Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - May 22, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 22, 2013 6:35:06 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - May 22, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            JSC IT Services Unavailable From 6 p.m. Friday Through 9 p.m. Saturday

2.            Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Memorial Day

3.            Interested in Transitioning Your Career? Let the JSC NMA Help You

4.            Latest International Space Station Research

5.            Large Format 3D Printing --- re:3D and Gigabot

6.            JSC Systems Engineering Forum

7.            Starport's Father-Daughter Dance 2013

8.            New NASA@work Challenge

9.            Summer Water-Bots Camp: Beginners Camp Registration Deadline May 31

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" During an average six-month period on the station, as many as 200 investigations operate, with between 70 and 100 of them being new studies."

________________________________________

1.            JSC IT Services Unavailable From 6 p.m. Friday Through 9 p.m. Saturday

The Center Operations Directorate (COD) and the Information Resources Directorate (IRD) has scheduled an emergency outage this weekend for Building 46, which houses the majority of the center's servers, to perform several repairs. From 6 p.m. Friday, May 24, to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 25, a large number of Information Technology (IT) services will NOT be available, including:

o             JSC Google Web searching on internal sites

o             Access to share folders

o             Printing from networked printers

o             Connectivity to various off-site contractor facilities such as Jacobs, JAXA, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed, Oceaneering, Muniz and more

o             Connectivity to several NASA facilities such as Sonny Carter Training Facility, Ellington Field, the Gilruth Center and more

o             Access to several internal websites and systems

For a full list of impacts, click here.

For information on this activity, please contact Bob Brasher at x36465.

JSC IRD Outreach x36465 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx

 

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2.            Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Memorial Day

All badging offices will be closed Monday, May 27, in observance of Memorial Day. Normal working operations will resume Tuesday, May 28, as listed below.

o             Building 110, 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

o             Building 111, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

o             Ellington Field, 7 to 11 a.m.

o             Sonny Carter Training Facility, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Tifanny Sowell x37447

 

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3.            Interested in Transitioning Your Career? Let the JSC NMA Help You

Please join the JSC National Management Association (NMA) for a professional development brown bag on, "Transitioning Your Career." If you've recently transitioned to a new role in the workplace or are thinking about making a significant career decision, come listen to a panel discuss their experiences dealing with change.

Panel members include Brady Pyle from JSC Human Resources, who is on rotation as a technical deputy branch chief; Dave Hall, who has transitioned careers between engineering and business; and Veronica Reyes at the Workforce Solutions Aerospace Transition Center, who has experience helping people successfully navigate career changes.

This session will be held on May 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 12, Room 134. For badging questions or more information, please contact Heather Williams at  heather.d.williams@nasa.gov or 281-792-7801.

Event Date: Tuesday, May 28, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Building 12, Room 134

 

Add to Calendar

 

Heather Williams 281-792-7801

 

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4.            Latest International Space Station Research

This week, Chris Cassidy configured and deployed the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test (BCAT)-4 sample module. The BCAT-4 module is being revisited after being undisturbed for several years to observe the condition of the sample and its mixing status. BCAT-4 is an experiment of two samples containing microscopic spheres suspended in a liquid, which are designed to determine how crystals can form from the samples after they have been well mixed. The two samples have the same average sphere size, but one of them has a wider range (more polydisperse) of sizes in order to demonstrate the dependence of crystallization on particle size range. Results from these experiments help scientists develop fundamental physics concepts, which will enable the development of a wide range of next-generation technologies (such as in high-speed computers and advanced optical devices).

Read more here.

Liz Warren x35548

 

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5.            Large Format 3D Printing --- re:3D and Gigabot

Engineers Without Borders - JSC invites you to come learn about re:3D on Wednesday, May 29, in Building 7, Room 141. No RSVP required.

Re:3D is breaking through the current limitations of 3D printing. Re:3D's flagship technology, the Gigabot, is one of the world's first affordable, industrial strength, large-format 3D printers. Re:3D is also at the forefront of material science, exploring novel printer inputs, including recycled plastics and metals. With a global online marketplace launching in May and a localized presence in Latin America, re:3D is reaching new markets and creating opportunities worldwide. As catalysts, the team is fostering innovation and organizing a new movement of small businesses to expand the possibilities of additive manufacturing.

Angela Cason x40903 http://www.re3d.org/

 

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6.            JSC Systems Engineering Forum

The next JSC Systems Engineering Forum meeting will be Wednesday, May 22, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966. Join us to listen to Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Dr. Jairus Hihn talk about "Concurrent Engineering at JPL." Hihn is a principal member of the Engineering staff at JPL and is currently the Concurrent Engineering Team (Team X) risk subject-matter expert. He has been involved with Team X for more than 12 years in various roles, including the programmatic chair, the cost chair and the flight software chair. Hihn is also the co-lead of the NASA Engineering Network Community of Practice for Concurrent Engineering.

WebEx and Telecom numbers can be found here. Contact Linda Bromley at 281-483-0129 or via email for information if you have trouble with the link.

Event Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2013   Event Start Time:12:30 PM   Event End Time:1:30 PM

Event Location: B1 Room 966

 

Add to Calendar

 

Tim Fisher x31456

 

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7.            Starport's Father-Daughter Dance 2013

Make Father's Day weekend a date your daughter will never forget! Enjoy a night of music, dancing, refreshments, finger foods, dessert, photos and more. Plan to get all dressed up and spend a special evening with the special little lady in your life. The dance is open to girls of all ages, and attire is business casual to semi-formal. A photographer will be on hand to capture this special moment with picture packages for you to purchase. One free 5x7 will be provided.

o             June 14 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom

o             Cost is $45 per couple ($15 per additional child)

Tickets may be purchased at the Gilruth Center information desk. Tickets must be purchased by June 8, and there will be no tickets sold at the door.

Visit our website for more information.

Event Date: Friday, June 14, 2013   Event Start Time:6:30 PM   Event End Time:9:00 PM

Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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8.            New NASA@work Challenge

Check out our latest challenge: Seeking Solutions on the Use of Thorium Instead of Uranium (deadline: Aug. 9). And, don't forget our two active challenges: As Good as Dollars: Incentives for NASA@work that Count! (deadline: June 14); and Peer-to-Peer Coaching and Counseling Program (deadline May 30). The challenge owners for these challenges are responding and actively engaging in the discussion, so be sure to check their responses so you can add to the discussion or update your submissions.

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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9.            Summer Water-Bots Camp: Beginners Camp Registration Deadline May 31

Join us for Water-Bots 2013. The San Jacinto College Aerospace Academy is offering an outstanding opportunity for students to experience the excitement of underwater robotics!

Beginner Camps: June 17 to 20 and June 24 to 27. The camp experience will include basic electronics instruction, an introduction to soldering, tours of JSC, professional speakers and much more.

Intermediate Camps: July 15 to 18 and July 22 to 25. Requires campers with previous robotic experience. The camp experience will include constructing algorithms in scripting languages such as Python/Matlab/Scilab; working with Arduino boards, sensors and shields; methods of making underwater robotics using a tether system; and much more.

Ages: 12 to 16 years old

Cost: $250

Email for more information.

Sara Malloy x46803 http://www.aerospace-academy.org

 

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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:

·         UNDERWAY – NASA Edge Live coverage of 2013 Lunabotics Mining Competition

·         9:50 am Central (10:50 EDT) – E36 with Florida/USA Today & Florida Institute of Technology

·         1 pm Central (2 EDT) – ISS Expedition 36/37 Mission Overview Briefing

·         2 pm Central (3 EDT) – File of E36/37 Crew Activities & Soyuz TMA-09M Encapsulation

 

Human Spaceflight News

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Mars mission sparks stepping-stone debate

Lawmakers criticize logic of asteroid trip

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

Lawmakers and space experts agree that Mars should be the next grand destination for human space missions and that getting there will require a stepping-stone approach. But which stepping stone? At a House hearing Tuesday, several key Republicans promoted a lunar mission, saying the moon's mineral resources and terrain make it the logical launch pad for a trip to the Red Planet. They questioned the Obama administration's plan to use a small asteroid instead.

 

Moon or Asteroid? Congress Debates Best Pit Stop to Mars

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

NASA's plan to lasso an asteroid for astronauts as a deep-space dry run for a future mission to Mars has some members of Congress wondering if the space agency would be better off setting its sights on the moon instead. The asteroid mission was announced when President Barack Obama unveiled his 2014 NASA budget request. The scheme would have NASA use a robotic spacecraft to capture a roughly 23-foot-wide (7 meters) asteroid in deep space, and redirect it to an orbit closer to the moon. Once there, NASA would launch a human mission to rendezvous with the space rock and explore it. But members of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee expressed their skepticism of the plan during a hearing Tuesday to discuss NASA's ultimate goal of sending astronauts to Mars.

 

U.S.-Soviet Model Urged For U.S.-China Space Cooperation

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

As China prepares for another launch to its Tiangong-1 mini-space station next month (illustration), political scientists with an interest in space policy see the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) as a model for bringing China into "the family of space-faring nations." The ASTP was a symbolic gesture that encouraged an eventual Cold War thaw, and was considered as such even before the historic "handshake in space" between the crews of a U.S. Apollo command module and a Soviet Soyuz capsule. The docking had little technical significance, but it laid the groundwork for a thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations that extended into strategic arms control and ultimately led to the merger of the two superpowers' space station programs that became the International Space Station.

 

Space companies warn against excessive government oversight of their industry

 

Muhammed El-Hasan - Los Angeles Daily Breeze

 

Aerospace executives on Tuesday praised the newfound autonomy they have enjoyed from NASA in sending spacecraft to the International Space Station, but warned against excessive government oversight of the burgeoning industry for launch vehicles and crew capsules. During a panel discussion Tuesday at the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, representatives of various aerospace companies commended NASA for allowing the private sector to lead the way on the critical program.

 

As Work Begins on New Spacesuit, Researchers Look Further Ahead

 

Debra Werner - Space News

 

As NASA and Congress discuss potential destinations for future human spaceflight missions, engineers are developing a new generation of spacesuits that offer the type of protection and mobility astronauts would need to live and work in many different environments. Although the future spacesuit design will be predicated on the precise destination chosen and exploration tasks planned, engineers are striving to develop spacesuits capable of meeting the anticipated requirements of potential missions, such as a journey to Mars. A Mars mission would pose many of the challenges astronauts may face during future exploration missions, including long-duration space travel, extreme weather and dust, said Amy Ross, advanced spacesuit assembly technology lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

NASA asks: Could 3-D-printed food fuel a mission to Mars?

 

Amrita Jayakumar - Washington Post

 

NASA can send robots to Mars, no problem. But if it's ever going to put humans on the Red Planet, it has to figure out how to feed them over the course of a years-long mission. So the space agency has funded research for what could be the ultimate nerd solution: a 3-D printer that creates entrees or desserts at the touch of a button. Yes, it's another case of life imitating "Star Trek" (remember the food replicator?). In this case, though, the creators hope there is an application beyond deep-space pizza parties. The technology could also be used to feed hungry populations here on Earth.

 

3-D food 'printer' aims to end world hunger, starting with pizza

 

Jenn Harris - Los Angeles Times

 

A 3-D "printer" that can create an entire pizza using nothing more than various powders? Sounds like something from a Star Trek film, but it's actually a lot closer to reality. Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) in Austin, Texas, is in the process of building a 3-D food printer with a $125,000 grant he received from NASA under its Small Business Innovation Research program, Quartz reported. The idea is to create a prototype for a universal food synthesizer that will make food with an extended shelf life for space travel. Contractor has already created a food printer that prints with chocolate.

 

NASA Funds 3D Pizza Printer

 

Denise Chow - Space.com

 

NASA has doled out a research grant to develop a prototype 3D printer for food, so astronauts may one day enjoy 3D-printed pizza on Mars. Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC), based in Austin, Texas, received a $125,000 grant from the space agency to build a prototype of his food synthesizer, as was first reported by Quartz.

 

Private space industry can't get to Mars without NASA

 

Charles Walker - Orlando Sentinel (Opinion)

 

(Walker is an engineer and a former space shuttle astronaut)

 

While the Mars rover Curiosity is discovering the building blocks of life on the Red Planet, many are equally excited about another development: Commercial companies have finally discovered profit in space. This is no small feat, considering the enormous risk and technical hurdles. With years of experience building government-designed rockets and communications satellites, private companies took the first cautious steps by funding research labs that hitched rides on the NASA space shuttle. In fact, I was the first private astronaut working on techniques to manufacture new medicines in space on three shuttle flights in 1984-85. Now companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are building their own rockets, making profits by launching satellites and sending supplies to the International Space Station.

 

Space shuttle Atlantis exhibit to open at Kennedy Space Center

 

Susan Thurston - Tampa Bay Times

 

Don't tell employees at the Kennedy Space Center the U.S. space program is grounded. Quite the contrary, they say, pointing to the latest rocket launches and deep-space missions. For an example of a major investment, they talk up the $100 million home of the space shuttle Atlantis, opening to the public June 29. The 90,000-square-foot exhibit building will house the Atlantis and tell the story of NASA's 30-year shuttle program through dozens of interactive exhibits and simulators. Visitors will be able to get within feet of the shuttle, artfully displayed 26 feet off the ground and rotated 43 degrees as if it were flying.

 

Senior Senate Aide Bingham To Retire

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Jeff Bingham, a senior aide for the Republican minority on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee who is credited with shaping parts of the 2010 law that resurrected elements of the canceled Constellation Moon exploration program, will retire before the summer is out. Bingham, who began his second stint on Capitol Hill in 2005, sent news of his retirement to colleagues in an email the week of May 6. A copy that email was obtained by SpaceNews. "I've agreed to stay available for an unspecified period of time as they transition," Bingham wrote in a May 17 email to SpaceNews. "They [committee members] are considering applicants and we'll just take it as it comes." Bingham said his last day likely would be "sometime within the next three to six weeks."

 

Branson announces plans for Christmas launch from spaceport

 

Diana Alba Soular - Las Cruces Sun-News

 

Virgin Group billionaire Sir Richard Branson may be dreaming not of a white Christmas, but a space-y one. Branson, in remarks last week during a trip to Dubai, said the first public Virgin Galactic flight would happen Dec. 25, according to The National, a publication in the United Arab Emirates. Branson has long said he'd be on the inaugural space tourism flight, along with family members. Asked about Branson's remarks, a publicist for Virgin Galactic sent a company statement noting that the start date for carrying paying passengers has always hinged upon safety. Other factors are the successful completion of its test-flight program and the FAA issuing a key license, according to the statement provided by Sean Wilson of Griffin Communications Group.

 

Oak Hill hears pitch for spaceport, but questions remain

 

Mark Johnson - Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

Oak Hill wants more details before it takes a stand on the development of a commercial spaceport on the city's southern doorstep. Space Florida is seeking community support on plans to construct a public-private launch facility on 150 acres of land now part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. While no specific site has been chosen, property south of Oak Hill, but north of Haulover Canal on the Volusia-Brevard county line in an area known as Shiloh, is being discussed.

 

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

 

Curiosity rover drills into second Martian rock

 

Associated Press

 

NASA's Curiosity rover drills again. The space agency said Monday that Curiosity has bored a hole in a second rock and will transfer a pinch of powder to its onboard laboratories later this week for analysis.

 

NASA Curiosity drills second Mars rock to check John Klein surprise

 

Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has already met its mission goals, discovering that parts of the Red Planet could have been friendly to microbial life. But not one to rest on its scientific laurels, the robot has drilled a second sample of rock to back up the rover's ground-breaking findings. The Mars Science Laboratory rover drilled a 0.6-inch-wide and 2.6-inch-deep hole into a rock named Cumberland, which sits about nine feet west of John Klein, the first rock sampled back in March. Ground into a powder, sieved, portioned and delivered to the lab instruments in the rover's belly, the clay-rich sample from John Klein turned up six crucial elements used in life on Earth — hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus — as well as a low-acidity, life-friendly environment.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Mars mission sparks stepping-stone debate

Lawmakers criticize logic of asteroid trip

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

Lawmakers and space experts agree that Mars should be the next grand destination for human space missions and that getting there will require a stepping-stone approach.

 

But which stepping stone?

 

At a House hearing Tuesday, several key Republicans promoted a lunar mission, saying the moon's mineral resources and terrain make it the logical launch pad for a trip to the Red Planet. They questioned the Obama administration's plan to use a small asteroid instead.

 

"To me, there is no better way for our astronauts to learn how to live and work on another planet than to use the moon as a training ground," said Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

 

Rep. Steve Palazzzo, R-Miss., who chairs the Space Subcommittee that held the hearing, called the asteroid mission a potentially expensive distraction.

 

"It may actually prove a detour for a Mars mission," he said.

 

GOP lawmakers have been especially cool to the president's vision for space after he scrapped the George W. Bush-sponsored Constellation program three years ago, following the advice of an independent commission that called it financially unsustainable.

 

At first, Obama said he wanted to send astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by the following decade. Then, as part of the NASA budget released last month, the administration said it wants to retrieve a small asteroid, bring it into lunar orbit and send astronauts there in the next few years.

 

NASA officials like the idea of an asteroid mission because it's considered relatively inexpensive, could be achieved sooner than a moon landing and could help with asteroid detection and deflection should any pose a threat to Earth.

 

The concept of the mission is based on a study by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Louis Friedman, one of the study's authors, testified that tight fiscal conditions and the general desire to reach Mars quickly makes the proposal a natural.

 

"The Asteroid Retrieval Mission… creates a first step beyond the moon — the only one we are now capable of performing and the only one which we can afford within the current space program budget," he told lawmakers.

 

Smith dismissed the mission as "haphazardly" conceived, saying it should have been run by more experts. And Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, called it "unexciting" at a time when public support for the space program is considered crucial.

 

The debate over which "stepping stone" to use on the trip to Mars reflects a larger tug-of-war over space missions that seems to play out whenever administrations turn over. Because missions often take years to fund, it's not unusual for a new administration to inherit projects from a previous administration.

 

Posey is one of several lawmakers who want to change that by making it tougher for NASA missions to be arbitrarily halted or significantly changed without substantial review and concurrence.

 

"And I think one of the biggest fears we all have is that whatever direction we ultimately agree to go in tomorrow, the next Congress or the next administration might decide to cease and pivot to another direction," he said.

 

Moon or Asteroid? Congress Debates Best Pit Stop to Mars

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

NASA's plan to lasso an asteroid for astronauts as a deep-space dry run for a future mission to Mars has some members of Congress wondering if the space agency would be better off setting its sights on the moon instead.

 

The asteroid mission was announced when President Barack Obama unveiled his 2014 NASA budget request. The scheme would have NASA use a robotic spacecraft to capture a roughly 23-foot-wide (7 meters) asteroid in deep space, and redirect it to an orbit closer to the moon. Once there, NASA would launch a human mission to rendezvous with the space rock and explore it.

 

But members of the U.S. House of Representatives Science, Space and Technology Committee expressed their skepticism of the plan during a hearing Tuesday to discuss NASA's ultimate goal of sending astronauts to Mars. The asteroid mission was proposed as an initial step toward that goal — one that would test technologies needed for a Mars mission and allow crews to gain experience in deep space exploration.

 

Yet lawmakers questioned the mission's technical plan, budget and schedule. "I am not convinced this mission is the right way to go, and that it may actually become a detour for a Mars mission," said Rep. Steven Palazzo (R., Miss.).

 

Lunar legacy

 

Some members of Congress favored sending astronauts back to the moon instead.

 

"To me there is no better way for our astronauts to learn how to live and work on another planet than to use the moon as a training ground," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R., Tex.).

 

"It is difficult to determine what advantages this [asteroid mission] may offer," he added.

 

The moon plan was backed by some experts called to testify at the hearing. The moon is easier to get to, offers greater science objectives, and is a better testing ground for Mars exploration technology, compared to an asteroid, argued Paul Spudis, a geologist specializing in lunar science at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. "This effort is not 'been there, done that,'" he said. "It is a wholly new, untried and necessary pioneering enterprise in space."

 

But one of the architects of the asteroid mission was there to defend the plan, which he said is a realistic near-term goal for NASA that advances its ultimate objective of going to Mars.

 

"The asteroid retrieval mission creates a first step beyond the moon — the only one we are now capable of performing and the only one which we can afford within the current budget," said Louis Friedman, co-leader of the Keck Institute for Space Studies Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study and co-founder and executive director emeritus of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.

 

Friedman was co-leader of the study on the asteroid mission concept that sold the Obama administration and NASA on the idea.

 

Lure of an asteroid

 

In addition to providing a testing ground for new solar electric propulsion technologies that could prove useful in going to Mars, the asteroid mission would further scientists' understanding of the space rocks that populate our solar system — some of which might need to be diverted from their orbits if they pose a risk of colliding with Earth, Friedman said. The asteroid chosen for retrieval, however, would be too small to be dangerous to our planet.

 

"Nonetheless, the asteroid is big enough to be an interesting object to explore," Friedman said. "We may someday have to divert one. Exploring them and discovering new ones is important."

 

"I believe this is the direct and only sustainable way to Mars," he added.

 

But not everyone was sold.

 

"It is a clever concept and such a mission would undoubtedly demonstrate technologies," said Douglas Cooke, former associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate who now owns the Cooke Concepts and Solutions consulting company.

 

However, Cooke said he wasn't clear on the mission's application to Mars exploration, and he questioned the decision-making process that arrived on the plan without involving enough of the space community.

 

"I think a healthy process gets inputs from your stakeholders in terms of objectives and goals," Cooke said. "I don't see that that's happened here."

 

Ultimately, many agreed that whatever plan NASA decides on, the space agency must be given the funding to achieve it.

 

"NASA is being asked to do too much with too little," said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University astronomer who is principal investigator of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars. "This overtaxing of the agency is chronic, severe, and it's getting worse."

 

U.S.-Soviet Model Urged For U.S.-China Space Cooperation

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

As China prepares for another launch to its Tiangong-1 mini-space station next month (illustration), political scientists with an interest in space policy see the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) as a model for bringing China into "the family of space-faring nations." The ASTP was a symbolic gesture that encouraged an eventual Cold War thaw, and was considered as such even before the historic "handshake in space" between the crews of a U.S. Apollo command module and a Soviet Soyuz capsule.

 

The docking had little technical significance, but it laid the groundwork for a thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations that extended into strategic arms control and ultimately led to the merger of the two superpowers' space station programs that became the International Space Station.

 

"It's a beginning, like the arms control thing," President Richard Nixon said of the space-cooperation agreement he and Premier Alexei Kosygin signed at their May 1972 summit meeting. U.S. historian John Logsdon discovered the quote on one of Nixon's infamous Oval Office tapes as he was researching the former president's role in U.S. space policy.

 

"With respect to space, Richard Nixon was a pretty strong internationalist from the start," Logsdon says. "He suggested, as John Kennedy had suggested in his inaugural address, that space was an area where countries could cooperate."

 

That thinking is definitely in force today, as U.S. astronauts take turns with cosmonauts and space travelers from Canada, Japan and the European Space Agency in commanding the ISS. But China, the only other nation to orbit its own crews, is blocked by U.S. law from even visiting the station.

 

The U.S. and China are forbidden to cooperate in civil space on human-rights grounds, by language Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) attached to NASA's appropriations bill. Military space cooperation between the two nations is actually easier, to the extent that the Pentagon's Africa Command has been using Chinese-owned Apstar-7 for commercial communications links.

 

That arrangement raised congressional eyebrows when it surfaced at a recent House Armed Services Committee hearing, but it illustrates the kind of cooperation U.S.-China experts convened by the Stimson Center, a Washington think tank, say could ease tensions and improve U.S. leadership in space.

 

"U.S. restrictions on working with China in space are coming across as the U.S. is a bit of the mean girl in the international space community, as though we think we can just decide who is in the clique and who is not," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a political scientist at the U.S. Naval War College, who stressed that she was expressing her own opinion as an academic.

 

Most of NASA's partners on the ISS support a larger role for China there, and do not have limits on their ability to cooperate with Beijing's space establishment. And even with U.S. opposition, China is not completely barred. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which detects and counts subatomic particles arriving at its perch on the station from deep space, includes large magnets produced in China, notes Stimson panelist Brian Weeden, technical adviser at the Secure World Foundation.

 

Weeden suggests space weather monitoring could be a "good place to start" an active program of U.S.-Chinese civil space cooperation, since it would continue lower-level, multi-national cooperation already under way and be mutually beneficial.

 

Addressing the threat China poses to U.S. national security, James Clay Moltz of the Naval Postgraduate School noted that testing by China and the U.S. of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons has raised issues of space security unseen since the orbital nuclear testing of 1958-62. Moltz compared the U.S.-Chinese relationship in space to the one between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. "Fortunately, this path was eventually averted," he says. "We signed the ABM Treaty. We signed the SALT I agreement that banned interference with national technical means. We moved forward with space science cooperation, and we flew the Apollo-Soyuz mission."

 

Just as the U.S. is unwilling to cooperate with China in space, the People's Liberation Army that controls Chinese human spaceflight also has also been reluctant to engage in substantive dialogue on the subject, Moltz says. Secrecy surrounding the U.S. X-37B reusable spaceplane has raised Chinese suspicions, he says, just as Chinese industrial espionage raise U.S. concerns. Nonetheless, China has displayed some wiggle room in semi-official discussions about space weaponry, including a possible ban on ground-based ASAT tests, Moltz says, and there is a chance deeper discussions could pay off.

 

Possible areas of fruitful military-to-military talks include space situational awareness "because of our shared interest in reducing space debris," and providing greater transparency into the systems that provide it.

 

"We don't have a crisis kind of hotline where we can engage them in case of very high-risk short-notice events," he says, adding that the bilateral agenda should include work toward non-interference with reconnaissance and signals-intelligence spacecraft, which served well in the U.S.-Soviet relationship.

 

Space companies warn against excessive government oversight of their industry

 

Muhammed El-Hasan - Los Angeles Daily Breeze

 

Aerospace executives on Tuesday praised the newfound autonomy they have enjoyed from NASA in sending spacecraft to the International Space Station, but warned against excessive government oversight of the burgeoning industry for launch vehicles and crew capsules.

 

During a panel discussion Tuesday at the Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, representatives of various aerospace companies commended NASA for allowing the private sector to lead the way on the critical program.

 

NASA's multibillion-dollar experiment to allow private industry to spearhead the development of rockets and space capsules to reach the ISS has achieved unprecedented success, including Hawthorne-based SpaceX's Dragon capsule docking with the space station three times so far.

 

The rapid and relatively low-cost development program is at the core of NASA's efforts to hand commercial companies primary responsibility for planning, developing and executing the government program.

 

"Before, NASA controlled all aspects of development, including design, testing," said Garrett Reisman, who heads SpaceX's Dragon space capsule program. "Now NASA says, 'Here are our main requirements and you have to figure out how to do that.' ... These commercial principles are really key to our success, whether it be cargo or crew. "

 

Reisman, whose company is officially known as Space Exploration Technologies, said there is a risk that the space agency would

 

Returning to NASA's traditional role of controlling every step of development represents "the biggest threat to the success of the program," said Reisman, a former astronaut.

 

Boeing Vice President John Mulholland said his company has benefited from NASA's reduced oversight on the Boeing crew capsule known as the CST-100. This relative autonomy has allowed Boeing to made decisions quickly without having to wait for NASA to give direction.

 

"You have to be making design decisions on a daily basis and act on it," said Mulholland, who heads Boeing's commercial space programs. "You can't wait three, four months" for direction from NASA.

 

Boeing plans to launch its CST-100 crew capsule to the space station on an Atlas V rocket made by United Launch Alliance.

 

ULA executive Les Kovacs acknowledged the importance of government oversight of space operations.

 

"It is a fact that launches with government oversight are 3 percent more successful than those without," said Kovacs, director of Washington operations for ULA. "The question is how much government oversight? "

 

Kovacs said that with too much government interference, "There are so many people looking over your shoulder that you abdicate" to the government responsibility for program development.

 

With this new paradigm of greater autonomy for industry, SpaceX's Reisman predicted that America is entering a golden age of space flight, similar to the golden age of aircraft development between the two world wars, when private enterprise created a "giant blossoming of innovation. "

 

As Work Begins on New Spacesuit, Researchers Look Further Ahead

 

Debra Werner - Space News

 

As NASA and Congress discuss potential destinations for future human spaceflight missions, engineers are developing a new generation of spacesuits that offer the type of protection and mobility astronauts would need to live and work in many different environments.

 

Although the future spacesuit design will be predicated on the precise destination chosen and exploration tasks planned, engineers are striving to develop spacesuits capable of meeting the anticipated requirements of potential missions, such as a journey to Mars. A Mars mission would pose many of the challenges astronauts may face during future exploration missions, including long-duration space travel, extreme weather and dust, said Amy Ross, advanced spacesuit assembly technology lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

In April, NASA awarded a $4.4 million contract to ILC Dover of Frederica, Del., to design, manufacture and test the next-generation Z-2 spacesuit. Under an 18-month contract, ILC Dover plans to produce two versions of the suit for NASA Johnson. Both are designed to allow astronauts to perform tasks including walking, kneeling and picking up rock samples, but one features a hard composite shell covering the upper torso and the other features a Hybrid Upper Torso.

 

The Hybrid Upper Torso uses a metal composite frame covered with a special fabric designed to retain spacesuit pressure. The Hybrid Upper Torso will use replaceable components to achieve a custom fit to enhance comfort and mobility, said Phil Spampinato, ILC Dover director of technology development partnerships. ILC Dover plans to produce the Hybrid Upper Torso frame by melting successive layers of a metal composite, a process known as additive manufacturing.

 

Both versions of the ILC Dover Z-2 spacesuit are designed to operate at higher pressure than spacesuits currently used by international space station crews working outside the outpost. In contrast to current space station suits, which are designed to operate at 4.3 pounds per square inch, the Z-2 spacesuit will be designed for pressure of 8.3 pounds per square inch. That increased pressure will enable astronauts to work outside the space station without first spending hours breathing pure oxygen to remove nitrogen from their blood and prevent decompression sickness. Inside the space station, astronauts experience pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch, the same level present at sea level on Earth.

 

NASA is scheduled to begin testing the Z-2 suit following its delivery in 2014. It will then be mated with a new portable life-support system being developed at NASA Johnson. With adequate funding and continued progress in the development and testing of the portable life-support system, NASA could begin testing a version of the Z-2 onboard the international space station as early as 2017, Ross said.

 

As the Z-2 proceeds through development and testing, a team comprising Draper Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is working with NASA to identify technology that could offer continued improvement in spacesuit designs. Cambridge, Mass.-based Draper is using internal research funding to design a spacesuit that employs complex algorithms and control moment gyroscopes built into an external jetpack to help astronauts maintain stability while repairing spacecraft or exploring asteroids. The technology is designed to provide attitude control to offset the various torques and forces produced when astronauts turn wrenches or strike objects with hammers. Without the counterbalancing force of gravity, those simple actions can push astronauts away from their work.

 

While astronauts currently use tethers and jetpacks to return to their desired location, the new suit is designed to reduce the need for tethers, give astronauts greater range of motion and preserve jetpack fuel. If, for example, astronauts planned to spend several hours exploring an asteroid, they probably would not want to be tethered to a spacecraft, said Bobby Cohanim, Draper's Mission Design Group leader.

 

Draper and MIT plan to test a prototype of the new extra-vehicular activity suit this summer in NASA Johnson's Virtual Reality Laboratory.

 

In addition to the new extra-vehicular activity suit, Draper is looking for ways to improve the health and performance of astronauts working inside their spacecraft. In September 2012, Draper received $500,000 from NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program for the second phase of a study of technology that could be integrated in an astronaut's clothing to improve his or her ability to adapt quickly to a weightless environment without suffering from common side effects such as motion sickness and disorientation.

 

The two-year project, called Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit, seeks to create small sensors and actuators that could be incorporated in an astronaut's clothing to simulate gravitational resistance. Draper plans to house inertial measurement units and control moment gyroscopes in modules slightly larger than a deck of cards that could be placed on an astronaut's arms and legs. The components in each module would monitor velocity and orientation with respect to whatever direction an astronaut specifies and to produce counteracting forces.

 

By simulating the effects of gravity, the Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit could help astronauts adapt to new gravity environments and prevent the type of muscle and bone loss that often occurs during prolonged periods of weightlessness, said Kevin Duda, Draper's principal investigator on the Variable Vector Countermeasure Suit.

 

NASA asks: Could 3-D-printed food fuel a mission to Mars?

 

Amrita Jayakumar - Washington Post

 

NASA can send robots to Mars, no problem. But if it's ever going to put humans on the Red Planet, it has to figure out how to feed them over the course of a years-long mission.

 

So the space agency has funded research for what could be the ultimate nerd solution: a 3-D printer that creates entrees or desserts at the touch of a button.

 

Yes, it's another case of life imitating "Star Trek" (remember the food replicator?). In this case, though, the creators hope there is an application beyond deep-space pizza parties. The technology could also be used to feed hungry populations here on Earth.

 

Texas-based Systems and Materials Research Corp. has been selected for a $125,000 grant from NASA to develop a 3-D printer that will create "nutritious and flavorful" food suitable for astronauts, according to the company's proposal. Using a "digital recipe," the printers will combine powders to produce food that has the structure and texture of, well, actual food. Including smell.

 

The project — the details of which NASA plans to finalize this week — was presented at the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Washington earlier this month. At the presentation, Anjan Contractor, an engineer at SMRC and the project manager, explained how the idea originated: he had used a 3-D printer to print chocolate for his wife.

 

The chocolate experiment led the company to think about other kinds of food that could be printed. A space-food printer doesn't actually exist yet — it's still a concept, which the company hopes to develop by the end of the year using NASA's grant money.

 

The space agency's current astro-food system "is not adequate in nutrition or acceptability through the five-year shelf life required for a mission to Mars, or other long duration missions," NASA spokesman David Steitz said in an e-mailed statement.

 

Astronauts carry pre-packaged food — not the freeze-dried ice cream for sale in Smithsonian gift shops, but a little like the meals ready to eat, or MREs, consumed by the military. The preparations are short on flavor and heavy on processing, which tends to "degrade the micronutrients in the foods," Steitz said. There also isn't much choice or variety, since all combinations of food are pre-determined. That can take on big significance after a year or three cooped up in a small metal capsule.

 

In its proposal, the company said 3-D printed food could be tailored to each individual astronaut's nutritional needs, improving health and, maybe more importantly, alleviating boredom.

 

One of the first goals for SMRC's printer is the humble pizza. It was chosen because it contains a variety of nutrients and flavors, said David Irvin, director of research at SMRC. More importantly, a pizza is made up of layers, a key principle used in 3-D printing technology.

 

Such printers, which have seen a surge of popularity lately, build a three-dimensional object by adding successive layers of material millions of times over according to a digital blueprint. Hobbyists have been using them to make everything from plastic toys to functioning guns.

 

In SMRC's proposal, all the nutrients that go into a meal — such as protein and carbohydrates — would be stored in powdered form in cartridges. When an astronaut chooses a recipe, all the necessary ingredients are deployed into a mixing chamber, where they are blended with water and oil.

 

The mixture is then heated and sprayed onto a heated base. Layer by layer, the food is formed on the base, until it is ready, hot and fresh from the 'oven.'

 

"The pizza is actually just a way to demonstrate something solid at the bottom, something doughy in the middle and something meatlike at the top," Irvin said.

 

Theoretically, homesick astronauts could even get a care package from Mom: The printer would have the ability to communicate with Earth and receive personalized instructions, or 'recipes,' the company said.

 

"Mom designs a cookie in a computer, sends the cookie to the space shuttle and the son or daughter prints out a cookie at Christmas," Contractor said in his presentation.

 

NASA said the proposal is intriguing in part because it could save weight on a spacecraft, and also because such technology could be used to make other objects, such as tools.

 

The use of 3-D printers to make food is not a new idea. In 2011, Cornell University designed a printer that could create food using pastes moving through a syringe.

 

A Dutch research company, TNO, floated the idea that 3-D printers could use several forms of organic life as a protein component — algae, grass or even insects.

 

SMRC said part of its motivation for seeking the NASA grant is to pursue the even loftier goal of fighting world hunger.

 

At his Washington presentation, Contractor said printed food could increase the efficiency of food systems on Earth by eliminating waste and making it easier to store and transport nutritional ingredients. The company also envisions printing food for military use, which could cut down on supply runs.

 

But experts caution against viewing technology as the answer to the world's nutritional issues.

 

"There isn't some silver-bullet technology that's going to solve hunger problems," said Gawain Kripke, policy director for food security and hunger at Oxfam America. The idea behind the technology is welcome, he said, but is unlikely to have an impact in the near-term.

 

"What's more likely to have an impact is simpler technology, such as access to tractors and seeds," he said.

 

3-D food 'printer' aims to end world hunger, starting with pizza

 

Jenn Harris - Los Angeles Times

 

A 3-D "printer" that can create an entire pizza using nothing more than various powders? Sounds like something from a Star Trek film, but it's actually a lot closer to reality.

 

Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) in Austin, Texas, is in the process of building a 3-D food printer with a $125,000 grant he received from NASA under its Small Business Innovation Research program, Quartz reported.

 

The idea is to create a prototype for a universal food synthesizer that will make food with an extended shelf life for space travel. Contractor has already created a food printer that prints with chocolate.

 

"The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form," Contractor told Quartz. "We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years."

 

Those powders could be made out of any number of materials, according to TNO Research, a firm that has outlined substances that can be used to create edible meals. Some of these materials include algae, duckweed, grass, lupine seeds, beet leaves and insects.

 

Pizza will be one of the first items printed because of its natural layers of ingredients. First, a layer of dough will be printed and baked at the same time using a heated plate at the bottom of the printer. A layer of tomato base will follow -- made of powder, water and oil -- then a protein layer will top the pizza.

 

Each meal will be made using customizable software, which Contractor wants to keep open source for sharing.

 

A pizza made of powders consisting of algae and insects may not sound appetizing, but it could help combat world hunger and dramatically curb food waste. Contractor said his ultimate plan is to have someone buy the technology and turn it into a business.

 

Who knows? Maybe in 30 years, each new home will be outfitted with a 3-D food printer instead of a microwave.

 

NASA Funds 3D Pizza Printer

 

Denise Chow - Space.com

 

NASA has doled out a research grant to develop a prototype 3D printer for food, so astronauts may one day enjoy 3D-printed pizza on Mars.

 

Anjan Contractor, a senior mechanical engineer at Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC), based in Austin, Texas, received a $125,000 grant from the space agency to build a prototype of his food synthesizer, as was first reported by Quartz.

 

NASA hopes the technology may one day be used to feed astronauts on longer space missions, such as the roughly 520 days required for a manned flight to Mars. Manned missions to destinations deeper in the solar system would require food that can last an even longer amount of time.

 

"Long distance space travel requires 15-plus years of shelf life," Contractor told Quartz. "The way we are working on it is, all the carbs, proteins and macro and micro nutrients are in powder form. We take moisture out, and in that form it will last maybe 30 years."

 

Dividing the various components of food in powder cartridges would theoretically enable users to mix them together, like the ingredients in normal recipes, to create a diverse array of nutritious meals.

 

To prove his idea works, Contractor printed chocolate. Now, he's aiming to build a more advanced prototype to print a pizza, according to Quartz.

 

The system will start by "printing" a sheet of dough, followed by a layer of tomato "sauce," which will consist of the powder mixed with water and oil. Instead of traditional toppings, the 3D-printed pizza will be finished off with a layer of protein, which can be derived from animals, milk or plants, Contractor told Quartz.

 

While NASA sees applications for 3D printers on future manned space missions, Contractor said his food synthesizer could also be an effective way of addressing the problem of food shortages from rapid population growth.

 

"I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can't supply 12 billion people sufficiently," Contractor told Quartz. "So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food."

 

Private space industry can't get to Mars without NASA

 

Charles Walker - Orlando Sentinel (Opinion)

 

(Walker is an engineer and a former space shuttle astronaut)

 

While the Mars rover Curiosity is discovering the building blocks of life on the Red Planet, many are equally excited about another development: Commercial companies have finally discovered profit in space.

 

This is no small feat, considering the enormous risk and technical hurdles. With years of experience building government-designed rockets and communications satellites, private companies took the first cautious steps by funding research labs that hitched rides on the NASA space shuttle.

 

In fact, I was the first private astronaut working on techniques to manufacture new medicines in space on three shuttle flights in 1984-85. Now companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic are building their own rockets, making profits by launching satellites and sending supplies to the International Space Station.

 

They're even selling tickets for joy rides into the cosmos — something we've dreamed of since before Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon.

 

Excited by their progress, many people have suggested we outsource even bolder space exploration to these companies. Why not entrust the audacious human Mars-landing mission to private companies, leaving private industry to fund and build the rockets, capsule and other major systems?

 

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has already boasted plans to build a new rocket that could send citizen colonists to Mars several years ahead of NASA's schedule, and for only $500,000 per ticket. That's dirt cheap.

 

The idea is attractive, considering today's budget crunch, even if commercial plans for a Mars mission are hypothetical at best. But as much as I support the private space industry, experience and common sense tell me that a commercial Mars human landing won't ever get off the ground — not unless NASA goes there first.

 

Businesses are slaves to short-term balance sheets, and private space industry investors and shareholders are notoriously risk-averse. Even wealthy entrepreneurs won't throw their money away. They'll back straightforward missions using well-tested technologies and demand a profit within a reasonable time with acceptable risk.

 

But exploration is, by its nature, risky. Only a nation can marshal the long-term funding and pioneering vision needed to "boldly go where no one has gone before."

 

In fact, nearly every great exploration in history has been government-funded or guaranteed, from Magellan's trip around the globe to the Lewis and Clark expedition. NASA's own history reads as an improbable list of "firsts."

 

When President Kennedy declared that the U.S. would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade, no one had the technologies we would need to get there. NASA scientists and engineers led a government-industry team inventing the rocket boosters, space capsule and computer-guidance systems from scratch in just a few years.

 

Of course, before it succeeded, NASA failed publicly many times. If we had entrusted the project to private industry, shareholders or investors would have pulled the plug long before the Apollo program.

 

NASA's long-term determination led to the success that makes today's commercial spaceflight possible. And NASA is already preparing to take the next giant leaps. It just released a plan to corral an asteroid into orbit around the moon. NASA should partner with industry in this pursuit and enable the utilization of the asteroid it explores.

 

And NASA engineers are developing new technologies for a manned Mars mission like new propulsion systems that produce high velocities at low power, efficient wastewater recycling for long missions, deep-space radiation shields, and the most powerful rocket booster in history, known as the Space Launch System.

 

This is our era's moon shot — the difficult challenge that we choose to accept not because it is easy, as President Kennedy said, but because it is hard, because it will drive us to build new technologies, answer the toughest questions, and inspire a new generation of American engineers and scientists to carry the torch for decades to come.

 

We should continue to support commercial space companies as they make spaceflight cheaper and more accessible. But we should not be content to do what we've done since the '60s, only a little cheaper — or to stake our most important space-exploration goal on the whims of the market.

 

We should continue to push the envelope, to expand the frontier as a top national priority. That's a job only NASA can lead.

 

Space shuttle Atlantis exhibit to open at Kennedy Space Center

 

Susan Thurston - Tampa Bay Times

 

Don't tell employees at the Kennedy Space Center the U.S. space program is grounded. Quite the contrary, they say, pointing to the latest rocket launches and deep-space missions.

 

For an example of a major investment, they talk up the $100 million home of the space shuttle Atlantis, opening to the public June 29.

 

The 90,000-square-foot exhibit building will house the Atlantis and tell the story of NASA's 30-year shuttle program through dozens of interactive exhibits and simulators. Visitors will be able to get within feet of the shuttle, artfully displayed 26 feet off the ground and rotated 43 degrees as if it were flying.

 

The orbiter is big and impressive and still dirty with asteroid dust. If it looks like it's been to hell and back, that's because it probably has been. The shuttle traveled 125 million miles during 33 missions before reaching its final resting spot at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

 

The Atlantis is the star of a 10-year master plan for the complex operated by Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts. The center recently completed construction of a $16 million entry plaza, gift shop and restaurant and added closeup tours of the Kennedy Space Center launch pad and vehicle assembly building — areas that had not been open to the public in decades. In March, it opened the Angry Birds Space Encounter.

 

The Atlantis exhibit significantly expands the existing Space Launch Experience on the complex's eastern edge. Guests will walk into the building under a 184-foot gateway made up of two full-size solid rocket boosters and an orange external fuel tank.

 

Inside, visitors will watch two 10-minute multimedia presentations about the history of the shuttle program and its importance. A 40-foot screen will rise to the ceiling, dramatically revealing the Atlantis in a darkened room with an image of earth behind it.

 

Designers created the exhibit for all ages and interest levels. A slide, space walk simulators and crawl-through mini International Space Station cater to young astronauts in training. Launch pad equipment and a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope (which was launched into orbit by shuttle Discovery) appeal to aeronautical fans. Everyone exits through a gift shop.

 

Also included is the Angry Birds Space Encounter, an attraction developed in partnership with Rovio Entertainment, creators of the wildly popular red birds video games.

 

The 4,485-square-foot indoor attraction has six interactive stations that bring to life characters from the games. Visitors can shoot space pigs with a slingshot, walk through a mirrored labyrinth or create their own digital Angry Bird. Players also can compete in the Red Planet laser challenge, ducking over and under light beams in search of golden eggs. Activities cater to children ages 6 to 14 but are suitable for most ages.

 

Also new is the Visitor Complex entrance area, with self-service kiosks, a will-call station and gift shop, which doesn't require park admission. Central to the expanded plaza is a 75-foot-long fountain honoring the late President John F. Kennedy, the space center's namesake.

 

For history and space buffs, the center recently added a Mega Tour of the space shuttle launch pad area and vehicle assembly building. The tours give a detailed look at how the shuttles were built and transported by "crawler'' to the launch pad. The tours take over two hours and are packed with information rather than thrills, meaning young kids might get antsy. Tickets are $40 for adults and $30 for children.

 

Senior Senate Aide Bingham To Retire

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Jeff Bingham, a senior aide for the Republican minority on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee who is credited with shaping parts of the 2010 law that resurrected elements of the canceled Constellation Moon exploration program, will retire before the summer is out.

 

Bingham, who began his second stint on Capitol Hill in 2005, sent news of his retirement to colleagues in an email the week of May 6. A copy that email was obtained by SpaceNews.

 

"I've agreed to stay available for an unspecified period of time as they transition," Bingham wrote in a May 17 email to SpaceNews. "They [committee members] are considering applicants and we'll just take it as it comes."

 

Bingham said his last day likely would be "sometime within the next three to six weeks."

 

Bingham had reported to former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), a fierce protector of the Johnson Space Center in Houston who, until her retirement in January had been the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over NASA. That position has since been filled by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).

 

Before returning to Capitol Hill in 2005, Bingham worked in NASA's legislative affairs office.

 

In his farewell email to colleagues, Bingham identified some of the staff members who will support Thune, including Benjamin "Bailey" Edwards, who will manage staffers working space issues for committee Republicans. Edwards, a former House aide, will also continue working aviation safety issues for the committee. Under Edwards, Missye Brickell, who has clerked for the committee and spent a year on Hutchison's staff in 2007, will take over science issues. Also reporting to Edwards will be "a new person to focus on the space subject matter," Bingham wrote.

 

Branson announces plans for Christmas launch from spaceport

 

Diana Alba Soular - Las Cruces Sun-News

 

Virgin Group billionaire Sir Richard Branson may be dreaming not of a white Christmas, but a space-y one.

 

Branson, in remarks last week during a trip to Dubai, said the first public Virgin Galactic flight would happen Dec. 25, according to The National, a publication in the United Arab Emirates.

 

Branson has long said he'd be on the inaugural space tourism flight, along with family members.

 

Asked about Branson's remarks, a publicist for Virgin Galactic sent a company statement noting that the start date for carrying paying passengers has always hinged upon safety. Other factors are the successful completion of its test-flight program and the FAA issuing a key license, according to the statement provided by Sean Wilson of Griffin Communications Group.

 

Still, the first rocket-powered flight of the spaceship that will carry passengers — part of the testing program —was a "huge step forwards," according to the email.

 

"The path is now clear to a fairly small number of similar flights which will see a rapid expansion of rocket burn time, culminating in full spaceflight, which we expect to achieve during 2013," according to the statement. "Our best estimate at the moment, if test flights continue as expected, is that we could see the first paying customer flights in 2014. However, as noted previously, safety will always be our North Star."

 

Steps that must happen before that point include the fit-out of the vehicle's interior and moving

 

the spaceline to New Mexico, according to the statement.

Virgin Galactic's two-vehicle spaceflight system is being developed and tested in Mojave, Calif. The first full test flight to space will happen there. But plans call for the vehicles to move to Spaceport America — just north of Doña Ana County — to host suborbital tourism flights.

 

The flight carrying Branson and his children is slated to launch from Spaceport America.

 

The expected date for the first Virgin Galactic tourism spaceflight has been pushed back years from the initial forecasts.

 

Asked if Spaceport America could be ready to host an inaugural flight in December, spaceport director Christine Anderson replied: "We are ready when they are ready."

 

New Mexico Spaceport Authority Chairman Rick Holdridge said he hadn't heard about a possible Dec. 25 targeted launch date for Branson.

 

"The reality is, and Virgin Galactic will say the same thing: They'll fly the first passengers when it's safe to fly," he said. "If he thinks that's Dec. 25, well, he knows if they can do that because it's his company."

 

Continued Holdridge: "We'll be ready when they are."

 

Virgin Galactic earlier this year took possession of the keys to the terminal-hangar building at Spaceport America. It's working on fit-out of the inside.

 

The spaceport authority is still finishing a 2,000-foot extension to the already-built 10,000 foot runway. That's expected to wrap up in June.

 

In addition, customized operations plans must be developed that are specific to launching Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo vehicle into suborbital space, Holdridge said. The spaceport authority is in the "early stages" of setting those procedures. In doing that, he said the agency is working with Virgin Galactic, White Sands Missile Range and the FAA.

 

Oak Hill hears pitch for spaceport, but questions remain

 

Mark Johnson - Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

Oak Hill wants more details before it takes a stand on the development of a commercial spaceport on the city's southern doorstep.

 

Space Florida is seeking community support on plans to construct a public-private launch facility on 150 acres of land now part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore. While no specific site has been chosen, property south of Oak Hill, but north of Haulover Canal on the Volusia-Brevard county line in an area known as Shiloh, is being discussed.

 

When the matter was brought before the City Commission on Monday night, City Clerk Kohn Evans said both sides had their say.

 

Volusia County Councilwoman Deb Denys spoke in favor of the proposal, touting the jobs the spaceport would bring to the county.

 

"Volusia County needs jobs," Denys said Tuesday. "The secondary market alone will bring 1,500 to 2,000 jobs."

 

Commissioner Ron Engele said there is a lot of misinformation being spread around.

 

"I want to see the facts," he said Tuesday.

 

City Commissioner Robert Livingston said Tuesday he doesn't believe the city will have much control.

 

"If Space Florida wants it and the Federal Aviation Administration approves the complex there the city is not going to have a lot to say about it," Livingston said.

 

Denys said she understands Oak Hill's concerns and questions.

 

"There is a lot of false information out there," she said.

 

However, she said once the FAA completes its environmental impact statement a lot of the questions will be answered.

 

Many Oak Hill residents still remember when family and friends lived at Shiloh, before the federal government came in during the 1950s and took over the property along the road to Playalinda, either by purchase or eminent domain, to build a space center at Cape Canaveral.

 

Today, a couple of old cemeteries remain on the property and federal officials say the area is rich in historic and environmental resources.

 

Local fishermen, boaters, birdwatchers and others who frequent Canaveral National Seashore and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge fear that closures to the area for commercial launches -- like those that took place during shuttle launches -- would prevent public access to the waterways and beaches.

 

Oak Hill's neighbor to the north, Edgewater, took up the matter at its May 6 City Council meeting and voiced unanimous support for the proposal.

 

"It fits like a glove," Mayor Mike Thomas said during the meeting. "It will bring more jobs and economic benefit to our city and southeast Volusia County."

 

Councilwoman Gigi Bennington added space is the key to the future of the region.

 

Like in Oak Hill, there were members of the public who were skeptical about the promises of economic windfalls for the region.

 

Edgewater resident Agnes Witter said the jobs promised wouldn't materialize because SpaceX, one of the companies developing space launch capabilities, uses in-house personnel to build its rockets.

 

The Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to endorse the spaceport idea during it's May 2 meeting.

 

Councilwoman Pat Northey cast the lone negative vote citing concerns about safety, the environment and the potential impact on fishing and other nature-based tourism businesses that make their living in the Mosquito Lagoon and the northern Indian River Lagoon.

 

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

 

Curiosity rover drills into second Martian rock

 

Associated Press

 

NASA's Curiosity rover drills again.

 

The space agency said Monday that Curiosity has bored a hole in a second rock and will transfer a pinch of powder to its onboard laboratories later this week for analysis.

 

Sunday's drill was the first major activity by Curiosity since it emerged from a monthlong hiatus. The latest drill site was located about nine feet away from the first rock that Curiosity drilled into three months earlier. A preliminary analysis of the first rock revealed evidence of an ancient environment suitable for primitive life.

 

Scientists wanted to study a second rock to confirm the finding.

 

The team hopes to wrap up soon at the current location and start the long drive to Curiosity's ultimate destination - a mountain rising from the crater floor.

 

NASA Curiosity drills second Mars rock to check John Klein surprise

 

Amina Khan - Los Angeles Times

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has already met its mission goals, discovering that parts of the Red Planet could have been friendly to microbial life. But not one to rest on its scientific laurels, the robot has drilled a second sample of rock to back up the rover's ground-breaking findings.

 

The Mars Science Laboratory rover drilled a 0.6-inch-wide and 2.6-inch-deep hole into a rock named Cumberland, which sits about nine feet west of John Klein, the first rock sampled back in March. Ground into a powder, sieved, portioned and delivered to the lab instruments in the rover's belly, the clay-rich sample from John Klein turned up six crucial elements used in life on Earth — hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus — as well as a low-acidity, life-friendly environment.

 

Scientists had been hoping to find such signs in the layers of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mound that sits in the middle of Gale Crater. But the researchers found the first sign of a habitable environment in Yellowknife Bay in March, less than half a mile from the landing site.

 

"We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and is so supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it," Curiosity's lead scientist, John Grotzinger, said at the time.

 

For their very first rock, the scientists wanted to take no chances, said Ashwin Vasavada, the mission's deputy project scientist.

 

"We chose a nice flat slab of rock, even though there's other places that have a lot more secondary alterations, like veins and concretions," he said.

 

Now the scientists want to be sure that they got it right the first time, Vasavada said in a recent interview. They planned to choose a rock very much like John Klein, but with a few more interesting features, Vasavada said.

 

Cumberland fits that bill; it's considered quite similar to John Klein, but bears mineral veins and spherical concretions that should reveal more about different "eras" in the Red Planet's watery history, Vasavada said.

 

The Mars team doesn't plan to stick around Cumberland for too much longer; after a few more observations, it will head on a months-long journey toward Mt. Sharp to answer more questions about Mars' geologic history.

 

[Updated: An earlier version of this post incorrectly said Curiosity will be heading on a journey toward Gale Crater; the rover will be heading toward Mt. Sharp, which sits in the middle of the crater.]

 

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