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| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v8.0 Release
- Recent JSC Announcement - Organizations/Social
- 5K Fun Run: JSC Feeds Families 2014
- Minority Mental Health Awareness
- So Your Kid is Going to College - Jobs and Training
- Appreciate Inquiry - Virtual Workshop |  |
| Headlines - Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v8.0 Release
The JSC Chief Knowledge Officer is pleased to announce the eighth release of the Shuttle Knowledge Console. For this release, we are introducing shuttle-related Mission Operations Directorate training videos with associated documentation. We are also releasing the MER shuttle archive, covering all the items evaluated for each of the STS missions. We have added an export function to WebPCASS reports, which will allow users to do advanced analysis of the data on their own machines. We've updated the style and structure of the site and introduced some additional interface for the file archives to make pictures, documents and videos easier to use. Included as well is a search hints page that will help users to get exactly what they want, and quickly. To date, 2.62 TB of information, with 5.83 million documents of Space Shuttle Program knowledge, has been captured. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation and give us your comments and thoughts. - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 14-014: Communications with Industry Procurement Solicitation for the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) Support Services Contract Next Generation (NSSC Nex-Gen) Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Organizations/Social - 5K Fun Run: JSC Feeds Families 2014
Starport will be hosting an exciting event to support JSC Feeds Families. Click on the link below for additional details and registration information. Come help us build a mountain of food! We look forward to seeing you on race day. Registration is OPEN NOW. Date: Friday, Aug. 8 Time: 7 a.m. on the dot! Distance: 5K (3.1 miles) Location: Gilruth Center Prior to start: All runners must add their 10 pounds of non-perishable food to the pile. Medals: Medals will be awarded to the top three male and female finishers in all age categories. NO FEE: All runners must bring 10 pounds of non-perishable food to the Gilruth Center on race day. - Minority Mental Health Awareness
Mental illness affects one in four adults and one in 10 children in America. Do you know which minority groups have the highest suicide rate for pre-teen and elder females? The U.S. Surgeon General reports that minorities are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for their mental illness. Almost two-thirds of people with a diagnosable mental illness do not seek treatment. Come and learn more about myths, facts and mental health basics. Be a part of the conversation to help eliminate the stigma that has been a pervasive obstacle in the understanding mental health and seeking help. Learn ideas to erase the shame around mental illness in diverse communities. In recognition of National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, please join Anika Isaac, LPC, LMFT, LCDC, NCC, CEAP, as she presents on "Minority Mental Health Awareness." - So Your Kid is Going to College
Sending a child off to college is a wonderful milestone, but it is also a time of considerable stress and anxiety for both the parent and child. Separation, studies, time management, safety, drinking and socialization are just a few of the concerns parents have as their child prepares to leave, and these issues can often make the last few weeks of summer tense for all involved. Please join Employee Assistance Program Director Jackie Reese for an informative discussion on how to navigate this bittersweet transition with sensitivity and confidence. Jobs and Training - Appreciate Inquiry - Virtual Workshop
Please join your fellow first-line supervisors from across NASA for a virtual learning workshop on Appreciate Inquiry (AI), sponsored by the agency's LASER program (a 14-month supervisory development program). The event will be held Wednesday, July 30, from noon to 3:30 p.m. in Building 12, Room 146. AI is a methodology for leaders that applies deliberately positive assumptions about people, organizations and relationships. It leaves behind deficit-oriented approaches to management and vitally transforms the ways to approach questions of organizational improvement and effectiveness. AI is a powerful approach capable of inspiring, mobilizing and sustaining human system change. SATERN Registration: LMD-LASER-AI Please contact Nancy Garrick/AH3 at x33076 for more information. Event Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2014 Event Start Time:12:00 PM Event End Time:3:30 PM
Event Location: Bldg. 12, Rm. 146
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Thursday – July 24, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Audit: NASA doesn't have the money for big rockets
Associated Press
NASA doesn't have enough money to get its new, $12 billion rocket system off the ground by the end of 2017 as planned, federal auditors say.
NASA puts out call for satellite communication services – on Mars
Irene Klotz – Reuters
In what may be the ultimate in long-distance telephone service, NASA on Wednesday put out a call for a commercially owned and operated satellite network on Mars.
Robotic Russian Cargo Ship Launches on Express Trip to Space Station
An unmanned Russian spacecraft filled with supplies for the six crewmembers living on the International Space Station launched on an express delivery run to the orbiting outpost today (July 23).
Russian supply craft docks with space station
William Harwood – CBS News
A Russian Progress cargo ship loaded with 2.8 tons of supplies and equipment blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday, streaked into orbit and carried out an automated rendezvous with the International Space Station, gliding to a picture-perfect docking five hours and 47 minutes after liftoff.
Astronaut shares 'saddest photo' from space: Bombs bursting over Israel, Gaza
Douglas Ernst – Washington Times
There are a lot of different perspectives on the military conflict between Israel and Hamas, but Alexander Gerst has one that is truly unique: He's watching it all unfold from the International Space Station.
New Space Race? US Eyes Asteroids as Other Nations Shoot for the Moon
In 1962 that President John F. Kennedy delivered the now-famous line in a speech at Rice University in Texas: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Seven years later, the first humans walked on the lunar surface.
BICEP2 experiment's big-bang controversy highlights challenges for modern science
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
For scientists, the really huge, cymbals-crashing discoveries are hard to come by these days.
Brand New Look at the Face of Mars
Joshua A. Krisch – The New York Times
What really lies across the surface of Mars? Rovers have scurried about the red planet for years, drilling, scooping and analyzing for signs of life, past or present. But to really understand the Martian landscape, scientists need to look at the entire surface. What they have needed is a global geologic map.
NASA's Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope Celebrates 15 Years of Discoveries
One of NASA's premier space telescopes marks a big milestone today (July 23): 15 years in Earth orbit.
So Where the Heck IS Voyager 1, Anyway?
Michael D. Lemonick – TIME
The first human built object to exit the solar system may not be gone after all
For a space probe that's at least two decades beyond its sell-by date, Voyager 1 has a pretty impressive record of keeping itself in the news. Even more impressive is the fact that the topic is always the same. Either the aging craft, launched in 1977 to explore first Jupiter, then Saturn, has left the Solar System, en route to an eternal journey into deep space, or it hasn't.
ULA Scrubs Air Force Delta 4 Launch
Mike Gruss | Space News
The launch of three U.S. Air Force satellites July 23 was postponed 24 hours because of a ground system problem at the launch pad, according to a United Launch Alliance spokeswoman.
COMPLETE STORIES
Audit: NASA doesn't have the money for big rockets
Associated Press
NASA doesn't have enough money to get its new, $12 billion rocket system off the ground by the end of 2017 as planned, federal auditors say.
The Government Accountability Office issued a report Wednesday saying NASA's Space Launch System is at "high risk of missing" its planned December 2017 initial test flight. The post-space shuttle program would build the biggest rockets ever — larger than the Saturn V rockets which sent men to the moon — to send astronauts to asteroids and Mars.
"They can't meet the date with the money they have," report author Cristina Chaplain said. She said it wasn't because the space agency had technical problems with the congressionally-required program, but that NASA didn't get enough money to carry out the massive undertaking.
The GAO report put the current shortfall at $400 million, but did say NASA was "making solid progress" on the rocket program design.
NASA's launch system officials told the GAO that there was a 90 percent chance of not hitting the launch date at this time.
This usually means NASA has to delay its test launch date, get more money or be less ambitious about what it plans to do, said former NASA associate administrator Scott Pace, space policy director at George Washington University.
NASA is working on the problems GAO highlighted, but delaying launch or diverting money from other programs would harm taxpayers, NASA Associate Administrator William Gerstenmaier wrote in the agency's response.
"Welcome to aerospace," Pace said, pointing out that large space projects often end up as much as 50 percent over budget. He said that "is why you shouldn't believe initial cost estimates."
The space agency has been reluctant to put an overall price tag on the Space Launch System. The GAO report says it will cost $12 billion to get to the first test launch and "potentially billions more to develop increasingly capable vehicles" that could be used for launches to asteroids and Mars.
NASA puts out call for satellite communication services – on Mars
Irene Klotz – Reuters
In what may be the ultimate in long-distance telephone service, NASA on Wednesday put out a call for a commercially owned and operated satellite network on Mars.
The U.S. space agency needs to keep in touch with its rovers, landers and orbiters that have been chipping away at studies and experiments to learn if the planet most like Earth in the solar system ever supported life.
The robotic probes, however, are useless if they cannot relay their results, and the two communication satellites currently in orbit are getting old. The Mars Odyssey spacecraft was launched in 2001. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter followed in 2005.
The aging of NASA's Mars communications system comes as the United States, Europe, Russia and India mount a fresh wave of science campaigns, including two atmospheric probes slated to arrive at Mars in September and two life-hunting rovers due to launch in 2018 and 2020.
"There is a potential communications gap in the 2020s," NASA wrote in its solicitation, which was posted on the agency's procurement website.
"With that in mind, NASA is interested in exploring alternative models to sustain and evolve the Mars relay infrastructure," the solicitation said.
A commercially operated communications service could be less expensive and more capable than what NASA could build and operate on its own, while providing "appropriate return-on-investment," to the service provider, NASA Mars exploration program executive Lisa May said in a statement.
For now, NASA is just seeking ideas, with no firm plans or funding to purchase commercial communication services on Mars. Proposals are due by Aug. 25.
The solicitation is open to all organizations, including U.S. industry, universities, nonprofit groups, NASA and other government centers, as well as international organizations.
Robotic Russian Cargo Ship Launches on Express Trip to Space Station
An unmanned Russian spacecraft filled with supplies for the six crewmembers living on the International Space Station launched on an express delivery run to the orbiting outpost today (July 23).
The unmanned Progress 56 craft launched atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:44 p.m. EDT (2144 GMT), 3:44 a.m. local time Thursday (July 24). The Progress is expected to dock to the space station's Pirs docking compartment at 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT) tonight.
"There you see Progress 56 lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on its way to the International Space Station," NASA spokesperson Brandi Dean said during the NASA TV launch broadcast.
The Progress is carrying about 5,700 lbs (2,587 kilograms) of food and other supplies for the Expedition 40 crew currently aboard the station. The spacecraft is also delivering 1,764 lbs (800 kg) of propellant, 57 pounds (26 kg) of air, 48 pounds (22 kg) of oxygen, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and 2,910 pounds (1,320 kg) of supplies, spare parts and experiment hardware, according to NASA.
Historically, Progress ships have taken about two days to arrive at the station. Since 2012, however, the Russian crafts have been flying accelerated, six-hour journeys to the science laboratory. Astronauts and cosmonauts have also recently started flying these quick, four-orbit flights aboard the manned Soyuz capsules that deliver new crewmembers to the station.
A different Progress craft, dubbed Progress 55, left the space station on Monday (July 21) to make room for the new cargo ship. Progress 55 is now flying a safe distance away from the orbiting outpost, where it will perform a series of engineering tests before it intentionally burns up over the Pacific Ocean on July 31, according to NASA.
Progress ships are similar to the crew-carrying Soyuz capsules. They both consist of three modules, but instead of the Soyuz craft's crew compartment, Progress ships are equipped with a fuel module for space station maneuvers.
A variety of cargo ships regularly visit the space station. NASA has deals with two private companies —SpaceX and Orbital Sciences — to fly cargo to the station in their unmanned ships. Japan's H-II Transfer Vehicles and Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicles (ATV) also make runs to the station.
The space station currently plays host to a crew of six. NASA astronauts Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian cosmonauts Max Suraev, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev make up the Expedition 40 crew.
Russian supply craft docks with space station
William Harwood – CBS News
A Russian Progress cargo ship loaded with 2.8 tons of supplies and equipment blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday, streaked into orbit and carried out an automated rendezvous with the International Space Station, gliding to a picture-perfect docking five hours and 47 minutes after liftoff.
The cargo ship's Soyuz booster engines ignited with a rush of flame at 5:44 p.m. EDT and quickly throttled up to full thrust, pushing the rocket away from the launching stand into the plane of the space station's orbit.
Eight minutes and 45 seconds later, the Progress M-24M spacecraft, the 56th Russian cargo ship launched to the station since assembly began in 1998, separated from the booster's upper stage. A few moments after that, navigation antennas and two solar panels unfolded as planned.
The spacecraft then carried out nearly a dozen rocket firings over four orbits to catch up with the space station and properly position iteself for final approach. Following standard procedure, cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Maxim Suraev stood by in the station's Zvezda command module, ready to take over by remote control if the cargo ship's guidance system ran into problems.
But the system appeared to perform flawlessly, guiding the Progress M-24M spacecraft to a smooth autonomous docking at the Earth-facing Pirs module at 11:31 p.m. as the two spacecraft sailed 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean west of Peru.
"We have contact," a cosmonaut radioed as the docking systems engaged.
"Congratulations, guys," a Russian flight controller replied.
The cargo ship was packed with 1,764 pounds of propellant, 105 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,910 pounds of supplies, spare parts and research hardware.
The Progress M-24M spacecraft is the second of four cargo ships expected to arrive over the next two months following the successful launch and berthing of an Orbital Sciences Cygnus supply ship that reached the station July 16.
The European Space Agency's fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, is on track for launch July 29, setting up a docking at the aft port of the Zvezda command module on Aug. 12. A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral on Sept. 12, arriving at the station two days later.
Between the ATV arrival and the SpaceX launch, the station crew plans to carry out three spacewalks, starting with a Russian excursion by Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev on Aug. 18. Station commander Steve Swanson and Reid Wiseman plan to carry out a NASA spacewalk on Aug. 21 with a second U.S. EVA, by Wiseman and Alexander Gerst, on Aug. 29.
Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev plan to return to Earth aboard their Soyuz TMA-12M ferry craft Sept. 11. Three fresh crew members -- Soyuz TMA-14M commander Alexander Samokutyaev, Barry Wilmore and Elena Serova -- are scheduled for launch from Baikonur on Sept. 25 to boost the station crew back to six.
Astronaut shares 'saddest photo' from space: Bombs bursting over Israel, Gaza
Douglas Ernst – Washington Times
There are a lot of different perspectives on the military conflict between Israel and Hamas, but Alexander Gerst has one that is truly unique: He's watching it all unfold from the International Space Station.
"My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza and #Israel," the European astronaut and geophysicist tweeted Wednesday.
Palestinians have fired more than 2,000 rockets towards Israel. In response, Israel has launched multiple airstrikes since July 8.
Over 600 Palestinians and 25 Israelis have died since Israel's military operations began, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
New Space Race? US Eyes Asteroids as Other Nations Shoot for the Moon
In 1962 that President John F. Kennedy delivered the now-famous line in a speech at Rice University in Texas: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Seven years later, the first humans walked on the lunar surface.
It took a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union to spur such statements and spark the United States' manned rush to the moon, a race that led to the first manned lunar landing with Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969. Once the last Apollo mission, Apollo 17, wrapped up in 1972, no human has returned. NASA has sent lunar probes, but today, the agency is focused more on a potential human asteroid visit and putting boots on Mars. Other countries, on the other hand, are starting to think about manned lunar missions.
"NASA is not currently considering a human return to the moon and remains focused on the asteroid-retrieval mission," James Clay Moltz, a professor in the department of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, wrote in an email to Space.com. Before President Barack Obama took office, NASA was operating under the George W. Bush-led vision called Constellation, which included a plan to return to the moon.
"The Obama administration made the calculation that President Bush's Constellation program was unaffordable and that, in terms of science, there was nothing 'new' offered by returning to the moon," Moltz added. "A Mars mission is still a U.S. goal, but it remains a long way off, especially given the current lack of independent U.S. human access to space."
National possibilities
In the past five years, several nations have openly mused about launching their own human missions to the moon. In 2010, Japan talked of sending a humanoid robot. China has been rumored to be considering a lunar mission, although the nation talks mostly about constructing a space station. India, Iran and Russia have also been cited as nations thinking about going the moon.
"It's only three days away," John Logsdon, a professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at The George Washington University's space policy institute, told Space.com. "Compared to any other destination, if you're going to go anywhere, the moon is basically an offshore island." Heading there is not a stated U.S. goal, although it was a brought up in a recent National Research Council report and, according to Logsdon, Obama has expressed an interest in participating in other nation's moon missions — just not leading one.
While Logsdon said going to the moon would be primarily for national prestige, Moltz added that it would be a "useful environment" to test how to live outside Earth. Unlike going to Mars, he added, it would be relatively easy to mount a rescue operation, since it would take just a few days to send help there.
"In my opinion, yes, the moon should be our main focus in order to establish a semi-permanent research base and to build our capabilities for long-duration spaceflight and settlements," Moltz said.
"We will also learn more about using lunar materials for energy and construction purposes," he added. "Finally, a lunar mission would offer better prospects for meaningful cooperation with foreign partners, which is likely to be essential to fund and carry out a Mars mission in the future."
Are they serious?
Both Logsdon and Moltz said that with enough money and dedication, several different countries could conceivably go back to the moon one day.
Both China and Russia, for example, have sent humans into Earth orbit. Russia also knows about long-duration spaceflight through its former Mir space station and participation in the International Space Station program.
"The real questions are funding, risk tolerance and long-term commitment, none of which can be undertaken lightly," Moltz said. "Given its growing economy and apparent commitment to space exploration, China's plans, in particular, pose a serious challenge to U.S. leadership, especially if it were to organize a major international mission to the moon, which might attract U.S. allies in Europe."
Russia has a stated goal of getting humans to the moon in the 2020s or 2030s, Logsdon added, while China is more focused on a midsize space station. However, Logsdon noted that any country with a human spaceflight program would likely set the moon as a target.
That also goes for India, which has a strong rocket program. However, India also finds itself battling a tough economy and domestic problems.
"I think it's an unlikely candidate all by itself to put together the resources," Logsdon said.
A manufacturing cooperative called Astro-Technology SOHLA in Japan once mused that humanoid robots could be sent to the moon, but Logsdon said that, in the five years since, the nation has decided instead to look for exploration with more direct benefits to Earth. Moreover, scientists would likely want humans on the surface anyway, since they would be more flexible in making decisions, Moltz said.
Both Moltz and Logsdon agreed that there is a growing movement in the United States to return to the moon, even if it's not a stated presidential or NASA goal yet. If such a manned lunar mission does happen, it will most likely be as a part of an international consortium.
"This option still remains a viable path to success if some future U.S. (or foreign) leader decided to revive such a mission," Moltz said, pointing out that Constellation failed because it did not marshal the international expertise or finances required to pull it off.
"But it will take political vision, hard work and compromises," Moltz added. "In the end, though, such an effort is likely to be more sustainable than any project led by a single nation."
BICEP2 experiment's big-bang controversy highlights challenges for modern science
Joel Achenbach – The Washington Post
For scientists, the really huge, cymbals-crashing discoveries are hard to come by these days.
A breakthrough can take years of labor, and the final result might be a graph of data in which the signal is barely discernible amid the noise. Dramatic findings are invariably questioned by other scientists. Doubt lingers. Science isn't a tall stack of hard facts; it's a difficult and deeply human process that lurches toward an approximation of the truth.
This is the current situation for cosmology, the study of the origin and structure of the universe.
Cosmologists may be on the verge of confirming a mind-boggling, 35-year-old theory called "inflation." The theory holds that the very young, hot, dense universe underwent a brief inflationary eruption — stretching itself in a violent yawn at the dawn of time — before calming down and expanding in a more civilized fashion to become the twinkling cosmos we see today.
The best evidence for inflation seemed to have arrived on March 17, when the leaders of an experiment called BICEP2 held a news conference at Harvard University. They said their South Pole telescope had detected squiggles in ancient cosmic radiation that were probably caused by gravitational waves generated when the universe underwent inflation.
But then other scientists threw dust in the team's face. They said the BICEP2 scientists underestimated the effects of foreground dust that contaminates the view. Dust can mimic the effects of gravitational waves.
Now everyone is waiting for more information. Scientists working with data from the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope recently decided to collaborate with the BICEP2 team to come up with a map of galactic dust. That map could potentially obliterate the BICEP2 discovery — or validate the original interpretation.
The debate about what, exactly, the BICEP2 telescope detected demonstrates the difficult and often fractious nature of modern science. Big-money prizes and lofty honors can hinge on intrinsically ambiguous experimental results. When does data condense into a "discovery"?
"The overarching theme here is that, out there at the frontiers of discovery, it's very foggy," said Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago.
Leonard Susskind, a Stanford University cosmologist, said: "The whole field is facing a kind of crisis. All the easy experiments are done. In 1900 you could do an experiment on a tabletop that would convey deep and important information about the way the world works."
Now, astronomers go to mountaintops in the Chilean desert and to the bottom of the world to set up their telescopes, and everyone seems to agree that this is heroic science.
But the origin of the universe is a tough nut to crack.
Looking deeper
Cosmic evolution takes place beyond the human time scale. The ancient shepherds saw the same stars in virtually the same positions as we do today. All of human history fits into a slice of cosmic space-time that's pastrami-thin.
At issue here is not the big-bang theory itself, which is supported by multiple lines of observational evidence. This is about how the big bang unfolded. If the universe underwent inflation, then the stuff we see in our telescopes is a tiny fraction of what's actually out there. There's a cosmic horizon beyond which the great bulk of the universe will forever be hidden.
Fifty years ago, scientists at Bell Labs in New Jersey chanced upon cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, the afterglow of the big bang. That radiation dates to the time when the cooling, expanding universe first became transparent to light.
Now scientists are picking through the patterns in the ancient light, looking for the polarization that, according to inflation theory, should have been created by primordial gravitational waves.
This would be the first observed evidence of the nature of the universe when it was extremely small, dense and hot. That polarized light would not merely be evidence for inflation; it would be a measure of it — actual data that describes the intensity of the event.
There is a saying that the big bang is the poor man's particle accelerator. Scientists these days have to build multibillion-dollar particle colliders to study what kind of stuff emerges in high-energy environments. But this would be data just sitting in the sky, waiting to be harvested by the right kind of (comparatively inexpensive) telescope.
But if it is just dust that the BICEP2 scientists detected, it could be an embarrassment for the field. They could have been more cautious when they announced their results. They held the news conference before their scientific paper had been peer-reviewed and published in a journal.
"We felt it was imperative for us to report our results, and we did it as faithfully and honestly as we could given the information we had at the time," said BICEP2 principal investigator John Kovac of Harvard.
The team's initial paper, as submitted to the journal Physical Review Letters, ended with a barely hedged statement of triumph: "The long search for tensor B-modes is apparently over, and a new era of B-mode cosmology has begun."
In the final version published in June, the authors continued to claim that the evidence points to a dawn-of-time signal, but they acknowledged they could not rule out the possibility that this signal may come entirely from galactic dust.
Katherine Freese, a University of Michigan cosmologist who has devised one of the models for inflation, was ecstatic about the BICEP2 announcement, particularly when she realized that the value for the gravitational effect was consistent with her own inflation model. But the scientists should have hedged their language, she said.
"If this kind of thing happened all the time, it would give us a bad name," she said.
She pointed out, however, that inflation theory makes other predictions that are consistent with observations in recent years. For example, the CMB radiation is not perfectly smooth but rather has slight density fluctuations that are consistent with the inflation theory.
"There's a bunch of generic predictions of inflation. They all came out right. If gravitational waves are there, too — dammit, there's something right there," she said. "That's where the Nobel Prize comes in."
The eureka moment
One of the founders of inflation theory, and the man who named it, is Alan Guth of MIT. When he first dreamed up key elements of the theory in December 1979, he jotted in a notebook, "SPECTACULAR REALIZATION."
Inflation theory, at first glance, seems a little bit like cheating: The universe erupts seemingly out of nowhere and nothing. It quickly gets big, simultaneously filling with energy. It's like a self-filling bucket that grows larger at bewildering speed.
How is that possible?
"The simple idea that encapsulates inflation," says Guth, trying to sum up his complex theory in words that could fit into a tweet, "is that the propulsion mechanism that drove the big bang was a repulsive form of gravity."
Guth recognized that gravity resides in the physics equations as a form of negative energy. Gravity exactly counterbalances all the positive energy (including energy that has condensed into matter) in the universe.
"The total energy of our universe is, as far as we can tell, consistent with being zero," Guth says.
Unfortunately, some features of the theory appear to be intrinsically unprovable. Most models of inflation make sense only if our universe is a mere bubble in a "multiverse" that has an infinite array of universes popping up all over the place. Those other universes will always be too far away to be seen.
Philosophy question: Can an undetectable multiverse be considered a truly scientific idea?
Despite these limitations, inflation caught fire quickly among theorists because it offered a nifty explanation for puzzling characteristics of the cosmos. The universe isn't just big; it's remarkably uniform. Look one direction into deep space and the view is the same as what you see in precisely the opposite direction. Theorists talk about the "flatness" of the universe.
Inflation says the universe looks flat only because, after all that inflation, we're seeing only a tiny fragment of what really exists — the same way that an Iowa cornfield looks flat even though it represents a slightly curved section of a spherical planet.
The viability of the inflation theory, Guth said, does not pivot on the outcome of the BICEP2 controversy.
"If it does all go away, it will be a big disappointment, and in terms of public relations it would look bad for cosmology and for inflation in particular," Guth said. "Scientifically, it does not constitute any evidence against inflation."
Glory in the balance
Under the strict rules of the Nobel Prize, a maximum of three people can be honored for a discovery. At least half a dozen people — including Guth and the Russian American theorist Andrei Linde — contributed significantly to inflation theory.
Linde, now a professor at Stanford, acknowledges that Guth has scientific priority for the basic idea of inflation. But in the early 1980s, Linde came up with the first mathematically complete, "working" version that has been the basis of many inflation theories in the years since.
"It's not one thing," Linde said. "It's a class of theories. Inflation is a principle."
Guth and Linde, along with another early inflation theorist, Alexei Starobinsky, recently shared the $1 million Kavli Prize for astrophysics for the inflation theory.
Perhaps the most vocal critic of the theory is Paul Steinhardt, who helped devise one of the first working versions of the theory right about the time that Linde did. Guth, Linde and Steinhardt shared the 2002 Dirac Medal from the International Center for Theoretical Physics for their work on inflation.
Steinhardt, a professor at Princeton University, turned against the theory because he says it can be tinkered with to fit any possible experimental observation.
In the multiverse scenario, all possible universes exist, with random laws of physics. We find ourselves, not surprisingly, in a universe that has the physical laws that enable the appearance of life, the evolution of complex organisms and the eventual appearance of cosmologists making PowerPoint presentations.
Inflation theory and the multiverse cannot be proved wrong, and Steinhardt says that is a deal-breaker for him.
"It makes the theory a nonscientific theory," Steinhardt said. "For the last 400 years, most people would say the key thing that distinguishes science from non-science is that scientific ideas have to be subject to tests. Some people are nowadays thinking, no, that doesn't necessarily have to be the case. That's a mega-issue."
Steinhardt affects no pain at being bypassed recently by the Kavli Prize.
"I think I would be uncomfortable to receive an award for a theory in which I no longer have confidence," he said.
Our own cosmic bubble will be around for an extremely long time, but perhaps not forever, or not in a form congenial to life. The search for answers to these big questions carries with it a humbling realization: The universe is what it is.
We don't get to decide. The best we can hope for is to discover, perhaps only approximately, what's going on.
Brand New Look at the Face of Mars
Joshua A. Krisch – The New York Times
What really lies across the surface of Mars? Rovers have scurried about the red planet for years, drilling, scooping and analyzing for signs of life, past or present. But to really understand the Martian landscape, scientists need to look at the entire surface. What they have needed is a global geologic map.
The red planet is long overdue for a new one. The last major effort in Martian cartography was published in 1987, scraped together from the early Viking probes' scant images and datasets. Since then, four additional orbiters with superior imaging capabilities have journeyed into Martian orbit, collected data and transmitted their findings back to Earth.
Now, scientists at the United States Geological Survey have used that data to create an updated map of the entire Martian surface. The new map shows that ancient rock — dating back billions of years ago, when Mars's environmental conditions might have closely resembled Earth's— exists in many more locations than previously thought. Because the map highlights the location of the oldest rocks on Mars, it could help future missions chart a course for these areas.
"We are disproportionately interested in the early part of Martian history," said David Beaty, the chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who was not involved in the research. "It was during that period that more water would have been around, which is one of the key aspects of the origin of life."
The project, funded by NASA, was not simply a compilation of photographs from Martian orbit. Recent probes, such as the Mars Global Surveyor launched in 1996, were outfitted with advanced topographical instruments that helped cartographers pinpoint the subtler features of the Martian landscape.
One important instrument was the laser altimeter, which could fire up to 600 million laser beams at a planet's surface. By measuring the time it took to bounce a laser beam off the Martian landscape, the researchers estimated the heights of peaks and the depths of valleys. This tool, among others, "greatly improved topographic mapping accuracy of the planet," said Kenneth L. Tanaka, a scientist at the geological survey and lead author of the map. "It's based on a lot more data than the previous Mars map."
Digital mapping technology also played an important role in the research. Dr. Tanaka, who was a junior author on the original 1987 Mars map, recalled trying to chart the Martian surface before the digital age.
"We were drafting maps by hand, using ink," he said.
The new Mars data is already available through the geologic survey's website, and Dr. Tanaka says he suspects that scientists around the world will make use of it. But at least one important revelation has already come out of his research.
"We now have a better idea of where really old rocks are and where really young rocks are," Dr. Beaty said.
Future Mars missions will probably focus on older rocks, because they represent a chapter of Martian history that may have featured water. And if more ambitious plans to send humans to Mars ever pan out, astronauts will want to find safe and scientifically meaningful locations to land and begin their research.
"The map is a fantastic piece of work," Dr. Beaty said. "It's a pretty big deal for forward exploration of the planet."
NASA's Chandra X-Ray Space Telescope Celebrates 15 Years of Discoveries
One of NASA's premier space telescopes marks a big milestone today (July 23): 15 years in Earth orbit.
The agency's Chandra X-ray Observatory— one of NASA's "Great Observatories," along with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes and the now-retired Compton Gamma Ray Observatory — launched aboard the space shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, to view the universe in high-energy X-ray light.
Since its deployment, Chandra has trained its sharp eyes on objects ranging from nearby planets and comets to faraway supernovas and black holes. The instrument's observations over the past decade and a half have helped reshape and refine astronomers' understanding of the universe, NASA officials said. [15 Years with NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory (Video)] "Chandra changed the way we do astronomy. It showed that precision observation of the X-rays from cosmic sources is critical to understanding what is going on," Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division, said in a statement.
"We're fortunate we've had 15 years — so far — to use Chandra to advance our understanding of stars, galaxies, black holes, dark energy and the origin of the elements necessary for life," Hertz added.
Chandra was first proposed to NASA in 1976 as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility. But the observatory was renamed before launch for Indian-American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1983 for his work on black holes.
Most people knew Chandrasekhar — who died in 1995 at age 84 — as "Chandra," which (appropriately enough) means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit, mission officials said.
The Chandra telescope has observed gas that's about to fall into the maw of a black hole, traced the dispersion of heavy elements into space after supernova explosions and watched mammoth galaxy clusters form, among many other accomplishments. The observatory has also made key contributions to the hunt for mysterious dark matter and dark energy, which together make up about 96 percent of the universe.
For example, the Chandra telescope has helped map out the distribution of dark matter as revealed by collisions between galaxy clusters, mission scientists said.
The mission's total price tag is around $3 billion, including launch costs, NASA officials have said. But the observatory's longevity and scientific productivity make it a relative bargain, they added.
"Chandra continues to be one of the most successful missions that NASA has ever flown, as measured against any metric — cost, schedule, technical success and, most of all, scientific discoveries," said Martin Weisskopf, Chandra project scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "It has been a privilege to work on developing and maintaining this scientific powerhouse, and we look forward to many years to come."
So Where the Heck IS Voyager 1, Anyway?
Michael D. Lemonick – TIME
The first human built object to exit the solar system may not be gone after all
For a space probe that's at least two decades beyond its sell-by date, Voyager 1 has a pretty impressive record of keeping itself in the news. Even more impressive is the fact that the topic is always the same. Either the aging craft, launched in 1977 to explore first Jupiter, then Saturn, has left the Solar System, en route to an eternal journey into deep space, or it hasn't.
In 2003, for example, the reports were that Voyager had indeed left. But in 2010, it was merely getting ready to leave. Same thing in 2012. Then, last year, it definitely departed—but it didn't leave the Solar System exactly. What it did do was depart the heliosphere, the region where the charged particles of the solar wind stream freely outward from the Sun before slamming into the particle clouds of interstellar space to form a shock wave known as the heliopause.
If you're not confused enough already, you will be. It turns out that nobody actually knows whether Voyager really is outside the heliosphere at all, since all of the tests to date have been indirect, looking for charged particles and other clues that suggest but don't prove anything. So now a pair of Voyager team scientists have proposed what they insist is a definitive test, in a paper accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
If the spacecraft is still inside the heliosphere, they say, it should encounter something called the "current sheet," a place where the Sun's magnetic field flips from north to south. Even Voyager's aging instruments could detect that event directly. "If that happens, I think if anyone still believes Voyager 1 is in the interstellar medium, they will really have something to explain," said co-author George Gloeckler, a space scientist at the University of Michigan, in a press release.The moment of truth, Gloeckler believes, should come sometime in 2016.
Unless it doesn't, of course. That will mean Voyager left last year after all. But even if the field reversal does happen, it could mean that the heliosphere itself is temporarily expanding, and has briefly caught up with Voyager. So Voyager left, but that, as Michael Corleone famously said in The Godfather, Part III, "Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in."
Whether Voyager is inside or outside the heliosphere, there's no dispute about one thing: it has not left the Solar System, which is the collection of objects that orbit the Sun. The probe is currently about three times as distant as Pluto—but the orbiting Oort Cloud of proto-comets is far more distant than that. Voyager won't cross that line for many thousands of years.
And at that point, if anyone's still interested, you can expect a brand new flurry of "is it or isn't it" stories.
ULA Scrubs Air Force Delta 4 Launch
Mike Gruss | Space News
The launch of three U.S. Air Force satellites July 23 was postponed 24 hours because of a ground system problem at the launch pad, according to a United Launch Alliance spokeswoman.
The trio of satellites comprising the Air Force Space Command (AFSC)-4 mission was scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida shortly after 7 p.m. EDT aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket.
But ULA spokeswoman Jessica Rye said in a statement "an issue with the ground support equipment environmental control system that supports the launch vehicle" forced a scrub with less than two hours left before the planned liftoff.
ULA has rescheduled the launch, pending a solution to the environmental control problem, for July 24 at 6:59 p.m., although weather forecasts only show a 30 percent chance of favorable conditions then, she said.
The primary payload onboard the Delta 4 are two satellites that will serve as the first-generation of the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, a previously classified space surveillance system first disclosed in February by Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command.
The rocket will also carry the Automated Navigation and Guidance Experiment for Local Space, or ANGELS, satellite. Managed by the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, the satellite is intended to test multiple techniques "for providing a clearer picture of the environment around our vital space elements," according to an Air Force ANGELS fact sheet.
All three satellites onboard the rocket were built by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia.
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