Hope you can join us this Thursday at Hibachi Grill on Bay Area Blvd. between Highway 3 and Interstate 45 for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon @11:30. I will be there about 11am myself so I can spend a little more time with you all. I have a Noon to 4pm meeting to attend but probably can miss the first half hour or so.
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday – Feb. 3, 2015
HEADLINES AND LEADS
White House budget: All systems go at NASA
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
The president's budget keeps NASA on its current trajectory, with an $18.5 billion top-line number and an all-systems-go approach on such key, high-cost initiatives as the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System rocket, both of which are still under development, and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for a 2018 launch.
Asteroid mission part of $18.5 billion NASA budget
Ledyard King – Florida Today
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration unveiled an $18.5 billion budget for NASA in fiscal year 2016 that would continue funding major science and exploration programs including a controversial plan to send astronauts to an asteroid as part of a stepping-stone approach for an eventual Mars mission.
Obama Budget Calls for 18.5 Billion for NASA
Jeremy Desel – KHOU 11
"For us it is keep going. Keep doing what you are doing, keep working on it," said Johnson Space Center Director and former astronaut Ellen Ochoa.
The latest budget proposal gives a big increase to NASA's funding. The Johnson Space Center gave KHOU 11 an inside look at it's journey to Mars.
HOUSTON - The latest Federal budget proposal unveiled by the Obama administration has a significant increase in funding for NASA that would keep JSC running without any cuts.
There are currently 3,000 government workers and 10,000 contractors that work in and around the Johnson Space Center.
For the first time, in a number of years, workers have a new era that is not just on paper.
A primer on NASA's budget: Key issues in the President's request
Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle
The President released his $18.5 budget request for NASA today. NASA administrator Charles Bolden called the President's budget "a clear vote of confidence" in the space agency. It marks a $500 million increase over the 2015 budget. This is far from the final document, and is really just a starting point for negotiations with Congress. Nevertheless there are some elements of the budget worth highlighting.
NASA takes a shot at Buzz Aldrin, or me, or both of us
Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle
Today during his "State of NASA" speech at Kennedy Space Center NASA administrator Charles Bolden gave a rousing speech about the future of the space agency. As usual with Bolden, it was heartfelt. He loves his country, and he loves NASA.
NASA's $18.5 Billion Budget Request Boosts Commercial Crew
Frank Morring, Jr. – Aviation Week
NASA is asking for $500 million more in fiscal 2016 than it received from Congress last year to try to meet its many obligations, from delivering crews to the International Space Station on private vehicles developed with public funds to restarting the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) it defunded last year to the consternation of its German partners. Also on the agenda under the $18.5 billion NASA budget request is another $30 million in funding to select instruments for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which enjoys the strong support of a key agency funder on Capitol Hill. The agency seeks $1.2 billion for the push to complete and fly the commercial crew capsules that Boeing and SpaceX are developing to deliver astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS.
What NASA would do with an extra half-billion dollars
Bill Harwood – CBS News
The Obama administration's fiscal 2016 budget includes $18.5 billion for NASA -- a half-billion-dollar increase -- that continues development of a new mega-rocket and capsule for deep space exploration and significantly boosts funding for commercial spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the space station, agency officials said Monday. The budget proposal also includes funding to continue studies of a proposed crewed mission to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, to pay for ongoing and planned robotic Mars missions and to keep the $6 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, on track for launch in late 2018.
Kelly twins have right stuff for NASA study
Dan Desrochers – Arizona Daily Star
During a recent visit to Houston, Mark Kelly was drained of 20 tubes of blood and spent several hours in an MRI machine. He was scanned while lying down, standing up and on an incline. When he was in New York a few weeks ago, NASA sent a technician to draw blood, and they found a quiet corner of a hotel lobby for the procedure. And Mark Kelly has the easy part. His twin brother, Scott Kelly, has been undergoing the same tests, but he's also attempting to become the first American to spend a year in space. Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year in space aboard the International Space Station. The mission, set to start on March 27, will allow doctors to examine the effects of a year in space on the human body, paving the way for longer missions in the future.
NASA is building this monster rocket to shuttle astronauts to Mars
Jessica Orwig – Business Insider
Right now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.
This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions. It will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft toward far-off destination, which could include an asteroid and even Mars in the not-to0-distant future.
COMPLETE STORIES
White House budget: All systems go at NASA
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
The president's budget keeps NASA on its current trajectory, with an $18.5 billion top-line number and an all-systems-go approach on such key, high-cost initiatives as the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System rocket, both of which are still under development, and the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled for a 2018 launch.
The budget also includes $1.2 billion for the Commercial Crew program. NASA has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to take astronauts to the International Space Station using newly designed "commercial" spacecraft that will finally return launch capability to U.S. soil after many years in which the United States, having retired the shuttle, had to depend on the Russians to get Americans into space. This significant investment in that program brings the taxi-to-orbit concept a step closer to reality.
Also still funded: NASA's controversial Asteroid Redirect Mission, an elaborate endeavor that would use a robotic probe to haul a small asteroid out of its natural orbit around the sun and into an orbit around the moon. There — if all goes as planned — the rock would be visited, sometime in the 2020s, by astronauts aboard Orion in one of the first missions of that new capsule. Politically the mission is fraught because it is closely associated with Obama — who nixed his predecessor's plan to put astronauts back on the moon — and has been the target of steady opposition from congressional Republicans.
The budget includes $5.3 billion in funding for space science. That will go toward the next rover on Mars, as well as toward the development of a robotic mission to Europa, the moon of Jupiter that has long intrigued scientists because it shows signs of a subsurface ocean.
Asteroid mission part of $18.5 billion NASA budget
Ledyard King – Florida Today
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration unveiled an $18.5 billion budget for NASA in fiscal year 2016 that would continue funding major science and exploration programs including a controversial plan to send astronauts to an asteroid as part of a stepping-stone approach for an eventual Mars mission.
The proposed budget is about $500 million more than what Congress approved for the current year. It's part of the $3.99 trillion spending plan President Barack Obama rolled out Monday.
Lawmakers are expected to hold hearings in the coming weeks as they decide how to reshape the president's plan on space exploration.
The budget includes about $220 million to study asteroids, including how to deflect ones that pose a threat to Earth. Some of that funding also would be used to formulate a mission to redirect a small asteroid (or a piece of a larger one) to the moon's orbit, where it could be explored, mined, and eventually used as a way station for a trip to Mars by the 2030s.
NASA seeks Commercial Crew budget boost
David Radzanowski, NASA's chief financial officer, said the money would support early concept development in March and lay the groundwork for a crewed mission by the mid-2020s.
Some lawmakers, including several leaders of key committees, oppose an asteroid mission.
In separate statements Monday, both Texas Republican Lamar Smith, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and Mississippi Republican Steven Palazzo, who chairs the panel's Space Subcommittee, called an asteroid mission nothing but a "costly distraction."
Smith, Palazzo and some other lawmakers prefer a return to the moon as the next logical destination on the way to Mars.
"The president has delivered a budget request that does not adequately support the programs that will take us farther into our solar system to destinations like Mars," Smith said.
But NASA officials say such a return to the moon would be too expensive for an agency already struggling to keep its exploration missions on schedule, a conclusion an independent panel supported several years ago when Obama scrapped a lunar mission.
That's not expected to be the only source of controversy in the proposed spending plan.
Boeing, SpaceX aim for manned launches in 2017
The NASA budget also would significantly bump up spending to help two private firms — Boeing and SpaceX — develop spacecraft to transport astronauts from U.S. soil to the International Space Station.
Money for the commercial crew program, as it's known, would increase from $805 million in the current year to $1.24 billion in 2016 as NASA tries to meet a 2017 target for the first flight to the orbiting lab. Private firms, including SpaceX, already carry cargo to the station.
NASA's budget proposal calls the program "a catalyst for the growth of a vibrant American commercial space industry."
Radzanowski said the substantial bump in the program reflects the contracts NASA entered into with Boeing and SpaceX last year to meet certain milestones necessary to certify that both vehicles could start ferrying astronauts by late 2017. If Congress doesn't provide full funding, NASA can't certify them, he said.
Since the last space shuttle flight in 2011, American taxpayers have been paying Russia as much as $70 million to ferry astronauts to the space station.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation applauded NASA's budget proposal, saying that, with two domestic providers under contract, the average cost per seat would drop to $58 million.
Lawmakers don't like paying the Russians either but they're likely to oppose any plan that funds commercial crew at the expense of their top priority: development of a deep-space rocket known as the Space Launch System and Orion crew capsule that could someday take astronauts to Mars.
Google backing SpaceX revives satellite internet talks
Under the 2016 budget, the Obama administration would fund that program at $2.86 billion, a significant reduction from the $3.25 billion Congress approved for 2015 but the same amount the administration requested last year.
Agency officials have said it's not a case of money being taken from the deep-space program to pay for commercial spaceflight, as a number of critics in Congress have claimed. They have said they simply don't need as much as Congress has approved because they can't spend it fast enough.
The Orion capsule completed a key test flight in December. The first crewed flight could take place as early as 2021.
The budget also includes $620 million for the James Webb Space Telescope, the powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The money would keep James Webb on track for a 2018 launch.
Obama Budget Calls for 18.5 Billion for NASA
Jeremy Desel – KHOU 11
"For us it is keep going. Keep doing what you are doing, keep working on it," said Johnson Space Center Director and former astronaut Ellen Ochoa.
The latest budget proposal gives a big increase to NASA's funding. The Johnson Space Center gave KHOU 11 an inside look at it's journey to Mars.
HOUSTON - The latest Federal budget proposal unveiled by the Obama administration has a significant increase in funding for NASA that would keep JSC running without any cuts.
There are currently 3,000 government workers and 10,000 contractors that work in and around the Johnson Space Center.
For the first time, in a number of years, workers have a new era that is not just on paper.
The boom may have been on the pad, when the Orion capsule launched on its maiden flight in December, but you could feel here, "That was our first actual mission out of this room," said William Foster a NASA Ground Controller and veteran of 47 shuttle missions.
"I am really looking forward to going to the moon. To me that is the next logical step," Foster said.
After that, there is a planned manned mission to an asteroid and then eventually on to Mars.
It will likely be future astronauts that are right now in high school or college that will be those pioneers that go to Mars, still training is already underway in the Orion mock-up here in Houston.
"I look and I see a couple of very excited people here getting ready to fly to the moon," said current NASA Astronaut Dr. Stan Love.
First things first, Love added "Nobody wants to get off Russian Rockets more than we do. We are very excited about the prospect of getting our own launcher."
It is not just vehicles.
All human flight research programs are happening here, "For us it is keep going. Keep doing what you are doing keep working on it," said Johnson Space Center Director and former Astronaut Ellen Ochoa.
Doug Wheelock has spent plenty of time in space, but he will be too old to go to Mars when the time comes but that does not stop his enthusiasm, "We are in a new era like that where there are so many new things coming," Wheelock said.
For the people who work here the last few months have given NASA a new tangible mission, a new spacecraft, and as always looking up to a new destination.
On to Mars.
A primer on NASA's budget: Key issues in the President's request
Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle
The President released his $18.5 budget request for NASA today.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden called the President's budget "a clear vote of confidence" in the space agency. It marks a $500 million increase over the 2015 budget.
This is far from the final document, and is really just a starting point for negotiations with Congress. Nevertheless there are some elements of the budget worth highlighting.
ASTEROID MISSION
This is a critical year for NASA's proposal to send a robotic spacecraft to capture an asteroid, bring it near the moon, and then send astronauts to visit the rock there.
In private correspondence, NASA administrator Charles Bolden has indicated that a lack a significant funding for the mission in this year's budget would virtually doom the project.
There is not a line item specifically for this mission, but the agency's Space Technology Research and Development budget does seek an increase from $370 million to $491 million. It appears that most of this money would go toward development of the asteroid mission.
Given that Congress has been critical of the asteroid mission, I'll be watching these funds closely.
COMMERCIAL CREW
The budget request calls for $1.24 billion to support NASA's commercial crew contracts with Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of taking U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of 2017.
This represents a substantial increase over the $805 million allocated in 2015.
In years past Congress has undercut commercial crew funding to support other areas of NASA's budget, notably the Space Launch System. Everyone wants to end American dependence on Russia, and Boeing and SpaceX are the two quickest options to get this done.
However given the magnitude of this increase, I predict substantial debate over the dollar level.
EUROPA MISSION
The President's Budget provides $30 million for development of a robotic mission(.pdf) to Europa.
This mission would send an orbiter to Europa to study the Jovian moon's ice shell, and to possibly identify landing sites for future missions. Under the current funding level, a launch could come in the mid-2020s.
The President and White House were initially resistant to funding this mission, which will eventually cost well north of $2 billion. But a substantial Europa probe has champions in Congress, notably John Culberson, who chairs the House subcommittee with oversight of NASA's budget. (Read more about Culberson's Europa obsession here).
If anything, expect Congress to revise this number upward as the Europa mission received $100 million in the 2015 budget. I'd expect the final number to be close to that.
ORION and SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM
The budget request calls for $1.1 billion for further development of the Orion spacecraft as well as $1.35 billion for the Space Launch System rocket. Both of these are less than the appropriations in the 2015 budget ($1.2 billion and $1.7 billion respectively).
During recent years the White House has put less money into Orion and SLS than Congress wanted, and I'd expect Congress to bump up the allocations for 2016 to the 2015 levels.
The White House may not want to spend that much, but Congress does, and as Congress has gotten its way in the past for Orion and SLS funding, its likely to do so in the future.
CLIMATE CHANGE
It will surprise no one that the President support's the continued use of NASA satellites to provide data for weather and climate models, and to conduct climate change research.
The 2016 budget request calls for $1.95 billion in Earth science research, up from previous years.
The real battle over this issue remains in the future, when Congress confronts NASA's budget. Neither the House nor the Senate (where Sen. Ted Cruz has a key chairmanship, and opposes the use of NASA funding for climate science) has a big appetite for spending space money on climate.
I'd expect the $1.95 billion number to come down during the Congressional budgeting process.
NASA takes a shot at Buzz Aldrin, or me, or both of us
Eric Berger – Houston Chronicle
Today during his "State of NASA" speech at Kennedy Space Center NASA administrator Charles Bolden gave a rousing speech about the future of the space agency.
As usual with Bolden, it was heartfelt. He loves his country, and he loves NASA.
Personally, the speech was notable because it took a shot at those who believe NASA is "adrift." Here are the relevant lines from the speech:
Some have said that NASA is adrift. If you look at everything I talked about today – at the spacecraft of the future behind me and the concrete plans in development for human and robotic exploration in cis-lunar space and beyond.
If you visit our various NASA and commercial manufacturing facilities where work is ongoing for our future such as Michoud, here at KSC, in Utah, Texas or California. If you travel the world, as I regularly do, and see the enthusiasm I see for NASA everywhere I go, or interact with, as I do regularly, the tens of thousands of students around the world from elementary through graduate school who are excited about the dream of one day traveling into space and visiting Mars, I think you'll come to a different conclusion.
That the idea we're adrift is an empty hook trying to catch yesterday's fish.
My ears perked up at the use of the word adrift.
That was the title of my seven-part series on the space agency's human spaceflight program published during the course of 2014. Bolden has always been cordial to me, and I respect his service to the country and job he's trying to do, but he hasn't been thrilled by some of the reporting in the series. Nor have his subordinates.
In Adrift I tried to get to the reality of what is really happening with NASA. I have had a lot of positive feedback from people working at the agency, just not from the very top levels.
Adrift was a seven part series published by the Houston Chronicle in 2014.
Adrift was a seven part series published by the Houston Chronicle in 2014.
Anyway, after my series began last year, Buzz Aldrin said of NASA, "I believe that we are — in other people's terminology — adrift right now." (Thanks Buzz!)
Overall, today's budget is good news for NASA and its employees, but the fundamental problem for the space agency remains the fact that it is being given a lot of money to build very expensive tools — the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket — but no money to use those tools for meaningful exploration missions.
Until this problem is solved I — and a lot of people in the aerospace community — will continue to believe NASA is adrift.
NASA's $18.5 Billion Budget Request Boosts Commercial Crew
Frank Morring, Jr. – Aviation Week
NASA is asking for $500 million more in fiscal 2016 than it received from Congress last year to try to meet its many obligations, from delivering crews to the International Space Station on private vehicles developed with public funds to restarting the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) it defunded last year to the consternation of its German partners.
Also on the agenda under the $18.5 billion NASA budget request is another $30 million in funding to select instruments for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which enjoys the strong support of a key agency funder on Capitol Hill.
The agency seeks $1.2 billion for the push to complete and fly the commercial crew capsules that Boeing and SpaceX are developing to deliver astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS.
"They're not things on paper anymore," said Administrator Charles Bolden on Feb. 2, delivering a "state of the agency" speech to employees at Kennedy Space Center before versions of the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon. "This is tangible evidence of all the work you all have been doing for a number of years now."
Overall, the budget continues work already underway across the agency, with few surprises. Space station operations would be funded at $3.1 billion, plus another $898 million for "space and flight support." Overall human spaceflight would get $8.5 billion including the commercial crew work. That would include ongoing development of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), and preparations for the second unmanned flight test of the Orion crew capsule for exploration beyond low Earth orbit (which was represented at Bolden's event by the reassembled test article from the first flight test in December 2014).
The SLS figure is a cut of $367 million, to $1.3 billion, from the $1.67 billion Congress enacted for the big new rocket in the current fiscal year. The agency and Congress have been at odds over human access to space, with NASA pushing the two commercial crew vehicles backed by the White House and Congress shifting funds from the commercial vehicles to SLS. The request for commercial spaceflight in fiscal 2016 is $1.2 billion, up from the $805 million Congress enacted in the continuing funding resolution for the current fiscal year.
Last year's request called for defunding of Sofia, a high-altitude infrared observatory mounted in a Boeing 747 modified for open-air observation. That triggered an outcry from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which supplied the 2.5-meter telescope in a partnership arrangement. The fiscal 2016 request restores "full funding" for NASA's share of Sofia, at $85.2 million, and declares that a top-level agency review "will evaluate Sofia's scientific productivity."
Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope, a 6.5-meter infrared instrument planned for launch in 2018 to the Sun-Earth L-2 lagrangian point, would get $620 million in fiscal 2016, down from $645.4 million this year. The complex instrument continues to have development issues, according to the Government Accountability Office, but it enjoys strong support from Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Rep. John Culbertson (R-Texas), the new chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, has taken a strong personal interest in mounting a robotic mission to Europa, which may harbor more water beneath its frozen surface than exists on Earth. The $30 million the agency wants for mission formulation work in fiscal 2016 doubles the amount requested last year, according to NASA budget documents, and would come on top of $100 million Congress ultimately enacted for fiscal 2015 with Culbertson's support.
Overall, the new NASA budget request seeks $5.3 billion for science (including $1.9 billion for Earth science); $725 million for open-ended space technology work to include six in-space demonstrations, and $571 million for aeronautics, down from the $651 million enacted for the current fiscal year. Education would receive $89 million, and agency-wide mission support would get $3.3 billion.
The request is "a clear vote of confidence to you, the employees of NASA, and the ambitious exploration program you're executing," Bolden told his audience at Kennedy Space Center.
What NASA would do with an extra half-billion dollars
Bill Harwood – CBS News
The Obama administration's fiscal 2016 budget includes $18.5 billion for NASA -- a half-billion-dollar increase -- that continues development of a new mega-rocket and capsule for deep space exploration and significantly boosts funding for commercial spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the space station, agency officials said Monday.
The budget proposal also includes funding to continue studies of a proposed crewed mission to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, to pay for ongoing and planned robotic Mars missions and to keep the $6 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, on track for launch in late 2018.
"President Obama today is proposing an FY 2016 budget of $18.5 billion for NASA, building on the significant investments the administration has made in America's space program over the past six years," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Kennedy Space Center workers.
Standing in front of an Orion deep space exploration capsule that completed an initial test flight in December, Bolden said the budget represented a "half billion-dollar increase over last year's enacted budget, and it is a clear vote of confidence to you, the employees of NASA, and the ambitious exploration program you are executing."
Repeating what has become a sort of mantra for senior NASA officials, Bolden said the agency "is firmly on a journey to Mars. Make no mistake, this journey will help guide and define our generation."
While eventual Mars flights are not expected until the mid 2030s at the earliest, NASA's long-range focus is the red planet, a goal Bolden promotes at every opportunity.
NASA's human exploration program accounts for nearly half of the agency's 2016 budget request, or $8.51 billion. That total includes $3.106 billion for International Space Station operations, $1.244 billion for commercial crew spacecraft, $2.863 billion for the Orion deep space capsule and the heavy-lift Space Launch System booster and $400 million for research and development.
The commercial crew program budget includes contracts awarded last year to Boeing and SpaceX to develop independent spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the space station starting in late 2017, a major element of the Obama administration's space policy. Since the shuttle's retirement in 2011, NASA has been forced to rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to the station, paying more than $70 million per seat under the most recent contract with the Russian federal space agency.
But Congress has never fully funded the commercial crew program, approving about $2 billion less than NASA requested between 2011 and the most recent budget cycle. As a result, operational flights have been delayed until the end of 2017 at the earliest.
The 2016 commercial crew funding request represents a $400 million boost over the $805 million budgeted in fiscal 2015. The funding covers milestones laid out by both companies to reach certification and operational space station flights by the end of 2017.
"If those two companies meet those milestones, we require $1.244 billion in FY 2016," NASA Chief Financial Officer David Radzanowski told reporters in an afternoon teleconference. "Based on this funding level, and those companies meeting those milestones, it would support certification of commercial crew services by the end of 2017, meeting all of the NASA safety requirements."
But he said if Congress provides less than the requested amount, additional delays will result and flights will not be possible in 2017 as currently planned. And until the new spacecraft become available, NASA will continue relying on the Russians for transportation to low-Earth orbit.
Bolden called the commercial crew initiative "absolutely critical to our journey to Mars, absolutely critical. SpaceX and Boeing have set up operations here on the Space Coast, bringing jobs, energy and excitement about the future with them."
The centerpiece of the Obama administration's near-term plans for deep space exploration is a proposed asteroid redirect mission, or ARM, that would robotically retrieve a small asteroid, or samples from one, and return it to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on analysis by astronauts using the Orion-SLS system.
The mission is viewed as a precursor for eventual missions to orbit Mars or its moons and, at some point, to land humans on the planet's surface. ARM has been sharply criticized by many Republicans and some in the science community who argue a return to the moon would provide more science and technology bang for the bucks.
But Bolden insisted the ARM mission is an affordable path to development of the technology and expertise needed for flights to more distant destinations.
"Landing on an asteroid traveling through space or retrieving a piece of it requires advanced autonomous robotics and guidance and control technologies," he said. "These NASA-developed technologies will be applicable to commercial satellite servicing, future exploration, resource extraction, mining, in situ resource utilization and planetary sample return.
"The asteroid mission will also demonstrate advanced high-power solar electric propulsion, critical for future NASA and commercial uses. The mission will test asteroid deflection techniques and may provide information to inform future work to help us protect our own home planet. We have identified several asteroids that could be good candidates and will make a decision soon on a capture option."
NASA's fiscal 2016 budget request includes $5.288 billion for science, including $1.947 billion for Earth science, $1.361 billion for planetary science -- including funding to continue planning for a possible mission to Jupiter's moon Europa in the mid 2020s -- nearly $710 million for astrophysics and $620 million for the James Webb Space Telescope.
"As I stand before you today, in front of these very tangible examples of our progress and our future, I can unequivocally say that the State of NASA is strong," Bolden said. "Our newest rocket, the Space Launch System, has moved from formulation to development, something no other exploration class vehicle has achieved since the agency built the space shuttle.
"We have two commercial providers bringing cargo and research to the space station, something that would have been science fiction just a few years ago is now fact. This success and the rapid progress our commercial crew providers are validating our faith and investment in commercial space."
Looking beyond Earth and low-Earth orbit, Mars remains the top planetary priority for NASA. The agency currently is operating three orbiters and two operational rovers on the surface. Another lander is scheduled for launch in 2016 and a follow-on to the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover is planned for 2020. Both missions are funded in the 2016 budget request.
But one of NASA's current rovers, the long-lived Opportunity, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter would not receive any funding under the 2016 budget request. Radzanowski said one or both could be reinstated depending on an assessment of their science value and the prospects for some sort of alternative funding. Both missions were "zeroed out" in the 2015 budget and both managed to remain operational.
Bolden focused on the future, saying robotic missions are paving the way for eventual manned flights.
"Our latest Mars spacecraft, MAVEN, arrived last September to study the upper atmosphere and joined a fleet of orbiters and rovers on the surface," he said. "Next year, we will send the InSight lander to study the planet's core. In 2020, a new rover building on the incredible success of Curiosity will help us prepare for human arrival at Mars and, for the first time ever, will cache a (rock and soil) sample for later return to Earth."
Bolden noted the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch in April 1990, and looked ahead to launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018. He said those missions, a renewed push to study Earth and its environment from space and steady funding for NASA's ongoing robotic exploration of the solar system reflect broad political support.
Summing up, Bolden said "the state of NASA is strong."
"Because of the dedication and determination of each and every one of you in our NASA family, America's space program is not just alive, it is thriving," Bolden said. "Together with our commercial and international partners, academia and entrepreneurs, we're launching the future. With the continued support of the administration, the Congress and the American people, we'll all get there together."
Kelly twins have right stuff for NASA study
Dan Desrochers – Arizona Daily Star
During a recent visit to Houston, Mark Kelly was drained of 20 tubes of blood and spent several hours in an MRI machine. He was scanned while lying down, standing up and on an incline.
When he was in New York a few weeks ago, NASA sent a technician to draw blood, and they found a quiet corner of a hotel lobby for the procedure.
And Mark Kelly has the easy part.
His twin brother, Scott Kelly, has been undergoing the same tests, but he's also attempting to become the first American to spend a year in space.
Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year in space aboard the International Space Station. The mission, set to start on March 27, will allow doctors to examine the effects of a year in space on the human body, paving the way for longer missions in the future.
Although Russia has had four cosmonauts spend a year in space at Mir, their old space station, Scott and Kornienko will be the first to do it at the International Space Station, where they have more testing capability.
"He's got the hard job," said Mark, a retired astronaut and husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. "It's spending a year in space; it's a significant challenge."
Mark has spent significant time in space himself. As a shuttle pilot, he took part in four missions, commanding two of them, for a total of 54 days in space.
Scott Kelly, when he's done with this mission, will have 10 times the number of days in space as Mark, and NASA is interested in finding out how that will affect him physically and mentally.
Mark said he noticed changes in Scott's demeanor and attitude after four months of a six-month mission aboard the space station. NASA and Mark are interested to see if that change comes after four months, or if it's two-thirds of the way through the mission.
But that's not the only aspect NASA is looking at.
"Just about any body system you can think of, we have some tests for that," said Steven Gilmore, Scott's flight surgeon.
Researchers from 10 universities are looking at all aspects of how a year in space might affect humans. They're performing studies like "Comprehensive Whole Genome Analysis of Differential Epigenetic Events of Space Travel on Monozygotic Twins" at Johns Hopkins and "The Landscape of DNA and RNA Methylation Before, During and After Human Space Travel" at Cornell.
"These things are not obvious; you don't hear in the title what it actually is," Mark said. "It's human physiology, behavioral health, microbiology in the microbiome, and then the molecular stuff."
Since Mark and Scott have nearly identical DNA, they're perfect subjects for scientific research.
In the past, NASA had a program in the Houston area where they found people who matched the general demographics of an astronaut. If the astronaut was female, they'd look for a female in Houston who was about the same age and shared other attributes, and then they'd do testing on that person. While that can give a general picture, having a twin sets up a more precise experiment.
That method, called the discordant twin method, is fairly common in scientific research, according to David Sbarra, an associate professor and director of clinical training at the University of Arizona psychology department.
"One of the things the twin method allows us to do is study potentially causal situations where we cannot randomize people to exposure events," Sbarra said.
NASA wasn't planning on doing any experiments with Mark until Scott brought up the idea. Mark said he was eager to help out.
"We've got to learn how to deal with this," Mark said. "If we want to send people to Mars, the trip to Mars will probably be upwards of a three-year mission. We've got to figure out how to successfully do this."
In particular, Mark is interested in learning how radiation affects his brother's DNA. According to Gilmore, NASA monitors astronauts' radiation levels from the time they join the space program.
"There's a lot of interest in making sure and understanding whether or not there's any risk related to being exposed to those increased levels of radiation," Gilmore said.
Gilmore is also interested in seeing what kind of mental toll a year in space takes on Scott.
"Scott will be in his workplace, essentially for a year," Gilmore said. "So I'm interested to see how that element unfolds."
Scott lives in Houston and Mark lives in Tucson, and they mostly talk on the phone, so a year in space won't be anything too different for the twins' communication.
"I wind up talking to him more when he's in space," Mark said. The only difference will be that Mark can't call Scott.
Mark and Scott were the type of twins who did everything together while growing up, right down to both becoming astronauts. So it's only fitting that they approach this pioneering experiment together.
"It's laying the groundwork for us to expand throughout the solar system," Mark said. "Humans are explorers; if we weren't explorers, we would all be living in Europe, I suppose."
NASA is building this monster rocket to shuttle astronauts to Mars
Jessica Orwig – Business Insider
Right now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.
This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions. It will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft toward far-off destination, which could include an asteroid and even Mars in the not-to0-distant future.
NASA's SLS will be able to carry more than twice the payload weight as any of the agency's space shuttles. Moreover, it will generate 12% more thrust than NASA's Saturn V rocket — the most powerful launch vehicle in history that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.
NASA recently received an additional $1.7 billion to continue building SLS. And it's scheduled to send astronauts to the moon in November 2018 for NASA's first major deep-space mission since the Apollo program.
END
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Check Out the New JSC Formal Mentoring Website!
- Heart Healthy Off the Earth, For the Earth
- Recent JSC Announcement
- #SuitUp! EVA Celebrates its 50th this year - Organizations/Social
- What's New With Engineers Without Borders-JSC
- JSC Food Service Contract Awarded
- "Keeping It Real" Event Feb. 10 - Save the Date - Jobs and Training
- Lockout/Tagout Feb. 24, 8 a.m. B20, Rm 205/206
- CGE Travel System Live Lab, Feb. 4
- RLLS Portal Training for Feb. - Via WebEx - Community
- American Heart Month |  |
| Headlines - Check Out the New JSC Formal Mentoring Website!
Your friendly mentoring POCs welcome civil servant employees to learn more about the JSC Formal Mentoring Program (FMP) via the new website. You can also visit with us at one of two information sessions: Session 1: - Friday, Feb. 6
- 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- B3 Collaboration Center
Session 2: - Thursday, Feb. 12
- 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
- B3 Collaboration Center
- Heart Healthy Off the Earth, For the Earth
Our ISS research communications focus for Feb. will be cardiovascular health. Like bones and muscle, the cardiovascular system deconditions during spaceflight. Research in space may help us fight cardiovascular disease on Earth. How? Check out this story about Cardio Ox! - Recent JSC Announcement
JSCA 15-005: Key Personnel Assignment - Steven Gonzalez - #SuitUp! EVA Celebrates its 50th this year
1965 saw the Sound of Music premiere at Rivoli Theater in NYC, the historic march on Washington, the Harris County Domed Stadium (aka the Astrodome) opened, and yes, the very first spacewalk. Help celebrate 50 years of EVAs, #SuitUp with us in 2015 as we #JourneytoMars. #SuitUp is the hashtag NASA will use as we celebrate the year. Be sure to share the hashtag and use it if you post and #SuitUp with us. During the year, NASA will highlight the accomplishments of Extravehicular Activity, past, present and future. Be sure to check out the public and internal websites that showcase the history and demonstrate future challenges we face as we #JourneytoMars. There are two important dates to remember. The first is March 18, marking the 50th anniversary of the first spacewalk by cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, who left his Voskhod-2 for a 12-minute tethered EVA. The second date is June 3, marking NASA's first EVA with Ed White exiting his Gemini-4 capsule for a 23-minute tethered spacewalk. Don't forget: #SuitUp will be used to keep you up-to-date on EVA milestones and events related to our celebration. Organizations/Social - What's New With Engineers Without Borders-JSC
Come out Wednesday, Feb. 4 in Building 7, Room 141 from noon to 1 p.m. to learn about Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and what EWB-JSC is doing in Thailand. Meet the chapter members and find out how you can get involved with this brand new project. No RSVP needed. - JSC Food Service Contract Awarded
Recently the JSC Exchange awarded a new contract for dining, catering and vending services to CulinArt, Inc. Sodexo has done excellent work at JSC for the last 10 years and their dedication has greatly contributed to the welfare of the JSC community. Every member of the Sodexo team deserves our best wishes and our hopes for a bright future as the contract transition occurs. CulinArt will begin managing food services on Mar. 2. Please help us welcome CulinArt while they settle in and begin offering their best selections and service. Our goal is to transition the contract without interruption to services as much as possible. Please contact Peggy Wooten if you have any questions or concerns. - "Keeping It Real" Event Feb. 10 - Save the Date
The third "Keeping it Real" event will be held on 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. If you would like your question answered but won't be able to attend, please send to Kai Harris and we will try to make sure your question is answered and the response sent to you. Event Date: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 Event Start Time:4:30 PM Event End Time:6:30 PM
Event Location: Silvermoon Room - Space Center Houston
Add to Calendar
Kai Harris x40694
[top] Jobs and Training - Lockout/Tagout Feb. 24, 8 a.m. B20, Rm 205/206
The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration. https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... - CGE Travel System Live Lab, Feb. 4
Do you need some hands-on, personal help with the Concur Government Edition (CGE Travel System)? Join the Business Systems and Process Improvement Office for a CGE Travel System Live Lab tomorrow, Feb. 4 any time between 9 a.m. and noon in Building 12, Room 142. Our help desk representatives will be available to help you work through your travel processes and learn more about using the CGE Travel System during this informal workshop. Please feel free to bring any travel documents to be worked. This is real time help, not a training class. - RLLS Portal Training for Feb. - Via WebEx
The Feb. Monthly RLLS Portal Education Series - Via WebEx Session: - Feb. 11 at 2:00 p.m. CST, Interpretation Support Module Training
- Feb. 12 at 2:00 p.m. CST, Transportation Module Training
- Feb. 18 at 2:00 p.m. CST, ISS Russia Travel Module Training
- Feb. 19 at 2:00 p.m. CST, Meeting Support Module Training
The 30-minute training sessions are computer based WebEx sessions, offering individuals the convenience to join from their own workstation. The training will cover the following: - System login
- Locating support modules
- Locating downloadable instructions
- Creating support requests
- Submittal requirements
- Submitting on behalf of another
- Adding attachments
- Selecting special requirements
- Submitting request
- Status of request
Ending each session there will be a Q&A opportunity. Please remember TTI will no longer accept request for U.S. performed services unless they are submitted through the RLLS Portal. Community - American Heart Month
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. To prevent heart disease and increase awareness of its effects, Johnson Space Center is proudly participating in American Heart Month. Locally, 5.7% of Houstonians are affected by heart disease. You can make healthy changes to lower your risk of developing heart disease. Controlling and preventing risk factors is also important for people who already have heart disease. To lower your risk: - Watch your weight
- Quit smoking and stay away from secondhand smoke
- Control your cholesterol and blood pressure
- If you drink alcohol, drink only in moderation
- Get active and eat healthy
Look for more information in JSC Today throughout the month of Feb. on ideas to lower your risk of heart disease. | |
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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. |
The latest budget proposal gives a big increase to NASA's funding. The Johnson Space Center gave KHOU 11 an inside look at it's journey to Mars.HOUSTON - The latest Federal budget proposal unveiled by the Obama administration has a significant increase in funding for NASA that would keep JSC running without any cuts.There are currently 3,000 government workers and 10,000 contractors that work in and around the Johnson Space Center.For the first time, in a number of years, workers have a new era that is not just on paper.The boom may have been on the pad, when the Orion capsule launched on its maiden flight in December, but you could feel here, "That was our first actual mission out of this room," said William Foster a NASA Ground Controller and veteran of 47 shuttle missions."I am really looking forward to going to the moon. To me that is the next logical step," Foster said.After that, there is a planned manned mission to an asteroid and then eventually on to Mars.It will likely be future astronauts that are right now in high school or college that will be those pioneers that go to Mars, still training is already underway in the Orion mock-up here in Houston."I look and I see a couple of very excited people here getting ready to fly to the moon," said current NASA Astronaut Dr. Stan Love.First things first, Love added "Nobody wants to get off Russian Rockets more than we do. We are very excited about the prospect of getting our own launcher."It is not just vehicles.All human flight research programs are happening here, "For us it is keep going. Keep doing what you are doing keep working on it," said Johnson Space Center Director and former Astronaut Ellen Ochoa.Doug Wheelock has spent plenty of time in space, but he will be too old to go to Mars when the time comes but that does not stop his enthusiasm, "We are in a new era like that where there are so many new things coming," Wheelock said.For the people who work here the last few months have given NASA a new tangible mission, a new spacecraft, and as always looking up to a new destination.On to Mars.A primer on NASA's budget: Key issues in the President's requestEric Berger – Houston ChronicleThe President released his $18.5 budget request for NASA today.NASA administrator Charles Bolden called the President's budget "a clear vote of confidence" in the space agency. It marks a $500 million increase over the 2015 budget.This is far from the final document, and is really just a starting point for negotiations with Congress. Nevertheless there are some elements of the budget worth highlighting.ASTEROID MISSIONThis is a critical year for NASA's proposal to send a robotic spacecraft to capture an asteroid, bring it near the moon, and then send astronauts to visit the rock there.In private correspondence, NASA administrator Charles Bolden has indicated that a lack a significant funding for the mission in this year's budget would virtually doom the project.There is not a line item specifically for this mission, but the agency's Space Technology Research and Development budget does seek an increase from $370 million to $491 million. It appears that most of this money would go toward development of the asteroid mission.Given that Congress has been critical of the asteroid mission, I'll be watching these funds closely.COMMERCIAL CREWThe budget request calls for $1.24 billion to support NASA's commercial crew contracts with Boeing and SpaceX to develop spacecraft capable of taking U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station by the end of 2017.This represents a substantial increase over the $805 million allocated in 2015.In years past Congress has undercut commercial crew funding to support other areas of NASA's budget, notably the Space Launch System. Everyone wants to end American dependence on Russia, and Boeing and SpaceX are the two quickest options to get this done.However given the magnitude of this increase, I predict substantial debate over the dollar level.EUROPA MISSIONThe President's Budget provides $30 million for development of a robotic mission(.pdf) to Europa.This mission would send an orbiter to Europa to study the Jovian moon's ice shell, and to possibly identify landing sites for future missions. Under the current funding level, a launch could come in the mid-2020s.The President and White House were initially resistant to funding this mission, which will eventually cost well north of $2 billion. But a substantial Europa probe has champions in Congress, notably John Culberson, who chairs the House subcommittee with oversight of NASA's budget. (Read more about Culberson's Europa obsession here).If anything, expect Congress to revise this number upward as the Europa mission received $100 million in the 2015 budget. I'd expect the final number to be close to that.ORION and SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEMThe budget request calls for $1.1 billion for further development of the Orion spacecraft as well as $1.35 billion for the Space Launch System rocket. Both of these are less than the appropriations in the 2015 budget ($1.2 billion and $1.7 billion respectively).During recent years the White House has put less money into Orion and SLS than Congress wanted, and I'd expect Congress to bump up the allocations for 2016 to the 2015 levels.The White House may not want to spend that much, but Congress does, and as Congress has gotten its way in the past for Orion and SLS funding, its likely to do so in the future.CLIMATE CHANGEIt will surprise no one that the President support's the continued use of NASA satellites to provide data for weather and climate models, and to conduct climate change research.The 2016 budget request calls for $1.95 billion in Earth science research, up from previous years.The real battle over this issue remains in the future, when Congress confronts NASA's budget. Neither the House nor the Senate (where Sen. Ted Cruz has a key chairmanship, and opposes the use of NASA funding for climate science) has a big appetite for spending space money on climate.I'd expect the $1.95 billion number to come down during the Congressional budgeting process.NASA takes a shot at Buzz Aldrin, or me, or both of usEric Berger – Houston ChronicleToday during his "State of NASA" speech at Kennedy Space Center NASA administrator Charles Bolden gave a rousing speech about the future of the space agency.As usual with Bolden, it was heartfelt. He loves his country, and he loves NASA.Personally, the speech was notable because it took a shot at those who believe NASA is "adrift." Here are the relevant lines from the speech:Some have said that NASA is adrift. If you look at everything I talked about today – at the spacecraft of the future behind me and the concrete plans in development for human and robotic exploration in cis-lunar space and beyond.If you visit our various NASA and commercial manufacturing facilities where work is ongoing for our future such as Michoud, here at KSC, in Utah, Texas or California. If you travel the world, as I regularly do, and see the enthusiasm I see for NASA everywhere I go, or interact with, as I do regularly, the tens of thousands of students around the world from elementary through graduate school who are excited about the dream of one day traveling into space and visiting Mars, I think you'll come to a different conclusion.That the idea we're adrift is an empty hook trying to catch yesterday's fish.My ears perked up at the use of the word adrift.That was the title of my seven-part series on the space agency's human spaceflight program published during the course of 2014. Bolden has always been cordial to me, and I respect his service to the country and job he's trying to do, but he hasn't been thrilled by some of the reporting in the series. Nor have his subordinates.In Adrift I tried to get to the reality of what is really happening with NASA. I have had a lot of positive feedback from people working at the agency, just not from the very top levels.Adrift was a seven part series published by the Houston Chronicle in 2014.Adrift was a seven part series published by the Houston Chronicle in 2014.Anyway, after my series began last year, Buzz Aldrin said of NASA, "I believe that we are — in other people's terminology — adrift right now." (Thanks Buzz!)Overall, today's budget is good news for NASA and its employees, but the fundamental problem for the space agency remains the fact that it is being given a lot of money to build very expensive tools — the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System rocket — but no money to use those tools for meaningful exploration missions.Until this problem is solved I — and a lot of people in the aerospace community — will continue to believe NASA is adrift.NASA's $18.5 Billion Budget Request Boosts Commercial CrewFrank Morring, Jr. – Aviation WeekNASA is asking for $500 million more in fiscal 2016 than it received from Congress last year to try to meet its many obligations, from delivering crews to the International Space Station on private vehicles developed with public funds to restarting the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (Sofia) it defunded last year to the consternation of its German partners.Also on the agenda under the $18.5 billion NASA budget request is another $30 million in funding to select instruments for a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, which enjoys the strong support of a key agency funder on Capitol Hill.The agency seeks $1.2 billion for the push to complete and fly the commercial crew capsules that Boeing and SpaceX are developing to deliver astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS."They're not things on paper anymore," said Administrator Charles Bolden on Feb. 2, delivering a "state of the agency" speech to employees at Kennedy Space Center before versions of the Boeing CST-100 and SpaceX Dragon. "This is tangible evidence of all the work you all have been doing for a number of years now."Overall, the budget continues work already underway across the agency, with few surprises. Space station operations would be funded at $3.1 billion, plus another $898 million for "space and flight support." Overall human spaceflight would get $8.5 billion including the commercial crew work. That would include ongoing development of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), and preparations for the second unmanned flight test of the Orion crew capsule for exploration beyond low Earth orbit (which was represented at Bolden's event by the reassembled test article from the first flight test in December 2014).The SLS figure is a cut of $367 million, to $1.3 billion, from the $1.67 billion Congress enacted for the big new rocket in the current fiscal year. The agency and Congress have been at odds over human access to space, with NASA pushing the two commercial crew vehicles backed by the White House and Congress shifting funds from the commercial vehicles to SLS. The request for commercial spaceflight in fiscal 2016 is $1.2 billion, up from the $805 million Congress enacted in the continuing funding resolution for the current fiscal year.Last year's request called for defunding of Sofia, a high-altitude infrared observatory mounted in a Boeing 747 modified for open-air observation. That triggered an outcry from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which supplied the 2.5-meter telescope in a partnership arrangement. The fiscal 2016 request restores "full funding" for NASA's share of Sofia, at $85.2 million, and declares that a top-level agency review "will evaluate Sofia's scientific productivity."Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope, a 6.5-meter infrared instrument planned for launch in 2018 to the Sun-Earth L-2 lagrangian point, would get $620 million in fiscal 2016, down from $645.4 million this year. The complex instrument continues to have development issues, according to the Government Accountability Office, but it enjoys strong support from Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.Rep. John Culbertson (R-Texas), the new chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, has taken a strong personal interest in mounting a robotic mission to Europa, which may harbor more water beneath its frozen surface than exists on Earth. The $30 million the agency wants for mission formulation work in fiscal 2016 doubles the amount requested last year, according to NASA budget documents, and would come on top of $100 million Congress ultimately enacted for fiscal 2015 with Culbertson's support.Overall, the new NASA budget request seeks $5.3 billion for science (including $1.9 billion for Earth science); $725 million for open-ended space technology work to include six in-space demonstrations, and $571 million for aeronautics, down from the $651 million enacted for the current fiscal year. Education would receive $89 million, and agency-wide mission support would get $3.3 billion.The request is "a clear vote of confidence to you, the employees of NASA, and the ambitious exploration program you're executing," Bolden told his audience at Kennedy Space Center.What NASA would do with an extra half-billion dollarsBill Harwood – CBS NewsThe Obama administration's fiscal 2016 budget includes $18.5 billion for NASA -- a half-billion-dollar increase -- that continues development of a new mega-rocket and capsule for deep space exploration and significantly boosts funding for commercial spacecraft to ferry crews to and from the space station, agency officials said Monday.The budget proposal also includes funding to continue studies of a proposed crewed mission to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, to pay for ongoing and planned robotic Mars missions and to keep the $6 billion James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, on track for launch in late 2018."President Obama today is proposing an FY 2016 budget of $18.5 billion for NASA, building on the significant investments the administration has made in America's space program over the past six years," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told Kennedy Space Center workers.Standing in front of an Orion deep space exploration capsule that completed an initial test flight in December, Bolden said the budget represented a "half billion-dollar increase over last year's enacted budget, and it is a clear vote of confidence to you, the employees of NASA, and the ambitious exploration program you are executing."Repeating what has become a sort of mantra for senior NASA officials, Bolden said the agency "is firmly on a journey to Mars. Make no mistake, this journey will help guide and define our generation."While eventual Mars flights are not expected until the mid 2030s at the earliest, NASA's long-range focus is the red planet, a goal Bolden promotes at every opportunity.NASA's human exploration program accounts for nearly half of the agency's 2016 budget request, or $8.51 billion. That total includes $3.106 billion for International Space Station operations, $1.244 billion for commercial crew spacecraft, $2.863 billion for the Orion deep space capsule and the heavy-lift Space Launch System booster and $400 million for research and development.The commercial crew program budget includes contracts awarded last year to Boeing and SpaceX to develop independent spacecraft to carry astronauts to and from the space station starting in late 2017, a major element of the Obama administration's space policy. Since the shuttle's retirement in 2011, NASA has been forced to rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft for transportation to the station, paying more than $70 million per seat under the most recent contract with the Russian federal space agency.But Congress has never fully funded the commercial crew program, approving about $2 billion less than NASA requested between 2011 and the most recent budget cycle. As a result, operational flights have been delayed until the end of 2017 at the earliest.The 2016 commercial crew funding request represents a $400 million boost over the $805 million budgeted in fiscal 2015. The funding covers milestones laid out by both companies to reach certification and operational space station flights by the end of 2017."If those two companies meet those milestones, we require $1.244 billion in FY 2016," NASA Chief Financial Officer David Radzanowski told reporters in an afternoon teleconference. "Based on this funding level, and those companies meeting those milestones, it would support certification of commercial crew services by the end of 2017, meeting all of the NASA safety requirements."But he said if Congress provides less than the requested amount, additional delays will result and flights will not be possible in 2017 as currently planned. And until the new spacecraft become available, NASA will continue relying on the Russians for transportation to low-Earth orbit.Bolden called the commercial crew initiative "absolutely critical to our journey to Mars, absolutely critical. SpaceX and Boeing have set up operations here on the Space Coast, bringing jobs, energy and excitement about the future with them."The centerpiece of the Obama administration's near-term plans for deep space exploration is a proposed asteroid redirect mission, or ARM, that would robotically retrieve a small asteroid, or samples from one, and return it to the vicinity of the moon for hands-on analysis by astronauts using the Orion-SLS system.The mission is viewed as a precursor for eventual missions to orbit Mars or its moons and, at some point, to land humans on the planet's surface. ARM has been sharply criticized by many Republicans and some in the science community who argue a return to the moon would provide more science and technology bang for the bucks.But Bolden insisted the ARM mission is an affordable path to development of the technology and expertise needed for flights to more distant destinations."Landing on an asteroid traveling through space or retrieving a piece of it requires advanced autonomous robotics and guidance and control technologies," he said. "These NASA-developed technologies will be applicable to commercial satellite servicing, future exploration, resource extraction, mining, in situ resource utilization and planetary sample return."The asteroid mission will also demonstrate advanced high-power solar electric propulsion, critical for future NASA and commercial uses. The mission will test asteroid deflection techniques and may provide information to inform future work to help us protect our own home planet. We have identified several asteroids that could be good candidates and will make a decision soon on a capture option."NASA's fiscal 2016 budget request includes $5.288 billion for science, including $1.947 billion for Earth science, $1.361 billion for planetary science -- including funding to continue planning for a possible mission to Jupiter's moon Europa in the mid 2020s -- nearly $710 million for astrophysics and $620 million for the James Webb Space Telescope."As I stand before you today, in front of these very tangible examples of our progress and our future, I can unequivocally say that the State of NASA is strong," Bolden said. "Our newest rocket, the Space Launch System, has moved from formulation to development, something no other exploration class vehicle has achieved since the agency built the space shuttle."We have two commercial providers bringing cargo and research to the space station, something that would have been science fiction just a few years ago is now fact. This success and the rapid progress our commercial crew providers are validating our faith and investment in commercial space."Looking beyond Earth and low-Earth orbit, Mars remains the top planetary priority for NASA. The agency currently is operating three orbiters and two operational rovers on the surface. Another lander is scheduled for launch in 2016 and a follow-on to the nuclear-powered Curiosity rover is planned for 2020. Both missions are funded in the 2016 budget request.But one of NASA's current rovers, the long-lived Opportunity, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter would not receive any funding under the 2016 budget request. Radzanowski said one or both could be reinstated depending on an assessment of their science value and the prospects for some sort of alternative funding. Both missions were "zeroed out" in the 2015 budget and both managed to remain operational.Bolden focused on the future, saying robotic missions are paving the way for eventual manned flights."Our latest Mars spacecraft, MAVEN, arrived last September to study the upper atmosphere and joined a fleet of orbiters and rovers on the surface," he said. "Next year, we will send the InSight lander to study the planet's core. In 2020, a new rover building on the incredible success of Curiosity will help us prepare for human arrival at Mars and, for the first time ever, will cache a (rock and soil) sample for later return to Earth."Bolden noted the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's launch in April 1990, and looked ahead to launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018. He said those missions, a renewed push to study Earth and its environment from space and steady funding for NASA's ongoing robotic exploration of the solar system reflect broad political support.Summing up, Bolden said "the state of NASA is strong.""Because of the dedication and determination of each and every one of you in our NASA family, America's space program is not just alive, it is thriving," Bolden said. "Together with our commercial and international partners, academia and entrepreneurs, we're launching the future. With the continued support of the administration, the Congress and the American people, we'll all get there together."Kelly twins have right stuff for NASA studyDan Desrochers – Arizona Daily StarDuring a recent visit to Houston, Mark Kelly was drained of 20 tubes of blood and spent several hours in an MRI machine. He was scanned while lying down, standing up and on an incline.When he was in New York a few weeks ago, NASA sent a technician to draw blood, and they found a quiet corner of a hotel lobby for the procedure.And Mark Kelly has the easy part.His twin brother, Scott Kelly, has been undergoing the same tests, but he's also attempting to become the first American to spend a year in space.Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will spend a year in space aboard the International Space Station. The mission, set to start on March 27, will allow doctors to examine the effects of a year in space on the human body, paving the way for longer missions in the future.Although Russia has had four cosmonauts spend a year in space at Mir, their old space station, Scott and Kornienko will be the first to do it at the International Space Station, where they have more testing capability."He's got the hard job," said Mark, a retired astronaut and husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. "It's spending a year in space; it's a significant challenge."Mark has spent significant time in space himself. As a shuttle pilot, he took part in four missions, commanding two of them, for a total of 54 days in space.Scott Kelly, when he's done with this mission, will have 10 times the number of days in space as Mark, and NASA is interested in finding out how that will affect him physically and mentally.Mark said he noticed changes in Scott's demeanor and attitude after four months of a six-month mission aboard the space station. NASA and Mark are interested to see if that change comes after four months, or if it's two-thirds of the way through the mission.But that's not the only aspect NASA is looking at."Just about any body system you can think of, we have some tests for that," said Steven Gilmore, Scott's flight surgeon.Researchers from 10 universities are looking at all aspects of how a year in space might affect humans. They're performing studies like "Comprehensive Whole Genome Analysis of Differential Epigenetic Events of Space Travel on Monozygotic Twins" at Johns Hopkins and "The Landscape of DNA and RNA Methylation Before, During and After Human Space Travel" at Cornell."These things are not obvious; you don't hear in the title what it actually is," Mark said. "It's human physiology, behavioral health, microbiology in the microbiome, and then the molecular stuff."Since Mark and Scott have nearly identical DNA, they're perfect subjects for scientific research.In the past, NASA had a program in the Houston area where they found people who matched the general demographics of an astronaut. If the astronaut was female, they'd look for a female in Houston who was about the same age and shared other attributes, and then they'd do testing on that person. While that can give a general picture, having a twin sets up a more precise experiment.That method, called the discordant twin method, is fairly common in scientific research, according to David Sbarra, an associate professor and director of clinical training at the University of Arizona psychology department."One of the things the twin method allows us to do is study potentially causal situations where we cannot randomize people to exposure events," Sbarra said.NASA wasn't planning on doing any experiments with Mark until Scott brought up the idea. Mark said he was eager to help out."We've got to learn how to deal with this," Mark said. "If we want to send people to Mars, the trip to Mars will probably be upwards of a three-year mission. We've got to figure out how to successfully do this."In particular, Mark is interested in learning how radiation affects his brother's DNA. According to Gilmore, NASA monitors astronauts' radiation levels from the time they join the space program."There's a lot of interest in making sure and understanding whether or not there's any risk related to being exposed to those increased levels of radiation," Gilmore said.Gilmore is also interested in seeing what kind of mental toll a year in space takes on Scott."Scott will be in his workplace, essentially for a year," Gilmore said. "So I'm interested to see how that element unfolds."Scott lives in Houston and Mark lives in Tucson, and they mostly talk on the phone, so a year in space won't be anything too different for the twins' communication."I wind up talking to him more when he's in space," Mark said. The only difference will be that Mark can't call Scott.Mark and Scott were the type of twins who did everything together while growing up, right down to both becoming astronauts. So it's only fitting that they approach this pioneering experiment together."It's laying the groundwork for us to expand throughout the solar system," Mark said. "Humans are explorers; if we weren't explorers, we would all be living in Europe, I suppose."NASA is building this monster rocket to shuttle astronauts to MarsJessica Orwig – Business InsiderRight now, NASA is constructing a monster rocket, called the Space Launch System, that will be the most powerful rocket ever built.This rocket is designed for NASA's future deep-space missions. It will launch four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft toward far-off destination, which could include an asteroid and even Mars in the not-to0-distant future.NASA's SLS will be able to carry more than twice the payload weight as any of the agency's space shuttles. Moreover, it will generate 12% more thrust than NASA's Saturn V rocket — the most powerful launch vehicle in history that sent Apollo astronauts to the moon.NASA recently received an additional $1.7 billion to continue building SLS. And it's scheduled to send astronauts to the moon in November 2018 for NASA's first major deep-space mission since the Apollo program.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net
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