Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight News

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 21, 2013 5:57:05 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 21, 2013 and JSC Today

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Professors From TSU and UHCL to Discuss Shaping the STEM Workforce
2.            JSC Today to Super-flex May 24 -- Submit Early for May 28
3.            Help the Next Generation Chart Their Journey to Deep Space
4.            Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays This Week
5.            Today: Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Texas Space Center Section Social Hour
6.            This Week at Starport
7.            Upcoming Webcast: Metal Fatigue Part 1 -- May 22, Noon to 2 p.m.
8.            IEEE Section/Computer Society Meeting: Game-Based Education
9.            Fire Extinguisher Training
10.          RLLS Flight Arrival Departure, Meeting and Lodging Request WebEx Training
________________________________________     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.            Professors From TSU and UHCL to Discuss Shaping the STEM Workforce
JSC's Asians Succeeding in Innovation and Aerospace (ASIA) Employee Resource Group is inviting you to join in celebrating Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year, two distinguished panel speakers, Dr. Lei Yu, P.E., dean of the College of Science and Technology at Texas Southern University (TSU), and Dr. Mrinal Mugdh Varma, associate vice president for Academic Affairs (AVPAA) at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL), will discuss Asian-American contributions to our nation's science, technology, engineering and math workforce and Innovations. All JSC team members are encouraged to attend this event.
Event Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2013   Event Start Time:11:15 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B.30 Auditorium

Add to Calendar

Krystine Bui x34186

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2.            JSC Today to Super-flex May 24 -- Submit Early for May 28
As JSC adopts a new strategy to enhance workplace flexibility, the JSC Today function is also evolving to meet changing customer needs. JSC Today is following the Super-flex alternative work schedule that began on May 10, JSC's first "Flex Friday." For each Flex Friday, submissions for the following Monday after Flex Friday will be due by noon on Thursday.
However, this particular Monday is the Memorial Day holiday, so JSC Today will not be sent out on Monday, May 27. If you have an announcement you'd like to run on Tuesday, May 28, please submit it to JSC Today by noon on Thursday, May 23. (Announcements for Friday, May 24, are also due by noon on Thursday, May 23.)
Super-flex is supported by JSC senior leaders and will promote work schedule flexibilities, reduce energy usage and save costs.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://pao.jsc.nasa.gov/news/jsctoday/

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3.            Help the Next Generation Chart Their Journey to Deep Space
You may have heard NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden talk about the NASA Exploration Design Challenge (EDC) during the recent JSC All Hands. So just what exactly is the EDC? The EDC provides today's students and tomorrow's workforce an opportunity to play a unique role in the future of human spaceflight. NASA and Lockheed Martin are developing the Orion spacecraft that will carry astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit and on to an asteroid or Mars. Protecting astronauts from radiation on these distant travels is an important - and very real - problem to solve. NASA is looking for students to help!
Help the next generation chart their journey to deep space by visiting the EDC website below to learn more. Sign your children up for the challenge, share the EDC with educators you know or send a tweet to your friends. Help us spread the word and connect students to the EDC and Orion!
JSC External Relations, Office of Education x47608 http://www.nasa.gov/education/edc

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4.            Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays This Week
If you missed the All Hands on May 16 featuring NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, you still have opportunities to watch it today, May 21, and Thursday, May 23, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. those days.
JSC team members can view the all-hands meeting on JSC cable TV channel 2 (analog), channel 51-2 (digital high definition) or Omni 45. JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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5.            Today: Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Texas Space Center Section Social Hour
Reminder: Join your fellow engineers and friends over some fine sweets (beverages), treats and SWE camaraderie at our May Social Hour today, May 21, at 5:30 p.m.
If the weather permits, we'll be on the second floor deck. If it's looking gloomy, we'll still be on the second floor (just not the deck).
Hope to see you there!
Event Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2013   Event Start Time:5:30 PM   Event End Time:7:30 PM
Event Location: Chelsea Wine Bar 4106 Nasa Pkwy El Lago, TX 77586

Add to Calendar

Irene Chan x41378

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6.            This Week at Starport
May is Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, and to celebrate we will be offering special selections in the cafés every Wednesday this month. Tomorrow's selection will be Singapore rice noodles.
Be sure to stop by the Mini Fitness Expo in Building 11 tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. as part of Health and Fitness Month! Get your body fat, blood pressure and BMI measured to earn tickets to be entered into our random prize drawing at the end of the month. Plus, challenge yourself with our indoor triathlon.
Masquerade Jewelry will be out on Thursday to showcase $5 jewelry! Stop by Building 3 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and experience the frenzy of $5 jewelry and accessories. Cash, checks and credit cards accepted.
Sam's Club will be in the Building 3 Starport Café Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to discuss membership options. Receive a gift card on new memberships or renewals. Cash or check only for membership purchases.
Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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7.            Upcoming Webcast: Metal Fatigue Part 1 -- May 22, Noon to 2 p.m.
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) and NASA Engineering Network (NEN) will be hosting the following webcast on Wednesday, May 22, at noon CDT for approximately two hours. The webcast, titled "Metal Fatigue Part 1," will be presented by Raymond Patin.
Registration is easy. Go here and click the "Sign in to Register" button. You will be redirected to LaunchPad to enter your user name and password. After a successful authentication, click the "Register Now" button. You will receive a confirmation email. If you can't attend the live webcast, please register anyway and we will notify you when the recorded (on-demand) version is available online for you to view.
Please visit the NESC Academy site to view all upcoming or previously recorded webcasts. To hear about future webcasts, please join the NEN community of practice in your area of interest.
Hope Rachel Venus 757-864-9530 https://nen.nasa.gov

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8.            IEEE Section/Computer Society Meeting: Game-Based Education
Sami Khaleeq, founder and CEO of CG Studio, will speak on "Game-Based Education." Innovative games provide a creative dimension to the learning process and generate an urge to conceive knowledge in an interactional way.
Khaleeq is an expert in social media marketing, computer security and game-based learning. He is on the leadership committee for the Defcon conference, TEDx Houston, First Robotics and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Khaleeq is working on implementing game-based learning with charter and private schools in Houston and San Francisco.
The presentation will run from noon to 12:50 p.m. on May 30 in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room. We will offer lunch at 11:30 a.m. for $8 for the first 15 requestors; there is no charge for the presentation. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell and specify whether you are ordering lunch. Lunch free for unemployed IEEE members; advise when reserving.
Event Date: Thursday, May 30, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Discovery Room, Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Stew O'Dell x31855 http://ewh.ieee.org/r5/galveston_bay/events/events.html

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9.            Fire Extinguisher Training
Fire safety, at its most basic, is based upon the principle of keeping fuel sources and ignition sources separate.
The Safety Learning Center invites you to attend a one-hour Fire Extinguisher Course that provides instructor-led training on the proper way to safely use fire extinguishers.
Students will learn:
o             Five classes of fires
o             Types of fire extinguishers and how to match the right extinguisher to different types of fires
o             How to inspect an extinguisher
o             How to use a fire extinguisher - P.A.S.S.
o             Understand the importance of knowing where extinguishers are at your location
o             Rules for fighting fires and the steps to take if a fire occurs
o             Hands-on (weather permitting)
Date/Time: May 28 from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Where: Safety Learning Center -- Building 20, Room 205/206
Registration via SATERN required:
https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...
Aundrail Hill x36369

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10.          RLLS Flight Arrival Departure, Meeting and Lodging Request WebEx Training
TechTrans International will provide 30-minute WebEx training May 22 and 23 for RLLS Portal modules. The following is a summary of the training dates:
Flight Arrival Departure - May 22 at 7:30 a.m. CDT - 4:30 p.m. Russia
Meeting Support - May 22 at 2 p.m. CDT
Lodging Request - May 23 at 7:30 a.m. CDT - 4:30 p.m. Russia
o             Locating desired support request module
o             Quick view summary page for support request
o             Create a new support request
o             Submittal requirements
o             Submitting on behalf of another individual
o             Adding attachment (agenda, references)
o             Selecting special requirements (export control)
o             Submitting request
o             Status of request records
o             View request records
o             Contacting RLLS support
Please send an email to James.E.Welty@nasa.gov or call 281-335-8565 to sign up for RLLS Support WebEx training courses. Classes are limited to the first 20 individuals registered.
James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

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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.

HEARING ON THE WEB…

Next Steps in Human Exploration to Mars and Beyond

1 pm Central (2 EDT) – House Committee on Science, Space & Tech's Subcommittee on Space

Witnesses
·         Louis Friedman –     Co-Lead, Keck Institute for Space Studies Asteroid Retrieval Mission
Study and Executive Director Emeritus, The Planetary Society
·         Paul Spudis –         Senior Staff Scientist, Lunar and Planetary Institute
·         Steven Squyres –    Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University
·         Douglas Cooke –    Owner, Cooke Concepts and Solutions

Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

NASA's Johnson Space Center Poised For Key Asteroid Mission Role

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) is poised to play key roles in the asteroid exploration strategy featured in the agency's proposed $17.7 billion 2014 budget, potentially integrating and coordinating much of the development and execution, according to Administrator Charles Bolden and JSC Director Ellen Ochoa. Bolden and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver have stressed in visits this year to NASA's coast-to-coast field center network that plans to corral a small, yet-to-be-identified Near-Earth Object into a stable orbit near the Moon offer the most affordable approach to pushing beyond low Earth orbit to Mars by the 2030s.

Company hopes to fuel growth at KSC building
Building was once used to service shuttle

James Dean - Florida Today

A satellite-fueling company will take over a former space shuttle facility at Kennedy Space Center, NASA announced Monday. United Paradyne Corp., of Santa Maria, Calif., next month will begin a 15-year lease of a building at the center's Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, or HMF, where shuttle thrusters were serviced. The company supported that servicing and work on other vehicles as a propellant subcontractor at the Cape for 10 years, until a new contract was awarded in 2008.

Boldly Go? Can Humanity Afford 'Star Trek'-Like Space Exploration?

Michael Dhar - Space.com

The public has no shortage of enthusiasm for fictional spacefarers, as this weekend's box-office win by the newest "Star Trek" film proves. Yet the real-life U.S. space agency finds itself strapped for cash these days. With federal budgets tightening and NASA feeling the pinch, some space advocates are asking, "Can humans afford to reach the stars?" Believe it or not, experts are looking into the finances of not just relatively short-term missions to Mars and the moon, but also long-term prospects of 'Trek'-ian proportions. It may be possible to find the money, they say, but it would likely take some policy changes — and those changes could start today.

Washington is stinting NASA, as usual

Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

Oh Washington, why do you toy with NASA so? Back in 2009 President Obama convened the Augustine commission to provide a full overview of NASA's human spaceflight program, and determine the best course of action to take. The committee's principal finding was, simply, this: NASA's budget should match its mission and goals. Alas no one in Washington bothered to listen to this advice, then or now.

Congress to Hear Manned Mars Mission Ideas on Tuesday

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

Scientists will visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before Congress about what it will take to send humans to Mars. A hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Science, Space and Technology Committee is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT, and will feature astronomers known for their expertise in moon and Mars exploration, as well as a former NASA official and a co-founder of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.

Locals make push for NASA in D.C.

T.J. Aulds - Galveston County Daily News

It's no moon shot, trip to Mars or even an attempt to lasso an asteroid. But for more than 100 space advocates, today marks the start of a mission they consider to be just as important as exploring the reaches of outer space. For 22 years, the Citizens for Space Exploration in conjunction with the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership make a trek to Washington, D.C., to advocate for federal support of the space industry. At a time when NASA is converting to what many call NASA 2.0 and the emerging commercial space programs, the trip is for many more important than ever.

Sally Ride to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

Ledyard King - Florida Today

President Barack Obama announced Monday that Sally Ride, the first female astronaut in space, will posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. "We remember Sally Ride not just as a national hero, but as a role model to generations of young women," the president said in a statement issued Monday evening by the White House. "Sally inspired us to reach for the stars, and she advocated for a greater focus on the science, technology, engineering and math that would help us get there. Sally showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve."

UK astronaut 'Major Tim' to join space station crew

Agence France Presse

A former army helicopter pilot was on Monday named as the first "home-grown" British astronaut to head to the International Space Station. Major Tim Peake, 41, will fly out to the ISS in November 2015 as part of a six-man crew, becoming the first Briton ever to travel to space on a British government-funded mission. British-born astronauts have previously gone into orbit as US citizens through NASA, or on privately-funded ventures organised with Russian help. Peake said it was a "true privilege" to have been chosen from more than 8,000 applicants for the six-month mission.

Ground control to 'Major Tim'

David Shukman - BBC News

It takes the "right stuff" to withstand cosmic bursts of camera light and meteoric bombardments of questions, but Tim Peake is orbit-ready and passed the test of facing the massed media on Monday morning. As Britain's first official, government-backed astronaut, his selection for a mission in late 2015 marks a pivotal moment. Countries as far afield as Belgium, Mexico and Vietnam have already had people in space, but so far the only Brits to make it have either had to change nationality (and become American) or win a Russian competition (as in the case of Helen Sharman in 1991).

Ground Control Names Major Tim First U.K. Astronaut in 20 Years

Kitty Donaldson - Bloomberg News

The U.K. named a former Apache helicopter pilot to be the first astronaut it will put into space in more than 20 years following an increase in government investment in space research. Tim Peake, who served as a major in the British army, will work for six months on the International Space Station. He's one of six astronauts selected from among 8,000 hopefuls around the world. The flight is expected to take place in November 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which oversees Britain's space program, said in an e-mailed statement.

British astronaut assigned to space station mission

Steven Young - Astronomy Now

The UK's first astronaut to officially represent Queen and country was assigned today to a six month stay aboard the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Timothy Peake, a former test pilot and major in the British Army Air Corps, was named to the Expedition 46/47 mission, scheduled to fly to the orbiting outpost in 2015. "I'm absolutely delighted with this decision," said Peake "It really is a true privilege to be assigned to a long duration mission to the International Space Station. For me it feels like the highlight and the high point of a long career in aviation."

UK spaceflight gets a boost with Peake selection for 2015 ISS mission

Dan Thisdell - FlightInternational.com

Europe's contribution to the International Space Station crew rota has been agreed up to April 2016 with the selection of Timothy Peake to join expedition 46/47 for launch in November 2015, for six months in space. Peake, a former Boeing/Westland AH1 Apache helicopter pilot and Major in the British Army, will be the only the third British-born person to fly in space. He follows chemist Helen Sharman, who led the UK into space with a 1991 trip to Russia's Mir space station, and UK-US dual citizen Michael Foale who, flying in NASA colours, accumulated more than 373 days in space between 1992 and 2004 with three Space Shuttle missions and stays aboard both Mir and the ISS. With cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, Foale was joint commander of ISS expedition 8 in 2004.

Britain's Tim Peake Assigned to Six-Month ISS Mission in 2015-16

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

Four years after his selection as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut candidate, Britain's Tim Peake has been formally named as a crewmember aboard Expedition 46/47 to the International Space Station. He will launch with Russian and U.S. crewmates aboard Soyuz TMA-19M in November 2015 and is expected to spend almost six months in orbit.

Lost Apollo 11 Moon Dust Found in Storage

Megan Gannon - Space.com

Vials of moon dust brought back to Earth by the first men on the moon have been found inside a lab warehouse in California after sitting in storage unnoticed for more than 40 years. The samples — collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — were rediscovered last month by an archivist who was going over artifacts tucked away at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We don't know how or when they ended up in storage," Karen Nelson, who made the surprising discovery, said in a statement from the lab.

Despite DC budget woes, NASA still deserves support

Jeff Carr - Galveston County Daily News (Commentary)

(Carr is the senior vice president of aerospace communications for Griffin Communications Group. He is the former director of communications for the United Space Alliance and was the director of public affairs and news chief at the Johnson Space Center.)

The Citizens for Space Exploration, a multistate grass roots organization established to keep NASA's exploration programs funded is in Washington, D.C., this week, making its best case to the 113th Congress. They'll remind lawmakers of how much our investments in space exploration improve our lives, our well-being and our future. Sadly, though, this has become a sort of annual booster shot whose effectiveness wears off too quickly as the annual federal budget process bogs down in partisan acrimony.

NASA's Asteroid Absurdity

Robert Zubrin - Space News (Opinion)

(Zubrin is president of Pioneer Astronautics and the Mars Society and author of "The Case for Mars." His latest work, "Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future," was recently published by Penguin.)

NASA recently announced that it has embraced the idea of an asteroid retrieval mission as the central goal of its human spaceflight program for the next decade or two. According to the agency's leadership, this mission will accomplish a number of important objectives, including delivering a science bonanza, demonstrating a technology useful for planetary defense, creating a large cache of materials in space that can provide in situ resources to support space exploration activities and achieving the president's goal of flying a mission to a near-Earth asteroid as a way of breaking out of geocentric space and demonstrating human deep-space capabilities necessary for subsequent missions to Mars. Since this initiative will cost many billions of dollars and, by diverting the entire multibillion-dollar human spaceflight program for decades, impose an opportunity cost amounting to many tens of billions of dollars, it is imperative that these claims be examined critically to see if any of them are true.
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COMPLETE STORIES

NASA's Johnson Space Center Poised For Key Asteroid Mission Role

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) is poised to play key roles in the asteroid exploration strategy featured in the agency's proposed $17.7 billion 2014 budget, potentially integrating and coordinating much of the development and execution, according to Administrator Charles Bolden and JSC Director Ellen Ochoa.

Bolden and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver have stressed in visits this year to NASA's coast-to-coast field center network that plans to corral a small, yet-to-be-identified Near-Earth Object into a stable orbit near the Moon offer the most affordable approach to pushing beyond low Earth orbit to Mars by the 2030s.

At Johnson, that means leveraging operational and research oversight of the International Space Station through at least 2020, completing efforts with Orbital Sciences Corp. to develop a second U.S. commercial cargo service for the six-person orbiting science lab; supporting the commercial crew transportation initiative led by Kennedy Space Center and preparing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, a cornerstone of the U.S. deep-space exploration strategy, for its first unpiloted test flight in 2014, Bolden and Ochoa said during a May 16 briefing.

"Mars is the ultimate destination for humanity," Bolden said. "No one can go there, if we don't go. If NASA does not lead, humanity does not go there."

NASA's 2014 spending proposal includes $4.5 billion for Johnson, the most among the agency's 10 field centers. Still, the traditional lead center for the development of U.S. human spacecraft was shaken as the space shuttle program came to an end in mid-2011, a year after the cancellation of the Bush administration's Constellation initiative left thousands of shuttle contract workers unable to transfer to a new program.

The proposed budget calls for preparing Orion for an inaugural crewed mission in 2021 that would take four U.S. astronauts to a small asteroid corralled in cis-lunar space by an earlier unmanned probe.

"We had a really positive meeting in which we talked about the really critical role that JSC plays in this budget," Ochoa, who like Bolden is a former NASA astronaut, told the news briefing. "JSC has been involved for the last several months in looking at the feasibility, how we might carry this out. We will be one of the prime integrators and coordinators, I believe. So there is lots of good work in the budget for the Johnson Space Center."

But all bets are off if the White House and Congress cannot eliminate sequestration budget cuts, Bolden said. NASA's budget will fall from a sequester-limited $16.8 billion this year to $16.1 billion in 2014.

"I'm the eternal optimist. But the stipulation I put on everything if the president and Congress are not able to solve the sequester issue, is we are in trouble," he said. "That is not panic talk. It's just fact."

Company hopes to fuel growth at KSC building
Building was once used to service shuttle

James Dean - Florida Today

A satellite-fueling company will take over a former space shuttle facility at Kennedy Space Center, NASA announced Monday.

United Paradyne Corp., of Santa Maria, Calif., next month will begin a 15-year lease of a building at the center's Hypergolic Maintenance Facility, or HMF, where shuttle thrusters were serviced.

The company supported that servicing and work on other vehicles as a propellant subcontractor at the Cape for 10 years, until a new contract was awarded in 2008.

"We're very excited to be coming back," said CEO Joseph Hasay. "In the long-term, we're looking to expand our operations, and there's a lot going on there at Kennedy, so we hope to procure more work and grow our business."

Initially, a small group of employees including three newly hired former shuttle workers will refurbish components for NASA's Orion exploration capsule.

But the company plans to bid on numerous contracts in the coming years, and its local team could grow to 50 during the next four years.

Those positions would have average annual salaries of $64,000, according to the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast, which partnered with NASA on the agreement.

Details of state incentives involved in the agreement were not immediately available. The company plans to invest $9 million in facility upgrades.

Privately held United Paradyne currently employs 120 people, mostly in California, where the company has a six-year contract to manage rocket fuel and life support services at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Hasay said.

Many spacecraft use hypergolic propellants, which ignite upon contact with each other, to maneuver in orbit.

The propellants are highly toxic — the sixth-deadliest chemicals on Earth, Hasay said — making their handling an extremely hazardous operation.

The 6,500-square-foot Hypergols Module Processing South building that United Paradyne will use was built in 1964 to test Apollo spacecraft propulsion systems.

The shuttle program performed maintenance there on orbiters' forward thrusters, and it was once slated for demolition.

Its lease is part of Kennedy's plan to encourage commercial use of facilities it no longer needs.

"Kennedy continues to work with the commercial community to find innovative ways to use and preserve our unique capabilities," KSC Director Bob Cabana said in a statement.

Boldly Go? Can Humanity Afford 'Star Trek'-Like Space Exploration?

Michael Dhar - Space.com

The public has no shortage of enthusiasm for fictional spacefarers, as this weekend's box-office win by the newest "Star Trek" film proves. Yet the real-life U.S. space agency finds itself strapped for cash these days. With federal budgets tightening and NASA feeling the pinch, some space advocates are asking, "Can humans afford to reach the stars?"

Believe it or not, experts are looking into the finances of not just relatively short-term missions to Mars and the moon, but also long-term prospects of 'Trek'-ian proportions. It may be possible to find the money, they say, but it would likely take some policy changes — and those changes could start today.

Captain, we don't have the funding!

"Star Trek: Into Darkness" brought in about $84 million in its opening weekend — just a month after NASA cut $200 million from its planetary-sciences budget. (In an odd move, NASA's newest budget explicitly states that it will notfund any missions to Europa, the ice-moon of Jupiter that stands as one of the solar system's best candidates for supporting life, noted Casey Dreier, an advocacy and outreach strategist at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to planetary exploration.)

Those cuts come as NASA and the rest of the federal government negotiate sequestration cuts, which could trim $7 billion from NASA's ledgers next year if the reductions are maintained.

But even without the sequester, NASA hasn't commanded the kind of money needed for real, ambitious space travel in decades, said Marc Millis, a former NASA propulsion physicist and founder of the Tau Zero Foundation, which is dedicated to interstellar travel.

After hitting an apex with the Apollo moon program, NASA's purse shrunk considerably and has stayed stagnant since, Millis said. NASA's funds reached about 4.5 percent of the total federal budget during the Apollo era, Millis calculated. By 2009, NASA's share had fallen to about 0.5 percent. "The amount that's devoted to NASA now is enough to keep it going," he said. "But to do really cool space travel is not possible now."

Essentially, the agency has floated along on autopilot, clutching at relatively low-hanging fruit, like the space-shuttle missions, said Paul Gilster, who researches and writes about interstellar technologies for Tau Zero. "We should have something else than just going 'round and 'round the Earth," he said.

Future sticker shock

In Gene Roddenberry's original "Star Trek," an international crew voyages aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, a 938-foot-long (286 meters) starship equipped with transporters, photon torpedoes and other slick tech. (Director J.J. Abrams' new film supersizes the ship to nearly a half-mile long (725 meters). ['Star Trek' Starship Enterpise Evolution in Photos]

Real-world science and engineering feats continue move "Star Trek" technology closer to the realm of science fact: The then-futuristic control panels on the original "Star Trek" television series' first Enterprise look an awful lot like Apple iPads. And though once ruled out as impossible, recent science suggests the "warp drive," which would permit faster-than-light travel, may eventually be doable.

Possible is one thing; affordable is quite another. According to one calculation, published on Gizmodo.com, the new film's behemoth spaceship would require more than $12 billion in raw materials and $474 billion in weaponry, among other costs — all adding up to a total price tag of roughly $500 billion. By one calculation, funding the oft-repeated "five-year mission" of the original "Star Trek" would cost up to $7.4 trillion, according to Examiner.com.

The "Build the Enterprise" website and petition provide an estimate on a somewhat more reasonable goal than a real starship: a visual facsimile of the Enterprise that could travel around Earth's own solar system, but not other stars. If the spacecraft were built so that it could reach Mars in 90 days, it would cost $1 trillion to construct, estimates the engineer behind the effort, who goes by the moniker BTE-Dan.

But this faux Enterprise wouldn't accomplish the real core of the "Star Trek" mythos: human contact with alien worlds around distant stars. To do that, humans will likely need centuries' more technological development — and estimating what that endeavor will cost takes a bit more speculation.

The best place to start is by calculating the biggest-ticket item: energy, Gilster said. Whatever the technology used, it will take an obscene amount of energy to propel a spaceship to the stars. To reach Alpha Centauri, the nearest star beyond Earth's own sun, a spaceship would need to expend 65 terawatts, at a cost of $130 trillion, according to one estimate, Gilster said.

That's a lot of government bonds.

Wait, maybe this is possible

So, how could humanity — let alone the deficit-obsessed U.S. government — ever hope to pay for a real-life "Trek"?

Constructing the Enterprise facsimile alone would require some difficult choices and political will — but the math might work. BTE-Dan estimates that the ship would need $40 billion a year over the course of 20 to 33 years. To get that kind of money, you'd need to shave $2 billion to $10 billion off defense, health, housing, education and other costs every year, while raising taxes.

To pay for the grander mission of true interstellar flight, humanity would not only need new technology, but also vastly more efficient technology and an enormously richer economy. That could actually bring the breathtaking costs of fueling a starship down to a manageable level, Gilster said. "At what point does the amount of power shrink to a small enough percentage of GDP?" he asked. At Tau Zero, experts estimate 3 to 5 percent of GDP to be the sweet spot.

And historical patterns say it's possible, Gilster added. If you take humanity's track record of increased energy efficiency, thanks to better technology over time, and pair that with the historical pattern of a growing, global economy, projections say humanity could economically fuel a starship in 200 to 300 years. It's highly speculative, of course, but "all you can do is look at the historical trends and hope for the best," Gilster said.

From here to there

But to get the energy needed to transport humans to the stars, the planet first needs to build up a lot of infrastructure, Gilster said. That means work must be done in the next few years and over the next few hundred years.

To efficiently produce the energy for an interstellar space program, for instance, the denizens of Earth will likely have to construct a solar energy station in space — on Mercury, for example, Gilster said. That would finally take full advantage of the thermonuclear furnace at the center of Earth's solar system, he said.

But to get there, and to prepare for the long haul of interstellar travel, humans have to develop a greater presence in space and the ability to move around the solar system more easily and frequently, Gilster said. Sending people to Mars and beyond will train scientists in equipping astronauts for long periods in space and open up access to the resources of the solar system, he said.

Just as the Apollo missions had to start with lower-ambition missions in lunar orbit in order to get the technology right for future moon landings, star travel requires more and better solar system adventures. Projects like BTE-Dan's Enterprise, then, could actually serve as necessary first steps toward a real starship. [Video: Warp Drives and Worm Holes]

Motivation

But with planetary exploration no longer a top priority, the way to the stars still looks blocked at the budget line. Funding for those near-term treks into the solar system has to come from somewhere, and the government may not be able to provide it.

However, deep-pocketed adventurers may be able to fill in the gaps. In recent years, private companies, such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) and Virgin Galactic, have entered the space race. Those interested in long-term spacefaring hope these companies can make suborbital and Earth-orbit travel cheap enough to actually make it profitable.

"I think that will grow more and more interest, and people will see more ways to make money in space," Millis said.

After that, companies can look into mining asteroids, space tourism and even planetary colonies. If these endeavors become moneymakers, then building the infrastructure for space-based energy production and frequent solar-system travel may pay for itself. With space-based power generation, the profits would multiply by orders of magnitude, Gilster said.That could change the economics of interstellar travel — and one day vastly change the chances funding the planet's boldest missions yet.

Washington is stinting NASA, as usual

Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

Oh Washington, why do you toy with NASA so?

Back in 2009 President Obama convened the Augustine commission to provide a full overview of NASA's human spaceflight program, and determine the best course of action to take. The committee's principal finding was, simply, this: NASA's budget should match its mission and goals.

Alas no one in Washington bothered to listen to this advice, then or now.

After the president received the report, he and Congress eventually worked out a plan, in July 2010, that directed NASA to continue developing a space capsule and rocket that would allow the space agency to begin launching humans to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit in the 2020s.

I remember quite clearly standing in Rocket Park back in October 2010, when the Texas Congressional delegation took to the podium and patted themselves on the back. I worried about the stability, the commitment of Washington to NASA and human spaceflight, and whether there was actually enough money in the plan to do what Congress was asking NASA to do.

Now let's jump forward three years. A key architect of that 2010 deal, now retired U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is sticking to the same talking points. In an op-ed she wrote along with Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan:

Congress' 2010 law will avoid that gap from ever happening again. By ensuring coverage for present priorities and future planning, development of the new heavy launch vehicle has begun. If we maintain the 2010 plan, when the space station is decommissioned in 2020, we will be ready to pursue further exploitation of the moon, possibly Mars and beyond. Even in a time of tight budgets, policymakers recognized the need for planting seed corn. Fully utilizing the space station while allocating resources for the next deeper space pursuit are not opposing options.

This particular op-ed caught my attention after space industry analyst Jeff Foust tweeted it, noting that actual funding has fallen well short of the levels authorized in the 2010 congressional law. How short? I looked it up.

For fiscal year 2012, the 2010 law authorized a budget of $19.45 billion, including $4.05 billion for the development of a new spacecraft and rocket. And what did NASA receive? It's FY 2012 budget was actually $17.77 billion, and the spacecraft and rocket received $3.00 billion.

And what of the current fiscal year? The bipartisan deal between Congress and the president called for $19.96 billion and $4.04 billion for the spacecraft and rocket. Although it's not entirely clear due to the sequester, NASA is getting $17.89 billion, and less than $3 billion of that is going to the spacecraft and rocket.

The bottom line? Don't be surprised when NASA doesn't deliver a functional rocket and spacecraft for its maiden, astronaut-carrying voyage that's scheduled for 2021.

No one from NASA, or Congress or the White House will actually tell you that. It's in none of their interests, publicly, to say the space agency is being underfunded. They all look good if everyone plays nice and says NASA is in a great place.

But it's not. Once again it's being given grand aspirations without commensurate funding. I wish the charade would end.

Congress to Hear Manned Mars Mission Ideas on Tuesday

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

Scientists will visit Capitol Hill Tuesday to testify before Congress about what it will take to send humans to Mars.

A hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives' Science, Space and Technology Committee is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT, and will feature astronomers known for their expertise in moon and Mars exploration, as well as a former NASA official and a co-founder of The Planetary Society, a nonprofit dedicated to space exploration.

President Obama has challenged NASA to send astronauts to Mars by the mid 2030s, with an earlier goal of landing on an asteroid in the 2020s. Scientists say both ambitions are challenging, and will require new technologies — as well as steady funding — to come to fruition.

The space agency has already begun work on a new rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) and a new crew capsule called Orion to transport astronauts to deep space. More work will be needed on additional technologies, such as improved shielding from space radiation, and advanced navigation and communications equipment, as well.

A manned mission to Mars was the topic of a recent conference in Washington, D.C. called the Humans 2 Mars Summit. There, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden reaffirmed the agency's commitment to a manned mission to Mars.

"Interest in sending humans to Mars I think has never been higher," Bolden said May 6. "We now stand on the precipice of a second opportunity to press forward to what I think is man's destiny — to step onto another planet."

Witnesses presenting at Tuesday's Congressional hearing will include:

The panel is organized by the Subcommittee on Space, and will be held at the 2318 Rayburn House Office Building.

Paul Spudis, a geologist specializing in lunar science at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston
Steve Squyres, a Cornell University astronomer who is principal investigator of NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers on Mars
Douglas Cooke, former associate administrator for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate who now owns the Cooke Concepts and Solutions consulting company
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

Locals make push for NASA in D.C.

T.J. Aulds - Galveston County Daily News

It's no moon shot, trip to Mars or even an attempt to lasso an asteroid. But for more than 100 space advocates, today marks the start of a mission they consider to be just as important as exploring the reaches of outer space.

For 22 years, the Citizens for Space Exploration in conjunction with the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership make a trek to Washington, D.C., to advocate for federal support of the space industry.

At a time when NASA is converting to what many call NASA 2.0 and the emerging commercial space programs, the trip is for many more important than ever.

Among those on the trip are Galveston County Judge Mark Henry, League City Mayor Tim Paulissen, Friendswood City Councilman Steve Rockey and several space industry professionals including officials from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Barrios Technology and Emergent Space Technologies.

There are also more than 20 college students from across the country making the trip.

The message is simple, American leadership in space exploration is essential.

Usually that involves selling members of Congress on the importance of federal funding for the space program. NASA, advocates note, is less than 1 percent of the federal budget, but offers more in return for the investment than other federally funded programs.

"Congress will act on the NASA Authorization Act of 2013, and Congress needs to hear our input," Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership's President Bob Mitchell said.

The effect of the budget standoff between the White House and Congress and sequestration adds a new twist to the trip this year.

"With sequestration already impacting NASA's budget, we need to let Congress know that these cuts have a huge impact on the work that NASA is able to achieve," Bay Area Houston Mitchell said.

While NASA has thus far been able to avoid furloughs and major program cuts because of the budget stalemate, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden warned that won't be the case much longer.

"If the president and the Congress are not able to solve the sequester issue, which is a 10-year problem, we're in trouble," Bolden said last week during a visit to the Johnson Space Center. "This is not a panic talk. Its just fact.

"If we have to operate under sequester in 2014 NASA's budget goes from $16.8 billion, it will not go up to $17.7 (billion proposed budget) it will go down another $800 million to about $16.1 (billion). That is significantly below the level of spending we have right now."

Mitchell said in addition to urging elected officials to work out differences on the budget to end sequestration, the group will spend a fair amount of time educating lawmakers about NASA's significance.

"With so many newly elected members of Congress from states that don't have NASA centers, we need to share with them the importance of the work that NASA does and its positive impact on the nation," he said.

That effect isn't just in space exploration. The group will stress how NASA's research and missions help non-space industries.

Oil spill cleanup and wastewater treatment, for example, has been improved because of NASA research and cooperation with businesses.

Micro-Bac International, in Round Rock, developed a phototrophic cell for water purification. It was work to protect astronauts on the International Space Station that led to the discovery of photosynthetic bacteria that break down toxic chemicals.

Micro-Bac is now using that technology for waste treatment at livestock farms and food manufacturing facilities and for wastewater treatment.

It was also used to mitigate crude oil spill material that washed up after the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

NASA research has also improved semiconductor development at Sugar Land-based Applied Optoelectronics and improved stem cell therapies that Houston-based Regenetech is using to develop therapies for diabetes, heart   disease as well as veterinary orthopedic treatments.

Sally Ride to receive Presidential Medal of Freedom

Ledyard King - Florida Today

President Barack Obama announced Monday that Sally Ride, the first female astronaut in space, will posthumously be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

"We remember Sally Ride not just as a national hero, but as a role model to generations of young women," the president said in a statement issued Monday evening by the White House. "Sally inspired us to reach for the stars, and she advocated for a greater focus on the science, technology, engineering and math that would help us get there. Sally showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve."

The honor comes only a month before the 30th anniversary of her historic flight aboard the Challenger space shuttle, which launched from Kennedy Space Center June 18, 1983. She was a mission specialist on a subsequent shuttle flight a year later as well.

She died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

On Monday, NASA paid tribute to Ride by creating a new agency internship program in her name and renaming a science instrument aboard the International Space Station.

The announcement was made by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden during a national tribute called, "Sally Ride: A Lifetime of Accomplishment, A Champion of Science Literacy," at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

NASA also is renaming a camera aboard the space station the Sally Ride EarthKAM, the White House said.

Hundreds of thousands of middle school students have participated in space research by using EarthKAM, according to Sally Ride Science, the science education company Ride founded.

Students use the Internet to request images based on their classroom investigations, and the image collection and accompanying learning guides and activities are extraordinary resources to support lessons in Earth and space science, geography, social studies, mathematics, communications, and even art.

UK astronaut 'Major Tim' to join space station crew

Agence France Presse

A former army helicopter pilot was on Monday named as the first "home-grown" British astronaut to head to the International Space Station.

Major Tim Peake, 41, will fly out to the ISS in November 2015 as part of a six-man crew, becoming the first Briton ever to travel to space on a British government-funded mission.

British-born astronauts have previously gone into orbit as US citizens through NASA, or on privately-funded ventures organised with Russian help.

Peake said it was a "true privilege" to have been chosen from more than 8,000 applicants for the six-month mission.

"The mission to the International Space Station is going to be a wonderful opportunity, not just for Europe and European science but the UK as well," he said at a press conference in London.

Prime Minister David Cameron said it was "a momentous day, not just for Tim Peake but for Great Britain".

"I am sure he will do us proud and I hope that he will inspire the next generation to pursue exciting careers in science and engineering," the prime minister said.

Peake, who will be on board the ISS for six months, has swiftly been dubbed "Major Tim" in reference to David Bowie's 1969 song "Space Oddity", which tells the tale of lonely astronaut Major Tom.

He uses Twitter under the handle @astro_timpeake, and there are hopes he could take over from Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield as the ISS's chief tweeter.

Hadfield, who returned to Earth last week, delighted Twitter users during his six-month mission with spectacular images taken from the ISS and insights into daily life in space.

He even posted a video of himself singing "Space Oddity" as he floated in zero gravity with his guitar.

Peake confirmed that he would be tweeting from the space station, but he added: "I do play the guitar, but very badly, and I wouldn't inflict my singing on anybody."

His tweets would hopefully "encourage a generation to take an interest in space", he told journalists.

During his mission Peake will work on a range of experiments and will potentially have the opportunity to conduct a spacewalk.

The team will lift off to the ISS from Kazakhstan in a Soyuz rocket.

Britain has traditionally refused to get involved in the funding of human space flight due to the huge cost, but its interest in the sector has grown in recent years.

Cameron said Peake's mission was "a great sign of our thriving British space sector, which has seen real growth thanks to our world-class research, and now supports nearly 30,000 jobs".

Helen Sharman became the first Briton in space in 1991, spending eight days at the now-defunct Mir Space Station as part of the Soviet mission Project Juno.

The most experienced British-born astronaut is NASA's Michael Foale, who has completed missions to both Mir and the ISS.

Ground control to 'Major Tim'

David Shukman - BBC News

It takes the "right stuff" to withstand cosmic bursts of camera light and meteoric bombardments of questions, but Tim Peake is orbit-ready and passed the test of facing the massed media on Monday morning.

As Britain's first official, government-backed astronaut, his selection for a mission in late 2015 marks a pivotal moment.

Countries as far afield as Belgium, Mexico and Vietnam have already had people in space, but so far the only Brits to make it have either had to change nationality (and become American) or win a Russian competition (as in the case of Helen Sharman in 1991).

For decades, British governments regarded astronauts as a rather strange and pointless luxury - the weightless floating about irrelevant to life on the ground and the costs far too extravagant to contemplate.

This attitude was memorably summed up by Kenneth Clarke in the last Conservative government in the 1980s. When asked if Britain would contribute to the European Space Agency's role in the International Space Station, he replied that he didn't want to pay to put a Frenchman in space.

Since then, quietly and modestly, British space labs and companies have grown to become market leaders in key technologies and their business is valued at £9bn a year.

The sensors that bring you those amazing pictures of the Sun, the rocket motors steering spacecraft, the harpoons that may help clear up space junk - many are designed and built in Britain.

There are hopes that the space sector will grow - eventually to support as many as 100,000 jobs - and the figurehead of this renewed British effort in space is a former helicopter pilot from Chichester.

Science Minister David Willetts regards the £16m to secure Tim Peake's ticket as money well spent.

While Nasa wraps its astronauts in the rhetoric of fabled explorers - lots of "celestial destiny" and "bold endeavour" - the British take is far more mundane: the press release announcing Tim Peake's mission is mainly about British industry and jobs.

So when he dons his spacesuit, and checks the union flag's in place, there'll be a lot riding on his multi-layered shoulders.

I first met him when he was picked for the European Space Agency's astronaut corps back in 2009 - the start of a long road to orbit - and he appeared exactly how you expect astronauts to look: calm, measured, ready for anything.

He's got the straight spine of a military man and the sharp gaze that Nasa selectors have always favoured, and he turns his head in even, steady moves, not unlike those chisel-jawed heroes of Thunderbirds.

On Monday morning, after his news conference, his cheeks were flushed in a way that reminded me of Prince Harry, and his manner has the same relaxed air.

"I'm clearly delighted with the decision. It's a true privilege to be assigned to a long-duration space mission," he told me.

I asked about the much-pushed angle that his mission is partly about trying to boost economic growth.

"There's also the inspiration part - the true human exploration in terms of what we are doing.

"We are pushing the boundaries every time an astronaut goes up; we learn new things about ourselves, about our bodies."

Then the really big questions: yes, he does play the guitar, not well, but did actually once play with the legendary Chris Hadfield, the most musically famous astronaut of them all.

Via Twitter, I was asked if Tim Peake would introduce his fellow astronauts to the delights of a Full English Breakfast.

"I get to choose some of the European food that comes up with me, so a Full English breakfast might be top of the list."

So in November 2015, at the desert launch complex at Baikonur that saw Yuri Gargarin blaze a trail into orbit, Tim Peake will climb into the top of a Soyuz rocket.

The countdown will be in Russian. Tim Peake's training will make him comfortable with the language. And then the first jolt of launch will kick in.

Down below him, a blast of flame will send a wall of heat across the scrubby dunes towards the viewing stands and camera positions: this will make compulsive viewing in homes and schools across Britain.

Tim Peake will be given a vigorous shaking - "a moment nothing can prepare you for", he told me - as the rocket motors accelerate him into space, and a place in the history books.

Ground Control Names Major Tim First U.K. Astronaut in 20 Years

Kitty Donaldson - Bloomberg News

The U.K. named a former Apache helicopter pilot to be the first astronaut it will put into space in more than 20 years following an increase in government investment in space research.

Tim Peake, who served as a major in the British army, will work for six months on the International Space Station. He's one of six astronauts selected from among 8,000 hopefuls around the world. The flight is expected to take place in November 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which oversees Britain's space program, said in an e-mailed statement.

"This is another important mission for Europe and in particular a wonderful opportunity for European science, industry and education to benefit from microgravity research," Peake said at the Science Museum in London today, according to remarks released by the business department. "I am extremely grateful to the ground support teams who make it possible for us to push the boundaries of knowledge through human spaceflight and exploration."

Today's announcement follows increased investment by the U.K. Space Agency in Europe's space program to 240 million pounds ($365 million) a year, including a 16 million-pound one-time payment to the International Space Station.

Peake joined the European Astronaut Corps in 2009 and will become the second astronaut with solely British citizenship to voyage into space.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the announcement of Peake's involvement in the program "a momentous day." The British space industry is worth 9 billion pounds to the nation's economy annually and employs almost 30,000 people, the government said in an e-mailed statement.

British astronaut assigned to space station mission

Steven Young - Astronomy Now

The UK's first astronaut to officially represent Queen and country was assigned today to a six month stay aboard the International Space Station. European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Timothy Peake, a former test pilot and major in the British Army Air Corps, was named to the Expedition 46/47 mission, scheduled to fly to the orbiting outpost in 2015.

"I'm absolutely delighted with this decision," said Peake "It really is a true privilege to be assigned to a long duration mission to the International Space Station. For me it feels like the highlight and the high point of a long career in aviation."

Peake will fly to the space station in late 2015 aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. He will be joined by two yet to be named crew mates from Russia and America.

"I think this is a great day for the British space programme," said Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts, who made that announcement at the Science Museum in London. "I very much hope that Timothy Peake – Major Tim as we will call him – will also promote a British resurgence in science and technology."

Peake also voiced hope that his mission would be an inspiration. Although he admitted that space station commander Chris Hadfield, who became a social media sensation with his rendition of David Bowie's Space Oddity, would be a hard act to follow.

"I do play the guitar, but very badly and I wouldn't inflict my singing on anybody," he said.

Peake will not be the first British astronaut. That distinction went to Helen Sharman, who flew to the Mir space station in 1991 in a commercial venture with the Soviet space programme. There have also been other British-born space travellers. Mike Foale, Piers Sellers and Nicholas Patrick became American citizens in order to fly aboard NASA's space shuttle. Foale, one of NASA's most respected astronauts, also made long duration flights aboard Mir and the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Greg Johnson and space tourist Richard Garriott were also born in the UK to American parents.

"This is a momentous day, not just for Tim Peake but for Great Britain," said Prime Minister David Cameron. "It is a great sign of our thriving British space sector, which has seen real growth thanks to our world-class research, and now supports nearly 30,000 jobs.

A resurgence in the United Kingdom's interest in space including some limited government funding of ESA's manned space programmes, helped open up the possibility of a UK citizen becoming an astronaut. Peake and five others were chosen from over 8,000 applicants to join the European astronaut corps in 2009. He graduated from the initial astronaut training programme the following year.

UK spaceflight gets a boost with Peake selection for 2015 ISS mission

Dan Thisdell - FlightInternational.com

Europe's contribution to the International Space Station crew rota has been agreed up to April 2016 with the selection of Timothy Peake to join expedition 46/47 for launch in November 2015, for six months in space.

Peake, a former Boeing/Westland AH1 Apache helicopter pilot and Major in the British Army, will be the only the third British-born person to fly in space. He follows chemist Helen Sharman, who led the UK into space with a 1991 trip to Russia's Mir space station, and UK-US dual citizen Michael Foale who, flying in NASA colours, accumulated more than 373 days in space between 1992 and 2004 with three Space Shuttle missions and stays aboard both Mir and the ISS. With cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, Foale was joint commander of ISS expedition 8 in 2004.

Peake also follows IT entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, a UK-South African dual-citizen who trained extensively and paid some $20 million to join, as a self-funded "spaceflight participant", a 2002 Russian Soyuz trip to the ISS, where he spent eight days.

Peake is one of six astronaut candidates selected by the European Space Agency in 2009 from thousands of applicants. The first of that group to fly will be Luca Parmitano, who is scheduled to launch on 28 May 2013. Parmitano will be followed by Alexander Gerst and Samantha Cristoforetti, both scheduled for launch in 2014. The two remaining class of 2009 astronauts, Andreas Mogensen and Thomas Pesquet, will be assigned before mid-2015 for flights at the latest in 2017.

Peake's training has included time in the USA and Russia. Having completed neutral buoyancy tank training in Houston, he is among an elite group of astronauts qualified to undertake a space walk.

Aboard the ISS, Peake's research focus will be the effects of microgravity.

His selection for the 2015 mission comes as the UK government ramps up its financial support for space-based research and for ESA, including its manned spaceflight programme.

Britain's Tim Peake Assigned to Six-Month ISS Mission in 2015-16

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

Four years after his selection as a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut candidate, Britain's Tim Peake has been formally named as a crewmember aboard Expedition 46/47 to the International Space Station. He will launch with Russian and U.S. crewmates aboard Soyuz TMA-19M in November 2015 and is expected to spend almost six months in orbit.

Born in Chichester, England, Peake will not be the first Briton to enter space, but will be the first to officially represent the British government. News of Peake's assignment was made public by the BBC and several U.K. publications Sunday, although the announcement from ESA was made Monday afternoon.
According to ESA Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain, the decision to select Peake was accepted by the ISS Multilateral Crew Operations Panel on Friday 17 May. "When we recruited the six new ESA astronauts in May 2009, I made a promise to secure flight opportunities for all of them," Dordain said. "Thanks to the decisions of the Member States at the Ministerial Council last November, we will be able to fulfil our commitment to fly all six newly-selected astronauts before the end of 2017." Peake's assignment makes him the fourth of the group to receive a mission. Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano is scheduled to blast off from Baikonur aboard Soyuz TMA-09M on 28 May, followed by Germany's Alexander Gerst in May 2014 and (under a separate contract with the Italian Space Agency) Italy's first female spacefarer, Samantha Cristoforetti, in December 2014.

Launching in November 2015, Peake and his Soyuz TMA-19M teammates are expected to join incumbent ISS crewmen Scott Kelly of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergei Volkov. Kelly and Kornienko will fly to the station in March 2015 and will stage the first year-long mission aboard the ISS, whilst Volkov will join them in September-October and accompany them until the scheduled end of their tour in March 2016. Although several British sources – including The Guardian and the BBC – have speculated that Peake may perform an EVA, the flight is so far into the future that plans are almost certain to change. What is certain is the Peake will participate for the first time as a U.K. national, and with the Union Jack proudly displayed on the arm of his Sokol launch and entry suit.

Although several 'Britons' have flown into space – the first being Helen Sharman, aboard Soyuz TM-12 to the Mir orbital station, back in May 1991 – none of them have done so with the official backing and financial support of the U.K. government. Sharman's eight-day voyage was a wholly commercial venture, conducted under the auspices of "Project Juno", and will form part of a forthcoming AmericaSpace history article on the weekend of 25/26 May. Other astronauts, including Mike Foale, Piers Sellers and Nick Patrick, were born in Britain, but were required to gain U.S. citizenship, ahead of selection by NASA. All three rode their missions into space with the Stars and Stripes on their sleeves, rather than the Union Jack. Still more, including Mark Shuttleworth and Richard Garriott, had dual nationality, but flew as paying "space tourists".

Britain's lack of a human space program has proven a surprise to many Britons – not least myself, for whom today's news is tremendously exciting – when one considers that the U.K. was only the sixth nation to launch a home-grown satellite into orbit. Tiny Prospero was boosted aloft by a British-built Black Arrow rocket from Woomera, South Australia, in October 1971, and although the U.K. has proven a world leader in remote-sensing applications and satellite technology, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s virtually gutted any chance of a human space effort. At one stage, hopes were high that Royal Air Force officer Nigel Wood might fly aboard the Shuttle in June 1986 as a payload specialist to oversee the deployment of the Ministry of Defence's Skynet 4A communications satellite, but the loss of Challenger ended that possibility.

It came as a disappointment, but not a great surprise, when the ISS Intergovernmental Agreement was signed between the partners in January 1998 that Britain did not provide any financial contribution to the station. However, more recently, it was reported that Britain's space industry currently provides around £9 billion ($13.7 billion) to the national economy each year and this provided David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, with an important leveraging tool to persuade Chancellor George Osborne to offer renewed support for ESA. In November 2012, at ESA's Ministerial Council Meeting in Naples, Italy, the pan-European organization agreed a budget of 10 billion euros ($12.9 billion) over the next three to five years…of which 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) would originate from Britain.

This contribution made the U.K. one of only three member-states to actually increase its financial commitment to the space program. As well as enabling ESA to press ahead with its plan to build the service module for NASA's Orion deep-space exploration craft – based upon Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) technology – Britain's investment also included a contribution of 14.6 million euros ($18.9 million) to the European Life and Physical Sciences (ELIPS) program, which has opened the door to actual research aboard the ISS…and to the flight of Tim Peake.

"This is a momentous day, not just for Tim Peake, but for Great Britain," said Prime Minister David Cameron earlier today (Monday). "It is a great sign of our thriving British space sector, which has seen real growth thanks to our world-class research, and now supports nearly 30,000 jobs."

With Peake now scheduled to take ESA's next astronaut slot in November 2015, only two others from the new class – France's Thomas Pesquet and Denmark's Andreas Mogensen – remain to be formally assigned to upcoming missions. However, it has been known for some time that Mogensen will likely fly aboard Soyuz TMA-18M in September-October 2015, alongside Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and English soprano Sarah Brightman, but only for about ten days. With Pesquet then expected to pick up the next ESA long-duration slot in November 2016, this will make Mogensen the only member of the 2009 astronaut class not to draw a lengthy flight assignment. Earlier today (Monday), the website NASASpaceflight.com reported that the most likely reason for this is Denmark's relatively benign financial contribution to the ESA budget. Still, when Mogensen flies, he will become the first Dane to venture into space.

For many Britons, today's announcement of 41-year-old Tim Peake – a former Royal Army Air Corps officer and veteran Apache helicopter test pilot – comes as exciting and heartening news in a nation where human space flight has often been overlooked. The astronaut-to-be announced that he was "delighted" at the assignment, describing it as "another important mission for Europe and in particular a wonderful opportunity for European science, industry and education to benefit from microgravity research". Peake's mission will undoubtedly enable him to participate in many outreach activities to enthuse fellow Britons to dream big and reach for the stars…though he has admitted he is a step or two behind Chris Hadfield in the musical stakes. "I do play the guitar, but very badly," he said, "and I wouldn't impose my singing on anybody!"

At the very least, we can expect a distinctly British accent – and hopefully a touch of British humor, too – to crackle across the space-to-ground airwaves in late 2015.

And I will certainly be cheering him along.

Lost Apollo 11 Moon Dust Found in Storage

Megan Gannon - Space.com

Vials of moon dust brought back to Earth by the first men on the moon have been found inside a lab warehouse in California after sitting in storage unnoticed for more than 40 years.

The samples — collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin — were rediscovered last month by an archivist who was going over artifacts tucked away at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"We don't know how or when they ended up in storage," Karen Nelson, who made the surprising discovery, said in a statement from the lab.

Nelson came across about 20 vials with handwritten labels dated "24 July 1970," packed in a vacuum-sealed glass jar. Accompanying the jar was an academic paper published in the Proceedings of the Second Lunar Science Conference in 1971, titled "Study of carbon compounds in Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 returned lunar samples."

All of the authors of the paper were from the University of California, Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory, including Nobel Prize-winning chemist Melvin Calvin, who worked with NASA on efforts to protect the moon from contamination during the first lunar landing, as well as plans to protect Earthlings from unknown pathogens feared to be lurking in lunar dust.

The moon dust samples were supposed to be sent back to NASA after the Space Sciences Laboratory team finished their experiments. By some wrong turn, they ended up in storage.

After making the discovery, Nelson contacted officials at the Space Sciences Laboratory. "They were surprised we had the samples," she said.

Nelson then got in touch with NASA officials, who allowed her to open the jar to remove the vials before she returned them to the space agency, according to the statement from Berkeley.

In all, NASA's moonwalking Apollo astronauts collected 842 pounds (382 kilograms) of lunar samples back to Earth between 1969 and 1972, and very little of it is thought to be unaccounted for.

Despite DC budget woes, NASA still deserves support

Jeff Carr - Galveston County Daily News (Commentary)

(Carr is the senior vice president of aerospace communications for Griffin Communications Group. He is the former director of communications for the United Space Alliance and was the director of public affairs and news chief at the Johnson Space Center.)

The Citizens for Space Exploration, a multistate grass roots organization established to keep NASA's exploration programs funded is in Washington, D.C., this week, making its best case to the 113th Congress.

They'll remind lawmakers of how much our investments in space exploration improve our lives, our well-being and our future. Sadly, though, this has become a sort of annual booster shot whose effectiveness wears off too quickly as the annual federal budget process bogs down in partisan acrimony.

Even with the heroic efforts of citizen advocates like this, NASA's funding has gone steadily backward in recent years as a result of continuing resolutions, omnibus bills and sequestration that delay, dilute and ultimately cripple multiyear programs. Nonetheless, this kind of advocacy is essential and it must be done every year, again and again, as long as NASA is required to annually justify the programs they are charged with. Without them, we would truly be lost in space.

There is, however, a different feeling about all of this, this year.

While Washington tries to decide if America can afford to lead the world in space exploration for at least another year, the space industry itself is adapting to make sure America stays in the race.

Call it Space Race 2.0. The newest players have catchy names like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin. Some are more traditional like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, ATK and Orbital Sciences.

They all share the common belief that we can change the way we go to space, and drive down the cost in the process. But perhaps the best news is that they are sharing in the cost of development and not relying solely on the taxpayer to bear the full burden.

This year is shaping up to be a potential tipping point for space enterprise on all levels.   These space developers are driving a new generation of space systems, technologies and services to market.

Customers, including NASA, are lining up.

SpaceX is methodically setting the pace for commercial access to space while resupplying the International Space Station with its Falcon-9 launcher and Dragon capsule.

Orbital Sciences Corporation is touting practical, affordable space access alternatives that better fit the current fiscal environment. Two weeks ago, the company's medium-class launcher, Antares, made its first launch setting the stage for a demonstration flight to the ISS in late summer.

Virgin Galactic moved closer to opening the space tourism market with its recent powered flight demonstration, which will lead to a flight to space, later this year. More than 600 passengers have enlisted to fly the Virgin skies at $200,000 per seat.

In developments beyond Earth orbit, the Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by astronaut philanthropist Dennis Tito, has announced its plan to send an American man and woman on a trajectory to within 100 miles of Mars, returning to Earth in only 501 days.

On a more methodical note, NASA is steadily shaping the future of deep space exploration with its massive Space Launch System and Orion capsule. Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and ATK provide the nucleus of a formidable contractor team that will see their vehicle fly in less than five ears.

None of this would happen without the decades of taxpayer investment in space technology developed by NASA and the space industry.

The work of advocacy groups like Citizens for Space Exploration truly does make a difference. But the ace in the hole may just be the space industry itself, in its ability to adapt and shape the future through innovation and commercial enterprise. Hopefully members of Congress will recognize that the tide is rising, and that it is time for America to set sail, once again.

NASA's Asteroid Absurdity

Robert Zubrin - Space News (Opinion)

(Zubrin is president of Pioneer Astronautics and the Mars Society and author of "The Case for Mars." His latest work, "Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future," was recently published by Penguin.)

NASA recently announced that it has embraced the idea of an asteroid retrieval mission as the central goal of its human spaceflight program for the next decade or two. According to the agency's leadership, this mission will accomplish a number of important objectives, including delivering a science bonanza, demonstrating a technology useful for planetary defense, creating a large cache of materials in space that can provide in situ resources to support space exploration activities and achieving the president's goal of flying a mission to a near-Earth asteroid as a way of breaking out of geocentric space and demonstrating human deep-space capabilities necessary for subsequent missions to Mars.

Since this initiative will cost many billions of dollars and, by diverting the entire multibillion-dollar human spaceflight program for decades, impose an opportunity cost amounting to many tens of billions of dollars, it is imperative that these claims be examined critically to see if any of them are true.

Let us therefore consider each of them in order.

There is no doubt that the "asteroid" mission, which involves using an electric propulsion spacecraft with a power supply half that of the international space station to push a 3.5-meter-radius object (i.e., a rock, not an asteroid) to a lunar-like orbit, and then visiting it with astronauts flying sorties in the Orion capsule sometime in the third decade of the 21st century, would eventually return some science. However, vastly more science could be achieved, much sooner, at much lower cost and risk, simply by sending a flotilla of small robotic spacecraft to collect kilogram-sized samples from multiple real asteroids and return them all the way to Earth.

While the electric propulsion system proposed for the so-called asteroid mission can be used over a period of several years of continuous thrusting to alter the trajectory of 3.5-meter rocks, objects representing planetary threats have masses thousands to millions of times greater, and it would not even be practical to despin them to allow continuous thrusting to begin, let alone deliver to them sufficient propellant or power to change their trajectories. There are tens of thousands of asteroids with radii over 100 meters, each with a mass of over 15 million tons. Assuming that such an object is in an Earth-like orbit, it would require a velocity change of about 1 meter per second to move the periapsis of its orbit by a distance equal to the diameter of Earth, and thus have a chance at turning a direct hit into a near-miss. Using electric propulsion, about 500 tons of propellant would be required, and the 40-kilowatt system employed by the asteroid mission would need to thrust continuously for 250 years to deliver the necessary push. A much more practical approach would be to send a missile armed with a conventional or nuclear warhead (depending upon the size of the object) to give the asteroid a sudden solid shove by blasting a small portion of its mass off its side. Unfortunately, in order to preserve a false rationale for the asteroid mission's electric propulsion system, such more potent approaches to planetary protection are being neglected.

The 3.5-meter rock moved to near-lunar orbit in the asteroid mission would have a mass of about 500 tons, which is about 20 times the mass of the system that would need to be launched to low Earth orbit to move it. This might appear to be a good trade, but the rock would likely be only about 5 percent water by weight, so in terms of potentially useful mass delivered to space it would only be a match. However, hydrogen and oxygen launched to low Earth orbit are already in useful form as pure cryogenic propellants, whereas the water in the rock would have to be extracted by processing 3 meters depth of rock, then collected, electrolyzed and cryogenically liquefied, all of which would require a system of considerable power and complexity. Furthermore, in its proposed near-lunar retrograde orbit, the propellant produced from the rock would be in the wrong place to support useful space exploration activity. In fact, the delta-V needed to leave low Earth orbit to reach the rock propellant depot would be about the same as the delta-V needed to leave low Earth orbit and fly directly to Mars. Therefore, even if the rock propellant depot were there today, ready to provide propellant for free to any Mars-bound mission willing to stop by to refuel, it would not make any sense to go there.

In situ resource utilization is a key technology to space exploration, but the resources to be used need to be located at the destination of interest, not somewhere else. Martian missions need to use resources located on Mars. Lunar missions need to use resources located on the Moon. A rock in a retrograde lunar orbit is of no resource utilization interest to anyone.

As to the claim that the asteroid retrieval mission achieves the goal set by President Barack Obama in 2010 of breaking out of geocentric space, that is simply untrue. In point of fact, aside from potentially providing a fat contract to an excessively influential electric propulsion company (see my op-ed "The VASIMR Hoax," SpaceNews, July 13, 2011), the entire purpose of the initiative is to find a way to shirk the challenge of human interplanetary flight.

The asteroid retrieval mission is not a competent way to advance science, planetary defense, in situ resource utilization or human interplanetary flight. It thus represents an enormous waste of time and money that could prevent NASA's human spaceflight program from achieving anything worthwhile for decades. Congress must not accept this. Hearings need to be held, with the NASA administrator required to defend his plan in the presence of technically qualified critics. If the plan is found to be irrational, then lawmakers need to insist that it be replaced with a space agency strategy that actually makes sense.

The American people want and deserve a human spaceflight program that really explores new worlds. It is past time that NASA stepped up to the plate and accepted that challenge.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - May 21, 2013 and JSC Today

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