May 1 2013

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 13-125 - NASA INVITES PUBLIC TO SEND NAMES AND MESSAGES TO MARS --WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting members of the public to submit their names and a personal message online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian upper atmosphere. The DVD will be in NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft, which is scheduled for launch in November. The DVD is part of the mission's Going to Mars Campaign coordinated at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (CU/LASP). The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku. However, only three haikus will be selected. The deadline for all submissions is July 1. An online public vote to determine the top three messages to be placed on the DVD will begin July 15. The Going to Mars campaign offers people worldwide a way to make a personal connection to space, space exploration, and science in general, and share in our excitement about the MAVEN mission, said Stephanie Renfrow, lead for the MAVEN Education and Public Outreach program at CU/LASP. Participants who submit their names to the Going to Mars campaign will be able to print a certificate of appreciation to document their involvement with the MAVEN mission. This new campaign is a great opportunity to reach the next generation of explorers and excite them about science, technology, engineering and math, said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator from CU/LASP. "I look forward to sharing our science with the worldwide community as MAVEN begins to piece together what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere." MAVEN is the first spacecraft devoted to exploring and understanding the Martian upper atmosphere. The spacecraft will investigate how the loss of Mars' atmosphere to space determined the history of water on the surface. This mission will continue NASA's rich history of inspiring and engaging the public in spaceflight in ongoing Mars exploration, said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado at Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. The university will provide science operations, science instruments and lead Education and Public Outreach. Goddard manages the project and provides two of the science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin of Littleton, Colo., built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The University of California at Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory provides science instruments for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides navigation support, the Deep Space Network and the Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-068 - DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR GARVER VISITS NASA'S GULF COAST FACILITIES --WASHINGTON -- Deputy Administrator Lori Garver will visit NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and testing facilities at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Friday, May 3. These facilities are critical to the construction and testing of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Commercial Crew Program. Michoud and Stennis also are important to partnerships with private industry, which is helping maximize the use of NASA facilities. At 9 a.m. CDT, Garver will visit Michoud to observe progress being made to support the SLS and Orion spacecraft programs. She will be available for media interviews after her tour. Garver next will travel to Stennis for a 1:30 p.m. tour of commercial crew testing facilities and the B-2 test stand, which is being restored in preparation for testing of the SLS core stage.

RELEASE: 13-126 - NASA SELECTS U.S. SMALL BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROJECTS FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT --WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected 14 proposals from small business and research institution teams to continue development of innovative technologies that are needed for future NASA missions and could become viable commercial products and services. The Phase II selectees in NASA's Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program may enter negotiations for possible contract awards, worth a combined total of approximately $9.8 million. High-tech firms in seven states submitted proposals in partnership with research institutions in nine states. As teams in our Small Business Technology Transfer Program move into their second phase of development, we'll see innovative concepts mature into viable technologies that can be incorporated into NASA's exploration plans and benefit our technology based economy, said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "Through modest investments in technology development among American small business and research institution teams, we're planting the seed corn that will keep NASA leading the way forward in space exploration, and America leading the world in high-tech business enterprises." Technologies selected for further development under Phase II will demonstrate the feasibility of new propellants for in-space propulsion, increased capabilities to perform autonomous robotic operations and in-situ robotic planetary analysis, and new methods for the manufacturing of advanced alloys. The STTR Program uses a highly competitive, three-phase award system that provides collaborative opportunities between qualified small businesses, including women-owned and disadvantaged firms, and research institutions to address specific technology gaps in NASA's programs. Selected projects provide a foundation for future technology developments and are complementary to other NASA research investments. Firms and research institutions that participated in Phase I of the STTR program submitted 38 Phase II proposals. Selection criteria included technical merit and innovation, Phase I results, value to NASA, commercial potential and company capabilities. Phase I is a feasibility study to evaluate the scientific and technical merit of an idea. Phase II will expand on the results of last year's projects, with as much as $700,000 to support research for as long as two more years. Phase III is for the commercialization of the results of Phase II and requires private sector or non-STTR federal funding. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages the STTR Program with executive oversight by the Space Technology Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. NASA's field installations manage individual projects.

RELEASE: 13-127 - NASA ROVER PROTOTYPE SET TO EXPLORE GREENLAND ICE SHEET --WASHINGTON -- NASA's newest scientific rover is set for testing May 3 through June 8 in the highest part of Greenland. The robot known as GROVER, which stands for both Greenland Rover and Goddard Remotely Operated Vehicle for Exploration and Research, will roam the frigid landscape collecting measurements to help scientists better understand changes in the massive ice sheet. This autonomous, solar-powered robot carries a ground-penetrating radar to study how snow accumulates, adding layer upon layer to the ice sheet over time. Greenland's surface layer vaulted into the news in summer 2012 when higher than normal temperatures caused surface melting across about 97 percent of the ice sheet. Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., expect GROVER to detect the layer of the ice sheet that formed in the aftermath of that extreme melt event. Research with polar rovers costs less than aircraft or satellites, the usual platforms. Robots like GROVER will give us a new tool for glaciology studies, said Lora Koenig, a glaciologist at Goddard and science advisor on the project. GROVER will be joined on the ice sheet in June by another robot, named Cool Robot, developed at Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., with funding from the National Science Foundation. This rover can tow a variety of instrument packages to conduct glaciological and atmospheric sampling studies. GROVER was developed in 2010 and 2011 by teams of students participating in summer engineering boot camps at Goddard. The students were interested in building a rover and approached Koenig about whether a rover could aid her studies of snow accumulation on ice sheets. This information typically is gathered by radars carried on snowmobiles and airplanes. Koenig suggested putting a radar on a rover for this work. Koenig, now a science advisor on the GROVER Project, asked Hans-Peter Marshall, a glaciologist at Boise State University to bring in his expertise in small, low-power, autonomous radars that could be mounted on GROVER. Since its inception at the boot camp, GROVER has been fine-tuned, with NASA funding, at Boise State. The tank-like GROVER prototype stands six feet tall, including its solar panels. It weighs about 800 pounds and traverses the ice on two repurposed snowmobile tracks. The robot is powered entirely by solar energy, so it can operate in pristine polar environments without adding to air pollution. The panels are mounted in an inverted V, allowing them to collect energy from the sun and sunlight reflected off the ice sheet. A ground-penetrating radar powered by two rechargeable batteries rests on the back of the rover. The radar sends radio wave pulses into the ice sheet, and the waves bounce off buried features, informing researchers about the characteristics of the snow and ice layers. From a research station operated by the National Science Foundation called Summit Camp, a spot where the ice sheet is about 2 miles thick, GROVER will crawl at an average speed of 1.2 mph (2 kilometers per hour). Because the sun never dips below the horizon during the Arctic summer, GROVER can work at any time during the day and should be able to work longer and gather more data than a human on a snowmobile. At the beginning of the summit tests, Koenig's team will keep GROVER close to camp and communicate with it via Wi-Fi within a three-mile (4.8-kilometer) range. GROVER will transmit snippets of data during the trial to ensure it is working properly but the majority of data will be recovered at the end of the season. The researchers eventually will switch to satellite communications, which will allow the robot to roam farther and transmit data in real time. Ideally, researchers will be able to drive the rover from their desks. We think it's really powerful, said Gabriel Trisca, a Boise State master's degree student who developed GROVER's software. "The fact is the robot could be anywhere in the world and we'll be able to control it from anywhere." Michael Comberiate, a retired NASA engineer and manager of Goddard's Engineering Boot Camp said the Earth-bound Greenland Rover is similar to NASA missions off the planet. GROVER is just like a spacecraft but it has to operate on the ground, Comberiate said. "It has to survive unattended for months in a hostile environment, with just a few commands to interrogate it and find out its status and give it some directions for how to accommodate situations it finds itself in." Koenig hopes more radar data will help shed light on Greenland's snow accumulation. Scientists compare annual accumulation to the volume of ice lost to sea each year to calculate the ice sheet's overall mass balance and its contribution to sea level rise.

RELEASE: 13-128 - NASA SPACECRAFT WILL VISIT ASTEROID WITH NEW NAME --WASHINGTON -- An asteroid that will be explored by a NASA spacecraft has a new name, thanks to a third-grade student in North Carolina. NASA's Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft will visit the asteroid now called Bennu, named after an important ancient Egyptian avian deity. OSIRIS-Rex is scheduled to launch in 2016, rendezvous with Bennu in 2018 and return a sample of the asteroid to Earth in 2023. The name for the carbon-rich asteroid, designated in the scientific community as (101955) 1999 RQ36, is the winning entry in an international student contest. Nine-year-old Michael Puzio suggested the name because he imagined the Touch-and-Go Sample Mechanism (TAGSAM) arm and solar panels on OSIRIS-REx look like the neck and wings in drawings of Bennu, which Egyptians usually depicted as a gray heron. Puzio wrote the name suits the asteroid because it means "the ascending one," or "to shine." TAGSAM will collect a sample from Bennu and store it for return to Earth. The sample could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and the source of water and organic molecules that may have contributed to the development of life on Earth. The mission will be a vital part of NASA's plans to find, study, capture and relocate an asteroid for exploration by astronauts. NASA recently announced an asteroid initiative proposing a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities for the first human mission to an asteroid while also accelerating efforts to improve detection and characterization of asteroids. There were many excellent entries that would be fitting names and provide us an opportunity to educate the world about the exciting nature of our mission, said Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona in Tucson, a contest judge and the principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission. "The information about the composition of Bennu and the nature of its orbit will enable us to explore our past and better understand our future." More than 8,000 students, all younger than 18, from more than 25 countries worldwide entered the "Name that Asteroid!" contest last year. Each contestant submitted one name with a maximum of 16 characters and a short explanation for the name. The contest was a partnership with The Planetary Society in Pasadena, Calif.; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass.; and the University of Arizona. The partners assembled a panel to review the submissions and submit a top choice to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Committee for Small Body Nomenclature. The IAU is the governing body that officially names a celestial object. Bennu struck a chord with many of us right away, said Bruce Betts, director of projects for the Planetary Society and a contest judge. "While there were many great entries, the similarity between the image of the heron and the TAGSAM arm of OSIRIS-REx was a clever choice. The parallel with asteroids as both bringers of life and as destructive forces in the solar system also created a great opportunity to teach." The Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research Program survey team discovered the asteroid in 1999, early in NASA's Near-Earth Objects Observation Program, which detects and catalogs near-Earth asteroids and comets. The samples of Bennu returned by OSIRIS-REx will allow scientists to peer into the origin of the solar system and gain insights into the origin of life, said Jason Dworkin, an OSIRIS-REx project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Goddard will provide overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. The University of Arizona is the principal investigator institution. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages New Frontiers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

RELEASE: 13-129 - SUCCESS CONTINUES AS NASA'S ORION PARACHUTE TESTS GET MORE DIFFICULT --WASHINGTON -- A test version of NASA's Orion spacecraft safely landed during a simulation of two types of parachute failures Wednesday. In the test, conducted in Yuma, Ariz., the mock capsule was traveling about 250 mph when the parachutes were deployed. That is the highest speed the craft has experienced as part of the test series designed to certify Orion's parachute system for carrying humans. Engineers rigged one of the test capsule's two drogue parachutes not to deploy and one of its three main parachutes to skip its first stage of inflation after being extracted from a plane 25,000 feet above the Arizona desert. Drogue parachutes are used to slow and reorient Orion while the main parachutes inflate in three stages to gradually slow the capsule further as it descends. The failure scenario, one of the most difficult simulated so far, will provide data engineers need for human rating the parachute system. The tests continue to become more challenging, and the parachute system is proving the design's redundancy and reliability, said Chris Johnson, NASA's project manager for the Orion parachute assembly system. "Testing helps us gain confidence and balance risk to ensure the safety of our crew." Orion has the largest parachute system ever built for a human-rated spacecraft. The canopies of the three main parachutes can cover almost an entire football field. After reentering Earth's atmosphere, astronauts will use the parachutes to slow the spacecraft for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Testing irregularities allows engineers to verify the parachutes are reliable even when something goes wrong. The tests provide information to refine models used to build the system and Orion. Changes to the design and materials used in Orion's parachute system already have been made based on previous tests. Other government or commercial spacecraft using a similar parachute system also can benefit from the work done to validate Orion. Parachute deployment is inherently chaotic and not easily predictable, said Stu McClung, Orion's landing and recovery system manager. "Gravity never takes any time off -- there's no timeout. The end result can be very unforgiving. That's why we test. If we have problems with the system, we want to know about them now." Orion's next Earth-based parachute test is scheduled for July, when the test capsule will be released from 35,000 feet, a higher altitude than ever before. The first test of the parachutes after traveling in space will be during Exploration Flight Test-1 in 2014, when an uncrewed Orion will be return from 3,600 miles above Earth's surface. The spacecraft will be traveling at about 340 mph when the parachutes deploy.

RELEASE: 13-130 - NASA'S LAUNCH PROGRAM RECOGNIZED FOR GOVERNMENT INNOVATION --WASHINGTON -- A NASA program supporting innovative approaches to sustainability challenges has received an Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. NASA's LAUNCH program is among the top 25 federal programs recognized by the Kennedy School's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. The award promotes excellence and creativity in the public sector. LAUNCH and the other Top 25 programs represent the top 5 percent of all applications received for the award. NASA and founding partners the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. State Department and Nike created LAUNCH in 2010 to identify, showcase and accelerate innovative approaches to specific sustainability challenges faced by human spaceflight, as well as communities and nations on Earth. LAUNCH searches for visionaries whose world-class ideas, technologies or programs show great promise for making tangible impacts to exploring beyond low-Earth orbit and on society. The challenge currently under way, LAUNCH: System Challenge 2013, will identify 10 game-changing innovations that could enable fabric systems to enhance global economic growth, drive human prosperity and replenish the planet's resources. The challenge seeks creative innovations in the materials from which fabrics are made, with a focus on positive social and environmental impact in space and on Earth. Fabrics and the materials from which they are made are important for designing new spacecraft and spacesuits that will protect astronauts traveling to destinations far beyond Earth. Innovations presented at the LAUNCH: System Challenge 2013 forum may lead to new, stronger, lighter and more affordable fabrics that will benefit NASA as it sends humans deeper into our solar system. NASA will host the forum Sept. 26-28 at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.