Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - January 7, 2014 and JSC Today



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 7, 2014 8:41:56 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - January 7, 2014 and JSC Today

Stay warm and safe,,,,we made it thru the cold snap and its warmer from here on.

 

See you at Hibachi Grill this Thursday!

 

JSC Logo

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Information Technology Reminders for the New Year

Welcome back! Here are some IT tips to start 2014 on the right track. 

**Connect your computer to the NASA network (dock your laptop) to allow patches and updates to complete. Some patches may require a computer reboot.

**Perform a backup of your data using the "Connected BackUp" tool on your computer.  

**Connect Personal Mobile Devices to 'nasabyod' network, NOT the "nasa" or "nasaguest" wifi networks.  

The "nasabyod" network, which is still in pilot phase, will require your NDC credentials. Connection to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) is also required to access internal sites.

**Start Using Lync IM to chat with up to 15 NDC participants.

*Lync Web Conferencing is now enabled for WebEx account holders, or VTS seats.

**Windows XP Users: Contact your organization's IT point-of-contact immediately to discuss options for you to upgrade to Windows 7. 

Microsoft will stop supporting the Windows XP Operating Systems April 2014. XP systems will be REMOVED from the NASA network.

 Contact ESD for technical assistance.

JSC-IRD-Outreach x46367 https://esd.nasa.gov/secure/main.cfm

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  1. Monthly Sustainabilitiy Opportunities

Happy New Year from your JSC Sustainability Champions! What will you do differently this year to decrease your ecological footprint? Many ideas are listed in our 2014 Sustainability Engagement Strategy. The link to our strategy and your January sustainability opportunities can be found on the JSC Sustainability home page. (Also accessible from the JSC internal home page by selecting "Around JSC" and then "Sustainability Initiatives.") Scroll down to "What's New in Sustainability" and contact us anytime for a presentation!

Laurie Peterson x39845 http://jsc-web-www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/capp.cfm

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  1. The New JSC Pollution Prevention Plans

There is a new five-year Pollution Prevention Plan for JSC. The targeted goals for 2014 through 2018 are to reduce site-wide laboratory chemical waste generation by two percent, hazardous waste solvent generation by 75 percent and hazardous waste oil generation by 15 percent. Find out more about JSC's goals, source reduction and how you can help JSC meet these and other sustainable goals by visiting the Environmental Office website or calling the Environmental info line at x36207.

JSC Environmental Office x36207 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/ja13/index.cfm

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   Organizations/Social

  1. Save the Date! Rodeo Ticket Sales at Starport

The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will announce the full lineup of rodeo concert performers Sunday, Jan. 12, at 11:59 p.m. Starport will begin selling tickets at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 14. Tickets will be available for all performances and sold in pairs only, with a limit of four tickets per customer (badged employee). Carnival packs, Barbecue Cook-off and Reliant admission tickets will also be available. Starport is proud to offer this valuable service to its loyal customers.

Cyndi Kibby x47467

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  1. Network After Work With Emerge

Help Emerge kick off 2014 with a networking event while enjoying a free nacho bar and drink specials. People gravitate to do business with people they know, like and trust. We'd love to get to know you and what you do. We are a group comprised of JSC's next generation, fostering cross-center collaboration. No reservation is required, and this is open to Emerge and the JSC community.

Event Date: Thursday, January 16, 2014   Event Start Time:5:00 PM   Event End Time:7:00 PM
Event Location: Chuy's @ 20975 Gulf Freeway Webster TX 77598

Add to Calendar

Elena Buhay 281-792-7976 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/iierg/emerge/SitePages/Home.aspx

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  1. Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society Meeting

Our January meeting will feature our own Bob Taylor, who will provide an entertaining review of the past year in astronomy with lots of NASA-related info. Many of our membership think this is the best presentation of the year. Come see if you agree.

We'll also discuss upcoming events, including our fabulous and fun star parties. Other meeting topics include "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing, the always-intriguing "Astro Oddities" and the novice question-and-answer session.

Membership to the JSC Astronomy Society is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no bylaws - you just show up to our meeting. After you join us, you'll have access to our loaner telescopes to try your hand at observing before you invest your own money, as well as our amazing, educational DVD library with hundreds of choices to learn from.

Event Date: Friday, January 10, 2014   Event Start Time:7:30 PM   Event End Time:9:30 PM
Event Location: USRA bldg auditorium, 3600 Bay Area Blvd.

Add to Calendar

Jim Wessel x41128 http://www.jscas.net/

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  1. Parent's Night Out at Starport: Jan. 17

Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport! We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun!

When: Friday, Jan. 17, from 6 to 10 p.m.

Where: Gilruth Center

Ages: 5 to 12

Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling.

Shericka Phillips x35563 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/familyyouth-programs/parents-n...

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  1. Lunarfins Scuba Club Meeting

Happy New Year and welcome back. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. The Lunarfins Scuba Club will resume monthly meetings Wednesday, Jan. 8. We start the new year with a presentation from a Coast Guard rescue swimmer. Living on the Gulf Coast provides access to many water sports, and the local Coast Guard works hard to keep us safe and provide assistance when things don't go as planned. Join us Wednesday at 7 p.m. to hear about the job these brave people perform every day. Hope to see you there!

Event Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2014   Event Start Time:7:00 PM   Event End Time:8:30 PM
Event Location: Clear Lake Park Recreation Center

Add to Calendar

Barbara Corbin x36215 http://www.lunarfins.com

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  1. The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) Says

"Make it your mission not to live with an unsafe condition."

Congratulations to Ryan Anderson with PAE Applied Technologies LLC for submitting the winning slogan for January 2014. Any JSAT member (all JSC contractor and civil servant employees) may submit a slogan for consideration to JSAT Secretary Reese Squires. Submissions for February are due by Friday, Jan. 10. Keep those great submissions coming - you may be the next "JSAT Says" winner!

Reese Squires x37776 http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/ja/apps/news/newsfiles/3355.pptx

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   Jobs and Training

  1. RLLS Portal WebEx Training for January

The January Monthly RLLS Portal Education Series:

    • Jan. 15 at 2 p.m. CST, Flight Arrival Departure Training
    • Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. CST, Transportation Request Training
    • Jan. 29 at 2 p.m. CST, Cell Phone Request Training
    • Jan. 30 at 2 p.m. CST, Lodging Request Training

These 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 a request
    • Status of a request

Ending each session are question-and-answer opportunities. Please remember that TTI will no longer accept requests for U.S.-performed services unless they are submitted through the RLLS Portal.

Email or call 281-335-8565 to sign up.

James Welty 281-335-8565 https://www.tti-portal.com

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   Community

  1. Do You Have a Telescope You Don't Know How to Use?

Do you have a telescope you don't know how to use?

Take a class at the George Observatory. We will be offering two classes on Jan. 11. The first class will be on how to use a refracting or reflecting telescope and starts at 1 p.m. (cost is $25 for Houston Museum of Natural Science [HMNS] members and $30 for non-members). The second class will be on how to use a go-to telescope and starts at 4 p.m. (cost is $30 for HMNS members and $35 for non-members).

For more information about these classes and to purchase tickets, click here.

Note: Park entrance fees apply at $7 per person for everyone over 12 years old.

Megan Hashier 281-226-4179 http://www.hmns.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=612&Ite...

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

8:30 a.m. Central - Space Station Live
9:30 a.m. - 11 a.m. Central - NASA and the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Commemorates 10 Years of Mars Rovers
1 p.m. Central - Orbital Sciences/Cygnus-1 Science Briefing
2 p.m. Central - Orbital Sciences/Cygnus-1 Prelaunch News

 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: In case you missed it… ISS astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins were interviewed on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last night reaching nearly 8 million people.

 

Human Spaceflight News

Tuesday – Jan. 7, 2014

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

Nosebleed seats: After dramatic spacewalks, astronauts savor Olympic view from orbit

 

Alan Boyle – NBC News

 

Now that they've fixed the International Space Station, NASA's orbiting astronauts say they're back on schedule and looking forward to the Sochi Olympics. They've already started taking snapshots. "We passed right over the Sochi area yesterday," astronaut Rick Mastracchio told NBC News' Brian Williams on Monday. "And I actually got some great photographs of the area and tweeted some of those." Mastracchio said NASA's ground controllers are ready to uplink live video feeds as well as tape-delayed events from the Olympics, which are due to begin in the Russian Black Sea resort area on Feb. 7. "Once we give them a list of the different events that we want to see, they'll be happy to send them up to us," he said.

 

Monster winter storm seen from space

 

Dennis Bodzash| - Examiner

 

Right now, much of the eastern half of the country is preparing for/is in the grip of a monster winter storm system that, in addition to huge snowfall totals, will bring record cold to many areas. Now, while those living in the projected to be hit areas are not exactly thinking about taking pictures, eyes in the skies are capturing some stunning images. Whether from human or machine, the pictures are simply breathtaking.

 

SpaceX Falcon 9 boosts commercial relay station into orbit

 

William Harwood – CBS News

 

An upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life and boosted a commercial communications satellite into orbit Monday, kicking off the new year with the company's second commercial success in a row as it vies to carve out a share of the private sector -- and military -- launch markets. The Falcon 9 version 1.1's nine first stage engines ignited on time at 5:06 p.m. EST (GMT-5), throttled up to full power and quickly pushed the 225-foot-tall rocket away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with 1.3 million pounds of thrust. Climbing straight up atop a churning rush of fiery exhaust, the slender rocket accelerated through the region of maximum aerodynamic pressure and arced away through low clouds on an easterly trajectory, putting on a dramatic early evening sky show for area residents and tourists.

NASA May Order More Soyuz Rides to Station Despite Commercial Crew Advancements

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

WASHINGTON — Companies working on commercial crew transportation services to and from the international space station reported milestones in their efforts even as a NASA official warned that the agency likely will have to order more Russian Soyuz crew capsules to keep the orbital outpost fully occupied. Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA headquarters, told an advisory panel Dec. 9 that the agency may have to order another batch of Soyuz crew capsules from Russia unless Congress funds NASA's Commercial Crew Program at the $800 million-plus level sought by the White House. 

 

Editorial | Kill This Bill

 

Space News

Legislation proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would effectively shield selected big-ticket NASA programs from termination without prior congressional approval is bad policy that should be rejected by the Senate, if it gets that far. The bill, which also would allow contractors on these programs to tap into funds set aside to cover termination liabilities, comes with a positive-sounding bipartisan label, but that only reaffirms the old adage that all politics is local: The legislation's main sponsor, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), and nearly all of its 16 co-sponsors represent states with major economic interests in the programs it is designed to shield. These programs are in fact the most expensive in NASA's portfolio: the international space station; the James Webb Space Telescope; the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle; and the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. The bill, H.R. 3625, was approved by the House Science Committee in December and now awaits a vote by the full House.

 

Astronaut snaps cool photo of Salt Lake City

 

Michael McFall – The Salt Lake Tribune

 

We've seen all manner of wondrous sights looking to the stars (just check out WIRED's Space Photo of the Day for proof), but it's pretty cool when our space-faring scientists turn the cameras back toward Earth — and hey, there's us! A member of the Expedition 38 crew at the International Space Station shot this night photo of Salt Lake Valley. You can see a large version of it here. For all you camera enthusiasts out there, the astronaut used a Nikon D3S, with a 600 millimeter lens.

 

New planets not like those in our solar system

 

Traci Watson – USA Today

 

To us, the solar system seems normal. But new studies of the planets sprinkled around other stars suggest that our corner of the galaxy is actually a pretty weird place. Scientists have discovered that a large proportion of the recently discovered planets outside our own solar system are nothing like the familiar planets orbiting our sun. Instead, many are "mini-Neptunes": roughly the size of Earth but, unlike Earth, composed of a thick layer of gases around a solid core, which is more like the composition of the planet Neptune. That implies that the recipe for making planets in other solar systems is far different than the process that led to Earth's formation. The mini-Neptunes "dominate the inventory" of the 3,000-plus planets found by NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler, said University of California-Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy on Monday at an American Astronomical Society meeting just outside Washington, D.C. "These are planets we never expected based on our own solar system."

 

Following Lunar Landing, China Outlines Next Steps

 

Space News

China completed its first robotic Moon landing Dec. 14 and two days later offered a glimpse of its plans for a follow-on mission launching in 2017, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. In a Dec. 16 report, Xinhua quoted Wu Zhijian, a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, as saying work on the follow-on mission, dubbed Chang'e 5, is proceeding smoothly. The report did not provide much in the way of specifics about Chang'e 5, but did say a lunar sample-return mission is part of China's near-term plan. 

 

Scientists Move Levitating Objects Through Space for the First Time

 

Dan Vergano – National Geographic

 

Levitation isn't just for mystics anymore. A Japanese technology team has demonstrated ultrasonic levitation of objects that for the first time works in three dimensions. This means that as opposed to merely lifting objects with sound waves, scientists can now move them through space in every direction. First demonstrated in the 1940s, acoustic levitation has suffered its up and downs over the years, enjoying a resurgence in the past decade brought about by more powerful electronics. Researchers have dramatized the advances by levitating such things as bees, ants, and fish. Now, in a study submitted to the Cornell University Library's physics archive, a team led by Yoichi Ochiai of the University of Tokyo reports that they have achieved a new level of control in acoustic levitation, moving plastic beads in three dimensions with an array of 285 sound-emitting transducers as the controllers.

 

New Views of Famed Supernova Reveal Cosmic Dust Factory

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

WASHINGTON — New views from a giant radio telescope in Chile are revealing massive amounts of dust created by an exploding star for the first time. Scientists used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile to make the discovery while observing supernova 1987A, an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a dwarf galaxy companion of the Milky Way located about 168,000 light-years from Earth. Astronomers have long thought that supernovas are responsible for creating some of the large amounts of dust found in galaxies around the universe, yet they haven't directly observed the process until now, ALMA officials said. [See more amazing images from the ALMA telescope]

__________

COMPLETE STORIES

 

Nosebleed seats: After dramatic spacewalks, astronauts savor Olympic view from orbit

 

Alan Boyle – NBC News

Now that they've fixed the International Space Station, NASA's orbiting astronauts say they're back on schedule and looking forward to the Sochi Olympics. They've already started taking snapshots.

"We passed right over the Sochi area yesterday," astronaut Rick Mastracchio told NBC News' Brian Williams on Monday. "And I actually got some great photographs of the area and tweeted some of those."

Mastracchio said NASA's ground controllers are ready to uplink live video feeds as well as tape-delayed events from the Olympics, which are due to begin in the Russian Black Sea resort area on Feb. 7. "Once we give them a list of the different events that we want to see, they'll be happy to send them up to us," he said.

Mastracchio and his NASA crewmate Mike Hopkins can have their pick of TV programs, including the NFL football playoffs. But there's one thing they deeply missed: being home for the holidays.

"There's thousands of military folks ... who spend time away from the families during the holidays, and they all know how it feels, and we feel the same way," Mastracchio said. "But if you have to be away from home during the holidays, there's not too many places better than being here onboard the International Space Station in low Earth orbit."

The view is arguably the best part.

"There is not a part of Earth that isn't absolutely beautiful ... It is easy to lose perspective up here, because when you see things like a hurricanes, from our view, it's absolutely beautiful with these huge formations," Hopkins said. "Very easy to lose sight that there is tragedy happening below that, and we always have to keep that in mind."

Hopkins has been on the space station since September, and Mastracchio flew up in November. Four other spacefliers — a Japanese astronaut and three Russians — are also living on the football-field-sized outpost. Referring to the star of the space-based thriller "Gravity," Mastracchio joked that "we have yet to see Sandra Bullock up here, but we continue to look for her."

The station's crew members had to deal with their own real-life drama last month, when a faulty coolant valve forced them to shut down non-essential electrical equipment for a couple of weeks. Hopkins and Mastracchio set things right during a Christmas Eve spacewalk when they hooked up a replacement coolant pump.

"The space station is back up and running perfectly," Mastracchio reported.

This week, the crew is getting ready for the arrival of a commercial Cygnus cargo capsule that was supposed to have been launched last month — but was delayed due to the troubles with the coolant system. They're also getting back to taking pictures of Earth as the view zooms past at a speed of 17,500 miles an hour, 260 miles below them.

"A lot of times you'll get busy and you will want to know where you are," Hopkins said. "You have to take a look at a world map, and if it's somewhere you're interested in taking a picture, then you can run to one of the windows and try to get a picture of it."

Last year, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield built a reputation as an orbital photographer as well as a space troubadour, performing an updated version of David Bowie's "Space Oddity" song in orbit. "It would be hard to top Commander Hadfield," Hopkins admitted. "And really, to be honest, you don't want to hear Rick or me sing."

But the current crew members are just as adept when it comes to turning a phrase, particularly one that reflects the Olympic spirit.

"When you are flying above all these different countries and all these different regions, and you see them as one big planet, it sure makes you wish that obviously folks can put aside their differences and ... just get along with each other," Mastracchio said. "Something that makes me very happy is to see the Olympics. I think it's going to be exciting to get all the countries to come together, and even for that short period of time, work together."

 

Monster winter storm seen from space

 

Dennis Bodzash| - Examiner

 

Right now, much of the eastern half of the country is preparing for/is in the grip of a monster winter storm system that, in addition to huge snowfall totals, will bring record cold to many areas. Now, while those living in the projected to be hit areas are not exactly thinking about taking pictures, eyes in the skies are capturing some stunning images.

Whether from human or machine, the pictures are simply breathtaking.

Snapped from a weather-monitoring satellite, the winter storm system appears as a blanket of white covering most of the Eastern United States. The storm system formed when two weather systems, one from the South bringing the wet (snow up here) and another from Canada (bringing the bitter cold) merged into a single storm.

Needless to say, with the dozens of imaging satellites as well as astronauts in the International Space Station overhead, more images and videos of the converging storm systems will be hitting the Internet soon, so be sure to check on your favorite space and regular news websites for further updates and pictures.

Oh, yes, the Cleveland area forecast is calling for more snow today and into tonight, with air temperatures rapidly dropping throughout the afternoon and eventually bottoming out at around -15 degrees tonight. Expect strong wind and chills of up to -40 overnight. Tomorrow's forecast: snow tapering off, perhaps a few breaks of sun, and highs around 0.

 

SpaceX Falcon 9 boosts commercial relay station into orbit

 

William Harwood – CBS News

 

An upgraded SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life and boosted a commercial communications satellite into orbit Monday, kicking off the new year with the company's second commercial success in a row as it vies to carve out a share of the private sector -- and military -- launch markets.

The Falcon 9 version 1.1's nine first stage engines ignited on time at 5:06 p.m. EST (GMT-5), throttled up to full power and quickly pushed the 225-foot-tall rocket away from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with 1.3 million pounds of thrust.

Climbing straight up atop a churning rush of fiery exhaust, the slender rocket accelerated through the region of maximum aerodynamic pressure and arced away through low clouds on an easterly trajectory, putting on a dramatic early evening sky show for area residents and tourists.

The Merlin 1D first stage engines shut down about two minutes and 54 seconds after liftoff. Seconds later, the spent first stage fell away and the second stage's single Merlin engine ignited to continue the push to orbit.

The second stage engine burned about five-and-a-half minutes to put the spacecraft in an initial "parking orbit."

The Thaicom-6 communications satellite, the second commercial relay station carried by an upgraded Falcon 9, required a second upper stage engine firing to boost it into a highly elliptical "transfer" orbit, with a low point of around 183 miles and a high point around 55,923 miles.

SpaceX ended live commentary before the second stage burn, but the company said in a Twitter posting at 6 p.m. that "Falcon 9 has successfully deployed Thaicom 6 into its target orbit."

The flight plan called for the 6,650-pound satellite to be released from the Falcon 9 second stage about 31 minutes after launch. Using on-board thrusters, the satellite will be maneuvered into a circular orbit 22,300 miles above the equator where spacecraft take 24 hours to complete one orbit and thus appear stationary in the sky as viewed by ground antennas.

The solar-powered Thaicom 6, an Orbital Sciences Corp. GEOStar-2 satellite, features eight high-speed Ku-Band transponders and 18 C-band transponders.

Stationed at 78.5 degrees east longitude, Thaicom 6 will work in concert with Thaicom 5 to provide more than 500 television channels to subscribers in Thailand and southeast Asia. The C-band transponders also will provide services to Africa, including Madagascar. The satellite has a 15-year design life.

Monday's launching was a major milestone for SpaceX, which is vying to become a major player in the civilian and military launch markets.

The company already holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to launch unmanned Dragon cargo ships to the International Space Station using a less powerful variant of the Falcon 9 rocket. Two operational space station resupply missions have been launched so far, with a third scheduled for launch in late February.

To launch heavier commercial communications satellites and military spacecraft, SpaceX upgraded the Falcon 9 to version 1.1, as it is known, equipping the booster with extended propellant tanks, more efficient and lighter engines, a new triply redundant flight computer system and a custom nose cone intended for large commercial satellites.

During an initial test flight in late September, the upgraded rocket successfully boosted a Canadian research satellite into orbit after launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. But a planned restart of the second stage engine -- a requirement for missions carrying communications satellites -- failed.

An analysis indicated the cause was frozen fluid lines leading to the engine's igniter. Engineers resolved the problem by installing insulation and making sure cold oxygen could not impinge on the feed lines.

The corrective work paid off and a second Falcon 9 v1.1 was successfully launched Dec. 3, lofting a commercial communications satellite into orbit for SES World Skies.

Monday's flight was the third apparent success in a row for the Falcon 9 v1.1, a requirement for the company to compete for military launch contracts in a market dominated by United Launch Alliance, a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin that builds the Atlas 5 and Delta 4 families of rockets.

Assuming the Air Force considers the initial test flight a success -- and a final determination has not been announced -- SpaceX presumably would be clear to compete for upcoming military launch contracts.

According to a SpaceX press kit, the company currently has more than 50 launches on its long-range manifest, including NASA flights and commercial missions, representing nearly $5 billion.

 

NASA May Order More Soyuz Rides to Station Despite Commercial Crew Advancements

 

Dan Leone – Space News

 

WASHINGTON — Companies working on commercial crew transportation services to and from the international space station reported milestones in their efforts even as a NASA official warned that the agency likely will have to order more Russian Soyuz crew capsules to keep the orbital outpost fully occupied.

Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA headquarters, told an advisory panel Dec. 9 that the agency may have to order another batch of Soyuz crew capsules from Russia unless Congress funds NASA's Commercial Crew Program at the $800 million-plus level sought by the White House. 

"I think that's going to be a topic of a lot of debate in the next year or so," McAlister told a panel of the NASA Advisory Council.

The debate, McAlister hinted, might be more about how many seats to buy, rather than whether to buy the seats at all. 

NASA's current contract with the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, covers astronaut transportation to and from the space station through 2016, and emergency crew rescue services through June 2017. 

The White House is seeking $821 million this year for the Commercial Crew Program, under which Boeing Space Exploration, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) are working on U.S. alternatives to the Soyuz. The U.S. government is currently operating under a six-month continuing resolution, set to expire Jan. 15, that funds the program at $525 million.

"We really do want these systems available by 2017 if possible," McAlister said. However, "Our ability to accommodate lower-than-expected budgets is getting [to be] much less."

A week after McAlister's remarks, Sierra Nevada Space Systems announced that it had received the full payment from NASA for an October flight test of its prototype Dream Chaser crew taxi that ended with a crash.

The full-scale engineering test article was dropped by a helicopter from an altitude of about 4 kilometers at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The shuttle-like craft made a smooth, automated approach to the runway, touched down dead-center, but crashed after its left landing gear failed to deploy.

Sierra Nevada maintained that the crash had not stopped the company from gathering the data the test flight was designed to generate, and NASA evidently agreed.

"After extensive post-flight analysis by NASA, [Sierra Nevada] received the full award value for the milestone," the company said in a Dec. 16 press release. The milestone, the last under the company's $102 million, second-round Commercial Crew Development contract, was worth about $8 million. 

"After the post flight evaluation, the vehicle was deemed to be fully repairable and a schedule to return it to flight has been created," Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems, wrote in a Dec. 17 email. The company expects to test the vehicle "upgraded with additional capability in 2014," he said.

Meanwhile, Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., wrapped up development testing on a pair of launch-abort engines for the CST-100 space capsule Boeing is developing under the Commercial Crew Program.

The latest tests took place near Mojave, Calif., during the second half of October. A pair of engines, each capable of generating about 39,000 pounds of thrust, were fired for a combined 29.7 seconds, Boeing spokeswoman Kelly George wrote in a Dec. 16 email. The successful development tests clear the way for qualification tests, in which each engine will be fired for 11 seconds — double the design requirement, George said.

 The engines are for CST-100's pusher-style abort system. In the event of a launch mishap, four such engines would propel CST-100 and its crew to safety. In a normal launch, the system will be carried to orbit, where its fuel could be used to pad margins for the rest of the mission, Boeing said in a Dec. 16 press release. 

Pusher abort systems are different from tractor-style abort systems — such as the one used on the Saturn 5 rocket for Apollo missions and the one planned for NASA's Space Launch System — which are discarded shortly after liftoff during a nominal launch.

SpaceX is working on a similar pusher abort system for its Dragon space capsule. The Hawthorne, Calif., company now expects to test its launch abort system sometime before June. 

 

Editorial | Kill This Bill

 

Space News

Legislation proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives that would effectively shield selected big-ticket NASA programs from termination without prior congressional approval is bad policy that should be rejected by the Senate, if it gets that far.

The bill, which also would allow contractors on these programs to tap into funds set aside to cover termination liabilities, comes with a positive-sounding bipartisan label, but that only reaffirms the old adage that all politics is local: The legislation's main sponsor, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), and nearly all of its 16 co-sponsors represent states with major economic interests in the programs it is designed to shield.

These programs are in fact the most expensive in NASA's portfolio: the international space station; the James Webb Space Telescope; the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle; and the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. The bill, H.R. 3625, was approved by the House Science Committee in December and now awaits a vote by the full House.

Mr. Brooks, whose district includes NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, the lead SLS integrator, says funds allocated each year for programs ought to be put to work on development rather than held in reserve to cover the theoretical cost of shutting down a canceled program. It is entirely possible, perhaps even likely, that Mr. Brooks and others were motivated in part by concerns that NASA headquarters might be using termination reserve requirements to hobble progress on programs that the White House — from which it takes its cues — does not fully support. 

Whether the Obama administration's barely concealed disdain for the congressionally mandated SLS factored into the calculation of that program's termination reserves is unclear — NASA maintains that termination reserve levels are generally set and managed by the contractor under a risk-based formula in accordance with federal acquisition rules. According to NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, however, allowing contractors to tap an otherwise idle funding pool makes sense, even if it undermines the logic for setting aside reserves in the first place.

The legislation's unambiguously onerous provision is the one that bars NASA from canceling any of the specified programs without prior legislative approval. This would remove a powerful incentive for the relevant NASA center and its contractors to control costs on large development programs, something that often requires painful sacrifices in system capability. Such programs have of course long enjoyed a fair degree of political protection — SLS, for one, unquestionably owes its existence to Congress — but NASA has always wielded, at least in theory, the power to ax serial budget busters.

It's true that SLS and Orion, by virtue of being mandated by law, are already inoculated against cancellation at the White House's discretion. The space station, meanwhile, is a fully developed system that will continue to operate at least until 2020. Even the James Webb Telescope, which has incurred enormous cost growth and delays, has proved politically resilient, at least up to now. 

But that doesn't mean these programs, or any others, for that matter, merit yet another layer of congressional protection. If anything, the White House probably should have more rather than less say when it comes to the disposition of multibillion-dollar NASA projects, which should be driven by policy — not the other way around.

The other big problem with the legislation is the precedent that it sets in creating a new class of untouchable programs. This has already been demonstrated: As originally drafted, the legislation covered Orion, SLS and the space station; the James Webb Space Telescope was added via an amendment that was originally proposed by Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), whose district effectively surrounds Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA's lead center on the project. That being the case, what's to prevent other pet projects from being added to the congressionally protected list, to the point that just about everything that lands on NASA's plate, fatally flawed or not, becomes politically sacred?

To a certain extent, the Obama administration invited congressional policy intervention when it unilaterally dismantled the Moon-bound Constellation program — even though it had sound fiscal reasons for doing so — without offering a credible alternative for reinvigorating and advancing NASA's human spaceflight program. Nonetheless, the result has been a policy stalemate whose only assured outcome is the expenditure of untold billions of taxpayer dollars at a time when politicians are touting deficit reduction as a top priority. 

The passage of H.R. 3625 would, if anything, exacerbate this situation. It should be killed before it comes anywhere near the president's desk. 

 

Astronaut snaps cool photo of Salt Lake City

 

Michael McFall – The Salt Lake Tribune

 

We've seen all manner of wondrous sights looking to the stars (just check out WIRED's Space Photo of the Day for proof), but it's pretty cool when our space-faring scientists turn the cameras back toward Earth — and hey, there's us!

A member of the Expedition 38 crew at the International Space Station shot this night photo of Salt Lake Valley. You can see a large version of it here. For all you camera enthusiasts out there, the astronaut used a Nikon D3S, with a 600 millimeter lens.

Though the unnamed astronaut took the photo Dec. 12, NASA just posted the image Monday to its Earth Observatory website.

"Both the color of the city lights and their density provide clues to the character of the urban fabric," NASA wrote in its post. "Yellow-gold lights generally indicate major roadways, such as Interstate Highway 15, which passes through the center of the metropolitan area. Bright white clusters are associated with city centers, and commercial and industrial areas. Residential and suburban areas are recognizable as diffuse and relatively dim lighting."

Several large parks and golf courses account for some of the dark spots in the sea of lights.

NASA also has at least a few more satellite images of Salt Lake City through the years, including one of the valley blanketed in snow and another of the tornado that passed through in 1999.

 

New planets not like those in our solar system

 

Traci Watson – USA Today

 

To us, the solar system seems normal. But new studies of the planets sprinkled around other stars suggest that our corner of the galaxy is actually a pretty weird place.

 

Scientists have discovered that a large proportion of the recently discovered planets outside our own solar system are nothing like the familiar planets orbiting our sun. Instead, many are "mini-Neptunes": roughly the size of Earth but, unlike Earth, composed of a thick layer of gases around a solid core, which is more like the composition of the planet Neptune. That implies that the recipe for making planets in other solar systems is far different than the process that led to Earth's formation.

 

The mini-Neptunes "dominate the inventory" of the 3,000-plus planets found by NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler, said University of California-Berkeley astronomer Geoff Marcy on Monday at an American Astronomical Society meeting just outside Washington, D.C. "These are planets we never expected based on our own solar system."

 

Marcy and his team examined dozens of "exoplanets" – planets that circle a star other than the sun – spotted by Kepler before it went bust last year. With the keen-eyed Keck telescope in Hawaii, Marcy's team looked for tiny perturbations that planets create in their stars. The bigger the perturbation, the more massive the planet.

 

The researchers found that exoplanets fall into two groups. Planets that are roughly twice the size of Earth or smaller have a rocky core plus some water, like Earth. But planets two to four times the size of Earth have a rocky core but are also built of lots of gas, like Neptune.

 

The findings of Marcy's team were validated by scientists who turned to a different method of sizing up planets. Northwestern University's Yoram Lithwick said Monday that his team measured the heft of a selection of exoplanets by examining how two planets orbiting the same star change each other's journey around their star. The bigger the change, the more massive the planet.

 

Lithwick and his colleagues examined some 60 exoplanets smaller than Neptune but bigger than Earth and found that roughly one in three are small, fluffy bodies containing high amounts of gas. That composition means that unlike Earth, which formed relatively late in the solar system's history, these fluffball planets formed "much earlier. So these planets must be dramatically different from the Earth, contrary to what we expected," Lithwick says.

 

Yet another lightweight planet called KOI-314c is almost exactly the mass of Earth but much larger across, meaning it, too, must have a thick atmosphere of gas, David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said at the meeting Monday.

 

Despite its Earth-like measurements, "it's nothing like Earth," Kipping said. Until now, he would've assumed an exoplanet with Earth's mass would also have the same basic ingredient as Earth, namely rock. "You can't just draw a line in the sand … and say, everything below this point is rocky, everything above that point is gaseous."

 

So why don't we have a mini-Neptune in our own solar system?

 

Some 20% to 30% of stars have "these crazy planets," Lithwick said. "You could say that all these planets Kepler has found are strange. But another way of looking at it is it's really the solar system that may be strange."

 

Following Lunar Landing, China Outlines Next Steps

 

Space News

China completed its first robotic Moon landing Dec. 14 and two days later offered a glimpse of its plans for a follow-on mission launching in 2017, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

In a Dec. 16 report, Xinhua quoted Wu Zhijian, a spokesman for the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, as saying work on the follow-on mission, dubbed Chang'e 5, is proceeding smoothly. The report did not provide much in the way of specifics about Chang'e 5, but did say a lunar sample-return mission is part of China's near-term plan. 

The Chang'e 3 mission, consisting of a lander and a 140-kilogram rover dubbed Yutu, or Jade Rabbit, which separated from the lander Dec. 15, represents the conclusion of the second phase of China's lunar exploration program, Xinhua said. "The lunar program will enter the next stage of unmanned sampling and returning, which will include Chang'e 5 and 6 missions, according to Wu," the story said.

Meanwhile, the Chang'e 3 lander and rover were placed into hibernation mode Dec. 25 and 26, respectively, in preparation for the lunar night, which lasts for 14 Earth days, Xinhua reported Dec. 26. During the lunar night, the temperature at the surface drops to minus 180 degrees Celsius and there is no sunlight to power the solar panels aboard the craft. 

Yutu, which is equipped with a radioisotope heat source, is expected to resume plying the lunar surface once daylight returns, taking photographs and gathering and analyzing soil samples, Xinhua said. The rover is designed to operate for three months, while the lander is expected to last for about a year, according to Xinhua reports.

 

Scientists Move Levitating Objects Through Space for the First Time

 

Dan Vergano – National Geographic

 

Levitation isn't just for mystics anymore.

A Japanese technology team has demonstrated ultrasonic levitation of objects that for the first time works in three dimensions. This means that as opposed to merely lifting objects with sound waves, scientists can now move them through space in every direction.

First demonstrated in the 1940s, acoustic levitation has suffered its up and downs over the years, enjoying a resurgence in the past decade brought about by more powerful electronics. Researchers have dramatized the advances by levitating such things as bees, ants, and fish.

Now, in a study submitted to the Cornell University Library's physics archive, a team led by Yoichi Ochiai of the University of Tokyo reports that they have achieved a new level of control in acoustic levitation, moving plastic beads in three dimensions with an array of 285 sound-emitting transducers as the controllers.

Video of the feat has become popular on the Internet.

"It is a real advance, and it opens new possibilities for levitation," says acoustic levitation expert Rick Weber of Materials Development Inc. in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

The demonstration of three-dimensional control of acoustic levitation follows a demonstration last year by Swiss researchers of two-dimensional control, he notes, and points to rapid advances in the field.

Lattice of Sound

Beads, electronics parts, matches, screws, nuts, and alcohol droplets are just some of the things levitated by the University of Tokyo team.

In their experiment, the scientists moved beads in sweeping right-left, up-down, and backward-forward motions within their 20.5-inch-wide (520-millimeter-wide) levitation chamber.

The ultrasonic sound waves emitted by the speakers powered by the team's transducers are pitched above the range of human hearing.

By altering the strength of the sound waves emitted by the arrayed speakers in synchronized fashion, the Japanese team was able to move the beads and other objects freely, simply by the power of sound.

The array of sound-emitting transducers created a cross-shaped lattice of points in the air where sound waves combined and reinforced one another to create the lifting pressure that levitated the objects.

That means the device created a series of points in the air where beads or other objects would seem to just hang in place without any support.

Levitation Salad

The use of more transducers and a relatively simple control system run by a modern computer is what enabled the advance to three-dimensional movement, Weber says.

The lattice of sound waves is standard in acoustic levitation, he notes, pointing to chef Kris Bonner levitating a Caprese salad's ingredients in one dimension (up and down) at an Argonne National Laboratory demonstration last year (video below).

"With three-dimensional controls, you could combine more materials in more steps than you could previously without ever using a container," Weber says.

Ultrapure Drugs in Space

He says that testing of ultrapure pharmaceutical compounds represents the most likely application of the technology. Liquids could be analyzed while suspended in air by acoustic levitation, eliminating containers that might trigger crystallization or introduce impurities that might interfere with drug testing.

The Japanese researchers may have a different locale in mind for their technology: industrial spacecraft in orbit.

"It has not escaped our notice that our developed method for levitation under gravity suggests the possibility of developing a technology for handling objects under microgravity," they conclude at the end of their study.

The team hopes to see their technology work aboard the space station or on another spacecraft, possibly to create pharmaceuticals or ultrapure crystals via remote control, without astronauts having to be present.

 

New Views of Famed Supernova Reveal Cosmic Dust Factory

 

Miriam Kramer – Space.com

WASHINGTON — New views from a giant radio telescope in Chile are revealing massive amounts of dust created by an exploding star for the first time.

Scientists used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile to make the discovery while observing supernova 1987A, an exploded star in the Large Magellanic Cloud — a dwarf galaxy companion of the Milky Way located about 168,000 light-years from Earth.

Astronomers have long thought that supernovas are responsible for creating some of the large amounts of dust found in galaxies around the universe, yet they haven't directly observed the process until now, ALMA officials said. [See more amazing images from the ALMA telescope]

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