Select Page ::

Canada’s newest astronauts consider moon, Mars missions after space station trip – Toronto Star

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

By Peter RakobowchukThe Canadian Press

Tues., Aug. 22, 2017

MONTREALIts a far-out dream that Canadas two newest astronauts are hoping will come true: orbiting the moon within the next decade or so.

In fact, Joshua Kutryk and Jennifer Sidey are already looking beyond the International Space Station as they begin two years of intense basic training.

In an interview from Houston on Tuesday, Kutryk pointed out that Canada is committed to the space station until 2024 along with its international partners.

But the 35-year-old Albertan said the plan for what will happen after is already starting to be defined.

We dont have the details ironed out but we know that its going to involve new destinations, probably the moon and then Mars, said Kutryk, adding he expects Canada to seek out and play a large role.

I think that were living in a lifetime now when we see humans, including Canadian humans, potentially going back to the moon and thats just a super exciting thing for me to think about.

Thats to be determined but I do feel a lot of excitement for the Canadian space program in general, he said.

Sidey, who will be training alongside Kutryk, said travelling around the moon, in so-called cislunar orbit, is on her agenda.

Certainly, Im definitely in for the idea of deep space (and) longer space flights, kind of pushing what we can do, she said.

Cislunar for us is going to be incredibly important as a gateway to put people in orbit and eventually go back to the moon.

The 29-year-old Calgary-born astronaut was asked about her chances of orbiting the moon in the coming decades.

Her response was: Who knows, who knows, but Id love that... who wouldnt, huh.

But the focus over the next two years will be on understanding various things, including systems on the space station, human behaviour, robotics and survival training.

They will also learn Russian.

Were going to be juggling all sorts of subjects and theyre all very different and theyre all very important (and) keeping all those balls in the air at once is going to be tough, Sidey said.

Kutryk, a test pilot, admitted that learning Russian will be a tough test, noting it took him about 25 years to be comfortable in French.

Based on that experience, and when I look at the idea of learning a third language in two years, thats something thats definitely going to be challenging, he said.

On Tuesday, Kutryk and Sidey also joined a dozen American trainees in a link-up with three astronauts now on board the International Space Station.

Flight engineer Peggy Whitson, 57, who is on her third long-duration space station mission, had some advice for the group: know how to fix things.

You need to get good at using tools, Whitson said as she floated inside the space station. Thatll be an important part of your training, so pay attention to that part of it.

So you cant be hesitant about taking something apart and putting it back together, because thats a lot of our job.

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

Continued here:

Canada's newest astronauts consider moon, Mars missions after space station trip - Toronto Star

Space station astronaut sees solar eclipse shadow on Earth – CNET

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

The ISS astronauts had a great view of the moon's shadow.

The view of a solar eclipse from space can be very different than what we see down here on Earth. Italian Space Agency and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli snapped a series of photos of the moon casting its shadow on the planet from his vantage point on board the International Space Station. Nespoli tweeted the images on Monday.

Two of the photos show the view with parts of the space station in the frame. A dark blotch appears near the curve of the Earth where the moon cast its umbra. The shadow looks huge from this perspective. People standing in that umbra would be seeing the solar eclipse as it happened.

Nespoli wrote, "Voila! The # Eclipse2017 shadow from @Space_Station, no words needed."

The world's space agencies have been busy documenting the eclipse. Earlier Monday, a NASA photographer captured a gorgeous photo of the ISS transiting the sun as the moon took a bite out of the star's bright face.

The International Space Station Twitter account later shared another series of photos showing what the six astronauts in orbit witnessed during the event:

Now Playing: Watch this: Solar eclipse wows millions across the US, see it all

1:41

Originally posted here:

Space station astronaut sees solar eclipse shadow on Earth - CNET

The International Space Station Had Two Views of the Eclipse – Atlas Obscura

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

The International Space Station crosses the solar disk during the eclipse. NASA/Joel Kowsky

One might be forgiven for imagining that a fly crawled across the lens NASA used to capture this image of yesterdays eclipse near Banner, Wyoming, but thats no fly. Its the International Space Station (ISS), more than 30,000 cubic feet of pressurized habitat, with six people aboard, traveling at 17,200 miles per hour more than 250 miles above Earth. This composite combines seven images of the station making its way across the solar disk, as millions watched the celestial show from belowa transit it made three times during the eclipse.

The six crew members currently on the ISSRandy Bresnik, Jack Fischer, Peggy Whitson, Paolo Nespoli, Fyodor Yurchikhin, and Sergey Ryazanskiywere the only people to see the eclipse from space. Here is what they saw when they looked up

and when they looked down:

They have seen and will see any number of wonders during their time in orbit, but the eclipse that entranced the United States has to be a highlight.

Originally posted here:

The International Space Station Had Two Views of the Eclipse - Atlas Obscura

The ultimate photobomb: NASA spied the Space Station crossing the eclipsing sun – Mashable

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

A cool thing happened in the sky today: the moon covered the sun, and people got super emotional about it.

While we watched from Earth, either with special glasses. cardboard boxes. or with our own scorched retinas, astronauts got to see the eclipse from another perspective.

And we got to see them creeping across the sun, thanks to a NASA photographer. Look at it... it's pretty awesome.

In photos taken by a NASA photographer located in the Northern Cascades National Park in Washington, the International Space Station is seen in silhouette as it transits the sun at roughly five miles per second during a partial phase of the solar eclipse, Monday, Aug. 21, 2017.

Compared to the size of the sun and the moon, the ISS resembles an ant crawling across a luminescent piece of cheese, or a TIE fighter roaring across an orange Death Star.

Here's a composite image made from four different frames.

The video at the top of this story, taken by NASA's Joel Kowsky, shows the space station crossing the sun at five miles per second. It was taken by a high speed camera that captured images at 1,500 frames per second.

Feel free to make a badass TIE fighter sound effect as you watch.

People in the United States won't get to experience a total solar eclipse again until 2024. Better buy your glasses now before they skyrocket in price.

Read the rest here:

The ultimate photobomb: NASA spied the Space Station crossing the eclipsing sun - Mashable

SEE IT: International Space Station witnesses ‘umbra’ of eclipse – NY … – New York Daily News

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, August 21, 2017, 4:55 PM

For at least one group of people the eclipse was out of this world.

Millions of people saw #Eclipse2017, but only six people saw the umbra, or the moon's shadow, over the United States from space today, the International Space Station posted on Twitter Monday afternoon.

An accompanying photo showed a dark spot breaking up white wisps on the Earths cloudy surface.

NASAs astronauts Randolph Bresnik, Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson were joined in watching the strange and majestic sight by Russias cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergei Ryazansky as well as Italys Paolo Nespoli.

President Trump stares right into solar eclipse without glasses

No words needed, Nespoli said.

50 photos view gallery

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, used the occasion to remember his own experiences.

It occurred to me that I got to see quite a few solar eclipses. Every time we orbited into the shadow of the moon, he said over the weekend, adding that he was one of 24 lucky people to have such as sight.

Humans will do it again with the view of #Mars Eclipsing the Sun! he posted Monday.

A one-star review: The Daily News rates the solar eclipse

Space adventurers small viewing party 254 miles above the Earths surface on Monday was joined by millions of earthlings down below who watched the moon block out part or all of the sun.

Dubbed the Great American Eclipse, the phenomenons totality was seen in a path that cut from Oregon through South Carolina, with less spectacular results farther away.

Orion update: Lighting the fire of awareness Part 2 – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Jason Rhian

August 22nd, 2017

NASA has deployed its officials, including the agencys astronauts, to help inspire those who are working to produce the rockets and spacecraft that are designed to propel crews further into space than has ever been attempted before. Image Credit: NASA

SpaceFlight Insider continues its update of recent developments with NASAs Orion spacecraft; more specifically, public outreach efforts that the U.S. space agency is undertaking to prepare the nation for its return to exploring deep spacean undertaking it has not attempted since the historic Apollo 17 mission, which concluded in December 1972. During a recent event held at the AMRO Fabricating Facility in South El Monte, California, NASA astronaut Lee Morin had a chance to review progress being madeand to thank those who are working on these flight systems.

When it comes to inspiring people about the U.S. efforts to explore the deep reaches of the Solar System, few people can inspire like an astronaut. SpaceFlight Insider spoke with NASA astronaut Lee Morin about what the space agency had him doing to provide not just an understanding of space but also an excitement for what awaits.

Official NASA astronaut portrait of Lee Morin (Aug. 30, 2010). Photo Credit: Robert Markowitz / NASA

SFI: For starters, youre at an event at the AMRO facilities right now, correct?

Morin:Yes.

SFI: How are you using this event to inform the public or maybe just the space community about NASAs new crew-rated spacecraft, Orion?

Morin: We have a whole system of subcontractors, suppliers, and subcontractor supplier management at NASA, as you may know. And we have small businesses, suppliers, all over the country. And so as they are delivering our hardware, we generally have people that, you know, come and visit them. We take these opportunities to come and thank the team for their hard work, their craftsmanship, and we invite the media out and the local congressionals, mayors, the city people in El Monte; were here in South El Monte. Its a way to shine a light on the businesses doing this great work. It helps the employees. They have a sense of pride, I think, and theyre very proud to work on this program. So its a strategy we use to thank all the people that are helping us get to deep space.

SFI: So lets talk a bit about that, then. Whats been the reaction of some of the people that youve met there today, Lee, in terms of meeting you and their work on Orion? How are they responding to being able to be involved with NASAs new crew-rated spacecraft?

Morin: Everyone heres been very excited. You can see their faces light up. The fact that they get to go out and talk to an astronaut and have their picture taken in front of the hardware theyve built that one of my colleagues will be flying out beyond the Moon is very exciting. By my coming, it sort of puts a face on it for them in terms of their ultimate customer, and people that betting their lives on their handiwork and craftsmanship.

I personally have an interest in machining. I was an amateur machinist, so I was treated to sort of a behind-the-scenes look and getting to look at some of the machines and talk to some of the people on the line that operate those machines. So for me, that was an exciting trip. But I know that having someone from NASA come out and have an interest in their contribution and what theyre doing means a lot to them as well.

SFI: As much as youre inspiring the folks, I remember that Gus Grissom did a tour back in the Apollo days, and Gus was known for being a competent engineer, but not much of a spokesman. And he basically looked at the engineers and said, Do good work. What have they taught you? I know that any time you interact with folks, its always a two-way street. They get to be inspired by seeing the people who are going to fly on these exciting new spacecraft, but what have you personally taken away from this experience today?

Morin:Well, I always get invigorated talking to the public, whether thats at a school or at a plant like this. I can just see the enthusiasm of the people. In their day-to-day lives theyre doing their jobs, but what theyre doing in the case here is something that culminates in an important milestone for the country. I think [Barbara Zelon] and her team do a great job conveying that to them: that their role is very important. And traditionally that outreach has been very important because that helps keep the quality up.

If you have that human face on the parts, it really motivates the entire team to, as Gus said, Do good work. But it puts a personal face on it and it makes it a lot more real to them in terms of what their role is. Of course, the part that theyre building today, which is this window panel, this very recognizable panel to many people because its the contour of the windows that you can see from the outside so its a very, very visible part. Of course, theyre building a lot of other parts, which are less visible but are just as important.

SFI: So you saw where the windows being worked on. Could you tell us about some of the other elements that you got a chance to review today?

Morin:This companys specialty is making very large, very complicated aluminum panels, which are these curved sections. And it starts out with a big slab of metal, in some cases, its as much as six inches thick. Some of the panels they showed us today weighed as much as seven tonsyou know, these big pieces of metaland this company has this process where they remove a lot of that metal.

In other words, you might end up starting with [a] 5,000-pound piece of aluminum, and after youve removed all of the metal, when youre done, the part might only weigh 300 pounds. So its a very subtractive process. What they do is they both remove metal, but then they also have to shape it and bend it in a very precise way back and forth, so its real craftsmanship, a real art form to be able to do that. And this company actually does it better than anybody else. And these panels are very important.

In addition to this panel that is the structural member that holds the windows, so it has the cavities where the windows will be mounted, they also have panels for the tanks of the Space Launch System booster, which will be the largest rocket ever built. Thats the tanks that hold the liquid hydrogen.

Very similar process: they start with a large slab of aluminum, mill rectangular depressions in it so that they remove most of the weight but keep a lot of the strength, then they roll that into a section and then a number of those are welded together down in New Orleansthey actually finish the tank. So thats basically what we saw, basically aluminum plates that were very intricately machined and shaped to these conical and cylindrical sections that are later joined to form spacecraft.

SFI: Youve obviously had a lot of experience seeing a lot of this hardware produced. Could you provide our readers with some of the differences that youve noticed when youre looking at Orion compared to the stuff you saw produced for Shuttle and other programs?

Morin:One of the things thats important to realize is Orion has been a very evolutionary process in terms of the production of the components. The particular piece that we were looking at [had]originally consisted of 37 separate parts. The initial prototypes were built in that way. By building those prototypes and studying them, they found out how not only to remove thousands of pounds of metal (so it went from 4,000 to 2,000 pounds), they also went from 37 separate pieces to, I believe, its six pieces.

So now those six pieces can be welded together. And the process they did here with these parts [makes it] so that theyre much closer to final assembly, whereas the earlier partsthe companies here would make the parts and that part would require a lot more finishing or coatings and so forth would have to be done later.

The panel of Orions underlying structure for Exploration Mission-2 containing the spacecrafts windows is manufactured by AMRO Fabricating Corp., in South El Monte, California. Photo & Caption Credit: NASA

Lockheeds worked with its suppliers to optimize the part in terms of complexity and manufacturability and optimize the part to have more of the process done further up the supply chain, and very importantly, to minimize the weight. So the part does the same job, but it takes only half as much weight, which is so important when youre talking about these deep-space missions because the energy to get something to the Moon and back [makes weight] critical. If you can save some weight, you really got a lot of leverage out of that.

Its an incremental use of a lot of modern machining methods, which are very intensively computer-based, and lots of new materials, and lots of incremental improvements where each little improvement doesnt seem like that big a deal in itself, but when you put dozens and hundreds of them together, it really adds up to a really significant advance in these components.

SFI: If theres one thing that your experiences todaychecking out the work thats being done on Orionhas most intrigued you or the public should be made most aware of, what would it be?

Morin:I think it was that the employees here presented me with a panel that they 3-D printed, which was a miniature (I think about 1:25 scale) model of the part that is on display in front of the auditorium here. The key point of that is that 3-D printing technology is infusing its way into every phase of manufacturing. Not that the panel itself is 3-D printed, but that more and more 3-D printing is being used as an aid to improve the design or to check parts for fit before you commit to a very costly part. Of course, were using 3-D printing a lot ourselves.

My role is building the cockpit of Orion. We do 3-D printing because we make working models of the display system that the crews interact with. We built a lot of those prototypes with 3-D printing. This is a company that machines metal, and they are using 3-D printing in a big way, and the employees presented this panel to me today, which is a great memento.

SFI: Lee, thank you for taking the time to speak with Spaceflight Insider today.

Morin: It was fun, thanks!

Morin spoke with the teams at AMRO Fabricating Corporation located in South El Monte, California. While there, he had the opportunity to review finished structural test article hardware panels. These had been arranged in order for each section of NASAs new super-heavy-lift rocketthe Space Launch System, or, as it is more commonly called, SLS. The SLS is the chosen launch vehicle that the space agency hopes will restore American independence of launching its astronauts into space when used in tandem with the Orion spacecraft, which is being produced by Lockheed Martin and Airbus.

As is the case with any major initiative, a number of companies and agencies have been tasked with the production of both the SLS and Orion. One of these partners is AMRO, which ishelping to build panels for SLS core stage, the rockets launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) and the Orion spacecraft.

Companies and agencies are made up of people, and people are aided in their efforts when they are inspired. NASA astronauts, perhaps better than any other agency official, help to get the word out to those manufacturing these vehicles as to how important their work is, considering that these astronauts are planning on one day using what those firmsproduce to get NASA back into the business of crewed space exploration.

Tagged: AMRO Fabricating Facility Lead Stories Lee Morin Orion Space Launch System

Jason Rhian spent several years honing his skills with internships at NASA, the National Space Society and other organizations. He has provided content for outlets such as: Aviation Week & Space Technology, Space.com, The Mars Society and Universe Today.

Continue reading here:

Orion update: Lighting the fire of awareness Part 2 - SpaceFlight Insider

Orion update: Lighting the fire of awareness Part 1 – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Jason Rhian

August 21st, 2017

Artists rendition of Orion Exploration Flight Test 1. Image Credit: NASA

Officials with NASA sat down with SpaceFlight Insider to discuss the current status of the Orion Program, which evolved into discussions on how the space agency is working to spread the word about the new crew-rated capsule as well as the ties that the program has with past effortsand more.

SpaceFlight Insider first spoke withNASAs Orion Program Manager, Mark Kirasich, who was in New York City in conjunction with the Intrepid Museums Space & Science Festival. Kirasich spoke at length about the spacecraft, the speeches given at venues, and what the future holds for NASAs crewed spacecraft.

NASAs new Orion Program Manager Mark Kirasich began his NASA career in 1983 at the agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston as a member of the Space Shuttle flight operations team. Photo & Caption Credit: NASA

SFI: Can you start by telling us a bit about where you are at todayand why youre there?

Mark Kirasich:Were here as part of an Intrepid space and science special event this week, so its going to be a lot of fun to meet people and talk about NASAs plans.

SFI: So, obviously, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, and [the Space Shuttle] Enterprise is all very cool, but I want to pick your brain about something that is more recentOrion.

Mark Kirasich:Wow, you and me both! Im ready!

SFI: Provide our readers with just a brief update as to where Orion stands in terms of EM-1, EM-2. Where are we at this present stage?

Mark Kirasich:All right, great. Mind if I just take a step back and tell you where weve been, then where were going?

SFI: That sounds perfect.

Mark Kirasich: Two test flights are behind us and two are in front of us. We flew our first test, our abort system, in May of 2010 from the White Sands Test Facility, and it was incredibly successful. Then we flew Exploration Flight Test One [EFT-1], which was our first overall flight test in December of 2014, and it went amazingly well. Since that time, weve been focused on our next two flights: Exploration Mission One, in which Orion will fly for the first time on the Space Launch System, which is our countrys new heavy-lift launch system and its being put together by Marshall Space Flight Center and their prime contractor Boeing.

That will be the first time an Orion capsule flies on SLS and also goes beyond Earth orbit. So were very excited about that. Thats going to be a lunar-orbital mission. And then the flight after thatactually Im going to tell you how were going to accelerate itis Ascent Abort 2. Its the second test of our abort system, where were going to actually launch the capsule and the abort system on a booster rocket that will simulate SLS and will test an in-flight abort.

So those two flights are upcoming. After we have that, well be ready for our first human launch, Exploration Mission Two, also on SLS. And thatll be the first time humans travel beyond Earth orbit since the last Apollo mission. Thats my roadmap. Right now we are in the thick you would not believe how much hardware we have in the pipes. I say across the country, I really need to say around the world because we have [] European partner[s]the European Space Agency and Airbus.

SFI: Can you get our viewers up-to-speed about the latest in terms of Orion and NASAs Exploration Mission 1?

Mark Kirasich:Sure. The Exploration Mission 1 Crew Module is in the Kennedy Space Center O&C [Operations and Checkout] building, where our Lockheed Martin Orion final assembly building is and it is going really well. I dont know if youve seen a picture lately, but its beautiful. All of the plumbing is installed, all of the propellant systems, the ECLSS systems, power, secondary structure. We are today installing the avionics boxes. A slew of them have arrived in the last week or two, and we are heading for a first power-up later this month. It will be the first time were going to power up the Exploration Mission 1 spacecraft, so its doing great.

The other were building in the O&C Building is the called the Crew Module Adapter. Its what goes on top of the ESA Service Module, and then we put the Crew Module on top of that. Its coming together, its doing well.

Traveling to Bremen, Germany. I believe you know about our ESA partners. The ESA Service Module is being assembled by Airbus in their factory in Bremen, Germany, and it is coming along well. Its a beautiful piece of flight hardware. Theyre working some suppliers, some supplier challenges, getting some of their components delivered. So theyre working through that.

So weve got all of the EM-1 hardware coming together: the launch abort system [LAS]; the jettison motor will be poured here in a month or two. The abortits an inert motor on EM-1. It is nearly fully assembled, so its coming together well. On top of that, we have our structural test articlewhich right now has a service module, a crew module, and a LASare all being structurally tested. Pushed and pulled and shaken and exposed to acoustic loads. And then, in about a month, we put together the integrated stack, to stack those things together, and thats in Denver. We have a parachute drop test in the desert. We are doing recovery tests with help from the Coast Guard in the Gulf of Mexico. So everywhere you look, every day theres something going on with Orion. Theres a lot of activity going on.

The Orion crew module for NASAs Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) is secured in a workstation in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The spacecraft is being prepared for its first integrated flight atop the Space Launch System rocket on Exploration Mission-1. Photo & Caption Credit: Leif Heimbold / NASA

SFI: There was a rash of stories about NASA doesnt have the money to send astronauts to Mars, so. The question I have there is, is that an accurate assessment and, more importantly, if it is, then what other side missionsand Im a Moon-first person myselfis that the sort of thing youre looking at? How will Orion be used for its first missions?

Mark Kirasich:Im not sure Im smart enough to answer your specific question about Mars. Im really focused on the near-term horizon, which is the path to get to Mars, and we just this past year announced a really good plan that involves some cislunar operations as a way to prepare humans to travel to Mars for the first time. Orion and SLS are key elements of that. We have the moneywe have the funding we need. We have the support in Congress and were really pleased by the new Presidents enthusiasm for space exploration.

At the funding levels were getting, Orion, SLS, the Ground Ops piecesall of the elements of the current architecturecan support their parts in this business and this new capability where we travel to cislunar space first, and well learn in lunar orbit how to live and work in a way where were really not close to the Earth. We cannot be Earth-dependent, so well build up capabilities there, well stay there for longer and longer periods of time, and well develop the technologies we need: the environment control, the regenerative way of environmental control, the propulsion capabilities, the ion engines, that are part of the cislunar plan. All of those pieces are coming together now.

Our boss, Bill Gerstenmaier in Human Exploration, is putting together this architecture. Right now, I can tell you with the funding we have, we can do our piece of that. Right now thats my horizon, through the late 2020s, to make sure we can demonstrate cislunar missions.

SFI: Okay. Were curious if NASA is looking at a Moon, Mars, and beyond kind of philosophy here

Mark Kirasich:Yes.

SFI:which a lot of us old-time space people are saying, Orion is really good, and SLS is great for developing a highway out into the Solar System. You start nearby and you eventually go further and further. Do you see Orion being used for more and more of that, or are we more Journey-to-Mars-centric?

Mark Kirasich:Let me make sure I get all your points. From day one weve tried to make Orion as flexible and capable as possible. Weve worked really hard to get mass out, to get weight out []. Generally what weve seenand you know over the past few years weve had a variety of different missionsno matter what the mission, Orion has always been able to fill that mission. What I would call a flexible path first to Moon and then to MarsOrion absolutely fits into that picture, Orion can support and perform all of those missions.

The avionics and the equipment, the redundancy in the systems, when we do our probabilistic risk analysis, it shows that these systems can reliably [operate] for very long periods of time. Our systems are regenerative. And then the performance capabilitythe propellant, where we can go, the orbits we can go intonow clearly we couldnt go to Mars by ourselves, there will be additional elements of the architecture. But Orion can and, I envision, will be part of these missions first in cislunar and then as we push farther to Mars.

The European Service Module that will power NASAs Orion spacecraft to the Moon and beyond is taking shape in the assembly hall at Airbus Defence and Space, Bremen, Germany. The spacecraft module will provide propulsion, electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen, and thermal control. Photo & Caption Credit: Airbus DS / ESA

SFI: Okay, Ive got an easier question for you. ESAs already contributing the Service Module for EM-1, and a lot of us in the community look at this as: It has to be a partnership. It cant be a unilateral effort. So can we expect to see these missions to the Moon and Mars; instead of it being NASAyou know, you plant the flags and youre on your wayits more of a NASA-ESA-Canadian-and-other-space-agency initiative?

Mark Kirasich:Yeah, I think Bill Gerstenmaier, whos assembling this, believes that to do these very challenging missions, we do need international collaboration. Thats why, in 2013, we forged the very first international partnership in the new exploration program with the European Space Agency. Theyre part of Orion, and theyre not just any old part, they are a really critical part.

They built something we call the ESA Service Module, and it has some really key functions in it. It has all of the propellant[s] for our translation maneuvers; it includes the solar arrays and power generation equipment, so all of the electrical power generation on orbit is done from there. And the cooling system, the radiators on the Service Module are a really critical piece, and we put them in a really integral, critical-path role in Orion and exploration. And from the start, the intent was to expand the collaboration to the future elements, beyond Orion, beyond SLS, beyond the Ground Systems; the elements that well need to put in lunar orbit, the elements that well need for Mars.

SFI: Okay, so youre on the deck there [on Intrepid], youre probably going to be seeing Enterprise later today. In closing, tell us a little bit about your feelings on the deck there, and how we had this one great program we retired a few years ago and now were on to the new big thing. One of the questions we always close with is: If you had to relay the most salient, important point to the general public, what would be about Orion and SLS?

Mark Kirasich:When I walk around the decks here, the reason Im with NASA today is [that] when I was a kid, in 1969, I watched when Neil and Buzz stepped foot on the Moon for the first time. And then I watched the military airplanes because they were really pushing the state of the art, and thats what motivated me. It motivated me to want to get interested in technology, science, and engineering, and come in and do these really bold things. And when I walked through Intrepid today, many of these aircraft, even many of these submarines that I watched as a kid, I found here today.

Thats what motivated me to do what I did, and I believe our generation of scientists and engineerswhether youre in the aerospace industry or the computer world or the biomedical industrytheyre pushing the state of the art. What our countrys done over our generation has an amazing [role] in taking our country forwardand I think thats what especially the Apollo program did for meI believe thats what SLS and Orion are going to do for the next generation, especially the young.

People are going to be extremely excited about these missions. And its going to motivate people to get into the science and math and engineering, and they may or may not come into the space program. They may become doctors, theyll become gene slicers, but theyll be the ones who take what were living and push it forward. Im really convinced of that. You mentioned you were at EFT-1. That day in December 2014I dont know about you, but for me it was magical. It was like unbelievable for me and it feltI might be exaggeratingbut for a few minutes it felt like the whole world stopped and watched what we did. And boy, if you think that was exciting for that short-duration flight, just wait til you see what happens when we lift off on the Space Launch System for the first time.

SFI then spoke with NASA astronaut Lee Morin about the significant outreach efforts that are required to not only keep those involved with the various human space flight efforts involved but also to keep them inspired as well. Tune in to SpaceFlight Insider tomorrow for Morins views on this subject.

Tagged: EFT-1 EM-1 Lead Stories NASA Orion Space Launch System

See more here:

Orion update: Lighting the fire of awareness Part 1 - SpaceFlight Insider

Yeast Can Be Engineered to Turn Astronaut Pee Into Spaceflight Materials – Motherboard

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Sweat, urine, poop, and the other fun byproducts of the body are normally treated as waste to be discarded. But if humans are serious about expanding our civilization to the Moon, Mars, and other frontiers, we will need to learn how to optimize every available resource for survival, including the junk created by our own bodies.

Crews on the International Space Station (ISS) have already pioneered this approach by filtering their pee and sweat into drinkable water. Now, Mark A. Blenner, a bioengineer and assistant professor at Clemson University, has taken this "waste not, want not" attitude to the next level by demonstrating that the yeast strain Yarrowia lipolytica can be tweaked to turn bodily excretions like urine into handy materials, like nutrients or plastics.

Blenner will be presenting his research on Tuesday at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society in Washington, DC.

"The Spacefaring Power of Pee" explainer on research into Y. lipolytica. Video: PBS/Reactions

"We chose [ Y. lipolytica] because it has a combination of favorable properties for using waste and to make a variety of useful products," Blenner told me in an email. "It has a robust metabolism for several sugars and for different types of nitrogen, as well as fatty wastes. It tolerates a number of inhibitory chemicals. It has enough genetic engineering tools to enable us to make different products."

In other words, the yeast is hardy, creative, and can be rigged to manufacture a wide variety of products that could benefit astronauts on long duration space missions, making it an exciting potential crew member.

Y. lipolytica thrives on nitrogen, which can be mined from urea, a compound found in urine, and carbon, which could be harvested from the carbon dioxide gas exhaled by astronauts, or from other in situ sources such as the Martian atmosphere. Blenner and his colleagues have demonstrated that this workhorse yeast can use these ingredients to make omega-3 fatty acids, a nutrient that boosts cardiovascular and brain health, among other medical benefits.

If packed on a spacecraft as supplements, these fatty acids would expire in just a few years. But generating them with Y. lipolytica would provide a renewable source of nutrients on the spot, to fit the needs of the crew at any point in the mission.

"This yeast is really good at making lipids and oleochemicals [like omega-3 fatty acids] which could both benefit astronauts," Blenner told me. "It should also be good at making other molecules from the building blocks that make up lipids."

Blenner and his colleagues have shown that Y. lipolytica can be engineered to generate monomers, which are molecules that can be linked together to produce useful polymer materials. These building blocks could be fed into an onboard 3D-printer to make on-demand plastic parts and tools by future spacecraft crews.

Read More: Scientists Want to Mine Our Poop for Gold

There's still much research to be done before these yeast powerhouses will be ready to supply astronauts with ready-to-grow essentials on their endeavors beyond Earth orbit. Scientists will need to figure out how to optimize production and manage any wasteful byproducts of this microbial alchemy. This particular species will need to be road-tested in outer space, like previous yeasty astronauts, such as the baker's yeast that was sent to the ISS in 2011.

"We don't know how [the yeast] will perform relative to Earth," Blenner said. "We are planning to try to get our yeast to the International Space Station in next couple of years."

If your interest is piqued, check out this live YouTube press conference on the research, starting at Tuesday at 2PM ET. And the next time you take a leak or work up a sweat, perhaps you'll have a new appreciation for the potential value of the ingredients in bodily waste that we normally take for granted.

Get six of our favorite Motherboard stories every day by signing up for our newsletter.

Go here to read the rest:

Yeast Can Be Engineered to Turn Astronaut Pee Into Spaceflight Materials - Motherboard

NASA Ames hosts eclipse viewing event – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Jim Sharkey

August 22nd, 2017

Photographers setting up outside the NASA Ames Conference Center for the 2017 eclipse viewing event. Photo Credit: Jim Sharkey / SpaceFlight Insider

MOFFETT FIELD, California A crowd of about 1,000 people attended a public event at NASAs Ames Research Center to observe the August 21, 2017, solar eclipse. Attendees gathered outside the Building 3 Conference Center at Ames wearing eclipse glasses provided by the space agency. Inside the Conference Center, attendees could watch NASA TVs extensive coverage of the celestial event.

Image Credit: Vikash Mahadeo / SpaceFlight Insider

The eclipse crossed the continental United States, from Oregon all the way down to South Carolina, over a period encompassing almost two hours. People watching in the 70-mile-wide (110 km) path of totality across 14 states experienced about two minutes of darkness.

Those watching at NASA Ames saw a partial eclipse, with a coverage of approximately 74 percent of the Sun occurring at 10:15 a.m. PDT.

NASAs televised coverage of the eclipse included views from research aircraft, high-altitude balloons, satellites, and specially modified telescopes. It also included live reports from Charleston, South Carolina; Salem, Oregon; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Beatrice, Nebraska; Jefferson City, Missouri; Carbondale, Illinois; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Clarksville, Tennessee.

NASAs Eclipse Balloon Project,which was led by Angela Des Jardins of Montana State University, sent up over 50 high-altitude balloons launched by student teams across the U.S. to live-stream footage of the eclipse. A research group at Ames conducted a low-cost experiment,called MicroStrat, on 34 of the balloons to simulate lifes ability to survive beyond Earth and possibly even on Mars.

The August solar eclipse gives us a rare opportunity to study the stratosphere when its even more Mars-like than usual, said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters. With student teams flying balloon payloads from dozens of points along the path of totality, well study effects on microorganisms that are coming along for the ride.

Some of the first views of the eclipse were provided by a specially-modified Gulfstream III jet from NASAs Armstrong Flight Research Center flying at an altitude of approximately 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) in the vicinity of Lincoln City, Oregon.

The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) mission is studying how solar material moves, gathersenergy, and heats up as it travels through the Suns lower atmosphere. IRIS Flight Operators were at the event to discuss their mission, which is controlled from Ames.

During the eclipse, we can do calibrations on some scientific instruments that we cant do at any over time, said Flight Operator Michael Iatauro. We are also coordinating our observations with ground-based and aerial telescopes. When they are observing the Suns corona during the eclipse, we can observe activities occurring on parts of the Sun that are blocked by the Moon from their point of view.

As the eclipse began at 9:01 a.m. PDT, gray clouds began to drift in front of the Sun. For much of the next hour, the Sun peeked through the clouds occasionally; however, by the time the eclipse reached maximum coverage at 10:15 a.m. PDT, a large portion of the sky had cleared allowing observers to see the crescent Sun.

Video courtesy of NASA

Tagged: Ames Research Center Eclipse 2017 Great American Eclipse The Range

Jim Sharkey is a lab assistant, writer and general science enthusiast who grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, the hometown of Skylab and Shuttle astronaut Owen K. Garriott. As a young Star Trek fan he participated in the letter-writing campaign which resulted in the space shuttle prototype being named Enterprise. While his academic studies have ranged from psychology and archaeology to biology, he has never lost his passion for space exploration. Jim began blogging about science, science fiction and futurism in 2004. Jim resides in the San Francisco Bay area and has attended NASA Socials for the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover landing and the NASA LADEE lunar orbiter launch.

See the rest here:

NASA Ames hosts eclipse viewing event - SpaceFlight Insider

Falcon 9 rocket test-fired for California launch next week … – Spaceflight Now

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

The Falcon 9 rocket slated to launch Aug. 24 with the Formosat 5 satellite test-fires its nine main engines Saturday. Credit: SpaceX

A commercial Falcon 9 rocket in the final stages of launch preparations fired its nine Merlin main engines Saturday at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, verifying its readiness for liftoff with a Taiwanese Earth-imaging payload Thursday.

SpaceX engineers rolled out the two-stage rocket Friday to Space Launch Complex 4-East at Vandenberg, and the Falcon 9 launch team oversaw a computer-controlled countdown and fueling sequence ahead of Saturdays static fire test.

Restraints kept the rocket firmly grounded on its hillside launch pad overlooking the Pacific Ocean as the Merlin 1D engines throttled up to 1.7 million pounds of thrust for several seconds.

The hold-down firing is a customary part of all SpaceX launch campaigns, used by engineers to confirm the readiness of the launcher and ground systems, and as an exercise of the ground team.

The next step in SpaceXs launch campaign at Vandenberg will be the removal of the rocket from the pad for attachment of the Formosat 5 spacecraft, a Taiwanese satellite designed to test out the countrys domestic aerospace manufacturing capability and collect a range of black-and-white and color imagery of Earth.

Developed and funded by Taiwans National Space Organization, or NSPO, Formosat 5 weighs around 1,047 pounds (475 kilograms) with a full load of fuel, according to information posted on NSPOs website.

After flying south from Vandenberg, the Falcon 9 rocket will send the Formosat 5 satellite into a 447-mile-high (720-kilometer) sun-synchronous orbit that passes near Earths poles.

Liftoff is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 24, at 11:50 a.m. PDT (2:50 p.m. EDT; 1850 GMT) at the opening of a 44-minute launch window.

The launch will be the fifth time a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will blast off from Vandenberg, an Air Force-run base on Californias Central Coast northwest of Los Angeles. It will be the 40th Falcon 9 launch overall, including flights departing from SpaceX launch pads in Florida.

We are proud to provide a safe and secure launch location for our mission partners, said Col. Gregory E. Wood, vice commander of the Air Forces 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg. This mission is the practical demonstration of the professional spirit and teamwork found in the everyday operations of Team Vandenberg and SpaceX.

SpaceX plans to return the Falcon 9s first stage to a drone ship positioned downrange in the Pacific Ocean for refurbishment and reuse. The booster launching Formosat 5 is fresh from the factory and making its first flight.

Formosat 5 will only take up a fraction of the Falcon 9s lift capability, and officials from NSPO and SpaceX originally planned to launch the satellite on a Falcon 1e rocket. But SpaceX discontinued the small launcher, which was powered by a single Merlin booster engine, in favor of developing the Falcon 9 and larger rockets.

The Taiwanese government, through the National Space Organization, originally paid SpaceX around $23 million in 2010 for the launch, less than half of the advertised price of a Falcon 9 launch today.

Formosat 5 carries two instruments.

One is an optical imaging payload capable of resolving features as small as 2 meters about 6.6 feet in black-and-white. The camera has half that resolution in color mode.

An advanced ionospheric probe from the National Central University in Taiwan is also aboard Formosat 5.

The ionospheric instrument is an all-in-one plasma sensor to measure ionospheric plasma concentrations, velocities, and temperatures over a wide range of spatial scales, according to a fact sheet released by NSPO. The transient and long-term variations of ionospheric plasma can be monitored as seismic precursors associated with earthquakes.

Formosat 5 was to be accompanied by a package of approximately 90 small satellites fastened to a multi-payload Sherpa adapter developed by Spaceflight, a Seattle-based company that builds lightweight spacecraft and brokers launch services for CubeSats on rideshare rocket flights.

But Spaceflight canceled that plan after the Formosat 5 launch faced years of delays in the aftermath of two Falcon 9 rocket failures that combined to ground SpaceXs fleet for nearly a year. Formosat 5s launch was shuffled later in SpaceXs manifest for unexplained reasons.

Spaceflight has reserved a dedicated Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg next year with a Sherpa space tug expected to loft around 90 small satellites on the same rocket.

Meanwhile, the Seattle launch broker arranged for most of the 90 satellites slated to launch with Formosat 5 to fly on other rockets, including an Indian PSLV mission and a Russian Soyuz flight earlier this year.

Several others were rebooked on the next Sherpa adapter flying on a Falcon 9 next year.

Next weeks launch from California will mark the 12th Falcon 9 flight of the year, coming in the heels of an Aug. 14 mission from NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida that deployed a space station-build supply ship in orbit

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

The rest is here:

Falcon 9 rocket test-fired for California launch next week ... - Spaceflight Now

Imagining the future: How illustrators shape visions of the future – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

SFI has developed a team of more than 50 contributors several of whom provide professional illustrations for our articles. Image Credit: James Vaughan / SpaceFlight Insider

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Oftentimes, the public becomes inspired about space by seeing fantastic imagery, photos, and illustrations. Men like Robert McCall, Chesley Bonestell, and Alan Bean have lit the fire of imagination in a million minds. It was with this firmly in mind that SFI sat down with our team of graphic and photo illustrators and asked them: What got them interested in sharing their excitement for space exploration with the world?

Kogas work has been used in numerous motion pictures. Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

Keep in mind that SFI is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. Men and women who understand the concept of loyalty and who see what we are doing and want to help us tell the story of spaceflight.

These folks are all highly-skilled in various methods of illustration, the foremost of these usually being computer modeling or photo illustration. Nathan Koga is one of three illustrators who currently contributes his time to help improve the quality of work that SpaceFlight Insider provides. Kogas work has helped in the production of a number of blockbuster films.

Kogas passion for computer-generated imagery, coupled with an interest in the technical aspects of what is required to provide a more accurate portrayal of space, was what compelled him to contribute to our efforts.While Koga might volunteer for SFI, he has to earn a living and his work has allowed him to be involved with some rather impressive projects.

I work for a company called Proof Inc. that provides Pre-Post Visualization, and sometimes final visual effects, Koga said. He went on to provide some specifics about his work. I dont really do very much in the way of final VFX [Visual Effects], which is to say what makes it to the screen directly. (Star Trek: Beyond, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Fast Furious 8 were movies in which Koga has contributed to.)

Kogas computer-generated imagery for SpaceFlight Insider is always sleek and professional, adding yet another layer of professionalism to SFIs efforts (Koga serves, in many ways, as a pitch hitter producing images for vehicles and programs that have not had many, if any, imagery generated). The work at his day job is far more involved and complex.

Most of what we do at my stage in the process is to take the footage that has finished shooting and to bring in preliminary animation work and attempt to make the shots work. This allows studios to do rapid-iteration work with editing before committing to the final product, Koga said. He went on to describe a bit about what has motivated him to provide his skills to SFI.

Space travel is a unique challenge in that it often involves ideas, plans, or concepts that are very unintuitive and difficult to visualize. I enjoy taking those concepts and bringing a sort of reality to them in a way that people can appreciate. Koga often provides his services whenever good imagery of a certain event, vehicle, or system is not readily available. The world of space exploration is often dominated by technical terminology, and I hope to try and artistically highlight the truly awe-inspiring aspects of even the most mundane activities.

Koga is not alone in being inspired by the promise of exploring deep into space; he is joined in this by the other members of our illustration team. One of these is Joel Hland who lives in Gothenburg, Sweden. Hlands work has helped one of SpaceFlight Insiders latest efforts, our database on launch vehicles, spacecraft, and space centers The Hangar.

Joel Hland has worked with SpaceFlight Insider, providing stunning imagery of rockets and spacecraft used in The Hangar portion of our website. Image Credit: Joel Hland / SpaceFlight Insider

Hland said: Since I was a kid I have always had a vivid imagination, I liked drawing and photography. In my early teens, I started playing around with photoshop, inspired by the work of impressive digital artists such as Dan Luvisi.

Later, in the beginning of my professional career, as I learned different CAD tools I started involving 3-D models in my work. My style nowadays revolves around model renderings, matte painting, and photo-manipulation, with the subjects of most of my art being space-related, vehicles, and landscapes.

SFIs longest-serving illustrator, James Vaughan, has provided a wealth of images to our articles and social media efforts. His work has a depth evocative of paintings something that helps to provide a more personal and emotional touch.

Vaughan said: Someone asked me what has inspired me in my illustrations of aerospace and aviation.I have a lot of fun and I do feel inspired. Each morning I can hardly wait to get started on a newvoyage into the heavens.I distinctly recall the fascination I had as a child with the space programs illustrations I sawin major magazines like LIFE.

Vaughan noted that one potential reason for his style could be the motivators that got him interested in space illustration in the first place.

Vaughan said: This was the heyday of the Space Race and a very popularsubject for the media of the time. I especially loved the work of the illustrator Robert McCalland, as a kid of 8 or 9, would cut out the pages of the magazines and pin them up to bulletinboards in my room.

There were many other influences that ultimately contributed to my out-there imagination.I got to go to Expo-67, perhaps the last and greatest of the big Worlds Fairs. Seeing 2001:A Space Odyssey as a twelve-year-old, when it first came out in theaters, was [a] huge moment.Like a lot of people, I think that Kubricks masterpiece really expanded and altered my mind.

When I first began to shift my efforts from advertising to space subjects I got a fan-letterfrom astronaut Story Musgrave. To have the man who saved the Hubble Telescope sayingthat I was getting the feel and look of traveling in space just right was a big boost for me!Overall, it is my sense of optimism and excitement that drives my artistic work. It is what I talkabout when I say I want to bring back the gee-whiz quality to aerospace illustration.

These artists, along with SFIs writers and photographers, work to not just tell but to show the importance of space exploration to the world. Their stunning graphics, detailed illustrations help to add color, tone, and essence to the written word and captured moments. With NASAs Commercial Crew Program, Commercial Resupply Services, and its efforts to send astronauts far beyond Earths influence set to inaugurate a rebirth of U.S. crewed space flight, SFIs team will use their diverse skills to write this new chapter in space exploration history as few can.

Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

Tagged: James Vaughan Joel Haland Nathan Koga The Range

Imagining the future: How illustrators shape visions of the future - SpaceFlight Insider

Pioneering ESA mission aims to create artificial solar eclipses … – Spaceflight Now

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Due to launch together in 2020, the two satellites making up Proba-3 will fly in precise formation to form an external coronagraph in space, one satellite eclipsing the sun to allow the second to study the otherwise invisible solar corona. Credit: ESA

As skywatchers and scientists converge on a transcontinental band of totality for Mondays solar eclipse in the United States, engineers in Europe are building a unique pair of satellites to create artificial eclipses lasting for hours a feat that that could be a boon for solar physicists but will escape the view of Earth-bound spectators.

The European Space Agencys Proba-3 mission, scheduled for launch in late 2020, is made possible by two satellites, one about the size of a refrigerator, and another slightly smaller spacecraft with the rough dimensions of a coffee table.

The basic idea is to fly the smaller satellite directly between the sun and the field-of-view of cameras and instruments mounted on the bigger spacecraft, blocking the sunlight and revealing the glow of the suns corona, or super-hot atmosphere, and filament-like eruptions called solar flares.

The light coming from the surface of the sun is a million times brighter than the corona, requiring special measures to see the solar atmosphere.

The concept of obstructing the brightest light emanating from the sun to study activity around it is not new. Scientists have made observations of the corona for centuries during solar eclipses, and there are other space missions that carry coronagraphs, light-blocking discs buried inside telescopes used to make the relatively dim solar atmosphere visible.

But coronagraphs mounted inside telescopes are prone to stray light, a common problem in optics. Light escaping around the coronagraph disc can distort or mask views of the corona.

One simple way to think of the stray light problem is to compare an image of a total solar eclipse, a spectacular phenomenon where the faint corona suddenly springs into view. Holding your thumb over the sun at arms length does not produce the same result because sunlight has already been scattered by particles in Earths atmosphere.

One of the science goals of Proba-3 is to reproduce the conditions of a total solar eclipse as much as possible, said Andrei Zhukov, principal investigator for Proba-3s coronagraph at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, in response to questions from Spaceflight Now.

In general, the longer the distance between an observer or a camera and the object obscuring the sun, the better the result. Scientists also do not have to worry about atmospheric distortions in space.

This problem can be minimized by extending the coronagraph length, the distance between the camera and the disc, as far as possible but there are practical limits to coronagraph size, Zhukov said in an ESA press release.

Instead, Proba-3s coronagraph uses two craft: a camera satellite and a disc satellite, Zhukov said. They fly together so precisely that they operate like a single coronagraph, 150 meters (492 feet) long.

The duo will launch together into an highly elliptical, oval-shaped orbit around Earth taking the satellites as high as 37,611 miles (60,530 kilometers) and as low as 372 miles (600 kilometers).

In that orbit, the satellites will complete one lap around the planet every 19.6 hours. For six of those hours, cameras on Proba-3s larger satellite will have an artificial eclipse.

Proba-3 will see the features down to 34,500 miles (55,600 kilometers) from the sun about 8 percent of the solar radius resolving activity closer to the solar limb than any current space mission. Zhukov said ground-based observers looking at a total solar eclipse can still see more of the corona than Proba-3, but the advantage of a space mission is the eclipses longevity.

During two years of its nominal mission, Proba-3 will provide around 1,000 hours of coronal observations, Zhukov wrote in an email to Spaceflight Now. This has to be compared with several minutes of duration of natural eclipses during the same time.

Proba-3 will also be free from disturbances produced by the Earths atmosphere in all astronomical observations, Zhukov wrote.

ESA is developing the Proba-3 mission as an experimental demonstration, with scientific observations of the sun a secondary goal.

Engineers want to test out technologies for autonomous formation flying on Proba-3, which will use ranging measurements with the help of GPS navigation signals and optical sensors.

The two spacecraft will be connected with an inter-satellite radio link, and the so-called occulter satellite the smaller of the pair will carry low-power micro-thrusters for fine maneuvers, keeping the two vehicles positioned with millimeter precision.

Proba-3 will create an eclipse when the satellites are farthest from Earth. The satellites will passively drift apart during the rest of each orbit, a fuel-saving measure to minimize consumption of the missions limited supply of propellant.

The capabilities to be proved out on Proba-3 could be used on future missions to repair satellites in orbit or return samples from Mars, according to ESA.

Already approved for development as a tech demo mission, Proba-3 won the backing of ESAs science program committee earlier this year. The agencys scientific division will pay for Proba-3s science operations center to ensure astronomers get the most out of the project.

Proba-3 was scheduled for launch in 2019, but officials recently pushed back the missions liftoff to the fourth quarter of 2020.

The complexity in the development of the formation flying technology does not allow the launch in late 2019 as was planned earlier, Zhukov said. The project schedule is now consolidated, and the launch in the fourth quarter of 2020 is the new baseline. That does look feasible.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

Continued here:

Pioneering ESA mission aims to create artificial solar eclipses ... - Spaceflight Now

Space Camp May Be Habit Forming – Air & Space Magazine

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Beneath the giant Saturn V rocket (an authentic dynamic test vehicle) at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, astronauts-to-be hear stories of pioneering rocketeers.

You could say that Zoe McElroy is a Space Camp expert. Shes been eight times. About to start her freshman year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, McElroy says shes wanted to be an aerospace engineer since she was nine years old. Thats the year she first went to Space Camp. I remember begging my mom on the plane ride home, Can you send me back next summer? I loved everything about it, she says. I got to see all that engineering and meet all those amazing people. And I really knew that thats what I wanted to do with my life.

Located at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabamathe official visitor center for NASAs Marshall Space Flight CenterSpace Camp is now in its 35th year and has made a name for itself, not just around the country but around the world, as an inspirational as well as educational program. Among the 35,000 people who participate each year in the camps standard offeringa week-long program, in space technology, aviation, or roboticsare students from 70 countries. We have about the same number of students from China as we have from Tennessee, says CEO and executive director Deborah Barnhart.

And the camp has an extraordinary rate of recidivism. At a weekend event last summer, one alumnus reported having attended 19 sessions; another, 21.

Nicholas Schaefer, a junior at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg, Virginia, is also a serial camper. Last summer, he graduated from his sixth Aviation Challenge, a military-inspired program of flight simulators, water-survival training, and centrifuge rides. He keeps coming back, he says, because he values the leadership training, which he believes will help him land a spot at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington and eventually as an officer in the Marine Corps.

Barnhart, a former Navy captain who calls her programs thinly veiled workforce development, says she wants students to know that the military is an excellent path for careers in technology.

I would recommend Aviation Challenge programs to everybody, says Schaefer, for an opportunity to [try out] a leadership position in a safe environment where its okay to make mistakes. This past summer, Schaefer attended a 12-day, invitation-only program, Aviation Challenge Mach III Elite. That is not for everybody, he says. Thats for people willing to apply themselves and give 110 percent. During Schaefers session, he coordinated three 10-person teams in a hostage rescue.

Both McElroy and Schaefer say theyve learned about science and technology. McElroy learned how rockets work, and Schaefer can spit out a 9Line medevac request (a military protocol) like a combat veteran. But the real value of the camp seems to lie in the intangibles it teaches and the opportunity it offers students to role-play as their future selvesto try on for size the identities they think they want as adults.

And, like all camps, it is prized for the friendships it forms. Theyve been through difficulties together, says Barnhart. On the space missions, we throw a lot of anomalies at them, and its tough. Many bond for life. We have students from the 1980s who are adult friends. The program has also led to about 100 marriages.

In Advanced Space Academy, youre on a mission for 24 straight hours, and they keep throwing problems at you to solve. It is so stressful but so fun, says McElroy. I met my best friend at Space Camp and that was the only fight weve ever been inover something that happened in that mission.

Space Camp is for teachers too, and one of the intangibles that Wisconsin Teacher of the Year Ryan Fuhrman is taking home with himin addition to a notebook full of lesson plans and ideasis his realization of the importance of diversity. (Space Camp is one of the prizes awarded to every teacher selected by state school officers as a Teacher of the Year.) Fuhrman worked with an art teacher and a special ed teacher on one of the camp assignments: to design a heat shield to protect an egg from a five-minute blast with a blow torch. I think like an engineer, says the science teacher, but I saw there were other ways to solve problems. When everybody is able to bring ideas, we get better solutions.

Space Camp offers week-long programs 50 weeks of the year and also has single-day or weekend training. For more:spacecamp.com.

Like this article? SIGN UP for our newsletter

Originally posted here:

Space Camp May Be Habit Forming - Air & Space Magazine

Mars 160: Crew returns to ‘Earth’ – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Paul Knightly

August 21st, 2017

Two members of the Mars 160 mission during an extravehicular activity at the Mars Societys Flashline Mars Analogue Research Station. Photo Credit: Mars Society

The Mars Societys Mars 160 mission simulation has concluded and the six members of the international crew have started making their way home to Earth. The simulation in the Canadian high Arctic ended on August 14, 2017, and the crew was flown out from the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on August 16.

Crew biologist Anushree Srivastava examines samples collected at the FMARS site. Photo Credit: Mars Society

Arriving in Yellowknife, Canada, on August 18, the crew is starting to make their way to the United States where many of them will talk about their experience during the mission at the Mars Society Convention in Irvine, California, on September 9.

The final days of the mission saw crew members completing their remaining field science activities and securing FMARS for the long arctic winter ahead. On August 12, the crew had an ambitious schedule in which two extravehicular activities (EVAs) were performed on the same day the first time dual EVAs had been conducted during the mission.

The morning EVA focused on collecting final samples from periglacial features near the habitat while the afternoon EVA focused on collecting biological samples near the middle of the Haughton Impact Crater. Both teams reported successful collecting samples that day to close out science activities for the Mars 160 mission.

After the crew secured FMARS, an activity that lasted through August 15, they were flown to a staging area in Resolute, Nunavut, where the crew showered and enjoyed warm meals. While cooking was a staple of the Mars 160 mission, crew members were happy to enjoy fresh fruit and meat for the first time in a month.

As the crew prepares to return home, it spent the remainder of last week in meetings to debrief the mission.

Mars 160 is a two-phase analog Mars mission simulation seeking to compare the scientific output under Mars mission constraints at the two Mars Society analog research facilities: the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah and FMARS on Devon Island in Canada. The FMARS portion of the simulation represented the second and final phase of the mission.

The crew will be making a presentation about the Mars 160 during the 20th Annual Mars Society Convention at the University of California, Irvine from September 710.

For more information on the Mars 160 mission, visithttp://mars160.marssociety.org/. Paul Knightly served as a crew geologist for Mars 160 and is alsowritingfor Spaceflight Insider.

Haughton Impact Crater. Photo Credit: Mars Society

Tagged: Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station Mars Mars 160 Mars Society The Range

Paul is currently a graduate student in Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Akransas in Fayetteville. He grew up in the Kansas City area and developed an interest in space at a young age at the start of the twin Mars Exploration Rover missions in 2003. He began his studies in aerospace engineering before switching over to geology at Wichita State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 2013. After working as an environmental geologist for a civil engineering firm, he began his graduate studies in 2016 and is actively working towards a PhD that will focus on the surficial processes of Mars. He also participated in a 2-week simluation at The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in 2014 and remains involved in analogue mission studies today. Paul has been interested in science outreach and communication over the years which in the past included maintaining a personal blog on space exploration from high school through his undergraduate career and in recent years he has given talks at schools and other organizations over the topics of geology and space. He is excited to bring his experience as a geologist and scientist to the Spaceflight Insider team writing primarily on space science topics.

See the rest here:

Mars 160: Crew returns to 'Earth' - SpaceFlight Insider

Redheads go free to Twycross Zoo on World Orangutan Day – LoughboroughEcho.net

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

RED hair is a rare and wonderful thing and so are orangutans. That is why, to mark World Orangutan Day on Saturday (August 19), Twycross Zoo will be open for free to any person with red hair, be it natural, dyed or a wig.

This is to encourage the public to take action in helping to conserve this magnificent great ape species and raise awareness of the many threats they face.

Populations of orangutans in the wild have dramatically declined in the recent years. There are now only an estimated 14,600 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Bornean orangutans according to the International Union for Conservation on Nature (IUCN), which lists both species as Critically Endangered.

Twycross Zoo has five Bornean orangutans and is one of only two zoos in the world to have welcomed two orangutan babies in the past year. The oldest of the group, 40 years old female Kibriah gave birth to the youngest group member, girl Kayan, born in June 2017. The older baby, boy Basuki, was born to Maliku in March this year and the group is complete with the boys seven years old sister Molly and the impressive male Batu.

During the World Orangutan Day keepers will be at hand to provide more details about the zoos own group, highlight the plight of orangutans in the wild and explain what simple steps visitors can take to help save the species that could face extinction in the next 10 to 20 years.

Visitors coming to Twycross Zoo can help orangutans by joining the Zoos animal adoption scheme, which helps support the conservation of endangered species, or by direct donation at the Guest Services. The Zoo also uses the funding from entry fees and gift shop items to invest in, and carry out, conservation work, including breeding of endangered species, not just at the Zoo, but around the world too.

Another way to help alleviate the pressures on orangutans is to choose products which use sustainably produced palm oil. Twycross Zoo is also working to help other types of great ape in the wild and has set up a mobile phone recycling scheme earlier this year to encourage recycling of precious materials in consumer electronics which reduces the pressure on natural resources and wildlife, including bonobos, gorillas and chimpanzees.

Loraine Miller, Great Apes Deputy Team Leader at Twycross Zoo says, Since Twycross Zoo opened in 1963, orangutans have been a key species that we have cared for. They are among the most intelligent primates, using a variety of tools to forage and play and our visitors can witness this first-hand.

World Orangutan Day is crucial to help us raise awareness about the declining orangutan populations caused by poaching, habitat destruction and the illegal pet trade. We want to offer our visitors a fun day out for all, but also encourage them to take action in preserving this amazing species.

Visitors are asked to leave extra time to get to Twycross Zoo when coming for this event as it was very popular last year. The Zoo is open from 10am to 6pm and the offer is valid throughout the whole day, so even those arriving later can enjoy their free entry.

For more information call 0844 474 1777, or visit http://www.twycrosszoo.org

Council will support the Calling All Redheads world record attempt … – Central Western Daily

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

To be held at Wade Park or Showgrounds if wet

SHOW YOUR SUPPORT: Catherine McAuley's redheaded students are behind the festival. Photo: JUDE KEOGH

Orange City Council has increased its financial support for the September 30 Calling All Redheads world record attempt event at Wade Park.

On Tuesday night council agreed to contribute $2000 toward the costof running the event. It is being organised by Rachael Brooking to raise funds to help the families of people with Huntingtons Disease.

Cr Kevin Duffy said it might become a major annual event in Orange.

It has the ability to take off as a festival, he said.

Mrs Brooking had asked council forsponsorship money plus waive the costs of hiring Wade Park, or the Showgrounds pavilion, if the weather was poor.

A council reportsaid there were insufficient funds remaining in thedonations budget to meet thefull request.

Council had previously allocated $163 toward waiving the ground hire cost.

Continue reading here:

Council will support the Calling All Redheads world record attempt ... - Central Western Daily

Red Matters: National project aims to prevent bullying against redheads – Timaru Herald

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

RACHAEL COMER

Last updated16:53, August 22 2017

JOHN BISSET/STUFF

Danni Mitchell-Saunders, 4, has been included in a project celebrating redheads.

A Timaru girl's fiery locks have earned her a place in a national project.

Danni Mitchell-Saunders, 4, recently travelled to Auckland to be part of the Red Matters Project, a photographic project by Bianca Duimel, which aims to break the stigma attached to being a redhead and stop the bullying often associated with having red hair.

Duimel has already released one book from the project, with another,Little Red Matters, whichDanniwill appearin, due out at Christmas.

Her mother,NickiMitchell, said she had been following the project on social media for a while.

"My mum put a pictureup on the Red Matters Project Facebook page and it all followed on from there," Nicki said.

"Bianca contacted me and asked if we wanted to come up for Dannito be photographed."

Nicki said the overnight trip had been a great experience for her daughter.

Dannihad also enjoyed the opportunity.

"I had fun and I like my hair colour," Danni said.

She said all her friends were "blonies [blondies]" and she didn't know any other people with her hair colour.

Nicki said the project was important to her family as she knew redheads could often be bullied.

She also saw it as a chance for her daughter to have something to look back onwith pride.

She had been surprised when she gavebirth to a redhead.

"We were so surprised when this wee baby popped out and her hair was red as red could be."

Duimel said she enjoyed working on the project and seeing the positive outcomes it was achieving.

"For some people it's been life-changing and people are gaining confidence."

Timaru District councillor and "proud redhead" Steve Willssaid he was pleased to hear about the project.

"Redheads have always been the butt of a few jokes, particularly when you're younger."

He said his teenage daughter was also a redhead and people often commented on how they admired her hair colour.

-The Timaru Herald

Red Matters: National project aims to prevent bullying against redheads - Timaru Herald

Satellite Observations Could Help Forecast an Eruption’s End – Eos

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

Researchers studying past volcanic activity found they could retrospectively predict when outflows of molten rock would cease for about 40% of effusive eruptions, the kind that produces flowing lava.

Developing a method to predict when a volcano will erupt has long remained out of reach. Less studied, but also important for public safety, is forecasting when eruptions will end, a feat that has proven equally elusive.

Now researchers are using satellite data to test a 1981 theory that lava flowforming eruptions follow a predictable pattern, and they have confirmed the pattern in many cases. Whats more, they find that using the theoretical model and observations from space as their guides, they can predict with considerable accuracy when those pattern-fitting eruptions will stop.

I actually didnt think it would work at all. I was happily surprised that it made sense and could be used.I actually didnt think it would work at all, said Estelle Bonny, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa who is affiliated with the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) and is the first author of a recent paper about the findings. She said that she had suspected the model was too simple for a complex natural process, but I was happily surprised that it made sense and could be used.

Effusive eruptions, characterized by lava flows, can go on and on. It might only be a couple of days, but it can also be a year, Bonny said. For people who live nearby, knowing when it will end can be important to knowing if they have to evacuate and, if they do evacuate, when they will be able to go back home.

British volcanologist Geoff Wadge came up with the 1981 theory that the rate of flow in an effusive eruption would follow an asymmetrical curve: an early cascade of lava, followed by a gradual decline.

Back then, measuring the rate of discharge involved difficult and dangerous field work, and scientists might get only one or two measurements per eruption. However, since 2000, instruments aboard NASAs Terra and Aqua satellites have taken infrared thermal measurements of active volcanoes four times a day, from which researchers readily calculate discharge rates. Now were lucky to have way more data sets than he had, Bonny said. We wanted to use this [abundance] of data to see if the theory still makes sense.

In a paper published online in June in the Bulletin of Volcanology, she and her adviser, Robert Wright, associate director of HIGP, looked at 104 effusive eruptions that took place at 34 different volcanoes over the past 15 years. Of these, 32 eruptions followed the asymmetrical Wadge curve, with an early peak and gradually slowing flow. Eight more were double-pulse eruptions: two initial bursts, followed by the same slow decline. Thirteen others she described as half Wadge: an early peak, followed by a slow flow that continues for a long time.

The remaining 51 eruptions followed no pattern at all. Its not perfect, Bonny said. Sometimes it doesnt show the trend, but sometimes it does.About halfway through the eruption you could have a good prediction.

For eruptions that did follow the model, the scientists found that they could use satellite data to forecast in retrospect when eruptions would end.

It took 3 days worth of observations to predict that the December 2005 eruption of Piton de la Fournaise on Reunion Island would last for 9 daysit ended up stopping on the 10th day.

The model also worked for longer volcanic activity, like the eruption of the Kizimen volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, that began in March 2011. Bonny found that the longer she observed the volcano, the more accurate her prediction became. After 102 days of observations, the model predicted that the eruption would end after 210 days, just 2 days shy of the actual duration of 212 days. About halfway through the eruption you could have a good prediction, she said. The prediction didnt change significantly after the halfway point.

What about eruptions that dont fit the pattern? The team didnt look at explosive eruptions. Those blasts generally offer little mystery about when they will end; most of the action typically ceases after that first, powerful bang.

Among the remaining lava-exuding eruptions the team investigated, Bonny found that the model could still predict double-pulse eruptions simply by resetting the curve at the second peak of the eruption.

However, she and Wright found that the model could predict endings for neither the half Wadge nor random-pattern eruptions. Nonetheless, Bonny said that applying the model to satellite measurements of such eruptions can still yield valuable insights. In about the same amount of time that it would take to forecast an eruptions duration, observers can figure out what type of eruption theyre dealing with, she noted.

Ben Kennedy, a volcanologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, said that the Hawaii team took the kind of space-based observing, data analysis, and modeling that represents the future of volcanology and applied those tools to a practical, public safety problem.

A massive part of the impact is the duration of the [eruption]; this affects all sorts of critical hazard management decisions.This paper is answering the right questions, Kennedy said. Hazard managers need to know what are the likely impacts of the event. A massive part of the impact is the duration of the [eruption]; this affects all sorts of critical hazard management decisions.

Although the study reaffirmed that every eruption is different, it also made significant steps toward classifying effusive eruptions, he said. It seems about 50% are behaving in a predictable way. And about 30% are behaving in a way that will allow accurate predictions during the eruption of when it might end.

For Bonny, thats the next step. So far, she has produced only retrospective predictions, but she is now making plans to test the model on volcanic eruptions in real timemaybe on a volcano close to home. Bonny said that a future eruption of the island of Hawaiis Klauea volcano, which has threatened nearby towns with lava flows in the past, would be a good case study for the modeling method.

Ilima Loomis (email: [emailprotected]), Freelance Journalist

See original here:

Satellite Observations Could Help Forecast an Eruption's End - Eos

NASA powers up spacecraft that could one day carry humans to Mars – CNNMoney

Posted on August 22, 2017 by Danzig

It's called Orion. And Lockheed Martin (LMT), NASA's contractor for the project, said the latest version of the vessel was powered on for the first time Tuesday morning, lighting up the intricate on-board computers that will one day help guide Orion through the vacuum of space.

"This is the brains and heart of the spacecraft," said Lockheed spokesperson Gary Napier. He added that the inaugural power-up appeared to go "very well."

For the next one or two months NASA will add even more computer systems and continue testing its hardware and software, Napier told CNNMoney.

It's an important milestone for Orion, which NASA has been working on ever since the Space Shuttle program was retired in 2011.

The hope is to one day launch the spacecraft on the Space Launch System (SLS), a truly massive rocket that is also currently under development by NASA and a handful of private-sector contractors.

When it's up and running, SLS could be the most powerful rocket ever built. The current record holder is NASA's Saturn V rocket, which was used in NASA's Apollo missions, including the 1969 moon landing, and has long been retired.

Orion and SLS are seen as NASA's next great step forward.

Orion is tentatively scheduled to fly on SLS for an unmanned test flight around the moon in 2019.

"Although astronauts will not fly in this capsule on this flight, a large majority of the [tech is] the same design that astronauts will rely on during following missions with Orion into the solar system," Lockheed said in a statement.

It's not clear when the first humans will actually climb aboard Orion. NASA originally slated the first manned mission for sometime in 2021, but the timeline has since shifted and NASA has yet to set a new target date.

Related: Branson! Musk! Bezos! The billionaire space race throwdown

Critics say SLS and Orion have been too slow and expensive, particularly in light of the rapid development of the U.S.'s commercial space industry.

Several private-sector companies are investing big money in space exploration.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is known for its Mars ambitions, and the firm is expected to announce a major update to its Mars travel plan in the coming weeks. And Jeff Bezos, head of Blue Origin, is underway on his own spacecraft capable of making cargo trips to the moon.

Meanwhile, NASA has poured tens of billions of dollars into developing SLS and Orion, and it's already pushed back several deadlines.

But cheerleaders for NASA's Orion program say the private sector is far behind NASA in developing something that would have SLS and Orion's capabilities.

And, of course, NASA put the very first humans on the moon -- so the agency knows a thing or two about the perils and complications of spaceflight.

"Orion was designed from the beginning to take humanity farther into space than we've ever gone," Mike Hawes, the Orion program manager at Lockheed, said in a statement. "Everyone on the team understands how crucial this test campaign is, and more importantly, what this spacecraft and mission means to our country and future human space flight."

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 22, 2017: 12:52 PM ET

NASA powers up spacecraft that could one day carry humans to Mars - CNNMoney