Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 5, 2012 7:11:38 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - December 5, 2012 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us tomorrow, Thursday – December 6^th - at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Expedition 32 Crew Welcome Home Awards Ceremony
2.            Applications for JSC Space Systems Engineering Development Program
3.            Tomorrow, Dec. 6 -- Deadline for the ICA Fall Call
4.            JSC Ombudsman Office
5.            POWER of One Winners Announced
6.            NASA@work: Active Challenges and Be Loud and Heard
7.            Starport Winter Break Camp -- Register Now
8.            Environmental Brown Bag: Developments in Electrifying Cars
9.            Latest International Space Station Research
10.          System Safety Fundamentals Class: Jan. 14 to 18
________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY
" Don't think you're on the right road just because it's a well-beaten path. "

-- Author Unknown
________________________________________
1.            Expedition 32 Crew Welcome Home Awards Ceremony
Expedition 32 Crew Welcome Home Awards Ceremony Monday, Dec. 17, from 3 to 5 p.m.
All NASA civil servants, contractors and International Partners are invited on Monday, Dec. 17, to welcome home our International Space Station Expedition 32 crew members: Gennady Pakalka, Joseph Acaba, Sergey Revin, Sunita Williams, Yuri Malenchenko and Akihiko Hoshide. The event will be held in the Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom. The doors will open at 3 p.m., and the program will run until 5 p.m. There will not be an opportunity for autographs at this event. Come share in the welcome, highlights and stories with the crew and Expedition 32 support teams and pick up your Expedition 32 posters. For more information, contact Jennifer McCarter at x47885.
Jennifer McCarter x47885

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2.            Applications for JSC Space Systems Engineering Development Program
Reminder: The Human Resources (HR) Office is accepting applications for the Space Systems Engineering Development Program (SSEDP) -- a 12-month JSC-wide program that provides high-potential GS-12 and GS-13 civil service employees with the opportunity to enhance their systems engineering and technical leadership capabilities. Those interested in the program should talk to their supervisor about how the program fits with their career goals. Applications are due to the HR Office by noon on Friday, Dec. 7. Applications are available here and should be sent to your organization's training coordinator by the organization' s internal deadline.
For additional information, please contact Romell Thomas at x32998 or Christine Eagleton at x27838.
Christine Eagleton 281-792-7838

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3.            Tomorrow, Dec. 6 -- Deadline for the ICA Fall Call
The Fiscal Year 2013 (FY13) Innovation Charge Account (ICA) Fall Call is only open until tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. CST!
The focus of the call is on dual-use technologies that have the potential to result in economic and/or societal benefits. Also, projects must map to one or more JSC-specific human spaceflight needs/performance criteria. At least 20 projects will be awarded support this year.
Detailed guidance and other documents are available on the ICA website. (Click on the "Idea" button, then follow directions.)
Project durations are 16 weeks, with reports per schedule.
You should review the entire site carefully to gain a complete understanding of the ICA Fall Call process.
Submissions are due tomorrow, Dec. 6, via the ICA website. The window will close at 6:30 p.m. CST.
Good luck!
Steve Prejean x48022

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4.            JSC Ombudsman Office
The Ombudsman Office provides advice and counsel to individuals on a wide range of interpersonal and workplace-related issues. It is one of several resources at JSC that can help an individual with issue resolution, and offers many unique advantages. First, the Ombudsman is CONFIDENTIAL. Your privacy will be respected, and your issue will not be discussed with anyone else without your express permission. The Ombudsman is also INFORMAL, meaning that there is no official or unofficial record of your visit, and the visit does not initiate any process or action that you do not control. The Ombudsman Office is INDEPENDENT, reporting directly to the JSC center director. More information on how to set up a visit with one of the two JSC Ombudsman, Donna Blackshear-Reynolds or John Casper, can be found here.
Donna Blackshear-Reynolds 281-792-9318 http://ombuds.jsc.nasa.gov/

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5.            POWER of One Winners Announced
Congratulations to JSC's newest POWER of One winners!
o             GOLD: Tamra George - XA
o             GOLD: Andrey Kabakov - DO32
o             SILVER: Stanford L. Hutchison - DD521
o             SILVER: Patricia Kolkmeier - JP1
o             SILVER: Jessica Ocampo - AH8
o             BRONZE: Justin J. Carrel - LB1
o             BRONZE: Lori A. Keith - AD9
The POWER of One award was established to award and recognize JSC employees for their exemplary performance and direct contributions to either their organization, JSC or NASA at the agency level. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work! If you would like to nominate someone for POWER of One Award, click here.
Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804 http://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov

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6.            NASA@work: Active Challenges and Be Loud and Heard
Check out our active challenges: Human Systems Integration Challenge #1568 (deadline: Dec. 24) and Seeking Inflight Calcium Isotope Measurement Device Challenge #1422 (deadline: Jan. 18). To view challenge details and submit your solutions, simply to go the NASA@work site. Also, be loud and heard - check out the year in review survey! Take this opportunity to provide us your feedback as to how we can improve this innovative platform. For highlights of winners and past challenges, check out our monthly bulletin here.
Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative, problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. "Challenge owners" post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate! Check it out and submit your solution today.
Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 http://nasa.innocentive.com/

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7.            Starport Winter Break Camp -- Register Now
Starport will once again be holding a youth day camp during the school break for the holidays. We plan to keep your children active and entertained with games, crafts, sports and all types of fun activities. The camp runs from Dec. 26 to 28, Jan. 2 to 4, and Jan. 7 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for ages 6 to 12. You can register your child for just certain weeks, certain days or the whole session. Registration is now open at the Gilruth Center.
Shericka Phillips x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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8.            Environmental Brown Bag: Developments in Electrifying Cars
Have you noticed the increasing number of electric cars on the road recently? Curious about the engineering behind the hype? This month's brown bag will start with the existing state of electrified car technology, and then move into future development and technology. Bring your questions on the Chevy Volt (a plug-in hybrid), Nissan Leaf (a battery electric vehicle) and others. Dave Hanson will be presenting on Tuesday, Dec. 11, from noon to 1 p.m. The brown bag will be held in Building 45, Room 751.
Michelle Fraser-Page x34237

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9.            Latest International Space Station Research
Did you know that the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is studying stem cells on the International Space Station?
The Study on the Effect of Space Environment to Embryonic Stem Cells to Their Development (Stem Cells) examines the development of embryonic stem cells that have flown on station. The cells are launched frozen, and after returning to Earth, are microinjected into mouse-8-cell embryos in order to analyze the influence of the space environment on the development and growth of adult mice. It is important to understand the effects of space radiation in order to protect the human body from those influences, especially the possibility of reproductive and developmental issues resulting from long-duration missions. The results of this experiment may also provide insight into cellular mechanisms that repair damaged DNA.
Read more here.
Liz Warren x35548

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10.          System Safety Fundamentals Class: Jan. 14 to 18
This course instructs students in fundamentals of system safety management and the hazard analysis of hardware, software and operations. Basic concepts and principles of the analytical process are stressed. Student are introduced to NASA publications that require and guide safety analysis, as well as general reference texts on subject areas covered. Types and techniques of hazard analysis are addressed in enough detail to give the student a working knowledge of their uses and how they're accomplished. Skill in analytical techniques is developed through the use of practical exercises worked by students in class. This course establishes a foundation for the student to pursue more advanced studies of system safety and hazard analysis techniques, while allowing students to effectively apply their skills to straightforward analytical assignments. This is a combination of System Safety Workshop and System Safety Special Subjects. Students who've taken those classes shouldn't take this class. SATERN Registration Required. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...
Polly Caison x41279

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________________________________________
JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

NASA TV:
8 am Central (9 EST) – ISS Program Overview – One Year Expedition
9 am Central (10 EST) – Crew News Conference – Scott Kelly & Mikhail Kornienko

Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – December 5, 2012

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Astronauts could survive Mars radiation for long stretches, rover study suggests

Mike Wall - Space.com

Astronauts could endure a long-term, roundtrip Mars mission without receiving a worryingly high radiation dose, new results from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity suggest. A mission consisting of a 180-day outbound cruise, a 600-day stay on Mars and another 180-day flight back to Earth would expose an astronaut to a total radiation dose of about 1.1 sieverts (units of radiation) if it launched now, according to measurements by Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector instrument, or RAD. That's a pretty manageable number, researchers said.

Astronaut Insomnia: Sleep-Promoting Lightbulbs May Aid Sleepless ISS Crew Members

Katie Worth - Scientific American

How many NASA engineers does it take to change a lightbulb? How about if they're changing 85 lightbulbs? What if the bulbs they're replacing are on the International Space Station (ISS)? What if it's rather urgent, because the old bulbs are rapidly burning out? And what if the replacements are a brand-new technology, meant not only to illuminate, but also to help astronauts sleep more? Those questions are no joke to NASA, which is investing $11.4 million to change out aging fluorescent lights in the ISS's U.S. Orbital Segment. When NASA began considering the replacements, doctors realized they had an opportunity to address an entirely different problem: astronaut insomnia.

NASA's Newest Engineering Challenge: How To Change A Light Bulb

Rebecca Boyle - Popular Science

Astronaut insomnia is somewhat legendary at NASA, with astronauts popping sleep pills with regularity and averaging only six hours of sleep a night, far less than the eight and a half hours they're technically allotted. This can cause serious problems as fatigue sets in. To help matters, NASA is embarking on a major mission to change all the light bulbs on the space station. The right type of light can work wonders for people whose circadian rhythms are messed with by working in (or through, as it were) space. Scientists working on Mars missions have to live on Mars time, for instance, which causes great consternation as sleep schedules constantly shift. But a recent study by Steven Lockley at Harvard University found that blue light and efficient "sleep hygiene," as it's known, can improve matters.

Space Foundation's report recommends, outlines plan to reshape NASA

Kevin Quinn - KTRK TV (Houston)

It's been a lingering question even before the retirement of the space shuttle program: What is the future of NASA? The Space Foundation says it spent a year researching and writing this report. They've talked to nearly 100 senior NASA and aerospace leaders, and hope what the recommendations help sustain U.S. leadership in space. Next week, it will be 40 years since man last set foot on the moon. The Space Foundation claims many NASA advocates wonder now why the space program since has never reached such an out-of-this-world achievement. It's gone from a presence on the moon to operations only in lower Earth orbit to retirement of the space shuttle now with no U.S. capability to get astronauts back into space.

Report urges NASA to focus on spacefaring
Agency should shed functions

Ledyard King – Florida Today

NASA should shed some of its science and research functions and focus again on exploring space, a new report says. The Space Foundation report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," concluded the space agency is suffering because it's asked to do too much without adequate support. It's been 40 years since the last astronauts walked on the Moon, the foundation noted. "What we've heard virtually since the moon landing is, 'why can't we do anything that cool anymore,' " Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said. "Of course, the answer is we can, but it requires focus and it requires organization. What you have (at NASA) is too many rudders. If . . . everybody's trying to steer, you're not going to get anywhere very clearly and crisply and cleanly."

Industry report says NASA must retool and refocus

Ledyard King - Gannett News Service

NASA is suffering because it's asked to do too much without adequate support, a new report says. The Space Foundation report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," urges NASA to shed some of its science and research functions and focus again on exploring space. The foundation notes it's been 40 years since Gene Cernan became the last human to walk on the moon.

NASA Needs Stronger Direction to Lead In Space: Report

Mike Wall - Space.com

Giving NASA a strong dose of stability and direction would help sustain United States leadership in spaceflight and exploration for decades to come, a new report advises. NASA has been pulled in too many directions for too long, according to the report, which was released Monday by the nonprofit Space Foundation. The agency needs to set a unified, long-term vision and be able to work toward it no matter which way the winds of power are blowing in Washington, D.C. "We think that if you've got your purpose clear, then it becomes easier for you to sit down and detail a 10-year plan and a 30-year plan that you stick to and revisit and revise as you make discoveries," said Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham.

Foundation Proposes NASA Overhaul

Richard Walker - AOL News

In a report released today, the nonprofit Space Foundation made a number of recommendations for strengthening the focus, oversight and funding of NASA and the U.S. civil space program. The foundation's research, conducted over the last year, revealed NASA lacks focus after years shifting of priorities, frequent redirection and mixed signals from Congress and presidential administrations. The 70-page report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," details the agency's challenges and how the U.S. can regain its leadership in space.

Quiet Texan to head science committee
Innovation promoter wins key role in US Congress

Helen Shen - Nature

Science advocates are cautiously hopeful after Lamar Smith, a quiet Texan who is known to be a strong supporter of US innovation, was named as the next chair of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in the US House of Representatives. Republican congressional leaders confirmed on 28 November that, in January, Smith will replace Ralph Hall, another Texas Republican, who is stepping down because of a party rule that limits a ranking member's tenure on a House committee to six years. Smith will become the gatekeeper for much of the science-related legislation that reaches the House floor during the next Congress. Although successful House bills must also pass the Senate before becoming law, Smith — who has served on the committee for 26 years — will be "a key player in setting the agenda", says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute in Washington DC.

Last Man on Moon Left Camera Behind, Regrets NASA's Fade

James Clash - Bloomberg News

On Dec. 14, 1972, Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan climbed from the moon's dusty surface up the rungs of the Lunar Module ladder, entered his spacecraft and began the journey back to earth. Almost 40 years later, he still finds it strange to have been the last man on the moon. "I honestly believed it wasn't the end but the beginning," said Cernan, now 78. He thought at the time: "We're not only going back but, by the end of the century, humans will be well on their way to Mars."

From tobacco fields to NASA
Moultrie native photographed the space shuttle for more than 20 years

Alan Mauldin - Moultrie Observer (Georgia)

For Moultrie native Kim Shiflett, summers working in tobacco and hay fields and tending cattle taught him the value of hard work. Those lessons would pay off later as he took a love of photography to the space shuttle program where he got a front seat to history, taking pictures of shuttle landings and later working with the astronauts. Shiflett, 56, worked with the program for a private contractor for more than 20 years, from 1987 until the last flight in July 2011. Currently he is involved in photographing Curiosity, the latest Mars rover program.

MARS 2020

NASA unveils new Mars rover mission

William Harwood - CBS News

In an ongoing effort to restructure its Mars exploration program in the wake of deep budget cuts announced earlier this year, NASA announced plans Tuesday to send a new $1.5 billion rover to the red planet in 2020 based on the design of the agency's hugely successful Curiosity. The as-yet-unnamed rover is the second new Mars mission announced in the wake of the budget cuts that will be built using already-existing designs, a money-saving architecture agency officials say is more in line with current funding reality. "The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation," John Grunsfeld, NASA's science chief, said in a statement.

Mars redux: NASA to launch Curiosity-like rover

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

If you thought NASA's latest Mars landing was a nail-biter, get ready for a sequel. The space agency on Tuesday announced plans to launch another mega-rover to the red planet in 2020 that will be modeled after the wildly popular Curiosity. To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, recycle spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing gear that delivered the car-size rover inside an ancient crater in August. The announcement comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times.

NASA aims to launch Mars rover twin in 2020

Irene Klotz - Reuters

NASA plans to follow up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to Earth, the agency's lead scientist said on Tuesday. The new rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity, which is four months into a planned $2.5 billion mission on Mars to look for habitats that could have supported microbial life. Replicating the rover's chassis, sky-crane landing system and other gear will enable NASA to cut the cost of the new mission to about $1.5 billion including launch costs, John Grunsfeld, the U.S. space agency's associate administrator for science, said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

NASA Planning A New Mars Rover

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Planetary scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) may get a chance to reprise the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, if Congress goes along with a NASA decision to develop another rover that would reach the planet's surface using the "sky crane" technique that worked so well in August. John Grunsfeld, the former astronaut who is NASA's associate administrator for science, was set to announce today that the planned new rover would be launched in 2020 to cap a restructured U.S. robotic Mars exploration program.

NASA to send new rover to Mars in 2020

Mira Oberman - Agence France Presse

NASA plans to send a new rover to Mars in 2020 as it prepares for a manned mission to the Red Planet, the US space agency said. The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life. President Barack Obama's administration "is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

NASA's Next Mars Rover Should Collect Samples, Experts Say

Mike Wall - Space.com

The unmanned rover that NASA plans to launch toward Mars in 2020 should gather up Red Planet rocks and dirt for delivery to Earth someday, some experts say. NASA science chief John Grunsfeld announced the new rover here Tuesday (Dec. 4) at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Details of the roughly $1.5 billion mission have yet to be worked out, but some big names in the Mars community are already pushing hard for a sample caching system. "I hope and expect that its main mission will be to collect and cache a well-chosen set of samples for eventual return to Earth," Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, told SPACE.com via email.
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COMPLETE STORIES

Astronauts could survive Mars radiation for long stretches, rover study suggests

Mike Wall - Space.com

Astronauts could endure a long-term, roundtrip Mars mission without receiving a worryingly high radiation dose, new results from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity suggest.

A mission consisting of a 180-day outbound cruise, a 600-day stay on Mars and another 180-day flight back to Earth would expose an astronaut to a total radiation dose of about 1.1 sieverts (units of radiation) if it launched now, according to measurements by Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector instrument, or RAD.

That's a pretty manageable number, researchers said.

"The rough ballpark average for an astronaut career limit is on the order of a sievert," RAD principal investigator Don Hassler, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a presentation here Monday (Dec. 3) at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

"NASA has a much more complicated determination for that, but ESA [the European Space Agency], for example, generally uses 1 sievert for that number," he added.

RAD has found radiation levels on the Martian surface to be comparable to those experienced by astronauts in low-Earth orbit. A person ambling around the Red Planet would receive an average dose of about 0.7 millisieverts per day, while astronauts aboard the International Space Station experience an average daily dose between 0.4 and 1.0 millisieverts, Hassler said.

RAD's measurements show that Mars' atmosphere — though just 1 percent as thick as that of Earth — provides a significant amount of protection from the fast-moving particles streaking through our galaxy. (Mars lacks a global magnetic field, which helps shield Earth further.)

The long deep-space journey to Mars is another matter. RAD was turned on for most of Curiosity's eight-month cruise to the Red Planet, and its data show that any potential Mars explorers would likely get around 1.9 millisieverts per day during the flight.

"We can survive the Mars surface. The hard part is the cruise," Hassler said.

RAD's data are far from the full story of radiation on (or en route to) Mars, Hassler stressed. For example, solar storms can blast huge clouds of charged particles into space, affecting radiation levels significantly. Curiosity flew through a few such clouds during its cruise but has yet to experience one on the Red Planet surface.

Potential radiation doses will also change as solar activity waxes and wanes on its regular cycle. Galactic cosmic rays vary by a factor of two over the course of the sun's 11-year activity cycle, Hassler said.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Nov. 26, 2011, and landed inside Mars' huge Gale Crater on the night of Aug. 5, 2012. The rover is embarked on a two-year prime mission to determine if Mars can, or ever could, support microbial life.

Astronaut Insomnia: Sleep-Promoting Lightbulbs May Aid Sleepless ISS Crew Members

Katie Worth - Scientific American

How many NASA engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?

How about if they're changing 85 lightbulbs? What if the bulbs they're replacing are on the International Space Station (ISS)? What if it's rather urgent, because the old bulbs are rapidly burning out? And what if the replacements are a brand-new technology, meant not only to illuminate, but also to help astronauts sleep more?

Those questions are no joke to NASA, which is investing $11.4 million to change out aging fluorescent lights in the ISS's U.S. Orbital Segment. When NASA began considering the replacements, doctors realized they had an opportunity to address an entirely different problem: astronaut insomnia.

Indeed, sleep deprivation is a serious problem in space—severe enough that sleep meds are the second-most common drug taken by astronauts after painkillers, according to NASA medical officer and flight surgeon, Smith Johnston. Although their schedule allows for 8.5 hours of shut-eye a day, astronauts average barely six hours—30 to 60 minutes less than they get on Earth—and that's with the help of pills, relaxation techniques, sleep hygiene education and every other tool Johnston has thought up. Most people can sustain such sleep deprivation for several days, but over the course of months, "it adds up," Johnston says.

There's no single reason why astronauts often go months without a good night's sleep. Johnston says it's a combination of the unearthly sensation of floating in bed, constant noise, variable temperature, poor air circulation, nagging backaches and headaches, frequent shifts between Houston and Moscow time zones, and a new dawn every 90 minutes that confuses surface-accustomed circadian rhythms.

That's a grave concern for NASA: Sleep deprivation makes us fuzzy—an annoyance on Earth, but plain dangerous (and if a mission is botched, plain expensive) in space.

NASA hopes to fix at least part of the problem—the disruption of normal circadian rhythms—with new lamps.

The concept is based on research showing that our bodily clocks are wound by light exposure. About a decade ago scientists discovered a new type of light-sensitive cell in our eyes—an extraordinary find, considering they'd been peering at rods and cones for centuries and never noticed that the nearby retinal ganglion cells were, in a way, peering back. But the cells have no role in vision. Instead, they inform our brain's pacemaker, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, what time it is, which in turn cues thousands of schedule-sensitive bodily processes.

Sleep scientists have found that when these receptors are exposed to a particular wavelength of blue light—incidentally, sky blue—we feel more alert, because the brain suppresses melatonin, a key hormone in regulating sleep. In contrast, red-spectrum light allows the melatonin to flow.

The new lamps aim to exploit this chronobiology. The fixtures, which must fit in the exact footprint of their predecessors, comprise a rainbow of more than 100 LED bulbs cloaked by a diffuser, so they appear to be a single panel of white light, says Debbie Sharp, a senior manager at project contractor Boeing.

The fixtures have three modes, each with a subtly different hue: White light is for general vision; a cooler blue-shifted light promotes alertness (useful in the morning, during mid-sleep emergencies or amidst the schedule shifts that regularly slam their 24-hour rhythms from Houston time to Moscow time); and a warmer red-shifted light triggers sleepiness (helpful at bedtime). And LEDs have the additional bonus of being lighter, cooler, more durable, less toxic and more energy-efficient than fluorescents.

Boeing and its subcontractors, who are still tinkering with the final design, expect to deliver 20 lamps in 2015—right when the station will be down to its last spare bulbs. In the meantime the National Space Biomedical Research Institute has funded the labs of neuroscientists George Brainard at Thomas Jefferson University and Steven Lockley at Harvard University to test the lamps' efficacy. Brainard is studying whether the lights indeed help people in simulated ISS sleeping quarters doze off faster. Lockley is investigating whether the lights—in combination with caffeine—help volunteers perform complex tasks during night shifts.

"We're sure they'll have an effect—we just want to see what kind of effect they'll have, and the size of the effect," says study collaborator Elizabeth Klerman of Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine.

Klerman predicts the technology will one day be widespread back on Earth, perhaps illuminating hospital rooms, nuclear submarines, factories, classrooms or "basically anywhere you have indoor lighting and want people to be alert at certain times," she says. "Just because the world has been using fluorescent lighting for years doesn't mean it's the best."

NASA's Newest Engineering Challenge: How To Change A Light Bulb
NASA is changing all of the light bulbs on board the International Space Station to help famously insomniac astronauts sleep better.

Rebecca Boyle - Popular Science

Astronaut insomnia is somewhat legendary at NASA, with astronauts popping sleep pills with regularity and averaging only six hours of sleep a night, far less than the eight and a half hours they're technically allotted. This can cause serious problems as fatigue sets in. To help matters, NASA is embarking on a major mission to change all the light bulbs on the space station.

The right type of light can work wonders for people whose circadian rhythms are messed with by working in (or through, as it were) space. Scientists working on Mars missions have to live on Mars time, for instance, which causes great consternation as sleep schedules constantly shift. But a recent study by Steven Lockley at Harvard University found that blue light and efficient "sleep hygiene," as it's known, can improve matters.

This is partly because of the relatively recent discovery that mammal eyes have a special time-telling ability. Photoreceptors in ganglion cells at the front of the retina are not used for vision, but are able to detect light at the blue end of the spectrum (which we learned about in Lockley's Mars blue-light study this fall). These cells help the body calculate time, and stimulating them can affect a person's perception of day and night. This works in part by interfering with the production of melatonin.

On the ISS, astronauts' ganglion photoreceptors are constantly stimulated by the 90-minute cycle of sunrise and sunset--and the constant presence of the station's interior lighting system. The result could be less melatonin production, and therefore fitful sleep.

NASA plans to swap out 85 fluorescent lights on the U.S. portion of the orbital lab and replace them with special diffused LEDs, which can filter light into different hues. They would provide white light during work hours, bluish light in the morning or when it's important that astronauts wake up for an emergency, and reddish light to help them sleep. Scientific American reviews the effort by Boeing to build the new lights, which would be installed by 2015.

Lockley, who conducted the Mars blue-light study, is also studying the efficacy of the new lights. Meanwhile, electronics giant Philips recently announced its new Hue bulb, which can be tuned to the red or blue end of the spectrum using a smartphone. So it's possible lights like this will be prevalent on Earth as well as in space.

Still, as the SciAm article points out, the reasons for astronaut insomnia are many and varied, encompassing anything from Houston-Moscow command center time zone shifts to stale air and constant noise. New light bulbs won't change any of that, unfortunately.

Space Foundation's report recommends, outlines plan to reshape NASA

Kevin Quinn - KTRK TV (Houston)

It's been a lingering question even before the retirement of the space shuttle program: What is the future of NASA?

The Space Foundation says it spent a year researching and writing this report. They've talked to nearly 100 senior NASA and aerospace leaders, and hope what the recommendations help sustain U.S. leadership in space.

Next week, it will be 40 years since man last set foot on the moon. The Space Foundation claims many NASA advocates wonder now why the space program since has never reached such an out-of-this-world achievement. It's gone from a presence on the moon to operations only in lower Earth orbit to retirement of the space shuttle now with no U.S. capability to get astronauts back into space.

"You need to have a plan that's in place that everybody agrees to and says yep, that's the plan," Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said.

In releasing a 70-page report Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Pulham said NASA needs to refocus, to redefine its mission, to rededicate itself to the pioneer spirit that once landed man on the moon.

"We have barely scratched that surface, and so we think that there is a limitless supply of pioneering to be done for our space agency," Pulham said.

The foundation is asking for an amendment of the Space Act, to officially assign "pioneering" as NASA's primary purpose and institute an agency-wide evaluation and overhaul of facilities and infrastructure to support that pioneering. It also is calling for eliminating tasks that are no longer relevant.

The foundation suggests strengthening not just NASA's focus, but its oversight and funding. It also wants to develop both a 10-year plan with specific dates, goals and objects and a 30-year proposal with longer term targets for achievement. It suggests this would reduce a shift in priorities as presidential and congressional power changes. To that end, the Space Foundation also wants to change the timing of the NASA administrator's appointment. It suggests moving it to every five years so that it no longer always coincides with presidential elections.

"If we could remove some of the shackles and restrictions and give focus, I think, there is no end to what NASA can do for our country and the world," Pulham said.

A NASA spokesperson says the agency appreciates the recommendations of the report, telling us:

"The President and Congress, in bi-partisan fashion, established the nation's strategic goals for civil space when it enacted the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. NASA is making steady progress implementing the bold and challenging goals of this direction."

Report urges NASA to focus on spacefaring
Agency should shed functions

Ledyard King – Florida Today

NASA should shed some of its science and research functions and focus again on exploring space, a new report says.

The Space Foundation report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," concluded the space agency is suffering because it's asked to do too much without adequate support.

It's been 40 years since the last astronauts walked on the Moon, the foundation noted.

"What we've heard virtually since the moon landing is, 'why can't we do anything that cool anymore,' " Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said. "Of course, the answer is we can, but it requires focus and it requires organization. What you have (at NASA) is too many rudders. If . . . everybody's trying to steer, you're not going to get anywhere very clearly and crisply and cleanly."

To help NASA's transformation and insulate it from constantly shifting political priorities, the foundation recommends that Congress allow the agency to revamp its leadership structure.

Tuesday's report was underwritten by some of the nation's largest aerospace companies as well as Space Florida and the Economic Development Commission of Florida's Space Coast.

With the end of the space shuttle program last year, the United States must rely on Russia to carry American astronauts to the International Space Station. A manned trip to Mars is at least 20 years away.

Pulham recalled at a Tuesday news conference that at the height of the Apollo program more than 40 years ago, a janitor at Kennedy Space Center was asked what his job was.

"The janitor, without missing a beat, said: 'My job is to help put a man on the moon,'" Pulham recounted. "Everybody in NASA knew what their job was. And I would challenge you to walk into a NASA center today and ask that question — how many different answers you would get."

NASA spokesman David Weaver said the agency is "making steady progress" implementing the goals spelled out in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the law charting the space program's trajectory for the next 20 years.

The agency is developing a rocket and crew vehicle capable of transporting astronauts into deep space. It's also teaming up with private companies to develop spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cargo to the space station.

Weaver said NASA is developing faster and cleaner aircraft, continues to pursue a "robust portfolio" of science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and is expanding the technology needed for future human and robotic missions.

Today the National Academy of Sciences is expected to release a congressionally directed examination of NASA's strategic direction and lay out a course of action.

The Space Foundation report released Tuesday recommends a number of changes, including:

·            Direct NASA to focus on "pioneering" missions such as space exploration that the agency is uniquely qualified to carry out.
·            Appoint NASA's administrator for a minimum five-year renewable term instead of at the president's discretion.
·            Require the agency to submit a 10-year-plan "with specific dates, goals, and objectives" and a 30-year plan that provides a broader strategic context.
·            Give NASA more budget flexibility to pay for long-range projects.
·            The report describes the agency as "an exceptional institution in a tremendous predicament."

Industry report says NASA must retool and refocus

Ledyard King - Gannett News Service

NASA is suffering because it's asked to do too much without adequate support, a new report says.

The Space Foundation report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," urges NASA to shed some of its science and research functions and focus again on exploring space.

The foundation notes it's been 40 years since Gene Cernan became the last human to walk on the moon.

"What we've heard virtually since the moon landing is, why can't we do anything that cool anymore," Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham said. "Of course, the answer is we can, but it requires focus and it requires organization. What you have (at NASA) is too many rudders. If ... everybody's trying to steer, you're not going to get anywhere very clearly and crisply and cleanly."

To help NASA's transformation and insulate it from constantly shifting political priorities, the foundation recommends that Congress allow the agency to revamp its leadership structure, emphasize long-range planning and create funding flexibility.

Tuesday's report, underwritten by some of the nation's largest aerospace companies, comes amid increasing disenchantment in some circles about the future and scope of the the nation's space program.

U.S. astronauts ride Russian rockets to the International Space Station after the shuttle program ended last year. A return to the moon has been scrapped. And a manned trip to Mars is at least 20 years away.

Some of the nation's most revered astronauts, including Cernan, openly question whether NASA, created more than 50 years ago with a single mission and near-limitless resources, has lost its way.

To illustrate that point, Pulham recalled at a Tuesday news conference that at the height of the Apollo program more than 40 years ago, a janitor at Kennedy Space Center in Florida was asked what his job was.

"The janitor, without missing a beat, said: 'My job is to help put a man on the moon,'" Pulham recounted. "Everybody in NASA knew what their job was. And I would challenge you to walk into a NASA center today and ask that question — how many different answers you would get."

NASA spokesman David Weaver said the agency is "making steady progress" implementing the goals spelled out in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, the bipartisan law charting the space program's trajectory for the next 20 years.

The agency is developing a heavy-lift rocket and crew vehicle capable of transporting U.S. astronauts into deep space, including Mars. It's also teaming up with private companies to develop spacecraft to ferry astronauts and cargo to the space station and back to Earth — tasks once done by space shuttles.

Weaver said NASA is developing faster and cleaner aircraft, continues to pursue a "robust portfolio" of science missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, and is expanding the technology needed for future human and robotic missions.

"The agency will continue to prioritize its work to achieve these national goals and carry out the direction of Congress and the White House," Weaver said.

On Wednesday, the National Academy of Sciences is expected to release a congressionally directed examination of NASA's strategic direction and lay out a course of action.

The Space Foundation report released today recommends a number of changes, including:

·      Direct NASA to focus on "pioneering" missions such as space exploration that the agency is uniquely qualified to carry out. Once that activity is "sufficiently mature," it can be handed off to the private sector.
·      Appoint NASA's administrator for a minimum five-year renewable term instead of at the president's discretion. The appointment would still require Senate approval.
·      Require the agency to submit a 10-year-plan "with specific dates, goals, and objectives" and a 30-year plan that provides a broader strategic context. Congress and a specially created commission would evaluate NASA's performance in meeting those goals.
·      Give NASA more budget flexibility to pay for long-range projects.

The report doesn't give many specifics on what missions NASA should transfer to the private sector, surrender to other federal agencies or abandon altogether.

But it does recommend amending the Space Act, the 1958 law that created NASA, to eliminate requirements that the agency conduct bioengineering research and help develop ground propulsion systems and solar heating and cooling technologies.

The report describes the agency as "an exceptional institution in a tremendous predicament." While praising NASA and its workers for the technical wizardry necessary to land the Curiosity rover on Mars earlier this year, the report laments that U.S. astronauts must rely on foreign countries to hitch a ride to the space station.

"This hardly seems like a space program that is healthy and bound for greatness," the report said.

NASA Needs Stronger Direction to Lead In Space: Report

Mike Wall - Space.com

Giving NASA a strong dose of stability and direction would help sustain United States leadership in spaceflight and exploration for decades to come, a new report advises.

NASA has been pulled in too many directions for too long, according to the report, which was released Monday by the nonprofit Space Foundation. The agency needs to set a unified, long-term vision and be able to work toward it no matter which way the winds of power are blowing in Washington, D.C.

"We think that if you've got your purpose clear, then it becomes easier for you to sit down and detail a 10-year plan and a 30-year plan that you stick to and revisit and revise as you make discoveries," said Space Foundation CEO Elliot Pulham.

A pioneering space agency

In many people's minds, today's NASA is a far cry from the world-beating agency that put a man on the moon in 1969, just 12 years after the Space Age dawned. [Lunar Legacy: 45 Apollo Moon Mission Photos]

Neil Armstrong's famous first steps on the lunar surface were made possible by a laserlike, agencywide focus that just doesn't exist at NASA today, according to the report.

"As the space program has evolved, we have witnessed frequent redirection and constantly shifting priorities at NASA, mixed signals from Congress and the administration, organizational conflicts and the lack of a singular purpose, resulting in a space agency without a clear, stable direction," the report states.

The report argues that NASA needs a unified purpose again. And it recommends what that purpose should be: pioneering. (The report's title is "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space.")

"This report does not advocate for space settlement or colonization; rather, it is focused on expanding the human sphere of influence," the authors write. "For example, much of the ocean floor is part of the human sphere of influence through the use of robotics, even if it is seldom visited by humans. One way or another, humans should seek to sustain a presence elsewhere in the solar system."

Pioneering has four phases, as laid out in the report: access (the ability to get to and from a destination); exploration; utilization; and transition (handing activities off when appropriate to other government agencies or to the private sector).

The report stops short of prescribing a particular sequence of destinations.

"We did not want to be in the business of specifying, 'Look, we've got to go to the moon first, we've got to go to Mars first, we've got to do this or that,'" Pulham told SPACE.com. "Our view is that, if you're pioneering, then you're going to first of all take a much broader survey of the whole solar system, and then the destinations and the order of battle will become pretty clear."

Making it happen

The report further recommends that NASA draw up a 30-year plan to map out broad objectives, and a sequence of 10-year plans that set specific dates and commitments within the larger pioneering framework. These plans would be submitted to Congress for approval every five years.

NASA's plans should be vetted by a newly created, 12-person NASA Commission, the report continues. The commission would consist of the space agency chief, three presidential appointees and four members each from the House and Senate.

Implementing a long-term vision requires greater stability in NASA leadership and funding, according to the "Pioneering" report. So the NASA administrator should be appointed to a renewable five-year term (rather than serve at the pleasure of the president), and Congress should create a revolving fund the agency can draw from to finance its operations (instead of simply giving NASA a rigid top-line budget every year).

"We think that NASA's budget needs to be able to fluctuate with the work that they need to do," Pulham said. "The budget needs to track with the program. So we recommended things like multi-year procurement authorizations — something that the Pentagon and other agencies do very successfully."

Pulham does not necessarily expect the report's recommendations to be embraced fully and implemented immediately. But he does hope "Pioneering" gets people talking.

"I'm optimistic that this is going to make a positive contribution to the national dialogue," Pulham said. "If it can serve as nothing more than a point to kick off a national dialogue that does have some result, then we're going to feel really great about what we've done."

Foundation Proposes NASA Overhaul

Richard Walker - AOL News

In a report released today, the nonprofit Space Foundation made a number of recommendations for strengthening the focus, oversight and funding of NASA and the U.S. civil space program.

The foundation's research, conducted over the last year, revealed NASA lacks focus after years shifting of priorities, frequent redirection and mixed signals from Congress and presidential administrations. The 70-page report, "Pioneering: Sustaining U.S. Leadership in Space," details the agency's challenges and how the U.S. can regain its leadership in space.

"The problem is that we've got 18 or 20 rudders and they're all trying to steer the ship in different directions," said Elliot Pulham, chief executive officer of the Space Foundation, at a briefing on Capitol Hill. "That's what we're trying to correct. It's getting it down to one clear rudder that steers the ship."

The foundation recommends NASA return to its roots by establishing "pioneering" as its single, compelling purpose and transitioning "non-pioneering activities" to other government agencies and private sector organizations.

"Having that fundamental sense of purpose is not foreign to NASA," Pulham said. "It's just not something they've done for a while."

The report lays out a doctrine of purpose for NASA that defines "pioneering" as developing the ability to get to and from targeted destinations and turn theoretical knowledge gained during exploration missions (such as those completed by space shuttle Endeavour, pictured above) into technology that justifies longer-term programs. In addition, the knowledge and expertise should be shared with other government organizations or the private sector for further, long-range engagement. The report does not suggest any particular destinations for NASA to pursue.

The foundation also recommends Congress amend the Space Act to assign pioneering as NASA's primary purpose and that NASA drop programs that don't fall within its pioneering purpose, consolidate infrastructure, and pursue privatization and commercialization where possible.

NASA's new clarity of purpose can only be realized if there is stability in the agency's leadership, according to the foundation. The report suggested that the NASA administrator be appointed for a five-year, renewable term to ensure continuity of leadership "despite shifting political winds."

In addition, foundation officials said, the president should, with the consent of the Senate, appoint a deputy administrator--a chief executive for space in government to ensure close cooperation and "singularity of purpose at the highest levels of NASA management." Pulham offered a title for this new position: Secretary for the Exterior.

Among other recommendations, the foundation proposed that NASA be required to submit a 10-year plan with specific dates, goals and objectives, and a separate, 30-year plan that provides a broader, strategic framework for its goals.

NASA's funding streams must also be stabilized to support its new purpose. The report suggested Congress create a "revolving fund" for the agency draw on to pay for its programs, supplemented through annual appropriations.

Pulham said at the briefing that NASA also can look to other government agencies for best practices in running its programs.

"We really didn't want to reinvent the wheel," he said. "There are successful practices within government. Wouldn't it be great if we could find those successful practices that people can relate to? We wanted to say, 'If you look over here in government, this is already being done, it's very successful and we think you can apply to NASA.'"

Overall, the Space Foundation is hopeful its report will generate "a national dialogue that leads to NASA becoming a successful agency," Pulham said.

Ryan Faith, a research analyst at the Space Foundation and principal author of the report, said a "meeting of the minds between the White House and Congress" is needed for NASA to pursue the foundation's recommendations.

"It's not impossible to get that kind of cohesion going forward and that's what we're going to need to make this actually unfold," he added.

More than anything, Faith said, it begins with NASA having a single, coherent purpose.

"That is the thing from which all else follows," he said.

Quiet Texan to head science committee
Innovation promoter wins key role in US Congress

Helen Shen - Nature

Science advocates are cautiously hopeful after Lamar Smith, a quiet Texan who is known to be a strong supporter of US innovation, was named as the next chair of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology in the US House of Representatives. Republican congressional leaders confirmed on 28 November that, in January, Smith will replace Ralph Hall, another Texas Republican, who is stepping down because of a party rule that limits a ranking member's tenure on a House committee to six years.

Smith will become the gatekeeper for much of the science-related legislation that reaches the House floor during the next Congress. Although successful House bills must also pass the Senate before becoming law, Smith — who has served on the committee for 26 years — will be "a key player in setting the agenda", says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute in Washington DC.

The choice was welcomed by technology advocates such as Keith Grzelak, vice-president for government relations for the US arm of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, based in Washington DC. "He understands the role that science, technology and engineering can play in boosting the economy," says Grzelak.

Smith spearheaded the America Invents Act of 2011, which aimed to simplify patent applications (see Nature 472, 149; 2011). He has also championed legislation to make immigration easier for foreign graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees. "We can't have innovation without research and development," Smith said in a statement after his new role was announced.

Like many of his Republican colleagues, Smith has expressed doubts about the reality of anthropogenic global warming and has criticized the media for "a steady pattern of bias on climate change". But his tone has been more moderate than that of his challengers for the chairmanship, Dana Rohrabacher (Republican, California) and committee vice-chairman Jim Sensenbrenner (Republican, Wisconsin). He is also less outspoken than Hall, who invited several staunch climate-change sceptics to testify before the committee last year.

The committee faces a number of pressing tasks next year, such as reauthorizing NASA — which includes setting the space agency's objectives and also the amount of money the government can appropriate for its operations. Also in need of reauthorization in 2013 will be the America COMPETES act, first passed in 2007. This seeks to enhance US competitiveness in the physical sciences with funding increases to key agencies such as the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

The fate of America COMPETES will send a statement to the rest of the world about US research and development priorities, says Michael Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society in Washington DC. "If the signal is going to be the US cannot afford to do this," says Lubell, "I think that's going to be a big mistake." He hopes that Smith, who ultimately voted against reauthorization of America COMPETES in 2010, will support the measure this time and bring on board other Republicans — only 16 of whom supported the final version of the reauthorized act two years ago.

Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas representative who is the committee's top-ranking Democrat, hopes that Smith will quiet the partisan posturing on issues such as climate change and the role of the Environmental Protection Agency that marked Hall's chairmanship. "The selection of witnesses has been pretty one-sided," she says.

But fiscal concerns may play the biggest part in shaping Smith's decisions. The country is bracing itself for sweeping federal budget cuts in January unless Republicans and Democrats can reach a compromise on measures to reduce the deficit, and science would not escape the axe.

Last Man on Moon Left Camera Behind, Regrets NASA's Fade

James Clash - Bloomberg News

On Dec. 14, 1972, Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan climbed from the moon's dusty surface up the rungs of the Lunar Module ladder, entered his spacecraft and began the journey back to earth.

Almost 40 years later, he still finds it strange to have been the last man on the moon.

"I honestly believed it wasn't the end but the beginning," said Cernan, now 78. He thought at the time: "We're not only going back but, by the end of the century, humans will be well on their way to Mars."

Funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as a percentage of the national budget has declined. The U.S. is relying on Russia to fly to the International Space Station.

"We cracked open the door and threw out a plum to young men and women who followed us -- many far more capable -- and they reeled in a lemon," Cernan said.

In addition to consulting and public speaking, Cernan serves on the board of trustees of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

I spoke with the retired U.S. Navy captain and veteran of Gemini IX, Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 at a recent Explorers Club event in Manhattan.

Clash: You came close to landing on the moon on Apollo 10, just before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's mission.

Daughter's Initials

Cernan: Having come close, it was important to cover that last 47,000 feet to the surface. Once I finally stepped on the moon as part of Apollo 17, no matter what was to come of the next three days -- or the rest of my life -- nobody could take those steps from me. People ask how long will they be there, and I say forever -- like my daughter's initials that I scribbled in the sand.

Clash: Perhaps your last steps are more significant. As you mounted the ladder to return, what was going through your mind?

Cernan: I looked back at Earth in all its splendor -- I call it sitting on God's front porch looking home -- then down at my last footprint and realized, "Hey, I'm not coming this way again."

I physically hesitated, asking what the meaning of the last three days was -- not just to me, but to all who would follow, and not just technologically but philosophically, spiritually. I didn't have an answer then, and I don't now.

Maybe in another 40 years we'll realize Apollo's significance to our future as a civilization.

Clash: There are divided views now about whether we should send men back to the moon first, or go directly to Mars.

New Propulsion

Cernan: I do think we need to go to the moon first to set up a base so we can use more advanced propulsion techniques. Am I willing to go to Mars? Yes, but I'm not willing to spend nine months getting there, then wait 18 more months until the planets align to come home.

Chemical propulsion is obsolete to go anywhere other than the moon. Three days -- that's acceptable. But for Mars we need propulsion technologies to get us there in say, 60 days -- then spend whatever length of time we want to spend -- two months, six months -- and return when we want to come home. That will require ion and nuclear propulsion and help from a base on the moon.

Clash: Your frustration with NASA is evident. You obviously would have liked to see more moon missions. How about your own visit to the moon -- anything you would have done differently?

Footstep Photo

Cernan: I left my Hasselblad camera there with the lens pointing up at the zenith, the idea being someday someone would come back and find out how much deterioration solar cosmic radiation had on the glass.

So, going up the ladder, I never took a photo of my last footstep. How dumb! Wouldn't it have been better to take the camera with me, get the shot, take the film pack off and then (for weight restrictions) throw the camera away?

I did capture in my mind what that last footprint looked like, though. It's still very vivid and, if I were Alan Bean, I'd paint it! (Bean, an Apollo 12 moon walker, later became an artist.)

Clash: Speaking of other moon walkers, you and the late Neil Armstrong are both Purdue alumni. Were you friends?

Cernan: Neil dated a friend of mine whom he eventually married. He and I also shared an office before either of us ever flew. That's how I got to know him, and we became good friends over the years.

He'd been hassled a bit for being less free with his personal life and the media. There are a lot of people who could have been the first man on the moon. But nobody could have handled the aftereffects with more dignity than Neil.

From tobacco fields to NASA
Moultrie native photographed the space shuttle for more than 20 years

Alan Mauldin - Moultrie Observer (Georgia)

For Moultrie native Kim Shiflett, summers working in tobacco and hay fields and tending cattle taught him the value of hard work.

Those lessons would pay off later as he took a love of photography to the space shuttle program where he got a front seat to history, taking pictures of shuttle landings and later working with the astronauts.

Shiflett, 56, worked with the program for a private contractor for more than 20 years, from 1987 until the last flight in July 2011. Currently he is involved in photographing Curiosity, the latest Mars rover program.

A 1973 Moultrie High School graduate, Shiflett was studying art at Valdosta State College when a fellow student suggested a photography class.

"I did and I was hooked," he said. "I learned everything there was to know about photography. I was fascinated with the science of it and enjoyed the artistic medium it offered."

After the explosion of the Challenger in 1986, Shiflett hired photographer Rick Wetherington at the lab where he was working as Wetherington was looking for work with the sudden grounding of the shuttle program.

"In 1986 I stood in front of the photo laboratory at Patrick Air Force Base, Fla., and watched as the space shuttle Challenger exploded and fell from the sky. I remember the air was cold for Florida, and the sky was so clear and blue. It had gotten into the low 30s that morning. This event, as sad as it was, changed my future."

Shiflett and Wetherington found that they had a lot in common, including both having grandparents living in Adel.

"Rich and his brother lived in Florida and were sent up to their grandparents every summer to work the farm in Adel. We talked about cropping tobacco, bailing hay and taking care of livestock for a summer job. It was very hard work, we both agreed."

The connection with Wetherington proved to be a stroke of luck as his friend eventually went back to work at Kennedy Space Center and later encouraged him to apply for a photographer's position for which he was hired.

Working for Technicolor, which was contracted for all photography at the center, he began working in the "Return to Flight" that sent the shuttle back into space.

"I was standing next to monstrous rockets and of course the space shuttles," he said. "I was inside them, around them, under them, and sometimes on top of them taking all sorts of pictures. In those days we didn't have digital. All we had was film. Sometimes it would be days before I knew I was successful with the pictures I had taken."

For the first year he worked processing film in the lab and doing prints, but in 1988 he took an opening as a photographer. During that time he photographed big rockets, the Hubble telescope, Mars rovers and satellites.

"I worked hard. I gave 110 percent. I had never seen anything like this. I wanted to do my very best and it paid off."

After several years Shiflett was selected to photograph shuttle crew members as they prepared for missions and launched the craft, getting to know them and their families.

This intimacy with the crew and families made Feb. 1, 2003, when shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, even more painful.

"I was standing beside the SLF (shuttle landing facility) when radio communications between the shuttle commander and ground operations stopped. There was communication with the vehicle, then there was silence. That's when we realized there was a problem.

"I looked around to see everyone still looking at the sky, waiting to hear the signature twin sonic booms. They never came."

Afterwards, Shiflett's job included months of photographing the pieces of the shuttle.

"It was a difficult time for me," he said. "The space program made changes, good and safe changes. We again returned to flight."

When the 135th, aWhennd final, flight landed at 5:45 a.m. on July 22, 2011, Shiflett was standing at the fence beside the landing facility. Despite the realization that it was the last flight, he knew he was there to do his job.

"My heart was beating fast as it always does just before it lands," he said. "No lights, nothing blinking, just the sound of air being pushed out of the way as it reaches touchdown. I was able to get some good pictures as it was landing.

"Walking down a row in a tobacco field, sweat pouring from my face, leaves bunched under my arm, a clattering tractor at my destination, I never imagined a small-town boy like me could grow up to be a part of the space program."

Not he continues documenting space history through his work with the massive Atlas and Delta rockets and the Mars rover.

"We do a lot of live TV there with NASA television, Kennedy Space Center television," he said. "We have the cameras and shoot that activity."

Betty Shiflett, Shiflett's mom, said she and her late husband Robert believed in teaching their son and three daughters the importance of work.

"That's just one of the things we believed in," she said. "Before they were old enough to go to town and work he worked on farms with different people. They've all been very successful and they all know how to work."

Betty Shiflett said it was great that her son was able to turn his passion into a job he loves.

"Photography is his heart," she said. "I think one of his greatest days was when they assigned him to the astronauts. I'm excited for him, that he loves his work as much as he does."

Shiflett's photography can be seen at www.ksc.nasa.gov under the image and video gallery.

MARS 2020

NASA unveils new Mars rover mission

William Harwood - CBS News

In an ongoing effort to restructure its Mars exploration program in the wake of deep budget cuts announced earlier this year, NASA announced plans Tuesday to send a new $1.5 billion rover to the red planet in 2020 based on the design of the agency's hugely successful Curiosity.

The as-yet-unnamed rover is the second new Mars mission announced in the wake of the budget cuts that will be built using already-existing designs, a money-saving architecture agency officials say is more in line with current funding reality.

"The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation," John Grunsfeld, NASA's science chief, said in a statement.

He was referring to Curiosity's innovative rocket-powered "sky crane" descent system that successfully lowered the nuclear-powered rover to the surface of Mars Aug. 6 after a nail-biting seven-minute plunge from space.

"This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity," Grunsfeld said after announcing the new mission at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco.

In a briefing later Tuesday, Grunsfeld told reporters the availability of spare parts from Curiosity's development, including a backup nuclear generator, made the 2020 rover possible in the current budget environment. Equally, if not more important, he said, was the engineering expertise that got Curiosity to Mars.

"It's the availability of the spare parts but also the people and the engineering that went into building Curiosity that we still have," he said. "This whole team ... is still together and we're going to leverage that to build on the Mars 2020 rover. ... That's what enables us to do the whole plan within the current budget."

The Obama administration's fiscal 2013 budget request called for a 20 percent reduction in NASA's planetary exploration budget with most of the cutbacks coming from the Mars program. Additional reductions are expected in later years.

As a result, NASA pulled out of two planned Mars missions that would have been conducted jointly with the European Space Agency in 2016 and 2018. At that time, no other "flagship" planetary missions like Curiosity's were in development.

Amid vocal criticism from some quarters of the scientific community, NASA began considering alternative approaches and mission scenarios.

In August, just two weeks after Curiosity's touchdown, NASA announced that it would launch a relatively low-cost Mars lander in 2016 that will make a rocket-powered descent to the surface to study whether the red planet's core is solid or liquid and whether the planet has tectonic plates that slowly move like Earth's continents.

Called InSight, for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, the new spacecraft will be based on the design of NASA's successful Phoenix probe, a traditional solar-powered legged lander that touched down near the north polar cap of of the red planet in May 2008.

InSight will be equipped with a robotic arm, along with two black-and-white cameras and a geodetic instrument provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., to measure the planet's rotation axis. As a so-called Discovery-class mission, the cost is capped at $425 million, excluding the price of the launcher.

The new rover announced Tuesday, along with the rocket needed to boost it to Mars, will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion, plus or minus $200 million, according to a rough estimate by the Aerospace Corp.

The Curiosity rover, the centerpiece of the Mars Science Laboratory mission, cost some $2.5 billion over a decade of development. But the new rover will not require the same development of new systems and technologies, Grunsfeld said, which will make it easier for NASA to control costs.

Grunsfeld said the revised Mars program offers significant science that will keep NASA at the forefront of planetary exploration.

Along with its currently operational spacecraft and instruments -- the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers, two operational Mars orbiters and components aboard an ESA orbiter -- the agency's revised Mars program now includes:

·      Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution -- MAVEN -- orbiter, scheduled for launch in 2013
·      Communications gear for ESA's Trace Gas Explorer mission in 2016 and components for an astrobiology instrument in ESA's ExoMars rover mission in 2018
·      InSight mission, scheduled for launch in 2016
·      New rover, which will take off in 2020.

"We've got lots of budget issues," Grunsfeld told reporters. "We're still in a continuing resolution for fiscal year '13, there are questions of sequestration. The administration is still considering our input to the FY '14 budget process.

"But all of these things that we've shown here fit within the president's budget request for fiscal year '13. ... I think it's a signal that folks really care, the administration, the Congress, the public, care about Mars exploration. So we're going to move forward on this pretty rapidly."

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) endorsed the new rover mission, saying in a statement "an upgraded rover with additional instrumentation and capabilities is a logical next step that builds upon now proven landing and surface operations systems."

But he wants NASA to move up the launch date to 2018.

"While a 2020 launch would be favorable due to the alignment of Earth and Mars, a launch in 2018 would be even more advantageous as it would allow for an even greater payload to be launched to Mars," he said. "I will be working with NASA, the White House and my colleagues in Congress to see whether advancing the launch date is possible and what it would entail."

Grunsfeld, however, cautioned that "2020 is ambitious, and a lot of it has to do with the science instrument development. ... It might be possible to do it in 2018, but it would be a push. What it might do is exclude certain science investigations that might be possible if we had the extra two years. That's something downstream."

Mars redux: NASA to launch Curiosity-like rover

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

If you thought NASA's latest Mars landing was a nail-biter, get ready for a sequel.

The space agency on Tuesday announced plans to launch another mega-rover to the red planet in 2020 that will be modeled after the wildly popular Curiosity.

To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, recycle spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing gear that delivered the car-size rover inside an ancient crater in August.

The announcement comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times.

"The action right now is on the surface, and that's where we want to be," said NASA sciences chief John Grunsfeld.

Like Curiosity, the mission will be led by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But many other details still need to be worked out, including where the rover will land and the types of tools it will carry to the surface.

While the science goals remain fuzzy, Grunsfeld said the rover at the very least should kickstart a campaign to return Martian soil and rocks to Earth - a goal trumpeted by many scientists as key to searching for evidence of past life. Curiosity doesn't have that capability.

In the coming months, a team of experts will debate whether the new rover should have the ability to drill into rocks and store pieces for a future pickup - either by another spacecraft or humans.

NASA is under orders by the White House to send astronauts to circle Mars in the 2030s followed by a landing.

Despite Curiosity's daring touchdown, its road to the launch pad was bumpy. At $2.5 billion, the project ran over schedule and over budget.

Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, said the engineering hurdles have been fixed and he expected the new rover to cost less than Curiosity. One independent estimate put the mission at $1.5 billion, though NASA is working on its own figure.

"It's hard not to feel a little Mars-envy," Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who focuses on the outer solar system, said in an email.

Brown added that he understood NASA's decision given the pressure to fly humans to Earth's neighbor.

A Curiosity redux makes sense, said American University space policy expert Howard McCurdy.

"Let's hope that it can take advantage of economies of scale, in which case it would cost less than the Curiosity mission," he said. "That sort of approach would extend our exploration capability while freeing funds for other expeditions."

Mars is bracing for a flurry of activity over the next several years. Next year, NASA plans to launch an orbiter to study the atmosphere.

After NASA pulled out of a partnership with the Europeans in 2016 and 2018, it announced plans to fly a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to probe the interior. The space agency has since said it will contribute to the European missions, but in a minor role.

Rep. Adam Schiff, who has been critical of NASA budget cuts in the past, praised the latest news to land a Curiosity-like rover. Still, the California Democrat said he preferred an earlier launch date.

Grunsfeld said a 2020 launch is already an "aggressive schedule."

NASA aims to launch Mars rover twin in 2020

Irene Klotz - Reuters

NASA plans to follow up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to Earth, the agency's lead scientist said on Tuesday.

The new rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity, which is four months into a planned $2.5 billion mission on Mars to look for habitats that could have supported microbial life.

Replicating the rover's chassis, sky-crane landing system and other gear will enable NASA to cut the cost of the new mission to about $1.5 billion including launch costs, John Grunsfeld, the U.S. space agency's associate administrator for science, said at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

Budget shortfalls forced NASA to pull out of a series of joint missions with Europe, designed to return rock and soil samples from Mars in the 2020s. Europe instead will partner with Russia for the launch vehicle and other equipment that was to have been provided by NASA.

Grunsfeld said NASA will provide a key organics experiment for Europe's ExoMars rover, as well as engineering and mission support under the agency's proposed budget for the year beginning October 1, 2013. The United States also will provide the radio communications equipment for a planned European orbiter slated to launch in 2016.

Details about what science instruments would be included on the new rover, whether or not it would have a cache for samples, and the landing site have not yet been determined.

NASA plans to set up a team of scientists to refine plans for the rover and issue a solicitation next summer.

The National Academy of Sciences last year ranked a Mars sample return mission as its top priority in planetary science for the next decade.

"The (science) community already has come forward with a very clear message about what the content of the next Mars surface mission should be, and that is to cache the samples that will come back to Earth," said Steve Squyres with Cornell University.

"That's really a necessary part of having this mission," he said.

Humans missions to Mars

NASA had considered flying an orbiter in 2018, but decided instead to provide equipment for the European probes, extend its ongoing Mars missions and develop the Curiosity twin rover for launch in 2020.

"We could have come up with something in 2018, but with the budget that we're in we would not have had such a full program. It would have been a down-scaled orbiter of some kind," Grunsfeld said.

Under the revamped Mars plan, Curiosity's two-year mission would be extended to five years.

The new rover also would help NASA prepare for eventual human missions to Mars, a long-term objective of the U.S. space program.

"If we think of the 2030s as the potential for human exploration, I think this 2020 rover and the other things we might be able to do in the 2020s as a synergistic collaboration between science and human spaceflight. There are a lot of cool things we can do," Grunsfeld said.

NASA Planning A New Mars Rover

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Planetary scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) may get a chance to reprise the Mars Science Laboratory's Curiosity rover, if Congress goes along with a NASA decision to develop another rover that would reach the planet's surface using the "sky crane" technique that worked so well in August.

John Grunsfeld, the former astronaut who is NASA's associate administrator for science, was set to announce today that the planned new rover would be launched in 2020 to cap a restructured U.S. robotic Mars exploration program.

Instrumentation for the new rover would be competed after a science team determines objectives for the 2020 surface mission. While NASA has said it continues to support the scientific priority of returning Mars samples to Earth for detailed analysis, it remains unclear how the new mission would support that objective.

The U.S. agency withdrew from a joint effort with the European Space Agency's ExoMars program to begin caching samples for eventual return to Earth, and ESA has since joined the Russian space agency Roscosmos in continuing that plan.

Agency officials briefing lawmakers have said the new mission can be accommodated within the Obama administration's fiscal 2013 budget request, which did not include funds to work with ESA. But it remains to be seen if Congress will appropriate funds for a new surface mission.

Curiosity is the largest payload ever landed on Mars. Its sky crane landing technique, which lowered the rover to a wheels-down landing on cables played out from a platform hovering on retro rockets, was untried until its Aug. 6 success inside Mars' equatorial Gale Crater.

By using the same approach, NASA hopes to hold down development costs for the second rover, and maintain the skills at JPL that enabled the success with Curiosity.

NASA to send new rover to Mars in 2020

Mira Oberman - Agence France Presse

NASA plans to send a new rover to Mars in 2020 as it prepares for a manned mission to the Red Planet, the US space agency said.

The announcement came a day after NASA released the results of the first soil tested by the Curiosity rover, which found traces of some of the compounds like water and oxygen that are necessary for life.

President Barack Obama's administration "is committed to a robust Mars exploration program," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Same design as Curiosity

"With this next mission, we're ensuring America remains the world leader in the exploration of the Red Planet, while taking another significant step toward sending humans there in the 2030s."

NASA was forced to pull out of some joint missions with the European Space Agency after its budget was slashed earlier this year.

It hopes to save money on the next rover - currently estimated to cost $1.5 billion - by using spare parts leftover from Curiosity and sticking to the same successful design.

The new rover brings the number of NASA missions currently operating or being planned for Mars to seven.

The Opportunity rover has been exploring the Martian surface since 2004. The much more sophisticated Curiosity rover landed in Gale Crater on August 6. Two other spacecraft are currently orbiting Mars to study the planet from above and help relay signals from the rovers.

New craft to study the Martian upper atmosphere

A new craft - the Maven - is set to launch next year to study the Martian upper atmosphere.

NASA also plans to send a craft dubbed InSight to dig the planet's depths in 2016 to determine whether the planet's core is solid or liquid like Earth's.

"The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation," said astronaut John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science.

"This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity."

Rover to carry 3-D camera

While the rover's name and actual mission must still be worked out, Grunsfeld said he hoped it improve on Curiosity with the addition of a 3-D camera.

"I'm a huge fan of vicarious exploration," he told a press conference.
Grunsfeld also hopes it will have the ability to collect samples to bring back to Earth instead of discarding them after they've been tested.

As for finally once again openly looking for signs of life? Say tough microbes able to withstand the harsh Martian environment?

"It would be very exciting to send a new mission to a place where there could be current extant life," Grunsfeld said. "All of those things are on the table."

U.S. only country with successful mission history

The first spacecraft reached Mars in 1965. Mariner 4 sent back 22 close-up photos of the planet's cratered surface and won the United States the honour of the first successful mission to Mars.

The Soviet Union was the first to successfully land on Mars in 1971, but the Mars 2 failed after relaying 20 seconds of video to an orbiter.

Five years later, the United States managed to land the Viking 1 and 2 crafts, which sent back thousands of images and reams of data before they were deactivated.

Most missions to Mars have failed, although there have been a handful of successful projects, including Pathfinder, which landed in 1997 and Spirit, which landed in 2004 and roamed the surface for six years before contact was lost.

The $2.5 billion nuclear-powered Curiosity is designed to hunt for soil-based signatures of life on the Earth's nearest neighbour and send back data to prepare for a future human mission.

It is the biggest robot ever built for planetary exploration - weighing in at a ton, about the size of a small car - and carries a complex chemistry kit to zap rocks, drill soil and test for radiation.

Scientists do not expect Curiosity to find aliens or living creatures but they hope to use it to analyse soil and rocks for signs the building blocks of life are present and may have supported life in the past.

NASA's Next Mars Rover Should Collect Samples, Experts Say

Mike Wall - Space.com

The unmanned rover that NASA plans to launch toward Mars in 2020 should gather up Red Planet rocks and dirt for delivery to Earth someday, some experts say.

NASA science chief John Grunsfeld announced the new rover here Tuesday (Dec. 4) at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Details of the roughly $1.5 billion mission have yet to be worked out, but some big names in the Mars community are already pushing hard for a sample caching system.

"I hope and expect that its main mission will be to collect and cache a well-chosen set of samples for eventual return to Earth," Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, told SPACE.com via email.

"This was clearly identified as the top priority for Mars exploration by the recent Planetary Decadal Survey, and this 2020 rover has the potential to do that job," Squyres added, referring to a 2011 report by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC) that outlines the scientific community's goals for planetary science over the coming decade. Squyres led the committee that produced the survey.

Former "Mars czar" Scott Hubbard, who restructured NASA's Red Planet program after it suffered several high-profile failures in the late 1990s, echoed Squyres' sentiments.

"I'm delighted to see the Obama Administration lay out a plan to return a NASA rover to the surface of Mars in 2020," Hubbard, who's currently at Stanford University, said in a statement. "If a caching system is included, we can begin moving toward a sample-return campaign, as recommended" by the NRC.

Bringing pieces of the Red Planet back to Earth would allow researchers to examine them in fully equipped laboratories, which many scientists regard as the best way to search for signs of Martian life.

Grunsfeld said NASA wants the 2020 rover — whose chassis and landing system will be based heavily off the agency's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars Aug. 5 — to help pave the way for sample-return.

But he doesn't know if it will feature a caching system. That determination is up to the "science definition team," which will be meeting over the next few months to map out the new rover's mission.

"The question of caching is going to be a trade-off case," Grunsfeld said. "The science definition team is going to have to weigh, what science do we want to get done? How much mass and power do we have available? What can we get to the surface, and where do we want to go?"

Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator for the Opportunity rover and a participating scientist on Curiosity's mission, also hopes the new rover has a caching capability. But he says the 2020 mission will likely be a step toward sample-return no matter what its goals turn out to be.

"Anything we do on the surface, in my view, gets toward sample-return, particularly if we can tweak the payload — and it can be the engineering elements — that rehearse some of the things we want to do for sample-return," Arvidson, who's based at Washington University in St. Louis, told SPACE.com.

"That includes what measurements to make to select the right samples, and anything that we can do in terms of acquisition, handling and packaging," Arvidson added. "Do that, and we're moving toward sample-return."

Arvidson also stressed how exciting it is to have another rover mission launching toward the Red Planet in 2020. NASA's Mars program suffered a 20 percent cut in the White House's proposed 2013 budget, forcing the agency to downscale and rethink its Red Planet plans.

"This is good news, really good news," Arvidson said.

END

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

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