Friday, October 4, 2013

Fwd: NASA News Summary for Friday, October 4, 2013



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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: October 4, 2013 7:24:03 AM GMT-06:00
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA News Summary for Friday, October 4, 2013

Happy Friday everyone and have a great weekend—enjoy the taste of Fall weather arriving on Sunday.

 

For a Government Shutdown month-----It was great to see such a wonderful turnout at our monthly Retiree lunch yesterday at Hibachi—the fellowship is wonderful and the food is not too bad either!!.  

 

Especially great to see newly retired Oron Schmidt,  Jim Knoedler , Bill Speier, Jeff Adams and others like many of the NASA Alumni League members- Chet/Denny/Wayne/etc.,  great to see Kathy and George Weisskopf, Laurie and Dick Beverlin, Dean Schwartz and his wife, Larry and Kathy Schmidt, Lee Reutz and his wife, Bill Reed and his wife,  Bill Sherborne and his wife, Mike Conley and his wife, Charlie Ritterhouse and his wife,  many many regulars like Alex and Barbara Pope, John Peck and Julie Mathers, Teresa Sullivan, Linda LaPradd (becoming a regularJ ), Dave O'Brien, Charles Harlan, Bill Bates, Joe Mechelay, John Whalen, Richard Hergert, Jack Garman, John Jurgensen, Gary Johnson, Floyd Bennett,, Mac Henderson,   and so many many more regulars that I may forget to leave you out.   My apologies if I failed to recognize your continued fellowship with us monthly—it is a pleasure for me to see you all regular and I apologize for not having and taking the time to come visit with each and everyone of you . Please join us again soon—continued prayers go out to Phil Dean's wife Fern who is still in rehab from a serious stroke!

 

Great to have Tom Gibson stop in and visit with us too.    Oh and always a pleasure to have non retirees (or wanna be retirees) like me   Ann Patterson and Tri Nguyen joined us too..

 

Don't forget to give Oron Schmidt a retiree send off celebration at his party this afternoon at the Gilruth Pavillion  I think around 4pm    I will locate his flyer and send out a reminder later on.

 

Larry

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work On MAVEN Mission Resumes.

The Los Angeles Times (10/4, Khan, 3.07M) "Science Now" blog reports that after reviewing the MAVEN mission, NASA decided it met the requirements for necessary work during a government shutdown, thus avoiding a potential launch delay of two years. The article notes that there is an "enormous to-do list" to work through before the launch. Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's lead scientist, said the mission is back "on track" for launch.

NASA, ISRO To Jointly Develop Weather Satellite.

The Deccan (IND) Chronicle (10/4, 32K) reports ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said there has been a "turning point in Indo-US relations" with the decision to jointly develop an "all-weather satellite" with NASA. The satellite is expected to launch on an Indian rocket between 2019 and 2020. Radhakrishnan said that the ISRO has been talking with NASA "as part of the Indo-US civilian space cooperation agreement, and took the initiative forward during the recent visit of Administrator Charles Bolden to New Delhi and Ahmedabad." According to the article, after this project, the agencies could collaborate on "joint exploration of outer space, inter-planetary missions, and production and launch of advanced communication and remote sensing satellites."

Gravity "Captures The Essence" Of Life In Space.

The ScienceInsider (10/4, Sachdev, 507K) interviews astronaut Cady Coleman about the discussion she had with actress Sandra Bullock while at the ISS. Bullock used the information to inform her role for the movie, "Gravity." Coleman reportedly said the film "captures the essence" of what it is like at the ISS, even if life there is not as eventful. Like with previously reported articles reviewing the movie, Coleman said there were some items that were portrayed "really, really, really nicely" and others that were not. Meanwhile, Coleman notes that space debris is a constant worry for NASA, but operators "work really hard" to avoid situations like the one in the movie.

       

        Blog Coverage. Lee Hutchinson at Ars Technica (10/4, 514K) interviews Zeb Scoville, EVA task group lead at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, to learn his opinion about what was seen in the movie's trailer. Scoville first discussed how officials would look for debris before an EVA was conducted, so a disaster like the one in the movie could be avoided. Scoville said, "We have the EVA community come together, and they'll present a lot of the technical analysis, and we give our community-wide consensus for a 'go' for the EVA." Scoville added one of the biggest issues seen was an astronaut going from the ISS' orbit to the Hubble's. Meanwhile, if something like the movie did take place, and the ISS was destroyed, Scoville thought, "I don't think there'd be much of a NASA left." He said that "the effort that's going on now to understand" what went wrong with just one spacesuit during a spacewalk a few months ago "and regain confidence in the hardware and the suit and understand what the root cause was is very much taking up our entire focus now, and it probably will be the main concentration of the work with EVA for the coming year. ... Here, you'd be talking about the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars of assets, and potentially lives, too. ... Meetings would become irrelevant at that point. ... It would be more like, do we as a species want to continue to fly into space, and make it a priority to rebuild that capability."

        Joseph Airdo at the Examiner (10/3, 1.16M) "Phoenix Movie Examiner" blog described an interview with astronaut Sandra Magnus, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, about what is seen in the movie "Gravity." Magnus said, "We work very hard to not let that happen. That is not a good situation. Whenever we do spacewalks, we are always tethered. We have a safety tether on our spacesuit attached firmly at a permanent place on the station. Then you have sort of a pulley reel that unwinds the safety tether as you move around. So you are always attached by the safety tether." Magnus said even if all the tethers broke and one was set adrift, "we actually train for that in a virtual reality environment that will put us in a tumble as if we have just fallen off the station."

       

ISS Research Could Lead To Better Understanding Of Red Tides.

The Central Florida News 13 (10/4, Pallone, 25K) website reports the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) and the Naval Research Laboratory will use a "special imager" at the ISS to study "harmful algal blooms like Red Tide." The research could lead to a "more reliable process" for classifying the blooms.

        CFLN-TV (10/3, 4:24 p.m. ET) has a broadcast on the study, repeating it about 7 times over the course of the day.

Orbital Sciences Sues Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority.

The Courthouse News (10/4, Abbott, 7K) reports that Orbital Sciences is suing the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority because it claims the authority will not pay it for the improvements it made to the launch site it will use for cargo mission to the ISS. Orbital said it "lent" the authority $16.5 million "in the form of an asset purchase" when delays to launch pad upgrades threatened the company's launch schedule, but now the authority is refusing to buy the assets back as it allegedly agreed to do.

J-2X Engine To Be Shelved After Testing Is Completed.

The Aerospace Daily and Defense Report (10/4, Morring) reports that because the J-2X engine will not be needed for the SLS rocket for "years," it will "go on the shelf" once tests are completed in 2014. Todd May, NASA's SLS program manager, said, "The J-2X for certain [design reference missions] is somewhat overpowered." According to the article, the "equally venerable" RL-10 engine may be a better choice for the rocket's upper stages for missions to locations other than Mars. For Mars missions, the J-2X will "almost certainly" be used. Meanwhile, NASA officials also said it could turn out to be cheaper to develop a "dual-use upper stage" with the RL-10s and a cryogenic propulsion stage (CPS) than originally thought. May's deputy Steve Creech said, "What we've looked at to try to save costs and accelerate mission capability [is] combining the functions of our upper stage and the CPS so that we just have to have one stage." May added, "Under constrained funding the number of simultaneous developments is limited, and that's why we've essentially ended up with the architecture we did, because we only have the core to develop. ... And if you can do a dual-use upper stage you can actually get to a very capable rocket with only one more major development — not an upper stage and then a CPS."

        Apollo F-1 Engineering Model Moved To Aerojet Rocketdyne HQ. collectSPACE (10/4, Pearlman) reports an Apollo F-1 engine engineering model was moved on Wednesday from the Aerojet Rocketdyne's Canoga Park plant to a new display at the company's headquarters in Los Angeles. According to the article, the model is expected to be "inspiration" for those developing "an upgraded, affordable version of the engine" for possible use on the pace Launch System.

Space Florida Considers Using Shuttle Landing Facility For Horizontal Launches.

Florida Today (10/4, Gunnerson, 222K) reports on the "big transportation projects" discussed at the Brevard 2040 Transportation Symposium yesterday. When it comes to space, Space Florida will use the Kennedy Space Center's shuttle landing facility for "horizontal space launch and landings, which includes space tourism." Officials are also still examining the potential for a commercial launch site at Shiloh. Mark Bontrager, vice president of spaceport operations for Space Florida, said there is the possibility for "significant growth" when it comes to commercial launches.

ISRO: Curiosity's Methane Finding Does Not Undermine Its Mars Mission.

The Indian Express (10/4, 945K) reports the ISRO officials "denied" that the Curiosity rover has "undermined" its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) by finding no trace of methane gas on Mars. Deviprasad Karnik, the ISRO's director of public relations, added that part of the mission is also to serve as India's "technology demonstrator for interplanetary mission." Meanwhile, MOM has now reached the launch site for integration with a PSLV rocket.

Call Henry Lays Off Workers After Glenn Does Not Issue Follow-Up Contract.

The Crain's Cleveland Business (10/4, McCafferty, 68K) reports because the Glenn Research Center did not issue Call Henry Inc. a follow-up contract, it will have to lay off 98 people. The company had been providing "facility operations, repair and maintenance."

Wright Brothers Day Features Glenn Employees.

The Fairborn (OH) Daily Herald (10/4, 5K) reports on the third annual Wright Brothers Day held at Wright State University on October 7 to celebrate the historic flight in 1905. The celebration will include "historical and technological displays, food and a keynote address by retired Lt. Gen. Jack Hudson, director of the National Museum of the United States Air Force." According to the Daily Herald, two Wright brother impersonators scheduled to appear, Tom Benson and Roger Storm, work at the Glenn Research Center.

Astronauts Simulate Launching Aboard Orion Spacecraft.

Heather Smith at AmericaSpace (10/4) writes that astronauts have "for the first time" practiced launching aboard the Orion spacecraft in order to provide "feedback" for "fine-tuning" the cockpit controls. Astronaut Lee Morin said, "Simulations like these provide valuable experience by giving astronauts and the operations team an early look at what going to deep space in Orion will be like. ... Rehearsing launch and ascent—two of the most challenging parts of Orion's mission—also gives us an opportunity to work toward optimizing how the crew interacts with the spacecraft." He added this has been "rewarding work."

Germany's Gerst To Conduct "Blue Dot" Mission Aboard ISS.

Ben Evans at AmericaSpace (10/4) writes that Germany will send its third astronaut, Alexander Gerst, to the ISS for the "Blue Dot" mission. The ESA said his mission will involve experiments focused on "materials physics, human physiology, radiation biology, solar research, biotechnology, fluid physics, astrophysics and technology demonstrations." Gerst is scheduled to join astronaut Reid Wiseman and cosmonaut Maksim Surayev on a May 2014 launch

Blogger Explains How Astronauts Deal With Itches During Spacewalks.

Matt Soniak at Mental_Floss (10/4) explains how astronauts deal with facial itches when on spacewalks by citing a demonstration video by NASA's Phil West. Soniak notes that there could be more pressing issues during a spacewalk, like when astronaut Andrew Feustel got "anti-fogger" in his eyes during a spacewalk at the ISS.

ISS Called A "Beauty" In The Sky.

Ken Kopczynski at the Tallahassee (FL) Democrat (10/3, 117K) "Community Blogs," writes that even after viewing the ISS pass in the sky for years, he still is "amazed" by the ISS' "beauty." Kopczynski recommends readers go to www.heavens-above.com so they can get notified when the ISS can be seen.

Location Of All Astronaut Photos Creates Basic Map Of The Earth.

Nathan Bergey at the Slate Magazine (10/4, 9.37M) "Future Tense" blog writes that he "crawled" through the NASA servers to find the location of the "1,129,177 astronaut photos" taken from the ISS. He then posted the "basic" maps of the Earth created when plotting these locations.

Texas A&M Hosts Event To Promote Commercial Spaceflight in Texas.

The Bryan College Station (TX) Eagle (10/4, Reed, 65K) reports on a gathering of commercial spaceflight leaders at the Texas Commercial Workshop at Texas A&M University. According to organizers, the workshop "was designed to promote dialogue about where space technology is boldly going and what preparation the workforce will need." Rep. John E. Davis, who was at the event, said, "We should be constantly working to entice new commercial space companies to come to Texas and to incentivize those already here to grow their existing businesses." Alan Stern, CEO of Golden Spike, was also present to deliver remarks at the event.

Gagarin Space Training Center Recruits Eight Young Cosmonauts. Russia's

ITAR-TASS News Agency (10/4, 1K) reports the Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Training Cosmonaut Training Center has chosen eight candidates from its cosmonaut recruitment contest. The seven men and one woman "have already started getting ready for future missions. They have experienced weightlessness aboard the special plane Il-76 MDK and practiced survival skills in winter time." The recruits had to be between 23 and 33 years of age and were expected to have "perfect health and a higher education."

 

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