Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - January 18, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 18, 2013 7:17:14 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - January 18, 2013 and JSC Today

Happy Friday everyone.  Have a great weekend.  

 

Thanks to Raul Macias for letting us know >> Boeing announced this morning that our John Shannon is the new ISS Program Manager for Boeing – but dang it, I cannot recall who he replaced in this position.     

 

And on the subject of future retirees,   Diana Schuler who has been on extended detail to NASA HQ for a while is retiring on January 31^st     as well.

 

 

 

Friday, January 18, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Starport's Spring 2013 Sport Leagues -- Registration Closes Soon

2.            Important News Regarding Centralized Trash

3.            Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

4.            Latest International Space Station Research

5.            Building 11 Early Bird Breakfast -- Open at 6:30 a.m. in February

6.            CoLab: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking

7.            Considering Toastmasters?

8.            Recent JSC Announcement

________________________________________     QUOTE OF THE DAY

" The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. "

 

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

________________________________________

1.            Starport's Spring 2013 Sport Leagues -- Registration Closes Soon

Looking for a great way to have fun and stay fit in the new year?

Try one (or all) of Starport's great sports leagues!

Registration is NOW OPEN:

o Dodgeball - closes Jan. 31

o Kickball - closes Jan. 24

o Softball (men's) - closes Jan. 24

o Softball (co-ed) - closes Jan. 25

o Ultimate Frisbee - closes Jan. 24

o Volleyball (Rev 4s) - closes Jan. 23

o Volleyball (co-ed) - closes Jan. 24

(Please note: The spring basketball and soccer leagues are full.)

Free-agent registration now open for all leagues. All league participants must register at here.

For detailed information about each league, please click here or call the Gilruth information desk at 281-483-0304.

Leagues are filling up fast, so sign your team up today.

Steve Schade x30304 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/Fitness/Sports

 

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2.            Important News Regarding Centralized Trash

Be advised the large, brown centralized trash bins are to be emptied only by custodial contract personnel for contractual and safety reasons. The contractor has specialized trucks to lift and empty these bins. Most of the centralized pickups are scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday of each week; however, if the centralized trash bin in your area becomes full or has an odor before your scheduled pickup, please call Custodial Work Control (CWC) at 281-483-9564. CWC hours are 7:30 a.m. through 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Please do not empty the centralized trash bins yourself.

Reinhard F. Brueckner x33140

 

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3.            Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

All badging offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 21, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Normal working operations will resume Tuesday, Jan. 22, as listed below.

o             Building 110 - 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

o             Building 419 - 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

o             Ellington Field - 7  to 11 a.m.

o             Sonny Carter Training Facility - 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Tifanny Sowell x37447

 

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4.            Latest International Space Station Research

This week on our International Space Station (ISS), the crew installed a telescope in space to observe the Earth!

The ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (ISERV) instrument is within the WORF rack in the Destiny module.

ISERV is an automated system and is primarily a means to gain experience and expertise in automated data acquisition from the ISS, although it is expected to provide useful images for use in disaster monitoring and assessment and environmental decision-making.

You can read more about it here.

Liz Warren x35548

 

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5.            Building 11 Early Bird Breakfast -- Open at 6:30 a.m. in February

During the month of February, the Building 11 café will conduct a trial early opening, selling select breakfast items for our early birds! We will offer: breakfast tacos, muffins, bagels, assorted pastries, yogurt parfaits, coffee and juice. At 7 a.m. we will continue to have our full breakfast menu available. Depending upon participation, this trial may extend past February.

Marquis Edwards x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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6.            CoLab: Microsoft Kinects and Gestural/Spatial Tracking

Are you working on or starting a project using Microsoft Kinects or any other type of gestural/spatial tracking hardware?

If so, you are invited to the new Collaborative Lab, or CoLab! CoLabs are collaborative lunches that will be held once a month to bring people and projects together. The goal of these lunches is to help individuals create a network of relationships and contacts centerwide with people who are working with similar technologies. CoLabs will provide a casual forum to share lessons learned and generate innovative new ideas and uses of technologies.

This will be the second meeting for CoLab: Kinect, but we are still looking for anyone to join us with their interest. It will be held from noon to 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24, in Building 30A/Room 2085A. Please bring your own lunch.

Event Date: Thursday, January 24, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Buillding 30A/Rm 2085A

 

Add to Calendar

 

Elena Buhay 616-780-5013

 

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7.            Considering Toastmasters?

Here's your opportunity to become part of a group that will help improve your communication and leadership skills.

The Space Explorers Toastmasters group meets on Fridays in Building 30A, Room 1010, at 11:45 a.m.

Duong Nguyen 281-486-6311

 

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8.            Recent JSC Announcement

Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement:

JSCA 13-003: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for Multiple Award Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity for Architect-Engineer Services

Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page.

Linda Turnbough x36246 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/DocumentManagement/announcements/default.aspx

 

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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:

• 9 am Central (10 EST) – NASA Headquarters Open House -- Morning Session
• 1 pm Central (2 EST) – NASA Headquarters Open House -- Afternoon Session

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday – January 18, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA: SpaceX's Merlin engines 'good to go' for ISS trip

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

NASA is confident SpaceX can safely launch another International Space Station resupply mission on March 1 from Cape Canaveral, although a joint investigation into an engine failure last fall is not yet closed. All indications are that the next set of Falcon 9 rocket engines are "good to go," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, during a Thursday press conference updating the status of station systems and activity. The Merlin engine that shut down 79 seconds into an Oct. 7 launch had undergone considerable pre-flight testing, though not beyond levels it was designed to handle.

 

NASA: 'Save the date' for Antares launch

 

Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press

 

Hampton Roads has an unofficial "save the date" from NASA for the much-anticipated commercial launches of the Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore. In a press briefing Thursday from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA officials said April 5 is penciled in for a demonstration launch and attempt to berth with the International Space Station (ISS), and mid-August for the first official resupply mission.

 

ISS orbit adjusted prior to cargo ship docking

 

Xinhua News Service

 

The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was elevated Thursday in preparation for a docking with an unmanned cargo ship, Russia's Mission Control Center (MCC) said. The 233-second maneuver, started at 6:15 a.m. Moscow time (0215 GMT), was conducted using the engines of the Progress M-17M, which is currently docked at the ISS' Zvezda module, according to the MCC website.

 

NASA, Boeing planning to use lithium batteries in space station

 

Curtis Tate - McClatchy Newspapers

 

NASA is planning to install batteries in the International Space Station that are similar to the ones that grounded Boeing's Dreamliner fleet this week and which are also made by the same company. Boeing is the prime contractor to NASA for the space station and is responsible for the integration of new hardware and software from a range of suppliers. In November, GS Yuasa Lithium Power of Japan won a contract to provide lithium ion batteries that eventually will help power the space station. Boeing referred questions about the space station to NASA. Josh Byerly, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the batteries for the space station are the same technology but "radically different."

 

New ISS crew excited for launch

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts are looking forward to a March 27 launch to the International Space Station to start an expedition that may be filled with spacewalks and visiting spacecraft. "It's shaping up to be a really exciting expedition," Cassidy, a 43-year-old U.S. Navy SEAL and veteran of a 2009 shuttle flight, said during a press conference today at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We've got a lot going on."

 

Next Space Station Crew Faces Out-of-This-World Final Exams

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are preparing to join the crew of the International Space Station in March, but before they blast off, they'll have to face the thing all students dread: final exams. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, along with Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov of Russia, are due to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on March 28. They will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and join the station's Expedition 35 crew a few days later. The spaceflyers plan to spend about six months in space performing experiments and keeping the $100 billion space laboratory in tip-top shape.

 

Next expedition to start off towards ISS March 27

 

Itar-Tass

 

Russian spaceship Soyuz with an international crew aboard will take members of the next expedition to the International Space Station March 27, 2013, from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, lead flight director Tony Ceccacci told a news briefing at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston. According to him, members of Expedition 35/36 – commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Alexander Misurkin, both of Russia, and NASA flight engineer Christopher Cassidy – will stay in orbit for 167 days. Their return to the Earth has been scheduled for September 11.

 

$30,000 NASA Contest to Boost Space Station's Power

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

NASA engineers want to squeeze as much power as possible from the wing-like solar arrays on the International Space Station, and the agency has launched a software contest to make it happen, officials announced Thursday. The space agency is sponsoring a $30,000 competition to optimize the position of the station's eight solar arrays during certain parts of its orbit using a software algorithm. The goal is to maximize power output and minimize shadowing of longerons, the long arms holding the arrays to the station, which are sensitive to temperature changes.

 

Blown up in orbit

A plan to use enormous balloons to build space stations

 

The Economist

 

The International Space Station (ISS) is mankind's holiday house in the sky. Like all such houses, it is a luxury item (costing $150 billion and rising). And like many similar projects on Earth, the owners cannot resist tinkering with it. It was in this spirit that, on January 16th, NASA announced that the ISS is to get an extension. This will not, as might have been the case on Earth, be a conservatory or loft conversion. Instead, it will be a BEAM, or Bigelow Expandable Activity Module. Robert Bigelow, an American hotel entrepreneur and space enthusiast, has for years been pushing the idea that space stations should be made not of metal but of fabric. That would mean they could be folded up for launch and inflated in orbit.

 

Pack a Bag for the Stars: A Shopping List for Deep Space?

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

 

It is a fact of human nature that our imagination often outruns the reality that is. For decades, science fiction writers and futurists alike have written about brick moons and manned projectiles shot out of gigantic cannons and torus-shaped space colonies and vast starships with exotic propulsion sources, but the reality of our species' technological handicap at the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century makes it unlikely that we will see fully-fledged cities on Mars and human expeditions beyond the Solar System in our lifetimes. Only last week, the White House laughed off a tongue-in-cheek petition to build a real-life Star Wars-type "Death Star" as unrealistic, impractical, and pointless. Yet the humor which the Death Star petition has garnered actually underlines a stark point: that little political support exists for turning us from a space visiting civilization into a true spacefaring civilization. "We are still stuck in the 1960s in many ways," laments the website BuildTheEnterprise.org "when it comes to putting human beings into space."

 

Space spending pays off in earth-bound products, processes

 

Tony Rice - WRAL TV (Raleigh-Durham)

 

(Rice is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program and software engineer at Cisco Systems)

 

One question I frequently get is about the millions spent sending astronauts into orbit and robots to other planets. Might that money be better spent here on the ground? The short answer is, that it's all spent on the ground. Neither NASA or any other space agency fills rockets with cash and launches them into space. The knowledge gained doesn't leave with the mission either. Research and technologies developed to solve challenges in space are frequently transferred to other uses, often involving small businesses around the country. For example, aural thermometers are used in hospitals, doctors' offices and maybe even your home using the infrared energy emanating from your eardrum to measure body temperature. This is similar to technique used by astronomers to measure the temperature of stars many light years away.

 

Report Incorrect, NASA Has No Plans to Abandon LC-39A

 

Julian Leek - AmericaSpace.org

 

A recent article which stated that NASA's famous Launch Complex-39A is poised to be abandoned – is not correct. AmericaSpace got to the heart of the matter by speaking to officials in charge of the location that men first set forth to explore another world. Rather the space agency is looking at having commercial space companies launch their rockets and spacecraft from LC-39A.

 

Wings in Space

 

Yovanna Bieberich - Petaluma Argus-Courier

 

An era of outer space discovery spanning 30 years full of triumphs and tragedies came to an end on July 21, 2011 when the Space Shuttle Atlantis said goodbye to the final frontier and hello to its final resting place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Bay Area residents had a brush with the space program in September when the long retired Space Shuttle Endeavor flew over Northern California on its way to its final home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

 

Downey seeks federal loan to build home for space shuttle mock-up

 

Phillip Zonkel - Long Beach Press-Telegram

 

A mock-up that served as inspiration for all of the country's space shuttles may be one step closer to landing a permanent home. The original, full-size mock-up, built in 1972 by Rockwell International, is housed under a temporary tent in a parking lot at the former Downey Studios, 12214 Lakewood Blvd. The city, which owns the model, wants to build a permanent building for the 122 foot by 78 foot shuttle.

 

Virgin CEO to business leaders: Pressure legislators for spaceport liability waiver

 

James Monteleone - Albuquerque Journal

 

The CEO of Virgin Galactic asked Albuquerque business leaders Thursday to help pressure the state Legislature to pass a bill that would shield spacecraft manufacturers from some lawsuits filed by space travelers. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides made the remarks this morning during a presentation for the Albuquerque Economic Forum, a coalition of community business leaders.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA: SpaceX's Merlin engines 'good to go' for ISS trip

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

NASA is confident SpaceX can safely launch another International Space Station resupply mission on March 1 from Cape Canaveral, although a joint investigation into an engine failure last fall is not yet closed.

 

All indications are that the next set of Falcon 9 rocket engines are "good to go," said Mike Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager, during a Thursday press conference updating the status of station systems and activity.

 

The Merlin engine that shut down 79 seconds into an Oct. 7 launch had undergone considerable pre-flight testing, though not beyond levels it was designed to handle.

 

Investigators think that extra testing may have contributed to a pressure chamber breach, Suffredini said.

 

Debris shot from the bottom of the rocket, prompting speculation the engine had exploded.

 

In fact, SpaceX said the engine — one of nine powering the rocket's first stage — shut down as designed and sensors continued to record data. And the debris was likely from an aerodynamic cover shattered by the release of pressure.

 

A Dragon cargo spacecraft visited the space station as planned, but a small communications satellite failed to reach its intended orbit.

 

Suffredini said engineers had reviewed a huge amount of data but not produced a "specific smoking gun," which he said is not uncommon when investigating systems cannot be recovered.

 

The next engines in line to fly have been inspected thoroughly, and none has been tested beyond the levels needed to certify them for flight.

 

"We've been deeply involved and are completely satisfied that the right amount of work has been done on these systems," Suffredini said.

 

Suffredini also reported Orbital Sciences Corp. is making progress toward key tests of its new Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft, which hopefully will start delivering cargo this year.

 

A test-firing of the rocket's main engines is planned late this month, to be followed by a test launch in the spring and a demonstration mission this summer that will attempt to berth a Cygnus at the station.

 

"They've overcome a number of hurdles, and so I think the schedule is starting to stabilize on that system, so we're looking forward to it coming to ISS as well," Suffredini said.

 

If that schedule holds, the next station crew, set to launch March 27 from Kazakhstan in a Soyuz spacecraft, could see visits by all six international and commercial spacecraft that fly to the station.

 

"It's shaping up to be a really exciting expedition," said NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, a U.S. Navy SEAL and veteran of a 2009 shuttle flight, who will launch with two Russian cosmonauts. "We've got a lot going on."

 

During Cassidy's more than five-month expedition, Russian crew members plan to perform four spacewalks.

 

NASA also is considering up to three spacewalks to take care of a variety of maintenance tasks, including replacement of a failed communications device that sends and receives video and data from the ground.

 

Station managers are also studying whether to make Cassidy's crew the first to fly an express Soyuz trip to the station, arriving after just four orbits rather than the normal two-day journey.

 

"I think this is a very good thing that we are decreasing the time that it takes for crews to reach the ISS," said veteran cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov, one of Cassidy's crewmates. "I don't anticipate any technical issues associated with this activity."

 

NASA: 'Save the date' for Antares launch

 

Tamara Dietrich - Hampton Roads Daily Press

 

Hampton Roads has an unofficial "save the date" from NASA for the much-anticipated commercial launches of the Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft from the Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia's Eastern Shore.

 

In a press briefing Thursday from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA officials said April 5 is penciled in for a demonstration launch and attempt to berth with the International Space Station (ISS), and mid-August for the first official resupply mission.

 

But those dates came with a reality check.

 

"Many things could happen," said Mike Suffredini, ISS program manager, noting that Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation has already overcome a "number of hurdles" to get its technology to this point. "We think the schedule is starting to stabilize."

 

Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski said recently the company has found minor issues with the liquid fueling systems at the new launch pad at Wallops, but "nothing that's really stumped us."

 

Suffredini said Thursday marked the last step in the cold-flow test for the Antares rocket, followed at the end of the month with a hot-fire test. In a hot-fire, the rocket is secured and doesn't leave the launch pad.

 

Sometime between the hot-fire and the scheduled April demonstration launch, the Antares will undergo a test flight with a simulated Cygnus spacecraft, Beneski said. That could take place in February.

 

The Antares heralds a new era in the Wallops facility, which until now has launched small rockets carrying light payloads such as satellites or science experiments. Last summer, the state completed work on a $145 million launch pad and infrastructure to accommodate bigger rockets.

 

Orbital is under contract with NASA for 10 resupply missions to the space station, all of which are expected to launch from Wallops.

 

"All those operational activities are for a reason — to carry out the robust research programs we have going on," ISS program scientist Julie Robinson said Thursday.

 

That research includes experiments that will assist in long-term space travel: studying how microbial communities work in human systems in zero gravity, the risks of zero gravity on vision and the central nervous system, and using acoustic algorithms to detect leaks.

 

The space station is a laboratory serving the needs of more than 400 investigators from around the world representing 28 countries, Robinson said.

 

Antares launches will be visible in Hampton Roads and for hundreds of miles up and down the East Coast, said Beneski.

 

For those seeking a front-row seat, Wallops recommends the NASA Visitor Center on Route 175, directly across from the Wallops runways and adjacent to the marsh.

 

The latest launch schedule is available on the public information phone line at 757-824-2050. The rocket launches at Wallops can also be viewed in live webcasts.

 

ISS orbit adjusted prior to cargo ship docking

 

Xinhua News Service

 

The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) was elevated Thursday in preparation for a docking with an unmanned cargo ship, Russia's Mission Control Center (MCC) said.

 

The 233-second maneuver, started at 6:15 a.m. Moscow time (0215 GMT), was conducted using the engines of the Progress M-17M, which is currently docked at the ISS' Zvezda module, according to the MCC website.

 

As a result, the ISS orbit was lifted by 830 meters to the average of 411 km.

 

The adjustment is aimed at preparing for the upcoming docking of the Progress M-18M cargo spacecraft, which is scheduled to blast off on February 11.

 

The current ISS crew comprises three Russian, two U.S. and a Canadian crew members.

 

NASA, Boeing planning to use lithium batteries in space station

 

Curtis Tate - McClatchy Newspapers

 

NASA is planning to install batteries in the International Space Station that are similar to the ones that grounded Boeing's Dreamliner fleet this week and which are also made by the same company.

 

Boeing is the prime contractor to NASA for the space station and is responsible for the integration of new hardware and software from a range of suppliers. In November, GS Yuasa Lithium Power of Japan won a contract to provide lithium ion batteries that eventually will help power the space station.

 

Boeing referred questions about the space station to NASA. Josh Byerly, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said the batteries for the space station are the same technology but "radically different."

 

Byerly said the battery would not be installed for several years and would undergo rigorous testing beforehand.

 

"Anything that goes up to the space station has got to be tested," he said.

 

He added that the agency would follow a Federal Aviation Administration inquiry into the safety of the lithium batteries but would make no immediate changes.

 

"We're going to pay attention to Boeing's investigation," he said. "Right now, there's no impact whatsoever."

 

The lithium batteries made by GS Yuasa are getting a close look from federal investigators who want to know what caused two of them to overheat in two separate incidents 10 days apart in Boeing's flagship aircraft.

 

The FAA grounded the Dreamliner Wednesday hours after the two Japanese carriers took their fleets out of service.  The agency's emergency directive cited the potential of damage to the plane's structure and electrical systems by heat, smoke and flammable liquids released by a battery fire.

 

FAA tests in 2004 and last year showed that lithium battery fires could burn as hot as 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, well past the melting point of the composite material that makes up half the aircraft.

 

Days earlier, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood assured the public that the plane was safe.

 

Like Boeing with the Dreamliner, NASA is looking to new technology to power the space station.  It orbits the Earth every 90 minutes and is powered by solar panels, but it needs the batteries when the Earth blocks the sun. The lighter, more powerful lithium batteries will replace nickel hydride batteries that have been used by NASA for decades.

 

Boeing designers left proven battery technology on the shelf with the Dreamliner, a calculated risk.

 

"If there appears to be something better that achieves some of your objectives, engineers will want to use it," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and a member of the panel that investigated the Columbia space shuttle accident in 2003.

 

NASA and Boeing have conducted extensive tests of the batteries at the Glenn Space Center in Cleveland and at the Crane Naval Base in southern Indiana.

 

Tom Miller, an aerospace engineer at the Glenn Space Center, said that the batteries have gone through rigorous testing and that protections are built in to prevent short-circuits or heat buildup that can cause the batteries to ignite. They're also encased in a tougher package that could contain a fire.

 

"The basic chemistry has been tested," Miller said. "It's all been safe at this point."

 

Logsdon said taht the combination of the Dreamliner problems, plus tests already planned by NASA, "is going to make these extremely safe batteries by the time they get into orbit."

 

"I don't see any particular cause for concern now," he said. "It's better to find it out when you can land the plane that be 200 miles above the Earth."

 

On Thursday, Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., wrote to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden requesting that the agency help the FAA figure out what happened to the Dreamliner's batteries. He cited NASA's role in assisting Toyota fix acceleration problems in its vehicles that led to a massive recall in 2010.

 

New ISS crew excited for launch

 

James Dean – Florida Today

 

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts are looking forward to a March 27 launch to the International Space Station to start an expedition that may be filled with spacewalks and visiting spacecraft.

 

"It's shaping up to be a really exciting expedition," Cassidy, a 43-year-old U.S. Navy SEAL and veteran of a 2009 shuttle flight, said during a press conference today at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We've got a lot going on."

 

Four Russian spacewalks and potentially three U.S. excursions could take place during the more than five-month expedition.

 

Cassidy said the crew also could see every vehicle that flies to the station make a visit.

 

That includes Russia's Soyuz crew craft and Progress resupply ship, Europe's ATV and Japan's HTV cargo vehicles, SpaceX's Dragon and Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus.

 

Cassidy will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, a veteran of two long-duration flights, and first-time flyer Alexander Misurkin.

 

"It will be a great experience for me and the biggest thing in my whole life," said Misurkin.

 

NASA and Russian space agency officials are considering having the crew attempt to dock with the station just four orbits after launching, instead of the usual two-day journey.

 

Next Space Station Crew Faces Out-of-This-World Final Exams

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are preparing to join the crew of the International Space Station in March, but before they blast off, they'll have to face the thing all students dread: final exams.

 

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, along with Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov of Russia, are due to launch toward the space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on March 28. They will lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and join the station's Expedition 35 crew a few days later. The spaceflyers plan to spend about six months in space performing experiments and keeping the $100 billion space laboratory in tip-top shape.

 

But for now, the crew is spending its final weeks before launch cramming for a critical two-day exam that will take place in the Russian town of Star City. The test is one all space station crews must pass before they are cleared to launch.

 

"We're honing in on the end of a two-and-a-half-year process, which is culminating with some intense training here in Houston," Cassidy said in a NASA briefing today (Jan. 17). "We'll soon be in Star City where we'll have our final exams."

 

The three men will spend their first exam day inside a life-size simulator of the Russian segment of the space station, carrying out typical tasks and responding to simulated malfunctions that test their abilities to cope in a crisis.

 

On the second day, they'll tackle the same challenges inside a Soyuz simulator, carrying out mock launch, rendezvous and undocking sequences while clad in their Russian Sokol spacesuits. All this will be observed by a Russian state commission that includes veteran cosmonauts and officials.

 

"It sounds scary and it is intimidating the first time you do it," Cassidy told SPACE.com. "When you're sitting in a big gigantic room with a lot of experienced Soyuz commanders, and they're asking questions about why you put your hand in a certain place, it can be intimidating. But in my opinion it is a good process. It can really make you step up your game."

 

Crews must pass the exams before they are allowed to launch to space, but if at first they don't succeed, they do get a second chance to try again.

 

"Recently there have been some crews that have made a critical mistake," Cassidy said. "And what they'll do is make you redo that section and just fine-tune it."

 

Cassidy, Vinogradov and Misurkin will be taking their test March 6 and 7. The first two spaceflyers have some experience under their belt, as both have flown to space before: Cassidy flew on NASA's STS-127 mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2009, while Vinogradov is a veteran of two previous spaceflights, including a trip to Russia's space station Mir in 1997 and the International Space Station's Expedition 13 mission in 2004.

 

"We're approaching the finishing line," Vinogradov said today at the NASA briefing. "We only have a few weeks left of training, including the training in Moscow. We have an excellent team."

 

Misurkin, meanwhile, is a rookie spaceflyer who joined the cosmonaut ranks in 2006. This upcoming space mission will be his first.

 

"I'm just really excited and looking forward to this flight," Misurkin said. "I think it [will] be a great experience for me and the biggest thing in my whole life."

 

Next expedition to start off towards ISS March 27

 

Itar-Tass

 

Russian spaceship Soyuz with an international crew aboard will take members of the next expedition to the International Space Station March 27, 2013, from the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, lead flight director Tony Ceccacci told a news briefing at the Lyndon Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

According to him, members of Expedition 35/36 – commander Pavel Vinogradov and flight engineer Alexander Misurkin, both of Russia, and NASA flight engineer Christopher Cassidy – will stay in orbit for 167 days. Their return to the Earth has been scheduled for September 11.

 

The standby crew includes Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky and U.S. astronaut Michael Hopkins.

 

Expedition 35/36 crewmembers will join the Russian Roman Romanenko, the American Thomas Marshburn, and the Canadian Chris Hadfield, who are already working in orbit as part of the Expedition 34/35 crew.

 

$30,000 NASA Contest to Boost Space Station's Power

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

NASA engineers want to squeeze as much power as possible from the wing-like solar arrays on the International Space Station, and the agency has launched a software contest to make it happen, officials announced Thursday.

 

The space agency is sponsoring a $30,000 competition to optimize the position of the station's eight solar arrays during certain parts of its orbit using a software algorithm. The goal is to maximize power output and minimize shadowing of longerons, the long arms holding the arrays to the station, which are sensitive to temperature changes.

 

With more power at hand, astronauts aboard the $100 billion orbiting lab can perform more experiments, increasing the station's scientific returns, contest organizers said.

 

The grand prize for the best software algorithm will win its creator $10,000, while second and third place are worth $5,000 and $3,000, respectively. The top 10 entries will all receive cash, and prizes for certain milestones bring the total purse to $30,000. The top five finishers will also receive mission stickers that orbited Earth aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

 

The contest — officially called the ISS Longeron Shadowing Optimization Challenge — is run through the NASA Tournament Lab, a joint effort of the space agency, Harvard University and the digital-creator community TopCoder.

 

The International Space Station is powered by eight solar arrays, arranged in pairs of wings, which extend from a central backbone-like truss structure. Each pair of solar arrays is 39 feet (11.8 meters) wide and has a wingspan of nearly 240 feet (73 m). When combined with the station's Russian solar arrays, the outpost's power system generates about 110 kilowatts — enough electricity to power 55 houses, NASA has said.

 

Registration for the newly announced competition, which runs through Feb. 6, is free and open to all TopCoder members. (TopCoder membership, which currently numbers more than 440,000, is free as well.)

 

"These are the types of complex low-risk, high-reward problems that get our community of creators excited," Rob Hughes, president and chief operating officer of TopCoder, Inc., said in a statement. "The solutions brought forth for this problem can move the needle for NASA and provide a roadmap for other agencies to tackle stubborn challenges."

 

Assembly of the International Space Station began in 1998, and the orbiting outpost has been continuously occupied by astronauts since November 2000. The station weighs more than 400 tons and spans the area of a football field. It has about as much livable space as a five-bedroom house, or the cabin of a 747 jumbo jet.

 

For more information about the contest, and to learn how to participate, visit www.topcoder.com/iss

 

Blown up in orbit

A plan to use enormous balloons to build space stations

 

The Economist

 

The International Space Station (ISS) is mankind's holiday house in the sky. Like all such houses, it is a luxury item (costing $150 billion and rising). And like many similar projects on Earth, the owners cannot resist tinkering with it. It was in this spirit that, on January 16th, NASA announced that the ISS is to get an extension. This will not, as might have been the case on Earth, be a conservatory or loft conversion. Instead, it will be a BEAM, or Bigelow Expandable Activity Module.

 

Robert Bigelow, an American hotel entrepreneur and space enthusiast, has for years been pushing the idea that space stations should be made not of metal but of fabric. That would mean they could be folded up for launch and inflated in orbit.

 

An inflatable space station may sound like the proverbial chocolate teapot, but if you are going to have space stations at all, then inflation is not a bad way of making them. There have been many proposals in the past. Wernher von Braun, the patriotically flexible developer of the V2 military rocket (for Germany) and the Saturn V moon rocket (for America), sketched plans in the 1950s. The Goodyear Aircraft Corporation produced mock-ups in the early 1960s. In the 1980s the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory came up with a detailed space-exploration plan which relied on inflatable craft, thus quickly attracting the nickname "brilliant condoms". And in the 1990s NASA proposed sending astronauts to Mars in an inflatable craft called TransHab.

 

Despite the branding possibilities offered by the Livermore version of the idea, Mr Bigelow and NASA prefer the less evocative term "expandable module" in their literature. Regardless of the name, however, making spacecraft and space stations out of fabric offers several advantages over the tin-can approach.

 

The most important is weight. Inflatable space stations are lighter than metal ones, and even small savings in weight make a big difference to launch costs.

 

Expandable modules may be safer, too. Ground tests by Bigelow Aerospace, Mr Bigelow's vehicle for his orbital ambitions, suggest that the module's walls—thick sandwiches of exotic fabrics such as Vectran (used in sailcloth and high-strength rope) and Nomex (from which fire-resistant suits are made)—offer better protection than metal ones against impacts from micrometeors and the increasing amount of artificial debris that is in orbit around Earth. They are also less likely than metals to generate dangerous secondary radiation when bombarded with things like cosmic rays. That is one reason why NASA was interested in using inflatable craft for the months-long journey to Mars.

 

Nor is the idea untested. In 2006 and 2007 Bigelow launched two unmanned versions, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. BEAM, which will be bolted onto the space station in 2015, if all goes well, will be the last test of the technology before the launch of the firm's intended commercial product, the BA-330. This will offer 330 cubic metres of internal space. At the moment the ISS has a volume of 916 cubic metres. The firm plans to launch two BA-330s in 2016, link them together in orbit, and thus create a station with 70% of the pressurised volume of the ISS for a fraction of the cost.

 

This first station, dubbed the Alpha Station, will be equipped with laboratory equipment, workbenches and the like. Bigelow hopes to offer 60 days aboard it for around $26m, assuming that its guests make the trip into orbit on one of the cheap rockets provided by SpaceX, another private space company.

 

Bigelow hopes in particular to win business from governments without big space programmes of their own. To that end it has memoranda of understanding with several, including those of Britain, Japan and the Netherlands. It is also wooing the private sector, though that may prove tricky. There has long been talk of the advantages of "zero gravity" (actually, the continuous free-fall of orbit, rather than the total absence of a gravitational field) for manufacturing specialised materials whose components are of very different densities, and for growing specialised protein crystals for examination by pharmaceutical companies. This was, indeed, one of the sales pitches for the ISS. Unfortunately, the private sector stayed away in droves, and the scientific output of the ISS has been pitiful.

 

If renting the Alpha Station out as a laboratory does not work, there is always the option of turning it into a holiday house. Given Mr Bigelow's background, it is often assumed that this is the plan anyway. The firm insists that it is not, at least for now. But who will really be interested in paying $26m to go into orbit remains to be seen. Inflated space stations are fine, as long as they do not lead to inflated expectations.

 

Pack a Bag for the Stars: A Shopping List for Deep Space?

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.org

 

It is a fact of human nature that our imagination often outruns the reality that is. For decades, science fiction writers and futurists alike have written about brick moons and manned projectiles shot out of gigantic cannons and torus-shaped space colonies and vast starships with exotic propulsion sources, but the reality of our species' technological handicap at the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century makes it unlikely that we will see fully-fledged cities on Mars and human expeditions beyond the Solar System in our lifetimes.

 

Only last week, the White House laughed off a tongue-in-cheek petition to build a real-life Star Wars-type "Death Star" as unrealistic, impractical, and pointless. Yet the humor which the Death Star petition has garnered actually underlines a stark point: that little political support exists for turning us from a space visiting civilization into a true spacefaring civilization. "We are still stuck in the 1960s in many ways," laments the website BuildTheEnterprise.org "when it comes to putting human beings into space."

 

As you read these words, and as I write them, six men from three discrete nations circle the globe aboard the International Space Station. Its size and several aspects of its technology far outmatch any space station which has preceded it, but at a fundamental level it is illustrative of our failure to do much to escape the gravitational clutches of low-Earth orbit in more than four decades. Someday, though, our descendents will set sail for far-off destinations. They will walk again upon the dusty lunar regolith, they will explore the blood-red plains of Mars, they will venture further afield to the outer planets, and, at some stage, they will depart the Solar System forever to establish themselves as children of the cosmos. "Generational" starships, whose occupants are born, live their lives, and die in weightlessness, heading to some unknown and unfathomable destination, have been discussed for years; at some stage, there is little doubt that they will become reality.

 

The technologies needed to accomplish such incredible feats are many times more advanced than anything we presently possess, but it is good for the human spirit to ponder the possibilities of the future. According to BuildTheEnterprise.org, the appearance of the fictional U.S.S. Enterprise could be recreated as a real craft, with 1 G artificial gravity and the capacity to house upwards of a thousand people. Potential missions—unsurprisingly—would be decidedly more modest than star-hopping and velocities markedly less than "warp speed," but could enable expeditions to the Moon in as little as three days, voyages to Mars in as little as three months, and possibly visits to the outer planets. It would be nothing less than "a sustainable roving village out in the heavens."

 

Yet out in the heavens presents the first key obstacle, for the voyagers aboard such craft will be left acutely vulnerable to the devastating effects of solar and cosmic radiation. Although the Apollo lunar explorers ventured briefly beyond Earth's protective magnetic field, they did so only for a matter of days, and it would appear suffered few lasting effects. For the remainder of the Space Age, every astronaut and cosmonaut has flown into low-Earth orbit, well within our planet's magnetic envelope, and thus shielded from the brunt of the fierce, million-mile-per-hour solar wind. Yet even low-Earth orbit carries its own risks and we have seen in numerous occasions the impact of coronal mass ejections and solar flares upon the crew of the International Space Station. When the first explorers travel to near-Earth asteroids, or back to the Moon for long durations, or onward to Mars, they will spend far lengthier spells away from Earth's veil of magnetic safety … and the implications, though predicted to be dire, are still imperfectly understood.

 

Certainly, they will have to contend with the risk of direct DNA damage, radiation-induced cancers, and degenerative tissue disorders. In 2001, the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE) flew aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey mission and its preliminary data suggested that inadequately shielded human explorers within the interplanetary environment for around 12-18 months—roughly the timescale for a minimum-length Mars voyage—would receive a radiation dosage of 400-900 milliSieverts per year, as opposed to an average 2.4 mSv on Earth's surface. Solar flares are of particular concern. In 1859, the so-called "Carrington Event" saw a massive flare erupt from the Sun, travel to Earth in less than 17 hours (as opposed to the normal three or four days), and effect massive geomagnetic storms. Auroral displays were seen over the Caribbean and even over the Rocky Mountains, whose gold miners began preparing breakfast in the middle of the night, since the unearthly glow convinced them that it must be morning.

 

Yet, frighteningly, if a human crew had been in the Earth-Mars gulf at the time, they could have expected death in a matter of hours. On 20 January 2005, Sunspot 720 released four powerful solar flares, which reached our neighborhood within a matter of minutes. As well as carrying the potential to interfere with radio communications and short-circuit satellites and computers, such events are capable of penetrating a space suit and killing its occupant. "An astronaut on the Moon," said solar physicist Robert Lin of the University of California at Berkeley, "caught outdoors on January 20th, would have had almost no time to dash for shelter." Any vehicle travelling beyond the Home Planet would require a multiple-walled hull, perhaps fashioned from hydrogen-based plastics or even utilizing the spacecraft's own liquid hydrogen propellant dewars as an insulator and a resistor of micrometeoroid penetration. A dedicated "storm shelter," into which the crew could retreat in the event of coronal mass ejections or flare events, would be essential.

 

Artificial gravity has long been recognized as an important facet in enabling humans to function away from Earth in a comfortable environment. The absence of gravity has been shown over the past half-century to cause debilitating space adaptation syndrome ("space sickness"), as well as triggering decreases in bone density and calcium loss. During the final mission of Space Shuttle Columbia in early 2003, a series of Canadian experiments investigated the "thinning" and weakening of rats' hind limbs in microgravity. Since rats' bones tend to react much more quickly than human ones, a 16-day mission for them represented the cumulative effect of several months in space for us.

 

Several techniques have been theoretically pioneered for creating a workable form of artificial gravity. On NASA's Gemini XI mission in September 1966, astronauts Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon achieved a measure of artificial gravity when they established a tethered connection between their own craft and rotated it around the Agena XI target. The intent of such an exercise was to learn how to keep two vehicles in formation, without fuel inputs or control action, and although not wholly successful the astronauts did test a tiny amount of artificial gravity. Neither man physiologically felt the effect of gravity, but at one stage they were able to place a camera against Gemini XI's instrument panel, let go … and it drifted, in a straight line, to the back of the cabin, parallel to the direction of the tether.

 

Centrifugal force has long been the mainstay of science fiction writers and futurists as a leading method for generating artificial gravity. Several of the earliest "true" space station designs, from the 1950s and 1960s, envisaged "rotating" complexes, possibly with a habitat joined by a tether to some form of counterweight. Other concepts include continuous acceleration in a straight line, thereby forcing internal objects—such as the crew—in the opposite direction, or the installation of ultra-high-density masses capable of generating their own magnetic fields (such as a captured asteroid, perhaps), or the use of powerful magnets. At present, such technologies remain broadly at the theoretical level and practical methods remain some distance into the future.

 

Of course, the most visibly dramatic features of deep-space machines or starships are the propulsion sources which they will employ. It has long been recognized that the immense distances between the stars—and, for that matter, between the planets, too—render technologies beyond ordinary chemical methods enormously useful. Although ion propulsion has been demonstrated operationally, far from Earth, by missions such as Deep Space 1 and Dawn, advances of several degrees of magnitude will still be required to achieve the kind of velocities necessary for interstellar travel. Solar sail technology is a possibility, and concepts such as the Variable Specific Impulse Space Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) have risen from the drawing board and may eventually end up as test hardware on the International Space Station as early as 2015, whist others, such as real faster-than-light warp drives, are further into the future.

 

VASIMR, developed since 1977 by plasma physicist and former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, utilizes radio waves to ionize and heat propellant, thereby generating plasma which is accelerated using magnetic fields to produce thrust. Although its low thrust-to-weight ratio is insufficient to launch payloads directly from Earth, it may see cost-effective applications in the delivery of cargo to lunar bases, the orbital repositioning of satellites, the compensation of atmospheric drag suffered by the ISS … and fast deep-space missions. In fact, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden—who flew twice into space with Chang-Diaz—has described VASIMR as a breakthrough technology which may see a 2.5-year mission to Mars cut by more than four-fifths. Several successful laboratory tests of subscale versions of the engine led to an official contract between Chang-Diaz's company, Ad Astra, and NASA in December 2008 to fly VASIMR to the space station. This flight is tentatively scheduled for 2015, possibly aboard Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket.

 

Other concepts for reaching deep space and beyond with humans have come and gone over the years. Among the earliest was Project Orion, initiated in 1958, which would have been propelled by a series of exploding atomic bombs behind the spacecraft. This "nuclear pulse propulsion" technique was deemed so violent that it could only be performed externally to the spacecraft and the exhaust velocity was predicted to be in the range of 12-19 miles per second. Supporters of Orion-type missions stressed its usefulness for staging voyages to the planets, but the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty lost political support and sounded its death knell, in view of concerns about radiation fallout from its power source. Still others rose and fell over the years, including the British Interplanetary Society's Project Daedalus and the U.S. Navy's Project Longshot. Most recently, in January 2012, the 100-Year Starship was proposed as a project to examine the requirements and groundwork needed to achieve such a mission. Its vision is that such a mission will set sail within the next century.

 

There are some scientists who doubt that interstellar missions are practically possible, so vast are the distances involved, the flight durations needed, and the sheer quantities of propellants and energy demanded … even to the closest star, Alpha Centauri. Brice Cassenti of the Department of Engineering and Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was quoted by Universe Today in August 2008 as stating that "at least 100 times the total energy output of the entire world [in a given year] would be required for the voyage." Others perceive launching a mission which cannot be completed within 50 years as pure folly, for the logical reason that our civilization is on an increasing curve of propulsion system velocity and resources should instead be diverted into building a better means of propulsion. In other words, a "slow" spacecraft, launched at a given time, would be quickly overtaken by a "faster" spacecraft built many years later using more mature technology.

 

However, such notions have been rejected by Andrew Kennedy in his paper on the dangers of the so-called "Wait Calculation," published in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society in 2006. Kennedy argued that from any point on a deep-space journey there is a "minimum" to the total time to the destination, even with continuing growth in the velocity of subsequent travel technologies, and that voyagers can still have a realistic chance to reach their target and not be overtaken by a later, more advanced civilization. Significantly, Kennedy judged the world's annual economic growth rate of approximately 1.4 percent and a corresponding growth in the velocity of travel and used this data to predict that a vehicle launched today would take many hundreds of years—he cited 1,100—to reach Barnard's Star, a mere six light-years from Earth.

 

Interplanetary travel is possible and has been accomplished dozens of times by our species over the past five decades. Interstellar travel, at some stage in the continuing curve of our evolution, will also come, as should the markedly more difficult intergalactic travel—crossing the vast gulf of gas and dust and emptiness between galaxies—but it will come at a point far beyond our own existence or those of many generations of our children and grandchildren. Voyager 1 has spent over 35 years in space and has traversed more than 123 astronomical units, or 11.4 billion miles, across the Sun's realm. Presently moving at over 38,000 miles per hour, it has covered less than one-sixth-hundredth of a light-year and its progress is a paltry one-eighteen-thousandth of the speed of light. Journeying to Alpha Centauri at this slowpoke pace would take tens of thousands of years. Of course, more modern technologies than the Voyagers could expect to reduce this to a handful of millennia, but therein lies another inescapable reality.

 

To reach the nearest stars with humans will require us to leave our home world forever and become a truly spacefaring civilization for the first time. The occupants of such immense vessels will be aboard "Generation Starships," so called because generations will come and go in the quest to reach their destination. Children will be born and will grow to adulthood and mature into old age and die in the absence of Planet Earth, surrounded for the most part by the blackness of deep space, and a terrestrial surface beneath their feet will be unknown to them. Some argue that human nature would make it difficult for such a concept to be realized, with massive sociological and biological issues waiting to be addressed. Religion alone has proven such a divisive factor for thousands of years that it is hard to suppose that it will disappear on such a ship. One thing that will disappear, and disappear quickly, will be the Earth itself. The world which the crew of the first starship once called "home" will fade into a distant memory.

 

They will no longer be children of Earth, but children of the stars.

 

Space spending pays off in earth-bound products, processes

 

Tony Rice - WRAL TV (Raleigh-Durham)

 

(Rice is a volunteer in the NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador program and software engineer at Cisco Systems)

 

One question I frequently get is about the millions spent sending astronauts into orbit and robots to other planets. Might that money be better spent here on the ground? The short answer is, that it's all spent on the ground. Neither NASA or any other space agency fills rockets with cash and launches them into space. The knowledge gained doesn't leave with the mission either. Research and technologies developed to solve challenges in space are frequently transferred to other uses, often involving small businesses around the country.

 

For example, aural thermometers are used in hospitals, doctors' offices and maybe even your home using the infrared energy emanating from your eardrum to measure body temperature. This is similar to technique used by astronomers to measure the temperature of stars many light years away.

 

Research into reducing friction on aircraft fuselage and wings was applied to liquids increasing the efficiency of water pumps and air conditioners. It was also applied by swimsuit manufacturer Arena to create hydrodynamic swimsuits used by Olympic swimmers. It is only fitting that the application return to the water, since researchers took their original inspiration from similar features on sharks.

 

When the Hubble Space Telescope opened to gather light for the first time, it was clear there was a big problem. The promised crystal-clear images were out of focus. While engineers developed a set of glasses to correct the flawed mirror on the school bus-sized telescope and astronauts trained for the complex mission to install it, NASA software engineers set to work on an interim solution. The resulting image correction software solved a problem for cancer researchers as well. Sharpening blurry space images in search of stars has a lot to do with sharpening blurry mammograms to find signs of calcification which could indicate early breast cancer.

 

Glasses with plastic lenses resist shattering but they also can be very easy to scratch. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in California developed a method to coat space helmet visors. Today most plastic eyeglass lenses are treated with this long lasting protection.

 

Saturn V rockets of the Apollo era and space shuttles were transported to launch pads on the powerful crawler-transporters (named "Hans" and "Franz"). Moving 12 million pounds means lots of moving parts which require lots of lubrication. The Kennedy Space Center is in the middle of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge which adds further environmental requirements. Sun Coast Chemicals in nearby Daytona Beach met those requirements by producing a high performance lubricant which was also biodegradable. That formula was added into the company's industrial, marine and sporting good product lines.

 

Technology used to track SpaceX and other visiting capsules during delicate docking maneuvers with the International Space Station has been adapted to track eye movements during eye surgery. LASIK procedures probably wouldn't be possible without this technology. I'm personally very thankful for this NASA spinoff. It's made my time behind a telescope eyepiece much more enjoyable.

 

NASA Advanced Ceramics Research on materials to protect the antennae of heat-seeking missile trackers led to development of translucent polycrystalline alumina. The strength and translucence led to its use in invisible braces which are just as strong as their metal counterparts.

 

Research into algae as a food source for use in space spun off into additives into infant formula. Researchers found the fatty acids contained in a microalgae to be associated with mental and visual development.

 

Techniques to monitor astronauts' vital signs during spaceflight were adapted in devices to monitor blood sugar levels and release insulin when needed. These implantable devices are also known as insulin pumps and have freed many Type 1 diabetics from daily injections.

 

Hundreds of sailors owe their lives to the self-righting life raft technology developed by NASA to prevent Apollo-era life rafts from capsizing under the downdraft of helicopters after splashdown landings.

 

NASA uses a lot of fireworks in its rockets and space craft. "Pyrotechnically-actuated" bolts detach rocket stages as they burn out, jettison the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters or sever the bridle cables of the Mars Science Laboratory as it landed on Mars last summer. Every mission uses these somewhere, probably a lot of them.

 

Here on Earth, traffic accidents and other emergencies require similar tools that can quickly cut through brake pedals or automotive roof pillars to free trapped occupants. They were used by rescue workers in searching for survivors of the Oklahoma City federal building bombing site in 1995 and the World Trade Center in 2001. They are cheaper and lighter than pneumatic tools, something firefighters who use them appreciate as well.

 

Drawing on his work on electronic sensing for the space shuttle program and frustration from several failed surgeries to correct his own hearing impairments, engineer Adam Kissiah developed today's widely used cochlear implant. The implant's 22 electrodes replace the function of thousands of hair cells in the inner ear.

 

You can read more about these and hundreds of other spinoffs at http://spinoff.nasa.gov. NASA spinoffs also will be featured in a talk at Astronomy Days on Jan. 26 and 27 at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science as well.

 

Report Incorrect, NASA Has No Plans to Abandon LC-39A

 

Julian Leek - AmericaSpace.org

 

A recent article which stated that NASA's famous Launch Complex-39A is poised to be abandoned – is not correct. AmericaSpace got to the heart of the matter by speaking to officials in charge of the location that men first set forth to explore another world.

 

Rather the space agency is looking at having commercial space companies launch their rockets and spacecraft from LC-39A.

 

According to Spaceflight Now, one of the more prominent potential customers is none other than Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX). SpaceX has propelled the NewSpace movement to the forefront of the public's imagination and has expressed interest in possibly using LC-39A to launch the company's new Falcon Heavy rocket.

 

During the tour we reviewed some of the more prominent portions of LC-39A, including the "rubber room" where astronauts would be whisked to in the event of an emergency on the pad and the flame trench, where the destructive exhaust and acoustics of launch are directed away from the shuttle.

 

One thing is clear; NASA does not plan to abandon this structure and has every intention of seeing the structured used by one of its commercial partners for years to come.

 

As mentioned, Launch Complex 39A is a historic site and if NASA ever did plan to permanently cease use of the location – the agency would have to restore LC-39A to how it appeared during the Apollo era. LC-39A is the spot where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins launched from on Apollo 11. A lift off, that culminated in the first human footprints on another world. This has earned the spot a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Operating such a structure is expensive and NASA's budget is not getting any larger.

 

"'How low can we go to restructure it? Shutting down 'abandon in place' does not apply here. If that was done? The pad would have to look like it did in the Apollo days. This site is on the National Register of Historical places so it not feasible to do that, moreover we don't have the funds to do that. We have to find a balance, and are trying to find a happy medium. Taking a line item out of the budget (not cutting the grass) is not the answer; the only real way is to pull a badge to lower the monthly cost. The NASA hierarchy will make the decision how low do you want to go. This is like peanut butter you have to spread it around to make it work," said NASA's Pad Manager Steve Bulloch.

 

When the report came out that NASA intended to abandon LC-39A, AmericaSpace reached out to NASA directly to clarify what the space agency actually has planned for the pad.

 

"We are going to maintain LC-39A for use for a potential customer and we have parties that are interested in utilizing the complex, but none that we can name specifically at this time," said NASA Public Affairs Officer Mike Curie. "Preserving LC-39A from a historical standpoint is a moot point because it is our intent to make it available for commercial use and we are discussing this with interested parties."

 

Wings in Space

 

Yovanna Bieberich - Petaluma Argus-Courier

 

An era of outer space discovery spanning 30 years full of triumphs and tragedies came to an end on July 21, 2011 when the Space Shuttle Atlantis said goodbye to the final frontier and hello to its final resting place at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 

Bay Area residents had a brush with the space program in September when the long retired Space Shuttle Endeavor flew over Northern California on its way to its final home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

 

"I watched Endeavors last flight and it was inspiring seeing it going over the Golden Gate Bridge," said Joe Noriel, president of the Petaluma Museum. "It was also sad that after 30 years the Space Shuttle Program was ending. I grew up in the '80s after the Apollo missions (humans in space program). The Space Shuttle Program is an amazing story, from the Hubble Space Telescope to the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles. It's a story full of human interest."

 

Endeavor's flyover inspired Noriel to put together "Wings in Space: A Tribute to the Space Shuttle Program," exhibit which is on display at the museum Jan. 17-27.

 

"Wings in Space" is presented in cooperation with Sonoma State University, The Space Station Museum of Novato and the Santa Rosa Junior College Planetarium.

 

"It's an opportunity for the public to get up close to the NASA Space Shuttle program," said Noriel. "On display we have $100,000 worth of shuttle artifacts on loan from the Space Station Museum of Novato, including gold Mylar blankets, heat shields and flags that have flown in space. A couple educators also stepped forward and loaned us items from Sonoma State University and the Santa Rosa Junior College Planetarium."

 

The highlight of the short exhibit is a visit and presentation by Space Shuttle Discovery astronaut Jose Hernandez.

 

"One of my goals has been to reach out to the Latino community in Petaluma," said Noriel. "I went out on a limb and reached out to Hernandez and fortunately he said yes. These guys are really busy and get a lot of requests. We're pretty lucky to have him."

 

Hernandez is one of four children from a migrant farming family. He did not learn to speak English until he was 12 years old. His courage and determination led him to realize his dream of being accepted to the NASA Astronaut Training Program and flying on Space Shuttle STS-128 Discovery on a journey to the International Space Station. He is one of only 12 Hispanic individuals who have flown in space.

 

Hernandez will discuss his long road to becoming a shuttle astronaut, after applying 12 times before being accepted, and traveling to the International Space Station.

 

Besides being an astronaut, he helped engineer a successful device for breast cancer screening and held a position in the government responsible for locating and securing Russian nuclear material after the fall of the Soviet Union. He speaks fluent Russian.

 

"He's such an inspiration," said Noriel. "The Latino community is responding with enthusiasm to this presentation because Hernandez is a such a role model."

 

The city of Petaluma will honor space shuttle astronaut Jose Hernandez with a motorcade through downtown at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 26 followed by a presentation at the museum at 2 p.m. featuring Mayor David Glass and the proclamation of "Jose Hernandez Day" in Petaluma. The Petaluma Fire Department will have its ladder truck parked at the museum as part of the festivities.

 

"Hernandez was really the keystone to this entire exhibit," said Noriel. "We were able to get him to come out and so we decided to try and build the exhibit around his appearance. After some digging, we also discovered Petaluma resident George Murphy. He was a press photographer for both the first and last space shuttle missions."

 

Murphy is a photographer and Oscar winning visual effects designer based out of Petaluma. He has been creating images of the world for more than 30 years. In 1995, he received the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects for his role on the film "Forrest Gump" and in 1999 dominated the Clio Awards Visual Effects category with commercial effects work. Beginning in early 2007, he joined became visual effects supervisor for ImageMovers Digital and worked on the all digital Robert Zemeckis/Disney Film, "A Christmas Carol."

 

Murphy will be sharing his experiences photographing for the shuttle program at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19.

 

"Murphy did some work photographing with the Apollo program and also the Space Shuttle Challenger before it crashed. His images are amazing and just breathtaking," said Noriel.

 

Murphy's space shuttle photographs will be on display, and many of his images will be for sale, with proceeds to benefit the Petaluma Museum.

 

Admission to the exhibit and guest speaker presentations is $5 general. The museum is located at 20 Fourth St.

 

For more information, visit www.petalumamuseum.com

 

Downey seeks federal loan to build home for space shuttle mock-up

 

Phillip Zonkel - Long Beach Press-Telegram

 

A mock-up that served as inspiration for all of the country's space shuttles may be one step closer to landing a permanent home.

 

The original, full-size mock-up, built in 1972 by Rockwell International, is housed under a temporary tent in a parking lot at the former Downey Studios, 12214 Lakewood Blvd.

 

The city, which owns the model, wants to build a permanent building for the 122 foot by 78 foot shuttle.

 

But unlike the real space shuttle Endeavour, recently moved to the California Science Center about 10 miles away, the local mock-up isn't intended to be a regional attraction, said Brian Saeki, community development director.

 

"This facility has to benefit local residents," he said.

 

On Jan. 8, the City Council unanimously approved a $3million loan application with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The review process should be completed within six months.

 

The city would use the $1million in Community Development Block Grant money it annually receives from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to pay the 20-year loan, Saeki said.

 

If the loan is rejected or block grant money is cut, the city would consider other revenue sources, such as private donations, a private-public partnership or general fund money, Saeki said.

 

One of the requirements for the federal loan is that the proposed project must directly benefit low- and moderate-income people living in the area adjacent to the property, Saeki said.

 

In its loan application, the city said the money would be used to build an 18,000- to 20,000- square-foot "neighborhood center" across the street from the former Downey Studios parking lot, at the southwest corner of the Discovery Park complex.

 

The building would be adjacent to the Columbia Memorial Space Center, the city's hands-on learning center dedicated to teaching children about science and space exploration.

 

"A community center is really needed in that area," Councilman Alex Saab said. "It would be used for workshops, community events and art events, among other things.

 

"It's also important to properly house the mock-up shuttle. It has historical significance. It's a product of Downey," Saab said. "Those of us who grew up here have memories of Rockwell and their hangars."

 

Added Mayor Mario Guerra: "It's a good way to preserve history. There's no other model like it. It was the genesis of all space shuttles."

 

The neighborhood center, which would be completed by spring 2014, "is intended to inspire neighborhood pride and unity, in contrast to the blighted conditions that the property has exhibited for the last decade," according to the city's loan application.

 

"A portion of the neighborhood served by the proposed center is the Elm Vista neighborhood, a longtime focus of intense Police Department enforcement and preservation efforts."

 

Neighborhood residents would be given priority use of the center, and partnerships are already being developed to provide space for after-school child care programs, according to city officials.

 

The facility would also be used for neighborhood watch meetings and as a cooling center during summer months, the application said.

 

Virgin CEO to business leaders: Pressure legislators for spaceport liability waiver

 

James Monteleone - Albuquerque Journal

 

The CEO of Virgin Galactic asked Albuquerque business leaders Thursday to help pressure the state Legislature to pass a bill that would shield spacecraft manufacturers from some lawsuits filed by space travelers.

 

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides made the remarks this morning during a presentation for the Albuquerque Economic Forum, a coalition of community business leaders. Whitesides said the legislation is essential to recruiting new commercial spaceflight companies to move to New Mexico and join Virgin Galactic as tenants of the state's $209 million spaceport.

 

"What I would ask of all of you is, if you agree, to communicate the importance of the bill to your legislators, because I know they take this (business) community more seriously than many — than most — so that's really critical," Whitesides said.

 

Whitesides noted that other states attempting to lure commercial spacecraft manufacturers and operators to their own spaceports have expanded their legal protections beyond what New Mexico established in 2008. Now, the state needs to keep up, he said.

 

The legislation, which is being considered for a third time by the state Legislature this year, has drawn strong opposition from the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association. The group has said the bill would represent an unprecedented roll-back of legal protections for a single industry.

 

"The state of New Mexico and its taxpayers have made a huge investment in commercial space and in order to protect that investment, it needs to remain in relative parity with other states," Whitesides said.

 

"The fact is that the current situation will keep companies from locating in New Mexico and at the spaceport. The bills would change that and would really open the door to new business," he said.

 

Asked if Virgin Galactic would re-locate to another state if the bill didn't pass, Whitesides said the company intends to stay in New Mexico but said the state's spaceport must recruit additional companies if its going to remain successful.

 

END