Washington, Jan 24 (IANS): Robotic flight controllers have successfully installed NASA's Cloud Aerosol Transport System (CATS) aboard the International Space Station.

The feat was achieved with the help of a robotic hand-off - the first time one robotic arm on station has worked in concert with a second robotic arm, the US space agency said in a statement.

CATS will collect data about clouds, volcanic ash plumes and tiny airborne particles that can help improve our understanding of aerosol and cloud interactions, and improve the accuracy of climate change models.

Ground controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in the US used one of the space station's robotic arms, called the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, to extract the instrument from the capsule.

The NASA-controlled arm then passed the instrument to a second robotic arm - like passing a baton in a relay race.

This second arm, called the Japanese Experiment Module Remote Manipulator System, is controlled by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Japanese-controlled arm installed the instrument on the ISS' Japanese Experiment Module, making CATS the first NASA-developed payload to fly on the Japanese module.

CATS is currently sending health and status data back to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, where the instrument's data would be analysed.

CATS is a LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), remote-sensing instrument designed to last from six months to three years.

It is specifically intended to demonstrate a low-cost, streamlined approach to developing science payloads on the space station.

Here is the original post:

Robotic arms install remote-sensing instrument on ISS

British singer Sarah Brightman has started a gruelling 72-hour survival course in a snowy Russian forest to train for her upcoming role as a space tourist, Russia's cosmonaut training centre says.

The soprano known for her starring roles in West End musicals composed by ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber, is due to spend 10 days in space in September after paying US$52 million (NZD$69 million) to become the eighth space tourist in a flight arranged by US firm Space Adventures.

This month she began training at the legendary Gagarin cosmonaut training centre in Star City outside Moscow.

In pictures of the survival course released by the training centre, Brightman is shown in a snowy forest of fir trees, lashing tree trunks together to make a shelter while wearing waterproof jacket and trousers and a winter hat.

Brightman, 54, is in training with cosmonauts and astronauts from NASA, the Russian space agency and the Japanese space agency, as well as with a Japanese businessman who will take over as her replacement on the space flight if she has to drop out.

At a briefing Monday at the cosmonaut training centre, Brightman said: "I would like to say how proud and honoured and excited I am to be part of the Russian space program and to be a cosmonaut in training."

"I hope.... I can do as good a job as possible and come up to expectations and I will try as hard as I can," she added.

On the survival course Brightman has to spend 72 hours outside and construct a wigwam shelter using branches and a parachute, while knee-deep in snow.

The aim of the course is to teach survival skills in case the astronauts drift off course when they fall to Earth in their landing capsule and are forced to seek shelter in rough terrain.

AFP

Read the original post:

Singer Sarah Brightman trains for space

Marshall Space Flight Center video of meteor seen over Tennessee on Jan. 17, 2015
Video from a Marshall Space Flight Center camera in Huntsville, Ala., of a meteor that crossed over Tennessee on Saturday night, Jan. 17, 2015. Details from ...

By: Knoxville News Sentinel

Link:

Marshall Space Flight Center video of meteor seen over Tennessee on Jan. 17, 2015 - Video

UCLA has received grant funding from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to lead a research mission that will send rodents to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will allow astronauts on the space station and scientists on Earth to test a potential new therapy for accelerating bone growth in humans.

The research will be led by Dr. Chia Soo, a UCLA professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and orthopaedic surgery, who is member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Soo is also research director for UCLA Operation Mend, which provides medical care for wounded warriors. The study will test the ability of a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1 to direct stem cells to induce bone formation and prevent bone degeneration.

Other members of the UCLA research team are Dr. Kang Ting, a professor in dentistry who discovered NELL-1 and is leading efforts to translate NELL-1 therapy to humans, Dr. Ben Wu, a professor of bioengineering who modified the NELL-1 molecule to make useful for treating osteoporosis, and Dr. Jin Hee Kwak, an assistant professor of dentistry who will manage daily operations.

Based on results of previous studies supported by the NIH, the UCLA-ISS team will begin ground operations in early 2015. They hope that the study will provide new insights into the prevention of bone loss or osteoporosis as well as the regeneration of massive bone defects that can occur in wounded military personnel. Osteoporosis is a significant public health problem commonly associated with "skeletal disuse" conditions such as immobilization, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury and jaw resorption after tooth loss.

"NELL-1 holds tremendous hope, not only for preventing bone loss but one day even restoring healthy bone," Ting said. "For patients who are bed-bound and suffering from bone loss, it could be life-changing."

The UCLA team will oversee the ground operations of the mission in tandem with a flight operation coordinated by CASIS and NASA.

"A group of 40 rodents will be sent to the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory onboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule, where they will live for two months in a microgravity environment during the first ever test of NELL-1 in space," said Dr. Julie Robinson, NASA's chief scientist for the International Space Station program at the Johnson Space Center.

"CASIS is proud to work alongside UCLA in an effort to promote the station as a viable platform for bone loss inquiry," said Warren Bates, director of portfolio management for CASIS. "Through investigations like this, we hope to make profound discoveries and enable the development of therapies to counteract bone loss ailments common in humans."

Prolonged space flights induce extreme changes in bone and organ systems that cannot be replicated on Earth.

"Besides testing the limits of NELL-1's robust bone-producing effects, this mission will provide new insights about bone biology and could uncover important clues for curing diseases such as osteoporosis," Wu said.

Link:

Growing bone in space: Study to test therapy for bone loss on the International Space Station

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise UCLA has received grant funding from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to lead a research mission that will send rodents to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will allow astronauts on the space station and scientists on Earth to test a potential new therapy for accelerating bone growth in humans.

The research will be led by Dr. Chia Soo, a UCLA professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and orthopaedic surgery, who is member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Soo is also research director for UCLA Operation Mend, which provides medical care for wounded warriors. The study will test the ability of a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1 to direct stem cells to induce bone formation and prevent bone degeneration.

Other members of the UCLA research team are Dr. Kang Ting, a professor in dentistry who discovered NELL-1 and is leading efforts to translate NELL-1 therapy to humans, Dr. Ben Wu, a professor of bioengineering who modified the NELL-1 molecule to make useful for treating osteoporosis, and Dr. Jin Hee Kwak, an assistant professor of dentistry who will manage daily operations.

Based on results of previous studies supported by the NIH, the UCLA-ISS team will begin ground operations in early 2015. They hope that the study will provide new insights into the prevention of bone loss or osteoporosis as well as the regeneration of massive bone defects that can occur in wounded military personnel. Osteoporosis is a significant public health problem commonly associated with skeletal disuse conditions such as immobilization, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury and jaw resorption after tooth loss.

NELL-1 holds tremendous hope, not only for preventing bone loss but one day even restoring healthy bone, Ting said. For patients who are bed-bound and suffering from bone loss, it could be life-changing.

The UCLA team will oversee the ground operations of the mission in tandem with a flight operation coordinated by CASIS and NASA.

A group of 40 rodents will be sent to the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory onboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule, where they will live for two months in a microgravity environment during the first ever test of NELL-1 in space, said Dr. Julie Robinson, NASAs chief scientist for the International Space Station program at the Johnson Space Center.

CASIS is proud to work alongside UCLA in an effort to promote the station as a viable platform for bone loss inquiry, said Warren Bates, director of portfolio management for CASIS. Through investigations like this, we hope to make profound discoveries and enable the development of therapies to counteract bone loss ailments common in humans.

View original post here:

Growing Bone in Space: UCLA and CASIS Announce Pioneering Collaborative Study to Test Therapy for Bone Loss on the ...

Space Station Live: Why Fruit Flies
NASA Commentator Brandi Dean talks with Dr. Vic Cooley, the lead increment scientist for the International Space Station #39;s Expeditions 41 and 42, about the Fruit Fly Lab experiment that arrived...

By: ReelNASA

Go here to read the rest:

Space Station Live: Why Fruit Flies - Video

Space Station Live: Immunity in Microgravity
NASA Commentator Lori Meggs at the Marshall Space Flight Center speaks with the University of Houston #39;s Richard Simpson, the principal investigator of the Salivary Markers experiment on the...

By: ReelNASA

More:

Space Station Live: Immunity in Microgravity - Video

The Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA) Foundation has selected Colonel Robert D. Cabana, director of NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, former NASA astronaut on four space shuttle missions, and retired United States Marine Corps Colonel, to receive the 2015 National Space Trophy on April 24, 2015 in Houston, Texas.

Rodolfo Gonzlez, president of the RNASA Foundation said, "The Foundation is overwhelmed with the number of nominators that came forward with a submittal for Col. Cabana. We are pleased the board of advisors' selected him, and look forward to honoring him at the 2015 RNASA Space Awards Gala."

Cabana was nominated by Dr. Ellen Ochoa, director, NASA Johnson Space Center, Mr. Michael L. Coats, former director, NASA Johnson Space Center, and Dr. Michael D. Griffin, former NASA administrator, and chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Schafer Corporation, for his exceptional leadership and executive guidance in leading the evolution of the NASA Kennedy Space Center as the world's premier multi-user spaceport in support of NASA's exploration goals.

Rick Hieb, vice-president of Lockheed Martin Civil Programs, also nominated Cabana, for outstanding leadership, commitment, vision and public service benefiting Americas security and our Nations human space exploration program.

John Zarrella said, I have known Bob for decades while I was covering the U.S. Space Program for CNN. During those years it became very evident, very quickly that no one cared more about the successes of the program. No one hurt more over the failures. And no one had greater hope about the future.

And Elliot Holokauahi Pulham, chief executive officer of Space Foundation said I can think of no one more deserving of the 2015 National Space Trophy than Bob Cabana.

Cabana said, I am extremely honored to be receiving the National Space Trophy. The previous awardees are my heroes, and it means so much to me that the board considered me worthy to be among them."

Cabana currently is serving as the tenth director of Kennedy, the primary United States launch site that has been used for every NASA human space flight since 1968. In this role, Cabana manages all NASA facilities and activities at Kennedy, leading a team of civil service and contractor personnel who operate and support numerous space programs and projects. He has been instrumental in ensuring the successful transition from the space shuttle and establishing the center as a true multi-user spaceport of the future.

The rest is here:

NASA Kennedy Space Center Director Cabana To Receive 2015 National Space Trophy

Tory Bruno, CEO of United Launch Alliance

Sure, you've heard of (and might even be Twitter-stalking) Elon Musk and Richard Branson, but you're likely not familiar with one of their most influential peers.

Tory Bruno is CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture of aerospace giants Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The combined effort was created in 2006 and has since essentially been the go-to contractor when the U.S. government needs to get something into space.

Long seen as a de facto monopoly for U.S. space launches, ULA has been facing increased competitive pressure from SpaceX in recent years, resulting in a 2014 restructuring that brought in Bruno (a 30-year Lockheed veteran) to help reduce launch costs by as much as 50 percent.

While SpaceX and Virgin Galactic get most of the public's attention when it comes to privatized space flight, Bruno is working to raise the image of the more established ULA. One of the most interesting and visible ways he's doing that is by getting personally involved in Twitter.

Bruno's tweets range from real-time launch updates and proud recaps of successful missions to taking jabs at competitors and chatting cordially with an account called @FakeToryBruno.

Before we get to our brief chat with Bruno about the potential he sees in social media, here are a few of our favorite Twitter moments:

We reached out to Bruno to find out why he'd gotten onto Twitter and what he's thought of the experience and benefits so far. Here's our quick Q&A:

Adweek: You look like you're having a lot of fun on Twitter. You don't seem to mind engaging critics or competitors, and you're surprisingly sassy for an aerospace exec. What was your goal in getting on Twitter? Has that goal evolved as you've gotten more active?

Tory Bruno: I am a newcomer to social media. I find this medium very exciting. It has the potential to reach so many people almost instantly. My goals were simply to let the space enthusiast community become aware that this great company, the world's premier launch provider, ULA, was out there. My goal has evolved to also giving my employees a voice. We have a lot to say about the future of space.

Follow this link:

Meet the Most Interesting Space CEO You're Not Following on Twitter

Eris Explorer - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator
Facebook. Advances, pictures, details, comments: http://www.facebook.com/orbiterfilmmaker Eris Explorer is a fictional mission to the outermost and largest dwarf-planet, Eris, and its moon...

By: Rseferino Orbiter Filmmaker

View post:

Eris Explorer - Orbiter Space Flight Simulator - Video

IMAGE:This image shows DSCOVR Mission's NISTAR: NIST Advanced Radiometer. view more

The NISTAR instrument that will fly aboard NOAA's space weather-observing spacecraft called the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), is going to measure the Earth's radiation budget.

NASA is flying two Earth science instruments aboard NOAA's DSCOVR spacecraft. One of them is called the National Institute of Standards and Technology Advanced Radiometer or NISTAR. Basically, NISTAR measures the absolute irradiance over a broad spectrum of the entire sunlit face of Earth. That will tell the instrument Earth's radiation budget, i.e. if the Earth's atmosphere is retaining more or less solar energy than it radiates back to space.

If Earth is keeping in more solar energy than it expels, then the Earth will warm. If the Earth and the Earth-system radiates more energy to space than it receives from the sun, the Earth will cool. Absorbed sunlight raises the Earth's temperature. Emitted radiation or heat lowers the temperature. When absorbed sunlight and emitted heat balance each other, the Earth's temperature doesn't change - the radiation budget is in balance.

NISTAR is an active cavity radiometer designed to measure the energy reflected and emitted from the entire sunlit face of the Earth from its orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1). L1 is a neutral gravity point between Earth and the sun. This position offers a unique continuous view of the Earth at noon.

This measurement will improve our understanding of the effects of changes to Earth's reflected and emitted radiation (radiance) caused by human activities and natural phenomena. This information can be used for climate science applications.

The term Active Cavity Radiometer (ACR) was assigned by its inventor, Dr. Richard C. Willson of Columbia University, and earlier generations of the ACR were flown on the Solar Max and ACRIM (Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor) missions. "NISTAR is unique in that instead of measuring the sun's radiation and variability, it is measuring the Earth's,"said Mark LaPole, Director of Space Products, Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colorado. "The accuracy requirements were developed by the NISTAR Principal Investigators, Dr. Steven R. Lorentz and Dr. Joseph P. Rice of NIST."

NISTAR was designed and built between 1999 and 2001 by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation working with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who developed the Scripps-NIST advanced radiometer, or Scripps NISTAR instrument.

"NISTAR uses active cavity radiometers, that absorb all of the incident radiation in internal cavities and monitors the heater currents necessary to maintain the cavity at a constant measured temperature, thus determining the incident energy," said Adam Szabo, DSCOVR Project Scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Recent ground recalibration of this instrument indicate that better than the required 1% absolute accuracy will be achieved."

"NIST will be able to separate the Earth radiant power from reflected solar energy by making measurements in three overlapping wavelength bands. This will be an important contribution to the Earth climate debate," Szabo said.

Read the original:

NOAA's DSCOVR NISTAR instrument watches Earth's 'budget'

British singer Sarah Brightman has arrived in Russia to start preparing for her journey to the International Space Station.

"Brightman has returned to Moscow and has started preparations for the space flight," the head of Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Yury Lonchakov, said on Monday.

"The preparations are in line with the schedule," he told TASS.

Last week, sources in the aerospace field reported that Brightman, who plans to fly to ISS later this year, had postponed her trip to Russia, initially scheduled for January 15, for personal reasons.

Earlier, a spokesman for Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Brightman had left Moscow and flown to Britain to visit her ill mother.

Preparations should last six months, forcing the singer to live permanently at the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which would mean a temporary break from her musical career.

If all preparations develop as planned, Brightman would be the eighth tourist to visit the ISS, and the first since 2009, when Canadian businessman Guy Laliberte visited in a US$50 million flight.

EFE

Read the original post:

Singer prepares for space flight

UK singer Sarah Brightman has started preparing for her journey to the International Space Station.

British singer Sarah Brightman has arrived in Russia to start preparing for her journey to the International Space Station.

"Brightman has returned to Moscow and has started preparations for the space flight," the head of Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, Yury Lonchakov, said on Monday.

"The preparations are in line with the schedule," he told TASS.

Last week, sources in the aerospace field reported that Brightman, who plans to fly to ISS later this year, had postponed her trip to Russia, initially scheduled for January 15, for personal reasons.

Earlier, a spokesman for Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Brightman had left Moscow and flown to Britain to visit her ill mother.

Preparations should last six months, forcing the singer to live permanently at the Cosmonaut Training Centre, which would mean a temporary break from her musical career.

If all preparations develop as planned, Brightman would be the eighth tourist to visit the ISS, and the first since 2009, when Canadian businessman Guy Laliberte visited in a $US50 million flight.

See the article here:

Sarah Brightman prepares for ISS visit

IL-2 - Me163 Space Flight Alt. 100km
IL-2

By: WandererOfRoad

See the rest here:

IL-2 - Me163 Space Flight Alt. 100km - Video

NEAR SPACE FLIGHT PHS

By: Katy Clark

Read more:

NEAR SPACE FLIGHT PHS - Video

2001: A Space Odyssey recreated in clips from The Simpsons
2001: A Simpson Odyssey Sequencing: Title; Dawn of Man; space flight and space living; video chat ("A bush baby?"); working on the moon; Jupiter mission; Dave piloting the craft to save his...

By: Dr Hugh Mann

Link:

2001: A Space Odyssey recreated in clips from The Simpsons - Video

FALL RIVER, Mass.

The space shuttle is gone, but optimism and ambition for the future of U.S. manned space flight is alive in people such as NASA astronaut Steven Bowen.

Returning to his home state Saturday, Bowen gave more than a hundred local children and their parents aboard the battleship Massachusetts a sense of excitement for space exploration and his experience on three shuttle missions.

The occasion was the 50th anniversary of the Gemini space capsule recovery by the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., a destroyer that sits docked a few feet away from the Massachusetts in Fall Rivers Battleship Cove.

But the message was one of wonder at the adventure of exploring space and the science, engineering and mathematics that makes it possible.

Everywhere I go its always there, Bowen said in a post-talk interview about peoples interest in space. We have the ability [to explore further], and we have the personal will, we just need the national will to do it.

A native of Cohasset and former Navy submariner, the 50-year-old Bowen grew up during the latter end of the space-race era and argues sending men to the moon paid dividends in a generation interested in science and innovation.

With the shuttle gone and the United States transitioning from NASAs singular role in space travel to one of partnership with private companies, Bowen said future missions to the moon, an asteroid or Mars would surely do the same for another generation.

At some point it will become important again, Bowen said.

To kindle that interest in a new generation, Bowen provided his young audience Saturday with the kind of simple, behind-the-scenes details of a shuttle flight that bring a distant down to earth.

Original post:

Astronaut, a native of Cohasset, Mass., shares love of space with school kids

In a little more than two months, American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will depart from Earth, not to return for an entire year. Their mission aboard the International Space Station will be the longest in more than a decade, twice as long as the normal six-moth stay.

As NASA continues to gear up for its next generation of manned deep space missions -- to the moon, asteroids and eventually to Mars -- scientists at the space agency are keen to better understand the long-term impacts of microgravity on the human mind and body.

According to NASA, the investigations "are expected to yield beneficial knowledge on the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long-duration space flight."

Scientists will observe Kelly and Kornienko before, after and during their year-long mission in order to gain a better understanding of long-term isolation and exposure to microgravity -- including effects on behavioral health, vision, metabolism, physical stamina, microbiome makeup and more.

"What we don't know right now is what that six- to 12-month period looks like," Julie Robinson, NASA's space station program scientist, recently told reporters. "We're talking about it scientifically, but we're not really having deep discussions about it until we have the first information from the first two."

Astronauts with NASA have been calling for more one-year missions for some time now, but officials have been reluctant to plan additional 12-month stints.

"If we see something dramatic, that's going to change how everybody looks at having additional one-year missions," she added.

A recent study of space station astronauts showed that a six-month stay on ISS had a much more dramatic affect on the body's blood than previously thought. Returning astronauts showed a profound blood shift from the lower to the upper half of the body, and also had considerably lower blood pressure.

Read the rest here:

Astronauts prepare for year-long stay on space station

Multi-year Arctic ice continues to shrink
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

By: WIRED Science

Read the original post:

Multi-year Arctic ice continues to shrink - Video

Kabbalah Unplugged - LIVE Q A with Billy Phillips
Billy Phillips has been a student of Rav Berg and Karen for 25 years. He has lectured all over the world, including NASA #39;s Goddard Space Flight Centre, the Kennedy Space Flight Centre, and...

By: Moshe Oliveira

See the original post here:

Kabbalah Unplugged - LIVE Q&A with Billy Phillips - Video