| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Tree-Planting Ceremony - Dr. Sam Pool
- More JSC Work Introduced in Tech Briefs - Organizations/Social
- New Agencywide T-Shirt Offer
- Frozen Yogurt Now Served at the Building 1 Caf
- Prediction Run 5K - Tomorrow
- Apollo Collectibles Available at Starport
- Starport Summer Camp - Register Now
- Latin Dance Introduction: June 13 from 8 to 9 p.m. - Community
- JSC Child Care Center Has a Few Openings |  |
| Headlines - Tree-Planting Ceremony - Dr. Sam Pool
A tree-planting ceremony honoring the life of Dr. Sam Pool will be held June 12 at 3 p.m. in the JSC Memorial Tree Grove. Pool served as the assistant director for Space Medicine in the Human Health and Performance Directorate (formerly Space Life Sciences Directorate). There will be limited parking available along the tree grove; employees are encouraged to walk or carpool. Event Date: Thursday, June 12, 2014 Event Start Time:3:00 PM Event End Time:4:30 PM
Event Location: JSC Memorial Tree Grove
Add to Calendar
Lisa Navy x32466
[top] - More JSC Work Introduced in Tech Briefs
In the May 2014 issue of NASA Tech Briefs, five JSC technologies are recognized. The NASA Tech Briefs publication introduces information on new innovations and technologies stemming from advanced research and technology programs at NASA. The latest edition includes the following advanced JSC innovations: 1) Battery Fault Detection with Saturating Transformers (Inventors: Francis J. Davies and Jason R. Graika) 2) Brine Residual in Containment (Inventors: Michael R. Callahan, Michael R. Casteel and David A Glock) 3) Locking Orifice Retaining Nut (Inventor: Michael Mowry) 4) Use of Selective Oxidation Catalyst for Amperometric Sensing Electrode (Inventor: Kenneth Carney) 5) Numerical Evaluation of Near-Hypersingular Integrals (Inventors: Patrick W. Fink and Michael A. Khayat) Review all the NASA Tech Briefs here. Organizations/Social - New Agencywide T-Shirt Offer
Starport is offering an Apollo 45th Anniversary T-shirt to all NASA and contractor employees for just $7 (youth medium to adult XL) and $8 (sizes 2X to 4X). Order your shirts online and select TX-JSC-Starport as your delivery option to pick up your shirts at Starport (distribution dates and locations to be announced), or have the them shipped to your home for an additional fee. Wear your shirt any Friday through Oct. 31 to receive a 10 percent discount on store merchandise (standard exclusions apply). Order yours today and save on the shirts—while also saving on your future purchases and showing your support for NASA and commemorating the legendary Apollo Program. - Frozen Yogurt Now Served at the Building 1 Café
It's getting hot out there, so please stop by the café in Building 1 for some frozen yogurt. Café hours are Monday through Friday, with breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. and lunch from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. This café is closed on Flex Fridays. - Prediction Run 5K - Tomorrow
JSC Health and Fitness Month (HFM) 2014 - Prediction Run 5K What: Predict the amount of time you will spend walking, jogging or running a specified distance Distance: 3.1 miles When: Tomorrow, May 29 (starts at 7 a.m., but get there 15 to 20 minutes early for last-minute adjustments) Note: Leave your watch or any other form of timing device in your car Where: North side of the Gilruth lobby Prizes: All participants will receive an HFM ticket, and the top three performers will get an HFM shirt Event Date: Thursday, May 29, 2014 Event Start Time:7:00 AM Event End Time:8:00 AM
Event Location: B207 Lobby (North Side)
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Richard Wooten x35010
[top] - Apollo Collectibles Available at Starport
Starport is preparing for the upcoming anniversary of Apollo 11 with Apollo collectibles, available now. Stop by Buildings 3 or 11 to see the First Day Apollo 11 and Apollo 8 stamps for just $32, or the First Day Cache for $55. Also available are the Celebrate Apollo Program framed set, Celebrate Apollo 11 framed set and the Skylab lapel pin. And, more Apollo collectibles are coming soon. Celebrate Apollo at Starport! - Starport Summer Camp - Register Now
Summer is fast approaching, and Starport will again be offering summer camp 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. - Latin Dance Introduction: June 13 from 8 to 9 p.m.
This class is mostly an introduction to Salsa, but it also touches on other popular Latin dances found in social settings: Merengue, Bachata, and even a little bit of Cha-Cha-Cha. Emphasis is on Salsa and then Bachata. For the first-time student or those who want a refresher course. You will go over basic steps with variations and build them into sequences. Discounted registration: o $40 per person (ends May 30) Regular registration: o $50 per person (May 31 to June13) Salsa Intermediate: June 13 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This class continues teaching Salsa beyond that taught in the introduction class. You should be comfortable and confident with the material from the introduction class before moving on to the intermediate class. This is a multi-level class where students may be broken up into groups based on class experience. Community - JSC Child Care Center Has a Few Openings
Space Family Education, Inc. (SFEI) has openings available to dependents of JSC civil servants and contractors for the 2014 summer and August school year. There are openings available Aug. 25 for children that will be: - 16 to 34 months of age
- 3 year olds
- 4 year olds
Program Details: 1. Open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed federal holidays, but open Flex Fridays). 2. Competitive pricing with other comparable child cares, but SFEI includes more amenities. 3. Additional security. Badges are required to get on-site, and an additional security code is required to get in the school's front door. 4. Accelerated curriculum in all classes, with additional enrichment and extracurricular programs. 5. Convenience. Nearby and easy access for parents working at on-site at JSC. 6. Breakfast, morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack are all included. 7. Video monitoring available from computers, androids and iPhones. | |
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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 – May 28, 2014
International Space Station:
- 2 p.m. CT - ISS Expedition 40/41 Soyuz TMA-13M Launch Coverage (Launch scheduled at 2:57 p.m. ET; includes video B-roll of the crew's pre-launch activities at 3:15 p.m. ET) - JSC via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (All Channels)
- 5 p.m. CT - Video File of ISS Expedition 40/41 Soyuz TMA-13M Pre-Launch, Launch Video B-Roll and Post-Launch Interviews - JSC (All Channels)
- 8 p.m. CT - NASA-TV coverage of 39S docking to ISS; docking time 8:48 p.m. CT (All Channels)
- 10 p.m. CT – NASA-TV coverage of 39S hatch opening, crew greetings and call with family members; hatch opening targeted for 10:25 p.m. CT (All Channels)
HEADLINES AND LEADS
New ISS crew set to launch Wednesday
Florida Today
The trio hopes to dock at the research complex 260 miles above Earth less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m.
Amid ongoing diplomatic tension with Russia, another NASA astronaut is set to launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday on a Russian spacecraft.
Soyuz poised for launch to station
William Harwood – CBS News
A veteran Russian cosmonaut, a U.S. Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut and a German volcanologist are set for a six-hour flight to the International Space Station Wednesday to boost the lab's crew back to six and kick off a busy summer of scientific research and multiple U.S. and Russian spacewalks amid a steady string of visiting cargo ships.
Expedition 40 crew is set to launch
Amy Thompson – Spaceflight Insider
In a little over twenty-four hours, the Expedition 40 crew members currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will welcome three new crew mates. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, cosmonaut Maxin Suarev and European Space Agency astronaut (ESA) Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M for a five and a half month mission.
Soyuz spaceship to take new crew to International Space Station
ITAR-TASS
The manned spaceship SoyuTMA-13M with an international crew of next long-duration space expedition, the ISS-40/41 mission, will blast off from Baikonur spaceport on Wednesday in a journey to the International Space Station.
NASA's latest Soyuz seat procurement may be its last
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
NASA's recent purchase of six more round-trip seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a deal worth $458 million, could be the last time the space agency sends a check abroad to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from International Space Station as rampant Russian inflation pushes the price of crew transportation higher, officials said.
Review: Innovation the NASA Way
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
Is NASA an innovative agency? In the space community, it depends on to whom you ask that question. Many would most likely agree, pointing to the many achievements the agency has made over the decades, overcoming a broad range of technical, financial, and other challenges. Some critics may demur, though, arguing that perhaps the agency is too tied to its past, and often too risk averse, to do anything truly innovative in space today.
Space robot's 'self-repair' means fewer spacewalks
CBS NEWS (CAN)
Canada's "handyman" robot Dextre is repairing the International Space Station's Canadian robotic arm this week — and in the process, it has taken over another task that once belonged to spacewalking astronauts.
'Bermuda triangle' of space oozes radiation, crashes computers
Carol Christian – Houston Chronicle
There really is a "Bermuda Triangle" of space, NASA scientists agree. They just don't call it that.
Officially known as the South Atlantic Anomaly, the extraterrestrial Bermuda Triangle is found over much of South America and extends out over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil.
NASA's New Mega-Rocket, Orion Capsule on Track for Future Test Flights
A new era of space exploration — supported by a history-making new mega-rocket and a spacecraft designed to deliver humans into deep space — could be on the horizon for NASA.
Making progress, and seeking stability, with SLS and Orion
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
There are few NASA programs as polarizing as the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and Orion spacecraft. To NASA, and the programs' supporters in industry, Congress, and elsewhere, SLS and Orion are essential elements of any long-term space exploration strategy, be it humans to asteroids, the Moon, or Mars.
It's Time to Stop Babying Mars
Is the fear of contaminating other worlds with life from Earth stymying explorers?
Laura Dattaro – Popular Mechanics
Mars is no stranger to life. Seven U.S. spacecraft have successfully landed there, and all of them took microbes to the planet's surface (though the bugs probably did not survive for long). Yet the world's space agencies continue to maintain strict spacecraft sterilization procedures in the hope of minimizing the spread of Earth life beyond our planet. For decades this ethos—known as planetary protection—prevailed. Now, some scientists say, these precautions are undermining the search for life beyond Earth by raising costs and inhibiting innovative missions—without meaningful benefits.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to Unveil Manned Dragon 'Space Taxi' on May 29
Ken Kremer – Universe Today
CEO, founder and chief designer Elon Musk is set to unveil the manned version of his firms commercial Dragon spaceship later this week, setting in motion an effort that he hopes will soon restore America's capability to launch US astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017.
Boeing Revamps Spacecraft Design To Attract Commercial Business
Jeff Foust – Space News
For those used to the spaceships of science fiction, the interior of an actual crewed spacecraft can be a bit of a shock. Instead of the sleek, bright, spacious designs of vehicles like the "Star Trek" Starship Enterprise, the interiors of NASA spacecraft are, by comparison, rather cramped and utilitarian. However, with the growing promise of commercial spaceflight, one company is rethinking its approach to spacecraft design, and in the process leveraging its experience in commercial aviation.
COMPLETE STORIES
New ISS crew set to launch Wednesday
Florida Today
The trio hopes to dock at the research complex 260 miles above Earth less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m.
Amid ongoing diplomatic tension with Russia, another NASA astronaut is set to launch to the International Space Station on Wednesday on a Russian spacecraft.
Tune in to NASA TV to see first-time flyer Reid Wiseman blast off from Kazakhstan at 3:57 p.m. EDT Wednesday with cosmonaut Max Suraev and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency.
The trio hopes to dock at the research complex 260 miles above Earth less than six hours later, at 9:48 p.m.
Soyuz poised for launch to station
William Harwood – CBS News
A veteran Russian cosmonaut, a U.S. Navy test pilot-turned-astronaut and a German volcanologist are set for a six-hour flight to the International Space Station Wednesday to boost the lab's crew back to six and kick off a busy summer of scientific research and multiple U.S. and Russian spacewalks amid a steady string of visiting cargo ships.
Soyuz TMA-13M commander Maxim Suraev, flight engineer Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst are scheduled for launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:57:41 p.m. EDT Wednesday (GMT-4, 1:57 a.m. Thursday local time), roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.
If all goes well, Suraev and Wiseman will oversee an automated four-orbit rendezvous, setting up a docking at the space station's Earth-facing Rassvet module around 9:48 p.m. Standing by to welcome them aboard will be Expedition 40 commander Steven Swanson, Soyuz TMA-12M commander Alexander Skvortsov and flight engineer Oleg Artemyev.
The launching comes amid increasing tension between the United States and Russia in the wake of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, U.S. sanctions and Russian threats to limit access to critical rocket engines and to pull out of the space station project in 2020, well ahead of NASA's long-range goal.
But work to ready the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft for launch to the station has proceeded without incident and all three crew members say superpower politics and the war of words over Ukraine have had no effect on their training or personal relationships.
"When you get to know these guys, the politics starts to fall by the wayside and you realize these are genuinely great people," said Wiseman, a NASA astronaut and Navy jet pilot making his first space flight. "Working with my commander and all the Russian trainers, these people are not just my colleagues, they're my friends.
"So sure, we don't want to see political turmoil. But from the operator standpoint looking up, this is absolutely a non issue for us. We're three really good friends climbing into a Soyuz to fly into space. And all politics aside, there's no doubt it's going to work for us."
Gerst, a European Space Agency astronaut making his first flight, noted each side's dependence on the other, saying "half a space station doesn't fly."
"So we have something in common that we have as a precious gem out there that we all know is worth saving, that we don't risk," he said. "That is why the space program actually brings us together, it kind of gives us the perspective of why it's important to remain sensible down here on Earth and in that way, it's a very stabilizing program."
Suraev agreed and while he jokingly referred questions about politics to "big bananas" and "politician guys," he said "we are just doing our job and we are flying and studying and training."
But Dmitry Rogozin, Russian deputy prime minister for space and defense, has taken a particularly belligerent tone, sarcastically tweeting that American astronauts should look into using trampolines to reach the space station. Rogozin is on the U.S. sanctions list and has made no secret of his disdain.
The tweets rub NASA's nose in the painful reality that a U.S. crew ferry craft is not expected to be ready for flights to the station until 2017 at the earliest. Until then, NASA will remain dependent on the Russians for transportation, paying between $60 million and $70 million per seat through the end of the current contract.
Michael Suffredini, manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, would not address Rogozin's widely publicized comments, saying "we try not to respond to what's being said in the press."
"I hope to some degree they try not to respond to what they hear some folks say on our side," he told CBS News. "When it gets right down to it, we're still supporting each other. We regularly have telecons to reaffirm our commitment. ... We're trying really hard to do what both of our governments have essentially told us to do -- even though if you listen to Rogozin's words it sounds like maybe they're thinking different -- but that is to continue working in spaceflight the way we have."
As for the cost of flying on the Soyuz, Suffredini blamed a steady string of price increases on Russian inflation, not a deliberate effort to gouge NASA, and said a commercially developed U.S. ferry craft and the rocket needed to launch it will not be cheap.
"I'll still bet you that when you look at the per mission price, it's going to be hard to beat the Soyuz," he said. "But we'll see."
As a veteran of more than 500 carrier landings with experience in F-14 and F-18 jets, Wiseman is no stranger to high-performance aircraft. And he looks forward to the day when NASA astronauts will once again fly aboard U.S.-built spacecraft. But in the meantime, he's more than happy to ride a Soyuz, which he described as a machine focused on one over-arching priority: crew safety.
"The Soyuz absolutely boggles my mind with robustness," he said. "This is a vehicle that has a really great set of backup systems, it has ascent abort all the way from the pad until we reach orbit, it has tons of backup systems on re-entry. It's almost like flying in a little tank into orbit. It's got tons of margin all over the place. The more I learned about that vehicle, the safer I felt in it."
He said the Russian top-down design philosophy was different from the give-and-take designer-operator interaction he was used to, but the Russian focus on crew safety trumps all other concerns.
"They're willing to take a loss of vehicle, there's not a substantial amount of depth there," he said. "But when it comes to loss of crew, holy smokes, there's a backup for every backup, and I really think the systems are designed with the ultimate safety (in mind), and that's returning the crew home. In almost every case, the crew gets home."
Gerst also praised the Soyuz, saying it could bring a crew back to Earth even if it was misaligned and "every single control of your spacecraft failed after that."
"You would come down and re-enter the atmosphere and you would survive," he said. "It wouldn't be a fun ride, but you would survive. That speaks for itself. It's a well designed vehicle that I fully trust, even though it's not the most comfortable sitting in the seat."
Once aboard the space station, the combined Expedition 40 crew faces an extremely busy summer with two Russian spacewalks on tap, up to three U.S. EVAs, the arrival of a Russian Progress supply ship, a final European ATV cargo carrier and two U.S. spacecraft, an Orbital Sciences Cygnus supply craft and a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
"As you can see, our key challenges for this increment will be managing the slew of vehicle traffic that we have in addition to the EVAs that are planned and of course, we also have a very ambitious utilization schedule as well on top of that," said lead Flight Director Greg Whitney. "So it's going to be a challenging time for both the ground and the on-board crew, but we're looking forward to it. It'll be a great mission."
With a Ph.D. in geophysics, Gerst is an expert on volcanoes who looks forward to an opportunity to monitor one or more eruptions from orbit.
"What we need in volcanology is good models on how eruption clouds disperse," he said. "We saw that when this volcano in Iceland actually shut down aviation traffic in Europe for several weeks through an ash eruption cloud.
"It is really important to understand these better, how they behave, what direction they travel, how long, which particles stay dispersed, and for that one thing that's really important is how high those eruption clouds rise in the initial phase of an eruption. That is hard to get from an Earth observation satellite because they're never at the right place at the right time, and they cannot do oblique views in general."
For Wiseman, the focus is on life sciences and medical research that could pay dividends down the road.
"We have a ton of human research planned," he said. "They're going to look at my blood, my skin, my bones, my muscle, my eyes especially. And I'm really looking forward to getting into all that science. All that stuff fascinates me. As a Navy pilot, I always had an aversion to medicine. Now I'm being forced into it, and I absolutely love it!"
Later this summer, NASA hopes to launch a 3D printer to the space station, a new technology that Wiseman said could help pave the way to Mars.
"Imagine if Apollo 13 had a 3D printer," he said. "Imagine if you're going to Mars and instead of packing along 20,000 spare parts, you pack along a few kilograms of ink. Now you don't even need to know what part's going to break, you can just print out that part. Really, I think for the future, that's pretty fascinating. It'll be fun to play with on orbit."
Wiseman also expects to participate in three spacewalks: one with Swanson to reconfigure a solar array cooling system and two with Gerst: one to stow a failed ammonia pump module and another to make preparations for moving a U.S. storage module.
Skvortsov and Artemyev plan a spacewalk in late June and another in August to carry out a variety of maintenance tasks on the Russian segment of the station.
Expedition 40 will end with the departure of Skvortsov, Swanson and Artemyev on Sept. 10. Three fresh crew members -- Soyuz TMA-14M commander Alexander Samokutyaev, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and cosmonaut Elena Serova -- are scheduled for launch to the station on Sept. 25.
Expedition 40 crew is set to launch
Amy Thompson – Spaceflight Insider
In a little over twenty-four hours, the Expedition 40 crew members currently aboard the International Space Station (ISS) will welcome three new crew mates. NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, cosmonaut Maxin Suarev and European Space Agency astronaut (ESA) Alexander Gerst will launch aboard the Soyuz TMA-13M for a five and a half month mission.
The current crew of NASA astronaut and commander Steve Swanson along with cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev have spent the last week performing station maintenance as well as science experiments in anticipation of the crew's arrival on Friday.
Swanson participated in two main science experiments: the Skin-B investigation, an analysis of rapid skin aging in space as compared to the effects microgravity has on other internal organs, and the Sprint VO2 experiment, an intense cardiovascular resistance program spanning three days as opposed to six days of workouts. Astronauts exercise in space to counteract bone and muscle loss occurring in microgravity. Also Swanson cared for growing lettuce plants as part of the Veggie (VEG-01) investigation. Cosmonauts Skyortsov and Artemyev conducted an experiment on to determine the location and risk of particle impacts on the ISS as well as station maintenance.
The crew arrived at the Baikonur launch site two weeks ago in order to prep for their mission. While in Kazakhstan, the trio took part in some unusual traditions in preparation for Wednesday's launch. Reid Wiseman, Alexander Gerst and Maxim Suarev are set to launch Wednesday May 28, 2014 at 3:57pm EDT (1:57 a.m. May 29 Baikonur time) with Maxin as the Soyuz commander.
In order to prepare the crew for weightlessness, doctors have been spinning the trio around in chairs and sleeping in beds with their heads tilted downward. Most astronauts experience space sickness during the very beginning of their mission and their bodies will have to adjust to weightlessness very quickly after launch in order to control the Soyuz. Organs such as the brain receive conflicting information while first experiencing weightlessness, so these preparations may seem silly but are necessary.
The crew has had limited contact with people as they make their final preparations and are quarantined prior to launch. This is an important safety precaution as these men have been training for years for this flight and do not want to run the risk of any potential setback – something as simple as a cold could jeopardize the entire mission.
The Expedition 40/41 crew will be staying at the "cosmonaut hotel" starting this evening and will sign the door as they head towards the launch pad. They each planted a tree behind the hotel as a living legacy and finally before launch will watch the classic Russian film, White Sun of the Desert. Earlier today, as a final precaution, a Russian Orthodox priest blessed the mission.
On launch day, the bus will take Wiseman, Gerst and Suarev to the launch site. Before arriving at the site, the crew will make a quick pit stop on the side of the road to relieve themselves, following in Yuri Gargarin's footsteps. The crew will spend two hours in the cockpit of the Soyuz completing final preparations prior to launch.
This flight marks the first launch since Russian sanction put a strain on America's space partnership with Russia. Deputy Prime Minister, Dmitry Rogozin, has not yet commented on the launch. America's relationship with Russia has been under duress in wake of the Ukraine crisis. Rogozin warned that Russia could stop cooperating with the U.S. in 2020.
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman completed astronaut training in 2011 and this flight will be his first into space. Prior to launch he was been working at NASA's Johnson Space Center as an International Space Station Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM). ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was selected by ESA in 2009 and completed his training in 2011 and this flight will also be his first flight into space.
Cosmonaut Maxim Suraev is a veteran cosmonaut, having completed advanced ISS training in 2000. He launched in 2009 as commander of the Soyuz TMA-16 as served as flight engineer on Expedition 21/22. He helped complete the integration of the MRM-2 module into the Russian segment, performing a 5 hour 44 minute spacewalk. Suraev has logged over 169 days in space and will assume command of Expedition 41 later this year.
Less than six hours after launch, at 9:48 p.m. EDT (1:48 a.m. GMT), Suraev will dock the Soyuz to the Rassvet module on the Earth-facing side of the ISS. Commander Steve Swanson and Flight Engineers Oleg Artmyev and Alexander Skortsov will open the hatch at 11:25 p.m. EDT (3:25 a.m. GMT) and welcome aboard the new crew members.
Soyuz spaceship to take new crew to International Space Station
ITAR-TASS
The manned spaceship SoyuTMA-13M with an international crew of next long-duration space expedition, the ISS-40/41 mission, will blast off from Baikonur spaceport on Wednesday in a journey to the International Space Station.
A spaceport official told ITAR-TASS, "The carrier rocket Soyuz FG, with the Soyuz TMA-13M atop, is to be launched from Gagarin's Site 1 of Baikonur at 23:57, Moscow time".
The spaceship will be manned by Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev, NASA astronaut Gregory Wiseman, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst. They are to join Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, as well as NASA astronaut Steve Swanson who have been working aboard the ISS since March this year. It is planned that Surayev, Wiseman, and Gerst will work in orbit for 167 days.
The crew will effect the spaceship's docking with the ISS according to a shortened, six-hour, diagram of the flight already at 05:48, Moscow time, on May 29. The spaceship will moor by the smaller research module Rassvet (dawn) (MIM-1) of the orbital station.
One of the advantages of the shortened diagram of flight is that the crew do not have to get adapted to zero gravity in the enclosed space of the Soyuz spaceship where, besides, it is rather cold. Weightless condition begins to tell on the human organism in approximately five hours' time, that is, the crew will be getting adapted to zero gravity aboard the ISS in comfortable conditions.
The first manned flight according to the shortened diagram (when the spaceship makes only four orbital revolutions) was made by the crew of the spaceship Soyuz TMA-08M in March 2013, and by the subsequent manned spaceships 09, 10, and 11. However, during the previous manned space launch in March this year, the Soyuz TMA-12M traveled to the orbital station in accordance with the standard diagram lasting 48 hours.
The arriving crew are to carry out an extensive program of applied research and experiments, video filming and photography on board, do work with cargo transport spacecraft of the Progress series, and accomplish many other tasks.
Along the entire flight path, the safety of the spaceship flight will be ensured by about 20 military aircraft and civil planes and helicopters as well as by a search-and-rescue ship of the Russian Navy against the possibity of an emergency landing of the Soyuz TMA-13M.
NASA's latest Soyuz seat procurement may be its last
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
NASA's recent purchase of six more round-trip seats on Russian Soyuz spacecraft, a deal worth $458 million, could be the last time the space agency sends a check abroad to ferry U.S. astronauts to and from International Space Station as rampant Russian inflation pushes the price of crew transportation higher, officials said.
The latest deal, finalized in April, ensures U.S. astronauts have a ride to the space station through the end of 2017, with provisions for landings into 2018.
NASA officials say the deal was necessary to avoid a gap between the end of the previous agreement for Soyuz seats until U.S. commercial spacecraft are ready to take over the job of shuttling astronauts between Earth and the space station.
NASA intends to switch its astronauts to U.S.-built commercially-operated spaceships as soon as they complete certification and at least one crewed demonstration mission to the space station, which is expected in the fall of 2017.
Operational commercial crew launches to the space station will follow a successful demo flight.
Officials revealed plans to extend NASA's contract for crew transportation services from the Russian Federal Space Agency in January, but the parties did not finalize the contract until April, when representatives from NASA and Russia agreed on a price for the Soyuz seats.
The contract modification is for six Soyuz seats and associated services for calendar year 2017 with rescue and return services extending through spring 2018, according to Rachel Kraft, a NASA spokesperson.
The sole-source deal is worth $457.9 million, or about $76.3 million per round-trip ticket.
NASA's relationships with other space station partners usually do not involve cash payments. The European Space Agency, Japan and Canada pay for their share of the space station's operating costs in barter agreements, providing NASA cargo resupply capacity or other services in return for membership in the program.
NASA and international partners typically send crews on six-month expeditions on the space station, launching and landing on Soyuz capsules provided by Roscosmos, or the Russian Federal Space Agency. There are no other transportation providers able to carry crews to the space station.
Each Soyuz spacecraft has three seats to launch crews from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and return them to a parachute-assisted landing on the remote Kazakh steppe.
The allotment of Soyuz seats bought by NASA is doled out to U.S., European, Japanese and Canadian astronauts in shares roughly proportional to each partner's financial investment in the space station program.
The services included in the Soyuz transportation deal include crew training, rescue, and recovery support.
The Soyuz capsules remain docked to the space station during crew expeditions, providing a lifeboat to evacuate the outpost in the event of an emergency.
NASA's last Soyuz seat purchase was signed in April 2013, covering six astronaut flights launching in 2016 with landing services through June 2017. The deal was worth $424 million, or about $70.7 million per astronaut seat.
Mike Suffredini, NASA's space station program manager, recently told CBS News that the rising price for Soyuz seats was caused by high inflation rates Russia.
"My only point to folks is the original price we paid way back when was very fair, and all we've paid is inflation -- Russian inflation -- up to this point," Suffredini told CBS News. "Yes, the price has gone up, but inflation has been higher over there than it is over here."
Five years ago, a similar contract signed between Russia and NASA put the price of a single Soyuz seat at $51 million.
Suffredini said some imply "the Russians are taking us to the cleaners. I'll still bet you that when you look at the per mission price, it's going to be hard to beat the Soyuz price, but we'll see. I hope not, because we've been telling them they've got to be below that because we're trying to encourage them to give us a cost-effective system."
NASA has challenged the three companies vying for the commercial crew job -- Boeing Co., SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. -- to offer the agency's astronauts rides to the space station for less than Russia is charging.
NASA's budget requests for the commercial crew program in recent years have not met support in Congress, which appropriated less than what the space agency said it needed to end U.S. reliance on Russia to launch astronauts as soon as possible. NASA officials say they still believe a commercial crew contractor will be operational by the end of 2017, assuming Congress pays the bill.
Space station managers are trying to find the right point to cut off the procurement of Soyuz seats and begin buying tickets on commercial crew vehicles. They want to avoid purchasing more Soyuz seats than NASA needs or ending transportation deals with Russia too soon, leaving U.S. access to the space station at risk if commercial providers run into development delays.
Space station officials have said they need to buy Soyuz seats about three years ahead of time.
Boeing's CST-100 crew capsule, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane can accommodate a seven-person crew on each flight -- or fewer astronauts if NASA elects to put more cargo on-board.
"It's just difficult," Suffredini told CBS News. "You already know what the rocket's going to cost and the spacecraft, that's an expensive piece of hardware."
Review: Innovation the NASA Way
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
Is NASA an innovative agency? In the space community, it depends on to whom you ask that question. Many would most likely agree, pointing to the many achievements the agency has made over the decades, overcoming a broad range of technical, financial, and other challenges. Some critics may demur, though, arguing that perhaps the agency is too tied to its past, and often too risk averse, to do anything truly innovative in space today.
Compared to more, well, down-to-earth organizations, though, few would disagree that NASA has demonstrated more than its fair share of innovation over the years. "Given the proper resources, NASA has shown boldness in its five decades of work in space that make most industries pale by comparison," writes Rod Pyle in Innovation the NASA Way, a book that is a rare hybrid of space history tome and business advice guide.
In Innovation the NASA Way, Pyle mines those five decades of history for examples of innovation. He picks a diverse range of examples, each covered in its own chapter, from NASA's prehistory (the launch of Explorer 1) to the modern day (Curiosity's landing on Mars), including both human and robotic missions. For space aficionados, this is all familiar territory, although Pyle livens up the stories with colorful descriptions and anecdotes. One example is the story of an engineer, working late hours at the Johnson Space Center in an effort to save the newly-launched Skylab, finding the center's gates locked as he tried to leave late one night; "having not seen his home for many days, he lost his patience and climbed the fence," despite that fence being topped with barbed wire, Pyle writes.
Those anecdotes, and even the specific technical solutions to various challenges, though, aren't the purpose of this book. Instead, Pyle looks at the processes that enabled those innovations, sifting through those technical solutions for more general lessons learned. In the Skylab example, Pyle notes the challenges of trying to repair the space station, as the first crew of astronauts discovered procedures developed on the ground didn't work as planned. "Solution: Adapt to the situation, taking some calculated risks in a totally unforgiving environment. Invent procedures as you see fit on site," he concludes. That's just one of many such combinations of challenges and solutions, highlighted in text boxes throughout the book; some are specific to the particular challenge, while others seem so basic as to be obvious. Each chapter also includes a bulleted list of challenges at its beginning, and innovations at its end, perhaps for the busy executive, or student, who has time only to skim the book.
The NASA of today, Pyle acknowledges, is different from the one that landed humans on the Moon 45 years ago: "it has grown up (some would assert that it has grown old)." Yet, he argues it's still an innovative agency, in part because it's able to harness what he considers to be three key elements of any such organization: creating bold plans, perform daring execution of those plans, and support a passionate workforce. The message of Innovation the NASA Way is that other companies and organizations can enjoy similar success by following those core tenets of innovation. It may even be a good reminder for NASA itself.
Space robot's 'self-repair' means fewer spacewalks
CBS NEWS (CAN)
Canada's "handyman" robot Dextre is repairing the International Space Station's Canadian robotic arm this week — and in the process, it has taken over another task that once belonged to spacewalking astronauts.
Dextre is a space robot that can ride the Canadarm2 and wield a variety of tools with its two multi-jointed arms. It is currently in the middle of a week-long repair job to replace cameras on the Canadarm2 and its mobile base.
Together, Dextre, Canadarm2 and the base make up the space station's robotic Mobile Servicing System, making this the first ever robot self-repair in space, the Canadian Space Agency says.
"We've had to change cameras before, but we had to do it during spacewalks," said Mathieu Caron, mission control supervisor at the Canadian Space Agency, in an interview with CBCNews.ca. This time, astronauts are barely involved in the work that began last Thursday and is scheduled to wrap up this coming Thursday. The robots are controlled remotely from the Canadian Space Agency headquarters in Longueuil, Que., and NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas.
Dextre is taking a camera on the Canadarm2 that has grown kind of hazy and is moving it to the mobile base to replace a completely broken camera. It will then install a new, spare camera on the Canadarm2.
The cameras are among 11 on the Mobile Servicing System that are used to control the robots and perform surveys outside the space station. The swap is taking place because the camera on the base is less critical than the one on the Canadarm2 itself, Caron said.
The astronauts' only involvement in the operation was to push the spare camera into an airlock so Dextre could grab it.
It's the first time a job like this has been done robotically, but it certainly won't be the last – Caron says space agencies are increasingly relying on robots instead of humans to do work outside the space station whenever possible.
"Using the Canadarm2 and Dextre reduces the overall number of spacewalks, definitely," Caron said.
Spacewalks are inspiring demonstrations of technology and human exploration in an environment humans were never designed for – the harsh, freezing cold, oxygen-free vacuum of space. But they are risky for astronauts compared to work inside the space station itself, where life-support systems keep temperatures, pressures and oxygen levels within tightly controlled limits.
"Spacewalks are very complex and use a lot of space station resources," Caron said. "They monopolize astronauts not only for the duration of the spacewalk, but in the weeks leading up to it for all their preparation."
That, he added, eats into valuable time that astronauts could otherwise spend running science experiments.
Robots also never need to return to the inside of the space station, making them more flexible.
"We can stop an operation and resume it later on."
Since Dextre was installed on the space station in 2008, it has been used whenever possible for repair tasks and jobs such as unloading supplies sent to the station aboard unmanned space cargo ships.
So, are astronauts' spacewalking days over for good?
Not yet. Dextre still has its limitations – it can largely only handle tools and hardware such as bolts and screws that are "robotically compatible." It has trouble removing coverings such as thermal blankets, for example.
But Caron said the space agency has been testing Dextre with equipment that isn't robotically compatible, such as hardware to refuel satellites.
In the meantime, Dextre's agenda for the summer is already filling. It is scheduled to replace a circuit breaker in June and to repair equipment outside the space station to prepare for some astronaut spacewalks later in the summer, Caron said.
"The next year promises to be very busy from a Canadian robotics standpoint."
'Bermuda triangle' of space oozes radiation, crashes computers
Carol Christian – Houston Chronicle
There really is a "Bermuda Triangle" of space, NASA scientists agree. They just don't call it that.
Officially known as the South Atlantic Anomaly, the extraterrestrial Bermuda Triangle is found over much of South America and extends out over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil.
It's not really a triangle and in fact has gained the nickname "the duck" for the shape of its primary core.
What scientists know is that intense radiation in the area wreaks havoc on computers and other electronic systems aboard spacecraft, sometimes necessitating that these devices be turned off while passing through this area.
The International Space Station had required extra shielding to deal with the issue.
The region is also thought to cause strange "shooting stars," in astronauts' visual field.
The South Atlantic Anomaly is part of the Van Allen radiation belts, two rings around the Earth that bombard the planet with charged protons. The anomaly is the result of a dip in the Earth's magnetic field, which allows cosmic rays and charged particles to dip lower into the Earth's atmosphere.
The anomaly's proximity to Earth fluctuates between 200 and 1,300 kilometers, according to the Goddard Space Flight Center.
NASA's New Mega-Rocket, Orion Capsule on Track for Future Test Flights
A new era of space exploration — supported by a history-making new mega-rocket and a spacecraft designed to deliver humans into deep space — could be on the horizon for NASA.
The space agency is gearing up to build the largest and most powerful rocket in history. The huge launcher, called the Space Launch System (SLS), will move a new spacecraft dubbed Orion, designed to send up to four astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. A short list of destinations includes the moon, nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars.
Everyone is looking forward to 2021, the year when the first manned launch will occur. But before that happens, the rocket and spacecraft will have to pass a number of tests.
Most powerful rocket ever
NASA's SLS rocket might remind some space fans of the mighty Saturn V rocket used to launch Apollo moon landing flights in the 1960s and 1970s; however, the new launcher will be more powerful. NASA currently envisions the SLS in two configurations: one weighing 77 tons and able to lift more than 154,000 pounds, another weighing 143 tons and able to lift more than 286,000 pounds.
The smaller configuration, which is expected to carry a crew of astronauts, will create 8.4 million pounds of thrust, 10 percent more than the massive Saturn V rocket. The larger configuration, which will carry cargo, will create 9.2 million pounds of thrust, 20 percent more than a Saturn V. This version will be as tall as a 38-story building. The SLS will truly be a mountain of a machine.
For its power, the SLS will rely on two solid rocket boosters in addition to the huge, 200-foot-tall (61 meters) core stage, which will carry liquid hydrogen and oxygen to fuel four RS-25 engines. The RS-25 rocket engine is a workhorse: It powered the space shuttle and "operated with 100-percent mission success during 135 space shuttle missions," according to a NASA statement.
The power produced by the three engines is equal to that from 12 Hoover Dams. NASA currently has a stockpile of 16 RS-25 engines at the Stennis Space Center, in Mississippi.
The engines themselves had to be modified to put out more power than they did for the space shuttle missions, and therefore still require testing. Those tests will probably occur in mid-July, NASA has said.
New Space Launch System tests
Earlier this month, a piece of the rocket passed a crucial preliminary test. The test verified that the stand's pipe system could handle the ultracold liquid oxygen and hydrogen that will flow through these parts during the hot test this summer.
As for the five-segment booster rockets, they are being built by ATK Aerospace. This company has successfully performed demonstration firings of the rockets and is scheduled to perform the first qualification motor test in late 2014 or early 2015.
The core stage is also on schedule. It will be built in the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, which is managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. Because the core stage will be so large, special tools had to be developed to build it. Construction will require six enormous welding machines; the largest, called the Vertical Assembly Center (VAC), will stand 170 feet tall (51.8 m) and measure 78 feet wide (23.7 m).
Intended to join domes, rings and barrels to form fuel tanks and "dry structure assemblies," the VAC will be one of the largest welding tools in the world. The VAC is on track to be completed at the end of this month.
Orion progress
The SLS news is responsible for only half of the space-related excitement. At the end of this year, an unmanned Orion will get a boost into space from a Delta IV Heavy rocket. During its four-hour trip, titled "Exploration Flight Test-1," Orion will travel 3,600 miles, 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station.
During this trip, Orion will fly farther than any spacecraft has traveled in 40 years, according to NASA.
When Orion returns to Earth, speeding through the atmosphere, it will reach temperatures of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,200 Celsius) and a speed of 20,000 mph (32,000 km/h). NASA scientists will monitor the spacecraft during its travels to see how it performs during launch and re-entry, gathering information to improve the craft's development. Following this flight, an unmanned Orion is scheduled to next enter space atop the SLS in December 2017.
In the past few months, Orion has passed several preliminary tests to prepare for the upcoming launches. On April 8, Orion underwent "integrated testing" at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to determine how well the craft's electronics would perform.
Specifically, the procedure probed whether the crew module (the part of Orion that will actually house the astronauts) could send commands that control the capsule's onboard computer, NASA officials said.
Orion also passed a test on April 17 that subjected the vessel to intense shaking, mimicking the violent motions it will experience during the beginning and ending of its space voyage.
Orion is designed to carry people, so it will have a Launch Abort System (LAS), which will separate the craft from the launch rocket in case of an emergency on the launch pad or early in the ascent.
Because Exploration Flight Test-1 will not include astronauts, however, the full LAS will not be activated. According to a NASA spokesperson, the only LAS component that will certainly be active in this year's test launch is the jettison motor, which launches the pointy, needle-like LAS unit away from Orion. The LAS sits on top of the module like a dunce cap.
The LAS must separate from the crew module in this test, because the module's parachutes are on its roof. If the LAS didn't fly away, the parachutes wouldn't be able to deploy and Orion wouldn't be able to land.
Making progress, and seeking stability, with SLS and Orion
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
There are few NASA programs as polarizing as the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket and Orion spacecraft. To NASA, and the programs' supporters in industry, Congress, and elsewhere, SLS and Orion are essential elements of any long-term space exploration strategy, be it humans to asteroids, the Moon, or Mars.
Opponents, though, question the utility and cost of these programs, given studies about these programs and the track record of previous large NASA programs.
Critics of SLS and Orion got some ammunition earlier this month with the release of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on those programs. It warned that the full lifecycle costs of SLS and Orion, as well as accompanying ground systems, remain unknown, as NASA focuses on the development costs of those systems over the next several years. "However, in contrast to NASA's tailored approach, both widely-accepted best practices for cost estimation and the agency's own requirements support the need for full life cycle cost estimates," the GAO concluded in its report, adding that without a baseline cost estimate, it might not be possible to determine if future cost growth was due issues with the program or additional work, such as the development of SLS upgrades.
But for those companies working on SLS and Orion, the focus is more on near-term milestones than long-term cost estimates. Last week, Lockheed Martin announced that it was in the final assembly phase for the first Orion spacecraft as it attached the heat shield to the capsule. That will soon be followed by mating the capsule to the spacecraft's service module.
"Our goal is to turn it over to ground ops in July," said Michael Hawes, director of human space flight programs at Lockheed Martin, in an interview May 19 during the 30th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. At that time, the spacecraft will begin preparations to be mated to the Delta IV Heavy rocket that will launch the spacecraft on the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission, currently slated for December 4 from Cape Canaveral.
Hawes and Larry Price, deputy program manager for the Orion program at Lockheed, said that the company was still working to have the spacecraft ready for launch in October, the original launch date. A previously-classified Air Force mission planned for launch this summer pushed the EFT-1 launch back to December, but Lockheed is still working to have Orion ready should the Air Force mission be delayed. Even if it isn't, Price said United Launch Alliance could accelerate launch preparations a bit "so we could go before Thanksgiving."
Even with the EFT-1 launch still as much as six months in the future, Hawes said Lockheed Martin was already working on the next Orion mission, EM-1, which will go on the inaugural launch of SLS in 2017. "The second spacecraft is really not very far behind, and that was pretty exciting," he said. "We've been so focused on EFT-1 that it's nice to see that the next bird is not that far behind."
Boeing, the prime contractor on the core stage of the SLS, is preparing for a critical design review (CDR) that starts next month. "This milestone is being accomplished five months ahead of the contract commit date," said Virginia Barnes, vice president and program manager for SLS at Boeing. "We've got some known issues, but no showstoppers" heading into the CDR, she said.
Barnes credited a "very aggressive schedule" established before she joined the program for being that far ahead of schedule, with the idea of having additional flexibility in the schedule to deal with issues when the flight hardware is being built later in the program. "The aggressive schedule has paid dividends," she said. "The pace that was established early on has really helped us."
"We feel like we're hitting all of the milestones on or ahead of schedule," added Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK's space launch division, which is manufacturing the boosters for SLS. A qualification test firing of the solid-fuel booster is planned for late this year, with a second in 2015.
"We've got a big milestone this summer when we test the RS-25 engines," said Aerojet Rocketdyne vice president Julie Van Kleeck, referring to the Space Shuttle Main Engines being adapted for use on the core stage of the SLS.
That development isn't without issues, though. Precourt and other executives noted the problems of developing SLS and Orion with a flat funding profile in the NASA budget, versus a more traditional funding profile that rises and falls at different stages of development. He said aggressive schedules and dealing with hardware they're already familiar with—SLS in particular makes extensive use of Shuttle-heritage hardware—have helped. "We're able to manage that flat orientation better than we might on a more new kind of system," he said. "We're challenged, but we've been able to meet that challenge."
Those flat budgets, though, need to stay flat and not go down, they emphasized. "The President's budget was shy of what was enacted in '14 for '15, so we're still looking for the '14 levels in '15 to maintain schedule," Barnes said. That's a reference to the administration's fiscal year 2015 budget request, which offers nearly $2.8 billion for SLS and Orion combined, compared to a little more than $3.1 billion for the programs in the final fiscal year 2014 appropriations bill. (A House version of a 2015 appropriations bill, scheduled to be considered by the full House later this week, would provide nearly $3.1 billion for those programs.)
While executives emphasized their near-term efforts on SLS and Orion, they're also looking ahead to missions beyond EFT-1 and EM-1. Boeing has started design work on a new SLS upper stage—originally known as the Dual Use Upper Stage and now called the Exploration Upper Stage—powered by four RL10 engines. Barnes said Boeing convinced NASA that it was worthwhile to start work on the new upper stage now, making use of engineers who would be "rolling off" the program after SLS completes CDR this summer.
"NASA jumped on that opportunity, so we're getting started with NASA as of May 2 developing the Exploration Upper Stage," Barnes said. The goal would be to have the first upper stage ready for the second SLS mission in 2021, but "we could be ready before then. We could be ready for a '19 launch," she said, although there is no SLS mission currently on the manifest before EM-1 in 2017 and EM-2 in 2021.
Using the new upper stage on EM-2 raises other issues, since that is currently slated to be the first SLS/Orion flight to carry a crew; some wonder if a crewed mission is the appropriate first flight of a new upper stage. "The architectures haven't been laid out yet" regarding the use of the new upper stage on SLS missions, said John Elbon, vice president and general manager for space exploration at Boeing, in a separate interview at the Space Symposium on May 21. The use of the Exploration Upper stage, he said, would increase the SLS's capabilities from the initial payload of 70 metric tons to LEO to at least 105 metric tons and perhaps as much as 120 metric tons, depending on specific parameters of the orbit.
Elbon said that the earliest the Exploration Upper Stage would be used is the EM-2 mission, but whether that mission would be crewed or not—or even if EM-2 would use the new upper stage—was still up for discussion. "NASA may decide to use ICPS for EM-2," he said, referring to the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, based on the Delta IV second stage, that will be flown at least on the EM-1 mission in 2017.
Another issue with SLS is the vehicle's flight rate, as critics note the four-year gap in NASA's current manifest between EM-1 and EM-2. Barnes said that Boeing's facilities for building the SLS core stage at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans was designed for a low flight rate, "but every four years wasn't quite the low rate we meant," she said. "Our factory was scaled for one to two a year."
"I don't think the flight rate is dictated by our industrial capacity as much as it is having the right cadence for missions," Precourt said, adding that one to two missions a year was "a reasonable place to land from our capabilities standpoint."
The biggest issue with SLS and Orion, executives said, was not with the development of the vehicles themselves, or even future capabilities, but with policy and funding. "It's stability," Hawes said, an assessment immediately echoed by other executives in the room. "It's stability of the plan forward and the funding levels that we're dealing with. That's how we've been able to operate in this relatively flat time."
That stability may exist in the near term, but things are less clear beyond 2016, when a new administration could seek to take NASA in a different direction, particularly if the programs stumble between now and then. "You always worry about transitions," Hawes acknowledged. "I think the best we can do is make progress on our schedule."
It's Time to Stop Babying Mars
Is the fear of contaminating other worlds with life from Earth stymying explorers?
Laura Dattaro - Popular Mechanics
Mars is no stranger to life. Seven U.S. spacecraft have successfully landed there, and all of them took microbes to the planet's surface (though the bugs probably did not survive for long). Yet the world's space agencies continue to maintain strict spacecraft sterilization procedures in the hope of minimizing the spread of Earth life beyond our planet. For decades this ethos—known as planetary protection—prevailed. Now, some scientists say, these precautions are undermining the search for life beyond Earth by raising costs and inhibiting innovative missions—without meaningful benefits.
Of all missions to Mars to date, only the Vikings, the first trips to the Red Planet, were intended explicitly to test for life. Spacecraft that went later did not have that ability. But a future mission will, and, the protectionist thinking goes, a rover might not be able to distinguish between a life form native to Mars and one with origins on Earth. In July 2013 astrobiologists Dirk Schulze-Makuch and Alberto Fairén disputed this in Nature Geoscience.
"If Earth microorganisms can thrive on Mars, they almost certainly already do," the authors write. "If they cannot, the transfer of Earth life to Mars should be of no concern, as it would simply not survive."
With clear evidence of a watery history and some signs of water present, Mars could be where we find life in our solar system. And with the development of Curiosity's precise landing system, we can finally reach the intriguing parts of the planet. But it's these areas that require a craft sterilization process.
In the 1970s Vikings 1 and 2 revealed what seemed like a dead planet, so planetary-protection requirements were relaxed. Now, with a more nuanced understanding of Mars' environment, missions set to visit areas with evidence of flowing water below the surface have to meet the rigorous—and more costly—Vikings standards. "In practice, everyone kind of avoids [these areas] because it really increases the price tag on the mission," Schulze-Makuch says.
The cost increase is generally said to be around 10 percent, but Cassie Conley, NASA's Planetary Protection Officer, says this is not accurate; the number is closer to 4 percent of Curiosity's $2.5 billion budget. Planetary protection is a game of risk assessment, she says, and it just makes good sense.
"You'd think they'd want to protect their ability to do their science without contamination," Conley says. "It'd be like trying to study bacteria in the lab and spitting on your petri dish."
But Conley's concerns over false positives might just be a red herring. According to Schulze-Makuch, the dissimilarities in the two planets' environments surely would have led to the evolution of distinguishable differences.
Finally, there's the philosophical conundrum of what responsibility, if any, we have to other planets and any life we leave there. The truth is we're never going to be able to fully protect Mars if we intend to explore it. And spreading is simply what life does.
"If we want to survive for a long time, we have to expand beyond Earth," Schulze-Makuch says. "There's no other way."
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to Unveil Manned Dragon 'Space Taxi' on May 29
Ken Kremer – Universe Today
CEO, founder and chief designer Elon Musk is set to unveil the manned version of his firms commercial Dragon spaceship later this week, setting in motion an effort that he hopes will soon restore America's capability to launch US astronauts to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017.
Musk will personally introduce SpaceX's 'Space Taxi' dubbed 'Dragon V2' at what amounts to sort of a world premiere event on May 29 at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, CA, according to an official announcement this evening (May 27) from SpaceX.
"SpaceX's new Dragon V2 spacecraft is a next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into space," according to the SpaceX statement.
The manned Dragon will launch atop the powerful SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket from a SpaceX pad on the Florida Space Coast.
Dragon was initially developed as a commercial unmanned resupply freighter to deliver 20,000 kg (44,000 pounds) of supplies and science experiments to the ISS under a $1.6 Billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA during a dozen Dragon cargo spacecraft flights through 2016.
Musk is making good on a recent comment he posted to twitter on April 29, with respect to the continuing fallout from the deadly crisis in Ukraine which has resulted in some US economic sanctions imposed against Russia, that now potentially threaten US access to the ISS in a boomerang action from the Russian government:
"Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on with @NASA. No trampoline needed," Musk tweeted.
The 'Dragon V2' is an upgraded, man rated version of the unmanned spaceship that can carry a mix of cargo and up to a seven crewmembers to the ISS.
Dragon is among a trio of US private sector manned spaceships being developed with seed money from NASA's Commercial Crew Program in a public/private partnership to develop a next-generation crew transportation vehicle to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS by 2017 – a capability totally lost following the space shuttle's forced retirement in 2011.
Since that day, US astronauts have been totally dependent on the Russian Soyuz capsules for ferry rides to orbit and back.
The Boeing CST-100 and Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser 'space taxis' are also vying for funding in the next round of contracts to be awarded by NASA around late summer 2014.
All three company's have been making excellent progress in meeting their NASA mandated milestones in the current contract period known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability initiative (CCiCAP) under the auspices of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.
However, US progress getting the space taxis actually built and flying has been repeatedly stifled by the US Congress who have severely cut NASA's budget request for the Commercial Crew Program by about half each year. Thus forcing NASA to delay the first manned orbital test flights by at least 18 months from 2015 to 2017.
The situation with regard to US dependency on Russian rocketry to reach the ISS has always been awkward.
But it finally took on new found importance and urgency from politicos in Washington, DC, since the ongoing crisis in Ukraine this year exposed US vulnerability in a wide range of space endeavors affecting not just astronaut rides to the ISS but also the launch of the most critical US national security surveillance satellites essential to US defense.
US space vulnerability became obvious to everyone when Russia's deputy prime minister, Dmitry Rogozin. who is in charge of space and defense industries, said that US sanctions could "boomerang" against the US space program and that perhaps NASA should "deliver their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline."
Rogozin also threatened to cut off exports of the Russian made RD-180 rocket engines which power the first stage of the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket used to launch numerous US National Security spy satellites.
"Moscow is banning Washington from using Russian-made rocket engines, which the US has used to deliver its military satellites into orbit," Rogozin said at a media briefing held on May 13.
NASA is also a hefty user of the Atlas V for many of the agency's science and communication satellites like the Curiosity Mars rover, MAVEN Mars orbiter, MMS, Juno Jupiter orbiter and TDRS.
Musk and SpaceX have also filed lawsuits against the US Air Force to legally block the importation of the RD-180 engines by ULA for the Atlas V as a violation of the US economic sanctions.
So overall, US space policy is in a murky and uncertain situation and Musk clearly aims for SpaceX to be a central and significant player in a wide range of US space activities, both manned and unmanned.
The 3rd operational Dragon cargo resupply mission completed the 30 day SpaceX-3 flight to the ISS with a successful Pacific Ocean splashdown on May 18.
SpaceX will webcast the Dragon unveiling event LIVE on May 29 at 7 p.m. PST for anyone wishing to watch at www.spacex.com/webcast
Boeing Revamps Spacecraft Design To Attract Commercial Business
Jeff Foust – Space News
For those used to the spaceships of science fiction, the interior of an actual crewed spacecraft can be a bit of a shock. Instead of the sleek, bright, spacious designs of vehicles like the "Star Trek" Starship Enterprise, the interiors of NASA spacecraft are, by comparison, rather cramped and utilitarian. However, with the growing promise of commercial spaceflight, one company is rethinking its approach to spacecraft design, and in the process leveraging its experience in commercial aviation.
At an event here April 30, Boeing unveiled a new concept for the interior design of its CST-100 spacecraft that the company is developing as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The design features seats mounted individually on the bottom of the capsule that can be configured to accommodate as many as nine people, with an additional seat, elevated above the others, at a console for the spacecraft's pilot.
The design is the result of a collaboration over several months between Boeing Space Exploration, which is developing the CST-100, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which offered its expertise in designing the interiors of airliners. "We want our spacecraft to have sort of that 'Boeing touch,'" said Chris Ferguson, director of crew and mission operations for Boeing's commercial crew effort.
"We started to realize the potential to develop for commercial customers a premium spacecraft interior architecture," said Rachelle Ornan, regional director of sales and marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "It's leaps and bounds different from interiors of the past. It's less government-issue looking; it's a lot cleaner, simpler, and more cheerful."
That design started with the seating configuration. "The main thing that we attempted to do is develop a seating configuration that maximized exiting" in an emergency, said Rick Fraker, an industrial designer with Boeing.
The design can be reconfigured to replace some of the seats with cargo storage.
The design incorporates a blue lighting scheme borrowed from the "Boeing Sky Interior" design originally developed for the company's 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The capsule would also use a number of large LED screens in lieu of windows to provide passengers with views of Earth and space. The capsule would retain some windows, though, Ferguson said, primarily for use by the pilot.
All the elements of the design are intended to maximize the volume — or at least the perception of volume — of the spacecraft. "What we imagine will be important in space travel is maximizing the free volume once you're in zero-g," Fraker said. "We're going to try to provide enough space in the capsule to allow passengers to freely move about."
For now, the design concept is just that: a concept. Initial versions of the CST-100 that Boeing proposes to develop to transport astronauts to and from the international space station will use a more conventional interior design, with seating for four or five astronauts plus cargo, Ferguson said. "This design is sort of thinking beyond, when we understand what the business model really is and what the discriminating customer may want," he said.
To emphasize the potential commercial applications of a revamped interior design, Boeing unveiled the concept here at the headquarters of Bigelow Aerospace, a company with plans to operate commercial space stations using expandable module technology it has developed. The company is on track to have its first two BA 330 modules, each providing 330 cubic meters of volume, ready for launch by the end of 2017, said Jay Ingham, Bigelow Aerospace vice president and program manager.
"We believe there's a huge pent-up demand for this," Ingham said of his company's space station plans, citing interest from companies and governments. "We're betting that there's a huge amount of growth in this area, and we're positioning ourselves to take advantage of that."
Those plans, he acknowledged, are dependent on the availability of vehicles like the CST-100 to transport crews and cargo to orbiting space stations and back; Bigelow has partnered with Boeing to support some aspects of the CST-100's development. The future of the CST-100 and its futuristic interior design, though, may be in the hands of NASA, as it weighs proposals submitted early this year by Boeing, as well as by Sierra Nevada Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., for the next phase of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, with a decision due in August.
Most industry observers expect NASA to award no more than two contracts for the development and testing of commercial crew vehicles. Ferguson acknowledged that the future of the CST-100 was uncertain should Boeing not win one of those contracts. "Boeing has not made a decision yet on what will happen if we're not a part of the Commercial Crew Program," he said. "It will clearly be a very dynamic time, and there will be a lot of factors to consider."
Should Boeing move forward with the CST-100, though, company officials see commercial applications, enabled in part by the new interior design, possibly becoming a lucrative long-term market for the company. "This is potentially the next generation of revenue for the company," said Ornan, who primarily works in airliner sales. "It's very exciting to be a part of it."
For Ferguson, a former astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions, including as commander of the final shuttle mission, STS-135, the proposed new CST-100 design represents a fundamental change, shifting away from a structured, "militaristic" approach to human spaceflight that dates back to the beginning of the Space Age. "This is like taking a C-17 military cargo airplane and seeing how you can turn it into a luxurious passenger aircraft," he said.
"It's all about the destination," he added, "but getting there is half the fun."
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