Hope you can join the NASA retirees at our monthly luncheon tomorrow at Hibachi Grill on Bay Area Blvd. at 11:30.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Two Groups/Two Start Times for NASA Honoree Award Ceremony, Thursday, 9/6
2. Volunteers Needed for Open House
3. Introducing Starport Kid Space -- Short-Term Child Care at the Gilruth Center
4. Don't Miss Gene Kranz Present 'Failure is Not an Option' Sept. 12
5. Agencywide Test of the Emergency Notification and Accountability System (ENS)
6. NASA Night With the Houston Astros
7. Job Opportunities
8. Reassignment Opportunities Available at JSC
9. Water-BOTs Teacher Workshop
10. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
11. Fire Warden Orientation Course (Four Hours)
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ The man who most vividly realizes a difficulty is the man most likely to overcome it. ”
-- Joseph Farrell
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1. Two Groups/Two Start Times for NASA Honoree Award Ceremony, Thursday, 9/6
Thursday's NASA Honor Awards Ceremony will be split into two groupings (2:00 p.m. & 3:30 p.m.) to accommodate the number of awardees to be recognized and the expected attendance. This will help to ensure all guests and coworkers are able to attend, alleviating the waiting time between awards.
2:00 p.m. Ceremony opens with the presentation of the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA Outstanding Leadership & Public Leadership Medals, NASA Exceptional Service Medal
3:15 p.m. Break and reception for the first round of recipients
3:30 p.m. Presentation of remaining awards: NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal, NASA Exceptional Achievement and Public Achievement Medals, NASA Exceptional Engineering Achievement Medal, NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal, NASA Equal Employment Opportunity Medal, NASA Exceptional Administrative Achievement Medal, NASA Early Career Achievement Medal, and the NASA Group Achievement Awards. Followed by second reception.
A full listing of awards can be found on the JSC Announcements page.
Jacinda Green 31057 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/2012%20JSC%20An...
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2. Volunteers Needed for Open House
Ballunar and Open House are just around the corner! This unique weekend of fun takes place at JSC Sept. 28 to 30. The center transforms into the location of the RE/MAX Ballunar Liftoff Festival and JSC's Open House. It's a one-of-a-kind tribute to human flight -- from the beauty of mass hot air balloon ascensions to the high-tech world of modern space flight. In addition to open tours and exhibits at NASA buildings, astronaut autograph sessions are scheduled in the Ballunar area at the JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs exhibit on Saturday, Sept. 29, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Volunteer staffing shifts for sign setups/take downs are:
Friday, Sept. 28, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 30, from noon to 2 p.m.
Volunteer staffing shifts for the information booths are:
Saturday, Sept. 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and noon to 4 p.m.
Please contact Hallie Frazee at hallie.frazee@nasa.gov or x27929 with the dates and times you are interested in volunteering for.
Hallie Frazee x27929
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3. Introducing Starport Kid Space -- Short-Term Child Care at the Gilruth Center
Starport now offers short-term child care while you work out at the Gilruth Center. Anyone who is participating in a group exercise class or working out in the basketball gym and/or fitness center may bring their children to be supervised by our staff as you use the facility.
Days: Monday and Wednesday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m.
Cost: $3/hour
Ages: 4 and up
Location: Inner Space Mind/Body Studio at the Gilruth Center
Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Youth/ChildCare.cfm for more information.
Shericka Phillips x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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4. Don't Miss Gene Kranz Present 'Failure is Not an Option' Sept. 12
The Rice University Space Lecture Series is pleased to offer an evening program featuring legendary retired NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz. His lecture, "Failure is Not an Option," will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 7:10 p.m. in the Duncan Hall McMurtry Auditorium (reception at 6:15 p.m.; Special Award Ceremony at 6:45 p.m.).
Parking:
- The closest visitor parking (paid) is near Entrance 2.
- $1 parking is available in the lot west of the stadium (entrance on Greenbriar Street), but plan for a long walk or ride on the shuttle.
Please note that all parking must be paid by credit card.
Campus map: http://www.rice.edu/maps/maps.html
For more details about other lectures in the series and to be added to the mailing list, check out our website: http://spacefrontiers.rice.edu/
Pamela S. Jones 713-348-3350
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5. Agencywide Test of the Emergency Notification and Accountability System (ENS)
On Friday, Sept. 7, there will be an agencywide Emergency Notification and Accountability System (ENS) test.
As part of this test, as a NASA employee or contractor, you will receive a text and/or email notification from the agency ENS. The ENS notification message will come from Emergency.NASA@dccnotify.com and/or from the phone number 615-312-8167. The text notification will display the text short code 342-92.
After receiving the initial text and/or email notification, you will be asked to respond to a follow-up ENS survey/questionnaire. You will receive a link in an email from Emergency.NASA@dccnotify.com and be asked to respond to a Web-based survey/questionnaire.
Thank you in advance for your participation in this test.
Sharon Evans x33083
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6. NASA Night With the Houston Astros
Celebrate NASA Night at the Ballpark with discounted tickets! The game is Friday, Sept. 14, against the Philadelphia Phillies at 7:05 p.m. The 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.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. Job Opportunities
Where do I find job opportunities?
Internal Competitive Placement Plans (CPPs) and external JSC job announcements are posted on both the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS -- http://www.usajobs.gov -- website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...
To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.
Lisa Pesak x30476
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8. Reassignment Opportunities Available at JSC
Right now there are several lateral reassignment opportunities available around the center. These currently include: Network Engineer, Info Tech Security, Coordinator for Education Projects, Mission Planning and Integration Lead, R&M/L&M Engineers, Payload Safety Engineer, Visiting Vehicle Engineer, White Sands Test Facility Quality and Safety Engineer and many more. Check back at the Workforce Transition Tool frequently to see what new opportunities are posted.
Interested parties can visit the Workforce Transition Tool at https://hr.nasa.gov and follow the path: Employees - Workforce Transition - and then enter the Workforce Transition Tool.
Lisa Pesak x30476
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9. Water-BOTs Teacher Workshop
The Aerospace Academy at San Jacinto College (SJC) offers a two-part underwater robotics workshop including: 12 professional development contact hours, hands-on soldering and robotics instruction, and the ability to take back to your classroom the electronics that are created during the workshop. The curriculum will align with science and math TEKS.
Dates: Oct. 6 and 13
Cost: $150
Time: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Location: SJC central campus
For additional information or registration, contact Bridget Kramer at 281-244-6803 or: bridget.a.kramer@nasa.gov
Bridget Kramer x46803 http://www.aerospace-academy.org
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10. Project Asset and Lifecycle Management System (PALMS) Training Available
PALMS is the Engineering Directorate's new Project Management tool for online project planning, scheduling and tracking. Closely integrated with Oasis, PALMS enables Web-based project collaboration, management and publishing of project schedules, resources and associated data products. The next training session is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 11. To register for PALMS classroom training, simply access SATERN and select PALMS Project Server Training for Team Members and Project Managers -SATERN Course ID: PALMS-01. The September session is available for self-registration in SATERN through Monday, Sept. 10, for all EA civil servants and contractors.
Date: Tuesday, Sept. 11
Location: Building 20, Room 204
Stacey Zapatka x34749
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11. Fire Warden Orientation Course (Four Hours)
This four-hour course will satisfy the JSC training requirement for newly assigned Fire Wardens from JSC, Sonny Carter Training Facility and Ellington Field. This course must be completed before assuming these duties.
Topics covered include: duties and responsibilities of a Fire Warden; building evacuation techniques; recognizing and correcting fire hazards; and types and uses of portable fire extinguishers.
Fire Wardens who have previously attended this four-hour orientation course and need to satisfy the three-year training requirements may attend the two-hour Fire Warden Refresher Course now available in SATERN for registration.
Date/Time: Sept. 13 from 8 a.m. to noon
Where: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom
Registration via SATERN required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Aundrail Hill x36369
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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 – 6½ hr EVA by Suni Williams (6th) & Aki Hoshide (2nd) – began at 6:06 am – www.nasa.gov/ntv
· ~1 hr after EVA – post spacewalk press briefing
Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – September 5, 2012
Happy 35th birthday Voyager 1 – http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Spacewalk begins
William Harwood – CBS News
Floating in the Quest airlock module, astronauts Sunita Williams and Hoshide Akihiko switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:06 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) to officially begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to make a second attempt to install a replacement power switching unit. Without the device, electricity from two of the station's eight solar arrays cannot be utilized, a shortfall that, left uncorrected, would have a major impact on station operations. Equipped with a set of MacGyver-like homemade tools, including a toothbrush attached to the end of a metal rod, the astronauts will attempt to clean and lubricate balky bolts that jammed during a spacewalk last Thursday, preventing them from attaching the replacement main bus switching unit.
NASA Dropped ATK’s Commercial Crew Proposal over Technical Concerns
Dan Leone - Space News
A design by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was dropped from NASA’s shortlist of potential space station crew taxis because the company did not present a technically sound plan for combining existing rocket and spacecraft designs into a single transportation system, according to a NASA source selection document released Sept. 4. “I had some significant concerns about the lack of detail in some areas of ATK’s technical approach,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, wrote in the document. “Basically, the proposal lacked enough detail to determine if a safe crew transportation system could be developed in a timely and cost effective manner out of the heritage components ATK selected for this concept.”
Pittsburgh researchers prepare for space surgery
Device could restrain body fluids in tricky zero-gravity operations
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Before humans can take long expeditions to Mars and beyond, and even back and forth to the moon, one problem must be solved. In the weightlessness of space, an appendectomy, removal of a gall bladder, cuts or wounds, or even the pulling of a tooth would contaminate the spaceship with blood, tissue and bodily fluids. Gravity, as it turns out, is an important surgical tool that helps to confine bodily fluids. But a team of local researchers is working to solve the problem. Its astro-surgical tool, known as an Aqueous Immersion Surgical System, uses water pressure in a watertight containment area to control bleeding and prevent blood, fluids and tissue from floating away. With no blood bank available in space, the device also could recover an astronaut's blood during surgery for reuse in the patient.
Public memorial service set for Neil Armstrong
Associated Press
The nation will have a chance to say goodbye to Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, in a memorial service at the Washington National Cathedral on Sept. 13. The 10 a.m. service will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the websites of the cathedral and space agency. It will be open to the public on a first come, first served basis. But reservations still must be made through NASA. Armstrong died Aug. 25 and had a private service in Ohio. The Apollo 11 crew delivered a moon rock to the cathedral in 1974 on the fifth anniversary of the moon landing. (NO FURTHER TEXT)
Neil Armstrong's Public Memorial Service Set for Sept. 13
Space.com
A public memorial service for late astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, will take place Thursday, Sept. 13 at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The event offers a chance for the nation to pay its respects to the iconic astronaut, who died Aug. 25 following complications from a recent heart surgery. A previous ceremony was held for Armstrong on Aug. 31 in Cincinnati, but that one was limited to friends and family. The Sept. 13 service is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). It will be broadcast live on NASA TV and streamed by the websites of both NASA and the National Cathedral.
SpaceX has several land areas under consideration
Emma Perez-Treviño - Brownsville Herald
As SpaceX and Cameron County leaders await the results of a federal environmental impact study that will determine whether construction of a rocket launch site is plausible at Boca Chica Beach, land requirements, and ownership, continue to be assessed behind the scenes. There are several land areas under consideration. The first is the main site, consisting of about 50 acres on the flats behind the dunes. This would be the launch site. Within those 50 acres, some 8 acres would comprise the core launch site, where the actual vertical launches would take place. The second area needed would be where the “brain,” or command center, would be, and is located from two to 10 miles west of the vertical launch area. Boca Chica Village, once known as Kopernick Shores and home to a founding Polish community, is within the two- to 10-mile radius.
SpaceX could be ‘game changer' for students
Gary Long - Brownsville Herald
Listen to Dr. Frederick Jenet talk about the physics and radio astronomy program at UTB-TSC and it’s suddenly no surprise that a world-class company like SpaceX would be interested in Brownsville. “We have students getting up at 3 a.m. to control the world’s largest radio telescope in Puerto Rico. They understand the pressure of a deadline in a real-world environment,” Jenet said via Skype from a conference he was attending in Sydney, Australia.
Trees coming down so space shuttle can roll in LA
North County Times (Northwest San Diego & Southwest Riverside counties)
Los Angeles is trading the trees for the stars - and not everybody's happy about it. Crews clearing a path for the space shuttle Endeavour have begun cutting down hundreds of trees in South Los Angeles and Inglewood, with some residents mourning their loss even as they welcome a piece of history. Chainsaws and woodchippers were at work Tuesday, removing pine, ficus and other trees along the route that the enormous spacecraft will take on its final voyage through the streets of Los Angeles and Inglewood.
Los Angeles Wants Space Shuttle Endeavour, But Must 400 Trees Be Cut?
KGO Radio (Los Angeles)
It was supposed to be a spectacular event including a two-day parade, but the space shuttle Endeavour’s final 12-mile journey through the streets of South Los Angeles has some residents protesting, because 400 trees would have to be chopped down to clear the shuttle’s intended path from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center. Although the science center, or CSC, where Endeavour is to go on display, said it would plant twice as many trees in their place, tree lovers are still not convinced.
Former U.S. President Backs 100 Year Starship
Ian O'Neill - Discovery News
The light-years between the stars is vast -- a seemingly insurmountable quarantine that cuts our solar system off from the rest of the galaxy. But to a growing number of interstellar enthusiasts -- and a former U.S. president -- interstellar distances may not be as insurmountable as they seem. On Sept. 13, an international group of big thinkers will descend on Houston, Texas, to discuss one very big idea: making interstellar travel possible within the next 100 years. The 100 Year Starship Project (100YSS) was seeded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative, and earlier this year it was announced that ex-NASA astronaut Mae Jemison and the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence would head the project. Former President Bill Clinton has even stepped in to serve as the symposium's Honorary Chair. In a statement, Clinton said: "This important effort helps advance the knowledge and technologies required to explore space, all while generating the necessary tools that enhance our quality of life on earth." In addition to Jemison, there will be several well known guest speakers including actress Nichelle Nichols (who notably played Star Trek's Lt. Uhura), actor LeVar Burton (Star Trek: TNG's Geordi La Forge), SETI Institute Co-Founder Jill Tarter, anthropologist Johnnetta B. Cole, space journalist Miles O'Brien and many, many more. In short, the symposium will examine just about every conceivable facet of human life against a backdrop of the audacious plan to travel to, and potentially colonize, another star system. This is a public symposium, and as such, you can attend. For full details, visit the 100YSS symposium website.
NASA serving up space food and shuttle tiles to museums
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
NASA is now offering museums a choice of freeze-dried and heat-resistant artifacts for their space shuttle-themed displays. NASA on Tuesday expanded its offer of surplus space food and space shuttle heat shield tiles, which had earlier been open only to educational organizations. Now, museums located across the nation can request the same pieces of space history that U.S. schools and universities have received since the end of the space agency's shuttle program in 2011. For 30 years, NASA stocked its shuttle pantry with shrimp cocktail and spaghetti with meat sauce, among a variety of other dishes. Dessert selections on the shuttle included freeze-dried strawberries and off-the-shelf sweets such as candy-coated chocolates (otherwise known as M&Ms).
From ‘Angry Birds’ to multi-player video games, NASA ramps up investment in educational technology
Abha Bhattarai - Washington Post
Forty-three years after putting a man on the moon, NASA sent the “Angry Birds” video game to space. A few months later, the birds traveled to the moon and later to Mars. NASA’s recent collaboration with gamemaker Rovio to create “Angry Birds Space,” in which players use slingshots to launch birds at pigs, is part of a series of computer game projects spearheaded by government agencies to encourage science, technology and math education. Today, NASA has loftier goals: An upcoming $10 million massively multi-player video game would simulate life on Mars and eventually provide 100 hours of playing time on the iPad, Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox.
Lonely giant
Dwayne Day - The Space Review (Opinion)
One of the many benefits of being a rich nation is that we can spend money on frivolities, like history and art. Very few countries have this luxury. When the Soviet Union collapsed, not only did they stop flying their Buran space shuttle, they put the only flown example in an assembly building and left it there, abandoned. But eventually, because of neglect, the roof collapsed and this example of Russian technological achievement was destroyed. The United States has done a better job of preserving its space history. All of the surviving space shuttles are either already in or headed for suitable permanent homes. Other flown American spacecraft are on display in various museums. And the three Saturn V rockets (although not all of them are flight objects) are protected and available to the public. But there are some objects that deserve better treatment than they are getting. Recently the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama announced their future plans, and fortunately one of the projects on their list includes refurbishing the exterior of the Skylab underwater trainer at the museum. Although the Space and Rocket Center has a great asset in the form of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration and their Saturn V rocket display, many of their exterior artifacts are in dire need of preservation. Several hundred kilometers to the southwest sits another neglected piece of space history, a complete Saturn V S-IC first stage. It resides at the entrance to the Michoud Assembly Facility, which used to manufacture Saturn hardware like the S-IC and Space Shuttle External Tanks, but now doesn’t do much at all.
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COMPLETE STORIES
Spacewalk begins
William Harwood – CBS News
Floating in the Quest airlock module, astronauts Sunita Williams and Hoshide Akihiko switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:06 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) to officially begin a planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk to make a second attempt to install a replacement power switching unit.
Without the device, electricity from two of the station's eight solar arrays cannot be utilized, a shortfall that, left uncorrected, would have a major impact on station operations.
Equipped with a set of MacGyver-like homemade tools, including a toothbrush attached to the end of a metal rod, the astronauts will attempt to clean and lubricate balky bolts that jammed during a spacewalk last Thursday, preventing them from attaching the replacement main bus switching unit.
For identification Williams, call sign EV-1, is wearing a spacesuit with red stripes while Hoshide, call sign EV-2, is wearing an unmarked suit. This will be the sixth spacewalk for Williams, the second for Hoshide and the fourth for station astronauts so far this year.
After last Thursday's marathon eight-hour 17-minute spacewalk, Williams moved up to 24th on the list of most experienced spacewalkers with 37 hours and 34 minutes of EVA time. Two hours and 12 minutes into today's excursion, she will move past Peggy Whitson as the world's most experienced female spacewalker.
The 220-pound main bus switching unit, or MBSU, is one of four used to route 160-volt power from the space station's eight huge solar array wings to transformers that distribute 120-volt power to the lab's myriad systems. MBSU No. 1 suffered an internal failure of some sort several months ago and while it still delivered power, it could no longer be commanded.
As a result, Williams and Hoshide removed MBSU No. 1 during a spacewalk last Thursday, but they were unable to bolt a replacement into its enclosure on the forward face of the station's main solar array truss. One of the two bolts in question, used to pull the box down onto cable connectors and interlocking cooling fins, jammed for some reason well before the box could be tightened down.
Williams reported seeing metal shavings in the bolt housing when the faulty MBSU was removed. She attempted to blow the debris out with compressed nitrogen, but the astronauts still were unable to bolt the replacement MBSU in place.
Rather than risk stripping the threads or shearing the bolt off with the power tool used to drive it, the astronauts were told to leave the box in place, partially installed and tethered to the truss, while engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston debated various repair options. The unsuccessful spacewalk ran eight hours and 17 minutes, the third longest in NASA history.
Working through the Labor Day weekend, engineers radioed up instructions for homemade tools that Williams and Hoshide will use during their second spacewalk to more thoroughly clean and lubricate the bolt hole and threads.
A spare bolt will be driven into the housing to help clean its threads and a toothbrush attached to the end of a metal rod will be used to clean the threads on the MBSU bolt. The astronauts will take special care to align the box before driving the bolts to ensure cooling fins and connectors engage properly.
The timeline allows four hours for the replacement work. If the MBSU is not plugged back into the station's electrical grid by then, Williams and Hoshide will bring it back to the airlock for additional troubleshooting inside the space station. In that case, engineers would work on possible techniques for jury rigging electrical connections and cooling to get around the bolt problem.
With MBSU No. 1 out of action, the station cannot tap into the power produced by two of the lab's eight solar arrays. In an unrelated issue, a direct current switching unit, one of eight used to route array power downstream to the MBSUs, tripped off Saturday afternoon, taking a third array out of the power grid. The DCSU issue likely will be dealt with during yet another spacewalk.
The station's six-member crew is not in danger because of the electrical outage. But the loss of power, if left uncorrected, would quickly have a major impact on station operations, including robot arm work and research.
NASA Dropped ATK’s Commercial Crew Proposal over Technical Concerns
Dan Leone - Space News
A design by Alliant Techsystems (ATK) was dropped from NASA’s shortlist of potential space station crew taxis because the company did not present a technically sound plan for combining existing rocket and spacecraft designs into a single transportation system, according to a NASA source selection document released Sept. 4.
“I had some significant concerns about the lack of detail in some areas of ATK’s technical approach,” William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, wrote in the document. “Basically, the proposal lacked enough detail to determine if a safe crew transportation system could be developed in a timely and cost effective manner out of the heritage components ATK selected for this concept.”
Gerstenmaier’s comments appeared in a July 31 source selection document detailing his reasons for passing over ATK and three less-known firms to pick Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and Sierra Nevada Space Systems for Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) awards totaling $1.1 billion.
ATK spokesman George Torres had no immediate comment Sept. 4 on the CCiCap source selections statement.
CCiCap is the third round of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program to develop and certify privately operated astronaut taxi systems to restore independent U.S. access to and from the international space station by 2017. NASA currently pays Russia for those services.
ATK’s proposed Liberty Transportation System would combine a launcher made from European and U.S. rocket stages with a composite crew module that was to be built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver. The rocket would use a shuttle-derived ATK-built solid-fuel core stage and the first stage of Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket as an upper stage. The Liberty spacecraft would be based on a design once studied at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., to determine whether composite materials could be used in NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle instead of aluminum lithium. Orion, also to be built by Lockheed Martin, is the deep-space crew capsule NASA plans to pair with the Space Launch System.
NASA also received CCiCap proposals from Space Operations, American Aerospace Inc., and Spacedesign Corp., but quickly rejected them as “unacceptable,” according to the source selection document.
Of the three winners NASA announced Aug. 3, Boeing and SpaceX received $460 million and $440 million, respectively, while Sierra Nevada received $212.5 million. The awards, which run through May 2014, call for Boeing and SpaceX to complete a critical design review that would clear the way for construction of their competing systems to begin. Sierra Nevada’s award, worth less than half of what Boeing and SpaceX stand to receive, is meant to allow development of the company’s winged DreamChaser spacecraft to continue, albeit at a slower pace than Boeing’s and SpaceX’s capsule-based systems.
Pittsburgh researchers prepare for space surgery
Device could restrain body fluids in tricky zero-gravity operations
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Before humans can take long expeditions to Mars and beyond, and even back and forth to the moon, one problem must be solved.
In the weightlessness of space, an appendectomy, removal of a gall bladder, cuts or wounds, or even the pulling of a tooth would contaminate the spaceship with blood, tissue and bodily fluids. Gravity, as it turns out, is an important surgical tool that helps to confine bodily fluids.
But a team of local researchers is working to solve the problem. Its astro-surgical tool, known as an Aqueous Immersion Surgical System, uses water pressure in a watertight containment area to control bleeding and prevent blood, fluids and tissue from floating away. With no blood bank available in space, the device also could recover an astronaut's blood during surgery for reuse in the patient.
James E. Burgess, a neurosurgeon at Allegheny General Hospital; James Antaki, a biomedical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University; doctoral student Jennifer A. Hayden; and George M. Pantalos, a professor of biomedical engineering and surgery at the University of Louisville, are combining talents and expertise to refine a prototype initially designed to control blood during brain and spinal surgeries. Only later did they realize the idea provided a solution of conducting surgeries in space.
Here's the basic concept: A clear dome without a bottom is attached watertight to the skin, creating a seal similar to wearing swim goggles. The dome includes tubes and controls to add pressure from a sterile saline solution to control bleeding or flush the solution away if it turns cloudy from blood or bodily fluids. In that way, the surgeon's view is preserved while added pressure controls bleeding, much like gauze packed into a wound.
The device also includes watertight ports through which surgical instruments are used to do the surgery beneath the dome. Open surgery, laparoscopic or arthroscopic surgeries, or even the stitching of wounds would be possible with the system, the researchers said.
Inside spacecraft, a larger clear container with arm ports for the surgeon would be used over the smaller dome to provide a backup should the domed device fail.
About 2003, Dr. Burgess came up with the idea to develop a watertight surgery system to control bleeding during brain and spinal surgeries. He said ruptured vessels can make it difficult to control bleeding or have a clear view of the surgical site.
Needing help with the engineering, he approached Mr. Antaki with the idea. They began work on a prototype, but Mr. Antaki was unable to land National Institutes of Health grants for the project. He said NIH officials found the idea to be "innovative beyond the point of feasibility."
"Inventors love their inventions and think they are great," said Mr. Antaki, who holds a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering. "But convincing skeptics and others is not as easy."
After a string of NIH rejections, he searched a list of government agencies that awarded small-business grants, and his eyes landed on NASA. It almost was a eureka moment.
"I realized that in outer space, zero gravity was a bigger problem, so let's pursue a NASA grant," he said. "In my humble opinion, I think [the new device] is essential. I can't imagine going into space and stitching up a wound or gash or doing a tooth extraction -- anything involving blood -- without a containment system."
With that idea, Mr. Antaki contacted his friend, Mr. Pantalos, who had worked with NASA to study heart function and blood pressure during space missions and the impact that returning to Earth had on heart health. Mr. Pantalos, who also holds a doctoral degree, tested his technology aboard NASA's zero-gravity C-9 aircraft at the Johnson Space Center Reduced Gravity Program at Ellington Field, southeast of Houston.
The plane, nicknamed the "Vomit Comet," accomplishes weightlessness by a parabolic path through the sky, similar to a roller coaster, producing weightlessness during quick descents. It's not a pleasant ride for anyone prone to motion sickness.
In the meantime, Mr. Antaki received an application from Ms. Hayden, who had done research on surgical tools for Ethicon, the Johnson & Johnson company that works on surgical solutions, before deciding to seek a doctoral degree in biomedical engineering. He thought she'd be the ideal candidate to work on the project as a topic for her doctoral dissertation.
The research team is preparing to make a major step in development of the device and prove that the concept can work. The project currently has no outside funding, but NASA is offering in-kind assistance by providing research time on the zero-gravity aircraft.
On Oct. 2-5, Mr. Pantalos, Ms. Hayden and Dr. Burgess will take four flights on the aircraft to test the technology. On the final two flights, Dr. Burgess said, he plans to do surgical procedures on a pig's heart to test whether the system can contain the fluids during zero gravity.
Mr. Pantalos said he did 27 missions on the zero-gravity aircraft for his previous project. "It's great fun," he said. "It's kind of like in the movie, 'Hook,' when Peter Pan discovers that he can fly. It's a magical experience."
More research and development will be necessary as the team works to resolve all technical problems, but Mr. Antaki said the project is advancing nicely with hopes that NASA eventually will fund the project.
"I'm totally convinced that it is safe and effective," he said.
Neil Armstrong's Public Memorial Service Set for Sept. 13
Space.com
A public memorial service for late astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first person to set foot on the moon, will take place Thursday, Sept. 13 at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
The event offers a chance for the nation to pay its respects to the iconic astronaut, who died Aug. 25 following complications from a recent heart surgery. A previous ceremony was held for Armstrong on Aug. 31 in Cincinnati, but that one was limited to friends and family.
The Sept. 13 service is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). It will be broadcast live on NASA TV and streamed by the websites of both NASA and the National Cathedral.
Many dignitaries are expected to attend, including NASA chief Charles Bolden and other NASA officials, political leaders and members of the Armstrong family, space agency officials said.
A select few regular folks will make it into the service as well. A "very limited" number of seats will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis, according to a NASA media advisory. People interested in attending should contact Christine Peterson at christine.peterson@nasa.gov
Neil Armstrong rose to international fame when he stepped onto the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. He and Buzz Aldrin spent more than 21 hours on the moon, while fellow Apollo 11 crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in their command module Columbia.
The words Armstrong uttered as his boots crunched into the gray lunar dirt — "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind" — are among the most famous ever spoken.
The multi-faith Washington National Cathedral is a historic landmark, and it already has a connection with Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission. In 1974, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins presented the cathedral with a moon rock they had collected on their historic journey, as part of a ceremony commemorating the fifth anniversary of humanity's first steps on the moon.
SpaceX has several land areas under consideration
Emma Perez-Treviño - Brownsville Herald
As SpaceX and Cameron County leaders await the results of a federal environmental impact study that will determine whether construction of a rocket launch site is plausible at Boca Chica Beach, land requirements, and ownership, continue to be assessed behind the scenes.
There are several land areas under consideration. The first is the main site, consisting of about 50 acres on the flats behind the dunes. This would be the launch site. Within those 50 acres, some 8 acres would comprise the core launch site, where the actual vertical launches would take place.
The second area needed would be where the “brain,” or command center, would be, and is located from two to 10 miles west of the vertical launch area. Boca Chica Village, once known as Kopernick Shores and home to a founding Polish community, is within the two- to 10-mile radius.
Cameron County also owns property within the two- to 10-mile area, and Cameron County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said attorneys are in the process of ensuring that the county has clear title to them. The county is researching title to lots 1, 5-15, 30-42, all in Block 18 of the re-subdivision of parts of Blocks 18 and 19, Rio Grande Beach Subdivision, Unit 2. The goal is to determine what county land could be conveyed, through sale or lease, for the SpaceX project, Cascos said.
However, there are numerous other property owners within that radius. The amount of acreage needed for the command center was not immediately available, but is believed to involve a minimal amount of land.
According to information presented by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration at a public scoping meeting, all of the facilities would be built on private land that SpaceX would own or lease. The FAA also noted that the development of access and supporting utility infrastructure for the vertical launch area and the control center could occur on lands outside those owned or leased by SpaceX.
Gilberto Salinas, executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Council, who has been working on the SpaceX project for more than a year, said SpaceX has been contacting private property owners directly.
“They are doing it on their own. They are doing all of that legwork,” he said.
According to a map provided of the proposed site by the FAA, which is conducting the environmental impact study, or EIS, and when compared with public records, owners of the land that SpaceX could be interested in appear to be Joe Walsh and Lee Arnett, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Robert Clark Trust, and Rudolph Clemencig.
However, some of those ownerships are in question. The son of one of the named property owners said his father is deceased and the land has been sold to another party.
Also, it was thought initially that Parks and Wildlife might own a narrow strip of land on the south side of State Highway 4, between the proposed SpaceX tract and the road, but the agency later concluded that the Texas Department of Transportation owns the strip of land.
Members of the Ruiz family, at a recent Cameron County Commissioners Court meeting, said some of the property being eyed might belong to the Ruiz family estate from a land-purchase protected by the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Under the treaty, Spain ceded Florida to the United States, and disputes regarding the United States-Mexico border were resolved.
David Ruiz Cisneros maintains that his family owns about 43,000 acres throughout the Boca Chica Beach area, including land at the Brownsville Navigation District and surrounding area. Cisneros has said that SpaceX should be contacting his family.
SpaceX could be ‘game changer' for students
Gary Long - Brownsville Herald
Listen to Dr. Frederick Jenet talk about the physics and radio astronomy program at UTB-TSC and it’s suddenly no surprise that a world-class company like SpaceX would be interested in Brownsville.
“We have students getting up at 3 a.m. to control the world’s largest radio telescope in Puerto Rico. They understand the pressure of a deadline in a real-world environment,” Jenet said via Skype from a conference he was attending in Sydney, Australia.
“What they’re doing is actual scientific research. What they’re doing is advancing our knowledge of the universe, and they know how to work together as a team.”
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, is the Hawthorne, Calif.-based space transport com-pany that earlier this year became the first commercial enterprise to complete a resupply mission to the International Space Station. The company has $1.6 billion in supply contracts with NASA and launch agreements with operators of communication satellites worldwide.
The company has launch facilities in California and Florida and designs and builds all of its own hard-ware in McGregor, Texas, near Waco. Brownsville is one of three sites under consideration for a third launch facility, with the other two in Puerto Rico and Florida.
“I’m excited about the possibility for a future SpaceX launch site here,” said Jenet, who earned his Ph.D. in physics from California Institute of Technology and now is an associate professor of physics and head of the Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
The idea of rockets being launched on missions into space over the Gulf of Mexico from a site near Boca Chica Beach is not far-fetched.
“It has the potential to be a game changer for Brownsville, but it has always been in the game plan — which is to develop a very good group of students doing hands-on research under a world-class faculty. … This idea of developing student scientists, and that they would attract industry down here, has always been part of the plan.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” Jenet said. “I very much hope Brownsville will be their choice.”
Space-faring civilization
If Brownsville does become home to a rocket launch facility, the area will have an opportunity to be part of the push to conquer mankind’s next frontier — space — and inhabit planets beyond our own.
That is precisely the purpose for which entrepreneur Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. A naturalized U.S. citizen reportedly worth nearly $2 billion, Musk told a “60 Minutes” interviewer after the successful SpaceX mission to the ISS in May that humanity finds itself at the dawn of a new era, one in which it becomes a space-faring civilization.
Musk, 40, immigrated to the United States from South Africa, eventually cofounding the Internet payment system PayPal. When eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion, Musk started looking for ways to invest his new fortune to achieve his top goal of making space exploration affordable. The result was SpaceX.
Shortly before the company grabbed headlines for docking a satellite with the ISS, it became public knowledge that SpaceX wanted to build a third launch facility and that Brownsville was one of the areas under consideration. Not long after, Musk said publicly that Brownsville was his top choice for the pro-posed facility, which would sit on 50 acres of flats just off Boca Chica Beach.
Should Brownsville prevail in its quest to land the launch facility, the educational community here would gain a committed partner in making education in the so-called STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and math — more attractive to students. That has been the school district’s experience in McGregor.
Here, SpaceX already has begun reaching out to the Brownsville Independent School District, as well as to faculty, staff and students at UTBTSC.
At a May 15 public hearing on SpaceX, five of Jenet’s top students, members of the first class of Arecibo Remote Command Center Scholars, spoke in favor of the project. Then they took the SpaceX officials from the meeting, down the hall to their lab at UTBTSC’s International Technology, Education and Commerce Center on Mexico Boulevard.
Louis Dartez, one of the students, said it quickly became apparent to SpaceX officials that the ARCC Scholars were doing precisely the type of radio astronomy to map distant stars that SpaceX engineers use to guide the company’s rockets.
The similarity of focus was evident, right down to the fact that the students’ Center for Advanced Radio Astronomy Multi-purpose Astronomy lab was working with the same computer chips that SpaceX uses on its rockets.
“They’ve taken very proactive steps,” Jenet said of SpaceX. “They’ve approached me as director of the CARAMA lab to put forth ideas of how we could collaborate. My understanding is that they are very keen to work together with the university. I think it’s safe to say that our students made a good impression on them.”
The company has said that about half of the 600 jobs it would bring to Brownsville would pay in the $50,000 range. Dartez was understandably thrilled to find out he might qualify for one of them. He said having a company like SpaceX right in his backyard would make finding employment after graduation much more realistic.
Otherwise, he would be looking out of town for prospects, joining the “brain drain” of Brownsville stu-dents who get their education here but then can’t find work in their field and end up leaving the area.
Dartez graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in physics.
“They asked for our résumés at that moment and told us to keep in touch,” Dartez said of the conversation in the CARAMA lab after the SpaceX hearing. “They seemed very interested in us and we ended up talking a good while. The jobs they would bring to Brownsville are in the $50,000 range. That’s shooting for the stars. In one of the poorest counties in the country, it’s just what’s needed.”
Value Proposition
In an area where the unemployment rate regularly is near the highest in the state and where much of the work force is uneducated and untrained, SpaceX has the potential to change the employment dynamic.
Irv Downing, a longtime Brownsville economic development official, knows the difference that having a company like SpaceX could make for Brownsville’s work force and its psyche.
After stints as Rio Grande Valley president of JP Morgan Chase Bank and as executive director of the Brownsville Economic Development Foundation, Downing joined UTBTSC in 2009 as vice president for Economic Development and Community Services. Earlier this summer the university added vice president for Institutional Advancement to his title. He also sits on the board of the Brownsville Economic Development Council and was part of the initial team that went to California after SpaceX expressed interest in this area.
SpaceX made a concerted effort “to connect to our faculty and to our programs, particularly in math and science,” he said, and asked the university to assemble its faculty to find out how SpaceX could tie in with existing programs and collaborate with the university.
“They presented us with a value proposition. They said, ‘We would like your students to be ready for us and we will help you get there.’ Lots of companies are that way, but SpaceX makes it part of their mission,” Downing said.
SpaceX “wants to connect with us all the way through, so that we’re preparing children in grade school up to and through university students,” he said. “… In California they have a robust internship program with hundreds of students from all over the country.”
BISD Supt. Carl A. Montoya said that kind of focus fits right in with the district’s plans. SpaceX made a presentation about its plans to a meeting of BISD principals, just as the district was launching a STEM magnet program for the middle schools to help students get an early start on science- and technology-related careers.
“Now you could have real careers related to math and science right here in Brownsville,” he said. “I think it’s going to help Brownsville and the region.”
In McGregor, where SpaceX builds its rockets and engines, schools Supt. Kevin Houchins said the company has proven to be a partner that goes out of its way to help the school district.
The company began operations in McGregor in 2003.
“It’s really fired up these kids to have SpaceX right here in their backyard,” Houchins said. “They manufacture rocket engines, so there’s a huge test tower just outside of town.”
SpaceX has helped to improve his district’s science curriculum as well as motivate students, he said.
“You’ve got kids walking around in SpaceX T-shirts that want to go out there and work for SpaceX after college. … They’ve been good for McClendon County and Central Texas, and if they come down there, they’ll be good for Brownsville, too,” Houchins said.
“Think about it. They’re going to come down there and hire a bunch of people. Their kids are going to go to your schools. Their parents are going to be in your PTO.
“These are engineers and scientists,” he said. “It would have a huge economic impact.”
Trees coming down so space shuttle can roll in LA
North County Times (Northwest San Diego & Southwest Riverside counties)
Los Angeles is trading the trees for the stars - and not everybody's happy about it.
Crews clearing a path for the space shuttle Endeavour have begun cutting down hundreds of trees in South Los Angeles and Inglewood, with some residents mourning their loss even as they welcome a piece of history.
Chainsaws and woodchippers were at work Tuesday, removing pine, ficus and other trees along the route that the enormous spacecraft will take on its final voyage through the streets of Los Angeles and Inglewood.
The spaceplane will be hauled from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center, where it will be displayed in a new exhibit hall. The two-day, 12-mile journey begins on Oct. 12.
Officials have said they will have to remove about 400 trees and reposition signs, streetlights and traffic signals to make room for the spaceplane, which has a 58-foot-tal tail and a 78-foot wingspan.
The science center has agreed to plant two trees for each tree taken down.
But not everyone is happy about seeing decades-old trees replaced with skinny saplings.
"They are cutting down these really big, majestic trees," said Lark Galloway-Gilliam, a neighborhood council member and longtime resident of the Leimert Park area. "It will be beyond my lifetime before they will be tall like this again."
The route was chosen with community input. An alternative was worked out after residents disapproved of a route through Leimert Boulevard that would have required taking down dozens of pine and fir trees planted in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the Los Angeles Times (lat.ms/OSBjRN) reported.
Other ways of moving the shuttle were considered but rejected. A freeway route was impossible because Endeavour couldn't get under the overpasses. The 170,000-pound craft was too heavy to lift by helicopter and taking it apart might damage the delicate heat-resistant tiles.
Inglewood officials will use the move as an opportunity to get rid of trees that have damaged sidewalks or otherwise cause problems. The California Science Center is expected to spend $500,000 to improve the city's landscape.
The shuttle's significance also isn't lost on residents.
"It is a historical artifact and national treasure," science center president Jeffrey Rudolph said. "The community understands that and recognizes that it will help inspire the next generation of explorers."
Cristina Melendrez, who works for a charity serving those with disabilities, said she planned a monthlong curriculum around Endeavour's arrival.
"It's a shame they are cutting down these beautiful trees," she said. "But it's going to be fun having our participants witness history."
Los Angeles Wants Space Shuttle Endeavour, But Must 400 Trees Be Cut?
KGO Radio (Los Angeles)
It was supposed to be a spectacular event including a two-day parade, but the space shuttle Endeavour’s final 12-mile journey through the streets of South Los Angeles has some residents protesting, because 400 trees would have to be chopped down to clear the shuttle’s intended path from Los Angeles International Airport to the California Science Center.
Although the science center, or CSC, where Endeavour is to go on display, said it would plant twice as many trees in their place, tree lovers are still not convinced.
Claudine Jasmin, a resident of South Los Angeles, said she goes to the CSC all the time and loves having it in the neighborhood, but does not think it’s worth losing the trees. She said they bring squirrels and a variety of birds.
“My parents have lived in this neighborhood since before I was born, and we have these big pine trees on our street, and I’m sure it took forever for them to grow. They are beautiful,” Jasmin said. “It would be really, really horrendous to see all these years of a tree’s growth completely diminished for one parade.”
Eddie North-Hager, publisher of Leimertparkbeat.com, a local online news and social network, said despite the loss of trees, Endeavour’s arrival will be a good thing for the neighborhood.
“There is a lot of concern over street trees and everyone wants to work to make sure they are replaced and taken care of and have the same caretaking as there is now,” North-Hager said. “Everyone is concerned that baby trees will replace trees that have been there forever … I do hope they put in more than saplings and do expect they will take care of them until they reach a maturity where they can take care of themselves.”
Endeavour, built after the loss of the shuttle Challenger in 1986, became NASA’s fifth space shuttle orbiter. It made its first flight in 1992 and in its 25 missions, it orbited the Earth more than 4,600 times and spent 299 days in space.
Endeavour needs to be towed from the airport to the museum. Planners said they chose wide streets and minimized obstacles, because power lines will be extended and traffic signals cleared from the shuttle’s path.
But according to an estimate in the Los Angeles Times, 128 trees will be removed in the city of Inglewood and South Los Angeles will lose approximately 265 trees. Pine, ficus and other trees in Inglewood have already been chopped down by construction crews.
“I think our neighborhood loves the CSC and owes a great deal of our children’s education to that institution and it’s free to go there,” North-Hager said. “It’s one of the five shuttles in the country and it’s amazing that we are getting that and that it’s going to our neighborhood. We love our street trees and it’s one of the things that makes Leimert Park so special. It’s my understanding that CSC is going to remove the least possible.”
In total, the CSC said it plans to spend $500,000 to improve the city streets. Replanting of trees is expected to begin a few weeks after Endeavour’s final journey.
But some residents are still not convinced.
“I don’t think replanting is enough to cover up the void that would be around after these trees are cut down,” Jasmin said. “There are kids and families in this neighborhood that are used to seeing these trees every day, and waiting years for them to grow back the way they were would be too disheartening.”
Former U.S. President Backs 100 Year Starship
Ian O'Neill - Discovery News
The light-years between the stars is vast -- a seemingly insurmountable quarantine that cuts our solar system off from the rest of the galaxy. But to a growing number of interstellar enthusiasts -- and a former U.S. president -- interstellar distances may not be as insurmountable as they seem.
On Sept. 13, an international group of big thinkers will descend on Houston, Texas, to discuss one very big idea: making interstellar travel possible within the next 100 years.
The 100 Year Starship Project (100YSS) was seeded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initiative, and earlier this year it was announced that ex-NASA astronaut Mae Jemison and the Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence would head the project. Icarus Interstellar Inc. (a non-profit organization co-founded by Richard Obousy in the aim of developing technologies for interstellar travel), SETI Institute and Foundation for Enterprise Development were also tapped to join the multi-partner project to develop the technical, cultural, legal and financial frameworks for a manned mission to another star.
During an interview with Discovery News in May, Jemison expressed her desire to make the 100YSS project a global, "inclusive" endeavor. "'Inclusive' brings that sociocultural perspective; it brings a trans-disciplinary perspective. It says it makes a difference who's on board, aspect-wise, gender-wise, geography-wise, national origin ... everyone needs to be involved and we need to pay attention to that," she said.
So, next week will see the 100YSS 2012 Public Symposium kick off in Houston, marking the beginning of a century of work striving to push mankind out of the solar system and on a journey to becoming an interstellar civilization.
Former President Bill Clinton has even stepped in to serve as the symposium's Honorary Chair. In a statement, Clinton said: "This important effort helps advance the knowledge and technologies required to explore space, all while generating the necessary tools that enhance our quality of life on earth."
In addition to Jemison, there will be several well known guest speakers including actress Nichelle Nichols (who notably played Star Trek's Lt. Uhura), actor LeVar Burton (Star Trek: TNG's Geordi La Forge), SETI Institute Co-Founder Jill Tarter, anthropologist Johnnetta B. Cole, space journalist Miles O'Brien and many, many more.
Discovery News will also play a key role in the 2012 symposium. I'll be chairing one of the track sessions called "Becoming An Interstellar Civilization." This track is rich with speakers who will discuss the cultural, legal, economic, religious, ethical, philosophical and social aspects of sending a community of people into deep space. Other tracks will look into the engineering, technological, practical and biological aspects of such an endeavor.
In short, the symposium will examine just about every conceivable facet of human life against a backdrop of the audacious plan to travel to, and potentially colonize, another star system.
This is a public symposium, and as such, you can attend. For full details, visit the 100YSS symposium website.
NASA serving up space food and shuttle tiles to museums
Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com
NASA is now offering museums a choice of freeze-dried and heat-resistant artifacts for their space shuttle-themed displays.
NASA on Tuesday expanded its offer of surplus space food and space shuttle heat shield tiles, which had earlier been open only to educational organizations. Now, museums located across the nation can request the same pieces of space history that U.S. schools and universities have received since the end of the space agency's shuttle program in 2011.
For 30 years, NASA stocked its shuttle pantry with shrimp cocktail and spaghetti with meat sauce, among a variety of other dishes. Dessert selections on the shuttle included freeze-dried strawberries and off-the-shelf sweets such as candy-coated chocolates (otherwise known as M&Ms).
To drink, crew members could choose from coffee or tea, as well as powdered juices (Tang, in its many flavors).
The astronaut food was precooked or processed so as not to need refrigeration and was ready to eat. Meals could be prepared simply by adding water or by heating.
That said, the food being offered is for demonstration and display use only. "Not for consumption," NASA warned on its website.
The other artifacts NASA is offering, lightweight thermal tiles, protected the shuttle orbiters from the extreme heat encountered during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
More than 20,000 tiles were installed on each shuttle and each tile was designed to survive 100 trips to space and back. Varying in thickness from 1 inch (2.54 centimeters) to 5 inches (12.7 cm), the tiles shielded the orbiter against temperatures as high as 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Both the space food and the tiles are available to eligible institutions on a first-come, first-served basis. Museums and schools must have the proper credentials from their state or federal agencies to qualify.
The tiles are available in three types: black coated, white coated and uncoated. Institutions may request up to three tiles, one of each type, while supplies last. The tiles are free but the schools and museums are responsible for the shipping and handling fees, $23.40 per tile.
The space food is offered as a package of approximately three space food items for a shipping and handling fee of $28.03. Eligible institutions may request only one set of the astronaut meal items.
NASA, together with the General Services Administration (GSA), is also conducting its 14th round of space artifact screenings. Since the end of the shuttle program, NASA has made available thousands of other space artifacts for museums, including the Smithsonian.
The current selection of artifacts up for grabs include early prototype space shuttle models and various components from the winged spacecraft.
The space shuttle program came to an end on Aug. 31, 2011, just over a month after its 135th and final mission landed on Earth. NASA earlier awarded its shuttle orbiters Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis to museums while still retaining some of their components for possible use with spacecraft intended to send astronauts to an asteroid and ultimately to Mars.
From ‘Angry Birds’ to multi-player video games, NASA ramps up investment in educational technology
Abha Bhattarai - Washington Post
Forty-three years after putting a man on the moon, NASA sent the “Angry Birds” video game to space. A few months later, the birds traveled to the moon and later to Mars.
NASA’s recent collaboration with gamemaker Rovio to create “Angry Birds Space,” in which players use slingshots to launch birds at pigs, is part of a series of computer game projects spearheaded by government agencies to encourage science, technology and math education.
Today, NASA has loftier goals: An upcoming $10 million massively multi-player video game would simulate life on Mars and eventually provide 100 hours of playing time on the iPad, Sony Playstation and Microsoft Xbox. When a beta version of “Starlite” is released later this year, it will be NASA’s biggest foray into gaming, and one that Laughlin hopes will set the stage for future collaborations with commercial game developers.
“There are more higher-end gaming projects going on at NASA than ever before,” Laughlin said. “Very few people are looking to textbooks to get students inspired anymore.”
In the past few years, NASA has released an air traffic control simulator for the iPhone, a trivia game called “Space Race Blastoff” for Facebook and “MoonBase Alpha,” a multi-player game that cost $300,000 to develop and resulted in 20 minutes of playing time.
But as the agency grapples with persistent education budget cuts, NASA is experimenting with new business models to fund upcoming projects.
The agency had originally planned to pour $5 million to $7 million into “Starlite” over three or four years. But budget cuts took their toll, Laughlin said.
“Gradually, NASA nibbled down the budget until it turned out we could only afford to fund the educational side of the game,” he said.
The agency will now invest about $1.5 million in NASA content and expertise in the “Starlite,” while Project Whitecard, a Winnipeg-based firm that has already created two games for the Canadian Space Agency, will finance the rest.
The premise of “Starlite” is quite simple, said Khal Shariff, chief executive of Project Whitecard: It’s the year 2035. You are a first-time explorer who has to leave the Earth’s orbit and travel to Mars. Once you reach the Red Planet, there are a series of challenges, such as orchestrating an emergency rescue mission to find a stranded astronaut.
“You must now craft a radio receiver, place it on two mini rover robots and travel across the surface of Mars to triangulate his position using radio signals,” Shariff said.
Along the way, there are threats to the Earth and other complications you must overcome. It was a challenge to create a nonviolent ad ven ture rooted in science, Shariff said.
“When you take violence out of the mix, what are you left with?” he asked, adding that Project Whitecard is also working on its third game for the Canadian Space Agency. “It’s very challenging, but our idea is to create an entertaining game where you learn something, where you don’t just come away with blood lust for phase guns.”
The efforts at NASA are part of a broader push by the Obama administration to promote games that encourage science, technology and math education. In September 2010, the administration hired a senior policy analyst to oversee initiatives related to educational games. Last year, the National Endowment for the Arts revised its guidelines for funding to include gaming projects.
Even so, Laughlin said he has no illusions that NASA-backed games will be in the same echelon of gaming as “World of Warcraft,” the online role-playing cult hit, or the popular Xbox series “Halo.”
“No one is sitting awake at night worried that NASA is going to put them out of business,” he said.
A new model
When Laughlin first started working for NASA 10 years ago, the agency’s approach to gaming was very straightforward: NASA solicited proposals for educational ventures and then picked a handful of projects to fund every year.
But once budget cuts began rippling through the agency, finding the funding for NASA’s own projects, much less outside proposals, became much more difficult.
“We had to turn that model around,” Laughlin said. “We said, ‘Okay, we want to do something specific — we want to make this kind of game, and we want you to fund it.’?”
There are some downsides to this commercial approach, Laughlin said. Universities and other research institutions that relied on NASA grants to do their work were completely out of the running. Instead, the model shifted toward big-name developers who could finance the project from start to finish.
In the long run, though, Laughlin said it may be for the best. The new model forces developers to think in terms of continued profit and visibility.
“In the past, once the last cent of government money ran out, the projects stopped,” Laughlin said. “Now, we’re going straight to, ‘You need to know how to raise money and make money.’?”
Shariff said Project Whitecard has high hopes for “Starlite.” The company plans to release several iterations of the game that could cost an additional $30 million to $50 million in the next three to five years.
“Mars is just the beginning,” he said. “We’ve got the whole solar system to work with.”
Lonely giant
Dwayne Day - The Space Review (Opinion)
One of the many benefits of being a rich nation is that we can spend money on frivolities, like history and art. Very few countries have this luxury. When the Soviet Union collapsed, not only did they stop flying their Buran space shuttle, they put the only flown example in an assembly building and left it there, abandoned. But eventually, because of neglect, the roof collapsed and this example of Russian technological achievement was destroyed. Tragically, several workers died in the accident.
The United States has done a better job of preserving its space history. All of the surviving space shuttles are either already in or headed for suitable permanent homes. Other flown American spacecraft are on display in various museums. And the three Saturn V rockets (although not all of them are flight objects) are protected and available to the public.
But there are some objects that deserve better treatment than they are getting. Recently the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama announced their future plans, and fortunately one of the projects on their list includes refurbishing the exterior of the Skylab underwater trainer at the museum. Although the Space and Rocket Center has a great asset in the form of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration and their Saturn V rocket display, many of their exterior artifacts are in dire need of preservation.
Several hundred kilometers to the southwest sits another neglected piece of space history, a complete Saturn V S-IC first stage. It resides at the entrance to the Michoud Assembly Facility, which used to manufacture Saturn hardware like the S-IC and Space Shuttle External Tanks, but now doesn’t do much at all.
Officially designated S-IC-15, this was a flight-ready piece of hardware, the last Saturn V first stage manufactured, and it apparently includes F-1 engines originally installed on the Apollo 15 and 16 S-ICs, as well as the last F-1 engine ever produced. It was never officially designated for an Apollo mission, but most likely would have lofted Apollo 20 toward the Moon, if that mission had occurred. It was officially designated as a backup launcher for the Skylab Orbital Workshop. If, before flight, something had gone wrong with the first stage scheduled to lift Skylab, or if the first mission had failed completely (as it almost did) and the backup Skylab had to be launched, this first stage would have performed the mission. None of that happened—the backup Skylab currently resides in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC—and so this expensive piece of hardware was also declared surplus.
This bit of neglected space history has endured humid Louisiana weather and several notable hurricanes, including Katrina. These photographs were taken less than one week before Hurricane Isaac bore down on the area. A perfunctory assessment indicates no obvious age-related damage, although the vehicle is clearly dirty and in desperate need of a cleaning as well as a paint job.
But what S-IC-15 really needs is a new home, preferably indoors. It has been sitting outside for decades and should get indoors where its deterioration can be halted. But where? One obvious place would be the new visitor’s center a few kilometers from the gates of the Stennis Space Center in nearby Mississippi. S-IC stages were regularly barged from Michoud to Stennis during the Apollo era. But the Stennis visitor’s center is brand new, and adding a large annex is probably not economically or politically feasible at this time.
Unfortunately, no other options seem viable. KSC, Huntsville, and Houston all currently have complete Saturn V rockets. There are no other obvious East Coast locations for one. Billionaire Jeff Bezos recently expressed some interest in recovering one or more F-1 engines from the Apollo 11 first stage currently resting at the bottom of the Atlantic. But recovering such a heavy object from such a depth would be a major undertaking. If Bezos wants to collect some Apollo hardware, this S-IC-15 would be a great catch, and he could probably put it on display at a museum of his choosing if he offered to fund a proper restoration. But unless a rich benefactor steps up with some cash, the Saturn first stage will continue to be assaulted by the elements until it deteriorates to the point where it makes no sense other than to scrap it.
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