Moore came up with the design for the electric powered, 12-foot (3.7 m) long, 14.5-foot (4.4 m) wingspan personal air vehicle as part of the coursework for his doctoral degree. Then Langley's creativity and innovation and revolutionary technical challenges funds paid for much of the research. How the Puffin rocketed from esoteric erudition to web sensation is a classic case study in the power of the viral nature of the web.

"The animation of the Puffin on YouTube has gotten more 648,000 hits in a week," said Moore. "Until the concept was mentioned in the media Jan. 19, the video had only been clicked on a couple of thousand times since it was uploaded to the NASAPAV channel last November."

It all started with an email from a reporter who was pursuing a story on electric aircraft propulsion for "a couple of websites associated with space.com." As the former manager of the former Vehicle System program's Personal Air Vehicle sector. Moore is a nationally recognized expert on that and other small aircraft systems.

Moore not only shared information about electric motor research for airplanes, but also the Puffin design that he and a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA), and M-DOT Aerospace planned to present to an American Helicopter Society conference on aeromechanics, Jan. 20. Combine NASA cachet with an intriguing technology concept, some compelling animation created by Analytical Mechanics Associates graphic designers and quotable quotes from Moore and the story of the Puffin lifted off.

First it appeared on the Scientific American website from the original interview on electric aircraft propulsion. There Moore was quoted as saying the team named the design the Puffin because, "If you've ever seen a puffin on the ground, it looks very awkward, with wings too small to fly, and that's exactly what our vehicle looks like," Moore says. "But it's also apparently called the most environmentally friendly bird, because it hides its poop. So the vehicle is environmentally friendly because it essentially has no emissions. Also, puffins tend to live in solitude, only ever coming together on land to mate, and ours is a one-person vehicle."

The pictures and video of the Puffin helped attract media attention too. It's not everyday that you see a design that's part plane, part helicopter that stands upright on the ground. Its tail splits into four "legs" that serve as landing gear. It lifts off like a helicopter, hovers and then leans forward to fly horizontally with the pilot lying down like in a hang-glider.

Even the technical details were pretty interesting. If ever built the proposed aircraft would be small and very lightweight -- about 300 pounds (136 kg) empty weight plus another 100 pounds (45 kg) of battery and 200 pounds (91 kg) for the pilot or payload. The design would be powered by a total of 60 horsepower through electric motors, which are designed to be able to fail any two powertrain components on either side and still produce the required power to hover. It has a cruising speed of 150 mph (241 kph), but cruises more efficiently at lower speeds The range with current battery technology would be about 50 miles (80 km).

The first web story snowballed until the Puffin garnered worldwide attention, capturing more than 10 news.google.com search pages in less than seven days with stories in media from Japan, Russia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Chile, Spain, Guatemala, Greece, Peru, Mexico, Norway, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, China, Korea, and others. A full "Google" search of "NASA Puffin" indicated there were more than 38,000 hits for the combined words. Moore and the NASA Langley News Media Team got inquiries from a New York Times blogger, Germany's biggest Sunday paper, a French men's magazine, ABC News and many more. Even the social media site "Twitter" has been all a-twitter with more than 1,200 tweets about the Puffin in a week.

For Moore the publicity was an added bonus, but it was the way the work was accomplished that really excited him. "I've been doing conceptual design studies for 25 years, and this is the first time that I have performed a six month conceptual design study that involved such detailed analyses performed right from the onset (that is viscous full Navier Stokes Overflow aero solutions feeding WopWop aeroacoustic analysis, along with MBDyn rotor dynamics, with detailed transition trajectory analysis)," said Moore. "So I think it is a poster child of higher-order methods being able to push themselves far forward to the front stages of design -- to avoid the nasty 'real world' surprises that higher-order analysis can bring at later stages. Getting systems analysis to work in closer collaboration with discipline experts is greatly needed as we progress towards greater multi-disciplinary coupling to solve highly complex problems."

The other thing the engineer says he looks forward to is sharing the technical results of the studies and "the depth of analysis that exists" with other researchers. He'd much rather do that, Moore says, than talk to reporters.

As for the Puffin media frenzy -- it's subsided some, but could start back up later this year when the NIA hopes to fly a remote control one-third size model to validate assumptions made in academic studies, with the specific intent of exploring the transition from hover to forward flight.

The cupola resembles a circular bay window and will provide a vastly improved view of the station's exterior. The multi-directional view will allow the crew to monitor spacewalks and docking operations, as well as provide a spectacular view of Earth and other celestial objects. The module was built in Turin, Italy, by Thales Alenia Space for the European Space Agency.

Endeavour's STS-130 mission will include three spacewalks and the delivery of the Tranquility node, the final major U.S. portion of the station. Tranquility will provide additional room for crew members and many of the space station's life support and environmental control systems.

Attached to Tranquility is a cupola with seven windows, which houses a robotic control station. The windows will provide a panoramic view of Earth, celestial objects and visiting spacecraft. After the node and cupola are added, the orbiting laboratory will be approximately 90 percent complete.

Shortly before liftoff, Commander George Zamka said, "Thanks to the great team that got Tranquility, cupola and Endeavour to this point. And thanks also to the team that got us ready to bring Node 3 and cupola to life. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. It's time to go fly."

Zamka is joined on the flight by Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken. Virts is making his first trip to space.

Endeavour's first landing opportunity at Kennedy is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 20, at 10:01 p.m. The STS-130 mission will be Endeavour's 24th flight and the 32nd shuttle mission dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.

NASA's Web coverage of STS-130 includes mission information, interactive features, news conference images, graphics and videos. Mission coverage, including the latest NASA TV schedule, is available on the main space shuttle Web site at:

Journalists planning to use the service must contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of a briefing. Newsroom personnel will verify credentials and transfer reporters to the phone bridge. Phone bridge capacity is limited, so it will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Patrick, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plans to tweet from orbit during the mission. He can be followed at:

The JPL-developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) is currently in the second week of a three-week campaign in Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Flying beneath the belly of a modified Gulfstream III aircraft from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, the sophisticated radar can spot minute changes in Earth's surface by flying precise repeat passes over targeted areas. The Central American survey flights are focusing on measuring biomass in Central American rain forests, imaging volcanoes from Guatemala to Costa Rica, and imaging Mayan ruins. The flights over Haiti and the Dominican Republic are targeting earthquake faults on the island of Hispaniola. Scientists collected data over Central American nations again on Feb. 2, and then flew a second set of data tracks over Haiti on Feb. 3 before returning to Costa Rica on Feb. 4.

For more information on UAVSAR, see: http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Bolden will be available to talk with journalists about the shuttle's STS-130 mission to the International Space Station and other NASA programs. Endeavour is scheduled to lift off at 4:39 a.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 7.

The news briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions will be taken only from reporters at Kennedy. For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

Mike Moses, shuttle launch integration manager, said, "We're really looking forward to this launch carrying up node 3 and the cupola.

"From the shuttle program perspective, looking at our launch readiness, we're in really good shape. We had a fantastic review this morning," continued Moses, "Unanimous poll, everyone's pressing forward to go for launch."

Bernardo Patti, ESA's International Space Station program manager, said how happy and proud he is to see the last two European elements ready for the space station. He also commented on the great support and cooperation between the space agencies and how rewarding the process has been.

Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director, reported his team is not tracking any technical issues and everything is on track for the rotating service structure rollback at 8 a.m. Saturday and loading of the external fuel tank with propellants around 7:15 p.m.

"The team is energized and excited about the countdown... looking forward to getting Endeavour off the ground Sunday morning," said Leinbach.

Kathy Winters, shuttle weather officer, said the forecast has improved and there's only a 20 percent chance weather would be an issue at launch time. Although it may be a little chilly and breezy, no constraints should be violated. The forecast at the transoceanic abort landing sites in Spain and France also looks favorable.

Saturday at 7 p.m., NASA TV will air the fueling of Endeavour's external tank at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. At 11:30 p.m., live launch coverage will kick off on NASA TV.

You also can follow Endeavour's exciting countdown to launch with NASA's Launch Blog from inside Kennedy's Firing Room 3 beginning at 11:30 p.m. and continuing through main engine cutoff -- when Endeavour reaches orbit on its two-day race to the station.

› Meet the STS-130 Crew

Endeavour's STS-130 Mission
Commander George Zamka will lead the STS-130 mission to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Endeavour. Terry Virts will serve as the pilot. Mission Specialists are Nicholas Patrick, Robert Behnken, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire. Virts will be making his first trip to space.

Shuttle Endeavour and its crew will deliver to the space station a third connecting module, the Italian-built Tranquility node and the seven-windowed cupola, which will be used as a control room for robotics. The mission will feature three spacewalks.

Liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for February 7, 2010, at 4:39 a.m. EST

Additional Resources
› STS-130 Press Kit (8.7 Mb PDF)
› STS-130 Mission Summary (448 Kb PDF)
› Reusable Solid Rocket Motor and Solid Rocket Boosters
› Fact Sheet: Remaining Shuttle Missions (1.3 Mb PDF)

Orbiter Status
› About the Orbiters

Zantech IT Services will provide logistical and coordination support services to NASA Headquarters and Goddard for events and will assist in the distribution of administrative, scientific and technical information. Events may include conferences, peer reviews, colloquia, symposia, workshops, tradeshows and various other meeting formats.

Events may be held at various locations including local, national, and international sites. Event attendees may include representatives from other agencies, state governments, private industry, research facilities, and U.S. and foreign higher education institutions.

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

"This is a really exciting week for the space station and for the scientists that want to use these laboratories," said Julie Robinson, program scientist for the station at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We've already had some important findings on station during its construction. With this strong support for continued space station lifetime to 2020 or beyond, we will have amazing discoveries from the science and technology research that can be accomplished."

NASA senior managers from the space station program and counterparts at Russia's Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency and Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology met to discuss the implications of continuing station operations and utilization and recently issued a joint statement about the station's future.

They noted, "ISS continuation could bring great benefit to all partners and humankind by demonstrating significant and sustained return on the partnership's investment in the ISS program, primarily through the enhanced research and usage opportunities."

The entire statement is available at:

The continued use of the station will open the window for more studies that can only be done in the unique environment of space. Specifically, scientists can discover how cells reproduce and differentiate in microgravity with applications to areas such as tissue generation and wound repair. Also, there are opportunities for more human physiology research to learn about systems such as heart, muscle and bone, which can benefit space explorers and ill or injured patients.

Studies of fluid physics that benefit from lack of buoyancy in microgravity will provide new understanding of soft matter, supercritical fluids and two phase flow. Technology tests will advance areas such as robotics, life support and spacecraft servicing.

Station construction began in Dec. 1998 and will be completed during 2010. Once complete, the station will transition to a new "full usage" phase, where continuous scientific research will be conducted aboard the multinational orbiting laboratory.

During the past decade, scientific research accomplishments made aboard the station included advances in the fight against food poisoning and new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells. Studies of salmonella bacteria identified the controlling gene responsible for its increased virulence in microgravity, and a commercial company has used changes in virulence of microbes to screen for candidate vaccines.

Results of an early station experiment led to improvements in a method for delivering drugs to targets in the human body. The research led the way for better methods of micro-encapsulation, a process of forming miniature, liquid-filled balloons the size of blood cells that can deliver treatment directly to cancer cells.

NASA has a new Web feature that provides examples of space station research dividends including cancer treatment, food poisoning vaccine development, air purification, remote ultrasound tests and many more. For more information about station science payoffs, visit:

NASA and General Motors are working together to accelerate development of the next generation of robots and related technologies for use in the automotive and aerospace industries.

Engineers and scientists from NASA and GM worked together through a Space Act Agreement at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston to build a new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people. Using leading edge control, sensor and vision technologies, future robots could assist astronauts during hazardous space missions and help GM build safer cars and plants.

The two organizations, with the help of engineers from Oceaneering Space Systems of Houston, developed and built the next iteration of Robonaut. Robonaut 2, or R2, is a faster, more dexterous and more technologically advanced robot. This new generation robot can use its hands to do work beyond the scope of prior humanoid machines. R2 can work safely alongside people, a necessity both on Earth and in space.

"This cutting-edge robotics technology holds great promise, not only for NASA, but also for the nation," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "I'm very excited about the new opportunities for human and robotic exploration these versatile robots provide across a wide range of applications."

"For GM, this is about safer cars and safer plants," said Alan Taub, GM's vice president for global research and development. "When it comes to future vehicles, the advancements in controls, sensors and vision technology can be used to develop advanced vehicle safety systems. The partnership's vision is to explore advanced robots working together in harmony with people, building better, higher quality vehicles in a safer, more competitive manufacturing environment."

The idea of using dexterous, human-like robots capable of using their hands to do intricate work is not new to the aerospace industry. The original Robonaut, a humanoid robot designed for space travel, was built by the software, robotics and simulation division at Johnson in a collaborative effort with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency 10 years ago. During the past decade, NASA gained significant expertise in building robotic technologies for space applications. These capabilities will help NASA launch a bold new era of space exploration.

The Hubble images will remain our sharpest view of Pluto until NASA's New Horizons probe is within six months of its Pluto flyby. The Hubble pictures are proving invaluable for picking out the planet's most interesting-looking hemisphere for the New Horizons spacecraft to swoop over when it flies by Pluto in 2015.

Though Pluto is arguably one of the public's favorite planetary objects, it is also the hardest of which to get a detailed portrait because the world is small and very far away. Hubble resolves surface variations a few hundred miles across, which are too coarse for understanding surface geology. But in terms of surface color and brightness Hubble reveals a complex-looking and variegated world with white, dark-orange and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant sun breaking up methane that is present on Pluto's surface, leaving behind a dark and red carbon-rich residue.

When Hubble pictures taken in 1994 are compared with a new set of images taken in 2002 to 2003, astronomers see evidence that the northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere has gotten darker. These changes hint at very complex processes affecting the visible surface, and the new data will be used in continued research.

The Hubble pictures underscore that Pluto is not simply a ball of ice and rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes. These are driven by seasonal changes that are as much propelled by the planet's 248-year elliptical orbit as its axial tilt, unlike Earth where the tilt alone drives seasons. The seasons are very asymmetric because of Pluto's elliptical orbit. Spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere because Pluto is moving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the sun.

Ground-based observations, taken in 1988 and 2002, show that the mass of the atmosphere doubled over that time. This may be due to warming and sublimating nitrogen ice. The new Hubble images from 2002 to 2003 are giving astronomers essential clues about how the seasons on Pluto work and about the fate of its atmosphere.

The images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, are invaluable to planning the details of the New Horizons flyby in 2015. New Horizons will pass by Pluto so quickly that only one hemisphere will be photographed in the highest possible detail. Particularly noticeable in the Hubble image is a bright spot that has been independently noted to be unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. It is a prime target for New Horizons. "Everybody is puzzled by this feature," says Buie. New Horizons will get an excellent look at the boundary between this bright feature and a nearby region covered in pitch-black surface material.

"The Hubble images will also help New Horizons scientists better calculate the exposure time for each Pluto snapshot, which is important for taking the most detailed pictures possible," says Buie. With no chance for re-exposures, accurate models for the surface of Pluto are essential in preventing pictures that are either under- or overexposed.

The Hubble images are a few pixels wide. But through a technique called dithering, multiple, slightly offset pictures can be combined through computer-image processing to synthesize a higher-resolution view than could be seen in a single exposure. "This has taken four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish," says Buie, who developed special algorithms to sharpen the Hubble data.

The Hubble research results appear in the March 2010 issue of the Astronomical Journal. Buie's science team members are William Grundy of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and Eliot Young, Leslie Young, and Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Buie plans to use Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 to make further Pluto observations prior to the arrival of New Horizons.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C.

Related Link

› Additional background information about Pluto from Southwest Research Institute

Just as you wouldn't want your car's gas tank to leak, engineers don't want a satellite to leak fuel. So, a team of engineers performed propulsion system pressurization and leak checks before fueling GOES-P. Those preparations were completed on January 22.

The GOES-P spacecraft was moved to the fueling stand and the team began fueling the spacecraft. The oxidizer was successfully loaded on January 28. Like a fire needs oxygen to burn, the spacecraft fuel needs the oxidizer to ignite in space, where there is no air. . The fuel was successfully loaded on January 30.

After carefully lifting and moving the fueled spacecraft, the team successfully mounted GOES P on top of the Delta IV Payload Attach Fitting (PAF). This was completed on February 1. The PAF is a conical shape structure that the spacecraft mounts onto inside the launch vehicle. The spacecraft rides on the PAF until it separates at approximately 22 thousand miles above the Earth's surface.

The launch vehicle continues processing on stand and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is working off the technical issues that remain. The team is working towards a March 1 launch date.

GOES-P is the latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite developed by NASA for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The Delta IV rocket will be launched by United Launch Alliance for Boeing Launch Services under an FAA commercial license. Launch is targeted for no earlier than March 1.

For information on GOES-P, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/goes-p

Pluto has become significantly redder, while its illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter. These changes are most likely consequences of surface ice melting on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the other pole, as the dwarf planet heads into the next phase of its 248-year-long seasonal cycle. Analysis shows the dramatic change in color took place from 2000 to 2002.

The Hubble pictures confirm Pluto is a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes not simply a ball of ice and rock. These dynamic seasonal changes are as much propelled by the planet's 248-year elliptical orbit as by its axial tilt. Pluto is unlike Earth, where the planet's tilt alone drives seasons. Pluto's seasons are asymmetric because of its elliptical orbit. Spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere, because Pluto is moving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the sun.

Ground-based observations, taken in 1988 and 2002 show the mass of the atmosphere doubled during that time. This may be because of warming and melting nitrogen ice. The new Hubble images are giving astronomers essential clues about the seasons on Pluto and the fate of its atmosphere.

When the Hubble pictures taken in 1994 are compared to those of 2002 and 2003, astronomers see evidence that the northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere darkened. These changes hint at very complex processes affecting the visible surface.

The images will help planetary astronomers interpret more than three decades of Pluto observations from other telescopes.

"The Hubble observations are the key to tying together these other diverse constraints on Pluto and showing how it all makes sense by providing a context based on weather and seasonal changes, which opens other new lines of investigation," says principal investigator Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo.

These Hubble images, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys, will remain the sharpest view of Pluto until NASA's New Horizons probe is within six months of its flyby during 2015. The Hubble images are invaluable for picking the planet's most interesting hemisphere for imaging by the New Horizons probe.

New Horizons will pass by Pluto so quickly that only one hemisphere will be photographed in detail. Particularly noticeable in the Hubble images is a bright spot that has been independently noted to be unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. It is a prime target for New Horizons. "Everybody is puzzled by this feature," Buie said. New Horizons will get an excellent look at the boundary between this bright feature and a nearby region covered in pitch-black surface material.

"The Hubble images also will help New Horizons scientists better calculate the exposure time for each Pluto snapshot which is important for taking the most detailed pictures possible," Buie said. With no chance for re-exposures, accurate models for the surface of Pluto are essential for properly exposed images.

The Hubble images surface variations a few hundred miles across that are too coarse for understanding surface geology. But in terms of surface color and brightness, Hubble reveals a complex-looking world with white, dark-orange and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant sun breaking up methane present on Pluto's surface, leaving behind a dark and red-carbon-rich residue.

The Hubble images are a few pixels wide. Through a technique called dithering, multiple, slightly offset pictures are combined through computer-image processing to synthesize a higher-resolution view than can be seen in a single exposure.

"This has taken four years and 20 computers operating continuously and simultaneously to accomplish," Buie said. Buie developed the special algorithms to sharpen the Hubble data. He plans to use Hubble's new Wide Field Camera 3 to make additional observations prior to the arrival of New Horizons.

For Hubble information and images, visit:

The coin was flown last November on STS-129 by crew members Commander Charlie Hobaugh, Pilot Barry Wilmore, and Mission Specialists Leland Melvin, Randy Bresnik, Mike Foreman and Bobby Satcher.

The astronauts stopped by the museum to return the silver-minted coin, as well as a few other space-flown memorabilia, including a football inscribed with the name of every member of the Hall of Fame. They also returned flown jerseys from the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys, the two teams Melvin played for in his short stint in the NFL.

After stopping at the Hall of Fame, the coin will journey to Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., to be the one of the stars of the Super Bowl XLIV pre-game coin toss on Feb. 7.

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