June 27, 2012

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com

NASA made some slight adjustments to its Mars Science Laboratorys flight path on Tuesday, ensuring its rover makes an accurate landing to the Martian site.

The one-ton rover is expected to arrive at the Red Planet on August 5, 2012, after venturing through space towards Mars since its November 26, 2011 launch.

The landing will mark the beginning of the rovers two-year prime mission to investigate whether Mars ever offered an environment favorable for microbial life.

The latest flight path adjustment is the third, and smallest, since its launch. NASA engineers burned the spacecrafts thrusters for just 40 seconds.

Spacecraft data and doppler-effect changes in radio signal from MSL indicate the maneuver was successful, according to NASA.

The maneuver adjusted the rovers location where it will enter Mars atmosphere by about 125 miles, and advances the time of entry by about 70 seconds.

This puts us closer to our entry target, so if any further maneuvers are needed, I expect them to be small, JPLs Tomas Martin-Mur, the missions navigation team chief, said in a statement.

NASA said there could be up to three additional trajectory correction maneuvers during the final eight days of flight.

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Curiosity Flight Path Slightly Adjusted By NASA

If you missed the final launch of the Space Shuttle, or the first private spacecraft rendezvous with the International Space Station, fear not. A new documentary to be released late this year promises you a fiery, 3-D, launch-pad view of these historic flights.

A preview (above) of the film, Space Shuttle & The New Pioneers, was unveiled at the SETICON II conference June 22 in Santa Clara, California. The film chronicles the final days of the Space Shuttle program, from inside NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

But since executive producer David Knight felt he couldnt end the movie by saying 12,000 people were laid off, the film also follows the beginnings of the private space flight boom, as companies likeSpaceX blast up to orbit.

The movies makers are crowdsourcing some of theirfunding through the website Kickstarteruntil June 30. The film, planned for limited theatrical release, will be availableon 3-D Blu-ray, as well as 2-D high-definition DVD, and will be provided for free to educational institutions, in the hopes of exciting kids about science and technology. Wired talked with Knight at SETICON about the film and the future of manned spaceflight.

Wired: Why did you decide to make this movie?

David Knight: When we started, it was a notion that somebody ought to cover the last missions of the space shuttle program. There had been many, many documentaries that tell you what the space shuttle is and about the astronauts and the crews, but nobody was covering the end of the space shuttle program and why it was ending. It wasnt a simple answer, like Congress forgot the money. And what comes after it? It turns out a plethora of things are coming after it that arent just what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is doing.

Early in the process I found myself standing underneath the Shuttle Discovery with Charles Bolden, the head of NASA, and I realized that there couldnt be a more important mission than getting young people excited about science and technology.

Wired: How did you first get involved in the spaceflight scene?

Knight:Back in 2003, I was visiting my parents and my brother had brought a stack of magazines. There was a copy of Wired, and on the cover was this crazy bug-eyed looking machine a thing called SpaceShipOne, developed by the famous aircraft designer Burt Rutan. Burt Rutan was building this using financing from the co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen. And they were going to compete for the $10 million AnsariX Prize.

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Preview: 3-D Space Shuttle Movie Will Bring the Launch Pad to Your Living Room

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, July 1 with a program that includes NASA officials discussing the historic spaceport and the dynamic transformation underway to support the next generation of space exploration.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120518/NY09986-a ) (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120518/NY09986LOGO-b )

Beginning the program at 2 p.m. Sunday is the panel discussion, "Kennedy Space Center: Past, Present and Future," at the Astronaut Encounter Theater. The select NASA panel is scheduled to include Carol Scott of the Program Control and Integration Office within the Commercial Crew Program, and Stu McClung of the Orion Crew/Service Module Office.

Scott will discuss how the Commercial Crew Program is facilitating commercial vehicle development and certification to enable the safe transportation of NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station and other low-Earth orbit destinations. McClung will talk about the Orion spacecraft being developed to carry astronauts farther into the solar system than ever before. On July 2, NASA is marking the arrival at Kennedy Space Center of the first space-bound Orion spacecraft.

At 3 p.m. Sunday at the visitor complex's NASA Central area, the 65-member Orlando Concert Band will present a musical salute to Kennedy Space Center with patriotic music and marches. Associate Music Director Aaron Lefkowitz will lead the band in such selections as "Armed Forces Salute," "Apollo 13," "America the Beautiful," and "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

Completing the program is Scott Bolton, principal investigator for NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter, who will take visitors on a visual journey of recent scientific discoveries made as a result of exploration of the solar system. The presentation begins at 4:30 p.m. at Exploration Space.

The 50th anniversary programming is complimentary to guests with paid admission.

"This is a great occasion for everyone who loves John F. Kennedy Space Center," said Bill Moore, chief operating officer of the visitor complex. "For 50 years, Kennedy has been the gateway to space, carrying astronauts into space aboard rockets and space shuttles, launching space exploration devices and constructing the International Space Station.

"We're celebrating the many historic achievements of the space program over the last 50 years which visitors can experience here like nowhere else plus the exciting things going on today to prepare Kennedy Space Center for commercial space flight and the Orion deep-space program," Moore said.

On July 1, 1962, the space center was officially acknowledged as an operating spaceflight center under the name Launch Operations Center. The name was later changed to John F. Kennedy Space Center in honor of the president and his vision of Americans visiting the moon.

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Kennedy Space Center's 50th Anniversary Celebration Includes Nod to the Past and Look to the Future

The preflight test layers of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope sunshield are meeting expected performance targets during tests by engineers at Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC). The company is under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the design and development of Webb's sunshield, telescope and spacecraft.

One of the most important test milestones was successfully met for template layer five of the tennis-court-sized sunshield that keeps the telescope cold so it can image faint infrared light. Using a laser tracking instrument and a laser radar unit, engineers carefully measured the 3-D shape of the tensioned test layer in two different orientations: face up and rotated 180 degrees so it was face down. They then compared the measurements to an analytical model that predicted how the ultra-thin material will behave in an environment close to zero gravity.

"The as-built and measured membrane was within .36 inches Root-Mean-Squared of the 3-D shape the model predicted, over an area as large as a tennis court, which is remarkable," explained Jim Flynn, Webb sunshield manager, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "Our teammate, ManTech International, has done an outstanding job in sunshield fabrication and test. This result validates our ability to manufacture the sunshield layers to meet extremely demanding performance standards."

The sunshield membrane layers, each as thin as a human hair, are made of Kapton, a tough, high-performance plastic coated with a reflective metal. On-orbit the observatory will be pointed so that the sun, Earth and moon are always on one side, with the sunshield acting as an umbrella to shade the telescope (the mirrors and instruments) from the heat of the sun and warm spacecraft electronics. The sunshield passively cools the telescope to a temperature of -375 degrees F, which is needed to prevent the observatory's own heat from "blinding" its infrared sensing instruments.

Template layer five is the coldest layer, has the most curved shape and is closest to Webb's 21 ft. diameter primary mirror. Each sunshield layer has a slightly different 3-D shape, much like the petals of a flower. Each layer will be individually shape-tested to verify its performance on orbit. Shape testing is also under way for two of four template sunshield covers. These covers are coated with silicon to reduce launch and ascent temperatures and protect the folded sunshield layers when they are stowed in the Ariane 5 rocket. Engineers are using the template or test layers to validate processes and performance before fabricating the flight sunshield layers.

Qualification testing was also completed on the gearmotors or actuators that drive the mechanisms that unfurl the sunshield layers while Webb travels to its orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth. These gearmotors are subjected to tough tests to simulate the effects of extreme temperature changes, vibrations, operating loads and performance over the life of the unit. There are six motors: two drive the sunshield mid-boom telescoping tubes that unfurl the sunshield horizontally out into space; two drive the spooler that opens the two shells that hold the folded layers; and two are used to create the tension that holds the layers in place. Successful completion of qualification testing for the gearmotors demonstrates the engineering design and allows flight hardware manufacturing to proceed.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb will be the most powerful space telescope ever built, observing the most distant objects in the universe, providing images of the first galaxies ever formed and studying planets around distant stars. The Webb telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about the Webb telescope, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com for more information.

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Northrop Grumman-Built Sunshield on James Webb Space Telescope Meets Fabrication and Test Milestones

REDONDO BEACH, Calif., June 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The preflight test layers of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope sunshield are meeting expected performance targets during tests by engineers at Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC). The company is under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for the design and development of Webb's sunshield, telescope and spacecraft.

One of the most important test milestones was successfully met for template layer five of the tennis-court-sized sunshield that keeps the telescope cold so it can image faint infrared light. Using a laser tracking instrument and a laser radar unit, engineers carefully measured the 3-D shape of the tensioned test layer in two different orientations: face up and rotated 180 degrees so it was face down. They then compared the measurements to an analytical model that predicted how the ultra-thin material will behave in an environment close to zero gravity.

"The as-built and measured membrane was within .36 inches Root-Mean-Squared of the 3-D shape the model predicted, over an area as large as a tennis court, which is remarkable," explained Jim Flynn, Webb sunshield manager, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "Our teammate, ManTech International, has done an outstanding job in sunshield fabrication and test. This result validates our ability to manufacture the sunshield layers to meet extremely demanding performance standards."

The sunshield membrane layers, each as thin as a human hair, are made of Kapton, a tough, high-performance plastic coated with a reflective metal. On-orbit the observatory will be pointed so that the sun, Earth and moon are always on one side, with the sunshield acting as an umbrella to shade the telescope (the mirrors and instruments) from the heat of the sun and warm spacecraft electronics. The sunshield passively cools the telescope to a temperature of -375 degrees F, which is needed to prevent the observatory's own heat from "blinding" its infrared sensing instruments.

Template layer five is the coldest layer, has the most curved shape and is closest to Webb's 21 ft. diameter primary mirror. Each sunshield layer has a slightly different 3-D shape, much like the petals of a flower. Each layer will be individually shape-tested to verify its performance on orbit. Shape testing is also under way for two of four template sunshield covers. These covers are coated with silicon to reduce launch and ascent temperatures and protect the folded sunshield layers when they are stowed in the Ariane 5 rocket. Engineers are using the template or test layers to validate processes and performance before fabricating the flight sunshield layers.

Qualification testing was also completed on the gearmotors or actuators that drive the mechanisms that unfurl the sunshield layers while Webb travels to its orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth. These gearmotors are subjected to tough tests to simulate the effects of extreme temperature changes, vibrations, operating loads and performance over the life of the unit. There are six motors: two drive the sunshield mid-boom telescoping tubes that unfurl the sunshield horizontally out into space; two drive the spooler that opens the two shells that hold the folded layers; and two are used to create the tension that holds the layers in place. Successful completion of qualification testing for the gearmotors demonstrates the engineering design and allows flight hardware manufacturing to proceed.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. Webb will be the most powerful space telescope ever built, observing the most distant objects in the universe, providing images of the first galaxies ever formed and studying planets around distant stars. The Webb telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

For more information about the Webb telescope, visit: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com for more information.

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Northrop Grumman-Built Sunshield on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Meets Fabrication and Test Milestones, Makes ...

ASU Dust Devil research team members (left to right) Pye Pye Zaw, Emily McBryan and Dani Hoots hold on during a flight of a modified jet that simulates space flight by creating low-gravity conditions. The team participated in a NASA flight program that provided students opportunities to perform scientific experiments requiring microgravity conditions. Photo by: Courtesy of NASA

Six Arizona State University students spent a week in June conducting airborne research in low gravity under the guidance of scientists and engineers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Theyre members of the ASU Dust Devils, one of 14 teams of students from universities throughout the United States selected from among more than 60 teams that applied to do experiments as part of NASAs Reduced Gravity Educational Flight Program.

Each of the teams projects required performing experiments in low gravity or microgravity conditions. The work was done during flights in a modified Boeing 727-200 jet used to train astronauts that is capable of creating microgravity conditions. The aircraft is sometimes called the Weightless Wonder.

Microgravity is the extremely weak gravitational force that is experienced, for example, by people in a spacecraft orbiting the Earth, enabling them to become virtually weightless and to float inside a spacecraft.

Students from the University of Southern California, Yale University, Purdue University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic University and the University of Washington were on some of the other teams conducting the microgravity research.

From dust to solar systems

In flights over the Gulf of Mexico, the Dust Devils were looking at dust electrification and coagulation how dust particles clump together and bond in low-gravity environments.

Understanding the ways in which dust particles stick together could be important in revealing the fundamental process that allows solar systems and planets to form, says Dust Devils member Amy Kaczmarowski, who graduated in the spring with a degree in aerospace engineering from ASUs Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The team varied the size and composition of dust particles placed inside 12 vacuum chambers containing different combinations of particles of three materials silica, aluminum and a material believed to be similar to dust on the surface of Mars.

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Adventures in microgravity: Students experiment in simulated space-flight conditions