Launch Day Tomorrow

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Mission/Orbiter: STS-131 / Discovery

Crew: Commander: Alan Poindexter, Pilot: James P. Dutton Jr, Mission Specialists: Rick Mastracchio, Stephanie Wilson, Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger, Naoko Yamazaki and Clayton Anderson. Crew bios here.

Note: There are only three scheduled shuttle missions remaining. For you near the launch site, you will see the ISS fly over about 15 minutes before the launch.

Current Status: Go Launched

Launch Date: Monday April 5, 2010 06:21 EDT (10 minute window)

Odds of Launch: >80 percent.


Launch Pad 39A — Webcam Image courtesy: NASA/Kennedy Space Center

NOAA’s Forecast:

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 66. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 78. East wind between 5 and 10 mph.

To keep current with the news about the launch, take a look at NASA’s Launch Blog. Anna Heiney will be giving updates from inside Firing Room 3 at Launch Control. The launch blog will be live at 01:15 EDT. Be sure to refresh your browser to get the latest from that site.

You can catch the launch at NASA-TV

Women of the World. Literally!

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STS-131 Space Shuttle Discovery lit up the dawn sky this morning as she broke free from gravity’s grip to reach low Earth orbit on her way to the International Space Station.

Lift off! STS-131 Space Shuttle Discovery. Photo: NASA TV

Onboard Discovery, three female astronauts: NASA’s Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger and Stephanie Wilson and Naoko Yamazaki of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They will join Space Station Expedition 23 crewmember Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

Four women in space at the same time! How cool is that?!?

Tracy, Dottie, Stephanie, Naoko

Naoko will tweet during the mission. You can follow @Astro_Naoko in English AND Japanese. Space Station is like our Space United Nations (S.U.N) with multiple nationalities and languages.

Tweet from @astro_Naoko

Not only did we launch three female astronauts into space onboard a rocketship this morning to join the fourth on Space Station, but we also launched our NASA Deputy Lori Garver into the Twittersphere with her first tweet from launch at the Kennedy Space Center. You can follow her tweets @Lori_Garver.

In fact, one of Lori’s first tweets inspired this blogpost.

NASA's Deputy Lori Garver. Photo: NASA

Lori also launched her Facebook fan page this morning. NASA’s social media presence ROCKets!

So, girls out there in the universe: Take hope. Aim high. Work hard. Never let a little “no” stop you. Your WORLD awaits you, as we have proof today.

Crosspost on GovLoop and BethBeck’s Blog.

Is A Human Space Flight Compromise Emerging?

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Keith's note: Only a week and a half remain before the much-anticipated Space Summit at NASA KSC on 15 April. While no public mention has been made as to venue, agenda, participants, audience etc., there does seem to be a general consensus forming behind the scenes as to what sort of rethinking might be acceptable to all parties with regard to where NASA human spaceflight is going.

This is the consensus that seems to forming in and among NASA, OSTP, and NSC: Ares 1 and 5 remain cancelled. Orion is continued - but in a "Lite" variant designed to ferry people to and from ISS. This "Orion Lite" would fly on human-rated EELVs and would be, in essence, a government competitor to what NASA is also encouraging the so-called "Merchant 7" (SpaceX, Orbital et al) to develop. The commercial activities would remain unchanged from what was announced in February. Meanwhile, NASA will continue to fly the Space Shuttle albeit at a stretched out rate (2 or so flights/year) while ET production is restarted.

In addition to closing the "gap" for American human spaceflight, stretched out Space Shuttle operations will allow a rapid implementation of a Shuttle-C ("Sidemount") HLV to be developed. This Shuttle-C HLV will carry cargo, but no crew. The Shuttle-C will be a direct upgrade to the existing Space Shuttle Orbiter system with only the Orbiter replaced with engines and a cargo carrier. Everything else remains the way it is now.

DIRECT and other "inline" shuttle-derived concepts are no longer being given serious consideration. With specific regard to DIRECT, despite their voluminous and detailed claims, the costs that they depend upon to make their case are simply incorrect and not credible - and NASA knows this (they checked with the companies involved). This is all about cost right now. Accurate costs.

While keeping Orion alive, NASA will also seek to develop a human-rated exploration spacecraft that only operates in space. The initial version will likely use unused ISS modules (enhanced MPLMs, Node X, Hab Module, ISS ECLSS) and Constellation systems. Its component parts would be launched by the Shuttle/Shuttle-C. The exploration vehicle will be assembled on-orbit at the ISS. This exploration spacecraft will be a pathfinder for more complex systems that will be able to traverse cis-lunar space on a regular basis.

These ideas will be voiced by various participants at the Space Summit. It is anticipated that NASA will be called upon to do a routine 30-60 study following the summit and that formal White House approval would come some time during the Summer.

If adopted by the White House, and accepted by Congress, this "compromise" (no doubt the White House will want to use some euphemism instead) will bring layoff numbers back down from the looming abyss that overt Constellation cancellation and Shuttle retirement would have caused; keeps the Administration's interest in commercial space alive; retains in-house NASA experience in human spaceflight systems (development and operations), brings the ISS to its full potential -and then some; and looks to field human-rated spacecraft capable of leaving LEO much sooner than Constellation is ever likely to have done.

Of course, as with just about anything associated with this Space Summit, its stealth modus operandi, and interagency squabbles, this may all change, your mileage may vary, etc. As always, stay tuned.

Local Politics in Florida

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Florida State Senate Moves Rapidly to Pass Jobs Bill

"Floridians have kept our nation on the cutting edge of space exploration and development, and the loss of any Florida space jobs will create overwhelming challenges for the Space Coast and our state's entire economy," Governor Crist said. "I applaud Senators Gaetz, Haridopolos and Altman, as well as Representatives Steve Crisafulli and Ritch Workman, for their commitment to preserving and retaining our leadership in the global space arena."

Brevard group takes space-industry fight to D.C., Florida Today

"With a heightened sense of urgency in the face of thousands of pending job losses in Brevard County, Cocoa Beach Chamber of Commerce officials are working to gather a group of citizens for a trip to Washington D.C., to plead with lawmakers to support the space industry before it evaporates."

More NASA Spinoff Urban Myths

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Small Glimmer of Hope for NASA in Houston, myFox

"Many will admit NASA has done a poor job proving its value to the American public. Some are asking what has the agency done to deserve nearly $20 billion in funding every year? "From the medical devices, fetal monitors for babies, to Lasik surgeries, MRI's, cell phones, the gps," says Mitchell."

Houston, we have a real problem, Opinion by Ed Perlmutter and Pete Olson, Denver Post

"The economic, scientific and technological returns far exceeded our investment. Observations from space have provided GPS, meteorological forecasts, predictions and management of hurricanes and other natural disasters, as well as surveillance and intelligence. Royalties on NASA patents and licenses go directly to the U.S. Treasury. NASA has been a solid investment because it does so much with so little."

Keith's note: I have to guess that the royalties paid on NASA patents are miniscule in comparison to what taxpayers have spent on NASA. Indeed, I suspect that if you were to put this to people who invest in new technologies in the private sector, that they'd tell you that NASA is a rather inefficient way to drive things from R&D to market. As for the NASA spinoffs that people often cite, no one ever runs a sanity check - GPS was "invented" and developed by DoD. As for "fetal monitors for babies, to Lasik surgeries, MRI's, cell phones" NASA was a bit player - at best - in pushing technologies that contributed to - but certainly did not create these and many other things. One would think that NASA would attempt to clarify such things when they appear in the news. There is some progress however: at least we don't hear about NASA inventing Teflon, Velcro, and Tang any more.

Previous NASA spinoff stories.

Discovery Has Left Earth

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NASA'S Shuttle Discovery Heads to Station After Predawn Launch

"Space shuttle Discovery lit up Florida's Space Coast sky about 45 minutes before sunrise Monday with a 6:21 a.m. EDT launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The launch began a 13-day flight to the International Space Station and the second of five shuttle missions planned for 2010. Discovery is scheduled to dock to the space station at 3:44 a.m. on Wednesday, April 7."

Cassini Doubleheader: Flying By Titan and Dione

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Composite of Saturn's moons Titan and Dione Composite of two images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's moons Titan (left) and Dione (right). › Full image and caption (Titan) | › Full image and caption (Dione)
In a special double flyby early next week, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will visit Saturn's moons Titan and Dione within a period of about a day and a half, with no maneuvers in between. A fortuitous cosmic alignment allows Cassini to attempt this doubleheader, and the interest in swinging by Dione influenced the design of its extended mission.

The Titan flyby, planned for Monday, April 5, will take Cassini to within about 7,500 kilometers (4,700 miles) of the moon's surface. The distance is relatively long as far as encounters go, but it works to the advantage of Cassini's imaging science subsystem. Cassini's cameras will be able to stare at Titan's haze-shrouded surface for a longer time and capture high-resolution pictures of the Belet and Senkyo areas, dark regions around the equator that ripple with sand dunes.

In the early morning of Wednesday, April 7 in UTC time zones, which is around 9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 6 in California, Cassini will make its closest approach to the medium-sized icy moon Dione. Cassini will plunge to within about 500 kilometers (300 miles) of Dione's surface.

This is only Cassini's second close encounter with Dione. The first flyby in October 2005, and findings from the Voyager spacecraft in the 1990s, hinted that the moon could be sending out a wisp of charged particles into the magnetic field around Saturn and potentially exhaling a diffuse plume that contributes material to one of the planet's rings. Like Enceladus, Saturn's more famous moon with a plume, Dione features bright, fresh fractures. But if there were a plume on Dione, it would certainly be subtler and produce less material.

Cassini plans to use its magnetometer and fields and particles instruments to see if it can find evidence of activity at Dione. Thermal mapping by the composite infrared spectrometer will also help in that search. In addition, the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer will examine dark material found on Dione. Scientists would like to understand the source of this dark material.

Cassini has made three previous double flybys and another two are planned in the years ahead. The mission is nearing the end of its first extension, known as the Equinox mission. It will begin its second mission extension, known as the Solstice Mission, in October 2010.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

More information about the Titan flyby, dubbed "T67," is available at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20100405/ .

More information about the Dione flyby, dubbed "D2," is available at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/dione20100407/

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Wind Power Could Support a Stable Grid

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This is the first time a study has demonstrated that offshore East Coast wind energy can provide
“a reliable supply of smooth power”

New from ScienceNow, and it’s more good news about wind power.  So why aren’t we investing more in this, instead of in finding and using more fossil fuels?

“Individual wind turbines and even whole wind farms remain at the mercy of local weather for how much electricity they can generate. But researchers have confirmed that linking up such farms along the entire U.S. East Coast could provide a surprisingly consistent source of power. In fact, such a setup could someday replace much of the region’s existing generating capacity, which is based on coal, natural gas, nuclear reactors, and oil.

In terms of potential, wind-energy resources are tremendous. One estimate puts it at nearly five times as much as the world’s entire existing electricity demand. And for environmentalists and anticarbon advocates, wind offers an energy source that does not require drilling, mining, or enriched uranium—and its carbon footprint is essentially zero.

But wind is erratic. A region might get gale-force winds one day and dead calm the next. To balance things out, engineers have proposed linking up wind farms to take advantage of wind variability across a wider area. But until now, no one had ever quantified whether meteorological conditions would justify such a linkup.

In the new study, energy policy analyst and electrical engineer Willett Kempton of the University of Delaware, Newark, and colleagues did just that. “Instead of just looking at the statistics of connecting turbines,” he says, “we also decided to look at the meteorology.” First the researchers chose a region known for its relatively constant winds. They compiled 5 years of wind data from 11 offshore weather-monitoring stations buoyed along 2500 kilometers of the East Coast. They estimated how much power offshore wind farms could produce if they had been placed at the same locations as the monitoring stations—which would be the case under current wind-farm configurations. Then they calculated the combined power output of the farms if they were all connected into a single grid.

As the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, at no time during the 5-year span of the study did the winds die down completely along the hypothetical grid. That means it would have been possible for the hypothetical offshore wind-power grid to generate electricity continuously for all of that time. Moreover, Kempton explains, linking the wind farms showed “a tremendous amount of smoothing” of power output. Farms located, say, in the Northeast might be operating at full tilt under gale-force winds, while the southeastern portion of the grid languishes under sunny skies and tepid breezes. As the wind data showed, he added, the quick swings between [...]

Dan Ariely: It’s OK to cheat and steal (sometimes)

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Dan Ariely is a behavioural economist. He studies irrationality and tries to understand why humans act as they do act. In this video he focuses on the role of morality. In some clever studies he looks at why we think that it’s OK to cheat and steal (sometimes).
Filed under: Behavioural Science Tagged: behavioural economy, cheat, [...]

Please change RSS feeds if you haven’tGene Expression

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If you are still subscribed to:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/scienceblogs/gnxp

You are receiving updates from the new RSS feed. But at some point these updates will cease. You will need to switch to the new RSS feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/GeneExpressionBlog

It’s been a week since I first mentioned this issue, and the old feed still has over twice as many subscribers as the new feed. I’m sure many of them are evil people who are subscribed but no longer read the blog, but for those of you who are good please switch feeds. It is a mitzvah.

Danke.

Endangered Species Traded Online

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There are many reasons to explain why some of the world's species have become endangered. Habitats have been lost to housing developments, food sources have become scarce due to overfishing, and some animals are simply hunted to extinction. Now, conservationists are saying that technology cr