10/12/12

        Happy Friday everyone. Have a safe and great weekend.     Friday, October 12, 2012   JSC TODAY HEADLINES 1.            Find IT Solutions to Enable Your Mission at the IRD Expo and Forum Oct. 25 2.            JSC is Golden -- Read All About it 3.            Memorial Tree Dedication Ceremony for Susie Mauzy -- Today at 4 p.m. 4.            The Single Habitat Module Concept: A Streamlined Way to Explore With Chambliss 5.            Employee Discount Days With Appreciation Events and Starport 6.            Fright Fest at the Gilruth Center on Oct. 26 7.            We Want to Know What You Think 8.            All About E-books at the JSC Library 9.            Volunteers Need for Electronic Recycling Event on Nov. 10 10.          Space Available -- Introduction to ProductView MCAD Professsional 9.1 11.          Situational Awareness Class: Dec. 4 to 6 - Building 226N, Room 174 ________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY “ Everyone faces challenges in life. It's a matter of how you learn to overcome them and use them to your advantage.”   -- Celestine Chua ________________________________________ 1.            Find IT Solutions to Enable Your Mission at the IRD Expo and Forum Oct. 25 Mark your calendars for a day of discovery! Find out about new Information Technology (IT) tools, services and resources at this year's Information Resources Directorate (IRD) Expo and Forum from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25. You will find a variety of information-filled exhibits showcasing items like computer hardware and video-conferencing capabilities, all to be displayed in the Teague lobby and Building 3's Collaboration Center. This is also your chance to shape the future of IT at JSC by providing feedback through various channels that day.  As part of IRD's commitment to continuous improvement, IRD will use the feedback to enhance processes, products and/or services. You can also submit your additional IT ideas for possible future adoption. We will present the outcomes at a follow-up event in February. Also, don't miss the several forums in the Teague Auditorium that will help you be cyber safe as part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month. JSC IRD Outreach x41334 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/default.aspx   [top] 2.            JSC is Golden -- Read All About it JSC was recently awarded the Employers for Education Excellence Gold Award by the Texas State Board of Education. The award, established in 2007 by the Texas Legislature, is given to employers who encourage staff volunteerism in school activities and programs. JSC has encouraged volunteerism and furthered education through a wealth of programs and events. Read more about it here! JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111   [top] 3.            Memorial Tree Dedication Ceremony for Susie Mauzy -- Today at 4 p.m. You are invited to join Susie's friends and family for the one-year remembrance Memorial Tree Dedication on Friday, Oct. 12, at 4 p.m. at the memorial grove along 5th Street. A toast at Tokyo Bowl (2402 Bay Area Blvd., Suite N), on what would have been Susie's 49th birthday, will follow the dedication. For questions, please contact OD/William Schaefer (x42672), EV/Monty Goforth (x41117), HA/Dennis Davidson (x35877), OD/Mindy Cohen (x44671) or NA/Cheryl Andrews (x35979). Cheryl Andrews x35979   [top] 4.            The Single Habitat Module Concept: A Streamlined Way to Explore With Chambliss In early 2010, NASA was directed to address changes in exploration destinations, consider using new technologies and develop new capabilities to support space exploration. This prompted the development of the Single Habitat Module (SHM) concept for a more streamlined approach to the infrastructure and conduct of exploration missions. During this presentation, Joe Chambliss will describe the SHM concept and advantages it provides to accomplish exploration objectives. When: Oct. 16 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: Building 5 South, Room 3102 (near the guard shack at the entrance of the Building 4/Building 4S/Building 5S parking lot is a ramp leading to a door at the corner of Building 5S). A public access elevator is located past two sets of doors. We welcome you to join us! Registration is not required, and seating is on a first come, first served basis. For questions, contact any Spacesuit Knowledge Capture point of contact: Cinda Chullen (x38384), Vladenka Oliva (281-461-5681) or Rose Bitterly. Rose Bitterly 281-461-5795   [top] 5.            Employee Discount Days With Appreciation Events and Starport Appreciation Events representatives will be in the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 30 and 31 to offer employee savings of up to 90 percent on local activities and services. Cards are available in a vast array of categories, including local sports events, restaurants, day spas, golf courses, bed and breakfasts, boat cruises, theme parks and more! Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/ for more information, or email wesley.morgan@appreciatinevents.com for a full list of promotions. Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/   [top] 6.            Fright Fest at the Gilruth Center on Oct. 26 Join in on the frightful family fun at the Gilruth Center! Learn and perform the Thriller dance in your best zombie attire. Learn the dance on Oct. 19. The big performance is on Oct. 26. It's $20 if registered by today ($25 after), or $15 for one night. Take a Spooky Spin ride with our specialty spin class -- spinning with a Halloween theme! It's 6 to 7 p.m. and $10 if registered by Oct. 19 ($15 after). Register at the Gilruth Center.  For the kids, our Fright Fest Bash is where it's at with a bounce house, games, candy, prizes, face painting, costume contests, photo ops and more! It's 5 to 7:30 p.m. in the Gilruth gymnasium. The cost is $5/child if purchased by Oct. 19 ($7/child after). Adults do not need a ticket. Purchase tickets at the Gilruth Center and in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops. Visit out Haunted House -- if you dare -- from 5 to 8 p.m. on the Gilruth Center's second floor. The cost is $5/person (or $3 if the child has a ticket to the Fright Fest Bash). Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/   [top] 7.            We Want to Know What You Think It's all about Safety and Health Day. What did you like most about it? Were there things you would like to have seen or learned that were not represented? Take just a minute to answer yes-and-no questions and take the multiple-choice survey (how easy can it get?) to add your own two cents, if you like. You will help to make the next event even better! Safety and Health Day is your day, so we want your opinion. It matters. Art Knell, Co-Chair, Safety & Health Day Committee x41280 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/safety/event/SHD12/postEventSurvey_submit.asp   [top] 8.            All About E-books at the JSC Library The JSC Library will have an e-books training webinar on Thursday, Oct. 18, from 9 to 10 a.m. CDT. Christa George, STI supervisor, will show users how to search e-book collections such as Knovel, EngNetBase and the Wiley Online Library. To register for the WebEx, go to the link below and then click on the "Classroom/WebEx schedule:" http://library.jsc.nasa.gov/training/default.aspx   Provided by the Information Resources Directorate. Ebony Fondren x32490 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov   [top] 9.            Volunteers Need for Electronic Recycling Event on Nov. 10 The JSC Contractor Environmental Partnership is hosting another free electronic recycling and document-shredding event at Space Center Houston on Nov. 10 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. We are looking for volunteers to help staff the event. There are three different shifts available, and volunteers can sign up for whenever and for as many shifts as they would like. Sign up using the website link below. We hope to see you there! JSC Contractor Environmental Partnership x40878 http://www.mysignup.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi?datafile=jsc_ewaste   [top] 10.          Space Available -- Introduction to ProductView MCAD Professsional 9.1 In this course, you will learn about ProductView Data Management Systems. You will learn how to visualize products and navigate through or query 3-D models. Finally, you will learn how to create annotations to communicate design ideas and problems. This course is intended for all enterprise data users that use the ProductView MCAD Professional Client. This course is available for self-registration in SATERN and is open to civil servants and contractors. Date: Tuesday, Oct. 16 Location: Building 12, Room 144 Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...   [top] 11.          Situational Awareness Class: Dec. 4 to 6 - Building 226N, Room 174 Two-and-a-half days. NASA is involved in operations where there is always a potential for human error and undesirable outcomes. As part of a team, how we communicate, process information and react in various situations determines our level of success. In our efforts, we often run into glitches and the potential for human error. Situational Awareness is a course that addresses these issues. It involves combining our awareness of what's going on in the operations environment, a knowledge of system failure design criteria,and an understanding of expected outcomes from system failures to avoid hazardous situations and develop safe responses to unsafe conditions that may realistically be expected to arise. This course instructs students in the basic tenets and practices of situational awareness and how they apply to hazardous operations in NASA to promote the best proactive safety techniques in practice. SATERN Registration Required. (Contractors: Update Profile.) https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Polly Caison x41279   [top]   ________________________________________ JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.         NASA TV: 9 am Central (10 EDT) – Expedition 33’s Suni Williams with WBZ-TV, Boston & WCVB-TV, Boston   Human Spaceflight News Friday – October 12, 2012   The last 12 miles: Endeavour’s move to the California Science Center is underway   HEADLINES AND LEADS   Wallops in the wings to resupply space station   Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press   SpaceX made history Wednesday when its Dragon spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station in what NASA touts as a key milestone in commercial spaceflight. But waiting in the wings at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore — literally sitting on its brand new $145 million launch pad — is the Antares rocket, slated to ship the Cygnus spacecraft into orbit as the second commercial vehicle to begin resupplying the station. Before that happens, the Antares is being put through its paces: Weeks of testing its mechanical, electrical, propellant and gas management systems. Then fueling and de-fueling in a "wet" dress rehearsal. Following that, a hot-fire test scheduled for next month to launch the rocket and a simulated Cygnus craft laden with sensors to gather even more data.   Astronaut: Space privatization 'great'   Don Lemon - CNN   Dragon space station commander Suni Williams talks role models and privatization with CNN. (NO FURTHER TEXT)   Astronaut Suni Williams talks dessert, voting and Triathlons from space   Lisa Stark - ABC News   Domino’s doesn’t deliver, there’s no alcohol, and no fresh coffee, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are going to have a real treat. They just got a special delivery of chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream, shipped 220 miles from Earth. So this evening, a rare ice cream social for station Commander Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. “Homemade ice cream is something special, we’re going to have a little party,” Williams told ABC News in a conversation from the Space Station.   Space station crew throws ice cream social Cool treat part of Dragon's cargo   James Dean - Florida Today   Thursday was dubbed Dessert Night on the International Space Station after astronauts unpacked a shipment of ice cream, among other cargo, from the newly arrived Dragon capsule. “It’s quite a treat,” station commander Sunita Williams said during media interviews Thursday. “We don’t usually have this kind of stuff up here. It’s usually thermo-stabilized or de-hydrated (food) that we’re hydrating, so homemade ice cream is something special, and we’re going to have a little party.”   Astronauts have an ice cream party   Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log   The three astronauts on the International Space Station are having ice cream for dessert tonight — and we're not talking about that spongy "astronaut ice cream" stuff. This is the vanilla chocolate-swirl ice cream that was delivered in a research freezer aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship that arrived on Wednesday. "It's quite a treat," space station commander Sunita Williams told ABC News during a space-to-Earth interview today. "We don't usually have this type of stuff up here. It's usually thermostabilized or dehydrated [food] that we're dehydrating. So homemade ice cream is something special, and we're going to have a little party."   Saturn V Also Suffered Engine Launch Anomalies   Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News   Sunday's Falcon 9 launch of a Dragon capsule to the space station went off, but not without a hitch. During the rocket’s ascent, one of its nine Merlin engines shut down prematurely one minute and 19 seconds after launch. In the ensuing press release, SpaceX pointed out that engine malfunctions are neither abnormal nor crippling, and pointed out that the Saturn V experienced two engine malfunctions. It did, and neither were fatal to the mission.   Space shuttle embarks on 12-mile trip to LA museum   Alicia Chang - Associated Press   At its prime, the space shuttle Endeavour cruised around the Earth at 17,500 mph, faster than a speeding bullet. In retirement, it's crawling along at a sluggish 2 mph, a pace that rush-hour commuters can sympathize with. Endeavour's 12-mile road trip kicked off shortly before midnight Thursday as it moved from its Los Angeles International Airport hangar en route to the California Science Center, its ultimate destination, said Benjamin Scheier of the center.   Space shuttle Endeavour starts road trip to new Los Angeles home   Alex Dobuzinskis - Reuters   The retired space shuttle Endeavour sets off on Friday for a road trip unlike any of its previous journeys, one that will see it crawl through the streets of Los Angeles instead of hurtling through the solitary reaches of space. Endeavour will nose out of Los Angeles International Airport well before dawn as it begins a two-day ground journey atop a massive wheeled transporter to its final resting place at the California Science Center on the edge of downtown.   Space Shuttle Endeavour Embarks on L.A. Road Trip   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   Space shuttle Endeavour has hit the road. The black and white winged orbiter, which is the youngest in NASA's now retired fleet, left Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) atop a self-propelled, overland transporter in the early morning hours on Friday (Oct. 12). The motion signaled the start of a 2-day road trip to deliver Endeavour to its new exhibit at the California Science Center (CSC). Endeavour emerged at 11:25 p.m. PDT (2:25 a.m. EDT; 0625 GMT) Thursday (Oct. 11) from a United Airlines hangar, which served as the space shuttle's temporary shelter since arriving at the airport on a NASA jumbo jet last month.   Shuttle crossing provides a unique teaching moment   Alicia Chang - Associated Press   — When the space shuttle Endeavour weaves through working-class communities on its way to its retirement home, Hildreth "Hal" Walker Jr. wants the children he tutors to remember a few names: Ronald McNair. Mae Jemison. Charles Bolden. A retired laser scientist who had a role in the Apollo 11 mission, Walker took the opportunity with the upcoming two-day terrestrial crawl through predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County to highlight the role that minorities played in the shuttle program. "We really have a job to do to show them the accomplishments of the people whose shoulders they're standing on," Walker said.   Space Shuttle Endeavour's Historic L.A. Move Documented for Film   Mike Wall - Space.com   The space shuttle Endeavour is living the dream of many other twentysomethings around the world — moving to Los Angeles and becoming a movie star. A film crew and phalanx of photographers have been documenting every leg of Endeavour's journey thus far, from its departure from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a 747 jet on Sept. 19 to its arrival in the City of Angels in California two days later after a cross-country farewell tour. And the cameras will definitely be whirring Friday and Saturday (Oct. 12 and 13) as Endeavour makes a surreal 12-mile (19 kilometers) trek through the streets of L.A. from Los Angeles International Airport to its museum retirement home, the California Science Center.   Hole punched in doughnut shop's hopes for shuttle celebration   Nita Lelyveld - Los Angeles Times   Say what you will. Say stay off the sidewalk. Ora Alcox is going to see the space shuttle. On Friday, the now-earthbound Endeavour will be wheeled by very slowly, a block from Alcox's Inglewood home. She will witness it, she says; try to stop her: "They'll have to drag me, screaming and crying. I'm 70 years old. I have MS and I plan to see this." Randy's, at Manchester and La Cienega boulevards, was all set to be shuttle viewing central. The brothers put a miniature shuttle in the giant doughnut hole. They put a yellow sign in the window: "SPACE SHUTTLE XING." They started punching out shuttle doughnuts with a special cookie cutter they got from a place called the Space Store, Ron Weintraub said. They iced them white with brown letters, USA and NASA.   MEANWHILE ON MARS...   An unusually pristine piece of Mars   Monte Morin - Los Angeles Times   Blasted into space by a collision with an asteroid, the jagged hunk of Mars rock tumbled silently through the solar system for 7,000 centuries. Finally, on July 18, 2011, the rock's long journey ended as violently as it had begun: It plunged to Earth as a fireball that illuminated the Moroccan night, awakening soldiers and nomads with a sonic boom. One eyewitness said it turned from yellow to green before it finally split in two and vanished from view. Such was the dramatic arrival of the so-called Tissint meteorite, named for a village where pieces fell. The unusually pristine specimen is one of only five Martian projectiles that have been observed entering Earth's atmosphere and then recovered for study.   NASA rover Curiosity finds a rock not seen before on Mars   Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor   NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has indentified a type of rock scientists have never seen on Mars before, but it's one familiar to geologists on Earth. The Martian rock, a form of basalt, has a composition very similar to volcanic rocks found in ocean-island settings such as Hawaii and the Azores, as well as in rift zones – regions where Earth's continents split and begin separating into separate land masses.   NASA's Mars rover finds rock with Earth-like chemistry   Irene Klotz - Reuters   When scientists selected a rock to test the Mars rover Curiosity's laser, they expected it to contain the same minerals as rocks found elsewhere on the Red Planet, but learned instead it was more similar to a rock found on Earth. The rock was chemically more akin to an unusual type of rock found on oceanic islands like Hawaii and St. Helena, as well as in continental rift zones like the Rio Grande, which extends from Colorado to Chihuahua, Mexico. "It was a bit of a surprise, what we found with this rock," Curiosity scientist Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told reporters on a conference call Thursday.   Curiosity examines Earth-like rock Scientists surprised at stone's composition   Todd Halvorson - Florida Today   NASA’s Curiosity rover is shaking so when it starts baking powdered samples, scientists will be seeing Martian soil rather than stuff of Earthly origin, officials said Thursday. “We don’t want to measure something that came with us,” said Luther Beegle, a Curiosity sampling system scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We want to measure something that came from Mars itself.” __________   COMPLETE STORIES   Wallops in the wings to resupply space station   Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press   SpaceX made history Wednesday when its Dragon spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station in what NASA touts as a key milestone in commercial spaceflight.   But waiting in the wings at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore — literally sitting on its brand new $145 million launch pad — is the Antares rocket, slated to ship the Cygnus spacecraft into orbit as the second commercial vehicle to begin resupplying the station.   Before that happens, the Antares is being put through its paces: Weeks of testing its mechanical, electrical, propellant and gas management systems. Then fueling and de-fueling in a "wet" dress rehearsal. Following that, a hot-fire test scheduled for next month to launch the rocket and a simulated Cygnus craft laden with sensors to gather even more data.   "The next thing we do is, we launch. We fly," said Barron Beneski, spokesman at the Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation, which designed and built the Antares and Cygnus.   That demonstration flight, which will include a trial docking with the space station, is expected in 2013.   "We're making progress every day," Beneski said. "Sometimes it seems to be painfully slow, but we keep moving forward."   If it seems painfully slow, it's actually far from it, according to Beneski.   SpaceX, or the Space Exploration Technologies Corp., was awarded its Commercial Resupply Services contract from NASA in 2006, a full two years before Orbital won its contract, he said.   SpaceX made news around the world in May when its Dragon capsule became the first commercial spacecraft to visit the space station on its demonstration flight.   "So we're sort of in the unenviable public position of, 'Oh, that other company that's kind of behind SpaceX,'" said Beneski. "But, from start to finish, if we launch by the end of the year, we will have done it quicker, and will have built a whole new launch complex."   The commonwealth began to build the new complex at its Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops two years ago. It was completed this summer, enabling medium-size rockets like the Antares to launch from Wallops for the first time, and beginning a new chapter in the facility's space ambitions. Until now, the facility could only accommodate small rockets to launch light payloads, such as satellites or scientific experiments.   Founded in 1982, Orbital has a $1.9 billion contract for 10 resupply missions to the space station, all of which are expected to be from Wallops. SpaceX — one of a wave of entrepreneurial "new space" enterprises — has a similar contract for $1.6 billion and launches from Cape Canaveral in Florida.   On Wednesday, NASA praised SpaceX's latest achievement.   "This marks a new era of exploration for the United States," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden announced. "One where we will reduce the cost of missions to low-Earth orbit so we can focus our resources on deep space human missions back around the moon, to an asteroid and, eventually, to Mars."   NASA has turned increasingly to the commercial sector to replace the retired space shuttle program.   The Dragon spacecraft is delivering 882 pounds of payload to the station, including crew supplies, scientific research, hardware and other supplies, NASA said. It will return with a payload of 1,673 pounds.   The Cygnus is capable of carrying up to 4,400 pounds of payload, Beneski said. An extended version of the Cygnus, which will be available for later missions, will carry up to 5,500 pounds, or roughly the size of a full-size car.   When the Antares finally launches, said Beneski, it should be visible for hundreds of miles up and down the Eastern Seaboard. And Hampton Roads should have a front-row seat.   He said he didn't watch the latest SpaceX launch or docking, but praised the achievement nonetheless.   "I think they've done a very good job," Beneski said. "I congratulate them on their success. We'll get our turn later this year."   Astronaut Suni Williams talks dessert, voting and Triathlons from space   Lisa Stark - ABC News   Domino’s doesn’t deliver, there’s no alcohol, and no fresh coffee, but the astronauts aboard the International Space Station are going to have a real treat. They just got a special delivery of chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream, shipped 220 miles from Earth. So this evening, a rare ice cream social for station Commander Sunita (Suni) Williams, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko.   “Homemade ice cream is something special, we’re going to have a little party,” Williams told ABC News in a conversation from the Space Station.   The ice cream, packed in small cups like the ones children eat with wooden ice cream spoons, came up on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which docked with the ISS yesterday. The capsule carried food, clothes and science experiments, and is the wave of the future for NASA, which wants to rely on private companies to deliver cargo and even astronauts to the space station.   This is Williams’ second six-month stay on the station, and to hear her tell it, the now-completed science lab in the sky is as busy as a truck stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Since Williams arrived in mid-July, the crew has welcomed a Japanese cargo vehicle, a Russian cargo ship, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, and now the Dragon capsule. In two weeks, another Soyuz will dock to bring three additional crew members.   Williams, a Navy Captain, is only the second female commander of the International Space Station, and holds the record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman, the number of spacewalks by a woman, and most spacewalk time by a woman. They’re hardly her only claims to fame. In September, Williams completed the first-ever triathlon from space, biking on an exercise bike, running on a treadmill, and using a special weight-lifting resistance machine to simulate a half-mile swim.   From her vantage point high above the earth, Williams is watching the seasons change, from summer green to autumn red in the Northern Hemisphere. She’ll be home in time for Thanksgiving, but not for Election Day. With no polling place in space, Williams said she just managed to get an absentee ballot before her liftoff. She’s legally a Florida voter. Her ballot has already been signed sealed and delivered.   Space station crew throws ice cream social Cool treat part of Dragon's cargo   James Dean - Florida Today   Thursday was dubbed Dessert Night on the International Space Station after astronauts unpacked a shipment of ice cream, among other cargo, from the newly arrived Dragon capsule.   “It’s quite a treat,” station commander Sunita Williams said during media interviews Thursday. “We don’t usually have this kind of stuff up here. It’s usually thermo-stabilized or de-hydrated (food) that we’re hydrating, so homemade ice cream is something special, and we’re going to have a little party.”   SpaceX’s unmanned Dragon arrived Wednesday morning on the first resupply mission to the station by a private contractor, carrying 882 pounds of crew supplies, hardware and science equipment.   “Wow, it’s pretty clean,” Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko said, according to Williams.   She congratulated SpaceX and NASA on starting “a whole generation of commercial spacecraft coming up here for resupply,” noting the Dragon’s unique capability to return large amounts of cargo to Earth.   “This vehicle right here has a freezer which we’re all anticipating and excited about going in to see what’s in there,” she joked about its ice cream contents. “But more importantly, it’s going to be bringing back samples that have been taken over the past couple of years of people living up here, and that’s really important for the advancement of spaceflight.”   The Dragon will return more than 100 tubes of blood and nearly 400 syringes of urine from station crew members that scientists want to analyze to learn more about the effects of living in microgravity. The samples have been stranded since the shuttle’s retirement last year.   That’s the more serious purpose of the freezer that brought up the Blue Bell Sundae Ice Cream Cups, which come from a dairy popular among the astronaut corps in Houston, according to CollectSpace.com.   Williams floated one of the blue-capped, vanilla with chocolate swirl cups in front of her Thursday and revealed her favorite flavor: “Good old-fashioned vanilla is my favorite, because then you can add things to it,” she said.   The Dragon is expected to remain berthed at the station until Oct. 28. Three more crew members, including American Kevin Ford, are due to arrive Oct. 25.   Williams’ crew is due to depart Nov. 12. NASA is assessing whether to ask her and Hoshide to do a spacewalk to perform some station repairs before they leave.   Astronauts have an ice cream party   Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log   The three astronauts on the International Space Station are having ice cream for dessert tonight — and we're not talking about that spongy "astronaut ice cream" stuff. This is the vanilla chocolate-swirl ice cream that was delivered in a research freezer aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo ship that arrived on Wednesday.   "It's quite a treat," space station commander Sunita Williams told ABC News during a space-to-Earth interview today. "We don't usually have this type of stuff up here. It's usually thermostabilized or dehydrated [food] that we're dehydrating. So homemade ice cream is something special, and we're going to have a little party."   The Blue Bell ice cream was a late addition to the manifest for SpaceX's Dragon supply flight, which marks the first routine commercial cargo delivery under the terms of a $1.6 billion, 12-flight contract with NASA. Astronauts used the space station's arm to bring the Dragon in for berthing early Wednesday, and the time line went so smoothly that the hatches between the station and the visiting spacecraft were opened that same day — a day earlier than scheduled.   The ice cream was transferred from the Dragon's ultra-cold GLACIER research freezer to the space station's own freezer space in preparation for tonight's dinner. Williams is sharing the treats with Japanese astronaut Aki Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. NASA spokesman Rob Navias told me today that the ice cream supply amounts to a pint or two — and it's not clear how long the spacefliers will be able to stretch that out. "It depends on how much they eat," Navias quipped.   The space station's crew has until Oct. 28 to transfer 882 pounds (400 kilograms) of supplies into the station, load it back up with about twice as much mass in Earth-bound cargo, and unberth the Dragon for its re-entry and splashdown. In place of the ice cream, the GLACIER freezer will be carrying frozen biological samples, including hundreds of frozen blood and urine samples that have been waiting for a ride back down to Earth. Since last year's retirement of the shuttle fleet, the Dragon is the only spacecraft capable of returning a significant amount of cargo from the space station.   Navias made it sound as if Williams and her crewmates should have no problem meeting their deadlines.   "As of 1 p.m. Central Time, the crew had completed 77 percent of all of the cargo transfer and had already unpacked all of that cargo moved over to the station so far," Navias told me in a follow-up email. "All in one day. Way ahead of schedule."   Sounds like somebody deserves an extra helping of ice cream.   NASA's Space Food Hall of Fame notes that the freeze-dried confection known as astronaut ice cream actually flew in space only once, aboard Apollo 7 in 1968. "It wasn't that popular," NASA food scientist Vickie Kloeris said in 2005. The desserts offered to the space station's astronauts are typically things like chocolate brownies, plum-cherry cobbler, honey cake or berry medley. Every once in a while, though, a space shuttle shipment would include real ice cream as a special treat.   Saturn V Also Suffered Engine Launch Anomalies   Amy Shira Teitel - Discovery News   Sunday's Falcon 9 launch of a Dragon capsule to the space station went off, but not without a hitch. During the rocket’s ascent, one of its nine Merlin engines shut down prematurely one minute and 19 seconds after launch.   In the ensuing press release, SpaceX pointed out that engine malfunctions are neither abnormal nor crippling, and pointed out that the Saturn V experienced two engine malfunctions. It did, and neither were fatal to the mission.   More than one Saturn V had problems during launch. The Saturn V that took Apollo 12 to the moon, for example, was struck by lightning twice in the first minute of its flight. And two rockets did experience engine failures, Apollo 6 and Apollo 13. In both cases it was second stage engines that failed, and in the case of Apollo 13, it didn't affect the spacecraft’s orbital insertion at all.   Apollo 6 launched on April 4, 1968. It was an unmanned mission designed to demonstrate compatibility between the Saturn V rocket and the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM). The mission would also give ground crews a chance to practice tracking and controlling a spacecraft in orbit.   The Saturn's third stage, the S-IVB, was to be reignited in orbit simulating a translunar injection burn (the burn that would send the spacecraft to the moon) before freeing the CSM. The spacecraft would stay in orbit for six hours, cold soaking the heat shield to give engineers data on reentry heating after returning from the moon.   But problems with the Saturn's second stage, S-II, took a major toll on the mission. Three hundred and 19 seconds after launch, a fuel line leak in the S-II’s engine 2 caused a loss of thrust. After 94 seconds, the thrust had dropped off further; both engines 2 and 3 lost 40 percent of their power, triggering a shutdown of both engines. The dual shutdown was accompanied by a power surge, which caused a loss in pressure in engines 4 and 5. Only engine 1 made it through launch unscathed.   The result was a significantly altered trajectory for the spacecraft. It was much lower than expected. In the end, 6 of the mission’s 16 primary goals were only partially accomplished and one -- re-ignition of the S-IVB stage for the simulated translunar burn -- wasn’t done at all. But overall the mission was successful enough that NASA felt confident to put a crew on the next Saturn V -- Apollo 8 took three men to the moon in December 1968.   Apollo 13 launched on April 11, 1970 with a crew bound for the moon’s Fra Mauro highlands. It was to be the third lunar landing but an explosion of an oxygen tank 55 hours and 54 minutes into the mission crippled the spacecraft and put the crew in mortal peril. But long before the oxygen tank exploded, a launch malfunction briefly threatened the mission’s lunar goal.   During its ascent, the Saturn’s S-II stage’s central engine, engine 5, shut down 2 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of schedule. The remaining four engines were unaffected, and burned for an extra four minutes to compensate for the lost engine and the spacecraft achieved the desired orbit. Once the S-II’s four outboard engines were determined to be stable, there was no question of aborting the mission. Only later did the severity of the engine malfunction come to light.   No one was entirely sure why the S-II’s center engine shut down, but many suspected it was an automatic response to pogo oscillations; test data and past experience supported this theory. As propellant flows through the rocket stage’s plumbing on its way from the fuel tanks to the engines, low-frequency disturbances can form. This is similar to the groaning noises residential plumbing makes, only on a rocket they’re less strong. But these disturbances can cause variations in propellant flow rate, which in turn affects the thrust of the engine fed by that propellant. Thrust in that engine can fluctuate several times a second. The resulting oscillation can make a rocket “bounce” like a pogo stick.   Telemetry from Apollo 13’s S-II stage suggested engine 5 was experiencing a significant pogo -- up to 68g vibrations. A pogo this strong could cause the engine frame to flex by a few inches, enough to threaten to tear the second stage apart. Engine shutdown was likely triggered by sensed thrust chamber pressure fluctuations.   Similar, though smaller, pogo oscillations had been seen in previous rockets, including Apollo 6’s Saturn V. But on Apollo 13, the oscillations were amplified by interactions with other hardware. Subsequent Saturn V’s were modified to dampen the pogo effect.   Pogo oscillations are one kind of issue that can threaten a mission and cause an engine’s early shutdown, but there are more. As for the culprit in the Falcon 9 launch mishap, SpaceX hasn’t yet determined the cause of its premature engine shutdown.   Space shuttle embarks on 12-mile trip to LA museum   Alicia Chang - Associated Press   At its prime, the space shuttle Endeavour cruised around the Earth at 17,500 mph, faster than a speeding bullet.   In retirement, it's crawling along at a sluggish 2 mph, a pace that rush-hour commuters can sympathize with.   Endeavour's 12-mile road trip kicked off shortly before midnight Thursday as it moved from its Los Angeles International Airport hangar en route to the California Science Center, its ultimate destination, said Benjamin Scheier of the center.   The space craft was escorted by a security entourage as it moved across the tarmac but was briefly delayed after a minor problem developed with its trailer, Los Angeles police Sgt. Rudy Lopez said. The problem was quickly repaired and Scheier said it reached the street shortly after 2 a.m. PDT Friday.   Endeavour was to travel slowly on the street for about two hours to a private parking lot where it will have a nine-hour layover as crews deal with power lines father ahead on the route.   While the shuttle will have the streets and sidewalks to itself during the two-day journey as it inches past strip malls, storefronts, apartment buildings and front lawns, it will be a constant stop-and-go commute.   Ushering a shuttle through an urban core is a logistical challenge that took almost a year to plan. Guarded by a security detail reminiscent of a presidential visit, police enforced rolling street and sidewalk closures as early as Thursday night in some locations and discouraged spectators from swarming side streets.   The behemoth transport has caused headaches for shopkeepers along the route who counted on cheering crowds jamming the curbs to boost business.   In the days leading up to Endeavour's move, the owners of Randy's Donuts sold shuttle-shaped pastries emblazoned with the NASA logo and even hung a shuttle replica inside the giant doughnut hole sign visible from the busy Interstate 405.   Co-owner Larry Weintraub planned to watch the shuttle creep by the roadside sign, which has been featured in several movies. But the store, which serves up sweets 24-7, will be closed Friday night.   "I'm still excited, but I'm disappointed that people aren't going to be able to stand in the streets and shout `Yay,'" he said.   Saturday is typically the busiest day for James Fugate, who co-owns Eso Won Books in South Los Angeles. But with Endeavour expected to shuffle through, Fugate braced for a ho-hum day in sales.   "We don't close because we're slow. That's when you pull out a book to read," he said.   The baby of the shuttle fleet, Endeavour replaced Challenger, which exploded during liftoff in 1986, killing seven astronauts. It thundered off the launch pad 25 times, orbited Earth nearly 4,700 times and racked up 123 million miles.   Last month, it wowed throngs with a dizzying aerial loop, soaring over the state Capitol, Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood Sign and other California landmarks while strapped to the back of a modified 747 before finally landing at LAX.   The last leg of Endeavour's retirement journey skips the tourist attractions and instead, winds through blue-collar communities in southern Los Angeles County. While viewing will be severely curtailed due to sidewalk shutdowns, crowds are still expected.   Moving the 170,000-pound Endeavour requires a specialized 160-wheel carrier typically used to haul oil rigs, bridges and heavy equipment. The wheels can spin in any direction, allowing the shuttle to zigzag past obstacles. An operator walks alongside, controlling the movements via joystick. Several spotters along the wings are on the lookout for hazards.   To make room for the five-story-tall shuttle and its 78-foot wingspan, some 400 trees were chopped down, cable and telephone lines were raised, and steel plates were laid down to protect the streets and underground utilities.   Endeavour will mostly travel on wide boulevards with some boasting as many lanes as a freeway. While there have been advance preparations, there is remaining work to be done during the move, including de-energizing power lines. Southern California Edison warned of outages in the suburb of Inglewood.   One of the trickiest parts involves trundling through a narrow residential street with apartment buildings on both sides. With Endeavour's wings expected to intrude into driveways, residents have been told to stay indoors until the shuttle passes.   The route was selected after ruling out other options. Dismantling the shuttle would have ruined the delicate heat tiles. Helicoptering it to its destination was not feasible. Neither was crossing on freeways since the shuttle is too big to fit through the underpasses. The cost of transporting it cross-town was estimated at over $10 million.   As complex as the latest endeavor is, Southern California is no stranger to moving heavy things.   In 1946, Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" aircraft was built in sections and hauled from Culver City to Long Beach, 30 miles away. In 1984, an old United Airlines DC-8, with its wings and tail disassembled, was towed from Long Beach to the science center.   Earlier this year, a two-story-tall chunk of granite was hauled 105 miles from a rock quarry to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.   Space shuttle Endeavour starts road trip to new Los Angeles home   Alex Dobuzinskis - Reuters   The retired space shuttle Endeavour sets off on Friday for a road trip unlike any of its previous journeys, one that will see it crawl through the streets of Los Angeles instead of hurtling through the solitary reaches of space.   Endeavour will nose out of Los Angeles International Airport well before dawn as it begins a two-day ground journey atop a massive wheeled transporter to its final resting place at the California Science Center on the edge of downtown.   "It's a national treasure; this is something that we all paid for with our taxes," Ken Phillips, aerospace curator at the science center, said of the hulking craft that flew from 1992 to 2011 and will go on public display later this month.   He described the shuttle, which was largely built in Southern California, as a workhorse for the American space program and said it represented "the very best, I think, of what people can do when they decide to cooperate and do good things."   The science center beat out a number of other institutions when NASA chose it as the permanent home for the 80-ton winged spaceship, which was taken out of service due to the historic end of the NASA shuttle program that began with a launch in 1981.   Endeavour hop-scotched across the country from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the back of a modified Boeing 747. It was parked at the airport after arriving on September 21 following a ceremonial piggyback flight around California during which spectators on the ground cheered and wept.   Workers have felled 400 curbside trees along Endeavour's 12-mile (19-km) route to clear its way. The science center will plant more than 1,000 trees to make up for their removal.   Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry said that when Endeavour flew over the city last month, she and her colleagues ran up to the roof of City Hall where they watched it with tears in their eyes.   Star at a rally   Perry said she remained apprehensive about the road journey, when she said Endeavour will pass through intersections with as little as 6 inches of clearance. She also anticipates large crowds along the way.   "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the space shuttle come down your neighborhood street," Perry said. "How often does that happen?"   Los Angeles police were closing streets along the planned route for what organizers are calling "Mission 26," in reference to the shuttle's 25 previous missions into space.   Soon after rolling out of the airport, the shuttle will pass through the nearby city of Inglewood where on Saturday morning it will be the star in a massive rally outside an arena where the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team once played.   Later that day, it will stop at a shopping mall in South Los Angeles where officials will speak and a dance academy started by "Fame" actress Debbie Allen will perform.   Once it arrives at the science center, it will be displayed in a temporary, hangar-style metal structure to protect it from the elements. In 2017, a special pavilion will open in which Endeavour will stand vertically, Phillips said.   The other remaining spaceships from the shuttle program have also found homes. The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., has Discovery at its Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center museum in Virginia, New York City has the prototype shuttle Enterprise at its Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, and the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral in Florida has Atlantis, which the center will move to an on-site visitor complex next month.   "We have enjoyed the space shuttles, at least working here at NASA, and it's time now to let the public enjoy seeing the shuttle first-hand, getting an up-close look at it," NASA spokeswoman Lisa Malone said.   Space Shuttle Endeavour Embarks on L.A. Road Trip   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   Space shuttle Endeavour has hit the road.   The black and white winged orbiter, which is the youngest in NASA's now retired fleet, left Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) atop a self-propelled, overland transporter in the early morning hours on Friday (Oct. 12). The motion signaled the start of a 2-day road trip to deliver Endeavour to its new exhibit at the California Science Center (CSC).   Endeavour emerged at 11:25 p.m. PDT (2:25 a.m. EDT; 0625 GMT) Thursday (Oct. 11) from a United Airlines hangar, which served as the space shuttle's temporary shelter since arriving at the airport on a NASA jumbo jet last month.   The shuttle then exited LAX through an access road at 2 a.m. PDT (5 a.m. EDT; 0900 GMT), crossed Lincoln Boulevard and turned onto Westchester Parkway, rumbling towards its first "rest stop" along the 12-mile (19 kilometer) route to the science center.   At its full speed of 2 miles per hour (3.2 kph), the joystick controlled, blue and yellow transporter slowly but steadily carried the 155,000-pound (70,300-kilogram) Endeavour forward. The shuttle's 78-foot (24-meter) wingspan and 58 foot tall (18-meter) tail required a route that was closed to traffic and cleared of obstacles, including light signals and trees.   Endeavour will spend much of the day Friday waiting for crews to raise power lines that are blocking its way.   To Infinity (or rather Bed, Bath) and Beyond   Rolling west from the airport on Westchester, Endeavour's route takes it along La Tijera Boulevard to the parking lot of a shopping center on the corner of Sepulveda Parkway, where it will stop for about nine hours.   Although not a publicized viewing area for the public, local police departments advised thousands may turn up to see Endeavour waiting for its next move.   That won't come until the afternoon, when transformer lines are de-energized and raised. Once ready, Endeavour will travel down Manchester Boulevard, cross into Inglewood and then stop again for six hours as the next set of utility work gets underway.   The power line work will result in rolling blackouts following the shuttle's path.   Endeavour's second stop of the day, which is expected to span 4:15 p.m. to about 11 p.m. PDT (7:15 p.m. to 2 a.m. EDT; 2315 to 0600 GMT), will park it near the landmark Randy's Donuts with its oversized donut-shaped roof sign. For the shuttle's move, the shop installed a small model of Endeavour inside the hole of the 32-foot-wide (9.7-meter) donut.   Tundra crossing   Friday's start and stop moves lead up to the space shuttle Endeavour crossing over the 405 freeway.   To meet the weight distribution requirements for traveling the Manchester Boulevard Bridge, Endeavour will trade its computer-controlled transporter for a tow by a 2012 Toyota Tundra pickup truck.   The truck, which Toyota says was not modified from what is found on the sale lot, will be driven by Matt McBride, a professional stuntman and precision driver whose credits include numerous car commercials and feature films, such as last year's "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" coming out in 2013.   Astronaut Garrett Reisman, who launched on Endeavour in 2008, will ride in the Tundra with McBride.   Toyota's involvement continues a partnership between the car company's USA division and the California Science Center to provide support and awareness of the space program and education of the public through exhibits and programs. The pickup that will be used to two Endeavour will also go on display at the CSC as part of an interactive exhibit on the physics of leverage.   Once over the freeway, Endeavour will be moved back onto its transporter and then will wait on Manchester, out of sight of the public, until daylight Saturday to continue to its first of two celebration events.   The road ahead   Endeavour will cover the first 3 miles (4.8 km) of its 12 mile (19 km) journey on Friday. The bulk of its road trip will be accomplished on Saturday (Oct. 13), with its arrival at the science center anticipated around 8:30 p.m. PDT (11:30 p.m. EDT; 0330 GMT).   Endeavour's final journey, which the CSC dubbed "Mission 26: The Big Endeavour," will formally get underway with a 30 minute program at The Forum, the former indoor arena of the LA Lakers, on Saturday at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT; 1600 GMT). The event, which is expected to draw a crowd as large as 14,000 people, will feature Inglewood's mayor James T. Butts, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Apollo 7 astronaut Walt Cunningham.   The celebration is one of three designated public viewing opportunities for Endeavour's move. Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT; 2100 GMT), the space shuttle will pause again at the corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard for an aerial and dance tribute choreographed by "Fame" actress Debbie Allen.   The third and final public opportunity to witness Endeavour on the move will be at Exposition Park in Los Angeles, as the shuttle pulls up to the California Science Center.   The CSC plans to debut the shuttle on exhibit inside the Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle Endeavour Display Pavilion with its public opening on Oct. 30.   Shuttle crossing provides a unique teaching moment   Alicia Chang - Associated Press   — When the space shuttle Endeavour weaves through working-class communities on its way to its retirement home, Hildreth "Hal" Walker Jr. wants the children he tutors to remember a few names: Ronald McNair. Mae Jemison. Charles Bolden.   A retired laser scientist who had a role in the Apollo 11 mission, Walker took the opportunity with the upcoming two-day terrestrial crawl through predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County to highlight the role that minorities played in the shuttle program.   "We really have a job to do to show them the accomplishments of the people whose shoulders they're standing on," Walker said.   Soon after Endeavour's aerial tour around California landmarks, Walker, who runs an after-school tutoring center in the suburb of Inglewood, gave a lecture at the public library where he ticked off the prominent figures in the program.   McNair was the second African-American in space and died in the Challenger tragedy. Jemison rode aboard Endeavour as the first African-American female astronaut. Bolden is the current NASA chief and the first black to hold the position.   Endeavour remained parked at the Los Angeles International Airport since Sept. 21 after crowd-pleasing swoops over the state Capitol, Golden State Bridge, Hollywood Sign and other landmarks.   Beginning Friday, the shuttle heads off on its last mission — a 12-mile creep through city streets. It will move past an eclectic mix of strip malls, mom-and-pop shops, tidy lawns and faded apartment buildings.   Its final destination: California Science Center in South Los Angeles where it will be put on display.   Seizing on a teaching moment, some schools along the route have folded the historic move into their lessons, hoping to stimulate interest in science, technology, engineering and math — fields where blacks and Latinos have been underrepresented.   At the Wish Charter Elementary School near LAX, kindergarteners to sixth graders spent the days leading up to Endeavour's terrestrial journey learning about the shuttle's different components — nose cone, heat tiles, fuselage.   On Friday, students planned to walk across the street to a parking lot where Endeavour will temporarily rest after leaving LAX.   Armed with American flags and index cards depicting the shuttle, students planned a "scavenger hunt" — identifying the various shuttle parts and marking them off on their cards.   "It's thrilling to have this pop up right here in our neighborhood," said principal Shawna Draxton.   Because of Endeavour's enormous wingspan, rolling street and sidewalk closures will be in effect as crews dismantle power lines and traffic lights. Some 400 trees were cleared to make space and streets were fortified with steel plates to accommodate the 170,000-pound load.   Despite the high security and limited viewing, Saturday's public celebrations at the Forum — where the Los Angeles Lakers once played — and a performance led by actress-dancer Debbie Allen near the end of the route were choreographed with the young generation in mind.   The Inglewood High School band will lead a procession to the Forum and students at Crenshaw High School will preside at Allen's show.   Crenshaw High used to have an academic track for students interested in science and math careers and there have been recent talks to bring it back. Principal L. Remon Corley, who took over the helm two months ago, hopes the shuttle experience will ignite the necessary spark.   "It's a wonderful opportunity to see the power of science and math in action. It's an experience they won't forget," he said.   Anthony Maddox, a professor at the University of Southern California who specializes in STEM education, noted the shuttle travels down some of the same streets as the annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade in South Los Angeles.   "Given the diversity of the shuttle crews over the years, the coincidence seems so appropriate," he said.   Walker, the laser scientist, has taken busloads of youngsters over the years to view shuttle launches at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and experimental aircraft flights from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in the Mojave Desert.   Walker is best known for shining a laser beam from the Lick Observatory at a reflector mirror that moonwalkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set up during the Apollo 11 mission — an experiment that proved man had been on the moon.   These days, Walker tries to instill his passion to kids who gather at his tutoring center, located in the lobby of a converted bank building. Study carrels are next to an old walk-in safe.   Days before Endeavour's move, Walker waved around an inflatable model of a shuttle while students peppered him with questions. During a discussion about heat tiles, Walker instructed them to rub their hands together to generate friction. The shuttle tiles, he said, can withstand the heat the vehicle faces as it streaks through the atmosphere.   Afterward, Walker said he was pleased with the curiosity he saw. "They're observing and trying to figure out how things work," he said. "They'll need those skills for a career in science or engineering, or for whatever they do."   Michael Pineda, 13, said he had plans to be a lawyer, but is now leaning toward a career in aerospace after seeing Endeavour fly over. He could not miss a chance to see the shuttle pass by.   "Definitely, I'm there. They always say all this stuff about Inglewood, and now I think of my hometown and, wow, it's finally going to be on the charts," he said.   Space Shuttle Endeavour's Historic L.A. Move Documented for Film   Mike Wall - Space.com   The space shuttle Endeavour is living the dream of many other twentysomethings around the world — moving to Los Angeles and becoming a movie star.   A film crew and phalanx of photographers have been documenting every leg of Endeavour's journey thus far, from its departure from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida atop a 747 jet on Sept. 19 to its arrival in the City of Angels in California two days later after a cross-country farewell tour.   And the cameras will definitely be whirring Friday and Saturday (Oct. 12 and 13) as Endeavour makes a surreal 12-mile (19 kilometers) trek through the streets of L.A. from Los Angeles International Airport to its museum retirement home, the California Science Center.   The footage — some of it shot in 3D, some in 2D — will come together in a documentary about Endeavour and its unprecedented move.   "I think it's such a special moment in our history — the history of Los Angeles, the history of California and the history of the United States," Ted Kenney of 3ality Technica, who's a producer on the film project, said of Endeavour's arrival.   "We're never going to have another space shuttle moving through the streets of L.A.," Kenney added. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance."   Endeavour's journey   Endeavour is the youngest orbiter in NASA's space shuttle fleet, which was retired in July 2011 after 30 years of orbital service.   Endeavour holds a special place in the history of space exploration, Kenney said. The orbiter was built to replace the shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after liftoff in January 1986.   After the Challenger tragedy, "people thought we were never going to fly again," Kenney told SPACE.com. "NASA did an amazing job putting something back together — starting from scratch again in a way — to carry on the tradition of the space program."   That role will likely be highlighted in the documentary, which is being put together for the California Science Center to accompany its Endeavour exhibit.   The length of the finished product is undetermined at the moment, Kenney said. The documentary team — which includes producer David Knight and director Haley Jackson — will know more once they have all of their footage.   "We could make this an hour film into a three-hour film," Kenney said. "I think the goal is going to be to create something that's the most informative for the young generation as they go to the Science Center — to learn about the space program, the Endeavour and what it took to get here as well."   While the team's chief focus is producing the documentary for the Science Center, there may be other outlets for the footage as well, Kenney added.   Endeavour is slated to go on display at the museum on Oct. 30 in a temporary exhibit. The California Science Center is building a permanent home for the shuttle, which should be ready in about five years, museum officials have said.   Following the shuttle   Organizing Endeavour's move from Florida to the museum was a bit of an ordeal, and filming the journey has not been easy, either.   Kenney and his colleagues shooting the shuttle's journey — who include a number of volunteers from the Society of Camera Operators — have had to coordinate their activities with a number of different entities involved in the move, from NASA to the City of Los Angeles to the California Department of Transportation.   And just keeping up with the shuttle as it rolls through the streets of L.A. over the next two days poses some logistical challenges, Kenney said.   "Because we're in a convoy, it's, 'How do I get crew in and out? How do we get tapes in and out? How do we take breaks?'" Kenney said. "I don't want to miss anything. As a producer, you have this one shot."   Despite such issues, the project has been incredibly rewarding for Kenney, who grew up in Florida and whose uncle worked at NASA.   "I've worked on the Olympics' opening and closing ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime shows," Kenney said. "But I've never shot an object such as this that has so much history in it."   Hole punched in doughnut shop's hopes for shuttle celebration Randy's Donuts in Inglewood was all set for Endeavour's passage out front, complete with shuttle-shaped treats. But with officials urging spectators not to line the streets, the 24/7 business is closing early.   Nita Lelyveld - Los Angeles Times   Say what you will. Say stay off the sidewalk. Ora Alcox is going to see the space shuttle.   On Friday, the now-earthbound Endeavour will be wheeled by very slowly, a block from Alcox's Inglewood home.   She will witness it, she says; try to stop her:   "They'll have to drag me, screaming and crying. I'm 70 years old. I have MS and I plan to see this."   At the drive-through window at Randy's Donuts, Alcox was picking up her usual apple fritter.   And like a lot of those there for their morning fixes Thursday, she was peeved.   The mayor of L.A. promises "the mother of all parades." Then officials shut down stretches of sidewalks, limit viewing areas, and say, if you want to view it, please go wait with thousands at the Forum or at some event Debbie Allen's staging in Baldwin Hills.   "I've seen all the other capsules go up, I've seen them go in the water. And they're not going to let me see this any other way?" Alcox asked Larry Weintraub, who owns Randy's with his brother Ron.   Randy's, at Manchester and La Cienega boulevards, was all set to be shuttle viewing central. The brothers put a miniature shuttle in the giant doughnut hole. They put a yellow sign in the window: "SPACE SHUTTLE XING." They started punching out shuttle doughnuts with a special cookie cutter they got from a place called the Space Store, Ron Weintraub said. They iced them white with brown letters, USA and NASA.   The Endeavour likely will be out front for some time Friday as it gets towed over the 405 Freeway. It could have been a real sugar fest.   But that stretch of Manchester, it turns out, will be closed from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., crowds discouraged.   So Randy's, which is usually 24-7, planned to shut at 8 p.m. Thursday.   A Toyota Tundra truck will tow the shuttle over the freeway. Toyota will rent out the Weintraubs' property.   And the brothers, freed from frying up dough, will be paid some amount of it larger than their daily doughnut take.   What amount, they won't say. But it has to be big, from the looks of the lines at the walk-up window and at the two drive-throughs.   All morning, they never let up.   Hip kids from Tokyo, coming to shop for American clothes. A couple from Ponca City, Okla., celebrating a birthday.   One guy from the neighborhood complains that the towing truck should have been an American Ford or GMC. Another regular, buying for the office, says bringing the shuttle here's a waste, given the state of the economy.   Larry and Ron Weintraub — a little gruff, a lot funny — rarely stop reaching, for glazes and cinnamon rolls and bear claws and iced shuttles.   Even without a sign out front, the iced shuttles take off.   It could have been a big day for Randy's Donuts, like every day.   MEANWHILE ON MARS...   An unusually pristine piece of Mars The so-called Tissint meteorite, which landed in Morocco last year, is one of only five Martian rocks that have been spotted landing on Earth and retrieved for study.   Monte Morin - Los Angeles Times   Blasted into space by a collision with an asteroid, the jagged hunk of Mars rock tumbled silently through the solar system for 7,000 centuries.   Finally, on July 18, 2011, the rock's long journey ended as violently as it had begun: It plunged to Earth as a fireball that illuminated the Moroccan night, awakening soldiers and nomads with a sonic boom. One eyewitness said it turned from yellow to green before it finally split in two and vanished from view.   Such was the dramatic arrival of the so-called Tissint meteorite, named for a village where pieces fell. The unusually pristine specimen is one of only five Martian projectiles that have been observed entering Earth's atmosphere and then recovered for study.   It turns out the meteorite has a great deal in common with other rocks that have made the trip from Mars to Earth, according to a report published online Thursday by the journal Science.   An international team of researchers examined its molecular structure and determined that Tissint was probably ejected from Mars by the same impact that launched another group of meteorites that also landed on Earth, many in Antarctica, after a shorter journey through the solar system.   They determined this by calculating the meteorite's exposure to cosmic rays.   As the Mars rocks traveled through space, they endured constant bombardment by cosmic rays — high-energy protons that would penetrate the rocks and sometimes knock out protons and neutrons from their atoms. The process created rare isotopes that scientists use to determine how long it took the rocks to make their journeys.   Tissint has a cosmic ray exposure age of 700,000 years, give or take 300,000, authors wrote. This was consistent with the meteorites that arrived earlier, "suggesting that they were ejected from Mars during the same event."   Roughly 15 pounds of scorched and shattered rock was plucked from the Moroccan desert by meteor hunters in the months after Tissint landed last summer. Its relatively swift collection made it largely free of the earthly contamination that's typical of most Martian meteorites.   "Most other samples were collected long after their arrival on Earth and thus have experienced variable degrees of terrestrial weathering," wrote lead author Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, a geochemist at Hassan II University of Casablanca. "Even the few Martian meteorites that were collected shortly after their observed fall to Earth have been exposed to organic and other potential contaminants during storage."   While the sample is not as pristine as those now being mined by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, they are among the few pieces of alien planet that scientists can hold in their hands and study in the comfort of their laboratories.   The largest Tissint samples were covered with a shiny black fusion crust — the result of its super-heated entry into Earth's atmosphere. Inside, the rocks were pale gray and studded with pale yellow olivine crystals. Researchers also observed small pockets and tiny veins of black glass.   Among other conclusions, the study authors wrote that the rock appeared to contain traces of the Red Planet's surface and atmosphere. The elements appeared to be trapped in particles of black glass and melted rock that were formed during the heat and shock of impact on Mars. The authors also suggested that the rock was weathered by acidic fluids before departing Mars.   These qualities and others made the meteor similar to a number of its predecessors.   "Frankly, Tissint is much like numerous other Martian meteorites," said UCLA geophysicist and meteor expert Paul Warren, who was not involved in the study.   "The publicity it is getting for having been seen to fall is deserved," he said. "Whether it rates as profoundly new and different, I am not sure."   Although numerous Martian meteorites have landed on Earth, it wasn't until the 1980s that scientists were able to determine their planetary origin. Using mass spectrometry, they found that certain meteorites contained strikingly similar gases and isotope ratios as samples obtained by the Viking landers, which visited Mars in 1976.   NASA rover Curiosity finds a rock not seen before on Mars   Pete Spotts - Christian Science Monitor   NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has indentified a type of rock scientists have never seen on Mars before, but it's one familiar to geologists on Earth.   The Martian rock, a form of basalt, has a composition very similar to volcanic rocks found in ocean-island settings such as Hawaii and the Azores, as well as in rift zones – regions where Earth's continents split and begin separating into separate land masses.   The rock, named Jake Matijevic for a key member of the rover engineering team who passed away shortly after Curiosity arrived on the red planet, can form in a number of ways, says Edward Stolper, provost of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and a member of Curiosity's science team.   On Earth, this kind of rock forms as magma cools and crystallizes under relatively high pressure and with relatively high concentrations of water dissolved in the magma, he explains, adding that when the molten leftovers erupt, they tend to erupt explosively.   The release, during volcanic eruptions, of water dissolved in magma is one pathway for water vapor – a greenhouse gas – to enrich and warm a planet's atmosphere. Indeed, Curiosity's mission aims to see if Gale Crater ever could have hosted microbial life – a prospect that would have required the presence of liquid water in the crater.   On Mars, the process that formed “Jake” is unclear.   "We have one rock," Dr. Stolper said at a briefing Thursday. Sitting on the floor of Gale Crater, where fine soils and layered, sedimentary rocks seem to be the norm, Jake appears to be an interloper, removed from its original geologic setting.   If Curiosity finds more rocks like Jake in its travels to Mt. Sharp, the crater's central summit and the rover's ultimate destination, "we'll be able to evaluate the differences between them and what processes seem to relate them," he said. But if Jake is "a one-off,” he added, “we're not going to find out the details" of how it formed.   The analysis of Jake's chemical composition comes from data gathered in late September by two tools mounted on Curiosity: ChemCam and an X-ray spectrometer on an instrument turret at the end of the rover’s seven-foot-long arm.   ChemCam, which sits atop Curiosity's mast, consists of a laser that sends a thin, pulsed beam to vaporize tiny patches of rock, each pulse generating what looks like a brief spark on the rock surface. ChemCam's mini-telescope captures the light from the sparks – light whose spectrum carries the signatures of the chemical elements the rock contains.   ChemCam examined two small areas of the football-sized rock. In one, it laid down a short track of five strike marks, each about a third of a millimeter across. In the second, the laser put down a grid of nine spots. Each got 30 pulses – the first four of which clear the rock surface of dust.   The X-ray spectrometer, known as APXS, uses a radioactive source to expose the rock sample in question to X-rays. When the X-rays interact with atoms in the rock, those atoms release X-rays of their own, which carry the element's signature. APXS detects these back-atchya X-rays to tease out information about the sample's composition.   Each instrument detects some chemical elements better than others, but together, they form a powerful team while crosschecking each other's results. The time spent zapping Jake was APXS's first live-fire exercise on Mars and the first time the two were used to analyze the same rock.   Because other rovers and landers have carried X-ray spectrometers, researchers were able to determine that Jake was unique among the basaltic rocks scientists have analyzed so far on the red planet.   While researchers analyzed the results from Jake, engineers have started to clean out the hardware needed to feed rock and soil samples into two key instruments housed in Curiosity's chassis. On Mars, it seems, clean hardware is dusty hardware.   Essentially, engineers used Martian soil scooped, vibrated, and sieved, to clean unavoidable terrestrial residue from the inside walls of the sample-delivery system.   "We don't want to measure something we brought with us, we want to measure something that came from Mars," says Luther Beegle, the rover's sampling-system scientist as NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.   The way to tell that the scrub-down is working? Dust clings to the inside surfaces of the sample-delivery system, known as CHIMRA.   Where else but on Mars would a custodian's nightmare turn into an engineer’s dream?   NASA's Mars rover finds rock with Earth-like chemistry   Irene Klotz - Reuters   When scientists selected a rock to test the Mars rover Curiosity's laser, they expected it to contain the same minerals as rocks found elsewhere on the Red Planet, but learned instead it was more similar to a rock found on Earth.   The rock was chemically more akin to an unusual type of rock found on oceanic islands like Hawaii and St. Helena, as well as in continental rift zones like the Rio Grande, which extends from Colorado to Chihuahua, Mexico.   "It was a bit of a surprise, what we found with this rock," Curiosity scientist Ralf Gellert of the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, told reporters on a conference call Thursday.   "It's igneous," Gellert said, referring to rock formed from molten material. "But it seems to be a new kind of rock type that we encountered on Mars."   Curiosity arrived on Mars two months ago to learn if the most Earth-like planet in the solar system was suitable for microbial life.   Last month, Curiosity's laser was used to zap the football-sized rock and the rover analyzed the pulverized material, as well as tiny pits left behind, to determine its chemical composition.   Scientists found the rock lacks magnesium and iron - elements found in igneous rock examined by previous Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.   The rock, named after a Jet Propulsion Laboratory rover engineer, Jake Matijevic, who died shortly after Curiosity's landing, was also rich in feldspar-like minerals, which provided clues about the rock's history.   "The way in which this type of rock forms ... is like how applejack liquor was made," geologist Edward Stolper, with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, told reporters.   In colonial times, hard apple cider was put into big barrels and in the winter the liquid would partly freeze. "You'd crystallize out ice and you'd make more and more and more concentrated apple-flavored liquor," Stolper said.   Magma inside a planet can undergo a similar process.   "You melt the interior and it comes to the surface and, just like the applejack, when you cool it, it crystallizes," Stolper said, adding that it takes very particular conditions on Earth to produce this type of magma.   The rover meanwhile has moved on to testing and cleaning of its soil scoop. Eventually, scientists want to funnel soil samples to Curiosity's onboard laboratory for more extensive chemical analysis.   The rover is part way to its first science target, an area known as Glenelg, which has three different types of rock intersecting.   The car-sized Curiosity rover landed inside a giant impact basin called Gale Crater, located near the Martian equator, for a two-year, $2.5 billion astrobiology mission, NASA's first since the 1970s-era Viking probes.   Curiosity examines Earth-like rock Scientists surprised at stone's composition   Todd Halvorson - Florida Today   NASA’s Curiosity rover is shaking so when it starts baking powdered samples, scientists will be seeing Martian soil rather than stuff of Earthly origin, officials said Thursday.   “We don’t want to measure something that came with us,” said Luther Beegle, a Curiosity sampling system scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We want to measure something that came from Mars itself.”   A little more than two months after its harrowing arrival inside eastern equatorial Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover is in a “sandbox” a third of a mile from its landing site.   The rover’s high-powered laser and another scientific instrument have been analyzing the composition of a rock named “Jake Matijevic” for a NASA systems engineer who died on Aug. 20 at age 64.   The rock is igneous rather than sedimentary — a surprise to planetary geologists. Rather unusual, the chemical composition of the rock is different than other igneous rocks on Mars, such as those found by the Spirit rover at its landing site — Gusev Crater.   Curiosity co-investigator Edward Stolper of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena compared the rock to some studied by geologists on Earth.   “And what I found is that it is a very close chemical match in composition to an unusual, but well-known kind of igneous rock that occurs widespread on Earth — on oceanic islands such as Hawaii, and St. Helena in the Azores,” Stolper said.   Rover engineers, meanwhile, in the next week are expected to complete more “decontamination activity” with a key Mars Science Laboratory sampling system.   The system is equipped with a scoop and includes a 150-micron sieve that delivers fine particles — those less than the width of a human hair — to oven-like laboratories onboard Curiosity.   The scoop is located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, and serves as its hands, or fingers, said NASA lead rover turret planner Chris Roumeliotis.   An initial decontamination effort Oct. 7 involved digging up some loose soil with the rover's scoop.   Then the soil was shaken within the scoop to discard any overflow and reduce the cache to finer particles.   Strained through the 150-micron sieve, the small particles served “to scrub every nook and cranny” of the path to the onboard labs, carrying along any Earthly contaminant. Any contaminant was then baked away in the labs.   If all goes well, Curiosity’s sample collection and handling system should be given a clean bill of health within the next two weeks, and scientific soil analyses will begin shortly thereafter.   Launched Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Curiosity rover is on a $2.5 billion mission to determine whether Mars is, or ever was, habitable.   END