Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - May 2, 2013 and JSC Today

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Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: May 2, 2013 6:00:16 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 2, 2013 and JSC Today

Resending since MS outlook reported lots of errors trying to send out this morning…

 

From: Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)
Sent: Thursday, May 02, 2013 6:56 AM
To: Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - May 2, 2013 and JSC Today

 

Hope you can join us today at Hibachi Grill for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.    As usual, we have the party room in the back left reserved for our use.

 

 

Update on Dave Tadlock from Brad Loveall, please keep Dave in your prayers for a full recovery from his heart bypass surgery.

 

Update from Betty Tadlock on her husband David: David has been moved to 7 Cooley B 24, St. Luke's. All the things related to his heart are coming along well. He is having a slow recovery due to peripheral issues. (1) mobility issues he already had and (2) having been intubated three times. He will have rehab after he leaves St. Luke's in another facility. The intubation caused swallowing problems and he is back to a feeding tube and exercises for his throat. It looks hopeful that all these problems will be resolved in due time. We just have to persevere and be patient. We are thankful for God's love and care and the kindness and TLC shown by all our friends and family.

 

 

 

Thursday, May 2, 2013

 

JSC TODAY HEADLINES

1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

2.            Help Influence Change! 2013 Employee Viewpoint Survey

3.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System

4.            'Introduction to Effective Parenting Skills'

5.            IEEE Galveston Bay Section: Project Management Workshop

6.            Human Systems Academy: Cardiovascular Course

7.            National Day of Prayer

8.            Starport Summer Camp -- Non-Dependent Registration Starts Monday

9.            Last Day to Order for June Delivery -- Signed Gene Cernan Frame Pre-Sale

10.          Recovered Materials

11.          Weight Watchers at JSC -- We are Moving

12.          NASA Nerdz Spaces Filling Up (Slight Change to Dates Bowling)

13.          Volunteers Needed for Special Olympics Spring Games

14.          Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; and Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- May 17, Building 20, Room 205/206

15.          General Industry (CFR 1910) Safety and Health Provisions ViTS: May 31

16.          Cleanroom Protocol and Contamination Control ViTS: June 7, 12:30 p.m. -- Building 17, Room 2026

17.          System Safety Special Subjects Class: June 11 to 12 -- Building 20, Room 205/206

________________________________________     NASA FACT

" NASA's Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) test bed has begun experiments after completing its checkout on the International Space Station. The SCaN test bed is an advanced, integrated communications laboratory facility that uses a new generation of software-defined radio technology to allow researchers to develop, test and demonstrate advanced communications, networking and navigation technologies in space."

________________________________________

1.            Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

Don't worry if you haven't heard a whole lot about our new asteroid retrieval mission, because you'll be hearing more and more as we go. Maybe the BBC will have a special on it and you can flip from watching "Mr. Bean" to catch it. This week kicks off Innovation 2013, and I was wondering how involved you'll be. Attending the kick-off speeches and input session? Listening in? Follow along on the Web? I've been watching too much "Dr. Who," and it got me thinking about time machines. What if you got into one and it got stuck in reverse? What time period would you choose to live your life over in? Medieval? Revolutionary?

Tardis your Dalek on over to get this week's poll.

Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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2.            Help Influence Change! 2013 Employee Viewpoint Survey

If you haven't done so already, please complete the 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. You should have already received an email from the Office of Personnel Management with a link to the survey. The purpose of this survey is to gather input and measure employees' attitudes and perceptions for topic areas such as leadership and knowledge management, performance culture and job satisfaction. The ultimate goal of the survey is to provide agencies with a true perspective of current strengths and challenge areas. We encourage your voluntary participation in this survey and hope you view this as an opportunity to influence positive change in our agency.

Jennifer Rodriguez x46386

 

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3.            Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System

The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS) on Thursday, May 2, at noon.

The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a test" message, followed by a short tone and the second verbal "This is a test" message. The warning tone will be the "Whoop" tone, which is associated with a "Seek shelter inside" message. Please visit the JSC Emergency Awareness website for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation, the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information.

Dennis G. Perrin x34232 http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov

 

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4.            'Introduction to Effective Parenting Skills'

It is commonly said that when you have a child, the child does not come with a parenting manual. Each child and family situation is unique. Effective parenting skills can help children grow up to be healthy and responsible adults. Simply trying to build parenting skills and improve the life of your child shows you are on the road to successful parenting. We will be discussing how you can improve upon your parenting skills by learning more about your child, yourself and your parenting influences. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, CEAP, NCC, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, on May 8 at 12 noon in the Building 30 Auditorium as she presents "Introduction to Effective Parenting Skills," the first topic of a monthly series focused on parenting.

Event Date: Wednesday, May 8, 2013   Event Start Time:12:00 PM   Event End Time:1:00 PM

Event Location: Building 30 Auditorium

 

Add to Calendar

 

Lorrie Bennett, Employee Assistance Program, Clinical Services Branch x36130

 

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5.            IEEE Galveston Bay Section: Project Management Workshop

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Galveston Bay Section sponsors a project management workshop for engineers, technical leads, project leaders and functional managers who want to practice the fundamentals of project management to help themselves and their groups accomplish their endeavors, whether at work, at home or in the community. Participants will learn basic project management techniques and how to apply them in real life without excessive overhead. The workshop will provide course notes, including project management templates/checklists and documented case studies of how to apply project management techniques to engineering and personal projects.

Instructor Tarek Lahdhiri, Ph.D, PE, PMP, is the strategy leader for real-time control systems simulations at General Motors, LLC.

The workshop is May 18 from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Discovery Room. Five PDH credits, light lunch included. The cost for non-IEEE members - $40; IEEE members - $30; and IEEE students - $20. RSVP by May 8 to Stew O'Dell.

Event Date: Saturday, May 18, 2013   Event Start Time:9:30 AM   Event End Time:2:30 PM

Event Location: Discovery Room, Gilruth Center

 

Add to Calendar

 

Stew O'Dell x31855

 

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6.            Human Systems Academy: Cardiovascular Course

Please join the Human Systems Academy for a lecture on the cardiovascular system and implications for space operations and research. The course will be held on May 9 from 2 to 3 p.m. in Building 9, Room 113.

Please register in SATERN: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Cynthia Rando 281-461-2620 http://sa.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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7.            National Day of Prayer

The National Day of Prayer tradition predates the founding of the United States of America, evidenced by the Continental Congress' proclamation in 1775 setting aside a day of prayer. In 1952, Congress established an annual day of prayer and, in 1988, that law was amended, designating the National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May. Our presidents through the years have invited us to pray for our country. Please join us at the Building 1 flagpole before noon, and we will start praying very soon thereafter.

Event Date: Thursday, May 2, 2013   Event Start Time:11:55 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Building 1 Flagpole

 

Add to Calendar

 

John Fields x38023 http://www.nationaldayofprayer.org

 

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8.            Starport Summer Camp -- Non-Dependent Registration Starts Monday

Summer is fast approaching, and Starport will again be offering summer camp for youth at the Gilruth Center all summer long. We have tons of fun planned, and we expect each session to fill up, so get your registrations in early! Weekly themes are listed on our website, as well as information regarding registration and all the necessary forms.

Ages: 6 to 12

Times: 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Dates: June 10 to Aug. 16 in one-week sessions

Registration: March 18 for NASA dependents | May 6 for non-dependents

Fee per session: $140 per child for dependents | $160 per child for non-dependents

NEW for this summer! Ask about out sibling discounts and discounts for registering for all sessions.

Hurry! Registration opens to non-dependents (family and friends) on Monday, so register for your spot now before sessions fill up.

Shericka Phillips x35563 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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9.            Last Day to Order for June Delivery -- Signed Gene Cernan Frame Pre-Sale

Starport is proud to offer you this Official NASA Limited Edition Celebrating Apollo XVII and the Golden Age of Space Framed Pin Set, which was commissioned and signed by Captain Gene Cernan. Only 1,972 were made, and each frame is numbered. Retail is $269, but JSC employees at Starport receive a 10 percent discount. Reserve yours today in the Buildings 3 and 11 Starport Gift Shops. Today is the last day to order for June delivery, with the next delivery date of mid-August. Based on availability.

Cyndi Kibby x35352 http://starport.jsc.nasa.gov/

 

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10.          Recovered Materials

Accessible ... Findable ... Relevant ... Reusable ... KNOWLEDGE

That old report in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet or quietly musting away in the attic might be just the information needed to fill in the gaps of JSC community knowledge!

The entire body community knowledge is fortified with the knowledge and experiences captured in recovered materials. Current and former employees have contributed videos, organizational charts, still images and documents of historical interest. Many of the recovered materials are appropriate to publish in whole, while others lead to improved data architecture as they are processed and represented in the JSC Taxonomy. Enhanced user applications include the JSC search, Lessons Learned Database and Shuttle Knowledge Console. Share your center or agency experiences with JSC community! Contact the Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer today.

Brent J. Fontenot x36456

 

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11.          Weight Watchers at JSC -- We are Moving

Starting Monday, May 6, the JSC Weight Watchers at Work meeting will move to Building 20, Room 260. Weigh-in is from 11:30 to noon, and the meeting runs from noon to 12:30 p.m.

We need to increase our attendance at this meeting, or we may lose it!

Please consider attending if you are a current Weight Watchers member. Monthly Passes are accepted at this meeting. It is run by a Weight Watchers leader, and you weigh in privately on a Weight Watchers scale.

If you are interested in joining Weight Watchers, you may attend as a guest to learn more about the program. To sign up, purchase your Monthly Pass through the JSC portal at the link below (JSC company ID 24156, pass code WW24156).

Summer is quickly approaching. Don't wait, join today!

Event Date: Monday, May 6, 2013   Event Start Time:11:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Bldg 20, Room 260

 

Add to Calendar

 

Julie Kliesing x31540 https://wellness.weightwatchers.com

 

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12.          NASA Nerdz Spaces Filling Up (Slight Change to Dates Bowling)

The league is at AMF Alpha and will begin on May 30 and run to Aug 8 on Thursday nights. (Ten weeks, skipping the July 4 week.)

Bowling starts at 6:30 p.m. each day, with practice beginning at 6:15 p.m. Typically, bowling ends anywhere from 9 to 9:30 p.m.

Teams must consist of four people.

If you have four people in mind - perfect. If not, I can pair you up.

Team members do not have to work at NASA, for NASA or even work at all, and your kids can be your team members if they are able to bowl without bumpers and on their own.

Pre-bowling and post bowling are allowed as individuals.

The fee for each week of bowling is $12. (Ten weeks = $120 for 2.5 to 3 hours of fun each Thursday night through the summer.)

Please email me your team name/members by May 15.

Russell Lala x47469

 

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13.          Volunteers Needed for Special Olympics Spring Games

Calling all Space Center Volunteers! Your assistance is needed at the annual Special Olympics Spring Games on Saturday, May 4. With more than 400 athletes, the Spring Games is this area's largest track-and-field event that Special Olympics hosts. Volunteers are needed out at Clear Creek High School to help organize and run track-and-field events, time the athletes, had out medals and cheer on these fantastic athletes as the compete throughout the day. To sign up to volunteer, click here.

Angela Cason x40903 http://spacecentervolunteers.weebly.com/special-olympics-area-22-spring-...

 

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14.          Confined Space Entry - 8:30 a.m.; and Lockout/Tagout - 1 p.m. -- May 17, Building 20, Room 205/206

Confined Space Entry: The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for safe entry to and operations in confined spaces. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard 29 CFR 1910.146, "Confined Space," is the basis for this course. The course covers the hazards of working in or around a confined space and the precautions one should take to control these hazards. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Lockout/Tagout: The purpose of this course is to provide employees with the standards, procedures and requirements necessary for the control of hazardous energy through lockout and tagout of energy-isolating devices. OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.147, "The Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)," is the basis for this course. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Use this direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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15.          General Industry (CFR 1910) Safety and Health Provisions ViTS: May 31

SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0066A: This three-hour course is based on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) CFR 1910 course, Requirements for General Safety and Health Provisions. It will provide a general overview of OSHA 1910 safety requirements. During the course, the student will receive an overview of those topics needed to work safely in general industry. There will be a final exam associated with this course, which must be passed with a 70 percent minimum score to receive course credit. Use this direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Event Date: Friday, May 31, 2013   Event Start Time:9:30 AM   Event End Time:12:30 PM

Event Location: Bldg. 17 / Room 2026

 

Add to Calendar

 

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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16.          Cleanroom Protocol and Contamination Control ViTS: June 7, 12:30 p.m. -- Building 17, Room 2026

This three-hour course addresses the operation and uses of cleanrooms and the associated cleanroom protocols to minimize contamination. The student will learn how to prevent contamination from spreading to the product or test article in and upon removal from the clean environment. The class will include a discussion of contamination control and cleanroom requirements documents, including SN-C-0005 and ISO 14644. The course discusses the nature and sources of contaminants, monitoring particle and film contamination, cleanroom protocols to prevent the spread of contamination and contamination removal methods. Also included are: NASA requirements for cleanliness levels; Identification and monitoring of contamination; description and classifications of cleanrooms; personnel and garment protocols in cleanrooms and clean work areas; other do's and don'ts in cleanrooms and clean work areas; and removal methods. A comprehensive test will be offered at the end of the class. Registration in SATERN required.

https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Event Date: Friday, June 7, 2013   Event Start Time:12:30 PM   Event End Time:3:30 PM

Event Location: Building 17 / Room 2026

 

Add to Calendar

 

Shirley Robinson x41284

 

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17.          System Safety Special Subjects Class: June 11 to 12 -- Building 20, Room 205/206

Class is 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day. This course is presented as a follow-up to the System Safety Workshop Course (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0008) for those students whose primary duties involve safety or system safety. Management aspects of system safety are discussed, along with some additional analytical techniques that are not covered during the three-day workshop. Subjects discussed include system safety implementation and an introduction to software system safety. Students who have attended System Safety Fundamentals (SMA-SAFE-NSTC-0002) should not attend this course. SATERN registration required. Contractors, please update your JSC org code, phone, email and supervisor before registering. Direct link for registration: https://satern.nasa.gov/learning/user/deeplink_redirect.jsp?linkId=SCHEDULED_...

Polly Caison x41279

 

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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. To see an archive of previous JSC Today announcements, go to http://www6.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/news/jsctoday/archives.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA TV:

·      11:40 am Central (12:40 pm EDT) – E35's Chris Cassidy with Fredericksburg High School, TX

ü  Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) – Chairman House Sci, Space & Tech Committee

ü  Former Astronaut Eileen Collins

 

Human Spaceflight News

Thursday, May 2, 2013

 

Karen Nyberg, Fyodor Yurchikhin, and Luca Parmitano in Star City. They launch to ISS at 3:31 pm Central (4:31 EDT) Tuesday, May 28.

 

HEADLINES AND LEADS

 

NASA Chief: We Will Renegotiate Contracts If Sequester Continues

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aerospace Daily

 

A continuation of across-the-board budget sequestration into fiscal 2014 will force NASA to renegotiate contracts, including those for commercial resupply of the International Space Station, and begin furloughing employees, according to Administrator Charles Bolden. Testifying on NASA's fiscal 2014 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee April 25, Bolden said the agency has been able to accommodate the fiscal 2013 sequestration without furloughs or major programmatic disruptions. That will change Oct. 1 if sequestration continues, he told Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA.

 

NASA uses Soyuz deal to push for commercial crew funding

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

On Tuesday, NASA announced it had extended a deal with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station. The deal covers bringing six astronauts up to the ISS in 2016 and rescue and return services through 2017. The price: $424 million, or about $70 million per seat, up from the $63 million per seat in the previous agreement. (The press release indicates the agreement includes some services that were previously covered under a separate contract, complicating an apples-to-apples comparison.) The contract extension is hardly a surprise, but NASA leadership used it as

an opportunity to make the case for fully funding the agency's commercial crew program so that additional extensions of the Soyuz deal aren't needed.

 

Experiments Begin With SCaN Test Bed on ISS

 

Emily Carney - AmericaSpace.com

 

This technology will allow radio characteristics and functionality to be changed by simply altering software and can be extended to any radio built to its standard. The project was previously known as the Communications, Navigation, and Networking re-Configurable Testbed (CoNNeCT). Activities completed in February successfully "checked out" the payload, including antenna systems and software on the three TDRS. This system is intended for use upon the ISS for the next six years; experiments underway include making advancements in the S-band and Ka-band SDR technology. This would allow the system to stay in use on the space station nearly through its scheduled end of service in 2020.

 

U.S. crew and cargo candidate takes shape with composites

Crew-capable Dream Chaser to enable ISS transport missions from U.S.

 

Donna Dawson - CompositesWorld.com

 

When NASA retired its Space Shuttle fleet in July 2011, its successors were the Constellation Program, aimed at exploration of the Moon and resumption of service to the International Space Station (ISS), and the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program (C3PO), established in 2006 to encourage development of commercial spacecraft by private industry. When the Obama Administration canceled Constellation in 2011, NASA shifted gears and instituted a new space exploration program aimed at sending humans deeper into space than ever before. The new effort includes development of NASA's Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Orion. NASA has refocused on beyond-Earth orbit (BEO) goals and handed over the task of low-Earth orbit (LEO) transportation to the commercial sector. NASA provides technical expertise and financial investment in C3PO's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and Commercial Crew Program (CCP), but it "is an investor without equity," explains Ed Mango, CCP manager at Kennedy Space Center. "The success of the program [is] its only return on investment," he says.

 

NASA Technology Stabilizes All Kinds Of Structures

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

At Marshall Space Flight Center, a relatively simple technology developed to smooth potentially dangerous vibrations in NASA's defunct Ares I crew launch vehicle is finding its way into the wider world as a way to steady buildings, aircraft, ships and other structures reacting to winds, waves and even earthquakes. The passive approach uses the weight of a liquid coupled to a structure to dampen shaking, swaying, fluttering and other oscillations. NASA has spent about $5 million refining the technique it calls fluid structure coupling (FSC), but has been reluctant to reveal details because of the military potential growing out of the launch-vehicle application that spawned it originally. Now engineers here have expanded their early analytical and experimental work on the Ares I thrust-oscillation problem to encompass a host of potential applications, including stabilizing nuclear power plants and tall buildings in earthquakes and violent storms, ships and drilling platforms in rough seas, and fuel-filled aircraft wings in turbulent flight conditions.

 

With Spaceship's Rocket Test-flight, 'The Hard Part is Over,' Says Branson

 

Space News

 

On June 21, 2004, Scaled Composites pilot Mike Melville strapped himself inside an experimental spaceship, hitched an airplane ride into the sky, fired up his rocket engine and catapulted himself beyond the atmosphere, becoming the first privately funded astronaut to reach space. Two more suborbital hops followed in September and October, earning SpaceShipOne the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private human spaceflight and a place in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The endeavor captivated Richard Branson, the billionaire adventurer who founded and oversees London-based Virgin Group, and he hired Scaled to produce a commercial version of the spaceship so that anyone with the money to spare could experience for themselves a few minutes of microgravity and a fleeting view of Earth set against the blackness of space.

 

Prospect of one-way Mars trip captures the imagination

 

David Shukman - BBC News

 

Twenty years ago when scientists at Cern created the first page for the World Wide Web no one could have imagined how easily it would transform the ability of humankind to have conversations around the globe. Nor could they have predicted that a web-based debate would have explored the apparently outlandish idea of volunteers travelling on a one-way ticket to Mars and setting up a colony with no prospect of return - all on live television. There is something about Mars that catches the imagination - its bloody colour, its role in mythology, the terrible track record of attempts to land on its distant and dusty surface, and the prospects of finding forms of alien life. I checked with Bas Lansdorp, boss of Mars One, for the latest number of people to sign up so far: 30,000 people had paid the 30 euro deposit by the end of last week - and that number is probably far higher now.

 

Third-grader names asteroid that is focus of NASA mission

 

Deborah Netburn - Los Angeles Times

 

Asteroid (101955)1999 RQ36 doesn't really roll off the tongue, but asteroid Bennu? That's an asteroid that a person, a country and the world can get excited about. This week, NASA announced that 9-year-old Michael Toler Puzio of North Carolina had won an international student contest to name the asteroid that NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission plans to sample in 2019. The third-grader's entry, Bennu, is the name of an avian deity in ancient Egypt that often takes the form of a blue heron. NASA announced the OSIRIS-REx mission in May 2011, describing it as the first U.S. mission to carry samples of an asteroid back to Earth, and a crucial step in meeting President Obama's objectives to extend human space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit. "It's robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep-space destinations," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the time.

 

9-Year-Old Names Asteroid 'Bennu' for NASA Mission

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

A near-Earth asteroid that will be visited by a NASA spacecraft in 2018 now has a more approachable name — "Bennu" — thanks to a North Carolina third-grader. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio's suggestion beat out more than 8,000 other entries in an international student contest that sought to rename potentially dangerous asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36, which is the target of NASA's Osiris-Rex sample-return mission. "It's great!" Puzio said when told he won the contest. "I'm the first kid I know that named part of the solar system!"

 

An astronaut in cyberspace:

How Chris Hadfield used Twitter to give us all (even Star Trek's William Shatner) a taste of life on the International Space Station

 

Simon Usborne - The Independent

 

Captain Kirk played a key role in thrusting Commander Hadfield to the sort of fame not enjoyed by a real-life spaceman for decades. William Shatner, who played Kirk in Star Trek, contacted Hadfield on Twitter a couple of weeks after the astronaut first floated into the International Space Station. Shatner later dusted off his communicator and called Hadfield. The laid-back exchange went viral on YouTube, giving yet another boost to the profile of a moustachioed farm boy from small-town Canada who has, according to one of his legion fans, "single-handedly made space sexy again". Chris Hadfield, who is preparing for his return to Earth on 13 May after six months in orbit, has become a star thanks in part to a grasp of technology that makes Kirk look like a late adopter. Via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, he has beamed down to an audience of millions with his captivating videos, photos, music and poetic takes on extraterrestrial life.

 

Petrified Congressmen Delay Commercial Space Efforts

 

Douglas Messier - Parabolic Arc (Opinion)

 

On Sunday, I dropped by Bob's Army Navy Store in Mojave, hoping to pick up a pair of good binoculars for the SpaceShipTwo flight scheduled for the next day. Although my search was in vain, I did visit the area on the west side of the building where there are a variety of rocks for sale. What really caught my interest, though, was the petrified wood. I recalled all this two days later when I read the latest commercial crew news from NASA. The latest update led me to believe that something similar has happened in Congress, with some mysterious process turning the logic centers in the brains of Congress representatives to stone. They have the appearance of living, thinking human beings capable of complex problem solving, but their political positions have somehow become frozen in place.

__________

 

COMPLETE STORIES

 

NASA Chief: We Will Renegotiate Contracts If Sequester Continues

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aerospace Daily

 

A continuation of across-the-board budget sequestration into fiscal 2014 will force NASA to renegotiate contracts, including those for commercial resupply of the International Space Station, and begin furloughing employees, according to Administrator Charles Bolden.

 

Testifying on NASA's fiscal 2014 budget request before the Senate Appropriations Committee April 25, Bolden said the agency has been able to accommodate the fiscal 2013 sequestration without furloughs or major programmatic disruptions. That will change Oct. 1 if sequestration continues, he told Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA.

 

"My assumption in recommending this budget to the president, and the president's assumption in sending it to the Congress, was that between him and all of you, with 100 senators and 400-plus members of Congress, we are going to solve the sequester problem in this budget coming out," Bolden said. "If that is not done, . . . it will impact the priorities that NASA and the Congress agreed to."

 

Impacts could include a delay in the planned 2018 launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—a Goddard Space Flight Center project that Mikulski is watching closely—as well as the planned 2017 first flight of the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS), continued development of the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle and plans to begin flying U.S. crews on commercial spacecraft now being developed with partial NASA funding in 2017. The agency has long said that date will slip if Congress does not fund the program at the $822 million level requested in fiscal 2014, and Bolden said continued sequestration will also cause delays.

 

SpaceX already has delivered two loads of cargo to the International Space Station under its 12-flight, $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, and Orbital Sciences plans to complete its demonstration missions and begin fulfilling its eight-flight, $1.9 billion CRS contract this year. But Bolden cautioned that will change if sequestration continues.

 

"I'll have to renegotiate those contracts," he said. "We won't fly the number of missions that we have. Right now we're flying 20 commercial cargo missions to the International Space Station over the next five years for three-point-some-odd billion dollars, an incredible value to the nation. I can't carry that out under sequester."

 

And while the agency has been able to avoid furloughing civil servants in fiscal 2013, "in all probability I will have to furlough . . . I'm not telling anybody I can work a miracle. If we cannot get out from under sequester, all bets are off."

 

Bolden said a 2014 sequester would take the agency budget down to about $16.2 billion from $16.8 billion this year. Mikulski has proposed a 1% transfer authority within agencies to help smooth the impact of continued sequestration, but Bolden said it would not be enough.

 

NASA uses Soyuz deal to push for commercial crew funding

 

Jeff Foust – SpacePolitics.com

 

On Tuesday, NASA announced it had extended a deal with the Russian space agency Roscosmos to provide crew transportation services to and from the International Space Station. The deal covers bringing six astronauts up to the ISS in 2016 and rescue and return services through 2017. The price: $424 million, or about $70 million per seat, up from the $63 million per seat in the previous agreement. (The press release indicates the agreement includes some services that were previously covered under a separate contract, complicating an apples-to-apples comparison.)

 

The contract extension is hardly a surprise, but NASA leadership used it as an opportunity to make the case for fully funding the agency's commercial crew program so that additional extensions of the Soyuz deal aren't needed. "Further delays in our Commercial Crew Program and its impact on our human spaceflight program are unacceptable. That's why we need the full $821 million the President has requested in next year's budget to keep us on track to meet our 2017 deadline and bring these launches back to the United States," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a separate blog post yesterday.

 

Bolden made similar arguments last week in testimony to Congress. "This is a year of decision" for commercial crew, Bolden said last Thursday at a hearing on the NASA budget proposal by the Senate Appropriations Committee's Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee. "If we do not get $822 million in the 2014 budget as requested by the President, it will be my unfortunate duty to advise the Congress and the President that we probably will not make 2017 for the availability of an American capability to get our astronauts to space, and I will have to tell you that I'm going to have to come back and ask for authorization to once again pay the Russians to take our crews to space." (The discrepancy between the $822 million above and the $821 million in yesterday's blog post likely stems from the fact the budget specifically requests an amount between the two: $821.4 million.)

 

At that hearing, though, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of both the CJS subcommittee and full appropriations committee, was critical of the funding sought for commercial crew, which he feared was coming at the expense of the Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. "This budget focuses, I believe, too heavily on maintaining the fiction of privately-funded commercial launch vehicles, which diverts, I think, critical resources from NASA's goal of developing human spaceflight capabilities with the SLS," he said in his opening statement. He said that the companies that have received funded Space Act Agreements were not as accountable as they should be regarding the progress they've made or in revealing how much of their own money they have invested in these efforts. "This sounds like a great arrangement for the companies, but I don't believe it's a great arrangement for the taxpayer."

 

Experiments Begin With SCaN Test Bed on ISS

 

Emily Carney - AmericaSpace.com

 

This technology will allow radio characteristics and functionality to be changed by simply altering software and can be extended to any radio built to its standard. The project was previously known as the Communications, Navigation, and Networking re-Configurable Testbed (CoNNeCT).

 

Activities completed in February successfully "checked out" the payload, including antenna systems and software on the three TDRS. This system is intended for use upon the ISS for the next six years; experiments underway include making advancements in the S-band and Ka-band SDR technology.

 

This would allow the system to stay in use on the space station nearly through its scheduled end of service in 2020.

 

An experiment will take place utilizing the recently-launched Tracking and Data Relay-K satellite (known as TDRS-K or TDRS-11, the "new generation" TDRS satellite designed by Boeing and launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Jan. 31, 2013). This will be the first in-orbit demonstration using a TDRS satellite to acquire and auto-track an object in low-Earth orbit using the Ka-band.

 

Many centers are making headway in testing the system, led by Glenn Research Center and including Goddard Space Flight Center, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Johnson Space Center. In cooperation with NASA, the system's SDRs were designed by General Dynamics and Harris Corp.

 

Moreover, the test bed will extend participation to agencies outside of NASA, such as academic and governmental institutions. NASA is currently soliciting proposals from other agencies to participate in the development and demonstration of SCaN; this phase of experimentation is intended to begin in 2014. Government agencies, industries, and academic institutions are encouraged to visit the test bed's experimenters' website for more information; a handbook, among other documents of interest, are available for those interested in this project.

 

U.S. crew and cargo candidate takes shape with composites

Crew-capable Dream Chaser to enable ISS transport missions from U.S.

 

Donna Dawson - CompositesWorld.com

 

When NASA retired its Space Shuttle fleet in July 2011, its successors were the Constellation Program, aimed at exploration of the Moon and resumption of service to the International Space Station (ISS), and the Commercial Crew & Cargo Program (C3PO), established in 2006 to encourage development of commercial spacecraft by private industry. When the Obama Administration canceled Constellation in 2011, NASA shifted gears and instituted a new space exploration program aimed at sending humans deeper into space than ever before. The new effort includes development of NASA's Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, Orion.

 

Privatizing low-Earth orbit transport

 

NASA has refocused on beyond-Earth orbit (BEO) goals and handed over the task of low-Earth orbit (LEO) transportation to the commercial sector. NASA provides technical expertise and financial investment in C3PO's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program and Commercial Crew Program (CCP), but it "is an investor without equity," explains Ed Mango, CCP manager at Kennedy Space Center. "The success of the program [is] its only return on investment," he says.

 

C3PO manages the COTS partnership agreements with U.S. industry, and as of February 2013, it had invested $800 million in cargo demonstrators. COTS was the stimulus for Space Exploration Technologies' (SpaceX, Hawthorne, Calif.) pilotless cargo module Dragon — the first commercial spacecraft to dock on the ISS and return home.

 

COTS is strictly for cargo transport, but under the CCP banner, NASA established a $440 million award for Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap), which is designed to get humans back into LEO (180 to 2,000 km/112 to 1,243 miles) on a domestic spacecraft. According to Mango, "The next time a U.S. rocket and spacecraft are flying, it will be through CCP; there will be nothing else first with people on board."

 

In 2009, NASA kicked off this program by investing $50 million in initial Commercial Crew Development (CCDev), basically a primer for CCP. This was followed by a $270 million award to four companies for further development, based on criteria for crew-carrying craft that stress safety and reliability.

 

In December 2012, based on work accomplished to that point in CCDev, NASA awarded about $10 million each to three of the competing companies for certification of flight safety and performance requirements for their spacecraft systems: SpaceX; The Boeing Co. (Houston, Texas); and Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems (Sparks, Nev.).

 

To the ISS and back

 

Sierra Nevada's spacecraft, the Dream Chaser Space System (DCSS), is engineered to provide the U.S. with a piloted craft designed to make 25 round trips to the ISS with a crew of seven plus cargo. Derived from NASA's HL-20 reusable lifting-body concept, which was extensively researched for manned orbital missions at NASA Langley Research Center (Hampton, Va.), the craft is capable of free flight in LEO, docking with the ISS and reaching "other orbital destinations," says Frank Taylor, director of technology for Sierra Nevada's Space Exploration Systems. "Its low-gravity reentry (<1.5 gs) and low-impact horizontal landings on a conventional runway protects both the crew and samples that are returning from orbital science experiments."

 

Taylor identifies Sierra Nevada's main engineering challenge as choosing the materials and process for a human-rated space structure that can withstand temperature variations ranging from -54°C/-65°F to 177°C/350°F during the time period of each mission, and through repeated missions, without sacrificing the required strength and other performance properties.

 

"We spent a good deal of time in the early days of planning our vehicle and its long-term design path exploring and examining the trades between composites and other viable materials," recalls Mark Sirangelo, executive VP and chairman of Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems. "In the end, we came to believe that the use of composites was not only superior for this application in a technical sense but also significantly aided our ability to meet our expected market demand."

 

Sierra Nevada Corp. elected to use composite materials in both primary and secondary structures, including the cabin, bulkhead, canted fins, aerosurfaces and aeroshells. It is primarily carbon fiber preimpregnated with bismaleimide (BMI) resin, in both woven fabric and unidirectional tape, in a sandwich structure with an unidentified nonmetallic honeycomb core.

 

The materials selection was narrowed to products supplied by Cytec Engineered Materials (Tempe, Ariz.) and Hexcel Corp. (Stamford, Conn.). "Cytec's 5250-4 and Hexcel's M65 BMI prepregs are being used in discrete areas of the structure, based on the unique characteristics of each," Taylor reveals. "These materials retain good strength at high temperature." Further, he says, their low coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) minimize the effect of thermal gradients within the structure. The high specific stiffness (modulus) of the composite minimizes strains on heat shield. Similar to the ceramic tiles and blanket materials used on the Space Shuttles, the heat shield minimizes the thermal strains imposed on the vehicle by extreme thermal gradients during reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Taylor says this results in a more efficient system and better protects the crew and cargo.

 

BMIs come of (space) age

 

BMI resins, now a leading class of thermosetting polyimides, reportedly offer the highest service-temperatures of any thermoset — some can withstand up to 230°C to 290°C (450°F to 550°F) in extended service. Further, they offer familiar, epoxy-like autoclave processing.

 

In LEO, structural materials also must be shielded from atomic oxygen, single oxygen atoms (O) that, like peroxide, are extremely reactive oxidizers. Exposed epoxy-based composites are subject to substantial oxidation and erosion. BMIs also tend to oxidize in atomic oxygen, so the Dream Chaser will be shielded by an unidentified protective coating.

 

Although details about the fiber architecture are proprietary, Taylor says Sierra Nevada fully exploited the ability to tailor fiber architecture and layup and, thus, the mechanical strength and stiffness properties, "to meet the challenging launch/abort, reentry and landing environments that the Dream Chaser vehicle is exposed to during its mission." Stiffness is a vital factor because aerodynamic and launch forces subject all materials to significant vibration, acoustic and bending loads. Impact resistance is another requirement for protection against damage from the occasional micrometeoroid.

 

Taylor also cites the time and cost savings that have accrued to the program through the use of composites, due to their flexibility in manufacturing. Tooling and manufacturing costs have been reduced through parts consolidation. For example, the crew cabin comprises only two shells, or skins, cobonded with multiple internal frames. The fins, too, are cobonded parts that combine upper and lower skins with three spars and multiple ribs. Further, as the vehicle's structural design matures, tooling changes for composites can be made more rapidly than is possible in metals fabrication. "The ability to produce additional vehicles more rapidly and to produce modified versions of the Dream Chaser to meet future client needs gave us greater confidence in our business plan," says Sirangelo.

 

All composite parts will be autoclaved at the recommended time and temperature for the material (~350°F to 400°F/~177°C to 204°C). In structural assembly operations, Sierra Nevada will minimize the need for fasteners by employing a combination of cocuring and cobonding in an autoclave, incorporating the honeycomb core and advanced 3-D woven preforms. The 3-D preforms will be cobonded at most joints to further strengthen the structure.

 

Sierra Nevada is working with partner organizations in more than 15 states to develop the Dream Chaser. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. (Littleton, Colo.), an exclusive partner on the certification products contract (CPC), will build the tooling and composite structure for the Dream Chaser at its facility in Ft. Worth, Texas, and at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. — the facility that built the external tanks for the Space Shuttles. Lockheed Martin brings to the partnership extensive experience in building composite structures for spacecraft and high-performance aircraft. Given Lockheed's concurrent work on NASA's Orion vehicle, the company also brings to the Dream Chaser program its long experience in obtaining NASA certification for a crewed flight vehicle.

 

Looking to launch certification

 

The Dream Chaser's onboard propulsion system is the same hybrid rocket motor technology developed by Sierra Nevada for the carbon composites-intensive SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicles, built by Scaled Composites (Mojave, Calif.) for space-tourism company Virgin Galactic (Las Cruces, N.M.).

 

The Dream Chaser is designed to launch vertically on a United Launch Alliance (ULA, Centennial, Colo.) Atlas V rocket, which has had 100 percent mission success in more than 36 launches from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Sierra Nevada and ULA have integrated the Dream Chaser and Atlas V designs since the program's inception and are now working with ULA's Human Launch Services to achieve human rating for the spacecraft. "Our longstanding relationship has allowed us to greatly evolve our integrated crew transportation system and gives the DCSS the advantages, such as flight-proven reliability, that only a mature launch system can provide," says Sirangelo.

 

NASA Technology Stabilizes All Kinds Of Structures

 

Frank Morring, Jr. - Aviation Week

 

At Marshall Space Flight Center, a relatively simple technology developed to smooth potentially dangerous vibrations in NASA's defunct Ares I crew launch vehicle is finding its way into the wider world as a way to steady buildings, aircraft, ships and other structures reacting to winds, waves and even earthquakes. The passive approach uses the weight of a liquid coupled to a structure to dampen shaking, swaying, fluttering and other oscillations.

 

NASA has spent about $5 million refining the technique it calls fluid structure coupling (FSC), but has been reluctant to reveal details because of the military potential growing out of the launch-vehicle application that spawned it originally. Now engineers here have expanded their early analytical and experimental work on the Ares I thrust-oscillation problem to encompass a host of potential applications, including stabilizing nuclear power plants and tall buildings in earthquakes and violent storms, ships and drilling platforms in rough seas, and fuel-filled aircraft wings in turbulent flight conditions.

 

"Once you [understand] the concept, it has allowed us to ask a lot more questions in a lot more places," says Rob Berry, chief technologist and manager of the FSC project at Marshall. "We're saying anywhere fluid and structures coexist, you can control the coupling. The question is, 'can you control enough fluid, enough coupling, to make it worthwhile?'"

 

The Ares I application used an FSC device immersed in the upper stage liquid oxygen (LOX) tank to calm vibrations set up in the vehicle stack as its solid-fuel first stage neared propellant burnout. The thrust oscillation posed a danger to astronauts in the Orion crew capsule at the top of the stack (AW&ST July 6, 2009, p. 42). Ultimately, opponents of a government-owned orbital crew vehicle seized on the thrust-oscillation issue as ammunition in their successful efforts to kill the project. But work on the FSC technology continued at a low level, using surplus hardware scrounged from the boneyards of this Apollo-vintage propulsion center and funds from NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist, the heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) program, and other sources.

 

The basic idea is what Jeff Lindner, one of the engineers who invented the FSC launch-vehicle application, calls "a compressible degree of freedom." In the Ares I, Lindner and his colleagues used the weight of the LOX in the upper stage to dampen thrust oscillation by building a system that gave the relatively heavy cryogenic liquid another place to go instead of transmitting vibrations upward from the solid-fuel first stage.

 

"The bottom of the tank moves up or down, and that fluid goes along for the ride," says Lindner. "If you put a compressible degree of freedom, a bubble—think of a balloon—in the tank, when it compresses the fluid moves toward it. When it expands, the fluid moves away from it . . . Now we have a very large percentage of the fluid which we control the dynamics of, all by controlling the dynamics of that compressible degree of freedom."

 

The FSC project is using the 40-story vehicle dynamics test facility originally built for the Saturn Moon rocket, and later modified to handle the Ares I, to demonstrate just how little fluid is needed to stabilize a tall building. The team has mounted oscillating weights near the top of the structure that are massive enough to set the whole building moving with an easily perceptible sway.

 

 

In the photo, Lindner handles part of the off-the-shelf green plastic pipe holding 13,000 lb. of water that has an FSC device inside. As long as the system is engaged at the top of the 4.5-million-lb. structure, the oscillating weights barely move the building. But when the valve in Lindner's right hand is closed, isolating the device, water in a nearby transparent tank begins sloshing dramatically as the building sways perceptibly.

 

"We're able to get greater than a four-times reduction [in lateral motion]," says Berry, noting that the water in the FSC pipe has only 0.3% of the mass of the building.

 

Berry's group has studied the phenomenon analytically and empirically, and is using the large-scale experiment "to make sure the physics doesn't fall apart." Some of that work may help SLS designers if they need to dampen loads on their big new launch vehicle, but NASA also has embarked on some missionary work.

 

After passing their findings along to military research and development organizations that may want to make classified use of the techniques, Berry says, NASA has been briefing various civilian entities on FSC. Not surprisingly, engineering firms that specialize in skyscrapers are showing interest, he says, as are shipbuilders and oil companies with deep-sea drilling platforms.

 

"What's important to know is it's mature," Berry says. "This is not just some lab experiments and concepts. We spent the time, because of Ares where we had a real issue to go solve, to understand the physics."

 

With Spaceship's Rocket Test-flight, 'The Hard Part is Over,' Says Branson

 

Space News

 

On June 21, 2004, Scaled Composites pilot Mike Melville strapped himself inside an experimental spaceship, hitched an airplane ride into the sky, fired up his rocket engine and catapulted himself beyond the atmosphere, becoming the first privately funded astronaut to reach space.

 

Two more suborbital hops followed in September and October, earning SpaceShipOne the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private human spaceflight and a place in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

 

The endeavor captivated Richard Branson, the billionaire adventurer who founded and oversees London-based Virgin Group, and he hired Scaled to produce a commercial version of the spaceship so that anyone with the money to spare could experience for themselves a few minutes of microgravity and a fleeting view of Earth set against the blackness of space.

 

Nine years and a half-billion dollars later, Branson marked the biggest milestone yet validating that his dream was more than a flight of fancy. On April 29, Virgin Galactic's six-passenger, dual-pilot SpaceShipTwo successfully completed the first in-flight test-firing of its rocket motor over California's Mojave Desert. The burn lasted just 16 seconds, but to Branson it was the long-awaited giant leap.

 

"The rocket technology took longer (to develop) than the spaceship or the mother ship or the spaceport, but they finally got there. The big, difficult milestones are now all behind us," Branson told SpaceNews.

 

It took SpaceShipOne just three powered test flights over six months before Melville crossed the Karman Line, the official 100-kilometer doorway to space. Branson expects SpaceShipTwo will follow a similar path and test its wings -- and feathered re-entry system -- beyond the atmosphere before year's end.

 

On what may be the last test flight or the first commercial one, Branson himself plans to be aboard, accompanied by his two grown children and up to three, as-yet-unnamed, guests, possibly including Scaled founder and lead spaceship designer Burt Rutan, who has since retired.

 

"Within 12 months, I'll be going up with my adult kids and it will be the start of a whole new era of space travel. We're really not long away now," Branson said.

 

Virgin Galactic plans to fly SpaceShipTwo -- and a fleet of sisterships -- from a newly built spaceport in New Mexico. About 580 people already have paid or put down deposits for rides, which currently sell for $200,000 apiece.

 

"As of this year, we will be the only company actually taking people into space. At an affordable rate, I think, Virgin will be the only company over the next few years to do so," Branson said. "There have been quite a few other companies  who have invested hundreds of millions  trying to achieve this. It's a challenge."

 

Among those planning to give Virgin a run for customers' money is XCOR Aerospace, which expects to begin test flights of its two-seater suborbital Lynx spaceplane this year. Other firms, such as Space Exploration Technologies, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp. --  -- which supplied SpaceShipTwo's hybrid motor -- are working to parlay investment funds from NASA into commercially owned and operated orbital spaceships for flying people to the international space station and other destinations in low-Earth orbit.

 

Virgin too has its eye on orbital space transportation, but plans to build up to it from suborbital flight services -- including point-to-point travel -- and from a fledging satellite-launching business that uses the spaceship's carrier WhiteKnightTwo aircraft.

 

"All of these things are now possible," Branson said. "We will be ramping up our spaceship-building program over the next three years. We believe the demand will exceed supply and now that we've gotten through this milestone, we'll certainly be expanding the program."

 

Branson said he expects to add another $100 million or so to the $500 million already spent on the SpaceShipTwo project, but ticket sales won't be Virgin's only return on investment.

 

With two WhiteKnight carrier aircraft, Virgin Galactic can put 3,500 small satellites into orbit per month.

 

"That can do radical things for telecommunications, internet access, wi-fi and so on. It's many, many more than anyone else has the capability of doing," Branson said.

 

"Because we're not land-based, it's much easier for us to do it without having to wait in a long queue to do so. We can replace satellites in 24 hours, and we can put an array in very quickly," he said.

 

Prospect of one-way Mars trip captures the imagination

 

David Shukman - BBC News

 

Twenty years ago when scientists at Cern created the first page for the World Wide Web no one could have imagined how easily it would transform the ability of humankind to have conversations around the globe.

 

Nor could they have predicted that a web-based debate would have explored the apparently outlandish idea of volunteers travelling on a one-way ticket to Mars and setting up a colony with no prospect of return - all on live television.

 

The technology for that kind of space travel didn't exist back then. The TV show Big Brother hadn't been invented. And the three letters "www" were known to only a handful of people.

 

But on Tuesday afternoon, in a Google "hangout" - the first of this type of web-based dialogue to be hosted by BBC News - contributors from as far afield as Arizona, Paris and Mumbai shared their thoughts with us in London on a plan for an outpost where people would live - and die - beyond Earth.

 

A Dutch organisation, Mars One, is seeking volunteers for a flight that would take them to the Red Planet and leave them there. The costs would be covered, it's hoped, by TV rights and corporate sponsorship.

 

Huge excitement

 

There is something about Mars that catches the imagination - its bloody colour, its role in mythology, the terrible track record of attempts to land on its distant and dusty surface, and the prospects of finding forms of alien life.

 

I checked with Bas Lansdorp, boss of Mars One, for the latest number of people to sign up so far: 30,000 people had paid the 30 euro deposit by the end of last week - and that number is probably far higher now.

 

Applicants' videos on his website capture an extraordinary level of excitement about the chance of making the journey. So what is it that drives people to want to leave this planet and risk everything on another?

 

We discussed that question with Melissa Ede, who describes herself as a transgender woman, and has signed up as a contender to be selected for the Mars One mission - "failure isn't in my vocabulary", she told us before the webcast.

 

For her, it was about excitement and the need to explore. "How do we know it's not possible?" she asked.

 

That was in response to comments I'd made about the very high number of very large obstacles that need to be overcome before anyone's boots will scuff the soils of Mars.

 

For a start, space is difficult and expensive. There aren't colonies on the Moon or Mars right now for a reason: the challenges and costs are huge.

 

The preferred rocket, Falcon Heavy, has to yet to be tested by its makers, SpaceX, even though the Mars One plan calls for the first demonstration flight to land on Mars in 2016.

 

A satellite is due to be parked above Mars in the same year to act as a relay for live TV pictures. A British firm, Surrey Satellites, confirms to me that it has been approached by Mars One but says it needs to be paid before researching the proposal.

 

Tight timings

 

The Mars One plan has incredibly tight timings - possibly unrealistically tight. Various contributors agreed on the sheer scale of the technological difficulties, including Rajat Agrawal, a technology writer in Mumbai, and Amy Shira Teitel, a space historian in Phoenix.

 

Ms Shira Teital said: "What if one of their supplies ships doesn't make it and they lose food? What's going to happen when vital parts don't make it or survive the trip? Is the crew going to eat each other? How much are we willing to make it a 'Lord of the Flies'-type situation if it all goes terribly wrong?"

 

Meanwhile, another communications system only made possible by the Web - Twitter - focused on the apparently appealing notion of using Mars One to rid the Earth of various people - usually politicians. One said: "You would never have to hear Justin Bieber again."

 

Others asked about the practicalities, often the grim ones. "What happens to the corpses?" asked one woman in a Tweet. Fair question, and thought-provoking: colonies need cemeteries.

 

There's always massive interest in Nasa's rovers on Mars - and robots like Curiosity are a very efficient way to explore the solar system. But there's nothing like the prospect of humans venturing there to spark excitement.

 

The half hour hangout passed incredibly quickly. I was reminded - by an email - of an earlier venture, Mars Express, the European Space Agency's spacecraft sent to orbit Mars.

 

I witnessed its launch from Baikonur in Central Asia in June 2003 - almost 10 years ago. It was an uplifting sight watching the rocket blaze its way through space and the mission was a success.

 

But the craft was also carrying a tiny lander, the British Beagle-2, which was designed to touch down and search for signs of life. On Christmas Day, 2003, we waited for a signal - and waited and waited. The Beagle had crashed.

 

Imagine the risks of a manned mission to Mars, and the tension of a landing. If it gets off the ground - and it's a very big if - Mars One would provide irresistible viewing. And a lot more for us all to talk about.

 

Third-grader names asteroid that is focus of NASA mission

 

Deborah Netburn - Los Angeles Times

 

Asteroid (101955)1999 RQ36 doesn't really roll off the tongue, but asteroid Bennu? That's an asteroid that a person, a country and the world can get excited about.

 

This week, NASA announced that 9-year-old Michael Toler Puzio of North Carolina had won an international student contest to name the asteroid that NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission plans to sample in 2019.

 

The third-grader's entry, Bennu, is the name of an avian deity in ancient Egypt that often takes the form of a blue heron.

 

"The winged OSIRIS-REx and its heron-like TAGSAM [the mechanism that will collect the sample] also evoke attributes of Bennu, as do the egg shape of the asteroid itself," Toler Puzio said in a statement.

 

Bruce Betts, one of the judges of the contest, said the name struck a chord right away, not just because of the spacecraft's heron-like appearance. "The parallel with asteroids as both bringers of life and as destructive forces in the solar system also created a great opportunity to teach," he said.

 

NASA announced the OSIRIS-REx mission in May 2011, describing it as the first U.S. mission to carry samples of an asteroid back to Earth, and a crucial step in meeting President Obama's objectives to extend human space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit.

 

"It's robotic missions like these that will pave the way for future human space missions to an asteroid and other deep-space destinations," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden at the time.

 

Scientists selected the asteroid now known as Bennu as the mission's destination because its orbit is relatively accessible, it is large enough to sample and it is carbonaceous and may hold the building blocks of life on Earth. Also, scientists are hoping it will be easy to collect a sample from it.

 

Bennu is about 1,900 feet in diameter, or about the size of five football fields. As of now, the OSIRIS-REx mission is scheduled to launch in 2016, meet up with Bennu in 2019, and return a sample of the asteroid to Earth by 2023.

 

The naming contest was a collaboration between the University of Arizona, which is leading the OSIRIS-REx mission, the Planetary Society and MIT's Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project, which discovered the asteroid.

 

9-Year-Old Names Asteroid 'Bennu' for NASA Mission

 

Mike Wall - Space.com

 

A near-Earth asteroid that will be visited by a NASA spacecraft in 2018 now has a more approachable name — "Bennu" — thanks to a North Carolina third-grader.

 

Nine-year-old Michael Puzio's suggestion beat out more than 8,000 other entries in an international student contest that sought to rename potentially dangerous asteroid (101955) 1999 RQ36, which is the target of NASA's Osiris-Rex sample-return mission.

 

"It's great!" Puzio said when told he won the contest. "I'm the first kid I know that named part of the solar system!"

 

Bennu (pronounced ben-oo) is an Egyptian god usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio nominated the name because he thought Osiris-Rex's Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism arm (TAGSAM) and solar panels looked like Bennu's neck and wings, contest officials said.

 

"The name 'Bennu' struck a chord with many of us right away," Bruce Betts, director of projects for the nonprofit Planetary Society and a judge in the competition, said in a statement. "While there were many great entries, the similarity between the image of the heron and the TAGSAM arm of Osiris-Rex was a clever choice."

 

The $800 million Osiris-Rex mission — whose name is short for Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer — is slated to blast off in September 2016, rendezvous with the 1,840-foot-wide (560 meters) Bennu in 2018 and return pieces of the space rock to Earth in 2023.

 

Scientists are eager to study such samples for several reasons. Asteroids are composed of primitive material left over from the formation of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago, for example, and they may have helped life gain a foothold on Earth by delivering water and complex, carbon-rich molecules to our planet.

 

"The samples of Bennu returned by Osiris-Rex will allow scientists to peer into the origin of the solar system and gain insights into the origin of life," Jason Dworkin, an Osiris-Rex project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement.

 

Bennu is also a potentially hazardous asteroid that has a roughly 1-in-1,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2182, so a detailed study of the space rock could come in handy if humanity ever needs to deflect it or similar space rocks, researchers say.

 

The "Name that Asteroid!" competition launched last year. It was a partnership involving the University of Arizona, where Osiris-Rex principal investigator Dante Lauretta works; The Planetary Society; and the Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) survey at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory.

 

Contestants, who had to be younger than 18, submitted a name along with a short explanation for their choice. More than 8,000 students from more than 25 countries around the world participated, contest officials said.

 

"Bennu" will be submitted to the International Astronomical Union, which traditionally has approved "official" astronomical names for celestial bodies, they added.

 

An astronaut in cyberspace:

How Chris Hadfield used Twitter to give us all (even Star Trek's William Shatner) a taste of life on the International Space Station

 

Simon Usborne - The Independent

 

Captain Kirk played a key role in thrusting Commander Hadfield to the sort of fame not enjoyed by a real-life spaceman for decades. William Shatner, who played Kirk in Star Trek, contacted Hadfield on Twitter a couple of weeks after the astronaut first floated into the International Space Station.

 

"Are you tweeting from space?" Shatner asked his compatriot (both men are Canadian) in early January. "Yes, Standard Orbit, Captain," Hadfield replied from 250 miles up, where the Sun sets 16 times a day. "And we're detecting signs of life on the surface."

 

Shatner later dusted off his communicator and called Hadfield. The laid-back exchange went viral on YouTube, giving yet another boost to the profile of a moustachioed farm boy from small-town Canada who has, according to one of his legion fans, "single-handedly made space sexy again".

 

Chris Hadfield, who is preparing for his return to Earth on 13 May after six months in orbit, has become a star thanks in part to a grasp of technology that makes Kirk look like a late adopter. Via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, he has beamed down to an audience of millions with his captivating videos, photos, music and poetic takes on extraterrestrial life.

 

In his most-viewed clip, Hadfield, 53, shows how even the mundane can become spellbinding without gravity. When he wrings a soaking cloth, the water leaves it but its surface tension means it won't go any further, so it forms a rippling tube that amazes Hadfield as much as the seven million people who have watched his experiment.

 

Other hits filmed when Hadfield isn't conducting official experiments in man's remotest laboratory – or speaking live to groups of rapt schoolchildren – show how astronauts sleep, shave, cry and recycle their urine (yes, for drinking). His second-most-viewed video doesn't feature him at all, but a 27-second close-up of nuts floating around inside their tub.

 

Equipped with cameras and big zoom lenses, Hadfield also takes photos of rivers, cities, oceans and deserts – whatever catches his eye out the window. He shares them with captions that recall something of the early wonder of the "earthrise" and "blue marble" photographs that first revealed the beautiful fragility of our planet.

 

The winning combination of profundity and giddy enthusiasm is not new to Hadfield's son Evan. "It's tough not to be biased," he says from Germany, where he lives, "but Dad's one of those people who only come along every once in a while."

 

Even so, Evan, 28, says he has always been cool about having a spaceman for a dad – he was 10 when Hadfield first went into orbit (this is his third mission) – but he gets why so many others are in awe. Our idea of space these days tends to concern "missions and machines", he says, adding: "Rarely do you see the focus on the individual. We've seen thousands of pictures from space but people are interested in Dad's because they're taken by a man just like them."

 

Hadfield Jnr must also take credit for his father's rocketing profile. He works in parallel with the Canadian Space Agency, which edits and posts the videos, as Hadfield's social-media mission control. He receives text from space via email for captions and manages his dad's Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Google+ accounts.

 

"I told Dad at the start not to expect too much," Evan says. "But I don't think an astronaut has had this level of media success since the Moon landings."

 

Hadfield has almost 750,000 followers on Twitter alone, providing priceless PR for Canada's space programme. Frustrated with low public interest in its online content during previous missions, it planned Hadfield's well in advance, deciding to focus on fun, informative videos. "What was not planned was the response," says Julie Simard, senior communications adviser to the Canadian Space Agency. She and the Hadfields have received thousands of emails from fans as well as from producers and publishers – and teachers who have used Hadfield's work in lessons.

 

Chris Riley is a British astronomy writer and the co-director of the 2007 documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. He says Hadfield has helped to put the man back into space. "In the early days of human space flight, training required an element of precision and accuracy that didn't always allow room for emotion. But now more than 500 people have flown into space, and there's room for a wider spectrum of personality."

 

Hadfield knows precision – he has a degree in mechanical engineering and is a former test pilot – but he also has an emotional attachment to space, born on an Ontario corn farm. He was nine when he watched Neil Armstrong's lunar landing on television at his parents' farm. Racing outside to gaze up at the Moon, he knew where his future lay. "Everywhere he's got he learnt growing up on that farm," Evan says. "He's a smart guy from a small town. It's hard for him not to be folksy."

 

As those live broadcasts showed, space has also always been at the forefront of communications technology. While today's tools and a media-savvy son (Evan has an MBA in marketing) have amplified Hadfield's personality, Riley says there were exceptions to the taciturn-astronaut stereotype. "When I made In the Shadow of the Moon everybody told us there was no point interviewing the Apollo astronauts, that they were emotionless automatons. But they had the most compelling things to say about the experience of leaving Earth, and how it touches us on a human level."

 

Where next for Commander Hadfield? He has said he'd volunteer to go to Mars, even on a one-way mission. But if that doesn't happen in his lifetime, perhaps a second career in music beckons. He plays guitar in several astronaut bands and in February performed a duet from space with Ed Robertson, the frontman for Barenaked Ladies. Hadfield's solo, which he co-wrote, includes the line: "Pushed back in my seat, look out my window, there goes home. That ball of shining blue houses everybody, anybody, ever knew."

 

Hello spaceboy: The wit and wisdom of Commander Chris Hadfield

 

• On weightlessness: "Imagine floating in a pool without water."

 

• On lift-off: "Launch is like being shaken in a huge dog's jaws, while pushed from the Earth by an unstoppable unseen giant force."

 

• On the weather: "Lightning at night is awesome – thousands of km of arcing light and power… and hurricanes are HUGE – like Jupiter's red spot."

 

• On orbiting Earth: "A great way to see the world – around it in 90 minutes! Gives 16 sunrises and sets a day – beyond beautiful."

 

• On the view of Southern England at night: "The lights act like a census."

 

• On the desert: "These mouthwatering generous folds of icing are actually Saudi sand."

 

• On down time aboard the International Space Station: "ISS end-end races, zero-G hide and seek, and velcro darts."

 

• On Earth: "In proportion, our atmosphere is no thicker than the varnish on a globe. Deceptively fragile."

 

Petrified Congressmen Delay Commercial Space Efforts

 

Douglas Messier - Parabolic Arc (Opinion)

 

On Sunday, I dropped by Bob's Army Navy Store in Mojave, hoping to pick up a pair of good binoculars for the SpaceShipTwo flight scheduled for the next day. Although my search was in vain, I did visit the area on the west side of the building where there are a variety of rocks for sale.

 

There were rocks of every kind: large rocks and small rocks, crystals, rocks with scaly lizards scurrying underneath to escape from someone who was equally afraid of them. I was fascinated. I had no idea there were that many types of rocks. Or that people would want to buy such things in large numbers. What would they use them for? I was stumped.

 

What really caught my interest, though, was the petrified wood.

 

There were entire piles of these rocks, the remains of trees that had turned to stone after their organic material had been replaced by minerals. They had somehow retained their original appearance as living beings even though everything that made them alive was sucked out of them eons ago. It was cool.

 

I recalled all this two days later when I read the latest commercial crew news from NASA. The latest update led me to believe that something similar has happened in Congress, with some mysterious process turning the logic centers in the brains of Congress representatives to stone. They have the appearance of living, thinking human beings capable of complex problem solving, but their political positions have somehow become frozen in place.

 

What resulted in this sad conclusion was the following piece of news:

 

NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017.

 

The reason for this contract extension is very simply: Congress has repeated cut the Obama Administration's request for the Commercial Crew program, typically by $300 to $400 million each year. With each reduction now, there is yet another delay in fielding crew vehicles and an expenditure of a similar amount on the back end to ensure our astronauts can reach the space station.

 

Why Congressmen are so intent on paying Russian contractors for these services rather than funding American companies such as Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation to develop the same capability is a big mystery. It has mystified me for years.

 

My best guess is that Congress is both skeptical of the viability of commercial crew and petrified (in an emotional and political sense) of the changes the program could bring if does succeed. People who are equally afraid of both success and failure have a tendency to freeze. They don't take risks and cling to what they know best — however outdated, self-defeating and short-sighted it might be.

 

Congress is clearly stuck in that very position. Sadly, there is little indication that the recent successes of SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation in the commercial cargo program has swayed very many people in Congress that commercial crew can succeed. I might be wrong on that assessment, but the early statements on the FY 2014 budget are not encouraging.

 

END