Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - May 6, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 6, 2013 6:16:47 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 6, 2013 and JSC Today

 

Monday, May 6, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Special Menu in the Cafés for Asian-Pacific Heritage Month

2.            It's Week Two of Health and Fitness Month -- Get Healthy and Win Prizes

3.            Sodexo Satisfaction Survey

4.            Blood Drive Changes

5.            Job Opportunities

6.            Learn to Order, Move or Edit ACES Seats -- Enterprise Service Request System

7.            SPACE Brown Bag Sessions -- Civil Servant Employees

8.            Introduction to the Scientific and Technical Information Center

9.            Escape Your Silo: Lighting Environment Testing Facility Tour

10.          OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety and Health -- May 20 to 24 -- Building 20, Room 304

11.          Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting

12.          Weight Watchers at JSC -- New Location

13.          JSC Lunarfins SCUBA Club Meeting

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station. The SCaN test bed is an advanced, integrated communications laboratory facility that uses a new generation of software-defined radio technology to allow researchers to develop, test and demonstrate advanced communications, networking and navigation technologies in space."

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1.            Special Menu in the Cafés for Asian-Pacific Heritage Month

May is Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, and to celebrate we will be offering special selections in the cafés every Wednesday this month. Come out and enjoy:

Seared Tilapia with Hawaiian Relish and Rice - May 8

Red Curry Chicken over Jasmine Rice - May 15

Singapore Rice Noodles - May 22

Ginger-scented Chicken Noodle Salad - May 29

Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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2.            It's Week Two of Health and Fitness Month -- Get Healthy and Win Prizes

Did you earn random drawing tickets last week? If not, there are many opportunities this week.

o             Earn multiple tickets for the Online Scavenger Hunt Challenge

o             Stop by the Building 3 café from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday and check out our mini fitness expo! Get your body fat, blood pressure and BMI measured, and earn a ticket just for stopping by. Plus, chat with a personal trainer, SPINNING instructor and our fitness director and get more tickets.

o             Join us for a stroll around the pond during the Poker Walk Challenge on Thursday at 11 a.m. -- prizes will be awarded to the top three hands.

Remember, you can also earn tickets all month long for biking to work, attending Starport group exercise and Inner Space classes, attending personal training sessions, liking us on Facebook, and if you are enrolled in boot camp, ballroom dancing or a league sport. Additional details.

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

 

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3.            Sodexo Satisfaction Survey

Sodexo Federal Services is committed to exceeding your expectations while working to continually improve your experience.

Our annual survey helps us to understand how we are performing. We value this input and use this feedback to ensure we are bringing the highest level of service to you.

This survey should take no more than seven to 10 minutes to complete. Please complete the questionnaire online by visiting the Starport website and clicking the link to the "Sodexo Customer Satisfaction Survey."

The survey will be available now through May 8. You will receive a confirmation upon completion.

Your feedback is extremely important to us. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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4.            Blood Drive Changes

The blood drive start time will change beginning with our next blood drive from June 19 to 20. The Teague operation hours have changed for energy conservation and is not open until 9 a.m. The new times for the blood drive are:

o             Teague lobby - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

o             Building 11 donor coach - 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

o             Gilruth donor coach (Thursday only) - Noon to 4 p.m.

Teresa Gomez x39588 http://jscpeople.jsc.nasa.gov/blooddrv/blooddrv.htm

 

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5.            Job Opportunities

Where do I find job opportunities?

Both internal Competitive Placement Plan (CPP) and external JSC job announcements are posted on the Human Resources (HR) portal and USAJOBS website. Through the HR portal, civil servants can view summaries of all the agency jobs that are currently open at: https://hr.nasa.gov/portal/server.pt/community/employees_home/239/job_opportu...

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

Lisa Pesak x30476

 

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6.            Learn to Order, Move or Edit ACES Seats -- Enterprise Service Request System

On May 16, the Information Resources Directorate (IRD) is providing a hands-on training class for the Enterprise Service Request System (ESRS). Join us and learn how to use the current online service request tool for I3P services. Users will learn how to enter and track requests to order new seats, moves, edits, network connections, distribution lists and seat de-subscribes.

This hands-on training is scheduled for May 16 in the newly remodeled Building 12 training facility.

To sign up, visit the Training Schedule Web page.

Space is limited and on a first come, first served basis.

For more information, contact the IRD Customer Service Center at x46367, via email or go to:  https://esd.nasa.gov/

JSC IRD Outreach x41334

 

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7.            SPACE Brown Bag Sessions -- Civil Servant Employees

NASA's Standard Performance Appraisal Communication Environment (SPACE) system will go live on May 6. To help civil servant (CS) employees transition to this new system, JSC's SPACE implementation team is offering five brown-bag sessions this month. Attendees will receive an overview of the SPACE system and be able to participate in questions and answers.

Registration for these sessions is not required, and session dates/times are below:

Monday, May 13

o             Intended Audience: CS employees

o             Building 30 Auditorium

o             Session 1: 11 a.m. to noon

o             Session 2: 1 to 2 p.m.

Tuesday, May 14

o             Intended Audience: CS employees

o             Building 30 Auditorium

o             Session 1: 1 to 2 p.m.

o             Session 2: 2 to 3 p.m.

Wednesday, May 15

o             Intended Audience: CS employees

o             Building 30 Auditorium

o             11 a.m. to noon

Lisa Pesak x30476

 

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8.            Introduction to the Scientific and Technical Information Center

The Scientific and Technical Information Center (STIC) provides access to more than 100 databases, thousands of e-books, abstract and full-text journals. It is also the official repository for five-digit JSC documents. Make searching for these resources a lot easier by joining the library for a training session on May 9 from 1 to 2 p.m. CDT via WebEx. To register for the WebEx, go to this link.

The STIC is a service provided by the Information Resources Directorate.

Event Date: Thursday, May 9, 2013   Event Start Time:1:00 PM   Event End Time:2:00 PM

Event Location: WebEx

 

Add to Calendar

 

Ebony Fondren x32490 http://library.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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9.            Escape Your Silo: Lighting Environment Testing Facility Tour

Please join the Human Systems Academy for a tour of the Lighting Environment and Testing Facility on May 17 at Wyle 5 (1290 Hercules) from either 1 to 2 p.m. or 2 to 3 p.m. Please be advised this is an off-site location, and transportation is not provided.

Space is limited, so please register today in SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... or 68449

Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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10.          OSHA 30-Hour Construction Safety and Health -- May 20 to 24 -- Building 20, Room 304

This four-and-a-half day course assists the student in effectively conducting construction inspections and oversight. Participants are provided with basic information about construction standards, construction hazards, health hazards, trenching and excavation operations, cranes, electrical hazards in construction, steel erection, ladders, scaffolds, concrete and heavy construction equipment. This course is based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Construction Safety course and is approved for award of the 30-hour OSHA completion card. The course may include a field exercise at a construction site, if feasible. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit. Registration in SATERN is required. This may be the last time this course is offered. Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Event Date: Monday, May 20, 2013   Event Start Time:8:00 AM   Event End Time:4:00 PM

Event Location: Building 20 Room 304

 

Add to Calendar

 

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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11.          Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society (JSCAS) Meeting

Our May meeting will feature Dr. Ross Potter from the Lunar Planetary Institute, who will give us a talk entitled "A Crash Course in Impact Cratering." His research investigates the formation and structure of impact craters on the moon, especially the large basins.

We'll discuss our recent trip to our dark site at Ft. McKavitt out in west central Texas, as well as our upcoming Star Parties. Other meeting topics include "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing; the always intriguing "Astro Oddities;" and the novice question-and-answer session. Our meetings are held on the second Friday of each month.

Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no by-laws -- you just show up to our meeting. Don't forget, there are loaner telescopes and an educational DVD library as benefits of our membership!

Event Date: Friday, May 10, 2013   Event Start Time:7:30 PM   Event End Time:9:30 PM

Event Location: USRA Bldg. at 3600 Bay Area Blvd. at Middlebrook

 

Add to Calendar

 

Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/

 

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12.          Weight Watchers at JSC -- New Location

Starting today, JSC Weight Watchers at Work will meet in Building 20, Room 260. Weigh-in is from 11:30 a.m. to noon, and the meeting runs from noon to 12:30 p.m.

We need to increase the regular attendance at this meeting, or we may lose it! Please consider attending today.

If you are a current Weight Watcher member, Monthly Passes are accepted. The meeting is run by Weight Watcher leader Anne Churchill, and you weigh in privately on a Weight Watchers scale.

If you are interested in joining Weight Watchers, you may attend as a guest to learn more about the program. To join now, purchase your Monthly Pass through the JSC portal at the link below (JSC company ID 24156, pass code WW24156).

Summer is quickly approaching! Don't wait, join today.

Event Date: Monday, May 6, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Bldg 20, Room 260

 

Add to Calendar

 

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

 

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13.          JSC Lunarfins SCUBA Club Meeting

Interested in SCUBA diving? Did you know that JSC has a local SCUBA club? Well we do, and we're looking for new members. The JSC SCUBA club was founded in 1963 and is celebrating 50 years of diving with friends. We hold monthly meetings, social events, diving events and coordinate and inform members about upcoming dive training and travel opportunities. Come join us this Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Clear Lake Park Recreation Center (south side of lake). This month our speaker will be Roger Ponder of Western Sales. He will talk about cylinder maintenance and his facility in LaPorte. We will also be sponsoring a dive trip to Blue Lagoon in Huntsville on May 11. Details are available at the meeting and the Lunarfins website. Come meet fellow divers.

Event Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013   Event Start Time:7:00 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM

Event Location: Clear Lake Park Recreation Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

Barbara Corbin x36215 http://www.lunarfins.com

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         11:30 am Central (12:30 pm EDT) – E35 CDR Chris Hadfield with "Music Monday" in Canada

·         2 pm Central (3 EDT) – Video File of E36/37 Qualification Training Sim Runs at Star City

 

Human Spaceflight News

Monday, May 6, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Bolden defends commercial crew, asteroid mission, cuts to planetary and education

 

Jeff Foust - Space Politics.com

 

In a speech Thursday at a Capitol Hill luncheon organized by the Space Transportation Association (STA), NASA administrator Charles Bolden largely reiterated the agency's support for commercial crew development and NASA's new asteroid initiative, while defending cuts in the agency's planetary sciences program and the reorganization of its education efforts. As in testimony last week and a blog post earlier this week, Bolden made the argument that NASA's commercial crew program needed to be fully funded in fiscal year 2014 to keep the program on track for beginning flights in 2017. "We're running out of wiggle room" to keep that 2017 date, he said.

 

NASA Chief Urges Congress to Fund Private Astronaut Taxis

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

American astronauts could be forced to fly on Russian spacecraft beyond 2017 if Congress continues to cut funding for private crewed vehicles, NASA chief Charles Bolden says. On Tuesday (April 30), NASA announced that it will pay $70.7 million each for six more seats aboard Russian Soyuz space capsules. The $424 million deal keeps Americans launching to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz through 2016, with return and rescue services extending until June 2017. Funding cuts to NASA's Commercial Crew Program have delayed the development of private American space taxis, making this latest deal with the Russians necessary, Bolden said. And future cuts could bring about the purchase of even more Soyuz seats, he added.

 

Palazzo to push mission to moon

 

Deborah Barfield Berry - Gannett News Service

 

Congress may be focused on cutting money these days, but Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo is still reaching for the moon. Palazzo says space exploration is important to the economy and a matter of national security. "A lot of Americans don't know we (aren't going) back to the moon... but that is a goal," said Palazzo, who heads a key space committee in the House. "That is a short-term goal, and a long-term goal is going to Mars.'' He said it is important to national security that the country have a "presence in space and access to space that is American access, not paid for through the Russians or other countries."

 

US path to Mars and beyond coming through Mississippi

 

Priscilla Loebenberg - Sun Herald (Biloxi)

 

After of decade of inactivity, the B-2 test stand, part of the largest propulsion-testing facility in the world, is being reconfigured in preparation for the rockets that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver toured Stennis on Friday as part of a series of meetings with NASA directors at the center. She received updates and discussed the most recent federal budget request made in April. The president has requested $17.7 billion for NASA, 0.5 percent of the federal budget.

 

Boeing Not a KSC Tenant - Yet

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

AmericaSpace has learned that Boeing has yet to sign a lease for Kennedy Space Center shuttle-era facilities for servicing its CST–100 crewed spacecraft. It is unclear, and AmericaSpace has been unable to confirm with Boeing, when it will sign its lease with Space Florida. On October, 31 2011, under much fanfare, it was announced that the Orbiter Processing Facility 3 (OPF-3) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida would be leased to Boeing under an agreement through Space Florida and NASA. The structure would then be used to produce the company's CST-100 spacecraft at the iconic shuttle hangar. A year and a half later and the lease for this structure still has not been signed.

 

Orion capsule lands safely in test with two engineered parachute failures

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

When your new spacecraft is going back to the future with water, not runway, landings, your parachutes need to be marvels of, as NASA puts it, "redundancy and reliability." Along with gravity, they have to help slow the craft from 20,000 miles per hour on re-entry to a safe speed to hit the ocean. On the plus side, NASA has done this before with Apollo. And Orion will re-enter the atmosphere going slower than the Apollo capsules. But it's a bigger capsule, so the challenge is real. To meet it, NASA has designed an intricate system of drogue and main parachutes. The drogues slow and reorient Orion, while the main parachutes deploy in three separate stages. It is the largest parachute system ever built for a human spacecraft with main chutes whose three canopies would cover a football field.

 

Orion Parachute System Tested Through Induced Failures

 

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

 

A mockup of NASA's Orion capsule descended safely this week with multiple deliberately induced parachute system failures onto the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Yuma, Ariz., clearing the way for a higher altitude drop in July. The parachute tests are part of preparations for the first unpiloted launch of an Orion spacecraft. Slated for late next year, Exploration Flight Test-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion test capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV to an orbital altitude of 3,600 mi. for evaluations of heat shielding and other systems under deep-space mission re-entry and descent conditions.

 

NASA official pleased with spacecraft work at Michoud

 

Danny Monteverde - The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

 

The cavernous Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans has largely been a quiet place since the end of the Space Shuttle program. But activity is slowly returning to the site as NASA contractors ramp up production of the rocket that will help propel astronauts beyond Earth's orbit for deep-space missions, as well as the module that will hold a crew of up to four people. Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, toured the 42-acre facility Friday morning and said she was pleased with what she saw.

 

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

 

Agence France Presse

 

NASA and private sector experts now agree that a man or woman could be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20 years, despite huge challenges. The biggest names in space exploration, among them top officials from the US space agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects at a three-day conference starting Monday in the US capital. Renewed interest in the red planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives in recent months, including one proposing a simple one-way trip to cut costs. The American public also favors sending astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by non-profit group Explore Mars and aerospace giant Boeing.

 

How to Steer the Space Station: Chris Hadfield Explains

 

Universe Today

 

Attitude and altitude are important factors for flying a spaceship. But How do you control the International Space Station, a ship the size of a US football field (or five hockey rinks — a better reference for Canadians!)? And where does this happen? Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield answers these questions from inside the ISS. (NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

Astronauts to get helping hand from soccer ball robots

 

Jeff Hecht - New Scientist

 

Floating robots the size of soccer balls, with cellphones for brains, may soon be flying through space. Hacked smartphones have turned NASA's dull SPHERES robots into sensor-laden automatons with enough smarts to one day take over menial tasks aboard the International Space Station. The goal is to free up astronauts for more demanding jobs.

 

Guilford County Students Connect With International Space Station

 

Keri Brown - 88.5 FM Radio NPR (North Carolina)

 

Students in Guilford County had an out-of-this world conversation Thursday with an astronaut orbiting above Greensboro in the International Space Station. NASA astronaut and Statesville, North Carolina native Tom Marshburn talked with students at McNair Elementary, while flying more than 18,000 miles per hour aboard the International Space Station.

 

Boeing demonstrator breaks hypersonic flight record

 

Andrea Shalal-Esa - Reuters

 

Boeing Co's X-51A Waverider made history last week when it achieved the longest hypersonic flight by a jet-fuel powered aircraft, flying for 3-1/2 minutes at five times the speed of sound, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday. The last of four unmanned experimental military aircraft built by Boeing flew for at a top speed of Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean on May 1, the Air Force said. The total flight covered 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes before the hypersonic cruiser plunged into the ocean. "It was a full mission success," said Charlie Brink, who runs the X-51A program for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate. The Air Force said it was the longest of the four X-51A test flights and the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. The technology opens the door to future practical uses for hypersonic jet-fueled aircraft. "All we have learned from the X-51A Waverider will serve as the bedrock for future hypersonics research and ultimately the practical application of hypersonic flight," Brink said. A video released by the Air Force showed the Waverider dropping down from under the left wing of a B-52 bomber at an altitude of about 50,000 feet and then accelerating away at great speed, leaving behind a long vapor trail.

 

Manned missions to Mars:

Scientists discuss red planet exploration this week

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

What will it take to get humans to Mars? That's the question on tap for hundreds of scientists, entrepreneurs, astronauts and government officials descending on Washington, D.C. this week for a summit on manned travel to the Red Planet. Speakers at the second annual "Humans 2 Mars Summit," running May 6-8 at George Washington University, include NASA chief Charles Bolden, Apollo moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, and space tourist Dennis Tito, who recently announced his own plan to send a married couple on a round-trip Mars flyby mission in 2015.

 

Private space providers press on toward their goal

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

Seeing SpaceShip zooming over the California high desert is thrilling for space enthusiasts. The first rocket-powered flight of the long-dreamed-of private spaceship is yet another sign that space travel is not altogether stalled by the political and financial troubles that stymie NASA. Private entrepreneurs are not waiting around to see what happens with NASA's program. They are pressing on with innovative, difficult and wondrous efforts at advancing space flight.

 

Innovation is a matter of perspective

 

Emi Kolawole & Josh Hicks - Washington Post

 

The federal government has an innovation problem — or does it? The answer depends on whom you ask. Surveyed federal employees have had a declining view of government innovation over the past three years. But that doesn't mean Uncle Sam doesn't have pockets of creativity, as highlighted by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. The bad news first: Less than 40 percent of federal employees felt that, in their agency, creativity and innovation were rewarded — a 2.5 point drop from 2011. And while 91 percent of federal employees said they were consistently looking for ways to improve in their jobs, just slightly more than 57 percent felt encouraged to do so. All but two of the 18 large agencies ranked in the report, received a lower score for overall innovation in 2012 than in 2011. NASA, however, received the highest innovation score, while the Department of Homeland Security came in last. NASA's space flight centers helped give the agency a boost, with the John C. Stennis Space Center, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center taking first, second and third place respectively in agency subcomponent rankings.

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

Bolden defends commercial crew, asteroid mission, cuts to planetary and education

 

Jeff Foust - Space Politics.com

 

In a speech Thursday at a Capitol Hill luncheon organized by the Space Transportation Association (STA), NASA administrator Charles Bolden largely reiterated the agency's support for commercial crew development and NASA's new asteroid initiative, while defending cuts in the agency's planetary sciences program and the reorganization of its education efforts.

 

As in testimony last week and a blog post earlier this week, Bolden made the argument that NASA's commercial crew program needed to be fully funded in fiscal year 2014 to keep the program on track for beginning flights in 2017. "We're running out of wiggle room" to keep that 2017 date, he said.

 

"You've got to pay if you want something, and if the nation wants to have a commercial capability, an American capability, to get cargo and crew to low Earth orbit, you have to pay for it." The extension of the agreement with Roscosmos for additional Soyuz flights to the ISS in 2017 was "something I did not want to do" because the price went up.

 

That commercial crew capability is a key element of supporting the International Space Station. Bolden repeated previous comments that, technically, operations of the ISS can be extended beyond 2020 to as late as 2028; however, the key issues will be whether the US and other partners can afford extending the station's life into the 2020s, and if there's sufficient utility from ISS research to do so. If the ISS life isn't extended beyond 2020, he said, it may be difficult for companies to find a business case for commercial crew. "That's the argument I hear from all of you," he said, referring to the members of the audience from the space industry.

 

Bolden also discussed NASA's asteroid initiative, whose centerpiece is a robotic mission to redirect a small near Earth asteroid into lunar orbit, to be visited by a crewed Orion spacecraft as early as 2021. Although the feasibility of that mission is still under study, he was optimistic it could take place by 2021. "It is intended that when we launch Orion in 2021, its destination will be the stable orbit point around the Moon where the asteroid is either on its way or is already there," he said. "The likelihood [the asteroid will be there] is increasing every day" as NASA works to identify candidate asteroids for the mission.

 

Bolden also defended the use of a crewed Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) mission, launched on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, for that rendezvous with a captured asteroid. Other architectures using commercially-developed vehicles have been suggested, he said, but he concluded they weren't currently viable. "The only way we can do that is with SLS and MPCV," he said. "We are on a timetable."

 

Bolden also used the asteroid initiative to defend the agency from cuts to NASA's planetary sciences program in the FY14 budget proposal. "The FY14 request is actually up from where we were," he said. (The FY14 request for planetary is $1.22 billion, down from the $1.5 billion the program got in FY12; figures for FY13 have yet to be finalized.) The decision to develop a Mars rover for launch in 2020, as well as asteroid work funded by the new initiative, means "we think we're up in the planetary science program" compared to a year ago, he said.

 

He acknowledged, though, that planetary science was cut in part to cover cost increases with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). "Somebody had to pay for James Webb, and it's my fault," he said. "I'm the guy who came into office thinking that James Webb was okay. And let me tell you what: the first review I did, I was devastated because I found it was not okay." The program is now in much better shape, he said, but "if I screw it, you can fire me."

 

Bolden also defended cuts in NASA's education budget that are tied to a broader restructuring of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs across the federal government. "It is not slashed or gutted or anything," he said of the education budget (at $94 million in the FY14 budget proposal versus $136 million in FY12.) The restructuring is designed to make programs more efficient, while also making NASA-unique capabilities, like communications sessions with the ISS, available to a far broader scope of users than possible today, citing as one example 4-H clubs supported by the Department of Agriculture. "It's trying to make sure we get the best programs out there from the federal government agencies, and where there's duplication we get rid of it. We are not decimating anyone's programs."

 

As he did in his Senate testimony last week, Bolden warned that if budget sequestration continued into fiscal year 2014, it would be difficult for NASA to maintain its current slate of programs as its topline budget would fall to as low as $16.1 billion. "We can't do SLS, MPCV, JWST, International Space Station, science, all this stuff" at that funding level, he said. "And that's going to be bad news for somebody, and it's probably going to be bad news for me because I'm the one who's going to have to say, 'Guys, here's what we're not doing.'"

 

He added a bit of advice to Congress: "You make it incredibly challenging when you tell us to do something and you don't fund it."

 

NASA Chief Urges Congress to Fund Private Astronaut Taxis

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

American astronauts could be forced to fly on Russian spacecraft beyond 2017 if Congress continues to cut funding for private crewed vehicles, NASA chief Charles Bolden says.

 

On Tuesday (April 30), NASA announced that it will pay $70.7 million each for six more seats aboard Russian Soyuz space capsules. The $424 million deal keeps Americans launching to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz through 2016, with return and rescue services extending until June 2017.

 

Funding cuts to NASA's Commercial Crew Program have delayed the development of private American space taxis, making this latest deal with the Russians necessary, Bolden said. And future cuts could bring about the purchase of even more Soyuz seats, he added.

 

"Even this delayed availability will be in question if Congress does not fully support the President's fiscal year 2014 request for our Commercial Crew Program, forcing us once again to extend our contract with the Russians," Bolden wrote in a blog post Tuesday.

 

Filling the shuttle's shoes

 

NASA is encouraging the development of private American spaceships to fill the cargo- and crew-carrying void left by the 2011 retirement of the agency's iconic space shuttle fleet.

 

NASA signed billion-dollar deals with two companies — California-based SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., which is headquarted in Virginia — to fly unmanned supply missions to the space station.

 

SpaceX has already completed two of its contracted 12 missions using its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. Orbital successfully test-flew its Antares rocket for the first time last month and aims to launch a demonstration mission to the orbiting lab with Antares and its Cygnus spacecraft in the next few months.

 

But things are progressing more slowly on the crew-carrying side. NASA had hoped that at least one homegrown private spaceship would be ready to carry astronauts by 2015, but the timeline has slipped because Congress failed to fund commercial crew at the level President Barack Obama requested, Bolden said.

 

The Obama Administration asked for $850 million and $830 million for the program in its fiscal year 2012 and 2013 federal budget requests, respectively. But Congress eventually approved just $406 million and $489 million.

 

"If NASA had received the President's requested funding for this plan, we would not have been forced to recently sign a new contract with Roscosmos [the Russian Federal Space Agency] for Soyuz transportation flights," Bolden wrote.

 

Meeting the deadline

 

Bolden isn't alone in prodding Congress to approve the full $821 million for commercial crew in President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget request, which was released last month.

 

"We strongly urge Congress to provide the necessary appropriations to keep the program on schedule," Commercial Spaceflight Federation president Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut, said in a statement. "In difficult economic times, extending the offshoring of American jobs to Russian rocket companies is not a practice the American taxpayers should support."

 

If NASA does have to buy more Soyuz seats in the future, the price may well be higher than it is today. After all, the per-seat price went up $8 million in the last two years. (NASA paid $62.7 million per astronaut in its previous Soyuz deal, which was announced in March 2011.)

 

The three leading private contenders to fly NASA astronauts to and from the space station are SpaceX, aerospace giant Boeing and Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp.

 

SpaceX is developing a manned version of its Dragon capsule. Boeing is working on a capsule of its own, called the CST-100, while Sierra Nevada is building a space plane called Dream Chaser.

 

Palazzo to push mission to moon

 

Deborah Barfield Berry - Gannett News Service

 

Congress may be focused on cutting money these days, but Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo is still reaching for the moon.

 

Palazzo says space exploration is important to the economy and a matter of national security.

 

"A lot of Americans don't know we (aren't going) back to the moon... but that is a goal," said Palazzo, who heads a key space committee in the House. "That is a short-term goal, and a long-term goal is going to Mars.''

 

He said it is important to national security that the country have a "presence in space and access to space that is American access, not paid for through the Russians or other countries."

 

Since the space shuttle program retired, the U.S. has been paying Russia for rides to the International Space Station.

 

Palazzo is chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Space, and his district is home to Stennis Space Center. He will have some say in the nation's future space plans as Congress considers legislation to reauthorize NASA programs.

 

Congressional Republicans and the administration have been at odds over the direction of the space program. Many GOP lawmakers want the nation to focus on returning to the moon, while the administration supports missions to send astronauts to asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

 

"This is a very big year for us," said Palazzo, R-4th District. "It's going to have a lot to do with making NASA focus a little bit more on what they want to do and where they want to go. Between the administration, NASA and Congress, there's been some confusion over the past several years."

 

Palazzo's leadership role during the debate could raise his profile, political experts say.

 

"NASA's mission is going to be redefined likely during this process," said Mark Wrighton, a political scientist at the University of Southern Mississippi. "He's in a great position to assist in that effort. And the Stennis Space Center might very well be a big part of that refined mission."

 

More than 4,000 people work at the center, Palazzo said. Many are private contractors who test or build rocket engines. The average salary is $80,000, he said.

 

Palazzo called Stennis Space Center "one of the best-kept secrets in Mississippi, if not the nation."

 

The focus on the space program comes as Republicans, including Palazzo, call for massive cuts in federal spending.

 

Some conservatives in Palazzo's district might oppose his push to spend money on space exploration, Wrighton said. But he said Stennis is important to the district's economy as an employer and a tourist destination.

 

"It needs to be on his radar as a member of Congress," Wrighton said.

 

NASA is asking for $17.7 billion for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1. That includes $2.73 billion to develop the Space Launch System (SLS) consisting of an Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle and the deep-space, "heavy-lift" rocket that will carry it first to an asteroid as early as 2021 and then to Mars by the 2030s.

 

Palazzo plans to focus on the SLS, and extending the "useful" life of the International Space Station and the James Webb Space Telescope.

 

NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden Jr. recently told lawmakers that work on the asteroid mission is underway.

 

He said the launch complex at Kennedy Space Center in Florida has been significantly upgraded, J-2X engines have been successfully tested at Stennis Space Center and a major engine component has been tested at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

 

Palazzo and other Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for its 2009 decision to scrap the Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon.

 

"The Constellation was supposed to take us to the moon, take us to Mars, be our manned access to space, but when the president came and just crossed through it — it sent shock waves through the space community," Palazzo said. "We've lost a healthy portion of our industrial base (nationally) because of that decision."

 

Palazzo also criticized the administration's asteroid mission, calling it "absurd to expend our valuable dollars on pursing what could or could not be a fantasy mission in these tight budget restraints — while Russia and China are making huge investments in space exploration."

 

Republicans also question the feasibility of the Commercial Crew Program, in which NASA is working with private companies to develop a replacement for the space shuttle. The program originally was to be online by 2015 but now won't be ready until at least 2017.

 

The White House wants $821 million for the program in fiscal 2014, which Bolden said would keep it from falling further behind schedule. Otherwise, NASA will have to keep paying Russia $63 million each time it sends an American astronaut to the space station.

 

"We just renewed a contract (with Russia) for another year because we weren't able to have our own capability in 2015," Bolden told a Senate committee. "It is not my desire to come back to this committee and to the Congress and the president and ask for more money to pay the Russians."

 

US path to Mars and beyond coming through Mississippi

 

Priscilla Loebenberg - Sun Herald (Biloxi)

 

After of decade of inactivity, the B-2 test stand, part of the largest propulsion-testing facility in the world, is being reconfigured in preparation for the rockets that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before.

 

NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver toured Stennis on Friday as part of a series of meetings with NASA directors at the center. She received updates and discussed the most recent federal budget request made in April. The president has requested $17.7 billion for NASA, 0.5 percent of the federal budget.

 

"I am here to convey the support this team has in Washington D.C.," Garver said. "Your country's elected leadership supports the space program."

 

Mississippi's Steven Palazzo, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, joined Garver on the tour. He said the space program is one area that receives strong bipartisan support, a political rarity.

 

"It is extremely important to maintain American leadership in space," Palazzo said.

 

Garver said NASA plans to have astronauts visiting Mars and asteroids as part of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft programs.

 

The B-2 test stand is being topped with a 100-foot superstructure to support the SLS Core, which will take astronauts on missions into deep space. The core will have four engines for a combined 2 million pounds of thrust.

 

"We are on time and under budget," said Rick Rauch, manager of the B-2 Test Stand Restoration, Buildout and Test Project.

 

Testing is scheduled to begin in September 2016 in preparation for a 2017 launch.

 

"One way we are going to lower the cost of getting to space is with commercial rockets," Garver said.

 

Stennis leases the adjoining B-1 test stand to Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne for testing of RS-68 engines. Another commercial test stand at Stennis was used to test Aerojet's AJ26 used in April's launch of the Antares orbital test flight. Spacecraft developer Blue Origin is another Stennis tenant.

 

Boeing Not a KSC Tenant - Yet

 

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

 

AmericaSpace has learned that Boeing has yet to sign a lease for Kennedy Space Center shuttle-era facilities for servicing its CST–100 crewed spacecraft. It is unclear, and AmericaSpace has been unable to confirm with Boeing, when it will sign its lease with Space Florida.

 

On October, 31 2011, under much fanfare, it was announced that the Orbiter Processing Facility 3 (OPF-3) at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida would be leased to Boeing under an agreement through Space Florida and NASA. The structure would then be used to produce the company's CST-100 spacecraft at the iconic shuttle hangar. A year and a half later and the lease for this structure still has not been signed.

 

During the 2011 event, the effort to place the OPFs (there are three at KSC) in private hands was described as a sign of things to come—the event being attended by Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver, NASA's Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana, and others. They lauded this agreement as a herald of things to come, with Garver stating, " … I love what you have done with the place!"

 

Sources have told AmericaSpace that Boeing has expressed concerns about the viability of the commercial space market after NASA's investment in the commercial crew concludes. Moreover, there are questions about how long NASA will even pay for crew services to and from the International Space Station (ISS), as the future, and funding, of the ISS beyond 2020 has not yet been determined. If ISS is decommissioned in the early 2020s, and with current commercial crew funding, it is unlikely that the first U.S. commercial crew flight will occur before 2018—that would leave only 2–3 years of crew transfer services and little time to recoup company investments in spacecraft. Some fear that this could be a repeat of the financial disaster that was the EELV program for both Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

 

Currently, under the Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement, the third round of NASA's commercial crewed efforts is set to conclude in 2014, after which the next round of commercial crew development efforts will begin. As it currently stands, the first commercial flights are not scheduled to occur until November 2017 at the earliest. And according to NASA Administrator Bolden, unless Congress approves the president's FY2014 $821 million request for commercial crew—which is highly unlikely given the funding history of commercial crew—" … [commercial crew] could take longer." Until that time, NASA is dependent on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for access to the space station.

 

OPF-3, once home to Space Shuttle Discovery, has now been renamed Commercial Crew & Cargo Processing Facility (C3PF). Boeing's lease was reported by Space.com as lasting for 15 years.

 

"Currently Space Florida has an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with Boeing," said Space Florida spokesperson Tina Lange during a recent interview. "We are preparing the C3PF for commercial customers that may have an interest in utilizing this legacy infrastructure. To date, the work has been primarily demolition, which prepares the site for any number of possibilities, not solely those presented by the CST-100 program."

 

Space Florida meanwhile has continued its efforts of preparing C3PF for potential commercial customers that may materialize.

 

Phase 1 was started in August of last year, with work on the OPF-3 done by BRPH and Hensel Phelps Construction Company under a $4.5 million contract with Space Florida. They worked to modernize the 30-year-old buildings. Much of the internal structures that were used during the shuttle program were demolished and removed. Under this effort, OPF-3 was converted into what is being called the "clean-room" layout. It is hoped this new design will provide greater flexibility.

 

"Through the investment the State of Florida is making in this and other facilities, and by marketing them for commercial use, we are sending a strong message to industry that Florida is serious about attracting and retaining a robust commercial space industry," said Space Florida President Frank DiBello. "This project is an excellent example of our unique ability to re-purpose underutilized federal facilities, and give them a new life for commercial operations."

 

NASA has been working for some time to empower several firms to provide access to low-Earth orbit—predominantly, the ISS. Other destinations have also been mentioned, but not detailed. It is hoped that other customers besides NASA will one day take advantage of the ability of sending crews to low-Earth orbit.

 

Currently, under the Commercial Crew integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement, the third round of NASA's commercial crewed efforts is set to conclude in 2014, when the next round will begin. As it currently stands, the first commercial flights are not scheduled to occur until 2017 at the earliest.

 

Boeing representatives contacted AmericaSpace and provided us with the following comment regarding the status of the lease agreement between Boeing and Space Florida:

 

"Boeing expects to finalize the lease agreement for OPF-3 soon. While finalizing the lease is taking longer than we'd anticipated, we have not altered our plans to locate our operations in OPF-3. We continue to work with and assist Space Florida on facility modernization specifications and execution plans for our Boeing operations.  We are committed to NASA's commercial space transportation vision and plan and will continue to design, develop, test and launch our Commercial Space Transportation System."

 

Orion capsule lands safely in test with two engineered parachute failures

 

Lee Roop - Huntsville Times

 

When your new spacecraft is going back to the future with water, not runway, landings, your parachutes need to be marvels of, as NASA puts it, "redundancy and reliability." Along with gravity, they have to help slow the craft from 20,000 miles per hour on re-entry to a safe speed to hit the ocean.

 

On the plus side, NASA has done this before with Apollo. And Orion will re-enter the atmosphere going slower than the Apollo capsules. But it's a bigger capsule, so the challenge is real. To meet it, NASA has designed an intricate system of drogue and main parachutes. The drogues slow and reorient Orion, while the main parachutes deploy in three separate stages. It is the largest parachute system ever built for a human spacecraft with main chutes whose three canopies would cover a football field.

 

NASA has been subjecting this system to a series of increasingly difficult tests -- the latest Wednesday, May 1 -- designed to test the design. Wednesday's test outside Yuma dropped an Orion mockup from a plane flying at 25,000 feet. One of the drogue parachutes was rigged not to deploy, and one of the three main parachutes was rigged to skip its first stage of inflation.

 

The result? NASA says the Orion still landed safely. Next up? Releasing Orion from 35,000 feet up in 2014. "Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable," said Stu McClung, Orion's landing and recovery system manager. "Gravity never takes any time off -- there's no timeout. The end result can be very unforgiving. That's why we test. If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now."

 

Orion Parachute System Tested Through Induced Failures

 

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

 

A mockup of NASA's Orion capsule descended safely this week with multiple deliberately induced parachute system failures onto the U.S. Army Proving Grounds in Yuma, Ariz., clearing the way for a higher altitude drop in July.

 

The parachute tests are part of preparations for the first unpiloted launch of an Orion spacecraft. Slated for late next year, Exploration Flight Test-1 will launch an uncrewed Orion test capsule atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV to an orbital altitude of 3,600 mi. for evaluations of heat shielding and other systems under deep-space mission re-entry and descent conditions.

 

"If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now," said Stu McClung, Orion's landing and recovery system manager, in a statement accompanying the May 1 test. "Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable."

 

Recovery operations for piloted Orion missions, currently targeted for 2021, are planned for the Pacific Ocean.

 

During the latest test, one of the test capsule's two 23-ft. drogue parachutes was constrained from deploying, while one of the three 116-ft. mains was rigged to skip the initial inflation stage, following a drop from an Air Force transport at 25,000 ft. As designed, the mains inflate in three stages to gradually slow the descent.

 

The test capsule reached 250 mph. as the deployments began, the highest velocity yet for the parachute system flight evaluations. July testing will take the mock Orion capsule to 35,000 ft., the highest altitude yet in the flight evaluation series, permitting chute deployments at 340 mph. Tests over Yuma in February and December demonstrated safe landings with a main chute malfunction and a failed drogue chute deployment.

 

NASA official pleased with spacecraft work at Michoud

 

Danny Monteverde - The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

 

The cavernous Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans has largely been a quiet place since the end of the Space Shuttle program.

 

But activity is slowly returning to the site as NASA contractors ramp up production of the rocket that will help propel astronauts beyond Earth's orbit for deep-space missions, as well as the module that will hold a crew of up to four people.

 

Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, toured the 42-acre facility Friday morning and said she was pleased with what she saw.

 

At various points inside the facility, crews are busy at work on the Space Launch System, a 70-ton heavy-lift rocket, and the Orion module, which will be their home in outer space. The space program hopes its next mission will take astronauts to Mars.

 

"I just couldn't be more pleased. This is the heart and soul of our program," Garver said. "It (Michoud) is not quiet compared to a few years ago."

 

Garver described the SLS and Orion projects as the "cornerstone" of NASA and Michoud.

 

Officials hope to complete the first test orbit of the Orion module next year. The SLS is expected to have its first test launch in 2017.

 

If everything goes according to plan, the first manned mission using the new launch system and Orion will be in 2021.

 

But to make that possible, NASA needs money.

 

Administration officials have requested a $17.7 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Despite budget struggles in Washington, Garver said she is hopeful the request will be met to keep the program on track.

 

Orion and the SLS will be part of NASA's first exploration-class vehicle since the Saturn V launched astronauts to the moon more than 40 years ago. The difference this time is the capability not only to get to the moon but to explore near-Earth asteroids and Mars.

 

"Astronauts will be going to an asteroid to better understand these objects," Garver said. Those objects holds the key to life in the universe, she said, and need to be researched, something that can only happen with the Orion program in operation.

 

The 200-plus-foot-tall core rocket Boeing is building at Michoud is essentially a large gasoline tank and engine. Other pieces of the overall SLS are being constructed across the country, such as the solid rocket boosters that will come from Utah.

 

Two Orion capsules have already been built at Michoud. While the capsule will be constructed here, it will be outfitted further at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., where the future liftoffs will happen.

 

Between 500 and 600 people will initially work on the two components at Michoud, Garver said.

 

"That could get a little bit bigger," Roy Malone, director of the Michoud Assembly Facility, said of those numbers.

 

The return of work for NASA and the people that come with those projects is a welcome addition to the site that once was a small city under one roof.

 

Close to 10,000 people worked at the Michoud facility during the space shuttle program when the external tanks were built there. The plant produced 136 tanks during the shuttle program's lifetime, with the last one leaving in September 2010.

 

After the end of the Space Shuttle program, Michoud became home to several tenants from the private sector, but its work force dropped greatly.

 

Right now about 80 percent of the plant is occupied, according to Malone. Space-exploration work takes up about 60 percent of the site, Malone has said. The other occupied 20 percent houses tenants including Lockheed Martin and Blade Dynamics, which builds wind turbines.

 

But to see engineers at Michoud at work building the next generation of spacecraft that will send astronauts into the heavens is a welcome site to NASA officials.

 

"It's almost like a cathedral for me and a lot of us," Garver said.

 

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

 

Agence France Presse

 

NASA and private sector experts now agree that a man or woman could be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20 years, despite huge challenges.

 

The biggest names in space exploration, among them top officials from the US space agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects at a three-day conference starting Monday in the US capital.

 

Renewed interest in the red planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives in recent months, including one proposing a simple one-way trip to cut costs.

 

The American public also favors sending astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by non-profit group Explore Mars and aerospace giant Boeing.

 

The poll in March of more than a thousand people published in March found that 71 per cent of Americans expect that humans will land on Mars by 2033. Seventy-five per cent say NASA's budget should be doubled to one per cent of the federal budget to fund a mission to Mars and other initiatives.

 

NASA receives only 0.5 per cent of the US federal budget, compared to four per cent during the Apollo project to conquer the moon in the 1960s.

 

The US space agency's chief Charles Bolden has stressed that "a human mission to Mars is a priority."

 

But the US financial crisis is a major obstacle to such a project.

 

"If we started today, it's possible to land on Mars in 20 years," said G. Scott Hubbard of Stanford University.

 

"It doesn't require miracles, it requires money and a plan to address the technological engineering challenges," added Hubbard, who served as NASA's first Mars programme director and successfully restructured the entire Mars programme in the wake of mission failures.

 

Placing a mass of 30-40 tonnes - the amount estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on the red planet - would be one of the greatest challenges, along with the well-known problem of carrying or producing enough fuel to get back, Hubbard stressed.

 

The Curiosity rover took a nail-biting seven minutes in August to make its descent on Mars. But it only weighed one tonne.

 

The US$2.5 billion Curiosity mission, which is set to last at least two years, aims to study the Martian environment and to hunt for evidence of water in preparation for a possible future manned mission.

 

Robotic missions will therefore be necessary to prove the system works before scientists can even contemplate sending humans aboard.

 

NASA is developing a Space Launch System and the Orion capsule for distant space exploration.

 

Hubbard said a nuclear engine should be developed for any vehicle headed to Mars because it would provide a continuous thrust and thus reduce travel time by about three months, as well as reduce the risk of radiation.

 

The distance between Earth and Mars varies between 35 million and 250 million miles (56 million and 400 million kilometers), depending on the planets' position.

 

In addition to the technological challenges, the negative impact of long space journeys on the human body are not yet well known, especially with respect to cosmic radiation.

 

"Space radiation exposure is certainly a human risk we need to address and understand," said Stephen Davison, manager of NASA's Space Biology and Physical Sciences Program at Johnson Space Center where astronauts are trained.

 

Davison said it was important to understand "both the cancer risk to our crew members in more detail and also the effects on the central nervous system."

 

He added that more than half of crew members at the International Space Center have experience some degree of change in their vision, and also have experienced intra-cranial pressure.

 

Other physiological changes, such as reduced bone density and muscle loss, can be mitigated by exercise.

 

The third major challenge is a psychological one, for isolated astronauts who spend long periods of time confined in cramped spaces.

 

Davison said scientists need a "minimum" of 10 years to complete research about the trip's impact on the human body before going to Mars.

 

Astronauts to get helping hand from soccer ball robots

 

Jeff Hecht - New Scientist

 

Floating robots the size of soccer balls, with cellphones for brains, may soon be flying through space.

 

Hacked smartphones have turned NASA's dull SPHERES robots into sensor-laden automatons with enough smarts to one day take over menial tasks aboard the International Space Station. The goal is to free up astronauts for more demanding jobs.

 

Three small SPHERES robots have been used in experiments aboard the ISS since 2006. Powered by jets of carbon dioxide, they can hover in microgravity, but have very limited capabilities. They must be pre-programmed and need an astronaut to operate them.

 

To make the robots more autonomous, Mark Micire of NASA's Ames Research Center in California and colleagues bought a pair of Samsung Nexus S phones. They stripped out their lithium batteries and cellular antennas to meet station safety protocols, and launched them into space, where astronauts hooked them up to one of the SPHERES.

 

In tests, the phone's computing power and built-in cameras let the NASA team remotely pilot a robot around the ISS for the first time. NASA is planning another test later this year with each modified phone controlling a separate robot. One will stay stationary while the other flies around it, to simulate an inspection.

 

The new robots could develop models of air flow through the station, steer themselves during routine activities, or provide telepresence for ground operators who need to check equipment. The team also experimented with giving the SPHERES a pair of arms, which would let them hold items for astronauts during awkward operations. Micire presented the work last week at the Technologies for Practical Robot Applications conference in Boston. He hopes to have an operational unit available in three to four years.

 

Guilford County Students Connect With International Space Station

 

Keri Brown - 88.5 FM Radio NPR (North Carolina)

 

Students in Guilford County had an out-of-this world conversation Thursday with an astronaut orbiting above Greensboro in the International Space Station.

 

NASA astronaut and Statesville, North Carolina native Tom Marshburn talked with students at McNair Elementary, while flying more than 18,000 miles per hour aboard the International Space Station.

 

"W4GSO on the backup channel, how do you read?" Marshburn asked.

 

Hundreds of students from throughout Guilford County attended the event. Around 20 of them were selected to ask Marshburn questions about his space travels.

 

"Do you think there is something in outer space that can cure diseases or save lives?" said Jayla Martin, a fourth grader at Bluford STEM Academy. 

 

Marshburn answered Martin by saying, "There could be in an asteroid or on another planet. In the ISS, we are doing experiments and making use of the zero gravity to make very pure crystals, and we can make vaccines and medicines, some of which have already been shown to cure disease on Earth."

 

Josue Carlin, a fifth grader at McNair Elementary asked Marshburn, "What is the most incredible thing that you have seen while in space?"

 

"It's hard to say because we have seen so many incredible things in space, even seeing water on the inside the International Space Station. The water forms little balls or little spheres and floats around. One time we saw an electric storm. It was about 1,000 miles long and had lightning flashes the whole time. It just took our breath away," responded Marshburn.

 

A special antenna was installed on the roof at McNair Elementary to track the International Space Station.

 

Katie Clark, a six grader at Mendenhall Middle says the experience was a dream come true.

 

"When they said 30 seconds until we make contact, I got butter flies in my stomach. It made me feel really good when he said it was a good question Katie. I worked really hard on the question and my teacher helped me and all of that had wok paid off, says Clark.

 

The contact with the ISS lasted for about ten minutes.

 

The connection was made possible through a partnership between the Greensboro Amateur Radio Association and RF Micro Devices.

 

RF Micro Devices donated the antenna and other equipment for the event. Dan Habecker provided tech support during the connection. He says students will soon get a chance to use the radio technology in the classroom.

 

"The backup station that I used is staying here for them. The antenna and the backup station that I used are also staying, so the kids can use that. If they have passes, they can listen to other space station events, make contacts with schools or talk back and forth directly," says Habecker.

 

Lenny Sue French teaches science at Mendenhall Middle School.  In 2010, her class sent an experiment into space as part of an educational opportunity with NASA.

 

She says she hopes the experience will also inspire students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.

 

"When you see the really little ones and you see their eyes, while they are sitting feet behind a man who is contacting the International Space Station, you know by the time they get to me they are already going to have that fire. I'm going to benefit and all of their teachers in years later are going to benefit from experiences like this one. It's amazing being able to have that when they are so little," says French.

 

School officials say one of the reasons McNair Elementary was chosen for the educational opportunity is because of its name sake. The school is named in honor of Astronaut Ronald McNair.

 

McNair was one of seven crew members killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986.

 

Boeing demonstrator breaks hypersonic flight record

 

Andrea Shalal-Esa - Reuters

 

Boeing Co's X-51A Waverider made history this week when it achieved the longest hypersonic flight by a jet-fuel powered aircraft, flying for 3-1/2 minutes at five times the speed of sound, the U.S. Air Force said on Friday.

 

The last of four unmanned experimental military aircraft built by Boeing flew for at a top speed of Mach 5.1 over the Pacific Ocean on May 1, the Air Force said. The total flight covered 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes before the hypersonic cruiser plunged into the ocean.

 

"It was a full mission success," said Charlie Brink, who runs the X-51A program for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate.

 

The Air Force said it was the longest of the four X-51A test flights and the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever. The technology opens the door to future practical uses for hypersonic jet-fueled aircraft.

 

A hypersonic aircraft developed by NASA used hydrogen as a fuel to fly briefly at even higher speeds in 2004, but it would take a giant fuel tank to fly for longer periods.

 

"All we have learned from the X-51A Waverider will serve as the bedrock for future hypersonics research and ultimately the practical application of hypersonic flight," Brink said.

 

A video released by the Air Force showed the Waverider dropping down from under the left wing of a B-52 bomber at an altitude of about 50,000 feet and then accelerating away at great speed, leaving behind a long vapor trail.

 

The cruiser accelerated to Mach 4.8 in about 26 seconds, powered by a solid rocket booster built by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, a unit of United Technologies. After separating from the booster, the cruiser's scramjet engine lit and accelerated the vehicle to Mach 5.1 at 60,000 feet.

 

The vehicle continued to send back data to the control station at Edwards Air Force Base in California until it made a controlled dive into the Pacific Ocean.

 

"This demonstration of a practical hypersonic scramjet engine is a historic achievement that has been years in the making," said Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced research and prototyping arm.

 

"This test proves the technology has matured to the point that it opens the door to practical applications, such as advanced defense systems and more cost-effective access to space," Davis said.

 

The first of the four X-51A vehicles flew in May 2010, hitting nearly Mach 5 for nearly two and a half minutes.

 

The nearly wingless X-51 was made using mostly standard aerospace materials such as aluminum, steel and titanium, although some carbon composites were used in the fins. For heat protection, the vehicle used insulation tiles similar to those used on board the NASA Space Shuttle orbiters.

 

The Air Force said the four X-51As were built to demonstrate the new technology, not as a prototype for a new weapon system. The program is aimed at paving the way to future hypersonic weapons, hypersonic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and future access to space, it said.

 

Since scramjets are able to burn atmospheric oxygen, they can be made lighter than conventional rockets, which may allow satellites to be launched into orbit more efficiently and cheaply.

 

Manned missions to Mars:

Scientists discuss red planet exploration this week

 

Clara Moskowitz - Space.com

 

What will it take to get humans to Mars? That's the question on tap for hundreds of scientists, entrepreneurs, astronauts and government officials descending on Washington, D.C. this week for a summit on manned travel to the Red Planet.

 

Speakers at the second annual "Humans 2 Mars Summit," running May 6-8 at George Washington University, include NASA chief Charles Bolden, Apollo moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, and space tourist Dennis Tito, who recently announced his own plan to send a married couple on a round-trip Mars flyby mission in 2015.

 

The conference is co-sponsored by the Space Policy Institute at George Washington and the non-profit Explore Mars organization, which aims to advance the goal of sending people to the Red Planet within the next two decades. Panels at the meeting this week will examine the challenges — scientific, technological, and political — of manned Mars exploration. Among the topics to be discussed are Mars agriculture and food production, propulsion and landing technologies, and spacesuit design and life support systems.

 

"Our goal for the summit is to not only address the challenges of humans going to Mars but also to propose real solutions," Explore Mars executive director Chris Carberry said in a statement. "With the collaboration of experts in the space and science communities and non-traditional players, we will come out of the summit enlightened, encouraged and ready to plan for a human mission to Mars by 2030."

 

NASA has said it aims to send astronauts to Mars by the mid 2030s. The space agency is building a giant heavy-lift rocket called the Space Launch System and a new crew capsule called Orion to take people beyond low-Earth orbit.

 

Private companies and non-profits are also aiming for Mars.

 

In addition to Tito's Inspiration Mars mission, the Netherlands-based nonprofit Mars One foundation recently announced that it is seeking astronauts for one-way Mars missions to establish a colony on the Red Planet starting in 2023. Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp will speak at the conference as well.

 

Registration for the conference is open to the public, and the event will be broadcast live online. You can watch the manned Mars mission webcasts on SPACE.com beginning at 9 a.m. ET (1300 GMT), courtesy of the summit's webcast.

 

You can also follow the webcasts directly here: http://h2m.exploremars.org/webcast/. Visit SPACE.com this week for complete coverage from the Humans 2 Mars Summit in Washington.

 

Private space providers press on toward their goal

 

John Kelly - Florida Today (Commentary)

 

Seeing SpaceShip zooming over the California high desert is thrilling for space enthusiasts.

 

The first rocket-powered flight of the long-dreamed-of private spaceship is yet another sign that space travel is not altogether stalled by the political and financial troubles that stymie NASA.

 

Private entrepreneurs are not waiting around to see what happens with NASA's program. They are pressing on with innovative, difficult and wondrous efforts at advancing space flight.

 

In Mojave, the stingray-shaped SpaceShipTwo fell away from its gangly carrier aircraft, fired its engine for the first time and rocketed off to more than 55,000 feet.

 

SpaceShipTwo is a private spacecraft designed by aircraft visionary Burt Rutan. It's purpose: a space tourist liner for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic.

 

Test flights are picking up. Virgin Galactic expects its ship to reach space by the end of 2013.

 

Not long after that, customers paying $200,000 — or more — are going to get the ride of their lives to suborbital space. They will unbuckle, float freely for a minute or so inside the cabin and gaze at the Earth before returning home to it.

 

Early tourist flights are planned from New Mexico's Spaceport America. But, Branson's said other sites could host SpaceShipTwo launches, including Kennedy Space Center.

 

Regardless, the rocket-powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo, the first flight of Orbital Sciences new Antares rocket and the ongoing success of SpaceX are good signs that space travel will not be stalled if governments around the world pull back during more austere times.

 

When companies like Virgin Galactic and SpaceX were making seemingly steep claims about what they thought they'd be doing in this decade, some in the industry scoffed. But the pace of development continues to be impressive and each successive accomplishment is a thrill.

 

Innovation is a matter of perspective

 

Emi Kolawole & Josh Hicks - Washington Post

 

The federal government has an innovation problem — or does it? The answer depends on whom you ask.

 

Surveyed federal employees have had a declining view of government innovation over the past three years. But that doesn't mean Uncle Sam doesn't have pockets of creativity, as highlighted by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

 

The bad news first: Less than 40 percent of federal employees felt that, in their agency, creativity and innovation were rewarded — a 2.5 point drop from 2011.

 

And while 91 percent of federal employees said they were consistently looking for ways to improve in their jobs, just slightly more than 57 percent felt encouraged to do so.

 

The assessments are part of an analysis by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, which produces the "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government" rankings. Those rankings are based on the federal government's annual survey of the workforce.

 

Between 2011 and 2012, federal employees' scores for overall innovation in government dropped 1.7 points to 61.5 out of a possible 100, the Partnership said.

 

"It's not an immense drop, but year to year it's a troubling one, especially in an environment where we need an innovative government," said Max Stier, the group's president and chief executive.

 

"If we don't do things in smarter ways, the government will not be able to perform with the resources it has." 

 

All but two of the 18 large agencies ranked in the report, received a lower score for overall innovation in 2012 than in 2011. NASA, however, received the highest innovation score, while the Department of Homeland Security came in last.

 

NASA's space flight centers helped give the agency a boost, with the John C. Stennis Space Center, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Goddard Space Flight Center taking first, second and third place respectively in agency subcomponent rankings.

 

At DHS, among its 292 subcomponent rankings, Secret Service landed at 265, Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 288 and the Transportation Security Administration at 292.

 

Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation offered a different vantage point. It gave some federal agencies a boost Wednesday in its "Top 25 Innovations in Government" list.

 

The list covers innovations in federal, state, local and tribal governments. In the fall, a winner and four finalists will be selected for the Innovations in American Government Award established by the Ford Foundation in 1985.

 

Nine of the 25 nominees involve federal agencies.

 

NASA made that list, too, for its collaboration with the State Department, USAID and sportswear company Nike on an initiative called Launch, which seeks to foster innovative ideas.

 

"NASA works on some of the most scientifically challenging questions around," said Jeri Buchholz, assistant administrator for NASA's Office of Human Capital Management. "To do that, you need to have have a culture that encourages new ways to solve problems and empowers people to do that."

 

Buchholz said a big part of fostering innovation is identifying administrative barriers that could slow down employees. She explained that the agency regularly reviews its internal controls to make sure they're still relevant.

 

"It's an ongoing effort, not a single program or process or procedure," she said. "It really needs to be a part of everyone's day-to-day work life."

 

Although the Department of Transportation ranked 16 out of 18 on the Partnership's list, its IdeaHub has helped the agency move in a positive direction. Ash recognized the internal, online community designed for transportation employees to share and develop new ideas.

 

Transportation also showed the most improvement among large agencies on the Partnership ranking, rising by 1.7 percentage points from 2011 to 2012.

 

Department spokesman Justin Nisly said the agency had implemented more than 100 employee-generated ideas since launching IdeaHub three years ago.

 

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which ranked 16 of 20 midsize agencies in the Partnership report, made it onto the Ash list twice — once for its neighborhood revitalization program and again for its program focused on sustainable communities, which it conducts in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation.

 

For Stephen Goldsmith, Ash's director of the Innovations in Government Program, that federal employees are frustrated doesn't mean that pockets of creativity can't emerge.

 

Like NASA's Buchholz, he said it means giving employees permission to experiment.

 

"In a risk-averse context, the courage and ability to think across those boundaries is restricted. And I'm afraid that's what's occurring today in the federal workforce," he said.

 

"It's not even just the political environment in Washington, it's the structures of government themselves that are quite inconsistent with the bold innovative thinking that is necessary to move us to a better place."

 

The Partnership's Stier echoes Goldsmith's assessment.

 

"We have a government that is way too risk-averse," he said. "By attempting to avoid mistakes, we fail to take advantage of positive opportunities."

 

Government must offer more formal awards and incentives to employees for their creativity, the Partnership report recommends, as well as create a collaborative culture.

 

It comes down to a relatively basic principle, as Goldsmtih sees it: "My assumption .?.?. is places where employees enjoy working are more conducive to innovation."

 

The Partnership for Public Service and The Washington Post have a content-sharing relationship.

 

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