Happy Flex Friday eve. Good to know we can still call someone for mental health concerns on FF's. J
Be sure to mark your calendars early to join us next Thursday for our monthly Retirees Luncheon at the Hibachi Grill on Bay Area Blvd. at 11:30.
| JSC Special: Limited Clinic Services on Flex Fridays |
| On JSC's Flex Fridays, the JSC Clinic (Building 8) will be open for occupationally related illnesses and injuries. At least one person will remain at the clinic front desk from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Flex Fridays. The clinic will be able to treat minor injuries requiring First Aid (cuts, scrapes, sprains), check blood pressure, answer patient questions related to injury and read PPD tests. NO medication of any kind can be dispensed without a physician. Clinic follow-up, if needed, will be scheduled on the next normal workday. Patient questions regarding occupational injury or illness will be answered by clinic personnel, but telephone calls for appointments and non-occupational issues will be deferred to the following normal workday. If there is an injury or illness requiring treatment greater than First Aid, transport to the ER will be offered to the patient. Employee Assistance Program personnel will not be on-site on Flex Fridays, but will be available on call for mental health concerns. Employees with medical emergencies on-site should call x33333 or 281-483-3333 (from cell) to request medical aid. |
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| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
- Docking and Hatch Opening Now Today, March 27
- Morpheus Tether Test with ALHAT Today at KSC
- Women's History Month - Panel Discussion Today
- Channel Your Inner Astronaut - I'm On Board
- Updates on ACES Software Pushes (IE9, Office2013)
- March Tech Briefs Highlight JSC Technologies
- Road Closure, Second Street - March 28
- SWAT Training
- Physics in the Movie 'Gravity' Part VIII
- The ISS Conference Facility is Moving
- Health4Life: NASA's Employee Health Website
- Shred Truck at April 3 Spring Fair
- Win a JSC Community Safety Basket at the Fair
- Electronic Document System (EDS) 2.0 Release - Organizations/Social
- Leading ISS Through 2024
- Risk Management - It's Risky Business ...
- Childhood Depression
- Building 3 Café Open on Flex Fridays
- Sam's Club in Building 3 Today
- Parent's Night Out at Starport - April 25
- March Madness Sale at Starport
- Get Moving with JSC's Wellness Walks
- Starport Youth Karate Classes - Free Class April 5
- Starport's Sunrise Spinning - April 20 - Community
- Robots, Robots and More Educational Robots!
- Summer Underwater Robotics Camps
- Co-ops and Interns Needed for Summer Mentorships |  |
| Headlines - Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
You discuss your career path two or less times per year with your supervisor, according to last week's poll. I'm thinking that's not really enough. You correctly identified Baylor as the most successful Texas team in the basketball tournament, but 20 percent of you didn't know that Wichita State isn't in Wichita Falls, Texas. It's in Kansas, which also houses Steve Hawley, and corn, or wheat or something. This week the historic Apollo Mission Control was featured on the National Park Services' website as a National Historic Landmark. JSC has two of Houston's six National Historic Landmarks. I gave you one, so what's the other? Building 32? Building 27? Building 6? Mission your Control on over to get this week's poll. - Docking and Hatch Opening Now Today, March 27
The next trio of crew members destined for the International Space Station is now looking to a Thursday arrival at the orbiting laboratory after their rendezvous to reach the complex in their Soyuz spacecraft defaulted to a two-day journey. Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov and Flight Engineers Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Steve Swanson of NASA are aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft, headed for a Thursday night docking to the station's Poisk module at 6:58 p.m. CDT. NASA TV coverage will begin at 6 p.m. Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center outside Moscow reverted to a backup 34-orbit rendezvous for the new station residents after an engine firing did not occur early in the rendezvous sequence late Tuesday following launch. Hatch opening is also scheduled tonight at 9:40 p.m. CDT, with NASA TV coverage beginning at 9:15 p.m. First-time users will need to install the EZTV Monitor and Player client applications: o For those WITH admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you'll be prompted to download and install the clients when you first visit the IPTV website If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367 or visit the FAQ site. Event Date: Thursday, March 27, 2014 Event Start Time:6:00 PM Event End Time:10:00 PM
Event Location: NASA TV & online
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JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 http://www.nasa.gov/station
[top] - Morpheus Tether Test with ALHAT Today at KSC
Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology (ALHAT) integration is complete! The Morpheus team plans a tether test today at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in preparation for the next free flight. Bravo vehicle will be tethered to a crane for this test to help verify readiness for the next free flight with ALHAT onboard. The test will be streamed live on JSC's UStream Channel. View the live stream, along with progress updates sent via Twitter, on the website. Or, if you're on-site, watch live on JSC HDTV (channel 51-2) and IPTV (channel 4512). The test is planned for approximately 1 p.m. CDT. Streaming will begin approximately 20 minutes prior to ignition. *Note: Testing operations are very dynamic, and actual firing time may vary. Follow Morpheus on Twitter for the latest information @MorpheusLander. (Send "follow morpheuslander" to 40404 for text updates.) For more, check out: http://morpheuslander.jsc.nasa.gov - Women's History Month - Panel Discussion Today
The JSC Women's History Month planning committee invites the JSC family to a 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. 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. To print the 2014 Women's History Month poster, click here. Come join us. Desserts will be provided! - Channel Your Inner Astronaut - I'm On Board
Channel your inner astronaut and artist and unleash your creativity on this Orion coloring sheet, then show the world by sharing a photo with the artwork on social media with the hashtag #ImOnBoard. This new social media activity is for kids and adults alike! Participate, share with your friends and family and spread the word! - Updates on ACES Software Pushes (IE9, Office2013)
JSC requested that the weekly ACES software push that normally occurs on Tuesday night be delayed until April 2 after 10 a.m. This push included the installation of Internet Explorer 9 (for all users) and Office 2013 (for voluntary pilot users only). This was a preventive measure to ensure that personnel supporting the Soyuz launch and docking were not affected. We will let all users know when the next ACES software push will occur. - March Tech Briefs Highlight JSC Technologies
These JSC innovations include: Robert Luecking and Cindy Nguyen's Debris and Ice Mapping Analysis Tool - Database; Michael Pien's Integrated PEMFC Flow Field Design for Gravity-Independent Passive Water Removal; Mauro Ferrari, Xuewu Liu and Ciro Chappini's Metal-Assisted Fabrication of Biodegradable Porous Silicon Nanostructures; John Christian's Technique for Finding Retro-Reflectors in Flash LIDAR Imagery; Terry Ahrendt, Tim Moore, David Yeager, Dean Sunderland, Mike Bartels, Bob Poucher, James Tyrrell and Kevin Stover's Methods for Mitigating Space Radiation Effects, Fault Detection and Correction, and Processing Sensor Data; James McMichael, Hai Nguyen, Mark Landeck and Richard Hagen's Protective Sleeve for a Pyrotechnic Reefing Line Cutter; and Taber MacCallum's Metabolic Heat Regenerated Temperature Swing Adsorption. Additionally, William Schneider and James Locke's Roadway Barrier System is featured under "Products of Tomorrow." - Road Closure, Second Street - March 28
Due to the construction and the removal of a portion of the sidewalk at Second Street, the eastern northbound lane in front of the construction site will need to be closed all day Friday, March 28. - SWAT Training
The JSC SWAT team will be conducting training in Building 225/226 on Friday, March 28, from 8 a.m. to noon. - Physics in the Movie 'Gravity' Part VIII
This series has generated a lot of comments! An expert in orbital debris sent in a correction: The earlier comment about satellites moving from west to east is a horrible misconception. The vast majority of Earth observation satellites, including those of NASA, are in retrograde orbits--i.e., move from east to west. Moreover, great amounts of orbital debris, including the debris from the Chinese ASAT test of 2007 (against an old Chinese weather satellite in a retrograde orbit), are in retrograde orbits. In total, 38 percent of all objects in Earth orbit today reside in retrograde orbits. - The ISS Conference Facility is Moving
Beginning April 28, meetings scheduled for the International Space Station (ISS) conference facility, currently at Regents Park III, will be held at 1800 Space Park Drive in Nassau Bay. During the facility transition period between April 5 and 27, meetings will be held at alternate locations. Please check with your meeting host or your ISS Conference Facility staff to verify the location of your meeting prior to driving to Regents Park. Also, during the transition time, the ISS conference facility will have limited ability to accommodate non-ISS meeting requests. - Health4Life: NASA's Employee Health Website
Health4Life is a new initiative by the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO), arising out of findings from the electronic health record system in use across the agency. A review of aggregate data revealed that the NASA workforce reflects the same unhealthy trends of overweight and obesity as the general population. The Health4Life website will have three distinct areas: Health, Physical Fitness and Nutrition. Health will contain topics on general health, at work and at home, as well as preventive health recommendations. Physical Fitness will include general fitness topics information about NASA's fitness centers. Nutrition will provide information and tools to help you make wise choices, whether the goal is to lose weight or just eat healthier. Hopefully, Health4Life will become a location you will find useful and visit often. For more information, visit the Health4Life website link below. - Shred Truck at April 3 Spring Fair
Identity theft and information-based fraud is the fastest growing crime in America. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that items left for waste collection are no longer protected as private property. In fact, it is common practice among identity thieves to look in dumpsters as a source of easy to find information. DON'T BECOME A VICTIM! Shred it! The NASA Federal Credit Union is sponsoring a shred truck, which will be located in the grassy area across from the Gilruth portico. You do not need to remove staples or paper clips. Acceptable materials are white office paper, mixed paper, newspaper, file folders, and assorted office papers. The destroyed documents, in the form of confetti-sized pieces, are transferred directly to a recycling facility. They then return it to the marketplace in the form of items such as recycled household paper products. A certificate of destruction can be provided to individual participants upon request. Event Date: Thursday, April 3, 2014 Event Start Time:10:00 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: JSC Gilruth Center
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Rindy Carmichael x45078
[top] - Win a JSC Community Safety Basket at the Fair
The JSC community has come together to fill a basket with safety- and health-related items, and one lucky spring fair attendee will win it. Be sure to fill out an entry at the registration booth when you arrive at the April 3 event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. Also, the first 200 people to come to the fair will receive a special International Space Station calendar. Come see what the fair has to offer you! Event Date: Thursday, April 3, 2014 Event Start Time:10:00 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: JSC Gilruth Center
Add to Calendar
Rindy Carmichael x45078
[top] - Electronic Document System (EDS) 2.0 Release
On March 10, the EDS 2.0 document type Task Performance Sheet (TPS) replacement of the paper JSC Form 1225 was started. The plan is to implement according to record centers (RCs). On March 10, this went in to effect from RC15 and 44. The other RC schedules are as follows: RC Implementation Dates: RC Building 7 - April 2 RC Building 32 - May 1 RC Building 36 - June 1 RC Building 10 - June 1 RC Building 350 - June 1 Any new paper TPS (JF 1225) in the signature cycle will only be accepted for two weeks after the designated implementation date. Any exception will need to be coordinated with respective division management and provided to Quality and Flight Equipment Division management. Class schedules are available in SATERN. Organizations/Social - Leading ISS Through 2024
Don't miss out on this great opportunity to hear about "Leading ISS Through 2024." Please join us for this month's JSC National Management Association (NMA) chapter luncheon with Mike Suffredini. - Risk Management - It's Risky Business ...
... but that's a good thing. In the battle for program success, Safety and Operations must mesh together in such a manner that risk management and safety are a part of the planning and execution of all projects, programs and missions. Risk management requires daily evolution, and effective risk mitigation requires consistent and clear communication, training and awareness. Our panel members will discuss how their organizations assess risk, accept risk, communicate risk up the management chain and use risk tools to prioritize funding, operations and activities. You are invited to join this installment of the Safety and Health Learning Alliance, featuring panel speakers: - Mark Nunn, Air Force Risk Management program manager
- Dave Marciniak, General Services Administration safety and health manager
- Chris Toms, Coast Guard Senior Risk Management and Operations research analyst
- Childhood Depression
Are you a parent? Did you know that as many as one in every 33 children may have depression? In teens, that number may be as high as one in eight. So it's wise for parents and caregivers to learn about depression and how to help if your child, or a child you know, seems depressed. Please join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, CGP, with the JSC Employees Assistance Program, as he presents an overview on "Childhood Depression," signs to look for, prevalence, latest treatments and how you can support a child who is afflicted by depression. - Building 3 Café Open on Flex Fridays
Did you know that the Building 3 café is remaining open on Flex Fridays? If you're working on Flex Fridays, you can still grab breakfast and lunch at the cafés during normal operating hours. - Sam's Club in Building 3 Today
Stop by the Building 3 café today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to chat with a Sam's Club representative about information on Sam's Club memberships, no-interest credit specials and their new instant-savings booklets. They will be offering a $25 gift card for purchasing new/renewing Plus memberships, and a $10 gift card for purchasing new/renewing Savings memberships. - Parent's Night Out at Starport - April 25
Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport! We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun. When: Friday, April 25, from 6 to 10 p.m. Where: Gilruth Center Ages: 5 to 12 Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/each additional sibling. - March Madness Sale at Starport
Shop the Starport Gift Shops now through March 31 and save 15 percent on cotton polos, shuttle-specific T-shirts, colored NASA mugs, patches, lapel pins, kids' T-shirts and toys. Stop the madness and save at Starport! - Get Moving with JSC's Wellness Walks
Grab your walking shoes and meet up each Tuesday and Thursday at 11 a.m. outside the Building 3 café. Suited for all fitness levels, Wellness Walks last approximately 30 minutes and are led by a member of the Starport wellness team. These mid-day walks allow you to enjoy the company of fellow walkers while improving your health and stretching your legs. What are you waiting for? Come walk today! - Starport Youth Karate Classes - Free Class April 5
Let Starport introduce your child to the exciting art of Youth Karate. Youth Karate will teach your child the skills of self-defense, self-discipline and self-confidence. The class will also focus on leadership, healthy competition and sportsmanship. TRY A FREE CLASS ON APRIL 5! Please call the Gilruth Center front desk to sign your child up for the free class (only 25 available spots). Five-week session: April 12 to May 17 (No class April 19) Saturdays: 10 to 10:45 a.m. Ages: 6 to 12 Cost: $75 | $20 drop-in rate Register online or at the Gilruth Center. - Starport's Sunrise Spinning - April 20
Renew your senses and invigorate your mind and body with a 60-minute outdoor Spinning class that will conclude as the sun rises. This motivational endurance ride is great for all levels. Light refreshments will be provided after class. Reserve your spot now; there are still spots left at the discounted $10 registration fee (ends April 11)! Register at the Gilruth Center information desk or online. Starport's Sunrise Spinning - April 20
- 6 to 7 a.m.
Early Registration fee: - $10/person (ends April 11)
Regular Registration: - $15/person (April 12 to 19)
For more information about this Spinning class, or for those interested in biking or running in to the Gilruth that morning, please contact Kerri Knotts. Community - Robots, Robots and More Educational Robots!
Join the fun and come to the George R. Brown Convention Center and watch 56 high school teams from throughout the world compete in the FIRST Robotics Lonestar Regional April 4 to 6. This year's game is called Aerial Assist (YouTube it!). There are two teams that are directly supported by JSC employees: Dickinson High School's Gatorzillas and Clear Creek Independent School District's Robonauts, as well as MANY other teams from throughout the Houston area. The event is free and open to the public. Robots are up to five feet tall and nearly 150 pounds. They play a fast-paced, exciting and unique game using 24-inch exercise balls. FIRST Robotics is a nationwide program designed to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to high school students through hands-on, real-world design experiences working side-by-side with industry engineers. What: FIRST Robotics Lonestar Regional When: April 4 to 6 Why: It's FUN and FREE! Come support area youth through STEM. - Summer Underwater Robotics Camps
San Jacinto College Aerospace Academy's Water-Bot camps explore the underwater world of remote operated vehicles (ROVs) and the real-world applications of this exciting field. The exploration continues in three different levels based on experience. The beginner camp will offer basic electronics and robotic construction. Intermediate camps will build upon beginner skills and add complex engineering design. The advanced camp will be a two-week master class on constructing algorithms in scripting languages and working with advanced electronics and hardware design. Camp dates are in June and July. Please visit our website for more information. If you would like to volunteer as a guest speaker or advanced team mentor, please visit V-CORPs to sign up! - Co-ops and Interns Needed for Summer Mentorships
Co-ops and interns can gain valuable leadership experience while sharing their NASA advice with the brightest high school students in Texas. Come celebrate the 15th anniversary of High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) as a student mentor. Lead your team in completing engineering design challenges during a simulated mission to Mars. Please volunteer for any week(s) (20 hours per week): 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. Submit a mentor application. 3. Review mentor responsibilities. 4. Please apply before April 11. | |
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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 27, 2014
International Space Station:
- 6 p.m. CT - ISS Expedition 39/40 Soyuz TMA-12M Docking Coverage (Docking scheduled at 6:58 p.m. CT) - JSC via Korolev, Russia (All Channels)
- 9:15 p.m. - ISS Expedition 39/40 Soyuz TMA-12M Hatch Opening and Other Activities (Hatch Opening scheduled at approx. 9:40 p.m. CT) - JSC via Korolev, Russia (All Channels)
Spacesuit:
JSC conducted its first Reddit AMA yesterday afternoon and received 451 comments. The advanced spacesuit team responsible for designing the new suit took questions from redditors. Check out the conversation
here. Vote on the suit design
here.
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Soyuz on track for revised two-day station rendezvous
William Harwood – CBS News
Russian flight controllers troubleshooting a glitch aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft that interrupted a planned four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station Tuesday successfully uploaded a revised 34-orbit trajectory overnight, setting up a delayed docking Thursday.
Newfound pink world lurks at solar system fringes
Alicia Chang - AP
Peering into the far reaches of the solar system, astronomers have spied a pink frozen world 7½ billion miles from the sun.
Dwarf planet discovery hints at another planet
Tiny planet lurks on outer edge of solar system
Traci Watson – USA Today
Scientists say they've found a pink dwarf planet that travels farther from the sun than anything ever seen. Its discovery has led to tantalizing hints that a separate, unknown planet bigger than the Earth lurks at the fringes of the solar system, exerting a stealthy control over its neighbors.
NASA uses Russian crisis to push for U.S.-run 'taxi' to space station
Mark K. Matthews – Orlando Sentinel
Russia's annexation of Crimea may have put the world economy on edge, but for the U.S. rocket industry, at least, the standoff over Ukraine hasn't been all bad.
Remaining SOFIA Science Budget Earmarked for Closeout Costs
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA might have to raid an international airborne astrophysics observatory's remaining science budget just to pay the costs of canceling the mission, an agency official said here.
Aerojet Rocketdyne to lay off about 150 workers in Canoga Park
The layoffs are part of a plan to cut 254 jobs because of overlaps resulting from the merger of Rocketdyne and Aerojet owner GenCorp.
W.J. Hennigan – Los Angeles Times
About 150 employees at rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne in Canoga Park were told Wednesday that they would be laid off as part of a companywide reduction that the company says is related to last year's merger.
Analysis: Russia deeply linked to Obama priorities
Julie Pace - Associated Press
Even as he criticizes Vladimir Putin and imposes sanctions on Russia, President Barack Obama is struggling with the consequences of his own earlier quest for a fresh start between Washington and Moscow.
Astronaut Ready to Take 3D Printing Into the Final Frontier
One NASA astronaut launching to the International Space Station in May is ready to 3D print in space.
Astronaut Reid Wiseman, bound for the station in May, is eager to use the first 3D printer in space this summer. Wiseman, flying into space for the first time as a member of the Expedition 40/41 crew, thinks that the implications for 3D printing in space are exciting and far-reaching.
NASA Crowdsources New Spacesuit Design
Liz Fields – Good Morning America
Internet users and space enthusiasts are about to come one step closer to deciding the future of space travel. NASA is using the crowdsourcing power of the Web to help to pick the final cover layer design for its next generation spacesuit, and you can vote online until April 15.
COMPLETE STORIES
Soyuz on track for revised two-day station rendezvous
William Harwood – CBS News
Russian flight controllers troubleshooting a glitch aboard the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft that interrupted a planned four-orbit rendezvous with the International Space Station Tuesday successfully uploaded a revised 34-orbit trajectory overnight, setting up a delayed docking Thursday.
While engineers have not yet determined what caused an apparent orientation error that prevented a rocket firing Thursday that was part of the original four-orbit rendezvous plan, officials said early Wednesday that two rocket firings had been executed as part of a revised "burn" plan and that the Soyuz spacecraft operated normally.
"Once it was determined we weren't going to be able to meet the four-orbit plan, we downloaded to what we call the 34-orbit rendezvous," said Kenny Todd, NASA's space station mission operations integration manager at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"That kicks off a series of additional burns that have to be done to start targeting station for rendezvous within 34 orbits. And the first couple of burns for that particular plan have been done, they've been done successfully, and (Russian flight controllers) got good confirmation."
During a morning communications session, Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov said he and his crewmates -- flight engineer Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson -- were in good shape and pressing ahead with the revised rendezvous plan.
"At this point, the crew is in good shape, the vehicle appears to be in good shape, the computers are in good shape, the propulsion system is working," Todd said. "So at this point, everything looks real good."
If all goes well, Skvortsov will oversee an automated approach and docking at the space station's upper Poisk module around 7:58 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) Thursday. They will join Expedition 39 commander Koichi Wakata, cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, boosting the lab's crew back to six.
The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. Tuesday (3:17 a.m. Wednesday local time). The ascent went smoothly and the spacecraft successfully executed the first two rendezvous rocket firings for a planned docking six hours -- four orbits -- after launch.
But the Soyuz apparently was not in the proper attitude, or orientation, for the third burn in the sequence and the rendezvous was interrupted. While engineers reviewed telemetry to figure out what caused the problem, flight controllers began implementing backup plans for the 48-hour, 34-orbit rendezvous.
Two-day Soyuz rendezvous plans were the norm for most of the space station's 15-year lifetime and Skvortsov flew one during his first flight to the lab complex in 2010.
The shorter four-orbit rendezvous was designed to reduce the time crews have to spend in the cramped Soyuz, but it requires extensive planning and precise timing to execute.
The shortened rendezvous plan was first tested in 2012 with an uncrewed Progress cargo ship. After additional test flights, four crewed Soyuz flights followed the fast-track trajectory. Skvortsov's crew would have been the fifth.
But the 34-orbit rendezvous profile is a well-understood alternative and Todd said the basic procedures are reviewed and updated before each launch, including this one.
"We're comfortable with this, we know how to do it," he said. "For every readiness review when we get ready to launch a Soyuz, we actually do the certification ... to support this 34-orbit case. And so we didn't have to go build new products, we didn't have to go and do a lot of new analysis. We were ready to support this."
Newfound pink world lurks at solar system fringes
Alicia Chang - AP
Peering into the far reaches of the solar system, astronomers have spied a pink frozen world 7½ billion miles from the sun.
It's the second such object to be discovered in a region of space beyond Pluto long considered a celestial wasteland. Until now, the lone known resident in this part of the solar system was an oddball dwarf planet spotted in 2003 named Sedna after the mythological Inuit goddess who created the sea creatures of the Arctic.
The latest discovery shows "Sedna is not a freak. We can have confidence that there is a new population to explore," Yale University senior research scientist David Rabinowitz said in an email. He was one of Sedna's discoverers, but had no role in the new find detailed in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.
For years, astronomers hunted in vain for other Sednas in the little-studied fringes of the solar system.
The new object, 2012 VP113, was tracked using a new camera on a ground telescope in Chile by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii. Trujillo was part of the team that found Sedna.
Like Sedna, VP is also a dwarf planet. It's jokingly nicknamed "Biden" after Vice President Joe Biden because of the object's initials. It measures about 280 miles across, or half the diameter of Sedna. It's bone-chilling cold with a temperature of around minus 430 degrees Fahrenheit.
Unlike red and shiny Sedna, the newfound object is more pink and much fainter, which made it hard to detect.
By contrast, Earth is about 7,900 miles across and located 93 million miles from the sun.
Sedna and VP reside in what's known as the inner Oort cloud in the outer edge of the solar system where some comets such as the sun-diving Comet ISON are thought to originate. ISON broke apart last year after brushing too close to the sun.
"Finding Sedna so far away seemed odd and potentially a fluke. But this one is beginning to make it look like that might be a typical place for objects to be. Not at all what I would have guessed," Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, said in an email.
Brown, self-proclaimed "Pluto killer," led the Sedna team, but was not part of the new discovery.
Far from being deserted, Sheppard and Trujillo estimate there are probably thousands of similar objects in the inner Oort cloud.
"These objects are not unique. There's a huge number out there," Sheppard said.
Not all of them will be visible to telescopes because they're so far away and it takes a long time for them to swing by the sun. Sedna and VP were spotted at their closest approach to the sun, which allowed light from the sun to hit the objects and bounce back to observatories on Earth.
VP is currently the third farthest object in the solar system after dwarf planet Eris and Sedna, but it has an eccentric, elongated orbit that can take it out to 42 billion miles from the sun. Sedna can loop out as far as 84 billion miles from the sun at its farthest point.
Now that Sedna has company — and likely lots of them — scientists are searching for more objects in an effort to learn how they and the solar system formed and evolved.
In a separate discovery published in Nature, a team led by Felipe Braga-Ribas of the National Observatory in Brazil found a pair of rings around an asteroid-like interloper in the outer system named Chariklo.
While not as dazzling as Saturn's rings, it's the first time rings have been discovered outside of the four gas giants — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. How little Chariklo got its rings remains a mystery, but scientists think they may have formed from debris from a violent collision.
Dwarf planet discovery hints at another planet
Tiny planet lurks on outer edge of solar system
Traci Watson – USA Today
Scientists say they've found a pink dwarf planet that travels farther from the sun than anything ever seen. Its discovery has led to tantalizing hints that a separate, unknown planet bigger than the Earth lurks at the fringes of the solar system, exerting a stealthy control over its neighbors.
The new planet is a celestial bonbon, a dainty, rose-colored ice ball far smaller than tiny Pluto. Its detection helps confirm that the outer stretches of the solar system are a crowded place. An analysis of its orbit and the orbits of other heavenly bodies provides evidence for a super-sized planet at least 200 times as far from the sun as the Earth is.
The analysis, if correct, shows "there needs to be another planet out there, which is really amazing," says Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, who was not involved in the new research. "Adding an Earth-mass planet … will change a lot of people's thinking."
The possibility of a new super-Earth arose from scientists' campaign to find objects beyond the orbit of Pluto, in some of the chilliest, most distant reaches of the solar system. The only known body in that no-man's land is the dwarf planet Sedna. Found in 2003, it's twice as far from the sun as any other object detected in the solar system.
A decade later, researchers spotted Sedna's first known neighbor. It's officially called 2012 VP-113, but the "VP" inspired the nickname "Biden." Unlike its namesake, it's petite, measuring roughly 20% as wide as Pluto. Biden travels a cold, remote path, coming no closer to the sun than 7.4 billion miles, vs. Sedna's closest approach of 7.1 billion miles. Calculations show Biden and Sedna must have roughly 900 good-sized undiscovered neighbors, scientists report in this week's Nature.
After the discovery of Sedna, "finding the second object shows there is a big population out there," says study co-author Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science. "Our solar system has a very rich inventory of planetesimals, and we've only just touched the tip of the iceberg here in finding these objects."
Something strange emerged when Sheppard and his colleague, Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory, compiled data for the orbits of Sedna, Biden and 10 icy objects that lie close to Pluto. Similarities in the 12 objects' paths around the sun strongly suggest that all 12 are under the spell of a hulking, far-distant planet, Sheppard says.
This planet, if it exists, is up to 10 times as massive as Earth and 200 to 1,000 times as far from the sun. It's so big that it has forced the smaller bodies, which like to keep away from large ones, into unexpected paths. This super-Earth may have begun its life in the central solar system before becoming a "rogue planet," ejected from its birthplace to exile in the outermost solar system. Like some celestial Pied Piper, it may have pulled Sedna and Biden along with it from their homes closer to the sun.
Other scientists disagree on the plausibility of a large planet haunting the distant stretches of the solar system.
"It's a fun possibility to consider, but I would say it's pretty speculative," says Sedna co-discoverer Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology. He expects researchers will "come up with 100 different, more mundane reasons why this arrangement could be like that."
Perhaps the data could be explained by coincidence, says Harold Levison of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado. Levison says that although he remains to be convinced, this proposal for a rogue planet is "surprising and almost believable." His reaction to previous reports of rogue planets has always been "b.s.," Levison says. "I've never been seduced by any of those arguments, except this one. … If that data's right, I can't think of any other way to explain it."
NASA uses Russian crisis to push for U.S.-run 'taxi' to space station
Mark K. Matthews – Orlando Sentinel
Russia's annexation of Crimea may have put the world economy on edge, but for the U.S. rocket industry, at least, the standoff over Ukraine hasn't been all bad.
Since the showdown began, NASA officials, along with industry groups and politicians such as U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, have renewed calls to speed up the creation of a U.S.-run "taxi service" to the International Space Station.
The goal is to free NASA from having to pay Russia to fly U.S. astronauts to the outpost. The service is costing NASA about $1.7 billion from 2012 to 2017.
In a Tuesday blog post, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden blamed Congress for not giving NASA enough money to fund the taxi service, which would pay U.S. rocket companies to transport NASA astronauts to the station.
"Later today [Tuesday], NASA astronaut Steve Swanson will lift off towards the International Space Station, not from the Space Coast of Florida or some other American spaceport, but from Kazakhstan on a Russian spacecraft," Bolden wrote. "And unfortunately, the plan put forward by the Obama Administration to address this situation has been stymied by some in Congress."
After a successful launch, Swanson and his Russian crew mates were supposed to reach the station Tuesday, but trouble with thrusters on their Soyuz spacecraft has delayed the rendezvous until Thursday.
In making his case, Bolden did not suggest that the U.S.-Russia partnership in space was about to splinter because of Russia's annexation of Crimea, a former Ukrainian territory.
But he argued that if Congress had fully funded NASA's taxi service, the agency would have the option to pay U.S. companies, such as Boeing and SpaceX, for these flights much sooner instead of relying on Russia. NASA has paid Russia to transport its astronauts since the U.S. retired the space shuttle in 2011.
"Recognizing that this was unacceptable, President Obama has requested in NASA's budget more than $800 million each of the past five years to incentivize the American aerospace industry to build the spacecraft needed to launch our astronauts from American soil," Bolden wrote.
"Had this plan been fully funded, we would have returned American human spaceflight launches — and the jobs they support — back to the United States next year."
Instead, Bolden wrote, the first U.S. flight won't be until at 2017 at the earliest. The pressure on NASA to find a long-term solution has only grown this year, as the White House recently agreed to extend the life of the station by four years until 2024.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, which acts as a booster for the industry, echoed Bolden's urgency in a release earlier this month.
"Rapidly developing American spacecraft to fly NASA astronauts is crucial to end NASA's dependency on Russia," the group said.
A report issued last fall by NASA's inspector general, which acts as the agency's internal watchdog, estimated that the taxi service, known as the commercial crew program, has received about $1.1 billion less than what the White House has requested. Like Bolden, the inspector general expected a first flight no earlier than 2017.
But investigators also raised concerns about early contracts NASA has cut with U.S. rocket companies because the agreements restrict NASA's ability to control how the spacecraft are built.
"These limitations make it more difficult to ensure that the companies will ultimately produce spaceflight systems that meet agency requirements and that NASA can be confident they will safely carry its astronauts to and from the ISS," the authors noted.
Members of Congress have flagged similar concerns in years past, which is one reason they have not agreed to fund the commercial crew program at levels sought by the White House.
"We must continue to weigh whether potential cost savings come at the expense of overall capabilities, robustness or safety," said U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., chairman of the House space subcommittee, at a hearing last year that examined the U.S. spacecraft industry.
Bolden is scheduled to appear before the subcommittee Thursday, and the Russian standoff is almost certain to come up.
A tough budget environment also has contributed to reduced funding for the commercial crew program. Lawmakers have made it a priority to route federal dollars to the development of a new NASA rocket and space capsule, dubbed the Space Launch System and Orion, respectively, for missions beyond low Earth orbit.
"There are some people who don't like the commercial crew program, and they think it is taking away from the SLS and Orion," said Nelson, a Florida Democrat. "The fact is, we've got to do both."
Funding for the commercial crew program appears to be on the upswing. In the 2014 budget, the program was set at $696 million — a notch above the $525 million allocated for 2013. The White House is seeking $848 million in 2015, according to NASA budget documents.
Advocates say the recent success of cargo flights to the station, launched by U.S. companies such as SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, have helped make the case. Another such SpaceX flight is set to fly from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 10:49 p.m. Sunday.
Remaining SOFIA Science Budget Earmarked for Closeout Costs
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA might have to raid an international airborne astrophysics observatory's remaining science budget just to pay the costs of canceling the mission, an agency official said here.
NASA proposed grounding the billion-dollar Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) as part of its 2015 budget request, requesting $12 million for the U.S. government budget year that begins Oct. 1 to close out the program.
SOFIA, a joint venture with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), costs NASA more than $80 million a year — a significant share of which goes toward the jet fuel needed to keep the telescope-equipped 747SP jetliner flying. DLR pays the equivalent of $20 million via barter arrangements.
According to the 2015 budget NASA proposed March 4, which Congress must still approve, SOFIA has to be completely shut down by Sept. 30, 2015.
Doing that will probably require NASA to tap into the mission's 2014 budget of $87.4 million, because "we won't be able to complete putting SOFIA into storage for $12 million if we don't start until Oct. 1," Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division, told the NASA Advisory Council's astrophysics subcommittee here March 26. "That's my expectation."
Hertz will know more when a joint NASA-DLR working group completes an assessment of the SOFIA wind down. An initial report is expected April 4, with a final, more detailed report to follow April 25, Hertz said.
Part of the working group's task to determine whether anyone besides NASA and DLR — both of which have now said they are not interested in being SOFIA's primary operating partner — is willing to swoop in and save the mission by picking up its roughly $80 million annual tab, and taking over science operations, Hertz told NASA Advisory Council members.
Given the possibility that closeout will begin this year, finding a white knight for the mission, if one exists, must "be a rapid activity," Hertz said,
SOFIA, with its German-built, 2.5-meter infrared telescope and modular science instruments, has already flown 25 science campaigns. However, NASA probably will not declare the observatory fully operational until April, Hertz said.
To use any portion of SOFIA's 2014 budget for closeout, NASA will have to submit a reprogramming of funds request, known as an operating plan, to Congress. Legislators approved a 2014 budget for SOFIA with the understanding that it would be used for science operations, so any change likewise requires legislative buy-in, Hertz said.
Aerojet Rocketdyne to lay off about 150 workers in Canoga Park
The layoffs are part of a plan to cut 254 jobs because of overlaps resulting from the merger of Rocketdyne and Aerojet owner GenCorp.
W.J. Hennigan – Los Angeles Times
About 150 employees at rocket engine maker Aerojet Rocketdyne in Canoga Park were told Wednesday that they would be laid off as part of a companywide reduction that the company says is related to last year's merger.
Aerojet Rocketdyne was created by the sale of Rocketdyne to GenCorp Inc. for $550 million, a deal that was finalized last summer. It brought together two major California rocket companies — and longtime competitors. GenCorp already owned Aerojet, the Sacramento aerospace firm founded in 1942.
As a result, there were redundancies in the workforce and the company decided to cut about 5%, or 254 workers, which will be effective Monday. Besides the Canoga Park layoffs, about 50 workers in Sacramento and another 50 elsewhere in the U.S. will be let go.
"We're trying to notify everyone that are going to be affected," said Glenn Mahone, an Aerojet Rocketdyne spokesman. "At this point, there are no plans for additional cuts."
The Sacramento company has about 5,300 employees nationwide, including about 1,200 in Canoga Park, where engineers and technicians build rocket engines for NASA, military rockets and missiles. Aerojet Rocketdyne is perhaps best known as the maker of the space shuttles' main rocket engines.
Now that the shuttle program has ended, NASA has outlined its engineering design for its next launch system. Aerojet Rocketdyne will supply both the first- and second-stage liquid hydrogen rocket engines, but NASA has not provided specifics on where and when the nation will travel next in the solar system.
Without a defined national space policy, Aerojet Rocketdyne will struggle, said Marco A. Caceres, space analyst for the aerospace research firm Teal Group Corp. of Fairfax, Va.
"In any merger, there are going to be layoffs," he said. "The bigger question is what kind of demand is there for Rocketdyne's products and what comes next for the company."
In the early days of rocketry, Aerojet, Pratt & Whitney and Rocketdyne engaged in a bitter rivalry for lucrative U.S. government work.
Now the rocket engine makers compete as one entity in a shifting space industry. NASA and telecommunications companies are increasingly looking to commercial space companies such as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, in Hawthorne. On its own, SpaceX builds its Dragon capsule and the Falcon 9 rocket that lifted the Dragon into orbit. By contrast, the missions and overall design of NASA's previous space-going vehicles were tightly controlled by the government and contracted to aerospace giants such as Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp., which in turn would subcontract work on rocket engines. SpaceX has disrupted the market and offers its rockets at a discount from other companies. This sales pitch has appealed to the government at a time when spending on military hardware is expected to shrink.
The Air Force pays billions to a sole provider to launch nearly all of its spy satellites and other high-profile spacecraft, without seeking competitive bids. That provider is United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed and Boeing, with Aerojet Rocketdyne providing engines.
Now there are indications from the government that SpaceX will be allowed to compete for those contracts as well.
"No one in the military or at NASA is inclined to pay as much as they have for rockets in the past decade," Caceres said. "There might be some possibilities out there for Rocketdyne, but they're not obvious."
Employment in the Southland aerospace industry has declined from 83,480 in 2002 to 65,130 in 2012, according to Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
The round of layoffs at Aerojet Rocketdyne is the latest chapter of consolidation in the aerospace industry, which has unfolded over the last two decades and has cost tens of thousands of jobs throughout the Southland.
Rocketdyne engineers were at the forefront of developing engines in the days of slide rules and drafting tables, before advanced computers took a central role. The company supplied the major engines for the colossal Saturn rocket that put man on the moon.
By 1965, the company had about 17,700 workers in California.
At the time, most rocket engines were one-of-a-kind chemistry sets — good for one flight only. But that changed in the early 1970s, when NASA began the space shuttle program.
The agency wanted reusable engines to propel the 2,250-ton shuttle assembly as high as 384 miles above Earth.
The company tested its engines in the Santa Susana Mountains, now a cleanup site because of health risks associated with soil contaminated by years of rocket and nuclear testing.
The storied site — once swarming with engineers and technicians toiling on various programs — is nearly empty compared with the boom times. The scores of massive machines once humming and churning out parts for spacecraft now sit dormant and are set for closure at the end of the month.
Much of the workforce has been moved to a larger facility a few miles away on DeSoto Avenue.
Analysis: Russia deeply linked to Obama priorities
Julie Pace - Associated Press
Even as he criticizes Vladimir Putin and imposes sanctions on Russia, President Barack Obama is struggling with the consequences of his own earlier quest for a fresh start between Washington and Moscow.
From early in his presidency, Obama has engaged Russia to help achieve some of his key goals, including preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power and, more recently, solving the war in Syria before it spreads further in the Middle East. Now, he finds that the engagement is limiting how hard he can hit back at Russia without toppling everything else.
White House officials insist that the U.S. can't go back to a business-as-usual relationship with Russia as long as Putin still has control of Crimea, the strategically important peninsula he annexed from Ukraine.
Exactly what might be changed is still being debated inside the West Wing. Susan Rice, Obama's national security adviser, said Russia's incursion in Crimea "is causing the countries and people of Europe and the international community and, of course, the United States to reassess what does this mean and what are the implications."
But even as officials warn of curtailed ties with Russia, they're seeking to insulate Obama's most pressing foreign policy priorities from any major harm that might result.
Examples are plentiful and worrisome:
— Russia is part of the international negotiating team working with the U.S. to strike a nuclear deal with Iran.
— The Kremlin's participation is crucial to keeping Syria on track with a plan to rid Damascus of its chemical weapons stockpiles.
— Russia also allows the U.S. to use an alternative to a supply route through Pakistan to bring military personnel and equipment out of Afghanistan as the war there comes to an end.
Then there's the International Space Station and Russia's agreement to ferry American astronauts to and from it. And the concern, more pointed in Europe but well-noted in the U.S., that a deeper rift with Russia could interrupt crucial energy supplies now flowing to European nations.
U.S. officials say they're skeptical Russia would upend any of these partnerships given that its own strategic interests are also at stake. Russia wants access to Iran's economy, which is now cut off from much of the world by U.S. sanctions. In Syria, Putin sees the chemical weapons deal as a way to stave off a possible American military strike and the ouster of his allies in the Syrian government.
American officials say they instead want to cut off cooperation in areas where Russia will suffer more than the U.S. That means stopping joint military operations and canceling trade talks that were eagerly sought by Moscow.
"We must meet the challenge to our ideals, to our very international order with strength and conviction," Obama said Wednesday in Brussels. He closed three days of talks on the Russia dispute with European leaders in the Netherlands and Brussels.
The leaders indefinitely cut Russia out of the Group of Eight assemblage of major nations, a step announced by Obama and Western allies during the president's trip. Western allies also agreed to impose broad economic sanctions on Russia if it advances further into Ukraine.
But so far, U.S. efforts to isolate Russia don't appear to have changed Putin's calculus. After defying warnings from the West and moving troops into Crimea, he formally annexed the peninsula from Ukraine. He's also staged thousands of troops on Russia's border with eastern Ukraine, sparking fears in the U.S. and Europe that he may make a play for more territory.
At home, Obama is getting some low marks for his overall handling of the situation: 57 percent disapprove of his dealings in regard to Ukraine and 54 percent his interactions with Russia, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. On the other hand, nearly 9 in 10 support sanctions as a response.
The developments with Russia are hardly what Obama envisioned when he launched his "reset." The policy was aimed at soothing tensions sparked under the George W. Bush administration and paving the way for cooperation on issues like Iran and Afghanistan. But no one expected totally smooth sailing.
"There was never a belief anywhere that Russia was going to evolve into a NATO-like partner or a democracy," said Jeremy Schapiro, a former State Department official and current fellow at the Brookings Institution. "It was always a belief, in fact, that particularly on issues that related to Russia's neighborhood, that Russia was always going to be difficult."
The U.S. and its allies had faced a similar quandary about their relationship with Russia in 2008, when Moscow sent troops into Georgia and recognized the independence of two breakaway Georgian territories, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The West condemned both steps, but largely resumed normal relations with Russia, even as it violated a cease-fire agreement by keeping its troops in Georgia, where they remain today.
U.S. officials suggest it will be harder to resume normal dealings with Russia after this latest flare-up. Russia stopped short of annexing the Georgian territories, but in the case of Ukraine, it formally pulled Crimea within its borders, an action the White House sees as a more flagrant violation of international law. Officials also see Ukraine as a more strategically important country than Georgia.
Astronaut Ready to Take 3D Printing Into the Final Frontier
One NASA astronaut launching to the International Space Station in May is ready to 3D print in space.
Astronaut Reid Wiseman, bound for the station in May, is eager to use the first 3D printer in space this summer. Wiseman, flying into space for the first time as a member of the Expedition 40/41 crew, thinks that the implications for 3D printing in space are exciting and far-reaching.
"Imagine if Apollo 13 had a 3D printer," Wiseman said in a news conference this month. "Imagine if you're going to Mars and instead of packing along 20,000 spare parts, you pack along a few kilograms of ink. Now, you don't even need to know what part is going to break, you can just print out that part. Let's say your screwdriver strips out halfway to Mars and you need a screwdriver, print out a screwdriver. Really, I think for the future, that's pretty fascinating. I really like that and it'll be fun to play with that on orbit."
While Wiseman thinks that 3D printing is important for the future of human spaceflight, he doesn't necessarily think that allowing station crewmembers access to the printer at all times is a good idea.
"I think the ground will uplink a sample and get it to print out because if they let the crew print stuff out, we'd run that thing out of ink in five minutes," Wiseman joked of the 3D printing process. "We'd print out all kinds of good stuff … Just to know that this technology works in microgravity, I think it's going to change our future flying."
A 3D printer developed by the company Made in Space is slated to launch to the station on SpaceX's fifth robotic resupply mission using the private spaceflight company's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.
The Made in Space printer, called 3D Print (short for the 3D Printing in Zero G Experiment), uses a process called extrusion additive manufacturing to create various objects. Items are made by layering polymers or other materials on top on one another. The company's 3D printer can manufacture about 30 percent of the spare parts currently on the space station, Made in Space co-founder and chief technologist Jason Dunn said during an event in 2013.
"3D printing is an exciting technology," Niki Werkheiser, 3D Print project manager at NASA Marshall's Technology Development and Transfer Office, said in a statement last year. "It will allow us to live and work in space with the same efficiency and productivity that we do on Earth, with the ultimate objective being to eliminate reliance on materials and parts launched from the ground."
Recently, NASA also awarded a $125,000 grant to develop a space food making 3D printer that could be used on long-duration manned missions to deep solar system locations like Mars. Officials with Systems and Materials Research Corporation (SMRC) — the company that received the grant — are crafting an advanced prototype that can print pizza for hungry spaceflyers.
NASA Crowdsources New Spacesuit Design
Liz Fields – Good Morning America
Internet users and space enthusiasts are about to come one step closer to deciding the future of space travel. NASA is using the crowdsourcing power of the Web to help to pick the final cover layer design for its next generation spacesuit, and you can vote online until April 15.
More than 83,000 people had already cast their votes as of Wednesday morning on three prototypes, designed jointly by NASA engineers, suit manufacturer ILC Dover and design students from Philadelphia University.
All three candidates are equally as trendy in form and function, but ultimately only one cover layer will be built to go over the Z-2 prototype spacesuit, which NASA spokesman Dan Huot said will be more mobile and can be put on and taken off more easily than the previous Z-1 suit.
Where the bulky, white spacesuits worn by astronauts for the last 30 years have worked well on previous missions "where you're floating around, there's no gravity and you don't have to worry about weight," the old suits "won't work very well" on planet surfaces where there's gravity, such as Mars, Huot told ABC news.
"We've always known we need a different suit for when we get on Mars," Huot said.
What people are actually voting on is not the spacesuit itself but the cover layer, which serves to protect the layers underneath from snags and abrasions.
So far, the most popular is the "Technology" cover layer, which has received almost 65 percent of votes, said Huot.
"The Technology one looks a lot like an old Apollo suit. It kind of has that same general look, except with the addition of the light emitting patches," Huot said. Luminex wire and light-emitting patches on the upper torso will make it easier for astronauts to identify their fellow space walkers, but they "may or may not be incorporated in the final design," Huot said.
The "Biomimicry" cover was designed with Earth's oceans in mind; "an environment with many parallels to the harshness of space," according to NASA's website. It features panels with wire that lights up to mimic the bioluminescence, or natural production of light, by certain deep sea animals.
The final option called "Trends in Society" is a prototype of what the designers believe "every day clothes may look like in the not-too-distant future." The bright colors, teardrop patches and contrast stitching is meant to resemble the current trends in sportswear design. It also features elements that make a nod to the "emerging world of wearable technologies," according to the website.
NASA expects the final Z-2 suit to be built by November this year. It will then undergo rigorous testing in a number of harsh environments, including in a vacuum chamber, a huge indoor pool and at a large rock yard that mimics the surface of Mars.
People can vote for their favorite design until April 15. A special "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit will also be held at 2:30 p.m. ET today where NASA will answer questions on the suit and cover layers.
Last December, NASA admitted that aging spacesuits were to blame for the early end of a spacewalk on the International Space Station. The spacewalk was aborted nearly an hour early when the lead spacewalker began complaining about chilly temperatures in his spacesuit, which turned out to be water that had leaked into the suit.
END
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