Sep 2 2015

From The Space Library

Release M15-133 NASA TV to Air Grand Opening of Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will participate in the grand opening of The Boeing Company’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Friday, Sept. 4. The event will air live on NASA Television beginning at 10 a.m. EDT.

Boeing, one of two companies under contract with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program to restore America’s ability to launch crews to the International Space Station from the United States, will debut the modernization of the former space shuttle Orbiter Processing Facility-3, which now is home to Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft. Inside, there are more than 150 pieces of hardware, as well as the structural test article and service module that together will be used to prove the design Boeing is developing to accomplish flight tests and crew missions to the space station.

Additional participants are:

• Robert Cabana, director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center
• Chris Ferguson, deputy manager of the Commercial Crew Program, Operations, Boeing
• John Elbon, vice president and general Manager of Space Exploration, Boeing
• John Mulholland, vice president of Commercial Programs, Boeing
• U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-Florida)
• Florida Governor Rick Scott (R-Florida)

Through a 2011 land-use agreement between Kennedy and Space Florida, a state economic development agency, the former space shuttle hangar has been transformed to support Boeing’s clean-floor factory-like concept for processing the CST-100. Kennedy has transitioned more than 50 facilities for commercial use over the past few years as the space center has evolved to a multi-user spaceport.

Release 15-180 NASA Soil Moisture Radar Ends Operations, Mission Science Continues

Mission managers for NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory have determined that its radar, one of the satellite’s two science instruments, can no longer return data. However, the mission, which was launched in January to map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed, continues to produce high-quality science measurements supporting SMAP’s objectives with its radiometer instrument.

The SMAP mission is designed to help scientists understand the links between Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards like floods and droughts. SMAP remains an important data source to aid Earth system modeling and studies. SMAP data have additional practical applications, including improved weather forecasting and crop yield predictions.

The SMAP spacecraft continues normal operations and the first data release of soil moisture products is expected in late September.

"Although some of the planned applications of SMAP data will be impacted by the loss of the radar, the SMAP mission will continue to produce valuable science for important Earth system studies," said Dara Entekhabi, SMAP Science Team lead at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

On July 7, SMAP’s radar stopped transmitting due to an anomaly involving the radar's high-power amplifier (HPA). The HPA is designed to boost the power level of the radar's pulse to more than 500 watts, ensuring the energy scattered from Earth's surface can be accurately measured.

The SMAP project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, formed an anomaly team to investigate the HPA issue and determine whether normal operation could be recovered. A series of diagnostic tests and procedures was performed on both the spacecraft and on the ground using flight spare parts.

Following an unsuccessful attempt on Aug. 24 to power up the radar unit, the project had exhausted all identified possible options for recovering nominal operation of the HPA and concluded the radar is likely not recoverable.

NASA has appointed a mishap investigation board to conduct a comprehensive review of the circumstances that led to the HPA anomaly in order to determine how the anomaly occurred and how such events can be prevented on future missions. JPL also will convene a separate failure review board that will work with the NASA investigation.

SMAP was launched Jan. 31 and began its science mission in April, releasing its first global maps of soil moisture on April 21. To date, the mission has collected more than four months of science data, almost three months with the radar operating. SMAP scientists plan to release beta-quality soil moisture data products at the end of September, with validated data planned for release in April 2016.

SMAP's radar allowed the mission's soil moisture and freeze-thaw measurements to be resolved to smaller regions of Earth – about 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) for soil moisture and 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) for freeze-thaw. Without the radar, the mission's resolving power will be limited to regions of almost 25 miles (40 kilometers) for soil moisture and freeze-thaw. The mission will continue to meet its requirements for soil moisture accuracy and will produce global soil moisture maps every two to three days.

SMAP’s active radar and passive radiometer instruments are designed to complement each other and mitigate the limitations of each measurement alone. The radar enabled high-resolution measurements of up to 1.9 miles, but with lower accuracy for sensing surface soil moisture. In contrast, the microwave radiometer is more accurate in its measurements but has lower resolution of about 25 miles. By combining the active and passive measurements, SMAP was designed to estimate soil moisture at a resolution of 5.6 miles.

The nearly three months of coincident measurements by the two instruments are a first of their kind. The combined data set allows scientists to assess the benefit of this type of combined measurement approach for future missions. Scientists now are developing algorithms to produce a freeze-thaw data product at 25-mile resolution from the radiometer data. They also are evaluating whether the 25-mile radiometer soil moisture resolution can be improved.

Based on the available SMAP mission data, scientists have identified other useful science measurements that can be derived from the radiometer data, such as sea surface salinity and high winds over the ocean surface. Over the next several months, the SMAP project and NASA will work to determine how to implement these new measurements into the project's data products.

SMAP is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, with instrument hardware and science contributions made by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. JPL built the spacecraft and is responsible for project management, system engineering, radar instrumentation, mission operations and the ground data system. Goddard is responsible for the radiometer instrument and science data products.

Release M15-132 Three Space Station Crews to Answer Media Questions from Orbit

Nine International Space Station crew members will discuss their mission with reporters from around the world during a joint crew news conference to air live on NASA Television at 10:10 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 8.

This will be the first time since November 2013 that nine crew members are aboard the station simultaneously.

The nine crew members represent five different space agencies:

• NASA’s Scott Kelly, one-year crew member and Expedition 45 commander, and Kjell Lindgren, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer
• Russian Federal Space Agency’s (Roscosmos’) Gennady Padalka, Expedition 44 commander; Mikhail Kornienko, one-year crew member; Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 44/45 Flight Engineer; and Sergey Volkov, Expedition 45/46 flight engineer
• Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Kimiya Yui, Expedition 44/45 flight engineer
• ESA’s (European Space Agency) Andreas Mogensen, visiting crew member
• Kazakh Space Agency’s Aidyn Aimbetov, visiting crew member

The news conference, arranged in coordination with NASA's international partner agencies, will last 45 minutes and feature questions from U.S., Russian, European and Japanese media. Each partner agency will have 10 minutes for questions. Because of the limited time available, all U.S. media will be required to ask their questions in person at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston or NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. International media accreditation for this event is closed for participation from NASA’s centers. Interested international media should contact partner agencies for more information.

To apply for accreditation at the Johnson Space Center, journalists must call Johnson's newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Sept. 8.

To apply for accreditation at Kennedy, U.S. media without permanent center credentials must apply for accreditation by 2 p.m. Monday, Sept. 7. Two forms of government-issued identification are required to receive a badge. One must be with a photograph such as a driver’s license or passport. Badges will be available for pickup at the Kennedy Badging Office, located on State Road 405 east of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Hours for the Kennedy Badging Office are 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Questions about accreditation may be addressed to Jennifer Horner at 321-867-6598 or jennifer.p.horner@nasa.gov.

Release M15-131 NASA Discusses First Ground Tournament Prizes in Cube Quest Challenge

Media are invited to talk with the five top competitors from the first round of the Cube Quest Challenge during a teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 9.

Each of the five teams was awarded $20,000 in prize money during the first of four Cube Quest ground tournaments. The ground tournaments are a series of competition checkpoints that allow the judges to review the teams' progress, and give teams the opportunity to win prize money for achieving milestones, which in turn helps them to continue in the competition.

The briefing participants are:

• Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Monsi Roman, Centennial Challenges Program manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama
• Jim Cockrell, Cube Quest Challenge manager at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California
• Representatives from each of the five teams receiving prize money for Ground Tournament 1 in the Cube Quest Challenge

For dial-in information, media should email their name, affiliation and telephone number to janet.l.anderson@nasa.gov no later than 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8. Questions also can be submitted via Twitter during the teleconference using the hashtag #askNASA.

Release 15-181 Soyuz Heads to Space Station with New Crew, Return Transportation for One-Year Mission Team

Three crew members representing Russia, Denmark and Kazakhstan have launched to the International Space Station to provide a new ride home for the station’s one-year crew and continue important research that advances NASA's journey to Mars.

Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency launched aboard Soyuz TMA-18M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (10:37 a.m. in Baikonur). They are set to dock to the station at 3:42 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 3 a.m.

At 2:40 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, NASA TV will provide a live broadcast as Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscomos hands over command of the space station to Expedition 44 Flight Engineer Scott Kelly of NASA. Expedition 45 begins on Sept. 11 when Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov undock from the orbital outpost in the Soyuz spacecraft designated TMA-16M and return to Earth. The Soyuz TMA-16M carried Padalka, Kelly, and Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko to space in March. Because each Soyuz remains in orbit for about six months, the spacecraft swap is necessary at the midway point of the one-year mission.

With the arrival of Volkov, Mogensen and Aimbetov, nine people will be aboard the orbiting laboratory for the first time since 2013. The three join Expedition 44 Flight Engineers Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Commander Padalka and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

On Tuesday, Sept. 15, Kelly and Kornienko will reach the halfway point of their one-year mission to advance understanding of the medical and psychological challenges astronauts face during long duration spaceflight, in addition to developing countermeasures that will help minimize adverse effects. The pair will spend 342 consecutive days living in space before returning to Earth with Volkov in March 2016 aboard the Soyuz TMA-18M.

In the coming months, Expedition 45 crew members will conduct more than 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.

The recently installed CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) searches for dark matter, measures cosmic rays and observes sources of high-energy phenomena in the galaxy. CALET seeks answers for several unknowns, including the origin of cosmic rays, how cosmic rays accelerate and move across the galaxy, and the existence of dark matter and its relation to nearby cosmic ray sources. Once scientists take an inventory of the highest-energy radiation in space, they may be able to characterize the radiation environment experienced by humans and encountered by space electronics. This may help determine risk of exposure to this type of radiation.

Ongoing station research also includes the Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 JAXA (FLEX-2J), a study of combustion in microgravity. Fires burn differently in space, where fuels form spherical droplets and flames burn in a globular shape rather than teardrop. The crew studies the interactions of flames on the motion and ignition, or non-ignition, of millimeter-sized droplets. Results could provide key insights and improve computer modeling of fuel combustion to aid in reducing emissions and improving fuel efficiency in space and on Earth.

During the second half of the marathon one-year mission, the team will continue a wide variety of human research studies, such as the Assessing Telomere Lengths and Telomerase Activity in Astronauts (Telomeres). Telomeres are "caps" on the ends of chromosomes that protect them from fraying, much like the aglet on the end of a shoelace. Telomeres shorten over time, and the rate at which this occurs can be increased by stress, leading to accelerated aging, cardiovascular disease, cancer and an impaired immune system. The Telomeres investigation uses crew member blood samples to examine how telomeres and telomerase, an enzyme that maintains the length of telomeres, are affected by space travel and to better evaluate the impact of future spaceflight.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. It has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and, since then, has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next giant leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

NASA Ames Remembers Hurricane Katrina Assistance

One decade later, employees at NASA’s Ames Research Center are reflecting on Hurricane Katrina and the ways they reached out to help fellow employees at NASA’s Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility, who were impacted by what the National Weather Service (NWS) has described as “one of the most devastating hurricanes in the history of the United States.”

Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005. At the storm’s strongest point, NWS labeled it a “Category 5” hurricane, which is classified as the highest intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Many employees who were displaced by the storm sought refuge at their workplaces, Stennis in Mississippi and Michoud near New Orleans. Yvonne Pendleton, now director of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI), said Ames employees were worried after seeing the catastrophic damage in Southeastern Texas and New Orleans. Despite downed phone lines and initially no way to communicate with employees at Stennis, “workers at Ames immediately decided to find ways to help,” said Pendleton. “No one asked us,” she said. “We just did it. I think it was a meaningful thing for all of us. It was a ‘pay it forward’ kind of thing.”

Pendleton recalls that Ames employees donated 2,000 pounds of goods, including nonperishable food, kitchen utensils, towels and items for babies, like bottles and diapers. She said a coworker knew someone with a truck, who was headed to the southeast, so he was able to arrange to drop off the products at Stennis.

Leaders at Ames, Yvonne Pendleton and Wendy Dolci (now retired), matched 40 Ames volunteers with families from Stennis and the Michoud facility who were in need of supplies. They worked with Diane Sims at Stennis to find families with children of the same ages, or some common interest, with the Ames families. Pendleton connected with Gloria Otis and her mother, whose “house was completely washed away by the storm and ended up living in a FEMA trailer for more than two years.”

Many of the Ames volunteers stayed in touch with their Stennis families long after the initial devastation had passed. Pendleton said Otis and she remained close for several years, including during another storm that hit nearby a few years later. In 2008, while on detail to NASA Headquarters, Pendleton was sent to Stennis for a business trip. There she met Sims, as well as several of the families who had received help.

Sims reported that as a result of the outreach Ames employees made to Stennis and Michoud families during Katrina, those families then paid it forward themselves, extended a helping hand to families at NASA’s Johnson Space Center during a devastating storm in their region a few years later.

Some Ames employees had a more direct hand in the emergency response. Ames’s Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) provided support in four areas: search and rescue, emergency communications support, water purification support, and disaster recovery operations support. Ian Vines, a structural carpenter and member of DART, was a member of the four-person crew who drove a large truck, which towed a water purification unit from Mountain View, California, to Stennis and then moved on to Michoud.

“I stepped up to do it,” said Vines. “Emergency response. That’s what I love to do. If I hadn’t gotten approval to do it, I would’ve gone anyway.”

At the end of the three-day trek from California, Vines said, he was amazed by some of the things he saw. He said at Michoud some of the walls were breached, so water would roll in and, along with it, alligators. People were advised not to walk anywhere alone, in case of emergency. Dead animals blocked the roads, and clothes and other items were strewn along the ground.

Many of “the people working there were stuck there and trying to figure out somewhere to go,” said Vines, who described it as one of the most emotional experiences of his life. “You got some breakdowns and crying at night, said Vines, “but people held on.”

When Vines arrived, Michoud’s water tower was empty. DART members continuously pumped water from the ocean and purified it to make it potable. Vines said making the water safe to drink was essential for getting “the base back up and going.”

In the month he was there, Vines says he learned a lot. “It was a wake up call; I know I don’t have to worry about a hurricane or a flood like that one, but there are earthquakes.”

“For me, it was a blessing to go out there. I wanted to help. It could be my mother or uncle or anybody who needs help next,” said Vines.