Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and our Moon) News - December 18, 2012 and JSC Today

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 18, 2012 7:25:01 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and our Moon) News - December 18, 2012 and JSC Today

 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            ISS Expedition Special Event -- Space Center Houston -- TONIGHT

2.            Not Sure if Your Laptop Has DAR? Let us Help - Encryption is Mandatory

3.            Student Videos 'NASA Johnson Style' and 'iSS' Highlight JSC, ISS, Science

4.            Starport Café and Gift Shop Holiday Schedule

5.            This Week at Starport

6.            Happy New Year! ... But Not Yet ...

7.            Extended TDY FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, Dec. 19

8.            WISH: Women in STEM Aerospace Scholars

9.            Shuttle Knowledge Console v3.0

10.          Russian Phase One Language Course -- For Beginners

11.          It All Started With the Big Bang! UHCL Physics Program Survey

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" The future is called 'perhaps,' which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the only important thing is not to allow that to scare you. "

 

-- Tennessee Williams

________________________________________

1.            ISS Expedition Special Event -- Space Center Houston -- TONIGHT

The International Space Station Expedition Special Event featuring Gennady Padalka, Exp. 31 flight engineer and Exp. 32 commander; Sergei Revin, Exp. 31/21 flight engineer; Joe Acaba, Exp. 31/32 flight engineer; Yuri Malenchenko, Exp. 32/33 flight engineer; Sunita Williams, Exp. 32 flight engineer and Exp. 33 commander; and Akihiko Hoshide, Exp. 32/33 flight engineer, will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Space Center Houston Theater. The event will consist of awards, slides, a video presentation and question-and-answer session. This event is free and open to JSC employees, contractors, friends, family members and public guests.

Event Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2012   Event Start Time:7:30 PM   Event End Time:9:00 PM

Event Location: Space Center Houston Theater

 

Add to Calendar

 

Jessica Ocampo 281-792-7804

 

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2.            Not Sure if Your Laptop Has DAR? Let us Help - Encryption is Mandatory

The Information Resources Directorate has created a convenient opportunity for JSC team members to ensure their laptops have the required Data-at-Rest (DAR) PGP software. Laptop users can bring their machines to either the Building 3 or 11 cafés during the breakfast/lunch hours on the following days and times to ask questions related to DAR and to have the machines checked, if in doubt. The IRD reps will not perform DAR installation, but will assist with the proper direction on how to get this HQ mandate accomplished. 

Tuesday, Dec. 18: Buildings 3 and 11

7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 19: Buildings 3 and 11

7:30 a.m to 9:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information, contact your organization's IT point of contact (http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/IRDHelp/whotocall/Lists/ACES%20IT%20POCs/AllItems.aspx), or go to the JSC DAR wiki page at: http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/infopedia/wiki%20pages/dar-faq.aspx

Thank you for your cooperation in helping JSC reach 100 percent DAR compliance by Dec. 21, 2012.

JSC IRD Outreach x41334 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/default.aspx

 

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3.            Student Videos 'NASA Johnson Style' and 'iSS' Highlight JSC, ISS, Science

On Friday, the JSC interns unveiled two of their newest videos, "iSS" and "NASA-Johnson Style," a parody on the immensely popular "Gangnam Style."

The JSC External Relations team has been promoting the videos via all NASA and JSC social media channels and can be found here:

iSS (lowercase intended):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHM-rR4wN4

NASA Johnson Style :

http://go.nasa.gov/ZmRigo

We hope you will enjoy this student outreach project and share it through your own social media networks.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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4.            Starport Café and Gift Shop Holiday Schedule

Please note the following changes in the Starport Café and gift shop operating hours for the upcoming weeks:

Starport Gift Shops:

o             Building 3 gift shop will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 6 and will reopen on Jan. 7.

o             Building 11 gift shop will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 1 and will reopen on Jan. 2.

o             Space Center Houston, Kemah Boardwalk and ACM movie tickets will be available at the Gilruth Center for your convenience. 

Starport Cafés:

o             Building 3 café will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 6 and will reopen Jan. 7.

o             Building 11 café will be closed Dec. 24, 25, 26, 31 and Jan. 1. Building 11 café will be open Dec. 27, 28, and Jan. 2, 3 and 4 from 7 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Building 11 café will reopen to normal hours on Jan. 7.

Starport wishes you and your family safe and happy holidays.

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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5.            This Week at Starport

Countdown to Christmas! The Starport Gift Shops are counting down with savings, with a new sale every day until Christmas. Stop by daily to see what is featured for the day. Shop at the Starport Gift Shops in Buildings 3 and 11 and save money on all of your official NASA gifts.

Sam's Club will be in the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. to discuss membership options for the JSC workforce. Receive up to a $25 gift card on new memberships or renewals. Cash or check only for membership purchases.

Registration for spring 2013 league sports starts on Jan. 2. For more details on each sport, click here.

Shelly Haralson x39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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6.            Happy New Year! ... But Not Yet ...

An added stress for the holidays is thinking about what you are going to do better next year. New Year's resolutions come and go. Is there a resolution that keeps coming up year after year, yet it seems that you never fulfill it? Join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, to learn how to set realistic New Year's resolutions today, Dec. 18, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium.

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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7.            Extended TDY FedTraveler Live Lab Tomorrow, Dec. 19

Do you need some hands-on, personal help with FedTraveler.com? Join the Business Systems and Process Improvement Office for an Extended TDY FedTraveler Live Lab tomorrow, Dec. 19, any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 12, Room 142. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through Extended TDY travel processes and learn more about using FedTraveler during this informal workshop. Bring your current travel documents or specific questions that you have about the system and join us for some hands-on, in-person help with FedTraveler. If you'd like to sign up for this Extended TDY FedTraveler Live Lab, please log into SATERN and register. For additional information, please contact Judy Seier at x32771.

Gina Clenney x39851

 

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8.            WISH: Women in STEM Aerospace Scholars

The Women in STEM High School Aerospace Scholars, or WISH, project offers a unique experience for female high school juniors to jumpstart their future by engaging in opportunities related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Participants will complete online activities, design unique projects, work with NASA personnel and present accomplishments. The application deadline has been extended to Jan. 3. Apply here.

Dynae Fullwood x47426 http://wish.aerospacescholars.org

 

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9.            Shuttle Knowledge Console v3.0

The JSC Chief Knowledge Officer and the JSC Engineering Directorate are pleased to announce the third release of the Shuttle Knowledge Console. New content added:

o             Columbia Debris Assessment Working Group Reconstruction Report

o             Shuttle Records scanned in Fiscal Year 2012

o             Technical panels, including the Aero Panel, Loads Panel, Propulsion Systems Integration Group, Systems Engineering and Integration Debris Central, Thermal Panel

o             Shuttle-related knowledge-based risks

o             Shuttle document capture files have been reorganized for better searching

o             Shuttle Mission Reports and Shuttle Operation Data Book

o             A new image rotator, with hundreds of shuttle images spanning the life of the program, has been added File browsing for the site has been enhanced to allow sorting by name, type, date and size

Questions about the new website can be directed to Howard Wagner or Brent Fontenot. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation and give us your comments and thoughts.

Brent J. Fontenot x36456 https://skc.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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10.          Russian Phase One Language Course -- For Beginners

Russian Phase One is an introductory course designed to acquaint the novice student with certain elementary aspects of the Russian language and provide a brief outline of Russian history and culture. Our goal is to introduce students to skills and strategies necessary for successful foreign language study that they can apply immediately in the classroom. The linguistic component of this class consists of learning the Cyrillic alphabet and a very limited number of simple words and phrases, which will serve as a foundation for further language study.

Who: All JSC-badged civil servants and contractors with a work-related justification

Dates: Jan. 28 to Feb. 22

When: Monday through Friday, 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. or 4 to 5 p.m.

Where: Building 12, Room 158A

Please register through SATERN. The registration deadline is Jan. 22.

Natalia Rostova 281-851-3745

 

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11.          It All Started With the Big Bang! UHCL Physics Program Survey

Time is running out to take the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Physics Program survey!

If your DVR is full of episodes of "The Big Bang Theory," then the Physics Department at UHCL wants to hear from you. Whether you find yourself laughing at Sheldon Cooper's jokes, critiquing the show's accuracy or wishing you had the background to do either, your feedback will help shape the future of local academic programs, including the new joint Ph.D. program in Physics being developed in conjunction with the University of Houston.

Science nerds from the JSC community, along with former, current and prospective UHCL students, are asked to complete this survey by Dec. 31.

Holly Vavrin x42335 http://www.uhcl.edu/physics

 

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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:

·         11 am Central (Noon EST) – File of E34/35 State Comm mtg & pre-launch crew news conf.

·         5 am Central WEDNESDAY (6 EST) – Expedition 34/35 Soyuz TMA-07M Launch Coverage

·         6:12 am Central WEDNESDAY (7:12 EST) – LAUNCH (docking Friday)

 

"NASA JOHNSON STYLE" – Now more than 1.2 million views on YouTube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPHM-rR4wN4

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – December 18, 2012

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Baikonur state committee approves crew of next ISS long-term expedition

 

Itar-Tass

 

The state committee approved the crew of the manned spaceship Soyuz TMA-07M, which will be launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur spaceport on Wednesday, December 19. "The ISS crew will consist of Roscosmos cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn," a representative of the state committee said. However, the backup crew of Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg will be on standby before the launch of the spaceship.

 

Canadian proud to lead ISS

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

A Russian rocket will blast off early Wednesday from a central Asian spaceport, enabling Canada to take its next giant leap in space exploration. Strapped into a spacecraft atop a Soyuz rocket, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA's Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are scheduled to launch at 7:12 a.m. Eastern time from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The three are due at the International Space Station at 9:12 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, and for the next three months, they'll serve as flight engineers under the command of U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford.

 

From ground control to Astronaut Tom

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space Exploration Network (SEN)

 

On December 19, Tom Marshburn, Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield will launch aboard a Soyuz rocket bound for the space station. They will become part of Expedition 34, commanded by NASA astronaut Kevin Ford. During his final preparations for his trip into space, Sen spoke with NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn. As a newly trained doctor in small-town Ohio, Tom Marshburn used to swoop to the scene of car accidents aboard a helicopter. So it's fair to say that flying and urgent situations have been a part of the astronaut's life for many years, long before he joined NASA. He's about to get the chance to practice his craft again in space as he joins Expedition 34 aboard the International Space Station.

 

Botany experiment will try out zero gravity aboard space station

 

Chris Barncard - Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Gravity: It's the law in these parts. But to reach the stars, humans may have to learn to live outside the law. "Gravity is the most pervasive thing on the planet, and it's always been there," says Simon Gilroy, University of Wisconsin-Madison botany professor. "Terrestrial biology has evolved with this constant force in the background, and when you remove it, things start to happen that you wouldn't necessarily think of." Surprises are not welcome in space, especially surprises that interrupt the supply of vital oxygen, water and food. In March, Gilroy hopes to contribute a small piece of the knowledge that may support such a life-sustaining system by sending a canister full of plants to the International Space Station.

 

What is Canada's future in space?

 

Janet Davison - CBC News

 

When astronaut Chris Hadfield blasts off in a tiny Soyuz capsule for the International Space Station this week, it will be the latest accomplishment — and one of the loftiest — in Canada's 50-year-old space age. Hadfield's goals are clear over the next six months, particularly when he becomes the first Canadian commander of the station in March, but much less certain is the country's future in space in the coming years.

 

'ISS Cribs': An astronaut-guided tour of the most amazing house ever built

 

Megan Garber - The Atlantic

 

You no doubt have seen images taken from the International Space Station. You likely have seen images taken of the International Space Station, too. But do you know what the ISS looks like, wall to wall and "room" to "room"? Do you know what it would be like to call it, in the most meaningful way possible, home? Now you can. Because astronaut Sunita Williams, on the last day of her recent stay on the orbital laboratory, made a video tour of the place. It is wonderfully detailed, and narrated with the kind of winking wonderment that so many astronauts, as storytellers, seem to have perfected.

 

Tenn. company lands NASA contract

$1.4B deal similar to USA venture

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA on Monday awarded a contract worth up to $1.4 billion over nearly 10 years to manage the ground systems and facilities that will be needed to launch astronauts on exploration missions from Kennedy Space Center. Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tenn., won the Test and Operations Support Contract, or TOSC, which essentially replaces United Space Alliance's contract to operate the space shuttle fleet, which NASA retired from flight last year.

 

First flight ceremony to honor NASA boss

 

Associated Press

 

North Carolina's annual celebration of flight will honor NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Jr. The First Flight Society said Bolden will be inducted Monday into the Paul E. Garber First Flight Shrine as part of the 109th celebration of powered flight at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. Bolden was commander of the 1994 Discovery flight, an eight-day mission that was the first joint U.S.-Russian shuttle mission. The mission involved a Russian cosmonaut as a mission specialist. The Columbia, S.C., native was chosen by President Barack Obama to be NASA's 12th administrator. He assumed the post in 2009. This year's celebration recognizes the 100th anniversary of Marine Corps Aviation. Bolden is being honored for his accomplishments and as a representative of Marine Corps Aviation. NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Tuskegee Airmen instructor among 4 to be inducted into Natl Aviation Hall of Fame

 

Associated Press

 

A Medal of Honor winner and the chief instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen are among four people being inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Ohio. Next year's inductees were announced Monday. They include U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady, who received the prestigious military award and developed techniques for helicopter air ambulance rescue in combat. Also honored is the late Charles Alfred Anderson, who helped develop a civilian pilot training program for blacks and was chief instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military pilots. The other inductees are U.S. Navy Capt. Robert "Hoot" Gibson, a flight test pilot who flew five NASA shuttle missions, and the late Dwane Wallace, who led Cessna Aircraft Co. They'll be inducted Oct. 4 in Dayton. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

'Johnson' Style video brings NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE! to life

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

One thing NASA needs to do if it is to remain relevant in the 21st century, beyond actually doing great things in space, is engage the younger generation. That means web. That means video. That means style. And I've got to hand it to Johnson Space Center and its program for college students, their new Gangnam-style parody video accomplishes all of the above.

 

MEANWHILE AT OUR MOON…

 

As planned, moon probes crash into lunar mountainside

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Going out with a bang, two small NASA probes that flew in formation to precisely map the moon's gravity field crashed into a mile-high mountainside Monday, slamming into the lunar surface at more than a mile per second to bring a successful $500 million mission to an abrupt end. The "targeted impacts" were intended to eliminate even a slight chance that one of the satellites might one day fall to the surface at or near a so-called "lunar heritage site," including six where manned Apollo missions landed and more than a dozen where unmanned U.S. and Russian probes touched down.

 

NASA names moon crash site in honor of Sally Ride

 

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

 

A pair of NASA spacecraft crashed into a mountain near the moon's north pole on Monday, bringing a deliberate end to a mission that peered into the lunar interior. Engineers commanded the twin spacecraft, Ebb and Flow, to fire their engines and burn their remaining fuel. Ebb plunged first followed by Flow about 30 seconds later. Afterward, NASA said it had dedicated the final resting spot in honor of mission team member, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who died earlier this year. By design, the impact site was far away from the Apollo landings and other historical sites.

 

Sally Ride honored at twin NASA probes' moon crash site

 

James Figueroa - San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group

 

NASA honored late astronaut Sally Ride by lending her name to the mountainous area of the moon where two probes crashed on Monday to complete their one-year gravity mapping mission. Ride, who died of cancer this year, took a major role in the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission by leading a classroom-oriented camera program on the two probes through her education company, Sally Ride Science. Named Ebb and Flow, the GRAIL probes slammed into a massif - a mountainous section of planetary crust - near the moon's north pole at 2:28 and 2:29 p.m. Monday, traveling 3,760 mph, at what is now called the Sally K. Ride Impact Site.

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

Baikonur state committee approves crew of next ISS long-term expedition

 

Itar-Tass

 

The state committee approved the crew of the manned spaceship Soyuz TMA-07M, which will be launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur spaceport on Wednesday, December 19.

 

"The ISS crew will consist of Roscosmos cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn," a representative of the state committee said. However, the backup crew of Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg will be on standby before the launch of the spaceship.

 

The launch of the launch vehicle Soyuz FG with the manned spaceship Soyuz TMA-07M, which is to deliver the international crew to the ISS, was scheduled at 16:12 Moscow time on Wednesday from the Gagarin launching pad of the Baikonur spaceport. The Soyuz spaceship is to dock with the ISS on December 21.

 

The pre-launch training program for the main and backup crews was finalized, head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre Sergei Krikalev said at a meeting of the committee on Tuesday. "The medical examination committee concluded that the crews are completely fit for the space mission," he said.

 

For his part, President of the rocket and space corporation Energia Vitaly Lopota noted that the state committee did not make any remarks that hamper further pre-launch operations. "We are ready for the launch," he noted.

 

Member of the main crew of a new ISS expedition Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko reported to the state committee that the crew passed the full training course for the launch, the crew is completely ready for the space mission.

 

The fact that Roman Romanenko's father Yuri Romanenko together with Georgy Grechko flied to the Soviet orbital station Salyut from the Baikonur spaceport 35 years ago is symbolic, said Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin, who chairs the state committee.

 

Canadian proud to lead ISS

 

Todd Halvorson - Florida Today

 

A Russian rocket will blast off early Wednesday from a central Asian spaceport, enabling Canada to take its next giant leap in space exploration.

 

Strapped into a spacecraft atop a Soyuz rocket, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, NASA's Tom Marshburn and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko are scheduled to launch at 7:12 a.m. Eastern time from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

 

The three are due at the International Space Station at 9:12 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, and for the next three months, they'll serve as flight engineers under the command of U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford.

 

Then in March, Ford and two cosmonauts (Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin) are scheduled to return to Earth. But before they depart, Ford will turn the station over to Hadfield. And Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station — or any spaceship for that matter.

 

"At a personal level, this is enormous. It is my childhood dreams of having the chance to live in space – not just visit – but to live, to leave Earth, longer than I've lived at some addresses where I get mail," Hadfield said in an interview with FLORIDA TODAY.

 

"And to command a spaceship, it is just, at a personal level, it is the 'pinch-me' kind of great. You know, the 'how-could-this-possibly-be-real' sense of wonder."

 

And 50 years after the launch of Canada's first artificial satellite, it also is a huge deal to 35 million people who live in the North American country.

 

"It is an unprecedented thing for a Canadian to command a spaceship," said Hadfield, a veteran of two space shuttle missions.

 

"This is a visible, tangible, recognizable plateau or level that all Canadians can see and take pride in," he said.

 

In a very real way, it is a measure of "the progress of Canadians and Canada in space exploration," Hadfield said. "And so it becomes not just technically significant, but also symbolic for the Canadian space program and the whole country."

 

Mounted atop an American Thor-Agena rocket, the Canadian-built Alouette 1 science satellite blasted off in 1962 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

 

Canada became only the third nation – behind the U.S, and the Soviet Union – to build a man-made satellite, and Alouette 1 operated for a decade, studying the Northern Lights.

 

In 1972, Canada became the first to establish its own geostationary communications satellite system.

 

In 1981, it began developing a robotic arm for NASA's space shuttle. Marc Garneau became the first Canadian to fly in space in 1984. The first Canadian woman to fly in space, Roberta Bonder, launched aboard Discovery in 1992.

 

Hadfield became the first and only Canadian to visit the Russian space station Mir in 1995 and the first Canadian to perform a spacewalk in 2001.

 

In 2009, Robert Thirsk chalked up two more firsts. He became the first Canadian to launch on a Russian rocket and first to be part of a resident ISS crew.

 

Julie Payette holds the distinction of being the first Canadian to serve as prime mission specialist and flight engineer on a shuttle mission in 2009.

 

Thirsk and Payette were the first two Canadians to fly in space simultaneously.

 

Canada now is universally considered the most advanced in aerospace robotics, having built both the shuttle and space station robot arms. Simply said, the International Space Station could not have been assembled without Canadarm 2 — 'The Big Arm.'

 

Back in 2001, Hadfield and shuttle crewmates delivered the Canadian-built construction crane to the station, and he was the first to operate it.

 

But the upcoming mission is a pinnacle for the married father of three, now 53. An astronaut for 20 years, Hadfield has flown a total of 20 days in space. Now, he's going up for five history-making months.

 

"It is a great opportunity," he said. "Professionally, I find myself extremely lucky and privileged to have a chance to do this at this stage of my life and my career."

 

And, for Canada? Just two words: "It's enormous."

 

From ground control to Astronaut Tom

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space Exploration Network (SEN)

 

On December 19, Tom Marshburn, Roman Romanenko and Chris Hadfield will launch aboard a Soyuz rocket bound for the space station. They will become part of Expedition 34, commanded by NASA astronaut Kevin Ford. During his final preparations for his trip into space, Sen spoke with NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn.

 

As a newly trained doctor in small-town Ohio, Tom Marshburn used to swoop to the scene of car accidents aboard a helicopter. So it's fair to say that flying and urgent situations have been a part of the astronaut's life for many years, long before he joined NASA. He's about to get the chance to practice his craft again in space as he joins Expedition 34 aboard the International Space Station.

 

"For me, emergency medicine is all about being able to handle anything that comes in the door," Marshburn told Sen. "So, thinking on your feet, working as a team, the emergency physician has to be a team member, particularly in big codes, trauma codes. I think all that is very applicable to spaceflight."

 

Marshburn arrived at NASA in 1994 as a flight surgeon, responsible for monitoring astronaut health.

 

Very quickly, his capabilities gained attention in the agency. Marshburn became the co-chair of medical operations for the Shuttle/Mir space program between 1997 and 1998, spending time in Russia and getting to know the culture of the cosmonauts working in that country.

 

In later years, he served as the lead flight surgeon for the STS-101 shuttle mission, as well as the Expedition 7 long-duration station mission. Marshburn also took command of medical operations for the station until he was selected as an astronaut in 2004.

 

"The transition was relatively easy to make," he said. "I was very fascinated with the effects of spaceflight, obviously, being a flight doc. So to have the chance to go as a physician and see it firsthand, [I was] very, very excited about that. Since I've made the transition, the cutoff has been pretty clean. I can't go back to the flight doc room."

 

Marshburn's first mission in space – STS-127, in 2009 – featured marathon spacewalks as he and crewmates worked to finish the Japanese Kibo module. This next flight will be a little less flash and a lot more long-term thinking.

 

Marshburn and his Soyuz crewmates – Canadian Chris Hadfield, and Russian Roman Romanenko – will spend five months aboard the International Space Station. Marshburn's role, in his words, will be acting as a guinea pig for the life sciences experiments aboard the station.

 

The long-term effects of spaceflight on the human body are still poorly understood. Radiation poses a threat to cells. Microgravity affects balance, bone density and even the optic nerve inside one's eye. NASA is still trying to figure out, for example, if vision is affected when the optic nerve alters.

 

"You remove the effects of gravity, you've got a high-radiation environment, high-vacuum environment, and these are things that just can't be recreated on the Earth," Marshburn said.

 

He praised the engineers on Earth who work to overcome these challenges as they design experiments for the astronauts to perform: "They're able to rewrite all of the engineering calculations that go with the basic laws of physics. And it's incredibly exciting when you talk to them."

 

Marshburn's top objective for his months on the station will be "just living in space and working up there."

 

But he wants to fulfill the responsibility he feels to his workmates who are bound to Earth, trying to accomplish scientific objectives aboard the station.

 

"This is a once-in-a-life opportunity. A lot of people are counting on us to get results when their lifelong experiment comes to a head. We're up there. We're at the point of the spear to get it done."

 

Botany experiment will try out zero gravity aboard space station

 

Chris Barncard - Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

 

Gravity: It's the law in these parts. But to reach the stars, humans may have to learn to live outside the law.

 

"Gravity is the most pervasive thing on the planet, and it's always been there," says Simon Gilroy, University of Wisconsin-Madison botany professor. "Terrestrial biology has evolved with this constant force in the background, and when you remove it, things start to happen that you wouldn't necessarily think of."

 

Surprises are not welcome in space, especially surprises that interrupt the supply of vital oxygen, water and food.

 

For travel beyond a narrow envelope around the Earth, the connection to those supplies is — for all intents and purposes — severed. It just takes too many resources to deliver supplementary meals and air as astronauts stray farther and farther from home.

 

"The only life support system we know that works really, really well is the Earth's, and that is built around plants and microbes," Gilroy says. "It's not 100 percent clear it will work, but the long-term goal is to integrate those tools into space missions: plants to grow your food and purify the air and water; microbes as the waste-processing system."

 

In March, Gilroy hopes to contribute a small piece of the knowledge that may support such a life-sustaining system by sending a canister full of plants to the International Space Station. Both engineered mutant and unadulterated versions of Arabidopsis — known commonly as mouse-eared cress, and to researchers as "the lab rat of plant biology," says Gilroy — will make the trip to study the effect of low-oxygen conditions on the plants' genes.

 

Without the pull of gravity, plant roots are going to have the same problem that makes a lava lamp a lot less fun in space.

 

"The reason is buoyancy," Gilroy says. "The goopy stuff in a lava lamp heats up, expands and gets less dense. Buoyancy moves it up in the lamp, where it cools down and sinks. And it all starts over."

 

Buoyancy depends on relative differences in volume and weight, and is driven by gravity. Without buoyancy, there's no convection, and on Earth convection helps mix gases in the atmosphere.

 

"If you were just lying on your back in the International Space Station, the gases that you're breathing out — if there [were] no other things like fans to move the air — would just sit there around your head," Gilroy says. "You would suffocate, because there's no mixing to replace the oxygen you use up."

 

Plant roots use oxygen, too. They burn it along with glucose to make energy to drive a growing plant. But the little bit of convection-driven gas mixing plants count on in Earth's soil doesn't happen in space, and the available oxygen gets used up.

 

For a plant, this low oxygen level is akin to what happens when a neighboring river spills its banks. Corn in a flooded field can survive a few days, but eventually the water will replace air pockets in the soil.

 

"Just like humans, plants suffocate and die," Gilroy says. "Plants can grow in space, but it may be that they don't grow very well. And one of the reasons is trying to cope with this oxygen depletion."

 

Gilroy's lab studies the way plants deal with stress, including the signals plant cells pass to one another in times of trouble — like during a flood.

 

"If I flood a plant, within seconds, cells in that plant will be sending signals to other cells all over, saying, 'We need to get our act together to deal with this,'" Gilroy says.

 

Gilroy's lab will send Arabidopsis seeds to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule scheduled to launch in March. The seeds will germinate in space in a small container called Biological Research in a Canister (BRIC). After eight days of growth in a gravity-free environment, astronauts will stop the plants' development with a dose of a chemical fixative and tuck the whole BRIC in a deep freeze.

 

The entire frozen BRIC will return on the same Dragon craft it rode up, and be turned over whole to Gilroy — who will then treat it like his firstborn child.

 

"As everyone who has done space shots has told us: you will never let those samples out of your sight once they're back," says Gilroy, whose experiment is funded by NASA. "They're just too valuable."

 

Arabidopsis grown in a NASA lab that simulates space station conditions (aside from lack of gravity) will be compared to the space plants for physical and genetic differences.

 

"We should be able to say this is the fingerprint of what low-oxygen looks like," Gilroy says. "We'll be able to say these plants in space look like the plants that were grown on the ground in this particular low oxygen concentration."

 

That will contribute to the understanding of long-term plant growth in space, and put future space travelers a hair closer to the company of plant life.

 

"This is that bit of the science where we're beginning to tease apart the system, beginning to understand the components that we can put together to great use," Gilroy says.

 

What is Canada's future in space?

 

Janet Davison - CBC News

 

When astronaut Chris Hadfield blasts off in a tiny Soyuz capsule for the International Space Station this week, it will be the latest accomplishment — and one of the loftiest — in Canada's 50-year-old space age.

 

Hadfield's goals are clear over the next six months, particularly when he becomes the first Canadian commander of the station in March, but much less certain is the country's future in space in the coming years.

 

Wednesday's launch from the Russian cosmodrome in Kazakhstan comes less than a month after a review commissioned by the federal government found that Canada's space industry has been lacking direction and falling behind other countries for the past decade or so.

 

Even smaller countries such as Belgium, Israel and Luxembourg spend more of their GDP on space than Canada does, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

 

At the same time, the federal aerospace review suggests that the significance of space is growing, extending beyond spacewalks and high-tech rovers to everything from national security and economics to digital communications via satellite.

 

For example, satellites up to 100,000 kilometres above Earth have become increasingly significant in everything from monitoring weather, crops and climate change to telecommunications, national defence and sovereignty.

 

For industry players such as Iain Christie, president of Neptec Design Group Ltd., an Ottawa-based space engineering company, Canada's space policy is at a crossroads.

 

"We have been a space-faring nation for a long time and we're used to thinking of ourselves as being in the top tier of space nations," he said in an interview. "But we do run the real risk of losing that status if the kind of decay that we've been seeing in the last little while isn't stopped."

 

The review, led by former cabinet minister David Emerson (a Liberal who crossed the floor to the Conservatives in 2006), urges Ottawa to boost spending on the development of space technology, and to establish 10-year, five-year and one-year priorities for the Canadian space program at the cabinet level.

 

"Canada was a pioneer in space," Emerson said in an email statement to CBCNews.ca.

 

"But for the last decade, Canada's activities in space have suffered from ambiguous priorities and uneven implementation."

 

Emerson went on to say that "Canada's national interest demands that we make effective use of space to unlock wealth, secure our coastlines and borders, protect our population and environment and deliver services.

 

"This is becoming even truer as the North opens," Emerson wrote in the email.

 

The review draws particular attention to opportunities in the North and the role a national presence in space could play there.

 

Securing interests

 

"Through a vigorous presence in the North, using satellites as a key instrument of policy, Canada will be able to accelerate wealth creation, protect the environment, and assert its sovereignty," the review said.

 

"Given the intensification of multiple, conflicting national claims in the Arctic, both international law and pragmatic geopolitics demand that Canada be active in the region if it wants to secure its interests there."

 

But how the federal government and the Canadian Space Agency plan to respond to Emerson's review remains unclear.

 

The agency said no one was available to talk about Canada's future in space.

 

In an email Friday, Industry Canada said the agency's priorities are:

 

·         The Radarsat Constellation Mission.

·         The space station and robotics.

·         Chris Hadfield's mission.

·         The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite.

·         The hybrid small satellite Cassiope.

 

The Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, announced in 2008, is a suitcase-sized telescope set for launch next year that can spot asteroids and track satellites and space debris.

 

Checking the space weather

 

Cassiope, also set for launch next year, will help monitor space weather. The satellite's telecommunications payload will provide the first digital broadband courier service for commercial use, the department said.

 

Industry Minister Christian Paradis told the Canadian Aerospace Summit in Ottawa on Dec. 5 that the government is "carefully reviewing" the recommendations in Emerson's report, and that it is "not going to sit on a shelf collecting dust."

 

Paradis was not available for an interview last week.

 

The space agency's core budget has decreased over the past 10 years, the report said. In current dollars, the core budget has fallen from $325.8 million in 2001-02 to $285.8 million for 2012-13.

 

'ISS Cribs': An astronaut-guided tour of the most amazing house ever built

 

Megan Garber - The Atlantic

 

You no doubt have seen images taken from the International Space Station. You likely have seen images taken of the International Space Station, too. But do you know what the ISS looks like, wall to wall and "room" to "room"? Do you know what it would be like to call it, in the most meaningful way possible, home?

 

Now you can. Because astronaut Sunita Williams, on the last day of her recent stay on the orbital laboratory, made a video tour of the place. It is wonderfully detailed, and narrated with the kind of winking wonderment that so many astronauts, as storytellers, seem to have perfected.

 

Featured in the tour, among other things:

 

·         Crew sleep stations, their entrance ports oriented spherically "so all of us sleep in a little bit of a circle"

 

·         A home office, complete with computes and books

 

·         Science labs filled with various experiments

 

·         A home gym, with a stationary "bike" and "weight" machines for squats, bench presses, etc.

 

·         A kitchen, filled with baggies of food anchored to a wall. "It's like opening the refrigerator," Williams says. "You've got all the different stuff that you want to have: drinks, meats, eggs, vegetables, cereals, bread, snacks (and that's a good place -- that's where you find all the candy)." There's also a special pantry filled with food items that the astronauts have specifically requested -- in Williams's case, a jar of marshmallow Fluff. ("I like Fluffernutter sandwiches," she explains.)

 

·         An airlock -- populated by, among other things, two spacesuits, their helmets shielded with protective covers. Aside from that, though, the suits are pretty much "primed up to 'go outside,' as we call it," Williams says -- by which she means "ready to do a spacewalk." (The suits are huge, by the way, and on Earth would weigh about 300 pounds.) The helmets feature a glare shield -- "sunglasses," Williams says, "which make you look pretty cool." So ultimately, the suit is "a pretty awesome little spacecraft."

 

·         A hatch -- the portal between the space station and space itself, used, when it's not being used as an actual hatch, as overflow storage for the station's remaining spacesuits

 

·         A bathroom (or: an "orbital outhouse") featuring a privacy curtain and, delightfully, an outhouse-y crescent moon on its wall. As well as an impressive array of toilet paper, from soft tissue to coarser. The room also features diapers ("Huggies") and disinfectant wipes, "in case things get out of control."

 

·         A cupola, which "sticks down below the Space Station" -- and which is "one of those places you find yourself hanging out in all the time because all you want to do is look back at our planet." While spending time in the cupola, Williams says, she'll play a game with herself: trying to figure out which part of Earth, based on things like soil appearance and cloud formations, the ISS is passing over at a given moment.

 

The video is long, but very much worth the time. Williams is an excellent tour guide, explaining the equipment, and the environment, with equal parts expertise and enthusiasm. As the astronaut puts it, as if she were a kid in the most amazing candy store ever constructed: "We're lucky we have a really cool, big space station that you can fly around in."

 

Tenn. company lands NASA contract

$1.4B deal similar to USA venture

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA on Monday awarded a contract worth up to $1.4 billion over nearly 10 years to manage the ground systems and facilities that will be needed to launch astronauts on exploration missions from Kennedy Space Center.

 

Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tenn., won the Test and Operations Support Contract, or TOSC, which essentially replaces United Space Alliance's contract to operate the space shuttle fleet, which NASA retired from flight last year.

 

"It's going to do the hands-on processing of future vehicles similar to how we prepared the space shuttle for launch," said Bill Hill, assistant deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA headquarters in Washington. "It won't employ nearly as many people, but it will replace about 1,000 folks that have been let go over the past two years."

 

The work will include activities such as assembling NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and mating it with an Orion crew capsule inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, mounting the vehicles on a mobile launcher and rolling them out to pad 39B for launch.

 

NASA is targeting a 2017 test flight of the rocket without a crew, and a 2021 launch with a crew.

 

Maintenance of facilities such as a VAB high bay, the launch pad, a crawler-transporter and mobile launcher are included in the work.

 

The contract also replaces one held by The Boeing Co. to prepare payloads for launch to the International Space Station. The ISS cargo will be prepared for launch on commercial or international partner vehicles.

 

Some work may also be performed for NASA's KSC-based Launch Services Program, which procures expendable rockets for launches of science satellites from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and other sites. USA, which has laid off more than 4,000 KSC shuttle workers in recent years, did not bid on the contract. NASA did not immediately name other finalists.

 

Phasing in of the new contract begins Jan. 2. The 19-month base period takes effect March 1. The pact could be extended through 2022 with a potential value of $1.37 billion.

 

'Johnson' Style video brings NA, NA, NA, NA, NASA STYLE! to life

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

One thing NASA needs to do if it is to remain relevant in the 21st century, beyond actually doing great things in space, is engage the younger generation.

 

That means web. That means video. That means style.

 

And I've got to hand it to Johnson Space Center and its program for college students, their new Gangnam-style parody video accomplishes all of the above.

 

The star of the video is Eric Sim, a student from North Carolina State. He's great. You'll also find cameo appearances by astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Mike Massimino and Clay Anderson. At the end of the video you can also see outgoing center director Mike Coats, and incoming director Ellen Ochoa.

 

For an agency that needs to engage younger people, this is a great effort.

 

MEANWHILE AT OUR MOON…

 

As planned, moon probes crash into lunar mountainside

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Going out with a bang, two small NASA probes that flew in formation to precisely map the moon's gravity field crashed into a mile-high mountainside Monday, slamming into the lunar surface at more than a mile per second to bring a successful $500 million mission to an abrupt end.

 

The "targeted impacts" were intended to eliminate even a slight chance that one of the satellites might one day fall to the surface at or near a so-called "lunar heritage site," including six where manned Apollo missions landed and more than a dozen where unmanned U.S. and Russian probes touched down.

 

Named Ebb and Flow in a student naming contest, the two 450-pound solar-powered satellites, built by Lockheed Martin, had been flying in formation at extremely low altitudes since Jan. 1, mapping slight differences in the moon's gravitational field to gain insights into its internal structure.

 

Each spacecraft also carried cameras used by middle school students to photograph the lunar surface in a project sponsored by Sally Ride Science, a science education company founded by the late shuttle astronaut.

 

But with their fuel nearly exhausted and the mission's scientific observations complete, mission managers opted to burn the last of their propellant to target impacts on the side a mountain-like section of a partially buried crater rim near the moon's north pole.

 

Ebb crashed into the rim at 5:28 p.m. EST (GMT-5) Monday, followed 32 seconds later by Flow, which hit about 1.9 miles away. The impacts were confirmed by the sudden loss of radio contact.

 

Flight controllers and managers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., applauded and shook hands to mark the end of the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory -- GRAIL -- mission.

 

The spacecraft hit the moon in darkness and even though they were moving at some 3,800 mph, mission managers did not expect any observers on Earth to see a flash or any other direct evidence of impact.

 

But NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be on the lookout for any signs of fresh craters during subsequent passes over the region. Given their relatively small size, any such craters or depressions would be expected to be just a few yards or so across.

 

"NASA has approved the GRAIL team's request to name the final resting place of Ebb and Flow after our teammate, Sally Ride," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Sally was a visionary, the head of our MoonKAM investigation, and the team very much wanted to honor her contributions to education by naming the impact sites after her."

 

Ride's sister, Rev. Bear Ride, said she was "deeply appreciative."

 

"Speaking for the whole family, we're so grateful to Maria and the team for continuing this dream and making it such a complete success," she said.

 

Launched Sept. 10, 2011, Ebb and Flow reached the moon at the end of the year with the second spacecraft slipping into orbit on New Year's Day.

 

Flying in close formation at lower and lower altitudes, the spacecraft used timed radio signals to precisely measure the distance between them. Depending on the separation, the ranging system could detect changes as small as one micron, or the width of a red blood cell.

 

As they sailed over buried mass concentrations, craters, mountain ranges, basins and other geologic features, the satellites' velocity and separation changed ever so slightly.

 

By carefully analyzing those changes, scientists have mapped out the moon's gravity field in unprecedented detail. Among the early results is the discovery that the moon's crust is much thinner and much more fractured than previously believed.

 

Details about the structure of the moon's interior are expected after data analysis is complete.

 

"In terms of the scientific measurements, we have achieved everything we could have possibly hoped for," Zuber said last week. "Frankly, in my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined that this mission would have gone any better than it has."

 

NASA names moon crash site in honor of Sally Ride

 

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

 

A pair of NASA spacecraft crashed into a mountain near the moon's north pole on Monday, bringing a deliberate end to a mission that peered into the lunar interior.

 

Engineers commanded the twin spacecraft, Ebb and Flow, to fire their engines and burn their remaining fuel. Ebb plunged first followed by Flow about 30 seconds later.

 

Afterward, NASA said it had dedicated the final resting spot in honor of mission team member, Sally Ride, the first American woman in space who died earlier this year. By design, the impact site was far away from the Apollo landings and other historical sites.

 

Ride's sister, who huddled in the NASA control room for the finale, said it might be time to dust off Ride's first telescope to view the newly named site.

 

"We can look at the moon with a new appreciation and a smile in the evening when we see it knowing that a little corner of the moon is named after Sally," the Rev. Bear Ride said in an interview.

 

Since the back-to-back crashes occurred in the dark, they were not visible from Earth. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon will pass over the mountain and attempt to photograph the skid marks left by the washing machine sized-spacecraft as they hit the surface at 3,800 mph.

 

After rocketing off the launch pad in September 2011, Ebb and Flow took a roundabout journey to the moon, arriving over the New Year's holiday on a gravity-mapping mission.

 

More than 100 missions have been flung to Earth's nearest neighbor since the dawn of the Space Age including NASA's six Apollo moon landings that put 12 astronauts on the surface.

 

The loss of Ebb and Flow comes on the same month as the 40th launch anniversary of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon.

 

Ebb and Flow focused exclusively on measuring the moon's lumpy gravity field in a bid to learn more about its interior and early history. After flying in formation for months, they produced the most detailed gravity maps of any body in the solar system.

 

Secrets long held by the moon are spilling out. Ebb and Flow discovered that the lunar crust is much thinner than scientists had imagined. And it was severely battered by asteroids and comets in the early years of the solar system — more than previously realized.

 

Data so far also appeared to quash the theory that Earth once had two moons that collided and melded into the one we see today.

 

Besides a scientific return, the mission allowed students to take their own pictures of craters and other lunar features as part of collaboration with a science education company founded by Ride, who died in July of pancreatic cancer at age 61. About 3,600 classrooms around the world participated, sending back 114,000 photos.

 

Scientists expect to sift through data and images from the $487 million mission for years.

 

Obtaining precise gravity calculations required the twins to circle low over the moon, which consumes a lot of fuel. During the primary mission, they flew about 35 miles above the lunar surface. After getting bonus data-collecting time, they lowered their altitude to 14 miles above the surface.

 

With their fuel tanks almost on empty, NASA devised a controlled crash to avoid contacting any of the treasured sites on the moon. Mission controllers at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory applauded when they lost signal, one of the rare celebrations of a spacecraft's demise.

 

Mission chief scientist Maria Zuber approached Ride's family about a month ago about naming the impact site. Zuber said she will also petition the International Astronomical Union to name mountain after the late astronaut as well.

 

"We looked very hard to find a very prominent feature on the near side of the moon that didn't have a name," said Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Sally Ride honored at twin NASA probes' moon crash site

 

James Figueroa - San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group

 

NASA honored late astronaut Sally Ride by lending her name to the mountainous area of the moon where two probes crashed on Monday to complete their one-year gravity mapping mission.

 

Ride, who died of cancer this year, took a major role in the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission by leading a classroom-oriented camera program on the two probes through her education company, Sally Ride Science.

 

Named Ebb and Flow, the GRAIL probes slammed into a massif - a mountainous section of planetary crust - near the moon's north pole at 2:28 and 2:29 p.m. Monday, traveling 3,760 mph, at what is now called the Sally K. Ride Impact Site.

 

"It's a living testimony that keeps on giving," said Ride's sister, Bear, who was at Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the crash countdown.

 

Jet Propulsion Laboratory tracked the probes until their final moments, but the impact wasn't visible from Earth because the area was in shadow at the time.

 

GRAIL principal investigator Maria Zuber said she hopes to name the entire massif after Ride, although that process takes at least three years through the International Astronomical Union.

 

Ebb and Flow each had a camera that allowed students to take their own photos of the lunar surface. Students took about 115,000 photos that are available online.

 

"The vision that Sally had was that a student who took their own image of the moon would go to any length to

 

try to understand what was on it," Zuber said. "They wouldn't stop just after getting the picture. I think we're going to be able to extend this There will be discoveries about the moon that haven't been made by anybody else yet."

GRAIL's primary mission was measuring the irregular gravity fields on the moon's surface, doing so by orbiting at about airplane altitude.

 

Ebb and Flow's first fly-bys were from an altitude of

 

55 kilometers. There was enough fuel left for a second tour, so JPL lowered the probes to 23 kilometers, firing their engines about three times per week to maneuver around higher terrain.

 

With the fuel depleted and seeking a crash zone to keep the probes from becoming an orbital navigation hazard, the team picked out the impact site because it is far enough from 23 historical sites on the moon where American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts landed, GRAIL project manager David Lehman said.

 

"The impact location will be about three to four meters in diameters so you won't be able to see it from Earth," Lehman said. "But there's another NASA mission called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and in a couple weeks it will be imaging this site. If anybody will be able to see the impact site, they'll be able to."

 

The initial results of GRAIL's gravity mapping showed that the moon's crust was thinner than previously thought, and gave clues about its bombardment by meteors early in its formation.

 

The findings could also pave the way for future lunar missions by providing accurate navigational data, Zuber said.

 

END