A Miscellaneous tip::
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Not offering Moody Garden discounted tickets right now.
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The young lady just told me the Space Center Houston tickets to FCU members are $10 bought at the clearlake main branch only
Moody Garden tickets can be bought online at the JSC FCU website for one day pass of $46 and a two day pass is $54
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday – Feb. 10, 2015
HEADLINES AND LEADS
House To Quickly Consider New NASA Authorization Bill
Jeff Foust – Space News
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Feb. 10 on a NASA authorization bill virtually identical to one the chamber overwhelmingly passed last year.
A Business Plan for Space
Kenneth Chang – The New York Times
Who can own the moon? Or an asteroid? Or a homestead on Mars?
NASA fires up mini rockets for SLS base heating tests
Jim Sharkey - Spaceflight Insider
Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama are collaborating with the Buffalo, New York based company CUBRC Inc. to conduct a series of tests that will provide important information about the heating conditions at the base of the space agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. As NASA works to get this new heavy-lift booster off the ground and into the skies – these latest tests should assist in the agency's efforts.
The gift of a Europa mission may have a cost
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
The release of the administration's budget request for NASA is met with a level of excitement in the space community not unlike kids on Christmas morning: what presents are sitting under the tree? Are the stockings stuffed with goodies, or coal? The budget proposal is, of course, more of a wish list than a bounty of gifts, as it'll be up to Congress to decide—and probably not for many months—just how much to fund the agency and its various initiatives, but it offers clues and themes for the funding battle to come.
Inside The 'Europa Clipper' Mission That NASA Is Planning To Send Past Jupiter
Jupiter's moon is the best candidate for finding extraterrestrial life; here's how we're going to get there
Loren Grush – Popular Science
On Monday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden gave an exciting update on the state of America's space agency, detailing the Obama Administration's proposal to give NASA $18.5 billion for the 2016 fiscal year. Embedded in that budget is a small—yet significant—detail: About $30 million will be allocated to fund a robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.
Rosetta's Comet Really "Blows Up" in Latest Images
Jason Major - Universe Today
First off: no, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is not about to explode or disintegrate. But as it steadily gets nearer to the Sun the comet's jets are getting more and more active and they're putting on quite a show for the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft! Click the image for a jeterrific hi-res version.
DSCOVR launch date now set for Feb. 10
Bill Jelen – Spaceflight Insider
The next launch attempt for the DSCOVR mission will now be no earlier than Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 6:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT) with a backup launch opportunity on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT). Weather for an attempt on Monday, Feb. 9 was deemed to be unfavorable. If an attempt was made and ultimately scrubbed for weather, the team would lose either the Tuesday or Wednesday launch opportunities due to crew rest requirements from the U.S. Air Force.
Merging White Dwarf Stars March to Supernova Doom
Astronomers have discovered a stellar rarity deep inside an oddly-shaped nebula — two white dwarf stars on the verge of a cataclysmic merging event.
Orbital and ATK Complete Merger, Now Orbital ATK
Orbital Sciences Corporation and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) completed their merger today. The new company is named Orbital ATK.
Commercial space exploration: no longer an oxymoron!
Derek Webber – The Space Review
Webster's reminds us that an oxymoron is "a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined." For example, how can we, in the same breath, be speaking of "space exploration" and "commercial?" Surely it's governments who underwrite the exploration of space, to be followed later by companies who commercialize the operation.
COMPLETE STORIES
House To Quickly Consider New NASA Authorization Bill
Jeff Foust – Space News
The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Feb. 10 on a NASA authorization bill virtually identical to one the chamber overwhelmingly passed last year.
The new NASA authorization bill, yet to be formally introduced in the House, is scheduled for consideration by the full House on the afternoon of Feb. 10, according to the weekly schedule issued by the office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). The bill is one of several planned for votes under a procedure known as "suspension of the rules," which speeds the passage of bills not considered controversial.
In a statement issued late Feb. 6, leading members of the House Science Committee from both parties announced plans to introduce the bill the week of Feb. 9. "I am pleased that the House will take up and consider a widely-supported, bipartisan NASA reauthorization bill so early in this year's session," Rep. Steven Palazzo (R-Miss.), chairman of the committee's space subcommittee and lead sponsor of the bill, said in the statement.
While the bill has yet to be formally introduced, a copy of the bill posted on the majority leader's website shows that it is nearly identical to an authorization bill the House passed in June 2014 by a 401–2 vote. The new bill authorizes spending for fiscal year 2015, versus 2014 in the previous bill, but contains no significant changes to the other policy provisions in the earlier bill.
In an interview Feb. 5 after a speech at the Federal Aviation Administration Commercial Space Transportation Conference here, Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), ranking member of the space subcommittee and a co-sponsor of the bill, said it would be very similar to what the House passed last year, given the extensive work she and Palazzo put into crafting the earlier bill. "We don't want to upset the apple cart," she said.
The new bill is so similar to last year's bill that it retains provisions largely rendered obsolete by recent events. The bill includes a section preventing NASA from using any fiscal year 2015 funds for shutting down the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) project. While SOFIA's future was in jeopardy last year when NASA's 2015 budget proposed mothballing the airborne observatory, Congress funded the project and NASA is seeking full funding for SOFIA in its 2016 budget request.
The bill's supporters in the House believe quick passage of the bill now will give the Senate enough time to pass either that bill or its own version that can be reconciled with the House bill. Last year's authorization died when the Senate was unable to pass a bill before the end of the year.
Palazzo said he hopes that with new leadership, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in charge of the Senate Commerce Committee's space subcommittee, the Senate will be able to act on an authorization bill this year. "While last year's bill, like so many other pieces of legislation, died in the Senate, I look forward to working with Chairman Ted Cruz and Senate leadership to get this year's version over the finish line," Palazzo said in a statement.
A Business Plan for Space
Kenneth Chang – The New York Times
Who can own the moon? Or an asteroid? Or a homestead on Mars?
According to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, no nation can claim sovereignty over any part of any celestial rock. But the treaty is less clear on what a company or an individual can do in space — possibly because in the 1960s, the drafters of the treaty might have thought it hard to imagine a space race led by entrepreneurs rather than governments.
For companies today hoping to set up a moon colony or to mine asteroids for platinum, the ambiguity is one more hurdle in attracting investors.
"There has been a chicken-egg conundrum to create a lunar legal framework," said John Thornton, the chief executive of Astrobotic Technology, a Pittsburgh company that hopes to become the first private company to land a robotic spacecraft on the moon and win the Google Lunar X Prize. "How do you get businesses to invest in the moon if there is no legal framework versus how do you get a legal framework if there are no business operations?"
The Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses private space launchings in the United States, has now provided some clarity.
In reply to a request by Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., one of those space entrepreneurs, the F.A.A. said it would make sure that American companies did not interfere with one another on the moon or elsewhere.
"We recognize the private sector's need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies," wrote George C. Nield, the agency's associate administrator for commercial space transportation, in a letter dated Dec. 22. The Reuters news service reported on the letter last week.
Bigelow is developing inflatable habitats for outer space, and this year, a small Bigelow structure is to be added to the International Space Station. In the coming years, it plans to launch larger inflatables as private space stations to be leased by companies or nations.
In December 2013, Bigelow asked the F.A.A. to review a proposal for landing one of its habitats on the moon for use as a lunar base. Bigelow said it might conduct scientific research or commercial endeavors like mining. Robert Bigelow, the company's founder, has said he is aiming to establish his lunar base around 2025, and the company wanted to start clarifying issues.
"It's best to avoid these problems now, before operations begin," said Michael Gold, Bigelow's D.C. director of operations and business growth.
In its proposal, Bigelow suggested that the F.A.A. leverage its authority to review payloads and license launchings. In essence, Bigelow requested that the F.A.A. agree not to issue a license to another American company that would land at the same place.
The action does not bestow ownership of the moon on Bigelow or anyone else, and the F.A.A. does not have jurisdiction over foreign companies. But with the F.A.A.'s issuing licenses to American companies, Mr. Gold said the State Department could more easily work out agreements with other countries regulating their private companies.
"If you don't have that agency and that paper, then it becomes a Wild West scenario," Mr. Gold said. "This decision has real immediate and real impact on investors who require security and predictability."
Mr. Gold said the F.A.A.'s decision did not violate the Outer Space Treaty and actually helped fulfill the United States' obligations under the part of the treaty that states, "The activities of nongovernmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate state party to the treaty."
What is less clear is whether private companies can profit from the moon or other places in space. A follow-up international agreement in 1979, the Moon Treaty, emphatically said no, banning ownership of the moon and other celestial bodies, and declaring that the moon's riches were to be shared among nations, especially developing countries. But many nations, including the United States, Russia and China, have not signed the treaty.
In Congress last year, Representatives Bill Posey, Republican of Florida, and Derek Kilmer, Democrat of Washington, introduced a bill called the Asteroids Act, which would give companies ownership over any material they mined from asteroids. At least two American companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, have announced plans to mine asteroids. After a House subcommittee hearing in September, the bill did not progress, but a spokesman for Mr. Posey said it would be reintroduced this year.
NASA fires up mini rockets for SLS base heating tests
Jim Sharkey - Spaceflight Insider
Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama are collaborating with the Buffalo, New York based company CUBRC Inc. to conduct a series of tests that will provide important information about the heating conditions at the base of the space agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. As NASA works to get this new heavy-lift booster off the ground and into the skies – these latest tests should assist in the agency's efforts.
The NASA engineers have been working with CUBRC to design and build 2 percent scale models of SLS propulsion system. The tests will use models of the SLS's two five-segment solid rocket boosters and four core-stage RS-25 engines and a 6.5 foot tall scale model of the entire rocket. The models are fired for brief durations of about 50-150 milliseconds per test.
"There's a lot of complex work that goes in to such a short-duration test," said Manish Mehta, lead engineer for the SLS Base Heating Test Program at Marshall, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency. "The timing of the propulsion systems and shock tunnel have to be precise. Although this test program has been technically challenging, there's no heritage data that we can fall back on to predict SLS base environments because this vehicle has never been flown before"
"There are four engines and two booster rocket plumes that are firing into the base," Mehta added. "This results in highly complex flow physics, which is not something you can develop analytically and predict very accurately."
Testing of the scale models will provide information on the heating conditions that the base of the SLS will experience during both planned and unplanned flight events. Data from the series of tests will be used to verify flight hardware design environments and set specifications for the thermal protection system of the rocket's base. The system will protect the rocket's systems and crew from the extreme heat created by the engines during liftoff and ascent.
Testing of the core stage in normal launch scenarios was conducted first, followed by testing of the entire SLS model in early January. The full-stack configuration had 200 heat flux and pressure sensors inside the aft section of the rocket for data collection. Over 30 test cases out of a planned total of 85 have been performed. The test series, which began in August 2014, is scheduled to conclude early this summer.
The test program takes advantage of new technologies that weren't available during the development of previous human space flight programs, such as high-speed visible light and infrared cameras, laser diagnostics and new designs of model propulsion systems to more accurately simulate full scale rocket engines.
It's great to be working on hardware and stretching our engineering skills on coming up with solutions to technical issues we've experienced along the way," said Mehta. "I think we've done well."
It took about a year and a half to design and build the models to flight specifications. For the test series the models are loaded with propellant, pressurized with oxygen and hydrogen lines and ignited inside of one of CUBRC's shock tunnels. The shock tunnels replicate both supersonic and hypersonic flight conditions, simulating environmental conditions that the rocket will experience during ascent including temperature, pressure and velocity.
"We like to say we're duplicating a flight test on the ground," said Aaron Dufrene, technical lead at CUBRC. "What's great about the design of these models is we can run them dozens, even hundreds, of times and reuse most all of the hardware every single time."
"That's why NASA historically started doing this short-duration testing technique," added Mark Seaford, a Marshall engineer who works on the test project. "Since you are testing at a much smaller scale, in this case 2 percent, the heating goes up at the throat of the nozzles. We can't run it for a substantial length of time or the hardware would be compromised under the heat. We really had to challenge ourselves in the design process to get the right materials to minimize that risk."
The first flight test of the SLS will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-Earth orbit to test the performance of the integrated system. The flight test, which will use the 70 metric ton (77 ton) lift capacity configuration of the SLS, is scheduled for 2018.
The gift of a Europa mission may have a cost
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
The release of the administration's budget request for NASA is met with a level of excitement in the space community not unlike kids on Christmas morning: what presents are sitting under the tree? Are the stockings stuffed with goodies, or coal? The budget proposal is, of course, more of a wish list than a bounty of gifts, as it'll be up to Congress to decide—and probably not for many months—just how much to fund the agency and its various initiatives, but it offers clues and themes for the funding battle to come.
And, sometimes, the budget proposal includes some gifts independent of the impending fiscal fray. For advocates of a mission to Europa, the moon of Jupiter thought to have a subsurface ocean of liquid water and thus potentially hospitable to life, the budget proposal included one such gift for them: a decision by NASA to press ahead with such a mission.
Specifically, the budget proposal states that the proposed mission will reach a milestone known in NASA programmatic jargon as "Key Decision Point A" this spring. Assuming a positive review, the Europa mission will move from the current series of "pre-formulation" concept studies into a formal project, although still in an early phase.
"In FY [fiscal year] 2016, the project will formulate requirements, architecture, planetary protection requirements, risk identification and mitigation plans, cost and schedule range estimates, and payload accommodation for a potential mission to Europa," NASA's budget proposal states. "The leading mission concept may require significant modification depending on what researchers learn in FY 2015 about the existence of active plumes from Europa's south pole and the accommodations requirements in the awarded instrument proposals."
That last sentence refers to awards that NASA plans to make in the next few months for instruments that the Europa spacecraft may carry, based on proposals requested last year. "We're selecting instruments this spring and moving towards the next phase of our work," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a "State of NASA" speech last Monday at the Kennedy Space Center.
While the Europa mission included in the budget request isn't given a specific name, the concept under study is widely known as "Europa Clipper." Previous Europa mission designs, including one that ranked second highest among large "flagship-class" missions in the latest planetary science decadal survey, involved placing a spacecraft into orbit around the moon. Europa Clipper would instead put a spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter, with a large number of flybys of the moon.
The NASA teams, the budget proposal states, found "that NASA could accomplish over 80 percent of the science that a Europa Orbiter would achieve for about 50 percent of the cost with a mission that stays in Jupiter orbit and conducts many focused flybys of Europa." No specific price is mentioned, but past reports indicated that Europa Clipper would cost on the order of $2 billion.
The budget document also confirms one development with Europa Clipper that those working on the project hinted at several months ago: the spacecraft would use solar, rather than nuclear, power. Past missions to the outer solar system have all used radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) to generate power; the Juno spacecraft, en route to Jupiter, will be the first to use solar power.
"For the last two years, we did extensive risk reduction work looking at whether solar is feasible," said Thomas Magner of the Applied Physics Laboratory, in a presentation in October about the mission at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto. "We found that solar works fine, so our final decision about two months ago was to go to solar."
Using solar power, he said then, would lower Europa Clipper's cost over an RTG-powered version, although he didn't specify the difference. The spacecraft would be heavier to accommodate the large solar power array needed to operate that far from the Sun, but he said it was well within their design margins.
At the Toronto meeting, Magner was optimistic that NASA would move forward with the Europa Clipper design, noting it passed a mission concept review "with flying colors" in September. "We'll get a new start early next year," he said then.
NASA's decision to follow through on that, and formally start Europa Clipper as a project within the next few months, was warmly welcomed by planetary exploration advocates, who have for years—decades, even—sought such a mission.
"Tens of thousands of individuals around the world wrote to Congress and White House last year asking for this mission to Europa," said Casey Dreier, director of advocacy for The Planetary Society, in a statement the organization issued after the release of the budget. "We've heard the message from our members that Europa must be a priority for NASA, and we are pleased to see the Administration take the same view."
"It's a huge deal," Dreier said in a separate interview. "We cannot be more excited about it."
That decision to proceed with Europa does have its hitches, though. NASA is requesting just $30 million for Europa mission studies. While twice the $15 million the agency requested in its 2015 budget—the first time the mission was a line item in the agency's budget proposal—it's far less than the $100 million Congress provided for Europa mission studies in the final 2015 appropriations bill passed in December. Congress also provided more than $150 million in previous years to support studies of Europa mission concepts.
In a conference call with reporters last Monday to discuss the NASA budget proposal, NASA chief financial officer David Radzanowski said the requested funding is part of a five-year budget profile that would gradually increase the project's budget to $100 million a year by 2020. "This budget does assume a five-year funding profile for a mission to Europa," he said, a funding profile "that would assume a launch in the mid-2020s."
Some in Congress would like NASA to accelerate the development of the Europa mission. A NASA authorization bill being introduced this week—and scheduled to be voted by the full House as soon as Tuesday afternoon—would direct NASA's planetary science program to include "a Europa mission with a goal of launching by 2021."
Europa advocates also have increased influence in the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), perhaps the biggest supporter of Europa exploration in Congress, is now the chairman of that committee's Commerce, Justice, and Science subcommittee, whose funding jurisdiction includes NASA. His support of a Europa mission is widely considered the main reason why the mission has received as much funding as it has so far.
Moreover, while NASA's support of a Europa mission in the budget request, despite differences in dollar amounts, has widespread support, other elements of NASA's planetary sciences budget are facing opposition. In particular, NASA is requesting no funding for the Mars rover Opportunity or the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter for fiscal year 2016, and zeroes out the Mars Odyssey orbiter in 2017.
That move saves only a modest amount of money: Opportunity cost $14 million in 2014, the most recent year budget numbers for the mission are available, and LRO $12.4 million. That combination, some noticed, is close to the $30 million NASA is requesting for Europa.
NASA tried something similar last year, including no funding for LRO and Opportunity in the 2015 budget request, although NASA asked for $35 million in a supplemental funding package, the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, for extended planetary science missions. At the time of the 2015 budget request, NASA was still performing a "senior review" of ongoing planetary missions, and had yet to decide which ones were worth extended missions.
That senior review, completed in September, looked favorably on both LRO and Opportunity. LRO got a rating of "very good/good," while Opportunity got a rating of "excellent/very good," and recommended both missions continue. "The Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity continues to make important scientific discoveries on the surface of Mars," the senior review report noted.
The 2016 NASA budget request, though, noted that a number of technical problems, including issues with the flash memory onboard the rover, weighed against continuing the mission. "After a long, productive mission life, Opportunity has started to show signs of age, including recent problems with its flash memory," the budget proposal stated. "NASA plans to end Opportunity operations by FY 2016."
The Planetary Society, among others, expressed opposition to the decision to eliminate funding for those missions. "We urge Congress to work to rectify these unfortunate steps, and to preserve the operating missions that are rated highly in the independent planetary science senior review process," the organization said in its statement.
Some in Congress already plan to take action about that. "Last year, Congress sent a message to the Administration not to short-change planetary science, and sadly that message was not received," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), whose district includes NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement issued by his office. "The Administration once again zeroed out funding for two working vehicles—the Mars Opportunity Rover and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—effectively shutting down instruments still providing and producing valuable science."
Congress may indeed act, as Schiff request, to restore funding for LRO and Opportunity, and to increase funding for Europa. Where that money would come from, though, becomes a broader policy question. The 2016 request for NASA planetary science overall of $1.36 billion is more than the $1.28 billion it requested last year, but less than the $1.44 billion included the final 2015 appropriations bill. (That number could change slightly as NASA completes its operating plan for the year, allowing it to shift some funding not explicitly allocated in the sending bill around various programs.)
That 2015 budget was helped by an overall increase of more than $500 million in the final bill compared to the original request, allowing appropriators to increase planetary and other science funding while limiting the cuts it had to make in other programs. The 2016 request already includes an increase of more than $500 million again above the final 2015 spending bill. That, coupled with increased fiscal pressures (including the possible return of budget sequestration) may make it harder for appropriators to support planetary science programs without taking the money out of other agency efforts.
That could mean members of Congress, and planetary exploration advocates, could be facing some tough decisions in the coming months. That gift of a Europa mission could come with a price.
Inside The 'Europa Clipper' Mission That NASA Is Planning To Send Past Jupiter
Jupiter's moon is the best candidate for finding extraterrestrial life; here's how we're going to get there
Loren Grush – Popular Science
On Monday, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden gave an exciting update on the state of America's space agency, detailing the Obama Administration's proposal to give NASA $18.5 billion for the 2016 fiscal year. Embedded in that budget is a small—yet significant—detail: About $30 million will be allocated to fund a robotic mission to Jupiter's moon Europa.
For the scientific community, that's huge news, as Europa is probably the top candidate for finding potential life elsewhere in our solar system. Scientists theorize (well, they're pretty damn sure) that underneath Europa's icy surface, there lies a vast salty ocean, holding more than twice the amount of water as all the oceans of Earth. And if that ocean does exist, its conditions may be just right for it to be home to an entire ecosystem.
"From an astrobiology perspective, Europa really brings together the three keystones for habitability," Kevin Hand, the deputy chief scientist of solar system exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tells Popular Science. "And that is of liquid water, access to the elements needed to build life, and potentially the energy needed to power life."
NASA has been contemplating a trip to Europa for a couple of years, and Congress recently gave the project $100 million for 2015. While the White House proposal only allots $30 million, the fact that it's coming from the president is important. NASA is an executive branch agency, in need of White House support, and the administration's new budget "supports the formulation and development of a Europa Mission." That means NASA engineers can finally put their planning into action.
"They want us to move into the next phase of the mission," says Robert Pappalardo, the Europa Clipper pre-project scientist at JPL. "So we're moving to Phase A, where you become a real mission, not just a concept."
What's So Special About Europa?
Europa is a bit of an anomaly within our solar system. The moon's outer layer consists of an icy sheet, somewhere between 1 mile and 18 miles thick (the scientific community is divided on its depth). Due to the ice's smooth surface and lack of impact craters, researchers believe that this layer is relatively young and active, meaning something—such as an icy, volcanic flow underneath—is constantly renewing the ice and erasing past imperfections.
This has led many experts to support the theory that there's an ocean underneath the icy crust. The idea was further solidified in 1995 during NASA's Galileo mission, in which a probe entered orbit around Jupiter. As it passed by the moons, the Galileo spacecraft found that Jupiter's magnetic field was disrupted in the area around Europa. The disruption indicates that an electrically conductive fluid beneath the moon's surface is inducing a special kind of magnetic field around the satellite. And given Europa's icy outer shell, that substance is most likely water.
Europa isn't the only extraterrestrial body in our solar system thought to house a liquid ocean, but the moon holds a number of other key properties that particularly titillate experts—notably, its constant radiation bath. Jupiter bombards Europa with intense radiation, which breaks up compounds on the ice's surface into essential elements. "That radiation is deadly to us, but that same radiation bombarding the water, it liberates the hydrogen and leaves oxygen behind, making oxidants," says Pappalardo. "And those are great for life." The free hydrogen and oxygen combine with other surface materials to make important building blocks for life, including hydrogen peroxide, carbon dioxide, and more.
Along with creating these compounds, Europa may also provide the energy needed to sustain life, as well. Researchers believe the bottom of the moon's ocean likely comes in contact with a hot rocky mantle surrounding Europa's core. This direct interaction between the water and heated rock could be just what the planet needs to trigger the energy needed for life."On Earth's ocean floors, the interior is hot, and the water comes in contact [with the heated rock below], and that water gets charged," says Pappalardo. "There's chemical energy there, and those areas are teaming with life."
If the compounds from Europa's surface are warmed by the energetic ocean floor below, the combination could spark the growth of aliens right here within our solar system.
How To Go To Europa
Of course, all of these features of Europa are purely hypothetical. NASA has no direct evidence of an ocean, but engineers at the space agency are really eager to verify that it exists. Now, with the most recent announcement from the White House, they will finally get that chance.
NASA has been mulling over different ways to get to Europa for years, but finding the right method has been difficult. Because of the high radiation environment surrounding the moon, sending a spacecraft into orbit would require a lot of extra hardware and heat shielding to protect the vehicle from all the charged particles. And that adds up cost-wise. One scrapped idea to visit Europa along with two other Jupiter moons was estimated to cost $27 billion.
"Some ideas have been too small, some too big, some too expensive," says Pappalardo. "Now we think it's just right."
The idea moving forward is the Europa Clipper mission. Rather than send a probe into constant orbit around Europa, NASA wants to send a spacecraft to "clip" Europa, performing 45 flybys of the moon over a long period of time. "Most of the time we'd be far from Europa and Jupiter, then we'd swoop in every couple of weeks, gather lots of data and then get out," says Pappalardo. "We call it a toe dip; you get your feet in the water and then run back out on the sand."
During these flybys, the radiation-tolerant spacecraft will travel to varying altitudes above Europa and use different instruments to study the moon's composition. Although the exact instruments for the payload haven't been determined yet, Pappalardo says the main thing the probe will be studying is the gravitational pull on the spacecraft by Europa. This tugging and pulling can help confirm the presence of an ocean.
"If there is an ocean, Europa's ice shell will flex by [100 feet] every time it orbits Jupiter" say Pappalardo, "…So when we encounter Europa, and it's all stretched out, then it indicates water underneath. If there's no liquid water, that icy shell is kind of glued to the rock below, so it'll only flex by about 1 foot."
Since the scientific community is pretty well convinced that an ocean awaits, Pappalardo's team wants to go one step further and analyze what those waters are like. By equipping the spacecraft with a magnetometer, the researchers can measure the changing magnetic field around Europa, which indicates the thickness and the saltiness of the subsurface sea. Radar on the spacecraft will also determine the thickness of the outer ice shell (a topic that has divided some researchers).
Additional instruments under consideration for use include a topographic camera, a neutral mass spectrometer to sniff out Europa's atmosphere, and an infrared spectrometer to study the composition of Europa's surface.
The Big Picture
Right now, Pappalardo's team is working toward a launch date of 2022, hoping to send the spacecraft aboard NASA's Space Launch System, the mega-rocket currently in development at the Michoud Assembly Facility. On that rocket, travel time to the Jupiter system would take just three years.
Overall, the main goal of this mission is to see if Europa is a place where life could be present. If Europa Clipper does indeed find life-sustaining conditions, the discovery could lead to a follow-up mission that look for more direct evidence of alien microbes. "All life on earth uses the DNA, RNA, protein paradigm, and so part of why we want to go to Europa is to essentially test the biology hypothesis to see if life arises wherever conditions are right." says Hand.
If we do find life on Europa someday, the finding will change everything. It answers that all-powerful question: Are we alone? Just a few microbes on Europa mean that life is probably pretty common throughout the universe.
And if there are no traces of life on Europa, even when conditions are ideal, that too denotes a huge finding. "If the ingredients are there and there's no life," says Pappalardo, "then wow, life must be even more special and rare than we imagined."
Rosetta's Comet Really "Blows Up" in Latest Images
Jason Major - Universe Today
First off: no, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is not about to explode or disintegrate. But as it steadily gets nearer to the Sun the comet's jets are getting more and more active and they're putting on quite a show for the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft! Click the image for a jeterrific hi-res version.
The images above were captured by Rosetta's NavCam on Jan. 31 and Feb. 3 from a distance of about 28 km (17 miles). Each is a mosaic of four separate NavCam acquisitions and they have been adjusted and tinted in Photoshop by yours truly to further enhance the jets' visibility. (You can view the original image mosaics and source frames here and here.) These dramatic views are just a hint at what's in store; 67P's activity will only be increasing in the coming weeks and months and, this weekend, Rosetta will be swooping down for an extreme close pass over its surface!
This Saturday, Feb. 14, Rosetta will be performing a very close pass of the comet's nucleus, soaring over the Imhotep region at an altitude of only 6 km (3.7 miles) at 12:41 UTC. This will allow the spacecraft to closely image the comet's surface, as well as investigate the behavior of its jets and how they interact with its developing coma.
"The upcoming close flyby will allow unique scientific observations, providing us with high-resolution measurements of the surface over a range of wavelengths and giving us the opportunity to sample – taste or sniff – the very innermost parts of the comet's atmosphere," said Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor.
DSCOVR launch date now set for Feb. 10
Bill Jelen – Spaceflight Insider
The next launch attempt for the DSCOVR mission will now be no earlier than Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 6:05 p.m. EST (2305 GMT) with a backup launch opportunity on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at 6:03 p.m. EST (2303 GMT). Weather for an attempt on Monday, Feb. 9 was deemed to be unfavorable. If an attempt was made and ultimately scrubbed for weather, the team would lose either the Tuesday or Wednesday launch opportunities due to crew rest requirements from the U.S. Air Force.
While it is not required for flight, SpaceX will leverage the extra time to replace a video transmitter on the first stage in advance of the next attempt to land the Falcon 9 v1.1′s first stage on a barge positioned some 370 miles (595 kilometers) off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida.
Merging White Dwarf Stars March to Supernova Doom
Astronomers have discovered a stellar rarity deep inside an oddly-shaped nebula — two white dwarf stars on the verge of a cataclysmic merging event.
During a survey to try to understand the peculiar shapes of nebulae in our galaxy, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile zoomed in on the planetary nebula Henize 2-428, which is lop-sided. Planetary nebulae are formed during the later stages of a star's life after it has run out of hydrogen in its core. This violent phase sheds the star's outermost layers through powerful stellar winds.
But some distant planetary nebula have strange asymmetries — i.e. the cloud of dust and plasma expand into unexpected, non-uniform shapes. This is a puzzle to astronomers; if the nebula was created by a single dying star, surely all the material should be ballooning out as the same speed in all directions?
Now part of Henize 2-428′s asymmetry mystery has been solved. Embedded deep inside the cloud there's not a single star, but two stars — a fact that has led to an explosive realization.
"Further observations made with telescopes in the Canary Islands allowed us to determine the orbit of the two stars and deduce both the masses of the two stars and their separation. This was when the biggest surprise was revealed," said Romano Corradi, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Tenerife, IAC), and co-author of a paper published in the journal Nature on Monday (Feb. 9).
Both stars are white dwarfs, tiny yet dense stars each with a mass slightly less than the sun. By the researchers' calculations, the stars orbit every 4 hours and they are slowly spiraling into one another. In around 700 million years, the pair will merge.
Not only have astronomers now explained why this particular nebula has a weird shape, they've also uncovered a gravitational wave factory — energy is gradually being lost as both stars rip around one another, causing their orbital distance to decrease.
But what will happen when both stars collide and merge? Their combined masses will be 1.8 times the mass of the sun, well above the mass threshold (known as the Chandrasekhar limit) that will cause an object to collapse in on itself. In other words, supernova!
"Until now, the formation of supernovae Type Ia by the merging of two white dwarfs was purely theoretical," said David Jones, research coauthor and ESO Fellow at the time the data were obtained. "The pair of stars in Henize 2-428 is the real thing!"
"It's an extremely enigmatic system," said lead researcher Santander-García, of the Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (CSIC), in Madrid, Spain. "It will have important repercussions for the study of supernovae Type Ia, which are widely used to measure astronomical distances and were key to the discovery that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating due to dark energy."
Orbital and ATK Complete Merger, Now Orbital ATK
Orbital Sciences Corporation and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) completed their merger today. The new company is named Orbital ATK.
The "merger of equals" was announced in April 2014. The tax-free, all-stock merger became final after ATK spun off its sporting business as a separate company, Vista Outdoors.
ATK decided to proceed with the merger despite the launch failure of Orbital's Antares rocket in October 2014, although it was a factor in delaying the merger from December until now. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission approved the merger in December pending the spinoff of Vista Outdoors.
Commercial space exploration: no longer an oxymoron!
Derek Webber – The Space Review
Webster's reminds us that an oxymoron is "a figure of speech in which opposite or contradictory ideas or terms are combined." For example, how can we, in the same breath, be speaking of "space exploration" and "commercial?" Surely it's governments who underwrite the exploration of space, to be followed later by companies who commercialize the operation.
Well, that is certainly how it used to be done. For example, governments demonstrated the potential for satellite telecommunications, to be followed later by a plethora of companies and organizations who made the technology ubiquitous. But now? Not so much.
Just look at the two images above. They are prototype lunar landers undergoing a series of tests as part of the Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) competition. These are high fidelity spacecraft engineering models and have been developed by two of the teams competing to try to win the grand prize for landing on the Moon, traveling 500 meters, and transmitting high definition imagery back to Earth. On January 26, at an awards event at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, each of these development spacecraft won milestone awards of $1 million each for their respective teams.
Five teams won a combined $5.25 million in prizes for work they performed throughout 2014 demonstrating significant progress towards flight readiness by systematically removing program risks. The risks were reduced by a combination of analysis, simulation, and testing. The awards, and the risk reduction, were focused on three main subsystems of the spacecraft: the landing, mobility and imaging subsystems. And, of course, the big thing about it—what is really extraordinary—is that these competing teams are doing all of this while operating on a totally commercial basis: no more than 10 percent of their funding is allowed by the rules of the competition to come from government sources.
Just think about it. These five teams (and there are others too: a total of 18 remain in the competition today) have been raising funds, designing lunar-capable spacecraft, conducting analyses and simulations, and ultimately developing software and building hardware to undergo flight test programs. And they are doing it on the proverbial shoestring. The total prize money for the competition is only around $30 million.
The teams consist generally of enthusiastic amateurs, often associated with a university, working without any recognizable infrastructure. They have been doing vibration tests. They have been doing thermal vacuum tests. They have been flying their hardware and checking out their navigation and hazard avoidance software. They have been demonstrating that they know how to take the imaging and how to ensure that they survive the launch environment and the journey to the Moon. When was the last time even a government did this? Other than China's recent lunar lander, it has been a very long time since anyone tried to do any exploration on the surface of the Moon.
So, that date—January 26, 2015—is maybe more significant than generally realized. That $5.25 million in prize money awarded in San Francisco for progress in achieving risk-reduction milestones towards an eventual Moon landing represents, in a very real and tangible sense, a turning point. Since that date, we must recognize that it is no longer a contradiction in terms to use "space exploration" and "commercial" in the same phrase. Commercial space exploration is no longer an oxymoron!
This is becoming much more like the commercial satellite business. Payments are awarded for progress in completing milestones. The payments for the milestones are fixed price and known in advance. The technical requirements for each milestone have been negotiated in advance. There are no partial payments. Nobody gets paid anything unless the milestones have been satisfactorily achieved (in fact, the independent judging panel monitoring the GLXP did not award all of the possible milestone prizes). This is not the space exploration program of former generations. This is not a cost-plus exercise. This is not government funded. This is a group of young people, from teams all over the world, working in their spare time and often in borrowed facilities, and using the benefits of modern software and optical developments to attempt the next stage of lunar space exploration.
So now we have a new field to develop, and something for the academics to chew on. This is the field of commercial space exploration. We already know something about its constituents, but we need to know a lot more. We need new market research, cost analyses, and, quite frankly, data. Eventually the regulatory people will catch up, and the lawyers will figure out how to make it legal, but right now the focus will need to be on the new business opportunities that are opening up. If only $30 million is needed as an incentive to get landers on the Moon, how soon will the other elements of this commercial space exploration sector follow? The entrepreneurs are already lining up to do their part.
Here is a partial list of possibilities for commercial space exploration development:
- Geostationary orbit (GEO) combined tourism hotels/space stations
- Orbital lunar space tourism
- Lunar scientific activities
- Lunar in situ resource utilization experiments
- Lunar sample return
- Space debris resource management
- Low Earth orbit (LEO) and GEO spacecraft servicing
- LEO fuel depot services
- Asteroid mining
- Lunar resource exploitation
- Solar system travel enabling opportunities; and my favorite
- The pub at the gateway to the solar system (probably in GEO)
We have a new beginning. The GLXP Grand Prize must be claimed by the end of 2016, so look to various regroupings of teams and finalization of innovative launch arrangements during this year. It promises to be a lot of fun. The young people spending their time on these teams certainly think so. They know that they are creating history. Someone once said that it is very messy looking at a paradigm shift from the inside. That is certainly true, but it is also possible to sense something inexorable about it. We are never going back to spending five percent of GDP for a decade in order to do space exploration, even if it was great to get that kickstart back in the 1960s. You are witnessing the start of the new way. It's called Commercial Space Exploration.
Derek Webber is one of nine independent international judges for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. He is a former Head of Procurement at the satellite services operator Inmarsat, where he was responsible for acquiring $2 billion worth of satellites and the launch vehicles to get them into orbit—and all using fixed-price, milestone-driven contracts!
END
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- SpaceX Dragon Set for Return to Earth
- Feb. 12 Tree-Planting Ceremony
- Recent JSC Announcement
- POWER of One - Nominate Your Peer Today! - Organizations/Social
- JSC Lunarfins Scuba Club Meeting
- AIAA Dinner: Climate Change and Public Policy
- Keeping It Real with Ellen Ochoa and Kirk Shireman
- WELL General Body Meeting - Feb.10
- JSC Toastmasters - Wednesday Nights
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
- Rain Barrels, Composting, and Home Energy Audits - Jobs and Training
- SEPMAP Development Program Info/Prep Session
- Investigating Aircraft and Flight Systems Mishaps
- ISS Payload Safety Process and Requirements Apr. 2 - Community
- Passport Fair - Today
- Pilots and Professionals in Schools
- SWAPRA Hosts Gerry Griffin, Former Center Director |  |
| Headlines - SpaceX Dragon Set for Return to Earth
After delivering more than 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiments to the International Space Station last month, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the orbiting laboratory on Tuesday, Feb. 10. NASA Television will provide live coverage of Dragon's departure beginning at 12:45 p.m. Dragon will be released from the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm at 1:10 p.m. The event can be viewed on JSC cable TV channel 2 (analog), channel 51-2 (digital high definition) or Omni 45. JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367. The Dragon spacecraft will be detached from the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony module before it is released by Expedition 42 crewmembers Samantha Cristoforetti and Terry Virts, who will operate the station's robotic arm from the cupola. NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston operating the Canadarm 2 robotic arm. Dragon will execute thruster firings to move a safe distance from the space station for its deorbit burn at 5:49 p.m. The spacecraft will splash down in the Pacific Ocean around 6:44 p.m. The deorbit burn and the splashdown will not air on NASA TV. Dragon launched on the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Jan. 10 on the company's fifth commercial resupply mission to the station and arrived at the ISS two days later. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, x35111
[top] - Feb. 12 Tree-Planting Ceremony
Colonel Steven R. Nagel, USAF, Retired A tree-planting ceremony honoring the life of Colonel Steven R. Nagel, USAF, Retired will be held Thursday, Feb. 12, at 2 p.m. in the JSC Memorial Tree Grove. Colonel Nagel logged 12,600 hours flying time; 9,640 hours in jet aircraft. After retiring as an astronaut, Nagel served as the deputy director for operations development, Safety, Reliability and Quality Assurance Office. He then transferred to the Aircraft Operations Division where he performed duties as a research pilot, chief of aviation safety and deputy division chief. He retired from NASA in 2011. There will be limited parking available along the tree grove; employees are encouraged to walk or carpool. Event Date: Thursday, February 12, 2015 Event Start Time:2:00 PM Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: Memorial Tree Grove
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JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, x35111
[top] - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web Page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 15-006: Starport (JSC Exchange) Scholarship Program - POWER of One - Nominate Your Peer Today!
The POWER of One award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standout achievements with specific examples of exceptional and superior performance. Make sure to check out our award criteria to help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal. If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared in JSC Today. Nominations for this quarter close Friday, Feb. 13, so nominate someone deserving today! Click here for complete information on the JSC Awards Program. Organizations/Social - JSC Lunarfins Scuba Club Meeting
Rick Wooten, Associate Health and Wellness Coordinator of the incredible "Wounded Warrior Project" is the planned speaker for the Feb. Lunarfins Scuba Club meeting. He will discuss the activities that the Wounded Warrior Project provides to help veterans participate in free activities that give them a healthy lifestyle. Water sports such as scuba diving are now being introduced to veterans as an enjoyable activity that provides both mental and physical development. In addition, we will nominate new club officers and discuss the upcoming Open House, Safety Day and Little Cayman trip May 31 through Jun. 7. Spaces are still open for the trip, so come hear the exciting plans! - AIAA Dinner: Climate Change and Public Policy
Please join the AIAA Houston Section as we welcome Professor Barry Lefer (Ph.D.) of the University of Houston who will summarize the science and the public policy of climate change. Science and public policy will be discussed in equal measure in the presentation. Professor Lefer is also invited to discuss his climate change research, which includes a Mar. 2015 trip to Alaska. AIAA membership is not required to attend this dinner meeting. Non-diners are welcome to attend at no charge. Separate checks will be collected by the waiters after the meal for those who order something. Reservations are NOT required for this casual dinner event. No advance notice is required, but for better event planning, please email, Programs Chair Laura Sarmiento, if you plan to attend. - Keeping It Real with Ellen Ochoa and Kirk Shireman
Do you have any unanswered questions from last week's All Hands? Is there any question you wish you could ask our Senior Leaders directly? Don't miss your chance to do so by attending today's event. The third "Keeping it Real" event will be held today Tuesday, Feb. 10, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. in the Silvermoon Room at Space Center Houston featuring guest speakers Ellen Ochoa and Kirk Shireman. This event is a collaborative effort between the AAERG, ASIA ERG and HERG. The event is designed to allow NASA JSC's workforce the opportunity to have an interactive discussion and pose random questions to senior leaders in a relaxed setting. There will also be index cards on each table to allow members of the audience an opportunity to write their questions down and have them read to the speakers. Event Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Event Start Time:4:30 PM Event End Time:6:30 PM
Event Location: Space Center Houston - Silvermoon Room
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Kai Harris x40694
[top] - WELL General Body Meeting - Feb.10
Women Excelling in Life and Leadership (WELL) is having their first meeting as an official Employee Resource Group (ERG). The meeting will discuss upcoming activities and plans. Come out and fellowship with WELL. - JSC Toastmasters - Wednesday Nights
Want to develop speaking and leadership skills? Ignite your career? Looking to increase your self-confidence, become a better speaker or leader and communicate more effectively? Then JSC Toastmasters is for you! Our weekly meetings are learn-by-doing workshops in which participants hone their speaking and leadership skills in a pressure-free atmosphere. Membership is open to anyone. Meetings are held each Wednesday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at the Gilruth Center Brazos Room. - Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
"Progress, Not Perfection" reminds Al-Anon members to recognize positive, incremental improvements and change. Our 12-step meeting is for coworkers, families, and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet today, Tuesday, Feb. 10 in Building 32, Room 146, from 12 noon to 12:45 p.m. Visitors are welcome. - Rain Barrels, Composting, and Home Energy Audits
Curious about how you can cut your home energy costs? Would you like to learn how to install a rain barrel to reduce your irrigation? Did you know that JSC composts all of its yard and kitchen wastes, and you easily can, too? Steve Stelzer from the City of Houston's Green Building Resource Center (GBRC) will talk about just a few of the solutions you can easily implement at home. Houston's GBRC features a showroom with over 50 interactive displays and offers plan reviews for cost effective green options that can lead to energy and water savings that create a healthier living environment and reduce wasted material and save money. We encourage you to bring a reduced waste lunch and learn all you can from this informative presentation. Today at noon in Building 45, Room 751. Jobs and Training - SEPMAP Development Program Info/Prep Session
JSC is currently accepting applications for the new Systems Engineering & Project Management Advancement Program (SEPMAP). SEPMAP will help individuals develop competencies in Project Management and Systems Engineering, related behaviors and technical leadership so JSC has a talented pool of capable project managers and systems engineers ready to function effectively. SEPMAP is targeted towards JSC civil-servant employees GS-13 and above who possess a qualifying AST degree. If you are interested in SEPMAP and want more information and help in completing the application, please attend our second SEPMAP Application Prep Session. Feel free to bring your lunch! - Investigating Aircraft and Flight Systems Mishaps
This 3-day course provides instruction in aviation and flight systems mishap investigation basics and policy. Topics discussed include: NASA NPR 8621.1 mishap investigation requirements and terminology, investigator qualifications, board composition and field techniques. Evidence identification, recovery and protection, witness interviewing and site mapping along with individual component systems and material failures are key areas discussed during sessions on field investigation. The course contains extensive accident investigation information generally applicable to aviation accidents, which can be applied to other areas of flight systems mishaps, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, rockets, balloons and other space flight systems mishaps such as Genesis. To register for this course, you must first have completed the required 4-part prerequisite: - (SMA-002-07) Overview of Mishap Investigations
- (SMA-002-08) Mishap Investigation Roles and Responsibilities
- (SMA-002-09) Completing the Investigation and Mishap Report
- (SMA-002-10) Root Cause Analysis
- ISS Payload Safety Process and Requirements Apr. 2
This 8-hour course is intended as an overview of the ISS requirements and will introduce the payload safety/hazard analysis processes. It is intended for those who may be supervising or assisting those with the responsibility for identifying, controlling and documenting ISS payload hazards. It briefly describes ISS payload safety requirements (both technical and procedural) and discusses their application to payload analysis, review, certification and verification. Those with primary payload safety responsibilities should attend SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0011, ISS Payload Safety Review and Analysis. Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Event Date: Thursday, April 2, 2015 Event Start Time:8:00 AM Event End Time:4:00 PM
Event Location: Bldg. 20 Room 205/206
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Shirley Robinson x41284
[top] Community - Passport Fair - Today
Don't miss your chance to take care of your passport today. Bring your driver's license with a birth certificate and a copy of each prior to arrival. - Pilots and Professionals in Schools
The AAERG is partnering with several organizations, including the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) and 100 Black Men of Houston, for Pilots & Professionals in Schools. If you're interested in sparking the interest of young students in the various careers found in the Aerospace Industry then this opportunity is for you! Because this event is only a few days away, we encourage interested volunteers to sign up as soon as possible. Please go to V-CORPs to sign up if you're interested. Be sure to register on HISD VIPS. **For Civil Servants, volunteer hours that occur during your normal tour of duty (within the Core Band duty hours of 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.) must be coordinated in advance with your supervisor and should be recorded as duty time if your participation is approved. **For Contractors, please contact your supervisor for your company's policy. - SWAPRA Hosts Gerry Griffin, Former Center Director
SWAPRA will be hosting Gerald Griffin, board chairman for the Golden Spike Company (GSC) and former JSC Director, at the Bay Oaks Country Club Wednesday, Feb. 11, at 11:30 a.m. Griffin will discuss the current and future efforts of the GSC, whose vision is to "transform human space exploration by putting in place affordably priced lunar orbital and surface expeditions to the Moon." GSC's efforts include the development, marketing, and operation of a space transportation system for human lunar travel and exploration. LOCATION: Bay Oaks Country Club, 14545 Bay Oaks Blvd., Houston (Clear Lake City), TX 77059 FEE:$35.00 for Non-members at the door Event Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2015 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:30 PM
Event Location: Bay Oaks Country Club
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David L. Brown x37426
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
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