Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Thursday – Jan. 8, 2015

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 8, 2015 at 2:09:56 PM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Thursday – Jan. 8, 2015

Wow,,,,what a great turnout for our initial NASA Retirees Luncheon of 2015.  

It was great as usual to see all of you that were able to join us for the great food and fellowship.     I am sorry I ran out of Calendars before you were able to get one….I will see if I can get another batch for a future monthly Luncheon from PAO (don't count on it because their Budget is so badly reduced)! 

We are so thankful and truily blessed that PAO is able to provide outreach materials to share with you all whom have contributed most of your lives making Human Spaceflight such a success, JSC, and NASA  the outstanding Center and Agency we are today.

Teresa Sullivan did a rough headcount and including Spouses  ,,,she believes we had about 50 people in attendance today!  Some of the attendees were very very recent retirees too…….. WOW.  For those of you who were too ill to join us   --get well soon.

No surprise that the SpaceX launch appears to be delayed again since the problem that were having was in the Second Stage of their rocket. 

Stay warm and healthy everyone ….hope to see you next month at our February 5^th monthly Luncheon—same time same place.

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – Jan. 8, 2015

HEADLINES AND LEADS

SpaceX CRS-5 Slips Another Day to January 10

Marcia S. Smith - Spacepolicyonline.com

The launch of SpaceX's fifth operational cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed another day, to January 10, 2015. The launch time for SpaceX CRS-5, or SpX-5, that day is 4:47 am EST. NASA TV coverage will begin at 3:30 am EST.

Bolden hints at commercial participation on human deep space efforts

Jason Rhian - Spaceflight Insider

NASA held an impromptu photo opportunity with the Orion spacecraft that carried out the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission, which was flown on Dec. 5, 2014. During the Jan. 6 event NASA Administrator Charles Bolden expressed the ongoing support that the agency has for commercial space flight efforts – as well as the personality the former Marine Corps General – has become known for. Perhaps more importantly, the administrator hinted that commercial companies might have a role to play in the agency's deep space exploration efforts.

Huge Prospects for Science and Humans to Mars: Conversation with Hubble Astronaut/NASA Science Chief John Grunsfeld (Part 2)

Ken Kremer – AmericaSpace

 

"A great path" lies ahead for "science and launching humans to Mars" says astronaut and NASA science chief John Grunsfeld, during part 2 of a wide ranging conversation with AmericaSpace at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the midst of the maiden launch of NASA's new Orion deep space capsule. Be sure to read Part 1 – here.

Is Moon Mining Economically Feasible?

Leonard David - Space.com

The moon may offer pay dirt with a rewarding mother lode of resources, a celestial gift that is literally up for grabs. But what's really there for the taking, and at what cost?

Search for the First True Alien Earth Heats Up

Mike Wall - Space.com

The first true alien Earth may not elude planet hunters for much longer.

NASA's MESSENGER probe to fly close to Mercury before final boost

Jim Sharkey - Spaceflight Insider.com

 

After more than 10 years in space and nearly four years orbiting the planet Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER mission will soon draw to a close. The spacecraft's propellent supply is running low and it will eventually crash into the surface of Mercury. On Jan. 21, MESSENGER will fire its thrusters in a 120-second burst which will boost it up to an altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers). Before that happens, MESSENGER will descend to an altitude of 16 miles (25 kilometers), closer than ever to the planet's surface, subjecting it to heat extreme enough to melt the solder of some of its scientific instruments. While MESSENGER's sun shade is designed to withstand temperatures up to 350 degrees Celsius, the surface of Mercury will radiate heat back onto the shaded instruments. When MESSENGER's Altitude dips below 26 kilometers, the shaded area will warm up to 185 degrees Celsius and the solder will begin to melt.

 

Outside the Spacecraft: Exhibit celebrates 50 years of astronaut spacewalks

Robert Pearlman - Collectspace.com

 

The Smithsonian is inviting the public to take a stroll through half a century of spacewalks.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

SpaceX CRS-5 Slips Another Day to January 10

Marcia S. Smith - Spacepolicyonline.com

The launch of SpaceX's fifth operational cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been delayed another day, to January 10, 2015. The launch time for SpaceX CRS-5, or SpX-5, that day is 4:47 am EST. NASA TV coverage will begin at 3:30 am EST.

The launch was scrubbed on Tuesday, January 6, just over one minute before launch. The problem was with a thrust vector control actuator in a second stage engine. That was the latest is a series of schedule changes for this mission, whose original launch date was December 9.

 

If launch does not take place on Saturday, the next opportunity is Tuesday, January 13, at 3:36 am EST.

The launch is generating a lot of interest because SpaceX plans to return the Falcon 9 first stage to an "autonomous drone ship" as a further step in its goal to develop a reusable rocket. SpaceX officials stress, however, that the primary objective of this mission is delivering cargo to the ISS. SpaceX is one of two companies that provide "commercial cargo" services to NASA. The other, Orbital Sciences Corporation, is currently recovering from the loss of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft in an October launch failure and it is not clear when its next launch will take place. Thus, NASA is quite anxious to get this SpaceX mission launched to deliver 5,108 pounds of food, water, clothing, research experiments and equipment.

 

The delay could also affect other SpaceX launches. The launch of the NOAA-NASA-Air Force Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) was already delayed by an earlier slip to this SpX-5 launch.

 

Bolden hints at commercial participation on human deep space efforts

Jason Rhian - Spaceflight Insider

NASA held an impromptu photo opportunity with the Orion spacecraft that carried out the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission, which was flown on Dec. 5, 2014. During the Jan. 6 event NASA Administrator Charles Bolden expressed the ongoing support that the agency has for commercial space flight efforts – as well as the personality the former Marine Corps General – has become known for. Perhaps more importantly, the administrator hinted that commercial companies might have a role to play in the agency's deep space exploration efforts.

The Orion spacecraft was unveiled with the opening of the doors at the Launch Abort System Facility located at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. After a short wait, Paul Cooper, a manager with Lockheed Martin, the spacecraft's manufacturer and the Kennedy Space Center Associate Director Kelvin Manning gave brief opening remarks. They were followed by Bolden who lauded the team who recovered Orion, inviting them to join him in front of the crowd. He then asked some of them to regale those in attendance with what the experience of retrieving the uncrewed spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean was like.

Bolden has become known among members of the media for being comfortable with showing emotions to the public. When asking one worker who assisted in Orion's recovery, Bolden asked the man had encountered an; "…oh s###" moment.

During the event, Bolden also expressed optimism regarding SpaceX's efforts to land the first stage of its Falcon 9 v1.1 booster on a barge positioned out in the Atlantic Ocean (that flight is now scheduled to take place on Jan 10 at 4:47 a.m. EST).

"We are expectantly happy about getting the first stage (to land) on a barge," Bolden said. "Our big objective, if you want to know the bottom line, is getting launch costs down, and if reusable spacecraft accomplishes that better than one that is not? We don't care who does it or how they do it – we just want to get launch costs down. It just costs too much to get to orbit these days."

Bolden, a veteran of four flights to orbit himself, made sure to note that Orion and those spacecraft that currently ferry supplies to the International Space Station (as well as those that are being developed to send crew to the orbiting lab as well) are not competing with one another.

"There is no competition between this vehicle (Orion) or any of the commercial vehicles," Bolden said. "This vehicle has one purpose, and that was the agreement that we made with industry, that NASA would focus on deep space exploration and we selected Orion as the vehicle to do that for us."

Instead, Bolden noted that sending crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit – is something NASA has been doing for more than 50 years and it was time to allow commercial space entities to take responsibility in this area.

"We do hope that Orion blazes the trail for others to follow it, just as we did with Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle…we got really comfortable that we knew how to get to low-Earth orbit and we felt that it was time to hand that off to industry," Bolden said. "I think when we finish the first few flights on Orion, we will feel comfortable enough to say, 'okay guys' help us out if you can and we want as many companies as possible to be poised to do that."

This statement suggests that the space agency plans to further the relationships that it has forged with private partners in the past decade. NASA has developed an array of programs designed to enable aerospace firms to handle tasks that were at one time the sole purview of NASA.

Bolden retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2004 with the rank of Major General, he was nominated by President Barack Obama to be the NASA Administrator on May 23, 2009.

Huge Prospects for Science and Humans to Mars: Conversation with Hubble Astronaut/NASA Science Chief John Grunsfeld (Part 2)

Ken Kremer – AmericaSpace

 

"A great path" lies ahead for "science and launching humans to Mars" says astronaut and NASA science chief John Grunsfeld, during part 2 of a wide ranging conversation with AmericaSpace at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the midst of the maiden launch of NASA's new Orion deep space capsule. Be sure to read Part 1 – here.

 

The 'Space Race' in the 1950s and 1960s spurred not only NASA's Apollo Moon landing program to set down astronauts on the surface of another celestial body for the first time in human history, but also to dispatch the first unmanned robotic voyagers to far flung destinations throughout our Solar System and also study our home planet like never before possible.

 

"President Kennedy's goal of going to the Moon and back started something that's been truly great for our country, that has transformed the country. That's NASA!" Grunsfeld explained to AmericaSpace.

 

"I think we are on a great path … with enormous scientific potential," Grunsfeld told me.

 

"It's an exciting time in space science."

 

"That knowledge will allow us to do the work … including on the ISS … that will allow us to move forward so we can launch people to Mars in the next couple of decades."

 

And it is often said those first photos from outer space showing Earth's full globe as a fragile blue water world set against the blackness of space – taken by the Apollo moon walking astronauts and unmanned emissaries – also awakened and ignited the environmental movement in the 1960s to protect our planet and catalog and use its resources wisely.

 

As a scientist, astronomer and top NASA manager Grunsfeld has the experience, position and authority to act on the goals outlined by Kennedy and deliver on those promises in all those fields of human exploration of the Cosmos and the Earth for the advancement of human knowledge and our species.

 

Although he is best known for servicing and upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope during eight crucial spacewalks on a trio of shuttle flights, Grunsfeld now serves as NASA's Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

 

Therefore Grunsfeld is a key decision maker with respect to both NASA's robotic and human science and exploration initiatives.

 

He outlined some specific examples of the great prospects that lie ahead on all fronts.

 

Let's start with what's upcoming regarding unmanned science missions.

 

What are your plans and goals for NASA's robotic science and discovery programs going forward, I asked?

 

"I think we are on a great path."

 

"We have enormous prospects for great science with missions to Europa and Mars 2020. We will be at Pluto in July. Then we have Juno," Grunsfeld replied.

 

"Then ORIRIS-REx bringing samples back from an asteroid. We have agreements with Japan on Hayabusa that just launched successfully to exchange samples from another asteroid."

 

The Europa Clipper orbiter mission received over $100 million in funding for concept development in the Fiscal Year 2015 NASA appropriation bill approved by the US Congress and signed by President Obama just before Christmas.

 

The Mars 2020 rover is based on the design of the Curiosity Mars Science Laboratory rover. In 2014, NASA announced the science instruments selected to fly aboard – detailed here.

 

The JUNO Jupiter orbiter will arrive at our solar system's largest planet in 2016. Read the details and my interview with the PI – here.

 

New Horizons will fly past Pluto and its moons in July for the first expedition to the last planet in our Solar System. The swing by will be used as a gravity assist to aim the probe to another object in the Kuiper Belt several years later based on observations conducted using Hubble in 2014.

 

The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now well under construction by Lockheed Martin in Denver, CO, and targeted to launch to Asteroid Bennu in 2016. It will retrieve samples for return to Earth in the 2020s.

 

And of course there are other missions moving along as well such as the Dawn Asteroid orbiter spacecraft arriving at Dwarf planet Ceres in March. The InSight Mars lander is under construction for 2016 launch.

 

How about Earth science?

 

"There is enormous scientific potential including from a whole series of Earth science missions."

 

"They are going to help us really understand the Earth's system. So that we understand how to survive long enough so that we can have an economy on Mars," said Grunsfeld.

 

NASA is launching a record breaking five Earth science missions over the past year that began with the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) in February 2014.

 

Next up was the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) that launched in July 2014.

 

ISS-RapidScat launched on the SpaceX CRS-4 flight in September 2014.

 

CATS and DSCOVR are launching this month.

 

Meanwhile Hubble's legacy grows by leaps and bounds every day.

 

Thanks to the brave and tireless work of Grunsfeld and the entire team of scientists, engineers and astronauts at NASA, ESA, as well as in industry and academia the world famous telescope will celebrate its 25th anniversary in April.

 

Grunsfeld was the lead spacewalker as a member of the crew of the STS-125 mission which launched on Space Shuttle Atlantis for the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope on May 11, 2009 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

 

The five spacewalks were completely successful in fully repairing and vastly upgrading the telescope and its instruments to their most scientifically productive capability.

 

Hubble is expected to continue operating for several more years. And hopefully overlap with the successor James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now under construction at NASA Goddard for launch in 2018 – detailed here and here.

Hubble remains healthy and NASA is planning big celebrations. So stay tuned for details.

"It's really a very exciting time in space science."

"And I think it's that drive and that knowledge that will continue to allow us to do the work, including what we are doing on the ISS that will allow us to move forward so that we can launch people to Mars in the next couple of decades.

 

What are you hopes and dreams for the Orion deep space capsule going forward?

 

"I hope Orion is successful."

 

"I wouldn't pin our hopes and dreams just on this specific mission [EFT-1] or the first SLS mission," Grunsfeld replied.

 

The Space Launch System (SLS) is NASA's mammoth new booster that will become the most powerful rocket in human history. It is designed to launch Orion and send humans to deep space destinations farther out from Earth than ever before.

 

The initial version will have a liftoff thrust of about 8.4 million pounds, more powerful than the Saturn V that sent our astronauts hurtling to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

The first SLS mission is now slated for launch sometime in 2018, having slid from 2017.

 

Read the details about SLS construction at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans during my on-site visit with Mike Killian for AmericaSpace – here and here.

 

In light of the catastrophic Orbital Sciences Antares rocket explosion on Oct. 28, 2014, just seconds after blastoff from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and in the context of the Orion EFT-1 and SpaceX cargo launches, I asked Grunsfeld his opinion of what happened and its impact?

 

"This is why we as astronauts are so involved in the details," Grunsfeld told AmericaSpace. "You really have to be well informed about what the risks are."

 

"I think it's really unfortunate what happened. But we are learning," he said in Part 1.

 

And he favors the development of capsules.

 

"I'm actually a big capsule advocate for our current situation. The capsule is really the simplest thing that you can build to get off the surface of the Earth."

 

In part 2 we discuss the launch abort system (LAS), critical to saving astronauts lives in a split second in case of a rocket failure.

 

Do you have an opinion about the launch abort systems, pusher vs. puller, for Orion and the commercial capsules?

 

"The puller is conventional and we know it works."

 

"In fact for the current design of the Orion exterior shape I actually went and looked at the Polaris system and thought about using the escape tower as an aero spike. And having an aerodynamic heat shield on the outside to try and release drag."

 

"And that is what they ultimately incorporated [for Orion]."

 

"So there are advantages that you can leverage by using the escape tower as an aero spike."

 

"People talk about pushers for a long time. That's why Scott Horowitz originally had a pusher design on the Orion. And I think they flew some scale model tests off that. So we'll see."

 

Where did Grunsfeld think his astronaut career would take him?

 

"I always dreamt about going to the Moon and to Mars."

 

"That's what I thought I'd be doing in my spaceflight career. So that's what I want to enable in future astronauts and cosmonauts and taikonauts and whatever else we have," Grunsfeld explained.

 

How should we as a species go to Mars?

 

"Our US Mars effort is international. We are tight partners with the European Space Agency. The Canadian Space Agency has a role. We all want to do this."

 

"For many years and while I was an astronaut I saw the complexities of working and building the International Space Station with our partners. And I thought that for an International Space Station that was orbiting the Earth this was a great idea."

 

"But to go to Mars it would be cheaper and simpler just to go and do it as just a US led effort. And not involve a lot of international partners. And that is probably true."

 

"But about four years ago I was working with a team of Hubble astronomers that was an international group, and I suddenly thought that I've been wrong all these years about the international cooperation to Mars.

"

"Yes it might be faster. Yes it might be cheaper. But it would miss the whole point of going to Mars."

 

"When we go to another planet, specifically like Mars that's the only planet in our solar system that we could actually live on, then we shouldn't go only as one country or another country or in a race."

 

"We should go to Mars as 'Humans' – leaving planet Earth, to another planet that we are going to live on."

 

"So I am a huge fan now that it should be as international as possible and as inclusive as possible."

 

Stay tuned here for continuing updates.

Is Moon Mining Economically Feasible?

Leonard David - Space.com

The moon may offer pay dirt with a rewarding mother lode of resources, a celestial gift that is literally up for grabs. But what's really there for the taking, and at what cost?

A new assessment of whether or not there's an economic case for mining the moon has been put forward by Ian Crawford, a professor of planetary science and astrobiology at Birkbeck College, London. His appraisal is to appear in a forthcoming issue of the journal Progress in Physical Geography.

Crawford said it's hard to identify any single lunar resource that will be sufficiently valuable to drive a lunar resource extraction industry on its own. Nonetheless, he said the moon does possess abundant raw materials that are of potential economic interest. [Home On the Moon: How to Build a Lunar Colony (Infographic)]

Lunar resources could be used to help build up an industrial infrastructure in near-Earth space, Crawford said, a view shared by space scientist Paul Spudis of the Lunar Planetary Institute and others.

"If the moon's resources are going to be helpful, they are going to be helpful beyond the surface of the moon itself," Crawford said. Still, the overall case for any future payoff from exploiting the moon's resources has yet to be made, Crawford said.

"It's quite complicated," he told Space.com. "It's not simple at all."

Vanishing resource

One bit of skepticism from Crawford concerns helium-3. Advocates envision mining the moon for this isotope of helium, which gets embedded in the upper layer of lunar regolith by the solar wind over billions of years. Hauling back the stuff from the moon could power still-to-be-built nuclear fusion reactors here on Earth, advocates say.

"It doesn't make sense, the whole helium-3 argument," Crawford said. Strip-mining the lunar surface over hundreds of square kilometers would produce lots of helium-3, he said, but the substance is a limited resource.

"It's a fossil fuel reserve. Like mining all the coal or mining all the oil, once you've mined it … it's gone," Crawford said. The investment required and infrastructure necessary to help solve the world's future energy needs via moon-extracted helium-3 is enormous and might better be used to develop genuinely renewable energy sources on Earth, he added.

"It strikes me that, as far as energy is concerned, there are better things one should be investing in. So I'm skeptical for that reason. But that doesn't mean that I don't think the moon, in the long-term, is economically useful," Crawford said.

But Crawford has a caveat about helium-3: Estimates for the abundance of the isotope are based on Apollo moon samples brought back from the low latitudes of the moon.

"It's possible that helium-3 and other solar-wind–implanted ions, like hydrogen, may be in a higher abundance in the cold regolith near the lunar poles. That would be an important measurement to make and would require a polar lander," Crawford said.

Such information would increase researchers' knowledge, not only of the helium-3 inventory, but also possibly of useful solar wind-implanted elements, like helium-4, as well as hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen resources, he added.

Consistent story

A top of the list, must-do action item, Crawford said, is determining how much water is truly locked up within the moon's polar craters.

Remote sensing of the moon from orbiting spacecraft, including radar data, is telling a consistent story about this resource, which can be processed into oxygen and rocket fuel. [Water on the Moon: What It Could Mean for Exploration (Video)]

"But to really get to the bottom of it, we need in-situ [on-the-spot] measurements from the surface at the lunar poles," Crawford said. "It's first on my list [of necessary steps] … and when we have an answer to that, we can plan accordingly."

Rare earth elements

Better knowledge of the availability of rare earth elements on the moon would also be valuable, Crawford said.

"It's entirely possible that when we really explore the moon properly we will find higher concentrations of some of these materials … materials that are not resolvable by orbital remote sensing," he said. The moon might harbor concentrations of rare earth elements such as uranium and thorium — as well as other useful materials that we're not aware of today — in small, geographically restricted areas, he said,

"To explore the whole moon at the level of detail required, that's a big undertaking," Crawford said. "But long term, we should be keeping an open mind to that."

Crashed asteroids

In rounding out his lunar resource listing, Crawford points to the high-value platinum-group elements. As space researcher Dennis Wingo and others previously pointed out, a lot of metallic asteroids have pummeled the moon over the eons. Locating those impactors could lead lunar prospectors to big yields of valuable platinum-group elements, Crawford said.

"If you're just interested in platinum group elements, you would probably go and mine the asteroids," Crawford said. "On the other hand, if going to the moon for scavenging polar volatiles, rare earth elements … then the impact sites of crashed asteroids could offer an added bonus."

"So you add all of these things together, [then] even without helium-3, you can start to see that the moon might become of economic interest in the longer term. That's my take," Crawford concluded.

Time to demonstrate

How should humanity demonstrate the collection, extraction and utilization of lunar resources? And when should this happen?

"Lunar resource exploration should be based on the same methods that have guided humans on their centuries-old exploration of terrestrial resources," said Angel Abbud-Madrid, director of the Center for Space Resources at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

Abbud-Madrid told Space.com that here on Earth, resource discovery is quickly followed by drilling, excavation, extraction and processing operations to enable the utilization of those resources.

"For the moon, sufficient prospecting — through remote sensing — and identification of valuable resources, such as oxygen and hydrogen for in-situ applications, has been done to date," Abbud-Madrid said. Based on these findings, he said, the necessary technologies and prototypes to collect and extract these elements have been developed and tested on terrestrial analog sites.

For example, NASA's Resource Prospector Mission, a concept mission aiming for launch in 2018, would verify the feasibility of lunar resource extraction, as would several other mission concepts from the private sector, Abbud-Madrid said. Such work, in turn, will pave the way to incorporating In Situ Resource Utilization, known as ISRU, in future exploration planning, he said.

"Thus, the time has come to demonstrate these systems on the surface of the moon," Abbud-Madrid concluded.

To read Ian Crawford's "Lunar Resources: A Review Paper," go here.

Search for the First True Alien Earth Heats Up

Mike Wall - Space.com

The first true alien Earth may not elude planet hunters for much longer.

This week, astronomers announced that NASA's Kepler space telescope had discovered eight more relatively small planets that may be capable of hosting life as we know it, describing two of the new finds as the most Earth-like alien worlds known.

Mission scientists also announced 554 new unconfirmed Kepler "planet candidates" on Tuesday (Jan. 6); six of these potential worlds orbit sunlike stars, are close to Earth-size and are possibly habitable. [10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]

"These candidates represent the closest analogues to the Earth-sun system found to date," Fergal Mullally of the Kepler Science Office said Tuesday in Seattle during a news conference at the annual winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). "This is what Kepler has been looking for. We are now closer than we have ever been to finding a twin for the Earth around another star."

Elusive alien Earths

The $600 million Kepler mission launched in March 2009, with the primary goal of determining how commonly Earth-like planets occur throughout the Milky Way galaxy. Kepler hunts for alien worlds by searching for "transits," noting the tiny brightness dips caused when a planet crosses the face of its host star from the observatory's perspective.

 

The spacecraft carried out its original planet hunt until May 2013, when the second of its four reaction wheels failed, robbing Kepler of its precision pointing ability. The observatory began a new mission called K2 last year, during which it has continued to search for exoplanets, albeit in a more limited fashion, and has studied other cosmic objects as well. (Kepler has detected an exoplanet during the K2 mission, but all of the planets and candidates discussed in this story were spotted during the spacecraft's first four years of operation.)

 

The observatory has been remarkably successful. Kepler has discovered 1,004 alien planets to date, along with nearly 3,200 other candidates, the vast majority of which will likely be confirmed eventually. But Kepler has not yet found an Earth twin, and neither has any other telescope. [Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets]

 

The known exoplanets most similar to Earth may be Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b, two of the eight newfound worlds announced Tuesday. Kepler-438b is just 12 percent larger than Earth, and Kepler-442b is 33 percent wider than our home planet. Both exoplanets are probably rocky, and both apparently orbit in their host stars' "habitable zone" — the range of distances that could support liquid water on a world's surface.

 

But Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b circle a red dwarf and an orange dwarf, respectively — stars smaller and dimmer than the sun — so they cannot be true Earth twins.

 

Indeed, many of Kepler's confirmed habitable-zone planets orbit red dwarfs. This makes sense, and not just because about 70 percent of the Milky Way's stars are red dwarfs: Potentially habitable red dwarf planets transit more frequently than do their counterparts that circle sunlike stars, because the dimmer red dwarfs' habitable zones lie closer in. For example, Earth completes one orbit every 365 days, while the orbital period of Kepler-438b is just 35 days.

 

Probing sunlike stars

But scientists have now analyzed four years of Kepler data, giving them the ability to start seeing bona fide Earth twins at last. (The 554 newly announced candidates were pulled from observations the spacecraft made between May 2009 and April 2013.)

"We've finally become senstive to small planets in one-year orbits similar to our own Earth," Mullally said.

 

Two newfound candidates — known as KOI (Kepler Object of Interest) 5737.01 and KOI 2194.03 — are particularly intriguing, he added. Both circle sunlike stars, and appear to lie in the habitable zone. KOI 5737.01 is about 30 percent wider than Earth and completes one orbit every 376 days. KOI 2194.03 has an orbital period of 445 days, and researchers think it's about 40 percent larger than Earth.

 

"They are our best candidates for [Earth] twins," Mullally said, stressing that both potential worlds still need to be confirmed as bona fide planets.

 

And researchers aren't done poring over the observations Kepler made during its four-year prime mission.

 

"We anticipate two more [planet candidate] catalogs," Mullally said. "We don't have that much more data to analyze, but we still feel we can refine and improve the way that we search for these candidates ... and hopefully dig out a few more."

 

So the discovery of the first alien Earth may be just around the corner. And the quest to notch this milestone continues to enlighten scientists about the nature and variety of worlds beyond our solar system.

 

"By continuing to fill in the neighborhood around Earth-like conditions, we're not only closing in on an Earth twin, but we're better understanding the diversity in this special neighborhood of planets," Douglas Caldwell, of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, said Tuesday during the AAS press conference. Caldwell co-authored the study that announced the discovery of the eight new potentially habitable Kepler planets.

 

NASA's MESSENGER probe to fly close to Mercury before final boost

Jim Sharkey - Spaceflight Insider.com

 

After more than 10 years in space and nearly four years orbiting the planet Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER mission will soon draw to a close. The spacecraft's propellent supply is running low and it will eventually crash into the surface of Mercury. On Jan. 21, MESSENGER will fire its thrusters in a 120-second burst which will boost it up to an altitude of 50 miles (80 kilometers). Before that happens, MESSENGER will descend to an altitude of 16 miles (25 kilometers), closer than ever to the planet's surface, subjecting it to heat extreme enough to melt the solder of some of its scientific instruments. While MESSENGER's sun shade is designed to withstand temperatures up to 350 degrees Celsius, the surface of Mercury will radiate heat back onto the shaded instruments. When MESSENGER's Altitude dips below 26 kilometers, the shaded area will warm up to 185 degrees Celsius and the solder will begin to melt.

"When we designed the vehicle, we of course knew what temperature the [solder] melted at, but we weren't anticipating operating this long, and at these low altitudes," said MESSENGER engineer Dan O'Shaughnessy.

During MESSENGER's close approach of Mercury, the spacecraft will get an unprecedented view of the planet's cratered surface and collect data on its gravity field, surface makeup and the contents of its craters.

MESSENGER was originally expected to impact on the surface of Mercury in late March but engineers believe they have found a way to extend the mission by as much as a month. The strategy would exploit the gaseous helium used to pressurize the spacecrafts propellent tanks. The gas can be used to make small corrections to MESSENGER's trajectory.

"The team continues to find inventive ways to keep MESSENGER going, all while providing an unprecedented vantage point for studying Mercury," said Stewart Bushman, lead propulsion engineer for the mission. "To my knowledge this is the first time that helium pressurant has been intentionally used as a cold-gas propellant through hydrazine thrusters. These engines are not optimized to use pressurized gas as a propellant source. They have flow restrictors and orifices for hydrazine that reduce the feed pressure, hampering performance compared with actual cold-gas engines, which are little more than valves with a nozzle."

MESSENGER's eventual crash site is uncertain due to Mercury's uneven gravity. It is likely to land on the planet's far side, where it will be out of site until the European Space Agency's BepiColombo mission arrives in 2024.

The MESSENGER team is commemorating the mission's end with a public contest to named five craters on Mercury after any writer, composer or artist that has been famous for at least fifty years and deceased for at least three. You enter the contest, which ends on Jan. 15, by going here.

MESSENGER is an acronym for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment. GEochemistry, And Ranging. The MESSENGER Spacecraft was launched on August 3, 2004 atop a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It is only the second spacecraft to visit Mercury and the first one to orbit it. The Mariner 10 spacecraft fly by Mercury three times in 1974 and 1975.

Outside the Spacecraft: Exhibit celebrates 50 years of astronaut spacewalks

Robert Pearlman - Collectspace.com

 

The Smithsonian is inviting the public to take a stroll through half a century of spacewalks.

In its new exhibition, "Outside the Spacecraft: 50 Years of Extra-Vehicular Activity," the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of the first two human ventures into open space. Opening Thursday (Jan. 8), the six-month exhibit presents art, photography, artifacts and personal accounts that relate the continuing story of extravehicular activity or EVA — or as it is colloquially known, spacewalking.

"'Outside the Spacecraft' is the museum's opportunity to celebrate 50 years of people doing the most amazing thing I can think of and that is learning how to live and work in space using their own 'personal spacecraft' and special tools," Jennifer Levasseur, the curator of the exhibit, told collectSPACE. "Our collection is so strong in EVA-related items that this is the perfect opportunity for us to show people some unique objects and connect them to things like art, photography, and the work we do to preserve EVA history."

 

EVA changed the nature of human spaceflight. Whereas rockets could get humans into space, the ability for them to leave their spacecraft and work outside made possible walking on the moon, repairing and upgrading the Hubble Space Telescope, and assembling the International Space Station.

"As an achievement within the history of spaceflight, EVA is crucial to a long-term ability to reside in space," said Levasseur. "We needed the capability in order to build and maintain space equipment, as we continue to see on the space station."

First spacewalks 50 years ago

The first spacewalk was performed by Russian cosmonaut Alexei Leonov on March 18, 1965. His 12-minute, historic feat was followed three months later by NASA astronaut Edward White, who spent over 20 minutes in open space on June 3 of that same year.

Finding artifacts to represent White's walk in space was not difficult, explained Levasseur. The museum already had most of the equipment he used that day, including the spacesuit that he wore and the camera that he carried (the National Air and Space Museum also displays the Gemini 4 spacecraft from which White exited).

 

Representing Leonov however presented a challenge. The museum displays the cosmonaut's training spacesuit and airlock, but in another of its galleries. His flown spacesuit, Voskhod 2 spacecraft and equipment are all on exhibit in Russia.

"We have to tell the stories of Leonov and White, which is more difficult as a [U.S.] national museum in the case of Leonov," Levasseur explained. "In his case, we could tell a different aspect of his story with the military uniform he donated to us."

The curators were also able to encompass both historic outings through the imagery they generated.

"The visuals of those [spacewalks], moving and still, are included to really show people what it looked like those first times," Levasseur described. "And we can bring that full circle by including some very recent photographs of ISS EVAs at the end [of the exhibit]."

Over the Earth and on the moon

"Outside the Spacecraft" spans the history of spacewalks, from Leonov's and White's first EVAs 50 years ago to the 369th spacewalk made last June by a pair of cosmonauts outside the International Space Station. In the half century since the initial outings, more than 200 people have "gone EVA" on nearly 375 excursions.

Twelve of those people exited their spacecraft to walk on the surface of the moon.

 

"Special [as part of the exhibit] are the Apollo 11 objects," Levasseur told collectSPACE, referring to the first mission to land men on the moon. "[Neil] Armstrong's headset, the lunar module film camera that recorded the first landing, and a waist tether used in the LM as well — the last two of which are on loan to us, and are promised donations, from the Armstrong family."

Other rare, and rarely-seen, EVA artifacts included in the exhibition include spacewalker Eugene Cernan's Gemini 9 pressure suit, which is now so fragile that it is uncommon for it be to be displayed, and the cover to Cernan's oxygen purge system (OPS) that he used in December 1972 when he became the last man to walk on the moon.

"Of our 'never before seen on display' objects, I would say that Cernan's OPS cover from Apollo 17 is fantastic since we opened its NASA packaging just for this exhibit," said Levasseur.

Also on display is an Omega Speedmaster chronograph that has been taken apart to reveal its internal workings. Omega, as a sponsor of the exhibit, prepared this special cross-section presentation, which is displayed beside the wristwatch that Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt used on the lunar surface.

Putting ourselves in their shoes

"With a small temporary exhibit, in this particular exhibit space, we can highlight objects we do not normally get to showcase because of their fragility, and give people an intimate experience," Levasseur stated. "It is also a place where people can feel immersed in EVA because of our use of photography from EVAs, which are really our best way to connect with the astronauts and feel like we could put ourselves in their shoes."

 

"Outside the Spacecraft" will be open at the National Air and Space Museum through June 8, 2015. The exhibition is accompanied by an online display designed to be used on mobile devices as visitors tour the gallery.

The museum is also inviting people to join the tradition of spacewalk-inspired art and create their own artwork based upon photographs of EVA. Selected works will be featured on the "Imagining Spacewalks" project Tumblr page.

"Since [spacewalkers] are carrying all the necessities of life and work with them, it all feels far more personal than what you might think about with a broad look at human spaceflight," Levasseur said.

 

END

 

More at www.spacetoday.net