| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Watch Expedition 39 Launch in Teague Tomorrow
- Mark Geyer Taking Twitter Questions Today
- Women's History Month Closing Panel Discussion
- Volunteers Needed to Taste Space Food - Organizations/Social
- Final Notice - Shirts Not Picked Up
- The Relationship Between Anger and Stress
- EVA 23 Suit Water Intrusion Lessons Learned, Apr 9
- Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting
- Kinect Co-Lab Video Conference with Leap Motion
- JSC Toastmasters Club Meets Wednesday Nights
- NASA Ultimate Frisbee - Sign Up Today - Jobs and Training
- Job Opportunities
- Upcoming NESC and NEN Webcast
- Lockout/Tagout ViTS - April 2
- Particle Count Training ViTS - April 4, AM
- Cleanroom Protocol & Contam Ctrl ViTS April 4, PM
- Resources for Enterprise Software Licensing - Community
- Mentors Needed for High School Aerospace Scholars |  |
| Headlines - Watch Expedition 39 Launch in Teague Tomorrow
JSC team members are invited to watch NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and his Expedition 39 crewmates launch to the International Space Station in the Teague Auditorium Tuesday, March 25. Doors open at 3:15 p.m. as NASA TV coverage begins for a 4:17 p.m. launch. Stop by, watch the launch, and grab a free poster. Post about the event on social media using the hashtag #Swanny. Swanson will be the first person ever to use Instagram from space. Follow his mission at instagram.com/iss. - Mark Geyer Taking Twitter Questions Today
Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer will be participating in a #SpaceChat on Twitter @Go2DeepSpace at 1 p.m. today. Submit your questions via Twitter using the #SpaceChat hashtag, and get them answered by Geyer, who will be tweeting from @NASA_Orion. The chat will last about half an hour, and Geyer will answer as many questions as possible. But you can always submit questions to Orion's social media accounts at @NASA_Orion on Twitter or via Facebook. - Women's History Month Closing Panel Discussion
Join the dynamic panel discussion with four dedicated NASA executives (Lauri Hansen, Karen Jackson, Dot Swanson and Vanessa Wyche) who play a vital role in leading JSC. Their lives and work inspire others to achieve their full potential and encourage all to respect the diversity and depth of women's experience. The panel will address gender uniqueness and provide concrete tools for women to be successful at every level of their careers. Raising awareness among stakeholders to highlight women's characters, support their courage and strengthen their commitments will directly influence sustainable and inclusive growth of women at JSC. This event is hosted by the JSC Women's History Month planning committee. To print the 2014 Women's History Month poster, please click here. - Volunteers Needed to Taste Space Food
Have you ever wanted to try REAL space food? Well, now you have the opportunity. The Space Foods Systems Laboratory is seeking volunteers to try new and improved space foods! Organizations/Social - Final Notice - Shirts Not Picked Up
If you have not picked up NASA 55th anniversary or shuttle program shirts ordered in September or November, please stop by the Starport Gift Shop in Building 11 as soon as possible. If you are unable to pick up your shirts, please call or send an email to make other arrangements. We are unable to continue holding the shirts due to lack of storage space, and new T-shirt opportunities are coming soon. Thank you for choosing Starport! - The Relationship Between Anger and Stress
Anger and stress both have significant adverse health impacts, and the combination of the two creates a mix that is guaranteed to wreck both health and relationships. Learn to recognize what triggers you, how these states feed each other and what you can do to manage them effectively. Tomorrow, March 25, join Takis Bogdanos, LPC-S, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, in the Building 30 Auditorium from 12 noon to 1 p.m. - EVA 23 Suit Water Intrusion Lessons Learned, Apr 9
Attend JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance speaker forum featuring Chris Hansen, chief, Crew and Thermal Systems Division, and Dana Weigel, flight director, Mission Operations Directorate. Wednesday, April 9, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Topic: Lessons Learned on the EVA 23 Suit Water Intrusion Location: Building 1, Room 966 On July 16, 2013, two U.S. crew members (referred to here as EV1 and EV2) exited the International Space Station U.S. Airlock to begin EVA 23. Roughly 44 minutes into EVA 23, EV2 reported water inside his helmet on the back of his head. During the post-EVA debrief, EV2 reported impaired visibility and breathing with water covering his eyes, nose and ears. In addition, EV2 had audio communication issues because of the water. When returning to the airlock, EV2 had to rely on manual feel of his safety tether's cable for pathway directions. Attend to hear the lessons learned from this recent incident. - Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting
Join the Human Systems Integration (HSI) Employee Resource Group (ERG) in a discussion of how HSI principles and practices might be integrated into the JSC culture. The HSI ERG has formed a new "HSI Implementation Committee" that will focus on how HSI concepts might be formally or informally integrated into the JSC culture. The committee is led by former HSI ERG chairs David Fitts and Jen Rochlis, and will facilitate conversations on what HSI at JSC might look like in the future. This general HSI ERG meeting will jumpstart the discussion and is a great way to get involved in the new committee. - Kinect Co-Lab Video Conference with Leap Motion
Please join us TODAY for an exciting video conference with Leap Motion (leapmotion.com). The Leap Motion is one of the most sophisticated gesture-input devices on the market today. Frank Ignazzitto and Alan Davis from Leap Motion will be sharing some of the possibilities that the device can bring to advanced human computer interaction. The Leap Motion controller senses how you naturally move your hands and allows you to use your computer in a whole new way. Point, wave, reach, grab and pick something up and move it. Do things you never dreamed possible. The presentation will cover system operation, performance specifications, technology roadmap and a technical Q&A. The meeting will be held in Building 35, Room 107, from 1 to 2 p.m. - JSC Toastmasters Club Meets Wednesday Nights
Looking to develop speaking and leadership skills? Ignite your career? Want to increase your self-confidence, become a better speaker or leader and communicate more effectively? Then JSC Toastmasters is for you! Members attend meetings each Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Longhorn Room. JSC Toastmasters weekly meetings are learn-by-doing workshops where participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a pressure-free atmosphere. Membership is open to anyone. - NASA Ultimate Frisbee - Sign Up Today
Starport is excited to offer a great new league for those who have never played Ultimate Frisbee and those who are veterans to the sport. Ultimate Frisbee - Co-ed Hat League - Registration closes tomorrow, March 25
- Only $20 per person!
- Ages 12 and up
- Sign up as an individual (or with a friend) and don't worry about finding a whole team!
League Info: - Eight-week league (plus playoffs)
- Monday evenings starting March 31
- Games start at 6 p.m.
Want a friend on your team? No problem! Request an individual to be partnered with. This is the perfect league for anyone that has always wanted to try Starport Sports or Ultimate Frisbee. Sign up now! Jobs and Training - Job Opportunities
Where do I find job opportunities? To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. Lateral reassignment and rotation opportunities are posted in the Workforce Transition Tool. To access: HR Portal > Employees > Workforce Transition > Workforce Transition Tool. These opportunities do not possess known promotion potential; therefore, employees can only see positions at or below their current grade level. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies or reassignment opportunities, please call your HR representative. - Upcoming NESC and NEN Webcast
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) and NASA Engineering Network (NEN) will host the following webcast on Wednesday, April 2, at noon CDT for approximately two hours. The webcast, titled "Utilization of the Building-Block Approach in Structural Mechanics Research," will be presented by Marshall Rouse. Registration is easy. Go here and click the "Sign in to Register" button. You will be redirected to LaunchPad to enter your user name and password. After a successful authentication, click the "Register Now" button. You will receive a confirmation email. If you can't attend the live webcast, please register anyway and we will notify you when the recorded (on-demand) version is available online for you to view. Registration is not available outside of the NASA firewall. - Lockout/Tagout ViTS - April 2
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... - Particle Count Training ViTS - April 4, AM
This course will provide the technician/engineer with the basic skills and knowledge for performing a particle count to determine particle-cleanliness level. A written/practical examination will also be offered. Course content includes: - Review of approved method for manually counting particles using an optical microscope
- Microscope operation and calibration
- Non-microscopic visual identification of particles by shape, size, color and other physical characteristics
- Sampling techniques for particles in gases and liquids
- Filtering techniques for fluid using the Millipore apparatus
- Compatibility of filter membranes and their specific uses
- Handling filter membranes, the Millipore assembly, performing background determinations and pre-reading of filters prior to sampling
- Use of high-pressure filter assemblies
- Particle counting and data recording
- Statistical analysis
- Use of automatic particle-counting techniques and their limitations
- Cleanroom Protocol & Contam Ctrl ViTS April 4, PM
This course addresses the operation and uses of cleanrooms and the associated cleanroom protocols to minimize contamination. The student will learn how to prevent contamination from spreading to the product or test article in and upon removal from the clean environment. The class will include a discussion of contamination control and cleanroom requirements documents, including SN-C-0005 and ISO 14644. The course discusses the nature and sources of contaminants, monitoring particle and film contamination, cleanroom protocols to prevent the spread of contamination, and contamination removal methods. Also included are: NASA requirements for cleanliness levels; identification and monitoring of contamination; description and classifications of cleanrooms; personnel and garment protocols in cleanrooms and clean work areas; other do's and don'ts in cleanrooms and clean work areas; and removal methods. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... - Resources for Enterprise Software Licensing
The Enterprise License Management Team (ELMT) Program was established April 1, 2008, at the NASA Shared Services Center to provide support for the discovery, analysis, establishment and management of agency enterprise software licensing. The ELMT maintains licensing and contract consolidation initiatives activities for NASA and negotiates economy-of-scale pricing for selected software such as Adobe (desktop and Enterprise), Oracle and IBM Maximo. For additional information regarding ELMT-managed agreements, please contact any member of the ELMT via email or at 855-610-2871 (toll-free), or visit the ELMT website. For more information, please contact Herb Babineaux at 281-483-4263 or via email. Community - Mentors Needed for High School Aerospace Scholars
Celebrate the 15th anniversary of High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) by mentoring students during a series of summer camps connecting our NASA workforce with Texas students. Share your NASA experience and advice with students interested in following your footsteps. Students work alongside NASA employees during simulated missions to Mars. You can choose any week to volunteer just 20 hours while enjoying our fun activities. Summer Schedule: - Week 1: June 15 to 20
- Week 2: June 22 to 27
- Week 3: July 6 to 11
- Week 4: July 13 to 18
- Week 5: July 20 to 25
- Week 6: July 27 to Aug. 1
If interested, please: 1. Complete the mentor application here. 4. Apply before April 2. | |
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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
Monday – March 24, 2014
International Space Station:
- 1 p.m. CT - Video File of the Russian State Commission Meeting and Final Expedition 39/40 Pre-Launch Crew News Conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC via Baikonur, Kazakhstan (All Channels)
- 2-3 p.m. CT - Kid-Friendly NASA Social: Meet Astronaut Karen Nyberg - HQ (All Channels)
HEADLINES AND LEADS
SpaceX confirms March 30 launch attempt
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX has confirmed plans to attempt a 10:50 p.m. launch a week from Sunday, on March 30.
Space Notebook: Pair of KSC launches planned for next week
James Dean – Florida Today
Spring Breakers could enjoy two Space Coast launches in the next week. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is expected to roll to its pad Monday morning in preparation for a 2:48 p.m. Tuesday launch of a National Reconnaissance Office satellite.
Move asteroids first, then Mars: NASA
Rebekah Ison – Australian Associated Press
HOW do you prepare for a mission to Mars?
By redirecting asteroids of course.
Head of NASA, Charles Bolden, told students at Sydney's Australian National Maritime Museum on Monday that the organisation wants to put astronauts on the red planet by the 2030s.
Search area for Malaysian airliner widened after French satellite images
Matt Siegel and Niluksi Koswanage - Reuters
The search area for a missing Malaysian jetliner in remote seas off Australia was widened on Monday after French satellite images revealed potential "floating debris" several hundred kilometres north of pictures previously captured by U.S. and Chinese satellites.
NASA Seeks Innovative Ideas for Wild Asteroid-Capture Plan
NASA is asking for more ideas to help plan out its ambitious asteroid-capture mission, which seeks to drag a space rock into orbit around the moon for future visitation by astronauts.
Michael Lopez-Alegria Talks His Transition From NASA Astronaut to Leading the Commercial Spaceflight Federation & the Benefits of the CSF Mission
Tim Watson - ExecutiveGov
Michael Lopez-Alegria brings a three-decade background of service from NASA and the U.S. Navy to his role as president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based trade association.
Michael Lopez-Alegria On the Prospects for Commercial Spaceflight, Hurdles to Overcome & NASA's Recent Budget Proposal
Tim Watson - ExecutiveGov
ExecutiveGov: How have we gotten to where we are today and what's the current status of commercial spaceflight?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: Well, I have to go back to the two halves of the industry. In the suborbital commercial space right now, we're actually fortunate to have a handful of companies, the most notable of them are XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic.
Private Space Taxis on Track for 2017 Launch, NASA Says
The United States should be able to launch its astronauts to space using homegrown commercial spacecraft by 2017, NASA officials say.
Spacecraft Returns Seven Particles From Birth of the Solar System
Richard Kerr – ScienceNOW
After a massive, years-long search, researchers have recovered seven interstellar dust particles returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft. The whole sample, reported here this week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, weighs just a few trillionths of a gram, but it's the first time scientists have laid their hands on primordial material unaltered by the violent birth of the solar system.
COMPLETE STORIES
SpaceX confirms March 30 launch attempt
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX has confirmed plans to attempt a 10:50 p.m. launch a week from Sunday, on March 30.
The launch of cargo to the International Space Station had been planned March 16, but was postponed after potential contamination was found inside the unpressurized "trunk" of the Dragon spacecraft.
In a statement today, SpaceX said NASA and company engineers cleared the Dragon to fly "as-is."
"All parties agree that the particular constituents observed in Dragon's trunk are in line with the previously defined environments levels and do not impose additional risk to the payloads," the statement continued.
A March 30 launch of the Dragon atop a Falcon 9 rocket would put the cargo capsule on course to reach the ISS early April 2.
If there is no launch that evening, the next opportunity would come at 9:39 p.m. April 2.
SpaceX's launch could be the second of two next week. United Launch Alliance is targeting a 2:48 p.m. Tuesday launch of an Atlas V rocket carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office satellite.
Reviews today confirmed that mission is proceeding on schedule, including plans to roll the Atlas V to its pad Monday morning.
Space Notebook: Pair of KSC launches planned for next week
James Dean – Florida Today
Spring Breakers could enjoy two Space Coast launches in the next week.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is expected to roll to its pad Monday morning in preparation for a 2:48 p.m. Tuesday launch of a National Reconnaissance Office satellite.
A company Webcast of the mission, numbered NROL-67, will start 20 minutes before liftoff and cut off four minutes into flight, after a nose cone splits away from the classified satellite.
Precise launch windows are not disclosed for NRO missions, but a longer "launch period" ends at 3:35 p.m.
Then late next Sunday, SpaceX plans to launch cargo to the station from Cape Canaveral, in a Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket. Liftoff is targeted for 10:50 p.m., an instantaneous window.
A planned March 16 attempt was postponed when some possible contamination was found inside the Dragon's unpressurized "trunk."
In a statement Friday, SpaceX said company and NASA engineers had determined the Dragon was ready to fly "as-is." The statement continued: "All parties agree that the particular constituents observed in Dragon's trunk are in line with the previously defined environments levels and do not impose additional risk to the payloads."
Soyuz launch, Russia relations
A few hours after Tuesday's planned Atlas V launch, NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and two cosmonauts are scheduled to blast off in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan.
It will be another sign of apparently normal cooperation between the U.S. and Russia in space operations, even as the countries trade sanctions over Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Earlier this month, NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins returned from the station in a Soyuz with two cosmonauts.
And last week, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman joined with a cosmonaut and German astronaut for a press conference previewing their planned May 28 flight.
Swanson's launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome is set for 5:17 p.m. EDT Tuesday, followed by docking at the station just after 11 p.m.
During his visit to Kennedy Space Center last week, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Orlando) echoed NASA statements that political differences with Russia would not disrupt station operations.
Asked about United Launch Alliance's use of a Russian-built engine for Atlas V rockets, which launch important national security and NASA satellites, Nelson noted that ULA has a two-year supply of the RD-180 engines available in the U.S.
"Now if this relationship with Russia were to really turn south, then we'd have to start making alternative plans," he said.
The Air Force and Pentagon plan to review use of the RS-180 engine. Meanwhile, U.S. companies are contemplating broader use of it and other Russian engines.
Orbital Sciences last week dropped a lawsuit against ULA that sought access to the RD-180, which is produced exclusively for ULA. The engine could replace refurbished Soviet-era engines on Orbital's Antares rocket.
Orbital said it would attempt to negotiate a business resolution with ULA "subject to all necessary approvals from the U.S. and Russian governments." The company this month told investors it is considering multiple alternatives to the AJ-26 engine used now, all made in Russia.
Orbital said last week that its next Antares rocket will lift off no earlier than May 6 from Virginia's Eastern Shore, carrying a Cygnus spacecraft packed with ISS cargo.
ULA wins contract
United Launch Alliance last week won a $172.7 million contract to launch a European Space Agency-led science mission to study the sun, on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral in July 2017.
The Solar Orbiter mission will fly a 10-instrument spacecraft to provide close-up, high-latitude observations of the sun over seven years, according to ESA, which is collaborating with NASA on the mission.
NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP), based at Kennedy Space Center, made the award, which ULA said "considered multiple launch providers."
NASA would not confirm who else bid.
In addition to the rocket, NASA said it will contribute two instruments to the mission at an estimated cost of $147.6 million.
EFT-1 cost still in question
NASA last Monday invited media to see two of the three Delta IV Heavy rocket boosters that will place its Orion capsule in space for the first time, hopefully in December.
The event included remarks from KSC Director Bob Cabana and Robert Lightfoot, one of the top officials at NASA Headquarters, about one of the agency's most anticipated and heavily promoted missions of the year.
One question they could not answer that day: How much will the Exploration Flight Test-1 mission cost?
Titan lecture, stargazing at FIT
Learn about Saturn's largest moon, Titan, then gaze at the stars on Friday at Florida Tech in Melbourne.
At 8 p.m. Friday, Asst. Prof. Catherine Neish will present a free presentation, "Saturn's Moon Titan: Earth in the Freezer Aisle," in the Olin Engineering Building auditorium.
Neish will summarize recent discoveries made by the Cassini-Huygens mission at Titan, and explore the extent to which prebiotic chemistry can proceed on its surface, according to a Community Science Lecture Series announcement.
Around 9 p.m., weather permitting, Florida Tech's Student Astronomical Society will open the Ortega telescope for public viewing, will three smaller telescopes also available.
Radiation Allen zebra stripes
Highly energized particles in Earth's inner radiation belt are organized in patterns resembling zebra stripes, influenced by Earth's rotation, scientists have learned.
The finding announced by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and reported in the March 20 issue of "Nature" came from instruments on NASA's twin Van Allen Probes, which launched from Cape Canaveral in Aug. 2012.
Move asteroids first, then Mars: NASA
Rebekah Ison – Australian Associated Press
HOW do you prepare for a mission to Mars?
By redirecting asteroids of course.
Head of NASA, Charles Bolden, told students at Sydney's Australian National Maritime Museum on Monday that the organisation wants to put astronauts on the red planet by the 2030s.
He said they would redirect the orbit of asteroids to around the moon as training for the Mars mission.
An "Asteroid Redirection Mission" would involve meeting an asteroid and slightly varying its flight path over a period of a year or so.
But getting to Mars is a lot more difficult.
"We actually don't know how to do that", Mr Bolden said.
Though an astronaut could survive the eight-month trip to the fourth planet from the sun, scientists aren't sure how they would react to surface radiation.
And how should astronauts interact with the locals?
"If there is some kind of life there, my suggestion is to ask it something really simple like "do you speak English?" or whatever language that the person speaks," Mr Bolden said.
"Because you really want to establish some rapport with whatever that life form is before you ... (not) make the immediate decision it is evil."
NASA has been the victim of government funding cuts since the Global Financial Crisis hit the US in 2008.
It has now begun using private companies to put its astronauts into earth orbits so it can focus its resources on exploring the "oceans of our universe".
NASA works closely with the Russian Federal Space Agency, which in the wake of current tensions over Crimea, has both agencies trying to keep below the waterline.
"We both realise how incredibly valuable the International Space Station is to the world community," Mr Bolden said.
"It's like a mini United Nations."
Search area for Malaysian airliner widened after French satellite images
Matt Siegel and Niluksi Koswanage - Reuters
The search area for a missing Malaysian jetliner in remote seas off Australia was widened on Monday after French satellite images revealed potential "floating debris" several hundred kilometres north of pictures previously captured by U.S. and Chinese satellites.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the new lead in the hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 was promising, but cautioned that the search in the icy southern Indian Ocean remained difficult.
"It's a lot of water to look for just perhaps a tiny object," Truss told ABC Radio. "Today we expect the weather to deteriorate and the forecast ahead is not that good so it's going to be a challenge, but we will stick at it."
Truss said the object spotted by a French satellite, which was reported to Malaysia on Sunday, was 850 km (528 miles) north of the current search areas for the Boeing 777 that vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board.
"That's not in the area that had been identified as the most likely place where the aircraft had entered the sea," Truss said.
Australia had used a U.S. satellite image of two floating objects to frame a search area some 2,500 km (1,430 miles) southwest of Perth.
Flight MH370 vanished from civilian radar screens less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on a scheduled flight to Beijing. Most of the passengers were Chinese.
A total of 10 planes, including Chinese military Ilyushin IL-76 and Japanese P-3C aircraft joining the search for the first time, are due to sweep a 68,000 sq km area on Monday.
The crews are zeroing in on the areas around where the earlier sightings were made in an effort to find the object identified by China and other small debris, including a wooden pallet, spotted by a search plane on Saturday.
China said the object it had seen on the satellite image was 22 metres long (74ft) and 13 metres (43ft) wide.
It could not easily be determined from the blurred images whether the objects were the same as those detected by Australia, but the Chinese photograph could depict a cluster of smaller objects, said a senior military officer from one of the 26 nations involved in the search.
The wing of a Boeing 777-200ER is approximately 27 metres long and 14 metres wide at its base, according to estimates derived from publicly available scale drawings. Its fuselage is 63.7 metres long by 6.2 metres wide.
NASA INVOLVED
NASA said it would use high-resolution cameras aboard satellites and the International Space Station to look for possible crash sites in the Indian Ocean. The U.S. space agency is also mining archived images collected by instruments on its Terra and Aqua environmental satellites, said NASA spokesman Allard Beutel.
"Our satellites and space-based cameras are designed for long-term scientific data gathering and Earth observation. They're really not meant to look for a missing aircraft, and obviously NASA isn't a lead agency in this effort. But we're trying to support the search, if possible," Beutel said.
Truss said the aircraft flying on Monday would be focused on searching by sight, rather than radar, which can be tricky to use because of the high seas and wind in the area. Civil aircraft, which can carry more people, have joined the search.
Truss warned that the search could be hampered further by a cyclone in the northern Indian Ocean.
"Clearly it won't be cyclonic when it gets down into the southern waters where we are dealing with this search, but certainly it could stir up less favourable weather ... and looking visibly for debris or anything of interest is the best chance of success," he said.
HIJACK OR SABOTAGE?
Investigators believe someone on the flight shut off the plane's communications systems, and partial military radar tracking showed it turning west and re-crossing the Malay Peninsula, apparently under the control of a skilled pilot.
That has led them to focus on hijacking or sabotage, but investigators have not ruled out technical problems. Faint electronic "pings" detected by a commercial satellite suggested it flew for another six hours or so, but could do no better than place its final signal on one of two vast arcs.
The lack of solid news has meant a prolonged and harrowing wait for families of the passengers, who have complained both in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur about the absence of information, many breaking down with grief.
A Malaysian statement said a "high-level" team briefed relatives in Beijing on Sunday in a meeting that lasted more than six hours.
While the southern arc is now the main focus of the search, Malaysia says efforts will continue in both corridors until confirmed debris is found.
"We still don't even know for certain if the aircraft is in this area," Truss said of the southern Indian Ocean search. "We're just clutching at whatever little piece of information that comes along to try to find the place we can concentrate the efforts."
NASA Seeks Innovative Ideas for Wild Asteroid-Capture Plan
NASA is asking for more ideas to help plan out its ambitious asteroid-capture mission, which seeks to drag a space rock into orbit around the moon for future visitation by astronauts.
The agency announced today (March 21) that it's seeking proposals for advanced technology-development studies that could bring the asteroid-redirect mission closer to reality and help keep the effort's costs down.
"We're in this sort of pre-formulation phase, studying and gathering input, leading to a mission concept review that we'll have in early 2015, where we'll try and focus down to a specific concept, and then go develop and implement," Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for policy and plans in NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, told reporters today.
The space agency is seeking ideas in five separate areas — asteroid capture systems; rendezvous sensor systems; secondary payloads; adapting commercial spacecraft buses; and international and commercial partnership opportunities.
Proposals are due May 5, and winners are expected to be announced on July 1. NASA will select a maximum of 25 submissions and dole out up to $6 million in total, officials said.
The asteroid-capture mission aims to drag a small asteroid, or a piece of a larger space rock, into a stable orbit around the moon using a robotic spacecraft. The asteroid would then be visited — perhaps multiple times — by astronauts using NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System mega-rocket, both of which are in development.
NASA wants the first manned visit to the redirected asteroid to occur by 2025. That would meet a broad goal laid out by President Barack Obama, who in 2010 directed the agency to get astronauts to an asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.
The asteroid-capture mission should play a key role in getting people to Mars and other locations throughout the solar system, Williams said.
"We see this as an important stepping stone in our advance of human exploration beyond LEO [low-Earth orbit]," he said.
NASA wants to keep costs down as much as possible, which explains why it's interested in establishing partnerships with commercial aerospace firms and/or leveraging technology already developed in the private sector.
"If the commercial satellite developers or other spacecraft developers see an inexpensive way of using the bus architecture as a framework for developing an inexpensive or affordable way of doing the asteroid-redirect vehicle development, we would be very interested in that," said James Reuther, deputy associate administrator for programs at NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Michael Lopez-Alegria Talks His Transition From NASA Astronaut to Leading the Commercial Spaceflight Federation & the Benefits of the CSF Mission
Tim Watson - ExecutiveGov
Michael Lopez-Alegria brings a three-decade background of service from NASA and the U.S. Navy to his role as president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based trade association.
The retired Navy captain and former astronaut has commanded one mission to the International Space Station and holds three records for U.S. spaceflight: longest spaceflight (215 days); most number of extravehicular activities (10) and cumulative EVA time (67 hours 40 minutes).
In this conversation with ExecutiveGov, Lopez-Alegria overviews how he draws on his experience from the ISS program to represent the space sector in Washington, assesses where the U.S. is now in commercial spaceflight and offers ways for the country to continue progress in human spaceflight.
ExecutiveGov: What is your background in the space arena and what are some milestones and responsibilities that stand out to you from across your career?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: I went to the Naval Academy and after graduation, I went through Navy pilot training and became a Naval aviator and then an engineering test pilot, after which I was selected by NASA to become an astronaut.
I started training in 1992. I served on three space shuttle missions – Columbia, Discovery, and Endeavour – and on one long-duration mission to the International Space Station.
I flew there and back on the Russian Soyuz vehicle and spent seven months there as commander of the ISS.
Around two years ago, I left NASA and became the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, an association of leading businesses and organizations working to make commercial human spaceflight a reality.
ExecutiveGov: How does the federation work to bring together stakeholders in commercial spaceflight and to accomplish its goals?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: We have about 50 members and they range from spacecraft and/or launch vehicle developers to suppliers, engineering service companies, and a few miscellaneous related businesses.
You can divide the spacecraft developers into two parts: Orbital spacecraft developers and suborbital. Both go to space, but have very different characteristics.
CSF's role is to advocate for public policy that favors the advancement of the commercial spaceflight industry, which includes trying to influence legislation, such as NASA and Commercial Space Launch Act authorizations and appropriations.
We also work closely with the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation on regulatory issues, have lead a standards development effort, and focus on public outreach to try to extol the virtues of commercial space.
ExecutiveGov: What lessons and experience are you applying to your current role from your time with NASA and at the ISS?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: When I took this job, I had no background in public policy or how Washington works, and it's been quite a learning experience. Luckily, I have an outstanding staff with considerable expertise in this world.
What I brought to the equation was some street cred and legitimacy in the field of space flight, and that helps when you are trying to meet with busy influencer audiences.
The door can sometimes open more easily when your business card says astronaut on it. I've been trying to leverage the entree with actually understanding the fundamental issues that the industry is concerned about, and putting those things together to try to influence public policy in the right direction.
It's really been a challenge and a change, which is what I was looking for. I got hefty doses of both of those. Learning how things work in Washington is something that we almost shunned from our little cocoon back at the Johnson Space Center as astronauts, but it's an important part of how the world really works.
It's not just physics. As I heard somebody say, political engineering is still engineering, and that's kind of a tough lesson for a test pilot, but it's reality. So, it's been challenging, but very rewarding.
ExecutiveGov: Why is it so important that we advance commercial spaceflight? What are the advantages to the U.S. and to the world at large?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: I came here because I really believe that commercial and human spaceflight is a key step in the continuation of human exploration of space, and the way that we are helping is by democratizing access to space.
Currently, the number of humans that have ever been to space is 536. That's over five decades, so that's not very many.
We'd like to compare it to the beginning of the commercial aviation era in the late 20s and 30s in the last century when it was similarly really hard to get a commercial aviation flight as a passenger.
Now look how routine it is for people to get on an airplane. I don't know whether we'll have the kind of meteoric success that airline industry has had in the same time span, because the physics are definitely harder, but something that resembles that is certainly possible.
The second thing that we are focused on is expanding the economic sphere of this country and the world economy off the planet. As we start pushing boundaries, it's been very common over our history for our government to lead expeditions or to fund them and be the ones that drive exploration in opening new frontiers.
Then once the frontier is open, then commerce comes in, for example, selling furs or opening hotels for people mining for gold. That's what we're about to see in the low Earth orbit and in suborbital space.
In the not too distant future, we could see a little micro economy there, which is obviously a correct expansion of economic influence.
Michael Lopez-Alegria On the Prospects for Commercial Spaceflight, Hurdles to Overcome & NASA's Recent Budget Proposal
Tim Watson - ExecutiveGov
ExecutiveGov: How have we gotten to where we are today and what's the current status of commercial spaceflight?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: Well, I have to go back to the two halves of the industry. In the suborbital commercial space right now, we're actually fortunate to have a handful of companies, the most notable of them are XCOR Aerospace and Virgin Galactic.
Both companies would like to take space flight participants to the edge of space – to a hundred kilometers altitude and back – in on the order of something from 30 minutes to a couple of hours.
Virgin has done some powered test flights with its rocket-engined space plane. They haven't gone to the edge of space yet, but it's a buildup that they've begun. XCOR is going to begin flight testing later this year, and I would say that by next year, both companies will be in commercial operations.
On the orbital side right now, the only customer that has identified itself is the government. We, NASA, rely on the Russians to take our astronauts to the International Space Station. We haven't had a national human launch capability since the retirement of the space shuttle.
NASA set up a program for commercial companies to develop the capability and then to buy services to basically replace what we're buying from the Russians.
That is obviously dependent on funding. The industry partners do have investment there, but a majority of investment in those programs for development is coming from NASA as they are the only identified customer so far.
If things continue the way they are, NASA's plan is to have that service available by 2017.
ExecutiveGov: If you project forward five – ten years, what's the best case scenario for suborbital and orbital?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: We'd like to see both of those thriving. That would mean routine access to low Earth orbit, not just for spaceflight participants, i.e. tourists, but also for science and technology experiments and experimenters.
There would be frequent and affordable access to the edge of space, whether that means travelling the upper reaches of the atmosphere or doing some kind of micro‑gravity research. Those flights will experience somewhere between three or four minutes of micro gravity at the peak of their flight paths.
I'd like to see that that is routine by at least two companies. And also to see that not only will we see the commercial transportation to low Earth orbit functioning, but even see commercial destinations, such as laboratories for research, manufacturing centers or destinations for tourists that take advantage of those environments – hotels or things like that.
ExecutiveGov: What hurdles and challenges are the most important to overcome?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: There's an inside joke at NASA about the tyranny of the rocket equation. The bottom line is flying to space is still very technically challenging.
The physics involved are intimidating and getting all that energy put into a vehicle and then taking it out when we come back home, in the orbital case anyway, is not a trivial task. So, the challenges are getting the cost down.
But, the way that we think that will develop is that as the number of launches increases, the fixed cost will get spread out over a bigger base, and the overall cost will start to decrease , which will then increase the demand, which, in turn, will increase the number of launches. You can see a virtuous cycle developing where you keep driving the cost down.
Reusability is obviously key to reducing cost as well. Regulatory issues – in the short term – and government funding of orbital transportation development are areas where CSF and its members can help drive the debate and hopefully, resolve the challenges.
ExecutiveGov: What are your thoughts on NASA's recent budget request?
Michael Lopez-Alegria: All in all, we were fairly pleased with the budget. There is solid support for the Commercial Crew Programs as well as space technology in general, which, in the last few years, have been funded at levels below the president's request.
We'd like to see a stronger commitment and increased appropriations. NASA's intent is clear in the message that they sent with the submission of the budget, that they favor these important programs.
There's also money in the budget for the vehicles that are under development for beyond low Earth orbit exploration. That is critically important and complements the commercial crew efforts.
The two prongs of this are very complimentary. You need access to low Earth orbit in the short term, but we are also looking for some kind of beyond LEO exploration.
Getting so much bang for the buck by using commercial providers for low Earth orbit access allows NASA to spend the majority of its development budget on these beyond LEO vehicles. And, of course, maintaining the space station is critically important as well.
It's important that we educate the public who are stakeholders in this endeavor, but may not realize they are stakeholders, on the promise of commercial space flight.
The idea that we could one day expand space travel to include people like in commercial aviation is really exciting. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation will soon establish a 501(c)(3) which is dedicated to just that: public education and outreach.
It's a great story that will basically sell itself. Generating excitement around the country for the commercialization of access to space is a really important for us.
Private Space Taxis on Track for 2017 Launch, NASA Says
The United States should be able to launch its astronauts to space using homegrown commercial spacecraft by 2017, NASA officials say.
The four private companies NASA is counting on to develop manned spaceships — Boeing, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) and SpaceX — are notching the many milestones set by the space agency's commercial crew program (CCP), officials said.
"Already this year, NASA and its industry partners are making tremendous progress toward achieving the nation's goal of restoring America's capability to launch commercial passengers, including astronauts, from U.S. soil to low-Earth orbit," Kathy Lueders, CCP's acting program manager, said in a statement.
NASA requested $848 million for commercial crew in the White House's 2015 budget proposal. That figure is enough to keep competition going, the agency says, but historically Congress grants the agency less than it asks for.
Boeing: Emergency detection tests
Boeing is developing the CST-100 capsule, a vehicle that looks somewhat like an Apollo spacecraft and would launch on board an Atlas V built by United Launch Alliance. In December and January, the companies tested the CST-100's emergency detection system by putting the software through several emergency scenarios and seeing how the escape system behaved.
The CST-100's detection system will work together with the avionics systems on board Atlas V. Should an emergency occur, the CST-100 will fire escape thrusters to move the crew away from the rocket. Then, just like a commercial aircraft pilot shutting off the autopilot, an astronaut would take control of the spacecraft for a safe landing. Testing showed that it would be possible for a pilot to fly the CST-100 in this situation, NASA officials said.
Next, the spacecraft's primary structure design will be put through a critical design review to ready the spacecraft for manufacturing.
Sierra Nevada: Preparing for flight tests in 2014
SNC, meanwhile, finished an incremental critical design review of its Dream Chaser spacecraft, a "lifting body" that looks like an airplane and would land on a runway like NASA's now-retired space shuttle fleet did.
The company also reviewed data from its first free-flight test in October 2013, which ended with the prototype skidding off the runway. The review, however, showed that the spacecraft is flying as designed and that it can do controlled descents and landings.
"SNC's Dream Chaser program is continuing its steady progress toward flight certification," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC's Space Systems, said in a statement.
"By completing these important milestones, SNC is confident that our vehicle design is sound and that the spacecraft can successfully fly within established and expected flight boundaries," he added. "SNC is now advancing and upgrading the Dream Chaser test spacecraft in preparation for additional flight tests in 2014."
Next, SNC will look at information from wind-tunnel tests to see how the spacecraft is performing and make changes as needed to the design.
Blue Origin and SpaceX
Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft is being readied for a review of its propellant tank assembly and a subsystem interim design. NASA is expected to perform tests on this later this year.
SpaceX's Dragon capsule — already being used for cargo missions to the International Space Station— is moving forward with manned certification. The company plans two flight tests of Dragon's launch abort systems later this year. The company also plans to "host increasingly detailed reviews of the company's integrated systems and progress on its ground systems," NASA stated.
As a whole, NASA added, this year the CCP program will see contracts awarded for its fourth phase, called the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CctCap) contract or contracts. SNC, SpaceX and Boeing all received funding in 2012 in the third round of CCP, called Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap).
Spacecraft Returns Seven Particles From Birth of the Solar System
Richard Kerr – ScienceNOW
After a massive, years-long search, researchers have recovered seven interstellar dust particles returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft. The whole sample, reported here this week at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, weighs just a few trillionths of a gram, but it's the first time scientists have laid their hands on primordial material unaltered by the violent birth of the solar system.
The Stardust spacecraft, launched in 1999, has already accomplished its prime objective: collecting dust particles in the tail of comet Wild 2 and returning them in a reentry capsule ejected as Stardust passed by Earth in 2006. NASA went to all that trouble because comets were supposed to be the repository of the primordial ice and rock—the product of eons of star birth and death—that went into building the solar system. But it turned out that the minerals in the comet dust that Stardust managed to collect weren't that pristine: They had been heated, melted, and totally transformed somewhere near the nascent sun and then carried outward to be incorporated into comets in the ultradeep freeze far beyond the outermost planets.
That left the hunt for pristine star stuff to Stardust's other mission, collecting dust streaming in from interstellar space. For a total of 200 days in 2000 and 2002, Stardust stuck out its tennis racket-like dust collector panel to catch interstellar dust as the solar system and the spacecraft with it plowed through the galaxy. The panel's centimeter-thick blocks of aerogel—"frozen smoke" made of airy silica that is 99.8% empty space—were intended to slow and retain dust particles without vaporizing them. That would be no mean feat, as interstellar particles are a thousandth the mass of comet dust and can be traveling well in excess of 15,000 kilometers per hour.
Once the sample panel was back on Earth, the problem quickly became finding any collected particles embedded in the aerogel. Out of desperation, Stardust team members called on 30,714 members of the general public. "We really did not know how else to find" the embedded particles, says Stardust team member Andrew Westphal of the University of California, Berkeley. The "dusters" of the Stardust@home project—who who as a group were listed as authors of the talk—volunteered to examine microscopic images taken down through the aerogel. They used the world's best pattern-recognition system—the human eye and brain—to pick out the telltale tracks left by speeding particles.
One hundred million searches later, Stardust team members had seven "probable" dust impacts on the collector. Two particles weighing in at about 3 trillionths of a gram each—100 billion of them would equal a grain of sugar—drove into the aerogel at less than 18,000 kilometers per hour and lodged there. A third came in so fast that it didn't even leave a chemical residue, only a track. Four more particles serendipitously blasted into thin aluminum foil around the edges of the aerogel, leaving measurable material in their craters.
"It's an enormous achievement that the Stardust team got this far," says cosmochemist Scott Messenger of NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, who is not on the team. He agrees with Westphal that these "are the most challenging extraterrestrial samples ever." To be sure that the grains are truly interstellar, researchers must next transfer the infinitesimal specks of dust from inside the aerogel into instruments for further analysis, in particular of their isotopes. Developing the techniques "will be fundamentally boring but necessary," Westphal says. "It would be very easy to lose them."
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