NASA to open launch pad for commercial use

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WASHINGTON, May 20 (UPI) -- Commercial space activities may soon utilize a NASA launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida that was designed for the Apollo space program.

The agency said it plans to announce proposals for commercial use of Launch Pad 39A, which when implemented would "encourage commercial space activities along Florida's Space Coast and fully use the historic launch complex."

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative, or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," said Kennedy Center Director Bob Cabana.

"Launch Complex 39A is not required to support our asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars. But it's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the pad and related facilities."

Launch Pad 39A was designed to support NASA's Apollo Program and was modified to launch space shuttles. Launch Pad 39B, located nearby, is being modernized to support government and commercial launches, including NASA's heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft.

NASA said assessments indicate Launch Pad 39A could serve as a platform for a commercial space company's launch activities if the company assumes financial and technical responsibility of the complex's operations and management.

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NASA to open launch pad for commercial use

NASA Seeks High-Performance Spaceflight Computing Capabilities

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NASA and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., are requesting research and development proposals to define the type of spacecraft computing needed for future missions.

Through a broad agency announcement, the Air Force Next Generation Space Processor Analysis Program is seeking two to four companies to perform a yearlong evaluation of advanced, space-based applications that would use spaceflight processors for the 2020-2030 time frame.

NASA's decision to partner with the Air Force and issue a joint solicitation was influenced by a four-month formulation study funded by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate's Game Changing Development Program.

During that investigation, engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the Johnson Space Center in Houston, and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., evaluated 19 real-life mission scenarios involving the use of flight processors.

"We surveyed NASA's needs and it became more than obvious that we could take advantage of an advanced processor," said Richard Doyle, the program manager for JPL's Information and Data Science Program and study leader.

By any standard, NASA's state-of-the-art is significantly less capable than what is available in most consumer products, said Wes Powell, a NASA Goddard engineer who participated in the study.

"We have special requirements," Doyle said. "Our flight needs are more extreme and our processors must be able to perform robustly in a radiation environment, using low power." As a result, both military and civilian mission planners must use specialized, vastly more expensive processors that have been hardened against radiation-induced upsets and generally have a higher degree of fault tolerance.

Limitations of the Current State-of-the-Art The current state-of-the-art - the RAD750 - is a single-board computer manufactured by BAE Systems Electronic Solutions. Specifically designed to operate in high-radiation environments like those encountered in space, BAE released the technology in 2001 as the successor to the RAD6000.

As of 2010, the RAD750 had become de rigueur for a broad range of space missions, including the Curiosity rover, the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, among others.

Though it's hardened against radiation-induced upsets and uses only five watts of power - another important performance requirement in energy-constrained spaceflight missions - the RAD750 computes only 200 million operations per second.

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NASA Seeks High-Performance Spaceflight Computing Capabilities

Nasa satellite captures stunning 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo of Earth in just 15 minutes

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Panoramic photo is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide Nasa's Landsat Data Continuity Mission captured the swath of land 438 miles above the Earth Photo stretches from northern Russia to South Africa 56 still images form the panoramic mosaic

By Victoria Woollaston

PUBLISHED: 04:25 EST, 20 May 2013 | UPDATED: 05:45 EST, 20 May 2013

Nasa has captured the world's largest panoramic photo at 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide using a satellite orbiting 438 miles above the Earth.

The swath is made up of 56 still images taken during the satellite's final orbit and stretches from northern Russia down to South Africa.

Nasa's Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) scanned the surface of the Earth during orbit in April and took just 15 minutes to take the shots.

Zoom in in the full image below (may not work on all devices)

Image of the globe showing the swath of land captured by Nasa's Land Data Continuity Mission as it orbited the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour. The seamless swath is made up of 56 images travelling from northern Russia, over the Red Sea and down into South Africa. The camera took just 15 minutes to shoot the panoramic image, which is 6,000 miles long and 120 miles wide

The LDCM travels at 438 miles (705 kilometres) above the Earth.

It orbits at speeds of around 17,000 miles per hour.

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Nasa satellite captures stunning 6,000-mile-long panoramic photo of Earth in just 15 minutes

Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record for off-world driving

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Mars rover Opportunity breaks 40-year-old NASA record, and is about to set the international record for off-world roving.

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Curiosity may be NASA's most popular roving robot, but last week the Mars rover Opportunity brought its total trip odometer up to 22.22 miles -- the longest distance ever traveled by a NASA vehicle on the surface of another planet.

Opportunity traversed 263 feet of Martian landscape near Endeavour Crater to break the record of 22.21 miles set during the Apollo 17 mission. In 1972, Eugene Cernan and Harrision Schmitt drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle to the NASA record.

In the coming weeks, nine-year-old Opportunity will surpass the international record for driving distance on another world held by the Soviet Unions Lunokhod 2 robotic rover, which covered 23 miles of lunar surface in 1973. The Mars robot set off on a journey from "Cape York" where it has been working since 2011 toward a target known as Solander Point about 1.4 miles away.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project in addition to the Mars Science Laboratory Project and its rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars in August 2012.

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Mars rover Opportunity breaks NASA record for off-world driving

Littelfuse Hosts Speed2Design TechTalks at NASA

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CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Littelfuse, Inc., the global leader in circuit protection, has created a NASA Exploration & Discovery Experience for the engineering community as part of its 2013 Speed2Design promotion. Winning design engineers will get an opportunity to go behind the scenes to spend time with NASA engineers at two premiere NASA facilities. Littelfuse will host Speed2Design TechTalk events at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., on August 15 and Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on October 24. Over the next few months, Littelfuse will randomly select 10 winners from those who enter the promotion to participate in each Speed2Design event. You can learn more and enter at the Littelfuse Speed2Design website.

Speed2Design Exploration & Discovery events were created by Littelfuse to allow the design community an exclusive opportunity to meet and talk with engineers working on some of the most exciting and advanced technology being developed today. The highlights of these events are the Speed2Design TechTalks, which offer a unique opportunity for peer-to-peer discussion with NASA engineers involved in the NASA Technology Transfer Program. These engineers are currently working on technological breakthroughs in small spacecraft, intelligent robotics, 3D printing, bioengineering and the NASA Space Portal. Hospitality events are also included the night before and day of the event.

There's no cost to the winners of the drawings to participate in the Exploration & Discovery events; as the host, Littelfuse will provide a travel voucher, lodging and event expenses.

We created the 2013 Speed2Design Exploration & Discovery experience to bring engineers face-to-face with some of the most impressive technology on the planet, Cathy Whittaker, Director, Global Marketing Communications. The design engineers we work with appreciate the technology challenges, demands and reliability required of the electronics that go into modern spacecraft and support systems. This years Speed2Design events offer design engineers an opportunity to get an up close and personal look at the worlds most advanced technologies and to talk to space exploration experts who create these innovations.

The Littelfuse inaugural Speed2Design promotion in 2012 took winners behind the scenes for an IndyCar weekend race experience, complete with face-to-face TechTalks with IndyCar engineers responsible for building and maintaining racings premiere performance machines. Littelfuse was a proud sponsor of Indy Racing League champion Tony Kanaan. This sponsorship provided an excellent opportunity to draw attention to the role of circuit protection technology in motorsports. The Speed2Design 2012 Highlights Video provides a fast-paced recap of the exciting racing season.

About NASA Technology Exchange

The NASA Ames Technology Partnerships Division facilitates transfer of NASA Ames Research Center technologies and capabilities into NASA's Mission Directorates, Programs, and Projects through investments and partnerships with industry, academia, government agencies, and national laboratories. These activities increase NASA's connection to emerging technologies in external communities and make NASA's technology portfolio available to industry and academia to support NASA's strategic goals. Technology transfer through dual-use partnerships and licensing also creates many important socio-economic benefits within the broader community.

The Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office (TTO) at NASAs Johnson Space Center (JSC) facilitates the transfer and commercialization of NASA-sponsored research and technology as well as the use of JSCs unique research and development capabilities and facilities. The office works with entrepreneurs, companies, and investors, helping them license NASA-developed technologies so they can bring them to the marketplace. The office also works to develop partnerships with companies, universities, other federal agencies, and national labs that will leverage the partners expertise and facilities as well as JSCs. Partnerships enable JSC to leverage technology being developed externally and infuse it into NASA programs.

About Speed2Design

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Littelfuse Hosts Speed2Design TechTalks at NASA

NASA's Planet-Hunting Kepler Telescope Will Have Long Legacy, Despite Big Glitch

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Whether or not NASA's Kepler spacecraft can bounce back from the malfunction that has stalled its search for alien planets, the mission's place in history is assured, scientists say.

Kepler has spotted more than 2,700 potential exoplanets to date, with many more waiting to be plucked from the mission's huge dataset. Its discoveries have opened the eyes of scientists and the public alike, revealing that the Milky Way galaxy abounds with an incredible diversity of alien worlds.

"Kepler has opened up the next set of questions in exoplanets," Paul Hertz, astrophysics director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., told reporters Wednesday (May 15). [7 Greatest Kepler Planet Discoveries (So Far)]

"Before we flew Kepler, we didn't know that Earth-sized planets in habitable zones were common throughout our galaxy," Hertz added. "We didn't know that virtually every star in the sky had planets around them. Now we know that."

An uncertain future

The Kepler spacecraft launched in March 2009, kicking off a 3.5-year prime mission to determine how common Earth-like planets are throughout the galaxy.

The observatory spots alien worlds by detecting the tiny brightness dips caused when they pass in front of their parent stars from the instrument's perspective. To stay locked onto its 150,000-plus target stars, Kepler needs three functioning reaction wheels, gyroscope-like devices that allow the spacecraft to maintain its position in space.

Kepler has four such wheels. But one, known as No. 2, failed in July 2012. And No. 4 has now failed as well, NASA officials announced Wednesday.

Mission engineers will try to bring the two failed wheels back into service over the coming weeks. If they cannot recover at least one wheel, Kepler's planet-hunting days are almost certainly over, though the observatory may get a new mission that doesn't require incredibly precise pointing.

Mapping out a new mission would likely take months, Hertz said.

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NASA's Planet-Hunting Kepler Telescope Will Have Long Legacy, Despite Big Glitch

Smart Textiles and Nanotechnology: Applications, Technologies and Markets

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NEW YORK, May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Smart Textiles and Nanotechnology: Applications, Technologies and Markets http://www.reportlinker.com/p01187554/Smart-Textiles-and-Nanotechnology-Applications-Technologies-and-Markets.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Textile_Manufacturing

Textiles are getting smarter, and much of this is being enabled by nanotechnology. "Smart Textiles and Nanotechnologies: Applications Technologies and Markets" provides the most in depth look to date at the impact of nanotechnology on the global textile industry, looking at technologies and applications from graphene to smart homes.

Expanded and revised for 2013, over 264 pages "Smart Textiles and Nanotechnologies: Applications Technologies and Markets" looks at the technologies involved, the companies applying them, and the impact on sectors including apparel, home, military, technical and medical textiles.

Detailed market figures are given from 2012-2022, along with an analysis of the key opportunities, illustrated with 123 figures and 14 tables.

With over a billion Bluetooth enabled devices on the market, ranging from smartphones to set top boxes, and new technologies such as energy scavenging or piezoelectric energy generation being made possible by the use of nanotechnologies , there are opportunities for the textile industry in new markets ranging from consumer electronics to medical diagnostics.

Market Scope

This report provides an in-depth presentation of recent developments in nanotechnology applied to smart textiles and provides market opportunities to 2022.

The market is segmented by Clothing & Apparel Home Textiles Military Textiles Medical Textiles Sport Textiles Technical and Smart Textiles

Companies mentioned in this report include:

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Smart Textiles and Nanotechnology: Applications, Technologies and Markets

Research and Markets: Nanotechnology Market Outlook 2017

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c3dk23/nanotechnology) has announced the addition of the "Nanotechnology Market Outlook 2017" report to their offering.

Nanotechnology has been the greatest impetus to technological and industrial development in the 21st century and has been recognized as the resource for the next industrial revolution. The evolving technology has already influenced a large number of industrial segments, and the economic activity generated from it has been high in magnitude and wide in scope. The nanotechnology-based products, which have had a huge impact on almost each industrial sector, are now entering the consumer market in a big way.

In their latest research study, Nanotechnology Market Outlook 2017, RNCOS' analysts have identified that the global nanotechnology industry has been growing at a rapid pace with rising applications in sectors like electronic, enegy, healthcare sector etc. In addition, market trends like nanotechnology-based thin film solar cells with high effieciency; nanomaterials with higher strength; robust growth in nanofibres and nanomedicine market; etc., are booming growth in this industry. Considering the above factors, the global nanotechnology market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 19% during 2013-2017.

In the report, the analysts have studied the nanotechnology market by application, by component and by region. On the application front, they have analyzed nanotechnology use in electronics, energy, cosmetics, medical and defence sector. In addition, they have covered the current nanotechnology market and forecast for each of the above mentioned segments till 2017. In terms of component, the nanotechnology market can be segregated into nanomaterials, nanotools and nanodevices. The report covers their present and future shares in the market.

Further, country level analysis discusses nanotechnology market in major countries like USA, Germany, France, the U.K., Russia, etc., the present key growth drivers, and future directions for each nation. In addition, it covers the nanotechnology patent analyses, including number of patent publications and global top assignees of nanotechnology patent literature.

Besides this, the report covers the global R&D funding for the nanotechnology industry, including break-ups for corporate, public and venture capital funding along with their forecasts. The report even covers country-level analysis of R&D funding to provide in-depth understanding about investment related to nanotechnology.

With a view to providing a balanced outlook of the global nanotechnology market to clients, the report also includes the profiles of key industry players like Altair, Nanophase Tech and Nanosys, among others. Overall, the objective of the study is to help clients understand the prospects of the industry, and make sound investment decisions in view of the same.

Companies Mentioned

- Altair Nanotechnologies Inc.

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Research and Markets: Nanotechnology Market Outlook 2017

Jefferson County Public Health Department Receive Free Medicine Help And Tribute by Charles Myrick o – Video

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Jefferson County Public Health Department Receive Free Medicine Help And Tribute by Charles Myrick o
http://www.freecharityhelp.com ." Enjoy a brief recap of this great organization doing a fantastic service in the community!" -Charles Myrick - President and...

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Jefferson County Public Health Department Receive Free Medicine Help And Tribute by Charles Myrick o - Video