Happy Friday everyone.
It was great to see so many of you that were able to join us at our monthly Retirees Luncheon yesterday. Great to see first timers -- Liz and Bernd Strassner and John Norris.
Always great to Lee Reutz (Lee is a young 91 yrs. and counting) and his wife, Mike Conley and his wife, Wayne and Earlene Miner. Also great to see the return of Jack Lew – we have missed him almost a year or more now.
And countless many others of you ' regulars" --- always great that yall take your precious "Fun retiree time off" to join us for a little Fellowship :0)!
Have a great weekend everyone and stay safe and healthy.
Thanks to Linda Lapradd for letting us know of the early planning by Jack Kinzler's family for a memorial service for him. According to Linda, Jack was 94 years old.
"There will be a memorial service held for Jack on Saturday, March 22nd, at 2 PM at the Webster Presbyterian Church, 201 W NASA Parkway."
I have an inquiry into Kirk Shireman to see if the Center would fly a flag in Jack's honor over MCC and have it presented to his family at the memorial service.
Larry
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Friday, March 7, 2014
JSC TODAY CATEGORIES
1. Headlines
- NASA TV Set to Cover Soyuz Landing Operations
- New Technical Capability Assessment Team Website
- International Women's Day
- SVMF Utilization Requests
2. Organizations/Social
- Chili Like There's No Tomorrow!
- HSI ERG Special Meeting - Orion HSI
- Women's History Month - Film Festival
- National Women's History Month Panel Discussion
3. Jobs and Training
- RLLS Portal Training for March - Via WebEx
- Crane Ops and Rigging Refresher ViTS - March 21
- Particle Count Training ViTS - April 4 - AM
- Cleanroom Protocol & Contam. Ctrl ViTS Apr 4 - PM
- Lockout/Tagout ViTS - April 2
4. Community
- NASA Experts, Exhibits at SXSW Interactive
- Co-ops and Interns Needed for HAS Summer Camps
- 2014 Trash Bash - March 29
Martian Sand Dunes in Spring
Headlines
1. NASA TV Set to Cover Soyuz Landing Operations
Three crew members aboard the International Space Station are scheduled to end almost six months on the orbiting laboratory on March 10, and NASA TV will provide complete coverage.
Expedition 38 Commander Oleg Kotov and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Flight Engineer Michael Hopkins of NASA will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the station on March 10 at 7:02 p.m. CDT, heading for a landing in Kazakhstan, southeast of Dzhezkazgan at 10:24 p.m. (9:24 a.m. on March 11 local time in Dzhezkazgan). The crew's return will wrap up 166 days in space since launching from Kazakhstan on Sept. 26, 2013.
At the time of undocking, Expedition 39 will begin formally aboard the station under the command of Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the first Japanese commander of the complex. Wakata and his crew mates, NASA Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio and Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, will operate the station as a three-person crew for two weeks until the arrival of three new crew members, U.S. astronaut Steve Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, who are scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan March 25, U.S. time.
NASA TV coverage will begin on Sunday morning, March 9, with the change-of-command ceremony in which Kotov will turn over command of station operations to Wakata, and it will continue March 10 and 11 with Expedition 38 landing and post-landing activities. All following times are in CDT.
Sunday, March 9:
3:55 a.m. - Expedition 38/39 change-of-command ceremony
Monday, March 10:
3:30 p.m. - Farewells and hatch closure (hatch closure scheduled at 3:45 p.m.)
6:45 p.m. - Undocking (undocking scheduled at 7:02 p.m.)
9:15 p.m. - Landing (landing scheduled at 10:24 p.m.)
Tuesday, March 11:
12:30 a.m. - Video file of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
1 p.m. - Video file of post-landing activities and interview with Michael Hopkins in Kazakhstan
JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with hard wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 404 (standard definition) or channel 4541 (HD). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC or Safari on a Mac. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi, VPN or connections from other centers are currently not supported by EZTV.
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
o For those WITHOUT admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you can download the EZTV client applications from the ACES Software Refresh Portal (SRP)
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.
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2. New Technical Capability Assessment Team Website
There is a new internal NASA website to keep NASA employees informed about the Technical Capability Assessment Team (TCAT) efforts. This website responds to requests for TCAT updates related to status and forthcoming decisions, following the field center visits by Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Deputy Associate Administrator Lesa Roe. NASA employees are encouraged to use this website to further understand the TCAT process and progress during the 2014 calendar year. To find out more, click here. (This website is available to all employees inside the firewall.)
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3. International Women's Day
Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women's Day (IWD)! JSC joins billions of people around the world as we celebrate the achievements of women internationally. We particularly celebrate the women at NASA who have paved the way for women to become pivotal to the success of human spaceflight - in the past, present and future - on the ground and in space.
The first IWD was held in 1911. The theme chosen by the United Nations for 2014 is "Inspiring Change," and encourages advocacy for women's advancement everywhere in every way. It calls for challenging the status quo for women's equality and vigilance inspiring positive change.
Join NASA in their celebration of the accomplishment of women every day here.
Learn more about the history of Women@NASA through fact sheets.
To learn more about IWD, click here.
Follow @WomenNASA on Twitter!
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4. SVMF Utilization Requests
The Building 9N Space Vehicle Mockup Facility (SVMF) has a policy that Facility Utilization Requests (FURs) to be submitted for any activity in the facility. Please pay attention to the deadlines below, as same-day mock-up access FURs will be denied.
Activities such as training, evaluation and media events require a regular ops FUR SVMF-OCC-FRM0064.doc by close of business Wednesday on the prior week. Tours requesting mock-up access shall be scheduled using Tour FUR SVMF-OCC-FRM0081 at least 24 hours in advance of the event. Walk-in floor tours can fill in SVMF-OCC-FRM0071 at the Operations Control Center (OCC). Operating hours are from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m.
More information and a link to FUR forms are available at the SVMF home page.
Allison McIntyre x47115
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Organizations/Social
1. Chili Like There's No Tomorrow!
Chili lovers and chili cookers unite! The 36th Annual JSC FOD Chili Cook-off is Saturday, April 12, at the Gilruth. Like chili? Get a ticket from a team captain or at the Starport Gift Shops. Think you can cook chili? Well, we'll be the judge of that! Come test your skills against the 40-plus other teams in chili. There are also prizes for space trivia, showmanship and games. So, what we are saying is ... what are you waiting for?! Register now.
Event Date: Saturday, April 12, 2014 Event Start Time:8:00 AM Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Complex
Add to Calendar
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2. HSI ERG Special Meeting - Orion HSI
Speaker: Dr. Neal Zapp - Orion Human Systems Integration
Zapp is the lead of the Crew Systems Integration Office (CSI) in the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle program. Orion CSI carries two overarching areas of responsibility: to serve as the program Human Systems Integration Team and, as such, the focal point for the vehicle "cockpit," meaning crew interfaces, ops and health, as well as performance and safety issues; and also to serve as the program "owners" of mock-up hardware and Human In The Loop testing, evaluation and verification. Orion CSI administers the Cockpit Working Group, which provides the forum where we work issues related to these broad elements of the human impact on program and vehicle design.
Event Date: Monday, March 10, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B1/320
Add to Calendar
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3. Women's History Month - Film Festival
JSC's Women's History Month Planning Committee invites the JSC family to the viewing of the "MAKERS: Women Who Make America." MAKERS tells the remarkable story of how women have helped shape America over the last 50 years through one of the most sweeping social revolutions in our country's history. It's a revolution that has unfolded in public and private, in courts and Congress, in the boardroom and the bedroom, changing not only what the world expects from women, but what women expect from themselves. MAKERS brings this story to life with priceless archival treasures and poignant, often funny interviews with those who led the fight, those who opposed it and those first generations to benefit from its success. MAKERS captures the journey with music, humor and the voices of women who lived through these turbulent times: the dizzying joy, aching frustration and ultimate triumph of a movement that turned America upside down.
Event Date: Thursday, March 13, 2014 Event Start Time:11:00 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: Building 1, Room 860
Add to Calendar
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4. National Women's History Month Panel Discussion
March is National Women's History Month, and the 2014 theme is "Celebrating Women of Character, Courage and Commitment." On Monday, March 17, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium, the African-American Employee Resource Group will host a discussion panel of women executives and senior leaders from government and industry, who will share perspectives on how they demonstrate character, courage and commitment as business, CEO, industry and community leaders, mothers, mentors, wives and friends.
Panelists :
o Cora Carmody, Chief Information Officer and Senior Vice President, Jacobs Engineering
o Annette Moore, Director, Information Resources Directorate, NASA Johnson Space Center
o Penny White, Senior Contracts Manager, The Boeing Company
o Pearl Wright, President, 4W Solutions, Inc.
Please come, listen and learn from this diverse panel how their lives and their work inspires girls and women to achieve their full potential and encourage boys and men to respect the diversity and depth of women's experience.
Event Date: Monday, March 17, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium
Add to Calendar
Rhonda Moore x35282
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Jobs and Training
1. RLLS Portal Training for March - Via WebEx
The March Monthly RLLS Portal Education Series - Via WebEx Sessions:
o March 12 at 2 p.m. CST, Flight Arrival Departure Training
o March 13 at 2 p.m. CST, Transportation Request Training
o March 26 at 2 p.m. CST, Inventory Maintenance Training
o March 27 at 2 p.m. CST, Meeting Support Training
These 30-minute training sessions are computer-based WebEx sessions, offering individuals the convenience to join from their own workstation. The training will cover the following:
o System login
o Locating support modules
o Locating downloadable instructions
o Creating support requests
o Submittal requirements
o Submitting on behalf of another
o Adding attachments
o Selecting special requirements
o Submitting a request
o Status of a request
Ending each session there will be an opportunity for Q&A. Please remember that TTI will no longer accept requests for U.S.-performed services unless they are submitted through the RLLS Portal.
Email or call 281-335-8565 to sign up.
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2. Crane Ops and Rigging Refresher ViTS - March 21
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0028: This four-hour course serves as a refresher in overhead crane safety and awareness for operators, riggers, signalmen, supervisors and safety personnel, and also updates their understanding of existing federal and NASA standards and regulations related to such cranes. Areas of concentration include: general safety in crane operations; testing; inspections; pre-lift plans; and safe rigging. This course is intended to provide classroom training for re-certification of already qualified crane operators, or for those who have only a limited need for overhead crane safety knowledge. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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3. Particle Count Training ViTS - April 4 - AM
This course will provide the technician/engineer with the basic skills and knowledge for performing a particle to determine of particle cleanliness level. A written/practical examination will also be offered. Course content includes:
o Review of approved method for manually counting particles using an optical microscope
o Microscope operation and calibration
o Non-microscopic visual identification of particles by shape, size, color and other physical characteristics
o Sampling techniques for particles in gases and liquids
o Filtering techniques for fluid using Millipore apparatus
o Compatibility of filter membrane and their specific uses
o Handling filter membranes, Millipore assembly, performing background determinations and pre-reading of filters prior to sampling
o Use of high-pressure filter assemblies
o Particle counting and data recording
o Statistical analysis
o Use of automatic particle-counting techniques and their limitations
A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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4. Cleanroom Protocol & Contam. Ctrl ViTS Apr 4 - PM
This course addresses the operation and use 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.
Shirley Robinson x41284
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5. 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:
Shirley Robinson x41284
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Community
1. NASA Experts, Exhibits at SXSW Interactive
Planning a trip to Austin this weekend? Check out NASA while you're there!
NASA will lead five presentations and panel sessions during the SXSW Interactive festival, which are open to SXSW Interactive badged participants.
Live from Space! Talk with Astronauts in Orbit
Saturday, March 8, at 11 a.m.; Omni Downtown, Capital Ballroom
That's Hot: Visualizing NASA Climate Science Data
Saturday, March 8, at 12:30 p.m.; Omni Downtown, Lone Star Room
NASA and Kerbal Space Program: The Asteroid Mission in Real and Virtual Worlds
Saturday, March 8, at 12:30 p.m.; Palmer Events Center, Exhibit Hall 1
First Signs: Finding Life on Other Planets
Sunday, March 9, at 12:30 p.m.; Omni Downtown, Lone Star Room
Are We Smarter than the Dinosaurs?
Monday, March 10, at 9:30 a.m.; Omni Downtown, Capital Ballroom
The general public will be able to talk with scientists and engineers working on the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope and view a 13-foot-tall model of part of the Webb telescope at the SXSW Gaming Expo. The Expo takes place Friday, March 7, through Sunday, March 9, at the Palmer Events Center (900 Barton Springs Road, Austin).
Badged SXSW Interactive participants can check out the "Experience NASA" exhibit Sunday, March 9, through Wednesday, March 12, at the SXSW Tradeshow in the Austin Convention Center.
For more, read here.
JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
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2. Co-ops and Interns Needed for HAS Summer Camps
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, college background and advice with students interested in following your footsteps. Teams 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
2. Create a V-CORPs account here
3. Review mentor responsibilities
4. Apply before April 2
For additional information, please contact Stacey Welch.
Stacey Welch 281-792-8223
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3. 2014 Trash Bash – March 29
The Trash Bash is here again, and JSC is calling for volunteers! JSC has a Space Act Agreement with Armand Bayou Nature Center, and the JSC Environmental Office is coordinating a JSC team for this year's Trash Bash on Saturday, March 29, from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Volunteers will be participating in a state-wide effort to clean trash out of our waterways. All participants get a free T-shirt and lunch after the event with opportunities to win door prizes. Families are welcome. If you would like to participate, please sign up here or contact Kim Reppa. We look forward to seeing you there!
Event Date: Saturday, March 29, 2014 Event Start Time:8:00 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center
Add to Calendar
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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
Friday – March 7, 2014
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION:
Identical twin astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly appeared on the Today show this morning to talk about the upcoming one-year mission to the International Space Station. They are participating in a unique NASA study looking at the effects of long-term space missions on the human body. The goal: insights into what could happen to humans on a mission to Mars. Check out the segment here.
Also, this week's Space to Ground video is now online:
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA To Seek Ideas for $1 Billion Mission to Europa
Dan Leone – Space News
One day after the White House unveiled a 2015 NASA budget request that funds new designs for a robotic probe to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, space agency officials said they would be requesting ideas soon for a mission with a price tag of $1 billion or less.
Found: Mysterious asteroid falling apart at a rate of 1 mile per hour
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
Peering deep into the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, scientists have spotted the first disintegrating space rock ever observed.
Small Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave, 3rd in 2 Days
A tiny space rock barely missed Earth today (March 6) in the third of back-to-back-to-back asteroid flybys over the past 24 hours, coming six times closer than the orbit of the moon.
5 Things We Learned From NASA's Meteor Experts
Jon Chang – ABC News
How likely is it that a meteor could wipe out the human race? Does the government have a plan to deal with this crisis? What's your favorite space movie? These are the some of the questions that a trio of meteor experts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center answered during a Q&A held on the website Reddit earlier today.
NASA rovers in search of intelligent budget: Our view
Obama talks of investing in science and technology, but his budget cuts into the study of space and planets.
One of the most intriguing places in the solar system is Europa, a moon of Jupiter that's covered in ice and has volcano-like geysers at its south pole spewing vapors 100 miles high.
Ukraine crisis could end U.S. space reliance on Russia
Leigh Munsil - Politico
Russia's incursion into Ukraine could generate enough congressional support to end American reliance on Russian launches to get into space.
Crimean crisis points to Russia, US space interdependence
James Dean – Florida Today
Russian spacecraft are the only rides available to NASA astronauts flying to and from the International Space Station this month, and likely for several years to come.
Winklevoss Twins in Space: Not the 1st Identical Siblings to Leave Earth
The Winklevoss twins launched into the headlines Wednesday (March 5) by announcing their plan to ride a Virgin Galactic space plane (and paying with Bitcoins, no less), but they aren't the first set of identical twins to fly in space. NASA, it turns out, got there first.
Mission for Mars: reduce sodium
Jeff Gelski – Baking Business
Achieving a nine-month shelf life for tortillas or nutrition bars may sound difficult, but the task may fail to compare to the long-term goal facing Vickie Kloeris. Try reaching a five-year shelf life for food items designed for a mission to Mars. The items also need to have a certain amount of nutrients and low levels of sodium.
Study pinpoints source of Mars meteorites
Irene Klotz – Reuters
About 5 million years ago, an asteroid or comet slammed into Mars so hard that rocks and other debris launched into space.
NASA Spacecraft Buzzes Saturn's Largest Moon Titan for 100th Time
A far-flung NASA space probe flying around Saturn zipped past the ringed planet's biggest moon for the 100th time on Thursday (March 6).
Astronaut Mark Kelly and twin help study effects of space missions
Scott Stump - Today
Identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are participating in a unique NASA study looking at the effects of long-term space missions on the human body. The goal: insights into what could happen to humans on a mission to Mars.
COMPLETE STORIES
NASA To Seek Ideas for $1 Billion Mission to Europa
Dan Leone – Space News
One day after the White House unveiled a 2015 NASA budget request that funds new designs for a robotic probe to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, space agency officials said they would be requesting ideas soon for a mission with a price tag of $1 billion or less.
"My desire, to be quite honest, would be a ... Europa mission that we could fly for a billion dollars, or less," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said here March 5 at the American Astronautical Society's Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium. "That may or may not be possible," Bolden conceded, but it will not stop the agency from trying.
"Something we're going to do post-haste is put out [a request for information] for ideas," John Grunsfeld, the former astronaut turned associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at the symposium. NASA will ask for Europa mission concepts that could be done "for around a billion dollars."
Grunsfeld said NASA wants to figure out Europa's "cost bogey," meaning the rough cost to do meaningful science at the ice-covered moon. He did not say when the request for information would be released.
A $1 billion price tag would appear to rule out one of the most mature Europa mission concepts developed by NASA in recent years, a flyby probe called Clipper that would cost an estimated $2.1 billion, excluding launch. That cost estimate was validated by the government-funded Aerospace Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., according to a presentation given by Clipper project manager Barry Goldstein in January at a meeting of the NASA-chartered Outer Planets Assessment Group.
Teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., have been refining Clipper instrument concepts since October using about $15 million of NASA funding.
Congress appropriated $70 million and $80 million, respectively, in 2013 and 2014 for Europa mission studies. However, most of that money did not go toward instrument risk reduction, which is one of the greatest hurdles for an infant mission, Curt Niebur, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in January at the assessment group meeting.
At that meeting, Goldstein said Clipper's mission concept review was slated to take place by Sept. 30.
At the Goddard symposium, Grunsfeld hinted at a possible focus of a lower-cost mission to Europa, referencing the recent discovery of suspected liquid-water plumes gushing from the jovian moon's icy surface by an astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope.
"Perhaps we can fly through [the plumes] with something like the Mars Organic Molecular Analyzer ... and see if there's signs of organics," Grunsfeld said. The Mars Organic Molecular Analyzer is an instrument the European Space Agency plans to include on its ExoMars rover, which is tentatively slated to launch in 2018. NASA is building a mass spectrometer for the instrument at the Goddard Space Flight Center here.
In the $17.5 billion NASA budget request released March 4, the White House asked for $15 million for preformulation studies on a robotic mission to Europa. Some scientists believe Jupiter's sixth moon may be hiding the ingredients for life — an energy source, organic materials, and a relatively warm, salty ocean — beneath an exterior ice crust estimated to be about 20 kilometers thick.
Found: Mysterious asteroid falling apart at a rate of 1 mile per hour
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
Peering deep into the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, scientists have spotted the first disintegrating space rock ever observed.
The rock is crumbing slowly -- its disparate pieces gliding gently away from each other at the sluggish rate of one mile an hour, slower than human walking speed.
The strange space rock first caught scientists' attention in September when the Catalina and Pan STARRS sky survey telescopes detected what looked like an unusually fuzzy object on the far side of the asteroid belt.
A closer inspection with the higher resolution W.M. Keck telescope revealed the fuzziness to be three bodies traveling closely together, enveloped in a cloud of dust the size of Earth.
Further investigation with the even higher resolution Hubble Space Telescope showed that there were actually 10 fragments in the dust cloud and that they were slowly moving away from each other. The largest four pieces were about twice the size of a football field.
"It looks like the asteroid is continuing to break up," said David Jewitt, a planetary scientist at UCLA. "The more recent the pictures, the more pieces we see."
Jewitt explains that the breakup couldn't have been caused by a recent impact because the pieces are moving too slowly away from each other. If an impact were involved, the pieces would have flown apart all at once. The breakup can't be attributed to the gravitational pull of a nearby body either, he said, because there are no other bodies nearby. And the asteroid is too far from the sun for the rapid evaporation of gases that may be trapped inside it to have pushed it apart -- it is simply not warm enough.
So why is this asteroid disintegrating before our eyes? In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (and on a very helpful website), Jewitt and his research team suggest that the asteroid's breakup is due to the nearly imperceptible force of tiny photons that have been radiating away from the asteroid toward the sun for billions of years.
"Those departing photons put a little push on the asteroid," Jewitt said. "The force is really very weak, but time is long."
The movement of those photons could have slowly caused the asteroid to spin faster and faster, until its gravity could no longer hold all its pieces together. This explanation only works if the disintegrating asteroid was what's known as a rubble pile -- an assemblage of space rocks loosely held together by gravity, with almost no tensile strength. But rubble piles are abundant in the asteroid belt.
Jewitt said this study helps underscore the power of what he calls "this quite pathetic radiation" to destroy asteroids. On his website, he and his team suggest that rapid rotation may even surpass impact destruction as the way that asteroids die.
This is not the first time Jewitt has spotted something strange in the asteroid belt. He made headlines in November when his discovery of an asteroid with six comet-like tails was released.
"We've been looking at asteroids for 200 years, ever since Ceres was discovered in 1801 -- they are one of the most studied populations in the sky," he said. "But we're still finding things we've never seen before. It is kind of awesome."
Small Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave, 3rd in 2 Days
A tiny space rock barely missed Earth today (March 6) in the third of back-to-back-to-back asteroid flybys over the past 24 hours, coming six times closer than the orbit of the moon.
The 25-foot-wide (8 meters) asteroid 2014 EC came within 38,300 miles (61,600 kilometers) of our planet at 4:21 p.m. ET (2121 GMT) today, NASA officials said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 239,000 miles (385,000 km).
"This is not an unusual event," Paul Chodas, a senior scientist in the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Objects of this size pass this close to the Earth several times every year."
But today's close encounter was special in one sense — it came just one day after two other space-rock flybys. On Wednesday afternoon (March 5), the 100-foot-wide (30 m) asteroid 2014 DX110 zipped within 217,000 miles (350,000 km) of Earth.
"A third asteroid, 2014 EF, which is closer in size to today's 2014 EC, passed Earth at about 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST) Wednesday, with closest approach about twice as far from Earth as 2014 EC's closest approach," NASA officials wrote in an update today.
There was never any danger of an impact by the asteroids during these flybys, researchers said. The odds that 2014 EC will ever hit Earth are currently estimated to be 1 in 2.7 million.
2014 EC was just discovered on Tuesday night (March 4). It's about half as wide as the space rock that exploded without warning over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, generating a powerful shock wave that injured 1,500 people. (Most of the wounds were caused by shards of flying glass from broken windows.)
The Russian meteor got worldwide attention, alerting the public and policymakers to the very real dangers posed by asteroid strikes, scientists say. Many researchers are pushing for more money and new instruments to aid the hunt for near-Earth asteroids; just 10,660 have been detected to date, out of a total population thought to number in the millions. 5 Things We Learned From NASA's Meteor Experts
Jon Chang – ABC News
How likely is it that a meteor could wipe out the human race? Does the government have a plan to deal with this crisis? What's your favorite space movie? These are the some of the questions that a trio of meteor experts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center answered during a Q&A held on the website Reddit earlier today. Here are some of the things we've learned.
| Meteorites and asteroids aren't going to kill us anytime soon. |
"There are currently no large asteroids (greater than a mile across) projected to strike Earth for the next few centuries," said Bill Cooke, the lead at NASA's Meteoroid Environment office. "Similarly, it's theoretically possible to redirect a meteor to fall on an enemy nation, but the tech is still centuries away. "By that time, we will probably have phaser banks and photon torpedoes."
Cooke's colleague, Rhiannon Blaauw, added that in order to get a tsunami-like event to result from a a meteorite crashing into the ocean, it would require one about 300 meters across. "This size of meteor hits the Earth about every 100,000-300,000 years...so it is highly unlikely," she said.
| There is a plan if one gets too close. |
"The protocol for such events is that NASA would inform the appropriate government agencies such as FEMA and the Department of Defense," said Cooke. "Then, the strategy to deal with depending on how much time is left before impact."
"If we have decades or longer, we can try using the gravity of a massive space ship to gently tug the asteroid off course or paint one side of it a reflective color so that the difference in heat radiation off the asteroid will change its trajectory," said Cooke. "If we don't have a long time, we may have to resort to the movies' favorite planetary defense scheme, i.e. nuclear weapons."
| Astronauts are the ones that have to worry about meteor activity. |
When asked what the hardest part of his job is, Cooke said it was predicting the strength and intensity of meteor showers. "This is important for astronauts to know if they go outside the space station," he said. "[We] have to get this right."
Blaauw added that some NASA activity had to be rescheduled due to a meteor shower. "In 1993, the Perseids delayed a Shuttle launch," she said.
| There's not much reason to mining a meteor. |
"Meteorites contain basically the same elements as found on Earth, just in different abundances," said Cooke. "Likewise, there's no treasure trove of minerals at meteor impact sites. "No platinum, no gold, though from the prices meteorites command on eBay, you think they were made of this stuff."
| "Gravity" isn't scientifically accurate and that's fine. |
"Gravity" had the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station, the Russian space station, which no longer exists, and a Chinese space station, fairly close to each other in space," said Cooke. "This is very wrong." He added that chain reaction of collisions caused by a satellite's destruction would unfold over several years, not hours.
"But I go to movies to be entertained, not to evaluate their scientific accuracy," said Cooke. "Star Wars would be very boring without sound accompanying all the explosions."
NASA rovers in search of intelligent budget: Our view
Obama talks of investing in science and technology, but his budget cuts into the study of space and planets.
One of the most intriguing places in the solar system is Europa, a moon of Jupiter that's covered in ice and has volcano-like geysers at its south pole spewing vapors 100 miles high.
Because Europa is so compelling, and because water is thought to be conducive to life, space scientists have long pushed NASA to send a robotic spacecraft there.
But to no avail. For all of President Obama's talk of investing in science and technology, his administration has shortchanged at least one critical area: the study of space and planets. This is a huge loss because these types of missions have generated remarkable results and have a significant gee-whiz factor that helps attract young people into careers in science and engineering.
The 2015 budget request for space science, released Tuesday, is just under $5 billion, $100 million less than was appropriated three years ago. The good news is that several projects — most notably the James Webb Space Telescope and various Earth monitoring programs — are funded. But the modest overall cuts for science translate into bigger ones in NASA's planetary probes and astrophysics programs.
In each of the past three years, Obama has proposed major cuts to the NASA division that sends robots to explore the solar system. Its request for the upcoming year is just under $1.3 billion (0.03% of all federal spending), compared with $1.5 billion three years ago. Similar cuts have been made in the astrophysics division, which funds space observatories.
Among the effects of this unfortunate austerity would be an end to the Curiosity rover, currently wheeling itself around on Mars, and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia, for short), a deep space observatory just beginning to yield results.
As for Europa, don't get your hopes up. This year, the NASA budget acknowledges that it exists, but only by allocating $15 million for a study of a potential mission. Many studies have been conducted already. Any further ones are little more than a ploy to relieve the pressure to do something more meaningful.
These types of cuts do great harm to an area of government that enjoys tremendous public support. The fascination can be seen in the 6.5 billion hits that NASA's website logged in the days after Opportunity, and its sister probe Spirit, landed on Mars.
It can also be seen in Fox Broadcasting's decision to remake Carl Sagan's fabulously successful 1980 series Cosmos and air it over 13 episodes in prime time, starting with this Sunday's premiere on 10 channels.
But for all this public support, space science lacks the two things that matter in Washington: a powerful special interest group and a champion in the upper echelons of government. NASA's overall budget is no match for popular entitlement programs.
Within NASA, the scientific probes and deep space observatories face the toughest times. The manned space program almost always involves an expensive new rocket, so it has the aerospace industry behind it. NASA's aeronautics and commercial space flight divisions do well for similar reasons.
Space science, with a higher yield, needs someone to fight for it. If intelligent life exists in the White House and Congress, it's time for those people to step up.
Ukraine crisis could end U.S. space reliance on Russia
Leigh Munsil - Politico
Russia's incursion into Ukraine could generate enough congressional support to end American reliance on Russian launches to get into space.
The Obama administration has already suspended military-to-military ties with Russia in response, among other actions. And while NASA insists the deteriorating U.S.-Russia relations won't affect the civil space program, advocates of commercial development of American launch vehicles believe the crisis could create enough political pressure on Congress to fully fund an American way to the International Space Station.
"The situation in the Ukraine underscores the need to re-establish America's human spaceflight capability as soon as possible," Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told POLITICO. "The advancements in commercial space offer U.S. space exploration a future that doesn't include reliance on Russian rockets or engines. Spending $70 million a seat on a Russian rocket launched from Kazakhstan to send a U.S. astronaut in space should not be a goal we settle on."
Currently, American astronauts rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to get to the space station – a necessity since the retirement of NASA's space shuttle in 2011. But the U.S. is developing an alternative via the Commercial Crew Program, which partners with aerospace contractors to design and build privately operated vehicles to transport astronauts into low Earth orbit.
President Barack Obama's budget request on Tuesday seeks $848 million for the commercial crew program, and the proposed White House Opportunity, Growth and Security Initiative investment fund asks for another $250 million.
And that kind of money, a NASA spokesman said, could help the U.S. be ready to manage its own launches in by 2017.
"NASA is moving toward awarding contracts this year to private American companies to send our astronauts to the International Space Station, keeping the agency on target to launch American astronauts from the U.S. by 2017 and ending our reliance on Russia to get into low-Earth orbit," said Robert Jacobs, deputy associate administrator of NASA's communications office.
In previous budgets, Congress hasn't fully funded commercial crew requests as a way of finding savings, to the chagrin of its advocates.
"The president has been requesting approximately $800 million every year since his FY12 budget submission to fund the development of American vehicles to provide access to the ISS, only to have Congress, led primarily by the GOP but not exclusively, dramatically undercut that funding," said Dale Ketcham, chief of strategic alliances for Space Florida, the state's spaceport authority and aerospace development organization.
But Russia's incursion into Crimean region of Ukraine has put the spotlight on the U.S. and Russia's codependence in space, and could provide the political capital necessary for the program to get full funding this time around.
"Hopefully, this project, which was so much the signature program of this president, can now move to full funding given the refreshed 'anti-Russian' angle," Ketcham said.
An Obama administration official agreed that recent tensions may help muster support for the commercial crew program.
"The situation highlights that we are dependent on them right now – puts a spotlight on the fact that our astronauts ride up in Russian vehicles," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "Unfortunately, Congress has consistently shortchanged it – halving the president's request most years – in favor of traditional government cost-plus contracts for big rockets and capsules that NASA doesn't need or have a plan for until the 2020s. Instead, we're giving less money to the Commercial Crew Program – a program we need now."
But Russia's recent actions may make lawmakers more likely to support the commercial crew program in full, the official said.
"There was no political imperative until now. Everybody's coming together as a strong front, Republicans and Democrats," the official added. "Right now, Russia has a monopoly on it so they can charge us whatever they want. We want to get rid of that as soon as possible."
It won't be a cakewalk, though. Already, many lawmakers have declared Obama's budget dead on arrival.
McCarthy, for one, hinted that ending spaceflight reliance on Russia may be a cause for bipartisanship – at least on this issue.
"Support for U.S. commercial space will lead to American astronauts flying on American-made rockets from American soil," he said. "That is exceptionalism that both parties can get behind."
Crimean crisis points to Russia, US space interdependence
James Dean – Florida Today
Russian spacecraft are the only rides available to NASA astronauts flying to and from the International Space Station this month, and likely for several years to come.
But space program ties between the countries run much deeper: Launch of a U.S. reconnaissance satellite from Cape Canaveral later this month will rely on a Russian engine, while another American rocket that launches ISS cargo uses a booster from Ukraine and refurbished Soviet engines.
The ongoing diplomatic crisis between Moscow and Washington over Russia's actions in Ukraine has highlighted U.S. dependence on Russia and the region for access to space, raising concerns about potential disruptions to launches of ISS crews and cargo or national security satellites.
"We are in kind of a rock and a hard place in the space program at this point," said Roger Handberg, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. "Space is a secondary thought in this but yes, we are very vulnerable to having something go bad. It all is going to depend on how the politicians sort it out."
Unless the situation worsens considerably, several experts said it's unlikely Russia would use space assets for political leverage, given the money and prestige it would put at risk, or that a U.S. response might include pulling astronauts from training in Star City, Russia.
NASA this week said its relationship with the Russian space agency continues as usual, including preparations to land an astronaut and two cosmonauts on Monday and to launch another crew from Kazakhstan two weeks later.
"People lose track of the fact that we have occupied the International Space Station now for 13 consecutive years uninterrupted, and that has been through multiple international crises," NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said this week. "We will go into contingency planning for that as the situation dictates, but right now, we don't see any reason to be doing so."
Orbital Sciences Corp., whose Antares rocket booster is produced by Ukrainian companies, also is closely monitoring the situation there, a spokesman said. Orbital already has the boosters for its next three ISS resupply missions and the engines, built decades ago in the Soviet Union and modernized in the U.S., for seven more missions.
Meanwhile, United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, which flies the most important, high value military satellites and NASA science missions, uses an RD-180 main engine supplied by a Russian company.
During a Senate hearing this week about introducing competition for those launches, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the Atlas V should be phased out to eliminate a potential security vulnerability.
"In light of Russia's de facto annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, and the formal severing of military ties, the Atlas V cannot possibly be described as providing assured access to space for our nation, when supply of the main engine depends on President Putin's permission," Musk testified.
ULA CEO Michael Gass said his company, a Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture, has a two-year supply of RD-180 engines and the capability to produce them domestically if necessary. The company also flies Delta IV rockets.
Two of the three companies competing to launch astronauts to the station on commercial spacecraft (excluding SpaceX) also plan to use the Atlas V.
But the reliance on Russia for rocket engine technology and human access to space is not as one-sided as it might at first appear, experts say.
The $70 million NASA pays for each astronaut's seat on a Soyuz spacecraft, and purchases of RD-180 engines, are valued, perhaps irreplaceable sources of revenue to Russia's space industry and leadership.
"They really are about as good friends as money can rent," said James Oberg, a former shuttle mission controller and now space analyst for NBC News. "A lot of people in power in Moscow are making a lot of money off of the U.S. payments, and they can be counted on to put the arm on Putin not to mess with the cash flow."
Denying use of the RD-180 engine for U.S. defense missions, as some Russian lawmakers threatened last year, would only accelerate development of an alternative that would cripple its manufacturer.
NASA must buy Soyuz seats now, but that money could disappear as soon as 2017, if new commercial vehicles are ready on time. And while Russia is now the sole provider of crew transportation, it relies on U.S. power and communications systems to run its segment of the space station.
"The fundamental reason that I don't see any interference is simply a mutual co-dependence on the ISS, however reluctant and awkward it may seem," Oberg said. "They'd be far worse off with only their part of the ISS than we would be without Soyuz, in terms of how quickly we could replace the function."
In addition to money, the ISS and other space technology bestows a national prestige that is important to Russia, just as hosting the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi was, said Anatoly Zak, the New Jersey-based editor of RussianSpaceWeb.com and author of "Russia in Space." Like Bolden, he noted that the space station program has survived numerous past conflicts, including Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia and its strong opposition to the Iraq War, and Russia has met its commitments throughout.
"Unless the situation escalates further — which it can — I don't see any chance that they would use space as a bargaining chip," said Zak.
Winklevoss Twins in Space: Not the 1st Identical Siblings to Leave Earth
The Winklevoss twins launched into the headlines Wednesday (March 5) by announcing their plan to ride a Virgin Galactic space plane (and paying with Bitcoins, no less), but they aren't the first set of identical twins to fly in space. NASA, it turns out, got there first.
Years before the Winklevoss twins planned their Virgin Galactic space trip, the identical twins Mark and Scott Kelly — both 50 — of West Orange, N.J., were busy flying space shuttles for NASA. Not only are the Kelly brothers the first identical twin astronauts in history, but they were also simultaneous captains in the U.S. Navy until Mark Kelly retired from both NASA and the Navy in 2011.
The Kelly brothers (Mark is six minutes older) joined NASA's astronaut corps in 1996, with Mark flying four space shuttle missions and Scott flying three spaceflights, including a 159-day stay on the International Space Station. Both astronauts served as space shuttle commanders, with Scott commanding the space station during most recent spaceflight, which ran from October 2010 and ended in March 2011.
Now when it comes to the Winklevoss brothers — the founders of Winklevoss Capital investing group — this part is key. The Winklevoss twins could be the first identical siblings to fly at the same time.
The Winklevii are paying the Bitcoin equivalent of $250,000 for the suborbital spaceflight. Virgin Galactic is offering trips into suborbital space (they don't reach Earth orbit like NASA shuttles) by launching the SpaceShipTwo vehicle from a high-altitude mothership called WhiteKnightTwo. The SpaceShipTwo can carry two pilots and six passengers per flight.
The Kelly brothers never had the chance to fly in space together, though at one point it was planned.
In 2011, NASA hoped to launch its second-to-last space shuttle mission — the STS-134 flight on Endeavour — early in the year, during the time that Scott Kelly was in command of the International Space Station. Mark Kelly, meanwhile, would command Endeavour. It would be a historic identical twin space commander flight.
But Endeavour's launch was ultimately delayed until May 2011, two months after Scott Kelly had returned to Earth.
In June 2011, Mark Kelly retired from NASA and the Navy to be able to spend more time with his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in early January of that year during a failed assassination attempt. Giffords survived and underwent a series of surgeries and intense rehabilitation. She watched Mark launch into space from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on May 16, 2011.
Scott Kelly, meanwhile, remains an active NASA astronaut and will return to the International Space Station in 2015. That mission is slated to be an unprecedented one-year space mission for NASA. Scott will be joined by Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko on that mission.
The Kelly twins have volunteered to be guinea pigs for biological studies on the effects of long-duration spaceflight during Scott's year-long mission.
Mission for Mars: reduce sodium
Jeff Gelski – Baking Business
Achieving a nine-month shelf life for tortillas or nutrition bars may sound difficult, but the task may fail to compare to the long-term goal facing Vickie Kloeris. Try reaching a five-year shelf life for food items designed for a mission to Mars. The items also need to have a certain amount of nutrients and low levels of sodium.
Ms. Kloeris spoke about her work with food destined for outer space at the American Society of Baking's BakingTech 2014 on March 4 in Chicago. She holds a master's degree in food science from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, and serves as manager for the international space station food system.
A trip to Mars might require 12,000 kilograms (26,455 lbs) of food for a total of six crew members. Ms. Kloeris said all the food would need to be shelf stable because no refrigerators or freezers would be allowed on the mission. They would use too much energy.
All beverages in the space program are in powdered form in packages. An adaptor, which has a straw sticking out of it at the top of the package, allows crew members to inject water into the package. Re-hydrated foods, too, require the addition of water before consumption. Tortillas with reduced water activity may have a shelf life of up to a year.
The space program has formulated thermo-stabilized food products. Some might last five years, but they would degrade over time and lose nutrients. Seven of the space program's 65 thermo-stabilized food products are expected to still be palatable after five years, Ms. Kloeris said.
The space program for years has used meals-ready-to-eat (M.R.E.s) that are similar to those found in the military. The space program likes to formulate its own M.R.E.s because the M.R.E.s in the military have high levels of fat and sodium.
"The military is feeding a much younger crowd," Ms. Kloeris said. "Their general customer is 18- to 21-year-olds."
Astronauts, who tend to be in their 40s or even their 50s, do not need the extra fat and high sodium content, she said. The space program has achieved about a 40% reduction in daily sodium intake, bringing per-capita intake down to 3,000 mg.
"The advantage we have over the food industry is we're producing in very small quantities," Ms. Kloeris said. "We can reformulate our products and use more expensive ingredients like higher-priced herbs, spices and enzymes to offset the reduction in sodium."
Further sodium reduction will be difficult, she said. The lack of refrigeration and freezing means crew members will eat almost no fresh fruit, which has little to no sodium.
Study pinpoints source of Mars meteorites
Irene Klotz – Reuters
About 5 million years ago, an asteroid or comet slammed into Mars so hard that rocks and other debris launched into space.
After traveling millions of years, some eventually landed on Earth, becoming the biggest of three main types of meteorites hailing from the Red Planet.
Now researchers say they have pinpointed the source of those Martian meteorites classified as the "shergottites." The finding, if confirmed, would give scientists fresh insights into Mars' history and evolution.
"If one were able to say, 'Oh, this Martian meteorite is from exactly this spot on Mars,' then that would have significant added value to what you could get out of it," said Carl Agee, meteorite curator and director of University of New Mexico's Institute of Meteoritics.
"We'd know exactly what material it is made of, we'd know how old it was when it formed. You'd get more of the missing pieces of the puzzle of how Mars formed," Agee said.
University of Oslo planetary scientist Stephanie Werner and colleagues say they have done just that.
The shergottites, Werner said, come from a 34-mile (55-km) wide impact basin known as Mojave Crater in the planet's equatorial region.
The scientists point to the crater's large size, relative youth and chemical composition as good matches for the shergottites, which account for about 75 percent of the roughly 150 Mars meteorites found so far.
Others say the evidence is far from ironclad.
"The (study) strikes me as somewhat speculative," said Agee, who was not involved in the research.
Werner, for example, says the shergottites crystallized some 4.3 billion years ago, roughly the same age as the crater's original terrain.
But Agee said most scientists believe the shergottites are much younger.
"I'm not convinced," Agee said.
Werner's research is published in this week's issue of the journal Science.
NASA Spacecraft Buzzes Saturn's Largest Moon Titan for 100th Time
A far-flung NASA space probe flying around Saturn zipped past the ringed planet's biggest moon for the 100th time on Thursday (March 6).
The Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to the hazy moon Titan at 12:45 p.m. EST on Earth (5:45 GMT), according to officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
During the historic flyby, Cassini got within 933 miles (1,500 kilometers) of Titan's mysterious surface.
Larger than Mercury in size, Titan has some compelling similarities to Earth. It's only other body in our solar system with an atmosphere and liquid on its surface. (It's also thought to be one of the best possible places to search for extraterrestrial life.)
JPL officials say Titan, where temperatures can drop to minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (94 kelvins), is like early Earth in a deep freeze. It may even harbor ice volcanoes that spew water ice and hydrocarbons.
For 10 years, Cassini's images have helped scientists peer beneath the moon's orange, nitrogen-rich smog to see amazing features on the face of Titan like vast lakes made of methane and ethane that are larger than North America's Great Lakes and continually replenished by hydrocarbon rain showers.
With Cassini data, scientists have detected an ocean composed of water and ammonia below Titan's icy crust. Using radar data from the spacecraft, researchers have also determined that Ligeia Mare, the second largest sea on Titan, is about 525 feet (160 meters) deep.
The flyby comes during a change in Titan's long seasons. Spring is finally giving way to summer in in Titan's northern hemisphere for the first time since Cassini arrived at Saturn in 2004. This means icy clouds are retreating and revealing and never-before-seen views of the lakes and seas at the moon's north pole. Near-infrared images of the region could give scientists clues about the surrounding terrain, JPL officials say.
Because Titan harbors water and organic materials, scientists think it could be a potential host of alien life forms.
"Methane is not only in the atmosphere, but probably in the crust," Jonathan Lunine, a scientist on the Cassini mission at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., explained in a statement from JPL. "It's a hint there are organics not only in Titan's air and on the surface, but even in the deep interior, where liquid water exists as well. Organics are the building blocks of life, and if they are in contact with liquid water, there could be a chance of finding some form of life."
Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL, said the potential for like on Titan is twofold because of its two types of liquid bodies.
"Could a unique form of methane-based life exist in Titan's liquid lakes and seas?" Spilker asked in a statement. With a global ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust, could life exist in Titan's subsurface ocean?"
Astronaut Mark Kelly and twin help study effects of space missions
Scott Stump - Today
Identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are participating in a unique NASA study looking at the effects of long-term space missions on the human body. The goal: insights into what could happen to humans on a mission to Mars.
As part of the study, next year Scott Kelly will travel with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko to the International Space Station and spend a year there, the longest time any American has ever spent aboard the orbiting outpost. Meanwhile, his twin brother Mark will remain home in Arizona with his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, over the same time period.
Blood, saliva, cheek swab and stool samples will be taken from both brothers at the same times before, during and after the one-year mission to study the effects of long space missions on the human body. Psychological and physical performance tests will also be conducted.
"Our genes when the eggs split were exactly the same, and since then, the environment has changed them somewhat, but they're pretty much similar, except he got the mustache gene,'' Scott joked with Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Friday. "I didn't get that one. In any case, they want to look at what the space environment has done to my RNA, DNA, proteins, those kind of things in my body."
"The space environment is pretty severe,'' Mark said on TODAY. "There's a lot of radiation involved that can affect your genes and your DNA and those things at the smallest level."
The brothers, who turned 50 last month, are the only twins and only siblings to have ever flown in space, although they were not there at the same time. Scott raised the question of whether a study like this had ever been done, resulting in it becoming an official plan.
"It wasn't actually my idea,'' Scott said. "I asked the question when I was assigned to this one-year flight whether any study like this would be done, and the answer I got was there was nothing being considered. Then the scientists took my question, went back and talked about it, and thought that maybe it did have some merit."
The hope is that Scott's prolonged exposure to conditions in space can demonstrate some of the effects astronauts could experience on a potential mission to Mars. He has previously had a six-month stint aboard the ISS and also has completed a pair of space-shuttle flights in his career.
"For me, having flown a long-duration flight before, on a personal level what makes it special is the duration, and the challenge that provides,'' Scott said. "From a scientific perspective, certainly the research about having a person spend longer than we've ever had an American spend in space is important because eventually we're going to go to Mars, leave lower Earth orbit, and we need to have that experience base of people living in space for much longer lengths of time.
"A flight to Mars and back could take three years, so the science value I think is pretty important. And also the science value of this particular study will allow us to learn things to help with those types of long-term missions."
Mark retired from NASA in 2011 to be with Giffords, who was shot in the head in Tuscon, Ariz., in January 2011 and has made a remarkable recovery.
"For me, I don't work at NASA anymore,'' Mark said. "I left after my wife was injured, so it allows me to still participate in some way. [Scott and I] never got to fly in space together, so this was some way [to participate together]."
END
Also, this week's Space to Ground video is now online:
HEADLINES AND LEADSNASA To Seek Ideas for $1 Billion Mission to EuropaDan Leone – Space NewsOne day after the White House unveiled a 2015 NASA budget request that funds new designs for a robotic probe to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, space agency officials said they would be requesting ideas soon for a mission with a price tag of $1 billion or less.Found: Mysterious asteroid falling apart at a rate of 1 mile per hourDeborah Netburn – Los Angeles TimesPeering deep into the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, scientists have spotted the first disintegrating space rock ever observed.Small Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave, 3rd in 2 DaysMike Wall - SPACE.comA tiny space rock barely missed Earth today (March 6) in the third of back-to-back-to-back asteroid flybys over the past 24 hours, coming six times closer than the orbit of the moon.5 Things We Learned From NASA's Meteor ExpertsJon Chang – ABC NewsHow likely is it that a meteor could wipe out the human race? Does the government have a plan to deal with this crisis? What's your favorite space movie? These are the some of the questions that a trio of meteor experts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center answered during a Q&A held on the website Reddit earlier today.NASA rovers in search of intelligent budget: Our viewObama talks of investing in science and technology, but his budget cuts into the study of space and planets.One of the most intriguing places in the solar system is Europa, a moon of Jupiter that's covered in ice and has volcano-like geysers at its south pole spewing vapors 100 miles high.Ukraine crisis could end U.S. space reliance on RussiaLeigh Munsil - PoliticoRussia's incursion into Ukraine could generate enough congressional support to end American reliance on Russian launches to get into space.Crimean crisis points to Russia, US space interdependenceJames Dean – Florida TodayRussian spacecraft are the only rides available to NASA astronauts flying to and from the International Space Station this month, and likely for several years to come.Winklevoss Twins in Space: Not the 1st Identical Siblings to Leave EarthTariq Malik – SPACE.comThe Winklevoss twins launched into the headlines Wednesday (March 5) by announcing their plan to ride a Virgin Galactic space plane (and paying with Bitcoins, no less), but they aren't the first set of identical twins to fly in space. NASA, it turns out, got there first.Mission for Mars: reduce sodiumJeff Gelski – Baking BusinessAchieving a nine-month shelf life for tortillas or nutrition bars may sound difficult, but the task may fail to compare to the long-term goal facing Vickie Kloeris. Try reaching a five-year shelf life for food items designed for a mission to Mars. The items also need to have a certain amount of nutrients and low levels of sodium.Study pinpoints source of Mars meteoritesIrene Klotz – ReutersAbout 5 million years ago, an asteroid or comet slammed into Mars so hard that rocks and other debris launched into space.NASA Spacecraft Buzzes Saturn's Largest Moon Titan for 100th TimeMegan Gannon – SPACE.comA far-flung NASA space probe flying around Saturn zipped past the ringed planet's biggest moon for the 100th time on Thursday (March 6).Astronaut Mark Kelly and twin help study effects of space missionsScott Stump - TodayIdentical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly are participating in a unique NASA study looking at the effects of long-term space missions on the human body. The goal: insights into what could happen to humans on a mission to Mars.COMPLETE STORIESNASA To Seek Ideas for $1 Billion Mission to EuropaDan Leone – Space NewsOne day after the White House unveiled a 2015 NASA budget request that funds new designs for a robotic probe to Jupiter's ice-covered moon Europa, space agency officials said they would be requesting ideas soon for a mission with a price tag of $1 billion or less."My desire, to be quite honest, would be a ... Europa mission that we could fly for a billion dollars, or less," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said here March 5 at the American Astronautical Society's Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium. "That may or may not be possible," Bolden conceded, but it will not stop the agency from trying."Something we're going to do post-haste is put out [a request for information] for ideas," John Grunsfeld, the former astronaut turned associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said at the symposium. NASA will ask for Europa mission concepts that could be done "for around a billion dollars."Grunsfeld said NASA wants to figure out Europa's "cost bogey," meaning the rough cost to do meaningful science at the ice-covered moon. He did not say when the request for information would be released.A $1 billion price tag would appear to rule out one of the most mature Europa mission concepts developed by NASA in recent years, a flyby probe called Clipper that would cost an estimated $2.1 billion, excluding launch. That cost estimate was validated by the government-funded Aerospace Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., according to a presentation given by Clipper project manager Barry Goldstein in January at a meeting of the NASA-chartered Outer Planets Assessment Group.Teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., have been refining Clipper instrument concepts since October using about $15 million of NASA funding.Congress appropriated $70 million and $80 million, respectively, in 2013 and 2014 for Europa mission studies. However, most of that money did not go toward instrument risk reduction, which is one of the greatest hurdles for an infant mission, Curt Niebur, program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in January at the assessment group meeting.At that meeting, Goldstein said Clipper's mission concept review was slated to take place by Sept. 30.At the Goddard symposium, Grunsfeld hinted at a possible focus of a lower-cost mission to Europa, referencing the recent discovery of suspected liquid-water plumes gushing from the jovian moon's icy surface by an astronomer using the Hubble Space Telescope."Perhaps we can fly through [the plumes] with something like the Mars Organic Molecular Analyzer ... and see if there's signs of organics," Grunsfeld said. The Mars Organic Molecular Analyzer is an instrument the European Space Agency plans to include on its ExoMars rover, which is tentatively slated to launch in 2018. NASA is building a mass spectrometer for the instrument at the Goddard Space Flight Center here.In the $17.5 billion NASA budget request released March 4, the White House asked for $15 million for preformulation studies on a robotic mission to Europa. Some scientists believe Jupiter's sixth moon may be hiding the ingredients for life — an energy source, organic materials, and a relatively warm, salty ocean — beneath an exterior ice crust estimated to be about 20 kilometers thick.Found: Mysterious asteroid falling apart at a rate of 1 mile per hourDeborah Netburn – Los Angeles TimesPeering deep into the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars, scientists have spotted the first disintegrating space rock ever observed.The rock is crumbing slowly -- its disparate pieces gliding gently away from each other at the sluggish rate of one mile an hour, slower than human walking speed.The strange space rock first caught scientists' attention in September when the Catalina and Pan STARRS sky survey telescopes detected what looked like an unusually fuzzy object on the far side of the asteroid belt.A closer inspection with the higher resolution W.M. Keck telescope revealed the fuzziness to be three bodies traveling closely together, enveloped in a cloud of dust the size of Earth.Further investigation with the even higher resolution Hubble Space Telescope showed that there were actually 10 fragments in the dust cloud and that they were slowly moving away from each other. The largest four pieces were about twice the size of a football field."It looks like the asteroid is continuing to break up," said David Jewitt, a planetary scientist at UCLA. "The more recent the pictures, the more pieces we see."Jewitt explains that the breakup couldn't have been caused by a recent impact because the pieces are moving too slowly away from each other. If an impact were involved, the pieces would have flown apart all at once. The breakup can't be attributed to the gravitational pull of a nearby body either, he said, because there are no other bodies nearby. And the asteroid is too far from the sun for the rapid evaporation of gases that may be trapped inside it to have pushed it apart -- it is simply not warm enough.So why is this asteroid disintegrating before our eyes? In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (and on a very helpful website), Jewitt and his research team suggest that the asteroid's breakup is due to the nearly imperceptible force of tiny photons that have been radiating away from the asteroid toward the sun for billions of years."Those departing photons put a little push on the asteroid," Jewitt said. "The force is really very weak, but time is long."The movement of those photons could have slowly caused the asteroid to spin faster and faster, until its gravity could no longer hold all its pieces together. This explanation only works if the disintegrating asteroid was what's known as a rubble pile -- an assemblage of space rocks loosely held together by gravity, with almost no tensile strength. But rubble piles are abundant in the asteroid belt.Jewitt said this study helps underscore the power of what he calls "this quite pathetic radiation" to destroy asteroids. On his website, he and his team suggest that rapid rotation may even surpass impact destruction as the way that asteroids die.This is not the first time Jewitt has spotted something strange in the asteroid belt. He made headlines in November when his discovery of an asteroid with six comet-like tails was released."We've been looking at asteroids for 200 years, ever since Ceres was discovered in 1801 -- they are one of the most studied populations in the sky," he said. "But we're still finding things we've never seen before. It is kind of awesome."Small Asteroid Gives Earth a Close Shave, 3rd in 2 DaysMike Wall - SPACE.comA tiny space rock barely missed Earth today (March 6) in the third of back-to-back-to-back asteroid flybys over the past 24 hours, coming six times closer than the orbit of the moon.The 25-foot-wide (8 meters) asteroid 2014 EC came within 38,300 miles (61,600 kilometers) of our planet at 4:21 p.m. ET (2121 GMT) today, NASA officials said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 239,000 miles (385,000 km)."This is not an unusual event," Paul Chodas, a senior scientist in the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "Objects of this size pass this close to the Earth several times every year."But today's close encounter was special in one sense — it came just one day after two other space-rock flybys. On Wednesday afternoon (March 5), the 100-foot-wide (30 m) asteroid 2014 DX110 zipped within 217,000 miles (350,000 km) of Earth."A third asteroid, 2014 EF, which is closer in size to today's 2014 EC, passed Earth at about 7 p.m. PST (10 p.m. EST) Wednesday, with closest approach about twice as far from Earth as 2014 EC's closest approach," NASA officials wrote in an update today.There was never any danger of an impact by the asteroids during these flybys, researchers said. The odds that 2014 EC will ever hit Earth are currently estimated to be 1 in 2.7 million.2014 EC was just discovered on Tuesday night (March 4). It's about half as wide as the space rock that exploded without warning over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in February 2013, generating a powerful shock wave that injured 1,500 people. (Most of the wounds were caused by shards of flying glass from broken windows.)The Russian meteor got worldwide attention, alerting the public and policymakers to the very real dangers posed by asteroid strikes, scientists say. Many researchers are pushing for more money and new instruments to aid the hunt for near-Earth asteroids; just 10,660 have been detected to date, out of a total population thought to number in the millions.5 Things We Learned From NASA's Meteor ExpertsJon Chang – ABC NewsHow likely is it that a meteor could wipe out the human race? Does the government have a plan to deal with this crisis? What's your favorite space movie? These are the some of the questions that a trio of meteor experts at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center answered during a Q&A held on the website Reddit earlier today. Here are some of the things we've learned.
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