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Photos: NASA’s IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures

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Preparing Solar Satellite for Launch

Technicians work on the payload fairing that will protect NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft during launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. Launch is currently scheduled no earlier than May 28, 2013.

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) with solar panels open in flight position, in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where it was designed and built.

This image from JAXAs Hinode mission shows the lower regions of the suns atmosphere, the interface region, which a new mission called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, will study in exquisite detail. Where previous missions have been able to image material at only a few predetermined temperatures in this region, IRIS will observe a wide range of temperatures from 5000 Kelvins to 65,000 Kelvins (and up to 10 million Kelvins during solar flares). Its images will resolve structures down to 150 miles across.

IRIS mission logo features a sun, a prism with a rainbow light spectrum coming from it, and on the bottom a list of mission partners: NASA, LMSAL, LMS&ES, ARC, SAO, UiO, MSU, LSJU.

Engineers attach the starboard side of the payload fairing into place for NASA's IRIS spacecraft. The fairing connects to the nose of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift the solar observatory into orbit in June. This image was released June 10, 2013.

Engineers inspect the solar panel connections on the NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto where it was designed and built.

The Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift NASA's IRIS solar observatory into orbit is moved from a hangar onto a transporter at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This image was released June 10, 2013.

This image shows technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California connecting the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

Technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California mate the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

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Photos: NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures

Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at new NASA exhibit

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NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis has a new $100 million home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The retired Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

After 33 missions into space over a 30-year career, NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis has found a permanent base close to home. The shuttle is part of a new $100 million visitor center exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex which will immerse visitors in the experience of space travel.

The exhibit opens June 29 and will weave first-hand accounts from astronauts and flight engineers, along with the history of NASA, into 60 interactive displays. The displays will touch on everything from launches and orbits to how a space station is assembled.

But the centerpiece of the exhibit is Atlantis. Visitors will able to get an up-close, 360-degree view of one of the world's first reusable spacecraft. Robert Z. Pearlman of collectSpace.com recently toured the exhibit during a preview of the grand opening this week.

Atlantis' last mission, STS-135, landed on Runway 15 of the Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. on July 21, 2011. It was the Shuttle program's final flight.

After being officially retired, Atlantis was moved in November 2012 to the center's visitor complex aboard the 76-wheel Orbiter Transporter System -- at less than 1 mile per hour. It took around 12 hours for the shuttle to make the 9.8-mile trip from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to its new museum facility, which opens Friday.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at new NASA exhibit

NASA to launch mission to capture asteroid

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Bangalore, June 25 (IANS) US' National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) will launch a space mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to earth to enable its astronauts to visit it, a top space official said Tuesday.

"As part of our new initiative, we are going to launch a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to earth so that astronauts can visit it," NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden said in a talk delivered at the space applications centre of the state-run Indian space agency in Ahmedabad.

The mission also will identify and characterise asteroids of all types for clues to their origin, formation and separation from smaller planets in the solar system to become rocky-metallic objects floating in sizes ranging from pebbles to 1,000 km across.

In a statement earlier, Bolden said NASA was develop a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid, by bringing together the space agency's science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve the goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025. The mission is estimated to cost $105 million.

NASA plans to first locate a large asteroid floating in space closer to earth, deploy a robotic arm to capture it and push it into a safe orbit around the moon before sending astronauts in a capsule to study it.

"Our future plans also include advance space exploration and reach new destinations such as an asteroid and Mars," Bolden told scientists and officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

On his first visit to India as NASA administrator, Bolden discussed the cooperative activities between the two space-faring countries with ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan and senior space officials and potential areas of future missions.

"India and the US pursue active civil space cooperation in earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange," the space agency said in a statement here.

During his day-long visit, Bolden was shown the technical facilities of the space applications centre, which develops satellite sensors and antennas.

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NASA to launch mission to capture asteroid

NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation

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A NASA advanced ion propulsion engine has successfully operated for more than 48,000 hours, or 5 and a half years, making it the longest test duration of any type of space propulsion system demonstration project ever.

The thruster was developed under NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Glenn manufactured the test engine's core ionization chamber. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., designed and built the ion acceleration assembly.

The 7-kilowatt class thruster could be used in a wide range of science missions, including deep space missions identified in NASA's Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

"The NEXT thruster operated for more than 48,000 hours," said Michael J. Patterson, principal investigator for NEXT at Glenn. "We will voluntarily terminate this test at the end of this month, with the thruster fully operational. Life and performance have exceeded the requirements for any anticipated science mission."

The NEXT engine is a type of solar electric propulsion in which thruster systems use the electricity generated by the spacecraft's solar panel to accelerate the xenon propellant to speeds of up to 90,000 mph. This provides a dramatic improvement in performance compared to conventional chemical rocket engines.

During the endurance test performed in a high vacuum test chamber at Glenn, the engine consumed about 1,918 pounds (870 kilograms) of xenon propellant, providing an amount of total impulse that would take more than 22,000 (10,000 kilograms) of conventional rocket propellant for comparable applications.

"Aerojet Rocketdyne fully supports NASA's vision to develop high power solar electric propulsion for future exploration," said Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet Rocketdyne's vice president for space advanced programs. "NASA-developed next generation high power solar electric propulsion systems will enhance our nation's ability to perform future science and human exploration missions."

The NEXT project is a technology development effort led by Glenn to develop a next generation electric propulsion system, including power processing, propellant management and other components. The project, conducted under the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program at Glenn, is managed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Aerojet Rocketdyne provides propulsion expertise for domestic and international markets. For more information about Aerojet Rocketdyne, visit: http://www.Rocket.com

To view the NEXT ion engine in operation, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/16v9y8g

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NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation

NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

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NASA this week announced that it has now discovered more than 10,000 near-Earth objects asteroids that could pass close to Earth in the future. The agency also bragged that 98% of all near-Earth objects have been uncovered by NASA surveys.

The 10,000th near-Earth object was discovered on June 18, 2013 by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope on Maui, Hawaii. The telescope is operated by the University of Hawaii, and receives NASA funding. The asteroid, 2013 MZ5, is around 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide but is not considered a potential danger to the Earth.

The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASAs NEO Observations program in 1998, weve been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future.

This new announcement comes just as NASA has issued a Grand Challenge to find and combat potentially hazardous asteroids. The agency is accepting ideas on how to locate, explore, and redirect an asteroid, as well as plans to deal with potential doomsday asteroids that might be headed toward Earth.

Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone, said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASAs Near-Earth Object Observations Program. But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth.

According to NASA, only around 10% of known near-Earth objects are large enough (over 1 kilometer) to have doomsday-like consequences, were they to hit Earth. Luckily, none of them are on a collision-course with Earth, though the Near-Earth Object Observations program estimates that a few dozen of these large asteroids are still undiscovered.

(Image courtesy PS-1/UH)

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NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

BP: Bayan ng Cabatuan, Iloilo, nasa-state of calamity dahil sa pagdami ng nagkaka-dengue – Video

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BP: Bayan ng Cabatuan, Iloilo, nasa-state of calamity dahil sa pagdami ng nagkaka-dengue
Balita Pilipinas Ngayon rounds up the top stories from around the PhilippinesGMA #39;s regional stations in Luzon, Visayas, and MIndanao. It #39;s hosted by Mark Sal...

By: gmanews

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BP: Bayan ng Cabatuan, Iloilo, nasa-state of calamity dahil sa pagdami ng nagkaka-dengue - Video

GeoMetWatch Enters into Agreement with NASA to Enable Unprecedented Weather Data

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NORTH LOGAN, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

GeoMetWatch Corp today announced it has entered into a Space Act Agreement with NASA to provide four years of Earth observation and weather data from GeoMetWatchs first Sounding and Tracking Observatory for Regional Meteorology (STORM)mission on board an Asia Satellite Telecommunications spacecraft. Planned for launch in 2016, the AsiaSat 9 satellite will host the first of six planned hyperspectral STORM sensors, which will benefit NASA climate research by providing the national space agency with sophisticated and critical weather data not currently available.

The weather and atmospheric data produced by STORM will enable meteorologists to provide higher quality daily forecasts, predict severe weather and atmospheric instability more accurately, and improve location and storm tracking and analysis of the intensity of hurricanes and typhoons. Similar to a CAT scan, the hyperspectral sounder will effectively analyze the Earths atmosphere by dividing it into 1,800 layers and scanning in 4D (length, width, depth, time), a vast improvement over current satellite technology.

The six STORM sensors will become part of a new global satellite constellation by GeoMetWatch and will be modeled after the Geosynchronous Imaging Fourier Transform Spectrometer (GIFTS) hyperspectral sounder, which is on loan for this purpose from NASA. To be situated approximately 22,000 miles above Earth in geostationary orbit, the STORM instruments will be manufactured by Utah State Universitys Advanced Weather Systems laboratory.

The core technology present in GIFTS provides the key manufacturing aid to enable us to build a production version for STORM, said Scott Jensen, director of USUs Advanced Weather Systems laboratory. As the only series of weather sensors operating in geostationary orbit, STORM will provide first-of-its-kind, advanced hyperspectral data that substantially improves climate modeling, weather forecasting and natural disaster monitoring.

STORM will resurrect GIFTS original mission to continuously observe Earths surface and atmosphere from geostationary orbit and obtain a more accurate and comprehensive picture of weather patterns in the atmosphere. The AsiaSat 9 hyperspectral sounder will be in a positioned orbit at 122 degrees East over the Asia-Pacific region. Most current observation instruments only occupy low Earth orbit, approximately 520 miles above Earth, and are incapable of solely providing continuous coverage over a large area.

We are thrilled to leverage the major investment made in GIFTS and help the STORM program become fully realized, said David Crain, CEO of GeoMetWatch. The weather data provided by this program has the potential to advance the preservation of lives and property by increasing warning time and enabling earlier evacuations as a result of extreme weather. In delivering this life-saving information at significantly reduced costs, we look forward to improving weather forecast data for government agencies and commercial industries around the globe.

The products and services from GeoMetWatch are available globally under an innovative fee-for-service data-buy model that enables its clients to meet their critical atmospheric data needs with optimum efficiency and affordability.

About GeoMetWatch

GeoMetWatch Corp is a commercial technology and innovation leader specializing in global hyperspectral weather services. GeoMetWatch provides state-of-the-art hyperspectral sensors as well as a range of meteorological data products. GeoMetWatch is headquartered in North Logan, Utah. For more about GeoMetWatch, visit us at http://www.geometwatch.com.

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GeoMetWatch Enters into Agreement with NASA to Enable Unprecedented Weather Data

NASA calls on amateur astronomers to track ‘dangerous’ asteroids

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Washington, June 24:

Heres your chance to save the planet!

NASA has called on amateur astronomers and other citizen-scientists to help identify the smaller and potentially destructive asteroids lurking in the cosmos, which could wipe out a city upon impact with Earth.

Scientists estimate that about 90 per cent of asteroids that are one kilometre or larger which pose potential planet-wide danger have been surveyed.

However, more than 99 per cent of asteroids that are 30 to 40 meters in size-which might not destroy the planet, but could very easily wipe out a city have yet to be found and tracked, the National Geographic reported.

NASA has asked for the publics help to find these dangerous asteroids and figure out what can be done to stop any threats they pose.

The announcement coincides with the agencys plans for a new mission to capture an asteroid, redirect it to lunar orbit, and then send humans to study it, said Brian Muirhead, NASAs chief engineer and the leader of the Asteroid Redirect Mission study team.

What we need to do is increase the frequency of identification of asteroids such that we can also track them and characterise them, said Muirhead.

That will give us a choice (to see) which (asteroid) we want to grab hold of and bring back to the Earth-moon system, said Muirhead.

NASAs announcement this week comes four months after an 18-meter-long asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February.

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NASA calls on amateur astronomers to track ‘dangerous’ asteroids

NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge

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Mon, Jun 24, 2013

NASA appears to be pushing hard to sell its asteroid mission to the scientific community as well as the public. The space agency announced Tuesday a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them. NASA also released a request for information (RFI) that invites industry and potential partners to offer ideas on accomplishing NASA's goal to locate, redirect, and explore an asteroid, as well as find and plan for asteroid threats. The RFI is open for 30 days, and responses will be used to help develop public engagement opportunities and a September industry workshop.

The challenge, which was announced at an asteroid initiative industry and partner day at NASA Headquarters in Washington, is a large-scale effort that will use multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists. It complements NASA's recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

Grand Challenges are ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. They are an important element of President Obama's Strategy for American Innovation.

"I applaud NASA for issuing this Grand Challenge because finding asteroid threats, and having a plan for dealing with them, needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort," said Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "The efforts of private-sector partners and our citizen scientists will augment the work NASA already is doing to improve near-Earth object detection capabilities."

(Images provided by NASA)

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NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge

NASA Marks Fifth Anniversary Of TWINS Mission

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Image Caption: Since 2008, NASAs two TWINS spacecraft have been providing a stereoscopic view of the ring current -- a hula hoop of charged particles that encircles Earth. Credit: J. Goldstein/SWRI

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

This month marks the fifth anniversary of NASAs Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS) missions, which are stereoscopically imaging the mysterious and dynamic region surrounding Earth known as the magnetosphere, the US space agency announced on Saturday.

The TWINS A & B probes were launched on June 15, 2008, and according to NASA, since that time they have been orbiting in widely separated planes so that they can enable the three-dimensional visualization and the resolution of large scale structures and dynamics within the magnetosphere for the first time.

The magnetosphere itself is governed by magnetic and electric forces, incoming energy and material from the sun, and a vast zoo of waves and processes unlike what is normally experienced in Earth-bound physics, the agency explained in a statement. Nestled inside this constantly changing magnetic bubble lies a donut of charged particles generally aligned with Earths equator.

That region is known as the ring current, and NASA said its waxing and waning is a key part of the space weather that surrounds the Earth. The ring current can induce magnetic fluctuations on the ground as well as transmit disruptive surface charges onto spacecraft, and part of the TWINS mission has been to provide the first and currently only stereo view of this portion of the magnetosphere.

During its five years of operation, the TWINS satellites have successfully provided 3D images and global characterization of this region, NASA said. The probes have been tracking how the magnetosphere responds to space weather storms.

They have also been able to characterize global information such as the temperature and the shape of various structures within this outer layer of the ionosphere, and have helped enhance magnetosphere models which can be used to create simulations of a plethora of different events.

With two satellites, with two sets of simultaneous images we can see things that are entirely new, said Mei-Ching Fok, the project scientist for TWINS at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center. This is the first ever stereoscopic energetic neutral atom mission, and its changed the way we understand the ring current.

Weve done some fantastic new research in the last five years, added David McComas, the principal investigator for TWINS at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. As a mission of opportunity, it is a very inexpensive mission and it continues to return incredible science.

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NASA Marks Fifth Anniversary Of TWINS Mission

NASA Launch Services Enabling Exploration and Technology NEXT

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Synopsis - Jun 21, 2013

Draf">http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/eps/sol.cgi?acqid=156837#Draft%20Document">Draft Document - Posted on Jun 21, 2013 New!

General Information

Solicitation Number: NNK13475600R Posted Date: Jun 21, 2013 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Jun 21, 2013 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No Original Response Date: Jul 08, 2013 Current Response Date: Jul 08, 2013 Classification Code: V -- Transportation, travel, and relocation services NAICS Code: 336414 Set-Aside Code: Total Small Business

Contracting Office Address

NASA/John F. Kennedy Space Center, Procurement, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899

Description

NASA/KSC is releasing a Pre-Solicitation notice as well as a Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP) for NASA Launch Services Enabling eXploration & Technology (NEXT). A previous release regarding NEXT was a Sources Sought Notice NNK13ZLS003L posted on April 03, 2013. The final RFP, if issued, is anticipated to be released in August 2013.

NASA Launch Services Program (LSP) provides opportunities for CubeSat payloads, often called nanosatellites, to fly on a ride share basis on upcoming launches. Currently, LSP is seeking to develop alternatives to the rideshare approach and help foster other launch services dedicated to transporting CubeSat payloads into orbit. The NEXT contract will acquire a launch service for a CubeSat-Class payload on a firm fixed price basis.

The Government intends to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12.

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NASA Launch Services Enabling Exploration and Technology NEXT

NASA moon probe celebrates 4th birthday on Supermoon Sunday

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Artist's rendering of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft.

By Mike Wall, Space.com

A sharp-eyed NASA spacecraft celebrates four years of circling the moon this Sunday (June 23), just in time for the "supermoon."

Since arriving in orbit on June 23, 2009, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has given scientists a much deeper understanding of Earth's nearest neighbor, mission team members said.

"Not only has LRO delivered all the information that is needed for future human and robotic explorers, but it has also revealed that the moon is a more complex and dynamic world than we had ever expected," Rich Vondrak, LRO deputy project scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said in a statement. [ Celebrating LRO's Fourth Anniversary (Video) ]

Appropriately enough, LRO marks its fourth anniversary on the same day that the biggest and brightest full moon of 2013 the so-called " supermoon " lights up Earth's night sky.

The moon's path around Earth is slightly elliptical; distances between the two bodies vary from 225,622 miles (363,104 kilometers) at the closest lunar approach, known as perigee, to 252,088 miles (405,696 km) at apogee. Supermoons result when the full moon and perigee coincide.

The $504 million LRO spacecraft is about the size of a Mini Cooper car and sports seven different science instruments. It zips around the moon at an altitude of 31 miles (50 km).

LRO launched on June 18, 2009, along with a piggyback probe called the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. In October 2009, LRO watched from orbit as LCROSS and the duo's Centaur booster rocket slammed deliberately into a shadowed crater at the moon's south pole, blasting out surprisingly large amounts of water ice.

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NASA moon probe celebrates 4th birthday on Supermoon Sunday


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