Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Fwd: FW.: Human Spaceflight News - November 6, 2013 and JSC Today



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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 6, 2013 7:01:44 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW.: Human Spaceflight News - November 6, 2013 and JSC Today

Hope you can join us at the Hibachi Grill in Webster on Bay Area Blvd. tomorrow for our monthly Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.

 

 

 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Latest International Space Station Research

As we approach the 15th anniversary of first element launch, International Space Station (ISS) Program Scientist Julie Robinson has written about her top 10 research results from ISS thus far in her blog, A Lab Aloft. Do you have a favorite?

Liz Warren x35548

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  1. Early Space Shuttle Programmatic Decisions Panel

Come join us Nov. 20 at 10 a.m. in the Teague Auditorium. The NASA Alumni League (NAL), in conjunction with the JSC Chief Knowledge Officer, is sponsoring a storytelling event focusing on "Early Space Shuttle Programmatic Decisions."

The program will focus on the Phase A and B concepts that were studied and how NASA arrived at the conceptual baseline developed during the subsequent design and development phases; the management/organizational approach used during the development phase; and the effectiveness of that management approach.

Panel Moderator: Wayne Hale, flight director and Space Shuttle Program (SSP) manager

Panelists:

    • Robert F. Thompson - initial SSP manager
    • Owen Morris - manager, Level 2 systems engineering and integration activity
    • Richard Kohrs - subsequent SSP manager
    • Dr. Hum Mandell - SSP Cost Estimation manager

Each panelist will speak about an aspect of shuttle history and design evolution. All are welcome.

Brent J. Fontenot x36456

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   Organizations/Social

  1. JSC Annual Holiday Bazaar This Saturday

Come out to the Gilruth Center on Saturday, Nov. 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for some holiday shopping! We'll have the gymnasium and ballroom packed with local craftspeople and vendors selling crafts, jewelry, bath and beauty products, home and holiday décor, candles, baked goods and more. This event is free and open to the public, so invite your family and friends to come browse through the more than 70 vendors who are ready to spread some holiday cheer. For more information and a list of vendors, click here.

Event Date: Saturday, November 9, 2013   Event Start Time:10:00 AM   Event End Time:4:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center

Add to Calendar

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

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  1. Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Meeting

All JSC team members (government, contractor, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] and non-LGBT allies) are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) monthly meeting TODAY from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 4S, Room 1200. The Out & Allied @ JSC team consists of LGBT employees and their allies (supporters). This month we are holding officer nominations and elections; please join us, meet others and network! For more information about our group, including how to become involved, contact any listed Out & Allied member on our SharePoint site.

Event Date: Wednesday, November 6, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Bldg 4S, Room 1200

Add to Calendar

Steve Riley x37019 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/LGBTA/SitePages/Home.aspx

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  1. AIAA Houston Section - Lunch & Learn Reminder

Hosted by John M. DiIorio, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) member, this lunch-and-learn session will focus on various types of weather and climate damage on the operations of supporting human infrastructure. Bridges, windows, city landscaping, communications and food sources will be discussed using lecture notes, videos and photographs.

Join us on Nov. 13. Please find the details and how to RSVP at this link.

Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Lockheed Martin OCC

Add to Calendar

BeBe Kelley-Serrato 281-798-9060 http://www.aiaahouston.org/event/space-operations-hosted-technical-lunch...

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   Jobs and Training

  1. Training Required for Admin Rights - MEP

NASA is implementing Managed Elevated Privileges (MEP) on all IT devices to reduce the security risks. Everyone who needs elevated privileges (admin rights) must take training courses via SATERN by searching for "Elevated Privileges on NASA Information Systems" (ITS-002-09).

Deployment is beginning the week of September 23rd to the first of several pilot groups. This will happen in various stages, and your organizations will be notified in advance before they are scheduled for deployment. Once implemented, NASA end users will not be granted administrative rights to NASA IT resources without training and authorization. Please take appropriate actions to be sure you get your training and testing done before we start to deploy.

Additional information can be found here.

Heather Thomas x30901

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  1. SPACE Midterm Live Lab - Civil Servant Supervisors

NASA's Standard Performance Appraisal Communication Environment (SPACE) system is open. Midterm job aids and a self-guided tutorial are available in SPACE under the "Reference Guide" and "Help" tabs.

Registration is not required. Come any time within the scheduled offerings. For additional questions, please talk with your Human Resources representative or development representative.

The session dates/times are:

Thursday, Nov. 7

    • Building 12, Room 138, 9 to 10 a.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 13

    • Building 12, Room 138, 2 to 3 p.m.

Thursday, Nov. 14

    • Building 12, Room 138, 9 to 10 a.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 19

    • Building 12, Room 138, 9 to 10 a.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 3

    • Building 12, Room 144, 1 to 2 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 5

    • Building 12, Room 144, 9 to 10 a.m.

Chasity Williams 281-792-7794

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JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles.

Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

 

Today/tonight

·         11 am Central (Noon EST) – File of Russian State Commission Meeting & Final E38/39 Pre-Launch Crew News Conference

·         9:15 pm Central (10:15 EST) – Soyuz TMA-11M launch coverage

·         9:25 pm Central (10:25 EST) - File of Expedition 37/38/39 pre-launch activities

·         10:14 pm Central (11:14 EST) – LAUNCH (followed by replays & interviews)

·      Midnight Central (1 am EST) – File footage of pre-launch, launch & post-launch interviews

 

Thursday

·      3:45 am Central (4:45 EST) – Soyuz TMA-11M docking coverage

·      4:31 am Central (5:31 EST) – DOCKING to Russian segment MRM1 ("Rassvet") module

·      6:15 am Central (7:15 EST) – Hatch opening/welcome ceremony coverage

·      6:40 am Central (7:40 EST) – HATCH OPENING (time approximate)

 

Human Spaceflight News

Wednesday – November 6, 2013

 

Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin & Rick Mastracchio display the Olympic torch they'll launch with tonight

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Russia sending Sochi Olympics torch into space

 

Dmitry Lovetsky - Associated Press

 

For the first time in history, the Olympic flame will be taken on a spacewalk. The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics torch will be sent to the International Space Station on board a Russian spacecraft this week and astronauts will then carry it outside the station. Here's a look at the Sochi torch….

 

Soyuz crew carries Olympic torn to ISS tonight

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

Cue the Olympic anthem as a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a multinational crew, including NASA's Rick Mastracchio, counts down to an 11:14 p.m. liftoff today from Kazakhstan. An Olympic torch will join the crew for a six-hour sprint to the International Space Station, then perform a synchronized spacewalk Saturday and attempt to stick a landing back on Earth the next day. The orbital gymnastics are part of the torch relay leading up to the 2014 Winter Games hosted by Russia in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

 

New Space Station Crew to Launch Japanese Satellite

 

RIA Novosti

 

The crew of a new expedition to the International Space Station said Wednesday they are planning to launch a small Japanese satellite, receive two cargo spacecraft and spacewalk with an Olympic torch during their six-month mission. A Soyuz rocket carrying Expedition 38, which includes Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan, is due to be launched 8:14 a.m. Thursday Moscow time from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

 

Space station astronaut has local ties

 

Louisiana Press-Journal

 

Probably few from Pike County knew, but when the U.S. and Russian astronauts blasted off for the International Space Station in September, there was a strong connection to Clopton High School.  U.S. astronaut Mike Hopkins is the nephew of 1955 Clopton graduate Dale Hopkins and the son of 1957 graduate Ogle Hopkins, who died four years ago.  Dale Hopkins now lives in Columbus, Miss., where he is a simulator flight instructor at Columbus Air Force Base.

 

SpaceX Builds Dragon for Launch Abort Test

 

Doug Messier - Parabolic Arc

 

SpaceX is deep into the production of the Dragon spacecraft that will be used to demonstrate the craft's launch abort abilities during a test launch next year. The ability of a spacecraft to escape from an emergency situation at the launch pad or during ascent into space is a major priority for the next generation of American spacecraft now under development in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program. The Dragon spacecraft will use powerful, side-mounted Draco thrusters to lift the spacecraft away from its booster soon after liftoff during the test. No one will be inside the spacecraft for the launch, but the mission parameters will be set up as though there were, with extensive instrumentation and parachutes aboard to safely recover the Dragon.

(NO FURTHER TEXT)

 

NASA gives UCF $6 million grant to study asteroid exploration

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

Years from now, if astronauts explore the surface of an asteroid or even the moons of Mars, they may have to give a shout-out to UCF scientists for helping them handle cosmic hazards such as clouds of potentially blinding space dust. The first step in that possible future came Tuesday with NASA's announcement that a University of Central Florida team had won a $6 million grant to study what astronauts might encounter during a mission to a nearby neighbor — such as a small asteroid or Phobos and Deimos, Mars' rocky moons.

 

NASA selects UCF to lead research center

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA has awarded the University of Central Florida leadership of a $6 million center that will study asteroids and planets in support of human and robotic exploration. UCF's Daniel Britt, a physics professor who has designed instruments for Mars rovers, will lead the new Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science, or CLASS. CLASS is one of nine centers named Tuesday as part of the newly formed Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, which NASA says will focus researchers on questions concerning space science and human space exploration.

 

NASA Turns to UCF for Next Step in Space Exploration

 

Kevin Derby - Sunshine State News

 

On Tuesday, NASA announced the launch of nine research teams across the nation to lead the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to study the moon, asteroids and Phobos and Deimos, the two moons orbiting Mars. While SSERVI will be based in California, the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS) will be led by Daniel Britt, a physics professor from the University of Central Florida (UCF). The SSERVI teams will last for five years and are expected to cost NASA around $12 million a year.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Russia sending Sochi Olympics torch into space

 

Dmitry Lovetsky - Associated Press

 

For the first time in history, the Olympic flame will be taken on a spacewalk.

 

The 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics torch will be sent to the International Space Station on board a Russian spacecraft this week and astronauts will then carry it outside the station. Here's a look at the Sochi torch.

 

The space chariot

 

The torch will travel into Earth's orbit with the next space station crew, who blast off early Thursday (Wednesday night U.S. time) from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan are heading to the space station on a Russian Soyuz rocket that has been emblazoned with the emblem of the Sochi Winter Games.

 

Flames in space

 

For safety reasons, the torch will not burn when it's onboard the space outpost. Lighting it would consume precious oxygen and pose a threat to the crew. The crew will carry the unlit torch around the station's numerous modules before taking it out on a spacewalk.

 

A torch first

 

The Olympic torch has flown into space before — in 1996 aboard the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the Atlanta Summer Olympics — but it has never yet been taken outside a spacecraft.

 

Hanging in the cosmos

 

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are part of the space station's current crew, will take the torch into open space Saturday when they venture outside the station. Kotov says they are planning to take the video and photos of the torch, hopefully when the space station flies over Russia and the southern resort of Sochi can be seen in the background.

 

Falling back to Earth

 

The torch will stay in space for five days until the returning crew takes it back to Earth next Monday, when Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency plan to land in Kazakhstan.

 

Just part of the journey

 

The four-month Sochi torch relay, which started in Moscow on Oct. 7, is the longest in the history of the Olympics. For most of the 65,000- kilometer (39,000-mile) route, the flame will travel by plane, train, car and even reindeer sleigh, but 14,000 torch bearers are taking part in the relay that stops at more than 130 cities and towns.

 

Last month, the Olympic flame traveled to the North Pole onboard a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker. Later this month it will sink to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Lake Baikal. In February, the torch will be taken to the peak of Mount Elbrus, at 5,642 meters (18,510 feet) the highest mountain in Russia and Europe.

 

And the climax

 

The torch will be used to light the Olympic flame at Sochi's stadium on Feb. 7, marking the start of the 2014 Winter Games that run until Feb. 23.

 

Soyuz crew carries Olympic torn to ISS tonight

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

Cue the Olympic anthem as a Soyuz spacecraft carrying a multinational crew, including NASA's Rick Mastracchio, counts down to an 11:14 p.m. liftoff today from Kazakhstan.

 

An Olympic torch will join the crew for a six-hour sprint to the International Space Station, then perform a synchronized spacewalk Saturday and attempt to stick a landing back on Earth the next day.

 

The orbital gymnastics are part of the torch relay leading up to the 2014 Winter Games hosted by Russia in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

 

"All the activities related to this torch are symbolic and are significant," said cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, who is preparing to launch tonight with Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan.

 

Their liftoff in a rocket emblazoned with the emblem of the Sochi Winter Games will be televised in New York City's Times Square.

 

Between them, Mastracchio, Wakata and Tyurin have spent nearly 540 days in space on eight spaceflights dating back to 1996.

 

Their arrival at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday will briefly raise the station's occupancy to nine for the first time, without a shuttle present, since 2009.

 

Mastracchio, a 53-year-old Connecticut native, helped assemble the outpost during three shuttle missions starting in 2000, when he said it "had that new space station smell."

 

On his fourth flight, "I'm really looking forward to actually spending a long period of time up there, helping to do some research, get involved in the science and actually use the space station for what it was intended," he said.

 

The nine crew members, also including Americans Karen Nyberg and Mike Hopkins, will host a joint news conference Friday with media around the globe.

 

Some will be focused on the Olympics, others on the upcoming 15th anniversary of the launch of the first ISS module, perhaps others on Wakata's future role as the station's first Japanese commander.

 

On Saturday, the unlit Olympic torch will be carried outside during a Russian spacewalk, which may win the two cosmonauts, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy, style points as they perform station maintenance, but is unlikely to impress with technical difficulty.

 

"It's not a complicated task," Tyurin explained during pre-launch interviews in Houston. "Just take it out, take a few pictures and bring back."

 

Then the torch will be passed to Nyberg, Italian Luca Parmitano and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin as they board another Soyuz for the ride home.

 

The trio is scheduled to depart the outpost Sunday for a landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:50 p.m. EST.

 

Rocket ready to take Sochi Olympic torch to International Space Station

 

Nick Zaccardi - NBC Sports

 

All systems appear to be go for the first Olympic torch spacewalk.

 

The Sochi Olympic torch will embark on a mission to outer space from Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket with Sochi 2014 designs on Wednesday night (Eastern Time). The spacecraft was set on a launch pad on Tuesday, according to RIA Novosti.

 

Video of the torch being readied is available here.

 

NASA will provide a live stream of the launch, scheduled for Wednesday at 11:14 p.m. ET. The broadcast will begin at 10:15 and run through 11:45. NASA's website directs to this link for live streaming video.

 

The Toshiba Vision screen in New York's Times Square will also broadcast the stream live Wednesday night.

 

Russian cosmonauts at the International Space Station will take the torch, without a flame for safety reasons, into open space on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. Video and photos are expected to be taken of the spacewalk.

 

The Olympic torch flew into space before, in 1996 on the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, but it has never been taken outside a spacecraft, according to the AP.

 

The torch is expected to return to Earth on Monday, landing in Kazakhstan.

 

New Space Station Crew to Launch Japanese Satellite

 

RIA Novosti

 

The crew of a new expedition to the International Space Station said Wednesday they are planning to launch a small Japanese satellite, receive two cargo spacecraft and spacewalk with an Olympic torch during their six-month mission.

 

A Soyuz rocket carrying Expedition 38, which includes Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan, is due to be launched 8:14 a.m. Thursday Moscow time from Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

 

During the expedition the crew will receive an American Cygnus cargo spacecraft in December and a Space X commercial spaceship in February or March, Mastracchio said Wednesday.

 

On Saturday, a spacewalk will take place when Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky will carry the Olympic torch outside the station for about four hours. They will pass the torch over to the departing crew at the ISS, who will bring it back to Russia for the 2014 Olympic Games.

 

Wakata, who will become the first Japanese to command the station in the last two months of his stay, will launch a small satellite for his country.

 

Space station astronaut has local ties

 

Louisiana Press-Journal

 

Probably few from Pike County knew, but when the U.S. and Russian astronauts blasted off for the International Space Station in September, there was a strong connection to Clopton High School.

 

U.S. astronaut Mike Hopkins is the nephew of 1955 Clopton graduate Dale Hopkins and the son of 1957 graduate Ogle Hopkins, who died four years ago.

 

Dale Hopkins now lives in Columbus, Miss., where he is a simulator flight instructor at Columbus Air Force Base.

 

Nephew Mike was allowed to invite about 15 friends and relatives to the launch site in Kazakhstan, Baikonur, Russia's main space flight center since the 1950s.

 

His uncle Dale, who grew up on a farm near Annada and wife, Karen Hopkins decided they couldn't miss it.

 

"It was overwhelming," Hopkins said. "I was standing in the same place where they launched Sputnik in 1958 and the same pad Yuri Gagarin was launched from. They are still using much of the same equipment."

 

The local people were all of Mongol descent, Hopkins said.

 

"My wife had been there 35 years ago and was astounded at the changes," Hopkins said. "There were no cars or restaurants then.

 

"The hotel we stayed in was as modern as any in the states and the food was good. They've come a long way and capitalism has taken over."

 

Hopkins left southern Pike County in 1960 to join the U.S. Air Force.

 

"My heart is still there," he said. "We get up there ever year for the Clopton High reunion.

 

Hopkins is also proud of his astronaut nephew.

 

"They had 6,000 applications and only 14 people made the program," he said.

 

Mike Hopkins trained for the mission for two years. He'll be floating in space for about five more months before returning.

 

NASA gives UCF $6 million grant to study asteroid exploration

 

Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel

 

Years from now, if astronauts explore the surface of an asteroid or even the moons of Mars, they may have to give a shout-out to UCF scientists for helping them handle cosmic hazards such as clouds of potentially blinding space dust.

 

The first step in that possible future came Tuesday with NASA's announcement that a University of Central Florida team had won a $6 million grant to study what astronauts might encounter during a mission to a nearby neighbor — such as a small asteroid or Phobos and Deimos, Mars' rocky moons.

 

The team, led by physics professor Dan Britt, will try to predict what U.S. astronauts might face during a landing — think space dust, not aliens. It also will play a role in helping NASA decide which nearby asteroid the space agency should target for exploration.

 

Though the five-year grant is tiny compared with NASA's budget of about $17 billion, the research it funds could prove critical to NASA's long-range plans of sending U.S. astronauts to an asteroid — a space rock smaller than a planet — by 2025.

 

"We have never actually sent humans to small bodies [like asteroids], so there's a range of things we don't know about," Britt said. A prime focus will be studying the surfaces of asteroids, including how they've evolved and whether they hold water, so that astronauts will know to expect.

 

At the same time, Britt said, he expects the grant will provide a boost to space research in Metro Orlando, which for decades has lived in the shadow of launch operations at Kennedy Space Center.

 

"This is a big win for Orlando because it brings knowledge-based and science-led jobs," Britt said, starting with the hiring of three faculty members and up to 10 researchers. He hopes this nucleus will expand to include more jobs and research.

 

With the grant money, Britt plans to jump-start a research initiative dubbed CLASS, for the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science, that will assemble space experts from various backgrounds and countries to better understand "rocky airless bodies," such as nearby asteroids.

 

"The idea is that NASA wants to have the scientific support for their human-exploration goals directly at hand," Britt said.

 

Astronomers, geologists, physicists and chemists will work together to answer a long list of questions, such as: How does space dust affect explorers and landing craft? How have microgravity and the chill of space shaped asteroids — and could that affect NASA operations?

 

NASA's analysis of the Apollo landings helps show the importance of understanding the mission environment.

 

One 2005 study done by NASA highlighted the range of potential problems caused by lunar dust alone, from "false instrument readings" to "inhalation and irritation."

 

These issues were compounded by the fact that "dust problems were consistently underestimated by ground tests," according to the study, which was done in anticipation of NASA returning astronauts to the moon — a program later shelved.

 

NASA's latest ambition of reaching an asteroid — let alone Mars' moons — also faces the risk of delay or even cancellation.

 

Under current NASA plans, the agency aims to send an unmanned probe later this decade to capture a small asteroid — which one is still undecided — and tug it near the moon so astronauts riding NASA's new rocket and space capsule could visit it, possibly as soon as 2021.

 

The idea, however, has faced significant opposition in Congress. And belt-tightening throughout the federal government is expected to pinch NASA's budget, or worse, during the next several years.

 

Lori Garver, former deputy administrator for NASA, said in September that the first launch of the agency's big new rocket, known as the Space Launch System, is likely to miss its first deadline of 2017 by a year or two because of budget problems.

 

Still, even if NASA's human-exploration program hits a snag, the data generated by the UCF group could be useful for other missions, including robotic exploration.

 

"The whole idea is to make future exploration safer and cheaper because we are exploring smartly, rather than zipping out to see what we find," Britt said.

 

NASA selects UCF to lead research center

 

James Dean - Florida Today

 

NASA has awarded the University of Central Florida leadership of a $6 million center that will study asteroids and planets in support of human and robotic exploration.

 

UCF's Daniel Britt, a physics professor who has designed instruments for Mars rovers, will lead the new Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science, or CLASS.

 

CLASS is one of nine centers named Tuesday as part of the newly formed Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, which NASA says will focus researchers on questions concerning space science and human space exploration.

 

"This makes UCF a leader in the area of solar system exploration," Britt said in a university press release. "The center will bring together a group of world-class researchers to create a one-stop shop of scientific expertise, supporting NASA's exploration goals. CLASS makes Central Florida integral to NASA's exploration future."

 

UCF's winning bid was selected from among 32 proposals submitted to competitive peer-reviewed evaluation.

 

In addition to Britt, UCF said the center involves 15 lead researchers from the university, the Florida Space Institute, Kennedy Space Center, other NASA centers, and universities around the nation, in addition to 23 collaborating researchers from the U.S. and four other nations.

 

NASA Turns to UCF for Next Step in Space Exploration

 

Kevin Derby - Sunshine State News

 

On Tuesday, NASA announced the launch of nine research teams across the nation to lead the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) to study the moon, asteroids and Phobos and Deimos, the two moons orbiting Mars.

 

While SSERVI will be based in California, the Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS) will be led by Daniel Britt, a physics professor from the University of Central Florida (UCF). The SSERVI teams will last for five years and are expected to cost NASA around $12 million a year.

 

"We look forward to collaborative scientific discoveries from these teams," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, on Tuesday. "These results will be vital to NASA successfully conducting the ambitious activities of exploring the solar system with robots and humans."

 

Britt was awarded a $6 million grant to base CLASS at UCF as NASA plans explorations to asteroids and other near-Earth missions. With a background in geology and physics, Britt led the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. Every Mars Rover has equipment designed by Britt onboard.

 

On Tuesday, Britt said the launch of CLASS would help put UCF in the vanguard of space exploration.

 

"This makes UCF a leader in the area of solar system exploration," Britt said. "The center will bring together a group of world-class researchers to create a one-stop shop of scientific expertise, supporting NASA's exploration goals. CLASS makes Central Florida integral to NASA's exploration future."

 

There will be 15 researchers based at UCF, Kennedy Space Center and other locations as CLASS takes off. Britt said the Sunshine State would reap the benefits as space exploration continues to evolve.

 

"CLASS diversifies the science and exploration-industry in Florida," Britt added. "This center, this kind of impact – that's why you have state universities. UCF can and should be an engine of knowledge-based growth in Florida. We're contributing to science, impacting the economy, and making sure Florida stays a leader in the space game."

 

Britt will lead the center, which also involves 15 lead researchers from UCF, Kennedy Space Center and other institutes.

 

Ray Lugo, a UCF grad who heads up the Florida Space Institute (FSI) at his alma mater, insisted this was a "big win" for the university.

 

"NASA recognizes our space science achievements and the leadership potential of UCF and FSI for their exploration programs," Lugo said.

 

Frank DiBello, the president and CEO of Space Florida, agreed. "This is a significant win for Florida and UCF," said DiBello. "It is a major step in the continuing diversification and growth of space exploration research in Florida universities."

 

Other institutions honored by NASA with SSERVI grants are: Southwest Research Institute and the University of Colorado, both of which are based in Boulder, Colorado; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, which are both in Maryland; Stony Brook University in New York; NASA's Ames Research Center in California; the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, and Brown University in Rhode Island.

 

"We are extremely pleased that the community responded with such high-quality proposals, and look forward to the many contributions SSERVI will make in addressing NASA's science and exploration goals," said Yvonne Pendleton, the director of SSERVI.

 

END

 

 

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