Sep 9 2010

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 10-180

NASA OPENS ONLINE VOTING FOR NEXT DESERT RATS EXPLORATION SITE

WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting the public to choose an area in northern Arizona where explorers will conduct part of the annual Desert Research and Technology Studies, known as Desert RATS. "Desert RATS is an annual test where NASA takes equipment and crews into the field to simulate future planetary exploration missions, said Joe Kosmo, Desert RATS manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. We want the public to be a part of this. From July 27 through Aug. 8, space enthusiasts can vote where to send the Desert RATS team, which includes engineers, scientists and astronauts. To cast your vote, visit: http://desertrats2010.arc.nasa.gov The website features interactive panoramic images of lava, rocks and desert for the public to choose as the most interesting destination to explore. The location that receives the most votes will be announced Aug. 16. Astronauts will visit that site to perform field geology and collect rock samples. The Intelligent Robotics Group (IRG) at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., took the panoramic images of terrain and geologic features in early 2009 at Black Point Lava Flow in Arizona. "It is essential to involve the public in NASA's exploration program to engage and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, said IRG Director Terry Fong. We want people of all ages to be able to actively participate, contribute and collaborate in meaningful ways to NASA's activities. The Desert Rats 2010 mission also involves field testing two space exploration vehicles, which could allow astronauts to spend two or more weeks living, working, and traveling across different planets. Astronauts will use two such vehicles to explore a lava flow and test data collection methods, communications protocols, mission operations, and advanced technology. Desert RATS is sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

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RELEASE: 10-247

NASA'S LCROSS WINS 2010 POPULAR MECHANICS BREAKTHROUGH AWARD

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, mission has won Popular Mechanics magazine's 2010 Breakthrough Award for innovation in science and technology. The sixth annual Breakthrough Awards recognize innovators and products poised to change the world in fields such as technology, medicine, aviation and environmental engineering. Honorees will be celebrated during a ceremony tonight at Hearst Tower in New York City. "The LCROSS mission truly was a technological achievement and made some game-changing discoveries in innovative ways, said S. Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., which developed and managed science operations for the LCROSS mission. We are honored by this recognition of the Ames and Northrop Grumman team that made this mission possible. LCROSS was launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) on June 18, 2009. A team at Northrop Grumman built the LCROSS spacecraft, which was outfitted with commercial off-the-shelf instruments and ruggedized for spaceflight at Ames, saving the team time and the costly development of custom instruments. NASA used the upper stage of the rocket that lofted LCROSS and LRO into lunar orbit, which would otherwise have become space debris, to impact a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole of the moon. LCROSS then flew through the dust kicked up by the impact and gathered data about what it contained. Soon after, in November 2009, the science team announced LCROSS had detected water in the dust plume in concentrations comparable to those of the Sahara Desert. The LCROSS team successfully completed the mission on time and under its $79 million budget. "We chose the LCROSS mission for a Breakthrough Award because it set a new standard for low-cost, high-impact NASA programs, said James B. Meigs, editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics. Space exploration missions are rarely cheap, but a team from Ames and Northrop Grumman proposed a scrappy way to accomplish a monumental goal -- confirming the presence of water ice on the moon. We're thrilled to recognize the LCROSS team and all of this year's honorees, who are making the seemingly impossible a reality. The individual LCROSS 2010 Breakthrough Award recipients are: - Daniel Andrews, LCROSS project manager at Ames - Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS project scientist and principal investigator at Ames - Stephen Carman, LCROSS spacecraft project manager at Northrop Grumman - Craig Elder, LCROSS spacecraft manager at Northrop Grumman "We are honored to win this award, said Steve Hixson, vice president of Advanced Concepts - Space and Directed Energy Systems for Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif. It is a significant acknowledgement of the high caliber of our engineering skills and our close partnership with Ames, which developed the LCROSS payload and conducted mission operations. It also validates our ability to build small, inexpensive spacecraft with high science value very quickly, awakening the industry and the nation to the viability of this mission class.

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RELEASE: 10-267

NASA OPEN GOVERNMENT SUMMIT EMPHASIZED DATA EXCHANGE

WASHINGTON -- NASA is working to publish more of its data sets online and create more opportunities to engage with the public using digital tools. This was a major part of the discussion during the monthly Open Government Community Summit at NASA Headquarters in Washington last week. NASA's Office of the Chief Information Officer and Office of the Chief Financial Officer hosted the meeting. The event brought leaders from both government and public sectors together to discuss transparency, participation and collaboration in an era of emerging new technologies, maturing systems and increased generation of open data. "At NASA, we understand that teams at varied locations need a way to engage in timely, technical conversations and collaborate remotely to meet mission-critical goals, said NASA's Deputy Chief Information Officer Deborah Diaz. As more data is generated, we are witnessing the emergence of new electronic tools almost daily. Agencies must look ahead to anticipate change and efficient use of new technology tools. The technical conversation was centered around how agencies could build on the successes of the Open Government Initiative. Participants discussed the future of transparency catalysts such as the government clearing-house for digital information: http://www.data.gov Participants also recognized that the Open Government Initiative requires a new approach to communication. "Technology enables and supports one to thousands of conversations, said NASA's Chief Technology Officer for IT, Chris Kemp. We're finding that if we don't stand in the way of that conversation, incredible things can happen. What set this event apart from previous Open Government summits was the collaborative element. Approximately 60 percent of the participants were not present in the room, but instead used several electronic tools to virtually attend the summit. Video streaming, cooperative note-taking, online teleconferencing and modification of conversational practices in the room, all attempted to bridge the gap between physical and virtual participants. With a "learning-by-doing approach, organizers collected many lessons learned that will help future events be even more inclusive and efficient. "The summit generated some new, innovative ideas and suggested ways to put those ideas into practice that will be of immediate use at participants' home agencies, Diaz said. Remote participants from as far away as Vienna, Austria, exchanged their expertise with others from around the globe and around the meeting room, with as many as 50 people simultaneously providing input for discussion topics. The Open Government Community Summit Series is an inter-agency collaborative event hosted monthly by a different organization. It is sponsored and managed by the Open Forum Foundation in Washington.

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RELEASE: 10-248

NASA SPONSORS REDUCED GRAVITY TECHNOLOGY TEST FLIGHTS

WASHINGTON -- NASA recently sponsored a series of flights from Ellington Field in Houston to test technologies in reduced-gravity conditions. The flights marked the third year of operations for NASA's Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology program, called FAST. The 16 research teams that participated were comprised of small businesses, university groups and NASA researchers from Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Texas and California. The teams were selected competitively based on the value of their technology to NASA and the potential to improve the technology through testing in the unique, reduced-gravity environment. "University students from Florida to California, private companies and NASA centers all participated in this latest round of technology test flights, said NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at NASA Headquarters in Washington. This commercially-provided test platform allows small technology innovators a unique way to test systems before they reach the harsh and unforgiving environment of space, providing a proving ground at the high frontier. The FAST program is designed to help reduce the risk of using new technologies during space missions. The flights also provide insight into why some technologies may fail before deploying them on a costly ride into the unforgiving environment of space. The flights were on a Boeing 727 airplane operated under contract to NASA by the Zero Gravity Corporation in Vienna, Va. They simulated the weightless environment of space and the reduced-gravity conditions of the moon. The FAST program paid for the flight time and operations while each research team secured separate funding for their technology development. The aircraft provides a series of short periods of reduced gravity lasting about 25 seconds. By repeating the maneuver, researchers obtain approximately 15 minutes of cumulative test time during each flight. Two flights with lunar gravity conditions and two flights with zero gravity conditions were conducted with approximately 10 projects and 25 to 30 researchers on each flight. The tested technologies addressed important capabilities such as using resources on the moon, assembling structures, managing space propellant depots and monitoring human performance in microgravity conditions. Demonstrating these technologies in the reduced-gravity environment helps improve their designs and reduces risk for their use in future missions. NASA's Innovative Partnerships Program has managed the FAST program for the past three years. Beginning in 2011, it will be part of the Flight Opportunities Program in NASA's new Office of the Chief Technologist in Washington. The FAST program will solicit proposals for reduced-gravity testing opportunities for three or more flight weeks per year, pending the availability of funding. The Reduced Gravity Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston supervised the test operations. NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland coordinated the preparations for the project teams.

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MEDIA ADVISORY: 10-001

NASA SETS JAN. 11 BRIEFING TO PREVIEW UPCOMING SPACEWALK, SOYUZ RELOCATION AND OTHER JANUARY SPACE STATION MILESTONES

HOUSTON -- NASA officials will discuss an upcoming spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts, the relocation of a Soyuz spacecraft to a new docking port and other International Space Station activities during a briefing at 1 p.m. CST on Monday, Jan. 11. The briefing will take place at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Reporters at participating NASA centers may ask questions. The briefing participants are: - Pete Hasbrook, Expedition 22 increment manager, Johnson Space Center - David Korth, Expedition 22 lead flight director, Johnson Space Center On Thursday, Jan. 14, Expedition 22 cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Max Suraev will don Russian spacesuits for a six-hour spacewalk. They will prepare a new docking port and airlock named Poisk for use. NASA TV coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 3:30 a.m. Kotov and Suraev are expected to exit the Pirs airlock to begin their work at 4:10 a.m. On Thursday, Jan. 21, Suraev and Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams will move their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from the Zvezda Service Module port to the new Poisk module port. NASA TV coverage of the Soyuz undocking and redocking will begin at 3:45 a.m. Briefers also will discuss the relocation of a spare parts platform on the outside of the station and the move from the Unity node to the Harmony node of the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. The adapter is used to interconnect spacecraft and modules with different docking mechanisms. Hasbrook and Korth also will discuss the first use of the Poisk module. For NASA TV downlink information, schedule information and streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

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