has left its landing site, embarking upon a weeks-long Martian road trip toward its first major science target, mission officials announced Wednesday. Curiosity headed off eastward Tuesday toward a spot called Glenelg, where three different types of terrain come together in one place. The 52-foot (16-meter) drive marks the rover's first big move away from "Bradbury Landing," where Curiosity touched down on the night of Aug. 5.
__________
 
COMPLETE STORIES
 
Station astronauts set for NASA spacewalk
 
William Harwood - CBS News
 
Space station astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide completed final preparations Wednesday for a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk Thursday to replace a balky power switching unit on the lab's solar array truss and install cables that will route electricity to a Russian lab module scheduled for launch next year.
 
"This particular (power distribution) box has failed in such a way that it's passing power, but it can no longer be switched," said spacewalk officer Kieth Johnson at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "In order to do future operations, we need to take that box out and put one in that allows us to do that.
 
"Another task we're doing on the EVA is cable routing, two primary and redundant power cables to the Russian multi-purpose laboratory module. We start on the U.S. segment and run it over to the interface between the Russian and U.S. segments. Then the Russians later on will run their half of that cabling."
 
For identification Williams, call sign EV-1, will be wearing a spacesuit with red stripes while Hoshide, call sign EV-2, will wear an unmarked suit. The excursion is scheduled to begin around 8:15 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Thursday when the astronauts, floating in the U.S. Quest airlock module, switch their suits to battery power.
 
This will be the 164th spacewalk devoted to station construction and and maintenance since assembly began in 1998, the third so far this year, the fifth for Williams and the first for Hoshide. Going into the EVA, 108 astronauts and cosmonauts have logged 1,027 hours and 38 minutes -- 42.8 days -- of station EVA time.
 
Williams, Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko were launched to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on July 14, joining Expedition 32 commander Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba.
 
A veteran Navy helicopter pilot, Williams will replace Padalka as commander of the outpost later this fall. She spent 195 days in space during a 2006-2007 stay aboard the outpost, logging 29 hours and 17 minutes of spacewalk time during four EVAs. Hoshide, an astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, visited the station during a 13-day shuttle mission in 2008.
 
"There's a couple of things that are really critical on the spacewalk," Williams said in a NASA interview. "One of them is replacing an MBSU, main bus switching unit. We have four of them on the space station, one of them hasn't been working quite a hundred percent for probably the last eight or nine months.
 
"We've been talking about trying to get this guy replaced. It's nothing critical at the moment, it just decreases some of our redundancy, and, of course, with a humungous space station that we have and all the laboratories that are running and all the power that's coming from the solar arrays, we like to have as much flexibility as possible. So we'd like to replace that MBSU."
 
Power generated by the station's eight solar array wings, four on each end of the lab's main truss, is routed to four main bus switching units, all located in the central S0 truss segment. Two power channels feed into each 220-pound MBSU, which in turn deliver 160-volt array power to a pair of DC-to-DC converter units. The DDCUs step the primary power down to the 124 volts used inside the station.
 
The MBSUs are critical to station operation, providing grounding and allowing flight controllers or station astronauts to crosstie power channels or to isolate them as needed when problems develop. MBSU No. 1 is delivering power, but it no longer responds to commands or provides detailed diagnostic information.
 
The second major objective of Thursday's spacewalk is to route cables from the U.S. segment of the station to the interface with Russia's modules that will provide power from the station's U.S. solar arrays to a Russian laboratory module scheduled for launch late next year.
 
The multi-purpose laboratory module will be attached to the Earth-facing port of the Zvezda command module after the Pirs docking compartment currently attached is jettisoned next year.
 
Williams will focus on the cable installation work while Hoshide, spending most of his time anchored to the end of the station's robot arm, replaces MBSU No. 1. If time is available, the astronauts will remove a balky camera from the robot arm, replace another camera on a Japanese experiment platform and install a protective cover over the station's forward docking port.
 
"So the spacewalk is a little bit split, it's actually two spacewalks, which we combined into one," Williams said before launch. "One spacewalker will be primarily doing the MBSU ... and then the other crew member will be laying the cables from the S0 (truss segment) all the way back toward the FGB (Russian Zarya module). So it'll be great if we can get all that work done."
 
Johnson said Williams and Hoshide practiced most of the work in NASA's giant EVA swimming pool near the Johnson Space Center that simulates the weightless environment of space. Even though the training took place months ago, and even though some of the details have changed, Johnson said the astronauts are up to speed.
 
"The crew has seen this in the water several times, so they've got good training," he said. "But what ends up happening, we change priorities and we change the tasks that they looked  at in their training a while ago. But we think that by getting them the right information and talking with them before the EVA that we've minimized that aspect of the EVA."
 
Even so, he said, "we want to make sure we don't let the crew run long on a task. We've timelined it so that we can stop at various points to get them inside. We're comfortable with that."
 
Williams will exit the Quest airlock first and Hoshide will pass out tool bags and tethers. External stowage platform No. 2, where the spare MBSU is mounted, is just forward of the airlock hatch. After attaching tool bags to a tether, Williams will attach a handling aid to the replacement MBSU, fold insulation blankets back and use a power tool to loosen two bolts holding it in place.
 
She then will take the cable bundle and make her way forward to the interface between the Destiny laboratory module and the multi-hatch Unity compartment where cables carrying power from the U.S. solar arrays converge before entering the pressurized modules. She then will attach one end of a cable and route the rest aft toward the Russian segment.
 
Hoshide, meanwhile, will carry tools up to the forward face of the solar array truss where MBSU No. 1 is mounted and loosen the two bolts holding it in place. He'll then attach a handling fixture, connect a foot restraint to the station's robot arm and "climb aboard," anchoring his feet.
 
In a final test, flight controllers will power the MBSU down and back up to help diagnose its current condition. Then it will be powered down and Hoshide will remove it from its mounting plate.
 
Acaba, operating the arm from the multi-window cupola module, will move Hoshide and the MBSU you down to external stowage platform No. 2
 
Williams, meanwhile, plans to attach the second MLM cable and route it forward to the solar array truss, floating into the interior and plugging it into a power socket. By that point, Hoshide should be back at ESP 2, where he plans to temporarily stow the failed power unit before removing the replacement from its mounting plate.
 
Acaba will drive Hoshide and the replacement MBSU back up to the forward face of the S0 truss. Williams, after wrapping up work inside the truss, will join him for the actual installation, helping Hoshide line up the big box and bolt it down.
 
If time is available, Hoshide will remove a balky camera from from a mast on the arm's mobile base system and get off the arm before replacing a failed camera on the Canadian-built space crane. Williams, meanwhile, will be working to finish mounting MBSU No. 1 on the external stowage platform.
 
The astronauts also hope to replace another camera on a Japanese experiment platform and install a debris shield over the station's forward docking port.
 
Space Station Astronauts to Take Spacewalk Today
 
Denise Chow - Space.com
 
Two astronauts will venture outside the International Space Station today as part of the first planned NASA spacewalk in more than a year.
 
American astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese spaceflyer Akihiko Hoshide plan to make several repairs and upgrades to the exterior of the orbiting outpost during their 6.5-hour spacewalk. The duo is scheduled to float out of the space station's Quest airlock at 8:15 a.m. EDT (1215 GMT).
 
Today's excursion will be NASA's first spacewalk since former space station astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan completed maintenance tasks in the vacuum of space in July 2011. Fossum and Garan's spacewalk occurred while four NASA astronauts were visiting the station during the agency's final space shuttle mission.
 
The primary objectives for Williams and Hoshide will be to replace a faulty power box on the space station's backbone-like truss, install a series of cables, and remove a camera that recently broke on the station's 57-foot-long (17-meters-long) Canadarm 2 robotic arm.
 
The power box, which is known as a main bus switching unit, helps relay power throughout the orbiting complex.
 
"It's passing power, but can no longer be switched," Kieth Johnson, lead U.S. spacewalk officer at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters in a news briefing on Aug. 14. "In order to do future operations, we need to take that box out and put one in that allows us to do that."
 
After switching out the box with a spare, the defunct unit will be temporarily stored on a cargo platform attached to the exterior of the space station.
 
Next, Williams will get to work installing cables for a new Russian laboratory module that is expected to launch to the orbiting outpost in 2013, Johnson said. Part of this wiring work will require her to climb inside a section of the station's truss.
 
Once that is complete, Hoshide will remove the failed camera from the Canadarm 2 robotic arm, and replace it with a new one.
 
If there is extra time, the spacewalkers may also install a micrometeoroid debris shield over part of an American module, remove a camera located on the exterior of the Japanese Kibo laboratory, and troubleshoot power and data wires on the Russian Zarya module, Johnson added.
 
Today's excursion will be Williams' fifth spacewalk and Hoshide's first time working in the vacuum of space. The outing is the third this year, but only the second spacewalk of the station's current Expedition 32 mission. Two Russian cosmonauts previously spent nearly six hours working outside the complex on Aug. 20.
 
The space station's six-person crew includes Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Yuri Malenchenko and Sergei Revin, Americans Joe Acaba and Sunita Williams, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
 
NASA Tests Gigantic Parachutes for the Next Manned Space Capsule
 
Rebecca Boyle - Popular Science
 
Even the space shuttle, which glided through the atmosphere and landed like an airplane, had parachutes to help slow it down — they’re the most effective drag-inducers out there. But you’d better be sure they work. NASA is testing the giant heavyweight parachutes being developed for the next space capsule that will ferry humans into orbit, Orion.
 
Flying at 25,000 feet above the U.S. Yuma Army Proving Ground Tuesday, a C-130 Hercules dropped the little dart thing you see at the bottom, which simulates Orion’s parachute compartment. At 20,000 feet, the drogue chutes deployed, followed by small pilot chutes that ultimately deployed the three huge parachutes seen here. Each of the main chutes is 116 feet in diameter and weighs more than 300 pounds, according to NASA.
 
The test proved these chutes can withstand the fastest possible speeds at which Orion capsules will scream into the atmosphere on re-entry. The Apollo-esque capsule won’t have any other means of slowing down — no sky crane or delta wings to create an upward force.
 
The beleaguered Orion program is scheduled to launch its first test flight in two years, in which an unmanned Orion capsule will travel 3,600 miles into space. That’s about 15 times farther away from Earth than the orbit of the International Space Station (and that of the shuttles), but still a far cry from the moon, an asteroid or Mars, where you would also need a very large and powerful high-speed parachute. Still, at least this is a sign it will come down safely.
 
Another good day for NASA at YPG
 
Hillary Davis - Yuma Sun
 

 
The "lawn dart" has landed.
 
NASA engineers conducted another successful airdrop test this week of Orion space capsule parachutes at Yuma Proving Ground. This time, instead of using a test object that looks like the capsule that NASA hopes will eventually take astronauts into space, scientists dropped a missile-shaped object.
 
The Parachute Compartment Drop Test Vehicle (PCDTV), nicknamed the “lawn dart,” made its journey toward the desert floor from a C-130 Tuesday morning.
 
The focus of the test was on the drogue chutes, the first set of parachutes in the landing sequence. Engineers aimed to expose the chutes to maximum dynamic pressure, like what they might face when returning from space – for an idea of dynamic pressure, think of that pressure you feel when you stick your hand out of the window or sunroof of a fast-moving car, said Stu McClung, one of the project engineers dealing with landing systems.
 
The cargo plane dropped the PCDTV from an altitude of 25,000 feet and the drogue chutes opened at about 20,000 feet. They were followed by the pilot chutes and then the main chutes.
 
The 20,000-pound PCDTV is similar in weight to the capsule-shaped test article, but it's hardier – thus, cheaper to repair – and of different dimensions, making it more cost-effective to include in the testing series. It was dropped from a C-130, while the capsule is dropped from a larger C-17.
 
Tuesday's test was the 6th in a planned series of 18. The last test at YPG was in July, using the capsule test vehicle and studying what would happen if one of the three main parachutes prematurely opened and inflated too quickly, and what effect it would have on the other two chutes. The next test will be in November, also using the capsule.
 
The Orion program is the next generation of space exploration, replacing the shuttle program. In the nearer term, the Yuma tests are leading up to the planned 2014 orbit flight test of an unmanned Orion craft some 3,600 miles above Earth's surface.
 
Obama Says Space Exploration a 'Big Priority' During Reddit Chat
 
Mike Wall - Space.com
 
During a surprise online chat Wednesday, President Barack Obama said keeping America's space program strong is a big priority for his administration.
 
Obama hosted an "Ask Me Anything" session with the public on the popular social news site Reddit Wednesday. The very first question he received during the hour-long session, which began at 4:30 pm EDT (2030 GMT), concerned NASA's future and budget.
 
"Making sure we stay at the forefront of space exploration is a big priority for my administration. The passing of Neil Armstrong this week is a reminder of the inspiration and wonder that our space program has provided in the past; the curiosity probe on mars is a reminder of what remains to be discovered," Obama replied, referring to the 1-ton NASA rover that touched down on the Red Planet Aug. 5.
 
"The key is to make sure that we invest in cutting edge research that can take us to the next level — so even as we continue work with the international space station, we are focused on a potential mission to a asteroid as a prelude to a manned Mars flight," he added.
 
These last words refer to NASA priorities the Obama Adminstration outlined in 2010. That year, the president cancelled NASA's moon-oriented Constellation program and directed the space agency to work toward getting astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, then on to the Mars vicinity by the mid-2030s.
 
While Obama lauded Curiosity's mission, which is going very well so far, the future of NASA's Mars exploration program is very much up in the air.
 
NASA's budget remains flat in the White House's 2013 federal budget request, which was released in February. But the space agency's robotic exploration program suffers a 20 percent cut, with much of the money coming out of the Mars program.
 
As a result, NASA dropped out of the European-led ExoMars mission, which aims to launch an orbiter and a rover to the Red Planet in 2016 and 2018, respectively. And the agency is downscaling and fundamentally reshaping its Mars exploration strategy.
 
A year on the ISS: Good for tourists – and science
 
Victoria Jaggard - New Scientist
 
Is the ISS set to get its own phantom?
 
Reports are swirling that diva of London's West End Sarah Brightman, whose angelic voice lofted her to stardom in the original stage cast of Phantom of the Opera, is to begin training to become the next space tourist to visit the International Space Station.
 
But before Brightman can make the music of the night in orbit, US and Russian space agencies will have to find a way to clear a seat on the Soyuz capsule, right now the only way for humans to reach the ISS.
 
Restarting rides for paying customers could be part of the impetus behind news that NASA is now mulling a longer tour of duty for astronauts on the space station: a full year at a stretch, beginning as soon as 2015.
 
Although the ISS has been continuously occupied since 2001, astronaut crews have normally spent no more than six months at a time on board. This limit is mostly fixed by the Russian Soyuz, which carries passengers to the ISS and then stays docked to the station to serve as a landing vehicle: after about six months, the capsule's fuel has degraded too much to guarantee a safe return.
 
NASA's space shuttle fleet helped take some of the pressure off, since it could also ferry people and supplies to and from the station. That left the Soyuz with an occasional empty seat, which Russia began to fill with privately funded travellers. These space tourists have paid up to $40 million each for the privilege.
 
With the shuttles now retired, astronauts from the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe all have to vie for a ticket to ride the three-person Soyuz, leaving no room for extras. If some crews stay up past the six-month expiration date, though, tourist season would once again be open.
 
Ostensibly, keeping crew members on the station for a full year could help answer some burning questions about the health effects of long-duration space flight. Although we can get robots to Mars in a matter of months, most human missions are expected to take about 400 to 500 days, round trip.
 
Shorter stays on space stations already show that astronauts can suffer from bone-mineral loss, muscle atrophy, vision impairment and radiation exposure. There is little information for longer-lasting space flights, so it's unclear how much worse things could get in the time it takes to reach the Red Planet.
 
That - rather than the prospect of putting sopranos into space - may be what affects decisions during a US election year. The Obama administration is already stressing its support for a space exploration programme that will send humans to an asteroid and then on to Mars.
 
Space competition experiments set for September
 
Associated Press
 
Science experiments from two Michigan high school students and a young man from Egypt are expected to be performed next month aboard the International Space Station.
 
Organizers of the competition to have experiments done by astronauts 250 miles above Earth announced Wednesday that TV personality Bill Nye will host a live online video stream of the experiments Sept. 13.
 
Dorothy Chen and Sara Ma were named winners in March in the 14- to 16-year-old age group. The Troy High School students' experiment asks the question: "Could alien superbugs cure disease on Earth?" Amr Mohamed from Egypt won the 17- to 18-year-old age group for an experiment about spiders.
 
They're expected to watch the online stream.
 
YouTube, Lenovo, and private space exploration company Space Adventures organized the competition.
 
Space shuttle boosters complete cross-country trip for future display
 
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
 
A football-field-long convoy trucking two space shuttle solid rocket boosters rolled up to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Wednesday, after a two week transcontinental road trip from Florida.
 
The twin 149-foot long (45 meter) boosters are destined for a vertical display with NASA's space shuttle Endeavour. While the retired orbiter is set to arrive in Los Angeles next month, its launch pad-like exhibit at the California Science Center (CSC) won't be ready for several more years. Until then, Endeavour will be placed in a temporary, horizontal display while the rockets remain in storage at Dryden.
 
The inert boosters were previously displayed from 1994 through 2011 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. Their transfer to the CSC was to make way for Kennedy's own exhibit of another retired shuttle, Atlantis.
 
During the 30-year shuttle program, the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) were more commonly moved in segments by train. The cross-country trip from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) to southern California required a modified tractor-trailer rig.
 
"We decided to keep them whole for the trip from KSC to California. The reason? The tolerances for joining the segments together are so precise that we couldn't guarantee the ability to reassemble them here on the West Coast even if we had been able to take them apart back in Florida," Ken Phillips, the CSC's curator for aerospace science, wrote on Facebook. "That decision posed a challenge for the science center but it was an added bonus for all the folks who saw the SRBs along the route."
 
The largest solid rocket motors ever developed, the four-segment space shuttle SRBs weighed about 1.3 million pounds (590,000 kg) when loaded with more than 1.1 million pounds (500,000 kg) of propellant. The boosters were each capable of producing 2,650,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, and provided the additional boost needed for the first two minutes of flight to escape the gravitational pull of Earth.
 
The boosters' propellant, which was primarily atomized aluminum powder fuel and ammonium perchlorate oxidizer bound together with a synthetic rubber compound, was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Edwards AFB.
 
Honey in space
 
The Guardian (Canada)
 
Island Abbey Foods Ltd. has announced that its Honibe Honey Drop is going up to the International Space Station as part of the official Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Snacks For Space competition which identifies Canadian snack solutions for use in space.
 
The Honey Drop, only one of a select few chosen from over 150 submissions, will be going into space as a novel food innovation and will provide the International Space Station crew with an alternative to the liquid honey currently used during their missions.
 
The drop was rated on a scale from 1-10 by the CSA. The CSA has given the Honibe Honey Drop a 7.2/9.0 score for organoleptic properties and an 8.0/9.0 score for suitability for space.
 
The drop is an individual serving of 100 per cent pure dried honey without any additives. It can be used to sweeten tea or coffee or can be consumed as a natural energy source. Company officials say the product is a healthier alternative to the sugar cube.
 
“After winning the top food prize on the planet in 2010, we are extremely excited about the Honibe Honey Drop tackling this next frontier… in space,” said John Rowe, president of Island Abbey Foods Ltd.
 
He said they will be sending the drops up to the International Space Station this fall. He says the station crew will be able to enjoy a nutritious food without all the sticky mess.
 
“We believe the ISS team will think our Honey Drops are truly out of this world,” he said.
 
Let's Not Wait for Utopia Before We Send Humans to Mars
 
Chris Carberry & Artemis Westenberg - Huffington Post (Opinion)
 
(Carberry is Executive Dir. of Explore Mars, Inc. & Westenberg is President of Explore Mars, Inc.)
 
As we celebrate the success of the Curiosity rover on Mars and reflect on the remarkable life of Neil Armstrong, it's not hard to imagine what amazing achievements in space exploration can be accomplished/attained in the next few decades. However, not everyone is supportive of exploring space. Skeptics are often heard saying: "How can we explore space when there is so much poverty in the world?" Although poverty unquestionably is a problem in this nation and around the world, stopping our exploration of space is unlikely to reduce poverty. On the contrary, it would almost certainly be counterproductive to the worldwide poverty issue.
 
It is important to realize that the NASA budget represents less than half of one percent of the federal budget. By comparison, social programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and other similar programs, account for over fifty percent of the budget. In other words, the annual budget for U.S. social programs is are more than 100 times greater than what NASA receives. To say that curtailing missions like Curiosity will solve our poverty problems is therefore false and hopelessly misguided. Even if we eliminated NASA completely, it would have a negligible impact on the total budget. It would be a drop on the budgetary bucket as NASA's budgets equals approximately two days of federal spending. This is still a lot of money, but far removed from what would be necessary to eliminate poverty even for a short time.
 
In reality, a focused and well-conceived space program has the strong potential to improve society -- reducing problems here at home. How?
 
First of all, all funding for space missions is spent here on Earth. It pays the salaries of some of the top scientists, engineers, inventors, and innovators in the world. These are the types of high-paying technical jobs that we constantly hear television pundits say are essential for the future competitiveness of the country and for maintaining a vibrant economy that will help keep thousands of people employed.
 
Probably no other federal agency has the power to inspire students to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education like NASA does when it has a focused and sustainable mission. If students actually believe we will be sending humans to Mars during the first half of their career, they will become engaged and many of them will enter science, engineering, and technology fields to be part of this great adventure. But the impact will not be limited to students. Committing to a human mission to Mars by 2030 will set a new tone for the nation -- one that can be a powerful catalyst for innovation and economic strength over the next several decades.
 
Investment in education and social programs are essential, but confidence in a limitless future can be a powerful motivator to allow students and others to raise themselves out of poverty. The Apollo program inspired millions and can be directly traced to many aspects of the technology and communications revolution of the following decades. Space technology is used every day in food production, weather forecasting, national security, and these technologies are connecting traditionally poor areas to the global community -- providing them new tools to lift themselves out of poverty.
 
We have two choices: We can decide to wait for utopia to materialize before we explore space and do other bold endeavors, or we can take risks, embrace innovation, and continue our tradition of exploration now, despite the fact that we live in an imperfect world. It is even possible that the achievements of human space exploration can develop the means to improve the world for us all through innovating energy production, water and air purification, food production or a myriad of other innovations that cannot even be imagined today. This combined with the potential for scientific discovery in space itself makes space exploration a bargain within the federal budget.
 
Rather than being "a penny wise, and a 'ton' foolish," by cutting our investment in space exploration, we should aim to spend every dollar as productively as possible and show the nation and the world that we are still on top. People in the United States need inspiration, and the modest sum that is spent on space will not eliminate poverty if those funds were redirected for that purpose. Yet it can give them inspiration and hope; showing them that humans can do great things when given the chance. Let's honor the memory and dreams of Neil Armstrong. Let's continue his small step by landing astronauts on Mars by the year 2030.
 
Congress, White House must work towards a strong space policy
 
Rep. Pete Olson (R-Tex.) - TheHill.com (Commentary)
 
Like millions of Americans, I mourn the loss of Neil Armstrong, a personal hero and a national icon. One of my earliest childhood memories was of watching the Eagle lunar module land on the Moon and later that night, my parents waking us to see history in the making as Neil stepped out of the “LEM” onto the lunar surface. It was an historic first step by a human being on another celestial body.
 
The accomplishments of the Apollo moon missions are on my mind and even more so with the passing of Neil Armstrong. Why? Because leaving the Moon in 1972 with no planned return was like winning the Super Bowl, then skipping the playoffs for more than forty years. America's absence from the field of human space exploration is not the result of a lack of talent, but from a failure to develop a game plan and the visionary leadership to see it through.
 
With his historic "one small step," the extraordinary NASA team fulfilled America’s ultimate goal, a bold mission pronounced by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, of "putting a man on the Moon and safely returning him to Earth." When the president died in 1963, this goal was far from realized, but Presidents Johnson and Nixon kept the dream alive. The support for and resolve of, the NASA team strengthened - and they were successful.
 
In the years since his mission, Armstrong believed deeply that America should continue to explore new worlds. Upon learning the Obama Administration had cancelled NASA's plans to return to the Moon, Armstrong - a very private man - became a vocal critic of this lack of ambition and the willingness to allow other nations to surpass America’s space leadership. The state of NASA's human space exploration plans, he told Congress last fall, is "lamentably embarrassing and unacceptable."
 
One of the highlights of my life was shaking the hand of my childhood hero. We were united in our opposition to President Obama's plan to cancel the Constellation program and diminish the priority of human spaceflight in his 2010 budget and National Space Policy. I was humbled and honored to work with him and several other Apollo astronauts to fight to restore a strong NASA budget and a comprehensive human space exploration program.
 
America needs a clear and purposeful mission worthy of our nation’s continued investment to regain our leading role and remain competitive in the global space industry.
 
To accomplish this, we need a president with vision and the will to encourage and work with Congress to develop a comprehensive space policy. We need a leader who understands that American exceptionalism is embodied in pioneering efforts to explore the universe. Achieving these goals will result in the kind of breakthrough research and development that gave us advanced computers, global positioning systems and satellites, life-saving medical technology, and countless other innovations and inventions that have improved our quality of life.
 
Those who argue we do not have the resources or say government should not play a role in space exploration are short-sighted and wrong. Our national security demands that we have better technology than China for our satellites and intelligence operations. Congress and the White House must make the national investments needed to maintain U.S. dominance in this arena. A strong space policy also inspires future generations to seek careers in science, technology, engineering and math - the STEM disciplines needed to retain the talent and genius required to maintain global competitiveness.
 
But what drives all these tangible space priorities is the basic human desire to explore and expand our knowledge and comprehension of the possible. Therefore, we must outline a clear, long-term human spaceflight strategy with specific, near-term goals. We should return to the Moon by 2020 with the larger goal of then setting foot on Mars. Congress can sensibly appropriate, authorize and enact multi-year funding to provide stability for the development of the complex space systems needed to achieve these goals. And finally, we must reorient NASA for the long-term, focusing on the agency’s foundations of space exploration and aeronautics research.
 
Neil Armstrong's life and legacy of hard work, dedication, intellect and humble nature epitomized all that is great about America. Our nation suffers a loss, but his courage and commitment will live on. We can honor his legacy by supporting a strong human space exploration program that returns Americans to the Moon and then takes them to Mars and beyond.
 
MEANWHILE ON MARS…
 
NASA Mars rover begins trek to new destination
 
Associated Press
 
The Mars rover Curiosity is hitting the road.
 
It headed east Tuesday, driving 52 feet toward a spot where it will use its robotic arm for the first time to drill into bedrock. It'll take weeks for the six-wheel NASA rover to reach the site called Glenelg about a quarter mile away.
 
"It's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," mission manager Arthur Amador said in a statement Wednesday.
 
The drive was the third and longest one yet since the car-size rover touched down in an ancient crater Aug. 5 to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for life. The early drives have been deliberately short, allowing Curiosity to identify any hazards on the road and so that engineers can gain practice driving on the Martian terrain.
 
Scientists have said they eventually expect the rover to travel about the length of a football field a day.
 
Curiosity spent Wednesday at its new locale, snapping pictures of a distant mountain that is its ultimate destination. Intriguing layers of rocks have been spotted at the base and most of its two-year mission will be spent examining the lower slopes.
 
Since landing, Curiosity has been busy checking out its instruments and it's not done yet. Next week, it will make a longer stop along the way to Glenelg to continue its health checkups.
 
NASA Mars Curiosity rover starts rolling to Glenelg Intrigue
 
Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times
 
NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover is on the move toward a key point of interest -- a spot about a quarter-mile southeast of its landing site that may become the rover’s first drill target.
 
That spot, called Glenelg Intrigue, lies at the confluence of three different types of terrain -- and scientists working on the Mars Science Laboratory mission plan to use Curiosity to investigate what sort of geological history brings such different types of rocky material together.
 
One of the three types, which looks to be layered bedrock, is likely to be a potential target for the rover's drill, a tool that can bore into rock in order to take samples and analyze them in the robot's chemical belly.
 
The rover set out Tuesday, covering 52 feet eastward. The trip to Glenelg would be the rover’s first extended driving journey: previous rover drives lasted a matter of several feet.
 
Curiosity has snapped photos of the surrounding terrain in Gale Crater, where it touched down Aug. 5. In the middle of the crater lies Mt. Sharp, a 3-mile-high mound whose layers contain a record of the Red Planet’s early history and may even host some of the ingredients for life.
 
Glenelg is a slight detour from that ultimate plan, but it’s probably not the only pit stop. That's why, even though the journey to Mt. Sharp would theoretically only take about 100 days if the rover was driving flat out at top speed, the trip is expected to take the better part of a year.
 
The drive to Glenelg is expected to take weeks, according to project scientist and Caltech geologist John Grotzinger.
 
Mars Rover Curiosity Begins 1st Long Martian Drive
 
Space.com
 
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has left its landing site, embarking upon a weeks-long Martian road trip toward its first major science target, mission officials announced Wednesday.
 
Curiosity headed off eastward Tuesday toward a spot called Glenelg, where three different types of terrain come together in one place. The 52-foot (16-meter) drive marks the rover's first big move away from "Bradbury Landing," where Curiosity touched down on the night of Aug. 5.
 
"This drive really begins our journey toward the first major driving destination, Glenelg, and it's nice to see some Martian soil on our wheels," mission manager Arthur Amador, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "The drive went beautifully, just as our rover planners designed it."
 
Curiosity had made two short drives before Tuesday's big move. These previous jaunts tested the rover's mobility system and positioned it to study a patch of ground scoured by Curiosity's rocket-powered "sky crane" descent stage, which lowered the six-wheeled robot to the Martian surface on cables.
 
Glenelg is about 1,300 feet (400 m) away, so it'll take Curiosity a while to get there, especially since researchers plan to make some stops along the way.
 
"We are on our way, though Glenelg is still many weeks away," said Curiosity lead scientist John Grotzinger, of Caltech in Pasadena. "We plan to stop for just a day at the location we just reached, but in the next week or so we will make a longer stop."
 
During that longer stop (at a yet-to-be-determined site), Curiosity will test out its robotic arm and some of the instruments that it carries, such as the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, officials said.
 
The rover's stay at Glenelg promises to be even longer. Mission scientists are eager to study the diverse set of geological formations at the site, and they will likely use Curiosity's drill — which can bore 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) into solid rock — there for the first time.
 
The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover landed Aug. 5 inside Mars' huge Gale Crater, tasked with determining if the area could ever have supported microbial life. The 1-ton robot carries 10 science instruments to help it answer this question.
 
While Curiosity will spend a fair chunk of time at Glenelg, its main science target is the base of Mount Sharp, the 3.4-mile-high (5.5-kilometer) mountain rising from Gale Crater's center. Mars-orbiting spacecraft have spotted mineral evidence that Mount Sharp's foothills were exposed to liquid water long ago.
 
Curiosity may be ready to start the 6-mile (10-km) trek toward Mount Sharp's interesting deposits by the end of the year, Grotzinger has said, though he stressed that timeline is speculative.
 
END