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NASA's Hubble Will Use Rare Stellar Alignment to Hunt For Planets

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WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri.

The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from Hubble.

"Proxima Centauri's trajectory offers a most interesting opportunity because of its extremely close passage to the two stars," said Kailash Sahu, an astronomer with the Space Science Telescope Institute in Baltimore, Md. Sahu leads a team of scientists whose work he presented Monday at the 222nd meeting of American Astronomical Society in Indianapolis.

Red dwarfs are the most common class of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Any such star ever born is still shining today. There are about 10 red dwarfs for every star like our sun. Red dwarfs are less massive than other stars. Because lower-mass stars tend to have smaller planets, red dwarfs are ideal places to go hunting for Earth-sized planets.

Previous attempts to detect planets around Proxima Centauri have not been successful. But astronomers believe they may be able to detect smaller terrestrial planets, if they exist, by looking for microlensing effects during the two rare stellar alignments.

Microlensing occurs when a foreground star passes close to our line of sight to a more distant background star. These images of the background star may be distorted, brightened and multiplied depending on the alignment between the foreground lens and the background source.

These microlensing events, ranging from a few hours to a few days in duration, will enable astronomers to measure precisely the mass of this isolated red dwarf. Getting a precise determination of mass is critical to understanding a star's temperature, diameter, intrinsic brightness, and longevity.

Astronomers will measure the mass by examining images of each of the background stars to see how far the stars are offset from their real positions in the sky. The offsets are the result of Proxima Centauri's gravitational field warping space. The degree of offset can be used to measure Proxima Centauri's mass. The greater the offset, the greater the mass of Proxima Centauri. If the red dwarf has any planets, their gravitational fields will produce a second small position shift.

Because Proxima Centauri is so close to Earth, the area of sky warped by its gravitation field is larger than for more distant stars. This makes it easier to look for shifts in apparent stellar position caused by this effect. However, the position shifts will be too small to be perceived by any but the most sensitive telescopes in space and on the ground. The European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope on Mt. Cerro Paranal in Chile may be able to make measurements comparable to Hubble's.

To identify possible alignment events, Sahu's team searched a catalog of 5,000 stars with a high rate of angular motion across the sky and singled out Proxima Centauri. It crosses a section of sky with the apparent width of the full moon as observed from Earth every 600 years.

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NASA's Hubble Will Use Rare Stellar Alignment to Hunt For Planets

Robotic rovers compete for $1.5 million NASA prize

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Sample Return Challenge aims to make robots capable of navigating and retrieving samples by themselves. This image shows the space agency's past rovers (smallest to largest): Sojourner, Mars Exploration Rover and Curiosity.

By Megan Gannon, SPACE.com

NASA is ready to award $1.5 million in prizes next week for robotic rovers that can skillfully navigate mock alien terrain and collect samples all by themselves.

Today's robots exploring extraterrestrial landscapes, like the Mars rover Curiosity, have some autonomous capabilities, but they are largely dependent on directions from their handlers on Earth. NASA hopes a little competition will help spark innovations in autonomous navigation that could be used on future missions.

Eleven teams are set to participate in the space agency's 2013 Sample Return Robot Challenge, which takes place from June 5 to 7 at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Mass.

The rovers in the contest will have to pass rigorous testing to earn prize money. To get through Level 1, the robots will have 30 minutes to search for and retrieve an undamaged mock geological sample such as a shoe box or tennis ball that has previously been identified by the robot's computer, NASA officials said. The rovers that can complete that task successfully will move on to Level 2, in which the robots will have to autonomously return at least two undamaged samples to their starting platform within two hours.

Awards will be doled out based on the difficulty of the samples collected, with prizes ranging from 100,000 to $1.5 million, according to NASA.

In last year's challenge, no prize money was awarded. Only one team of six had met the requirements after robot inspections, and that rover failed to make it through Level 1. But NASA officials are hopeful that this year the competition will be fiercer.

"We have a lot of new competitors signed up," Sam Ortega, program manager of Centennial Challenges, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a statement. "Improving this technology will be a huge boon, not just to NASA and space exploration, but also for countless applications here on Earth."

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Robotic rovers compete for $1.5 million NASA prize

NASA Open to Hitching Ride to the Moon, Agency Chief Says

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COCOA BEACH, Fla. The United States has no plans to orchestrate a mission to send astronauts back to the Moon, but if someone else is going NASA wants a seat.

"I have never said the United States is not going back to the lunar surface. I just said that in the foreseeable future, given the budget that NASA currently has and given where we are and what we need technologically if we're going to go to Mars, then it will not be the United States that leads an expedition to the lunar surface," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a National Academy of Sciences' medical committee May 30.

"If somebody else is going, we will provide our engineering expertise and the only condition is that I be allowed to send an astronaut as a part of the crew," Bolden told an Institute of Medicine panel which is looking into ethics and health guidelines for future long-duration human spaceflights.

NASA currently plans to follow the international space station program with a series of deep-space expeditions beginning with a human mission to an asteroid by 2025. The agency is studying a hybrid mission that begins by scouting for an appropriate target, helping scientists identify potentially threatening near-Earth objects in the process. Next, NASA would launch a robotic craft to survey, intercept and relocate the selected asteroid into an orbit around the Moon for a future visit by astronauts.

Engineers are looking for a relatively small asteroid about7-10 meters in diameter, so that if it accidentally ended up on a collision course with Earth, it would burn up in the atmosphere and not cause any damage.

"I am told that if we screw it up, if we try to capture it and we perturb it and we deflect it toward Earth, we will not destroy civilization. We won't even hurt a car because it won't make it through the atmosphere," Bolden said.

The mission is envisioned as an early stepping-stone toward eventually learning how to alter the course of a larger, potentially threatening, asteroid in the future.

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

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NASA Open to Hitching Ride to the Moon, Agency Chief Says

NASA Solicitation: Cubesat Hardware and Intergation Services

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Synopsis - Jun 03, 2013

General Information

Solicitation Number: NNK13ZLS004Q Posted Date: Jun 03, 2013 FedBizOpps Posted Date: Jun 03, 2013 Recovery and Reinvestment Act Action: No Original Response Date: Jun 18, 2013 Current Response Date: Jun 18, 2013 Classification Code: 18 -- Space vehicles NAICS Code: 336419 Set-Aside Code: Total Small Business

Contracting Office Address

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

Description

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) plans to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) for CubeSat dispenser hardware and integration services. A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized space research satellite that typically uses commercial, off-the-shelf electronic components. In support of this effort, Offerors must be capable of performing the standard service, which includes engineering development support, dispenser carrier hardware, CubeSat to dispenser and dispenser to launch vehicle (LV) integration, and system testing. Additionally, Offerors may be required to perform non-standard services (such as de-integration and commercial flight services), mission unique services, and special task assignments related to the hardware and integration services. Offerors need not be capable of performing commercial flight services to be eligible for an IDIQ contract award under this acquisition.

NASA intends to make one or more award(s) of the Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) type contract. The contract ordering period will be Calendar Years (CY) 2013 through 2016. The minimum order value is $10,000 with a maximum order value of $9,500,000.

This requirement is a 100% Small Business Set-Aside.

This procurement will be conducted under FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items, in conjunction with FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation.

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NASA Solicitation: Cubesat Hardware and Intergation Services

NASA’s Swift Maps Magellanic Clouds With Ultraviolet

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June 4, 2013

Image Credit: NASA / Axel Mellinger, Central Michigan University

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Using NASAs Swift satellite, astronomers from NASA and Pennsylvania State University have created the most detailed ultraviolet surveys to-date of the two closest major galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.

We took thousands of images and assembled them into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy, resulting in the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths, said Stefan Immler. Immler originally proposed the program and led NASAs contribution from the Goddard Space Flight Center.

At the 222nd American Astronomical Society meeting this week, Immler presented a 160-megapixel mosaic image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and a 57-megapixel mosaic image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). These images reveal approximately one million ultraviolet sources in the LMC and another 250,000 in the SMC. Light ranging from 1,600 to 3,300 angstroms, which is a range of UV wavelengths largely blocked by Earths atmosphere, was included in the images as well.

Prior to these images, there were relatively few UV observations of these galaxies, and none at high resolution across such wide areas, so this project fills in a major missing piece of the scientific puzzle, said Michael Siegel, lead scientist for Swifts Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) at the Swift Mission Operations Center.

The LMC lies approximately 163,000 light-years from Earth, while the SMC is about 200,000 light-years away. They orbit each other, as well as orbiting our Milky Way galaxy, and are both smaller than our own galaxy. The LMC is one-tenth the size, containing only one percent of the mass of the Milky Way. The SMC, on the other hand, is half the size and contains two-thirds the mass.

Because they are so close to us, relatively speaking, both galaxies loom large in our sky and extend far beyond the UVOTs field of view. Thousands of images were needed in order to cover both galaxies in three ultraviolet colors centered at wavelengths of 1,928 angstroms, 2,246 angstroms, and 2,600 angstroms.

Astronomers were able to suppress the light of normal stars like our Sun by viewing in the ultraviolet wavelength. These stars are not very bright at such higher energies, allowing the ultraviolet to provide a clearer picture of the hottest stars and star-formation regions. UVOT is the only telescope currently able to produce such high-resolution, wide-field multicolor surveys in the ultraviolet range. The wide-field imaging capabilitiesof the Swift satellite provide a powerful complement to the deeper, but much narrower-field imaging power of NASAs Hubble Space Telescope.

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NASA’s Swift Maps Magellanic Clouds With Ultraviolet

NASA Talk Shows How Most Aircraft Had Model Beginnings

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On Tuesday, June 4, at NASA's Langley Research Center, retired NASA aerospace engineer Joe Chambers will present, "Modeling Flight: The Role of Dynamically Scaled Free-Flying Models in NASA's Research Programs," at 2 p.m. in the Reid Conference Center.

Chambers will discuss how scaled models ultimately became vital tools for NASA and the aerospace industry.

Chambers will be available to answer questions from the media during a news briefing at 1:15 p.m. that day. Media who wish to do so should contact Chris Rink at 757-864-6786, or by e-mail at chris.rink@nasa.gov, by noon on the day of the talk for credentials and entry to the center.

That same evening at 7:30, Chambers will present a similar program for the general public at the Virginia Air & Space Center in downtown Hampton. This Sigma Series event is free and no reservations are required.

Beginning in the biplane era of the 1920s to today's sophisticated aerospace designs, scaled flight models of military aircraft, civil transports, general aviation airplanes, spacecraft and capsules, and parawing vehicles have been tested in NASA wind tunnels. Many design challenges for these aerospace vehicles included complex flight conditions that are not easily analyzed by computations or simulators.

Chambers will examine how NASA and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, developed experimental testing techniques in unique facilities using free-flying scaled models. He will also show video clips comparing model tests with results from flight tests of full-scale vehicles.

Retiring from NASA Langley in 1998, Chambers began his 36-year career in flight dynamics research at the Langley Full-Scale Tunnel. In 1974 he became the head of the Full-Scale Tunnel, the Langley 20-Foot Spin Tunnel, and related outdoor free-flight and drop-model testing. In 1989 he also became head of aircraft flight research at Langley. He served as a representative of the United States on international committees and has given invited lectures on NASA's aeronautics programs worldwide.

His awards include the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the Exceptional Service Medal, and the Public Service Medal. He also received the coveted Arthur Flemming Award sponsored by the Washington D.C. Jaycees in 1975 as one of the 10 Most Outstanding Civil Servants for his management of NASA stall/spin research for military and civil aircraft. He is the author of more than 50 NASA technical reports and published eight NASA books on aeronautical topics.

Chambers earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Tech and a Master of Science degree from Virginia Tech.

For more information about NASA Langley's Colloquium and Sigma Series Lectures, visit: http://colloqsigma.larc.nasa.gov

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NASA Talk Shows How Most Aircraft Had Model Beginnings

Northrop Re-Ups Global Hawk Contract With NASA

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By Rich Smith | More Articles May 30, 2013 |

Five years into a partnership to make its Global Hawk drones available to NASA for scientific endeavors, Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) is ready to continue the relationship for five more years ... or more.

On Thursday, the maker of unmanned aerial vehicles announced that it has reupped its five-year NASA Space Act Agreement with the Dryden Flight Research Center, whereby Northrop makes Global Hawk drones, which it owns and operates, available to NASA for use on science missions and flight demonstrations, including hurricane surveillance, atmospheric research, and exploration of new mission capabilities.

Already, the drones have been used on missions to investigate how the composition of the atmosphere affects Earth's climate, to monitor the progress of hurricanes forming in the Atlantic Ocean, and to examine the effects of winter storms on flood risk along the West Coast.

Northrop's renewed agreement will run through April 30, 2018, and requires NASA to share the cost of operating the drones with Northrop, in exchange for being allowed to use the drones jointly. Financial terms were not disclosed.

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Northrop Re-Ups Global Hawk Contract With NASA

NASA Policies, Merit System Principles, and Prohibited Personnel Practices

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Subject: NASA Policies, Merit System Principles, and Prohibited Personnel Practices. From: NSSC-HRMES@nasa.gov Date: May 30, 2013

Conscientious and principled decision making is a must for NASA managers and others who exercise personnel authority. Those who take, direct others to take, recommend or approve any personnel action should be familiar with NASA Policies on Diversity and Inclusion, Equal Employment Opportunity, Anti-Harassment, and the laws governing Merit System Principles and Prohibited Personnel Practices.

NASA Policy on Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are integral to mission success at NASA. Commitment to these principles helps to ensure fairness and equity in hiring and decision making. Diversity and inclusion engages and utilizes the talents, backgrounds, and capabilities of individuals and teams to create and maintain a work environment where diverse ideas are highly valued. NASA strives to build and maintain an environment in which employees are encouraged to offer their viewpoints and perspectives before critical decisions are made. To do so, NASA must cast the widest net possible on all hiring actions and be an organization where the expression of ideas and opinions is welcomed and encouraged.

The NASA Diversity and Inclusion Policy Statement is accessible at: http://odeo.hq.nasa.gov/documents/Diversity_Inclusion_Policy_Statement.pdf

NASA Policy on Equal Employment Opportunity

Equal opportunity in employment means opportunity not just for some, but for all. NASA is committed to ensuring its employees have a work environment free from discrimination regardless of race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, status as a parent, or gender identity. Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) covers all human capital and employment programs, management practices, and decisions including, but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, merit promotion, transfer, reassignment, training and career development, benefits, and separation. NASA supports employee rights under EEO law, and reprisal against individuals who exercise their rights will not be tolerated. NASA will continue to strive for a workplace that is free from all forms of illegal discrimination, including harassment and retaliation. NASA will also continue to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities, as appropriate.

The NASA EEO Policy Statement is accessible at: http://odeo.hq.nasa.gov/documents/EEO_Policy_Statement_2013.pdf

NASA Policy on Anti-Harassment

NASA remains committed to providing a work environment free from harassment and to addressing harassing conduct as early as possible, before it becomes pervasive or severe. Therefore, it is NASA policy to take immediate and appropriate action when the Agency is made aware of allegations of harassment or determines that harassing conduct has occurred. Harassment is defined as any unwelcome verbal or physical conduct, based on an individual's race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age or disability, sexual orientation, status as a parent, or gender identity, which can reasonably be considered to adversely affect the work environment or an employment decision based upon the individual's acceptance or rejection of such conduct. It is the responsibility of all employees to immediately report possible incidents of harassment. Employees who make a good faith report of harassing conduct or who assist in any inquiry regarding such a report are protected from retaliation.

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NASA Policies, Merit System Principles, and Prohibited Personnel Practices

Nasa: Radiation Study Shows Mars Mission Not Safe For Humans

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Curiosity's First Color Photo

Curiosity snaps the first color view of the north wall and rim of Gale Crater, where NASA's Mars rover landed Sunday night. The picture was taken by the rover's camera at the end of its stowed robotic arm and appears fuzzy because of dust on the camera's cover.

NASA's Curiosity rover and its parachute were spotted by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as Curiosity descended to the surface on Aug. 5 PDT (Aug. 6 EDT). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image of Curiosity--the rover and its parachute are in the center of the white box.

The green diamond shows approximately where NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars, a region about 2 kilometers northeast of its target in the center of the estimated landing region (blue ellipse).

This is one of the first images taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT (morning of Aug. 6 EDT). It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on the left "eye" of a stereo pair of Hazard-Avoidance cameras on the left-rear side of the rover.

In this black and white photo released by NASA's JPL-Caltech, This is the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 a.m. PDT. It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's front left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge, along with three cover fasteners. The rover's shadow is visible in the foreground. As planned, the rover's early engineering images are lower resolution. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

In this black and white photo released by NASA's JPL-Caltech, Curiosity rover snaps picture of its shadow. This is the first image taken by NASA's Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars the evening of Aug. 5 PDT . It was taken through a "fisheye" wide-angle lens on one of the rover's rear left Hazard-Avoidance cameras at one-quarter of full resolution. The clear dust cover on the camera is still on in this view, and dust can be seen around its edge, along with three cover fasteners. Larger color images are expected later in the week when the rover's mast, carrying high-resolution cameras, is deployed. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

A spectator watches a live stream of the Mars Curiosity landing while listening to an audio broadcast on her phone among the hundreds of other on-lookers in Times Square, August 6, 2012, in New York. After traveling 8 1/2 months and 352 million miles, Curiosity landed on Mars Sunday night. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Steve Collins waits during the "Seven Minutes of Terror" as the rover approaches the surface of mars, inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration. (AP Photo/Brian van der Brug, Pool)

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden smiles as the rover begins its decent to the surface of mars, inside the Spaceflight Operations Facility for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Sunday August 5, 2012. The Curiosity robot is equipped with a nuclear-powered lab capable of vaporizing rocks and ingesting soil, measuring habitability, and potentially paving the way for human exploration.(AP Photo/Brian Van Der Brug, Pool)

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Nasa: Radiation Study Shows Mars Mission Not Safe For Humans


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