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Challenger Center for Space Science Education Welcomes Three New Board Members

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WASHINGTON (April 2, 2014) - Officials with Challenger Center for Space Science Education (Challenger Center) today announced three new members to its board of directors. Virginia "Ginger" Barnes of The Boeing Company, Dr. W. Michael Hawes of Lockheed Martin and international best-selling author, Kevin J. Anderson.

"It is my pleasure to welcome Ginger, Mike and Kevin to the team," said Gwen Griffin, chair of the board for Challenger Center. "Their diverse career experiences in STEM-related fields along with a shared passion to continue the mission of Challenger Center, adds terrific outreach capability to the board."

Barnes is vice president and program manager for Boeing's Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's new human-rated, heavy-lift launch vehicle program. Prior to this position, she served as president and chief executive officer of United Space Alliance, LLC, before returning to Boeing where she had worked for 29 years. During her tenure with Boeing, Barnes managed a number of defense and space programs and efforts, including ISS, fighter and support programs, defense modernization and weapons, and simulation and training. She left Boeing as vice president, chief operating officer and deputy program manager, overseeing the programmatic and financial aspects of the U.S. Army's modernization efforts. She holds an advanced degree in Business.

Hawes serves as the director for human space flight programs within Lockheed Martin's Washington office, where he represents the company in dealings with the Administration and Congress. Previously, he spent 33 years with NASA holding numerous senior management roles, including deputy associate administrator for the International Space Station (ISS). He also is an adjunct faculty member of the George Washington University College of Engineering, where he teaches engineering management and systems engineering. He holds advanced degrees in Engineering Management.

The award-winning author of more than 125 books, Anderson has more than 23 million copies of his works in print in 30 languages. His involvement with Challenger Center began with his Star Challengers young-adult fiction series which he created with his wife Rebecca Moesta and Challenger Center Founding Chair June Scobee Rodgers. The books are designed to spark student interest in the space program and careers in STEM fields. He holds degrees in Astronomy and Physics.

About Challenger Center

Using space exploration as a theme and simulation as a vehicle, Challenger Center for Space Science Education and its international network of more than 40 Challenger Learning Centers create positive educational experiences that raise students' expectations of success, foster long-term interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and inspire students to pursue studies and careers in these areas. Challenger Learning Centers across the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Korea reach more than 400,000 students each year through simulated space missions and educational programs and engage more than 40,000 educators through missions and teacher workshops. Founded in 1986, Challenger Center was created to honor the seven astronauts of shuttle flight STS-51-L: Commander Dick Scobee, Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, and Michael J. Smith.

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Challenger Center for Space Science Education Welcomes Three New Board Members

Space History Photo: STS-86 Launch

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In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Space Shuttle Atlantis blazes through the night sky to begin the STS-86 mission, slated to be the seventh of nine planned dockings of the Space Shuttle with the Russian Space Station Mir. Liftoff on September 25 from Launch Pad 39A was at 10:34 p.m. EDT, within seconds of the preferred time, during a six minute, 45 second launch window.

The 10 day flight will include the transfer of the sixth U.S. astronaut to live and work aboard the Mir. After the docking, STS-86 Mission Specialist David A. Wolf will become a member of the Mir 24 crew, replacing astronaut C. Michael Foale, who will return to Earth aboard Atlantis with the remainder of the STS-86 crew. Foale has been on the Russian Space Station since mid May. Wolf is scheduled to remain there about four months.

Besides Wolf (embarking to Mir) and Foale (returning), the STS-86 crew includes Commander James D. Wetherbee, Pilot Michael J. Bloomfield, and Mission Specialists Wendy B. Lawrence, Scott E. Parazynski, Vladimir Georgievich Titov of the Russian Space Agency, and Jean-Loup J.M. Chretien of the French Space Agency, CNES. Other primary objectives of the mission are a spacewalk by Parazynski and Titov, and the exchange of about 3.5 tons of science/logistical equipment and supplies between Atlantis and the Mir.

Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).

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Space History Photo: STS-86 Launch

Space travel impacts heart

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The hearts of astronauts who spend a lot of time in space become more spherical, raising concern about the potential for cardiac problems during prolonged space travel, according to a new study.

Researchers analyzed heart data collected from 12 astonauts before, during and after stints on the International Space Station. The results show the heart in the weightlessness of space becomes more spherical by a factor of 9.4 percent.

"The heart doesn't work as hard in space, which can cause a loss of muscle mass," James Thomas, the studys lead author and lead scientist for ultrasound at NASA, said in a statement. "That can have serious consequences after the return to Earth, so we're looking into whether there are measures that can be taken to prevent or counteract that loss."

Astronaut Mike Hopkins participates in a spacewalk on Dec. 24.

The long-term health impacts of the shape change are not known. The good news is that the transformation appears to be temporary, with the heart returning to its normal elongated self shortly after the return to Earth.

NASA wants to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, so researchers are keen on trying to understand how a spaceflight of 18 months or more could affect astronauts' heart health. As part of that research, NASA and its Russian partners are planning to keep two spacefliers on the station for an entire year, starting in 2015.

In addition to the insights for long-term spaceflight, such studies could lead to a better understanding of common heart problems in people on Earth.

The new study, "Affect of Microgravity on Cardiac Shape: Comparison of Pre- and In-flight Data to Mathematical Modeling," was presented over the weekend at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in Washington.

First published March 31 2014, 4:58 PM

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Space travel impacts heart

Engineers Install Near Infrared Camera into the Heart of Webb Telescope

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Inside the world's largest clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., engineers worked tirelessly to install another essential part of the James Webb Space Telescope - the Near Infrared Camera into the heart of the telescope.

To complete this installation, the engineers needed to carefully move NIRCam inside the heart or ISIM, or Integrated Science Instrument Module that will house all of the science instruments.

"Installing NIRCam into the center of the structure is nerve wracking because of the tight clearances," said Marcia J. Rieke, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, and principal investigator for the NIRCam. "I'm glad nothing bumped, and all the bolts are in place."

NIRCam is a unique machine because in addition to being one of the four science instruments on the Webb, it also serves as the wavefront sensor, which means it will provide vital information for shaping the telescope mirrors and aligning its optics so that they can function properly and see into the distant universe. The NIRCam instrument will operate at very cold temperatures, and will be tested to ensure that it will be able to withstand the environment of space.

The NIRCam is Webb's primary imager that will cover the infrared wavelength range 0.6 to 5 microns. It will detect light from the earliest stars and galaxies in the process of formation, the population of stars in nearby galaxies, as well as young stars and exoplanets in the Milky Way. NIRCam is provided by the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center.

Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

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Engineers Install Near Infrared Camera into the Heart of Webb Telescope

NASA's Marshall Center and Impact of Aerospace Industry on Alabama to be Focus of Events at State Legislature April 2-3

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NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be honored by the Alabama Legislature as part of "NASA Alabama Aerospace Day 2014" events April 2-3 in Montgomery. Marshall Center Director Patrick Scheuermann will meet with lawmakers and state officials, Marshall representatives will visit a variety of schools and nonprofit organizations in the Montgomery area and NASA exhibits and activities highlighting Marshall's critical role in the future of space exploration will be on display at the State House.

The NASA Alabama Aerospace Day 2014 theme is "Together We Make Bold Things Happen." The Marshall Center is partnering with the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce and the Aerospace States Association for a roundtable discussion April 2 titled "Economics and Education: The Impact of the Aerospace Industry in the State of Alabama." Participating in the roundtable will be Scheuermann, aerospace industry executives and state education officials. Scheuermann will be available to the media after the discussion.

The following is a schedule of events open to the public and/or news media:

Wednesday, April 2

3-4:30 p.m.: Joint Roundtable Discussion on "Economics and Education: The Impact of the Aerospace Industry in the State of Alabama," hosted by the Aerospace States Association and the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce, in Senate Judiciary Room 325, State House.

Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey will open the discussion, and participants include Patrick Scheuermann, Marshall Space Flight Center director; Tony Jones, the Boeing Co., vice president and Huntsville site executive; Dr. Shankar Mahalingam, University of Alabama in Huntsville College of Engineering dean; Tracy Lamm, Lockheed Martin Civil and Army Space Systems senior manager; Dr. Jan Davis, Jacobs Engineering, vice president and deputy general manager; Stephen Cook, Dynetics, director of corporate development; and Mark Heinrich, Alabama Community College System chancellor. Greg Canfield, Alabama Department of Commerce secretary, will moderate the discussion.

4:45-5 p.m.: Marshall Space Flight Center Director Patrick Scheuermann will be available to the news media in the Joint Press Briefing Room on the 3rd floor of the State House.

Thursday, April 3

9 a.m.-3 p.m.: NASA educational activities and exhibits for school children and the public will be available on the 6th floor of the State House and on South Union Street, including models of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, a moon rock and examples of innovative NASA additive manufacturing or 3-D printing technology.

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NASA's Marshall Center and Impact of Aerospace Industry on Alabama to be Focus of Events at State Legislature April 2-3

Need A Vacation? Space Will Soon Be Affordable

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Bernama) -- Sub-orbital flights can cost as cheap as RM15,000 in future which would help develop the space tourism industry, said Prof Dr Patrick Collins, a professor of economics at Azabu University, Japan.

"Currently space flight costs range from US$100,000 to US$200,000 (RM327,170 to RM654,340), but by doing it on a larger scale, engineers believe it can be as low as RM15,000 in 2020," said Collin in his talk titled 'From Microgravity to Orbital Flight' at Planeterium Negara here today.

A sub-orbital space flight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches 100 kilometres above the sea level. It could boost space tourism besides cutting cost for microgravity research.

Sub-orbital flights helps researchers to carry out microgravity research without going to outer space, hence saving time and cost.

Collins also said that space tourism could be commercialised like air travel and such efforts and research were being carrying out by few countries like the United States of America (USA), Japan besides a few European nations.

"In 2000, only 1 billion passengers flew on aircraft, but in 2010, 2.5 billion passengers used aircraft services. So in future, we can expect more people to travel to space. USA, Japan and Europeans are working on the possibilities," he said.

Collins is also a collaborating researcher with the Institute for Space and Astronautical Science. He is also an adviser to a number of companies and his research focus for the past 25 years has been on how to stimulate growth on commercial space activities, mainly for tourism and energy supply.

Meanwhile, National Space Agency (ANGKASA) Director General Dr Noordin Ahmad said it its effort to become a developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia was not sidelined on the matter and expected the new technology to reduce costs.

"We are expecting the concept of sub-orbital flight to be used in expediting microgravity experiments with the least possible cost compared to using the older method of sending microgravity experiments to the ISS (International Space Station) which is very costly," Noordin told Bernama.

Malaysia has been involved in microgravity research since sending its first astronaut Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor into space in 2007. The research was on five themes namely microbes in space, cells in space, protein in space, food in space and students suggested experiments.

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Need A Vacation? Space Will Soon Be Affordable

WIRED Space Photo of the Day: Milky Way Panorama

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Touring the Milky Way now is as easy as clicking a button with NASA's new zoomable, 360-degree mosaic presented Thursday at the TED 2014 Conference in Vancouver, Canada. The star-studded panorama of our galaxy is constructed from more than 2 million infrared snapshots taken over the past 10 years by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

"If we actually printed this out, we'd need a billboard as big as the Rose Bowl Stadium to display it," said Robert Hurt, an imaging specialist at NASA's Spitzer Space Science Center in Pasadena, Calif. "Instead, we've created a digital viewer that anyone, even astronomers, can use."

The 20-gigapixel mosaic uses Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope visualization platform. It captures about three percent of our sky, but because it focuses on a band around Earth where the plane of the Milky Way lies, it shows more than half of all the galaxy's stars.

The image, derived primarily from the Galactic Legacy Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire project, or GLIMPSE, is online at: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/glimpse360

Spitzer, launched into space in 2003 and has spent more than 10 years studying everything from asteroids in our solar system to the most remote galaxies at the edge of the observable universe. In this time, it has spent a total of 4,142 hours (172 days) taking pictures of the disk, or plane, of our Milky Way galaxy in infrared light. This is the first time those images have been stitched together into a single, expansive view.

Our galaxy is a flat spiral disk; our solar system sits in the outer one-third of the Milky Way, in one of its spiral arms. When we look toward the center of our galaxy, we see a crowded, dusty region jam-packed with stars. Visible-light telescopes cannot look as far into this region because the amount of dust increases with distance, blocking visible starlight. Infrared light, however, travels through the dust and allows Spitzer to view past the galaxy's center.

"Spitzer is helping us determine where the edge of the galaxy lies," said Ed Churchwell, co-leader of the GLIMPSE team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "We are mapping the placement of the spiral arms and tracing the shape of the galaxy." Using GLIMPSE data, astronomers have created the most accurate map of the large central bar of stars that marks the center of the galaxy, revealing the Milky Way to be slightly larger than previously thought. GLIMPSE images have also shown a galaxy riddled with bubbles. These bubble structures are cavities around massive stars, which blast wind and radiation into their surroundings.

All together, the data allow scientists to build a more global model of stars, and star formation in the galaxy -- what some call the "pulse" of the Milky Way. Spitzer can see faint stars in the "backcountry" of our galaxy -- the outer, darker regions that went largely unexplored before. "There are a whole lot more lower-mass stars seen now with Spitzer on a large scale, allowing for a grand study," said Barbara Whitney of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, co-leader of the GLIMPSE team. "Spitzer is sensitive enough to pick these up and light up the entire 'countryside' with star formation."

The Spitzer team previously released an image compilation showing 130 degrees of our galaxy, focused on its hub. The new 360-degree view will guide NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to the most interesting sites of star-formation, where it will make even more detailed infrared observations. Some sections of the GLIMPSE mosaic include longer-wavelength data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, which scanned the whole sky in infrared light. The GLIMPSE data are also part of a citizen science project, where users can help catalog bubbles and other objects in our Milky Way galaxy. To participate, visit: http://www.milkywayproject.org The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer and WISE missions for NASA. The Spitzer Science Center is at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Caption: Spitzer Space Telescope Team

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WIRED Space Photo of the Day: Milky Way Panorama

WIRED Space Photo of the Day: Comet Siding Spring

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Multiple images of a distant quasar are visible in this combined view from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope. The Chandra data, along with data from ESA's XMM-Newton, were used to directly measure the spin of the supermassive black hole powering this quasar. This is the most distant black hole where such a measurement has been made, as reported in our press release.

Gravitational lensing by an intervening elliptical galaxy has created four different images of the quasar, shown by the Chandra data in pink. Such lensing, first predicted by Einstein, offers a rare opportunity to study regions close to the black hole in distant quasars, by acting as a natural telescope and magnifying the light from these sources. The Hubble data in red, green and blue shows the elliptical galaxy in the middle of the image, along with other galaxies in the field.

The quasar is known as RX J1131-1231 (RX J1131 for short), located about 6 billion light years from Earth. Using the gravitational lens, a high quality X-ray spectrum - that is, the amount of X-rays seen at different energies - of RX J1131 was obtained.

The X-rays are produced when a swirling accretion disk of gas and dust that surrounds the black hole creates a multimillion-degree cloud, or corona near the black hole. X-rays from this corona reflect off the inner edge of the accretion disk. The reflected X-ray spectrum is altered by the strong gravitational forces near the black hole. The larger the change in the spectrum, the closer the inner edge of the disk must be to the black hole.

The authors of the new study found that the X-rays are coming from a region in the disk located only about three times the radius of the event horizon, the point of no return for infalling matter. This implies that the black hole must be spinning extremely rapidly to allow a disk to survive at such a small radius. This result is important because black holes are defined by just two simple characteristics: mass and spin. While astronomers have long been able to measure black hole masses very effectively, determining their spins have been much more difficult.

These spin measurements can give researchers important clues about how black holes grow over time. If black holes grow mainly from collisions and mergers between galaxies they should accumulate material in a stable disk, and the steady supply of new material from the disk should lead to rapidly spinning black holes. In contrast if black holes grow through many small accretion episodes, they will accumulate material from random directions. Like a merry go round that is pushed both backwards and forwards, this would make the black hole spin more slowly.

he discovery that the black hole in RX J1131 is spinning at over half the speed of light suggests that this black hole has grown via mergers, rather than pulling material in from different directions. These results were published online in the journal Nature. The lead author is Rubens Reis of the University of Michigan. His co-authors are Mark Reynolds and Jon M. Miller, also of Michigan, as well as Dominic Walton of the California Institute of Technology.

Caption: Chandra Telescope Team

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WIRED Space Photo of the Day: Comet Siding Spring

Hadfield Says Musks Rocket Shows Private Space Promise

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A successful launch of a rocket with legs by Elon Musks Space Exploration Technologies Corp. may slash the costs of reaching space and give a boost to private space flight, former astronaut Chris Hadfield said.

SpaceXs launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with its four landing legs, set for March 30, is hugely important because weve thrown away just about every rocket weve launched, Hadfield, 54, a Canadian who has logged about 100 million kilometers (62 million miles) in space, said during an interview in Bloombergs Toronto bureau.

Hadfield, who commanded the International Space Station from mid-March until May last year, gained fame using social media to post pictures of Earth and make videos on what its like to shave, throw up, cry and go to the bathroom in space. His remake of David Bowies song Space Oddity got more than 21.6 million views on YouTube.

After the Falcon 9 rocket releases its payload to the space station, its going to fire its engines again and land in the ocean as if it were landing on land, Hadfield said. If they can pinpoint the landing after several trials, then Musks company can cut the cost of access to space by maybe two orders of magnitude, which is enormous, said Hadfield.

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, 54, has logged about 100 million kilometers (62... Read More

Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, 54, has logged about 100 million kilometers (62 million miles) in space. Close

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Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield, 54, has logged about 100 million kilometers (62 million miles) in space.

To try to do that in human space flight, maybe SpaceX and specifically Elon Musk, is in a position to do that, Hadfield said. Hes got a pretty good track record.

Musk, 42, is chief executive officer of Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX and co-founder of electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA)

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Hadfield Says Musks Rocket Shows Private Space Promise

NASA's humanoid robot to get a leg up on space station

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News

March 27, 2014 03:57 PM ET

Computerworld - A pair of robotic legs will be heading to the International Space Station.

That's right. Robot legs.

Robonaut 2, also known as R2, is a humanoid robot that has been working on the space station since 2011.

The 300-pound robot, which had been in the works for 11 years, has 38 PowerPC processors, including 36 embedded chips, which control its joints. Each of the embedded processors communicates with the main chip in the robot.

The robot, currently a legless torso, has been attached to a stationary pedestal. It is expected to eventually take over some basic duties, such as cleaning and maintenance inside the station, freeing up the astronauts to do more critical work, like scientific experiments. NASA scientists hope that one day, with upgrades to the robot's torso, it will be able to work outside the station, aiding astronauts in spacewalks.

To do much of that work, the robot needs legs.

That's where SpaceX, a commercial space flight company that runs cargo missions to the space station, comes into play.

SpaceX is set to carry the robotic legs onboard one of its Dragon cargo crafts in its third contracted resupply mission to the space station. The mission had been scheduled for launch on Sunday but was postponed because of a recent fire that damaged radar equipment on the East Coast of Florida.

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NASA's humanoid robot to get a leg up on space station

US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Shatters Orbital Endurance Record

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The U.S. Air Force's robotic X-37B space plane has broken its own all-time endurance record in orbit after more than 470 days of circling the Earth on a mystery mission for the American military.

The X-37B space plane currently in orbit in flying the Orbital Test Vehicle 3 (OTV-3) mission, the third long-duration flight of the unmanned Air Force spaceflight program. The miniature space shuttle launched on Dec. 11, 2012 and is surpassed the record for longest X-37B spaceflight on Wednesday (March 26).

Until now, the record for the longest X-37B mission is 469 days, set by the program's OTV-2 mission that was launched in 2011. [See photos from the X-37B's OTV-3 mystery flight]

The OTV-3 mission in orbit today now uses the first of the Air Force's two X-37B space plane vehicles. The same spacecraft was used to fly the first-ever X-37B mission (the 225-day OTV-1 flight in 2010), while a second vehicle flew the longer OTV-2 mission a year later.

The U.S. military's X-37B space planes launch into orbit atop an unmanned Atlas 5 rocket from a pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. During launch, the space planes are encapsulated inside a protective shroud.

At the end of their respective flights, both the OTV-1 and OTV-2 craft missions flew themselves back to Earth on autopilot, each time touching down on a tarmac at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.

X-37B space plane's Florida landing

Earlier this year, the X-37B supplier Boeing Space & Intelligence Systems announced plans to study the possibility of using NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida as a landing site for future space plane missions.

Boeing officials said that investments will be made to convert a former space shuttle hangar, called the Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF-1), into a structure that would enable the U.S. Air Force "to efficiently land, recover, refurbish, and re-launch" the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle.

Construction work at KSC for consolidating the prepping, takeoff and landings of X-37B spacecraft would be completed by the second quarter of 2015, said Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball.

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US Air Force's Secretive X-37B Space Plane Shatters Orbital Endurance Record


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