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NASA to Launch Student-Built Radiation Shield on Orion Capsule Test Flight

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HOUSTON NASA is challenging schoolchildren to protect their future ride into space.

NASA's new Exploration Design Challenge, announced Monday (March 11) during an event at the Johnson Space Center here, engages U.S. students in kindergarten through high school in helping to solve the known problem of increased radiation exposure encountered on flights into deep space.

"If not all of us, most of us remember the immortal words associated with the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, 'Houston, we have a problem," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, standing before a mockup of the agency's new Orion crew capsule. "Today, we are here to announce an effort in partnership with Lockheed Martin and the young people of America that will allow us to take about a year from now to proclaim, 'Houston, we have a solution.'"

Through teacher-led classroom activities and, for the older entrants, access to the resources to design and perhaps build and then fly into space a prototype radiation shield, students from across the nation will be able to contribute to the first flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1), targetedfor launch in September 2014. [How NASA's 1st Orion Test Flight Works (Video)]

"When Orion takes its first flight in 2014, that's next year, it'll travel farther into space than any spacecraft developed for human spaceflight in the 40 years since our astronauts returned from the moon," Bolden said. "This will require new technologies, including new ways to keep astronauts safe from deep space radiation. That is the purpose of this challenge and we're excited that American students will be helping us solve that problem."

Banking on student designs

The EFT-1 mission will launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, which will boost an unmanned Orion capsule on a two-orbit flight around the Earth. Once in space, the craft will rise to more than 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) above the planet 15 times higher than the International Space Station prior to turning around to come home to perform a high-energy test of its heat shield.

The elliptical orbit that the Orion will follow will result in the craft lingering in the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding the Earth. This trajectory will expose the vehicle to much higher levels of radiation than a typical low Earth orbit or even moon-bound mission would encounter.

The EFT-1 Orion will be equipped with a NASA-designed radiation sensor to measure the harsh space environment that the capsule will fly through. But it may be the student design for a radiation shield from the Exploration Design Challenge (or EDC) that offers the breakthrough technology for astronauts to follow on future missions.

"My guess is that we will see something we never thought about," Bolden told collectSPACE in an interview, referring to the outcome of the EDC. "It may be totally different and it may even be affordable, which is most important."

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NASA to Launch Student-Built Radiation Shield on Orion Capsule Test Flight

NASA Media Accreditation Open for Test Flight of Orbital’s Antares Rocket

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WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- Media accreditation is open for a test flight of Orbital Sciences Corporation's Antares rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Launch is targeted to occur between April 16-18 at approximately 3 p.m. EDT, the day of launch.

Antares is undergoing testing that will enable the rocket to eventually carry experiments and supplies to the International Space Station aboard a Cygnus cargo spacecraft. This test flight will not launch a Cygnus spacecraft or rendezvous with the space station. A demonstration flight of Cygnus to the orbiting laboratory is planned for later this year.

International news media representatives without U.S. citizenship must apply for credentials to cover the prelaunch and launch activities by March 29. Early accreditation is necessary to process international media credentials. For media representatives who are U.S. citizens, the deadline to apply is April 10.

Media should email their accreditation requests to Keith Koehler at keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov. For questions about accreditation or additional information, contact Koehler by email or call him at 757-824-1579.

NASA also is inviting 25 social media users to apply for credentials for the Antares launch. Social media users selected to attend will be given the same access as journalists. All social media accreditation applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Registration for social media accreditation is open online. Because of the security processing deadline, registration is limited to U.S. citizens. For U.S. social media, the application deadline is 5 p.m. March 29. For more information about NASA social media accreditation requirements and to register, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/social

Orbital Sciences Corp. is building and testing its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. After successful completion of a COTS demonstration mission to the station, Orbital will begin conducting eight planned cargo resupply flights to the outpost through NASA's $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with the company.

NASA initiatives, such as COTS, are helping to develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry. NASA's Commercial Crew Program also is working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from American soil during the next several years.

For more information about the upcoming Orbital test flights and links to NASA's COTS and Commercial Crew programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/orbital

For information on Orbital's Antares launch vehicle, visit: http://www.orbital.com

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NASA Media Accreditation Open for Test Flight of Orbital's Antares Rocket

NASA TV News Conference to Discuss Planck Cosmology Findings

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NASA will host a news conference at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) Thursday, March 21, to discuss the first cosmology results from Planck, a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation.

The briefing will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website.

Planck launched into space in 2009 and has been scanning the skies ever since, mapping cosmic microwave background, or the afterglow, of the big bang that created our universe more than 13 billion years ago.

The briefing participants are:

-- Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics, NASA, Washington -- Charles Lawrence, U.S. Planck project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. -- Martin White, U.S. Planck scientist, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. -- Krzysztof Gorski, U.S. Planck scientist, JPL -- Marc Kamionkowski, professor of physics and astronomy, John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

News media representatives may ask questions from participating NASA centers or by telephone.

Local media who would like to watch the event at JPL, via satellite, must arrange access by 2 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, March 20, by contacting elena.mejia@jpl.nasa.gov or JPL Media Relations at 818-354-5011. Valid photo I.D. and media credentials are required, and non-U.S. citizens must also bring a passport.

To participate by phone, reporters must send an email providing name, media affiliation and telephone number to j.d.harrington@nasa.gov by 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT) March 21. News media representatives and the public may send questions via Twitter to #AskNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv . The event will also be streamed live on Ustream at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA. NASA's Planck Project Office is based at JPL. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, contributed mission-enabling technology for both of Planck's science instruments. European, Canadian and U.S. Planck scientists work together to analyze the Planck data. More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck, http://planck.caltech.edu and http://www.esa.int/planck .

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NASA TV News Conference to Discuss Planck Cosmology Findings

NASA Ames’ E. Coli Small Satellite Study Selected for Flight

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NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) recently selected E. coli AntiMicrobial Satellite (EcAMSat) as one of 24 small satellites to fly as secondary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

EcAMSat is being developed through a partnership between NASA's Ames Research Center and the Stanford University School of Medicine. It will be the first NASA mission in the "6U" configuration, with six times the volume of a single cubesat unit ("1U"). Cubesats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about four inches on each side, have a volume of about one quart, and weigh less than three pounds. Though it is large for a nanosatellite, the 6U EcAMSat weighs only about 30 pounds and measures approximately 14.4 inches long, 8.9 inches wide and 3.9 inches tall.

"The development and flight of EcAMSat will mark Ames' eighth nanosatellite mission since 2006," said David Korsmeyer, director of engineering at NASA Ames. "Ames leads nanosatellite work within NASA, and is actively working within the government, academia and industry on developing and standardizing the 6U cubesat format, including the associated launch vehicle adapters and dispensers."

The 6U format enhances nanosatellite applicability for space missions by providing more power and volume for instruments, avionics, actuators and propulsion. The larger format improves payload accommodation and extends mission duration capabilities, while still retaining its ability to be launched as a secondary payload.

The primary scientific purpose of the EcAMSat mission is to investigate how and whether space microgravity affects the antibiotic resistance of E. coli, a bacterial pathogen responsible for urinary tract infection in humans and animals. Bacterial antibiotic resistance may pose a danger to astronauts in microgravity, where the immune response is weakened. Scientists believe that the results of this experiment could help design effective countermeasures to protect astronauts' health during long-duration human space missions.

"Small satellites provide effective and economical means for the current project aimed at understanding the genetic basis of increased antibiotic resistance of bacterial pathogens under microgravity," said A.C. Matin, principal investigator for this study and a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Stanford School of Medicine. "The planned experiments will determine the role of bacterial innate resistance in antibiotic tolerance, revealing the identity of proteins that can be targeted for increasing antibiotic effectiveness and countering the serious problem of bacterial drug resistance, which appears to be especially marked in microgravity."

After launch EcAMSat will be deployed from a specialized dispenser also designed and developed at NASA Ames, called the 6U Nanosatellite Launch Adapter System Dispenser. EcAMSat then will spend a minimum of 45 days in low-Earth orbit completing the experiment and relaying data to the ground.

EcAMSat was competitively selected for development by NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Division in 2010 and awarded to NASA Ames and the Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition to the selection of EcAMSat, NASA Ames also has been chosen for NASA CSLI missions in 2011 - for the Lightsail mission - and 2012 - for the SporeSat mission, which is currently scheduled for launch in September 2013.

For additional information on NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative program, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/home/CubeSats_initiative.html

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NASA Ames' E. Coli Small Satellite Study Selected for Flight

Audit to probe reports of leaked military secrets from NASA facilities

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Shown here is an aerial shot of the Ames Research Center.NASA.gov

The cover page of a report, obtained by FoxNews.com and purportedly presented to the FBI, alleging that confidential Defense Department missile secrets were leaked to foreign countries.FoxNews.com

The NASA office of the inspector general will audit NASAs Ames research facility in the wake of a FoxNews.com report on violations of International Trade in Arms Regulations (ITAR) laws at a storied California space-research facility.

Documents obtained by FoxNews.com last month detail a four-year FBI investigation into the transfer of classified weapons technology -- including rocket engine tech for missile defense systems -- to China and other countries from NASAs Ames Research Center. The documents also purport that an investigation into the security lapses that led to the event are being stonewalled.

- NASA inspector general Paul Martin

On March 14, NASA Inspector General Paul Martin wrote to Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Chaka Fattah, D-Pa, to announce that he planned to open a broad investigation into these and other allegations, which Wolf has been urging NASA and the FBI to do.

I wanted to inform you that the OIG is opening a new audit that will more broadly examine NASAs controls over access by foreign nationals to its facilities, he wrote.

Last week, Wolf described a similar incident at Kennedy Space Center in Florida involving visits by Chinese officials, a charge NASA denied.

The news of the Inspector General's probe came a day after Martin testified before a congressional panel on the fiscal challenges NASA is facing, in part due to the sequester.

Because NASA received less than half its requested budget for commercial crew development last year, the Agency extended to 2017 the earliest it expects to obtain commercial crew transportation services to the [International Space Station] a date uncomfortably close to the Stations currently scheduled 2020 retirement, Martin wrote on the OIG site.

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Audit to probe reports of leaked military secrets from NASA facilities

NASA Spacecraft Snaps Last Close-Up Photos of Icy Saturn Moon

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NASA's Cassini spacecraft has snapped its last up-close photos ofSaturn's icy moon Rhea, revealing a battered satellite covered in craters from violent impacts.

Cassini took the amazing new photos of Rhea on Saturday (March 9) during its fourth and final planned encounter with the Saturn moon. During the encounter, the probe flew within just 620 miles (997 kilometers) of Rhea, which is Saturn's second-largest satellite."Take a good, long, luxurious look at these sights from another world, as they will be the last close-ups you'll ever see of this particular moon," Cassini imaging team lead Carolyn Porco, of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement accompanying the photos.

Saturday's flyby was designed primarily to measure Rhea's gravity field, mission scientists said. But Cassini also managed to take 12 pictures of the frigid moon's battered, pockmarked surface, including one that showcases a mysterious long, curving fracture called a graben.

Rhea is the second-largest of Saturn's 60-odd known moons, with a diameter of 949 miles (1528 km). It's far smaller than the ringed planet's biggest natural satellite, Titan, which at 3,200 miles (5,150 km) across is nearly 50 percent wider than Earth's moon.

Rhea was discovered in 1672 by the mathematician and astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who gave his name to the NASA mission currently studying the Saturn system.

In 2010, researchers determined that the moon has a wispy atmosphere dominated by oxygen and carbon dioxide. The oxygen likely was blasted free from water ice on Rhea's surface by charged particles streaming fromSaturn, scientists say, but the origin of the carbon dioxide is more mysterious.

The Cassini mission a joint effort involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. It has been studying the ringed planet and its many moons ever since, and will continue to do so on an extended mission until at least 2017.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwall.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published onSPACE.com.

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NASA Spacecraft Snaps Last Close-Up Photos of Icy Saturn Moon

NASA’s Curiosity rover discovers conditions essential for life – Video

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NASA #39;s Curiosity rover discovers conditions essential for life
nasa #39;s rover Curiosity has discovered something that has scientists claiming intelligence life could have already existed on the planet Mars After months of research and analysis of rock samples from the red planet scientists were able to identify key elements essential for life rt #39;s Liz Wahl has more Find RT America in your area httprtcomusawheretowatch Or watch us online httprtcomonairrtamericaair Like us on Facebook httpwwwfacebookcomrtamerica Follow us on Twitter httptwittercomrt_america.

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NASA's Curiosity rover discovers conditions essential for life - Video

NASA Seeks to Profit from Natural Gas

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By Rich Smith | More Articles March 14, 2013 |

Hard on the heels of Lockheed Martin's (NYSE: LMT) surprise announcement that it's getting into the energy infrastructure business, its partner, NASA -- yes, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- had an even more surprising revelation of its own today yesterday: NASA is looking to make some commercial profits of its own.

And not just by selling telescopes, space-themed toys, and NASA windbreakers at its stores, either. NASA's looking to make some serious scratch by retooling its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans to manufacture liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanks for commercial use on Earth.

At a joint press conference in New Orleans, standing beside Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and representatives from Lockheed, NASA representatives confirmed that they will be cooperating with Lockheed to use their "unique experience and equipment at Michoud to manufacture the LNG tanks." (Don't worry ... NASA's still making space gas-tanks, too).

Financial terms of the arrangement among Lockheed, NASA, and the Louisiana government have not yet been disclosed, but details should begin filtering out soon. According to Lockheed, the company has already begun receiving orders from customers who would like it to manufacture cryogenic tanks for fueling LNG-powered vessels. Once sales begin finalizing, and orders delivered, the details of how these three entities are divvying up the profits should become clearer.

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NASA Seeks to Profit from Natural Gas

NASA to reveal contents of drilled Martian rock

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Drilling into a rock near its landing spot, the Curiosity rover has answered a key question about Mars: The red planet long ago harbored some of the ingredients needed for primitive life to thrive.

Topping the list is evidence of water and basic elements that teeny organisms could feed on, scientists said Tuesday.

"We have found a habitable environment that is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it," said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology.

The discovery comes seven months after Curiosity touched down in an ancient crater. Last month, it flexed its robotic arm to drill into a fine-grained, veiny rock and then tested the powder in its onboard labs.

Curiosity is the first spacecraft sent to Mars that could collect a sample from deep inside a rock, and scientist said they hit pay dirt with that first rock.

Mars today is a hostile, frigid desert, constantly bombarded by radiation. Previous missions have found that the planet was more tropical billions of years ago. And now scientists have their first evidence of a habitable environment outside of Earth.

This was an environment where microbes "could have lived in and maybe even prospered in," Grotzinger said.

The car-size rover made a dramatic "seven-minutes-of-terror" landing last August near the planet's equator. As high-tech as Curiosity is, it lacks the tools to detect actual microbes, living or extinct. It can only use its chemistry lab to examine Martian rocks to determine the kind of environment they might have lived in.

The analysis revealed the rock that Curiosity bore into contained a chemical soup of sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus and simple carbon essential chemical ingredients for life. Also present were clay and sulfate minerals, signs that the rock formed in a watery environment.

NASA rovers Opportunity and Spirit before it fell silent also uncovered evidence of a wet Martian past elsewhere on the planet, but scientists think the water would have been too acidic for microbes.

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NASA to reveal contents of drilled Martian rock

NASA Spacecraft Sees Comet, Earth and Mercury Together (Video)

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A new video from a NASA spacecraft studying the sun has captured an unexpected sight: a wandering comet posing with the planets Earth and Mercury.

The cosmic view comes from one of NASA's twin Stereo spacecraft that constantly watch the sun for signs of solar flares and other space weather events. It shows Mercury and Earth as they appeared with the Comet Pan-STARRS, a comet that is currently visible from the Northern Hemisphere during evening twilight.

The probe captured the video of Comet Pan-STARRS, Earth and Mercury together while observing the sun from March 9 to March 12.

According to a NASA description, the video "shows the comet and its fluttering tail as it moves through space." The Earth appears as a bright stationary object on the right side of the video, while Mercury is visible as a moving light on the left side. [How to see Comet Pan-STARRS]

The sun is actually out of the frame in the Stereo-B spacecraft's video, but its solar wind is visible as a stream of material, NASA officials explained. Meanwhile, the view of Comet Pan-STARRS from space is giving scientists a wealth of data to review, they added.

"Comet scientists say the tail looks quite complex and it will take computer models to help understand exactly whats happening in STEREOs observations," agency officials said in a video description. "The comet should remain visible to the naked eye through the end of March."

Comet Pan-STARRS is currently visible to stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere just after sunset. To see the comet, look low on the western horizon just after the sun has gone down. Comet Pan-STARRS can appear as a bright head with a wispy trail, weather permitting, though some stargazers have said the bright evening twilight can make spotting it tricky.

The Comet Pan-STARRS was discovered in June 2011 by astronomers using the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) in Hawaii. The comet's official name is C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS).

Scientists estimate that Comet Pan-STARRS takes more than 100 million years to orbit the sun once. The comet crossed into the Northern Hemisphere evening sky last week after months of being visible to observers in the Southern Hemisphere.

NASA's twin Stereo A and B spacecraft (the name is short for Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) observe the sun in tandem to provide unparalleled views of how material from solar eruptions makes its way to Earth. The spacecraft launched in 2006 and are part of a fleet of sun-watching spacecraft that monitor solar storms.

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NASA Spacecraft Sees Comet, Earth and Mercury Together (Video)

NASA OIG: NASA ‘s Compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act for Fiscal Year 2012

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Full report

We determined in our review of the FY 2012 AFR and supporting documentation that NASA complied with IPIA. However, we also identified opportunities for improvement in NASA's methodology for its IPIA and recapture audit programs, as well as its annual reporting. With regard to our prior recommendations, NASA is in the process of implementing corrective action to address four and has taken action we consider responsive to the other five.

Although NASA now includes payments it makes to grantees and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in its IPIA review, the Agency continues to exclude payments made by JPL to vendors and sub-recipients. Further, NASA may have inaccurately assessed and assigned risk to certain programs due to incomplete data, a heavy reliance on materiality, and subjective assignment of risk by the IPIA contractor. In addition, while NASA conducted recapture audits, NASA excluded from coverage cost-type contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements, and accordingly the audits were limited to 35 percent of the

Agency's total disbursements. As a result, the Agency may be missing an opportunity to identify and recover a larger population of improper payments. Finally, we also identified errors and omissions in NASA's AFR that lead us to question whether NASA's reporting efforts are accurate and complete.

Although improper payments identified through NASA's IPIA testing and recapture audit efforts have been historically low, the actual amount of improper payments the Agency makes may be higher than reported given the issues we identified. However, because NASA does not fund benefit entitlement or state-administered programs, we believe it is not likely this figure would qualify as "significant" under OMB guidelines. Further, the results of NASA's FY 2012 financial statement audit did not disclose any material weaknesses in the Agency's internal controls related to procurement or disbursement functions.

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NASA OIG: NASA 's Compliance with the Improper Payments Information Act for Fiscal Year 2012


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