Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - September 6, 2013

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: September 6, 2013 6:46:07 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - September 6, 2013

Happy Friday everyone.   It was great to see all that were able to join us at Hibachi Grill yesterday – especially great to see Ben Fulbright and new retiree Fred Ouellette and Gerald and Mary Reuter.

 

Have a great and safe weekend you all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, September 6, 2013

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  All Hands Meeting Replays -  2013 JSC Energy Competition -  NEW.BOLD.INNOVATIVE - Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 -  NASA@work Monthly Bulletin: September Organizations/Social -  Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Sept. 10 Jobs and Training -  Do You Speak to the Public About Space Station?

First Hint of Sunrise From Space

 

Headlines All Hands Meeting Replays If you missed the All Hands with JSC Director Ellen Ochoa on Sept. 5, you can view the replays at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. both Tuesday, Sept. 10, and Thursday, Sept. 12.  JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility team members can watch the replays on RF Channel 2 or Omni 45. Those with wired computer network connections can view the All Hands using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 402. Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV.    If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 [top] 2013 JSC Energy Competition Are you doing your part to conserve energy at JSC? JSC, Ellington Field and Sonny Carter Training Facility buildings are competing to reduce energy consumption. Consider turning off your computer, your monitor, as well as any computer accessories before you leave this evening. Don't forget the switch on your power strip. Visit the JSC Green Team website to learn more about the competition and where your building stands in the effort to conserve energy. So far, Buildings 36 and 260 are in the lead, but several buildings are close on their tails! JSC Green Team x34627 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/greenteam.cfm [top] NEW.BOLD.INNOVATIVE - Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 It's Safety & Health Day 2.0.13. It's new, bold, innovative! On Oct. 10, the JSC team will participate in a half-day stand-down to focus on safety and health. We'll kick things off at 9 a.m. in Teague Auditorium with a welcome from JSC Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa, and then a presentation on distracted driving from guest speaker Christine Yager from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. From 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., visit informative exhibits and demonstrations around the JSC mall area. Flu shots will be offered in the Building 30 lobby from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Finally, close out the day with the Health Run/Walk at the Gilruth Center at 4 p.m. We need volunteers to help make this day a resounding success. If you're interested in volunteering, please contact one of our event co-chairs: Supricia Franklin at x37817 or Angel Plaza at x37305 Event Date: Thursday, October 10, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:5:00 PM Event Location: Teague Auditorium, Mall Area, Giluth Center Add to Calendar Supricia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] NASA@work Monthly Bulletin: September Check out what's inside this month's bulletin, including our latest Super Solver Spotlight (from JSC, Rolando Quintanilla!), winners of our Packing Foam Alternatives Challenge announced and the NASA@work tip of the month. And, don't forget to check out our active challenge! Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate! Read the September Bulletin. Visit the NASA@work site. Kathryn Keeton 281-204-1519 [top]    Organizations/Social Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Sept. 10 "Progress, not perfection" is a great reminder as the school year starts up to be flexible in our expectations of progress while maintaining achievable standards. 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, Sept. 10, in Building 32, Room 146, from 11 to 11:45 a.m. Visitors are welcome. Event Date: Tuesday, September 10, 2013   Event Start Time:11:00 AM   Event End Time:11:45 AM Event Location: B 32, Rm 146 Add to Calendar Employee Assistance Program x36130 http://sashare.jsc.nasa.gov/EAP/Pages/default.aspx [top]    Jobs and Training Do You Speak to the Public About Space Station? Build your communications repertoire to include specific space station research benefits by attending the International Space Station (ISS) Ambassadors workshop! Whether it is helping staff a booth at a NASA open house or talking to university alumni, participants will leave the workshop with more confidence in talking about the impact that ISS has in enabling exploration and improving our life here on Earth. Prerequisite: International Space Station Research 101 (online SATERN course -- JSC-AC-ISSR-101) Then register for SATERN course JSC-CM-ISSA from 9 to 11 a.m. on Sept. 11. Event Date: Wednesday, September 11, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM Event Location: B12 rooms 152 and 154 Add to Calendar Liz Warren x35548 [top]

 

JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·         UNDERWAY – Live Interviews on Lunar Atmosphere & Dust Environment Explorer Mission

·         2 pm Central (3 EDT) – Video File of E37/38 Crew News Conf at Star City & Red Square visit

·         3 pm Central (4 EDT) – Live Interviews on LADEE Mission

·         8:30 pm Central (9:30 EDT) – LADEE Mission Live Launch Coverage and Commentary

·         8:30 pm Central (9:30 EDT) – LADEE Mission NASA EDGE Live Webcast (Education Ch.)

·         10:27 pm Central (11:27 EDT) – LAUNCH

·         1 am Central SATURDAY (2 EDT) – LADEE Post Launch News Conference

·         6 am Central MONDAY (7 EDT) – Live Interviews with E37/38's Michael Hopkins fm Star City

 

Human Spaceflight News

Friday – September 6, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

New Moon Probe Raises Questions About What to Do Next in Space

 

Caroline Chen - New York Times

 

The last moon mission on NASA's current schedule — a small, unmanned spacecraft that will study moon dust and the lunar atmosphere — is scheduled to launch on Friday from Wallops Island, Va., elating scientists who study the moon but highlighting political questions about what NASA should do next. The Smart Car-size spacecraft, which NASA calls the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, will take 30 days to get into orbit around the moon, spend the next 30 days checking its equipment and proceed with scientific work for 100 days, searching for water molecules in the atmosphere and gathering data about the curious substance known as lunar dust.

 

NASA aiming for moon again, this time from Va.

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

NASA is headed back to the moon, this time to explore its thin atmosphere and rough dust. The robotic spacecraft LADEE (pronounced LA'-dee), will fly to the moon by way of Virginia's Eastern Shore. Liftoff is set for late Friday night from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. Weather permitting, the soaring Minotaur rocket should be visible along much of the East Coast - as far south as South Carolina, as far north as Maine and as far west as Pittsburgh. Scientists involved in the $280 million, moon-orbiting mission want to examine the lunar atmosphere - yes, that's right, the moon's atmosphere. Hitching a ride on LADEE is an experimental laser communication system designed to handle higher data rates than currently available. NASA hopes to eventually replace its traditional radio systems with laser communications, which uses less power and requires smaller transmitters and receivers, while providing lightning-fast bandwidth. NASA was hot on the lunar trail when it announced the LADEE mission in 2008. But the effort to return astronauts to the moon was canceled by President Barack Obama in 2010. The latest target destinations for human explorers: an asteroid, then Mars. The debate continues as to whether the moon is a more practical starting point.

 

New NASA spacecraft to investigate moon mystery

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

More than 40 years after the last Apollo astronauts left the moon, NASA is preparing to launch a small robotic spacecraft to investigate one of their most bizarre discoveries. Crews reported seeing an odd glow on the lunar horizon just before sunrise. The phenomenon, which prompted a notebook sketch by Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, was unexpected because the airless moon lacked atmosphere for reflecting sunlight. Scientists began to suspect that dust from the lunar surface was being electrically charged and somehow lofted off the ground, a theory that will be tested by the U.S. space agency's upcoming Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Experiment. The spacecraft, known as LADEE, is scheduled to be launched at 11:27 p.m. EDT on Friday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

 

Pressure mounts on Orbital Sciences with SpaceX likely unavailable for December cargo run

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Orbital Sciences Corp., which is preparing to send its Cygnus cargo freighter to the international space station (ISS) for the first time later this month, was put on notice Sept. 4 by a NASA official who said the Dulles, Va., company could be needed for another cargo run as soon as December because Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) — the agency's other cargo-delivery contractor — likely will not be ready to fly.

 

Russian Cosmonaut Bails Out of Upcoming Spaceflight

 

RIA Novosti

 

An experienced Russian spaceman set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 suddenly tendered his resignation for unclear reasons, a Russian space industry representative said Thursday. Yury Lonchakov will be formally discharged from his job on September 14, Irina Rogova of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center told RIA Novosti. Rogova's boss, Sergei Krikalev, was cited by Russian media as saying that Lonchakov "found a more interesting job," but did not elaborate. Rogova could not name Lonchakov's new job. No replacement was announced for the spaceman, who was set to fly to the ISS as the commander of Expedition 44 in May 2015 along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. The backup crew comprises Russian Oleg Kononenko, Japanese native Kimiya Yui and NASA representative Kjell N. Lindgren.

 

Russian Cosmonaut Resigns Space Station Command for 'Better Job'

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

A veteran Russian cosmonaut who was assigned to command the International Space Station in 2015 has unexpectedly resigned. Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov tendered his resignation to the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, on Thursday. Russian news agencies, quoting the head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, reported Lonchakov will be "formally discharged" on Sept. 14. "He came and told me that he had found a better job than working in space," Sergei Krikalev, the training center's chief and the current record holder for most time in space by any human, told the Interfax news service. "Frankly, we were counting on him because he was not just in the unit, [but] he was assigned to a crew."

 

Boeing makes a big splash testing new space capsule

 

Chris Sullivan - KIRO Radio - Seattle (posted on MyNorthwest.com)

 

Boeing is spending millions of dollars to design the next spacecraft to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. So how is the company treating the capsule it has designed that could be the future of manned space flight? By trying to break it in the Nevada desert. Boeing has spent the last few days dunking its eight-person space capsule into a giant tank of water to test the airbag system that will deploy when the capsule returns from low Earth orbit. The capsule is designed to touch down on land, but the company needs to test for a water landing should it need an alternate plan.

 

Orbital Sciences' first space station supply ship named after astronaut

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

When a first-of-its-kind commercial cargo spacecraft lifts off to the International Space Station later this month, it will fly under the name of the astronaut who helped make the historic mission possible. Orbital Sciences Corporation revealed Wednesday it had christened its first Cygnus resupply ship after G. David Low, a space shuttle astronaut who was overseeing the Dulles, Va. company's development of its commercial resupply launch system when he died of cancer in 2008.

 

UD researcher prepares studies for International Space Station

 

UDaily (Univ. of Delaware)

 

A University of Delaware researcher has received NASA funding to prepare experiments for the International Space Station (ISS). Chandran Sabanayagam, an associate scientist at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI), is developing a multi-generational study using the small microscopic worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, to understand how gravity affects biological processes at the cellular and molecular scales. "Little is known about the influence of gravity on living systems, and how organisms can adapt over many generations to changes in gravity," Sabanayagam said. "We want to understand the influence gravity has on gene expression, through epigenetics."

 

Astronaut nutrition: staying healthy for a year in space

 

Julianne Wyrick - Scientific American

 

When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly leaves the earth for his International Space Station mission in 2015, he won't walk the aisles of a grocery store for a year.  To ensure he and other long-term astronauts stay healthy, NASA must make certain they have the proper food in tow. I caught up with NASA nutritionist Scott Smith to see what NASA scientists are doing to prepare for missions like Kelly's (and along the way picked up an astronaut recipe to try at home). One essential nutrient NASA scientists have been studying in relation to long-term missions is iron.  People often cite the health implications of low iron, such as the fatigue-marked condition of anemia, and herald the benefits of high-iron foods, such as beef or spinach.  But a recent analysis of 23 astronauts' blood and urine samples suggests the opposite issue may be the concern for extended spaceflight: not too little iron, but too much.

 

Astronaut reveals 'lucky charm' floating on space station

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

An astronaut working onboard the International Space Station (ISS) has revealed his "lucky charm" — a miniature toy astronaut figurine — in a video recently sent down to Earth. "I was going through personal things [that] I have flown for people and came across my own personal item I'd like to share with everybody," NASA astronaut and Expedition 36 flight engineer Chris Cassidy said in the video, which was released online Wednesday (Sept. 4). "This little astronaut guy has seen better days but he has special meaning." In the video, Cassidy holds up and lets float the 3-inch-tall (7.6 centimeters) toy, which was sculpted to appear to be wearing the same type of spacesuit that Cassidy has worn on spacewalks outside the space station.

 

10 Things You Might Not Know About Superstar Astronaut Chris Hadfield

 

Andrew Moseman - Popular Mechanics

 

You probably saw the YouTube clips earlier this year of the Canadian astronaut and space station commander singing David Bowie or explaining the mechanics of eating in space. But a read-through of his forthcoming book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, out in October, reveals some interesting nuggets about the superstar spacewalker.

 

SpaceShipTwo surpasses first test

Flight exceeds 1,000 mph, 69,000 feet

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The vehicle aiming to become the world's first commercial spaceliner reached its top speed and altitude yet during a second rocket-powered test flight Thursday in California. With two pilots aboard, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo surpassed 1,000 mph and climbed to 69,000 feet before gliding to a runway landing at the Mojave Air and Space Port. The test flight was the second in a series that hopes to place the suborbital ship in space before the end of the year, ahead of rides next year for space tourists who have paid $200,000 a seat. "We couldn't be more delighted to have another major supersonic milestone under our belts as we move toward a 2014 start of commercial service," Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said in a video statement.

 

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo succeeds in second rocket-powered flight

 

Alex Knapp - Forbes

 

Earlier Thursday, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo successfully flew under its own power for the second time, achieving a speed of mach 1.43 and successfully meeting all of its test objectives. WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft that carries SpaceShipTwo into the air, launched at 8 am PT. They reached an altitude of 46,000 feet. At that point, SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo. The rocket engine was activated for a 20 second burn, pushing the ship past Mach 1.4. The ship reached a maximum altitude of 69,000 feet.

 

Walking a mile in a real NASA astronaut's underwater shoes

"Like changing the oil in your car… while wearing a ski suit and riding a skateboard"

 

Terry Dunn - ArsTechnica.com

 

(This first-hand account of training in the NBL is written by Terry Dunn, former NBL suit and tool engineer. In that role, Terry was privy to the inside workings and operations of a key facility in NASA's manned space flight program.)

 

"You're stone cold." The test conductor (TC) seemed to delight in telling me that I just committed a fatal spacewalking error (there are many to choose from). Her clever comments weren't needed to teach me the importance of proper tethering. The life-saving handrail retreating from my outstretched glove was obvious enough. In space, my transgression could have sent me into an irreversible trajectory away from the International Space Station (ISS), rendering me just another piece of space junk adrift in low-Earth orbit. This, however, was an exercise at NASA's pool used for spacewalk training, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston.

 

Budgeting for success

Space Launch System making progress despite budget constraints

 

Douglas Cooke - Florida Today (Opinion)

 

(Cooke retired from NASA in 2011 after a 38-year career leading human spaceflight and exploration programs, including three years as associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate)

 

The recent Florida Today article, "Delays, costs: Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles," failed to recognize the significant accomplishments the Space Launch System (SLS) is making in what are less than ideal conditions for such a complex development program. The actual work by NASA and industry is progressing in spite of the pressure of expectations and abnormal budget realities. This was demonstrated recently in a very successful SLS preliminary design review, showing this team has learned to operate in this difficult budget environment.

 

Shuttle time capsule to be sealed in Atlantis Monday

 

Dewayne Bevil - Orlando Sentinel

 

A time capsule filled with items related to NASA's shuttle program will be sealed within a wall of the space shuttle Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Monday, Sept. 9. A ceremony, set for 10 a.m., will be held inside the new Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Brevard County attraction. The time capsule is scheduled to be reopened in 2061. Inside the capsule are items such as a "Mission Accomplished" bear that traveled on Atlantis' last flight, a NASA logo sticker, mission patches from all 135 shuttle flights, a KSC lanyard and souvenir book, and director's coins that show off the accomplishments of all KSC directors.

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COMPLETE STORIES

 

New Moon Probe Raises Questions About What to Do Next in Space

 

Caroline Chen - New York Times

 

The last moon mission on NASA's current schedule — a small, unmanned spacecraft that will study moon dust and the lunar atmosphere — is scheduled to launch on Friday from Wallops Island, Va., elating scientists who study the moon but highlighting political questions about what NASA should do next.

 

The Smart Car-size spacecraft, which NASA calls the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, will take 30 days to get into orbit around the moon, spend the next 30 days checking its equipment and proceed with scientific work for 100 days, searching for water molecules in the atmosphere and gathering data about the curious substance known as lunar dust. Then the probe, which goes by the acronym Ladee (pronounced laddie), will take a death plunge into the rocky surface of the subject it is studying.

 

The results of the scientific program could be helpful in preparing for future manned missions to the moon. Although NASA currently does not have such plans, some members of Congress have called on the space agency to return to the moon rather than pursuing its current space objectives.

 

Although there is wide agreement that NASA should ultimately aim for a manned flight to Mars, that goal is far off. The more immediate plan, which has been criticized on Capitol Hill, is to capture an asteroid and tow it closer to home so astronauts can visit it.

 

But NASA has continued sending unmanned spacecraft to the moon; the coming mission will be the third to go there in five years. While scientists are excited about what the experiment may yield, they are also concerned about the absence of future moon voyages on NASA's schedule.

 

"If you're going to fly this mission with the goal of understanding the atmosphere and how dust might affect future human missions, and you don't have the future human missions, then part of the reason for the mission disappears," said David Kring, senior staff scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, a NASA-financed research institute in Houston.

 

Even if NASA sits on the sidelines, traffic to the moon will be busy. China announced last week that it would land its first exploratory rover on the moon by the end of the year. India, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency also have unmanned missions in the works. And Google is sponsoring a competition called the Lunar X Prize, offering up to $20 million to the first company that can send a robotic spacecraft to the moon by 2015 and make it perform certain tasks.

 

The Ladee spacecraft was conceived when NASA was also planning new manned missions to the moon, which would have been the first since 1972. But the Obama administration canceled that program, called Constellation, in 2010, calling it over budget and behind schedule. Ladee stayed in the pipeline.

 

The spacecraft will search for water in the very thin lunar atmosphere, which is estimated to be 1/100,000th the density of Earth's, perhaps similar to Mercury's. Scientists want to find out how the ice on the moon's poles managed to get there, said Richard Elphic, project scientist for the mission. They speculate that water molecules in the moon's atmosphere may have migrated toward the poles and frozen in place, he said.

 

Evidence of water below the moon's surface was discovered in recent years by a NASA-financed instrument aboard an Indian spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1. Data collected from the coming mission could help complete the picture of the moon's water cycle, Dr. Elphic said.

 

The orbiter will also examine the movements of lunar dust. "Dust" is a bit of a misnomer, the scientists said: the crushed debris is extremely fine but also has jagged, sharp edges, since there is no wind or water on the moon's surface to wear it down.

 

"It's certainly more annoying than terrestrial dust," said Sarah Noble, program scientist for the mission. "It's like shards of glass, and it sticks to everything. If it gets into your eyes or your skin, it's abrasive and it hurts. It also really gums up machinery."

 

The dust poses a risk to robots and humans alike, as it can wreak havoc on equipment and spacesuits. Understanding the way the dust moves through the atmosphere will help scientists better prepare for longer missions on the moon, Dr. Elphic said.

 

Not everyone agrees that dust is a major concern. "Dust on the lunar surface does not pose a serious risk to future lunar exploration," Dr. Kring said, pointing out that astronauts managed to survive the dust without major problems. But he still saw value in the dust inquiry, saying, "We always want to reduce the risk, and to understand the dust phenomenon in and of itself is worthwhile."

 

NASA said the launching would break technological ground. Previously, spacecraft were custom-made for each mission and the models were not reusable. But this spacecraft was designed for assembly-line production, so that future missions could save money by using identical components.

 

The spacecraft's design and construction cost $125 million out of a mission price of $250 million, said Dwayne Brown, a NASA spokesman. If the same design were used again, Mr. Brown said, NASA estimates that the cost would drop to $90 million for the first spacecraft and then over time to $55 million each. At the moment, though, NASA does not have other projects lined up to reuse the model, he said.

 

The spacecraft will ride on the maiden voyage of the Minotaur V rocket built by the Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of several private contractors NASA has turned to in recent years to supply rockets for its missions. The launching will be the first lunar mission for Orbital, as well as the first moon journey departing from Wallops Island.

 

In 2009 and 2011, Orbital lost two NASA satellites in failed launching of its Taurus XL rocket, costing the agency more than $600 million.

 

For this mission to succeed, Ladee will need to launch, separate from the Minotaur V, and insert itself into lunar orbit. Then, NASA will be able to begin its experiments.

 

"Once we're on the moon, we'll breathe a big sigh of relief," Dr. Noble said.

 

NASA aiming for moon again, this time from Va.

 

Marcia Dunn - Associated Press

 

NASA is headed back to the moon, this time to explore its thin atmosphere and rough dust.

 

The robotic spacecraft LADEE (pronounced LA'-dee), will fly to the moon by way of Virginia's Eastern Shore.

 

Liftoff is set for late Friday night from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility.

 

Weather permitting, the soaring Minotaur rocket should be visible along much of the East Coast - as far south as South Carolina, as far north as Maine and as far west as Pittsburgh.

 

LADEE - short for Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer - will be the first spacecraft to be launched into outer space from Wallops. And it will be the first moonshot ever from Virginia in 54 years of lunar missions.

 

The unmanned Minotaur rocket consists of converted intercontinental ballistic missile motors. A peace treaty between the United States and Russia specifies the acceptable launch sites for those missile parts; Wallops is on that short list.

 

All but one of NASA's approximately 40 moon missions - most memorably the manned Apollo flights of the late 1960s and early 1970s - originated from Cape Canaveral. The most recent were the twin Grail spacecraft launched two years ago this weekend. The lone exception, Clementine, a military-NASA venture, rocketed away from Southern California in 1994.

 

Scientists involved in the $280 million, moon-orbiting mission want to examine the lunar atmosphere - yes, that's right, the moon's atmosphere.

 

"Sometimes, people are a little taken aback when we start talking about the lunar atmosphere because, right, we were told in school that the moon doesn't have an atmosphere," said Sarah Noble, NASA program scientist.

 

"It does. It's just really, really thin."

 

The atmosphere is so thin and delicate, in fact, that spacecraft landings can disturb it. So now is the time to go, Noble said, before other countries and even private companies start bombarding the moon and fouling up the atmosphere.

 

Just last week, China announced plans to launch a lunar lander by year's end.

 

There's evidence Mercury also has a tenuous atmosphere, where, like our moon, the atmospheric molecules are so sparse that they never collide. Some moons of other planets also fall into that category, as do some big asteroids.

 

Earth's moon is relatively close, and by studying its atmosphere, scientists will learn about similar atmospheres in places farther afield, Noble said.

 

Scientists also are eager to measure the lunar dust and see whether the abrasive, equipment-clogging particles actually levitate right off the surface. None of the previous moon missions focused exclusively on the atmosphere and dust.

 

It will take LADEE - the size of a small car coming in under 1,000 pounds - one month to get close enough to the moon to go into lunar orbit, followed by another month to check its three scientific instruments. Then the spacecraft will be maneuvered from 30 miles to 90 miles above the lunar surface, where it will collect data for just over three months.

 

The mission will last six months and end with a suicide plunge into the moon.

 

NASA is inviting amateur astronomers to keep an eye out for any meteoric impacts on the moon once LADEE arrives there on Oct. 6. Such information will help scientists understand the effect of impacts on the lunar atmosphere and dust environment.

 

Hitching a ride on LADEE is an experimental laser communication system designed to handle higher data rates than currently available. NASA hopes to eventually replace its traditional radio systems with laser communications, which uses less power and requires smaller transmitters and receivers, while providing lightning-fast bandwidth.

 

NASA was hot on the lunar trail when it announced the LADEE mission in 2008. But the effort to return astronauts to the moon was canceled by President Barack Obama in 2010.

 

The latest target destinations for human explorers: an asteroid, then Mars. The debate continues as to whether the moon is a more practical starting point.

 

The Air Force Minotaur V rocket was built by Orbital Sciences Corp. The Virginia-based company is scheduled to make its first-ever supply run to the International Space Station in just two weeks, using its own Antares rocket. Wallops will host that launch as well.

 

New NASA spacecraft to investigate moon mystery

 

Irene Klotz - Reuters

 

More than 40 years after the last Apollo astronauts left the moon, NASA is preparing to launch a small robotic spacecraft to investigate one of their most bizarre discoveries.

 

Crews reported seeing an odd glow on the lunar horizon just before sunrise. The phenomenon, which prompted a notebook sketch by Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, was unexpected because the airless moon lacked atmosphere for reflecting sunlight.

 

Scientists began to suspect that dust from the lunar surface was being electrically charged and somehow lofted off the ground, a theory that will be tested by the U.S. space agency's upcoming Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Experiment.

 

The spacecraft, known as LADEE, is scheduled to be launched at 11:27 p.m. EDT on Friday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

 

"Terrestrial dust is like talcum powder. On the moon, it's very rough. It's kind of evil. It follows electric field lines, it works its way in equipment. ... It's a very difficult environment to deal with," said LADEE project manager Butler Hine of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

 

In addition to studying fly-away lunar dust, LADEE will probe the tenuous envelope of gases that surrounds the moon, a veneer so thin it stretches the meaning of the word "atmosphere."

 

Instead, scientists refer to these environments as exospheres and hope that understanding the moon's gaseous shell will shed light on similar pockets around Mercury, asteroids and other airless bodies.

 

"LADEE is part of a much broader scientific exploration of the solar system," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science.

 

The $280 million mission also includes an experimental laser optical communications system that NASA hopes to incorporate into future planetary probes, including a Mars rover scheduled for launch in 2020.

 

The prototype is based on technology used in terrestrial fiber-optic communications systems, such as Verizon's FiOS. NASA says the system should be at least six times faster than conventional radio communications. Also, its transmitters and receivers weigh half as much as similar radio communications equipment and use 25 percent less power.

 

"On the Earth, we've been using laser communication and fiber optics to power our Internet and everything else for the last couple of decades," Grunsfeld said. "NASA has really been wanting to make that same technological leap and put it into space. This is our chance to do that."

 

LADEE's optical communications system, which includes three ground stations in addition to LADEE, will be tested before the probe drops into a low lunar orbit to begin its science mission about 60 days after launch.

 

Just getting to the moon will take LADEE 30 days - 10 times longer than the Apollo missions due to the probe's relatively low-powered Minotaur 5 launcher.

 

The rocket is comprised of three refurbished intercontinental ballistic missile motors and two commercially provided boosters. The Minotaur 5 configuration will be flying for the first time with LADEE.

 

The use of decommissioned missile components drove the decision to fly from NASA's Wallops Island facility, one of only a few launch sites permitted to fly refurbished ICBMs under U.S.-Russian arms control agreements.

 

Pressure mounts on Orbital Sciences with SpaceX likely unavailable for December cargo run

 

Dan Leone - Space News

 

Orbital Sciences Corp., which is preparing to send its Cygnus cargo freighter to the international space station (ISS) for the first time later this month, was put on notice Sept. 4 by a NASA official who said the Dulles, Va., company could be needed for another cargo run as soon as December because Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) — the agency's other cargo-delivery contractor — likely will not be ready to fly.

 

Orbital is slated to launch Cygnus Sept. 17 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. It will be Cygnus' maiden flight and the sophomore effort for its Antares carrier rocket, which flew successfully in its own demo mission April 21. Orbital is slated to carry nonessential cargo to ISS in order to prove the company is ready to begin service under the eight-flight, $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract it signed with NASA in 2008.

 

SpaceX also got a delivery contract from NASA in 2008: a 12-flight deal worth $1.8 billion. The Hawthorne, Calif., company already has made two of those runs, the second of which wrapped up in March. Since then, SpaceX has been working on a more powerful variant of the Falcon 9 rocket that launched those missions, as well as an enhanced version of its Dragon space capsule.

 

That work will keep SpaceX from returning to ISS in 2013, said Michael Suffredini, NASA's ISS program manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

 

"I would not expect them to be ready in December, or even January time frame," Suffredini said during a Sept. 4 press briefing from Johnson.

 

SpaceX spokeswoman Christina Ra, reached by email Sept. 4, had no immediate comment."

 

Par for the course during the development of a new launch vehicle, SpaceX ran into delays with its so-called Falcon 9 1.1, which is slated to debut Sept. 14 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket will not carry Dragon on that launch, but a Canadian space weather satellite called Cassiope and several ride-along payloads.

 

Should Orbital be called upon to make its first contracted cargo run in December, it could mean turning around its launch pad, rocket and spacecraft in just under three months. Back in 2012, SpaceX flew its first contracted cargo run about four months after successfully completing the same type of demonstration mission Orbital will attempt Sept. 17 from the Virginia coast.

 

In April, Mike Laidley, Orbital's program director for Antares, said the minimum turnaround time between Antares missions is about one month.

 

Even if both SpaceX and Orbital should be unavailable in December, Suffredini said ISS is well provisioned and could ride out a missed delivery.

 

The Ukrainian-built core-stage of each Antares rocket uses two AJ-26 engines, Soviet-vintage, kerosene-fueled engines from a failed Russian Moon exploration program that have been upgraded, refurbished and rebadged by Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif. Antares' upper stage is powered by a solid motor provided by ATK Aerospace of Magna, Utah. Cygnus, which is assembled by Orbital at its Dulles campus is built around a pressurized module provided by Italy's Thales Alenia Space.

 

Frank Culbertson, the former NASA astronaut who now runs Orbital's Advanced Programs Group, said the company already has all the hardware it needs to put together an Antares-Cygnus stack for a December cargo run. Most of that is standing by at Wallops, with the exception of the Cygnus power module that would be used for that flight, and Antares' solid-fueled second stage.

 

All told, and excluding the stack to be launched Sept. 17, Orbital has in the United States three rockets worth of hardware standing by, and three Cygnus power modules in varying stages of assembly, Culbertson said. Thales Alenia is now working on the eighth Cygnus pressurized cargo module and has others in storage in Italy awaiting shipment. There is one pressurized cargo module standing by at Wallops, Culbertson said.

 

Meanwhile, Suffredini took time on the Sept. 4 conference call to highlight NASA's expectation that both of its cargo-delivery contractors establish reliable service in the near future.

 

"It's time for us really to start having flights on a regular basis," Suffredini said.

 

"I'm looking for this next year, 2014, to be the year when we fully settle in, where we have regular Orbital flights and regular SpaceX flights and we actually see them, give or take, within a few weeks of when we expect to have them."

 

SpaceX and Orbital are under contract for cargo runs through 2016. NASA is expected to seek bids for a second round of commercial cargo delivery service late this year or early in 2014.

 

Russian Cosmonaut Bails Out of Upcoming Spaceflight

 

RIA Novosti

 

An experienced Russian spaceman set to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 suddenly tendered his resignation for unclear reasons, a Russian space industry representative said Thursday.

 

Yury Lonchakov will be formally discharged from his job on September 14, Irina Rogova of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center told RIA Novosti.

 

Rogova's boss, Sergei Krikalev, was cited by Russian media as saying that Lonchakov "found a more interesting job," but did not elaborate. Rogova could not name Lonchakov's new job.

 

No replacement was announced for the spaceman, who was set to fly to the ISS as the commander of Expedition 44 in May 2015 along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. The backup crew comprises Russian Oleg Kononenko, Japanese native Kimiya Yui and NASA representative Kjell N. Lindgren.

 

Lonchakov, 48, had been on the Russian cosmonaut squad since 1998 and made three space trips between 2001 and 2009, including one in the company of space tourist Charles Simonyi of Microsoft. Lonchakov spent a total of 200 days in orbit and made two spacewalks with the combined duration of more than 10 hours.

 

The Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center has been rocked by reorganization problems since 2009, when it was transferred from the Defense Ministry to the civilian Federal Space Agency. An unnamed Russian cosmonaut told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper last year that the prolonged reorganization had affected cosmonauts' income and career prospects, breeding discontent in the ranks.

 

Once a dream job for Soviet kids, being a cosmonaut does not hold much allure in modern Russia: Only 5 percent of adult Russians actually wanted to grow up to be cosmonauts, with doctors, teachers, truck drivers and aviators all being more popular, according to a 2011 study by the Public Opinion Foundation. Russia's first-ever open cosmonaut recruitment drive attracted a mere 300 applications last year, compared with 6,000 for NASA in 2011.

 

Russian Cosmonaut Resigns Space Station Command for 'Better Job'

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

A veteran Russian cosmonaut who was assigned to command the International Space Station in 2015 has unexpectedly resigned.

 

Cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov tendered his resignation to the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos, on Thursday. Russian news agencies, quoting the head of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, reported Lonchakov will be "formally discharged" on Sept. 14.

 

"He came and told me that he had found a better job than working in space," Sergei Krikalev, the training center's chief and the current record holder for most time in space by any human, told the Interfax news service. "Frankly, we were counting on him because he was not just in the unit, [but] he was assigned to a crew."

 

Lonchakov was scheduled to fly as the commander of the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA-16M, launching in March 2015 with Roscosmos cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, the space station's first two yearlong crew members.

 

Once on board the orbiting laboratory, Lonchakov was set to join the Expedition 43 crew as a flight engineer before taking over command of the space station as the leader of Expedition 44 in May 2015. He was then to return to Earth in October 2015.

 

Lonchakov's replacement on the crew was not announced. Backing him up on the Soyuz TMA-16M crew was Alexei Ovchinin, a fellow Roscosmos cosmonaut.

 

Lonchakov, 48, joined the cosmonaut corps in 1997 and flew three spaceflights to the International Space Station. He first launched on NASA's space shuttle Endeavour as a member of the STS-100 crew in 2001, helping to deliver the Canadarm2 robotic arm during the 12-day mission.

 

The next year, he flew on board the first Soyuz TMA-class spacecraft, Soyuz TMA-1, for a 10-day flight to the space station.

 

Lonchakov's third — and now final — spaceflight began in October 2008 with the launch of Soyuz TMA-13, the 100th crewed Soyuz spacecraft to fly. Serving as an Expedition 18 flight engineer, Lonchakov spent 178 days in space, bringing his career total to 200 days (and 19 hours) off the planet.

 

During his last stay on board the International Space Station, Lonchakov also performed two spacewalks to retrieve and install science experiments mounted on the outside of the complex, for a total extravehicular activity (EVA) time of 10 hours and 27 minutes.

 

Krikalev said the reasons for Lonchakov's departure were not clear. The new job that lured Lonchakov away from the cosmonaut corps was not disclosed.

 

Lonchakov is not the first career space explorer to resign for a new career, even after being assigned to a mission. NASA astronaut Joan Higginbotham left the U.S. space agency in November 2007 to become a vice president of an oil company. Her departure came the month after she was named to the crew of STS-126, which would have been her second space shuttle mission.

 

Boeing makes a big splash testing new space capsule

 

Chris Sullivan - KIRO Radio - Seattle (posted on MyNorthwest.com)

 

Boeing is spending millions of dollars to design the next spacecraft to shuttle astronauts to the International Space Station. So how is the company treating the capsule it has designed that could be the future of manned space flight? By trying to break it in the Nevada desert.

 

Boeing has spent the last few days dunking its eight-person space capsule into a giant tank of water to test the airbag system that will deploy when the capsule returns from low Earth orbit.

 

The capsule is designed to touch down on land, but the company needs to test for a water landing should it need an alternate plan.

 

"These drop tests are really exciting when you drop something as a big as a simulated space craft that weighs 7-and-a-half tons and you're dropping it at 20, 30 miles an hour from 20 feet up in the air," says Boeing testing director John McKinney. "It's pretty exciting stuff."

 

McKinney says they need to bounce this capsule off the water and on the ground next in the month to find out if all their calculations on the design will work.

 

"Instead of getting a real hard landing that would probably break the space craft and injure the astronauts, we control that landing, get down to about 10 G's or so, to limit the risk of injuries to the crew and to keep the capsule from being damaged."

 

McKinney says the impact is designed to be about 10 G's, but that's still a pretty rough landing.

 

"So we'll pour over all of the test data and make sure that we're not exceeding the limits of our space craft or the limits of what the human tolerance level is and these tests will confirm the design of our system."

 

Boeing is one of three companies fighting for the NASA contract to build the next generation of manned space vehicles. The company plans to put this capsule into orbit in 2016 and put astronauts into space in 2017, if everything works out and NASA likes what it sees.

 

"If we're lucky enough to win the next phase of this and launch this thing into outer space that will be kind of the kingpin of the whole thing," says McKinney.

 

Orbital Sciences' first space station supply ship named after astronaut

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

When a first-of-its-kind commercial cargo spacecraft lifts off to the International Space Station later this month, it will fly under the name of the astronaut who helped make the historic mission possible.

 

Orbital Sciences Corporation revealed Wednesday it had christened its first Cygnus resupply ship after G. David Low, a space shuttle astronaut who was overseeing the Dulles, Va. company's development of its commercial resupply launch system when he died of cancer in 2008.

 

"Orbital has a tradition going back 25 years or more of naming many of our launch vehicles and spacecraft, and we're going to continue that tradition on this one," Frank Culbertson, Orbital's executive vice president and a former NASA astronaut, told reporters Wednesday. "We are very proud to name the spacecraft 'G. David Low' and carry this tradition and honor him in this way into space."

 

Scheduled for a Sept. 17 launch atop an Orbital Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad 0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the resupply ship G. David Low will demonstrate for the space agency that Orbital's Cygnus freighters can safely deliver supplies to the space station.

 

The barrel-shaped unmanned spacecraft will carry about 1,540 pounds (700 kilograms) of cargo on this first flight, comprised mostly of food for the orbiting laboratory's crew. After this demonstration proves Cygnus' capabilities, later missions will deliver science experiments and their related hardware, spare parts and other more critical supplies.

 

Orbital developed Cygnus and Antares as part of NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) effort. After a successful completion of this mission, Orbital will begin conducting eight planned cargo flights to the space station under a $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with the space agency.

 

"Our name for this [spacecraft, G. David Low] is going to reflect a real pioneer in the space program, particularly at Orbital, who was instrumental in winning the COTS demo mission and also winning the CRS [contract]," Culbertson said.

 

Low, who was the son of an Apollo program manager and deputy administrator of NASA, flew three shuttle missions between 1990 and 1993. He joined Orbital Sciences three years later as the company's vice president for safety and mission assurance. He became senior vice president and COTS program manager in 2006.

 

Orbital is one of two companies flying missions under the COTS and CRS programs for NASA. The agency awarded similar partial-funding contracts to Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX, which since 2006 has flown two demo flights and two resupply missions using its Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule.

 

Orbital's G. David Low flight to the space station is slated to be the final mission under the COTS program.

 

"This flight with Orbital is their second flight — they had a very successful demonstration with the Antares vehicle as part of our COTS demonstration program last April," said NASA's COTS program manager Alan Lindenmoyer. "This time they are going to be demonstrating a full mission with a brand new, state-of-the-art, cargo-carrying, autonomous spacecraft, Cygnus."

 

"So this represents the culmination of the COTS program after many years," added Lindenmoyer.

 

A Sept. 17 launch of Orbital's G. David Low Cygnus sets up a Sept. 22 arrival at the International Space Station, where Expedition 37 crew members will use the outpost's Canadarm2 robot arm to capture and berth the cargo craft. The rendezvous will follow a series of test maneuvers by the spacecraft to demonstrate its ability to navigate to and around the space station.

 

The crew will then have a month to unpack the spacecraft and repack it with trash before they detach and release it from the space station to be destroyed during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

 

"Orbital has been involved in human spaceflight for a long time, but this is the first time we've ever actually launched a dedicated spacecraft carrying cargo for consumption in space," Culbertson told collectSPACE.com. "So this is a big deal for us."

 

UD researcher prepares studies for International Space Station

 

UDaily (Univ. of Delaware)

 

A University of Delaware researcher has received NASA funding to prepare experiments for the International Space Station (ISS).

 

Chandran Sabanayagam, an associate scientist at the Delaware Biotechnology Institute (DBI), is developing a multi-generational study using the small microscopic worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, to understand how gravity affects biological processes at the cellular and molecular scales.

 

"Little is known about the influence of gravity on living systems, and how organisms can adapt over many generations to changes in gravity," Sabanayagam said. "We want to understand the influence gravity has on gene expression, through epigenetics."

 

Epigenetics is the study of inheritable changes in protein expression, due to chemical modifications of DNA histone proteins. Unlike DNA mutations that are typically thought to drive evolution in a slow process that can take hundreds to thousands of years, epigenetic changes can occur over a single generation to help an organism adapt to sudden changes in the environment.

 

Before the project takes flight, Sabanayagam will be preparing ground-based studies that will focus on creating an "altered gravity" environment for the worms.

 

Sabanayagam's epigenetic studies will require screening a number worm strains to find the ideal specimen for space investigations. The current cost for ISS crew members to handle experiments is $50,000 per hour, making screening in space cost prohibitive.

 

Therefore, Sabanayagam needs to develop an altered gravity environment here on the ground. This will be achieved through the development of a rotating fluorescence microscope. Altered gravity will be produced by rotating the microscope and worms in such a manner that the worms become periodically inverted, he said. "If we rotate the microscope and worms in a specific manner, the worms will free-fall and perceive a microgravity environment similar to the ISS."

 

This, he said, is one scheme for producing altered gravity whereby the gravity vector moves continuously and smoothly in one direction. But Sabanayagam will also be able to produce other exotic altered gravity environments that probably do not occur in nature, such as random and abrupt changes in rotation.

 

"The key strategy is to identify genes that respond to altered gravity, and we hypothesize that these genes, or a subset of them, will also be influenced by microgravity," he said.

 

Sabanayagam, who received the grant in part due to his ability to access leading-edge equipment at UD, said the study will utilize the third generation Pacific Bioscience RS DNA sequencer at DBI's DNA Sequencing and Genotyping Center. UD is one of the few universities in the country equipped with the advanced device.

 

"The Pacific Biosciences RS DNA Sequencer is the most advanced DNA sequencing platform currently available, UD is extremely fortunate to have it," said Bruce Kingham, director of the DNA Sequencing and Genotyping Center and project collaborator. "The Pacific Biosciences platform affords us a new level of resolution and specificity that has never existed in genomics research."

 

"Once we identify genes that are up-regulated or down-regulated as a result of the animals' exposure to altered gravity, we can label those genes with fluorescent biomarkers," Sabanayagam said. "Then we can follow the expression of those genes throughout many generations exposed to altered gravity, ultimately onboard the ISS.

 

"Worms and humans are more closely related than you would think, because nature seems to conserve basic functions across many diverse animals. The fundamental mechanisms of gravity adaptation in worms will likely resemble a similar response in humans."

 

This is not Sabanayagam's first time developing a microscope whose ultimate destination is space. In fact, the design of the altered gravity microscope builds on a prototype developed for an earlier NASA-funded project where Sabanayagam is working on building a small high resolution microscope that will be used for experiments in satellite orbit.

 

Astronaut nutrition: staying healthy for a year in space

 

Julianne Wyrick - Scientific American

 

When NASA astronaut Scott Kelly leaves the earth for his International Space Station mission in 2015, he won't walk the aisles of a grocery store for a year.  To ensure he and other long-term astronauts stay healthy, NASA must make certain they have the proper food in tow.

 

I caught up with NASA nutritionist Scott Smith to see what NASA scientists are doing to prepare for missions like Kelly's (and along the way picked up an astronaut recipe to try at home).

 

One essential nutrient NASA scientists have been studying in relation to long-term missions is iron.  People often cite the health implications of low iron, such as the fatigue-marked condition of anemia, and herald the benefits of high-iron foods, such as beef or spinach.  But a recent analysis of 23 astronauts' blood and urine samples suggests the opposite issue may be the concern for extended spaceflight: not too little iron, but too much.

 

"In flight, you end up with more iron than you need because your blood volume contracts," said Smith, who was also the main author for the study. "When you reduce your blood volume you have increased iron storage."

 

Instead of boosting health, the extra iron may actually be causing bone loss, according to the research, which was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in May.  In other words, astronauts' bone breaks down faster than new bone is made.  The study showed that an increased storage of iron correlated with increased bone loss in astronauts on missions ranging from two to eight months.

 

Bone loss is a major nutrition-related issue for astronauts on long-term missions, as they have been known to lose bone density at an average rate of 1 to 2 percent a month. These numbers may be meaningless until you compare them to the rate at which an elderly person loses bone, which is a mere 1 to 2 percent a year.  The decreased bone density means the astronauts have an increased risk of bone fracture once they return to earth, similar to the way an elderly person with osteoporosis is more prone to breaking bones.

 

While the effect of iron on bone loss may be less of a concern for an average, healthy person on earth, the prolonged weightlessness of spaceflight makes astronauts prone to lose bone mass, which means the further effect of nutrients like iron are an important consideration.

 

"One of our concerns is that the effect of diet on bone is likely greater the longer you're up there," Smith said, meaning the relationship between nutrients like iron and bone density loss is of special concern for long-duration missions, like Kelly's yearlong space station mission.

 

"When we flew shuttle missions of two weeks, we always looked at those as just sort of camping trips; you can eat pretty much anything and get away with it."

 

But once you reach missions of 30 days and above, Smith said proper nutrition becomes more important-whether it's maintaining proper levels of iron or any other nutrient.

 

"As we approach longer space missions, initially extending from six months to 12, and someday beyond that, nutrition will play a critical role in the health and safety of crew members on these missions, and in the ultimate success of these next steps in space exploration."

 

And if you want to test out a little of this astronaut nutrition yourself, check out this recipe, courtesy of NASA Space Food Systems Laboratory – it contains moderate iron and high protein:

 

NASA Mini Vegetable Quiche – adapted for small scale preparation

 

Ingredients:

·         4 whole eggs

·         3/4 cup canned low-fat evaporated milk, 2%

·         ½ lb. fresh zucchini

·         4 oz. cream cheese

·         1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

·         ½ cup Swiss cheese, shredded

·         Tops of 3 fresh green onions

·         1 cup corn flake crumbs

·         1 tbsp unsalted butter

·         1 tsp coarse grind black pepper

·         No-stick cooking spray

 

Instructions:

1.     Remove cream cheese from the refrigerator so that it can soften.

2.     Preheat convection oven to 275° F.

3.     Spray petite loaf pans with the no-stick cooking spray.

4.     Coat each compartment of the loaf pans with corn flake crumbs.

5.     Wash green onions and zucchini thoroughly.

6.     Trim ends from zucchini. Grate zucchini.

7.     Chop sliced mushrooms and the green onions.

8.     Place softened cream cheese into a bowl and beat until smooth.  Add evaporated milk to the cream cheese, a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.

9.     Add eggs to the cream cheese mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.

10.   Heat sauté pan over medium heat. Melt butter and sauté chopped green onions and mushrooms just until soft, about 5 minutes.

11.   Add black pepper to sautéed vegetables.  Mix well and set aside.

12.   Combine sautéed vegetables with zucchini and Swiss cheese; mix well.

13.   Combine vegetable mixture with egg mixture and mix well.

14.   Add vegetable quiche to each compartment until the compartment is almost filled to the top.

15.   Bake pans of quiche for approximately 25-27 minutes at 275° F (until internal temperature is 170° F).  The quiche will rise a bit during cooking and then fall slightly.  Cooked quiche may brown slightly on top.

16.   Allow quiche to cool before removing from pans.

 

Astronaut reveals 'lucky charm' floating on space station

 

Robert Pearlman - collectSPACE.com

 

 

An astronaut working onboard the International Space Station (ISS) has revealed his "lucky charm" — a miniature toy astronaut figurine — in a video recently sent down to Earth.

 

"I was going through personal things [that] I have flown for people and came across my own personal item I'd like to share with everybody," NASA astronaut and Expedition 36 flight engineer Chris Cassidy said in the video, which was released online Wednesday (Sept. 4). "This little astronaut guy has seen better days but he has special meaning."

 

In the video, Cassidy holds up and lets float the 3-inch-tall (7.6 centimeters) toy, which was sculpted to appear to be wearing the same type of spacesuit that Cassidy has worn on spacewalks outside the space station.

 

"Before I was selected as an astronaut, I knew I wanted to become one and I somehow came across this guy in a toy set for my kids, or something like that," Cassidy recalled.

 

Flying to the space station is just the latest adventure for the plastic figure, said Cassidy.

 

As a Navy SEAL, Cassidy was deployed on four 6-month missions, including being sent to Afghanistan two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the U.S..

 

"I took him with me to Afghanistan every time and he was always in my pocket on every mission that I did," Cassidy described from aboard the space station.

 

Cassidy was chosen to join NASA's ranks in 2004 with the agency's 19th group of astronaut candidates.

 

"When I was selected to become an astronaut, I felt like [the figurine] was a good luck charm, so he has been with me every step of the way," Cassidy said. "He often flies in T-38 [training jets] with me and various other places. I just leave him in the pocket of my flight suit and I often kind of forget that he is there."

 

"It [also] flew on the space shuttle," added Cassidy, who made his first visit to the space station on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-127 mission in 2009.

 

NASA astronauts are permitted to carry a small number of mementos and personal items to space, as souvenirs for family and friends, as well as remembrances of home. In addition to the astronaut figure, Cassidy also brought with him to the space station a medallion bearing the likeness of John F. Kennedy, which he said was to pay tribute to the former president's space legacy.

 

To date, Cassidy's lucky charm has logged more than 176 days off the planet — and it still has five more days to go. Cassidy and two of his fellow crewmates are scheduled to depart the space station and return to Earth on board a Russian Soyuz capsule on Sept. 10.

 

"He'll be right with me on our descent in the Soyuz," said Cassidy.

 

The "soft" landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan will be one more bump along the lucky charm's journey.

 

"This little astronaut guy, [he's] got one broken arm, which happened in Afghanistan, but short of that he is in good shape," Cassidy remarked. "Got a few scratches on his visor there — I'll have to give him some training on how to control himself during spacewalks so he doesn't bump his visor."

 

10 Things You Might Not Know About Superstar Astronaut Chris Hadfield

 

Andrew Moseman - Popular Mechanics

 

You probably saw the YouTube clips earlier this year of the Canadian astronaut and space station commander singing David Bowie or explaining the mechanics of eating in space. But a read-through of his forthcoming book, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth, out in October, reveals some interesting nuggets about the superstar spacewalker.

 

1. Col. Chris Hadfield is afraid of heights. One might think this phobia would be a deal breaker for someone who's spent so many hours in space beyond the confines of the spacecraft, watching the world go by beneath his feet at thousands of miles per hour. Yet, Hadfield writes, peering over the edge of a tall building means "my stomach starts tumbling, my palms sweat and my legs don't want to move." Surprising, perhaps, but Hadfield says that a big part of being an astronaut is coming to grips with the litany of things that could kill you at any moment and dealing with it through incredible preparation.

 

2. His video demonstrations don't always go right. Hadfield became a space sensation because of his informative, irreverent videos from the International Space Station. Our favorites include Hadfield showing everyone how to make a peanut-butter-and-honey sandwich in space, and what happens when you wring out a wet towel on the space station.

 

But even Hadfield makes mistakes. During his first ISS mission he made a video demonstration of cutting his fingernails over the air intake so they'd be sucked into it. One problem: He failed to vacuum out the intake immediately, and when the unsuspecting mission commander came to do it later, he released all the fingernails clippings into the station.

 

3. He knows Russian. Hadfield served as NASA's director of operations in Russia from 2001 to 2003, where he learned the language, got familiar with the Soyuz spacecraft that would later fly him into space once the shuttle retired, and learned the local customs, including drinking heavily and urinating on a truck tire. Yes, another of the local customs is that cosmonauts are supposed to pee on the right rear tire of the bus that carries them to the launch, "as Yuri Gagarin apparently had," Hadfield writes. Unfortunately for Hadfield, he was leaving Earth for his final mission around Christmastime 2012, which meant going to the restroom required loosening multiple layers of space clothing. It's apparently less of a concern for female astronauts, "who bring little bottles of their pee to splash on the tires."

 

Astronauts: They're not like you and me.

 

4. He nearly performed "Rocket Man" with Elton John. Hadfield met the British singer when John's tour crossed paths with a Canadian air show in which Hadfield was taking part. There's only one song an astronaut can rightfully play with Elton John—"Rocket Man"—and so Hadfield rehearsed it on the off chance that Sir Elton granted his wish. It didn't work out, but Hadfield writes that he met up with John and had a nice chat. And many years later Hadfield was performing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" in space in a video that to date has garnered more than 17 million views:

 

5. There were no Canadian astronauts when he decided to become one. Watching the Apollo moon landings of July 1969 as a 9-year-old kid galvanized what would become Hadfield's lifelong quest to go to space. But, he writes, "astronauts were American. NASA only accepted applications from U.S. citizens, and Canada didn't even have a space agency." No matter. By 1992, there was a Canadian Space Agency, which accepted Hadfield into the astronaut program.

 

6. He helped to build the ISS. Speaking of "didn't exist yet," when Hadfield flew into space in 2001, it was to a space station that was not even fully assembled. His crew's mission was to add a crucial piece of equipment called Canadarm2, which remains one of the ISS's key components. It made sense to send Hadfield so a Canadian astronaut could install the Canadian space program's pride and joy.

 

7. On Hadfield's first space walk, he couldn't see a thing. During the extravehicular activity (or EVA, NASA's name for a space walk) to install Canadarm2, some kind of irritant got in Hadfield's eye and made it water. But "tears need gravity," he says—without it they just stay in place. And you can't wipe your eyes in a spacesuit.

 

Through sheer force of will and some vigorous shaking of the head, Hadfield got his sight back and mission control let him continue the mission. It turns out that the "anti-fog stuff" astronauts use to polish their visions is essentially detergent, and Hadfield hadn't gotten all of it off.

 

8. He's watched lots of people rehearse his death. It's called a "contingency sim." Really, it's a death sim, and it sounds like the most macabre role-playing game around. The NASA team begins with a scenario such as Hadfield being seriously injured on the ISS, he writes. Then they draw "green cards"—random events that change the game. Maybe the card says he has died, at which point the other astronauts and crew members discuss what to do with the corpse in space, how to inform him family, how to deal with the press, and every other contingency they can think of—all while Hadfield sits at the table watching the team rehearse his demise. He argues this is "weirdly uplifting" and not a recipe for depression. We'll take his word for it.

 

9. He broke into Mir using a Swiss Army Knife. Hadfield's first space voyage, in 1995, traveled to the now-defunct Russian space station Mir. Except, when the space shuttle arrived there, the astronauts discovered that "the Russian engineers had taped, strapped, and sealed out the docking module's hatch just a little too enthusiastically." Further proof you should always carry a multitool, especially when leaving the planet.

 

10. He can drive a one-man sub. One more way Hadfield is cooler than most: He's qualified to pilot the DeepWorker, a one-man sub that can explore undersea. Today it's mostly a toy for the rich, but "the DeepWorker is an analogue for the kinds of vehicles we may use someday to collect samples on the Moon, an asteroid, or Mars."

 

SpaceShipTwo surpasses first test

Flight exceeds 1,000 mph, 69,000 feet

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

The vehicle aiming to become the world's first commercial spaceliner reached its top speed and altitude yet during a second rocket-powered test flight Thursday in California.

 

With two pilots aboard, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo surpassed 1,000 mph and climbed to 69,000 feet before gliding to a runway landing at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

 

The test flight was the second in a series that hopes to place the suborbital ship in space before the end of the year, ahead of rides next year for space tourists who have paid $200,000 a seat.

 

"We couldn't be more delighted to have another major supersonic milestone under our belts as we move toward a 2014 start of commercial service," Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson said in a video statement.

 

The 20-second firing of SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket motor extended by four seconds the first in-flight firing just more than four months ago. The flight's peak altitude was 14,000 feet higher.

 

For the first time during a powered flight, the test also deployed the system that will control the spacecraft's re-entry through the atmosphere.

 

SpaceShipTwo rotates upward its twin booms and tail fins to perform a "feathered" re-entry, dropping like a badminton shuttlecock.

 

Virgin Galactic said Thursday's test demonstrated all the technical aspects of a complete flight.

 

The 60-foot long spaceship is designed to carry up to six passengers and two pilots on flights lasting about 30 minutes — including three to five minutes in microgravity — not including time attached to a carrier aircraft.

 

A full flight will fire the rocket motor for roughly a minute and accelerate to 3½ times the speed of sound.

 

On Thursday, the WhiteKnightTwo mothership took off about 8 a.m. local time and released the spacecraft at 46,000 feet.

 

SpaceShipTwo pilots Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols were back on the ground within 90 minutes of takeoff, and described the performance as "flawless."

 

"Each powered flight of SpaceShipTwo yields cumulative progress that builds the foundation for safe and exciting commercial spaceflights," said CEO George Whitesides.

 

Commercial flights will be based out of Spaceport America in New Mexico.

 

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo succeeds in second rocket-powered flight

 

Alex Knapp - Forbes

 

Earlier Thursday, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo successfully flew under its own power for the second time, achieving a speed of mach 1.43 and successfully meeting all of its test objectives.

 

WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft that carries SpaceShipTwo into the air, launched at 8 am PT. They reached an altitude of 46,000 feet. At that point, SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo. The rocket engine was activated for a 20 second burn, pushing the ship past Mach 1.4. The ship reached a maximum altitude of 69,000 feet.

 

During the flight, the company tested the spaceship's supersonic aerodynamics and wing lift structures. In addition, they also tested the spaceship's "feather mechanism" – in which the wings of the spaceship move to create wind resistance to slow down the ship while it's descending. That test was also successful, and SpaceShipTwo landed without hitch at 9:25am PT.

 

The success of these tests paves the way for the company to start its primary business: sending commercial passengers into outer space (as well as a few science experiments.) The company's first flights are scheduled for next year.

 

"We couldn't be more delighted to have another major supersonic milestone under our belts as we move toward a 2014 start of commercial service," said Virgin Galactic Founder Sir Richard Branson in a statement.

 

If you're interested in taking a trip to outer space yourself, and you have a spare $250,000, you can book your flight now.

 

Walking a mile in a real NASA astronaut's underwater shoes

"Like changing the oil in your car… while wearing a ski suit and riding a skateboard"

 

Terry Dunn - ArsTechnica.com

 

(This first-hand account of training in the NBL is written by Terry Dunn, former NBL suit and tool engineer. In that role, Terry was privy to the inside workings and operations of a key facility in NASA's manned space flight program.)

 

"You're stone cold."

 

The test conductor (TC) seemed to delight in telling me that I just committed a fatal spacewalking error (there are many to choose from). Her clever comments weren't needed to teach me the importance of proper tethering. The life-saving handrail retreating from my outstretched glove was obvious enough. In space, my transgression could have sent me into an irreversible trajectory away from the International Space Station (ISS), rendering me just another piece of space junk adrift in low-Earth orbit.

 

This, however, was an exercise at NASA's pool used for spacewalk training, the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) in Houston. I'd hear similar admonitions at least twice more during the day, as SCUBA divers hovered close by to keep my free-floating tendencies (and my future as a meteor) in check.

 

My day at the pool was one of the highly coveted opportunities for non-astronaut "test subjects" to don a spacesuit (NASA calls it the EMU—Extravehicular Mobility Unit) and experience first-hand some of the peculiarities of working in space. While this insight is valuable to the engineers who deal with the EMU and space tools, that wasn't the point of this event. My function was to periodically play the role of a distressed and unconscious astronaut for the benefit of the divers who are tasked with rescuing such unfortunate souls during "real" training events.

 

I suppose that being given the opportunity to put on an EMU could lead one to feel a twinge of self importance. The suit, however, has a way of metering such delusions of grandeur with heaping doses of humility. In fact, the first step of the sizing process involves standing before a full-mirrored wall in government-issue skivvies while a team of caliper-toting technicians measures your every dimension. Then comes the moment when you actually have to get into the EMU, the upper part of which is completely rigid. Imagine forcing your way into an extremely overstarched shirt… while it remains buttoned and hanging in the closet. Success requires equal parts contortionism and masochism.

 

For many, their first minute in the EMU is a defining moment. You're either going to be good with it, or you're going to be clawing rabidly to get out right now! It's not that the suit isn't comfortable once you're fully buttoned up, it's just rather confining. If you get antsy during an MRI, just go ahead and shred your astronaut application form now. There's no room for your claustrophobia in the EMU.

 

In the often cryptic acronym-based NASA lingo, astronauts do not perform spacewalks. Instead, they "go EVA" (extravehicular activity). As astronauts invariably go EVA with a partner, so goes the NBL. My plus-one in this venture was Robert Knight, a fellow engineer with four previous gigs in the pool. We agreed to an ambitious set of tasks that would test our presumed EVA skills, with some obligatory faux fainting spells that would challenge our acting chops. Perhaps even ersatz astronauts are competitive by nature.

 

Test subjects and astronauts alike are bound to an unwritten yet rarely broken NBL commandment: "thou shalt feed the staff." Donuts and kolaches are staples of the morning menu. When astronaut Nicole Stott is at the pool, you have to act fast to nab one of her homemade cookies. Robert and I splurged on a heavy stash of breakfast burritos that we hoped would satiate the divers and spare us some of the good-natured hazing that is due all test subjects (and most astronauts).

 

Following breakfast and a smattering of preliminary tasks, a crane lowered us into the water. Here the enormous full-scale mockup of the ISS came in to clear view. Sure, 6.2 million gallons sounds like a big pool, but it's impossible to comprehend its true vastness until you pierce the surface and take in all three dimensions (202' × 102' × 40'). I had to limit my gawking due to the extreme fisheye effect that the EMU helmet creates in water. This distortion doesn't manifest itself in space or air, but it can be very disorienting and nauseating in the pool. I focused intently on the tools stowed just below my helmet until my eyes could adjust.

 

My three support divers took me down 40 feet to the pool floor. They placed foam and/or weights in various pockets of the EMU to make it neutrally buoyant in order to emulate the weightlessness of space. In open water, Robert and I were completely dependent on the divers for mobility (this is where the breakfast investment pays off). They spun and twirled us into countless orientations while fine-tuning our buoyancy.

 

By this time, my eyes were well adjusted and I was enjoying myself immensely. It was like a slow-motion roller coaster ride with a magnificent view. I especially liked being placed on my back. I was able to see a panoramic perspective of the ISS mockup slightly above and all around me. I watched the diver's bubbles race toward the ceiling lights that were randomly skewed by the choppy surface of the pool. This Dali-esque scene felt very surreal and I never tired of it. Unfortunately, Robert was not faring quite as well. On this day, his eyes refused to adjust to the helmet-altered visual perspective. He wisely conceded defeat to the onrushing nausea and was removed from the pool.

 

"At" the ISS

 

Once the divers placed me on the ISS mockup, my former bird's eye view was reduced to the handrails, I-beams, and plumbing within arm's reach. I quickly became aware of how easily one could get lost while traversing the outside of the ISS. Up close, what little could be seen all looked the same to my eyes. It's like walking down a Main Street with your chest pressed against the storefronts. The TC provided navigational help from the control room located above the pool.

 

The term "spacewalking" is something of a misnomer in that you rarely use your feet at all. Transporting from one point on ISS to another is done via a network of handrails. Done right, it looks like an effortless trapeze act. In my case, I frequently stopped to plan my next move or even to see where the next handrail was located. It was more like "spacecrawling" or "spacestumbling." I was quite content with my tortoise-like speed since it also allowed me to keep a sharp lookout for any of the numerous metallic outcroppings along my path that could crack the protective outer layer of my visor and prematurely end the event.

 

I found a path of handrails that led to my first worksite. I disconnected hoses and secured the loose ends with a tether. In a shirt-sleeve environment, this job would be no more taxing than putting a Pop-Tart in the toaster (Oh how we take gravity for granted!). In its simulated absence, I found that I had to use one hand to stabilize my body in all three axes while my other hand manipulated the hose connectors through thick, pressurized gloves. This early in the run, I was somewhat annoyed by the overzealous help I was receiving from one of the divers. However, as my fatigue and frustration mounted later in the day, I felt no shame in crying "uncle" to solicit help.

 

Soon after completing this task, I received my first cue to act unconscious. As the divers swam me off to simulated safety, I desperately wanted to open my eyes and catch another big-picture glimpse of the pool. However, I was determined to not break character. I put sightseeing on hold until the emergency was over and the divers swam me back to the worksite.

 

One of my subsequent tasks required that I fasten myself into a foot restraint, an adjustable platform that grips the EMU boots and frees both hands for working. Unfortunately, I couldn't see my boots or the restraint below me. I performed maintenance and repairs on this exact foot restraint countless times (in a regular, dry lab environment), and I naively thought that having provided TLC for this tool would create a special breed of karma to assist me in its intended use. Not so. Mirrors on my wrists helped ease the blind spot, but it was still a challenge to maneuver to where I needed to be. By the time I actually locked my boots into place, I was relieved to close my eyes for another mock coma.

 

In addition to acting unconscious, I also simulated a structural failure of the EMU by disconnecting the pressure seal on one of my gloves. The "glove pop," as it's called, can be a little intimidating. The pressure of the water caused the already snug EMU to squeeze even tighter as a significant pillar of bubbles continuously escaped near my wrist. The good news is that I successfully caught my support divers off-guard by popping my glove as they adjusted weights near my boots. The bad news is that I ignored good advice and had my arm raised when I performed the pop. As air rushed out of the EMU, a good bit of pool water took its place and quickly resided in my boots. I was temporarily removed from the pool so that suit technicians could empty the boots and give me fresh, dry socks.

 

As the day wore on, it became apparent that there is no such thing as casual movement in an EMU. Every motion requires forethought, strategy, and unnatural effort. I had to be mindful not to overexert myself. Many times, as I was concentrating on a task, I would notice that my legs were ramrod stiff in an unconscious and futile effort to stabilize my body against a floor that wasn't there. All attempts to scratch my nose were quickly stopped by the helmet visor. The helmet also blocked my absent-minded move to place a tether hook in my mouth so I could untangle a knot.

 

Most of the difficulties I experienced are consistent with those that would face an astronaut in orbit. However, there are a few unique problems to the NBL. The prime example is gravity itself. While divers adjust the EMU to be "weightless" in the pool, I could still feel the effects of gravity inside my cocoon. If I was on my side, I would feel all of my body weight against the suit on that side. Also, I could only stay inverted for short periods due to the blood rushing to my head. Neither of those issues would crop up in the true micro-gravity environment at the ISS.

 

An astronaut once told me that "going EVA is just like changing the oil in your car… while wearing a ski suit and riding a skateboard." My addendum to the analogy would include: "…and doing the Tuesday crossword puzzle." The original analogy captures the physical challenges of being in micro-gravity with reduced stability and tactility. My addition attempts to capture the constant mental activity that is also required. We're not talking quantum physics here (I bet you thought I was going to say "rocket science"—too easy). Instead, I experienced a constant cognitive demand from trying to force my approach to simple problems to deviate away from the gravity-centric approaches hardwired into my psyche.

 

The most vexing cranial duty was coordination of the tethers for myself and my tools. I've already confessed to my Enron-like mismanagement of the six personal tethers (ranging in length from about three feet to 85 feet), which I managed to get tangled. But each of the tools I carried also had a requisite tether that threatened entanglement or abandonment at the first hint of nonchalance.

 

Near the end of the event, I began to accept the unavoidable complexity of every task. Up to that point, many of the TC's instructions seemed as if they were written by a snickering Rube Goldberg, so I often proposed more direct and intuitive methods. I was allowed to try things my way. I invariably returned to square one, defeated and ready to do it their way. I like to think that at least a few astronauts have endured this same mental rite-of-passage.

 

When I completed my last task, I spent a little more than five hours in the pool (well short of most real EVAs). I was glad to be finished, even though most of the goals on my to-do list remained unchecked. Although slightly humbled, I felt pretty good about my new skills and awareness. Most vividly, I had a renewed respect for the EVA-savvy astronauts who somehow built the ISS while wearing these little white suits. If you think this spacewalking stuff is easy, well—you're stone cold.

 

Budgeting for success

Space Launch System making progress despite budget constraints

 

Douglas Cooke - Florida Today (Opinion)

 

(Cooke retired from NASA in 2011 after a 38-year career leading human spaceflight and exploration programs, including three years as associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate)

 

The recent Florida Today article, "Delays, costs: Faith in NASA rocket's progress stumbles," failed to recognize the significant accomplishments the Space Launch System (SLS) is making in what are less than ideal conditions for such a complex development program.

 

The actual work by NASA and industry is progressing in spite of the pressure of expectations and abnormal budget realities. This was demonstrated recently in a very successful SLS preliminary design review, showing this team has learned to operate in this difficult budget environment.

 

SLS is delivering ahead of schedule within available funding, incorporating existing main engines from the shuttle program. The five segment boosters have had virtually perfect ground tests. The new core stage is ahead of schedule. Tooling and manufacturing is in place at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana.

 

The major risk to program cost and schedule is the lack of stable budgets.

 

The dedicated people at NASA and in industry should be applauded and supported for the progress they are making in these difficult times. Their success will lead to incredible discoveries in human exploration of our solar system.

 

A major focus of the article was on the Joint Confidence Level (JCL), which is a calculated forecast of a program's probability of success, based on the evaluation of detailed funding and program schedules. Having direct experience with NASA's use of this confidence model, I believe the JCL is an idealistic concept and model made for idealistic programs.

 

JCL is a relatively new application with little heritage. For it to be of value as a prediction of program success requires that program planning be mapped out for a number of years against a known budget. The problem with this is that budget and spending rates are constantly changing, often two or more times a year. This is due to uncertainty created by variations between the president's budget request, congressional authorization and appropriations marks, continuing resolutions, actually appropriated levels of funding, and now sequestration.

 

These effects were known when Orion and SLS were approved by the president and Congress, so it should not come as a surprise now. The JCL process does not factor in these realities, which prevent its practical utility in evaluating program success. It would be more useful to calculate a confidence level for actually getting a stable budget.

 

Complicating matters, current flat budget allocations that are not increased for inflation constrain these programs to an unnatural, inefficient and lengthened development process. Program budgets also must support NASA institutional taxes and account for budget hurdles.

 

With changing funding, programs cut or add tasks and stop and start work according to shifting allocations. The program ends up wasting precious dollars at the expense of flight hardware development. If budgets are cut significantly, programs are forced to identify and exploit any and all efficiencies that can be addressed, but if the efficiencies are insufficient, schedule is the only reserve and slips occur. This is very inefficient, since institution and workforce costs have to be carried longer to get the job done. The government should strive for stability in these program budgets.

 

Let's not spend the significant resources, energy and taxpayer dollars focused on how likely it is a program will fail. Let's redirect this effort and commit to making our current, sustainable programs a success. We should continue to move America's space programs back to what America expects — a world-leading space program.

 

END