Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mercury) News

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 30, 2012 7:18:31 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mercury) News - November 30, 2012 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone ….please read Chet Vaughan's message below regarding a recent stolen laptop computer with many NASA employees personal info that apparently may include some of you folks.

Hope you can join us next Thursday at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon –our final one for this calendar year.!
Note to all Retired NASA personnel – your personal identification may have been stolen.
A NASA computer was stolen from a locked car which had a large number of current and retired NASA employees personally Identifiable Information which could be utilized by someone to steal and utilize your identify.
NASA is sending letters to all personnel whose names and personal information were stored on the stolen computer. If you received (or receive) a NASA letter on this subject, it will have the NASA meatball logo, but it also has a Portland Oregon PO Box return address and you might think the letter is a scam, but it is for real, so please review it carefully.
If you received (or receive) this letter, you are at risk. NASA is willing to help you mitigate the risk if you sign up for the service as outlined in the letter you received.
If you have questions or are uncertain if you are at risk, you can contact Kelly Carter, NASA Headquarters Chief Information Officer @ 202 358-1062 or Carter, Kelly M (HQ-LM020) kelly.carter@nasa.gov.
Thanks
Chet Vaughan, President
JSC Chapter, NASA Alumni League
281 755-2882
PS: NASA requested me to send this email. They are also taking steps to help prevent future occurrences.

Friday, November 30, 2012

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Mars Still Enjoying its 15 Minutes of Fame, and Counting ...
2.            We Need Space to GROW
3.            It's Time for That Other JSC Today Holiday Hiatus -- Submit Early
4.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars
5.            JSC New Technologies Posted in November NASA Tech Briefs
6.            Funding Opportunity for IT-related Innovations
7.            JSC: See the Space Station
8.            Recent JSC Announcements
9.            The JSC Safety Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
10.          Take a Tour of the Human Research Program's Payload Development Facility
11.          TTI RLLS Portal Telecom Support WebEx Training
12.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
" The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention."

-- Oscar Wilde
________________________________________
1.            Mars Still Enjoying its 15 Minutes of Fame, and Counting ...
Mars is still enchanting us, and a recent panel discussion by JSC and Jet Propulsion Laboratory experts has shown that we still hunger for stories and anecdotes about the Mars Science Laboratory's "seven minutes of terror" and other mission "curiosities." If you weren't able to attend the panel discussion and the festivities afterward (where folks could glimpse a Mars meteorite), read more about it on the JSC external home page or JSC Features.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x33317

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2.            We Need Space to GROW
Why is NASA conducting plant research aboard the International Space Station? Because during future long-duration missions, life in space may depend on it.
The ability of plants to provide a source of food and recycle carbon dioxide into breathable oxygen may prove critical for astronauts who will live in space for months at a time. In addition, plants provide a sense of well-being.
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are studying how plants adapt to micro- and low-gravity environments in a series of experiments designed to determine the ability of vegetation to provide a complete, sustainable, dependable and economical means for human life support in space. As researchers continue to gain new knowledge of how plants grow and develop at a molecular level, this insight also may lead to significant advances in agriculture production on Earth.
Read more about how NASA and ESA are earning their green thumbs here.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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3.            It's Time for That Other JSC Today Holiday Hiatus -- Submit Early
As many JSC team members take time off to be with their families during the holidays and the center limits operations, so will JSC Today from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1. During that time, the regular edition of JSC Today will not be delivered to your inbox. If any special announcements are warranted, those will be sent out on an as-needed basis. JSC Today will resume normal distribution Wednesday, Jan. 2.
Plan accordingly so you can get your submission in for Friday, Dec. 21 (submit by noon on Thursday, Dec. 20). Or, submit your announcement in time for Wednesday, Jan. 2 (deadline is noon Friday, Dec. 21).
To submit an announcement, click here.
We thank you for your understanding.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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4.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars
Seeking female, high school juniors: The Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars (WISH) project offers a unique experience for female, high school juniors to jump-start their future by engaging in opportunities related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Participants will complete online activities, design unique projects, work with NASA personnel and present accomplishments. Applications are due no later than 11:59 p.m. CST on Dec. 28. Click here for more information.
Dynae Fullwood x47426 http://wish.aerospacescholars.org

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5.            JSC New Technologies Posted in November NASA Tech Briefs
Six outstanding new technologies and innovations from JSC are recognized in the November 2012 issue of "NASA Tech Briefs" and "Medical Design Briefs."
Tech Briefs and Medical Design Briefs introduce information on new innovations and technologies that stem from advanced research and technology programs conducted by NASA.
The November JSC briefs include: Buckyball Nucleation of HiPco Tubes; Adjusting Permittivity by Blending Varying Ratios of SWNTs; Polyolefin-Based Aerogels; Concept for Hydrogen-Impregnated Nanofiber/Photovoltaic Cargo Stowage System; and Engineered Multifunctional Surfaces for Fluid Handling.
The JSC Medical Design tech brief article is: Developing Physiologic Models for Emergency Medical Procedures Under Microgravity.
To read and learn more about these JSC innovations and the inventors, please click here.
To review all of the current NASA Tech Briefs, click here.
Holly Kurth x32951 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/technologyatjsc/

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6.            Funding Opportunity for IT-related Innovations
IT Labs is the Technology and Innovation Program for the NASA Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Information Technology (IT), and wants to fund your innovative ideas for IT-related solutions for use across all NASA centers. Proposals will be accepted during the IT Labs Fiscal Year 2013 project call slated from Feb. 4 through March 21. This is your chance to help solve challenging IT problems and introduce new technologies across the agency.
If you have an idea, coordinate with James McClellan, JSC CTO-IT, and submit a proposal on the IT Labs website on or after Feb. 4. Project Leads must be civil servants, but project teams can include contractors. IT Labs' review panel will evaluate all submissions and fund a select number of projects. Question-and-answer sessions will be scheduled starting in January, so watch for future communications.
Allison Wolff x39589 https://labs.nasa.gov

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7.            JSC: See the Space Station
Viewers in the JSC area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.
Saturday, Dec. 1, 6:06 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)
Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 34 degrees above E
Maximum elevation: 45 degrees

Monday, Dec. 3, 6:03 a.m. (Duration: 5 minutes)
Path: 21 degrees above WNW to 10 degrees above SSE
Maximum elevation: 47 degrees
The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.
Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...

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8.            Recent JSC Announcements
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcements:
JSCA 12-037: Key Personnel Assignment - Daniel W. Hartman
JSCA 12-038: Key Personnel Assignment - Kenneth O. Todd
JSCA 12-039: Key Personnel Assignment - Willie J. Lyles
JSCA 12-040: Key Personnel Assignment - Ven Feng
Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.
Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

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9.            The JSC Safety Action Team (JSAT) Says ...
"Invest in your future - take stock in safety!"
Congratulations to December 2012 "JSAT Says …" winner Sharon Kemp, Barrios. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for January are due by Friday, Dec. 7. Keep those great submissions coming. You may be the next JSAT Says winner!
Reese Squires x37776 \\jsc-ia-na01b\JIMMS_Share\Share\JSAT\JSAT Says\JSAT Says 12-2012.pptx

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10.          Take a Tour of the Human Research Program's Payload Development Facility
Join us on Dec. 3 for a tour of the Human Research Program's Payload Development Facility in Building 9. We will offer tours at the following times: 2 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 3 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Space is limited. Register today in SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

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11.          TTI RLLS Portal Telecom Support WebEx Training

TechTrans International (TTI) will provide a 30-minute WebEx training on Dec. 4 at 10 a.m. for the RLLS Portal Telecom Support Request module. This training will include the following elements:
o             Locating telecom support request module
o             Quick view of telecom support request
o             Create a new telecom support request
o             Telecom submittal requirements
o             Adding operator support
o             Adding an attachment (agenda, references)
o             Selecting export control
o             Adding additional email addresses distribution notices
o             Submitting telecom request
o             Status of telecom request records
o             View a telecom request record
o             Copy a telecom support request record
o             Contact RLLS support for additional help
Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign-up for these RLLS Telecom Support WebEx Training course. Class will be limited to the first 25 individuals registered.
James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.TTI-Portal.com

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12.          Payload Safety Process and Requirements: Jan. 25
Class is from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This course is intended as an overview of the requirements and will merely introduce the payload safety and hazard analysis process. It is intended for those who may be monitoring, supervising or assisting those who have the responsibility of identifying, controlling and documenting payload hazards. It will provide an understanding of the relationship between safety and the payload integration process, with an orientation to the payload safety review process. It will also describe payload safety requirements (both technical and procedural) and discuss their application throughout the payload safety process: analysis, review, certification and follow-up to ensure implementation. System safety concepts and hazard recognition will be briefly discussed and documentation requirements explained in general terms. Those with primary responsibilities in payload safety should attend Payload Safety Review and Analysis (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0011). Contractors need to update their SATERN profile before registering. SATERN Registration Required. Approval Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Polly Caison x41279

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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

NASA TV:
·         11:30 am Central (12:30 pm EST) - E34's Kevin Ford with Center for Research on STEM Teaching and Learning in Stillwater, OK

Human Spaceflight News
Friday – November 30, 2012

HEADLINES AND LEADS

New Crew of Space Station to Perform Two Spacewalks

RIA Novosti

International Space Station Expedition 34, which is to take off from the Baikonur Space Center in December, will perform two spacewalks under the Russian and US space programs. "The tasks of the Russian spacewalk include installing equipment for a new scientific experiment. We will install an antenna and take samples of materials that will have spent more than a year exposed to cosmic radiation and weightlessness," Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko said.

NASA names Teresa Vanhooser deputy dir of Marshall Space Flight Center

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA promoted from within today when it named veteran manager Teresa Vanhooser deputy director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Vanhooser, who has worked at Marshall in various capacities since 1980, will now work with Director Patrick Scheuermann to manage one of the space agency's largest field centers. Marshall has nearly 6,000 civil servant and contractor employees, an annual budget of $2.5 billion and responsibility for the new heavy-lift rocket NASA is betting its human spaceflight hopes on. "There is no better candidate than Teresa Vanhooser to help me lead the Marshall Center into NASA's next era of exploration and discovery," Scheuermann said in a statement.

Space spider gets a new home

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

The spider who became the star of an Egyptian teenager's outer-space experiment has settled into the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History after returning from a three-month stint aboard the International Space Station. The zebra jumping spider, known as Nefertiti, was sent into orbit aboard a Japanese cargo ship in July as part of the YouTube Space Lab project. Amr Mohamed, an 18-year-old student from Alexandria, Egypt, proposed the trip as part of an experiment to see whether the "spidernaut" could adapt to zero gravity and pounce on its prey the way it would on Earth. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams kept watch on the spider and confirmed that it could adjust its jumping trajectory to catch small insects.

'Spidernaut' spins new home at Smithsonian
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History will welcome Nefertiti, a jumping spider who recently returned from 100 days in space

Dan Vergano - USA Today

Nefertiti, the first jumping spider to successfully return from space, starts her new retirement career today at an insect zoo in the nation's capital. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History chief Kirk Johnson will unveil the new home for the spider in an unveiling Friday at the museum's O. Orkin Insect Zoo. Nefertiti recently returned from 100 days in space as part of a student experiment aboard the International Space Station. The "Spidernaught" was part of a You Tube Space Lab experiment proposed by an 18-year-old student from Egypt, Amr Mohamed, who wanted to see if jumping spiders could adjust their hunting technique (jumping, surprisingly enough) to weightlessness in space. The cunning spider indeed adjusted to microgravity and continued catching her prey, feats broadcast to students globally. "We welcome her to the museum and look forward to watching her story inspire young minds with the thrilling possibilities in science," said Johnson in a statement. "Neffi," as the spider is nicknamed, circled Earth about 1,580 times, and traveled approx 41,580,000 miles, according to NASA. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

Sanford-Burnham to send two experiments to Space Station

Orlando Sentinel

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is heading to space. Research teams at the institute in Lake Nona as well as its counterpart in LaJolla, Calif., both won an international competition to send experiments to the International Space Station, Space Florida announced today. In winning Space Florida's International Space Station Research Competition, Sanford-Burnham has landed two of the eight winning awards, which were selected from a pool of international applicants. The eight winning experiments will go to space in late 2013. The competition was initiated by Space Florida, the state's spaceport and aerospace authority.

Fruit flies in space!
Researchers hope to learn more about heart through station experiment

Tracie White - Scope (Stanford's School of Medicine)

The new frontier in heart research is sending fruit flies into space to study the effects of weightlessness on their teeny tiny hearts. Spaceflight, apparently, is rough on astronauts hearts, and researchers want to know more about the risks to astronauts who are sent on long space missions. Peter Lee, MD, PhD, a Stanford heart researcher, came up with the initial plan for the project. He's been involved with conducting space experiments on muscle atrophy in the past, and it was announced today that he's the lead scientist of one of eight teams that won a research competition to send their proposed experiments to the International Space Station.

Men With Missions: The Year-Long ISS Trailblazers

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

Monday's announcement of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko as prime candidates for the long-awaited year-long expedition to the International Space Station is exciting on many levels. For the United States, it marks a clear leap forward in terms of space endurance, and by the time Kelly returns to Earth in early 2016 he will have accrued a cumulative 540 days—about 18 months—of his life off the planet, more than any other American in history. And although Russia has done year-long (and longer) missions in the past, this expedition will be their first such voyage in almost two decades…and the first ever to be undertaken aboard the ISS. But more importantly in a true sign of how "international" the ISS has become, this joint expedition between two old foes would have been unimaginable a mere quarter of a century ago. The men who will fly the mission both served in their respective militaries—Kelly as a Navy aviator, Kornienko as an Army paratrooper—but are a true embodiment of what The Partnership has become.

Shuttle Atlantis lifted, tilted in museum home

Justin Ray - SpaceflightNow.com

It is a space shuttle orbiter like you've never seen before -- wrapped in a plastic cocoon, perched atop pedestals and tilted at a steep angle -- while construction crews finish building a massive exhibit hall around the spaceship. The site is the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and the star of the new $100 million, privately-financed attraction is Atlantis. The museum, dedicated to telling the story of the 30-year shuttle program, is set for a grand opening to the world next July. News media members got to the tour the construction zone Thursday, where engineers have successfully gotten Atlantis maneuvered into her final display orientation after several weeks of delicate operations.

Atlantis banks into final pose at KSC
Constructors relieved crucial lift went well

Dave Berman - Florida Today

Developers of the Atlantis exhibit under construction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex say they now can take a deep breath. The retired shuttle orbiter this week was tilted into place inside its new home at the visitor complex, culminating an elaborate, weeks-long process that started with a 9.8-mile trip from KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building on Nov. 2. After the road trip on a special Orbiter Transporter System vehicle, Atlantis was lifted 30 feet off the ground and shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of protective white plastic coating, before being tilted at a 43.21-degree angle. Atlantis now is cocooned for the winter while work proceeds around it as part of a $100 million project that will transform the orbiter into the centerpiece display at Brevard County's most popular paid tourist attraction. The new exhibit is scheduled to open in July.

Lt. Gen. Susan Helms
Former astronaut tells about her time in space

Mike Devich - Lompoc Record

One night Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms dreamed she was falling. She woke up in a panic, but the feeling of falling didn't stop. She was aboard the International Space Station and she was weightless. "It was five seconds of a really horrifying feeling," she said to an audience of about 300 at a dinner Tuesday night at the Dick DeWees Community and Senior Center in Lompoc. She was the guest speaker at the event sponsored by the Vandenberg Village Rotary Club. "Then I realized where I was. I was in space, and everything was all right."

NASA demolishing old rocket test stand at Marshall

Associated Press

The nation's space agency is tearing down a rocket test stand in Huntsville that was once used by engineers working to send astronauts to the moon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration says workers will use explosives to demolish the concrete towers of Test Stand 4696 at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville on Friday. The 239-foot-tall tower was built in 1962 to test F-1 engines, which helped power Saturn V rockets to the moon. Documents show it hasn't been used since 1969, the year astronauts first landed on the lunar surface. NASA says people around Redstone Arsenal might be able to hear explosions that will be used to demolish the tower. NASA wants to tear down the stand to save on maintenance and to free up space for newer facilities. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

Lawmakers seek to honor Neil Armstrong with NASA center renaming

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

An effort to rename a NASA flight research center after the late moonwalker Neil Armstrong was relaunched this week in Congress. Congressmen Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced legislation on Thursday (Nov. 29) to redesignate NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. The bill would also rename the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.

MEANWHILE NEAR MERCURY…

NASA spacecraft finds evidence for vast ice deposits on Mercury

William Harwood – CBS News

NASA's Messenger spacecraft has found strong evidence for vast ice deposits in ultra-cold, permanently shadowed craters near the poles of hellish Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, scientists said Thursday. The results of observations carried out over the past year and a half indicate between 100 billion and one trillion metric tons of ice are present on Mercury, delivered by impacting comets and asteroids falling into the inner solar system from its outermost regions.

NASA: Closest planet to sun, Mercury, harbors ice

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole — on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. The findings are from NASA's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released Thursday by the journal Science. The frozen water is located in regions of Mercury's north pole that always are in shadows, essentially impact craters. It's believed the south pole harbors ice as well, though there are no hard data to support it. Messenger orbits much closer to the north pole than the south.

On Closest Planet to the Sun, NASA Finds Lots of Ice

Kenneth Chang - New York Times

Mercury is as cold as ice.

Indeed, Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, possesses a lot of ice — 100 billion to one trillion tons — scientists working with NASA's Messenger spacecraft reported on Thursday. Sean C. Solomon, the principal investigator for Messenger, said there was enough ice there to encase Washington, D.C., in a frozen block two and a half miles deep. That is a counterintuitive discovery for a place that also ranks among the hottest in the solar system. At noon at the equator on Mercury, the temperature can hit 800 degrees Fahrenheit. But near Mercury's poles, deep within craters where the Sun never shines, temperatures dip to as cold as minus 370.
__________

COMPLETE STORIES

New Crew of Space Station to Perform Two Spacewalks

RIA Novosti

International Space Station Expedition 34, which is to take off from the Baikonur Space Center in December, will perform two spacewalks under the Russian and US space programs.

"The tasks of the Russian spacewalk include installing equipment for a new scientific experiment. We will install an antenna and take samples of materials that will have spent more than a year exposed to cosmic radiation and weightlessness," Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko said.

Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and US astronaut Thomas Marshburn will be flown into space on Russia's Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft on December 19. They will join Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, as well as NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.

During their 147-day mission, the new ISS crew members will also take part in docking and unloading six spacecraft: four Russian Progress cargo spacecraft, Europe's ATV-4 space freighter and US SpX-2 spacecraft.

NASA names Teresa Vanhooser deputy dir of Marshall Space Flight Center

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA promoted from within today when it named veteran manager Teresa Vanhooser deputy director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. Vanhooser, who has worked at Marshall in various capacities since 1980, will now work with Director Patrick Scheuermann to manage one of the space agency's largest field centers. Marshall has nearly 6,000 civil servant and contractor employees, an annual budget of $2.5 billion and responsibility for the new heavy-lift rocket NASA is betting its human spaceflight hopes on.

"There is no better candidate than Teresa Vanhooser to help me lead the Marshall Center into NASA's next era of exploration and discovery," Scheuermann said in a statement. "Over the course of her career, she has led, managed and supported projects and programs that span the breadth of Marshall's mission: space systems, propulsion systems, flight hardware, science and engineering.

"Teresa remains a tireless champion of the agency's goals and the nation's interests," Scheuermann said. "I'm extremely proud to call on her to serve Marshall and NASA in this critical post."

Among her career accomplishments, Vanhooser was manager of the Ares Projects, the launch vehicle program that preceded the Space Launch System Marshall is now developing, and has held key leadership posts in the center's engineering and flight projects directorates. She ran the operations of the Chandra X-ray Observatory -- the world's most powerful X-ray telescope -- and managed the Payload Operations and Integration Department that oversees all science research on the International Space Station. Most recently, Vanhooser headed Marshall's Flight Programs & Partnerships Office, a critical position as Marshall tries like all NASA centers to increase its partnerships with industry.

In 2000, Vanhooser was appointed to the Senior Executive Service, the personnel system that manages top positions in the executive branch of the federal government. She received a NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2011 for her leadership during the phaseout of Ares, and she has been given a Silver Snoopy award by the astronaut corps for her contributions to the human spaceflight program.

Vanhooser started at Marshall in 1980 as an engineer in the Spacelab program. She has a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville and a master's degree in administrative science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She is married with two adult children and lives in Madison.

Space spider gets a new home

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

The spider who became the star of an Egyptian teenager's outer-space experiment has settled into the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History after returning from a three-month stint aboard the International Space Station.

The zebra jumping spider, known as Nefertiti, was sent into orbit aboard a Japanese cargo ship in July as part of the YouTube Space Lab project. Amr Mohamed, an 18-year-old student from Alexandria, Egypt, proposed the trip as part of an experiment to see whether the "spidernaut" could adapt to zero gravity and pounce on its prey the way it would on Earth. NASA astronaut Sunita Williams kept watch on the spider and confirmed that it could adjust its jumping trajectory to catch small insects.

"I think the spider's absolutely adapted to space," PhysicsCentral quoted Williams as saying in September.

After its stint in orbit, Nefertiti was brought back to Earth aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule and returned to BioServe Space Technologies, a center at the University of Colorado that facilitates life-science experiments on the space station. The natural history museum's director, Kirk Johnson, personally escorted the spider from Colorado to the museum's Insect Zoo in Washington.

"The Insect Zoo is one of our most popular exhibitions, and we are thrilled that having such a great educational space also gives us the opportunity to host a critter as special as this space-traveling spider," Johnson said in a news release issued Thursday. "And don't think it's lost on me that the common name for this spider is the 'Jumping Johnson'; we're practically family already!"

Nefertiti's life span is estimated to be about six months. It will spend its remaining time on display inside the same habitat it occupied in space, which is now set up adjacent to the Insect Zoo's Live Butterfly Pavilion. Although the Smithsonian says "Neffi" is the first jumping spider to return from orbit and successfully readjust to life on Earth, it's not the first spidernaut. Spiders have been spinning their way into Earth orbit for decades. And don't get me started about the Spiders From Mars...

Sanford-Burnham to send two experiments to Space Station

Orlando Sentinel

Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute is heading to space. Research teams at the institute in Lake Nona as well as its counterpart in LaJolla, Calif., both won an international competition to send experiments to the International Space Station, Space Florida announced today.

In winning Space Florida's International Space Station Research Competition, Sanford-Burnham has landed two of the eight winning awards, which were selected from a pool of international applicants. The eight winning experiments will go to space in late 2013.

The competition was initiated by Space Florida, the state's spaceport and aerospace authority.

Sanford-Burnham Orlando's project, led by Siobhan Malany and Steve Vasile, will use a piece of lab technology installed on the ISS last summer to analyze molecular processes in microgravity.

The equipment is plate reader, used in labs to detect and measure biological or chemical reactions that occur in tiny test tubes. On Earth, scientists use plate readers to identify promising drug compounds that could treatment disease.

The researchers will conduct molecular experiments in the plate reader at the Space Station, while conducting a simultaneous experiment in their Lake Nona lab. They will compare molecular processes to see how they differ.

"Nobody has ever run an experiment using a plate reader in outer space before," said Malany, chemical biology team leader in Sanford-Burnham's chemical genomics lab at Lake Nona. "Medicines may work differently in outer space. Without gravity—or under significantly reduced gravity—molecular processes may differ."

By transferring technologies to the ISS, researchers may one day be able to determine the effectiveness of medicines in microgravity and explore cellular pathways that can be targeted for new disease therapies, she said.

The experiment could open the door for future advanced biology and pharmacology research in microgravity.

Fruit flies in space

The second winning experiment involves a collaboration between Sanford Burnham's West Coast affiliate, Stanford University and fruit flies. Researchers from the two institutions will send fruit flies to the space station to see how the insects' hearts fare in space.

Fruit fly cardiovascular systems are remarkably similar to human hearts, making them ideal for studying cardiovascular changes during space travel, said explained Rolf Bodmer, professor and director of development and aging at Sanford-Burnham.

Spaceflight is known to have a detrimental effect on the heart. "The fruit fly research will increase our understanding of how space flight affects the cardiovascular system," said Bodmer.

Ultimately, the work could lead to countermeasures to prevent or treat heart problems—both in space and on land.

"Understanding the effects of microgravity on heart function will be important for keeping astronauts healthy during extended stays in space. There is evidence that spaceflight results in cardiac dysfunction, including increases in cardiac arrhythmias, and alterations in cardiac cell structure, all of which affect the hearts of astronauts after they return to Earth's gravity," Bodmer said.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to test our hypothesis," he said.

Sanford-Burnham's research will fly as payloads to the ISS aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and research will be conducted on board the U.S. National Lab at the ISS.

Fruit flies in space!
Researchers hope to learn more about heart through station experiment

Tracie White - Scope (Stanford's School of Medicine)

The new frontier in heart research is sending fruit flies into space to study the effects of weightlessness on their teeny tiny hearts. Spaceflight, apparently, is rough on astronauts hearts, and researchers want to know more about the risks to astronauts who are sent on long space missions.

Peter Lee, MD, PhD, a Stanford heart researcher, came up with the initial plan for the project. He's been involved with conducting space experiments on muscle atrophy in the past, and it was announced today that he's the lead scientist of one of eight teams that won a research competition to send their proposed experiments to the International Space Station.

The teams have each won free transportation for their experiments via an upcoming SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station planned for December 2013, according to Space Florida, an aerospace development company that sponsored the contest.

The goal of the fruit-fly experiment is to further understand the effects of space travel on astronaut cardiovascular systems, Lee told me. It's a joint project between Stanford, NASA Ames Research Center and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, California.

"There appears to be a higher rate of irregular heart rhythms, some decrease in the size or mass of the heart and a little bit of decrease in function of heart after long space flights in astronauts," Lee said. "It's not life threatening but very little is known. Fruit fly research is beneficial because they have a lot of the same basic genes and signal transactions at the molecular level as humans."

Men With Missions: The Year-Long ISS Trailblazers

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

Monday's announcement of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko as prime candidates for the long-awaited year-long expedition to the International Space Station is exciting on many levels. For the United States, it marks a clear leap forward in terms of space endurance, and by the time Kelly returns to Earth in early 2016 he will have accrued a cumulative 540 days—about 18 months—of his life off the planet, more than any other American in history. And although Russia has done year-long (and longer) missions in the past, this expedition will be their first such voyage in almost two decades…and the first ever to be undertaken aboard the ISS. But more importantly in a true sign of how "international" the ISS has become, this joint expedition between two old foes would have been unimaginable a mere quarter of a century ago. The men who will fly the mission both served in their respective militaries—Kelly as a Navy aviator, Kornienko as an Army paratrooper—but are a true embodiment of what The Partnership has become.

In fact, Scott Joseph Kelly retired from the US Navy and his rank of Captain in June 2012, after 25 years of service, and presently remains employed by NASA as a civilian. He was born in Orange, N.J., on 21 February 1964, one of two identical twin brothers who would both be selected as astronauts not long after their 32nd birthdays. Describing his relationship with his brother, Mark—who flew four Shuttle missions and commanded last year's final flight of Endeavour—Scott Kelly admitted to a NASA interviewer that "we are competitive people and have been competitive our whole lives, in sports. However, we don't seem to be very competitive amongst ourselves. We certainly encourage each other to do our best, but if one person is better at certain things than others, it's really not a big deal to us." As circumstances transpired, Scott became the first of the siblings to venture into orbit, as pilot of the STS-103 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope in December 1999, and also became the first to secure command positions: leading both a Shuttle flight and an International Space Station expedition.

He graduated from high school in his hometown in 1982 and entered the State University of New York Maritime College, earning a degree in electrical engineering. In May 1987, Kelly received his naval commission and was designated a naval aviator two years later at Naval Air Station Beeville in Texas. "I decided I wanted to become a Navy pilot because I wanted to land high-performance jets on aircraft carriers," he told the NASA interviewer in the weeks before his STS-103 mission, "and the bottom line is that the only place you can do that is the United States Navy." Initial training in the F-14 Tomcat was followed by an assignment to the VF-143 fighter squadron—"the world-famous Pukin' Dogs," according to Kelly—and deployments to the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. Early in 1993, Kelly was selected for the Navy's test pilot school at Patuxent River, Md., and upon graduation in June of the following year he undertook test work on both the F-14 and the F/A-18 Hornet. During this period, he became the first pilot to fly the Tomcat with experimental digital flight controls and performed high-angle-of-attack and departure evaluations of the aircraft.

Kelly earned his master's degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1996, the same year that both he and Mark were accepted by NASA—on their first application—as astronaut candidates. "I think being an astronaut became tangible for me when I was working as a test pilot in Pax River," he told a NASA interviewer whilst training for his second Shuttle mission, STS-118, in August 2007. "The commanders and pilots of the Shuttle are typically military or former military test pilots, so having had that background kinda made it much more likely that I would be considered for the job." Yet by his own admission, it was not until very close to the time when he was accepted that Kelly realised that the job of Astronaut was something that he could really achieve. It was no longer a far-off, abstract goal, but it was far from easy. "Timing and preparation and luck aligned for me to get an interview," he explained, "and then get selected."

After selection, Kelly underwent extensive instruction in Shuttle and ISS systems and in March 1999 was assigned to his first flight, as pilot of STS-103. This mission was originally scheduled for June 2000 and would have involved a record-breaking six EVAs by astronauts Steve Smith, John Grunsfeld, Mike Foale, and Claude Nicollier to extend and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope's capabilities. Unfortunately, in early 1999 the telescope suffered multiple failures of its critical gyroscopes and flight rules dictated that a 'call-up' repair mission should be considered in such an eventuality. Launch was moved forward to October 1999, but eventually slipped until December. Whilst other Shuttle crews typically trained for more than a year, Kelly found himself preparing for his first flight…in only a few months. The mission was spectacularly successful and became the only Shuttle flight to take place over the Christmas period.

Shortly after his return from STS-103, Kelly was named as NASA's Director of Operations in Russia, a position which called for him to exercise oversight of the astronauts in Star City who were preparing for the first expeditions to the International Space Station. In March 2001, he was assigned as Peggy Whitson's backup on Expedition 5 and in September 2002 he commanded NASA's fourth Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO-4) undersea training mission in the Aquarius facility. (He also served aboard NEEMO-8 in April 2005.) Then, just six weeks before the Columbia tragedy, Kelly became the first pilot from the 1996 astronaut class to draw a command position. He would lead Columbia's STS-118 crew into space in November 2003 to attach a new starboard truss segment. Although the mission was indefinitely suspended in the wake of the disaster, Kelly and most of his crew remained intact and went on to fly STS-118 (albeit on Endeavour) in August 2007.

As a crew commander, Kelly placed specific emphasis upon ensuring that both himself and the members of his team were adequately trained to handle virtually any contingency. "I think the greatest challenge in working on one of these flights," he told the NASA interviewer, "is making sure that we get trained to an appropriate level to do the mission. There's so many different complicated tasks we have to do, so making sure that everyone is at the right level of training is certainly the most challenging aspect of it." Another facet of Kelly's leadership style came in a subsequent interview, prior to Expedition 25/26: "My primary thing that I look forward to," he said, "is having a very safe and successful mission and the feeling of satisfaction you get from working at something that's very, very hard and being successful at it."

Three years after STS-118, in October 2010, Kelly and cosmonauts Aleksandr Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, bound for the space station. They spent several weeks with the outgoing Expedition 25 crew of Doug Wheelock, Fyodor Yurchikhin, and Shannon Walker, and upon their departure in November Kelly took formal command of the multi-national outpost and Expedition 26 got underway. The following months were filled with success and trauma: in January 2011, his sister-in-law, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in Tucson during an attempted assassination, but Kelly's crew—now bolstered by three new additions, Dmitri Kondratiev, Catherine 'Cady' Coleman, and Paolo Nespoli—pressed on with their mission. They oversaw the final voyage of Space Shuttle Discovery, the arrival of the final permanent module on the US Segment, and a delivery from Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle. Kelly, Kaleri, and Skripochka returned to Earth in mid-March 2011, after 159 days aloft. Taking into account his time on STS-103 and STS-118, Kelly had accrued a total of 180 days in space.

Kelly's identical twin, Mark, had maintained his own stellar astronaut career and, for a time, there was some hope that as commander of STS-134 the two brothers might meet up in orbit for a unique handshake. Alas, due to Shuttle launch delays, this was not to be and Mark Kelly's final space voyage took place in May 2011, eight weeks after Scott's return. Mark retired from NASA later that year, but when asked about his next level of challenge Scott told a NASA interviewer that he intended to stick around and fly again. That intention, which he said was based upon the presumption of whether "the opportunity presents itself", seems now to have been accomplished. "I look forward to getting to spend more than just a few weeks and getting comfortable enough to feel I'm actually a resident of the cosmos," he explained, "rather than just a visitor."

In several ways, Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko shares a number of parallels with Scott Kelly, which seems surprising when one considers that their respective armed forces were on the brink of outright conflict a handful of decades ago. Raised in the city of Syzran in Kuibishev Oblast of western Russia, on the banks of the mighty River Volga, Kornienko's military bearing undoubtedly came from his helicopter rescue pilot father, who died in an aircraft crash in 1965. The young Kornienko, born on 15 April 1960, was only five years old at the time. "His helicopter crew were over a small city," he told the NASA interviewer, "and they were on fire. They could not land and the helicopter exploded. I tried to go there every day to lay flowers on the site. There were six people in that crew that perished."

Much of Kornienko's childhood was spent with his grandmother and, later, with his mother and brother in Chelyubinsk, a city on the very border of Europe and Asia, to the east of the Ural Mountains. Whilst studying there, he had the opportunity to take a parachute jump. "I was about 16 at the time," Kornienko reflected, "and it made quite an impression on me to do a parachute jump." After his early schooling, he worked at a radio equipment plant and in May 1978 joined the Soviet Army. He became a paratrooper, served in Azerbaijan, and completed his military service as a Junior Sergeant in May 1980, but remained a member of the Moscow Militia until 1986.

It was at this stage in Kornienko's life that his paths changed. He attended evening classes at the Moscow Aviation Institute and graduated in 1987 as a mechanical engineer, specialising in liquid-propelled rocket engine design. A career in the space programme beckoned and during the tumultuous years surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union he worked at Baikonur as a launch equipment specialist and later for several commercial companies. During this period, he worked under Vladimir Barmin, a contemporary of the legendary Sergei Korolev. Late in 1995 Kornienko joined the Energia Corporation as an engineer, participating in EVA trials, and in February 1998 was selected as a cosmonaut candidate. In the following years, he served on the backup crews for Expedition 8 and Expedition 15, but unenviably waited more than a decade for his first space mission.

In April 2010 he launched from Baikonur aboard a Soyuz spacecraft, shoulder to shoulder with fellow cosmonaut Aleksandr Skvortsov and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, for Expedition 23-24, which ran for almost six months. Halfway through the mission, he and crewmate Fyodor Yurchikhin performed a six-and-a-half-hour EVA to ready the newly-arrived Rassvet Mini-Research Module for its future role supporting the docking of Soyuz and Progress vehicles. Kornienko and his crewmates landed safely in Kazakhstan in late September 2010 after a 176-day mission. Kornienko was awe-struck by his experience of living away from Earth. However, he missed the sights and scents of home. "I missed trees," he told an audience upon his return home. "I even dreamt of them; I even hallucinated. I thought I smelled a real fire and something being barbecued on it! I ended up putting pictures of trees on the walls to cheer up. You do miss the Earth there."

Both Kelly and Kornienko are not alone in highlighting the importance of their work as a means of advancing humanity beyond its present horizon of low-Earth orbit. During Expeditions 23-24, Kornienko participated in many experiments in life sciences, with the primary goal of understanding the effects of the microgravity environment upon the human organism over long periods of time. Yet the International Space Station offers something more than that. "It's a priceless experiment in international co-operation," said Kornienko. "We are learning to work together and in my opinion the next step is interplanetary exploration of space, the Moon, or Mars."

In his NASA interview, before launching on Expeditions 23-24, Kornienko paraphrased his countryman Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. More than a century ago, the work of this humble Russian schoolmaster achieved something which has today bestowed upon him recognition as the father of modern cosmonautics. The Earth, said Tsiolkovsky, is the cradle of humanity…but humanity cannot remain in the cradle forever. We humans are already taking those first tentative steps to remove ourselves from the cradle and Kelly and Kornienko will do so for an entire year of their mortal lives.

Many criticise the slowpoke pace at which various governments pursue space exploration with humans, but five decades is a tiny period of time when one considers the enormous expense, risk, and physical, psychological, and technical demands involved. Australia was sighted by the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon in 1606, but no real attempt at permanent European settlement was made until the latter half of the 18th century, more than 150 years later. By contrast, in a mere third of that span, we have gone from launching the first of our kind into the heavens, to walking in space, to bringing ships together in space, to walking on the Moon…and, with the trailblazing steps of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko and those who follow them, hopefully to walking on Mars, too, in our lifetimes.

Shuttle Atlantis lifted, tilted in museum home

Justin Ray - SpaceflightNow.com

It is a space shuttle orbiter like you've never seen before -- wrapped in a plastic cocoon, perched atop pedestals and tilted at a steep angle -- while construction crews finish building a massive exhibit hall around the spaceship.

The site is the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and the star of the new $100 million, privately-financed attraction is Atlantis. The museum, dedicated to telling the story of the 30-year shuttle program, is set for a grand opening to the world next July.

News media members got to the tour the construction zone Thursday, where engineers have successfully gotten Atlantis maneuvered into her final display orientation after several weeks of delicate operations.

"She is very comfortable and we're very confident she's in a great position," said Tim Macy, the Visitor Complex's director of project development.

"It's a good feeling to know that it's where it's supposed to be, that it's in place and we can take a little bit of a deep breath."

Now secure atop beefy support columns and rolled at a 43.21-degree angle, the 152,700-pound spacecraft will sit patiently for the next several months while the interior of the facility is decked out with 62 exhibits, many of them hands-on experiences, plus a full-size replica of the Hubble Space Telescope that spans the first and second floors, an International Space Station presentation, a memorial area for remembrance, a small theater and even the gaseous oxygen vent hood taken from the old shuttle launch pad 39B.

Atlantis is wrapped with the protective covering to keep dirt and debris off the vehicle while construction continues around her. It will be removed in March and the payload bay doors opened in April, a four-to-five-day process, Macy said, as the 60-foot-long clamshell doors get swung open and then supported with tiny wires dropped from the ceiling above.

The open side of the building where the orbiter rolled in now has its skeletal frame in place and should be fully erected by mid-December, allowing the air conditioning system to be started up. A dehumidifier will extract water from the air for reuse flushing the toilets and rainwater collected from the roof will be recycled for irrigation around the complex.

What's more, that wall will support a 125 by 40 foot LED television to show Earth's horizon and scenes behind the orbiter as the public walks around Atlantis.

The ship arrived aboard a 76-wheel, V12 transporter, trekking 9.8 miles from the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC's Complex 39 to the Visitor Complex on Nov. 2. Following green lines painted on freshly-laid asphalt, motorized hauler shimmied into the building to park Atlantis in her final resting place.

Atlantis flew into space 33 times, traveling 125,935,769 miles and covering 4,848 orbits during 307 days aloft.

Although countless other lifting operations performed on the space shuttles over the decades used cranes to pick up and hoist the craft, the preferred method for raising Atlantis this month has been using jacks to heave the vehicle upwards from below.

A pair of leveling jacks borrowed from the craft's hangar were engaged on either side of the nose and raised the front of Atlantis off the transporter. The landing gear was deployed and the transporter lowered so that the aft wheels could touch the ground, allowing the trailer-like hauler to drop off the orbiter and drive away.

Then came the attachment of lifting beams onto the orbiter, connecting under the nose and in the aft using the same points that mounted Atlantis to the external fuel tanks for the ride to space and the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for piggyback trips.

In fact, the aft connecting hardware was removed from one of the 747s, painted black and affixed to the beam. "We know they work," Macy said.

Working with Beyel Brothers Crane and Rigging, teams practiced the Atlantis lifting operations using a purpose-built mockup earlier this fall in Cocoa, spending time raising and tilting a rig filled with 130,000 pounds of concrete to mimic the weight of the shuttle. They used the same beams and columns in the test that's now become part of Atlantis.

Once the ship was removed from the transporter and those beams bolted in place, the jacking operations commenced to get the orbiter's weight off of the rear landing gear tires. The wheel assemblies were removed from the shuttle for eventual display and residual hydraulic fluid drained from the lines before the gear was retracted and the doors closed for good, Macy explained.

On three subsequent nights, workers wrapped the shuttle with the same thick plastic material you might see around boats being shipped down the highway. They first used leaf blowers to dust off Atlantis before 16,000 square feet of the wrap enveloped the vehicle to keep dirt from coming in contact with the spacecraft over the next few months.

Humidity sensors deployed under the plastic will alert officials if the need arises to cut small slits into the wrapping so fresh air can be pumped in.

With a girder-like frame contraption in place between the forward and aft beams, it was time to start raising Atlantis up. A series of 10-inch, 100-ton jacks were used to get the shuttle high enough to put four larger-scale jacks in each corner to push the orbiter until it was 36 feet off the ground, said Steve Sergis, vice president with Ivey's Construction Inc. that is working the project for KSCVC.

The local firm is no stranger to handling space projects, having performed numerous jobs on the shuttle pads and Vehicle Assembly Building, plus construction of the Atlas 5 rocket's integration facility at Complex 41 and modifications to the west coast site at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

Working alongside on the Atlantis effort is the Beyel Bros. firm, which supplied six 800-ton jacks, support stands, man lifts, forklifts and cranes for the facility. Beyel also worked on the 1990s project to move the Saturn 5 rocket from its outdoor display site in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building to its sprawling indoor home.

Two-and-a-half days were spent tilting Atlantis exactly 43.21 degrees to port, rolling the craft to the intended display scene simulating the shuttle still in orbit, departing the International Space Station.

The left-side jacks were lowered and the right-side jacks were raised as the entire frame contraption rotated. The end result put the starboard wingtip 108 feet off the ground and the port wing just 7.5 feet off the ground.

"We'll build something around the base of it so you won't be able to touch (the port wing), obviously," Macy said.

The nose of Atlantis is 26.5 feet up.

Measurements of the loads and jack pressures were on the mark throughout the operation, Sergis said, in comparison to the practice runs with the mockup.

The support columns -- one in the front and one in the aft -- then got erected and structurally mated to the cross beams to serve as the permanent pedestals for Atlantis. They are welded to cement anchors in the floor, Macy said.

Work left to be accomplished includes cutting off the excess length of the beams, detaching support struts leaning against the pedestals and removing the underside frame structure that's no longer needed.

"It's going to be a lot lighter in terms of how it looks," Macy said.

"There are four or five points in this project when you can take a deep breath and feel good about it. One was when it's at 43 degrees, and as soon as they remove these support (struts) and we clip off the ends of the beams by about next Wednesday, that will be another time to take a deep breath because I think we'll be in good shape."

Atlantis banks into final pose at KSC
Constructors relieved crucial lift went well

Dave Berman - Florida Today

Developers of the Atlantis exhibit under construction at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex say they now can take a deep breath.

The retired shuttle orbiter this week was tilted into place inside its new home at the visitor complex, culminating an elaborate, weeks-long process that started with a 9.8-mile trip from KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building on Nov. 2. After the road trip on a special Orbiter Transporter System vehicle, Atlantis was lifted 30 feet off the ground and shrink-wrapped in 16,000 square feet of protective white plastic coating, before being tilted at a 43.21-degree angle.

Atlantis now is cocooned for the winter while work proceeds around it as part of a $100 million project that will transform the orbiter into the centerpiece display at Brevard County's most popular paid tourist attraction. The new exhibit is scheduled to open in July.

"We're on a very tight schedule," said Tim Macy, director of project development and construction for Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, which operates the visitor complex on behalf of NASA. "It's a big team effort."

Macy led a media briefing Thursday afternoon, updating the status of the project. Here are some things you should know about the exhibit, as construction progresses:

QUESTION: How did you come up with the tilt angle of 43.21 degrees?

ANSWER: Exhibit designers wanted to show Atlantis as if it was in flight, leaving the International Space Station, which would give Atlantis an orientation of roughly 45 degrees, as viewed from the station. But 45 degrees didn't quite work in the building configuration, with 43 degrees working better.

Macy said they decided on 43.21 because "4-3-2-1 sounds really good" — like a shuttle launch countdown — "and we stuck with that."

The tilt — which was done Monday and Tuesday — puts Atlantis' left wing tip just 7.5 feet off the ground and the right wing tip 108 feet off the ground.

Q:How did you manage to figure out how to lift and tilt the 153,996-pound orbiter into place?

A: A full-scale, full-weight model was created, and the lifting process was tested beforehand at the Beyel Bros. facility in Cocoa.

Officials of Ivey's Construction Inc., which is spearheading the Atlantis project, say that test was crucial in discovering things the team needed to know before the actual orbiter was lifted.

For example, the orbiter might be prone to shift a few inches as it was being lifted 30 feet in the air with jacks.

When the team saw measurements taken during the test lift duplicated during the actual lift, they were confident that the procedure was going as planned.

"The test lift proved so beneficial," said Ivey's Vice President Steven Sergis.

Ivey's President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Ivey said the work of lifting Atlantis proceeded 2 inches at a time, and "it was really important we had a backup safety plan," in case there was a problem with any of the huge jacks used during the process.

The process was so exacting that the orbiter was placed within a quarter-inch of the precise spot depicted on the project design plans.

"We really didn't have any 'close calls' because of what was learned in the test lift," Ivey said.

"The process was incredibly safe," Macy said. "We have a priceless artifact on our hands."

Q:How long did the shrink-wrap take to put on, and when will it come off?

A: The wrapping process with the 12-millimeter-thick plastic similar to the material used to transport boats took three days. It's designed to protect Atlantis from paint and dust as construction continues around it.

Atlantis will be unwrapped in March, and the payload bay doors will be opened in April.

Q:What else will the Atlantis building include?

A: Macy said there will 62 exhibits and hundreds of photos and graphics. Behind Atlantis in the exhibit will be a 125-foot-by-40-foot high-definition screen that will show various images related to the shuttle program.

The overall $100 million cost of the project includes $40 million to $50 million for the building itself, and the rest for preparing Atlantis and for the other exhibits.

The 90,000-square-foot building also will have a gift shop, and will be available for rental for private events.

Q:How many people are working on the project?

A: Macy said the construction crew at any one time will range from 150 to 400.

The building is about 45 percent complete.

Q:What will the building be called?

A: The project team is still considering the options, according to Andrea Farmer, public relations manager of the visitor complex.

Farmer said the name needs to reflect not just the presence of Atlantis, but also highlight the entire space shuttle program.

Q:How are officials feeling about the Atlantis project so far?

A: Ivey said, for him, this project "ranks No. 1" in his more than 30 years in the construction business.

Macy said seeing Atlantis tilted in its final configuration "is really a good feeling. We can take a little bit of a deep breath."

Lt. Gen. Susan Helms
Former astronaut tells about her time in space

Mike Devich - Lompoc Record

One night Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan J. Helms dreamed she was falling. She woke up in a panic, but the feeling of falling didn't stop.

She was aboard the International Space Station and she was weightless.

"It was five seconds of a really horrifying feeling," she said to an audience of about 300 at a dinner Tuesday night at the Dick DeWees Community and Senior Center in Lompoc.

She was the guest speaker at the event sponsored by the Vandenberg Village Rotary Club.

"Then I realized where I was. I was in space, and everything was all right."

Helms, who is stationed now at Vandenberg Air Force Base, lived on the International Space Station for almost six months in 2001 when she was an astronaut with NASA. During that time, she performed a spacewalk that lasted 8 hours and 56 minutes — a world record.

Helms, 54, served aboard four of the space shuttles as well — Endeavour, Discovery, Columbia and Atlantis.

Her speech was informal, with a question and answer session afterward.

Most of her talk was about what it was like in space, but first she spoke about her current Air Force command and its importance to the world.

Helms, an Air Force Academy graduate who also holds a master's degree in aeronautics/astronautics from Stanford University, was a test pilot for the Air Force in 1988 when she was selected as an astronaut by NASA. After 12 years with NASA she returned to the Air Force in 2002.

Helms arrived at Vandenberg in January to serve as commander of the 14th Air Force and Joint Functional Component Command for Space. She also was promoted to three-star general then.

A large part of 14th Air Force's mission is the Global Positioning System satellites in orbit around the earth. Most of modern society relies on GPS technology, she said, including navigation, communications, the stock market, and even planning for farming operations.

"People don't realize how ingrained GPS is in our lives. The ATM machines you use every day rely on our satellites for their time stamps," she said. "Gas pumps use our satellites for credit cards."

She added, "We just launched our 65th GPS satellite. We've been launching them since the late '80s and there are 33 that are still operational. Each one has a limited life due to a variety of factors, such as battery usage."

Besides GPS, the Air Force's satellites provide valuable information about such things as where the radiation cloud was going after last year's Japanese nuclear plant disaster.

"The Russians lost track of one of its satellites," she continued. "It was carrying toxic fuel and there was concern about where it would come down. Somebody had to watch that problem. We were doing a minute-by- minute analysis. We talked to the Russians every single day. They actually asked us what was going on with their satellite," she laughed, emphasizing the word "us."

Helms also talked about what it was like to be in space.

"It feels like a really rough train ride going up," she said. "But there is no other feeling like being in space. It's fantastic. The separation from the world is hard, though."

She spoke about the isolation and how missions in space are like being sent to somewhere like the Middle East.

"Two hundred and eleven days in space — it's like a deployment. You go somewhere austere for six months, you're put in harm's way, you're separated from your family. You miss things like holidays, anniversaries, birthdays — there's a sense of being disconnected."

Helms related that she and her two companions aboard the ISS each lost a loved one during their time in space, a particularly hard thing to go through when you're so far away.

Everyday living about the ISS is mainly work, with a little time for recreation, such as watching DVDs on a Friday night.

They used a special clock to time their wake and sleep periods.

"The ISS orbits the earth once every 90 minutes, so there were 16 sunrises and sunsets during our waking time. You can't use the sun to regulate your day," she said.

Being in space for a long time changes how your body works, and studies are still being made about the long-term effects, such as radiation exposure, bone loss and the changes of levels of oxygen in your blood.

"My blood had changed its ability to carry oxygen," she said.

When coming back to earth in a space shuttle, there's a 50-minute deceleration before you land.

"Then they do a pinpoint landing on a tiny little landing strip — talk about making a hole-in-one in golf!"

She added, "Gravity really sucks" to laughter from the crowd. "But I don't say that on television.

"A pencil feels like a pound. In sum, you're going to be living with a body that feels like it weights 1,000 pounds."

She said the effects last quite a while. "At first, you can't walk in a straight line. For two days, I couldn't lean over without wanting to fall. For eight days, I couldn't drive a car. The doctors say it takes six months to get back to normal.

She thanked the Vandenberg Village Rotary Club for their support, and they in turn made an award to her — the Paul Harris Fellowship Award, which is the highest honor the Rotary Club gives.

"I've talked to Rotaries before," said Helms. "You are such innovative people." Rotary is a service club made up of business and professional leaders in their communities.

Besides Rotary club members, attending were students from local high schools.

Lawmakers seek to honor Neil Armstrong with NASA center renaming

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

An effort to rename a NASA flight research center after the late moonwalker Neil Armstrong was relaunched this week in Congress.

Congressmen Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-CA) and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced legislation on Thursday (Nov. 29) to redesignate NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. The bill would also rename the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.

Similar legislation to retitle the southern California facility was introduced in July 2007 by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), who is co-sponsoring the new bill. McKeon and McCarthy supported the previous attempt.

Armstrong, who in July 1969 became the first man to walk on the moon, died earlier this year following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.

"I will never forget watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon," McKeon said in a release issued by his office. "In that remarkable and powerful moment, Neil Armstrong confirmed to the entire world watching that anything is possible and that nothing, not even traveling to outer space and walking on the moon, was too tall of an order for the United States."

"I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of this bill renaming the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in honor of Neil A. Armstrong," McKeon added. "Dedicating this stellar institution to Neil Armstrong is a small token of our public gratitude and will hopefully work to ensure that his legacy is honored for generations to come."

Located at Edwards Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, Dryden Flight Research Center is NASA's primary center for atmospheric flight research and operations. In addition to advancing the design of civilian and military aircraft, Dryden was the primary alternate landing site for the space shuttle and is now managing the launch abort systems testing and integration for the next generation of crewed spacecraft, the Orion multi-purpose module.

Aeronautical engineer vs. astronaut

Dryden was originally known as the Muroc Flight Test Unit under the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), the predecessor to NASA. The facility was also referred to as the High-Speed Flight Research Station and High-Speed Flight Station before becoming a part of the nation's space program with NASA's founding in 1958.

On March 26, 1976, the flight research center was named in honor of Hugh L. Dryden, the former director of NACA, who served as NASA's first deputy administrator up until his death in 1965. One of the country's most prominent aeronautical engineers, Dryden helped shape policy that led to the development of the nation's high-speed research program and its record-setting X-15 rocketplane. He also headed the negotiations for the early agreements with the Soviet Union on the peaceful use of space.

The proposed legislation, if approved by both houses of Congress and signed into law by the President, would still honor Dryden.

"This bill also continues to recognize Hugh Dryden by renaming the center's test range in his honor," McCarthy said.

According to McCarthy, the decision to honor Armstrong was based in part on the astronaut's history working at the flight research center.

"This bill recognizes the achievements of Neil Armstrong in aerospace travel and space exploration, and highlights his important connection to Kern County," McCarthy said. "He was a great American who served as a test pilot and began training for his famous astronaut career here in Eastern Kern. Later, he oversaw aeronautical research programs at the center and spearheaded technological innovation that continues to this day."

From 1955 to 1962, Armstrong served as a test pilot at the center (then the High-Speed Flight Station), amassing 2,400 hours of flying time including aboard the X-15. While still at the center in the early 1960's, Armstrong was part of a team that conceptualized the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle, which helped create the training vehicle that he and other Apollo astronauts used to train on to land on the moon.

Advocates for Armstrong

The re-designation of the flight research center and its test range has the support of members of the area's aerospace industry and local community organizations, including the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, the Mojave Chamber of Commerce, the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce, and the Edwards Air Force Base Civilian-Military Support Group.

"It is most appropriate that astronaut Neil A. Armstrong be honored and memorialized in this way with his noted lifelong accomplishments as the first human to walk on the moon and as a former test pilot who worked at the Dryden Flight Research Center," Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port, said.

Should the bill pass into law, it wouldn't be the first time a NASA center has been renamed for an astronaut.

On March 1, 1999, Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio — which was named after Dryden's predecessor at NACA, George Lewis — was redesignated the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field for the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth.

MEANWHILE NEAR MERCURY…

NASA spacecraft finds evidence for vast ice deposits on Mercury

William Harwood – CBS News

NASA's Messenger spacecraft has found strong evidence for vast ice deposits in ultra-cold, permanently shadowed craters near the poles of hellish Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, scientists said Thursday.

The results of observations carried out over the past year and a half indicate between 100 billion and one trillion metric tons of ice are present on Mercury, delivered by impacting comets and asteroids falling into the inner solar system from its outermost regions.

"We can ask the question, how much ice is there? And for this, we can combine both north and south poles because the situation in the south is very similar to the north," said David Lawrence, a Messenger scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

"Well it turns out, if you add it all up, you have on the order of a hundred billion to one trillion metric tons of ice. The uncertainty on that number is just how deep it goes. We think it's at least 50 centimeters deep, it could be as deep as 20 meters."

Translating those numbers into slightly more understandable terms, Lawrence said enough ice is present on Mercury to bury Washington, DC under a column of frozen water two to two-and-a-half-miles high.

Messenger is the only spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. The $427 million mission was launched in 2004, dropping into the inner solar system for three Mercury flybys over six-and-a-half years, using the planet's gravity to help it slow down enough to brake into orbit in March 2011.

Since then, the spacecraft has been collecting data around the clock to help scientists understand how Mercury, believed to be 60 percent iron, ended up with an oversize core, a thin shell of a crust and the highest density in the solar system.

Other objectives include learning what materials are present in the crust, what powers the planet's magnetic field and how that field interacts with the solar wind and Mercury's tenuous, ultra-thin atmosphere.

A long-standing question centered on whether permanently shadowed craters near Mercury's poles, where temperatures are as low as minus 350 degree Fahrenheit, might harbor ice deposits.

Observations by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico in 1991 revealed radar-bright areas near Mercury's poles that matched up with craters photographed by NASA's passing Mariner 10 spacecraft in the 1970s.

"One of the major objectives of the Messenger mission when we were selected and launched was to test the idea, more than 20 years old, that the polar deposits on Mercury, discovered by Earth-based radar, consist of dominantly of water ice," said Principal Investigator Sean Solomon at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

To find out, Messenger carried out three sets of observations.

A gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer measured the abundance of neutrons blasted away from the surface by high-energy cosmic rays. Over the poles, the neutron "flux" dropped off in a manner consistent with interactions with hydrogen atoms in water ice.

Messenger also measured infrared reflectivity over the poles, which again was consistent with the presence of ice, as were the surface and near-surface temperatures, measured with unprecedented accuracy.

"We subjected that hypothesis to three very stringent tests," Solomon said. "Does it have the neutron spectrometry signal that you would expect for water ice? Yes it does. Does it have the near infrared reflectance that you would expect for water ice? Yes, it does. And finally, does it match the very detailed thermal models that we can now construct? And the answer is yes, it does."

Solomon said no other known material "matches the radar, the neutron reflectance and the thermal characteristics that we have documented with the Messenger spacecraft."

Scientists believe water ice and other materials are constantly delivered to the inner solar system by comets and asteroids that occasionally collide, depositing raw materials that, in Mercury's case, can get trapped in the ultra-cold polar craters.

"Messenger has revealed a very important chapter in the story of how water ice and other volatile materials have been delivered to the inner planets, including Mercury, we think by the impact of comets over time and volatile-rich asteroids," Solomon said.

"It's extraordinary that this chapter is so well preserved on the planet closest to the sun."

Orbiting the sun at a distance of just 36 million miles, Mercury's temperature extremes are unmatched in the solar system, ranging from a broiling 840 degrees to 350 degrees below zero in craters that are never exposed to sunlight.

The Messenger findings were published in Thursday's edition of Science Express.

NASA: Closest planet to sun, Mercury, harbors ice

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

Just in time for Christmas, scientists have confirmed a vast amount of ice at the north pole — on Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

The findings are from NASA's Mercury-orbiting probe, Messenger, and the subject of three scientific papers released Thursday by the journal Science.

The frozen water is located in regions of Mercury's north pole that always are in shadows, essentially impact craters. It's believed the south pole harbors ice as well, though there are no hard data to support it. Messenger orbits much closer to the north pole than the south.

"If you add it all up, you have on the order of 100 billion to 1 trillion metric tons of ice," said David Lawrence of the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. "The uncertainty on that number is just how deep it goes."

The ice is thought to be at least 1½ feet deep — and possibly as much as 65 feet deep.

There's enough polar ice at Mercury, in fact, to bury an area the size of Washington, D.C., by two to 2½ miles deep, said Lawrence, the lead author of one of the papers.

"These are very exciting results," he added at a news conference.

For two decades, radar measurements taken from Earth have suggested the presence of ice at Mercury's poles. Now scientists know for sure, thanks to Messenger, the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

The water almost certainly came from impacting comets, or possibly asteroids. Ice is found at the surface, as well as buried under a dark material.

Messenger was launched in 2004 and went into orbit 1½ years ago around Mercury, where temperatures reach 800 degrees. NASA hopes to continue observations well into next year.

Columbia University's Sean Solomon, principal scientist for Messenger, stressed that no one is suggesting that Mercury might hold evidence of life, given the presence of water. But the latest findings may help explain how water and other building blocks of life arrived elsewhere in the solar system, he said.

Mercury is becoming the subject of new interest "where it wasn't much of one before," Solomon said.

On Closest Planet to the Sun, NASA Finds Lots of Ice

Kenneth Chang - New York Times

Mercury is as cold as ice.

Indeed, Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, possesses a lot of ice — 100 billion to one trillion tons — scientists working with NASA's Messenger spacecraft reported on Thursday.

Sean C. Solomon, the principal investigator for Messenger, said there was enough ice there to encase Washington, D.C., in a frozen block two and a half miles deep.

That is a counterintuitive discovery for a place that also ranks among the hottest in the solar system. At noon at the equator on Mercury, the temperature can hit 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

But near Mercury's poles, deep within craters where the Sun never shines, temperatures dip to as cold as minus 370.

"In these planetary bodies, there are hidden places, as it were, that can have interesting things going on," said David J. Lawrence, a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory working on the Messenger mission.

The findings appear in a set of three papers published Thursday on the Web site of the journal Science. The ice could be an intriguing science target for a future robotic lander or even a resource for astronauts in the far future.

Planetary scientists had strong hints of the ice a couple of decades ago when telescopes bounced radio waves off Mercury and the reflections were surprisingly bright. But some researchers suggested the craters could be lined with silicate compounds or sulfur, which might also be highly reflective.

The Messenger spacecraft, which swung into orbit around Mercury in March 2011 and has completed its primary mission, took a closer look by counting particles known as neutrons that are flying off the planet. High-energy cosmic rays break apart atoms, and the debris includes neutrons.

But when a speeding neutron hits a hydrogen atom, which is almost the same weight, it comes to almost a complete stop, just as the cue ball in billiards transfers its momentum when it hits another ball. Water molecules contain two hydrogen atoms, and thus when Messenger passed over ice-rich areas, the number of neutrons dropped.

The same technique was used to detect frozen water below the surface on Mars and within similar craters on the Moon.

The neutron number would not have dropped if the bright surfaces had been made of sulfur or silicates.

"Water ice is the only candidate we've got that fits all those observations," said Dr. Solomon, who is also director of Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The ice is almost pure water, which indicates that it arrived within the last few tens of millions of years, possibly from a comet that smacked into Mercury. Dr. Solomon said several young craters on the surface of Mercury could be candidates for such an impact.

Not all of the icy regions were bright. In slightly warmer regions, where temperatures exceed minus 280, the ice was covered by a dark layer about half a foot thick. The scientists believe in these places the water ice vaporized, leaving behind other materials that had been trapped, including carbon-based molecules known as organics.

That could be similar to how water and the building blocks of life reached Earth billions of years ago.

The water could also be an intriguing resource for people. Between the scorched equator and the frozen poles, temperatures on Mercury can be temperate, especially a few feet below the surface, where the soil insulates against the temperature swings between day and night — an ideal location to build a colony.

"People joke about it, but it's not so crazy, really," said David A. Paige, a professor of geology at U.C.L.A. who calculated the crater temperatures.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

Friday, November 30, 2012

Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mercury) News - November 30, 2012 and JSC Today

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