STS-133 Launch Delayed

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Keith's note: NASA has delayed space shuttle Discovery's launch countdown by a day to repair air leaks in the right hand Orbital Maneuvering System Pod. The earliest launch attempt will be on 2 November. There will be a press conference today at 10:00 am EDT to discuss this issue.

- Watch NASA TV
- Updates

Update from Marc at KSC: Space Shuttle Discovery Leak Delays Launch to Tuesday, November 2, SpaceRef

"NASA briefed the media this morning on the helium and nitrogen leaks found last night on the space shuttle Discovery's right-hand Orbital Maneuvering System pod. NASA is confident the repairs will be successful allowing for a launch next Tuesday."

Chilean Mine Rescuers To Be Honored at White House

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Obama welcomes Chilean mine rescue heroes

"[President Obama will] meet with some of the Americans involved in the rescue of 33 miners earlier this month. The rescuers were recruited from NASA and several U.S. businesses."

Keith's 9:00 am EDT note: Hmm ... NASA people at the White House. Curiously there is no mention whatsoever at NASA.gov. Nothing on NASA TV. No media advisory, no Q&A opportunity - nothing.

President Obama and NASA Administrator Bolden Recognize Employees for Roles in Chilean Miner Rescue

"President Barack Obama welcomed NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and a NASA team that assisted trapped Chilean miners to the Oval Office on Thursday for a ceremony that recognized Americans involved in the rescue."

Keith's update: This release only went out at 5:30 pm EDT - after the event. Luckily for Mr. Bolden, the event was held inside the White House security perimeter - and there were no reporters there to ask him questions.

RTGs and Congress

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AAS email: Plutonium 238 Production: An Ongoing Issue for Washington

"It is not often that a $30M issue in an appropriations bill gets a lot of attention. In fact, it is not uncommon to hear Senate staff state that they have $100M round off errors, but recent language in Congressional legislation appropriating funds of this magnitude can have a direct, negative impact on the long-term success of US planetary science and, potentially, creative approaches to power generation for future astrophysics missions, earth observation missions and other research activities in space."

Apparently, Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

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NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets Are Common

"Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host planets as small as Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA and the University of California. The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of Earth. All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy."

Surface Water Found On Mars?

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NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water

"The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and on a continuing basis. Researchers took advantage of Spirit's months at Troy last year to examine in great detail soil layers the wheels had exposed, and also neighboring surfaces. Spirit made 13 inches of progress in its last 10 backward drives before energy levels fell too low for further driving in February. Those drives exposed a new area of soil for possible examination if Spirit does awaken and its robotic arm is still usable."

Auctioning Off NASA Patents

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NASA Goddard to Auction off Patents for Automated Software Code Generation

"NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center is auctioning an exclusive license to five patents for automated software development on November 11, 2010. The patents encompass a new method for automatically creating software code which is verifiably equivalent to user requirements specified in natural language, graphic formats, or other formats with a known semantic structure. "Other approaches have claimed this, but this is the first time that the relationship is fully proven mathematically."

One More Thing That China is Very Good At

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Chinese Computer Trumps US One as World's Fastest, CNBC

"A Chinese scientific research center has built the fastest supercomputer ever made, replacing the United States as maker of the swiftest machine, and giving China bragging rights as a technology superpower. The computer, known as Tianhe-1A, has 1.4 times the horsepower of the current top computer, which is at a national laboratory in Tennessee, as measured by the standard test used to gauge how well the systems handle mathematical calculations, said Jack Dongarra, a University of Tennessee computer scientist who maintains the official supercomputer rankings."

Chinese Supercomputer Likely to Prompt Unease in U.S., WS Journal

"But Mr. Dongarra and other researchers said the machine should nevertheless serve as a wake-up call that China is threatening to take the lead in scientific computing--akin to a machine from Japan that took the No. 1 position early in the past decade and triggered increased U.S. investment in the field."

SRB’s On The Move. Last Time We See This?

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Stacked Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters On the Move at KSC, Ken Kremer

"The twin Solid Rocket Boosters (SRB's) that will power Shuttle Endeavour for her final flight to orbit in February took a rare road trip outside the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center today, Wednesday, October 27. I witnessed the beautiful move first hand from just a few hundred feet away at the outskirts of the VAB. The scene was made even more remarkable since it was conducted adjacent to the Ares 1 Mobile Launcher built for NASA's now cancelled Project Constellation Return to the Moon program."

Kepler Observes Starquakes

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NASA'S Kepler Spacecraft Takes Pulse Of Distant Stars

"An international cadre of scientists that used data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft announced Tuesday the detection of stellar oscillations, or "starquakes," that yield new insights about the size, age and evolution of stars. The results were presented at a news conference at Aarhus University in Denmark by scientists representing the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC). The team studied thousands of stars observed by Kepler, releasing what amounts to a roster of some of humanity's most well-characterized stars."

Europe Targets Wasteful Gadgets

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From BBC News - Technology:

Wasteful gadgets could soon be a thing of the past thanks to European research into less power hungry devices. Called Steeper, the project's goal is to make gadgets 10 times more efficient when in use and almost eliminate energy consumption when idle.

DIY Hieroglyphic Halloween projects

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Hieroglyphic Wall Covering

To add to my Egyptian-themed Halloween party, I wanted to put some hieroglyphics on the wall. To do this, I used a roll of craft paper that was painted with hieroglyphics. Since the wall that I wanted to cover was 40 feet long, this made for a lot of hieroglyphics

2011 Challenger Gets New 305-HP Pentastar V6

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Up to now, the Challenger has been lagging a bit in the pony cars wars. For the V8 cars it's been hurting in the price category – realistically, Challengers end up being a lot more expensive than "equivalent" Mustangs or Camaros, and dealers don't seem to budge on price. And compared to

SpaceShipTwo performs second glide test

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The first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, VSS Enterprise, performed a glide test this morning in the skies above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, according to observers as well as Virgin Galactic. No details about the flight test, other than that it was successful, have been released, although when more details are available they’ll likely be included in the SS2 flight log at Scaled.

Update: the log has been updated, noting that all test objectives were achieved. Highlights include: “Flew to more aggressive stall indication. Evaluated handling and stability through several maneuvers.”

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Welcomes NASA Announcement of Commercial Lunar Robotic Data Buys & Boost for Google Lunar X PRIZE

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Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation strongly welcomes NASA’s announcement earlier this month that the space agency will purchase data generated by innovative lunar robotic missions being prepared by six commercial space companies in pursuit of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, through the space agency’s new $30.1 million Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program.

The X PRIZE Foundation, which administers the Google Lunar X PRIZE, explained that, “NASA awarded small, firm-fixed price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts worth at least $10,000 to these companies [Astrobotic, Next Giant Leap, Rocket City Space Pioneers, Omega Envoy, Frednet, and Moon Express] making them eligible to make later sales of lunar data worth as much as $10 million through the Innovative Lunar Demonstrations Data program. In exchange, each of these companies will provide NASA with unique and valuable data regarding the demonstration of critical technical components required to mount successful, low cost missions to the lunar surface. To claim the full $10 million, these teams must supply a variety of data packages as they pass significant milestones in the mission planning and operations; initial data packages worth just over $1 million will be from tests conducted here on Earth, but a majority of the available funding will come from spacecraft en route to or already on the lunar surface.”

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Executive Director John Gedmark stated, “We are exceptionally pleased to see NASA supporting the Google Lunar X PRIZE in such a visible fashion. By paying for results and for milestones delivered, NASA will be able to deliver high value for the taxpayer while at the same time fostering innovative space companies.”

William Pomerantz, Senior Director for Space Prizes at the X PRIZE Foundation, stated, “These contracts send a clear signal to the investment community that NASA is ready to purchase lunar data, even from small, entrepreneurial firms. This will give a huge momentum boost not just to the companies selected today, but to all of the Google Lunar X PRIZE teams and other companies hoping to sell unique lunar data to NASA and other space agencies at competitive rates.”

About the Google Lunar X PRIZE
The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented international competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters (1/3 of a mile) and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving ten times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. To date, more than 20 teams from a dozen countries around the world have registered to compete for the prize. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is available to be claimed until the end of the year 2015. For more information about the Google Lunar X PRIZE, visit http://www.googlelunarxprize.org.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Commercial Spaceflight Federation Comments and Fact Sheet Regarding Recent Article for Geophysical Research Letters on Rocket Emissions

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The Commercial Spaceflight Federation and its member organizations, including five providers of commercial reusable suborbital spaceflight services, supports the kind of scientific inquiry that led to the recent Ross et al. Geophysical Research Letters paper titled, “Potential Climate Impact of Black Carbon Emitted by Rockets.” The commercial spaceflight sector aspires to good environmental stewardship.

In an attached fact sheet (click to download), the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has clarified several assumptions used by Ross et al in their model-based analysis. Ross et al may have dramatically overestimated the actual environmental impact of reusable suborbital vehicles.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, working with its scientific advisory panel, the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), and its suborbital spaceflight provider members, is exploring ways the industry can provide research opportunities to document the actual levels of emissions made by suborbital launches through ground test and in-flight experiments. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is also assembling a panel of independent experts to provide recommendations to the industry and researchers.

The suborbital vehicles now in development will significantly benefit scientific research, particularly climate science, by allowing previously unparalleled access to parts of the upper atmosphere where atmospheric phenomena concerning global change may take place. Toward this end, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and its suborbital provider members are working with NASA and NOAA on programs to deploy these vehicles and their valuable capabilities as new platforms for scientific instruments. At industry workshops held at the American Geophysical Union annual conference and the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers conferences, the industry received an enthusiastic response from scientists eager to use these new vehicles in their research.

The commercial spaceflight industry looks forward to the coming era of commercially reusable suborbital spaceflight and research, and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation commits to a proactive stewardship of the atmosphere through which these vehicles will fly.

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, commented, “The commercial spaceflight industry is deeply committed to protecting the environment and the priceless planet that we call home. Indeed, the ‘overview effect’ of traveling to space is well-known. Those who are blessed with seeing our fragile blue marble from space always return with a reinvigorated passion to protect it.” Alexander added, “Rocket launches are critical for understanding the environment. The NASA and NOAA space programs that provide us with critical atmospheric and climate data were all launched on rockets and would not have been possible without them. Now the new commercial suborbital vehicles in development will allow access to space that the science community has never before had, including for atmospheric and climate data that was previously out of reach.”

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To download an attached fact sheet clarifying several assumptions used by Ross et al in their model-based analysis, please click here [pdf].

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NASA Trapped Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water

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The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and on a continuing basis.

Stratified soil layers with different compositions close to the surface led the rover science team to propose that thin films of water may have entered the ground from frost or snow. The seepage could have happened during cyclical climate changes in periods when Mars tilted farther on its axis. The water may have moved down into the sand, carrying soluble minerals deeper than less soluble ones. Spin-axis tilt varies over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years.

The relatively insoluble minerals near the surface include what is thought to be hematite, silica and gypsum. Ferric sulfates, which are more soluble, appear to have been dissolved and carried down by water. None of these minerals are exposed at the surface, which is covered by wind-blown sand and dust.

"The lack of exposures at the surface indicates the preferential dissolution of ferric sulfates must be a relatively recent and ongoing process since wind has been systematically stripping soil and altering landscapes in the region Spirit has been examining," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

Analysis of these findings appears in a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research published by Arvidson and 36 co-authors about Spirit's operations from late 2007 until just before the rover stopped communicating in March.

The twin Mars rovers finished their three-month prime missions in April 2004, then kept exploring in bonus missions. One of Spirit's six wheels quit working in 2006.

In April 2009, Spirit's left wheels broke through a crust at a site called "Troy" and churned into soft sand. A second wheel stopped working seven months later. Spirit could not obtain a position slanting its solar panels toward the sun for the winter, as it had for previous winters. Engineers anticipated it would enter a low-power, silent hibernation mode, and the rover stopped communicating March 22. Spring begins next month at Spirit's site, and NASA is using the Deep Space Network and the Mars Odyssey orbiter to listen if the rover reawakens.

Researchers took advantage of Spirit's months at Troy last year to examine in great detail soil layers the wheels had exposed, and also neighboring surfaces. Spirit made 13 inches of progress in its last 10 backward drives before energy levels fell too low for further driving in February. Those drives exposed a new area of soil for possible examination if Spirit does awaken and its robotic arm is still usable.

"With insufficient solar energy during the winter, Spirit goes into a deep-sleep hibernation mode where all rover systems are turned off, including the radio and survival heaters," said John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "All available solar array energy goes into charging the batteries and keeping the mission clock running."

The rover is expected to have experienced temperatures colder than it has ever before, and it may not survive. If Spirit does get back to work, the top priority is a multi-month study that can be done without driving the rover. The study would measure the rotation of Mars through the Doppler signature of the stationary rover's radio signal with enough precision to gain new information about the planet's core. The rover Opportunity has been making steady progress toward a large crater, Endeavour, which is now approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) away.

Spirit, Opportunity, and other NASA Mars missions have found evidence of wet Martian environments billions of years ago that were possibly favorable for life. The Phoenix Mars Lander in 2008 and observations by orbiters since 2002 have identified buried layers of water ice at high and middle latitudes and frozen water in polar ice caps. These newest Spirit findings contribute to an accumulating set of clues that Mars may still have small amounts of liquid water at some periods during ongoing climate cycles.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the rovers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/news/mer20101028.html