Hope you can join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- JSC's News Release/Media Advisory Listserver
- ISS 101 Needs YOU
- Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 Nomination Call-Out - Organizations/Social
- SWAPRA Meeting on Wednesdy, Sept. 10
- Do you have visions of Mars?
- JSC Toastmasters - Wednesday Nights
- JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum
- Save the Date: New Jerry Ross Book for Kids - Jobs and Training
- Innovation Lecture Series: Joel Sercel, Ph.D.
- CGE Travel System Live Lab - Sept. 3
- Engineer to Entrepreneur
- Fall Protection Authorized User: Sept. 29, B20 - Community
- Heartbeats, Space Probes and Contemporary Art |  |
| Headlines - JSC's News Release/Media Advisory Listserver
JSC is updating its mechanism for delivering news releases and media advisories through email. All subscribers to the current service, known as "hsfnews" at listserv@listserver.jsc.nasa.gov,will be migrated automatically to the new JSC-News listserver. However, some subscribers may need to adjust their junk e-mail or firewall settings to allow receipt of messages from the new JSC-News listserver. Subscribers will now receive news releases and media advisories from the following address: Anyone who is not already signed up to receive JSC news may subscribe to the list in one of two ways: - Send an email message with the subject line subscribe
- Sign up using the Web form
- ISS 101 Needs YOU
If you are not totally familiar with what is happening on the International Space Station (ISS), we have a great opportunity for you. Not only can you learn more about ISS, but you can also help the ISS team update 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. It's so simple! Just sign up in V-CORPs for this unique opportunity. Then come to Building 2 on Friday, Sept. 5, at 10 a.m., and spend a little time checking out the website and let the team know what you think. - Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 Nomination Call-Out
The Hispanic Employee Resource Group would like to highlight several Hispanic employees whose stories serve as inspiration to others. Please submit your nomination or self-nomination for consideration to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity via email by Friday, Sept. 5. Please include the nominee's name, organization, job title and why you nominate the individual or yourself in 300 words or less. Selected individuals will be highlighted in JSC Features during Hispanic Heritage Month! Organizations/Social - SWAPRA Meeting on Wednesdy, Sept. 10
The South Western Aerospace Professional Representatives Association (SWAPRA) is kicking off its fall schedule with an exciting presentation by General Joseph W. Ashy (USAF Ret.), who will discuss his perspective on the geopolitical and military state of the world and how it affects the United States and the Greater Houston area. SWAPRA will host Gen. Ashy at the Bay Oaks Country Club (BOCC) beginning at 11:30 a.m. Gen. Ashy has a unique insight into the military and political situation of the world through his efforts supporting the Unified and Service commanders through the Institute for Defense Analysis Independent Strategic Assessment Group process. The BOCC luncheon cost for non-members is $35 at the door, or $25 with pre-paid RSVPs by Monday, Sept. 8, by 5 p.m. Contact David L. Brown at 281-483-7426 to RSVP, or RSVP directly to Chris Elkins at 281-276-2792. Event Date: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Bay Oaks Country Club
Add to Calendar
David L. Brown x37426
[top] - Do you have visions of Mars?
Space Center Houston is hosting a webcast as part of the 2014 International Air & Space Symposium. They really could use your help in talking about Outposts and Sustainable Habitats on Mars. Is this your cup of tea? The webcast is on Thursday, September 4 from 2-3pm at SCH. You can sign up for this opportunity in V-CORPs. Not your area of expertise? The Symposium also has webcasts on Sept. 18 (Curiosity & Robotics), October 2 (Rocketry), October 16 (Commercial Space Flight) and a 3-day event from Nov. 6 - 9. Check them out on the V-CORPs calendar! For more information about the event itself, please email Ms. LaTanya Miles at SCH or call her at 281.283.4751. Or contact your friendly V-CORPs administrator! - JSC Toastmasters - Wednesday Nights
Looking to develop speaking and leadership skills? Ignite your career? Want to increase your self-confidence, become a better speaker or leader and communicate more effectively? Then JSC Toastmasters is for you! Members attend meetings each Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Brazos Room. JSC Toastmasters weekly meetings are learn-by-doing workshops where participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a pressure-free atmosphere. Membership is open to anyone. - JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum
Mark your calendars! Our next JSC Contractor Safety and Health Forum will be held Tuesday, Sept. 16, in the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 11:15 a.m. Our guest speakers for this event will be Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety Investigation Board, who will be presenting on several of the board's recent investigations and their outcomes. Our second guest speaker is John L. Allen, P.E., acting director of the Laboratory Services Division and chief of the Fire Research Laboratory, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (ATF) and Explosives, located in Ammendale, Maryland. Allen will be presenting on the ATF Fire Research Laboratory—specifically about their mission, capabilities and research, as well as several cases studies. This will be a very dynamic and informative meeting you will not want to miss. If you have any questions, please contact Pat Farrell at 281-335-2012 or via email. Event Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2014 Event Start Time:9:00 AM Event End Time:11:15 AM
Event Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom
Add to Calendar
Patricia A. Farrell 281-335-2012
[top] - Save the Date: New Jerry Ross Book for Kids
Astronaut Jerry Ross has written a children's version of his autobiography entitled "Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars," designed for ages 7 through 12. As the story unfolds and readers begin to make personal connections with Ross, his approach to problem-solving and working through setbacks provides a powerful example for children. Books must be purchased via ShopNASA/Starport for autographs. Reserve your copies of "Becoming a Spacewalker: My Journey to the Stars" and "Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASA's Record-Setting Frequent Flyer" by pre-ordering today in Buildings 3 or 11, or order online. Books Signings: Nov. 18 and 19 in Buildings 3 and 11 cafés from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 18 in the Gilruth Center from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. This session is open to the public, so bring family and friends! Jobs and Training - Innovation Lecture Series: Joel Sercel, Ph.D.
The Human Health and Performance Directorate welcomes Dr. Joel Sercel, founder and principal engineer of ICS Associates, Inc., as the Innovation Lecture Series speaker on Sept. 9 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium. Join Sercel for his lecture entitled "The Disruption Dynamic: When Changing Times Demand New Behaviors." Sercel is a world-renowned innovator, management consultant, team leader and systems engineer with proven innovations in several fields, including social-networking systems, space propulsion, space mission design, devices for use in rugged environments and architectures for unmanned aerial vehicles. Event Date: Tuesday, September 9, 2014 Event Start Time:1:00 PM Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: Bldg. 30 Auditorium
Add to Calendar
Diane Kutchinski x46490
[top] - CGE Travel System Live Lab - Sept. 3
Do you need some hands-on, personal help with the Concur Government Edition (CGE) Travel System? Join the Business Systems and Process Improvement Office for a CGE Travel System Live Lab tomorrow, Sept. 3, any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 12, Room 142. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through your travel processes and learn more about using the CGE Travel System during this informal workshop. Please feel free to bring any travel documents to be worked. This is real-time help, not a training class. Please click on the direct SATERN link below to register and receive SATERN credit. For additional information, please contact Judy Seier at x32771. - Engineer to Entrepreneur
The Houston Technology Center is pleased to host a 10-week Lunch N Learn course entitled Engineer to Entrepreneur. If you have ever thought about launching your own business, then this is the program for you. You will learn how to establish a corporate entity, develop a business strategy, pitch your strategy and market your products. Join us for a fun-filled program instructed by some of Houston's most accomplished business executives. Classes will be held for 10 consecutive Thursdays from 11:30 to 12:30, beginning August 21 thru October 30, 2014 in Building 45, Room 451. For enrollment information, contact Evelyn Boatman at eboatman@houstontech.org, or 281-244-8271. - Fall Protection Authorized User: Sept. 29, B20
SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0311-AU: This class is geared toward training Authorized Users, who are the end-users of fall-protection equipment, and teaches the proper methods for using fall-protection equipment at heights. Upon completion of this course, the student should: understand all stages of the fall-protection hierarchy; know the four parts of a fall-arrest system; understand fall-protection training requirements; be able to demonstrate the proper donning of the harness and proper usage of the equipment; be able to identify when and where the equipment is needed; be able to inspect fall-protection equipment; know how to properly care for and maintain fall-protection equipment; and be familiar with the effects of harness tension and pressures of the harness on the body. There will be a final exam associated with this course. Use this direct link for registration. Community - Heartbeats, Space Probes and Contemporary Art
Heartbeats, Space Probes and Contemporary Art: A Conversation With Menil Artist Dario Robleto and Curator Michelle White Bridging science and art, this talk is in anticipation of "the Boundary of Life is Quietly Crossed," an exhibition at The Menil Collection this fall in Houston. The project will be a culmination of Robleto's research on tracing the parallel histories of the creation of the artificial human heart and the space race. He will present his work on Dr. O. H. "Bud" Frazier, who is pioneering beat-less heart technologies, and scientist Ann Druyan, creative director of the so-called Golden Record sent on the Voyager space probes. Event Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2014 Event Start Time:11:00 AM Event End Time:12:00 PM
Event Location: Building 31 Conference room 129
Add to Calendar
Cindy Evans x30519
[top] | |
| |
| 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
Tuesday – September 2, 2014
International Space Station:
Swanson and Wiseman will be involved in an educational in-flight event today at 12:20pm Central time with the INFINITY Science Center at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi that will be broadcast on NASA TV.
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Heat Protecting Back Shell Tiles Installed on NASA's Orion EFT-1 Spacecraft Set for Dec. 2014 Launch
Ken Kremer - Universe Today
Fabrication of the pathfinding version of NASA's Orion crew capsule slated for its inaugural unmanned test flight in December is entering its final stages at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site in Florida.
NASA and contractors accelerate testing on 3D-printed rocket engine components
Jason Rhian - Spaceflight Insider
As NASA prepares the materials and machines to send humans to destinations far beyond the gravitational influence of Earth, the space agency is turning its attention on new game-changing technologies to help them in their efforts. The company's that enable NASA to accomplish its objectives are also taking an active role in developing new methods to facilitate space exploration initiatives. One technology in particular, additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, has come into its own and is being increasingly used to produce rocket engine components. NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, SpaceX and other firms have all been pushing this technology to new heights.
Revolution in Spaceflight Requires New Spacesuits (Op-Ed)
Ted Southern, President, Final Frontier Design - Space.com Ted Southern is president and co-founder of Final Frontier Design, a spacesuit design company. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Spacesuits are created by science, but they can also seem magical, clothes that shield people from the inhospitable conditions of space. Spacesuits are a true paradox in design. They are both a machine and a garment. These suits must withstand large pressure differentials while remaining flexible; they must tolerate vast thermal variations inside and out, without being too heavy or stiff; they must be ultra-reliable and easy to put on.
New probe Hayabusa 2 revealed in quest to collect more asteroid samples
Ryuta Koike - Asahi Shimbun
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unveiled Aug. 31 a new space probe that is expected to be launched later this year on a mission to an asteroid to help unravel the mystery of how life began in our solar system.
Curiosity, Cassini Among 7 Extended Planetary Missions
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA approved extensions for all seven missions that were vetted by senior scientists in the agency's 2014 senior review of operating planetary science missions, a senior NASA official told SpaceNews Aug. 27.
Follow-up destinations considered for New Horizons
Speeding through the outer solar system nearly 2.8 billion miles from Earth, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was put into hibernation mode Friday for the last in a series of power-saving sleeps as scientists on Earth prepare for a make-or-break encounter with Pluto next summer.
Mars Rover Opportunity to Have Memory Wiped
Like any computer on Earth, long-duration space robots' memories sometimes need to be reformatted. This is certainly the case for NASA's veteran Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that has had more than its fair share of computer glitches recently.
"Our Curiosity" piques science interest online
John Wenzel - The Denver Post
The Curiosity Mars Rover captured the public's imagination when it landed on the red planet Aug. 6, 2012, and a new short film from a pair of Colorado-bred creatives celebrates the science and inspiration behind its accomplishments.
All Russian Space Sex Geckos Die on Flight Mission
Matthew Bodner – The Moscow Times
Every last one of Russia's famed reptilian cosmonauts, known affectionately as the "sex geckos" owing to the carnal nature of their space voyage, has died, the Federal Space Agency revealed Monday.
Russia, US Establish Information Exchange for Emergency Situations
RIA Novosti
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have agreed on the exchange of information on large-scale natural and man-made disasters, EMERCOM reported Friday.
US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Passes 600 Days in Orbit
The U.S. Air Force's mysterious unmanned space plane has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end.
Space Notebook: Robonaut 2 gets legs, New Horizons Pluto-bound
James Dean – Florida Today
Android helper stands 8 feet tall
Before Robonaut 2, the humanoid robot aboard the International Space Station, could take its first steps later this year, it needed legs.
NASA's choice to fly crews to ISS coming any day now
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX headquarters was abuzz on a recent morning as NASA representatives and the company's independent safety advisers met in California to review its progress designing a Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts.
COMPLETE STORIES
Heat Protecting Back Shell Tiles Installed on NASA's Orion EFT-1 Spacecraft Set for Dec. 2014 Launch
Ken Kremer - Universe Today
Fabrication of the pathfinding version of NASA's Orion crew capsule slated for its inaugural unmanned test flight in December is entering its final stages at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) launch site in Florida.
Engineers and technicians have completed the installation of Orion's back shell panels which will protect the spacecraft and future astronauts from the searing heat of reentry and scorching temperatures exceeding 3,150 degrees Fahrenheit.
Orion is scheduled to launch on its maiden uncrewed mission dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) test flight in December 2014 atop the mammoth, triple barreled United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The cone-shaped back shell actually has a rather familiar look since its comprised of 970 black thermal protection tiles – the same tiles which protected the belly of the space shuttles during three decades and 135 missions of returning from space.
However, Orion's back shell tiles will experience temperatures far in excess of those from the shuttle era. Whereas the space shuttles traveled at 17,000 miles per hour, Orion will hit the Earth's atmosphere at some 20,000 miles per hour on this first flight test.
The faster a spacecraft travels through Earth's atmosphere, the more heat it generates. So even though the hottest the space shuttle tiles got was about 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit, the Orion back shell could get up to 3,150 degrees, despite being in a cooler area of the vehicle.
Engineers have also rigged Orion to conduct a special in flight test to see just how vulnerable the vehicle is to the onslaught of micrometeoroid orbital debris.
Even tiny particles can cause immense and potentially fatal damage at high speed by punching a hole through the back shell tiles and possibly exposing the spacecrafts structure to temperatures high than normal.
"Below the tiles, the vehicle's structure doesn't often get hotter than about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, but if debris breeched the tile, the heat surrounding the vehicle during reentry could creep into the hole it created, possibly damaging the vehicle," says NASA.
The team has run done numerous modeling studies on the effect of micrometeoroid hits. Now it's time for a real world test.
Therefore engineers have purposely drilled a pair of skinny 1 inch wide holes into two 1.47 inches thick tiles to mimic damage from a micrometeoroid hit. The holes are 1.4 inches and 1 inch deep and are located on the opposite side of the back shell from Orion's windows and reaction control system jets, according to NASA.
"We want to know how much of the hot gas gets into the bottom of those cavities," said Joseph Olejniczak, manager of Orion aerosciences, in a NASA statement.
"We have models that estimate how hot it will get to make sure it's safe to fly, but with the data we'll gather from these tiles actually coming back through Earth's atmosphere, we'll make new models with higher accuracy."
The data gathered will help inform the team about the heat effects from potential damage and possible astronaut repair options in space.
Orion is NASA's next generation human rated vehicle now under development to replace the now retired space shuttle.
The state-of-the-art spacecraft will carry America's astronauts on voyages venturing farther into deep space than ever before – past the Moon to Asteroids, Mars and Beyond!
The two-orbit, four and a half hour EFT-1 flight will lift the Orion spacecraft and its attached second stage to an orbital altitude of 3,600 miles, about 15 times higher than the International Space Station (ISS) – and farther than any human spacecraft has journeyed in 40 years.
The EFT-1 mission will test the systems critical for future human missions to deep space.
Orion's back shell attachment and final assembly is taking place in the newly renamed Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building, by prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
One of the primary goals of NASA's eagerly anticipated Orion EFT-1 uncrewed test flight is to test the efficacy of the heat shield and back shell tiles in protecting the vehicle – and future human astronauts – from excruciating temperatures reaching over 4000 degrees Fahrenheit (2200 C) during scorching re-entry heating.
At the conclusion of the EFT-1 flight, the detached Orion capsule plunges back and re-enters the Earth's atmosphere at 20,000 MPH (32,000 kilometers per hour).
"That's about 80% of the reentry speed experienced by the Apollo capsule after returning from the Apollo moon landing missions," Scott Wilson, NASA's Orion Manager of Production Operations at KSC, told me during an interview at KSC.
A trio of parachutes will then unfurl to slow Orion down for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
The Orion EFT-1 vehicle is due to roll out of the O & C in about two weeks and be moved to its fueling facility at KSC for the next step in launch processing.
Orion will eventually launch atop the SLS, NASA's new mammoth heavy lift booster which the agency is now targeting for its maiden launch no later than November 2018 – detailed in my story here. NASA and contractors accelerate testing on 3D-printed rocket engine components
Jason Rhian - Spaceflight Insider
As NASA prepares the materials and machines to send humans to destinations far beyond the gravitational influence of Earth, the space agency is turning its attention on new game-changing technologies to help them in their efforts. The company's that enable NASA to accomplish its objectives are also taking an active role in developing new methods to facilitate space exploration initiatives. One technology in particular, additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, has come into its own and is being increasingly used to produce rocket engine components. NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne, SpaceX and other firms have all been pushing this technology to new heights.
NASA recently announced that the space agency had tested the: "most complex rocket engine parts ever designed." These components were put through their paces at Marshall Space Flight Center located in Huntsville, Alabama in order to assist NASA in developing their new heavy-lift booster – the Space Launch System or "SLS."
A rocket engine injector, an important element of most launch vehicles, tasked with delivering fuel to the booster's engine was recently developed using additive manufacturing processes. In a recently-issued press release, NASA described how the injector's design was uploaded into the printer's computer. With this data on hand, the printer then used metal powder fused together in layers in a process known as selective laser melting. Although this technology has only recently entered into the public's consciousness – aerospace firms have been developing these methods for some time.
'We had been doing this for over 10-12 years but not with the robust materials we have now. In early 2009 we began developing the fully dense materials these new machines have enabled," said Jeffrey Haynes, Aerojet Rocketdyne's Additive Manufacturing program manager.
Engineers working with this technology produced the injector through a series of 40 individual spray elements which were printed (as opposed to having the various parts printed individually and then assembled). If done via traditional means, NASA has stated that a similar injector would require 163 individual parts to be produced and then assembled. The 3D-printed system – only required two parts to be produced. With less individual components – the likelihood that something could go wrong should be dramatically diminished. Similarly, the expense of producing these parts and the time to produce them should also decrease.
"We wanted to go a step beyond just testing an injector and demonstrate how 3D printing could revolutionize rocket designs for increased system performance," said Chris Singer, director of Marshall's Engineering Directorate. "The parts performed exceptionally well during the tests."
NASA worked with two companies to develop and build the injector. Solid Concepts based out of Valencia, California, and Directed Manufacturing located in Austin, Texas. Each company produced one injector.
Rather than go ahead and produce and test an injector that is used on either a medium or heavy-lift launch vehicle, the space agency opted to produce an injector designed for use on a small rocket engine. The injectors selected are similar in design to those used on larger engines, such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine's (SSME ) RS-25. The RS-25 is planned to be used during the initial flights of the SLS.
Four RS-25s will be used on SLS' core stage providing some of the needed thrust to get the 200-foot-tall rocket off of the launch pad. The core stage measures some 27.6 feet (8 meters) in diameter and contains the cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel that the RS-25s utilize. Developing a new heavy-lift booster – is no small feat. NASA is relying on a small army of engineers from an array of firms to produce these rockets.
"One of our goals is to collaborate with a variety of companies and establish standards for this new manufacturing process," explained Marshall's propulsion engineer Jason Turpin. "We are working with industry to learn how to take advantage of additive manufacturing in every stage of space hardware construction from design to operations in space. We are applying everything we learn about making rocket engine components to the Space Launch System and other space hardware."
For this recent test, the two rocket injectors were each tested for approximately five seconds each. When tested, each of the engines produced an estimated 20,000 pounds of thrust. The injectors operated via complex geometric flow patterns where oxygen and hydrogen flowed together before they were ignited at some 1,400 pounds per square inch – at temperatures reaching some 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. In terms of SLS, having the resources to develop and test these systems close at hand - has proven beneficial.
"Having an in-house additive manufacturing capability allows us to look at test data, modify parts or the test stand based on the data, implement changes quickly and get back to testing," said Nicholas Case, a propulsion engineer who led the testing regimen for the injectors. "This speeds up the whole design, development and testing process and allows us to try innovative designs with less risk and cost to projects."
NASA has expressed hope that, by using these systems at Marshall, 3D components can be produced and tested over at Stennis more quickly. NASA's various teams and departments are collaborating so as to rapidly modify the parts so as to reduce the developmental process as well as components which are on the launch vehicles themselves.
The space agency has produced increasingly sophisticated 3D components in an effort to test the limits this technology can be used for spaceflight purposes. Besides injectors, rocket nozzles and other components have been created. NASA has stated that the overarching goal of the space agency's efforts is to reduce the complexity, time and cost of building rocket engines.
Not to be left out of these efforts, Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX used a Main Oxidizer Valve (MOV) during the January 6, 2014 flight of a Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket with the Thaicom 6 commercial satellite. One of the booster's nine Merlin 1D engines was outfitted with the 3D-printed MOV. The launch marked the first time that SpaceX has used a component constructed by additive manufacturing methods. The valve operated as advertised despite the vibration and extreme temperatures involved with launch.
Revolution in Spaceflight Requires New Spacesuits (Op-Ed)
Ted Southern, President, Final Frontier Design - Space.com Ted Southern is president and co-founder of Final Frontier Design, a spacesuit design company. He contributed this article to Space.com's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Spacesuits are created by science, but they can also seem magical, clothes that shield people from the inhospitable conditions of space. Spacesuits are a true paradox in design. They are both a machine and a garment. These suits must withstand large pressure differentials while remaining flexible; they must tolerate vast thermal variations inside and out, without being too heavy or stiff; they must be ultra-reliable and easy to put on.
And new designs are necessary now more than ever: Commercial space travel is set to go through a renaissance. Dozens of private companies are promising to open a new frontier to masses of people, with drastically lower prices to reach orbit; fast turnaround and reusable vehicles; and multiple options for altitude, trajectory and purpose. Space commerce promises to unveil an entirely new, virtually unlimited market of materials, engineering, science and even lifestyle. All these developments will depend on the creation of advanced spacesuits.
The list of private companies driving space travel is already vast: Boeing, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Orbital Sciences and Blue Origin all compete in the field of orbital rocketry. Golden Spike, Bigelow Aerospace and Mars 1 are tackling interplanetary exploration. Virgin Galactic, XCOR and Starfighters Aerospace have set their sights on suborbital ballistic flight. Zero2Infinity and WorldView are creating high-altitude balloons that can rise more than 100,000 feet (30,000 meters). Zero Gravity Corp has already flown hundreds of zero-G parabolic flights, and Project Perlan is planning on gliding to altitudes above 90,000 feet (27,000 m) within the next year. Apologizes to anyone I missed.
Many new companies hope to capitalize on the revolution; some will not thrive, but it is possible that many will. The vast majority are owned and operated within the United States, and many are sponsored and supported in some way by NASA, by far the largest space-dedicated organization in the world, with an annual budget of over $17 billion.
A revolution in spaceflight
Each layer of the new space market promises to bloom and prosper within the decade. Several of these companies are already profit-positive, and most of them have functional hardware nearly ready for flight. Companies spend billions of dollars per year on this emerging industry.
Several reasons help explain the revolution. As personal computers have become more powerful, the complicated mathematics and science computations required for the incredible speeds, loads, temperatures and pressures of space travel have become accessible to more and more companies and individuals. Exotic materials and processes have become vastly more available to the masses within just the last 10 years, thanks largely to the Internet and the computer processor. The general policies of NASA and the outlook of Americans are increasingly supportive of private space ventures. No longer is spaceflight the realm of superpower governments, alone.
Yet, most people understand the great dangers inherent in human spaceflight. Many have lost their lives in what is just the first 53 years of human spaceflight. The great risk to human life causes real fear in this inchoate commercial frontier; one tragic incident may ruin public perception of commercial space entirely. Rand Simberg, in his recent book "Safe Is Not an Option" (Interglobal Media LLC, 2013), argues that the new space industry cannot be hindered by any restrictions on its operations, and that the government should remain hands-off with commercial space ventures. Loss of human life should be considered a regrettable, but necessary cost of pushing the boundaries of possibility, Simberg argues. NASA and the U.S. Federal Aviation Industry (FAA) should not interfere, he said.
I could not disagree more.
NASA has a proud history of participating in the commercial space industry, fostering the sector's development with satellite deployments in the 1980s, encouraging competition among garage inventors with the Centennial Challenges program, and dedicating a significant portion of the agency's budget today to the NASA Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO). My own company would not exist without the support of NASA, along with several of the previously listed launch providers. And without NASA's, and the FAA's, standards, recommendations and lessons learned, space entrepreneurs are bound to make the same mistakes over and over again. History can repeat itself.
The suits that make space travel possible
Spacesuits are a key component of the new space industry, and they come with a proud and worthy legacy: No human has ever been killed in service while wearing such a suit in space. The spacesuit has become the icon for human flight, despite the enormous complexity of the rockets and vehicles that deliver spacesuits to relevant environments. [Spacesuit Evolution in Photos] Most people do not understand the differences between the Intra-Vehicular Activity (IVA) suit — worn for launch, re-entry and docking — versus the Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) suit — worn for spacewalking or planetary walking. While the IVA suit must provide a stable air-pressure environment for the astronaut, it does not need to withstand the thermal variations or long durations that EVA suits must endure. IVA suits do not need to be as mobile as EVA suits, either, because IVAs are generally worn pressurized only during emergencies. And most tasks designed to take place during an IVA procedure are much less motion-intensive compared to EVA procedures. The IVA suit serves as the emergency, redundant pressure vessel, the space travel equivalent of commercial airliner oxygen masks, which "fall from the panel above."
If a vehicle loses pressure above about 60,000 feet, even a mask cannot help; pilot and crew alike will lose consciousness within approximately 15 to 20 seconds. Without properly operating space suits, the extreme temperatures of those altitudes will freeze eyeballs open, and low pressure will pull the gas out of the lungs and burst eardrums.
IVA suits should also contain interfaces with parachutes, Earth survival equipment and water flotation devices, depending on the mission's flight path.
All those capabilities come at a price. As a point of comparison, according to Dennis Jenkins in his recent book "Dressing for Altitude" (2012, NASA), NASA paid more than $88,000 each for their IVA Advanced Crew Escape Suits (ACES). In 2014 dollars, that's about $180,000 each. The agency paid nearly $12 million per suit for their EVA suit, ILC Dover and Hamilton Sundstrand's Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) according to Craig Freudenrich in How Space Suits Work. In a recent RFI, NASA estimates the cost of maintenance and operations of their EMUs alone at $80 million every year for the next 10 years. These are fantastically expensive clothes, just as the space shuttle was a fantastically expensive vehicle.
EVA suits have remained an essential part of human spaceflight since the first spacewalks, in 1965. Orbital and interplanetary spaceflight require EVA systems for mission assurance, say if there is some emergency outside the vehicle, and for scientific observation; lunar and planetary human missions would be futile if humans could not walk around outside the vehicle.
However, spacesuits have historically been viewed as "contingency only" items, and as such, have been marginalized in development, a rocket-science afterthought. The EMU was developed in the1970s as a contingency EVA suit, just in case EVA became necessary on a space shuttle mission. Specifically, NASA did not increase operating pressure, the or the differential pressure the suit operates at, because of the significant development costs. It is now clear that EVA was a critical part of almost every mission, most especially the construction and utilization of the International Space Station. The low operating pressures in the EMU have resulted in hundreds of hours of pre-breathing penalties for astronauts, costing NASA untold amounts in lost efficiency. At an ideal operating pressure of 8 pounds per square inch, astronauts would not be required to pre-breathe to purge their bloodstream of nitrogen.
NASA did not develop the IVA suits specifically for the space shuttle, either. Instead, these were modified versions of 1960s-era U2 aircraft high-altitude suits, integrated only after 1987 into the pre-existing shuttle architectures. NASA took this route even though IVAs were the mandatory launch and re-entry garments for every astronaut on the space shuttle. The contingency story continues today, with a modified version of the ACES bound for NASA's future Space Launch System (SLS).
The United States, Russia and China — the three "organizations" to send humans to space — use IVA space suits for their flights. The United States and Russia also tried flying without IVA suits for a while, only to decide that such suits were a mandatory element of safe human spaceflight. The Russians originally flew the Soyuz spacecraft without the Sokol IVA suit. Only after the 1971 Soyuz 11/ Salyut 1 mission, when a tragic loss of cabin pressure at an altitude of 43.5 miles (70 kilometers) killed three cosmonauts, did Russia redesign the Soyuz to include Sokol suits. The Sokol IVA suits fly, to this day, on the Soyuz.
NASA originally flew the space shuttle with custom flight suits, but astronauts had no emergency pressurization systems for altitudes above approximately 50,000 feet (15,000 m) — in other words, no space suits. After the Challenger tragedy, NASA reconsidered the risks to astronauts and integrated the ACES IVA suit into the space shuttle, giving astronauts an emergency pressure system in case of vehicle depress. Even the U.S. military requires pressure suits for high-altitude flights.
Suiting up for commercial space
While the revolution in commercial spaceflight is happening now in the realm of rocketry and vehicle design, it is also happening in life-support systems, training and operations — and yes, in spacesuits. Simberg and others would argue that the beginnings of any industry come with great risk to human life, and that standardized rules for safety would crush the new industry. I, for one, am sure that is not the case. Rather, regulatory standards like pressure garments (space suits) for human spaceflight would increase knowledgeable consumer confidence, drive innovation and reduce costs, and only add to the experience of the consumer. What space tourist wouldn't want to wear a spacesuit? What commercial company wouldn't want to include these safety measures for its crew, let alone its high-net-worth customers? Current commercial IVA space suit designs like ours market for less than half the cost of NASA's ACES suit, while putting a premium on safety, aesthetic, user comfort and reliability.
Beyond IVA suits for the current commercial market, there is a clear need for less expensive, less complex and more functional EVA suits for both NASA and the commercial space industry. Companies like Golden Spike and Mars One should be eager to explore EVA suit options that do not eat up significant portions of their budgets, but that still allow for real exploration and advancement. Even NASA is now considering looking beyond its traditional space suit providers for the EVA suits of the future.
Introducing competition to this traditionally closed industry is sure to further reduce costs and improve functionality. The same technologies that allow commercial launch providers to build and test rockets at a fraction of the cost to governments permit companies like mine to build and test space suits at a fraction of the cost for traditional providers. Spacesuits no longer have to be fantastically expensive clothes. Innovations like this, I maintain, will not crush the new industry; they will protect and bolster it.
I am excited to compete in this dawning of a new age of space exploration. I am proud to be working on garments that could affect the very comfort and functionality of future astronauts. And I am hopeful for the near future, when the safety and well-being of the user is considered supreme, with logical and limited regulations in place to protect both the astronaut and the industry, and fair and open competition between various service and hardware providers.
New probe Hayabusa 2 revealed in quest to collect more asteroid samples
Ryuta Koike - Asahi Shimbun
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) unveiled Aug. 31 a new space probe that is expected to be launched later this year on a mission to an asteroid to help unravel the mystery of how life began in our solar system.
Developed at a cost of about 28.9 billion yen ($280 million), the Hayabusa 2 will collect rock samples from 1999 JU3, a nearly spherical asteroid about 900 meters in diameter with an orbit that brings it close to the Earth and Mars.
"(The Hayabusa 2 project) will be a touchstone mission in our endeavor to explore space," said Hitoshi Kuninaka, a JAXA official handling the project.
At 1.6 meters by 1 and 1.25 meters tall, the Hayabusa 2 is almost the same size as its predecessor, Hayabusa, which in 2010 became the world's first spacecraft to return to Earth with samples from an asteroid named Itokawa.
When its solar panels are spread, the new 600-kilogram spacecraft has a width of 6 meters.
Unlike Itokawa, 1999 JU3 is a type of asteroid that has more carbon components. This means the samples taken from it may contain organic substances and minerals with water that could provide clues to the origins of life.
The Hayabusa 2 will be launched from the Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima in Kagoshima Prefecture. It is expected to return to Earth in 2020.
Curiosity, Cassini Among 7 Extended Planetary Missions
Dan Leone – Space News
NASA approved extensions for all seven missions that were vetted by senior scientists in the agency's 2014 senior review of operating planetary science missions, a senior NASA official told SpaceNews Aug. 27.
"We sent out the letters to the projects [and] those letters state that we're not canceling any missions," Jim Green, NASA's Planetary Science Division Director, said after a meeting at the National Research Council in Washington.
Green declined to discuss specifics, although he did say NASA would force some of the missions to run "leaner and meaner [by] cutting back in various aspects."
The details of the senior review board's findings, and NASA's formal response to those findings, is to be released the week of Sept. 1, Green said.
The seven missions up for review were:
- The Mars Science Laboratory, or Curiosity: the car-sized rover that landed on the red planet in 2012 for a two-year primary mission and has been roving ever since, despite sustaining rock damage to its aluminum wheels.
- The Cassini Saturn orbiter, which arrived at the gas giant in 2004 on a four-year primary mission.
- The Moon-mapping Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched on a one-year primary mission in 2009.
- The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity, which landed in 2004 on a 92-day mission and is still roving.
- The Analyzer of Space Plasma and Energetic Atoms-3, a partially NASA-funded instrument aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2004 on a primary mission of just under two years.
- Mars Odyssey, an orbiter that arrived at Mars in 2001 on a 32-month primary mission.
- The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which arrived at Mars in 2006 on a two-year primary mission.
Follow-up destinations considered for New Horizons
Speeding through the outer solar system nearly 2.8 billion miles from Earth, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was put into hibernation mode Friday for the last in a series of power-saving sleeps as scientists on Earth prepare for a make-or-break encounter with Pluto next summer.
The hibernating spacecraft will send weekly status beacons back to Earth, with wakeup scheduled for Dec. 7 to begin the final phase of its approach to Pluto. New Horizons will stay awake for two years to prepare for the encounter, fly by Pluto, and downlink science data.
The craft's appointment with Pluto is set for July 14, 2015, when it will zoom about 6,200 miles from the icy world's unmapped surface for a one-shot chance to explore Pluto's geology and atmosphere.
New Horizons passed the orbit of Neptune on Aug. 25, the first spacecraft to reach such distances in a quarter-century.
"It's going to be a bonanza for science in so many ways, and we're going to take you along for all of this journey," said Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizon mission from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Stern said the New Horizons science team will use some of the three-month downtime to fish out new destinations for the probe, which has enough fuel to fly by one of the thousands of icy worlds in the Kuiper belt, a zone of Pluto-like objects that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBOs, are a recent discovery. Astronomers only confirmed the existence of this new frontier of the solar system two decades ago, challenging assumptions about the boundaries of Pluto, and eventually relegating Pluto off the solar system's official list of planets.
NASA advertised the $700 million mission's capability to visit multiple destinations when New Horizons launched in January 2006, assuming new targets for the probe could be found in time.
"To explore them, we first have to find them," Stern said. "They're very faint. They're very far away. These are objects that are much smaller than pluto and probably much more primitive in terms of their chemistry and their appearance. These are objects the size of counties, for example, not the size of planets."
But the search for a follow-up target for New Horizons has, so far, come up empty.
"We've been using the largest ground-based telescopes in the world for about four years, and although we've been discovering Kuiper Belt Objects, none have been in that region of space and and none within our fuel reach," Stern said.
In a last-ditch effort, NASA tasked the Hubble Space Telescope to search for another destination for New Horizons when ground-based surveys failed to find one.
"Hubble has done a spectacularly good job and yielded literally hundreds of images of that part of the sky, from which we've found some candidates," Stern said. "We don't know if any of them, though, are in our fuel reach and we won't still for some months."
Scientists need repeated observations of each object to measure their orbits and determine if they are within the spacecraft's reach. New Horizons carries a limited amount of fuel, so any decision on a targeted Kuiper Belt Object must account for the probe's capabilities.
Stern said a New Horizons flyby is possible from 2016 to 2021, with the most likely timeframe between 2018 and 2020.
"We hope to know before the year is out, and we will keep you posted as soon as we've made a determination of whether there are reachable objects," Stern said. "We certainly hope so."
Mars Rover Opportunity to Have Memory Wiped
Like any computer on Earth, long-duration space robots' memories sometimes need to be reformatted. This is certainly the case for NASA's veteran Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that has had more than its fair share of computer glitches recently.
So the time has come, according to mission managers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. — the little robot needs a memory wipe.
The decision to reformat Opportunity's flash memory early next month is prompted by the multiple computer resets the rover has been experiencing. This month alone, Opportunity has had to be rebooted a dozen times, interrupting valuable time that should be taken up with carrying out science near the rim of Endeavour crater.
"Worn-out cells in the flash memory are the leading suspect in causing these resets," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project. "The flash reformatting is a low-risk process, as critical sequences and flight software are stored elsewhere in other non-volatile memory on the rover."
Flash memory allows data to be stored from Opportunity's surface operations even when the rover is in a powered-down down state. Not so dissimilar to the memory that stores photos inside your cellpone or important documents in a memory stick, even flash drives become worn down after continuous use.
Reformatting Opportunity's flash drive will identify corrupt or damaged cells, flagging them to avoid being used by the rover's computers, hopefully preventing the unexpected resets that are plaguing the mission.
Five years ago, the team successfully performed a reformat of sister rover Spirit's memory to stave off the bout of "amnesia" events it was experiencing. Sadly, in 2010, NASA had called off efforts to contact the rover after it became jammed in a sand trap at Gusev Crater months earlier.
Over a decade after landing on the Red Planet in 2004, this will be the first memory reformat for Opportunity, one that NASA engineers are confident will be trouble free.
Before the reformat can begin, Opportunity's handlers will download all available data from Opportunity's flash drive and switch it into a mode that does not use flash memory, then the reformat can commence.
"Our Curiosity" piques science interest online
John Wenzel - The Denver Post
The Curiosity Mars Rover captured the public's imagination when it landed on the red planet Aug. 6, 2012, and a new short film from a pair of Colorado-bred creatives celebrates the science and inspiration behind its accomplishments.
"Our Curiosity," a video tribute to NASA's most popular Mars Science Laboratory project, has racked up more than 55,000 views on YouTube since it was posted Aug. 7.
Timed to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the Curiosity landing, the video is the work of Cherry Creek High School grads Austin Wintory, a Los Angeles-based composer, and Jeff Marlow, an astrobiologist and Wired magazine writer who officially blogged about Curiosity for NASA.
"We wanted to evangelize for the fact that this is really quite cutting-edge science but also very tangible and understandable," Wintory said.
The video features narration by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who recently starred in the reboot of Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" TV series.
Wintory and Marlow hatched the idea for the six-minute video over a year ago, working backward from the normal production process by composing music and recording voice-overs before creating any imagery. Caltech, via NASA, helped fund the modest project with "tens of thousands of dollars."
All Russian Space Sex Geckos Die on Flight Mission
Matthew Bodner – The Moscow Times
Every last one of Russia's famed reptilian cosmonauts, known affectionately as the "sex geckos" owing to the carnal nature of their space voyage, has died, the Federal Space Agency revealed Monday.
The geckos had been on a two-month mission launched to facilitate research on the effects of zero-gravity on reproductive systems.
Last week, Roscosmos announced abruptly that the mission had reached completion earlier than anticipated — after a mere 44 days.
The satellite landed in Orenburg on Monday afternoon amid widespread speculation on the crew of tiny cosmonauts' survival prospects. Upon cracking open the hatch, rescue teams discovered a tragic scene.
"All the geckos, unfortunately, died," the statement said, adding that the exact date, time and cause of death will be determined by specialists in Moscow, the Federal Space Agency said in a joint news release with the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Medical-Biological Problems on Monday.
In happier news, the gecko's fellow space-travelers — a team of flies — survived the flight and reproduced successfully, the statement said.
The geckos' mission was daring, fraught with risk, and no one was certain they would ever make it home.
After launching aboard their Foton-M4 satellite from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan on July 19, Russia's mission control center outside Moscow reported that it had lost all communications with the satellite.
Although the satellite was still intact, Roscosmos was unable to issue controls to the satellite. Fortunately, on July 26, it was reported that control was reestablished over the geckos' spacecraft and the mission moved forward as planned.
Still, no one was quite sure what had become of the geckos.
The Foton satellite was not equipped to transmit live feeds back to mission control. Were the geckos having sex? Or were they already dead? These lingering questions will only now be answered, as Russian scientists will likely pick apart the 44 days of footage to discern the exact cause of the lizards' demise.
Russia, US Establish Information Exchange for Emergency Situations
RIA Novosti
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry (EMERCOM) and the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have agreed on the exchange of information on large-scale natural and man-made disasters, EMERCOM reported Friday.
"The exchange of information between crisis centers of Russia's EMERCOM and the FEMA with respect to emergency situations on the territory of the United States and the Russian Federation has begun," the statement said.
The parties also agreed on cooperating to protect their populations and infrastructures from asteroid and comet hazards and on rescue work at mining facilities.
Earlier it was reported that the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the EMERCOM reached agreements on the monitoring and prediction of climate-related disasters, including earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and fires.
In 1996, the United States and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Emergency Management.
US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Passes 600 Days in Orbit
The U.S. Air Force's mysterious unmanned space plane has winged beyond 600 days in orbit on a classified military mission that seems to have no end.
The X-37B space plane is carrying out the Orbital Test Vehicle-3 (OTV-3) mission, a long-duration cruise that marks the third flight for the unpiloted Air Force spaceflight program.
The Air Force launched the miniature space shuttle into orbit on Dec. 11, 2012 using an expendable Atlas 5 rocket. By the end of Friday (Aug. 29), the space plane had spent 627 days in orbit. That's one year, eight months, 19 days and counting, to be exact.
"The Air Force continues to push the envelope of the solar-powered X-37B capabilities," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
A secretive space plane
The reusable X-37B looks like a mini version of NASA's now-retired space shuttle. This space plane is 29 feet (8.8 meters) long and 9.5 feet (2.9 m) tall, and has a wingspan of nearly 15 feet (4.6 m).
The X-37B's payload bay is the size of a pickup truck bed. In contrast, NASA's space shuttle payload bay could fit two X-37B space planes comfortably inside. At liftoff, the X-37B space plane weighs 11,000 lbs. (4,990 kilograms).
"While far above the longevity of any other reusable spacecraft, it is far below that of most U.S. satellites, which are built to last for years, even decades," Johnson-Freese told Space.com. "That certainly confirms the broad, officially stated goal of the X-37B as a test bed vehicle."
It's logical to assume that the classified payloads tucked inside the X-37B include new sensors and satellite hardware that will be tested, Johnson-Freese said. If so, then the more time on orbit, the more testing that can be done, she said.
"While the classified nature of the X-37B has raised some concerns about its intended operational purposes, technically, the program must be commended for doing something new … and successfully," Johnson-Freese said.
X-37B in flight: Three missions
The Air Force is believed to have only two X-37B space planes. These space planes have flown at otal of three missions, which are known as OTV-1, OTV-2 and OTV-3. ("OTV" is short for Orbital Test Vehicle.)
The first mission blasted off in April 2010, and the craft circled Earth for 225 days. The second X-37B vehicle launched in March 2011, performing the OTV-2 mission. This spaceflight lasted 469 days, ultimately landing at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2012. That was the same landing site OTV-1 used after completing its mission.
The current OTV-3 mission is reusing the first X-37B space plane from the OTV-1 flight, showcasing the reusability aspect of the program.
What's the mystery mission's secret?
Before retiring from the Air Force this month, Gen. William Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, remained bullish on the X-37B's hush-hush mission.
"I'll give you my standard line on X-37," Shelton told Space.com at the National Space Foundation's 30th Space Symposium in May. "X-37 is doing great. I can't tell you what it's doing, but it's doing great." Meanwhile, Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems, the Air Force's supplier for the X-37B space planes, told Space.com that there was nothing it could share regarding the ongoing mission. Military interests in space
While the purpose of the X-37B space plane program remains stealthy, the U.S. military space interests are clearly visible.
In July, Shelton spoke at the Atlantic Council on the U.S. future in space, noting that "space forces are foundational to every military operation, from humanitarian to major combat
operations. It really doesn't matter — space has to be there … [satellites must be] continuously deployed in place, providing communications, missile warning, navigation, space surveillance and weather services."
Traffic is building in space, as many new entrants have joined the ranks of spacefaring nations and "counter-space" capabilities (technologies to deny a nation's use of space assets) are becoming more concerning, Shelton added.
Shelton said that the U.S. Air Force Space Command is considering several space tracks, such as lowering the cost and complexity of new space capabilities.
"We're watching carefully as other nations significantly increase their investment in counter-space programs," Shelton said. "We absolutely must adjust our approach and response, and the time for those decisions is approaching very rapidly."
Will X-37B land in Florida?
The Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office carries out the clandestine missions for X-37B space planes, the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado handles mission control for OTV flights.
The first two OTV missions flew back to Earth on autopilot, each time touching down on a tarmac at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. But that could change.
Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems has announced plans to consolidate its space plane operations by using NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a landing site for the X-37B. Earlier this year, Boeing announced plans to expand its presence in Florida by adding technology, engineering and support jobs at the space center.
As part of that Boeing plan, investments will be made to convert the former space shuttle facility, Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-1), to a structure that would enable the U.S. Air Force "to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV)," according to Boeing representatives.
At the time of the Jan. 3 announcement, this construction was to be completed by the second quarter of 2015, Boeing representatives said.
Space Notebook: Robonaut 2 gets legs, New Horizons Pluto-bound
James Dean – Florida Today
Android helper stands 8 feet tall
Before Robonaut 2, the humanoid robot aboard the International Space Station, could take its first steps later this year, it needed legs.
Expedition 40 commander Steve Swanson attached them last week, the latest step in a series of "mobility upgrades."
Designed by NASA in partnership with General Motors, the "R2" torso arrived at the station in 2011 and has been attached to a pedestal.
The gold-helmeted robot has tested a variety of tasks with its human-like arms and hands, such as moving knobs and switches and handling tools that might give astronauts time to work on more complex problems.
Legs weren't part of the original design, but NASA eventually hopes to send Robonaut outside the station, where it could potentially perform a job without putting an astronaut in harm's way on a spacewalk.
With the two gangly legs straight, Robonaut would stand more than eight feet tall. Unlike the torso, the legs do not resemble a person's appendages.
"In space you don't use your human legs the way you would use them on the ground, so we didn't adhere to the human form when it doesn't make any sense," Ron Diftler, the Robonaut 2 principal investigator, told NASA TV's "Space Station Live."
"In the case of space, you want legs that are going to give you more of a climbing capability than a walking capability," Diftler said.
R2 could take its first steps inside the outpost in November or December.
Satellites OK, but in wrong orbits
The European Space Agency is scrambling to salvage a pair of navigation satellites delivered to the wrong orbit during an Aug. 22 launch by a Russian Soyuz rocket from French Guiana.
The agency last week said the Galileo 5 and 6 satellites — nicknamed "Doresa" and "Milena" — were safe and under control, though in a lower, elliptical orbit, instead of a higher, circular orbit.
The satellites likely cannot maneuver themselves to the right position. After seeing what they are capable of in their present orbit, ESA would then assess recovery possibilities.
Craft will be first to visit Pluto
More than eight years after launching from Cape Canaveral, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is now less than a year from becoming the first probe to make a close encounter with Pluto.
Last week, the piano-sized spacecraft reached Neptune's orbit nearly 2.75 billion miles from Earth.
"Exactly 25 years ago at Neptune, Voyager 2 delivered our 'first' look at an unexplored planet," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters. "Now it will be New Horizons' turn to reveal the unexplored Pluto and its moons in stunning detail next summer on its way into the vast outer reaches of the solar system."
Space commander stops in at ULA
The new commander of the Air Force's Space and Missile Systems Center last week visited the Decatur, Ala., rocket factory run by United Launch Alliance, the Air Force's only certified launcher of national security payloads.
"Through 75 launches, (the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program) has successfully and repeatedly demonstrated a commitment to mission success," Lt. Gen. Sam Greaves said. "This is a superb record, but we cannot take it for granted."
Greaves' visit came a few weeks after he dropped in at SpaceX, which is in the process of earning certification to compete for national security launches.
3rd FIT scientist OK'd for Hubble
The Space Notebook last week reported that Florida Tech's Eric Perlman and Veronique Petit had won observation time on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
It turns out a third member of the Melbourne university's Department of Physics and Space Sciences faculty also can claim the honor: Asst. Prof. Darin Ragozzine. He'll use Hubble to study the dwarf planet Haumea in the outer solar system, to better determine the size and orbits of its two moons.
Contracts set at Cape, KSC
NASA last week extended a contract with Jacobs Technology Inc., Kennedy Space Center's lead contractor for ground systems, flight hardware processing and launch operations.
Tullahoma, Tenn.-based Jacobs took over that role from United Space Alliance after the shuttle's retirement.
The two-year extension of the Test and Operations Support Contract ran through Sept. 30, 2016, with a value of $172.8 million.
Jacobs work supports the International Space Station; NASA's developing human exploration rocket, spacecraft and ground systems; KSC's Launch Services Program; and commercial customers.
Separately, the Air Force announced contract modifications for two 45th Space Wing contractors. The awards totaled $80.2 million for Computer Sciences Raytheon and $30.7 million for Indyne, Inc.
NASA's choice to fly crews to ISS coming any day now
James Dean – Florida Today
SpaceX headquarters was abuzz on a recent morning as NASA representatives and the company's independent safety advisers met in California to review its progress designing a Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts.
"As you can imagine, all the SpaceX folks here are waiting anxiously for some announcement to see what's going on," said former astronaut Leroy Chiao, who was there visiting as a member of the safety advisory panel.
That highly anticipated NASA announcement — expected any day — will reveal who has won a high-stakes competition to fly astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017, ending America's reliance on Russia to ferry crews to and from the outpost.
The decision will have an immediate impact on the Space Coast, home to NASA's Commercial Crew Program headquarters and the place from which all three known contenders – The Boeing Co., Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceX – will launch their missions, potentially bringing hundreds of new jobs.
While hardly a return to the "good old days" of a shuttle program supporting 15,000 people, said University of Central Florida Prof. Roger Handberg, "it gives hope to the Space Coast."
Longer-term, the one or more winning companies will try to grow a market for flights of non-NASA astronauts to low Earth orbit. They will pioneer a commercial role in human spaceflight that was considered a radical change when a White House panel endorsed it in 2009 and the Obama administration proposed it in 2010.
"It represents a new way of doing business," said Wayne Hale, a former NASA shuttle program manager. "The principles are to maintain safety and reliability that we're all familiar with in this risky enterprise, but also to do it at a much reduced cost."
NASA projects spending $3.4 billion over the next five years to develop and fly the new commercial crew systems — slightly more than the agency will spend this year alone on the development of an exploration rocket and spacecraft, or than it spent on the shuttle's last full year of operations in 2010.
That follows $1.5 billion spent since 2010 — not including the companies' undisclosed investments — primarily on SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Boeing's CST-100 capsule and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser mini-shuttle, and related systems for launching them on SpaceX's Falcon 9 or United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rockets.
How much money Congress will actually provide, starting next year, remains uncertain. So NASA's first major decision is how many vehicles to continue funding.
Most experts expect two winners. NASA has consistently said competition is key to producing the safest, most affordable systems, and it doesn't want to rely on a single provider in case that company runs into problems.
"The program has been, in my mind, unfortunately starved for resources in its early years," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University. "But it seems like Congress has finally woken up to the reality that this can't be done on the cheap, and that NASA needs the money that's been requested to move forward."
The result could be two roughly equal contracts, or one big winner and a smaller runner up. Or another combination involving one or several companies with funded and unfunded agreements.
Boeing and SpaceX appear on first blush to be the favorites, having been awarded twice as much money as Sierra Nevada in the competition's previous round in 2012.
A handful of experts claiming no inside knowledge about the decision and no preferred outcome, speculated to FLORIDA TODAY that SpaceX would be hard to beat, and that Sierra Nevada may be an underdog but shouldn't be counted out.
Each company must first prove it can meet NASA's voluminous safety requirements. Then, significantly, cost counts for about half of NASA's evaluation of the proposals.
Here are some of each company's strengths and weaknesses:
Boeing: An aerospace powerhouse that has participated in human spaceflight since its origins, Houston-based Boeing Space Exploration has received the most development money so far and may represent the safest pick politically.
"Everybody knows the name Boeing," said Chiao. "They're a big aerospace company, they know how to build spacecraft."
Key to Boeing's pitch is its promise to assemble the CST-100 capsule in renovated former shuttle facilities at Kennedy Space Center and to base up to 550 employees here, probably adding the most local jobs.
The CST-100 is based on heritage systems that stress proven technology over innovation, but it has never flown in space. It would fly atop an Atlas V rocket, which has launched nearly 50 times.
Many presume Boeing has submitted the most expensive bid, and the company has said continuing a commercial crew program without a NASA contract is doubtful. Employees have been notified to expect layoffs if Boeing loses.
NASA may weigh whether a legacy company is the best pick to spur an era of lower-cost human access to space, a mission embodied more by Boeing's smaller and younger "new space" competitors. If Boeing doesn't advance in commercial crew, it will remain a primary contractor involved in space station operations and development of NASA's new exploration rocket.
"There is a large contingent of folks in the space policy arena that feel that a new space company should lead the way," said Hale. "It's not entirely clear to me where all the political pieces are going to fall."
SpaceX: Its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule already deliver cargo to the International Space Station, and the Falcon 9, now with 11 successful launches, is the most affordable rocket available.
SpaceX would launch crews from KSC's historic pad 39A, which it leased from NASA earlier this year, while the other two spacecraft would launch from the Atlas V pad next door at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Astronaut launches from its former Apollo and shuttle pad would give KSC a boost.
SpaceX is pushing technological envelopes with efforts to develop reusable rockets and a Dragon that can land on land with helicopter-like precision — potentially game-changing innovations that might not work. The company might find performing under a traditional NASA contract more difficult than the more flexible Space Act Agreements the program has utilized to date.
Founder and CEO Elon Musk is revered in business and technology circles, but his brash approach has rankled some in the aerospace establishment and Congress.
"I don't think SpaceX can be turned down, unless they find just a real major technical issue," said Handberg. "SpaceX is so publicly and politically potent right now."
But he noted that SpaceX likely would add the fewest local jobs, since its manufacturing and development work is done elsewhere.
Started with a vision of colonizing Mars, SpaceX has said losing out on a NASA contract would slow but not stop the company's plans to fly people.
Sierra Nevada: The Dream Chaser offers the field's only alternative to an Apollo-like capsule, a winged vehicle that looks and works more like a shuttle, and thus appeals to many at NASA.
The lifting body design, evolved from one NASA started years ago, provides some advantages over capsules, like lower G-forces during reentry and flexibility to land on runways across the country.
"For the low Earth orbit job . . . wings are perfect," said John Curry, Dream Chaser co-program manager, during a recent presentation to the Canaveral chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. "Capsules are not the way to do it, in my opinion."
The Dream Chaser also would lift off on an Atlas V. Sierra Nevada has already booked a November 2016 launch for an uncrewed orbital test flight.
The company's Colorado-based Space Systems division has built rocket engines, spacecraft components and satellites, but never an orbital spacecraft like Boeing and SpaceX have. It promises a significant Florida presence to process and refurbish Dream Chasers, including plans to share the KSC facility where Lockheed Martin is assembling NASA's Orion exploration capsule.
Sierra Nevada has inked multiple partnerships with international space agencies, signaling its desire to broaden Dream Chaser customers beyond NASA and possibly to secure a future even without a NASA contract.
Boeing and Sierra Nevada share a disadvantage that seemingly helps SpaceX: their Atlas V rocket depends on a Russian main engine at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are deteriorating.
A Russian official's threat to stop providing the RD-180 engine for military launches seems less of a concern now, but SpaceX offers an option free of that uncertainty.
Whatever the competition's outcome, Chiao, who served on the Augustine Committee that in 2009 endorsed commercial crew flights as a viable option, said the program is a bright spot for NASA.
"I'm glad to see that this Commercial Crew Program is moving ahead and has been making some great strides," he said.
The upcoming decision is a big one for NASA and for many individuals like Curry, who left NASA for a riskier opportunity to help lead a Dream Chaser team that he said could "do something spectacular."
He awaits the news confident Sierra Nevada has submitted a compelling spacecraft design and spent its money wisely.
"The design of the vehicle is the best possible design that we can bring forward, and from that, I have peace," he said. "I'll let the chips fall as they may."
END
No comments:
Post a Comment