Hope you have a wonderful Labor Day holiday.
Human Spaceflight News
Monday – September 3, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Astronauts prep for second spacewalk Wednesday
William Harwood - CBS News
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide will venture back outside the International Space Station Wednesday for another attempt to install a replacement power switching unit that could not be plugged into the lab's electrical grid during a spacewalk last Thursday. Equipped with an assortment of impromptu tools, the astronauts will attempt to clean the bolts needed to lock the 220-pound box in place, as well as the threaded bolt holes. During Thursday's spacewalk, metal shavings were seen inside the bolt receptacles when main bus switching unit No. 1 -- MBSU No. 1 -- was removed.
Falcon 9 undergoes pad rehearsal for October launch
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
In a critical prelaunch test before SpaceX's first operational cargo delivery to the International Space Station, engineers filled a Falcon 9 rocket with propellant Friday, rehearsing countdown procedures ahead of the mission's scheduled liftoff in October. A SpaceX spokesperson confirmed the successful completion of the test. SpaceX completed a successful wet dress rehearsal today, a launch readiness test which simulates the actual countdown of the Falcon 9 rocket, in preparation for its first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station," the company posted on its Facebook page. "This mission is targeted to launch in early October."
Dream Chaser: A ‘family car’ for space
Richard Hollingham - BBC News
To get a sense of what it would be like to fly the Dream Chaser space plane hop into the front seat of a car - ideally a large SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) or minivan - preferably with six friends. Instead of a steering wheel in front of you, picture a joystick. Instead of a dashboard, a row of flatscreen displays. Now shut and lock the doors, fasten your seatbelts and we’re ready to go. Next stop, the International Space Station (ISS). Dream Chaser is being built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) in the US mid-western state of Colorado. It is one of three concepts backed by Nasa to replace the retired Space Shuttle and is designed to carry crew and cargo to and from orbit. The other two concepts – SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s, uninspiringly named CST-100 – are both capsules, not much different in appearance to the Apollo spacecraft that took men to the Moon.
Romney stays quiet about his views on NASA
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
Though the Space Coast is less than 150 miles from Tampa, it might as well be on Mars for the attention given to NASA by Mitt Romney during the Republican convention this week. As has been the case for most of the campaign, Romney largely ignored the issue — heightening anxiety even among some Republicans about how a Romney administration would impact NASA and Kennedy Space Center. "There is no real meat on the bone at the present time," said Bob Walker, former Republican chair of the U.S. House science committee.
Landing people on Mars: 5 obstacles
Todd Halvorson - USA Today (he also reports for Florida Today)
Getting a six-wheeled car-size rover safely onto the surface of the red planet? Daunting, sure. But NASA did it with Curiosity. Sending humans on a mission to Mars? That requires overcoming even more outlandish obstacles. Here's a look at five of the top challenges to safely getting astronauts to Mars, as well as potential solutions…
No-go for Endeavour ferry flight over air show
Event organizers hoped for economic boost
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
The orbiter Endeavour will fly over Cocoa Beach on its way to California later this month, weather permitting, but it won’t be flying over the Cocoa Beach Air Show. Despite a request from event organizers, NASA is not postponing Endeavour’s scheduled Sept. 17 departure from Kennedy Space Center. Mounted atop a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Endeavour will make stopovers in Houston and a back-up shuttle landing site in the Mojave Desert before arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 20.
A rare peek inside the Space Shuttle trainer
Emily Shahan - GeekWire.com
Some people in the Seattle region might have been disappointed last year when we didn’t land a real space shuttle. But after getting a behind-the-scenes look at the space shuttle trainer being assembled at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, I walked away feeling like we got lucky. This thing is awesome.
Bonne Terre’s Space Museum Receives Space Shuttle Engine Component
Jacob McClelland - KBIA Radio (Missouri)
A southeast Missouri museum received $16 million worth of parts from the decommissioned Space Shuttle program, and has a near complete space shuttle engine. The museum received liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen high pressure turbo pumps, a combustion chamber and the injector head assembly. Unfortunately, they will not receive the nozzle because NASA still uses them.
Kickstart This: A Space Elevator on the Moon?
Matt Peckham - Time
Gravity can be a grueling taskmaster. Anyone who’s walked up a dozen flights of stairs knows this. Getting into space is that much harder. It takes hundreds of thousands of pounds of thrust and over half a million gallons of propellant to lift something like the Space Shuttle off the ground. Wouldn’t it be easier to just build a giant elevator? That’s what a company called LiftPort — a private group spun out of a 2001-2003 NASA study — proposes. Imagine robots that could climb into the sky without rocket propulsion — or don’t, because LiftPort’s already done it. Imagine a tower to dwarf all towers, composed of carbon nanotubes and reaching up through the ionosphere tens of thousands of miles into space. Imagine using that tower to deploy payloads and people into space at a fraction of the current cost.
Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors
Space.com
A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors, officials announced last week. Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global reality-TV media event, which will follow the mission from the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red Planet. But the sponsorship money is important, helping the company — which had been self-funded for the last 18 months — get to that point, officials said Wednesday.
Armstrong’s humility as great as his historic feat
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but that is not what made him a great man. As Armstrong leaves this world again, his humility stands out as much as the magnitude of his more famous accomplishment.
A space oddity
Harriet Alexander - TheAge.com (Australia)
Love began as a series of music clips, but became much grander. You could call Love an accidental movie. William Eubank began shooting a few music videos for the alternative band Angels & Airwaves. He ended up building a space station and writing and directing his first feature film. The result is Love, an art-house flick about an astronaut who is abandoned in space when the world explodes. Largely set in 2039, the story moves back and forth in time, contemplating humanity and the meaning of life.
__________
COMPLETE STORIES
Astronauts prep for second spacewalk Wednesday
William Harwood - CBS News
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide will venture back outside the International Space Station Wednesday for another attempt to install a replacement power switching unit that could not be plugged into the lab's electrical grid during a spacewalk last Thursday.
Equipped with an assortment of impromptu tools, the astronauts will attempt to clean the bolts needed to lock the 220-pound box in place, as well as the threaded bolt holes. During Thursday's spacewalk, metal shavings were seen inside the bolt receptacles when main bus switching unit No. 1 -- MBSU No. 1 -- was removed.
While Williams and Hoshide attempted to blow out any remaining fragments using compressed nitrogen, they were unable to tighten down the replacement MBSU enough to engage cooling fins and gangs of electrical connectors.
Without MBSU No. 1, the space station was only drawing power from six of its eight solar panels, forcing flight controllers to carefully manage the lab's electrical useage while spacewalk planners studied the bolt problem and what might be done to fix it.
While that work was going on, the station's electrical system suffered an unrelated problem Saturday afternoon. A direct current switching unit, or DCSU, dropped off line because of a presumed short somewhere in the system, effectively cutting a third solar array out of the station's power grid.
While the DCSU trip did not greatly worsen the station's power status, it marked the first time in several years that the lab complex has been forced to operate on just five of its eight power channels. The DCSU problem will be addressed later, possibly with another spacewalk to install a replacement.
But in the near term, getting MBSU No. 1 bolted down and tied back into the lab's power system is the crew's top priority.
The space station is equipped with eight 115-foot-long solar panels, four on each end of a football-field-size truss that runs at right angles to the lab's pressurized modules. The arrays rotate like giant paddle wheels as the station's orbits Earth to maximize power generation.
Each pair of arrays extend from integrated electronics assemblies containing batteries, cooling equipment, charge-discharge units and a direct current switching unit that passes power downstream to the station and back into the IEA.
The eight DCSUs deliver 160-volt "primary power" downstream to four main bus switching units mounted in the central S0 truss segment. Each MBSU takes in power from two arrays and routes it to downstream transformers known as DC-to-DC Converter Units, or DDCUs, which lower the voltage to a precisely controlled 124 volts DC.
This so-called "secondary power" is then directed to the station's myriad electrical systems using numerous electro-mechanical switches known as remote power controllers.
Main bus switching unit No. 1 takes in power from channels 1A and 1B, which is generated by one inboard starboard array and one outboard right-side array.
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. The MBSU removed last Thursday still delivered power, but it no longer responded to commands.
Two bolts hold each MBSU in place, one longer than the other. During installation, tightening the longer bolt pulls the MBSU down onto a mounting fixture, automatically engaging interlocking cooling fins and electrical connectors. The second bolt finishes the attachment.
During attempts to lock the replacement MBSU in place last Thursday, the main bolt refused to drive in far enough to engage the connectors and cooling fins. It's not yet clear whether the bolt ran into some sort of obstruction in its threaded housing or whether the threads themselves are the problem.
"The most probable cause is likely a combination of a slight misalignment in the positioning of the spare unit for its installation prior to bolting and possible damage to the threads of the receptacle posts," NASA said in a statement Sunday.
Williams and Hoshide spent the weekend servicing their spacesuits, recharging batteries and preparing tools intended to clean the bolt and the bolt holes to remove any metal shavings that might still be present. They also studied different alignment techniques to make sure the electrical box is level when they attempt to drive the main bolt with a power tool.
"In preparation for the additional spacewalk, Williams and Hoshide have spent the weekend reviewing procedures and fabricating a series of tools to add to their handyman arsenal for the cleaning and lubricating of the MBSU's bolts and the S-zero truss post receptacles," NASA said in a statement.
"If the MBSU cannot be bolted in place during Wednesday's spacewalk, an option exists for the spacewalkers to bring the unit inside the station for further analysis and troubleshooting."
Depending on how that might play out, a third spacewalk likely would be required to finish the installation. But flight planners are hopeful it won't come to that.
Falcon 9 undergoes pad rehearsal for October launch
Stephen Clark - SpaceflightNow.com
In a critical prelaunch test before SpaceX's first operational cargo delivery to the International Space Station, engineers filled a Falcon 9 rocket with propellant Friday, rehearsing countdown procedures ahead of the mission's scheduled liftoff in October.
A SpaceX spokesperson confirmed the successful completion of the test.
SpaceX completed a successful wet dress rehearsal today, a launch readiness test which simulates the actual countdown of the Falcon 9 rocket, in preparation for its first official cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station," the company posted on its Facebook page. "This mission is targeted to launch in early October."
Located in a control room south of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the SpaceX launch team oversaw a practice countdown that concluded with a simulated cutoff just before launch.
During the test, the Falcon 9 booster was loaded with more than 75,000 gallons of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants.
The Falcon 9 rocket was lifted atop the launch pad earlier Friday. The upcoming mission's Dragon cargo capsule was not attached to the launcher, but remained inside the hangar at pad 40, the Falcon 9's seaside launch complex.
The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage was filled with nearly 39,000 gallons of cryogenic liquid oxygen and almost 25,000 gallons of kerosene fuel. About 7,300 gallons of liquid oxygen and 4,600 gallons of kerosene went into the second stage.
High-pressure gases were also loaded into the rocket.
Another countdown rehearsal is scheduled before launch, in which the control team will again load propellant into the rocket and ignite the booster's nine first stage Merlin engines for a few seconds, verifying their health.
The rocket is due to take off Oct. 8, and the unmanned Dragon spacecraft will reach the space station about two days later. Crew supplies, spare parts, and experiments will be carried inside Dragon's pressurized module.
SpaceX completed a test flight to the space station May, demonstrating the ability to berth with the complex and return to Earth with cargo.
The October mission is the first of a dozen flights under the auspices of SpaceX's Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA.
The $1.6 billion contract was signed in December 2008 to provide commercial cargo delivery and return to and from the space station. Orbital Sciences Corp., a competitor to SpaceX, has a $1.9 billion deal for nine similar flights.
Each Dragon flight will carry up to 7,300 pounds of internal and external cargo to the space station and return up to 5,500 pounds of equipment to Earth.
The flight will also deploy a second-generation Orbcomm communications satellite. The first of 18 small 340-pound satellites built by Sierra Nevada Corp., the Falcon's secondary payload will relay data, transmit messages, and track ships for Orbcomm's corporate customers.
Dream Chaser: A ‘family car’ for space
Richard Hollingham - BBC News
To get a sense of what it would be like to fly the Dream Chaser space plane hop into the front seat of a car - ideally a large SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle) or minivan - preferably with six friends. Instead of a steering wheel in front of you, picture a joystick. Instead of a dashboard, a row of flatscreen displays. Now shut and lock the doors, fasten your seatbelts and we’re ready to go. Next stop, the International Space Station (ISS).
Dream Chaser is being built by the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) in the US mid-western state of Colorado. It is one of three concepts backed by Nasa to replace the retired Space Shuttle and is designed to carry crew and cargo to and from orbit. The other two concepts – SpaceX’s Dragon and Boeing’s, uninspiringly named CST-100 – are both capsules, not much different in appearance to the Apollo spacecraft that took men to the Moon.
But even Dream Chaser’s designers liken the space plane to a large family car, and sitting at the controls it’s easy to see why. The mock-up cabin is certainly no wider and the windows surrounding the two pilots offer similar visibility. Behind the front seats, there’s room for five more astronauts with a small area at the back for luggage. On the outside, it resembles a shoe with two wings poking out diagonally at the back.
The space plane’s squat, compact shape was inspired by a fuzzy 1970s spy photograph of an experimental Soviet aircraft. Nasa engineers spent more than a decade reverse engineering and developing the concept. They even built a full-sized mock-up before the project was quietly shelved. SNC has now been working on Dream Chaser for the last nine years and, with a recent extra $212 million from NASA, is getting close to finally turning the dream into reality.
“It started as a dream,” admits Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC Space Systems. “It was a very small group of people that looked to the future and said we think that when the Shuttle retires, that there’s a place for a modern version of that shuttle.”
“The reality is quite real now. We have built our vehicle, we have actually conducted our first test flight, the vehicle will do its first autonomous [atmospheric] flight later this year…and we’re now in the final three companies who are going to be looked towards to produce a vehicle that can take people and cargo back and forth to the space station.”
Blurred vision
Comparisons with a mid-sized family hatchback even extend to the factory, on the outskirts of Denver, where the first space plane is taking shape. It resembles a garage workshop, where you expect to see mechanics tinkering with cars; instead they’re preparing the first Dream Chaser for flight.
The plane sits in a bay at the end of the room beneath a vast Stars and Stripes flag. Constructed primarily of carbon fibre, the first impression of Dream Chaser is that it’s, well…small. With no massive engines or cargo bay, and only a couple of metres off the ground, it is quite unlike any other space plane design. And whereas the Space Shuttle was, notoriously, the most complicated machine ever built, Dream Chaser is much simpler.
“We look at it what jobs are needed,” says Sirangelo. “We’re not taking big pieces to and from the Space Station any more, we’re taking people and critical cargo back and forth and it’s designed in size for that purpose.”
Dream Chaser will be launched on the top of an Atlas 5 rocket (although it could be launched on Europe’s Ariane rocket), with the astronauts lying on their backs looking through the front windows at the sky. Although not yet rated for manned spaceflight, Atlas 5 is one of the most reliable US launchers ever built. The space plane’s engines would only be fired in space to change orbit, catch up and dock with the ISS and de-orbit before returning to Earth.
Similar SNC engines have already flown in space on the first privately operated human spacecraft, Spaceship One, and are being built for Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two. Like the Shuttle, and these other designs, Dream Chaser would glide back to Earth - a feature its designers are keen to highlight.
“Within eight to 10 hours of leaving the station, we’re on the ground on a runway,” says Sirangelo. “We come home with less than 2Gs – twice the force of gravity – unlike most capsules, which come down to an ocean landing or a desert landing and come down at a much higher rate of descent. That could damage the experiments and could make it much more difficult for the people coming home.”
The ability to return fragile equipment or experiments from the space station is one of the big selling points of the Dream Chaser concept. The only return option at the moment is a cramped and bumpy landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule, which barely accommodates its three astronauts. There’s certainly room for cargo in the Dream Chaser (depending on how many astronauts are being flown) but where space planes really have the edge over capsules is their versatility.
The Shuttle was so much more than a space cargo hauler. It allowed, for example, astronauts to fix satellites and telescopes in orbit. Without it, the Hubble Space Telescope would still have blurry vision (and would probably have failed by now). But with the demise of the Shuttle, that ability was lost.
Now, Dream Chaser could bring it back. Like the Shuttle (and unlike most capsules)it has an airlock enabling astronauts to leave the plane for space walks. “The missions ... could be to go out and repair things in space [or] help with the large and growing problem of space debris – how could we move a satellite out of the way before it causes a problem?,” says Sirangelo.
As a transport craft to and from the ISS, Dream Chaser faces stiff competition from SpaceX and Boeing. But Sirangelo believes, once the considerable development and construction work is done, it will find lots of different roles....just like any good family car.
“As with most SUVs, you haul your family around,” he says. But sometimes you take supplies around, sometimes you go camping, sometimes you fix things with it and that’s what we’re trying to do with this vehicle.”
Romney stays quiet about his views on NASA
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
Though the Space Coast is less than 150 miles from Tampa, it might as well be on Mars for the attention given to NASA by Mitt Romney during the Republican convention this week.
As has been the case for most of the campaign, Romney largely ignored the issue — heightening anxiety even among some Republicans about how a Romney administration would impact NASA and Kennedy Space Center.
"There is no real meat on the bone at the present time," said Bob Walker, former Republican chair of the U.S. House science committee.
Though Romney's mention of NASA legend Neil Armstrong in his convention speech was encouraging, Walker said, space supporters want to know more about his plans for NASA's future.
Romney's relative silence stands in contrast to the detailed stances taken by both John McCain and Barack Obama at this point four years ago.
"He [Romney] has not articulated a particular specific vision for space, instead suggesting that he would convene a panel of experts to figure out what NASA should be doing," said Jeff Foust, editor of The Space Review, an online magazine.
That Romney has shied from space policy makes some sense politically — especially on the issue of human exploration.
The past four years have been jarring to NASA and its contractors as the Obama administration has overseen the retirement of the space shuttle and the cancellation of NASA's troubled Constellation program, which was supposed to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.
Though Constellation faced major financial and technical trouble, its cancellation divided the aerospace community; if Romney takes sides now, it could alienate potential allies.
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said it's better for Romney to remain vague than to make promises he can't keep — such as Obama vowing in 2008 to minimize the gap between the retirement of the shuttle and its successor.
"I would rather he [Romney] didn't give specifics," Posey said.
Congressional and industry sources said Romney's vagueness also could be attributed to divisions within his own team. His advisers include former NASA chief Mike Griffin, who championed Constellation and the big-government approach of exploring space.
But other Romney aides are said to support, at least philosophically, Obama's push to rely more on the private sector to send astronauts into orbit, in part because they see that alternative as more cost effective.
The conflict pits old-school Republican support of NASA spaceflight against its fiscally conservative roots — complicated by an unwillingness to side with the current administration. How the internal battle plays out could determine which course a Romney administration would chart for NASA.
Landing people on Mars: 5 obstacles
Todd Halvorson - USA Today (he also reports for Florida Today)
Getting a six-wheeled car-size rover safely onto the surface of the red planet? Daunting, sure. But NASA did it with Curiosity.
Sending humans on a mission to Mars? That requires overcoming even more outlandish obstacles.
Here's a look at five of the top challenges to safely getting astronauts to Mars, as well as potential solutions.
Are we there yet?
Problem: Trip time.
A round-trip human expedition to Mars, using current technology, could take two to three years. The slower you go, the more supplies you are forced to take and the higher the odds of a catastrophic collision with a meteoroid. Astronauts would lose more muscle and bone mass as a result of the longer stay in microgravity. And they would be exposed to larger doses of cosmic rays and solar energetic particles, increasing the probability of cancer.
"The main concern is clearly the radiation exposure to the human crew during such long journeys in deep space," said former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, who shares the world record for most space flights — seven — with Jerry Ross.
"The long voyages in weightlessness are bound to substantially debilitate the crew," he added. "At Mars arrival, they must have a way to rehabilitate themselves before going to work, a tall order for the first mission in a very hostile environment."
Solution: Speed up the trip.
"All of these issues are greatly ameliorated with significant reductions in interplanetary transit time, which could be possible with advanced propulsion systems, potentially far more capable than the chemical and nuclear thermal rockets being considered," said Chang-Diaz, an MIT-trained physicist.
Chang-Diaz is developing an advanced plasma propulsion system that would cut the round-trip time on Mars missions to five months. The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket uses magnetic fields to guide superhot plasma out of an engine nozzle, producing an immense amount of thrust. A one-year trip to Mars could be cut to just 39 days.
Chang-Diaz said advanced high-power electric propulsion and nuclear electric power systems "could revolutionize in-space transportation by greatly reducing the interplanetary transit time."
The Big C
Problem: Cancer.
Astronauts traveling to Mars, or working on its surface, will be exposed to potentially high doses of galactic cosmic rays and what scientists call "solar particle events" — solar flares that spew highly energetic particles into interplanetary space. Galactic cosmic rays and solar flares create radiation that would increase the chance of an astronaut getting cancer. Genetic defects in offspring, and even death, also are possibilities.
Solution: Shielding.
Spacecraft propelling astronauts to Mars — and habitats on its surface — must be equipped with shielding sufficient to block space radiation.
Conventional aluminum shielding would have to be thick and, consequently, too heavy, thus, impractical. A better choice might be water, which absorbs radiation.
"One concept would be to have the walls be where you store your water — your water storage tanks," said Don Hassler of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
A regenerative water recovery system, like the one on the International Space Station, would be required to replenish tanks. Liquid hydrogen fuel also provides good shielding.
On the Martian surface: Soil, dust, rocks and pulverized rocks around the landing site would be dug up and used to sheath aluminum or inflatable habitats. Spacesuits worn during sorties outside habitats might require modification to provide radiation protection. Solid water jackets might be worn beneath spacesuits, and a thin layer of polyethylene could be used in suits. Helmet visors would be coated to reduce the chance of cataracts.
Sex in the solar system
Problem: Human nature.
Sex in space is a subject that has fascinated people ever since men and women started flying together in low-Earth orbit. Cramped quarters in Russian Soyuz spacecraft and U.S. space shuttle orbiters, relatively short flights and the extreme level of professionalism among astronauts and cosmonauts make it unlikely. But the International Space Station is as big as a five-bedroom house. Four- to six-month flights now are the norm, and round-trip missions to Mars could be much, much longer.
Solution: Can we talk?
Sex in space might seem like a frivolous subject, but it's actually a big deal. It's human nature. Let's face it. So says none-other-than the National Academy of Sciences, an independent group of distinguished scholars that advises the U.S. government on matters of scientific research, engineering and technology.
"Ignoring the potential consequences of human sexuality is not appropriate when considering extended-duration missions," an academy committee said in a 2008 report.
The committee reviewed NASA's Bioastronautics Roadmap — a document that examines crew health and performance issues for missions beyond Earth orbit — and determined that human sexuality was given no consideration.
"This oversight should be corrected," the committee said. "Areas of concern for the 30-month Mars mission include the potential psychological and physiological consequences of sexual activity, consequences that could endanger life, crew cohesion, performance and mission success."
Cosmic kryptonite
Problem: Zero G.
The lack of gravity in transit — and reduced gravitational forces on the surface of Mars — could be cosmic kryptonite to even the most invulnerable of astronauts.
Long stays in a microgravity environment, or a reduced gravitational environment, could severely weaken explorers on Martian expeditions.
Bone and muscle mass will be lost at alarming rates. The cardiovascular, pulmonary and immune systems will weaken. Vision could be impaired. The vestibular system will be all out of whack, and balance could be off as a result.
Solution: Flying gymnasiums, pharmaceuticals, spinning spaceships.
Exercise, and a lot of it, is one of the best ways to combat the medical maladies caused by lengthy stints in microgravity.
On board the International Space Station, astronauts spend two hours a day walking and running on a treadmill, riding an exercise bike, working out with a resistive exercise machine, trying to ward off the ill effects of living and working in weightlessness.
Station crews also adhere to strict diets that are analyzed by nutritionists. Flight surgeons prescribe medicines to counteract bone loss. Nutritional supplements are added to diets when needed.
Medical research on the station will help scientists find ways to fix the problems.
"We call them countermeasures to treat the crew members or help the crew members overcome those challenges so that they can be healthy when they arrive, ready to do a mission at a new planet," said NASA Space Station Program scientist Julie Robinson.
A rotating spacecraft would create artificial gravity that would keep astronauts in tip-top shape. But that idea still remains the fictional stuff of books and movies.
You can't take it (all) with you
Problem: Provisioning an expedition.
Escaping Earth's gravity well remains a feat that nearly exceeds the capability of human engineers. Launching supplies into Earth orbit also costs millions and millions of dollars per mission. For instance: Rocketing four McDonald's Quarter Pounders With Cheese would cost roughly $10,000. On average, that's about the cost of launching a pound of payload into orbit.
So limiting the amount of supplies hauled along on a trip to Mars is important to making such a mission affordable.
Solution: Live off the Martian land.
Use the planet's natural resources, and its thin atmosphere, to significantly reduce the amount of fuel and supplies that must be shipped from Earth, at great expense, to sustain an expedition.
Give an astronaut a salad, and he will eat for a day. Teach them to grow lettuce, peas and radishes hydroponically, and a space garden could help feed astronauts on a Martian expedition.
Power a spacecraft with chemical propellants, and astronauts can fly back to Earth from Mars. Teach them to turn carbon dioxide in the Martian atmosphere into liquid methane, and they can manufacture some of the rocket propellant needed to fly home.
Haul water across interplanetary space, and astronauts have a chance to survive in a hostile environment. Teach them to turn ice at the Martian poles into water, and you cut mission costs significantly, making expeditions more affordable.
No-go for Endeavour ferry flight over air show
Event organizers hoped for economic boost
Todd Halvorson - Florida Today
The orbiter Endeavour will fly over Cocoa Beach on its way to California later this month, weather permitting, but it won’t be flying over the Cocoa Beach Air Show.
Despite a request from event organizers, NASA is not postponing Endeavour’s scheduled Sept. 17 departure from Kennedy Space Center.
Mounted atop a modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Endeavour will make stopovers in Houston and a back-up shuttle landing site in the Mojave Desert before arriving at Los Angeles International Airport on Sept. 20.
The Cocoa Beach Air Show is scheduled to take place the following weekend -- Sept. 22 and 23.
Event organizers wanted NASA to delay departure and fly the orbiter over the air show, saying it would be an economic boon for an area hit hard by layoffs resulting from shuttle fleet retirement.
“Flying it out during the Cocoa Beach Air Show will bring many thousands from around the country to a Space Coast still reeling from the retirement of the shuttle program,” Tom Williamson, president of the Cocoa Beach Hotel Association, said in a news release distributed by event organizers.
The request was backed in writing by U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Orlando; U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami; U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge; and U.S. Rep. Sandy Adams, R-Orlando.
Endeavour is headed for the California Science Center, which is 12 miles away from the airport in Los Angeles. Jeff Rudolph, CEO of the museum, told Posey in an Aug. 8 letter that the logistics involved in the move made a departure delay unrealistic.
“This extremely complex move involves removal and replacement of hundreds of utility lines, street lights, traffic signals, signs and trees as well as closure of streets and a huge investment of local government police and other emergency personnel,” Rudolph wrote.
“These activities as well as planning and logistical coordination have been underway for more than a year and as a result, we have no flexibility at this time with respect to the dates for this transport from the airport.”
NASA sided with the California Science Center.
“In order to maintain delivery schedules and minimize cost, logistical complexity, and liability, NASA does not plan to have the orbiter and SCA take part in the air show, though the agency appreciates the invitation and the interest,” Seth Statler, NASA Associate Administrator for Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs wrote in a May 9 letter.
A rare peek inside the Space Shuttle trainer
Emily Shahan - GeekWire.com
Some people in the Seattle region might have been disappointed last year when we didn’t land a real space shuttle. But after getting a behind-the-scenes look at the space shuttle trainer being assembled at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, I walked away feeling like we got lucky.
This thing is awesome.
Over the 30-year life of NASA’s space shuttle program, every astronaut spent hours upon hours practicing in the Full Fuselage Trainer, preparing for their missions. The interior of the trainer mirrors an actual space shuttle orbiter in almost every way imaginable — from the placement of the controls to the shape of the toilet.
Stepping inside is a chance to walk in the footsteps of astronauts, and to see what they went through on their long journey into orbit.
The trainer, delivered in pieces over the past few months, is now being assembled inside the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at the Seattle museum. Our tour was led by Geoff Nunn, the exhibit developer.
Childhood dreams were realized as there in front of me, dominating the room, stood a giant wooden space shuttle replica. The trainer is in pieces now but will be fully assembled by the end of September. The payload half is being outfitted with a new walkway where visitors will be able to walk though the trainer. The nose of the shuttle, housing the cockpit and living quarters, will be attached in its original place.
We enjoyed the rare treat of actually getting to step inside the crew cabin and flight deck. The cabin is so tiny, it’s wild to think of seven people actually living in there (eating, sleeping, using the restroom, but no shower). The trainer is precise when it comes to layout and control placement, and some of the buttons are wired to work.
Even the toilet is completely replicated, although Nunn told us that it’s non-working. Apparently, going to the bathroom in space takes such finesse that it requires its very own mockup for "training."
Everything has its place in the cabin. It’s lined with lockers carrying everything from delicate experimental equipment to athletic exercise bands. The cabin and flight deck are covered with patches of Velcro where tools and other necessities attach. NASA used special NASA blue Velcro strips to denote regular issue items and yellow Velcro for special astronaut-requested items.
Climbing up a tiny ladder, you reach the flight deck, which is even smaller than the main cabin and covered in switches, dials, and gauges. I was momentarily tempted to act out every sci-fi film I’ve ever seen in a crazy montage. The coolest things on the flight deck are the controls for the robotic arm, the closed-circuit television screens of the payload area, and the bags that hold the ropes if one ever has to rappel down the side of the shuttle, using a system called "sky genie."
When the exhibit opens this fall, be sure to visit this amazing icon of space transportation.
Bonne Terre’s Space Museum Receives Space Shuttle Engine Component
Jacob McClelland - KBIA Radio (Missouri)
A southeast Missouri museum received $16 million worth of parts from the decommissioned Space Shuttle program, and has a near complete space shuttle engine.
The museum received liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen high pressure turbo pumps, a combustion chamber and the injector head assembly. Unfortunately, they will not receive the nozzle because NASA still uses them.
Space Museum President Earl Mullins says the combustion chamber never flew on a Shuttle mission.
“The turbo pumps on the other hand could possibly have been flown because that was the beauty of these particular components is that they were interchangeable and could be changed out from shuttle to shuttle," Mullins says. "So we’re hoping once we track down the identifying numbers we’ve gotten some flown components.”
The components are still tucked away in boxes, and the museum will host an “unpacking” ceremony on Sept. 15.
Kickstart This: A Space Elevator on the Moon?
Matt Peckham - Time
Gravity can be a grueling taskmaster. Anyone who’s walked up a dozen flights of stairs knows this. Getting into space is that much harder. It takes hundreds of thousands of pounds of thrust and over half a million gallons of propellant to lift something like the Space Shuttle off the ground. Wouldn’t it be easier to just build a giant elevator?
That’s what a company called LiftPort — a private group spun out of a 2001-2003 NASA study — proposes. Imagine robots that could climb into the sky without rocket propulsion — or don’t, because LiftPort’s already done it. Imagine a tower to dwarf all towers, composed of carbon nanotubes and reaching up through the ionosphere tens of thousands of miles into space. Imagine using that tower to deploy payloads and people into space at a fraction of the current cost.
The only problem: You’re talking about a project that’s estimated to cost billions, is still decades away (if it happens at all) and, according to LiftPort, still in need of several “breakthroughs” to make it workable.
Enter the Moon. No, not an elevator to the Moon, because there’s that pesky orbiting-the-Earth catch (among others), but a space elevator on the Moon. LiftPort president Michael Laine says that’s what needs to happen next in the grand scheme of things, so he’s launched a Kickstarter campaign to get the ball rolling.
Laine’s “Lunar Elevator” would consist of a two-kilometer ribbon extending from the Moon’s surface into space, climbable by a robotic car and held aloft by helium balloons. Once it’s functioning, he claims it would allow us to “soft-land” cargo on the Moon’s surface, travel “1000 times farther for 1/10th the price” and “transport three dozen people to the Moon per year.”
Call it a proof of concept for the much grander and costlier Earth version, and Laine says he hopes to make his Lunar Elevator a reality in less than a decade.
“Before we can build Earth’s Elevator, we’ll need to build one on the Moon,” writes Laine. “It is significantly easier, and much much cheaper. Importantly — we can build it with current technology — in about eight years.”
How much is “much much cheaper”? LiftPort’s Kickstarter project, which runs through Sep. 13, only asks for $8,000, which sounds impossibly low — because it is. But Laine admits he picked that amount primarily to establish a community of supporters. The short-term goal, which involves running a one-year “feasibility study,” is to raise $3 million.
The long-term funding goal to make LiftPort’s Lunar Elevator happen? A cool $800 million.
And if LiftPort eventually secures that kind of cash, builds and successfully deploys its Lunar Elevator, then makes its proposed two-kilometer record climb? Laine says his company will aim for a three- to five-kilometer record, though he notes that the group would have to deal with thermal issues like frozen lubricant, seizing motors and weakened materials at higher altitudes. Presumably the price tag goes up to do any of that, too. And it’s still a long way from an Earth-based ground-to-space tower, but at least it’s a step in that direction.
So far, so good: As this goes to press, the Kickstarter project was at over $38,000, or nearly quintuple its stated goal.
Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors
Space.com
A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors, officials announced last week.
Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global reality-TV media event, which will follow the mission from the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red Planet. But the sponsorship money is important, helping the company — which had been self-funded for the last 18 months — get to that point, officials said Wednesday.
"Receipt of initial sponsorship marks the next step to humans setting foot on Mars," Mars One founder and president Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "A little more than a year ago we embarked down this path, calling upon industry experts to share in our bold dream. Today, we have moved from a technical plan into the first stage of funding, giving our dream a foundation in reality."
Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch law firm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm).
"Mars One is not just a daring project, but the core of what drives human spirit towards exploration of the unknown. We are privileged to be a supporter of this incredible project," said Dan Petrovic, general director of Dejan SEO.
Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return these pioneers to Earth.
Company officials say they've talked to a variety of private spaceflight firms around the world and have secured at least one supplier for every major piece of the Mars colony mission. The corporate sponsorship money will be used mostly to fund the conceptual design studies provided by the aerospace suppliers, each of which require 500 to 2,500 man-hours to complete, officials said.
Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four humans on the Red Planet. The company hopes the "Big Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs. The televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps.
Armstrong’s humility as great as his historic feat
John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, but that is not what made him a great man.
As Armstrong leaves this world again, his humility stands out as much as the magnitude of his more famous accomplishment.
Because Armstrong knew that his first steps on the moon were not his alone, but came thanks to tireless work by tens of thousands of smart people and the billions of dollars in resources committed by America's leaders and its public.
Armstrong knew any number of other super achievers in the NASA astronaut corps could have gotten the call and that one of a million glitches beyond his control could have altered history, making the man in his seat on the next flight the one immortalized.
The ingredients were right for the United States to land a man on the moon then, and Armstrong was but one of the ingredients. He showed off his steely calm in crisis on his flights and in countless simulations. NASA and his fellow astronauts trusted him to save the day. An accomplished pilot, a born leader, and a calming force, he was the man.
However, what is it that was so different then? We have men, and women, of Armstrong's caliber in the current astronaut corps. There is no doubt that some of our recent commanders of the space station or complicated space shuttle missions could pull off leading a flight back to the moon or to Mars, if the ingredients were right.
So what is missing? Why were we able as a country to get a man on the moon within the decade in the ’60s, but now, with better technology and vastly increased knowledge, we cannot muster the ability to pull off such daring feats in space exploration?
• A motive. The Cold War provided a motive for the American people. The public was convinced that a credible threat existed from the Soviet Union and that space superiority by the communists would mean certain doom for their way of life. Winning became important to the public, and U.S. leaders leveraged that into support for an audacious program.
• Commitment. The motive led to commitment and that means money. NASA now gets less than one percent of the federal budget. Then, NASA was getting more like six cents out of every tax dollar. The Apollo program, and the predecessors that made it possible, rank among the most expensive things we've ever done as a nation.
• A simpler world. The problems that leaders in the United States and around the world are dealing with are incredibly complex, and require attention and money. The commitment is being focused on solving problems like broad world poverty, how to pay to care for an ever growing number of elderly people even in countries that are not impoverished, terrorist and security threats unimaginable to us, and countless other concerns.
Space, quite simply, gets tagged as a luxury item. Yes, humans want and need to explore. Yes, the government ought to help lead that charge. But the United States government is never going to commit Apollo-like resources and attention to sending a crew to Mars, or an asteroid, or even back to the moon.
So exploration will go forward at a slower pace, and with the help of other nations and the innovations of private firms. There's no doubt that men will someday walk on Mars, and the first group to do so will be immortalized alongside Neil Armstrong. Let's hope they study and model his humility.
A space oddity
Harriet Alexander - TheAge.com (Australia)
Love began as a series of music clips, but became much grander.
You could call Love an accidental movie. William Eubank began shooting a few music videos for the alternative band Angels & Airwaves. He ended up building a space station and writing and directing his first feature film.
The result is Love, an art-house flick about an astronaut who is abandoned in space when the world explodes. Largely set in 2039, the story moves back and forth in time, contemplating humanity and the meaning of life.
The film is hugely ambitious given the experience of the cast and crew and the budget of just $500,000. Gunner Wright, who plays the lead role of Captain Lee Miller, had little acting experience. Eubank was 23 when filming began. But Angels & Airwaves believed in him.
The band, headed by Blink-182 guitarist Tom DeLonge, was interested in merging their music with art and originally wanted some short films set to their music. DeLonge admired Eubank's work at the motion picture equipment company Panavision, and asked him to shoot 10 videos around the band's music. But three videos into the process, they recalibrated.
"They were little vignettes and we thought, 'Let's go back, this could be more,''' Eubank says.
''I had originally written this piece about an astronaut getting left up in space and I wanted to make all the videos on that theme and it was just so hard to cement that without lines or words.''
The solution was to turn it into a feature film, but they had already blown most of their budget on renting a space station for the set. Undeterred, Eubank built his own.
It was a labour of love that took two years of full-time work, with his brothers helping after school. ''I just thought, 'I'm so far down this rabbit hole now I may as well keep going,''' Eubank says.
Then, when it was finished, DeLonge suggested expanding a section of the movie that dwelled on the American Civil War, and Eubank set to work for another six months building a bunker.
The results are surprisingly convincing, and the film won Eubank best director at last year's Athens International Film Festival.
It meant that Angels & Airwaves' original concept, in which film shorts revolved around their music, was inverted so that they ended up scoring a film. But Eubank says they did not mind.
''Tom always says he wants his band to be an art project,'' he says. ''I think they just wanted to use their music in a different way.''
Love
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYmAixzpMg
Critical Buzz: One-man space odyssey produced by rock band Angels & Airwaves
Stars: Gunner Wright
Director: William Eubank
Rated: M
Release: Now screening
END
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