05-10-2012 18:39 Astronomers using NASA's Swift satellite recently detected a rise in high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, came from a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole. An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months. The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole. The rapidly brightening source triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope twice on the morning of Sept. 16, and once again the next day. Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the center of our galaxy toward the constellation Sagittarius. While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20000 to 30000 light-years away in the galaxy's inner region. Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light.

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Astronomers Spot Sudden Black Hole Flare Up - Video

Sun, Oct 07, 2012

NASA invites scientists from around the country to submit proposals to perform biological research aboard the International Space Station. The NASA Research Announcement (NRA), "Research Opportunities in Space Biology," opened Sept. 30.

This NRA challenges scientists to propose experiments that could provide answers to questions about how life adapts and responds to microgravity. Selected investigators will have the opportunity to take advantage of new cell, plant and animal research facilities being developed for the space station. Proposals should demonstrate benefits to astronauts living and working in the harsh environment of space during long-duration missions. They also should improve medicine and health care for humans on Earth.

The NRA also focuses on ground-based research designed to lead to new space biology investigations aboard the orbiting laboratory. The investigations should use microgravity and other characteristics of the space environment effectively to enhance our understanding of basic biological processes and develop the scientific and technological foundations for a safe, productive human presence in space for extended periods in preparation for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The investigations should apply this knowledge and technology to improve the nation's competitiveness, education and quality of life.

NASA's selection of research projects is guided by recommendations from the National Research Council's 2011 Decadal Survey Report, "Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era." The NASA-developed "Fundamental Space Biology Science Plan" provides an implementation strategy and roadmap based on available flight and fiscal resources.

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NASA Offers Opportunities For Biological Research On ISS

Washington, Oct 7:

NASAs Swift satellite has found evidence of the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole in our Milky Way galaxy.

Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the centre of our galaxy towards the constellation Sagittarius, NASA said.

While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxys inner region.

The satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the centre of Milky Way and the outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of the black hole.

Bright X-ray novae are so rare that theyre essentially once-a-mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen, said Neil Gehrels, the missions principal investigator, at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center.

This is really something weve been waiting for, Gehrels said.

An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months.

The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole.

Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light.

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NASA discovers new black hole in Milky Way

October 6, 2012

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

A NASA satellite studying the sun saw its view obstructed by Earth for a brief period of time each day throughout much of the month of September. Those eclipses had an unusual effect on the images captured by the probe immediately afterwards, the U.S. space agency revealed on Friday.

NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) moved into what is known as its semi-annual eclipse phase from September 6 through September 29, officials from the organization explained. During each of those days, our planet temporarily obscured the satellites view, with a period of fuzzy imagery following for a period of approximately 45 minutes afterwards.

Scientists choose orbits for solar telescopes to minimize eclipses as much as possible, but they are a fact of life one that comes with a period of fuzzy imagery directly after the eclipse, NASA said. The Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) on SDO observes the sun through a glass window. The window can change shape in response to temperature changes, and does so dramatically and quickly when it doesnt directly feel the suns heat.

Youve got a piece of glass looking at the sun, and then suddenly it isnt, Dean Pesnell, the project scientist for SDO at the Goddard Space Flight Center, added. The glass gets colder and flexes. It becomes like a lens. Its as if we put a set of eye glasses in front of the instrument, causing the observations to blur.

In an attempt to counter that phenomenon, the HMI unit was fitted with special heaters that warm the windows during an eclipse. Ordinarily, with no adjustments to the heater, it took SDO roughly two hours to return to prime observation capabilities. Initially, with the heater, that time was reduced to 60 minutes, but in the two years since the satellites 2010 launch, Pesnell and his colleagues have cut the waiting period for clear pictures down to 45-50 minutes.

SDO is studying the sun as the source of all space weather, which impacts our lives here on Earth, as well as the planet itself and everything located outside of its atmosphere, according to NASAs mission overview website.

It is the first satellite under the Living with a Star (LWS) program. It has also been designed to operate for five years and is capable of producing enough data to fill a single CD every 36 seconds, according to the U.S. space agency. The satellite is expected to enter its next eclipse season on March 3, 2013.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

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NASA SDO Team Overcoming Eclipse-Related Image Quality Degradation

The crew members one American astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut will launch and land in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and are scheduled to begin their voyage in the spring of 2015. The mission has been designed to collect valuable scientific data needed to send humans to new destinations in the solar system.

"In order for us to eventually move beyond low Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight," said Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager, in a statement. "The space station serves as a vital scientific resource for teaching us those lessons, and this yearlong expedition aboard the complex will help us move closer to those journeys."

There had been talks for several months regarding this joint venture, which is now confirmed after Fridays announcement. A Russian official said earlier this week that the mission was finalized, but NASA had simply said that it was under consideration, Space.com reported.

During the 12 years of permanent human presence aboard the space station, scientists and researchers have gained valuable, and often surprising, data on the effects of microgravity on bone density, muscle mass, strength, vision and other aspects of human physiology. This year-long stay is expected to allow for greater analysis of these effects and trends.

"We have gained new knowledge about the effects of spaceflight on the human body from the scientific research conducted on the space station, and it is the perfect time to test a one-year expedition aboard the orbital laboratory," said Julie Robinson, NASA's program scientist for the International Space Station. "What we will gain from this expedition will influence the way we structure our human research plans in the future."

While neither NASA nor the Russian Federal Space Agency, known as Roscosmos, have revealed the names of the crew, some earlier reports suggested that the NASA astronaut could be Peggy Whitson, who recently quit as the agency's chief astronaut to rejoin its active spaceflying ranks.

NASA said that the expedition will also serve as a test bed for future exploration technologies. Those innovative technologies, the logistics of the trip to and from the space station and the selection of the crew will be announced at a future time.

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NASA Announces First Year-Long International Space Station Mission, American-Russian Crew To Fly In 2015

A piece of space junk that may buzz the International Space Station Monday has NASA weighing plans to move the orbiting lab, even as a private space capsule stands poised to launch toward the station on Sunday night.

The space debris will pass near enough to the space station on Monday morning (Oct. 8) to require an avoidance maneuver as a safety precaution, NASA space station program manager Mike Suffredini said in a briefing today (Oct. 6).

The decision on whether to move the station is not yet final, but if such a maneuver is required it will not affect the scheduled launch of a private Dragon space capsule to the station, Suffredini said.

Built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX, the unmanned Dragon spacecraft is set to launch Sunday night at 8:35 p.m. EDT (0035 Monday GMT) from a pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The spacecraft is packed with about 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) of supplies for the space station's three-person crew, including food and science gear.

"I can't imagine a scenario in which we ask SpaceX not to launch," Suffredini said.

Suffredini said that if the space station does have to dodge the debris, it would likely just mean SpaceX's Dragon will take a bit longer to arrive than planned. Currently, the spacecraft is due to dock at the station on Wednesday (Oct. 10). [SpaceX's Dragon Poised to Sunday Launch (Photos)]

"They'll just adjust while they're flying if we have to do the move," Suffredini said.

NASA and its space station partners regularly move the space station when a piece of debris is expected to pass inside a preset safety perimeter. That safety zone is shaped like a pizza box and extends out 15 miles (25 kilometers) to either side, as well as a half-mile (0.75 km) above and below the station.

SpaceX's Dragon flight to the space station is the first commercial cargo delivery to the outpost under a $1.6 billion deal with NASA. That agreement calls for SpaceX to provide at least 12 cargo missions to the station using its robotic Dragon space capsules and Falcon 9 rockets.

The Hawthorne, Calif.-based SpaceX flew a successful demonstration flight to the station in May that set the stage for Sunday night's launch. Another company, Orbital Sciences Corp. of Virginia, is developing its own private rocket and spacecraft to fly cargo to the station under a $1.9 billion deal with NASA.

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NASA Tracking Space Junk Ahead of Private Launch to Space Station

05-10-2012 15:55 The historic launch of the first-ever contracted cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station by Space Exploration Technologies Corporationis ready. Also, cybersecurity; Antares rollout; hangin' out on Google; the Hubble constant; space orchestra, and more!

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Dragon Ready to Ride the Falcon on This Week @NASA - Video

Published: Oct. 5, 2012 at 7:50 PM

GREENBELT, Md., Oct. 5 (UPI) -- NASA says its Swift satellite detected X-rays from close to the center of our Milky Way galaxy, evidence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole.

"Bright X-ray novae are so rare that they're essentially once-a-mission events and this is the first one Swift has seen," said Neil Gehrels, Swift principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

The rapidly brightening source triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope twice on the morning of Sept. 16 and once again the next day, NASA reported.

"This is really something we've been waiting for," Gehrels said.

An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in just a few days and then fades out over a period of months, started by a torrent of gas suddenly rushing toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole.

"The pattern we're seeing is observed in X-ray novae where the central object is a black hole," said Boris Sbarufatti, an astrophysicist at Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy, currently working with other Swift team members at Penn State.

"Once the X-rays fade away, we hope to measure its mass and confirm its black hole status."

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NASA satellite sees new black hole

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is set to begin a very busy weekend.

The rover is slated to scoop up its first sample of Martian soil on Saturday, NASA reported.

Curiosity on Wednesday came across a sandy area that NASA scientists decided would be a good spot for the rover to stop and study. The area has been dubbed "Rocknest."

"We now have reached an important phase that will get the first solid samples into the analytical instruments in about two weeks," said Curiosity's mission manager Michael Watkins. "Curiosity has been so well-behaved that we have made great progress during the first two months of the mission."

To get ready for its first scoops, one of the the rover's wheels scuffed the soil in Rocknest to expose fresh material, NASA reported.

This latest step in Curiosity's mission comes on the heels of NASA's announcement that the rover had found evidence of a "vigorous" thousand-year water flow on the surface of Mars.

It was an important find for NASA, which hoped the nuclear-powered rover could find evidence that was once capable of supporting life.

With the discovery of water, one of the key elements needed to support life, the rover is now looking for other necessary elements, such as carbon in soil or rock fragments.

Curiosity, an SUV-sized rover that landed on Mars in August, is about two months into what scientists hope will be a two-year mission.

While the rover is designed to scoop up soil samples and deliver them into analytical instruments, these first samples won't be analyzed. Instead, the samples picked up over the weekend will be shaken vigorously in the scoop for several hours to clean out the soil handling system.

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NASA rover Curiosity gets first scoop on Mars

The first-ever yearlong mission to the International Space Station will launch in 2015 and feature an American-Russian crew, NASA revealed Friday.

A crew of two one Russian cosmonaut and one American astronaut will launch together in spring 2015 on an experimental endurance mission that will last twice as long as current stays aboard the orbiting lab. The main goal is to gather data that will help lay the groundwork for manned flights to destinations in deep space, officials said.

"In order for us to eventually move beyond low-Earth orbit, we need to better understand how humans adapt to long-term spaceflight," NASA's Michael Suffredini, International Space Station program manager, said in a statement. "The space station serves as a vital scientific resource for teaching us those lessons, and this yearlong expedition aboard the complex will help us move closer to those journeys."

The announcement confirms speculation that has been bubbling for several months. Earlier this week, a Russian space official claimed the marathon mission was a done deal, but until today NASA had simply said that such a flight was under consideration. [ Most Extreme Human Spaceflight Records ]

Launching two astronauts means that one seat on the mission's three-person Soyuz spacecraft may be available for another crew member. On Oct. 10, British singer Sarah Brightman will make a "groundbreaking announcement" about space travel, and some observers speculate that she or somebody else may be taking the Soyuz' third seat as a space tourist.

During the 12 years that people have lived continuously aboard the space station, scientists have learned a lot about how microgravity affects the human body. They've documented significant effects, for example, on bone density, muscle mass, strength and vision.

But that information has been based on orbital stays that lasted a maximum of six months. Studying astronauts on a yearlong mission should yield even greater insights into crew health and performance, researchers said.

"We have gained new knowledge about the effects of spaceflight on the human body from the scientific research conducted on the space station, and it is the perfect time to test a one-year expedition aboard the orbital laboratory," said Julie Robinson, NASA's program scientist for the International Space Station. "What we will gain from this expedition will influence the way we structure our human research plans in the future."

Space news from NBCNews.com

The first-ever year-long mission to the International Space Station will launch in 2015 and feature an American-Russian crew, NASA revealed Friday.

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NASA finally confirms yearlong ISS mission

New and efficient assembly methods should lower the price tag of NASA's giant new rocket for deep space missions, agency officials say.

Engineers at ATK Space Systems in Utah are putting together the solid rocket boosters for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lifter, which is designed to blast astronauts toward near-Earth asteroids, Mars and other destinations beyond Earth orbit.

The new boosters are similar to the ones that helped loft NASA's now-retired space shuttles to orbit. But several new upgrades and improvements should allow the new boosters to be built more cheaply and efficiently, officials said.

"We are embracing innovation both technically and in our management processes as we design and build SLS," Alex Priskos, SLS booster manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a statement. "Through the use of new streamlined approaches and techniques, we have been able to drive down costs and enhance the reliability of the hardware." [Video: Building SLS More Efficiently]

For example, ATK replaced traditional X-ray inspections with an ultrasonic examination of the booster's nozzle, allowing technicians to evaluate the hardware on the production floor, officials said. And the company reduced the number of moves during one stage of booster assembly from 47 to seven, decreasing both the time required to complete the process and the chance of damage to parts in transit.

In all, new handling methodologies can reduce the booster's total assembly time by 46 percent, ATK engineers estimate.

"As we were challenged with decreased budgets and a more streamlined workforce, we knew we had to make changes in order to stay competitive, but we also know the importance of ensuring we deliver a safe and reliable product for Americas human space flight program," said former astronaut Charlie Precourt, general manager and vice president of ATKs Space Launch Division, in a statement.

The improvements have been implemented throughout the manufacturing of Qualification Motor-1, the next full-scale test article for the SLS booster, NASA officials said. Engineers are preparing the motor for a ground test in the spring of 2013.

The SLS first stage will be powered by four RS-25 engines which served as the main engines for the space shuttle fleet flanked by two five-segment solid rocket boosters.

In its initial configuration, the SLS will be capable of launching 70 metric tons of payload and will generate 10 percent more thrust than NASA's Saturn 5 rocket, which blasted Apollo astronauts toward the moon. It will stand about 320 feet tall (97.5 meters).

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NASA aims to trim giant SLS rocket's costs

TDRS-K is in the Boeing satellite factory undergoing a fit check. Credit: Boeing Corp.

Technicians and engineers are completing final system checks and spacecraft inspections on the first of NASA's third-generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS). Boeing Space Systems will ship TDRS-K from its satellite assembly facility in El Segundo, Calif., to Cape Canaveral, Fla., in November. The December launch of TDRS-K will be aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is home to the team responsible for building and launching these satellites. Once in orbit, the new satellite will become part of NASA's Space Network, which incorporates a fleet of TDRS spacecraft. Currently, seven first- and second-generation satellites are connected in real-time to a series of ground stations and data facilities. This network provides the critical communications lifeline for NASA missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope and International Space Station.

NASA established the TDRS project in 1973 to provide around-the-clock communications to the agency's most critical missions in low Earth orbit. The TDRS design also increases the data rate of the space-to-ground communication service. The resulting system is a set of geosynchronous relay satellites distributed around the globe. Ground terminals complete the system, connecting scientists and engineers on Earth with satellites in orbit.

The first TDRS launched in April 1983. It was designed to handle an exponential increase in data volume and provide a major increase in coverage for low Earth orbit spacecraft. When TDRS-1 was launched from space shuttle Challenger, TDRS spacecraft were the largest, most sophisticated communication satellites ever built. After on-orbit checkout, TDRS-1 began providing communication support to space shuttle missions in late 1983. On that first mission, TDRS transmissions enabled more shuttle data flow to the ground than had been accomplished in the previous seven shuttle missions combined.

NASA continued adding first generation TDRS spacecraft until 1995. TRW, later to become Northrop Grumman built seven satellites. TDRS-2 was lost aboard Challenger in 1986. From 2000-2002, NASA added three second-generation spacecraft to the fleet. Hughes, now the Boeing Co., built the TDRS-H, I and J satellites, which continue operating along with four members of the first generation.

It has been almost thirty years, and the TDRS constellation continues to play a major role in maintaining a reliable communications network for NASA with critical, non-interrupted connections. Of the nine TDRS satellites launched, seven are still operational. Two have been retired. NASA engineers recognize the fleet is aging and are working to replenish the fleet with a new generation of TDRS satellites.

TDRS-K will be the first of three, next generation satellites designed to ensure vital operational continuity for NASA. TDRS-L is scheduled to launch in 2013, and TDRS-M is planned to launch in 2015.

The TDRS network provides critical support to NASA's human spaceflight endeavors that began during the shuttle era and continues with ongoing International Space Station support. It also provides communications support to an array of science missions, as well as various types of launch vehicles.

As a vital information pipeline for space-based research and exploration ambitions, TDRS fulfills NASA's broadest communication demands. Now in its third operational decade, the TDRS legacy of communications excellence has become key to enabling many of NASA's scientific discoveries. TDRS-K continues a legacy while increasing bandwidth of a network that has become the vital communications link for the missions of NASA.

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NASA to upgrade vital communications link

NASA's Global Hawk flew five science missions into Tropical Storm/Hurricane Nadine, plus the transit flight circling around the east side of Hurricane Leslie. This is a composite of the ground tracks of the transit flight to NASA Wallops plus the five science flights. TD means Tropical Depression; TS means Tropical Storm. Credit: NASA

NASA's Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel or HS3 scientists had a fascinating tropical cyclone to study in long-lived Hurricane Nadine. NASA's Global Hawk aircraft has investigated Nadine five times during the storm's lifetime.

NASA's Global Hawk also circled around the eastern side of Hurricane Leslie when it initially flew from NASA's Dryden Research Flight Center, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. to the HS3 base at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. on Sept. 6-7, 2012.

Nadine has been a great tropical cyclone to study because it has lived so long and has strengthened to hurricane status a couple of times, and then weakened back into a tropical storm. Hurricane Nadine is an anomaly because it has been tracking through the North Atlantic since Sept. 11, when it developed as the fourteenth tropical system of the hurricane season.

Longest-lived Tropical Cyclones

As of Oct. 2, Nadine has been alive in the north Atlantic for 21 days. According to NOAA, in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Ginger lasted 28 days in 1971. The Pacific Ocean holds the record, though as Hurricane/Typhoon John lasted 31 days. John was "born" in the Eastern North Pacific, crossed the International Dateline and moved through the Western North Pacific over 31 days during August and September 1994. Nadine, however, is in the top 50 longest-lasting tropical cyclones in either ocean basin.

First Flight into Nadine

On Sept. 11, as part of NASA's HS3 mission, the Global Hawk aircraft took off from NASA Wallops at 7:06 a.m. EDT and headed for Tropical Depression 14, which at the time of take-off, was still a developing low pressure area called System 91L.

At 11 a.m. EDT that day, Tropical Depression 14 was located near 16.3 North latitude and 43.1 West longitude, about 1,210 miles (1,950 km) east of the Lesser Antilles. The depression had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph. It was moving to the west near 10 mph (17 kmh) and had a minimum central pressure of 1006 millibars.

NASA's Global Hawk landed back at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., on Sept. 12 after spending 11 hours gathering data in the storm, which had strengthened into Tropical Storm Nadine during the early morning hours of Sept. 12.

Excerpt from:

NASA's HS3 mission thoroughly investigates long-lived Hurricane Nadine

A pair of NASA space telescopes have captured a spectacular new photo of the Helix Nebula, a glowing celestial vision that resembles a giant cosmic eye.

The Helix Nebula (also known as NGC 7293) represents a dying star known as a planetary nebula. The new picture, released Wednesday (Oct. 3), combines data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which observes in long-wavelength infrared light, andthe Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), which picked out the short-wavelength ultraviolet light coming from the object.

The Helix Nebula is located about 650 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Aquarius. It provides a sneak peak at the future of our own sun, which is expected to turn into a planetary nebula in about 5 billion years.

Planetary nebulas are stars around the size of the sun that have neared the ends of their lives and run out of hydrogen and helium fuel for fusion in their cores. At this point, they puff out their outer gaseous layers into glowing shells around them, and condense into small white dwarf stars.

"The white dwarf is about the size of Earth, but has a mass very close to that of the original star; in fact, a teaspoon of a white dwarf would weigh as much as a few elephants!" NASA scientists wrote in a statement.

The white dwarf star is visible in the picture as the tiny white dot in the center of the nebula.

This star emits intense ultraviolet radiation, which in turns lights up the outer gas layers in infrared wavelengths. Both ranges of the spectrum are shown here in the combined light of the two telescopes. In the photo, the GALEX data is shown in blue, while the Spitze Space Telescopeobservations are represented in yellow. Some of the background space is from data collected by NASA's all-sky Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE).

Planetary nebulas aren't planets at all, but they were erroneously named in the 18th century because they resembled gas giant planets, and the name has stuck.

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Originally posted here:

Giant Eye In Space Seen by NASA Telescopes

Newly efficient assembly methods should lower the price tag of NASA's giant new rocket for deep space missions, agency officials say.

Engineers at ATK Space Systems in Utah are putting together the solid rocket boosters for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lifter, which is designed to blast astronauts toward near-Earth asteroids, Mars and other destinations beyond Earth orbit.

The new boosters are similar to the ones that helped loft NASA's now-retired space shuttles to orbit. But several new upgrades and improvements should allow the new boosters to be built more cheaply and efficiently, officials said.

"We are embracing innovation both technically and in our management processes as we design and build SLS," Alex Priskos, SLS booster manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., said in a statement. "Through the use of new streamlined approaches and techniques, we have been able to drive down costs and enhance the reliability of the hardware." [Video: Building SLS More Efficiently]

For example, ATK replaced traditional X-ray inspections with an ultrasonic examination of the booster's nozzle, allowing technicians to evaluate the hardware on the production floor, officials said. And the company reduced the number of moves during one stage of booster assembly from 47 to seven, decreasing both the time required to complete the process and the chance of damage to parts in transit.

In all, new handling methodologies can reduce the booster's total assembly time by 46 percent, ATK engineers estimate.

"As we were challenged with decreased budgets and a more streamlined workforce, we knew we had to make changes in order to stay competitive, but we also know the importance of ensuring we deliver a safe and reliable product for Americas human space flight program," said former astronaut Charlie Precourt, general manager and vice president of ATKs Space Launch Division, in a statement.

The improvements have been implemented throughout the manufacturing of Qualification Motor-1, the next full-scale test article for the SLS booster, NASA officials said. Engineers are preparing the motor for a ground test in the spring of 2013.

The SLS first stage will be powered by four RS-25 engines which served as the main engines for the space shuttle fleet flanked by two five-segment solid rocket boosters.

In its initial configuration, the SLS will be capable of launching 70 metric tons of payload and will generate 10 percent more thrust than NASA's Saturn 5 rocket, which blasted Apollo astronauts toward the moon. It will stand about 320 feet tall(97.5 meters).

Read the original here:

NASA Aims to Trim Giant Deep-Space Rocket's Cost

ScienceDaily (Oct. 4, 2012) NASA's Curiosity rover is in a position on Mars where scientists and engineers can begin preparing the rover to take its first scoop of soil for analysis.

Curiosity is the centerpiece of the two-year Mars Science Laboratory mission. The rover's ability to put soil samples into analytical instruments is central to assessing whether its present location on Mars, called Gale Crater, ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life. Mineral analysis can reveal past environmental conditions. Chemical analysis can check for ingredients necessary for life.

"We now have reached an important phase that will get the first solid samples into the analytical instruments in about two weeks," said Mission Manager Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Curiosity has been so well-behaved that we have made great progress during the first two months of the mission."

The rover's preparatory operations will involve testing its robotic scooping capabilities to collect and process soil samples. Later, it also will use a hammering drill to collect powdered samples from rocks. To begin preparations for a first scoop, the rover used one of its wheels Wednesday to scuff the soil to expose fresh material.

Next, the rover twice will scoop up some soil, shake it thoroughly inside the sample-processing chambers to scrub the internal surfaces, then discard the sample. Curiosity will scoop and shake a third measure of soil and place it in an observation tray for inspection by cameras mounted on the rover's mast. A portion of the third sample will be delivered to the mineral-identifying chemistry and mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. From a fourth scoopful, samples will be delivered to both CheMin and to the sample analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument, which identifies chemical ingredients.

"We're going to take a close look at the particle size distribution in the soil here to be sure it's what we want," said Daniel Limonadi of JPL, lead systems engineer for Curiosity's surface sampling and science system. "We are being very careful with this first time using the scoop on Mars."

The rinse-and-discard cycles serve a quality-assurance purpose similar to a common practice in geochemical laboratory analysis on Earth.

"It is standard to run a split of your sample through first and dump it out, to clean out any residue from a previous sample," said JPL's Joel Hurowitz, a sampling system scientist on the Curiosity team. "We want to be sure the first sample we analyze is unambiguously Martian, so we take these steps to remove any residual material from Earth that might be on the walls of our sample handling system."

Rocknest is the name of the area of soil Curiosity will test and analyze. The rover pulled up to the windblown, sandy and dusty location Oct. 2. The Rocknest patch is about 8 feet by 16 feet (2.5 meters by 5 meters). The area provides plenty of area for scooping several times. Diverse rocks nearby provide targets for investigation with the instruments on Curiosity's mast during the weeks the rover is stationed at Rocknest for this first scooping campaign.

Curiosity's motorized, clamshell-shaped scoop is 1.8 inches (4.5 centimeters) wide, 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) long, and can sample to a depth of about 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters). It is part of the collection and handling Martian rock analysis (CHIMRA) device on a turret of tools at the end of the rover's arm. CHIMRA also includes a series of chambers and labyrinths for sorting, sieving and portioning samples collected by the scoop or by the arm's percussive drill.

Original post:

NASA Mars Curiosity rover prepares to study martian soil

NASA may be preparing to announce an initiative to begin building a floating Moon base for future deep space missions following the U.S. presidential election next month, Space.com reported this week.

The space agency's rumored plan to construct and position a "gateway spacecraft" that could support a small crew of astronauts and serve as a staging platform for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in the solar system was first reported last month by the Orlando Sentinel, though NASA contractor Boeing had actually floated a similar plan late last year.

As with the Sentinel report, Space.com cited unnamed sources with insights into NASA's internal plans.

The proposed space station would be situated at what's called a Lagrangian point, or L-Point, a place where the gravitational pull of two large bodiesin this case the Earth and the Moonare at an equilibrium, making it possible to place a spacecraft in a fixed spot in space at relatively little expense. NASA wants to put its base at Earth-Moon L-Point 2, on the far side of the Moon, according to the Sentinel and Space.com.

That would place the spacecraft about 277,000 miles from Earth and about 38,000 miles from the Moon's surface. Though taking advantage of an L-point reduces the power cost of fixing an object in space, the project's costs "would certainly run into the billions of dollars," according to the Sentinel.

NASA is now reviewing methods for building an L2-situated launch platform for missions involving its next-generation, deep-space Orion spacecraft, Space.com reported. These include using "Russian-supplied hardware," which could reference parts salvaged from the modular International Space Station after its decommissioning, as the Sentinel earlier reported, but also mean using "new modules being developed in Russia," like the Multipurpose Laboratory Module and Scientific-Power Module, according to Space.com.

Humans have voyaged around the dark side of the Moon, but a manned trip to the L2 point would take astronauts further from Earth than people have ever ventured.

Following the Sentinel report, NASA did not confirm or deny its contents but did send PCMag the following statement.

"NASA is executing President Obama's ambitious space exploration plan that includes missions around the Moon, to asteroids, and ultimately putting humans on Mars. There are many optionsand many routesbeing discussed on our way to the Red Planet. In addition to the Moon and an asteroid, other options may be considered as we look for ways to buy down riskand make it easierto get to Mars. We have regular meetings with [the White House Office of Management and Budget], [the White House Office of Science and Technology], Congress, and other stakeholders to keep them appraised of our progress on our deep space exploration destinations."

Last December, Boeing proposed the development of what it called an "Exploration Gateway Platform architecture that not only returns man to the lunar surfacevia the use of only one SLS launch to a reusable Lunar Landerbut provides a baseline for pathfinders towards an eventual crewed mission to Mars."

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NASA Prepping Post-Election Moon Base Announcement?

03-10-2012 12:51 For more information, visit Join us during Earth Science Week (ESW) 2012 to meet an incredible group of NASA Earth Explorers -- from scientists and engineers, to multimedia producers, educators and writers. Find out about their careers, why and how they study the planet, and what their typical days are like. From video interviews to blog posts and more, there will be a variety of multimedia activities that will allow Explorers to tell their stories. Have questions of your own? Participate in live Twitter interviews and Google+ Hangouts held throughout the week, as well as during a radio interview and webinar in Spanish. On October 18, learn about the many contributions of women at NASA to Earth science as part of Female Geoscientists Day. The 2012 NASA ESW website will be your one-stop-source for Earth science careers and resources during ESW and beyond. There you will find a collection of articles, information about events, links to blog posts, transcripts of Twitter interviews, and educational products in English and Spanish.

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NASA | Earth Science Week: Discover Your Career - Video

ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --TopCoder, Inc., the world's largest competitive Community of digital creators today announced the launch of the Big Data Challenge a series of ideation competitions hosted through the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL) to create mobile applications that integrate across multiple United States agencies data repositories related to the field of health, energy and earth sciences. Competitors will be tasked with imagining tools and techniques that find new value hidden in discrete government information domains and then describing how they may be shared as universal, cross-agency solutions that transcend the limitations of individual silos. Registration is open today through 10/13/2012 for the Ideation Challenge phase, the first of four idea generation competitions in the series. For full competition details and registration visit: http://community.topcoder.com/coeci/nitrd

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080820/NYW078LOGO )

Sponsored by the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development program, (NITRD), the Big Data Challenge series is a partnership between NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy (DoE), TopCoder and Harvard Business School. The goal of the series is to apply the process of Open Innovation (OI) to conceptualizing novel approaches to extracting value from the huge information sets residing in various agency silos and delivering impactful value while remaining consistent with individual agency missions.

The opportunity to contribute to a matter of national importance draws many individuals and teams from diverse fields within the general public, so beyond cash prizes are the rewards of peer recognition and the satisfaction that comes with making a real impact on a significant challenge.

The TopCoder Open Innovation platform and process allows U.S. government agencies to conduct high risk/high reward challenges in an open and transparent environment with predictable cost, measurable outcomes-based results and the potential to move quickly into unanticipated directions and new areas of software technology. Big data is a term applied to data sets whose size is beyond the ability of commonly used software tools to capture, manage and process the data within a tolerable elapsed time. Big data sizes are a constantly moving target currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single data set.

"The TopCoder platform for Open Innovation is the most sophisticated platform of its kind available today in the digital space," said Rob Hughes, President and COO of TopCoder, Inc. "Matched with the power and talent of the TopCoder Community, we look forward to seeing new value created out of existing government big data that will manifest itself in new tools and services for both American consumers and industry."

The TopCoder platform supports the entire end-to-end digital creation lifecycle from idea conception to implementation and support through a true collaborative open innovation model. Almost any type of content, application, algorithm or digital asset can be built entirely through the platform whether a standalone mobile app through to enhancements or additions to large, existing enterprise systems to the development of entirely new cloud based offerings for customers to testing and support through small enhancements and bug fixes. All areas of digital creation are covered through one easy to use cloud based Innovation as a Platform (IaaP) offering accessing TopCoder's renowned community of over 425,000 members from business analysis to creative asset creation, analytics and sophisticated processes for API, software design and development as well as digital content.

About NASA Tournament Lab NASA and Harvard University have established the NASA Tournament Lab (NTL), which with the enabling capabilities of the TopCoder community allow for competitions to create the most innovative, most efficient, and most optimized solutions for specific, real-world challenges being faced by NASA researchers. The NTL provides an online virtual facility for NASA researchers with a computational or complex data processing challenge to "order" a solution, just like they would order laboratory tests or supplies. Learn more at the official NTL Website.

About NITRD The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program is the Nation's primary source of Federally funded revolutionary breakthroughs in advanced information technologies such as computing, networking, and software. A unique collaboration of Federal research and development agencies, the NITRD Program seeks to:

The NITRD Program stems from the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-194) as amended by the Next Generation Internet Research Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-305). These laws authorize Federal agencies to set goals, prioritize their investments, and coordinate their activities in networking and information technology research and development.

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NASA Tournament Lab & TopCoder Launch Big Data Challenge Series for U.S. Government Agencies

NASAs twin Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) took a musical interlude and listened to the Earth singing to itself. This Earthsong, as NASA calls it, was recorded by the two spacecraft as they orbited inside the highly radioactive Van Allen Belts that surround the Earth. The song is in the form of radio waves generated by the belts and the study of it may provide a clue toward answering the question of how to protect satellites and astronauts from deadly radiation storms.

The Earthsong is better known to ham radio operators as the chorus. They've been listening to it from the ground for years and its rising and falling tones sound like a dawn chorus of chirping birds, from which it derives its name.

"This is what the radiation belts would sound like to a human being if we had radio antennas for ears," said Craig Kletzing of the University of Iowa, whose team built the RBSPs Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) receivers used to pick up the signals.

The chorus isn't acoustic, but rather electromagnetic in nature. Its made up of radio waves in the 0 to 10 kHz range and is caused by intense plasma waves, called chorus waves, in the Van Allen Belt. However, they are more than just a pretty sound. One of the most important waves in the Van Allen Belts, they may be the cause of killer electrons electrons that are caught up in the chorus wave and boosted to a high enough energy to damage electronic equipment or even astronauts.

This fits in very well with the brief of the Radiation Belt Storm Probes. Theyre designed to detect these waves by means of the EMFISIS antennae, which are tuned to detect very low frequency (VLF) emissions. The transmissions they send back are 16-bit, which is the same quality as a CD. Furthermore, with these two spacecraft, stereo is possible. That isn't just to make the music sound richer, it also helps to build up a complete picture of the phenomenon, where exactly it occurs and how.

Launched August 30, 2012, the RBSPs mission is to study the highly radioactive Van Allen Belts and the part they play in space weather. This goes beyond pure science because severe space weather, such as a massive solar flare could imperil astronauts or even threaten to knock out the power grid on half the Earth in an instant. Given that the chorus wave may contribute to such severe events, it may be that the Earthsong is more like the song of the mythical Sirens that were a prelude to disaster.

An MP3 recording of the Earthsong is available here.

The NASA video below discusses the chorus wave.

Source: NASA

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NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes record electromagnetic "Earthsong"