Happy Flex Friday eve. Be safe everyone…weather is abit unsettled in the Houston Metro area. We need the rain though.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
- Benefits for Humanity: Found at Sea
- Plankton Outside the Space Station?
- When Others #SpotTheStation
- Give Your Input on the New ISS 101 Website
- The Mission is Simple
- Revised Second Street Lane Closure
- Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Labor Day
- Vote Now - NASA@work Voting Challenge Open
- New Link for August JSC Tech Briefs - Organizations/Social
- Building 3 Café Closed Flex Friday - Aug. 29
- JSC's DAG Meeting: Info About Hearing Impairments
- What is a Bamba Anyway?
- Suicide Prevention
- Parent's Night Out at Starport - Sept. 19 - Jobs and Training
- Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum
- Dealing With Change Course
- Cleanroom Classes, Sept. 3: SAIC Bldg., Room 344 |  |
| Headlines - Joint Leadership Team Web Poll
Twenty-eight percent plan on never riding a bike around site, but about the same number say they'd ride frequently if we improved our bike-sharing program. We'll ask again when it's a little cooler to see if that number changes. Also, please don't talk on your cell phone in the bathroom. That's our number one irritating behavior. This week it's home safety and the start of school. What do you think the number one cause of accidental death in the home is? Electrocution? Drowning? Falling? School has started, which means a lot of us have to get kids ready in the morning. What's the hardest part of that job? Making lunches? Yelling? Finding books? Calculus your French on over to get this week's poll. - Benefits for Humanity: Found at Sea
The newest Benefits for Humanity video is live and shows a compelling story of how technology that was proven aboard the International Space Station resulted in a lifesaving capability now safeguarding the world's oceans. Take a moment to watch and share this exciting story showcasing how NASA and the space station are working off the Earth, for the Earth. - Plankton Outside the Space Station?
We've seen several media stories about plankton being discovered outside the International Space Station. At this time, we don't have any official data on these findings from our counterparts at Roscosmos, so we cannot confirm the stories appearing in the media at this time. We are actively looking into it and hope to find more out soon. - When Others #SpotTheStation
While we love sharing breathtaking NASA photography with the public, we especially love it when others take an interest and share their own great photos of the cosmos—and our hardware—in action. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[top] - Give Your Input on the New ISS 101 Website
Here is a great opportunity to not only learn more about what is happening on the International Space Station (ISS), but also help the ISS team spiffy up their communications products for all JSC volunteers to use when they engage the public! The ISS communications team needs YOU to spend about 45 minutes evaluating their new ISS 101 website. That's it! If you have an opinion, we want to hear it. Just sign up in V-CORPs for this unique opportunity, which will be on Friday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m. in Building 2. - The Mission is Simple
We are working hard to learn how to capture an asteroid, but what do kindergarteners think? Interns have created a new video that has astronaut Mike Fincke asking kids vital questions about spaceflight. See what ridiculous things they have to say, and make sure to share, share, share! - Revised Second Street Lane Closure
On Aug. 29, the two northbound lanes of Second Street (between Buildings 45 and 46) will be closed from 7 a.m. to approximately 2:30 p.m. Traffic will be diverted via cones and controlled by construction flaggers. Northbound and southbound traffic will be down to one lane. There will also be two approach closures into the Building 45 west parking lot. Traffic will have to enter the parking lot from the northern-most and southern-most entries. Thank you for your patience with this ongoing closure. - Badging Offices Closed in Observance of Labor Day
All badging offices will be closed Monday, Sept. 1, in observance of Labor Day. Normal working operations will resume Tuesday, Sept. 2, as listed below. - Building 110 - 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
- Ellington Field - 7 to 11 a.m.
- Sonny Carter Training Facility - 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
- Vote Now - NASA@work Voting Challenge Open
The NASA@work support team is currently looking for new challenge topics, so if you have a challenge topic idea, submit it here for the opportunity to launch a challenge and get solutions from the entire NASA@work community. Are you new to NASA@work? NASA@work is an agencywide, collaborative problem-solving platform that connects the collective knowledge of experts (like YOU) from all centers across NASA. Challenge owners post problems, and members of the NASA@work community participate by responding with their solutions to posted problems. Anyone can participate! Click here for more information. - New Link for August JSC Tech Briefs
The August issue of NASA Tech Briefs recognizes five innovative JSC technologies. NASA Tech Briefs present information on new innovations and technologies stemming from advanced research and technology programs at NASA. The latest edition includes the following advanced JSC innovations: 1) A Field-Reconfigurable Manipulator for Rovers (Inventor: Robert Burridge) 2) Lightweight, Flexible, Freezable Heat Pump/Radiator for Extravehicular Activity Suits. (Inventors: Michael Izenson, Weibo Chen and Scott Phillips) 3) Rotary Series Elastic Actuator (Inventors: Chris Ihrke, Joshua Mehling, Adam Parsons, Brian Griffith, Nicolaus Radford, Frank Permenter, Robert Ambrose, Lucien Junkin and Donald Davis) 4) Hydrazine Absorbent/Detoxification Pad (Inventor: Merritt C. Helvenston) 5) Designing Planning Information for Automation into PRL (Inventors: Russell Bonasso, David Kortenkamp, Scott Bell and Mark Boddy) To review all of the NASA Tech Briefs, click here. Organizations/Social - Building 3 Café Closed Flex Friday - Aug. 29
Due to the Labor Day holiday, the Building 3 café will be closed this Flex Friday, Aug. 29. The Building 3 café is open most Flex Fridays, with the exception of Fridays that precede holidays. The Building 1 snack shop, Building 11 café and Starbucks coffee cart are closed every Flex Friday. Have a safe and happy Labor Day! - JSC's DAG Meeting: Info About Hearing Impairments
Join us today for a JSC's Differently-abled Advisory Group (DAG) meeting. We'll have a hearing loss resource specialist contractor from Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Office for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services speak about resources available for individuals with hearing impairments. The DAG meeting will be held today, Aug. 28, in Building 1, Room 106G, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Whether you are an expert in a specific area or merely interested in learning more about disabilities, please join us and bring a friend. The JSC DAG was established to facilitate the creation of a working environment that is accessible to and inclusive of all abilities, which in turn makes our campus a safer and better place to work for the entire JSC workforce. Accommodations are available upon request. If you require special accommodation for a specific disability, please call x30607. Event Date: Thursday, August 28, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Building 1, Room 106G
Add to Calendar
David Powell x42905
[top] - What is a Bamba Anyway?
You've probably sung along to "La Bamba" and danced the "Macarena" before, but what are those songs really about? Find out today when you join us for the inaugural Spanish Over Lunch!, a monthly series presented by the Hispanic Employee Resource Group. It's open to beginners, intermediate and fluent Spanish speakers alike. Take a journey through popular Latin music and culture and pick up a great souvenir of Spanish words and phrases to bring home with you. - Suicide Prevention
Sept. 7 to 13 is National Suicide Prevention Week. With the recent suicide of public figure Robin Williams, the topic of suicide prevention has been ever so present in daily media. Suicide prevention starts with recognizing the warning signs and taking them seriously. Learn how to understand and prevent suicide; warning signs of suicide; and how to offer support. We will also identify risk factors and at-risk populations. Please join Anika Isaac, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, NCC, CEAP, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, as she presents "Suicide Prevention." - Parent's Night Out at Starport – Sept. 19
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, Sept. 19, 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/additional sibling. Jobs and Training - Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum
The next Project Management and Systems Engineering Forum will be today, Aug. 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966. Ross Jones from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will present the topic: "Recent Systems Engineering Initiatives at JPL." Jones will share the ongoing efforts in model-based systems engineering, as well as systems engineering behaviors, training and practices at JPL. All civil servant and contractor project managers and systems engineers are invited to attend. - Dealing With Change Course
It seems the only constant in our world these days is change. We live and work in a dynamic environment with ever-evolving missions, project requirements and customer demands. Along with all of this change comes uncertainty, ambiguity and the question of "What exactly should I be doing with myself?" This half-day session will provide tips to help you succeed during times of change; maintain your personal effectiveness and health during and after transitions; help those around you cope with change; and clarify your own plan for success. Sept. 17 - International Space Station (ISS) Conference Facility - 8:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 17 - ISS Conference Facility - 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sept. 18 - ISS Conference Facility - 8:30 a.m. to noon Sept. 18- ISS Conference Facility - 1 to 4:30 p.m. - Cleanroom Classes, Sept. 3: SAIC Bldg., Room 344
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0095: Practices and Guidelines for Cleanroom and Related Operations SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0088: Cleanroom Protocol and Contamination Control SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0087: Particle Count Training | |
| |
| 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 – August 28, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA Mission Control Looks To Human Spaceflight Comeback With EFT-1
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
NASA's unpiloted first test flight of the Orion crew capsule promises to turn a page for the control of human space flight, with upgrades and changes to the agency's mission control center that build on lessons learned from Apollo through the space shuttle era.
NASA's New Giant Rocket System Passes Milestone
Seth Borenstein - AP
NASA says its new giant rocket system passed an internal milestone Wednesday, but the first test launch got pushed back a year to 2018.
First SLS launch from KSC could slip a year
James Dean – Florida Today
NASA's new exploration rocket may not be ready for a first launch from Kennedy Space Center until November 2018, nearly a year later than previously planned, NASA said Wednesday.
NASA commits to $7 billion mega rocket, 2018 debut
William Harwood – CBS News
After a detailed engineering and cost analysis, NASA managers have formally approved development of the Space Launch System -- SLS -- heavy-lift rocket, the most powerful booster ever attempted and a key element in the agency's long-range plans to send astronauts to nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars, officials announced Wednesday.
SLS Debut Likely to Slip to 2018
Jeff Foust – Space News
NASA's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket may not be ready for its first launch until November 2018, nearly a year later than previously scheduled, based on the assessment of a major cost and schedule review that NASA unveiled Aug. 27.
With an SLS slip looming, one senator wants to keep NASA's budget "on track"
Jeff Foust – Space Politics
An announcement Wednesday by NASA that the first launch of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket could slip by nearly a year has led one key senator to suggest the program needs some budgetary help.
What went into NASA's big website migration
Colby Hochmuth – Federal Computer Week
NASA has reached the first milestone in its effort to move more than 1 million pieces of content, including about 110 websites and applications, to an open-source cloud environment. The agency expects the shift from a proprietary to an open-source content management system to save 25 percent a month in operating costs.
'Mousetronauts,' fireballs and a real-life R2D2: Experiments in space
Lauren Said-Moorhouse - CNN
It's the Earth-orbiting research lab as big as a five-bedroom house, complete with two bathrooms, a gym and a huge bay window -- but how much do we know about what goes on at the International Space Station?
NASA-Inspired Robotics For Pediatric Surgery
Chuck Seegert – Med Device Online
Space robots have been a part of science fiction for several decades, providing entertainment to children for generations. For a newly developed surgical device, however, inspiration from NASA and the International Space Station promises to help children in another way.
Commercial Crew Vehicle Choice Will Lead To Flight-Testing
How to flight-test a crew space capsule
Frank Morring, Jr. | Aviation Week & Space Technology
NASA's long-running push to find a commercial route for crews to the International Space Station takes a big step this week, with the selection of a company or companies to take the design work they have done with government seed money and move on into space. Call it a wild guess, but I anticipate we will all be watching crew capsule flight tests over the next few years. Two of the three contenders—the Boeing CST-100 and the SpaceX Dragon—are capsules, and previous funding decisions have favored those designs over Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser lifting body.
NASA scientist takes measure of the planet
Lisa Rein – The Washington Post
The space toy currently propelling Miguel Román's career doesn't sound like a partner in cutting-edge research on how humans are interacting with Earth to cause global warming: the Visible Infrared Imager Radio-meter Suite, a camera of sorts sitting on a satellite orbiting 511 miles above the planet.
China Aims for the Moon, Plans to Bring Back Lunar Soil
RIA Novosti
Chinese scientists are in the course of developing a recoverable lunar robotic spacecraft Chang'e 5 that is to reach the Moon by 2017 with a mission to deliver samples of rock and soil back to Earth, according to Space Industry News.
Astronauts chat from space station with Elk Grove schoolkids
Diana Lambert – The Sacramento Bee
A collective gasp filled the air of the Elliott Ranch Elementary School multipurpose room Wednesday morning as the countdown to a live downlink with the International Space Station began.
COMPLETE STORIES
NASA Mission Control Looks To Human Spaceflight Comeback With EFT-1
Mark Carreau - Aviation Week
NASA's unpiloted first test flight of the Orion crew capsule promises to turn a page for the control of human space flight, with upgrades and changes to the agency's mission control center that build on lessons learned from Apollo through the space shuttle era.
The agency has slated Dec. 4 for the launch of Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, an uncrewed 6 1/2 hour flight with a Pacific Ocean splashdown off the California coast.
"Every program has its own culture, its own way of doing business," said Mike Sarafin, the 20-year NASA flight control room veteran assigned to serve as EFT-1 lead flight director. "I've worked shuttle and I've worked space station. There are things that each program does well and things that a different program does better. Orion is no exception."
The space agency and Lockheed Martin, the Orion prime contractor and lead for EFT-1, expect to emerge from the test flight with a better understanding of Orion's heat shield, flight control systems and other elements designed to manage risks—much as NASA and North American Rockwell did from the uncrewed 1967 Apollo Saturn 501 flight that opened a pathway to the lunar surface for U. S. astronauts.
So far, much of the attention on NASA's efforts to resume human deep-space exploration has been focused on Orion and the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket that is in development for a second unpiloted test flight penciled in for late 2017, and subsequently, the first crewed demonstration mission. Orion will debut in Earth orbit atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket, however, to accelerate risk and design assessments.
Though not as visible as work on the flight elements, upgrades to NASA's Mission Control at Johnson Space Center here have been underway since the shuttle program's retirement in 2011. The Mission Control Center for the 21st Century project is intended to set the stage for a U.S. human spaceflight comeback.
"We are learning and establishing that culture for the next mission," Sarafin said of efforts to prepare the space agency for eventual missions to the Martian environs. "We are also learning what Orion does really well and where it maybe needs a little bit of work to make it a better, safer and more capable spacecraft."
For EFT-1, Sarafin and his 24-member flight control team will work from the Blue Flight Control Room, the original flight control room for the International Space Station and the first of the control rooms scheduled to complete the MCC-21 overhaul. The makeover swept away blue metal computer consoles, replacing them with more spacious wood grain "commercial off the shelf" consoles, credenzas and larger computer displays bearing familiar brand names.
Disappearing are the central processing units that have driven the individual console displays once Mission Control weaned itself off the expensive custom mainframe computers in the mid-1990s that handled the spacecraft telemetry in the Apollo and early shuttle eras. The distributed data systems that replaced the mainframes are currently being replaced as part of "MCC 21" with a shared local data center architecture that will permit reconfigurations throughout the multiple MCC control rooms by updating a single computer box or with a single software load.
After the final shuttle flight, MCC began clearing away hundreds of user applications developed specifically for control of the orbiters. With the archiving effort, the number of flight control apps in MCC dropped from 1,700 to fewer than 700.
Johnson's Mission Operations Directorate, which spent $20 million during each of the last three years on the operating system overhaul along with other efficiencies, expects to recoup the entire $60 million in the first year of full implementation alone. MCC procurements that once counted 1,300 workers for support at an annual cost of $200 million will decline to 450 workers by Oct. 1 and an annual cost of $100 million, according to NASA's Dan Lindner, chief of the directorate's Mission Systems Division.
A voice communications system that dates back nearly three decades to allow discussions among individual flight controllers on discrete loops is being replaced with new digital voice inter-communications equipment as part of a NASA-wide upgrade. A new "store" feature in the operating system will permit controllers to access a "time slice" of past operations of critical spacecraft subsystems that need additional scrutiny.
"The idea is that we are moving toward a quicker, more ready flight controller who can housekeep during their classic shift duties and spend more time on development activities," said Lindner, a former flight controller. "When the spacecraft has major scheduled or unscheduled events, you can bring in the specialists as needed."
While also increasing security, a constant human spaceflight concern, the local data center strategy will permit controllers to log in from their offices outside the control center as well.
"Security is very central to our design," said Troy Le- Blanc, Lindner's deputy and a former flight controller as well. "We have a couple of racks of equipment in the new design whose sole purpose is to watch every packet that moves through the firewalls. When these guys access the system from their offices or elsewhere here in the control center they see the right data, with no additional traffic on the line."
MCC 21 will also afford the flexibility for two new visitor control rooms that can be used by NASA's Commercial Crew Program partners to fly their spacecraft to the ISS with astronauts. Boeing has already signed an agreement with NASA to do as much, if the company's CST-100 capsule is selected for the final development phase.
That flexibility will also permit Lockheed Martin to lead EFT-1 using Harris Corp.'s OS/Comet off-the-shelf spacecraft command system with a Harris server in the control center rather than NASA's full-up MCC 21 approach to future Orion operations.
Twelve hours ahead of the planned 8:03 a.m. EST liftoff of EFT-1, Rick LaBrode, another veteran NASA flight director, and a 24-member control team shift will enter the Blue FCR to prepare the room for the flight.
When Sarafin and his team take over, they will be linked into the Lockheed Martin-led Mission Management Team (MMT) chaired by Bryan Austin, a former NASA flight director, and gathered at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, not far from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 37, the United Launch Alliance Delta IV launch pad.
Austin will lead a "go/no-go" poll of all of the EFT-1 flight elements at a hold point with five minutes left in the countdown.
The launch will demonstrate a transfer of spacecraft control to MCC at liftoff, as was the custom with shuttle flights. Sarafin and his control team have been simulating the countdown procedures since last December, including the first joint simulation with the MMT in late May.
During the due East climb to orbit, limited Orion data will flow to the MCC through a series of ground stations on Merritt Island and at New Smyrna Beach, Florida, as well as the island of Antigua in the Caribbean. The inert Launch Abort System, positioned over Orion at liftoff like a shroud, is designed to separate at six minutes into flight, allowing the spacecraft's antennas to establish a data link to MCC through NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. The satellite network was established during the shuttle era.
EFT-1 will be largely automated. Pre-flight programming will send the battery-powered spacecraft to an apogee of 3,600 mi. on the second orbit to set up re-entry conditions on the heat shield similar to those of a lunar mission return.
In MCC, Sarafin's team will have two pre-planned opportunities to send commands, both associated with wider test objectives.
"We have a lot of capability that is there if we need it," he said. "But we don't plan on using it if the vehicle performs as designed."
The first command opportunity comes at 60 min. into flight, when an onboard video recorder will be instructed to begin a playback of the Launch Abort System jettison as seen through a forward cabin window to demonstrate a downlink file transfer capability. The second will come moments before Orion plunges back into the Earth's atmosphere at "entry interface," when the MCC will command Orion into an extended power up at splashdown.
Normally, the capsule would power down 15 min. after landing. The extension to 60 min. will enable engineers to gather data on the flow of heat from the spacecraft to the ocean waters. Temperature trends inside the cabin, including on the hatch—a fixture that astronauts might have to access quickly—will be logged.
"I'd love to have crew members on board," said Sarafin. "[But] the operations themselves, the culture and the mindset of operating is largely what we used and demonstrated since basically the dawn of human space flight. We still have the same protocol and team structure. Command of data that leaves the [MCC] is the responsibility of the flight director, and the team works for the flight director."
NASA's New Giant Rocket System Passes Milestone
Seth Borenstein - AP
NASA says its new giant rocket system passed an internal milestone Wednesday, but the first test launch got pushed back a year to 2018.
NASA is designing its Space Launch System to take astronauts beyond Earth orbit to an asteroid and eventually to Mars. The rockets will be more powerful than the Saturn V rockets that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.
Agency officials gave the program the go-ahead for further planning with its first and smaller version of the rocket after it passed a key internal review. The smaller of the rockets would be able to carry 77 tons of crew and cargo into orbit. Larger ones could hoist 143 tons.
NASA says building that smaller rocket will cost more than $7 billion between 2014 and launch.
First SLS launch from KSC could slip a year
James Dean – Florida Today
NASA's new exploration rocket may not be ready for a first launch from Kennedy Space Center until November 2018, nearly a year later than previously planned, NASA said Wednesday.
The agency had been targeting the uncrewed test flight of the Space Launch System, or SLS, by December 2017, and still hopes to beat the new, slower timeframe established after a more detailed review of technical progress and budgets.
"We will be there by November of 2018," said Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's human spaceflight programs. "I look to my team to do better than that."
The rocket's new schedule came as NASA completed what it described as a major milestone, in which the agency formally committed to a specific budget and date for the first version of the launcher intended to send astronauts on missions around the moon, to an asteroid and eventually Mars.
NASA said Wednesday it has 70 percent confidence — the minimum level typically required for major development programs — that the rocket will be ready by late 2018, at a cost of about $7 billion between early 2014 and the first launch.
That cost doesn't include $2.7 billion spent earlier in the program, or $5.7 billion spent on systems whose development began even earlier under the Constellation program, which the Obama administration canceled in 2010 due to delays and budget increases.
All together, that's $15.4 billion to develop a rocket comprised of a new core stage initially powered by four space shuttle main engines and two five-segment solid rocket boosters, and an upper stage using a modified Delta IV rocket engine.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, one of the rocket's top advocates in Congress, said in a statement Wednesday that it was making good technical progress.
"But we need to keep the budget on track so NASA can meet an earlier readiness date — which I think can be done," he said.
NASA said the Constellation program's first rocket, Ares I, never reached the milestone SLS now has — called Key Decision Point C — committing to the cost and schedule goals and a so-called joint confidence level based on detailed analysis.
"This is a major step for SLS," said Gerstenmaier. "SLS is really the first major human spaceflight program to achieve this milestone."
The rocket expected to launch by 2018 will stand 321 feet tall and be able to lift 70 metric tons. It is intended to grow to 384 feet and an ability to lift 130 metric tons, becoming the most powerful rocket ever.
"We are on a journey of scientific and human exploration that leads to Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "And we're firmly committed to building the launch vehicle and other supporting systems that will take us on that journey."
In addition to the SLS rocket, NASA is developing the Orion crew capsule — targeting a first test flight without a crew late this year — and ground systems including a launch pad at KSC. Those programs are expected to complete similar milestones by early next year.
The first SLS flight with astronauts is tentatively planned in 2021 or 2022. NASA did not say how a potential one-year delay in the first launch would affect the timing of a crewed mission.
Gerstenmaier said the public should not get too hung up on the first launch date because NASA is developing a system intended to fly for decades, ultimately enabling human missions to Mars.
Word of the first SLS launch potentially slipping to late 2018 came after repeated warnings by the Government Accountability Office that the program was at high risk of not being ready by late 2017.
The GAO also pointed out that NASA has not revealed how much the rocket's ongoing development will cost after the first launch, or how much it will cost to operate each year.
Gerstenmaier said NASA was "still refining and reviewing" those numbers.
NASA commits to $7 billion mega rocket, 2018 debut
William Harwood – CBS News
After a detailed engineering and cost analysis, NASA managers have formally approved development of the Space Launch System -- SLS -- heavy-lift rocket, the most powerful booster ever attempted and a key element in the agency's long-range plans to send astronauts to nearby asteroids and, eventually, Mars, officials announced Wednesday.
The SLS development program is projected to cost $7 billion from February 2014 through the rocket's maiden flight, a November 2018 test launch carrying an uncrewed Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle, or MPCV, on a three-week-long shakedown mission beyond the moon and back to an ocean-splashdown on Earth.
That target date is a year later than originally envisioned when NASA first laid out a tentative schedule for initial SLS flights. But senior agency managers say the projected cost and launch target are what came out of a detail analysis incorporating a wide variety of factors, including the possibility of unforeseen engineering challenges.
When all of those factors were included, along with input from an independent review panel, computer analysis indicated a 70 percent chance of meeting the November 2018 target date. That was the goal in a "best practices" approach to program management.
"If we don't do anything, we basically have a 70 percent chance of getting to that date," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations. "Our intent is to go look at those (expected) problems and see what we can do to mitigate (them)."
The initial version of the SLS rocket, powered by four left-over space shuttle main engines and two upgraded shuttle-heritage solid-fuel boosters, will be capable of lifting payloads weighing up to 70 metric tons while generating 8.4 million pounds of thrust -- 10 percent more than the fabled Saturn 5 moon rocket that has long held the record as the world's most powerful launcher.
In its most powerful version, one utilizing advanced strap-on boosters and a high-energy upper stage, the SLS will be able to lift 130 metric tons while generating a staggering 9.2 million pounds of thrust.
"It's also important to remember that we're building a series of launch vehicles here, not just one," Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot told reporters. "This is for us the start of kind of a production model of how we're going to develop the vehicles we need to take folks beyond low-Earth orbit, moving from a 70-metric-ton vehicle for (the first test flight) to eventually a 130-metric ton rocket that will carry folks to Mars."
But as of today, the only actual missions that are covered by NASA's projected budget are three test flights: the December launch of an uncrewed Orion capsule atop a Delta 4 rocket; the first SLS test flight in 2018; and the first crewed test flight around 2021.
While the rockets are considered essential to deep space exploration missions like a proposed asteroid visit and eventual flights to Mars, no such missions are currently funded or even in detailed planning.
Critics have questioned the low projected flight rate of the new rocket -- one launch every two years or so -- and the wisdom of designing an expensive, heavy-lift rocket before the technical requirements of its eventual missions have been specified.
But NASA managers say the heavy-lift rocket is needed for any voyages to deep space targets and they believe the program is sustainable over the long haul.
The decision to proceed with development of the new rocket came after a review known as Key Decision Point C, "which provides a development cost baseline for the 70-metric ton version of the SLS of $7.021 billion from February 2014 through the first launch and a launch readiness schedule based on an initial SLS flight no later than November 2018," NASA said in a statement.
The agency said "conservative cost and schedule commitments" take into consideration "potential technical risks and budgetary uncertainty beyond the program's control."
Lightfoot said in the statement that "we owe it to the American taxpayers to get it right."
"After rigorous review, we're committing today to a funding level and readiness date that will keep us on track to sending humans to Mars in the 2030s -- and we're going to stand behind that commitment," he said.
Gerstenmaier said it had taken engineers three years to reach the development milestone and promised the rocket "will be ready no later than November 2018."
The SLS rockets are gargantuan by current standards. The 70-ton variant will weigh some 5.5 million pounds and stand 321 feet tall with a hydrogen-fueled first stage powered by four modified space shuttle main engines, now known as RS-25s, and two five-segment solid-fuel boosters.
The initial SLS variant will be equipped with an interim upper stage based on one used by United Launch Alliance's Delta 4 rocket.
The first SLS launch in 2018, known as Exploration Mission 1, will send an uncrewed Orion capsule into a stable orbit beyond the moon and then "bring it back to Earth to demonstrate the integrated system performance of the SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft's re-entry and landing prior to a crewed flight," NASA said in a fact sheet.
The second SLS flight -- Exploration Mission 2 -- will be a crewed voyage carrying four astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo program.
The more powerful variant of the SLS will stand 384 feet tall, weight 6.5 million pounds and generate 9.2 million pounds of thrust at liftoff. Using the same Boeing-built core stage as the less powerful version, the mega rocket will be equipped with advanced, more-powerful strap on boosters and a high energy upper stage possibly using modified J-2X engines based on designs originally developed for the second and third stages of the Saturn 5.
NASA currently has 16 shuttle main engines in storage, enough for four SLS flights. Beyond that, NASA will have to restart the RS-25 production line. The SLS rockets will be built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The decision to proceed with development of the SLS follows more than a decade of national debate, uncertain politics and shifting national priorities dating back to the 2003 Columbia disaster.
In the wake of the shuttle's destruction, the Bush administration ordered NASA to complete the International Space Station and retire the shuttle fleet by the end of the decade and to focus instead on building new rockets and spacecraft for a return to the moon in the early 2020s. Antarctica-style moon bases were envisioned, serving as a stepping stone to eventual flights to Mars.
But the Obama administration ultimately concluded NASA's Constellation moon program was over budget and unsustainable and ordered a dramatic change of course, implementing a two-pronged human space policy.
For routine ferry flights carrying astronaut to and from the International Space Station, NASA was told to encourage development of space taxis operated by one or more private companies on a commercial basis. NASA plans to award development contracts in the next few weeks, with initial government-sponsored flights to the station expected in late 2017.
At the same time, the agency was told to plan long-range exploration missions using its own spacecraft to visit an asteroid in the mid 2020s with a flight to at least orbit Mars in the mid 2030s. More recently, the administration specified an asteroid retrieval mission to robotically haul a small space rock back to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on study.
NASA retained the Constellation program's Orion capsule for deep space exploration, but the administration did not initially endorse designing a new heavy lift rocket. After intense pressure from space advocates on Capitol Hill, however, NASA was given the go-ahead to begin planning for a new booster. The SLS was the result.
SLS Debut Likely to Slip to 2018
Jeff Foust – Space News
NASA's Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket may not be ready for its first launch until November 2018, nearly a year later than previously scheduled, based on the assessment of a major cost and schedule review that NASA unveiled Aug. 27.
NASA announced that the SLS completed a development milestone known in agency terminology as Key Decision Point C (KDP-C), a review that confirms that the SLS program is ready to proceed with full-scale development. The review established an estimated cost of $7.021 billion for SLS development from February 2014 through its first launch.
NASA had been targeting an initial launch of SLS, carrying an uncrewed Orion spacecraft on a flight named Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1), for December 2017. However, NASA said that they were now planning a first launch for no later than November 2018. Both the budget and schedule estimates from the KDP-C review are based on a 70-percent joint confidence level model.
In a teleconference with reporters, William Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the SLS project was still working towards an earlier launch date than November 2018 by mitigating risks raised in the review. "If we don't do anything, we basically have a 70-percent chance of getting to that date," he said. "We will be there by November of 2018, but I look to my team to do better than that."
However, he acknowledged that it was likely the EM-1 launch would slip from December 2017 into 2018. "It's probably sometime in the 2018 timeframe," he said, "but we don't want to get too specific now."
The November 2018 readiness date is based only on development of SLS. A separate KDP-C review is planned later this year for the ground systems that support the rocket, followed by one early next year for Orion. Only when all those reviews are complete will NASA be able to provide a better estimate for the EM-1 launch date, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot said.
The cost estimate for SLS, according to Lightfoot, is consistent with the $1.6 billion NASA received for the program for 2014 and the administration's request for fiscal year 2015 and beyond.
The White House has requested $1.35 billion for the program for 2015, with a relatively flat budget projected through 2019. However, a House appropriations bill passed in late May would give SLS $1.6 billion in 2015, while a Senate version would provide $1.7 billion.
The KDP-C review comes after some mixed news about the progress of SLS. In July, a report by the Government Accountability Office warned of a significant risk of insufficient funding that would delay the first SLS launch by six months and add $400 million to the program's overall costs.
However, in an Aug. 8 speech at the 17th Annual International Mars Society Convention in League City, Texas, SLS program manager Todd May said that there was three to five months of slack in the critical path for SLS development. "We're just clicking off milestones," he said.
May said the GAO report warnings about cost and schedule risks were based on older data, before the program received additional funding from Congress for 2014, with another increase anticipated for 2015. "In December of 2017, my hardware will show up to support that flight," he said of the EM-1 launch.
In the Aug. 27 teleconference, Gerstenmaier said that NASA was addressing technical and budgetary concerns raised in the GAO report. He added that there are currently no plans to seek additional funding to accelerate the SLS development schedule. "I still think we have a good chance of SLS being there some time in the December [2017] timeframe, maybe slightly into 2018 depending on what happens," he said.
With an SLS slip looming, one senator wants to keep NASA's budget "on track"
Jeff Foust – Space Politics
An announcement Wednesday by NASA that the first launch of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket could slip by nearly a year has led one key senator to suggest the program needs some budgetary help.
NASA announced Wednesday that the SLS passed its Key Decision Point C (KDP-C) review, an assessment of the program's technical and programmatic progress. The result of the review was an estimate of the program's development cost ($7.021 billion from February 2014 to first launch). It also provided an estimate of when SLS would be ready for its first launch: no later than November, 2018. That's nearly a year later than the currently scheduled date of that first launch, designated EM-1, of December 2017.
In a teleconference with reporters Wednesday afternoon, NASA officials tried to emphasize that the November 2018 date was not a firm launch date, but instead the result of the 70-percent joint confidence level model used for the review. . "If we don't do anything, we basically have a 70-percent chance of getting to that date," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, adding that he was pushing his team to have SLS ready before then. "We will be there by November of 2018, but I look to my team to do better than that."
However, he also admitted it was unlikely the SLS would be ready in December 2017 as previously planned. "It's probably sometime in the 2018 timeframe," he said, "but we don't want to get too specific now." NASA will have a better handle on the launch date for the EM-1 mission after completing KDP-C reviews for SLS ground systems later this year and Orion early next year.
SLS had been on a roller coaster in recent months. In July, a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned of cost and schedule risks because of insufficient funding that could delay the EM-1 launch by six months. Earlier this month, though, SLS program manager Todd May said the GAO report was based on "obsolete" funding data and that the program had several months of slack on its critical path.
Part of May's comments were based on additional funding Congress provided to SLS for the current fiscal year and House and Senate appropriations bills fiscal year 2015 that would also increase SLS funding above the administration's request. But with the potential for a slip in the SLS program, could some members seek more funding for the program?
One senator thinks that, at the very least, the program's current funding needs to be protected. "Technically things look good," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL), in a statement provided by his office late Wednesday. "But we need to keep the budget on track so NASA can meet an earlier readiness date – which I think can be done."
What went into NASA's big website migration
Colby Hochmuth – Federal Computer Week
NASA has reached the first milestone in its effort to move more than 1 million pieces of content, including about 110 websites and applications, to an open-source cloud environment. The agency expects the shift from a proprietary to an open-source content management system to save 25 percent a month in operating costs.
The move also makes it easier to post and update content and manage online assets, said Raj Ananthanpillai, CEO of InfoZen, the main contractor on the project. Before the migration, it took hours to publish information on NASA websites. That time has been reduced to minutes, and the websites can handle more content.
NASA made the transition through its Web Enterprise Service Technology Prime acquisition strategy, which started taking shape in spring 2012 after the original WEST contract was canceled due to a contractor protest.
In the wake of the cancellation, NASA officials re-examined the requirements of the original contract and retooled their approach.
Roopangi Kadakia, NASA's Web services executive, said the team interviewed more than 200 NASA employees and industry partners and found consistencies in what everyone wanted. The main concern was saving money, followed by security and ease of systems administration.
A big goal was moving away from a vendor-specific solution, she added.
"We had been using a proprietary set of tools with our old contract that were hard to migrate out," Kadakia said. "There was really no other way but doing a data dump."
Getting away from proprietary software also helped NASA officials make more informed decisions about the types of tools they were buying and using. It forced people to analyze what they really needed and question current processes, Kadakia said.
In the end, they were able to consolidate more than 25 applications, and Kadakia said her team gets about two to three requests a week to review other applications to see if they can be updated, consolidated or eliminated.
'Mousetronauts,' fireballs and a real-life R2D2: Experiments in space
Lauren Said-Moorhouse - CNN
It's the Earth-orbiting research lab as big as a five-bedroom house, complete with two bathrooms, a gym and a huge bay window -- but how much do we know about what goes on at the International Space Station?
We watched as astronauts played football in space during the World Cup, we listened to Chris Hadfield croon his rendition of David Bowie's "Space Oddity," and we've all seen the odd space selfie snapped in zero gravity.
Sure, the lucky few who have gone up to the International Space Station (ISS) seem to be having fun. But there's also a serious side to the astronauts' sojourns among the stars that we don't often hear about.
"We are bettering the human experience on Earth. Going further, going beyond," says Stephanie Buskirk Dudley, an ISS payload operations director (POD) who helps coordinate all the research conducted at the facility. "We learn things by doing science that we never even knew we would learn. And it's actually because we are there."
If the ISS is a crazy space circus, then Buskirk Dudley is one of the ringmasters leading the ever-changing scientific troupe.
She explains: "We've got cameras looking at all over the Earth from the space station that are helping with disaster research and coastal erosion. We have one coming for ocean temperature and warming of the oceans. We are doing research that affects every single person on the planet."
Science among the stars
It became humanity's home away from home in October 2000 when the first six astronauts arrived on board and the ISS has been busy ever since. The permanently orbiting facility -- which has cost an estimated €100 billion (just under $135 billion) according to the European Space Agency -- has since been inhabited constantly by astronauts as they work tirelessly to answer some of science's most intriguing questions.
Often we see some of the more entertaining demonstrations appear on social media. Just last month U.S. astronaut Reid Wiseman uploaded the world's first #SpaceVine of a spectacular fireball experiment called FLEX-2, which examines how fuel ignites in space. Here on Earth, we thought it looked pretty cool. For scientists, the results could yield new insights into fuel efficiency for engines on Earth and safer future spacecraft production.
Another seemingly quirky experiment involves sending 40 mice up to the station later this year, which will be their home for six months -- roughly a quarter of a mouse's average lifespan. The rodents' journey to space may look like an odd move for scientists but it is hoped the "moustronauts" will provide valuable biomedical insight into how spaceflight affects the human body.
These are just some of the hundreds of investigations taking place every day aboard the floating outpost by scientists from all around the world. The mammoth task is coordinated by the Payload Operations Integration Center (POIC) at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Buskirk Dudley is one of 23 certified PODs who plan every minute detail involving space station research. Pioneering research is conducted 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and the key to success is planning, she says. "[It takes] a great team of people doing many different jobs. Everybody is an expert in their own little field. It really takes a whole team with a lot of hard work and planning.
"We've got, for instance, ultrasound on board the station and we have perfected training non-medical personnel -- astronauts -- to perform on themselves and get good results for doctors on Earth. And that is directly applicable to countries in which medicine is not as available as it is in the U.S. and the UK."
The success of ultrasound experiments by non-medical personnel in space has led scientists to believe that back on Earth, patients could be trained to perform their own ultrasound exams and send the images to doctors in situations where a medical facility is difficult to access.
Buskirk Dudley adds: "Over half of the population of the world, for instance, is a woman. We are doing research on bone health every single day and just that one experiment alone could help over 50% of the world's population. That is just human research: we've got biological research, we've got material research, combustion, particle physics -- the whole gamut of research we're doing every single day.
"Today, the crew is upgrading the 'Robonaut' (a humanoid robot on the ISS). Our eventual goal is to give him legs and have him do maintenance tasks to free up the crew for more science. When we originally flew him, he was just a torso and arms. And they are doing robot surgery to upgrade all his internal electronics so they can eventually add legs to him."
NASA-Inspired Robotics For Pediatric Surgery
Chuck Seegert – Med Device Online
Space robots have been a part of science fiction for several decades, providing entertainment to children for generations. For a newly developed surgical device, however, inspiration from NASA and the International Space Station promises to help children in another way.
Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) reduces trauma associated with operations by allowing for much smaller incisions than were previously possible. If your incisions are smaller, then recovery time decreases as well, which is an important advantage.
To enable small incisions, however, there is an increased need for dexterity when operating. This challenge is even more apparent when operating on pediatric patients, who have a smaller anatomy and different tissue properties.
To meet these unique challenges, Macdonald, Dettwiler, and Associates Ltd. (MDA) partnered with the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Centre for Image-Guided Innovation & Therapeutic Intervention (CIGITI) in Toronto, Canada. MDA is the same company that built the robotic arms for the International Space Station, and according to a recent press release from NASA, the outcome of their collaboration is called KidsArm. KidsArm is a robot that assists surgeons in pediatric MIS using an advanced imaging and control system. The precision of the system is demonstrated by the delicate structures that it can be used on.
"Our tests indicate we can operate on tiny structures such as blood vessels without damaging them," said Thomas Looi, the project director for one of the partners that developed KidsArm at the CIGITI, in the press release.
According to a research paper published in IEEE Xplore, KidsArm was designed to be an automated anastomosis suture device, or a robot that can reattach tubular structures that have been cut by a scalpel. Procedures could include reattaching the ends of a cut blood vessel or reconnecting portions of a small intestine. The system is designed to be run through a single port, further reducing the incisions when compared to other MIS systems that use two to three. To make this possible, a set of stereo cameras are used to generate a 3D point cloud that guides the robot to the area of interest. While the team's goal was to design a system that could perform the surgery by itself, there is still some work to be done.
"The goal of robotic arm is to help doctors perform certain procedures many times faster than if they were only using their hands and with increased accuracy. Some of this would be done autonomously. While we are not quite there yet, KidsArm is able to perform three to five suture points autonomously," Looi said in the press release.
The system is composed of two main elements, the external positioning system and the surgical arm that is inserted into the patient. The team believes that adoption of the KidsArm will lead to more consistent surgical outcomes and earlier intervention than currently possible.
As MIS continues to progress, the goal is to further reduce the surgical trauma to a patient. In a recent article published on Medical Device Online, a new non-invasive camera was introduced for endoscopy procedures. Commercial Crew Vehicle Choice Will Lead To Flight-Testing
How to flight-test a crew space capsule
Frank Morring, Jr. | Aviation Week & Space Technology
NASA's long-running push to find a commercial route for crews to the International Space Station takes a big step this week, with the selection of a company or companies to take the design work they have done with government seed money and move on into space. Call it a wild guess, but I anticipate we will all be watching crew capsule flight tests over the next few years. Two of the three contenders—the Boeing CST-100 and the SpaceX Dragon—are capsules, and previous funding decisions have favored those designs over Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser lifting body.
Even if NASA selects Dream Chaser for the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability phase of its public-private crew vehicle development project, the agency will need to flight-test its Orion crew capsule. Dream Chaser already has flown a free-flying glide test marred only by a landing gear failure after a successful approach and touchdown, and the company may tow it behind a C-17 for future tests in the atmosphere (AW&ST June 12, p. 31). In that sense, its flight-test regime up until launch to orbit will be similar to that of the space shuttle orbiter, which deployed the Enterprise atmospheric test article from a modified Boeing 747.
But testing requirements for capsules differ from those of the shuttle, which added ejection seats to the orbiter Columbia for John Young and Robert Crippen on its first spaceflight, and carried pilots on the Enterprise flights. The Dragon is already flying unmanned cargo missions to the ISS, and Boeing plans an unmanned Atlas V flight of its CST-100 capsule before sending a two-person crew to orbit.
All three commercial crew contenders have hired retired shuttle astronauts to oversee planning for flight-crew operations. At Boeing, Christopher J. Ferguson is director of crew and mission operations.
Ferguson, who commanded the final space shuttle mission—STS-135 on Atlantis in 2011—was a Navy test pilot before joining NASA, and flew the shuttle to space three times. He has been deeply involved in preparing his company's commercial crew vehicle for flight-test. But unlike shuttle flight, CST‑100 pilotage will be largely autonomous.
The idea is to make it repeatable and safe, and you do that by employing a lot of autonomy, Ferguson says.
But capsule pilots won't be sitting idly by while machines do all the work.
"We've been levied the requirement to ensure the pilot can take over at any time," says Ferguson. "We will plan this mission for months in advance, right down to every translational maneuver, every rotational maneuver, when power-up events occur, when power-down events occur. We anticipate [unexpected occurrences] that may require us to sort of interrupt the autonomy, correct it, and then reengage the autonomy."
Boeing maintains a cockpit simulator (see photo) at its commercial-crew facility in Houston, which has been upgraded using rapid-prototyping as the design is advanced. One area getting a lot of attention lately is how the vehicle-monitoring system in the Atlas V will trigger an abort to get the CST-100 and its crew safely away from a failing vehicle. Along with construction of a launchpad crew access tower that will include a slide-wire emergency escape system and an enclosed "white room" for ingress; the emergency detection system is one of the next steps in CST‑100's development.
"For those time-to-criticality failures that are very short—rapidly degrading situation, loss of control—there will be an automatic signal," Ferguson says. "You'll exceed a redline inside the emergency detection box; it will send a signal to the CST-100 to initiate an abort."
The capsule carries a pusher-type hypergolic-fuel abort system that can empty its tanks in about 5 sec., subjecting the crew to about 6g as it boosts the capsule away from a failing launch vehicle. If it isn't used, the propellant remains available for maneuvering once the capsule reaches orbit. The mission control center also will be able to send a command-abort signal to the vehicle, and the crew will have its own abort control.
"We can enable all three, or perhaps go down to one," Ferguson says. "But regardless, the range safety system always trumps the emergency detection system. We can never completely turn it off for obvious reasons."
Following a pad-abort test at White Sands, New Mexico, by the end of 2016, the unmanned Operational Flight Test on an Atlas V is planned to dock autonomously with the ISS. The vehicle would remain at the station for two weeks under current plans, and then return to a dry-land touchdown on parachutes and airbags in a western desert landing zone. Results of that test would be incorporated into the first flight-test with a two-person crew—from Boeing and NASA—officially slated before the end of 2017.
However, while Boeing has not made a formal decision, John P. Mulholland, vice president and program manager of commercial programs for its space exploration unit, says it is unlikely the company will continue if it does not receive at least some funding in the upcoming contract.
NASA scientist takes measure of the planet
Lisa Rein – The Washington Post
The space toy currently propelling Miguel Román's career doesn't sound like a partner in cutting-edge research on how humans are interacting with Earth to cause global warming: the Visible Infrared Imager Radio-meter Suite, a camera of sorts sitting on a satellite orbiting 511 miles above the planet.
But the sensor aboard NASA's Suomi NPP satellite is measuring forest fires, hurricanes, the size of leaves on trees and other changes that tell us Earth is warming, with dazzling imagery and equally dazzling precision.
And Román, a young earth-systems scientist with a knack for turning complex pixels into data, is leading the effort to make sure what's photographed in space is translated accurately for fire managers, weather forecasters, governments and researchers.
"We're studying where we live," he said, walking down a corridor in the Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory, otherwise known as Code 619, in Building 32 at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
"It's not just square pixels and signals," Román said. "It's our natural system and how humans are interacting with it."
He is one in a new generation of climate scientists who are using increasingly sophisticated satellites the size of yellow school buses to track not just weather but rising sea levels, melting ice and snow, fires and drought, and other evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are producing wide-ranging changes in global weather patterns.
Román is just 33. But the affable Puerto Rico-born researcher, whose speciality is remote sensing, is one of 33 individuals and teams of federal employees nominated for the 13th annual Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, among the highest honors in government.
He is one of five finalists for a "Call to Service" award, which recognizes the achievements of young public servants. The medals will be announced in September by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service.
His colleagues at NASA, in nominating him, cited data on wildfires that was so timely and accurate it has helped emergency responders position equipment and people faster than ever. They also spotlighted his research interpreting images of nighttime lights in 2,000 cities to understand global energy use.
"At the end of the day, our Number One priority is to process the data and turn it into scientifically valid information in a useful format," Román said. "Our fire managers can't wait four or five hours to learn what they're facing. We've got it down to about 20 minutes."
The fire monitoring system can map fires across the world that start under the forest canopy. In 2012, the technology allowed Román and his team to predict the contours of a worldwide drought that hit wheat crops in eastern Russia particularly hard.
Piers Sellers, a British astronaut who is now deputy director of NASA's Sciences and Exploration Directorate, calls Román a rare "super data jock" who is able to interpret complex and massive sets of data.
"The trouble is, there's an increasing amount of data," Sellers said. "That's where people like Miguel come in."
The data are free, downloaded by governments and research institutions worldwide, with at least three terabytes shipped every day. For perspective, the entire holdings of the Library of Congress make up one terabyte.
When NASA launched the first weather satellite in 1960, it was little more than two television cameras strapped to a satellite and shot into orbit. A new generation arrived in 1999, when Román was in high school in the capital of Puerto Rico, San Juan. The current squadron of about 27 missions has better sensors and cameras and longer life spans, including Suomi NPP, which launched in 2011 as a joint project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The VIIRS sensor scans a swath of Earth at a time, about 1,900 miles across, using a telescope that measures the difference between the light coming down to the planet's surface from the sun and the light reflected back to the telescope. It takes about a day to scan the entire planet.
"Miguel plays a lead role [in the research] even though he's quite young," Crystal B. Schaaf, a professor of remote sensing at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Román's dissertation adviser, said of her former student.
"I'm incredibly proud of him. Now I'm working with him as a colleague."
Raised by a single mother "and huge extended family" following the death of his father, a U.S. Army Green Beret originally from the Dominican Republic, on a training mission, Román studied to become an electrical engineer to follow an uncle who worked for the Puerto Rican phone company. It was either that or "make pills for Pfizer or work for Bacardi rum," he said.
As a college sophomore at the University of Puerto Rico, he got a summer engineering internship at NASA through a program for promising college and graduate students. He was paired with an earth scientist. And he was hooked on space.
That summer, he also met his future wife, Julia Román-Duval, a French astrophysicist who supports NASA's Hubble Space Telescope at Johns Hopkins University. "She looks up, I look down," Román joked. They live in Columbia, Md., with their three children, ages 4, 2 and 1.
Román came to NASA in 2009 in a wave of 96 scientists hired with federal stimulus money. He had just finished his doctorate at Boston University in remote sensing.
In his own research, he is turning to urban policies and cultural forces that drive energy use, particularly of electricity. He is taking the nighttime images the Suomi satellite can collect to look at humans who turn on the lights at night. "But we're not spying on you," he chuckled.
The research is in its early stages. But so far data show that American electricity use spikes by about 20 percent during the Christmas and New Year's holidays. During Ramadan in Egypt's Nile River Valley, it spikes at night in relatively secular neighborhoods, where Muslims start celebrating after daytime fasting. Heavily religious neighborhoods, though, show less energy use "because they fast and go to bed early," Román said.
"It means that cultural context drives energy use," he explained. Cities have different patterns of turning on the lights. "We've known it but never been able to measure it, let alone globally."
The upshot is that cities can better estimate the timing of their peak energy use and even predict how much electricity they will use over two years, which can increase a city's overall efficiency.
One of the challenges for climate scientists is working in a politically charged discipline where research is sometimes viewed with suspicion. As a result, they feel intense pressure to make sure their data are solid.
"We get a lot of people saying there are errors in our data," Román said. "So we've come back five times to check on the accuracy. Our measurements drive the argument for what is true. The policymakers can take it from there."
China Aims for the Moon, Plans to Bring Back Lunar Soil
RIA Novosti
Chinese scientists are in the course of developing a recoverable lunar robotic spacecraft Chang'e 5 that is to reach the Moon by 2017 with a mission to deliver samples of rock and soil back to Earth, according to Space Industry News.
"The development of Chang'e 5 is proceeding smoothly," a China State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry spokesman Wu Zhijian was cited as saying by an online media publication China Topix.
The creation of Chang'e 5 is part of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program also known as the Chang'e program created by the country's National Space Administration, which is divided into three operational phases.
First phase covered orbital missions with the first and second lunar orbiters of the series successfully completing their respective missions.
Second phase concentrates on soft landers and rovers and has not yet been completed. Chang'e 3, carrying a lunar rover designed to explore and map the Moon's surface in a three-month mission, successfully landed on the natural satellite in December, 2013.
Within the framework of the program, a younger generation test vehicle, Chang'e 4, is scheduled to take off later this year to pave the way for the third phase sample-return mission. The lunar test orbiter has already arrived at the Xichang launch site in the southwestern province of Sichuan in China.
Its initial purpose was to back-up the Chang'e 3, however, because of the third mission's success, the configuration of the orbiter changed to testing new equipment including its abilities in flight sequence control, allowing scientists to perfect orbit design of lunar vehicles, and practicing to keep the unmanned spacecraft orbitally stable.
"Scientists believe we need to launch the spacecraft to prove that our current technical plan can actually bring Chang'e 5 home safely," Chief Designer of the Chang'e 5, Hu Hao was cited as saying by Space Industry News.
Upon returning to Earth with lunar rock and soil samples, the Chang'e 5 will be falling through the planet's atmosphere at an escape velocity of 11.2 kilometers per second. China's spacecraft have never before re-entered the atmosphere at such high speeds and, according to Hu, no simulation test is able to recreate such an event. "The re-entry speed means the return capsule could overheat or prove difficult to track and control," Hu said.
Phase three is aimed at lunar sample return missions, with the Chang'e 5 comprising of the second generation orbiter base structure, a lander, an ascender and a returner. The lander will carry equipment enabling it to preform soft landings as well as to collect lunar rock and soil samples from as deep as 2 meters below the Moon surface. The explorer is set to return to Earth before 2020, according to China Daily.
"The program's third phase will be more difficult because many breakthroughs must be made in key technologies, such as moon surface takeoff, sampling encapsulation, rendezvous and docking in lunar orbit, and high-speed Earth re-entry," China Topix cited Zhijian.
Astronauts chat from space station with Elk Grove schoolkids
Diana Lambert – The Sacramento Bee
A collective gasp filled the air of the Elliott Ranch Elementary School multipurpose room Wednesday morning as the countdown to a live downlink with the International Space Station began.
"It looks like they are flying over the United States of America right now," announced Principal Brian MacNeill, at the 30-second mark. He pointed toward a screen showing a view of the Earth from the space station.
The 364 students assembled at the Elk Grove school squirmed, whispered and giggled in anticipation. They had been waiting for this for weeks.
Then it came: "Station, this is Houston. Are you ready for the event?"
Elliott Ranch was one of two elementary schools selected this year for a National Aeronautics and Space Administration downlink that gave students 20 minutes to talk live to Reid Wiseman and Steven Swanson, the two U.S. astronauts at the space station.
One of the country's missions is to have one of the first astronauts on Mars, said U.S. Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove, who attended the school event.
"Many of you will be at the right age to be one of those astronauts," he said. "One of the first explorers to go there. Push the envelope. You can do anything you want to."
John Siddens was among the 15 students who had earned the right to ask the astronauts questions by winning a science project competition. The third-grader has been interested in space exploration since the age of 4.
Siddens, who wants to be an astronaut, screamed with delight when his parents told him he would get to talk to the men on the space station.
Wednesday, he asked engineer Wiseman, "Do you have any favorite games you like to play when you have free time?"
The astronaut responded by blowing a small soccer ball around in the micro-gravity atmosphere of the space station.
One by one, the students took their turn. Questions from the first- through sixth-grade students ran the gamut:
"Do you take care of animals in space?" (No, it's too messy to clean up after them.)
"How can I become an astronaut?" (Work hard.)
"What have you found most surprising or challenging about your work on the ISS that all your special training beforehand didn't prepare you for? (Keeping track of tools in microgravity.)
The NASA program is part of a yearlong science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) initiative at Elliott Ranch, a rarity for an elementary school, McNeill said.
"There is a whole sector of careers out there that we didn't expect when we were kids," he said.
"With the competition in this global environment, kids need early exposure to those careers."
Parent Matt Hessburg said the event will inspire the children and encourage them "to study harder, work harder."
Eva Mosakowski beamed with pride as her daughter, Harper, asked her question. The mother of two students at the school is the driving force behind the event and the accompanying space-related activities planned at the school this year. Mosakowski, who says she has a passion for science, was perusing the NASA website when she saw information about a program that links schools up with astronauts in space. She applied.
After learning that Elliott Ranch was one of two schools selected for the program, Mosakowski decided to reach out to local experts in the fields of science and engineering to set up more presentations.
"Parents wanted to build this out to get them excited about space exploration and space careers," she said.
Mosakowski arranged for a Monday visit from UC Davis professor and former astronaut Steven Robinson in preparation for Wednesday's event. He talked to students about his experience in space, using videos to demonstrate weightlessness and other concepts.
In mid-September, students will get a rocketry lesson from an Aerojet Rocketdyne engineer who is working on the Orion spacecraft, which will carry humans into deep space.
In October, via Skype, students will hear from researchers at Made in Space, a Mountain View company that designed and built a 3-D printer that will be delivered to astronauts at the space station soon. The printer will allow astronauts to print their own tools and parts instead of waiting long periods of time for their delivery, Mosakowski said.
The hardworking mom decided that students at Elliott Ranch needed their own 3-D printer. She signed up at DonorsChoose.com and raised $2,600 to buy the printer, which is due to arrive in the next few weeks. The printer is less elaborate than the one designed for the astronauts, but it will allow students to print out geometric figures – possibly even parts for the school's Robotics Club, McNeill said.
Principal McNeill had nothing but accolades for Mosakowski, giving her full credit for the downlink and the accompanying STEM programs at the school. "She is one of those people principals dream of having on campus," she said.
The event brought Superintendent Steven Ladd back to a day more than 50 years ago when his class gathered in a similar multipurpose room to see a space launch on a black-and-white television.
"This brings things full circle for me," said Ladd, 62, who will retire from the school district Sept. 12. "Fast-forward and the kids are having a dialogue with astronauts."
END
No comments:
Post a Comment