Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Wednesday – April 23, 2014 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: April 23, 2014 11:14:14 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Wednesday – April 23, 2014 and JSC Today

A very successful ISS contingency EVA this morning to replace an external faulty computer.  

"EVA 26 was successfully completed with a duration of 1 hour 36 minutes. Primary objective and get ahead task successfully completed"

 

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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

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   Headlines

  1. 'The Big Move' -- It's a Big Deal!

Surely you've heard that NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, NASA 905, will soon be united with the life-sized orbiter mock-up at Space Center Houston to create an epic exhibit experience.

Here's more on how it will go down: A 1,000-foot convoy will journey home on an eight-mile trek through the bay area during the nights of April 28 to 29, arriving the morning of April 30. Roads will close so workers can dismantle streetlights, signs and utility poles as the convoy approaches.

The portion of Highway 3 (Old Galveston Road) between its intersections with Scarsdale and NASA Parkway, will close from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Monday, April 28. Then, on Tuesday, April 29, NASA Parkway from Highway 3 to Saturn Lane will close from 9 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. (See Route Map.)

No utilities are expected to be interrupted. The convoy will travel at night for the safety of our neighbors and the workers involved in this complex transfer, as well as to minimize the impact on local residents, the traveling public and businesses. However, as a caution, be aware that there may be traffic impacts and plan accordingly.

April 28
9 p.m.: The convoy of 747 sections will depart Ellington Field via the gate at Dixie Farm Road and Highway 3.
April 29
Early morning: The convoy is scheduled to park on E. Commerce Street near NASA Parkway.
9 p.m.: The convoy will resume, moving east on the westbound lane of NASA Parkway.
April 30
Early morning: The convoy is scheduled to arrive at Space Center Houston.

For more information on The Big Move, contact 281-244-2119. Also visit Space Center Houston's The Big Move website.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

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  1. Retrieval of Hardware Refreshed by ACES

ACES is contractually required to pick up legacy computers within three days after the hardware has been refreshed. Users should contact the help desk to retrieve missing data or if they need the old hardware back, since ACES keeps it for 30 days before it is wiped and excessed.

Move computers from locked areas to a safe and accessible area and leave a note on your door telling the ACES technician where the equipment is located. The ACES/Selex technician will leave a receipt (at the hardware pick-up location) stating they picked up the hardware.

If legacy equipment cannot be located, then please create an incident ticket with the Security Operations Center (SOC). Follow these instructions to report the missing equipment and send the SOC/ROI number to the Compute Seat SETE Roseanna Dubbin.

JSC-IRD-Outreach x30939

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  1. Check Out the NASA@work April Monthly Bulletin

Check out what's inside this month's bulletin, including our latest Super Solver Spotlight (Robert Engberg from Marshall Space Flight Center!), photos of winners experiencing their NASA@work awards, recent NASA@work challenge winners and the NASA@work tip of the month. And, don't forget to check out our active challenges: "How to Create Self-sustainable NASA-STEM Public Support and Outreach in Each State" and "Challenge to Design the NASA Innovation Coin of Excellence (NICE)!"

Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate!

Kathryn Keeton 281-826-9792 https://nasa.innocentive.com

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   Organizations/Social

  1. JSC Picnic at SplashTown - Updated Information

The NASA JSC Family Picnic takes place at SplashTown water park this Sunday! This will be an exclusive day for NASA employees and guests. Any NASA employee or contractor may purchase tickets for themselves, family and friends.

UPDATED INFORMATION: At this time, SplashTown is continuing its multimillion-dollar transformation. As an opportunity to visit the park at a later date, all paid tickets will receive a complimentary ticket to visit another day during the 2014 season. Please exchange your ticket stub at Guest Relations as you exit the park on Sunday, April 27.

Tickets are on sale now in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops and Gilruth Center. Tickets are $37 each for ages 3 and up. Tickets may not be purchased the day of the event at SplashTown.

A ticket includes: admission to SplashTown, a barbecue lunch, beverages, snow cones, kids' games, Bingo with prizes and more! More information can be found here.

Event Date: Sunday, April 27, 2014   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:6:00 PM
Event Location: Splashtown Waterpark

Add to Calendar

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

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  1. Starport Jewelry Fair – Builing 3 Café

Jewelry is Fun will be out on April 29 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Building 3 Starport Café selling $5.99 jewelry. Enjoy great savings on jewelry and accessories! Click here for more information.

Event Date: Tuesday, April 29, 2014   Event Start Time:8:00 AM   Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: Building 3 Cafe

Add to Calendar

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

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  1. Parent's Night Out at Starport – April 25

Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport. We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun!

When: Friday, April 25, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Where: Gilruth Center

Ages: 5 to 12

Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling.

Shericka Phillips x35563 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/familyyouth-programs/parents-n...

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  1. Starport Summer Camp Registration Now Open

Summer is fast approaching, and Starport will again be offering summer camps for youth at the Gilruth Center all summer long. We have tons of fun planned, and we expect each session to fill up, so get your registrations in early! Weekly themes are listed on our website, as well as information regarding registration.

Ages: 6 to 12

Times: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Dates: June 9 to Aug. 22 in one-week sessions

Fee per session: $140 per child | $125 per sibling

Register for all sessions and receive a DISCOUNT.

Register online or at the Gilruth Center information desk.

Like us on Facebook to receive daily information about camps!

Shericka Phillips x35563 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/familyyouth-programs/youth-day...

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Lateral Reassignment Positions Available

The Workforce Transition Tool is the best place to find lateral reassignment and rotation opportunities for civil servants. Right now the following positions are posted:

    • Senior Collaborating Partner - BAHEP | AD (GS-15)
    • Deputy Manager, JSC Source Selection Office | BB (GS-14-15)
    • Astronaut Office IT Technical Lead—Astronaut Operations | CB (GS-13)
    • NBL Project Engineer | DX (GS-13-14)
    • Four EA Internal Postings | EC (GS-12-14)
    • S&MA Vehicle Systems Engineer | NC (GS-13-14)
    • PRA Analyst | NC (GS-13-15)
    • EVA Safety and Reliability Engineer | NT (GS-13)
    • Contamination Control/Quality Engineer | NT (GS-12-13)
    • Space Radiation Deputy Element Manager | SK (GS-13-14)

To access the Workforce Transition Tool, open: HR Portal > Employees > Workforce Transition > Workforce Transition Tool.

Check back frequently to see what new opportunities have been posted.

All do not possess known promotion potential; therefore, employees can only see positions posted at or below their current grade level.

For questions, find your Human Resources representative at: http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/contacts.html

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  1. HTC Lunch and Learn Tomorrow

Ever thought about starting your own business? Do you have an idea or technology that you think has potential as a commercial product? Then bring your bagged lunch and join the Houston Technology Center (HTC) in the HTC Conference Center, located on the second floor of Building 35, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. tomorrow and for the next two Thursdays for a series of lectures on how to launch, fund and sustain a new business.

Event Date: April 24

Event Start Time: 11:30 a.m.

Event End Time: 12:30 p.m.

Event Location: Building 35, Conference Room 212

Event Date: Thursday, April 24, 2014   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B35/212 Conference Room

Add to Calendar

Evelyn Boatman x48271 http://www.houstontech.org

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  1. NASA Stress Management Webinar

Join us today for the next wellness webinar in the "NASA Healthier You" webinar series. This webinar focuses on Stress Management and being in balance. It also satisfies the health education requirement for the JSC Wellness HERO program.

Webinar: My Potential; From Surviving to Thriving

Studies show that the brain influences our physiological response and ability to adapt to stressful situations. This is an important concept in understanding that holistic interventions stimulate the brain to help our bodies function under stress.

This webinar will discuss lifestyle interventions that aid in the prevention and management of stress in our overall health and well-being.

Healthier You webinars run monthly, are one hour in length and available to all civil servants, contractors and family members. Webinars start 1:30 p.m. CDT.

For details, visit us online.

Event Date: Wednesday, April 23, 2014   Event Start Time:1:30 PM   Event End Time:2:30 PM
Event Location: Webinar

Add to Calendar

Joseph Callahan x42769 http://stratwell.com/nhy2014/

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  1. Electronic Document System (EDS) 2.0

The EDS 2.0 document type TPS (Task Performance Sheet) is preparing for centerwide deployment. This intuitive and simple system will enable TPS's to be generated and approved electronically. If you are a frequent user of the JSC Form 1225, please sign up for one of the scheduled training sessions in SATERN.

Course Name: EDS Electronic Task Performance Sheet (eTPS) Training

Course Number: JSC-NT-SAIC-EDS

Two sessions are offered on the following days from 9 to 11 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m.

    • April 22
    • April 23
    • May 8
    • May 12
    • May 21
    • May 29

For more information, contact Regina Senegal 281-483-2686 or James A. Campbell at 281-483-9291.

Regina Senegal x32686 http://eds-sma.jsc.nasa.gov/

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   Community

  1. Do You Have a Telescope You Don't Know How to Use?

Do you have a telescope you don't know how to use?

Take a class at the George Observatory. We will be offering two classes on May 3.

The first class will be how to use a refracting or reflecting telescope, and it starts at 3 p.m. The cost is $25 for Houston Museum of Natural Science members, or $30 for non-members.

The second class will be how to use a go-to telescope, and it starts at 5 p.m. It costs $30 for Houston Museum of Natural Science members, or $35 for non-members.

For more information about these classes and to purchase tickets, visit this website.

Note: Park entrance fees apply at $7 per person for everyone over 12 years old.

Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=612&Ite...

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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

Wednesday – April 23, 2014

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: NASA's ISS national awareness campaign and travelling exhibit, Destination Station, begins in Indianapolis today. This morning, the exhibit appeared on Fox59 in Indianapolis as well as several other outlets. Tonight, Z-2 spacesuit engineer Ian Meginnis and NASA photographer Mark Sowa will give a presentation at the Indiana State Museum to kick off ten days of #DSIndy events. Follow the events on Instagram at instagram.com/nasa_destinationstation.

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Spacewalking Astronauts Replace Dead Computer on Space Station

Tariq Malik – space.com

 

A pair of NASA astronauts replaced a dead backup computer on the International Space Station during a short spacewalk Wednesday (April 23) to restore a critical computer system back to full strength.

 

Urgent Spacewalk at the International Space Station

ABC News

 

Astronauts go outside to fix the system's failed backup computer system, which helps control the cooling system.

Watch the interview with Astronaut Peggy Whitson.

 

NASA exhibit in Indiana allows moon rock touches

Associated Press

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Visitors will have chances to touch a moon rock during upcoming exhibits in Indiana. The opportunity comes during visits by a free NASA exhibit to Indianapolis and Muncie. The exhibit will visit Ball State University on Friday and White River State Park in Indianapolis on Saturday.

 

Why NASA is Experimenting on Twins in Space (VIDEO)

Discovery News

To understand the long-term effects of space on the human body, NASA is conducting an experiment involving twins! Join Tara as she explains what they hope to learn by sending one twin to space, but not the other.

NASA astronauts mark Earth Day with a slick pass of a microphone

Matt McFarland - The Washington Post

It's Earth Day, so the boys on the International Space Station broke out their festive green polo shirts and said a few words. I only ask that you watch the eyes of the gentleman on the far left. That's NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio. His eyes never waver from the camera as he passes the microphone to Steve Swanson. In the sports world, we call that a no-look pass.

Radiation standards might be relaxed for Mars trip

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

WASHINGTON -- One of many factors complicating a trip to Mars is the space radiation that would bombard astronauts during the approximately two years they would spend getting to the planet, exploring it and returning home. NASA is already working to develop more radiation-resistant space suits and stronger magnetic shields for the spacecraft. Agency officials also are exploring a new tack: relaxing NASA's health standards for astronauts so it would be easier to meet them.

 

Earth Day 2014: Imagining Earth Day 250 million years from now

Amy Hubbard – Los Angeles Times

For Earth Day 2014, NASA released this fresh image of our big blue marble. A world that can be perilous and filled with turmoil is the picture of tranquillity, when viewed from many miles away. What would that view have been like 250 million years ago, when our separate continents formed one big blob? The theory of supercontinent Pangea holds that the Earth's continents were incorporated into a single mass surrounded by a global ocean.

 

NASA's Developing a Stylish New Spacesuit for Mars

Joseph – Flaherty – Wired

 

Whether it's the silver-clad explorers from the Mercury missions, or the Apollo-era adventurers in their gleaming white and gold suits, astronauts have the greatest tailors this side of Starfleet. But even classics need updating. Amy Ross leads NASA's efforts in advanced pressure garment technology and is spearheading the first total redesign of astronaut outerwear in nearly 30 years.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

Spacewalking Astronauts Replace Dead Computer on Space Station

Tariq Malik – space.com

 

A pair of NASA astronauts replaced a dead backup computer on the International Space Station during a short spacewalk Wednesday (April 23) to restore a critical computer system back to full strength.

 

NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson made quick work of their repair during the spacewalk, removing the faulty station computer and installing a spare less than an hour after floating outside the orbiting laboratory at 9:56 a.m. EDT (1356 GMT).

 

"It looks like a good day for you guys to take a walk in space," Mission Control radioed the astronauts as the spacewalk began. The spacewalk was slated to last only 2.5 hours.

 

Mastracchio and Swanson replaced a computer known in NASA parlance as a Multiplexer-Demultiplexer, or MDM. The device is a backup computer for routing commands to systems supporting the space station's solar arrays, robotic arm rail car and other critical systems along the station's backbone-like main truss.

 

The 10-year-old MDM computer failed on April 11 during a standard test. The primary computer in the system is working fine, but NASA station flight controllers ordered today's repair spacewalk to restore redundancy in the system.

 

"Looks like we've got a new MDM," Mastracchio said as he finished the job.

 

A quick test showed the new computer was working fine.

 

"Oh wonderful," Mastracchio said.

 

Despite their swift work, the spacewalkers did take time to marvel at the bright blue Earth below. At one point, Mastracchio reminded Swanson to take a look down at the sunlit Earth.

 

"Where are we?" Mastracchio asked Mission Control later. The answer: Over South America.

 

"A great view," the astronaut replied.

 

Wednesday's 2.5-hour spacewalk was substantially shorter than the typical six-hour excursions astronauts take outside the International Space Station. That's because the MDM computer replacement was sole goal for Mastracchio and Swanson

 

"We want to get this job done as quickly as we can, so we didn't want to add a whole bunch of things for this team to sort out," NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini told reporters on Friday (April 18).

 

Suffredini said the decision for a short spacewalk is also a safety measure for Mastracchio and Swanson, who are using spacesuits that have new water filters and fan pump systems. That maintenance was performed in the wake of a harrowing June 2013 spacewalk in which a water leak flooded the helmet of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, nearly drowning him. NASA engineers suspect contamination in the water line caused the leak.

 

"I feel pretty strongly that we've sorted out the root cause and that our suits are in good shape," Suffredini said.

 

Today's space station repairs marked the ninth career spacewalk for Mastracchio, and the fifth spacewalk for Swanson. Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin, Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov round out the crew. The spacewalk came on the heels of two other major events for the six-man crew on the International Space Station.

 

On Sunday (April 20), an unmanned SpaceX Dragon cargo ship arrived at the station carrying 2.5 tons of fresh supplies and gear for the orbiting lab's crew. Then earlier today, at 4:58 a.m. EDT (0858 GMT), a robotic Russian Progress 53 cargo ship was due to undock from the station and park itself about 311 miles (500 kilometers) from the orbiting lab to test its new Kurs automated docking system. The Progress spacecraft is due to return to the space station on Friday (April 25).

 

Urgent Spacewalk at the International Space Station

ABC News

 

Astronauts go outside to fix the system's failed backup computer system, which helps control the cooling system.

Watch the interview with Astronaut Peggy Whitson.

 

NASA exhibit in Indiana allows moon rock touches

Associated Press

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - Visitors will have chances to touch a moon rock during upcoming exhibits in Indiana.

 

The opportunity comes during visits by a free NASA exhibit to Indianapolis and Muncie. The exhibit will visit Ball State University on Friday and White River State Park in Indianapolis on Saturday.

 

The exhibit includes one of only eight moon rocks that visitors can touch. The nearly 4 billion-year-old rock was returned from the moon during the last lunar mission in 1972.

 

Another exhibit will be set up at the Indiana State Museum through June 29 and three astronauts will be visiting Indianapolis as part of the events.

 

Various presentations also will give the public a chance to learn about life on the International Space Station.

 

Why NASA is Experimenting on Twins in Space (VIDEO)

Discovery News

To understand the the long-term effects of space on the human body, NASA is conducting an experiment involving twins! Join Tara as she explains what they hope to learn by sending one twin to space, but not the other.

Read More:
NASA To Conduct Unprecedented Twin Experiment
http://phys.org/news/2014-04-nasa-unp...
"Consider a pair of brothers, identical twins. One gets a job as an astronaut and rockets into space. The other gets a job as an astronaut, too, but on this occasion he decides to stay home. After a year in space, the traveling twin returns home and they reunite."

NASA astronauts mark Earth Day with a slick pass of a microphone

Matt McFarland - The Washington Post

It's Earth Day, so the boys on the International Space Station broke out their festive green polo shirts and said a few words. I only ask that you watch the eyes of the gentleman on the far left. That's NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio. His eyes never waver from the camera as he passes the microphone to Steve Swanson. In the sports world, we call that a no-look pass.

Radiation standards might be relaxed for Mars trip

Ledyard King – Florida Today

 

WASHINGTON -- One of many factors complicating a trip to Mars is the space radiation that would bombard astronauts during the approximately two years they would spend getting to the planet, exploring it and returning home.

 

NASA is already working to develop more radiation-resistant space suits and stronger magnetic shields for the spacecraft. Agency officials also are exploring a new tack: relaxing NASA's health standards for astronauts so it would be easier to meet them.

 

Getting to Mars -- and living there -- will take a lot more than a big rocket, an inexhaustible fuel supply and a crew of gritty astronauts. It also will require attention to myriad details, including oxygen systems, communication networks, power generation and, yes, health concerns.

 

NASA officials addressed the radiation issue Tuesday during the first day of the Humans to Mars Summit 2014 at George Washington University attended by independent policy experts, university researchers and aerospace company representatives.

 

Those in attendance, including former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, have united around the goal of delivering humans to Mars for an extended and perhaps permanent stay.

 

NASA is aiming for a landing in the early 2030s. Even with two decades to prepare, such a journey to a planet millions of miles away requires hundreds of steps every day.

 

One such step involves calculating an acceptable level of radiation for astronauts, a question NASA took to the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies.

 

"We're pushing not only the technology that helps protect the (astronaut) but also looking at the requirements we have," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration told the Humans to Mars Summit. "Are they really realistic requirements? Or has today's medical environment allowed us to do things differently?"

 

The institute's answer, issued by a committee earlier this month, is that current medical standards for radiation exposure should remain in effect, though exceptions could be granted "in rare circumstances." If an exception were permitted, NASA would be ethically bound to provide astronauts with health care beyond the end of their missions, the committee said.

 

The radiation issue is one of eight areas NASA engineers have highlighted as key challenges in a manned Mars mission. The other seven are: communications/navigation, propulsion, entry/descent/landing, robotics, life support systems, power generation, and conversion of carbon dioxide to oxygen.

 

Carbon dioxide makes up 95 percent of the Martian atmosphere.

 

Some of the challenges are being tackled on a limited scale at the International Space Station, but solutions won't come overnight, said Michael Gazarik, NASA's Associate administrator for space technology.

 

The orbiting lab is "the proving ground," he told the audience at the summit. "We've got to take systems from days or months and (extend) the duration. We need the time and capability to do that."

 

Greg Cecil, a science teacher and space aficionado who attended the summit, said many of the scientific challenges can be overcome. But the turf battles and ego wars that continually play out between administrations and Congress, he said, are a different matter.

 

"The technology I'm not worried about whatsoever," said Cecil, who spent more than five years as a technician on the space shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida before he was laid off over program cuts. "It's the politics. Getting people behind it."

 

Earth Day 2014: Imagining Earth Day 250 million years from now

Amy Hubbard – Los Angeles Times

For Earth Day 2014, NASA released this fresh image of our big blue marble. A world that can be perilous and filled with turmoil is the picture of tranquillity, when viewed from many miles away.

 

What would that view have been like 250 million years ago, when our separate continents formed one big blob? The theory of supercontinent Pangea holds that the Earth's continents were incorporated into a single mass surrounded by a global ocean.

 

After about 100 million years, the mass began to separate and break apart due to the work of plate tectonics. But while it existed, Pangea was no picnic.

 

That massive hunk of land absorbed summer's heat, and temperatures plunged in winter, Discovery.com surmises. Temperature changes meant air pressure swings and, consequently, extreme weather patterns.

 

That's 250 million years in the past. Look 250 million years into the future, and imagine the changes that will have taken place on our planet.

As NASA said in 2000: "Africa is going to smash into Europe .... Meanwhile the Atlantic Ocean will probably widen for a spell before it reverses course and later disappears."

 

The supercontinent cycle theorizes this movement of continents has happened throughout history, with Pangea only the latest aggregation. Another theory of future Earth has the continents, moved along by the Earth's plates, congregating on the opposite side of the globe from where Pangea was, bumping up together in the center of what is now the Pacific Ocean.

Then there's "Amasia," a supercontinent that would occur at the top of the Earth, joining the Americas with Eurasia, as a 2012 NPR story describes.

It's fascinating to contemplate. For the present, however, we have our separate continents, as well as the shared crises of our immediate future.

Climate change and global warming have become the environmental catchphrases of the early 2000s, compounding uncertainties as temperatures rise:

 

You don't have to wait for the continents to merge, you can do something today to affect our immediate future.

 

The Environmental Protection Agency has a whole month's worth of tips on how to "ActOnClimate": take a shower instead of a bath, change out five lights and program your thermostat are among the easy, common-sense suggestions.

 

NASA's Developing a Stylish New Spacesuit for Mars

Joseph – Flaherty – Wired

 

Whether it's the silver-clad explorers from the Mercury missions, or the Apollo-era adventurers in their gleaming white and gold suits, astronauts have the greatest tailors this side of Starfleet. But even classics need updating. Amy Ross leads NASA's efforts in advanced pressure garment technology and is spearheading the first total redesign of astronaut outerwear in nearly 30 years.

 

Her latest creation, called the Z-2 Spacesuit, is a $4.4 million dollar planetary exploration suit designed for walking the surface of the Moon, Mars, and any other landforms a spacecraft can land on. Like the Extravehicular Mobility Units seen in movies like Gravity, the Z-2 is a pressurized design made from layers of high-tech materials that are inflated until they're as taut as a basketball, but customized for missions on terra firma.

 

Developing planetary suits presents challenges very different than those encountered when designing gear meant for use on shuttles, the space station, and space walks. One of the biggest difficulties is the lack of direction on where we'll be heading next. A return to the moon? A manned mission to Mars? Each destination will lead to vastly different design criteria.

 

"It all depends on where you're going and what you're doing," says Ross. "Each spacesuit is tailored for the mission, what tasks the astronauts will be performing, where they'll be doing them, the planetary microgravity, how hot or cold it is, how many times they'll be doing it, and so on." In order to make progress in what could be a paralyzing array of choices, Ross uses Mars as a baseline, noting that gear suited for the red planet can be reconfigured to serve outliers relatively easily.

 

There's no single feature that stands out on the Z-2, but rather a collection of small innovations that collectively enable the exploration of bold new worlds. Bearings at key joints give astronauts a surprising amount of flexibility. "If you need to crawl under a rover to change its oil, you should be able to," says Ross. "If we ask you need to jog up Olympus Mons, you should be able to do that in the same suit."

 

The most conspicuous innovation is a rigid shell on the back, called the "Suitplate Interface Port." The port allows astronauts to enter and exit the outfit by docking with a vehicle, forgoing a trip through an airlock, and pulls double duty as the attachment point for the Portable Life Support System—the backpack that provides oxygen, thermal regulation, and other functions.

 

Ross says the biggest difference between the Z-series and earlier suit design has less to do with new design features, and is more dependent on material and manufacturing advances. She credits 3-D scanning and printing as huge developments allowing the team to make prototypes faster, but also to virtualize some of the R&D. The team uses the same real-time motion-tracking tools that are used for videogames and movies to simulate movement and help reveal where areas of discomfort are likely to arise. "We need to understand the interface between the interface between human and suit," she says.

 

What's the Countdown to Flight?

 

In space, no one can hear you scream if you tear your inseam, so testing and reliability is of the utmost importance. A ride in a parabolic aircraft NASA has nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" simulates the suit's mobility in a zero-gravity environment. A 6.2 million gallon pool called the "Neutral Buoyancy Lab" helps astronauts get a feel for what a moon walk would feel like. And a hike through a simulated alien world at NASA's "Rockyard" facility provides test subjects the ability to comment on fit and point out parts of the suit that are prone to ride up.

 

The ultimate test is subjecting the suit, and it's wearer, to a vacuum chamber. This is an experiment that is wildly dangerous, but is a critical step before testing designs in space. Ross tells the story of a vacuum test gone awry. "An astronaut's umbilical became disconnected from the chamber and the last thing he remembered before passing out a few seconds later was the saliva on his tongue boiling." She says of an astronaut who, thankfully, survived. "If you screw up when you're doing a vacuum chamber test people die."

 

The Z-2 prototype is expected to be delivered and tested in November of 2014, but it could take another decade to finalize the suit. As it gets closer to launch, more details need to be dialed in and heavy-duty testing is required. For all of the work done on the Z-2 there design requirements related to durability have barely been addressed.

 

To give a sense of scale, Ross worked on a new pair of gloves for an existing suit and the process of getting them cleared for takeoff took over two and a half years. The Z-2′s gloves are a key component of the design and come in 62 configurations, which will reduce the hand stress of the astronauts, but could greatly increase the amount of testing required. Additionally, NASA's shuttles are grounded and there are no plans to replace them, so all this work could end up grounded indefinitely.

 

Where are the Sleek, Skintight Suits We've Been Promised?

 

As cool as the Z-2 is, why not shoot for something sleeker and more form-fitting like the mechanical counter pressure (MCP) suits being developed by MIT's Dava Newman? NASA's engineers are big fans of the concept, but point out that for these kinds of suits to work, breakthroughs in material science will be required, as well as careful tailoring. Current concepts leave the crotch and armpits dangerously unsupported and pressurizing a standalone helmet creates tricky design challenges. This isn't to say it's not possible, but is likely decades from feasibility.

 

Bodysuits inspired by Star Trek might be a ways off, but Ross' team has tried to add a little visual flair to the project by developing three versions of the Z-2′s outer layer, each laced with electroluminescent wire and decorated with futuristic-looking patterns. The designs were conceived of by students at Philadelphia University and an engineer on Ross' team, Shane McFarland, created a website to crowdsource a decision about which look should be manufactured. Over 200,000 votes were cast and a decision is due at the end of April, yet no matter which design is selected, the vote serves as an encouraging sign about the public's interest in NASA's mandate.

 

Ross and company are excited about the positive response to the suit and ultimately want to use it as a tool to reignite widespread passion for space exploration as much as a vessel for individual astronauts. "More than one person has told me 'I thought NASA was dead,'" says Ross. "NASA is not dead and we think spacesuits are exciting."

 

NASA's lofty goal of a manned Mars mission doesn't match budget reality

Dana Milbank – The Washington Post

 

NASA just confirmed what sci-fi enthusiasts have known all along: There are other civilizations out there.

 

This bombshell was dropped Tuesday by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Foggy Bottom. "Here in the Western world we think very shortsighted," he explained. "We think about the time in which we're going to be on this Earth, or in which our kids or grandkids are going to be on this Earth. Many other civilizations think muuuuuch longer than that, and we need to start thinking that way."

 

Bolden, a former astronaut, did not say. But he spoke about being in a race to colonize other worlds before the sun burns out like other stars have. "One of these days that's going to be the story of our star, the sun," he said. "And so if this species is to survive indefinitely, we need to become a multi-planet species. So one reason we need to go to Mars is so we can learn a little about living on another planet, so when Mikaley, my granddaughter, is ready to move out of the solar system we'll know a lot more about living away from this planet than we know today."

 

Bolden may not really believe that humans will be traveling beyond the solar system in the next couple of decades when 14-year-old Mikaley will be of space- traveling age. And, happily, Mikaley needn't book her ticket just yet, because scientists expect the sun to be around another 5 billion years, give or take.

 

But listening to Bolden and other NASA officials at the Mars summit (platinum sponsor: Boeing; gold sponsor: Lockheed Martin), I wondered if their ambitions were proceeding at warp speed relative to realities here on Earth.

 

President Obama revived the languishing field of human space flight, proposing to put humans on an asteroid in 2025 and on Mars in the 2030s. The administration extended the life of the International Space Station to serve as "our stepping stone to the rest of the cosmos," as Bolden put it. That sounds really cool. But it may be a colossal waste of money.

 

Budget realities require a modest approach to human space exploration and not an Apollo-style moonshot. Yet NASA officials admit humans won't reach Mars at current funding levels, and it's difficult to see where extra money will come from in an age of shrinking budgets. Rather than attempting to send people to Mars on the cheap, there's a compelling argument that we could accomplish more with a less expensive strategy of unmanned exploration.

 

The Congressional Budget Office said last fall that eliminating NASA's human space exploration program (but leaving robotic exploration intact) would save $73 billion over a decade. The CBO noted that "increased capabilities in electronics and information technology have generally reduced the need for humans to fly space missions. The scientific instruments used to gather knowledge in space rely much less (or not at all) on nearby humans to operate them."

 

I asked Bolden about the CBO report. He said that robots can't "reason and make logical decisions about alternative courses" the way humans can, and he pointed out that "if the ultimate goal is to make humans multi-planet species, then you've got to do it at some point."

 

That's true. But our current trajectory won't get us there anyway; estimates of the cost of a human trip to Mars run into the hundreds of billions. "We're going to have to figure out ingenious ways to do it based on the present budget plus modest increases," Bolden said at the summit.

 

Or maybe more than modest. William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration, told the same audience of the need to "break the paradigm" of current funding. "We cannot do it at the same budget level we're at today. It's just not going to work."

 

Bolden said he would "get down on my hands and knees and beg and plead" with Congress to support human space exploration. But begging does not a Mars mission make — particularly when NASA can arguably do more with unmanned exploration. The crafts are lighter and easier to land, there are no worries about life support, and there is no need for a return trip.

 

And robots don't get cancer or radiation poisoning. Gerstenmaier said that NASA asked the Institute of Medicine "to take a look at our current standards for radiation exposure limits on astronauts" to see if it might be "ethically acceptable" to raise the limits.

 

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to recognize that if you're weighing shortcuts like that, something may be wrong with your mission plan.

 

 

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