Feb 1 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-037 NASA GLENN TO HOST TWEETUP CELEBRATING 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST AMERICAN TO ORBIT EARTH

CLEVELAND -- NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland will host a special event on March 2 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's first orbital flight by an American. NASA also will invite 100 people for a behind-the-scenes Tweetup at GRC in advance of the celebration event. The Tweetup activities begin at 7:30 a.m. EST with a tour of Glenn's world-class flight research and ground test facilities that support aeronautics and space exploration. Participants will speak with scientists and engineers about technologies being investigated and developed. Following the tours, the Tweetup will move to downtown Cleveland for the Glenn tribute event. "Celebrating John Glenn's Legacy: 50 years of Americans in Orbit," will be held at 1 p.m. at Cleveland State University's Wolstein Center. The program will include a video tribute and remarks by Glenn and agency and political officials. Tweetup participants also will meet astronaut Greg "Box" Johnson and other special guests. On March 1, 1999, the Lewis Research Center was officially renamed the NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in recognition of Glenn's contributions to science, space and the State of Ohio. As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Glenn trained in 1960 at Lewis in the Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility. Today, the center's research and technology development work focuses on air-breathing propulsion; communications; in-space propulsion and cryogenic fluids management; power, energy storage and conversion; materials and structures for extreme environments; and physical sciences and biomedical technologies in space. Tweetup registration opens at noon on Friday, Feb. 3, and closes at noon on Monday, Feb. 6. NASA will select 100 total participants, including Twitter followers and their guests, by lottery from those who register online. Because Glenn is a government facility with restricted access, the event is open only to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

RELEASE: 12-039 NASA RECEIVES FINAL NRC REPORT ON SPACE TECHNOLOGY ROADMAPS

WASHINGTON -- NASA has received the National Research Council (NRC) report "NASA Space Technology Roadmaps and Priorities," which provides the agency with findings and recommendations on where best to invest in technologies needed to enable NASA's future missions in space. The NRC report will help define NASA's technology development priorities in the years to come. One year ago, NASA provided 14 draft space technology area roadmaps to the NRC and asked the council to examine and prioritize technologies for the agency. The technologies were prioritized in each of the 14 areas and then across all categories. The report finalizes the NRC's review and identifies 16 top-priority technologies necessary for NASA's future missions, which also could benefit American aerospace industries and the nation. The 16 were chosen by the NRC from its own ranking of 83 high-priority technologies out of approximately 300 identified in the roadmaps. "The report strongly reaffirms the vital importance of technology development to enable the agency's future missions and grow the nation's new technology economy," said Mason Peck, chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The report confirms the value of our technology development strategy to date. NASA currently invests in all of the highest-priority technologies and will study the report and adjust its investment portfolio as needed." The technology priorities the report identifies are aligned with NASA missions to extend and sustain human activities beyond low Earth orbit, explore the evolution of the solar system and the potential for life elsewhere, and expand our un?derstanding of Earth and the universe in which we live. The report observes that "technological breakthroughs have been the foundation of virtually every NASA success. In addition, technological advances have yielded benefits far beyond space itself in down-to-Earth applications." It also states "future U.S. leadership in space requires a foundation of sustained technology advances." During the coming months, NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist will lead an agency-wide analysis and coordination effort to update the 14 technology area roadmaps with the NRC report's findings and recommendations.

RELEASE: 12-040 NASA SPACECRAFT RETURNS FIRST VIDEO FROM FAR SIDE OF THE MOON

WASHINGTON -- A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study. GRAIL consists of two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb and Flow, each of which is equipped with a MoonKAM. The images were taken as part of a test of Ebb's MoonKAM on Jan. 19. The GRAIL project plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date. In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560 mile-wide (900 kilometer) impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side. The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93 mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact. "The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. The twin spacecraft successfully achieved lunar orbit last New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Previously named GRAIL-A and -B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft received their new names from fourth graders at the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., following a nationwide student-naming contest. Thousands of fourth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego. Photos of the target areas will be sent back by the satellites for students to study. The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. Her team at Sally Ride Science and undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego will engage middle schools across the country in the GRAIL mission and lunar exploration. GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission carrying instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach. "We have had great response from schools around the country, more than 2,500 signed up to participate so far," Ride said. "In mid-March, the first pictures of the moon will be taken by students using MoonKAM. I expect this will excite many students about possible careers in science and engineering." Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow periodically perform trajectory correction maneuvers that, over time, will lower their orbits to near-circular ones with an altitude of about 34 miles (55 kilometers). During their science mission, the duo will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-019 EAST COAST STUDENTS TO SPEAK LIVE WITH SPACE STATION COMMANDER

WASHINGTON -- Students participating in a U.S. Coast Guard Academy mentoring program will speak with Expedition 30 Commander Dan Burbank aboard the International Space Station at 11:15 EST on Thursday, Feb. 2. Burbank, a NASA astronaut and retired Coast Guard captain, will talk to kindergarten through 12th-grade students about life on the space station. The event, hosted by the academy, will be broadcast live on NASA Television and include video of Burbank in the live question-and-answer session. The mentored students, accompanied by their Coast Guard cadet mentors, will participate from five schools across the Eastern seaboard, including Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut in New London, Conn.; The Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology in Baltimore; Coretta Scott King Young Women's Leadership Academy High School in Atlanta; Key Biscayne K-8 Center in Miami; and Maritime and Science Academy, also in Miami. Through the guidance of their mentors, students are learning about space and preparing for this interactive event. Burbank and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin arrived at the station Nov. 15. NASA's Don Pettit, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers joined the crew on Dec. 23. This in-flight education downlink is one in a series with educational organizations in the United States and abroad to improve 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. The exact time of the downlink could change.