Happy Flex Friday Eve.
I did get confirmation from Kirk Shireman yesterday that the Center will fly a flag over MCC in memory of Jack Kinzler and they are making plans for someone from the Center Directors staff, if not Ellen herself to present the flag to Jack's family at his memorial service on March 22nd. Thanks to Chet and others for helping us make this happen.
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| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Women's History Month - Film Festival is Today
- Physics in the Movie 'Gravity' Part III
- POWER of One Winners Announced - Organizations/Social
- AIAA Houston: New Issue of 'Horizons' Available
- SWAPRA Luncheon Hosts Houston Spaceport's Rep
- NCMA Space City Houston March Luncheon
- Society of Women Engineers' Social Hour
- Pi Day Social for Systems Engineers
- Limited Edition Presale Opportunity
- Spring Fest: Kids Event Tickets on Sale Now
- Wellness Walks at JSC
- Are you ready to QUIT Smoking? - Jobs and Training
- Spaceflight 101 Returns
- JSC Library Booth in MCC Lobby Today
- Enterprise Service Request System (ESRS) Hands-on - Community
- State Science and Engineering Fair Judges Needed
- 2014 Trash Bash - March 29 |  |
| Headlines - Women's History Month - Film Festival is Today
JSC's Women's History Month Planning Committee invites the JSC family to the viewing of the "MAKERS: Women Who Make America." Bring your lunch and watch the remarkable story of how women have helped shape America over the last 50 years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in our country's history. It's a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. "MAKERS" brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it and those first generations to benefit from its success. Come join us. Desserts will be provided! - Physics in the Movie 'Gravity' Part III
Did you know that the International Space Station operates on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)? In one scene, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are flying over the Nile (Cairo region), and it's JUST ABOUT DAWN (you can tell where the sun-night border is). So, let's say this is 0600 Cairo time. George and Sandra talk about what time it is in Chicago, and he states that it's 8 p.m. in Chicago. Nope. It's eight hours difference, so it would be 11 p.m. - POWER of One Winners Announced
- GOLD: Michael Ewert - EC2
- SILVER: Stephanie Bassett - SK
- SILVER: Sophia Mo - BG
- BRONZE: Joshua Figuered - ER4
- BRONZE: Emil Krnavek - KA
The POWER of One award was established to award and recognize JSC employees for their exemplary performance and direct contributions to either their organization, JSC or NASA at the agency level. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work! If you would like to nominate someone for POWER of One Award, click here. Organizations/Social - AIAA Houston: New Issue of 'Horizons' Available
The January/February 2014 issue of Horizons is now online. Horizons is the newsletter of the Houston Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). The cover story is, "GAIA Leaps Past Hipparcos," by Wes Kelly, Triton Systems LLC. This issue also contains, "Physics-Based Optimization Methods," by Dr. Patrick E. Rodi (with two animated figures); "In Memoriam: Robert L. Sackheim, 1937 - 2013;" two book reviews ("Space Elevators" and "The Case for Space Solar Power"); "History as Science: Megatons to Megawatts" (Kelly's Corner); "The First French International Dark Sky Reserve: Pic du Midi;" climate change articles and much more. - SWAPRA Luncheon Hosts Houston Spaceport's Rep
On Wednesday, March 19, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the South Western Aerospace Professional Representatives Association (SWAPRA) is pleased to be hosting Arturo Machuca, the Houston Airport System's manager of Business Development. Three years ago, Machuca was tasked to develop a plan to license and develop Ellington Airport into a commercial spaceport. Machuca will discuss the development of a Houston Spaceport at Ellington Field. He will share the status and plans of the Houston Airport System's vision for the Houston Spaceport and its positive impact for the entire region. The SWAPRA event will be held at the Bay Oaks Country Club (BOCC) in Clear Lake. The BOCC luncheon cost for non-members is $35 at the door, or $25 with pre-paid RSVPs by Monday, March 17. Contact David L. Brown at 281-483-7426 or via email to RSVP, or RSVP directly to Chris Elkins at 281-276-2792 or via email. - NCMA Space City Houston March Luncheon
"Help, I just received a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] request, and I have no idea how to respond!" If you have ever had this experience, you know the challenge of trying to sort through reams of contract information in a very short period of time to prepare a correct response. What information should be released? What information must be withheld? As a contractor, what are my responsibilities when my contract is FOIA'd? Is there anything I can do to ensure my confidential information is protected? As a government contracting officer, how should I balance the release of certain information against the public's right to know? Please join us at the March National Contract Management Association (NCMA) Luncheon for a fun frolic through the nuts and bolts of FOIA requests. Our presenter this month is Cody Corley. Corley is an attorney with Johnson Space Center. Cost: $10 - members; $15 - non-members Meal choices: Chopped steak with mushrooms; chicken parmesan; and vegetarian option RSVP: Please RSVP to Scott Stephens by COB Monday, March 17. Please state your meal preference and whether or not you are an NCMA member. - Society of Women Engineers' Social Hour
Join the Texas Space Coast section of the Society of Women Engineers for a social hour on Thursday, March 20, at Chelsea's Wine Bar. We will spend time getting to know each other and discussing future plans for the section. Do you have ideas of what interests you or how you would like to help? Be sure to bring them! Don't forget, Thursday is ladies' night, and specials are available. All are welcome; grab a friend and join us for an enjoyable evening! Event Date: Thursday, March 20, 2014 Event Start Time:5:00 PM Event End Time:7:00 PM
Event Location: Chelsea's Wine Bar; 4106 NASA Road 1, El Lago
Add to Calendar
Katie Collier x49002
[top] - Pi Day Social for Systems Engineers
If you struggle with stakeholders, recommend requirements, value verification or inspire integration, you just might be a systems engineer (regardless of your title). Come join similar professionals in systems engineering for the INCOSE Pi Day social and an informational discussion about the professional development of your skills. We'll meet at Tommy's Restaurant and Oyster Bar (2555 Bay Area Blvd.) at 4:30 p.m. this Friday, March 14. If you have any questions, please contact Ben Edwards. We hope to see you there. - Limited Edition Presale Opportunity
A marriage of science and art and made from hand-blown glass containing ash from the 1980 Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption, the Curiosity paperweight is a Glass Eye limited edition celebrating NASA's Curiosity rover. It comes complete with a multi-colored wood light base and is presented in a blue velvet box with a signed and dated story card. Start your collection today at the Starport Gift Shops in Buildings 3 and 11. Limited edition - only 1,000 pieces will be made. - Spring Fest: Kids Event Tickets on Sale Now
On April 19, Starport will have one big spring event at the Gilruth Center. Bring the kiddos out for our Children's Spring Fling, complete with a bounce house, face painting, petting zoo, Easter egg hunt and hot dog lunch! Tickets go on this week in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops, Gilruth Center and online. Tickets are for children 18 months to 12 years old who will be participating in activities and having lunch. Adults do not need a ticket. Tickets are $8/each through April 11, or $10 the day of. More information is available here. While you are there, do some shopping at our outdoor flea market for some hidden treasures and great finds! Then, visit our indoor craft fair for homemade crafts and goodies. Also enjoy some tasty mudbugs at our crawfish boil! The cost is $7 per pound with corn and potatoes. Hot dogs, chips and drinks will also be available. - Wellness Walks at JSC
Grab your walking shoes and meet up with JSC's walking group each Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. outside the Building 3 café. Led by a Starport FitPro, walks last approximately 30 minutes and are suited for all fitness levels. These mid-day walks allow you to enjoy the company of fellow walkers while improving your health and stretching your legs. Get moving! - Are you ready to QUIT Smoking?
Please join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, CEAP, CGP, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, as he presents a four-week smoking cessation program and three follow-up sessions to offer support on your journey to become a non-smoker. The program starts today, March 13, in Building 45, Room 110J, at 4 p.m. Jobs and Training - Spaceflight 101 Returns
The popular two-and-a-half-hour seminar Spaceflight 101 will return to the Building 30 Auditorium on Tuesday, March 18, at 2 p.m. Open to all (including families), Spaceflight 101 explains the basics of every facet of human spaceflight. Using beautiful graphics and no mathematics, we explore the qualitative physical effects that have shaped the world's space programs into the designs we now see as so familiar. We will look at the science one can do only in space, the reasons the designs look the way they do, future possibilities and will explain what all those terms and acronyms mean. No reservation required. Your escorted visitors and family are welcome to attend. Event Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2014 Event Start Time:2:00 PM Event End Time:4:30 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium
Add to Calendar
Jack Bacon x47086
[top] - JSC Library Booth in MCC Lobby Today
The Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Center "mobile librarians" bring all the same great library resources to JSC users in their own work environment. Librarians can provide research assistance, group or one-on-one training on library resources via Lync or in person. The STI Center strives to promote easy access to its online resources -- thousands of online journals and e-books, as well as millions of NASA documents, videos and images. Look for the booth in the Building 30 Mission Control Center lobby between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. today. Flyers and other items describing library resources and services will be available at the booth. To learn more about the JSC libraries and the video and imagery repositories, click here or call 281-483-4245. - Enterprise Service Request System (ESRS) Hands-on
The Information Resources Directorate (IRD) is providing a training class in the Building 12 training facility on March 27. Learn how to use the new online service request tool for I3P services, such as how to enter and track requests like ordering new seats, moves, edits, network connections, distribution lists and seat de-subscribes. Space is limited and on a first come, first served basis. Community - State Science and Engineering Fair Judges Needed
The ExxonMobil Texas Science and Engineering Fair (EMTSEF) will be held in San Antonio, Texas, on March 22. They are in need of more than 300 judges to help out with this event. This event engages students from middle schools and high schools from across the entire state of Texas - students who are interested in science, technology, engineering and math - and could be our co-workers within a few short years. The EMTSEF has specific requirements for their judges. Please visit their website for detailed information about judges' qualifications, duties, location, timeline and more. Note that your participation in this event, while certainly worthwhile and enriching, is completely voluntary and travel funding will not be provided. It is shown on the V-CORPs Web page for information only, and is not available for signup. Questions may be directed to Lisa Spence at x25859. - 2014 Trash Bash – March 29
Trash Bash is here again, and JSC is calling for volunteers! JSC has a Space Act Agreement with Armand Bayou Nature Center, and the JSC Environmental Office is coordinating a JSC team for this year's Trash Bash on Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers will be participating in a state-wide effort to clean trash out of our waterways. All participants will get a free T-shirt and lunch after the event with opportunities to win door prizes. Families are welcome. If you would like to participate, please sign up here or contact Kim Reppa. We look forward to seeing you there! | |
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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 and Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – March 13, 2014
- 11 a.m. CT - Video file of the Expedition 39/40 crew departure from Star City, Russia, for Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC (All Channels)
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Weather looks good for SpaceX launch from Cape
James Dean – Florida Today
An early forecast shows a 70 percent chance of favorable weather for Sunday morning's planned launch from Cape Canaveral of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule packed with nearly 5,000 pounds of International Space Station cargo.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Space Station Laser to Beam HD Video to Earth
The slow process of capturing science data is about to go into serious overdrive with a NASA laser communication experiment set to launch to the International Space Station.
NASA Joins Hunt for Missing Malaysian Jetliner
The world's premier space agency has joined the search for a Malaysian commercial jetliner that vanished into thin air over the weekend.
NASA Wants Laser Communications for TDRS Follow-on, Needs Industry Money First
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA is turning to industry for help funding laser-communications technology the agency hopes one day to use in the space-based, data-relay system that keeps Earth-orbiting spacecraft in touch with the ground, according to a lengthy budget document released March 11.
NASA will pay $35k to asteroid hunters
Carol Christian – Houston Chronicle
Want to help protect the planet from marauding asteroids? Well, sharpen your pencils because this public appeal from NASA contains the word "algorithms."
NASA Langley keeps fingers crossed, eyes focused forward
Acting director hopes Congress will pass Obama's proposed budget for NASA.
Mike Holtzclaw - Newport News (VA) Daily Press
Steve Jurczyk, acting director of the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, breathed a sigh of relief last week when the national space program was allocated $17.5 billion in President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2015.
Space leaders pay visit to Capitol
Tallahassee officials hear about industry's value to the state
James Dean – Florida Today
Other states want our space business, so don't take it for granted.
Lost in Space
The Crimean crisis highlights America's dangerous dependence on Russian space technology.
Bharath Gopalaswamy - U.S. News and World Report
The Crimea crisis, the sharpest conflict in decades between the United States and Russia, is raising concerns about the future of the U.S. space program. The cooperation in space that Washington and Moscow fostered in the quarter-century since the Cold War ended is now at risk of unraveling. A return to the Cold War would be very expensive and damaging to both countries, as the plunge in the Russian stock market indicates. But when it comes to space, the partner with more to lose may well be the United States.
Proton-M carrier rocket with two satellites aboard installed on Baikonur launch pad
The Voice of Russia
A Proton-M carrier rocket with two communications satellites aboard was installed on a launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, March 12.
COMPLETE STORIES
Weather looks good for SpaceX launch from Cape
James Dean – Florida Today
An early forecast shows a 70 percent chance of favorable weather for Sunday morning's planned launch from Cape Canaveral of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule packed with nearly 5,000 pounds of International Space Station cargo.
Liftoff is targeted for 4:41 a.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The window is instantaneous.
There's a chance thick clouds could pose a problem, according to the Air Force's 45th Weather Squadron.
Conditions are expected to worsen considerably if the launch slips a day, to a targeted 4:19 a.m. Monday attempt. Then clouds and rain are predicted to offer only a 30 percent chance of favorable launch weather.
SpaceX is launching its third of 12 missions under a $1.6 billion NASA resupply contract; the last was flown a year ago.
The Hawthorne, Calif., company on Saturday completed a 2-second firing of the Falcon 9 rocket's first-stage engines, a standard pre-launch test.
Pew! Pew! Pew! Space Station Laser to Beam HD Video to Earth
The slow process of capturing science data is about to go into serious overdrive with a NASA laser communication experiment set to launch to the International Space Station.
The Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) — which will be sent up to the space station aboard SpaceX's cargo-carrying Dragon capsule Sunday (March 16) — will test a substantial upgrade to the data streaming process by sending information via laser beam rather than radio wave.
"Optical communications has the potential to be a game-changer," mission manager Matt Abrahamson said in a statement.
Information sent by optical communications, also known as lasercomm, will reach scientists faster than data sent by conventional radio transmission. This is an important step as improving scientific instruments generate measurements in greater detail, but taking up significantly larger memory sizes.
Successful tests of the technology, like OPALS, will help pave the way toward operational optical communications in NASA's planetary and deep space missions, enhancing connections to engineers and scientists as well as to the public.
"Our ability to generate data has greatly outpaced our ability to downlink it," OPALS project systems engineer Bogdan Oaida said.
OPALS could help to change that problem.
'From dial-up to DSL'
The rapid pace of technology means that the scientific instruments utilized on space missions gather larger chunks of data than their predecessors. But the increasingly high-quality information continues to be bottle-necked by the radio frequency transmissions that convey it to Earth.
Many of the existing deep space missions send back 200 to 400 kilobits of information per second. OPALS will send information by laser beam rather than radio wave, demonstrating a speed of up to 50 megabits per second. Future deep space optical communication systems should reach up to one gigabit per second.
"Imagine trying to download a movie at home over dial-up," Oaida said. "It's essentially the same problem in space, whether we're talking about low-Earth orbit or deep space."
Upgrading from radio to optical communications will be "like upgrading from dial-up to DSL," Oaida added.
After its launch Sunday, OPALS will be positioned by robotic arm on the station's exterior. Over a period of almost three months, a telescope on the ground will track the instrument and conduct a number of transmission tests.
When a laser from the ground-based telescope hits the uplink beacon on OPALS, the instrument will downlink a modulated laser beam with a formatted video. The tests will study the pointing, accuracy, and tracking of the very tightly focused laser beam. Scientists will also study the characteristics of optical links through the planet's atmosphere, as well as training and educating NASA personnel in the operation of optical communication systems.
The communications system relies primarily on commercial off-the-shelf hardware enclosed in a pressurized container, an approach that allowed for a lower-cost development on an efficient schedule. Scientists beamed images of the Mona Lisa by laser to NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2013, making it the first optically transmitted data sent over planetary distances.
The technology was conceived, constructed, and tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., by engineers working through the lab's Phaeton early-career-hire program.
NASA Joins Hunt for Missing Malaysian Jetliner
The world's premier space agency has joined the search for a Malaysian commercial jetliner that vanished into thin air over the weekend.
On Monday (March 10), NASA began examining ways it can contribute to the search for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared shortly after takeoff on Friday (March 7), agency officials said.
"Activities under way include mining data archives of satellite data acquired earlier and using space-based assets, such as the Earth-Observing-1(EO-1) satellite and the ISERV camera on the International Space Station, to acquire new images of possible crash sites," NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told Space.com via email. "The resolution of images from these instruments could be used to identify objects of about 98 feet (30 meters) or larger." In addition, Beutel added, NASA will be sending relevant data to the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observations and Science Hazard Data Distribution System, which facilitates the sharing of information whenever the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters is activated.
The Charter — which aims to mitigate the effects of natural and man-made disasters by streamlining the delivery of space-acquired data — was activated on Tuesday (March 11) by China, according to CNET.
Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, on Friday afternoon U.S. Eastern time, headed for Beijing. The plane dropped off air traffic controllers' radar less than an hour later; the whereabouts of the Boeing 777 jet, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, remain unknown.
On Wednesday (March 12), however, Chinese officials announced that one of the nation's satellites had spotted a possible crash site for Flight 370. The spacecraft captured images of three large, floating objects in the waters northeast of Kuala Lumpur, along the plane's presumed flight path, CNN reported.
A follow-up investigation by recovery boats and aircraft could confirm if the objects are indeed pieces of the Malaysian Airlines jet, experts say.
The disappearance of Flight 370 calls to mind Air France Flight 447, which vanished over the Atlantic Ocean in June 2009, shortly after taking off from Rio de Janeiro en route to Paris. It took five days to locate the wreckage of Flight 447 and nearly two years to find and recover the jet's "black boxes" from the ocean floor.
NASA Wants Laser Communications for TDRS Follow-on, Needs Industry Money First
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA is turning to industry for help funding laser-communications technology the agency hopes one day to use in the space-based, data-relay system that keeps Earth-orbiting spacecraft in touch with the ground, according to a lengthy budget document released March 11.
In 2012, NASA said it would invest $230 million into a Laser Communication Relay Demonstration payload, including a $3 million contract with commercial satellite builder Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, Calif., to host the NASA-built hardware aboard a geostationary satellite with a view of North America.
Now, the project is hurting for cash and must be restructured "to encourage the greater involvement of industry, including industry investments and program partnerships," NASA wrote in a 700-page budget justification document. In the meantime, the agency plans to start buying modems, lasers and controllers required for ground-based laser-communications tests slated for later this year.
The laser communications demo is co-funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters here, and the Space Communication and Navigation program at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The restructuring NASA warns about in its 2015 budget justification is driven by a smaller-than-expected Space Technology appropriation for 2014, which at roughly $580 million was nearly $170 million less than what the White House sought.
A day before the unveiling of the detailed 2015 budget request, a NASA official at the Satellite 2014 trade show here affirmed the agency is still working with Space Systems/Loral to get the experimental laser-communications payload — which is being built at Goddard — launched around 2017.
As was the case when NASA signed its contract with Space Systems/Loral "we don't know who the operator [of the host satellite] is going to be yet," James Schier, chief architect for space communications and navigation at NASA headquarters here, said during a March 10 panel discussion.
The Laser Communication Relay Demonstration payload is designed to test communication in extremely high-frequency optical wavelengths — which offer faster upload and download rates than satellite industry-standard radio frequencies — between geostationary orbit and the ground.
Flying the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration is important not only to prove that the Goddard-built optical communications suite works as intended, but also because the idea of hosting laser-communication terminals aboard geostationary satellites not owned or operated by NASA is something the agency is considering as a follow-on for its venerable Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system.
According to Schier, NASA is in the middle of studying whether the data-relay capabilities packed onto a single TDRS satellite could be disaggregated into a series of smaller spacecraft, or hosted payloads "similar to [the one] that is going to fly on the Loral bird in 2017."
Whatever path NASA chooses, "there is a management intention to put laser capabilities as part of the successor capability to the third generation of TDRS," Schier said.
NASA has used TDRS satellites for more than 30 years to keep Earth-orbiting spacecraft in contact with the ground. The newest satellite in the eight-spacecraft constellation, TDRS-L, was launched in January and is one of three third-generation TDRS satellites to be built for NASA by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of Seal Beach, Calif., under a fixed-price contract signed in 2007.
Boeing's base contract was for TDRS-K and TDRS-L, with an option for TDRS-M and TDRS-N. NASA picked up the TDRS-M option in 2011 for $289 million, but passed on the TDRS-N option, agency spokesman Dewayne Washington confirmed March 12.
Three third-generation TDRS satellites are all NASA needs "to maintain Space Network communications services to customer missions into the 2020s," when the constellation will next need replenishing, according to the NASA budget justification.
TDRS-M is now in production and is expected to be finished by June 2015, when it will be put in storage until NASA can procure a launch vehicle, according to the 2015 budget justification. The TDRS-K and -L satellites launched on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets, but NASA appears to be leaving the door open for a competing launch provider to loft TDRS-M.
"TDRS-M will be stored at the contractor's facility until funding is available to purchase a launch vehicle," the 2015 budget justification reads. "Depending on the launch vehicle selected, changes may be required to integrate the satellite with the vehicle and prepare it for launch."
Meanwhile, NASA is still planning incremental steps in its laser technology demonstrations for 2015, including demonstrating in-space laser communications between two cubesats, according to the budget justification.
Similarly, the next Discovery-class planetary science mission, competition for which begins this year, could be required to fly a NASA-furnished laser-communications terminal.
"Anything beyond the Moon, we're going to require a deep-space laser-communications demonstration capability," Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division said during a March 12 teleconference with the NASA Advisory Council's planetary science subcommittee . The next Discovery mission would not be selected until 2016.
NASA already has a long-distance laser communications relay demonstration under its belt. In 2013, NASA relayed data from lunar orbit to Earth using an optical communications payload hosted aboard the agency's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer spacecraft. In that test, the agency achieved virtually error-free upload rates of 20 megabits a second, and download rates of 311 megabits a second, Schier said March 10.
NASA will pay $35k to asteroid hunters
Carol Christian – Houston Chronicle
Want to help protect the planet from marauding asteroids? Well, sharpen your pencils because this public appeal from NASA contains the word "algorithms."
In fact, we're talking about "improved algorithms."
Starting March 17, the space agency is running a series of contests, open to the public, to come up with improved algorithms to identify asteroids in images captured by Earth-bound telescopes.
If you're starting to space out, just think of algorithm as a fancy term for "steps to follow in a calculation."
NASA's Asteroid Data Hunter contest series will offer $35,000 in awards over the next six months to citizen scientists who come up with some fresh ideas, according to a news release.
The agency is looking to beef up its ongoing work to identify and characterize near-Earth objects for further scientific research, the release said. Part of the job is to locate potentially hazardous asteroids and identify ones that can be steered off to orbit the moon for future exploration by astronauts.
NASA's algorithm contests are put on by its Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, established at the request of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
This contest will be managed by the NASA Tournament Lab, an online entity developed by NASA and Harvard University to crowd-source answers to daunting questions, the release said.
"For the past three years, NASA has been learning and advancing the ability to leverage distributed algorithm and coding skills through the NASA Tournament Lab to solve tough problems," Jason Crusan, NASA Tournament Lab director, said in a prepared statement.
"We are now applying our experience with algorithm contests to helping protect the planet from asteroid threats through image analysis," Crusan said.
To win the top prize, here's what your algorithm must do:
- Increase the detection sensitivity
- Minimize the number of false positives
- Ignore imperfections in the data
- Run effectively on all computer systems.
"Protecting the planet from the threat of asteroid impact means first knowing where they are," Jenn Gustetic, Prizes and Challenges Program executive said in the news release. "By opening up the search for asteroids, we are harnessing the potential of innovators and makers and citizen scientists everywhere to help solve this global challenge."
Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer of the asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, Inc., said existing methods are tracking only about one percent of the objects that orbit the sun.
"We are excited to partner with NASA in this contest to help increase the quantity and knowledge about asteroids that are potential threats, human destinations, or resource-rich," Lewicki said in the release.
Suggestions that come from the public through the contest will be applied to the extensive Catalina Sky Survey data set funded by NASA, the release said.
NASA Langley keeps fingers crossed, eyes focused forward
Acting director hopes Congress will pass Obama's proposed budget for NASA.
Mike Holtzclaw - Newport News (VA) Daily Press
Steve Jurczyk, acting director of the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, breathed a sigh of relief last week when the national space program was allocated $17.5 billion in President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2015.
True, that budget would represent about $186 million less than fiscal year 2014 – but in difficult financial times, especially for federal programs, Jurczyk was not about to complain.
"I was pleasantly surprised," he said Wednesday morning after giving a "round table" presentation to local businesspeople at the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. "We had come up with plans for a $16.8 billion budget, and for the $16.2 billion we would have been looking at if sequestration had hit. The 16.8 plan was OK to work with, but the 16.2 plan would have involved some very, very difficult cuts.
"Overall, the budget was very good news," he said, especially since the president's Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative (OGSI) would direct an additional $885 million to NASA, about $93.7 million of which would go toward the construction of Langley's planned Measurement Systems Laboratory.
While he was pleased with the president's proposal, Jurczyk said now he is nervously waiting to see if the U.S. Congress approves it.
"Absolutely, those numbers could still change," he said. "The president proposes and Congress disposes."
Many of NASA's current projects would not be operational for another decade or longer, which Jurczyk said can make for a hard sell at budget time.
At the conclusion of his presentation to the Chamber of Commerce, for example, Jurczyk showed a 3-minute video detailing a mission that would intercept dangerous asteroids, redirect them into a safe orbit, and collect samples that could be retrieved and studied on Earth. The soonest it could be deployed would be 2025.
"This is a big deal, and we need to get working on that now," Jurczyk said. "The technological challenge requires a lot of research and planning, but when you're talking about something that is five or 10 years down the road, it can sometimes be hard to convince people that we need to start working on it now."
Michael Kuhns, president and CEO of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, said NASA Langley's continued relevance is important to the overall economy of the region.
"It goes beyond just the infusion of federal dollars and the jobs that it brings to the area," Kuhns said. "So much of what NASA Langley brings to the area is in potential. The creative ideas generated there are a big part of developing the entrepreneurial culture on the Peninsula."
Space leaders pay visit to Capitol
Tallahassee officials hear about industry's value to the state
James Dean – Florida Today
Other states want our space business, so don't take it for granted.
That's the message aerospace industry leaders took to Tallahassee on Wednesday for their annual Florida Space Day event at the Capitol.
Lawmakers and visitors could get an autograph from the first shuttle pilot, Bob Crippen, take pictures with a spacesuit-clad character and peruse displays promoting Kennedy Space Center programs.
And in meetings, informal discussions and at an evening reception, representatives from NASA and more than 30 companies stressed the aerospace industry's importance to Florida's economy "and that there's a lot of competition with the other states, and we do not want to lose our No. 1 status," said Patty Stratton, chair of Florida Space Day 2014.
Florida's $9 billion aerospace industry involves 500 companies employing more than 30,000 people, according to Space Day organizers.
But the space program is in transition following NASA's retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, which roughly halved KSC's work force, to about 7,800.
KSC is preparing for commercial launches of astronauts and the first test flight of a new exploration rocket in the 2017 timeframe.
But Florida is battling Texas, Georgia, Virginia and other locations for commercial satellite launches by fast-growing companies such as SpaceX. It also hopes to become a hub for suborbital space tourism that will start in New Mexico, and for space-related science research, where Florida has lagged other states.
Through Space Florida and its predecessors, the state has played an important role helping to modernize infrastructure for NASA, military or commercial space programs, and to provide financing for space-related visitor attractions.
Some recent examples include renovation of a former shuttle hangar at KSC for assembly of private crew capsules; overhaul of a KSC high bay for assembly of NASA's Orion exploration capsule; and financing for the shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the KSC Visitor Complex.
State incentives have also helped attract or expand local aerospace operations. Recent successes include major initiatives by Embraer Executive Jets and Northrop Grumman Corp. at Melbourne International Airport.
Space Day officials met with Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday, who Stratton said expressed support for the industry and for promoting science, technology, engineering and math education.
Meetings with House and Senate members continued Wednesday. Rep. Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, formally welcomed Space Day participants on the House floor.
"We've gotten a very positive reception," said Stratton, vice president and program manager for Abacus Technology Corp. at KSC. "They understand that the competition is very stiff from the other states."
Lost in Space
The Crimean crisis highlights America's dangerous dependence on Russian space technology.
Bharath Gopalaswamy - U.S. News and World Report
The Crimea crisis, the sharpest conflict in decades between the United States and Russia, is raising concerns about the future of the U.S. space program. The cooperation in space that Washington and Moscow fostered in the quarter-century since the Cold War ended is now at risk of unraveling. A return to the Cold War would be very expensive and damaging to both countries, as the plunge in the Russian stock market indicates. But when it comes to space, the partner with more to lose may well be the United States.
The Atlas V rocket is operated by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of aerospace giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing. This vehicle launches several satellites every year in the military's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program, including one to lift off March 25 and another in May. Each of these launches delivers satellites critical to U.S. national security. However, the Atlas V notably relies on the Russian-built RD-180 for its main propulsion. Given Russia's recent actions, the supply of this engine may well come to a sudden halt, compromising national security.
Purchasing these engines is clearly controversial, especially given the deterioration of U.S.-Russia relations in recent years. There are reports that Russia has been mulling a ban over the export of these engines. While U.S. lawmakers have been exploring alternatives, the present crisis between Washington and Moscow urgently highlights this need. The United Launch Alliance insists that it can make the same engine domestically but has yet to come up with answers about how long doing so would take or how much it would cost. More importantly, it makes one wonder why the alliance has not made those engines itself yet.
The United States "cannot assure access to space when it relies on President [Vladimir] Putin's permission" for American purchases of the Russian-built RD-180 engine, said Elon Musk, the CEO of the California-based SpaceX. Musk is pushing the Air Force to launch some of its satellites on his company's Falcon 9 rocket. The United Launch Alliance responded that it is in possession of approximately two years' supply of the Russian engines, even in the event of a supply disruption. However, missions are generally contracted two years in advance of a launch. This means that if Russia were to halt supply of the engine today, United Launch Alliance would be unable to fly any new missions designated for the Atlas V contracted from today on out. This comes as a particular challenge, as just recently the Air Force awarded the alliance a contract for missions extending five years into the future.
There is hope, though. The Ukraine crisis reminds us that the United States need not outsource its capability to get to space. The United Launch Alliance already operates its Delta IV rocket that uses American rocket engines and can actually launch more payloads than the Atlas V. Private actors such as California-based SpaceX and Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corporation are also viable options to launch for the Department of Defense. In fact, recent statements by Air Force officials indicate that SpaceX will be fully certified to compete in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program this year. At a time when Congress and industry frequently bemoan the decline of the U.S. industrial base, this RD-180 crisis highlights that the nation has a win-win opportunity to bring thousands of high-paying jobs back from overseas and end Russia's stranglehold on our ability to access space.
As the U.S. National Space Strategy rightly notes, greater international cooperation is important for the U.S. space program -- but cooperation should not be mistaken for dependence. The current crisis with Russia underscores the U.S. need to maintain true, domestic assured access to space, and we can make that a reality now.
Bharath Gopalaswamy is the deputy director of the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council.
Proton-M carrier rocket with two satellites aboard installed on Baikonur launch pad
The Voice of Russia
A Proton-M carrier rocket with two communications satellites aboard was installed on a launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, March 12.
The carrier rocket and ground equipment will undergo pre-launch checks and the rocket will be filled with fuel. Its launch is scheduled for 03:08 am Moscow time (11:08 pm GMT) March 16.
Express AT-1 and Express AT-2 satellites were made by the Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems in cooperation with the French company Alenia Space for Space Communications under the Russian Federal Space Programme for 2006-2015.
The TurkSat-4A Turkish satellite launched from Baikonur on Saturday with the use of a Proton-M rocket is put into orbit, a Roscosmos source said. The satellite safely separated from the Briz-M upper stage at the planned time, he source said.
TurkSat-4A belongs to the Turkish satellite communication operator Turksat AS. The 3,800-kg satellite made by the Japanese Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) Corporation will be used to provide TV broadcasting services for Turkey, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
"The TurkSat-4A spacecraft separated from the upper stage and has been handed over to the client's control," a Roscosmos spokesperson said. The TurkSat-4A belongs to the Turkish satellite communications operator Turksat AS and is designed to provide TV broadcasting and broadband Internet services in Turkey, Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
The satellite was manufactured by the Japanese corporation Mitsubishi Electric (MELCO) on the basis of the DS2000 MELCO modular platform, is carrying Ku-, Ka-, and C-band transponders, and weighs 4,869 kilos.
The satellite's service life is 30 years. This has been the second space launch Russia has carried out in 2014. A week before, a Soyuz-U rocket carrying the Progress-M-22M expendable freighter spacecraft had been launched from Baikonur.
This was the first Proton launch in 2014. It was reported earlier that Russia had carried out 32 space launches in 2013 out of a total of 82 performed by all countries. It was the first commercial launch by Russia this year.
One of the Russian launches ended up in a crash, and one more was partially successful. Russia performed 23 space launches from the Baikonur space center, 7 from Plesetsk, and 2 from the Yasny launch pad in 2013.
A Soyuz-ST rocket was also used in two launches from the Kourou space center and the Russian-Ukrainian Zenit-3SL rocket in a launch under the Sea Launch program.
In addition, a Russian first stage was used as a component of the South Korean rocket KSLV-1, and it will also be used on the Angara rocket.
The US performed 19 space launches, China 15, France 7, Japan and India 3 each, Iran presumably 1, and South Korea and the Sea Launch consortium 1 each.
Proton-M space vehicles were used in 10 Russian launches in 2013, Soyuz-U, Soyuz-FG, and Rockot in 4 each, Soyuz-2.1b in 3, Soyuz-2.1a and Dnepr in 2 each, and Soyuz-2.1v, Zenit-3SL (Land Launch), and Strela in 1 each.
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