Fwd: JSC Director News, July 2013

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From: JSC Director News <jsc-director-news@lists.nasa.gov>
Date: July 17, 2013 11:21:48 AM GMT-06:00
To: null <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>
Subject: JSC Director News, July 2013

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July 17, 2013

Greetings:

There's a lot going on at Johnson Space Center – check out the Summer 2013 edition of the Roundup to learn about wearable technology, the dark-matter seeking Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, the space station's amine swingbed testing that could provide breathable air in future spacecraft and more.

New Astronauts: NASA announced its newest astronaut class, which includes eight accomplished individuals who will be among the first to launch from U.S. soil on commercial American spacecraft since the space shuttle's retirement. The ASCANS, that's short for astronaut candidates, will arrive at JSC on August 20.

Top Technology: Our Robo-Glove has been judged one of 2013's top 100 technologies by the R&D 100 Awards managed by the R&D Magazine.

Center Staff Updates: The only constant is change. With mixed emotions I recently announced the moves of some of our amazing leadership at JSC. Our Chief Information Officer Larry Sweet was named NASA's new CIO and has left for Washington, D.C.  Also leaving, but for the realm of entrepreneurship, is Deputy Center Director Steve Altemus. Steve has been immensely helpful to me over the last six months, providing energy, enthusiasm and expertise for moving our center toward JSC 2.0. Kirk Shireman will be the center's new Deputy Director effective July 26. Kirk has been the deputy space station program manager since 2006 and recently co-led an international team with Steve that studied detailed cis-lunar architectures for exploration.

International Space Station (ISS): It's been busy inside and outside the space station already this July. On July 9, Flight Engineers Chris Cassidy of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency completed a successful spacewalk to begin readying the station for the Russian lab module that will be launched later this year. Then on Tuesday, July 16, the two began a second spacewalk which was terminated early by flight directors after Parmitano reported a buildup of water inside his helmet. Flight and ground teams are prepared to deal with serious situations such as this, and fortunately, the crew members are doing fine.  Engineers are busy evaluating the data to determine the cause of the leak.

ISS Science: You can read about cutting-edge cancer research made possible by microgravity in Popular Science magazine.

Orion: This picture has been causing quite a stir on the Web and blogosphere. NASA astronauts Cady Coleman and Ricky Arnold were photographed stepping into the Orion crew module hatch during a series of spacesuit check tests on June 13 in the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility. The Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) Crew Module is currently in the cleanroom assembly station.

Spacesuits: The Modified Advanced Crew Escape Suit (MACES) became the first NASA prototype suit submersed in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in more than 20 years. It is the baseline Orion launch-and-entry suit.

New Partnerships: JSC and Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions are partnering to offer advanced risk-management services aimed at oil and gas companies looking to minimize the risk of catastrophic failures that can occur in remote and harsh environments. (For example, activities like deep-water drilling, undersea production and pipeline operations all face the same kind of unpredicted and unpredictable events that pose a threat to space exploration.) JSC also signed an agreement with Inspiration Mars Foundation to provide technical information and support for a feasibility study of a proposed mission to Mars. This marks a first for NASA and JSC participating in a study of a proposed private human space mission.   

Ellen Ochoa
JSC Center Director

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