Apr 12 2013

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 13-077 - NASA ANNOUNCES CHALLENGES FOR THE 2013 INTERNATIONAL SPACE APPS CHALLENGE --WASHINGTON -- NASA and over 150 partner organizations worldwide will be hosting the International Space Apps Challenge on April 20-21, 2013. The International Space Apps Challenge is a technology development event during which citizens from around the world work together to solve challenges relevant to improving life on Earth and in space. NASA and its partners have released 50 challenges for the second International Space Apps Challenge. Participants are encouraged to develop software, hardware, data visualization, and mobile/web applications that will contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth. Examples of challenges include: Spot the station: Extend the functionality of the Spot the station website (spotthestation.nasa.gov) that allows you to share your sightings of the International Space station with others. Hitch a Ride to Mars: Design a CubeSat (a small Research satellite) for an upcoming Mars mission. 3-D Printing Challenge: Create an open source model of space hardware that can be generated by a 3-D printer. Curiosity at Home: Foster a connection between citizens and the Mars rover through software, visualizations, or an app. Seven Minutes of Science: Develop a concept to make use of 330 pounds (150 kilograms) of ejectable mass during the entry and landing phase of a Mars mission to accomplish scientific or technical objectives. Catch a Meteor: Create an app that would allow observers of a Meteor shower to trace the location, color and size of the meteor. Smart Cities, Smart Climate: explore the impacts of atmospheric changes on the health, infrastructure and society in urban areas. Why We Explore Space: Share the "why" of space exploration through the creation of compelling narratives and visualizations.

RELEASE: C13-100 - NASA SELECTS EXPLORER PROJECTS TO PROBE EARTH'S UPPER ATMOSPHERE --WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected a new satellite mission and a new space-based instrument to begin development as part of the agency's Heliophysics Explorer Program. The projects will provide space observations to study Earth's ionosphere and thermosphere. The Ionospheric Connection (ICON) mission, led by Thomas Immel of the University of California, Berkeley, will probe the extreme variability of Earth's ionosphere with in-situ and remote-sensing instruments. Fluctuations in the ionosphere interfere with signals from communications and global positioning satellites, which can have an economic impact on the nation. The Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission of opportunity, led by Richard Eastes of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, is an imaging instrument that will fly on a commercial communications satellite in geostationary orbit to image the Earth's thermosphere and ionosphere. One of the frontier areas of heliophysics is the study of the interface between outer space and the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere, said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "These selected projects use innovative solutions to advance our knowledge of this relatively unexplored region. The two missions together will result in significantly more advances in our understanding of Earth's atmosphere and ionosphere than either would alone." These two Explorer projects were selected from proposals submitted in response to the NASA Explorer announcement of opportunity in 2010. The proposals were judged to offer the best science value and feasible development plans among the six concept studies submitted to NASA in September 2012. Costs for NASA Explorer missions, such as ICON, are capped at $200 million each (fiscal year 2011 dollars), excluding the launch vehicle. Explorer missions of opportunity, such as GOLD, are capped at $55 million each. The new missions are expected to launch in 2017. The Explorer program is the agency's oldest continuous program. It is designed to provide frequent, low-cost access to space for principal investigator-led space science investigations relevant to the heliophysics and astrophysics programs in NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Explorer program has launched more than 90 missions since 1958, including Explorer 1 which discovered the Earth's radiation belts and the Nobel Prize-enabling mission Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) mission. The program is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for the Science Mission Directorate.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-060 - NASA TV PROVIDES COVERAGE OF SPACE STATION SPACEWALK --WASHINGTON -- Two members of the Expedition 35 crew will venture outside the International Space Station April 19 for a six-hour spacewalk to deploy and retrieve several science experiments and install a new navigational aid. NASA Television will broadcast the spacewalk live beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Russian flight engineers Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko will open the hatch to the Pirs airlock and docking compartment to start the spacewalk at 10:06 a.m. The spacewalkers' first task will be to install the Obstanovka experiment on the station's Zvezda service module. Obstanovka will study plasma waves and the effect of space weather on Earth's ionosphere. They will retrieve the Biorisk experiment, which studied the effect of microbes on spacecraft structures. If time permits, they also will retrieve one section of the Vinoslivost experiment, which exposed materials samples to space. While at the far end of Zvezda, Vinogradov and Romanenko will replace a faulty retro-reflector device, one of a suite of navigational aids that will provide assistance to the European Space Agency's Albert Einstein Automated Transfer Vehicle 4 cargo ship during its final approach for an automated docking to the space station in June. This spacewalk will be the 167th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the seventh for Vinogradov and the first for Romanenko. Both spacewalkers will wear spacesuits marked by blue stripes. Romanenko's suit will be equipped with a helmet camera to provide close up views of the spacewalk activity as it progresses. This is the first of as many as six Russian spacewalks planned for this year. Two U.S. spacewalks are scheduled in July.