Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - January 9, 2013 and JSC Today

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 9, 2013 7:41:27 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - January 9, 2013 and JSC Today

 

 

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Information for Satellite Accumulation Areas Storing Industrial Solid Waste

2.            Today at 11:30 a.m. -- 'Innovating the Future Today' With Francisco Alvarez

3.            'What Happened to the STS-107 Columbia Crew?' -- Find Out Jan. 10

4.            Don't Miss Carlos Dominguez -- The TechNowist

5.            Latest International Space Station Research

6.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station

7.            Sam's Club in Cafés

8.            New Class at the Inner Space Mind/Body Studio at the Gilruth Center

9.            Need Help Managing Your Weight? Join Just Lose It -- Starts Jan. 23

10.          Summer 2013 Interns

11.          Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar

12.          Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS: Feb. 8

13.          System Safety Fundamentals Class: March 11 to 15 - Building 20, Room 205/206

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat. "

 

-- Johann von Goethe

________________________________________

1.            Information for Satellite Accumulation Areas Storing Industrial Solid Waste

JSC has seen several changes in recent months, and the Environmental Office is requesting that all personnel document any process or personnel changes affecting Industrial Solid Waste generation or their respective Satellite Accumulation Areas (SAA) by submitting an updated JSC Form (JF) 1104, Waste Notification Form. Personnel should also submit a JF 1104 for any new SAAs or for relocating existing SAAs to a new room or building. An electronic version of the form is accessible through the JSC Forms Web page. JSC prides itself on the quality and success of the SAA program, and this effort will aid the center in maintaining that quality while complying with requirements in JPR 8550.1 JSC Environmental Compliance Procedural Requirements.

JSC Environmental Office x36207

 

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2.            Today at 11:30 a.m. -- 'Innovating the Future Today' With Francisco Alvarez

You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety with speaker Francisco Alvarez, founder and managing director of Green Technologies.

Subject: "Innovating the Future Today" - providing technological resources to maximize plant performance, save water and benefit life on Earth and beyond

TODAY, Jan. 9

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Building 1, Room 966

Green Technologies, a private company in Houston, provides technological resources to help maximize plant performance, as well as save on water consumption. All of their products are biodegradable, non-toxic and environmentally friendly.

For more information, contact Juan Trasalvina at 281-335-2272 or via email.

Event Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Building 1 room 966

 

Add to Calendar

 

Della Cardona 281-335-2074

 

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3.            'What Happened to the STS-107 Columbia Crew?' -- Find Out Jan. 10

Join us for JSC's 2013 Back in the Saddle event on Jan. 10 from 9 to 10 a.m. with "What Happened to the STS-107 Columbia Crew?" presented by Dr. Nigel Packham.

Where: Teague Auditorium

Join us as Packham presents the Columbia Crew Survival Investigation Report. What happened to the STS-107 Columbia crew and what can be learned from it?

The presentation will provide a background of the investigation, the timeline of the accident derived from the evidence described above and discuss several of the key findings that may have application to future spacecraft designers.

Event Date: Thursday, January 10, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM

Event Location: Teague Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Joyce Abbey 281-335-2041

 

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4.            Don't Miss Carlos Dominguez -- The TechNowist

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

All are encouraged to attend! 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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5.            Latest International Space Station Research

On Friday of this week, the 2012 SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites) Zero Robotics High School Student Challenge will occur aboard the space station.

One hundred forty teams from the European Space Agency and U.S.A. have been narrowed down to 45, whose programmed algorithms will control the SPHERES.

Matches are played between two SPHERES satellites (each programmed by a different high school team) that compete to get through a virtual course to rescue a disabled satellite fastest using the least fuel. The satellites can "sabotage" each other by spraying virtual space debris dust clouds.

Stay tuned to learn about the winner of the student competition. In the meantime, read more here.

Liz Warren x35548

 

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6.            White Sands Test Facility: See the Space Station

Viewers in the White Sands Test Facility area will be able to see the International Space Station this week.

Thursday, Jan. 10, 5:58 a.m. (Duration: 6 minutes)

Path: 11 degrees above SW to 10 degrees above NE

Maximum elevation: 64 degrees

Friday, Jan. 11, 5:10 a.m. (Duration: 3 minutes)

Path: 26 degrees above SSE to 11 degrees above ENE

Maximum elevation: 29 degrees

Saturday, Jan. 12, 5:56 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes)

Path: 31 degrees above WNW to 11 degrees above NNE

Maximum elevation: 37 degrees

The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below.

Joe Pascucci x31695 http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=U...

 

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7.            Sam's Club in Cafés

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.

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

 

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8.            New Class at the Inner Space Mind/Body Studio at the Gilruth Center

Starport is happy to announce an addition to the Inner Space Mind/Body Studio schedule. Starting tonight, Heather will be teaching a new class format entitled "Roll With It." This unique class combines specialized movements to lengthen and strengthen muscles, stretching to improve flexibility and foam-roller techniques to relieve muscle tension and increase circulation. This is the perfect workout if you are just starting out or returning to exercise, if you suffer from tight or fatigued muscles or if you want to diversify your current workout program with focused strength exercises. Class day/time will be Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

An Inner Space membership is required to attend this class and/or the many Yoga and Pilates classes offered in this studio. If you are looking for a new way to get fit for the new year, the Inner Space has some great options! For details on memberships, please visit our website.

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

 

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9.            Need Help Managing Your Weight? Join Just Lose It -- Starts Jan. 23

"Just lose it" with the help of the Exploration Wellness 12-week weight management program. JSC's registered dietitian and exercise scientist will help you set a weight-loss goal and empower you to reach it. The professional expertise and group support will keep you on track and help you avoid common pitfalls along your personal weight-loss journey. Weekly meetings will encourage and educate you on various exercise and nutrition topics.

o             There is a fee for this program of $100 due by close of business Jan. 21. This fee is refunded if you meet these criteria: Meet your weight goal and receive a 100 percent refund; or, 50 percent is refunded for 100 percent attendance.

o             Please enroll first, then wait for your confirmation email before going to the Gilruth to pay.

o             Classes will be held on Wednesdays from 11 to 11:40 a.m. in Building 8, Conference Room 248.

Greta Ayers x30302

 

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10.          Summer 2013 Interns

The Office of Education is now accepting intern project requests for summer 2013.

Session: summer 2013(college students)

Session Dates: May 20 to July 26

Submission Deadline: Feb. 1

All projects should be entered in NASA OSSI. As a mentor, you are now able to submit a description of your technical internship opportunity for summer 2013. All projects should be entered by the submission deadline of Feb. 1.

To Upload Your Project and Make Student Selections:

Click on this link. 

1. Complete a mentor profile.

o             Provide or update contact information, primary area of expertise and job title

2. Submit your opportunities.

o             Create a new internship or fellowship opportunity, or modify an existing opportunity

o             Submit the opportunity for approval by your organization

For system questions, contact Diego Rodriguez at 281-792-7827 or via email.

Thank you for your support and dedication to the JSC Office of Education.

Diego Rodriguez 281-792-7827

 

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11.          Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar

Under the Texas Engineering Practice Act, each engineer licensed in the state must spend at least one professional development hour each year reviewing professional ethics and the roles and responsibilities for engineers.

The JSC Safety Learning Center invites JSC engineers to attend this one-hour Professional Engineering Ethics Seminar.

In this seminar, the student will:

o             Review portions of Chapter 137, "Compliance and Professionalism," and Chapter 139, "Enforcement" of the Texas Engineering Practice Act and Board Rules

o             Review some of the recent disciplinary actions taken by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers to enforce the Practice Act

o             Participate in class discussion of specific ethical questions

This seminar meets The Texas Engineering Practice Act yearly one-hour ethics requirement for continuing education.

Date/Time: Jan. 28 from 9 to 10 a.m.

Where: Safety Learning Center - Building 20, Room 205/206

Registration via SATERN required:

https://satern.nasa.gov/plateau/user/deeplink.do?linkId=SCHEDULED_OFFERING_DE...

Aundrail Hill x36369

 

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12.          Electrical Safety Refresher ViTS: Feb. 8

This course is designed to provide the student with a review of Occupational Safety and Health Administration electrical standards and the hazards associated with electrical installations and equipment. Topics may include single- and three-phase systems, cord- and plug-connected and fixed equipment, grounding, ground fault circuit interrupters, hazardous locations and safety-related work practices. Emphasis is placed on discussion of those areas most pertinent to the class makeup and needs. This course is designed for those who have either taken the three-day SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0309, Electrical Safety Standards, or who have a lot of experience working with electrical systems. It may also be used for those who have a need for only electrical safety awareness, who do not work with electrical systems on a regular basis. This course does not cover spacecraft or flight electrical systems.

Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Event Date: Friday, February 8, 2013   Event Start Time:9:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: ViTS Room

 

Add to Calendar

 

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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13.          System Safety Fundamentals Class: March 11 to 15 - Building 20, Room 205/206

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

Polly Caison x41279

 

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________________________________________

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

 

 

 

NASA TV: 1 pm Central (2 EST) – Commercial Crew Program update press conference

 

Human Spaceflight News

Wednesday – January 9, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Bigelow Aerospace and NASA sign contract

 

Clark Lindsey - NewSpaceWatch.com

 

There have been rumors about this for awhile. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have signed a $17.8 million contract. The details will be released later but apparently it deals with preliminary work on the proposed  BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) system for the ISS.

 

Williams Praises ISS, But Thinks Manned Program Is Over

 

Late Show with David Letterman

 

Letterman interviewed NBC News anchorman Brian Williams. During the interview, he recounts his trip to Utah with his daughter during which he used a telescope to observe the ISS. Williams called it "a beautiful sight. It's the last of what we've got up there. Our manned space program is for all intense and purposes over." While Williams said the US has "lost something," he adds that "at least" the US has the "impressive" ISS still going.

(NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA to Discuss Progress of Private Space Taxis

 

Space.com

 

NASA will hold a press conference on Wednesday (Jan. 9) to discuss the progress of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to advance the design and development of new private spaceships to fill the current gap in U.S. human spaceflight capabilities. The press conference, which begins at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), will be broadcast live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website, according to a media advisory. You will be able to watch the webcast live on SPACE.com here.

 

NASA gets status update on private space ventures

 

Jerry Hume - Central Florida News 13

 

NASA is betting on several private companies to help take Americans back to space. Wednesday, those four private companies will be at the Kennedy Space Center for an update on their efforts. NASA investing more than a billion dollars into these companies, with the hope they'll be able to launch humans from here on the Space Coast once again.

 

Space 2013: Boeing to Tackle 13 Commercial Crew Milestones

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

The Boeing Company has a big job ahead in 2013 in the development of its seven-person CST-100 spacecraft. The company is scheduled to complete 13 milestones out of a total of 19 as part of the NASA funded Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) program.

 

For NASA, not flying into space means it has too much space

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

Just before Christmas I had an opportunity to visit with Ellen Ochoa in her corner office on the top floor of Building 1, which commands a view of the sprawling Johnson Space Center campus. A four-time astronaut, Ochoa is  the new center director for Johnson Space Center. We had a pleasant talk about the center's future after a difficult couple of years. Ochoa inherits a center that has lost one-quarter of its budget ($6 billion, annually, to $4.5 billion) and a commensurate number of staff following the end of the space shuttle program and other changes as NASA.

 

NASA considers using asteroid as a space station

 

Houston Chronicle

 

Scientists developed a report last year exploring how identifying, capturing and exploring a near-Earth asteroid could help jump-start Mars and deep space missions in the future. And now, the science blog i09 reports that the White House's Office of Science and Technology is considering the proposal from the Keck Institute for Space Studies and other groups, including NASA. The plan would cost $2.6 billion to build a robotic spacecraft that would transport a 500-ton asteroid to the lunar orbit by 2025.

 

Astronaut beams down beautiful views from space

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is making a name for himself as the International Space Station's first Canadian commander, the "Singing Spaceman" and Star Trek skipper William Shatner's Twitter buddy — but he's also one heck of a photographer. Since his arrival at the station on Dec. 21, Hadfield has posted more than 100 pictures to his Twitter account, most of them showing beautiful views of Earth below. Between his official duties and his unofficial Earth-watching sessions, how does he find time to sleep?

 

Another day at the office for NASA's robot astronaut

 

Douglas Heaven - New Scientist

 

This fine figure of a robot is Robonaut 2 - or R2, for short - dutifully flicking switches aboard the International Space Station (ISS) last week. R2 travelled to the station in February 2011 on the space shuttle Discovery's final mission and currently works alongside six human colleagues. But while the humans come and go, R2 isn't due any shore leave.

 

Humanoid robot pictured on International Space Station

 

Nick Collins - London Telegraph

 

With his upright posture and shiny gold helmet, this space robot looks more suited to the set of Star Wars than the International Space Station. But the C3PO lookalike, the first humanoid robot in space, has spent almost two years orbiting the Earth while learning to perform tasks which are more suited to machines than human crew members. Robonaut 2 – nicknamed R2 in a nod to the Star Wars trilogy – was launched in February 2011 on the last flight of NASA's Discovery space shuttle.

 

Lime Kiln Middle School student experiment to fly on Space Station

 

WMAR TV (Baltimore)

 

A science experiment designed by Lime Kiln Middle School students has been selected to fly on the International Space Station. The project, titled The Effect of Microgravity on Chryseobacterium Aquaticum Growth, is one of just 17 selected among 1,466 proposals submitted nationally for astronauts to conduct during a six-week period this spring.

 

Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

NASA's 23-year-old Hubble Space Telescope is still going strong, and agency officials said Tuesday (Jan. 8) they plan to operate it until its instruments finally give out, potentially for another six years at least. After its final overhaul in 2009, the Hubble telescope was expected to last until at least 2015. Now, NASA officials say they are committed to keeping the iconic space observatory going as long as possible.

 

Rep. Mo Brooks gets leadership spot on House space subcommittee

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, will be vice chair of the House subcommittee that oversees NASA including its operations at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Brooks will be vice chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

 

Nixon's NASA legacy on exhibit at National Archives

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

The telephone that was used to place the historic first Earth-to-moon long (long) distance call is now on public display at the National Archives, along with other spaceflight artifacts related to Richard Nixon's presidency. "Nixon and the U.S. Space Program" opened on Monday (Jan. 7) within the "Public Vaults" exhibit in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. The archivist of the United States David Ferriero and Jim Gardner, executive of legislative archives, presidential libraries, and museum services, oversaw a ribbon cutting for the mini-exhibit.

 

Florida university to take over operations of undersea lab Aquarius

 

Ashley Withers - Wilmington Star News

 

A lack of federal support and local funding has forced the University of North Carolina Wilmington to stop operations at Aquarius, the world's only permanent undersea laboratory – a loss that will take away a key component of the school's marine science program, a school official said. "Aquarius is unique. It's the only asset like this in the world," Aquarius director Tom Potts said of the facility in the Florida Keys. "UNCW does lose a little of what makes it unique by losing this program." But the program is not completely lost. It will soon be operated by Miami-based Florida International University.

 

Gabrielle Giffords opens up on shooting anniversary

 

Melanie Eversley - USA Today

 

Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are on a mission to counter the gun lobby two years after she was shot. Two years to the day after a bullet tore into her brain, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said in a TV interview Tuesday that her recovery is "a struggle" but "family" is the best part of her day. She spoke haltingly and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, often finished her sentences.

 

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

 

NASA's Curiosity Rover Brushes Mars Rock Clean, a First

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has pulled out another item from its toolkit for the first time, using a brush to sweep Martian rocks clean of the planet's ubiquitous red dust, the space agency announced Monday. Curiosity's first use of the Dust Removal Tool at the tip of its robotic arm marks another milestone for the rover, which has spent about five months on the Red Planet. The Curiosity rover landed Aug. 5 to begin a two-year mission to determine if the Mars may have once been habitable for primitive life.

 

Curiosity Rover Brushes Off a Rock For the First Time

 

Paul Scott Anderson - AmericaSpace.org

 

The Curiosity rover, the most complex yet of its kind, has an impressive array of instruments to assist in its investigation of the Martian terrain in Gale crater. It has been using its laser to zap rocks and analyze the resulting dust and is preparing to use its drill for the first time within the next few days or so. In the meantime, it has also just swept dust off of a rock with its brush for the first time. Why is this important? Mars is a very dusty place. The Dust Removal Tool (DRT) cleans off the surface of a rock so that it can be better inspected by other instruments such as the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. The MER rovers Spirit and Opportunity do much the same thing (or did, in the case of poor Spirit).

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Bigelow Aerospace and NASA sign contract

 

Clark Lindsey - NewSpaceWatch.com

 

There have been rumors about this for awhile. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace have signed a $17.8 million contract. The details will be released later but apparently it deals with preliminary work on the proposed  BEAM (Bigelow Expandable Activity Module) system for the ISS.

 

"In general we're talking about a project that would take about 24 months from go-ahead to the module being on-orbit. It would be pretty fast-paced," Crusan told SPACE.com. To launch BEAM up to the ISS, he said, NASA would use a private rocket company under a Commercial Resupply Services contract.

 

NASA has done evaluations of where BEAM would be robotically berthed on ISS – likely onto one of the station's Node 3 interfaces, Crusan said."

 

• This new funded contract follows an unfunded agreement signed in 2011 under which Bigelow has worked on various "procedures and protocols for adding BEAM to the space station".
• As indicated above, the module would be delivered to the station by either a SpaceX Falcon 9 or Orbital Antares rocket.
• BEAM would provide extra storage while also providing data and experience for both Bigelow and NASA on installing

 

NASA to Discuss Progress of Private Space Taxis

 

Space.com

 

NASA will hold a press conference on Wednesday (Jan. 9) to discuss the progress of the agency's Commercial Crew Program, which aims to advance the design and development of new private spaceships to fill the current gap in U.S. human spaceflight capabilities.

 

The press conference, which begins at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT), will be broadcast live from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website, according to a media advisory. You will be able to watch the webcast live on SPACE.com here.

 

Speaking in the briefing will be:

 

• Phil McAlister, NASA Commercial Spaceflight Development director
• Ed Mango, NASA Commercial Crew Program manager
• Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin president and program manager
• John Mulholland, The Boeing Co. Commercial Programs Space Exploration vice president and program manager
• Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Corp vice president and SNC Space Systems chairman
• Garrett Reisman, Space Exploration Technologies Commercial Crew project manager

 

NASA hopes a commercially developed vehicle will be ready to carry astronauts to low-Earth orbit by 2017. The United States has lacked a homegrown manned capability since NASA's space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011; it currently relies on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station.

 

Last month, agency officials announced that Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp. would each receive about $10 million to begin certifying that their respective private spaceflight systems meet NASA requirements for taking crews to and from the ISS.

 

That was just latest in a series of commercial crew awards granted by NASA over the last few years. In 2010, the agency granted a total of $50 million to five companies, including Boeing and Sierra Nevada. Boeing, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX split $315 million in 2011 and $1.1 billion in another round of awards announced this past August.

 

NASA gets status update on private space ventures

 

Jerry Hume - Central Florida News 13

 

NASA is betting on several private companies to help take Americans back to space.

 

Wednesday, those four private companies will be at the Kennedy Space Center for an update on their efforts.

 

NASA investing more than a billion dollars into these companies, with the hope they'll be able to launch humans from here on the Space Coast once again.

 

Currently, NASA relies on Russia to get astronauts to the International Space Station.

 

The companies represented at a press conference will be SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin.

 

SpaceX has already proven they can send a spaceship to the International Space Station. They did so, just with cargo on board, twice last year.

 

They, along with Boeing and Sierra Nevada just received $10 million from NASA to begin certifying their spaceships to one day safely transport humans to the ISS. That's on top of a billion dollars they received back in August to develop their spaceships.

 

Boeing is constructing the CST-100 and Sierra Nevada has the Dream Chaser, which looks like a mini-space shuttle.

 

Blue Origin, which was set up by the founder of Amazon.com, is also working towards bringing humans to space.

 

NASA said SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada have chosen to base their launch operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and it's expected they'll bring hundreds of high paying jobs to the area in the next 5 years.

 

NASA hopes these companies will carry astronauts to space by 2017.

 

NASA hopes that by having these companies work on getting astronauts to the ISS, NASA can focus on its efforts to launch humans to deep space. They're working on the Orion capsule at the space center and it's hoped they'll be able to launch humans to the moon, Mars, or even an asteroid.

 

Space 2013: Boeing to Tackle 13 Commercial Crew Milestones

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

The Boeing Company has a big job ahead in 2013 in the development of its seven-person CST-100 spacecraft. The company is scheduled to complete 13 milestones out of a total of 19 as part of the NASA funded Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) program.

 

Some of the key milestones for the coming year include:

 

·         Service Module Propulsion System Critical Design Review

·         Launch Vehicle Adapter Critical Design Review

·         Emergency Detection System (EDS) Standalone Testing.

 

Boeing completed the first three of its 19 milestones last year for $126.9 million. The company is scheduled to complete an additional three milestones during the first four months of 2014.

 

A full list of 2013 milestones are shown here.

 

Milestone No.	Description	Date	Amount
4.	Software Integrated Engineering Release 2.0. Boeing shall demonstrate the software release [REDACTED] closed loop with guidance, Navigation & Control (GN &C) for the flight ascent phase.	January 2013	$20.4 Million
5.	Landing & Recovery/Ground Communication Design Review. Boeing shall conduct a Landing & Recovery / Ground Communication Design Review which establishes the baseline plan, for equipment, and infrastructure for conducting CST-100 spacecraft flight operations fulfilling both ground communications and landing and recovery operations.	January 2013	$28.8 Million
6.	Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) Preliminary Design Review (PDR). The LVA PDR demonstrates that the preliminary design meets requirements with acceptable risk and within the cost and schedule constraints and establishes the basis for proceeding with detailed design.	February 2013	$45.5 Million
7.	Integrated Stack Force and Moment Wind Tunnel Test. Boeing shall develop a test matrix, fabricate the necessary test models, and perform an integrated launch vehicle force and moment wind tunnel test to validate predictions on integrated Crew Module (CM)/Service Module (SM)/Launch Vehicle (LV) stack for ascent.	April 2013	$37.8 Million
8.	Dual Engine Centaur (DEC) Liquid Oxygen Duct Development Test. Boeing shall complete a Dual Engine Centaur Liquid Oxygen Duct Development Test.	May 2013	$21.5 Million
9.	Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control (OMAC) Engine Development Test. Boeing shall complete the OMAC Engine development test to support component, subsystem and CST-100 vehicle level development.	July 2013	$50.2 Million
10.	Spacecraft Primary Structures Critical Design Review (CDR). A Spacecraft Primary Structures CDR confirms that the requirements, detailed designs, and plans for test and evaluation form a satisfactory basis for fabrication, assembly and structural testing.	October 2013	$8.6 Million
11.	Service Module Propulsion System Critical Design Review. Boeing shall perform a Service Module (SM) Propulsion System Critical Design Review (CDR) after major SM Propulsion components have completed their individual CDR. CDR confirms that the requirements, detailed designs, and plans for test and evaluation form a satisfactory basis for production and integration.	November 2013	$7.5 Million
12.	Mission Control Center Interface Demonstration Test. The Mission Control Center (MCC) Interface Demonstration Test demonstrates the linkage between the MCC and the Boeing Avionics Software Integration Facility which is a precursor to integrated simulation capability for flight operations training.	September 2013	$7.9 Million
13.	Launch Vehicle Adapter Critical Design Review. Boeing shall complete a Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) Critical Design Review (CDR). CDR confirms that the requirements, detailed designs, and plans for test and evaluation form a satisfactory basis for production and integration.	September 2013	$13.5 Million
14.	Emergency Detection System (EDS) Standalone Testing. Boeing shall complete the Initial EDS Testing – Launch Vehicle Stand-alone.	October 2013	$13.8 Million
15.	Certification Plan Review. Boeing shall complete a review of the CCTS Certification Plan which defines our strategy leading to a crewed flight test.	November 2013	$5.8 Million
16.	Avionics Software Integration Lab (ASIL) Multi-String Demonstration Test. Boeing shall demonstrate the [REDACTED] flight software closed loop with GN&C for the flight ascent phase.	December 2013	$24.9 Million
TOTAL:			$286.2 Million

 

For NASA, not flying into space means it has too much space

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

Just before Christmas I had an opportunity to visit with Ellen Ochoa in her corner office on the top floor of Building 1, which commands a view of the sprawling Johnson Space Center campus. A four-time astronaut, Ochoa is  the new center director for Johnson Space Center.

 

We had a pleasant talk about the center's future after a difficult couple of years. Ochoa inherits a center that has lost one-quarter of its budget ($6 billion, annually, to $4.5 billion) and a commensurate number of staff following the end of the space shuttle program and other changes as NASA.

 

Then, a few days after we spoke, the Orlando Sentinel published a story about how Kennedy Space Center in Florida is quietly holding a going-out-of-business sale for the facilities used by its space-shuttle program.

 

Among them, the newspaper reported, were Launch Pad 39A, where shuttles were launched; space in the  Vehicle Assembly Building, the iconic 526-foot-tall structure first used to assemble Saturn V-Apollo rockets; the Orbiter Processing Facilities, Hangar N, the launch-control center; and so on.

 

This is a process has in fact already played out, to a lesser extent, in Houston.

 

In late 2011 Johnson Space Center announced a deal to share a large pool where it trained astronauts for spacewalks with with Petrofac Training Services, a global oil services company with an office in Houston. You can read more about this in a story I wrote a year ago after taking a dip in the four-story deep pool.

 

The deal allows the space center to recover about 5 percent of the $20 million needed annually to keep the facility open.

 

"I think we need to do everything we can at the center to figure out there are different ways of doing things where we can get more done with the same amount of resources, so that we can help out the agency in moving exploration forward," Ochoa told me, when I asked about the Petrofac deal.

 

But beyond the pool, which NASA still needs to train its astronauts for spacewalks outside the station, albeit on a much more limited basis, Johnson Space Center still has more space than it needs.

 

Across all of its centers the agency has a real property inventory of more than 100,000 acres, including more than 44 million square feet within approximately 5,000 buildings and other structures. That is a deal of real estate.

 

A recent report by the office of NASA's Inspector General, Paul Martin, found that the agency was doing a relatively poor job of leasing its existing space, and expressed concern that facilities were being partially leased rather than simply sold off in hopes that they might be used again at some later date.

 

This down-sizing is one consequence of having a space agency that can't actually fly its own astronauts into space. The question is whether the trend continues, or if NASA will once again need large facilities.

 

NASA considers using asteroid as a space station

 

Houston Chronicle

 

Scientists developed a report last year exploring how identifying, capturing and exploring a near-Earth asteroid could help jump-start Mars and deep space missions in the future.

 

And now, the science blog i09 reports that the White House's Office of Science and Technology is considering the proposal from the Keck Institute for Space Studies and other groups, including NASA. The plan would cost $2.6 billion to build a robotic spacecraft that would transport a 500-ton asteroid to the lunar orbit by 2025.

 

The researchers describe the idea as "mankind's first attempt at modifying the heavens to enable the permanent settlement of human space."

 

The report basically investigates the possibility of returning an asteroid that is near Earth and exploring the ways the natural resources can be used. The report, released in April 2012, states that exploiting the resources of asteroids dates back more than 100 years, but only now is technology available to make the idea a reality.

 

In theory, a space probe would capture the asteroid near Earth and transport it to lunar orbit, a process that could take up to 10 years, the report states.

 

The report suggests this would offer prove an affordable path to providing operational experience to help with preparing for missions to deep space. If astronauts can work in and around the asteroids, they will be able to extract resources like water or other materials, help shift against galactic cosmic rays and the water could be used to transport rocky habitat, i09 reports.

 

Astronaut beams down beautiful views from space

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield is making a name for himself as the International Space Station's first Canadian commander, the "Singing Spaceman" and Star Trek skipper William Shatner's Twitter buddy — but he's also one heck of a photographer.

 

Since his arrival at the station on Dec. 21, Hadfield has posted more than 100 pictures to his Twitter account, most of them showing beautiful views of Earth below. Between his official duties and his unofficial Earth-watching sessions, how does he find time to sleep?

 

"Yes, I should sleep more on station," he told one follower, "but the view from the window is like a perpetual magnet, too wondrous to ignore."

 

The space station's six residents all take turns behind the lens, but some astronauts take the job way more seriously than others: Notable shooters from past orbital stints include NASA's Scott Kelly, Douglas Wheelock, Ron Garan and Don Pettit, as well as Japan's Soichi Noguchi and Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers. Hadfield is sure to take his place among them.

 

His favorite hangout is the seven-windowed Cupola observation deck, which provides an unparalleled view of Earth. His favorite camera? "We use primarily Nikon F2s and F3s, with a variety of lenses," he said on Twitter. "We even take them out on spacewalks, into the hard vacuum."

 

To get those awesome pictures of Earth landscapes, he brings out the Big Lens. "The big lens is Nikkor 600 mm, used with a 2-fold converter = 1200 mm," he tweeted. "Available for just US$10,300."

 

When you consider that the space station's crew is delivering pictures that no one on Earth can, that seems like a small price to pay. Check out a few of the recent masterpieces from outer space:

 

Bahamas

 

Australian Outback

 

Seattle, WA

 

Himalayan glacier tongues

 

Another day at the office for NASA's robot astronaut

 

Douglas Heaven - New Scientist

 

This fine figure of a robot is Robonaut 2 - or R2, for short - dutifully flicking switches aboard the International Space Station (ISS) last week. R2 travelled to the station in February 2011 on the space shuttle Discovery's final mission and currently works alongside six human colleagues. But while the humans come and go, R2 isn't due any shore leave.

 

R2 is the product of a 15-year project to design a humanoid robot that can work in space alongside people. Its size, shape and human-like hands - including touch-sensitive fingertips - allow it to use the same tools and controls as its transient colleagues. But with arms that move at under 2 metres per second, R2 is in less of a rush.

 

The robot can be teleoperated either by humans on the ISS or from the ground. But it can also carry out instructions autonomously - which will be essential if R2's descendants are to operate on Mars or beyond, at distances where communication lag becomes a problem.

 

As with other members of the ISS team, you can follow Robonaut 2 on Twitter @AstroRobonaut and even catch an occasional cameo on the ISS live stream.

 

Humanoid robot pictured on International Space Station

 

Nick Collins - London Telegraph

 

With his upright posture and shiny gold helmet, this space robot looks more suited to the set of Star Wars than the International Space Station.

 

But the C3PO lookalike, the first humanoid robot in space, has spent almost two years orbiting the Earth while learning to perform tasks which are more suited to machines than human crew members.

 

Robonaut 2 – nicknamed R2 in a nod to the Star Wars trilogy – was launched in February 2011 on the last flight of NASA's Discovery space shuttle.

 

It began work last March, practicing some of the duller or more dangerous jobs which astronauts hope it will carry out on their behalf, and was pictured on Wednesday during another round of testing.

 

An Earth-based team of programmers remotely controlled the robot as it operated valves on a task board in the space station's Destiny laboratory.

 

One of the roles R2 was designed to fulfil was monitoring air flow in front of vents on board the ISS – a crucial check to make sure that none of the ventilation apparatus becomes blocked or clogged up.

 

The task requires a very steady hand and samples can be spoiled by other sources of air flow, such as human breath, making a robot the perfect candidate for the job.

 

Lime Kiln Middle School student experiment to fly on Space Station

 

WMAR TV (Baltimore)

 

A science experiment designed by Lime Kiln Middle School students has been selected to fly on the International Space Station. The project, titled The Effect of Microgravity on Chryseobacterium Aquaticum Growth, is one of just 17 selected among 1,466 proposals submitted nationally for astronauts to conduct during a six-week period this spring.

 

Lime Kiln eighth graders Gregory Nelson and Josh Choi served as principal investigators for the project design, with Sophia Novacic and Ryan Olsen serving as co-investigators. Science teachers Ella Jordan and Lauren Landerman served as teacher facilitators.

 

In the fall, eighth grade science students at Hammond, Lime Kiln and Wilde Lake middle schools competed for a chance to fly an experiment on the International Space Station. A $20 thousand grant from the Maryland Space Grant Consortium enabled HCPSS participation in the project, part of the national Student Space Flight Experiments Program (SSEP).

 

Students began learning about forces and motion in science classes in mid-September, then broke into teams to design research proposals for microgravity experiments. In November, a committee of educators and science and engineering professionals selected one proposal from each school to submit to a national selection committee, which made the final selection for the space flight.

 

Wilde Lake Middle School's project proposal, Copepod Growth in Microgravity, was named an Honorable Mention Finalist. The project was designed by Cyrus Jenkins and Calvin Kuang with support from teacher facilitators Damisha Drakes and Douglas Spicher. Hammond Middle School's Zinc-Insulin Crystals in Microgravity, also named an Honorable Mention Finalist, was developed by Victoria Airapetian, Alicia Borges, and Alex Sadzewicz, with support from science teacher Christopher Doody.

 

The project is part of the national Student Space Flight Experiments Program (SSEP; http://ssep.ncesse.org), spear headed by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. NCESSE is a non-profit organization that inspires the next generation of scientists and engineers by engaging their natural human impulse to be curious and explore. NanoRacks LLC, works in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

 

Hubble Space Telescope Could Last Until 2018, NASA Says

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

NASA's 23-year-old Hubble Space Telescope is still going strong, and agency officials said Tuesday (Jan. 8) they plan to operate it until its instruments finally give out, potentially for another six years at least.

 

After its final overhaul in 2009, the Hubble telescope was expected to last until at least 2015. Now, NASA officials say they are committed to keeping the iconic space observatory going as long as possible.

 

"Hubble will continue to operate as long as its systems are running well," Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division in NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said here at the 221st meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Hubble, like other long-running NASA missions such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, will be reviewed every two years to ensure that the mission is continuing to provide science worth the cost of operating it, Hertz added.

 

In fact, Hubble supporters hope it will continue to run even after its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is launched — an event planned for 2018.

 

"We are not planning to arbitrarily end the operation of Hubble when JWST is launched," Hertz said during a NASA Town Hall Meeting at the AAS conference. "It may be great if we get at least one year of overlap between JWST and Hubble."

 

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April 1990, and has since been upgraded five times by astronauts in orbit. Its last space shuttle servicing mission in May 2009 left the scope with two new instruments, including a wide-field camera and a high-precision spectrograph to spread out light into its constituent wavelengths. The space telescope is named after the late astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953), who proved that the universe is expanding.

 

"It's working better than ever, 23 years in," Dan Coe, an astronomer working with Hubble at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., told SPACE.com. "We're still pushing the frontier."

 

Coe agreed that overlap time with both Hubble and James Webb operating simultaneously would be ideal. Such a plan would allow the observatories to work on complementary projects and provide crosschecks between the two telescopes' measurements.

 

How long Hubble can run also depends on NASA's budget, which, like funding for all federal agencies, is uncertain given the economic challenges in the United States.

 

"It all comes down to money," Coe said.

 

Funding the development of the James Webb Space Telescope is currently taking up almost half of NASA's total budget of $1.3 billion for astrophysics in 2013, Hertz said. The observatory has an estimated price tag of $8.7 billion, and will cost about $628 million in 2013 alone. In contrast, Hubble will cost about $98 million in 2013.

 

Rep. Mo Brooks gets leadership spot on House space subcommittee

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, will be vice chair of the House subcommittee that oversees NASA including its operations at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Brooks will be vice chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The subcommittee has oversight over NASA, the National Space Council, national space policy, commercial space activities, and international space cooperation, Brooks' office said Tuesday.

 

"I am thrilled to be appointed vice-chairman on a committee that is so important to America and the Marshall Space Flight Center," Brooks said in a statement. "I will work with Subcommittee Chairman Steven Palazzo (R-MS), NASA Administrator (Charles) Bolden, and national and Alabama leaders to continue America's exceptional space exploration and research legacy, and to ensure, as best as possible in a hostile budget environment, that NASA has the support and resources it requires."

 

Science, Space and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) said, "In the new Congress, the Science Committee will promote policies that support our nation's space program, encourage energy independence, expand scientific education, fund basic research, and enhance the development of new technologies. All of this work begins in the subcommittees. I look forward to joining Rep. Mo Brooks to advance policies that spur innovation, job creation, and economic growth."

 

Last week, Brooks was re-appointed to the House Science, Space and Technology and Armed Services committees and newly appointed to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

 

Nixon's NASA legacy on exhibit at National Archives

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

The telephone that was used to place the historic first Earth-to-moon long (long) distance call is now on public display at the National Archives, along with other spaceflight artifacts related to Richard Nixon's presidency.

 

"Nixon and the U.S. Space Program" opened on Monday (Jan. 7) within the "Public Vaults" exhibit in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. The archivist of the United States David Ferriero and Jim Gardner, executive of legislative archives, presidential libraries, and museum services, oversaw a ribbon cutting for the mini-exhibit.

 

The display, which was organized in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Richard M. Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, features rarely seen documents, photos, and objects that represent milestones in human spaceflight that took place during Nixon's time in the White House, from 1969 through 1974.

 

Most historic telephone call ever

 

Although it was President John F. Kennedy who set the nation on the course to the moon, it was Nixon who was in office during the first manned lunar landing that fulfilled JFK's challenge. On the evening of July 20, 1969, shortly before midnight (EST), Nixon picked up the receiver of the olive green phone in the Oval Office and called the moon.

 

"This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made," Nixon told Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin as they stood at Tranquility Base. "For every American, this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world, I am sure they too join with Americans in recognizing what an immense feat this is."

 

"For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one: one in their pride in what you have done, and one in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth," the president said.

 

"It's a great honor and privilege for us to be here," replied Armstrong over his radio headset. "It's an honor for us to be able to participate here today."

 

In event of moon disaster

 

The telephone Nixon used to congratulate Armstrong and Aldrin is exhibited alongside the text of a speech he would have delivered had the lunar landing not been successful. The contingency statement, which was drafted by William Safire, was in case the Apollo 11 moonwalkers were killed or left to die on the moon.

 

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace," reads the draft speech. "For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

 

The speech, which went unused, was revealed 30 years after Apollo 11 had returned safely to Earth. Nixon greeted Armstrong, Aldrin and their command module pilot Michael Collins on board the USS Hornet aircraft carrier after their safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969.

 

Five more crews landed safely on the lunar surface in the three years that followed Apollo 11. A pair of tongs used by Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean to collect moon rocks is also part of the "Nixon and the U.S. Space Program" exhibit.

 

Nixon and the U.S. space program

 

Under his presidency, Nixon saw an end to NASA's Apollo moon program in 1972 and the early development of the space shuttle. Nixon was also in office for the launch of Skylab, the United States' first space station, and its three crewed missions from 1973 to early 1974. Nixon resigned in August 1974, rather than face his impeachment for his involvement in the Watergate scandal.

 

"Nixon and the U.S. Space Program" will be on exhibit at the National Archives through June 2013, when the small display will be changed to feature artifacts and documents from the administration of President Gerald Ford.

 

The materials now on exhibit are on loan from the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., one of 13 presidential libraries administered by the National Archives.

 

Florida university to take over operations of undersea lab Aquarius

 

Ashley Withers - Wilmington Star News

 

A lack of federal support and local funding has forced the University of North Carolina Wilmington to stop operations at Aquarius, the world's only permanent undersea laboratory – a loss that will take away a key component of the school's marine science program, a school official said.

 

"Aquarius is unique. It's the only asset like this in the world," Aquarius director Tom Potts said of the facility in the Florida Keys. "UNCW does lose a little of what makes it unique by losing this program."

 

But the program is not completely lost. It will soon be operated by Miami-based Florida International University.

 

FIU President Mark Rosenberg discussed the facility in his spring "Welcome Back" address to students on Jan. 2.

 

"FIU students and faculty go to great depths for their research. Soon, that will be truer than ever," he wrote. "Aligned with our strategic commitment to environmental studies, we have submitted a proposal to assume operations of the Aquarius Reef Base, the world's only operational underwater research center."

 

UNCW took over Aquarius operations in 1991, but decided not to pursue renewing the agreement on Dec. 31, 2012, after a long struggle to find enough funding.

 

Bob Wicklund, UNCW's director of federal programs, has worked with members of Congress for years to try to maintain funding for the undersea lab.

 

"Without federal funding, the sustainability of federal funding, that's going to be a tough deal – not only operating it, but getting good science out of it," he said.

 

Aquarius sits in about 60 feet of water about four miles from shore off Key Largo. With about 400 square feet of living and research space, it allows scientists to live and work underwater 24 hours a day for one or two week missions.

 

UNCW operated the lab for more than 20 years – "a long time for a research project to continue on," Wicklund said. "From the standpoint of what Aquarius has done, it has added a real value of what's happening to the coral reefs," he said. "Now it's being passed on to another university. We just hope they can make it work and make it continue."

 

The facility costs about $1.5 million a year for basic operations, but the cost jumps to about $3 million when funding research projects, according to Potts.

 

The federal budget didn't include money for Aquarius this year, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) consolidated programs in its ocean exploration program, eliminating the undersea research program that included Aquarius.

 

UNCW officials were set to pull the center from its research space in the Florida Keys this year, but FIU stepped in.

 

"FIU has a real commitment to marine science and Aquarius fits nicely in their expansion," Potts said. "We're pretty excited about the opportunity. FIU has a different business model and substantial private donors who are committed to the project."

 

UNCW had 12 full-time employees working on the project, but only five of these employees, including Potts, have been retained by FIU.

 

Joseph Pawlik, a UNCW marine biologist and long-term researcher at Aquarius, said he is sad to see UNCW lose the facility, but is pleased that Aquarius will remain open.

 

"At a time when everyone is talking about global climate change and how oceans are being impacted by climate change, this is one of the few places that has long-term data on how animals and plants are being impacted by this phenomenon," Pawlik said. "To lose that at such a critical time would be a particularly big loss, so now we're just rooting for FIU."

 

Pawlik believes FIU will not face the same funding challenges that UNCW did.

 

"UNCW always had a problem getting money from the legislators because the North Carolina delegation didn't understand why they should support a facility off the coast of Florida," he said. "We didn't have the geographical match that FIU will have. I hope that streamlines the process for them."

 

FIU has received verbal approval on their proposal to take over the facility. Potts said the school expects to receive written confirmation this week.

 

Gabrielle Giffords opens up on shooting anniversary

 

Melanie Eversley - USA Today

 

Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are on a mission to counter the gun lobby two years after she was shot.

 

Two years to the day after a bullet tore into her brain, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said in a TV interview Tuesday that her recovery is "a struggle" but "family" is the best part of her day.

 

She spoke haltingly and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, often finished her sentences.

 

The interview on ABC World News With Diane Sawyer, and an opinion piece in USA TODAY by Giffords and Kelly, come with their launching of Americans for Responsible Solutions, an advocacy organization that aims to create a national dialogue on preventing gun violence and raise funds to counter the efforts of the gun lobby, they wrote.

 

The Democratic former congresswoman from Arizona seemed to fight to speak, answering questions mostly with one or two words. She held hands with Kelly, who often looked at her and spoke for her.

 

Asked about her thoughts on the Jan. 8, 2011, shooting in which paranoid schizophrenic Jared Loughner shot her and 18 others, six fatally, as she visited with constituents in a supermarket parking lot outside Tucson, Giffords, 42, answered, "Complicated."

 

Loughner pleaded guilty to 19 counts of murder and other charges. He was sentenced to life in prison last November. Since the Tucson incident, there have been 11 mass shootings in the United States.

 

Giffords said her recovery work includes physical therapy, speech therapy and yoga and that it is going "so slowly, so slowly." When asked about the hardest part of her day, she gestured to her face and said, "I don't like at all. I'm sad."

Kelly explained that she was referring to difficulties seeing with her right eye and moving on the right side of her body. The segment showed Giffords walking with a service dog, her right side appearing stiff. She nodded at a suggestion that she gets frustrated trying to find the right words.

 

Kelly said the couple felt strong emotions last week when they visited with families whose loved ones were killed in the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and six adults died.

 

A couple showed them a picture of their daughter "and I just about lost it," Kelly said. "How do we get to the point where 85% of children that are killed with guns are killed in the United States? That is a sobering statistic."

 

Giffords and Kelly said they support the Second Amendment to the Constitution and are both gun owners. Giffords said she owns a Glock handgun.

 

In their USA TODAY piece, the couple took Congress to task for doing "nothing at all" about gun violence.

 

Kelly asked in the interview, "Why can't we just make it more difficult for criminals and the mentally ill to get guns?"

 

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

 

NASA's Curiosity Rover Brushes Mars Rock Clean, a First

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

 

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has pulled out another item from its toolkit for the first time, using a brush to sweep Martian rocks clean of the planet's ubiquitous red dust, the space agency announced Monday.

 

Curiosity's first use of the Dust Removal Tool at the tip of its robotic arm marks another milestone for the rover, which has spent about five months on the Red Planet. The Curiosity rover landed Aug. 5 to begin a two-year mission to determine if the Mars may have once been habitable for primitive life.

 

The Dust Removal Tool is a brush that allows Curiosity to sweep away the reddish-brown particles that coat most surfaces on Mars, in order to get a better look at rocks that could be worth drilling into for further study. The motorized brush is made with wire bristles, and is attached to the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

 

The tool, built by New York City-based Honeybee Robotics, resembles brushes that flew to Mars on NASA's previous rover missions, the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

 

"This is similar to the brush on board the Rock Abrasion Tools on Spirit and Opportunity, and will let researchers get a look at the rock (rather than the pervasive dust) before deciding whether to drill for a sample," Honeybee Robotics spokesman John Abrashkin told SPACE.com.

 

For its inaugural run, Curiosity mission planners chose to use the brush on a Martian rock called "Ekwir_1," which sits in the "Yellowknife Bay" area of Curiosity's landing site in Mars' Gale Crater.

 

"We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use," Diana Trujillo, the mission's activity lead for the Dust Removal Tool at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "We need to place the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn't rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good."

 

Cleaning the dust off rocks not only allows Curiosity to get a better look at them, but clears away surface contaminants that might confuse samples taken from deeper in the rocks after the rover digs down into them with its hammering drill.

 

The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover is exploring Yellowknife Bay as it makes its way toward a point called Glenelg at the base of Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high (5 kilometers) mountain that rises up from the center of Gale Crater.

 

Curiosity Rover Brushes Off a Rock For the First Time

 

Paul Scott Anderson - AmericaSpace.org

 

The Curiosity rover, the most complex yet of its kind, has an impressive array of instruments to assist in its investigation of the Martian terrain in Gale crater. It has been using its laser to zap rocks and analyze the resulting dust and is preparing to use its drill for the first time within the next few days or so. In the meantime, it has also just swept dust off of a rock with its brush for the first time.

 

Why is this important? Mars is a very dusty place. The Dust Removal Tool (DRT) cleans off the surface of a rock so that it can be better inspected by other instruments such as the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. The MER rovers Spirit and Opportunity do much the same thing (or did, in the case of poor Spirit).

 

The DRT is a motorized, wire-bristle brush in the turret at the end of the rover's robotic arm. With Curiosity currently still in the Yellowknife Bay area of Gale crater, the science team needed a rather flat rock covered in dust (not too hard to find here), and chose a rock dubbed "Ekwir_1? as its first target.

 

According to Diana Trujillo, the activity lead for the DRT, "We wanted to be sure we had an optimal target for the first use. We need to place the instrument within less than half an inch of the target without putting the hardware at risk. We needed a flat target, one that wasn't rough, one that was covered with dust. The results certainly look good."

 

The images were taken on sol 150 (January 6, 2013), the same day as the brushing. The oval-shaped brushed patch is 1.85 inches by 2.44 inches (47 millimeters by 62 millimeters) in size.

 

It's also interesting to note that in the new images of the rock that Curiosity just brushed, what may be more of the small odd "bubble" features can now be seen, which were previously covered by the dust layer. Other fractures, veins, grains and dust particles can also be seen.

 

This brushing is a good first test of the DRT as the science team prepares for its first drilling into a nearby rock sometime soon, which should provide some interesting analysis of the composition. After that, it's on to Mount Sharp!

 

The DRT was built by Honeybee Robotics in New York, which also built the wire brushes and rock-grinding tools for Spirit and Opportunity.

 

END