Happy Good Friday everyone and have a wonderful, safe, and Happy Easter weekend.!
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- NASA TV to Cover ISS Spacewalk
- NASA Releases Software Catalog
- Intern Poster Board Session: April 22 - Organizations/Social
- 'Coach's Corner' Featuring Mike Kincaid
- Co-Parenting During Conflict/Separation/Divorce - Community
- Special Olympics Needs Space Center Volunteers
- Time is Almost Up on These Volunteer Opportunities |  |
| Headlines - NASA TV to Cover ISS Spacewalk
Two NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will conduct a spacewalk in the coming week to replace a failed backup computer relay system on the space station's truss. The activity, designated U.S. EVA 26, will be broadcast live on NASA TV. Contingent upon a Friday SpaceX cargo launch, NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson are scheduled to venture outside the space station Wednesday, April 23, to replace a backup multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) that failed during routine testing April 11. The box is one of the station's external MDMs that provide commands to some of the space station's systems, including the external cooling system, solar alpha rotary joints and mobile transporter rail car. NASA TV coverage of the April 23 spacewalk will begin at 7:30 a.m. CDT. The spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 8:20 a.m. If Friday's SpaceX cargo launch to the station is postponed, the two Expedition 39 astronauts will conduct the spacewalk this Sunday, April 20. NASA TV coverage would begin at 7 a.m. with the spacewalk scheduled to begin at 7:55 a.m. The spacewalk will be the 179th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the ninth in Mastracchio's career and the fifth for Swanson. Mastracchio will carry the designation of EV 1, wearing the spacesuit bearing red stripes. Swanson will be EV 2, wearing the spacesuit without stripes. First-time users will need to install the EZTV Monitor and Player client applications: - For those WITH admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you'll be prompted to download and install the clients when you first visit the IPTV website
- For those WITHOUT admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you can download the EZTV client applications from the ACES Software Refresh Portal (SRP)
If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367 or visit the FAQ site. - NASA Releases Software Catalog
When NASA develops software, the agency is mindful that the code may have uses beyond the original mission. In fact, it's another one of NASA's missions to ensure that the technologies it creates for aeronautics and space missions—including software—are turned into new products and processes that benefit the lives of Americans and our economy. Through this process of technology transfer, NASA maximizes the benefit of the nation's investment in cutting-edge research and development. The NASA Software Catalog has been developed and released. You may find a solution that's applicable to a design challenge you have and you could acquire or license it. If so, you'll help fulfill our mission of bringing NASA technology down to Earth. The catalog offers an extensive portfolio of products for a wide variety of technical applications. Code is available at no cost and has been evaluated for access requirements and restrictions. - Intern Poster Board Session: April 22
Come and join us as our Spring 2014 interns showcase their accomplishments during their time at JSC. We have students across many organizations helping NASA advance in human space exploration. Don't miss out on this opportunity to see the work of very talented students at JSC. Have you been interested in having an intern in your organization? This is your chance to learn more about providing meaningful experiences to high school, college and post-graduate students while getting the help your program needs. Event Date: Tuesday, April 22, 2014 Event Start Time:1:00 PM Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: Building 2, Teague Lobby
Add to Calendar
Jonathan Anzures x28304
[top] Organizations/Social - 'Coach's Corner' Featuring Mike Kincaid
The African-American Employee Resource Group is proud to present the next Coach's Corner event, which will feature JSC External Relations Director Mike Kincaid on April 29 from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966. As the JSC External Relations director, Kincaid is responsible for several facets of day-to-day center operations, including Communications and Public Affairs, Legislative Affairs, Community Outreach, the Office of Education and the University Research, Collaborations and Partnership Office. Each Coach's Corner event is designed to allow all JSC personnel to come and hear the presenter's career path, important messages in the current environment and to provide an opportunity to have your questions answered by senior management at the center. Please send any questions that you'd like addressed at this event to Kai Harris by April 24. In an effort to track attendance to ensure there is enough room, sign up using the link below. Event Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 Event Start Time:12:00 PM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 1, Room 966
Add to Calendar
Kai Harris x40694
[top] - Co-Parenting During Conflict/Separation/Divorce
Putting aside relationship issues to co-parent agreeably can be fraught with stress. Despite the many challenges, though, it is possible to develop a cordial working relationship with your ex for the sake of your children. Co-parenting is the best way to ensure your children's needs are met and they are able to retain close relationships with both parents. Come learn some key steps involved in co-parenting during conflict, separation and divorce. We will address the types of conflict that are obstacles to co-parenting. Attendees will also be able to identify key co-parenting techniques that allow children the least amount of impact by conflict. Join Anika Isaac LPC, LMFT, CEAP, NCC, as she presents "Co-Parenting During Conflict, Separation and Divorce." Community - Special Olympics Needs Space Center Volunteers
The local Special Olympics Spring Games are approaching, and we are in need of volunteers. Space Center Volunteers is the largest group that supports the spring games, so let's not disappoint. The spring games are the largest track-and-field day for the area's special needs athletes, so come out and volunteer with your co-workers, friends and family. The games will take place on Saturday, May 3, at the Clear Creek High School track and field. Volunteer shifts are throughout the day on May 3, and 10 to 15 volunteers are needed Friday, May 2, to help with setup of the games. Please note that the Friday shift does occur during regular business hours, and no charge number will be provided. To sign up to volunteer, first go to V-CORPs and then here. - Time is Almost Up on These Volunteer Opportunities
We need YOU to sign up in V-CORPs for these exciting opportunities to help inspire youth to explore STEM fields and careers! But hurry, because the clock is ticking on these chances to make a difference. April 24: Science fair judges needed for elementary school district-wide science fair. You will be judging a field of 120 projects that WON from their respective elementary schools. Judges are needed from 8 a.m. until noon. The location is St. Mary of the Purification Montessori School (3002 Rosedale, Houston). April 25: San Jacinto College North Campus (5800 Uvalde, Houston) is hosting a career panel discussion from 1 to 3 p.m. This is EASY! Just talk about your STEM career, your education, how you got where you are and answer questions from these students. April 28: Texas Space Grant Engineering Design Challenge. Do you want to see what innovative ideas the next generation of space explorers have developed? Do you have a strong background in science or engineering? Then we need YOU to help judge the projects and posters presented by these upper-level engineering students from colleges and universities around Texas. The location is the South Shore Harbor Conference Center, and judges are needed from 7:30 a.m. until noon. | |
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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. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Friday – April 18, 2014
International Space Station:
NASA TV Programming for today and Sunday (assuming a SpaceX launch today)
11:45 a.m. - ISS Expedition 39 In-Flight Educational Event with the University of Connecticut, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Houston, Clear Lake - JSC (All Channels)
1:15 p.m. - Coverage of the SpaceX-3/Dragon Launch to the ISS (Launch scheduled at 2:25 p.m. CT) - KSC (All Channels)
4 p.m. - SpaceX-3/Dragon Post-Launch News Conference - KSC (All Channels)
April 20, Sunday (if SpaceX launches today)
4:45 a.m. - Coverage of the Rendezvous and Grapple of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft at the ISS (Grapple scheduled at 6:14 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)
8:30 a.m. - Coverage of the Installation of the SpaceX/Dragon Cargo Craft on the ISS (Installation scheduled to begin about. 8:45 a.m. ET) - JSC (All Channels)
HEADLINES AND LEADS
University of South Alabama researchers develop a cancer-fighting protein to be tested in space
Mobile Press-Register
A protein developed by researchers at the University Of South Alabama College Of Medicine will launch into space April 18, as part of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station.
Kepler finds Earth-size planet in habitable zone of another star
William Harwood – CBS News
Scientists analyzing data from the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope have chalked up another first, finding an Earth-size world orbiting in the habitable zone of its parent star, researchers announced Thursday.
NASA astronomers spot most Earth-like planet yet
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Astronomers have discovered what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet detected — a distant, rocky world that's similar in size to our planet and exists in the Goldilocks zone where it's not too hot and not too cold for life.
Scientists Find an 'Earth Twin,' or Perhaps a Cousin
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
It is a bit bigger and somewhat colder, but a planet circling a star 500 light-years away is otherwise the closest match of our home world discovered so far, astronomers announced on Thursday.
NASA discovers Earth's cousin
Irene Klotz – Reuters
For the first time, scientists have found an Earth-sized world orbiting in a life-friendly zone around a distant star.
Holdren and Bolden: Tech Development Is Surest Path to Mars
Dan Leone – Space News
In the latest salvo in an ongoing debate about the best road to Mars, two senior Obama administration officials stressed a path directed by technology development and again dismissed the idea of setting astronauts on a fast-track mission to the red planet, as some in Congress want NASA to do.
The 4 big risks facing NASA's Space Launch System being developed in Alabama
Lee Roop – Huntsville (AL) Times
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has given Congress an updated look at major projects on NASA's agenda, including the new deep-space rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) being developed in Alabama at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.
NASA brings space station exhibit to Indy
Ebony Chappel – Indianapolis Recorder
As a part of its current national outreach campaign, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is giving Indy residents the opportunity to go to infinity and beyond via a place few men and fewer women have gone before – the International Space Station.
NASA Moon Probe Will Bite the Lunar Dust Soon: What It Taught Us
A NASA probe orbiting the moon will literally bite the lunar dust within the next week or so when it crashes into the moon's far side.
How the U.S. Is Vulnerable to Terrorism in Space
The possibility of a dangerous space incident is on the rise, says a new report.
Laura Ryan – National Journal
Space terrorism is a growing threat to U.S. national security, according to a new report. COMPLETE STORIES
University of South Alabama researchers develop a cancer-fighting protein to be tested in space
Mobile Press-Register
A protein developed by researchers at the University Of South Alabama College Of Medicine will launch into space April 18, as part of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission to the International Space Station.
The enzyme, a protein phosphatase called PP5, will launch on the Falcon 9 rocket and is contained in the DragonLab – the cargo craft attached to the top of the rocket.
The protein will be placed in incubators on the International Space Station, and after about three and a half months it will return to Earth.
The protein is one of 92 proteins – produced by several laboratories in the United States, England and Germany – that are being delivered to the station.
According to Dr. Richard E. Honkanen, professor of biochemistry at the USA College of Medicine and lead researcher on the PP5 project, PP5 is considered a validated target for anti-tumor drug development.
"Our studies in the past 15 years have revealed that PP5 is over-expressed in human breast cancer," Honkanen said. "In mouse models of tumor development, the over-expression of PP5 aids tumor growth."
At the cellular level, Dr. Honkanen said PP5 appears to provide a survival advantage to cancer cells in low oxygen.
"This may help the cancer cells stay alive in the early stages of metastatic disease," he said. "Therefore, an inhibitor of PP5 may kill metastatic cancer cells before they start growing into new tumors."
PP5 acts to catalyze the removal of phosphate from proteins that control cell growth and survival. The removal of phosphate turns on processes that allow cancer cell growth and proliferation.
"If we inhibit this key step," he said, "we hope to prevent cancer cell growth and survival."
The International Space Station, which serves as a microgravity research laboratory, will use the proteins to grow large crystals of PP5. This will allow Dr. Honkanen's lab to utilize an emerging technology called neutron crystallography, a very powerful technique for protein structure determination.
"For neutron crystallography, we need very big crystals, and to date this has not been done," he said. "In theory, we will be able to grow bigger crystals in space than we can on Earth."
Kepler finds Earth-size planet in habitable zone of another star
William Harwood – CBS News
Scientists analyzing data from the planet-hunting Kepler space telescope have chalked up another first, finding an Earth-size world orbiting in the habitable zone of its parent star, researchers announced Thursday.
The planet is one of five worlds orbiting a red dwarf star known as Kepler-186 some 500 light years away in the constellation Cygnus. The other four worlds were discovered earlier in the Kepler data, orbiting close in to the parent star, well outside the so-called "Goldilocks" zone where water can exist as a liquid on the surface.
The newly discovered fifth planet, Kepler 186f, is roughly the same size as Earth and orbits in the star's sweet spot, at a distance comparable to Mercury's orbit in Earth's solar system, taking about 130 days to complete one orbit, or year.
But because Kepler-186 is a much cooler dwarf star, about half the size of Earth's sun, Kepler-186f is exposed to much more tolerable levels of solar heating even though it is relatively close to its sun compared to Earth.
Scientists do not know whether Kepler-186f is, in fact, habitable, how it might be affected by solar radiation, flares and the parent star's gravity, or even whether the planet has an atmosphere and if so, how it might trap heat or otherwise affect the environment.
But it is the first exoplanet found so far that's the right size and right distance from its sun to support life as it is known on Earth.
"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth," Elisa Quintana, a research scientist at the SETI Institute, said in a statement. "When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth. Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."
Quintana is the lead author of a paper published Thursday in the journal Science that announced the discovery.
"This is the first validated detection of an Earth-size planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its parent star, a cool red dwarf," Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington, told reporters. "Second, this discovery establishes that Earth-size planets can and do exist in the habitable zones of other stars.
"Third, red dwarf stars, like the parent (of Kepler-186f) are by far the most abundant stars in our galaxy, making up about 80 percent of the nearest stars to the Earth. Thus, planets such as this one are almost certainly the most common type of habitable planet in our galaxy and may very well represent the closest habitable planets to Earth."
Kepler, launched in March 2009, is equipped with a 95-megapixel camera that was aimed at a patch of sky the size of an out-stretched hand that contains more than 4.5 million detectable stars. Kepler monitored the light from 160,000 of those suns.
The camera cannot directly "see" exoplanets, but if a planet passes in front of a star as viewed from the space telescope, the star's light will periodically dim as the planet moves through its orbit. By precisely measuring those tiny fluctuations, Kepler researchers can indirectly confirm a planet's presence, size and distance from its sun.
Kepler completed its primary three-year mission in November 2012. NASA managers promptly approved a four-year mission extension, but in 2013, the spacecraft was hobbled by the failure of a second gyro stabilizer, preventing the pointing accuracy required for planet detection.
But over the first four years of its mission, Kepler's observations have allowed researchers to confirm 950 actual exoplanets with another 3,800 "candidate" worlds requiring additional analysis.
NASA astronomers spot most Earth-like planet yet
Alicia Chang - Associated Press
Astronomers have discovered what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet detected — a distant, rocky world that's similar in size to our planet and exists in the Goldilocks zone where it's not too hot and not too cold for life.
The find, announced Thursday, excited planet hunters who have been scouring the Milky Way galaxy for years for potentially habitable spots outside our solar system.
"This is the best case for a habitable planet yet found. The results are absolutely rock solid," University of California, Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy, who had no role in the discovery, said in an email.
The planet was detected by NASA's orbiting Kepler telescope, which examines the heavens for subtle changes in brightness that indicate an orbiting planet is crossing in front of a star. From those changes, scientists can calculate a planet's size and make certain inferences about its makeup.
The newfound object, dubbed Kepler-186f, circles a red dwarf star 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. A light-year is almost 6 trillion miles.
The planet is about 10 percent larger than Earth and may very well have liquid water — a key ingredient for life — on its surface, scientists said. That is because it resides at the outer edge of the habitable temperature zone around its star — the sweet spot where lakes, rivers or oceans may exist without freezing solid or boiling away.
The planet probably basks in an orange-red glow from its star and is most likely cooler than Earth, with an average temperature slightly above freezing, "similar to dawn or dusk on a spring day," Marcy said.
The discovery was detailed in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
Lead researcher Elisa Quintana at NASA's Ames Research Center said she considers the planet to be more of an "Earth cousin" than a twin because it circles a star that is smaller and dimmer than our sun. While Earth revolves around the sun in 365 days, this planet completes an orbit of its star every 130 days.
"You have a birthday every 130 days on this planet," she said.
Scientists cannot say for certain whether it has an atmosphere, but if it does, it probably contains a lot of carbon dioxide, outside experts said.
"Don't take off your breathing mask if you ever land there," said Lisa Kaltenegger, a Harvard and Max Planck Institute astronomer who had no connection to the research.
Despite the differences, "now we can point to a star and know that there really is a planet very similar to the Earth, at least in size and temperature," Harvard scientist David Charbonneau, who was not part of the team, said in an email.
Since its launch in 2009, Kepler has confirmed 961 planets, but only a few dozen are in the habitable zone. Most are giant gas balls like Jupiter and Saturn, and not ideal places for life. Scientists in recent years have also found planets slightly larger than Earth in the Goldilocks zone called "super Earths," but it is unclear if they are rocky.
The latest discovery is the closest in size to Earth than any other known world in the habitable region.
Kepler-186f is part of a system of five planets, all of which are roughly Earth's size. However, the other planets are too close to their star to support life.
Astronomers may never know for certain whether Kepler-186f can sustain life. The planet is too far away even for next-generation space telescopes like NASA's overbudget James Webb, set for launch in 2018, to study in detail.
Kepler completed its prime mission and was in overtime when one of the wheels that keep its gaze steady failed last year. NASA has not yet decided whether to keep using the telescope to hunt for planets on a scaled-back basis.
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
Scientists Find an 'Earth Twin,' or Perhaps a Cousin
Kenneth Chang – New York Times
It is a bit bigger and somewhat colder, but a planet circling a star 500 light-years away is otherwise the closest match of our home world discovered so far, astronomers announced on Thursday.
The planet, known as Kepler 186f, named after NASA's Kepler planet-finding mission, which detected it, has a diameter of 8,700 miles, 10 percent wider than Earth, and its orbit lies within the "Goldilocks zone" of its star, Kepler 186 — not too hot, not too cold, where temperatures could allow for liquid water to flow at the surface, making it potentially hospitable for life.
"Kepler 186f is the first validated, Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of another star," Elisa V. Quintana of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., said at a news conference on Thursday. "It has the right size and is at the right distance to have properties similar to our home planet."
Dr. Quintana is the lead author of a scientific paper describing the findings in this week's issue of the journal Science. Kepler 186f is the latest planet to be sifted out of the voluminous data collected by Kepler, which kept watch over 150,000 stars, looking for slight drops in brightness when a planet passed in front.
This follows the announcement last year that another star, Kepler 62, has two planets in its habitable zone, but those two were "super Earths," with masses probably several times that of Earth. The gravity of those planets might be strong enough to pull in helium and hydrogen gases, making them more like mini-Neptunes than large Earths.
With its smaller size, Kepler 186f is more likely to have an Earth-like rocky surface, another step in astronomers' quest for what might be called Earth 2.0.
"It's a progression," said another member of the discovery team, Thomas S. Barclay of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. "This planet really reminds us of Earth."
The researchers speculate that it is made of the same stuff as Earth — iron, rock, ice, liquid water, although the relative amounts could be very different.
The gravity on Kepler 186f, too, is likely to be roughly the same as Earth's. "You could far more easily imagine someone being able to go there and walk around on the surface," Stephen Kane, an astronomer at San Francisco State University and another member of the research team, said in an interview.
Kepler 186f is not a perfect replica, however. It is closer to its star — a red dwarf that is smaller, cooler and fainter than our sun — than the Earth is to its year, the time to complete one orbit, is 130 days, not 365. It is also at the outer edge of the habitable zone, receiving less warmth, so perhaps more of its surface would freeze.
"Perhaps it's more of an Earth cousin than an Earth twin," Dr. Barclay said.
On the other hand, with its greater mass, Kepler 186f could conceivably have a thicker, insulating atmosphere to compensate. Red dwarfs emit more of their light at the longer infrared wavelengths, which would be more readily absorbed and trapped by ice and gases like water vapor and carbon dioxide.
"This makes the planet more efficient at absorbing energy from its star to avoid freezing over," said Victoria Meadows, an astrobiologist and planetary astronomer at the University of Washington. "Which is why this planet is still considered potentially habitable, as long as it has a dense enough atmosphere, even though it receives less light from its star than Mars does from our sun."
She added, "It's fun to note that if the planet is habitable, photosynthesis may be possible."
At the wavelengths that plants need, Kepler 186f receives only about a sixth as much light as Earth does, but "there are plenty of Earth plants that would be quite happy with that," Dr. Meadows said.
Astronomers cannot tell the exact age of the star, but such dwarfs are the longest-lived stars in the universe. If Kepler 186f is habitable, life would have had plenty of time — billions of years — to take hold.
But speculation about the planet will remain speculation for a long time, if not forever. The Kepler measurements indicated only the size of Kepler 186f. It is too far away for astronomers to discern its mass, much less whether it has an atmosphere and oceans or if it teems with living creatures.
Nonetheless, since dwarfs are the most plentiful type of star in the galaxy, astronomers are hopeful that Earth twins are plentiful, and that some will be found close by, allowing other telescopes to make temperature and mass measurements or to identify molecules in the atmosphere.
Kepler's original mission ended last year, with the failure of equipment that kept the telescope precisely pointed, but scientists still have years of work in analyzing the data, which has so far yielded 962 confirmed planets. More than 2,800 planet candidates remain to be studied.
NASA discovers Earth's cousin
Irene Klotz – Reuters
For the first time, scientists have found an Earth-sized world orbiting in a life-friendly zone around a distant star.
The discovery, announced on Thursday, is the closest scientists have come so far to finding a true Earth twin. The star, known as Kepler-186 and located about 500 light years away in the constellation Cygnus, is smaller and redder than the sun.
The star's outermost planet, designated Kepler-186f, receives about one-third the radiation from its parent star as Earth gets from the sun, meaning that high noon on this world would be roughly akin to Earth an hour before sunset, said astronomer Thomas Barclay, with NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
The planet is the right distance from its host star for water -- if any exists -- to be liquid on the surface, a condition that scientists suspect is necessary for life.
"This planet is an Earth cousin, not an Earth twin," said Barclay, who is among a team of scientists reporting on the discovery in the journal Science this week.
NASA launched its Kepler space telescope in 2009 to search about 150,000 target stars for signs of any planets passing by, or transiting, relative to the telescope's point of view. Kepler was sidelined by a positioning system failure last year.
Analysis of archived Kepler data continues. From Kepler's observational perch, a planet about the size and location of Earth orbiting a sun-like star would blot out only about 80 to 100 photons out of every million as it transits.
The pattern is repeated every 365 days and at least three transits would be needed to rule out other possibilities, so the search takes time.
"It's very challenging to find Earth analogs," Barclay said. "Most candidates don't pan out, but things change as we get more measurements."
Scientists don't know anything about the atmosphere of Kepler-186f, but it will be a target for future telescopes that can scan for telltale chemicals that may be linked to life.
"This planet is in the habitable zone, but that's doesn't mean it is habitable," Barclay said.
So far, scientists have found nearly 1,800 planets beyond the solar system.
"The past year has seen a lot of progress in the search for Earth-like planets. Kepler-168f is significant because it is the first exoplanet that is the same temperature and is (almost) the same size as Earth," astronomer David Charbonneau, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, wrote in an email.
"For me the impact is to prove that yes, such planets really do exist," Charbonneau said. "Now we can point to a star and say, "There lies an Earth-like planet.'"
Holdren and Bolden: Tech Development Is Surest Path to Mars
Dan Leone – Space News
In the latest salvo in an ongoing debate about the best road to Mars, two senior Obama administration officials stressed a path directed by technology development and again dismissed the idea of setting astronauts on a fast-track mission to the red planet, as some in Congress want NASA to do.
Congress thinks "we can just go to Mars tomorrow by pouring some more money in ... but they don't get that we won't get there without investments in advanced technology," John Holdren, science adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, the told members of the NASA Advisory Council April 16.
The Obama administration has made technology development a hallmark of its NASA policies, but according to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who addressed the council alongside Holdren, "technology development is not a high priority in the Congress right now, unfortunately."
Congress' favored human spaceflight projects are the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket and its companion Orion deep-space crew capsule, for which lawmakers have reliably appropriated about $3 billion annually since 2010. Those programs build upon investments — some $10 billion by some estimates — in former U.S. President George W. Bush's Moon-bound Constellation program, which Obama canceled in 2010.
In recent months, a vocal contingent of House Republicans led by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Science Committee, has been urging NASA to focus its near-term human spaceflight plans on a crewed Mars flyby early next decade using SLS and Orion.
The mission is the brainchild of the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit put together by billionaire space tourist Dennis Tito. The mission was conceived in early 2013 as a privately funded venture using commercial space hardware, but was subsequently reformulated as a public-private-partnership leveraging SLS and Orion.
The administration has proposed — but not committed to — using SLS and Orion as part of an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) that would haul a small asteroid into lunar space using a new robotic retrieval spacecraft that would launch around 2019. Astronauts aboard an SLS-launched Orion capsule would subsequently approach the asteroid for an up-close inspection.
Technology development is a key feature of ARM, to the point that most of the $133 million NASA proposes to spend on the mission in 2015 involves development of hardware with potential applications in commercial communications satellites. For example, ARM's robotic retrieval spacecraft would be powered by solar-electric propulsion that utilizes both thrusters and solar cells more powerful than any in commercial use today.
If the satellite industry ultimately embraces the technology, NASA officials reason, the agency would be relieved from having to shoulder the cost of maintaining a robust industrial base for the advanced propulsion systems necessary for a crewed mission to Mars.
"We're hoping the communications satellite [industry]picks those up and they're available for us to be used in the future so we don't have to continue to stay at the state of the art," William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, told the NASA Advisory Council.
NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot has estimated that the ARM asteroid-capture spacecraft will cost about $1.25 billion, not including launch. Gerstenmaier said the agency will "codify the real budget for this activity" with its 2016 budget request, nominally due for public release in February.
By the time ARM has an asteroid in position for astronauts to inspect in lunar space, SLS and Orion will have flown together twice, according to NASA's current plans. The maiden SLS-Orion flight in 2017 would be an uncrewed shakedown flight to the proposed asteroid-storage orbit around the Moon. A 2021 flight would repeat the mission with a crew.
The 2021 mission, known internally as Exploration Mission (EM)-2, is the earliest possible opportunity for an asteroid rendezvous, but NASA is in no hurry to make sure it hauls an asteroid back to the lunar orbit by that time. NASA is notionally targeting 2025 for the rendezvous.
"We shouldn't get tied up that EM-2 is this exact [asteroid] mission," Gerstenmaier told the NASA Advisory Council's human spaceflight committee April 14. "I don't see these as coupled."
The 4 big risks facing NASA's Space Launch System being developed in Alabama
Lee Roop – Huntsville (AL) Times
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has given Congress an updated look at major projects on NASA's agenda, including the new deep-space rocket called the Space Launch System (SLS) being developed in Alabama at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center.
While the report's overall conclusions are largely positive about NASA's steady progress on meeting GAO's earlier expectations, the report says things are getting very tricky for SLS in the current tight-money Washington environment.
Here are four specific challenges facing SLS and the thousands of federal and contractor employees working on the rocket in Alabama and nationwide. These are the questions SLS supporters will likely face from the program's critics in the months ahead.
1. Funding issues: "Funding remains a top program risk," GAO says. NASA plans to spend almost $7 billion to develop SLS between now and its first scheduled flight in 2017. But NASA is asking for flat appropriations from Congress each year across the period, and the GAO says lower-tier managers are worried that flat funding may not be enough.
2. Schedule issues: NASA's schedule to develop the core stage "is aggressive," GAO says. The core is the only totally new part of the rocket, but it's the critical part. If it doesn't get done, SLS doesn't exist. Designs and hardware for the core aren't complete yet, GAO says, and neither is the production facility. NASA has also squeezed the development schedule, making early decisions about long-range issues like materials and tools, and GAO says that increases the risk of having to redo something late in the game.
3. Existing hardware issues: NASA has challenges with the leftover shuttle engines and shuttle-era solid rocket boosters it plans to use and with a key propulsion subsystem. One of its proposed solutions isn't certified for human spaceflight, because astronauts can't control it, so NASA wrote a new requirement that the system in question have an "off" switch. GAO says the full extent these challenges won't be known for at least another year.
4. Contract issues: More than two years after being established as a program, GAO says SLS contains "many" indefinite contracts. Unanticipated costs are a real risk. And the cost baselines "do not include the likely full costs of the SLS program."
NASA brings space station exhibit to Indy
Ebony Chappel – Indianapolis Recorder
As a part of its current national outreach campaign, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is giving Indy residents the opportunity to go to infinity and beyond via a place few men and fewer women have gone before – the International Space Station.
Destination Station, a traveling multimedia exhibition designed to highlight how the International Space Station (ISS) came to be, what life is like on board and how it is being used to conduct science, will land at the Indiana State Museum on April 19 and be on display through June 29.
The exhibit, which is a smaller traveling-sized version of the 5,000 square-foot exhibition International Space Station that is on view in Houston will feature lots of hands-on activities, and visits from astronaut Dr. Serena Auñón and NASA Z-2 spacesuit engineer Ian Meginnis.
"We are excited to work with NASA during their spring outreach campaign in Central Indiana," said Damon Lowe, Indiana State Museum chief curator of science and technology and curator of biology, in a statement released by the museum. "NASA has created this amazing new platform that will expose, inspire and educate our youth about the important work behind and on board their orbiting outpost."
Dr. Camille Wardrop Alleyne, who is a former aerospace systems engineer with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Department of Defense, currently serves as assistant program scientist for International Space Station at NASA Johnson Space Center where she has led the design and development of space vehicles.
In addition to her work as a leading scientist, Dr. Allenye also heads an international education organization, which is responsible for identifying stimulating activities for students that visit the International Space Station. Their primary focus is to inspire students and spark in them an interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
Currently, there continues to be a significant lack of minority representation in STEM careers despite the fact that the United States government funnels over $4 million yearly into education initiatives. According to data released by the Census Bureau, women, who make up nearly half the work force hold only 26 percent of STEM jobs, and Blacks which are 11 percent of the workforce hold just 6 percent of science, engineering, math or technology jobs.
As one of the only women and people of color to serve at such a high-level within NASA, Dr. Allenye said that she hopes minority students and their families will make it a point to visit the Space Station while it is in Indianapolis. She said inclusion and diversity are key to exposing the STEM field to everyone. "This is their space station too," she said emphatically.
To promote the exhibit's opening week, the Indiana State Museum has a host of public events open to families. They include:
April 23 – Wearable technology presentation by Indianapolis-based Pattern Magazine, Indiana State Museum, 6:30 to 9 p.m. with NASA Z-2 spacesuit engineer Ian Meginnis. Registration is required. Contact Alicia Decker at events@patternindy.com. April 27 – Ask a NASA Expert, Indiana State Museum, noon to 3 p.m.
April 29 – Lecture and autograph session with NASA astronaut Serena Auñón, M.D., Indiana State Museum, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
May 2 – International Space Station Day, featuring NASA's Driven to Explore mobile exhibit including a lunar touchstone, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (wheelchair accessible).
NASA Moon Probe Will Bite the Lunar Dust Soon: What It Taught Us
A NASA probe orbiting the moon will literally bite the lunar dust within the next week or so when it crashes into the moon's far side.
The $280 million LADEE mission (short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer) was launched in September 2013 and is now targeted to plow into the moon's far side on or before April 21. Scientists are currently culling through a bounty of scientific data yielded by the spacecraft while also diving into several puzzling questions.
"The spacecraft is healthy; the instruments are healthy" said Rick Elphic, LADEE project scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. "We're looking forward to closing out the mission with a lot of success."
LADEE researchers presented their early results during the 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), held last month in The Woodlands, Texas.
Continual bombardment
Thanks to LADEE's low-orbit swings around the moon, the spacecraft has scoped out the moon's dusty exosphere.
LADEE's Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) instrument has identified the dust cloud surrounding the moon, which is maintained by micrometeoroid bombardment of the lunar surface, said Mihály Horányi, principal investigator for LDEX at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
"We do have an atmosphere; it's made out of the dust particles," Horányi said of the moon. LDEX observations are the first to identify the ejecta clouds around the moon sustained by the continual bombardment of interplanetary dust particles, he reported.
LDEX is expected to characterize in detail the ejecta cloud surrounding the moon, including the size, velocity and angular distribution of the ejecta particles, Horányi said.
"Discovering this cloud … it opens up a whole new avenue to do planetary science," Horányi said. "If you are worried about safety, you better learn about these big particles."
The transmitted data set from LDEX has identified "a whole forest of bursts," said Sascha Kempf, also with LASP.
LDEX has churned out large amounts of data about the moon's dust exosphere, Kempf said, and deepened insight into the physics of the phenomenon.
China's moon lander
Preliminary data gleaned by LADEE also includes a look at China's Chang'e 3 moon lander's activities — specifically, the Chang'e 3's exhaust plume and its impact on the moon's exosphere and landscape as the craft powered its way down to Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on Dec. 14 of last year.
That work is still in the early stages of analysis said Dana Hurley, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. She is a guest investigator on the LADEE science team.
At LPSC, Hurley said she estimated more than 980 lbs. (446 kilograms) of water was released during Chang'e 3's entire descent burn that took some 12 minutes. Her modeling suggests that nearly 270 lbs. (122 kg) of that water actually intersected with the surface of the moon.
One benefit of this study, Hurley said, has implications for future moon exploration. If you're setting up a permanent presence there, with rockets coming and going, you need to know how exhaust from landings and takeoffs might come into contact with moon-situated instruments and equipment.
The LADEE look-see of China's Chang'e 3 touchdown is also useful for other scientific benefits, Hurley said.
"One of the bottom lines of the investigation is that when a spacecraft lands on the moon, it produces a global but short-term perturbation to the lunar exosphere," Hurley told Space.com. Furthermore, because comets and meteoroids also bring water and other volatiles to the moon, "studying the propagation of the exhaust products by modeling the LADEE observations can inform us on how those volatiles may eventually migrate to the cold traps in permanently shadowed regions on the moon," Hurley said.
Lofty mystery
Even during its final days, LADEE is attempting to tackle a lasting question: Are electrostatically lofted lunar dust particles present within the moon's tenuous atmosphere?
The scientific debate has been decades in the making.
In the 1960s, some of NASA's robotic Surveyor moon landers took images of a twilight glow low over the lunar horizon persisting after the sun had set.
After that sighting, several Apollo astronauts orbiting the moon spotted twilight rays before lunar sunrise or lunar sunset. Those sightings have given rise to the idea of levitated dust and the physics needed to support such an occurrence.
NASA's Elphic said, so far, all LADEE has seen is dust that is consistent with a fairly steady rain of meteoroidal material on the moon's surface.
Surveyor images from the lunar surface showing horizon glow just a few meters above the moonscape could be a completely different phenomenon than elevated, higher-altitude dust, Elphic said.
"We anticipate that when we go really, really low with LADEE, and run the dust experiment, we'll put that to the test," Elphic said. In addition, by using a LADEE star tracker, an attempt will be made to mimic the Apollo 17 observations as the LADEE approaches orbital sunrise.
"Hopefully, the star tracker will have enough sensitivity to actually see something," Elphic said. "I wouldn't be surprised if we don't … but it would be hugely exciting if we did."
Unique perspective
But Apollo 17 astronaut Jack Schmitt said he remains skeptical about elevated moon dust. As a geologist, his perspective is unique, given both observations from lunar orbit and the lunar surface itself during several moonwalks.
"From the reports I heard at LPSC, LADEE instruments appear to have detected temporary dust sprays thrown up by occasional small impacts on the lunar surface but see no sign of levitated dust," Schmitt told Space.com. Systematic, long-term dust levitation, however, and slight migration and redeposition of such dust, Schmitt said, would imply that there should be significant covers of very fine dust on rock surfaces.
"But no such coverings of dust were observed by the astronauts who explored the moon on foot," Schmitt said. "We only observed and photographed scattered deposits of coarser debris thrown on the rocks by nearby meteor impacts. Most rock-exposed surfaces are clear of dust."
Schmitt had a theory regarding the horizon glow that was sketched on Apollo 17. To him, it looked like what would be expected from a combination of a solar light diffusion along a long path length in the transient gases of the lunar exosphere — that is, nonpermanent atmosphere — and the zodiacal light and particle streamers emanating from the sun that can be observed just before spacecraft sunrise.
"One of the many successes of LADEE has been to put a very low upper limit on the possible size and quantity of levitated dust," Schmitt concluded.
Fuel-rich, data-rich
LADEE's imminent demise is bittersweet, Elphic said.
"We could have probably flown another month at least," Elphic told Space.com. "It would have been fruitful. But we originally signed up to complete our science in 100 days." LADEE was "fuel-rich" at the end of the 100 days, with NASA headquarters giving the mission an extra month or so on orbit before its purposeful crash into the moon, Elphic said.
There remains a significant amount of work to be done, given the LADEE collection of information, Elphic said. The science team expects to have most of the fruits of their efforts done a year from this coming summer, he said.
"We're moving ahead," Elphic said. "We've really only just started analyzing the data. With missions like LADEE, the more mature you get with the data, the more you find."
How the U.S. Is Vulnerable to Terrorism in Space
The possibility of a dangerous space incident is on the rise, says a new report.
Laura Ryan – National Journal
Space terrorism is a growing threat to U.S. national security, according to a new report. And an attack on a U.S. satellite—or damage to one from another country's debris—could have astronomical effects on national security, says the report from the Council on Foreign Relations.
The U.S. is more reliant on space than any other nation to carry out critical national security functions, such as precision attacks on suspected terrorists and image analysis of nuclear-weapons programs, according to the report.
But countries like China, North Korea, and Iran are developing their military space capabilities, increasing the risk of a dangerous situation for the U.S, says the report.
For example, if one of these hostile countries acquires advanced space capabilities, they could feasibly attack a U.S. satellite to gain an upper hand in negotiations, hold off potential hostile acts, or as an act of defense, says Micah Zenko, the Douglas Dillon fellow in the Center for Preventive Action at the CFR and the report's author.
But, according to Zenko's report, terrorists take a back seat to another space threat: accidents.
Space is cluttered with trash, like old satellites and parts of rockets, making navigation very tricky. China's haphazard testing of its antisatellite weapons is making the mess worse, according to the report, and a random collision with Chinese debris could quickly escalate into an crisis between the U.S. and China.
Given the high stakes, the U.S. needs to make haste in developing its capabilities, both technical and political, to reduce the risk of an attack or collision, Zenko says, lest it risk ceding control of shaping global space policy.
END
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