Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - December 17, 2012 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: December 17, 2012 6:59:59 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - December 17, 2012 and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

Monday, December 17, 2012

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Expedition 32 Welcome Home Ceremony

2.            The Teague is Taking a Break

3.            Enroll in Free 12-Week Health-Related Fitness Course (Jan. 7 to Mar. 27)

4.            Job Opportunities

5.            Call for JSC Exceptional Software Awards -- Deadline Extended to Jan. 11

6.            Weight Watchers at JSC Last 2012 Meeting Today!

7.            NASA's JCS December Tech Briefs Have Been Published

8.            JSC Security Special Operations Training

9.            BLOOD DRIVE THANK YOU

10.          Carlos Dominguez - The TechNowist

11.          Holiday Shopping with Starport

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" Don't find fault. Find a remedy. "

 

-- Henry Ford

________________________________________

1.            Expedition 32 Welcome Home Ceremony

Please join us in welcoming home the Expedition 32 Crew in the Gilruth, Alamo Ballroom from 3 to 5. Today!

  

https://issimagery.jsc.nasa.gov/iwg/WebPageFiles/issvideos/play?hdvideos/exp32-trailer.wmv

Event Date: Monday, December 17, 2012   Event Start Time:3:00 PM   Event End Time:5:00 PM

Event Location: Gilruth Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

Dylan Mathis x48119

 

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2.            The Teague is Taking a Break

The Building 2S Teague Auditorium and lobby serves us faithfully by hosting events and meetings all year long. However, the building has cried "Enough!" and will be closed from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1 for the holidays to kick back with some hot apple cider and maybe a good novel. The building, I'm sure, will be restored to its normal good spirits beginning Jan. 2. Thanks for your understanding.

JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111

 

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3.            Enroll in Free 12-Week Health-Related Fitness Course (Jan. 7 to Mar. 27)

Free to all members of Starport, this course connects the brain with the body by combining education with prescribed exercise. Classes meet for an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 4:15 p.m. Each class includes a 15- to 20-minute lecture on such topics as training principles, caloric expenditure, weight control, environmental effects and the role of exercise in disease. Individualized exercise programs are based on assessments of body fat, strength, endurance, flexibility and aerobic power. Programs progress gradually to optimize improvements without injury. Records on thousands of graduates show significant improvements on each fitness component. Instructors have advance degrees in exercise science and certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine. To enroll and schedule pre-class fitness testing, contact Larry Wier or Greta Ayers at x30301/x30302.

Larry Wier x30301

 

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4.            Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPPs) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open:

https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...

To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies, please call your HR representative.

Lisa Pesak x30476

 

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5.            Call for JSC Exceptional Software Awards -- Deadline Extended to Jan. 11

This is the 2013 call for software award nominations at JSC. Nominees will be considered for the following awards:

o             JSC Exceptional Software Award: $8,000 total award

o             JSC nominee for NASA Software of the Year Award: Up to $100,000 total award possible.

o             JSC software nominees for Space Act Awards: Variable amount up to $100,000

o             NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medals

The JSC Exceptional Software Award is designed to recognize software that has demonstrated outstanding value to accomplishing the JSC mission.

Apply online using the Web nomination form and to find out other information.

Directorates and individuals must provide their nominations by close of business Jan. 11 via the form link listed. Questions can be sent to Lynn Vernon or Tondra Allen.

Lynn R. Vernon x36917 http://jscexceptionalsoftware.jsc.nasa.gov/SOY_nominate/

 

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6.            Weight Watchers at JSC Last 2012 Meeting Today!

Today is the last JSC WW@Work meeting for 2012. We will not hold meetings on site Dec. 24 or Dec. 31. As always, during this holiday period, or at any time, members can attend any other Weight Watchers meeting by presenting their Monthly Pass.

To avoid the New Year's Resolution Rush, join our meeting today in Building 45, Room 551, at 12 noon, to learn about the new Weight Watchers 360 Program, designed to help make healthy living become second nature. The new Weight Watchers 360 Program gives you the power to lose weight like never before!

If you are ready to join now, you can purchase your Monthly Pass using the link below, using JSC Company ID 24156, and Passcode WW24156.

Or join our next onsite meeting, which will be held Jan. 7, 2013. Weigh-in begins at 11:30 a.m, and meeting runs from 12:00-12:30 p.m. See you there!

Event Date: Monday, December 17, 2012   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Bldg 45, Room 551

 

Add to Calendar

 

Julie Kliesing x31540 https://wellness.weightwatchers.com

 

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7.            NASA's JCS December Tech Briefs Have Been Published

Six new innovative technologies from JSC are recognized in the December 2012 issue of NASA Tech Briefs.

NASA Tech Briefs magazine introduces details about new innovations and technologies that stem from advanced research and technology programs conducted by NASA and its industry partners/contractors.

The December JSC briefs include: Real-Time Distributed Embedded Oscillator Operating Frequency Monitoring, Lidar Electro-Optic Beam Switch with a Liquid Crystal Variable Retarder, Device and Container for Reheating and Sterilization, Motion Imagery and Robotics Application (MIRA): Standards-Based Robotics, JWST Lifting System, and the Pneumatic System for Concentration of Micrometer-Size Lunar Soil.

To read and learn more about these JSC innovations and the inventors, please go to the following Strategic Opportunities & Partnership Development website: http://ao.jsc.nasa.gov/media/26_Dec2012_TechBriefs.pdf

To review all of the current NASA Tech Briefs, go to www.techbriefs.com.

Holly Kurth ext: 32951

 

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8.            JSC Security Special Operations Training

JSC Security Special Operations will be conducting training in building 30A on Mon. Dec. 17 between 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

David Lover 281-483-6690

 

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9.            BLOOD DRIVE THANK YOU

Thank you to all those who took the time to donate at the blood drive this past year. Last week's blood drive collected 238 units of blood. Our total for the year is 1403. Each donation can help up to 3 people, so that is 4209 lives.

Mark your calendar for the first blood drive of 2013 on Feb. 13-14. For additional information, check our website: http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm or contact Teresa Gomez at 281-483-9588.

Teresa Gomez 281-483-9588 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm

 

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10.          Carlos Dominguez - The TechNowist

The Human Health & Performance Directorate is pleased to welcome Carlos Dominguez, Senior Vice President at Cisco Systems and technology evangelist, as our next Innovation Lecture Series Speaker! Carlos speaks to and motivates audiences worldwide about how technology is changing how we communicate, collaborate, and especially how we work. Carlos gives humorous, highly-animated presentations full of deep insight into how technology, and the right culture, can create winning companies.

When: January 11, 2013 at 2:00 pm

Where: Teague Auditorium (NEW)

All are welcomed! Register now in SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... to receive Human Systems Academy credit.

Event Date: Friday, January 11, 2013   Event Start Time:2:00 PM   Event End Time:3:30 PM

Event Location: Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Carissa Vidlak 281.212.1409 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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11.          Holiday Shopping with Starport

Looking for something different to give this holiday season? Starport holiday gift certificates make great stocking stuffers! Purchase sessions for massage therapy & personal training and memberships to the Inner Space Yoga and Pilates Studio as a gift for friends, family members, or other loved ones. Anyone can redeem these gift certificates.….you don't have to be a Starport member or work at JSC. Purchase at the Gilruth Center Information Desk.

Plus check out our creative holiday gift packages on sale in the Starport Gifts Shops and the Gilruth Center. With options starting at just $10, and many themes to choose from, you are sure to find something for everyone on your shopping list! Place your order now. Visit http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ for more information.

Shelly Haralson 39168 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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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 Soyuz spacecraft encapsulation, rocket mating & rollout

·         4 pm Central (5 EST) – GRAIL end-of-mission commentary

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday – December 17, 2012

 

Sunlit multi-national flags flank Soyuz TMA-07M at Baikonur launch pad (NASA's Carla Cioffi)

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Soyuz put in place for mission to space station

 

Peter Leonard - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz spacecraft atop a towering rocket was placed into launch position Monday at Russia's manned-space facility in the freezing, windswept steppes of Kazakhstan ahead of a five-month mission for three astronauts to the International Space Station. The craft was rolled out of its hangar on a flatbed train at exactly 7 a.m. in strict accordance with tradition and crawled for two hours at a walking pace to the launch pad. Colleagues, friends and relatives of the astronauts withstood temperatures as low as minus-30 C (minus-22 F), worsened by wind, to watch the procedure.

 

Soyuz rocket with manned spacecraft installed on launch pad

 

Itar-Tass

 

Russia's Soyuz carrier rocket with the seventh digital series manned spacecraft on Monday morning was installed on the first - Gagarin launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. "The rollout and installation of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-07M spaceship passed normally," a representative of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) at the southern spaceport said. On Wednesday, December 19, the crewmembers of long-term Expedition 34/35 are to fly on the ship to the International Space Station (ISS).

 

Space Station's Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival

 

RIA Novosti

 

The International Space Station's orbit has been increased by almost 2.5 kilometers in a test of the station's new emergency debris avoidance system, Mission Control told RIA Novosti. The new system, known as the Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM), addresses the situation where dangerous debris is detected with little advance warning, down to as little as three hours from the approach. The reboost was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had been postponed "after encountering some challenges latching down one of the Beta Gimbal Assemblies that rotate the station's huge solar arrays," NASA said on its website.

 

Space Station to Get New Insomnia-Fighting Light Bulbs

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

NASA plans a new weapon in the fight against space insomnia: high-tech light-emitting diodes to replace the fluorescent bulbs in the U.S. section of the International Space Station. About half of everyone who flies to space relies on sleep medication, at some point, to get some rest. For $11.2 million, NASA hopes to use the science of light to reduce astronauts' dependency on drugs. According to NASA flight surgeon Smith Johnston, studies in Anchorage, Alaska showed that hospital staff made more medical errors during the darkest times of the year. The finding demonstrates that people have a day-night cycle that must be respected, even when they're doing the demanding work of space exploration.

 

What are the health risks of space travel?

 

Philippa Roxby - BBC News

 

Astronauts are limited to spending six months on the International Space Station, around 200 miles above Earth, for a good reason. The loss of bone and muscle mass they experience in space is so profound that they cannot stay any longer. But what about the health impact of forthcoming suborbital flights for space tourists who are not fit, highly-trained individuals? According to North American scientists writing in the British Medical Journal article, GPs should be prepared to answer patients' queries about their suitability for space travel in the near future.

 

Apollo 13 astronauts make light of ill-fated flight

 

Rob Johnson & Gary Ghioto - Pensacola News Journal

 

They can laugh about it now. Saturday at the National Aviation Museum astronauts and control room officials of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 made light of the life-threatening glitch that has become part of space exploration lore and the subject of a 1995 hit movie directed by Ron Howard. For example, according to mission commander James Lovell, now a retired Navy captain, one his colleagues on the flight, Jack Swigert, playfully suggested that they delay re-establishing radio contact with NASA officials at Cape Kennedy when their returning module entered an area in which ground control couldn't track them.

 

Looming 'fiscal cliff' may devastate space program

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

The civilian space exploration program is facing the same threat of looming budget cuts as most programs outside national defense and entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare. As President Barack Obama and congressional leaders negotiate over how to avert the combination of extensive spending cuts and tax increases set to occur Jan. 1, NASA and contractors working on the space program are fretting about the possibility of tens of thousands of job losses across the country.

 

MEANWHILE AT EARTH'S SATELLITE…

 

Moon probes set for kamikaze conclusion to successful mission

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Streaking through vacuum at a mile per second just above the cratered surface of the moon, two washing machine-size science probes that have completed their mission to map the lunar gravity field will slam into a mile-high mountainside Monday, bringing a successful $500 million mission to a kamikaze conclusion. The twin probes, named Ebb and Flow in a student naming contest, have been flying in formation at extremely low altitude since Jan. 1, 2012, mapping subtle changes in the moon's gravitational pull to gain insights into its internal structure.

 

Twin NASA spacecraft to plunge into lunar mountain

 

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

 

Ebb and Flow chased each other around the moon for nearly a year, peering into the interior. With dwindling fuel supplies, the twin NASA spacecraft are ready for a dramatic finish. On Monday, they will plunge - seconds apart - into a mountain near the moon's north pole. It's a carefully choreographed ending so that they don't end up crashing into the Apollo landing sites or any other place on the moon with special importance. Skywatchers on Earth won't be able to view the double impacts since they will occur in the dark.

 

NASA moon-mapping mission to come to a crashing end

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

NASA plans to crash a pair of small robotic science probes into the moon next week after a successful year-long mission to learn what lies beneath the lunar surface, officials said on Thursday. The twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft will make suicidal plunges on Monday into a mountain near the moon's north pole, a site selected to avoid the chance of hitting any of the Apollo or other lunar relics. The impacts, which are not expected to be visible from Earth, will take place about 20 seconds apart at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT) on Monday.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Soyuz put in place for mission to space station

 

Peter Leonard - Associated Press

 

A Soyuz spacecraft atop a towering rocket was placed into launch position Monday at Russia's manned-space facility in the freezing, windswept steppes of Kazakhstan ahead of a five-month mission for three astronauts to the International Space Station.

 

The craft was rolled out of its hangar on a flatbed train at exactly 7 a.m. in strict accordance with tradition and crawled for two hours at a walking pace to the launch pad. Colleagues, friends and relatives of the astronauts withstood temperatures as low as minus-30 C (minus-22 F), worsened by wind, to watch the procedure.

 

NASA's Tom Marshburn, Russian Roman Romanenko, and the Canadian Space Agency's Chris Hadfield will blast off Wednesday and travel for two days before reaching three other astronauts working at the orbiting laboratory.

 

Although the temperature was lower in other parts of Kazakhstan - it was minus-42 C (minus -44 F) in the capital, Astana - locals assert with a hint of pride that the exposed steppe makes it far more uncomfortable in Baikonur.

 

But officials say the glacial conditions have little effect on the Soyuz.

 

There are very few weather requirements or restrictions for the launch of the Soyuz vehicle," veteran NASA astronaut Mike Fossum said. "We launch a couple of days from now in similar conditions and we are without any concerns."

 

The current Soyuz craft is a variation on the vehicle that has been in constant use by the Soviet and then Russian manned space programs since 1967.

 

The three-man crew, which has been in Baikonur for almost two weeks making final preparations, took a tour Sunday of the hangar where the craft was being kept.

 

"Incredibly impressive to see the final assembly of the rocket that will throw us into orbit. This is one excited crew!" Marshburn wrote on his Twitter account.

 

Marshburn, 52, is making his second trip to space. During his maiden voyage in 2009, he logged more than 376 hours in space, which included 19 hours of extravehicular activity over the course of three spacewalks.

 

In the remaining time before the launch, which takes place Wednesday at 6:12 p.m. (1212 GMT), more checks will be carried out and the booster rockets will be fueled.

 

The launch marks a return to use of the launch pad known as Gagarin's Start, where Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin blasted off in 1961 for the first human orbital space flight. Site No. 1. Another launch site was used for the previous mission, which set off in October.

 

The need for a back-up launch site became particularly acute with the decommissioning of the U.S. shuttle fleet. The Soyuz now is the only vehicle able to carry astronauts to the space station.

 

Although the Soyuz has proven dependable, recurrent problems with the unmanned version of the craft have sown anxiety over NASA's excessive reliance on the Russian space program.

 

NASA announced last week that it was making progress toward the first test of its new generation Orion spacecraft in 2014.

 

Orion is a part of NASA's growing ambitions to extend its reach into space. NASA says it is being designed travel more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above Earth's surface and return at a speeds almost 5,000 miles (8,050 kilometers) per hour faster than any current human spacecraft.

 

Soyuz rocket with manned spacecraft installed on launch pad

 

Itar-Tass

 

Russia's Soyuz carrier rocket with the seventh digital series manned spacecraft on Monday morning was installed on the first - Gagarin launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

 

"The rollout and installation of the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-07M spaceship passed normally," a representative of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) at the southern spaceport said. On Wednesday, December 19, the crewmembers of long-term Expedition 34/35 are to fly on the ship to the International Space Station (ISS).

 

The gate of the operations and checkout building by the long standing tradition opened at 07:00 a.m., local time (05:00 MSK).

 

A locomotive, guarded by policemen, slowly started to carry the Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft e to the launch pad. The locomotive with the rocket covered the two-kilometre path to the launch pad in about two hours.

 

Dozens of journalists, space industry specialists, foreign tourists, VIP-guests were watching the rollout of the 50-metre rocket with the emblems of Roskosmos, Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and the flags of Russia and the United States on the nose cone.

 

"After the rocket's erection and roll-up of the service tower, the launch-control teams started the works under the plan of the first launch day," a spokesman for the Russian Space Agency told reporters.

 

Roskosmos specified that the rocket launch is scheduled for 16:12 MSK on December 19. During the remaining days before the launch experts will make the final checks of the carrier rocket with the Soyuz TMA-07M spaceship attached to it and will also fuel the carrier rocket.

 

On Tuesday, December 18, the State Commission will finally approve the crewmembers who will fly to the ISS. In anticipation of the commission's meeting the main ISS crew comprising Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn is engaged in the final pre-flight training and gaining strength ahead of the long space mission.

 

Space Station's Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival

 

RIA Novosti

 

The International Space Station's orbit has been increased by almost 2.5 kilometers in a test of the station's new emergency debris avoidance system, Mission Control told RIA Novosti.

 

The new system, known as the Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM), addresses the situation where dangerous debris is detected with little advance warning, down to as little as three hours from the approach.

 

The reboost was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had been postponed "after encountering some challenges latching down one of the Beta Gimbal Assemblies that rotate the station's huge solar arrays," NASA said on its website.

 

"Now scheduled for Sunday, the test of the operation, which increases the efficiency and ease of reboosting the station's altitude, will also place the station in the optimal position for next week's launch and docking of the Soyuz carrying three additional crew members," it said.

 

The emergency avoidance maneuver was performed by the engines aboard the Russian Progress freighter docked at the station. The engines can be fired as little as 140 minutes before a dangerous debris approach.

 

Soyuz TMA-07M, scheduled to lift off from the Baikonur space center on December 19, will deliver Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and US astronaut Tom Marshburn to the ISS. Docking is scheduled for December 21.

 

They will join Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin, as well as NASA astronaut Kevin Ford.

 

International Space Station Expedition 34 will perform two spacewalks under the Russian and US space programs.

 

During their 147-day mission, the new ISS crew members will also take part in docking and unloading six spacecraft: four Russian Progress cargo spacecraft, Europe's ATV-4 space freighter and US SpX-2 spacecraft.

 

Space Station to Get New Insomnia-Fighting Light Bulbs

 

Elizabeth Howell - Space.com

 

NASA plans a new weapon in the fight against space insomnia: high-tech light-emitting diodes to replace the fluorescent bulbs in the U.S. section of the International Space Station.

 

About half of everyone who flies to space relies on sleep medication, at some point, to get some rest. For $11.2 million, NASA hopes to use the science of light to reduce astronauts' dependency on drugs.

 

According to NASA flight surgeon Smith Johnston, studies in Anchorage, Alaska showed that hospital staff made more medical errors during the darkest times of the year. The finding demonstrates that people have a day-night cycle that must be respected, even when they're doing the demanding work of space exploration.

 

"When you have normal light coming through the windows of stores, and schools, and hospitals, people do better. They function better," said Johnston, the lead physician for NASA's wellness program.

 

Tough sleep in space

 

Sleep is no trivial matter in space. Astronauts generally get about six hours of shut-eye in orbit despite being allowed 8.5. Demanding schedules and unusual environments are among the factors that cause insomnia.

 

"The station is noisy, carbon dioxide is high, you don't have a shower, there's a lot of angst because you've got to perform. Imagine if you have a camera on you 24 hours a day," Johnston said.

 

Over time, sleep deprivation can cause irritation, depression, sickness or mistakes. Any of these problems can be dangerous in the close, confined, pressurized quarters of the space station.

 

In an effort to address the problem, NASA plans to replace the orbiting laboratory's fluorescent bulbs with an array of LEDs switching between blueish, whitish and reddish light, according to the time of day. The changes can be programmed in by the ground, or the astronauts. The new light bulbs are due to be swapped in by 2016.

 

Blue light stimulates the human brain best because people evolved to respond to the color of Earth's sky, experts say. When an astronaut's eyes are exposed to blue light, his or her body suppresses melatonin, a sleep-inducing hormone. Blue also promotes the formation of melanopsin, a "protein pigment" that keeps people awake.

 

In simple terms, the color red reverses the process. Melatonin increases, making the astronaut sleepy, while melanopsin is suppressed.

 

"You can dial in a natural day-night cycle on the space station" with the new light arrays, which are being developed by Boeing, Johnston said.

 

It should work well, he added, unless astronauts look out the window at bedtime. They then run the risk of confusing their body clocks by exposing their eyes to natural sunlight reflecting off of Earth.

 

Sleep training

 

Technology can go only so far in solving sleep problems, Johnston said. This is why NASA prescribes good "sleep hygiene" for its crews before and during spaceflight.

 

Medications are used only as a last resort, and are tested extensively on Earth by each crew member. In case of emergency, astronauts must awaken easily even during the deepest stages of sleep.

 

The astronauts also get practice sleeping under difficult circumstances by virtue of their demanding preflight schedules, which include flights to Russia and Japan for training.

 

NASA works with the astronauts to minimize jet lag. Techniques that help for each crew member, such as wearing sunglasses on the plane and taking medications at a certain time, can then be used in orbit.

 

Groups on Earth will benefit from the research, too, especially shift workers or travellers fighting jet lag, Johnston said.

 

"Hopefully, we'll have spinoffs that other doctors can use, and the military can use for their flight surgeons."

 

What are the health risks of space travel?

 

Philippa Roxby - BBC News

 

Astronauts are limited to spending six months on the International Space Station, around 200 miles above Earth, for a good reason.

 

The loss of bone and muscle mass they experience in space is so profound that they cannot stay any longer.

 

But what about the health impact of forthcoming suborbital flights for space tourists who are not fit, highly-trained individuals?

 

According to North American scientists writing in the British Medical Journal article, GPs should be prepared to answer patients' queries about their suitability for space travel in the near future.

 

Yet there will be few GPs experienced enough in space medicine to provide advice.

 

Past research tells us that spaceflight causes changes in the physiology of the human body, but how it might affect underlying medical conditions in an unfit, 50-year-old space tourist is not yet clearly known.

 

Dr David Green, senior lecturer in human and aerospace physiology at Kings College London, predicts that in the next two years or so significant numbers of people will be taking up places on suborbital flights in a specially-designed spacecraft.

 

This means they will dip out of Earth's atmosphere, experience weightlessness for around four minutes and then descend back to Earth's surface.

 

The speed of the acceleration and deceleration involved in that flight could be an issue for some, Dr Green says.

 

"It's highly likely you will feel sick or be sick and that's a real concern.

 

"Also, there will be an issue making sure everyone gets back in their seats after floating about.

 

"Going back to Earth, everything will feel heavier. You could knock yourself unconscious."

 

The most common problems during a spaceflight have been shown to be motion sickness, fatigue, dehydration, loss of appetite and back pain.

 

During the massive vertical acceleration and deceleration of spaceflight, it is hard for the heart to pump blood to the brain.

 

"If you have underlying cardiovascular disease that could be exposed," says Dr Green.

 

G-force

 

Dr Jon Scott, a senior scientist at QinetiQ and member of the UK Space Agency's space environment working group, has been involved in research to understand what increased gravitational forces do to people like fighter pilots.

 

"At the extremes, some people can tolerate as little as 3g and some as much as 6g. But there is no one simple, convenient thing you can measure to predict their tolerance. It would be great if a GP could test for it."

 

US researchers are looking at g-tolerance in sections of the population who could be the space tourists of the future.

 

The American Aerospace Medical Association Commercial Spaceflight Working Group published a document in 2009 saying that most individuals with "well controlled medical conditions" could withstand the acceleration forces involved in the launch and landing of a commercial spaceflight.

 

Their challenge, Scott says, is to gather information on a range of ages and health conditions - not just young, fit individuals - so that spaceflight companies can judge who can and who can't fly.

 

Key to life

 

"We don't want to have so many medical restrictions that no one can fly, but we want to make sure we truly understand the effects of these flights.

 

"There has to be a balance between medical safety and the industry flourishing - more information will help us find this balance."

 

The study of human physiology in space benefits more than just budding space tourists and astronauts though.

 

There are distinct similarities between the effects of lengthy space travel on humans and the effects of ageing on Earth.

 

"Astronauts' bones become weaker and their physical fitness decreases the longer they spend in space, much like an elderly person leading a sedentary lifestyle," says Dr Green.

 

"We can learn a lot about the fundamental mechanics of how to stay alive on Earth from going into space."

 

Increased access to space will bring challenges for medical experts and scientists alike as they attempt to minimise the side-effects of space travel for the general public while promoting the exhilaration of floating in microgravity.

 

So You Want to Go to Space: You'll Need Medical Clearance First

 

Alexandra Sifferlin - Time

 

Space tourism isn't on the list of family vacation destinations yet, but that doesn't mean doctors shouldn't be thinking about pre-flight medical checkups.

 

With Richard Branson selling $200,000 tickets for spots on his SpaceShipTwo, which he hopes will launch in 2014, space travel may not be so far-fetched. Or at least that's what Branson and other commercial space travel companies are betting on.

 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently awarded grant money to Boeing, Space Exploration Technologies and the Sierra Nevada Corporation to develop safe vehicles for space travel. As the next frontier in exotic destinations, there may be big bucks in traveling to the unknown; some experts estimate [PDF] revenues in the first ten years of commercial space travel operations might reach between $600 million to $1.6 billion. If that's the case, then it's really only a matter of time before space-bound passengers line up at the doctor's office to get medical clearance for extraterrestrial travel.

 

"It's a very real thing," says Dr. Millie Hughes-Fulford, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) department of biochemistry and biophysics and part of a group of UCSF researchers who published a helpful paper outlining some of the unique issues that physicians conducting pre-flight physicals might consider, such as extraterrestrial effects on the body including motion sickness, muscle deterioration and exposure to radiation that could increase the risk of cancer. The paper includes a list of medical conditions associated with space flight, culled from health records of astronauts, as well as a tally of medical conditions that might be worsened in space, and potential treatments. "We are at the beginning and it is time to say, 'heads up, this is coming at you,'" she says.

 

Granted, Fulford may be more passionate about the impending possibilities of space travel than most scientists, since she's been there. She traveled on the Space Shuttle in 1991, as a NASA payload specialist aboard STS-40, a Spacelab mission dedicated to biomedical studies. She currently studies the effects of microgravity on immune function and infection, an interest triggered by the high number of otherwise healthy astronauts who became ill during the Apollo space missions. If astronauts are felled by infections in space, says Fulford, then it's important to understand how extraterrestrial travel affects the immune system in order to find ways to make such journeys safer for ordinary citizens who may not be as physically fit.

 

With a casual space traveler, for example, a doctor may be faced with medical challenges like "Can my patient with a pacemaker participate in a suborbital Virgin Galactic flight?" and "What is the maximum allowable time my patient with osteoporosis can spend on vacation in a space hotel" before the effects of gravity erode his already brittle bones to a point where it becomes debilitating?

 

The idea is to find ways to allow the most diverse group of medically able people to make the journey to space. "We have to think about civilians flying as opposed to what is currently pretty much only governmental astronauts. If we start to see that only completely healthy people will be able to fly, then we are going to see a drop in the number of people going," says another of the paper's authors, Marlene Grenon, an assistant professor of vascular and endovascular surgery at UCSF. "We need to address the people with medical conditions who would like to fly. If anyone can fly, there will be a lot of conditions that will be different in space, and we need to better understand these disease conditions in microgravity."

 

Even less severe symptoms, such as motion sickness and loss of appetite, are common among veteran astronauts, so doctors should be prepared to assess less experienced vacationers for any health problems that could be aggravated or put the passenger at undue risk by space travel. If a patient has cancer, for instance, it's possible space travel could expose them to radiation that would cause tumors to flourish, so a pre-flight evaluation would include warning the patient about the risk and possibly asking him to postpone the journey. Kidney stones are also more common among astronauts, due to dehydration, so establishing guidelines for passengers to drink enough fluids in space might also be a consideration.

 

As far-fetched as such preparation seems, more groups like the FAA and Aerospace Medical Association Commercial Spaceflight Working Group are proposing medical recommendations for space flight and starting  to draft proposals for regulating commercial travel. However, the authors note the the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation has not made specific medical requirements or disqualifications for space tourists, probably because overregulation deters interest and could hinder development. That's more reason for physicians to take a stronger role in anticipating how they would evaluate potential space travelers, Fulford and her colleagues say, since doctors who clear patients for space will share the responsibility of issuing that clearance (and any potential health problems that result) with the commercial travel company selling the ticket.

 

"There is definitely a trend toward more work being done in [space medicine] as the medical field catches up with what's going on in commercial space transportation," says Grenon, who is researching the effect of microgravity on the heart and on cells that line blood vessels. "This [effect] is important to understand with regards to long-duration space flight and exploratory missions. We feel that we are pushing the limits of our knowledge and really contributing to making journeys in space as safe as possible."

 

It might seem they are getting ahead of themselves, but Fulford, for one, believes it's never too early to start preparing, and estimates space tourism could be active in six to seven years. "As a country we are in the dull drones of thinking: 'oh, we're in the fiscal cliff.' No one is looking to the future and saying, 'we are in a great age. [But] we are in a great age, and I think it's time to enjoy that. We have to recognize where we are [part of] the progress of mankind." Which will eventually take us, she hopes, to infinity and beyond.

 

Apollo 13 astronauts make light of ill-fated flight

 

Rob Johnson & Gary Ghioto - Pensacola News Journal

 

They can laugh about it now.

 

Saturday at the National Aviation Museum astronauts and control room officials of the ill-fated Apollo 13 lunar mission in 1970 made light of the life-threatening glitch that has become part of space exploration lore and the subject of a 1995 hit movie directed by Ron Howard.

 

For example, according to mission commander James Lovell, now a retired Navy captain, one his colleagues on the flight, Jack Swigert, playfully suggested that they delay re-establishing radio contact with NASA officials at Cape Kennedy when their returning module entered an area in which ground control couldn't track them.

 

The idea was to prank NASA and others waiting on earth for their safe return.

 

But Lovell said the crew didn't seriously consider playing Swigert's joke.

 

The crowd of about 500 or so were permitted questions of a panel of astronauts and NASA ground officials that included Eugene Kranz, the Gemini/Apollo flight director who directed Apollo 13.

 

One spectator asked Lovell, who didn't return to space after the electrical problems and an explosion that occurred about 200,000 miles from earth if he considered volunteering for another mission.

 

But Lovell said that he was still considering that possibility at a press conference when he saw a hand raised in the back of the room, turning a thumbs down. Lovell said, "It was my wife."

 

Her response made up his mind.

 

Sentimental mood

 

Former astronauts Eugene Cernan and Glenn became philosophical over a $25-a-plate fundraising lunch at the National Naval Aviation Museum on Saturday.

 

Glenn talked about the special perspective on the environment he gained from space flight. "We have an atmosphere that we better take care of. You can't help but think about things like that" when looking out the window of a space vehicle, Glenn said.

 

Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon in 1970, said that while traveling through space at more than 20,000 miles an hour he came to the conclusion that "there's something you don't understand" that goes beyond scientific explanation. He said space travel and the views of the earth and the vastness of space accorded by his travel made him think that "science has met its match."

 

Looming 'fiscal cliff' may devastate space program

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

The civilian space exploration program is facing the same threat of looming budget cuts as most programs outside national defense and entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare.

 

As President Barack Obama and congressional leaders negotiate over how to avert the combination of extensive spending cuts and tax increases set to occur Jan. 1, NASA and contractors working on the space program are fretting about the possibility of tens of thousands of job losses across the country.

 

In a frightening outline of the possible impacts of the so-called "fiscal cliff," the Aerospace Industries Association estimated that more than 1,300 jobs would be lost in the aviation and space sectors in Florida alone if a deal is not reached soon by political leaders in Washington. That is based on a projected 8-plus percent cut to the NASA budget.

 

The fear of the industry association is that a major disruption in big NASA projects could cut into critical skills in a way that would hard to recover from, as people with key talents must move on to find other work.

 

In Florida, specifically, industry leaders are concerned about ongoing efforts to revitalize the launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center and prepare the facility for the future launch of the planned Orion spacecraft and the proposed NASA super rocket currently dubbed the Space Launch System. The early work on those projects is crucial to any plans for civilian space exploration beyond Earth's orbit in the coming decade or so.

 

Beyond that, a stalemate on the budget and taxes could impact the promising commercial cargo and crew programs that are taking shape within NASA and launching, primarily, from here.

 

Similar threats could face space weather forecasting assets and other private space development efforts outside NASA, experts say.

 

Space exploration is always at risk when budget challenges arise because it's viewed by some political leaders as a luxury.

 

That's especially true for representatives from states without large clusters of aerospace jobs. In space-friendly states, elected officials are more likely to either be educated about the potential benefits of space exploration and technological development or at least pressured to protect a key economic engine running.

 

For NASA's most important projects, which span multiple political administrations and require consistent long-term funding, big gaps in funding or extended periods without direction are like Kryptonite to Superman.

 

As the agency just starts to rev up its post-shuttle transition, the timing couldn't be worse for this kind of political hiccup.

 

MEANWHILE AT EARTH'S SATELLITE…

 

Moon probes set for kamikaze conclusion to successful mission

 

William Harwood - CBS News

 

Streaking through vacuum at a mile per second just above the cratered surface of the moon, two washing machine-size science probes that have completed their mission to map the lunar gravity field will slam into a mile-high mountainside Monday, bringing a successful $500 million mission to a kamikaze conclusion.

 

The twin probes, named Ebb and Flow in a student naming contest, have been flying in formation at extremely low altitude since Jan. 1, 2012, mapping subtle changes in the moon's gravitational pull to gain insights into its internal structure.

 

With all of the mission's scientific objectives accomplished, the trajectories of both 440-pound satellites were fine tuned Friday to set up twin impacts on a rugged cliff near the moon's north pole that is part of the rim of a buried crater.

 

Ebb is expected to hit the mountain at 5:28 p.m. EST (GMT-5) Monday. Flow will follow suit about 30 seconds later, crashing some 25 miles away from its twin. And with that, the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory -- GRAIL -- mission will come to an abrupt end.

 

"We are not expecting a big flash or a big explosion" Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told reporters last week. "These are two small spacecraft, we use the term apartment-size washer/dryer-size spacecraft with empty fuel tanks. So we are not expecting a flash visible from Earth."

 

The impacts will occur in darkness, but NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be on the lookout for any signs of the crashes during subsequent passes over the region.

 

"We've had our share of challenges during this mission and always come through in flying colors, but nobody I know around here has ever flown into a moon  mountain before," David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "It'll be a first for us, that's for sure." 

 

Each spacecraft executed a rocket firing Friday using up most of the probes' dwindling propellant to ensure the twin spacecraft hit their target, well away from any U.S. or Russian "historic heritage" landing sites.

 

While the odds of accidentally hitting one of the legacy landers were extremely remote, mission managers ordered the targeted impact to make absolutely sure.

 

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

 

"But when you orbit at very low altitudes above a planetary body that has a very bumpy gravity field, you use a lot of fuel. And so the mission is going to come to an end."

 

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. After maneuvers to put both spacecraft into exactly the same orbit, the probes flew in close formation, constantly sending timed radio signals back and forth to precisely measure the distance between them.

 

The initial phases of the mission were carried out at an average altitude of 40 miles above the lunar surface. After a break over the summer due to solar power constraints, mapping resumed in August at an average altitude of just 14 miles. On Dec. 6, a final set of observations was carried out at an altitude of just 6.8 miles above the surface.

 

Sailing over buried mass concentrations, craters, mountain ranges, basins and other geologic features, the satellites' velocity changed ever so slightly, one after the other, due to subtle gravitational differences. The ranging system was accurate enough to detect differences of as little as one micron, or the width of a red blood cell.

 

By carefully analyzing those changes, scientists have been able to map out the gravity field in unprecedented detail, shedding new light on the moon's evolution and, by extension, the evolution of Earth and other terrestrial worlds.

 

"GRAIL has produced the highest resolution, highest quality gravity field for any planet in the solar system, including Earth," Zuber said. "One of the major results that we found is evidence that the lunar crust is much thinner than we had believed before."

 

She said the data indicated "a couple of the large impact basins probably excavated the moon's mantle, which is very useful in terms of trying to understand the composition of the moon as well as the Earth. We actually think the Earth's mantle has a similar composition."

 

Another perhaps not-so-surprising result: the heavily cratered surface of the moon is extremely fractured and broken up by countless impacts.

 

"We found evidence that the shallow subsurface of the moon is largely pulverized, the crust of the moon has a very high average porosity indicative of the fact that it's been broken up by impacts," Zuber said. "And there is evidence that fracturing extends maybe several tens of kilometers possibly into the upper mantle."

 

The findings illustrate the role of "impact bombardment" on the evolution of early planetary crusts, Zuber said, including those of Earth and Mars.

 

"With Mars, there (are) a lot of questions about where did the water that we think was on the surface of Mars go? Well, if a planetary crust is that fractured, these fractures provide a pathway deep inside the planet and it's very easy to envision now how a possible ocean at the surface could have found its way deep into the crust of a planet."

 

Details about the moon's deep interior are expected to be announced after additional data analysis.

 

Twin NASA spacecraft to plunge into lunar mountain

 

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

 

Ebb and Flow chased each other around the moon for nearly a year, peering into the interior. With dwindling fuel supplies, the twin NASA spacecraft are ready for a dramatic finish.

 

On Monday, they will plunge - seconds apart - into a mountain near the moon's north pole. It's a carefully choreographed ending so that they don't end up crashing into the Apollo landing sites or any other place on the moon with special importance.

 

Skywatchers on Earth won't be able to view the double impacts since they will occur in the dark.

 

"We're not putting out an all-points bulletin to amateur astronomers to get their telescopes out," said mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Earthlings may be shut out of the spectacle, but the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter circling the moon will pass over the crash site and attempt to photograph the skid marks left by the washing machine sized-spacecraft as they slam into 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.

 

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 imminent demise 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 Sally Ride. Ride, the first American woman in space, died of pancreatic cancer in July at age 61.

 

Scientists expect to sift through data 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.

 

The last time the space agency intentionally fired manmade objects at the moon was in 2009, but it was for the sake of science. The crash was a public relations dud - spectators barely saw a faint flash - but the experiment proved that the moon contained water.

 

NASA moon-mapping mission to come to a crashing end

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

NASA plans to crash a pair of small robotic science probes into the moon next week after a successful year-long mission to learn what lies beneath the lunar surface, officials said on Thursday.

 

The twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft will make suicidal plunges on Monday into a mountain near the moon's north pole, a site selected to avoid the chance of hitting any of the Apollo or other lunar relics.

 

The impacts, which are not expected to be visible from Earth, will take place about 20 seconds apart at 5:28 p.m. EST (2228 GMT) on Monday.

 

"They're going to be completely blown apart," GRAIL project manager David Lehman, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told reporters on a conference call.

 

Almost out of fuel and currently flying just 7 miles above the lunar surface, the probes will make a final steering maneuver on Friday and shut down their science instruments in preparation for Monday's crash.

 

The two spacecraft, each about the size of a small washing machine, have been flying in close formation around the moon for nearly a year to map the lunar gravity.

 

Scientists precisely measure the distance between the two, a figure that slightly changes as they fly over denser regions of the moon. The gravitational pull of the additional mass causes first the leading probe and then the following one to speed up, altering the gap between them.

 

Gravity maps from the first part of the mission, collected between March and May 2012 when the spacecraft were about 34 miles above the lunar surface, revealed the moon has a shallower and much more fractured crust than expected - the result of asteroid and comet impacts billions of years ago.

 

"We know that the moon had been bombarded by impacts but what we found is just how broken up and fractured the crust of the moon is," said lead scientist Maria Zuber, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Similar bombardments happened on all the solid bodies of the inner solar system though the evidence on Earth has been erased by erosion, plate tectonics and other phenomena.

 

"With Mars, there's a questions about where did the water that we think was on the surface go," Zuber said. "These fractures provide a pathway deep inside the planet and it's very easy to envision now how a possible ocean on the surface could have found its way deep into the crust."

 

Scientists also discovered lava-filled subterranean cracks inside the moon, evidence that the body expanded early in its history.

 

In addition to planetary science, the gravity maps, along with detailed images of the lunar surface, should help engineers pick landing sites for future robotic and human expeditions to the moon, Zuber said.

 

"In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined that this mission would have gone any better than it has," she said, adding that NASA will be getting $8 million or $9 million back from the mission's $471 million budget.

 

The spacecraft will hit the surface at about 3,760 miles per hour. No pictures are expected because the region will be dark at the time of impact, but a sister spacecraft circling the moon, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, will attempt to survey the crash site.

 

"These are two small spacecraft with empty fuel tanks, so we're not expecting a flash that is visible from Earth," Zuber said.

 

END