Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - November 13, 2013 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 13, 2013 7:27:37 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - November 13, 2013  and JSC Today

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  ISS 15-year Anniversary Celebration Tickets -  National Disability Employment Awareness Month -  Plan Ahead: Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 Tomorrow -  Safety & Health Day Incentive - Nov. 14 -  Free Flu Shots Tomorrow, Nov. 14 -  Latest International Space Station Research -  NASA@work: Training Session and Active Challenges Organizations/Social -  HSI C3 Forum Mini-Innovation Event on Nov. 13 -  RSVP Now: JSC NMA Breakfast With Mark Kirasich -  Parenting Series: Parenting Gifted Children -  Final Distribution: NASA 55th Anniversary Shirts -  Starbucks Fall Drink Specials -  Thanksgiving Lunch in the Cafes -  Breakfast With Santa -  Lunarfins Scuba Club Monthly Meeting Jobs and Training -  Midterms in SPACE - Live Labs Available -  Crane Operations & Rigging Refresher - Nov. 21

MAVEN Spacecraft Positioned Atop Atlas V Rocket

 

Headlines ISS 15-year Anniversary Celebration Tickets International Space Station (ISS) 15-Year Anniversary Event tickets are on sale! Tickets are available for the ISS-15 year Anniversary Event at Space Center Houston on Wednesday, Nov. 20, from 6 to 10 p.m. This is a family event, and there will be entertainment, a short program, food and an astronaut signing autographs. You can purchase tickets in the Buildings 3 or 11 Starport Gift Shops or online. Tickets are $12 for adults; $7 for children ages 5 to 12; or free for children under the age of 5. Jennifer McCarter x47885 [top] National Disability Employment Awareness Month "Because We Are EQUAL to the Task" is the 2013 theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month. It reflects the reality that people with disabilities have the education, training, experience and desire to be successful in the workplace. People with disabilities are a diverse group, crossing lines of age, ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. It is the only group anyone can become a member of at any time. Some people are born with a disability, others acquire theirs as a result of an illness or injury and some people develop theirs as they age. Around the world, 650 million people live with a disability. Today, one in five people in the United States has a disability. Please visit the Disability Myth Busters, "Reasonable" Reasonable Accommodations, and Evolution of Assistive Technology booths at the Nov. 14 Safety & Health Day Fair. To read the presidential proclamation, click here. To view the 2013 poster, go here. JSC Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity x30607 http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oeod/ [top] Plan Ahead: Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 Tomorrow Make your plans for tomorrow! Safety & Health Day 2.0.13 is tomorrow and will feature events such as a forklift relay, blood-sugar screenings, distracted driving simulator, drunk driving simulation, screening of "Team Everest: A Himalayan Journey," a health run/walk and more. Before you do any of those, go to the Teague Auditorium at 9 a.m. to kick off the day with Center Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa. There, Dr. Michael Manser from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute will discuss distracted driving. Manser has been leading and conducting behavior, cognition and perceptual research with vehicle operators since 1994, with a focus on the effects of distraction on operator/vehicle control; the use of highly automated systems/vehicles; and, most recently, the potential safety implications of connected vehicles technology on safety-relevant driver responses. Information booths and exhibits will be open in the mall area from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Visit http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ for more. Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:5:00 PM Event Location: Teague Auditroium, Mall Area, Bldg 30, Gilruth Add to Calendar Suprecia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Safety & Health Day Incentive - Nov. 14 If you are one of the first 100 people to come see Safety & Health Day speaker Dr. Michael Manser's presentation on distracted driving, you will receive a special NASA incentive. The presentation will be in the Teague Auditorium from 9 to 10 a.m. Booths will be open from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Teague lobby and around the mall/pond area. Event Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM Event Location: JSC Teague and Pond areas Add to Calendar Supricia Franklin/Angel Plaza x37817/x37305 http://sthday.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Free Flu Shots Tomorrow, Nov. 14 The Occupational Health Branch "flu fighters" are providing FREE flu shots to JSC civil servants and contractors who are housed on-site TOMORROW, Nov. 14, in the Building 30 lobby from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To expedite the process, PLEASE visit the website below, read the Influenza Vaccine Information Statement and complete the consent form prior to arrival. Please wear clothing that allows easy to access your upper arm (short sleeves or sleeveless). If you can't make it tomorrow, we have one more day scheduled on Nov. 20. Please note that vaccine supplies are now limited and we cannot guarantee that the supplies will last. Bob Martel x38581 http://sd.jsc.nasa.gov/omoh/scripts/OccupationalMedicine/Fluprogram.aspx [top] Latest International Space Station Research Newly arrived crew members Koichi Wakata and Rick Mastracchio are already engaged in International Space Station (ISS) research investigations. One example is The Psychomotor Vigilance Self Test (Reaction Self Test). Reaction Self Test is a five-minute reaction time task on an SSC that aids crew members in objectively identifying when their performance capability is degraded by various fatigue-related conditions that can occur as a result of ISS operations and time in space (e.g., acute and chronic sleep restriction, slam sleep shifts, extravehicular activities [EVAs] and residual sedation from sleep medications). Reaction Self Test also evaluates the extent to which performance feedback (via a graphical interface) is perceived by ISS crew members as a useful tool for assessing performance capability. You can read more here. Liz Warren x35548 [top] NASA@work: Training Session and Active Challenges If you are interested in learning more about NASA@work and how you can participate on this internal, collaborative platform, join us for one of our NASA@work 101 training sessions on Thursday, Nov. 21 (we will be hosting this training virtually). Two session times will be available: 1 p.m. CST and 2 p.m. CST; sessions are 30 minutes. For more information, click here. Also, make sure you check out our active challenges: Seeking Ideas for New Technology Demonstration Prize Competitions (deadline: Nov. 27); and How You Can Make a Difference: Seeking Solutions to NASA Goddard's Contribution to Climate Change (deadline: Nov. 29). Check them out at our website and submit your solution today! Kathryn Keeton 469-450-1864 https://nasa.innocentive.com [top]    Organizations/Social HSI C3 Forum Mini-Innovation Event on Nov. 13 Today, Nov. 13, there will be a Human Systems Integration (HSI) C3 Forum in which panelists will discuss a variety of questions about their visions for HSI and how various JSC directorates could engage. The forum is noon to 1 p.m., and the location will be the Building 30 Collaboration Center, Room 2085. Panelists include Lauri Hansen (Engineering), Stephen Koerner (Mission Operations Directorate), Jeff Davis (Health & Human Performance), Nancy Currie (NASA Engineering and Safety Center) and Vince Watkins (Safety & Mission Assurance). Past HSI Employee Resource Group co-lead Jen Rochlis will moderate the panel discussion. This C3 Forum is an ongoing part of Innovation 2013, and other C3 events will be happening concurrently in the Building 30 Collaboration Center that day. Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: Building 30 Collaboration Center, Room 2085 Add to Calendar Jen Rochlis x31718 [top] RSVP Now: JSC NMA Breakfast With Mark Kirasich Calling all early birds and breakfast buffet fans! There's been a slight change in plans, but the JSC National Management Association (NMA) invites you to spend your breakfast with us--and now Mark Kirasich, deputy manager of the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Orion Project Office. Kirasich will speak on "Leading a Diverse Team Across Numerous Geographic Locations--Challenges and Lessons Learned" next week, Nov. 19. The presentation will start your day off on the right foot. When: Tuesday, Nov. 19 Time: 8:30 to 10 a.m. (breakfast!) Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom   Cost for members: FREE Cost for non-members: $12 (a steal!) All attendees will get to pick and choose from a hot and healthy buffet. RSVPs are required by 3 p.m. tomorrow, Nov. 14, so don't delay. RSVP now! Event Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2013   Event Start Time:8:30 AM   Event End Time:10:00 AM Event Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom Add to Calendar Catherine Williams x33317 http://www.jscnma.com/Events [top] Parenting Series: Parenting Gifted Children According to the National Association for Gifted Children, about six percent of U.S. children are in gifted and talented programs. Some experts suggest that number is really only three to five percent nationwide. Gifted children reach developmental milestones earlier than expected, with implications for peer relations, school issues and educational planning. With this in mind, parenting a gifted child comes with its own hurdles and parenting implications. Parents are often worried about missing opportunities, not exposing their child or desiring to provide enrichment. Come out to learn tools to foster your child's creativity, avoid overscheduling, address their social development and much more. Join JSC Employee Assistance Program counselor Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, CEAP, NCC, LCDC, as she presents "Parenting Gifted Children" today, Nov. 13, from 12 noon to 1 p.m. in the Building 30 Auditorium. Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium Add to Calendar Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health Branch x36130 [top] Final Distribution: NASA 55th Anniversary Shirts The final distribution of the NASA 55th Anniversary T-Shirts ordered last month will be held on Thursday, Nov. 14, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Building 11 café. Please note that this does not include the shirt orders currently being accepted at: http://www.nasa55.com Cyndi Kibby x47467 [top] Starbucks Fall Drink Specials Stop by the Building 3 café Starbucks coffee cart and enjoy fall drink specials: Pumpkin Latte Grande - $3.79, venti - $4.04 Pumpkin Tazo Chai Latte Grande - $4.05, venti - $4.35 Pumpkin-brewed coffee Grande - $2.29, venti - $2.49 Danial Hornbuckle x30240 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Thanksgiving Lunch in the Cafes Enjoy a home-style Thanksgiving meal with all the trimmings on Tuesday, Nov. 19,  in the Buildings 3 and Building 11 cafés. Entrées will include roast turkey dinner or carved smoked-pit ham. Choice of three sides: peas and mushrooms, maple-glazed brussel sprouts, winter squash with cranberry and pecans, candied sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green almondine and traditional cornbread stuffing. Choose from sweet potato pie or pumpkin pie for dessert. Fountain drink or iced tea also included. All for only $7.99! Danial Hornbuckle x30240 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Breakfast With Santa Santa Claus is coming to town and making a stop at the Gilruth Center! Enjoy breakfast with Santa in the Alamo Ballroom from 9 to 11 a.m. on Dec. 7. Your child will have the opportunity to sit on Santa's lap to give him their wish list and have their picture taken. Fees are $10/child and $15/adult if purchased on or before Nov. 30. Register for this event at the Gilruth Center or online. Tickets will not be sold at the door. Don't miss out on this special event. More info is here. Event Date: Saturday, December 7, 2013   Event Start Time:9:00 AM   Event End Time:11:00 AM Event Location: Gilruth Center Add to Calendar Shelly Haralson x39168 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Lunarfins Scuba Club Monthly Meeting Ever wonder about the beautiful waters of Indonesia? This month's speakers will be Joyce and Frank Burek, two founding members of the Houston Underwater Photographic Society and world famous photographers. Their topics will be the "Two Different Worlds and Indonesia Odyssey." This is one presentation that you do not want to miss, as the Bureks have a wealth of knowledge with years of experience in underwater photography, as well as remote dive destinations. The Lunarfins will meet at 7 p.m. at the Clear Lake Park today, Nov. 13. Come early to enjoy socializing and a light snack. Stay late to enjoy club camaraderie at Mario's in Seabrook after the meeting. Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:7:00 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM Event Location: Clear Lake Park Rec Building (South Side) Add to Calendar Barbara Corbin x36215 http://www.lunarfins.com [top]    Jobs and Training Midterms in SPACE - Live Labs Available NASA's Standard Performance Appraisal Communication Environment (SPACE) system is open for civil servants. Midterm job aids and a self-guided tutorial are available in SPACE under the "Reference Guide" and "Help" tabs. Supervisors are welcome to stop by during any live lab session to review the midterm steps in SPACE or get answers to your questions. Registration is not required. Come any time within the scheduled offerings. For additional questions, please talk with your Human Resources (HR) representative or development representative. The session dates/times are: Today, Nov. 13 Building 12, Room 138, 2 to 3 p.m. Tomorrow, Nov. 14 Building 12, Room 138, 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19 Building 12, Room 138, 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3 Building 12, Room 144, 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5 Building 12, Room 144, 9 to 10 a.m. Event Date: Wednesday, November 13, 2013   Event Start Time:2:00 PM   Event End Time:3:00 PM Event Location: B 12 Room 138 Add to Calendar Chasity Williams 281-792-7794 [top] Crane Operations & Rigging Refresher - Nov. 21 This four-hour course serves as a refresher in overhead crane safety and awareness for operators, riggers, signalmen, supervisors and safety personnel, and updates their understanding of existing federal and NASA standards and regulations related to such cranes. Areas of concentration include: general safety in crane operations; testing; inspections; pre-lift plans; and safe rigging. This course is intended to provide the classroom training for re-certification of already qualified crane operators, or for those who have only a limited need for overhead crane safety knowledge. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit. Use this direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_... Event Date: Thursday, November 21, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:4:00 PM Event Location: Building 20 Room 205/206 Add to Calendar Shirley Robinson x41284 [top]

 

JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters.

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Human Spaceflight News

Wednesday – November 13, 2013

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Budget constraints likely mean more private partnerships for NASA

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

Call it opportunity. Call it cold reality. The nation's space program is increasingly reliant on private partners to send astronauts into space as its slice of the federal budget diminishes. And an industry report issued Tuesday suggests that trend must continue if the U.S. wants to maintain its global leadership in space exploration. At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA's share of the federal budget was about 4.5 percent. Now, it's less than one-half of 1 percent at a time when Russia and China are increasingly competitive in the space sector. NASA's share of the budget could shrink even more in January if a budget deal a congressional committee is working on does nothing to prevent another round of sequestration spending cuts.

 

NASA says new deep space vehicle on track for 2014 test

 

Agence France Presse

 

The first test mission of a new deep space capsule that could one day take humans to Mars is on track for September 2014, the US space agency said Tuesday. Orion aims to replace US capacity to reach space -- which ended with the retirement of the space shuttle program closed in 2011 after 30 years -- and ferry astronauts farther in the solar system than ever before. Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the project has made "tremendous progress." NASA has described Orion as "a flexible system that can to launch crew and cargo missions, extend human presence beyond low-Earth orbit, and enable new missions of exploration throughout our solar system." Orion will not carry humans on board until 2021 at the earliest. Its four-hour test flight next year will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

 

NASA set to launch Orion into orbit in 2014, a precursor to Mars missions

 

Erik Ortiz - New York Daily News

 

It's still decades away, but NASA will begin prepping a passage to the Red Planet. The space agency plans to catapult the space capsule Orion for a test run over the Earth next September — what would be a precursor for future manned missions to Mars. The four-hour test launch out of Cape Canaveral, Fla., will send the craft — unmanned — orbiting twice around the Earth about 3,600 miles above the surface, NASA said Tuesday.

 

Bigelow report calls for use of COTS model for cislunar transportation

 

Jeff Foust - NewSpaceJournal.com

 

A report prepared by Bigelow Aerospace for NASA concludes that the commercial approach that the space agency used successfully for developing commercial cargo transportation to the International Space Station should also be applied to developing transportation beyond Earth orbit, including in the vicinity of, and to the surface of, the Moon. The report, prepared under a Space Act Agreement between NASA and Bigelow Aerospace announced earlier this year, is being formally released today at a press conference in Washington. It recommends that NASA pursue a partnership with industry to develop beyond-LEO transportation systems, given NASA's constrained budgets and the record of success by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to develop launch vehicles and spacecraft to supply the ISS.

 

How NASA Will Use 3D Printers in Space

 

Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com

 

Starting next fall, astronauts on the International Space Station won't have to wait months for replacement parts to be launched from Earth. Instead, they can use a newly arrived 3D printer to fabricate the tools and materials they need. "The 3D printer that we're going to fly on space station will actually be the first-ever 3D printer in space," Niki Werkheiser, 3D Print project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a video about the space station 3D printer that posted online Oct. 30. "It is the first step toward [the 'Star Trek' replicator]," Werkheiser added, referring to the machine in the science-fiction franchise capable of creating meals and spare parts.

 

Wakata and the ISS encourage children to dream of the universe

 

Yomiuri Shimbun

 

We hope Koichi Wakata will do a wonderful job of carrying out his important duties, which may determine the future of the International Space Station. Wakata has begun a six-month mission at the ISS, about 400 kilometers above Earth, which will last until next May. In his final two months, he will serve as the first Japanese ISS commander, with five U.S. and Russian astronauts working with him.  Eight Japanese astronauts have been sent into space so far. In terms of the combined length of their stay in space, including those at the ISS, Japan ranks third after Russia and the United States.

 

No Stuxnet Infection, but Space Station is Vulnerable

 

Ian O'Neill - Discovery News

 

The International Space Station has its own isolated network of computers that run everything from critical life support systems to scientific experiments. Just because it's isolated from the veritable electronic ecosystem that is the terrestrial Internet, however, it doesn't mean it's safe from being attacked by malware or succumbing to a viral epidemic. This was the 'shocking' revelation revealed by anti-virus guru Eugene Kaspersky at the Press Club in Canberra, Australia, earlier this month. During his presentation, the outspoken Russian businessman discussed the cyber threats to global security and economy.

 

No, Stuxnet Did Not Infect the International Space Station

 

Paul Wagenseil - Space.com (via TomsGuide.com)

 

Did the Stuxnet cyberweapon infect the International Space Station? Almost certainly not, but that hasn't stopped a lot of media outlets from saying so in bold headlines. "The American-made Stuxnet virus has infected the International Space Station," said ExtremeTech. "Stuxnet, America's Nuclear Plant-Attacking Virus, Has Apparently Infected the International Space Station," trumpeted Vice. "Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station," asserted the Times of Israel. All three cited a speech that Eugene Kaspersky, head of Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, gave to the Australian Press Club in Canberra last week. But Kaspersky never said Stuxnet had infected the International Space Station (ISS). Rather, he offered two separate and unrelated anecdotes. The first was one about non-specific malware being carried onboard the ISS by astronauts. The other was about Stuxnet infecting a Russian nuclear-facility network. (Kaspersky offered no proof for either allegation.)

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield airs his dirty laundry on late-night TV

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com

 

In space, no one can wash your dirty underwear. That's one of the lessons learned by late-night TV talk-show host Conan O'Brien when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield paid a visit on Monday night. Hadfield — who is hitting the talk-show circuit for his newly published book, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" — explained on TBS' "Conan" show that astronauts on the International Space Station really can't spare the water to wash clothes in orbit. Instead, when their togs get too worn or gnarly to wear, they just throw them into a disposable cargo spacecraft, such as the Russian Progress capsule or Orbital Sciences' Cygnus craft. Watch the video for Hadfield's priceless response, and then check out his assessment of Sandra Bullock's space underwear in the movie "Gravity."

 

Women in space: beyond Gravity

The acclaimed movie "Gravity" focuses on the exploits of a female astronaut, but the real life history of women in space is no less enthralling.

 

Helen Keen - The Guardian (UK)

 

2013 has been a big year for spacefaring women - real and imaginary. June saw the 50th anniversary of the first orbital flight by a woman, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Now Gravity - the breathtaking story of a female astronaut (or astronaut, as we radical Dworkinite feminists prefer to call them) learning to be resilient and to survive in the harshest possible environment - has set box office records. The film is almost entirely set in space, and while a few may have dul[l]y criticized inaccuracies in its depiction of orbits, trajectories, and so forth, Sandra Bullock's pivotal performance has won near universal praise. Bullock plays Dr Ryan Stone, a Mission Specialist making her first space shuttle flight. At least some of the character's off-world experiences are close enough to reality for Bullock to have worked on her role with spacefaring chemist, US Air Force Colonel Cady Coleman. They first spoke while Col. Coleman was aboard the International Space Station, and the astronaut and the actress have since appeared side by side in promotional interviews for Gravity.

 

Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov dies

 

Itar-Tass

 

Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov died at his apartment in Khovanskaya street in Moscow on Tuesday. He was 69. His death was sudden, a source from Cosmonauts' Training Center told Itar-Tass. Alexander Serebrov was born in Moscow on February 15, 1944. In 1967 Serebrov graduated from the Moscow Physics Technological Institute (MFTI). In 1970 he received a post- graduate degree at MFTI. Since 1976 Serebrov had worked at Energia scientific -industrial Corporation and took part in space apparatus development programs. In December 1978 he was enrolled in a team of Soviet cosmonauts.

 

Four-Time Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov Dies at Age 69

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov—a veteran of four space missions to two different space stations and the 26th most experienced spacefarer of all time—has died at the age of 69. Citing sources within the cosmonauts' training center at Star City, on the outskirts of Moscow, ITAR-TASS noted that Serebrov's death earlier today (Tuesday, 12 November) was "sudden". During his lengthy career within the Soviet and later Russian cosmonaut corps, he flew two short-duration missions to the Salyut 7 space station and two long-duration missions to the Mir space station. He accrued more than 372 days in space and entered the headlines in early 1990 when he tested the Soviet Union's answer to NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)…a "space motorbike" known as "Icarus".

 

Fly us back to the moon

 

Chris Impey - CNN (Opinion)

 

(Impey is a distinguished professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. He is the author of several popular science books, including the recent "Dreams of Other Worlds," about 11 iconic NASA astronomy and planetary science missions, co-written with Holly Henry and published by Princeton University Press.)

 

Lady Gaga announced that she's going to sing in space. Everyone is raving about "Gravity," the new movie starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts in orbit. And India just launched its first Mars mission on Thursday. Clearly, we Earthlings are still madly in love with space. But what about the moon? It's sad how far America has fallen in our space aspirations. So far that we can't even get into Earth orbit without help from the Russians, let alone get back to the moon.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Budget constraints likely mean more private partnerships for NASA

 

Ledyard King - Florida Today

 

Call it opportunity. Call it cold reality. The nation's space program is increasingly reliant on private partners to send astronauts into space as its slice of the federal budget diminishes.

 

And an industry report issued Tuesday suggests that trend must continue if the U.S. wants to maintain its global leadership in space exploration.

 

At the peak of the Apollo program, NASA's share of the federal budget was about 4.5 percent. Now, it's less than one-half of 1 percent at a time when Russia and China are increasingly competitive in the space sector.

 

NASA's share of the budget could shrink even more in January if a budget deal a congressional committee is working on does nothing to prevent another round of sequestration spending cuts.

 

The agency's role as the world's trailblazer in space could disappear within a decade because it lacks the resources for missions beyond low earth orbit "without significant help," said Robert Bigelow, president of Bigelow Aerospace, which produced the report released Tuesday.

 

"If there is no outside help over the next 10 years, only a very modest human exploration effort is possible," Bigelow told reporters at a Capitol Hill news conference.

 

NASA commissioned Bigelow, which builds expandable spacecraft, to examine how private companies could team up with the space agency to achieve mutual goals at a time of tight budgets and political squabbling over the space program's future.

 

Bigelow cited signs of progress in cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station by private aerospace companies after the shuttle retired. NASA also hopes to use companies to ferry astronauts from U.S. soil as early as 2017, if sequestration is avoided.

 

But returning to the moon or sending astronauts to Mars — NASA's highest-profile goal — will require private help, Bigelow said.

 

Despite the uncertain budget situation, the head of NASA's human exploration program said "tremendous progress" is being made on the Orion capsule designed to carry astronauts to Mars by the 2030s, and on the heavy-lift SLS rocket that will propel them there.

 

Speaking earlier Tuesday at a symposium on efforts to send humans into deep space, NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier said the project's private partners have been moving ahead with various phases.

 

"The takeaway here is there's real work moving forward," Gerstenmaier said. "This is no longer a paper program."

 

The discussion was held at the Newseum a few blocks from the Capitol.

 

Gerstenmaier, who later attended the news conference with Bigelow, was joined by representatives from major aerospace companies — Aerojet Rocketdyne, ATK, Being and Lockheed Martin — working to make the Mars mission a reality.

 

Work on the program, which would include an asteroid retrieval mission within the next few years, continues, despite Congress' inability to provide the space agency or most other federal agencies with a complete budget for fiscal 2014, which began Oct. 1.

 

Gerstenmaier said not knowing what the final budget will be is even worse than knowing a budget cut is certain. NASA projects often take years to fund and build, so year-to-year budget uncertainty makes planning a challenge.

 

"But if we can build this program as sustainable with the funding levels we've got and it doesn't make or break or stop all activity, then we can make real progress," he said of the Mars mission.

 

But even as aerospace executives touted the progress on that mission, they also expressed dismay that the U.S. is paying Russia more than $70 million per seat to transport astronauts to the space station.

 

John Elbon, vice president and general manager of Boeing Space Exploration, said he thought about that when he visited Baikonur, Kazakhstan, last week for the launch of a Russian rocket.

 

"I couldn't help but think while I was there that here I was, halfway around the world in one of two spots (including China) where humans could be launched into space, and neither of those two is the United States," he said.

 

NASA says new deep space vehicle on track for 2014 test

 

Agence France Presse

 

The first test mission of a new deep space capsule that could one day take humans to Mars is on track for September 2014, the US space agency said Tuesday.

 

Orion aims to replace US capacity to reach space -- which ended with the retirement of the space shuttle program closed in 2011 after 30 years -- and ferry astronauts farther in the solar system than ever before.

 

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said the project has made "tremendous progress."

 

NASA has described Orion as "a flexible system that can to launch crew and cargo missions, extend human presence beyond low-Earth orbit, and enable new missions of exploration throughout our solar system."

 

Orion will not carry humans on board until 2021 at the earliest.

 

Its four-hour test flight next year will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

 

After that, the unmanned craft is to make two orbits around the Earth, traveling at a distance of 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above Earth's surface, and then plunge back into Earth's atmosphere at high speed.

 

The test tour will take it 15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbit around the globe.

 

The flight aims to test the vehicle's thermal heat shield as it plunges through temperatures of 4,000 Fahrenheit (2,200 Celsius), and see how well the nearly nine-ton spacecraft splashes down in the Pacific Ocean off California.

 

However, the Delta IV heavy rocket that will launch the spacecraft is not yet ready.

 

Gerstenmaier said the space launch system (SLS) is 70 percent complete and again cited "tremendous progress" on the project.

 

Orion's next space mission -- a spin around the Moon -- is set for 2017.

 

While no crew will be on board, the test run aims to orbit the Moon at a height of 75,000 kilometers (46,600 miles) for three weeks, he said.

 

Gerstenmaier described this as "a stable orbit" in which an object could remain "for 100 years without any altitude adjustment."

 

Indeed, plans for the future include placing a 500-ton asteroid in the lunar orbit so that Orion crews could visit it, perhaps in the 2020s.

 

"We are going to take this capsule into that region around the Moon and see how we can actually use lunar gravity to get in this orbit and get out of this orbit and return back to the Earth," he said.

 

NASA set to launch Orion into orbit in 2014, a precursor to Mars missions

 

Erik Ortiz - New York Daily News

 

It's still decades away, but NASA will begin prepping a passage to the Red Planet.

 

The space agency plans to catapult the space capsule Orion for a test run over the Earth next September — what would be a precursor for future manned missions to Mars.

 

The four-hour test launch out of Cape Canaveral, Fla., will send the craft — unmanned — orbiting twice around the Earth about 3,600 miles above the surface, NASA said Tuesday.

 

NASA official Bill Gerstenmaier said "tremendous progress" has been made to ensure Orion is ready, reported Agence France-Presse.

 

But it wouldn't be until 2021 at the earliest when the spacecraft would start shuttling humans — and not until at least the 2030s when astronauts would get the chance to journey to Earth's next-door neighbor.

 

"The takeaway here is there's real work moving forward," Gerstenmaier said at a Washington, D.C., symposium Tuesday, according to Florida Today. "This is no longer a paper program."

 

During its test launch, the 9-ton Orion will go about 15 times farther than the International Space Station, which orbits with an altitude of about 205 miles to 270 miles.

 

A planned mission around the moon is scheduled for 2017.

 

"We are going to take this capsule into that region around the Moon and see how we can actually use lunar gravity to get in this orbit and get out of this orbit and return back to the Earth," Gerstenmaier said.

 

He conceded that preparing for NASA's future travel plans remains difficult because Congress has threatened to cut the agency's budget.

 

India, meanwhile, isn't skipping a step in the international space race. The country last week launched its first spacecraft to orbit Mars — a feat accomplished by the U.S., Russia and Europe.

 

Bigelow report calls for use of COTS model for cislunar transportation

 

Jeff Foust - NewSpaceJournal.com

 

A report prepared by Bigelow Aerospace for NASA concludes that the commercial approach that the space agency used successfully for developing commercial cargo transportation to the International Space Station should also be applied to developing transportation beyond Earth orbit, including in the vicinity of, and to the surface of, the Moon.

 

The report, prepared under a Space Act Agreement between NASA and Bigelow Aerospace announced earlier this year, is being formally released today at a press conference in Washington. It recommends that NASA pursue a partnership with industry to develop beyond-LEO transportation systems, given NASA's constrained budgets and the record of success by NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program to develop launch vehicles and spacecraft to supply the ISS.

 

"America is facing a fiscal crisis of unprecedented proportions making the likelihood of increased funds for human space exploration highly unlikely," states an advance copy of the report provided by the company. "Therefore, the only viable option for the U.S. to reach cislunar space is to leverage the efficiencies, innovations, and investments of commercial enterprises."

 

The report specifically advocates an approach modeled on the COTS program, where NASA used funded Space Act Agreements (SAAs) to support the development of cargo transportation systems by SpaceX and Orbital Sciences. That led to service contracts with those two companies to transport cargo to and from the station. NASA is following a similar approach with its commercial crew program, using funded SAAs to support development of crewed systems, which it plans to follow up with contracts to complete development and certification of those systems and initial purchases of flights.

 

That approach, the Bigelow report argues, can allow NASA and the private sector to work together on exploration and commercialization of cislunar space, including the establishment of a lunar base, something NASA is not currently planning to develop for the foreseeable future. "Over the next ten years, it is very possible that if NASA can soon adopt some of the suggestions within this report in combination with current steps underway by NASA and the private commercial sector, a permanent, semi-commercial lunar base is achievable and for substantially less money than people would imagine."

 

Much of the report is devoted to demonstrating that the capabilities to enable those plans will exist within the next few years, if not already today. The report examines some of the launch vehicles and spacecraft that could support cislunar development, ranging from NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft to vehicles under development in the private sector and by other nations. "By 2017–2018, all of the destinations within our immediate neighborhood including low lunar orbit will again be accessible to humans," the report concludes. "The physical craft that have been under development (some for more than a decade) will be ready to execute any of these missions."

 

That suite of spacecraft includes Bigelow's own vehicles. The report states that the company's first two BA 330 expandable habitats, modules with an internal volume of 330 cubic meters once deployed in orbit, will be ready for launch by the end of 2016. Bigelow Aerospace is also working on a version called the BA 330-DS for missions beyond Earth orbit; this will be very similar to the basic BA 330 but with improved rad-hardened avionics and additional shielding, as well as a larger inventory of spare parts for deep space missions. A modified BA 330-DS would be capable of landing on a planetary body, like the surface of the Moon. The report also outlines additional hardware, including tugs and power modules, that could be used in conjunction with the BA 330-DS modules to support missions beyond LEO.

 

The report also makes the case for innovations beyond technology and contracting mechanisms. The Bigelow report argues that, for private companies to be involved in any joint venture with NASA in cislunar development, they must have property rights on the Moon or other bodies that are not available today under existing space law structures, a controversial subject in space policy. Companies "must known they will be able to (1) enjoy the fruits of their labor relative to activities conducted on the Moon or other celestial bodies, and (2) own the property that they have surveyed, developed, and are realistically able to utilize," the report states. And, in a point emphasized in the report in bold, italic, and underlined type: "Without property rights, any plan to engage the private sector in long-term beyond LEO activities will ultimately fail."

 

With a property rights system in place on the Moon, both NASA and industry would benefit, the report concludes. "By leveraging a property rights regime private sector facilities could be developed on the Moon which NASA could subsequently take advantage of for a wide variety of astronautics and scientific activities. What the Agency could never afford to do alone could become financially possible due to the husbanding of private and public sector investments and resources."

 

How NASA Will Use 3D Printers in Space

 

Nola Taylor Redd - Space.com

 

Starting next fall, astronauts on the International Space Station won't have to wait months for replacement parts to be launched from Earth. Instead, they can use a newly arrived 3D printer to fabricate the tools and materials they need.

 

"The 3D printer that we're going to fly on space station will actually be the first-ever 3D printer in space," Niki Werkheiser, 3D Print project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a video about the space station 3D printer that posted online Oct. 30.

 

"It is the first step toward [the 'Star Trek' replicator]," Werkheiser added, referring to the machine in the science-fiction franchise capable of creating meals and spare parts.

 

The 3D printer headed to the space station in August 2014 — a joint project between NASA Marshall and the California-based company Made in Space — would be limited to parts only, rather than edible objects.

 

Printing in space

 

When a tool on the space station breaks or goes missing these days, astronauts must often wait for months for the next supply mission to launch from Earth. The alternative is to ship up multiple spare parts, but the increased mass requires more fuel to lift off, and thus costs more money.

 

A 3D printer could change all that, advocates say.

 

The 3D printer sent to the International Space Station (ISS) will be able to utilize a variety of materials to craft items that the astronauts need, in a more timely manner.

 

As an example, Werkheiser cited an unassuming part known as an extraction tool, which she said could be printed in under an hour. The part would have worked on the space station's Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG), which was out of commission for six months in 2002 while astronauts waited for the needed part to be sent up on the next space shuttle flight.

 

Another potential application would involve cubesats, tiny, low-cost satellites that hitch rides into space on other launches. According to Werkheiser, astronauts on the ISS could potentially print out and assemble many such satellites and manually launch them from the space station.

 

Demonstration mission

 

The first 3D printer in space will be small enough to fit inside the MSG, and crewmembers aboard the orbiting lab will put their hands inside the glove box to operate it.

 

NASA hopes the project demonstrates that 3D printing in space is as robust and reliable as it is on the ground, laying the foundation for a new in-space manufacturing industry.

 

Made in Space has already tested some versions of the 3D printer during parabolic airplane flights, which produce short periods of microgravity. A long-term trial aboard the space station is the next step.

 

"We're starting with plastic with this first printer, but we will be moving to metals and other types of materials," Werkheiser said.

 

She pointed out that lessons learned from microgravity applications would be applicable on Earth, particularly for remote military outposts and on submarines.

 

A 3D printer could be a key piece of equipment for missions traveling beyond Earth's orbit, advocates of the technology say. Rather than packing spare parts and materials that might be needed, astronauts could use the printer to produce what was needed.

 

"For space station, it will decrease risk, decrease cost, and increase efficiency," Werkheiser said. "For longer-term missions for exploration, this is absolutely critical technology."

 

Wakata and the ISS encourage children to dream of the universe

 

Yomiuri Shimbun

 

We hope Koichi Wakata will do a wonderful job of carrying out his important duties, which may determine the future of the International Space Station.

 

Wakata has begun a six-month mission at the ISS, about 400 kilometers above Earth, which will last until next May.

 

In his final two months, he will serve as the first Japanese ISS commander, with five U.S. and Russian astronauts working with him.

 

Eight Japanese astronauts have been sent into space so far. In terms of the combined length of their stay in space, including those at the ISS, Japan ranks third after Russia and the United States.

 

Wakata probably was chosen to serve as the ISS commander because of Japan's achievements and his own energetic activities on three previous space missions.

 

Wakata is an excellent pilot and excels at maneuvering a remote-controlled robotic arm. He is highly trusted by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and has gained a reputation as a personality who values teamwork.

 

In the past, ISS commanders mostly have been U.S. or Russian astronauts who have served in the military. We hope Wakata will demonstrate that Japanese astronauts have a high level of expertise when it comes to working in space.

 

The ISS is as big as a soccer stadium. Astronauts carry out space experiments there and make Earth and space observations every few minutes. Wakata will also engage in the maintenance and management of the main unit of the ISS.

 

Emergencies may occur, such as space junk—debris of satellites and rockets, floating in space—hitting and damaging the ISS. It is a tough workplace.

 

Dealing with emergencies

 

Wakata has been trained on Earth to deal with such emergencies.

 

Besides these tasks, he will also conduct biological experiments using killifish and observe comets from the Japanese module Kibo. By watching footage of him conducting such tasks, children will be given an opportunity to dream about what they can do in the universe.

 

The ISS will mark the 15th anniversary of the start of its construction this month. Originally, it was a symbol of cooperation between the United States and the former Soviet Union, the two space superpowers.

 

After the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia fell on hard economic times, there were efforts to prevent Russia's space technology from falling into the hands of warring countries.

 

It can be said the ISS has contributed to material development and unraveling the mystery of life through space experiments utilizing zero gravity. It also has brought about various benefits, such as the space station's water-purification technology, which is widely utilized in developing countries.

 

However, some people say the ISS has reached a turning point, because countries participating in ISS-related projects have become increasingly concerned over the huge operational expense of the space station.

 

Japan contributes about ¥40 billion a year for such expenses as launching rockets to carry cargo to the ISS. Yet quite a few people question whether the results are commensurate with the contribution.

 

The international community is watching whether Wakata and his colleagues in the ISS can produce sufficient results despite such criticism.

 

No Stuxnet Infection, but Space Station is Vulnerable

 

Ian O'Neill - Discovery News

 

The International Space Station has its own isolated network of computers that run everything from critical life support systems to scientific experiments. Just because it's isolated from the veritable electronic ecosystem that is the terrestrial Internet, however, it doesn't mean it's safe from being attacked by malware or succumbing to a viral epidemic.

 

This was the 'shocking' revelation revealed by anti-virus guru Eugene Kaspersky at the Press Club in Canberra, Australia, earlier this month. During his presentation, the outspoken Russian businessman discussed the cyber threats to global security and economy.

 

The Kaspersky Lab founder discussed cyber crime, espionage and infrastructure attacks as the key elements of modern online security risks in descending frequency but ascending risk. He identified attacks on critical infrastructure as of most serious concern, despite there being only "2 or 3 a year." He used the attack on the financial system in Seoul, South Korea, as one recent example, but other examples included attacks on Middle East oil companies and rumors of an attack on a Brazilian nuclear reactor.

 

Focusing on the Stuxnet virus — a malicious piece of code that was allegedly created by U.S. and Israeli programmers to attack Iranian nuclear reactors — Kaspersky outlined a few examples as to how the virus has spread beyond its intended target, inadvertently infecting an unnamed Russian nuclear reactor.

 

Stuxnet is designed to be spread indiscriminately via Microsoft Windows networks and can be manually uploaded to isolated critical systems by infected USB drives, for example. The worm then gets to work targeting specific Siemens industrial control systems that monitor industrial processes. By design, Stuxnet is focused on Iran's suspected uranium enrichment infrastructure, but according to Kaspersky, Stuxnet has spread into the wilds of the Internet and started to attack nuclear reactor systems in other nations, including Russia.

 

However, he did not say that Stuxnet had infected the International Space Station, as some news outlets incorrectly assumed.

 

Using the International Space Station as an example of an isolated critical infrastructure, Kaspersky pointed out that despite being in space, it is still vulnerable to attack. In fact, on a number of occasions over the years the orbiting outpost's computers have become infected by malware.

 

"Scientists, from time to time, are coming to space with USBs which are infected. I'm not kidding," he said. "I was talking to Russian space guys and they said 'yes, from time to time there are virus epidemics in the space station.'"

 

He added: "Unfortunately (critical infrastructure networks) are not safe by design."

 

In 2008, the space station's systems became infected by the harmless W32.Gammima.AG worm — a piece of software that gathers and transmits sensitive gaming data to an attacker. It's thought the worm was carried into space via an infected flash drive.

 

Fortunately for astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station, in May this year, it was announced that computer systems would be migrated from the Windows XP operating system to a more secure GNU/Linux operating system, the latter of which is more resilient to accidental uploading of malicious software. This move alone would stamp out any worry of Stuxnet migrating into orbit and substantially reduce the risk of errant worms like W32.Gammima.AG setting up home.

 

While it's highly debatable whether Stuxnet would have any undesirable effect on the space station (even if it did become infected, which it is not), Kaspersky has highlighted the need for keeping malicious software on the ground, while bulking up network security — a battle, it seems, we're not winning.

 

No, Stuxnet Did Not Infect the International Space Station

 

Paul Wagenseil - Space.com (via TomsGuide.com)

 

Did the Stuxnet cyberweapon infect the International Space Station?

 

Almost certainly not, but that hasn't stopped a lot of media outlets from saying so in bold headlines.

 

"The American-made Stuxnet virus has infected the International Space Station," said ExtremeTech. "Stuxnet, America's Nuclear Plant-Attacking Virus, Has Apparently Infected the International Space Station," trumpeted Vice. "Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station," asserted the Times of Israel.

 

All three cited a speech that Eugene Kaspersky, head of Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, gave to the Australian Press Club in Canberra last week.

 

But Kaspersky never said Stuxnet had infected the International Space Station (ISS). Rather, he offered two separate and unrelated anecdotes.

 

The first was one about non-specific malware being carried onboard the ISS by astronauts. The other was about Stuxnet infecting a Russian nuclear-facility network. (Kaspersky offered no proof for either allegation.)

 

Viruses in spaaaaaaace

 

"The space guys, from time to time, are coming with USBs, which are infected," Kaspersky said, according to the Atlantic. "I'm not kidding. I was talking to Russian space guys and they said, 'Yeah, from time to time, there are [computer] viruses on the space station.'"

 

This is at least partly true. In 2008, a Windows worm designed to steal online-game login credentials was found on laptops aboard the ISS.

 

The space news site SpaceRef quoted NASA as saying, "Virus was never a threat to any of the computers used for cmd and cntl [command and control] and no adverse effect on ISS Ops [operations]."

 

It's not clear how the malware got on the laptops, but the BBC quoted NASA as saying "it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space."

 

Since then, most, if not all, of the laptops used by astronauts aboard the ISS have been switched to the open-source Linux operating system, which many of the ISS' built-in systems already ran. Linux has far fewer malware issues than Windows.

 

Privyet, Stuxnet

 

Regarding Stuxnet infecting the Russian nuclear network, Kaspersky made that allegation during a long response to an audience question about governmental attitudes toward industrial-control system vulnerabilities.

 

"Departments which are responsible for offense, they see it as opportunity," Kaspersky said. "They don't understand that in cyberspace, everything you do is a boomerang. It will get back to you."

 

"Stuxnet — which was, well, I don't know, but, if you believe American media, it was developed by American and Israel secret services— Stuxnet, against Iran, to damage Iranian nuclear power program," he continued.

 

"How many computers, how many enterprises, were hit by Stuxnet in United States? Do you know?" Kaspersky asked. "I don't know, but many. Last year, for example, Chevron, they [admitted] that they were badly infected by Stuxnet."

 

"A friend of mine," Kaspersky said, "work in Russian nuclear-power plant, once during this Stuxnet time, sent a message that the nuclear-plant network, which is disconnected from the Internet … sent a message that their internal network is badly infected by Stuxnet."

 

"So, unfortunately, these people who are responsible for offensive technologies," he concluded, "they recognize cyberweapons as an opportunity."

 

The truth about Stuxnet

 

It's quite possible that Stuxnet did infect an internal network at a Russian nuclear plant. The Stuxnet worm was designed to infect Windows computers controlling Siemens System 7 programmable logic controllers at nuclear facilities.

 

However, it's very unlikely that Stuxnet did any damage at the Russian plant. The worm was precisely calibrated to attack one specific facility: Iran's Natanz uranium-processing plant.

 

At Natanz, Stuxnet activated its payload, hijacked Natanz's computer system, destroyed crucial equipment and set back Iran's nuclear program by months, if not years.

 

Kaspersky's sensational-sounding comments, combined with reporters hungry for news about evil hackers and cyberwar, yet not well versed on the background details, meant that many media outlets got what Kaspersky said flat-out wrong.

 

At least one of them eventually got it right.

 

"This article originally said the ISS was infected with Stuxnet," said the Atlantic in a correction. "Upon further review of Kaspersky's statements, that's not the case. We're sorry for the confusion."

 

Astronaut Chris Hadfield airs his dirty laundry on late-night TV

 

Alan Boyle - NBCNews.com

 

In space, no one can wash your dirty underwear. That's one of the lessons learned by late-night TV talk-show host Conan O'Brien when Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield paid a visit on Monday night.

 

Hadfield — who is hitting the talk-show circuit for his newly published book, "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" — explained on TBS' "Conan" show that astronauts on the International Space Station really can't spare the water to wash clothes in orbit. Instead, when their togs get too worn or gnarly to wear, they just throw them into a disposable cargo spacecraft, such as the Russian Progress capsule or Orbital Sciences' Cygnus craft.

 

Eventually, the trash-filled spaceships undock from the space station and are sent down for incineration in Earth's atmosphere. Problem solved, right?

 

"Wait a minute!" O'Brien told Hadfield. "You guys on the space station are throwing your dirty underwear out the window, and it's raining down on us??"

 

Watch the video for Hadfield's priceless response, and then check out his assessment of Sandra Bullock's space underwear in the movie "Gravity."

 

Women in space: beyond Gravity

The acclaimed movie "Gravity" focuses on the exploits of a female astronaut, but the real life history of women in space is no less enthralling.

 

Helen Keen - The Guardian (UK)

 

2013 has been a big year for spacefaring women - real and imaginary. June saw the 50th anniversary of the first orbital flight by a woman, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Now Gravity - the breathtaking story of a female astronaut (or astronaut, as we radical Dworkinite feminists prefer to call them) learning to be resilient and to survive in the harshest possible environment - has set box office records. The film is almost entirely set in space, and while a few may have dul[l]y criticized inaccuracies in its depiction of orbits, trajectories, and so forth, Sandra Bullock's pivotal performance has won near universal praise. Bullock plays Dr Ryan Stone, a Mission Specialist making her first space shuttle flight. At least some of the character's off-world experiences are close enough to reality for Bullock to have worked on her role with spacefaring chemist, US Air Force Colonel Cady Coleman. They first spoke while Col. Coleman was aboard the International Space Station, and the astronaut and the actress have since appeared side by side in promotional interviews for Gravity.

 

The critical and commercial success of Gravity will, with any luck, not only herald more films centering on complex, capable female characters, but also shine a light on the stories of real women in space, and inspire curiosity in those who imagine following in their footsteps. Even when they don't have to battle Kessler Syndrome like Dr. Stone, the road to the stars has been an arduous one for women. NASA did not select any female astronaut candidates until 1978, with Sally Ride becoming the first American woman (and only the third woman ever ) to go into space in 1983. But, arguably, it was a lack of imagination rather than a lack of suitable candidates that led NASA to wait so long.

 

In the early days of the space race, while the square jawed, heroic all American, all male Mercury 7 dazzled the press in their silver suits, the question of women joining the astronaut corps was brushed aside. When the Director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Wernher Von Braun, was asked if women would ever train and fly in space - he apparently replied, "male astronauts are all for it – we're reserving 110 lbs of payload for recreational equipment." (It's possible this will slightly put you off ex-Nazi and former SS officer Von Braun.) Nevertheless, some of the best female pilots in the US began to take the same tests as the male astronaut candidates, supervised by the gloriously monikered Dr Randy Lovelace II. Lovelace had a key role in the selection of astronauts and the development of space medicine at NASA - though his employers were apparently never entirely formally on board with Lovelace's plans for astronaut equality. Some of the elite female pilots, Lovelace found, performed better in tests than the successful Mercury men had done - particularly in isolation tests, where they easily surpassed their male peers. The 13 women who made it through the initial battery of assessments became known as the Mercury 13. They were briefly a cause célèbre in early 1960s America, but, in spite of numerous public campaigns, were never permitted to go into space. (In 2008 Ulrike Kubatta interviewed one of the Mercury 13, 81 yr old Jerri Truhill for her imaginative, poignant documentary 'She Should Have Gone To The Moon'. Watching the film it's plain to see that Truhill certainly had more than enough of 'the right stuff' to make the grade.)

 

Since the 1960s attitudes have shifted - drastically. The first Briton in space was a woman - chemist Dr Helen Sharman (I'm often amazed how few people seem to be aware of her). More recently Dr Geoffrey Landis of NASA even proposed a future mission where - essentially - diverse buckets of sperm would be frozen and launched aboard an interstellar ark, accompanying an all-female team of astronauts to discover new worlds - and potentially obviate spacemen altogether. (Imagine the delighted looks on the faces of Congress when NASA ask them to factor that into their budget…) Oh, and this year the NASA astronaut cohort has equal numbers of men & women.

 

Though we live at a time when the numbers of women who have gone into space finally exceeds the number of dogs who have gone into space, we still have a way to go to see our possibilities stretch 'to infinity and beyond'. Like fellow astronaut and social media sensation Commander Chris Hadfield (with whom she plays in a band) Col. Coleman loves music in space, both for pleasure and to build bridges back to earth for people who might not otherwise even be aware that the space station exists. She has actually carried (and played) Jethro Tull's flute and The Chieftains' penny whistle into space with her on her missions, and also recognises what Sandra Bullock's fictional astronaut carries with her is, potentially, "enormous" for women.

 

Gravity acts to balance the widespread, creeping 'pinkification' of products and expectations for young women and girls. In offering up a tough capable heroine it's a welcome counterpoint to Mars Explorer Barbie - adding "her signature pink splash to the 'red planet'" (good luck up there without any gloves, Barbie!) - and a myriad other unnecessarily gendered consumables. (I know where I'd like to surprise Kinder with their brand new pink-and-blue-eggs.) This matters because not everyone grows up in an environment rich in books and diverse role models. Pop culture remains the oracle many people, in particular young people, consult to see what is and isn't possible for the likes of them. At the end of one of their joint interviews Col Coleman speaks plainly about sending the message however she can - while aboard the ISS she says, she grew her hair "I let it grow, because I wanted it to be… I wanted it to scream zero g - there is a woman in space - for these girls."

 

Whenever women have left the weight of earthy expectations about their gender behind them they've never really looked back. In 1963 when Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova became the first woman in space she orbited the earth 48 times, remaining up therefor 2 days, 23 hours and 12 minutes – longer than all NASA's Mercury 7 men up to that point had managed put together.... As Dr Mae Jemison, dancer, physician, Peace Corps Officer and first African American woman to go into space succinctly put it – "never let yourself be limited by other people's limited imagination".

 

Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov dies

 

Itar-Tass

 

Soviet cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov died at his apartment in Khovanskaya street in Moscow on Tuesday. He was 69. His death was sudden, a source from Cosmonauts' Training Center told Itar-Tass.

 

Alexander Serebrov was born in Moscow on February 15, 1944. In 1967 Serebrov graduated from the Moscow Physics Technological Institute (MFTI). In 1970 he received a post- graduate degree at MFTI. Since 1976 Serebrov had worked at Energia scientific -industrial Corporation and took part in space apparatus development programs. In December 1978 he was enrolled in a team of Soviet cosmonauts.

 

As a cosmonaut Serebrov performed four space flights. In August 1982 he performed a space flight as a flight engineer on board the Soyuz T-7 spaceship with Leonid Popov- Chief pilot and woman-cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, who was a cosmonaut researcher. Serebrov worked on board the orbital station Salyut-6 with the main space crew - Anatoly Berezovoi and Valentin Lebedev.

 

Sereberov was on his second mission to space in April 1983, when he was sent to the orbital station Salyut-7 on board the spaceship Soyuz- T-8 with Chief Pilot Vladimir Titov and flight engineer Gennady Strekalov. Because of the failure of the aerial on board the spaceship and malfunctioning of the rapprochement system "Igla" the scheduled docking of the "Soyuz T-8" with the Salyut-7 orbital station was not carried out. Serebrov's space mission then continued for two days.

 

His third space flight as a flight engineer sent to the orbital station "Mir" with Chief pilot Alexander Viktorenko continued since September 6 , 1989 until February 19, 1990. During the space flight Serebrov made five space walks.

 

Serebrov had been to space a fourth time as a flight engineer of the Soyuz-TM-17 spaceship with Chief pilot Vasily Tsibliyev and research astronaut Jean-Pierre Hignere since July 1, 1993 until January 14. 1994. During the flight Serebrov made five space walks.

 

All in all Alexander Serebrov had been to space for 372 days and 22 hours; the overall time of his ten space walks is 31 hours and 49 minutes.

 

Serebrov resigned on May 10, 1995.

 

Four-Time Russian Cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov Dies at Age 69

 

Ben Evans - AmericaSpace.com

 

Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Serebrov—a veteran of four space missions to two different space stations and the 26th most experienced spacefarer of all time—has died at the age of 69. Citing sources within the cosmonauts' training center at Star City, on the outskirts of Moscow, ITAR-TASS noted that Serebrov's death earlier today (Tuesday, 12 November) was "sudden". During his lengthy career within the Soviet and later Russian cosmonaut corps, he flew two short-duration missions to the Salyut 7 space station and two long-duration missions to the Mir space station. He accrued more than 372 days in space and entered the headlines in early 1990 when he tested the Soviet Union's answer to NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)…a "space motorbike" known as "Icarus".

 

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Serebrov was born in Moscow in 15 February 1944 and graduated from the capital's Institute of Physics and Technology. He was selected as one of a cadre of seven civilian cosmonaut engineers in December 1978 and launched for the first time aboard Soyuz T-7 on 19 August 1982. Described as "garrulous" and "headline-loving" by Bryan Burrough in his book Dragonfly, Serebrov flew to the Salyut 7 station alongside Leonid Popov and the Soviet Union's second female cosmonaut, Svetlana Savitskaya. Theirs was an eight-day voyage to exchange vehicles with the long-duration Soyuz T-5 crew of Anatoli Berezovoi and Valentin Lebedev, who were at the time halfway through a record-setting seven-month mission.

 

Twenty-four hours after launch, Popov guided Soyuz T-7 to a smooth docking. During the next several days, their activities were overwhelmed in the eyes of the world's media by the presence of Savitskaya on the crew. On 27 August, the trio boarded the older Soyuz T-5 and returned to Earth, leaving their "fresh" craft for the use of Berezovoi and Lebedev. It was not to be long before Serebrov returned to space, for he was reassigned almost immediately to join cosmonauts Vladimir Titov and Gennadi Strekalov on a long-duration flight to Salyut 7, beginning in April 1983. Aboard Soyuz T-8, their mission would have made them the first three-member crew to attempt a flight lasting longer than the 84-day record established by the United States' final Skylab crew, almost a decade earlier.

 

At first glance, Serebrov's name seemed a surprising one, since he had returned from space only eight months earlier, following Soyuz T-7. Indeed, it would appear that his place was originally assigned to a female cosmonaut, Irina Pronina, who had served as Svetlana Savitskaya's backup, and whom the Soviets wanted to fly in order to gather data on a woman's adaptation to long-duration flight. Pronina's mission, flown during the late spring and into the summer of 1983, would conveniently overlap the flight of America's first female astronaut, Sally Ride, in June. Sadly, Pronina's chance did not come to pass. In the book Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft, Rex Hall and Dave Shayler commented that in March "the internal politics of the Soviet program" led to "heavy pressure" to remove Pronina from the Soyuz T-8 crew. She was replaced by Serebrov.

 

Space historian Phillip Clark suggested that a mission of between eight and nine months was anticipated by many Western observers, although when the cosmonauts rose from Earth on 20 April 1983, their launch occurred during a Salyut landing window. To Clark, this implied "that possibly a mission of four, six or even eight months had been planned", but he cautioned that there were "comments made at the time…that this was not expected to be a record-breaking mission…and therefore a four-month mission seems to be likely". More recently, Hall and Shayler broadly concluded along the same lines, noting that a landing in the summer of 1983, perhaps July, was likely.

 

Many of these plans for 1983 were shelved when Soyuz T-8 failed to dock with Salyut 7. Titov, Strekalov and Serebrov ascended into orbit perfectly, unfurled their craft's solar arrays and set to work checking their systems. Problems arose during their second circuit of Earth, when the "Igla" ("Needle") rendezvous radar's antenna refused to yield data onto the Soyuz display panels. At first, the cosmonauts suspected that the Igla had not properly deployed and recycled the switches, but with no success. Worrisome telemetry had already alerted ground controllers that the antenna boom had opened, but not to the proper extent. Strekalov wondered if it had become caught on something and the crew were allowed to use their ship's thrusters in an attempt to jolt it open. Their efforts were fruitless.

 

It was decided to continue the rendezvous profile, whilst mission managers analyzed the problem, but the mood aboard Soyuz T-8 was tense. "To tell you honestly," Titov said later, "we did not feel like rejoicing, so we just got down to work, calmly and busily, as we had trained to do." By their sixth orbit, it was time to rest, although none of the crew were psychologically or physically in any position to do so. The specter of a failed mission loomed large, for without Igla it would be impossible for the cosmonauts to navigate the final distance to Salyut 7, lacking the necessary ranging and closure data for either an automatic or manual docking. On the ground, controllers seemed more concerned about concealing the problem, but the station drew nearer with every passing hour and something would have to be done. Early on 21 April, Titov was told to attempt a manual docking, using visual cues alone, although ground simulations had already shown that the chances of success were slim.

 

'Zero hour' for Titov would commence on Soyuz T-8's 19th orbit, when the craft would be positioned 0.6 miles (1 km) from Salyut 7's rear port. However, their drift indicator was providing unreliable measurements of distance and Titov found it difficult to judge his rate of closure and was told by mission controllers to execute a 50-second thruster firing to bring the two vehicles closer. At length, Salyut began to grow in size on his screen and he was told to watch the station and switch on his craft's searchlights. Shortly thereafter, Soyuz T-8 drifted out of communications range and the cosmonauts were on their own. By his own admission, Titov had never practiced a manual docking and doubted his depth perception when judging the ship's closing velocity. That closure rate grew quite alarming, to such an extent that he feared that they would collide with the station.

 

At this point, Titov felt sure that he could not attempt a successful docking; the rate of closure was still too high and he aborted the attempt, descending and flying past his quarry. The crew were in orbital darkness for the next 35 minutes and by the time they entered their next sunrise, Salyut-Cosmos was 2.5 miles (4 km) away. With visual aids as his only option, Titov knew that there could be no option for a second attempt. Another half hour transpired before communications with the ground were restored and the cosmonauts were told to return to Earth. Propellant was low, rendezvous hardware was unreliable and, as noted by the state-run news agency, Tass, in typically ambiguous fashion, "because of deviations from the planned approach regime…the docking of the Soyuz T-8 craft with the Salyut 7 orbital station was cancelled". Titov, Strekalov and Serebrov landed safely on 22 April.

 

Three years later, in late 1986, Serebrov and Titov were primed to fly together a second time, aboard Soyuz TM-2 to the new Mir space station. Theirs was anticipated to be a record-breaking flight of almost 11 months, beginning in February 1987. However, cruel luck was not far away and it would appear that Serebrov failed a medical check in the final weeks before launch. Both he and Titov were grounded and their backups—cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Aleksandr Laveykin—flew in their stead.

 

Shortly thereafter, Serebrov was reassigned with Aleksandr Viktorenko, first as the backup crew for the joint Soviet-French Soyuz TM-7 mission, with an expectation that they would rotate into the prime crew spot for the long-duration Soyuz TM-8, due to commence in April 1989. Delays in preparing two new modules for Mir—known as Kvant-2 ("Quantum") and Kristall ("Crystal")—forced the Soviets to "de-crew" the station for several months and Viktorenko and Serebrov did not finally reach orbit until 8 September. Switching on the lights aboard Mir, they ushered in a golden age for the outpost…an age which would see it permanently occupied for almost ten full years. Not until August 1999 would Mir again be left unoccupied.

 

With five months in space ahead of them, Viktorenko and Serebrov had much work to do. Unpacking a Progress resupply craft topped their list of priorities and in late November the long-delayed Kvant-2 was finally launched. It arrived and was grappled and maneuvered into position by Mir's Ljappa manipulator arm a few days later. In addition to providing a new airlock, Kvant-2 carried much new gear…including the Sredstvo Peredvizheniy Kosmonavtov (SPK, or the "Cosmonaut Manoeuvring Equipment"). This was similar to NASA's Manned Maneuvering Unit, a jet-propelled space suit backpack used on three Shuttle missions in 1984, and in addition to its testing Viktorenko and Serebrov were assigned an intricate series of five EVAs to fully integrate Kvant-2 into the Mir complex and prepare it for the arrival of the next module, Kristall.

 

Preparations for the first EVA got underway in late December and on 8 January 1990 the two cosmonauts poked their helmeted heads into the vacuum of space, during orbital darkness, kicking off an excursion which would run for two hours and 56 minutes. Their primary objective was to install a pair of star trackers onto Kvant-1. Although this was successfully accomplished, their pressurized garments presented their own minor irritations: a broken wire in Viktorenko's suit prevented water temperature monitoring, whilst Serebrov suffered a leak in his suit's coolant loop. Three days later, on the 11th, they were back outside for almost three hours, retrieving an experiment which had been left outside the station by a French astronaut and installing materials exposure "cassettes".

 

Their third EVA, on 26 January, was devoted to preparing Mir for the SPK backpack evaluations. The men again spent three hours outside and saw the cosmonauts demonstrating an add-on package to supply power, telemetry and cooling to their suits, thus rendering obsolete the umbilicals used on previous EVAs. This was perhaps the new suit's most significant improvement, since it provided a degree of autonomy for the first time. The men were linked to Mir only by safety tethers and, for the first time, departed the station not through the multiple docking adaptor, but through Kvant-2's new airlock, whose large-diameter hatch provided passage into space for the SPK backpack. Looking like an overstuffed and overly padded armchair, this device was named in honour of the legendary Daedalus' foolhardy son, Icarus, whose wings of feathers and wax melted as he drew too close to the Sun.

 

Fortunately, nothing of the sort transpired to affect Alexander Serebrov during the mission's fourth EVA, on 1 February 1990, as he put Icarus' spacefaring namesake through its inaugural paces. Serebrov remained tethered to Mir by a tether, because the station could not maneuver to recover him in the event of a failure. He started by gingerly making a trio of short flights to a distance of around 16 feet (5 meters) and then out to 110 feet (33 meters), before returning. During his final exercises, he realized that he was approaching the Kvant-2 "dock" slightly off-course and, although he was able to correct the problem, he noticed that the tether caused him to flip backwards and rock "like a pendulum". Four days later, on 5 February, a second SPK run was completed in a dramatic EVA which ran to almost four hours. Although the SPK remained attached to the external Kvant-2 dock for several years, and was kept ready to perform external inspections of Mir, it was never used again.

 

The five EVAs, and the SPK trials, together with the arrival of commissioning of Kvant-2, had proven the highlight of Viktorenko and Serebrov's residency aboard the station. In early February 1990, the new Soyuz TM-9 crew arrived to relieve them and the cosmonauts returned to Earth on the 19th after 166 days in orbit. It was Serebrov's first long-duration voyage, but it would not be his last. Three years later, he flew again, though from "Russia" and a "Commonwealth of Independent States", rather than the "Soviet Union"…and this brave new world carried many of its troubles and laid them at the cosmonauts' doors.

 

For the planned four-month Soyuz TM-17 expedition, Serebrov was teamed with fellow Russian Vasili Tsibliyev and French astronaut Jean-Pierre Haigneré would accompany them to Mir for about three weeks. Only hours before their 5:33 p.m. Moscow Time liftoff on 1 July 1993, there was a temporary power blackout at the Baikonur launch pad and the electricity supply in the nearby city of Leninsk failed completely. Arriving at Mir two days later, the space station's population was temporarily increased to a five-man crew for almost three weeks, thanks to the presence of Soyuz TM-16 crewmen Gennadi Manakov and Aleksandr Poleshchuk. Three weeks of French research work was punctuated on 22 July, when Manakov, Poleshchuk and Haigneré returned to Earth, leaving Tsibliyev and Serebrov alone for a mission which they expected to end in November.

 

August was a relatively quiet month, although the Perseids meteor shower produced a spectacular display for them. In readiness for a possible emergency return to Earth, Russian aircraft and rescue forces were placed on alert, and Tsibliyev and Serebrov watched, around-the-clock, from Mir's windows as a total of 240 meteoroids burned up in the atmosphere. Several impacts were observed on the space station's windows, creating pit-like craters, and particle fluxes were 2,000 times higher than normal. Tsibliyev referred to them as "battle wounds" and noted that they had caused minor damage to solar panels on the base block and Kristall. Although Mir sustained no obvious structural damage, it was decided to stage an EVA in September to inspect the exterior.

 

The two cosmonauts spent more than four hours outside on 16 September, followed by another three hours on the 20th, primarily to assemble a cylindrical girder, extendible to some 16 feet (5 meters), atop the Kvant-1 module, which had design implications for Russia's planned Mir-2 station. Then, on 28 September, they carried out a two-hour inspection, known as "Panorama", in which a small hole was spotted in one of Mir's solar arrays. The damaged area was surrounded by cracks, but the cosmonauts were unable to determine if a Perseid strike was responsible. This EVA was scheduled for four hours, but ended earlier than planned when a cooling issue was experienced with Tsibliyev's suit; he was forced to remain close to the Kvant-2 airlock, whilst Serebrov completed the photography of Mir and collected detector plates from a NASA-provided exposure experiment.

 

A fourth and fifth EVA on 22 and 29 October concluded the Panorama inspections and enabled them to examine the entire outer skin of Mir. In the excursion on the 22nd, Serebrov suffered a problem in the oxygen flow system of his suit, which had been worn 13 times by previous cosmonauts and had exceeded its recommended operational lifetime. As a consequence, the spacewalk was curtailed and the cosmonauts returned to the Kvant-2 airlock after just 38 minutes. The final EVA on the 29th experienced no such problems, however, and Serebrov established a world record for the most spacewalks by one person, with a grand total of ten. They ended the excursion by tossing overboard the Orlan suit which had caused problems on 22 October…after rigging it so that it appeared to be saluting, "like a soldier".

 

At around this time, it was announced by the Russians that the Soyuz TM-17 crew would not return to Earth in November, but were to remain aboard Mir until the following January, due to problems obtaining engines for the powerful Soyuz-U variant of the venerable rocket which would launch their replacements, the Soyuz TM-18 crew of Viktor Afanasyev, Yuri Usachev and Valeri Polyakov. Budget cuts were acknowledged to have delayed the manufacturing of the engines at the factory in Samara, whose managers refused to deliver them until it had received payment from the Russian government.

 

Tsibliyev and Serebrov agreed "reluctantly" to this extension of their mission and Soyuz TM-18 was postponed from 16 November 1993 until 8 January 1994. Several days later, after welcoming the new arrivals, the time came for Tsibliyev and Serebrov to return to Earth. They undocked from Mir without incident on 14 January and Tsibliyev commenced his assignment of a short inspection flight around the station, prior to departing. This task required the commander to assume manual control, withdraw to a distance of 150 feet (45 meters), then steer his spacecraft to within 50 feet (15 meters) of Kristall to photograph the APAS-89 system for NASA. Nine minutes after undocking, Tsibliyev radioed his first complaint that something was amiss. The controls handled "sluggishly" and Serebrov voiced concern that they were drawing dangerously close to Mir's solar arrays.

 

"For some reason," wrote Bryan Burrough in Dragonfly, "his thruster control button momentarily froze. Unable to control the ship, Tsibliyev watched in amazement as it floated slowly toward the station." Aboard Mir, Afanasyev urgently instructed Usachev and Polyakov to prepare their vehicle, Soyuz TM-18, for an evacuation, certain that a collision was about to occur. The loss of control occurred at a distance of about 100 feet (30 meters) and at 7:47 a.m. Moscow Time Soyuz TM-17 hit Mir, not once, but twice, with a two-second gap between each impact. The collision was very slight, and almost imperceptible for the cosmonauts, as Soyuz TM-17 quickly rebounded away.

 

Aboard the station, Afanasyev, Usachev and Polyakov also felt nothing, but Mir's attitude-control system registered the angular velocity and automatically switched to free-flying mode. Immediately after the impact, radio communications with ground controllers were lost for a period of about ten minutes. These were only fully restored, after a period of spotty comm, at 8:02 a.m. Subsequent discussions revealed no damage to either craft and Soyuz TM-17 began its descent to Earth at 10:15 a.m. Moscow Time. An hour later, the descent module hit the steppe of Kazakhstan, and Tsibliyev and Serebrov were safely home after 197 days in space. Chalking up 372 days in space at the end of his fourth mission, Serebrov had spent almost 32 hours outside Mir on ten spacewalks. He resigned from the cosmonaut corps in mid-1995. Serebrov was married, with one child, and to his family and friends AmericaSpace extends its sincere condolences.

 

Fly us back to the moon

 

Chris Impey - CNN (Opinion)

 

(Impey is a distinguished professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona. He is the author of several popular science books, including the recent "Dreams of Other Worlds," about 11 iconic NASA astronomy and planetary science missions, co-written with Holly Henry and published by Princeton University Press.)

 

Lady Gaga announced that she's going to sing in space. Everyone is raving about "Gravity," the new movie starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts in orbit. And India just launched its first Mars mission on Thursday.

 

Clearly, we Earthlings are still madly in love with space. But what about the moon?

 

It's sad how far America has fallen in our space aspirations. So far that we can't even get into Earth orbit without help from the Russians, let alone get back to the moon.

 

But NASA is trying to get back in the game. Two months after launch, its Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer -- LADEE, pronounced "laddie" -- has finished its looping journey and it is gathering important information about the moon's dust and thin atmosphere.

 

Already, this modular spacecraft has tested a new system for interplanetary communication using pulsed lasers, delivering a blistering 622 megabits per second. Try getting that from your Internet service provider.

 

LADEE is a worthy mission, but it's a far cry from the romance and ambition of space exploration 50 years ago. When Frank Sinatra released a swing version of "Fly Me to the Moon" in 1964, the song captured the optimism of the U.S. space program. President John Kennedy had challenged the country to a manned moon landing three years earlier and NASA's budget rose by a factor of five to accomplish the goal.

 

The moon landings were a phenomenal achievement. Even knowing that they were motivated by a rivalry with the Soviets and fueled by an unsustainable budget didn't tarnish their luster. The Saturn V was the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, and the Apollo program was the most technically complex human undertaking in history. Two dozen brave and daring astronauts reached their target with computer processors less powerful than those inside our modern-day smartphones. The 12 who loped across the lunar soil are the only people to set foot on another world.

 

Today, the Apollo moon shots fade and flicker in the public consciousness, like the grainy black-and-white TV images that many of us recall from just over 44 years ago. About 6% of the American public thought the moon landings were a hoax, despite high resolution images that show the landers and tracks left by the rovers, and ongoing scientific experiments using the hardware we left behind.

 

I used to get annoyed at the Apollo deniers. (Buzz Aldrin at least managed to get even; YouTube videos where he decks conspiracy theorist and filmmaker Bart Sibrel have been watched more than half a million times). Then I realized that a list of things that one in 10 Americans believes would include some pretty outrageous things. But willful cultural ignorance is sad.

 

New players are stepping into the vacuum. Google announced the Lunar X Prize in 2007, riffing off the successful Ansari XPRIZE, where private teams were challenged to build a reusable spacecraft to reach the boundary of outer space. A $20 million prize will go to the first team to land a robot on the moon that can travel 500 meters and transmit images and video. Twenty teams are still in the running. The competition expires when all the prizes have been claimed or at the end of 2015, whichever comes first.

 

China is likely to beat all these teams to the punch. A few weeks ago the Chinese announced that the Chang'e 3 lunar rover will be launched by the end of the year. If successful, it would be the first soft landing on the moon since the Russian Luna 24 in 1976. Less than a decade old, China's space program is well-funded and aggressive. China has put 15 astronauts in orbit and plans to complete a 60-ton space station by 2020. Following Chang'e 3, they plan sample return by 2020 and a manned landing by 2025. So, more than half a century after Eugene Cernan left the last human footprint on the moon, the next may be made by someone who speaks Mandarin.

 

Meanwhile, other countries are getting into the act. The European Space Agency has long-term plans to send robots and astronauts to the moon. Japan and India also have advanced plans for lunar rovers. The United States led the world in space but NASA is cooling its heels, with a vision that has shrunk along with its budget.

 

America's space program would be best served by continuing the mission started 50 years ago. The moon still has much to teach us about how the solar system and the Earth formed. It's not the sterile place we once thought; there's enough water and oxygen in the soil to easily sustain a base. It's the perfect place for learning how to live and work beyond the Earth.

 

When Sinatra performed "Fly Me to the Moon" on his TV show in 1969 he dedicated it to the Apollo astronauts "who made the impossible possible."

 

LADEE was designed to characterize the lunar environment in preparation for future human missions. But the Constellation Program that would have gotten us back to the Moon was canceled in 2010. LADEE will set the table but no one's coming to dinner.

 

By partnering with other countries or private sector companies, NASA can rekindle the dream and fulfill our destiny to explore beyond our planet.

 

END