Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: June 6, 2013 6:11:49 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight (and Mars) News - June 6, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us at Hibachi Grill today at 11:30 for our monthly NASA retirees luncheon.   I plan to be there at 11 since I need to leave around noon to get back to Work --- I have a meeting at 12:30.   L

That's ok since tomorrow is FLEX Friday. J

Thursday, June 6, 2013

JSC TODAY HEADLINES
1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
2.            Building 11 Café Closure This Friday
3.            JSC DNS and DHCP Maintenance June 7 to 9
4.            Reminder: JSC's Updated Print, Mail and Distribution Services Flex Hours
5.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System
6.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting June 11
7.            Youth Sports Camps -- Basketball, Baseball and Ultimate Frisbee
8.            IEEE Seminar: Games People Play
________________________________________     NASA FACT
" The Mars Science Laboratory's Radiation Assessment Detector is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft."
________________________________________
1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
The Soyuz spacecraft docked after about four revolutions, not four days last week. That question was too easy to figure out. I know you are real smart because you think your home life resembles The Big Bang Theory, not Beverly Hillbillies like mine does. This week I'd like you to think about how often you work with folks from other directorates or outside of your immediate work group. Are you mostly focused on your internal activities, or do you work across directorate lines a lot? It's summer, and that means blockbuster movies are coming out. Some of them will stink. Can you predict which of the five choices I give will be the worst performer? Lone Ranger? World War Z? Hangover III?
Brad your Pitt on over to get this week's poll, because I will be vacationing for the next two weeks. Aloha.
Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/

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2.            Building 11 Café Closure This Friday
The Building 11 Starport Café will be closed on Friday, June 7, due to maintenance issues. The Starport Gift Shop will remain open. Please visit the Building 3 Starport Café for breakfast and lunch during normal operating hours.
Danial Hornbuckle x30240 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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3.            JSC DNS and DHCP Maintenance June 7 to 9
The Information Resources Directorate (IRD) has scheduled maintenance for the JSC Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) services. Maintenance is scheduled to begin Friday, June 7, at 6 p.m., and should be complete by Sunday, June 9, at 6 p.m.
No user impact is expected during the maintenance activity.
For additional information or to report issues related to the activity, please contact the Enterprise Service Desk at 281-483-4800.
JSC IRD Outreach x41334

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4.            Reminder: JSC's Updated Print, Mail and Distribution Services Flex Hours
Tomorrow, June 7, JSC's printing, mail and distribution services (located in Building 227, doors 2 and 3) will begin a new schedule to reflect the center's Super-flex schedule.
Mail normally picked up and delivered on Flex Fridays will be processed the following Monday, as well as print and duplication services. Please be aware and adjust requests accordingly.
These products and services are provided by JSC's Information Resources Directorate's PAMSS contract.
For questions or more information on this activity, please contact Alice Ward Johnson at x36150 or via email.
JSC IRD Outreach x36150 http://ird.jsc.nasa.gov/Home.aspx

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5.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System
The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS) today, June 6, at noon.
The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a test" message, followed by a short tone and a second verbal "This is a test" message. The warning tone will be the "whoop" tone, which is associated with a "Seek shelter inside" message. Please visit the JSC Emergency Awareness website for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation, the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information.
Yolanda Bejarano 713-412-9481 http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov

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6.            Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting June 11
"Progress, not perfection" reminds Al-Anon members to recognize positive, incremental improvements and change. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet Tuesday, June 11, in Building 32, Room 146, from 11 to 11:50 a.m. Visitors are welcome.
Event Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:50 AM
Event Location: B. 32/Rm. 146

Add to Calendar

Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx

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7.            Youth Sports Camps -- Basketball, Baseball and Ultimate Frisbee
Starport Summer Sports Camps at the Gilruth Center are a great way to provide added instruction for all levels of players and prepare participants for competitive play. Let our knowledgeable and experienced coaches give your child the confidence they need to learn and excel in their chosen sport.
Baseball Camp: Focuses on the development of hitting, catching, base running, throwing, pitching and drills.
Session Dates: July 8 to 12 and July 15 to 19
Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ages: 6 to 12
Price: $200/per session
Basketball Camp: Focuses on the development of shooting, passing, dribbling, guarding and drills.
Session Dates: Aug. 5 to 9
Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ages: 9 to 14
Price: $200
Ultimate Frisbee: Focuses on development of throwing, catching, offense, defense, zones and drills.
Session Dates: July 1 to 3
Times: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ages: 9 to 14
Price: $140
Before and after care is available. Register your child now at the Gilruth Center. Space is limited! Visit our website for information and registration forms.
Shericka Phillips x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

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8.            IEEE Seminar: Games People Play
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Galveston Bay Section sponsors a seminar on applications of games in education, health and industry. Presenters include Yvonne Klisch and Kristi Bowling, Science Education project managers at Rice University, on games in education; Tony Elam, Electrical and Computer Engineering research director at Rice University, on games in industry; and Ross Shegog, associate professor of Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas School of Public Health, on games for health. Interested non-IEEE engineers, technicians, scientists, IEEE Members and guests alike are welcome!
The seminar will run from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 14 in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room. There will be an informal networking session afterwards. We offer lunch at 11:30 a.m. for $8 for the first 15 requestors. Please RSVP to Stew O'Dell and specify whether you are ordering lunch. No shows for lunch will be billed.
Event Date: Friday, June 14, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:4:30 PM
Event Location: Discovery Room, Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

Stew O'Dell x31855

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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.

Human Spaceflight News
Thursday, June 6, 2013

"Albert Einstein" heads out on a 10-day chase to visit the ISS

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Ariane 5 puts European cargo ship on course to space station

William Harwood - CBS News

A powerful Ariane 5 rocket vaulted away from its South American launch pad Wednesday, lofting an unmanned European Space Agency cargo ship on a flight to the International Space Station. With its first stage engine roaring at full thrust, two strap-on solid-fuel boosters ignited with a rush of flame at 5:52 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 6:52 p.m. local time), instantly pushing the rocket away from its firing stand on the northeast coast of French Guiana. Launch was timed to roughly coincide with the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit, a requirement when it comes to catching up with a target moving through space at 5 miles per second.

Peanut butter, pyjamas, parmesan launched into space

Mariette Le Roux - Agence France Presse

A special delivery of peanut butter, pyjamas and parmesan cheese was blasted into the cosmos to bring some Earthly indulgences to the astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS). The items were in a cargo capsule launched Wednesday on the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rocket to bring creature comforts like family photos and sweet treats to the six-person crew, but also bare essentials like oxygen, food and drinking water.

Europe's ATV-4 Freighter Blasts Off to Space Station

RIA Novosti

ATV-4, Europe's unmanned cargo carrier, blasted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on Thursday to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). The fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after 20th century theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, is scheduled to dock with the aft port of the Russian Zvezda module on June 15.

Europe launches record cargo for International Space Station

BBC News

Europe has launched its giant robotic freighter towards the International Space Station (ISS). The vehicle, dubbed Albert Einstein, is carrying food, water, equipment and fuel for the orbiting outpost. The space truck left Earth on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in French Guiana at 18:52 local time (21:52 GMT) on Wednesday. At 20.2 tonnes, the Albert Einstein freighter is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe. The vessel will spend the next 10 days performing checks and manoeuvres designed to take it to the vicinity of the 415km-high station.

'Albert Einstein' in space: Europe launches cargo craft named for scientist

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

The European Space Agency launched its penultimate mission to the International Space Station on Wednesday, expending great energy to lift a record amount of mass aboard a spacecraft named for the scientist famous for equating the two quantities with the expression "E=mc^2." The European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4), an unmanned cargo freighter, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT). The second to last of ESA's five planned station resupply spacecraft launched since 2008, ATV-4 was named "Albert Einstein" after the iconic physicist known for the theory of relativity.

Ariane 5 Boosts 'Albert Einstein' Automated Transfer Vehicle to Orbit

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

Europe's mammoth Ariane 5 rocket has successfully boosted the fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) – named in honor of German-born physicist Albert Einstein – into orbit, en-route for a cargo delivery voyage to the International Space Station. Liftoff of Flight VA-213 took place from the ELA-3 complex at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:52 p.m. local time (10:52 p.m. UTC) Wednesday. A little over an hour later, ATV-4 separated from the final stage of the Ariane and is presently in independent flight, following a ten-day rendezvous profile, ahead of docking at the orbital outpost on 15 June.

SLS QM-1 Booster Readied for Tests by NASA, ATK

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

A full-scale version of Alliant Techsystems' (ATK) solid rocket booster that will be used on NASA's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System, or "SLS," is being readied for testing. The center aft segment of ATK's qualification motor-1 (QM-1) was sent to the site in the deserts of Utah on May 29, where it will be checked out. At ATK's Promontory, Utah facility, the center aft section will be combined with other components for the QM-1 test fired, which is slated to occur later this year.

Can NASA really lasso an asteroid?

Dominic Basulto - Washington Post

If the recent spate of asteroid flybys has you a bit freaked out, don't worry. NASA is working on a potential way to avert an asteroid Armageddon by intercepting these chunks of interstellar rock long before they ever have a chance to impact the Earth's surface. The current vision, most recently outlined at the Human to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. by NASA chief Charles Bolden, involves a bold vision to "lasso" asteroids and tug them into a new lunar orbit where astronauts can study them. Thanks to the development of futuristic new technologies such as the ion propulsion engine – NASA thinks it's realistic that astronauts could be tethering to an asteroid near the moon sometime within the next decade.

Is Catching An Asteroid The Best Way To Mars?

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Frustrated lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee may force a public debate on U.S. human spaceflight plans as they prepare a new authorization bill for NASA this summer. Their efforts may actually bring an important discussion about what the U.S. is doing in civil space out of closed government meeting rooms and into the view of taxpayers, who ultimately will fund it. At issue, as stated with unusual clarity by science-panel leaders in a May 21 hearing, is the best way to send humans to Mars. Members of both parties were lukewarm at best in their assessment of the space agency's new plan to capture a small asteroid and divert it into lunar orbit for astronauts to study from an Orion capsule. Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), chairman of the House Science space subcommittee, said he worries the asteroid-capture plan is "a detour" on the way to Mars. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the space panel, warns that "before we look at interim steps, we need first to understand what it takes to get to Mars."

Asteroid Initiative Could Lead to Mars Sample Return

Ray Villard - Discovery News

NASA's new asteroid capture mission, officially known as the Asteroid Initiative (AI), has gotten the cold shoulder from some scientists in the planetary community. However, if your research centers on the solar system's minor bodies, towing an asteroid into the Earth-moon system could be a bonanza. You get to meet an asteroid up close and personal. But, if you'd rather find life on Mars, there doesn't seem to be any obvious connection with the AI. The technology that will be developed for pulling off the asteroid hijacking will no doubt have spinoffs. NASA will need advances in computer directed autonomous rendezvous, docking, and long-term electric propulsion capability.

Russia Boosting Space Budget To Surpass China, Equal Europe

Peter de Selding - Space News

The Russian government's decision to increase Russia's space budget will permit Russia to surpass China and reach spending parity with the 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA), the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency said. "It's a decent level of funding," Vladimir Popovkin said in an interview with Rossiska Gazeta that was published on the Roscosmos website. Popovkin defended himself against accusations that he is against manned spaceflight, but said the manned program needs to meet the same value-for-money standards as the rest of the budget. Spending on cosmonaut-related activities traditionally has accounted for about 40 percent of the Roscosmos budget.

End of Space Shuttle Saves World

Anna Leahy & Douglas Dechow - Huffington Post

The end of the space shuttle program was a great occasion. Now, private companies have stepped up to save the United States and possibly the world. That's what the aerospace industry said at Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, California. Just two years ago, the space shuttle Endeavour had just ended its last mission, and Atlantis had yet to launch. Now, all the orbiters are artifacts, sitting pretty in museums and inspiring the next generations to think about what might be possible in the future. At Space Tech Expo, aerospace industry leaders said there's no need to wait for the next generation. Private companies can solve the world's problems now. These guys -- mostly men presented at this expo -- are incredibly jazzed about what's going on in low-Earth orbit now that the space shuttle is out of their way.

Shuttle Atlantis set in its new space at KSC
A few weeks remain before orbiter welcomes public

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

Space Shuttle Atlantis is in place — suspended as if in flight — in its new home, but there's still a frenzy of activity underway at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as crews hustle to make the exhibit's opening, a little more than three weeks away. Yet to be done: A replica Hubble Space Telescope will rise 11½ feet off the floor; more graphics — such as a list of the shuttle's 33 missions — will adorn the interior walls; and the top of the orange external fuel tank that shoots above the exhibit entrance must be lifted into place.

Justin Bieber signs up for trip to space, Virgin Galactic founder says

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Justin Bieber in space? Make it so, Virgin Galactic! Virgin's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, reported in a Twitter tweet that the teenage pop star and his agent, Scooter Braun, have signed up to suborbital spaceflights: "Great to hear @justinbieber & @scooterbraun are latest @virgingalactic future astronauts," Branson wrote. "Congrats, see you up there!" Bieber registered no response on his own Twitter account, but he retweeted Branson's congratulations. In February, he told his 40 million Twitter followers, "I wanna do a concert in space." To which NASA replied, "Maybe we can help you with that."

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

Mars rover poised for trek to Mount Sharp

William Harwood - CBS News

Ten months after a spectacular landing in Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up a second drilling campaign, mission managers said Wednesday, and the science team is gearing up to begin the long trek to Mount Sharp, a towering mound of layered rock 5 miles away that is expected to shed new light on the red planet's history and habitability. But getting there will not be quick, with scientists saying they expect to stop and change course as required to study enticing targets of opportunity along the way. To date, the rover has traveled about 2,400 feet -- less than half a mile -- across the floor of Gale Crater from the point where it touched down last August.

Curiosity rover to head toward Mars mountain soon

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

Ten months after Curiosity's daring Mars landing, the NASA rover is finally about to pack up and head toward the base of a mountain. Discoveries and longer-than-expected scientific studies delayed the much-hyped drive to Mount Sharp, where scientists are eager to examine the tantalizing rock layers for signs of the chemical building blocks of life. "Most people are getting a little antsy," deputy project scientist Joy Crisp said Wednesday.

Mars rover heads for Mount Sharp

Dan Vergano - USA Today

Look out, Mount Sharp. NASA's Curiosity rover will start out in the next few weeks on its way to the mountain, more formally known as Aeolis Mons. NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled a second rock and will next start off for its ultimate destination on Mars — Mount Sharp. The $2.5 billion rover landed on Mars in August on a mission to look for evidence that the Red Planet had habitable conditions — or ingredients to support life — in the past.

Road Trip! Mars Rover Curiosity Gears Up for Epic Drive

Mike Wall - Space.com

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is gearing up for its first big road trip, a journey that will carry it through miles of dramatic Red Planet scenery over the course of a year or so. The 1-ton Curiosity rover has remained close to its landing site since touching down on the Red Planet last August. But it will wrap up work in this area in the next few weeks, and then start trekking toward the base of Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky, mission team members said.

Turning point on Mars: Curiosity rover sets sights on mountain at last

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

After spending the past four months drilling holes in rocks on Mars, the team controlling NASA's Curiosity rover has set a course for the $2.5 billion mission's ultimate destination, a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in the middle of the crater where Curiosity landed 10 months ago. "We're going to hit the road and embark on a really new phase of the mission," Joy Crisp, the mission's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday during a teleconference with journalists. Curiosity's managers selected Gale Crater specifically because of the mountain, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. Its layers of rock are thought to preserve billions of years' worth of geological history.
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COMPLETE STORIES

Ariane 5 puts European cargo ship on course to space station

William Harwood - CBS News

A powerful Ariane 5 rocket vaulted away from its South American launch pad Wednesday, lofting an unmanned European Space Agency cargo ship on a flight to the International Space Station.

With its first stage engine roaring at full thrust, two strap-on solid-fuel boosters ignited with a rush of flame at 5:52 p.m. EDT (GMT-4; 6:52 p.m. local time), instantly pushing the rocket away from its firing stand on the northeast coast of French Guiana.

Launch was timed to roughly coincide with the moment Earth's rotation carried the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit, a requirement when it comes to catching up with a target moving through space at 5 miles per second.

Tipping the scales at 44,610 pounds, the fully loaded Automated Transfer Vehicle, ESA's fourth and next-to-last space station cargo ship, was the heaviest payload ever launched by the European Space Agency.

The climb to space appeared to go smoothly, with the two large strap-on boosters falling away as planned two minutes and 22 seconds after launch. Six-and-a-half minutes after that, the Ariane 5 first stage fell away and the rocket continued the push to space on the power of its single second-stage engine.

The second stage shut down as planned 17 minutes after launch, putting the spacecraft into a preliminary parking orbit. A second 28-second firing was executed 42 minutes later to complete the launch phase of the mission.

The ATV-4 spacecraft was released from the second stage one hour and four minutes after liftoff, prompting a round of applause in the control center. Solar array deployment was expected about 26 minutes after that.

Named after physicist Albert Einstein, the ATV-4 will fly an automated approach to the space station, gliding to a docking at the Zvezda command module's aft port around 9:46 a.m. on Saturday, June 15.

The ATV-4 will be a welcome addition for the station crew. The spacecraft is loaded with some 7.3 tons of cargo, including 7,584 pounds of propellant, 1,257 pounds of water, 220 pounds of oxygen and 5,465 pounds of dry cargo, including experiment hardware, spare parts, food and clothing.

Expedition 36 flight engineer Alexander Misurkin and ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano plan to monitor the approach from a computer work station in the command module.

Unlike Russian Progress supply ships, ATVs cannot be flown by remote control from the space station. But the crew can send commands to abort an approach if anything goes awry.

One question mark going into the ATV mission is the condition of a laser retro reflector on Zvezda's aft port that may have been damaged or contaminated when a Russian Progress supply ship docked April 26. The reflector is part of the system used by the ATV's flight computers to home in on the aft docking port.

While Russian engineers say they are confident the reflector was not damaged by a jammed navigation antenna on the Progress, cameras will be focused on the docking port when the Russian cargo craft departs on June 11 to look for any obvious signs of damage.

If any problems develop during the actual rendezvous, the ATV can be directed to loiter nearby until the station crew could stage a spacewalk to replace the reflector. But NASA space station managers say they are optimistic that will not be necessary.

Peanut butter, pyjamas, parmesan launched into space

Mariette Le Roux - Agence France Presse

A special delivery of peanut butter, pyjamas and parmesan cheese was blasted into the cosmos to bring some Earthly indulgences to the astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS).

The items were in a cargo capsule launched Wednesday on the European Space Agency's Ariane 5 rocket to bring creature comforts like family photos and sweet treats to the six-person crew, but also bare essentials like oxygen, food and drinking water.

Perhaps the most anticipated among the record 1,400 items launched on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) are the care packages put together for each of the astronauts with favourites they had requested and little surprises from home.

"It's quite small, but you can actually fit quite a lot in there," ATV cargo engineer Kerstin MacDonnell of the agency's ESTEC research centre told AFP of the bread bin-sized container each crew member would receive.

"Some birthday cards or drawings from their children, or if one of them has a craving for chewing gum or beef jerky or whatever kind of thing they like," she said.

"For the most part it's just comfort things that would help the morale -- personal items and mementos from the family."

MacDonnell oversaw the loading of the ATV Albert Einstein, ESA's fourth and penultimate cargo freighter to the ISS, launched from Kourou in French Guiana.

The unmanned vessel is set to dock with the ISS on June 15 at an altitude of about 400 kilometres (250 miles) above the planet -- at a speed of some 28,000 kilometres (18,000 miles) per hour.

At nearly 20.2 tonnes, ESA's fourth and penultimate cargo delivery to the ISS is the heaviest spacecraft ever lifted by an Ariane rocket.

It also marked the 55th consecutive succesful launch by an Ariane 5, according to the Astrium space company which builds the lifeline craft.

Also among the ATV's record dry cargo load of 2.5 tonnes were day-to-day necessities like printer paper, tools, toothbrushes and socks, and even a special diet put together by French-born chef Alain Ducasse for an experiment to test the minimum energy requirements of a human being in orbit.

The total cargo weighs almost seven tonnes, and includes fuel for the ISS.

"We are looking forward to it because it carries experiments, a lot of personal stuff and all our food!" Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who arrived on the space station last week, said in a video shown at the launch control centre in Kourou.

According to a cargo list, the crew will be dining for the next few months on everything from lasagna, beef stew, fajitas and broccoli gratin to waffles, dried fruit, scrambled eggs, strawberries and coffee ... even cake icing in four different colours.

"They (the dieticians) try to make the food as tasty as possible and to have a variety," explained MacDonnell.

"A lot of astronauts say that after six months in orbit they start... craving stronger tastes, they get bored of what they're eating. It's a huge part of morale."

Nearly all the food items were carefully dry-frozen, dehydrated or thermo-treated before being painstakingly packaged and then loaded onto the unmanned space freighter with military precision.

Just a handful of the items, like jelly beans, strawberry yoghurt and chocolate bars, travel in their original state.

Because of the weightless conditions in which they live, the astronauts have to eat most of their meals from a can or aluminium envelope with a fork or spoon or risk their lunch flying all over the place.

MacDonnell described the preparation of an ATV for launch, involving a crew of some 2,000 people, as "actually quite tricky".

Before loading can start, crews in full body suits spend almost a full day disinfecting the inside of the 10-metre (32-foot) long vehicle with hydrogen peroxide.

"There are a lot of effects to being in space that cause the astronauts to have a slightly compromised immune system," said the expert.

"So we try to make sure that when we bring up a vehicle it is as clean as possible at a microbial and fungal level so we don't bring up anything else that may endanger their health."

The main cargo is loaded about five months before liftoff, which requires two days -- a fine-tuned manoeuvre that must ensure a perfectly-balanced centre of mass that won't throw the rocket or its precious cargo off track while also stabilising and containing the volatile pyrotechnics, pressurised gas, fuel and batteries on board.

The next phase is to load the late cargo -- another two-day endeavour reserved for last-minute requests and perishables whose loading happens after the capsule is already perched vertically on top of the Ariane rocket.

The 80-centimetre (31-inch) wide loading hatch is right on the vessel's nose -- more than 10 storeys high, through which a technician has to be lowered to load goods onto shelves that are now vertical.

For Albert Einstein, new hardware has made the job easier with a mechanical arm that can carry heavier packages and a telescopic platform that allows easier access to the shelves, said MacDonnell.

Total late cargo for the ATV-4 was more than ever before -- at over 600 kilogrammes (1,300 pounds) it beat the previous record by over 200 kg.

Europe's ATV-4 Freighter Blasts Off to Space Station

RIA Novosti

ATV-4, Europe's unmanned cargo carrier, blasted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on Thursday to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

The fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after 20th century theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, is scheduled to dock with the aft port of the Russian Zvezda module on June 15.

The European cargo carrier that services the ISS is bringing to the station over 6.5 metric tons of cargo, including fuel, water, food and other necessities. It is scheduled to remain docked with the station until October 28.

The first ATV, Jules Verne, was launched in 2008, delivering about 4.5 metric tons of food, fuel and equipment to the ISS. ATV-2, named after Johannes Kepler, was launched in February 2011. ATV-3, Edoardo Amaldi, undocked from the ISS in September of 2012 after spending almost half a year at the station.

Europe launches record cargo for International Space Station

BBC News

Europe has launched its giant robotic freighter towards the International Space Station (ISS).

The vehicle, dubbed Albert Einstein, is carrying food, water, equipment and fuel for the orbiting outpost.

The space truck left Earth on an Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou in French Guiana at 18:52 local time (21:52 GMT) on Wednesday.

At 20.2 tonnes, the Albert Einstein freighter is the heaviest spacecraft ever launched by Europe.

The vessel will spend the next 10 days performing checks and manoeuvres designed to take it to the vicinity of the 415km-high station.

A fully automated docking is planned for Saturday 15 June.

The European Space Agency (Esa) astronaut Luca Parmitano will be in position at the rear of the ISS to watch the attachment.

The Italian only arrived in orbit himself last week and the freighter will be carrying some special supplies specifically for him, including a range of national foods such as lasagne and risotto.

Albert Einstein - also known by its generic name Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) - is the fourth such vehicle produced by Esa and European industry. One more vehicle is planned to fly next year.

The ATV assembly line will then be turned over to producing a propulsion unit for Nasa's new crew ship, Orion.

This vehicle will take astronauts beyond the space station to destinations such as asteroids and Mars. It will need a "service module" to push it through space and Nasa has engaged Esa to adapt ATV technology for the purpose.

Albert Einstein will stay attached to the ISS until October. Astronauts will gradually remove its 6.6 tonnes of supplies, replacing them with rubbish that has built up on the platform. When the freighter leaves the station, it will take this refuse on a destructive dive into the Earth's atmosphere.

'Albert Einstein' in space: Europe launches cargo craft named for scientist

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

The European Space Agency launched its penultimate mission to the International Space Station on Wednesday, expending great energy to lift a record amount of mass aboard a spacecraft named for the scientist famous for equating the two quantities with the expression "E=mc^2."

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 (ATV-4), an unmanned cargo freighter, lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT). The second to last of ESA's five planned station resupply spacecraft launched since 2008, ATV-4 was named "Albert Einstein" after the iconic physicist known for the theory of relativity.

Einstein's theorieshave been put to the test in space and his work has guided robotic spacecraft to other planets. ATV-4 is the first spaceship to bear Einstein's name, at the suggestion of the Swiss delegation to the European Space Agency. Einstein was born in Germany but studied and spent his early career in Switzerland.

Lifting off from the jungle spaceport along South America's northeast coast, ATV-4 soared spaceward with Europe's largest-ever load of dry cargo for the station. Packed with science experiments, crew supplies, a 3D printed tool box and even copies of Einstein's manuscript explaining the foundation for the general theory of relativity, the craft is destined to dock with the orbiting laboratory on June 15.

Ten day trip and traffic delays

The Automated Transfer Vehicle, which is about the size of a London double-decker bus with four solar array wings, has on past missions made the same International Space Station (ISS)-bound trip in half the time.

"The nominal duration from launch to docking is five days to 'phase' or synchronize the orbits of ATV and ISS," said ESA's lead mission director Jean-Michel Bois in a blog on ESA's ATV-4 "Albert Einstein" website. "These five days are a compromise between various constraints, mainly to minimize the propellant consumption."

Doubling the transfer time for this mission is a combination of traffic on the ground and in space.

"At the beginning, we need to free the Kourou preparation rooms and launch pad as soon as possible to allow [the] launch of numerous other satellites in the year," explained Bois. "With three launchers (Ariane, the Soyuz launcher and Vega), the Kourou logistic situation is complex!"

"At the end (docking), we need to have a free docking port on the space station and must respect several ATV/ISS constraints," he added. The vehicle traffic around ISS and ATV rendezvous constraints allow a docking not before 15 June. This is the explanation of the 10 days."

The docking port where "Albert Einstein" will attach itself to the station is currently occupied by a Russian Progress resupply spacecraft. That vehicle is scheduled to depart next Tuesday (June 11), clearing the aft port of Russia's Zvezda service module for ATV-4's arrival.

ATV-4's laser-guided docking may still be further delayed, depending on what the Progress' departure reveals.

As the Russian craft leaves, the ship's external cameras will focus on navigational sensors on the docking port to confirm that its sensors were not damaged in April when the Progress approached the space station with one of its navigational antennas stuck against its side. The sensors are required for ATV-4 to dock properly.

If there is damage that would prevent ATV-4's arrival, the station crew will go on an unplanned spacewalk to replace the sensors, NASA's station managers said.

Seven tons of supplies

ATV-4 "Albert Einstein" and its cargo have set a number of records for Europe, including the aforementioned most dry cargo launched, as well as the most diverse cargo at more than 1,400 different items, and the heaviest ship ever lifted by an Ariane rocket.

In total, the 13-ton space freighter is delivering seven tons of supplies for the space station.

The cargo includes science experiments to be conducted by Luca Parmitano, an ESA astronaut who arrived aboard the orbiting laboratory in late May for a five month stay. His science investigations include a study of emulsions, or suspended droplets in a liquid, and a strict space food diet designed to learn how to feed the astronauts flying on future missions to Mars.

On the flip side, the ATV is also delivering a selection of Italian space food delicacies, including tiramisu, as part of the "crew choice" meal items picked out by Parmitano to share with his Expedition 36 and 37 crewmates.

Also aboard "Albert Einstein" is an empty toolbox and the tools destined to go inside it. The box, which was created using a 3D printer, was too fragile to launch with its tools pre-packed, so the astronauts will have a puzzle-of-sorts to assemble once it's on orbit.

ATV-4 will deliver spare parts for the station too, including a new water pump and recycling unit, a GPS antenna for Japan's Kibo laboratory module and new gas masks to be donned by the crew in the rare case of a fire. The cargo craft also carries water, oxygen and propellant for the ISS, the latter to be used to boost the outpost's orbit around the Earth.

"Albert Einstein" is the fourth out of five ESA Automated Transfer Vehicles. All were named after famous European science figures, including Jules Verne, Johannes Kepler, Edoardo Amaldi and Georges Lemaître.

Ariane 5 Boosts 'Albert Einstein' Automated Transfer Vehicle to Orbit

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

Europe's mammoth Ariane 5 rocket has successfully boosted the fourth Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-4) – named in honor of German-born physicist Albert Einstein – into orbit, en-route for a cargo delivery voyage to the International Space Station. Liftoff of Flight VA-213 took place from the ELA-3 complex at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, at 6:52 p.m. local time (10:52 p.m. UTC) Wednesday. A little over an hour later, ATV-4 separated from the final stage of the Ariane and is presently in independent flight, following a ten-day rendezvous profile, ahead of docking at the orbital outpost on 15 June.

Today's flight marks the second-to-last ATV mission, following a decision by the European Space Agency (ESA) last year to build no more vehicles past ATV-5. However, in January 2013, the prospects for the heavy-lift cargo craft brightened in the form of a possible future role in the Orion Service Module for NASA's Beyond Earth Orbit aspirations. As if to demonstrate ESA's can-do spirit, the 44,830-pound ATV-4 is the heaviest vehicle ever lofted by an Ariane rocket and is transporting 5,500 pounds of equipment, food, water, fuel and supplies to the space station's incumbent Expedition 36 crew. This marks the largest payload of dry cargo ever ferried into space by a European spacecraft.

The booster itself arrived in French Guiana in February, primed for Flight VA-213 – the 213th mission by Arianespace's rocket family since the maiden voyage of its Ariane 1 in December 1979. This was also the 69th voyage of the Ariane 5 variant, which first flew in June 1996. Last month, ATV-4 was installed by crane atop the rocket inside the 295-foot Final Assembly Building (BAF) at the Guiana Space Centre and the full payload was encapsulated within Ariane 5's bullet-like fairing on 24 May. This relatively late encapsulation allowed for the loading of last-minute cargo items for the ISS delivery mission. "The station's needs change with every mission and there are always last-minute requests of every kind," noted ESA in an ATV-4 pre-launch update. "A new Late Cargo Access Means lift will be used to load larger and heavier bags during the last weeks before launch. This allows for greater flexibility when ATV is already on top of its Ariane 5 rocket."

Rollout of the VA-213 vehicle from the BAF to the ELA-3 (Ensemble de Lancement Ariane) complex took place yesterday (Tuesday). Standing 171 feet tall and weighing almost 1.7 million pounds, the two-stage Ariane 5 represents one of the most powerful launch vehicles in operational service. Since its ill-fated first flight in June 1996, it has supported 69 missions, including today's launch, of which only four have been classified as total or partial failures. On its very first launch, it succumbed to a control software glitch, which caused it to veer from its intended flight path and the flight termination system destroyed the vehicle. The second mission, in October 1997, fared little better, but suffered a premature shutdown of its core stage and failed to attain orbit. Two others, in July 2001 and December 2002, also underperformed, but Ariane 5 has maintained an unblemished record ever since.

In the final hours before today's launch, the electrical systems aboard Ariane 5 were checked and at T-4 hours and 50 minutes the lengthy process began to load 260,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and 50,000 pounds of liquid hydrogen into the 100-foot-tall "cryotechnic main stage". These propellants fed the stage's French-built Vulcain-2 engine. As the clock ticked closer to launch, Ariane's propellant tanks were pressurized for flight at T-4 minutes and the vehicle was transferred to internal power. In the final seconds, the on-board systems assumed primary control of all critical functions and the guidance systems were unlocked to flight mode. Ignition of the Vulcain-2 engine and its 300,000 pounds of thrust were followed by the ignition of Ariane 5's twin, side-mounted solid-rocket boosters, each capable of a 1.4-million-pound propulsive yield. At this stage, VA-213 was committed to flight.

Twelve seconds after T-zero, the rocket began a computer-commanded pitch and roll program maneuver, tilting its trajectory toward the north-east and establishing it on the proper flight azimuth for a 51.6-degree-inclined orbit and an altitude of about 150 miles. "It will maintain its attitude," noted Arianespace in its VA-213 launch kit, "to keep the launcher's axis parallel to its airspeed vector in order to minimize aerodynamic loads throughout the atmospheric phase of the launch, until the solid boosters are jettisoned."

Following the departure of the boosters, at T+142 seconds, Ariane 5 continued to climb, under the impulse of its Vulcain-2 core engine. At three and a half minutes, ATV-4's payload fairing was released. The Vulcain-2 shut down and the core stage was discarded at about nine minutes into the flight. "On this mission, the main stage will fall back into the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Portugal," continued Arianespace. The turn then came for Ariane 5's second stage, powered by a restartable Aestus engine, with a vacuum thrust of 6,100 pounds. This engine is fueled by unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide and burned for eight minutes, then shut down and entered a lengthy period of coasting, ahead of its second burn. "Following a ballistic phase, lasting 45 minutes, the upper stage is then reignited to circularize the orbit, directing the ATV, once separated into its targeted final orbit," concluded the Arianespace launch-plan synopsis. The Aestus' second burn lasted about 30 seconds.

By now, an hour had elapsed since launch and at T+63 minutes ATV-4 separated from the final stage of the Ariane 5. "Albert Einstein" – or at least a space-going namesake of the great physicist – finally reached the environment about which he had written, studied and theorized, almost a century ago. Ten days of maneuvers now lie ahead of the cargo craft before its scheduled arrival and docking at the aft port of the International Space Station's Zvezda module on 15 June, carefully watched by Expedition 36 Commander Pavel Vinogradov. It will remain a pressurized component of the expansive outpost until late October, when it is due to be undocked and deorbited. According to NASA's Expedition 35/36 press kit, the ATV-4 cargo includes drinking water, food, clothes, equipment and propellant and the spacecraft is expected to a boost of the space station's orbit. A test of this capability is scheduled for later in June, ahead of a full-up re-boost on 10 July.

Measuring 34 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, the ATV consists of three main components: an Integrated Cargo Carrier (ICC), which houses its pressurized payloads, together with an Avionics Module for computers, gyroscopes, navigation and control systems and electrical power and communications facilities and a Propulsion Module to support rendezvous and docking, as well as periodic "re-boosts" of the ISS orbit. Power comes from four solar arrays, which form an X shape when fully deployed, and have a total electrical yield of 3,800 watts. Unlike Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV), SpaceX's Dragon and Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus, the ATV is not designed to berth at the U.S. segment of the ISS, but at the Russian "end". Consequently, it is equipped with a Russian-compatible Progress-type docking mechanism.

Since the launch of the first ATV – named for Jules Verne, the 19th-century French science-fiction writer and visionary – back in March 2008, the craft has seen regular service at the space station. ATV-1 spent six months aloft and was undocked and intentionally burned up during re-entry the following September. Next came ATV-2, which paid homage to 17th-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler, and which flew from February-June 2011. Most recently, in March of last year, ATV-3 was launched and bore the name of Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi. This third craft was deorbited in October 2012. With "Albert Einstein" now picking up the baton, the ATV-4 mission is expected to run for about four months, with undocking planned in late October. Only one further voyage, ATV-5, named for Belgian astronomer Georges Lemaître, is scheduled to take place and will fly in the summer of 2014.

SLS QM-1 Booster Readied for Tests by NASA, ATK

Jason Rhian - AmericaSpace.com

A full-scale version of Alliant Techsystems' (ATK) solid rocket booster that will be used on NASA's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System, or "SLS," is being readied for testing. The center aft segment of ATK's qualification motor-1 (QM-1) was sent to the site in the deserts of Utah on May 29, where it will be checked out.

At ATK's Promontory, Utah facility, the center aft section will be combined with other components for the QM-1 test fired, which is slated to occur later this year. ATK and NASA have described the five-segment booster, a derivative of the motors that powered the space shuttle to orbit for more than 30 years, as the most powerful solid rocket booster ever built for flight.

ATK is the prime contractor for the boosters, which have been tapped to loft the first two SLS rockets to orbit. It is planned that later flights will use a new advanced booster currently in development. The winner of NASA's Advanced Booster Competition should be announced at the end of 2015.

NASA's SLS is being built to return NASA to the business of crewed deep space exploration. SLS is currently scheduled to conduct its first test flight from the space agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2017. A crewed flight is currently planned to take place in 2021.

"The upcoming test of ATK's 5-segment solid rocket motor is a critical step for the program," said Fred Brasfield, vice president, Next-Generation Booster. "Not only do we validate the numerous affordability and process changes we have incorporated, but it is the first of two tests to qualify the SLS booster for human-rated flight—a big milestone for the country."

Can NASA really lasso an asteroid?

Dominic Basulto - Washington Post

If the recent spate of asteroid flybys has you a bit freaked out, don't worry. NASA is working on a potential way to avert an asteroid Armageddon by intercepting these chunks of interstellar rock long before they ever have a chance to impact the Earth's surface.

The current vision, most recently outlined at the Human to Mars Summit in Washington, D.C. by NASA chief Charles Bolden, involves a bold vision to "lasso" asteroids and tug them into a new lunar orbit where astronauts can study them. Thanks to the development of futuristic new technologies such as the ion propulsion engine – NASA thinks it's realistic that astronauts could be tethering to an asteroid near the moon sometime within the next decade.

The NASA asteroid lasso scenario has $78 million allotted to it in the president's fiscal 2014 budget proposal and relies on an unmanned NASA spacecraft being able to fly millions of miles into deep space, capture an asteroid with a huge net (the "lasso"), and then nudge and guide the piece of rock into a new orbit in the neighborhood of the moon. Once there, it should be relatively easy for astronauts to study the asteroid and develop further insights into interplanetary defense systems against incoming asteroids. Given current White House backing for the mission, the unmanned spaceship would leave Earth by 2019 and return by 2021, asteroid in tow.

To make all this work, however, will require a number of technologies that are just now in their infancy. For example, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California and the Glenn Research Center in Ohio are both working on a sci-fi sounding "ion propulsion engine" that depends on a non-traditional fuel source to propel the spacecraft through deep space at unfathomable speeds. If the former Space Shuttle topped out at 18,000 mph, the new ion propulsion engine would enable a futuristic robotic spacecraft to travel at speeds of close to 200,000 mph. (By way of comparison, the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second).

Then, of course, there's the matter of the lasso itself that's capable of pulling a 2-mile wide piece of rock millions of miles in outer space, while being bombarded by cosmic radiation. When you're flying at 200,000 mph, do you just have a robot throw a piece of rope out the window to lasso an asteroid the way a Texas cowboy might lasso a bucking bronco?

And, even if NASA can lasso an asteroid, should it even try?

Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, for example, has been an outspoken critic of NASA plans to launch an asteroid lasso mission. According to Aldrin, we should be focused first and foremost on a mission to Mars rather than making whimsical trips to deep space to rendezvous with asteroids. While Aldrin acknowledges the possible scientific value of studying and capturing Near Earth Objects, he's also concerned, that in an era of limited budgets, putting too much money into unmanned asteroid lasso missions could set back manned space exploration to colonize the Red Planet.

Ultimately, attempting to lasso an asteroid in deep space may not be as crazy as it sounds (even if it sounds like a recycled Hollywood plot outline), especially if it leads to the type of innovative technologies that make manned interplanetary travel a reality. As NASA likes to remind us, Earth is in an interplanetary shooting gallery, with asteroids and meteors whizzing by every now and then. If we're to avoid the fate of every other single-planet species, we've got to think about all of our potential options sooner rather than later. Look at the bright side—even with all the technological kinks we've got to work out for an asteroid lasso mission, we've still got a two-decade head start on the next big asteroid that's on a potential collision path with our Pale Blue Dot.

Is Catching An Asteroid The Best Way To Mars?

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

Frustrated lawmakers on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee may force a public debate on U.S. human spaceflight plans as they prepare a new authorization bill for NASA this summer. Their efforts may actually bring an important discussion about what the U.S. is doing in civil space out of closed government meeting rooms and into the view of taxpayers, who ultimately will fund it. At issue, as stated with unusual clarity by science-panel leaders in a May 21 hearing, is the best way to send humans to Mars.

Members of both parties were lukewarm at best in their assessment of the space agency's new plan to capture a small asteroid and divert it into lunar orbit for astronauts to study from an Orion capsule. Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.), chairman of the House Science space subcommittee, said he worries the asteroid-capture plan is "a detour" on the way to Mars. Rep. Donna Edwards of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the space panel, warns that "before we look at interim steps, we need first to understand what it takes to get to Mars."

"As our space program prepares for the next step to Mars, Congress must ensure that there is a strategic plan in place," says Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the full committee.

Smith notes Congress has repeatedly endorsed using the lunar surface as a "training ground" for human missions to Mars, as with this concept (shown above) of inflatable habitats proposed by Bigelow Aerospace, and he cast the hearing as an investigation into how capturing an asteroid would play the same role.

"Without a consensus for the original plan, NASA haphazardly created a new asteroid-retrieval mission," Smith says. "Unfortunately, NASA did not seek the advice of its own Small Bodies Assessment Group before presenting the mission to Congress. If NASA had sought the advisory group's advice, they would have heard it was 'entertaining, but not a serious proposal.' Maybe that's why they didn't ask."

If the reauthorization process for NASA actually produces the debate Smith wants, it will reheat a fundamental disagreement simmering since the then-new Obama administration killed the Bush-era Constellation program of post-shuttle human space exploration. Under that approach, a lunar landing in the 2020s would provide the experience needed to move on to the red planet.

But a renewed debate also may find common ground that eluded both sides in President Barack Obama's first term. While witnesses at the hearing disagreed on the Moon-vs.-asteroid issue, they accept Obama's view—endorsed by the requisite blue-ribbon commission—that there wasn't enough funding for a Constellation-level assault on Mars.

"All of us agree, I believe, on the next step—orbit the Moon," says Cornell University astronomer Steven Squyres, chairman of NASA's Advisory Council and top scientist on the twin Mars Exploration Rovers. "Beyond that, my plea to you, my heartfelt plea, please do not mandate another step for NASA beyond lunar orbit unless there is ample funding for it. That would amount to an unfunded mandate, and that is the bane of government agencies."

Louis Friedman, the former Planetary Society chief who co-chaired the Keck Institute panel that originally drafted the asteroid-capture proposal, argued that it "creates a first step beyond the Moon, the only one which we are now capable of performing, and the only one we can afford within the current space program budget."

But Paul Spudis, the senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, argued for a series of "incremental building blocks" all the way to Mars, beginning on the surface of the Moon. Aside from its scientific and training value, he says, water and other lunar resources can "break the logistical chains" that would otherwise tie deep-space human explorers to Earth.

"The gold is at the poles and it's in the form of water, which is the most useful commodity you can have to create capability in spaceflight," he says.

NASA essentially dropped its historic decision to end the Constellation program like a bomb, offering little justification for its plan to support developing commercial U.S. cargo and crew vehicles to reach low Earth orbit instead. That triggered an often-acrimonious debate leading to the "compromise" policy of today, with NASA continuing the Orion crew capsule begun under Constellation, and developing the heavy-lift Space Launch System, while contributing development funds on three commercial crew vehicles.

Doug Cooke, a former NASA associate administrator with long experience in human spaceflight, joined Smith in criticizing the agency for the way it handled the decision to pursue asteroid-capture, and in urging a more open approach to policymaking.

"I think that a healthy process gets inputs from your stakeholders in terms of your objectives and long-term goals, and that helps you define what missions are," Cooke says. "I don't see that that's happened here."

Asteroid Initiative Could Lead to Mars Sample Return

Ray Villard - Discovery News

NASA's new asteroid capture mission, officially known as the Asteroid Initiative (AI), has gotten the cold shoulder from some scientists in the planetary community. However, if your research centers on the solar system's minor bodies, towing an asteroid into the Earth-moon system could be a bonanza. You get to meet an asteroid up close and personal. But, if you'd rather find life on Mars, there doesn't seem to be any obvious connection with the AI.

The technology that will be developed for pulling off the asteroid hijacking will no doubt have spinoffs. NASA will need advances in computer directed autonomous rendezvous, docking, and long-term electric propulsion capability.

A win-win for the planetary community would happen if the technology developed for the AI could be used for retuning rock and soil samples from Mars that might contain direct evidence for extraterrestrial life.

A solar-electric powered clone of the asteroid retrieval vehicle could be dispatched to Mars to pick up and return rock samples to Earth. NASA's manned Orion vehicle would play a role in retrieving the samples from a lunar parking orbit and bringing them down to Earth. This would eliminate the payload penalty of launching and entire return canister to Mars with the ability of reentering Earth's atmosphere.

I think it might also mollify doomsayers who will inevitable get nervous about an automated probe returning a potential alien bug to Earth's surface. They would cite the crash-landing of NASA's Genesis sample-return capsule in 2004 as a precedent for the best plans going awry.

Mars rock samples in the hands of Orion astronauts could first be transported to a lab facility onboard the International Space Station for an initial assessment of the biohazard potential. If a Martian bug gets loose, at least it won't be on Earth's surface.

One scenario is that another Curiosity-type rover could be sent to Mars and collect interesting looking samples by 2020. A second rover with an ascent vehicle later lands and meets its silicon-brained cousin to collect the rock and load them onboard a "space express" liftoff vehicle.

Rather than carting along return-to-Earth propellant, the launched would only need to reach Mars orbit. The butterfly-wing ion propelled transfer vehicle would rendezvous with the payload high above Mars and carry it back to Earth. This interplanetary shuttle could have elaborate sterilization procedures onboard should the Mars rock/soil sample canister be inadvertently breached.

Following a trajectory similar to that of the AI mission, the interplanetary shuttle enters lunar orbit. An Orion capsule and crew are dispatched on a week-long round trip to retrieve the canister for return to Earth. While docked to the solar-electric shuttle the ship's xenon fuel might be replenished for a future interplanetary sortie.

A Mars sample return is a top-priority mission as identified by the U.S. National Research Council. Despite the rush to get to Mars as promoted by some space advocates, the harsh reality is that a lot more must be known how deadly the planet might be (a silly sci-fi melodrama about this can be seen in the 1959 B-grade film, The Angry Red Planet). It's not impossible that a breach of quarantine could infect and wipe out the first astronaut crew on Mars, as dramatized in the 2011 film, Apollo 18.

Scientists might eventually learn that there are certain astrobiological niches on the surface that would be a "do not enter" zone for human explorers.

So, despite its drawbacks, the AI mission promises to build a framework for our next phase of reconnoitering the solar system — beginning with asteroids and potentially continuing onto Mars.

Russia Boosting Space Budget To Surpass China, Equal Europe

Peter de Selding - Space News

The Russian government's decision to increase Russia's space budget will permit Russia to surpass China and reach spending parity with the 20-nation European Space Agency (ESA), the head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency said.

"It's a decent level of funding," Vladimir Popovkin said in an interview with Rossiska Gazeta that was published on the Roscosmos website.

Popovkin defended himself against accusations that he is against manned spaceflight, but said the manned program needs to meet the same value-for-money standards as the rest of the budget. Spending on cosmonaut-related activities traditionally has accounted for about 40 percent of the Roscosmos budget.

In the near term, Popovkin said, Russia needs to redress its past underinvestment in applications satellites, especially for Earth observation and meteorology. Only one-fifth of domestic demand for geospatial imagery can be met by Russia's own satellites, he said, and Russian meteorological satellites fall short of international standards.

Popovkin said Roscosmos, for the first time, has begun insisting on clawbacks from industry when the agency determines it has paid too much for a given product or service. He said this effort, which is ongoing, likely will lead to lawsuits as the agency seeks reimbursement.

Similarly, he said, Roscosmos contractors will no longer be allowed to hide behind security constraints to insist on direct contract awards without competitive bidding.

Popovkin said Russia remains highly interested in lunar exploration and is not concerned that its lunar effort comes a half-century after the U.S. lunar program of the 1960s and 1970s. Lots more is known about the Moon now and the interest of the scientific community remains high, he said. Roscosmos will begin with a lander in the Moon's polar region, the site of large stores of water ice, and continue with rovers.

Comparing Russian spending, or Chinese spending, on space projects with budgets in the West has always been hazardous because a command economy and a market economy do not act in the same way. Engineering-labor costs are also difficult to compare between, for example, the Los Angeles region or Toulouse, France, and Samara, Russia.

But Popovkin's estimate that Russia's budget is about equal to Europe's does survive initial analysis.

At current exchange rates, Roscosmos' promised budget of slightly more than 2 trillion rubles between 2013 and 2020 is equivalent to around $63 billion, or $7.9 billion per year.

ESA's budget for 2013, at 4.28 billion euros, is equivalent to $5.6 billion. When funding provided separately by other organizations — the European Commission, the Eumetsat weather-satellite organization, and national government budgets not invested in ESA — is included, Europe's annual space budget is in the vicinity of the Russian budget.

End of Space Shuttle Saves World

Anna Leahy & Douglas Dechow - Huffington Post

The end of the space shuttle program was a great occasion. Now, private companies have stepped up to save the United States and possibly the world. That's what the aerospace industry said at Space Tech Expo in Long Beach, California.

Just two years ago, the space shuttle Endeavour had just ended its last mission, and Atlantis had yet to launch. Now, all the orbiters are artifacts, sitting pretty in museums and inspiring the next generations to think about what might be possible in the future.

At Space Tech Expo, aerospace industry leaders said there's no need to wait for the next generation. Private companies can solve the world's problems now. These guys -- mostly men presented at this expo -- are incredibly jazzed about what's going on in low-Earth orbit now that the space shuttle is out of their way.

Garrett Reisman, a former shuttle astronaut who works for Elon Musk at SpaceX, sees this as a "Golden Age of Spaceflight." Several private companies are vying to serve the International Space Station with cargo and crew transportation up and back. With SpaceX leading this race with its Dragon capsule, Reisman sees new and unexpected possibilities in spacecraft design and the way the business of space travel is conducted.

Reisman exudes enthusiasm, but his excitement pales in comparison to that of Jeffrey Manber of NanoRacks and Richard Godwin of Zero Gravity Solutions.

"It's a sea change at NASA," Manber said, echoing the group's attitude. "We're really working as a partnership, and not just with NASA. With JAXA [Japan's space agency]. With the Russian Space Agency." NanoRacks has been in business less than four years, and business is great. They serve as the middleman between folks who want to put something in orbit and NASA. NanoRacks has 50 CubeSats -- satellites as small as 10 cubic centimeters -- under contract, and 100 more in the works. And that's just part of their business. Even high schools are paying NanoRacks to get their experiments to and from on the International Space Station.

No wonder NanoRacks is doing well. NASA pays for the actual transportation up to and back from the space station. But the ambition of NanoRacks pales in comparison with Zero Gravity Solutions.

If Godwin's biotech company can do what it thinks it can, no one in the world need go hungry, and we might be able to live forever. Zero Gravity Solutions is focused on stem cell technology, and Godwin claims they have discovered, through experiments on the International Space Station, how to stress stem cells "toward advantageous traits" without changing DNA. As a stem cell grapples with how to be a cell in zero gravity, some of the so-called junk DNA in the cell turns on.

Godwin claims this ability to selectively activate dormant parts of the genome has already succeeded with jutropha curcas seeds, and the change sticks in successive generations after return to Earth. Godwin thinks that they can greatly increase the yield of this cash crop, which produces jet fuel. Godwin also expects that this zero-gravity innovation with plant stem cells can triple the world's rice crop and instill fungus resistance in bananas, which represent the world's fourth largest cash crop.

If that's not ambitious enough, Zero Gravity Solutions has plans for human bone stem cells, tendon and connective tissue, and universal donor fat stem cells. He'd even like to grow a pancreas and thinks that's within reach. In an experiment on pig liver cells on the International Space Station, the sample included -- unintentionally -- a bit of pig pancreas tissue, and they ended up with some stem cells that differentiated into pancreas cells. Even an experiment gone wrong is an opportunity. In Godwin's wide eyes, every product, even when produced accidentally, has a potential market.

Godwin admits that the process his company uses is accelerated evolution, but he prefers the term "Directed Gene Expression," a term that Zero Gravity Solutions has trademarked. The best part of the story, from Godwin's point of view, is that this directed selection takes just 30-60 days to accomplish on the space station.

Not only do these guys believe they can save the world, but they are convinced they can do it relatively quickly. Some things sound too good to be true. Sometimes, what seems like an accomplishment ahead leads inevitably to unforeseen and dire consequences. Yet, these aerospace industry leaders make us want to believe in possibilities.

Shuttle Atlantis set in its new space at KSC
A few weeks remain before orbiter welcomes public

Stacey Barchenger - Florida Today

Space Shuttle Atlantis is in place — suspended as if in flight — in its new home, but there's still a frenzy of activity underway at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as crews hustle to make the exhibit's opening, a little more than three weeks away.

Yet to be done: A replica Hubble Space Telescope will rise 11½ feet off the floor; more graphics — such as a list of the shuttle's 33 missions — will adorn the interior walls; and the top of the orange external fuel tank that shoots above the exhibit entrance must be lifted into place.

"That's what we're going to be fighting against," Tim Macy, director of project development and construction, said Wednesday, motioning to a looming mass of gray clouds. "The weather."

Much of the major work is expected to be completed this week. Macy and the hundreds of others who have worked on the project are happy to see the finishing touches coming together.

"It changes so dramatically every three or four days," he said. "You come in, and it's something new."

On June 29, the $100 million exhibit will open to the public. In preparation, the construction fence around the 90,000- square-foot facility will come down, and the cardboard and heavy equipment pulled from inside. More quotes from astronauts and shuttle workers will line the walls, and a neon art installation representing the arc of a shuttle's flight will be brightly lit.

And, of course, trinkets and souvenirs will be loaded onto the shelves in the gift shop.

Justin Bieber signs up for trip to space, Virgin Galactic founder says

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

Justin Bieber in space? Make it so, Virgin Galactic!

Virgin's billionaire founder, Richard Branson, reported in a Twitter tweet that the teenage pop star and his agent, Scooter Braun, have signed up to suborbital spaceflights: "Great to hear @justinbieber & @scooterbraun are latest @virgingalactic future astronauts," Branson wrote. "Congrats, see you up there!"

Bieber registered no response on his own Twitter account, but he retweeted Branson's congratulations. In February, he told his 40 million Twitter followers, "I wanna do a concert in space." To which NASA replied, "Maybe we can help you with that."

At the age of 19, Bieber's net worth is estimated at $110 million, thanks to the success of songs such as "Baby" and the adulation of millions of fans (a.k.a. Beliebers). The fare for a ride on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo rocket plane recently went up from $200,000 to $250,000, but even the higher price tag shouldn't be much of a problem for the Canadian-born heartthrob.

SpaceShipTwo went through its first supersonic, rocket-powered flight test in California in April, and it's expected to begin commercial operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico as early as next year.

The ride would send Bieber and Braun beyond 62 miles (100 kilometers) in altitude, which marks the internationally accepted boundary of outer space. At that height, passengers would feel a few minutes of weightlessness, get a view of the curving Earth beneath a black sky, and then experience a roller-coaster ride back down to a runway landing.

The suborbital spaceflight industry just might get as much out of Bieber's trip as he does. A year ago, the SETI Institute's Seth Shostak said giving Bieber a trip into space could provide the kind of publicity that money can't buy. ""My suggestion is, be sure to send Justin Bieber on one of these flights early on," Shostak said at the 2012 Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. "If there's more interest, there are more customers. If there are more customers, there's more technical development. It's a positive feedback loop, and obviously that's good."

Bieber isn't the first celebrity to sign up: Virgin Galactic's A-list for space also includes Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Brightman, Victoria Principal, and reportedly Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as well. In all, more than 600 people have made their bookings.

Do you want to see the Bieb go "All Around the World" and into space? Some un-Beliebers might not mind if he just stayed up there.

MEANWHILE ON MARS…

Mars rover poised for trek to Mount Sharp

William Harwood - CBS News

Ten months after a spectacular landing in Gale Crater, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is wrapping up a second drilling campaign, mission managers said Wednesday, and the science team is gearing up to begin the long trek to Mount Sharp, a towering mound of layered rock 5 miles away that is expected to shed new light on the red planet's history and habitability.

But getting there will not be quick, with scientists saying they expect to stop and change course as required to study enticing targets of opportunity along the way.

To date, the rover has traveled about 2,400 feet -- less than half a mile -- across the floor of Gale Crater from the point where it touched down last August.

To reach the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, Curiosity will have to traverse more than 10 times that distance, a trip that could take another 10 months to a year or longer to complete.

The journey is expected to begin in a few weeks, after the science team completes a final series of observations to better characterize the region known as Glenelg, where three different types of terrain come together.

At the same time, scientists are studying high-resolution photographs from NASA's Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to identify potential paths from the rover's current location to Mount Sharp, on the lookout for scientifically interesting areas along the way.

Engineers also are factoring in the locations of discarded hardware used by Curiosity's "sky crane" landing system to determine if it might be feasible for the rover to take a closer look at some of the components as it slowly rolls toward Mount Sharp.

"We'll be planning the general path in the next few weeks," said Jim Erickson, the Curiosity project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And then we'll start our trek to the base of Mount Sharp.

"Along the way, we will likely stop at some of the locations we eventually identify. ... We are on a mission of exploration. If we come across scientifically interesting areas, we are going to stop and examine them before continuing the journey."

Asked how long the trip might take, Erickson hedged his bets, saying that depended on how often Curiosity is directed to stop for close-up observations of rocks and soil along the way.

"It's very difficult to say exactly how long it's going to take," he said. "I would hazard a guess of somewhere between 10 months and a year might be something like a fast pace. If there's really scientifically interesting things that we find, we'll stay until we've completed them."

Despite the slow pace of the mission to date, Joy Crisp, the deputy project scientist, said the science team will not hesitate to stop.

"But there's nothing that we see from orbit that's like some super-compelling clue to life or something like that," she said. "What we have is a real desire to get to Mount Sharp, because there we see variations in the mineralogy, from the base of Mount Sharp going up in higher levels in the mountain, where we should see a record of a change in the environment."

She said the science team has been extremely pleased with the initial results of the mission. But even the science team is ready for a change of scenery.

"We've spent so much time in the Glenelg region, I think most people are getting a little antsy and actually do want to drive," she said. "It's like being on a vacation and you've spent a lot of time in a little area and you've really done a lot there. You want a change of pace."

Curiosity rover to head toward Mars mountain soon

Alicia Chang - Associated Press

Ten months after Curiosity's daring Mars landing, the NASA rover is finally about to pack up and head toward the base of a mountain.

Discoveries and longer-than-expected scientific studies delayed the much-hyped drive to Mount Sharp, where scientists are eager to examine the tantalizing rock layers for signs of the chemical building blocks of life.

"Most people are getting a little antsy," deputy project scientist Joy Crisp said Wednesday.

Before Curiosity begins the 5-mile trek, scientists plan to have it linger a few weeks longer to observe some rocks at its current location, where it has worked for the past six months.

Since touching down in Gale Crater near the Martian equator last year, Curiosity set its sights on Mount Sharp, where images from space reveal intriguing geology.

Mission planners decided to make a pit stop so Curiosity could test its kit of high-tech instruments on Martian rocks and dirt.

The detour paid off. While driving from its landing site, the six-wheel, car-size rover discovered an ancient streambed and found evidence from a drilled rock of a habitable environment long ago. It has yet to turn up signs of complex organic molecules that are fundamental to all living things.

So far, Curiosity has logged about half a mile on its odometer, and scientists are anxious to add to that.

"The beacon of Mount Sharp being so enticing is something that's drawing the team to want to start making good progress," Crisp said at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $2.5 billion mission.

The road trip is expected to take nine months to a year, with stops along the way to fire a laser at boulders, scoop up soil and use the rover's drill.

In the coming days, the team plans to chart a path to Mount Sharp that will include traversing sand dunes.

Mars rover heads for Mount Sharp

Dan Vergano - USA Today

Look out, Mount Sharp. NASA's Curiosity rover will start out in the next few weeks on its way to the mountain, more formally known as Aeolis Mons.

NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled a second rock and will next start off for its ultimate destination on Mars — Mount Sharp.

The $2.5 billion rover landed on Mars in August on a mission to look for evidence that the Red Planet had habitable conditions — or ingredients to support life — in the past. The rover soon found evidence of past water flow within its landing site, Gale Crater, a 96-mile-wide depression with the 3-mile-high Mount Sharp, more formally named Aeolis Mons, in its center. The rover, a nuclear-powered mobile chemistry lab the size of a minivan, has drilled a pair of rocks and found evidence of stream-deposited clay on the floor of the crater.

Those preliminaries out of the way, the rover will start a 5-mile or more trek to the base of Mount Sharp, driving in the next few weeks to an entry point that is not too steep and avoids a sand dune hazard.

"We have begun to hit full stride," says rover project manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We are on our way to Mount Sharp, but we are on a mission of exploration. If we find something of interest, we will explore it along the way."

A year to 10 months would be a fast pace for the rover to reach Mount Sharp, Erickson says. The base of Mount Sharp may be made of clays that represent the best target for finding past habitable chemistry on Mars.

Road Trip! Mars Rover Curiosity Gears Up for Epic Drive

Mike Wall - Space.com

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity is gearing up for its first big road trip, a journey that will carry it through miles of dramatic Red Planet scenery over the course of a year or so.

The 1-ton Curiosity rover has remained close to its landing site since touching down on the Red Planet last August. But it will wrap up work in this area in the next few weeks, and then start trekking toward the base of Mount Sharp, a mysterious mountain that rises 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) into the Martian sky, mission team members said.

"We're going to hit the road and embark on a really new phase of the mission," Curiosity deputy project scientist Joy Crisp, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., told reporters Wednesday.

Mysterious Mount Sharp

The base of Mount Sharp has been Curiosity's ultimate destination since before the rover launched in November 2011. Mission scientists want Curiosity to read the Red Planet's environmental history like a book as it climbs up Mount Sharp's lower reaches.

"It's like looking at — kind of — the layers in [the] Grand Canyon," Crisp said. "It's preserving a record of how things were in the past and how they changed, as you go from the older rocks at the bottom to younger rocks at the top."

But Curiosity has yet to depart for Mount Sharp's foothills, finding plenty to keep it occupied near its landing site. In February, for example, the rover drilled deep into an outcrop dubbed "John Klein," pulling out samples that allowed the mission team to determine that Mars could have supported microbial life long ago.

Researchers wanted to confirm and extend this finding, so last month, they ordered Curiosity to drill another hole in a nearby rock called Cumberland. Analysis of those samples is ongoing, team members said.

Curiosity needs to complete three additional tasks before it can head out for Mount Sharp, Crisp said. The rover will search for differences in hydrogen abundance across two different types of bedrock, and it will take closer looks at intriguing nearby outcrops called Point Lake and Shaler.

"Shaler might be a river deposit. Point Lake might be volcanic or sedimentary," Crisp said in a statement. "A closer look at them could give us better understanding of how the rocks we sampled with the drill fit into the history of how the environment changed."

The rover should finish this work in the next few weeks, at which point it will start heading to the base of Mount Sharp.

A long drive

Mission planners are targeting a section of Mount Sharp's base that lies about 5 miles (8 km) from Curiosity's current location — quite a trek, considering that the rover has put just 2,405 feet (733 meters) on its odometer thus far.

The rover team isn't sure how long the drive will take, saying it will depend on what Curiosity — whose top speed across hard, flat ground is about 0.09 mph (0.14 km/h) — encounters along the way.

"We are on a mission of exploration," said Curiosity project manager Jim Erickson, also of JPL. "If we come across scientifically interesting areas, we are going to stop and examine them before continuing the journey."

Still, he gave a rough estimate for the journey's duration. "I would hazard a guess that somewhere between 10 months and a year might be something like a fast pace," Erickson said.

Turning point on Mars: Curiosity rover sets sights on mountain at last

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com's Cosmic Log

After spending the past four months drilling holes in rocks on Mars, the team controlling NASA's Curiosity rover has set a course for the $2.5 billion mission's ultimate destination, a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain in the middle of the crater where Curiosity landed 10 months ago.

"We're going to hit the road and embark on a really new phase of the mission," Joy Crisp, the mission's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said Wednesday during a teleconference with journalists.

Curiosity's managers selected Gale Crater specifically because of the mountain, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp. Its layers of rock are thought to preserve billions of years' worth of geological history. "It's like looking at the layers in Grand Canyon," Crisp explained.

A close examination of those layers could yield evidence of the chemical constituents of life. That's the top goal for the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which is slated to last two Earth years.

Valuable detour

The rover's current workplace, known as Glenelg, was actually a detour from the mountain trek, selected because orbital imagery suggested that it was an area of geological interest. That suggestion turned out to be right on: When Curiosity analyzed the powder that was drilled out of a rock nicknamed John Klein, researchers found that the material pointed to an ancient environment that would have been favorable for microbial life.

More recently, Curiosity spent three weeks to drill out samples and analyze the powder from a different rock nearby, nicknamed Cumberland. The rover's sample-handling device is hanging onto some of that powder in case scientists want to do further analysis.

Over the next several weeks, the 1-ton mobile lab will take on three more tasks at Glenelg. First, it will study a strange rocky outcrop called Point Lake, which has the texture of Swiss cheese. The rock might be composed of volcanic lava, or it might be sedimentary in nature. "It's a nice mystery," Crisp said.

Curiosity will also take a close look at a layered outcrop called Shaler, which might have been a riverbed in ancient times. Along the way, it will use an instrument known as DAN, or Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons, to check for the signatures of ancient water at a boundary between areas of mudstone and sandstone.

In the meantime, mission managers will pore through orbital imagery for stopping points of scientific interest on the 5-mile (8-kilometer) route from Glenelg to Mount Sharp. So far, the rover has put just 2,405 feet (733 meters) on its odometer, so the trek to Mount Sharp will be monumental. "Somewhere between 10 months and a year might be something like a fast pace" for the trip, said Jim Erickson, the mission's project manager.

Crisp said she and the team's other scientists were anxious to get started. "It's like being on a vacation, and you spend a lot of time in a little area, and you've done a lot there — and you want a change of pace," she said.

That 'Mars rat'

During the trip, Curiosity will no doubt pass by roadside attractions like the "Mars rat" that made such a splash over the past week. Crisp said the ratlike shape was created through wind erosion, mechanical abrasion and chemical weathering.

"In all honesty, I think that the scientists get so much more engrossed in the interesting textures and trying to figure out how the rocks form, that we're amused when people point out that this shape happens to look like something else," she said. "But we don't spend a lot of time thinking about why that is."

Crisp indicated that she didn't mind the hubbub over strange shapes. "It's kind of fun, in a way ... in that it will attract a lot of the public to look at the images, and learn a little bit about Mars," she said.

END

Keep the shuttle flying

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Thursday, June 6, 2013

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