Final Frontier Design signs Space Act Agreement with NASA for Space Suit Development

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Final Frontier Design (FFD) is proud to announce the signing of a Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA to collaborate on the development, design review, and testing of its launch and re-entry space suit for orbital space flight. NASAs Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) initiative is designed to advance private sector development of integrated space capabilities, for emerging products to be commercially available to government and nongovernment customers within the next five years. A series of four SAAs were awarded today to FFD, United Launch Alliance (ULA), ATK Space Systems, and Space X.

Via this SAA, FFD will be conducting a series of defining reviews and tests including the System Requirements Review (SRR), System Definition Review (SDR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Review (CDR) of their space suit, with NASA input and interface. These formal reviews ensure conformity, standards, and safety in FFDs materials, processes, engineering, facilities, and testing. FFD plans on completing this SAA within 24 to 30 months or sooner.

FFD will be partnering with various institutions, including Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and Starfighters Aerospace, to conduct human testing and relevant environment research on the suit. Tests slated for 2015 include hypobaric chamber and decompression, human interface definition, sizing, range of motion, zero G (in aircraft), high G (in aircraft and centrifuge), dynamic capabilities, and metabolic rate definitions.

FFD President Ted Southern said, "Our goal is to provide a higher performing suit for less money, with the most extreme use envelope for Low Earth Orbit and Exploration missions via this SAA. We are very happy to work with NASA to ensure we are meeting the most stringent standards of the government and are grateful for their support. We look forward to offering a competitive alternative for launch and entry suits to both NASA and private industry. "

For more information on FFD, visit their website at http://www.finalfrontierdesign.com

For more information about the CCSC awards visit: http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-selects-commercialspace- partners-for-collaborative-partnerships/

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Final Frontier Design signs Space Act Agreement with NASA for Space Suit Development

NASA Video Shows Astronauts-Eye View of Trial by Fire from Inside Orion EFT-1 on First Test Flight

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Video Caption: New video recorded during NASAs Orion return through Earths atmosphere provides viewers a taste of what the vehicle endured as it returned through Earths atmosphere during its Dec. 5 flight test. Credit: NASA

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL Newly released NASA footage recorded during the first test flight of NASAs Orion crew capsule this month gives an astronauts-eye view of what it would have been like for a crew riding along on the Trial by Fire as the vehicle began the fiery reentry through the Earths atmosphere and suffered scorching temperatures during the approximately ten minute plummet homewards and parachute assisted splashdown.

The video provides a taste of the intense conditions the spacecraft and the astronauts it carries will endure when they return from deep space destinations on the journey to Mars, NASA said in a statement.

The video was among the first data to be removed from Orion following its unpiloted Dec. 5 flight test and was recorded through windows in Orions crew module.

The Orion deep space test capsule reached an altitude of 3604 miles and the video starts with a view of the Earths curvature far different from what weve grown accustomed to from Space Shuttle flight and the International Space Station (ISS).

Then it transitions to the fiery atmospheric entry and effects from the superheated plasma, the continued descent, gorgeous series of parachute openings, and concludes with the dramatic splashdown.

NASAs Orion spacecraft glides through clouds under its three massive main parachutes on its way toward a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 5, 2014. Credit: NASA

Although parts of the video were transmitted back in real time and shown live on NASA TV, this is the first time that the complete video is available so that the public can have an up-close look at the extreme environment a spacecraft experiences as it travels back through Earths environment from beyond low-Earth orbit.

A portion of the video could not be sent back live because of the communications blackout that always occurs during reentry when the superheated plasma surrounds the vehicle as it endures peak heating up to 4000 F (2200 C) and prevents data downlink. Video footage shows the plasma created by the interaction change from white to yellow to lavender to magenta as the temperature increases.

The on-board cameras continued to operate all the way through the 10 minute reentry period to unfurling of the drogue and three main parachutes and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at 11:29 a.m. EST at about 20 mph.

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Here comes the sun(spot) Nasa telescope captures best ever image of x-ray emissions – Video

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Here comes the sun(spot) Nasa telescope captures best ever image of x-ray emissions
Here comes the sun(spot) Nasa telescope captures best ever image of x-ray emissions on the solar surface One of Nasa #39;s most powerful space telescopes has turned its gaze on the Sun for the...

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Here comes the sun(spot) Nasa telescope captures best ever image of x-ray emissions - Video

All About That Space – YouTube

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All About That Space is a volunteer outreach video project created by interns at NASA's Johnson Space Center. It was created as a parody (to raise interest and excitement for Orion's first flight) of Meghan Trainors All About That Bass. The lyrics and scenes in the video have been re-imagined in order to inform the public about the amazing work going on at NASA and the Johnson Space Center.

NASAs Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than theyve ever gone before. Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.

Learn more about NASA: http://www.nasa.gov Learn more about Orion: http://www.nasa.gov/orion Follow the Orion Spacecraft on Twitter: @NASA_Orion Follow the Orion Spacecraft on Instagram: @explorenasa Follow NASA's Orion Spacecraft on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NASAOrion

For students interested in NASA Johnson Space Center: http://pathways.jsc.nasa.gov https://intern.nasa.gov/ http://www.facebook.com/nasa.jsc.stud... http://www.twitter.com/nasajscstudents http://instagram.com/nasajscstudents

Special thanks to: Dylan Mathis, Megan Sumner, Jack Moore, Allison Mcintyre, John Konvicka, Bill Bluethmann, Randy Eckman, and Logan Farrell

Point of Contact: Alex Hoffman Director: Brianna Bolling Lyrics: Sarah Schlieder Video Editing: Avery Bodenstein Audio Recording/Editing: Lauren Foley, AJ Sauter, Jimmy Garrett Storyboard and Choreography: Christina Dillon, Brianna Bolling

**For current Pathways Interns looking for information/how tos/otherwise contact the students who created the video, contact Brianna Bolling using global**

"All About That Space" Lyrics:

Because you know Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space, space travel. Im all about that space Bout that space

Yeah, its pretty clear, I aint commercial crew But I can launch it, launch it Like Im supposed to do Cause I got that boom boom that all the Astros chase And all the space flight to all the right places

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NASA space skills gap?

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By Walt Bonner

Space Shuttle Discovery lifts off at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. April 5, 2010.(AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

NASA could lose its lead in the space race to China or Russia if it doesnt revitalize its workforce, a new study has found.

In the longer term (two to three decades from now), China appears to be best positioned to be a challenger for the top spot, Prof. Loizos Heracleous of Warwick Business School in the U.K. told FoxNews.com. He and Steven Gonzalez of NASAs Johnson Space Center co-authored the study, Two modest proposals for propelling NASA forward, which waspublished on Nov. 17 inSpace Policy.

This is due to the amount of resources [China] dedicates to space activities, the breadth of its programs, its long-term thinking and its determination, Heracleous continued.

He noted that other countries, too, are getting in on the space game nations like India, which recently launched an orbiter to Mars at the incredibly low cost of $74 million, though its program lacks the scope of the U.S., Russian or Chinese programs.

But those countries space programs are gaining momentum and closing ground, he said.

Heracleous and Gonzalez have written in their study that NASA can overcome its predicament by addressing two issues its lack of employee turnover and its budgetary problems.

It would be beneficial if NASA could be given the freedom to manage its human resources and infrastructure based on performance-based, market-oriented, competitive principles, Heracleous said. Such a move would have positive consequences organizationally and strategically, including the ability to revitalize its workforce and facilitate transfer of relevant competencies from wherever they reside.

Heracleous blames lack of support and funding for NASAs struggles. NASA has not been resting on its laurels, he said. However, it has been constrained by several factors, including a misalignment between long-term project timescales on one hand, and uncertainty in terms of political support, funding cycles and leadership stability on the other hand.

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NASA looks at city above Venus

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Editor's note: Tomorrow Transformed explores innovative approaches and opportunities available in business and society through technology.

(CNN) -- Imagine a blimp city floating 30 miles above the scorching surface of Venus -- a home for a team of astronauts studying one of the solar system's most inhospitable planets.

NASA is currently doing just that; floating a concept that could one day see a 30-day manned mission to Earth's closest planetary neighbor.

Eventually, the mission could involve a permanent human presence suspended above the planet.

Deep heat

Also known as the morning star, and named after the goddess of love and beauty because it shone the brightest of the five planets known to ancient astronomers, Venus is a hot, sulphurous, hellish place whose surface has more volcanoes than any other planet in the solar system.

With a mean temperature of 462 degrees Celsius (863 degrees Fahrenheit), an atmospheric pressure 92 times greater than Earth's and a cloud layer of sulphuric acid, even probes to Venus have lasted little more than two hours. Its surface is hot enough to melt lead and its atmospheric pressure is the equivalent of diving a mile underwater.

But above this cauldron of carbon dioxide at an altitude of 50km (30 miles) scientists say the conditions are as close to Earth's as you'll find anywhere in the solar system.

The gravity at this altitude is only slightly lower than that of Earth, its atmospheric pressure is similar and the aerospace provides enough protection from solar radiation to make it no more dangerous than taking a trip to Canada.

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NASA Selects Commercial Space Partners for Collaborative Partnerships

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NASA announced Tuesday the selection of four U.S. companies to collaborate with NASA through unfunded partnerships to develop new space capabilities available to the government and other customers. The partnerships build on the success of NASA's commercial spaceflight initiatives to leverage NASA experience and expertise into new capabilities.

The Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC) initiative is designed to advance private sector development of integrated space capabilities through access to NASAs spaceflight resources and ensure emerging products or services are commercially available to government and non-government customers within approximately the next five years.

The companies selected for the Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities and their projects are:

- ATK Space Systems, in Beltsville, Maryland, is developing space logistics, hosted payload and other space transportation capabilities.

- Final Frontier Design, in Brooklyn, New York, is developing intra-vehicular activity space suits.

- Space Exploration Technologies, in Hawthorne, California, is developing space transportation capabilities that could be used to support missions into deep space.

United Launch Alliance, in Centennial, Colorado, is developing new launch vehicle capabilities to reduce cost and enhance performance.

Companies in all shapes and sizes are investing their own capital toward innovative commercial space capabilities, said Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These awards demonstrate the diversity and maturity of the commercial space industry. We look forward to working with these partners to advance space capabilities and make them available to NASA and other customers in the coming years.

The Space Act Agreements (SAAs) have no exchange of funds, and each party bears the cost of its participation. NASA's contributions could include technical expertise, assessments, lessons learned, technologies and data. Sharing this existing expertise in a structured way requires minimal government resources while fostering the development of technologies to enable NASA to achieve its strategic goal to expand human exploration of the solar system and to advance exploration, science, innovation, benefits to humanity, and international collaboration.

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First-ever 3D images of "molecular machines" produced

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December 23, 2014

A picture of a membrane protein called cysZ determined with Phenix software using data that could not previously be analyzed. (Credit: LANL)

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Tiny molecular machines are expected to play a major role be the next generation of medicine as researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico have announced a new technique that allows for the first-ever 3D imaging of these miniscule machines, according to a report in the journal Nature Methods.

Inside each cell in our bodies and inside every bacterium and virus are tiny but complex protein molecules thatsynthesize chemicals, replicate genetic material, turn each other on and off, and transport chemicals acrosscell membranes, said Tom Terwilliger, a Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist. Understanding how all these machines work is the key to developing new therapeutics, fortreating genetic disorders, and for developing new ways to make useful materials.

Past research on molecular machines has taken advantage of the fact that any incorporated metal atoms diffract X-rays differently than a machines other atoms, which are typically carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. Computers could be used to seize on these differences and any machines without metal atoms had to be studied by incorporating metal into them.

Through the newly developed imaging method, the LANL team was able to show that robust statistical procedures might be used to locate metal atoms in molecular machines even if they dont spread X-rays differently than carbon and other atoms. The technique allows for metal atoms like sulfur, normally part of many proteins, to be discovered and used to produce a three-dimensional image of a protein. Also, the new technique makes it easy to see a three-dimensional image of a protein without unnaturally integrating metal atoms into them, which means a lot more molecular machines can be analyzed.

The updated procedure starts with scientists generating billions of copies of a particular protein machine, dissolving them in water and growing crystals of the protein. Next, the scientists aim a stream of X-rays at a crystal and assess the brilliance of all of the thousands of diffracted X-ray spots that are generated. Then, scientists use a software program called Phenix to assess the diffraction spots and generate a three-dimensional image of an individual protein machine. This image shows the scientists just how the protein machine is assembled.

One such machine that was recently investigated was the Cascade machine, which happens to be in bacteria and is used to identify DNA that comes from viruses that infect bacteria. Looking somewhat like a seahorse, Cascade is composed of 11 proteins and an RNA molecule, with the RNA molecule winding through the entire body of the seahorse. If a bit of foreign DNA is able to interlock with the RNA molecule, Cascade hold the foreign viral DNA in place as a different machine comes by and destroys it, keeping the bacterium from infection. A report on Cascade was published in the journal Science over the summer.

In addition to investigating Cascade, the Phenixsoftware has allowed scientists to determine three-dimensional configurations of more than 15,000 different protein machinesand has already been cited by more than 5000 scientific publications.

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Get back in the torrent game with these five Pirate Bay alternatives

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Infamous torrent site The Pirate Bay went dark on December 9th following a raid by Swedish authorities. While there are signs the domain is not dead, anyone hoping to share information over BitTorrent must find a different service to facilitate their needs.

Theres no shortage of alternatives available. The Pirate Bay is just the most well known among a collection of torrent sites that offer similar services to users, and transitioning to them is a cinch. Weve picked out five that have a well-deserved reputation for selection, availability and reliability.

Keep in mind these are BitTorrent sites. While they dont taunt the authorities as aggressively as The Pirate Bay they may host illegal content and infected files. Use them at your own risk.

Though a relatively new player in the BitTorrent scene itdebuted a little over a year ago Isohunt boasts an incredibly deep and devoted community. Further, the sitecloned Pirate Bays entire database after the latter shut down, giving it a massive leg up on its competition. Though Isohuntstrives topreserve the sanctity of freedom on the Internet, itdid mention it plans to deactivate the clone should Pirate Bay come back online. Still, the sitefeatures an easy to navigate website, a list of daily top searches, and provides a consistently updated forum. If you relied on Pirate Bay before its demise, Isohunt no doubt deserves a chance at being your go-to torrent site.

The site 1337x states it began by wanting to fill an apparent void where it felt there existed no quality, ad-free torrent sites. The site launchedwith this thought in mind,and now offers usersan easy to navigate and safe system for downloadingtorrents.For those who like to give back and upload files, the staff behind 1337x goes the extra mile by verifying active users and any content uploaded to the site. It also offers a helpful community forum on which the sites active user base frequently chimes in on.With the amount of work put in to make sure 1337x brings its users a positive experience, its a worthyPirate Bayreplacement.

Torrentz differs from the other optionslisted as it doesnt host a single torrent on thewebsite. Rather, Torrentz acts like Google and operates strictly as a search engine, directing users to sites featuring the torrents they want. Because the site doesnt host any pirated material of its own, you never have to worry about it coming under fire orgoing offline. Better yet, if you have a favorite site say, Pirate Bay which goes down, Torrentz stillhelps find the torrent you desire via other BitTorrent sites.

Before Isohunt, Kickass Torrents established itself as viable competition for Pirate Bays crown.Despiteblockagein the United Kingdom and Italy, Kickass Torrents remains one of the most popular BitTorrent sites on the web. Featuring an impressive library of both rare and popular content, it doesnt take long to find exactly what you want to download. ForBitTorrent novices, each of the sites download links features mostly useful comments on torrent accuracy and quality. If the sites still got you stumped, the gang behind Kickass Torrents offers a helpful list of FAQs and a healthy library ofcommunity threads. Its basically The Pirate Bay without so many hot, single moms in your area.

Related:How BitTorrent lets you download virtually anything

RARBGs features look just likeother sites on this list, but it does come with a few tricks of its own. For starters,the site offersthe ability to filter out any adult content, which is a welcome option for those who hateweeding out various XXX movies from search results. For pop culture junkies, the sites front page featuresa list ofcurated news stories and dailyarticlesfrom Screenrant. If there are a few rainy days on tap and you dont know what to download, RARBGs Top 10 tab shows the ten most popular TV, movie, or music torrents currently downloading. Like most torrent sites, RARBG producesthe occasional pop-up window, but just refrain from clicking on any downloads or special deals.

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Get back in the torrent game with these five Pirate Bay alternatives

Osteopathic medical school moves forward

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Posted: Monday, December 22, 2014 7:00 pm | Updated: 7:52 am, Tue Dec 23, 2014.

Osteopathic medical school moves forward The New Mexican SantaFeNewMexican.com |

Osteopathic medical school moves forward

The Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine at New Mexico State University has been awarded pre-accreditation by the Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation.

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