Mar 23 2017
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-033 NASA to Host 2017 Human Exploration Rover Challenge
Media are invited to watch as nearly 100 high school and college teams from across the globe compete Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1 during NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Participating teams are from 23 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, as well as competitors from several different countries, including Brazil, Germany, India and Mexico.
Student teams are required to design, build, test and race human-powered rovers, driven by one male and one female team member. The nearly three-quarter-mile course boasts 17 grueling obstacles that simulate terrain found on Mars, as well as other planets, moons and asteroids throughout the solar system.
Teams will arrive in Huntsville on Thursday, March 30 for on-site registration, with the race taking place from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT on March 30 and April 1. The event concludes with a ceremony at approximately 5 p.m. on April 1 in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Sponsors will present awards for best design, rookie team, pit crew award and other accomplishments.
Media interested in attending the rover challenge should contact Angela Storey in the Office of Communications at 256-544-0034 no later than 4 p.m. March 30.
The two-day event and awards ceremony will stream live online at: [1]
Both days of the race also will stream live on the NASA Rover Challenge Facebook page.
This year's race has a new, optional feature called the "Drive Train Technology Challenge." Teams can develop reliable systems such as belts, drive shafts or direct drives to replace commonly used chains. Cash awards will be given for best overall performance.
The Rover Challenge highlights NASA’s goals for future exploration to Mars and beyond. Inspired by the lunar roving vehicles of the Apollo moon missions, the competition challenges students to solve engineering problems, while highlighting NASA's commitment to inspiring new generations of scientists, engineers and explorers.
The competition is hosted by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, and is managed by Marshall's Academic Affairs Office.
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-034 NASA Updates Schedule for International Space Station Spacewalks
Expedition 50 astronauts will conduct three spacewalks outside the International Space Station in late March and early April to prepare for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft and upgrade station hardware.
Expedition 50 astronauts will conduct up to three spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS) in late March and early April to prepare for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft and upgrade station hardware. The first spacewalk remains on schedule for Friday, March 24. A second spacewalk has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 30, and a third spacewalk now is scheduled for Thursday, April 6.
NASA TV will provide complete coverage beginning each day at 6:30 a.m. EDT, with the six-and-a-half hour spacewalks scheduled to begin about 8 a.m.
The first spacewalk will prepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the second International Docking Adapter, which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) will disconnect cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 to prepare for its robotic move Thursday, March 30. PMA-3 will be moved from the port side of the Tranquility module to the space-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will become home for the docking adapter, which will be delivered on a future flight of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The spacewalkers also will install on the starboard zero truss a new computer relay box equipped with advanced software for the adapter.
The two spacewalkers will lubricate the latching end effector on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator “extension” for the Canadarm2 robotic arm, inspect a radiator valve suspected of a small ammonia leak and replace cameras on the Japanese segment of the outpost. Radiators are used to shed excess heat that builds up through normal space station operation.
The second spacewalk will feature Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA reconnecting cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 at its new home on top Harmony. They also will install the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the station’s truss and install shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.
The final spacewalk will tentatively feature Whitson and Pesquet replacing an avionics box on the starboard truss called an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier, a storage platform. The box houses electrical and command and data routing equipment for the science experiments and replacement hardware stored outside of the station. The new avionics box is scheduled to launch on the upcoming Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo spacecraft mission.
This will be the 198th, 199th and 200th spacewalks in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Kimbrough’s two spacewalks will be the fifth and sixth of his career. Whitson will be making the eighth and ninth spacewalks of her career – more than any other female astronaut. Pesquet will undertake the second and third spacewalks in his career.
