Aug 9 2012

From The Space Library

MEDIA ADVISORY: C12-035 NASA SELECTS CONTRACT FOR EMPLOYEE RELOCATION SERVICES

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected Franconia Real Estate Services of Woodbridge, Va., for agencywide employee relocation services effective Oct. 1. The firm-fixed price Blanket Purchase Agreement with delivery/task orders includes a one-year base period with four, one-year options. The maximum value of the Blanket Purchase Agreement (base plus options) is approximately $35 million. The contractor also will provide home marketing assistance, counseling, destination area services and property management for NASA employees who are relocating. Relocation services are available at all NASA centers and associated facilities. The contract will be managed by the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) located near Bay St. Louis, Miss.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-147 NASA TO HOLD MEDIA TELECONFERENCE ABOUT RECORD-BREAKING GALAXY CLUSTER

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Aug. 15, to discuss an extraordinary galaxy cluster that is smashing several important cosmic records. The panelists are: -- Michael McDonald, Hubble Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. -- Bradford Benson, astrophysicist, University of Chicago -- Megan Donahue, professor of astronomy, Michigan State University, East Lansing -- Martin Rees, professor of cosmology and astrophysics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

RELEASE: 12-272 NEW NASA MISSION READY TO BRAVE EARTH'S RADIATION BELTS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes (RBSP) mission will send two spacecraft into the harsh environment of our planet's radiation belts. Final preparations have begun for launch on Thursday, Aug. 23, from Florida's Space Coast. The RBSP spacecraft are designed to fly and operate in the heart of the most hazardous regions of near-Earth space to collect crucial data. The data will help researchers develop an understanding of the Van Allen radiation belts, two rings of very high energy electrons and protons that can pose hazards to human and robotic explorers. "At the end of this month we will turn our attention from planet Mars to planet Earth, both immersed in the atmosphere of our sun," said Barbara Giles, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division. "RBSP will further explore the connection of solar variability and its impacts on Earth's radiation belts." RBSP will help scientists understand how the invisible radiation belts -- named for James Van Allen, who discovered them -- behave and react to changes in the sun, thereby contributing to Earth's space weather. Space weather is caused in great part by the sun's influence on Earth and near-Earth space, including solar events such as giant eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections. "The dramatic dynamics of Earth's radiation belts caused by space weather are highly unpredictable," said Barry Mauk, RBSP project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md. "One of the fundamental objectives of the RBSP mission is to use Earth's magnetosphere as a natural laboratory to understand generally how radiation is created and evolves throughout the universe. There are many mysteries that need to be resolved." Space weather fluctuations can increase radiation exposure for pilots and passengers during polar aircraft flights. They also can disable satellites, cause power grid failures, and disrupt the Global Positioning System, television and telecommunications signals. Understanding the science of space weather will lead to better space weather predictions, which in turn will allow us to better manage and protect our technological infrastructure in space and on the ground. The spacecraft are atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket currently being prepared to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. "Everything is ready and prepared for RBSP to launch as scheduled," said Richard Fitzgerald, RBSP project manager at APL. "Both the twin spacecraft and the entire RBSP team are eager to begin their exploration of one of the most dangerous parts of space near our planet." The mission will last two years. The spacecraft, carrying the best and most comprehensive instrumentation ever sent into the radiation belts, will fly through surging and swelling belts of energized particles that would damage ordinary spacecraft. By using a pair of probes flying in highly elliptical orbits, scientists will be able to study the radiation belts over space and time, learn how particles within the belts are produced and behave during space weather events, and what mechanisms drive the acceleration of the particles. RBSP is part of NASA's Living With a Star Program to explore aspects of the connected sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society. LWS is managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. APL built the RBSP spacecraft and will manage the mission for NASA.

RELEASE: 12-274 TO THE STARS: NASA SELECTS SMALL SPACECRAFT TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION MISSIONS

WASHINGTON -- NASA has chosen three teams to advance the state of the art for small spacecraft in the areas of communications, formation flying and docking systems. The cutting-edge space technology flights are expected to take place in 2014 and 2015. All selected missions will employ nanosatellites conforming to the CubeSat standard. CubeSats are composed of four-inch, cube-shaped units with each having a volume of about one quart and a weight of approximately three pounds. CubeSats can be joined to create multiple-unit spacecraft. They readily can be accommodated as secondary payloads or rideshares on a number of space launch vehicles. "NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program is structured to advance the capabilities and technologies associated with small, low cost space missions to enhance NASA's ability to conduct more with less," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program at Headquarters in Washington. "These flights validate new space technologies and capabilities prior to infusion into NASA science and exploration applications and missions." The three missions selected for flight demonstration are: -- "Integrated Solar Array and Reflectarray Antenna (ISARA) for High Bandwidth CubeSat," Richard Hodges, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., partnering with Pumpkin Inc. of San Francisco. ISARA will demonstrate a radio communication system that dramatically boosts the amount of data that the small satellite can transmit by using the back of its solar array as a reflector for the antenna. This three-unit CubeSat will be funded at approximately $5.5 million with launch expected in two years. -- "Integrated Optical Communications and Proximity Sensors for Cubesats," Siegfried Janson, Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, Calif. This pair of 1.5-unit CubeSats will demonstrate a laser communication system for sending large amounts of information from a satellite to Earth and also demonstrate low-cost radar and optical sensors for helping small spacecraft maneuver near each other. The mission is expected to take two years and $3.6 million to develop and operate. -- "Proximity Operations Nano-Satellite Flight Demonstration," Charles MacGillivray, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems LLC of Orange, Calif. Two three-unit CubeSats will demonstrate rendezvous and mechanical docking of small spacecraft in orbit. This project is expected to take three years and approximately $13.5 million in funding to develop, launch and operate. Partners on the project include Applied Defense Solutions Inc. of Columbia, Md., 406 Aerospace LLC of Bozeman, Mont., and California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo. NASA's Small Spacecraft Technology Program is designed to identify and support the development of new subsystem technologies to enhance or expand the capabilities of small spacecraft. The program also supports flight demonstrations of new small spacecraft technologies, capabilities and applications. In addition, it supports use of small spacecraft as platforms to test and demonstrate technologies and capabilities that might have applications in spacecraft and systems of any size. NASA's Space Technology Program directs the Small Spacecraft Technology Program, which is managed by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif. NASA's Space Technology Program is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future science and exploration missions. NASA's technology investments provide cutting-edge solutions for our nation's future.

RELEASE: 12-275 NASA'S CURIOSITY BEAMS BACK A COLOR 360 OF GALE CRATER

PASADENA, Calif. -- The first images from Curiosity's color Mast Camera (Mastcam) have been received by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. The 130 low-resolution thumbnails, which were received Thursday morning, provide scientists and engineers of NASA's newest Mars rover their first color, horizon-to-horizon glimpse of Gale Crater. "After a year in cold storage, where it endured the rigors of launch, the deep space cruise to Mars and everything that went on during landing, it is great to see our camera is working as planned," said Mike Malin, principal investigator of the Mastcam instrument from Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. "As engaging as this color panorama is, it is important to note this is only one-eighth the potential resolution of images from this camera." The Curiosity team also continued to downlink high-resolution black-and-white images from its Navigation Camera (Navcam). These individual images have been stitched together to provide a high-resolution Navcam panorama, including a glimpse of the rover's deck. Evident on some portions of the deck are some small Martian pebbles. "The latest Navcam images show us the rocket engines on our descent stage kicked up some material from the surface of Mars, several pieces which ended up on our rover's deck," said Mike Watkins, mission manager for Curiosity from JPL. "These small pebbles we currently see are up to about 0.4 inches [one centimeter] in size and should pose no problems for mission operations. It will be interesting to see how long our hitchhikers stick around." Mission engineers devoted part of their third Martian day, or "Sol 3," to checking the status of four of Curiosity's science instruments after their long trip. The rover's Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer, Chemistry and Mineralogy analyzer, Sample Analysis at Mars and Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instruments were each energized and went through a preliminary checkout. The team also performed a check on the rover's second flight computer. Before landing, the mission's science team began the process of creating a geological map of about 150 square miles (390 square kilometers) within Gale Crater, including the landing area. "It is important to understand the geological context around Curiosity," said Dawn Sumner of the University of California, Davis, a member of the Curiosity science team. "We want to choose a route to Mount Sharp that makes good progress toward the destination while allowing important science observations along the way." The mapping project divided the area into 151 quadrangles of about one square mile (2.6 square kilometers) each. Curiosity landed in the quadrangle called Yellowknife. Yellowknife is the city in northern Canada that was the starting point for many of the great geological expeditions to map the oldest rocks in North America. Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on NASA's Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking rocks' elemental composition from a distance, are the first of their kind on Mars. Curiosity will use a drill and scoop, which are located at the end of its robotic arm, to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into the rover's analytical laboratory instruments. To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration Rover projects are managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at Headquarters in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter.