Fwd: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Jan. 16, 2014 and JSC Today

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: January 16, 2014 9:00:04 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Jan. 16, 2014 and JSC Today

Seems like some of you from time to time will get dropped off my distribution by some bill gates slight of hand.  If you stop getting my mail for any length of time….please drop me a note to let me know so I can add you back on.   Thanks   

Happy flex Friday eve.   And Monday is a Federal Holiday so have a great weekend   if PAO is still publishing tomorrow    I will get the news out to you all.

 

 

Thursday, January 16, 2014

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JSC TODAY CATEGORIES Headlines -  Joint Leadership Team Web Poll -  Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays -  Morpheus Free Flight Today at KSC -  Do You Sleep Shift? Help NASA's Latest Study -  JSC Building 8 Power Outage: Jan. 18-19 -  Building 45 Power Outage: Jan. 20, 4 to 8 p.m. -  Badging Offices Closed -  Security Training Exercise to Be Conducted -  POWER of One - Nominate Your Peer Today Organizations/Social -  Today: JSC Systems Engineering Forum -  Kinect Co-lab Telecon With InfoStrat Advanced Tech -  Starport Spinning Workshop -- MS 150 Training -  JSC Employee Assistance Program Jobs and Training -  From Tactical to Strategic Thinking Course Community -  Make a Resolution to Volunteer! -  Saving Lives in the Developing World -  NASA-Johnson Space Center: 'Through Our Eyes'

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Headlines Joint Leadership Team Web Poll Based on last week's poll, it looks like most of us wish we were still on vacation, preferably skiing in Colorado. Cheer up, it's 70 here and -100 there. This week I'm interested in whether you feel informed enough about what's going on at JSC. Are there gaps of information on activities you are interested in? Human Resources? Facilities? Missions? It's also time to pick your eventual Super Bowl winner. Pretty sure the Texans aren't going to win it, but can you predict who will? Broncos? Seahawks? Patriots? Peyton your Brady on over to get this week's poll. Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/ [top] Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays If you missed the All Hands on Jan. 15 featuring JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot and NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Lesa Roe, you still have opportunities to watch replays on Tuesday, Jan. 21, and Thursday, Jan. 23, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. those days.  JSC team members can view the replays on JSC cable TV channel 2 (analog) or Omni 3 (45). JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 [top] Morpheus Free Flight Today at KSC Today, the Morpheus team plans another free flight test of its "Bravo" prototype lander at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The test will be streamed live on JSC's UStream Channel. View the live stream, along with progress updates sent via Twitter on the project's website. Or, if you are on-site, watch live on JSC HDTV (channel 51-2) or IPTV (channel 4512). During this test, the autonomous untethered Morpheus prototype lander will launch from the ground over the flame trench, ascend approximately 57 meters, hover, then translate approximately 47 meters while descending to land on last year's launch pad. The test firing is planned for approximately noon CST. Streaming will begin approximately 20 minutes prior. *Note: Testing operations are very dynamic, and the actual firing time may vary. Follow Morpheus Lander on Twitter for the latest information at @MorpheusLander. (Send "follow morpheuslander" to 40404 for text.) Wendy Watkins http://morpheuslander.jsc.nasa.gov [top] Do You Sleep Shift? Help NASA's Latest Study Does your job or hobby require significant overseas travel or shift work? Here's an opportunity for you to learn more about sleep medications and how they could affect your performance, while informing NASA about the potential impacts of sleep medications on astronaut performance if there is a spacecraft issue that requires emergent awakening. You can participate in this NASA-sponsored research study, concluding in the next six months, if you are a current or former flight controller, flight surgeon, flight director, cap com, astronaut or astronaut candidate, medical resident and medical student on NASA rotation or a NASA/contractor-employed University of Texas Medical Branch physicians. We have slots available for January but now is the time to sign up for February through April. Pam Baskin/Holly Patterson 281-212-1360/281-461-2691 [top] JSC Building 8 Power Outage: Jan. 18-19 JSC Building 8 will be powered down from 6 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, through noon, Sunday, Jan. 19, for the Center Operations Directorate to complete required electrical work. During this outage, no imagery or TV services or products will be available from Building 8. This includes powering down the: JSC cable TV, Omni and IPTV systems Internet distribution of International Space Station (ISS) Live video and the JSC Ustream External interfaces to Space Center Houston, media trailers and the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory ISS mission support system interfaces For imagery support questions concerning this outage, please contact Patrick Chimes at 281-483-2397. JSC-IRD-Outreach x32397 [top] Building 45 Power Outage: Jan. 20, 4 to 8 p.m. Building 45 will incur a power outage to perform work on the Building 45 Clinic facility project on Monday, Jan. 20, between 4 and 8 p.m. During this time, there will be no network connectivity within the Building 45 facility, including all wireless bridge connections servicing local metropolitan contractors. Any users within the facility and metropolitan contractors who connect back to JSC via wireless bridges will experience a network outage during the period. This outage is expected to last four hours, with service expected to be restored by 8 p.m. For questions regarding this activity, please contact Scott Robinson. JSC-IRD-Outreach x36670 [top] Badging Offices Closed All badging offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 20, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Normal working operations will resume Tuesday, Jan. 21, as listed below. Building 110: 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Ellington Field: 7 to 11 a.m. Sonny Carter Training Facility: 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tifanny Sowell x37447 [top] Security Training Exercise to Be Conducted Security will be conducting training in Buildings 225/226 on Friday, Jan. 17, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Russ Tucker x38311 [top] POWER of One - Nominate Your Peer Today The POWER of One Award has been a great success, but we still need your nominations. We're looking for standout achievements with specific examples of exceptional and superior performance. Make sure to check out our award criteria to help guide you in writing the short write-up needed for submittal. If chosen, the recipient can choose from a list of JSC experiences and have their name and recognition shared in JSC Today. Click here for complete information on the JSC Awards Program. Samantha Nehls 281-792-7804 https://powerofone.jsc.nasa.gov/index.cfm [top]    Organizations/Social Today: JSC Systems Engineering Forum Title: Revolutionizing Prosthetics: From the Impractical to Impacting Lives The next JSC Systems Engineering (SE) Forum will host a presentation from Justin Thomas - formerly of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory - on the SE challenges of Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) in DARPA's Revolutionizing Prosthetics Program. Join us today, Jan. 16, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Building 1, Room 966. Synopsis: Deemed a "breakthrough" by "60 Minutes," a neutrally integrated ("brain-controlled") prosthesis provides amputee soldiers with pre-injury levels of function. The MPL has been successfully controlled by tetraplegic and upper-extremity amputee volunteers. This presentation will discuss the SE principles and practices that allowed more than 30 collaborating institutions from industry and academia to achieve natural human limb performance by combining the state of the art in neuroscience, robotics, sensors, power systems, actuation and complex embedded software. For more information, please contact Tim Fisher at x31456. Event Date: Thursday, January 16, 2014   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:45 PM Event Location: JSC Building 1; Room 966 Add to Calendar Rob Bayt x40055 [top] Kinect Co-lab Telecon With InfoStrat Advanced Tech Please join us next Thursday, Jan. 23, at 11:30 a.m. in Building 30A, Room 2090, for an exciting teleconference with Joshua Blake and Josh Wall of InfoStrat Advanced Technology Group. They will be presenting on their work with Kinect for Windows. Topics to include: Kinect Fusion, Multi-Kinect scenarios and Kinect 3-D video. There will be time for Q&A. More information is on our Kinect Co-lab discussion board. Come early, as seating is limited. Shelby Thompson x48701 https://collaboration.ndc.nasa.gov/CoLab/kinect/SitePages/Home.aspx [top] Starport Spinning Workshop -- MS 150 Training Starport is thrilled to offer a special eight-week training workshop based on the "periodization" approach to training that will prepare you for the MS 150 or a multi-day or long-distance event such as a triathlon or marathon. Each spinning class and training ride will be taught by our phenomenal certified instructors. Register at the Gilruth information desk. Thursday Rides/Workshops (5:30 to 6:30 p.m.): Feb. 6 to April 3 Sunday Distance Rides (Time: TBA): March 2 (1.25 hours) March 23 (1.5 hours) March 30 (2 hours) April 6 (2.5 hours) Price per person Early registration - $90 (Jan. 13 to 24) Regular registration - $110 (Jan. 25 to Feb. 6) Sunday rides - $25 (all) Sunday rides - $10 (each) Take your skills to the next level and sign up today! Shericka Phillips x35563 https://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/en/programs/recreation-programs/specialty-... [top] JSC Employee Assistance Program The JSC Employee Assistance Program will be closed on Thursday, Jan. 16, due to construction work. We will re-open on Tuesday, Jan. 21. For urgent matters please call 281-483-6130, and someone will be happy to help you. Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Occupational Health Branch x36130 [top]    Jobs and Training From Tactical to Strategic Thinking Course This highly experiential and interactive course puts leaders in the driver's seat from the onset by opening with a detailed case study of a leader who has an opportunity to move from a tactical to a strategic perspective. This course encourages participants to use a strategic framework and their own workplace experiences to identify strategic interests of their organization. Participants will apply their learning to a number of real-life situations before planning ways to move from a tactical to a strategic perspective in their own roles as leaders. At the end of the course, participants will be able to: Differentiate between tactical approaches and strategic approaches Apply strategic thinking in a workplace Compare strategic options to make effective decisions Forecast the strategic thinking ripple effects of decisions The course will be held from March 4 to 6 in Building 12, Room 134, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Christine Eagleton 281-792-7838 [top]    Community Make a Resolution to Volunteer! A new year, and new opportunities to share your excitement about NASA with the public. V-CORPs has many, many opportunities for you to do just that! Here are just a few: The University of Houston main campus is hosting their 12th Annual Mars Rover Celebration on Jan. 25 for students grades 3 through 8. They need 700 judges (WOW!) to make this event a success. Can you help? There are two shifts available: 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. and noon to 3:30 p.m. Volunteer directly from the V-CORPs calendar or by emailing the V-CORPs admin. There are lots of career days, science fairs, mentoring and other opportunities in January, February, March .. and beyond. Be sure to "page" through the calendar to see other opportunities to reach out into the community. Just go to the V-CORPs website and click on the "current volunteer opportunities" tile to see a list of upcoming events. You can sign up right from that list if you're signed in. Not yet a V-CORPs volunteer? It's easy to sign up -- just click on the COUNT ME IN button on the V-CORPs website. Unable to access the website? Just email V-CORPs at V-CORPs admin for a list of current opportunities! V-CORPs Admin 281-792-5859 [top] Saving Lives in the Developing World The JSC chapter of Engineers Without Borders invites you to come see Doug Schuler, Ph.D., discuss his work on the sterilization of medical instruments in the developing world on Wednesday, Jan. 22, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 7, Room 141. Schuler traveled in May 2013 to Sierra Leone to work on a sterilization project for a district hospital that does not have electricity. At this hospital, a reported 100 percent of patients having surgery experienced some form of post-operation infection likely due to poor sterilization. Schuler is working with Rice University Engineering students to design and build a self-contained sterile processing system. Come hear about this interesting work being done right here in the Houston area. No RSVP is required. Angela Cason x40903 [top] NASA-Johnson Space Center: 'Through Our Eyes' Since the dawn of the Space Age, NASA has produced some of the most iconic photographs in history. NASA's astronauts have a unique perspective to capture photographs of unparalleled value. Each NASA center staffs professional photographers who create unique perspectives that contribute to record NASA's history. JSC's team of photographers rely on talented eyes behind the lens, as well as on a creative team that processes each image the public sees online and in print. A sampling of photographs captured by NASA JSC photographers and astronauts will be featured at Space Center Houston from Jan. 17 through Feb. 9. Many photographs will feature a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how the image was captured--a mini lesson in capturing the perfect shot. Please visit Space Center Houston to view NASA-Johnson Space Center: "Through Our Eyes" Vicki Cantrell x34047 [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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NASA TV: www.nasa.gov/ntv

11 a.m. Central - ISS Expedition 38 In-Flight Event with the Houston Chronicle and Sirius XM Radio

 

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Have you ever wondered how astronauts sleep on the ISS? JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata gives a tour of the ISS crew quarters in this video featured on ReelNASA. It was also in Wired which has an audience of 3.5 million people.

 

NASA and Human Spaceflight News

Thursday – Jan. 16, 2014

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA Panel Issues Warning on 'Space Taxis'

Advisory Committee Says Funding Shortfalls Threaten Safety of Planned Commercial Craft

 

Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal

 

A combination of federal funding shortfalls and reliance on fixed-price contracts threatens to "adversely impact safety" of planned commercial "space taxis" intended to begin transporting U.S. astronauts to the international space station in several years, according to a governmental advisory committee.

 

NASA gets some funding for Mars 2020 rover in federal spending bill

 

Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

 

Congressional negotiators released a $1.1-trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2014 fiscal year that's more generous to NASA's scientific endeavors than the White House's proposal, but it may be too soon to celebrate, officials said this week.

 

Reactions to NASA's fiscal year 2014 appropriation

 

Jeff Foust – Space Politics

 

A number of observers were surprised that NASA did as well as it did in the omnibus fiscal year 2014 spending bill, with its overall appropriation of $17.65 billion falling just about $70 million short of the administration's original request. Although some programs did better than others (space technology, for example, saw its request cut by nearly a quarter in the final fill), the reaction in general to the bill has been positive by the administration, members of Congress, and others.

 

Government should butt out of space race: Column

 

Rand Simberg – USA Today

 

A decade ago Tuesday, January 14th, 2004, President George W. Bush announced a seemingly bold new direction for NASA and human spaceflight. The "Vision for Space Exploration (VSE)," was a needed policy response to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia almost a year earlier. The plan was to retire the Shuttle, return to the moon, and then go on to Mars.

 

The big problem with the "big win" for NASA's exploration program budget

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

The massive budget deal finalized by Congress late on Monday includes the particulars for NASA's budget. There are winners (Europa robotic mission, which got $80 million for development) and losers (commercial crew, which got $696 million, a number that imperils a goal of having a private U.S. capability to launch humans into orbit by 2017).

 

Gaia arrives at its destination – Lagrange points hold future possibilities

 

Chris Bergin – NASA Spaceflight

 

Europe's galactic survey spacecraft, Gaia, recently arrived at its deep space location, ahead of conducting its primary mission of observing one billion stars. Gaia is now in a location known as Lagrange point 2 (L2), one of a number of destinations of interest for a number of future spacecraft, from JWST through to the potential "Gateway" station.

 

The Future of International Space and its Station

 

Merryl Azriel – Space Safety Magazine

 

Washington D.C. played host to space agency representatives from 32 nations on January 9-10, who attended summits on international collaboration in the space sector. As a welcome present, the US White House announced its intention to support an extension of the International Space Station operations through 2024. The announcement was greeted enthusiastically, even by US-rival China: "We're very happy to hear about extension," Xu Dazhe, administrator of the China National Space Administration, told Irene Klotz. "It means that by the time our space station is being built, we would have a companion up there," Xu said, speaking through a translator. In fact, head of CNES, the French space agency, Jean-Yves Le Gall was so encouraged by developments at the summits as to speak hopefully of a further expansion of the ISS partnership. "The big question for the next three years is whether China will join the International Space Station," he told Aerospace & Defense News. (NASA Administrator Charles Bolden appeared to downplay that option primarily due to the difficulty of negotiating the partnership treaties. "It was painful, and no one wants to do that again," he said).

 

Astronaut gut reaction: The microbiome in space

 

Aviva Hope Rutkin – New Scientist

 

GOING to space changes a person. But humans aren't the only space travelers we need to consider: microbes can change after just a few days without gravity. Now scientists worry that the bugs astronauts bring with them in their guts may turn traitor in space.

 

China considers Manned Moon Landing following breakthrough Chang'e-3 mission success

 

Ken Kremer – Universe Today

 

Is China's Chang'e-3 unmanned lunar lander the opening salvo in an ambitious plan by China to land people on the Moon a decade or so hence? Will China land humans on the Moon before America? It would seem so based on a new report in the People's Daily- the official paper of the Communist Party of China – as well as the express science goals following on the heels of the enormous breakthrough for Chinese technology demonstrated by the history making Chang'e-3 Mission.

 

1967 Corvette convertible formerly owned by Astronaut Gus Grissom to be auctioned

Kissimmee 2014 - January 17-26, 2014

 

Astronauts are by their very nature a breed apart, none more so than the seven pioneering men of the Mercury space program launched by NASA in 1959. Among the most famous of them was Lt. Colonel Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who on July 21, 1961, became the second American – after Alan Shepard – to travel to outer space, and in March 1965 the first NASA astronaut to repeat that monumental feat. Grissom perished with his Apollo 1 colleagues Roger Chaffee and Edward White in a launch pad fire on January 27th, 1967, their heroic efforts paving the way to the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, fulfilling the goal set forth by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Like his fellow astronauts Grissom was also adventurous on Terra Firma, and in 1967 he took delivery of this L71 427/435 HP Tri-Power convertible from Jim Rathmann Chevrolet in Melbourne, Florida.

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA Panel Issues Warning on 'Space Taxis'

Advisory Committee Says Funding Shortfalls Threaten Safety of Planned Commercial Craft

                    

Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal

 

A combination of federal funding shortfalls and reliance on fixed-price contracts threatens to "adversely impact safety" of planned commercial "space taxis" intended to begin transporting U.S. astronauts to the international space station in several years, according to a governmental advisory committee.

 

Since the U.S. space shuttle fleet was retired, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has relied on Russia to ferry U.S. astronauts to the orbiting international laboratory. Instead of developing its own manned program to succeed the shuttles, NASA has committed about $1.2 billion in seed money to promote private companies to lead development of systems to get astronauts to the station.

 

A report released Wednesday by an outside safety panel warns NASA that the continuing "shortfall" between the agency's spending wish-list and congressional appropriations is "seriously impacting acquisition strategy" for such privately operated rockets and manned capsules.

 

The committee also emphasized that "NASA is being perceived as sending a message that cost outranks safety" in choosing winning proposals to develop such transportation systems. In a cover letter, retired Navy Admiral Joseph Dyer, chairman of NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said the agency "staunchly rejects this concern." NASA has said it plans to choose one or more proposal perhaps as early as this summer.

 

The report comes two days after congressional negotiators agreed to a $17.6 billion NASA budget for 2014, including nearly $700 million to support work on private-sector led crew-transportation projects. The White House initially sought more than $820 million for the effort, and NASA officials have said appropriations below that level are bound to delay the start of operations by space taxis.

 

Boeing Co., Chicago, and closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Hawthorne, Calif., have submitted the most prominent proposals to NASA.

 

In his letter, Mr. Dyer called on NASA's leaders to be more direct and transparent "with regard to risk acceptance" and urged "that risk and reward must be pursued in harmony and balance."

 

The report, among other highlights, acknowledges that "accepting more risk may be necessary and appropriate" in pursuing manned exploration. But then it asks whether NASA, industry officials or lawmakers should be responsible for "telling the country that the human risk is increasing in order to move forward."

 

The report faults NASA for what it calls a "lack of clear missions and goals" to explore deeper into space. The panel said NASA hasn't clearly defined how and when astronauts are intended to go beyond low-earth orbit and eventually reach Mars. Without clear goals, NASA risks under- or overinvesting in technologies that may turn out to be unnecessary while potentially failing to develop critical mitigations for significant risks.

 

At a time when NASA is touting the success of outsourcing to industry the delivery of cargo to the space station, the panel sounded a cautionary note about reducing federal oversight of contractors.

 

"Development efforts of human space flight" beyond preliminary design "are far from routine," the report concludes, and remain a high-stakes undertaking.

 

Analyzing commercial-crew efforts, the document indicates that funding lapses, combined with pressures to maintain a 2017 delivery date, "are increasing pressure on safety risk" and may lead to "a premature down-select to one design." At the same time, the report describes what it calls a reduction in "the number and frequency of NASA personnel on-site at the contractors' facilities."

 

NASA gets some funding for Mars 2020 rover in federal spending bill

 

Amina Khan – Los Angeles Times

 

Congressional negotiators released a $1.1-trillion omnibus spending bill for the 2014 fiscal year that's more generous to NASA's scientific endeavors than the White House's proposal, but it may be too soon to celebrate, officials said this week.

 

The massive federal spending bill would give NASA's planetary science division $1.345 billion -- $127 million more than the White House budget request, reflecting a commitment in Congress to space exploration, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) said.

 

"Each year we seem to be going through this drill where the administration savagely cuts planetary science and we have to restore the funding," said Schiff, whose district includes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada-Flintridge; the lab operates the Mars rovers. "And it's my hope that we can put an end to that."

 

The omnibus spending bill would provide $65 million for the Mars 2020 rover mission, which could potentially collect samples for future missions to bring to Earth; and $80 million for research into a future mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, whose watery interior could be friendly to alien microbial life.

 

"This is pretty good news," Planetary Society Chief Executive Bill Nye said in a statement, adding that "$1.345 billion for planetary science is good. Nevertheless, Congress and tens of thousands of Planetary Society members will continue to make the case for $1.5 billion," he said, referring to the division's historical average funding level.

 

But Schiff raised concerns that relatively good news could be only temporary.

 

"I'm concerned when I hear rumors percolating that they'll once again try to cut planetary science, they want to decommission ongoing missions or they want to turn off some of the rovers or other spacecraft," Schiff said. "Once we've sunk in the costs into getting these spacecraft to the orbits they're in, or to the surface of other planets, they become the most cost-effective tools in science. And it would be horribly counterproductive to think of curtailing these programs."

 

NASA has been reeling from two years of funding cuts and has scaled back its planetary science efforts in response. Such continued loss of funding can equal a loss of jobs -- and this could mean a major drain of talent and experience down the road, Schiff said.

 

"There aren't many people who can enter the Martian atmosphere or who know how to land a spacecraft on the surface. But the people at JPL can, and have done so repeatedly," Schiff said. "Once you lose that talent, reconstituting it later is extremely difficult. … If we lose those people that know how to land on Mars, it'll be decades before we're able to go back."

 

Reactions to NASA's fiscal year 2014 appropriation

 

Jeff Foust – Space Politics

 

A number of observers were surprised that NASA did as well as it did in the omnibus fiscal year 2014 spending bill, with its overall appropriation of $17.65 billion falling just about $70 million short of the administration's original request. Although some programs did better than others (space technology, for example, saw its request cut by nearly a quarter in the final fill), the reaction in general to the bill has been positive by the administration, members of Congress, and others.

 

"Your hard work – and the plan you've been working hard to execute – has clearly been acknowledged and recognized under the funding bill unveiled yesterday by Congress," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a message to agency employees Tuesday. The bill, he said, supported the broad portfolio of NASA activities, from the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion to efforts to "formulate" the agency's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission (although there was some critical language about the ARM in the report accompanying the bill.) "The message from our nation's leaders today is simple and straightforward: keep doing what you're doing to keep the United States the world leader in space."

 

Richard DalBello of the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy also offered some positive words about NASA's appropriations in comments at the beginning of panel discussion about space technology policy at the AIAA SciTech 2014 conference outside Washington, DC, Tuesday morning. "We got a NASA budget last night. It looks pretty darn good," he said, adding that he had not yet had a chance to make a detailed review of the bill's contents. "A lot of important things seem to have been protected, and that's positive, because that means we're on the same page with Congress."

 

Some members of Congress appeared to be on the same page in their assessment of the NASA budget. "This is a big win," Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) said in a statement about the NASA budget Tuesday. His statement specifically noted the nearly $700 million for commercial crew and sufficient funding for the SLS to keep it (or "the monster rocket," as the statement calls it, a term that Nelson has frequently used for the SLS but which also has been used pejoratively by its critics) "on track."

 

Another supporter of the bill's funding for SLS is Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "I am pleased that this legislation includes the funding necessary to continue the great work underway in Huntsville on the Space Launch System," he said in a statement provided to the Huntsville Times. "If we are to maintain our leadership role in human space flight, we must continue to make SLS a priority in NASA's budget. I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that."

 

The uptick in spending for NASA's planetary science program also generated praise from another member of Congress. "I am pleased that the spending bill contains strong funding for the continued development of the Mars 2020 rover and for a mission to Jupiter and its moon Europa," said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in a statement. "I hope that this will dissuade the Administration from putting forward a 2015 budget that again seeks to cut funding for NASA's pathbreaking exploration of our solar system." However, he adds in the statement that he's heard "disquieting rumors" that the fiscal year 2015 budget proposal will include such cuts, including "possible delays to the next two Mars missions and shutting down some current missions." That last comment appears to be a reference to the agency's upcoming "Senior Review" of ongoing planetary science missions, and concerns that there won't be enough money to keep all of those missions, especially Cassini, operating after 2014.

 

The Planetary Society also endorsed the funding for planetary science in the bill, although lamenting that the $1.345 billion provided still falls below the $1.5 billion the program enjoyed back in 2012. It particularly supported the $80 million specifically earmarked in the bill for studies of a potential Europa mission, funding not requested by the administration. "Exploring Europa is no longer a 'should' but a 'must,'" the society's Casey Dreier said in the statement. "The White House should embrace this bold search for life and request a new start for this mission in FY2015."

 

In a separate blog post, The Planetary Society also called attention to language in the report accompanying the bill about NASA's "reprogramming and transfer authorities" that the agency uses to redirect funding among programs. Those authorities, the report states, "exist so that NASA can respond to unexpected, exigent circumstances that may arise during the fiscal year, not so that NASA can pursue its internal priorities at the expense of congressional direction. If NASA persists in abusing its reprogramming and transfer authorities, those authorities will be eliminated in future appropriations acts." The Planetary Society saw that as a rebuke to NASA's efforts in 2013 to redirect, through its operating plan, additional funds allocated by Congress for planetary science to other programs, an effort Congress rejected.

 

Government should butt out of space race: Column

 

Rand Simberg – USA Today

 

A decade ago Tuesday, January 14th, 2004, President George W. Bush announced a seemingly bold new direction for NASA and human spaceflight. The "Vision for Space Exploration (VSE)," was a needed policy response to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia almost a year earlier. The plan was to retire the Shuttle, return to the moon, and then go on to Mars.

 

The agency set off to implement the program, kicking off competitive industry studies to determine how best to get back to the moon, and plans for development of technologies needed to reduce the cost of future operations, such as reusable rockets, and getting propellants from the moon. The studies generally recommended using existing launch vehicles or modifications , to allow resources to be focused on those things needed to get beyond Earth orbit, such as lunar landers and propellant storage facilities in space.

 

But in the spring of 2005, a new head of NASA essentially shelved all of the industry reports, and set up his own team, that in the fall of 2005 came up with a concept that no industry report had recommended, named "Constellation." It required the development of new launch systems, one of which was a heavy-lift system comparable to the Saturn launcher that won the moon race, though at a very high cost. The "crew exploration vehicle" called for in Bush's vision became a capsule based on Apollo called "Orion."

 

The new Earth-to-orbit systems quickly started to overrun, and slip in schedule. The cost-reducing technology programs were starved or canceled to feed the rockets, while no significant funds were going to hardware needed to actually land on the moon, such as, well, a lander. In the wake of a report that indicated the program costs were ballooning and the schedule slipping more than a year per year, in January of 2010, Constellation was unceremoniously canceled by the Obama administration with no consultation with Congress.

 

This was met with outrage from many quarters. Because the administration had both abandoned the lunar goal, and did a poor job of explaining its plans, there was a great deal of confused rhetoric and outcry about the end of the U.S. manned space program. So in the fall of 2010, Congress partially reinstituted Constellation. The heavy-lift rocket became the "Space Launch System," a hyper-expensive (several billion dollars per flight) system for which no missions or payloads are in the budget, and despite the fact that NASA's own internal studies indicate that it's the most costly means of getting to the moon or anywhere else. What it does is preserve jobs in the states and districts of key space players in Congress.

 

But it's unneeded. The U.S. manned space program is alive and more well than ever, with companies such as Space Exploration Technologies planning to demonstrate their private crew-delivery vehicle as early as next year, and the company plans a much-less-expensive, potentially reusable heavy lifter this year or next, and there are other plans for private lunar and Mars missions.

 

Despite the lost decade, President Bush's stated vision of opening the cosmos is in fact starting to come back into focus, despite Congress. But it is a future based not on nostalgia for the expensive crash Apollo program of 40 years ago, but more on traditional American values: competitive private activities, with both public/private partnerships and independent entrepreneurial activities from Internet billionaires. This is driving down costs, and making it possible, for the first time, to allow not just governments, but individuals to go beyond earth orbit, with their own money, for their own visionary purposes.

 

The big problem with the "big win" for NASA's exploration program budget

 

Eric Berger - Houston Chronicle's SciGuy

 

The massive budget deal finalized by Congress late on Monday includes the particulars for NASA's budget.

 

There are winners (Europa robotic mission, which got $80 million for development) and losers (commercial crew, which got $696 million, a number that imperils a goal of having a private U.S. capability to launch humans into orbit by 2017). Jeff Foust has a dependably excellent overview at Space Politics.

 

I want to focus on funding for the Space Launch System, a massive rocket, and the Orion spacecraft, a crew capsule intended to carry humans into deep space.

 

Sen. Bill Nelson, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees NASA, and bills himself as "one of the leading architects of a plan to build a new monster rocket and crew capsule for deep space exploration," said of the plan, "This is a big win." NASA's administrator, Charles Bolden, also praised the budget deal.

 

This is the same Nelson who along with other congressional leaders and the White House agreed on a budget plan to fund and build the SLS and Orion during the summer of 2010.

 

In that bill Congress called, for example, in fiscal year 2013 to fund the SLS rocket at a level of $2.64 billion. It received significantly less than that in fiscal year 2013. And one would presume funding along those lines, or more, would be needed as the SLS rocket program was building up toward a 2017 test launch. So what did the government give NASA in the new budget for fiscal year 2014? $1.6 billion.

 

Now we could debate all day long whether NASA should be building the SLS. It's expensive, maybe too expensive, to build and fly. It costs so much that NASA has no funds to build hardware for actual missions into space. There are concerns that it is simply a job program for NASA employees and key contractors. However, if the federal government is going to ask NASA to build the thing, it ought to adequately fund it.

 

If you've ever wondered why big science programs, particularly those at NASA, fall behind schedule and go over budget, this is one reason. (Scientists and engineers are not blameless, either, of course. They know programs with lower costs are more likely to get funded, and that once significant funds are invested in a project it's more difficult to kill.)

 

Nevertheless, we've seen this exercise before. Most recently, back in 2009, a blue-ribbon panel led by Norm Augustine dug into NASA's human exploration and concluded, "The premier finding is that the human spaceflight program that the United States is currently pursuing is on an unsustainable trajectory."

 

Augustine and his colleagues urged the White House and Congress to give NASA realistic goals and then fully fund the space agency to meet those objectives.

 

Four years later NASA is being given $1 billion less than it was told it would get in 2010 for a big rocket, and it's being labeled as a "big win" for the space program.

 

Big wind, maybe.

                                       

Gaia arrives at its destination – Lagrange points hold future possibilities

 

Chris Bergin – NASA Spaceflight

 

Europe's galactic survey spacecraft, Gaia, recently arrived at its deep space location, ahead of conducting its primary mission of observing one billion stars. Gaia is now in a location known as Lagrange point 2 (L2), one of a number of destinations of interest for a number of future spacecraft, from JWST through to the potential "Gateway" station.

 

Gaia:

 

Gaia was launched into space on December 18, 2013 – via an Arianespace Soyuz ST-B rocket from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana.

 

Its mission is to create a highly accurate 3D map of our Milky Way Galaxy by repeatedly observing a billion stars to determine their precise positions in space and their motions through it. The resulting census will allow astronomers to determine the origin and the evolution of our Galaxy.

 

Z7The five year mission will be conducted 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, in a deep space orbit that is of a Lissajous-type around the second Lagrange point (L2).

 

Following launch, Gaia performed a thruster burn to set course to its destination, ahead of the recent critical maneuver that boosted Gaia into its 263,000 x 707,000 x 370,000 km, 180 day-long orbit around L2, refined by a small course correction this week.

 

"Entering orbit around L2 is a rather complex endeavor, achieved by firing Gaia's thrusters in such a way as to push the spacecraft in the desired direction whilst keeping the Sun away from the delicate science instruments," noted David Milligan, Gaia spacecraft operations manager.

 

Orbiting L2 is technically like orbiting around "nothing", as explained specialists on ESA's site this week.

 

"Lagrange points are special – it's true there's nothing there," added Markus Landgraf, a mission analyst at ESOC, ESA's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

 

"They are points where the gravitational forces between two masses, like the Sun and Earth, add up to compensate for the centrifugal force of Earth's motion around the Sun, and they provide uniquely advantageous observation opportunities for studying the Sun or our Galaxy."

 

There are five Lagrangian locations where the gravitational forces and the orbital motion of the spacecraft, Sun and planet interact to create a stable location from which to make observations.

 

A spacecraft placed in the L2 location is 1.5 million kilometres directly 'behind' the Earth as viewed from the Sun and is classed as an ideal place from which to observe the larger Universe.

 

A spacecraft in this location does not have to orbit Earth and so is spared from sweeping in and out of our planet's shadow, heating up and cooling down, and distorting its view.

 

Spacecraft making use of L2 include Herschel, Planck, and now Gaia – with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) set to join them later this decade.

 

L2 also provides a moderate radiation environment, which helps extend the life of the instrument detectors in space.

 

Despite the obvious benefits to spacecraft located in the L2 region, these orbits are fundamentally unstable, as further explained by ESA.

 

"We'll have to conduct station keeping burns every month to keep Gaia around L2, otherwise perturbations would cause it to 'fall off' the point," added Gaia Operations Manager David Milligan.

 

ESA's flight dynamics team will utilize their suite of mathematical models and software tools to keep a close eye on Gaia's orbit, tools they have created themselves via their own mission experience.

 

"That is where expertise and experience are indispensable to reconsider the assumptions and then start all over," says Frank Dreger, Head of Flight Dynamics.

 

"There's no commercial source for this sort of software or expertise – it's been built up over many years at ESOC and represents a capability that is rare in the world and unique in Europe."

 

Future use of EML2:

 

With JWST already set to head out to L2, the possibility of using another L2 location known as Earth-Moon L2 (EMl2) to host an Exploration Platform has been touted over recent years, as much as the plan has failed to advance from the study stage to become part of the current near-term Exploration Roadmap.

 

EML-2 stays fixed with the Moon as it rotates around the Earth, whereas Gaia's Earth-Sun L-2 stays fixes with the Earth as it rotates around the Sun.

 

Mainly referred to as the Exploration Gateway - but also known as the Exploration Platform or L2 Waypoint – the concept calls for the launch of several modules for construction at the International Space Station (ISS), prior to departing to EML 2, serving as a deep space outpost.

 

Several conceptual versions of the Gateway have been complied since it first started to gain mentions in the Exploration debate last year.

 

The existing hardware would involve an orbiter external airlock, an MPLM (Multi-Purpose Logistics Module) habitat module, and an international module, linked by the Node 4/DHS (Docking Hub System) at the orbital outpost.

 

The hardware would be launched on a flexible timeline, allowing for the initial assembly & checkout period and boost & initial crew periods to be phased to match resources.

 

With the modules ranging from only 11mt to 13mt in mass, most Exploration Platform concepts cite the use of existing launch vehicles for lofting the hardware to the ISS.

 

However, the concepts that involve the use of a large amount of existing hardware are understood to be the most viable, with costs further mitigated by the use of existing launchers to loft the hardware to the ISS.

 

Although the extension of the ISS to 2024 – and likely to eventually be until 2028 - increases the potential for barter agreements and providing the ISS with another exploration role, NASA's current plan only reaches as far as 2021, the current date for the second SLS and Orion mission that will visit a captured asteroid.

 

Technically, the Gateway would provide a staging post for missions to the Lunar Surface, NEAs, Mars and potentially other destinations. While a return to the Moon – which would likely take advantage of EML-1 – has been firmly ruled out by NASA's current leadership, long duration missions to asteroids continues to be classed as the main goal ahead of missions to Mars.

 

Deep Space NEA MissionNotably, the Boeing company already outlined a conceptual approach involving the EML2 Gateway at a Global Exploration Workshop. Under this Boeing plan, Solar Electric Propulsion would be used by NASA for NEA missions – a technology also cited by other companies in tandem with a Gateway.

 

Per an amalgamation of the proposals, the SEP propulsion system would be gradually developed over the next 10 years, although a demonstration flight would be capable of readiness by 2014.

 

Meanwhile, a NASA docking system, Spacecraft boom, triple panel SEP module, Solar Array mast, and Alpha-joint (similar to the ISS' Beta joint) would be developed between 2016 and 2020 – all leading to the creation of a 320 kW SEP operational spacecraft for NEA missions by 2022.

 

Deep Space NEA MissionUnder the Boeing notional plan, a 2024 NEA mission to NEA2008EV5 would depart not from Earth but from the ISS-EP at the EML2 point.

 

Using the new SEP technology, transit from the EML2 point to the NEA of interest would take approximately 100 days with SLS' third stage used to "kick start" the stage and shorten the trip. SLS would be involved with the Gateway plan.

 

Investigations at the NEA would last for approximately 30 days before a ~235-day trip back to Earth for a total mission duration of roughly one year.

 

The current status of the Gateway plans is currently unknown, as NASA teams concentrate on both the near-term missions and the creation of "enabling" technology to allow them to create the following missions that are set to launch in the mid-2020s.

 

The Future of International Space and its Station

                  

Merryl Azriel – Space Safety Magazine

 

Washington D.C. played host to space agency representatives from 32 nations on January 9-10, who attended summits on international collaboration in the space sector. As a welcome present, the US White House announced its intention to support an extension of the International Space Station operations through 2024.

 

The announcement was greeted enthusiastically, even by US-rival China: "We're very happy to hear about extension," Xu Dazhe, administrator of the China National Space Administration, told Irene Klotz. "It means that by the time our space station is being built, we would have a companion up there," Xu said, speaking through a translator. In fact, head of CNES, the French space agency, Jean-Yves Le Gall was so encouraged by developments at the summits as to speak hopefully of a further expansion of the ISS partnership. "The big question for the next three years is whether China will join the International Space Station," he told Aerospace & Defense News. (NASA Administrator Charles Bolden appeared to downplay that option primarily due to the difficulty of negotiating the partnership treaties. "It was painful, and no one wants to do that again," he said).

 

Many in the space community have advocated for the extension of the ISS program through 2028. There is no follow-on space station program currently planned by the 15 nations who operated ISS, and the station has only been able to ramp up its orbital research to full capacity in the past couple years, following the 2011 completion of construction activities. With the original decommissioning date set for 2016, there would have been barely five years to focus on research, which is, afterall, the primary purpose of the station.

 

That date was pushed back to 2020 in 2010 and more recent studies by NASA have indicated that ISS could hold up through 2028, albeit with some require parts replacements and amped up maintenance. The apparent US backing for an extension to 2024 signals to potential corporate research partners that it may be worthwhile to jump into the orbital science scene. It also means that NASA and its partners can continue to use ISS to solve the major physiological challenges associated with long term space flight, challenges that must be addressed before sustainable crewed deep space missions become a reality.

 

The partner nations have all agreed to extend that to 2020, with Russia potentially willing to go it alone even after that. But while ISS as a fully operational research lab and test platform is possibly irreplaceable, these extension still come with complications.

 

Funding, naturally, is one concern. The European Space Agency recently announced a plan to cut its ISS operational spending by 30%. ESA has so far declined to release details as to what will change to meet such a drastic cutback. On the US side of things, President Obama has now come out in support of extended operations, but the additional expenditures involved will assuredly require funding support from an uncertain Congress. Even within the space community, there are always concerns that supporting orbital programs may detract from investment in exploration programs, a concern amplified in the straightened financial atmosphere of recent years. "We will need to ensure that any decision to extend ISS is accompanied by the necessary resources so that NASA's other important missions in science, aeronautics, and human exploration are not impacted adversely," was the response of Congresswoman Donna Edwards, generally a strong NASA supporter.

 

Then there are the technical concerns. Will it be possible to safely operate a space station well beyond its original design life? This question began circulating at the time of the 2020 extension, but each additional year intensifies the challenge. "The structure, it turns out, most of it was originally designed for 30 years. So all that margin has made it relatively easy for us to get to 2020. 2028 will be a little bit more challenging," NASA ISS program manager Michael Suffredini told CBS News back in September. "We may have to sharpen our pencils to get to 2028."

The Technical Challenges

 

The risk assessment conducted for the 2020 extension highlighted potential concerns ranging from stresses on the truss interface points where modules and other elements are attached to cycling on high pressure oxygen lines and reduced power availability from impeded solar array efficiency.

 

Other aging issues may not immediately constitute safety risks, but could be problematic in other ways. For instance, solar array degradation from space environment exposure will increasingly reduce the station's power production efficiency. In 2010, Boeing's vehicle director for ISS Brad Cothran told Space.com "We're not going to run out of power until well past 10 years from now. It's going to be somewhere within 2028, plus or minus five years." That might have been reassuring in 2010 – now it's quite another matter. As for replacing those solar arrays, without the expansive cargo hold of a Space Shuttle…that might be difficult.

 

There is the matter of micrometeoroid impacts. ISS experiences a constant barrage of particulate impacts, some of them bits of detritus from the station itself. These impacts put holes in handrails used during space walks, in the solar arrays, in the Cupola windows, and just about everywhere else. Over time, they accumulate, and sooner or later could ding something important.

 

Radiation is an ever present danger to electronics in space, and ISS is no different. Memory devices aboard the station seem to lose internal charge and become unable to hold data after about ten years. That issue is still under investigation, but no doubt some electronic elements will need to be replaced in the near future.

 

Thermal cycling is to be expected in orbit, as the station or any other spacecraft moves into and out of the Sun each orbit, repeatedly alternating between extreme heat and extreme cold. Exterior elements are equipped with protective materials and mechanisms to diffuse temperature extremes, but over extended periods of time materials can become stressed. Some ISS materials may be subject to developing cracks as a result of extended cycling.

 

Flexing of truss elements, especially the central So truss, may become problematic at some point in ISS' future. Cothran recounted one incident in which a maneuver set up an oscillation along the truss:

 

"A lot of times, we flip the station around and fly backwards when people come to dock and just in that simple yaw … 180 degrees, that was one that really sent us into a tizzy," he said. "What happened was, as the control system saw us spinning, there was flex in the structure, it appeared the structure wasn't moving. Then it would cut off and the structure would move ahead. Then it would fire on again. So we got into this oscillation setting up in the structure, that we were like whoa, time out. Don't do that again, right?"

 

Cothran mentioned the Tacoma Narrows Bridge which self destructed in 1940 due to resonating oscillations shortly after its construction as the situation to be avoided aboard the station.

 

In the Winter 2014 issue of Space Safety Magazine, Dr. Joseph Pelton highlighted one of the lessons to be learned from NASA' retired Space Shuttle Program.

 

"All of the planning documents envisioned the Shuttle as a 20-year program, whose operational life would have extended from 1979 to 1998. After the Challenger accident the Rogers and Payne Commissions in 1986 indicated that the Shuttle needed to be replaced by a new vehicle in, at most, 15 years or, as simple math would indicate, it should have been replaced by 2001. Yet the Shuttle fleet flew through 2012."

 

Of course, in those intervening years one of the great tragedies of the Shuttle program took place. This lesson is directly applicable to the future of ISS. The International Space Station is a vast network of precision instruments, each with its own design assumptions and operation foibles. Unlike the Shuttle, ISS was designed on a modular basis, with some expectation of on-orbit repair built in. Nevertheless, as we move forward into extended use of ISS, hypervigilance will be necessary to stay ahead of malfunctions and failures even as we revel in the continuing cascade of out of this world research that – we hope – makes it worth the risk.

 

Astronaut gut reaction: The microbiome in space

 

Aviva Hope Rutkin – New Scientist

 

GOING to space changes a person. But humans aren't the only space travellers we need to consider: microbes can change after just a few days without gravity. Now scientists worry that the bugs astronauts bring with them in their guts may turn traitor in space.

 

The human body isn't just one organism, but an entire community teeming with millions of microbes, so there's a whole community of new questions that spacefarers need to think about. In a report released last week, scientists at the US National Academies highlighted the extent of our ignorance about the way microbes behave in space, and how best to treat astronauts who get sick. The report cited studies showing that Salmonella typhimurium, known for causing food-borne illness, can change its genome to become more virulent after just a few days in space. And studies have also shown that spaceflight can shorten the shelf lives of medications.

 

In the past decade or so, scientists have realised the importance of the millions of microbes humans carry around internally, called the microbiome, to our well-being. Microbes outnumber human cells in the body by 10 to 1, and many perform vital functions that keep us healthy, like helping digest our food and monitoring our immune system.

 

"We function largely within the context of our microbiome," says Cheryl Nickerson of Arizona State University in Tempe, who has studied spacefaring Salmonella. "But we know essentially nothing about how spaceflight affects not just the pathogens but also the body's microbes."

 

To help clear things up, a project called Astronaut Microbiome is currently flying on the International Space Station. A team led by Hernan Lorenzi at the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, will take saliva, blood and stool samples from nine astronauts before, during and after a six-month stint aboard the ISS to find out what actually happens to their microbiome in space. The team suspects that astronauts may lose certain microbes that they rely on to stay healthy, leaving them more susceptible to opportunistic infections.

 

While Lorenzi's team investigates inside the human body, others remain focused on the microbes fighting to get in. Last week, an experiment blasted off for the ISS aboard the Cygnus space capsule to test whether E. coli can survive higher levels of antibiotics in microgravity than it can on Earth. And in June, Nickerson will launch a new experiment to infect roundworms with Salmonella while they are in space, to see the disease take its course without gravity.

 

These questions are especially important now that space agencies are planning to make longer trips than ever before. On 8 January, NASA won US presidential approval to extend the space station's lifetime until at least 2024, four years past its original end date. Starting next year, two men will live on the ISS for a full year, the longest mission of any NASA astronaut in history. And private initiatives have attracted the attention of plenty of wannabe astronauts.

 

"We all have our eye on sending people to Mars or to an asteroid or to the moon for a long period of time," says Mark Shelhamer, chief scientist at NASA's Human Research Program. "The question is, what happens when you send someone?"

 

In the end, though, space travel may mean accepting some gaps in our knowledge. "Would a trip to Mars be riskier than what we've done in previous space missions? Absolutely," says Jonathan Clark, chief medical officer for the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a private venture aiming to send two astronauts around the Red Planet in 2018. But there is always somebody willing to go, he says.

 

China considers Manned Moon Landing following breakthrough Chang'e-3 mission success

 

Ken Kremer – Universe Today

 

Is China's Chang'e-3 unmanned lunar lander the opening salvo in an ambitious plan by China to land people on the Moon a decade or so hence? Will China land humans on the Moon before America?

 

It would seem so based on a new report in the People's Daily- the official paper of the Communist Party of China – as well as the express science goals following on the heels of the enormous breakthrough for Chinese technology demonstrated by the history making Chang'e-3 Mission.

 

The People's Daily reports that "Chinese aerospace researchers are working on setting up a lunar base," based on a recent speech by Zhang Yuhua, deputy general director and deputy general designer of the Chang'e-3 probe system.

 

No humans have set foot on the moon's surface since the last US lunar landing mission when Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt departed 41 years ago on Dec. 14, 1972.

 

For context, the landing gear span of Chang'e-3 is approximately 4.7 meters vs. 9.07 meters for NASA's Apollo Lunar Module (LM).

 

Right now China is actively at work on the critical technology required to conduct a manned landing on the Moon, perhaps by the mid-2020's or later, and scoping out what it would accomplish.

 

"In addition to manned lunar landing technology, we are also working on the construction of a lunar base, which will be used for new energy development and living space expansion," said Zhang at a speech at the Shanghai Science Communication Forum. Her speech dealt with what's next in China's lunar exploration program.

 

China's Yutu lunar rover, deployed by the Chang'e-3 lander, is equipped with a suite of science instruments and a ground penetrating radar aimed at surveying the moon's geological structure and composition to locate the moon's natural resources for use by potential future Chinese astronauts.

 

But the Chinese government hasn't yet made a firm final decision on sending people to the Moon's surface.

 

"The manned lunar landing has not yet secured approval from the national level authorities, but the research and development work is going on," said Zhang.

 

Meanwhile the US has absolutely no active plans for a manned lunar landing any time soon.

 

President Obama cancelled NASA's manned Constellation "Return to the Moon" program shortly after he assumed office.

 

And during the 2012 US Presidential campaign, the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney famously declared "You're fired" to anyone who would propose a US manned lunar base.

Orion crew capsule, Service Module and 6 ton Launch Abort System (LAS) mock up stack inside the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

 

Orion crew capsule, Service Module and 6 ton Launch Abort System (LAS) mock up stack inside the transfer aisle of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

 

All that remains of Constellation is the Orion crew module – which was expressly designed to send US astronauts to the Moon and other deep space destinations such as Asteroids and Mars.

 

NASA hopes to launch a manned Orion capsule atop the new SLS booster on a flight to circle the moon as part of its first crewed mission around 2021 – depending on the budget.

 

1967 Corvette convertible formerly owned by Astronaut Gus Grissom to be auctioned

Kissimmee 2014 - January 17-26, 2014

 

 

Astronauts are by their very nature a breed apart, none more so than the seven pioneering men of the Mercury space program launched by NASA in 1959. Among the most famous of them was Lt. Colonel Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who on July 21, 1961, became the second American – after Alan Shepard – to travel to outer space, and in March 1965 the first NASA astronaut to repeat that monumental feat. Grissom perished with his Apollo 1 colleagues Roger Chaffee and Edward White in a launch pad fire on January 27th, 1967, their heroic efforts paving the way to the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing, fulfilling the goal set forth by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Like his fellow astronauts Grissom was also adventurous on Terra Firma, and in 1967 he took delivery of this L71 427/435 HP Tri-Power convertible from Jim Rathmann Chevrolet in Melbourne, Florida.

 

Rathmann, himself an adventurer who raced in the Indianapolis 500 14 times and won in 1960, witnessed many a race at the expansive Cape Canaveral NASA complex between Grissom and Shepard, who drove an identically-equipped Corvette. While no longer in its original color scheme, the Grissom Corvette has received a frame-off restoration and retains its original mechanical configuration that includes the L71 Tri-Power engine, 4-speed manual transmission and Positraction rear end.

 

In addition to its Rally Red paint, White Stinger stripe and soft top and Red interior, it features a Soft Ray tinted windshield, power windows, a Teakwood steering wheel, headrests, AM/FM radio and Rally wheels with Redline tires. It has participated in several parades at Cape Kennedy where it hosted former Astronauts along with the President of the United States and, not surprisingly, has received wide magazine coverage and won more than 25 trophies, ribbons and awards, including NCRS Top Flight honors.

 

Extensively documented, the Gus Grissom Corvette is more than a highly desirable example of the class of the midyear field; it is a precious artifact from an historic era in 20th century American history.

 

Estimate: $150,000 - $175,000

 

END

 

 

Megan Sumner

Public Affairs Specialist 

NASA Johnson Space Center

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