Tomorrow is our annual JSC Health and Safety Day (1/2 day) and Friday is Flex Friday with Monday being Columbus Day! Yahoooooo…
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| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Are You Ready for Safety and Health Day?
- Countdown to PLSS 2.0 Human-in-the-Loop Testing
- Self-Identification of Disability
- Cafés Closed Flex Friday - Oct. 10
- Space Station Research Stands Up to Cancer
- National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
- FLight Controllers AND Flight Instructors Wanted - Organizations/Social
- Today: Domestic Violence Awareness
- Reminder: Tortilla-Making Class Today
- NHHPC Workshop: Innovation Through Co-Development
- Beginners Ballroom Dance: Discount Ends Oct. 10
- Cancer Expert to Discuss Oncology - Oct. 15 - Jobs and Training
- Meet-Me Line to Instant Meeting for Web Moderator
- Join us at the Resolving Issues Open House
- JSC Imagery Online Training - Oct. 14 - Community
- Calling All Potential Video Challenge Judges
- Bone Marrow Donor Registration - Oct. 9
- Sewing Skills Needed
- George Observatory 25th Anniversary This Weekend |  |
| Headlines - Are You Ready for Safety and Health Day?
Safety and Health Day is TOMORROW (Oct. 9)! JSC Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa will kick the day off in the Teague Auditorium at 9 a.m., followed by Dr. Aaron Chapa. Chapa will share how to acquire habits that eliminate brain fog, triple your energy and give you a reason to live at your highest level. Educational exhibits and demos will be open around the JSC mall from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Starport is also hosting group exercise demonstrations. Join in: - 10 to 10:20 a.m. - Yoga Blend
- 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. - TaeKwonDo
- 11 to 11:20 a.m. - Cardio Blast
- 11:30 to 11:50 a.m. - Zumba
- Noon to 12:20 p.m. - Basic Yoga
Participation is not encouraged for the TaeKwonDo session. Astronaut Stan Love will lead this demo, and they will be breaking boards! Compete for the George Award for safety by participating. Don't forget about the competition for the coveted George Award.This special award, named in honor of former Center Director George W.S. Abbey, will be given to the directorate that has the highest percentage of participation for Safety and Health Day Space Race activities. - Countdown to PLSS 2.0 Human-in-the-Loop Testing
On Oct. 15, the Advanced Exploration Systems Advanced Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Development Project is scheduled to test the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) 2.0 with a human in the Mark III prototype suit. The test goal is to evaluate thermal control and life support system performance parameters. This is the first human testing of a new life support system for an EVA suit in more than 30 years. Spacesuits are important to NASA's goals of exploration because they enable human exploration of the environment. The PLSS is a crucial component of the spacesuit and is required to keep crew members safe during excursions from a space vehicle. Advances in PLSS design are necessary to minimize consumables and enhance operational flexibility. PLSS 2.0 human-in-the-loop testing is a significant milestone toward building a sustainable EVA suit, which will enable the achievement of NASA's exploration objectives. To learn more about Crew and Thermal Systems and their facilities, click here. - Self-Identification of Disability
Please take a moment to update your disability status quickly and easily in Employee Express. NASA uses aggregate information about individuals with disabilities for reporting purposes and to determine how to provide assistive resources that can benefit the entire workforce. Ensuring accurate information takes a matter of minutes. Log into Employee Express, and from the main menu click on "Disability Update" to identify current disability status. Disability status is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974. Data entered into Employee Express is secure, and will be uploaded directly into NASA's Federal Personnel and Payroll System. It can be accessed only by NASA officials with a "need to know," such as Equal Employment Opportunity staff. Questions regarding data collection requirements can be directed to the Disability Program Manager, Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, at 281-483-7504. - Cafés Closed Flex Friday - Oct. 10
All cafés and the Starbucks coffee cart will be closed on the Oct. 10 Flex Friday due to the Columbus Day holiday the following Monday. - Space Station Research Stands Up to Cancer
This month, we are recognizing the potential of the International Space Station to contribute to cancer research. Check out our new story here. - National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Cybersecurity Tip for Today: STOP, THINK, CONNECT Create strong passwords and keep them private. Use a minimum of eight characters and a mix of special symbols, letters and numbers. Use separate passwords for each account, so that if one account password is breached, an attacker will not automatically have access to all of your other accounts. Do NOT reuse your work password on other systems. - FLight Controllers AND Flight Instructors Wanted
Test Subject Screening (TSS) seeks flight controllers AND flight instructors (including those in training flow) to evaluate a self-guided, multimedia stress management and resilience training computer program called SMART-OP, in comparison to watching videos and reading information on stress management. Volunteers will: - Complete one information/consent session (via telephone - 10 minutes)
- Attend two assessments (pre and post - 60 to 90 minutes each) involving questionnaires, neuropsychological data and stress biomarker samples in 4N
- Attend six weekly computer-based stress management training sessions (30 to 60 minutes) in 4N
- Complete a three-month follow-up questionnaire (15 minutes)
- Total of 10 session contacts
Volunteers must be healthy non-smokers taking no medications and have a current Category I physical. Volunteers will be compensated. (Restrictions apply to NASA civil servants and some contractors. Individuals should contact their Human Resources department.) Please contact both Linda Byrd, RN, at x37284, and Rori Yager, RN, at 37240. Organizations/Social - Today: Domestic Violence Awareness
Did you know that 7 percent of all Texans indicate that they, a family member and/or a friend or co-worker have experienced some form of domestic violence (physical, sexual or verbal) in their lifetime? You might also be surprised to learn that abusive partners harass 74 percent of employed, battered partners at work. Because of this fact, we will learn the signs of battering and what to do if you suspect a co-worker is being battered. It is important to highlight the need not to place the responsibility or blame on the abused. In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we will explore ways to support, identify and discuss the importance of preventing family violence. Please join Anika Isaac, MS, LPC, LMFT, NCC, CEAP, of the JSC Employee Assistance Program, for a presentation on "Domestic Violence Awareness." - Reminder: Tortilla-Making Class Today
As part of Hispanic Heritage Month/Mes de la Herencia Hispana, the Hispanic Employee Resource Group (HERG) is hosting a tortilla-making class. Attendees of the class will learn the importance of this cultural staple and get "hands-on" experience on how to make, roll out, cook and eat (as if you need training for that) homemade flour tortillas. Prizes will be given out for "most circular" tortilla and "most creative" tortilla. Bring a friend and join the fun! Event Date: Wednesday, October 8, 2014 Event Start Time:11:30 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B3/Collaboration Center
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HERG
[top] - NHHPC Workshop: Innovation Through Co-Development
NASA Human Health and Performance Center (NHHPC) members were invited to the fifth annual workshop, Innovation Through Co-development: Engaging Partners, on Sept. 18 in Houston. More than 100 NHHPC members and guests were able to attend the workshop and explore ways to successfully engage partners and stakeholders, discuss global strategies for collaborative innovation and compare models for co-development that advance innovation. Keynote speakers included JSC Director Ellen Ochoa; former astronaut and director and chief, Medical Officer of the University of Texas Medical Branch Center for Polar Medical Operations, Scott Parazynski; Chief Executive Officer of the Health Data Consortium, Dwayen Spradlin; and American hero Gene Kranz, who famously lead the team of flight directors who brought the Apollo 13 capsule and crew safely back to Earth. Workshop sponsors included NHHPC members Wyle, Lockheed Martin and the Houston Technology Center. To learn more about this workshop and other NHHPC events, please visit our website. - Beginners Ballroom Dance: Discount Ends Oct. 10
Do you feel like you have two left feet? Well, Starport has the perfect program for you: Beginners Ballroom Dance! This eight-week class introduces you to the various types of ballroom dance. Students will learn the secrets of a good lead and following, as well as the ability to identify the beat of the music. This class is easy, and we have fun as we learn. JSC friends and family are welcome. Discounted registration: - $90 per couple (ends Oct. 10)
Regular registration: - $110 per couple (Oct. 11 to Oct. 23)
Two class sessions available: - Tuesdays from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. - starts Oct. 21
- Thursdays from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. - starts Oct. 23
All classes are taught in the Gilruth Center's dance studio (Group Ex studio). - Cancer Expert to Discuss Oncology - Oct. 15
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance speaker forum featuring Dr. David C. Heimbrook, laboratory director of the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research and president, Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc. Topic: The Evolution of Precision Medicine in Oncology Date/Time: Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT Location: Gilruth Ballroom Heimbrook will discuss: - What is precision medicine, and why is it important in oncology?
- How are precision medicines developed?
- What are the limitations of highly targeted drugs in oncology?
- Will precision medicine be applied to other diseases and behaviors?
- Are there ethical considerations to gathering the data needed to implement precision medicine?
Don't miss it! Jobs and Training - Meet-Me Line to Instant Meeting for Web Moderator
Phase II of the move from current "Meet-Me" lines to NEW "Instant Meeting" conference dial-in numbers has begun. Meeting hosts and moderators who use the Web Moderator feature will want the 411 on the new Instant Meeting features. Live, instructor-led training sessions are available for meeting hosts and moderators to learn about the new Instant Meeting features. - Oct. 9: 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
- Oct. 14: 3 p.m.
- Oct. 16: 3 p.m.
- Oct. 21: 3 p.m.
- Oct. 23: 11 a.m.
To register for instructor-led training, go to the CSO Training Information page, scroll down and click the link below the training schedule to register. If you have questions or need additional information, please contact NASA Teleconferencing at 1-877-857-NASA (857-6272), option 1. - Join us at the Resolving Issues Open House
When a resolution to a conflict can't be reached by involving your supervisor or others in your management chain, you may choose to seek assistance from a variety of third-party avenues. In observance of Conflict Management Day, learn about the resources we have within NASA to help our team address conflicts creatively and cooperatively. Open House sessions will be held in the Building 30 Auditorium lobby area, in front of the auditorium, in conjunction with the Using Conflict as a Catalyst for Creativity: Conflict Resolution Workshop on the following dates and times: - Wednesday, Oct. 15, from 8 to 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. to noon
- Thursday, Oct. 16, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. and 4 to 4:30 p.m.
Accommodations for a specific disability are available upon request. For more information, please contact the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity at 281-483-0607. - JSC Imagery Online Training - Oct. 14
Need to find NASA mission pictures or videos? Learn how during a webinar on Tuesday, Oct. 14, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Mary Wilkerson, Still Imagery lead, will show users how to find NASA mission images in Imagery Online (IO) and the Digital Imagery Management System (DIMS). Leslie Richards, Video Imagery lead, will show employees the video functionality in IO. Community - Calling All Potential Video Challenge Judges
Help inspire the world about space! We invite YOU to be a judge for the 2014 Humans in Space Art Video Challenge. College students and early career professionals will create three-minute-long videos, and judges will evaluate how well their videos address the question: "How will space, science and technology benefit humanity?" Anyone in the NASA community is eligible to be a judge. Evaluations will be done online in late November and early December. Thank you! - Bone Marrow Donor Registration - Oct. 9
Please stop by and learn about bone marrow donation at the Oct. 9 Safety and Health Day. There are approximately 2,000 patients waiting for a bone marrow donor match, and you can help out by joining the National Marrow Donor Program. About 70 percent of patients cannot find a marrow donor within their immediate family. You can help if you: - Are 18 to 44 years old
- In good general health
- Fill out a form and provide cheek swab samples
- Are willing to donate to any patient until you are 60 years old
It just takes 15 minutes! For more details on medical eligibility, click here. This donor drive was coordinated by the ASIA Employee Resource Group with support from BeTheMatch.org and the Gulf Coast Marrow Donor Program. Event Date: Thursday, October 9, 2014 Event Start Time:10:00 AM Event End Time:12:30 PM
Event Location: B2 Teague Auditorium Lobby
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Stacey Nakamura x34345
[top] - Sewing Skills Needed
Do you know how to hem a garment by hand? If so, please help us complete the NASA Astronomical Star Quilt that will be the featured quilt at this year's Houston International Quilt Festival. We will meet on Oct. 18 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Gilruth Center Longhorn Room to sew the binding on the 169-foot-long quilt. Materials will be provided; we just need more willing hands! If you can help all day or just a couple of hours, please contact Stacey Menard with questions or to volunteer. Event Date: Saturday, October 18, 2014 Event Start Time:9:00 AM Event End Time:5:00 PM
Event Location: Longhorn Room Gilruth
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Stacey Menard x45660
[top] - George Observatory 25th Anniversary This Weekend
The George Observatory will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on Oct. 11 and 12. Stop by and celebrate this special event! Additionally, on Oct. 11, there will be a Family Space Day Mission to the Moon. To get tickets for the Mission to the Moon, visit this website. Note: Park entrance fees apply at $7 per person for everyone over 12 years old. | |
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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
Wednesday – October 8, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Spacewalk complete; all objectives accomplished
William Harwood - CBS News
Working outside the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency crewmate Alexander Gerst successfully moved a failed ammonia pump module to an external stowage platform Tuesday, completing a task originally planned for a repair spacewalk last December.
Astronauts resume routine spacewalks for NASA
Associated Press
Two spacewalking astronauts moved an old, broken pump into permanent storage Tuesday, NASA's first routine maintenance outside the International Space Station in more than a year.
KSC breaks ground on new headquarters building
James Dean – Florida Today
Two years from now, employees and guests entering Kennedy Space Center's $65 million new headquarters building will walk into a two-story, glass-sided lobby, across a terrazzo floor decorated with star constellations.
How Astronauts Vote From Space
When civic-minded astronauts go into orbit, they don't lose the ability to cast a ballot on affairs down below.
In November of 2007, Clayton Anderson participated in the most ordinary of elections—voting on a handful of local ballot proposals for his Houston suburb. But Anderson cast his ballot in an extraordinary fashion. He was traveling at 17,000 miles per hour, floating in microgravity at more than 200 miles above Earth.
Review: Hubble's Legacy
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most famous spacecraft—indeed, one of the most famous scientific instruments—ever built. Of course, shortly after launch, Hubble was on track to becoming one the most infamous spacecraft or scientific instruments in history, as the telescope's faulty optics threatened its scientific mission and NASA's reputation. A successful servicing mission in 1993, and four that followed through 2009, not only repaired the telescope but also improved its performance, and the images it returned captured the public's imagination.
MIT Analysis Paints Bleak Outcome for Mars One Concept
An analysis by a team of MIT students of the Mars One concept to send people to Mars on one-way missions to establish a settlement there offers a bleak picture of the outcome. The paper was presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) in Toronto last week.
Antares launch moves to no earlier than Oct. 24
Earlier today, Orbital Sciences and NASA announced that their ORB-3 Antares/Cygnus launch has been moved to no earlier than (NET) Friday, Oct. 24 with a target liftoff time of 7:52 p.m. EDT (2352 GMT) from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. A no-earlier-than (NET) date means that there is still the possibility that the new schedule date may still be changed, but will be no earlier than the posted day. COMPLETE STORIES
Spacewalk complete; all objectives accomplished
William Harwood - CBS News
Working outside the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency crewmate Alexander Gerst successfully moved a failed ammonia pump module to an external stowage platform Tuesday, completing a task originally planned for a repair spacewalk last December.
They also replaced a broken television camera light, used during spacecraft arrivals and departures, and installed a backup payload power system on the mobile transporter used to move the station's robot arm and attached equipment from one worksite to another.
The spacewalk, the 182nd since station construction began in 1998, got underway at 8:30 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) and ended six hours and 13 minutes later when Gerst and Wiseman returned to the Quest airlock and began repressurization procedures at 2:43 p.m. It was the fifth of seven spacewalks planned this year by station astronauts and the first for Wiseman and Gerst.
"Alex, it looks like we've almost got a full moon out here," Wiseman marvled as he floated out of the airlock. "It's beautiful."
A few minutes later, Gerst said simply "this is awesome."
"Yep, this is amazing," Wiseman agreed.
The major goal of U.S. EVA-27 was to move a failed ammonia coolant pump from the mobile transporter to an insulated bay on External Stowage Platform No. 2 near the airlock. The pump failed last December and was replaced during two spacewalks later that month. But the repair crew did not have time to move the failed unit back to ESP-2.
Gerst, anchored to the end of the station's Canadian-built robot arm, manually carried the boxy pump module from the forward face of the lab's solar power truss to the storage platform. Barry "Butch" Wilmore, operating the arm from inside the station, maneuvered Gerst into position so he and Wiseman could slide the pump into its housing.
Using a power tool, Gerst then drove four bolts home to lock the pump in place. Wiseman secured insulation and stored a grapple fixture that had been attached to the pump module to complete the job.
With that bit of unfinished business complete, Wilmore moved Gerst to the right side of the Destiny laboratory module to replace a light in a video camera assembly. The light is used to provide illumination when cargo ships approach the station in orbital darkness.
The final major task for U.S. EVA-27 was to install equipment known as the mobile transporter relay assembly, or MTRA.
The mobile transporter moves along rails on the front face of the solar power truss to position the robot arm at various worksites. It is equipped with a payload grapple fixture where components can be temporarily held in place and powered by the station's electrical system. The pump module was mounted on that fixture until its removal earlier Tuesday.
The MTRA will allow flight controllers to route power to attached payloads even if a problem of some sort prevents the mobile transporter's payload attachment fitting from drawing power from a given worksite.
Installing the MTRA and its cabling took most of the time left in the crew's spacewalk timeline. But there were no problems of any significance and after briefly considering two additional "get-ahead" tasks, flight controllers told Wiseman and Gerst to pack up their tools and call it a day.
"Really, really nice work today, just a great job," astronaut Douglas Wheelock radioed from mission control in Houston.
"Thanks, Wheels," Wiseman replied. "Alex and I would just like to express our huge gratitude for getting us back into planned EVAs, safely outside, safely back in on a great EVA. It's a good day for NASA, it's definitely a good day for the European Space Agency."
Added Gerst: "We want to say thanks to all the training teams, both at NASA and at ESA for all the hard work ... that got us to this point."
If all goes well, Wiseman and Wilmore will venture outside the station next Wednesday, Oct. 15, to replace an electrical component in the lab's solar power system that failed earlier this year, knocking out one of the space station's power channels.
The lab complex is equipped with eight large NASA-supplied solar panels that provide power to eight distribution channels. Each array is equipped with a device called a sequential shunt unit, or SSU, that regulates voltage. The SSU in power channel 3A failed last May, forcing flight controllers to divert power from another channel to a variety of components.
Wiseman and Wilmore plan to remove and replace the faulty SSU during a night pass when the arrays are not generating power. Once that work is complete, the astronauts will relocate a spacewalk foot restraint, repair a camera on the left-side of the solar power truss and move another television camera assembly from the top of the port-1 truss segment to the upper side of the forward Harmony module.
Two Russian cosmonauts -- station commander Maxim Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev -- plan a spacewalk of their own on Oct. 22 to swap out external experiments and carry out routine maintenance.
With the completion of Tuesday's spacewalk by Wiseman and Gerst, station EVA time logged by 118 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations now stands at 1,142 hours and 15 minutes, or 47.6 days.
Astronauts resume routine spacewalks for NASA
Associated Press
Two spacewalking astronauts moved an old, broken pump into permanent storage Tuesday, NASA's first routine maintenance outside the International Space Station in more than a year.
American Reid Wiseman and German Alexander Gerst, both first-time spacewalkers, cheerfully completed the long overdue job 260 miles up.
"I can't wait to see these pictures," Gerst said.
U.S.-based spacewalks were curtailed in July 2013 after an Italian astronaut nearly drowned because of a flooded helmet. NASA solved the problem with the suit's water-cooling system. Then concern arose over the spacesuit batteries.
New batteries arrived late last month, clearing the way for Tuesday's spacewalk and another one scheduled for next week.
Gerst clutched the 780-pound pump — about the size of a double-door refrigerator — as he rode on the end of the station's big robot arm. The crane swung him from the pump's temporary location to the new permanent spot in about 12 minutes.
"You should see my view right now," Gerst said, referring to the sprawling space station, lit up like gold in the darkness.
The pump ended up in short-term storage during urgent spacewalking repairs to the station's ammonia-cooling system last December. NASA did not want to waste time back then parking the pump in its long-term garage, given all the spacesuit worries. So the job was deferred — until now.
With Wiseman looking on, Gerst slid the pump into its permanent slot, a large rectangular sheath formed by white protective blankets, and then bolted it down. "Nice work," Mission Control radioed.
The spacewalkers hustled through their other chores — replacing a camera light and installing a power-relay device for the station's robot-arm railcar — before calling it quits.
As the six-hour excursion drew to a close, Wiseman thanked the hundreds if not thousands of people who worked on NASA's spacewalk recovery team over the past year.
"Alex and I, we'd like to express just our huge gratitude for getting us back into planned EVAs (spacewalks), safely outside, safely back in," Wiseman said. EVA is NASA talk for extra-vehicular activity.
"It's a good day for NASA" and the European Space Agency, he added.
A follow-up spacewalk is scheduled for Oct. 15 to further whittle down NASA's lengthy to-do list, on hold since the 2013 close call. That spacewalk will be conducted by Wiseman and fellow American Butch Wilmore, a newcomer.
A week after that, two of the three Russians on board will perform a spacewalk on their country's side of the orbiting outpost. The Moscow-led spacewalks were unaffected by NASA's spacesuit troubles.
NASA considered December's U.S. spacewalks — to replace the failed ammonia pump and thereby restore full cooling to the space station — too important to wait. The same went for a critical spacewalk by Americans in April to replace a dead computer.
The helmets used by Wiseman and Gerst contained absorbent pads and makeshift snorkels in case of water leakage. The items became mandatory following last year's close call experienced by Italian spacewalker Luca Parmitano, safely back on Earth for nearly a year now.
As for the spacesuit batteries, NASA sent up replacements on the latest SpaceX cargo ship and Russian Soyuz capsule. Ground testing uncovered a potential fuse problem earlier this year, and NASA opted to switch out the batteries on board.
KSC breaks ground on new headquarters building
James Dean – Florida Today
Two years from now, employees and guests entering Kennedy Space Center's $65 million new headquarters building will walk into a two-story, glass-sided lobby, across a terrazzo floor decorated with star constellations.
The center director and other top leaders will ascend to the seventh floor of a sweeping white facade that anchors one side of the building, giving it an iconic appearance and hinting at KSC's past and future missions, according to its designers.
About 500 civil servants and contractors will fill seven floors of offices and conference rooms consolidating most of the center's administrative functions, and dine in a first-floor cafeteria decorated with a solar system motif.
Best of all, the 200,000 square-foot facility that NASA broke ground on Tuesday is expected to meet a "gold" standard for energy efficiency, saving KSC money over time compared to its existing nearly 50-year-old headquarters.
"The costs that we have maintaining some of these old facilities are substantial, and I'm really looking forward to having more green buildings here," KSC Director Bob Cabana said at the groundbreaking ceremony. "This facility is going to reduce our operating costs significantly."
Located at the intersection of Avenue D and 1st Street in KSC's Industrial Area, the building is part of a broader project known as the Central Campus.
The initiative will demolish 900,000 square feet, nearly half of that being the current four-story and fairly drab headquarters building.
It will add about 450,000 square feet of new construction, clustering the new headquarters and a data center near the Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building and Space Station Processing Facility to keep employees closer together and driving less.
"It really is going to refresh the Kennedy Space Center and posture us to move into our next phase of exploration," said Nancy Bray, director of Center Operations.
Bray said the Central Campus consolidation is projected to save $400 million over 40 years. Cabana estimated annual savings up to $6 million.
Steve Belflower, vice president at Orlando-based architects Hunton Brady, said the firm was charged with designing an iconic building. It settled on the curved, nine-and-a-half-story "sail element" as a feature that harkened back to KSC's historic launches while still being "a very contemporary piece that looks forward."
"For visitors when they come on to the space center, it's very clear where the headquarters building is and where the front door is," he said.
Kirk Hazen, vice president at builder Hensel Phelps, said more than 30 percent of the construction contract would go to small businesses and more than 70 percent of the work would go to local subcontractors.
"What that means is that the money that's going to go into this new facility will stay in the local economy," he said.
Six project officials performed a ceremonial shoveling of dirt to celebrate the occasion.
The scene was nearly identical to one two weeks ago in Brownsville, Texas, where SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Rick Perry broke ground on a private launch complex.
SpaceX controls two pads at KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but that event raised questions about why the Cape is losing launches of commercial missions to other states.
Cabana cited the new headquarters and Central Campus initiative as further evidence of KSC's progress transforming after the shuttle program, a process that has included leasing a launch pad to SpaceX and various facilities to other commercial tenants.
"This is a sign that the Kennedy Space Center is continuing to move forward in our transition," he said. "By the 2018 timeframe, we're going to be looking really good here at the Kennedy Space Center."
That's the timeframe when NASA hopes to launch its new exploration rocket from KSC for the first time.
How Astronauts Vote From Space
When civic-minded astronauts go into orbit, they don't lose the ability to cast a ballot on affairs down below.
In November of 2007, Clayton Anderson participated in the most ordinary of elections—voting on a handful of local ballot proposals for his Houston suburb. But Anderson cast his ballot in an extraordinary fashion. He was traveling at 17,000 miles per hour, floating in microgravity at more than 200 miles above Earth.
The vote made Anderson one of a handful of astronauts who have voted from beyond the reaches of Earth's atmosphere, both on the International Space Station and Russia's Mir station.
"To be able to hit the button and send it and know that it was coming from outer space to go to somebody down on the Earth through that process—that was pretty cool," Anderson said.
For Anderson, the process held special meaning. His wife, Susan Anderson, was the NASA leader who headed the 1997 effort to allow astronauts to vote from space—a year before her husband was chosen to be an astronaut and a decade before he went into orbit. "We could only dream that I would be able to use that capability," he said.
In the 1990s, American astronauts began making trips to Mir, a departure from the short-duration space shuttle flights that had defined the decade before and preparation for the soon-to-launch ISS. One astronaut, John Blaha, launched to Mir in September of 1996, long before absentee ballots were sent out. As the election date neared, he realized he would have no way of casting a vote. He couldn't hop down for Election Day, and the Post Office couldn't exactly bring him a mail ballot.
Blaha's orbital disenfranchisement galvanized officials on the ground. "That was the defining moment," Susan Anderson said. "He got asked, 'Were you able to vote in space?'… There was no process for him to be able to vote."
NASA sprung into action, with Anderson leading a team that worked with Texas lawmakers [most astronauts live in the Houston area] to give astronauts a loophole. "They needed the chance to be able to vote if they chose to," she said. "[Lawmakers] were on board with it.… They helped push a bill through that said that we could accept an encrypted file from the space station."
Then-Gov. George W. Bush signed the bill into law, and a year later, David Wolf became the first astronaut to cast a vote from space. Since then, most election years have seen a ballot or two beamed down from Americans in orbit, and the clerks in Harris or Galveston counties have dutifully tallied the result.
"It's a PDF of the ballot that we send to them," said Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart. "It's the same ballot than anyone would get by mail." The astronauts get the ballot in email form, sent in an encoded document that only they and the clerk can open. Once they send in their vote, the clerk hand-copies their selection and submits a standard ballot as a proxy.
"Even in the small elections, people will participate," Stanart said. "They're making a statement that voting is important to them."
Leroy Chiao, who voted from ISS in the 2004 presidential election, echoed that sentiment. "Part of being an astronaut is trying to serve as a good example, so the more we can do to encourage citizens to go out and vote, the better off we'll be," he said. "If this guy can vote from space, I ought to go down to my local polling place."
Chiao even cut a public service announcement urging Americans down below to get out and vote.
Review: Hubble's Legacy
Jeff Foust – The Space Review
Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, one of the most famous spacecraft—indeed, one of the most famous scientific instruments—ever built. Of course, shortly after launch, Hubble was on track to becoming one the most infamous spacecraft or scientific instruments in history, as the telescope's faulty optics threatened its scientific mission and NASA's reputation. A successful servicing mission in 1993, and four that followed through 2009, not only repaired the telescope but also improved its performance, and the images it returned captured the public's imagination.
There are plenty of accounts of the history of Hubble, both from programmatic and scientific standpoints: how Hubble was built, and how it was used. Hubble's Legacy does not pretend to be a comprehensive history of the space telescope, but instead snapshots of various aspects of the telescope's development and operation, many from some of the key individuals involved in Hubble. They offer narrow, but deep, views, just like the images produced by Hubble. The essays, published in a free ebook by the Smithsonian Institution, came out of a symposium of the same name held at the National Air and Space Museum in 2009.
The book, like the 2009 symposium, covers Hubble's history in three parts. The first is the development of Hubble itself, from the initial concept of a spaceborne telescope to the funding and development of Hubble as an observatory that could be repaired and upgraded by the Space Shuttle. The second part centers on the crisis that enveloped Hubble, and NASA, after the telescope's launch and the efforts to develop instruments to restore the telescope's eyesight. The third part looks at both Hubble's scientific and cultural windfall since the telescope's initial optics problems became a distant, bad memory.
While much of the subject matter is familiar to those who are familiar with the telescope's history, there are some interesting gems in the book. Ed Weiler, who was involved with Hubble from his time as a postdoc for Lyman Spitzer—the Princeton astronomer who was the father of the space telescope—in the 1970s to running NASA's science mission directorate, uses part of his essay to address fellow scientists who criticize NASA's human spaceflight program. "I have been so intimately involved with the HST for 30 years that when people talk about the separation of robotic and human, I kind of get bewildered," he writes. "The HST would be an orbiting piece of space junk, frankly, if it were not for astronauts and the Space Shuttle."
John Grunsfeld, the former astronaut who flew on several Hubble servicing missions (and succeeded Weiler as head of the NASA's science mission directorate) offers some interesting perspectives from his time on the telescope. Among them is that you can see handprints on Hubble's exterior from previous servicing missions: "gloves deposit a little bit of material and the solar UV [ultraviolet] radiation then modifies that and incorporates it into a kind of space corrosion." He wonders, at the end of his essay, if future space telescopes will incorporate some kind of servicing capability as well. "I think that is the grand challenge, and I am very excited and hopeful to remain a part of the outcome."
One of the most fascinating essays in the book, though, is not an official part of the symposium's proceedings but instead included in the book as an appendix. In it, former NASA chief historian Steven Dick examines the decision by NASA in late 2003 and early 2004 to cancel the final servicing mission to Hubble, designated SM4. As Dick writes in the essay's endnotes, "NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe requested this independent study be undertaken by the author, in his role as NASA chief historian, in order to document in detail the events that led to the cancellation decision." The original report was completed in late 2004 but published for the first time here, with an update to reflect the move by O'Keefe's successor, Mike Griffin, to restore that servicing mission.
The timing of the announcement not to fly SM4 coincided with the unveiling of the Vision for Space Exploration, which led many to conclude that Hubble was, in effect, sacrificed to help implement the Bush Administration's exploration plan. Dick's essay tells a more nuanced story, where budgetary issues and safety concerns in the wake of the Columbia accident figured into the decision, and a "carefully crafted plan" to announce the mission's cancellation was undone by leaks to the press around the time of the Vision's announcement. O'Keefe and other NASA officials argued they were simply implementing the recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board and creating a "safety culture" in NASA to reduce risk. "Sean feels he is following Admiral Gehman's report. Sean has been beaten up by Congress," recalled Weiler in the essay.
O'Keefe's decision, though, was reversed by Griffin in 2005, and SM4 was flown in 2009 to upgrade Hubble one more time. "Griffin's gutsy decision was more in tune with the idea that safety is the second priority in any bold adventure; having taken all precautions, the first priority is to go, otherwise no explorers would ever have left home," Dick writes. Because of that decision, Hubble is alive and well to this day, and, hopefully, for several years to come, serving as both a key tool for astronomers as well as a cultural icon.
MIT Analysis Paints Bleak Outcome for Mars One Concept
An analysis by a team of MIT students of the Mars One concept to send people to Mars on one-way missions to establish a settlement there offers a bleak picture of the outcome. The paper was presented at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC2014) in Toronto last week.
The team looked at the Mars One plan as outlined in public sources, especially its assertions that a sustainable society on Mars can be established beginning in the 2020s using existing technology. A "pre-deployment" phase between 2018 and 2023 would send robotic precursors and establish a crew "habitat" on the surface to await the first crew, which would be launched in 2024. Additional four-person crews and habitats would be launched at every 26-month opportunity thereafter.
Because many details of the Mars One plan are not available, the MIT team made a number of assumptions that are comprehensively explained in order to conduct their analysis.
Some of the key conclusions of the study are that:
- Mars One's claim that "no new major developments or inventions are needed" does not withstand scrutiny and that assessment is only for the habitation, life support, in-situ resource utilization and space transportation technologies. The MIT team notes that they did not address other required systems such as entry, descent and landing (EDL), the power system architecture, or the surface-to-orbit communications strategy.
- The Mars One estimate of the number of launches needed for the pre-deployment phase is "overly optimistic." The best scenario would require 15 Falcon Heavy launches to establish the first crew on Mars according to the MIT analysis.
- If crops grown on Mars are the only food source, they will "produce unsafe oxygen levels in the habitat" resulting in the first crew fatality after about 68 days due to "suffocation from too low an oxygen partial pressure within the environment," the consequence of a complex series of events stemming from overproduction of oxygen by the plants.
- The MIT team postulated solutions to that problem that are not part of the Mars One plan (e.g. relying on stored food brought from Earth, creating a separate plant growing facility, or using yet-to-be invented oxygen removal technology). If a way were found to sustain a Mars One habitat for 130 months, the paper concludes that spare parts would require 62 percent of the mass brought from Earth over that period of time.
The lead author, Sydney Do, a Ph.D. candidate in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, said via email that in his view "the Mars One Concept is unsustainable" because of the current state of technology and its "aggressive expansion approach" of quickly adding more and more people rather than keeping the settlement at a fixed size for a period of time.
The paper acknowledges that the study was based on "the best available information" and the team is willing to update their analysis if more information becomes available.
Antares launch moves to no earlier than Oct. 24
Earlier today, Orbital Sciences and NASA announced that their ORB-3 Antares/Cygnus launch has been moved to no earlier than (NET) Friday, Oct. 24 with a target liftoff time of 7:52 p.m. EDT (2352 GMT) from Virginia's Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility. A no-earlier-than (NET) date means that there is still the possibility that the new schedule date may still be changed, but will be no earlier than the posted day. The revised schedule is to ensure that the Antares/Cygnus team has ample time for pre-launch preparations, including testing of the Antares medium launch vehicle that will carry the Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). This change also reflects a busy schedule for the Expedition 41 crew aboard the space station as they prepare for the arrival of the Cygnus cargo vessel.
Orbital Sciences Corporation has stated the following: The launch schedule has been established in order to build flexibility into the overall mission schedule in the event of an unexpected disruption such as adverse weather at the launch site.
The ORB-3 mission will see the Cygnus logistics spacecraft delivering much needed supplies and cargo to the astronauts aboard the ISS. This mission is part of the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract that Orbital Sciences holds with NASA, which allows them to deliver the 5,050 lbs (2,290 kg) of goods for this flight.
Still launching ahead of the timeline for Cygnus to fulfill the necessary rendezvous and berthing with the space station, Cygnus is scheduled to arrive on Nov 2. The spacecraft will remain in orbit for a few days before maneuvering with carefully timed thruster burns in order to be grappled by the space station's robotic arm, operated by Reid Wiseman and Barry Wilmore. It will stay berthed to the station for about a month, where on Dec 3 is it scheduled to depart carrying disposal cargo.
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