Happy Flex Friday eve all.
Our next monthly NASA Retirees luncheon at Hibachi Grill in July would fall on July 3rd, day before 4th of July, so we will delay our monthly luncheon for next month to July 10th.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
- Automated External Defibrillator Program Changes
- New NASA@work Challenge: Check it Out!
- Innovative & Technically Credible Proposals Wanted
- Reminder: Use Building 11 Café This Friday - Organizations/Social
- 7 Digital Trends Every Leader Must Know - June 26
- Trauma Awareness and Coping
- Next Co-Lab Meeting
- Today: Learn About a Visionary Activist
- IEEE Luncheon Meeting Today - Community
- Come Hike with Us Today at 11 a.m.
- JSC Child Care Center has a Few Openings Available |  |
| Headlines - Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
No one ever does your job for you while you're away on vacation. That's job security, I guess. At least your dog loves you, since almost half of us indicated we prefer dogs to cats. That's an easy choice. This week question one is about access to stuff. You need things to be productive, but I'd like to know what you need most. Co-workers? The Internet? Your boss? On question two, I'm considering a new tone for our outdoor alert system. What would you like to be warned about? Your boss in the hallway? Another Johnny Football conversation? Clint your Dempsey on over to get this week's poll. - Automated External Defibrillator Program Changes
Join the Occupational Health Branch on June 24 at 1 p.m. in the Building 30A Auditorium as we outline and explain upcoming changes to JSC's AED Program. We will discuss the history of JSC'S AED program, upcoming location changes, the difference between a heart attack and sudden cardiac arrest, when AEDs should be used and JSC's Emergency Medical System. Also learn how everyone can help in the "chain of survival" by knowing the steps in the chain and how to sign up for free CPR and AED training. Event Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 Event Start Time:1:00 PM Event End Time:2:00 PM
Event Location: Building 30A Auditorium
Add to Calendar
Bob Martel x38581
[top] - New NASA@work Challenge: Check it Out!
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. We are more than 11,500 strong and growing every day. Visit us to learn more! - Innovative & Technically Credible Proposals Wanted
The Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Seedling Fund's purpose is to invest in early-stage innovative ideas for aeronautics within the NASA civil servant workforce. Seedling solicitations can provide opportunities to perform research, analysis and proof-of-concept work on novel ideas currently unsupported by ARMD program and project funds. More details are available TODAY in Building 30A, Room 2085, from noon to 1 p.m. The next call for proposals supports exploration of novel concepts, new processes or game-changing technologies with potential to meet national aeronautics needs, be infused into the ARMD's fundamental research portfolio or enable new avenues of aeronautics research. NARI is releasing a solicitation for multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary team-based proposals addressing "big" aeronautical research questions. Proposals must clearly articulate an innovative, broadly based research concept addressing one or more of six ARMD strategic thrusts and have potential to mature into technologies of interest to ARMD or commercial aerospace companies. See thrusts and examples of research questions here. - Reminder: Use Building 11 Café This Friday
This is a reminder that the Building 3 café will be CLOSED this Flex Friday for maintenance. Please visit the Building 11 café instead, which will be open in place of Building 3. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Organizations/Social - 7 Digital Trends Every Leader Must Know - June 26
You are invited to the JSC External Relations Office and SAIC/Safety & Mission Assurance forum featuring Shama Kabani, CEO of the Marketing Zen Group - The Zen of Social Media Marketing. If you've been feeling left behind by new social media trends and uses, this is the talk you need to hear! Topic: Seven Digital Trends Every Leader Must Know to Grow Your Organization SAVE THE DATE! Wednesday, June 26, from 11 a.m. to Noon Location: Teague Auditorium Kabani will discuss/answer questions such as: - We hear a lot about social media, but how important is it?
- How is social media changing the way we communicate?
- Can NASA's "brand" be strengthened using social media?
- How important are current digital trends to NASA's future?
Kabani is author of the best-selling book, "The Zen of Social Marketing," and is an oft-quoted social media expert. She has been featured by Business Week, Dallas Morning News, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, The New York Times, The Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. - Trauma Awareness and Coping
If you've gone through a traumatic experience, you may be struggling with upsetting emotions, frightening memories or a sense of constant danger. Any situation that leaves you feeling overwhelmed and alone can be traumatic. When bad things happen, it can take a while to get over the pain and feel safe again. Be a part of the conversation about treatment, self-help strategies and support to aid in recovery for yourself or a loved one. In recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month, please join Anika Isaac MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, as she presents "Trauma Awareness and Coping." - Next Co-Lab Meeting
The next JSC Co-Lab meeting is scheduled for June 25 at noon in Building 35's One Giant Leap Room. This month we will be featuring the Kinect and Leap Motion. Please join us as we see a demo of computer vision using the Kinect. Computer vision has many applications, from virtual whiteboards to robotics. In addition, we will examine the new Leap Motion SDK that includes enhanced skeleton tracking for gesturing. We will also be getting your input for uses of the technology. - Today: Learn About a Visionary Activist
Today only! Join us from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium to learn about a visionary activist, Bayard Rustin, who inspired Martin Luther King and numerous others in the quest for American civil rights. This film showing is presented jointly by the African-American and Out & Allied Employee Resource Groups. Rustin was the architect of the 1963 March on Washington, and he also dared to live as an openly gay man during the fiercely homophobic 40s, 50s and 60s. In a nation still torn by racial hatred and bigotry against homosexuals, Rustin's life story shows the important contributions a gay man made to ending segregation in America. Event Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium
Add to Calendar
Robert F. Blake x42525
[top] - IEEE Luncheon Meeting Today
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Galveston Bay Section meeting on "EV + PV = Great!" is today, June 19, from noon to 12:45 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. Those attending will learn about electric vehicles (EVs), both full battery and plug-in hybrids, as well as photovoltaics from JSC's own Dave Hanson. Non-IEEE engineers, technicians, scientists, IEEE members and guests alike are all welcome! Event Date: Thursday, June 19, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:45 PM
Event Location: Gilruth
Add to Calendar
Dave Hanson x47718
[top] Community - Come Hike with Us Today at 11 a.m.
Courtesy of your JSC Green Team and JSC Wellness Program, please join us for a nature hike of Armand Bayou Nature Center (ABNC). Our very own JSC wildlife biologist, Matt Strausser, will guide us through the flora and fauna. This hike is free to ABNC members, or $4 is due upon arrival for non-ABNC members. Click here for membership information. So today, June 19, from 11 a.m. to noon, join us during your lunch break! Van transportation will be provided -- meet at the loading dock between Buildings 1 and 3. - JSC Child Care Center has a Few Openings Available
Space Family Education, Inc. (SFEI) has openings available to dependents of JSC employees. Immediate openings for: - Children 3 to 6 years old to join the current summer program
There are also openings available Aug. 25 for: - Children 12 to 34 months of age
- For a child 3 years old
- For a child 4 years old
Program Details: 1. Open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (closed federal holidays). 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 needed 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. Email if interested with the child's birth date for tour of the program. | |
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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
Thursday – June 19, 2014
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Tune in to www.nasa.gov/ntv now to watch the 180th EVA in support of station assembly and maintenance live. Cosmonauts Skvortsov and Artemyev began the spacewalk at about 7:50 a.m. Central. They will install an integrated communications and telemetry antenna, relocate a plasma wave experiment and reposition a boom that will be used to house payloads in the future. ORION:
Orion's first launch on Dec. 4 is now less than six months away. The program showed off the newly stacked crew and service modules at Kennedy Space Center in a press event on Wednesday that featured Administrator Charles Bolden, NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, Lockheed Martin Orion Program Manager Cleon Lacefield and Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana.
A number of media outlets attended the event and provided positive coverage:
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Bolden at KSC: Orion flight this year 'a big deal'
James Dean – Florida Today
The spacecraft is being readied at Kennedy Space Center, for a first test launch in December.
Less than six months from now, a rocket is scheduled to blast NASA's Orion exploration capsule into space for the first time.
Orion No Backup for Commercial Crew, Says Bolden
Irene Klotz – Space News
NASA will not tap its Orion deep-space capsule as a backup system to fly astronauts to and from the international space station, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said June 18.
Russian Cosmonauts Taking Spacewalk Thursday Morning
Two Russian cosmonauts will put on their spacesuits and float outside the International Space Station tomorrow morning (June 19) for a six-and-a-half-hour maintenance job.
Nelson Wants To Revisit Senate Appropriations Committee's Stricter Commercial Crew Oversight
Dan Leone – Space News
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) took to the Senate floor June 18 and tapped the brakes on a powerful appropriator's plan to subject NASA's commercial crew program to strict federal accounting standards the agency waived when it solicited bids for crew transportation in November.
Space-program funding fight in Congress could impact Sierra Nevada
Kristen Leigh Painter - The Denver Post
A perennial debate on Capitol Hill over space priorities is flaring up, this time threatening to delay the commercial crew program just as NASA prepares to select at least one U.S. company to taxi astronauts to the space station.
Shelby: Protecting Taxpayer, Not Boeing
Jonathan Salant – Bloomberg News
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama says he's trying to help U.S. taxpayers, not Boeing Co., by requiring companies competing to send astronauts to the International Space Station to file detailed financial and accounting reports justifying their costs.
Instagram Data Shows NASA's Fútbol Fun Hit the Back of the Net
From 230 miles up: Go-o-o-o-al!!!
Christopher Heine – AdWeek
Since the moon landing 45 years ago, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a fairly stellar track record for creating buzz from outer space through broadcast channels. Since its astronauts first tweeted from the International Space Station in 2010, it's also enjoyed moments of success with digital media.
Russian Industry Official Says Proton Should Return to Flight in September
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
International Launch Services (ILS) is about to start its own review of the Russian government investigation into the May 16 failure of Russia's Proton rocket and expects to be ready to announce a new commercial Proton launch manifest in July, ILS Vice President of sales, marketing and communications Dawn Harms said.
Forecast poor for SpaceX's Friday launch attempt
James Dean – Florida Today
Clouds, thunderstorms and lightning anticipated Friday evening could make it difficult for SpaceX to launch a group of commercial satellites from Cape Canaveral.
After 177 days in orbit, four missions and a visit to the Mir space station, Australia's first and only astronaut retires after 22 years
- Andrew Thomas from Adelaide went on his first space flight in 1996
- Dr Thomas, 62, is the first Australian to leave the earth's atmosphere
- He has been on four space flights and clocked up 177 days in space
Kate Lyons – Mail Online (UK)
Australia's first astronaut has hung up his space helmet, with NASA colleagues saying he will be sorely missed.
Astronauts May Suffer Artery Damage on Long Missions
At least some astronauts who spend six months aboard the International Space Station come back to Earth with stiffer arteries than before their flights, a new study reveals.
Russia preparing to fly first female cosmonaut in 17 years
Irene Klotz - Sen
Russia is preparing to launch its first female cosmonaut in 17 years.
Success! Cassini flies by Titan, collects intel on mysterious lakes
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
NASA's Cassini mission flew past Titan early Wednesday morning, successfully completing a complex maneuver that will help scientists better understand one of the solar system's most intriguing moons.
Leadership lessons from science
Tom Fox – The Washington Post
France A. Córdova is the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is responsible for advancing scientific discovery and technological innovation. She previously served as chair of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, president of Purdue University, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, and as chief scientist at NASA.
NASA Is Building a Tiny Mothership to Explore Distant Lunar Oceans
In a new approach to planetary science, a small satellite would rain even smaller satellites on Jupiter's moon.
Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic
Suppose you're a planetary scientist. You operate an unmanned spacecraft, surveying a distant moon in our solar system. Years of funding, engineering work, and long-distance space travel have all come together, and at last this machine—to which you have devoted so much of your life—is in place. And it's just made an incredible discovery.
COMPLETE STORIES
Bolden at KSC: Orion flight this year 'a big deal'
James Dean – Florida Today
The spacecraft is being readied at Kennedy Space Center, for a first test launch in December.
Less than six months from now, a rocket is scheduled to blast NASA's Orion exploration capsule into space for the first time.
Four-and-a-half hours later, if the uncrewed capsule has survived a hurtle through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph and temperatures up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the test flight will end with an Apollo-like splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
Apollo spacecraft were the last designed to keep crews safe under such extreme conditions.
"It's a big deal," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center. "It's possibly the most significant human spaceflight milestone this year, pointing toward our return with humans to deep space."
That return will require patience, as Orion won't be ready to fly astronauts for at least seven years after the test flight targeting a Dec. 4 launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.
NASA expects to spend about $15 billion to get Orion to its first crewed flight, including nearly $5 billion spent while it was part of the Constellation program cancelled in 2010.
For now, NASA and Lockheed Martin, Orion's prime contractor, hope this year's Exploration Flight Test-1 shows progress and builds excitement about future exploration missions.
No destinations are set, but NASA hopes by 2025 to send a crew to an asteroid tugged near the moon by a robotic spacecraft.
NASA considers the mission a useful step toward a Mars expedition in the 2030s, if budget increases materialize to make that possible.
As designed now, Orion can support a crew of four for 21 days.
Teams in KSC's Operations and Checkout building recently joined a crew module and service module in preparation for the upcoming test flight, which will sling Orion 3,600 miles from Earth – 15 times further away than the International Space Station.
The joined modules will be tested, the capsule fueled and a launch abort tower added before the stack is placed on top of the Delta IV Heavy.
This spacecraft looks much like the ones expected to launch from Kennedy Space Center in 2017 and 2021 on the agency's 321-foot Space Launch System rocket, said Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager.
"This flight, not just the launch in December but the work that went into this design, sets us up very well for the next flights and for eventually getting people into space," he said.
December's mission will test key systems including the heat shield, avionics and parachutes, providing valuable data before Orion's design is finalized.
"With your first flight, you're just trying to wring out the systems that are ready," said Doug Hurley, an astronaut who piloted the final shuttle mission three years ago and now supports the Orion program.
Before a crew straps in, Orion will need to add life support systems and crew equipment including seats and displays, and the entire vehicle must go through lengthy testing on the ground.
Hurley, a test pilot who waited nine years for his first shuttle mission, said astronauts are used to waiting for flight opportunities and understand the time and money necessary to develop new aircraft and space systems.
He'd like to ride on Orion if given the chance.
"To be able to go beyond low Earth orbit would just be incredible," he said.
Orion No Backup for Commercial Crew, Says Bolden
Irene Klotz – Space News
NASA will not tap its Orion deep-space capsule as a backup system to fly astronauts to and from the international space station, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said June 18.
"It's a bad, bad day when you have to send Orion to the international space station because it means either we've lost each of the (commercial) vehicles that was designed to do that through some accident, or they failed or something. So, we don't want to have to rely on Orion to do that," Bolden told SpaceNews.
"It means American industry has failed and I don't think any of us wants to see that," he said.
NASA is working with three companies to develop commercial space taxis, with the aim of restoring U.S.-based crew flight services to the space station before the end of 2017. Since the space shuttles were retired in 2011, only Russian Soyuz capsules are flying crews to the orbital outpost, a service that currently costs NASA more than $60 million per person.
"We made a commitment to industry we would not compete with them," said Bolden, who was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to update reporters on plans to test-fly Orion in December.
"If we had said 'We're going to keep Orion as a backup,' there were serious doubts as to whether industry would have made the investment at all in a commercial crew vehicle because their assumption was 'OK, if NASA is going to build a vehicle to go to low Earth orbit, what is NASA going to want to use?' Naturally, they're going to want to use their own vehicle," Bolden said.
"So Orion, while it probably can — or will — be capable of going to the international space station, is not designed to do that, is not intended to do that," he said.
Depending on budget, NASA is aiming to select at least two companies in late August or September to continue space taxi development and testing.
"When we start flying humans on commercial spacecraft like in 2017, ideally I would like to have two (companies) at least who can provide transportation for our crew either today, or pretty soon after that," Bolden said.
Russian Cosmonauts Taking Spacewalk Thursday Morning
Two Russian cosmonauts will put on their spacesuits and float outside the International Space Station tomorrow morning (June 19) for a six-and-a-half-hour maintenance job.
Flight engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev are scheduled to leave the Russian airlock for the vacuum of space at 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT). It will be the first spacewalk for both cosmonauts.
Skvortsov and Artemyev are tasked with installing new communications equipment on Russia's Zvezda service module and repositioning hardware, according to NASA officials. The pair is slated to embark on another spacewalk in late August.
The $100 billion International Space Station was built by five space agencies representing 15 countries, with construction beginning in 1998. The lab has been continuously staffed with rotating crews of astronauts since 2000. Thursday's spacewalk will be the 180th in support of the station's assembly and maintenance, NASA officials said.
Both Skvortsov and Artemyev arrived at the orbiting outpost on March 27 for a 5.5-month stint at the space station. They launched into space in a Russian Soyuz capsule along with NASA astronaut Steve Swanson. Those three spaceflyers are currently part of Expedition 40 with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst of Germany and cosmonaut Maxim Suraev, all of whom launched on May 28.
Nelson Wants To Revisit Senate Appropriations Committee's Stricter Commercial Crew Oversight
Dan Leone – Space News
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) took to the Senate floor June 18 and tapped the brakes on a powerful appropriator's plan to subject NASA's commercial crew program to strict federal accounting standards the agency waived when it solicited bids for crew transportation in November.
Nelson, the chairman of the Senate Commerce science and space subcommittee, said NASA's commercial crew program to fly astronauts to and from the international space station aboard commercially designed spacecraft needs "the right mix of oversight and innovation" to start ferrying crews by NASA's target date of late 2017.
The senior senator from Florida was alluding to a directive Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, personally fought to include in a report appended to a spending bill now awaiting debate on the Senate floor, and which would if signed into law require NASA to either comply with section 15.403-4 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, or risk a legal mandate to do so.
Nelson said he wanted to work with Shelby "as the bill goes to the conference committee to make sure that we have the right mix of oversight and innovation in how NASA contracts for this competition."
The competition Nelson referred to is NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capabilities contract, which could be awarded as soon as July. Boeing Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. are all vying for an award under the fourth major round of the commercial crew program, which would provide financial assistance for final development and certification of at least one commercially designed space system, and order at least one contracted crew round trip to the international space station around late 2017.
NASA insists that waiving certain parts of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, which the agency may legally do in certain situations, is vital to getting a commercially designed system safely up and running. Since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011, NASA has paid Russia to take astronauts to the station aboard Soyuz space capsules. Under the latest contract, which runs through June 2017, each astronaut round trip on the Russian spacecraft costs roughly $70 million.
Nelson's decision to revisit Shelby's bill-report language puts a major player in the corner of commercial crew advocates such as the Washington-based Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the grassroots Space Access Society, which publicly slammed Shelby's plan not long after the plan became public following the Senate Appropriations Committee's June 5 approval of a 2015 Commerce, Justice, Science spending bill that includes $17.9 billion for NASA.
It is not clear whether that bill, which has now been rolled up into a so-called "minibus" appropriations package with two other bills, will get a vote on the Senate floor before lawmakers leave Washington for a week-long recess ahead of the July 4 U.S. holiday. Procedural votes on bringing the package forward began June 17 and continued June 18.
Space-program funding fight in Congress could impact Sierra Nevada
Kristen Leigh Painter - The Denver Post
A perennial debate on Capitol Hill over space priorities is flaring up, this time threatening to delay the commercial crew program just as NASA prepares to select at least one U.S. company to taxi astronauts to the space station.
Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. stirred the pot this month by embedding language in the U.S. Senate Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill for fiscal year 2015 that — if it passes the Senate — could add cumbersome steps for the NASA contract winners.
Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Space Systems, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, and Chicago-based Boeing Co. are the remaining businesses vying for a chance to be the next U.S. shuttle service, a contract expected to be awarded in August.
This late-in-the-game maneuver could add delays and potentially higher costs for the taxpayers, said Michael Lopez-Alegria, president of Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
If implemented, this provision would require the companies to resubmit pricing estimates using the cost-plus accounting model vs. the fixed-cost model currently used.
The policy's impact would depend on when NASA makes the contract awards — before or after Oct. 1, the start of the government's new fiscal year.
"If it is before Oct. 1, whatever contracts were awarded would have to be renegotiated," delaying it months, Lopez-Alegria said. "But the worst case would be if NASA did not award this contract before Oct. 1, they would have to rebid. I think it would be on the order of a year or so."
The companies say they are prepared to ferry astronauts by NASA's 2017 deadline.
A year of delay would require NASA to pay nearly $500 million for six more seats on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, Lopez-Alegria said.
The space agency established the commercial crew program to support industry innovation without having to foot the entire bill for creating a new spacecraft from the ground up.
But Shelby has at times been critical of the commercial crew program that operates under a Space Act Agreement, which sets development milestones for the private companies but allows for greater flexibility that helps keep costs down. Shelby says there isn't enough government oversight with this type of program.
Lopez-Alegria says NASA has spent between one-tenth and one-third the cost of what it would've spent had it done it alone.
"NASA is the beneficiary, and they would've paid out the nose to develop one. So it's a huge win for NASA and, therefore, for the taxpayer," he said.
Some critics say Shelby's provision favors Boeing, the second-largest defense contractor in the nation that is well-equipped to jump through traditional contracting hoops. But Sierra Nevada says it regularly contracts with the government and is capable of providing the cost-plus estimates if necessary.
Cost-plus estimation allows contractors to account in advance for ballooning costs.
Sierra Nevada says it will continue development of its Dream Chaser spacecraft regardless of whether it wins a NASA contract in August. The company has secured a late 2016 unmanned launch date with Centennial-based United Launch Alliance.
The U.S. House, which already passed its spending bill, and Senate must reconcile any differences in their provisions before sending a final version to President Barack Obama for approval.
Shelby: Protecting Taxpayer, Not Boeing
Jonathan Salant – Bloomberg News
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama says he's trying to help U.S. taxpayers, not Boeing Co., by requiring companies competing to send astronauts to the International Space Station to file detailed financial and accounting reports justifying their costs.
"NASA and its contractors have a history of cost overruns and schedule delays," Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told his colleagues today. "With no other U.S.-based options to get to the space station, we cannot find ourselves at the 11th hour with an overburdened program that requires a bailout to succeed. Once again, these measures are included to ensure that the government is not just spending taxpayer money, but that it is doing so in a cost-effective manner."
Shelby said: "The goal is to make certain that the price NASA has agreed to pay for vehicle development matches actual development expenditures."
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based trade group, says the proposal is weighted against its member companies competing to send astronauts into space under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's commercial crew program. Michael Lopez-Alegria, the federation president, argued that the reporting requirements are too onerous for anyone but Boeing, the No. 2 U.S. contractor.
The other three companies competing for commercial crew contracts are Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin LLC, and Sierra Nevada Corp., all members of the trade group.
Lopez-Alegria told Bloomberg Television yesterday that the proposal asks for "some pretty onerous restrictions" on the part of the companies.
"Boeing is probably the best equipped to do that because they have thousands of government contracts," he said. The others don't "have quite the army in place to do those calculations."
Shelby put that requirement into language accompanying the spending bill for NASA. The legislation currently is on the Senate floor.
A Boeing spokeswoman has declined to comment.
Instagram Data Shows NASA's Fútbol Fun Hit the Back of the Net
From 230 miles up: Go-o-o-o-al!!!
Christopher Heine – AdWeek
Since the moon landing 45 years ago, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a fairly stellar track record for creating buzz from outer space through broadcast channels. Since its astronauts first tweeted from the International Space Station in 2010, it's also enjoyed moments of success with digital media.
Add Instagram to its celestial triumphs, while building an audience of 1.3 million followers on the photo-sharing mobile app. And thanks to World Cup-inspired work, the space exploration agency is making its first appearance in the Adweek/Shareablee Top 10 Brands Using Instagram Video Weekly Chart.
Coming in at No. 8, NASA released a 15-second video of American and German cosmonauts having a little fútbol fun 230 miles above Earth while taking a break from their collaborative research. Of course, the United States and Germany are in the same FIFA World Cup group, so Instagram legions quickly showed a ton of love. (The U.S. and Germany, both currently 1-0 in the Cup, go head-to-head on June 26.)
Each side's national pride—combined with the biggest sporting event on the planet—made for a social media match made in heaven. Kudos to NASA's marketing team for the timeliness.
Meanwhile, sport marketers continue to do extremely well on our Instagram rankings. But now that the National Basketball Association has wrapped up its season, it will be intriguing to see whether the pro league's social staffers can continue to keep it atop our weekly chart. Check out NASA and the NBA's work below, as well as the full rankings with our multimedia infographic, which lets viewers watch last week's top Instagram videos while seeing what kind of organic reach the brands created.
Russian Industry Official Says Proton Should Return to Flight in September
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
International Launch Services (ILS) is about to start its own review of the Russian government investigation into the May 16 failure of Russia's Proton rocket and expects to be ready to announce a new commercial Proton launch manifest in July, ILS Vice President of sales, marketing and communications Dawn Harms said.
In remarks here June 16 and June 17 at the CASBAA Satellite Industry Forum and the CommunicAsia conference, the top commercial launch companies — which in addition to ILS include Arianespace and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — discussed the recent schedule disruptions they have suffered from rocket issues and customers who were late in delivering their spacecraft.
Harms said it was too early to predict Proton's commercial flight schedule this year before Reston, Virginia-based ILS has had a chance to review the Russian investigation, which pinpointed a third-stage component as responsible for the May failure.
The failure destroyed the large AM4R telecommunications satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space of Europe for the Russian Satellite Communications Co. (RSCC) and insured for about $217 million.
The just-completed Russian government failure review has not resulted in an immediate return-to-flight schedule of a vehicle that has been operational since the 1960s and in the past has rebounded quickly from failures.
Yuri Prokhorov, director-general of RSCC, whose fleet growth has been hampered by multiple Proton and in-orbit satellite failures in the past five years, said he remains confident that Proton will launch three RSCC satellites on three separate missions before the end of the year.
In a June 18 interview here, Prokhorov said Moscow-based RSCC has been told that Proton would return to flight in September with the launch of a Russian government Luch data-relay satellite. Launches for state-owned RSCC are also considered as part of Russia's government launch program, even if RSCC is operated as a commercial company.
ILS recently has had to contend with the threat that U.S. government sanctions against Russia for its actions in Ukraine might spread to forbidding satellites with U.S. parts from being launched aboard Russian vehicles from Russian launch bases.
Proton launches of satellites for SES of Luxembourg and Inmarsat of London were thrown into question in April because they did not receive their final shipping licenses. The licenses were eventually given and the launches would have proceeded but for the May failure.
Harms said ILS has secured launch licenses for all scheduled launches through 2016. She said the recent bottlenecks were not due to licenses ILS needed, but rather the final shipping authorizations that satellite owners need to secure.
Arianespace of Evry, France, has suffered a launch slowdown in what is still intended to be a record year of 12 launch campaigns because of several hiccups in the readiness of the Optus 10 telecommunications satellite, built for Australia's Optus satellite operator.
Arianespace Chief Executive Stephane Israel said current indications are that Optus 10 would be repaired and returned to Europe's Guiana Space Center launch base in South America around Aug. 15, providing more than enough time to prepare for an early September launch with the Measat 3b satellite owned by Measat of Malaysia.
Measat officials attending the conference here said their satellite has been ready for launch since December but has remained on the ground as Arianespace sought a compatible partner for the dual satellite launch aboard a heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket.
Jacques Breton, Arianespace's senior vice president for sales, said in the event that Optus 10 were to face further delays, Argentina's Arsat telecommunications satellite could take its place alongside Measat 3b for the September launch.
Israel said Arianespace still expects to conduct 12 launches this year despite the Ariane 5 delays. That would mean four more Ariane 5 launches, three medium-lift Soyuz launches and one light Vega vehicle.
"It is a difficult target, but we still are aiming for it," Israel said during a June 17 briefing.
SpaceX of Hawthorne, California, was delayed a month, to early June, because of a helium leak in its Falcon 9 rocket that scrubbed a launch of six machine-to-machine messaging satellites for Orbcomm of Rochelle Park, New Jersey.
In early June, Orbcomm discovered an issue on one of the satellites and the launch was delayed to June 20.
Barry Matsumori, SpaceX vice president for commercial sales and business development, said June 16 that SpaceX's recent purchase of an additional launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, means the company will be able, starting in the second half of 2015, to work through its manifest more quickly.
The new pad will be for both the current Falcon 9 vehicle and the coming Falcon Heavy, set to debut sometime in 2015.
Matsumori said the helium leak issue has been fixed to the satisfaction of SpaceX, its insurers and its customer. SpaceX expects to conduct seven more missions in 2014 after Orbcomm, including commercial resupply flights to the international space station under contract to NASA.
Forecast poor for SpaceX's Friday launch attempt
James Dean – Florida Today
Clouds, thunderstorms and lightning anticipated Friday evening could make it difficult for SpaceX to launch a group of commercial satellites from Cape Canaveral.
Air Force meteorologists predict only a 30 percent chance of conditions good enough for a Falcon 9 rocket to blast off with six Orbcomm Inc. satellites during a launch window running from 6:08 p.m. to 7:01 p.m.
The 45th Weather Squadron said models were not all in agreement about the strength and track of a low pressure system moving through Central Florida.
"Overall though, expect mainly showery weather with an isolated thunderstorm from Friday morning through Saturday as the low moves through the area," the forecast reads.
The odds of favorable launch weather improve slightly on Saturday, to 40 percent "go."
The mission is the first of two launching a new constellation of 17 next-generation satellites for Orbcomm, a provider of machine-to-machine communications services.
Range, rocket and satellite issues have delayed the launch since April.
After 177 days in orbit, four missions and a visit to the Mir space station, Australia's first and only astronaut retires after 22 years
- Andrew Thomas from Adelaide went on his first space flight in 1996
- Dr Thomas, 62, is the first Australian to leave the earth's atmosphere
- He has been on four space flights and clocked up 177 days in space
Kate Lyons – Mail Online (UK)
Australia's first astronaut has hung up his space helmet, with NASA colleagues saying he will be sorely missed.
Andrew Thomas, 62, grew up in Adelaide, a young boy fascinated by the space race, who counted among his heroes, John Glenn and Alan Shepard, two of the first Americans in space.
After getting a PhD in Australia, he moved to the U.S. where he pursued a career as a research scientist.
Dr Thomas became the first Australian in space, on May 19, 1996, when he exited the earth's atmosphere aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
As Dr Thomas flew over Australia, many of the citizens of his home city of Adelaide turned on their lights at a pre-arranged time so that the city would stand out to Mr Thomas as he looked down from the shuttle.
He says the most amazing thing he has seen from space is the Aurora Australis.
'I was on the Mir space station, and one day we were orbiting south of Tasmania. I looked south from there over the Antarctic continent and saw the southern lights. There was this curtain of green and pink shimmering lights,' he told the ABC. During his career with NASA he completed three other flights and has spent a combined total of six months of his life in space.
In 1998, he served as an engineer aboard the Russian Space Station Mir for 130 days, the last astronaut from NASA to do so.
In 2001 Dr Thomas flew on-board a shuttle mission to visit the International Space Station, during which time he completed a 6.5 hour spacewalk to install components to the outside of the space station.
Dr. Thomas went on four spaceflights over the course of his career, with his first flight in 1996
His final space flight was in 2005, when Dr Thomas was involved in the Return to Flight mission, continuing the assembly of the International Space Station, after the tragic deaths of all seven astronauts in the Columbia Mission in 2003.
The strangest feeling after returning to Earth after time in space, he told 60 Minutes, is adjusting to gravity. 'It is a very strange sensation the first time you stand up after being in space... Your legs feel so heavy when you take your first step you find it hard to imagine that people can even walk. It is a feeling that passes after a few hours but it is unquestionably one of the most bizarre sensations.'
Mr Thomas is married to a fellow astronaut, American Shannon Walker, with whom he lives in Houston, Texas, though the pair have never been in space together.
Astronauts May Suffer Artery Damage on Long Missions
At least some astronauts who spend six months aboard the International Space Station come back to Earth with stiffer arteries than before their flights, a new study reveals.
Stiff arteries in seniors here on Earth can lead to higher blood pressure and, potentially, problems with blood flow to the brain. But no blood pressure changes in astronauts have been noted so far, scientists said.
"In an older person, that means that the blood pressure that reaches the brain, for example, is elevated," Richard Hughson, lead author of the research and a vascular aging researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada, told Space.com in a phone interview. "You're putting higher pressures on the smaller, more fragile blood vessels that are in the brain and potentially damaging them." The research — which included participation from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield— was presented Tuesday (June 17) during the one-day Aging in Space for Life on Earth Symposium at the University of Waterloo.
The study looked at a small sample of nine astronauts, but the research is based on data from just the first four examined in orbit. The remaining five samples returned to Earth on SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft a month ago and are still being analyzed.
Toward one year in space
Long-duration spaceflight is hard on the human body; some researchers even call time in weightlessness an accelerated aging process. Despite exercising a couple of hours a day on the International Space Station, astronauts still suffer weakened bones, atrophied muscles and other problems usually associated with seniors. It takes rehabilitation on Earth to fight back against these problems.
Some astronauts even experience changes in their eyesight, to the extent that some go up to space with perfect vision and then find out they need glasses when they return to Earth. Figuring out what's going on is key for NASA, which hopes to send astronauts on lengthy missions to Mars about 20 years from now. Hughson's study used ultrasound to measure artery stiffness in the neck about two months before and then one day after spaceflight (when the astronauts returned to NASA's Johnson Space Center after their flight from the landing area in Kazakhstan).
In orbit, the astronauts took two samples of their own blood, then put the samples in cold storage. Upon return to Earth aboard Dragon, researchers analyzed these samples for "biomarkers" (chemical compounds or proteins) that could be related to the changes in arteries.
Elastic arteries
It's believed that stiffer arteries change blood pressure because of the way artery walls absorb the energy from each heartbeat. In younger people, the walls are more elastic and can thus absorb the pressure. In seniors, that ability is reduced.
While it's believed this could in turn cause increased pressure in the brain, researchers don't know this for sure. If a link exists, it could lead to health problems among astronauts such as dementia or vascular cognitive impairment, scientists said.
Hughson cautioned that stiff blood vessels in the neck may not reflect what's happening in the entire body. In spaceflight, blood pressure equalizes across the body, whereas on Earth, gravity pulls pressure more toward the legs. So it's possible some arteries may become less stiff in orbit.
"We did a slightly different measurement, looking at the arteries between the heart and the ankle, and we didn't really find a change," he said.
For this measurement, the scientists looked at how quickly the pulse wave travels through the body after every heartbeat. Hughson is now applying to do a follow-up study on astronauts and is also analyzing work related to "BP Reg" — a study of astronauts' blood pressure in orbit.
A separate presentation at the conference Tuesday by Jens Titze, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, showed that salt intake in the body cycles up or down independent of how much salt the person consumes.
"This very simplistic view — salt is always constant, and if you eat more, your body volume increases — this is far too simple," he told Space.com. Some of that research was based on a study Titze did of crew members in Mars500, a simulated mission to the Red Planet. These participants were on restricted diets, making the measurements easier to accomplish. But Titze cautioned it's too early to apply the research to discussions about how much salt people should consume.
Studies have also linked salt storage to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, as well as age-related issues such as heart disease and arthritis, Titze added.
Russia preparing to fly first female cosmonaut in 17 years
Irene Klotz - Sen
Russia is preparing to launch its first female cosmonaut in 17 years.
Elena Serova, 38, is slated to become only the fourth Russian woman in history to fly in space and the first to do so since cosmonaut Elena Kondakova joined a U.S. space shuttle crew for a 1997 visit to Russia's now-defunct Mir space station.
Serova, a test engineer by training, is due to launch to the International Space Station in September along with NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev.
"Since I was a child, I was very interested in space—the entire topic of space, everything that was related to space exploration," Serova, speaking through a translator, said in a NASA interview.
"My school and my first teacher often told us about different events related to space exploration. After that, I went to study in the Moscow Aviation Institute, the space exploration department. It was a very purposeful choice on my part," Serova said.
After graduating in 2003, Serova took a job as an engineer with RSC Energia, the prime developer and contractor for Russia's human spaceflight programs. Three years later, she applied to become a cosmonaut candidate and was accepted to begin training.
By then, almost a decade had passed since Russia's last female cosmonaut, Elena Kondakova, flew, and it had been 40 years since Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space.
Tereshkova was launched aboard a Soviet Vostok rocket on June 16, 1963. Russia didn't fly another woman for 18 years. The first U.S. woman to fly in space was Sally Ride, who was part of a 1983 space shuttle crew.
"The door to space was open to all women by Valentina Tereshkova," Serova said.
"We only do our work. I don't think I'm doing anything extraordinary," she added. "I think that both cosmonauts and astronauts first of all should be professional in their area."
"No work is easy, especially training and learning is hard, Serova said. "My path up to this moment has been very difficult. I think that my work in the future will be very tense and very challenging. Whenever you are faced with challenges you have to make decisions and it's very interesting."
Serova, the first Russian woman to serve on the space station, said that she hopes she'll be a role model not only for women and young girls, but for men too.
"It's a huge responsibility," she said.
Success! Cassini flies by Titan, collects intel on mysterious lakes
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
NASA's Cassini mission flew past Titan early Wednesday morning, successfully completing a complex maneuver that will help scientists better understand one of the solar system's most intriguing moons.
Beginning around midnight, a team of scientists and engineers guided the spacecraft into an orbit that allowed them to bounce a radio signal off the surface of Titan toward Earth, where it was received by a land-based telescope array 1 billion miles away.
"We are essentially using Titan as a mirror," said Essam Marouf of San Jose State University, who's a member of the Cassini radio science team. "And the nature of the echo can tell us about the nature of Titan's surface, whether it is liquid or solid, and the physical properties of the material."
Saturn's moon Titan is the second-largeset moon in the solar system after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and in some ways it's one of the most Earth-like bodies we have encountered. Like Earth, it has a thick atmosphere, and it is the only other world we know of that has a system of liquid lakes and seas on its surface.
However, unlike Earth, its surface is far too cold to sustain liquid water.
Scientists have hypothesized that Titan's famous lakes and seas are made of liquid methane or ethane, but Marouf explains that those inferences are mostly based on the fact that methane and ethane would take on a liquid state in the conditions on Titan, rather than direct observation.
"There is no really direct measurement that tells us what they are exactly," he said. "If the data from this morning is good enough, it will tell us what these liquids really are."
From 11:30 Tuesday evening to 11 Wednesday morning, Marouf gathered with other members of Cassini's radio science team in a control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, watching as the new data were received by a radio telescope array in Australia.
He said they could not analyze the data in real time, but they were able to tell that the signal was clear enough to give them something to work with.
Cassini performed a similar experiment on Titan's surface on May 17 that was also a success. That time, the researchers were able to collect information from two of the largest bodies of liquid on Titan: Ligea Mare and Kraken Mare.
This time, Cassini bounced its radio signal off an area between the two seas where radar images had found smaller liquid regions similar to rivers, lakes and channels on Earth.
"This kind of experiment takes a meticulous kind of preparation to first know where to look, and then design the maneuvers," Marouf said. "There are many pieces that have to work flawlessly to end up with the data."
He said the team hopes to look over the data this week and share its early results at a Cassini science team meeting next week in the Netherlands.
We'll keep you posted.
Leadership lessons from science
Tom Fox – The Washington Post
France A. Córdova is the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is responsible for advancing scientific discovery and technological innovation. She previously served as chair of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, president of Purdue University, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, and as chief scientist at NASA.
Córdova spoke about her experiences and her current role leading the NSF with Tom Fox, a guest writer for On Leadership and vice president for leadership and innovation at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Fox also heads up their Center for Government Leadership. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Q. What drew you to the world of science?
A. I was curious about the nature of stars and the galaxies. Those questions captivated me as a young person. The other kinds of questions that captivated me were about the nature of matter. When I was growing up, everything was about the atom and there were a lot of discoveries that still had to be made about particles within nuclei. Thinking about those questions just resonated with me. I didn't have science role models as a young girl, and it wasn't until I actually graduated from college with a degree in literature that I realized I could be anything that I wanted to be.
Q. What are some of the lessons you learned as chief scientist at NASA?
A. I worked with Administrator Daniel Goldin to bring more scientists into headquarters to talk about the grand challenges — and what NASA was uniquely positioned to do that would have the most profound impact. The idea of focusing on the biggest challenges and how your organization is uniquely positioned to address certain ones that no other organizations could address as effectively was a big takeaway for me. That led to some of the missions that are going on today, including the search for planets around other suns and the search for life beyond earth.
I also gained insights from working with other agencies, scientific societies and the national academies. We considered issues ranging from rebuilding NSF's South Pole research station to cross-agency public communication of science.
Q. What are your goals for the National Science Foundation?
A. One goal is to increase awareness and appreciation of science in this country and how it can be furthered, fostered and funded. Hopefully we can increase awareness among young people and the largely untapped talent pool of women and minorities to encourage them to think about careers in science and engineering.
Q. What are some workforce challenges that you are facing?
A. NSF will be moving from Arlington to Alexandria, Va. in a few years. Nobody likes to move. We want to be able to rise to that challenge and approach it as an opportunity. Another issue is staff support. About 94 percent of our budget goes out the door to universities and states and the people that spend the money. So we have a tiny overhead. I take the subway to the office every day and I'm often sitting with NSF employees who tell me, "I love my job, but I'm working very, very hard," meaning they're working extra hours. I want to work on providing more support where we are thinly stretched.
Q. What can the federal government do to attract scientific and technical talent?
A. When you rotate people through an organization, whether it's a university or research institute or an organization like NSF, you bring in new talent and they infuse the place with ideas. A few years later, they go back to the place where they came from or to new places, and you have a circulation of talent and new ideas. I think that is a very good thing for an agency or organization to do. It's a way to bring talent into the federal government. The other thing I've noticed is that many of the leaders I know in the federal government are people who have served in different agencies. It's helpful not to get tied into a specific way of doing things.
Q. Who are some of your leadership role models?
A. I have learned good things from everybody that I've worked with. Leaders come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, but they have certain characteristics in common. One is that they have a real commitment to the mission of what they do. They love doing it. I've also learned that they have a real focus on goals, and they like to approach challenges with creative solutions. Often that means gathering great teams of people with great ideas. They are by and large good communicators. In addition to that, patience and fairness certainly are qualities that I admire in my role models.
NASA Is Building a Tiny Mothership to Explore Distant Lunar Oceans
In a new approach to planetary science, a small satellite would rain even smaller satellites on Jupiter's moon.
Robinson Meyer – The Atlantic
Suppose you're a planetary scientist. You operate an unmanned spacecraft, surveying a distant moon in our solar system. Years of funding, engineering work, and long-distance space travel have all come together, and at last this machine—to which you have devoted so much of your life—is in place. And it's just made an incredible discovery.
Maybe it's a new kind of crater. Or an odd, unexpected mineral. Or the holy grail: liquid water.
It's thrilling news—years of your career, vindicated! Now you have to wait. And lobby. And hope for the funding to come through. And wait for the next craft to get there.
>
As Brent Streetman, a researcher at the aerospace technology firm Draper Laboratories, told me earlier this week: "Once we find interesting things, there's no way to access them. We have to wait for the next cycle of space exploration to that planet."
Indeed, the NASA scientists tasked with extending humanity's reach into space have two very different jobs. The first is posed by space and solved by engineering: It's the actual work of sending tools, instruments, and (sometimes) humans millions of miles, to another place in space, intact. But the second one can be both much more mundane and much more infuriating: It's the ongoing work of securing funding for space exploration from a capricious and dysfunctional Congress.
A new experimental spacecraft design anticipates the second problem with the techniques of the first. Draper Laboratories received funding this week from NIAC, NASA's innovative concepts fund, for a two-phase space probe—technology that could both survey a planet and send instruments to its surface.
Where might such a probe go first? Its designers, led by Streetman, think it might be a good way to explore the only orb in the solar system believed to have liquid water: Jupiter's moon, Europa.
In its first stage, a small satellite about as large as a half-gallon of milk would orbit the moon. Using two highly accurate accelerometers, it could sense small changes in Europa's gravitational field, eventually mapping the gravity of the entire surface. These detailed gravity maps could then suggest the location of watery oceans below the planet's surface—or the openings to these oceans.
Once an ocean (or the entryway to one) was found, the probe would begin its second stage. The small satellite would release even smaller instruments over the interesting region. These "chipsats," each no larger than a fingernail, could enter Europa's thin atmosphere unharmed and float down to the surface.
"When there is an atmosphere, they flutter down like little pieces of paper, not like a rock," said John West, leader of the advanced concepts team at Draper. He added that while they expect to lose some of the smaller "chipsats," enough would be released that useful science could be performed.
Once deployed, the tiny chipsats would then send their measurements back to their orbiting mothership, which would in turn beam them back to Earth.
Both of the mission's vehicles were pioneered in near-Earth orbit. The gravity-mapping satellite draws on cubesat technology, a set of tools and common plans that let satellites be cheaply produced. Last November, a team of high schoolers put a cubesat in orbit. The even smaller "chipsats" were first deployed as part of the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in 2011, in partnership with researchers at Cornell University. Cornell is also consulting on the project.
Europa was last studied at close proximity by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Over a decade ago, Galileo orbited Jupiter before the probe's human overlords sent it careening into the gas giant's atmosphere, in part to keep from contaminating Europa's surface.
END
Dr. Thomas went on four spaceflights over the course of his career, with his first flight in 1996His final space flight was in 2005, when Dr Thomas was involved in the Return to Flight mission, continuing the assembly of the International Space Station, after the tragic deaths of all seven astronauts in the Columbia Mission in 2003.The strangest feeling after returning to Earth after time in space, he told 60 Minutes, is adjusting to gravity.'It is a very strange sensation the first time you stand up after being in space... Your legs feel so heavy when you take your first step you find it hard to imagine that people can even walk. It is a feeling that passes after a few hours but it is unquestionably one of the most bizarre sensations.'Mr Thomas is married to a fellow astronaut, American Shannon Walker, with whom he lives in Houston, Texas, though the pair have never been in space together.Astronauts May Suffer Artery Damage on Long MissionsElizabeth Howell - Space.comAt least some astronauts who spend six months aboard the International Space Station come back to Earth with stiffer arteries than before their flights, a new study reveals.Stiff arteries in seniors here on Earth can lead to higher blood pressure and, potentially, problems with blood flow to the brain. But no blood pressure changes in astronauts have been noted so far, scientists said."In an older person, that means that the blood pressure that reaches the brain, for example, is elevated," Richard Hughson, lead author of the research and a vascular aging researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada, told Space.com in a phone interview. "You're putting higher pressures on the smaller, more fragile blood vessels that are in the brain and potentially damaging them."The research — which included participation from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield— was presented Tuesday (June 17) during the one-day Aging in Space for Life on Earth Symposium at the University of Waterloo.The study looked at a small sample of nine astronauts, but the research is based on data from just the first four examined in orbit. The remaining five samples returned to Earth on SpaceX's Dragon cargo spacecraft a month ago and are still being analyzed.Toward one year in spaceLong-duration spaceflight is hard on the human body; some researchers even call time in weightlessness an accelerated aging process. Despite exercising a couple of hours a day on the International Space Station, astronauts still suffer weakened bones, atrophied muscles and other problems usually associated with seniors. It takes rehabilitation on Earth to fight back against these problems.Some astronauts even experience changes in their eyesight, to the extent that some go up to space with perfect vision and then find out they need glasses when they return to Earth. Figuring out what's going on is key for NASA, which hopes to send astronauts on lengthy missions to Mars about 20 years from now.Health issues will also get attention when two people spend a year on the International Space Station, beginning in 2015.Hughson's study used ultrasound to measure artery stiffness in the neck about two months before and then one day after spaceflight (when the astronauts returned to NASA's Johnson Space Center after their flight from the landing area in Kazakhstan).In orbit, the astronauts took two samples of their own blood, then put the samples in cold storage. Upon return to Earth aboard Dragon, researchers analyzed these samples for "biomarkers" (chemical compounds or proteins) that could be related to the changes in arteries.Elastic arteriesIt's believed that stiffer arteries change blood pressure because of the way artery walls absorb the energy from each heartbeat. In younger people, the walls are more elastic and can thus absorb the pressure. In seniors, that ability is reduced.While it's believed this could in turn cause increased pressure in the brain, researchers don't know this for sure. If a link exists, it could lead to health problems among astronauts such as dementia or vascular cognitive impairment, scientists said.Hughson cautioned that stiff blood vessels in the neck may not reflect what's happening in the entire body. In spaceflight, blood pressure equalizes across the body, whereas on Earth, gravity pulls pressure more toward the legs. So it's possible some arteries may become less stiff in orbit."We did a slightly different measurement, looking at the arteries between the heart and the ankle, and we didn't really find a change," he said.For this measurement, the scientists looked at how quickly the pulse wave travels through the body after every heartbeat. Hughson is now applying to do a follow-up study on astronauts and is also analyzing work related to "BP Reg" — a study of astronauts' blood pressure in orbit.A separate presentation at the conference Tuesday by Jens Titze, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, showed that salt intake in the body cycles up or down independent of how much salt the person consumes."This very simplistic view — salt is always constant, and if you eat more, your body volume increases — this is far too simple," he told Space.com.Some of that research was based on a study Titze did of crew members in Mars500, a simulated mission to the Red Planet. These participants were on restricted diets, making the measurements easier to accomplish. But Titze cautioned it's too early to apply the research to discussions about how much salt people should consume.Studies have also linked salt storage to autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, as well as age-related issues such as heart disease and arthritis, Titze added.Russia preparing to fly first female cosmonaut in 17 yearsIrene Klotz - SenRussia is preparing to launch its first female cosmonaut in 17 years.Elena Serova, 38, is slated to become only the fourth Russian woman in history to fly in space and the first to do so since cosmonaut Elena Kondakova joined a U.S. space shuttle crew for a 1997 visit to Russia's now-defunct Mir space station.Serova, a test engineer by training, is due to launch to the International Space Station in September along with NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev."Since I was a child, I was very interested in space—the entire topic of space, everything that was related to space exploration," Serova, speaking through a translator, said in a NASA interview."My school and my first teacher often told us about different events related to space exploration. After that, I went to study in the Moscow Aviation Institute, the space exploration department. It was a very purposeful choice on my part," Serova said.After graduating in 2003, Serova took a job as an engineer with RSC Energia, the prime developer and contractor for Russia's human spaceflight programs. Three years later, she applied to become a cosmonaut candidate and was accepted to begin training.By then, almost a decade had passed since Russia's last female cosmonaut, Elena Kondakova, flew, and it had been 40 years since Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space.Tereshkova was launched aboard a Soviet Vostok rocket on June 16, 1963. Russia didn't fly another woman for 18 years. The first U.S. woman to fly in space was Sally Ride, who was part of a 1983 space shuttle crew."The door to space was open to all women by Valentina Tereshkova," Serova said."We only do our work. I don't think I'm doing anything extraordinary," she added. "I think that both cosmonauts and astronauts first of all should be professional in their area.""No work is easy, especially training and learning is hard, Serova said. "My path up to this moment has been very difficult. I think that my work in the future will be very tense and very challenging. Whenever you are faced with challenges you have to make decisions and it's very interesting."Serova, the first Russian woman to serve on the space station, said that she hopes she'll be a role model not only for women and young girls, but for men too."It's a huge responsibility," she said.Success! Cassini flies by Titan, collects intel on mysterious lakesDeborah Netburn – Los Angeles TimesNASA's Cassini mission flew past Titan early Wednesday morning, successfully completing a complex maneuver that will help scientists better understand one of the solar system's most intriguing moons.Beginning around midnight, a team of scientists and engineers guided the spacecraft into an orbit that allowed them to bounce a radio signal off the surface of Titan toward Earth, where it was received by a land-based telescope array 1 billion miles away."We are essentially using Titan as a mirror," said Essam Marouf of San Jose State University, who's a member of the Cassini radio science team. "And the nature of the echo can tell us about the nature of Titan's surface, whether it is liquid or solid, and the physical properties of the material."Saturn's moon Titan is the second-largeset moon in the solar system after Jupiter's moon Ganymede, and in some ways it's one of the most Earth-like bodies we have encountered. Like Earth, it has a thick atmosphere, and it is the only other world we know of that has a system of liquid lakes and seas on its surface.However, unlike Earth, its surface is far too cold to sustain liquid water.Scientists have hypothesized that Titan's famous lakes and seas are made of liquid methane or ethane, but Marouf explains that those inferences are mostly based on the fact that methane and ethane would take on a liquid state in the conditions on Titan, rather than direct observation."There is no really direct measurement that tells us what they are exactly," he said. "If the data from this morning is good enough, it will tell us what these liquids really are."From 11:30 Tuesday evening to 11 Wednesday morning, Marouf gathered with other members of Cassini's radio science team in a control room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, watching as the new data were received by a radio telescope array in Australia.He said they could not analyze the data in real time, but they were able to tell that the signal was clear enough to give them something to work with.Cassini performed a similar experiment on Titan's surface on May 17 that was also a success. That time, the researchers were able to collect information from two of the largest bodies of liquid on Titan: Ligea Mare and Kraken Mare.This time, Cassini bounced its radio signal off an area between the two seas where radar images had found smaller liquid regions similar to rivers, lakes and channels on Earth."This kind of experiment takes a meticulous kind of preparation to first know where to look, and then design the maneuvers," Marouf said. "There are many pieces that have to work flawlessly to end up with the data."He said the team hopes to look over the data this week and share its early results at a Cassini science team meeting next week in the Netherlands.We'll keep you posted.Leadership lessons from scienceTom Fox – The Washington PostFrance A. Córdova is the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is responsible for advancing scientific discovery and technological innovation. She previously served as chair of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents, president of Purdue University, chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, and as chief scientist at NASA.Córdova spoke about her experiences and her current role leading the NSF with Tom Fox, a guest writer for On Leadership and vice president for leadership and innovation at the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. Fox also heads up their Center for Government Leadership. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.Q. What drew you to the world of science?A. I was curious about the nature of stars and the galaxies. Those questions captivated me as a young person. The other kinds of questions that captivated me were about the nature of matter. When I was growing up, everything was about the atom and there were a lot of discoveries that still had to be made about particles within nuclei. Thinking about those questions just resonated with me. I didn't have science role models as a young girl, and it wasn't until I actually graduated from college with a degree in literature that I realized I could be anything that I wanted to be.Q. What are some of the lessons you learned as chief scientist at NASA?A. I worked with Administrator Daniel Goldin to bring more scientists into headquarters to talk about the grand challenges — and what NASA was uniquely positioned to do that would have the most profound impact. The idea of focusing on the biggest challenges and how your organization is uniquely positioned to address certain ones that no other organizations could address as effectively was a big takeaway for me. That led to some of the missions that are going on today, including the search for planets around other suns and the search for life beyond earth.I also gained insights from working with other agencies, scientific societies and the national academies. We considered issues ranging from rebuilding NSF's South Pole research station to cross-agency public communication of science.Q. What are your goals for the National Science Foundation?A. One goal is to increase awareness and appreciation of science in this country and how it can be furthered, fostered and funded. Hopefully we can increase awareness among young people and the largely untapped talent pool of women and minorities to encourage them to think about careers in science and engineering.Q. What are some workforce challenges that you are facing?A. NSF will be moving from Arlington to Alexandria, Va. in a few years. Nobody likes to move. We want to be able to rise to that challenge and approach it as an opportunity. Another issue is staff support. About 94 percent of our budget goes out the door to universities and states and the people that spend the money. So we have a tiny overhead. I take the subway to the office every day and I'm often sitting with NSF employees who tell me, "I love my job, but I'm working very, very hard," meaning they're working extra hours. I want to work on providing more support where we are thinly stretched.Q. What can the federal government do to attract scientific and technical talent?A. When you rotate people through an organization, whether it's a university or research institute or an organization like NSF, you bring in new talent and they infuse the place with ideas. A few years later, they go back to the place where they came from or to new places, and you have a circulation of talent and new ideas. I think that is a very good thing for an agency or organization to do. It's a way to bring talent into the federal government. The other thing I've noticed is that many of the leaders I know in the federal government are people who have served in different agencies. It's helpful not to get tied into a specific way of doing things.Q. Who are some of your leadership role models?A. I have learned good things from everybody that I've worked with. Leaders come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, but they have certain characteristics in common. One is that they have a real commitment to the mission of what they do. They love doing it. I've also learned that they have a real focus on goals, and they like to approach challenges with creative solutions. Often that means gathering great teams of people with great ideas. They are by and large good communicators. In addition to that, patience and fairness certainly are qualities that I admire in my role models.NASA Is Building a Tiny Mothership to Explore Distant Lunar OceansIn a new approach to planetary science, a small satellite would rain even smaller satellites on Jupiter's moon.Robinson Meyer – The AtlanticSuppose you're a planetary scientist. You operate an unmanned spacecraft, surveying a distant moon in our solar system. Years of funding, engineering work, and long-distance space travel have all come together, and at last this machine—to which you have devoted so much of your life—is in place. And it's just made an incredible discovery.Maybe it's a new kind of crater. Or an odd, unexpected mineral. Or the holy grail: liquid water.It's thrilling news—years of your career, vindicated! Now you have to wait. And lobby. And hope for the funding to come through. And wait for the next craft to get there.>As Brent Streetman, a researcher at the aerospace technology firm Draper Laboratories, told me earlier this week: "Once we find interesting things, there's no way to access them. We have to wait for the next cycle of space exploration to that planet."Indeed, the NASA scientists tasked with extending humanity's reach into space have two very different jobs. The first is posed by space and solved by engineering: It's the actual work of sending tools, instruments, and (sometimes) humans millions of miles, to another place in space, intact. But the second one can be both much more mundane and much more infuriating: It's the ongoing work of securing funding for space exploration from a capricious and dysfunctional Congress.A new experimental spacecraft design anticipates the second problem with the techniques of the first. Draper Laboratories received funding this week from NIAC, NASA's innovative concepts fund, for a two-phase space probe—technology that could both survey a planet and send instruments to its surface.Where might such a probe go first? Its designers, led by Streetman, think it might be a good way to explore the only orb in the solar system believed to have liquid water: Jupiter's moon, Europa.In its first stage, a small satellite about as large as a half-gallon of milk would orbit the moon. Using two highly accurate accelerometers, it could sense small changes in Europa's gravitational field, eventually mapping the gravity of the entire surface. These detailed gravity maps could then suggest the location of watery oceans below the planet's surface—or the openings to these oceans.Once an ocean (or the entryway to one) was found, the probe would begin its second stage. The small satellite would release even smaller instruments over the interesting region. These "chipsats," each no larger than a fingernail, could enter Europa's thin atmosphere unharmed and float down to the surface."When there is an atmosphere, they flutter down like little pieces of paper, not like a rock," said John West, leader of the advanced concepts team at Draper. He added that while they expect to lose some of the smaller "chipsats," enough would be released that useful science could be performed.Once deployed, the tiny chipsats would then send their measurements back to their orbiting mothership, which would in turn beam them back to Earth.Both of the mission's vehicles were pioneered in near-Earth orbit. The gravity-mapping satellite draws on cubesat technology, a set of tools and common plans that let satellites be cheaply produced. Last November, a team of high schoolers put a cubesat in orbit. The even smaller "chipsats" were first deployed as part of the space shuttle Endeavour's final mission in 2011, in partnership with researchers at Cornell University. Cornell is also consulting on the project.Europa was last studied at close proximity by NASA's Galileo spacecraft. Over a decade ago, Galileo orbited Jupiter before the probe's human overlords sent it careening into the gas giant's atmosphere, in part to keep from contaminating Europa's surface.END
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