Daily Archives: April 30, 2013

NASA Expedition 35 astronaut and flight engineer Chris Cassidy aboard the International Space Station will conduct a live air-to-ground talk with students of Fredricksburg High School in Texas at 12:40 p.m. EDT (11:40 a.m. CDT) Thursday, May 2. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website.

During the 20-minute event, students will be able to ask Cassidy questions about life, work and research aboard the orbiting laboratory. He began his stay on the station in March.

News media representatives are invited to attend the event, and can do so by contacting Brett Williams at brettw@fisd.org or 830-889-9588. Fredericksburg High School is located at 1107 S. State Highway 16 in Fredricksburg.

NASA activities have been incorporated into classes at the school in preparation for the conversation. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides them with an authentic, live experience of space exploration, space study, and the scientific components of space travel and possibilities of life in space.

This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning. It is an integral component of NASA's Teaching From Space education program, which promotes learning opportunities and builds partnerships with the education community using the unique environment of space and NASA's human spaceflight program.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education

For information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

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Texas Students to Speak Live With Space Station NASA Astronaut

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Pat Hynes

Soon we may be able to get student experiments manifest onto station through the CASIS lab. In October, William Gerstenmeir, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, the CASIS lab director, Jim Royston, and even the president of SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell will be coming to Las Cruces to talk about this facility. It is the beginning for taxpayers to participate in a great leap for human knowledge, started in 1984. In his State of the Union address, President Reagan stated, "A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications NASA will invite other countries to participate so we can strengthen peace,

The shuttle and the Russian Soyuz, both government developed and operated launch vehicles, ferried the construction materials and "construction worker" astronauts to space to build the ISS. In 2012, with significant private investment after nearly a billion-dollar NASA investment, the privately built Falcon 9 docked its Dragon capsule with the ISS. SpaceX is the first private American launch company to dock with ISS. President Reagan predicted this day would come. And hopefully, we will manifest a New Mexico experiment on ISS.

President Reagan, and all succeeding presidents, supported the public-private partnership for the future of space faring nations. The free world will work in space together. We are still on course. The importance of maturity is that we learn as we age. Visionaries who are builders and partners look to benefit mankind. They understand it takes partners and peace to build. We can't grow and take giant leaps in knowledge if we are at war.

The space station was a post Cold War science and engineering super project. It was a political decision. It was made, in part, to keep the Russian scientists occupied on something as prestigious as being the major builder, along with the United States, in a project of stunning magnitude. Big enough even for the Russians to agree, cooperating was better than competing with the winners of the Cold War. How did we beat the Russians? Not militarily, we beat them with capitalism. The consumer beat the Kremlin. And here is where we, the American public, the mighty consumer have a role to play - we have great power.

Did anyone notice how quickly Congress leapt into action after the air-traffic controller furloughs started on Monday. The FAA says it can shave off $200 million through the furloughs of 47,000 employees, including about 13,000 air-traffic controllers, and that it has few other places where savings can be achieved. The American consumer, the taxpayers, got furious with Congress and it took five working days to fix the problem with the air traffic controller furloughs.

I'd like the consumer - doing business as the American taxpayer, to look at building our nation through positive action. The ISS will create giant leaps in human knowledge. In 2005, Congress designated the U.S. portion of the ISS as a national laboratory. It is finally becoming possible for our students and faculty to use this laboratory facility called the Center for Science in Space - CASIS. We will take the first steps this week in discussing this option with the Las Cruces Public School leadership. Keep looking up.

Pat Hynes works at New Mexico State University for NASA directing the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium. She can be reached at 575-646-6414 or at pahynes@nmsu.edu.

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Looking up at the International Space Station

TERRAHEART Project Once again Includes Winning Art in Launch to Space

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (April 30, 2013) -- Digital images of artwork honored by the Space Foundation International Student Art Contest will travel to space this summer and take up residence aboard the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Japanese program called TERRAHEART, which sends student art, poetry and writings into space. This is the second time TERRAHEART has invited the Space Foundation to send student art and the first time the art will travel to the ISS aboard a Japanese rocket. A DVD of the images will be launched by HIIB this summer from JAXA Tanegashima Space Center, in the southern part of Japan.

The Space Foundation 2013 International Student Art Contest invited students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade from around the world to submit original artwork depicting the theme If I were Going ... , resulting in more than 4,700 entries representing 45 countries, including 38 U.S. states and territories - the largest response since the contest began three years ago. Thirty-six works of art were recognized and displayed at the recent 29th National Space Symposium, held April 8-11 in Colorado Springs.

About TERRAHEART

The TERRAHEART project works with teachers in schools and other educational institutions in Japan to stimulate discussion about the future in the context of space. Through classroom activities and interconnected websites, the project explores:

* What kinds of support do we need to help children develop and nurture their powers to live as good inhabitants of the Earth?

* For each stage of their development, how can we strengthen the links between children, their inner selves, other human beings and nature - the Earth or the universe? The connection between the Space Foundation and TERRAHEART was made by the Japan Space Forum (JSF), which coordinates an alliance of industry, government and academia for the development of Japan's aerospace industry. Operating under policies established by the Japanese government, JSF supports research proposals and implements programs to educate and enlighten the public about the aerospace industry as well as provide for the exchange and development of human resources. Space Foundation International Student Art Contest Winners Represent 12 Countries The winners of the Space Foundation International Student Art Contest, whose artwork will travel to space (organized by state and school), are:

UNITED STATES California

D-DIM Academy, Buena Park Junsu Lee, Grand Prize, 6th-8th grade; 1st Place, 6th-8th grade painting & mixed media Julie Moon, 3rd Place, 6th-8th grade painting & mixed media EDU After School, San Diego Daniel Tsivkovski, 2nd Place, Pre-K-2nd grade painting & mixed media Elite Art Academy, Palo Alto Kathleen Xue, Grand Prize, 9th-12th grade; 1st Place, 9th-12th grade drawing; Space Foundation

Achievement Award Meyerholz Elementary School, San Jose Poem Shiuey, Grand Prize, Pre-K-2nd grade; 1st Place, Pre-K-2nd grade painting & mixed media The Mirman School, Los Angeles Bryan Montenegro, 2nd Place, 3rd-5th grade digital St. James Episcopal School, Los Angeles Edwin SJ Nah, 2nd Place, 6th-8th grade painting & mixed media

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Space Foundation Student Art Headed for the International Space Station

NASA officials are confident lithium-ion batteries due to launch to the International Space Station in 2016 will not overheat like the batteries that grounded the Boeing 787 Dreamliner earlier this year.

File photo of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA The space station's existing nickel-hydrogen are up for replacement in a few years, and NASA managers selected more efficient lithium-ion batteries for the job.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne - NASA's space station battery contractor - tapped GS Yuasa Lithium Power Inc., a U.S.-based subsidiary of GS Yuasa Corp. of Japan, to supply the cells for the space station's next-generation lithium-ion batteries.

GS Yuasa is also the supplier for batteries used on the Boeing 787 airplane, which was grounded in January after batteries aboard two of the jumbo jets smoldered and caught fire.

No crew members or passengers were injured in the incidents, but one firefighter received minor injuries while responding to the fire on a Japan Airlines 787 on the ground in Boston.

Kirk Shireman, NASA's deputy space station program manager, said earlier this month that the space station batteries should not be affected by the problem.

Engineers working on the Dreamliner have devised ways Boeing says will prevent similar problems in the future, but investigators have not found the root cause of the battery overheating. The suspect batteries provide electricity to the Dreamliner's auxiliary power unit. The Dreamliner batteries include eight cells arranged in a four-by-two matrix.

Photo of the charred battery from a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner which caught fire at Boston Logan International Airport in January. Credit: NTSB Officials attributed the battery failures to "thermal runaway," where overheating in one cell can lead to the meltdown of other cells within a battery - a chain reaction which could ultimately spread beyond the battery and into other airplane systems if not extinguished.

Engineers at Boeing, GS Yuasa and Thales, one of the 787's electrical system subcontractors, redesigned the batteries to prevent overheating in one cell from cascading into other sections of the battery. The contractors beefed up the battery's casing to contain a fire.

The Dreamliner returned to commercial service Saturday with an Ethiopian Airlines flight, two days after the Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing's battery fix. Other carriers will resume Dreamliner flights over the next couple of months as national regulatory agencies grant approvals following the installation of redesigned batteries.

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NASA says space station's batteries safer than 787's

Watch the unveiling of Canada's new $5 bill, featuring space station commander Chris Hadfield.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Canada's new printed-polymer $5 bill has received the country's highest sendoff, altitude-wise, from International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield. Tuesday's currency-unveiling ceremony in space was just the latest in a series of achievements that have drawn attention to Canada's best-known spaceflier.

Hadfield already has made his mark as a photographer, a musician and composer, and an explainer of outer-space phenomena ranging fromcryingto vomiting in zero-G. There's a reason why the Bank of Canada turned to him to introduce one of the last currency notes to be converted to counterfeit-resistant polymer: One side of the $5 bill celebrates Canada's contributions to space exploration, including the space station's Canadarm2 and DEXTRE robot.

"I just want to tell you how proud I am to be able to see Canada's achievements in space highlighted on our money," Hadfield told Canadian officials via a space-to-Earth video link. Hadfield said the pictures played to Canada's strength in space robotics.

As Hadfield spoke, he plucked a bill from the wall of the station's Destiny laboratory and set it spinning in zero gravity in front of the camera. The other side of the bill has a less spacey theme: It features a portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was Canada's prime minister from 1896 to 1911.

Bank of Canada spokeswoman Julie Girard said the outer-space ceremony was "quite a few months in the making." The polymer note was flown up to the space station with Hadfield back in December, and held in reserve for Tuesday's ceremony. "We wanted to be the first to unveil a bank note in space," she told NBC News.

Bank of Canada

This rendition of the Canadian $5 bill shows Canadarm2 and DEXTRE in more detail. The bank note is to be issued in November.

Canada's new $10 note, which commemorates the country's rail system, was unveiled at the same time in Ottawa. The $5 and $10 bills will complete Canada's conversion to polymer-based currency, tricked up with transparent areas and hologram markings to make them harder to counterfeit. The Bank of Canada says these notes should last two to three times longer than the country's cotton-based paper bank notes and when they wear out, they can be traded in and recycled.

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Space station skipper gives Canada's new $5 bill an out-of-this-world debut