Happy freezing Friday everyone….be safe out there and have a great weekend.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Orion Monthly Trivia Contest
- Science Communication: Lights, Camera, Action!
- WSTF: See the Space Station - Organizations/Social
- Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting
- Engineers Without Borders-JSC: An Introduction |  |
| Headlines - Orion Monthly Trivia Contest
Test your knowledge on the Orion spacecraft! Starting this month, Orion will promote a monthly trivia contest in which a question will be announced every month in JSC Today. Those who submit correct answers to JSC-Orion-Outreach@nasa.gov will be put into a drawing for a prize. The first trivia will start next Tuesday, and the winner will be announced in JSC Today the following Thursday. Brush up on your knowledge and visit NASA's Orion page to read and learn about the spacecraft. You can also like NASA's Orion Spacecraft on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at @NASA_Orion to stay updated on the latest milestones. - Science Communication: Lights, Camera, Action!
Science Communication Virtual Workshop: Lights, Camera, Action! Wednesday, Jan. 29, from noon to 2 p.m. CST From virtual meetings to Google+ hangouts to live TV broadcasts, NASA scientists are frequently asked to appear on camera, often with little time or resources to prepare. NASA's Office of the Chief Scientist and Office of Human Capital Management have partnered to provide a virtual opportunity for scientists to practice communicating on camera and get feedback and support from peers and subject-matter experts. This virtual workshop is open to all agency scientists and NASA-funded researchers across all centers and mission directorates. It is designed to support science communicators at all experience levels. Please RSVP to reserve your spot in the workshop and receive log-in information. - WSTF: See the Space Station
Viewers in the White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) area will be able to see the International Space Station this week. Sunday, Jan. 26, 6:39 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes) Path: 11 degrees above NNW to 40 degrees above ENE Maximum elevation: 46 degrees Monday, Jan. 27, 5:51 a.m. (Duration: 3 minutes) Path: 13 degrees above NNW to 21 degrees above ENE Maximum elevation: 25 degrees Tuesday, Jan. 28, 6:39 a.m. (Duration: 4 minutes) Path: 10 degrees above WNW to 35 degrees above S Maximum elevation: 44 degrees The International Space Station Trajectory Operations Group provides updates via JSC Today for visible station passes at least two minutes in duration and 25 degrees in elevation. Other opportunities, including those with shorter durations and lower elevations or from other ground locations, are available at the website below. Organizations/Social - Human Systems Integration ERG Meeting
Dr. Neal Zapp will speak on Orion HSI. Zapp is the lead of the Crew Systems Integration Office (CSI) in the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle program. Orion CSI carries two overarching areas of responsibility: to serve as the program Human Systems Integration Team (HSIT), and as such, the focal point for the vehicle "cockpit" (meaning crew interfaces, crew ops, and crew health, performance and safety issues; and also to serve as the program "owners" of mock-up hardware and Human In The Loop (HITL) testing, evaluation and verification. Orion CSI administers the Cockpit Working Group (CWG) that provides the forum in which to work these issues related to the broad elements of human impact on program and vehicle design. Feel free to bring your lunch. - Engineers Without Borders-JSC: An Introduction
If you've ever wondered what Engineers Without Borders-JSC is all about and what we're doing, now is your chance to find out. Come out to Building 7, Room 141, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, from noon to 1 p.m. to learn all about Engineers Without Borders and what the JSC chapter has been doing over the years. No RSVP required. | |
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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. |
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NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Friday – Jan. 24, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Critics doubt value of International Space Station science
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
After the White House decided recently to prolong the life of the International Space Station until 2024, the nation's top science official declared that the four-year extension would help NASA get a big return on its $100 billion investment.
Dream Chaser test launch planned at KSC in 2016
Sierra Nevada's space plane to ride atop Atlas V
James Dean - Florida Today
Hoping to pick up where the space shuttle left off, the maker of a mini-shuttle on Thursday announced plans to launch a test flight from the Space Coast in 2016, and to prepare the vehicle for flight in a historic Kennedy Space Center facility.
Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser takes competitive leap in NASA contest
Kristen Leigh Painter - Denver Post
Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Space Systems, based in Louisville, announced Thursday an expansion along Florida's space coast and a November 2016 date for its first Dream Chaser orbital mission.
Sierra Nevada Reserves Atlas Rocket for Dream Chaser Test Flight
Irene Klotz - Space News
Privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., one of three firms vying for what is expected to be the final round of NASA funding to develop commercial space taxis, has reserved an Atlas 5 rocket launch for a 2016 unmanned orbital test flight, the company said on Jan. 23.
Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser 'space SUV' gets 2016 launch date
A commercial space plane designed to serve as a "space SUV," flying astronauts and cargo to and from Earth orbit, will launch Nov. 1, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first spaceflight, officials behind the vehicle announced Thursday (Jan. 23).
Astronauts Waiting for a Ride
Now that the space shuttle's gone, what do astronauts do?
Michael Cassutt - Air & Space Magazine
Last August, at a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA introduced its eight newest astronaut candidates. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and center director Ellen Ochoa—both former astronauts—welcomed the new arrivals with rosy predictions for long, varied careers that would include flights to the International Space Station on a new American-made commercial spacecraft beginning in 2017, as well as missions beyond Earth orbit in the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
Students make call to International Space Station
Edmond Ortiz - San Antonio Express-News
What does one do for fun while living in space? How do astronauts cope with loss of bone density in microgravity?
Ant Colony Sets Up Home On The Space Station
Ian O'Neill - Discovery News
I, for one, welcome our new space insect overlords… and the swarming RoboAnts they will inspire.
Walloped by a rocket launch on Virginia's Wallops Island
Melanie Kaplan - Washington Post
In early January, on a field a couple of miles from a launchpad on Virginia's Wallops Island, I gazed eastward and listened to a countdown. The numbers descended, and then in the distance, a rocket lifted silently, gracefully, as if in slow motion. Ten seconds later, a wave of sound hit me square in the chest with such power that I felt as if a Harley were rumbling through my body.
International Space Station Is Anybody Out There?
Richard Schirmer - News Channel Daily
In the 1950's and 1960's, space was the final frontier. The battle with Russia had extended throughout the globe and eventually the Cold War made its way to the stars. During this inaugural period of space exploration, the public were enthralled with the idea of what was up there, what existed out in the universe. The United States intended to win the space race at any cost, beating the Red Menace and staking out a claim to new territories, albeit space territories. Over fifty years later, where has the enthusiasm gone? President Barack Obama eliminated the planned moon missions when he came into office. Did anyone really notice? Recently, after a complete structural and mechanical study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the International Space Station would stay in orbit until at least 2024. Was anyone paying attention?
Air, space artifacts make way to new home in Va.
Brett Zongker - Associated Press
Thousands of the nation's historic air and space artifacts - including a Navy dive bomber from World War II and spacesuits from the Apollo era - are slowly being moved from a cramped site in Maryland to a state-of-the-art Smithsonian conservation hangar in northern Virginia.
Agencies 'open the door' to innovative uses of social media
Shefali Kapadia - Federal News Radio
"While #Janus buries DC, our Tomb Sentinels remain ever vigilant at their post!" the Old Guard of the Army tweeted, along with a photo of a guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
Opportunity still roving on Mars after a decade
Alicia Chang – AP
A decade after landing on Mars, the rover Opportunity is still chugging along.
COMPLETE STORIES
Critics doubt value of International Space Station science
Mark Matthews - Orlando Sentinel
After the White House decided recently to prolong the life of the International Space Station until 2024, the nation's top science official declared that the four-year extension would help NASA get a big return on its $100 billion investment.
The station is "proving to be an amazingly flexible laboratory," said John Holdren, chief science adviser to President Barack Obama.
Yet despite his endorsement, critics ranging from space bloggers to official NASA watchdogs say the agency still has work to do before the station reaches its scientific potential.
"The old adage is that if you build it, they will come," said Keith Cowing, a former NASA space station payload manager who runs the popular website NASA Watch. "Well, it's there, but NASA has a lot of catching up to do in terms of fully utilizing the capability of the space station."
Billed as the "largest spacecraft ever built," the football-field-sized observatory began in 1998 with the launch of a bus-sized module from Russia. Since then, the station's two major partners — the U.S. and Russia — have steadily added pieces and equipment, along with contributions from Japan, Canada and Europe.
Astronauts have lived there continuously since 2000, but as recently as 2008 crew members were spending only about three hours a week on science. Now NASA officials say it's up to about 50 hours a week, due largely to the crew size doubling from three to six members in 2009. But about 15 percent of the U.S. racks for experiments onboard the station sat empty as of Dec. 31, and in a report issued last July, NASA's internal watchdog raised questions about the "real world" benefit of station science.
"A vast majority of the research activities conducted aboard the ISS have related to basic research as opposed to applied research," wrote investigators for NASA's inspector general.
It's the difference, they noted, between figuring out the biology of life in space and developing "more efficient materials" for products that could be used on Earth.
"While discoveries made as a result of basic research may eventually contribute to 'real world' applications, investors and for-profit companies may be reluctant to allocate funds to basic research — especially when the likelihood of profitable results is unknown," the authors added.
Much of the research done so far on the station has focused on astronaut health, and that's partly by design. More than 200 space travelers have visited the station since 2000, and the steady flow has provided NASA scientists with plenty of test subjects to study risks to the body — from muscle atrophy to vision problems.
In a recent speech, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said this kind of research would be necessary if NASA were ever to attempt a crewed mission to Mars.
"From a NASA perspective, the ISS is absolutely essential to the goals of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s," Bolden said.
But the focus on astronaut health also has exposed NASA to criticism about whether the station can benefit the 7 billion people living on Earth. Aware of this concern, NASA officials last year released a list of the top 10 research results that have stemmed from station experiments.
They include the development of treatments for osteoporosis to finding ways to monitor water quality from space — an approach that has been tried by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"Two things that we really need to share with everyone are that the space station is up there with humans working on orbit and that it is bringing back concrete benefits for use here on Earth," wrote Julie Robinson, chief scientist for the station, in a blog post touting the facility's accomplishments.
In an interview, she added that there are plans to do more. "There is a real demand for doing the studies of rodents," Robinson said.
Not only are mice already desirable for testing new drugs, she said, but space has a way of suppressing the immune system — which means drug companies can more effectively gauge how well their experimental treatments are working on infected rodents.
There are plans to blast 20 mice into space later this year, and Robinson said her long-term goal is to have "mice on every flight."
Another way NASA has tried to better use the station was hiring a nonprofit group in 2011 to manage the part of the station designated as a U.S. national laboratory and to entice non-NASA researchers to do their work there.
But the Florida-based group — the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS — had early management problems and was able to get its first sponsored payload onboard the station just this month.
A major obstacle is cost. The price of getting an experiment to the station can exceed $250,000, and that has made many researchers wary — even though CASIS often helps defray the expense with grants.
Another problem is interest. Although the microgravity environment is helpful for some experiments, such as crystal growth, CASIS executives said they are trying to educate other scientists — including those in the field of Earth observation — that the station can help them, too.
"We're at a time where we have to demonstrate the value of the asset," said Duane Ratliff, CASIS' chief operating officer. "We have to hurry up and really show the value."
Dream Chaser test launch planned at KSC in 2016
Sierra Nevada's space plane to ride atop Atlas V
James Dean - Florida Today
Hoping to pick up where the space shuttle left off, the maker of a mini-shuttle on Thursday announced plans to launch a test flight from the Space Coast in 2016, and to prepare the vehicle for flight in a historic Kennedy Space Center facility.
Sierra Nevada Corp. said it had entered into a contract with United Launch Alliance for a November 2016 launch of its Dream Chaser space plane atop an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
"A little over two years from now, we're going to be taking this vehicle to space on board one of the best rockets to have ever been designed," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Colorado-based SNC Space Systems, during an afternoon news conference at KSC.
The plans could hinge on Sierra Nevada winning a NASA contract this summer to fly astronauts to the International Space Station starting in 2017, but Sirangelo would say only that he was committed to the launch.
"It is a confirmed launch date," he said. "It is a confirmed payment on the launch to the start the process."
Sierra Nevada became the first to announce a formal launch date of the three companies designing spacecraft in partnership with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is led from KSC.
The others, The Boeing Co. and SpaceX, also have said test launches are possible in 2016.
SpaceX would launch a Dragon capsule on its own Falcon 9 rocket, while Boeing plans to fly its CST-100 capsule on an Atlas V, both from the Space Coast.
NASA plans to award at least one contract by September to build and certify vehicles and start flights to the space station.
Based on a concept NASA created but dropped years ago, the Dream Chaser "lifting body" is the only non-capsule in contention.
Able to carry up to seven people, it measures nearly 30 feet in length with a 23-foot wingspan, compared to 122 feet and 78 feet for a shuttle orbiter.
"It's a very elegant look," Sirangelo said of an artist's rendering showing the Dream Chaser sitting atop an Atlas V at Launch Complex 41.
The Dream Chaser last October completed its first free flight in California after being dropped by a helicopter. The approach and landing test was considered a success despite a landing gear problem that caused the vehicle to skid off the runway.
In addition to the launch schedule, Sierra Nevada on Thursday announced plans to prepare the Dream Chaser for flight, and service it after landing, in KSC's Operations and Checkout Building, where Gemini and Apollo vehicles were tested and the center's astronaut crew quarters are housed.
Under a tentative partnership with Lockheed Martin Corp., the mini-shuttle would share space in the same high bay where Lockheed is now assembling NASA's Orion crew exploration capsule.
Lockheed is already a partner in the Dream Chaser program, building the composite structure of the first orbital version in New Orleans.
"With the ability to process multiple vehicles in the same facility (at KSC), we can sustain the work force and keep the proficiency up of the work force," said Larry Price, Lockheed's Orion deputy program manager.
Sirangelo said he expected the Dream Chaser program to add about 200 local jobs in the next few years, with suppliers also adding positions.
KSC Director Bob Cabana said the announcements showed "the faith that commercial industry has in KSC moving forward."
"It's a real positive, for not just NASA and our nation, but for the community here at KSC," he said. "We are on the right track. This is our year to really move forward and make things happen."
The Dream Chaser to be launched in 2016 would perform a multi-orbit flight and target a landing in California, to limit its unpiloted return over populated areas.
A second demonstration flight tentatively targeted for 2017 would send a two-person crew to the space station and plan to land on KSC's three-mile runway.
Steve Lindsey, manager of SNC's Dream Chaser program, is a former shuttle astronaut who landed Discovery's final mission on the same runway in March 2011.
On Thursday, looking at the plaque that marks where Discovery rolled to a stop for the last time, he realized it happened nearly three years ago.
"That is way, way too long," he said. "And we intend to do something about it, and we intend to do something about it very soon."
Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser takes competitive leap in NASA contest
Kristen Leigh Painter - Denver Post
Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Space Systems, based in Louisville, announced Thursday an expansion along Florida's space coast and a November 2016 date for its first Dream Chaser orbital mission.
The company is the first among three competitors to announce a launch date for an unmanned mission, giving it an early lead in the race to win a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract for human spaceflight. Aerospace behemoth Boeing Co. and Elon Musk's startup SpaceX also are competing.
"SNC is thrilled to be the first company to confirm a launch date for our country's (eventual) return to orbital human spaceflight," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC's Space Systems division.
If it wins, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser would be the replacement of NASA's space shuttle program, retired in 2011. NASA could choose more than one winner.
The spacecraft would ferry U.S. astronauts to and from the international space station as early as 2017, ending the country's expensive dependence on Russia.
In addition to the launch-service agreement with Centennial-based United Launch Alliance, Sierra Nevada unveiled its expansion plans along Florida's space coast.
The company will share NASA facilities at Kennedy Space Center with one of its prominent Dream Chaser partners, Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems.
Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agency, is putting together an incentives package to encourage more growth from Sierra Nevada, said Space Florida CEO Frank DiBello.
Thursday's announcement, which aired on NASA TV, focused on Florida, but it also highlighted the Colorado involvement in the Dream Chaser.
"It doesn't take any jobs away from Colorado," Sirangelo told The Denver Post, saying it only solidifies the company's future in the state. "It is just confirming we are going into flight operations."
Sierra Nevada is engineering the Dream Chaser in Louisville. Lockheed Martin is building the first orbital vehicle based on Sierra Nevada's design. Lockheed will leverage its experience to help its smaller partner attain NASA certification.
The new facility at Kennedy, which the state of Florida has spent more than $55 million to create, is currently leased by Lockheed for work on the Orion spacecraft — NASA's next human spaceflight program designed to eventually send humans to Mars.
Orion's first test flight is slated for September. Under their arrangement, the two companies will share information on human certification, which hasn't been done at the facility since the Apollo program.
The announcement comes on the heels of an agreement with European space agencies and an increased budget for NASA's commercial crew, which Congress approved for $696 million, up from 2013's appropriated $525 million. Sierra is targeting 2017 for the vehicle's first manned mission in low-Earth orbit.
Sierra Nevada Reserves Atlas Rocket for Dream Chaser Test Flight
Irene Klotz - Space News
Privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., one of three firms vying for what is expected to be the final round of NASA funding to develop commercial space taxis, has reserved an Atlas 5 rocket launch for a 2016 unmanned orbital test flight, the company said on Jan. 23.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but corporate vice president Mark Sirangelo said Sierra Nevada will go ahead with the first orbital test flight of its Dream Chaser space plane in November 2016 whether or not his firm wins a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract (CCtCAP). NASA's solicitation for proposals closed on Jan. 22.
"It is a confirmed launch date. It's a confirmed payment on the launch to start the process working," Sirangelo told reporters at a press conference.
"What happens after the (NASA) contract award happens or not happens we'll decide then, but we are moving forward on the program for this one," he added.
Michael Gass, president and chief executives of Atlas 5 provider United Launch Alliance, said in a statement that the Denver company is "honored that Sierra Nevada Corporation has reserved a proven Atlas V to launch its first flight test in 2016."
Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Boeing have ongoing partnering agreements with NASA worth a combined $1.1 billion. The new contract or contracts – NASA has not yet determined whether it will keep funding more than one company – are intended to lead to test flights with astronauts to the international space station and will include options for future operational missions.
NASA's goal is to fly astronauts on a U.S. commercial carrier before the end of 2017, breaking Russia's monopoly on station crew transports, a service that costs the United States more than $60 million a seat.
The 2014 omnibus spending bill completed earlier this month earmarks $696 million of President Obama's requested $821 million for NASA's Commercial Crew program.
Sierra Nevada also unveiled plans to set up Dream Chaser's flight processing operations at the Kennedy Space Center, sharing space in the Apollo-era Operations and Checkout Building and partnering with NASA's Orion capsule prime contractor Lockheed Martin.
"The vehicle can be brought in horizontally and de-serviced and refurbished for the next flight using a lot of the same technology and components that we're developing for the Orion," said Larry Price, Lockheed Martin Space Systems deputy program manager for Orion.
Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser 'space SUV' gets 2016 launch date
A commercial space plane designed to serve as a "space SUV," flying astronauts and cargo to and from Earth orbit, will launch Nov. 1, 2016 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on its first spaceflight, officials behind the vehicle announced Thursday (Jan. 23).
The Dream Chaser winged spacecraft, built and operated by Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), will be lofted into space atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The unmanned test flight of the mini space shuttle is the first to be scheduled among the U.S. private spacecraft vying to fly U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) since NASA's space shuttle program ended in 2011.
"SNC is thrilled to be the first to confirm a launch date for our country's return to orbital human spaceflight," SNC's corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems Mark Sirangelo said.
In 2012, NASA selected Sierra Nevada, together with The Boeing Company and Space Exploration Technologies (or SpaceX), to develop privately-operated spacecraft capable of taxiing astronauts to and from the space station under the agency's Commercial Crew Program (CCP). Later this year, NASA is planning to award contracts to one or more of the companies to lead to operational manned flights to the orbiting outpost.
Whatever NASA decides, it will not factor into SNC flying its first Dream Chaser.
"We have committed to the launch," Sirangelo said. "This is a direct relationship between Sierra Nevada and ULA. [SNC] is paying for the efforts for this, it is unconnected to the NASA program."
"What happens after the contract award, we'll decide then, but we're moving forward on the program for this one," he added.
The Dream Chaser's maiden space mission will begin from Launch Complex 41 (LC-41) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and end with a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
"We're going to launch out of LC-41 and we won't be going to the space station," Steve Lindsey, SNC senior director and Dream Chaser program manager, said. "It will be an uncrewed orbital flight of several orbits — probably a day-long mission or so — landing back on the west coast."
"The purpose of [the flight] will be to test out our launch, orbital operations, autonomous entry, descent and landing, which is something we need to certify for the eventual ISS missions as well," Lindsey, a former NASA space shuttle commander, said.
"The vehicle will be basically identical to the vehicle that we will fly a year later when we put crew on it. Our intent is to have all those systems onboard and checked out and use this on the path to certification for the orbital crewed vehicle," Lindsey explained.
The seven-seat Dream Chaser is 29.5 feet long (9m) and has a 22.9 feet (7m) wingspan. Its design is based on the HL-20, a 1980's NASA concept for a lifting body re-entry vehicle.
In addition to announcing the launch date, Sirangelo also revealed SNC's plans to expand the company's operations at the Kennedy Space Center.
SNC intends to eventually make use of Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility to return astronaut crews from the space station, as well as the center's Operations and Checkout (O&C) building for servicing Dream Chaser vehicles before and after flights.
The O&C, which was first used to process NASA's Gemini and Apollo capsules, is currently being used by Lockheed Martin Space Systems to assemble and test the agency's Orion spacecraft. SNC's shared use of the O&C building will extend its partnership with Lockheed Martin, which is building the composite structure for the first space-bound Dream Chaser space plane at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
"O&C is a state-of-the-art facility that will greatly enhance Dream Chaser's future operations through an innovative co-use plan with Orion," James Crocker, Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager, said. "The result will maximize efficiency for both Dream Chaser and Orion and will provide continuity for our highly trained, motivated and certified workforce."
To date, SNC has built one Dream Chaser, an engineering test article, that the company used for captive-carry flights suspended under a helicopter before releasing it to fly free to an autonomous landing on the same California runway where the shuttle previously touched down. That first drop test in October 2013 was deemed a success, despite the vehicle suffering damage due to its landing gear failing to deploy properly.
Further approach and landing test (ALT) flights at NASA's newly-renamed Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center are planned before the 2016 launch.
"We are going to go fly [the test article] out at Edwards Air Force Base again, do another autonomous flight or two," Lindsey described on Thursday in response to a question from collectSPACE. "Then we are going to outfit it with an ejection seat and we are going to do crewed atmospheric flight testing much like the [space shuttle] Enterprise ALT program about a year later."
"All those are flight test milestones along the way to this first orbital flight in 2016," he said.
Eventually, Sierra Nevada plans to have a fleet of Dream Chaser spacecraft, each with different purposes, Sirangelo said.
"Some will be all crew, some will crew and cargo, some will be cargo, some will be servicing and we also think that at some point there will be an independent science ability with the vehicles," he said. "It is a multi-use vehicle. We like to think of it as our space SUV."
Astronauts Waiting for a Ride
Now that the space shuttle's gone, what do astronauts do?
Michael Cassutt - Air & Space Magazine
Last August, at a ceremony at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, NASA introduced its eight newest astronaut candidates. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and center director Ellen Ochoa—both former astronauts—welcomed the new arrivals with rosy predictions for long, varied careers that would include flights to the International Space Station on a new American-made commercial spacecraft beginning in 2017, as well as missions beyond Earth orbit in the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.
The latest class is the smallest group NASA has chosen since 1969, and behind the high-fives and backslaps at their introduction lies a stark reality for every astronaut, rookie or veteran: Each year until 2017, there will be only four chances to fly. Instead of the handful of seats available each time when space shuttles were flying three to four missions a year, the quarterly Soyuz launches to the International Space Station have only one seat reserved for a U.S. astronaut. To regain at least some of the capacity lost when NASA retired the space shuttle, the agency is funding development of three competing spacecraft designs: Boeing's CST-100, SpaceX's Dragon, and Sierra Nevada's DreamChaser. This year, the agency hopes to select two of the three.
But that's if the money is there, if the vehicles can be judged safe enough, and if they can be launched on time. Former astronaut Clay Anderson, who left NASA in January 2013 to teach aerospace engineering at Iowa State University, is skeptical. "Every program I was involved with at NASA for 30 years missed the 'advertised' date considerably," he says. Anderson doesn't believe commercial firms can do any better. "I would have kept the shuttle flying one to two flights per year, while the commercial folks got their acts together and proved they could safely deliver humans to and from orbit," he says.
As for Orion, an unmanned early version of the vehicle is scheduled to launch aboard a Delta IV rocket this fall. But its future and that of the Space Launch System booster—indeed of all missions beyond Earth orbit, including retrieval of an asteroid—are far from certain.
Outta Here
Starting about four years ago, such uncertainties about the future of the manned space program triggered an astronaut exodus that continues to this day. When Randy Bresnik arrived at JSC in 2004, he says, "there were 135 of us." As of August 2013, there were 47. Where did everybody go?
Some are still working for NASA as program managers, others took jobs at different federal agencies, and a handful joined academia. Several retired to join the companies building the commercial spacecraft that will carry the ones who stayed. Michael Foale, who flew on six shuttle missions, left for a dream project: to develop an electric airplane. Rick "C.J." Sturckow, a four-mission veteran, left last spring to join Virgin Galactic as a test pilot for SpaceShipTwo, which will take paying passengers on suborbital flights.
The final straw for some astronauts was the 2010 cancellation of the Constellation program, which was to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. Seven-time shuttle flier Jerry Ross, who retired from NASA in January 2012 after 33 years at the agency, recalls the frustration inside the astronaut office over "the lack of overall direction, within the agency and the nation," he says. "There's no big, exciting goal, no Constellation with its suite of new vehicles that were going to take us back to the moon and then on to Mars."
Chris Ferguson, who in 2011 commanded the last shuttle flight and now works for Boeing, says simply, "My old job doesn't exist anymore."
In fact, the job has gotten tougher. Every astronaut now has to learn Russian, face more stringent medical requirements to fly extended missions on the station, develop skills for spacewalking, and become an expert in robotics. "With shuttle crews of five, six, even seven, you could have crew members who were really specialists in either EVA [extravehicular activity—spacewalking] or robotics, and maybe not so much in other areas," says Bresnik. "Not with station. You've got to be more generalist than specialist, expert not just on EVA and robotics but also on science. You've got to be able to lift up the hood and fix the engine—or the waste management system."
The demanding nature of space station expeditions is one reason that NASA continues to recruit astronauts, maintaining a head count of 55, even though the opportunities to fly are limited. The training is so complex and demanding that it lasts from two and a half to three years. So at any given time, there are a dozen astronauts training to fly to and work on the station in what NASA calls "lines," one for an astronaut who can qualify as a Soyuz second-seater or flight engineer, the other as a backup for a Russian, European, Japanese, or Canadian scheduled for the third seat.
Half a dozen more astronauts are in preliminary training for these assignments—brushing up on their language or spacewalking skills, for example. Still, that adds up to only around 20. What are the rest doing? What astronauts have done since the Mercury program: helping to develop the hardware and systems they will operate in space.
The Office
Astronauts are assigned to one or more of five branches in the astronaut office. The Station branch deals with support for current and future missions, medical issues, and ISS crew operations. The EVA/Robotics branch choreographs spacewalks and schedules tasks that require use of the station's robotic arm. The Training branch oversees the new astronaut candidates. The Soyuz branch involves astronauts in design reviews of the vehicle, as it continues to evolve. And the Exploration branch—the largest—focuses on the cockpit design, habitability, and operations of the commercial spacecraft and Orion capsule, as well as the engineering requirements for the new Space Launch System. The chief, deputy, and branch chiefs add another dozen astronauts to the total.
Some positions in the branches are filled by astronauts who also have management positions outside the astronaut office, and that complicates the head-counting, as does the fact that most astronauts have several jobs. Randy Bresnik, for example, has a primary assignment in the Exploration branch as the astronaut rep for SpaceX, but he has additional duties in the EVA/Robotics branch, and recently took part in tests to see how spacesuited astronauts fit inside a mockup of the CST-100. In addition, he just gave up public astronaut appearances in order to train as a capcom (capsule communicator) for the station.
Robert Hanley's major area is station systems integration, "where we deal with utilization of the station—science, experiments, crew procedures, and operations. I also have capcoms, IT, and a few other areas. There isn't really a complete separation between me and Eric Boe, the [astronaut office] deputy chief. We cover for each other."
The chief of the astronaut office is Robert Behnken, a 43-year-old Air Force flight test engineer who became an astronaut in 2000 and has made two visits to the space station as a shuttle mission specialist. His philosophy is simple: "Astronauts should be flying."
The First Shall Be First
Several years ago, the JSC flight crew operations directorate studied astronaut staffing in light of flight opportunities and training requirements as well as mission support and even career and lifestyle issues, and a 2011 National Academy of Sciences panel confirmed its findings. For the next five years or so, the two bodies concluded, the ideal number of astronauts is 55. With 47 active astronauts and the eight newly selected candidates, that is just what NASA has now.
How many missions will be divided among them depends in part on what mode of transportation the astronauts will take to the station. There is the "rental car" mode, in which NASA buys a mission from a company and crews the flight entirely with astronauts; and there is the "taxi," in which NASA buys a flight and assigns three to four astronauts, but uses company employees for the two pilots. "You can guess which one is most popular around here," jokes Robert Hanley, Behnken's technical deputy.
Once that's worked out, the chief of the astronaut office will determine the order of flight assignments. "Management quite rightly wants to get unflown astronauts into space," Ross says, "which also lengthens the line for the veterans."
And if you're a woman, the line is even longer. NASA's standards for cumulative radiation exposure are 20 percent more stringent for women than for men, mostly because of their additional risk of getting breast, ovarian, or uterine cancers. That means women will fly only 45 to 50 percent of the missions men will fly, former chief astronaut Peggy Whitson told an Institute of Medicine workshop last July. "I think that the current standards are too confining for exposure limits...because I think it limits careers more than necessary," she told the workshop. With astronaut careers projected to allow for, at most, two flights over the next decade, that's a serious loss of flight opportunities.
For the members of the class of 2013, there's one final obstacle to a mission assignment: "There's the class of 2009 ahead of them," says Behnken. To make sure the newbies got the message, the nine men and women of that class, who bear the name "Chumps," christened the latest group the "8 Balls," after the game of pool that requires players to take their turn.
In their group are two test pilots (Air Force and Navy), an Army helicopter pilot, a Marine flight test engineer, an Army flight surgeon, and three scientists (an oceanographer, a physicist, and an oceanographer-physician).
Those eight will likely wait five or seven years for a mission—and they were warned. "I actually spoke to most of the new folks during the first and second rounds of interviews," Behnken says. Those he missed heard about the challenges of the job from veterans like Bresnik. And until astronauts actually get to fly in space, Behnken the boss says, "everyone will have plenty of meaningful work to do."
For the 8 Balls, that means going through the standard astronaut candidate training and evaluation course, which includes survival training in Maine, familiarization with NASA's fleet of T-38 trainer aircraft, and an introduction to the station's systems, EVA, robotics, and Russian language. This phase of their NASA careers will last from one and a half to two years.
The Calling
Despite the upheavals in the agency's transition from shuttle to commercial spaceships and the well-reported scene of astronauts leaving in droves, the space agency got more than 6,300 applicants for the eight positions just filled, the most for any class since 1978. "We were pleasantly surprised," says Behnken. "I think putting the application online made it less daunting." But there has to be something besides convenience that keeps enticing people to the job that sends them to space. Money isn't the appeal. Astronauts are paid civil service salaries on scales that range from $59,493 to $130,257 a year. It isn't fame. The station offers few opportunities for historic firsts, and to the public, astronauts may be talented and appreciated, but they're anonymous. And says Bresnik, no astronaut today is likely to reach the ultimate goal during his career: "humans on Mars."
Yet even some of the recently departed say if they had it to do all over again, they would readily apply to be astronauts. "One hundred percent," says Gregory "Box" Johnson, now with Florida's Center for Advancement of Science in Space, which works to get science experiments to the station. Says Jerry Ross, "Yes I would. With all its drawbacks and uncertainty, human spaceflight is still exploring a frontier. It's still challenging." Even if the wait now to get to the frontier has become longer.
Students make call to International Space Station
Edmond Ortiz - San Antonio Express-News
What does one do for fun while living in space? How do astronauts cope with loss of bone density in microgravity?
Sixteen students. Sixteen questions.
The answers came from qualified sources: astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins, who could be seen on a big screen, floating inside the International Space Station (ISS), by 130 aerospace students at Alamo Heights High School.
The live television downlink was arranged by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, who said it was the second one his office has taken part in and the first in the San Antonio area. Principal Linda Foster called it "a historic event."
"There are lots of technical issues to address, and NASA gets lots of requests," Smith told the students. "I hope this inspires you to continue studying science, engineering and technology."
"We exercise quite a bit. We run on a treadmill. We wear a harness that straps us to the treadmill," Mastracchio said, responding to a question by Sara Downing. He arrived at the ISS in November.
"That puts a load on our shoulders and legs, and it helps put a load on our muscles and our bones. We also lift weights. We have a pneumatic system that allows us to do squats and dead lifts. That, a good diet and exercising two hours a day helps to minimize the loss of bone density while we're up here."
Students also asked the astronauts how they eat in space and whether they lack rest in such an extreme environment.
"I found I'm sleeping as much up here as I do on the ground, about six or seven hours a night," Hopkins said, replying to a question by Anne Wang. He's been on the space station since September and is due to return to Earth this March.
"We sleep in sleeping bags, but as we don't sleep on the ground, we tie a sleeping bag to a wall or an overhead compartment and slip in there. I find it pretty comfortable."
The multi-year Alamo Heights aerospace program enables students to learn and develop various science, technological, engineering and math skills through rocketry. This year they're designing and building two rockets, which they plan to launch in the summer at the U.S. Army missile range in White Sands, N.M. Their goal is to reach an altitude of 100,000 feet.
Aerospace teacher Colin Lang praised the community and school district support his program has received and lauded Smith's work in helping to arrange what are becoming yearly trips to White Sands for test launches.
"I can't wait to see what you do next," Lang told his students. "I know some of you will be involved in the mission to Mars."
"It was really cool, seeing them floating around," said senior Marielle Morris, who had asked Mastracchio about staying physically fit in space. "But talking with the astronauts, them taking our questions, I thought it was great."
Ant Colony Sets Up Home On The Space Station
Ian O'Neill - Discovery News
I, for one, welcome our new space insect overlords… and the swarming RoboAnts they will inspire.
When the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo vehicle arrived at the International Space Station on Jan. 9, it was carrying a colony of intrepid six-legged insects — 600 ants. This wasn't, however, an invasion of the two-antennae kind; the colony was safely locked in a container, prepared to begin a cool NASA-sponsored microgravity experiment.
The Ant Forage Habitat Facility is now mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station so astronauts can study how the colony reacts to the lack of gravity. The behavior of the colony is being monitored by a camera setup and a live feed is being made available to K-12 students in the US to carry out their own studies.
The applications of this experiment are wide-ranging. Ant colonies (on Earth) operate without a central command, instead relying on individual ants to aggregate information in a distributed manner. According to the ISS experiment description pages, this colony behavior is being increasingly used to coordinate swarms of robots and other complex human problems down here on Earth. So, by understanding how ants tolerate and adapt to a microgravity environment, we may be able to build better swarming algorithms.
For example, consider a hypothetical swarm of "search and rescue" drones that arrive at the scene of a building collapse or fire. Should one of their signals become jammed — perhaps electrical interference renders drone-to-drone communications useless — what behavior should the drones adopt to ensure mission success? Rather than reinventing the wheel, why not turn to evolution for help?
"We have devised ways to organize the robots in a burning building, or how a cellphone network can respond to interference, but the ants have been evolving algorithms for doing this for 150 million years," said Deborah Gordon, a professor of biology at Stanford University and principal investigator of the project. "Learning about the ants' solutions might help us design network systems to solve similar problems."
While awesome science is being carried out, schoolkids will be able to replicate the experiment in the classroom by collecting their own ants and seeing how terrestrial colonies differ from the extraterrestrial kind. However, the ants that were selected for the final frontier are of the species Tetramorium caespitum, or pavement ants, so the students can expect some subtle differences if they collect other species of ants.
"There are 12,000 species of ants, and some species will perform better than others in this experiment," Gordon said. "For example, invasive ants find their way into our kitchens because they're very good at searching. Comparing results from student data will allow us to look at different search strategies of the ants in different places on Earth."
For me, this is a fascinating learning and outreach opportunity for schoolkids as well as very creative science — a huge win-win in my books.
Of course, there is the concern that the colony might escape, multiply and take over the space station, but the researchers obviously foresaw this eventuality and only selected sterile worker ants on the mission.
So… there's no chance of this happening… I hope:
Walloped by a rocket launch on Virginia's Wallops Island
Melanie Kaplan - Washington Post
In early January, on a field a couple of miles from a launchpad on Virginia's Wallops Island, I gazed eastward and listened to a countdown. The numbers descended, and then in the distance, a rocket lifted silently, gracefully, as if in slow motion. Ten seconds later, a wave of sound hit me square in the chest with such power that I felt as if a Harley were rumbling through my body.
I tilted my head skyward, watching the rocket move at unfathomable speeds. But my eyes kept shifting to the ground — to the launchpad, the giant cloud of smoke, the void where a 13-story-tall rocket just stood. In the blue sky, it was now a fiery bulb. Then it was gone. My eyes watered. And I'm certain that it wasn't because of the wind.
For all the exquisite preparation and precision, all the gee-whiz science and engineering involved in sending a spacecraft into orbit, watching a launch is bizarrely emotional.
"I got choked up," said one of my fellow spectators, a lifetime space nut and tough-guy attorney who had driven four hours and was tweeting about the launch. "But don't quote me," he said. "I've got an image to keep."
If watching a launch is on your bucket list, and you live in the Mid-Atlantic region, checking it off just got a lot easier. One of Virginia's best-kept secrets is that you don't have to travel to Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg in California to see a launch. NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility is less than 200 miles from a good chunk of the Eastern Seaboard, including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond and Norfolk. And Virginia's two launchpads at the new commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops are about to get busy.
"We've become a major player in space launches," said Dale Nash, executive director of Virginia Space, which owns and operates MARS. He said that the port is now equipped for what space folks call "medium-class" missions, which can send 10,000 to 15,000 pounds into orbit. That's a big deal, according to Nash, who likened it to an airport upgrading from commuter planes to Boeing 737s.
It's also an exciting time for commercial companies partnering with NASA. Dulles-based Orbital Sciences tested its Cygnus spacecraft from MARS last year, boosted into orbit on its new Antares rocket. And now the company has a $1.9 billion contract for eight International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions through 2016 — the first of which I watched this month.
Originally scheduled for December, this Cygnus payload contained Christmas presents for the ISS crew, spare parts and 23 student science experiments — testing, for example, the effectiveness of antibiotics in space and the behavior of ants in microgravity. But it didn't quite make it there in time for Christmas.
Launches can be delayed for countless reasons — days, hours or even seconds before liftoff. There's just a few-minute window during which the launch can occur each day or night, depending on where Earth and the ISS are in orbit, so it isn't uncommon for spectators to hang out longer than expected when a launch is scrubbed.
But the good news is that there are plenty of ways to kill time in the Wallops area. Best known for their wild ponies, Chincoteague and Assateague islands are a bridge away from the NASA Wallops Visitor Center. You can explore by bike or kayak, take a day trip to Smith Island or hit the Delmarva Wine and Ale Trail.
Chincoteague's Main Street is lined with shops and restaurants, though many businesses still close for the off-season. For now, the area has a sweet, kitschy appeal, but growth is expected as the spaceport attracts more visitors. In September, an unmanned launch to the moon (visible in the night sky as far as New York) attracted 13,000 spectators, who then created a couple-hour backup on the bridge from Chincoteague to the mainland. Chances are, it won't be long before we see vendors setting up on launch days, selling T-shirts and ballcaps.
The December launch was delayed several times — once because of cooling problems on the ISS that required a spacewalk; once for the polar vortex; and once for high levels of space radiation. It finally succeeded on Jan. 9 at 1:07 p.m.
The visitor center is about seven miles north of the launchpad, across the street from part of the facility where U.S. Navy pilots practice simulated aircraft carrier landings and takeoffs. I learned from the exhibits that Wallops became a test range for rockets and missiles by the end of World War II, and that today, the facility is NASA's most active launch range.
NASA suggests watching from the visitor center or from the beach on Assateague Island National Seashore/Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Locals tend to scout out the best viewing spots, such as Arbuckle Neck Road or other streets off Atlantic Road. You're bound to get some good viewing tips if you stop by the lunch counter at T's Corner or one of the restaurants on Chincoteague.
Some of the kids with experiments headed to space watched the launch from a side street with a wireless PA system attached to a smartphone, blaring NASA TV to a few hundred spectators. One local I talked to, who'd taken the day off from work, said that every launch from the past three decades has a special place in his heart. "It's history-making," he said, "and it's a sense of patriotism."
Virginia Space's Nash watched from mission control. He has probably seen 150 launches, including working 64 shuttle launches. Still, he said, he gets butterflies every time. "It's hard to believe the sheer energy that rockets have," he said. "It rattles you. It shakes your entire body."
Launch experiences are different for everyone, but I can't imagine walking away feeling unmoved. I watched my first launch a decade ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian launch facility in Kazakhstan. In the middle of the night, shortly after I saw three humans behind glass in quarantine, I watched them shooting into space in a Soyuz. As the ground shook, tears streamed down my cheeks.
This time, I was much closer to home and — thanks to more stringent safety regulations — much farther from the launchpad. During the countdown, I thought about the ants that would live out their lives in space, and the Christmas gifts finally en route. And once again, when it came time for liftoff, I was in awe.
Three days later, astronauts aboard the ISS used a robotic arm to capture the Cygnus (as both orbited at 17,500 mph). They unloaded 2,780 pounds of cargo, and they'll re-pack it with trash from the station. In mid-February, the capsule will head on a trajectory away from the ISS. Its mission then complete, the spacecraft will reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and in one last fiery display, it will burn up and disappear over the South Pacific Ocean.
International Space Station Is Anybody Out There?
Richard Schirmer - News Channel Daily
In the 1950's and 1960's, space was the final frontier. The battle with Russia had extended throughout the globe and eventually the Cold War made its way to the stars. During this inaugural period of space exploration, the public were enthralled with the idea of what was up there, what existed out in the universe. The United States intended to win the space race at any cost, beating the Red Menace and staking out a claim to new territories, albeit space territories. Over fifty years later, where has the enthusiasm gone? President Barack Obama eliminated the planned moon missions when he came into office. Did anyone really notice? Recently, after a complete structural and mechanical study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the International Space Station would stay in orbit until at least 2024. Was anyone paying attention?
The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable environment and research laboratory where astronauts conduct experiments in a wide range of scientific fields such as physics, biology and astronomy. There has been a human presence on the ISS since 2000. Currently, there are six members of the crew, two Americans, three Russians, and a Japanese astronaut. Since President Obama defunded the moon missions and the shuttle projects, money has been reinvested into the ISS. NASA determined that the ISS could survive in orbit until 2028. Other countries actively participating in the program have not decided whether they will continue beyond 2020, but the United States will continue alone if Russia and Japan pull out of the ISS.
If you ask people on the streets of any city in America, most would not even know of the existence of the ISS, or that there are human astronauts in orbit. That is a shame. The Cold War may have ended, we landed on the moon, and sent probes to Mars and other deeper recesses of the universe, but that does not mean we should forget about space.
The ISS has a vital role in preparation for any further space exploration. Many challenges of space travel can be examined and studied on the ISS. This will lead to further deep space missions. The experiments in gravity and robotics will usher us into a new era allowing more detailed examinations of the mysteries of space, mysteries too numerous to count.
After the shuttle program was cancelled, the Russians remain the only viable transport for humans to the ISS. However, NASA has contracted with two private companies to provide supplies and other deliveries to the ISS, with an eye towards human transport. The two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation, fly supplies to the ISS In the near future, NASA hopes to contract with other companies that can ferry human astronauts to the ISS. For now, these companies take cargo and other necessary items to the ISS. On January 12, 2014 a supply ship arrived at the ISS. This mission was originally planned for early December, 2013; however maintenance issues, a faulty cooling system, weather, and a solar storm all pushed the launch date back to mid-January.
Because of this, all of the Christmas presents for the astronauts were late, but still a welcome arrival. In addition to these presents, NASA stored fresh fruit on board, as well as over 800 common ants. This might seem contradictory, but the fresh fruit is a treat for the astronauts and the ants are for experiments. The ants will be placed in compartments to observe their behavior, especially foraging activities, in the low gravity setting on the ISS. Scientists are hoping the results of this experiment will lead to the ability to create smarter robots for use in deep space. This supply ship will be filled with trash and sent back to Earth in February.
The continuing exploring of deep space may not interest everybody. It may not lead the local newscast. But, it is still vital. The tests and experiments run by the astronauts on the ISS will lead to advances to allow humans to travel further in our universe. We sailed off the shores of Europe. We crossed the mountains to Asia. We drove the plains of the West in wagons.
We did this to see what was there, to go beyond where we previously settled. Earth's natural resources may not last forever, and finding adequate alternatives may just take us into deep space. The International Space Station is on a continuing mission to lay the groundwork for future endeavors which strive to go beyond the stars.
Air, space artifacts make way to new home in Va.
Brett Zongker - Associated Press
Thousands of the nation's historic air and space artifacts - including a Navy dive bomber from World War II and spacesuits from the Apollo era - are slowly being moved from a cramped site in Maryland to a state-of-the-art Smithsonian conservation hangar in northern Virginia.
Faced with an ongoing shortage of suitable space to preserve its massive collection, the Smithsonian Institution's new air and space warehouse is a bright spot for the museum complex. The National Air and Space Museum opened its Udvar-Hazy Center annex in Virginia 10 years ago with a design to store thousands of artifacts on display. Now over the past year, the site has also opened a massive $79 million restoration hangar and conservation lab with additional storage space for artifacts.
Conservators will offer the public the first behind-the-scenes look at the facility during a free open house Saturday. Visitors can meet with curators and archivists and learn how aircraft and fragile pieces are cared for.
Last year, the Smithsonian's inspector general testified in Congress that the continued use of substandard facilities elsewhere posed a risk to important art and science collections. One site in Maryland was built in the 1950s and 1960s as a temporary holding site that became permanent.
Chief Conservator Malcolm Collum said Thursday that the museum now has a conservation lab to meet the highest standards of any aerospace museum.
"This is a huge leap forward," he said. "The space we're in now is approximately 10 times larger just in volume. But we've also increased our analytical capability immensely."
Apollo-era spacesuits, which are now 40 and 50 years old, are fragile, brittle and deteriorating, so conservators have been studying how to slow the decay. A special room in the new facility was designed as a cool, dark place to store the historic spacesuits.
Other areas house artifacts from the past 110 years of flight, from wool and leather uniforms to artifacts from World War II. Conservators also are studying how to preserve aluminum artifacts from the latter half of the 20th century.
So far, 8,000 artifacts have been relocated from the Smithsonian's outdated Garber facility in suburban Maryland to the new site near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. They're being moved one by one around the nation's capital. At the current pace, all the small artifacts are to be installed at the new site by 2018, along with about 1,500 medium-size artifacts.
Larger artifacts will have to wait until additional buildings are constructed by 2030, depending on funding. In total, 39,000 artifacts still must be moved in the years to come.
The Smithsonian's aerospace hangar has grown to become Virginia's most-visited museum. When it opened 10 years ago, there were just 348 artifacts on display. Now there are more than 3,000, including the space shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II.
Visitors can also look down on the massive restoration hangar to see ongoing projects.
The first major restoration effort in the new facility is the preservation of a U.S. Navy Helldiver dive-bomber plane used against Japan in World War II. Another plane that survived the Pearl Harbor bombings is among the next projects. Conservators carefully disassemble each piece, document their work, repair damage and corrosion and reassemble each plane.
"I hope the main thing visitors see is the extent of detail that we work on," said restoration specialist Anne McCombs. "We literally pay attention to every screw, every piece of hardware."
Agencies 'open the door' to innovative uses of social media
Shefali Kapadia - Federal News Radio
"While #Janus buries DC, our Tomb Sentinels remain ever vigilant at their post!" the Old Guard of the Army tweeted, along with a photo of a guard at Arlington National Cemetery.
With 437 retweets and 264 favorites, the tweet is just one example of how agencies are increasingly expanding their use of social media.
More than 60 social media apps are now available to agencies, allowing them to select the best method to meet their missions.
But it's not just about the social media tools, said Justin Herman, social media program manager at the General Services Administration.
"Now we're talking about capabilities," he said on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp. "We've been talking for a good half year that one of the areas that's most ripe for innovation is in emergency management."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is now using crowdsourcing to improve response to disasters. The agency's mobile app features a "Disaster Reporter," where users can take photos of disasters and display them on a public map for others to view.
The State Department is using an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides automated safety warnings and alerts for U.S. citizens traveling abroad. Web developers integrate the API into tourism guides and travel agency websites. Once the data-set is programmed in the third-party site, the site can deliver real-time alerts to consumers.
Some agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Geological Survey, have worked collaboratively with Twitter to launch Twitter Alerts. They allow users to get an immediate update on a flu outbreak or an early warning for an earthquake.
Herman said social media is especially beneficial when agencies have limited resources and budgets. Compared to the price for an agency to answer a question via phone or email, social media can reach a much larger audience at once and at a lower cost.
"This is exactly where social media in government excels, because it's helping agencies improve their missions ... but it's using free technology from the private sector most of the time," he said.
It may seem like the perfect solution, but Herman said customizing social media tools is a major challenge for the federal government.
"These tools were not developed for public services," he said. "However, it's our responsibility to adapt them to public services and our needs."
The Social Media Community of Practice (CoP), also referred to as the SocialGov community, works to improve government's use of social data.
Launched in June 2012, the community has established best practices for using social media in government. It also organizes social media trainings for agencies.
"It's over 140 federal agencies, more than 500 managers, directors, we've got a couple of CTOs in there," Herman said. "Across missionaries, we are all able to meaningfully collaborate and put together these working groups and deliver results on it. That is part of the promise of using these internal, collaborative tools — that we're able to break down those silos."
Herman said many social media tools are often not as user-friendly or accessible to persons with disabilities.
"We work very closely with the Department of Labor to try to work with platforms and work with agencies to make sure that, while we're rushing to adopt these emerging technologies, those technologies and our programs are accessible to the very people who need it the most," he said.
NASA has been lauded among agencies for its innovative and prolific use of social media. Its Twitter handle is the most followed in the government.
The agency hosted Google Hangouts with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs later followed NASA's lead. The bureau hosted a Hangout to address questions about its visa application process.
"Programs like these shatter the mold for what limits other agencies think exist and open the door to better programs across mission fields," Herman said in a blog post.
Opportunity still roving on Mars after a decade
Alicia Chang – AP
A decade after landing on Mars, the rover Opportunity is still chugging along.
Sure, it has some wear and tear. One of its six wheels and two instruments stopped working long ago. It has an arthritic joint. Its flash memory occasionally suffers a senior moment.
But these problems are considered minor for a journey that was supposed to be just a three-month adventure.
"No one ever expected this — that after 10 years a Mars exploration rover would continue to operate and operate productively," project manager John Callas said Thursday.
NASA has scrutinized Earth's planetary neighbor for decades, starting with quick flybys and later with orbiters, landers and rovers.
Opportunity touched down on Jan. 24, 2004 — several weeks after its twin Spirit. Both rovers outlasted their warranty by years, but Spirit stopped phoning home in 2010 after getting stuck in sand.
Meanwhile, Opportunity has logged 24 miles crater-hopping. The solar-powered NASA rover is now in a sunny spot on the rim of Endeavour Crater where it's spending its sixth winter poking into rocks and dirt.
Its power levels have unexpectedly improved. A recent "selfie" showed dust on its solar panels was later wiped away by blowing winds.
Early discoveries by the two rovers pointed to a planet that was once tropical and moist. However, the signs of water suggested an acidic environment that would have been too harsh for microbes.
More recently, Opportunity uncovered geologic evidence of water at Endeavour Crater that's more suited for drinking — a boon for scientists searching for extraterrestrial places where primitive life could have thrived. The crater is the largest of five craters examined by Opportunity.
A new study published by the journal Science Friday — on Opportunity's 10th anniversary — determined the rocks from the crater are the oldest yet — about 4 billion years old. The rocks interacted with water during a time when environmental conditions were favorable for microscopic organisms.
"This is really a neat area," said deputy project scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.
In 2012, Opportunity was joined on Mars by Curiosity, which is currently rolling across bumpy terrain toward a mountain. With snazzy tools like a laser, Curiosity quickly became the world's favorite rover.
Opportunity snatched some of the attention back earlier this month when it discovered a rock shaped like a jelly doughnut that suddenly appeared in its field of view, probably after its wheel kicked it up. Scientists said it's unlike any rock they've seen on Mars before.
It costs about $14 million a year to maintain Opportunity. NASA periodically reviews missions that have been extended to decide where to invest scarce dollars. The next decision is expected this year for Opportunity and other extended missions including Cassini at Saturn and Messenger at Mercury.
"From all the missions that we have, they're very productive and it would be a shame not to have enough to afford the continuation of those missions," said Michael Meyer of NASA headquarters.
In several months, Opportunity will decamp from its winter haven and head south to what scientists are calling the motherlode — a clay-rich spot that should yield more discoveries.
"As long as the rover keeps going, we'll keep going," said chief scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
END
I, for one, welcome our new space insect overlords… and the swarming RoboAnts they will inspire.When the Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo vehicle arrived at the International Space Station on Jan. 9, it was carrying a colony of intrepid six-legged insects — 600 ants. This wasn't, however, an invasion of the two-antennae kind; the colony was safely locked in a container, prepared to begin a cool NASA-sponsored microgravity experiment.The Ant Forage Habitat Facility is now mounted inside the Destiny laboratory of the space station so astronauts can study how the colony reacts to the lack of gravity. The behavior of the colony is being monitored by a camera setup and a live feed is being made available to K-12 students in the US to carry out their own studies.The applications of this experiment are wide-ranging. Ant colonies (on Earth) operate without a central command, instead relying on individual ants to aggregate information in a distributed manner. According to the ISS experiment description pages, this colony behavior is being increasingly used to coordinate swarms of robots and other complex human problems down here on Earth. So, by understanding how ants tolerate and adapt to a microgravity environment, we may be able to build better swarming algorithms.For example, consider a hypothetical swarm of "search and rescue" drones that arrive at the scene of a building collapse or fire. Should one of their signals become jammed — perhaps electrical interference renders drone-to-drone communications useless — what behavior should the drones adopt to ensure mission success? Rather than reinventing the wheel, why not turn to evolution for help?"We have devised ways to organize the robots in a burning building, or how a cellphone network can respond to interference, but the ants have been evolving algorithms for doing this for 150 million years," said Deborah Gordon, a professor of biology at Stanford University and principal investigator of the project. "Learning about the ants' solutions might help us design network systems to solve similar problems."While awesome science is being carried out, schoolkids will be able to replicate the experiment in the classroom by collecting their own ants and seeing how terrestrial colonies differ from the extraterrestrial kind. However, the ants that were selected for the final frontier are of the species Tetramorium caespitum, or pavement ants, so the students can expect some subtle differences if they collect other species of ants."There are 12,000 species of ants, and some species will perform better than others in this experiment," Gordon said. "For example, invasive ants find their way into our kitchens because they're very good at searching. Comparing results from student data will allow us to look at different search strategies of the ants in different places on Earth."For me, this is a fascinating learning and outreach opportunity for schoolkids as well as very creative science — a huge win-win in my books.Of course, there is the concern that the colony might escape, multiply and take over the space station, but the researchers obviously foresaw this eventuality and only selected sterile worker ants on the mission.So… there's no chance of this happening… I hope:Walloped by a rocket launch on Virginia's Wallops IslandMelanie Kaplan - Washington PostIn early January, on a field a couple of miles from a launchpad on Virginia's Wallops Island, I gazed eastward and listened to a countdown. The numbers descended, and then in the distance, a rocket lifted silently, gracefully, as if in slow motion. Ten seconds later, a wave of sound hit me square in the chest with such power that I felt as if a Harley were rumbling through my body.I tilted my head skyward, watching the rocket move at unfathomable speeds. But my eyes kept shifting to the ground — to the launchpad, the giant cloud of smoke, the void where a 13-story-tall rocket just stood. In the blue sky, it was now a fiery bulb. Then it was gone. My eyes watered. And I'm certain that it wasn't because of the wind.For all the exquisite preparation and precision, all the gee-whiz science and engineering involved in sending a spacecraft into orbit, watching a launch is bizarrely emotional."I got choked up," said one of my fellow spectators, a lifetime space nut and tough-guy attorney who had driven four hours and was tweeting about the launch. "But don't quote me," he said. "I've got an image to keep."If watching a launch is on your bucket list, and you live in the Mid-Atlantic region, checking it off just got a lot easier. One of Virginia's best-kept secrets is that you don't have to travel to Cape Canaveral in Florida or Vandenberg in California to see a launch. NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility is less than 200 miles from a good chunk of the Eastern Seaboard, including Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond and Norfolk. And Virginia's two launchpads at the new commercial Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops are about to get busy."We've become a major player in space launches," said Dale Nash, executive director of Virginia Space, which owns and operates MARS. He said that the port is now equipped for what space folks call "medium-class" missions, which can send 10,000 to 15,000 pounds into orbit. That's a big deal, according to Nash, who likened it to an airport upgrading from commuter planes to Boeing 737s.It's also an exciting time for commercial companies partnering with NASA. Dulles-based Orbital Sciences tested its Cygnus spacecraft from MARS last year, boosted into orbit on its new Antares rocket. And now the company has a $1.9 billion contract for eight International Space Station (ISS) resupply missions through 2016 — the first of which I watched this month.Originally scheduled for December, this Cygnus payload contained Christmas presents for the ISS crew, spare parts and 23 student science experiments — testing, for example, the effectiveness of antibiotics in space and the behavior of ants in microgravity. But it didn't quite make it there in time for Christmas.Launches can be delayed for countless reasons — days, hours or even seconds before liftoff. There's just a few-minute window during which the launch can occur each day or night, depending on where Earth and the ISS are in orbit, so it isn't uncommon for spectators to hang out longer than expected when a launch is scrubbed.But the good news is that there are plenty of ways to kill time in the Wallops area. Best known for their wild ponies, Chincoteague and Assateague islands are a bridge away from the NASA Wallops Visitor Center. You can explore by bike or kayak, take a day trip to Smith Island or hit the Delmarva Wine and Ale Trail.Chincoteague's Main Street is lined with shops and restaurants, though many businesses still close for the off-season. For now, the area has a sweet, kitschy appeal, but growth is expected as the spaceport attracts more visitors. In September, an unmanned launch to the moon (visible in the night sky as far as New York) attracted 13,000 spectators, who then created a couple-hour backup on the bridge from Chincoteague to the mainland. Chances are, it won't be long before we see vendors setting up on launch days, selling T-shirts and ballcaps.The December launch was delayed several times — once because of cooling problems on the ISS that required a spacewalk; once for the polar vortex; and once for high levels of space radiation. It finally succeeded on Jan. 9 at 1:07 p.m.The visitor center is about seven miles north of the launchpad, across the street from part of the facility where U.S. Navy pilots practice simulated aircraft carrier landings and takeoffs. I learned from the exhibits that Wallops became a test range for rockets and missiles by the end of World War II, and that today, the facility is NASA's most active launch range.NASA suggests watching from the visitor center or from the beach on Assateague Island National Seashore/Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Locals tend to scout out the best viewing spots, such as Arbuckle Neck Road or other streets off Atlantic Road. You're bound to get some good viewing tips if you stop by the lunch counter at T's Corner or one of the restaurants on Chincoteague.Some of the kids with experiments headed to space watched the launch from a side street with a wireless PA system attached to a smartphone, blaring NASA TV to a few hundred spectators. One local I talked to, who'd taken the day off from work, said that every launch from the past three decades has a special place in his heart. "It's history-making," he said, "and it's a sense of patriotism."Virginia Space's Nash watched from mission control. He has probably seen 150 launches, including working 64 shuttle launches. Still, he said, he gets butterflies every time. "It's hard to believe the sheer energy that rockets have," he said. "It rattles you. It shakes your entire body."Launch experiences are different for everyone, but I can't imagine walking away feeling unmoved. I watched my first launch a decade ago from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a Russian launch facility in Kazakhstan. In the middle of the night, shortly after I saw three humans behind glass in quarantine, I watched them shooting into space in a Soyuz. As the ground shook, tears streamed down my cheeks.This time, I was much closer to home and — thanks to more stringent safety regulations — much farther from the launchpad. During the countdown, I thought about the ants that would live out their lives in space, and the Christmas gifts finally en route. And once again, when it came time for liftoff, I was in awe.Three days later, astronauts aboard the ISS used a robotic arm to capture the Cygnus (as both orbited at 17,500 mph). They unloaded 2,780 pounds of cargo, and they'll re-pack it with trash from the station. In mid-February, the capsule will head on a trajectory away from the ISS. Its mission then complete, the spacecraft will reenter the Earth's atmosphere, and in one last fiery display, it will burn up and disappear over the South Pacific Ocean.International Space Station Is Anybody Out There?Richard Schirmer - News Channel DailyIn the 1950's and 1960's, space was the final frontier. The battle with Russia had extended throughout the globe and eventually the Cold War made its way to the stars. During this inaugural period of space exploration, the public were enthralled with the idea of what was up there, what existed out in the universe. The United States intended to win the space race at any cost, beating the Red Menace and staking out a claim to new territories, albeit space territories. Over fifty years later, where has the enthusiasm gone? President Barack Obama eliminated the planned moon missions when he came into office. Did anyone really notice? Recently, after a complete structural and mechanical study, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the International Space Station would stay in orbit until at least 2024. Was anyone paying attention?The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable environment and research laboratory where astronauts conduct experiments in a wide range of scientific fields such as physics, biology and astronomy. There has been a human presence on the ISS since 2000. Currently, there are six members of the crew, two Americans, three Russians, and a Japanese astronaut. Since President Obama defunded the moon missions and the shuttle projects, money has been reinvested into the ISS. NASA determined that the ISS could survive in orbit until 2028. Other countries actively participating in the program have not decided whether they will continue beyond 2020, but the United States will continue alone if Russia and Japan pull out of the ISS.If you ask people on the streets of any city in America, most would not even know of the existence of the ISS, or that there are human astronauts in orbit. That is a shame. The Cold War may have ended, we landed on the moon, and sent probes to Mars and other deeper recesses of the universe, but that does not mean we should forget about space.The ISS has a vital role in preparation for any further space exploration. Many challenges of space travel can be examined and studied on the ISS. This will lead to further deep space missions. The experiments in gravity and robotics will usher us into a new era allowing more detailed examinations of the mysteries of space, mysteries too numerous to count.After the shuttle program was cancelled, the Russians remain the only viable transport for humans to the ISS. However, NASA has contracted with two private companies to provide supplies and other deliveries to the ISS, with an eye towards human transport. The two companies, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation, fly supplies to the ISS In the near future, NASA hopes to contract with other companies that can ferry human astronauts to the ISS. For now, these companies take cargo and other necessary items to the ISS. On January 12, 2014 a supply ship arrived at the ISS. This mission was originally planned for early December, 2013; however maintenance issues, a faulty cooling system, weather, and a solar storm all pushed the launch date back to mid-January.Because of this, all of the Christmas presents for the astronauts were late, but still a welcome arrival. In addition to these presents, NASA stored fresh fruit on board, as well as over 800 common ants. This might seem contradictory, but the fresh fruit is a treat for the astronauts and the ants are for experiments. The ants will be placed in compartments to observe their behavior, especially foraging activities, in the low gravity setting on the ISS. Scientists are hoping the results of this experiment will lead to the ability to create smarter robots for use in deep space. This supply ship will be filled with trash and sent back to Earth in February.The continuing exploring of deep space may not interest everybody. It may not lead the local newscast. But, it is still vital. The tests and experiments run by the astronauts on the ISS will lead to advances to allow humans to travel further in our universe. We sailed off the shores of Europe. We crossed the mountains to Asia. We drove the plains of the West in wagons.We did this to see what was there, to go beyond where we previously settled. Earth's natural resources may not last forever, and finding adequate alternatives may just take us into deep space. The International Space Station is on a continuing mission to lay the groundwork for future endeavors which strive to go beyond the stars.Air, space artifacts make way to new home in Va.Brett Zongker - Associated PressThousands of the nation's historic air and space artifacts - including a Navy dive bomber from World War II and spacesuits from the Apollo era - are slowly being moved from a cramped site in Maryland to a state-of-the-art Smithsonian conservation hangar in northern Virginia.Faced with an ongoing shortage of suitable space to preserve its massive collection, the Smithsonian Institution's new air and space warehouse is a bright spot for the museum complex. The National Air and Space Museum opened its Udvar-Hazy Center annex in Virginia 10 years ago with a design to store thousands of artifacts on display. Now over the past year, the site has also opened a massive $79 million restoration hangar and conservation lab with additional storage space for artifacts.Conservators will offer the public the first behind-the-scenes look at the facility during a free open house Saturday. Visitors can meet with curators and archivists and learn how aircraft and fragile pieces are cared for.Last year, the Smithsonian's inspector general testified in Congress that the continued use of substandard facilities elsewhere posed a risk to important art and science collections. One site in Maryland was built in the 1950s and 1960s as a temporary holding site that became permanent.Chief Conservator Malcolm Collum said Thursday that the museum now has a conservation lab to meet the highest standards of any aerospace museum."This is a huge leap forward," he said. "The space we're in now is approximately 10 times larger just in volume. But we've also increased our analytical capability immensely."Apollo-era spacesuits, which are now 40 and 50 years old, are fragile, brittle and deteriorating, so conservators have been studying how to slow the decay. A special room in the new facility was designed as a cool, dark place to store the historic spacesuits.Other areas house artifacts from the past 110 years of flight, from wool and leather uniforms to artifacts from World War II. Conservators also are studying how to preserve aluminum artifacts from the latter half of the 20th century.So far, 8,000 artifacts have been relocated from the Smithsonian's outdated Garber facility in suburban Maryland to the new site near Dulles International Airport in Virginia. They're being moved one by one around the nation's capital. At the current pace, all the small artifacts are to be installed at the new site by 2018, along with about 1,500 medium-size artifacts.Larger artifacts will have to wait until additional buildings are constructed by 2030, depending on funding. In total, 39,000 artifacts still must be moved in the years to come.The Smithsonian's aerospace hangar has grown to become Virginia's most-visited museum. When it opened 10 years ago, there were just 348 artifacts on display. Now there are more than 3,000, including the space shuttle Discovery and the Enola Gay B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II.Visitors can also look down on the massive restoration hangar to see ongoing projects.The first major restoration effort in the new facility is the preservation of a U.S. Navy Helldiver dive-bomber plane used against Japan in World War II. Another plane that survived the Pearl Harbor bombings is among the next projects. Conservators carefully disassemble each piece, document their work, repair damage and corrosion and reassemble each plane."I hope the main thing visitors see is the extent of detail that we work on," said restoration specialist Anne McCombs. "We literally pay attention to every screw, every piece of hardware."Agencies 'open the door' to innovative uses of social mediaShefali Kapadia - Federal News Radio"While #Janus buries DC, our Tomb Sentinels remain ever vigilant at their post!" the Old Guard of the Army tweeted, along with a photo of a guard at Arlington National Cemetery.With 437 retweets and 264 favorites, the tweet is just one example of how agencies are increasingly expanding their use of social media.More than 60 social media apps are now available to agencies, allowing them to select the best method to meet their missions.But it's not just about the social media tools, said Justin Herman, social media program manager at the General Services Administration."Now we're talking about capabilities," he said on the Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp. "We've been talking for a good half year that one of the areas that's most ripe for innovation is in emergency management."The Federal Emergency Management Agency is now using crowdsourcing to improve response to disasters. The agency's mobile app features a "Disaster Reporter," where users can take photos of disasters and display them on a public map for others to view.The State Department is using an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides automated safety warnings and alerts for U.S. citizens traveling abroad. Web developers integrate the API into tourism guides and travel agency websites. Once the data-set is programmed in the third-party site, the site can deliver real-time alerts to consumers.Some agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Geological Survey, have worked collaboratively with Twitter to launch Twitter Alerts. They allow users to get an immediate update on a flu outbreak or an early warning for an earthquake.Herman said social media is especially beneficial when agencies have limited resources and budgets. Compared to the price for an agency to answer a question via phone or email, social media can reach a much larger audience at once and at a lower cost."This is exactly where social media in government excels, because it's helping agencies improve their missions ... but it's using free technology from the private sector most of the time," he said.It may seem like the perfect solution, but Herman said customizing social media tools is a major challenge for the federal government."These tools were not developed for public services," he said. "However, it's our responsibility to adapt them to public services and our needs."The Social Media Community of Practice (CoP), also referred to as the SocialGov community, works to improve government's use of social data.Launched in June 2012, the community has established best practices for using social media in government. It also organizes social media trainings for agencies."It's over 140 federal agencies, more than 500 managers, directors, we've got a couple of CTOs in there," Herman said. "Across missionaries, we are all able to meaningfully collaborate and put together these working groups and deliver results on it. That is part of the promise of using these internal, collaborative tools — that we're able to break down those silos."Herman said many social media tools are often not as user-friendly or accessible to persons with disabilities."We work very closely with the Department of Labor to try to work with platforms and work with agencies to make sure that, while we're rushing to adopt these emerging technologies, those technologies and our programs are accessible to the very people who need it the most," he said.NASA has been lauded among agencies for its innovative and prolific use of social media. Its Twitter handle is the most followed in the government.The agency hosted Google Hangouts with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.The State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs later followed NASA's lead. The bureau hosted a Hangout to address questions about its visa application process."Programs like these shatter the mold for what limits other agencies think exist and open the door to better programs across mission fields," Herman said in a blog post.Opportunity still roving on Mars after a decadeAlicia Chang – APA decade after landing on Mars, the rover Opportunity is still chugging along.Sure, it has some wear and tear. One of its six wheels and two instruments stopped working long ago. It has an arthritic joint. Its flash memory occasionally suffers a senior moment.But these problems are considered minor for a journey that was supposed to be just a three-month adventure."No one ever expected this — that after 10 years a Mars exploration rover would continue to operate and operate productively," project manager John Callas said Thursday.NASA has scrutinized Earth's planetary neighbor for decades, starting with quick flybys and later with orbiters, landers and rovers.Opportunity touched down on Jan. 24, 2004 — several weeks after its twin Spirit. Both rovers outlasted their warranty by years, but Spirit stopped phoning home in 2010 after getting stuck in sand.Meanwhile, Opportunity has logged 24 miles crater-hopping. The solar-powered NASA rover is now in a sunny spot on the rim of Endeavour Crater where it's spending its sixth winter poking into rocks and dirt.Its power levels have unexpectedly improved. A recent "selfie" showed dust on its solar panels was later wiped away by blowing winds.Early discoveries by the two rovers pointed to a planet that was once tropical and moist. However, the signs of water suggested an acidic environment that would have been too harsh for microbes.More recently, Opportunity uncovered geologic evidence of water at Endeavour Crater that's more suited for drinking — a boon for scientists searching for extraterrestrial places where primitive life could have thrived. The crater is the largest of five craters examined by Opportunity.A new study published by the journal Science Friday — on Opportunity's 10th anniversary — determined the rocks from the crater are the oldest yet — about 4 billion years old. The rocks interacted with water during a time when environmental conditions were favorable for microscopic organisms."This is really a neat area," said deputy project scientist Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.In 2012, Opportunity was joined on Mars by Curiosity, which is currently rolling across bumpy terrain toward a mountain. With snazzy tools like a laser, Curiosity quickly became the world's favorite rover.Opportunity snatched some of the attention back earlier this month when it discovered a rock shaped like a jelly doughnut that suddenly appeared in its field of view, probably after its wheel kicked it up. Scientists said it's unlike any rock they've seen on Mars before.It costs about $14 million a year to maintain Opportunity. NASA periodically reviews missions that have been extended to decide where to invest scarce dollars. The next decision is expected this year for Opportunity and other extended missions including Cassini at Saturn and Messenger at Mercury."From all the missions that we have, they're very productive and it would be a shame not to have enough to afford the continuation of those missions," said Michael Meyer of NASA headquarters.In several months, Opportunity will decamp from its winter haven and head south to what scientists are calling the motherlode — a clay-rich spot that should yield more discoveries."As long as the rover keeps going, we'll keep going," said chief scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.END
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