56 cent pancakes all day today until 7pm at your neighborhood IHOP …they are celebrating their 56th anniversary in business.
Hope you can join us at Hibachi Grill this Thursday for our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at 11:30.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Innovation 2014 - Future of Exploration Series
- Call for NASA's Innovation Awards nominations
- Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v8.0 Release
- NASA@work Workshop: Liberate Your Captive Problem! - Organizations/Social
- Attend Reduced Gravity Alumni Meet-and-Greet
- JSC Showtime! Interest Meeting Today!
- Starport Boot Camp - Register Now Open
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today at Noon - Jobs and Training
- Finance for Non-Financial Mgrs. - Aug. 19th - 20th - Community
- Special Place in Your Heart for Community College?
- Transportation Options Made Easier |  |
| Headlines - Innovation 2014 – Future of Exploration Series
Innovation 2014 kicked off in June and has included a series of discussions about NASA's plans for human spaceflight exploration. We have heard about the Asteroid Redirect Mission and its extensibility to Mars, as well as details on the trajectories for the mission. Please join us Thursday, July 10th, for a continuation of the Future of Exploration series, with an in-depth conversation focused on the vehicle concept for the Asteroid Redirect Mission. - Call for NASA's Innovation Awards nominations
The Office of Human Capital Management (OHCM) is pleased to announce the inaugural call for nominations for NASA's Innovation Awards. These awards are intended to recognize, reward, and showcase innovative performance across the Agency. Complete details on these awards are located at http://nasapeople.nasa.gov/awards_lp.htm - Shuttle Knowledge Console (SKC) v8.0 Release
The JSC CKO is pleased to announce the eighth release of SKC. For this release, we are introducing the Shuttle Related MOD Training Videos with associated documentation. We are releasing the MER Shuttle Archive, covering all of the items evaluated for each of the STS Missions. We have added an export function to the 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. There is a search hints page that will help users to get exactly what they want, quickly. To date 2.62TB of information, with 5.83 million documents of SSP knowledge has been captured. Click the "Submit Feedback" button located on the top of the site navigation and give us your comments and thoughts. - NASA@work Workshop: Liberate Your Captive Problem!
Do you have some ideas or topics that you want to post on NASA@work but not sure exactly how to formulate them into a challenge write-up? Do you want to learn more about the challenge development process? If so, then plan to join us for our next NASA@work Workshop: Liberate Your Captive Problem! on Wednesday, July 23rd from 9-10am central. In conjunction with JSC Innovation 2014 Efforts, the NASA@work support team will be hosting this interactive NASA@work training workshop focusing on helping solvers create NASA@work challenges from problems and issues they face on their job every day. Sign up for this interactive and hands-on NASA@work session now!: docs.google.com/forms/d/1NKaOBVDuavkle8PbWOX7rjriXFbq8H_E4LEP76QkTuI/viewform Organizations/Social - Attend Reduced Gravity Alumni Meet-and-Greet
An Alumni Meet-and-Greet welcoming the 13 MUREP Reduced Gravity Flight Week university teams will be held Tuesday, July 15, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in the Building 2 South Teague Auditorium lobby. All NASA employees that are alumni or supporters of the student and faculty teams chosen for this prestigious opportunity are invited to come share your NASA story with these outstanding students and SHOW YOUR SCHOOL SPIRIT! Teams are as follows: Austin Community College; California State Polytechnic University - Pomona; Dallas County Community College District; Gadsden State Community College; San Jose State University; Texas Southern University; University of Texas Pan American; University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Robeson Community College; University of Houston; University of Miami; University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras; University of Southern California; and University of Texas at El Paso. If you are interested in participating, please RSVP to Sarah Gonzales via e-mail. Event Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2014 Event Start Time:1:30 PM Event End Time:3:00 PM
Event Location: Teague Auditorium Lobby
Add to Calendar
Sarah Gonzales x38623
[top] - JSC Showtime! Interest Meeting Today!
JSC Showtime! will be hosting its first interest meeting Tuesday, July 8, at 11:30 a.m. in the Einstein Collaboration Room in Building 30. This meeting will focus on brainstorming ideas about the group JSC Showtime! Bring any ideas that you have, and we can collaborate on which direction we want to take JSC Showtime! Event Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B30 R2085 Einstein Collaboration Center
Add to Calendar
Ryan Hancock 281-792-8314
[top] - Starport Boot Camp - Register Now Open
Starport's phenomenal boot camp is back, and registration is open and filling fast. Don't miss a chance to be part of Starport's incredibly popular program. The class will fill up, so register now! Early registration (ends, July 18) o $90 per person (just $5 per class) Regular registration (July 19th -27th): o $110 per person The workout begins on Wednesday, July 28th Are you ready for 18 hours of intense workouts with an amazing personal trainer to get you to your fitness goal? Don't wait! Sign up today and take advantage of this extreme discount before it's too late. Register now online or at the Gilruth Center information desk. - Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today at Noon
"Easy does it" are words to live by during these hot days of summer. The Al-Anon Family Groups meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the disease of alcoholism. We meet today, July 8, in Building 32, Room 146, from 12 noon to 12:45 p.m. Visitors are welcome. Jobs and Training - Finance for Non-Financial Mgrs. – Aug. 19th - 20th
We are pleased to announce that JSC HR Development Office will offer an Agency "Finance for Non-Financial Managers" at JSC. This course highlights a variety of key Academic/Industry and Agency/Center financial management matters. The course involves 2 days (16 hours) of instruction, including briefings by academic, Agency and Center experts, as well as, related case studies. The program focuses on the financial aspects of the following key areas: Academic, Environment, Budget, Account and Manage. •Date: Tuesday, August 19 - Wednesday, August 20, 2014 •Length of Course: 2 days •Location: B12/Room •Target Audience: NASA's technical mission/project and institutional managers, basically non-financial managers. •Registration Cut-off: July 25, 2014 Event Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2014 Event Start Time:8:30 AM Event End Time:4:30 PM
Event Location: B12/Room 152-154
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Patt Williams 713-249-1508
[top] Community - Special Place in Your Heart for Community College?
What do Eileen Collins, Fred Haise, George Lucas and Nolan Ryan have in common? They all began their great success at a community college! If community college played a role in your success, the Office of Education would like to hear your story. Your unique story can help shape NASA Education's National Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) project. Sign up to hear more about NCAS on July 10 from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 12, Room 134. Bring your lunch and share your community college story! We will provide dessert. Sign up in V-CORPs. - Transportation Options Made Easier
Come to today's environmental brown bag luncheon to learn about alternative ways to get to work, whether you're traveling from home or navigating on-site. Commuting alone in a multi-passenger car is costly. JSC team members have access to tools and resources that facilitate alternative modes of transportation, including carpooling. Come learn about ways to get to work that are less expensive, healthier and better for the environment. Event Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2014 Event Start Time:12:00 PM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: B45/751
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Kim Reppa x28322
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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. |
Typhoon Off Of Japan
To demonstrate the potential and size of this storm, "CBS This Morning" showed images of it taken from the International Space Station, "which flew right over." ABC World News also broadcast the "monster typhoon" heading toward Okinawa, Japan.
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Tuesday – July 8, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA to send 3D Google smartphones for robots to space station
Noel Randewich – Reuters
Google smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station.
3D Google smartphones to help NASA robots navigate in space
The Voice of Russia
NASA plans to send Google smartphones with state of the art 3D sensing technology into orbit to use them as eyes and brains for its newest sci-fi inspired machinery. The gadgets will be installed into hovering robots and boost the agency's Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, otherwise known as SPHERES, on the International Space Station.
Enthusiasm wanes for quick start to new engine program
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
With the Obama administration, NASA and industry leaders preaching caution -- and no sign Russian rocket engine exports will end -- the rush to replace the Russian RD-180 engine used to power billions of dollars of U.S. military and scientific research satellites into space has cooled in recent weeks.
Editorial | Another Continuing Resolution Looms for NASA
SpaceNews Editor
Just when it began to look as though Congress would actually pass a budget in time for the start of the fiscal year ahead, politics as usual once again has intervened.
Notoriously reclusive Neil Armstrong to have NASA building named for him
Chuck Raasch - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Neil Armstrong, whose first step on the moon took place 45 years ago this month, was a notoriously private man after that "one small step." Now NASA, in a moment of some irony, is naming a building after the reclusive astronaut.
Review: 'Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight' never quite reaches escape velocity
Rob Merrill - The Associated Press
"Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight" (St. Martin's Press), by Jay Barbree
This is not a definitive biography of the man who first walked on the moon. It's not even authorized by his family, whatever that means.
Final Atlantis crew reflects on progress
James Dean – Florida Today
When Atlantis blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:29 a.m. three years ago Tuesday, commander Chris Ferguson's watch began marking the time on NASA's final shuttle mission.
Russia to Phase Out Older Soyuz Rockets For International Space Station Runs
Matthew Bodner – The Moscow Times
Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, will upgrade the Soyuz rocket and secure its supply chain by phasing out older versions in favor of the newer Soyuz-2 series to support the International Space Station, the head of the company that builds Soyuz said.
Volunteers Will Try To Redirect Old NASA Spacecraft July 8
Dan Leone – Space News
The volunteer team attempting to resurrect NASA's International Earth/Sun Explorer (ISEE)-3 observatory before it goes hurtling into orbit around the sun for thousands of years will attempt to boost the venerable spacecraft back into the Earth system July 8.
Water Shaped Mars' Highlands, New Red Planet Map Shows
An incredibly detailed new map of Mars' southern highlands shows how profoundly liquid water sculpted the region long ago, scientists say.
How NASA reinvented the tortilla, and other tales of food in space
What are NASA's secret recipes for feeding hungry astronauts when they're in orbit? CNET Road Trip 2014 bellied up to the space agency's Food Lab to find out.
Daniel Terdiman – CNET News
COMPLETE STORIES
NASA to send 3D Google smartphones for robots to space station
Noel Randewich – Reuters
Google smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station.
NASA plans to use the handsets to beef up its Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES, which could eventually take over daily chores for astronauts or even handle risky duties outside of the vessel.
The phones, part of Google's Project Tango augmented reality initiative, will be aboard a cargo spacecraft scheduled to launch on July 11.
Inspired by a scene from the movie Star Wars where Luke Skywalker spars with a hovering globe, the soccer-ball sized robots can be guided around the space station's microgravity interior, propelled by tiny blasts of CO2 at about an inch per second.
When NASA sent its SPHERES to the space station in 2006 they were capable of precise movement but little else. In 2010, engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, looked for ways to make the devices smarter.
"We wanted to add communication, a camera, increase the processing capability, accelerometers and other sensors. As we were scratching our heads thinking about what to do, we realized the answer was in our hands," Smart SPHERES project manager Chris Provencher told Reuters in an interview last week. "Let's just use smartphones."
They bought phones at Best Buy and altered them by adding extra batteries and a shatter-proof displays before sending the handsets to the space station, where astronauts used Velcro to attach them to the side of the SPHERES. That gave the robots a wealth of new sensing and visual capabilities - but still not enough to move around the station as easily as the engineers wanted.
Looking to improve the robots, NASA recently turned to the experimental smartphones Google created to encourage innovation in its push for consumer mobile devices that can make sense of space as easily as people do.
The Project Tango handsets include a motion-tracking camera and an infrared depth sensor similar to Microsoft's Kinect add-on for the Xbox. The sensors will detect sharp angles inside the space station and create a 3D map that lets the SPHERES navigate from one module to another.
"This type of capability is exactly what we need for a robot that's going to do tasks anywhere inside the space station," Provencher said. "It has to have a very robust navigation system."
NASA's phones have been split open so that the touchscreen and sensors face outward when mounted on the robots. They also include space-tested batteries and plastic connectors to replace the Velcro.
Google wants the technology showcased by Project Tango to become ubiquitous, helping retailers create detailed 3D representations of their shops and letting gamers make their homes into virtual battlegrounds.
It also teamed up with LG recently to launch a Project Tango tablet to encourage developers to experiment with its features.
3D Google smartphones to help NASA robots navigate in space
The Voice of Russia
NASA plans to send Google smartphones with state of the art 3D sensing technology into orbit to use them as eyes and brains for its newest sci-fi inspired machinery. The gadgets will be installed into hovering robots and boost the agency's Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, otherwise known as SPHERES, on the International Space Station.
NASA hopes that this will allow SPHERES to relieve astronauts of their daily chores and, perhaps, even handle the tricky duties in outer space. New Google smartphones being part of the company's futuristic Project Tango AD mapping service with the new augmented reality technology are scheduled to be transported on July 11 via a cargo spacecraft.
There, the gadgets will be connected to another visionary technology, SPHERES, inspired by none other than the legendary movie Star Wars where a hovering football-sized robot helps Luke Skywalker practice his Jedi lightsaber skills.
NASA's SPHERES can navigate because of microgravity in the space station's interior and microscopic blasts of CO2 that propel the globes around two and a half centimeters per second.
When just sent into orbit in 2006, SPHERES' functions were limited to slowly moving around the space station, so in 2010 NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View based in California set its engineers with a task to smarten up the robots.
Smart SPHERES project manager Chris Provencher told reporters in an interview that the company "wanted to add communication, a camera, increase the processing capability, accelerometers and other sensors."
"As we were scratching our heads thinking about what to do, we realized the answer was in our hands," Provencher said. "Let's just use smartphones."
As a test drive, the engineers then purchased phones at Best Buy, added extra batteries, built in shatter-proof displays and sent the gadgets to the space station, where astronauts attached the altered phones to SPHERES. This simple manipulation allowed the robots to be more like their sci-fi prototypes, propelling them to the next level of sense and visual capabilities.
However, off-the-rack smartphones were still not enough to allow SPHERES the kind of independence engineers envisioned. This is where NASA turned to Google which just recently developed experimental smartphones that can give "a human-scale understanding of space and motion."
The phones include batteries tested in space and plastic connectors and were opened in such a way that the sensors and touchscreen face outwards when attached to the SPHERES.
The futuristic Project Tango handsets have an infrared depth sensor and a motion-tracking camera, which will allow to create a 3D map of the station that should help the SPHERES navigate.
"This type of capability is exactly what we need for a robot that's going to do tasks anywhere inside the space station," Provencher commented, adding that it "has to have a very robust navigation system."
Enthusiasm wanes for quick start to new engine program
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
With the Obama administration, NASA and industry leaders preaching caution -- and no sign Russian rocket engine exports will end -- the rush to replace the Russian RD-180 engine used to power billions of dollars of U.S. military and scientific research satellites into space has cooled in recent weeks.
Bills drawn up in both houses of Congress include funding lines to kick-start development of a new rocket engine, but Congress has not sent a budget bill to the White House for President Barack Obama's signature.
There is no sign of an imminent cutoff to the supply of Russian rocket engines, despite a proclamation from Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin in May that engine exports for U.S. military satellite launches would end.
Rogozin made the announcement in a May 13 press conference, but U.S. officials have said a shipment of two RD-180 engines is due to arrive in the United States in August with no indication of any legal, logistical or regulatory hurdles.
The RD-180 engine powers the first stage of the United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, one of two launchers that put the bulk of the U.S. government's national security payloads into orbit.
Despite bipartisan agreement in the House and Senate, which proposed funneling millions of dollars into an engine development program beginning next year to eventually replace the RD-180, the White House's Office of Management and Budget released a policy statement June 17 calling for a more measured approach to the propulsion predicament.
The White House statement was released in response to the House Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015, which includes $220 million set aside for rocket engine development. The Senate version of the Defense Department's fiscal year 2015 budget includes $100 million for a similar purpose.
Legislators still have to work out the differences in the bills before sending it to President Obama to be signed into law.
"This approach prematurely commits significant resources and would not reduce our reliance on Russian engines for at least a decade," officials wrote in the White House policy statement.
Defense authorization bills penned by the House and Senate direct the Pentagon to work with NASA to jointly manage the engine development under a commercial procurement scheme.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden used similar language as the White House policy paper in a June 18 exchange with reporters at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
"I think it's premature to think about a new rocket engine," Bolden said. "We've been discussing this quite a bit ... Our focus is on access to space. How do we provide routine, reliable access to space?"
Bolden said it is up to industry to provide transportation for missions to low Earth orbit, citing the space agency's agreements with companies flying resupply missions to the International Space Station as an example of a successful partnership between government and industry.
"When you get focused on a specific engine, you may ask yourself then, 'OK, what vehicle are you going to put it on and everything else?' NASA's approach is let's focus on access to space," Bolden said.
The White House cited a recent study commissioned by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that concluded it would take up to eight years and cost up to $1.5 billion to design and test a new rocket engine in the same class as the Russian-built RD-180, which uses an efficient closed-cycle staged combustion architecture and generates 860,000 pounds of thrust at sea level.
The Defense Department study committee -- staffed by incumbent and retired officials from NASA, the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office -- wrote in a summary report obtained by Spaceflight Now that it would cost up to $3 billion to field a new launch vehicle to use the U.S.-made engine.
The panel recommended the U.S. government begin paying companies to develop a new engine.
Built near Moscow by NPO Energomash, the RD-180 engine is fueled by RP-1, a grade of highly-refined kerosene, and cryogenic liquid oxygen. There is no U.S.-built hydrocarbon-fueled engine in the same performance class as the RD-180.
ULA's other rocket, the Delta 4, has a hydrogen-fueled U.S.-made Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-68 engine on its first stage.
Instead of launching full-scale development in fiscal year 2015, which begins Oct. 1, the Obama administration says it is "evaluating several cost-effective options including public-private partnerships with multiple awards that will drive innovation, stimulate the industrial base, and reduce costs through competition."
The paper said the White House's policy is aimed at "promptly reducing our reliance on Russian technology," adding it will work with Congress once the White House completes its analysis of the engine issue.
United Launch Alliance announced in June it is spending internal funds for "early studies" on a U.S.-built hydrocarbon-fueled alternative to the RD-180 engine.
Michael Gass, ULA's president and CEO, said the company's contracts with multiple U.S. rocket engine builders will help officials refine concepts for rocket engines and a potential new launch vehicle to use the U.S. replacement for the RD-180.
"To just design an engine without looking at the systems effect to understand the market, [and] the satellites, and optimize around that is foolhardy," Gass said. "You've got to have some end goal in mind when you design a propulsion system for a launch vehicle, so we're making sure we do that."
The results of the studies will "mature" the technical concepts for new U.S.-built engine options, plus help ULA make the business case for continued investment by providing cost estimates.
"All of the money we're spending today is to position ourselves to respond to our own business needs, as well as potentially working with the government in doing something that we all support, which is to move to state-of-the-art propulsion technology in this country," Gass said.
ULA has not identified which companies it is paying for the propulsion studies. The company is looking at single- and dual-engine concepts for the first stage of a new launch vehicle based on the Atlas 5, Gass said.
"When you change main propulsion, everything above changes," Gass said. "We always have a little joke between us and the propulsion houses: Which is the chicken and which is the egg?"
Gass stressed the importance of continuing the Atlas rocket line, even if it comes with a new main engine and has a "new name or new model number."
"The beauty of the Atlas and Delta product is that it has that [nearly] 120-year heritage," Gass said. "All that experience, all that knowledge is embedded in our system design and expertise, so we would want to make sure that we continue to emphasize that when we put forward a product, it's coming with all that heritage."
Gass estimated it would take five-to-seven years to develop a new engine, depending on funding and technical risks.
If ULA selects a new engine, engineers could introduce the powerplant in evolutionary upgrades to the Atlas rocket while continuing to fly RD-180 engines on the legacy model of the Atlas 5.
ULA could opt to keep using RD-180 engines, even though Gass says company officials "believe now is the right time for a domestic investment" in a U.S. alternative.
Officials said ULA faces a deadline some time next year to decide whether to extend its RD-180 engine contract with RD AMROSS, a joint venture between United Technologies Corp. and NPO Energomash.
There are currently 15 RD-180 engines in the United States, with 29 more engines due to arrive from Russia through 2017. A decision on a contract extension is needed next year to ensure no gap in engine deliveries in 2018 and beyond.
"From our perspective, we are covering all bases, and putting plans in place to address any potential outcome," Gass said. "We are fully committed to putting in place a near-term, mid-term and long- term plan to continue to launch our reliable Atlas 5 into the next decade and beyond."
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said she favors public investment in propulsion technologies, but not a traditional government procurement of a new engine.
SpaceX is working on sub-scale hardware for a methane-fueled million-pound thrust Raptor engine, but the company has not publicly disclosed when the engine could be ready for flight tests.
According to Shotwell, SpaceX is moving away from kerosene-fueled engines like the Merlin powerplant on the Falcon 9 rocket. For higher-thrust engines in the class of the RD-180, SpaceX wants to switch to methane fuel and liquid oxygen.
"I don't know whether that's exactly the right choice," Shotwell said, referring to building an engine to directly replace the RD-180. "Investing in liquid propulsion technologies is a great choice for sure, certainly on components that can be used to build whatever engine the propulsion community finds a market for."
Shotwell said SpaceX would be interested in government funding for early-phase risk reduction projects. In a similar vein, SpaceX received $396 million from NASA to go along with private capital to design and demonstrate the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station.
"I think investing in the community is a great idea," Shotwell said. "I'd like to see it more on the component development -- technology development -- side," Shotwell said.
She said elements of SpaceX's Raptor engine could be applied to other propulsion projects.
"There are so many questions unanswered," Gass said, responding to a question on the White House's policy statement on liquid-fueled propulsion. "What's the acquisition strategy? What's the approach? What's the definition of a public-private partnership?"
ULA is advocating for a long-term strategy, accounting for market demand with an eye toward a next-generation launcher that could incorporate a new U.S.-built liquid-fueled engine, assuming such a propulsion system is built.
"It shouldn't be a field of dreams kind of approach, [assuming] if you build it they will come," Gass said.
"You can build an engine and totally miss the mark in terms of our national security needs," Gass said. "So there's a right sort of reticence. Let's not just jump off on an engine."
Gass described a public-private partnership that would innovate and stimulate technological advancements as a "right first step."
But he said officials eventually must decide on an approach and a new engine design, whether its development is funded primarily through government or private money.
"You can't have hundreds of options," Gass said. "I'll remind people this is a worldwide market, and it's not [just] companies competing. In some cases, it's country versus country, and we as a nation need to use our investment smartly."
ULA is lobbying for a government investment in domestic engine technologies, but the rocket maker is lobbying against an abrupt stop to the use of Russian RD-180 engines, a position favored by Sen. John McCain, who inserted language into a Senate bill to prohibit new engine purchases from Russia for national security satellite launches.
"You wouldn't want to cut it off before a new engine is certified," Gass said. "There are some people that are trying to encourage the nation to just have a date certain [to stop using RD-180 engines]. A date certain leads to potentially wrong decisions or inefficient use of investment dollars."
While ULA says it is willing to spearhead development a new rocket engine with private funds -- if there is a business case. Gass cautioned the "risk-averse" nature of commercial endeavors could lead companies to avoid more challenging engine concepts that could lead to innovations in efficiency, cost, or components.
"We're not afraid of doing it as a fully [commercial] investment if that's what is necessary to meet the market, but obviously that's a more challenging business case," Gass said. "It will also drive the nation to potentially less advancement in propulsion technology."
Editorial | Another Continuing Resolution Looms for NASA
SpaceNews Editor
Just when it began to look as though Congress would actually pass a budget in time for the start of the fiscal year ahead, politics as usual once again has intervened.
A so-called minibus appropriations bill that would have funded a wide range of federal activities, including civil space, next year was headed for a June 19 debate and vote on the Senate floor when it was derailed by a partisan procedural impasse. No new date for floor action has been scheduled.
Although there are three months to go before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30, the congressional calendar is much shorter. Congress, which returned to work July 7 after a weeklong break, has just four legislative weeks left before it breaks again for its traditional August recess. This being an election year, lawmakers will be spending much if not most of their time from then until November wooing voters in their home districts.
July might therefore be the best window of opportunity for getting a budget passed. But if history is any indication, that's a questionable prospect at best, meaning there is an increasing likelihood that agencies including NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will begin next year operating under a continuing resolution that funds activities at 2014 levels — assuming no showdowns that halt spending for large sectors of the government.
That, in turn, means more uncertainty for NASA, and in particular for a commercial crew program that by Sept. 30 should have entered its final development phase. Although both the House and Senate versions of the bill would provide NASA its largest appropriation to date for commercial crew, the Senate bill as currently written includes Federal Acquisition Regulation compliance requirements that could disrupt the program. There is opposition to that language and hopefully it will be stricken from the final bill, but until that happens it's just one more thing NASA has to worry about.
In recent years, continuing resolutions have been the norm rather than the exception for a bitterly divided Congress, but until mid-June there was reason to hope that 2014 would be different. Unfortunately, the safer bet right now is that nothing fundamentally has changed.
Notoriously reclusive Neil Armstrong to have NASA building named for him
Chuck Raasch - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Neil Armstrong, whose first step on the moon took place 45 years ago this month, was a notoriously private man after that "one small step." Now NASA, in a moment of some irony, is naming a building after the reclusive astronaut.
NASA's Kennedy Space Center will name its Operations and Checkout Building after Armstrong. The building was used during the Apollo moon-landing program to process and test the spacecraft that took men to the moon and landed them there. It is now being used to process and assemble NASA's Orion spacecraft, designed to send astronauts to Mars and an asteroid, the agency said Monday in a press release.
Armstrong famously avoided the spotlight after his and Buzz Aldrin's July 20, 1969 moon landing. He said in one rare interview that the experience made him feel "very small." He generally refused interviews and autograph requests, saying he did not want to be a "living memorial."
As the BBC reported upon his death in 2012: "The man who was revered as a hero by the American public and awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work, shunned the limelight and the prospective fortune that came with it.
"Instead," the BBC said, "he lived in the seclusion of his Ohio farmhouse, taught engineering at the University of Cincinnati and later went into business."
Review: 'Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight' never quite reaches escape velocity
Rob Merrill - The Associated Press
"Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight" (St. Martin's Press), by Jay Barbree
This is not a definitive biography of the man who first walked on the moon. It's not even authorized by his family, whatever that means.
But it certainly should be.
There's not a negative word about America's space hero in Jay Barbree's new book. Barbree — the NBC News space correspondent who has covered every manned U.S. mission — was friends with Armstrong for decades. The book draws on their conversations as well as hundreds of other interviews and NASA transcripts to recount Armstrong's entire "life of flight," from combat missions in North Korea to those historic lunar steps and beyond.
So it's a little disappointing that it's not more of a page turner.
There have been so many books and movies and TV specials about the space race that a lot of what Barbree recounts feels retread. If you don't know about the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, this is a fine book to spend a few days reading, but space buffs searching for something they didn't know about that remarkable era may be left wanting.
Here's Barbree's ho-hum description of Armstrong's out-of-this-world moment:
"'I'm going to step off the LM now,' he said, lifting his left boot over the footpad and setting it down in moon dust that shot up and outward in a fine spray — a spray that lasted only a quick instant in the absence of an atmosphere. 'That's one small step for man,' Neil said with a momentary pause, 'One giant leap for mankind.'"
To be fair, Armstrong was a famously reserved man. "Quiet hero" was the phrase that appeared most often in his obituary. And while that trait is worthy of admiration in an age when the next space traveller is likely to be a self-promoting billionaire, it just doesn't make for that exciting a book subject.
Barbree's writing perks up when he describes flight, a subject he feels as passionately about as Armstrong did.
Here's his description of Apollo 11 at liftoff: "Birds flew for safety, wildlife fled for shelter, and the mighty rocket's shock waves slammed into the chests of the million-plus, rattling their bones and fluttering their skin and clothes."
The book ends on a bit of a down note, recounting the relatively sorry state of NASA in the 21st century. This December will mark 42 years since an American last walked on the moon. At its best, Barbree's book reminds readers of all that led up to that first step.
Final Atlantis crew reflects on progress
James Dean – Florida Today
When Atlantis blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 11:29 a.m. three years ago Tuesday, commander Chris Ferguson's watch began marking the time on NASA's final shuttle mission.
Ferguson let the Mission Elapsed Time counter continue to run after Atlantis and its four-person crew landed at KSC nearly 13 days later, hoping to stop it when the next crew lifted off from U.S. soil.
The Omega Speedmaster X-33 unfortunately wasn't up to the task: It reset to zero upon reaching 1,000 days, still several years before a crew is likely to blast off from the Cape in a privately designed spaceship.
But Ferguson said he doesn't need his watch to measure the progress made since he launched.
"I think we've turned the corner," he said during a recent visit to KSC with The Boeing Co., which hired him to help develop a commercial capsule, a contender to become the next U.S. ride for astronauts. "There were a couple of rough years after the shuttle program. Locally, the economy suffered dramatically. But I do see that we have turned the corner, we've bottomed out and we're headed back in the right direction."
If current schedules stay on track, the United States could now be halfway through the gap in its ability to launch people to orbit, a job Russia has handled exclusively since the shuttle's retirement.
The first test flight of a new commercial spacecraft is anticipated in about three years, leading to a first contracted launch of a NASA crew to the International Space Station in late 2017.
Around the same time, NASA hopes to launch its giant new rocket for deep space exploration missions on a first, uncrewed test flight from KSC.
Ferguson and his three crewmates on Atlantis three years ago — pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Rex Walheim and Sandy Magnus — share optimism about the progress made since they flew.
As soon as August or September, NASA plans to award one or more contracts to companies that will fly astronauts to the station. Boeing's CST-100 capsule is competing with SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser mini-shuttle.
"It's getting serious, really serious now, and we're getting close," Hurley said last month at KSC, during an event promoting the upcoming first test flight of NASA's Orion exploration crew capsule. "We're doing test flights with Orion, we're doing test flights with commercial vehicles."
Hurley now serves as assistant director for new programs in NASA's Flight Crew Operations Directorate. As a test pilot, he could be a candidate to fly the first crewed test flight of one of the new commercial craft.
During the same Orion event, Walheim, now chief of the Astronaut Office's Exploration Branch, said the post-shuttle transition has been hard "but we're turning the corner."
When asked three years ago if retiring the shuttle was a mistake, Walheim said it depends. It was the right thing to do if it enabled the deep space exploration missions to an asteroid and eventually Mars that NASA wanted to do.
Now, he said, "We're doing what we said we were going to do."
Hurley and Walheim saw Orion's crew module and service module stacked in preparation for their placement on a Delta IV Heavy rocket targeting a December launch from Cape Canaveral, without a crew. Orion's first crewed launch is targeted for 2021.
"It's hard to see right now, but when we finish outfitting this vehicle and get it on top of the rocket, there's going to be no denying that we're making some serious progress," said Walheim. "So that's going to be exciting to see."
Magnus left NASA to become executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a 35,000-member professional organization that advocates for the aerospace industry.
She sees steady progress designing new vehicles, from life support systems to mission control centers, work that lacks the glamor of a launch but will make safe flights possible within a few years.
"All of the really interesting, creative stuff is going on right now, and it's happening behind the scenes," she said. "If people had a window into it, I think they'd be fascinated."
Debate about funding for the commercial crew and exploration programs continues, and independent reports have questioned whether the combined efforts are sustainable within NASA's tight budget. To which Magnus responds: Stay the course.
"We have a plan right now, we've got momentum in the plan, and we need to stay the course," she said. "We need to just commit and go forward, and if we do that, we can achieve pretty much anything."
Russia to Phase Out Older Soyuz Rockets For International Space Station Runs
Matthew Bodner – The Moscow Times
Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, will upgrade the Soyuz rocket and secure its supply chain by phasing out older versions in favor of the newer Soyuz-2 series to support the International Space Station, the head of the company that builds Soyuz said.
Variants of the Soyuz 2 series rockets are already in use for satellite launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and the European Space Agency launch facility in French Guiana. But now, the rocket is set to begin launching unmanned Progress resupply vehicles to the International Space Station. If all goes well, the Soyuz 2 rockets may begin transporting astronauts and cosmonauts to the space station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft as early as 2016.
The older Soyuz rockets rely on a Ukrainian control system — a relic of the rocket family's Soviet heritage that in the aftermath of Russia seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in March looks like a threat to Russia's space program. The rockets are based on the same core design that launched Sputnik and Yury Gagarin into space at the dawn of the space age.
"The Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG control systems are analog [systems] made in Ukraine," Alexander Kirilin, CEO of the Progress Rocket and Space Center in the Volga city of Samara told Interfax on Monday.
However, the Soyuz 2 rockets use a Russian-made digital control system. Aside from further moving Russia's space industry away from its reliance on Ukrainian components, the digital control system allows the rockets to handle a wider variety of payloads — making the tried-and-tested Russian rocket more versatile than ever before.
"Currently [we are] contracted to manufacture four Soyuz 2.1a carrier rockets for the Progress cargo transport ship," Kirilin said. The Progress cargo vehicle is an unmanned derivative of the Soyuz spacecraft that currently serves as the only means of transporting international teams of cosmonauts and astronauts to the International Space Station, or ISS — a $150 billion multi-national project involving 15 nations, including the U.S. and Russia.
Progress has historically used the Soyuz-U rocket to reach ISS, but on Oct. 29 it will fly aboard the Soyuz 2.1a for the first time. This will be followed by two launches aboard the newer rocket in 2015, with the final rocket slated to launch in 2016.
Beyond this, Kirilin hopes that the new Soyuz 2 boosters can be used for manned ISS missions by 2016, a job currently done by the Soyuz-FG launch vehicle.
"We propose conducting three flight tests with [Progress] supply ships and then proceed to launches of manned spacecraft. It is planned that launches of manned Soyuz vehicles on Soyuz-2.1a can begin by the end of 2016 or the beginning of 2017," he said.
Volunteers Will Try To Redirect Old NASA Spacecraft July 8
Dan Leone – Space News
The volunteer team attempting to resurrect NASA's International Earth/Sun Explorer (ISEE)-3 observatory before it goes hurtling into orbit around the sun for thousands of years will attempt to boost the venerable spacecraft back into the Earth system July 8.
"We are planning to try and do our Trajectory Correction Maneuver burn tomorrow," the ISEE-3 Reboot Project tweeted July 7.
ISEE-3 will be within range of the project's main ground station at the Arecibo radio astronomy observatory in Puerto Rico from 12:42 p.m. to 3:29 p.m. EDT, according to the July 7 tweet.
The ISEE-3 Reboot Project is spearheaded by entrepreneur Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowing, editor of the widely read NASAWatch.com website.
The team raised some $160,000 on the crowdfunding website RocketHub.com to cover ISEE-3 Reboot Project's operations budget, as well as hardware needed to turn the Arecibo observatory into a ground station for the old heliophysics spacecraft, which was launched in 1978.
If the ISEE-3 reboot project cannot pull off the planned trajectory correction some time in July, it is unlikely that the satellite will ever be returned to its original orbit at Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 1.
The project team wants to put ISEE-3 back into that orbit so citizen scientists can restart the spacecraft's original mission: observing solar winds — charged particles emitted in bursts by the sun — as they break against the outer edge of Earth's magnetosphere.
Water Shaped Mars' Highlands, New Red Planet Map Shows
An incredibly detailed new map of Mars' southern highlands shows how profoundly liquid water sculpted the region long ago, scientists say.
"This map depicts the complicated sequence of geologic processes that have served to modify ancient, rugged highland terrains surrounding the Hellas impact basin and shows evidence for the persistent effects of water and ice in degrading the Martian surface," David Crown, of the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) in Tucson, Arizona, said in a statement.
Crown and his PSI colleague Scott Mest produced the new map, which was published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It covers the area on Mars from 27.5 to 42.5 degrees south latitude and 110 to 115 degrees east longitude.
The map sheds particular light on the evolution of two canyon systems in the southern highlands, Waikato Vallis and Reull Vallis. Researchers think both canyons formed when underground water came to the surface, collapsing the ground.
Images from NASA's two Viking orbiters, which began circling the Red Planet in the 1970s, seemed to suggest that Waikato Vallis and Reull Vallis were part of the same ancient canyon system. But the new map — constructed with data collected by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft — reveals that Waikato and Reull were actually separate canyons separated by a plains landscape known as Eridania Planitia.
In fact, water released from Waikato Vallis formed a shallow lake in these plains long ago, scientists said.
While Waikato and Reull are the dominant landforms in the area, the new map also shows many small channels that flowing water carved into the southern highlands, likely about the same time the two big canoyns were forming, researchers said.
"Most highland peaks and the walls of many impact craters show evidence that ice-rich sediments flowed downhill, forming features that resemble rock glaciers on Earth; these features represent the most recent water-related activity in the area, and may be active today," PSI representatives wrote in a description of the new map.
How NASA reinvented the tortilla, and other tales of food in space
What are NASA's secret recipes for feeding hungry astronauts when they're in orbit? CNET Road Trip 2014 bellied up to the space agency's Food Lab to find out.
Daniel Terdiman – CNET News
During the early space shuttle days, NASA sent its astronauts into the heavens with fresh bread packed into a special food locker so they could make sandwiches.
But on one mission, a payload specialist from Mexico joined the shuttle crew, and he packed tortillas in the fresh food locker. Shortly thereafter, high above Earth, the rest of the crew saw the benefits of rolling food up in the tortillas.
NASA would never be the same.
As part of CNET Road Trip 2014, I've come to this southeast Texas city of 2.16 million people to visit Johnson Space Center, NASA's main astronaut training operation. Yesterday, in part one of my JSC coverage, I wrote about the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, where astronauts go 40 feet underwater to practice tasks they'll eventually perform on and outside the International Space Station. Today, I look at NASA's Space Food Systems Laboratory.
Houston, we have a (tortilla) problem
With NASA's astronauts now convinced that using tortillas was preferable to making sandwiches with normal bread, the space agency set about trying to ensure a steady supply. There was just one problem, according to Vickie Kloeris, the manager of the International Space Station Food System: there were no suitable tortillas to be found near Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Space Shuttle launch site.
It wasn't, of course, that no one in the area sold tortillas, it was that none that could be found met NASA's microbiological needs -- essentially, that the food could survive in space. That was especially true when Shuttle missions started lasting multiple weeks, not days. NASA had plenty of history producing acceptable "extended shelf-life bread products" that flew aboard the Shuttles in anti-mold anaerobic packaging designed to provide muffins and flatbreads for the military.
But it had no experience with tortillas, so it had to start making them, Kloeris said. And it did, successfully producing them for four-month Shuttle missions. When it came time to pack food for missions to the International Space Station (ISS) that could last much longer, though, it was out of its league.
Thankfully, Taco Bell came to the rescue. As Kloeris remembered it, the food giant began producing a commercial tortilla pack that was microbiologically designed to last nine months. "So we got out of the tortilla (making) business," she said.
Won't float away
Due to severe constraints on available square-footage on the ISS, NASA packs some of its food and drinks dry, and astronauts must add liquid to make things edible. And given the law of partial pressure, Food Lab contractor manager Kimberly Glaus-Late explained, that liquid will try to leak out, which requires many of the packages to have a built-in septum-adapter assembly, essentially a one-way valve that allows liquid to be introduced but not to flow back out.
But other dishes, like beef stew, are considered tastier in a thermo-stabilized state, Glaus-Late said. That means they're packed with their water, and are ready to eat once the package is cut open.
You might think that astronauts trying to eat in the zero-gravity environment of the ISS would constantly be struggling to keep their beef stew from floating away. In fact, though, wet food in microgravity will either stick to itself or to its package, so there's little danger of it escaping.
Things like these are just part of NASA astronauts' food training. According to Glaus-Late, astronauts go through about four different training sessions, much of which is devoted to allowing them to taste different foods and determine their food preferences.
Although the vast majority of the food available on the ISS comes from a standard set of 200 food and beverage items -- with much of it sent to the space station long before new astronauts arrive -- each astronaut gets to pick a small set of "bonus containers" of special food. By small, NASA means nine total off-menu items for a six-month mission.
How each astronaut chooses their bonus items is up to them, but it may have something to do with their desire for specific snacks, or their knowledge that there are limited numbers of standard items they enjoy. For example, Glaus-Late said, there may only be three packages of M&Ms available the entire crew for an eight-day period, so one crew member may want more of the chocolate treat.
All told, NASA provides eight different categories of food to its astronauts: meats and fish; rehydratable meat; vegetables; soups; breakfast; beverages; and now, for the first time, condiments. According to Glaus-Late, the food lab has recently developed a new way of sending up small plastic bottles filled with things like ketchup, mustard, and even sriracha. All of this goes toward helping overcome monotony. As Kloeris put it, "Variety is key. The more variety the better during six months on the" ISS.
'Grandma's canning process'
For the most part, NASA isn't doing much food development these days. Most of its food-related efforts are going into production.
Kloeris said that most of the food is made in a lab at Texas A&M University, and NASA does the freeze-drying at Johnson Space Center, using a machine called a retort to vacuum seal the servings. "Basically," Kloeris said, the retort system is "grandma's canning process, automated."
In the old days, NASA fed its astronauts plenty of military-grade MREs, or meals ready to eat. But over time, the agency determined that the MREs were geared toward young servicemembers who needed a lot of salt in their diet. Astronauts, however, found the meals were too high in salt and fat, so in 1998, NASA began developing its own thermo-stabilized products Today, Kloeris said, NASA produces 65 different thermo-stabilized meals, all of which would be unfit for public consumption by U.S. Food and Drug Administration standards, since they are officially considered "experimental foods."
Despite moving the astronauts away from military MREs, NASA flight surgeons began recognizing an alarming trend around 2009 or 2010, Kloeris said. By that time, there had been astronauts aboard the ISS continuously since 2000, and the surgeons began noticing that some of the returning crew members were suffering from a permanent loss of visual acuity, she said, that was pinned on increased intercranial pressure -- a pressure on the optic nerve.
The doctors were not certain what was causing the problem, Kloeris said, but decided to order further reductions in sodium in the standard astronaut diet as a precaution. Cutting back on salt is almost always a good thing, but for NASA, that meant most of the commercial products it was buying went "out the door," Kloeris said, since they usually had high salt content. "So we had to start making all our own freeze-dried products," she said.
Since then, the food lab has reformulated about 90 of its 200 products, effectively reduced the salt content in the astronauts' diet by 43 percent, she said, earning the lab's Space Food System Sodium Reformulation Team" a special NASA Group Achievement Award.
Unfortunately, it's too early to tell whether the dietary change has had an impact on the intercranial pressure problem, particularly because so much of the food stored on the ISS has been there since well before the reformulation project. Only just now, Kloeris said, are crew members beginning to eat food that was produced entirely after that project commenced.
Fresh food
Another factor that limits the astronauts' food experience is the frequency of cargo launches, since NASA and its partners can only bring food to the ISS so often. But Kloeris said there's a hope that as cargo launches increase over time, NASA may be able to send more food up -- meaning more fresh food for the astronauts.
Already, she said, SpaceX's cargo launches have allowed NASA to send up things like apples and citrus fruits that can last a while without refrigeration. When SpaceX does a launch, there's a 5-day lead time for fresh food. Another NASA commercial cargo partner, Orbital, has a 12-day lead time, meaning less fresh food. By comparison, Space Shuttle missions used to have a 2-day lead time. At five days or less, astronauts can eat (for a short period) things like grapes and avocados. "They really like getting the fresh food," Kloeris said. "That's what they miss. When they get it, it's pretty much gone right away."
Biggest challenges
Though it may be many years before NASA ever sends manned missions to Mars, the space agency is already thinking through many of the factors that will affect such missions.
Food, of course, is one of them.
For one thing, Kloeris said, the agency has to contend with the fact that any Mars missions are all but certain to last a minimum of three years. That means food bound for the Red Planet has to have a 5-year shelf life.
Already, though, Kloeris and her team are researching food sciences for Mars missions, she said. The biggest challenges are coming up with quality food that can withstand the chemical changes that take place over several years in space. Vitamin C is a big stumbling block, she said, as it degrades quickly.
As well, they need to figure out how to pack enough variety to keep the astronauts happy.
Still, many of the thermo-stabilization processes NASA has already perfected are likely to work as well for Mars as they do for the ISS, she said. And there are new procedures, such as high-pressure processing, coming out of the military that kill bacteria while using less heat and which could help with Mars missions.
In the meantime, in a world in which almost everyone you meet has some sort of special food needs, be it no gluten, or no red meat, or no dairy, Kloeris said NASA has been spared dealing with that particular issue. "It hasn't happened, because they have to be so healthy to be astronauts," she said. "We haven't really run into astronauts with dietary restrictions."
That said, Kloeris allowed that perhaps her department's biggest challenge would be "if a vegan wants to fly to the ISS. It is going to be hard for them to get all their nutrition needs met."
Added Kloeris, "Hopefully, I'll be retired by then."
END
Typhoon Off Of JapanTo demonstrate the potential and size of this storm, "CBS This Morning" showed images of it taken from the International Space Station, "which flew right over." ABC World News also broadcast the "monster typhoon" heading toward Okinawa, Japan.NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsTuesday – July 8, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSNASA to send 3D Google smartphones for robots to space stationNoel Randewich – ReutersGoogle smartphones with next-generation 3D sensing technology are about to blast into orbit, where they will become the brains and eyes of ball-shaped hovering robots on the International Space Station.3D Google smartphones to help NASA robots navigate in space
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