Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - August 2, 2013

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: August 2, 2013 6:52:10 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - August 2, 2013

Happy Friday everyone.    No JSC Today arrival yet – perhaps they are taking Flex Friday off for a change.  But if one shows I will send it to you all.

 

We had a huge gathering yesterday for our monthly Retirees Luncheon.   It was great to be able to see you all and spend a little time catching up on how things were going and reminiscing about NASA and what fun things you have been doing in retirement-wish I could have visited more but a little thing called work got in my way. 

 

Especially great to see new retiree Phil Engelauf, Chet Vaughan, Dottie Lee and Dot Lee.  Hope all of you enjoyed the fellowship and opportunity to reflect on NASA past and present as much as I always do.

 

 

NASA TV:

·         11:40 am Central (12:40 pm EDT) – E36's Karen Nyberg with Minnesota Public Radio

& Chris Cassidy with US Navy's Emerging Media Div

·         2 pm Central SATURDAY (3 EDT) – HTV-4 launch coverage fm MCC (via Tanegashima)

·         2:48 pm Central SATURDAY (3:48 EDT) – LAUNCH of HTV-4 (docking Friday, Aug. 9)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday – August 2, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA preps next phase of commercial crew program

 

Melonie Holt - WFTV TV (Orlando)

 

NASA is preparing to launch the next phase of its commercial crew program, which means opening up the race to return to U.S.-manned spaceflight. A dozen aerospace companies met with NASA Thursday to find out how they might become commercial space contenders and officials told the group it's looking for proposals. "For our purposes, if they get through the certification, there will be a minimum of two missions to the International Space Station with our NASA personnel," said NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development Director Phil McAlister.

 

NASA, private space teams compare notes

KSC sessions combine big message, contract minutiae for 3 contenders

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

From Alan Shepard's Redstone rocket and Freedom 7 capsule through the space shuttle, a video showed the first launches of each American spacecraft that has carried people into orbit. Ed Mango, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told an industry audience Thursday at Kennedy Space Center that one of their vehicles would someday be added to that footage. "The people in this room . . . are going to put the next U.S. vehicle into low Earth orbit," he said, prompting applause. A run at that achievement, which would mean an end to reliance on Russian spacecraft, will start with the hefty contract NASA plans to award next July to one or more companies.

 

Garver: We Need Full Funding on Commercial Crew

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

Last week, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver met with reporters after giving a keynote address at the NewSpace 2013 Conference in San Jose, Calif. Below is an excerpt of the conversation relating to the space Agency's Commercial Crew program…

 

NASA's Space Launch System passes major design review

 

Lee Roop – Huntsville Times

 

NASA said Thursday its Space Launch System has cleared its biggest technical hurdle en route to a 2017 launch by successfully completing a preliminary design review of the entire program. Engineers and experts from across NASA concluded Wednesday that the heavy lift booster's design, production and ground support plans are sound, and that means those major components are now basically locked in and moving forward. Read more about a PDR. SLS program managers also said that a major rocket program reaching this milestone 20 months from getting started, as SLS has done, is "almost unprecedented" in NASA history.

 

At Michoud, NASA hits milestone in Space Launch System, unveils rocket segment

 

Katherine Sayre - New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

NASA reached a key milestone in its Space Launch System program this week by passing a preliminary design review of the new mega-rocket intended to drive humans into deep space, the agency said Thursday. The major components of the rocket are being constructed at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans. Meanwhile, NASA released a photo and video of a towering segment of the Space Launch System's core stage inside the Michoud Assembly Facility.

 

NASA's Next Mega-Rocket Passes Key Design Review

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

The huge rocket that NASA is building to blast astronauts toward Mars, asteroids and other destinations in deep space has passed a critical design milestone, agency officials announced Thursday. Engineers wrapped up the preliminary design review for NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday, giving the heavy lifter's design, production and ground support plans a stamp of approval. "In two short years from the first announcement of the Space Launch System, we are at a milestone that validates the detailed design and integration of the system," Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

 

Space Launch System passes major design milestone

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

The Space Launch System (SLS) has passed preliminary design review (PDR), a crucial design step for the rocket. The PDR applies to the initial version of the rocket, dubbed 1A, which will use a Rocketdyne RL-10-powered Delta Cryogenic Upper Stage as an interim and solid rocket boosters adapted from the Space Shuttle. The 1A, which will be capable of lofting 70mt into low Earth orbit (LEO) will make one flight in 2017 before replacement by the 1B. The 1B will include a Rocketdyne J-2X-powered upper stage and as-yet-unselected advanced boosters, and is currently scheduled to fly in 2021.

 

Ousted from first Orion flight, circular ATK solar arrays still set To power Cygnus

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

Orbital Science Corp.'s Cygnus space tug will head to the international space station (ISS) in September powered by a pair of rectangular solar arrays from Dutch Space, but by the time the European-built tug makes its fifth flight to the orbital outpost, it will be sporting a distinctive pair of circular arrays ATK Aerospace developed for NASA's Orion deep-space crew capsule. Loosely scheduled for 2014 or 2015, Orbital's fifth space station resupply mission coincides with the introduction of an enhanced version of Cygnus that can carry as much as 2,700 kilograms, up from the original 2,000 kilograms, according to Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski.

 

Robotic-Servicing Testbed Is Being Upgraded

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

Dextre, the multipurpose dexterous manipulator that rides at the end of the International Space Station's (ISS) robotic arm, will acquire some new tools and tasks by year-end. Among the cargo tucked into Japan's fourth H-II Transfer Vehicle scheduled for launch to the ISS Aug. 4 is Phase II hardware for NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), a testbed the size of a window air conditioner bolted onto the station truss that mimics operational satellites. After a good workout on the basics of satellite repair and refueling, the new gear will allow Dextre to practice more complex work—borescope inspections, cryogenic-refueling attachments, rewiring and the like.

 

Italian astronaut says spacesuit leak was 'like being in a goldfish bowl'

 

Richard Gray - London Telegraph

 

Luca Parmitano was working outside the International Space Station earlier this month at the start of a planned six and a half-hour spacewalk. But as he and his US colleague Chris Cassidy began work replacing some of the external hardware of the space station, Major Parmitano's helmet began filling with water. In the absence of gravity the liquid, which came from his spacesuit's cooling system, formed a bubble that filled his ears, covered his eyes and blocked his nostrils. Major Parmitano, who is an astronaut with the European Space Agency and a pilot for the Italian Air Force, said it felt like being a "goldfish in a fishbowl".

 

Congressional debate over NASA's asteroid capture mission ignores agency's real spaceflight problem

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

There's a lot of buzz in and around Congress right now about NASA's proposed mission to capture an asteroid, which Republicans are disinclined to support. The issue has gotten considerable news coverage because NASA is rarely a partisan issue. However, Republicans do not like NASA's plans to send a robotic spacecraft to an as-yet unidentified asteroid and tow it into the vicinity of the moon, where humans can visit it. Being the subject of congressional infighting, of course, does NASA no good. But this battle is a distraction from NASA's real problem, which neither Democrats nor Republicans are willing to acknowledge. Namely, the space agency is being tasked with building a huge and powerful rocket it will not be able to afford to fly.

 

Astronaut twins to be test subjects

Experiment will compare year on ISS and earthbound

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Twin astronauts will serve as test subjects for human spaceflight experiments when one of the brothers flies a yearlong expedition on the International Space Station while the other remains on Earth. Space station-bound U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and his sibling, former astronaut Mark Kelly, volunteered for the unique opportunity. In fact, it was their idea. "This opportunity originated at the initiative of the twin astronauts themselves," NASA said in a solicitation for research proposals this week.

 

NASA, NSBRI Call For Astronaut Health Research Proposals

 

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

 

NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), an agency-funded U.S. research consortium, have issued a joint research announcement seeking proposals for ground- and space-based investigations addressing a range of health and performance issues confronting astronauts assigned to future space exploration missions. The "Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions" solicitation addresses the broad study areas of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal alterations; human factors and performance; neurobehavioral and psychosocial factors; sensorimotor adaptation; smart medical systems and technology.

 

The Glow From Your Gadgets Is Disrupting Your Sleep Cycle

 

William Herkewitz - Popular Mechanics

 

It's past midnight and you should be asleep. But eyes open, you sit at your computer as the soft glow of the screen casts a bluish light across your face. You're just not tired yet. You might be thinking: I'm just naturally a night owl. According to sleep scientist Kenneth Wright, however, that sleep rhythm might not be so natural after all. "People are now living in an environment with reduced exposure to sunlight and increased exposure to electrical light at night," Wright says. "The consequence is that there's a delay in our internal clocks." George Brainard, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University who was not involved in the study, says "We're relatively unconscious of light that's regulating our circadian rhythms." Near your eye's photoreceptive cells—which turn light waves into the colored film-reel of your vision—are nerves cells containing melanopsin, a recently discovered pigment that signals your internal clock without effecting sight. Brainard thinks we can live (and sleep) in harmony with electric lighting, but only if we create and use lights designed for our biology. That means less blue and fluorescent lighting before bedtime. Even NASA is taking note. Under his guidance the International Space Station will be changing the lightbulbs in 2016 to a less disruptive and less fluorescent blue light. "Electrical lighting is fundamentally a good thing," Brainard says. "It's a hallmark of human civilization. But there are unseen consequences."

 

SpaceX will send nine-engine rocket for reusability tests in New Mexico

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

SpaceX has confirmed it will bring a nine-engine vehicle to Spaceport America in New Mexico to test reusable technology, rather than the Grasshopper reusability test bed currently flying in Texas. In contrast to Grasshopper, which flies with one Merlin 1D engine and associated tankage, the new vehicle will closely resemble the Falcon 9-R core stage that had its first firing at SpaceX's test stand in McGregor, Texas, with nine engines and eventually a potential second stage.

 

Pumps & Pipes aims to bring together energy, medicine, space innovators

 

Angela Shah - Xconomy.com

 

Companies often struggle within themselves to get different departments to collaborate. So trying to bring together completely disparate sectors—say, innovators in energy and medicine—to work together for mutual benefit would seem like madness. But that's exactly the mission of the Houston organization Pumps & Pipes. "We work very hard to establish that even dissimilar areas of technology have many similarities," says Bill Kline, manager of drilling and subsurface at ExxonMobil's Upstream Research Company and one of the group's founders. "In both the upstream oil and gas industries and heart/vascular areas, we all work through long, thin tubes. We really have borrowed from the other guy's toolbox." Pumps & Pipes held its most recent summit Monday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in south Houston to welcome its third partner, the aerospace industry. "Operating in space leads to innovation in telemedicine, nutrition, radiation protection, exercise science," says Ellen Ochoa, an astronaut and JSC center director. "Space is a hard and unforgiving environment, and if it can work there, it can work on Earth."

 

Life in Space: A View from the Past

 

Michele Berger & Edecio Martinez - The Weather Channel

 

It's not easy to make space habitable for humans. The International Space Station, which is only as long as a football field and not as roomy as two airplanes, is just 15 years old. The human body can't survive unprotected in space. That much we know. "If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury," explains NASA's Imagine the Universe. "Various minor problems…start after 10 seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate." Another minute or two, and you likely die. But what about in a floating structure with the systems we need to breathe, the room we need to move and the food and water we need to live? In the 1970s, Princeton University physics professor Gerard O'Neill dreamed big, attempting to create a visual reality for what was then - and still is - a fantasy. The artist's renderings give us a glimpse.

 

Terex crane in space station lift

 

Cranes Today Magazine

 

Florida based rental firm Beyel Brothers used a Terex AC 350/6 all terrain crane to remove an overhead crane at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA from the Space Shuttle's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The AC 350/6 crane, boom and 116,7t counterweight was transported in only seven truckloads. With a top speed of 53mph the AC 350/6 got to the job site quickly, which the rental firm said was a timesaver. Once inside the VAB, Beyel Brothers' crew set up the crane in four hours. Crews worked with 135ft of main boom to remove the overhead crane from the 526ft tall building, the largest single story building in the world.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA preps next phase of commercial crew program

 

Melonie Holt - WFTV TV (Orlando)

 

NASA is preparing to launch the next phase of its commercial crew program, which means opening up the race to return to U.S.-manned spaceflight.

 

A dozen aerospace companies met with NASA Thursday to find out how they might become commercial space contenders and officials told the group it's looking for proposals.

 

"For our purposes, if they get through the certification, there will be a minimum of two missions to the International Space Station with our NASA personnel," said NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development Director Phil McAlister.

 

With a goal of a return to operational flights by 2017, NASA would like to award a contract or contracts by next summer.

 

There are some leading contenders: The Boeing company, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Space X are all developing commercial spacecraft.

 

NASA has already invested more than $1 billion in its commercial crew program and its current partners.

 

"They have matured their designs and development well," said McAlister. "We've been partnering with all three of those companies for several years, but this is an open competition and it allows anyone to come in, even if they have not been partnering with NASA previously."

 

There's no dollar value attached to any potential contract. NASA is allowing competitors to say what they think it's going to take for them to get through the government portion of their contract and it will involve some cost-sharing.

 

But NASA, which is currently dependent on Russia to transport U.S. astronauts to the I.S.S., plans to request proposals in the fall.

 

"The mission of the program is safe, reliable, cost-effective. In that order," said NASA commercial crew program manager Ed Mango.

 

NASA said it would like to see more than one company all the way through certification to increase competition.

 

NASA, private space teams compare notes

KSC sessions combine big message, contract minutiae for 3 contenders

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

From Alan Shepard's Redstone rocket and Freedom 7 capsule through the space shuttle, a video showed the first launches of each American spacecraft that has carried people into orbit.

 

Ed Mango, head of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told an industry audience Thursday at Kennedy Space Center that one of their vehicles would someday be added to that footage.

 

"The people in this room . . . are going to put the next U.S. vehicle into low Earth orbit," he said, prompting applause.

 

A run at that achievement, which would mean an end to reliance on Russian spacecraft, will start with the hefty contract NASA plans to award next July to one or more companies.

 

Called the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, it will include orders for at least two flights of four-person crews to the International Space Station, the first of which NASA hopes to fly by late 2017.

 

Those will be preceded by at least one crewed test flight to the station, leading to final certification of the systems as safe enough to fly crews to the ISS.

 

The competition is open, but boils down to three companies already developing systems with more than $1 billion in NASA support: The Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp., which plan to launch spacecraft atop United Launch Alliance rockets, and SpaceX.

 

No other major launch provider appeared on a list of meeting attendees NASA provided.

 

NASA asked them for feedback on a draft request for proposals that will be finalized in October. Company proposals are due in December.

 

After the inspirational opening remarks, Thursday morning's briefing delved into contract minutiae ranging from data rights to document page limits.

 

It also touched on details that made the missions feel closer than four years away — when flight-readiness reviews must be held or who will be responsible for search-and-rescue operations.

 

The big picture remained the same and still represents a historic shift from past NASA programs: "You are going to own and operate this system," said Phil McAlister, head of commercial spaceflight development at NASA headquarters.

 

Company proposals will include their outlook for commercial missions beyond NASA flights, if any.

 

Mango said about 90 percent of the requirements the new systems must meet to earn certification were related to safety.

 

For example, each must show it can abort a flight at any time and return a crew to the ground safely.

 

"That is huge, as compared to what we had with shuttle," he said.

 

One industry representative offered a positive first take about the contract's attempt to build on a successful public-private partnership.

 

"NASA's made a great effort to try to make this both commercial and safe," said Adam Harris, SpaceX vice president for government sales.

 

NASA's launch video closed with scenes of astronauts working aboard the space station.

 

"This contract is all about getting to ISS," said Mango.

 

Garver: We Need Full Funding on Commercial Crew

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

Last week, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver met with reporters after giving a keynote address at the NewSpace 2013 Conference in San Jose, Calif. Below is an excerpt of the conversation relating to the space Agency's Commercial Crew program.

 

Q. On a little different subject from the asteroid mission, you talked about commercial crew. In the past, you know you've talked for the need for full funding for commercial crew in FY 14. If you end up with something closer to what the House is offering, $500 million, or worse a CR [continuing resolution] and another round of sequestration, what does that do to the program looking forward? Can you protect the 2017 date [for commercial service] any longer, or does it shift out?

 

Lori Garver: So, I think it's really clear that to keep competition as long as possible, and to accelerate the time when we are no longer sending money to Russia, but spending those dollars here with U.S. companies, we need the full funding. We need as close to the full funding as we can get. If Congress decides that is not what they want to do, they can send that money to Russia for a longer period of time. We can go down to one competitor earlier, and thereby possibly increasing the cost and risk. We could look at going and doing this in a different way that is, with Space Act Agreements longer. Right now, Congress, again, locks us into FAR [Federal Acquisition Regulation]-based contracts but not giving us the money and still wants the date. You cannot have all that. So, you have to look at every path to get us, we think, to U.S. capability as soon as possible.

 

Q. Does the $775 [million] the Senate is offering do that for you?

 

Garver: Obviously, it is as close to, so much closer to $821 [million] request that we really believe we could advance the best if we could get…the Senate mark.

 

Q. Also, there's language in both the House and the Senate bills of getting the partners to contribute more in the next round. Does that look feasible? How much more do you think they would contribute to keep this on track?

 

Garver: The partners have been contributing, and I think, as we get closer, will evaluate outside markets and that that will drive their own ability to do that. I actually think that them seeing the U.S. government's commitment to it will help. So, it's an interesting thing to cut the cost and then to say we want you to pay more. I'm not sure that's going to be the best plan.

 

NASA's Space Launch System passes major design review

 

Lee Roop – Huntsville Times

 

NASA said Thursday its Space Launch System has cleared its biggest technical hurdle en route to a 2017 launch by successfully completing a preliminary design review of the entire program. Engineers and experts from across NASA concluded Wednesday that the heavy lift booster's design, production and ground support plans are sound, and that means those major components are now basically locked in and moving forward. Read more about a PDR.

 

SLS program managers also said that a major rocket program reaching this milestone 20 months from getting started, as SLS has done, is "almost unprecedented" in NASA history.

 

"This is the pace small satellites get reviewed at," Todd May, manager of the SLS Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, said today. Marshall is leading development of the system.

 

"From my perspective, you breathe a little bit...," May said. "I will tell you it is significant. And, yes, we all had smiles yesterday afternoon."

 

The review ends the initial design phase of the rocket. The next milestone is a decision point where NASA grants the program authority to move from design to implementation of the plan.

 

"It is a big relief for the team to get through a review and have confirmation from some pretty respected people around the country that you're doing a good job, that you have a good design," SLS Chief Engineer Garry Lyles said. "That means a lot to the team, so I expect the team to really be energized coming out of this."

 

The review process involved experts on 11 different teams who analyzed 200 different documents and reviewed 15 terabytes of data, NASA said. Contractors Boeing, Aerojet Rocketdyne and ATK Systems were also heavily involved.

 

May said all key individual components of the launch system have already passed preliminary design review and are moving ahead. This week's review was of the overall program and showed, in Lyles' words, "You're on the right path, you're on the right road, you're not in the ditch."

 

May also noted that "the first, full-sized barrel sections of one of the (fuel) tanks came off the welder" last week at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. "That's a big accomplishment," May said. That finished aluminum alloy section - standing 22 feet tall and weighing 9,000 pounds - will be used for further testing of the construction system before actual flight hardware is built.

 

The Space Launch System will stand 321 feet tall when it launches in 2017, and its core section alone will be 200 feet tall. It will carry 154,000 pounds of cargo and have more than 8 million pounds of thrust at liftoff.

 

At Michoud, NASA hits milestone in Space Launch System, unveils rocket segment

 

Katherine Sayre - New Orleans Times-Picayune

 

NASA reached a key milestone in its Space Launch System program this week by passing a preliminary design review of the new mega-rocket intended to drive humans into deep space, the agency said Thursday. The major components of the rocket are being constructed at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans.

 

Experts and engineers at NASA concluded that the design, production and ground support plans for the heavy-lift rocket are capable of fulfilling the launch vehicle's mission, according to a news release from the agency. The Space Launch System is designed to transport astronauts on the Orion spacecraft to destinations such as asteroids and Mars over the next 15 years,   an Obama administration goal. An unstaffed test mission is scheduled in 2017.

 

"In two short years from the first announcement of the Space Launch System, we are at a milestone that validates the details design and integration of the system," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for the Human Exploration Operations Mission Directorate. "You can feel the momentum of the workforce as we produce test hardware today. We are creating a national capability, and we will get this country, and the world, exploring deep space."

 

Contributing to the review were Chicago-based Boeing Co., Brigham City, Utah-based ATK and Sacramento, Calif.-based Aerojet Rocketdyne.

 

Meanwhile, NASA released a photo and video of a towering segment of the Space Launch System's core stage inside the Michoud Assembly Facility. The cylinder is the first liquid hydrogen tank barrel segment, which will help power the mega-rocket out of Earth's orbit. It stands 22 feet tall, weighs 9,100 pounds and is made of an aerospace aluminum alloy.

 

The core stage as a whole will store both cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to feed the engines.

 

NASA officials said the new segment is considered a "confidence" barrel segment because it affirms that the tool used to build the core stage, the vertical weld center, is working properly. The equipment is three stories tall and weighs 150 tons. It uses friction stir welding to piece together the core stage, which is designed at more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of more than 27-1/2 feet.

 

NASA has planned a 2017 test flight to launch an unmanned Orion spacecraft. A crewed flight is scheduled in 2021.

 

Cost estimates for the program have ranged into the billions over the next decade, with an estimated $500 million per launch

 

Michoud is owned by NASA and managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

 

NASA's Next Mega-Rocket Passes Key Design Review

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

The huge rocket that NASA is building to blast astronauts toward Mars, asteroids and other destinations in deep space has passed a critical design milestone, agency officials announced Thursday.

 

Engineers wrapped up the preliminary design review for NASA's Space Launch System rocket on Wednesday, giving the heavy lifter's design, production and ground support plans a stamp of approval.

 

"In two short years from the first announcement of the Space Launch System, we are at a milestone that validates the detailed design and integration of the system," Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said in a statement. "You can feel the momentum of the workforce as we produce test hardware today. We are creating a national capability, and we will get this country, and the world, exploring deep space."

 

Experts from around the country participated in the preliminary design review, examining about 200 documents and 15 terabytes of data, NASA officials said.

 

"The review had to be incredibly detailed, so our plans for vehicle integration, flight software, test, verification and operations will result in a safe, affordable and sustainable vehicle design," said Todd May, manager of the SLS Program at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

 

The review marked the final step in the rocket's initial design and development phase. The next big hurdle to clear is called Key Decision Point-C, which will see the SLS program move from concept formulation to implementation, officials said.

 

NASA announced the SLS in September 2011. The rocket is designed to launch the agency's Orion capsule, which is also in development. The duo is slated to fly together for the first time in 2017, with the first manned flight scheduled for 2021.

 

The first incarnation of SLS will stand 321 feet (98 meters) tall and carry up to 70 metric tons of payload. But NASA plans to develop a modified SLS that would be the most powerful rocket ever built. This "evolved" version would be capable of blasting 130 metric tons into space, officials say.

 

The SLS and Orion are being developed to meet NASA's ambitious goals in deep space. In 2010, President Barack Obama directed the agency to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

 

No human has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit since Apollo 17, the final mission in NASA's famed moon program, returned home in December 1972.

 

Space Launch System passes major design milestone

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

The Space Launch System (SLS) has passed preliminary design review (PDR), a crucial design step for the rocket.

 

The PDR applies to the initial version of the rocket, dubbed 1A, which will use a Rocketdyne RL-10-powered Delta Cryogenic Upper Stage as an interim and solid rocket boosters adapted from the Space Shuttle. The 1A, which will be capable of lofting 70mt into low Earth orbit (LEO) will make one flight in 2017 before replacement by the 1B. The 1B will include a Rocketdyne J-2X-powered upper stage and as-yet-unselected advanced boosters, and is currently scheduled to fly in 2021.

 

"This may be the most important review we go through, and I say that because now's the chance to make any changes we'd like to make without significant cost to the programme," says Gary Lyles, SLS chief engineer. "Coming out of this review, we feel good, we're ready to go forward with the margin to do any of the design reference missions."

 

Eventually a Block 2 version is planned to enter service, capable of lifting 130mt.

 

Subsystem and component-level PDRs have been ongoing for some time; the core stage, the main part of the launch vehicle, reached PDR in December 2012, and the interim solid rocket boosters in April 2013. Adapting previously-designed and -built components has allowed the SLS team to move faster through reviews than its predecessor programmes.

 

SLS is designed specifically to launch the Lockheed Martin Orion capsule on crewed journeys beyond LEO, the first such flights since the Apollo moon landings. Though the 2017 flight will be uncrewed, it will likely launch Orion on a cislunar flight to test its equipment.

 

Orion is scheduled for a first flight in 2014 atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV. Though incapable of launching the heavy capsule beyond LEO, its reentry from a highly elliptical orbit will allow it to achieve speeds simulating a return from lunar orbit.

 

The 2017 flight will likely involve entering a retrograde orbit around the moon before returning.

 

Despite its capabilities - when it flies it will be the most capable operational rocket on the planet - there are no operational missions assigned, leading to criticism that the rocket is being built for political purposes instead of a defined scientific requirement. The rocket is called the Senate Launch System by some, alluding to its fervent supporters in Congress.

 

Ousted from first Orion flight, circular ATK solar arrays still set To power Cygnus

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

Orbital Science Corp.'s Cygnus space tug will head to the international space station (ISS) in September powered by a pair of rectangular solar arrays from Dutch Space, but by the time the European-built tug makes its fifth flight to the orbital outpost, it will be sporting a distinctive pair of circular arrays ATK Aerospace developed for NASA's Orion deep-space crew capsule.

 

Loosely scheduled for 2014 or 2015, Orbital's fifth space station resupply mission coincides with the introduction of an enhanced version of Cygnus that can carry as much as 2,700 kilograms, up from the original 2,000 kilograms, according to Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski.

 

That means Dutch Space arrays will power Cygnus for four missions, while ATK's Goleta, Calif.-built arrays draw power duty for at least five missions. The first Cygnus cargo run, scheduled for September, is a demonstration flight Orbital must complete before it can begin the eight cargo runs it owes NASA under a $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract signed in 2008. The contract helped defray the costs of Cygnus and a new Orbital Sciences rocket called Antares that will launch the barrel-shaped spacecraft from the Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. Both vehicles are built mostly overseas and integrated by Orbital in the United States.

 

ATK, as a subcontractor to spacecraft prime Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver, started working on Orion's circular solar arrays in 2006, two years before NASA tapped Orbital to develop an ISS resupply vehicle. In 2009, Dutch Space, an EADS Astrium company based in Leiden, Netherlands, already buildings solar arrays for the Europe Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, won a $35 million contract from Orbital to provide a 3.5-kilowatt solar array system for Cygnus. In 2011, Orbital replaced Dutch Space on the project and gave ATK's space components division, which was already supplying the substrates for Dutch Space's Orion solar panels, a $20 million deal to provide UltraFlex arrays for later Cygnus flights.

 

Beneski said the circular UltraFlex arrays are smaller and lighter than the more conventional rectangular ones from Dutch Space, making them highly desirable for later Cygnus missions, which must haul heavier payloads.

 

The last Cygnus resupply flight in Orbital's current contract with NASA would be in 2016, but the company could bid on a follow-on Commercial Resupply Services contract for which NASA is expected to seek bids in December or January. That would give ATK a shot to supply more Cygnus solar panels later this decade, which would make up for some of the work it has lost on Orion project.

 

ATK was set to provide panels for Orion's 2017 flight to lunar space but got bumped from that mission after the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to provide NASA with an Orion service module based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle ESA has used four times to send supplies to ISS. That spacecraft has always used Dutch Space solar arrays. In January, around the time NASA and ESA formalized the agreement to use a European service module, ESA said the module would inherit the Automated Transfer Vehicle's x-shaped array of four rectangular solar panels. The panels, ESA said, will get "a significant upgrade," making them shorter, wider and capable of generating about 11 kilowatts of power. The current Automated Transfer Vehicle uses a 4.6-kilowatt array, according to Dutch Space's website.

 

ATK has not been working on solar panels for Orion for close to two years, spokesman George Torres said. Lockheed stopped funding ATK's Orion solar array subcontract in October 2011, well before ESA's November 2012 decision to provide NASA with an Orion service module barter element covering its 8.3-percent share of future ISS operating costs.

 

"We're still under contract, but there's no funding," Torres said.

 

The decision was made to suspend ATK's solar array work after Lockheed and NASA decided that Orion would run on battery power when it launches unmanned aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket for a two-orbit mission — dubbed Exploration Flight Test 1 — to stress test the capsule's avionics and heat shields.

 

Torres said ATK was fighting to stay in the running as an Orion solar array subcontractor for missions beyond Orion's initial test flights.

 

Meanwhile, Europe's current design for the Orion service module exceeds a NASA-defined mass threshold, the European Space Agency confirmed in a July 31 statement.

 

"The dry mass requirement of the service module is about 4 tons [and] the best engineering judgment of the current design exceeds [that] by about 500 kilograms," the statement said. "A dedicated working group has identified mass opportunities and threats [and] shall conclude its activity not later than the Preliminary Design Review," which is scheduled for November.

 

The statement said the overage "include[s] the usual system and equipment margins, which are slowly released between Preliminary Design Review and Critical Design Review."

 

Passing a critical design review typically clears a development program to start building flight hardware.

 

Robotic-Servicing Testbed Is Being Upgraded

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

Dextre, the multipurpose dexterous manipulator that rides at the end of the International Space Station's (ISS) robotic arm, will acquire some new tools and tasks by year-end.

 

Among the cargo tucked into Japan's fourth H-II Transfer Vehicle scheduled for launch to the ISS Aug. 4 is Phase II hardware for NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM), a testbed the size of a window air conditioner bolted onto the station truss that mimics operational satellites.

 

After a good workout on the basics of satellite repair and refueling, the new gear will allow Dextre to practice more complex work—borescope inspections, cryogenic-refueling attachments, rewiring and the like.

 

Engineers at Goddard Space Flight Center, where the human-servicing missions for the Hubble Space Telescope were devised, developed the RRM to demonstrate that robotic tools are equal to the task of servicing satellites in orbit—repairing, relocating or refueling them to extend their service lives. They worked closely with robotics experts at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), which supplies robotic technology for the station (see page 14).

 

"Demonstration in space is the only way to do this," says Jill McGuire, the RRM project manager at Goddard. "We can do a lot of ground demonstrations with robots in our labs, and tell people until we're blue in the face that this will work. But actually showing them that it works in space is the key to buying down risk and giving them the confidence that you can repair their satellite."

 

McGuire and her team designed a box studded with examples of the fixtures a servicing robot would find on the different satellites operating today, and produced a set of tools that use the torque Dextre generates to drive much smaller tools with the precision needed to manipulate the satellite interfaces.

 

The initial toolkit consisted of a wire cutter, a tool for removing safety caps, a nozzle to pump ethanol—a stand-in for hydrazine or other storable propellants—and a "multifunction tool" with heritage in the pistol-grip tool used by spacewalking astronauts.

 

"As we started trying to maximize the use of the payload, we decided it was better to use what we call a multifunction tool that can use multiple adaptors," McGuire told the second annual ISS research and development conference here. "So the multifunction tool can pick up each of these adaptors, similar to if you were using a socket wrench in your garage, and you wanted to change out the sockets."

 

The RRM flew to space on the final space shuttle mission in July 2011, and since then has carried out a variety of tasks in the experiment's first phase. Among the tasks completed were using the robot to: cut wire, manipulate the thermal blankets that typically cover the hardware servicing-spacecraft must handle, remove a variety of the caps that are found on operational satellites and transfer the simulated storable propellant through a typical fill-and-drain valve.

 

Controllers from NASA and the CSA, working from consoles at Mission Control Center-Houston, tele-operated Dextre and the RRM toolkit during experiment sessions. The tests went extremely well, says McGuire, with none of the redundant systems on the testbed put to use because of a problem with a primary. Each tool was equipped with a pair of close-up engineering cameras focused on the work area, which proved valuable in preventing jams from misalignment.

 

Ultimately, the Satellite Services Capabilities Office at Goddard plans to use the station to test a variety of robotic technologies that will be needed for deep-space human exploration, including on-orbit assembly of Earth-departure stages and habitats for long-duration missions. The next step, RRM Phase II, will add one "task board" to the testbed at an empty slot, and replace another board with a new one carrying different hardware for tasks.

 

A new tool dubbed Vipir, for visual inspection poseable invertebrate robot tool, will be included in the Phase II manifest to demonstrate semi-autonomous internal inspections of orbiting spacecraft. Vipir will maneuver a camera into the simulated spacecraft structure, where it will encounter "decision boxes" and try to find a way through them without getting stuck, according to McGuire.

 

Also on the Phase II agenda will be reassembly of cryogenic valves disconnected during Phase I. "We're going to take the next step in complexity, and show how we can now start putting back some of these components that we took apart," McGuire says. "Now that you have an open fitting sitting there, how do you attach to that fitting?"

 

Other new tasks will include electrical work with the robot manipulating connectors while a solar-powered LED light shows engineers on the ground when connections have been made, and a plugging experiment with an open aluminum tube that will be checked with pressurized nitrogen and a gauge.

 

"It's one thing to install a vent plug," McGuire says. "It's another thing to convince people that we are sealing the tube. . . . The ISS continues to be an invaluable testbed for this type of work."

 

Italian astronaut says spacesuit leak was 'like being in a goldfish bowl'

Tells of frightening moment helmet of spacesuit filled with water after developing leak during spacewalk

 

Richard Gray - London Telegraph

 

Luca Parmitano was working outside the International Space Station earlier this month at the start of a planned six and a half-hour spacewalk.

 

But as he and his US colleague Chris Cassidy began work replacing some of the external hardware of the space station, Major Parmitano's helmet began filling with water.

 

In the absence of gravity the liquid, which came from his spacesuit's cooling system, formed a bubble that filled his ears, covered his eyes and blocked his nostrils.

 

Major Parmitano, who is an astronaut with the European Space Agency and a pilot for the Italian Air Force, said it felt like being a "goldfish in a fishbowl".

 

Unable to wipe the water away or take his helmet off while outside the space station and blinded by the water, he was forced to feel his way back to the airlock, ending the spacewalk after just an hour and a half.

 

If the water had continued to spread around his face to cover his mouth he would have been left unable to breath.

 

Describing the experience during a video message beamed back from the space station, Major Parmitano said: "For a couple of minutes I experienced what it is like to be a goldfish in a fishbowl.

 

"We could see some water trickling into my helmet. Then I felt it covering my ears and at that point we called a halt to the EVA.

 

"I started going back to the airlock, the water kept trickling until it completely covered my eyes and nose. It was really hard to see and I couldn't hear anything.

 

"It was really hard to communicate. I went back using memory to the airlock."

 

Major Parmitano, who is from Catania in Italy and has two daughters, first started noticing cold water on the back of his neck about half an hour into the spacewalk.

 

It is thought that the water from his suit's coolant system, a liquid filled system of pipes designed to help regulate the astronaut's temperature while in space, was leaking through a hole in his ventilation system.

 

When the astronauts began to see the water tricking into the helmet, NASA controllers on the ground in Houston called a halt to the spacewalk and ordered the pair back to the airlock.

 

Once inside, Major Parmitano faced a tense few moments while he waited for Commander Cassidy, a former Navy Seal, to return and for the door to be closed so the compartment could be repressurised.

 

Meanwhile flight engineer Karen Nyberg and the Russian cosmonauts on the space station rushed to their aid to help Major Parmitano remove his helmet.

 

By the time they removed the helmet more than a litre of water had formed a bubble around Major Parmitano's face and they had to wipe it away with a towel.

 

Major Parmitano said: "For me the worst part was that I was miserable but OK. Imagine walking around with your eyes closed in a fish bowl.

 

"It is a really uncomfortable feeling to be with your face under water for all that time. "The reaction of the crew on board and on the ground was amazing.

 

"Chris really supported me and I was lucky to be back inside in no time."

 

Commander Cassidy explained that it was still unclear how the water got into Major Parmitano's ventilation system, which blows oxygen from behind the astronaut's head.

 

The water began bubbling though this vent and started saturating his communications cap before forming around his nose and ears.

 

Engineers at Nasa are now working to understand how it happened and they have sent a repair kit to fix the leak on-board an unmanned Russian Progress supply vessel.

 

The kit includes tools and spare parts for the portable life-support system that is mounted on the back of the spacesuit.

 

Commander Cassidy said: "It was a scary situation but as a team we got everyone back.

 

"It if had continued to leak more it would have been really serious."

 

Congressional debate over NASA's asteroid capture mission ignores agency's real spaceflight problem

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

There's a lot of buzz in and around Congress right now about NASA's proposed mission to capture an asteroid, which Republicans are disinclined to support.

 

The issue has gotten considerable news coverage because NASA is rarely a partisan issue. However, Republicans do not like NASA's plans to send a robotic spacecraft to an as-yet unidentified asteroid and tow it into the vicinity of the moon, where humans can visit it.

 

Being the subject of congressional infighting, of course, does NASA no good. But this battle is a distraction from NASA's real problem, which neither Democrats nor Republicans are willing to acknowledge. Namely, the space agency is being tasked with building a huge and powerful rocket it will not be able to afford to fly.

 

A couple of weeks ago a space enthusiast, John Strickland, analyzed the launch costs of NASA's Space Launch System, which consists of a large rocket that could initially launch 70 tons into orbit and eventually 130 tons, and a space capsule, Orion.

 

For various, supportable reasons Strickland concludes that the SLS system would likely launch, on average, every four years, at a cost of more than $14 billion per launch. Here's how the costs break down:

Total cost for a single launch of the SLS. (John Strickland/Space Review)

 

Further conclusions made by Strickland include: With these costs NASA would have virtually no funds available for base construction anywhere in space, at L1/L2 points, on the Moon, or on Mars. And NASA's rocket is likely to cost as much as 15 times, per launch, as SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket, which is projected to lift 60 tons to orbit.

 

In short, then, NASA's rocket plan would appear to be unsustainable. Especially for an agency that, right now, is straining under the burden of budget sequestration.

 

"It's definitely one of the biggest challenges that we face," Ellen Ochoa, director of Johnson Space Center, told me this week. "We are in the midst of looking at everything we do at JSC, how we can do it more efficiently and more effectively. So we're looking at all the various areas we work in, where we should invest and divest. It's a big effort."

 

Johnson Space Center is leading development of the Orion spacecraft, which will make an initial flight test in 2014, and conceivably could carry humans into space in about eight years.

Development of the SLS rocket is being done at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The Huntsville Times asked Dan Dumbacher, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems Development, about Strickland's analysis.

 

In the interview Dumbacher acknowledged the difficult fiscal environment NASA faces.

 

"We have a tight budget to work with, that budget allows us to build the space launch system and Orion, and Orion will fly on SLS," he said. "Once we get SLS and Orion built, we have the foundational capabilities, two of the key elements that we need for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. Once we get those into operations phase, the budget wedge, so to speak, opens up, and that's when we start to develop the next elements we need for exploration, be it habitats, landers, whatever's needed for exploration. But because of the budget constraints, we have to do that step by step. The first step is SLS and Orion."

 

"We have a tight budget to work with, that budget allows us to build the space launch system and Orion, and Orion will fly on SLS," he said. "Once we get SLS and Orion built, we have the foundational capabilities, two of the key elements that we need for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. Once we get those into operations phase, the budget wedge, so to speak, opens up, and that's when we start to develop the next elements we need for exploration, be it habitats, landers, whatever's needed for exploration. But because of the budget constraints, we have to do that step by step. The first step is SLS and Orion."

 

One can sympathize with Dumbacher. He's trying to do what his boss, NASA administrator Charlie Bolden, is telling him to do. And Bolden is being directed by President Obama and Congress, who continue to remain at odds over where NASA should fly, if it ever develops the capability to fly beyond low-Earth orbit.

 

But for goodness sake, someone needs to inject some reality into this discussion. If Strickland is right the SLS is prohibitively expensive, and given the historical track record of NASA's rocket programs, has very little chance of surviving an eight- or 10-year development cycle. And if, by some miracle, it does get developed, it will be incredibly expensive to fly, leaving no money to develop the hardware to do something meaningful with humans in space.

 

Astronaut twins to be test subjects

Experiment will compare year on ISS and earthbound

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

Twin astronauts will serve as test subjects for human spaceflight experiments when one of the brothers flies a yearlong expedition on the International Space Station while the other remains on Earth.

 

Space station-bound U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly and his sibling, former astronaut Mark Kelly, volunteered for the unique opportunity. In fact, it was their idea.

 

"This opportunity originated at the initiative of the twin astronauts themselves," NASA said in a solicitation for research proposals this week.

 

"I have to say this is a cool idea. Hats off to the Kelly brothers for making this offer," Keith Cowing, editor and manager of NASA Watch, said in a comment on the popular website.

 

NASA Watch posted a link this week to a NASA call for proposals for the scientific project: "Differential Effects on Homozygous Twin Astronauts Associated with Differences in Exposure to Spaceflight Factors." The deadline for research proposals is 5 p.m. EDT Sept. 17.

 

NASA selected Scott Kelly to launch in March 2015 on a yearlong mission on the International Space Station.

 

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will be flying with him. The research on the twins will be secondary to joint U.S.-Russian experiments already being planned for the 12-month tour of duty.

 

"As currently conceived, this project will center on established plans for blood sampling on the flying twin at regular intervals before, during and after the one-year ISS mission, and will obtain corresponding samples from the nonflying twin, who will otherwise maintain a normal lifestyle," the solicitation says.

 

"Limited additional sampling" of blood, saliva, cheek swabs and stool will be considered along with psychological or physical performance tests as long as they don't interfere with primary research and the experiments "illuminate one of more aspects of transient or long-term effects of spaceflight on humans," the solicitation says.

 

NASA and 15 international partners are using the space station as a test-bed for biomedical and other experiments that shed light on the deleterious effects of long stays in weightlessness on the human body. The experiments are deemed key to developing countermeasures to protect astronauts flying on lengthy future missions to destinations such as the moon, Mars or asteroids.

 

Scott Kelly, 49, is a veteran of two space shuttle flights and a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. He will have a cumulative total of 540 days in space at the conclusion of his 12-month mission.

 

Mark Kelly is the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was critically wounded in a January 2011 assassination attempt in Tucson that killed six and injured a dozen others.

 

A veteran of four space shuttle missions, Mark Kelly flew 54 days in space. He retired from NASA after commanding the final flight of the orbiter Endeavour — and the penultimate flight of the space shuttle program — in May 2011.

 

He and Scott Kelly are the only twins and only siblings to have flown in space.

 

Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev holds the world record for most time accumulated in space: 803 days.

 

Former Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov holds the world record for the longest single spaceflight: 437.7 days.

 

Former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria holds the record for the longest single U.S. spaceflight: 215 days.

 

NASA, NSBRI Call For Astronaut Health Research Proposals

 

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

 

NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), an agency-funded U.S. research consortium, have issued a joint research announcement seeking proposals for ground- and space-based investigations addressing a range of health and performance issues confronting astronauts assigned to future space exploration missions.

 

The "Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions" solicitation addresses the broad study areas of cardiovascular and musculoskeletal alterations; human factors and performance; neurobehavioral and psychosocial factors; sensorimotor adaptation; smart medical systems and technology.

 

The two-step submission process—open to U.S. educational institutions, private companies and nonprofit organizations as well as other governmental agencies—includes a first-phase deadline of Sept. 4.

 

The deadline for screened proposals invited to compete further is Dec. 3.

 

Investigations outlined in the July 30 solicitation focus on the identification of biomarkers that track changes in cardiovascular performance before, during and following spaceflight; human performance metrics for robotic activities; ground as well as International Space Station investigations into the effects of nutrition and exercise on muscle and skeletal health; self-administered diagnostics and therapies for psychosocial issues including conflict resolution and individual response to common sleep aids and natural stimulants such as coffee; sensorimotor adaptation to changing gravitational forces; and the use of medical simulations to assess differences between physician and non-physician administered medical procedures.

 

The full solicitation is available at http://www.nsbri.org, under the funding opportunities menu, within the current announcements section.

 

Established by NASA in 1997 and funded at $24 million annually, the NSBRI is managed by representatives from a dozen of the nation's top medical schools and research institutions. It is chartered to addresses physical and psychological issues confronting long-duration spaceflight, while seeking opportunities to introduce the benefits of this research to traditional health care.

 

The Glow From Your Gadgets Is Disrupting Your Sleep Cycle

 

William Herkewitz - Popular Mechanics

 

It's past midnight and you should be asleep. But eyes open, you sit at your computer as the soft glow of the screen casts a bluish light across your face. You're just not tired yet.

 

You might be thinking: I'm just naturally a night owl. According to sleep scientist Kenneth Wright, however, that sleep rhythm might not be so natural after all. "People are now living in an environment with reduced exposure to sunlight and increased exposure to electrical light at night," Wright says. "The consequence is that there's a delay in our internal clocks."

 

In the last few decades, scientists have discovered that the bright lights from your computer, alongside other electric lights in your life, are sending subtle cues to your brain that it's still daytime out, even when you know it's night. Today Wright published his study of how 21st-century people adjust to sleep when there are no artificial lights around at all. He discovered that his test subjects—even the staunch night owls—could reset their internal clocks within a week. They just had to go camping.

 

In his study, published in the science journal Current Biology, Wright sent eight healthy adults out for a midsummer trip into the Colorado Rockies. With the exception of a data-monitoring bracelet–which tracked the sleep and activity levels of the subjects, and the brightness of the daylight–Wright's campers ventured into nature old-school. They had no personal electronics and nothing to illuminate their surroundings but the sun, moon, and the flickering glow of an evening campfire.

 

After a week of camping, snoozing at times of their own choosing, Wright brought his subjects back into the lab. He measured the daily change in their levels of melatonin (a hormone our bodies secrete when our biological clock says it's time for bed), and compared it and the bracelet information with the same measurements he took a week before the trip. He found that everyone's sleep schedule—especially that of the night owls—moved significantly toward the natural rise and fall of the sun.

 

"Lights have a powerful effect beyond vision," Wright says. "When we go abating that internal biological time, there are consequences."

 

Keeping Time

 

The 24-hour day is wired into our biology. "Within our brain we all have a master clock," Wright says. Called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, he says, the "clock" is actually a chunk of the brain that keeps time by sharing electrical signals and chemicals through groups of cells at a constant and punctual rhythm. This is called the circadian rhythm. "Those cells will continue to show that 24-hour rhythm, even when they're cut out and put into a petri dish," Wright says.

 

The body's clock prompts physical responses such as the production of melatonin to "help to coordinate when we wake up and when we sleep," he says. But like other age-old timekeeping devices, ours it isn't always accurate. Some people's clocks run slow, but "most people have a clock that's slightly longer than 24 hours," Wright says. So to keep in synch with the natural day, your brain takes cues from your surroundings to make slight corrections in timekeeping. Darkness in the evening adjusts when you body begins to produce melatonin, and bright light in the morning tunes the melatonin shutoff valve.

 

"We're relatively unconscious of light that's regulating our circadian rhythms," says George Brainard, a neuroscientist at Thomas Jefferson University who was not involved in the study. Near your eye's photoreceptive cells—which turn light waves into the colored film-reel of your vision—are nerves cells containing melanopsin, a recently discovered pigment that signals your internal clock without effecting sight.

 

Oddly enough, your internal clock doesn't treat all light the same. For reasons not entirely understood, "light in the blue part of the spectrum is especially potent," Brainard says. This is one reason that the glowing embers of a campfire didn't stop Wright's campers from readjusting their clocks. "Firelight is relatively dim and shifted toward the red end of the spectrum. It's much less dramatic in its ability to promote biological responses," he says.

 

Unfortunately for all of us living in the modern world, bluish light is the kind of electric light we see most often. TVs, computer screens, fluorescent lights, and LED displays all produce light shifted toward the blue end of the light spectrum (it's for this reason that a computer or TV in a dark room will make the walls look blue). This, Wright says, is helping to turn a lot of us into night owls.

 

Living With Artificial Light

 

Can the rest of us readjust our internal clocks without ditching our laptops and running for the wilderness? Michael Herf, a programmer and coinventor of the free computer lighting software F.lux, thinks so.

 

F.lux is a free-to-use computer program that synchs the color of your computer display with your sunrise and sunset. In the evening your computer display dims a warm red, and in the morning it boots back up to blue-white. I've been using F.lux a bit over a year, and though the color change usually takes me by surprise, the warmer lighting at night is certainly soothing. "Computers are hard on our eyes at night," Herf says. "We're really trying to give you a way to reduce the amount of blue light you see."

 

Herf had no idea about the effect of blue light on our circadian rhythm when he created the program. "The initial goal was just to match the room lighting and make reading a computer like reading a book," he says. "But it turns out computers and tablets are in the [brightness] range where the amount of blue light has a huge effect on the body and circadian rhythm."

 

As of yet, no studies have been done on F.lux. "But I think it's a great idea," says Wright. However, he advises that if people want to obtain an earlier bedtime and realign their internal clock for good, there are more effective measures.

 

"The first is to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. This means you're also maintaining a consistent light–darkness schedule," Wright says, so you won't be sending your brain mixed signals. "Step number two is to increase your exposure to sunlight in the morning." Wright's study subjects received four times as much natural light, and Wright argues that light in the morning plays just as big a role in setting your internal clock as darkness in the evening. Lastly, "in the evening hours you should reduce your exposure to electronic devices like TVs and computers." While programs like F.lux might help reduce blue light, any color light with enough brightness will still alter your circadian rhythm.

 

Brainard thinks we can live (and sleep) in harmony with electric lighting, but only if we create and use lights designed for our biology. That means less blue and fluorescent lighting before bedtime. Even NASA is taking note. Under his guidance the International Space Station will be changing the lightbulbs in 2016 to a less disruptive and less fluorescent blue light. "Electrical lighting is fundamentally a good thing," Brainard says. "It's a hallmark of human civilization. But there are unseen consequences."

 

SpaceX will send nine-engine rocket for reusability tests in New Mexico

 

Zach Rosenberg - FlightInternational.com

 

SpaceX has confirmed it will bring a nine-engine vehicle to Spaceport America in New Mexico to test reusable technology, rather than the Grasshopper reusability test bed currently flying in Texas.

 

In contrast to Grasshopper, which flies with one Merlin 1D engine and associated tankage, the new vehicle will closely resemble the Falcon 9-R core stage that had its first firing at SpaceX's test stand in McGregor, Texas, with nine engines and eventually a potential second stage.

 

In contrast to the Texas site, Spaceport America is an FAA-certified spaceport with relatively open airspace. Grasshopper is certified to fly up to 11,500ft at the McGregor site, and would require additional certifications or waivers to fly higher and faster; flights from Spaceport America will not require such certifications.

 

"New Mexico will have testing ongoing, but we haven't announced when," says the company.

 

Spaceport America, a $200 million project, was purpose-built for anticipated Virgin Galactic suborbital tourism flights, which are scheduled to begin in 2014. The Spaceport hosts experiments by several other companies, including Armadillo Aerospace and Up Aerospace. It is located in the desert near the town of Truth or Consequences, with few neighbors.

 

The Falcon 9-R is essentially a rebranding of the existing Falcon 9 v1.1, with a focus on its reusable technologies.

 

"This new generation is what will eventually return to Earth," SpaceX says.

 

Renderings of Falcon 9 recently released include retractable legs. The legs are included on Falcon 9 Heavy, essentially three cores bolted together, the first launch of which is expected in 2014.

 

Though chief executive Elon Musk has displayed a picture of the landing legs on Twitter, SpaceX declined to release a schedule for integrating them onto cores, much less when they might fly, other than to note that Falcon 9 was designed from the start with reusability in mind.

 

Scheduled launches will from now on be used to incrementally test reusability, starting on the next flight with a core stage reignition before the stage falls into the ocean, eventually leading up to a propulsive landing back at the initial launch pad.

 

Musk has stated that he founded SpaceX to send humans to Mars, and that a fully reusable rocket system is crucial to lowering costs.

 

In addition to the Falcon 9-R and Falcon 9 Heavy, the company is working on a new version of the Dragon crew capsule with the capability to land propulsively on a planetary body. Long-term, the company intends to design and build the Mars Colonial Transporter (MCT), a massive launch system capable of sending large payloads to Mars.

 

Pumps & Pipes aims to bring together energy, medicine, space innovators

 

Angela Shah - Xconomy.com

 

Companies often struggle within themselves to get different departments to collaborate. So trying to bring together completely disparate sectors—say, innovators in energy and medicine—to work together for mutual benefit would seem like madness.

 

But that's exactly the mission of the Houston organization Pumps & Pipes.

 

"We work very hard to establish that even dissimilar areas of technology have many similarities," says Bill Kline, manager of drilling and subsurface at ExxonMobil's Upstream Research Company and one of the group's founders. "In both the upstream oil and gas industries and heart/vascular areas, we all work through long, thin tubes. We really have borrowed from the other guy's toolbox."

 

Taking a step back, the commonalities between energy and medicine become a bit clearer. Both deal with fluids that navigate through pipes controlled by pumps and valves. Blockages and corrosion can be catastrophic, and the malfunctions happen in difficult-to-reach places, whether inside the human body or in a drilling "tree" 900 feet below sea level.

 

The six-year-old organization, which is a consortium of medical institutions, energy companies and startups in related fields, hold biannual seminars that look at key problems common to each industry. Committees meet among themselves and report back on progress or obstacles at the next meeting.

 

Pumps & Pipes held its most recent summit Monday at NASA's Johnson Space Center in south Houston to welcome its third partner, the aerospace industry.

 

"Operating in space leads to innovation in telemedicine, nutrition, radiation protection, exercise science," says Ellen Ochoa, an astronaut and JSC center director. "Space is a hard and unforgiving environment, and if it can work there, it can work on Earth."

 

Among the innovations that Ochoa mentioned included a partnership between NASA and Texas Children's Hospital related to innovation regarding reducing vibration  that could help make transporting newborns in ambulances safer.

 

Certainly, joining Pumps & Pipes is one way to boost NASA's own research and innovations, something that has become more important as the JSC seeks to boost its own entrepreneurial activity in the wake of job and funding cutbacks.

 

"It's interesting, they are incredibly smart but they don't really know how to interface in the medical world," says Alan Lumsden, Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center's medical director and a Pumps & Pipes founder. "There are enormous business opportunities at NASA but they haven't really cracked that nut yet. We want to help structure those for them."

 

In between speakers, attendees mingled among the booths displaying startup ideas entrepreneurs are working on with NASA scientists. These include a non-invasive approach using radio frequency to treat open wounds and skin disorders without sutures or staples. This technique could be used in emergency care in battlefields, disaster areas or in poor communities that don't have access to conventional healthcare.

 

The projects to have come out of Pumps & Pipes include running a heartbeat simulator on an oil well linear actuator pump, which now can be used to test heart valves. Another product is the Greenfield Kimray filter, which was developed from a pipeline filtration system, and is now used in heart patients.

 

On Monday, Pumps & Pipes also announced its new board members, a group that includes Billy Cohn, heart surgeon and serial inventor at the Texas Heart Institute; Matthew Franchek, professor of mechanical engineering and the director of the Subsea Engineering Program at the University of Houston; and Scott Parazynski, former astronaut and director and chief medical officer at the Center for Polar Medical Operations at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

 

The first Pumps & Pipes conference was held at U of H on its founding six years ago and attracted fewer than 100 people. Since then, interest has grown—with nearly 300 in attendance at the JSC—and the group has taken its show on the road. In 2011, Pumps & Pipes traveled to Doha at the Qatar Science & Technology Park, exposing itself to one of the globe's energy epicenters and a region that is spending billions to upgrade its healthcare systems.

 

One current focus of innovation is pipeline infection, where bacteria can be converted to sulfuric acid and cause corrosion, which causes $1.5 billion in damage a year and is the leading cause of pipeline explosions. Miniaturize the pipes here and you can see how such infections would be of concern to medical professionals, too.

 

"Our role is fostering innovation; ideas become much easier when we come together," says Kline at ExxonMobil. "We each are a vital part of our success."

 

Life in Space: A View from the Past

 

Michele Berger & Edecio Martinez - The Weather Channel

 

It's not easy to make space habitable for humans. The International Space Station, which is only as long as a football field and not as roomy as two airplanes, is just 15 years old.

 

The human body can't survive unprotected in space. That much we know. "If you don't try to hold your breath, exposure to space for half a minute or so is unlikely to produce permanent injury," explains NASA's Imagine the Universe. "Various minor problems…start after 10 seconds or so. At some point you lose consciousness from lack of oxygen. Injuries accumulate." Another minute or two, and you likely die.

 

But what about in a floating structure with the systems we need to breathe, the room we need to move and the food and water we need to live? In the 1970s, Princeton University physics professor Gerard O'Neill dreamed big, attempting to create a visual reality for what was then - and still is - a fantasy. The artist's renderings give us a glimpse.

 

"New ideas are controversial when they challenge orthodoxy," the late O'Neill wrote in Physics Today in 1974. "But I believe we have now reached the point where we can, if we so choose, build new habitats far more comfortable, productive and attractive" than Earth.

 

In 1975, O'Neill, in collaboration with NASA and the American Society for Engineering Education, asked 19 scientists, architects and students to answer the question, can humans permanently reside in space? For nearly three months, the group conceptualized how this theoretical floating spacecraft might function.

 

They came up with a wheel-like structure — picture a see-thru inner tube — about the size of a California beach town where 10,000 people "work, raise families and live out normal human lives," according to a NASA write-up of the exercise. Despite being in space, it wasn't devoid of weather, lit up by rays of the sun.

 

The sun really made the colony livable. It fostered excellent farming, what NASA called "agriculture of unusual productivity." It generated electricity and energy to power solar furnaces, which allowed aluminum, titanium and silicon shipped into space to be refined. "With these materials," NASA wrote, "they are able to manufacture satellite solar power stations and new colonies." (Appropriately angled mirrors warded off cosmic radiation and helped the sun illuminate the colony.)

 

Is an orbiting interplanetary colony a reality today? NASA says that we know how to create one, but essentially, we haven't figured out how to fund it. "How long did it take to build New York? California? France? Even given ample funds the first settlement will take decades to construct," the agency reports. Give it at least 50 years. 

 

Terex crane in space station lift

 

Cranes Today Magazine

 

Florida based rental firm Beyel Brothers used a Terex AC 350/6 all terrain crane to remove an overhead crane at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA from the Space Shuttle's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).

 

The AC 350/6 crane, boom and 116,7t counterweight was transported in only seven truckloads. With a top speed of 53mph the AC 350/6 got to the job site quickly, which the rental firm said was a timesaver.

 

Once inside the VAB, Beyel Brothers' crew set up the crane in four hours. Crews worked with 135ft of main boom to remove the overhead crane from the 526ft tall building, the largest single story building in the world.

 

One critical pick was to remove the more than 45.4t drum and cable trolley assembly. Working at a 40-45ft radius, the AC 350/6 all terrain crane lowered the assembly to the floor of the building.

 

NASA's stringent lifting safety standards required the crane to stay within 75% of its load chart, the AC 350/6 crane was able to perform all lifts without the sideways superlift system. Beyel said that being able to do the lift without the superlift structure saved them an extra truck load, four to five hours of setup and two extra labourers.

 

Crews also had to complete two picks of the massive girders, one weighing 24t and the other 18.1t. Crew members said that getting the 80ft long girders to the floor was a tight job.

 

The Terex crane performed four additional picks to remove braces between the girders. Once all seven picks were complete, the AC 350/6 crane was derigged and moved out.

 

Total time on the job from move-in to lifts to move out was six days.

 

END