11/5/12 news

      Monday, November 5, 2012   JSC TODAY HEADLINES 1.            Today: What is Human Systems Integration? 2.            Spacesuit Development and Qualification for Project Mercury 3.            Don't be a Turkey ... Submit Early 4.            Weight Watchers at JSC Meets Today 5.            Starport Boot Camp -- Last Chance for Discount 6.            JSC Child Care Center Has Immediate Openings 7.            Supported Browsers for NASA Financial Applications 8.            SAIC Hosts Community Health and Wellness Event -- Nov. 9 9.            JSC New Technologies Published in October 'NASA Tech Briefs' 10.          Applications Now Accepted for JSC SSEDP 11.          Space Technology Can Improve Life on Earth -- Find Out How on Nov. 7 12.          Recent JSC Announcement 13.          JSC Safety Action Team Wellness Nature Walks 14.          Nutrition Class Tomorrow 15.          Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting 16.          Asian American Government Executives Network SES Development Program Call 17.          JSC Toastmasters Club Meets Wednesday Nights 18.          Fire Warden Orientation (4 Hours) ________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY “ You always pass failure on the way to success. ”   -- Mickey Rooney ________________________________________ 1.            Today: What is Human Systems Integration? The SA Human Systems Academy is pleased to announce a lecture that introduces attendees to the basics of Human Systems Integration (HSI). This course will begin by defining what HSI is, how it is structured, roles and responsibilities in implementing HSI, how it integrates with the NASA systems engineering lifecycle and how we can implement HSI at NASA in the future. This course will be held today from 2 to 4 p.m. in Building 15, Conference Room 267. For registration, please go to: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/   [top] 2.            Spacesuit Development and Qualification for Project Mercury The U.S. Spacesuit Knowledge Capture series will host Jim McBarron's discussion of Mercury's full-pressure suit development and qualification program tomorrow, Nov. 6, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. With the information McBarron has collected as a result of his 40 years of experience with the United States Air Force pressure suit and NASA's spacesuit development and operations, he will share significant knowledge on suit selection, specification, system qualification and production-acceptance test requirements. McBarron will also identify Mercury spacesuit modifications made for each mission and discuss noteworthy lessons learned. Location: Building 5S, Room 3102 (near the guard shack at the entrance of Building 4/Building 4S/Building 5S parking lot is a ramp leading to a door at the corner of Building 5S). A public access elevator is located past two sets of doors. Direct questions to Cinda Chullen (x38384), Vladenka Oliva (281-461-5681) or Rose Bitterly (281-461-5795). Rose Bitterly 281-461-5795   [top] 3.            Don't be a Turkey ... Submit Early JSC Today will be suffering right along with you the day of and day after Thanksgiving, gorged and barely moving from excessive turkey and dressing. To that end, JSC Today will not be distributed Thanksgiving day or the day after: Nov. 22 and 23. Plan accordingly so you can get your submissions in for Wednesday, Nov. 21 (submit by noon Tuesday, Nov. 20). Or, submit your announcement for the Monday following (deadline is noon Wednesday, Nov. 21). JSC Today will resume normal operations on Monday, Nov. 26. We thank you for your understanding. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111   [top] 4.            Weight Watchers at JSC Meets Today Did you know that all Weight Watchers members using Monthly Passes are welcome to attend the JSC on-site Weight Watchers meetings? If you have on-site access, you can attend our meetings on Mondays (except for federal holidays) in Building 45, Room 551. Weigh-in is from 11:30 a.m. to noon, and the meeting is from noon to 12:30 p.m. If you are not a Weight Watchers member, you may join us as a guest and learn more about the program. With the holidays quickly approaching, you could start losing weight while enjoying your favorite foods, rather than gaining over the holidays. Get a head start on your New Year's resolutions by joining NOW! Sign up and purchase your Monthly Pass through the JSC portal at the link below: JSC company ID 24156, pass code WW24156. Don't wait, join today! Julie Kliesing x31540 https://wellness.weightwatchers.com   [top] 5.            Starport Boot Camp -- Last Chance for Discount Starport's last boot camp of 2012 is now open for registration. Don't miss a chance to be part of Starport's incredibly popular program and take advantage of the discounted rate. The class WILL fill up, so register now. Early Registration (ends Nov. 7): - $90 per person (just $5 per class!) Regular Registration (Nov. 8 to 13): - $110 per person The workout begins on Wednesday, Nov. 14. Are you ready for 18 hours of intense workouts with an amazing personal trainer to get you to your fitness goal? Don't wait! Sign up today and take advantage of this extreme discount while it lasts. Register now at the Gilruth Center information desk, or call 281-483-0304 for more information. Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/RecreationClasses/RecreationProgram...   [top] 6.            JSC Child Care Center Has Immediate Openings The JSC Child Care Center (Space Family Education, Inc.) has openings available to dependents of JSC civil servants and contractors. Immediate openings (ages as of Sept. 1, 2012) * Two for children 15 to 23 months old * One for a child 24 to 28 months old * Two for children currently 4 years old Program Details: •         Open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed federal holidays) •         Competitive pricing with other comparable child cares, but SFEI includes more amenities •         Additional security: Badges required to get on-site, and an additional security code to get in the school's front door •         Accelerated curriculum in all classes with additional enrichment and extracurricular programs •         Convenience: Nearby and easy access for parents working on-site •         Breakfast, morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack are all included •         Video monitoring available from computers, androids and iPhones Interested parties should send an email to Brooke Stephens with parent contact information and the child's date of birth. Brooke Stephens x26031   [top] 7.            Supported Browsers for NASA Financial Applications As a reminder to everyone using NASA financial applications such as (but not limited to) eTravel, Business Warehouse, SAP, WebTADS, OSCAR, DSPL, NPROP, CMM/PRISM (FireFox is not supported for PRISM) and Bankcard, we recommend the use of Internet Explorer 8.0 and Firefox 10/12 Web browsers to ensure optimal application functionality. If users experience any type of loss of functionality or poor performance when using an unsupported browser, we are unable to assist. However, if users experiences issues using one of our Web applications with a supported browser, we can help to resolve the problem and escalate to the vendor if required. Thank you for your understanding and support. If you have any questions, please contact the JSC Business Systems Help Desk at x39999. Brought to you by LB/Strategy, Business Systems and Technology Management Office. Susan Domsalla x34842   [top] 8.            SAIC Hosts Community Health and Wellness Event -- Nov. 9 Join us Nov. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom for the SAIC Community Health and Wellness Event. With support from the Kelsey Seybold Clinic, the SAIC Community Health and Wellness Event provides the JSC team and our local community an opportunity to have their blood sugar checked and learn from various exhibitors about health and wellness topics such as home-health services, dental care, resources for those affected by Alzheimer's, fitness, financial wellness and nutrition. The event is free and open to the public. Bring the family! Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041   [top] 9.            JSC New Technologies Published in October 'NASA Tech Briefs' Several outstanding new technologies and innovations from JSC are recognized in the October issue of "NASA Tech Briefs." The main purpose of tech briefs are to introduce information on new innovations and technologies that stem from advanced research and technology programs conducted by NASA. The October 2012 JSC briefs include: Fabrication of Single Crystal MgO Capsule; Monitoring of International Space Station Telemetry Using Shewhart Control Charts; Nonhazardous Urine Pretreatment Method; Radiation-Tolerant DC-DC Converters; Method and Apparatus for Automated Isolation of Nucleic Acids from Small Cell Samples; and Mars Aqueous Processing System. To read and learn more about these JSC innovations, click here. To see all of the current "NASA Tech Briefs," click here. Holly Kurth x32951   [top] 10.          Applications Now Accepted for JSC SSEDP The Human Resources Office is currently accepting applications for the Space Systems Engineering Development Program (SSEDP), a 12-month JSC-wide program that provides high-potential GS-12 and GS-13 civil service employees the opportunity to enhance their systems engineering and technical leadership capabilities. Those interested in the program should talk to their supervisor about how the program fits with their career goals. The call for applications will officially be from Nov. 5 to Dec. 7. Applications are available here and should be sent to an organization's training coordinator by the organization's internal deadline. If you are interested in applying for SSEDP and want more details on the program and application tips, please feel free to attend the SSEDP prep session on Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 2 to 3 p.m. in Building 12, Conference Room 146. For additional information, please contact Romell Thomas at x32998 or Chris Eagleton at x27838. Christine Eagleton 281-792-7838   [top] 11.          Space Technology Can Improve Life on Earth -- Find Out How on Nov. 7 You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance speaker forum featuring Fitz Walker, founder of Bartron Medical Imaging, Inc. (BMI). Subject: NASA Technology Transfer and Spinoffs -- How Space Technology Improves Life on Earth Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Location: Building 1, Room 360 BMI is a biotech medical device manufacturer. BMI's flagship product, MED-SEG, is an FDA-cleared medical device that incorporates algorithms originally developed by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The technology was adapted by Walker for medical imaging, which allows regions of interest to be recognized with a clarity and specificity. BMI believes that the MED-SEG technology will be able to identify abnormalities before they are seen on traditional medical images. Della Cardona/Juan Traslavina 281-335-2074/281-335-2272   [top] 12.          Recent JSC Announcement Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 12-036: Call for NASA Systems Engineering Leadership Development Program and JSC Space Systems Engineering Development Program Applications Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx   [top] 13.          JSC Safety Action Team Wellness Nature Walks The JSC Safety Action Team Wellness Group will continue its fall nature walks this month on public walking trails in the Clear Lake area. These relatively short walks (about three miles) will provide general health benefits and group support for anyone interested. There will be information provided on related safety and health issues, as well as on local plants, trees and wildlife of this area. The groups are normally small, but any employee at JSC, along with friends and family members, are eligible to participate. Participants may walk faster or slower than the main group, though staying with the group is recommended. The walks are scheduled weekly, in the late evening, at various locations in the Clear Lake area (see website). Additional walks will be scheduled based upon demand. Please notify the person below if you are interested. Your registration will be confirmed by return email. Darrell R. Matula x38520 https://myjsc.jsc.nasa.gov/personcontent.aspx?accountname=ndc%5Cdmatula   [top] 14.          Nutrition Class Tomorrow Holiday Helpings: How to survive the holidays without adding extra pounds. The holidays are often filled with fun, family and FOOD (lots of great food)! All of those special gatherings and big meals can make it very difficult to keep your healthy diet on track. This class is full of helpful advice and tips to help make sure you can make healthy food choices during this busy time of year. You don't want to miss this helpful holiday eating guide! Class will be held Nov. 6 at 5 p.m. in the Gilruth Center. Email Glenda Blaskey to sign up for this class today! If you're working on improving your approach to healthy nutrition but can't attend a class, we offer free one-on-one consultations with Glenda Blaskey, the JSC Registered Dietitian. Glenda Blaskey x41503   [top] 15.          Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting How much do you know about the two ice giant planets, Uranus and Neptune? Justin McCollum will provide an in-depth presentation on the two most distant planets of the solar system. October was a fun-filled month for us, and we'll have recaps of all our activities -- including a review of Astronomy Day, which had more than 2,500 visitors attend the event at the George Observatory. Other meeting topics include: "What's Up in the Sky This Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing; the always intriguing "Astro Oddities;" and the novice question-and-answer session. Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the USRA auditorium (3600 Bay Area Blvd. at Middlebrook Drive). Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no-by laws -- you just show up to our meeting. Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/   [top] 16.          Asian American Government Executives Network SES Development Program Call The Asian-American Government Executives Network (AAGEN) SES Development Program is in the process of selecting candidates for the 2013-2014 class. The SES DP is a tuition-free program that offers executive development courses, coaching in mock interviews, individual mentoring and career counseling for candidates to gain the skills to effectively compete for SES positions. Applicants should be GS-15 equivalent level or higher with at least one year of experience as a manager or supervisor. If you are interested in applying, please review the website to learn if the program fits your development needs. Civil servants should contact their director to obtain organizational support for travel costs and time off to participate. Human Resources (HR) Development Reps (DRs) will provide details on the JSC application process. Applications are due to JSC HR at 9 a.m. on Nov. 13. Contractors should work with their company management. Please contact your HR DR for additional information. J. Greg Grant x32601 http://www.aagen.org/sesdevelopmentprog   [top] 17.          JSC Toastmasters Club Meets Wednesday Nights Looking to develop speaking and leadership skills? Ignite your career? Want to increase your self-confidence, become a better speaker or leader and communicate more effectively? Then JSC Toastmasters is for you! Members attend meetings each Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Rio Grande Room. JSC Toastmasters weekly meetings are learn-by-doing workshops in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a pressure-free atmosphere. Membership is open to anyone. Thomas Bryan x31721 http://3116.toastmastersclubs.org/   [top] 18.          Fire Warden Orientation (4 Hours) This four-hour course will satisfy the JSC training requirement for newly assigned Fire Wardens from JSC, Sonny Carter Training Facility and Ellington Field. This course must be completed before assuming these duties. Topics covered include: duties and responsibilities of a Fire Warden; building evacuation techniques; recognizing and correcting fire hazards; and types and uses of portable fire extinguishers. Fire Wardens who have previously attended this four-hour orientation course and need to satisfy the three-year training requirements may attend the two-hour Fire Warden Refresher Course now available in SATERN for registration. Date/Time: Nov. 28 from 8 a.m. to noon Where: Safety Learning Center, Building 226N, Room 174 Registration via SATERN required: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Aundrail Hill x36369   [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.         Human Spaceflight News Monday – November 5, 2012   Atlantis reached its final destination Friday – Spaceport USA – following a 10 mile trek from the VAB   HEADLINES AND LEADS   Extreme Voting: How Astronauts Cast Ballots from Space   Mike Wall - Space.com   Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the option of voting in tomorrow's presidential election from orbit, hundreds of miles above their nearest polling location. Astronauts residing on the orbiting lab receive a digital version of their ballot, which is beamed up by Mission Control at the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Filled-out ballots find their way back down to Earth along the same path.   “Spot the Station” Lets Public Track International Space Station   Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org   Ever wish you had the ability to watch as the International Space Station (ISS) arcs by overhead? NASA wants you to be able to do this as well, as such, the space agency has started a service, dubbed “Spot the Station” – where space buffs can receive a text message or email that will let them know when the orbiting laboratory will be making a pass overhead. This new feature’s unveiling coincides with the 12th anniversary of the space station’s twelfth year of permanent occupation by crews. Guests who sign up for this service will be notified a few hours before the station is slated to pass by over their location.   How a Rubber Chicken Became a NASA Celebrity   Karissa Bell - Wired News   Without a shiny new rover prancing around on Mars shooting rocks with lasers, it can be tough for other NASA missions to get any attention these days. So the Solar Dynamics Observatory has turned to a rubber chicken for help. But this is no ordinary rubber chicken. Known as Camilla Corona, SDO’s chicken mascot has flown five times to the uppermost levels of the atmosphere in a hot air balloon, flown in a rolling NASA T-38 Talon with astronauts, and traveled around the world attending space-related conferences, meetups, and tweetups. A lesser chicken might not be able to handle such a rigorous schedule of constantly blogging, tweeting, and traveling. A lesser chicken might be too, well, chicken to fly solo to the edge of space in a hot air balloon in the midst of a solar radiation storm. But Camilla is gearing up for what will hopefully be her biggest adventure yet: going to the International Space Station.   A Character in a Romney Campaign Anecdote Appears on the Trail   Ashley Parker - New York Times   Experienced watchers of Mitt Romney are familiar with an anecdote that he first told earlier this year, about a Boy Scout troop in Monument, Colo., that bought an American flag and then sent it around the country. First they had it flown above the Capitol. Then, they asked NASA if they would send it up into space. The flag went up in the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986, Mr. Romney always tells the crowd, and the Scouts were so excited watching from their classrooms — until the shuttle exploded after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.   Over 100 astronauts to attend Riyadh meet   Abdul Hannan Tago - Arab News   Prince Sultan bin Salman, founding member of the Association of Space Explorers and chairman of the Organizing committee, said here Saturday that Saudi Arabia is making rapid advances in the field of education, science and technology since Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah began leading the country. Prince Sultan, who is also president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, attributed the growth to the active role being played by King Abdullah as part of his intensive drive to promote a knowledge-based economy in the Kingdom. Prince Sultan was addressing a press conference on Saturday ahead of the 25th annual Association of Space Explorers Congress (ASE) and the 2nd Saudi International Space and Aeronautics Technology Conference scheduled to be held here from Nov. 5-10. The conference will be attended by more than 100 astronauts from 18 different countries along with experts in the space and aeronautics sector from all around the world.   Sales launch: SpaceX uses Dragon's success to roll out merchandise   James Dean - Florida Today   After SpaceX’s Dragon capsule berthed at the International Space Station last month, the action from the first private resupply mission was essentially over until Dragon’s departure weeks later. Why not take advantage of the lull to sell some T-shirts? “While Dragon’s at the space station, get your ‘Year of the Dragon’ tee and more here,” SpaceX tweeted, providing a link to an online store offering shirts, hats and onesies. Talk about commercial spaceflight.   Tribute in Alameda to Neil Armstrong planned for USS Hornet   Peter Hegarty - San Jose Mercury News   When Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollo 11 astronauts returned to Earth from the first lunar landing, they were immediately quarantined aboard the USS Hornet -- just in case the men picked up an alien bug as they were exploring the moon's dusty surface. The astronauts didn't, of course. But one of the specialists who gave the men the all-clear was Dr. William Carpentier, who will be visiting Hornet, now a floating museum, on Nov. 10 as part of a tribute to Armstrong and the others. Armstrong died Aug. 25 at age 82.   Neil Armstrong's Corvette gets a makeover Merritt Island man restoring astronaut's ride   Rick Neale - Florida Today   Aiming a swivel-lens digital camera, Roger Kallins meticulously captured close-up images of the Corvette’s wheel well, brake assembly and front coil spring. The Ormond Beach photojournalist is collecting hundreds of images documenting the restoration of one of America’s most unique vehicles: former NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong’s 1967 Corvette Sting Ray. “We have to document every square inch of this car, inside and out. We have to record every single part of this car in its current condition,” Kallins said.   Richardson Paid $10K For Spaceport Work in Calif.   Mike Gallagher - Albuquerque Journal   Former Gov. Bill Richardson was paid $10,000 for two months consulting work for Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California under an arrangement that ended in September, according to published accounts of the spaceport’s oversight board meeting held earlier this week. The spaceport was seeking passage of an “informed consent” law that would protect private spaceflight operators from most civil lawsuits by passengers, but a Richardson spokeswoman said in a letter to the Journal on Thursday that the former New Mexico governor never worked as a “lobbyist.”   Space Shuttle Atlantis – The last 10 miles…   Shuttle Atlantis heads for museum duty   William Harwood - CBS News   By dawn's early light, the shuttle Atlantis was hauled out of the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building for the last time Friday, rolling not to the launch pad but to the spaceport Visitor Complex 10 miles away where it will go on public display next year, the last of the iconic winged orbiters to make the transition to Earth-bound museum duty. Mounted atop a 76-wheel transporter, Atlantis was slowly rolled out of the VAB starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT, cheered on by a crowd of several hundred spaceport workers, a throng of reporters and photographers and the ship's last crew.   Final 10-mile trek for space shuttle Atlantis   Marcia Dunn - Associated Press   Accompanied by astronauts and shuttle workers, Atlantis made a slow, solemn journey to retirement Friday, the last space shuttle to orbit the world and the last to leave NASA's nest. Atlantis emerged just before dawn from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building and, riding atop a 76-wheeled platform, began the 10-mile trek to the Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop. About 200 workers gathered in the early morning chill to see the spaceship out in the open for the final time. They were joined by the four astronauts who closed out the shuttle program aboard Atlantis more than a year ago.   Last NASA space shuttle becomes museum piece   Irene Klotz - Reuters   NASA's last space shuttle rolled out of a hangar in Florida on Friday and traveled down the road to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin a new life as a museum piece. Atlantis is the third and final shuttle to be retired and turned over for public display after the end of the 30-year-old shuttle program last year. "Don't cry because it's over; smile because we had it," Patty Stratton, a manager with shuttle contractor United Space Alliance, told workers gathered before dawn outside the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.   From VAB to Visitor's Complex, Atlantis arrives home Journey across KSC brings thousands of spectators   James Dean - Florida Today   Guards ordered crowds lining Fifth Street in Exploration Park to back up as Atlantis approached, but the orbiter’s wings – extending 78 feet from tip to tip – still passed directly overhead. “The wing just went over my head,” said an amazed Brooke Carroll, 35, who was visiting with her family from outside Tampa. “It was …wow.” The loss of Challenger in 1986 sparked Carroll’s passion for the shuttle. Seeing the last one move toward its retirement home felt “bittersweet,” she said, echoing the sentiment most often expressed by current and former Kennedy Space Center employees.   Space shuttle Atlantis, NASA's last orbiter, completes journey to museum   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   NASA's space shuttle Atlantis has again reached its "final stop," and this time, it's for good. On Friday, the space agency's last shuttle to fly in space became the last to be delivered to a museum as Atlantis arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin its new life as a dramatically-displayed centerpiece of a $100 million exhibit scheduled to open in July 2013. The 9.8 mile (15.8 kilometers) trip, which began at dawn at Kennedy Space Center's 52-story tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and ended at dusk at the visitor complex's five-story exhibit building, signaled an end to the epilogue of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program, which came to its close last year.   Atlantis a big deal for us all   John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)   There are no more space shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center. The last of the orbiters rolled away from Launch Complex 39, its home for almost three decades, and off the space center property on Friday. Former and current workers, their families and friends, and regular space fans from Brevard County and beyond all turned out for a close encounter with the spaceship. The mood was a mix of celebration and reflection.   Meanwhile on Mars…   Mars rover sniffs atmosphere, finds no clear signs of methane   William Harwood - CBS News   NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has not found any definitive evidence of methane in the thin air at the Gale Crater landing site, project scientists said Friday, a finding that could raise fresh questions about whether microbial life might exist on the red planet today. While methane is commonly produced by living organisms on Earth, low concentrations on Mars could be explained by non-biological processes such as comet impacts, the breakdown of dust particles by ultraviolet light and even the interaction of water and certain types of rock. Earlier, somewhat controversial observations using Earth-based telescope and satellites in orbit around Mars were interpreted as episodic plumes of methane that are difficult to explain in the absence of biology.   Curiosity sniffs Martian air, but finds no methane   Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com   Scientists on Friday reported the Curiosity rover's first whiffs of the Martian atmosphere have turned up no sign of methane, an object of fascination from many scientists due to its ramifications on the search for life on Mars. Observations from Earth and from Europe's Mars Express orbiter have pointed toward off-and-on methane in the red planet's atmosphere. A tunable laser spectrometer on Curiosity ingested Martian air on four nights since August to weigh in on the methane question.   Curiosity Finds Methane on Mars, or Not   Richard Kerr - ScienceNOW   The tension as Curiosity rover scientists began their spiel during a press teleconference was palpable. For months of weekly press conferences, reporters had been asking about Curiosity's analyses of atmospheric methane on Mars. If the rover was finding even a part per billion (ppb) or so of methane, there would be a chance that life—life on Mars, today—was producing it. But no Martians turned up this time. Christopher Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is the instrument lead for the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS), Curiosity's atmospheric analyzer. He reported that after four analyses, he could say only that, with 95% confidence, there is between 0 ppb and 5 ppb of martian methane. __________   COMPLETE STORIES   Extreme Voting: How Astronauts Cast Ballots from Space   Mike Wall - Space.com   Call it the ultimate absentee ballot. NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station have the option of voting in tomorrow's presidential election from orbit, hundreds of miles above their nearest polling location.   Astronauts residing on the orbiting lab receive a digital version of their ballot, which is beamed up by Mission Control at the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Filled-out ballots find their way back down to Earth along the same path.   "They send it back to Mission Control," said NASA spokesman Jay Bolden of JSC. "It's a secure ballot that is then sent directly to the voting authorities."   This system was made possible by a 1997 bill passed by Texas legislators (nearly all NASA astronauts live in or around Houston). It was first used that same year by David Wolf, who happened to be aboard Russia's Mir space station at the time.   "You think about being in a foreign country and voting — he was actually on a foreign space station," Bolden told SPACE.com.   Wolf participated in a local election in 1997. The first American to vote in a presidential election from space was Leroy Chiao, who did it while commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 10 mission in 2004. (The first crew arrived at the $100 billion orbiting lab in November 2000.)   The station's current Expedition 33 counts two Americans among its six-person crew — commander Sunita Williams and flight engineer Kevin Ford. But both of them have already had their say in Tuesday's presidential election, voting from Earth just like the rest of us.   "They actually both did it while they were stationed in Russia, before they launched," Bolden said.   Williams and Ford both rode to orbit aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Williams blasted off in mid-July, while Ford launched Oct. 23.   Williams is slated to return to Earth on Nov. 12. When she departs, Ford will become commander of the new Expedition 34 mission, which runs through March 2013.   “Spot the Station” Lets Public Track International Space Station   Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.org   Ever wish you had the ability to watch as the International Space Station (ISS) arcs by overhead? NASA wants you to be able to do this as well, as such, the space agency has started a service, dubbed “Spot the Station” – where space buffs can receive a text message or email that will let them know when the orbiting laboratory will be making a pass overhead.   This new feature’s unveiling coincides with the 12th anniversary of the space station’s twelfth year of permanent occupation by crews.   Guests who sign up for this service will be notified a few hours before the station is slated to pass by over their location.   “It’s really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from Earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment,” said William Gerstenmaier in a press release issued by the space agency, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations. “We’re accomplishing science on the space station that is helping to improve life on Earth and paving the way for future exploration of deep space.”   The station is usually visible either at sunset or sunrise. On a clear night, the ISS is the brightest object in the sky (excluding the Moon). Like a shooting star, the station zips across the sky and is a somewhat hard target to spot. “Spot the Station” will help to guarantee success. NASA will provide guests with notifications about morning and evening sighting opportunities.   Think you are in the wrong neck of the woods to see the ISS? Think again. The International Space Station, as it orbits 260 miles overhead, is visible by more than 90 percent of the Earth’s population.   “Spot the Station” is managed by NASA’s Johnson Space Center, located in Houston, Texas. The team calculates the sighting information several times a week – for more than 4,600 locations worldwide. The ISS will mark its twelfth year of continuous human habitation.   How a Rubber Chicken Became a NASA Celebrity   Karissa Bell - Wired News   Without a shiny new rover prancing around on Mars shooting rocks with lasers, it can be tough for other NASA missions to get any attention these days. So the Solar Dynamics Observatory has turned to a rubber chicken for help.   But this is no ordinary rubber chicken. Known as Camilla Corona, SDO’s chicken mascot has flown five times to the uppermost levels of the atmosphere in a hot air balloon, flown in a rolling NASA T-38 Talon with astronauts, and traveled around the world attending space-related conferences, meetups, and tweetups.   A lesser chicken might not be able to handle such a rigorous schedule of constantly blogging, tweeting, and traveling. A lesser chicken might be too, well, chicken to fly solo to the edge of space in a hot air balloon in the midst of a solar radiation storm. But Camilla is gearing up for what will hopefully be her biggest adventure yet: going to the International Space Station.   Everything Camilla does is done in the name of public outreach: from encouraging people to ask questions, to inspiring children — particularly other girls — to be interested in STEM subjects, to educating her many followers not only about the sun and solar weather but about all NASA missions. The fact that she has succeeded in touching not only the public but astronauts and scientists within NASA along the way proves that a little social media strategy and a lot of personality can go a long way.   Astronaut Reid Wiseman, part of the upcoming Expedition 40/41, scheduled for May 2014, is trying to help Camilla realize her dream of spaceflight. He’s helping her train while SDO works on getting her certified to fly with him on the Russian spacecraft. “I’m hoping to take her up to the ISS and give her a good view,” he said in a phone interview from the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Center in Star City, Russia.   Wiseman had followed Camilla on Twitter for some time when in February he met her in person by chance at an event at the Johnson Space Center. He was already training for his first expedition, so he decided to try to help get her into space too. He volunteered to take her with him to Star City to train at the Soyuz spacecraft ground school.   While in Star City, Camilla attended classes with Wiseman, learned about the intricacies of toilets in space, and mingled with other astronauts and officials from the Russian space agency. “This chicken has some weird addictive quality that goes across borders and language barriers,” Wiseman said. “I took her to Red Square one day and it was unbelievable.” He said he was constantly surrounded by people who wanted to take pictures of Camilla, most of whom had no idea what his or Camilla’s story was.   So how did Camilla go from anonymous rubber chicken to astronaut-in-training? Romeo Durscher, senior manager at SDO and executive assistant to Camilla, says that Camilla’s social media efforts began in late 2009, before the official launch of the mission. They had decided to make Camilla their mascot, something which initially started as an inside joke among the SDO team. But they quickly realized social media was an opportunity to teach the public about the sun and solar weather and that Camilla — the hilariously adorable chicken that she was — could be a great teacher.   What Durscher and the rest of the SDO team did not expect was just how popular Camilla would become. “We didn’t know how the public would react to a rubber chicken,” said Durscher. “It caught me completely by surprise.” Within a year, she had developed a sizable following on Twitter, and it wasn’t uncommon to see people — kids, adults, and astronauts alike — lined up to get photos taken with Camilla at NASA events.   But what’s made Camilla so successful is not that she’s amassed more than 6,500 Twitter followers which, though impressive for a chicken, isn’t nearly as many as other NASA missions (@MarsCuriosity, for example, has more than 1.2 million followers). What makes Camilla uniquely successful is the level to which she is able to engage her followers and break down complex subjects.   “Sometimes she says things that are at a high scientific level [but] she’s able to boil it down for someone without a science background,” said Angela Gibson, who, along with her 7-year-old son Aidan, has been an avid follower of Camilla for the last year and a half.   Erin Bonilla, a webmaster and graphic designer, credits Camilla with helping pique her interest in space. She started following Camilla on Twitter in January of 2011 and soon signed up for her first NASA event, a Sun-Earth Day tweetup. “It’s funny because I was so excited to meet this rubber chicken,” she said.   Through her involvement in the tweetup and following Camilla, Erin says she got more and more entrenched in NASA culture and became an active part of the informal “space tweeps” community on Twitter. This eventually led to her getting her current job at NASA APPEL in January, almost exactly one year after first following Camilla.   “I never would have thought as a graphic designer you could do work for NASA,” she said. “You don’t think these opportunities exist and it’s changed my life.”   As Camilla becomes more popular, others at NASA are taking notice and learning lessons about social media strategy through her. Bonilla, who does social media herself at APPEL, says that one lesson to learn from Camilla is that it’s okay to take a different or unusual approach to outreach.   “It’s okay to go a little off the rails,” she said. “It’s okay to develop a little bit of personality. Camilla does an incredible job. You feel like you’re her friend.”   A Character in a Romney Campaign Anecdote Appears on the Trail   Ashley Parker - New York Times   Experienced watchers of Mitt Romney are familiar with an anecdote that he first told earlier this year, about a Boy Scout troop in Monument, Colo., that bought an American flag and then sent it around the country. First they had it flown above the Capitol. Then, they asked NASA if they would send it up into space. The flag went up in the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986, Mr. Romney always tells the crowd, and the Scouts were so excited watching from their classrooms — until the shuttle exploded after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts aboard, including a teacher, Christa McAuliffe.   Somehow, the flag survived the explosion intact, and Mr. Romney tells the story, at event after event in these closing weeks, as a testament to American innovation and perseverance.   But Saturday night in Englewood, about 45 miles north of Monument, Mr. Romney had a surprise for the crowd: The scoutmaster, William Tolbert, a major in the United States Air Force who was assigned to Space Command, was in the crowd, complete with that same flag.   Below, the full exchange:   “Some years ago, I was serving as a Boy Scout leader in the Boy Scouts of America, and I was at a court of honor — that’s where the Boy Scouts get the Eagle Scout Award or other awards — and there was a long Formica table at the front of the room, and I was seated at the far end of it next to an American flag. And the person who was speaking at the podium was a scoutmaster we’d flown in to tell his story, a scoutmaster from Monument, Colo., that I just drove through.   And he said that his Boy Scout troop wanted to have a very special American flag, so they bought one and they had it flown above the Capitol building. Then, when it came home, the boys said, ‘I’d like to have NASA take it up a space shuttle.’ And so they contacted NASA, and NASA agreed. He said, you can imagine the pride of our boys as they were sitting in their rooms at school watching the TV sets as they saw the space Challenger shuttle launch into the air, and then they saw it explode on the TV screen in front of their eyes.   And he said he called NASA a couple of weeks later and, ‘Have you found any remnant of our flag?’ And they had not. So he called every week, week after week, month after month, still no remnant of the flag from that terrible disaster. Then, he said, he was reading an article in the paper, and it described some of the debris from the Challenger disaster and it mentioned a flag. So he called NASA again and they said, ‘In fact, we have a presentation to make to your boys.’ So NASA came together and the boys were there, and he said they presented the boys with this plastic container and they open it up and inside was the American flag, their flag, in perfect condition.   Then he said, that’s it at the end of the table next to Mr. Romney, and I reached over and I grabbed that flag and held it out and it was as if electricity was running through my arm. Because I thought about all the men and women in our space program who put themselves in danger’s path out of a desire for learning and knowledge, for us. This is the American way. I think of all of our servicemen and women who put themselves in harm’s way for freedom and for us. Now I haven’t seen that flag in, I don’t know, 15 or 20 years. …”   After he told the story, Mr. Romney called Mr. Tolbert up to the stage.   “Come on up here,” Mr. Romney said. “Now, did I get that story right?”   “You did, sir,” Mr. Tolbert replied.   “That is a great flag representing the greatest nation in the history of the earth,” Mr. Romney said.   Over 100 astronauts to attend Riyadh meet   Abdul Hannan Tago - Arab News   Prince Sultan bin Salman, founding member of the Association of Space Explorers and chairman of the Organizing committee, said here Saturday that Saudi Arabia is making rapid advances in the field of education, science and technology since Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah began leading the country.   Prince Sultan, who is also president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, attributed the growth to the active role being played by King Abdullah as part of his intensive drive to promote a knowledge-based economy in the Kingdom. Prince Sultan was addressing a press conference on Saturday ahead of the 25th annual Association of Space Explorers Congress (ASE) and the 2nd Saudi International Space and Aeronautics Technology Conference scheduled to be held here from Nov. 5-10.   The conference will be attended by more than 100 astronauts from 18 different countries along with experts in the space and aeronautics sector from all around the world. Prince Sultan made history when he became the first Muslim and Arab astronaut to fly as a payload specialist on STS-51-G Discovery from June 17 to 24, 1985.   Prince Sultan said: “Today we see King Abdullah pushes this country toward the highest horizon — a new horizon in the field of science and technical areas in all its forms, including space technology.   He commended the attention being given by the Kingdom to science, space and technology and its importance in national development, as one of the most prominent main founders of the Arab Satellite Communications Organization Arabsat and main contributor to this project. This conference will showcase Saudi Arabia’s capacity in organizing this important high-profile conference.   The head of the SCTA has also arranged a comprehensive program for all the participating delegations including their families to explore and discover Saudi Arabia by providing its guests all avenues of hospitality and Saudi Arabia’s typical entertainment program.   They will be visiting Saudi tourist spots and historical places.   “We would like to show them our hospitality and the beauty of this country,” Prince Sultan said.   The Saudi International Space and Aeronautics Technology Conference is being organized by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), an autonomous scientific organization that reports to the prime minister. It acts as both the Saudi Arabian National Science Agency and the country’s national laboratory.   The congress and the conference will bring together experiences of astronauts with other leading experts in the field. It will cover the latest developments and research in space and aeronautics technologies.   The main topics to be discussed will be: space exploration missions and collaborations at the International Space Station; evolving trends and the future of space exploration by the participating nations; ‘Windows on the Earth’ -– ASE initiative and the KSA Earth observation and visualization programs.   KACST is leading the development of the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation, involving more than 60 national agencies and 190 programs, in a multibillion dollar undertaking, focusing on the development of 15 strategic technologies and their incubation and commercialization, with the aim of transforming the Kingdom into a knowledge-based society.   ASE is represented by over 350 space fliers from 35 different countries — Afghanistan, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam. KACST has played a major role in strengthening the Kingdom’s position as the leading provider of commercial earth observation products for the region, with 12 of the major satellites for the Middle East’s observation being designed and manufactured in Saudi Arabia.   It also has a comprehensive system for the processing of satellite images covering the Middle East and helps regional governments and private companies with their needs in this area. The development of advanced geographical information systems is also a key element of the KACST Space and Aeronautics Program.   KACST collaborates with many international organizations in the field of space and aeronautics, including NASA for the sector's strategic development, and the Center of Excellence for the study of near earth objects. In addition, KACST has created a joint space and aeronautics research center with the Stanford University in the US. The press conference was attended by main sponsors including KACST President Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel; Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed, vice president for research institutes, KACST; Khaled Abdullah Al-Sabti, deputy minister of education; Azzam Mohamed Aldakhil, CEO of Saudi Research and Marketing Group; and Nawaf Al-Sha’lan, media director of STC. The ASE Congress is an annual gathering of people who have visited space and is held all over the world. Saudi Arabia hosted this congress in 1989. The ASE astronauts will also participate in the upcoming conference. The ASE is an international nonprofit professional and educational organization. Founded in 1985, ASE’s mission is to provide a forum for professional dialogue among individuals who have flown in space, support space science and exploration for the benefit of all, promote education in science and engineering, foster greater environmental awareness and encourage international cooperation in the human exploration of space.   The astronauts participating in the congress will also be taking part in the Kingdom’s International Space and Aeronautics Conference 2012, which is being held in association with the ASE event.   The international space and aeronautics sector has witnessed increasing competitiveness and significant technological advancement in recent years. Space and aeronautics systems and technologies have become a key part of the Kingdom’s economic, scientific and national security capabilities.   The current global environment for space and aeronautics technologies presents significant opportunities for Saudi Arabia as the Kingdom is well positioned to contribute to the regional development of these technological systems.   There are also huge opportunities to commercialize Saudi technologies, particularly those related to the constellation of Saudi Comsat satellites and Global Navigation Satellite System applications.   This 25th Congress and the conference will bring together the unique experiences of astronauts with that of leading experts in this field, and will cover the latest developments and research in space and aeronautics technologies, particularly those of major interest to Saudi Arabia.   The planetary congress held by the ASE every year serves as a forum where members interact professionally and develop ASE programs. It is the largest gathering of its kind for space pioneers and explorers.   Members exchange information about their national space programs, make technical presentations on selected topics relevant to human space flight operations and visit with media and local communities to promote expanded awareness of the benefits of human space exploration.   The event will be addressed on the first day by Prince Sultan bin Salman. Other speakers include KACST President Mohammed Al-Suwaiyel and Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al-Saud.   Among the foreign speakers will be Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu, president of ASE and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; George W. Abbey, former director of Johnson Space Center, USA; Charles Elachi, director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US; and Thierry H. Duquesne, director for strategy, programs and international relations, Center National d’Études Spatiales — CNES, France.   Prince Sultan’s memorable flight into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery paid dividends well beyond the launch of ARAB SAT and the scientific achievements of that flight. It contributed to inspire a generation of Saudi scientists and youth to embrace science, technology and space. The results are achievements that the Kingdom can be proud of as its youths are now up to date with the latest technologies, follow the latest scientific and space achievements on multiple information processing and communication platforms, confirming that the knowledge-based society is not coming to the Kingdom, it is actually already here and on its way to driving further achievements and empowerment for its people.   Saudi Arabia has launched over 12 communications, GPS and Earth observation satellites into space. Operation, management and data analysis of these sophisticated technologies would have been a feat by itself. However, the achievements go well beyond that, since these satellites have also been designed, manufactured and are being operated by Saudi scientists.   In research and development, the situation is the same. The Kingdom is participating in research and development. Its scientists in collaboration with NASA, Boeing, IBM, Intel, and Stanford University among others, are establishing patented innovative solutions that are needed in the Kingdom and worldwide.   Sales launch: SpaceX uses Dragon's success to roll out merchandise   James Dean - Florida Today   After SpaceX’s Dragon capsule berthed at the International Space Station last month, the action from the first private resupply mission was essentially over until Dragon’s departure weeks later.   Why not take advantage of the lull to sell some T-shirts?   “While Dragon’s at the space station, get your ‘Year of the Dragon’ tee and more here,” SpaceX tweeted, providing a link to an online store offering shirts, hats and onesies.   Talk about commercial spaceflight.   Other NASA contractors sell merchandise but rarely promote it during the high-stakes, high-cost space missions to which they contribute, either preferring or being asked to keep a low profile behind their government customer. But flying a commercial mission in which it led the operation of both a rocket and spacecraft it designed, SpaceX seized the opportunity to promote its brand and connect with fans through the gear and social media.   “(The store) was launched as a response to public demand,” said Katherine Nelson, vice president for marketing and communications for the Hawthorne, Calif-based company. “We heard loud and clear through social media, and directly, that the general public wanted the opportunity to purchase SpaceX gear. We hope to evolve our product offerings in the future.”   A pair of experts in marketing and space memorabilia saw the product placement as reflective of the modern communications era in which 10-year-old SpaceX came of age, and as evidence that private space efforts are rekindling old enthusiasm for spaceflight.   “It’s more a sign of times than a sign of commercial space specifically,” said Robert Pearlman, a space historian and editor of CollectSpace.com. “It speaks to the fact that SpaceX lives within the social media, people-connected era that no longer is simply about answering to your shareholders or your customer base but embracing the public that follows your activities.”   David Meerman Scott, a marketing strategist and collector of Apollo artifacts, said it reminded him of the marketing muscle NASA and its contractors flexed to help sell the public on a huge budget to land men to the moon.   “Some of the things that the commercial sector are doing now is almost harkening back to the days of Apollo,” said Scott, the author of eight books including the best-selling “The New Rules of Marketing and PR.” “The importance of Apollo to have that marketing and public relations component, which I think was for the most part lacking for the 30 years of the shuttle program, I think it’s starting to come back.”   In addition to the buzz created by SpaceX — propelled by its celebrity CEO, Elon Musk — Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace have won widespread attention for planned suborbital space tourism flights that are at least a year away.   Also last month, a record number of viewers — more than 8 million — tuned in to YouTube to watch Felix Baumgartner’s free-fall from the edge of space, a mission sponsored by Red Bull, complete with a line of apparel.   Other sellers   SpaceX is hardly the first aerospace company to promote itself with merchandise. For example, Scott said The Boeing Co. had effectively used stores and a related Facebook page to help roll out its new 787 Dreamliner.   But in the space world, such gear is often limited to giveaways to media and VIPs at special events.   Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. each have online and physical stores, but their offerings beyond standard company logo items are overwhelmingly skewed toward aviation.   Boeing’s online store sells shuttle and Apollo models that now seem nostalgic; a commemorative “last shuttle flight” coin is on clearance for $13.99. There’s no hint that the company helped build the currently occupied International Space Station or is a competitor with SpaceX to fly astronauts commercially in its CST-100 capsule.   Search Lockheed’s online store for “Orion,” the capsule it is building to fly NASA crews on deep space missions, and receive the message, “No items found. Please try again.”   Neither site offers anything branded with United Space Alliance or United Launch Alliance, the joint ventures they own that, respectively, operated the shuttle fleet and launch the nation’s most valuable military and science satellites.   Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA’s other commercial cargo contractor with SpaceX, maintains an online store but does not actively promote it. A scale model of the Antares rocket is the only product hinting at a new commercial space program.   SpaceX’s store promotes its vehicles — the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy rockets and Dragon — while also trying to strike a more hip chord with slogans like “Year of the Dragon” and “Occupy Mars.” After its initial store promotion upon reaching the station, SpaceX tweeted a photo of singer Jimmy Buffett wearing a Falcon 9 hat and a message from Musk’s mother, who reported receiving smiles and thumbs up on Fifth Avenue for her Occupy Mars shirt.   The Mars theme positions SpaceX not just as a low-Earth orbit cargo courier but as a future player in human spaceflight and the kind of inspiring exploration missions once only associated with NASA.   Why bother?   SpaceX’s store tweets drew responses from would-be customers upset that the company doesn’t yet ship overseas, indicating a global demand for the products.   But you’d have to sell a lot of hats and T-shirts to cover the cost of building a rocket, so the potential revenue likely isn’t a significant factor.   And there’s risk, if fans get tired of the sales pitches or mission problems make them seem inappropriate.   But bit by bit, the experts say, connecting with fans through merchandise and social media can help drum up excitement and grow support that might eventually influence budget and policy decisions or a public stock offering.   Many high-tech companies struggle to make that connection.   “This kind of effort humanizes this company,” Scott said.   SpaceX boasts more followers on Twitter — more than 123,000 as of last week — than the primary corporate feeds for major space contractors ATK, Boeing, Lockheed, Orbital, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, ULA and USA combined. (NASA has more than 3 million followers, and Kennedy Space Center nearly 373,000.)   Pearlman said SpaceX, whose founder, Musk, made his fortune from Internet startups, had borrowed a page from Silicon Valley successes like Apple, which used merchandise and a “chief evangelist” to cultivate a devoted following when it was considered the vulnerable underdog to industry giants.   “If you want to grow your image as the people’s company, then you need to provide them with the tools for grass-roots and word-of-mouth marketing,” he said.   SpaceX kept up the cause with a tweet the day after Dragon splashed down in the Pacific: “Does 2012 feel like the Year of the Dragon yet? Get your Dragon gear here.”   Tribute in Alameda to Neil Armstrong planned for USS Hornet   Peter Hegarty - San Jose Mercury News   When Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollo 11 astronauts returned to Earth from the first lunar landing, they were immediately quarantined aboard the USS Hornet -- just in case the men picked up an alien bug as they were exploring the moon's dusty surface.   The astronauts didn't, of course.   But one of the specialists who gave the men the all-clear was Dr. William Carpentier, who will be visiting Hornet, now a floating museum, on Nov. 10 as part of a tribute to Armstrong and the others. Armstrong died Aug. 25 at age 82.   Along with Carpentier, who was the flight surgeon assigned to the July 1969 mission, former space shuttle astronaut Daniel Bursch will visit the ship, plus a flyover by four Nanchang CJ-6A aircraft from the Bay Bombers Squadron is planned.   The museum will also officially reopen its newly renovated Apollo exhibit. It's the largest collection of Apollo mission artifacts on the West Coast.   "While the world knows Neil Armstrong as a space exploration hero, the Hornet museum would like Bay Area citizens to know his qualities on a more personal level," said Bob Fish, a museum trustee and author of the book, "Hornet Plus Three: The Story of the Apollo 11 Recovery." "During our remembrance event, speakers will not only talk about the exciting events of July 1969 and the U.S. space program, they will also share their personal experience of an American icon who will be forever etched in human history."   President Richard Nixon was aboard the USS Hornet when the ship's crew plucked Armstrong and fellow astronauts Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin out of the Pacific Ocean after their splashdown. Nixon also addressed them while they were quarantined.   Carpentier worked with the three astronauts during their preflight training, as well as during the quarantine and their worldwide tour following their medical examination.   A retired U.S. Navy captain, Bursch was selected for astronaut training in January 1990 and became an astronaut in July 1991.   He was on four space flights and has logged more than 227 days in space. His background also includes working as a space communicator in mission control, and on the controls and displays for the space shuttle and space station at NASA's Astronaut Office Operations Development Branch.   The day's activities aboard the USS Hornet will begin with a big band performance at 11 a.m. The talks and Apollo exhibit reopening are set for 1 p.m. The ship is located at 707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3 in Alameda.   Neil Armstrong's Corvette gets a makeover Merritt Island man restoring astronaut's ride   Rick Neale - Florida Today   Aiming a swivel-lens digital camera, Roger Kallins meticulously captured close-up images of the Corvette’s wheel well, brake assembly and front coil spring.   The Ormond Beach photojournalist is collecting hundreds of images documenting the restoration of one of America’s most unique vehicles: former NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong’s 1967 Corvette Sting Ray.   “We have to document every square inch of this car, inside and out. We have to record every single part of this car in its current condition,” Kallins said.   Merritt Island resident Joe Crosby bought the one-of-a-kind coupe from an undisclosed Georgia owner in February. Crosby won’t say how much he paid for the car. In January 2007, a 1967 Corvette formerly owned by astronaut Gus Grissom sold at auction for $275,000 in Scottsdale, Ariz.   Initially, Crosby offered the vehicle on eBay — where it garnered offers exceeding $250,000.   However, he has now decided to repair 45 years of wear and refurbish the sports car to its same condition as when Armstrong cruised across the Space Coast during the Apollo era.   “It’s a piece of history to me — it’s not a car. It’s like owning Samuel Colt’s first revolver ever made,” Crosby said, eyeing the Marina Blue Corvette perched atop a mechanical lift at Carter’s Antique Cars Paint & Repair on Merritt Island.   Armstrong, the first man to step foot on the moon, died in August at age 82.   Thursday, Crosby’s preservation team scrutinized his vehicle. Kallins finished photographing the chassis and moved to the 427-cubic-inch engine compartment. And Port Orange car-restoration expert Eric Gill, who is spearheading the project, sketched out plans to install factory-authentic fenders to correct body modifications from the 1980s.   Gill estimated the Corvette’s chassis still retains about 80 percent of its original paint and finishes. Crosby said the Georgia owner placed the vehicle in climate-controlled storage in September 1981, and only the fenders, water pump and mufflers need replaced.   The odometer shows only 38,148 miles, but the speedometer cable broke during the 1970s. Speaking of the speedometer, it goes up to 160 mph.   Gill likened restoring Armstrong’s car with repairing a damaged Rembrandt painting at The Louvre.   “Collectively, everyone feels the car is a national treasure,” he said.   Crosby is a retired Brevard County Sheriff’s Office west precinct commander. An avid car buff, Armstrong’s coupe is the 21st Corvette he has owned over the years.   He said Armstrong drove the Corvette for a year, then traded it back to Melbourne car dealer Jim Rathmann for a 1968 model. A NASA employee bought Armstrong’s trade-in, continued working at the Cape for seven years, then moved to the Atlanta area.   That’s where Crosby spotted the vehicle. He tried to buy it for years without success — then he received an unexpected February phone call, purchased the Corvette and trucked it to Merritt Island. He declined to identify the former owner or disclose the price.   There is no timetable for the restoration project. Crosby spent two months tracking down four fenders in North Dakota, Texas and Nebraska, which cost a combined $3,000.   “We get excited whenever a car like this resurfaces to take its place in history,” said Wendell Strode, executive director of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.   “This Corvette is history. It is an American icon, owned by an American hero, who was part of a great American achievement: Putting a man on the moon,” Strode said.   Richardson Paid $10K For Spaceport Work in Calif.   Mike Gallagher - Albuquerque Journal   Former Gov. Bill Richardson was paid $10,000 for two months consulting work for Mojave Air and Space Port in Southern California under an arrangement that ended in September, according to published accounts of the spaceport’s oversight board meeting held earlier this week.   The spaceport was seeking passage of an “informed consent” law that would protect private spaceflight operators from most civil lawsuits by passengers, but a Richardson spokeswoman said in a letter to the Journal on Thursday that the former New Mexico governor never worked as a “lobbyist.”   A Journal story published last week reported that Richardson “was going to work” for the spaceport to lobby on its behalf, based on a telephone interview with Mojave spaceport CEO Stuart Witt.   During that interview, Witt declined to discuss terms of Richardson’s contract with the spaceport. Contacted Friday by telephone, Witt declined to discuss the story.   On Wednesday, however, he told the East Kern County Aviation District Board that Richardson’s two-month contract was completed, according to a published report.   A Richardson spokesman objected to the term lobby in an email letter to the Journal, stating that Richardson provided strategic advice to the spaceport on the legislation.   “The Governor did not lobby the Legislature and simply was providing advice …,” Richardson aide Caitlin Wakefield said in her email. “The governor is not a lobbyist and does not lobby in his post-Governor activities.”   On Monday, before the story was published, Wakefield was sent two emails to addresses on Richardson’s website asking for a statement from Richardson about his work for the California spaceport. The Journal did not receive a response.   In her email Thursday, Wakefield said Richardson’s work for the Mojave Air and Space Port ended Sept. 21 when California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill imposing limited restrictions on civil lawsuits against private space flight operators.   That legislation provides protections similar to those now in place at New Mexico’s $209 million Spaceport America, and, like New Mexico, it does not extend to manufacturers in the fledging space flight industry.   New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez and others have argued that the expanded protection, which is opposed by trial lawyers, is needed to keep New Mexico’s spaceport investment viable as competition from other states grows.   “Governor Richardson is committed to commercial space travel in New Mexico as well as around the country and around the globe,” Wakefield said in her email.   Space Shuttle Atlantis – The last 10 miles…   Shuttle Atlantis heads for museum duty   William Harwood - CBS News   By dawn's early light, the shuttle Atlantis was hauled out of the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building for the last time Friday, rolling not to the launch pad but to the spaceport Visitor Complex 10 miles away where it will go on public display next year, the last of the iconic winged orbiters to make the transition to Earth-bound museum duty.   Mounted atop a 76-wheel transporter, Atlantis was slowly rolled out of the VAB starting at 6:30 a.m. EDT, cheered on by a crowd of several hundred spaceport workers, a throng of reporters and photographers and the ship's last crew.   Commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, flight engineer Rex Walheim and Sandra Magnus watched Atlantis' final rollout with a mixture of emotions. They were on board when Atlantis blasted off on NASA's 135th and  final shuttle flight on July 8, 2011.   "It's great to see Atlantis again," said Ferguson, who now works for Boeing. "Strange to see it horizontal in the VAB. My opinion is it looks better vertically! ... But it's got a new role. The visitor's center here is going to be gorgeous, that's a very fitting display."   The long-awaited move marked the last time a space shuttle would be seen in motion, following similar museum runs for the prototype shuttle Enterprise, now on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City; the shuttle Discovery, on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport outside Washington; and the shuttle Endeavour, which was hauled through the streets of Los Angeles last month to the California Science Center.   "I went to see Discovery at the Smithsonian, which was great, but I walked in and that first look was like, 'oh, this doesn't belong here, this belongs in space!'" said Magnus, now the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.   "But it was really neat to stand there and look at all the people, they were all excited to see the space shuttle and there were conversations going on and I passed parents who were pointing out things to their kids. And that was really neat, to see people appreciating them they way they need to be appreciated."   Ferguson agreed, saying he believes space exploration "is an important thing to most of the American public."   "It epitomizes our global commitment to exploration," he said. "I think a lot of folks are a little disappointed that we're not quite out there as we used to be. There are going to be budgetary challenges for a few years. Politically right now it's not one of those things that is up there where I think we'd all like to see them.   "So that'll be a challenge for this administration, whatever the next administration is, to make sure we retain our global commitment to low-Earth orbit and beyond low-Earth orbit."   For its final journey, Atlantis was slowly hauled down State Road 3 to the Kennedy Space Center industrial area, preceded for the final few hundred feet by the Merritt Island High School color guard and the Titusville High School marching band.   Spaceport personnel, former astronauts, shuttle workers and their families turned out in force to take pictures and share memories before a ceremony to officially turn Atlantis over to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.   "You allowed us to proudly operate shuttle for an absolutely incredible three decades," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told the crowd. "That same pride and dedication in today's KSC workforce will send us to new destinations, like an asteroid, Mars, once again launching from right here. With your exceptional support, we'll restore those awe-inspiring moments of human spaceflight for the next generation of explorers."   The transport team then began hauling the shuttle to a research park just outside the Kennedy Space Center to give the public a chance to see the orbiter. The Visitor Complex charged up to $90 a ticket for an up-close look at Atlantis -- nearly twice the normal price of admission -- and several thousand were expected to be on hand.   Late Friday, accompanied by an early evening fireworks display, Atlantis was to be rolled into a new $100 million display facility that is still under construction.   "Overall, It's a long day, it's a six-to-six kind of day," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North, the operator of the spaceport Visitor Complex. "The orbiter is on what we call the OTS, or the orbiter transport system. We like to call it the Ferrari of the OTS family, it runs at a breakneck speed of about 2 mph. So we've got to cover that 9.8 miles in that time. It gives us a chance to stop a couple of times and have these events."   To get the shuttle from the VAB to the Visitor Complex, 120 light poles were taken down, along with 23 traffic signals and 56 traffic signs, a relatively straight-forward task compared to the logistical challenges faced by the California Science Center when it moved Endeavour through the streets of Inglewood and Los Angeles.   But that doesn't mean Macy and his team took Atlantis' move lightly.   "It's only a priceless artifact driving 9.8 miles and it weighs 164,000 pounds," he said. "Other than that, no pressure at all! Only the eyes of the country and the world and everybody at NASA who's watching us.   "Of course we feel pressure," he said. "But we've been planning this a long, long time. We've got the smartest people who work on this orbiter, it's not like it's Tim and his buddies out here loading this up. We're using the expertise at NASA and USA (United Space Alliance), they've worked on the orbiter for 35 years."   Once the shuttle is in place, construction crews will begin closing in the display building. Next week, the orbiter will be raised up slightly, its landing gear will be lowered, and the transport vehicle will be backed out. Support beams will be attached and the following week, the landing gear will be stowed for good.   At that point, Atlantis will be wrapped in plastic to protect it from the construction environment while the building is completed. The orbiter eventually will be jacked up 36 feet and tilted to one side with both payload bay doors open and its KU-band antenna deployed. The idea is to present the shuttle as it appeared in space.   "When the guests come to see the orbiter, their first look, their feet will basically be at the same height as the open bay doors," Macy said. "So you'll be able to look into the open bay of the orbiter. You'll be able to go down a ramp and you'll be able to walk below the orbiter and see the tiles up close. Except for the structure that's holding it up, there's no (problem) to see the whole orbiter from top to bottom."   The display is scheduled to open in July 2013.   Final 10-mile trek for space shuttle Atlantis   Marcia Dunn - Associated Press   Accompanied by astronauts and shuttle workers, Atlantis made a slow, solemn journey to retirement Friday, the last space shuttle to orbit the world and the last to leave NASA's nest.   Atlantis emerged just before dawn from the massive Vehicle Assembly Building and, riding atop a 76-wheeled platform, began the 10-mile trek to the Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop.   About 200 workers gathered in the early morning chill to see the spaceship out in the open for the final time. They were joined by the four astronauts who closed out the shuttle program aboard Atlantis more than a year ago.   "My opinion is it looks better vertically," said Christopher Ferguson, the commander of Atlantis' final flight.   "It's a short trip. It's taking a day," he added. "It traveled a lot faster in its former life. But that's OK. ... it's got a new role."   Portions of Atlantis' final launch countdown boomed over loudspeakers before the shuttle hit the road. Employees gathered in front of a long white banner that read, "We Made History," and below that the single word "Atlantis." They followed the spaceship for a block or two, then scattered as the shuttle transporter revved up to its maximum 2 mph. The convoy included a dozen trucks and vans, their lights blinking.   The fact that several hundred shuttle workers are about to lose their jobs, now that Atlantis is being turned over to the visitor complex, dampened the mood. Thousands already have been laid off.   "The untold story of the last couple years, the last missions that we flew, is the work force. I mean, the contractors knew that their numbers were going to go down ... and yet they kept doing their jobs," said NASA's Angie Brewer, who was once in charge of getting Atlantis ready for flight.   Some were too upset to even show up. Friday's event marked the true end to the 30-year shuttle program.   Seeing so many members of the shuttle team "helps soften the hard edge of seeing Atlantis go off to a museum," said astronaut Rex Walheim, part of the ship's final crew.   Atlantis made its way down broad industrial avenues, most of them off-limits to the public. So the trek did not replicate the narrow, stop-and-go turns Endeavour encountered last month while navigating downtown Los Angeles.   The mastermind behind Atlantis' slow march through Kennedy was sweating bullets nonetheless.   "It's only a priceless artifact driving 9.8 miles and it weighs 164,000 pounds," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Kennedy's visitor complex operator, the company Delaware North.   "Other than that, no pressure at all," Macy said, laughing. "Only the eyes of the country and the world and everybody at NASA is watching us."   The relocation of Atlantis was plotted out for months, he noted last week, and experienced shuttle workers took part.   The roundabout loop took Atlantis past Kennedy's headquarters building for a midmorning ceremony that drew several thousand past and present employees, and their guests, as well as a few dozen astronauts. A high school color guard and band led the way.   The mood was more upbeat than when the one-way road trip began four hours earlier and resembled a funeral procession. NASA officials went out of their way to emphasize the space agency's future.   "It's an incredibly historic day," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., a former skipper of Atlantis. "But I don't preside over an agency that's in the history business. ... We're in the business of creating the future."   Bolden proudly cited NASA's new target destinations for astronauts — an asteroid and Mars — and he hailed the successful start to commercial supply missions to the International Space Station.   The next stop, meanwhile, on Atlantis' one-way road trip: a still-under-design industrial park for a few hours of public viewing in the afternoon. Tourist tickets ran as high as $90 apiece for a chance to see the spaceship up close.   Crews removed 120 light poles, 23 traffic signals and 56 traffic signs in order for Atlantis to squeeze by. One high-voltage power line also had to come down. Staff trimmed back some scrub pines, but there was none of the widespread tree-axing that occurred in Los Angeles.   Atlantis had to traverse just one noticeable incline, a highway ramp. The rest of the course is sea-level flat.   The grand entrance into Atlantis' new home, in the early evening, also was expected to be smooth. One complete wall of the exhibit hall was kept off, carport-style, so the shuttle could roll right in. Construction will begin on the missing wall early next week.   Once safely inside, Atlantis will be plastic-wrapped for protection until the building is completed. The grand opening is set for July 2013.   Total exhibit cost: $100 million, a price borne by Delaware North.   Discovery, the oldest and most traveled space shuttle, was the first to leave, zooming off to the Smithsonian in Virginia in April atop a modified jumbo jet. Endeavour, the baby of the fleet, headed west in September.   And now, Atlantis.   "Although it's the end of Atlantis flying in space, it's not the end. It's not the end for KSC," stressed Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana, a former astronaut. "And it's not the end for Atlantis because Atlantis now takes on a mission of inspiration to future generations."   Last NASA space shuttle becomes museum piece   Irene Klotz - Reuters   NASA's last space shuttle rolled out of a hangar in Florida on Friday and traveled down the road to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin a new life as a museum piece.   Atlantis is the third and final shuttle to be retired and turned over for public display after the end of the 30-year-old shuttle program last year.   "Don't cry because it's over; smile because we had it," Patty Stratton, a manager with shuttle contractor United Space Alliance, told workers gathered before dawn outside the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.   The 1960s-era Apollo complex, later used to pair shuttles with booster rockets and fuel tanks for flight, now stands empty.   Kennedy Space Center is in the midst of a transition to support a planned heavy-lift rocket and deep space capsule able to fly astronauts to destinations beyond the International Space Station's 250-mile orbit.   NASA intends to turn over station crew ferry flights to private companies.   For now, Russia has the only transportation system to fly astronauts to the station, a service that costs the United States more than $60 million per seat.   Mounted on top of a 76-wheel flatbed trailer, Atlantis began its final journey before dawn on a clear and cool autumn day at the seaside Florida spaceport. It made several stops along the 10-mile (16-km) route before reaching the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex just after 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT).   "It traveled a lot faster in its previous life," quipped former astronaut Chris Ferguson, who commanded the last shuttle flight aboard Atlantis. "I think that maybe a generation or two of pilots after me are going to look at the space shuttle and wonder what it was like to fly that."   Hundreds of current and former employees, including dozens of astronauts, paraded with the shuttle as it slowly made its way beyond the space center's security gates into the publicly accessible Exploration Park, where about 8,000 people had gathered to welcome Atlantis.   Another crowd gathered at the Visitors Complex for a celebration and fireworks show.   "Today marks the end of a phenomenal 30-year program," said Kennedy Space Center director Robert Cabana, during a ceremony to sign over the shuttle to Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, which operates the visitors' center under a contract with NASA.   "Atlantis now takes on a mission of inspiration for future generations," Cabana said.   Between its debut flight in 1985 and the shuttle finale in July 2011, Atlantis racked up more than 306 days in space, including seven missions to the now-defunct Russian space station Mir and 12 flights to the jointly owned international outpost, a $100 billion project of 15 nations.   Atlantis is the last of NASA's three surviving spaceships to be retired. Discovery is located at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, and Endeavour was turned over to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.   Two shuttles, Challenger and Columbia, were lost in accidents that claimed the lives of 14 astronauts. A prototype shuttle, Enterprise, was given to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.   Delaware North is designing a $100 million exhibit scheduled to open in July 2013 to showcase Atlantis and educate the public about the shuttle program.   The ship will be suspended from a pedestal, belly up with its cargo bay doors open, as if it were flying in space.   "It'll be a tremendous exhibit," said NASA spokesman Michael Curie.   From VAB to Visitor's Complex, Atlantis arrives home Journey across KSC brings thousands of spectators   James Dean - Florida Today   Guards ordered crowds lining Fifth Street in Exploration Park to back up as Atlantis approached, but the orbiter’s wings – extending 78 feet from tip to tip – still passed directly overhead.   “The wing just went over my head,” said an amazed Brooke Carroll, 35, who was visiting with her family from outside Tampa. “It was …wow.”   The loss of Challenger in 1986 sparked Carroll’s passion for the shuttle. Seeing the last one move toward its retirement home felt “bittersweet,” she said, echoing the sentiment most often expressed by current and former Kennedy Space Center employees.   “But this is amazing,” she said. “Look at it – there’s a space shuttle right there.”   Seven-year-old Cameron Archuleta of Pueblo, Colo., marveled at Atlantis’ size: “It’s big, and it’s huge and it’s tall,” he said. “And I want to be inside of it.”   Nine-year-old Avner Lyons of Tallahassee has seen a shuttle launch, but noticed lots of details during his up-close view of Atlantis.   From a distance, he said, the engines and wings just looked like black smudges. Up close, he could see pipes that circulated supercold propellant through the engines (replica nozzles are now installed on Atlantis), and the thousands of tiles that formed the heat shield that protected Atlantis during atmospheric re-entry.   “You realize that you’ve got tons of different tiles on that thing, for when it falls out of the sky,” said Lyons. “Most of them just are really charred… It’s really exciting to actually see something up close after you’ve actually seen it launch. I’m just fascinated by it all.”   Lyons wore a white astronaut helmet crocheted by his mother, Barbara Forbes-Lyons, complete with a NASA logo and “USA” printed on the side.   “This was an opportunity not to be missed,” said Forbes-Lyons, 49. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing I know she’ll be on display and we can come down any time, but to see her make that transition from a working piece of the space program to a museum piece, we couldn’t miss it.”   Atlantis parked at a turn in the road cutting through a cleared out field that is the future home of Exploration Park, a state-run office complex just outside the KSC gate and a short distance from the KSC Visitor Complex.   A festive, county fair atmosphere prevailed with loudspeakers blaring rock, blues and patriotic tunes.   Guest waved fans featuring U.S. flags and a cut-out of the Atlantis exhibit building still under construction.   Scattered around the park were mockups or scale models of many of the vehicles expected to launch astronauts from Florida in the future: NASA’s Orion capsule, SpaceX’s Dragon, Sierra Nevada Corp’s Dream Chaser and XCOR’s suborbital Lynx space plane.   Guests waited in lines to climb stairs for views inside the cabins and cockpits astronauts will strap into for flight, and for pictures to be taken in front of Atlantis and “Shuttle X-ing” signs by teams of photographers wearing “I Was There” T-shirts.   Smaller children, some not particularly awed by the sight of the giant shuttle that flew 33 missions, gathered at arts and crafts tables that offered small shuttle models.   A procession of space industry executives, elected officials and astronauts including the first Atlantis commander the shuttle’s final crew took turns taking a stage for speeches.   “It’s always great to be next to a space shuttle,” said Chris Ferguson, Atlantis’ final commander. “I liken it to a campfire you just can’t take your eyes off of. Every one is beautiful. What I find amazing is the scars that they bear from however many space flights that they’ve done.”   The final, four-person crew shared stories about forgetting to display an American flag during a phone call with the president, alarms that awoke them one night after a computer failure, and staying up late to savor the view of Earth, since there was so little free time during the mission.   There were occasional cheers but the crowd was mostly quiet as Atlantis passed on its transporter, taking in the scene and busily lining up children for pictures and videos.   Guido Inguanzo, his wife and 4-year-old son visited from Miami, wearing personally designed “Final Voyage” T-shirts. Inguanzo remembered watching the maiden shuttle launch of Columbia in 1981.   “It was just such an inspirational scene that I wanted my son to have an opportunity to see the last shuttle before it’s retired,” he said. “It’s almost surreal seeing it sit here like that so close to us. Very exciting.”   Space shuttle Atlantis, NASA's last orbiter, completes journey to museum   Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com   NASA's space shuttle Atlantis has again reached its "final stop," and this time, it's for good.   On Friday, the space agency's last shuttle to fly in space became the last to be delivered to a museum as Atlantis arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex to begin its new life as a dramatically-displayed centerpiece of a $100 million exhibit scheduled to open in July 2013.   The 9.8 mile (15.8 kilometers) trip, which began at dawn at Kennedy Space Center's 52-story tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and ended at dusk at the visitor complex's five-story exhibit building, signaled an end to the epilogue of NASA's 30-year space shuttle program, which came to its close last year.   "Now Atlantis will continue its life," said Chris Ferguson, who commanded Atlantis on its 33rd and final mission in July 2011, remarking then that its landing was the orbiter's — and the shuttle program's — "final stop."   "Its life of exploration is complete and it will go on in what I consider to be an incredibly fitting facility," he continued, addressing shuttle program workers on Friday. "Its life of education will pick up at this point forward."   Atlantis completed its last move with NASA officials and thousands of visitor complex guests looking on. A parade of more than 30 former astronauts joined the orbiter for the final leg of the trip before it parked in front of the remaining open wall of the 90,000-square-foot exhibit building that has been under construction since January.   A fireworks display above and behind the shuttle heralded Atlantis' arrival, before the orbiter rolled into its new home.   Raising Atlantis   When Atlantis' still-be-named facility opens its doors to the public next summer, guests will have the opportunity to see the shuttle as only astronauts like Ferguson were able to do so. The orbiter will be exhibited as it looked when in Earth orbit, having just departed the International Space Station (ISS), with its payload bay doors open and its Canadarm robotic arm deployed.   "We think visitors to [the] visitor complex will be awed and inspired by how they will see and experience Atlantis," Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the complex, said.   To achieve the appearance of flying in space, Atlantis will be raised 36 feet into the air and rotated 43.21 degrees to one side. The complex operation, which will employ steel beams and jacks from below the space shuttle rather than cranes from above, is slated to be finished by the middle of November.   Concurrently, work will also get underway to seal Atlantis inside, as crews work to erect the building's fourth wall by mid-December.   To protect Atlantis from dust and debris as its building is completed around it, it will be shrink-wrapped in plastic as part of the process of raising it off the ground. The wrap will be removed next spring, to allow the work needed to open Atlantis' two 60-foot (18 meters) payload bay doors and to install the replica robotic arm.   Atlantis' display will also include numerous related exhibits to educate visitors about the shuttle's achievements.   "Complementing Atlantis will be more than 60 interactive, immersive exhibits about the entire space shuttle program including its key role with the International Space Station and the Hubble Telescope, and how it paved the way for today's new space programs," said Moore.   Even the building's exterior has been designed to immerse visitors in the shuttle's story.   Featuring two sweeping architectural elements, or "wings" representing the shuttle's launch to and return from space, the outer layer of the building, which is being cloaked in iridescent hues of orange and gold, evokes the fiery-glow of re-entry. The taller, internal wing of the building is being covered in a shimmering tile pattern in varying gray tones designed to mimic the tiled underside of the orbiter.   At the entrance to the exhibit, guests will be greeted by a full-size, upright, replica external tank and two solid rocket boosters, expected to be installed in the coming months. On the opposite side of the tank and booster assembly, a silhouette of the orbiter will be attached to show guests its exact size and placement.   The 184-foot-tall shuttle stack will give visitors a sense of the massive size and power used to thrust the shuttle into low-earth orbit, before they get up close to the real thing — Atlantis.   Sneak-a-Peek   Through Nov. 11, visitors to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will have a limited opportunity to "Sneak-a-Peek" and see Atlantis inside its new home before it is sealed inside.   Construction of the building will pause on weekends and weekday afternoons to enable guests to have an up-close look at Atlantis. Tour guides will escort the public through the construction zone, provide details about the orbiter's new exhibit, and allow visitors to take photos and pose in the secured area.   "We are excited to offer this rare opportunity for Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex patrons," said Moore in a statement. "We know they'll cherish seeing Atlantis in this unique setting before construction is completed and the exhibit is unveiled to the world next July."   The "Sneak-a-Peek" tour of Atlantis in its new building will be offered:   Nov. 5 to 9: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT Nov. 10 to 11: 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. EDT   Atlantis a big deal for us all   John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)   There are no more space shuttles at the Kennedy Space Center.   The last of the orbiters rolled away from Launch Complex 39, its home for almost three decades, and off the space center property on Friday. Former and current workers, their families and friends, and regular space fans from Brevard County and beyond all turned out for a close encounter with the spaceship. The mood was a mix of celebration and reflection.   On one hand, it’s another in a long line of lasts for the space shuttle program. The orbiters are now all parked at museums, on a new mission of education and inspiration. The United States’ space exploration program, and consequently our spaceport, is being reinvented with a mix of commercial and government teams vying to fly astronauts to low-Earth orbit destinations such as the International Space Station and bolder targets in deep space. That was the buzz on Friday.   Today, it’s time to look ahead to what Atlantis means for us.   First, we get to keep one of the spaceships that so many of us worked around for so many years. Many of you had experience actually working on the spaceships. Even more of you have a friend, relative or neighbor who got to do so. And, for many years, you enjoyed the spaceship from afar, watching it roar off the launch pad or seeing the craft on a KSC tour. Now, you’ll get closer.   Second, we get to maintain some of the prestige that our community holds as America’s gateway to space. Our community competed against those with deeper pockets and maybe more tourists to offer. What competitors couldn’t offer was history and tradition, and that helped rule the day.   Finally, and more practically, Atlantis will mean many millions of dollars injected into the local economy every year. More tourists will visit the area, spending money not just at the Visitor Complex on State Road 405, but also eating out, staying overnight and enjoying other amenities.   The cruise ships pulling into the port will get a one-of-a-kind shore excursion to offer, which can only boost Port Canaveral’s ongoing efforts to build traffic. And, Atlantis will draw like a magnet. Atlantis and the surrounding experience developed by complex-operator Delaware North Companies is a jewel in an already attractive tourist destination. Now, we add the orbiter to the broader space experience, the port, the beaches and the rest of the natural wonder and wildlife in the area.   Atlantis is a great asset for us.   Meanwhile on Mars…   Mars rover sniffs atmosphere, finds no clear signs of methane   William Harwood - CBS News   NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has not found any definitive evidence of methane in the thin air at the Gale Crater landing site, project scientists said Friday, a finding that could raise fresh questions about whether microbial life might exist on the red planet today.   While methane is commonly produced by living organisms on Earth, low concentrations on Mars could be explained by non-biological processes such as comet impacts, the breakdown of dust particles by ultraviolet light and even the interaction of water and certain types of rock.   Earlier, somewhat controversial observations using Earth-based telescope and satellites in orbit around Mars were interpreted as episodic plumes of methane that are difficult to explain in the absence of biology.   But a sensitive laboratory instrument aboard Curiosity called the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, part of a suite of instruments making up the Surface Analysis at Mars package, found no such evidence during repeated sampling runs.   "For methane determinations, we measure the difference in spectral line depth between a full (sample) cell and empty cell runs, that is, those with Mars air in or out of the sample cell," said Chris Webster, the instrument lead for the Tunable Laser Spectrometer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We pump the sample cell out and we take a bunch of readings. Then we fill it with Mars air and we take more readings. And finally, we pump it out again to recheck our background levels.   "So how much methane did we see, you ask? A search for methane was made on multiple nighttime runs, but so far we have no definitive detection of methane. We see differences between the full cell and empty cell results of a part per billion or so, but the data uncertainty is larger than this and could accommodate values of no methane at all up to towards 5 parts per billion at the 95 percent confidence limit. We do plan on additional runs, of course, to look for variability."   Variability is a key element in the search for methane. Non-biological processes could result in methane concentrations of a few parts per billion or less and such low levels would be expected to remain relatively constant over time scales of several centuries. But the earlier observations indicated large seasonal changes over much shorter periods.   "In the Gale Crater, at the moment, we don't have a definite detection of methane," said Sushil Atreya, a co-investigator with the SAM instrument package. "On the other hand, the source doesn't have to be at Gale Crater. If there is a source of methane elsewhere, it does not take very long for it to get distributed all over the planet. It takes on the order of about three months. That is all we can say at this point."   Pressed on whether Curiosity might happen to be sampling the air during a lull in methane production, Atreya said the team would continue studying the atmosphere over the weeks and months ahead and "we'll monitor that."   "As far as seasons are concerned, methane could have a very long lifetime if the destruction mechanism is conventional and in that case, you would not expect large changes going on in methane over such a short period of time of two years," he said. "But if the observations that exist are correct, that methane comes and goes, it indicates there are very big sinks (methods of removal) on Mars and that's what we'll try to understand as we get more data."   Atreya said the team was not surprised at the initial absence of methane, saying "we went there with no preconceived notions about what we were going to find."   "The (earlier) observations have been published in various papers, they're somewhat controversial," he said. "All we can say is that we're not really surprised. We're there to make measurements, and we'll learn what Mars has to tell us."   Curiosity sniffs Martian air, but finds no methane   Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com   Scientists on Friday reported the Curiosity rover's first whiffs of the Martian atmosphere have turned up no sign of methane, an object of fascination from many scientists due to its ramifications on the search for life on Mars.   Observations from Earth and from Europe's Mars Express orbiter have pointed toward off-and-on methane in the red planet's atmosphere. A tunable laser spectrometer on Curiosity ingested Martian air on four nights since August to weigh in on the methane question.   "The bottom line is that we have no detection of methane so far," said Chris Webster, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "But we intend to keep looking in the months ahead since Mars may continue to hold surprises for us."   The announcement Friday may well suppress the hopes of many scientists. Potential sources of Martian methane could be microbial life or geologic interactions between water and rocks.   More than 90 percent of methane in Earth's atmosphere comes from biological activity.   But scientists said they were not surprised by the results of Curiosity's initial search for methane. The team did not go into the mission with any expectations, according to Sushil Atreya from the University of Michigan, co-investigator for the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars - or SAM - instrument.   After initial methane detections from ground-based data in 2003, follow-up observations showed the methane almost completely vanished by 2006, indicating its concentrations could change with Martian seasons.   Scientists expected methane would stay in the Martian atmosphere for up to 300 years, but the extremely variability of the measurements indicate Mars must have unexpected methane sinks - regions or methods in which the gas is absorbed or destroyed.   While earlier measurements detected methane abundances of up to 50 parts per billion, Curiosity's search found no methane down to at least 5 parts per billion, Webster said.   "At this time, we don't have a positive detection of methane on Mars," Atreya said. "But that could change over time, depending on how methane is produced and how it is destroyed on Mars."   Scientists said they would use the SAM instrument for more atmospheric measurements over the next few months in hopes of catching a whiff of methane as Martian seasons change.   SAM's tunable laser spectrometer has 100 times better spectral resolution than any other instrument which has ever studied the Mars methane mystery, according to Webster.   The spectrometer's first atmospheric measurement detected a higher concentration of methane, but scientists believe the signature was from air from Earth still inside the instrument chamber.   Later measurements cleansed the chamber of Earth air, and the methane signal dropped, Webster said.   "No matter what we find in the end, it will be a significant result," Atreya said. So stay tuned. The story of methane has just begun and its not over."   Officials said the next step for the SAM instrument is to feed the sensor its first soil sample for analysis.   Curiosity Finds Methane on Mars, or Not   Richard Kerr - ScienceNOW   The tension as Curiosity rover scientists began their spiel during a press teleconference was palpable. For months of weekly press conferences, reporters had been asking about Curiosity's analyses of atmospheric methane on Mars. If the rover was finding even a part per billion (ppb) or so of methane, there would be a chance that life—life on Mars, today—was producing it.   But no Martians turned up this time. Christopher Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is the instrument lead for the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS), Curiosity's atmospheric analyzer. He reported that after four analyses, he could say only that, with 95% confidence, there is between 0 ppb and 5 ppb of martian methane.   That range of concentrations rules out only one possible scenario to explain a methane gush that astronomers on Earth detected in 2003, according to atmospheric modeler Malynda Chizek of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. (One more whiff of methane in 2006 was reported and nothing since.) Chizek has run an atmospheric model that calculates how fast processes like solar ultraviolet irradiation will destroy methane on Mars. In one run, she simulated what would happen if a gush of methane like the one observed in 2003 recurred every year -- a realistic scenario if the martian spring thaw releases methane trapped in ice or produced underground by bacteria. Under those conditions, the simulation suggested, Curiosity would detect 20 ppb to 35 ppb -- far above Curiosity's new upper limit of 5 ppb.   All the remaining scenarios are still in play, however. The 2003 gush could have been a once-in-a-century release involving life … or not. Or the 2003 observations were in error, and a few ppb of methane are lingering in the air from volcanic eruptions or the ultraviolet irradiation of organic-rich cosmic dust drifting into the atmosphere. Or, perhaps, methane on Mars is really down at the few-hundred-parts-per-trillion level, and neither life nor methane-belching volcanoes have anything to do with it.   Curiosity should still be able to settle everyone's questions about methane on Mars. Webster is hoping that concentrating the methane in future Curiosity samples will allow the detection of methane at concentrations as low as 100 parts per trillion. It will just take time, he said, weeks or months of time. Patience.   END