NASA’s Orion Spacecraft: Full Coverage of First Test Flight

NASA is schedule to launch an uncrewed test of its first space capsule in 40 years on Dec. 4. The space agency's prototype Orion space capsule is due to launch into space atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket for a 4.5 hour test of its key systems. TheOrion spacecraft built for NASA by Lockheed Martin is designed to take humans deeper into space than ever before. Officials hope that future versions of the spacecraft will transport astronauts to deep space destinations like Mars or an asteroid towed into orbit around the moon.

Launch Status Update Dec. 1: NASA officials are reporting a 60 percent chance that the weather will be favorable for Orion's scheduled launch on Thursday (Dec. 4).

Latest Story:NASA's 1st Deep-Space Capsule in 40 Years Ready for Launch Debut The Orion space capsule is NASA's first deep-space capsule in 40 years, and it will go farther into space than any spacecraft made for humans in more than four decades. Scroll down for our latest stories, videos and se images of Orion and its first test flight, calledExploration Test Flight-1, below:

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NASA to Launch First Orion Spaceship Test Flight This Week Find out how to watch the historic test flight live online via NASA.

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NASA's Orion Spacecraft: Full Coverage of First Test Flight

NASA prepares to test Orion, the spaceship that could take US to Mars

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Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they have ever gone before, with its first test flight scheduled to launch on December 4th. Courtesy NASA.

Washington: As the last man to walk on the Moon prepared to fly back to Earth in 1972, astronaut Eugene Cernan echoed the words of the first, pledging with Neil-Armstrong-like grandiosity that "we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind". He later predicted that humans would reach Mars by the end of the 20th century.

Now Cernan admits: "I was a little off on my timing."

Forty-two years after Cernan's Apollo 17 mission touched down, not a single person has walked on the Moon. A Mars landing is surely decades away, at best. And not a single space ship designed to carry astronauts has left low Earth orbit.

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NASA prepares to test Orion, the spaceship that could take US to Mars

New manned spaceship a stepping stone to Mars, says NASA

A spaceship built to carry humans is about to venture into deep space for the first time in more than four decades.

NASA'sOrion space capsuleis scheduled to blast off on its first test flight Thursday (Dec. 4). The unmanned mission, called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), will send Orion zooming about 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from Earth, before rocketing back to the planet at high speeds to test out the capsule's heat shield, avionics and a variety of other systems.

No human-spaceflight vehicle has traveled so far since 1972, when the last of NASA's Apollo moon missions came back to Earth. Indeed, in all that time, no craft designed to carry crews has made it beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), just a few hundred miles from the planet. [Photos: NASA's Orion Space Capsule EFT-1 Test Flight]

If all goes according to plan, Orion will eventually fly farther than any Apollo capsule ever did, taking astronauts to near-Earth asteroids and by the mid-2030s the ultimate destination,Mars.

"I gotta tell you, this is special," Bob Cabana, director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said about EFT-1 during a press briefing last month. "This is our first step on that journey to Mars."

Getting people safely to and from destinations in deep space poses challenges that the engineers of NASA's last crewed spaceship, the now-retiredspace shuttle, never had to consider. (No space shuttle ever traveled beyond Earth orbit.)

For example, if a problem develops aboard a spaceship in LEO, astronauts can theoretically be on the ground in less than an hour. But it would take days for a vehicle out by the moon or beyond to get home, said NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer.

"So you've gotta have highly reliable systems, and you've gotta have capabilities to protect the crew in case of a contingency," he said during last month's briefing. [The Orion Capsule: NASA's Next Spaceship (Photos)]

One such capabilitiy will allow crewmembers aboard Orion to survive in their spacesuits for up to six days if the capsule gets depressurized, Geyer added.

"So if we have a totally depressed cabin, they can be in their suits and we can get them home," he said.

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New manned spaceship a stepping stone to Mars, says NASA

New manned spaceship a stepping stone to Mars, says NASA (+video)

A spaceship built to carry humans is about to venture into deep space for the first time in more than four decades.

NASA'sOrion space capsuleis scheduled to blast off on its first test flight Thursday (Dec. 4). The unmanned mission, called Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), will send Orion zooming about 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometers) from Earth, before rocketing back to the planet at high speeds to test out the capsule's heat shield, avionics and a variety of other systems.

No human-spaceflight vehicle has traveled so far since 1972, when the last of NASA's Apollo moon missions came back to Earth. Indeed, in all that time, no craft designed to carry crews has made it beyond low-Earth orbit (LEO), just a few hundred miles from the planet. [Photos: NASA's Orion Space Capsule EFT-1 Test Flight]

If all goes according to plan, Orion will eventually fly farther than any Apollo capsule ever did, taking astronauts to near-Earth asteroids and by the mid-2030s the ultimate destination,Mars.

"I gotta tell you, this is special," Bob Cabana, director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, said about EFT-1 during a press briefing last month. "This is our first step on that journey to Mars."

Getting people safely to and from destinations in deep space poses challenges that the engineers of NASA's last crewed spaceship, the now-retiredspace shuttle, never had to consider. (No space shuttle ever traveled beyond Earth orbit.)

For example, if a problem develops aboard a spaceship in LEO, astronauts can theoretically be on the ground in less than an hour. But it would take days for a vehicle out by the moon or beyond to get home, said NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer.

"So you've gotta have highly reliable systems, and you've gotta have capabilities to protect the crew in case of a contingency," he said during last month's briefing. [The Orion Capsule: NASA's Next Spaceship (Photos)]

One such capabilitiy will allow crewmembers aboard Orion to survive in their spacesuits for up to six days if the capsule gets depressurized, Geyer added.

"So if we have a totally depressed cabin, they can be in their suits and we can get them home," he said.

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New manned spaceship a stepping stone to Mars, says NASA (+video)

Orion space test flight a giant step toward humans on Mars

Before we can go to Mars, we need a reliable vehicle to get us there. NASA's big test flight of Orion will help pave the way for manned deep-space missions.

The Orion spacecraft gets connected to its rocket. NASA/Radislav Sinyak

We're heading to Mars. Eventually. Before we can land people on the surface of the Red Planet, we first have to figure out how to get them there safely. Thursday should mark a major milestone in that effort as NASA sends its next-generation Orion spacecraft up for its maiden flight test.

Orion will be riding a massive Delta IV Heavy rocket into space, where it will orbit the planet twice before reentering through the atmosphere and heading for a watery splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. This will be the first time Orion's heat shield will have been put to an operational test to see how it stands up to 4,000-degree temperatures. The Delta IV Heavy is the largest rocket the US has available. It will need that power to get the combined 1.63 million pounds of fuel, spacecraft and equipment off the launch pad.

"Really, we're going to test the riskiest parts of the mission," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager, in a statement. "Ascent, entry and things like fairing separations, Launch Abort System jettison, the parachutes plus the navigation and guidance -- all those things are going to be tested. Plus we'll fly into deep space and test the radiation effects on those systems."

Orion is expected to hit a peak altitude of 3,609 miles, which is considerably higher than the International Space Station. Scientists will be studying how Orion holds up to radiation exposure at this height. The whole journey will take about 4.5 hours.

Information gathered from the test flight will help NASA refine the spacecraft's design. Plans are to use the Orion spacecraft to transport human crew members to far-off locations. NASA has its sights set on visiting an asteroid and eventually reaching Mars, though that goal is a long way off. In the nearer future, NASA intends to send Orion on an uncrewed mission around the moon within the next few years.

Current forecasts from meteorologists are giving NASA a 60 percent chance for acceptable launch conditions on Thursday morning. There is a possibility of rain, which could force the launch to take place on another day. NASA is prepared to try again on Friday or Saturday if the planned Thursday lift-off doesn't work out.

NASA TV will be offering live coverage of the launch starting at 1:30 a.m. PT, if you want to be able to say you were watching when humankind took a major step toward putting people on Mars.

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Orion space test flight a giant step toward humans on Mars

W. Soccer. Fowee Headed to Kennedy Space Center for Orion Test Flight

Dec. 1, 2014

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue women's soccer's Kate Fowee was among the six students from the school of aeronautics and astronautics selected to travel to the Kennedy Space Center this week to witness the first space test flight of NASA's new Orion Capsule.

Fowee, a junior, and her father Roger, a Purdue alum, depart for Cape Canaveral, Fla., Tuesday evening. Two seniors, two juniors and two sophomores from the AAE department were selected for this unique opportunity and each student is permitted to bring one guest.

The launch is set for 7 a.m. ET Thursday (Dec. 4). There is an approximate three-hour time window in which the Orion Capsule can be launched Thursday morning. If the launch is delayed due to inclement weather or maintenance, backup launch windows are scheduled for Friday and Saturday.

New Purdue professor Daniel Dumbacher, a mechanical engineering graduate from the university and a 35-year NASA veteran, helped setup the unique opportunity for the AAE students. He will be on hand at the Kennedy Space Center this week as well after working on the Orion Capsule during his time at NASA. The Purdue Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) sponsored the competition.

The six AAE students were selected based on grade-point average, involvement within the aero community and an essay about why they believed space exploration is important for the future as well as why it is important to author of the essay. Fowee is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau, the national aerospace engineering honor society celebrating academic excellence. You can read Fowee's essay below.

A United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket, the most powerful rocket in the world, will propel the Orion Capsule into space for the first time this week. With the Orion project, NASA is revisiting human-piloted deep space exploration for the first time since the Apollo moon landing missions ended in 1972. However, this first flight test will not feature a crew on board. Exploration Flight Test-1 is scheduled to be a 4 -hour flight around the Earth in which Orion will be orbit twice and reach an orbital altitude of 3,600 miles on its second pass around the planet. That's about 15 times higher than the location of the International Space Station.

The end of EFT-1 will feature a splash-down landing in the Pacific Ocean where it will be recovered in a dual effort by NASA and the U.S. Navy.

The goal of the Orion project is for astronauts to travel beyond the moon to asteroids and Mars.

Fowee recommended Dr. Ken Kremer's writings at the UniverseToday.com website for more information about the Orion launch.

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W. Soccer. Fowee Headed to Kennedy Space Center for Orion Test Flight

To Boldly Go Where No 3-D Printer Has Gone Before: Yep, Space

International Space Station Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore holds up the first object made in space with 3-D printing on Nov. 25. NASA hide caption

International Space Station Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore holds up the first object made in space with 3-D printing on Nov. 25.

This week, a 3-D printer fabricated a part for itself. Normally, that wouldn't make headlines except that it happened in space.

"It's a history-making moment for us because it's the first time ever that we're talking about transitioning from launching every part we might need in space from Earth, to actually being able to email a file, a design to space and make that part on demand," says Niki Werkheiser, the project manager for the International Space Station 3-D Printer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Expedition 42 commander aboard the International Space Station, installed the printer and conducted calibration tests on Nov. 17. The first object, which is actually a side casing for part of the printer, was produced on Nov. 25. Werkheiser says they chose that to print part of the printer itself "to show that if we need replacement parts, or maybe one day in the future if the printer needs to print another printer, we can do that."

This project started two years ago. NASA partnered with a Silicon Valley space manufacturing company called Made in Space to make the 3-D printer.

There are several categories of objects they hope to be able to 3-D print in space from replacement crew tools to small satellites. And since the International Space Station is a scientific laboratory, they hope to be able to 3-D print syringes, tweezers and sample containers rather than lugging up extras or waiting on resupply missions for new parts.

3-D printing sounds cool and fun, but the International Space Station program has serious implications for long-term space exploration. Werkheiser says that for missions to Mars or to asteroids, "we really can't be dependent on launching every single item we might ever need from Earth. We will need to be able to make what we need, when we need it, on demand, and this is the first step to establishing those capabilities."

But for 3-D printing to work, you still have to transport all the raw materials to make the parts. So does the process really save room?

Werkheiser says this is her favorite question to answer and was one of the first issues examined in the project. She says some mass is immediately saved when you're transporting raw materials rather than the spare parts themselves. But to really save room and time, they are working to develop in-space recyclers that can re-use 3-D printed materials and turn launch packaging into feed stock for 3-D printers.

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To Boldly Go Where No 3-D Printer Has Gone Before: Yep, Space

NASA's CATS eyes clouds, smoke and dust from the space station

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

1-Dec-2014

Contact: Rani Gran rani.c.gran@nasa.gov 301-286-2483 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center @NASAGoddard

Turn on any local TV weather forecast and you can get a map of where skies are blue or cloudy. But for scientists trying to figure out how clouds affect the Earth's environment, what's happening inside that shifting cloud cover is critical and hard to see.

To investigate the layers and composition of clouds and tiny airborne particles like dust, smoke and other atmospheric aerosols, , scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland have developed an instrument called the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System, or CATS. The instrument, which launches to the International Space Station in December 2014, will explore new technologies that could also be used in future satellite missions.

From space, streaks of white clouds can be seen moving across Earth's surface. Other tiny solid and liquid particles called aerosols are also being transported around the atmosphere, but these are largely invisible to our eyes. Aerosols are both natural and man-made, and include windblown desert dust, sea salt, smoke from fires, sulfurous particles from volcanic eruptions, and particles from fossil fuel combustion.

Currently, scientists get a broad picture of clouds and air quality conditions in the atmosphere and generate air quality forecasts by combining satellite, aircraft, and ground-based data with sophisticated computer models. However, most datasets do not provide information about the layered structure of clouds and aerosols.

CATS will provide data about aerosols at different levels of the atmosphere. The data are expected to improve scientists' ability to track different cloud and aerosol types throughout the atmosphere. These datasets will be used to improve strategic and hazard-warning capabilities of events in near real-time, such as tracking plumes from dust storms, volcanic eruptions, and wildfires. The information could also feed into climate models to help understand the effects of clouds and aerosols on Earth's energy balance.

Clouds and aerosols reflect and absorb energy from the sun in a complex way. For example, when the sun's energy reaches the top of the atmosphere, clouds can reflect incoming sunlight, cooling Earth's surface. However, clouds can also absorb heat emitted from Earth and re-radiate it back down, warming the surface. The amount of warming or cooling is heavily dependent on the height, thickness, and structure of clouds in the atmosphere above.

"Clouds are one of the largest uncertainties in predicting climate change," said Matt McGill, principal investigator and payload developer for CATS at Goddard. "For scientists to create more accurate models of Earth's current and future climate, they'll have to include more accurate representations of clouds."

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NASA's CATS eyes clouds, smoke and dust from the space station

The Perfect Holiday Gift: The Year In Space Calendar 2015!

by Nancy Atkinson on December 1, 2014

Heres our most-recommended holiday gift every year: The Year In Space Calendar! And for 2015 its back, its big and its what every space enthusiast will enjoy all year. The gigantic wall calendar is full of amazing color images, daily space facts, historical references, and it even shows you where you can look in the sky for all the best astronomical sights. The 2015 version of Steve Cariddis wonderful Year in Space wall and desk calendars are now available to order, perfect for your Cyber Monday shopping.

The gorgeous wall calendar has over 120 crisp color images and is larger, more lavishly illustrated, and packed with more information than any other space-themed wall calendar. Its a huge 16 x 22 when hanging up!

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society, the Year In Space calendar takes you on a year-long guided tour of the Universe, providing in-depth info on human space flight, planetary exploration, and deep sky wonders. Youll even see Universe Today featured in this calendar!

Other features of the Year In Space calendar: Background info and fun facts A sky summary of where to find naked-eye planets Space history dates Major holidays (U.S. and Canada) Daily Moon phases A mini-biography of famous astronomer, scientist, or astronaut each month

These calendars normally sell for $17.95, but Universe Today readers can buy the calendar for only $13.95 or less (using the Internet discount), and get free U.S. shipping and discounted international shipping. There are also volume discounts. Check out all the details here. Theres also the 136-Page Desk Calendar at a similar discounts.

You can preview the entire calendar at the Year in Space Calendar website.

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The Perfect Holiday Gift: The Year In Space Calendar 2015!

Freedom 7 1961 NASA Project Mercury Alan Shephard 1st American Space Flight – Video


Freedom 7 1961 NASA Project Mercury Alan Shephard 1st American Space Flight
more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/nasa_news.html "Documents the first American manned space mission. Covers the training, preparation, launching, a...

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Freedom 7 1961 NASA Project Mercury Alan Shephard 1st American Space Flight - Video

Huntsville to host events for Orion test flight

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) Huntsville's space community is hosting events this week to mark the first flight test of the United States' newest spacecraft.

An unmanned Orion spacecraft is scheduled to launch atop a Delta IV rocket at Cape Canaveral on Thursday.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will hold a tour for a group of social media users to discuss the Orion flight on Wednesday.

On the day of the flight, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will open the theater in its Davidson Center for live viewing of the launch, flight and splashdown.

Future plans call for the Orion space capsule to carry four astronauts atop NASA's new Space Launch system rocket, which is being managed at the Marshall center in Huntsville.

The test flight will last just over four hours.

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Huntsville to host events for Orion test flight

Ripples in Space-Time Could Reveal 'Strange Stars'

By looking for ripples in the fabric of space-time, scientists could soon detect "strange stars" -- objects made of stuff radically different from the particles that make up ordinary matter, researchers say.

The protons and neutrons that make up the nuclei of atoms are made of more basic particles known as quarks. There are six types, or "flavors," of quarks: up, down, top, bottom, charm and strange. Each proton or neutron is made of three quarks: Each proton is composed of two up quarks and one down quark, and each neutron is made of two down quarks and one up quark.

In theory, matter can be made with other flavors of quarks as well. Since the 1970s, scientists have suggested that particles of "strange matter" known as strangelets -- made of equal numbers of up, down and strange quarks -- could exist. In principle, strange matter should be heavier and more stable than normal matter, and might even be capable of converting ordinary matter it comes in contact with into strange matter. However, lab experiments have not yet created any strange matter, so its existence remains uncertain. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

One place strange matter could naturally be created is inside neutron stars, the remnants of stars that died in catastrophic explosions known as supernovas. Neutron stars are typically small, with diameters of about 12 miles (19 kilometers) or so, but are so dense that they weigh as much as the sun. A chunk of a neutron star the size of a sugar cube can weigh as much as 100 million tons.

Under the extraordinary force of this extreme weight, some of the up and down quarks that make up neutron stars could get converted into strange quarks, leading to strange stars made of strange matter, researchers say.

A strange star that occasionally spurts out strange matter could quickly convert a neutron star orbiting it in a binary system into a strange star as well. Prior research suggests that a neutron star that receives a seed of strange matter from a companion strange star could transition to a strange star in just 1 millisecond to 1 second.

Now, researchers suggest they could detect strange stars by looking for the stars' gravitational waves -- invisible ripples in space-time first proposed by Albert Einstein as part of his theory of general relativity.

Gravitational waves are emitted by accelerating masses. Really big gravitational waves are emitted by really big masses, such as pairs of neutron stars merging with one another.

Pairs of strange stars should give off gravitational waves that are different from those emitted by pairs of "normal" neutron stars because strange stars should be more compact, researchers said. For instance, a neutron star with a mass one-fifth that of the sun should be more than 18 miles (30 km) in diameter, whereas a strange star of the same mass should be a maximum of 6 miles (10 km) wide.

The researchers suggest that events involving strange stars could explain two short gamma-ray bursts -- giant explosions lasting less than 2 seconds --seen in deep space in 2005 and 2007. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) did not detect gravitational waves from either of these events, dubbed GRB 051103 and GRB 070201.

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Ripples in Space-Time Could Reveal 'Strange Stars'

India to Push Next Space Frontier, With Launch of Crew Module in mid-December

Sriharikota: Just months after achieving the milestone of a successful mission to Mars, India is set to push another frontier in space, by launching a human crew module and then retrieving it from the sea upon re-entry. The crew module will blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, on board the GSLV-Mark III, which will be India's heaviest rocket till date.

The crew module will not carry any astronauts on its first test flight, which is scheduled between December 15 and 20. After rising more than a hundred kilometres into space, the crew module would be brought back to Earth, and its reentry trajectory will be studied. The capsule will then be recovered using Indian coast Guard ships from close to the Andaman Nicobar islands. A simulated recovery was carried out recently in the region.

The crew module will be launched as a payload on the GSLV-Mark III, which will blast off for the first time. The flight would be a sub-orbital test flight, and will see the first two stages being fired. The third stage, which is cryogenic, is still under development and would not be tested. However, the launch vehicle would carry a dummy cryogenic stage.

Till date, only Russia, America and China have the capability of flying astronauts into space. Once the government gives a final go-ahead for this ambitious rupees 12500 crores human space flight endeavor by ISRO, India will be able to notch another significant achievement in space exploration.

ISRO says it can fly an astronaut within seven to eight years of the govt giving its final go-ahead. The only Indian to have gone into space is astronaut Rakesh Sharma, who flew aboard the Soyuz space capsule in 1984.

The flight of the GSLV-Mark III will also be monitored by ISRO scientists, for its flight parameters, its behaviour as it moves through the atmosphere and its stability.

While the rocket would cost Rs 140 crore, the crew module would cost Rs 15 crore, said MYS Prasad, Director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

"The rocket can carry up to four tonne payload. This is the heaviest rocket India has ever launched. It is 630 tonne at lift off. We would test only the first two stages and not the cryogenic stage," explained S Somanath, Project Director, GSLV Mark III.

The cup cake-shaped crew module is 2.5 metre tall and 3.5 metre in diameter."The three tonne weighing crew module would use four set of parachutes to safely land on the surface of the sea at 7 metre per second. It will land some 180 km from Indira Point of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. From the lift off to the crew module splashing into the sea, it will take around 20 minutes," said S Unnikrishnan Nair, Project Director of the Crew Module programme.

The capsule, tentatively designed to carry three astronauts, would be recovered by Indian Coast Guard ships. A practice of the recovery was done on October 31 with Coast Guard ship ICGS Samudra Paheredar, he added.

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India to Push Next Space Frontier, With Launch of Crew Module in mid-December

Andes Mountains Disasters – NASA DEVELOP Fall 2014 @ Marshall Space Flight Center – Video


Andes Mountains Disasters - NASA DEVELOP Fall 2014 @ Marshall Space Flight Center
Watch out are words we do not want to hear during a volcanic eruption. Decision makers, NASA SERVIR and the Smithsonian Global Volcano Program, want to b...

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