Tuesday, October 16, 2012
10/16/12 news
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1. Blood Drive: Oct. 16 (Ellington) and Oct. 17-18 (JSC)
2. JSC Structural Testing Partnership Opportunities
3. Discussion on Community Resources for Individuals With Disabilities
4. NMA and TGCC 2012 Annual Joint Chapter Meeting
5. Tomorrow is the Last Day for Spooky Story Submissions
6. This Week at Starport
7. Employee Discount Days With Appreciation Events and Starport
8. Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced Gravity Flight Teams
9. Shuttle Knowledge Console v2.0
10. Engineer of the Year Award
11. AIAA Educator Achievement Award
________________________________________ QUOTE OF THE DAY
“ Don't be afraid of the space between your dreams and reality. If you can dream it, you can make it so.”
-- Belva Davis
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1. Blood Drive: Oct. 16 (Ellington) and Oct. 17-18 (JSC)
There is no substitute for blood. It has to come from one person in order to give it to another. Will there be blood available when you or your family needs it? A regular number of voluntary donations are needed every day to meet the needs for blood. Your blood donation can help up to three people. Please take an hour of your time to donate at our next blood drive.
You can donate at Ellington Field on Oct. 16. A donor coach will be located between Hangars 276 and 135 for donations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
You can donate at JSC from Oct. 17 to 18 in the Building 2 Teague lobby or at the donor coach located next to the Building 11 Starport Café from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
You can also donate in the Gilruth Center Coronado Room on Oct. 18 from 7:30 a.m. to noon.
Teresa Gomez x39588 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm
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2. JSC Structural Testing Partnership Opportunities
JSC is using Request For Information (RFI) notices as a method to seek out potential partnerships. Our intent is to engage with potential partners to make available, on a reimbursable basis, NASA JSC's structural facilities and expert NASA science and engineering staff. Recently, an RFI was posted on FedBizOps.gov to assess interest by commercial industries, universities and other government agencies regarding JSC's unique combination of expertise, labs, tools and facilities in the area of structures testing. You can view the full RFI here.
Shirley Holland-Hunt x33254
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3. Discussion on Community Resources for Individuals With Disabilities
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. In recognition, the JSC Disability Advisory Group and Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity will host a panel discussion to equip attendees with information about tools and resources available to foster a more inclusive and enriching personal and work life. You do not have to have a disability to participate. Everyone is welcome. The panel will include representatives that offer unique perspectives on community resources available for individuals with disabilities. The panel will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in Building 1, Conference Room 966. Should you require special assistance to participate for a specific disability, accommodations are available. Please contact Janelle Holt (x37504) no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 17, to submit your request.
Herbert Babineaux x34263
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4. NMA and TGCC 2012 Annual Joint Chapter Meeting
The JSC National Management Association (NMA) and Texas Gulf Coast Council (TGCC) invite you to the 2012 Annual Joint Chapter Meeting.
Date: Oct. 24
Time: 6 to 8 p.m.
Location: Gilruth Center Lone Star Ballroom
Guest Speaker: Dr. William Tarver, JSC medical director
The menu includes: barbecue beef brisket, barbecue baked beans, creamy dill potato salad, relish tray, cornbread or Texas toast, fruit cobbler and iced tea. This event is free to NMA members and $25 for non-members. Please RSVP to Jamie Downs no later than noon on Wednesday, Oct. 17. For more information, click here.
Cassandra Miranda x38618
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5. Tomorrow is the Last Day for Spooky Story Submissions
Even though the end of a fiscal year is scary enough, JSC Features has a desire to be reeeally scared -- and to share those chills with others. Are you up for the challenge? Do you have a personal ghost story or your own experience with paranormal activity that you'd like to share with the JSC audience? Share your spooky experience in 300 words or less (with your name and mail code) to: jsc-roundup@mail.nasa.gov Your tale could be selected for a Halloween compilation of stories shared by fellow JSC team members on JSC Features. The deadline for submissions is tomorrow, Oct. 17.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x33317
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6. This Week at Starport
Register for Spooky Spin by Friday to receive discounted rate. This is a fun specialty spin class with a Halloween theme on Oct. 26 from 6 to 7 p.m. It's $10 if registered by Friday ($15 after). Register at the Gilruth Center.
There is still time to register for the Thriller dance class! Learn the dance on Oct. 19 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The big performance is Oct. 26 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The fee is $25, or $15 just to attend one night. Register at the Gilruth Center.
The last day to buy pre-sale tickets for "Disney on Ice, Treasure Trove" is this Thursday in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops. Tickets are $26 each.
Get your James Avery astronaut charm from the Starport Gift Shops. Pre-sale orders are now through Oct. 25. http://shopnasa.com/store/product/7782/J-Avery-Astronaut-Charm/
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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7. 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. Go here for more information or email wesley.morgan@appreciationevents.com for a full listing of promotions.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/
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8. Volunteers Needed to Mentor Reduced Gravity Flight Teams
The Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program is looking for JSC scientists and engineers of all levels who would like to advise and mentor a flight team. Teams can be composed of college undergraduate students or K-12 teachers. Preference will be given to individuals who are currently working as scientists and engineers and are familiar with the type of experiments appropriate for reduced-gravity flight. Interested in learning more? We will offer two optional information sessions to interested mentors on Wednesday, Oct. 17, from 10 to 11 a.m. (Building 20, Room 205/206), and Thursday, Oct. 18, from 3 to 4 p.m. (Building 20, Room 205/206). Please feel free to attend.
Already know you want to participate? Please click here for more details and to apply. The deadline is Oct. 26.
James Semple 281-792-7872 http://microgravityuniversity.jsc.nasa.gov/
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9. Shuttle Knowledge Console v2.0
As part of JSC's ongoing space shuttle knowledge-capture process, the JSC Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) and JSC Engineering Directorate are pleased to announce the second release of the Shuttle Knowledge Console. New content added includes: Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS)/Reaction Control System (RCS) added to the Subsystem Manager page; Integrated Hazard Analysis added to the Shuttle Information System Archive page; and additional shuttle records content added to the Shuttle Records page. Also added were export control warnings on all pages. Questions about the new website can be directed to Howard Wagner in the JSC Engineering Directorate or Brent Fontenot in the CKO office.
We would love your feedback on this new site. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation and give us your comments.
Brent J. Fontenot x36456 https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx
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10. Engineer of the Year Award
The Engineer of the Year Award is presented to an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) member who has made a recent (within the past two years) individual contribution in the application of scientific and mathematical principles leading to a significant accomplishment or event worthy of AIAA's national or international recognition. Nominations begin at the AIAA section level, or may be made by any AIAA member, and are submitted to the appropriate regional deputy director -Honors and Awards and regional director, who select one Regional Engineer of the Year. One overall Engineer of the Year is then selected by the Honors and Awards Committee from the Regional Engineers of the Year. This annual award is generally presented at an appropriate AIAA technical conference selected by the recipient, subject to approval by the Honors and Awards Committee.
Please submit the nominee's name and bio of their accomplishments BEFORE Oct. 31 to Shirley Brandt or me.
Jennifer Wells 281-336-6302
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11. AIAA Educator Achievement Award
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation Educator Achievement Awards are open for judging. Do you know a K-12 classroom teacher who deserves to be recognized for outstanding work with his/her students? Please make sure to nominate one.
Complete the nomination form and email to Lisa Bacon with the subject line "NEA13" on it BEFORE Oct. 31. Winners will be notified in early November.
We are looking for representation from all sections at all grade levels, so make your region proud by nominating an outstanding teacher or two for this prestigious award.
Please contact Lisa or me with any questions.
Jennifer Wells 281-336-6302
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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.
Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday – October 16, 2012
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Suit built for free fall from space may not have future at NASA
Jeremy Desel - KHOU TV (Houston)
Felix Baumgartner survived his record breaking leap from 24 miles above Earth on Sunday thanks in part to a special pressurized suit that experts say could help save the lives of future astronauts—except NASA is not interested. Baumgartner leapt from 128,000 feet, falling through the near vacuum at speeds exceeding 800 miles an hour. "He is a brave man, clearly, to have done what he has done. But this project is anything but a daredevil act," said Dr. Leroy Chiao.
SpaceX Mission Resupplies ISS, Loses OG2 Satellite
Amy Svitak - Aviation Week
The success of Space Exploration Technologies' first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) may mask the fact that the rocket's first commercial satcom mission, launched Oct. 7, must be judged a failure. SpaceX's recent move into the commercial telecom market finds it serving two very different masters: NASA, its anchor customer, which has invested hundreds of millions in developing the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo vessel and which has been more than pleased with their performance to date; and the commercial satcom market, which has generated more than $1 billion in order backlog for SpaceX, although the company has yet to deliver a spacecraft to a commercial orbit.
United Launch Alliance completes final milestone of NASA space act agreement
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
United Launch Alliance, which assembles its launch vehicles in Decatur, Alabama, has completed the final milestone of its current Space Act Agreement with NASA, the space agency said today. That puts ULA's Atlas V rocket one step closer to being able to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The fifth and final milestone of the agreement was the “Hazard, System Safety and Probabilistic Risk Assessment." It detailed how ULA's Atlas V rocket launch system hardware would ensure crew safety during launch and ascent, NASA said.
Moog shooting for the stars with Orion program
Elma company hosts visit from NASA officials
Matt Glynn - Buffalo News
Recent space news involved a company delivering cargo to the International Space Station and the retired Endeavour rolling through the streets of Los Angeles. Not exactly “Eagle has landed”-caliber moments, but NASA is determined to recapture prominence in space exploration through the Orion next-generation spacecraft under development. An unmanned Orion capsule test flight is scheduled for 2014, with the first manned trip planned for 2021.
SpaceX aims big with massive new rocket
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Launcher developer SpaceX has promised a new engine for a new rocket, larger than the Falcon 9 that NASA expects to become a mainstay of its Earth orbit operations. Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who successfully parlayed the fortune he earned founding PayPal into launch systems developer SpaceX, said the new engine would not be based on the 160,000lb-thrust (712kN) Merlin 1 series that powers Falcon 9. Musk said the new rocket, which he calls MCT, will be "several times" as powerful as the 1 Merlin series, and won't use Merlin's RP-1 fuel. Beyond adding that it will have "a very big core size", he declined to elaborate, promising more details in "between one and three years".
NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver tours Lockheed Martin in Denver
Kristen Leigh Painter - Denver Post
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver visited Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County on Monday for a progress update on the next mission to Mars, MAVEN — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN — as well as the heat shield for Orion, the next human-carrying space mission. "These are two of our prized missions," said Garver, a Colorado College graduate who is now NASA's second in command. "(MAVEN) will allow us to continue to 'follow the water.'"
NASA Administrator Views New Spacecraft In Colorado
Associated Press
NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver has come to Colorado for a close-up view of the next spacecraft to launch to Mars. Garver visited Lockheed Martin in Littleton on Monday to check out the spacecraft that is set to launch next year as part of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, mission. It will orbit Mars to explore how the sun may have stripped it of most of its atmosphere. Lockheed Martin is building the spacecraft. Garver also saw a heat shield Lockheed Martin is building for the Orion vehicle that will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before. Orion will be flexible enough to take NASA astronauts to a variety of destinations, including Mars. (NO FURTHER TEXT)
Moon water could have solar source: study
Agence France Presse
Scientists on Sunday said they had found water molecules in samples of lunar soil, and their unusual signature points to the Sun as the indirect source. Samples returned to Earth by the Apollo missions carry molecules of water and a precursor of water called hydroxyl, according to their study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Researchers led by Yang Liu at the University of Tennessee theorize that the molecules developed from a reaction between hydrogen ions in the solar wind -- the blast of particles from the Sun -- and a loose surface soil called regolith.
Coburn's 'Waste Book' details $19 billion in eye-opening govt expenses
FoxNews.com
What do robotic squirrels, menus for Martian meals and a musical about climate change have in common? They've all been made possible with taxpayer assistance, according to the latest survey of government waste put out by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Known simply as the Waste Book, the report is a watchlist of eye-opening expenditures, which Coburn blames on a "let them eat caviar" attitude in Washington -- at a time when "23 million of our fellow Americans do not have good jobs," Coburn notes.
Washington’s Porkiest Projects: Waste Book 2012
Jonathan Karl - ABC News
It’s becoming a tradition for Sen. Tom Coburn: The annual “Waste Book.” Every year since 2010, the Oklahoma Republican has issued his blistering report highlighting the most 100 most egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. This year, Coburn and his research team highlighted examples totaling $17.9 billion and ABC News got an exclusive first look….And then there’s No. 6, which the report labels “Out-of-this-world Martian food tasting.” NASA is spending nearly $1 million a year researching food for astronauts to eat on Mars, despite the fact it has no plans for a manned mission to the red planet.
U.S. space retreat cause for sadness, alarm
Richard Plum - San Angelo Standard-Times (Opinion)
(Plum was a system engineer on the space shuttle program and led system engineering and supportability engineering teams on the International Space Station program)
Recently my daughter, who lives in Houston, sent me a text message. She was excited about watching the NASA 747 with a piggyback Space Shuttle Endeavour flying low over the city. After receiving her message, I thought about the end of human space flight, an era which began when I was young. When I was 10 years old, I remember listening to a recording by President Kennedy. In his speech to Congress, he declared, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."
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COMPLETE STORIES
Suit built for free fall from space may not have future at NASA
Jeremy Desel - KHOU TV (Houston)
Felix Baumgartner survived his record breaking leap from 24 miles above Earth on Sunday thanks in part to a special pressurized suit that experts say could help save the lives of future astronauts—except NASA is not interested.
Baumgartner leapt from 128,000 feet, falling through the near vacuum at speeds exceeding 800 miles an hour.
"He is a brave man, clearly, to have done what he has done. But this project is anything but a daredevil act," said Dr. Leroy Chiao.
Chiao is a a former NASA Astronaut who flew on three shuttle missions, the Soyuz Rocket and commanded the International Space Station.
Now, Dr. Chiao works with the Baylor College of Medicine Center for Space Medicine where some of the testing was done on the high tech suit worn in the jump. So does Dr. Jon Clark, who lost his wife Laurel when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas in 2003.
All along the team has said this is not a stunt. It is research on the pressurized suit, something that could help protect our astronauts in the future.
In space talk they call them Black Zones, places astronauts don’t want to see
"Simply, our systems will not probably allow you to survive. The idea is to minimize or eliminate those black zones," said Chiao.
Since Sunday, 128,000 feet and down is off the list.
"That’s a big step. The suit is certainly part of that survival process," said Chiao.
NASA says that the suit is not in its future plans. A spokesperson said it doesn’t see any need for it.
But that doesn’t mean that the new suit doesn’t have a future in space. NASA is not the only place that needs suits.
"You have the new commercial space companies and they are going to need suits," said Chiao.
SpaceX Mission Resupplies ISS, Loses OG2 Satellite
Amy Svitak - Aviation Week
The success of Space Exploration Technologies' first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) may mask the fact that the rocket's first commercial satcom mission, launched Oct. 7, must be judged a failure.
SpaceX's recent move into the commercial telecom market finds it serving two very different masters: NASA, its anchor customer, which has invested hundreds of millions in developing the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo vessel and which has been more than pleased with their performance to date; and the commercial satcom market, which has generated more than $1 billion in order backlog for SpaceX, although the company has yet to deliver a spacecraft to a commercial orbit.
The anomaly that crippled one of the Falcon 9's Merlin 1C engines on its first commercial cargo mission for NASA did nothing to dampen the agency's enthusiasm for the vehicle. If anything, as SpaceX points out, it proved the reliability of a launcher that can fulfill its space and cargo-delivery missions with an engine out.
But the launch, the first of 12 such missions to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 lb.) of cargo to the ISS under a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA, was also Falcon 9's first mission for a private-sector customer, satellite messaging services provider Orbcomm, whose prototype second-generation OG2 satellite flew as a secondary payload.
While the Merlin engine anomaly did not disturb the ISS mission, it led to the total loss of the OG2 satellite, a predecessor to a constellation of 18 second-generation spacecraft to be launched on Falcon 9 vehicles in the next two years.
SpaceX's vice president of marketing and communications, Katherine Nelson, says the engine failure meant putting Orbcomm's satellite into its intended orbit would have exceeded safety thresholds set by NASA for operations near the ISS. As a result, OG2 was placed into a considerably lower orbit from which it quickly degraded over the course of three days before reentering the Earth's atmosphere Oct. 10. Orbcomm said Oct. 11 it has filed a notice of claim under its launch insurance policy for the loss of the OG2 prototype, which was insured for up to $10 million. That would largely offset the expected cost of the satellite and its launch, it says.
“We appreciate the complexity and work that SpaceX put into this launch,” Orbcomm CEO Marc Eisenberg said Oct. 11. “SpaceX has been a supportive partner, and we are highly confident in their team and technology.”
SpaceX was quick to acknowledge the first-stage engine anomaly that occurred when a sudden pressure loss without an explosion led to a shutdown command about 79 sec. into the nearly 10-min. ascent to orbit. But with Dragon speeding toward the ISS, SpaceX sought to accent the positive.
“Like the Saturn V [which experienced engine loss on two flights] and modern airliners, Falcon 9 is designed to handle an engine-out situation and still complete its mission,” SpaceX said on its website Oct. 8. “No other rocket currently flying has this ability.”
Notably absent from SpaceX's assessment of the launch mishap was any mention of OG2. But Nelson said Orbcomm knew the risks when it signed on for the Falcon 9 mission.
“Orbcomm requested that SpaceX carry one of their small satellites [weighing a few hundred pounds versus Dragon at over 12,000 pounds] on this flight so that they could gather test data before we launch their full constellation next year,” Nelson said Oct. 11. “The higher the orbit, the more test data they can gather, so they requested that we attempt to restart and raise altitude. NASA agreed to allow that, but only on condition that there be substantial propellant reserves, since the orbit would be close to the space station.”
Nelson said Orbcomm understood the orbit-raising maneuver was tentative. “SpaceX would not have agreed to fly their satellite otherwise, since this was not part of the core mission and there was a known, material risk of no altitude raise,” she said.
Whether there was a material risk of losing the spacecraft entirely just days after launch is unclear. Orbcomm did not return telephone queries by press time.
Shortly after the launch, Orbcomm said it was working with prime contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. to raise OG2's orbit using onboard propulsion, a workaround that probably would have depleted fuel reserves and potentially limited the spacecraft's service life to weeks. Following the spacecraft's deorbit, Orbcomm said it had “verified various functionality checkouts,” including power, attitude-control, thermal and data-handling, as well as the satellite's unique communications payload, which incorporates a highly reprogrammable software radio with common hardware. Orbcomm says the data will allow it to focus on completing and launching the OG2 satellites as the primary mission payloads on two planned Falcon 9 launches—the first in mid-2013 and the second in 2014—directly into their operational orbit.
“Had Orbcomm been the primary payload on this mission, as planned for the upcoming launches, we believe the OG2 prototype would have reached the desired orbit,” Orbcomm said in its Oct. 11 statement.
Under the terms of its $46.6 million agreement with SpaceX, Orbcomm planned to launch its 18 next-generation spacecraft atop six now-defunct Falcon 1e rockets, an enhanced version of the Falcon 1 light-launcher that suffered three failures before delivering Malaysia's RazakSat to low Earth orbit in July 2009.
When SpaceX shelved plans to continue operating the small-class Falcon 1e, OG2 payloads were shifted to the Falcon 9 manifest. Given the Falcon 9's advertised price of around $59 million per launch, Orbcomm is getting a bargain, despite the loss of OG2.
Nelson says the Orbcomm launch dates are not yet set, though the company's 2013 manifest lists at least seven launches. A dedicated Orbcomm mission would bring that to eight.
The current mishap is not SpaceX's first stumble in the commercial satcom market. In 2011, it lost an arbitration dispute with Avanti Communications of London when it was unable to meet the fleet operator's contracted schedule for launching the Hylas-1 telecommunications satellite. SpaceX was forced to return Avanti's $7.56 million launch deposit, and the Hylas-1 satellite was lofted by a European Ariane 5.
Nor was Falcon 9's engine anomaly a first—during its inaugural flight June 4, 2010, the rocket appeared to experience a slight roll at liftoff. In addition, a few days after that launch, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said he was surprised by a pronounced roll that occurred following the rocket's upper-stage firing, though it did not affect the payload's insertion vector and had no adverse impact on the mission.
United Launch Alliance completes final milestone of NASA space act agreement
Lee Roop - Huntsville Times
United Launch Alliance, which assembles its launch vehicles in Decatur, Alabama, has completed the final milestone of its current Space Act Agreement with NASA, the space agency said today. That puts ULA's Atlas V rocket one step closer to being able to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
The fifth and final milestone of the agreement was the “Hazard, System Safety and Probabilistic Risk Assessment." It detailed how ULA's Atlas V rocket launch system hardware would ensure crew safety during launch and ascent, NASA said.
"The ULA team did an outstanding job outlining how it plans to integrate its launch vehicle with completely different spacecraft designs," said Ed Mango, NASA's Commercial Crew Program manager. "We commend ULA for taking on the challenge of human spaceflight, and we look forward to learning more about their innovative and cost-saving solutions as we continue to move forward in developing a crew transportation capability for America."
Two of the commercial companies partnering with NASA to develop crew-carrying rockets -- Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. -- say they will use the ULA Atlas V as their launch vehicle for crewed flights. Boeing is a partner with Lockheed Martin in ULA.
"This has been a tremendous team effort between NASA, ULA and our commercial crew partners and we have made a great deal of progress toward safe, affordable human spaceflight," George Sowers, ULA's vice president of human launch services, said in a NASA press release. "This baseline will be used by both Boeing and SNC ... providing them with the confidence that the flight-proven Atlas V will be ready to safely, reliably and cost-effectively launch."
Moog shooting for the stars with Orion program
Elma company hosts visit from NASA officials
Matt Glynn - Buffalo News
Recent space news involved a company delivering cargo to the International Space Station and the retired Endeavour rolling through the streets of Los Angeles.
Not exactly “Eagle has landed”-caliber moments, but NASA is determined to recapture prominence in space exploration through the Orion next-generation spacecraft under development.
An unmanned Orion capsule test flight is scheduled for 2014, with the first manned trip planned for 2021.
Moog Inc., the Elma-based motion-control equipment maker, is supporting the ambitious project, supplying components for the Orion program. Moog on Monday hosted NASA officials, including Orion program manager Mark Geyer, to share updates and tour Moog’s facilities.
The NASA guests chatted with Moog’s chairman, Robert Brady, and Moog’s chief executive officer, John Scannell, during their visit. Geyer also spoke about the direction of Orion to employees of Moog, along with some from Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor to NASA for the crew vehicle.
Alluding to the election’s potential impact on NASA, Geyer said: “Of course, no one knows exactly where things will go in the next couple of months, but I think the key part of sustaining an exploration program is actually executing the plan.” Carrying out the 2014 test flight on time and successfully is a big part of that objective, he said.
Geyer described the budget for Orion as “tight,” and he urged employees of companies like Moog to suggest ways to use those dollars effectively. “We’re not just pushing the state of the art in technology and engineering development, but also in how we do this job, to be as efficient as possible.”
Orion’s purpose is different from the space shuttles, the workhorses of U.S. manned spaceflight over the past three decades.
“The shuttle was fantastic for low-Earth orbit and assembling things, because it had a big payload bay,” Geyer said. “But it couldn’t go to the moon, it couldn’t go beyond low-Earth orbit. Orion now allows us to go beyond low-Earth orbit, go to the moon, go to Mars, go to those kinds of places. It’s just a different mission.”
Geyer and other NASA representatives are traveling to meet with companies such as Moog that are working on the Orion program, to get a ground-level view.
“You really learn a lot when you talk to them about what the process is, how the budget affects their work, how things that sound really good in [Johnson Space Center]; you get down here, and the implementation is hard. And so, how do we keep those communication lines open so we can be more efficient?” he said.
The Orion program is meaningful to Moog, said Doug Morash, vice president of Moog’s space sector.
“We have $51 million worth of contracts, and that translates into supporting about 250 jobs,” Morash said. “It is also allowing us to increase our state of the art, because it’s pushing the envelopes of capability of the hardware. And in satisfying the NASA needs, we then can take that increased capability and apply it to commercial space, our military customers, who will all benefit from the new techniques and new manufacturing and new products that we produced here for NASA.”
With the space shuttles retired after last year’s final mission, attention has turned to Orion to fill the human spaceflight void for the United States.
Plans call for Orion’s first unmanned flight in 2014 to go 3,000 miles above Earth; by comparison, the Space Station is 200 miles above Earth. A unmanned flight in 2017 will go around the moon, followed by the first manned flight four years later.
SpaceX aims big with massive new rocket
Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com
Launcher developer SpaceX has promised a new engine for a new rocket, larger than the Falcon 9 that NASA expects to become a mainstay of its Earth orbit operations.
Elon Musk, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who successfully parlayed the fortune he earned founding PayPal into launch systems developer SpaceX, said the new engine would not be based on the 160,000lb-thrust (712kN) Merlin 1 series that powers Falcon 9.
Musk said the new rocket, which he calls MCT, will be "several times" as powerful as the 1 Merlin series, and won't use Merlin's RP-1 fuel. Beyond adding that it will have "a very big core size", he declined to elaborate, promising more details in "between one and three years".
Musk declined to say what 'MCT' stands for, and declined to answer further questions on the project.
During an April interview, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell discussed a project with similar characteristics, describing engines with "more than 1.5 million pounds" of thrust.
"We've looked at a number of different architectures, we haven't honed in on one just yet," said Shotwell. "I think we're still considering vehicle diameter. But the vehicle diameter is large, 7m minimum, multiple engines. These are big rockets."
She further noted that the company was examining grouping several of the engines together, as SpaceX has done with the current Falcon 9 rocket.
Falcon 9 has nine Merlin 1 engines grouped together into a single core. Falcon 9 Heavy, three cores bolted together, is scheduled for launch in early 2013 and designed to lift 53t to low-Earth orbit - twice the payload of the Boeing Delta IV Heavy that is currently the most powerful rocket flying.
Shotwell said a possible payload range of the new rocket is 150-200t to low Earth orbit (LEO). A vehicle of that size would easily eclipse NASA's proposed Space Launch System, which will eventually be capable of launching 130t to LEO, making SpaceX's potential vehicle the most capable ever built by a wide margin.
NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver tours Lockheed Martin in Denver
Kristen Leigh Painter - Denver Post
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver visited Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County on Monday for a progress update on the next mission to Mars, MAVEN — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN — as well as the heat shield for Orion, the next human-carrying space mission.
"These are two of our prized missions," said Garver, a Colorado College graduate who is now NASA's second in command. "(MAVEN) will allow us to continue to 'follow the water.'"
In addition to designing and building the MAVEN spacecraft, Lockheed Martin will operate mission control following the Nov. 2013 launch.
Garver and her team suited up and toured the cleanroom where the orbiter is currently being assembled. Following a briefing by the team, NASA officials found the project to be on schedule and on budget.
MAVEN is what industry insiders call an orbiter, not a lander. The solar-powered spacecraft won't have the dramatic surface landing like Curiosity, but will remain in the Red Planet's orbit while studying its atmosphere.
Scientists believe that Mars was possibly once habitable, but that the sun stripped away 99 percent of its atmosphere over time, leaving the cold and dusty environment that it is today. MAVEN will be loaded with scientific instruments to measure the compositional change over a two-year period.
Colorado is also home to the mission's principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky, from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Between the university and Lockheed Martin, there are about175 full time jobs dedicated to MAVEN in Colorado.
"Those are jobs all the way from high tech down to undergraduates," said Nick Schneider, MAVEN's ultraviolet spectrometer lead at CU.
With future budgetary fears for NASA swirling, Garver outlined the agency's major priorities at a press conference Monday morning. Number one, Garver said, are the Space Launch System (SLS) deep space missions — which Orion falls under.
Designed to launch humans farther into space than ever before, including to Mars, Orion will mark a new generation in space exploration. Lockheed Martin is building the spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but the heat shield is being built at the Jefferson County facility.
For Garver, the most interesting aspect of her visit was seeing the convergence of scientists with engineers, which she calls the "healthy tension" of the industry.
Garver gave the example of watching Schneider, who has been working on this project at CU for seven years and designed one of the eight instruments that will be aboard the spacecraft, see MAVEN for the first time and meet the engineer responsible for his device.
"She is his advocate in that room," Garver said. "You have scientists and then you have the engineers, and it was great to see those come together today."
Moon water could have solar source: study
Agence France Presse
Scientists on Sunday said they had found water molecules in samples of lunar soil, and their unusual signature points to the Sun as the indirect source.
Samples returned to Earth by the Apollo missions carry molecules of water and a precursor of water called hydroxyl, according to their study, published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Researchers led by Yang Liu at the University of Tennessee theorize that the molecules developed from a reaction between hydrogen ions in the solar wind -- the blast of particles from the Sun -- and a loose surface soil called regolith.
The Sun was formed around 4.5 billion years ago from a cloud of gas, a reaction in which all the deuterium in the nebula reacted with hydrogen to form helium.
As a result, unlike all other objects in the Solar System, the Sun is deuterium-less. Sure enough, the samples were tellingly poor in deuterium, the investigators found.
The tests used infrared spectroscopy to get a chemical signature of regolith grains from the Apollo 11, 16 and 17 missions. Two samples came from plains locations, and one from the lunar highlands.
Although the molecules are dissolved within the grains and do not exist as liquid water, the findings powerfully boost the notion that the Moon is not the utterly arid place it was once thought to be, say the authors.
Since 2009, when NASA found water crystals in a deep crater near the Moon's southern pole, evidence has suggested that the Moon was once a pretty moist place and may still have frozen water at depth.
Until now, the source of water in the inner Solar System, the region extending to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is believed to be comets and other water-rich rocks which whack into planets and other bodies.
So if the study is right, hydrogen from the solar wind could be a second, hitherto unimagined source.
The solar wind whacks into the lunar surface at 1.6 million kms (a million miles) per hour, penetrating the lunar soil to a depth of up to 100 nanometres (100 billionths of a metre), according to some calculations.
The impact is so brutal that the Moon's mass diminishes by around million tonnes per hour, a figure that however is tiny when compared to the size of our satellite.
Hydroxyl is a bond between one hydrogen and one oxygen atom, while water (H20) comprises two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.
How the solar hydrogen combines with oxygen in the regolith grains to make the molecules is unclear.
But the phenomenon could occur in other places in the inner Solar System, the authors suggest.
"A similar mechanism may contribute to hydroxyl on the surfaces of other airless terrestrial bodies where the solar wind directly interacts with the surface," says the study.
Examples of this could be Mercury, the rocky planet that is nearest the Sun, and Vesta, the second biggest (and the brightest) object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
On Earth, we are shielded from the solar wind thanks to the atmosphere and the planet's magnetic field
Coburn's 'Waste Book' details $19 billion in eye-opening govt expenses
FoxNews.com
What do robotic squirrels, menus for Martian meals and a musical about climate change have in common?
They've all been made possible with taxpayer assistance, according to the latest survey of government waste put out by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
Known simply as the Waste Book, the report is a watchlist of eye-opening expenditures, which Coburn blames on a "let them eat caviar" attitude in Washington -- at a time when "23 million of our fellow Americans do not have good jobs," Coburn notes.
Here are some highlights:
· Though skeptics say there's no such thing as a free cellphone or service funded by the federal government, Coburn's report shows otherwise. It estimates that taxpayers are subsidizing phone service at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion a year. Though the roots of the program can be traced back to an effort in the 1930s to make sure all Americans had access to telecommunications, it has morphed into program that provided free cell service to some 16,500,000 participants last year.
· Though NASA has no plans or budget for any manned spaceflights to Mars, the agency spends about $1 million each year on developing "the Mars menu." It's an effort to come up with a variety of food that humans could eat one day on Mars.
· A $325,000 grant for the development of "Robosquirrel" - a robotic rodent designed to test the interaction between rattlesnakes and squirrels.
· An estimated $70 million loss for producing pennies. According to the Waste Book, "The cost to produce a penny in 2012 is more than two times its actual value." After the pennies are manufactured and sold at face value, taxpayers are left to cover the loss.
· The report spotlights widespread abuse of the food stamp system - including an exotic dancer who earned more than $85,000 a year in tips, but also collected nearly $1,000 a month in food stamps while spending $9,000 during that time period on "cosmetic enhancements."
· Nearly $700,000 from the National Science Foundation to a New York-based theater company so it could develop a musical about climate change and biodiversity. "The Great Immensity" opened in Kansas City this year. Along with the songs one reviewer described as sounding like "a Wikipedia entry set to music," the audience was also able to experience "flying monkey poop."
In all, the 2012 Waste Book report details 100 examples totaling nearly $19 billion. Coburn acknowledges that's a drop in the bucket in contrast to the overall federal deficit, which tops $16 trillion, but he says the items are snapshots of the bigger problem.
"Would you agree with Washington that these represent national priorities, or would you conclude these reflect the out-of-touch and out-of-control spending threatening to bankrupt of nation’s future?" he said.
Washington’s Porkiest Projects: Waste Book 2012
Jonathan Karl - ABC News
It’s becoming a tradition for Sen. Tom Coburn: The annual “Waste Book.” Every year since 2010, the Oklahoma Republican has issued his blistering report highlighting the most 100 most egregious abuses of taxpayer dollars. This year, Coburn and his research team highlighted examples totaling $17.9 billion and ABC News got an exclusive first look.
For example, chances are when you think “nonprofit,” you don’t think of the National Football League, the National Hockey League, or the Professional Golfers’ Association. However, each of these sport’s associations avoids paying tens of millions of dollars each year in taxes because they classify themselves as such.
The NFL loophole is Exhibit A in Coburn’s new report on government waste, which points out that the NFL alone pulled in more than $9 billion last year and paid Commissioner Roger Goodell more than $11 million.
“We have some of the biggest corporations in America paying no taxes whatsoever,” Coburn told ABC News today. “You know something is wrong with the [tax] code.”
Next up, the $325,000 squirrel robot. Researchers at San Diego State University and University of California, Davis, spent a portion of their National Science Foundation Grant making sure a robotic squirrel looks so real it can fool a rattlesnake.
And then there’s No. 6, which the report labels “Out-of-this-world Martian food tasting.” NASA is spending nearly $1 million a year researching food for astronauts to eat on Mars, despite the fact it has no plans for a manned mission to the red planet.
The Lake Murray State Park airport in Carter, Okla., receives $150,000 a year from the FAA, despite providing a runway for just one flight a month. Oklahoma’s Aeronautics Commission which spends less than 1 percent of that funding on the Lake Murray airport itself, admits it keeps the scarcely used airport open to funnel the money to other airports and projects.
“Is there anybody in the world who would say ‘No thanks government! We don’t want this money?’” OAC Commissioner Wes Stucky told ABC News.
Coburn, for his part, points to a government system that he says encourages waste.
“We put that [example] in there to show people how stupid the federal government is,” Coburn said. “We have a system that says you can collect money because you have an airport open even though nobody uses it so you can collect money to spend on other airports. Why wouldn’t we have a smarter system?”
Coburn says his report is proof that Congress, despite all the talk about government spending and the fiscal cliff, is still wasting as much money as ever.
“Every family in America has been struggling for the last three or four years and they’ve made hard choices. Congress refuses to make the hard choices,” Coburn said.
And so with no major accomplishments this year and a trillion dollar deficit, the Waste Book in fact lists Congress itself as waste of money.
U.S. space retreat cause for sadness, alarm
Richard Plum - San Angelo Standard-Times (Opinion)
(Plum was a system engineer on the space shuttle program and led system engineering and supportability engineering teams on the International Space Station program)
Recently my daughter, who lives in Houston, sent me a text message. She was excited about watching the NASA 747 with a piggyback Space Shuttle Endeavour flying low over the city. After receiving her message, I thought about the end of human space flight, an era which began when I was young.
When I was 10 years old, I remember listening to a recording by President Kennedy. In his speech to Congress, he declared, "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth."
The following year, I watched Neil Armstrong's arrival on the moon and when stepping onto the lunar surface, he uttered those famous words, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
After the Apollo program, the next steps were the space shuttle, space station, and finally the Constellation program. The Constellation program would have provided a safer and economical replacement for the space shuttle, while providing the capability to travel to the space station, the moon, and eventually to Mars.
Returning to the moon was an essential first step to test the new technologies and human endurance required for the two-year round trip to Mars. The Constellation program has been canceled and the shuttle retired.
The United States has been the leader in human space flight, yet we have decided to give up this role. If NASA wants to send an astronaut to the space station, it writes a check for $63 million to the Russian Space Agency.
The Chinese National Space Agency is planning for a space station, along with human space flight to the moon and mars. The Indian Space Research Organization is also planning for human space flight. Perhaps we will need to encourage our future scientists, engineers, and astronauts to travel to Russia, China or India if they want to participate in human space flight.
Admittedly, our country is facing difficult financial times. Yet the federal budget continues to increase while the NASA budget continues to shrink. The total NASA budget is less than one-half of 1 percent of the federal budget.
By comparison, just the interest on the national debt is 14 times the amount spent by NASA. The defense budget is 30 times the size of NASA's.
It is ironic that while the government is spending billions of dollars to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM awards of $3.7 billion in 2010), companies supporting NASA are terminating thousands of engineers, scientists and high-technology professionals. What message are we sending to our students?
I know an outstanding young man who is attending ASU. His goal after graduating is to attend medical school and eventually become a flight surgeon supporting the space program. Perhaps he needs to consider a new dream.
We constantly complain about manufacturing and high-technology jobs being exported overseas, yet our nation has decided to abandon its leadership role in yet another high technology industry.
President Kennedy's speech still inspires me, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills."
END
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