Happy Flex Friday eve everyone. Get ready for our afternoon Thunderstorm. Be safe out on the roads this afternoon!
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Sustainable Acquisitions Product Demonstration
- Recent JSC Announcement - Organizations/Social
- The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says
- Parenting Series: Back to School
- Photography Techniques - Hurry and Sign Up Today
- Parent's Night Out at Starport - Aug. 15
- Beginners Ballroom Dance: Aug. 19 & 21 - Jobs and Training
- The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity
- Russian Phase One Language Course for Beginners
- Lockout/Tagout ViTS: Aug. 5 - Bldg. 17, Room 2026 - Community
- Volunteer Opportunities Ramping Up
- An Epic Piggyback Ride Begins Aug. 14 |  |
| Headlines - Sustainable Acquisitions Product Demonstration
The JSC Environmental Office will be hosting a sustainable acquisition product demonstration for recycled-content sanitary tissue products and trash bags on Aug. 4 in the Gilruth Center Coronado Room from 9 a.m. to noon. JSC continuously looks for ways to reduce environmental impact and comply with federal purchasing requirements. This demonstration provides an opportunity for civil servant and contractor requestors and purchasers to speak directly to vendors about the different recycled-content sanitary tissue and trash-bag products that meet Environmental Protection Agency Comprehensive Procurement Guide requirements for minimum recycled content in products. Refreshments will be provided on a first come, first served basis. - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 14-016: Communications with Industry Regarding the Procurement Solicitation for the Integrated Mission Operations Contract II (IMOC II) Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Organizations/Social - The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says
"Practice safe text! Put your phone away while driving, biking and walking." Congratulations to Audrey Montgomery/BH111 for submitting the winning slogan for August 2014. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for September are due by Friday, Aug. 8. Keep those great submissions coming—you may be the next JSAT Says winner! - Parenting Series: Back to School
Getting a new school year off to a good start can influence a child's attitude, confidence and performance—both socially and academically. The transition from August to September can be difficult for both children and parents. Some children will face key milestones in attending new schools and shifts in class structure. We will discuss ideas for dealing with back-to-school anxiety, making friends and adjusting to the new schedule. We will identify tools for planning ahead, realistic goals and supportive attitudes. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, NCC, CEAP, as she presents "Back to School Parenting." - Photography Techniques - Hurry and Sign Up Today
Would you like to learn how to take professional-looking pictures with your digital camera? Starport has the perfect Photography Techniques class for you. This five-week class introduces you to the proper techniques needed to take great digital photos. In this class, you will learn the art of focus, composition, exposure and basic lighting techniques. By following the techniques you'll learn in these easy and fun classes, you will be on your way to taking better pictures in no time! Classes start Tuesday, Aug. 19, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Discounted registration: - $90 (ends Aug. 8)
Regular registration: - $110 (ends Aug. 9)
All classes are held in the Gilruth Center Long Star Room. - Parent's Night Out at Starport – Aug. 15
Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport! We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun. When: Friday, Aug. 15, from 6 to 10 p.m. Where: Gilruth Center Ages: 5 to 12 Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling. - Beginners Ballroom Dance: Aug. 19 & 21
Do you feel like you have two left feet? Well, Starport has the perfect program for you: Beginners Ballroom Dance! This eight-week class introduces you to the various types of ballroom dance. Students will learn the secrets of a good lead and following, as well as the ability to identify the beat of the music. This class is easy, and we have fun as we learn. JSC friends and family are welcome. Regular registration: - $110 per couple (Aug. 9 to 19)
Two class sessions available: - Tuesdays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. - starting Aug. 19
- Thursdays from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. - starting Aug. 21
All classes are taught in the Gilruth Center's dance studio (Group Ex studio). Jobs and Training - The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity
In today's world, there is a greater abundance of opportunity for both organizations and individuals to accomplish extraordinary goals. However, all too often, the demands of our jobs, coupled with the barrage of information coming at us from so many sources, is overwhelming, exhausting and distracting. The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity™ is based on ideas and practices accumulated over decades from the leaders of productivity at Franklin Covey. The course combines current neuroscience research with proven productivity principles to help you better manage your decisions, attention and energy. You'll learn how to apply a process that can dramatically increase your ability to achieve life's most important outcomes by consistently making choices that create extraordinary value for yourself and your organization. This solution not only produces a measurable increase in productivity, but can also provide you with a renewed sense of engagement and accomplishment. - Russian Phase One Language Course for Beginners
Russian Phase One is an introductory course designed to acquaint the novice student with certain elementary aspects of the Russian language and provide a brief outline of Russian history and culture. Our goal is to introduce students to skills and strategies necessary for successful foreign language study that they can apply immediately in the classroom. The linguistic component of this class consists of learning the Cyrillic alphabet and a very limited number of simple words and phrases, which will serve as a foundation for further language study. Dates: Aug. 11 to Sept. 11 When: Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. Where: Building 12, Room 158Q Please register through SATERN. The registration deadline is Aug. 5. - Lockout/Tagout ViTS: Aug. 5 - Bldg. 17, Room 2026
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration. Community - Volunteer Opportunities Ramping Up
We have a couple of really exciting opportunities for you to volunteer for—check them out! Aug. 14 – Bring Our Children to Work Day We need LOTS of people to help out, with many different tasks beginning as early as 8:15 a.m. and ending by 3 p.m. Volunteer for one hour or several hours. Registration table? Check. Applying tattoos? Help with hands-on activities? Yup. Check out the possibilities on the V-CORPs calendar. Sept. 16 OR Sept. 23 International Society of Automation (ISA) The ISA is looking for someone to speak to their group about how we do automation at NASA—particularly automating our space vehicles. They are flexible; either date will work for them. It's a great opportunity to share the NASA story with this professional organization. Both dates are shown on the V-CORPs calendar, but just volunteer for the date that works best for you. It's been a quiet summer, but school is just around the corner. Keep your eyes on the V-CORPs calendar as it begins to populate with fresh, exciting ways to share Your Story, Your Job and Your Space Agency. - An Epic Piggyback Ride Begins Aug. 14
The piggyback ride to end all piggyback rides begins on Aug. 14 as a giant crane lifts the space shuttle replica Independence to its permanent home atop Space Center Houston's historic shuttle carrier aircraft. View this once-in-a-lifetime free event at Space Center Houston, called Rise of Independence, beginning at 7:15 a.m. with a ceremony before the actual lift and piggyback at 8 a.m. on Aug. 14 (weather permitting). Whether you were an integral part of the Space Shuttle Program, or just want to see this amazing feat in action, come out and cheer on NASA's space program. There is limited viewing available on a first-come, first-served basis. The event will be postponed to another date in the event of rain or high winds, but updates will posted on both Space Center Houston's website and Facebook page. Event Date: Thursday, August 14, 2014 Event Start Time:7:15 AM Event End Time:9:00 AM
Event Location: Space Center Houston
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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 – July 31, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Former NASA astronaut Dr. Sandy Magnus discounts Russian threat to end International Space Station partnership
William Neff – Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tensions over Russian intervention in the Ukraine and resulting U.S. sanctions have reverberated into outer space, with Russian officials threatening to end the two countries' partnership in the International Space Station project in 2020. But one former NASA astronaut and administrator calls this an empty threat.
UCSD spots possible hazard on space station
Gary Robbins - U-T San Diego
Experiments that UC San Diego crafted for the International Space Station have revealed the existence of a type of cool-burning flame that poses a previously unknown hazard to the orbiting outpost.
NASA Urged to Accelerate 3D Printing on Space Station
NASA must move quickly to research 3D printing aboard the International Space Station, which likely has just six to 10 years of operational life left, a new report urges.
When NASA space crews play make believe
Aviva Rutkin – New Scientist
EVEN astronauts sometimes pretend they are in space. Over the past week, two simulated trips came to a close. One took place on a Hawaiian volcano, while another dove deep to an underwater habitat off Florida's coast. In both cases, the crew was tasked with a vital mission: to learn more about themselves. But there's more to it than that.
U.S. Space & Rocket Center will display space shuttle history in large new exhibit
Lee Roop – Alabama Live
The U.S. space shuttle program will be featured in a new exhibit that will fill a building at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, space center CEO Dr. Deborah Barnhart said today. The exhibit will "tell the incredible story of the space shuttle that built the International Space Station," Barnhart said.
The Moon Is (Slightly) Flat, Scientists Say
Douglas Quenqua – The New York Times
Forty-five years after astronauts landed on the moon, scientists say they have finally discovered its true shape: slightly flattened, with a bulge on one side.
How the Moon Got Its Lemon Shape
Earth's powerful gravity tugged the moon into its oddball shape long ago, shortly after both bodies formed, a new study suggests.
Russia close to sending sustainable mission to Mars
ITAR-TASS News Agency
Roscosmos Head Oleg Ostapenko said 90% of the research program would be implemented regardless of the technical problems
Russia has come closer than other countries to launching sustainable long-term manned space missions, an expert said on Wednesday.
NASA May Put a Greenhouse on the Red Planet
Mustardlike plants could be the first Earthlings to call Mars home if NASA decides to let them hitch a ride on the next rover
Katie Worth – Scientific American
At long last Earthlings may be on the verge of colonizing another planet—but those first Terran ambassadors will be plants, not humans.
Life on the ISS as seen through social media
Steve Dent – Engadget
Being hip to PR is certainly part of the job description for NASA astronauts, but some are especially social media-savvy.
COMPLETE STORIES
Former NASA astronaut Dr. Sandy Magnus discounts Russian threat to end International Space Station partnership
William Neff – Cleveland Plain Dealer
Tensions over Russian intervention in the Ukraine and resulting U.S. sanctions have reverberated into outer space, with Russian officials threatening to end the two countries' partnership in the International Space Station project in 2020. But one former NASA astronaut and administrator calls this an empty threat.
"Oh, no. They're going to use the Space Station," said Dr. Sandy Magnus, who retired as Deputy Chief of NASA's Astronaut Office and is now Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Magnus is in town this week for a conference on aerospace propulsion technologies at the Cleveland Convention Center. "You're not going to shoot yourself in the foot and walk away from that," she said.
Magnus' main claim to fame may be as a crew member on the Space Shuttle's dramatic final mission, STS-135, in July 2011. But it was the four and a half months she spent living and working aboard the International Space Station between November 2008 and March 2009, as well as the years of training before, that gave her an intimate understanding of the partnership that has developed between the aerospace industries in Russia and the United States. These two countries, along with the other 12 partner nations, are far too committed to the intricate and expensive ISS program to simply ditch that commitment, she said.
"Everybody who's invested in the space station has invested a lot in the space station. And everybody recognizes that it's important," Magnus said. "So if they (the Russians) win some sort of international lottery and they have a lot of money to put into their own station, and they launch it, then, OK, yeah.
"But right now, everybody's so heavily invested in the station, it's hard for me to imagine that alliance falling apart.
"Everyone just needs to calm down and take a breath," she said.
UCSD spots possible hazard on space station
Gary Robbins - U-T San Diego
Experiments that UC San Diego crafted for the International Space Station have revealed the existence of a type of cool-burning flame that poses a previously unknown hazard to the orbiting outpost.
The research also had an upside, pointing to possible ways to create more efficient engines for automobiles, says Forman Williams, the Jacobs School of Engineering scientist who led the global team of scholars involved in the project.
In on-going combustion studies, a space station astronaut ignited large droplets of heptane fuel, which created flames that later appeared to go out, Williams says. But highly sensitive sensors used in the experiment showed that the heptane continued to burn inside a control chamber. The "cool flames" cannot be seen with the naked eye.
Williams has worked with NASA for almost 40 years on fire safety, one of the greatest concerns in the space community. In 1997, a fire broke out on the Soviet space station Mir and nearly overwhelmed the crew. He discussed the new findings with U-T San Diego.
Q: Does the discovery represent a hazard on space station? NASA is diligent about preventing things from burning inside station.
A: Yes, it is a potential combustion hazard in spacecraft that was not previously known. NASA will now plan for that, to make sure their spacecraft are safe.
Q:The words cool and flame don't seem to go together. Are you simply referring to a type of fuel that burns at a lower temperature than others?
A: No, the same fuel can burn in two different ways, one with a flame temperature around 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit and the other with a flame temperature around 1,500 degrees -- cool by comparison, but still too hot to touch.
Q: Why is the "cool flame" invisible?
A: The cameras aren't sensitive enough to detect it. There is a faint blue color that should be visible in a darkened room. Also, radiometers detect radiant energy emission in the ISS experiments. It just isn't strong enough to be seen with the equipment that we currently have on ISS. We are designing better cameras in the hopes of being able to see it in future experiments.
Q: Would it have been possible to make this discovery in a laboratory on Earth?
A: No, not so far as we know. Cool flames on earth have been known since 1934, when they were first discovered, but they all are transient and quickly lead to hot flames. They cannot be supported by burning droplets on earth. The absence of buoyancy in ISS allows the longer times that are needed for burning droplets to support cool flames. In ISS, extinction of the hot flame leads to the cool flame, which has never been seen on earth, where it is always the other way around -- the cool flame leads to the hot flame.
Q: Why do you believe that this discovery that could lead to cars that burn fuel more efficiently, and with less impact on the environment?
A: It is a bit complicated.
Today's automobile engines have combustion in their cylinders that burns in hot flames, which produce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and (in diesels) soot. There is no production of NOx or soot in cool flames. Therefore, if the engines could be designed to burn as cool flames, these pollutants would not be generated.
For a number of years engine manufacturers have been studying combustion concepts to achieve cool-flame combustion in engines (suc as homogeneous-charge compression-ignition (HCCI), spark-assisted compression-ignition (SACI), partially-premixed compression-ignition (PPCI) and others). That has been difficult to do (except where it is not wanted, such as in knock in spark-ignition engines, which involves cool-flame chemistry), and so no such cars are available. One reason is that the chemistry of cool flames is still not nearly as well understood as is the chemistry of hot flames. Our hope is to provide better knowledge of cool-flame chemistry by our experiments on ISS, where we can study how they burn for longer times.
NASA Urged to Accelerate 3D Printing on Space Station
NASA must move quickly to research 3D printing aboard the International Space Station, which likely has just six to 10 years of operational life left, a new report urges.
While praising NASA's efforts and focus on in-space manufacturing — a 3D printeris scheduled to launch to the station next month, for example — the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) report stressed that the agency should organize its various centers to identify priority projects for use on the station.
"The ISS isn't going to be around forever, and it's the one place where we can actually do [in-space] experimentation," Robert Latiff, a retired U.S. Air Force major general with a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering and materials science, told Space.com. Latiff chaired the committee that wrote the NRC report, which was released July 18. At 3D printing's current state of development, it makes sense to have humans supervising the process to make sure it is meeting standards, Latiff said. This could present a challenge for the tightly scheduled astronauts, he added.
"They measure their times down to the minute," Latiff said.
But the report noted that the station provides a good opportunity to learn more about how 3D printing works in microgravity. And if the process were performed outside of the station, it would teach researchers how thermal stresses — quick changes from hot to cold, for example — could affect the materials.
The United States recently proposed that International Space Station operations be extended to 2024 from 2020, but that request hasn't yet been approved by all other partners in the project.
Not a panacea
A lot of hype surrounds 3D printers these days, with many news reports saying the machines can produce parts that are lighter, stronger and more advanced than those made using traditional manufacturing techniques. For example, Latiff said, it's possible for a single component to have different properties along its length, or to put together parts that don't have traditional connectors.
But the use of 3D printing in space requires a strong understanding of materials science to make it work. NASA has been doing experiments in this area since the Skylab space station of the 1970s, Latiff said. He urged tighter integration between scientists and manufacturers as they seek other uses of 3D technology.
3D printing is still in its infancy, especially when it comes to manufacturing "thinking" materials such as semiconductors, the report said. Printing today is more focused on making prefabricated components and "primitive" electronics such as conductors.
"You can build a part, but it isn't altogether clear that a 3D-manufactured part is going to be necessarily as good [as a part] that was built some other way," Latiff said. "And there are things we talk about in the report that we haven't even begun to understand, like certification."
A year in the making
Printing on the space station isn't the only thing being considered. The European Space Agency has spoken about someday doing 3D printing of lunar base components, such as human habitats. NASA is also funding a company called Tethers Unlimited, which hopes to launch very small materials (such as thread spools) that would transform into kilometer-long antennas or solar arrays in space.
Within the United States, the Air Force plans to use 3D printing on the ground to manufacture lighter parts for rockets and satellites, to reduce the amount of fuel needed to lift things into space. But most of the Air Force's experience so far is focusing on aerospace and not space parts, Latiff said. The report urges the Air Force and NASA to talk more closely and share expertise.
Committee members spent more than a year examining the state of the industry before publishing their report, called "3D Printing In Space." Four or five meetings were held, most of them open to the public, with experts from NASA, the Air Force, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other organizations attending.
Committee members included a mix of experts from U.S. laboratories, universities and military agencies. One member, Sandy Magnus, is a former space shuttle and space station astronaut. The report was examined by a second committee of experts, who marked it up with comments that had to be addressed before publication, Latiff said.
When NASA space crews play make believe
Aviva Rutkin – New Scientist
EVEN astronauts sometimes pretend they are in space. Over the past week, two simulated trips came to a close. One took place on a Hawaiian volcano, while another dove deep to an underwater habitat off Florida's coast. In both cases, the crew was tasked with a vital mission: to learn more about themselves. But there's more to it than that.
Why pretend to go to space?
Mock flights allow us to explore what an extended trip to Mars or beyond might look like. The duration of the flight and the crushing isolation will challenge astronauts in many ways. Studies of missions on the International Space Station suggest that depression and anxiety are most likely to hit during the "third quarter" of a six-month mission, but it is unclear what this phenomenon might mean for longer trips. A trip to Mars would take about 18 months. In addition, living in such a small space with other crew members could cause and aggravate conflicts. These problems would complicate a real-life mission, so it makes sense to work them out on the ground first.
"We really need to know how to keep crew healthy and happy on these long space missions," says Kim Binsted of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
What does a simulation look like?
The Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) takes place inside a dome on Mauna Loa volcano, which is supposed to mimic conditions on Mars. Its second experiment, which took 120 days and involved a crew of six, wrapped up on Friday.
Meanwhile, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) project sends aquanauts to live in an underwater laboratory alongside coral reefs in the Atlantic Ocean. Underwater, movement is slower and air is scarce, just as it would be on another planet. The current crew, the eighteenth, were down for nine days, emerging on Tuesday.
"Simulations can be useful, but fidelity to the actual conditions being simulated is always the primary issue," says Jack Stuster, a psychologist at Anacapa Sciences in Santa Barbara, California. In NEEMO and HI-SEAS, extra elements are thrown in to make the expedition more space-like. Like real astronauts, the crew's days are tightly scheduled with tasks, including regular "spacewalks" to explore the area and test equipment. Communication to the outside world is also artificially delayed; for example, emails from HI-SEAS take an extra 20 minutes to send, the time they would take to travel from Mars to Earth.
What about their mental state?
Participants were asked to fill out surveys about their feelings every day, sometimes several times a day. But what these tests can tell us is limited. Survey-takers might paint a rosier picture of how the mission is going, or perhaps not even realise how much they are struggling. "Astronauts are very positive people," says Binsted. "It's important to us to be able to detect problems as they're arising before they get to the critical stage."
So researchers turn to more indirect measures of how the crew is faring. At both stations, participants played group computer games to assess how well they worked together. Everyone at HI-SEAS wore badges that tracked where they went and the surrounding noise level, to show if certain people were avoiding each other or getting into arguments. Aquanauts at NEEMO were videoed as they went about their day, so observers could later assess teamwork and communication styles. Saliva was also collected to test stress levels.
What do the participants say about it?
"As far as the isolation is concerned, it probably started to bother me more and more towards the end of the mission," says Ross Lockwood, who took part in the HI-SEAS experiment. Fellow crew member Lucie Poulet says she began to feel "a little abandoned by the outside world" by the end.
Mark Vande Hei, who dove down with NEEMO, got a better sense of astronauts' daily grind. He'll take the experience back with him above water, where he often interacts with working astronauts at a job at NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas. "In the future, I'll have a better feel of what type of stresses they're under," he says.
U.S. Space & Rocket Center will display space shuttle history in large new exhibit
Lee Roop – Alabama Live
The U.S. space shuttle program will be featured in a new exhibit that will fill a building at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, space center CEO Dr. Deborah Barnhart said today. The exhibit will "tell the incredible story of the space shuttle that built the International Space Station," Barnhart said.
Barnhart announced the new exhibit, which will fill a building currently occupied by simulators and other training equipment for Space Camp attendees, at a gift presentation to the center by shuttle contractor United Space Alliance. The company, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed, is going out of business in the wake of the shuttle program's end.
President Scott Hartwig presented the space center a complete set of pins commemorating each of the shuttle's 135 missions as a way to honor and remember USA employees in years to come. That collection of pins will become one of the "cornerstones" of the new exhibit, Barnhart said.
Barnhart said after the presentation that the center wants a way "to get its arms around" all of the shuttle era gear, exhibits and memorabilia it possesses. Shuttle era training simulators - no longer used by Space Campers practicing missions to Mars - hardware and other items will be displayed in the building that sits just behind a full-scale shuttle "stack" featuring an orbiter, solid rocket boosters and main tank.
The Moon Is (Slightly) Flat, Scientists Say
Douglas Quenqua – The New York Times
Forty-five years after astronauts landed on the moon, scientists say they have finally discovered its true shape: slightly flattened, with a bulge on one side.
"Like a lemon with an equatorial bulge," said Ian Garrick-Bethell, a planetary scientist at University of California, Santa Cruz, and an author of the study, being published in the journal Nature. "If you can imagine a water balloon flattening out as you spin it." Efforts to pinpoint the moon's exact shape have long been stymied by the presence of large craters on its surface that formed after the crust solidified. There have also been inconsistencies between its measurements and what we know about its past.
For example, the moon barely spins, yet it appears to have the sort of equatorial bulge caused by rotation. And why would a giant ball of cooled liquid be anything but spherical?
"There's no plate tectonics like on the earth," Dr. Garrick-Bethell said. "Why is it so deformed?"
To overcome the crater problem, he and his colleagues used highly accurate maps of the moon's topography, made with a laser altimeter, then ran calculations to see what the surface could have looked like before the craters formed.
The measurements that emerged help explain how the moon acquired its shape, the researchers say. Its squashed appearance is probably a result of the gravitational process called tidal heating or acceleration, which stretched the moon's crust as it was being formed. The equatorial bulge probably dates to a later period, when the moon was still spinning but was slowing down and moving away from earth, freezing a tidal surge in place.
The clues, Dr. Garrick-Bethell said, are all in the math.
"There is an expected ratio you get for each of those two tidal processes," he said. "We found the exact ratios you would expect for each process."
How the Moon Got Its Lemon Shape
Earth's powerful gravity tugged the moon into its oddball shape long ago, shortly after both bodies formed, a new study suggests.
Tidal forces exerted during the early days of the solar system can explain most of the moon's large-scale topography, including its slight lemon shape, reports the study, which was published online today (July 30) in the journal Nature.
The new findings could help scientists tackle longstanding lunar mysteries, such as why the moon's near side is dominated by dark volcanic deposits, while the far side is not, researchers said.
"What is the origin of that asymmetry?" said study lead author Ian Garrick-Bethell, of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Chipping away at this problem of the shape of the moon can give us insight into those types of fundamental geology problems," he told Space.com. A young, molten moon
Scientists think the moon formed from debris blasted into space when a mysterious planet-size body slammed into the young Earth about 4.5 billion years ago. The moon was born hot, and it came into existence quite close to our home planet. (The moon has been slowly spiraling away ever since.)
The newborn moon was thus primed to be sculpted by Earth's gravity, and that's exactly what happened, researchers say.
Indeed, scientists have posited for more than a century that tidal forces helped shape the molten moon, causing bulges that froze into place when Earth's natural satellite cooled down and solidified. But the new study provides a much more detailed understanding of how this likely happened.
Garrick-Bethell and his team studied topographic data gathered by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and information about the moon's gravity field collected by the agency's twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) spacecraft. Though the researchers took a global view of the moon, they focused on areas outside of the body's biggest impact craters, which can complicate such analyses.
The data strongly implicate tidal effects as a key shaper of the moon, researchers said. For example, tidal forces pulled on the lunar crust, stretching it out and heating it up in places. This process thinned out the crust at the lunar poles and thickened it in the regions that lined up with Earth, helping sculpt the moon into a lemon with two small bulges (one on the side facing our planet, and one on the side directly opposite).
Such tidal heating could have occurred only when the moon's crust was floating on a sea of molten rock, largely decoupled from the rest of the body, Garrick-Bethell said.
"This happened a long time ago, when the moon was not completely solid," he said. "This was in the first 100 to 200 million years of lunar thermal evolution."
Also contributing to the moon's overall shape were more straightforward tidal deformations, which Garrick-Bethell likened to squeezing the lemon with your hands, and rotational forces, which cause spinning bodies such as the moon to flatten at the poles and bulge out near the equator.
When the moon cooled, the changes wrought by all of these processes were frozen in place.
Interestingly, the long axis of the moon doesn't point directly toward Earth as it likely did long ago; instead, it's offset by about 30 degrees. This probably happened when volcanic activity, impact cratering and other events made the moon's interior a much less homogeneous place, researchers said.
"Internal density anomalies have formed, and they've kind of canted the moon," Garrick-Bethell said. "At some point in lunar history, you have these events that took place that caused these density anomalies and shifted the density axis away from the shape axis."
Understanding other moons and planets
The new results could have applications beyond the moon, potentially helping researchers better understand any celestial body strongly affected by tidal forces, Garrick-Bethell said.
"This idea was inspired by Europa," he said, referring to the huge moon of Jupiter. Europa is similar today to Earth's moon long ago, he added, in that it harbors a solid shell (of ice in Europa's case rather than rock) sitting atop an ocean layer (which consists of liquid water rather than magma).
The study could even yield insights about the evolution of faraway alien planets, Garrick-Bethell said.
"Tides are so ubiquitous; they're everywhere across the galaxy," he said. "So understanding tidal processes is always important."
Russia close to sending sustainable mission to Mars
ITAR-TASS News Agency
Roscosmos Head Oleg Ostapenko said 90% of the research program would be implemented regardless of the technical problems
Russia has come closer than other countries to launching sustainable long-term manned space missions, an expert said on Wednesday.
"We expect positive results from experiments. Then we will be able to say whether or not we know how to provide for the vital life sustenance of cosmonauts during a long mission," Vladimir Uiba, head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency told ITAR-TASS.
He said man would fly to Mars and beyond in the future, but "without experiments like those we are doing on Foton [satellite] no one can say how to provide sufficient supply of oxygen, food and so on for such a long flight".
Uiba said no one in the world had such information, "neither the United States no China". "We have come closer to the answer as our Fotons allow us to model life-support systems for people," he said.
Russia's Foton-M satellite, control of which was restored on July 26, is functioning as usual, the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said.
"As of July 28, seventeen communication sessions have been held. We are continuing experiments in accordance with the program," the Agency told ITAR-TASS.
Foton-M No. 4 was orbited on July 19, 2014 with five lizards, fruit flies, plant seeds and microorganism aboard. They were supposed to land in the Orenburg region two months after the launch.
Control of the satellite was lost several hours after the launch. It took seven days to restore it.
Roscosmos Head Oleg Ostapenko said 90% of the research program would be implemented regardless of the technical problems.
NASA May Put a Greenhouse on the Red Planet
Mustardlike plants could be the first Earthlings to call Mars home if NASA decides to let them hitch a ride on the next rover
Katie Worth – Scientific American
At long last Earthlings may be on the verge of colonizing another planet—but those first Terran ambassadors will be plants, not humans.
NASA is expected to announce within days whether they will attach a one-liter "greenhouse" to its next Mars rover to be launched in 2020. A similar greenhouse would take a voyage to the moon with any team that manages to land a robot there by 2015 to snag Google's Lunar X PRIZE. These experiments could illuminate whether human colonization of the moon or Mars could be possible.
NASA's proposed Mars Plant Experiment, or MPX, aims to answer two questions: Can plants germinate and grow in Martian gravity? And can they thrive while being bombarded by cosmic rays? To find out, investigators would attach a small, clear cube filled with carbon dioxide to the rover's shoulder, says Heather Smith, a deputy principal investigator for MPX. Inside would be 250 seeds of the Arabidopsis plant, a fast-growing cousin of mustard chosen because it has been studied exhaustively by scientists. After the rover lands the seeds would be soaked with water; heaters and LEDs would regulate their temperature. Over the next 10 to 15 days, via sensors and cameras, the world could observe the first beings we know of to be born, live and die on another planet.
The Lunar Plant Experiment, or LPX, was designed by the same team and uses similar methods. Each of the teams competing for Google's Lunar X PRIZE, which will award $20 million to any private enterprise that lands a robot on the moon by the end of 2015, has agreed to carry the LPX with their robot if they succeed.
These wouldn't be the first plant experiments in space: Humans have been putting seeds on rockets since the 1940s. In 1973 NASA sent rice seeds into orbit on the Skylab space station to measure how light and microgravity affected their growth. In 1995 scientists grew and reproduced wheat on Russia's Mir space station; two years later they cultivated and harvested it. The International Space Station has been home to a small experimental garden called the Lada Validating Vegetable Production Unit for more than a decade. It appears to relax and comfort the space crew, but the plants are clearly under stress: A recent genetic study discovered that plants grown in space have twice the mutations as they do on Earth.
Plants grown in microgravity struggle to orient their roots and stems, but it's unknown how that would play out in low gravity. Mars and the moon have roughly one third and one sixth of Earth's gravity, respectively, perhaps enough to cue the plants to orient correctly, notes NASA senior scientist Chris McKay, a principal investigator in the MPX and LPX. "Plants don't like zero gravity. Humans don't like zero gravity. Not even cockroaches like zero gravity," McKay says. "But we have no idea if the same is true for low gravity."
The Mars experiment is one of 58 projects vying for space on the rover; NASA officials are expected to announce their decision Thursday. Although the competition is stiff, the MPX has the advantage of a relatively low cost—$6.76 million. If it is approved, the team will begin teasing out the challenges of sending sterilized seeds on a journey across the interplanetary space. But some of the greatest challenges to this experiment would also be the most mundane: "We still have to figure out how to keep a camera in a greenhouse from fogging up," Smith says.
Meanwhile, back on Earth
Scientists have come up with a host of innovations that would help plants thrive elsewhere in our solar system, many of which are proving useful on our home planet. At the University of Guelph in Ontario, the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility is developing automated food-growing boxes: Seeds go in the box and several weeks later ripe vegetables come out. Because water, minerals and electricity will be scarce in space, the boxes must use these resources as economically as possible. The team has developed sensors that can determine which minerals the plants have absorbed, allowing the system to specifically replace those rather than using fertilizer indiscriminately. The team is now developing a lighting system that works on the same logic: "We've got a nine-band LED system where you can tweak individual wavelengths across the rainbow and look at how different light recipes promote growth," says researcher Cody Thompson. "It's precision agriculture."
This precision has obvious applications on Earth: Agribusiness giant Syngenta plans to use the technology to develop climate change resistant plants, says team director Michael Dixon; researchers in the medical marijuana industry hope it can help them develop ailment-specific strains. "Up until now, people have sorted out these questions in their backyard or in their basement, without any real science attached to it," Dixon says. "Now they want science, and they have the profit margins to assume the risks."
The technology could also provide food security in isolated or extreme environments. The Kuwaiti government has invested in prototype demonstrations to explore whether these systems could help their oil-rich but agriculture-poor nation become more food-independent. The Canadian government has funded a feasibility study exploring the viability of sending these "space gardens" to isolated mining and aboriginal communities in its arctic regions, where it's common to pay $10 for a green pepper "that's already half squishy when you get it," Thompson says. Space garden technology would yield better veggies and lessen dependency on imports.
These earthly uses will, in turn, help scientists understand better how space agriculture could work, says Dixon: "After the surface of the moon or Mars, the next-worse place in the universe to grow plants is a snow bank in the Northwest Territories."
Life on the ISS as seen through social media
Steve Dent – Engadget
Being hip to PR is certainly part of the job description for NASA astronauts, but some are especially social media-savvy. Take fresh ISS resident Gregory "Reid" Wiseman: the man knows he's in a privileged position to take photos and videos, and holy crap has he shared. Via Twitter, Reid has provided nearly 500 stunning images of Earth, the ISS, his fellow astronauts and even a prosaic toilet repair -- sorry, space toilet repair. Wiseman was also the first astronaut to post a Vine in space, and has so far posted subjects like a massive lightning storm over Texas and the sun going around in a circle and never setting. Wiseman isn't quite as chatty as Canadian colleague Chris Hadfield yet, but he's only been aboard for 45 days. Anyway, if we had his view (as shown in the gallery and Vines below), we'd be speechless too.
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