The Canadian Space Agency is in early talks to launch a rover beyond Earth orbit aboard NASA's huge new deep space rocket, according to a senior Canadian official.

Canada recently unveiled seven rover prototypes that cost a total of $60 million. Some of the rovers have been field-tested with NASA and impressed officials with the U.S. space agency, according to the CSA's Gilles Leclerc.

As such, Leclerc said NASA is considering flying a rover on an early flight of its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, which is slated to become operational in the early 2020s. However, he allowed the discussions are preliminary given the upcoming U.S. presidential election and uncertainty about future NASA funding.

"I don't want to speak for NASA it is touchy but there are opportunities for missions around the moon or on the moon," said Leclerc, the CSA's director-general of space exploration. "You can certainly envisage automatic robotic missions to the moon." [Photos: NASA's Space Launch System]

Space news from NBCNews.com

Humanity has long dreamed of putting boots on Mars, but those boots have the potential to stomp all over any lifeforms that may exist on the Red Planet.

The SLS has two publicly disclosed missions on the roster: a flight in 2017 to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit, and another potential flight in 2021 to take a crew beyond the moon. Any SLS flight beyond those two missions will require further study.

"NASA does not have plans for either (mission) to land on a foreign surface," NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft told Space.com via email.

"As we continue to define future mission requirements, NASA anticipates that we will continue to engage in co-operative activities with CSA involving Canadian rovers and associated technologies," Kraft wrote in a follow-up statement.

Falling funds The CSA is facing a 20 percent budget cut to $310 million, or U.S. $315 million in the coming year, as well as overall uncertainty about government spending priorities. Canada is currently undertaking a review of government aerospace programs, with a report expected to be submitted to the government late in 2012.

Read more:

Canadian rover may fly on NASA mission

By Tony Hoffman

NASA has released many iPhone apps, most with a specific focus: for example, NASA Television is a viewer for the space agency's own TV channel, ISSLive gives the latest on the International Space Station (ISS), and NASA Space Weather explores solar flares, geomagnetic storms, and the like. NASA App (for iPhone) is the space agency's flagship app, and in that role, it aggregates a wide range of NASA content, including much that isn't found in the other apps. This frequently updated app has well-written news stories, dazzling videos and images, a portal to streamed NASA tv and radio, information on NASA missions present and future, how to visit the various NASA centers, and much more. There's something for everyone, from children and students to seasoned space geeks, in NASA App, and it's an easy pick for Editors' Choice.

Into the Grid Opening the app in portrait mode reveals a grid of 9 squares. The sections are titled Missions; Images; Videos; Tweets; TV & Radio; News & Features; Centers; Features; and Programs. Missions gives information on active and upcoming NASA missions. The first two items are Launch Schedule and Sighting Opportunities. Launch Schedule gives information about upcoming launches by NASA (and SpaceX; the first mission mentioned is that company's Falcon9 ongoing resupply flight to the ISS) and its ISS partners. Sighting Opportunities tells you how to view the brightest satellites/spacecraft (mainly the ISS) from your location.

The Missions are then listed in alphabetical order; tapping one takes you to a page with information about it. They include well-known missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and more obscure ones like Calipso (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation), a joint U.S./French meteorological mission that studies clouds and aerosols.

Dazzling Images and Video Images offers more than 9,000 beautiful images on a huge range of subjects, from the Hubble Extreme Deep Field view of distant galaxies to the Space Shuttle Endeavour being transported through the streets of Los Angeles. Tapping on an image, and then tapping on the "I" button in the screen's lower left calls up information on the photo. New photos are frequently added.

In the Videos section are nearly 9,000 well-produced and informative video clips, and new ones are frequently added. You can see cool videos showing the latest on the Curiosity Mars mission or ISS, clips of solar flares and other phenomena, and much more. You can mark a video as a Favorite, email the video, or post it to Twitter or Facebook.

The rather cumbersome Tweets section brings up recent tweets from a range of NASAaccounts: @NASA; @NASA_ICE; @NewHorizons2015; NASAGoddard; and many more. You can email the tweets, post them to Facebook, or retweet them. However, when you retweet name of the NASA twitter account disappears, so you have to enter it yourself after the @. Likewise, you can reply to the tweet, but you have to click on a twitter handle within a tweet, click on the Write icon, and compose a tweet from scratch. (Once again, it doesn't automatically pick up the Twitter handle of the NASA account.) It can be used as a normal Twitter client, but it's awkward as such.

TV and Radio lets you access Third Rock, NASA's rock music Internet radio station, or NASA TV, either the primary stream or an alternate, and provides video-out support.

Your Source for Space News To help you keep up on the latest space news, News and Features is a growing repository of more than 3,000 well-written and informative stories, under headings such as "Top Stories" "History and People" "NASA in Your Life" "Station and Shuttle" "Breaking News" "Solar System" and more. You can search News and Features for articles on specific subjects, and individual stories for keywords. You can print stories (via AirPrint, if you have a compatible printer on your Wi-Fi network), post them to Facebook or Twitter, or email them.

Visiting NASA Want to visit the Kennedy Space Center, or a similar NASA facility? Centers lets you plan a trip to a NASA center. It shows a map of the U.S., with each NASA center marked by a red pin, and your location marked in blue. Tapping a pin brings up information on visiting that center, including hours of operation, ticket info, and links to other useful information.

The rest is here:

NASA App (for iPhone)

ScienceDaily (Oct. 29, 2012) NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM satellite, can measure rainfall rates and cloud heights in tropical cyclones, and was used to create an image to look into Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 28, 2012. Owen Kelly of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created this image of Hurricane Sandy using TRMM data.

At 2:20 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 28, Hurricane Sandy was a marginal category 1 hurricane and its eyewall is modest, as TRMM reveals, which gives forecasters and scientists hints about its possible future strength.

The eyewall appeared somewhat compact with its 40 km (24.8 miles) diameter. The eyewall contained only relatively light precipitation, and none of Sandy's eyewall storm cells managed to burst through, or even reach, the tropopause which has about a 10 km (6.2 miles) height at mid-latitudes. Evidence of the weak updrafts in the eyewall comes from the fact that the TRMM radar's reflectivity stayed under 40 dBZ, a commonly cited signal strength at which updrafts can be vigorous enough to form hail and to lift smaller ice particles up through the tropopause and into the stratosphere.

But placed in context, the TRMM-observed properties of Hurricane Sandy's eyewall are evidence of remarkable vigor. Most hurricanes only have well-formed and compact eyewalls at category 3 strength or higher. Sandy was not only barely a category 1 hurricane, but Sandy was also experiencing strong wind shear, Sandy was going over ocean typically too cold to form hurricanes, and Sandy had been limping along as a marginal hurricane for several days.

Kelley said, "With infrared satellite observations used in imagery one can speculate about what the sort of convective (rising air that form the thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone) storms are developing under the hurricane's cloud tops, but Sandy was sneaking up the East Coast too far out at sea for land-based radars to provide definitive observations of the rain regions inside of the hurricane's clouds." The radar on the TRMM satellite could provide this missing information during this overflight of Hurricane Sandy.

The TRMM satellite also showed that the super-sized rainband that extended to the west and north of the center did contain vigorous storm cells, as indicated by the red regions of radar reflectivity in excess of 40 dBZ. This rainband is expected to lash the coast well before the hurricane's center make landfall. Even further west, at the upper left corner of the image, one can see two small storm cells. These storm cells are the southern-most tip of the independent weather system that is coming across the United States and that is expected to merge and possibly reinvigorate the remnants of Hurricane Sandy after Sandy makes landfall.

On Oct. 29 at 5 a.m. EDT the National Hurricane Center noted that the center of Hurricane Sandy was located near latitude 35.9 north and longitude 70.5 west. This was about 410 miles east southeast of Washington, D.C. Sandy was moving north at 15 mph and its winds had increased since Oct. 28. Maximum sustained winds are now near 85 mph. Tropical Storm force winds extend almost 500 miles from the center.

At 8 a.m. EDT on Oct. 29, the National Hurricane Center reported tropical-storm-force winds were occurring along the coasts of southern New Jersey Delaware and eastern Virginia and extend as far inland as the central and southern Chesapeake Bay.

Sandy is forecast to make landfall along the southern new jersey coast tonight. However sandy will severely impact the region well before it comes ashore.

TRMM stands for Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, and it is a joint mission between NASA and JAXA, the Japan Space Exploration Agency. Some of the questions about hurricanes left unanswered by the TRMM satellite will be explored by the Global Precipitation Measuring (GPM) satellite scheduled for launch in 2014. For more information, visit http://pmm.gsfc.nasa.gov.

Excerpt from:

NASA's TRMM Satellite analyzes Hurricane Sandy in 3-D

CLEVELAND - NASA's Glenn Research Center Director Ray Lugo and NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot recognized over 500 Glenn employees and contractors for exceptional contributions and achievements in science, technology, engineering, craftsmanship, leadership, bravery and administrative service at the annual Honor and Center Awards Ceremony held earlier this year.

Below are the Honor Award recipients, their hometowns and the award citations from the ceremony program.

Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Senior Professional: Bruce M. Steinetz, Westlake, for sustained superior accomplishment in management of programs of the U.S. Government and for noteworthy achievement of quality and efficiency in public service.

Early Career Achievement Medal: Vivake M. Asnani, North Olmsted, for exceptional early career contributions advancing the state of the art in surface mobility and terramechanics with significant impact on major NASA missions and programs.

Nikki D. Brown, for professional and personal achievements in excellent procurement support to Glenn Research Center projects and programs.

Lynn A. Capadona, Avon, for exceptional achievements in supporting the NASA research and flight programs as an early career employee.

John J. DeGreen, Lake County, for outstanding engineering contributions to fulfill the mission of the Glenn Research Center.

Stefanie M. Hirt, for significant achievement and team leadership in the development of low-boom supersonic inlet technology.

Equal Employment Opportunity Medal: Denise R. Busch, for outstanding achievement in Equal Employment Opportunity efforts in recruiting and training future leaders.

Lancert E. Foster, Cleveland, for sustained and outstanding contributions to the principles of equal opportunity, diversity and inclusion.

Read the original here:

NASA Glenn Awards Ceremony Honors Workforce Achievements

A prototype version of the Canadian Space Agency's proposed Artemis rover. Credit: Canadian Space Agency

Published: Oct. 29, 2012 at 7:49 PM

OTTAWA, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The Canadian Space Agency says it's in talks with NASA to launch a rover beyond Earth orbit aboard NASA's huge new deep space rocket.

Canada recently unveiled seven rover prototypes, some of which have been field-tested and have impressed NASA officials, and impressed officials with the U.S. space agency, Gilles Leclerc of the Canadian Space Agency said.

NASA is considering including a rover on an early mission of its space launch system rocket set to become operational in the early 2020s, Leclerc said, noting the discussions between the two agencies are only preliminary given uncertainty about future NASA funding which could impact mission plans.

"I don't want to speak for NASA -- it is touchy -- but there are opportunities for missions around the moon or on the moon," Leclerc, the CSA's director-general of space exploration, said. "You can certainly envisage automatic robotic missions to the moon."

NASA has not discussed any possible SLS missions beyond the first two, a flight in 2017 to send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit and another potential flight in 2021 to take a crew beyond the moon.

"NASA does not have plans for either [mission] to land on a foreign surface," NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft told SPACE.com.

"As we continue to define future mission requirements, NASA anticipates that we will continue to engage in co-operative activities with CSA involving Canadian rovers and associated technologies," Kraft said in a statement.

More:

Canada, NASA in space rover talks

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --NASA invites its social media followers to a special event with astronaut Joe Acaba from 9 -11:30 a.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 4. The event will take place in the James E. Webb Memorial Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, 300 E St. SW in Washington.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO )

Acaba launched to the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft May 15. He spent 123 days aboard the orbiting laboratory as a flight engineer of the Expedition 31 and 32 crews. He returned to Earth Sept. 17 after four months off the planet.

NASA Socials are in-person meetings with people who engage with the agency through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks. This NASA Social is an opportunity to meet and speak with Acaba, the people behind NASA's social media accounts and other space-exploration-minded participants.

Registration for the event is open to NASA social media followers and their guests from noon EDT Tuesday, Oct. 30, until 5 p.m. EST Monday, Nov. 5. NASA will select 150 participants by lottery from those who register online. Additional applicants will be placed on a waiting list.

Aboard the space station, Acaba supported the arrival of the first commercial resupply spacecraft, SpaceX's Dragon; an undocking, re-docking and final undocking demonstration of the Russian ISS Progress 47 cargo spacecraft; the first single-day launch-to-docking demonstration of a Progress; the arrival and departure of the third Japanese cargo ship; and served as intra-vehicular crew member for two U.S.-based spacewalks, helping to restore a critical power unit and exchange a faulty camera on the station's robotic arm.

Acaba participated in numerous scientific research experiments and performed regular maintenance and operational tasks aboard the orbiting complex. He also frequently tweeted on his Twitter account, @AstroAcaba, and participated in an #askStation TweetChat.

Acaba also flew aboard space shuttle Discovery in March 2009 during a space station assembly mission, during which he spent almost 13 hours performing two spacewalks.

To join and track the conversation online during the NASA Social, follow the hashtag #NASASocial. For more information on NASA Socials and to register, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/social

Read the original here:

NASA Hosts DC Social Media Event with Station Astronaut Joe Acaba

The pieces are coming together for NASA's newest spaceship Orion, with its first unmanned launch test scheduled for September 2014.

The Orion space capsule is designed to carry humans farther into the solar system than they've ever been by taking trips to the moon, asteroids and Mars.

It will be the first new spaceship built by NASA since the space shuttle was developed in the 1970s. The space agency is planning to outsource travel to low-Earth orbit, including the International Space Station, to the private space sector, allowing NASA itself to focus on traveling beyond.

"I think having a test flight in '14 is huge people can see it right there," Orion program manager Mark Geyer told SPACE.com in September. "It's a really important goal."

Orion was originally conceived as a next-generation spacecraft, called the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle, under NASA's now-defunct Constellation program. When that program was cancelled by the Obama administration, the Orion design was carried forward as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

The engineering team behind the capsule has weathered political ups and downs, but say they are glad to be approaching flight time for the craft. [Photos: NASA's Orion Spaceship Test Explained]

"It's hard to put in 80 hours a week and then have somebody go, 'I dont want to do that anymore,'" Geyer said. "We kind of went through that two years ago, but fortunately we came out on the other side."

Orion first test flight will be called the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT 1), and will include a test of more than half the systems that will appear in the ultimate finished Orion. These include its heat shield, which is a totally novel design made of a special composite material and an ablative coating deigned to burn off as the capsule re-enters Earth's searing atmosphere for the trip home.

EFT 1 will also test the capsule's primary structure design and put its avionics and computer systems through their paces.

However, for this first flight test Orion will ride to space aboard a Delta 4 heavy rocket a proven flight vehicle from ULA (United launch Alliance) that won't be its ultimate booster. Eventually, Orion is planned to launch toward the moon and beyond on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), a new heavy-lift rocket still under development. The first flight test for Orion and SLS together, called Exploration Mission 1, is slated for 2017.

Follow this link:

New NASA Spaceship Comes Together for 2014 Test Launch