Shuttle/Shuttle Concept Restart: Fwd: Human Spaceflight News

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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: October 25, 2013 7:41:53 AM CDT
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: Human Spaceflight News - October 25, 2013

Happy Flex Friday everyone.   Have a great weekend-enjoy the nice weather.

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Human Spaceflight News

Friday – October 25, 2013

HEADLINES AND LEADS

Orbital's Cygnus Concludes First ISS Cargo Run

Dan Leone - Space News

Orbital Sciences Corp. wrapped up its 35-day cargo delivery-and-disposal mission to the international space station Oct. 23 when its Cygnus space capsule, which was unberthed from the outpost the day before, burned up as planned after re-entering the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. "We have lost the signal from Cygnus," Orbital wrote in a Twitter message at 2:22 pm EDT Oct. 23. "Reentry accomplished." Cygnus broke up over an uninhabited stretch of ocean east of New Zealand, according to Orbital.

Orbital Sciences' Spacecraft Returns to Earth as Blazing Ball of Trash

Jason Paur - Wired.com

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft ends its mission today with a blazing reentry over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand, carrying more than a ton of trash from the International Space Station. Astronauts aboard the space station loaded the unmanned Cygnus with 2,850 pounds of refuse before using the station's robotic arm to push it 10 meters away from the station and cut it loose.

NASA Still Probing Cause Of Spacesuit Water Leak

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station resumed efforts on Oct. 24 to identify the cause of the leak that flooded the helmet worn by European Space Agency colleague Luca Parmitano with water during a mid-July spacewalk. The station astronauts removed a cooling system pump and small contaminants found in the garment's Primary Life Support System plumbing. The old fan pump separator and the preserved contaminants, including a 1-cm. piece of plastic, will return to Earth aboard Russia's TMA-09M crew transport late Nov. 10 with Parmitano, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ISS Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin. The hardware and contaminants will then be flown by NASA transport from the Kazakh landing site to Johnson Space Center, where a Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) hopes to quickly complete its probe of the worrisome incident.

Minn. students have out-of-this-world Q&A with astronaut alum

Paul Walsh - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A NASA astronaut from Minnesota, currently orbiting 250 miles above Earth in the International Space Station, fielded questions Wednesday from students who attend her former school during a freewheeling session that touched on everything from what she eats to what it's like to float without gravity.

Navy seeks better red tide forecasts from space

Jim Waymer - Florida Today

As the Navy hunts for red tide from the International Space Station, beachgoers may soon get improved early warnings of the harmful algae and other blooms that discolor the water and can cause respiratory problems. "Our goal is to develop a system that can detect blooms early enough to assist with the planning preparation for remedial measures to reduce economic damage, health risk, etc.," Ruhul Amin, the principal investigator at the Naval Research Laboratory, said via email. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space recently announced a partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory to study what contributes to red tide and other harmful algae blooms.

Just two weeks in orbit causes changes in eyes

MedicalXpress.com

Just 13 days in space may be enough to cause profound changes in eye structure and gene expression, report researchers from Houston Methodist, NASA Johnson Space Center, and two other institutions in the October 2013 issue of Gravitational and Space Research. The study, which looked at how low gravity and radiation and oxidative damage impacts mice, is the first to examine eye-related gene expression and cell behavior after spaceflight. "We found many changes in the expression of genes that help cells cope with oxidative stress in the retina, possibly caused by radiation exposure," said Houston Methodist pathologist Patricia Chévez-Barrios, M.D., the study's principal investigator. "These changes were partially reversible upon return to Earth. We also saw optic nerve changes consistent with mechanical injury, but these changes did not resolve. And we saw changes in the expression of DNA damage repair genes and in apoptotic pathways, which help the body destroy cells that are irreparably damaged."

Spider Flown in Space Has Trouble Readapting to Gravity

Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

Astronauts have said adapting to weightlessness is much easier than readapting to gravity when they returned to Earth. Muscle weakness, wobbly legs, and feeling like the room is spinning is common after long duration spaceflight, not to mention the long-term issues like bone loss, diminished eyesight, and a heart that has to recondition itself to pump blood harder to overcome gravity. As Canadian Chris Hadfield said, "My body was quite happy in space without gravity." It turns out spiders have similar issues. This Phiddipus Johnsoni, or red-backed jumping spider named Nefertiti is shown walking and preying on flies in her habitat while in orbit on the International Space Station and then doing the same while readapting to gravity on Earth. While trying to capture its prey, it ends up flopping awkwardly onto its back. No more flying like SuperSpider. Nefertiti was in space 100 days in 2012 as part of a student-initiated science experiment of YouTube's Space Lab, an online video contest. After returning home, this spidernaut was sent to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and was part of exhibition of the first jumping spider to survive the trip to space. Unfortunately Nefertiti died just a few days after being sent to the museum.

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Animals Born In Space Have A Hard Time Adjusting To Life On Earth

Kelly Dickerson - Houston Chronicle (via Business Insider)

Returning from space isn't confusing only for humans. Non-terrestrial animals like jellyfish even have a hard time with the return to gravity. An article by RR Helm in Deep Sea News (see below) pointed our way to some interesting research from the 90s on what happened to jellyfish that were born in space. Sending jellyfish to space might seem silly, but these simple animals have given scientists plenty of insight into the effects long-term zero gravity exposure. If humans colonize space, it is possible that children could eventually be born and raised in zero gravity. This could mean that humans born in space never develop a normal sense of balance or normal muscle response to gravity.

Jellyfish go to space, say it was "meh, kinda sucky"

R.R. Helm - Deep Sea News

Why send jellies to space? Well, because it's awesome (true for anything in space), but mostly because of little crystals jellies keep in their bodies, and what these crystals can tell us about long-term human space travel. When a jelly grows, it forms calcium sulfate crystals at the margin of its bell [1]. These crystals are surrounded by a little cell pocket, coated in specialized hairs, and these pockets are equally spaced around the bell. When jellies turn, the crystals roll down with gravity to the bottom of the pocket, moving the cell hairs, which in turn send signals to neurons. In this way, jellies are able to sense up and down. All they need is gravity. Humans have gravity sensing structures too, and therein lies the crux: in space with no gravity, will these structures grow normally? If humans ever want to travel to deep space, we'll need to be popping out kids while up there. Will these kids develop normal gravity sensing, even after growing up without it?

Boeing Finalizes Lease of Former Shuttle Hangar for CST-100 Construction

Dan Leone - Space News

Almost two years after announcing plans to build its crew-carrying CST-100 spacecraft in an old space shuttle hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Boeing Space Exploration finalized its lease on the building, the company said. In October 2011, Boeing Space Exploration of Houston unveiled plans to lease the Orbiter Processing Facility-3 from Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agent, to build capsules it hopes will be used to ferry astronauts to the international space station beginning in 2017. Space Florida leased the hangar from NASA to save it from demolition after the space shuttle program ended in July 2011. Boeing still has not moved into the building, now called the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, which is in the midst of a two-part renovation by Space Florida. The first round of work wrapped up in February; the second began in September. Boeing expects to move in by "spring 2014," the company said in an Oct. 22 press release.

Boeing finalizes deal to lease former shuttle facility at KSC

Commercial crew capsule construction set to start in spring

James Dean - Florida Today

Assembly of commercial crew capsules in a renovated shuttle hangar will start next spring at Kennedy Space Center, The Boeing Co. said Tuesday. Boeing said it had finalized an agreement to lease from Space Florida the former Orbiter Processing Facility 3, shuttle main engine shop and nearby office facilities, where it plans to build and process the CST-100 spacecraft and base its commercial crew program. "The resources and expertise on the Space Coast are essential to our plans, and this agreement solidifies our partnership with the state of Florida," said John Mulholland, vice president and manager of commercial programs for Boeing Space Exploration.

Hancock County's Stennis Space Center lands SpaceX rocket-testing program

Justin Mitchell - Sun Herald (Mississippi Gulf Coast)

Stennis has landed yet another rocket-engine testing program, Gov. Phil Bryant announced Wednesday. SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company, will begin testing its Raptor methane rocket engines at the Hancock County site. According to a release from the governor's office, the engines are capable of generating nearly 300 tons of thrust in a vacuum. "With our rich history of supporting America's space program, the state of Mississippi is an excellent choice for this type of innovative testing and aerospace technology," Bryant said. The release said that under a future agreement, SpaceX will upgrade Stennis' E-2 test stand to have methane capability.

Laser communications test breaks data-rate record

Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com

High-definition 3D video postcards from Mars and lightning fast data downloads are a step closer to reality after a successful laser linkup with a communications testbed aboard NASA's LADEE spacecraft, which arrived in orbit around the moon earlier this month. A ground station in White Sands, N.M., made a connection with a laser terminal aboard LADEE over the weekend and achieved breakneck data transfer speeds unmatched by any scientific spacecraft stationed beyond low Earth orbit. A follow-on to LADEE's laser mission is scheduled for launch in 2017 aboard a commercial communications satellite built by Space Systems/Loral. NASA will fund a hosted payload for the Loral-built satellite to relay data between the ground and other missions in low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

NASA tests lasers to bring true broadband to Space

Frank Konkel – Federal Computer Week

NASA's Deep Space Network has used radio frequency communications for more than four decades to support space exploration, but the agency believes lasers could be the next giant leap forward in communications. NASA announced Oct. 23 that its Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) system successfully used a pulsed laser beam to transmit data 239,000 miles between Earth and the moon and easily achieved the fastest download rate ever transmitted in space -- 622 megabits per second (Mbps).

Southern ozone hole slightly smaller this year

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

Warm air at high altitudes this September and October helped shrink the man-made ozone hole near the South Pole ever so slightly, scientists say. The hole is an area in the atmosphere with low ozone concentrations. It is normally is at its biggest this time of year. NASA says on average it covered 8.1 million square miles this season. That's 6 percent smaller than the average since 1990. The ozone hole is of concern because high-altitude ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet radiation.

Space trash is a big problem. These economists have a solution.

Brad Plumer - Washington Post

Space is getting messy. The amount of debris in Earth's orbit keeps growing each year, disrupting satellites and occasionally putting astronauts in harm's way. If the problem gets severe enough, it could eventually make low-earth orbit unusable. Scientists have been worrying about space trash since the 1970s. Humans have placed thousands of objects into orbit since Sputnik, and some of those old satellites and ejected rockets are slowly breaking apart. As pieces collide with each other at high speeds and shatter, they create more debris. Eventually, space could get saturated with high-flying trash — not entirely unlike the chaotic scenes in Alfonso Cuarón's new film Gravity.

The Gravitas of Commercial Spacecraft

Greg Autry - Huffington Post

The new film Gravity has rightly garnered a great deal of praise for its spectacular special effects and for Sandra Bullock's gripping portrayal of ill-fated Mission Specialist, Dr. Ryan Stone. The movie has also become the target of much techno-grumbling in the nerdosphere over its dubious premise, liberties taken with orbital mechanics and for the portrayal of cumbersome and complex space hardware as convenient, comfortable and easy to operate. For an interesting, balanced look at the film, by someone who has been there, see Astronaut Michael Lopez-Algeria's review.

Symbolism in Space

Merryl Azriel - Space Safety Magazine

Space is replete with symbolism of every variety. Heroism and survival. Racing into orbit as a war for supremacy. A flag on the Moon. A flag on every rocket. Stars falling from the sky. Aliens standing in for anyone we don't understand on Earth. This fall there is some very poignant symbolism on view aboard our more-than-symbolically cooperative international space station. A couple weeks ago, ISS astronaut Mike Hopkins peered out the window and spotted a large and unusual sight. The strangely close-seeming blooming cloud turned out to be the test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Rewards in space exploration

Julia Zarina - Michigan Daily (Opinion)

I'm willing to bet that the 125-million Americans who don't support federal funding for space programs have never met Colonel Jack Lousma. To hear the distinguished Michigan graduate, space shuttle pilot and capsule communicator of the Apollo 13 mission speak about his 17 years as an astronaut is to forget for a moment that you've never been out of Earth's literal and figurative sphere of influence. The stories he told during our interview were vivid reminders of what inspired me and thousands before me to live out childhood afternoons in refrigerator box spaceships big enough for tiny astronauts with stars in their eyes. They are what motivated dreams of space camp and Tang-drinking orangutans in zero gravity.

George David Hopson

April 9, 1927 - Oct. 23, 2013

Huntsville Times

George David Hopson, 86, passed away peacefully at his home in Madison, Alabama on Wednesday. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama and graduated from Woodlawn High School in Birmingham. He enlisted in the US Marine Corps and served from 1945-1946. He then attended the University of Alabama where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1950. He began his engineering career at General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas from 1954-1962, then returned home to Alabama to begin a distinguished 45 year career at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. He held numerous positions at NASA including Fluid Dynamics Branch Chief, Structures and Thermal Branch Chief, Skylab Analysis Lab Director, Space Systems Chief Engineer, Space Transportation Systems Chief Engineer, Space Station Projects Office Manager, Deputy Director for Space Systems, Space Shuttle Main Engine Manager, and NASA Technical Fellow for Propulsion.

Astronaut & native son Carpenter's funeral to be held in Boulder on Nov. 2

Fellow Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn scheduled to deliver eulogy

John Aguilar - Boulder Daily Camera

Celebrated astronaut Scott Carpenter, whose 1962 flight into space marked only the second time an American had orbited Earth, will be brought back to Boulder to be memorialized in the city where he was born and grew into an eventual living legend. Former Sen. John Glenn, who preceded Carpenter by a matter of months on the first orbital flight by a U.S. astronaut, is expected to deliver the eulogy of his former colleague and friend at the Nov. 2 ceremony at St. John's Episcopal Church, 1419 Pine St. Carpenter died at a Denver hospice on Oct. 10 due to complications from a stroke. He was 88.

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COMPLETE STORIES

Orbital's Cygnus Concludes First ISS Cargo Run

Dan Leone - Space News

Orbital Sciences Corp. wrapped up its 35-day cargo delivery-and-disposal mission to the international space station Oct. 23 when its Cygnus space capsule, which was unberthed from the outpost the day before, burned up as planned after re-entering the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

"We have lost the signal from Cygnus," Orbital wrote in a Twitter message at 2:22 pm EDT Oct. 23. "Reentry accomplished."

Cygnus broke up over an uninhabited stretch of ocean east of New Zealand, according to Orbital.

Now that the expendable spacecraft has completed its cargo delivery-and-disposal duties, NASA will begin a formal review of the mission — the last of two flight demos Orbital had to complete before it can begin routine cargo service under an eight-flight, $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract NASA awarded in 2008. A smaller award went that same year to Space Exploration Technologies Corp., which has flown two of the 12 cargo resupply missions called for under its $1.6 billion contract.

Orbital Sciences already has received some advance payments on its contract but cannot claim additional fees until after it completes each of the eight missions it is slated to carry out through 2016.

Cygnus launched aboard Orbital's Antares rocket Sept. 18 from the state-run Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Va. The cargo ship arrived at the station Sept. 29, a few days later than expected after a communications glitch and the arrival of new crew members aboard a Russian-launched Soyuz spacecraft forced Cygnus into a holding pattern.

The day of the first Cygnus' destructive re-entry, the service module for the next Cygnus was shipped from Orbital's Dulles, Va., headquarters to the company's horizontal integration facility at Wallops, the company said in another Twitter message. There, it will be mated with its Italian-built pressurized cargo module in preparation for a mission that could launch as soon as mid-December.

"The first-stage core for this December Antares is at Wallops, the upper-stage rocket motor is there, the fairing is there, the two AJ-26 engines for the core are there," Orbital spokesman Barron Beneski told SpaceNews. "We have all necessary major components of the Antares rocket onsite. The expectation is on our part that if we're ready to go in December and NASA is ready to receive us, we will go in December."

Meanwhile, whatever effect the recently ended government shutdown will have on other aspects of Orbital's business, the company's space station logistics work appears to have been disturbed only minimally, if at all, Beneski said.

Neither Orbital nor the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority got locked out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport as a result of the shutdown, meaning that preparations for the tentative December launch continued while more than 95 percent of NASA's roughly 18,000 civil servants were on furlough. Space station operations were unaffected by the shutdown.

Orbital Sciences' Spacecraft Returns to Earth as Blazing Ball of Trash

Jason Paur - Wired.com

Orbital Sciences' Cygnus spacecraft ends its mission today with a blazing reentry over the Pacific Ocean east of New Zealand, carrying more than a ton of trash from the International Space Station.

Astronauts aboard the space station loaded the unmanned Cygnus with 2,850 pounds of refuse before using the station's robotic arm to push it 10 meters away from the station and cut it loose.

The successful departure was the final stage of a demonstration flight meant to show NASA that Orbital has the right stuff to carry cargo into space. Cygnus launched on top of one of Orbital's Antares rockets from coastal Virginia on Sept. 18. After a software glitch and traffic delay, the cargo carrier berthed with the ISS on Sept. 29. It spent three weeks there.

Orbital Sciences and SpaceX have contracts to deliver cargo to the station. This flight was Orbital's final demonstration, and other than a minor software miscommunication before the craft's rendezvous with the ISS, it went off without a hitch - it was "nominal," as the space launch community likes to say.

Cygnus carried about 1,300 pounds of cargo, which was unloaded by the six astronauts living aboard the station. Unlike SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, Cygnus does not land on Earth and therefore cannot bring anything back. But Cygnus makes a good garbage truck, incinerating its payload as its orbit deteriorates and mounting friction with the atmosphere causes the spacecraft to burn up during reentry.

Orbital Sciences is well underway with its first contracted cargo mission, which is expected to launch at the end of the year. The company will make eight freight runs under a contract worth $1.9 billion. The first of SpaceX's 10 remaining flights are expected to resume early next year, launched by the improved Falcon 9 v1.1 rocket.

NASA Still Probing Cause Of Spacesuit Water Leak

Mark Carreau - Aerospace Daily

NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station resumed efforts on Oct. 24 to identify the cause of the leak that flooded the helmet worn by European Space Agency colleague Luca Parmitano with water during a mid-July spacewalk.

The station astronauts removed a cooling system pump and small contaminants found in the garment's Primary Life Support System plumbing. The old fan pump separator and the preserved contaminants, including a 1-cm. piece of plastic, will return to Earth aboard Russia's TMA-09M crew transport late Nov. 10 with Parmitano, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and ISS Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin.

The hardware and contaminants will then be flown by NASA transport from the Kazakh landing site to Johnson Space Center, where a Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) hopes to quickly complete its probe of the worrisome incident.

Plans for a 6- to 7-hr. spacewalk to prepare the station's solar power and Ethernet systems for the arrival of Russia's Multi-Purpose Laboratory were suspended after 92 min. Largely unable to see or hear, Parmitano made his way by memory and touch back to the U.S. airlock, where he was helped from his spacesuit, while his spacewalking NASA colleague Chris Cassidy gathered tools and equipment.

The five-member MIB was established to determine the root cause, identify contributing factors and recommend changes to the maintenance and use of the space shuttle-era NASA spacesuits as warranted.

An engineering-level investigation also under way has tracked the source of the water that emerged from an air vent at the back of Parmitano's helmet and flowed over the top of the communications cap secured tightly over his head to the Primary Life Support System (PLSS) that is worn as a backpack. The tightly packed PLSS holds breathing oxygen and CO2 removal hardware as well as a battery power source and a water storage tank for the suit's water-circulating cooling system.

The compact fan pump separator that was removed from Parmitano's suit on Oct. 24 circulates breathing oxygen and water coolant throughout the suit, while removing moisture from the air ventilation system and any gases trapped in the coolant lines, said Alex Kanelakos, a NASA flight director involved in the troubleshooting.

"Our engineering teams have identified several different components of the suit with a big fault tree," said Kanelakos. "This is just one of the components we think could have contributed to the leak. Superficially, the water separator is where we are concentrating our efforts today."

Minn. students have out-of-this-world Q&A with astronaut alum

Paul Walsh - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A NASA astronaut from Minnesota, currently orbiting 250 miles above Earth in the International Space Station, fielded questions Wednesday from students who attend her former school during a freewheeling session that touched on everything from what she eats to what it's like to float without gravity.

"How old were you when you decided to be an astronaut?" a third-grade girl asked Karen Nyberg during her exchange with students at the K-12 Henning School in Vining, in west-central Minnesota.

"I was about your age when I decided," said Nyberg, bobbing about in her sky-blue NASA jumpsuit and speaking into a handheld microphone. "I was probably going to school and sitting in the same classrooms that you are now."

A second-grade boy wondered whether being in zero gravity felt like being in water.

"That's a very keen observation," Nyberg said, noting that her preparation for space travel included underwater training.

Asked what she likes best about being in space, Nyberg responded: "I like zipping around. You get going around pretty fast … going around corners. … and floating all over the place. It's a lot, a lot of fun."

As for her menu in space, Nyberg said the options are much like what is available on Earth. She held up a freeze-dried pouch that "happens to be one of my favorites, red beans and rice. I like it because it's spicy."

Nyberg, who arrived at the station in May for a six-month mission and celebrated her 44th birthday on Oct. 7, is a straight-A graduate of Henning, enrollment roughly 400. Her 20-minute hookup with the schoolchildren was carried live on NASA TV and on the agency's website.

In preparation for the conversation, the Henning students have been following Nyberg's second space mission and NASA's activities have been incorporated into their studies.

She is the second Minnesota woman in space. The state's other female astronaut is St. Paul's Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

Nyberg is a graduate of the University of North Dakota, and has her master's and doctorate from the University of Texas, Austin.

Navy seeks better red tide forecasts from space

Jim Waymer - Florida Today

As the Navy hunts for red tide from the International Space Station, beachgoers may soon get improved early warnings of the harmful algae and other blooms that discolor the water and can cause respiratory problems.

"Our goal is to develop a system that can detect blooms early enough to assist with the planning preparation for remedial measures to reduce economic damage, health risk, etc.," Ruhul Amin, the principal investigator at the Naval Research Laboratory, said via email.

The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space recently announced a partnership with the Naval Research Laboratory to study what contributes to red tide and other harmful algae blooms.

CASIS — a Brevard nonprofit organization formed to maximize the use of the orbiting outpost's national laboratory — awarded $250,000 to the Naval Research Lab, to expand Amin's research.

The technology Amin is developing is specifically for the Hyperspectral Imager of the Coastal Ocean (HICO) sensor mounted on the space station.

The lab plans to use the advanced imaging technology on the station to develop early detection of red tide and other harmful algae blooms, possibly even those affecting the Indian River Lagoon.

"Our goal is to develop a general technology that is capable of detecting various algal blooms including brown tides from any (past, current or future) HICO imagery including imagery over Indian River Lagoon," Amin said.

Coupled with field observations, scientists use satellite sensors, such as HICO on the station and MODIS on the NASA Aqua satellite, to distinguish different algae species based on the different wavelengths of light they absorb and reflect.

Amin said they will quantify algae blooms in terms of chlorophyll. But that's doesn't reveal toxicity. "It is very difficult to identify toxic blooms from space," he said. So the lab has developed a classification technique for red tide and hopes to do the same with other species.

The HICO sensor can reveal substances other than algae as well.

"We used it during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to identify some of the oil," said Mitchell A. Roffer, president of Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Inc., based in West Melbourne.

HICO verified that what Roffer observed with other, lower resolution satellites, was oil, he said.

Early detection of red tide and other harmful algae blooms is important for protecting public health, wild and farmed fish and shellfish, and endangered species such as marine mammals, Amin said.

Users of the information could include government agencies such as the Navy, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as private industries such as the tourism, fishing and healthcare industries and the general public such as beachgoers, he said.

The technology also can be used to track phytoplankton, Amin added, which play a major role in the global carbon cycle and ocean carbon fixation.

"Through its research, we believe the Naval Research Laboratory will effectively utilize HICO, which is a terrific platform capable of stimulating groundbreaking earth observational investigations that will benefit humankind on Earth" CASIS chief operating officer Duane Ratliff said in a release.

CASIS, which receives about $15 million a year from NASA, evaluates unsolicited proposals for scientific and economic merit and potential impact.

Just two weeks in orbit causes changes in eyes

MedicalXpress.com

Just 13 days in space may be enough to cause profound changes in eye structure and gene expression, report researchers from Houston Methodist, NASA Johnson Space Center, and two other institutions in the October 2013 issue of Gravitational and Space Research.

The study, which looked at how low gravity and radiation and oxidative damage impacts mice, is the first to examine eye-related gene expression and cell behavior after spaceflight.

"We found many changes in the expression of genes that help cells cope with oxidative stress in the retina, possibly caused by radiation exposure," said Houston Methodist pathologist Patricia Chévez-Barrios, M.D., the study's principal investigator. "These changes were partially reversible upon return to Earth. We also saw optic nerve changes consistent with mechanical injury, but these changes did not resolve. And we saw changes in the expression of DNA damage repair genes and in apoptotic pathways, which help the body destroy cells that are irreparably damaged."

Since 2001, studies have shown astronauts are at increased risk of developing eye problems, like premature age-related macular degeneration. Experts suspect the cause is low gravity, heightened exposure to solar radiation, or a combination of the two.

In Nov. 2011, a NASA-sponsored Ophthalmology study of seven astronauts showed that all seven had experienced eye problems after spending at least six months in space. Doctors saw a flattening of the back of the eyeball, folding of the choroid (vascular tissue behind the retina), excess fluid around and presumed swelling of the optic nerve, or some combination of these.

High-energy radiation from the Sun can cause nasty, extremely damaging chemical reactions in cells, collectively called oxidative stress. Earth's atmosphere reflects or absorbs much of this radiation and is, ironically, a much better shield than the thick metal hulls of space shuttles and the International Space Station.

Damage to eyes isn't merely a long-term health issue for some astronauts back on Earth—it could interfere with future missions in which any loss of focus or vision makes it difficult for humans to complete long missions, such as round-trip travel to Mars (12 to 16 months) or to the moons of Jupiter (about two years). If both radiation exposure and gravity loss are to blame, one solution to save astronauts' eyes might be a spacecraft with a more protective hull and inside, a spinning hamster wheel that simulates gravity similar to those envisioned by futurist author Arthur C. Clarke and realized in Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

To determine the impact of radiation exposure on eyes, Chévez-Barrios and lead author Susana Zanello, Ph.D., a space life scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center, examined mouse retinal gene expression on the 1st, 5th, and 7th days following a 13-day trip aboard space shuttle Discovery (STS-133), measuring indicators of oxidative and cellular stress. The researchers also examined the eyes and surrounding tissues for broad changes in structure and shape that could relate to low gravity. They maintained two controls on Earth—one in which mice were kept in the same general conditions as those aboard the shuttle, and one in which mice were maintained in typical, Earth-based care facilities.

Mice returning to Earth showed immediate evidence of oxidative stress in their retinas. But the increased expression of six oxidative stress response genes appeared to return to normal by the seventh day on Earth. An indicator of oxidative stress in the cornea was also elevated one day after mice had returned from orbit, but returned to near-normal levels by the seventh day.

"This suggests oxidative stress in the retina and lens are at least partially reversible under the circumstances of the experiment," Chévez-Barrios said. "This was after a relatively short time in orbit. We don't know if damage caused by longer periods of oxidative stress will be more severe. Only more studies with longer exposure times may help answer this question."

In the mice that had been to orbit, the researchers also found an increase in beta-amyloid in their optic nerves, and this increase persisted after seven days on Earth. Beta-amyloid is associated with traumatic brain injury in humans, and was not detected in the mice that remained on Earth. The researchers also found an increased number of glial cells—cells that respond to injury—in the optic nerves of mice that had been to space. It is not known whether the deposit of beta-amyloid and increased glial cells were caused by sustained low gravity or during the trips to or from Earth orbit. The researchers also found orbiting mice were expressing elevated levels of caspase-3 in the retinal pigment epithelium. Caspaces are enzyme precursors that help the immune system destroy damaged cells in a process called apoptosis. Abnormalities of the epithelium are associated with development of age-related macular degeneration.

Chévez-Barrios and colleagues found changes in cell and tissue shape and fluid balance similar to what has been reported from previous studies, specifically studies of astronauts who had experienced optic nerve changes.

The study described in the Gravitational and Space Research paper was small—18 mice in nine different condition groups. Space is limited aboard orbital missions.

"We say in the paper these results should be thought of as preliminary, like a pilot study," Chévez-Barrios said. "We think our results are plausible based on what we know from previous studies of structural changes and damage caused by oxidative stress and changes in the eyes of astronauts returning to Earth, but additional experiments are needed to confirm what we are reporting about gene expression, cellular behavior and mechanisms of damage."

Chévez-Barrios also said the strain of mice used in the study are known to be unusually sensitive to light, and that the severity of oxidative, cellular, and tissue problems her group saw would probably be milder in healthy human eyes.

Animals Born In Space Have A Hard Time Adjusting To Life On Earth

Kelly Dickerson - Houston Chronicle (via Business Insider)

Returning from space isn't confusing only for humans. Non-terrestrial animals like jellyfish even have a hard time with the return to gravity.

An article by RR Helm in Deep Sea News (below in its entirety) pointed our way to some interesting research from the 90s on what happened to jellyfish that were born in space. Sending jellyfish to space might seem silly, but these simple animals have given scientists plenty of insight into the effects long-term zero gravity exposure.

If humans colonize space, it is possible that children could eventually be born and raised in zero gravity. This could mean that humans born in space never develop a normal sense of balance or normal muscle response to gravity.

Even though they don't have legs and live in the ocean, jellyfish are sensitive to gravity just like humans. So scientists bred jellyfish — a species appropriately named moon jellyfish — in space and brought their babies back to Earth to see how they fared. The 1994 experiment was detailed in a study published in Advances in Space Research.

Jellyfish are full of graviceptors — small crystals of calcium sulfate stored in pockets surrounded by sensitive hair cells. When a jellyfish changes direction, the crystals respond to gravity and roll around to the bottom of these pockets and signal the hair cells which way is up.

Of course gravity has to be present for these crystals to work.

When they baby jellies returned to Earth, they had a hard time getting around. The space jellyfish had more trouble orienting themselves and moving around than their Earth-born relatives.

Their gaviceptors seemed to look normal, so the researchers think there must be some way in which they were calibrated wrong, or were connected to the jellie's nervous system incorrectly.

The human inner ear contains fluids and cyrstals that function in a similar way to jellyfish graviceptors. The inner ear crystals signal what angle our head is at and give us a sense of our forward momentum. Like the space born jellyfish, humans raised in zero gravity may have trouble moving around normally if they returned to Earth.

A surprising number of animals have been bred in space, including frogs, salamanders, and sea urchins. Fish and tadpoles swam in loops instead of straight lines when they were taken to space, according to NASA.

More recently animal space research focused on rats. In 2007 Jeffrey Alberts worked with NASA to study how spending the last week of gestation in space would affect newborn rats. Alberts found that rats who spent a week in the womb with zero gravity couldn't tell up from down when they were first born.

The baby rats were unable to flip themselves right side up when they were dropped in water, but eventually recovered a normal sense of gravity.

A study published in PLoS ONE in 2011 described how snails fared when they returned to Earth. Snails also have gravitoceptors like humans, but snails born in space ended up growing really large gravitceptors — probably to compensate for the lack of gravity.

When the space snails were tilted or turned upside down, they actually started trying to turn themselves right side up faster than their Earth-born relatives, but not always in the right direction. The scientists concluded that being born in space made the snails more sensitive to gravity changes, but they could not tell which way was up.

More research is needed before we can fully understand how growing up in space could impact a human. But you can figure it's going to be weird.

Jellyfish go to space, say it was "meh, kinda sucky"

R.R. Helm - Deep Sea News

Why send jellies to space? Well, because it's awesome (true for anything in space), but mostly because of little crystals jellies keep in their bodies, and what these crystals can tell us about long-term human space travel.

When a jelly grows, it forms calcium sulfate crystals at the margin of its bell [1]. These crystals are surrounded by a little cell pocket, coated in specialized hairs, and these pockets are equally spaced around the bell. When jellies turn, the crystals roll down with gravity to the bottom of the pocket, moving the cell hairs, which in turn send signals to neurons. In this way, jellies are able to sense up and down. All they need is gravity.

Humans have gravity sensing structures too, and therein lies the crux: in space with no gravity, will these structures grow normally? If humans ever want to travel to deep space, we'll need to be popping out kids while up there. Will these kids develop normal gravity sensing, even after growing up without it?

For jellies at least, things aren't so good. After developing in space, astronaut jellies have a hard life back on Earth. While development of the sensory pockets appears normal, many more jellies had trouble getting around once on the planet, including pulsing and movement abnormalities, compared to their Earth-bound counterparts [2, 3].

Human gravity sensing isn't exactly like that of jellies, but it's close. The human inner ear contains both fluids and small crystals, which tell us not only the angle of our head, but also our forward momentum. Even with these differences, there is enough similarity between the two systems to be cause for concern. In other words, if jelly babies have trouble gravity sensing on Earth after being in space, human babies may be fucked.

As anyone who's suffered from vertigo will tell you– not being able to orient yourself in space is majorly distressing. I know: I once rode the gravitron eight times in a row. Messing with gravity by spinning really fast was the best thing ever to my middle school brain. The following day, however, I woke up and promptly ran into a wall. I had centripetal-forced myself so much that "straight" became "slight right". This lasted 3 days and was completely terrible. And that's just three days. Human births in space could mean a lifetime of Earthly confusion.

Of course, I still think space is amazing and weightlessness is still #1 on my bucket list, but the jellies don't lie. Long term space travel will be fraught with developmental challenges to the babies growing onboard. If the jellies say growing up in space isn't so great, we better be listening.

Boeing Finalizes Lease of Former Shuttle Hangar for CST-100 Construction

Dan Leone - Space News

Almost two years after announcing plans to build its crew-carrying CST-100 spacecraft in an old space shuttle hangar at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Boeing Space Exploration finalized its lease on the building, the company said.

In October 2011, Boeing Space Exploration of Houston unveiled plans to lease the Orbiter Processing Facility-3 from Space Florida, the state's aerospace economic development agent, to build capsules it hopes will be used to ferry astronauts to the international space station beginning in 2017. Space Florida leased the hangar from NASA to save it from demolition after the space shuttle program ended in July 2011.

Boeing still has not moved into the building, now called the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, which is in the midst of a two-part renovation by Space Florida. The first round of work wrapped up in February; the second began in September. Boeing expects to move in by "spring 2014," the company said in an Oct. 22 press release.

Boeing is one of three companies competing to become NASA's post-shuttle provider of astronaut transportation to and from the space station under the agency's Commercial Crew Program. In the third round of this program, which is set to wrap up in August, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. split $1.1 billion in NASA funding for development work on their respective spacecraft designs.

Boeing received the largest award, $460 million, for the CST-100. The capsule would launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket. If the company receives funding under the fourth round of the program — this would fund final spacecraft development and testing, and initial astronaut missions to the space station — Boeing plans to launch a crewed CST-100 test flight in 2016.

NASA has drawn up a draft solicitation for the fourth funding round, which is known as Commercial Crew Integrated Capability. Prior to the 16-day government shutdown that began Oct. 1, the agency had expected to release a final solicitation in October, with at least one award to follow in the summer.

Boeing finalizes deal to lease former shuttle facility at KSC

Commercial crew capsule construction set to start in spring

James Dean - Florida Today

Assembly of commercial crew capsules in a renovated shuttle hangar will start next spring at Kennedy Space Center, The Boeing Co. said Tuesday.

Boeing said it had finalized an agreement to lease from Space Florida the former Orbiter Processing Facility 3, shuttle main engine shop and nearby office facilities, where it plans to build and process the CST-100 spacecraft and base its commercial crew program.

"The resources and expertise on the Space Coast are essential to our plans, and this agreement solidifies our partnership with the state of Florida," said John Mulholland, vice president and manager of commercial programs for Boeing Space Exploration.

The announcement came nearly two years after Boeing first committed to using the facilities and bringing up to 550 jobs to KSC by late 2015, if the company continued to win NASA contracts.

Boeing is one of three companies competing to launch astronauts to the International Space Station, along with SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corp.

The CST-100 and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser would lift off atop Atlas V rockets and SpaceX's Dragon atop a Falcon 9 — all from the Space Coast.

All three builders are now finalizing spacecraft designs with NASA support.

The space agency plans to award contracts next summer to one or two companies, and begin service to the ISS in 2017.

Boeing said it is targeting a first test launch of the CST-100 in the 2016 time frame.

The former OPF has been renamed the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, or C3PF.

"Boeing and Space Florida continue our partnership in repurposing excess NASA facilities for future use by Boeing's Commercial Crew Program," Space Florida CEO Frank Dibello said in a statement.

The CST-100 is designed to carry up to seven passengers, remain docked at the ISS for up to six months and be reused. Flights could ferry crews to commercial stations planned by Bigelow Aerospace.

Hancock County's Stennis Space Center lands SpaceX rocket-testing program

Justin Mitchell - Sun Herald (Mississippi Gulf Coast)

Stennis has landed yet another rocket-engine testing program, Gov. Phil Bryant announced Wednesday.

SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company, will begin testing its Raptor methane rocket engines at the Hancock County site. According to a release from the governor's office, the engines are capable of generating nearly 300 tons of thrust in a vacuum.

"With our rich history of supporting America's space program, the state of Mississippi is an excellent choice for this type of innovative testing and aerospace technology," Bryant said.

The release said that under a future agreement, SpaceX will upgrade Stennis' E-2 test stand to have methane capability.

Testing is expected to start in early 2014. Upon execution of the agreement, infrastructure improvements will be made to make the stand capable of supporting many potential users.

"This agreement supports SpaceX's efforts for continued engine research and development in parallel with our growing operational testing programs," Bryant said.

The Mississippi Development Authority and Hancock County Port and Harbor Commission will provide assistance with the infrastructure improvements to the E-2 test stand site.

"We are pleased to welcome this trailblazer in commercial space flight to the ranks of industry-leading companies that have chosen Stennis to capitalize on the strategic advantages inherent in that location," said Brent Christensen, MDA executive director.

Rick Gilbrech, Stennis center director, said Stennis' unique research capabilities helped land the Raptor engine testing through SpaceX.

"Stennis has a rich history of testing rocket engine components as well as full scale engines and stages for government and commercial partners, and we look forward to this new partnership with SpaceX," Gilbrech said.

Laser communications test breaks data-rate record

Stephen Clark – SpaceflightNow.com

High-definition 3D video postcards from Mars and lightning fast data downloads are a step closer to reality after a successful laser linkup with a communications testbed aboard NASA's LADEE spacecraft, which arrived in orbit around the moon earlier this month.

A ground station in White Sands, N.M., made a connection with a laser terminal aboard LADEE over the weekend and achieved breakneck data transfer speeds unmatched by any scientific spacecraft stationed beyond low Earth orbit.

The White Sands ground station shot a laser toward LADEE's expected position in lunar orbit, and the spacecraft's laser package locked on to the signal and responded by emitting its 4-inch-diameter, 0.5-watt light beam back to a receiving telescope in the New Mexico desert.

Over the 239,000-mile distance between the Earth and the moon, the 4-inch-diameter laser column disperses to a width of 3.5 miles by the time it reaches the ground. But the light beam still covers an much smaller than traditional radio waves coming from space missions, and laser communications is less forgiving of tiny pointing errors between ground and space terminals.

NASA said the laser test achieved a record-breaking download speed of 622 megabits per second and an error-free upload rate of 20 megabits per second. Both values fell within preflight predictions.

The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, or LADEE, arrived in lunar orbit Oct. 6 after a one-month transit following its successful launch from Virginia on Sept. 5 aboard a Minotaur 5 rocket.

LADEE's primary mission is to study the lunar atmosphere, a nebulous collection of atoms and molecules that scientists hope to observe over a 100-day science mission. Researchers hope to find out what mechanisms drive the moon's ultra-thin atmosphere by measuring its response to phenomena such as solar storms, impacts on the lunar surface and sunlight.

The main science phase of LADEE's mission will begin in mid-November. LADEE's three science instruments have passed their initial activation tests and deployed their aperture covers, according to Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

The mission's laser payload, conceived as a technology demonstrator, is a pathfinder for future deep space probes, including NASA's next Mars rover set for launch in 2020.

The ground and space terminals for LADEE's laser test were built by MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

"NASA has a need for faster download speeds for data from space," said Don Cornwell, the laser communication demonstration mission manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We'd like to be able to send high-resolution images, movies in 3D even, from satellites that not only orbit the Earth but also from probes that will go to the moon and beyond."

NASA does not plan to exchange real science data during LADEE's demonstration, but the laser beam will carry code and information packets during its 30-day test to prove future missions could use the system for heaps of science observations, images and high-definition 3D video.

Laser linkups foster much faster data transfers between ground controllers and spacecraft than possible with radio transmissions. Officials compare the difference to the speed gained by switching from a dial-up modem to a fiber-optic line.

To illustrate the difference, NASA says the LADEE spacecraft's conventional S-band radio would take 639 hours to downlink the average-length HD movie. A system using laser technology could do the job in less than eight minutes.

Light waves in the optical bandwidth are more than 10,000 times shorter than in radio bands, according to MIT scientists, meaning laser communications systems can be smaller and weigh less, making them that much more attractive for mission designers.

"I think there's no question that as we send humans farther out into the solar system, certainly to Mars, if we want to have high-definition 3D video, we want to have laser communications sending that information back," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's science mission directorate.

The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration is the first test of optical communications beyond Earth orbit.

"LLCD is the first step on our roadmap toward building the next generation of space communication capability," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation in Washington. "We are encouraged by the results of the demonstration to this point, and we are confident we are on the right path to introduce this new capability into operational service soon."

A follow-on to LADEE's laser mission is scheduled for launch in 2017 aboard a commercial communications satellite built by Space Systems/Loral.

NASA will fund a hosted payload for the Loral-built satellite to relay data between the ground and other missions in low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

NASA tests lasers to bring true broadband to Space

Frank Konkel – Federal Computer Week

NASA's Deep Space Network has used radio frequency communications for more than four decades to support space exploration, but the agency believes lasers could be the next giant leap forward in communications.

NASA announced Oct. 23 that its Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) system successfully used a pulsed laser beam to transmit data 239,000 miles between Earth and the moon and easily achieved the fastest download rate ever transmitted in space -- 622 megabits per second (Mbps).

LLCD, hosted aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer that NASA launched in September, is a short-term experiment and precursor to a larger mission called the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration set to launch in 2016. LCRD will consist of two optical communications terminals that can forward and store data via laser communications at up to 1.25 gigabits per second coded and 2.88 Gbps uncoded.

NASA's first effort at using laser beams instead of radio waves for two-way communication successfully transmitted data at high rates of speed and accuracy and demonstrated error-free data upload rates of 20 Mbps.

"LLCD is the first step on our road map toward building the next generation of space communication capability," said Badri Younes, NASA's deputy associate administrator for space communications and navigation. "We are encouraged by the results of the demonstration to this point, and we are confident we are on the right path to introduce this new capability into operational service soon."

Capabilities in radio frequency communication have essentially reached their peak, sometimes creating bottlenecks for mission-critical video, images and other data transmitted from NASA's many satellites. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, for example, requires several minutes to transmit a single high-resolution image of the moon's surface to Earth at its peak speed of 100 Mbps.

NASA believes future optical communications systems will be able to transmit data 10 to 100 times faster using a quarter less power, which will allow scientists to add 3-D video to the catalog of data types future satellites or rovers could beam back to Earth.

Southern ozone hole slightly smaller this year

Seth Borenstein - Associated Press

Warm air at high altitudes this September and October helped shrink the man-made ozone hole near the South Pole ever so slightly, scientists say.

The hole is an area in the atmosphere with low ozone concentrations. It is normally is at its biggest this time of year. NASA says on average it covered 8.1 million square miles this season. That's 6 percent smaller than the average since 1990.

The ozone hole is of concern because high-altitude ozone shields Earth from ultraviolet radiation.

NASA chief atmospheric scientist Paul A. Newman says the main reason for this year's result is local weather. The upper air has been almost 2 degrees warmer than normal in the globe's southernmost region. That has led to fewer polar stratospheric clouds. These clouds are where chlorine and bromine, which come from man-made products, nibble away at ozone.

"It's just like watching the Pac-Man eating cookies, where cookies are ozone. The chlorine atoms are the Pac-Man," Newman said.

James Butler, director of the global monitoring division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Lab, said Wednesday that the new figures are "sort of encouraging news."

"It's not getting worse," Butler said. "That's a good sign."

Butler said it stopped getting worse around the late 1990s. But he added, "We can't say yet that it's a recovery."

Newman and Butler said they can't tell if the ozone hole changes are related to man-made global warming.

While warm upper air helped keep the ozone hole small, the surface of the Southern Hemisphere was also warm last month, with the second-highest average temperature on record for September, NOAA announced Wednesday. Records go back to 1880.

For the entire globe, last month tied 2003 for the fourth hottest September on record, with average temperature 1.15 degrees higher than the average for the 20th century. September was the 343rd consecutive month that global temperatures have been higher than 20th century average.

This year, after nine months, is on track to be the sixth warmest on record globally, 1.22 degrees hotter than normal.

For the United States, this was the sixth warmest September on record, 2.5 degrees higher than the 20th century average. It was the hottest since 2005. But the nation's average temperature over the first nine months of the year is only the 28th highest on record.

Space trash is a big problem. These economists have a solution.

Brad Plumer - Washington Post

Space is getting messy. The amount of debris in Earth's orbit keeps growing each year, disrupting satellites and occasionally putting astronauts in harm's way. If the problem gets severe enough, it could eventually make low-earth orbit unusable.

Scientists have been worrying about space trash since the 1970s. Humans have placed thousands of objects into orbit since Sputnik, and some of those old satellites and ejected rockets are slowly breaking apart. As pieces collide with each other at high speeds and shatter, they create more debris. Eventually, space could get saturated with high-flying trash — not entirely unlike the chaotic scenes in Alfonso Cuarón's new film Gravity.

Yet despite years of warning, the world's nations have never been able to agree on how to solve the problem. There are lots of bright ideas for cleaning up debris, but countries often wrangle over how to pay for them. So that's where economists come in.

In a recent paper, three economists argue that orbital debris is just a standard "tragedy of the commons" problem. Space is a precious commodity, and people tend to overuse it, since users don't pay the full price for the mess created by satellites. Similarly, no one country has the incentive to clean up the entire mess all by itself.

Economists typically solve this problem with what's known as a Pigouvian tax or user fee to better align those incentives. So, they ask, why not place a user fee on orbital launches to help pay for clean-up?

"User fees are a solution straight out of the Reagan era to deal with precisely these sorts of environmental issues," says Peter J. Alexander, an economist at the Federal Communications Commission and a co-author of the paper. (He helped write the paper in his spare time, not on behalf of the U.S. government.) "This is a classic commons problem."

The space-trash dilemma

The orbits around Earth are undeniably valuable. Satellites are used for everything from communications to television to Earth monitoring and military surveillance. Roughly 49 percent of satellites are in low-earth orbit, which is also where astronauts work. Another 41 percent are higher up, in geosynchronous orbit.

Yet those orbits are gradually getting clogged. The map below comes from NASA's Orbital Debris Program Office, showing all the items humans have placed into orbit since Sputnik, including bits of satellites that have cracked apart, or old upper-launch vehicle stages:

NASA currently tracks more than 21,000 man-made objects in orbit larger than 10 centimeters, but there are also hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces circling the Earth that are harder to detect. Many of them are moving at extremely high speeds, some as fast as 22,000 mph.

That trash is starting to become a hassle. Now and again, satellites have to adjust their orbits to steer clear of passing debris. Astronauts working on the International Space Station occasionally have to scramble into their Soyuz escape capsule when metal shards fly near, just in case a piece hits the station. "A 10-centimeter sphere of aluminum would be like 7 kilograms of TNT," one NASA scientist explained. "It would blow everything to smithereens."

"There are already a lot of costs associated with the ongoing debris cloud," says Brendan Michael Cunningham, an economist at the U.S. Naval Academy and another co-author of the paper. "We have very expensive programs to track all that debris in orbit, using radar to send out early warnings to satellite operators."

The nightmare scenario would be a cascade of collisions that becomes unstoppable. Metal shards would start destroying satellites, which would create even more debris, until low-earth orbit became unusable. This is known as the "Kessler syndrome," named after NASA astrophysicist Donald Kessler who first discussed the possibility in 1978.

Fortunately, a chain reaction hasn't occurred yet, and Kessler's early prediction of apocalypse by 2000 turned out to be premature. But there are some warning signs. Back in 2009, we saw the first major collision between two intact satellites — a U.S. Iridium and an aging Russian Cosmos. The result: 2,000 extra chunks of metal flying around Earth.

A major report by the National Research Council in 2011 warned that may be reaching a "tipping point" where such collisions become more common. The researchers said that space might be just 10 or 20 years away from severe problems.

"Kessler was describing an orbital Nagasaki, where everything was annihilated," says Alexander. "But there are degrees in which the environment gets degraded even before that sort of collisional cascade."

Can we clean up orbital debris?

Here's the good news: Scientists have plenty of clever schemes to deal with orbital debris, like shoving the troublesome pieces high into "graveyard orbit." Engineers at the University of Colorado have even outlined a plan to haul away junk with static electricity. (The FCC requires all newer satellites to move into graveyard orbit at the end of their lifespan, but experts say we'll also have to remove older debris to avoid disaster.)

One problem, though, is that the world's nations can't always agree on how best to handle clean-up. Current international guidelines for debris mitigation are largely voluntary, with some agencies — like NASA — more careful than others. Everyone has an incentive to keep launching satellites into space. The incentives to tidy up the aftermath are weaker.

In their paper, economists Alexander and Cunningham, along with Nodir Adilov of Indiana University-Purdue University, propose a solution: Countries should impose a fee or tax on orbital launches. The fee would be set high enough that companies and nations don't over-populate space with objects. And the revenue could fund clean-up efforts. This, they say, would be preferable to the current system of ad hoc rules and regulations on space debris.

That said, a user fee would create its own set of headaches. How does the tax get divvied up? Most of the debris currently in space, after all, was put there by the United States and Russia, with China a close third. (In 2007, China blew up one of its own satellites to show off its weapons capabilities, creating an additional 3,000 bits of debris.) Should those three countries shoulder most of the burden?

"Those are good questions," says Alexander. "The bargaining environment here has become incredibly complex. We looked at the simplest solution, which was to impose a launch fee on a forward-going basis."

What's more, getting the tax right wouldn't resolve all lingering questions. At a recent conference in Brussels, space experts pointed out that the removal of existing orbital debris involves all sorts of legal challenges. Under current law, for instance, the owners of a satellite have to give permission before anyone else can come near it. Hashing out those sorts of permissions are trickier than they sound.

But even if an international user fee wouldn't be easy to negotiate, the authors say, it's also clear that the current system is failing. "If you look at what NASA's saying, even in the absence of new launches, the amount of debris will continue to grow over the next 200 years," says Alexander.

"Up until now, we've had voluntary guidelines around launches, and the physics community is saying this is not sustainable."

Further reading

·         Credit where due: Molly Macauley of Resources for the Future has been discussing similar solutions to orbital debris and other space issues for some time. It's worth checking out her 2003 article on the subject.

·         Another interesting essay: Is space the final frontier of environmental disasters?

·         As mentioned above, space debris played a pivotal role in Alfonso Cuarón's new film Gravity, although that particular scenario was a little overblown. Here's a good fact-check of the movie.

The Gravitas of Commercial Spacecraft

Greg Autry - Huffington Post

The new film Gravity has rightly garnered a great deal of praise for its spectacular special effects and for Sandra Bullock's gripping portrayal of ill-fated Mission Specialist, Dr. Ryan Stone. The movie has also become the target of much techno-grumbling in the nerdosphere over its dubious premise, liberties taken with orbital mechanics and for the portrayal of cumbersome and complex space hardware as convenient, comfortable and easy to operate. For an interesting, balanced look at the film, by someone who has been there, see Astronaut Michael Lopez-Algeria's review.

Personally, we were less annoyed than Neil deGrasse Tyson with the liberties taken by Gravity in getting fast and loose with science. What bothered us most was having it set in some alternate universe of economics.

Great execution has long excused storylines that warp the reality of time and space and we found Gravity a magnificent, guilty pleasure. Bullock's flitting between conveniently placed space outposts was necessary to the film's plot and the intrinsic problem with that seemed to elude nearly everyone in the theater. However, the artifice that everyone did notice was an entirely unnecessary addition to the film: a space shuttle -- the destruction of which, maroons Bullock in space.

We suspect the decision to transport the American astronauts in a shuttle was based on the theory that familiarity supports believability. Everyone knows and admires the beautiful lines of the shuttle, but we also know that our shuttle fleet is entirely safe, because the walls of museums protect these venerable craft from space debris. The manufacturing lines and the supply chain necessary to build shuttles have been shut down for years. It would be easier to bend the laws of physics and place the ISS and the Hubble Space Telescope into the same orbital neighborhood than it would be to fund the construction and operation of another space shuttle in today's United States!

Budget overruns and delays have already forced NASA to abandon Constellation, its first shuttle replacement, and the agency is currently pushing a less ambitious exploration project known as the Space Launch System (SLS). With the government flipping ever more rapidly from sequestration, to shut down, to the brink of default, it has become increasingly difficult for anyone to believe any traditional, government run space program can be funded to completion. So, we were not surprised that director Alfonso Cuarón chose not to use the government's Orion capsule in his film.

However, Cuarón might have maintained Gravity's sense of realism and captured relevance by flying our heroine to orbit in one of America's new commercial spacecraft. A SpaceX Dragon capsule, Boeing CST-100 or Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser space plane would have offered an exciting and modern space transportation choice. While private spacecraft might sound like science fiction to some, these vehicles, along with their proven launch systems, the SpaceX Falcon 9 and United Launch Alliance Atlas V, are very real solutions currently undergoing NASA certification and testing in preparation for manned flights in the next few years.

Orbital Sciences has recently demonstrated that their Antares rocket is fully ISS capable launch system and it could potentially be paired with any number of commercial orbiters underdevelopment. The innovation and efficiencies created by a competitive free marketplace are already driving a renaissance in spaceflight that will sweep aside the film's clunky Soviet era Soyuz and the Chinese knockoff, Shenzhou.

We hope that millions enjoy Gravity and are inspired by its compelling imagery of humans at work in Earth orbit. It would have been great if it presented a more realistic way of how Americans are, in fact, going to be doing that. We look forward to seeing Bullock relaxing on a safe, commercial flight to a commercial Bigelow space habitat in Gravity 2.

Symbolism in Space

Merryl Azriel - Space Safety Magazine

Space is replete with symbolism of every variety. Heroism and survival. Racing into orbit as a war for supremacy. A flag on the Moon. A flag on every rocket. Stars falling from the sky. Aliens standing in for anyone we don't understand on Earth.

This fall there is some very poignant symbolism on view aboard our more-than-symbolically cooperative international space station. A couple weeks ago, ISS astronaut Mike Hopkins peered out the window and spotted a large and unusual sight. The strangely close-seeming blooming cloud turned out to be the test firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Although crisply clear out the window, the missile was not anywhere near the space station and the crew was never in danger. Nevertheless, one wonders what it must be like to float above the planet in a fragile, life supporting bubble on a once in a lifetime journey of a few short months, dedicated to advancing your nation's scientific endeavors and exploratory capability with your trusted colleagues from around the globe – and to watch as one of those beautiful green continents below practices killing people.

Missiles and spaceflight go back a long way, of course. All the way, really. It was intercontinental ballistic missiles that became the first rockets and paved the way to send humans into space. It was a sort of poetic justice, to derive intellectual accomplishments and open new opportunities from a tube of death and destruction.

Global space capabilities leapt rapidly ahead, then slowed, now stalled. Or perhaps slipped backwards. With space budgets steadily decreasing in the US, Russia, Europe, and India, once more we are looking to the military for innovative ideas and engineering designs. Instead of NASA, we find DARPA – the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – making these advances. We are still making the missiles before we turn them into rockets. Where is the future in that?

In another couple weeks, we'll witness a symbol of a different kind. Two cosmonauts will carry an Olympic torch outside the International Space Station to light up the darkness of space. The torch is being sent up with Expedition 38/39 in advance of the Sochi winter Olympic games being hosted by Russia in 2014. The Olympics, the oldest forum for all nations of the world to come together in peace and compete on pure skill to make their homelands proud, represents a vision that seems eminently suited to space, where 16 nations can cooperate to perform experiments, to train astronauts, to transport them safely, and keep them alive and well. But still, there is that missile blooming out the window.

I'd like to say that the missile shows our past approach to space while the torch illuminates our future, but that would be disingenuous in the extreme. Instead, I'll point once again to the space thriller that has taken the world by storm and reignited public awareness of the existence of our space programs. A lot has been written about Gravity, in Space Safety Magazine and elsewhere. We keep talking about it because, as prior space movies have before, this film manages to excite a widespread audience about the hazards and rewards of space in a way reality rarely does. Here on our site we saw a 400% spike in Gravity-related visits from people who were just learning about Tiangong, the Soyuz, and space debris, and wanted to discover more.

There is only so much weight one can place on a product developed to entertain, but at the same time it would be foolish to disregard the power of a skillful story to become a beacon, a rallying point calling to those passionate to explore and hungry to invent. A symbol. For what could be more symbolic than spacecraft from different nations strung like beads around the globe, providing refuge to anyone who can spot them on the horizon and reach their shores, regardless of origin, country, or creed? Maybe it's not quite like that in real life, but as a symbol of joining together in a fight against the dark, cold, life-extinguishing vacuum of space, it's a vision that's hard to beat. As we all know, the best of friends are forged in response to a common enemy.

So let that enemy be space. Let's push back its boundaries, uncover its secrets, and make it our own. Let's clean up our debris and keep launching our instruments of science and exploration. Let's put our money into space and let's do it collaboratively. Maybe then we can leave the ICBMs unlaunched.

Rewards in space exploration

Julia Zarina - Michigan Daily (Opinion)

I'm willing to bet that the 125-million Americans who don't support federal funding for space programs have never met Colonel Jack Lousma.

To hear the distinguished Michigan graduate, space shuttle pilot and capsule communicator of the Apollo 13 mission speak about his 17 years as an astronaut is to forget for a moment that you've never been out of Earth's literal and figurative sphere of influence.

The stories he told during our interview were vivid reminders of what inspired me and thousands before me to live out childhood afternoons in refrigerator box spaceships big enough for tiny astronauts with stars in their eyes. They are what motivated dreams of space camp and Tang-drinking orangutans in zero gravity.

Most importantly, his experiences are critical reminders that space exploration demands a continued place in our curricula and political agendas, not just in our history textbooks as a faint, retro-futuristic fad of a bygone era.

Since the cancellation of the Space Shuttle program two years ago, the United States is at a crucial crossroads in space research. In a political climate that is unreceptive to the financial costs associated with a national space program, the questions the country faces now are different from the ones at the beginning of the Space Race — funding and support, more than technological capabilities, are now the limiting factors to space exploration. Although societal trends dictating the use of such technologies have changed drastically in the past 60 years, space exploration today is as important as ever for both the immediate and long-term futures of innovation and research.

One of the most visible changes in space research is the introduction of commercial companies in an area that had previously been the exclusive jurisdiction of regulated government initiatives. Businesses like SpaceX and Orbital Sciences have proven themselves to be successful, profitable partners in logistical roles associated with space exploration — such as delivering cargo to the International Space Station — and show potential for great growth in developing manned commercial spaceflight programs in the near future.

While commercial space companies will undoubtedly play a role of increasing importance in the future of space exploration, it is premature to say that we are past the era of government-funded space programs being necessary or useful. As Lousma emphasizes, the goals and most important functions of NASA as an organization relate to exploration and discovery, although their mission in recent years seemed analogous at times to running a kind of extraterrestrial airline to and from the International Space Station.

"I think it's unlikely that the commercial sector will eventually take over (activities like) deep space exploration," Lousma says. "It's too costly, takes too much time and I'm guessing it will be an international effort when it does get underway ... It's what NASA would like to do. The resources required and the startup cost of it is going to dictate that the federal government do this kind of research."

Opponents argue that funding for space programs wastes money when there are widespread fiscal crises on Earth, and that the motivations that drove the United States to develop the world's most advanced space program are no longer as relevant as they were during the days of Cold War rivalry. Although dominance in space exploration may not be at the forefront of our national security interests anymore, the continued support of these programs is both an economic asset and a social and scientific necessity.

Besides the positive economic returns associated with investing in space research, the average American benefits from these government-funded programs in tangible ways. Lousma points out that the benefits of space research have relevant mainstream applications and can be impossible to predict.

"Things we never thought might spin-off (from space research) are the things we have now: computers in every house, GPS systems, Internet, cell phones. A whole lot of things like that are spinoffs of space technology and are products that nobody ever thought of," Lousma says.

"I think our greatest benefit is probably unknown at the moment."

This idea may appeal to policymakers like Jack Marburger, former presidential science advisor, who was once quoted as saying the debate about space exploration "comes down to whether we want to bring the solar system within mankind's sphere of economic influence".

Although this may be true when it comes to debating the national budget, the real, compelling reasons space exploration matters are not found in the numbers. We study finance and government to be masters of our own systems, but the challenge of exploring something unknown for its own sake is what makes us uniquely human.

We are compelled to write symphonies, climb mountains and break records not because it will make us rich, but because it will make us better collectively and as individuals.

"There are no grocery stores or gas stations in space," Lousma remarks. "You have to learn to conserve your supplies and get along because you're on a mission that is important, is risky and has consequences. In the same way, we're on a spacecraft here; we live on the spacecraft Earth. It's flying through space at tremendous speed and we need to learn to use our resources more effectively and efficiently and learn to get along with each other better than we have in the past in order to have a safe and successful mission."

To purposefully examine and promote these ideas is to contribute to history and our own understanding in a profound and almost super-human way — it's impossible to quantify what is perhaps the most under-valued benefit of space exploration: the generations of scientists, astronauts, engineers and students who have been inspired to innovate and explore because of it.

"You'll always find things that haven't been done before," Lousma says in support of those pursuing careers in space research. "It's being a part of something that's bigger than yourself. And you'll find that when it's risky, there's a lot of reward in winning."

This is the real reason space exploration matters. The rewards are out there; it's up to us to go get them.

George David Hopson

April 9, 1927 - Oct. 23, 2013

Huntsville Times

George David Hopson, 86, passed away peacefully at his home in Madison, Alabama on Wednesday. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama and graduated from Woodlawn High School in Birmingham.

He enlisted in the US Marine Corps and served from 1945-1946. He then attended the University of Alabama where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1950.

He served as an officer in the US Army from 1951-1953, earning the Bronze Star in Korea. He then returned to the University of Alabama and earned a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1954.

He began his engineering career at General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas from 1954-1962, then returned home to Alabama to begin a distinguished 45 year career at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

He held numerous positions at NASA including Fluid Dynamics Branch Chief, Structures and Thermal Branch Chief, Skylab Analysis Lab Director, Space Systems Chief Engineer, Space Transportation Systems Chief Engineer, Space Station Projects Office Manager, Deputy Director for Space Systems, Space Shuttle Main Engine Manager, and NASA Technical Fellow for Propulsion.

He received significant recognition throughout his career including the Exceptional Service Award, two Outstanding Leadership Awards, two Presidential Rank Awards, the Distinguished Service Award and induction into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame. George loved his family and friends; enjoyed being a gentleman cattle farmer and gardening; and attentively watched over all of his pets.

George was preceded in death by his parents Nell and Arthur; beloved wife Marguerite; and his brother, Bill.

George is survived by his sons, Charles (Phyllis), Bill (Rhonda) and George Jr.; his daughter, Lee Collins (Tom); brother, Art (Faye); grandchildren, Justin, Matt, Jennifer Collins and Tia Hopson, nephews, Tom, David, Richard and Dana, and nieces, Dale and Ellen. Visitation will be from 12 noon to 2 p.m. Sunday at Laughlin Service Funeral Home with the service immediately following in the chapel. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery, Inc.

Astronaut & native son Carpenter's funeral to be held in Boulder on Nov. 2

Fellow Mercury 7 astronaut John Glenn scheduled to deliver eulogy

John Aguilar - Boulder Daily Camera

Celebrated astronaut Scott Carpenter, whose 1962 flight into space marked only the second time an American had orbited Earth, will be brought back to Boulder to be memorialized in the city where he was born and grew into an eventual living legend.

Former Sen. John Glenn, who preceded Carpenter by a matter of months on the first orbital flight by a U.S. astronaut, is expected to deliver the eulogy of his former colleague and friend at the Nov. 2 ceremony at St. John's Episcopal Church, 1419 Pine St.

Carpenter died at a Denver hospice on Oct. 10 due to complications from a stroke. He was 88.

A number of former astronauts will serve as honorary pallbearers during the ceremony and other dignitaries are expected to be in attendance, said Mike Murphy of Murphy & Associates Funeral Directors in Boulder. He said a list of those planning to be there won't be finalized until next week, but invitations have gone out to Colorado's congressional delegation.

The funeral, which is scheduled for 11 a.m., is open to the public. Carpenter, a former naval aviator, will receive military honors before his body is cremated and buried at his family's ranch in Steamboat Springs.

Murphy said St. John's seats around 550 people, though a portion of the church will be reserved for dignitaries, family members and friends. A chapel on the property that holds up to 120 people and a parish hall that can accommodate another 150 or so will be available to those who wish to attend, with audio from the funeral piped in.

Police will block off Pine Street in front of St. John's, while three nearby churches -- First United Methodist, Trinity Lutheran, and Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church -- will make their parking lots available to funeral goers.

Murphy said the public will have two closed casket visitation opportunities at St. John's on Nov. 1 -- the first from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and the second from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Carpenter was born in Boulder in 1925 and graduated from Boulder High School in 1943 before briefly attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. He joined the Navy's V-12a training program, designed to help train pilots during World War II, and served for 10 years with the branch before being chosen in 1959 by the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration to be part of its first astronaut group.

Carpenter was one of the last two survivors of the original Mercury 7 space program. Glenn, 92, is the other.

Carpenter's May 24, 1962 flight in space is remembered for its high drama during re-entry, when the key instrument that tells the pilot which way the capsule is pointing malfunctioned, forcing Carpenter to manually take over control of the landing. He also found himself dangerously low on fuel.

NASA's Mission Control, which had lost contact with their astronaut, announced that Carpenter would overshoot his landing zone by more than 200 miles. The grim news prompted CBS newsman Walter Cronkite to solemnly inform his audience: "We may have ... lost an astronaut."

But Carpenter managed to orient himself by simply peering out the space capsule's window. The Navy found him in the Caribbean, floating in his life raft with his feet propped up.

Carpenter's forays into space ended then, but his explorations continued several years later when he completed a 30-day stint in the ocean as part of the Navy's SeaLab II program. He retired from the Navy in 1969, founded his company Sea Sciences Inc., worked closely with Jacques Cousteau and dove in most of the world's oceans, including under the ice in the Arctic.

Carpenter returned to Boulder last year to attend the rededication of the Boulder park bearing his name and to mark the 50th anniversary of his orbital flight.

END

Shuttle/Shuttle Concept Restart

Friday, October 25, 2013

Fwd: Human Spaceflight News - October 25, 2013

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