Nov 8 2011
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-230 NASA TO HOLD MEDIA BRIEFING ABOUT UPCOMING MARS ROVER LAUNCH
WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media briefing at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 10, to discuss the upcoming launch of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), the largest and most capable rover to be sent to another planet. The televised briefing will take place in the agency's television studio at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. S.W. in Washington. The MSL mission is scheduled to launch at 10:25 a.m. EST on Nov. 25. The launch period extends to Dec. 18. The spacecraft will deliver a car-size rover named Curiosity to the surface of Mars in August 2012. Briefing Participants are: -- Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- Ashwin Vasavada, MSL deputy project scientist, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. -- Pete Theisinger, MSL project manager, JPL
RELEASE: 11-374 NASA ADMINISTRATOR NAMES PECK AGENCY'S CHIEF TECHNOLOGIST
WASHINGTON -- NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has named Cornell University Professor Mason Peck to be the agency's chief technologist, effective in January. Peck will serve as the agency's principal advisor and advocate on matters concerning technology policy and programs. As the chief advocate, Peck will help communicate how NASA technologies benefit space missions and the day-to-day lives of Americans. The office coordinates, tracks and integrates technology investments across the agency and works to infuse innovative discoveries into future missions. The office also documents, demonstrates and communicates the societal impact of NASA's technology investments. In addition, the chief technologist leads NASA technology transfer and technology commercialization efforts, facilitating internal creativity and innovation, and works directly with other government agencies, the commercial aerospace community and academia. "Mason's lifelong commitment to learning and expertise in aerospace engineering makes him ideally suited to advise and help guide the agency toward the technologies and innovations that will enable our future missions," Bolden said. "His passion for education and his accomplishments in spacecraft design and robotics, along with his experience in the private sector, bring the skills I've come to depend on from my chief technologist." Peck will serve as NASA's chief technologist through an intergovernmental personnel agreement with Cornell University, where he is on the faculty as an associate professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He also teaches in Cornell's Systems Engineering Program. Peck succeeds Robert Braun, who returned to his teaching and research positions at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. Peck has a broad background in aerospace technology, which comes from nearly 20 years in industry and academia. He has worked with NASA as an engineer on a variety of technology programs, including the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts sponsored his academic research in modular spacecraft architectures and propellant-less propulsion, and the International Space Station currently hosts his research group's flight experiment in microchip-size spacecraft. As an engineer and consultant in the aerospace industry, he has worked with organizations including Boeing, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Goodrich and Lockheed Martin. He has authored 82 academic articles and holds 17 patents in the U.S. and European Union. Peck spent some of his early career at Bell Helicopter, where he worked on the V-22 Osprey and a smaller tilt-rotor aircraft that later would become the BA609. He also has experience with commercial communications satellites and military spacecraft as a guidance and control engineer and in mission operations at Boeing Defense, Space and Security. He was a principal fellow at Honeywell Defense and Space Electronic Systems, where he led advanced-technology programs, helped direct patent and intellectual-property investments, and worked in business development. At Cornell, Peck's work focuses on spacecraft dynamics, control and mission architectures. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and aerospace contractors have funded his academic research. Some of this research includes microscale flight dynamics, gyroscopic robotics, and magnetically controlled spacecraft, most of which have been demonstrated on NASA microgravity flights. He currently is the principal investigator on the CUSat in-orbit inspection technology demonstration, which is a pair of satellites built at Cornell. They are scheduled to launch in 2013 on a Falcon 9 rocket through the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's University Nanosatellite Program. CUSat technology represents a capability that will help enable commercial, government and human space missions envisioned for the coming decades. Peck also is the principal investigator for the Violet experiment, another satellite built at Cornell. Violet will provide an orbiting test bed for investigations in technology that will enable more capable commercial earth-imaging satellites. Violet carries an ultraviolet spectrometer that will be used as a precursor to understanding exoplanet atmospheres. Peck earned a doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles as a Howard Hughes Fellow and a master's degree in English literature from the University of Chicago.
RELEASE: 11-376 NASA PROPOSES ORION SPACECRAFT TEST FLIGHT IN 2014 Agency Moves to Implement Deep Space Exploration Plan
WASHINGTON -- NASA plans to add an unmanned flight test of the Orion spacecraft in early 2014 to its contract with Lockheed Martin Space Systems for the multi-purpose crew vehicle's design, development, test and evaluation. This test supports the new Space Launch System (SLS) that will take astronauts farther into space than ever before, create U.S. jobs, and provide the cornerstone for America's future human spaceflight efforts. "President Obama and Congress have laid out an ambitious space exploration plan, and NASA is moving out quickly to implement it," NASA Associate Administrator for Communications David Weaver said. "This flight test will provide invaluable data to support the deep space exploration missions this nation is embarking upon." This Exploration Flight Test, or EFT-1, will fly two orbits to a high-apogee, with a high-energy re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. Orion will make a water landing and be recovered using operations planned for future human exploration missions. The test mission will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to acquire critical re-entry flight performance data and demonstrate early integration capabilities that benefit the Orion, SLS, and 21st Century Ground Systems programs. The agency has posted a synopsis explaining its intention on NASA's procurement website. "The entry part of the test will produce data needed to develop a spacecraft capable of surviving speeds greater than 20,000 mph and safely return astronauts from beyond Earth orbit," Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier said. "This test is very important to the detailed design process in terms of the data we expect to receive." NASA also intends to release several competitive solicitations to industry in the near future. One solicitation will request proposals for the design, development, test and evaluation of a new advanced liquid or solid booster capability for the SLS. Another future contract NASA intends to compete will be for the development of spacecraft, and payload adaptors and fairings for crew and cargo missions. The competition and award dates for these will be determined as missions are identified. NASA is developing the Orion spacecraft to launch astronauts to asteroids, the moon, Mars and other destinations atop SLS, the agency's new heavy launch vehicle. An early orbital flight test such as EFT-1 will provide data needed to influence design decisions and serve as a pathfinder to validate innovative new approaches to space systems development. The goal is to reduce the cost and schedule risks of exploration missions.
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