Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Monday – August 4, 2014 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: August 4, 2014 11:11:50 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Monday – August 4, 2014 and JSC Today

Don't forget to join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill at 11:30 for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon. 

Then try to get out to the Gilruth Rec. Center Alamo room at 2:30 Thursday  to hear the NASA Alumni League  seesion on the story of the green fuel planetary lander Morpheus Project briefed by Jon Olansen.

Following that you can join the Keg Of the Month group out at the Gilruth pavillion at 4pm to sweat a little and/or feed the mosquitoes!:<)

 

 

Monday, August 4, 2014

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Building 32 High Bay Access Restrictions -  Aug. 11 is Deadline for Innovation Awards -  Sustainable Acquisitions Product Demonstration Organizations/Social -  5K Fun Run This Friday - JSC Feeds Families 2014 Jobs and Training -  Job Opportunities -  The 5 Choices to Extraordinary Productivity -  What Would You Do in a Medical Emergency on TDY? Community -  Help a Community College Student Today -  August Monthly Sustainability Opportunities -  9/11 Heroes Run 2014

Iberian Peninsula at Night

 

Headlines Building 32 High Bay Access Restrictions Reminder: The high bay area in Building 32 is a restricted access area and off limits to unscheduled tours or casual, unescorted through traffic from non-residents of high bay offices. Also, the new Class 10000 Clean Room in the Building 32 high bay is strictly off limits. Only employees specifically authorized and trained by the James Webb Space Telescope Program are permitted in the clean room. Mary Halligan and Mary Cerimele x39181 [top] Aug. 11 is Deadline for Innovation Awards There's just one week left to make your mark in NASA's innovation history! Take home two new NASA awards that celebrate the spirit of innovative behavior: the Lean Forward; Fail Smart Award and Champion of Innovation. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 11. Nominators will need to provide a written narrative and a short (less than two minutes) video clip that details the innovative idea, project or behavior. The videos can be made with your smart phone, computer, cameras or other recording devices. NASA is not looking for a professional quality video. Here's a link to some helpful hints from our External Relations Office. The Lean Forward; Fail Smart Award is for innovative performance and is open to NASA employees, teams and support contractors. The Champion of Innovation Award is designed to show the role supervisors and managers play in fostering innovation and must be submitted by a group of subordinates. For more information on both awards and the submission process, click here. As part of Innovation 2014, JSC submissions will be posted to the JSC 2.0 website to allow the JSC workforce to vote for their top choice for Lean Forward and Champion of Innovation. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://strategicplan.jsc.nasa.gov/?id=76&catid=9 [top] 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. Event Date: Monday, August 4, 2014   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:12:00 PM Event Location: Gilruth Center- Coronado Room Add to Calendar JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/affirmative.cfm [top]    Organizations/Social 5K Fun Run This Friday - JSC Feeds Families 2014 Starport will be hosting an exciting event to support JSC Feeds Families. Click on the link below for additional details and registration information. *Registration closes Thursday at noon. Event Date: Friday, August 8, 2014   Event Start Time:7:00 AM   Event End Time:9:00 AM Event Location: Gilruth Center - B207 Add to Calendar Richard Wooten x35010 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/fitness/2014-jsc-feeds-familie... [top]    Jobs and Training Job Opportunities Where do I find job opportunities? Both internal Competitive Placement Plan and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) Portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu... To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. Lateral reassignment and rotation opportunities are posted in the Workforce Transition Tool. To access, click: HR Portal > Employees > Workforce Transition > Workforce Transition Tool. These opportunities do not possess known promotion potential; therefore, employees can only see positions at or below their current grade level. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies or reassignment opportunities, please call your HR representative. Brandy Braunsdorf x30476 [top] 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. The training is Aug. 21 in Building 12, Room 134. SATERN enrollment: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=REGISTRATI... Nicole Hernandez x37894 [top] What Would You Do in a Medical Emergency on TDY? This question-and-answer session is for JSC civil servants to learn about the Global Rescue emergency medical services available on international TDY. This does not cost the employee. Take advantage of this service to be safe and healthy during your business travel. Please bring your supervisor and co-workers. Event Date: Tuesday, August 5, 2014   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:12:00 PM Event Location: Bldg 30 Aud Add to Calendar Sabrina Gilmore x32773 [top]    Community Help a Community College Student Today Stop what you're doing! You could alter the course of someone's future right now with a few simple clicks. National Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) is now accepting applications from community college students across the nation. Help NCAS get the word out by copying and pasting this message into your social media networks. Applications are due Aug. 18. Are you a community college student who dreams of having a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) career? Does it sound like fun to work on projects and share ideas with NASA engineers, educators and scientists? Become a National Community College Aerospace Scholar (NCAS) and explore YOUR future! Visit the NCAS website to learn more: http://ncas.aerospacescholars.org NCAS is having two informational webinars on Aug. 11 at 9 a.m. CDT and 4 p.m. CDT. Click the link below to join the session. http://go.nasa.gov/1uLgDkN Maria Chambers x41496 http://ncas.aerospacescholars.org [top] August Monthly Sustainability Opportunities The 2014 Office of Management and Budget scorecard for NASA's sustainability and energy scores shows how well we're doing as an agency to protect Earth's natural resources. There is a lot of green there (pun intended). Wondering what you can do? Read our JSC Fiscal Year 2014 Sustainability Engagement Strategy for tips on how you can continue making a difference. These are all linked in your August Monthly Sustainability Opportunities on our new JSC external sustainability website. Check it out! Laurie Peterson x39845 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/sustainability/index.html [top] 9/11 Heroes Run 2014 The City of Houston, in conjunction with the Houston Police and Fire Departments and a variety of other local law enforcement and military agencies, has organized a local Heroes Run in remembrance of those lost on Sept. 11, 2001. The event is at Ellington Field on Sept. 6, with a race start time of 8 a.m. Races will be held at other Heroes Runs across the country at the same time. Registration is open until Aug. 31. You may register as a team or an individual. In addition to a 5K run, the event features a number of displays from military and law enforcement agencies, as well as ceremonies honoring our national heroes past and present. Event Date: Saturday, September 6, 2014   Event Start Time:7:30 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM Event Location: Ellington Field Add to Calendar Tom Simon 713-492-3961 http://www.911HeroesRun.com [top]

 

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

Monday – August 4, 2014

HEADLINES AND LEADS

William Shatner Tweets At NASA, Gets Awesome Response

 

Paul Szoldra – Business Insider

 

For whatever reason, actor William Shatner, most famous for his role as Capt. Kirk on "Star Trek" was up for some conversation with NASA on Saturday, and the space agency actually responded.

Awesomely I might add.

 

Space Notebook: NASA goals, budget called a 'fraud'

 

Brevard County – Florida Today

 

Add an august group, including Mars scientists, a former astronaut, a former shuttle program director and top aerospace executives, to the list of independent experts who believe NASA's human exploration strategy is doomed to fail, at least as currently funded. One member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) went so far as to call the strategy a "fraud." Meeting at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia last week, the 13-member council issued a recommendation declaring that "the mismatch between NASA's aspirations for human spaceflight and its budget for human spaceflight is the most serious problem facing the agency."

 

Markos Kounalakis: Sanctions may backfire in Russian rocket sales to U.S. space program

 

Markos Kounalakis – The Sacramento Bee

 

Sophisticated Russian rocket technology took down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. It now has the potential to take down America's Air Force and NASA rocket programs. Not by attacking America, but by withholding rocket sales. Russia has a near monopoly on the advanced rocket engine technologies the United States relies on for its most important and sensitive missions. Lacking an immediate domestic alternative, this could severely damage American commercial and national security interests.

 

Fuel-Less Space Drive May Actually Work, Says NASA

 

Loren Grush – Popular Science

 

Whenever NASA's space shuttle was launched into orbit, it made the trip with the help of a very important tagalong: the external tank. Acting as the shuttle's "gas tank," the massive orange chamber housed all of the liquid hydrogen fuel—and oxygen to burn it—that powered the ship's main engines. It also typically weighed over 1.6 million pounds and cost tens of millions of dollars to manufacture. Engineers have long searched for a way to "cut the fat" when it comes this style of space propulsion. In other words, is it possible to develop a thruster that can propel a spaceship or satellite forward without needing any on-board fuel? Some think it's a feat worth pursuing. Others say such an engine is impossible.

 

Rosetta's comet coming into focus

 

Bill Harwood – CBS

 

The European Space Agency's $1.7 billion Rosetta probe, closing in on a comet for a historic rendezvous Wednesday, is sending back sharper and sharper views of its quarry, revealing an intriguing relic of the solar system's birth featuring two distinct lobes.

 

NASA braces Mars orbiters for close comet flyby

 

Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times

 

They are literally specks of dust, tiny bits of primordial material that wouldn't be visible to the naked eye. But for spacecraft in orbit around Mars, they could become minuscule agents of destruction. These dust particles will come hurtling past the Red Planet on Oct. 19, riding on the coattails of Comet Siding Spring. They'll blow by at an incredible 35 miles per second — 25 times faster than an armor-piercing projectile fired from a tank. And there could be millions of them.

 

Astronaut arranges for SEC football in space

 

Mike Organ – The Tennessean

 

While growing up in the Murfreesboro Road area, Barry Wilmore was like most kids and wanted to be either a policeman, a fireman or an astronaut. He settled on astronaut.

 

On the way to achieving his lifelong dream, Wilmore also developed into an outstanding football player at Mt. Juliet High School and Tennessee Tech. He is still a big football fan today and set to make his third journey into space. Wilmore, 51, and two Russian cosmonauts will travel to the International Space Station on Sept. 25. Wilmore will assume command of the expedition in November.

 

Astronaut sky high on list of best graduation speakers

 

Marwa Eltagouri – Chicago Tribune

 

This year's University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign commencement speaker – who received a standing ovation from the 17,000 people attending the ceremony – earned a spot on a list of the top graduation speeches of the season. Michael Hopkins, an astronaut and U. of I. alum, had returned from a 166-day mission on the international space station just before giving his address, which emphasized the importance of perseverance. The North American Association of Commencement Officers listed Hopkins as one of the six best speakers of 2014.

 

Eye-tech developments turn science fiction into fact

 

Mark Frary – The Times

 

Bionics and biology are giving new hope to people with declining sight, writes Mark Frary. It is now 40 years since the first episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, in which Steve Austin was given a bio-nic eye, was aired. The technology was pure fiction but four decades on, just how far have we come? One device that is being dubbed a "bionic eye" has recently become available in the UK for some sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa , a rare, hereditary disease that causes a progressive degeneration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina.

 

 

 

COMPLETE STORIES

William Shatner Tweets At NASA, Gets Awesome Response

 

Paul Szoldra – Business Insider

 

For whatever reason, actor William Shatner, most famous for his role as Capt. Kirk on "Star Trek" was up for some conversation with NASA on Saturday, and the space agency actually responded.

Awesomely I might add.

Twitter/NASA

Whoever is running social media over there at NASA needs a raise. In case you are wondering who Swanson is, he is Steve Swanson, an astronaut from Colorado who took over command of the International Space Station in May, according to The Denver Channel.

As for Shatner's response, it was: "Very good news!"

 

Space Notebook: NASA goals, budget called a 'fraud'

 

Brevard County – Florida Today

 

Add an august group, including Mars scientists, a former astronaut, a former shuttle program director and top aerospace executives, to the list of independent experts who believe NASA's human exploration strategy is doomed to fail, at least as currently funded.

 

One member of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) went so far as to call the strategy a "fraud."

 

Meeting at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia last week, the 13-member council issued a recommendation declaring that "the mismatch between NASA's aspirations for human spaceflight and its budget for human spaceflight is the most serious problem facing the agency."

 

The council said NASA should identify the minimum path necessary to reach its stated goal of Mars in the 2030s, and determine how it would proceed if continued flat budgets aren't sufficient.

 

NASA is now spending $3 billion a year to develop the Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule for crew launches from Kennedy Space Center on deep space exploration missions.

 

The system's first crewed mission is planned around 2021. By the mid-'20s, NASA wants to send astronauts to an asteroid that has been robotically relocated near the moon.

 

The council recommendation's "mismatch" wording echoed blunt comments by member Tom Young, a former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and retired Lockheed Martin executive, who said NASA lacks an executable exploration strategy.

 

Unless the council said as much, he said, "I really think collectively we are perpetuating a fraud."

 

He worried NASA is on a path to spend perhaps $160 billion over the next two decades but end up no closer to Mars.

 

For the same funding, he said, NASA could fly 20 James Webb Space Telescopes — the successor to Hubble, targeted for launch in 2018 — or 60 Curiosity Mars rovers, missions producing or likely to produce scientific breakthroughs.

 

The council recognized that NASA's near-term focus on an asteroid and longer-term goal of Mars respond to current national space policy and congressional guidance — policies the NAC is not empowered to change.

 

But its recommendation concluded that unless NASA gets more money, cuts costs or changes its goal, it "runs the risk of squandering precious national resources on a laudable but unachievable goal."

 

No costs divulged

 

How much will a Mars mission cost? NASA's not going there.

 

"We think it's too early to do that," Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator of the agency's Human Exploration and Operations directorate, told the NASA Advisory Council last week. "We're still trying to get SLS and Orion and those capabilities firmly ensconced and established, and then take on the next bite. If we try and swallow the whole thing right now, the system will choke on it."

 

Without a funding estimate, some on the council said, there is no real program to get to Mars, only an aspiration.

 

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said the agency is laying out a strategy, but it's up to Congress and the President to commit resources for a Mars mission, which hasn't happened yet.

 

"We think it will require increases in the budget," he said. "I'm not sure that anybody right now knows what those increases are. I don't think anybody would try to deceive anybody that you're going to do it on flat-lined budget."

 

Council member Ken Bowersox, a former astronaut and SpaceX executive who is now a consultant, said NASA is developing a strategy as best it can under the circumstances.

 

"There's probably some fear that if they lay out too big a number, they won't even get the opportunity to lay out the strategy," he said. "And I think that's really smart based on history."

 

He asked for agreement on what NASA is doing right, and the council approved a finding that endorsed aspects of the exploration strategy, including Mars as a "horizon" goal, its flexibility and opportunities for international partnership and near-term missions to advance capabilities.

 

Orbit Mars next

 

Forty-five years after men landed on the moon, NASA recently celebrated the Apollo 11 anniversary and promoted "America's next giant leap," including a planned human mission to Mars by the 2030s.

 

Agency officials clarified to some on the NASA Advisory Council, however, that the next leap won't initially mean boots on the ground.

 

The 2030s mission, assumed to cost tens of billions of dollars, would only orbit the Red Planet.

 

While developing a rocket and capsule, NASA currently has no money to develop landers and other systems that would allow astronauts to live and work on the surface of Mars or even the moon.

 

That's a big reason why NASA is pursuing the mission known as the Asteroid Redirect Mission, or ARM.

 

But that mission, too, drew harsh criticism from some on the advisory panel.

 

Tom Young said the intent of the asteroid mission President Obama requested was to go to a far-away asteroid in its "native orbit," not one artificially moved close to us, and that ARM would not accelerate progress to Mars.

 

"It really dumbs down NASA," he said. "NASA is better than this, in my view."

 

Bowersox said it took him a while but he's warmed up to the mission as having exciting potential to practice exploration techniques in a relatively accessible place.

 

The council recommended NASA perform an independent cost analysis of the mission.

 

SLS rate is slow

 

Another NASA Advisory Council concern is the low projected flight rate of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which is targeting first launches from KSC in 2017 and 2021 and then anticipating one flight every other year.

 

Such a low rate will make it difficult to maintain suppliers and a skilled launch team, potentially increasing safety risks.

 

NASA last week pitched the SLS as a launcher for planetary science missions that might help fill out the manifest.

 

On the plus side, the big, Saturn V-class rocket could easily support larger spacecraft and reduce by years the time it takes to reach outer planets, thus accelerating return of science data.

 

On the downside, it will be more expensive than anything else available.

 

Agency officials said they hoped to get the cost below $500 million.

 

Cost-sharing between NASA's human exploration and science budgets could potentially facilitate such missions.

 

But the plan also raised concerns about NASA competing with the private sector for launch services.

 

Curiosity recalled

 

Wednesday marks the two-year anniversary of NASA's Curiosity rover landing safely on Mars.

 

After a famed "seven minutes of terror" during which the rover hurtled through the Martian atmosphere and was lowered to the surface by an innovative "sky crane" system, the rover touched down at 1:32 a.m. Eastern time on Aug. 6.

 

Markos Kounalakis: Sanctions may backfire in Russian rocket sales to U.S. space program

 

Markos Kounalakis – The Sacramento Bee

 

Sophisticated Russian rocket technology took down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. It now has the potential to take down America's Air Force and NASA rocket programs.

 

Not by attacking America, but by withholding rocket sales. Russia has a near monopoly on the advanced rocket engine technologies the United States relies on for its most important and sensitive missions. Lacking an immediate domestic alternative, this could severely damage American commercial and national security interests.

 

Whether launching GPS, weather, telecommunications or spy satellites, the Russian RD-180 is the largest, most efficient – in fact, the only – rocket engine used in the mission-critical Atlas V, a space vehicle run by United Launch Alliance, or ULA, a highly profitable Lockheed-Martin and Boeing joint venture. ULA is America's single source of the rocket that Russians now say they will stop selling the United States.

 

Following Russia's spring Crimean annexation, President Barack Obama exercised executive sanctions against certain individuals, including Dmitry Rogozin, the deputy prime minister in charge of Russia's defense and rocket industry. Under the terms of the sanctions, the RD-180 was welcome to come to the United States, but not the man in charge of it.

 

Rogozin, a sometimes crass and canny hypernationalist, is so secure in his industry's dominance of the post-Cold War rocket market that he proposed ending RD-180 sales to the U.S. and threatened to stop cooperating on the International Space Station. Adding insult to this threat, he tweeted, "I suggest the US delivers its astronauts to the ISS with a trampoline."

 

New Western sanctions on Russian sectors and individuals are intended to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that his aggression in Ukraine will have severe economic and political costs. But costs cut both ways, if unevenly. My Hoover Institution colleague, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Mike McFaul, emphasizes that costs are not symmetric – Putin's Russia will ultimately pay a bigger price. However, sanctions will mean the French lose defense contracts, Brits will drop financial deals and Germans may be forced to cut exports. The United States will also pay a price.

 

In fact, the U.S. Defense Department has already estimated that if the Russians make good on their threat to withhold the RD-180, it could scuttle as many as 31 missions and have up to a $5 billion negative impact.

 

While Germany depends on Russian gas and America depends on Russian rockets, Putin and his cabal rely on the open international system of trade and finance to stay in power. To counter these varied vulnerabilities, countries try to diversify their financial sources, supply chains and manufacturing bases. In fact, in the current crisis, Russia is creating a domestic plan to make up for the materiel it once procured from Ukraine.

 

The Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying Russia will focus "on speeding up import-substitution efforts in the national defense industry." Rogozin reinforced his country's desire for self-reliance by suggesting that if France withholds already ordered Mistral-class warships, Russia can and will build its own.

 

America, too, needs to focus on domestic import substitution – for rocket engines, at least. There are already significant players potentially able to step into any breach. One industry leader is Rancho Cordova-headquartered Aerojet Rocketdyne, the company that developed engines that helped get men to the moon and today thrust satellites on Delta II rockets. Aerojet's engines also power the national security payloads that, in orbit, do things like track from space the launch and detonation of the Russian BUK anti-aircraft missile that shot down Flight 17.

 

While there are a number of American rocket manufacturers that could step up and speed up their production and innovate, one relatively new entrant is aiming to disrupt the field entirely: the startup SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, the same man who helped bring us PayPal and Tesla Motors. SpaceX is forcing the disruption with a lawsuit to open the bidding for some of United Launch Alliance's recent $11 billion sole-source, non-competitive Air Force rocket contract. If successful, Musk believes he can drop space transportation costs significantly and deploy reusable launch vehicles. He would also dump America's reliance on Russian rocket engines.

 

Regardless of how the SpaceX lawsuit fares, this should be a time to review the whole convoluted, often bloated and inefficient insiders' game of U.S. defense procurement. In fact, the White House, in a recent Statement of Administration Policy, said it wants to effect Russian rocket replacement via "multiple awards that will drive innovation, stimulate the industrial base and reduce costs through competition."

 

If SpaceX gets its way and gets a bit of the multibillion-dollar Pentagon satellite launch market, then Musk may just also achieve his bigger 21st-century dream of starting to colonize Mars by 2026. It would happen, in part, because Putin frittered away the 20th-century "peace dividend" with his 19th-century dream of recolonizing Crimea.

 

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/03/6597045/markos-kounalakis-russian-rocket.html#storylink=cpy

 

Fuel-Less Space Drive May Actually Work, Says NASA

 

Loren Grush – Popular Science

 

Whenever NASA's space shuttle was launched into orbit, it made the trip with the help of a very important tagalong: the external tank. Acting as the shuttle's "gas tank," the massive orange chamber housed all of the liquid hydrogen fuel—and oxygen to burn it—that powered the ship's main engines.

 

It also typically weighed over 1.6 million pounds and cost tens of millions of dollars to manufacture.

 

Engineers have long searched for a way to "cut the fat" when it comes this style of space propulsion. In other words, is it possible to develop a thruster that can propel a spaceship or satellite forward without needing any on-board fuel? Some think it's a feat worth pursuing. Others say such an engine is impossible.

 

A new report from Wired UK details the work of Guido Fetta, an American scientist who claims to have built his own propellant-less thruster. The design is seemingly based on the EmDrive, which was originally created by British scientist Roger Shawyer. The drive is supposed to convert electric power into thrust by bouncing microwaves off the walls of a closed container, and Fetta's drive, while different, does relatively the same thing.

NASA, a juggernaut in the space travel industry, has validated a propulsion design that many think can't be made.

 

So what makes Fetta's design so special if Shawyer made a propellant-less drive first? Street cred from NASA.

 

In a paper presented at the 50th Joint Propulsion Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, NASA apparently gave Fetta's design their stamp of approval after testing his drive. Granted, their tests only produced a small amount of thrust (between 30 and 50 micro-Newtons), but that's still pretty impressive since absolutely no propellant was needed.

 

So that means that NASA, a juggernaut in the space travel industry, has validated a propulsion design that many think cannot be made.

 

"There are other things that are propellant-less that don't use an onboard storage of molecules or mass," Michael Baine, chief of engineering at Intuitive Machines, tells Popular Science, noting the example of solar sails that convert light into thrust. "But they're kind of proof-of-concept … and they're not necessarily going to get you anywhere fast."

 

What makes Fetta's research particularly interesting is that this kind of propellant-less thrust may showcase an entirely new concept of physics.

 

According to the NASA researchers who tested the drive, Fetta's design potentially produces thrust by interacting with "quantum vacuum virtual plasma." That means the drive is pushing against all of the particles in empty space that are constantly coming into existence and then immediately disappearing. I.e. Empty space isn't really empty, and conceivably, we can "push" against it to propel forward.

 

The concept is the main theory behind the quantum vacuum plasma thrusters, or Q-thrusters, being investigated by Harold "Sonny" White at NASA Johnson Space Center (White was also on the research team that tested Fetta's drive). If these results hold true, that means the quantum vacuum can be harnessed for space travel.

 

However, Baine says it's important not to jump to any conclusions. He notes that these experiments are pretty easy to mess up, since you basically have to recreate the vacuum of space for the results to be right. Any interference from an outside factor could affect the results (think back to CERN's "faster-than-light" neutrinos).

 

"Whenever you get results that have extraordinary implications, you have to be cautious and somewhat skeptical that they can be repeated before you can accept them as a new theory," Baine says. "Really, it's got to come down to peer review and getting that done before you can get any kind of acceptance that something exotic is going on here."

 

Rosetta's comet coming into focus

 

Bill Harwood – CBS

 

The European Space Agency's $1.7 billion Rosetta probe, closing in on a comet for a historic rendezvous Wednesday, is sending back sharper and sharper views of its quarry, revealing an intriguing relic of the solar system's birth featuring two distinct lobes.

 

The latest photos from Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow angle camera were taken Friday from a distance of about 620 miles. An image from the spacecraft's wide-angle navigation camera, or NAVCAM, shows a similar view from slightly farther out, with the comet in a different orientation due to its 12.4-hour rotation.

 

Scientists say the "rubber duck" shape of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could the result of a low-speed collision between two previously independent bodies, forming a so-called contact binary. Or perhaps it's the result of uneven heating and sublimation of ices in its nucleus or the gravitational influence of the sun or Jupiter during its formation.

 

Long-exposure views of 67P reveal the tenuous cloud of gas and dust that already surrounds the nucleus. The comet is still some 330 million miles from the sun between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. As it nears the sun, more and more ice trapped in the nucleus will sublimate, turning directly into a gas. Pressure from the solar wind will cause some of that material, along with dust, to stream away in the opposite direction, forming two tails.

 

Rosetta will match orbits with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Wednesday after a 10-year voyage featuring four velocity boosting planetary flybys, two asteroid encounters and two-and-a-half-years spent in electronic hibernation. It will be the first spacecraft to fly in tandem with a comet as it falls into the inner solar system.

 

If all goes well, Rosetta will deploy a small lander this Fall that will settle to the surface of the comet and anchor itself in the feeble gravity for in situ observations as 67P heats up in the warmth of the sun. The comet's orbit will carry it inside the orbit of Mars, reaching perihelion, its closest to the sun, on Aug. 13, 2015.

 

NASA braces Mars orbiters for close comet flyby

 

Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times

 

They are literally specks of dust, tiny bits of primordial material that wouldn't be visible to the naked eye.

 

But for spacecraft in orbit around Mars, they could become minuscule agents of destruction.

 

These dust particles will come hurtling past the Red Planet on Oct. 19, riding on the coattails of Comet Siding Spring. They'll blow by at an incredible 35 miles per second — 25 times faster than an armor-piercing projectile fired from a tank. And there could be millions of them.

 

At that velocity, they'll have the power to poke a hole in a spacecraft's gas line or crack a glass lens. They could knock out a computer board or take out a few cells on a solar panel.

 

And that's why scientists and engineers at NASA are nervous.

 

"They are essentially little cannonballs and bullets flying around, and they could do real damage," said Richard Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

 

Mars comet

The three vulnerable orbiters cost the agency more than $1.5 billion to build and deploy. Since they're millions of miles from Earth, patching them up if they get broken is not an option.

 

So scientists are going to play a high-stakes game of hide and seek.

 

The stream of dust particles will be quite diffuse. Comet modelers have calculated that only one particle will pass through any given square kilometer of space.

 

"The typical area of a spacecraft is five square meters, so it doesn't sound like much risk," Zurek said. "But these are chances we would rather not take."

 

C/2013 A1, as the comet is formally known, was first spotted by an observatory in Australia on Jan. 3, 2013. Back then, it was still pretty far away, out past the orbit of Jupiter.

 

Based on its trajectory, scientists believe it originated in the Oort cloud, an unseen collection of icy bodies at the edge of the solar system.

 

Long-period comets like Siding Spring are made up of the detritus from the earliest days of the solar system. They are frozen time capsules from the era of planet formation, which is why scientists are eager to study them.

 

Siding Spring's nucleus is thought to be about half a mile across and contains gas, water and dust that has been in a deep freeze for billions of years. As it flies closer to the sun, the increase in radiation causes the ice to sublimate, releasing ancient gas and dust that follow the comet in a long tail.

 

The NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars are considerably newer additions to the solar system.

 

Odyssey arrived in 2001 to study the surface composition of the planet and its subsurface ice, taking measurements to help scientists understand what kind of radiation exposure humans would face if they visited Mars.

 

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter joined Odyssey in 2006. It studies the history of water on the Red Planet.

 

A third satellite, known as MAVEN, will reach Mars in September. It was designed to help scientists understand how Mars lost its water and atmosphere to space.

 

Like most of the spacecraft NASA sends into space, these three are made primarily of lightweight materials like titanium and aluminum. That makes them cheaper to launch, but it also makes them sitting ducks for a speeding smidge of dust.

 

Within a few weeks of Siding Spring's discovery, researchers at JPL's Near-Earth Object Program determined that it would come very close to Mars — possibly slamming into the rocky planet.

 

A few months and several data points later, however, that possibility was ruled out. The NEO team determined that Siding Spring's nucleus would get as close as 80,000 miles from Mars, or 10 times closer than any known comet has come to Earth.

 

"This is a once-in-a-several-million-year event," said program manager Don Yeomans. "If it were coming this close to Earth, it would be a scientific bonanza, plus a global celestial display."

 

When Zurek first heard that a comet was heading toward Mars, he was thrilled. Scientists think that cometary collisions delivered water to ancient Earth, Mars and perhaps other planets, so they are eager for any chance to study them.

 

"As a scientist I thought this could be really exciting," he said. "If the comet hit the planet, you would see an explosion and all this debris would go shooting up into the atmosphere before raining back down to the surface."

 

But his enthusiasm quickly turned to dismay.

 

"I thought, 'Wait, we've got two rovers and two orbiters working away up there, plus another orbiter arriving in a few weeks,'" Zurek said. "Maybe this is a bad thing."

 

Zurek and his team realized the rovers, Opportunity and Curiosity, would be fine. The Martian atmosphere is less than 1% as thick as the atmosphere on Earth, but it would still be enough to burn up any incoming dust particles, creating a Martian meteor shower.

 

The orbiters would get no such protection. Though they would be a safe distance from Siding Spring's nucleus, they might share space with the cloud of tiny dust particles that make up the comet's tail.

 

Three separate teams of computer modelers were called in to figure out how fast the dust behind the comet is likely to travel, and how close it will get to the spacecraft.

 

All three models predict that the entire planet will spend a few hours engulfed in the outer layer of Siding Spring's coma, a cloud of gas that surrounds the nucleus. The bulk of the comet's dust particles will miss the planet. But beginning 80 minutes after the comet zips by, there will be a roughly half-hour window during which something catastrophic is possible. Remotely possible.

 

"There's a small probability of an impact, but it's not zero," Zurek said. "And it only takes one to do you in."

 

JPL staffers pondered various ways to keep the spacecraft out of harm's way. The idea of using large communication antennae to block incoming dust particles was considered. They also looked at rotating the spacecraft so that the side with the least sensitive instruments would be facing the dust stream.

 

"There were more exotic mitigations we thought about," said Soren Madsen, who spent five years as chief engineer for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "But they were ultimately not worth implementing."

 

Instead, engineers settled on another conflict-avoidance strategy: hiding.

 

"Mars will actually act as a shield for us," Madsen said. "Right behind Mars there will be a hole in the dust cloud."

 

The plan, he said, is to steer the orbiters into that "safe zone" for 30 to 40 minutes, until the worst of the threat has passed.

 

Satellites are in constant motion, so they can't simply park behind Mars. But engineers on Earth can adjust the speed of their orbits so that they will be flying on the opposite side of the planet when the risk is greatest.

 

On Tuesday, the Odyssey orbiter will fire its engines for 5.5 seconds, giving it a gentle boost. It won't change the shape of its orbit, but it ensures it will be in the "safe zone" as the dust zips past.

 

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter performed a similar maneuver July 2 and has another planned for Aug. 27.

 

MAVEN already had a series of maneuvers planned for the weeks after it gets to Mars. At first, it will move around the planet in a long elliptical orbit, which will be trimmed down by a series of precisely timed engine firings. After Siding Spring's discovery, engineers tweaked those flight plans to make sure the spacecraft will be out of the way for the duration of the danger.

 

"These maneuvers are low-risk and low-cost," Madsen said.

 

It may sound like NASA scientists are being paranoid. But they're not the only ones. The European Space Agency had its Mars Express satellite burn its engines June 23.

 

Now that NASA officials are reasonably certain that the spacecraft will be safe, they can focus on the observations they will get to make during the unlikely encounter between planet and comet.

 

Using the instruments aboard the three orbiters, scientists plan to take a close look at the size and shape of Siding Spring's nucleus, and to figure out what gases are in its coma and its tail.

 

They also want to see how gas from the comet will interact with the Martian atmosphere. One hypothesis is that the comet will cause the gases in the upper atmosphere to heat up, causing them to escape into space. This could help researchers better understand why the air is so thin on Mars.

 

For Jared Espley, a co-investigator on the MAVEN mission, the cosmic coincidence is enough to make him giddy.

 

"This is an amazing, fantastic opportunity for science," he said. "It was a little unnerving at first, but now that we think we're safe, it's really exciting."

 

Astronaut arranges for SEC football in space

 

Mike Organ – The Tennessean

 

While growing up in the Murfreesboro Road area, Barry Wilmore was like most kids and wanted to be either a policeman, a fireman or an astronaut.

 

He settled on astronaut.

 

On the way to achieving his lifelong dream, Wilmore also developed into an outstanding football player at Mt. Juliet High School and Tennessee Tech.

 

He is still a big football fan today and set to make his third journey into space.

 

Wilmore, 51, and two Russian cosmonauts will travel to the International Space Station on Sept. 25. Wilmore will assume command of the expedition in November.

 

The crew will return to Earth in March 2015.

 

Because of his love for football, Wilmore had NASA arrange to provide the new SEC Network in the space station and plans to watch Tennessee Tech's games on the Internet.

 

"I don't watch a lot of sports — my wife might not agree with that — but I do like to watch football, the SEC Game of the Week, and I try to catch Tech every chance I get," Wilmore said.

 

Wilmore is a Navy captain who has logged 259 hours in space.

 

After joining NASA in 2000, he flew aboard the space shuttle Atlantis and in 2009 piloted his first space shuttle flight.

 

He expects a much different experience in space this time.

 

"During the shuttle mission, roughly two weeks in length, there was a lot to do in a short period of time," Wilmore said. "They pack the schedule full to get everything done that you need to get done. It leaves very little self time to just look out the window; I think the most time I had to sit and look out was maybe 20 minutes. So I look forward to sticking my nose in the window for at least two revolutions around the earth, for about three hours, and watching the beauty of the Earth go by."

 

Wilmore is scheduled to make his first space walks on this mission — one in January and another in February — in order to make adjustments to the space station's docking apparatus.

 

"They typically timeline the space walks for about six hours," he said. "By the time you do everything, you can expect to be outside for about 10 hours."

 

Wilmore attended Una Elementary until he was in the third grade, when his family moved to a small farm in Mt. Juliet.

 

He started playing football in junior high and by the time he got to high school was a starter on both sides of the line — offensive guard and linebacker — for Mt. Juliet (1978-80).

 

Wilmore was recruited by Sewanee and Carson-Newman and even received a letter from Vanderbilt.

 

He decided to attend Tennessee Tech because of the engineering program and walked on with the football team.

 

By the end of his freshman season, he had cracked the starting lineup at linebacker.

 

"I was small, I was slow and I was fat," Wilmore said. "But I had a nose for the ball. I had the determination that I could somehow figure out a way to get to the ball."

 

As a senior, Wilmore recorded 143 total tackles, which ranks third on the school's all-time single-season tackles list.

 

He made 21 tackles in a game against Austin Peay, which is the second-most in the program's history.

 

In 2003, Wilmore, who earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering, was inducted into the Tennessee Tech Sports Hall of Fame. In 2009, a reception took place at Mt. Juliet High to honor Wilmore, and he was presented with the key to the city.

 

Astronaut sky high on list of best graduation speakers

 

Marwa Eltagouri – Chicago Tribune

 

This year's University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign commencement speaker – who received a standing ovation from the 17,000 people attending the ceremony – earned a spot on a list of the top graduation speeches of the season.

 

Michael Hopkins, an astronaut and U. of I. alum, had returned from a 166-day mission on the international space station just before giving his address, which emphasized the importance of perseverance. The North American Association of Commencement Officers listed Hopkins as one of the six best speakers of 2014.

 

"These speakers are the kind of people you want at commencement," NAACO president Lois Ferguson said Friday. "They've proved themselves to be successful, they have a story to tell, and they're engaging to students, parents, family and alumni."

 

Other top speakers were President Barack Obama, who spoke at the University of California-Irvine, and Susan Wojcicki, YouTube's CEO, who addressed Johns Hopkins University's graduates, according to the group.

 

The list isn't all high-profile names, though. Ferguson said one of the best speeches was given at Philadelphia University by Nicholas Christian, one of the university's graduates. He delivered his speech dynamically, exploring the question of destiny with his fellow graduates and telling them how their destinies were "rich with innovation, collaboration and ideas that will change the world."

 

He too received a standing ovation from the ceremony's 6,000 attendees.

 

"Sometimes you do want a big speaker. The president, or the president of a major corporation, or an actor or actress," Ferguson said. "But sometimes you just want to put in front of the students someone who graduated from the university, who aren't necessarily well-known but still have excellent lives."

 

Other speakers on the list included John Quiñones, a news correspondent for ABC who spoke at the University of Washington Bothell, and Lewis Katz, a philanthropist who spoke at Temple University.

 

Quiñones shared with graduates the story of his rise from a poor family of migrant workers to ABC's first Latino correspondent, urging graduates to push past socio-economic barriers.

 

Katz spoke of the importance of living an enjoyable life. He died in a plane accident a few weeks after the ceremony, and his commencement remarks were highlighted in his memorial service at the university.

 

"It's these people who make commencement a fabulous and memorable experience," Ferguson said.

 

Eye-tech developments turn science fiction into fact

 

Mark Frary – The Times

 

Bionics and biology are giving new hope to people with declining sight, writes Mark Frary

 

It is now 40 years since the first episode of The Six Million Dollar Man, in which Steve Austin was given a bio-nic eye, was aired. The technology was pure fiction but four decades on, just how far have we come? One device that is being dubbed a "bionic eye" has recently become available in the UK for some sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa , a rare, hereditary disease that causes a progressive degeneration of the light-sensitive cells of the retina.

 

Second Sight's Argus II is an artificial retina, which works by converting video images captured by a miniature camera housed in the patient's glasses into small electrical pulses that are transmitted wirelessly to an array of electrodes on the surface of the retina. These pulses are intended to stimulate the retina's remaining cells, resulting in the corresponding perception of patterns of light in the brain. The patient then learns to interpret these visual patterns, thereby regaining some visual function.

 

The NHS's Prescribed Specialised Services Advisory Group has now recommended that Argus II be authorised for implantation into UK patients.

 

Bionic Vision Australia is also trialling its own version of the bionic eye with three patients. Its version uses a digital camera mounted on a pair of glasses. This sends an image to an array of electrodes implanted into the patient's eye, which stimulates the retina. The current prototype includes only 24 electrodes, but versions with more resolution are planned. In the prototype, a wire emerges from behind the patient's ear and is plugged into a backpack of electronics. The company is now working on a fully implantable version.

 

Israel's VisionCare has recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for an implantable miniature telescope to treat end-stage agerelated macular degeneration, the main cause of loss of vision in the over-65s. The pea-sized device is implanted into the eye, enlarges images to about 2.5 times their normal size and projects them on to unaffected areas of the retina, reducing the blind spot.

 

One of the biggest eye-tech stories this year has been the release of Google Glass in the UK, but another optical project from Google is also making the news.

 

Earlier this year, the company ann-ounced that it was working on a smart contact lens to help people with diabetes to keep their condition under control.

 

The modified contact lens includes a tiny wireless chip and miniaturised glucose sensor embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material. It is looking at whether embedded LEDs could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds. In July, Novartis said it would license Google's contact lens technology and look to extend it to people with presbyopia.

 

A more biological approach is also proving promising in the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa. Scientists at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) in the US are using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology to transform adult skin cells into retinal cells. A team led by Dr Stephen Tsang has used these transformed stem cells to show that a form of retinitis pigmentosa is caused by mutation to the membrane-type frizzled-related protein gene, which can be treated by personalised gene therapy.

 

Using iPSCs is an effective shortcut, since harvesting retinal cells is fraught with danger and it avoids the controversy surrounding the use of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

 

Biotech company Advanced Cell Technology has seen encouraging results from using hESCs in the treatment of dry age-related macular degeneration. In one of the company's trials, a patient was implanted with retinal pigment epithelial cells derived from hESCs and his vision has improved from 20/400 (profound low vision) to 20/40 (the level at which you are allowed to drive in the US).

 

Some of this research will take a long time to become commonplace. Yet even the corrective laser surgery that tens of thousands of people have in the UK each year is moving forward. A new version of the common Lasik procedure is being offered by the London Eye Hospital. Lasik Xtra adds another stage to the treatment, in which riboflavin eyedrops are used and bombarded with ultraviolet light, strengthening the collagen fibres that make up the framework of the cornea.

 

Astronauts on the International Space Station are also doing their part. NASA is running an ocular health study, which tracks the effects of zero gravity on eyesight. The astronauts' eyes are scanned with a device called Spectralis, which uses optical coherence tomography. The scanner has a feature that allows all scans to be captured in the same position, making for easier comparison. The scans will determine whether there are any threats to eyesight on long-duration missions.

 

 

 

More at www.spacetoday.net

 

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