Better read kraft's letter on Danger to Iss in retiring shuttle!
Sent from my iPad
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 14, 2015 at 11:33:26 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Wednesday – Jan. 14, 2015
Stay warm everyone …..the wind chill is horrific today. So much for Global Warming :<)Looks like the ISS potential Ammonia leak on the US Segment of the Station from this morning is maybe more and more likely just an instrumentation failure …..more to come as they continue to troubleshoot.NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsWednesday – Jan. 14, 2015HEADLINES AND LEADSEngineers study possible coolant leak aboard space stationWilliam Harwood - CBS NewsConcern about a possible ammonia coolant leak early Wednesday prompted astronauts aboard the International Space Station to evacuate the U.S. segment of the complex, joining three cosmonauts in Russian modules while flight controllers studied telemetry to figure out if alarms were triggered by an actual leak, a sensor problem or some other issue, officials said Wednesday.Astronauts relocate after space station alarmMariano Castillo - CNNA possible leak in the cooling system on the International Space Station has resulted in the evacuation of the U.S. crew from the American segment of the station to the Russian segment, NASA said Wednesday.Space Station Crew Shelters in Russian Segment After Possible Ammonia LeakMatthew Bodner - Moscow TimesThe U.S. segment of the International Space Station (ISS) has been evacuated and sealed off from the rest of the station after indications of a hazardous chemical leak were discovered, a senior NASA official said Wednesday.What Did NASA Learn from Orion's First Test Flight? NASA Administrator Bolden tells AmericaSpaceKen Kremer - AmericaSpaceWhat did NASA and Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin learn from the maiden test flight of the agency's next generation crew vehicle following its recent successful launch in Dec. 2014 and homecoming return to the Kennedy Space Center?Oh SMAP: NASA plans to get the dirt on soil moisture with new satelliteAmy Thompson - Spaceflight InsiderAs part of NASA's Earth Sciences campaign, a new Earth-observing satellite is prepping to launch before dawn on Jan. 29 from California's Vandenberg Air Force base. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission plans to dig into the topmost layer of our planet's soil in order to accurately measure the hidden water within and determine how that soil water affects our weather and climate. The mission will produce the most accurate, highest-resolution global maps ever obtained from space of soil moisture, while enhancing scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles.Cape expects to be world's busiest spaceport in 2015James Dean – Florida TodayIf early schedules hold up, Cape Canaveral will be the world's busiest spaceport in 2015 with 24 rocket launches, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing says.If early schedules hold up, Cape Canaveral will be the world's busiest spaceport in 2015 with 24 rocket launches, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing said today.Boeing Wins U.S. Patent for Stacking Electric Satellites on RocketPeter B. de Selding - Space NewsBoeing Space and Intelligence has received a U.S. patent on a process that places one electric-powered satellite atop another under a rocket's fairing, without the need for a satellite support structure.What Can We Do If an Asteroid Threatens Earth? Europe Starts PlanningElizabeth Howell - SPACE.comWhat should humanity do the next time a space rock threatens Earth? European officials recently spent two days figuring out possible ways to respond to such a scenario, with the aim of drawing up effective procedures before the danger actually materializes.Space chemistry could be cooking up icy building blocks of life, study saysAmina Khan – Los Angeles TimesWhere did the ingredients for life on Earth come from? Many scientists think the basic chemical building blocks for biology were delivered via comet, but the building blocks -- and the building process -- remain a mystery.Launch campaign resumes for ESA space planeStephen Clark - Spaceflightnow.comEngineers are resuming preparations to launch an experimental European re-entry test vehicle on a Vega rocket Feb. 11 after a two-month delay ordered by safety authorities to analyze risks posed to the public by the booster's unique trajectory after liftoff from French Guiana.COMPLETE STORIESEngineers study possible coolant leak aboard space stationWilliam Harwood - CBS NewsConcern about a possible ammonia coolant leak early Wednesday prompted astronauts aboard the International Space Station to evacuate the U.S. segment of the complex, joining three cosmonauts in Russian modules while flight controllers studied telemetry to figure out if alarms were triggered by an actual leak, a sensor problem or some other issue, officials said Wednesday.The alarms were triggered just after 4 a.m. EST (GMT-5) when an apparent pressure increase was detected in a water coolant loop in the forward Harmony module. Water is circulated inside the station to carry away the heat generated by the lab's electronics. The water then flows through components called heat exchangers, transferring the heat to ammonia coolant that flows through huge external radiators to keep the station within temperature limits.The pressure spike in coolant loop B was a possible indicator of an ammonia leak and playing it safe, flight controllers told Expedition 42 commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to don masks and move into the Russian segment of the space station.Joining cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov, Wilmore, Cristoforetti and Virts closed a hatch between NASA's Unity module and the Russian Zarya module, isolating all six crew members in the Russian segment of the lab complex, which uses a different cooling system."Flight controllers here in Houston detected an increase in pressure in the water loop for thermal control system B, or bravo, on the station, one of two redundant cooling loops, which triggered the alarm," said NASA mission control commentator Rob Navias. "Acting in very, very conservative fashion, the crew was directed to isolate themselves in the Russian segment."He said the crew members were "safe and in good shape," adding "we need to emphasize there is no data to suggest there was, in fact, a real ammonia leak despite a number of reports that are circulating to that effect."Later in the morning, a NASA official said in a Twitter posting the problem may have been caused by "an errant sensor or computer relay." In any case, there was no direct evidence of an actual ammonia leak.In an exchange with the crew, astronaut James Kelly at the Johnson Space Center in Houston told Wilmore and company to stand by pending additional analysis."We're still trying to figure out exactly what happened," Kelly said. "We're not entirely convinced this is an ammonia leak. ... There's a possibility of a combination of sensor problems, MDM (computer) partial failures and thermal effects all thrown together in the exact wrong way to make this thing look like it was your classic ammonia leak."Bottom line is we've got all the experts coming now, everybody's poring over the data, we've got all the smart folks taking a look at it and we're trying to figure out exactly what's going on."He said pressure in the U.S. segment was stable and "we've got at least a full day before we hit any kind of limit right now for positive pressure relief or anything like that.""So bottom line is we're pretty much staying in this configuration we're in right now while all the folks come in and talk about it, take a look at the data, deconstruct this thing and try to figure out exactly what happened.""Thank you, we really appreciate that summary," Wilmore replied. "We'll just stand by ready to do anything from our end that you have for us."Kelly told the crew to stand by for additional updates and in the meantime, "enjoy your impromptu day off.""We'll keep you guys informed as to what's going on, and we'll also let you know as the conventional wisdom comes around on the story," Kelly said. "But like I said, the good news right now is we're not utterly convinced that we had a very bad problem that we had indications of. Clearly, we did the right thing with the indications we had, but we're still trying to figure out what the actual event is."The International Space Station is equipped with two independent coolant loops that use water and ammonia circulating through a complex arrangement of heat exchangers, pumps, valves and radiators to get rid of the heat generated by the lab's electrical systems.While either loop can handle the heat produced by critical life support, communications, stabilization and key computer systems, both are needed to cool those components, the station's major science experiments and other non-essential equipment.Inside the station's pressurized modules, electrical components are mounted on "cold plates" that use water flowing through internal lines to keep equipment cool. The warmed water in the "moderate temperature loop," or MTL, is pumped to heat exchangers that transfer the thermal load to the ammonia coolant that circulates through the station's external thermal control system, or ETCS.Powerful pumps in each coolant loop push the ammonia through an intricate system of valves and lines to large radiators mounted on the back side of the lab's main solar power truss where the heat is radiated to space. The cooled ammonia then is returned to the heat exchangers for another cooling cycle.Astronauts relocate after space station alarmMariano Castillo - CNNA possible leak in the cooling system on the International Space Station has resulted in the evacuation of the U.S. crew from the American segment of the station to the Russian segment, NASA said Wednesday.The U.S. astronauts are safe, the agency said.The Russian Federal Space Agency earlier reported that there was a leak in the cooling system, but NASA described the relocation as a precautionary move following an alarm. A leak has not been confirmed, NASA said.The American section of the space station is isolated while astronauts investigate the cause of the alarm.NASA said its crew responded to increased pressures in the station's cooling loop. This could indicate an ammonia leak, NASA said.Two U.S. astronauts are aboard the International Space Station -- commander Barry Wilmore and flight engineer Terry Virts."So, big-picture perspective, we're trying to figure out exactly what happened. We're not entirely convinced that this is an ammonia leak," Wilmore told NASA Mission Control in Houston.It is possible that the alarm was set off by a faulty sensor or some other cause, he said.Space Station Crew Shelters in Russian Segment After Possible Ammonia LeakMatthew Bodner - Moscow TimesThe U.S. segment of the International Space Station (ISS) has been evacuated and sealed off from the rest of the station after indications of a hazardous chemical leak were discovered, a senior NASA official said Wednesday.Sean Fuller, NASA's top representative in Russia, told The Moscow Times by phone that the U.S. and European crew living in the U.S. side of ISS had taken refuge in the Russian segment after a possible ammonia leak was detected.Ammonia is a highly toxic substance used in the cooling systems of spacecraft and space stations.Fuller said NASA had not yet conclusively confirmed the ammonia contamination on board the $150 billion orbiting outpost, but that the crew is following procedure to isolate a possible danger zone.A statement from the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, on Wednesday said the entire 6-man international crew is in the Russian segment of the space station, which has been sealed off from the U.S. side after signs of a leak were detected at 11.44 a.m. Moscow time."The crew's safety has been achieved through the coordinated and expedient actions of the cosmonauts and astronauts, as well as the mission control teams in Moscow and in Houston," the head of the Russian mission control center in Moscow, Maxim Matyushin was quoted as saying in the Roscosmos statement.The atmosphere in the Russian segment shows no sign of ammonia contamination, both sides said. According to Fuller, the crew's immediate task is to verify the existence of the leak.A spokesperson for Russia's mission control center later said there is enough food, water and oxygen to support the entire crew in the Russian half of the station for an extended period if necessary, news agency Interfax reported."The station was originally designed in such a way that each segment duplicated basic life-support functions for the entire ISS crew," the spokesperson told Interfax.What Did NASA Learn from Orion's First Test Flight? NASA Administrator Bolden tells AmericaSpaceKen Kremer - AmericaSpaceWhat did NASA and Orion prime contractor Lockheed Martin learn from the maiden test flight of the agency's next generation crew vehicle following its recent successful launch in Dec. 2014 and homecoming return to the Kennedy Space Center?"Orion is in incredible shape!" NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told AmericaSpace during an interview at Bally Ribbon Mills in Bally, PA, on Jan. 9. "It gives a lot of confidence [for the future]."Although a full analysis of Orion's first flight is still underway the initial look is promising."The flight was almost flawless," Bolden said.But there are always lessons to be learned and things that can be changed or improved. That's why test flights are conducted and that's what AmericaSpace discussed with Bolden at Bally.Bally Ribbon Mills is a small company, led by President Ray Harries, that will provide critical 3D woven thermal protection components for NASA's new Orion crew capsule, currently under development and that will one day take our astronauts on deep space journeys farther than ever before. Robust thermal protection is essential to saving the crew lives during atmospheric reentry upon returning home."It's all aimed at getting NASA to Mars," said Bolden. "We cannot get to Mars without the type of material that's being developed here at Bally."NASA's first flight worthy Orion capsule just flew to space and back during its inaugural test flight on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission barely a month ago.Orion EFT-1 roared to space with a picture perfect launch on Dec. 5, 2014 atop the 242 foot tall United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket – the world's most powerful booster – at 7:05 a.m. EST from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.NASA Administrator Bolden and Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin Vice President & Program manager for Orion, were visiting Bally to learn firsthand about some changes that will be made to the heat shield for Orion's next flight in 2018 on the Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) based on lessons learned from the EFT-1 flight. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Orion.Bolden had also just visited the Orion EFT-1 capsule at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida for the first time following its mission ending splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, recovery and cross country trek back to the Florida launch site.What did you learn when you saw the returned vehicle at KSC on Jan. 6? What did NASA learn from Orion? I asked Bolden."We are still learning what we learned from the flight," Bolden replied."So we found several things," Bolden elaborated. "One, the vehicle when I looked at it was in incredible shape!"The Delta IV Heavy boosted Orion on a two orbit, 4.5 hour flight that carried the EFT-1 capsule to an altitude of 3,604 miles. During Orion's high speed atmospheric reentry, it approached speeds of 20,000 mph (32,000 kph) or about 85% of the reentry velocity for astronauts returning from journeys to deep space destinations like the Moon, Asteroids and Mars.It endured scorching temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2200 C) to test the 16.5-foot-wide heat shield and thermal protection tiles during the 10 minute descent.What did you expect? What were the results from EFT-1? How well did the heat shield perform?"So if you asked me what I expected to see from a vehicle that had been 3600 miles out and came back in at 4000 degrees F and had what is called an ablative coating on the bottom of it – that's the part that is supposed to burn off. Well it didn't burn off!" Bolden responded."The heat shield was in incredible shape. An Apollo spacecraft would not have looked like that.""And so we are learning a lot of things. Like on fuel usage.""On the navigation system we were only single string. This wasn't a full up Orion.""But we found the flight in itself was almost flawless.""Now that doesn't mean that every flight is going to go like that. But it sure does give the team a feeling of confidence that we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing.""Some things were much better."Regarding the fuel usage, the EFT-1 capsule only used about one third of the hydrazine maneuvering propellant loaded on board."The capsule used only about 90 pounds of its about 300 pounds of hydrazine propellant stored on board," Jules Schneider, Orion Project Manager for Lockheed Martin, told me during an interview at the Dec. 19, 2014 homecoming event at KSC."All of the separation events went beautifully and basically required virtually no maneuvering fuel to control the attitude of the capsule. The expected usage was perhaps about 150 pounds.""Therefore there was a lot more hydrazine fuel on board than we expected. And we had to be cautious in transporting Orion across the country.""The heat shield performed very well. I don't know if you can tell, we've actually taken a few core samples off the heat shield already and we're looking at those," Schneider added. "We will be removing the heat shield from this vehicle later in February so we will get an ever better look at it."What are the lessons learned for the future for NASA and Lockheed?"Mike Hawes, from Lockheed Martin, and I were just discussing this," Bolden replied."So what we hope to do right now is have a NASA and Lockheed Martin partner team [prime contractor] get together. And we'll say, OK what have we learned.""What are some things that we had planned to do in the future, are things that we may not need to do now.""What tests are there that we were going to do? And maybe instead of doing three evolutions of that test, instead maybe we can get away with just one test.""Also, what things surprised us? And maybe we need another test.""So we are still going through all that. It will probably still be weeks or months before we have definitive answers on all that."From Lockheed Martin's perspective what was learned from EFT-1? Have technicians taken it apart yet and looked inside yet? I asked Lockheed VP Mike Hawes."So far in the quick look stuff in everything we gave to NASA everything looked really good," Hawes replied."The capsule is back in Florida. The back shell panels are mostly off. So some of the systems that did have some issues like in operating systems, the guys can now actually crawl around and actually see what is going on.""So we are looking thoughtfully at how much we can pull out [for the next flight on EM-1].""We have delivered all the high speed data to NASA. So NASA and our guys are going through all that.""So far the quick looks were mostly based on operational telemetry that we got in real time during the mission.""And things like the video that NASA released, where we see the plasma actually form out the top hatch window was phenomenal," Hawes explained.For its deep space missions, Orion has been designed to launch atop NASA's mammoth Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, concurrently under development.Orion's next flight during the EM-1 mission is currently scheduled for 2018 atop the first launch of the SLS."I'm extremely proud of the team," Bolden remarked when he visited the EFT-1 capsule at KSC on Jan. 6. " Spaceflight is hard.""Orion is the vehicle that will get us on our way to Mars, asteroids and other places. It is an incredible vehicle and it came through pretty well.""Stay excited. EFT-1 was just the first Orion. The team is getting the vehicle ready for the Ascent Abort-2 test. We have things we have to tick off. This is the future and we are going to make it good.""We learn something every single time we fly. If we are not learning, then we're not doing something right."Bally's role on EM-1 is to provide the compression pads that fill in the joints on the heat shield between the Orion crew module and the service module.Watch for details about Bally's work on the compression pads in my next story for AmericaSpace.And be sure to read my story about the re-flight of the EFT-1 capsule on the Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) mission – complete details here.It's due to launch atop a Peacekeeper missile from Space Launch Complex 46 (SLC-46) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.Stay tuned here for continuing updates on Orion, commercial crew and more.Oh SMAP: NASA plans to get the dirt on soil moisture with new satelliteAmy Thompson - Spaceflight InsiderAs part of NASA's Earth Sciences campaign, a new Earth-observing satellite is prepping to launch before dawn on Jan. 29 from California's Vandenberg Air Force base. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission plans to dig into the topmost layer of our planet's soil in order to accurately measure the hidden water within and determine how that soil water affects our weather and climate. The mission will produce the most accurate, highest-resolution global maps ever obtained from space of soil moisture, while enhancing scientists' understanding of the processes that link Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles."With data from SMAP, scientists and decision makers around the world will be better equipped to understand how Earth works as a system and how soil moisture impacts a myriad of human activities, from floods and drought to weather and crop yield forecasts," said Christine Bonniksen, SMAP program executive with the Science Mission Directorate's Earth Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "SMAP's global soil moisture measurements will provide a new capability to improve our understanding of Earth's climate."The mission is designed to last three years and once in orbit, SMAP will maneuver into a 426-mile (685-kilometer) altitude, near-polar orbit that repeats exactly every eight days. SMAP data will enable us to better understand how Earth's water cycle will respond to climate change.On a global scale, the amount of moisture with soil varies depending on the region — it ranges from 3-5 percent in desert areas and ranges from 40-50 percent in saturated soils. This amount also depends on other factors such as precipitation patterns, topography, vegetation cover and soil composition. From its orbital position, SMAP will be able to produce global maps with 6-mile (10-kilometer) resolution every 2-3 days.By measuring soil moisture and how its freezes or thaws will be beneficial to scientists for multiple reasons. In order to grow, plants and crops extract water from the soil via their root system. If the moisture levels in the soil are inadequate, the plants will not grow, and ultimately the amount of crops produced will dwindle. Energy produced by the Sun also has an effect on soil moisture. Soil moisture evaporates as a result of solar energy, cooling surface temperatures and as a result, increasing moisture in the atmosphere. This allows for more cloud formation and increased precipitation. Soil moisture plays a key role not only in short-term regional weather, but also in longer-term global climate.During the summer months, plants in the planet's northern boreal regions — forests located in high northern latitudes — grow by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, before entering a dormant state during the winter. Scientists have discovered that the longer the summer growth period is, the more carbon dioxide is removed from the air and absorbed by the plants. The start of the summer growing season is signaled by the thawing of water in soils, SMAP will be able to help scientists more accurately measure how much carbon dioxide is removed from the air. These measurements are key to better understanding of future global warming."Assessing future changes in regional water availability is perhaps one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP science team leader at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Today's computer models disagree on how the water cycle — precipitation, clouds, evaporation, runoff, soil water availability — will increase or decrease over time and in different regions as our world warms. SMAP's higher-resolution soil moisture data will improve the models used to make daily weather and longer-term climate predictions."SMAP also will advance our ability to monitor droughts, predict floods and mitigate the related impacts of these extreme events. It will monitor regional deficits in soil moisture, while providing critical inputs into drought monitoring and early warning systems. The mission's high-resolution observations of soil moisture will improve flood warnings by providing information on ground saturation conditions before rainstorms.SMAP contains two advanced instruments, working together to produce global soil moisture maps. It employs active radar, very similar to the flash on a camera; however, it transmits microwave pulses instead of visible light. These pulses pass through clouds and moderate vegetation cover to the ground and measures how much of that signal is reflected back.SMAP's passive radiometer, captures emitted microwave radiation, much like a natural-light camera, but without transmitting a pulse. The images produced are in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum, as microwave radiation is sensitive to how much moisture is contained in the soil.The two instruments share a large, lightweight reflector antenna that will be unfurled in orbit like a blooming flower and then spin at about 14 revolutions per minute. The antenna will allow the instruments to collect data across a 621-mile (1,000-kilometer) area, enabling global coverage every two to three days.SMAP mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, with participation by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.Be sure to stay tuned to Spaceflight Insider as we continue to cover this mission leading up to the launch on Jan. 29.Cape expects to be world's busiest spaceport in 2015James Dean – Florida TodayIf early schedules hold up, Cape Canaveral will be the world's busiest spaceport in 2015 with 24 rocket launches, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing says.If early schedules hold up, Cape Canaveral will be the world's busiest spaceport in 2015 with 24 rocket launches, the Air Force's 45th Space Wing said today."It's great time to be here, and business is booming," said Col. Thomas Falzarano, commander of the 45th Operations Group.Falzarano addressed several hundred guests at the National Space Club Florida Committee's first meeting of the year at the Radisson Resort at the Port in Cape Canaveral.His forecast for the Eastern Range includes 10 missions by United Launch Alliance -- eight on Atlas V rockets and two on Delta IVs -- and as many as 14 launches by SpaceX's Falcon rockets.The SpaceX missions could include the debut of the company's Falcon Heavy rocket from launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.Launch schedules change frequently, so it's unlikely the total projected today will be reached.In 2014 the Cape completed 16 space launches, including 10 by ULA and six by SpaceX, The Air Force had projected 21 launches, at the start of the year, including five more by SpaceX.The Cape's total last year, which included two more Trident missile tests launched from submarines, ranked No. 2 in the world behind the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Falzarano said.He said 34 more launches were in some stage of planning for 2016, making the next two years the Eastern Range's busiest two-year-stretch in more than two decades."That's pretty exciting and pretty inspiring, and a great time to be part of the Space Coast," he said.Boeing Wins U.S. Patent for Stacking Electric Satellites on RocketPeter B. de Selding - Space NewsBoeing Space and Intelligence has received a U.S. patent on a process that places one electric-powered satellite atop another under a rocket's fairing, without the need for a satellite support structure.Patent No. 8,915,472 B2, shown here, was issued Dec. 23.In it, Boeing describes how it will take advantage of the substantial weight savings offered by all-electric satellites — and those using a chemical/electric mix — by placing two of them on a rocket that otherwise could carry only one satellite at a time.The first two of Boeing's all-electric 702SP satellites are scheduled for launch in late February aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. A second pair owned by the same two satellite fleet operators — Eutelsat of Paris and ABS of Bermuda — are scheduled to launch on a Falcon 9 late this year.Launch provider Arianespace of Evry, France, almost always launches two satellites at a time on its heavy-lift Ariane 5 rocket. But these launches employ a support structure over the satellite in lower position to support the weight of the upper-position satellite. The support structure weighs around 700 kilograms.The Ariane 5 also launched four Cluster science satellites for the European Space Agency under the same fairing, with two spacecraft on top of each other and the other two separated by a support structure. These did not use all-electric propulsion, however — which appears to be an important element in Boeing's patent.Russia's Proton heavy-lift rocket has deployed two satellites at a time with no support structure, but Boeing said its invention differs from that insofar as its two satellites are interchangeable between the top and bottom positions."The primary difference is that while the Proton may have stacked, the satellites were not both all-electric propulsion system or hybrid-system satellites," Boeing said in a Jan. 12 statement explaining its patent. "It's not clear that the Russians patented what they did, but as we know it, theirs was not all-electric propulsion or a hybrid, in which case Boeing has the original patent."The Boeing patent is not limited to satellites launched in pairs, although that is the configuration it is using for its first commercial spacecraft."In the Russian system, the lower vehicle is a workhorse bus and the upper is a liquid propulsion satellite," Boeing said. "Their configuration will not support two high-power satellites — more than 7.5 kilowatts each — of nearly identical configurations. The Boeing design has the outer module, which is identical, and different internal cores, which for all intents and purposes makes them interchangeable from upper to lower position in the stack. The Russian configuration cannot switch the payload modules from upper to lower."The ability to launch two satellites at a time on a single Falcon 9 rocket was key to the Boeing contract award, signed with ABS and Satmex of Mexico. Satmex has been purchased by Eutelsat. ABS and Eutelsat have an option for four more Boeing spacecraft under the contract, signed in March 2012.What Can We Do If an Asteroid Threatens Earth? Europe Starts PlanningElizabeth Howell - SPACE.comWhat should humanity do the next time a space rock threatens Earth? European officials recently spent two days figuring out possible ways to respond to such a scenario, with the aim of drawing up effective procedures before the danger actually materializes.The first-of-its-kind simulation considered what to do if an asteroid similar to, or larger than, the one that exploded over Russia in February 2013 — which was about 62 feet (19 meters) wide — came close to Earth. Officials focused on activities ranging from 30 days to 1 hour before a potential impact."There are a large number of variables to consider in predicting the effects and damage from any asteroid impact, making simulations such as these very complex," Detlef Koschny, head of near-Earth-object activities at the European Space Agency's Space Situational Awareness office, said in a statement. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Images)]"These include the size, mass, speed, composition and impact angle," he added. "Nonetheless, this shouldn't stop Europe from developing a comprehensive set of measures that could be taken by national civil authorities, which can be general enough to accommodate a range of possible effects."The 2013 Russian meteor explosion, which occurred above the city of Chelyabinsk, helped to bring the asteroid threat into a new realm of public awareness. The shockwave created by the airburst injured 1,500 people; the vast majority were cut by shards of flying glass after windows were shattered.The European authorities performing the new simulation, which took place in late November, took a lesson from the Chelyabinsk event, determining that it would be best to warn the public to stay away from windows and stay in buildings' most secure areas — similar to the advice given during tornadoes.Officials considered what to do if Earth were threatened by an object between 39 feet and 125 feet wide (12 to 38 m) traveling at 28,000 mph (45,000 km/h). ESA and related warning agencies would need to work quickly, they determined, and coordinate with civil protection authorities to give information about where and when the asteroid would likely strike, and what effects would be anticipated."For example, within about three days before a predicted impact, we'd likely have relatively good estimates of the mass, size, composition and impact location," Gerhard Drolshagen, of ESA's near-Earth-object team, said in the same statement. "All of these directly affect the type of impact effects, amount of energy to be generated and, hence, potential reactions that civil authorities could take."Space chemistry could be cooking up icy building blocks of life, study saysAmina Khan – Los Angeles TimesWhere did the ingredients for life on Earth come from? Many scientists think the basic chemical building blocks for biology were delivered via comet, but the building blocks -- and the building process -- remain a mystery.Now, a team led by French researchers thinks they may have found lab-based evidence that a class of complex organic molecules could have evolved in the ice of star-forming clouds -- and could be a potential source for the organic matter that allowed life on Earth to emerge.The findings, published in in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also offer a chemical tip sheet for the European Space Agency's comet-chasing Rosetta mission, giving it hints as to which chemicals to look for.The scientists were interested in what are called "evolved interstellar ices." These ices hang out in dense molecular clouds that give birth to a star and its surrounding solar system. As the star forms and the planets and comets and asteroids coalesce out of this debris, these ices are incorporated within them.The ices contain many familiar molecules: water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methanol, ammonia and methane -- some of which are found on Earth in biological contexts. Comets or asteroids packed full of these ices could have delivered life-giving molecules to Earth, the thinking goes.However, it takes a lot of chemical reactions to get from simple molecules to the complex strings that make up a macromolecule such as RNA (which is what scientists think coded the genetic instructions for living things before the emergence of DNA). How and where did all that chemistry happen?As it turns out, a lot of chemistry is probably happening in the supposedly dead emptiness of space. It may not sound as conducive to cooking up complex organic molecules as the bubbling "primordial soup" we picture on early Earth, but space can be a chemically dynamic place, too. Ultraviolet radiation, cosmic rays and heat can cause atoms in the ice to stick together, fusing into ever-more-intricate molecules over time.So, the chemistry happening in this space ice could be doing a lot of grunt work before these molecules ever reach a planet, producing the kinds of complex organic compounds that would be essential for life to emerge. And since stars in general form out of these ice-filled molecular clouds, it could be happening all over the place, the study authors wrote. It could be the same way that organic molecules are delivered to life-friendly exoplanets, too."Possibly at the origin of the organic matter in our solar system and incorporated into planetesimals," they wrote, "this material may be considered as a potential source for prebiotic chemistry on [rocky] planets, following a process that may be quite universal."The problem is, it's not easy to study the evolution of these ices in the vastness of outer space. So the scientists set up an experiment in the laboratory where they could simulate the conditions of outer space, and watch what compounds were made when they subjected the basic starting materials (i.e. water, methanol, ammonia) to the harsh interstellar chemical processes.Previous work had turned up many intriguing organic compounds, including amino acids -- essential molecules that today serve as the building block of proteins. But in this new experiment, the scientists actually found a whole other class of compound called aldehydes -- 10 of them, including two sugar-related molecules called glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde.These two sugar-related compounds, the researchers wrote, are "considered as key prebiotic intermediates in the first steps toward the synthesis of ribonucleotides in a planetary environment."So this lab-based experiment reveals that these interstellar ices could hold the potential starting materials for RNA -- and thus, so could any comet or asteroid that coalesced out of these ices (provided they haven't been altered beyond recognition in the intervening billions of years).Evidence in the lab is one thing. The authors say the next step would be to actually find these compounds in their natural setting, perhaps by using the new Atacama Large Millimeter Array telescopes to look for glyceraldehyde. Both compounds could be searched for in comets as well in certain carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, they added.The findings could also soon provide useful guidance for the Rosetta mission, whose Philae lander touched town on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko late last year. Philae's solar-powered battery has been drained, but if it manages to wake up from its slumber once it gets closer to the sun, its Cometary Sampling and Composition experiment has a device that's designed to look for such organic molecules.Launch campaign resumes for ESA space planeStephen Clark - Spaceflightnow.comEngineers are resuming preparations to launch an experimental European re-entry test vehicle on a Vega rocket Feb. 11 after a two-month delay ordered by safety authorities to analyze risks posed to the public by the booster's unique trajectory after liftoff from French Guiana.The safety review ordered by CNES — the French space agency — prompted a delay in the launch of the Intermediate Experimental Vehicle from Nov. 18 to Feb. 11. CNES is responsible for the safety of the public and infrastructure at the Guiana Space Center, Europe's spaceport located on the northeast coast of South America.The launch trajectory of the IXV space plane on a suborbital trajectory will differ from the Vega rocket's previous flights, which flew north from the space center with satellites heading for high-inclination polar orbits. The launch of IXV will head east from Vega's launch pad, and the geometry of the French Guiana coastline means it will fly over land in the first phase of the launch sequence.Officials said they slightly adjusted the launch track to alleviate the the safety concern.The four-stage Vega rocket was stacked on the launch pad at the Guiana Space Center, and the IXV spacecraft was about to be fueled with hydrazine maneuvering propellant when officials announced the delay in October.A ship tasked with retrieving the space plane after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean had already left port in Italy when news of the launch delay was released.Giorgio Tumino, IXV's program manager at the European Space Agency, told Spaceflight Now that technicians will load hydrazine into the space plane the week of Jan. 19. By the end of January, the 2,000-kilogram (4,409-pound) spacecraft will be mated to the Vega rocket's payload attachment adapter and enclosed within the launcher's nose fairing.Workers will transfer the IXV space plane — inside the payload fairing — to the Vega rocket's launch facility, where the composite will be hoisted atop the booster for final testing in early February.Liftoff on Feb. 11 is set for a two-hour launch window opening at 1300 GMT (8 a.m. EST), Tumino said.The IXV space plane and Vega launcher programs are managed by ESA under Italian leadership. Thales Alenia Space built the car-size spacecraft.The Intermediate Experimental Vehicle will launch on an arcing suborbital path reaching a top speed of 7.5 kilometers per second, or nearly 16,800 mph, and a peak altitude of 420 kilometers (261 miles). Its flight will last 100 minutes before splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, where the Italian ship Nos Aries will recover the space plane for return to Europe for inspections of its heat shield, structure and internal components.Small rocket thrusters and two aft-mounted aerodynamic flaps will control the spacecraft's descent. It will plunge back into the atmosphere at an altitude of 120 kilometers (74 miles) on a path engineers say is similar to a re-entry trajectory from low Earth orbit.The IXV will deploy parachutes to slow it down before landing.The guided re-entry experiment will help engineers design future re-entry vehicles that could be used in exploration, microgravity research, Earth observation, and orbital debris mitigation, according to ESA."This is the first flight demonstration of features such as highly advanced thermal structures: thrusters and flaps that are part of the control system, and the 300 sensors and infrared camera to map the heating all along the spacecraft from the nose to the flaps," said Jose Longo, head of ESA's aerothermodynamics department. "These things just cannot be tested in the same way in laboratories."The IXV testbed arrived at the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on Sept. 24 after a trans-Atlantic flight aboard a Russian Antonov cargo plane.The Vega rocket's assembly on its launch mount began Sept. 18 with the stacking of the booster's solid-fueled P80 first stage motor. After the addition of Vega's solid-fueled second and third stages, the rocket's Ukrainian-built hydrazine-burning fourth stage was added in mid-October to complete the launcher's build-up.When the IXV and payload shroud are added, the Vega rocket will stand 98 feet tall.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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