Finally cooler weather…we can put our A/C in "don't need mode" for a few days maybe even more days than that!
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Save the Date: All Hands on Nov. 18
- H. 'Hank' W. Hartsfield Jr. Tree-Planting Ceremony
- Ready to Learn About Physical Sciences on ISS?
- Gilruth Center Closed: Nov. 22 - 30 - Organizations/Social
- #JSCelebrate is Dec. 12 - Join the Fun!
- Witness the Orion EFT-1 Launch
- Co-Labs: Oculus Rift Demonstration Today
- Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Meeting -- Today!
- Don't Miss the 2014 Tech & Tell Poster Session
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
- Env. Brown Bag - LEDs and Industrial Lighting
- Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds & Fish: Nov. 19
- JSC Holiday Bazaar This Saturday
- Sam's Club at Bldg 3 Café on Nov. 17 - Community
- JSC Astronomy Society Meeting on Nov. 14 |  |
| Headlines - Save the Date: All Hands on Nov. 18
Save the date! Join JSC Director Ellen Ochoa on Tuesday, Nov. 18, for an all-hands meeting from 9:45 to 11 a.m. in the Teague Auditorium. Hear from JSC's leaders on a variety of important topics. In addition to Ochoa, speakers include: JSC Deputy Director Kirk Shireman; Flight Operations Director Brian Kelly; Director of Exploration Integration and Science Steve Stich; and Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer. If you would like to submit a question for consideration in advance of the event, please email it to: JSC-Ask-The-Director@mail.nasa.gov Questions will also be taken via email during the event.Those unable to attend in person can watch the event on RF Channel 2 or Omni 3 (45). JSC team members with wired computer network connections can view the All Hands using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on Channel 402. Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer 32bit on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. First-time users will need to install the EZTV Monitor and Player client applications: - For those WITH admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you'll be prompted to download and install the clients when you first visit the IPTV website
- For those WITHOUT admin rights (Elevated Privileges), you can download the EZTV client applications from the ACES Software Refresh Portal (SRP)
If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate Customer Support Center at x46367, or visit the FAQ site. The event will also be recorded for playback the following Thursday, Nov. 20, and Tuesday, Nov. 25, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Event Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Event Start Time:9:45 AM Event End Time:11:00 AM Event Location: Teague Auditorium Add to Calendar JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs x35111 [top] - H. 'Hank' W. Hartsfield Jr. Tree-Planting Ceremony
A memorial tree-planting ceremony honoring the life of astronaut H. "Hank" W. Hartsfield Jr. will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at 1 p.m. in the JSC Memorial Tree Grove. Hartsfield became a NASA astronaut in September 1969. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 16 and served as a member of the astronaut support crew for Skylab 2, 3 and 4. Hartsfield served as backup pilot for STS-2 and STS-3, Columbia's second and third orbital flight tests. A veteran of three spaceflights, Hartsfield logged 483 hours in space. He served as the pilot on STS-4 and was the spacecraft commander on STS-41D and STS-61A. There will be limited parking available along the tree grove; employees are encouraged to walk or carpool. Event Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Event Start Time:1:00 PM Event End Time:2:00 PM Event Location: JSC Memorial Tree Grove Add to Calendar Stephanie Castillo x33341 [top] - Ready to Learn About Physical Sciences on ISS?
In this entry of "A Lab Aloft," guest blogger Fred Kohl, Ph.D., International Space Station (ISS) Physical Sciences Research project manager at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, discusses some of the physical science investigations that take place in microgravity aboard the space station. Read more here. - Gilruth Center Closed: Nov. 22 - 30
The Gilruth Center will be closed Nov. 22 - 30 for biannually scheduled maintenance. During this time, the following Gilruth facilities and programs will be unavailable: - Strength & Cardio Center
- Studios 1, 2, & 3 (Group Ex, Spin, Yoga)
- All conference facilities & ballroom
- Indoor locker rooms and restrooms
During the closure, the following facilities will be available - Outer Space Studio and OSFx Classes
- Sports Fields (Soccer/Softball)
- Jogging Trails
- Outdoor Restrooms
In the event that the scheduled maintenance is completed early, the Gilruth Center may open with limited hours. Organizations/Social - #JSCelebrate is Dec. 12 - Join the Fun!
Plan to attend this one time only event! JSCelebrate Tickets will be available on line and at Starport locations soon! Your $5 ticket includes entrance, family friendly beverages, popcorn, and the first 599 people through the door receive a free gift. There will be food trucks and adult beverages available at additional cost. The Driven to Explore Trailer, bounce houses, a cake decorating contest, door prizes, and music by Griffters and Shrills will be part of the festivities. Mark your calendars and plan to bring the kids, everyone on the JSC Team is welcome! Event Date: Friday, December 12, 2014 Event Start Time:4:30 PM Event End Time:7:00 PM Event Location: Building 9 and surrounding parking areas Add to Calendar Susan H. Anderson X38630 [top] - Witness the Orion EFT-1 Launch
Join us to experience this historical moment in NASA history with your coworkers and other members of the NASA family. Registration closes at noon on Nov. 14 for the Starport Bus Trip to see the Orion EFT-1 launch. Charges include transportation, hotel accommodations, park admission, snacks and beverages during travel. Participants will be responsible for their own meal expenses. Reduced rates are available for double, triple, and quadruple occupancy. Additional charges will apply if the launch is pushed back with a one day weather waive off schedule. - Co-Labs: Oculus Rift Demonstration Today
What is Immersion? What do we mean by Presence? Has the technology for true virtual reality finally arrived? Please join us today for our Co-Labs meeting in the new 1958 Co-working Space in Building 56 to hear Jake Mireles' overview of the exciting new Oculus Rift. You'll learn what the Rift is bringing to the world of "virtual and augmented reality" and as an added bonus you'll be able to experience the latest development kit for yourself. Please come early to tour the space in Buildings 56 and 57. Refreshments will be served. Also, join us Nov. 18 from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 56 for a special Co-Labs video-conference with Made in Space ( www.madeinspace.us/ ). They will be discussing and answering questions about plans for their 3D zero-gravity printer that is currently on ISS. We expect this to be an exciting conversation. - Out & Allied @ JSC ERG Meeting -- Today!
All JSC team members are invited to the Out & Allied @ JSC Employee Resource Group (ERG) meeting today, Nov. 12 from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 4S, Room 1200. Now that we've had our Fall elections, there are several upcoming ERG items to review, including our Charter review, holiday party I&I Council out brief, and subcommittee chair opportunities. Please join us to help, meet others and network! For more information about our group, including how to become involved, contact any listed Out & Allied members on our SharePoint site. - Don't Miss the 2014 Tech & Tell Poster Session
Following JSC's previously successful "Tech & Tell" events for the past two years, the 2014 Exploration Integration and Science Directorate (EISD)-sponsored Independent Research and Development Tech & Tell poster session is being held on Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Building 3's Collaboration Center from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. During this come-and-go event, you will meet some of JSC and White Sands Test Facility's most innovative thinkers. Principal investigators will share overviews of their projects and how they are being integrated to meet NASA science and JSC human spaceflight needs. This year's theme is "JSC's Technology Pathway to Mars," which will showcase both center-level and new EISD directorate IR&D technology projects being developed at both JSC and the White Sands Test Facility. Come support your colleagues. Also, cast a vote to select an outstanding project to receive the "People's Choice Award" for innovation and creativity in the spirit of JSC 2.0. Event Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Event Start Time:10:30 AM Event End Time:1:30 PM Event Location: Building 3 Collaboration Center Add to Calendar David L. Brown x37426 [top] - Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Today
"Staying Flexible" keeps us resilient. Our 12-step meeting is for co-workers, families and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. Visit us today, Nov. 12, in Building 32, Room 135, from 12 noon to 12:45 p.m. - Env. Brown Bag – LEDs and Industrial Lighting
Today's white LED technology is evolving faster than any other source in the history of electric lighting. This presentation will discuss how lighting experts manage the opportunities, issues, trends, economics and metrics in specifying LED as a cost-effective lighting solution for existing buildings. Bring your lunch and join us on Tuesday, Nov. 18, from noon to 1 p.m. in Building 45, Room 751, and see how LEDs can apply to your home as well. - Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds & Fish: Nov. 19
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance speaker forum featuring Dr. John Lienhard, writer and host of "The Engines of Our Ingenuity," which is heard nationally on public radio. This event is free and open to the public. Please feel free to bring your family/friends (teens and older) and enjoy a night out! Subject: Aerodynamics of Airplanes, Birds and Fish Date/Time: Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 7 to 8 p.m. CDT Location: Gilruth Alamo Ballroom Lienhard will look at the following question and, using photographic evidence, discuss: Does human flight really emulate avian flight? Please share with your friends and add this event to your calendar. - JSC Holiday Bazaar This Saturday
Make your way to the Gilruth Center on Saturday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the 2014 JSC Holiday Bazaar. You will find a variety of gifts that are perfect for the holidays in one convenient place. Some items that you will find include fine and handmade jewelry, sweets, handcrafted items, skin-care products, candles, ornaments, home accents, cookbooks, holiday decor, crafts, stationary and much, much more. You don't want to miss this chance to get all of your holiday shopping done in one trip! - Sam's Club at Bldg 3 Café on Nov. 17
Just in time for your holiday shopping, Sam's Club representatives will be in the Building 3 Café Thursday, Nov. 17, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. to assist you with a new membership or annual renewal. Stop by the Sam's Club table this Thursday to see their current offers. New memberships or renewals may receive up to a $25 gift card for use at Sam's Club or Wal-Mart stores. Check or cash payments only. Community - JSC Astronomy Society Meeting on Nov. 14
Our November meeting will feature Rodney Rocha on "An Easy-Going Introduction to Orbital Mechanics--or What Goes Up Doesn't Always Come Down". Mr. Rocha will introduce Kepler's Laws, Newton's Laws of Motion & Gravitation, how cones contain orbits, Lagrangian Points, how to de-spin a small captured asteroid by a spacecraft and then tow it to Earth-Lunar space and into a "parking space". Other meeting topics include our upcoming Star parties, "What's Up in the Sky this Month?" with suggestions for beginner observing, Astro Oddities, and the novice Q&A session. Membership to the JSCAS is open to anyone who wants to learn about astronomy. There are no dues, no-by laws, you just show up to our meeting. After you join us, you'll have access to our loaner telescope program to try one before buying your own, and our educational DVD library with 100's of learning choices, and it's all FREE! | |
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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 – November 12, 2014
HEADLINES AND LEADS
Main crew of ISS next expedition heads to Baikonur
The main crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronaut Terry Virts
ITAR TASS, of Russia
The main crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) has departed for the Baikonur space center, in Kazakhstan, to continue training before the launch, Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center told TASS on Tuesday.
NASA's Orion capsule heads to Cape launch pad
James Dean – Florida Today
NASA's Orion capsule is on its way to a Cape Canaveral launch pad.
Exploration Flight Test 1 Orion moved to SLC-37 in preparation for launch
NASA's new Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) spacecraft was rolled out of the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) on Tuesday, Nov. 11 for the last Earthbound leg of its journey to space. That journey – came a day later than planned. Heavy wind and rains besieged KSC in the lead up to rollout on Nov. 10, forcing a change to the schedule by 24 hours. On Tuesday however, clear, cool skies greeted the move and Orion's NASA and Lockheed Martin handlers started the move with no issues.
American Leadership in Space -- Now or Never
Robert Charles - American Thinker
Where is America's space program going? After a bold promise of American leadership in space in 2010, as well as plans for a manned Mars mission by the mid-2030s, President Obama has dropped space like a lead balloon. With a new Congressional majority, intent on leadership and accountability, let's get back to space, shall we? Oh and by the way, it matters.
Unprecedented cosmic choreography essential to landing on comet
When a European landing probe goes for a daring touchdown on a comet Wednesday, officials say it would help to have a little luck on their side.
Rosetta space probe poised to release comet lander
William Harwood – CBS News
The European Space Agency's $1.7 billion Rosetta probe, flying in close formation with a slowly tumbling comet, is poised to release a small lander Wednesday that will attempt an unprecedented touchdown on the boulder-strewn, debris-spewing nucleus, using ice screws and harpoons to keep from bouncing off in the comet's feeble gravity.
Wednesday, humans will land a probe on a comet for the first time ever
Rachel Feltman - Washington Post
In the climax of a decade-long mission, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is expected to drop a lander on the surface of a comet Wednesday morning. But the journey is far from over: The feat of landing a probe on a comet's uneven, enigmatic surface — which has never before been accomplished — will take scientists from the ESA and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory a grueling seven hours.
UT Arlington professor's invention set for comet landing
Wednesday morning, a spacecraft is set to become the first in history to touch down on a comet.
COMPLETE STORIES
Main crew of ISS next expedition heads to Baikonur
The main crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronaut Terry Virts
ITAR TASS, of Russia
The main crew of the next expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) has departed for the Baikonur space center, in Kazakhstan, to continue training before the launch, Russia's Cosmonaut Training Center told TASS on Tuesday.
"In line with the plan, approved by the leadership of the Cosmonaut Training Center, the main crew flew to Baikonur Cosmodrome today and the backup crew will fly there tomorrow," the center said.
The main crew comprises Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronaut Terry Virts. The backup crew consists of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.
Both crews previously departed for Baikonur on the same day. The center gave no details on the changes to the schedule of the crews.
The launch of Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft with ISS-42/43 mission crew onboard is scheduled for November 24. The crew is expected to spend a total of 169 days in space.
Among the main crew members, only Cristoforetti has no space flight experience. Both Shkaplerov and Virts had one mission in their carrier. The US astronaut served as Shuttle Endeavour pilot, and will fly onboard Russia's Soyuz for the first time.
As for the backup crew, Russian cosmonaut Kononenko has already had two space flights. For the US and Japanese astronauts, this will be the first space mission.
NASA's Orion capsule heads to Cape launch pad
James Dean – Florida Today
NASA's Orion capsule is on its way to a Cape Canaveral launch pad.
The exploration spacecraft targeting an unmanned first test flight on Dec. 4 departed a Kennedy Space Center processing facility at 8:54 p.m. Tuesday to start a 22-mile journey to Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The seven-story, 50,000-pound stack including test versions of Orion's crew and service modules and a launch abort system is expected to take about six hours to roll past KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building and launch pad 39B before heading south to its seaside pad.
There the stack will be hoisted atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket early Wednesday and secured inside the pad's mobile service tower.
The rollout, which was delayed a day by weather, will put Orion in position to be launched on the $375 million Exploration Flight Test-1, a mission targeting a 7:05 a.m. liftoff on Dec. 4.
The two-orbit flight will send Orion 3,600 miles into space to test various systems, most notably the heat shield during a nearly 20,000-mph reentry through the atmosphere prior to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
The mission is one of at least two test flights in space without crews before astronauts board Orion for a launch atop NASA's Space Launch System exploration rocket, possibly by 2021.
Exploration Flight Test 1 Orion moved to SLC-37 in preparation for launch
NASA's new Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) spacecraft was rolled out of the Launch Abort System Facility (LASF) on Tuesday, Nov. 11 for the last Earthbound leg of its journey to space. That journey – came a day later than planned. Heavy wind and rains besieged KSC in the lead up to rollout on Nov. 10, forcing a change to the schedule by 24 hours. On Tuesday however, clear, cool skies greeted the move and Orion's NASA and Lockheed Martin handlers started the move with no issues.
First motion of the test article of NASA's new crew-rated spacecraft took place at 8:55 p.m. EDT (0055 GMT). Throngs of NASA civil servants, contractors and the media greeted the capsuled-based craft as it rolled out into the cool night air.
After pausing briefly in front of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) for a photo opportunity, Orion ended its trip at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37). Awaiting Orion at SLC-37 is the United Launch Alliance (ULA ) Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle, which was transported out from the Horizontal Integration Facility and raised to a vertical orientation on the launch pad on Oct. 1, 2014. With this milestone complete, the first flight of Orion is just over three weeks away.
Tonight's trip covered approximately 10 miles on top of the 36-wheeled "Kamag" transporter and lasted longer than the actual mission it will carry out (Orion's first flight is expected to last four and one half hours).
The craft took a rather circuitous path, rolling past KSC's Launch Complex 39B. This was undertaken due to an issue with the road – which could not support the stack of Orion and its transport vehicle.
One of the design engineers on hand described the event as an emotional one, almost like sending off one of her children.
The assembly of escape tower, shrouded Orion spacecraft, service module and mating ring sat in the lights from the open high bay door. The stack is about 72 feet tall and the platform on the Kamag transporter was almost 8 feet above the road, making a load almost 80 feet high.
Attached to the rear of this rig was a trailer with a large duct attached to the base of the stack, and an engine running. Astronaut Rex Walheim explained that this is a purge system for Orion.
At 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), as Orion made the turn to approach the VAB, it was preceded by numerous escort and security vehicles. Watching it slowly progress toward the press site it would eclipse the streetlights until it finally halted. After NASA and ULA took their official pictures one could watch those same people pull out their cell phones for 'selfies.'
Orion has moved internally at Kennedy Space Center two previous times; once after mating with the service module in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility; then again from the PHSF to the LASF, to be mated with the abort system it will carry on Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1).
Initial components were brought from the Michoud Assembly Facility where the final welds of the pressure vessel were completed this past June. This final, flight-ready configuration includes the Launch Abort System with associated shroud, the Orion spacecraft itself, the service module and the adapter ring which will match the Delta IV launch vehicle. The Launch Abort System (LAS) is a new design provided by ATK. The rollout is more complicated than simply traveling across the space center to SLC-37. The spacecraft has to avoid corrosion and contamination threats prior to the actual mating with the Delta launch vehicle. A dry gas had to be pumped into the space between the capsule and the shroud or ogive around it. This will prohibit moisture accumulation which could potentially cause contamination or corrosion.
On Monday afternoon, NASA and Lockheed Martin held a joint news conference at the LASF, to talk about the Orion Spacecraft and EFT-1 mission.
In attendance were Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa, both former astronauts in NASA's Space Shuttle Program. Also attending the press briefing were Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company director of Human Space Flight Programs Mike Hawes.
"When it rolled out of the Neil Armstrong O&C high bay – that was really special. That's the first time that a crewed vehicle has rolled out of that high bay – since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project back in 1975," Cabana said.
Orion's first mission – will be just two orbits reaching an altitude of 3,600 miles (5794 kilometers), approximately 15 times farther out than standard low-Earth orbit. EFT-1 will be an unmanned test of several systems, but most importantly the high speed reentry and it's effects on the heat shield.
During re-entry the craft will reach speeds of 20,000 miles (32,187 kilometers) per hour and will encounter temperatures near 4,000 degrees. For comparison, the temperature of lava is approximately 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and titanium melts at 3,000 degrees. Other tests included in this mission will include separation events, avionics and software performance, attitude control and guidance, parachute deployment and recovery.
Over the next few weeks the Orion Spacecraft, along with its launch abort tower and service module will be mated to ULA's Delta IV Heavy rocket with launch currently planned for no-earlier-than (NET) Dec. 4.
"Orion represents the latest human-rated spacecraft that Johnson Space Center has had the privilege of developing," Ochoa said. "This initial test flight, which focuses on some of the highest risks to bringing the crew back safely from exploration missions – is really important to us."
Geyer reinforced Ochoa's comments regarding the crucial lessons that EFT-1 will impart upon the space agency.
"Orion is the exploration spacecraft for NASA and when paired with SLS (NASA's new heavy-lift booster – the Space Launch System) we'll go explore the solar system. This particular test is unmanned, EFT-1, and we're going to test, really I would say, the riskiest parts of the mission in ascent and entry. Things like the fairing separation, heat shield, parachutes, entry, guidance and navigation – those kind of things," Geyer said.
The mating operations at SLC-37 will involve raising the spacecraft 170 feet (52 meters) into the air and placing it precisely atop the launch vehicle.
Later, manned flights of the Orion spacecraft will be atop NASA's new heavy-lift booster, the Space Launch System or "SLS" as it is more commonly known. A fact Cabana touched on when addressing a member of the media asking if this view will become one the public will soon see more of.
"Will it look exactly like this when it rolls out? No…we're going to be on top of the SLS on top of the mobile launcher – and it's going to be awesome!" Cabana said. "That's going to be pretty cool."
While this version of the spacecraft will be outfitted with test equipment, future configurations will be capable of carrying 4 to 6 crew members – for periods of up to 21 days.
This capsule will also be "recycled"and used for the next mission, Ascent Abort 2, which will be a test of the Abort system as the launch vehicle reaches the region of maximum dynamic pressure, or max q, when the vehicle is approaching Mach-1. This test is currently slated to take place in 2018 at Cape Canaveral's SLC-46. As it is just a test of the abort system, Orion will need to get a far shorter distance off the ground and will use a SR-118 PeaceKeeper first stage as its launch vehicle.
After completing the two orbits Orion is planned to land in the Pacific where the Navy will recover it. Recent exercises to practice the recovery involved one of the new LPD ships with a helicopter deck and a wet deck where the capsule will be towed aboard.
NASA and Lockheed Martin representatives detailed that they already had learned a great deal about Orion, but that EFT-1 could serve as a game-changer in terms of what is known about the spacecraft's capabilities.
Geyer said. "It's a good team, it's a good time and now it's time to go fly it."
American Leadership in Space -- Now or Never
Robert Charles - American Thinker
Where is America's space program going? After a bold promise of American leadership in space in 2010, as well as plans for a manned Mars mission by the mid-2030s, President Obama has dropped space like a lead balloon. With a new Congressional majority, intent on leadership and accountability, let's get back to space, shall we? Oh and by the way, it matters.
Until recently, America's space program was synonymous with leadership. Those days are now gone. China leaps ahead to the Moon and Mars, planning a manned mission to the former, robotic missions to the latter. Russia is on a beeline for Mars and its moons. Near earth orbit is becoming a parking lot, while space ambitions proliferate from the Middle East to India. So, let's be frank: gone are the glory days – unless we dig deep, decide to care, reform and up-fund NASA, make the necessary long-term commitments. And that is not an easy mandate, and it will take work.
In the Apollo and Shuttle eras, America was cooperative, but pushed international comers. We led. Our leadership was built on looking forward. We trusted ourselves, embraced risk, understood daring exploration, and saw the future as worth winning. We had an itch to learn, to be first -- in a word -- to lead. In that process, high-technology jobs were unceasingly created in all 50 states, with spin-offs from microwaves to GPS, synthetic fabrics to iPhones, helping advance every sector of the U.S. economy.
But space leadership was more than economic. It protected American national security. That last is consequential; it matters for reasons speakable and unspeakable. American space dominance is central to stability on Earth. At present, we are flatfooted. Our space program is going nowhere fast. Promises made by this president with alacrity are broken with impunity. And memories of America's Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo days, the glorious and spellbinding moonwalks are fading. All but one of the Mercury astronauts are deceased. Ten of the Apollo astronauts are gone. Four of the 12 who walked on the moon are gone, including the first among them, Neil Armstrong.
Yet here we stand, watching dust blow over our prior leadership as if it mattered not at all. We revere NASA's past more as a relic than step toward a brighter, more ambitious future. America's boundless energy and ambition to explore space is reduced to that quaint, respectful admiration we accord Egypt's pyramids, Greek statues and Roman ruins. In April 2010, President Obama promised American leadership in space, path-breaking missions to the Mars. The difference between his promise and that of former President John F. Kennedy, more than 50 years earlier, is stark. Americans walked on the moon when Kennedy sent us there. Obama has, so far, just added broken promises to the pile.
We are a long way from Mars. Since 2010, Obama has overseen the death of America's Shuttle Program, cancelled America's Constellation manned moon mission, cut America's unmanned Mars probes (ending two flights for 2016 and 2018), slashed NASA's planetary science missions, slapped NASA with a recent 20 percent cut in that area, failed to reorganize, make cohesive or align NASA behind a core set of big missions, and barely level-funded space. Only Congress has saved any semblance of American space leadership, and this now hangs by a thread.
Today, ironically, we are dependent on Russia -- the nation we beat to the moon -- for getting American astronauts to the orbiting Space Station. China brings moon samples back and plans exploratory missions, and we seem to watch helplessly. Despite proven advantage in heavy-lift rockets, we fiddle with experimental options that have repeat engine failures, blow up, and malfunction on launch. We talk a good game on promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs, but lag behind much of the world in sectors we decisively led.
It is time for hard truths. Risk comes with space exploration, but smart decision making, cohesive and mission-focused commitments minimize risk. We must press our advantages, not ignore them, from launch capacity and innovation to economic strength and raw daring. We must press them now into space -- back into space. That is the promise we got from our president four years ago -- still unfilled.
So, here is the solution. First, a top-to-bottom review of NASA missions -- all of them. Let us be tough on ourselves. Cut those programs, whimsies and subsidies driven by purely political or regional interest, that have no real bearing on national dominance in space. Kill any programs that cannot be effectively measured, aligned with the larger NASA mission of space exploration (manned and unmanned). Insist on cohesion, because there currently is none. Give budget control to the head of NASA, and insist on national results. End state-by-state lunch-snacking on NASA's money -- that is, yours and mine. Get NASA to serve the nation first. In short, restore that agency to coherence and greatness.
Once accountability is established, we can up-fund NASA by a marked number, maybe fifty percent. The key is to make America's commitment to the nation's future leadership in space real. This will allow credible advances in space-based science, from near earth to a permanence on Mars. Make this money work for every American, in a bona fides effort to explore, map, understand, and populate Mars. In the process, pioneer new rocket engine development and deployment, maximize heavy-lift superiority, and protect America's national and economic interests. Make no mistake: China, Russia, India and others are already pressing the envelope. We owe it to ourselves to do the same.
One plan, authored by close colleague and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, which is often proffered under the rubric Unified Space Vision, holds that America should cooperate (not compete) with others as they aim for the moon, while pressing a sequence of evolving American steps to pioneering and permanence on Mars. That plan has been 30 years in the making, and has growing appeal. But whatever course taken, the first step is the most important. Just as 45 years ago, taking the first step is pivotal.
Finally, take stock of promises made. John F. Kennedy's promise was not a one-off. It was multi-generational; it was to the future. So was President Reagan's eloquent speech in the aftermath of the Challenger accident. So were speeches -- incremental all -- from both President Bushes and President Clinton. As we approach the 45th anniversary of all the Moon landings, it is time to keep faith.
President Obama has a rare -- if fleeting -- opportunity. Beyond keeping his 2010 promises, he can be the president who stabilizes a wobbly NASA, realigns the agency with America's highest hopes, and resolves to put Americans on Mars. That will take more than words. It will take a remake, rethink, restart and enlarged budget for NASA. President Obama now has a Congress more fully committed to keeping promises, protecting our national security, economic strength, legacy in space and mapping the future. He has a more thoughtful Congress than in many moons. Rather than stiff-arming them on this issue, the time is now to act.
A thousand years from now, America and the world will remember the President and Congress -- is it this one? -- who set human kind on course for real space exploration, put eyes on Mars, launched the great experiment in human permanence on that foreign planet. The terrestrial benefits surrounding this commitment, like those that surrounded Apollo's moon missions, are innumerable and enormous. The opportunity exists only for a limited time, and that time is slipping. Beyond that period, America will cede leadership in space to others. The consequences of surrender would be incalculable, likely devastating to national security and irreversible. Against today's international backdrop, you could say that the time is now or never. So, Mr. President, shall we get at it?
Robert Charles, a former Assistant Secretary of State to Colin Powell, served as staff director and counsel to US House Speaker Hastert, and conducted oversight of NASA from 1995 to 1999. He is a Washington-DC-based consultant.
Unprecedented cosmic choreography essential to landing on comet
When a European landing probe goes for a daring touchdown on a comet Wednesday, officials say it would help to have a little luck on their side.
The European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter is set to deploy a lander named Philae on Wednesday for a seven-hour descent to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasmimenko, an unexplored world that is rife with danger for the oven-sized landing craft.
Nothing like it has ever been tried before.
"It is realistic that there is a potential for failure, but I am very optimistic," said Fred Jansen, ESA's Rosetta mission manager.
Going into the mission officials predicted about a 75 percent chance of a smooth landing by Philae. But that was before scientists saw the comet up close, a look that revealed its nucleus was scarred with cliffs, boulders, towering rock protrusions and possibly made of two parts joined together.
"It's not a nice round potato," Jansen said. "It's rough, it's more difficult. But we've analyzed the terrain. We've analyzed the comet, and we are confident that the risks we have are still in the area of the 75 percent success ratio that we've always felt."
Philae hosts a suite of sensors designed to take panoramic and 3D imagery, measure the comet's mineral content, investigate the internal structure of the nucleus, and drill 23 centimeters — about 9 inches — into the comet's nucleus to extract a core sample for analysis by the lander's miniaturized internal laboratory.
"If you decide you want to land on an object you know nothing about 10 years, 20 years ago, then you run risk," Jansen said. "That's clear because you're going somewhere where not everything might be the way you anticipated, and that's the way this comet is."
With a cost of 200 million euros — or about $250 million — the lander will provide ground truth for groundbreaking observations already underway by Rosetta. The chief goal of the $1.7 billion Rosetta mission is to find out how comets work and whether they may have seeded Earth with water and the building blocks for life — like organic molecules, amino acids, and other life-forming material.
Jansen described Philae as the "cherry on the cake" and said Rosetta itself will supply most of the mission's discoveries.
"It's amazing to scientists and scary to engineers," said Art Chmielewski, who manages NASA's portion of the Rosetta mission.
"This is not seven minutes of terror, OK?" Chmielewski said, referencing the catchy slogan used to describe the landing of NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars. "This is seven hours of scary patience."
"We cannot control this lander so accurately," Chmielewski said. "After the release, the baby goes and we can't do anything about it."
Philae's batteries only provide power to operate the probe for 64 hours before the lander switches off. If Philae has sufficient sunlight, it can recharge its batteries to support intermittent operations through March, when the craft is expected to overheat as the comet races closer to the sun.
"We're doing something hugely ambitious, it's never been done before," said Mark McCaughrean, a senior advisor in ESA's science division. "Nobody's tried to land on an object like this and then stay there to do science. We'll see what tomorrow brings. We stand on the brink of something amazing, but we have a mission that's hugely successful already, and that will continue to be so."
Getting Philae to the comet's surface requires an unprecedented cosmic ballet between the lander, the Rosetta mothership and the comet.
Early Wednesday, Rosetta will fire its rocket thrusters to drive toward the comet, setting up for release of Philae at a distance of 22.5 kilometers, or about 14 miles from the center of the icy world's nucleus.
If all goes according to plan, ground controllers here will receive confirmation of Philae's deployment from Rosetta at 0903 GMT (4:03 a.m. EST) Wednesday. Moments later, each spacecraft will turn their cameras toward each other to take a set of farewell photos.
Flying on its own, the Philae lander is not able to control its path toward the comet. Its course is charted before it departs the mothership, which is responsible for aiming and ejecting the lander in exactly the right direction at the correct time.
Using a team of spacecraft navigators based in Europe and the United States, Rosetta's operators got a location fix on the spacecraft Tuesday, then planned to command the probe to maneuver into position for deployment of Philae.
"We want to know where Rosetta is to find the exact point where we separate the lander," Accomazzo said. "This point is fixed in time, space, velocity and attitude, and we have to reach exactly that point."
A tiny error at the time of release could throw the lander off course by hundreds of meters, Accomazzo said.
A series of "go/no go" milestones were planned from late Tuesday through Wednesday morning to check off prerequisites before enabling the final commands to release Philae.
The lander is held to Rosetta with a latch and three electrically-powered spinning screws, which will push Philae away at a glacial pace of 18 centimeters per second, or about four-tenths of a mile per hour. If there is a problem with the screws, Rosetta carries a backup mechanism to spring-eject the lander, according to Jansen.
An electrical umbilical connecting Rosetta and Philae will also disengage.
Then Philae will follow an arcing parabolic trajectory curving toward the comet's nucleus, which spins once every 12 hours. The choreography of Wednesday's landing attempt must also account for the comet's rotation to bring the landing site underneath Philae at exactly the right time.
The lander's touchdown zone — stretching about a kilometer across — lies on the smaller of two lobes making up the central core of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Likened to a rubber duck, the comet is made of two distint segments connected by a narrow neck. The odd shape of the comet makes for a chaotic gravity field, requiring frequent rocket burns to keep Rosetta in a stable orbit.
The comet's tenuous gravity — one hundred thousand times weaker than Earth's — will barely nudge Philae during its journey to the surface. The comet is not very dense, according to scientists — porous enough to float it was placed in a large enough body of water.
When the lander does contact the comet, it will only be moving at a walking pace.
Philae's three legs will pop open after leaving Rosetta, and a gyroscopic stabilizer will keep the lander's foot pads pointing toward the comet on the way down.
During the lander's slow-motion fall toward the comet, Rosetta will steer into position to serve as a communications platform to relay data between Philae and the ground.
Once the probe detects it has landed, Philae will immediately fire two harpoons into the comet and fire a top-mounted thruster to keep it from bouncing off. Ice screws on the lander's legs will also bore into the surface.
The 100-kilogram (220-pound) lander will weigh the equivalent a gram on the comet, according to Stephan Ulamec, head of the Philae lander team at DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Germany leads a pan-European consortium of space agencies and research institutions working on the lander.
Confirmation of landing is expected around 1600 GMT (11 a.m. EST) Wednesday, but touchdown will have actually happened 28 minutes earlier — the time it takes for radio signals to travel the 510 million kilometers (316 million miles) from the comet to Earth.
"It will take a few minutes, for sure, to really understand what has happened," Ulamec said.
Engineers will look for signs the lander's sensors detected touchdown and whether the harpoons fired and rewound their cables to form a tight hold between the comet and Philae.
Besides the risks from crashing into boulders or coming down on a slope, no one knows for sure whether Philae is heading for a plate of solid rock or quicksand. Solid ice has been ruled out from remote measurements by an instrument on Rosetta.
"It's not sheet ice on the surface," said Matt Taylor, Rosetta's project scientist. It's more of a dusty-like surface. We will learn more by putting the lander down there. That's the whole point … You only really know once you go down and touch it, and that's what we will do with the lander."
"In principle, the thruster will press us down to the surface, so the rebouncing will be only very limited due to some inertia from the harpoon firing," Ulamec told reporters Monday. "If the material is very soft, we may well sink in a little bit, but the harpoons should still anchor, in principle, because they go into deeper layers where there is expected to be some harder material."
Acknowledging the potential for failure Wednesday, ESA officials said they can meet 80 percent of the mission's scientific objectives with just the Rosetta orbiter.
"We shouldn't forget that Rosetta has a mission," Jansen said. "It has already done a vast amount of science."
"Everything on Rosetta, specifically being at a comet, orbiting it, landing on it and having the ambition to connect ourselves to the very origin of life on Earth and the solar system makes this mission an absolute historic first," Jansen said.
When scientists announced the selection of Philae's landing site in September — a location named Agilkia — they said it was the best bet for a successful touchdown.
"In the beginning, it was so scary to see this comet as it was," said Jean-Pierre Bibring, a lead scientist on the Philae lander. "It was really unexpected and unpredicted. No one felt we would face such a comet. When we saw it rotating, the first view was we won't be able to reach any place there."
But a closer look revealed more possibilities.
"As soon as we got closer … suddenly it happened that we might have reachable areas," Bibring said.
But no place on the comet is free of hazards that could doom the lander, which can't dodge boulders or fly away from unfavorable terrain.
"That, unfortunately, is totally outside of our control," Accomazzo said. "The surface of this comet is very, very rough. It's not an ideal place to land on, but this is what we have and this is what we are trying to do. We have to be a bit lucky.
"If the lander hits the surface of the comet in proximity of a boulder or something like that, then there is nothing we can do. We can't actively steer the trajectory of the lander on the descent. That is the part that worries me the most because I have no control of it. All the other is our responsibility, and we are prepared."
Rosetta space probe poised to release comet lander
William Harwood – CBS News
The European Space Agency's $1.7 billion Rosetta probe, flying in close formation with a slowly tumbling comet, is poised to release a small lander Wednesday that will attempt an unprecedented touchdown on the boulder-strewn, debris-spewing nucleus, using ice screws and harpoons to keep from bouncing off in the comet's feeble gravity.
Assuming final clearance to proceed, the seven-hour descent is expected to begin with the Philae lander's release from Rosetta at 3:35 a.m. EST (GMT-5) Wednesday. Touchdown somewhere within a 1,600-foot-wide landing zone is expected about 40 minutes to either side of 10:34 a.m. At a distance of 317 million miles from Earth, it will take 28 minutes for radio signals confirming touchdown to reach anxious flight controllers in Europe.
"You won't gain anything without taking risk. Exploration is all about going to the limits, exploring the envelope," said Mark McCaughrean, senior advisor with ESA's Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration. "We've been past comets before, but nobody's ever actually dared to stop next to one, orbit around it, and of course naturally, you're going to want to land on it.
"But we know how difficult that is. Everybody's nervous, everybody's on tenterhooks, but we know the risk is worth taking, the rewards are enormous. But we also know we have a mission which is working fantastically and that we'll go into 2015 in great shape to do brilliant science next year as the comet lights up as it gets closer to the sun."
Philae's touchdown, he said, is "part of a fantastic mission" that will continue regardless of the lander's success or failure.
"I think it's one of the major achievements in the history of spaceflight, no matter how it goes tomorrow," said Andrea Accomazzo, Rosetta spacecraft operations manager. "We've done everything we could to prepare for tomorrow, but exploration implies risk. ... If you're not ready to take the risk, then you shouldn't do exploration."
Philae weighs just 220 pounds and is shaped like a cube with each side about one yard across. It is equipped with 10 compact instruments and cameras that will document the spacecraft's approach to the nucleus and collect data about the immediate environment. Once anchored to the surface, a 360-degree 3D panorama will give scientists a detailed look at the landing site, along with microscope views of the soil directly beneath the lander.
"We're then going to have a number of little laboratory experiments that will measure the gas and the dust, the organic material and the plasma coming away," McCaughrean said earlier. "And then we're actually going to drill beneath the surface to look at material just under the surface and melt some of that material, we'll dig (it) up and bring into the spacecraft."
But first, Philae has to get there. And despite the best efforts of the engineers and scientists who designed the spacecraft, it will need a bit of luck.
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko measures about two-and-a-half miles across and its gravity is roughly 100,000 times less than Earth's. Philae, weighing about the same as a sheet of paper at the comet's surface, will hit the nucleus at a walking pace, or a little more than 2 mph.
To keep it from bouncing off, ice screws in its three landing legs will drive into the dusty soil while two harpoon-like snares fire downward to get a firmer grip. A cold-gas thruster atop the lander will fire at the same time to counteract any recoil.
But a major unknown is the nature of the landing site. Philae is not equipped with maneuvering thrusters or any sort of hazard avoidance system. Once released from Rosetta, it will fall to the comet along a trajectory that cannot be adjusted to avoid boulders, cliffs or other terrain that might pose a threat.
The 1,600-foot-wide landing zone is defined by how accurately flight controllers know Rosetta's location and velocity at the moment of Philae's release. Given the comet is slowly tumbling and Rosetta itself is moving along a complex trajectory, it's a bit like a quarterback running out of the pocket and trying to hit a receiver in the end zone who's running in a different direction at a different pace. Once the ball is thrown, its trajectory cannot be changed.
Rosetta will be about 14 miles away from the nucleus at the moment of Philae's release and errors in the mothership's position and velocity will translate directly into where in the landing zone -- or beyond it -- Philae might land.
And 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is not a garden-variety potato-shaped comet with broad expanses of smooth terrain and plenty of margin for error. In a major surprise, pictures taken during Rosetta's approach earlier this year revealed a bizarre body vaguely resembled the outline of a rubber duck, with a thin neck connecting two bulging lobes with steep 500-foot-high cliffs, boulder fields and deeply cratered terrain.
Finding a suitable landing site for Philae was a major challenge and mission managers selected the best choice out of five candidates. None of them was ideal, but mission managers said Tuesday the lander had a much better than even chance of getting down and anchoring itself in place for long-term observations.
"If you decide you're going to land on an object you know nothing about 10 years, 20 years ago, then you run risk," Fred Jansen, the Rosetta mission manager, told reporters. "It's not a nice, round potato, it's rough, it's more difficult. But we've analyzed the terrain, we've analyzed the comet, and we're confident that the risks we have are still in the area of 75 percent success."
Putting the landing in perspective, he said Rosetta's observation will amount to about 80 percent of the expected science return for the overall mission while Philae's contribution, if successful, will be about 20 percent.
"Of course, we are here for the landing," he said. "But we shouldn't forget that Rosetta has a mission. It's already done a vast amount of science. ... The landing will be the cherry on the cake, connecting what we see in orbit with what we see on the ground."
Discovered in 1969, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko circles the sun in an elliptical orbit extending nearly 500 million miles from the sun at its far point -- beyond the orbit of Jupiter -- to a point between the orbits of Earth and Mars some 115 million miles from the sun. The comet measures 2.5 miles across and rotates every 12.4 hours.
Like all comets, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a frozen remnant of the primordial material used to form the sun and planets 4.6 billion years ago.
"When the solar system was forming out of gas and dust, it formed the planets, the one we live on today, it formed asteroids and it formed the comets," said McCaughrean. "And the comets are a remnant, therefore, something we can investigate about the very earliest phases of the evolution and the birth of our own solar system."
The ice found in comets can "give us great clues to the origin not only of our own solar system, but potentially even life," he said. "Because we know that comets also contain organic molecules, the building blocks of even DNA and RNA. We know that there are amino acids in comets, for example. So comets play a key role in our understanding of the cycle of star formation, planet formation, perhaps life formation."
Rosetta is the most ambitious comet research mission ever attempted. Launched on March 2, 2004, Rosetta had to carry out four planetary flybys, using the gravity of Earth and Mars in repeated passes to pump up the spacecraft's velocity enough to move out into deep space and catch up with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
On the way, Rosetta flew past two asteroids, sending back high-resolution pictures and other observations, and spent two-and-a-half years in electronic hibernation while it closed the gap with its target. On Jan. 20, Rosetta woke itself up for the final leg of its journey, matching 67P's orbit on Aug. 6.
Koen Geurts, Rosetta lander technical manager with the German space agency DLR, said getting Philae to the surface is "a one-shot opportunity."
"Once landed, Philae will start to conduct non-stop science activities for 48 hours," he said earlier. "After this 48 hours, the Philae batteries will be depleted. But in these 48 hours, for example, a drill to take comet surface samples will have the opportunity to drill roughly 30 centimeters (one foot) below the comet's surface, extract tiny particles of this pristine comet material, take it up on board the lander, deploy it in one of the on-board ovens ... for analyzing the comet material."
In addition, a thermometer will be "hammered into the surface. This is in order to evaluate the comet's thermal characteristics during its rotation around its axis." Other instruments will characterize the dust environment and even the comet's interior by measuring radio signals sent back and fourth between Rosetta and the lander.
Scientists hope Philae will remain operational for three to four months of close-range observations as the comet warms up and becomes more and more active. But that will depend in large part on how much debris jets away from the comet and whether Philae's solar panels can get enough sunlight to keep its instruments powered up.
Eventually, the comet will warm up enough to cause problems and "at some point, the systems will overheat and this will give a natural end to the Philae mission, Geurts said. "At this point it is, of course, hoped that Philae has contributed significantly to the understanding of comets and their evolution on their path around the sun having conducted this unprecedented scientific in situ measurements."
Wednesday, humans will land a probe on a comet for the first time ever
Rachel Feltman - Washington Post
In the climax of a decade-long mission, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is expected to drop a lander on the surface of a comet Wednesday morning. But the journey is far from over: The feat of landing a probe on a comet's uneven, enigmatic surface — which has never before been accomplished — will take scientists from the ESA and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory a grueling seven hours.
Since its launch in March of 2004, Rosetta has flown by Earth three times, as well as making one Mars flyby. At one point in 2011, the spacecraft even had to hibernate. Flying nearly 500 million miles away from the sun (close to Jupiter's orbit) the craft's solar panels couldn't leech enough energy to keep it running. But in January of this year, Rosetta woke up — and quickly approached its target.
Rosetta first spotted the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko back in March. Since then, it's taken a multitude of readings of the comet, telling scientists everything from how it smells to what noises it makes. Most importantly, Rosetta had to select the perfect site for its payload, a 220-pound carbon-fiber robotic lander called Philae. Once stationed on the comet, Philae will take readings until the comet is too warm -- probably around March. Meanwhile, Rosetta will follow the comet's orbit until December. The separation of Philae from Rosetta herself is scheduled for 4:03 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. While the public won't be able to see video of the separation itself, there will be live video from the ESA's control room online, and probably periodic images from the spacecraft. Once Philae separates from its mother ship, it's got a seven-hour descent to the surface. If all goes well, Philae will land at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday — give or take 15 minutes. Of course, that's just when staff at mission control will see that the landing has occurred. Because 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is almost 300 million miles away from Earth at the moment, there's a communication delay of nearly half an hour.
But even in the final seven hours of a 10-year endeavor, plenty can go wrong: Philae and Rosetta could fail to make satellite communication with each other after the separation. Since Rosetta is Philae's relay to Earth, a failure to connect the probe to the spacecraft would mean the robot was functionally lost.
And even though the landing site, named Agilkia, was carefully selected, it might not make for an easy touchdown. "We're looking at the pictures of this comet and interpreting them the way we would somewhere on Earth, because we're just not tuned to understand what they mean for comet geology yet," said Claudia Alexander, the project scientist who's overseeing NASA's many contributions to the effort. The surface could be much harder or softer than they're expecting, causing Philae to bounce or sink on impact. If Philae ends up upside-down or sinks too deep into soft ground, it has no way to right itself.
But even if the landing is a mess, Rosetta has been a resounding success, said Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern in Switzerland. Altwegg is in charge of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA), a tool for detecting the comet's molecular composition.
"The lander would be the icing on the cake," Altwegg said. "But we've been receiving data on the atmosphere of the comet since August."
Alexander agreed. "Even during the descent itself we'll be taking readings that will move our understanding of the comet forward leaps and bounds," she said.
That isn't to say there isn't much to learn from a successful landing. "Right away the lander will take a panoramic picture," Alexander said, "And then it will dig into material from the comet and break it down to sniff out the molecules in it. It's really like a crime scene, looking for forensic evidence."
The comet contains the materials that originally formed the solar system, frozen in time. By digging them out, we can learn more about the origins of our own planet.
"It's a look at the basic building blocks of our solar system, the ancient materials from which life emerged," Altwegg said. "It's like doing archaeology, but instead of going back 1,000 years, we can go back 4.6 billion."
UT Arlington professor's invention set for comet landing
Wednesday morning, a spacecraft is set to become the first in history to touch down on a comet.
"It is really an amazing undertaking," says Daniel Armstrong, a UT Arlington chemist who invented a device that is being used on the mission. "Nobody's ever landed on anything that far from Earth or on that small an object."
Scientists hope the Rosetta mission will answer fundamental questions about how life on Earth began. One leading theory holds that comets brought organic molecules to Earth billions of years ago, enabling life to develop. The item Armstrong designed will allow scientists to look for some of these compounds.
His device, a gas chromatography column, looks like a small tube lined with a petroleum jelly-like substance. As gasses flow through the column, their components stick to the sides for various lengths of time. "When molecules come out the other end, they come out one at a time so you can identify them by their mass," says Armstrong.
The tube was designed to hunt for a group of compounds known as chiral molecules. Amino acids, which make up all the proteins in the human body, fall into this category.
What sets chiral molecules apart is that they come in "left-handed" and "right-handed" varieties. Like left and right hands, chiral molecules cannot be superimposed on their mirror images.
For reasons that still perplex scientists, living things use only "left-handed" chiral amino acids. "That's a signature of life on earth," says Armstrong.
Because chiral molecules are virtually identical, they are difficult to separate, but Armstrong's column can tell apart "left-handed" and "right-handed" ones.
Rosetta, which is operated by the European Space Agency with NASA's participation, has been chasing comet 67P through deep space for more than 10 years. Now caught up, it will release its Philae lander at 3:03 a.m. Central time Wednesday morning. Seven hours later, at 10:03 a.m., Philae will – hopefully — be settling onto the surface of comet 67P with Armstrong's column on board.
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