Friday, October 3, 2014

Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday - October 3, 2014 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: October 3, 2014 11:45:39 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Friday - October 3, 2014 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone.  Enjoy this little cool front that arrived last night…the humidity is way down today.    I failed to thank Fulton Plauche for joining us at our monthly Retirees luncheon day yesterday  --- I will count him as a first timer worth an honorable mention.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend.   I hope to see some of you at the upcoming E and D reunion on Saturday Oct. 18th too.

 

JSC Logo

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. NASA TV to Broadcast U.S. Spacewalks

Three astronauts of the International Space Station Expedition 41 crew will conduct two spacewalks outside the orbiting laboratory Tuesday, Oct. 7, and Wednesday, Oct. 15, to replace a failed power regulator and relocate a failed cooling pump. NASA TV will provide comprehensive coverage of the events.

NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency will exit the station's Quest airlock for the Oct. 7 spacewalk at about 7:10 a.m. CDT, both wearing U.S. spacesuits. NASA TV coverage of the planned six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk will begin at 6 a.m. Wiseman will be extravehicular crew member one (EV1) and will wear a suit bearing red stripes. Gerst will be EV2 and wear a suit with no stripes.

Wiseman will venture outside Quest again Oct. 15, with NASA Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore, a new arrival to the space station, for another six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. Wiseman will be designated EV1, and Wilmore will serve as EV2. Coverage of this second spacewalk begins at 6 a.m., with the spacewalk expected to begin around 7:20 a.m.

JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees who cannot make it to the Teague Auditorium but have hard-wired computer network connections can view the events using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 404 (standard definition) or channel 4541 (HD). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC or Safari on a Mac. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi, VPN or connections from other centers are currently not supported by EZTV.

First-time users will need to install the EZTV Monitor and Player client applications:

    • For those WITH admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you'll be prompted to download and install the clients when you first visit the IPTV website
    • For those WITHOUT admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you can download the EZTV client applications from the ACES Software Refresh Portal (SRP)

If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367, or visit the FAQ site.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://www.nasa.gov/station

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  1. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Cybersecurity Tip for Today:

STOP, THINK, CONNECT

Don't reveal too much personal information online. The less information you post, the less data is available for a cybercriminal to use in a potential attack or scam.

JSC-IT-Security x37682

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Let's Celebrate!

Save the date! Let's celebrate JSC! Festivities will commence on Dec. 12 with food and fun for all JSC employees, contractors and family members. The fun includes a cake-decorating contest, bounce house, photo opportunities, holiday characters, tours of Building 9 and so much more. Watch JSC Today for details on tickets and activities. Hope to see you as we celebrate the accomplishments of the 2014 JSC team!

Event Date: Friday, December 12, 2014   Event Start Time:4:30 PM   Event End Time:6:30 PM
Event Location: JSC

Add to Calendar

Susan Anderson x38630

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  1. Why the HERG Takes an Active Role in STEM Outreach

There's a large divide between Hispanic enrollment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) versus the number that actually graduate. Hispanic enrollment in STEM fields from 1995-1996 to 2003-2004 increased 33 percent; however, the likelihood is low that they will earn a degree or certificate in a STEM field. Only 16 percent of Hispanic students who began college in 2004 as STEM majors completed a STEM degree by 2009.

The reasons for this divide are many. However, there is a growing body of work to support the relative importance of K-12 academic experiences, cognitive factors and socio-cultural factors influencing Hispanic students' decisions to major in STEM.

For this reason, the Hispanic Employee Resource Group (HERG) takes an active role in education outreach. These efforts are critical in turning the tide and putting more students on a trajectory for achievement within STEM and to fuel America's innovation engine.

To read more on this topic, visit the link below.

HERG http://www.hacu.net/images/hacu/OPAI/H3ERC/2012_papers/Crisp%20nora%20-%...

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   Community

  1. Texas High School Juniors Needed

High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) needs Texas high school juniors. The application is currently open. HAS is an interactive, online experience highlighted by a six-day residential summer experience at JSC. Students will explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts with an emphasis on space exploration during the online experience. Students who are selected to come to JSC will continue their STEM studies with hands-on team activities while mentored by NASA engineers and scientists. HAS is a great STEM opportunity for Texas high school juniors.

Check out the HAS website for the application deadline. For more information, watch High School Aerospace Scholars: A Journey of Discovery.

Stacey Welch 281-792-8223 https://has.aerospacescholars.org/

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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

Friday – October 3, 2014

 

NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

A briefing to preview the Oct. 7 and 15 U.S. spacewalks will be broadcast today on NASA TV from JSC at 1pm Central time. Tune in online or on your smartphone using the NASA app or see updates on the new @Space_Station Twitter account.

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Why is the U.S. saving old nukes? To save Earth from giant asteroids, of course.

 

Josh Hicks - The Washington Post

 

The U.S. government has decided to save some of its old nuclear weapons that were scheduled for disassembly next year to determine whether they could be good for blasting earthbound asteroids. Sounds like someone pulled that plan straight out of a sci-fi script, but it was actually mentioned deep down in a Government Accountability Office report on the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency that manages the nation's atomic-weapons arsenal.

 

 

NASA Directs Boeing and SpaceX to Stop Work on CCtCAP

 

Marcia Smith – Space Policy Online

 

Boeing and SpaceX were directed by NASA to stop work under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contracts because of Sierra Nevada's protest of the award.

 

 

Happy Fiscal Year 2015! Though NASA Still Doesn't Have a Budget

Congress extends 2014 funding for a few months during election season

 

Casey Dreier – The Planetary Society

 

October 1st marks the start of the U.S. government's 2015 fiscal year, but as celebrations for the fiscal new year die down NASA's budget is still in limbo. Congress adjourned last week to campaign for re-election without passing a budget for any federal agency. They return to work in November.

 

 

Russia's Roscosmos to announce causes of Soyuz solar array glitch next week

 

ITAR-TASS

 

ST. PETERSBURG, October 2. /TASS/. Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday that the special commission is due to announce next week the cause of Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft's solar battery glitch. "Technically this is clear to us, but now a commission is working and we want to find out what caused this incident," Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said.

 

 

NASA chief dishes dirt on Chris Hadfield and space flight

 

Tom Spears – Ottawa Citizen

 

The head of NASA startled an Ottawa audience Thursday when he announced out of the blue: "Chris Hadfield is infamous." Charles Bolden, as NASA's administrator, is Hadfield's former boss. And over lunch with the Canadian Club he started to improvise.

 

 

Before the darkness: Family chases 'bucket list' of sights as 9-year-old goes blind

 

A. Pawlowski – NBC TODAY

 

Nine-year-old Ben Pierce is slowly, steadily going blind. So his family has embarked on an amazing "bucket list" adventure, trying to pack his mind full of visual memories to last a lifetime.

 

 

NanoRacks Identifies Root Cause of ISS Cubesat Deployment Failures

 

Peter Selding – Space News

 

TORONTO — Two separate August failures of the NanoRacks satellite dispenser operated from the international space station — one a nondeployment of small satellites and the other an unplanned release of spacecraft — were both caused by overly tightened dispenser screws, Houston-based NanoRacks has concluded.

 

 

One More Absolutely Amazing Timelapse from the International Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson – Universe Today

 

We've featured several timelapse compilations of footage and imagery taken from the International Space Station (like here, here and here) but this one put together by Phil Selmes is great in that it also includes footage *of* the ISS, as shot by the astronauts on the space shuttle as well as actual space to ground audio communications. Phil said he included the audio clips "to remind the audience of the humanity that inhabits the space station."

 

 

NASA Launches Student Contest for 3D-Printed Astronaut Tools

 

Megan Gannon – Space.com

 

You don't have to become an astronaut to use the International Space Station's new 3D printer. NASA has challenged students, ages 5 to 19, to design 3D-printed tools that could be made in microgravity. The first 3D printer to fly in space arrived at the astronaut outpost last month aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. SpaceX delivered the machine along with more than 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of cargo on its fourth resupply mission to the space station for NASA.

 

 

Shuttle map gives the best view yet of Earth's curves

 

New Scientist

 

PEER into every crack and crevice. Fourteen years ago, the space shuttle flew a mission to map our planet. Now the data is finally being released in full. Previous versions of the Shuttle Radar Topography data set only covered the US in high resolution, the rest of the world was in lower resolution. The latest release covers nearly the whole planet in nine times more detail than before.

 

 

COMPLETE STORIES

Why is the U.S. saving old nukes? To save Earth from giant asteroids, of course.

 

Josh Hicks - The Washington Post

 

The U.S. government has decided to save some of its old nuclear weapons that were scheduled for disassembly next year to determine whether they could be good for blasting earthbound asteroids.

 

Sounds like someone pulled that plan straight out of a sci-fi script, but it was actually mentioned deep down in a Government Accountability Office report on the National Nuclear Security Administration, an agency that manages the nation's atomic-weapons arsenal.

 

The NNSA described the old warheads as an "irreplaceable national asset" that should be kept around "pending a senior-level government evaluation of their use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids," according to the report. Perhaps someone just watched "Armageddon" a few too many times.

 

An artist's impression of the rings surrounding the remote asteroid Chariklo. (L. Calcada/Nick Risinger via EPA)

 

The plan, which was reported this summer in a NukeWatch.org article and more recently by The Wall Street Journal, is one of several ways the Obama administration has focused on asteroid defense in recent years. President Obama has also proposed an asteroid-lassoing mission that would capture and fling one of the massive space rocks into orbit near the moon so NASA can study it.

 

The mission is close to moving forward. NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to an asteroid in 2016, and the agency has invited the worldwide public to submit messages and images that could be placed in a time capsule.

 

RELATED: NASA asteroid mission is new focus of budget debate in Congress

 

There's plenty of room for skepticism about the administration's recent proposals, but asteroids pose a serious threat to human existence. Many scientists believe that a rock roughly 6 miles wide may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs after smashing into Earth near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.

 

Objects of that size only strike Earth once every 100 million years on average, and the next hit is not expected for at least the next 100 years or possibly much longer, according to a 2010 report from the National Research Council.

 

Still, try telling that to Russia, where a meteor streaked across the sky and broke up over the city of Chelyabinsk last year. The incident caused a shock wave that smashed windows, collapsed roofs and injured at least 1,200 people.

 

 

NASA Directs Boeing and SpaceX to Stop Work on CCtCAP

 

Marcia Smith – Space Policy Online

 

Boeing and SpaceX were directed by NASA to stop work under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCAP) contracts because of Sierra Nevada's protest of the award.

 

The CCtCAP contracts were awarded on September 16, 2014:  $4.2 billion to Boeing and $2.6 billion to SpaceX.  CCtCAP is the final phase of NASA's commercial crew development program that is expected to lead to new crew space transportation systems by the end of 2017.  Since the space shuttle was terminated in 2011, NASA has had to rely on Russia to take crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS).  The commercial crew program is intended to restore America's ability to launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil.

 

Boeing. SpaceX and Sierra Nevada are all funded under the current phase of the program called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP).  Boeing has completed all of its CCiCAP milestones, but SpaceX and Sierra Nevada have not.

 

Sierra Nevada filed a protest of the CCtCAP award with the Government Accountablity Office (GAO) on September 25.

 

NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said in an emailed statement this afternoon that "Pursuant to the GAO protest, NASA has instructed Boeing and SpaceX to stop performance of the CCtCAP contracts."  The stop work order does not affect CCiCAP, however: "All work related to NASA's  Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) Space Act Agreements (SAA) will continue," she added.

 

 

Happy Fiscal Year 2015! Though NASA Still Doesn't Have a Budget

Congress extends 2014 funding for a few months during election season

 

Casey Dreier – The Planetary Society

 

October 1st marks the start of the U.S. government's 2015 fiscal year, but as celebrations for the fiscal new year die down NASA's budget is still in limbo. Congress adjourned last week to campaign for re-election without passing a budget for any federal agency. They return to work in November.

 

Before leaving, Congress did pass a stopgap spending bill (H.J.Res. 124 for those of you keeping track at home) that extends 2014 funding levels for the government through December 11th. The President signed this into law last week. Without a bill appropriating funds from the U.S. treasury, the government would have shut down like it did when we rolled in the 2014 fiscal year.

 

Under the stopgap measure (referred to as a continuing resolution or CR for short) NASA can continue to spend money on existing programs, but is forbidden from starting any new ones. And while the law states NASA can spend at 2014 levels, generally the White House's Office of Management and Budget limits spending to the lowest level of all proposed funding bills for FY2015.

 

There are currently two bills in Congress that would fund NASA in 2015, one in the Senate [pdf] and one in the House [pdf]. While they both agree on the same (larger!) top-line number for NASA, they do differ in how that money is spread around within the space agency (for a detailed comparison of all the current budgets, Marcia Smith at Space Policy Online has a complete breakdown in a pdf).

 

For our main focus—planetary science—the President's requested level for 2015 is the lowest of all budget proposals at $1.28 billion and spending during the continuing resolution will likely be limited to this level. This is only for a few months, however, and Jim Green, the Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, has stated that this lower level is unlikely to disrupt anything within the program. The Opportunity rover and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will continue. A longer CR may have longer impacts, though, and the key is for Congress to pass their improved budget for NASA as quickly as possible when they return.

 

But the December 11th deadline gives Congress only a month to work out their differences and pass an omnibus spending bill, which is essentially one mega bill that funds the entire government, as opposed to the standard 12 individual appropriations bills covering different areas of federal spending. The House has passed seven spending bills, the Senate, zero. There is a lot of work to do.

 

The dynamics of Congress could be greatly altered by the results of the November elections. If Republicans gain control of the Senate, there will be pressure to extend the CR into January so a Republican-led Senate and House could exercise more influence on spending. If Democrats retain their majority, an omnibus in December seems more likely.

 

The fiscal new year continues the trend of uncertainty faced by NASA, but at least their doors are open, unlike last year.

 

 

Russia's Roscosmos to announce causes of Soyuz solar array glitch next week

 

ITAR-TASS

 

ST. PETERSBURG, October 2. /TASS/. Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Thursday that the special commission is due to announce next week the cause of Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft's solar battery glitch.

 

"Technically this is clear to us, but now a commission is working and we want to find out what caused this incident," Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said.

 

The Russian-built Soyuz capsule carrying two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut reached the International Space Station (ISS) early on September 26, despite a struck solar battery that failed to deploy just after its launch from the Baikonur spaceport.

 

Despite the emergency situation, the crew managed to implement a six-hour scheme docking with the station. The crew had sufficient energy in the battery of the vehicle for rendezvous and docking.

 

The faulty solar battery finally unfolded after the spacecraft berthed with the ISS.

 

 

NASA chief dishes dirt on Chris Hadfield and space flight

 

Tom Spears – Ottawa Citizen

 

The head of NASA startled an Ottawa audience Thursday when he announced out of the blue: "Chris Hadfield is infamous."

 

Charles Bolden, as NASA's administrator, is Hadfield's former boss. And over lunch with the Canadian Club he started to improvise.

 

"My notes say he's famous. Chris is not famous! Chris is infamous," he said, drawing out the last word. "He has put pressure on everybody."

 

"Chris has revolutionized the way that people look at astronauts on orbit and he has brought space flight home to normal people down here. He has made them feel like: I can do this. I'm involved in this. And that's really, really, really special."

 

Hadfield drew a huge global audience with Twitter and YouTube accounts and photos of how astronauts train, live in space, and see Earth from above. He sang, played the guitar, and did a student-designed experiment that involved squeezing out a wet washcloth in zero-gravity.

 

Bolden met a couple of Canadian astronauts in Toronto this week who "made it very clear they didn't appreciate the pressure Chris has put on them. They said, 'We've got to learn how to sing, we've got to do all kinds of stuff.'"

 

It was a lighthearted moment in a mostly serious look at the U.S. and Canadian space programs, with Bolden's message being that in the long run they're in good shape.

 

NASA has struggled recently. Its shuttle program is finished, and the Constellation program that was supposed to replace it, flying crews to the moon and Mars, was cancelled.

 

The only way for NASA astronauts to get to the International Space Station is aboard a Soyuz, and Russia charges $71 million per ride. Tensions have run high, with a senior Russian tweeting recently that NASA's best chance of reaching orbit is by getting a trampoline.

 

But Bolden said there are plenty of good signs. One unmanned mission will reach Pluto next year and another will reach Jupiter a year later. Crew launches from U.S. soil should resume in 2017, using commercial aerospace companies — "a huge milestone for us."

 

There are plans to grab an asteroid and tow it back to orbit the moon where NASA can explore it at leisure.

 

And he praised Canadian technology such as Dextre, the "robotic handyman" on the outside of the space station.

 

"Investment in space is not just a nice-to-have thing; it improves life on Earth, stimulates economies, and also provides that intangible inspiration" for younger people.

 

He repeated several times that space planning today "is not about us" who are adults today, but about the future.

 

"I have three grandchildren aged eight, 12 and 14, and I'm going to be really upset if we screw it up," he said. "It's about them."

 

 

Before the darkness: Family chases 'bucket list' of sights as 9-year-old goes blind

 

A. Pawlowski – NBC TODAY

 

Nine-year-old Ben Pierce is slowly, steadily going blind. So his family has embarked on an amazing "bucket list" adventure, trying to pack his mind full of visual memories to last a lifetime.

 

Thanks to the kindness of an Alaska Airlines pilot, Ben recently checked off one major goal: Watching the Northern Lights. Staring into the Alaskan sky on a fall night, he was in awe.

 

"They were amazing, like watercolors painting the sky. It was really pretty," Ben, who lives in Denton, Texas, told TODAY.

 

Video: A young boy from Texas travels nearly 4,000 miles to Alaska to view the Northern Lights before he goes blind. KTUU's Blake Essig reports.

 

For his mom, the experience was bittersweet.

 

"I love watching his face and seeing his reaction," said Heidi Thaden-Pierce, 37. "But it's also a little bit heartbreaking to see it, knowing why we're there. I wish so much that we didn't feel this urgency to go on these trips now."

 

The urgency is there because Ben is going blind, a complication of his premature birth. So he's come up with a list of things he wants to see before he loses his vision. Taking him there has turned out to be a family adventure, documented on the family's blog.

 

Heidi Thaden-Pierce shares a carefree moment with her son Ben.

 

Ben arrived just 23 weeks into Thaden-Pierce's pregnancy, weighing a little over a pound and fighting for his life. He was born so early that his eyelids were still fused shut.

 

His mom was shaken when she first saw him in the neonatal intensive care unit.

 

"He had almost no body fat and he was bright red and he was so tiny and fragile. He was covered in tubes and wires and IVs and I just felt awful that he wasn't ready to be here yet," she recalled.

 

Ben was born four months premature. He weighed about 22 ounces.

 

Doctors warned the family that a baby born this early probably wouldn't make it. Then, as Ben hung in there, they cautioned there could be many challenges ahead: he could be blind, deaf, or develop cerebral palsy and other problems.

 

Nine years later, Ben is perfectly healthy, except for his eyes, his mom said. While still in the NICU, he developed retinopathy of prematurity, a potentially blinding eye disorder that affects preemies. With each growth spurt, Ben is losing more vision.

 

Ben at 5 years old. His vision gets worse with every growth spurt.

 

He's already very nearsighted, incredibly light sensitive and has lost most of his peripheral vision, Thaden-Pierce said. She and her husband are preparing him for the moment when he may not be able to see at all.

 

"It's hard for us as parents to comprehend and emotionally process. For a 9-year-old kid, it's a challenge," she said.

 

"(We say) look, you can still have this incredible fantastic life full of adventures, you're just going to read a little bit differently, since you're learning Braille, and you're going to navigate the world a little bit differently but this doesn't have to slow you down."

 

That's where Ben's wish list comes in. A therapist recommended that the family give Ben lots of visual memories to make it easier for him to describe things and interact with the world if he becomes blind.

 

The family meets a NASA astronaut in Houston, Texas.

 

So a year ago, Thaden-Pierce and her husband sat Ben down and asked: What do you want to see? The result was a "funny and random" look into the mind of a child — his goals included everything from an Apple store and how ice cream is made to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and NASA, she recalled.

 

He also wants to see Mardi Gras, though mom says going to New Orleans likely won't happen because it's "a little more adult oriented" than she'd like.

 

Ben, right, checks out Hogwarts Express at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando, Florida.

 

So how did Ben come up with all the places? "Books, random ideas of places I've never been — like the Amazon River. And stuff I heard about from other people," he said. His five siblings also added suggestions.

 

The family has been able to check off many of the items, often thanks to generous strangers and corporations. The Northern Lights excursion was made possible by Alaska Airlines, for example.

 

Ben checks out Van Gogh's "Starry Night" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

 

If you ask Ben about his favorite trip, the answer changes all the time, his mom said. He currently says Florida, "because of Harry Potter world, the food, the hotels, and also the beach." The place he really wants to see next is the Grand Canyon, the second item he put on his list after the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

 

Each time he sees something new, he writes about it in his journal, Thaden-Pierce said.

 

"He also told us he dreams about what he's been seeing," she said. "He's knows that he's trying to store up memories and he's working really hard to do as much as he can to cement them in his mind."

 

 

NanoRacks Identifies Root Cause of ISS Cubesat Deployment Failures

 

Peter Selding – Space News

 

TORONTO — Two separate August failures of the NanoRacks satellite dispenser operated from the international space station — one a nondeployment of small satellites and the other an unplanned release of spacecraft — were both caused by overly tightened dispenser screws, Houston-based NanoRacks has concluded.

 

NanoRacks LLC Managing Director Jeffrey Manber said the company has repeated the failure at a ground test facility in front of NASA. Sometimes there is no deployment, and sometimes deployment occurs without being commanded.

 

Manber said NASA, as space station general contractor, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency — from whose station module the Nanrocks' dispensers are deployed — have approved the company's decision to deliver a fresh batch of dispensers to the station.

 

But the two agencies are still assessing possible additional safety measures, such as mandating that a latch be put on the dispensers' covers to prevent future unplanned deployments.

 

As an added precaution, Manber said, NanoRacks has hired the Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles, a U.S. federally funded research and development center, to oversee the company's review of what happened.

 

In an interview here at the 65th International Astronautical Congress, Manber stressed — and NASA in its summary of the event agreed — that the unscheduled release of the two satellites at no time posed any threat to the station crew or the station's infrastructure.

 

"This is a commercial project, and we have to accept the possibility of failures," Manber said. "But we have to assure that any failure does not pose a threat, and this posed no threat. We are getting our space legs. If this had happened on an expendable launch vehicle, of course, the satellites would have been lost."

 

In the event, the satellites owned by Planet Labs of San Francisco that were released in an uncontrolled fashion did not suffer from the experience. The satellites that were not released are similarly in good health.

 

Manber said two of the dispensers now aboard the station — the ones whose satellites did not deploy on command — would be returned to NanoRacks for inspection. NanoRacks is now more closely calibrating the tightness of the screws before they are prepared for packing into the space station cargo freighters.

 

"This was a case of our not fully understanding how sensitive to screw tightness of the dispensers were," Manber said.

 

The dispensers, rectangular cylinders with a door at the end, each house up to several "cubesats" — satellites measuring 10 centimeters on a side and typically weighing only a few kilograms.

 

The dispensers exit the station from JAXA's Kibo habitable module. Once outside, they are seized by Japan's robotic manipulator arm and placed into the correct release orientation.

 

NanoRacks' business has become centered on cubesat deployments because the number of cubesats — dozens by Planet Labs alone — built by commercial companies is skyrocketing. NanoRacks has placed more than 150 payloads on the space station and has more than 100 more awaiting delivery, NanoRacks Business Development Manager Richard Pournelle said here in a presentation of the company's business.

 

Pournelle said NanoRacks has booked four orders from customers seeking to deploy satellites weighing up to 50 kilograms, and the company is aiming to accommodate 100-kilogram-class satellites.

 

The international space station operates at an altitude of between 390 and 410 kilometers, its orbit inclined 51.6 degrees relative to the equator. While not ideal as an Earth observation orbit for some missions because it does not cover the whole planet, the station's orbit overflies 95 percent of Earth's surface and is located under the radiation belts that can disturb satellite operations and cut their service lives.

 

The orbit is also low enough that satellites deployed there, even if they fail in orbit or do not have their own propulsion, will be removed from orbit in a matter of months by the natural forces of residual oxygen at that altitude, meaning they pose only a short-term hazard as space debris.

 

 

One More Absolutely Amazing Timelapse from the International Space Station

 

Nancy Atkinson – Universe Today

 

We've featured several timelapse compilations of footage and imagery taken from the International Space Station (like here, here and here) but this one put together by Phil Selmes is great in that it also includes footage *of* the ISS, as shot by the astronauts on the space shuttle as well as actual space to ground audio communications. Phil said he included the audio clips "to remind the audience of the humanity that inhabits the space station."

 

There is just something about these videos from the ISS that speaks to your soul. Phil told Universe Today that while putting this together, he saw "how different our world looks just 370kms above our heads. I didn't see politics, races, borders, countries, religions or differences," he said via email. "I saw one planet, one world, one incredibly beautiful miracle in the absolute vastness of the universe. It gave me some perspective, ironically it brought me 'back to earth.'"

The video and imagery is from the Johnson Space Center's Gateway to Astronaut Photography of the Earth.

 

 

NASA Launches Student Contest for 3D-Printed Astronaut Tools

 

Megan Gannon – Space.com

 

You don't have to become an astronaut to use the International Space Station's new 3D printer.

 

NASA has challenged students, ages 5 to 19, to design 3D-printed tools that could be made in microgravity.

 

The first 3D printer to fly in space arrived at the astronaut outpost last month aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. SpaceX delivered the machine along with more than 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kilograms) of cargo on its fourth resupply mission to the space station for NASA.

 

The printer was built by the California-based company Made in Space, which plans to create simple plastic parts at first, to test whether 3D printing is viable in the final frontier. Now, students will have a chance to take part in that experiment.

 

NASA and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Foundation launched a set of "Future Engineers" 3D Space Challenges on Sept. 21. The contest asks students in grades K-12 to create and submit a digital 3D model of a tool that they think astronauts will need in space.

 

"As you know we don't have overnight shipping up in space, so when we really need something we have to wait," NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, who spent six months living and working on the space station in 2010, said in a video announcing the challenge. "To be able to make parts on demand will forever change that for us."

 

Entries, which are due by Dec. 15, will be judged for their creativity, usefulness and adherence to design guidelines. Semifinalists will be announced in mid-January and the winners will be revealed on Jan. 30.

The grand prize for the winning teen entrant (ages 13 to 19) includes a trip to NASA's Payload Operations in Huntsville, Alabama, where the student will watch his or her print made live on the space station. The winner in the 5- to 12-year-old set will get a 3D printer for his or her school.

 

You can learn more about the contest and how to participate here: http://www.futureengineers.org/

 

 

Shuttle map gives the best view yet of Earth's curves

 

New Scientist

 

PEER into every crack and crevice. Fourteen years ago, the space shuttle flew a mission to map our planet. Now the data is finally being released in full.

 

Previous versions of the Shuttle Radar Topography data set only covered the US in high resolution, the rest of the world was in lower resolution. The latest release covers nearly the whole planet in nine times more detail than before.

 

Robert Brakenridge, director of the Dartmouth Flood Observatory at the University of Colorado, says that even though the mission to collect the data ran in 2000, the elevation data it collected remains the gold standard in mapping. The map of the world's peaks and troughs is used by Google Earth, among many others.

 

"It's the most widely used data set, it's the one we trust," says Brakenridge. "It's been exceptionally valuable for many years, and now it's nine times more valuable."

 

Each pixel in the new data release covers 900 square metres of the planet. The old data had 8100 square metre pixels.

 

 

 

END

More at www.spacetoday.net

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