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From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: November 18, 2014 1:04:16 PM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW: NASA and Human Spaceflight News - Tuesday – November 18, 2014 and reminder from JSC Airplane Club
Norm, Larry, and E. Bob,I don't want to abuse your emails list, but last time we got a few calls from your distribution and was hoping for a last time reminder. Thanks for all your help.---------------------------------------------------The Johnson Space Center Airplane Club is having its 50 anniversary celebration on December 11, 2014, at the Gilruth Alamo Ballroom. The festivities start at 7pm and we would love to have you join us. We have several specials things planned and static displays of old and new models.The event will include a holiday dinner and cash bar. Come and join the fun and hear about how model aircraft was instrumental in the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft design. Tickets are $10 a person for members and guest. We are asking for an RSVP by November 30th. You can RSVP to Kent Stromberg, 403 Locknell, Houston TX, 77063, 281-480-0095 or wkstromberg@comcast.net.Safe landings and Godspeed.Mike Laible---------------------------------------------------Mike L.Mike Laible
ISS Loads & Microgravity
The Boeing Company
281-226-4192NASA and Human Spaceflight NewsTuesday – November 18, 2014HEADLINES AND LEADSNASA Bringing on 'Capability Leaders' in February in Latest Attempt at Right-sizingDan Leone – Space NewsIn February, NASA will appoint at least five "capability leaders" to help steer the agency's latest bid to trim costs and reduce duplication of effort across its 10 regional field centers, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a Nov. 3 interview.Airbus wins contract for US space capsule OrionVictoria Bryan - ReutersAirbus Group will develop and build a service module for the future American human space capsule, Orion, marking the first time a European firm will provide system-critical elements for a U.S. space project, it said on Monday.Interstellar': The Cinema of PhysicistsDennis Overbye – The New York TimesThe Earth is a dying dust bowl where a blight is destroying all the crops and oxygen. Schoolchildren are being taught that the moon landings were faked to bankrupt the Russians, and NASA is a secret agency consisting of a dozen scientists huddling underground. The Yankees are a barnstorming troupe who play games in cornfields and let ground balls go through their legs.World's First Zero-Gravity 3D Printer Installed on Space StationMike Wall - Space.comIt may not be a "Star Trek" replicator, but the first zero-gravity 3D printer is set up and ready for action on the International Space Station.Almost astronautsJeff Foust – The Space ReviewOne of the world's most exclusive clubs is that of space travelers. Since the beginning of the Space Age, fewer than 550 people have flown in space worldwide. Becoming a professional astronaut is one of the most difficult careers to achieve. According to the rosters published by NASA, the agency today has 43 "active" astronauts available for flight assignments, plus eight astronaut candidates selected in 2013. That makes the astronaut corps roughly the size of a single National Football League team roster—and there are 32 such teams in the league.New Mars lander takes shapeThe next Mars lander — a platform to drill beneath the surface of the red planet — has begun its assembly phase in preparation for launch in March 2016.Webb Space Telescope promises astronomers new scientific adventuresEric Niiler - The Washington PostInside a very big and very clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., nearly 30 workers dressed in white protective suits, goggles and blue booties cluster around the parts of a time machine.Images Show Philae's First Bounce, Ulamec Optimistic Will Hear from It AgainMarcia S. Smith - Spacepolicyonline.comThe European Space Agency (ESA) today released new images taken by its Rosetta spacecraft of the Philae lander as it made a first landing on Comet 67P and then bounced on November 12. Also today, the German Aerospace Center, DLR, issued a concise summary of very preliminary science results from Philae. The fate of the lander, which bounced twice and landed three times, sparked interest around the world last week as its battery died and contact was lost. Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec is optimistic, however, that communications will be restored next year.Best of Vesta: Scientists Turn Dawn's Data Into Asteroid MapAlan Boyle – NBC NewsIf future space travelers ever have to get around on Vesta, the second most massive body in the asteroid belt, they may well rely upon a just-released map that's based on data from NASA's Dawn mission.Names in bottles: a new tool for exploration?Dan Lester – The Space Review
I'm in space! Well, my name is in space. Okay, the letters of my name are encoded on a chip in space. Those ten bytes occupy a few nanograms of memory on a space vehicle. It cost me nothing to send them there, and maybe a minute of my online time. Now, I confess, I don't remember which mission vehicle that chip is on, so I really don't have a clue where those bytes are right now. It was a few years ago when I did it. I was led to believe that as a result of putting my name there, I would feel more involved in space exploration. I'm frankly still waiting for that to happen. But I recognize that such action may have a more profound effect on others who do it.Industry Doesn't Expect Consolidation of Commercial Space RegulationJeff Foust – Space NewsAs the U.S. Congress considers proposals to grant government agencies with additional commercial space regulatory authority, industry and government officials believe it is unlikely those efforts will lead to a broader consolidation of regulatory power.Myriad Milestones completed and underway for NASA's commercial PartnersJosh Tallis - Spaceflightinsider.comOne month after NASA announced that Boeing had reached its final milestone under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement, the space agency reports broad progress among a range of industry partners. A press release from NASA notes the advancements of Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX in the agency's efforts to restore American access to space.SpaceShipTwo: The Survival of a Pilot and an IndustryJosh Tallis – Spaceflight InsiderOnly days after the explosion of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket on Wallops Island, VA, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo experienced a catastrophic failure. The unlikely survival of a test pilot, and the tenacity of a company, provide a compelling narrative blending human interest and entrepreneurial drive.COMPLETE STORIESNASA Bringing on 'Capability Leaders' in February in Latest Attempt at Right-sizingDan Leone – Space NewsIn February, NASA will appoint at least five "capability leaders" to help steer the agency's latest bid to trim costs and reduce duplication of effort across its 10 regional field centers, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a Nov. 3 interview.It will be a big step for the Technical Capabilities Assessment Team (TCAT) that since April 2012 has been studying ways to make NASA more efficient at a time when its budget is trending flat, major programs such as the James Webb Space Telescope and Space Launch System are hitting peak spending years, and the agency has been barred by Congress from laying off civil servants.Lightfoot said the team's ongoing review is about finding efficiencies, not consolidation. However, he acknowledged some NASA infrastructure "could be closed or moved" as a result of the effort.As examples, Lightfoot cited the demolition of wind tunnels at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, earlier this decade and an April decision to cease NASA-operated parabolic jet flights for microgravity research and astronaut training and instead rely on contractor Zero Gravity Corp. of Arlington, Virginia, for that service."I know that I won't be able to keep everything," said Lightfoot, who as NASA's most senior career civil servant currently ranks behind only the NASA administrator — who is a political appointee — in the agency's chain of command.To decide which moves to make next, NASA is developing a list of core capabilities that must be maintained to carry out the space and aeronautics missions the agency is chartered to undertake, Lightfoot said. The list has not been finalized yet, but there will be at least five core capabilities identified in February, each of which will be overseen by a capability leader."Once we get the capability leaders in place by the end of February, then we'll have somebody to come forward and say, 'You know what, we got too much of X and not enough of Y,' " Lightfoot told SpaceNews.Lightfoot expects these capability leaders will be selected from within NASA, although the hiring process is open to all. Some leaders have been hired already, Lightfoot said, although he declined to identify them.Capability leaders will have neither budget authority nor the ability to hire or fire anyone. Instead, they will report annually to the NASA Program Management Council, which Lightfoot chairs here. Major NASA programs must pass muster with the Program Management Council before they are allowed to proceed into development. The council also periodically reviews ongoing programs and makes budget recommendations to the NASA administrator each year.Already, NASA has identified three core capability areas, Lightfoot said: life sciences, Earth science research and aircraft operations.Other areas likely to be subjected at some point to TCAT's scrutiny include:
- Mission operations, including crewed and uncrewed missions.
- Nuclear systems.
- Propulsion.
- Aeronautics sciences.
- Robotic systems.
- Microgravity flight services.
- Launch vehicles.
- Entry, descent and landing.
Lightfoot said TCAT is not meant to be NASA's version of the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission that Congress last chartered in 2005, setting in motion plans to close more than 20 military bases across the United States."I think it's an unreasonable comparison only because what we're trying to do is actually size the centers appropriately," Lightfoot said. "That could make [the center] smaller, that could make it bigger. We're finding areas that we need to invest in that we're not investing in, just like we're finding areas where we may have duplication and overlap."When TCAT is finished — Lightfoot said it will continue beyond the February appointment of the first capability leaders — the study will serve as the agency's answer to a slew of recommendations on excess infrastructure and duplication of effort that has been building up at the NASA Office of the Inspector General for years.In a Nov. 14 report titled "NASA's Top Management and Performance Challenges," the NASA inspector general noted that "responsive action" to its many recommendations over the years "is contingent upon completion of the work of NASA's Technical Capabilities Assessment Team."Whether NASA ultimately will be able to implement cost savings identified by TCAT may depend on political factors beyond the agency's control. That is because lawmakers can be counted on to fight changes that threaten the budgets of NASA centers in their jurisdictions — a political reality that appears to have not escaped the inspector general's attention. "It is too early in the [TCAT] process for the [Office of Inspector General] to assess its efficacy," NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote.Airbus wins contract for US space capsule OrionVictoria Bryan - ReutersAirbus Group will develop and build a service module for the future American human space capsule, Orion, marking the first time a European firm will provide system-critical elements for a U.S. space project, it said on Monday.Europe's largest aerospace group said the contract, signed with the European Space Agency, was worth around 390 million euros ($488 million).The contract comes days after European scientists celebrated landing a probe on the surface of a comet for the first time.NASA intends to use Orion to fly astronauts to an asteroid that has been robotically relocated into a high orbit around the moon. Eventually, the U.S. space agency wants to fly a four-member crew to Mars.The design of the service module for Orion is based on the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) developed and built by Airbus as a supply craft for the International Space Station.Interstellar': The Cinema of PhysicistsDennis Overbye – The New York TimesThe Earth is a dying dust bowl where a blight is destroying all the crops and oxygen. Schoolchildren are being taught that the moon landings were faked to bankrupt the Russians, and NASA is a secret agency consisting of a dozen scientists huddling underground. The Yankees are a barnstorming troupe who play games in cornfields and let ground balls go through their legs.This is the world of "Interstellar," the space thriller directed by Christopher Nolan, of "Inception" and "The Dark Knight" fame, and written by him and his brother Jonathan, that hit theaters in a tsunami of publicity this month.I've been looking forward to "Interstellar" ever since I first heard back in 2006 that physicists led by the celebrated gravitational theorist and Caltech professor Kip Thorne had held a workshop to brainstorm a science-fiction movie. This would be the movie that finally got things right.The movie stars Matthew McConaughey as an astronaut named Cooper, who leads an expedition to another galaxy in search of a new home for humanity, and, stars among others, Mackenzie Foy, who grows up into Jessica Chastain, as his daughter, Murph (named after the law), who is mad that he left. On one level, it is a heroically realistic tale of space exploration. On another level, it's a story about father-daughter relationships, as well as a meditation on the human spirit and what happens when humans take their eyes off the stars. But it's also about quantum gravity and the mysteries of the fifth dimension, and even an astronaut who was at a screening with me confessed that he was confused.The first time I saw it, I too was confused, and disappointed. Aside from a wonderful view of Cooper's spacecraft dwarfed by lonely blackness down at the corner of the Imax screen as it passed by a magnificently glowing Saturn, and tense docking sequences similar to certain scenes in "2001: A Space Odyssey," it was short on the magic and the delicious storytelling twists I expect from the Nolan brothers.The second time I saw the movie, clued in by Dr. Thorne's new book, "The Science of Interstellar," I enjoyed it more, and I could appreciate that a lot of hard-core 20th- and 21st-century physics, especially string theory, was buried in the story — and that there was a decipherable, if abstruse, logic to the ending. But I wonder if a movie that requires a 324-page book to explicate it can be considered a totally successful work of art. The movie's pedigree goes back to Carl Sagan, a Cornell astronomer and author.In 1980, he arranged a blind date between Dr. Thorne and Lynda Obst, a good friend and self-admitted "science geek" who later produced "Contact" and "Sleepless in Seattle," among other films.They dated briefly and then became good friends. In 2006, they wrote an eight-page treatment for a film about a crew of astronauts, including Stephen Hawking and a romantically attached assistant, who travel through the universe and slightly backward in time by way of wormholes. Out there, they encounter a race of advanced five-dimensional beings who live outside of our own space-time and communicate with it and us only by gravity.After the Caltech workshop, Jonathan Nolan rewrote the story, and Christopher Nolan rewrote it again after he took over from Steven Spielberg as the director. As a result, Dr. Thorne said, the final screenplay bears little resemblance to the original story he and Ms. Obst wrote.In the movie, a wormhole, presumably built by some advanced alien race about which we know nothing, has opened up in space out near Saturn. It goes to another galaxy where scouting expeditions have identified three promising planets orbiting a giant supermassive black hole. It is Cooper's job to check out those planets.As executive producer, Dr. Thorne had the job of keeping the moviemakers from violating any known laws of physics, his criterion for acceptance being "something serious physicists would at least discuss over beer," as he put it in an interview.His book, he stressed, represents his interpretation, and not necessarily the director's, of what happens or could have happened in the movie, a sort of scientific back story. "A large fraction is stuff I discussed with Chris," he said.Dr. Thorne said he had almost always been able to find a way to accommodate Mr. Nolan's ideas. Luckily, as he said, "There is a lot of leeway beyond the frontier." At one point, director Nolan asked for a planet on which the dilation of time because of immensely powerful gravity was so severe that one hour there would correspond to seven years on Earth — an Einsteinian effect that plays a big role in the plot. Dr. Thorne's first reaction was "no way." But after thinking about it, he says he found a way, which would require the planet to be very close to a massive black hole spinning at nearly its maximum rate. The hole would spin space around with it, like a mixer swirling thick dough.The planet could get its heat and light from the disk of heated material swirling around the hole, Dr. Thorne calculated, as long as the hole was not feeding too strongly — a rather carefully tuned but not impossible situation. The black hole itself sprang directly from Dr. Thorne's equations, and its renderings by the movie's visual effects supervisor, Paul Franklin, showed details that Dr. Thorne plans to write papers about.Wormholes are another thing that easily pass the beer test. Einstein himself pointed out that such shortcuts through space-time were at least allowed by his equations, but nobody knows how to make one or to keep it from collapsing, or how to install one near Saturn without its gravitational field's disrupting the entire solar system.Ditto the fifth dimension, a logical consequence of various brands of string theory.But not everyone drinks the same beer. So some scientists and science writers — not all of whom have had the advantage of reading Dr. Thorne's elaborate explanations — have paid the movie the ultimate compliment: taking it seriously enough to subject it to a kind of public peer review. The blogs and other forms of science media have bloomed with criticisms."Some might say, 'Why quibble; it's just a movie?' " said David Grinspoon of the Planetary Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., and a participant in the 2006 workshop, who complained of sloppy planetary science in the movie. Even with a voracious blight, he said, it would take millions of years to draw down Earth's oxygen."So why did they take care with relativity but not even bother with planetary science?" he went on. "Arthur C. Clarke is spinning in his stargate!"As a moviegoer, I have a high tolerance for artistic license and wild ideas. As long as it was in space in this universe, the movie worked for me. It was on either end, on Earth and in the fifth dimension, that "Interstellar" goes off the rails.It is hard for me to imagine, for example, a discredited and underground NASA able to launch rockets to another galaxy, scouting expeditions through the wormhole, spending trillions of dollars without anyone knowing. This crew should give secret-keeping lessons to the N.S.A.Nor does it seem plausible to me that there seems to be about one theoretical physicist left in the world, who happens to be Professor Brand (Michael Caine), Cooper's old teacher and NASA's leader. All the hundreds of string theorists now filling college chairs have gone away despite the discovery of that wormhole and the fifth dimension, confirming the wildest ideas of string theory, which would be worth a handful of Nobel Prizes — unless they too, have gone underground.As for the fifth dimension, too much of the critical action happens there, where none of us have ever been, at the behest of those mysterious "bulk beings" who built the wormhole, presumably to save mankind. Who are they? Cooper speculates that they are humans who have evolved, but it doesn't matter. We never see them. For the purposes of the movie, they could be Norse gods, angels, Superman or whoever made the monoliths in "2001," a wild card the Nolans can play at will, a deus ex machina, in other words. That's cheating.If they're so powerful, why don't they stop the blight? Or fix up a planet in our own solar system? Nor are the planets in that other galaxy all that impressive. One of them has tsunamis a mile high, the other has clouds of solid ice (Dr. Thorne has admitted wincing when he sees that). And who really wants to live next to a hungry black hole? Compared with this, Mars looks pretty good.After traveling the universe of "Interstellar," I'd rather stay home.World's First Zero-Gravity 3D Printer Installed on Space StationMike Wall - Space.comIt may not be a "Star Trek" replicator, but the first zero-gravity 3D printer is set up and ready for action on the International Space Station.Station commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore of NASA installed the space 3D printer inside the orbiting lab's Microgravity Science Glovebox on Monday morning (Nov. 17). The machine and its software are in good operating condition, and the first test items will likely be printed sometime Monday, NASA officials said."This is a very exciting day for me and the rest of the team," Mike Snyder, lead engineer for California-based startup Made in Space, said in a statement. "We had to conquer many technical challenges to get the 3D printer to this stage."Made in Space designed and built the 3D printer, which arrived at the space station in September aboard SpaceX's robotic Dragon cargo capsule. The machine's operations on the orbiting lab are part of the 3D Print project, a collaboration between Made in Space and NASA.NASA has high hopes for 3D printing, saying the technology could make space exploration cheaper, safer and more efficient. Voyaging spaceships with 3D printers onboard, for example, could manufacture required tools or spare parts rather than rely on resupply from the ground.The 3D Print project is a crucial step toward making that vision a reality, allowing engineers to verify that the technology works in microgravity the same way it works here on Earth, said NASA's Nikki Werkheiser, 3D Print project manager."NASA and Made in Space have flown parabolic flights and tested this, but you only get short spurts of microgravity," Werkheiser, who's based at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, said on NASA TV Monday morning. "Space station is actually the only platform where we're able to test this technology before we use it on further-out exploration missions."The items printed aboard the space station will eventually be brought down to Earth for an "apples to apples" comparison with identical objects printed by the machine before its launch. The next step will be demonstrating the utilization of parts printed aboard the orbiting lab, Werkheiser said.Almost astronautsJeff Foust – The Space ReviewOne of the world's most exclusive clubs is that of space travelers. Since the beginning of the Space Age, fewer than 550 people have flown in space worldwide. Becoming a professional astronaut is one of the most difficult careers to achieve. According to the rosters published by NASA, the agency today has 43 "active" astronauts available for flight assignments, plus eight astronaut candidates selected in 2013. That makes the astronaut corps roughly the size of a single National Football League team roster—and there are 32 such teams in the league.Those long odds have not deterred many from trying to become an astronaut. In that most recent NASA selection, more than 6,100 people applied, with only eight making the cut. Many, of course, are weeded out in the early stages, but some survive those cuts and make it into the final stages of the selection. What happens when you get this close to achieving what, for many, is a lifelong dream—and fall short?"You start thinking, 'What did I do wrong?'"Sian Proctor knows what that's like. "I wanted to be an astronaut since, basically, I was born," she said in a panel session at the SpaceVision 2014 conference in Durham, North Carolina, on November 1. Born on Guam, where her father was working for NASA, she was immersed in spaceflight from an early age. "As a kid, I always thought I would go and become an astronaut. It would be an easy process."Her initial plans to pursue that career by first becoming an Air Force pilot were derailed at age 16 when she got glasses. "Pretty much at that time, my idea of becoming an astronaut ended," she said.Afterwards, she said she followed her personal passions, which included travelling, photography, and food. She obtained a Ph.D. in science education from Arizona State University, where she also took up ice hockey, becoming captain of the women's team there, even though she never played the sport before."It's really important to learn what your limitations are, and to push yourself and to understand your fears and how to overcome them," she told the largely student audience. "And the only way to do that is by being adventurous and trying things you never thought you would try before."In 2008, Proctor said she was "living my lifestyle," following her passions, when NASA announced a new astronaut selection round. "A friend sends me an email that says, 'Hey, you should try out for the astronaut corps. You'd be awesome.'" She realized she met the requirements for being an astronaut, and submitted an application.She made the initial cut of 110 semi-finalists for that class, and went to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) for several days of interviews and medical tests. About two month later, she heard back from NASA: she was one of 47 finalists. She went back to JSC for a week's worth of more thorough medical tests, interviews, and simulations."And then you go home and you wait," she said. "You wait for the phone call: the yes/no phone call."That call came months later, when Proctor was at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center doing research. "They had told me that if a woman calls you, you've got it, since Peggy Whitson was head of the astronaut selection committee at the time," she recalled.A woman did call Proctor, but it was Sunita Williams, not Whitson, on the line, telling Proctor that she wasn't selected. "You have this interesting reaction when you get this close," she said. "It's very emotional. You start thinking, 'What did I do wrong? Why didn't they select me? What could I have done better?'"It's not uncommon for potential astronauts to miss the cut the first time, and try again—sometimes several times—before finally being selected. Those people often use the opportunity to fill gaps in their experience, take jobs at NASA, or otherwise refine themselves to have a better shot in future attempts.Proctor, though, took a different approach. "I could make changes in my life to try and fit what it was I thought NASA was looking for," she said, such as getting a degree in space studies. "Then I stopped myself. The lifestyle I was living got me to be in the top one percent, so I must have been doing something right.""So, instead of getting another degree, I went on a reality TV show," she said. That show, "The Colony," featuring a group of people living in a simulated post-apocalyptic society. Her friends warned her that going on a reality TV show might ruin her chances of becoming a NASA astronaut."I didn't care though," she said. "This is where my passion was. This is what I wanted to do. It was a unique opportunity for me." She leveraged that TV show experience into participation in a Mars simulation, called HI-SEAS, living for four months on a Hawaiian mountaintop. If she had any regrets for not becoming an astronaut, she didn't express them at the conference."Go make opportunities for yourself and live life along the way," she advised the students at the talk."A terrible numbers game"As difficult as it is to become a NASA astronaut, it can be even more challenging to join the astronaut corps of other nations, where new astronauts are selected less frequently and typically have even fewer opportunities to fly. That's the case in Canada, where the most recent round in 2008 eventually selected two astronauts out of an initial pool of more than 10,000 applications."You've got a terrible numbers game working against you," said Geoff Steeves, a physicist at the University of Victoria, who was one of those applicants. "You kind of have to do things to try and stand out."Steeves sought to stand out not just with his education but other experience, from scuba diving to piloting. That experience outside the laboratory, he said, helped demonstrate his ability to solve problems on short timescales, an essential skill for an astronaut.In 2009, he recalls, "things got interesting," where, after making the initial cuts, he and other applicants went through a series of aptitude tests, ranging from working on a simulator of the Canadarm robotic arm to a two-day damage control training course that dealt with firefighting and flood control in confined spaces. He became one of 16 finalists in that round.Steeves, though, didn't make the final cut, as the Canadian Space Agency picked Jeremy Hansen and David Saint-Jacques, who are today the only two active Canadian astronauts. "It took time to come to terms with not being selected, especially when you get so close," he said."Over time," he said, "I realized that I had such an amazing experience, it changed me. I wanted to play that change forward."Many of the other finalists, he said, had attended the International Space University (ISU). He attended ISU as a student in 2010 and has since joined the faculty. He said he's working with an artist on a series of interactive comics about students who want to become astronauts."I'll take my chances against Lance Bass"The coming age of commercial human spaceflight will change the calculus of becoming a space traveler. No longer will people need the mythical "Right Stuff" and beat long odds to become an astronaut: if you have enough money in your checkbook, and are reasonable healthy, you'll be able to experience at least a suborbital spaceflight.However, even would-be commercial astronauts can miss out on their spaceflight aspirations. In 2002, Lori Garver, at the time a former NASA official working for DFI International, made headlines with her "AstroMom" effort, trying to raise money to fly to the International Space Station as a spaceflight participant—a space tourist—on a Rusian Soyuz vehicle.In 2002, space tourism was still in its early days: Dennis Tito was the first private individual to fly to the ISS in 2001. Seat prices were also lower than today: $20 million or less, versus more than $50 million that Space Adventures charges for a Soyuz seat, on the rare occasions when one is available.That lower price, though, was still far beyond Garver's means, and she worked to find corporate sponsors to pay for the flight, ranging from Sudafed to Major League Baseball to Disney. "It's worth a million dollars when you land—that was the negotiated amount—to say, 'Lori Garver, you've just been to space, what are you going to do now? I'm going to Disneyland,'" she recalled."The model proved a little challenging," she said of the sponsorship approach, "because I needed to get sponsors at a time when I also need to commit to the Russians that I could do it." The Russians initially were accommodating, she said, since there was no one else interested in that seat.Until, that is, Lance Bass came along. The singer, at the apex of his fame as a member of the boy band *NSYNC, had suddenly expressed an interest in flying into space, on the same flight that Garver was seeking to take."Lance shows up in Russia, not really prepared for what was happening," Garver recalled. "He was a great guy, and we had a ball."Both went into training in parallel for a time, passing the physical challenges while facing greater fiscal ones. "Lance ended up being able to convince the Russians he could raise more," she said. "Of course, he never raised the money either." Neither Garver nor Bass flew on that Soyuz flight."My business model didn't work in a competitive environment," she concluded. "I wasn't prepared to raise the full $20 million and, it turned out, he wasn't either."However, she saw some benefits from the effort, such as raising the public profile of the International Space Station and commercial space, including that "everyday people," as opposed to professional astronauts, could go to space."Commercial personal spaceflight is something I feel strongly about for a lot of reasons, not just because I would have loved to have gone," she said. "I feel the critical nature of it is to allow more people to experience spaceflight themselves.""It you're average, you've got to go commercial," she said later. Referring to the extensive medical tests and training that Proctor and Steeves experienced, she said, "I'll take my chances against Lance Bass over what you guys went through any day."New Mars lander takes shapeThe next Mars lander — a platform to drill beneath the surface of the red planet — has begun its assembly phase in preparation for launch in March 2016."Reaching this stage that we call ATLO is a critical milestone," said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California."This is a very satisfying point of the mission as we transition from many teams working on their individual elements to integrating these elements into a functioning system. The subsystems are coming from all over the globe, and the ATLO team works to integrate them into the flight vehicle. We will then move rapidly to rigorous testing when the spacecraft has been assembled, and then to the launch preparations."The InSight mission, or Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is being built by using similar hardware to the successful Mars Phoenix lander.The lander, its aeroshell and cruise stage are being assembled by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver."The InSight mission is a mix of tried-and-true and new-and-exciting. The spacecraft has a lot of heritage from Phoenix and even back to the Viking landers, but the science has never been done before at Mars," said Stu Spath, InSight program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "Physically, InSight looks very much like the Phoenix lander we built, but most of the electronic components are similar to what is currently flying on the MAVEN spacecraft."Over the next six months, technicians at Lockheed Martin will add subsystems such as avionics, power, telecomm, mechanisms, thermal systems and navigation systems onto the spacecraft. The propulsion system was installed earlier this year on the lander's main structure.As a NASA Discovery-class mission, InSight is a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science: understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system, including Earth, more than four billion years ago.The craft will be launched by a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.Webb Space Telescope promises astronomers new scientific adventuresEric Niiler - The Washington PostInside a very big and very clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., nearly 30 workers dressed in white protective suits, goggles and blue booties cluster around the parts of a time machine.These parts — gold-covered mirrors, tennis-court-size sun shields, delicate infrared cameras — are slowly being put together to become the James Webb Space Telescope.Astronomers are hoping that the Webb will be able to collect light that is very far away from us and is moving still farther away. The universe has been expanding ever since the big bang got it started, but scientists reckon that if the telescope is powerful enough, they just might be able to see the birth of the first galaxies, some 13.5 billion years ago."This is similar to archaeology," says Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who helped plan Webb's science mission. "We are digging deep into the universe. But as the sources of light become fainter and farther away, you need a big telescope like the James Webb."Named for a former NASA director, the 21-foot-diameter Webb telescope will be 100 times as powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990. Although Hubble wasn't the first space telescope, its images of far-off objects have dazzled the public and led to breakthroughs in astrophysics, such as determining how fast the universe is expanding.The Webb will be both bigger and located in a darker part of space than Hubble, enabling it to capture images from the faintest galaxies. Four infrared cameras will capture light that is moving away from us very quickly and that has shifted from the visible to the infrared spectrum, described as red-shifted. The advantage of using infrared light is that it is not blocked by clouds of gas and dust that may lie between the telescope and the light. Webb's mirrors are covered in a thin layer of gold that absorbs blue light but reflects yellow and red visible light, and its cameras will detect infrared light and a small part of the visible spectrum. As objects move away from us, the wavelength of their light shifts from visible light to infrared light. That's why the Webb's infrared cameras will be able to see things that are both far away and moving away from us.The cameras will also probe the atmospheres of planets that revolve around nearby stars, known as exoplanets, for the chemical signatures of life: water, oxygen and maybe even pollution from alien civilizations.But before any of that dazzling science happens, there's a lot of testing to do at Goddard, in the clean room and a nearby "cryo-chamber."Various tests will squeeze, shake, freeze and twist thousands of individual parts in an effort to make sure the spacecraft will survive blastoff from a spaceport in French Guyana and the cold environment of its orbiting position almost a million miles from Earth. By comparison, Hubble circles just 375 miles above our planet, depending on its orbit.The project, which began in 2004, peaks in October 2018 when the telescope is launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from the European Space Agency. From now on, NASA engineers will find the pace picking up and deadlines getting even tighter.As a young engineer in the early 1990s, Paul Geithner helped fix tiny bumps on Hubble's glass mirror, a flaw discovered after the telescope was in space. Today, at 52, Geithner is making sure everything stays on track on the Webb assembly line at Goddard. He says testing of individual parts, including each of the 18 hexagonal mirrors, the backplane (which NASA describes as the spine holding the mirrors) and all the scientific instruments will be done by the end of this year. Beginning in early 2015, portions of the telescope and its spacecraft will be joined together with special glue and bolts."It's not feasible to test it as a complete system," said Geithner, NASA's deputy project manager for technical issues. "So what that means is we have to test different pieces of it and convince ourselves through testing and analysis that when it's put together, it will work."Back in the 1990s, NASA sent shuttle astronauts to repair Hubble's mirror during a dangerous operation that required five days of spacewalks. But that's not an option for the Webb: It will be parked too far away.Geithner said everybody learned lessons from the Hubble mistake, which NASA blamed on a contractor. Now, the need for independent testing of the optical surfaces is clear. "You don't use the same tools that you use to make the optics to tell you it is okay," he said.This year concluded several "cryo-tests" (testing reactions at extremely low temperatures), in which the boxlike structure containing the infrared cameras — called the Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM — was lowered into a 60-foot-tall vacuum chamber at Goddard. The air was pumped out to simulate conditions in space, liquid nitrogen flooded an inner chamber and super-cooled helium was pumped into a smaller interior chamber. The four-camera package faced temperatures of 11 degrees Kelvin, which is minus-440 degrees Fahrenheit."The biggest stress is not the shaking from the [spacecraft] launch," Geithner explained. "But the whole thing shrinks when it cools down, so there's a lot of stress on the joints and it tries to tear itself apart."ISIM survived the cryo-test in July, was warmed up to room temperature and then removed from the cryo-chamber in October. It needs to be pulled apart, then put back together for final tests next year.Measuring everything twice means the Webb telescope will function as it is supposed to, according to Geithner. But the extra testing is expensive.Cost overruns and early delays nearly killed the project in 2011. Webb's price tag soared from initial estimates of $1 billion in the late 1990s to the current figure of $8.8 billion. But Congress gave NASA a second chance, and the agency revised its construction budget to keep it within limits. Still, the Webb is NASA's most expensive science mission. Some critics say it has sucked money away from other worthy projects, such as other missions around the solar system or monitoring environmental changes on Earth.NASA chief Charles Bolden told Goddard workers in February that the project is on budget and on schedule, as long as Congress keeps the money flowing.In the meantime, scientists such as Sara Seager of MIT, who studies exoplanets that revolve around distant stars, are imagining the discoveries that will occur once Webb directs its mirrors toward deep space. As a planet moves in front of a star, researchers hope to see the fingerprints of its atmosphere, which absorbs starlight. By analyzing the chemical spectrum of the light, they may be able to determine the atmosphere's composition. Oxygen has a spectral fingerprint, as does methane, carbon dioxide and other gases found in atmospheres.Seager and other scientists can point the Hubble at exoplanets, but they don't get much time to use it because the entire telescope heats up and cools down as it passes from day to night.Exoplanet hunters need to point the telescope for a long time at one place. The Webb telescope represents a big step forward, according to Seager, because it won't be bothered by light or radiation from the sun and the Earth and therefore will be able to see more-distant objects. (A five-layer sun shield and distance from the Earth will protect the telescope.)"Anytime you put something new in space, the astronomy world changes dramatically," Seager said.When NASA began planning the Webb telescope, exoplanets were just being discovered. The early ones were huge, Jupiter-size bodies that were too cold or too poisonous to harbor the conditions needed for life. Now, scientists have found more than 5,000 exoplanets, from big gas giants to smaller rocky worlds that lie within what's called the "Goldilocks zone" — neither too close nor too far away from their star, meaning conditions are neither too hot nor too cold."These [space telescopes] take so long to build," Seager said. "Originally we didn't know about the richness of exoplanets, and we didn't know they were so diverse. I see the James Webb as the tool for the second generation of exoplanet studies."As they wait for the Webb's launch in four years, Seager and other planetary scientists are drawing up a list of star systems that could be candidates for the first studies.Seager says she likes to remind people about the value of big, complex scientific projects, even if they cost a lot of money, take a long time to build and don't have a concrete scientific payoff."As a nation, should we be building complicated things and pushing the limit of progress in technology? It's a question I like to pose to people," she said. "Should we just get by, or is it critical for our future to invest in complicated technologies? That usually makes them think for a while."Images Show Philae's First Bounce, Ulamec Optimistic Will Hear from It AgainMarcia S. Smith - Spacepolicyonline.comThe European Space Agency (ESA) today released new images taken by its Rosetta spacecraft of the Philae lander as it made a first landing on Comet 67P and then bounced on November 12. Also today, the German Aerospace Center, DLR, issued a concise summary of very preliminary science results from Philae. The fate of the lander, which bounced twice and landed three times, sparked interest around the world last week as its battery died and contact was lost. Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec is optimistic, however, that communications will be restored next year.Philae is funded by a consortium led by DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) and was controlled and monitored by DLR's Lander Control Center in Cologne, Germany. The lander is part of ESA's Rosetta mission. Rosetta and Philae spent 10 years reaching Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, arriving in August 2014. The two spacecraft separated on November 12. Philae made its first landing on the comet about 7 hours later. Harpoons that were intended to hold Philae in place on the surface did not fire, however, and the lander bounced twice.ESA still does not know where its final landing took place. Rosetta serves as a communications link between Philae and Earth in addition to conducting its own science investigations as it orbits the comet. It continues to look and listen for Philae. Rosetta will stay with the comet as it journeys into toward the Sun, studying it as the ices melt and create the classic comet's tail. It is the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and Philae is the first spacecraft to land on a comet.Today ESA released a mosaic of images taken by the Osiris camera on Rosetta that shows Philae as it descended to the surface (minutes 15:14 to 15:23), touched down (minute 15:43), only to fly off again into space (minute 15:43 on far right). It landed again about 2 hours later, bounced again, and landed a third time about 7 minutes after that. Since the final landing site is not known, there are no images yet of those events.The hope is that with these images ESA and DLR at least know the direction in which the lander headed and perhaps they will be able to locate it using Rosetta's instruments. All they know now is that Philae is surrounded by rocks that block sunlight from reaching Philae's solar panels so its batteries can be recharged. After 57 hours of work, its primary battery was depleted and the lander entered hibernation. Planetary Society blogger Emily Lakdawalla was at ESA's European Space Operations Center (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany as Philae gamely executed its commands despite dwindling energy -- including an improvised lift-and-turn motion that rotated the lander's body 35 degrees in the hope of getting more sunlight on the solar panels -- and provides a compelling account of those last minutes.Last minutes for now, that is. Ulamec is optimistic that as the comet continues its journey in toward the Sun, lighting conditions will improve, the batteries will recharge, and Philae will be able to communicate again next year. A DLR press release today says he "believes it is probable that in the spring of 2015" Philae will be heard from again.Meanwhile, scientists are beginning to analyze data from the 57 hours of work Philae has already completed. Data was received from all 10 of the instruments on the lander. One instrument -- Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science (MUPUS) -- hammered a probe into the surface, but it turned out to be a much harder surface than expected. "Although the power of the hammer was gradually increased, we were not able to go deep into the surface," said Tilman Spohn from DLR's Institute of Planetary Research. The comet "proved a tough nut to crack." Another instrument, SESAME (Surface Electrical, Seismic and Acoustic Monitoring Experiment) similarly found the comet was "not nearly as soft and fluffy as it was believed to be." Brief initial results from all 10 instruments are provided in the DLR press release. More are expected at the annual fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) next month in San Francisco.Best of Vesta: Scientists Turn Dawn's Data Into Asteroid MapAlan Boyle – NBC NewsIf future space travelers ever have to get around on Vesta, the second most massive body in the asteroid belt, they may well rely upon a just-released map that's based on data from NASA's Dawn mission.The first-ever global geologic and tectonic map of Vesta appears in the December issue of the journal Icarus. It draws upon mapping data acquired by the Dawn spacecraft, which orbited the misshapen asteroid between June 2011 and September 2012."The geologic mapping campaign at Vesta took almost two and a half years to complete," Arizona State University's David Williams, who helped lead the effort, said in a news release. "The resulting maps enabled us to construct a geologic time scale of Vesta for comparison to other planets and moons."Eleven papers about Vesta appear in next month's issue of Icarus. Using Dawn's data, scientists found that Vesta was shaped by a sequence of large impact events — including the impacts that created the Veneneia and Rheasilvia craters early in the asteroid's history, and the Marcia crater later on.Dawn moved on from Vesta in 2012 and is on its way to next year's big rendezvous with Ceres, the largest asteroid and the closest dwarf planet. Several months after Dawn reaches Ceres, NASA's New Horizons probe is due to fly by the dwarf planet Pluto. If researchers play their cards right, we could soon see the first detailed maps of those dwarf worlds as well.Names in bottles: a new tool for exploration?Dan Lester – The Space Review
I'm in space! Well, my name is in space. Okay, the letters of my name are encoded on a chip in space. Those ten bytes occupy a few nanograms of memory on a space vehicle. It cost me nothing to send them there, and maybe a minute of my online time. Now, I confess, I don't remember which mission vehicle that chip is on, so I really don't have a clue where those bytes are right now. It was a few years ago when I did it. I was led to believe that as a result of putting my name there, I would feel more involved in space exploration. I'm frankly still waiting for that to happen. But I recognize that such action may have a more profound effect on others who do it.The outreach strategy of inviting people to put small digital pieces of themselves on space missions is one that generates good response. Most opportunities have been for NASA missions, but ESA and JAXA have offered some as well. Most have been planetary/small body missions or, more generally, planet-related missions such as Kepler. That is probably because such objects are considered more tangible cosmic destinations for humans than an active galaxy or a coronal hole. Most allow just a dozen or so bytes for a name, but a few missions were somewhat more generous about solicited digital content. The "Face In Space" opportunity had STS-133 and -134 Space Shuttle missions carry digital images uploaded by the public. Cassini carried to Saturn more than half a million digitized signatures and even some digitized paw prints from beloved pets.Some thirty missions have offered this personalization opportunity to the public thus far. Most of these names are in space, but unfortunately some are at the bottom of the ocean (e.g. Mars 96/MAPEx). Millions of people have participated. We are even now being offered a multi-legged trip: send your name on the maiden flight of Orion, and it will be returned to be eventually shipped out "to destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars." That makes it planet-related. You even get a "boarding pass" to prove you did it. You might even get a transfer stub. Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager, says, "Flying these names will enable people to be part of our journey."The idea for this outreach device no doubt looks to the Voyager Golden Record as a historical model. While the Pioneer spacecraft were equipped with small metal identification plaques with illustrative sketches, and likely included some inconspicuous autographs from the mission team, the Voyager record had a more ambitious message to deliver to intelligent beings that might recover it. This record included sounds and images selected to illustrate the diversity of life and culture on the Earth. While the content was analog, it was probably equivalent to around a gigabyte of digital data. It was not about individuals, but was a strong personalized message from our species. It was a piece of "us" heading out towards the stars.With dramatic increases in data storage density, people quickly realized that sending reams of personalized stuff was cheap and easy, and, unlike with the fairly sizable Golden Record, could include much more information in a chip that weighed on the order of one gram. Plans are afoot to use 100 megabytes of the New Horizons memory (about one percent of the total) outbound after the Pluto encounter to record, in the tradition set by Voyager, an updated crowdsourced message from humanity to the cosmos, perhaps including both pictures and sounds. This message would also include several thousand names. Since the voyage has no foreseen ending, that opportunity offers some semblance of immortality.It would appear that offering people the opportunity to fly their names is an attempt by space agencies to give the public some low cost, low commitment sense of involvement in a space mission, and is a device to articulate support. At some level, a long list of such names can demonstrate public enthusiasm about a mission. The Internet offers a medium by which such digitally encoded names can be collected with great efficiency, and many millions of names can be archived on a chip whose contribution to the spacecraft mass and power budget is negligible. It is, to the space agencies at least, a crowdfunding enterprise, where the unit of value is a name of an interested party.The historical trope of explorers carrying memorabilia and mementos is longstanding. In large measure, these items were taken as personal remembrances of home for the travelling explorer, rather than as things to be cherished upon return. Admiral Peary did, however, bring flags to the pole from the Peary Arctic Club and the Explorers Club that would be returned to them at the end of his expedition. Of course, NASA astronauts took with them items that became highly valued "space flown artifacts", including many that were planned as such. For Apollo, these included commemorative silver medallions, tiepins, postal covers, flags, and even miniature lunar roving vehicle license plates. Of course, all the returned astronaut personal equipment (even toothbrushes, combs, and shaving utensils), writing instruments, checklists, and flight data files became valued items in themselves as well. But none of these were personalized for people who didn't go. Historical explorers brought back tokens of the trip for their admirers, and assistants. Peary did so in the form of fox pelts. This was all about getting back some materiel that had been there, and not a symbol of a person who had not gone. With the possible exception of Charlie Duke's family photo that he intentionally left on the Moon, personalized physical tokens sent were assumed to be returned. But most of the names we are sending now on at least robotic science missions will not be returned.Sending a piece of yourself with an explorer for the purpose of making yourself a part of the exploration is very different than getting a souvenir or keepsake back from that exploration. It is hardly a remembrance for the explorer because, frankly, robotic space science explorers do not pine for such remembrances. Even human explorers are not likely to derive solace by fondling a flash memory chip. The idea that this is about attaching yourself to what may—someday—be considered a historical space antique by future collectors also seems somewhat sketchy. It does not speak to any role you played in the mission. In that sense, it would not be much of a memento. Of course, the collectors would have to have the technical sophistication to read it, and would need some understanding of UTF-8 or ASCII encoding to interpret it. I offer the term "particimento" to describe what this is about. It is about sending with the expedition a memento of personal participation. Just a symbol. Maybe it is a simple "my good thoughts are with you" kind of token.The idea of sending people's names with explorers, whether digitized or in hard copy, does not have much historic precedent. That is, if the goal is to kick up interest in an exploration, historic explorers did not do it that way. Taking names with them to enable people to be part of the journey was evidently not important to them. Now, many historic explorers were mass-constrained, much as contemporary space missions are. It is unlikely that Lewis and Clark, Stanley, Peary, or Scott would have hauled with them thick volumes filled with signatures. (Though Scott is known to have hauled Champagne on his ill-fated Terra Nova mission to the South Pole.) But shipborne or airborne explorations could have easily done so. Even mass-constrained explorations could have tucked away a small notebook filled with tiny signatures of royalty, or of esteemed members of national societies that underwrote their travels. Such a notebook of particimentos could have been proudly displayed upon return.Of course, instead of just hauling names along, these explorers put names of their patrons on the maps of geographical features they discovered. Why, these historical explorers could have collected real pieces of people, rather than just sequences of letters. Lewis and Clark could have carried with them a vial of fingernail clippings or strands of hair, donated by an adoring audience. If they were returned, the identification of each piece, of course, would have been problematical, but would be much easier now, encoded in the DNA, probably with far more specificity than any alphameric name.I have to think that the lack of historical precedent for particimentos says something about our cultural evolution: that historic cultures perhaps saw exploration somewhat differently than we see it today. That is, did Lewis and Clark not tuck away a notebook of congressional signatures in their brave push across the continent because they just did not think about it, or because they thought it was a dumb idea? Certainly federally funded expeditions require deep public support. But, for goodness sake, you could stash the names of every single US taxpayer in a miniscule flash memory cell on one of these modern space missions. You could bring along everyone who is paying for it, thereby thanking them for it!The particimento fad is certainly enabled by the way that our culture has evolved to embrace digital and online identity. We are now more accepting that a handful of coded bytes can really represent us. When our identity is stolen online, the thieves are not taking us. They are using a digital representation of us.Now, I do not want to come across as being overly critical of this novel and innovative outreach device. So don't complain that I am. It does not work much for me, but could well energize and inspire others. It might work for you. To each his own.It may well be a generational thing. Younger people are certainly more accepting of their identity and perhaps even their excitement being symbolized in a written code that could be manifested digitally. The idea that tokens of good thoughts could be relevant to a robotic mission is certainly a wired-generation type of conviction. My point here is that the device is one that could have been used to try to energize and inspire supporters of historical exploration in olden times. I do not believe it was. Our collective enthusiasm for it now may reflect the evolution of our cultural sense of identity.I will say that, as a device to assert support for a mission, attaching your name to it in a highly inconspicuous and rationale-free way is of questionable value, and somewhat artificial, though at nearly zero cost. Of course, we could all just jump up and down and let out a big cheer for the mission instead. Even just as a feel-good device to garner the impression of personal involvement, it is really pretty thin, and the take-away is perhaps just a receipt. Real support could be better achieved by telling congressional representatives about the importance of such missions (an option which legally cannot be recommended by NASA), or informally teaching kids about them. Or, perhaps offering real money in a crowdfunding effort. Just some casual remarks to friends about the importance of space exploration between beers at a social event could have more far-reaching value than stuffing your encoded name on a chip in a spacecraft. In this respect, the entreaty from the Orion program to "tell your friends to come along!" is probably a constructive one.The particimento phenomenon is an engaging one. I think that it points to ways that our culture has evolved with regard to the excitement of exploration. In the same way that we do not explore in the way we used to explore, we do not really express our enthusiasm about exploration in quite the same way either.Industry Doesn't Expect Consolidation of Commercial Space RegulationJeff Foust – Space NewsAs the U.S. Congress considers proposals to grant government agencies with additional commercial space regulatory authority, industry and government officials believe it is unlikely those efforts will lead to a broader consolidation of regulatory power.Representatives from companies and agencies, speaking at a forum on the topic of on-orbit jurisdiction organized by the University of Nebraska College of Law here Nov. 3, agreed that while there is a need to address issues such as space traffic management and property rights, it is unlikely overall regulation of commercial space activities will soon be consolidated into a single agency."When you raise the question of who needs to have the regulatory authority — which body is it — that presupposes a lot of answers that we don't have yet," said Peter Marquez, vice president for global engagement of Planetary Resources and former director of space policy for the U.S. National Security Council.He called for discussions among the agencies involved in regulating those activities to examine what gaps currently exist and how to fill them. "Until the interagency has this discussion, I think trying to find a single point of contact is a little bit premature," Marquez said.In recent months, the Federal Aviation Administration has expressed interest in gaining authority to regulate commercial spacecraft in orbit. The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation already regulates commercial launches and re-entries but has no jurisdiction between launch and re-entry."Our goal would be to promote orbital space transportation safety, including for orbital debris mitigation, for spacecraft whose primary function is transportation," George Nield, FAA associate administrator for commercial space transportation, said at a meeting of the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee here in May.The FAA, however, is not the only agency with a stake in the regulation of commercial spacecraft. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issues communications licenses for spacecraft, while the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration licenses commercial remote sensing spacecraft.That can create some regulatory overlap. The FCC and NOAA both require licensees to have orbital debris mitigation guidelines, while the FAA has the ability to perform a review of payloads on launches it licenses.The FCC cites the Communications Act of 1934 as the source of its authority to license satellite communications and issues involving it. "It does go obviously beyond a very traditional radio frequency regulatory role," said Karl Kensinger, deputy division chief of the FCC's Satellite Division. "We can't move forward blindly if the economic venture that we are authorizing and facilitating through the license is going to present a hazard to safety."Although that overlap in debris mitigation regulation has the potential for conflicts, so far there have been no issues, in part because companies have been willing to abide by those agencies' regulations. "Our licensees want to comply with the deorbiting requirements that we place on them," said Glenn Talia, section chief of NOAA's Weather, Satellites and Research Section.By contrast, no agency has oversight of activities involving the utilization of space resources. The American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities in Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act, introduced in the House in July, would grant U.S. companies the rights to resources they extract from asteroids and give them protection from "harmful interference" in those activities. The bill would give the FAA "and other appropriate Federal agencies" authority to develop regulatory frameworks.Although the House Science Committee held a hearing about the bill in September, the committee's chairman, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), said later that month that his committee would not take action on the ASTEROIDS Act this year. Marquez said his company supported the bill and hoped it would be reintroduced next year, even if it is not the final word on the issue."Instead of having religious discussions about what could or could not be done for on-orbit activities, it's something real that we can have real discussions about," he said of the bill.Having certainty over the regulatory environment, some panelists said, is more important than consolidating that oversight. "It is absolutely vital to establish, if nothing else, a degree of predictability," said Mike Gold, chairman of FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. "If investors hate one thing, it's surprises."Myriad Milestones completed and underway for NASA's commercial PartnersJosh Tallis - Spaceflightinsider.comOne month after NASA announced that Boeing had reached its final milestone under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Space Act Agreement, the space agency reports broad progress among a range of industry partners. A press release from NASA notes the advancements of Blue Origin, Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX in the agency's efforts to restore American access to space.In September of this year, Blue Origin (founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos) completed a design review of its Space Vehicle spacecraft. The Space Vehicle is being designed to deliver astronauts to low-Earth orbit. The review was conducted with NASA under an unfunded Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) agreement. In October, the agency and Blue Origin agreed to an additional three unfunded milestones to continue the partnership, including further analysis of the company's BE-3 engine and escape system.Kathy Lueders, NASA's manager for the Commercial Crew Program, said of the ongoing arrangement: "The team at Blue Origin has made tremendous progress in its design, and we're excited to extend our partnership to 2016. It's important to keep a pulse on the commercial human spaceflight industry as a whole, and this partnership is a shining example of what works well for both industry and the government."Despite failing to secure a contract with NASA under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability phase of the program, Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has continued to work closely with the space agency as it develops its Dream Chaser spacecraft. In preparation for a CCiCap review and free-flight milestone test, SNC has undergone tests to better evaluate how the Dream Chaser would maneuver in space.Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX ), which did secure a bid to provide manned access to the International Space Station, has also been progressing to meet its CCiCap milestones.SpaceX and NASA have been collaborating to ensure both organizations were aware of the technical specifications of SpaceX's Dragon V2 capsule and Falcon 9 v 1.1 rocket.Over the summer, NASA and SpaceX also met to coordinate SpaceX's management of Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center, which the company recently leased.Finally, The Boeing Company remains well on its way to developing a flight capable CST-100 spacecraft. Earlier this fall the company closed out its CCiCap agreement with NASA when it successfully completed its final milestone under the agreement.Speaking to all the advancements in recent months, Lueders said, "Our partners' detailed progress on launch and spaceflight capabilities expands domestic access to space and does so in a unique and revolutionary manner. Their success is a critical part of NASA's integrated approach to advance the frontier of exploration."NASA hopes to have human rated privately operated spacecraft shuttling astronauts to the Space Station certified by 2017.SpaceShipTwo: The Survival of a Pilot and an IndustryJosh Tallis – Spaceflight InsiderOnly days after the explosion of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket on Wallops Island, VA, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo experienced a catastrophic failure. The unlikely survival of a test pilot, and the tenacity of a company, provide a compelling narrative blending human interest and entrepreneurial drive.On Oct. 31, SpaceShipTwo (SS2) took off under the wings of WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft responsible for deploying the spacecraft at launch altitude. After detaching from the airplane, SS2 ignited its engines and quickly accelerated to Mach 1. Between 9 and 11 seconds after ignition, co-pilot Michael Alsbury unlocked the craft's feathering mechanism.The feathering mechanism rotates the ship's twin tail booms into re-entry positions to facilitate controlled descent. The booms are designed to be shifted into the feathered position when SS2 is traveling at Mach 1.4. The premature action precipitated a catastrophic disintegration that took place only seconds later. At an altitude of nearly 9.5 miles (15.2 kilometers), SpaceShipTwo broke apart, killing Michael Alsbury. All of that has been corroborated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in an updated announcement issued on Nov. 12.Yet, remarkably, pilot Peter Siebold survived the stratospheric accident, which left debris strewn across nearly five miles of the Mojave Desert. Siebold, apparently unaware that his co-pilot had engaged the feathering mechanism, was ripped from the craft as it broke apart. Since the SS2 cabin is pressurized, the pilots were both without pressure suits. At such altitudes and speeds, Siebold lost consciousness quickly.Free-falling from 50,000 feet, he regained consciousness about halfway through his tumble, indicating to a passing aircraft that he was still alive by flashing a thumbs up. His parachute automatically deployed on descent. On the ground, a fellow pilot assessed Siebold as "pretty banged up," with a smashed shoulder. Considering he had just fallen out of a spaceship ripped apart while traveling at the speed of sound at 50,000 feet without protective outerwear, however, he sustained relatively minor injuries. Siebold was discharged from the hospital barely a week after the accident.His co-pilot, Michael Alsbury was, unfortunately, not as lucky. Alsbury was not dislodged from the craft as it broke apart. Without ejector seats, Alsbury's chances of survival, even had he remained conscious, were slim. He was found on a desert road, still strapped to his seat in what remained of the cockpit. His parachute had not deployed.Yet, amid the ongoing NTSB investigation into the accident, and the remarkable human interest stories focusing on Siebold (see, for example, the LA Times profile on the test pilot), perhaps the most newsworthy part of the SS2 tragedy is its impact on the future of space tourism. Or, lack thereof.Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides has indicated that the space tourism company intends to continue with test flights as soon as a replacement is available. Dubbed SpaceShipTwo Serial No. 2, Virgin Galactic was already underway on construction of a second test vehicle before the accident in late October. Instead of pausing construction, however, the company has turned to the new spaceship with renewed vigor and has stated that tests flights could renew – as soon as April 2015.Of the replacement vehicle, Whitesides told the Associated Press, "That's provided some solace to all of us, and I think there's sort of a therapeutic benefit to folks to be able to put their energies into constructive work."Virgin Galactic intends to begin test flights as soon as the vehicle is complete, perhaps even before the completion of the official NTSB investigation into the accident of its predecessor. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has issued Scaled Composites (the spaceship builder) an experimental test flight permit for the craft, has announced it will pay special attention to the feathering mechanism when evaluating the Serial No. 2 ship.Virgin Galactic hopes to eventually produce up to one spaceship a year, taking six passengers over sixty miles above the Earth's surface. The company already maintains an extensive waiting list, selling seats at $250,000. The company reports that even in the week after the accident it sold several seats.Speaking of the incident, Whitesides says, "There was no question it was a tragic setback, but it's one from which we can recover. With Serial No. 2, we'll be putting a stronger, even better ship into initial commercial service and I think we'll be able to get back into test flights soon and carry forward."The company issued the following statement: "At Virgin Galactic, we are dedicated to opening the space frontier, while keeping safety as our 'North Star.' This has guided every decision we have made over the past decade, and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically untrue…We have the privilege to work with some of the best minds in the space industry, who have dedicated their lives to the development of technologies to enable the continued exploration of space. All of us at Virgin Galactic understand the importance of our mission and the significance of creating the first-ever commercial spaceline. This is not a mission that anyone takes lightly."The apparent resiliency of the company may indicate an important shift in attitudes towards space tourism. Once the realm of science fiction, the inevitability of commercial spaceflight appears to have permeated popular culture. Virgin Galactic's emphasis on forward progress fits well into the wider attitude that now embraces spaceflight as a logical point of progress. The sustained interest in space tourism may thus be nearly as surprising an outcome of this tragedy as Siebold's survival.ENDMore at www.spacetoday.net-----No virus found in this message.Checked by AVG - www.avg.comVersion: 2014.0.4335 / Virus Database: 4189/8587 - Release Date: 11/17/14
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