Mar 15 2017
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-029 West Virginia Students to Speak to NASA Astronauts on Space Station
Students in West Virginia will speak with NASA astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station at 10:25 a.m. EDT Friday, March 17. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
The event will be hosted by the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences in Charleston, West Virginia, in partnership with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson, both of NASA, will answer questions from students throughout West Virginia in grades seven through 12.
Kimbrough launched to the space station Oct. 19, 2016, and will return next month. Whitson launched to the space station Nov. 17, 2016, and is scheduled to return to Earth later this spring.
Bryan Hughes of WOWK-TV and Sen. Manchin, along with other West Virginia officials, will open the downlink with a voice check call-up to the station. Before and following the live downlink, students will have the opportunity to attend an “Out of this World Career Fair” and interact with a variety of West Virginia colleges and universities including West Virginia University, Marshall University, West Virginia University Institute of Technology, West Virginia State University, the University of Charleston, and BridgeValley Community and Technical School.
Students and guests also will have the opportunity to speak with a wide variety of state businesses and organizations in the fields of engineering, aeronautics, mathematics and science, including Orbital ATK, NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility, Bombardier, Toyota, Mined Minds Computer Coding, West Virginia University Amateur Radio Club, the West Virginia Army and Air National Guard and Sen. Manchin’s Military Service Academy Nomination Committee.
This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of the NASA Office of Education’s efforts to improve science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teaching and learning in the United States. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station through the agency Office of Education’s STEM on Station activity provides authentic, live experiences in space exploration, space study and the scientific components of space travel, while introducing the possibilities of life in space.
RELEASE 17-027 NASA Study Confirms Biofuels Reduce Jet Engine Pollution
Using biofuels to help power jet engines reduces particle emissions in their exhaust by as much as 50 to 70 percent, in a new study conclusion that bodes well for airline economics and Earth’s environment.
The findings are the result of a cooperative international research program led by NASA and involving agencies from Germany and Canada, and are detailed in a study published in the journal Nature.
During flight tests in 2013 and 2014 near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, data was collected on the effects of alternative fuels on engine performance, emissions and aircraft-generated contrails at altitudes flown by commercial airliners. The test series were part of the Alternative Fuel Effects on Contrails and Cruise Emissions Study, or ACCESS.
Contrails are produced by hot aircraft engine exhaust mixing with the cold air that is typical at cruise altitudes several miles above Earth's surface, and are composed primarily of water in the form of ice crystals.
Researchers are most interested in persistent contrails because they create long-lasting, and sometimes extensive, clouds that would not normally form in the atmosphere, and are believed to be a factor in influencing Earth’s environment.
"Soot emissions also are a major driver of contrail properties and their formation," said Bruce Anderson, ACCESS project scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "As a result, the observed particle reductions we’ve measured during ACCESS should directly translate into reduced ice crystal concentrations in contrails, which in turn should help minimize their impact on Earth’s environment."
That’s important because contrails, and the cirrus clouds that evolve from them, have a larger impact on Earth’s atmosphere than all the aviation-related carbon dioxide emissions since the first powered flight by the Wright brothers.
The tests involved flying NASA's workhorse DC-8 as high as 40,000 feet while its four engines burned a 50-50 blend of aviation fuel and a renewable alternative fuel of hydro processed esters and fatty acids produced from camelina plant oil. A trio of research aircraft took turns flying behind the DC-8 at distances ranging from 300 feet to more than 20 miles to take measurements on emissions and study contrail formation as the different fuels were burned.
"This was the first time we have quantified the amount of soot particles emitted by jet engines while burning a 50-50 blend of biofuel in flight," said Rich Moore, lead author of the Nature report.
The trailing aircraft included NASA's HU-25C Guardian jet based at Langley, a Falcon 20-E5 jet owned by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and a CT-133 jet provided by the National Research Council of Canada.
“Measurements in the wake of aircraft require highly experienced crew members and proven measuring equipment, which DLR has built up over many years,” said report co-author Hans Schlager of the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics. “Since 2000, the DLR Falcon has been used in numerous measurement campaigns to investigate the emissions and contrails of commercial airliners.”
Researchers plan on continuing these studies to understand and demonstrate the potential benefits of replacing current fuels in aircraft with biofuels. It’s NASA’s goal to demonstrate biofuels on their proposed supersonic X-plane.
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-031 NASA TV to Air Departure of U.S. Cargo Ship from International Space Station
After delivering about 5,500 pounds of cargo, the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is set to leave the International Space Station on Sunday, March 19. Live coverage of Dragon's departure will begin at 4:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Flight controllers will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach the Dragon capsule, from the Earth-facing side of the station's Harmony module. After they maneuver Dragon into place, Expedition 50 astronauts Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) and Shane Kimbrough of NASA will release it at 5:11 a.m.
Dragon’s thrusters will be fired to move the spacecraft a safe distance from the station before SpaceX flight controllers in Hawthorne, California, command its deorbit burn about 10 a.m. The capsule will splash down about 10:54 a.m. in the Pacific Ocean, where recovery forces will retrieve the capsule and its more than 5,400 pounds of cargo. This cargo will include science samples from human and animal research, external payloads, biology and biotechnology studies, physical science investigations and education activities.
The deorbit burn and splashdown will not be broadcast on NASA TV.
NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), the non-profit organization that manages research aboard the U.S. national laboratory portion of the space station, will receive time-sensitive samples and begin working with researchers to process and distribute them within 48 hours of splashdown.
In the event of adverse weather conditions in the Pacific, the backup departure and splashdown date is Wednesday, March 22.
Dragon, the only space station resupply spacecraft able to return to Earth intact, launched Feb. 19 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and arrived at the station Feb. 23 for the company’s 10th NASA-contracted commercial resupply mission.
