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NASA-CNES Move Forward with Global Water and Ocean Surface Mission

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May 2, 2014

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, left, and Centre National d'tudes Spatiales (CNES) President Jean-Yves Le Gall sign an agreement to move from feasibility studies to implementation of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission, Friday, May 2, 2014 at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ NASA and the French space agency Centre National dtudes Spatiales (CNES) have agreed to jointly build, launch, and operate a spacecraft to conduct the first-ever global survey of Earths surface water and to map ocean surface height with unprecedented detail.

http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnvar/20081007/38461LOGO

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall signed an agreement Friday at NASA Headquarters in Washington to move from feasibility studies to implementation of the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. The two agencies began initial joint studies on the mission in 2009 and plan to complete preliminary design activities in 2016, with launch planned in 2020.

With this mission, NASA builds on a legacy of Earth science research and our strong relationship with CNES to develop new ways to observe and understand our changing climate and water resources, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. The knowledge well gain from SWOT will help decision makers better analyze, anticipate, and act to influence events that will affect us and future generations.

SWOT is one of the NASA missions recommended in the National Research Councils 2007 decadal survey of Earth science priorities. The satellite will survey 90 percent of the globe, studying Earths lakes, rivers, reservoirs and ocean to aid in freshwater management around the world and improve ocean circulation models and weather and climate predictions.

This new agreement covers the entire life cycle of the mission, from spacecraft design and construction through launch, science operations, and eventual decommissioning. NASA will provide the SWOT payload module, the Ka-band Radar Interferometer (KaRIn) instrument, the Microwave Radiometer (MR) with its antenna, a laser retroreflector array, a GPS receiver payload, ground support, and launch services.

CNES will provide the SWOT spacecraft bus, the KaRIn instruments Radio Frequency Unit (RFU), the dual frequency Ku/C-band Nadir Altimeter, the Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) receiver package, satellite command and control, and data processing infrastructure.

NASA and CNES began collaborating on missions to monitor ocean surface changes in the 1980s. From the TOPEX/Poseidon mission launched in 1992 to the Jason-1 mission launched in 2001 to the Jason-2/Ocean Surface Topography Mission launched in 2008, the collaboration has produced critical information on sea-level rise as well as El Nio causing world-wide impact.

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NASA-CNES Move Forward with Global Water and Ocean Surface Mission

NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman Available for Interviews before Space Station Mission

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NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman of Baltimore, Md., who is making final preparations for a May launch to the International Space Station, will be available for live satellite interviews from 6 to 7 a.m. EDT Friday, May 9.

Wiseman will participate live from the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. The interviews will be preceded at 5:30 a.m. by a video b-roll feed of his mission training highlights. To participate, reporters should contact Karen Svetaka at 281-483-8684 orkaren.a.svetaka@nasa.govno later than 3 p.m., Thursday, May 8.

Wiseman is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School in Patuxent River, Md. As a naval aviator, Wiseman flew the FA-18F Super Hornet and served in numerous assignments around the world before his selection to NASA's astronaut corps in 2009

Wiseman, Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency and Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft May 28 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are scheduled to return to Earth in November.

Wiseman, Gerst and Suraev will join NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, who launched to the station in March. The six-person crew will participate in several hundred experiments in biology and biotechnology, physical science and Earth science during its nearly six-month-long space mission.

The International Space Station is NASA's springboard to the exploration of deep space and Mars. NASA uses the space station as a test bed to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The orbiting laboratory also advances our understanding of how the body changes in space over time and how to protect astronaut health for longer duration missions.

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman Available for Interviews before Space Station Mission

NASA's Morpheus Lander Prototype Touches Down on Mock Moonscape (Video)

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A prototype of NASA's Morpheus lander kicked up a cloud of fake moon dust as it touched down softly on a mock lunar landscape in Florida in this week.

On Wednesday (April 30), the Morpheus vehicle dubbed Bravo lifted off for its twelfth free-flight test at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The robotic vehicle flew a pre-programmed path that launched it vertically, and then rose to an altitude of more than 800 feet (243 meters), NASA officials said in a description of a video of the mock moonscape flight.

After liftoff, Morpheus then flew sideways 1,300 feet (396 m), hovering over a 65-yard(59 m) square sandbox full of obstacles like rocks and craters. [Photos: NASA's Project Morpheus Robot Lander]

NASA recently started testing its automated landing and hazard avoidance technology(ALHAT)installed on the vehicle. This 400-pound suite of computers and three instruments is designed to scan the surface of apotential landing site for hazards, such as a dangerous boulder or crater, so that the spacecraft doesn't crash or tip over as it touches down.

The ALHAT technology mapped the square and identified a safe landing site 4.5 feet (1.4 m) east of the center of the landing pad and targeted that location to gently touch down on the mock lunar surface, NASA officials said.

"We've been working a long time, eight years, to prove we can do autonomous, precision landing and hazard avoidance and guidance," Chirold Epp, project manager for ALHAT, said in a NASA statement a week before the latest flight. "We really need to show the world that everything we've been advertising for eight years works."

The Morpheus project suffered a spectacular setback in August 2012, when thelander prototype crashed and explodedjust moments after liftoff in its first free flight. But the latest round of Morpheus' free-flight tests, whichbegan on Dec. 10, 2013, has been successful so far.

Morpheus is an autonomous vertical takeoff/vertical landing vehicle intended to fly to the moon with up to a 1,100-lb. (500 kilograms) payload, perhaps consisting of a humanoid robot, a rover or a fuel lab, NASA officials say. With modifications to its landing system, the spacecraft possibly could be used to deliver cargo to other planetary bodies, such as an asteroid in deep space.

TheMorpheus lander uses liquid oxygen and methane, or so-called green propellants, which NASA officials say are safer and cheaper to use than traditional rocket fuels because they can be stored in space for longer periods.

Follow Megan Gannon onTwitterandGoogle+. Follow us @SPACEdotcom, FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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NASA's Morpheus Lander Prototype Touches Down on Mock Moonscape (Video)

NASA MARS ROVER ANOMALIES SOL 614 " Curiosity Finds Moving Vehicle " – Video

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NASA MARS ROVER ANOMALIES SOL 614 " Curiosity Finds Moving Vehicle "
WATCH IN 1080P HD PLEASE !!!! http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/proj/msl/redops/ods/surface/sol/00614/opgs/edr/ncam/NLB_451998814EDR_F0311330NCAM00322M_.JPG http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw...

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NASA MARS ROVER ANOMALIES SOL 614 " Curiosity Finds Moving Vehicle " - Video

NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson had a live Skype with University of Colorado Students on Wednesday, Apr – Video

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NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson had a live Skype with University of Colorado Students on Wednesday, Apr
NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson had a live Skype with University of Colorado Students on Wednesday, April 30, 2014, at the Fiske Planetarium on the CU campus in Boulder, Colorado. By: Jeremy...

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NASA Astronaut Steve Swanson had a live Skype with University of Colorado Students on Wednesday, Apr - Video


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