Jul 17 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-237 NASA CONDUCTS MISSION SIMULATIONS IN HAWAII

HILO, Hawaii -- NASA is conducting a nine-day field test starting Tuesday outside Hilo, Hawaii, to evaluate new exploration techniques for the surface of the moon. These mission simulations, known as analog missions, are performed at extreme and often remote Earth locations to prepare for robotic and human missions to extraterrestrial destinations. The In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) analog mission is a collaboration of NASA partners, primarily the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), with help from the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES). The ISRU analog mission will demonstrate techniques to prospect for lunar ice. The testing site near Hilo features lava-covered mountain soil similar to the ancient volcanic plains on the moon. The two main tests under way are the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) and Moon Mars Analog Mission Activities (MMAMA). The demonstration includes CSA's Artemis Jr. rover and a drill. These devices support the NASA RESOLVE payload. RESOLVE is designed to prospect for water, ice and other lunar resources. It also will demonstrate how future explorers can take advantage of resources at potential landing sites. The rover and its onboard instrumentation are about as tall as a human and weigh about 660 pounds, three times heavier than the equipment that would be used on an actual mission. MMAMA is a group of small projects and tests that will define the requirements for navigation, mobility, communications, sample processing, curating and other critical elements that could be used in future science and exploration missions. Using another CSA rover, Juno, and payload interfaces, the MMAMA suite of tests includes analysis of regolith using pryolysis (which is breaking down the samples by heating them), robotic resource mapping, a miniaturized Mossbauer spectrometer, and a combined miniaturized Mossbauer and X-Ray fluorescence spectrometer. A team of engineers and researchers will monitor all of the tests from a mission control set up in Hawaii. Lessons learned from the ISRU project will become increasingly important as NASA embarks on deep-space missions. Instead of having to launch from Earth with all the supplies needed, a human crew could go into space knowing that natural resources already are waiting for them.

RELEASE: 12-236 NASA HYPERSONIC INFLATABLE TECH TEST SET FOR VIRGINIA LAUNCH JULY 21

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. -- NASA Space Technology Program researchers will launch and deploy a large inflatable heat shield aboard a rocket travelling at hypersonic speeds this weekend during a technology demonstration test from the agency's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. NASA has four consecutive days of launch opportunities for the agency's Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3), starting July 21, with the liftoff window from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. EDT each day. The test is designed to demonstrate lightweight, yet strong, inflatable structures that could become practical tools for exploration of other worlds or as a way to return items safely to Earth from the International Space Station. During this technology demonstration test flight, NASA's IRVE-3 payload will try to re-enter Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic speeds -- Mach 5, or 3,800 mph to 7,600 mph. "As we investigate new ways to bring cargo back to Earth from the International Space Station and innovative ways to land larger payloads safely on Mars, it's clear we need to invest in new technologies that will enable these goals," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. "IRVE-3 is precisely the sort of cross-cutting technology NASA's Space Technology Program should mature to make these future NASA and commercial space endeavors possible." The IRVE-3 experiment will fly aboard a three-stage Black Brant XI launch vehicle for its suborbital flight. The payload and the heat shield, which looks like a large, uninflated cone of inner tubes, will be packed inside the rocket's 22-inch-diameter nose cone. About six minutes after launch, the rocket will climb to an altitude of about 280 miles over the Atlantic Ocean. At that point, the 680-pound IRVE-3 will separate from the rocket. An inflation system similar to air tanks used by scuba divers will pump nitrogen gas into the IRVE-3 aeroshell until it becomes almost 10 feet in diameter. Instruments on board, including pressure sensors and heat flux gauges, as well as cameras, will provide data to engineers on the ground of how well the inflated heat shield performs during the force and heat of entry into Earth's atmosphere. After its flight, IRVE-3 will fall into the Atlantic Ocean about 350 miles down range from Wallops. From launch to splash down, the flight is expected to take approximately 20 minutes. "We originally came up with this concept because we'd like to be able to land more mass and access higher altitudes on Mars," said Neil Cheatwood, IRVE-3 principal investigator at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. "To do so you need more drag. We're seeking to maximize the drag area of the entry system. We want to make it as big as we can. The limitation with current technology has been the launch vehicle diameter." Cheatwood and a team of NASA engineers and technicians have spent the last three years addressing the technical challenges of materials withstanding the heat created by atmospheric entry and preparing for the IRVE-3 flight. The team has studied designs, assessed materials in laboratories and wind tunnels, and subjected hardware to thermal and pressure loads beyond what the inflatable spacecraft technology should face during flight. This test is a follow on to the successful IRVE-2, which showed an inflatable heat shield could survive intact after coming through Earth's atmosphere. IRVE-3 is the same size as IRVE-2, but has a heavier payload and will be subjected to a much higher reentry heat. IRVE-3 is part of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) Project within the Game Changing Development Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Program. Langley developed and manages the IRVE-3 and HIAD projects.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-131 BRIEFING TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS EARTH OBSERVATIONS

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. EDT, Monday, July 23, to highlight the accomplishments of the world's longest-running Earth-observing satellite program -- Landsat. The briefing will be held at the Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, and feature extensive imagery of our changing planet and local U.S. landscapes. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and its science agency, USGS, NASA launched the first Landsat satellite July 23, 1972. The resulting 40-year archive of Earth observations from the Landsat fleet forms an impartial, comprehensive, and easily accessed register of human and natural changes on the land. This information supports the improvement of human and environmental health, biodiversity, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and crop monitoring. During the briefing, NASA and USGS will announce the 10 most significant images from the Landsat record, the U.S. regions selected for the "My American Landscape" contest showing local environmental changes, and the top five Landsat "Earth As Art" images selected in an online poll. The panelists for the briefing are: -- Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington -- Waleed Abdalati, chief scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- Jeff Masek, NASA Landsat project scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -- Tom Loveland, USGS senior scientist, Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center, Sioux Falls, S.D. -- Jim Irons, Landsat Data Continuity Mission project scientist, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -- Roger Auch, research geographer, EROS Center, Sioux Falls, S.D..

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-133 NASA HOLDS BRIEFINGS TO PREVIEW SPACE STATION EXPEDITIONS

HOUSTON -- NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will hold two briefings Thursday, July 26, to preview the upcoming Expedition 33 and 34 missions aboard the International Space Station. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the briefings live. At 11 a.m. CDT, the International Space Station Program and Science Overview briefing will cover mission priorities and objectives, which include hundreds of research experiments, a Russian spacewalk, international and commercial cargo deliveries to the complex and a commercial cargo demonstration flight. The briefing participants include: - Dan Hartman, International Space Station manager, operations and integration - Chris Edelen, Expedition 34 lead flight director - Julie Robinson, International Space Station program scientist At 1 p.m., Expedition 33/34 crew members Kevin Ford of NASA and Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency will discuss their mission. They are set to launch to the space station aboard the Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft Oct. 15 and return to Earth in March 2013. Ford, Tarelkin and Novitskiy are three of the six crew members comprising Expeditions 33 and 34. When they arrive at the station, they will join NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. Following the news conference, interview opportunities with the crew members are available in person, by phone or through Internet videoconferencing.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-134 NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR LAUNCH, CAPTURE OF JAPANESE CARGO SHIP

HOUSTON -- NASA Television coverage of the launch and arrival of an unpiloted cargo spacecraft to supply the International Space Station will begin at 8:15 p.m. CDT, Friday, July 20. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) "Kounotori 3" H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV-3, is set to launch at 9:06 p.m. July 20 (11:06 a.m. Japan time on July 21) from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. The 16.5-ton HTV-3 is carrying almost 4 tons of supplies and experiment hardware. It will launch atop an H-IIB rocket. The launch will begin a weeklong journey to the station. NASA TV coverage of Kounotori 3's approach to the station will begin at 6 a.m. Friday, July 27. The cargo spacecraft will be commanded to fly within about 40 feet while Expedition 32 Flight Engineers Joe Acaba of NASA and Aki Hoshide of JAXA use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to grapple the vehicle and berth it to a docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node. Grapple and berthing are scheduled for around 7 a.m.