11/21/12 news

Have a Happy and safe Thankgiving everyone!   We have much to be thankful for, especially our family and friends.     And remember to give thanks to our brave men and women in our armed forces past and present who have and are daily protecting us from evil!   Thanks to Stacey for keeping us all informed the past 2 weeks while I have been out of the country on vacation.     Wednesday, November 21, 2012   JSC TODAY HEADLINES 1.            Latest International Space Station Research 2.            Brown Bag -- Greening the Cafés 3.            Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 27 4.            JSC Systems Engineering Forum: Bio-Inspired Design in the Systems Engineer 5.            Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training: Jan. 14 to 18 6.            Forklift Safety ViTS: Nov. 30 (Seats Limited) 7.            System Safety Fundamentals Class: Jan. 14 to 18 8.            Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25 ________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY “ Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds.”   -- Theodore Roosevelt ________________________________________ 1.            Latest International Space Station Research Did you know that optical illusions may be perceived differently in space? Perspective Reversible Figures in Microgravity investigates whether the perception of ambiguous perspective-reversible figures (such as an optical illusion that can normally be seen to change in perspective or orientation) is affected by microgravity. It is hypothesized that the adaptive changes in the processing of gravitational information by the neurovestibular system during spaceflight may cause changes in 3-D visual perception. This could have important consequences on astronauts' performance, including impaired psycho-motor ability on sensory-motor tasks (such as operation of robotic arm), spatial orientation and navigation. Understanding whether the perception of ambiguous figures is affected by microgravity may be used for specific tasks to be executed by humans in microgravity. Read more here. Liz Warren x35548   [top] 2.            Brown Bag -- Greening the Cafés Are you curious about what the JSC cafés are doing to go green? Join us Monday, Nov. 26, in the Building 3 Collaboration Center from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a brown-bag discussion on "Greening the Cafés." Laurie Peterson x39845   [top] 3.            Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting Tuesday, Nov. 27 The Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) will hold its monthly meeting Tuesday, Nov. 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 220. The agenda will include discussion about the new NASA@Work Innocentive Challenge on HSI metrics, along with a review of recent HSI activities and opportunities for JSC employees. Bring your lunch and join us! Deb Neubek 281-222-3687 http://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/HSI/SitePages/Home.aspx   [top] 4.            JSC Systems Engineering Forum: Bio-Inspired Design in the Systems Engineer The next JSC Systems Engineering Forum will be Thursday, Nov. 29, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966, and available via telecom/WebEx (see link). George Studor, a member of the JSC Engineering Structures Division, will hold an interactive discussion on how bio-inspired design can be used in the systems-engineering process. Randall Adams x35593 https://oasis.jsc.nasa.gov/infra/syseng/default.aspx   [top] 5.            Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Training: Jan. 14 to 18 Lean Six Sigma is one of the continuous improvement tools and methods used to help achieve operational excellence. The Lean Six Sigma approach helps identify process deficiencies, eliminate redundant or ineffective steps and overcome barriers that inhibit the rapid and smooth flow of work. The overall purpose of Lean Six Sigma is to improve process quality, which ultimately helps reduce operational costs and schedules. Green Belt Training provides both the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively identify improvement opportunities, confidently participate on the Lean Six Sigma teams and apply Lean principles and Six Sigma methodology to respective NASA/JSC projects and work areas. Training will be held from Jan. 14 to 18 in Building 12, Room 152/154. Registration can be done through SATERN. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=REGISTRATI... Prerequisites and approval required. Registration and more information on certification requirements are in SATERN. Nicole Kem x37894   [top] 6.            Forklift Safety ViTS: Nov. 30 (Seats Limited) SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0210, Forklift Safety ViTS The basis for the course is Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 29 CFR 1910.178(L). Discussions include the awareness of hazards and how to gain from lessons learned. Other topics include the mechanics of a fork truck, inspections and maintenance, safe driving, pedestrian and traffic rules, special operating rules, stacking and tiering, and emergency procedures and refueling. This course provides training to support either an initial certification (three hours duration) or a recertification (two hours duration). Both course variations are followed by a written exam. Target Audience: Supervisors over forklift operations; forklift operators; and safety personnel. Registration in SATERN is required. Shirley Robinson x41284   [top] 7.            System Safety Fundamentals Class: Jan. 14 to 18 This course instructs students in fundamentals of system safety management and the hazard analysis of hardware, software and operations. Basic concepts and principles of the analytical process are stressed. Student are introduced to NASA publications that require and guide safety analysis, as well as general reference texts on subject areas covered. Types and techniques of hazard analysis are addressed in enough detail to give the student a working knowledge of their uses and how they're accomplished. Skills in analytical techniques are developed through the use of practical exercises worked by students in class. This course establishes a foundation for the student to pursue more advanced studies of system safety and hazard analysis techniques while allowing students to effectively apply their skills to straightforward analytical assignments. This is a combination of System Safety Workshop and System Safety Special Subjects. Students who've taken those classes shouldn't take this class. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Polly Caison x41279   [top] 8.            Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25 Class is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This course is intended as an overview of the requirements and will merely introduce the payload safety and hazard analysis process. It is intended for those who may be monitoring, supervising or assisting those who have the responsibility of identifying, controlling and documenting payload hazards. It will provide an understanding of the relationship between safety and the payload integration process with an orientation to the payload safety review process. It will also describe payload safety requirements (both technical and procedural) and discuss their application throughout the payload safety process: analysis, review, certification and follow-up to ensure implementation. System safety concepts and hazard recognition will be briefly discussed and documentation requirements explained in general terms. Those with primary responsibilities in payload safety should attend Payload Safety Review and Analysis (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0011). Contractors need to update their SATERN profile before registering. SATERN Registration Required. Approval Required. 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.       IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…   ·         Johnson Space Center 2012 Highlights The year has seen many highlights at JSC in the realm of human spaceflight exploration, international and commercial partnerships, and research and technology development. This video was shared by Director Mike Coats Friday.   ·         Departing station Commander Suni Williams provides tour of orbital laboratory In her final days as Commander of the ISS, Williams recorded a tour of the orbital laboratory and downlinked it hours before she, Yuri Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide departed in their Soyuz for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.   Human Spaceflight News Wednesday – November 21, 2012   HAPPY THANKSGIVING - GOBBLE, GOBBLE   HEADLINES AND LEADS   Germany Wins Battle over Ariane, ESA Space Station Role   Peter De Selding - Space News   The French government appears to have buckled to German demands on key European space programs on Nov. 21, accepting that an enhanced Ariane 5 rocket will be developed to completion for a first flight in 2017 and that Europe contribute to NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle as part of its space station program. In an informal briefing with reporters here as a two-day meeting of European Space Agency (ESA) governments ended, French Research Minister Genevieve Fioraso said France had accepted that the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution rocket, which Germany had supported and France had questioned, be developed and flown.   UK To Invest in Orion Service Module   Amy Svitak – Aviation Week   Britain has committed €20 million ($26 million) to help pay for Europe's continued participation in the ISS. Flush with cash from an unprecedented 25% boost to its overall ESA contribution level, Britain's decision to back ISS may have ended a Franco-German standoff over the so-called NASA barter element, under which Europe has proposed to develop a service module based on its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that would fly on the U.S. space agency's Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle.   Britain attracted to microgravity   Jonathan Amos - BBC News   Britain has indicated it will join the European Space Agency's (Esa) microgravity research programme. The roughly 15m euros (£12m), four-year commitment would give UK investigators access to facilities like sounding rockets, drop towers and even the International Space Station (ISS). The announcement was made at Esa's Ministerial Council in Naples. Research ministers from across Europe have been meeting to set the organisation's programmes and budgets.   Veteran NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick joins Blue Origin as human integration architect   Taylor Soper - GeekWire.com   Nicholas Patrick, the fifth British astronaut to go to space and a NASA veteran, has joined the Blue Origin team to provide his expertise as a human integration architect. Blue Origin, the often-secretive commercial space venture started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is based south of Seattle and is one of the companies using funding from NASA to develop commercial spaceflight technologies to transport astronauts and cargo following the end of the Space Shuttle program.   Blue Origin Hires Retired NASA Astronaut   Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc   The British Interplanetary Society reports that retired NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick has joined Blue Origin, which is developing commercial suborbital and orbital spacecraft. The British-born Patrick, who retired from NASA on May 31, served as mission specialist on STS-116 in 2006 and STS-130 in 2010, spending more than 26 days in space. He walked in space three times, playing a vital role in the installation of the Tranquility module and Cupola of the International Space Station. “Nick is an extremely talented individual,” said then-NASA Chief Peggy Whitson upon Patrick’s retirement. “His engineering skills and expertise were a valuable contribution to our team, not only during his flights but in his work with future exploration programs as well. I am sure that his future contributions will be just as valuable.” Patrick holds a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as undergraduate and graduate degrees in Engineering from Cambridge University. Prior to his spaceflights, he led the team that designed the Orion spacecraft cockpit. (NO FURTHER TEXT)   Private Moon Race May Spark Lunar 'Water Rush'   Space.com   A private race to the moon with robotic probes may kick off a lunar "water rush" that helps humanity explore asteroids, Mars and other deep-space destinations, some scientists say. The 25 privately funded teams competing in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize may perform vital prospecting work that will lay the foundation for large-scale exploitation of moon water, leading to cheaper and more efficient space exploration, the idea goes.   Mars is safe from radiation – but the trip there isn't   Joanna Carver & Victoria Jaggard - New Scientist   You needn't fry on Mars. Readings from NASA's Curiosity rover suggest radiation levels on the Red Planet are about the same as those in low Earth orbit, where astronauts hang out for months on the International Space Station. A Mars visit would still be dangerous though, due to the years-long return trip. Unlike Earth, Mars has no magnetosphere shielding it from solar and galactic radiation. But it does have a thin atmosphere, and readings from two of Curiosity's instruments suggest this provides some protection.   Firefighters working 3-alarm fire at NASA Michoud Assembly Facility   Naomi Martin - Times-Picayune (New Orleans)   New Orleans firefighters are working to extinguish a three-alarm fire at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans. The third alarm for the fire at 13800 Old Gentilly Road was called about 9:20 p.m., according to a dispatcher with the New Orleans Fire Department. (NO FURTHER TEXT)   MEANWHILE ON MARS…   Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now   http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now   Joe Palca - National Public Radio   Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem. They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument. It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results.   Curiosity’s secret historic breakthrough? Speculation centers on organic molecules   Adam Mann - Wired.com   Much of the internet is buzzing over upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details. The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. __________   COMPLETE STORIES   Germany Wins Battle over Ariane, ESA Space Station Role   Peter De Selding - Space News   The French government appears to have buckled to German demands on key European space programs on Nov. 21, accepting that an enhanced Ariane 5 rocket will be developed to completion for a first flight in 2017 and that Europe contribute to NASA’s Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle as part of its space station program.   In an informal briefing with reporters here as a two-day meeting of European Space Agency (ESA) governments ended, French Research Minister Genevieve Fioraso said France had accepted that the Ariane 5 Midlife Evolution rocket, which Germany had supported and France had questioned, be developed and flown.   Fioraso said France had agreed to contribute 20 percent to Europe’s development of a propulsion module for NASA’s Orion vehicle – a development that France had criticized as having little political or technological use for Europe.   France also agreed to maintain its 27 percent share of Europe’s overall contributions to the international space station. The agreement on the space station budget, and the contribution to NASA’s Orion, will permit ESA to maintain its role in the station until 2020.   Fioraso said the ministerial conference, and notably Germany, accepted the need to develop a less-expensive successor to Ariane 5, and that the Ariane 6 vehicle’s design work should start immediately.   This vehicle, whose costs have been estimated at around 4 billion euros ($5.2 billion), is intended as a design-to-cost, less-powerful rocket when compared to the current Ariane 5 ECA, and one that would replace both the Ariane 5 and Europe’s use of the Russian medium-class Soyuz rocket around 2021.   Fiorosa said she was proud that Europe and NASA will be working together on the future Orion crew exploration vehicle.   The French decision to drop from its overall 27 percent share of Europe’s space station program to just 20 percent for the Orion work is one reason why ESA was seeking other governments’ support for the program.   ESA struck pay dirt from a surprising source, when British Science Minister David Willetts on Nov. 21 announced that Britain, which has steered clear of investment in the space station up to now, agreed to spend 20 million euros on the Orion work.   Briefing reporters here, Willetts said the British contribution would be used to develop Orion propulsion module telecommunications elements, a British specialty. He mentioned the British subsidiaries of Moog of the United States and Com Dev of Canada as likely beneficiaries of the British investment.   Europe has been building Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo carriers to acquit itself of what otherwise would be a debt to NASA, as the space station’s general contractor, for station utilities charges.   But ESA decided to stop ATV construction after the fifth vehicle, leaving about three years of station-utilities charges unpaid starting in 2018. NASA and ESA had agreed that these charges, totaling about 450 million euros, could be paid through European contributions to Orion’s propulsion module.   France had said Orion leaves Europe as a junior partner to NASA and does not offer a showcase program that European citizens could appreciate. But France was at pains to come up with an alternative that was affordable in Europe and acceptable to NASA.   France held out until early Nov. 21, government officials said, hoping to bend Germany to France’s will with respect to Ariane 5 ME and Ariane 6.   After what French and German government officials said was a near-sleepless night, the end result is that Ariane 6 will be studied until 2014 and then, perhaps, proceed to development – depending on the financial resources of France and other governments.   But work on the Ariane 5 ME rocket, with a restartable upper-stage engine that French officials say will also serve Ariane 6, will continue in view to a demonstration flight in 2017. Fioraso said a maximum amount of synergy will be found between Ariane 5 ME and Ariane 6.   Ariane 5 ME will give the current Ariane 5 ECA a 20 percent increase in payload-carrying power, a fact that France had argued does not solve Ariane 5’s current operating-cost problem, nor its competitiveness handicap relative in the changing global commercial launch market.   UK To Invest in Orion Service Module   Amy Svitak – Aviation Week   Britain has committed €20 million ($26 million) to help pay for Europe's continued participation in the ISS.   Flush with cash from an unprecedented 25% boost to its overall ESA contribution level, Britain's decision to back ISS may have ended a Franco-German standoff over the so-called NASA barter element, under which Europe has proposed to develop a service module based on its Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) that would fly on the U.S. space agency's Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle.   Until this morning, France and Germany had been at an impasse with regard to the service module proposal, a development valued at €450 million that could cover Europe's share of common operating costs aboard the space station for the period 2017-20, and one that Germany – ESA's largest financial contributor – steadfastly supports.   “In the interest of maintaining the European commitments to ISS, and because of our belief there are excellent British technologies that can play a significant role in Orion, we will make a once-off cash contribution of €20 million to the ISS,” said David Willetts, U.K. Minister of Universities and Science, who is leading a British delegation at ESA's budget ministerial in Naples, Italy, this week.   “We think this is a great opportunity for Britain to contribute technologies, particularly on Orion,” Willetts said.   In return, U.K-based COM DEV Europe and the U.K. division of chemical space propulsion manufacturer American Pacific Corp. will play a role in the service-module development.   Britain attracted to microgravity   Jonathan Amos - BBC News   Britain has indicated it will join the European Space Agency's (Esa) microgravity research programme.   The roughly 15m euros (£12m), four-year commitment would give UK investigators access to facilities like sounding rockets, drop towers and even the International Space Station (ISS).   The announcement was made at Esa's Ministerial Council in Naples.   Research ministers from across Europe have been meeting to set the organisation's programmes and budgets.   The UK statement is a small one on the scale of the really big decisions being made at this meeting, but it is a significant step for British microgravity scientists who have been campaigning to get their discipline a higher profile.   'Brilliant news'   Participation in the European Life and Physical Sciences (Elips) programme is subject to final negotiations, but the UK science minister David Willetts said he had been convinced by the arguments in favour of joining.   "There are two bits of Elips that we are particularly interested in. One is this issue of ageing and the physiological processes that an astronaut goes through in space that enables people to model and understand ageing. The other is the study of advanced materials," the minister told the BBC.   Studying systems and processes in the absence of gravity gives scientists a unique perspective. In an Earth laboratory, gravity pulls hard on everything; but if the notions of "up" and "down" can be removed - even for a few seconds - then some unusual things start to happen.   Gases and liquids that are heated do not rise and sink as they would normally, and suspended particles do not settle out into neat layers of different sizes. By removing the "mask" of gravity, it then becomes possible to study the effects of other forces more easily.   This type of knowledge, which is being pursued most vigorously on the space station, is helping to develop new vaccines and crops, and even to understanding how the interior of the Earth behaves.   Assuming negotiations do not take an awkward turn on the final day of the Naples meeting on Wednesday, the UK will enter Elips at a level broadly proportional to a quarter of its GDP position at Esa, which equates to 3.75m euros (£3m) per year.   Britain last considered joining Elips in 2002. A review undertaken by Prof Bill Wakeham recommended membership, but the then government decided to put its priorities elsewhere. Three years ago, the UK Space Agency (UKSA) raised the issue again and convened several meetings to assess interest.   Groups like the UK Space Biomedical Advisory Committee (SBAC) have been pushing hard to get an Esa subscription approved. Membership will make it much easier for British scientists to propose experiments and to get access to facilities like a zero-G plane, which generates short periods of weightlessness by flying a series of parabolas in the sky.   Scientists would though still have to go through the usual channels of winning grants from the Research Councils to support their experiments. “We can get them access to facilities; they have now got to justify their science in the usual way,” said David Williams, the chief executive of the UKSA.   Kevin Fong, the chair of SBAC, commented: "This is brilliant news. Having spent so many years trying to further the UK's involvement in programmes of human spaceflight it is great to see things finally moving in the right direction.   "Exploration is what we do; it's part of what makes us human. The next challenge of course will be that of taking the unique insight afforded by partnership with international space agencies and turning that into innovation and new - genuinely disruptive - technologies."   Veteran NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick joins Blue Origin as human integration architect   Taylor Soper - GeekWire.com   Nicholas Patrick, the fifth British astronaut to go to space and a NASA veteran, has joined the Blue Origin team to provide his expertise as a human integration architect.   Blue Origin, the often-secretive commercial space venture started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is based south of Seattle and is one of the companies using funding from NASA to develop commercial spaceflight technologies to transport astronauts and cargo following the end of the Space Shuttle program.   Patrick brings a wealth of space knowledge and experience to the company. He joined NASA in 1998, went on two spaceflight missions and is just the fifth Briton to go into space. The 48-year-old is also a certified flight instructor and is an experienced ‘aquanaut,’ participating in both the   NEEMO 6 and NEEMO 13 underwater training missions.   Blue Origin, founded in 2000, recently completed a pad escape test. On the company website, Bezos wrote that “The Blue Origin team worked hard and smart to pull off this first test of our suborbital Crew Capsule escape system.”   “The first test of our suborbital Crew Capsule is a big step on the way to safe, affordable space travel,” Bezos added in a statement. “This wouldn’t have been possible without NASA’s help, and the Blue Origin team worked hard and smart to design this system, build it, and pull off this test. Lots of smiles around here today. Gradatim Ferociter!”   Private Moon Race May Spark Lunar 'Water Rush'   Space.com   A private race to the moon with robotic probes may kick off a lunar "water rush" that helps humanity explore asteroids, Mars and other deep-space destinations, some scientists say.   The 25 privately funded teams competing in the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize may perform vital prospecting work that will lay the foundation for large-scale exploitation of moon water, leading to cheaper and more efficient space exploration, the idea goes.   "This is like the gold rush that led to the settlement of California," Phil Metzger, a physicist at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said in a statement. "This is the water rush."   The lure of lunar water   The Google Lunar X Prize is an international challenge to land a robot on the moon's surface, have it travel at least 1,650 feet (500 meters) and send data and images back to Earth.   The first privately funded team to do all of this will receive the $20 million grand prize. An additional $10 million is set aside for second place and various special accomplishments, such as detecting water, bringing the prize's total purse to $30 million.   NASA and other space agencies are particularly interested in the water-detection part of the challenge. They hope the teams — such as one led by Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology, Inc. — help ground-truth observations made from orbit, which have spotted water ice in craters near the lunar poles.   "We really need to get vehicles on the surface of the moon prospecting to characterize those deposits, like how do they vary spatially, how do they vary with depth?" Metzger said.   Moon water could be used for much more than just slaking astronauts' thirst. Split into its component hydrogen and oxygen, it could also provide air for them to breathe and — perhaps most importantly — propellant for their spaceships, which could refuel at orbiting "gas stations."   "There have been studies that have shown you can reduce the mass of a mission to Mars by a factor of somewhere between three and five if you get propellants from the space environment rather than launching them all from Earth," Metzger said.   Launching soon   In April, Astrobotic signed a contract with NASA to continue to develop technologies the space agency may use to harvest space resources in the future. And the company's X Prize plans are coming along; Astrobotic aims to launch a lander and rover to the moon on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket less than three years from now.    "Our intent is to land on the surface of the moon in October 2015 and find water," said Astrobotic president John Thornton.   Astrobotic will test its rover and tools in a special bin of simulated lunar soil at Kennedy Space Center.   "You have to be able to go to the moon with some confidence that your vehicle's going to be able to get around and to dig in the soil," Thornton said.   The fact that so many other teams are vying to beat Astrobotic to the moon shows that the potential to find and exploit lunar resources is real, he added.   "If we were doing something really big and no one else was trying to do it, then it might not be that big," Thornton said.   Mars is safe from radiation – but the trip there isn't   Joanna Carver & Victoria Jaggard - New Scientist   You needn't fry on Mars. Readings from NASA's Curiosity rover suggest radiation levels on the Red Planet are about the same as those in low Earth orbit, where astronauts hang out for months on the International Space Station. A Mars visit would still be dangerous though, due to the years-long return trip.   Unlike Earth, Mars has no magnetosphere shielding it from solar and galactic radiation. But it does have a thin atmosphere, and readings from two of Curiosity's instruments suggest this provides some protection.   "This is the first ever measurement of the radiation environment on any planet other than Earth," Curiosity team member Don Hassler said at a press briefing on 15 November. "Astronauts can live in this environment."   The rover's weather station recorded evidence of what is known as a thermal tide on Mars. Sunlight heats the planet's atmosphere on the side facing the sun, causing it to expand upwards and triggering a decrease in air pressure. But things chill quickly on the other side, so that the atmosphere deflates and becomes denser.   As Mars rotates, the bulge of heated air travels with the "day" side from east to west. Curiosity feels this effect as changes in air pressure over the course of a Martian day, rover scientist Claire Newman of Ashima Research in California said during the briefing.   Radiation shield   At the same time, the rover's radiation monitor saw daily dips in charged particles that match the increases in air pressure that come with a denser atmosphere. "The atmosphere is acting as a shield to radiation," Hassler said.   The scientists were not ready to put numbers to the daily radiation dose people would experience on Mars. But the overall levels are lower than those the spacecraft carrying Curiosity recorded during its interplanetary flight, and about what astronauts see on the ISS.   "It's roughly what we were expecting," astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell of University College London told New Scientist.   The biggest threat to Mars voyagers would be the cumulative radiation exposure during the long trip. NASA estimates that a return human mission to Mars would take three years. During that time astronauts might receive more than seven times the radiation dose they get during six months on the ISS.   Setting limits   Building up radiation exposure increases the risk of developing various cancers, so NASA has set limits on how much total radiation astronauts can experience over the course of their careers. Figuring out the exact risk on Mars is crucial to understanding the total dose a human mission would face and whether it is within safe limits, Hassler said.   Solar flares would also be a problem. On Earth these eruptions of charged particles from the sun are largely deflected by the magnetosphere. But Mars enjoys no such protection, and since Curiosity has yet to see a flare, it is unclear how much shielding the thin atmosphere would provide. '   Dartnell suggests that a base or colony on Mars could be built underground to avoid surface radiation. Or, with enough advance warning, astronauts could retreat to protective shelters during a flare. But is all that trouble worth it just to send humans where robots already thrive?   "An astronaut or geologist that's trained in science that has a brain and a pair of hands and pair of eyes with a rock hammer can do a lot more on the surface on Mars before breakfast than a robot can do in weeks," says Dartnell.   MEANWHILE ON MARS…   Big News From Mars? Rover Scientists Mum For Now   http://www.npr.org/2012/11/20/165513016/big-news-from-mars-rover-scientists-mum-for-now   Joe Palca - National Public Radio   Scientists working on NASA's six-wheeled rover on Mars have a problem. But it's a good problem.   They have some exciting new results from one of the rover's instruments. On the one hand, they'd like to tell everybody what they found, but on the other, they have to wait because they want to make sure their results are not just some fluke or error in their instrument.   It's a bind scientists frequently find themselves in, because by their nature, scientists like to share their results. At the same time, they're cautious because no one likes to make a big announcement and then have to say "never mind."   The exciting results are coming from an instrument in the rover called SAM. "We're getting data from SAM as we sit here and speak, and the data looks really interesting," John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the rover mission, says during my visit last week to his office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. That's where data from SAM first arrive on Earth. "The science team is busily chewing away on it as it comes down," says Grotzinger.   SAM is a kind of miniature chemistry lab. Put a sample of Martian soil or rock or even air inside SAM, and it will tell you what the sample is made of.   Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something earthshaking. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.   Grotzinger can see the pained look on my face as I wait, hoping he'll tell me what the heck he's found, but he's not providing any more information.   So why doesn't Grotzinger want to share his exciting news? The main reason is caution. Grotzinger and his team were almost stung once before. When SAM analyzed an air sample, it looked like there was methane in it, and at least here on Earth, some methane comes from living organisms.   But Grotzinger says they held up announcing the finding because they wanted to be sure they were measuring Martian air, and not air brought along from the rover's launchpad at Cape Canaveral.   "We knew from the very beginning that we had this risk of having brought air from Florida. And we needed to diminish it and then make the measurement again," he says. And when they made the measurement again, the signs of methane disappeared.   Grotzinger says it will take several weeks before he and his team are ready to talk about their latest finding. In the meantime he'll fend off requests from pesky reporters, and probably from NASA brass as well. Like any big institution, NASA would love to trumpet a major finding, especially at a time when budget decisions are being made. Nothing succeeds like success, as the saying goes.   Richard Zare, a chemist at Stanford University, appreciates the uncomfortable position John Grotzinger is in. He's been there. In 1996, he was part of a team that reported finding organic compounds in a meteorite from Mars that landed in Antarctica. When the news came out, it caused a huge sensation because finding organic compounds in a Martian rock suggested the possibility at least that there was once life on Mars.   "You're bursting with a feeling that you want to share this information, and it's frustrating when you feel you can't talk about it, "says Zare.   It wasn't scientific caution that kept Zare from announcing his results. It was a rule many scientific journals enforce that says scientists are not allowed to talk about their research until the day it's officially published. Zare had to follow the rules if he wanted his paper to come out.   He did break down and tell his family. "I remember at the dinner table with great excitement explaining to my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Bethany, what it was we were doing," says Zare. And then he experienced something many parents can relate to when talking to their kids.   "Bethany looked at me and said, 'pass the ketchup.' So, not everybody was as excited as I was," he says.   Zare says in a way, scientists are like artists. Sharing what they do is a big part of why they get out of bed in the morning.   "How many composers would actually compose music if they were told no one else could listen to their compositions? How many painters would make a painting if they were told no one else could see them?" says Zare. It's the same for scientists. "The great joy of science is to be able to share it. And so you want to say, 'Isn't this interesting? Isn't that cool?' "   For now, though, we'll have to wait to see what's got Mars rover scientists itching to say what they found.   Curiosity’s secret historic breakthrough? Speculation centers on organic molecules   Adam Mann - Wired.com   Much of the internet is buzzing over upcoming “big news” from NASA’s Curiosity rover, but the space agency’s scientists are keeping quiet about the details.   The report comes by way of the rover’s principal investigator, geologist John Grotzinger of Caltech, who said that Curiosity has uncovered exciting new results from a sample of Martian soil recently scooped up and placed in the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument.   “This data is gonna be one for the history books. It’s looking really good,” Grotzinger told NPR in an segment published Nov. 20. Curiosity’s SAM instrument contains a vast array of tools that can vaporize soil and rocks to analyze them and measure the abundances of certain light elements such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen – chemicals typically associated with life.   The mystery will be revealed shortly, though. Grotzinger told Wired through e-mail that NASA would hold a press conference about the results during the 2012 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco from Dec. 3 to 7. Because it’s so potentially earth-shaking, Grotzinger said the team remains cautious and is checking and double-checking their results. But while NASA is refusing to discuss the findings with anyone outside the team, especially reporters, other scientists are free to speculate.   “If it’s going in the history books, organic material is what I expect,” says planetary scientist Peter Smith from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Smith is formerly the principal investigator on a previous Mars mission, the Phoenix lander, which touched down at the Martian North Pole in 2008. “It may be just a hint, but even a hint would be exciting.”   Smith added that he is not in contact with anyone from the Curiosity team about their results and offered his assessment as an informed outside researcher.   Organic molecules are those that contain carbon and are potential indicators of life. During its mission, Phoenix heated a sample of soil to search for organics but these efforts were stymied by the presence of perchlorates, chemical salts that sit in the Martian soil. Perchlorates react to heat and destroy any complex organic molecules, leaving only carbon dioxide, which is abundant in the Martian atmosphere.   The Viking landers, which explored opposite sides of Mars in the late 1970s, also conducted a search for organic molecules and came up empty. For decades afterward, astronomers considered Mars to be a dead planet, with conditions not very conducive to life. After the results from Phoenix, scientists realized that perchlorates were probably messing with those earlier findings as well, and could account for their negative outcome.   Curiosity’s suite of laboratory instruments are able to slowly heat a sample in a way that doesn’t trigger the perchlorates. They can also weigh any molecules present, determining how much carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen they are made from. Simple organic compounds wouldn’t be completely shocking, said Smith, since these probably come from meteorites originating in the asteroid belt and probably are around on present-day Mars. But they would indicate that the building blocks for life are present on Mars and might only need the addition of water, which Mars had in the past, in order to produce organisms.   “If they found signatures of a very complex organic type, that would be astounding,” said Smith, since they would likely be leftovers from complex life forms that once roamed Mars. But the odds of finding such a startling result in a sample of sand scooped from a random dune are “very, very low,” Smith said.   Smith cautioned against speculating too much, since rumors have a way of spreading rapidly when it comes to any discussion of potential life on Mars. During his tenure on the Phoenix mission, his team was evaluating the interesting perchlorate results, which they kept secret during analysis. Rumors got out and then became worse when some unsubstantiated report claimed a member of his team meeting was meeting with the White House.   “When you keep things secret, people start thinking all kinds of crazy things,” he said.   A Little Thanksgiving Humor (for those who haven’t seen it before)…       A young man had a pet parrot, which developed a bad attitude and used terrible language.   Every word out of the bird's mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity.   The man tried and tried to change the bird's attitude by saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to "clean up" the bird's vocabulary.   Finally - fed up - he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. The man shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder.  In desperation, the man threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer, thinking that would "cool" him off.   For a few minutes the parrot squawked, kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total silence. Not a peep was heard for over a minute. Fearing that he'd hurt the parrot, the man quickly opened the door to the freezer.   The parrot calmly stepped out onto the man's outstretched arm and said, "I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I'm sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior."   The man was stunned at the change in the bird's attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had caused such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird continued…   "...May I ask what the turkey did?"   END