Mishap delays space station supply ship

Posted on by

September 22, 2013

By MARCIA DUNN AP Aerospace Writer

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A brand new commercial cargo ship making its orbital debut experienced navigation system trouble Sunday, and its arrival at the International Space Station was delayed at least two days.

The rendezvous was aborted less than six hours before the scheduled arrival of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Cygnus capsule, packed with 1,300 pounds of food and clothes for the space station crew.

The Virginia-based company said it already has developed a software repair. The new software will be tested on the ground before it is transmitted to the Cygnus and tested again. If all goes well, the capsule will make another docking attempt Tuesday morning.

Orbital Sciences said the two orbiting vessels established direct contact early Sunday, four days after the Cygnus' launch from Virginia. But the Cygnus rejected some of the data, which interrupted the entire rendezvous. Until then, everything had been going well.

The problem was traced to a difference in data format in the navigation systems of the two spacecraft, the company said. Otherwise, the Cygnus remains healthy.

Because this is a test flight of the Cygnus, nothing valuable or urgent is on board. If necessary, it could keep orbiting the world for weeks, even months, before pulling up at the orbiting lab.

Orbital Sciences is the second private company to launch supplies to the space station. In 2012, the California-based SpaceX began accomplishing that job for NASA. The space agency is paying the two companies to deliver goods to the space station, in the absence of the now-retired space shuttles.

Three astronauts - an American, Italian and Russian - currently are aboard the orbiting outpost. On Wednesday, three more crew members will be launched from Kazakhstan. Orbital Sciences will have to work around that manned flight, delaying the Cygnus further if a Tuesday hookup is not feasible.

Read more:

Mishap delays space station supply ship

Commercial cargo ship aborts space station approach

Posted on by

A commercial cargo ship making its maiden flight to the International Space Station aborted its initial approach to the lab complex early Sunday because of suspect navigation data.

Officials with Orbital Sciences Corp., builder of the Cygnus cargo craft, said engineers quickly identified the problem and were developing a software patch, but another approach was on hold until Tuesday.

"This morning, at around 1:30 a.m. EDT, Cygnus established direct data contact with the ISS and found that some of the data received had values that it did not expect, causing Cygnus to reject the data," NASA and Orbital said in web site updates. "This mandated an interruption of the approach sequence.

"Orbital has subsequently found the causes of this discrepancy and is developing a software fix. The minimum turnaround time to resume the approach to the ISS following an interruption such as this is approximately 48 hours due to the orbital mechanics of the approach trajectory."

Play Video

Play Video

The Cygnus cargo ship, launched Wednesday from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Island, Va., was developed under a $288 million contract with NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, or COTS, program.

Orbital is one of two commercial cargo carriers hired by NASA to take over U.S. space station logistics in the wake of the space shuttle's retirement.

If the test flight is successful, Orbital will be clear to begin routine cargo delivery missions later this year under a separate $1.9 billion contract calling for at least eight missions to deliver some 40,000 pounds of supplies and equipment.

Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, holds a $1.6 billion contract to conduct at least 12 space station resupply missions with its Dragon cargo ship. SpaceX has conducted two operational flights to the station.

Read the original:

Commercial cargo ship aborts space station approach

Moon Dirt Diggers: Regolith Mining Competition Results | NASA Space Science HD – Video

Posted on by


Moon Dirt Diggers: Regolith Mining Competition Results | NASA Space Science HD
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - the 2013 Regolith Mining Competition was held at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex in Florida. Please...

By: CoconutScienceLab

Continued here:

Moon Dirt Diggers: Regolith Mining Competition Results | NASA Space Science HD - Video

NASA declares Deep Impact lost

Posted on by

Artist's impression of Deep Impact (Image: NASA)

On Friday, NASA officially abandoned its attempts to regain contact with the Deep Impact comet probe and have declared the mission over. The space agency lost contact with the unmanned spacecraft in August and repeated attempts to reestablish the link have failed.

NASA says that the exact cause of the communications failure is unknown, but engineers suspect that the problem lies in computer time tagging, which caused a loss of attitude control in Deep Impact and sent it tumbling. Unable to aim its radio antennas at Earth, contact could not be reestablished and the probes solar panels couldn't charge the batteries properly to power the systems and keep the electronics warm. This means that the spacecraft will eventually freeze and become inoperable.

Despite this unexpected final curtain call, Deep Impact already achieved much more than ever was envisioned," says Lindley Johnson, the Discovery Program Executive at NASA Headquarters and the Program Executive for the mission. "Deep Impact has completely overturned what we thought we knew about comets and also provided a treasure trove of additional planetary science that will be the source data of research for years to come.

Launched in 2005, Deep Impact has traveled 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion km). On its encounter with the comet Tempel 1, Deep impact fired an impactor containing and instrument package into the comets nucleus, and was later put on extended missions that saw it flyby comet Hartley 2 in 2010, comet C/2009/1 in 2012 and comet ISON in 2013.

Source: NASA

Just enter your friends and your email address into the form below

For multiple addresses, separate each with a comma

Privacy is safe with us because we have a strict privacy policy.

Read the original:

NASA declares Deep Impact lost

TREND: Big applications for nanotechnology

Posted on by

23 September 2013| last updated at 07:16PM

IMAGINE switching on a lamp in a room. Instead of just lighting up the room, the lamp also sanitises air by killing microorganisms in the air without the use of harmful sanitisers or chemicals.

In another scenario, hospital staff are required to ensure their uniforms are carefully cleaned and free from bacteria. But imagine this: What if the textile is layered with an anti-bacterial surface that not only allows it to self clean but is also dust repellent? Wouldnt it be convenient?

These are not works of fiction but are possible with the application of nanotechnology in solutions, says Manju Gunawardana, principal research scientist and co-founder of Sri Lanka-based Hybrid Technologies. Manju, whose nanotechnology-based inventions won two awards gold and silver at the 41st Inventions Geneva exhibition in April, would certainly know.

The Gold award was for his Air Purifying Nano Photocatalytic CFL lamp and the Silver was for the Nano Visible Light Photocatalysis Based Hospital infection Control System.

MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE Nanotechnology, says Manju, is a multidisciplinary science that looks at how we can manipulate matter at the molecular and atomic level. One nanometre is just one billionth of a metre. In general, a typical atom is about one-tenth of a nanometre in diameter.

By manipulating molecules, we can make all sorts of interesting materials. Passive things can be converted into active products such as wall and fabric. Light source can be converted to purifying elements through the application of nanotechnology solutions, he explains.

THE TECHNOLOGY Nanotechnology, Manju adds, has immensely contributed to the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure and the design of computer chip layouts based on surface science while the other commercial applications relates to the use of colloidal nanoparticles in bulk form to create personal care products and cloths.

Nanotechnology is sometimes referred to as a general-purpose technology. Thats because in its advanced form, it will have significant impact on almost all industries and areas of society. It will offer better built, longer lasting, cleaner, safer and smarter products for the home, communications, medicine, transportation, agriculture, and for industry in general, says Manju.

Asked about the type of solutions that can be created based on nanotechnology, he cites examples that can be derived from various nano particles. When exposed to light, titanium dioxide nano particles starts to purify.

Go here to see the original:

TREND: Big applications for nanotechnology