All,,,,Just a little background on Vernon C. Hammersley:
First listing for him was in the January 1965 Manned Spacecraft Center phonebook where he was working in the Flight Crew Support Division under Warren North and the Crew Station Branch under Jerry Shows in Building 4! Jpeg below shows the listing from the 1965 phone book.
In his later years at JSC per the 1998 JSC phonebook Vern was deputy manager to Frank Benz in the Manufacturing, Materials and Process Technology Division/EM. Continue to keep Vern's wife Sylvia and their family in your prayers at this sad time of loss.
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Snap a Selfie With an Astronaut, Win a Prize!
- This Thursday: Dare to be Aware
- National Cybersecurity Awareness Month - Organizations/Social
- Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Meeting - Elections
- Famous Hispanic-Americans: General Elwood Quesada
- Bring Your Photos to the Safety and Health Fair
- EA Reunion 2014
- Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society Meeting
- JSC Lunarfins SCUBA Club Meeting
- ABWA Energy Express Network - Jobs and Training
- Job Opportunities - Community
- Astronomy Day at George Observatory ... and More |  |
| Headlines - Snap a Selfie With an Astronaut, Win a Prize!
In the Buildings 3 and 11 cafés, an iSnap kiosk has been placed with cutouts of astronauts Luca Parmitano and Chris Cassidy. Parmitano and Cassidy are in Hawaii this week preparing for the Ironman Triathlon. Use the kiosk to send some encouragement and snap a selfie with the astronauts. Parmitano and Cassidy will choose their favorite pictures, and these winners will be selected for a very special NASA prize! Make sure to use the hashtag #TeamNasa. No social media? No problem! - This Thursday: Dare to be Aware
Thursday, Oct. 9, is Safety and Health Day. JSC Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa kicks things off in Teague Auditorium at 9 a.m., followed by practicing clinical nutritionist and leadership skills educator Dr. Aaron Chapa, who will discuss "Find Your Footing—How to See Through the Clutter." The talk will center on how to acquire habits that eliminate brain fog, triple energy and give you a reason to live at your highest level. More than 70 exhibits will open at 10 a.m. in the pond and mall area, including a DWI simulator and distracted driving simulator. Cooking and exercise demonstrations will also be held. The event closes with the Health Run/Walk at 4 p.m. at the Gilruth Center. Register here now. Challenge your org to win the George Award. Named in honor of former JSC Director George Abbey, it will be given to the directorate with the highest percentage participation in Safety and Health Day Space Race activities! - National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Cybersecurity Tip for Today: STOP, THINK, CONNECT Strengthen your computer's defenses. Keep all software (including your Web browser) current with automatic updating (or follow the directions of Information Technology staff). Install legitimate antivirus and antispyware software. Organizations/Social - Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Meeting - Elections
All JSC team members (government, contractor, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] and non-LGBT allies) are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) monthly meeting Wednesday, Oct. 8, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 1, Room 457A. This month we will be holding an election for our ERG co-chair, so come on over an cast a vote! We'll also be finalizing plans for a JSC panel discussion to be held on the 17th this month in conjunction with National Coming Out Day. Last but not least is the unveiling of our new logo. Please join us to help, meet others and network. For more information about our group, including how to become involved or join our distribution list, contact any listed Out & Allied member on our SharePoint site. - Famous Hispanic-Americans: General Elwood Quesada
Elwood Richard Quesada was born in Washington, D.C., in 1904 to an Irish-American mother and a Spanish father. In 1924, Quesada enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was instrumental in developing many of the principles of tactical air-ground warfare. His innovations allowed for direct ground communication with overhead fighter-bombers. Besides reducing friendly-fire incidents, such tactics allowed attacking ground troops to use close air support with greater precision and speed. These improved tactics enormously expanded the contributions of tactical airpower to the Allied defeat of Germany on the Western Front. Quesada retired in 1947 as a Lieutenant General, and later went on to serve as executive for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation from 1953 to 1955. In 1957, he became President Dwight D. Eisenhower's special advisor for aviation, leading to his appointment as the first administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration from 1959 to 1961. Read more about him at the link below. - Bring Your Photos to the Safety and Health Fair
The JSC Safety and Health Action Team (JSAT) is hosting the "Why I Work Safely" photo-laminating booth on Thursday, Oct. 9, for JSC Safety and Health Day. Don't forget to bring a photo of the reason you work safely (family, pets, sports car, boat, motorcycle, etc.) and we will laminate it for display on your lanyard. Do you always forget to bring a picture with you? You can email your photo ahead of time and then stop by the JSAT booth on Safety and Health Day to complete the emergency contact information and pick up your "Why I Work Safely" badge. Emailed photos will be accepted through close of business Oct. 8. Show everyone your reason(s) for working safely! Note: Please trim photos to 2 inches wide by 2.5 inches in length. Scanned photos work well, too. - EA Reunion 2014
Former employees of the Engineering Directorate, long known as the Engineering and Development Directorate, are holding a reunion at the Gilruth Center on Saturday, Oct. 18, from 12:30 to 5 p.m. They would like to extend an invitation to current employees, colleagues and family members to join them and reunite with veterans of the Engineering Directorate. Speakers will be former directors of Engineering. Heavy hors d-oeuvres will be served. Tickets are $16 and may be purchased online. Registration ends today, Oct. 6. Additionally, many organizations are having division- or office-level gatherings Friday or Saturday evening. Check the website above for additional information. Event Date: Saturday, October 18, 2014 Event Start Time:12:30 PM Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Gilruth Center
Add to Calendar
Dianne Milner x31206
[top] - Johnson Space Center Astronomy Society Meeting
Our October meeting will feature Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador Annie Wargetz, who will talk about NASA's upcoming Orion Exploration Flight Test-1. Come join us to get the early scoop on the mission before it launches in December. Our big fall trip to our dark site at Ft. McKavitt will be discussed, as well as upcoming local star parties. Other meeting topics include "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing, and the novice question-and-answer session. Membership to the JSC Astronomy Society is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no bylaws—you just show up to our meeting. After you join us, you'll have access to our loaner telescope program to try your hand at observing without having to buy your own telescope first, including our educational DVD library with hundreds of learning choices. Best of all, it's FREE! - JSC Lunarfins SCUBA Club Meeting
Ever have dinner at the Kemah Aquarium and wonder what goes on behind the scenes to maintain the marine life and systems? Now's your chance to find out! Join the JSC SCUBA club Oct. 8 to hear our speaker, Greg Cowart, pro diver at the Kemah Aquarium restaurant. Cowart has been diving for 30 years and does ALL the diving for the aquarium; feeding and cleaning; as well as acting in the Christmas and Easter shows. It will be a great presentation. Join club members after the meeting at Mario's restaurant in Seabrook to enjoy a late dinner or snack and get to know other JSC divers. - ABWA Energy Express Network
Join us to discover the benefits of the American Business Women's Association (ABWA). In these challenging times, professionals are searching for a place to belong, a place to connect and a place to learn and grow. Whether you are a busy corporate professional, business owner, individual, student or retiree looking for a second career, ABWA is the place to find the essential elements of business knowledge and community as defined by Peter Block: belonging, conversing, convening, achievement and expectations. Build your network today so support is there when you need it. The $30 meeting fee includes a light-fare meal and speaker. Jobs and Training - Job Opportunities
Where do I find job opportunities? To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. Lateral reassignment and rotation opportunities are posted in the Workforce Transition Tool. To access, click: HR Portal > Employees > Workforce Transition > Workforce Transition Tool. These opportunities do not possess known promotion potential; therefore, employees can only see positions at or below their current grade level. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies or reassignment opportunities, please call your HR representative. Community - Astronomy Day at George Observatory ... and More
Staff our JSC exhibit at the George Observatory's 2014 Astronomy Day on Saturday, Nov. 8, from 2 to 7 p.m. Share your knowledge of NASA activities with the public. Sign up in V-CORPs! The George Observatory is located in the Brazos Bend State Park. Here are more opportunities to volunteer at other events: IASP Virtual Symposium – At Space Center Houston (SCH) during the next few weeks. Speakers need for several topics. SCH is looking for a speaker to talk Commercial Spaceflight on Oct. 16. The topic for Oct. 23 is Robotics and the Curiosity Rover. IASP Student Symposium – The culminating event at SCH, where scores of students will be attending in person. There's a great need for mentors with various backgrounds to help guide students as they design and develop projects. Nov. 6 to 7. Seward Schools After School Rocketry – Cool program for 2nd through 4th graders learning about rockets. The schools are in Nebraska, but the volunteer will SKYPE in to chat with these students. Oct. 21 is one of several possible dates that will work. SCH Exploration Academy – Another series of events by our Education partners at SCH. Here are the topics/dates that you could help with: Oct. 14, 15 - Atmosphere/Gas Science; and Nov. 11, 12, 13 – Renewable Energy. | |
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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
Monday – October 6, 2014
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Tomorrow morning Reid Wiseman and Alex Gerst will venture outside the space station for a six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk. The astronauts will move a failed cooling pump from temporary to long-term storage on the station's truss. They also will install a new relay system that will provide backup power options to the mobile transporter, which moves the large robotic arm around the outside of the space station. Watch live on NASA TV, www.nasa.gov/ntv, or on the NASA app on your smartphone. If you can't watch live, follow along on the @Space_Station Twitter. Coverage begins at 6 am CT. HEADLINES AND LEADS
Stowage of Failed Pump Module Highlights U.S. Spacewalk on Tuesday
Ben Evans – AmericaSpace
Expedition 41 astronauts Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) will step outside the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow (Tuesday, 7 October) for 6.5 hours to move a failed ammonia cooling pump module from temporary to long-term storage and install a new Relay Assembly to provide power redundancy for the railroad-like Mobile Transporter (MT), along which the 57.7-foot-long (17.4-meter) Canadarm2 robotic arm traverses between its various work sites. Tuesday's EVA-27 will be followed on Wednesday, 15 October by EVA-28—featuring Wiseman and Expedition 41 crewmate Barry "Butch" Wilmore—to replace a Sequential Shunt Unit (SSU) on the starboard truss, following its failure back in May, as well as relocating external cameras in support of next year's arrival of the first International Docking Adapters (IDAs) for the long-awaited Commercial Crew vehicles.
IAC2014 Day Four Opens with Diverse Views on the Post-ISS Future
Bigelow Aerospace plans to make being an astronaut less special because there will be so many of them promised the company's Washington representative Mike Gold. Gold was one of the panelists at a session of the 2014 International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) today (October 2) on what's next after the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA Eyes Crew Deep Sleep Option for Mars Mission
A NASA-backed study explores an innovative way to dramatically cut the cost of a human expedition to Mars -- put the crew in stasis.
Russia May Send Repeat Mission to Martian Moon Phobos in 2023
RIA Novosti
Russia may attempt to repeat its mission to Mars' moon Phobos in 2023, Lev Zeleny, the head of the Russian Space Research Institute told RIA Novosti Friday.
Russia postpones automatic lunar exploration program until 2018
Russian scientists will focus on Moon and Mars exploration and repeat the Phobos-Grunt mission in the next decade
ITAR-TASS, Russian News Agency
Russia has postponed the start of its automatic lunar exploration program from 2016 until 2018, Space Research Institute Director Lev Zelyony said on Friday.
Four Potential Mars Landing Sites Revealed for Europe's ExoMars Rover
European space officials are eyeing four possible landing sites on Mars for a life-seeking rover set to launch toward the Red Planet in 2018.
Rosetta Sees Jets Blast from Comet's 'Neck'
Getting up-close and personal with a comet certainly has its perks, and this is one of them. Orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a distance of only 16 miles (26 kilometers), the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft imaged several discreet jets blasting from the lumpy comet's 'neck.'
Our Spaceflight Heritage: Sputnik 1 launches the space age
History was made on Oct. 4, 1957. More than fifty years ago, the U.S.S.R. launched its first satellite, Sputnik 1, and with it, the Space Age. The launching of the beach ball sized satellite spurred a revolutionary new era of exploration and sparked a historic competition between the United States and the U.S.S.R. This ultimately paved the way for new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. Sputnik 1 captured the world's attention and incited public fears that this launch signified the Russians were capable of launching nuclear weapons – directly onto U.S. soil.
Luke Wilson: How I Made My Award-Winning Short Film Satellite Beach
Emily Zemler - TIME
The actor opens up on writing, co-directing and starring in an evocative new short film
In the fall of 2012, the actor Luke Wilson and a small film crew trailed the Space Shuttle Endeavor as it moved through the Los Angeles streets to the California Science Center. Wilson, along with his brother Andrew, shot largely improvised footage of a character named Warren Flowers (played by Wilson) who believes he is in charge of the shuttle's journey; the footage became a 20-minute evocative short film called Satellite Beach (now available to purchase online). For Wilson, the experience allowed him the chance to make a film in a different way and to explore space travel, a subject he says he finds compelling.
UrtheCast says it will be largest commercial ISS user
Officials with Canadian Earth observation company UrtheCast, which owns two cameras on the International Space Station's Russian service module, outlined plans this week to install a remote sensing camera and a radar imaging payload on the outpost's U.S.-owned Tranquility module in 2017.
European Re-entry Demonstrator Ready for November Test Flight
Jeff Foust – Space News
An experimental European Space Agency spacecraft designed to test re-entry technologies for future reusable vehicles is on track for launch in November.
How the Ansari X Prize Altered the Trajectory of Human Spaceflight
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides - Scientific American
Looking up into the bright Mojave sky in 2004, I strained to keep my eyes on the tiny spaceship 50,000 feet up. "Three, two, one… release, release, release!" came the call over the loudspeakers.
Dream Chaser Space Plane to Launch From the Stratosphere
Stratolaunch Systems is considering buying a smaller three-person version of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane to fly paying passengers into orbit.
COMPLETE STORIES
Stowage of Failed Pump Module Highlights U.S. Spacewalk on Tuesday
Ben Evans – AmericaSpace
Expedition 41 astronauts Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency (ESA) will step outside the International Space Station (ISS) tomorrow (Tuesday, 7 October) for 6.5 hours to move a failed ammonia cooling pump module from temporary to long-term storage and install a new Relay Assembly to provide power redundancy for the railroad-like Mobile Transporter (MT), along which the 57.7-foot-long (17.4-meter) Canadarm2 robotic arm traverses between its various work sites. Tuesday's EVA-27 will be followed on Wednesday, 15 October by EVA-28—featuring Wiseman and Expedition 41 crewmate Barry "Butch" Wilmore—to replace a Sequential Shunt Unit (SSU) on the starboard truss, following its failure back in May, as well as relocating external cameras in support of next year's arrival of the first International Docking Adapters (IDAs) for the long-awaited Commercial Crew vehicles.
The requirement for EVA-27 came about following last December's automatic shutdown of a pump module on one of the station's two ammonia coolant loops. Suspicion centered upon the improper functionality of a regulating flow control valve inside the pump module and NASA engineers worked quickly to transfer certain systems over to the second loop and power down a number of non-critical elements of the Harmony node and Europe's Columbus and Japan's Kibo laboratory modules. Since the valve itself was inaccessible to spacewalkers, the sole option was to remove the entire pump module from its location on the S-1 truss and replace it, which Expedition 38 astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins did during the 5.5-hour EVA-24 on 21 December and the 7.5-hour EVA-25 last Christmas Eve.
As intended, the failed pump module was moved from the S-1 truss and attached to a robotically-controlled stowage location, known as the Payload Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) Accommodation (POA) on the station's Mobile Base System (MBS). This was always expected to be a temporary location, with forward plans to stage another EVA—originally scheduled for August 2014, during Expedition 40, but delayed due to problems with EMU Long Life Batteries (LLBs)—to move the failed pump module for permanent storage at External Stowage Platform (ESP)-2, which lies on the starboard side of the U.S. Destiny laboratory module, close to the Quest airlock.
Although they have been in space for over four months, both Wiseman and Gerst are on their first career space missions and neither has performed an EVA before, making them the first all-rookie ISS spacewalking duo since Expedition 17 cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko in July 2008. From the perspective of spacewalkers utilizing U.S.-built Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), it has been even longer. Not since shuttle mission STS-51 in September 1993 and the EVA by Carl Walz and Jim Newman have two "rookie" spacefarers embarked on their first spacewalk together. Tuesday's EVA-27 will also make Gerst only the third German citizen—after his countrymen Thomas Reiter and Hans Schlegel—to participate in a spacewalk.
However, as described in an EVA-27 press briefing on Friday, 3 October, Space Station Integration Operations Manager Kenny Todd noted that both Wiseman and Gerst have trained extensively for their tasks in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, in March, only weeks before their 28 May launch to the space station aboard Soyuz TMA-13M.
Final preparations for Tuesday's spacewalk will begin at 3:15 a.m. EDT, when Wiseman and Gerst will jump onto a well-trodden path of 60 minutes of pre-breathing on masks, during which time the Quest airlock's inner "equipment lock" will be depressed from its "ambient" 14.7 psi down to 10.2 psi. Their next step will be the process of donning and purging their bulky Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs)—assisted by Wilmore, who arrived at the station aboard Soyuz TMA-14M late 25 September and will serve as EVA-27's "Intravehicular" (IV) crewman—after which the atmosphere will be repressurized to 14.7 psi. Wiseman and Gerst will then enter a nominal pre-breathing period, lasting about 50 minutes, followed by another 50 minutes of In-Suit Light Exercise (ISLE). The latter protocol was first trialed on the STS-134 shuttle mission in May 2011 and will involve the spacewalkers flexing their knees for about four minutes, resting for one minute, then repeating over and over until the 50 minutes are up. ISLE is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. EDT serves to remove nitrogen from their blood streams in a much shorter timeframe.
An hour before EVA-27's scheduled 8:15 a.m. EDT start time, the fully-suited astronauts and their equipment will be transferred into Quest's outer "crew lock" and crewmates Wilmore and Expedition 41 Commander Max Surayev will confirm the closure of hatches between the two locks. Depressurization will be briefly halted at 5 psi for standard leak checks, after which the process will resume and continue until the crew lock is at conditions of near-vacuum. EVA-27 will officially get underway when Wiseman and Gerst transfer their space suits' critical life-support utilities onto internal battery power.
According to EVA-27 Spacewalk Officer Jaclyn Kagey, Wiseman (designated "EV1", with red stripes on the legs of his suit for identification) will be first to leave the airlock, followed by Gerst ("EV2", clad in a pure-white suit), who will hand out equipment bags for the Mobile Transporter (MT) Relay Assembly (MTRA) replacement task, later in EVA-27. As is customary in the opening minutes of all spacewalks, the astronauts will pause to check each other's suits and safety tethers, before parting on their respective tasks. Gerst will head to the Starboard Crew and Equipment Translation Aid (CETA) to temporarily stow the MTRA bags.
The first goal of the spacewalk will be the permanent stowage of the failed pump module, almost ten months after Mastracchio and Hopkins initially transferred it from the S-1 truss to the temporary POA location. As Gerst wraps up his first task, Wiseman will head to ESP-2 to prepare the installation site, stowing equipment bags and opening the thermal cover to accept the 780-pound (350 kg) pump module. Elsewhere, Gerst will translate to the Port CETA to retrieve the Articulating Portable Foot Restraint (APFR), which he will move to the Canadarm2 installation point at the interface between the station's central S-0 truss and port-side P-1 truss. He will install the APFR onto the end of Canadarm2—controlled by Butch Wilmore from workstations inside the multi-windowed cupola—and after exchanging safety tethers will ingress the foot restraint.
In the meantime, Wiseman will transfer the two MTRA equipment bags (one of which will hold the MTRA itself, whilst the other will hold four installation cables) out to the work site on the space-facing (or "zenith") side of the MT to prepare for this task. He will then relocate himself to Gerst's safety tether, gather it and move it to ESP-2.
Riding Canadarm2, Gerst will remove the failed pump module from the POA and rotate it through 180 degrees to get it to the correct installation orientation. Wilmore will then "fly" him to join Wiseman at ESP-2, who will provide an extra pair of eyes to monitor the maneuver to insert the pump module into its permanent stowage location. Halfway in, the team will pause to allow Wiseman to remove the Adjustable Grapple Bar (AGB)—which has been used as a grapple fixture to secure the pump module to the POA for the last ten months—after which they will drive it fully into place. The spacewalkers will then stow the AGB onto a spare ORU on ESP-2 and prepare for their next tasks.
Gerst's assignment is to replace a failed light at External Camera Port 13, on the starboard side of the U.S. Destiny laboratory module. "That light has one of two bulbs currently failed in it," explained Scott Stover, who will serve as Lead Flight Director for EVA-27, "and it's one of our primary lights that we use for the visiting vehicles…and also for external robotics. We want to go out and replace that light before the second bulb fails." Carrying the spare light in an equipment bag, Gerst will be flown by Wilmore on Canadarm2 to the work site, where he will remove the old light, fit the new one and secure it with a single bolt and electrical connector.
Elsewhere, Wiseman will clean up the ESP-2 location and close the thermal cover, then move the pump module equipment bags back to the Quest airlock, before translating to the MTRA site on the zenith face of the MT. This location promises to afford him a spectacular perspective "forward", over much of the U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS), although there will be little time to admire the view. Using a Pistol Grip Tool (PGT), Wiseman will install the MTRA, which provides backup power options for the MT, and route and mate electrical cables to its Earth-facing (or "nadir") surface.
As EVA-27 enters its homestretch, Gerst will return to ESP-2 to "clean up" Canadarm2, swapping back his safety tethers, removing the APFR and releasing himself from the robotic arm. He will then translate back to the airlock to stow the failed External Camera Port 13 light, then join Wiseman at the MTRA work site. With Wiseman working the port side and Gerst the starboard side, the two men will route cables to the MT nadir, then return to the zenith location and secure all wire ties to keep them out of the Mobile Transporter's translation path. With this objective completed, they will clean up their equipment and head back to the airlock after about six hours and 30 minutes.
According to Kenny Todd in his introductory remarks, EVA-27 marks the first in a salvo of U.S. spacewalks which will run into the spring and summer of 2015. Mr. Todd stressed that the two contingency EVAs last December and also a third unplanned spacewalk in April 2014 by Expedition 39's Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson "had left some things out there that we knew we wanted put back in proper order". He added that there was an urgent need to tend to power-related issues and improve the station's fault-tolerant capability, ahead of several more complex EVAs next year.
Current plans call for two U.S. spacewalks in January 2015 by Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts, two others in April and June and a further pair in August to route cables and utilities in support of the relocation of the Leonardo Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) and the Pressurized Mating Adapter (PMA)-3. The names of the spacewalkers for the April, June and August EVAs have yet to be announced, but crew members rotating in and out of the USOS during this period include U.S. astronauts Virts, Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren, Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti and Japan's Kimiya Yui. These EVAs will lay the groundwork for the delivery of two International Docking Adapters (IDAs) in support of Boeing's CST-100 and SpaceX's Dragon V2 Commercial Crew vehicles. The Leonardo PMM will be robotically transferred in July 2015 from the nadir port of the Unity node to the forward port of the Tranquility node, whilst PMA-3 will be moved in late August from its current berth on Tranquility to the zenith port of the Harmony node for Commercial Crew operations.
IAC2014 Day Four Opens with Diverse Views on the Post-ISS Future
Bigelow Aerospace plans to make being an astronaut less special because there will be so many of them promised the company's Washington representative Mike Gold. Gold was one of the panelists at a session of the 2014 International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) today (October 2) on what's next after the International Space Station (ISS).
As has been typical at this IAC, top level representatives of Russia and China are not here to participate in plenary sessions because of visa issues, but others from those countries were able to attend to present papers in technical sessions. In this case, Zhao Yuqi of China's Manned Spaceflight Agency was absent from this post-ISS plenary. Nonetheless, the panel provided a broad array of viewpoints, from Gold's private sector perspective, to Bill Gerstenmaier from NASA, to Hansjörg Dittus from the German space agency DLR, to German former astronaut Ernst Messerschmid, currently a professor at the Universität Stuttgart.
If there was one message from all of them it was that the International Space Station (ISS), while an outstanding success with tremendous potential, will be one-of-a-kind.
Dittus made a case for a modular approach to future space facilities where the modules are not linked together as they are in ISS. He advocates a separation of tasks in separate modules to avoid complex international agreements and technical interfaces. He also thinks the modules should be equipped as observatories, especially for earth remote sensing, not as laboratories.
The panelists were asked if they were told to build a space station again, would they build another ISS. Gerstenmaier, who heads NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, said that if someone gave him the money to build another low Earth orbit (LEO) space station "I'd give it back." His message was that NASA and its ISS partners are demonstrating that there is a reason for others – the private sector – to go there, but another government-sponsored LEO space station is "not what we need to do." Instead "we're going to explore."
Messerschmid outlined technologies that will enable exploration, advocating "To Mars, together."
Gold, who can be counted on for pithy observations replete with references to Star Trek, did not disappoint. Among his major messages was that just as countries need to work together, so do companies. He argued against pitting "new space" against "old space" because "the pie is too small." Borrowing a quote from Benjamin Franklin, he said "if we don't hang together, we will surely hang separately." Later, when questions turned to the appropriate degree of risk taking for human spaceflight programs, he quoted "a famous Canadian, William Shatner" who said in his role as Captain Kirk of the Federation Starship Enterprise "Risk? It's why we're here." Gold went on to talk about financial risk, and noted that a Russian colleague ruefully commented to him that Russian billionaires buy yachts while American billionaires create space companies.
Regarding risk, Gerstenmaier explained the three-tier approach NASA is using to describe the steps away from Earth: Earth Reliant in LEO where crews can return home in hours; Proving Ground in cis-lunar space where getting home requires many days; and Earth Independent when the tie to Earth is broken. He said NASA was not ready from a risk standpoint to send crews to an asteroid in its native orbit (as President Obama initially directed), but the Asteroid Retrieval Mission, where the crews will be in the Proving Ground region, is the right step – not too much risk, nor too little.
In a philosophical moment, Gerstenmaier talked about how ISS crew members landing in Kazakhstan say they are "home" no matter where on Earth they are from. "We have changed the definition of home," he said, where "home" is Earth. He said his vision is that someday LEO or cis-lunar space will be "home."
In response to a question about whether there is a future for young people to be astronauts, Gold said "I want to see a day when being an astronaut is something you do to make a living," not an elite profession. Bigelow is committed to making astronauts "not special" because there will be so many of them and from all over the world. He noted that right now there are six seats for ISS crews, three of which are occupied by Russians, two by Americans, and one by other countries. "One seat for all the other countries?" Bigelow "is determined to change that," he exclaimed.
Gerstenmaier took a different tack, stressing that one does not need to be an astronaut. What is important is being part of a high performing team: "If you're lucky, you get to be at the pointy end of the rocket, but it is just as rewarding to be one of the engineers sitting in the back."
The question of cooperating with China arose as it often does in these settings. Gerstenmaier pointed out that under current law NASA cannot discuss human space cooperation with China, but expressed hope that the situation may change in the future. Gold agreed that if mutual benefit can be shown, the China door may open, but for now China is the "third rail" of export control politics. Although changes are being made to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), they do not apply to China, he pointed out.
NASA Eyes Crew Deep Sleep Option for Mars Mission
A NASA-backed study explores an innovative way to dramatically cut the cost of a human expedition to Mars -- put the crew in stasis.
The deep sleep, called torpor, would reduce astronauts' metabolic functions with existing medical procedures. Torpor also can occur naturally in cases of hypothermia.
"Therapeutic torpor has been around in theory since the 1980s and really since 2003 has been a staple for critical care trauma patients in hospitals," aerospace engineer Mark Schaffer, with SpaceWorks Enterprises in Atlanta, said at the International Astronomical Congress in Toronto this week. "Protocols exist in most major medical centers for inducing therapeutic hypothermia on patients to essentially keep them alive until they can get the kind of treatment that they need."
Coupled with intravenous feeding, a crew could be put in hibernation for the transit time to Mars, which under the best-case scenario would take 180 days one-way.
So far, the duration of a patient's time in torpor state has been limited to about one week.
"We haven't had the need to keep someone in (therapeutic torpor) for longer than seven days," Schaffer said. "For human Mars missions, we need to push that to 90 days, 180 days. Those are the types of mission flight times we're talking about."
Economically, the payoff looks impressive. Crews can live inside smaller ships with fewer amenities like galleys, exercise gear and of course water, food and clothing. One design includes a spinning habitat to provide a low-gravity environment to help offset bone and muscle loss.
SpaceWorks' study, which was funded by NASA, shows a five-fold reduction in the amount of pressurized volume need for a hibernating crew and a three-fold reduction in the total amount of mass required, including consumables like food and water.
Overall, putting a crew in stasis cuts the baseline mission requirements from about 400 tons to about 220 tons.
"That's more than one heavy-lift launch vehicle," Schaffer said.
The study looked at a two-part system for putting Mars-bound astronauts in stasis and bringing them out. The cooling would be done through an internasal system, which Schaffer admits is "not very comfortable," but inhaling a coolant has several advantages over reducing body temperatures with external cooling pads. Cooled from the outside, the body is more susceptible to shivering and possible tissue damage, Schaffer notes.
The so-called RhinoChill System lowers body temperature about 1 degree Fahrenheit per hour. Reaching torpor state -- between 89 degrees and 93 degrees Fahrenheit -- takes about six hours.
Simply stopping the flow of coolant will bring a person out of stasis, though the SpaceWorks study included rewarming pads as a backup and to speed up the waking process in case of an emergency.
An alternative to having the whole crew in stasis is to have one person awake for two to three days, then hibernate for 14 days. By staggering the shifts, no one person would be in stasis for more than 14 days at a time and one crewmember would be awake to monitor the ship, conduct science experiments and handle maintenance chores.
Schaffer also points to a potential psychological advantage to stasis.
"Rather than being stuck in a can for 180 days, you go to sleep, you wake up and you're there," he said.
More research is needed to assure prolonged stasis is safe, but initial results are promising, Schaffer added.
"We have not seen any show-stoppers on the medical side or on the engineering side," he said.
Russia May Send Repeat Mission to Martian Moon Phobos in 2023
RIA Novosti
Russia may attempt to repeat its mission to Mars' moon Phobos in 2023, Lev Zeleny, the head of the Russian Space Research Institute told RIA Novosti Friday.
The Russian-led mission Phobos-Grunt (or Fobos-Grunt) was launched on November 9, 2011 but failed to leave near-Earth orbit, partially burnt up in the atmosphere, and its remains fell into the Pacific Ocean.
"For now, the second Phobos-Grunt is being planned within the framework of the Mars-Grunt project. Maybe we will work on it with Europe. A pilot project is under development right now. I do not rule out that the spacecraft will be manufactured by [Russian aerospace company] NPO Lavochkin," Zeleny said.
"If everything goes according to our plan, the mission could be launched in 2023," the head of the institute added.
Phobos-Grunt was the first Russian-led interplanetary mission since 1996. It was designed to become the first spacecraft to return a macroscopic sample from an extraterrestrial body since Luna 24 in 1976.
Russia postpones automatic lunar exploration program until 2018
Russian scientists will focus on Moon and Mars exploration and repeat the Phobos-Grunt mission in the next decade
ITAR-TASS, Russian News Agency
Russia has postponed the start of its automatic lunar exploration program from 2016 until 2018, Space Research Institute Director Lev Zelyony said on Friday.
"They [the timelines] have been changed from 2016 to 2018. These are Luna Globe and orbiting Luna [program]," he said, adding that there should be no further delays.
"We want to implement three lunar projects this decade: Luna-25, Luna-26 and Luna-27," he said.
Zelyony said these timelines have been set in the Federal Space Program proposed by the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).
Russian scientists will focus on Moon and Mars exploration and repeat the Phobos-Grunt mission in the next decade, Zelyony said earlier.
"The Moon and Mars are our priority for 2016-2025," he said.
The Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in partnership with the European Space Agency will be carrying out two stages of the ExoMars mission in 2016 and 2018. In 2016, Roscosmos is planning to join Europe and Japan in the BepiColombo project.
In 2017, it will orbit the Spektr-RG telescope and send a Russian rover, Luna-Globe, to the Moon in 2019, for the first time in years.
A UV observatory is to be launched in 2020; an orbiting module and a dropship are scheduled to be sent to the Moon in 2012 and 2023, respectively.
After thoroughly testing lunar and Martian technologies, approximately in 2024, Russia, may repeat its Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars' satellite Phobos to collect its soil and bring it back to Earth.
Four Potential Mars Landing Sites Revealed for Europe's ExoMars Rover
European space officials are eyeing four possible landing sites on Mars for a life-seeking rover set to launch toward the Red Planet in 2018.
All of the potential ExoMars rover landing sites are located near the Red Planet's equator, where ancient exposed rocks could reveal clues about the wet past on Mars.
The ExoMars program — a joint effort by the European Space Agency, or ESA, and Russia's Roscosmos space agency — is actually comprised of two missions. A gas-sniffing orbiter with a demonstration lander named Schiaparelli is due to launch in January 2016 and arrive at Mars nine months later. The 660-pound (300 kilograms) rover is scheduled to leave Earth in May 2018 and touch down in January 2019.
The present-day surface of Mars is a hostile place for living organisms, but primitive life may have gained a foothold when the climate was warmer and wetter, between 3.5 billion and 4 billion years ago," Jorge Vago, ESA's ExoMars project scientist, explained in a statement. "Therefore, our landing site should be in an area with ancient rocks where liquid water was once abundant. Our initial assessment clearly identified four landing sites that are best suited to the mission's scientific goals."
The scientific community was asked to propose possible landing sites for the ExoMars rover in December 2013. ESA officials said that there were four clear front-runners of the eight proposals considered during a workshop. Now an ESA-appointed panel has officially recommended those sites — Mawrth Vallis, Oxia Planum, Hypanis Vallis and Aram Dorsum — for further analysis. Those next steps will include simulations to assess the probability of landing success.
The vast rock exposures at two of the possible landing sites — Mawrth Vallis and nearby Oxia Planum — are more than 3.8 billion years old and they're rich in clay, a material that hints that water once flowed over the landscape. The rocks, which have varied compositions, were exposed by erosion only within the last few hundred million years. That's relatively recent compared to the exposure date for other rock layers on Mars, and scientists hope the rocks are still well preserved against damage from harsh radiation and oxidation.
Hypanis Vallis, meanwhile, lies on an area that's thought to be the remnant of an ancient river delta with distinct layers of fine-grained rocks deposited about 3.45 billion years ago. Lastly, the Aram Dorsum area is bisected by a channel surrounded by rocks that are thought to be sediments deposited much like those around the Nile River, according to ESA scientists.
"While all four sites are clearly interesting scientifically, they must also allow for the operational and engineering requirements for safe landing and roving on the surface," Vago added in a statement.
Mission managers hope to make a final decision by 2017.
Rosetta Sees Jets Blast from Comet's 'Neck'
Getting up-close and personal with a comet certainly has its perks, and this is one of them. Orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a distance of only 16 miles (26 kilometers), the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft imaged several discreet jets blasting from the lumpy comet's 'neck.'
As comets race around the solar system, their orbits take them close to the sun where increased solar heating triggers ices locked in their mass to release vapor. In space, frozen water and other volatiles cannot melt into a liquid, so when ices heat up, they turn straight from a solid (ice) to a gas without passing through the liquid phase. This process is known as sublimation.
And this is what Rosetta is seeing in this series of four images taken on Sept. 26 — through solar heating, ices are rapidly sublimating, blasting high-speed gases laced with dust into space.
In this case, the jets are emanating from Churyumov-Gerasimenko's neck, a narrowing of material that connects the comet's two lobes.
The exciting thing about witnessing this dynamic behavior in a cometary nucleus is that this vapor has been locked in a frozen state since the dawn of our solar system. Comets are primordial masses that act as time capsules — their chemical compositions a snapshot of our stellar environment billions of years ago.
So Rosetta is a robotic space archaeologist of sorts. As the mission continues to study the comet, it is gaining an insight to to origins of our sun and its planetary system, potentially even helping us better understand where the chemical building blocks for life originated. And the excitement will continue to grow as we approach Nov. 12, when Rosetta will release its little lander Philae to land on the comet's surface, a feat never before attempted to get even more intimate with comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Our Spaceflight Heritage: Sputnik 1 launches the space age
History was made on Oct. 4, 1957. More than fifty years ago, the U.S.S.R. launched its first satellite, Sputnik 1, and with it, the Space Age. The launching of the beach ball sized satellite spurred a revolutionary new era of exploration and sparked a historic competition between the United States and the U.S.S.R. This ultimately paved the way for new political, military, technological, and scientific developments. Sputnik 1 captured the world's attention and incited public fears that this launch signified the Russians were capable of launching nuclear weapons – directly onto U.S. soil.
Sputnik was developed by the Soviet Union in 1956, after President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced on July 29, 1955 that the United States was planning to launch its first satellite the following year in celebration of the International Year of Geophysics. Sputnik's primary mission was to place a radio transmitter in orbit.
The spacecraft was manufactured by the Soviet Ministry of Radio-Technical Industry under the lead Soviet engineer - Sergei Korolev. In February of 1954, he lobbied the Kremlin with his proposal stating that: "the satellite is an inevitable stage of the path of rocket development, which would make possible interplanetary travel."
Sputnik 1 measured a mere twenty-three inches (58 cm) in diameter, weighed 184 pounds (83 kg) and had four external radio antennas attached to it, in order to broadcast radio pulses. Fully pressurized with nitrogen, the spacecraft continued orbiting the Earth every 98 minutes along an elliptical path. The mission took 92 days and 1,440 orbits to complete.
The launch of Sputnik 1 changed the way that the world viewed the Soviet Union, and caught the United States completely off-guard. With the failures of two Vanguard launches behind them, the U.S. began work on the Explorer project. By the time the Americans launched Explorer 1 on Jan. 31, 1958, the Soviets had already launched Sputnik II, which carried a dog named Laika to orbit.
The U.S.S.R.'s launch of Sputnik is a direct link to the formation of NASA. The following year, in July 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, officially creating the Space Agency by combining the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and other government agencies.
Luke Wilson: How I Made My Award-Winning Short Film Satellite Beach
Emily Zemler - TIME
The actor opens up on writing, co-directing and starring in an evocative new short film
In the fall of 2012, the actor Luke Wilson and a small film crew trailed the Space Shuttle Endeavor as it moved through the Los Angeles streets to the California Science Center. Wilson, along with his brother Andrew, shot largely improvised footage of a character named Warren Flowers (played by Wilson) who believes he is in charge of the shuttle's journey; the footage became a 20-minute evocative short film called Satellite Beach (now available to purchase online). For Wilson, the experience allowed him the chance to make a film in a different way and to explore space travel, a subject he says he finds compelling.
A hit at festivals, where it's snapped up a string of awards, Satellite Beach is an unusual film, and one that deftly twists the viewer's expectations while showcasing what it was like to drive a space shuttle through LA's busy streets.
Wilson spoke with TIME about how this project materialized, how it challenged him as an actor, and why it's set him and Andrew up to direct an upcoming feature film.
TIME: Where did you get the inspiration for this short film?
Luke Wilson: There was an article on Sunday in the LA Times about the man who was in charge of the moving of the Space Shuttle Endeavor. He said a couple of interesting things, like that he went to bed thinking about it and he woke up thinking about it. He drove the route almost daily. He was obsessed with it. I thought it would be interesting to do a guy that thought he was in charge of it, but turns out not to be.
So did the people moving the shuttle know you were making this movie around them?
We just filmed here and there. There would be people that didn't notice me; there would people who thought I was an official. And then there would be people that recognized me. If I was going to ask guys to move on a roof or something, I'd say, "We're doing a little movie. Do you guys mind if I ask you to get down from there?" Everybody was into it. It reminded me of going to the Rose Bowl Parade as a kid, where we were in these parts of the city, and everyone was in a good mood, and there was a going-with-the-flow attitude.
Did you write the story beforehand, or just improvise as you went?
I worked it out all as I did it. I had the idea for a few scenes, and had the idea of how it would start and what would going on — knowing that gradually this guy would unravel, and people would see him unravel. Initially, the ending was supposed to be a gala at the California Science Center, and you think this guy is in charge until the end, when he can't get into the gala. And then the transporter that moved the space shuttle broke down the first night, and they had to fix it. I always knew there were would be voiceover, and the voiceover would be dictated by the shots that we got.
That's an interesting way to make a movie.
Yeah, it is. Not that it hasn't been done, but I certainly hadn't done it. And I'd always been interested in certain filmmakers or actors like Dennis Hopper, making experimental films. Or even Andy Warhol. I liked the idea of doing something off-the-cuff. When you've worked on a bunch of projects that have been stuck in development or waiting you think, "Gosh, someday I'd really like to make a movie my way" — which I still haven't gotten to do, but we did get to make this short in this way. But it definitely came about from trying to emulate people I'd read about over the years.
You had directed previously, right?
Yeah, I had directed The Wendell Baker Story. It was this movie I'd written about ten years ago. My brother Andrew and I directed it together like we did with Satellite Beach. I'm not one of those actors who's hell-bent on directing. It just seemed like a way to cut out the middle man. It's hard enough to make a movie and we had a limited amount of time, so I didn't want to have to be explaining to a director what I was trying to do.
As an actor, what's exciting about being in a short film that's largely improvised?
I found it really nerve-wracking! And I'm surprised we didn't get arrested, frankly, as close as we were to the shuttle. We were asking people to move and going up to police and jumping over barricades. When they moved it across the Manchester Bridge they were filming a Super Bowl commercial, and I walked right into the middle of that. I went up to the mayor dressed as the character. I was definitely on edge the whole time, which I think helped. I was waiting to be put in the back of a squad car.
Did it feel like you were playing out some childhood fantasy about space travel at all?
It did. Just growing up, The Right Stuff was a big book and then a big movie. For me and the few friends who made [the movie], it was a huge deal to be around the space shuttle. Everybody was incredibly excited to see it and to be that close to it. It was the kind of thing where we were all elbowing each other and high-fiving each other. Also, getting to get to go Kennedy Space Center in Florida. That, too, was incredible. Just getting to be on that land that is so historic and iconic. We saw the Apollo launch pad. It kept changing the project — to think it just started with an idea from the newspaper and then it became this movie.
You're also in The Skeleton Twins right now. What compelled you about that role?
I was a big fan of both Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader. It was one of those particularly strong SNL classes. I really liked their characters and I knew, having worked with Will Ferrell, that I love working with SNL actors. I watched SNL every Saturday night growing up. My dad would get us revved up when it was coming on in the '70s. So I still feel that way about the show and the people on it.
How does that role play into where you want to be in your career overall?
I always admire people that have a set plan. I really don't. I like to work because I always feel like I'm learning something and I always feel like I'm meeting somebody, whether it's an actor or a crew member, who I want to work with again. I don't really have a set plan and I don't know that you can have a set plan unless you're Brad Pitt, where you can pick and do exactly what you want.
Do you have more movies upcoming?
I have this movie called Ride, which Helen Hunt directed. And then I have this movie called Prison Love that I wrote. We're going to be doing it in the next few months, that Owen [Wilson] is going to be in. I will be directing it with Andrew, my brother. That will be fun to try and do that again, obviously on a larger scale than Satellite Beach — although I feel like Satellite Beach was helpful in terms of directing.
Is there a director you've worked with who has inspired how you want to do it?
Wes Anderson, for sure. I've also always liked what I've read about Clint Eastwood as a director. He's not walking around shouting into a megaphone and wearing an ascot. I like the idea of it being a workmanlike job, and that you are a part of a team. Even though you're in charge, you want people to feel free to contribute.
Wait — have you worked with a director who wore an ascot on set?
I don't think so, but I've definitely worked with a few directors where I've found myself not listening to their direction. I was just imagining them wearing the ascot.
UrtheCast says it will be largest commercial ISS user
Officials with Canadian Earth observation company UrtheCast, which owns two cameras on the International Space Station's Russian service module, outlined plans this week to install a remote sensing camera and a radar imaging payload on the outpost's U.S.-owned Tranquility module in 2017.
Going a step beyond its cameras manually mounted on the Russian part of the space station by cosmonauts on a spacewalk, UrtheCast plans to develop and launch a deployable camera and radar antenna in the trunk of a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship.
After the Dragon supply craft arrives at the complex, the space station's Canadian-built robotics system will detach the instrument package and place it on a vacant docking port on the Tranquility module, also known as Node 3.
"Once the thing is intalled, we have these little gimbals that open up and deploy the two sets of instruments -- both the optical instrument with our own dedicated X-band 1 gigabit per second downlink, and then the radar payload as well," said Wade Larson, president and chief operating officer of UrtheCast.
Larson declined to reveal the cost of the project, but he touted the sensors as the largest purely commercial investment to use the space station platform to date.
The UrtheCast sensor package includes an optical camera capable of shooting still images or video at 40-centimeter, or 15.7-inch, resolution in color. The unit also features a nearly 100-square-foot radar antenna to collect all-weather, day-and-night imagery of Earth in L-band and X-band, Larson said.
"Both of those instruments are utterly unique," Larson said. "Nothing like them has ever flown before in space."
Despite the limitations of the space station's orbit, which does not cover the entire planet and crosses over territory at a different time every day, Larson said simultaneous optical and radar imagery of the ground from the same viewing angle will differentiate UrtheCast from other commercial Earth observation systems.
"We think the information content which comes out of that is going to be enormously of interest to our user community, both institutional and government," Larson said. "Ultimately, our hope is to democratize this data, put it out on a web platform and make it available to everyone in the world, basically for free."
UrtheCast's next-generation Earth observation system also has a miniature pressurized module dubbed the Lightweight UrtheCast NanoRacks Alcove, or LUNA. The module will be accessible from a berthing mechanism on the Tranquility module, allowing astronauts to set up electronics and service the system, according to George Tyc, chief technology officer for Vancouver, British Columbia-based UrtheCast.
"Once it's attached, the astronauts open the hatch from the inside," Tyc said. "They can stuff the electronics into the lockers and plug it all in."
Larson said UrtheCast was a few weeks away from selecting a contractor to build the Earth-viewing suite, which will be designed to operate for at least seven years up to 2024.
One camera owned by UrtheCast attached to the shell of the Russian Zvezda service module is producing commercially-available medium-resolution imagery at 5-meter (16.4-foot) resolution.
UrtheCast's other camera, a high-resolution instrument capable of recording videos, is mounted on a gimbal platform to point toward targets away from the space station's ground path.
Engineers found trouble with the high-resolution camera's pointing mechanism, but Tyc said UrtheCast hopes the sharp-eyed imager will be operational in a few months. In July, UrtheCast said it was manufacturing cables for launch to the space station to solve the problem.
"We're in the final commissioning stage on the high-resolution camera, going through some final checkout on the BPP, the pointing platform, and we'll be entering operations with that in December," Larson said.
UrtheCast and partner NanoRacks, a Houston-based company specializing in supporting commercial research on the space station, discussed the Earth observation project at the 65th Astronautical Congress here.
"I really believe that UrtheCast is poised to totally disrupt the traditional Earth resources multi-billion dollar market as to how you get the data," said Jeffrey Manber, managing director of NanoRacks. "Up to now, it's been assumed that you've got to have a dedicated satellite, you have to have dedicated launchers, you have to have finite power, you have a limited lifespan on the platform. What UrtheCast is doing, in my view, is demonstrating the disruptive power of a permanently manned space station, that you can use that platform as a big satellite with total power, things can be fixed, and launches are not as important once you're up there."
NanoRacks has arranged the delivery of small commercial research experiments to the space station, and the launch of CubeSats from a deployer outside the station's Japanese research lab.
"It's really exciting for me how UrtheCast is putting the International Space Station front and center as a solution and as a tool for the continued growth of the commercial Earth observation market," Manber told reporters.
UrtheCast's imaging sensors will reach the space station as several government-owned Earth science payloads will take up residence on mounting platforms outside the lab's modules and truss backbone.
A NASA instrument designed to measure winds from orbit -- data that could help predict the intensity of hurricanes -- was attached on the station's exterior this week.
In the next few years, NASA will send up at least five more sensors to monitor how human activity is changing the climate, study the ozone layer, detect lightning strikes, measure the structures of forest canopies, and collect data on the link between the water cycle and plant growth.
European Re-entry Demonstrator Ready for November Test Flight
Jeff Foust – Space News
An experimental European Space Agency spacecraft designed to test re-entry technologies for future reusable vehicles is on track for launch in November.
"All lights seem to be green" for the Nov. 18 launch of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) on an Arianespace Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, Giuseppe Rufolo, an ESA engineer working on the program, said in a presentation at the 65th International Astronautical Congress here Oct. 2.
The Vega will boost the IXV on a suborbital trajectory, where it will reach a peak altitude of 450 kilometers before re-entering and splashing down in the central Pacific Ocean. The vehicle will reach speeds of 7.5 kilometers per second during re-entry, similar to a re-entry from low Earth orbit.
The IXV, a lifting body about 5 meters long and weighing nearly 2,000 kilograms, is heavily instrumented to study the vehicle's performance during re-entry, including the use of ceramics and other materials in its thermal protection system.
Thales Alenia Space Italia of Rome is the prime contractor for the IXV, Europe's first atmospheric re-entry vehicle in 16 years. IXV's predecessor, dubbed the Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator, reached an altitude of about 830 kilometers before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
ESA expects to spend roughly 200 million euros ($250 million) on the IXV, including launch.
Although the IXV is designed to test technologies that could be used on future reusable vehicles, Rufolo said this vehicle will fly only once. "It's not considered a waterproof structure, so after splashdown water will get inside," he explained. "There is no reusability requirement for IXV."
The next step after IXV is the Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe (PRIDE), which will develop a small orbital vehicle launched on a Vega to further test reusability technologies, including the ability to land on a runway autonomously.
ESA ministers approved starting work on PRIDE at their 2012 meeting. In another presentation at the conference, Camillo Richiello, a project manager at the Italian aerospace research center CIRA, said PRIDE is in "standby" at the moment, awaiting an updated framework that will come out of this December's ministerial meeting.
How the Ansari X Prize Altered the Trajectory of Human Spaceflight
Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides - Scientific American
Looking up into the bright Mojave sky in 2004, I strained to keep my eyes on the tiny spaceship 50,000 feet up. "Three, two, one… release, release, release!" came the call over the loudspeakers.
I held my breath as I watched the rocket motor ignite and the spaceship ascend on a plume of fire with Mike Melvill at the controls. The contrail started to corkscrew and my heart dropped to my stomach in terror. A few seconds later we got the "all clear" signal that Mike had make it to space and was okay thanks to some cool nerves and some excellent piloting. Mike reminded us that day that there is a reason we call this "rocket science".
Five days later on October 4, 2004, SpaceShipOne flew to space again, this time with Brian Binnie at the controls. With the craft's successful return to Earth, Scaled Composites, its manufacturer, and its funder, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, won the $10 million Ansari X Prize.
Looking back on that historic moment 10 years ago, it's clear that the Ansari X Prize was a huge victory for the winners, but it is also the success story of X Prize Foundation chairman Peter Diamandis and the power of his Steve Jobs-like ability to bend reality to his will.
People told him, "It's not possible," and gave him polite attention while silently thinking that his idea would never work. But sometimes with enough audacity, the extraordinary really is possible. And if anyone has proven that again and again it is Peter.
In May 1996 he boldly announced that the X Prize Foundation would award $10 million to the first team that could build a privately funded spaceship capable of carrying three people on a sub-orbital spaceflight twice within two weeks.
When he made the announcement, X Prize did not have enough money to cover the purse. This is not a strategy for the faint of heart to emulate. It took a relentless, protracted experience of pounding the pavement to fully fund the prize.
Finally in 2002, Anousheh Ansari, a newly minted tech millionaire who dreamed of going into space since she was a young girl in Iran, and her brother-in-law Amir agreed to put up the funds needed to fully fund the prize, which became known as the Ansari X Prize. Anousheh and Peter were birds of a feather; she had also learned the power of believing in her tech company even when no investors would!
Together they would alter the history books and swing the door for commercial human spaceflight wide open.
When I asked Anousheh what she was most proud of about the Ansari X Prize she said, "It is my pride and joy and the best investment our family has ever made. The Ansari X Prize has changed the trajectory of human access to space and kick started a whole new industry for private space companies, accelerating the pace at which we explore our universe."
A year after the Ansari X Prize was won, Eric Anderson of Space Adventures asked Anousheh if she would want to come to Russia for six months to train as a backup for their next customer, Daisuke Enomoto. Feeling one step closer to her childhood dream, she agreed.
Enomoto was medically disqualified on August 21, 2006 and Anousheh was suddenly moved up to prime crew with less than a month's notice for their September 18 Soyuz launch and 10-day space mission, which included a stay on the International Space Station. Even so, she was able to create a website and blog to chronicle her experience that was read by millions around the world, including many young girls in the Middle East.
When asked about her flight Anousheh said, "My flight to space has impacted me on a very deep level and has made me look at life in a whole new light. I hope as people now get a chance to experience this for themselves there will be a whole new generation of space explorers who will become the stewards of our world and make a positive impact on how we live our lives on Earth as well as the way we will extend our species into other parts of this vast and beautiful universe."
Part of the Ansari X Prize legacy is also that it inspired Richard Branson to take action on his dreams of spaceflight as well. At the 2004 Ansari X Prize flights he announced a deal to commercialize the new technology and create the world's first spaceline, Virgin Galactic (Disclosure: My husband, George T. Whitesides is the CEO and President of Virgin Galactic).
Anousheh's sentiments about her time on orbit are exactly what motivated me and my now husband, George, to buy our Virgin Galactic tickets to space in 2005.
In the ensuing years, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic took SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnightOne (SS1′s mother ship) designs and created much larger versions of them. So large that Virgin Galactic had to build a bigger hangar just to fit them.
SpaceShipTwo (aka VSS Enterprise) took her first powered test flight in April 2013 and Virgin is now getting ready for her next few powered test flights this fall.
This is an exciting moment in history, the moment just before Virgin Galactic begins commercial service. It is a good time to pause on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of SpaceShipOne's Ansari X Prize-winning flights and reflect on how far we have come and what an extraordinary endeavor we are embarking on. There is the potential for hundreds of Galactic astronauts to make a real difference as space ambassadors, sharing their experiences in countries around the world, in different languages and with a wide diversity of cultures, religions, professions, orientations and styles, just as Anousheh has.
The Apollo astronauts used to say, "We should have sent a poet…" Well, now we are about to.
(If you would like to apply to get Land Rover to fly you and three of your friends on a Virgin Galactic spaceflight, you have till October 31 to upload your 30-second video explaining why.)
This summer I had the pleasure of leading a workshop for the Virgin Galactic interns. I opened by asking them to share how they came to be interested in spaceflight. MIT senior Barbara Schloss said that she had been inspired by seeing the Ansari X Prize flights as a kid.
"Being in Mojave at 11 years old to watch this historic launch definitely influenced me," she said. "I was so excited about it that I had SpaceShipOne and WhiteKnightOne painted on my closet doors at home. I knew that it was a smaller company without much space background that had pulled off such an incredible feat, so I figured if they could do it, why not me? I determined that I wanted to be an aerospace engineer and now I am a senior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying Aerospace Engineering."
I really look forward to the impact that we can have on millions of kids around the planet when SpaceShipTwo starts flying to space. I can't wait to inspire them to dream big, to not be daunted by "no's" and hopefully also to do the work required to never give up, until they too have done the impossible. Hopefully we will inspire the next Peter Diamandis, Anousheh Ansari or Barbara Schloss. If so, I can't wait to meet them in ten years when they start their first space internship.
Dream Chaser Space Plane to Launch From the Stratosphere
Stratolaunch Systems is considering buying a smaller three-person version of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane to fly paying passengers into orbit.
The company, backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is halfway through construction of the world's biggest airplane.
"It's a monster," Stratolaunch executive director Chuck Beames said at the International Astronomical Congress in Toronto.
With a wingspan of 385 feet and six 747-class engines, the airplane is designed to serve as an airborne launch pad for sending satellites — and eventually people — into orbit. A debut test flight is expected in 2018.
Both satellites and passenger spaceships would be released from the plane at an altitude of about 30,000 feet, then ignite their own rocket motors to reach orbit.
The Dream Chaser, which Sierra Nevada has been developing in partnership with NASA, is a winged vehicle that resembles a space shuttle orbiter. NASA bypassed Sierra Nevada for its fourth and final round of development funds and flight contracts, though the company is challenging the decision. The Government Accountability Office is expected to rule by Jan. 5.
Meanwhile, Sierra Nevada has not been idle. In addition to a year-long study contract for Stratolaunch, the company this week unveiled a new global marketing campaign to flag Dream Chaser vehicles and/or missions for aspiring space nations.
To fly on Stratolaunch, Dream Chaser likely would be scaled down 25 percent, reducing crew size from seven to three (a pilot and two passengers).
"We looked at it and showed that it was completely feasible to do this," said Sierra Nevada senior director Craig Gravelle.
The company declined to specify what upper-stage rocket motor the spaceplane would be paired with to reach orbit. Beames said studies are still underway, including using a more robust engine that could expand crew size to four.
"Dream Chaser seemed to be the logical way to go," Beames later told reporters in Toronto. "We feel pretty good that we have enough analysis there. Paul just hasn't made a decision yet."
Allen is expected to decide on the project in November or December, Beames added.
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