CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - With an eye toward developing a commercial spaceport, Florida has asked NASA to transfer 150 acres of land north of the shuttle launch pads and the shuttle runway to Space Florida, the state's aerospace development agency. "Florida believes that the properties identified in this request are excess to the needs of the U.S. ...
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Published: Sunday, September 23, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
The "gateway spacecraft" would hover in orbit on the far side of the moon, support a small crew and function as a staging area for future missions to the moon and Mars.
At 277,000 miles from Earth, the outpost would be far more remote than the current space station, which orbits a little more than 200 miles above Earth. The distance raises complex questions of how to protect astronauts from the radiation of deep space - and rescue them if something goes wrong.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden briefed the White House earlier this month on details of the proposal, but it was unclear whether it had the administration's support. Of critical importance is the cost, which would probably be billions, if not tens of billions, of dollars.
Documents obtained by The Orlando Sentinel show that NASA wants to build a small outpost -- likely with parts left over from the $100-billion International Space Station -- at what's known as the Earth-Moon Lagrange Point 2, a spot about 38,000 miles from the moon.
At that location, the combined gravities of the Earth and moon reach equilibrium, making it possible to "stick" an outpost there with minimal power required to keep it in place.
To get there, NASA would use the massive rocket and space capsule that it is developing as a successor to the retired space shuttle. A first flight of that rocket is planned for 2017, and construction of the outpost would begin two years later, according to NASA planning documents.
Potential missions include the study of nearby asteroids or robotic trips to the moon that would gather rocks and bring them back to the outpost. The outpost also would lay the groundwork for more ambitious trips to Mars' moons and even Mars itself, about 140 million miles away on average.
Placing a "spacecraft at the Earth-Moon Lagrange point beyond the moon as a test area for human access to deep space is the best near-term option to develop required flight experience and mitigate risk," the NASA report concluded.
From NASA's perspective, the outpost would solve several problems.
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21-09-2012 20:54 NASA's 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, carrying space shuttle Endeavour conducted flyovers in the skies above the Los Angeles basin, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Space Shuttle Endeavor is Flown Over NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Video
WASHINGTON — Top NASA officials have picked a leading candidate for the agency's next major mission: construction of a new outpost that would send astronauts farther from Earth than at any time in history.
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SENTINEL EXCLUSIVE NASA wants to send astronauts beyond the moon
20-09-2012 16:44 NASA's Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Endeavour mounted atop arrived Sept. 20 at the agency's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base in California. Following an overnight stay, the SCA and Endeavour will salute the Edwards Air Force Base area early Friday, Sept. 21 with a low flyby northbound to Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay area. Next the aircraft will travel south, making a pass over NASA's Ames Research Center, Vandenberg Air Force Base and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before heading into the Los Angeles area. Finally, the SCA and Endeavour will land about noon PDT at Los Angeles International Airport, for an arrival ceremony before Endeavour is taken off the SCA and transported to its permanent home at the California Science Center next month.
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Space Shuttle Endeavour Arrives at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center - Video
21-09-2012 20:37 Atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Endeavour completes its journey from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles, where it'll go on display at the California Science Center next month. Also, Shuttle Social, Curiosity Cruises, Helping Hangout, Ride Remembered, and more.
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Hurricane researchers are gathering unprecedented data this month by using two NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft. The airplanes were originally developed for the military, but have been modified to aid in atmospheric research.
One of the Global Hawks was flown to its new base at NASAs Wallops Island Flight Facility on Virginias Atlantic coast earlier this month and has already flown several missions over developing tropical storms giving atmospheric scientists the ability to watch and measure storms for up to three times as long as they could with manned aircraft, including NASAs modified U-2 spyplane. The second Global Hawk is set to depart the Dryden Flight Research Center in California and join its hangar mate in the next week or so.
The airplanes were first used to observe storm development on a limited basis in 2010. The earlier missions were flown out of Dryden, which cut short the amount of time the planes could spend over Atlantic storms. Now based on the East Coast, the Global Hawks can spend up to six hours off the coast of Africa as storms develop, or 20 hours or more as the storms approach North America.
This long loiter capability is what has scientists excited to gain new insight into the life of a hurricane, says Scott Braun, principal investigator on NASAs Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) project.
Weve kind of gone from reconnaissance, which is short-term investigations said Braun, to more of surveillance where you can stay with a storm and move with it for a while.
On Wednesday, the Global Hawk known as AV-6 departed Wallops Island and flew for nearly 25 hours observing tropical storm Nadine over the central Atlantic. It was the third time AV-6 had flown over the storm in the past 10 days. The airplane carries an environmental payload designed to gather big-picture data by flying around the entire storm (above). In addition to a high-resolution infrared sounder and cloud-physics LIDAR for measuring the structure and depth of clouds, AV-6 can make direct measurements by dropping out radiosondes that can measure temperature, humidity, wind speed and air pressure as they descend by parachute from as high as 60,000 feet.
The other airplane, AV-1 has a different suite of remote sensing instruments on board focused on the development of the inner core of the storms, measuring variables including wind profiles, rain rates and liquid water content of the clouds.
Researchers have learned a lot about predicting the path of hurricanes over the past several decades. But being able to predict the intensification of storms, especially early in their development has not been as successful. One of the aspects of storm and hurricane development Braun and the HS3 team are hoping to learn more about is the role dry, dusty air masses blowing off the Sahara play in the intensification process. Its something debated in the research community, and until now scientists have had limited capabilities to watch the interaction for long periods of time.
In some ways the Saharan air layer is essential, Braun said. The question is, once you develop these waves, to what extent can this dry and dusty air get into these disturbances to disrupt the ability of thunderstorms to get rotation organized on smaller scales to spin up a hurricane.
Braun says most of the storms form from the air masses that come off Africa, but in manned aircraft they may only get a few hours at a time to watch and gather data. Satellites are also used extensively, but they offer a few snapshots a day and cannot make direct measurements. The Global Hawks provide the capability to watch the storms develop for up to a day at a time. And with two of them the researchers will eventually be able to watch storms continuously.
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Published: Sept. 21, 2012 at 6:22 PM
HOUSTON, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- NASA says the first contracted cargo resupply flight to the International Space Station is targeted for early next month in Florida.
NASA and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. said the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo spacecraft are ready for the SpaceX CRS-1 mission Oct. 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A backup launch opportunity is available Oct. 8.
"The launch of the Dragon spacecraft will be the first of 12 contracted flights by SpaceX to resupply the space station and marks the second trip by a Dragon to the station, following a successful demonstration mission in May," NASA said Thursday in a release. "SpaceX services under the [Commercial Resupply Services] contract will restore an American capability to deliver and return significant amounts of cargo, including science experiments, to the orbiting laboratory -- a feat not achievable since the retirement of the space shuttle."
NASA said the Dragon will be filled with about 1,000 pounds of supplies and will return with about 734 pounds of scientific materials, as well as about 504 pounds of space station hardware.
Dragon is scheduled to return in late October for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California.
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A fleet of picture-snapping NASA satellites that for 40 years has documented forest fires, tsunamis and everyday changes in the Earth's geography will soon get a new member.
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19-09-2012 12:37 Watch how the winds of a large Arctic cyclone broke up the thinning sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean in early August 2012. The storm likely contributed to the ice cap's shrinking to the smallest recorded extent in the past three decades. The frozen cap of the Arctic Ocean likely reached its annual summertime minimum extent and broke a new record low on Sept. 16, the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder has reported. Analysis of satellite data by NASA and the NASA-supported NSIDC showed that the sea ice extent shrunk to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers), or 293000 square miles less than the previous lowest extent in the satellite record, set in mid-September, 2007. "Climate models have predicted a retreat of the Arctic sea ice; but the actual retreat has proven to be much more rapid than the predictions," said Claire Parkinson, a climate scientist atNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "There continues to be considerable interannual variability in the sea ice cover, but the long-term retreat is quite apparent." This year, the cyclone formed off the coast of Alaska and moved on Aug. 5 to the center of the Arctic Ocean, where it churned the weakened ice cover for several days. The storm cut off a large section of sea ice north of the Chukchi Sea and pushed it south to warmer waters that made it melt entirely. It also broke vast extensions of ice into smaller pieces more likely to melt. "The ...
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WASHINGTON Disappointed with the direction of NASA's human spaceflight program over the past two decades, two Texas congressmen introduced legislation Thursday aimed at de-politicizing the agency.
Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican, said the lawmakers were pushing the proposal "today to restore the NASA we know and love."
"The NASA that we know is capable of maintaining that world leadership in space exploration if we would just make them get the politics out of NASA to allow them do what they do best, to let the scientists, the engineers, the astronauts and the professional that have made that agency such an amazing place," he said at a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol.
The proposal, called the Space Leadership Preservation Act of 2012, would create a 10-year term for the NASA administrator - inspired by the 10-year term of the nonpartisan FBI director - and the establishment of an 11-member board of directors.
Under the act, the president, speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate would each appoint three members of the board and the Senate and House minority leaders would each select one. It is co-sponsored by Culberson, Sugar Land Rep. Pete Olson, Florida Rep. Bill Posey and Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf. The measure has no Democratic sponsors.
Culberson said NASA abandoned missions and wasted taxpayer money because of a lack of continuity in its leadership and an overabundance of influence from presidential administrations, citing 27 program cancellations in 20 years.
The congressmen also expressed concern that the U.S. is steadily falling behind other countries in space exploration and losing its standing as the leader in the new frontier. Olson accused NASA of settling to be "space hitchhikers with the Russians."
"After 40 years of unquestioned U.S. dominance in space, the 21st century has already seen competition from other countries, including those who do not share our democratic values," Wolf said, referring to the advancements in the Chinese space program.
The bill has virtually no chance of winning passage in the waning days of the current Congress. But GOP lawmakers were laying down a marker for debate over NASA's future in the next Congress.
Culberson and Olson said the proposal has the blessing of Rep. Lamar Smith, the San Antonio Republican expected to become chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee if Republicans retain control of the House.
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WASHINGTON Disappointed with the direction of NASA's human spaceflight program over the past two decades, two Texas congressmen introduced legislation Thursday aimed at de-politicizing the agency.
Rep. John Culberson, a Houston Republican, said the lawmakers were pushing the proposal "today to restore the NASA we know and love."
"The NASA that we know is capable of maintaining that world leadership in space exploration if we would just make them get the politics out of NASA to allow them do what they do best, to let the scientists, the engineers, the astronauts and the professional that have made that agency such an amazing place," he said at a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol.
The proposal, called the Space Leadership Preservation Act of 2012, would create a 10-year term for the NASA administrator - inspired by the 10-year term of the nonpartisan FBI director - and the establishment of an 11-member board of directors.
Under the act, the president, speaker of the House and president pro tempore of the Senate would each appoint three members of the board and the Senate and House minority leaders would each select one. It is co-sponsored by Culberson, Sugar Land Rep. Pete Olson, Florida Rep. Bill Posey and Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf. The measure has no Democratic sponsors.
Culberson said NASA abandoned missions and wasted taxpayer money because of a lack of continuity in its leadership and an overabundance of influence from presidential administrations, citing 27 program cancellations in 20 years.
The congressmen also expressed concern that the U.S. is steadily falling behind other countries in space exploration and losing its standing as the leader in the new frontier. Olson accused NASA of settling to be "space hitchhikers with the Russians."
"After 40 years of unquestioned U.S. dominance in space, the 21st century has already seen competition from other countries, including those who do not share our democratic values," Wolf said, referring to the advancements in the Chinese space program.
The bill has virtually no chance of winning passage in the waning days of the current Congress. But GOP lawmakers were laying down a marker for debate over NASA's future in the next Congress.
Culberson and Olson said the proposal has the blessing of Rep. Lamar Smith, the San Antonio Republican expected to become chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee if Republicans retain control of the House.
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18-09-2012 16:59 NASA officials and the family of deceased astronaut Sally Ride gathered on Sept. 18, 2012. A live oak was dedicated in Ride's honor and will reside among the 62 other trees dedicated to astronauts and space pioneers in the grove located at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
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NASA Family Honors Dr. Sally Ride On September 18 With Tree-Planting Ceremony - Video
By Ben Brumfield, CNN
updated 10:27 AM EDT, Wed September 19, 2012
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Share photos of shuttle Endeavour as it flies from Florida to California
(CNN) -- The space shuttle Endeavour began its final aerial show Wednesday, thrilling spectators across the southern United States.
After a two-day delay because of weather conditions, Endeavour began its cross-country flight Wednesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles, where the now-retired spacecraft will be put on display.
NASA had postponed Endeavour's piggyback trek atop a modified 747 airliner to its retirement home after inclement weather Monday and a poor forecast Tuesday.
The journey is divided into three legs that could be described as scenic routes to showcase the shuttle to the public. It will take three days to complete.
Space shuttle Discovery flies into retirement
Space shuttle Discovery flies into retirement
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NASA's last space shuttle to take wing to its retirement home
PETALUMA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
After successful appearances in Stockholm and Madrid, NASA: A Human Adventure opens Sept. 22 at the Marmara Expo Center, bringing the history of NASA to vivid life.
The largest NASA-themed touring exhibit outside the U.S. was created by White Room Artifacts, LLC, the company owned by Star Wars model maker Don Bies.
Encompassing more than 250 original objects and replica artifacts, the 20,000-square-foot exhibition is a strategic partnership between NASA and John Nurminen Events, introduces visitors to the people, technology and engineering that have captured imaginations worldwide for more than 50 years. From early rocket prototypes to actual space hardware, NASA: A Human Adventure engages all of the senses, inspiring dreams of future space exploration.
Its the largest exhibition ever conceived, designed and curated by White Room Artifacts, which also created seven of the exhibitions models, developed the exhibits multimedia content, and co-produced its multi-language audio guide.
A team of more than 12 people at White Room Artifacts, about 45 minutes north of San Francisco, worked 14 months to prepare NASA: A Human Adventure, said Bies, whose model work has included such films as the Star Wars Saga, Galaxy Quest, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and the Pirates of the Caribbean films. This was a massive undertaking, from developing the conceptual ideas, to working with NASA to curate the exhibit, and creating models for display, Bies said, adding that White Room Artifacts is about to begin planning for the exhibits North American tour.
Deborah Rivera, NASAs manager of strategic alliances, said the exhibits goal is to create global awareness of space exploration. We want to inform people about what we do at NASA and, together, explore the unknown. We hope the exhibition will trigger questions, a-ha experiences, and the joy of exploring the human elements that have taken us into space.
For more information about the exhibit, please visit http://www.ahumanadventure.com. To learn more about White Room Artifacts, visit its website at http://www.WhiteRoomArtifacts.com.
TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS WITH DON BIES, PLEASE CONTACT JOHN SINGH AT 818-458-7800 OR john.singh@j2comm.com.
Photos/MultimediaGallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=50411091&lang=en
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PASADENA, Calif. — On the morning of the public memorial service for Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, NASA officials called for a new era of cooperation between human and robotic space explorers in an era of tighter budgets.
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The space agency has an unusual problem: space.
A recent review of NASAs land holdings on earth revealed a new challenge for the agency: poorly maintained, aging facilities once used for research and development or space vehicle construction, now essentially useless.
NASA spends about $1.1 billion annually on maintenance and upkeep of its more than 5,400 buildings, landing strips and other unique sites; but approximately 9 percent of its real property assets arent being used, NASA told FoxNews.com. The solution, according to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG): lease them.
Kennedy leases a clean room where Apollo capsules were readied 40 years ago to Lockheed Martin. Boeing is building space taxis in a processing hangar where shuttles were once routinely readied to soar. And there are plenty of others, from Rolls-Royce and Google to local schools and, in areas where businesses arent interested, parks, gardens and visitor centers.
But not enough, according to Paul K. Martin, NASA Inspector General.
Per a 2010 directive, NASA must divest itself of property it has no immediate plans for.
A new report examining leasing practices revealed holes in the agency's efforts to lease.
Despite frustration at Centers, headway is being made
Few incentives exist for NASA to identify underutilized property as unnecessary to its mission needs, he concluded in the August report.
Olga Dominguez, NASAs assistant administrator for the office of strategic infrastructure, agreed that the agency wasnt 100 percent sure how many buildings and facilities were unusued. Part of the challenge, she said, was the changing nature of the space agencys mission. As NASA has refocused from the space shuttle to the private space industry, its needs have changed as well.
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Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, was publicly memorialized at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. on Thursday. His colleagues at NASA created this tribute video for the fallen hero, tracing his storied career as one of NASA's best pilots, as well as one of its most humble and self-effacing astronauts.
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Mon, Sep 17, 2012
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate is accepting scholarship applications from graduate and undergraduate students for the 2013-2014 academic year. The application deadline is January 14, 2013. NASA expects to award 20 undergraduate and five graduate scholarships to students in an aeronautical engineering program or related field.
Undergraduate students who have at least two years of study remaining will receive up to $15,000 per year for two years and the opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend by interning at a NASA research center during the summer.
Graduate students will receive a $35,000 stipend per year and $11,000 for educational expenses for up to three years, with an opportunity to receive a $10,000 stipend interning at a NASA research center for up to two consecutive summers. Graduate students also must apply under a specific research topic to align with NASA's aeronautics research programs.
Students not committed to a specific academic institution or program still may apply. If accepted, they must be admitted by fall 2013 into an aeronautical engineering program or related field of study at an accredited U.S. university. Applicants must be U.S. citizens. Scholarship money may be used for tuition and other school-related expenses.
NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate conducts cutting-edge, fundamental and integrated systems research in traditional and emerging disciplines. The intent is to help transform the nation's air transportation system and support development of future air and space vehicles. The directorate's goals include improving airspace capacity and flexibility, aviation safety, and aircraft performance, as well as minimizing the environmental footprint of aviation by reducing overall noise, engine emissions and fuel usage.
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14-09-2012 14:45 A NASA's Mars Curiosity rover team member gives an update on developments and status of the planetary exploration mission. The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered Curiosity to its target area on Mars at 1:31:45 am EDT on Aug. 6, which includes the 13.8 minutes needed for confirmation of the touchdown to be radioed to Earth at the speed of light. The rover will conduct a nearly two-year prime mission to investigate whether the Gale Crater region of Mars ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life. Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments.
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