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Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google – Video

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Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google
Since 1998, NASA #39;s Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program has led the global effort to find potentially hazardous asteroids, and has successfully found...

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Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google - Video

NASA vet weighs in on 'Gravity': 'Spectacular realism'

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Mark Uhran, a 28-year NASA veteran with the International Space Station, outlines his thoughts on "Gravity," the terrifyingly realistic new film about free drifting in space starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

There's a moment, 30 seconds into the original trailer for Alfonso Cuarn's movie "Gravity," when the light piano music sharply drops off and you watch in a mixture of awe and utter terror as Sandra Bullock's character is sent head over heels, away from the image of Earth, strapped to a disintegrating arm of metal and flying toward the blackness of space.

"My first reaction was that the cinematography was of spectacular realism," said Mark Uhran, who retired last year from NASA as a director in the International Space Station (ISS) division with 28 years of experience. "I've never seen that done before."

Uhran, who saw an advance screening of the film earlier this week, joins a growing crowd of space-savvy professionals who have risen up to give "Gravity" a collective helping of praise alongside film critics' rave reviews. Cuarn, who directed "Children of Men" and "Y Tu Mam Tambin," may not have gotten everything right when it comes to some of the technical aspects of floating and traveling in Earth's orbit, but many agree: the cinematography is not only breathtaking and mind-blowing, it's also the most realistic space film to date.

"I saw a great deal of high-res imagery taken of the ISS during its construction and operation. I've never seen a Hollywood filmmaker actually be able to capture that clarity and resolution of the space station and shuttle," Uhran added.

To help capture that realism, Cuarn, who also co-wrote the script, turned to his longtime cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. The film, which opens Friday nationwide, stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts caught in a tragic, life-threatening situation during what should be routine extravehicular activity, or EVA as it's referred to by NASA, outside their space shuttle.

The film looks stunning and true-to-life, but how likely is its prime scenario and how prepared would NASA be in the case of a crisis of that magnitude?

"That's a scenario that of course has been considered ever since the dawn of science fiction," he said. "I don't know that they train for an event such as a free drift in space; it's highly improbable. But they do train for the EVA activity and a contingency during EVA.

"EVA activity is extremely dangerous. It's one of the most hazardous operations that can be conducted in space which is why the space program tries to minimize the number of EVAs," he added. Uhran noted the event earlier this year when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who was performing EVA outside the ISS, encountered a helmet malfunction that caused it to began filling up with water. Parmitano's account of the sheer disorienting effects of such a crisis and trying to stay calm with increasingly reduced visibility inspires enough anxiety as it is, let alone the thought of what a real-life free drift disaster might begin to feel like.

"It's a scenario that of course has been considered ever since the dawn of science fiction."

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NASA vet weighs in on 'Gravity': 'Spectacular realism'

Giant unidentified objects (UFOs) near the Sun in the pictures NASA – Review for October 3, 2013 – Video

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Giant unidentified objects (UFOs) near the Sun in the pictures NASA - Review for October 3, 2013
If you are in doubt about what they see - look at all the videos on this channel.If you can make a donation to help this channel - please email me: snezhinsk...

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Giant unidentified objects (UFOs) near the Sun in the pictures NASA - Review for October 3, 2013 - Video

NASA hopes 3-D printers will let astronauts make own parts in space

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NASA

Martha Mendoza The Associated Press

Sep. 30, 2013 at 1:17 PM ET

Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Project manager Matthew Napoli, left, and director of research and development Michael Snyder test a 3-D printer that eventually will be used in space on Sept. 16 at Made in Space in Mountain View, Calif.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. NASA is preparing to launch a 3-D printer into space next year, a toaster-sized game changer that greatly reduces the need for astronauts to load up with every tool, spare part or supply they might ever need.

The printers would serve as a flying factory of infinite designs, creating objects by extruding layer upon layer of plastic from long strands coiled around large spools. Doctors use them to make replacement joints and artists use them to build exquisite jewelry.

In NASA labs, engineers are 3-D printing small satellites that could shoot out of the Space Station and transmit data to Earth, as well as replacement parts and rocket pieces that can survive extreme temperatures.

"Any time we realize we can 3-D print something in space, it's like Christmas," said inventor Andrew Filo, who is consulting with NASA on the project. "You can get rid of concepts like rationing, scarce or irreplaceable."

The spools of plastic could eventually replace racks of extra instruments and hardware, although the upcoming mission is just a demonstration printing job.

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NASA hopes 3-D printers will let astronauts make own parts in space

NASA's next Mars probe ready for Nov. launch, despite gov't slimdown

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NASA's next Mars probe should get off the ground on time, no matter how long the government shutdown lasts.

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution orbiter, or Maven, got back on track for a Nov. 18 launch on Thursday (Oct. 3), just two days after the government shutdown froze liftoff preparations and put a scare into planetary scientists around the world.

"We have already restarted spacecraft processing at Kennedy Space Center, working toward being ready to launch on Nov. 18," Maven principal investigator Bruce Jakosky, of the University of Colorado, Boulder, wrote in a mission status update Thursday. "We will continue to work over the next couple of days to identify any changes in our schedule or plans that are necessary to stay on track." [How the Government Shutdown Will Influence Science and Health]

- Maven principal investigator Bruce Jakosky

The shutdown which went into effect at midnight EDT Tuesday, Oct. 1, when the Senate and House of Representatives failed to agree on an emergency spending bill forced NASA to furlough 97 percent of its employees and cease most of its operations, including work on missions such as Maven that have yet to leave the ground.

So the $650 million Maven mission went into a worrisome limbo in the home stretch of its long march toward launch. A lengthy shutdown could have caused Maven to miss its liftoff window, which officially runs through Dec. 7 (though the spacecraft could actually launch as late as Dec. 15 or so, Jakosky said).

That would be a big deal, because the next opportunity for Maven to get off the ground won't come until early 2016, when Earth and Mars are once again properly aligned.

But those concerns have now evaporated. NASA has determined that Maven qualifies for an emergency exception because of its importance as a communications link between Earth and robots on the Red Planet's surface, Jakosky wrote.

"Maven is required as a communications relay in order to be assured of continued communications with the Curiosity and Opportunity rovers," he said. "The rovers are presently supported by Mars Odyssey launched in 2001 and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launched in 2005. Launching Maven in 2013 protects the existing assets that are at Mars today."

NASA has no Red Planet relay orbiters planned beyond Maven, he added.

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NASA's next Mars probe ready for Nov. launch, despite gov't slimdown

NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Still Open for Business During Government Shutdown

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WASHINGTON NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory which is run by California Institute of Technology employees, not federal civil servants has temporarily dodged the government-shutdown bullet, ensuring that several major robotic space missions at least for the immediate future continue regular operations as other NASA centers shut their doors to all but a small number of "essential" personnel.

"Because all of our employees are here and working, all of our day-to-day missions that were planned will continue," Veronica McGregor, a spokeswoman for JPL, told SpaceNews Oct. 1. "All of NASA's existing missions are expected to continue space operations."

The reprieve will not continue indefinitely. McGregor said Jet Propulsion Laboratory will continue normal operations "for the next week, and then they will be reassess the situation here on a weekly basis to see how long we can continue." [Read more about the government shutdown from SPACE.com]

While all but 549 of NASA's roughly 18,000 civil servants have been furloughed, some contractors will be able to continue their work for the space agency, NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said Sept. 30.

"Contractors that have sufficient funds on contract and have a facility outside NASA can keep working," Beutel told SpaceNews. "If they're doing any work on a federal facility, that has to stop."

JPL, unlike other NASA centers, is a federally funded research-and-development center run by Caltech under contract to NASA. That means data gathered by JPL-led missions can still be parsed by scientists and engineers at the Pasadena, Calif., field center. For missions run by other centers, skeleton crews will operate spacecraft to ensure that data keeps flowing, but prohibit anyone from studying it in detail until the shutdown is resolved.

"Operating satellites get to maintain operations, but no scientists and engineers can process that data," Beutel said. "The ones and zeroes come in and that's all.

Among the many missions JPL runs for NASA are:

Even JPL's website, unlike nasa.gov, was still open to the public, as of Oct. 2. However, McGregor said there would be no updates to the website, and that JPL-run social media would go silent until the government shutdown ends.

This story was provided bySpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.

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NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab Still Open for Business During Government Shutdown


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