Enjoy this weather …while it last.
And the buyout is officially on---there is like 2 week sign up window this week….invite Emails from HR went out to the retirement eligible folks like myself.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Orion Lunch and Learn With Mike Sarafin
- Spot Orion Contest is Back
- Free Flu Shots: Upcoming Dates
- National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
- Recent JSC Announcement - Organizations/Social
- Save the Date and #JSCelebrate!
- What Happens When …?
- NSBE Visions for Human Spaceflight Brown Bag
- Don't Miss the JSC Facility Managers' Forum
- Parent's Night Out at Starport - Sept. 19
- Latin Dance Introduction: Oct. 17 from 8 to 9 p.m. - Jobs and Training
- I&I Discussion Groups
- ISS EDMS User Forum
- Correction: ESRS Training - Community
- Texas High School Juniors Needed |  |
| Headlines - Orion Lunch and Learn With Mike Sarafin
Orion's journey to Mars begins just seven weeks from today! Join in the excitement and attend our upcoming lunch-and-learn event with Mike Sarafin, Orion's lead flight director for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1). Join us Monday, Oct. 20, at 12:30 p.m. in the Building 3 collaboration area as Sarafin shows Orion's newest video and answers your questions about the mission, his job and how EFT-1 will lead the way for NASA's next giant leap in deep-space exploration. Questions can be sent in advance of the event via email. Be sure to pick up your FREE Orion EFT-1 poster at the event! - Spot Orion Contest is Back
Will you find the fact this month? An Orion A to Z fact has been posted near a building around the JSC campus. Be the first to spot the Orion fact for October, take a picture, email us the fact and tell us where you found it! The winner is in for a special VIP treat. There are only three chances left to win this year before Orion's first flight. Keep your eyes open during your walks across campus, and maybe you could be the winner! - Free Flu Shots: Upcoming Dates
We were able to vaccinate 1,000 JSC team members against seasonal influenza on Safety and Health Day! Our thanks go out to those who waited patiently in line, and our apologies go out to those who were not able to get their shot because we ran out of vaccine. We have received the remainder of our order and will be providing free flu shots to JSC civil servants and contractors who are housed on-site on Oct. 23 in the Building 30 lobby from 8:30 a.m. to noon, and again on Oct. 30 in the Teague lobby from 8:30 a.m. to noon. PLEASE visit the website below, read the Influenza Vaccine Information Statement and complete the consent form prior to arrival to expedite the process. On the day of the flu shot, wear clothing that allows easy access to your upper arm (short sleeves or sleeveless). - National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Cybersecurity Fact for Today: STOP, THINK, CONNECT Phi$hing $tatistics at NASA—did you hear? Between April 2009 and August 2014, the cost of mitigating agency phishing attacks was close to $400,000. There was also loss of productivity for the victims. Before you click on that next tempting link … Stop—Think—$ave - Recent JSC Announcement
Please visit the JSC Announcements (JSCA) Web page to view the newly posted announcement: JSCA 14-027: Continuation of Procurement Sensitivity and Communication Blackout Archived announcements are also available on the JSCA Web page. Organizations/Social - Save the Date and #JSCelebrate!
That's right—we're having a celebration just for you on Dec. 12 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The JSC team and family members are welcome. Food trucks, kids' activities and a cake-decorating contest are part of the festivities. More details, as well as $5 ticket sales, are coming in the weeks ahead. - What Happens When …?
Please join us for the October JSC National Management Association (NMA) chapter luncheon presentation featuring Chris Reed, city manager with the City of Nassau Bay, who will speak on "What happens when … ? How a city prepares for the unknown." Date: Oct. 30 Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. (lunch) Location: Gilruth Center Alamo Ballroom - Cost for members: FREE
- Cost for non-members: $25
There are three great menu options to choose from: - Herb-marinated chicken breast
- Grilled salmon with roasted corn
- Zucchini packages stuffed spinach
All meals include: salad, rolls and butter, iced tea, iced water and dessert Please RSVP no later than 3 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 23, with your menu selection. For RSVP technical assistance, please contact Leslie N. Smith at x46752. Event Date: Thursday, October 30, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:1:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth - Alamo Ballroom
Add to Calendar
Leslie N. Smith x46752
[top] - NSBE Visions for Human Spaceflight Brown Bag
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Houston Space Professionals invites members of the JSC community, with a special invitation to all Employee Resource Groups, to join us for our October "Visions for Human Spaceflight Brown Bag" on Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Building 1, Conference Room 360. This series is essentially an open discussion/review of the NSBE's Unlimited Horizons white paper, with each month devoted to review of a different section of the paper. Thus far, we have covered mission rationales and associated spacecraft elements. This month we will cover pages 36 to 43, Mission Manifests and International/Commercial Extensibility. The NSBE is introducing this brown-bag series as a JSC 2.0 effort to stimulate independent and innovative discussion on topics of importance to the future of the agency and center. You are encouraged to download a copy of the paper. - Don't Miss the JSC Facility Managers' Forum
Don't miss the JSC Facility Managers' Forum on Oct. 23 from 8 a.m. to noon. Join us in the Teague Auditorium. If you are a JSC, Sonny Carter Training Facility or Ellington Field facility manager, building manager or operations staff member, you are invited. The goal of this forum is to provide facility managers with an opportunity to share resources and ideas, seek additional training and otherwise continue to improve their skillset and the performance of their facilities. We will discuss both existing efforts and future opportunities to increase collaboration. See the JSC facility managers' page for agenda details. If you need any additional information, contact Q. Byron Winters at x33182. - Parent's Night Out at Starport – Sept. 19
Enjoy a night out on the town while your kids enjoy a night with Starport. We will entertain your children with a night of games, crafts, a bounce house, pizza, a movie, dessert and loads of fun! When: Friday, Oct. 17, from 6 to 10 p.m. Where: Gilruth Center Ages: 5 to 12 Cost: $20/first child and $10/each additional sibling if registered by the Wednesday prior to event. If registered after Wednesday, the fee is $25/first child and $15/additional sibling. - Latin Dance Introduction: Oct. 17 from 8 to 9 p.m.
This class is mostly an introduction to Salsa, but it also touches on other popular Latin dances found in social settings: Merengue, Bachata, and even a little bit of Cha-Cha-Cha. Emphasis is on Salsa and then Bachata. For the first-time student or those who want a refresher course. You will go over basic steps with variations and build them into sequences. Regular registration: - $50 per person (Oct. 4 to Oct. 17)
Salsa Intermediate: Oct. 17 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. This class continues teaching Salsa beyond what is taught in the introduction class. You should be comfortable and confident with the material from the introduction class before moving on to the intermediate class. This is a multi-level class where students may be broken up into groups based on class experience. Jobs and Training - I&I Discussion Groups
JSC recently completed the third round of a unique program: Inclusion & Innovation (I&I) discussion groups. It was designed as a follow-on learning activity from Advanced I&I classes. The groups (comprised of 10 to 14 people) explore several diversity and inclusion topics, which are key for working in JSC's dynamic environment. Past participants indicate that the discussions heightened awareness and improved their effectiveness as leaders and team members who engage in tough employee conversations. Sessions: 10 comprehensive meetings Duration: 90 minutes twice per month Scheduling: Groups meet during lunch (brown-bag lunch) Facilitators: Groups facilitated by two current or former supervisors Prerequisite: Completion of I&I course (Dr. Steve Robbins) Target Audience: Anyone interested in making JSC a great place to work To register, please contact José Bolton in the Human Resources Office by Friday, Oct. 17. - ISS EDMS User Forum
The International Space Station (ISS) Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) team will hold the monthly General User Training Forum today, Oct. 16, at 9:30 a.m. in Building 4S, Room 5315. Lync meeting and telecom will be provided. If you use EDMS to locate station documents, join us to learn about basic navigation and searching. Bring your questions, concerns and suggestions, and meet the EDMS Customer Service team. The agenda is located here. - Correction: ESRS Training
Enterprise Service Request System (ESRS) Training The Information Resources Directorate (IRD) is providing hands-on ESRS training from 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28, in Building 12, Room 138. Learn to use the new online service request tool for I3P services. Hands-on training includes how to enter and track requests like ordering new seats, moves, edits, network connections, distribution lists and seat de-subscribes. Community - Texas High School Juniors Needed
High School Aerospace Scholars (HAS) needs Texas high school juniors. The application is currently open. HAS is an interactive, online experience highlighted by a six-day residential summer experience at JSC. Students will explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) concepts, with an emphasis on space exploration, during the online experience. Students who are selected to come to JSC will continue their STEM studies with hands-on team activities while mentored by NASA engineers and scientists. HAS is a great STEM opportunity for Texas high school juniors. | |
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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 – October 16, 2014
Orion: That's a wrap! The last major assembly operation to prepare NASA's Orion Spacecraft for its first flight on December 4 is complete. For updates, find Orion on Twitter and Facebook. HEADLINES AND LEADS
Sierra Nevada Steps Up Legal Battle Over NASA 'Space Taxi' Competition
Losing Bidder Asks Court of Federal Claims to Halt Payments to Winners Boeing, SpaceX
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Sierra Nevada Corp., the losing bidder in NASA's recent multibillion-dollar "space taxi" competition, has gone to court seeking to block winners Boeing Co. BA -1.72% and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. from proceeding with work until a pending contract protest is resolved.
Sierra Nevada seeks federal injunction to stop work on NASA space taxi
Laura Keeney - Denver Post
Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Louisville-based Space Systems is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to issue an injunction to once again force NASA to stop work on its crewed spacecraft program.
Hurricane threat pushes Antares launch back to Oct. 27
NASA and Orbital Sciences agreed to postpone the launch of Orb-3 to no-earlier-than Oct. 27 today. Both agencies are closely monitoring Hurricane Gonzalo and will be tracking it as it continues to develop. Last week, the launch date was changed to no earlier than Oct. 24 to allow for more pre-launch prep time.
Spacewalk achieves all major objectives
Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry "Butch" Wilmore floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and, after a bit of trouble with a balky bolt, replaced a broken voltage regulator in one of eight solar power channels to restore the lab's electrical grid to normal operation.
NASA Has More Science Bound for Space Station than Crew Can Handle, Official Says
Dan Leone – Space News
There are more science experiments headed to the international space station than NASA astronauts have time to conduct, an agency official said here Oct. 7 at a meeting of the National Research Council's committee on biological and life sciences in space.
First Photos of Water Ice on Mercury Captured by NASA Spacecraft
The first-ever photos of water ice near Mercury's north pole have come down to Earth, and they have quite a story to tell.
China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week
China is preparing to launch a mission next week that will help pave the way for an ambitious lunar sample-return effort.
Beyond Pluto: Hubble ID's Kuiper Belt Options for New Horizons
NBC News
With the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have identified three potential destinations that NASA's New Horizons probe could observe after next July's Pluto flyby. The primary target is known as PT1. Two other targets, called PT2 and PT3, are potentially reachable as alternatives, scientists said. NASA says all of the objects are roughly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, and their estimated sizes range from 15 to 34 miles (25 to 55 kilometers) across.
Comet Will Buzz Mars Sunday: How to See It in Telescopes
A comet is on course for a super-close approach to the planet Mars this Sunday (Oct. 19) in a rare celestial encounter. And if you have a moderate-size telescope, you just might be able to spot the icy wanderer as it nears the Red Planet, weather permitting.
COMPLETE STORIES
Sierra Nevada Steps Up Legal Battle Over NASA 'Space Taxi' Competition
Losing Bidder Asks Court of Federal Claims to Halt Payments to Winners Boeing, SpaceX
Andy Pasztor - Wall Street Journal
Sierra Nevada Corp., the losing bidder in NASA's recent multibillion-dollar "space taxi" competition, has gone to court seeking to block winners Boeing Co. BA -1.72% and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. from proceeding with work until a pending contract protest is resolved.
Sierra Nevada on Wednesday asked the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington to prevent Boeing and SpaceX, as the Southern California company is known, from receiving payments under separate contracts awarded last month by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to develop, test and operate commercial-crew vehicles to take U.S. astronauts into orbit.
The legal move comes as more details emerge about price differences between Sierra Nevada's unsuccessful bid and Boeing's more-expensive offering, renewing debate about NASA's ability to ultimately pay for all the projected trips to the international space station over the next several years.
The two contracts, amounting to a maximum of $6.8 billion, are intended to cover further development and certification of the safety of the vehicles for manned missions, which are supposed to begin no later than 2017. Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser vehicle is winged and able to land on a runway, while the other two companies are using capsules.
Sierra Nevada, which previously said its overall proposed price was about $900 million less than the maximum of $4.2 billion awarded to Boeing, filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office last month challenging NASA's decision. SpaceX was awarded a maximum of $2.6 billion.
Mark Sirangelo, head of space systems at Sierra Nevada, on Wednesday confirmed that "we have filed with the federal court." A NASA spokeswoman declined to comment on the litigation.
Meanwhile, an analysis of the base bids submitted by Boeing and Sierra Nevada indicates the price difference for the last three missions could amount to nearly $50 million per flight, according to one person familiar with details of the bidding process. Boeing's price potentially could reach $300 million for one of those roundtrips to the orbiting laboratory, this person said.
That would amount to about $50 million per astronaut for a six-person crew. Elon Musk, SpaceX's founder, chief executive and chief designer, has talked about prices roughly half that amount. All of the bids also included the possibility of transporting some cargo.
By contrast, NASA now pays Russia to ferry astronauts into orbit and back to earth, at a cost of $70 million a person.
NASA's anticipated spending of $6.8 billion on domestic alternatives roughly through the end of the decade, however, exceeds the agency's own budget projections for the program over that stretch by at least $1.8 billion. NASA officials could seek more money from Congress—likely to be an uphill struggle—or they could close the gap by stripping funding from other NASA programs. Before the awards were announced, there was much talk among industry officials about long-term financial challenges facing the commercial-crew effort, which has contractors owning and operating their fleets of vehicles.
A Boeing spokeswoman said that until a court ruling suspends or halts work on the contract, "we're full speed ahead," though she declined to comment on prices. A SpaceX spokesman didn't have any immediate comment; and NASA has declined to comment on comparable seat costs or release its internal decision document, citing the continuing protest.
In announcing its protest last month, Sparks, Nev.-based Sierra Nevada said, among other things, that NASA failed to faithfully follow its own bid-evaluation criteria and the result will be "substantial increased cost to the public despite near equivalent technical" rankings of the losing and winning bidders.
The court filing, according to one person familiar with the specifics, alleges that NASA in the end failed to give enough weight to the price difference and instead relied too much on other factors, including likelihood of meeting schedules, which Sierra Nevada contends weren't part of the criteria in the request for bids. Price was supposed to account for half the score assigned to the bidders.
The decision memo, signed by William Gerstenmaier, head of NASA's manned programs, indicated that Sierra Nevada's price advantage had to be considered in light of what he described as "the lowest level of maturity" for the company's design. The Dream Chaser, according to the memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, faced "significantly more technical work and critical design decisions" than its rivals, and also entailed more schedule uncertainty.
NASA initially instructed the winners to stop work pending the outcome of the protest, but later reversed course and announced that it had authority to order work to proceed because slowing down the program "jeopardizes continued operation" of the orbiting laboratory. NASA also said suspending work until the GAO renders its decision--expected by early January--could cause the U.S. to fall short of its international commitments.
Both the original protest and the court papers filed Wednesday remain under seal, covered by a GAO protective order that is common while such a protest is being considered.
The GAO, which received a draft version of the request for an injunction before it was filed, declined to comment except to say that the agency would continue to evaluate Sierra Nevada's underlying claims of contract irregularities.
Sierra Nevada seeks federal injunction to stop work on NASA space taxi
Laura Keeney - Denver Post
Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Louisville-based Space Systems is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to issue an injunction to once again force NASA to stop work on its crewed spacecraft program.
Space Systems filed formal protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Sept. 26 after its Dream Chaser bid for NASA's commercial crew contract was rejected. The contract was split between Boeing Co's CST-100 capsule and SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.
That filing required NASA to order Boeing and SpaceX to stop work while the bid protest is being investigated.
On Oct. 9, NASA, "under statutory authority available to it," ordered Boeing and SpaceX to resume work as it "best serves the United States," according to an issued statement.
Space Systems is leaving the majority of the case with GAO and only seeking the work stoppage through the federal court.
"We still have the case, and we still have it on the merits. But I understand that Sierra Nevada has gone to court seeking an injunction due to the override of the stay," said Ralph White, GAO's managing associate general counsel.
The injunction process is typically quite swift. A judge could agree with Space Systems and issue stop-work order. Or, the judge could agree with NASA and work would continue.
However, if the work continues, and the GAO recommendation comes back in favor of Space Systems, there could be some financial entanglements as NASA sorts out contract awards.
GAO still plans to have its final recommendation on the case by no later than Jan. 5.
Hurricane threat pushes Antares launch back to Oct. 27
NASA and Orbital Sciences agreed to postpone the launch of Orb-3 to no-earlier-than Oct. 27 today. Both agencies are closely monitoring Hurricane Gonzalo and will be tracking it as it continues to develop. Last week, the launch date was changed to no earlier than Oct. 24 to allow for more pre-launch prep time.
Steven Kremer, Chief of Wallops Range and Mission Management Office released a statement saying, "The Wallops range relies on the Bermuda downrange assets to track and maintain data communications with the Antares rocket during flight and ultimately to ensure public safety during launch operations.
After Gonzalo, now a category 4 storm, has passed Bermuda, Wallops Flight Facility Range will have a team visit the tracking site, assess the situation, and ensure the site will be able to support the upcoming launch. The team will investigate the storm's impact on infrastructures, power, and communications.
If the storm's impact on the facility is greater than anticipated, the launch date may be moved back again. The Oct. 27 date was selected to have added flexibility to the mission's overall schedule.
If the launch occurs on Oct. 27, it is slated for lift-off at 6:44 p.m. EDT (1044 GMT). Currently, Cygnus rendezvous and berthing with the International Space Station is still set for Nov. 2, with grapple of Cygnus occurring at 4:58 a.m. EST (0958 GMT).
Spacewalk achieves all major objectives
Astronauts Reid Wiseman and Barry "Butch" Wilmore floated outside the International Space Station Wednesday and, after a bit of trouble with a balky bolt, replaced a broken voltage regulator in one of eight solar power channels to restore the lab's electrical grid to normal operation.
They then worked through a list of lower-priority tasks, removing a broken camera, installing a replacement at a different location and relocating a support mast and wireless transmitter assembly in preparation for spacewalks next year.
U.S. EVA-28 got underway at 8:16 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Wednesday when Wiseman and Wilmore, floating in the Quest airlock compartment, switched their spacesuits to battery power.
The primary goal of the 6-hour 34-minute spacewalk was to replace an electrical component known as a sequential shunt unit, or SSU, that failed earlier this year, knocking out one of the eight solar power channels in the station's NASA-built electrical grid.
The space station is equipped with eight 110-foot-long solar wings that provide power to eight distribution channels. Each array is equipped with a sequential shunt unit to regulate voltage as the station moves into and out of Earth's shadow. The SSU in power channel 3A failed May 8, forcing flight controllers to re-route power from channel 3B to keep a variety of components in operation.
The EVA timeline was set up to ensure that Wiseman and Wilmore could remove the faulty SSU during a night pass when the arrays were not generating power. A few moments before passing into orbital darkness, the spacewalkers were treated to a spectacular view of Egypt, the Nile river and the Red Sea passing by 260 miles below.
"I see Cairo, can't quite make out the pyramids, though," Wiseman observed.
Working in darkness at the far right side of the station's solar power truss, at the base of the channel 3A solar array, Wiseman was initially unable to drive open a bolt holding the faulty SSU in place.
Using a ratchet wrench and a bit of elbow grease, he successfully "broke torque" on the bolt and pulled the shorted SSU out of its mounting bracket. He then ran into problems bolting down the replacement.
"I still see nothing. No movement," Wilmore observed, watching an indicator that should have shown the SSU locking in place as Wiseman tightened the bolt needed to secure it.
"OK, let's keep track of the turns, try to find that sweet spot where the bolt will align with the receptacle," astronaut Ricky Arnold radioed from mission control in Houston.
"OK. Let me just talk about this, Ricky," Wiseman said. "The bolt is definitely in. If I pull up on this (SSU), it's not moving. I've got 9.9 turns (on the bolt), but we haven't seen any closure."
Arnold told the spacewalkers to back out the bolt, remove the box and inspect it for damage or any obstructions. Wilmore reported a possible broken thread at the base of the bolt, but he wasn't sure. After a bit of discussion, flight controllers told the spacewalkers to re-align the box and try again, putting more force into it than before.
This time around, again using the manual ratchet wrench, Wiseman was able to tighten the bolt all the way. A few moments later -- just two minutes or so from sunrise -- flight controllers tested the circuit and reported the replacement SSU was working normally.
"Woo hoo!" The spacewalks exclaimed.
The astronauts then pressed ahead with work to move a camera support mast from the lower side of the port-1 solar array truss segment to the top of the forward Harmony module. The relocation is required to clear a path for work next summer to robotically move a storage compartment from the bottom of the central Unity module to the forward-facing port of the left-side Tranquility module.
First, Wiseman had to remove and temporarily stow a camera on the stanchion that has a stuck zoom lens. The stanchion then was disconnected, carried by Wilmore to the upper side of the Harmony module for installation at camera port 11.
While that was going on, Wiseman disconnected a wireless transceiver assembly from the top of the left-side truss at camera port 8 so it could be attached to the stanchion installed atop Harmony by Wilmore. The transceiver is used to relay views from spacesuit helmet cameras.
But Wilmore ran into problems bolting down the stanchion. Free floating, he was unable to get enough force on an attachment bolt to get it to engage the mounting bracket.
"Over there, we couldn't get it off. Over here, we can't get it on," Wilmore said. "This is just a tough worksite."
Wiseman moved up to help and finally, after several attempts, Wilmore was able to drive the bolt home.
"It feels like it is in tight," he reported. "It's not going anywhere."
He then connected the wireless transceiver assembly, which will improve communications during a series of planned spacewalks next year to prepare forward ports for dockings by new commercial crew ferry craft.
Wiseman then carried the camera with the stuck zoom lens back to the airlock, retrieved a fresh camera and working together, the two spacewalkers installed it on the top of the left-side truss where the wireless transceiver had been located.
The spacewalk included a half hour for a variety of so-called "get-ahead" tasks that could be carried out if time was available, but flight controllers opted to end the excursion on time after the camera installation. After collecting their tools and other gear, the spacewalkers returned to the airlock and began repressurization procedures at 2:50 p.m.
It was the second in eight days for the U.S. crew after a spacewalk last Tuesday by Wiseman and Alexander Gerst to relocate a broken cooling pump, to replace a camera light and to install a component to provide backup power to the lab's robot arm transporter.
Overall, it was the 183rd spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998, the sixth of seven EVAs planned for this year, the second for Wiseman and the first for Wilmore, a former shuttle pilot. With today's spacewalk, 119 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations have logged 1,148 hours and 49 minutes of station EVA time, or 47.9 days.
The year's seventh and final planned spacewalk is scheduled for Oct. 22 when station commander Maxim Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev plan to jettison no-longer-needed gear and carry out a detailed photo survey of the Russian segment's exterior.
NASA plans eight to 10 station spacewalks next year to prepare the lab for dockings by Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew ferry craft starting in 2017.
When the work is complete, the U.S. segment of the station will be able to accommodate two commercial crew vehicles and two U.S. cargo ships at the same time, giving NASA fully independent access to the orbiting laboratory for the first time since the shuttle's retirement in 2011.
NASA Has More Science Bound for Space Station than Crew Can Handle, Official Says
Dan Leone – Space News
There are more science experiments headed to the international space station than NASA astronauts have time to conduct, an agency official said here Oct. 7 at a meeting of the National Research Council's committee on biological and life sciences in space.
"If you ask me, we're at a crew-time max," Rod Jones, manager of NASA's ISS Research Integration Office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said at the meeting. "We are literally going into an increment coming up where we have allocated to us 875 hours [of research time], and I have about 1,400 hours of research."
This increment, known internally as 43/44, is scheduled to begin in March with the arrival of veteran cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and fellow Expedition 43 crewmates Mikhail Kornienko and NASA's Scott Kelly, and end in late September or early October when Padalka flies space tourist Sarah Brightman and Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen back home after the first-time spacefliers' brief visit (Kornienko and Kelly will remain behind for another six months, completing the first one-year stay at ISS).
NASA and its partners stagger Soyuz arrivals and departures to maintain a standing crew of six, including three for the U.S. side of the space station and three for the Russian side.
With an 875-hour allotment for 1,400 hours of research, crews active in the U.S. side of station for increment 43/44 will dedicate about a fifth of their time in orbit to science but leave more than 20 days worth of research undone by the time they return to Earth. The vast majority of the crew's remaining waking hours are consumed by the routine maintenance tasks required to keep station habitable and flight-worthy.
NASA officials from Jones to William Gerstenmaier, the agency's top human spaceflight official, have long said there are not enough hands on deck to support all the research NASA wants to do on station.
Following the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, ISS was staffed by two-person crews until the space shuttle resumed regular space station visits in 2006. The ISS gradually returned to six-person operations, which is the current upper limit given that only two Soyuz capsules — the only spacecraft able to send crews to and from station since the shuttle flew its final mission in 2011 — are docked at the outpost at a time.
Competing crewed spacecraft in development at Boeing Co. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. would seat as many as seven, the maximum number space station is designed to accommodate for long-duration stays.
The extra seats on the commercially operated systems will allow NASA to send four of its own astronauts at a time to station (Russia will continue to fly Soyuz, so NASA's commercial partners will not need to launch every crew member headed to station), increasing weekly hours available for science operations on the U.S. side of ISS to nearly 70 from the current 35, Jones said. The fourth crew member would work almost exclusively on science, Jones told the National Research Council panel.
"We're looking at what we think our max throughput is," Jones said. "When we get the fourth crew, we think it's going to be about 5.5 metric tons [of science payloads a year], sustained."
How long NASA can sustain that pace will depend on when commercial transportation systems become available — the agency has said no sooner than late 2017 — and how long the station keeps flying. The White House said in January that it wants to continue operations through at least 2024. The U.S. agency's 15 international partners, signatories of a 1998 intergovernmental agreement that formalized the station partnership, are still working to secure commitments to continue through 2020.
In the meantime, the agency is making do with what it has: the cargo version of SpaceX's Dragon capsule, Orbital Sciences' expendable Cygnus space freighter, and roughly 35 hours of crew time a week dedicated to research.
Of the two commercial cargo craft, each of which are on the hook to deliver 20 metric tons of cargo through 2017, only SpaceX's can return experiments to researchers on the ground. Compared with the shuttle, which landed on a runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the sea-landing Dragon takes much longer to get specimens from the station back to scientists — two or three days, compared with about four hours for the shuttle, Jones said.
But at the other end of the pipeline, it takes less time these days to get an experiment to orbit than it once did. If an experimental payload is ready to fly, it can get on the manifest as soon as six months before a scheduled Orbital or SpaceX delivery, Jones said.
"When I started in the office seven years ago it was a two-year cycle to fly anything," Jones told the NRC panel. "But now we've moved to a whole new paradigm where we're trying to operate more like a laboratory."
And NASA is the only entity with access to that laboratory.
By law, half of all resources in the U.S. segment of the space station — crew time, electrical power, volume, and equipment, to name a few — must be available for non-NASA research. Non-NASA research, which includes projects led by other U.S. government agencies and the private sector, is managed by the Melbourne, Florida-based nonprofit, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, or CASIS. The group gets $15 million a year from NASA, including $3 million a year to directly fund research projects.
According to its website, the group has gotten 16 science payloads to station since January, when Orbital delivered the first CASIS-sponsored experiments to fly in space. Counting experiments that have yet to fly, and ground-based research, CASIS has so far funded about $10 million worth of science, spokesman Patrick O'Neil wrote in an Oct. 14 email. CASIS eventually hopes to get nongovernment sources of funding for the research it sponsors, but that has not happened yet.
First Photos of Water Ice on Mercury Captured by NASA Spacecraft
The first-ever photos of water ice near Mercury's north pole have come down to Earth, and they have quite a story to tell.
The images, taken by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft (short for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging), suggest that the ice lurking within Mercury's polar craters was delivered recently, and may even be topped up by processes that continue today, researchers said. More than 20 years ago, Earth-based radar imaging first spotted signs of water ice near Mercury's north and south poles — a surprise, perhaps, given that temperatures on the solar system's innermost planet can top 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius).
In late 2012, MESSENGER confirmed those observations from orbit around Mercury, discovering ice in permanently shadowed craters near the planet's north pole. MESSENGER scientists announced the find after integrating results from thermal modeling studies with data gathered by the probe's hydrogen-hunting neutron spectrometer and its laser altimeter, which measured the reflectance of the deposits.
And now the MESSENGER team has captured optical-light images of the ice for the first time, by taking advantage of small amounts of sunlight scattered off the craters' walls.
"There is a lot new to be learned by seeing the deposits," said study lead author Nancy Chabot, instrument scientist for MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System and a researcher at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, in a statement. For example, the texture of the ice at the bottom of Mercury's 70-mile-wide (113 kilometers) Prokofiev Crater suggests that the material was put in place relatively recently rather than billions of years ago, researchers said.
Images of other craters back up this notion. They show dark deposits, believed to be frozen organic-rich material, covering ice in some areas, with sharp boundaries between the two different types of material.
"This result was a little surprising, because sharp boundaries indicate that the volatile deposits at Mercury's poles are geologically young, relative to the time scale for lateral mixing by impacts," Chabot said.
Earth's moon also harbors water ice inside permanently shadowed polar craters, but its deposits look different from those on Mercury, researchers said. This could be because Mercury's ice was delivered more recently.
"If you can understand why one body looks one way and another looks different, you gain insight into the process that's behind it, which in turn is tied to the age and distribution of water ice in the solar system," Chabot said. "This will be a very interesting line of inquiry going forward."
The new study was published online today (Oct. 15) in the journal Geology. China Readies Moon Mission for Launch Next Week
China is preparing to launch a mission next week that will help pave the way for an ambitious lunar sample-return effort.
The upcoming launch of the Chang'e 4 mission is expected to take place Oct. 23 from China's Xichang Satellite Launch Center, and will apparently send an experimental, recoverable probe to lunar orbit and back. The goal is to validate re-entry technology for Chang'e 5, a future robotic mission that will land on the moon, collect samples and return those specimens to Earth. According to China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense, the soon-to-fly craft is a backup probe of Chang'e 3 — the nation's first moon lander and rover, which successfully touched down on Earth's nearest neighbor in December 2013. Chang'e 4 will be adapted to verify technologies needed for Chang'e 5, the third step in China's methodical moon-landing program, according to Chinese news agencies.
The challenging Chang'e 5 mission, set to launch around 2018, will require technological breakthroughs in numerous areas, such as moon landing and takeoff, sample collection and encapsulation, lunar-orbit rendezvous and docking and high-speed Earth re-entry, Chinese officials have said.
"We have begun to study how the Chang'e 5 will blast off from the moon and dock with the in-orbit re-entry capsule," said Wang Pengji, a space expert at the China Academy of Space Technology.
China's newest moon probe arrived in August at the Xichang launch site, according to a statement from the administration.
The state-run Xinhua news agency has reported that the plan is for the spacecraft to be launched to lunar orbit, then return to Earth at a blistering speed of more than 25,000 mph (40,230 km/h). It will parachute onto terra firma to complete its journey.
Onboard China's moon-bound booster is a hitchhiking payload provided by the European space technology company OHB AG. This private "4M mission" to the moon is dedicated to OHB founder Manfred Fuchs, who died earlier this year. (4M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission.)
Technical management of the 4M mission is led by LuxSpace of Luxembourg, an affiliate of OHB AG. LuxSpace chiefly develops microsatellites and actively participates in the OHB System-led Small GEO initiative.
The 31-pound (14 kilograms) 4M probe is designed to fly by the moon and then return Earthward.
The state-run Xinhua news agency has reported that the plan is for the spacecraft to be launched to lunar orbit, then return to Earth at a blistering speed of more than 25,000 mph (40,230 km/h). It will parachute onto terra firma to complete its journey.
Onboard China's moon-bound booster is a hitchhiking payload provided by the European space technology company OHB AG. This private "4M mission" to the moon is dedicated to OHB founder Manfred Fuchs, who died earlier this year. (4M stands for the Manfred Memorial Moon Mission.)
Technical management of the 4M mission is led by LuxSpace of Luxembourg, an affiliate of OHB AG. LuxSpace chiefly develops microsatellites and actively participates in the OHB System-led Small GEO initiative.
The 31-pound (14 kilograms) 4M probe is designed to fly by the moon and then return Earthward.
Beyond Pluto: Hubble ID's Kuiper Belt Options for New Horizons
NBC News
With the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have identified three potential destinations that NASA's New Horizons probe could observe after next July's Pluto flyby. The primary target is known as PT1. Two other targets, called PT2 and PT3, are potentially reachable as alternatives, scientists said. NASA says all of the objects are roughly 1 billion miles (1.6 billion kilometers) beyond Pluto, and their estimated sizes range from 15 to 34 miles (25 to 55 kilometers) across.
The targets are in the Kuiper Belt, a broad ring of icy mini-worlds beyond Neptune, and were identified after a months-long Hubble search. "This has been a very challenging search, and it's great that in the end Hubble could accomplish a detection — one NASA mission helping another," the Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission, said Wednesday in a news release announcing the detections. The New Horizons team is expected to submit a proposal in late 2016 for an extended mission to fly past one of the Kuiper Belt objects. NASA said the encounter could take place three or four years after the Pluto flyby.
Comet Will Buzz Mars Sunday: How to See It in Telescopes
A comet is on course for a super-close approach to the planet Mars this Sunday (Oct. 19) in a rare celestial encounter. And if you have a moderate-size telescope, you just might be able to spot the icy wanderer as it nears the Red Planet, weather permitting.
The comet in question is Comet Siding Spring, which was discovered on Jan. 3, 2013 by the Scottish-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught, a prolific observer of both comets and asteroids. McNaught has discovered 82 previously unseen comets, including a stupendously bright one that briefly became visible to the naked eye in broad daylight in January 2007. McNaught is a participant in the Siding Spring Survey, a program that hunts down asteroids that might closely approach Earth. McNaught found the comet using the 0.5-meter Uppsala Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales, Australia. Because the comet was discovered as part of the observatory's survey for asteroids, it bears the name of the observatory, Siding Spring. Officially it is catalogued as C/2013 A1.
When it was discovered, Comet Siding Spring was 669 million miles (1.07 billion kilometers) from the sun. Soon after, astronomers identified the comet in images taken on Dec. 8, 2012 (before its official discovery) by the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona. Based on its orbital characteristics, the comet is apparently a new or "virgin" comet, traveling in a parabolic orbit and making its very first visit to the vicinity of the sun. It will pass closest to the sun (called perihelion) on Oct. 25 at a distance of 130 million miles (209 million km).
But the exciting point of Comet Siding Spring's inner solar system visit will come on Sunday, Oct. 19, when it will make a close flyby of Mars. The comet will make its closest approach to Mars at 2:28 p.m. EDT (1828 GMT), hurtling by at about 126,000 mph (202,777 km/h). The celestial encounter will provide an unprecedented opportunity for scientists to gather data on both the comet and its effect on the Martian atmosphere.
The very latest calculations suggest that at closest approach, Comet Siding Spring will come to within 86,200 miles (138,700 km) of Mars. That's only 36 percent of the average distance from Earth to the moon, and 16 times closer than any known comet has ever come to the Earth. In 1770, Lexell's Comet passed us at a relatively wide 1.4 million miles (2.3 million km).
Telescope needed to see the comet
If you had the chance to stand on Mars during Comet Siding Spring's closest approach on Sunday, the comet would appear to shine at a super dazzling magnitude -6 on the brightness scale used by astronomers. That's about three times brighter than the brilliant planet Venus appears in Earth's night sky.
However, since the comet will be about 151 million miles (243 million km) from Earth, it will appear much, much dimmer from our point of view. In fact, based on recent observations, we should not expect the comet to get any brighter than 10th magnitude. That's about 60 times dimmer than the faintest star visible to the eye without any optical aid.
In order to locate such a fuzzy and rather ill-defined object as a Siding Spring, you'll need a dark sky and a moderate-sized telescope that can pick out the comet's fuzzy image.
While small telescopes and even large binoculars can bring stars as faint as magnitude 10 into view, keep in mind that a star is a sharp point of light, while the comet will likely be a wispy smudge whose contrast might not be much different than the background sky behind it.
I would strongly recommend a telescope of at least 8-inch aperture. Try using magnifications ranging from between 200 and 400X to refine your view.
Where to look
Normally you would also need a good sky atlas to spot a telescope-only comet, but on Sunday evening you'll be able to use Mars as a convenient benchmark. (Editor's Note: The following measurements use degrees to denote positions in the night sky. As a reference, your closed fist held at arm's length covers about 10 degrees of the night sky.)
For observers at latitudes of 40 degrees north, Mars can be found about 17 degrees above the horizon in the southwestern sky about 45 minutes after sunset, and will set about two hours later.
For Europeans, the comet will be hovering just above Mars as darkness falls. It will literally appear just a fraction of a degree from the Red Planet in telescope views. For comparison, the apparent width of the moon is equal to a half degree.
By the time darkness arrives for eastern North America, Comet Siding Spring will have moved away from Mars towards the northwest (upper right). At that time, the comet will be less than a quarter of a degree from Mars.
At dusk as seen from the West Coast of North America, the comet and planet will appear a bit farther apart, but still, less than a half degree will separate them.
No meteor hurricane on Mars
Last March, a prediction was issued by Jeremie Vaubaillon, an astronomer at the Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Calculation of Ephemerides in Paris, that a "meteor hurricane" would hit Mars as Comet Siding Spring passed by.
But Vaubaillon has since taken that forecast off the table.
Last month, at the International Meteor Conference in Giron, France, Vaubaillon pointed out that his original model was based on an estimated nucleus size of 30 miles (50 km), which was determined from the high brightness of the comet at a large distance. Since then, the comet's brightness has been found to be due to a much smaller nucleus (about 0.4 mile; 700 meters), which had a large coma caused by low surface gravity and low ejection rates.
Those low ejection rates mean that while Mars will be within the comet's gaseous coma, it probably will not be inside the comet's main debris field when it whizzes by. That's good news for spacecraft operators with NASA, India and the European Space Agency in control of the fleet of spacecraft currently orbiting Mars. India's first Mars probe, the Mangalyaan orbiter, and NASA's new MAVEN spacecraft just arrived at the Red Planet last month. Still, some of those Martian probes — both on the surface (the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers) and in orbit around the Red Planet — should have a spectacular view of the comet during the close Mars flyby. It may even be possible to acquire high-resolution images of the comet from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, though its camera was never specifically designed for this particular purpose! Editor's note: If you plan to track the Comet Siding Spring with a telescope and capture an image of the comet, let us know! You can send images and comments in to Space.com at: spacephotos@space.com. Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine, the Farmer's Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.
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Join 957,636 people who have already submitted their boarding pass to send your name on Orion and invite your friends to join NASA's Journey to Mars. Submit your boarding pass here: http://mars.nasa.gov/participate/send-your-name/orion-first-flight/HEADLINES AND LEADSSierra Nevada Steps Up Legal Battle Over NASA 'Space Taxi' CompetitionLosing Bidder Asks Court of Federal Claims to Halt Payments to Winners Boeing, SpaceXAndy Pasztor - Wall Street JournalSierra Nevada Corp., the losing bidder in NASA's recent multibillion-dollar "space taxi" competition, has gone to court seeking to block winners Boeing Co. BA -1.72% and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. from proceeding with work until a pending contract protest is resolved.Sierra Nevada seeks federal injunction to stop work on NASA space taxiLaura Keeney - Denver PostSierra Nevada Corp.'s Louisville-based Space Systems is asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., to issue an injunction to once again force NASA to stop work on its crewed spacecraft program.Hurricane threat pushes Antares launch back to Oct. 27Amy Thompson - Spaceflightinsider.comNASA and Orbital Sciences agreed to postpone the launch of Orb-3 to no-earlier-than Oct. 27 today. Both agencies are closely monitoring Hurricane Gonzalo and will be tracking it as it continues to develop. Last week, the launch date was changed to no earlier than Oct. 24 to allow for more pre-launch prep time.Spacewalk achieves all major objectivesWilliam Harwood - CBS News via Spaceflightnow.com
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