Mar 11 2010

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 10-071

NASA MARS SPACECRAFT SNAPS PHOTOS CHOSEN BY PUBLIC

WASHINGTON -- The most powerful camera aboard a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has returned the first pictures of locations on the Red Planet suggested by the public. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, is nicknamed, the people's camera. Through a program called HiWish that began in January, scientists have received approximately 1,000 suggestions. The first eight images of areas the public selected are available online at: http://uahirise.org/releases/hiwish-captions.php "NASA's Mars program is a prime example of what we call participatory exploration, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said. To allow the public to aim a camera at a specific site on a distant world is an invaluable teaching tool that can help educate and inspire our youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and math. Since 2006, HiRISE has obtained approximately 13,000 observations covering dozens of square miles, including areas from a student-suggestion program called NASA Quest. However, only about 1 percent of the Martian surface has been photographed. The public is encouraged to recommend sites for the other 99 percent. To make a suggestion, visit: http://uahirise.org/hiwish NASA has provided other opportunities for the public to see and explore Mars. A camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor imaged 1,086 targets suggested through a public-request program from 2003 until 2006. Launched on Nov. 7, 1996, the probe pioneered the use of aerobraking at Mars and mapped the surface. The original one-year mission was extended four times until November 2006. "Some people get into model railroading or Civil War re-enactments. My thing is exploring Mars, said James Secosky, a retired teacher in Manchester, N.Y., who suggested an area for HiRISE imaging after he examined online images from other Mars-orbiting cameras. Another camera aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has taken nearly 500 images after receiving approximately 1,400 suggestions through a public-request program initiated in 2009. Odyssey has been orbiting Mars since 2001. It serves as a communications relay for Mars rovers as well as making its own observations and discoveries. HiRISE is one of six instruments on MRO. Launched in August 2005, the orbiter reached Mars the following year to begin a two-year primary science mission. The spacecraft has found that Mars has had diverse wet environments at many locations for differing durations in the planet's history, and Martian climate-change cycles persist into the present era. The mission is in an extended science phase. The spacecraft will continue to take several thousand images a year. The mission has returned more data about Mars than all other spacecraft to the Red Planet combined. "What we hope is that people become more interested in science and appreciate this opportunity to explore another world, said Alfred McEwen, principal investigator for the camera at the University of Arizona in Tucson. We appreciate fresh thinking outside the box and look for things we may not have chosen otherwise. It's good to have a lot of eyes on Mars. The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

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CONTRACT RELEASE: C10-054

NASA AWARDS INFRARED SOUNDER CONTRACT FOR FIRST JPSS SPACECRAFT

WASHINGTON -- NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has awarded a sole source contract to ITT Corporation of Ft. Wayne, Ind. The award is for the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) instrument planned for flight on the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) in 2014. JPSS is the restructured civilian portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). This includes the satellites and sensors supporting civil weather and climate measurements and a shared ground infrastructure with the Department of Defense weather satellite system. NASA is the procurement agent for these assets, and the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is the lead for acquisition for the program. This is a cost-reimbursement contract of approximately $98.6 million, with a period of performance through September 2014. Under this contract, ITT will manufacture, test and deliver the CrIS, support instrument integration on JPSS-1, and provide launch and post-launch support. The instrument will be identical to the CrIS planned for flight on the NPOESS Preparatory Project mission. CrIS is the first in a series of advanced operational instruments that will provide detailed atmospheric temperature and moisture observations for weather and climate applications. This high-spectral resolution infrared instrument will measure atmospheric temperatures, water vapor and trace gases. Forecasters use the data in computer models to improve global and regional predictions of weather patterns, storm tracks and precipitation. This information will significantly improve climate prediction and short- and long-term weather forecasting.

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RELEASE: 10-024

NOW A STATIONARY RESEARCH PLATFORM, NASA'S MARS ROVER SPIRIT STARTS A NEW CHAPTER IN RED PLANET SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

WASHINGTON -- After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful. The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several months to years. "Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life, said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit's current location on Mars will be its final resting place. Ten months ago, as Spirit was driving south beside the western edge of a low plateau called Home Plate, its wheels broke through a crusty surface and churned into soft sand hidden underneath. After Spirit became embedded, the rover team crafted plans for trying to get the six-wheeled vehicle free using its five functioning wheels -the sixth wheel quit working in 2006, limiting Spirit's mobility. The planning included experiments with a test rover in a sandbox at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., plus analysis, modeling and reviews. In November, another wheel quit working, making a difficult situation even worse. Recent drives have yielded the best results since Spirit became embedded. However, the coming winter mandates a change in strategy. It is mid-autumn at the solar-powered robot's home on Mars. Winter will begin in May. Solar energy is declining and expected to become insufficient to power further driving by mid-February. The rover team plans to use those remaining potential drives for improving the rover's tilt. Spirit currently tilts slightly toward the south. The winter sun stays in the northern sky, so decreasing the southward tilt would boost the amount of sunshine on the rover's solar panels. "We need to lift the rear of the rover, or the left side of the rover, or both, said Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL. Lifting the rear wheels out of their ruts by driving backward and slightly uphill will help. If necessary, we can try to lower the front right of the rover by attempting to drop the right-front wheel into a rut or dig it into a hole. At its current angle, Spirit probably would not have enough power to keep communicating with Earth through the Martian winter. Even a few degrees of improvement in tilt might make enough difference to enable communication every few days. "Getting through the winter will all come down to temperature and how cold the rover electronics will get, said John Callas, project manager at JPL for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. Every bit of energy produced by Spirit's solar arrays will go into keeping the rover's critical electronics warm, either by having the electronics on or by turning on essential heaters. Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research. "There's a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving, said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. Degraded mobility does not mean the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science. One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches. "If the final scientific feather in Spirit's cap is determining whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful -- it's so different from the other knowledge we've gained from Spirit, said Squyres. Tools on Spirit's robotic arm can study variations in the composition of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. Stationary science also includes watching how wind moves soil particles and monitoring the Martian atmosphere. Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. They have been exploring for six years, far surpassing their original 90-day mission. Opportunity currently is driving toward a large crater called Endeavor and continues to make scientific discoveries. It has driven approximately 12 miles and returned more than 133,000 images. JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

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RELEASE: 10-009

NASA CHOOSES STUDENT TEAMS TO DROP SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

CLEVELAND -- NASA has selected teams of middle school and high school students to test their science experiments in microgravity competitions that simulate the microgravity in space. High school students will participate in Dropping In a Microgravity Environment, or DIME, and students in sixth through ninth grades in "What If No Gravity? or WING. DIME and WING challenge students to design and build a microgravity science experiment that is tested in a 2.2 second drop tower at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. While in free fall, the students' experiments will experience microgravity conditions, as if they were on the International Space Station. Four high school student teams were selected in the nationwide DIME competition. NASA will provide funding for up to four students and one adult advisor from each team to come to Glenn in April 2010 to conduct its experiment and review the results with Glenn engineers and scientists. While at the center, they will tour Glenn facilities and participate in workshops. Teams were selected from the following high schools: - Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Ill. - Plattsburgh High School in Plattsburgh, N.Y. - St. Ursula Academy in Toledo, Ohio - Tualatin High School in Tualatin, Ore. Additional high school student teams selected in the DIME competition will ship their science experiments to NASA to be tested in the drop tower. The experiments and the resulting data will be returned to the teams so they can prepare reports about their findings. Additional DIME teams were selected from the following high schools: Columbus High School in Columbus, Ga. Emerson Preparatory School in Washington Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Ill. Northbrook High School in Houston Troy Athens High School in Troy, Mich. (4 teams) Student teams in sixth through ninth grades were selected for the WING competition. Each team will ship its experiment to Glenn for testing. The experiments and the resulting data will be returned to the teams so they can analyze the experiment results and submit a written report back to NASA. One student team not affiliated with a school was selected from within the community of Basking Ridge, N.J. Additional teams were selected from the following schools: Crestwood Middle School in Mountaintop, Pa. (2 teams) Dunstan Middle School in Littleton, Colo. Gate of Heaven School in Dallas, Pa. Dallas School District in Dallas, Pa. Good Shepherd Academy from the Diocese of Scranton in Kingston, Pa. Hanover Area School District in Hanover Township., Pa. (2 teams) Hazleton Area School District in Drums, Pa. (2 teams) Lake-Lehman School District in Lehman, Pa. Northwood Elementary School in Mooresville, Ind. Smith Middle School in Troy, Mich. Tunkhannock Area Middle School in Tunkhannock, Pa. Wyoming Area Secondary Center in Exeter, Pa. Wyoming Valley West School District in Kingston, Pa. (2 teams) These and other NASA educational programs help the agency attract and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, disciplines critical to space exploration. The Teaching from Space Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston funds the DIME and WING competitions.

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