| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Security Training in Building 225/226 Today
- New Method to Reserve the Teague Aud./Lobby
- Do You Sleep Shift? Help NASA's Latest Study
- Recent JSC Announcement - Organizations/Social
- SWAPRA Luncheon Hosts Gene Kranz - Jan. 29
- Rodeo Tickets Going Fast at Starport!
- New Year Resolutions ... Again
- Youth Dodgeball Clinic - Community
- Volunteers Needed for Mars Rover Competition
- Family Space Day at George Observatory - Jan. 25 |  |
| Headlines - Security Training in Building 225/226 Today
The Pasadena Police Department will be conducting police training in Building 225/226 today, Jan. 22, from 6 to 10 p.m. Please do not be alarmed if you see numerous marked patrol cars or uniformed officers in the area. There will be several JSC SWAT representatives with them during the training session. - New Method to Reserve the Teague Aud./Lobby
There is a new method to request the reservation of the Building 2S Teague Auditorium and/or lobby: Send an email request to the primary contact, Ashley M. Rapson, or alternate, Scott J. Collins. If there is a problem contacting these action officers, then contact the facility manager at 713-501-1719 or 281-244-1336. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111
[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 also 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 or medical student on NASA rotation, or a NASA/contractor-employed University of Texas Medical Branch physician. We have slots available for January, but now is the time to sign up for February through April. - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 14-002: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for Software, Robotics, and Space System Services (SRS3) Contract Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Organizations/Social - SWAPRA Luncheon Hosts Gene Kranz - Jan. 29
On Wednesday, Jan. 29, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., the South Western Aerospace Professional Representatives Association (SWAPRA) is very pleased to be hosting Gene Kranz, renowned NASA retired Mission Control Center (MCC) flight director. Kranz was the leader of the "White Team," a shift at the MCC that contributed to saving the Apollo 13 astronauts. Kranz will be speaking on "Failure is Not an Option." Kranz and his team received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, as well as numerous other awards for his aerospace career accomplishments. The SWAPRA event will be held at the Bay Oaks Country Club (BOCC) in Clear Lake. The BOCC luncheon cost for non-members is $35 at the door or $25 with pre-paid RSVPs by Monday, Jan. 27. Contact David L. Brown at 281-483-7426 or via email to RSVP or for more information, or RSVP directly to Chris Elkins at 281-276-2792 or via email. Event Date: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Bay Oaks Country Club
Add to Calendar
David L. Brown x37426
[top] - Rodeo Tickets Going Fast at Starport!
The Starport Gift Shop in Building 11 still has rodeo concert tickets available for March 5 - Eli Young; March 10 - REO Speedwagon; and Tejano Day, March 16 - Pesado and Banda MS. Carnival Packs, Reliant Admission and Barbecue Cook-off tickets are available in both Buildings 3 and 11. Supplies are limited and going fast, so get your tickets today. "Let's rodeo!" at Starport. - New Year Resolutions ... Again
New Year's resolutions come and go. Is there a resolution that keeps coming up year after year that seems to never get fulfilled? Join Takis Bogdanos, MA, LPC-S, CGP, with the JSC Employee Assistance Program, for a "Resolution-Keeping Refresher" today, Jan. 22, at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium. - Youth Dodgeball Clinic
Dodge, duck, dip and dive your way into a fun and exciting new youth dodgeball clinic. Children will learn throwing and dodging techniques all while enjoying the game of dodgeball. Soft Gatorskin balls will be used. Dates: Feb. 6 to 27 Day and Time: Thursdays from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Ages: 8 to 12 Price: $50 Community - Volunteers Needed for Mars Rover Competition
Volunteers are needed for the annual Mars Rover Competition. Elementary and middle school students interested in science and engineering will participate in the design and construction of a model of a Mars rover to carry out a specific science mission on the surface of Mars. Hundreds of volunteers are needed for judges, tour guides and operations/logistics. If you are interested in helping, please sign up in V-CORPs; then register with the University of Houston so they will know you are planning to be there. - Family Space Day at George Observatory - Jan. 25
The Challenger Learning Center at the George Observatory is holding a Family Space Day on Saturday, Jan. 25, from about 3 to 8 p.m. For purchase are tickets to complete a 45-minute Challenger Center mission to the moon! Challenger Center mission tickets may be purchased for $10 a person online. After enjoying a trip to space, stay for the evening and look at the night sky through our telescopes. George Observatory is located in the heart of Brazos Bend State Park. Admission to the park is $7 for adults; kids under 12 are free. | |
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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 and Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – Jan. 22, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA, Roscosmos To Sign New Transportation Services Contract by Summer
Interfax
The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and NASA will sign a contract extending the period of transportation of foreign astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) by Russia's Soyuz spaceships by summer, Energia Corporation President and General Designer Vitaly Lopota told Interfax-AVN. "NASA plans to extend its order for transportation of astronauts to the ISS and back to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA spaceships. Negotiations may be held in the beginning of 2014 in order to sign adjusted contracts in the first half of the year and to start the construction of the spaceships and the selection and training of joint crews," he said. ISS crews may grow in three to four years after the beginning of manned flights of Dragon and CST-100 ships consistent with the NASA expectations, Lopota said. (NO FURTHER TEXT)
Space Station Creators Get Support for Nobel Nomination
RIA Novosti
Russian scientists support a proposal by former US Vice President Al Gore to nominate the creators of the International Space Station for a Nobel Peace Prize, a Russian academician said Tuesday.
ESA chief says Orion service module will be ready in 2017
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
The head of the European Space Agency says he has promised NASA the service module for the Orion crew exploration capsule will be delivered in time for an unmanned test flight by the end of 2017 despite problems with mass and development delays.
It's Time We Commit to Send Humans to Mars
Chris Carberry – The Huffington Post
There is growing support for human missions to Mars within the next two decades. This has been fueled by the remarkable success of NASA missions such as the Curiosity rover as well as a growing desire that our nation show that we are still capable of bold and historic endeavors. Not all are convinced of this goal, however.
NOAA: World in 2013 was 4th hottest on record
Seth Borenstein – AP
The sweltering year of 1988 first put global warming in the headlines and ended up as the hottest year on record. But on Tuesday, it was pushed out of the top 20 warmest by 2013.
2013 was one of the 10 hottest years on record; will 2014 be hotter?
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
Never mind the current cold snap in the East or the polar vortex that swept through much of the U.S. in early 2014 -- scientists from NASA and NOAA report that 2013 was one of the 10 hottest years on record, and there is a good chance 2014 will be even warmer. Nelson: New federal spending bill could save the world
Scott Powers – Orlando Sentinel
The new spending bill approved by Congress last week includes money that could speed up NASA's next big mission, possibly sending U.S. astronauts to an asteroid by the year 2021, four years earlier than the White House had projected.
Large international interest in riding with NASA's next Rover
Chris Bergin – NASA Space Flight
The next NASA rover to be sent to the surface of Mars has received twice the usual amount of proposals for carrying science and exploration technology instruments. The agency is reviewing a total of 58 submitted proposals, 17 of which came from international partners, ahead of a proposed mission in 2020.
Morpheus lander completes another successful test at KSC
James Dean – Florida Today
After another successful test flight this afternoon, NASA's Morpheus lander is four for four since returning to Kennedy Space Center.
Mystery white rock inexplicably appears near NASA Mars rover
Irene Klotz – Reuters
Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images taken two weeks apart by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity.
NASA poised to launch modernized relay satellite
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
A fresh satellite for NASA's communications network is set for launch from Florida's Space Coast on Thursday to bolster voice and data links between mission control, the International Space Station and a fleet of orbiting research observatories.
NASA Looking For Commercial Lunar-mission Partners
Frank Morring, Jr – Aviation Week
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency's lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
COMPLETE STORIES
Space Station Creators Get Support for Nobel Nomination
RIA Novosti
Russian scientists support a proposal by former US Vice President Al Gore to nominate the creators of the International Space Station for a Nobel Peace Prize, a Russian academician said Tuesday.
"Al Gore has approached the Russian Space Agency [Roscosmos] with a proposal to nominate the ISS, meaning those who created it, for the peace prize," academician Lev Zeleny told the presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"Roscosmos asked us to support this proposal," said Zeleny, a vice president of the academy.
The scientist explained that the nomination would include as one body all space agencies and organizations that take part in the ISS project.
The presidium unanimously supported the proposal, stating that the project represents a perfect example of successful international cooperation.
The ISS is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit that was launched in 1998 and is still being expanded by adding new modules to its structure.
It is a joint project between five participating space agencies: the American NASA, the Russian Roscosmos, the Japanese JAXA, the European ESA and the Canadian CSA.
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields. The station is also suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for future missions to other planets.
The service life of the current orbital station ends in 2015, but it is expected to be extended until at least 2020, and potentially to 2028.
NASA has called the ISS "an anchor for the future of human space exploration."
ESA chief says Orion service module will be ready in 2017
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
The head of the European Space Agency says he has promised NASA the service module for the Orion crew exploration capsule will be delivered in time for an unmanned test flight by the end of 2017 despite problems with mass and development delays.
The service module's preliminary design review, a major developmental milestone in which engineers assess the maturity of the spacecraft's design, was delayed late last year from November to the spring.
Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's director general, told reporters Friday the design review will kick off at the beginning of April and run until May 15.
"The delay is linked to a number of technical problems, including mass-related issues," Dordain said.
But Dordain said he has assured NASA the six-month delay will not affect the service module's delivery schedule.
"I have undertaken to NASA that the delay in the PDR will not lead to any delay of the delivery of the service module," Dordain said Friday.
The service module is the Orion crew capsule's propulsion and power element and is based on Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle, a robotic resupply freighter for the International Space Station.
Technicians will assemble the service module at Airbus Defence and Space's facility in Bremen, Germany, the site of ATV integration. Airbus will ship the service module to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for attachment to the Orion crew vehicle built by Lockheed Martin Corp.
The European-built propulsion section has a height and diameter of about four meters, or 13 feet.
The schedule calls for the service module's arrival in Florida by the first quarter of 2017, but Dordain and Thomas Reiter, ESA's human spaceflight division chief, said the plan will be reassessed in June following the completion of the preliminary design review.
In a Jan. 10 interview, Reiter said engineers have made good progress on the service module's design documentation in the last few weeks.
Despite the delay of the PDR, Reiter said ESA will authorize Airbus Defence and Space to start procurement of "long-lead items which are more or less independent of the outcome of the PDR."
"We are trying to be as flexible and creative as possible," Reiter said.
ESA is ordering service module work to Airbus in slices and is waiting to award the next big contract, known as the Phase C/D contract, after the preliminary design review.
The PDR delay "cuts down the time we have to prepare our C/D contract with industry, but it's achievable," Reiter said.
The flight at the end of 2017 will be the first full-up space mission for the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle, but it will not carry astronauts. The spacecraft will blast off on NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System, a mega-rocket under development using recycled and redesigned space shuttle technologies.
The 2017 flight, known as Exploration Mission 1, is planned to conduct a lunar fly and enter a so-called "distant retrograde orbit" about 43,000 miles from the moon.
The 2017 test flight, planned to last more than three weeks, will be a pathfinder for NASA's asteroid redirect mission, an effort to send a robotic spacecraft into deep space and guide a 500-ton rock to a stable location near the moon for visits by human crews aboard the Orion spacecraft. The first crewed flight to an asteroid is expected no sooner than 2021.
A partially-functional Orion crew module will launch on an unmanned test flight in Earth orbit in September on-board a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket. This year's test flight will not include a European service module.
European industry is designing and building the service module's primary structure, power-generating solar arrays, and hardware for the craft's main propulsion system. NASA is providing an orbital maneuvering system engine from the space shuttle program.
ESA and NASA agreed on the service module contribution in a barter agreement for Europe to pay for its share of the space station's operating costs. ESA pays for its part of the space station by providing in-kind services, such as cargo transportation with the Automated Transfer Vehicle.
The service module initiative is valued at 450 million euros, or more than $600 million, and pays for ESA's share of the station's costs from 2017 to 2020.
ESA's member states signed off more than half of service module's 450 million euro budget at a meeting in November 2012. Member states will meet again in December to approve the rest of the funding.
It's Time We Commit to Send Humans to Mars
Chris Carberry – The Huffington Post
There is growing support for human missions to Mars within the next two decades. This has been fueled by the remarkable success of NASA missions such as the Curiosity rover as well as a growing desire that our nation show that we are still capable of bold and historic endeavors. Not all are convinced of this goal, however.
In a recent meeting, I was asked, "Why such a hurry to get to Mars? Mars isn't going away." I thought about this comment after the meeting. I realized that humans will never travel to Mars -- or achieve any ambitious goals -- if the world's space agencies were to embrace such an attitude. A sense of urgency is required, perhaps more now than we have ever required since the Apollo program in the 1960s. Without a firm goal, humans will never land on Mars.
We have been planning to go to Mars for a long time
History supports this premise. Humans to Mars is not a new idea. The world has been planning to go to Mars for more than fifty years (see the late Jesco von Puttkamer discuss the history of U.S. Mars ambitions). The first serious proposal for an American program to send humans to Mars was advocated by Werner Von Braun. To Von Braun, the Moon was merely a steppingstone on the way to Mars. At the time, he and others at NASA hoped to land on Mars in the early 1980s. But, after we had beaten the Soviet Union to the Moon, the program got redirected to low-Earth orbit and concentrated on the Space Shuttle and Space Stations. The Mars dream was shelved.
In 1989, the dream was revitalized again when President George H.W. Bush announced plans to return to the Moon and then on to Mars. But when a specific plan was delivered to Bush, it had been conceived in such an expensive manner -- and seemingly trying to satisfy every interest group's technological wish list - that the plan was not fiscally or politically feasible. It was soon scuttled, sunk by its own implausibility.
Fifteen years later, soon after the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, George W. Bush rekindled his father's dream with his announcement of the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) that called for missions to the "Moon, Mars, and Beyond." That plan was also terminated when President Obama came into office, although Obama announced an alternative plan that also stated that the 'Ultimate' goal is Mars. Unfortunately, this 'ultimate' goal still lacks detail, engineering design, and stable funding.
Meanwhile, during this long time period, generations of school children have been told by astronauts and others, "You are about the right age. When you are an adult, you may be able to walk on Mars." Many of those children are now middle-aged.
Clearly, humans-to-Mars is not a new dream. But, without a firm commitment to reach Mars by a specific date, we will never make progress.
A New Opportunity
One of the obstacles to this firm commitment has been the assertion by often well-intentioned critics that Mars is neither feasible nor affordable. Ridiculously high cost estimates have been cited over the years, even while experts in the space community know that these numbers were grossly inaccurate.
However, in the past few years, there has been a remarkable groundswell of interest in revitalizing humanity's dream of landing humans on Mars. This groundswell motivate a recent workshop comprising some of the most prominent aerospace, planetary science, corporate, and academic experts on human space flight. They met in December 2013 at George Washington University to determine what it would take to make human missions to Mars both feasible and affordable. While this meeting was just the first step, this Affording Mars working group concluded
- The goal of sending humans to Mars is affordable with the right partnerships (international, commercial/industrial, intergovernmental, etc.), commitment to efficiency, constancy of purpose, and policy/budget consistency.
- Human exploration of Mars is technologically feasible by the 2030s.
- Mars should be the overarching priority for human space flight over the next two to three decades.
- Between now and 2030, investments and activities in the human exploration of space must be prioritized in a manner that advances the objective of initial human missions to Mars beginning in the 2030s.
- Utilizing ISS, including international partnerships, is essential for human missions to deep space.
- Continuation of robotic precursor missions to Mars throughout the 2020s is essential for the success of human missions to Mars.
While this was just the first of an ongoing series of activities by this working group, it was clear by the end of the meeting that there was solid agreement that international investments must be made in the near term to enable human missions to Mars in the 2030s.
So, what keeps us from committing to human exploration of Mars?
We cannot predict all challenges, engineering designs, and cost drivers that will impact the
mission planning over the next two decades, although it is clear that we have enough information -- based on decades of experience and studies -- to commit to this goal.
The Affording Mars working group is planning a series of follow-up activities over the next few months to examine the challenges of feasibility and affordability, and additional updates on these activities will be presented at the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington, DC on April 22-24, 2014 and throughout the year.
Unquestionably, there will be many challenges as we plan for Mars missions, but what is also clear is that the time has come to commit, for the following reasons:
1) Human missions to Mars are affordable and feasible no later than the 2030s,
2) The US Administration has stated that Mars is the "ultimate" goal,
3) There is growing support in Congress for a Mars commitment,
4) The American public strongly supports this goal
5) Our international partners want us to lead such an effort, and
6) If we don't commit soon, we will probably be passed by other nations.
If we can achieve Mars without a major increase in budget, it would be fiscally irresponsible NOT to commit. We have made a long-term investment in space. Let's make the most effective use of taxpayer and private dollars and accomplish something bold and inspiring for the nation and the world. So, when astronauts visit classrooms today, and tell students, "You are about the right age. You may have an opportunity to walk on Mars," those students will have a real chance to make that dream into reality.
NOAA: World in 2013 was 4th hottest on record
Seth Borenstein – AP
The sweltering year of 1988 first put global warming in the headlines and ended up as the hottest year on record. But on Tuesday, it was pushed out of the top 20 warmest by 2013.
Last year tied for the fourth hottest and 1988 fell to 21st.
The average world temperature was 58.12 degrees (14.52 Celsius) tying with 2003 for the fourth warmest since 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.
At the same time, NASA, which calculates records in a different manner, ranked last year as the seventh warmest on record, with an average temperature of 58.3 degrees (14.6 Celsius). The difference is related to how the two agencies calculate temperatures in the Arctic and other remote places and is based on differences that are in the hundredths of a degree, scientists said.
Both agencies said nine of the 10th warmest years on record have happened in the 21st century. The hottest year was 2010, according to NOAA.
The reports were released as a big snowstorm was hitting the U.S. East Coast.
"There are times such as today when we can have snow even in a globally warmed world," said Gavin Schmidt, deputy director of NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York. "But the long term trends are not going to disappear ... Quite frankly people have a very short memory when it comes to climate and weather."
Those longer trends show the world has seen "fairly dramatic warming" since the 1960s with "a smaller rate of warming over the last decade or so," said Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. In the past 50 years, the world annual temperature has increased by nearly 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius), according to NOAA data.
Unlike 2012, much of the worst heat and biggest climate disasters last year were outside the U.S. Parts of central Asia, central Africa and Australia were record warm. Only a few places, including the central U.S., were cooler than normal last year.
Temperatures that were only the 37th warmest for the nation last year. That followed the warmest year on record for the U.S.
Last year, the world had 41 billion-dollar weather disasters, the second highest number behind only 2010, according to insurance firm Aon Benfield, which tracks global disasters. Since 2000, the world has averaged 28 such billion dollar disasters, which are adjusted for inflation.
Nearly half of last year's biggest weather disasters were in Asia and the Pacific region, including Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 6,100 people and caused $13 billion in damage to the Philippines and Vietnam. Other costly weather disasters included $22 billion from central European flooding in June, $10 billion in damage from Typhoon Fitow in China and Japan, and a $10 billion drought in much of China, according to the insurance firm.
Usually the weather event called El Nino, a warming of the central Pacific, is responsible for boosting already warm years into the world's hottest years. But in 2013, there was no El Nino.
The fact that a year with no El Nino "was so hot tells me that the climate really is shifting," said Andrew Dessler, a Texas A&M University climate scientist, who was not part of either the NOAA or NASA teams.
2013 was one of the 10 hottest years on record; will 2014 be hotter?
Deborah Netburn – Los Angeles Times
Never mind the current cold snap in the East or the polar vortex that swept through much of the U.S. in early 2014 -- scientists from NASA and NOAA report that 2013 was one of the 10 hottest years on record, and there is a good chance 2014 will be even warmer. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's calculations, 2013 is tied with 2009 and 2006 as the seventh hottest year since global temperature record keeping began in 1880.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's slightly different calculations say 2013 tied with 2003 as the fourth hottest year on record.
At a joint press conference on Tuesday, researchers from both agencies said that regardless of how you slice the data, the overall trend is the same: Our planet appears to be getting warmer.
"While there is year to year variability and season to season variability, the long term trends are very clear," said Gavin Schmidt, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. "And it isn't an error in our calculation about what is happening."
According to NASA, the average surface temperature of our planet in 2013 was 58.6 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.1 degrees warmer than the mid-20th century base line. That makes 2013 the 37th consecutive year that the annual global temperature was above average.
During the presentation, Tom Karl, director of NOAA's Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., noted that the dramatic warming of our planet began in the late 1960s and continued through the early part of the 21st century. Over the last decade or so, the rate of warming seems to be moving more slowly. (You can find the chart labeled "Temperature Time Series Comparison" in the gallery above.)
2013 was the hottest year on record for Australia, but here in the U.S. it was just the 37th hottest, according to NOAA's data.
And the scientists said 2014 is likely to be warmer than 2013.
"Through the second half of 2014 we are looking at the likelihood of an El Nino, which will help warm 2014 over 2013," said Schmidt.
Karl added that it is often difficult to predict an El Nino year before the spring, though, "so stay tuned for more on that later," he said.
The information that NASA and NOAA used to calculate global temperature comes from more than 1,000 meteorological stations scattered throughout the world, as well as satellites that monitor sea-surface temperature and a research station in the Antarctic.
Nelson: New federal spending bill could save the world
Scott Powers – Orlando Sentinel
The new spending bill approved by Congress last week includes money that could speed up NASA's next big mission, possibly sending U.S. astronauts to an asteroid by the year 2021, four years earlier than the White House had projected.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson touted the accelerated prospect of a deep space mission atop a heavy-lift rocket as a hidden detail that cleared through Republican opposition in the 1,500-page appropriations bill approved by the U.S. Senate last Thursday, and by the House of Representatives earlier.
"Buried in the big spending bill is the green light for us to go to find an asteroid, nudge it into a stable orbit around the moon and send a human crew in 2021 to rendezvous with it, land on it, conduct experiments on it, in preparation for our journey to Mars in the decade of the 2030s," Nelson said during a wide-ranging press availability in his Orlando office Tuesday. Nelson also chatted about gay marriage, Florida's problematic unemployment compensation system, flood insurance and politics."
Not everyone is convinced the heavy-lift rocket program - which NASA is developing as its new "Space Launch System," or SLS – could be ready by 2021, or ever. NASA already planned an astronaut flight with the rocket in 2012, and the first unmanned launch in 2017. But skeptics in and out of the program cautioned that the timetable could be off by a year or two. Those skeptics included Lori Garver, who oversaw the program as NASA's deputy administrator until she left the agency in September.
Yet the NASA money in the new spending package had Nelson excited not just for the long-term prospects for NASA's deep-space manned-space flight vision, but for the Earth itself. Imagine, he said, what might happen if an asteroid was heading toward the earth a la the 1997 movie "Armageddon," which he referenced.
"We have had a number of near misses," Nelson said.
The new heavy-lift rocket, could be the answer, Nelson said. He called asteroid-deflection another justification for the SLS.
"If we can detect an asteroid that is on a trajectory inbound to crash into earth, it is extremely important that we be able to get out there far enough to rendezvous with it, snuggle up to it and slightly move its trajectory, so that it will not crash into the Earth.
"Because that would be the ultimate disaster," he said.
Large international interest in riding with NASA's next Rover
Chris Bergin – NASA Space Flight
The next NASA rover to be sent to the surface of Mars has received twice the usual amount of proposals for carrying science and exploration technology instruments. The agency is reviewing a total of 58 submitted proposals, 17 of which came from international partners, ahead of a proposed mission in 2020.
The 2020 Rover:
Announced at the end of 2012, the next NASA rover will be based on the Curiosity Rover that is currently exploring the surface of Mars.
With the dual success of the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Opportunity - which will this week celebrate 10 years on the Red Planet - and Spirit, NASA's achievements continue to up the stakes like never before - not least the Entry, Descent and Landing (EDL) element of safely landing the one ton Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) on the surface of Mars, utilizing the amazing SkyCrane method.
Curiosity's success also confirmed NASA's dominance in enabling successful missions to Mars, with the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting Mars, and the MAVEN orbiter, recently sent to study the Martian upper atmosphere.
In 2016, a Mars lander mission called InSight will launch to take the first look into the deep interior of Mars. The agency also is participating – albeit in a reduced capacity – in the European Space Agency's (ESA) 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions.
The next NASA Rover has been touted as a key ingredient toward the main NASA goal of landing humans on Mars in the 2030s, although its array of mission objectives are yet to be fully decided.
That – in part – will be decided upon via the instrumentation that will ride to Mars on the rover, with NASA requesting proposals to that end between September and January 15. The interest has been twice that previously seen for missions to Mars.
"Proposal writing for science missions is extremely difficult and time consuming. We truly appreciate this overwhelming response by the worldwide science and technical community and are humbled by the support and enthusiasm for this unique mission," noted John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington, on Tuesday.
"We fully expect to be able to select an instrument suite that will return exciting science and advance space exploration at Mars."
Several NASA facilities, academia, industry, research laboratories, and other government agencies submitted proposals. However, out of the 58 submissions, seventeen proposals came from international partners.
While the instrument suite that will win through to becoming installed on the new rover is now under review, the primary focus will follow on and compliment the current Curiosity mission, conducting geological assessments of the rover's landing site, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers.
Associating the rovers with the ultimate goal of human explorers on the Red Planet has additional focus with the 2020 Rover, with the science instruments also enabling scientists to identify and select a collection of rock and soil samples that will be stored for potential return to Earth in the future.
Sample return is a key priority in the science community, as recommended by the National Research Council's 2011 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.
NASA leaders also associate the rover with the goal of further understanding the hazards posed by Martian dust and demonstrate how to collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which could be a valuable resource for producing oxygen and rocket fuel.
Being able to "live off the land" will be a huge advantage for Martian explorers, based on reducing the amount of supplies that would need to be launched from Earth. Robotic precursor missions have always been a major factor in human exploration studies.
"NASA robotic missions are pioneering a path for human exploration of Mars in the 2030s," added William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations.
"The Mars 2020 rover mission presents new opportunities to learn how future human explorers could use natural resources available on the surface of the Red Planet. An ability to live off the land could reduce costs and engineering challenges posed by Mars exploration."
NASA teams are still evaluating the long-term human exploration roadmap, with L2 Concept Of Operations (Con Ops) documentation showing the Agency continues to hold interest in targeting a human expedition to one of Mars' moons – Deimos, or more likely Phobos – before taking on a landing on the Red Planet.
Along with the obvious challenges in paying for such flagship missions, technology relating to the transportation of humans into deep space, along with keeping them alive on the surface, has to be advanced.
Using the robotic missions to learn more about such goals is seen as a key goal.
"New and more advanced space technologies are essential for future human expeditions to the Red Planet," added Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology.
"These technologies will enable the life support and transportation resources needed for future astronauts to live and work on Mars."
NASA 'go' for Thursday launch from Cape Canaveral
James Dean – Florida Today
Mission managers this morning gave a "go" to proceed with a 9:05 p.m. launch of a NASA communications satellite atop an Atlas V rocket.
There's an 80 percent chance of favorable weather during the 40-minute window at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 41.
The 192-foot United Launch Alliance rocket is scheduled to roll to its pad Wednesday morning.
On top of the rocket is NASA's second of three next-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites, called TDRS-L.
The satellites provide near-continuous communications between the ground and NASA spacecraft in low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope.
Morpheus lander completes another successful test at KSC
James Dean – Florida Today
After another successful test flight this afternoon, NASA's Morpheus lander is four for four since returning to Kennedy Space Center.
The prototype lander fired its liquid methane-fueled engine and lifted off around 1:15 p.m. from a pad near the north end of the former shuttle runway.
The flight plan called for the 10-foot-tall, four-legged vehicle to fly up about 300 feet and over roughly 350 feet before descending to a pad inside a hazard field that mimics a section of the moon.
"And...EXHALE," the program wrote on its Twitter feed after the roughly one-minute flight. "Another excellent free flight success!"
Plans call for a mobile launch pad to be moved back a bit before the next two flights to increase their range.
If successful, a sensor package designed to detect and avoid hazards on the ground will be installed for a final series of four flights through March and April.
Based at Johnson Space Center, the relatively low-budget Morpheus project is testing propulsion and autonomous landing technologies that could support future robotic and human exploration missions.
An earlier version of the vehicle crashed and was destroyed during an August 2012 test flight at KSC.
Mystery white rock inexplicably appears near NASA Mars rover
Irene Klotz – Reuters
Scientists are stumped as to how a rock mysteriously appeared in images taken two weeks apart by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity.
The rover, which landed in an area known as Meridiani Planum a decade ago, is exploring the rim of a crater for signs of past water.
Another rover, Curiosity, touched down on the opposite side of the planet in 2012 for a more ambitious mission to look for past habitable environments.
For the moment, however, scientists are pondering a more immediate question. On Jan. 8, while preparing to use its robotic arm for science investigation, Opportunity sent back a
picture of its work area.
Oddly, it showed a bright white rock, about the size of a doughnut, where only barren bedrock had appeared in a picture
taken two weeks earlier. Scientists suspect the rock was flipped over by one of the rover's wheels.
It also may have been deposited after a meteorite landed nearby.
Either way, the rock, dubbed "Pinnacle Island" is providing an unexpected science bonus.
"Much of the rock is bright-toned, nearly white," NASA said in a statement on Tuesday. "A portion is deep red in color. Pinnacle Island may have been flipped upside-down when a wheel dislodged it, providing an unusual circumstance for examining the underside of a Martian rock."
NASA poised to launch modernized relay satellite
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
A fresh satellite for NASA's communications network is set for launch from Florida's Space Coast on Thursday to bolster voice and data links between mission control, the International Space Station and a fleet of orbiting research observatories.
The 3.8-ton spacecraft is scheduled to lift off aboard an Atlas 5 rocket at 9:05 p.m. EST Thursday (0205 GMT Friday) from Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 launch pad. The launch window extends for 40 minutes.
Built by Boeing Co., the satellite will be the 12th craft launched in NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite program, which started linking mission control with space shuttles in the 1980s. Now that the shuttle is retired, the TDRS network's primary customers are the space station, the Hubble Space Telescope and U.S. government Earth observation satellites.
NASA developed the tracking system to replace an array of ground stations that provided intermittent communications coverage for a fraction of a space mission. Without TDRS, officials say the space station and NASA's most prolific satellites in Earth orbit would be left without a way to get data back on the ground at the speeds scientists have become accustomed to in the last few decades.
"No human spaceflight program can be supported at this data rate, and our ability to respond in real time to emergencies would be diminished drastically," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation. "That's why TDRS has been declared a national asset, not only because of the capabilities up there but our ability to reach any point on Earth at any time."
Eight TDRS satellites are spread around the globe in strategic positions over the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Two aging craft have been retired, and one TDRS payload was lost aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.
Officials from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and United Launch Alliance, the Atlas 5 rocket's operator, gave approval Tuesday to continue with launch preparations. The 19-story Atlas launcher will roll to the pad on rail tracks at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday to be plugged into electrical and fueling systems.
"The Atlas 5 rocket and range equipment are ready, and the combined government and contractor team is prepared," said Tim Dunn, NASA's launch director for the mission. "We're all excited to launch this critical national asset, the TDRS L satellite."
The weather forecast calls for favorable conditions for liftoff Thursday, with just a 20 percent chance of exceeding preset launch constraints due to the potential for thick clouds around Cape Canaveral.
TDRS L is the second satellite in NASA's newest series of data relay platforms, joining an identical spacecraft launched in January 2013 and already in service.
According to NASA, the two satellites and associated upgrades to the TDRS ground station at White Sands, N.M., cost approximately $715 million.
NASA has one more TDRS satellite under construction for launch when needed.
Jeffrey Gramling, NASA's TDRS L project manager, said engineers will likely put the new satellite in standby to be introduced into the operational constellation when an older craft is retired. Younes said he expects TDRS L will be put into operation before 2020.
It will take an hour and 46 minutes for the Atlas 5 rocket to deposit TDRS L into an oval-shaped orbit ranging between 3,006 miles and 22,237 miles in altitude with an inclination of 25.5 degrees.
The launcher's first stage, powered by a dual-chamber RD-180 engine built in Russia, will fire four minutes to boost the rocket into the rarified upper atmosphere. The Atlas 5's hydrogen-fueled Centaur upper stage will ignite its RL10 engine a few seconds later for the first of two firings on Thursday night's mission.
The first Centaur burn will last about 18 minutes, followed by a coast through space before the RL10 engine fires again for a 63-second burn set to begin at 10:45 p.m. EST if the launch occurs on time.
The separation of TDRS L is expected at 10:51 p.m. EST, assuming an on-time liftoff Thursday night.
The fuel-laden satellite is programmed to switch on its radio transmitters and broadcast its status to a ground station in Australia moments after deploying from the Centaur upper stage.
TDRS L's on-board maneuvering engine will ignite five times over the next 10 days to reach a circular orbit 22,300 miles high, the altitude where a satellite's orbit synchronizes with the speed of Earth's rotation.
Then the spacecraft will unfurl its antennas and extend two solar array wings before beginning about three months of testing to check the satellite's functionality. Handover to NASA is expected around May, according to Gramling.
From its vantage point high above the equator, TDRS L will mechanically pivot twin 15-foot-diameter mesh reflectors to track the space station and other satellites orbiting a few hundred miles over the planet, beaming messages back and forth in S-band, Ku-band and Ka-band frequencies.
"The TDRS satellites must track an object 22,000 miles away that is moving across the face of the Earth roughly every 45 minutes," said Andy Kopito, director of civil space programs and Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems. "This capability is analagous to standing at the top of the Empire State Building and tracking an ant as it marches its way down the sidewalk in front of the building, a truly remarkable capability."
Like its TDRS counterpart launched last year, TDRS L is a multitasker with the ability to communicate with several satellites at different frequencies at the same time.
Despite the space shuttle's retirement, the number of TDRS users has gone up in recent years, said Robert Buchanan, NASA's deputy TDRS project manager.
Thanks to the TDRS network, NASA can beam live video and audio to and from the space station. And if you've seen any of the breathtaking cosmic images from Hubble, chances are they made it Earth through TDRS antennas.
NOAA weather satellites in polar orbit, NASA's Terra, Aqua and Aura climate research satellites, and launch vehicles rely on the TDRS network for communications.
The Atlas 5 rocket launching TDRS L carries a transponder to send telemetry back to the launch team via the TDRS system.
Vernon Thorp, United Launch Alliance's program manager for NASA missions, said availability of TDRS communications has allowed engineers to design more flexible launch trajectories and save money by eliminating staffing of downrange ground stations.
"I think it's a great testament to the breadth of valuable services that the overall TDRS constellation provides," Thorp said.
The spacecraft will be renamed TDRS 12 once it enters service.
NASA Looking For Commercial Lunar-mission Partners
Frank Morring, Jr – Aviation Week
NASA is expanding its push for commercial partnerships in space projects, with a call for proposals from private companies that may be able to use the agency's lunar-landing know-how in exchange for rides to the surface of the Moon.
The move, an apparent effort by the U.S. space agency to take advantage of the investment going into the Google Lunar X Prize competition, is aimed at setting up one or more Space Act agreements (SAA) with private companies working on commercial lunar missions on a no-exchange-of-funds basis. A pre-proposal teleconference is scheduled for Jan. 27.
Known as the Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar Catalyst), the program advances a growing push to cooperation over competition in government-backed spaceflight. That approach extends to the private sector, exemplified by NASA's new reliance on commercial cargo carriers to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.
"We're witnessing a fundamental change in how we conduct space exploration, how we approach space exploration," Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters Jan. 10 at the conclusion of an international summit that drew more than 30 space agency chiefs to Washington. "We're finding that the private sector is becoming a part of the partnership. International partners are becoming vital for each of us."
In addition to the minds of the lunar-landing experts, NASA would give SAA partners access to testing facilities and other infrastructure, equipment loans, and the use of software for development and testing. Agency engineers are working in-house on two different lander projects—Morpheus and Mighty Eagle.
"As NASA pursues an ambitious plan for humans to explore an asteroid and Mars, U.S. industry will create opportunities for NASA to advance new technologies on the Moon," stated Deputy Associate Administrator Greg Williams of the Human Exploration and Operations mission directorate. "Our strategic investments in the innovations of our commercial partners have brought about successful commercial resupply of the International Space Station, to be followed in the coming years by commercial crew. Lunar Catalyst will help us advance our goals to reach farther destinations."
Among activities NASA may want to conduct with a commercial partner on the lunar surface are sample return, technology demonstration, prospecting for resources and deploying geophysical networks. The agency is looking for landers than can place payloads in the 66-220-lb. and 551-1,102-lb. classes on the Moon's surface.
"In recent years, lunar orbiting missions—such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter—have revealed evidence of water and other volatiles, but to understand the extent and accessibility of these resources, we need to reach the surface and explore up-close," said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Commercial lunar landing capabilities could help prospect for and utilize these resources."
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