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

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: March 20, 2013 6:15:28 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and asteroid) News - March 20, 2013 and JSC Today

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Volunteers Needed for Innovation Day 2013
2.            'The View Inside JSC: Educate to Innovate Women in STEM' Panel Discussion
3.            Tomorrow: 'Reaching for Your Own Special Star' With Alan Bean
4.            Latest International Space Station Research
5.            And the Moon Smiled Down at Us ...
6.            Volunteers for Astronaut Exercise Clothing Study
7.            JSC's Career Exploration Program Accepting Requests for 2013-2014 Interns
8.            Applications Being Accepted for Scholarship
9.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars (WISH) Mentors Needed
10.          Starport's Spring Festival This Saturday
11.          Update: Another Astronaut Joins NASA Night at the Aeros
12.          2013 Trash Bash This Saturday
13.          Check Out the Latest The Greener Side Newsletter
14.          JSC Green Team Meeting Today -- Meet the New Chairperson
15.          POWER of One Award
16.          AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium
17.          Want an Opportunity to Solve Meaningful NASA Problems?
18.          INCOSE Texas Gulf Coast Chapter (TGCC) March 21 Event Reminder
19.          Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v4.0
20.          Space Available - APPEL - Design for Manufacturability and Assembly
21.          Situational Awareness Class: April 30 to May 2 -- Building 20, Room 205/206
________________________________________     NASA FACT
" Scientists identified sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and carbon -- some of the key chemical ingredients for life -- in the powder Curiosity drilled out of a sedimentary rock near an ancient stream bed in Gale Crater on the Red Planet."
________________________________________
1.            Volunteers Needed for Innovation Day 2013
The Innovation 2013 committee is very excited about Innovation Day, but needs your help to make it happen! Volunteers are necessary to assist in a variety of areas and functions (in two-hour shifts) from approximately 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on May 2. Assignments include: directing attendees to event locations; answering attendee questions; greeting and assisting exhibitors with setup and teardown of exhibits; coordinating the C3 Forums; providing back-up support, as needed, and more!
Volunteers who would like to participate should contact Melissa McGuire with the following information:
o             Your name:
o             Your email:
o             Preferred area of support:
o             Preferred time of support:
Details of your participation will be worked with you after receiving your response, and training sessions will be scheduled to provide you with more information.
Thank you in advance for your consideration and assistance to make this a great event.
Suzan Thomas/MaGee Johnson x48772/281-204-1500 https://innovation2013.jsc.nasa.gov/

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2.            'The View Inside JSC: Educate to Innovate Women in STEM' Panel Discussion
Join the dynamic panel discussion with six dedicated JSC employees who play a vital role at JSC in making positive contributions toward promoting women to choose science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and career fields. Regina Blue, Irene Chan, Sabrina Gilmore, Kam Lulla, Heather Paul and Alma Stephanie Tapia will address gender stereotyping and provide concrete tools for women to maintain them at every level of their scientific careers. Raising awareness among stakeholders to support and motivate women to choose STEM education and career fields will directly influence sustainable and inclusive growth of women in STEM.
Hosted by the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity and the Office of Education. To view and print the 2013 Women's History Month poster, click here.
For general information, please contact T.Q. Bui at 281-244-0266 or via email. Accommodations for a specific disability are available upon request by contacting Janelle Holt at 281-483-7504 or via email no later than today, March 20.
Event Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Auditorium

Add to Calendar

JSC Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity x40266 http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oeod/

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3.            Tomorrow: 'Reaching for Your Own Special Star' With Alan Bean
Join the Rice University Space Frontiers Lecture Series on Thursday, March 21, at 7 p.m. for a special evening with former NASA astronaut and artist Alan Bean. "Reaching for Your Own Special Star" begins at 7 p.m., with a reception in the McMurtry Auditorium in Duncan Hall earlier at 6:30 p.m.
The closest visitor parking for the event (paid) is near Entrance 2. Parking for $1 is available in lot west of the stadium (entrance on Greenbriar Street), but plan for a long walk or ride on the shuttle. All parking must be paid by credit card.
For a campus map, click here.
For details about other lectures and to be added to the mailing list, go here.
Pamela S. Jones 713-348-3353

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4.            Latest International Space Station Research
The International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV) is an off-the-shelf telescope on ISS that is pointed toward the Earth.
Recently installed at a window in the Destiny lab, it recently captured its "first light" image. "First light" is a major milestone for an observatory after we've done all the systems checkout and are ready to point at a target and open the aperture. The instrument will now go through several weeks of "characterization" to see how it's performing and if there are any limitations or any enhancements we can make to the data and processing.
There's more info at this website, and a hi-res image.
Liz Warren x35548

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5.            And the Moon Smiled Down at Us ...
A breathtaking picture of the crescent moon above JSC's S-band dish atop Building 44, home to JSC's Electronics Systems Test Laboratory, has a real past and present connection to the moon. Read more about how this dish was used during Apollo and shuttle, as well as the possible applications it has for the future, here on JSC Features or here on the JSC home page.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x33317

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6.            Volunteers for Astronaut Exercise Clothing Study
Test Subject Screening is recruiting Wyle or NASA personnel only to keep fit while supporting space research by participating in the next generation IVA Exercise Clothing Study. The Advanced Clothing System (ACS) group is researching new types of clothing that are lightweight with long wear life. Participants will work out at the Gilruth Center in the prospective exercise clothes for a minimum of 15 45-minute to one hour sessions. Two sets of clothing will be assigned to each person with set rules to follow. All input will help determine the next type of clothing.
Participants must be healthy non-smokers with no history of significant orthopedic or medical problems. Individuals must pass a Category I physical in the clinic and will need to obtain a Gilruth membership. Physical and membership are free. No compensation is provided.
If interested, please call Linda Byrd (x37284) or Rori Yager (x37240).
Linda Byrd, RN x37284

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7.            JSC's Career Exploration Program Accepting Requests for 2013-2014 Interns
JSC and White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) employees (civil servants and contractors) may post project requests in the online Connect system for a year-long intern. Interns in the Career Exploration Program (CEP) are assigned to a JSC or WSTF mentor for one year and work part-time on-site while completing their senior year in high school or while enrolled full-time in a local college or university. CEP is JSC's renowned internship program that seeks to meet NASA's mission by developing the critical pool of talented and diverse individuals who will make up the future leaders of our nations' and NASA's workforce. CEP interns are placed at no cost to the organization. Tentative program dates are Sept. 3, 2013, through July 31, 2014. Students are selected in May. Mentors and administrative officers will be notified of placements in July. The deadline to post a project request is April 30.
Carolyn Snyder x34719 http://www.cep.usra.edu

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8.            Applications Being Accepted for Scholarship
The NASA College Scholarship Program will award multiple scholarships agencywide to qualified dependents of NASA civil servant employees. Scholarship recipients must pursue a course of study leading to an undergraduate degree in science or engineering from an accredited college or university in the United States. Applications are available online. The application deadline is March 31.
Amanda Gaspard x31387

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9.            Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars (WISH) Mentors Needed
Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars (WISH) is looking for JSC employees and student interns to work the on-site experience this summer. Mentors will have the opportunity to work with a team of students to help facilitate the group to complete research on deep space exploration and team projects. Mentor dates are:
o             June 23 to 28
o             July 7 to 12
Please visit the website to complete an application.
Event Date: Monday, June 24, 2013   Event Start Time:8:30 AM   Event End Time:7:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Maria Chambers x41496 https://wish.aerospacescholars.org/mentors

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10.          Starport's Spring Festival This Saturday
This Saturday, Starport will have one big spring event at the Gilruth Center! Bring the kiddos out for our Children's Spring Fling, complete with a bounce house, face-painting, petting zoo, Easter egg hunt and hot dog lunch. Tickets are on sale now in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops and Gilruth Center. Tickets are for children 18 months to 12 years of age who will be participating in the Easter egg hunt and other activities and having lunch. Adults do not need a ticket. Tickets are $10/each.
While you are there, do some shopping at our outdoor flea market for some hidden treasures and great finds! Then, visit our indoor craft fair for homemade crafts and goodies. Plus, enjoy some tasty mudbugs at our crawfish boil! The cost is $7/pound with corn and potatoes. Hot dogs, chips and drinks will also be available.
Event Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/events

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11.          Update: Another Astronaut Joins NASA Night at the Aeros
The Houston Aeros invite NASA employees and guests to Toyota Center to watch the Aeros take on the Grand Rapids Griffins on Friday, March 29.
Families can get autographs from hockey-playing astronauts Lee Archambault, Steve Bowen and Mario Runco. Mascots Chilly and Cosmo will be on hand for pictures, too.
Employees and their guests can purchase discounted Corner tickets for only $20 (normally $32 the day of the game). Discounted parking is also available in the Toyota Tundra parking garage attached to Toyota Center for only $7.
To order tickets, go here or call/email Josh Young, Aeros director of Special Events, at 713-361-7937.
Event Date: Friday, March 29, 2013   Event Start Time:6:05 PM   Event End Time:11:05 PM
Event Location: Toyota Center, Houston TX

Add to Calendar

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Events/

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12.          2013 Trash Bash This Saturday
Don't forget! This Saturday (March 23) is the Trash Bash. From 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the JSC Trash Bash team will be participating in a state-wide effort to clean trash out of our local waterways. If you or your family would like to participate, please contact Jennifer Morrison by Thursday for more information. We look forward to seeing you there.
Event Date: Saturday, March 23, 2013   Event Start Time:8:00 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Meet in Gilruth Parking Lot

Add to Calendar

Jennifer Morrison x40878 http://www.trashbash.org/site_armand_bayou.htm

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13.          Check Out the Latest The Greener Side Newsletter
Do you want to know how the JSC recycling program did over the past year? Are you curious to find out about the latest successes and environmental events that that are coming up? Check out the latest edition of The Greener Side newsletter available on the JSC Environmental Office Web page. View information on select best management practices used to prevent storm water pollution at JSC and more in the latest edition.
JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/index.cfm

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14.          JSC Green Team Meeting Today -- Meet the New Chairperson
Join us in Building 20, Room 360, from 1 to 2 p.m. today for the JSC Green Team meeting and meet our new chairperson. Whether you can help a little or even help a lot, every effort makes a difference when you're sharing sustainable and "green" options with your co-workers and families. Bring your friends, and let's make this the best year ever.
Event Date: Wednesday, March 20, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: B20 Rm 360

Add to Calendar

JSC Green Team x34627 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/greenteam.cfm

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15.          POWER of One Award
The POWER of One Award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standouts with specific examples of exceptional or superior performance. Our award criteria below will help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal.
o             Single Achievement: Explain how the person truly went above and beyond on a single project or initiative
o             Affect and Impact: What was the significant impact? How many were impacted? Who was impacted?
o             Standout: What stands out? What extra effort? Did the effort exceed and accomplish the goal?
o             Category: Which category should nominee be in? Gold - agency impact award level; Silver - center impact award level; and Bronze - organization impact award level.
If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared on Inside JSC. For complete information on the JSC Awards Program, click here.
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 https://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov

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16.          AIAA Houston Section Annual Technical Symposium
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Houston Annual Technical Symposium (ATS) will be held on Friday, May 17, at the Gilruth Center. NASA civil servants (up to 100) may register through SATERN for free registration. This one-day event highlights the excellent work done at JSC each year and features morning and afternoon keynote presentations of industry interest. The registration fee includes the cost of lunch. For more information on ATS 2013, see our conference website, or contact the event coordinator.
Eryn Beisner x40212

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17.          Want an Opportunity to Solve Meaningful NASA Problems?
Help NASA solve real problems by submitting your solutions to NASA@work challenges. Check out our two active challenges right now: Lab Equipment Obsolescencee - Cytometer (deadline: April 19) and Reduce Waste in Space - Creating Feedstock for Additive Manufacturing (3-D Printing) (deadline: April 12). Check them out at http://nasa.innocentive.com and submit your solution today!
Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate!
Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 http://nasa.innocentive.com

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18.          INCOSE Texas Gulf Coast Chapter (TGCC) March 21 Event Reminder
The next International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) TGCC event on March 21 will feature David Fitts of NASA JSC's Human Systems Engineering and Development Division giving an overview of Human Systems Integration (HSI). Other agencies have integrated human concerns into their systems engineering processes, and NASA/JSC plans to evaluate and leverage these efforts into work already in progress. The event will be held at the Jacobs Conference Center (on the corner of Medical Center Boulevard and Feathercraft Lane). Refreshments will be provided. The networking/social starts at 5:30 p.m., and the event will kick off at 6 p.m. The location map may be found here. You can email Larry Spratlin or phone 281-461-5218 for questions and to RSVP.
Larry Spratlin 281-461-5218

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19.          Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v4.0
The JSC Chief Knowledge Officer and the Engineering Directorate are pleased to announce the fourth release of SKC. Changes since last release:
o             Added Process Control, Case Studies, and Element Hazard Reports page
o             Changed image rotator to use a standard aspect ratio
o             Added 26,000 files to the Shuttle Records section and search index
o             Updated the SSPWeb content from the production SSPWeb site
o             Modified the SSPWeb Loads Panel page to provide a better historical reference
o             Fixed the SSPWeb MO page to utilize the original custom site navigation
SSPWeb will be taken completely offline on March 29 and will no longer be available. To date, 1.05 TB of Space Shuttle Program (SSP) knowledge has been captured. If you are aware of data that still needs to be captured, contact Howard Wagner or Brent Fontenot. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation and give us your comments and thoughts.
Brent J. Fontenot x364546 https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx

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20.          Space Available - APPEL - Design for Manufacturability and Assembly
This course was developed with the input of engineers and craftsmen throughout the agency to introduce participants to the skills and insight necessary to design mechanisms, devices and structural components and produce them quickly, cost effectively and of high quality. Participants will learn how to create products that function correctly and robustly and about the importance of early involvement of key stakeholders.
This course is for the NASA technical workforce and program managers involved in the design, manufacture and assembly of space program hardware who wish to become familiar with key technological information on manufacturing processes of strategic interest to NASA.
This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until Tuesday, March 26. Attendance is open to civil servants and contractors.
Dates: Tuesday to Thursday, May 14 to 16
Location: Building 12, Room 152
Zeeaa Quadri x39723 https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHED...

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21.          Situational Awareness Class: April 30 to May 2 -- Building 20, Room 205/206
NASA is involved in operations where there is always a potential for human error and undesirable outcomes. As part of a team, how we communicate, process information and react in various situations determines our level of success. In our efforts, we often run into glitches and the potential for human error. Situational Awareness is a course that addresses these issues. It involves combining our awareness of what's going on in the operations environment, a knowledge of system failure design criteria and an understanding of expected outcomes from system failures to avoid hazardous situations and develop safe responses to unsafe conditions that may realistically be expected to arise. This course instructs students in the basic tenets and practices of situational awareness and how they apply to hazardous operations in NASA to promote the best proactive safety techniques in practice. Two-and-a-half days. SATERN Registration Required. (Contractors: Update Profile.) 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:
·         1 pm Central (2 EDT) – House Appropriations Committee Oversight Hearing
·         4:15 am Central THURSDAY (5:15 EDT) – Live Interviews with Astronaut Suni Williams
·         5 am Central THURSDAY (6 EDT) – Live Interviews with Astronaut Suni Williams (full mix)
·         1 pm Central THURSDAY (2 EDT) – Video File of Exp 35/36 crew activities in Baikonur

Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday, March 20, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

UND grad returning to International Space Station

Jennifer Johnson - Forum News Service (Fargo-Moorhead)

A University of North Dakota graduate who became the 50th woman in space said the resilience she's earned by running marathons will ease tough nights during her six-month space mission. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, an avid runner, said marathons taught her to continue even when she was desperate to stop. "You miss your family so dearly at times and think, 'How in the world am I going to make it tomorrow?' " she said Tuesday. "But you power through it. You find the strength you need to get the job done."

Will NASA's married astronauts be considered for private Mars mission?

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

Back in late February U.S. businessman Dennis Tito announced a plan to send a married couple to within 100 miles of the surface of Mars in the year 2018. Although he did express a preference for a married couple, Tito did not spell out the precise requirements for astronauts. However, presumably the pair would be middle-aged, which reduces the danger of radiation damage during flight. Of NASA's 50 astronauts there are about five married couples — some are more private than others — and presumably these might be candidates for such a mission. But would they be willing to go?

Space rocks threaten, but danger is low
Experts acknowledge real defense against near-Earth objects is time

Ledyard King - Florida Today

Bad news, earthlings: More than 10,000 asteroids big enough to level a large city continually brush past the globe undetected. The good news is that there's an "extremely remote" chance any of them will hit us in the next hundred years, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Bolden and other Obama administration officials appeared before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Tuesday to discuss how well the federal government tracks "near-Earth objects" and how prepared the world would be to avoid colliding with one.

'City-killer' asteroids not mere stuff of fantasy

Mark Matthews – Orlando Sentinel

For those worried about the end of the world, Congress on Tuesday provided a reason to relax — a little. On the positive side: NASA has found 95 percent of the asteroids nearest Earth that are big enough to wipe out civilization — and none poses any immediate threat to humanity. But before you breathe a sigh of relief, there's also this: NASA admitted that the agency has little idea about the location of so-called "city killers," asteroids smaller than the half-mile-wide "world enders" but still big enough to crater New York City if it were hit exactly right.

NASA urges Congress not to reorder its budget to search for killer asteroids

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a congressional hearing Tuesday that a major asteroid striking Earth "is not an issue we should worry about near-term." Instead, Bolden said, America should proceed with the space program it already has under way - one Bolden says will develop many of the techniques and equipment needed to deflect a major asteroid if one is spotted. Bolden, the top Air Force space command general, and the White House science adviser testified before the House Space, Science and Technology Committee in the wake of rare, simultaneous asteroid events Feb. 15. On that single day, a large asteroid came closer to Earth than ever before, and a smaller asteroid exploded over Russia creating a pressure wave that injured more than 1,000 people.

Large asteroid heading to Earth? Pray, says NASA

Irene Klotz - Reuters

NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday. An asteroid estimated to have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than 1,500 people were injured.

NASA officials say asteroid detection program is behind schedule

Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac

The likelihood of a massive meteor slamming into Earth is unlikely to occur anytime soon — but funding by Congress could help scientists detect future threats, National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today. NASA leaders and administration officials told members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee that most of the massive Near-Earth Objects that could possibly be a threat to human life are being tracked and pose no immediate threat. The smaller objects have proved more difficult to detect and appear in Earth's atmosphere more frequently, but are not as harmful.

NASA Program to Detect Asteroids Falls a Decade Behind Schedule

Mark Drajem - Bloomberg News

The U.S. space agency is a decade behind in meeting a congressional mandate to detect meteors capable of destroying a city, and needs a telescope in space to improve tracking, the nation's top science officials said. NASA's leaders said most large asteroids that may trigger a global catastrophe have been found and tracked, and an impact within the next several centuries is unlikely. Smaller objects are harder to track, arrive more often and are less lethal.

Massive Earth-destroying asteroids rare, easy to spot
But if a small one ever heads for Times Square 'pray,' says NASA

Joseph Straw - New York Daily News

New Yorkers received sobering advice Tuesday on what to do if an asteroid was detected hurtling toward Times Square. Pray. That plan came not from a priest, but the head of NASA at a Capitol Hill hearing that could have been a scene in a Hollywood disaster flick.

Asteroid Threat Collides with Earthly Budget Realities in Congress

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

In the wake of last month's meteor strike in Russia and a close asteroid flyby on the same day, members of Congress asked NASA, White House and Air Force officials what they're doing to combat the threat of near-Earth asteroids during a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill. By and large, the experts stressed that the two space rock events were a coincidence and that the chance of a catastrophic asteroid impact to Earth any time soon is remote. On Feb. 15, a surprise meteor exploded in the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains, just hours before the 150-foot-wide (40 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 flew close by Earth in a pass that had been predicted beforehand by scientists.

Congress hears options for asteroid defense: Pay now or pray later

Alan Boyle & Ali Weinberg - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Congress got the word from NASA on Tuesday about its options for dealing with the threats posed by asteroids and comets: Lawmakers can either provide adequate funding for detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, and diverting them if necessary — or they can pray. Threats from space are generally the stuff of science-fiction movies such as "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact," but members of the House Science Committee took a hard look at the realities during Tuesday's hearing, which came in response to the Feb. 15 meteor explosion over Russia as well as a close encounter that same day with a much bigger asteroid known as 2012 DA14.

The Challenger, BBC Two
William Hurt gets under NASA's skin in efficient telling of the 1986 shuttle disaster

Jasper Rees - The Arts Desk (theartsdesk.com)

When the NASA space shuttle Challenger fell out of the Florida sky on the morning of 28 January 1986 after 73 seconds, killing all seven astronauts, the Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was the only independent scientist appointed to the investigating panel. He duly made a nuisance of himself, asking awkward questions, ignoring protocols, disobeying instructions and generally making damn sure the appliance of science would dig up the truth protected by vested interests. Feynman has been portrayed onstage by Alan Alda and on the radio by Alfred Molina, but when you want someone who really knows what it means to piss people off and not give a tinker's cuss, there is just the one go-to actor. The Challenger might have been written for William Hurt. Erect, gimlet-eyed and adamantine, he doesn't do cuddles, or doubt. He does withering impatience and intellectual self-belief. He does mean stares and snorts of derision. The sort of qualities that get you slung off Hollywood's A-list for a decade or two, or gives NASA a bloody nose. "How's your integrity?" was his first question for a fellow physicist now working for the government.

Front-row seat at the space race

Dan Shearer - Green Valley News & Sun (Arizona)

After hearing Jim Slade talk about the history of space travel Monday night, I think I can identify with how the astronauts felt after returning from the first moon mission: It was a heckuva trip, but we barely scratched the surface. Slade could have spoken for hours on anything from the Wright brothers to TV journalism to America's shelving of the space program – and everybody would have been riveted. His curriculum vitae is long and deep.

Let's go more boldly

Philadelphia Inquirer (Editorial)

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

- James T. Kirk

A new Star Trek movie comes out in May. No doubt fans of the cult-status films that descended from the original 1960s TV series will flock to theaters to experience it in 3-D, many still believing Captain Kirk's mission statement was prescient. But in these days of fiscal cliffs and sequestration, the space administration, like other federal agencies, is taking budget hits that have some proponents of space exploration wondering if President Obama meant it three years ago when he said, "I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future."

Shouldn't heroes last forever?
In honoring heroes by naming things after them, why must Congress downgrade and displace previous ones?

Philip Handleman - Los Angeles Times (Opinion)

In late February, the House cast a 394-0 vote to rename NASA's cutting-edge flight research center in Southern California after the late astronaut Neil Armstrong. What could possibly be wrong with that? In their advocacy, the bill's sponsors pointed out that Armstrong spent seven years at the desert center as a test pilot. Before the U.S. had a spaceship, Armstrong flew the next closest thing, the X-15 rocket plane, from there. That led to his joining the astronaut corps in 1962 and becoming the first person to set foot on the moon in 1969. His life will always be linked to the hallowed ground of the Mojave's lake beds where gutsy fliers infused with the "right stuff" still aim skyward to push the proverbial envelope ever farther, faster and higher. As well-intentioned as it is to recognize our most iconic space traveler, the measure that awaits the Senate's approval would strip the name of the prior honoree, Hugh L. Dryden, from the center where it has graced the entrance for 37 years. Dryden died in 1965 after a long and distinguished career advancing aerospace at NASA, its precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, and other government agencies. As he put it, "The airplane and I grew up together."
__________

COMPLETE STORIES

UND grad returning to International Space Station

Jennifer Johnson - Forum News Service (Fargo-Moorhead)

A University of North Dakota graduate who became the 50th woman in space said the resilience she's earned by running marathons will ease tough nights during her six-month space mission.

NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, an avid runner, said marathons taught her to continue even when she was desperate to stop.

"You miss your family so dearly at times and think, 'How in the world am I going to make it tomorrow?' " she said Tuesday. "But you power through it. You find the strength you need to get the job done."

Nyberg will join astronauts Luca Parmitano of Italy and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia for the May 28 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the International Space Station, orbiting 248 miles above the Earth's surface. All three spoke during an online news conference from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The mission, called Expeditions 36 and 37, will be her second foray into space since 2008, when she joined a crew on the space station for almost 14 days.

Training, goals

The trio said training in several areas was essential in preparing for the mission, which focuses their work on science, technology and exploration.

Most of their training revolved around worst-case scenarios, such as ammonia leaks that could send the crew home, Nyberg said. "If something (like that) happens, we need to be able to react very, very quickly, and we obviously don't expect that to happen and hope it doesn't."

One of their main objectives will be using the 28,954-cubic-foot space station as a lab, conducting experiments to understand what happens to different substances when there is little gravity. For example, they will study colloidal fluid, often used as a stabilizer in household products, to determine which products have longer shelf lives in microgravity, she said.

"Gravity plays a big role in what those particles are doing," she said. "If we study them in space, we can understand what's happening on a molecular level."

Anywhere between 130 and 150 experiments run at any given time at the space station, sometimes requiring heavy involvement from astronauts, Parmitano said.

Far from home

All three noted that half a year is a long time to be away from home, and said they'd be bringing along trinkets and photos from family as mementos.

Nyberg, a native of Vining, Minn., in Ottertail County, said she hopes she can capture images of the town from space. "I think it'll be special for me."

She was selected to be an astronaut in 2000, served in several branches of space operations since then and once supported a crew during a six month mission.

A 1994 graduate of UND in Grand Forks, she was honored with the UND Sioux Award in 2009.

Will NASA's married astronauts be considered for private Mars mission?

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

Back in late February U.S. businessman Dennis Tito announced a plan to send a married couple to within 100 miles of the surface of Mars in the year 2018.

Although he did express a preference for a married couple, Tito did not spell out the precise requirements for astronauts. However, presumably the pair would be middle-aged, which reduces the danger of radiation damage during flight.

Of NASA's 50 astronauts there are about five married couples — some are more private than others — and presumably these might be candidates for such a mission.

But would they be willing to go?

One of these couples is Doug Hurley, ace pilot on the final shuttle flight, and Karen Nyberg, who is making her second trip into space later this spring to spend half a year on the International Space Station.

On Tuesday Nyberg and the other two members of Expedition 37 held a crew news conference at Johnson Space Center, so I took the opportunity to put the question to Nyberg: Have she and Doug discussed it, and would they go?

Her response:

"No, we haven't discussed it per se," she said. "We have a son, and if he couldn't go then I don't think we would go. And there's my dog, and my friends. A question like that is hard to answer until the possibility arises, but right now I'd have to say no. But you never know until it gets down to it."

Some of NASA's married couples do not have children, however, such as Andy Thomas and Houston native Shannon Walker.

If Tito's proposed mission to Mars does move forward, for me the astronaut selection process will be one of its most interesting parts.

Space rocks threaten, but danger is low
Experts acknowledge real defense against near-Earth objects is time

Ledyard King - Florida Today

Bad news, earthlings: More than 10,000 asteroids big enough to level a large city continually brush past the globe undetected.

The good news is that there's an "extremely remote" chance any of them will hit us in the next hundred years, according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

Bolden and other Obama administration officials appeared before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on Tuesday to discuss how well the federal government tracks "near-Earth objects" and how prepared the world would be to avoid colliding with one.

Lawmakers convened the hearing a little more than a month after two very rare events took place the same day. On Feb. 15, a small asteroid passed within 17,000 miles of Earth and a meteor exploded over Russia, injuring more than 1,000 people.

The meteor was a surprise, but data suggest scientists are doing a much better job locating these high-speed, wayward missiles thanks largely to improved technology and Congress' insistence in recent years that threats from space receive more attention.

In 1998, NASA found several hundred near-Earth objects. By 2012, the tally had reached nearly 10,000. Ninety-five percent of those were larger than 0.62 miles across — big enough to wipe out everyone on Earth.

Scientists now estimate that 50 to 150 tons of space debris strikes Earth's atmosphere every day. Most of it burns up before reaching the ground. Much of the debris is dust and small particles, but rocks the size of small cars typically crash — and burn — in the atmosphere once a week.

Lawmakers are more worried about midsize asteroids that aren't being detected even if the threat of collision is incredibly tiny. A direct hit by an asteroid that size could flatten a city. The meteor that exploded over Russia was about 56 feet.

An estimated 13,000 to 20,000 midsize asteroids threatened Earth in 2012, and only about 10% were spotted, White House science adviser John Holdren told the committee. That means more than 10,000 passed by without notice.

Holdren said meeting Congress' directive to detect 90% of such asteroids by 2020 is proving "much more challenging" than locating larger objects.

"The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive casualties and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large that it makes sense to take the risk seriously," Holdren told lawmakers.

In one major effort, the B612 Foundation is spending $500 million to build and launch an Earth-orbiting infrared telescope to track asteroids from space. The Russian meteor wasn't detected mostly because it came from the same direction as the sun, so land-based telescopes were of no use, Holdren said.

An even better detection tool would be an infrared telescope on a satellite orbiting Venus, Bolden said.

But with a minimum price tag of $750 million, lawmakers said, it would be difficult to fund such a project when Congress is focused on cutting budgets.

NASA, which tracks 98% of all near-Earth objects that are detected, is also teaming with universities, other federal agencies and international partners to beef up tracking efforts, Bolden told lawmakers.

If an asteroid is spotted heading our way, there are ways to alter its path. But most of those options would require slightly changing the object's trajectory years or even decades in advance, Holdren said. That's why early detection is crucial.

"What would we do if you detected even a small one, like the one that detonated in Russia, headed for New York City in three weeks?" Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., asked Bolden.

"If it's coming in three weeks," Bolden responded, "pray."

'City-killer' asteroids not mere stuff of fantasy

Mark Matthews – Orlando Sentinel

For those worried about the end of the world, Congress on Tuesday provided a reason to relax — a little.

On the positive side: NASA has found 95 percent of the asteroids nearest Earth that are big enough to wipe out civilization — and none poses any immediate threat to humanity.

But before you breathe a sigh of relief, there's also this: NASA admitted that the agency has little idea about the location of so-called "city killers," asteroids smaller than the half-mile-wide "world enders" but still big enough to crater New York City if it were hit exactly right.

Worse, there's considerable question what NASA and the military could do if scientists did spot a killer rock hurtling toward Earth, officials said at a U.S. House science hearing.

"A big segment of the population thinks it's just a matter of calling Bruce Willis in," said U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, a reference to the popular movie "Armageddon."

"What would we do if you detected even a small one … headed toward New York City in three weeks? What would we do? Bend over and what?" said Posey to laughter.

Replied NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, "If it's coming in three weeks, pray."

Right now, he said, building a spacecraft to deflect the asteroid would take years, which is why Bolden and John Holdren, the top science adviser to the president, both used the hearing as a springboard to champion the White House plan to send NASA astronauts on a mission to an asteroid by 2025.

"That mission will benefit from current efforts to detect track and characterize [near-Earth objects] by speeding the identification of potential targets for exploration," said Holdren in prepared remarks. "And in return, such a mission will generate invaluable information for use in future detection and mitigation efforts."

Prompting the hearing — and another scheduled today in the Senate — were two reminders last month about the dangers of rocks from outer space.

The first was the explosion of a 55-foot asteroid over Russia on Feb. 15 that injured more than 1,000 people. The second was the near-miss of another asteroid, about 150 feet in diameter, that passed within 17,000 miles of Earth.

Though encounters with asteroids this size are rare, Earth is pelted every day with the gravel of the universe.

"Objects the size of a basketball arrive about once per day and objects as large as a car arrive about once per week," said Bolden. These objects burn up in the atmosphere and are often seen as "shooting stars."

But bigger strikes can — and do — happen. In 1908, an asteroid about 160 feet in diameter knocked down millions of tree in Siberia, and scientists think a massive asteroid about 6 miles in diameter wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago when it hit near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula.

Holdren said that strikes like the one that hit Siberia are expected to happen only once every 1,000 years. But, he added, "the potential consequences are so large that it makes us take the threat seriously."

Though NASA has found most of the biggest nearby asteroids, officials estimate they've identified 10 percent or fewer of those about 500 feet in diameter — big enough to "devastate the better part of a continent," Holdren said.

Bolden said that, with NASA's current budget, it would take until 2030 or later to catalog space rocks in this range. (NASA spent $7.8 million on near-Earth-object observations in 2011 and $20.4 million in 2012, according to agency documents).

"The U.S. has come a long way in its ability to track and characterize asteroids, meteors, comets and meteorites," said U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chair of the House science committee. "But we still have a long way to go."

NASA urges Congress not to reorder its budget to search for killer asteroids

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a congressional hearing Tuesday that a major asteroid striking Earth "is not an issue we should worry about near-term." Instead, Bolden said, America should proceed with the space program it already has under way - one Bolden says will develop many of the techniques and equipment needed to deflect a major asteroid if one is spotted.

Bolden, the top Air Force space command general, and the White House science adviser testified before the House Space, Science and Technology Committee in the wake of rare, simultaneous asteroid events Feb. 15. On that single day, a large asteroid came closer to Earth than ever before, and a smaller asteroid exploded over Russia creating a pressure wave that injured more than 1,000 people.

Air Force Space Command Gen. William Shelton said his threat scanners detected the Russian meteor as it happened. They did not detect the asteroid as it approached Earth. Asked what that says about his ability to detect incoming missiles, Shelton said that discussion would need "a different forum," presumably a secret one. He and other witnesses did point out that missile- and satellite-defense technology is focused much closer to Earth than deep space, which is NASA's scanning domain.

Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tx) opened the hearing by speculating about the large, threatening asteroids NASA hasn't found yet. But Smith said, "I do not believe NASA is going to defy budget gravity and get an increase when everyone else is cut." Instead, Smith said Congress may tell NASA to "prioritize its programs" to do more in the area.

Bolden grew animated when he urged Congress not to change funding for programs now under way. NASA has identified 95 percent of the asteroids whose orbits around the sun could possibly cause a catastrophic impact, Bolden said, and "none is on a collision course" with Earth.

Bolden said NASA spends $25 million a year spotting asteroids and comets. He said it could have been doing more if its efforts had been funded consistently. They haven't been, Bolden said, and he urged Congress not to change funding for ongoing programs now. Bolden and White House science adviser Dr. John Holdren both said the White House plan to land an astronaut on an asteroid by 2025 -- a precursor to going to Mars -- will develop skills and equipment needed to deflect an asteroid if needed.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) asked Holdren how long it would take to mount a deflection mission if a catastrophic asteroid were spotted on a collision course with Earth. "Today, we would probably need years," Holdren said. Bolden later estimated four-to-five years.
Scientists consider deflection a better option than blowing up an approaching asteroid, Bruce Willis-style, because of the risk that fragments could still hit Earth. Scientists believe there are options for deflection, including lasers to heat one side of the asteroid enough to cause it to eject ice and other material in a jet that could move it to a new course.

Tuesday's hearing was the first of several planned on the asteroid threat in this Congress. A Senate oversight committee will address the same issue in a Wednesday hearing with a different set of witnesses.

Large asteroid heading to Earth? Pray, says NASA

Irene Klotz - Reuters

NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray.

That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a U.S. House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday.

An asteroid estimated to have been about 55 feet in diameter exploded on February 15 over Chelyabinsk, Russia, generating shock waves that shattered windows and damaged buildings. More than 1,500 people were injured.

Later that day, a larger, unrelated asteroid discovered last year passed about 17,200 miles from Earth, closer than the network of television and weather satellites that ring the planet.

The events "serve as evidence that we live in an active solar system with potentially hazardous objects passing through our neighborhood with surprising frequency," said Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat.

"We were fortunate that the events of last month were simply an interesting coincidence rather than a catastrophe," said Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, who called the hearing to learn what is being done and how much money is needed to better protect the planet.

NASA has found and is tracking about 95 percent of the largest objects flying near Earth, those that are .62 miles or larger in diameter.

"An asteroid of that size, a kilometer or bigger, could plausibly end civilization," White House science advisor John Holdren told legislators at the same hearing.

But only about 10 percent of an estimated 10,000 potential "city-killer" asteroids, those with a diameter of about 165 feet have been found, Holdren added.

On average, objects of that size are estimated to hit Earth about once every 1,000 years.

"From the information we have, we don't know of an asteroid that will threaten the population of the United States," Bolden said. "But if it's coming in three weeks, pray."

In addition to stepping up its monitoring efforts and building international partnerships, NASA is looking at developing technologies to divert an object that may be on a collision course with Earth.

"The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive casualties and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large it makes sense to takes the risk seriously," Holdren said.

About 66 million years ago, an object 6 miles in diameter is believed to have smashed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, leading to the demise of the dinosaurs, as well as most plant and animal life on Earth.

The asteroid that exploded over Russia last month was the largest object to hit Earth's atmosphere since the 1908 Tunguska event when an asteroid or comet exploded over Siberia, leveling 80 million trees over more than 830 square miles (2,150 sq km).

NASA officials say asteroid detection program is behind schedule

Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac

The likelihood of a massive meteor slamming into Earth is unlikely to occur anytime soon — but funding by Congress could help scientists detect future threats, National Aeronautics and Space Administration said today.

NASA leaders and administration officials told members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee that most of the massive Near-Earth Objects that could possibly be a threat to human life are being tracked and pose no immediate threat. The smaller objects have proved more difficult to detect and appear in Earth's atmosphere more frequently, but are not as harmful.

"Unfortunately, the number of undetected potential 'city killers' is very large," said John Holdren, assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology. "It's in the 10,000 range or more."

Meteors 140 meters or more in diameter are within the range that could destroy heavily populated urban areas. Congress has directed NASA to improve methods to be able to identify and track 90 percent of meteors in this range by 2020. A task that will likely not be achieved until 2030, using current budget estimates, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden.

The estimate was not "particularly reassuring" to the committee's chairman, Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, who said he'd look into possible budgetary assistance.

Near Earth Objects have garnered a lot of attention following the February incident where a meteor unexpectedly crashed into the northern region of Russia. The Air Force was not aware of the meteor until it was headed toward Russia, said Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command at the Tuesday hearing, and declined to go into specifics. A separate meteor flew past Earth the same day, one scientists had been tracking. The two incidents prompted Smith to establish the hearing.

"For all the attention and publicity the two events of February 15 received, it was still too late for us to have acted to change the course of the incoming objects. We are in the same position today and for the foreseeable future unless we take actions now that improve our means of detection," Smith said in his opening statement.

Bolden said scientists need more telescopes located in outer space. Current ground-based technologies such as telescopes help track asteroids but can be hindered by the the night sky and weather conditions.

"Ground-based systems are great…but if you really want to find and detect asteroids and near earth objects early enough that we can do something, you want that vehicle to be in space, he said.

NASA is partnering the B612 Foundation, a non-profit organization, in a privately funded effort to launch an infrared telescope into space, funded through the Space Act Agreement. The telescope would find 100-meter sized objects or larger that could orbit close to Earth. The telescope would be able to detect objects like the one that hit Russia, which went undetected because it came from the same direction as the sun, Holdren said.

When asked, Holdren estimated strictly detection efforts could cost $100 million a year. Mitigation efforts, however, which include the president's proposal of sending a human mission to an asteroid by 2025, could cost $2 billion between now and 2025. Shelton said costs for the Air Force Space Command could range from $200-300 million a year to improve their efforts in their spacial domain, which ranges from the geosynchronous orbit to the planet's surface.

NASA Program to Detect Asteroids Falls a Decade Behind Schedule

Mark Drajem - Bloomberg News

The U.S. space agency is a decade behind in meeting a congressional mandate to detect meteors capable of destroying a city, and needs a telescope in space to improve tracking, the nation's top science officials said.

NASA's leaders said most large asteroids that may trigger a global catastrophe have been found and tracked, and an impact within the next several centuries is unlikely. Smaller objects are harder to track, arrive more often and are less lethal.

"Unfortunately, the number of undetected potential 'city killers' is very large," John Holdren, assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology, said today at a hearing of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. "It's in the range of 10,000 or more."

A meteor blast over Russia Feb. 15 put fresh focus on efforts to send a spacecraft into an asteroid to show incoming objects can be knocked off a collision course. The Air Force wasn't aware of the meteor until it streaked toward Earth, General William Shelton said. He declined to elaborate.

Defending the planet against asteroids, a focus of former astronauts, astronomers and amateur hobbyists, generated worldwide discussions this year as the largest meteor to explode near Earth in a century blew out windows and injured 1,200 people near the central Russian town of Chelyabinsk.

Congress asked NASA to find and track 90 percent of the asteroids that are 140 meters or greater in size by 2020. Under current funding, the goal won't be met until 2030, Charles Bolden, the NASA administrator, said today.

'Adequate Warning'

"Smaller objects, such as the recent impact in Russia will always be difficult to detect and provide adequate warning," Bolden said. But "if you really want to find and detect near- Earth objects early enough that we can do something, you need to have something in space," and that would cost billions of dollars, he said.

Scientists are powerless if a large asteroid big enough to threaten civilization was found to be on course to collide with Earth in a few weeks, Bolden said. "The answer to you, is, if it's coming in three weeks, pray," he said.

Bolden backed the efforts of the non-profit group B612 that is seeking $400 million to launch a telescope into the orbit of Venus to find space objects that could collide with Earth. Getting a telescope in space is necessary to find meteors such as the one that hit in Russia. It was difficult to find because it came from the direction of the sun, Holdren said.

"We did detect it, at the time," Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, told lawmakers. "It wasn't predicted."

The blast in the remote Chelyabinsk region was the largest recorded since 1908, when a meteroite flattened more than 800 square miles (2,100 square kilometers) of Siberian forest.

A space object, if it's big enough and hits in the right spot, could destroy a city or worse. Scientists blame an asteroid more than 6 miles in diameter for wiping out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Massive Earth-destroying asteroids rare, easy to spot
But if a small one ever heads for Times Square 'pray,' says NASA

Joseph Straw - New York Daily News

New Yorkers received sobering advice Tuesday on what to do if an asteroid was detected hurtling toward Times Square.

Pray.

That plan came not from a priest, but the head of NASA at a Capitol Hill hearing that could have been a scene in a Hollywood disaster flick.

The House Science Committee summoned NASA boss Charles Bolden, the White House Science advisor and the head of the U.S. Space Command to testify whether anything could be done to stop an asteroid from sending mankind the way of the dinosaurs.

"What would we do if you detected even a small one like the one that detonated in Russia headed for New York in three weeks? What would you do?" Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) asked.

The witnesses turned to look at each other.

"Bend over and what?" Posey pressed, drawing chuckles from the hearing room.

"The answer to you is, if it's coming in three weeks, pray," Bolden said.

He said Americans might want the government to be able to zap asteroids —but the government has not provided the money to do so.

"We are where we are today because you all told us to do something — and between the Administration and the Congress ... the funding did not come," he said.

The good news is that the biggest, kilometer-plus objects — like the one suspected of killing off the dinosaurs — typically only hit once every 20,000 years.

And they are so large, they are the easiest to spot well in advance of a possible impact.

NASA has identified and is tracking 9,600 so-called "near earth objects," Bolden said. He said the agency believes it has identified 93% of those larger than a kilometer, and 60% percent of those larger than 300 meters in diameter.

None is known to be careening toward earth, Bolden emphasized.

The hearing, titled "Threats from Space: A Review of U.S. Government Efforts to Track and Mitigate Asteroids and Meteors," was called after a meteor exploded in the sky over central Russia a month ago.

The object was only 17 meters across and approached Earth out of astronomers' view because it was backlit by the sun, witnesses said.

White House science advisor John Holdren recommended funding a monitoring satellite that would scan space while orbiting the sun near Venus. Bolden advocated President Obama's plan to land astronauts on an actual asteroid by 2025.

A manned asteroid mission would create all the capabilities needed to push a doomsday rock from an Earth-bound trajectory, Bolden said.

An unmanned NASA probe landed on the asteroid Eros in 2001.

Obama's 2013 budget request sought roughly $20 million for asteroid protection compared to current funding of $4 million a year.

Holdren said that adequate asteroid protection would cost $100 million a year, up to the $2 billion through 2025 sought for the manned asteroid shot.

Despite Hollywood's preference for nuking asteroids, scientists say the best approaches would be to push the asteroid off course, such as with a rocket booster, or to pull it off course using the gravity of a spacecraft passing it through space.

Asteroid Threat Collides with Earthly Budget Realities in Congress

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

In the wake of last month's meteor strike in Russia and a close asteroid flyby on the same day, members of Congress asked NASA, White House and Air Force officials what they're doing to combat the threat of near-Earth asteroids during a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

By and large, the experts stressed that the two space rock events were a coincidence and that the chance of a catastrophic asteroid impact to Earth any time soon is remote. On Feb. 15, a surprise meteor exploded in the sky over Russia's Ural Mountains, just hours before the 150-foot-wide (40 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 flew close by Earth in a pass that had been predicted beforehand by scientists.

"The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive causalities and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large that it makes sense to take the risk seriously," John Holdren, science advisor to President Barack Obama, told the Science, Space and Technology Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Still, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, said it was "not reassuring" to learn that NASA has so far detected only about 10 percent of the near-Earth objects that are wider than 459 feet (140 meters) across. Holdren estimated that there may be hundreds of thousands of such objects within one-third the distance from Earth to the sun that remain unknown.

In 2005, Congress directed NASA to detect, track and characterize 90 percent of these space rocks —those near-Earth asteroids larger than 459 feet feet (140 m). The space agency's chief, Charles Bolden, said today that NASA was unlikely to meet that deadline given its current budget.

"Our estimate right now is at the present budget levels it will be 2030 before we're able to reach the 90 percent level as prescribed by Congress," Bolden said.

Bolden criticized the lawmakers for slowing NASA down through budget cuts. "You all told us to do something, and between the administration and the Congress, the bottom line is the funding did not come," Bolden said.

Furthermore, he said the goal of finding a way to respond to asteroid threats has been repeatedly put off by lawmakers who cite a lack of money.

Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) asked what NASA would do if a large asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth was discovered today with only three weeks before impact.

"The answer to you is, 'if it's coming in three weeks, pray,'" Bolden said. "The reason I can't do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off."

Budget concerns also hamper the military's ability to monitor near-Earth objects and other space threats, such as orbital debris (defunct satellites and spent rocket stages that litter Earth orbit).

"We are clearly less capable under sequestration," Gen. William Shelton, the current commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, told the committee. He said that any further budget cuts could have dire consequences.

"Our dependence on space, not only for our way of life but also for military operations, is very high, so we would sacrifice that," Shelton said.

Congress hears options for asteroid defense: Pay now or pray later

Alan Boyle & Ali Weinberg - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Congress got the word from NASA on Tuesday about its options for dealing with the threats posed by asteroids and comets: Lawmakers can either provide adequate funding for detecting and characterizing near-Earth objects, and diverting them if necessary — or they can pray.

Threats from space are generally the stuff of science-fiction movies such as "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact," but members of the House Science Committee took a hard look at the realities during Tuesday's hearing, which came in response to the Feb. 15 meteor explosion over Russia as well as a close encounter that same day with a much bigger asteroid known as 2012 DA14.

The lawmakers didn't always like what they heard. The committee's chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, told the panelists more than once that the progress report they delivered was "not reassuring." But representatives from both parties were receptive to the idea of putting more resources into the effort to counter cosmic threats.

White House science adviser John Holdren noted that the funding devoted annually to cataloging potentially threatening asteroids has risen from $5 million to more than $20 million over the past couple of years. But even at that level, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden estimated that it would take until 2030 to catalog 90 percent of the near-Earth objects between 140 meters and 1 kilometer in width, as mandated by Congress.

"Maybe we can help you out with the budget. Don't know," Smith replied. He said "we need to find ways to prioritize NASA's projects."

Holdren said the single most useful project would be to put an infrared-sensing telescope in a Venus-like orbit, like the Sentinel Space Telescope being developed by the nonprofit B612 Foundation. The telescope could look for asteroids that currently can't be spotted from the ground because they spend much of their time within Earth's orbit, where they're lost in the sun's glare. The 55-foot-wide (17-meter-wide) rock that blew up without warning over Chelyabinsk in Russia last month was just such an asteroid.

"It came from a direction where our [existing] telescopes could not look," Holdren said. "We cannot look in the sun."

Holdren estimated the cost of an asteroid-hunting space telescope at $500 million to $750 million, and said it could reduce the congressionally mandated survey time to six to eight years. Following through on the Obama administration's plan to send astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 would cost about $2 billion a year, Holdren said.

The automatic spending cuts known as sequestration will affect NASA's asteroid-hunting effort as well as the plans for human exploration, Bolden warned.

"The president has a plan. But that plan is incremental," Bolden said, referring to the Obama administration's budget proposal. "And if we want to save the planet, because I think that's what we're talking about, then we have to get together ... and decide how we're going to execute that plan."

The idea of enlisting other countries as well as amateur astronomers to "crowdsource" the hunt for threatening asteroids struck a responsive chord with lawmakers. But Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., reminded Bolden that China couldn't be on the list of partners due to a congressional ban.

Congressional teach-in

The hearing served as a teach-in for some of the panel members. At one point, Rep. Randy Weber, R-Texas, asked whether the $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope could be retrofitted to look for asteroids. "No, sir," Bolden replied. At another point, Gen. William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, had to explain to lawmakers that the space-based surveillance system used for monitoring missile launches on Earth could not watch out for rocks coming in from deep space.

Holdren and Bolden provided a status report on the asteroid search, reporting that about 95 percent of the near-Earth objects larger than a kilometer are being tracked. However, only about 10 percent of the 13,000 to 20,000 asteroids bigger than 140 meters have been detected. If an asteroid of that size were to strike land, it "could devastate the better part of a continent," Holdren said.

Looking on the bright side, Holdren added that such asteroids are thought to hit Earth only every 20,000 years or so.

Bolden said less than 1 percent of the space rocks in the 30- to 100-meter range have been found. Such asteroids may not be continent-killers, but they are bigger and more potentially destructive than last month's Chelyabinsk meteor.

Lawmakers repeatedly asked how much advance warning would be required to deflect a threatening asteroid, and were repeatedly told that it would take years. Shelton said that if time was limited, "probably nuclear energy is what we're talking about." But even a nuclear-armed mission to blast an asteroid, Bruce Willis-style, would require lots of lead time. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., asked Bolden about the strategy for dealing with an Earth-threatening asteroid that was discovered with three weeks' warning.

"If it's coming in three weeks ... pray," Bolden said. "The reason I can't do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off."

The Challenger, BBC Two
William Hurt gets under NASA's skin in efficient telling of the 1986 shuttle disaster

Jasper Rees - The Arts Desk (theartsdesk.com)

When the NASA space shuttle Challenger fell out of the Florida sky on the morning of 28 January 1986 after 73 seconds, killing all seven astronauts, the Nobel-winning theoretical physicist Richard Feynman was the only independent scientist appointed to the investigating panel. He duly made a nuisance of himself, asking awkward questions, ignoring protocols, disobeying instructions and generally making damn sure the appliance of science would dig up the truth protected by vested interests. Feynman has been portrayed onstage by Alan Alda and on the radio by Alfred Molina, but when you want someone who really knows what it means to piss people off and not give a tinker's cuss, there is just the one go-to actor.

The Challenger might have been written for William Hurt. Erect, gimlet-eyed and adamantine, he doesn't do cuddles, or doubt. He does withering impatience and intellectual self-belief. He does mean stares and snorts of derision. The sort of qualities that get you slung off Hollywood's A-list for a decade or two, or gives NASA a bloody nose. "How's your integrity?" was his first question for a fellow physicist now working for the government.

The integrity of the script is another thing. The usual caveat came up on screen in a caption before the shuttle had even taken off: to paraphrase, all of this happened - apart from the stuff we've made up. Usually one accepts the push-me/pull-you of dramatic licence, but it gives you pause in a story about provable facts. There were quite a lot of chance meetings in corridors and phone calls and one egregious cab ride that didn't have the ring of truth. And yet thanks to Hurt, at no point was your belief in Feynman's determination to root out the truth shaken.

For anyone who didn't know the story – the finer details were still coming out quite recently – Kate Gartside's script accentuated the idea of one man against an establishment cover-up. The Rogers Commission, headed here by a pugnacious Brian Dennehy (pictured above), was all in the know about NASA's desperation to get the shuttle in the air after several cancelled flights, even at the risk of launching in dangerously cold weather. Hints having been dropped by a friendly general passing on info from another mole, Feynman somewhat clunkily twigged. He went on to demonstrate in front of the bereaved families how a vital component – one of more than two million parts of the shuttle – became unreliable below freezing.

Gartside is a British actress-turned-writer whose previous scripts include episodes of Lark Rise and Mistresses. An interesting departure then. Nor does the British element end there. Hurt's Yorkshire-born wife was played by Joanne Whalley. Henry Goodman popped up as Feynman's doctor bearing bad news about a rare cancer type swimming around the professor's blood cells, the result of attending the birth of the Manhattan Project. Eve Best wandered in and out of shot as first female astronaut Sally Ride, who barely said anything at all. It turned out there was a dramatic reason for that, though it seems odd to make a wallflower of such an actress.

But this was Hurt's gig. "For a successful technology," he sighed, shaking his head at state-sponsored obfuscation, "reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Feynman's concluding maxim could be usefully applied elsewhere.

Front-row seat at the space race

Dan Shearer - Green Valley News & Sun (Arizona)

After hearing Jim Slade talk about the history of space travel Monday night, I think I can identify with how the astronauts felt after returning from the first moon mission: It was a heckuva trip, but we barely scratched the surface.

Slade could have spoken for hours on anything from the Wright brothers to TV journalism to America's shelving of the space program – and everybody would have been riveted. His curriculum vitae is long and deep.

Slade was the chief science editor/reporter for ABC News for years and also worked in radio for the Mutual Broadcasting System and Westinghouse. For five decades he was on the ride of his life as he followed the space program from infancy to heyday to the black hole we're in today.

He drove from his home in West Virginia to talk to a group at Pueblo Estates, a meeting that was two years in the making.

It was worth the wait.

Making history

Slade retraced American steps from Project Mercury — the first manned space program, begun in the late '50s — to the international space station, which is still spinning above us today (though Americans have to take a cab to get there; more on that later).

A key moment for the space program came in 1961, when President Kennedy said he wanted to put a man on the moon before the decade was out. That edict came fresh off Alan Shepard's successful Mercury launch into space, but also as the Soviets were thrashing us in the space race.

Early on, Kennedy wasn't much a fan of spending money on space, but he also didn't like the idea of the Reds getting one over on the United States. So we set to work.

Slade says that in the early days "we knew the engineers who were working on the problems were only a day ahead of us (the reporters)."

Journalists, including Slade, pounded on their keyboards as hundreds of scientists developed and tested theories. Everything was new, and Slade understood they were witnessing something remarkable.

"We were watching history not made, (but) built," he says.

Following Mercury, which hammered out the complexities of experiencing weightlessness while putting a man in orbit (Would astronauts be able to swallow? Would their eyes float out of their heads?), scientists moved on to Project Gemini, which spent 10 flights in 1965-66 testing equipment to be used in a moon mission.

It was during one of these missions that the first on-board computer was used. One astronaut's assessment: "I wish I had an abacus."

Finally, all that was learned during Mercury and Gemini was folded into the Apollo project. And in 1969, eight years after Kennedy's mandate and 65 years after the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, the United States put a man on the moon. Slade calls it the greatest engineering effort in human history.

"We think about the Earth differently today than before we flew to the moon," he says.

Space stories

Slade's job experience goes far beyond covering NASA, but he's most at home talking about space.

His description of the 36-story Saturn V lifting off puts you right there. The three-stage rocket burned 15 tons of fuel per second (!) and it was almost painful to watch as it struggled to leave the ground at just 60 mph.

"It took 450 guys to push the button (to get it launched)," he says. Saturn V quickly picked up speed as it burned fuel, and just minutes later was weightless in space.

Slade described the voyage of Apollo 8 as it went around the moon looking to get captured in its orbit. On the far side, the astronauts were completely cut off from Earth.

Slade called it "the loneliest job in the world."

That same crew would capture the first photo of an "Earthrise" over the lunar horizon on Christmas Eve 1968. A few months later, Apollo 11 would put the first man on the moon.

At its peak, the space program employed 400,000 people, Slade says. Today, we're in a holding pattern as we work through what should come next — and politics plays a bigger role than he'd like to see.

Slade, who was a finalist when NASA considered putting a journalist in space, resents that the United States has shut down the Space Shuttle program. He says that decision means we now have to hitch a ride with a commercial company to the International Space Station or pay the Russians an astounding $62 million for a seat on their ships. (The price tripled when the shuttle program died; the Russians apparently have learned to embrace capitalism.)

As for private companies taking the lead in space travel, Slade points out that this is how air flight started — giving people rides to spur interest. But he's no fan of it, particularly because of safety issues. He also thinks the United States government should get back in the game; the money, he says, would be well spent as we look toward Mars.

"The International Space Station is a placeholder, keeping us in space until the politicians figure out what we're doing," he says.

"I think it's appalling."

Jim Slade shares stories and insights on his web site: www.jimsladesairlines.com

Let's go more boldly

Philadelphia Inquirer (Editorial)

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

- James T. Kirk

A new Star Trek movie comes out in May. No doubt fans of the cult-status films that descended from the original 1960s TV series will flock to theaters to experience it in 3-D, many still believing Captain Kirk's mission statement was prescient.

But in these days of fiscal cliffs and sequestration, the space administration, like other federal agencies, is taking budget hits that have some proponents of space exploration wondering if President Obama meant it three years ago when he said, "I am 100 percent committed to the mission of NASA and its future."

Obama tried to energize the space program by encouraging entrepreneurship. But his privatization model needs to be recalibrated. SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada Corp. are developing space vehicles to carry crews, but since most of their money comes from NASA, not venture capitalists, the space agency's budget cuts hinder their progress.

Mike Griffin, who ran NASA during the Bush administration, says the private space companies need an incentive beyond dwindling federal funds. Instead of limiting them to developing craft that, like the mothballed space shuttles, achieve only low Earth orbit, give them a more lucrative goal, he says.

Griffin told reporters in Huntsville, Ala., home of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, that missions to supply the International Space Station are not "a big enough or long-lasting enough market" to attract capital for commercial space enterprises. He said a more viable market would result if a moon base were created for deep-space missions.

That idea was nixed last year when Obama said that instead of a return to the moon, he would prefer to invest in a new propulsion system that could take men to Mars by 2037. That approach seems logical, as Star Trek's Mr. Spock would say. But it will be hard to ever reach Mars if NASA's budget keeps being cut. The sequester will trim its $17.8 billion budget by $894 million.

If a new poll is to be believed, the public would back Obama if he cranked up the fiscal engine for deep-space exploration. A survey for the communications firm Phillips & Co. and the nonprofit Explore Mars found that 76 percent of Americans would support raising NASA's budget to 1 percent of the federal total, from the current 0.5 percent, for exploration of faraway places like Mars.

Absent a funding boost, NASA needs Congress to stop treating it like a jobs machine. Underused NASA facilities could be closed to produce savings, but lawmakers protecting jobs stand in the way. A Florida Today writer suggests NASA needs the equivalent of the military's base-closing commission, whose decisions couldn't be overruled by politicians. He's right.

Shouldn't heroes last forever?
In honoring heroes by naming things after them, why must Congress downgrade and displace previous ones?

Philip Handleman - Los Angeles Times (Opinion)

In late February, the House cast a 394-0 vote to rename NASA's cutting-edge flight research center in Southern California after the late astronaut Neil Armstrong. What could possibly be wrong with that?

In their advocacy, the bill's sponsors pointed out that Armstrong spent seven years at the desert center as a test pilot. Before the U.S. had a spaceship, Armstrong flew the next closest thing, the X-15 rocket plane, from there. That led to his joining the astronaut corps in 1962 and becoming the first person to set foot on the moon in 1969. His life will always be linked to the hallowed ground of the Mojave's lake beds where gutsy fliers infused with the "right stuff" still aim skyward to push the proverbial envelope ever farther, faster and higher.

As well-intentioned as it is to recognize our most iconic space traveler, the measure that awaits the Senate's approval would strip the name of the prior honoree, Hugh L. Dryden, from the center where it has graced the entrance for 37 years. Dryden died in 1965 after a long and distinguished career advancing aerospace at NASA, its precursor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA, and other government agencies. As he put it, "The airplane and I grew up together."

Dryden was a math and science prodigy. At 14, he entered Johns Hopkins University and graduated with honors in three years, and later earned graduate degrees. The head of the university's physics department referred to Dryden as "the brightest young man … without exception."

As a researcher, he contributed to the development of the laminar-flow wing, which helped to make the P-51 Mustang the premier fighter of World War II. He also oversaw development of the initial U.S. guided missiles used in the conflict.

After the war, Dryden fostered a golden age of aeronautical breakthroughs at NACA's fledgling desert facility, exemplified by the trailblazing flights of the X-15. In 1957, the U.S. was jolted by the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik. Soon afterward, NACA morphed into NASA, and Dryden became the new agency's No. 2 official.

Dryden encouraged President Kennedy to set the nation's sights on a manned lunar mission. In 1961, the year the decision to go to the moon was made, Dryden wrote: "The discipline of cooperation in a great national effort may well be the instrument of great social gain."

As a kind of consolation prize, the pending legislation relegates Dryden's name to the Western Aeronautical Test Range, the airspace that overlies 12,000 square miles of Mojave terrain. But based on experience with a similar game of name-related musical chairs at NASA's facility in Cleveland, this stepped-down recognition is likely to fade into vacuity.

In 1999, the Lewis Research Center was renamed the Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field. With the passage of time, the lessened reference to Lewis simply evaporated. Lewis was George W. Lewis, an eminent engineer who had handed off the leadership of NACA to Dryden. Of course, Glenn is former Ohio Sen. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the planet.

The danger in this shuffling of honors is that the honors will be diluted with each upstaging by the celebrity du jour. The names of Armstrong and Glenn could eventually suffer the same short shrift as Dryden and Lewis, when future explorers arguably eclipse their feats. In honoring new heroes, why must Congress downgrade and displace past heroes?

An irony here is that Armstrong eschewed the limelight. His ethos was manifested by his admirable refusal to capitalize on his exalted status. In his NASA oral history, his humility shined when he acknowledged the extraordinary exertion of his teammates: "[T]hat's the only reason we could have pulled this whole thing off...." It makes one wonder whether Armstrong would have wanted his name to bump the name of one of those teammates.

There is a veritable universe full of other material things that can be named after the first moon walker. There is the launch pad for the next heavy-lift booster. Or the booster rocket itself. The Armstrong 1969 has a stirring ring as a successor to the Saturn V. Perhaps the most fitting tribute, however, would be to finally resume the journey to the stars that Armstrong brilliantly represented and passionately advocated.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and asteroid) News - March 20, 2013 and JSC Today

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