ROCKING INDIANS

NASA's Mars Rover Spirit Faces Circuitous Route

2009-03-08T21:38:00.001+05:30

The track dug by the dragged right-front wheel as Spirit drove backward is visible in this image, receding toward the southeast. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Full image and caption PASADENA, Calif. -- Loose soil piled against the northern edge of a low plateau called "Home Plate" has blocked NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit from taking the shortest route toward its southward destinations for the upcoming Martian summer and following winter.

The rover has begun a trek skirting at least partway around the plateau instead of directly over it.

However, Spirit has also gotten a jump start on its summer science plans, examining a silica-rich outcrop that adds information about a long-gone environment that had hot water or steam. And even a circuitous route to the destinations chosen for Spirit would be much shorter than the overland expedition Spirit's twin, Opportunity, is making on the opposite side of Mars.

Both rovers landed on Mars in 2004 for what were originally planned as three-month missions there.

Spirit spent 2008 on the northern edge of Home Plate, a flat-topped deposit about the size of a baseball field, composed of hardened ash and rising about 1.5 meters (5 feet) above the ground around it. There, the north-facing tilt positioned Spirit's solar arrays to catch enough sunshine for the rover to survive the six-month-long Martian winter.

The scientists and engineers who operate the rovers chose as 2009 destinations a steep mound called "Von Braun" and an irregular, 45-meter-wide (150-foot-wide) bowl called "Goddard." These side-by-side features offer a promising area to examine while energy is adequate during the Martian summer and also to provide the next north-facing winter haven beginning in late 2009. Von Braun and Goddard intrigue scientists as sites where Spirit may find more evidence about an explosive mix of water and volcanism in the area's distant past. They are side-by-side, about 200 meters, or yards, south of where Spirit is now.

It's mid-spring now in the southern hemisphere of Mars. The sun has climbed higher in the sky over Spirit in recent weeks.

The rover team tried to drive Spirit onto Home Plate, heading south toward Von Braun and Goddard. They tried this first from partway up the slope where the rover had spent the winter. Only five of the six wheels on Spirit have been able to rotate since the right-front wheel stopped working in 2006. With five-wheel drive, Spirit couldn't climb the slope. In January and February, Spirit descended from Home Plate and drove eastward about 15 meters (about 50 feet) toward a less steep on-ramp. Spinning wheels in loose soil led the rover team to choose another of its options.

"Spirit could not make progress in the last two attempts to get up onto Home Plate," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for both rovers. "Alternatively, we are driving Spirit around Home Plate to the east. Spirit will have to go around a couple of small ridges that extend to the northeast, and then see whether a route east of Home Plate looks traversable. If that route proves not to be traversable, a route around the west side of Home Plate is still an option."

During the drive eastward just north of Home Plate in January, Spirit stopped to use tools on its robotic arm to examine a nodular, heavily eroded outcrop dubbed "Stapledon," which had caught the eye of rover-team scientist Steve Ruff when he looked at images and infrared spectra Spirit took from its winter position.

"It looked like the material east of Home Plate that we found to be rich in silica," said Ruff, of Arizona State University, Tempe. "The silica story around Home Plate is the most important finding of the Spirit mission so far with regard to habitability. Silica this concentrated forms around hot springs or steam vents, and both of those are favorable environments for life on Earth."

Sure enough, Spirit's alpha particle X-ray spectrometer found Stapledon to be rich in silica, too.

"Now we have found silica on a second side of Home Plate, expanding the size of the environment we know was affected by hot springs or steam vents," Ruff said. "The bigger this system, the more water was involved, the more habitable this system may have been."

The contact measurement with the X-ray spectrometer also gave the team confidence in its ability to identify silica-rich outcrops from a distance with the rover's thermal emission spectrometer, despite some dust that has accumulated on a periscope mirror of that instrument. Researchers plan to use Spirit's thermal emission spectrometer and panoramic camera to check for more silica-rich outcrops on the route to Von Braun and Goddard. However, the team has set a priority to make good progress toward those destinations. Winds cleaned some dust off Spirit's solar panels on Feb. 6 and Feb. 14, resulting in a combined increase of about 20 percent in the amount of power available to the rover.

Opportunity, meanwhile, shows signs of increased friction in its right-front wheel. The team is driving the rover backwards for a few sols, a technique that has helped in similar situations in the past, apparently by redistributing lubricant in the wheel. Opportunity's major destination is Endeavour Crater, about 22 kilometers (14 miles) in diameter and still about 12 kilometers (7 miles) away to the southeast. Opportunity has been driving south instead of directly toward Endurance, to swing around an area where loose soil appears deep enough to potentially entrap the rover.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rovers for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is at http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Guy.Webster@jpl.nasa.gov
2009-041

CALIPSO Finds Smoke at High Altitudes Down Under

2009-03-08T21:36:00.000+05:30

As smoke plumes from powerful bushfires clouded the Australian skies in early February, satellites orbiting the Earth captured the rapid dispersal of smoke in real-time. One particular satellite, however, saw the occurrence from a different perspective than the rest and uncovered a rare phenomenon.

The NASA Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO), using its active lidar system, traced vertically through the layers of the atmosphere to find that the Australian bushfire smoke was lofting, or rising, to an astonishing 12 miles, an unusually high altitude that penetrates the lower part of the stratosphere.

"Typically, the altitude of the smoke from wildfires is emitted to the lower troposphere, and occasionally, the smoke can get as high as tropopause heights," explains Chieko Kittaka, a research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., who is working on analyzing the satellite data.

CALIPSO has the ability to see the vertical distribution of smoke particles in the atmosphere. While most other satellites saw the smoke as a flat image that portrayed the horizontal direction of the distribution, CALIPSO was able to see the altitude of the lofting smoke. The satellite is not only unique for its ability to make vertical measurements of the atmosphere, but it can also see aerosol layers and plumes that are often invisible to most other instruments. At first glance, another satellite may have thought that the smoke was a low-level cloud, but CALIPSO is able to look deeper.

"For the most part, smoke particles are smaller than cloud particles, and they have a shape that differs from ice crystals and water droplets. CALIPSO recognizes this and is able to distinguish smoke from clouds," explains Mike Fromm, a researcher from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, who has been investigating these fires with CALIPSO scientists at NASA Langley.

Determining where smoke layers are found and their location is important to better understand how tiny ash particles can possibly effect climate. "If smoke particles reach the upper troposphere or lower stratosphere, they can persist for weeks and travel long distances," explains Chip Trepte, the project scientist for CALIPSO. And at these altitudes they can also influence the formation and lifetime of clouds as well as their brightness. All of these effects can alter the way sunlight is reflected and absorbed in the atmosphere.

Because so many different aspects of the atmosphere are affected by the smoke particles, it is important to understand what caused their abnormal presence in the stratosphere. Fromm explains that as the heat from the fire rises, a convective weather system is created. Within this, a severe thunderstorm, known as the pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb), develops. As the fire increases in strength, it acts like a chimney as it sucks the smoke from the flames up into the convective column. The smoke is then injected into the atmosphere at abnormally high altitudes – a side effect similar to volcanic eruptions. The abundant smoke fuels the storm's updrafts by serving as the nuclei for cloud particles, seeding so many that little-to-no precipitation forms, and taking away a storm-killing drag force.

While the elements of the fires in Australia are becoming clearer, there is still quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding the pyro-convection process. Satellite missions like CALIPSO have been supporting field campaigns to get a better handle on the meteorological, chemical, physical anomalies that forest fires create. This support in turn helps scientists learn more about other pyroCbs that have occurred.

"PyroCbs, such as the ones in Victoria, are historically rare," explains Fromm, who has been studying pyroconvection for over a decade. "Preliminary data from CALIPSO show that the smoke from these storms has gotten to altitudes never observed before."
As CALIPSO passed over the smoke plumes accumulating over Australia on February 10, 2009, its lidar technology took a vertical "slice" of the atmosphere to see the distribution of clouds and aerosols. In this photo, the CALIPSO data reveals that the smoke reached an abnormal altitude of 20 km, a detail that planar images are not able to detect. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version. Credit: Chieko Kittaka, NASA's Langley Research Center.

In this photo, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), smoke from the fires in Australia is seen traveling across the Pacific Ocean toward New Zealand. As it mixes with the clouds, the smoke is distinguished by its tan color. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version. Credit: MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

This visualization, which joins a single CALIPSO data profile with a back-trajectory, portrays the estimated movement of smoke over an 80-hour period. The varying colors of the trajectory represent the altitude of the traveling smoke, with blue depicting 5 km of height, and red representing 20 km. Click on the image to view a higher resolution version of the animation. Credit: Analysis by Chieko Kittaka; visualization by Kurt Severance.

Jennifer Collings
NASA's Langley Research Center

Chandrayaan - India's mission to moon about to begin

2008-10-18T21:43:00.000+05:30

Countdown for the launch of Chandrayaan-1, the country's first unmanned moon mission, will start on Monday, a top ISRO official said.

"The countdown will start on Monday early morning," said Satish Dhawan Space Centre Associate Director MYS Prasad. The spacecraft, which will be launched on October 22, was moved to the launch pad last evening, he said.

"Preparatory activities, including checking of various parameters in payloads, to start the countdown are going on," Prasad said.

He added that all operations are progressing satisfactorily for the launch of the spacecraft on Wednesday at 0620 hrs. "About 42 tonnes of propellant would be filled during the countdown period," Prasad said.

According to the specifications given by officials, the spacecraft carrying 11 payloads (scientific instruments) weighs about 1,380 kg at the time of its launch.

The spacecraft is shaped like a cuboid with a solar panel projecting from one of its sides. The state-of-the-art sub-systems of the spacecraft facilitates safe and efficient functioning of its 11 payloads.

It is powered by a single solar panel generating a maximum power of 700W. A 36 Ampere-Hour (AH) Lithium ion battery supplies power when the solar panel is not illuminated by the sun.

"To make Chandrayaan-1 escape from orbiting the earth and to travel towards the moon, its Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) is used," an official said, adding, "Liquid propellants needed for LAM as well as thrusters are stored onboard the spacecraft."

The craft's dual gimballed antenna will transmit scientific data gathered by its 11 payloads to earth, officials added.

Handover Activities Continue Aboard Station

2008-10-17T20:36:00.001+05:30

Image above: Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff (right) and Commander Mike Fincke of the Expedition 18 crew participate in an interview aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA TV

The Expedition 17 and 18 crew members were busy with a variety of handover activities aboard the International Space Station Thursday.

Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov and Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov performed a routine communications check between the two docked Soyuz vehicles.

Volkov also recharged the batteries in the satellite phone that he, Expedition 17 Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko and spaceflight participant Richard Garriott would use in their Soyuz to contact search and recovery personnel in the event of an off-target landing.

Volkov, Kononenko and Garriott are scheduled to undock from the station and return to Earth in the Soyuz TMA-12 on Oct. 23.

Expedition 18 Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff conducted a periodic inspection of the station’s fire extinguishers and portable breathing apparatus. Chamitoff officially became a member of Expedition 18 Tuesday as his custom Soyuz seat liner was moved from the Soyuz TMA-12 into the new TMA-13.

Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Chamitoff took some time out of their busy schedules to participate in interviews with reporters from CBS and ABC News.

Spaceflight participant Richard Garriott worked on various commercial experiments and conducted amateur radio sessions with contacts on Earth.

+ Read more about Expedition 18
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Volcanoes May Have Provided Sparks and Chemistry for First Life

2008-10-17T20:35:00.000+05:30

Lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth, according to a new analysis of samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment by NASA and university researchers. The NASA-funded result is the subject of a paper in Science appearing October 17.

The Bada Lab at Scripps holds the original samples used by Stanley Miller to study the origins of life. Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Calif., San Diego
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"Historically, you don’t get many experiments that might be more famous than these; they re-defined our thoughts on the origin of life and showed unequivocally that the fundamental building blocks of life could be derived from natural processes," said lead author Adam Johnson, a graduate student with the NASA Astrobiology Institute team at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

From 1953 to 1954, Professor Stanley Miller, then at the University of Chicago, performed a series of experiments with a system of closed flasks containing water and a gas of simple molecules. At the time, the molecules used in the experiment (hydrogen, methane, and ammonia) were thought to be common in Earth's ancient atmosphere.

The gas was zapped with an electric spark. After running the experiment for a few weeks, the water turned brown. When Miller analyzed the water, he found it contained amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins -- life's toolkit -- used in everything from structures like hair and nails to processes that speed up, facilitate, and regulate chemical reactions. The spark provided the energy for the molecules to recombine into amino acids, which rained out into the water. His experiment showed how simple molecules could be assembled into the more complex molecules necessary for life by natural processes, like lightning in Earth's primordial atmosphere.

The apparatus used for Miller's original experiment. Boiled water (1) creates airflow, driving steam and gases through a spark (2). A cooling condenser (3) turns some steam back into liquid water, which drips down into the trap (4), where chemical products also settle. Credit: Ned Shaw, Indiana University
Miller came to the Chemistry Department at the University of California, San Diego in 1960. Professor Jeffrey Bada, a co-author of the paper, was his graduate student in chemistry between 1965 and 1968. Bada joined the faculty of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (part of UCSD) in 1971.

"Stanley and I continued to work on various projects until he died in 2007. When Adam and I found the samples from the original experiments, it was a great opportunity to reanalyze these historic samples using modern methods," said Bada. The team wanted to see if modern equipment could discover chemicals that could not be detected with the techniques of the 1950s. They analyzed the samples and turned to Daniel Glavin and Jason Dworkin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who helped the analysis with state-of-the-art instruments in their Goddard Astrobiology Analytical lab.

Miller actually ran three slightly different experiments, one of which injected steam into the gas to simulate conditions in the cloud of an erupting volcano. "We found that in comparison to Miller's classic design everyone is familiar with from textbooks, samples from the volcanic apparatus produced a wider variety of compounds," said Bada.

"We discovered 22 amino acids, 10 of which have never been found in any other experiment like this," said Glavin. This is significant because thinking on the composition of Earth's early atmosphere has changed. Instead of being heavily laden with hydrogen, methane, and ammonia, many scientists now believe Earth's ancient atmosphere was mostly carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen.

The apparatus used for Miller's "second," initially unpublished experiment. Boiled water (1) creates airflow, driving steam and gases through a spark (2). A tapering of the glass apparatus (inlay) creates a spigot effect, increasing air flow. A cooling condenser (3) turns some steam back into liquid water, which drips down into the trap (4), where chemical products also settle. Credit: Ned Shaw, Indiana University
"At first glance, if Earth's early atmosphere had little of the molecules used in Miller's classic experiment, it becomes difficult to see how life could begin using a similar process. However, in addition to water and carbon dioxide, volcanic eruptions also release hydrogen and methane gases. Volcanic clouds are also filled with lightning, since collisions between volcanic ash and ice particles generate electric charge. Since the young Earth was still hot from its formation, volcanoes were probably quite common then. The organic precursors for life could have been produced locally in tidal pools around volcanic islands, even if hydrogen, methane, and ammonia were scarce in the global atmosphere. As the tidal pools evaporated, they would concentrate the amino acids and other molecules, making it more likely that right sequence of chemical reactions to start life could occur. In fact, volcanic eruptions could assist the origin of life in another way as well – they produce carbonyl sulfide gas, which helps link amino acids into chains called peptides." said Glavin.

The research was funded in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute. "This research is both a link to the experimental foundations of astrobiology as well as an exciting result leading toward greater understanding of how life might have arisen on Earth," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute headquartered at NASA Ames Research Center. The team also includes James Cleaves of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, and Antonio Lazcano of Facultad de Ciencias, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico.

Bill Steigerwald

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Atlantis Getting Ready to Roll

2008-10-17T20:34:00.000+05:30

Space shuttle Atlantis will begin its slow move back to the Vehicle Assembly Building about 7 a.m. Monday, clearing the way for Endeavour to move to Launch Pad 39A on Oct. 25.

Workers will spend the weekend making final preparations on Atlantis for its rollback. Atlantis was placed on Launch Pad 39A in August for a mission to service and upgrade NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. That mission was postponed when Hubble developed a problem in space with its scientific data transmission system. A backup system is now working.

Image above: The payload canister carrying the equipment for the postponed STS-125 mission is taken past the Vehicle Assembly Building on its way back to its processing bay. The payload was removed from space shuttle Atlantis before the shuttle is taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Image credit: NASA/Jim Grossman
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Atlantis will be kept in its launch configuration inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida while NASA managers prepare to fly the Hubble mission next year.

In the meantime, Endeavour, which was stationed on Launch Pad 39B, is going to launch from Launch Pad 39A so modification work can resume on the 39B complex to host the Ares I-X test flight in 2009.

Endeavour is being prepared to fly mission STS-126 to the International Space Station. The shuttle will take equipment to the orbiting laboratory so it can double its resident crew size from three to six.

The astronauts who will fly Endeavour to the station ended their work week by practicing rendezvous maneuvers and reviewing the spacewalks planned for the mission at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Launch of STS-126 is targeted for Nov. 14 at 7:55 p.m. EST.

Giant Cycones at Saturn's Poles Create a Swirl of Mystery

2008-10-16T11:18:00.002+05:30

Shadows reveal the topography of Saturn's south polar vortex Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
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South Polar Region New images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal a giant cyclone at Saturn's north pole, and show that a similarly monstrous cyclone churning at Saturn's south pole is powered by Earth-like storm patterns.

The new-found cyclone at Saturn's north pole is only visible in the near-infrared wavelengths because the north pole is in winter, thus in darkness to visible-light cameras. At these wavelengths, about seven times greater than light seen by the human eye, the clouds deep inside Saturn's atmosphere are seen in silhouette against the background glow of Saturn's internal heat.

The entire north pole of Saturn is now mapped in detail in infrared, with features as small as 120 kilometers (75 miles) visible in the images. Time-lapse movies of the clouds circling the north pole show the whirlpool-like cyclone there is rotating at 530 kilometers per hour (325 miles per hour), more than twice as fast as the highest winds measured in cyclonic features on Earth. This cyclone is surrounded by an odd, honeycombed-shaped hexagon, which itself does not seem to move while the clouds within it whip around at high speeds, also greater than 500 kilometers per hour (300 miles per hour). Oddly, neither the fast-moving clouds inside the hexagon nor this new cyclone seem to disrupt the six-sided hexagon.

New Cassini imagery of Saturn's south pole shows complementary aspects of the region through the eyes of two different instruments. Near-infrared images from the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument show the whole region is pockmarked with storms, while the imaging cameras show close-up details.

The new views are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Unlike Earth-bound hurricanes, powered by the ocean's heat and water, Saturn's cyclones have no body of water at their bases, yet the eye-walls of Saturn's and Earth's storms look strikingly similar. Saturn's hurricanes are locked to the planet's poles, whereas terrestrial hurricanes drift across the ocean.

"These are truly massive cyclones, hundreds of times stronger than the most giant hurricanes on Earth," said Kevin Baines, Cassini scientist on the visual and infrared mapping spectrometer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Dozens of puffy, convectively formed cumulus clouds swirl around both poles, betraying the presence of giant thunderstorms lurking beneath. Thunderstorms are the likely engine for these giant weather systems," said Baines.

Just as condensing water in clouds on Earth powers hurricane vortices, the heat released from the condensing water in Saturnian thunderstorms deep down in the atmosphere may be the primary power source energizing the vortex.

In the south, the new infrared images of the pole, under the daylight conditions of southern summer, show the entire region is marked by hundreds of dark cloud spots. The clouds, like those at the north pole, are likely a manifestation of convective, thunderstorm-like processes extending some 100 kilometers (62 miles) below the clouds. They are likely composed of ammonium hydrosulfide with possibly a mixture of materials dredged up from the depths. By contrast, most of the hazes and clouds seen on Saturn are thought to be composed of ammonia, which condenses at high, visible altitudes.

Complementary images of the south pole from Cassini's imaging cameras, obtained in mid-July, are 10 times more detailed than any seen before. "What looked like puffy clouds in lower resolution images are turning out to be deep convective structures seen through the atmospheric haze," said Cassini imaging team member Tony DelGenio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. "One of them has punched through to a higher altitude and created its own little vortex."

The "eye" of the vortex is surrounded by an outer ring of high clouds. The new images also hint at an inner ring of clouds about half the diameter of the main ring, and so the actual clear "eye" region is smaller than it appears in earlier low-resolution images.

"It's like seeing into the eye of a hurricane," said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of Cassini's imaging team at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "It's surprising. Convection is an important part of the planet's energy budget because the warm upwelling air carries heat from the interior. In a terrestrial hurricane, the convection occurs in the eyewall; the eye is a region of downwelling. Here convection seems to occur in the eye as well."

Further observations are planned to see how the features at both poles evolve as the seasons change from southern summer to fall in August 2009.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Media contact:
Carolina Martinez
818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

Ochoa Honored as Hispanic 2008 Engineer of the Year

2008-10-16T11:18:00.001+05:30

Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, STS-110 mission specialist, looks through the Earth observation window in the Destiny laboratory on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: NASA

+ View Ochoa's biography

Johnson Space Center Deputy Director Ellen Ochoa has been chosen as the first woman to receive the Engineer of the Year award by the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Conference. This award recognizes overall leadership and technical achievement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

“I am delighted to receive this award,” said Ochoa. “I feel very privileged to be working in a field I‘m passionate about, surrounded by intelligent and hardworking people. I hope to inspire our community, particularly young women, to choose an education in fields that challenge them and benefit society as a whole."

Ochoa earned a bachelor's degree in physics from San Diego State University and a master's degree and a doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University. She managed the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., before being selected as an astronaut in 1990. She flew on four space shuttle missions, logging 978 hours in space. She became deputy director of flight crew operations at JSC in December 2002 and director of flight crew operations in September 2006. She was appointed deputy director of JSC in September 2007.

Phoenix Mars Mission Honored by Popular Mechanics

2008-10-16T11:17:00.000+05:30

Phoenix spacecraft on Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Calech/University of Arizona
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Animations and videos NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission is being honored with a Breakthrough Award by Popular Mechanics magazine today in New York City. In its fourth year, the awards recognize innovators who improve lives and expand possibilities in science, technology, engineering and exploration.

Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, principal investigator for Phoenix, is accepting the award on behalf of the Phoenix team. Phoenix Project Manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Ed Sedivy, the Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, were also recognized for their mission leadership.

Now in the final weeks of an extended mission, the Phoenix lander has been studying the Martian arctic for evidence of past liquid wate, and habitability, and studying the current climate and atmosphere since landing on the Red Planet on May 25. Robotic laboratory instruments have "sniffed and tasted" the Martian soil and ice to analyze their chemical and mineral properties. More than 25,000 images from the surface of Mars have been returned by the lander's camera systems.

A complete report on the Breakthrough Awards, and a full list of the nine winners are available in the November 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics and online at www.popularmechanics.com/breakthrough08 .

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith, with project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

Reightler: Human Space Exploration is Man's Destiny

2008-10-11T12:27:00.001+05:30

In the 1960s, when President John F. Kennedy was making his pitch for the United States to send astronauts to the moon, he put the challenge succinctly.

"We go … not because it's easy, but because it's hard," Kennedy told Congress and the world.

We go back for the same reason, but "in some ways, NASA has become a victim of its own success," according to Ken Reightler, president of Lockheed Martin Space Operations in Greenbelt, Md., and twice a member of space shuttle crews while a NASA astronaut.

Ken Reightler watched NASA grow up at Langley from his childhood home in nearby Virginia Beach.

Click on image for a larger size The "public sees competence, efficiency," said Reightler, who spoke at the Reid Conference Center on Tuesday as part of a four-lecture colloquium series that is celebrating the 50th birthday of the agency.

"We've flown more than 350 astronauts into space in more than 100 flights," Reightler added.

That "comfort zone" is one reason why there may not be as much apparent public support for Constellation than there was for Apollo 40 years ago, though, Reightler added, "one of my jobs is traveling around and speaking, and I'm seeing enthusiasm for going back."

"I think it can be built," he added.

His lecture, "NASA Human Spaceflight: Past, Present and Future," drew parallels between issues competing for the public's attention when spaceflight began, shortly after NASA was created, and now. Part of his experience with Langley involved growing up in nearby Virginia Beach.

A war in Vietnam, assassinations of Martin Luther King, John and Bobby Kennedy and others, economic strife and various presidential elections drew the emotions of a nation that willingly invested 4 percent of its budget in the space program in the 1960s.

Gasoline then was 25 cents a gallon.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, economic problems, foreclosures, a presidential election and other social difficulties draw the emotions of a nation that now invests 0.6 percent of its budget in NASA.

Gasoline is well over $3 a gallon.

It's alike, but different.

"This is a risky business, but I believe space exploration will always be a risky business," Reightler said. "But we are able to build on the knowledge and relationships that we have built over 50 years" of NASA.

He looked around the room, nodded and said, "This is where human spaceflight began."

Reightler pointed to NASA's beginnings, when the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics at Langley was included in the agency in 1958. He also pointed to Langley's roots in Project Mercury and the Space Task Group at the center.

"It was staffed by 35 people," Reightler said. "Can you imagine, just 35 people?"

From then until now, the mission is clear and, even with five decades of foundation to build upon, it remains difficult. Perhaps even more difficult than the mission undertaken by the young engineers and scientists who answered Kennedy's call at the dawn of NASA.

"Many of us in this room will get this started, but we won't be here to see the first astronaut land on the moon or Mars," Reightler said. "We've got to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers.

"It's clear that the new era of exploration has begun."

That exploration should be by humans, he added in answer to some who say robotic involvement is enough.

"You can train a robot to paint a beautiful picture," Reightler said. "But you don't want to hang that picture in your living room. You want that human touch.

"I believe that space exploration is the destiny of the human spirit."

Now, as then.

NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry

Expedition 18 Crew To Launch from Baikonur

2008-10-11T12:25:00.001+05:30

Spaceflight participant Richard Garriott (left), along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov (center), Expedition 18 flight engineer; and astronaut Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander, participate in a flag raising ceremony near the Cosmonaut Hotel at the Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan. Photo Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
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Commander Edward Michael "Mike" Fincke and Flight Engineer Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov of the 18th International Space Station crew are scheduled to launch in their Soyuz TMA-13 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan about 3 a.m. EDT Sunday to begin a six-month stay in space.

With Fincke, an Air Force colonel, and Lonchakov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, will be spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

Garriott will return to Earth with Expedition 17 crew members, Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, in their Soyuz TMA-12 on Oct. 23. Expedition 17 launched to the station April 8.

Expedition 18 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 17 crew, including astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff, after their docking to the orbiting laboratory, scheduled for Tuesday. Chamitoff launched to the station on the STS-124 mission of Discovery May 31. He joined Expedition 17 in progress and will provide Expedition 18 with an experienced flight engineer for the first part of its increment.

Fincke, 41, is making his second long-duration flight on the station. He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds master's degrees from Stanford University and the University of Houston, Clear Lake.

He served as an Air Force flight test engineer. He was selected by NASA in 1996. He was commander of the second NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO 2), working seven days on the seafloor off Florida in May 2002. He served as a flight engineer on station Expedition 9 from April to October 2004.

From the left, spaceflight participant Richard Garriott, along with cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, Expedition 18 flight engineer, and astronaut Michael Fincke, Expedition 18 commander, walk to the Soyuz TMA-13 capsule for their suited fit check at the integration facility of the Baikonur launch complex in Kazakhstan. The fit check was part of a busy agenda for the trio leading up to a scheduled Oct. 12 launch aboard the Soyuz. Photo Credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
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Lonchakov, 43, is a graduate of the Orenburg Air Force Pilot School and the Zhukovski Air Force Academy. He is a class 1 air force pilot. He has more than 1,400 hours of flight time. He also is a paratroop training instructor with 526 jumps.

He was selected as a test cosmonaut candidate in late 1997. He has flown two previous space missions, STS-100 to the station in April 2001 and a Soyuz delivery flight to the station in October and November 2002.

Astronaut Sandra H. Magnus is scheduled to fly to the station on STS-126 to replace Chamitoff as a flight engineer on E18. Magnus, 43, will be replaced near the end of Expedition 18 by Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will launch on Discovery on the STS-119 mission. Magnus holds bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from the University of Missouri-Rolla and a Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology.

She was selected as an astronaut in 1996. Magnus will be making her second spaceflight. She flew as a mission specialist on STS-112 in October 2002.

NASA Maps Shed Light on Carbon Dioxide's Global Nature

2008-10-11T12:24:00.001+05:30

This image was created with data acquired by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, AIRS, during July 2008. The image shows large scale patterns of carbon dioxide concentrations that are transported around the Earth by the general circulation of the atmosphere. Image
Full resolution (1Mb) PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA/university team has published the first global satellite maps of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in Earth's mid-troposphere, an area about 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, above Earth. The team's study reveals new information on how carbon dioxide, which directly contributes to climate change, is distributed in Earth's atmosphere and moves around our world.

A research team led by Moustafa Chahine of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., found the distribution of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere is strongly influenced by major surface sources of carbon dioxide and by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, such as the jet streams and weather systems in Earth's mid-latitudes. Patterns of carbon dioxide distribution were also found to differ significantly between the northern hemisphere, with its many land masses, and the southern hemisphere, which is largely covered by ocean.

The findings are based on data collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft between September 2002 and July 2008. Chahine, the instrument's science team leader, said the research products will be used by scientists to refine models of the processes that transport carbon dioxide within Earth's atmosphere.

"These data capture global variations in the distribution of carbon dioxide over time," Chahine said. "These variations are not represented in the four chemistry-transport models used to determine where carbon dioxide is created and stored."

Chahine said the AIRS data will complement existing and planned ground and aircraft measurements of carbon dioxide, as well as upcoming satellite missions to study Earth's carbon cycle and climate. Included in the new satellite missions is NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory, planned for launch in January 2009. The combination of carbon dioxide data from AIRS and the Orbiting Carbon Observatory will allow scientists to determine the distribution of carbon dioxide in the lower atmosphere, above Earth's surface.

"Carbon dioxide is difficult to measure and track," he said. "No place on Earth is immune from its influence. It will take many independent measurements, including AIRS, to coax this culprit out of hiding and track its progress from creation to storage."

The new maps reveal enhanced concentrations of carbon dioxide south of the northern hemisphere jet stream, in a band between 30 and 40 degrees north latitude. These enhanced concentrations correspond to a well-documented belt of pollution in the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes.

The team attributed the increased levels of carbon dioxide detected over the western North Atlantic to emissions transported from the Southeast U.S. on warm atmospheric "conveyor belts." These belts lift carbon dioxide from Earth's surface into the middle and upper troposphere. The AIRS maps also showed enhanced carbon dioxide over the Mediterranean, resulting from North American and European sources. Carbon dioxide from South Asia ended up over the Middle East, while carbon dioxide from East Asia flowed out over the Pacific Ocean.

In the southern hemisphere, a belt of mid-tropospheric air containing enhanced concentrations of carbon dioxide emerged between 30 and 40 degrees south latitude. This belt had not previously been seen in the four chemistry-transport models used in this study. The researchers say the flow of air in this belt over South America's high Andes Mountains lifts carbon dioxide from major sources on Earth's surface, such as the respiration of plants, as well as forest fires and facilities used for synthetic fuel production and power generation. A portion of this lifted carbon dioxide is then carried into the mid-troposphere, where it becomes trapped in the mid-latitude jet stream and transported rapidly around the world. "The troposphere is like international waters," Chahine said. "What's produced in one place will travel elsewhere."

Study results were published recently in Geophysical Research Letters. Other participants included the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.; and the University of California, Irvine.

More information on AIRS is online at http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech.

NOTE TO EDITORS: A video file accompanying this release is available on NASA Television. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/ .

Media contacts: Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Phoenix Trenches, Stereo

2008-10-11T12:23:00.000+05:30

Here is a stereo, panoramic view of various trenches dug by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. The images that make up this panorama were taken by Phoenix's Surface Stereo Imager at about 4 p.m., local solar time at the landing site, on the 131st, Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 7, 2008).

For scale, the "Pet Donkey" trench just to the right of center is approximately 38 centimeters (15 inches) long and 31 to 34 centimeters (12 to 13 inches) wide. In addition, the rock in front of it, "Headless," is about 11.5 by 8.5 centimeters (4.5 by 3.3 inches), and about 5 centimeters (2 inches) tall.

This image appears three-dimensional when viewed through blue-red glasses.

The Phoenix Mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University

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Insulating Paint Powder Turns Every Color 'Green'

2008-10-11T12:22:00.000+05:30

Thermographic image shows areas of high heat loss (red and yellow) from a home. The blue roof indicates good insulation and little heat loss. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company

Remember that grade-school riddle, "What's black, white, and red all over?" Depending on who gave you the punch line, the answer was "a sunburned zebra" or "a newspaper."

Here's an updated version: What's every color in the world, but still always green?

The answer is paint that includes an insulating powder that originated at NASA. Widely used on commercial and residential structures, it transforms any color of paint into an environmentally friendly insulation barrier that saves energy and cost.

The solution is simple: mix the powder into any color of interior or exterior paint, then break out the brushes. When spread on walls, ceilings, and roofs, it creates a barrier that deflects the sun's heat away from the house, plus it helps keep heating and air conditioning where they belong. This reduced need for energy is not only cost-effective, but also a kindness to the environment -- an easy way to create your own "green house effect."

Many businesses use insulating paint to coat air-conditioning ducts, steam pipes and fittings, metal buildings, and cold storage facilities, such as walk-in coolers and freezers. For example, Purina Feeds uses a version of the insulating powder to cover storage silos, helping to prevent feed spoilage. The poultry industry uses it to help regulate the climate inside its hatcheries. Samsung applies it on military vehicles, and Hyundai Corporation's shipbuilding division paints it onto ships. It's even been used to insulate electrical switch boxes on the outside of fighters jets to prevent overheating.

Thermal image of an energy-efficient building that shows up in cool blues and greens. The building in the background glows yellow and red as heat is being lost. Image Credit: The Insuladd Company

This simple but powerful solution all began with space shuttle launches. During a launch, heat generated by wind resistance and engine exhaust can potentially be very damaging. In the 1980s, engineers at the Marshall Center developed a spray-on process to apply an insulating mixture to help protect the shuttle. The process involved mixing nine different chemicals into an adhesive that was applied to the boosters' forward assembly, systems tunnel covers, and aft skirt.

But there were challenges. Once the insulating material was mixed, it had to be applied within five hours. Any delay meant a batch of expensive materials was lost, requiring the time and cost to mix a new batch. The strength of the insulating material was also difficult to regulate, meaning it could chip during the shuttle's flight and splashdown of its reusable booster rockets. Adding to the downside, two of the nine ingredients in the insulating mix weren't environmentally friendly.

In 1993, Marshall created a solution by atomizing epoxy and other filler materials to create a fine, environmentally friendly insulation powder. The material -- known as MCC-1, or Marshall Convergent Coating-1 -- contained tiny, hollow glass spheres and particles of cork and epoxy. The application process was also changed. Instead of mixing the insulating powder directly into the paint, it was shot from a spray gun at the same time the paint was applied. This change in process eliminated the five-hour "time clock" to complete the painting.

The improved, eco-friendly insulation powder was first flight tested in 1996 on the STS-79 mission. It was so successful that it was adopted for all subsequent shuttle flights, with virtually no observed missing or chipped paint on the spent boosters during post-flight inspections.

STS-79 shuttle launch. Image Credit: NASA

Bringing the NASA insulation powder to the public market resulted in an innovative partnership with Tech Traders, Inc. Months of testing and development created Insuladd®, a safe, non-toxic powder that can be added to any interior or exterior paint to transform it into a layer of insulation.

The powder contains hollow, microscopic ceramic spheres, and a unique process applies a coating to these "microspheres." When the paint dries, it forms a radiant heat barrier, converting ordinary house paint into heat-reflecting thermal paint.

You might say that NASA's contributions to insulating paint can keep green in your world AND in your wallet. That's a good reason to be tickled pink.

You can read the entire article on the insulating paint powder on page 72 in Spinoff 2007.
> View PDF (11 MB)

Insuladd® is a registered trademark of The Insuladd Company.

Collecting 50 Years of NASA Space History

2008-10-08T10:27:00.002+05:30

A commemorative stamp honoring John Glenn's 1962 flight. © collectSPACE.com.
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A space shuttle lunchbox from 1977. © collectSPACE.com.
› View Photo Gallery At a celebration of NASA’s 50th anniversary held outside Washington, DC late last month, a champagne toast was offered in recognition of the five decades of exploration that the agency had accomplished. NASA had put men on the Moon, sent probes to the planets, and improved our understanding of life here at home.

As invited guests raised their glasses, many noticed that on the side of the flute was imprinted the logo for NASA's 50 Years. As the toast ended and the glasses were emptied, many held onto to the stemware as a souvenir of the event and NASA’s anniversary.

These glasses were just the latest example of five decades of commemorative mementos collected in the wake of NASA's crowning space achievements.

The public, enamored by space exploration, have long desired to own a piece of NASA's adventures. In some instances, the space agency met this longing by sharing memorabilia that had been carried to orbit on some of its flights. More often, companies looking to celebrate the United States’ space achievements produced collectibles inspired by NASA’s missions and milestones.

Even the astronauts got into the game. While America’s first astronaut, Alan Shepard had only enough room to fly a U.S. flag on his sub-orbital Mercury flight, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, who followed Shepard to space, packed his spacesuit pockets with miniature Mercury capsules and rolls of Roosevelt dimes. Originally intended for friends and family members, these early space-flown trinkets have been passed down and traded to become very popular NASA collectibles.

In the years that followed, astronauts extended the tradition, flying mementos for those close to them, but also carrying medallions for themselves. They designed mission patches, small embroidered and silk-screened emblems that uniquely represented their flight. Replicas of these insignia were produced for the public and the hobby of space patch collecting was born. Today, hundreds of individual designs offer a colorful timeline to space history and allow everyone the chance to own a tangible connection with their favorite space explorers and missions.

Astronaut autographs were also immensely popular. No sooner had NASA announced its first seven astronauts in 1959, were requests for the newly named American heroes’ signatures received. NASA did its best to fulfill every request but the demand was so great, that had the astronauts answered every mailed-in appeal, they would have barely been left the time to train and fly. To balance this, NASA sometimes employed a machine – an “autopen” – that traced a pattern based on the astronauts’ signatures onto photographs, books and other items sent in by the public. To this day, children (of all ages) from around the world write NASA for astronauts’ autographs and continue to receive authentic and autopenned responses.

That’s not to say that all NASA space collectibles are focused on the crewed missions. Mementos from the agency’s unmanned efforts to explore the solar system and beyond have also been sought. Model and toy versions of planetary probes, such as the Mars rovers, flew off store shelves. Postage stamps celebrating the magnificent imagery captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were saved by more than just stamp collectors, but by those who desired a souvenir of the orbiting observatory.

When NASA was established in October 1958, so was the hobby of collecting NASA memorabilia. For 50 years, the public has celebrated the space agency through the commemorative items it has inspired. And as NASA looks forward to its next 50 years exploring space, so will the public seek to own a part of those achievements.

For a year-by-year tour of the first 50 years of space collectibles, click through to collectSPACE.com, a Houston-based website for space history enthusiasts.

By Robert Z. Pearlman, Editor, collectSPACE.com

Astronauts Practice with Sensor Arm

2008-10-08T10:27:00.001+05:30

Oct. 7, 2008
The crew of STS-126 is rehearsing maneuvers with the long boom they will use to examine the heat shield of space shuttle Endeavour in orbit. The shuttle’s robotic arm is used to move sensors on the boom around all areas of the heat shield to look for signs of damage from launch.

Image above: Technicians will remove a platform, instruments and special tools from the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis as they prepare to remove the shuttle from Launch Pad 39A. The Hubble Space Telescope hardware was bolted inside Atlantis before the STS-125 mission was postponed. Image credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
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While the astronauts train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, workers at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida are carefully removing items from the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis on Launch Pad 39A. The items inside Atlantis include instruments and special tools to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.

Atlantis will be rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building on Oct. 20 so Endeavour can be rolled around five days later to Launch Pad 39A.

Endeavour and its crew of seven astronauts are flying to the International Space Station with new equipment that will allow the space station to host six resident crew members.

Small Asteroid to Light Up Sky Over Africa

2008-10-08T10:25:00.001+05:30

WASHINGTON – An asteroid measuring several feet in diameter is expected to enter the atmosphere over northern Sudan before dawn Tuesday, setting off a potentially brilliant natural fireworks display.

It is unlikely any sizable fragments will survive the fiery passage through Earth's atmosphere. The event is expected to occur at 5:46 a.m. local time (10:46 p.m. EDT Monday).

"We estimate objects this size enter Earth's atmosphere once every few months," said Don Yeomans of the Near-Earth Object Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The unique aspect of this event is that it is the first time we have observed an impacting object during its final approach."

The small space rock, designated 2008 TC3, will be traveling on an eastward trajectory that will carry it toward the Red Sea.

"Observers in the region could be in for quite a show," Yeomans said. "When the object enters the atmosphere, it could become an extremely bright fireball."

Mt. Lemmon telescope.
Full resolution (1.4Mb) The small space rock first was observed by the Mount Lemmon telescope of the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey early Monday and reported to the Minor Planet Center for initial orbit determination. The Minor Planet Center alerted NASA and JPL of the impact potential. NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," plots the orbits of these objects to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

For more information, visit: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/

Media contacts: DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Ca.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

2008-187

NASA, U.S. Chess Federation to Begin Earth vs. Space Match

2008-10-08T10:24:00.000+05:30

It will be the Earth vs. space in a unique chess match, and you can help Earth win.

NASA and the U.S. Chess Federation (USCF) are teaming up to host the first public chess match between astronaut Greg Chamitoff, in orbit aboard the International Space Station, and the public. Key players in the game, set to begin on Monday, Sept. 29, will be the kindergarten through third grade U.S. Chess Championship Team and its chess club teammates from Stevenson Elementary School in Bellevue, Wash.

The K-3 champions will select up to four possible moves each time it is Earth's turn, and then the public will vote on which move will be made. NASA will transmit the winning move to Chamitoff, who will respond. The USCF will facilitate the match on its web site at:

www.uschess.org/nasa2008

"For the past 10 years, the International Space Station has been an important platform to learn about living in space. We're excited to have the opportunity to engage not only young students, but the public at large in this unique chess match," said Heather Rarick, lead flight director for the current space station mission at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"We hope the excitement and interest this game generates will inspire students to become interested in chess," said USCF Executive Director Bill Hall. "Chess is a valuable tool to lead students to become interested in math and to develop critical thinking skills, objectives we focus on in our work with schools nationwide."

Chamitoff, a station flight engineer now speeding around the Earth at five miles a second, is a chess aficionado who brought a chess set with him when he arrived at the complex on the STS-124 space shuttle mission in June. Chamitoff has added Velcro to the chess pieces to keep them from floating away in weightlessness.

With him on the station for Expedition 17 are Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko. Chamitoff is set to return home on a shuttle mission in November. Aboard the station, the crew is supported by control centers at sites around the world -- in the United States, Moscow, Japan, Germany, France and Canada. Chamitoff has been playing long-distance chess in his off time with those control centers during his mission. So far, he is undefeated.

The game against the public will move at a pace of one move per day on weekdays only. Play may be slower, however, because Chamitoff only makes moves when his workload permits. Whenever Chamitoff responds, the Earth will respond after the public votes.

The USCF, established in 1939, is the governing body for chess in the U.S. and is dedicated to extending the role of chess in American society. It promotes the study and knowledge of the game for its own sake and as a useful tool in the classroom for developing critical thinking and social skills.

For more information about the USCF, visit:

www.uschess.org

MESSENGER Bids Farewell to Venus

2008-10-08T10:22:00.002+05:30

ESA’s Venus Express and NASA’s MESSENGER booked an appointment at Venus late in the evening of 5 June, to look at the oddities of this mysterious planet in tandem for a few hours. Just a few weeks on, scientists from both teams are ready to present a first set of images.

Image right: As NASA’s MESSENGER departed from Venus on 5 June 2007 to continue its journey towards Mercury, its Wide Angle Camera captured a sequence of 50 images (480-nm wavelength filter) showing the planet disappearing in the distance. Initially, images were acquired at a rate of one of every 20 minutes and then, with increasing distance, the timing interval was increased to 60 minutes. Click image to view movie. Credit: NASA/APL

This unique opportunity to make multi-point observations of the Venusian atmosphere was possible thanks to the MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, Geochemistry, and Ranging) swingby of Venus – a key step during its long journey to Mercury - while Venus Express was already orbiting the planet in the course of its mission.

The two spacecraft carry sets of instruments employing different observation techniques which complement each other. The data collected at Venus are now being analysed by teams on both sides of the Atlantic and, as can be appreciated in the first images presented here, already hints at the potential of the results to come.

The particular orbital geometry of Venus Express when MESSENGER skimmed past Venus on 5 June meant that the two spacecraft were not at the same location (with respect to the surface of the planet) at the exact same time.

VIRTIS Image of the Area Overflown by MESSENGER

Image left: This grey-scale image, obtained by the VIRTIS instrument on board ESA’s Venus Express, shows the atmospheric region of Venus over which NASA’s MESSENGER passed on 5 June 2007. The region of MESSENGER’s closest approach is in the night side (marked by a circle). Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA

MESSENGER made its closest approach at a distance of about 338 km from the planet over the planetary coordinates 12.25° South and 165° East, on the night side of the planet. Meanwhile, Venus Express was behind the horizon, almost right above the South Pole, at about 35 000 km from Venus.

So how could they make true joint observations of the same regions and phenomena? Scientists came up with a highly creative solution.

Two Hunters for the Same Cloud

The scientists used a computer simulation based on real atmospheric data about Venus obtained from previous ground and space observations. Knowing the speed of the local winds, which depend both on the altitude and the latitude, they were able to predict where a particular set of clouds would be at a given point in time.

For their observation, the Venus Express scientists selected a cloud that – moving west by about 90° longitude every day - was visible to Venus Express and would be in view of MESSENGER 12 hours later, at the time of its closest approach. The same cloud became visible again for Venus Express 12 hours after MESSENGER’s closest approach, this time on the night-side.

VIRTIS Images of the Clouds That MESSENGER Flew Over

Click image for high resolution copy

Image above: The images in this panel were obtained by the VIRTIS imaging spectrometer on board Venus Express on 5 and 6 June 2007, before and after MESSENGER’s closest approach to the planet. These panels from VIRTIS provide a night-side view of the same region that Messenger flew over and imaged. The images where obtained at 1.7 micrometres, revealing atmospheric details down to an altitude of 50 km from the surface. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL

The VIRTIS imaging spectrometer on board Venus Express probed this cloud (top row of this image composite) at several wavelengths. These observations provided a view of the cloud at about 45-50 km altitude (bottom row) from the planet. The clouds below the point of closest approach can be seen in the top row.

The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) instrument on board MESSENGER probed the same cloud structure at 50-75 km from the surface, like VIRTIS.

Such an observation – a typical example of atmospheric structure at Venus – with cross-sections obtained at different altitudes and with different instruments, is a unique opportunity for researchers hoping to solve the puzzle of the Venusian atmosphere’s dynamics and composition.

Cloud Structures at Venus at Time of MESSENGER Flyby

Image right: This movie consists of a sequence of six images obtained by the VIRTIS imaging spectrometer on board ESA’s Venus Express on 5 and 6 June 2007, before and after NASA MESSENGER’s closest approach to the planet. The image sequence, obtained by VIRTIS, provides a night-side view of the same region that Messenger flew over and imaged. Click image to view animated GIF. Credits: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA

Over about 24 hours, not only did the two spacecraft observe the same clouds, but MESSENGER also flew closely over the atmospheric region. Again, these dual-spacecraft, multi-instrument observations may provide additional atmospheric details.

Thermal and Radar Maps of Venus’ Surface Compared

Image above: An unprocessed thermal map of the Venusian surface obtained by VIRTIS on 5 June 2007 (left) is compared here with a radar image of the same area obtained by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s (right). Correlations between topographic and thermal data similar to the ones shown in this image-composite will allow the scientists to understand if the measured temperature of the surface depends only on the altitude – where higher altitudes simply corresponds to colder, temperatures such as on Earth – or if it depends on the presence of previously undetected sources of heat such as active volcanoes. Credits: Left panel: ESA/VIRTIS/INAF-IASF/Obs. de Paris-LESIA, Right panel: NASA

A spectacular view obtained by VIRTIS (left), in the region of MESSENGER's closest approach to Venus provides, even if still unprocessed, a ‘thermal view’ of the Venusian surface. The image is compared here with an image of the same feature synthesized by data from NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s (right).

Magellan provided radar imaging and altimetry maps, providing information on the topography (elevation) and the radar reflectivity of the surface. Venus Express’ VIRTIS is providing ‘thermal maps’ of the surface containing information on the emissivity in the infrared. Correlations between topographic and thermal data similar to the ones shown here, will allow scientists to understand if the measured temperature of the surface depends on the altitude – where ‘higher’ simply corresponds to ‘colder’ – or if it depends on the presence of previously undetected sources of heat, such as active volcanoes or other geological activities.

Image left: ESA’s Venus Express, in orbit around Venus since 11 April 2006, was joined for a few hours by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, flying by Venus while on its way to Mercury. This animation shows both the Venus Express and MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Venus at the time of the fly-by. Earth-based observatories and telescopes in orbit around Earth were also watching. Looking at Venus together, spacecraft and ground observatories obtained a unique set of data each, so many different ‘eyes’ observed the same regions and phenomena during the same time frame. Click image to view animation. Credit: NASA/APL

The Venus Express and MESSENGER scientists are now continuing the analysis of this rich and complex set of data collected at Venus. The data also involve several other instruments studying not only Venus’ cloud deck and surface, but also the plasma environment, magnetic fields, and the atmospheric oxygen airglow.

More mature results from this joint observation campaign are expected by the end of the year.

Mike Buckley
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

Messenger Flies By Venus

2008-10-08T10:22:00.001+05:30

The MESSENGER spacecraft snapped a series of images as it approached Venus on June 5. The planet is enshrouded by a global layer of clouds that obscures its surface to the MESSENGER Dual Imaging System (MDIS) cameras.

This single frame is part of a color sequence taken to help the MESSENGER team calibrate the camera in preparation for the spacecraft’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14, 2008. Over the next several months the camera team will pore over the 614 images taken during this Venus encounter to ascertain color sensitivity and other optical properties of the instrument. These tasks address two key goals for the camera at Mercury: understanding surface color variations and their relation to compositional variations in the crust, and ensuring accurate cartographic placement of features on Mercury’s surface.

Preliminary analysis of the Venus flyby images indicates that the cameras are healthy and will be ready for next January’s close encounter with Mercury.

Departure Sequence Summary

After acquiring hundreds of high-resolution images during close approach to Venus, MESSENGER turned its wide-angle camera back to the planet and acquired a departure sequence. These images provide a spectacular good-bye to the cloud-shrouded planet while also providing valuable data to the camera calibration team.

The first image was taken June 6 at 12:58 UTC (8:58 p.m. EDT on June 5), and the final image on June 7 at 02:18 UTC (10:18 p.m. EDT on June 6). During this 25 hour, 20 minute period the spacecraft traveled 833,234 kilometers (517,748 miles—more than twice the distance from the Earth to the moon) with respect to Venus at an average speed of 9.13 kilometers per second (5.67 miles per second).

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab

The Long and Winding Road

2008-10-08T10:21:00.002+05:30

It's pretty easy to fly by a planet.

Point your spacecraft in the right direction to pass by the planet as it orbits the Sun, and get whatever information you can during the high-speed rendezvous. That was NASA's strategy during the early days of Solar System exploration, and it provided us with an incredible amount of insight into our universe.

Image to right: Workers at Pad 17-B prepare the Delta II payload fairing for installation around MESSENGER. On August 2, the spacecraft will begin a 7-year trek to Mercury. Credit: NASA.

The difficulty level gets turned up a notch when talking about "orbital insertion." You're not just flying by the planet; you're getting there and then slowing down to the point where the world that you want to explore pulls your spacecraft into orbit around it. Too slow and your probe will drop into the planet's atmosphere and burn up. Too fast and you'll fly off into space, stuck helpless in a solar orbit for billions of years.

NASA's MESSENGER will head into space with all the energy and speed it had when it left the Earth, and then have to slow down to meet up with Mercury.

This means MESSENGER has to burn off a lot of energy during its journey. One way is to carry a large amount of fuel and perform braking maneuvers during the trip. But fuel already accounts for more than half of MESSENGER's total launch weight; adding more would weigh down the spacecraft to the point where it wouldn't be practical to launch at all.

The other technique, which MESSENGER is going to undertake on its journey, is called "gravity assist." Most people think of speeding up a spacecraft when they hear about this concept, but it can actually work to slow one down as well.

Image to left: Solar panels are installed on the MESSENGER spacecraft at the Astrotech facility in Titusville, Florida. MESSENGER is also equipped with a solar shield, to protect it from the intense heat the Sun during its mission. Credit: NASA.

This is due to "angular momentum," the tremendous amount of energy a planet orbiting the Sun has because of its enormous size and speed. When a spacecraft flies past that giant body, it can tap into the planet's gravity to increase its speed. When a spacecraft flies along in front of it, the opposite happens: the vehicle gives up some of its energy to the planet.

NASA's MESSENGER will fly by Earth, Venus and Mercury several times to burn off energy before making its final approach to the inner planet on March 18, 2011.

Learn more about the mission and the cutting-edge spacecraft by visiting NASA's MESSENGER mission site.

Matthew Cavagnaro
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Mercury, Get Ready for a Close-Up

2008-10-08T10:21:00.001+05:30

Planet Mercury better be ready for its close-up.

The pioneering MErcury Surface, Space Environment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) mission will orbit the mysterious terrestrial planet, looking closely at its surface, its crust, its atmosphere -- even its magnetic field.

Loaded with seven advanced scientific instruments and one radio science experiment to pack in as much science as possible, the spacecraft makes the most of the first mission to Mercury since 1975. One of MESSENGER's goals is to learn as much as possible about Mercury's topography -- its barren, pockmarked surface. Three scientific instruments were specially designed to study Mercury's surface.

Image to left: The pioneering MESSENGER spacecraft and its array of scientific equipment will tell us more about mysterious Mercury than we have ever known. Credit: JHUAPL

Two cameras -- one wide-angle, and one narrow-angle -- will help the "two-eyed" Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) create a map of the planet's landforms. It will also trace different features on the surface. A special pivoting platform allows scientists to point the MDIS in whatever direction they choose.

The Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA) will create topographic maps of the planet's surface in unprecedented detail. When the laser shines down and reflects off Mercury's surface, a sensor will gather the light, allowing scientists to track variations in the distance from the surface to the spacecraft.

As MESSENGER orbits Mercury's surface, the spacecraft will be attracted to areas where the mass is greater and gravity tugs a little harder, causing it to speed up slightly as it approaches and slow a bit as it recedes. The Radio Science experiment will use the Doppler Effect to track the changes in MESSENGER's velocity, and translate them into clues to how the planet's mass is distributed and where the crust is thicker or thinner.

Mercury gets as close as 57 million miles from Earth, but MESSENGER's mission profile calls for the spacecraft to travel nearly five billion miles to get there. MESSENGER isn't traveling all that distance just to get a good look at Mercury's topography. Three instruments will rely on a process called spectroscopy to tell scientists what elements are present in the rocks and minerals around the planet.

The X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) will detect X-rays emitted by certain elements in Mercury's crust. The Gamma Ray and Neutron Spectrometer (GRNS) works in much the same way, detecting gamma rays and neutrons emitted by various elements. GRNS may also help to determine if water ice really exists in permanently-shadowed craters at the planet's north and south poles -- as previous observations suggest.

But what gases might be present in Mercury's atmosphere? The Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) will be able to determine this and also detect minerals on the surface. The instrument is extremely sensitive to light from the infrared to the ultraviolet.

Image to right: A technician checks the MESSENGER spacecraft after its move to a workstand at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., where final assembly and testing were completed. Credit: NASA/KSC

Some planets have a magnetic field that influences the behavior of electrically charged particles. The source of Mercury's field is not understood. MESSENGER's Energetic Particle and Plasma Spectrometer (EPPS) will measure the composition, distribution and energy of electrons and ions in Mercury's magnetosphere, the region surrounding the planet that is controlled by its magnetic field. Perched at the end of a nearly 12-foot-long boom, the Magnetometer (MAG) will map the planet's magnetic field and search for magnetized rocks in the crust.

Together, MESSENGER's advanced scientific instruments will shed light on how a terrestrial planet evolves, telling us more about our planet's own past. Whether Mercury is ready or not, the mission will give us a new look at our least-explored terrestrial neighbor, from the inside out.

For further information, visit:
NASA's MESSENGER Web Site
The John Hopkins University's MESSENGER Web Site

Anna Heiney
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

MESSENGER: The Extreme Machine

2008-10-08T10:20:00.001+05:30

Only one NASA spacecraft has visited Mercury and that was Mariner 10 in 1974 and 1975. It was programmed to fly by the planet three times to take images of its heavily-cratered surface. But the spacecraft saw essentially the same side of the planet on each pass.

There's still more than half of Mercury we've never seen before. And it's not that NASA hasn't wanted to get there sooner! Scientists and engineers have spent nearly two decades developing new techniques and designing a spacecraft with the ability to survive the extreme conditions of Mercury.

Image Left: Nearly all of Mercury's surface will be imaged in stereo to determine the planet's global topography and landforms. MESSENGER will determine why Mercury is so much denser and more metal-rich than Venus, Earth, and Mars. Image credit: NASA

Their hard work is coming to fruition. The MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging) mission is set to launch on Aug. 2 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., to further study the mysterious nature of Mercury.

Many of MESSENGER's basic components are very similar to other spacecraft, which kept project costs down. But MESSENGER has a unique quality that other crafts don't. Its structure was built using a composite material, making the spacecraft relatively lightweight. Although regularly used on other spacecraft, the composite material was never used to make an entire vehicle before MESSENGER.

Did you know that Mercury is so close to the Sun that it's up to 11 times brighter there than here on Earth? Mercury's surface temperatures can reach about 840 degrees Fahrenheit. But MESSENGER will stay cool (around average room temperature), sheltered behind a sunshade made of heat-resistant ceramic cloth. Sunshades and heat-protective blanketing were used on the Mariner 10 spacecraft, but MESSENGER's protective layer is thicker for the intense heat exposure during orbit.

Image Right: Mercury's North Pole. These unusual images of what looks likes ice have sparked the imagination of scientists. It has been suggested that a tiny flow of ice from comets and meteorites could be cold-trapped in these polar deposits over billions of years, or that the polar deposits consist of sulfur that has seeped from minerals in the surface rocks over the eons. Image credit: NASA/Aricibo University

So how is it that the planet closest to the Sun has temperatures that possibly can sustain ice? Simply, Mercury's axis of rotation is such that sections of the planet, the deep floors and walls of craters near its poles, are always shaded. In these frigid areas of Mercury, temperatures can dip to minus 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Radar pictures from Earth show material in the craters that resembles ice, but its identity is one of Mercury's mysteries that NASA hopes to solve.

MESSENGER's science payload (or instrumentation) was selected to answer six key questions about the Solar System's second densest planet. Most of the instruments are rigidly fixed on the spacecraft's body, so taking each reading involves maneuvering the spacecraft into the correct position.

This is accomplished with the 16 small, monopropellant thrusters used for small orbit-corrections. Its main bipropellant engine will be used for large trajectory-correction maneuvers on the way to Mercury and to inject the spacecraft into orbit around the planet. Nearly 55 percent of MESSENGER's total mass of more than 2,400 pounds is propellant.

Mercury Trivia

Mercury was named for the swift Roman "messenger" god, since it travels around the Sun faster than any other planet.

MESSENGER's power comes mainly from its solar array. Power produced by the solar array is stored in a battery and then distributed to the other systems. The spacecraft is designed to rotate the panels away from the Sun to avoid overheating. Wisely, MESSENGER is built with a redundant system so if any one system fails, another can take over.

The spacecraft is scheduled to enter Mercury orbit in March 2011. No doubt, the findings will amaze and excite the NASA science team during the one Earth year that it will take to open the planet's doors for investigation.

By studying this extraordinary and least explored "terrestrial" planet in our Solar System, NASA researchers expect to understand how our own Earth was formed.

For further information, visit:
NASA's MESSENGER Web Site
Kennedy Space Center's MESSENGER Web Site
The John Hopkins University's MESSENGER Web Site

Elaine M. Marconi
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

MESSENGER Returns Images from Oct. 6 Mercury Fly-By

2008-10-08T10:18:00.002+05:30

MESSENGER is the first mission sent to orbit the planet closest to the sun. On Oct. 6, 2008, at roughly 4:40 a.m. ET, MESSENGER flew by Mercury for the second time this year. During the encounter, the probe swung just 125 miles (200 kilometers) above the cratered surface of Mercury, snapping hundreds of pictures and collecting a variety of other data from the planet as it gains a critical gravity assist that keeps the probe on track to become the first spacecraft ever to orbit the innermost planet beginning in March 2011.

At roughly 1:50 a.m. ET on October 7, MESSENGER's most recent images began to be received back on Earth. The spectacular image shown here is one of the first to be returned. It shows Mercury about 90 minutes after the spacecraft’s closest approach. The bright crater just south of the center of the image is Kuiper, identified on images from the Mariner 10 mission in the 1970s. For most of the terrain east of Kuiper, toward the limb (edge) of the planet, the departing images are the first spacecraft views of that portion of Mercury’s surface. A striking characteristic of this newly imaged area is the large pattern of rays that extend from the northern region of Mercury to regions south of Kuiper.

NASA Stardust Capsule to Go on Display at Smithsonian

2008-09-27T10:33:00.000+05:30

The capsule returned to Earth on Jan. 15, 2006. Image credit: NASA
› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. -- Having returned the world's first particles from a comet, NASA's Stardust sample return capsule will join the collection of flight icons in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The capsule will go on public display in the museum's Milestones of Flight Gallery on Oct. 1, the 50th anniversary of NASA.

Stardust, comprising a spacecraft and capsule, completed a seven-year, 4.8-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) journey in 2006. A tennis racket-like, aerogel-lined collector was extended to capture particles as the spacecraft flew within 241 kilometers (150 miles) of comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Carrying the collected particles, the capsule returned to Earth Jan. 15, 2006, landing in Utah. Two days later, it was transported to a curatorial facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

"Very few people get to build something, launch it into space, see it be successful and then get it back in their hands," said Karen McNamara, Johnson recovery lead for the Stardust mission. "To be able to share this with the public is phenomenal."

The capsule joins the Wright brothers' 1903 Flyer, Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia that carried the first men to walk on the moon.

"The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum is delighted to add to the National Collection the Stardust return capsule," said Roger Launius, senior curator of the Division of Space History at the museum. "As one of the premier space science missions of the recent past, Stardust will take its place alongside other iconic objects from the history of air and spaceflight. I look forward to helping to impart more knowledge to our visitors about the makeup of the universe using this significant and pathbreaking object."

Hardware provided to the Smithsonian includes actual flight components. Elements relevant to the science goals of the mission remain with NASA.

After successfully completing its mission, Stardust will use its flight-proven hardware to perform a new, previously unplanned investigation. The mission, called Stardust-NExT, will revisit comet 9P/Tempel 1. This investigation will provide the first look at the changes to a comet nucleus produced after a close approach to the sun. It will also mark the first time a comet has ever been revisited.

"Usually, when a piece of your spacecraft goes into the Smithsonian, that means the mission's over," said Stardust-NExT project manager Rick Grammier, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But the Stardust spacecraft is still doing the job for NASA and in February 2011, it will fly within 193 kilometers (120 miles) of the comet."

Stardust-Next is a low-cost, Discovery Program mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL manages the project. Joseph Veverka of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver manages mission operations.

For information about the Stardust mission on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/stardust .

Images of the Stardust capsule being prepared for shipment can be found at: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/stardust.html .

NASA Television will air video file material to illustrate this story. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

NASA Orbiter Reveals Rock Fracture Plumbing on Mars

2008-09-27T10:31:00.002+05:30

Dense clusters of crack-like structures called deformation bands form the linear ridges prominent in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
› Full image and caption

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed hundreds of small fractures exposed on the Martian surface that billions of years ago directed flows of water through underground Martian sandstone.

Researchers used images from the spacecraft's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE, camera. Images of layered rock deposits at equatorial Martian sites show the clusters of fractures to be a type called deformation bands, caused by stresses below the surface in granular or porous bedrock.

"Groundwater often flows along fractures such as these, and knowing that these are deformation bands helps us understand how the underground plumbing may have worked within these layered deposits," said Chris Okubo of the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz.

Visible effects of water on the color and texture of rock along the fractures provide evidence that groundwater flowed extensively along the fractures.

"These structures are important sites for future exploration and investigations into the geological history of water and water-related processes on Mars," Okubo and co-authors state in a report published online this month in the Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Deformation band clusters in Utah sandstones, as on Mars, are a few meters or yards wide and up to a few kilometers or miles long. They form from either compression or stretching of underground layers, and can be precursors to faults. The ones visible at the surface have become exposed as overlying layers erode away. Deformation bands and faults can strongly influence the movement of groundwater on Earth and appear to have been similarly important on Mars, according to this study.

"This study provides a picture of not just surface water erosion, but true groundwater effects widely distributed over the planet," said Suzanne Smrekar, deputy project scientist for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Groundwater movement has important implications for how the temperature and chemistry of the crust have changed over time, which in turn affects the potential for habitats for past life."

The recent study focuses on layered deposits in Mars' Capen crater, approximately 70 kilometers (43 miles) in diameter and 7 degrees north of the equator. This formerly unnamed crater became notable due to this discovery of deformation bands within it and was recently assigned a formal name. The crater was named for the late Charles Capen, who studied Mars and other objects as an astronomer at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory in Southern California and at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Ariz.

The HiRISE camera is one of six science instruments on the orbiter. It can reveal smaller details on the surface than any previous camera to orbit Mars. The orbiter reached Mars in March 2006 and has returned more data than all other current and past missions to Mars combined.

The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp. of Boulder, Colo.

Images of the deformation band clusters and additional information about the mission are on the Internet at: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov .

Powerful Nearby Supernova Caught by Web

2008-09-27T10:31:00.001+05:30

One of the nearest supernovas in the last 25 years has been identified over a decade after it exploded. This result was made possible by combining data from the vast online archives from many of the world's premier telescopes.

Penn State's Franz Bauer, now at Columbia University, first distinguished the supernova in 2001. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Bauer detected the bright, variable object in the spiral galaxy Circinus.

Though the source displayed some exceptional properties, at the time Bauer and his Penn State colleagues could not confidently identify its nature.

It was not until years later that Bauer and his team were able to confirm this object was a supernova. Clues in a spectrum from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) led the team to search through data from 18 different telescopes, both in space and on the ground, nearly all of which was from archives. Because this object was found in a nearby galaxy, making it relatively easy to study, the public archives of these telescopes contained abundant data on this galaxy.

The data show that this supernova, dubbed SN 1996cr, is among the brightest supernovas ever seen in radio and X-rays. It also bears many striking similarities to the famous supernova SN 1987A, which occurred in a galaxy only 160,000 light years from Earth.

"This supernova appears to be a wild cousin of SN 1987A," said Bauer. "These two look alike in many ways, except this newer supernova is intrinsically a thousand times brighter in radio and X-rays."

Optical images from the archives of the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Australia show that SN 1996cr exploded between February 28, 1995 and March 15, 1996, nearly a decade after SN 1987A. SN 1996cr may not have been noticed by astronomers at the time because it was only visible in the southern hemisphere, which is not as widely monitored as the northern. Among the five nearest supernovas of the last 25 years, it is the only one that was not seen shortly after the explosion.

SN 1996cr was not detected by other major X-ray observatories in orbit - ROSAT and ASCA - around the time of explosion. Rather, it wasn't until several years later that it was detected as an X-ray source by Chandra (launched in 1999), and has become steadily brighter ever since. Previously, SN 1987A had been the only known supernova with an X-ray output observed to increase over time.

"Supernovas that are close enough to be studied in detail like this are quite rare and may only appear once a decade, so we don't want to miss such an important opportunity for discovery," said Bauer. "It's a bit of a coup to find SN 1996cr like we did, and we could never have nailed it without the serendipitous data taken by all of these telescopes. We've truly entered a new era of 'Internet astronomy'."

The data, combined with theoretical work, has led the team to the following model. Before it exploded, the parent star cleared out a large cavity around it, either via a fast wind or an outburst from the star late in its life. Then, the blast wave from the explosion expanded relatively unimpeded into this cavity. Once the blast wave hit the dense material surrounding SN1996cr, the impact caused the system to glow brightly in X-ray and radio emission. The X-ray and radio emission from SN 1987A is fainter because the surrounding material is probably less compact.

Astronomers think that both SN 1987A and SN 1996cr show evidence for these pre-explosion clear-outs by the star doomed to explode. Having two nearby examples suggests that this type of activity could be relatively common during the death of massive stars.

"Not only does our work suggest that SN 1987A isn't as unusual as previously thought, but it also teaches us more about the tremendous upheavals that massive stars can undergo during their lifetime," said co-author Vikram Dwarkadas of the University of Chicago.

SN 1996cr, at a distance of about 12 million light years, will be a compelling target for future work because it is nearby and so much brighter than a typical supernova.

These results will appear in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Other co-authors on this paper include Niel Brandt (Penn State), Stefan Immler (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center), Norbert Bartel (York University, Canada), and Michael Bietenholz (York University andHartebeesthoek Radio Observatory, South Africa).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.

Additional information and images are available at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/

and

http://chandra.nasa.gov

NASA, U.S. Chess Federation to Begin Earth vs. Space Match

2008-09-27T10:27:00.000+05:30

www.uschess.org/nasa2008

www.uschess.org

NASA, NIA Announce NASA Education Television Partnership

2008-09-11T02:39:00.000+05:30

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- NASA Deputy Administrator Shana Dale announced Wednesday the launch of NASA Education TV (NASA eTV), a partnership with the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) to produce new educational television programs for distribution on NASA Television and the Internet.

The announcement was part of Dale's keynote address at the NASA Future Forum in San Jose, Calif., where NASA and California leaders are meeting to discuss how space exploration benefits Silicon Valley, the state of California and the nation through discovery, innovation and inspiration.

"California's Silicon Valley is a launch pad for high-tech ideas and businesses, many of which were inspired by NASA scientific discoveries and technology advances," Dale said. "America's long-term space exploration goals support economic growth right here, right now in California communities, and throughout the country."

NASA eTV aims to engage young people in the excitement and challenges the future holds for America's space program. Designed for grades K-12 and young adults, the short video snippets will be available on demand through the Internet during the 2008 and 2009 school years. This will allow teachers unlimited options in the timing, sequence and pacing of the video content for greater instructional flow control.

"We realize that to sustain U.S. economic competitiveness, it is imperative that students have a solid educational foundation to be prepared for professional careers in the technologically complex 21st century," said Robert Lindberg, NIA's president and executive director. "Working jointly with NASA, NIA has developed a comprehensive approach to producing visual media that teachers will find easier to integrate into their classroom instruction."

Each NASA eTV program will consist of 5- to- 10-minute video segments designed to meet identified teacher needs. The elementary school-level segments will provide a balanced introduction to the fields of science and engineering and be aligned to national education standards. The middle school-level segments will be aligned with mathematics learning standards and the relevance of math to 21st century careers. The high school-level segments will build on the engineering and science behind NASA projects and missions. The general public programs will be aimed at the 18- to 34-year-old audience and focus on the impact of space exploration, scientific discovery, aeronautics research and NASA-derived technologies on society.

The San Jose Future Forum was hosted by NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., and The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose as part of a yearlong series of events marking NASA's 50th anniversary.

Other NASA forum participants included Ames Director S. Pete Worden, astronaut Rex Walheim, who just returned to Earth from a mission to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station, Assistant Administrator for Education Joyce Winterton, and James Norman, director of the Constellation Systems Division in NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington.

"NASA Ames is on the cutting edge of exploration," Worden said. "Here, government, businesses and learning institutions are forging partnerships to develop technologies for a new generation of space explorers. We're at the dawn of an exciting new era that will help us explore our solar system and make life on this planet and others sustainable."

The forum was sponsored by Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., Google of Mountain View, Calif., Jacobs Technology of Tullahoma, Tenn., Lockheed Martin of Bethesda, Md., Nortel of Toronto, Canada, Microsoft Research of Redmond, Wash., Symantec of Cupertino, Calif., and Raytheon of Waltham, Mass.

For more information on NASA's 50th Anniversary Future Forums, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/50th/future_forums

For complete biographical information about Dale, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/dale_bio.html

College Students Design Future Aircraft in NASA Competition

2008-09-11T02:34:00.000+05:30

HAMPTON, Va. -- Sixty-one students from 14 colleges and universities around the globe have imagined what the next generation of airliners and cargo planes may look like.

Fourteen teams and two individual students submitted their designs in the annual competition sponsored by NASA's Fundamental Aeronautics Program, part of the agency's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

The highest scoring graduate team was from Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Undergraduate team honors went to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

The contest asked students to create a future subsonic transport aircraft that could carry up to 50,000 pounds, operate on runways between 1,500 and 3,000 feet long, and cruise at speeds between 595 and 625 mph - about the average speed of airliners today. The competition also stressed that concept planes should use alternative fuels and be quieter and more environmentally friendly than today's commercial fleet.

"The nation's air transportation system is under tremendous pressure to increase performance and capacity without causing additional damage to the environment," said Juan Alonso, director of the Fundamental Aeronautics Program. "Through competitions such as this, we are nurturing a new generation of engineers who can deliver the solutions we so desperately need."

The judges graded the designs on criteria including creativity and imagination, feasibility and cost analysis, and comprehensive discussion of design concept.

"The invention, imagination and engineering exhibited in these college proposals was extraordinary, and in parts superior to the concepts prevalent in the current professional literature. These entries bode well for the future of civilian aeronautics," said Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Bushnell was one of several NASA experts who judged the competition.

As part of the competition, six U.S. students received a 10-week paid summer internship at one of four NASA research centers around the country. Non-U.S. student winners received an engraved trophy and certificate.

Sponsors are already planning next year's competition, which will be announced by the end of this summer.

A complete list of winners of the college contest can be found at:

http://aero.larc.nasa.gov

For more information about NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, visit:

http://aeronautics.nasa.gov

Hurricane Season 2008: Tropical Storm Fay (Atlantic Ocean)

2008-08-24T22:43:00.002+05:30

Tropical Storm Fay has deluged Florida with rain and will continue to do so until the end of the weekend, when it is expected to move west of the Panhandle.

NASA's CloudSat satellite captured a sideways view of Tropical Storm Fay as it makes its way across north Florida en route to southern Mississippi and eastern Louisiana by the early morning hours on Monday, August 25.

As of Aug. 22 at 2 p.m. a Tropical Storm Watch remains in effect from west of Destin, Florida to the Mississippi/Alabama border.

At 2:00 p.m. EDT, Fay's center was located near latitude 29.7 north...longitude 82.9 west or about 40 miles north-northeast of Cedar Key, Fla. Fay's maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph with higher gusts. Little change in strength is forecast during the next 24 hours. It was moving west near 4 mph. Fay is expected to cross the northern Florida peninsula today and move over the panhandle on Saturday. Estimated minimum central pressure is 997 millibars.

NASA's CloudSat satellite's Cloud Profiling Radar captured a sideways look across Tropical Storm Fay. This is a combination of the CloudSat image (on the bottom) and an image from NASA's Aqua satellite (top).

Heads of Agency International Space Station Joint Statement

2008-07-21T00:52:00.001+05:30

PARIS -- The heads of the International Space Station (ISS) agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met at European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters in Paris on July 17, 2008, to review ISS cooperation. As part of their discussions, they noted the significantly expanded capability that the ISS now provides for on-orbit research and technology development activities and as an engineering test bed for flight systems and operations that are critical to future space exploration initiatives. These activities improve the quality of life on Earth by expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

The Heads of Agency also noted the Partners' significant accomplishments since their last meeting in January 2007, including the delivery of Node 2 (Harmony), two new laboratories (the ESA Columbus Module and the Japanese Experiment Module Kibo), and Dextre, Canada's two-armed special purpose dexterous manipulator. In addition to the completion of six challenging ISS assembly missions with the U.S. Space Shuttle, the Heads of Agency recognized the maiden flight of the European Automated Transfer Vehicle, the establishment of the global ISS ground operation control center network with the addition of new European and Japanese ISS operations centers and the successful flights of Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles. The Partners emphasized the critical importance of expanded operations of Russian Soyuz and Progress vehicles for ISS total crew transportation, rescue and cargo delivery.

The Heads of Agency reviewed current ISS development, configuration and operations activities across the partnership. They considered implementing plans to maximize the benefits from the increase to a six-person crew in 2009 and discussed efforts to ensure that essential space transportation capabilities (both crew and cargo) will be available across the partnership for the life of the program. The Partners acknowledged the need for the additional Russian modules to be provided in 2009 and 2010 that will maximize six-person ISS operations and utilization.

The Heads of Agency discussed their respective ongoing activities to enhance upmass and downmass transportation capabilities required for a robust utilization of the ISS and for preparing capabilities for the future. These include Japan's H-2 Transfer Vehicle in the next year, the U.S. Commercial Orbital Transportation Services and the U.S. Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle; together with the current operational vehicles, the U.S. Shuttle (up to 2010), Russian Soyuz and Progress, and ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle. These capabilities will respond to the ISS operations and utilization requirements. They also noted new initiatives such as the ESA plan for an Automated Transfer Vehicle-Advanced Return Vehicle system for downmass from the ISS and the Russia-ESA joint preparatory activities on an advanced Crew Space Transportation System. The Heads of Agency expressed their interest in making these capacities available for the benefit of the whole partnership and can provide sustainability of the ISS and prepare for future exploration endeavors.

As the partnership moves closer to completion of ISS assembly, the Heads of Agency reaffirmed their common interest in utilizing the space station to its full capacity for a period meaningful for stakeholders and users. The Partners noted that a continuation of operations beyond 2015 would not be precluded by any significant technical challenges. Recognizing the substantial programmatic benefits to continued ISS operations and utilization beyond the current planning horizon, the Heads of Agency committed to work with their respective governments to assess support for such a goal.

Mission Information STS-124

2008-06-12T12:36:00.000+05:30

Image above: From the left are astronauts Gregory E. Chamitoff, Michael E. Fossum, both STS-124 mission specialists; Kenneth T. Ham, pilot; Mark E. Kelly, commander; Karen L. Nyberg, Ronald J. Garan and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Akihiko Hoshide, all mission specialists. Credit: NASA

Navy Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly commands the STS-124 shuttle mission to deliver the Pressurized Module and robotic arm of the Japanese Experiment Module, known as "Kibo" (hope), to the International Space Station. Navy Cmdr. Kenneth T. Ham serves as the pilot. Mission specialists include NASA astronauts Karen L. Nyberg; Air Force Col. Ronald J. Garan Jr.; and Air Force Reserve Col. Michael E. Fossum. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide also serves as a mission specialist.

Astronaut Gregory E. Chamitoff is flying to the station as a mission specialist on STS-124. He will take Astronaut Garrett E. Reisman's place as an Expedition 17 flight engineer and return to Earth on shuttle mission STS-126.

The STS-124 mission is the second of three flights that will launch components to complete the Kibo laboratory. The mission will include three spacewalks. The lab's logistics module, which was installed in a temporary location during STS-123, will be attached to the new lab.

STS-124 is the 26th shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Navy Cmdr. Stephen G. Bowen was previously named to the STS-124 crew but was reassigned to STS-126. The change allowed room for the STS-124 mission to rotate a space station resident.

NASA Project Recognized for Work with Internet-Equipped Satellites

2008-04-25T17:31:00.001+05:30

A NASA team has shown how Internet technologies used every day that enable computers to talk to each other can make it possible for satellites to communicate the same way.

The engineers working on the Operating Missions as Nodes on the Internet (OMNI) project, based out of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have been working since 1998 to demonstrate ways for space missions to use standard Internet protocols.

Typically, engineers and technicians communicate with orbiting scientific spacecraft through a closed, point-to-point system. Scientific satellites have a degree of autonomy, but generally a specially equipped control center directs their data collection activities.

"But imagine if the spacecraft were 'network-enabled,'" says Jim Rash, who has been OMNI's project manager since the project started. "They can be designed to talk to each other, share data and alert each other to things that they have noticed from their own sensors."

These nodes would be able to act and react faster and more efficiently if they were networked together. And giving spacecraft the ability to communicate with Internet protocols is not a big problem using off-the-shelf technologies, as demonstrated by the OMNI project over the past few years.

Some future NASA missions may involve space systems communicating with each other just like they would on the Internet, says Keith Hogie, lead engineer on the OMNI Project.

For these reasons, NASA is looking at putting the OMNI team's work to use on future missions to the moon and Mars in the years to come.

"We're going to have many nodes on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, and those nodes will be everything from humans on foot in suits walking around poking at rocks, to science instruments and platforms, habitats, rovers, even relay satellites," Rash says.

Enabling those instruments, rovers, suits and satellites with the capability to communicate using Internet protocols is one way to give the equipment and the astronauts the autonomy and independence needed to operate efficiently.

Rash is quick to emphasize that, though the OMNI team has demonstrated ways for space missions to communicate just like computers over the Internet, the spacecraft themselves are not accessible to everybody with a PC and a network card.

"We're not really talking about making NASA missions part of the open Internet," Rash says. "NASA has an isolated second Internet in some sense. There's a brick wall between them, and that's one of the ways we maintain security."

Though there is a literal barrier between NASA's network and the open Internet, the technologies are the same, he says.

NASA is not alone in recognizing OMNI's importance to the future of space exploration. For the team's pioneering work, France-based Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and its U.S. member, the National Aeronautic Association, presented the OMNI group with the FAI Honorary Group Diploma at the end of October 2007.

"We've had other awards, but this is a pretty special award," Rash says. "To be recognized internationally like that is very satisfying." Rash explains that FAI awarded the certificate for OMNI's successful tests on the UoSAT-12 satellite and the CANDOS experiment on shuttle flight STS-107, along with the use of OMNI concepts on more than a dozen international spacecraft from seven different countries.

"We had an opportunity in 1999 to begin using the UoSAT-12, a British spacecraft already in orbit that happened to have the right kind of hardware," says Rash. "The first crucial test was to ping the spacecraft, using just a regular ping command." "Ping" is a common network tool used to verify another computer exists on the Internet.

"We issued the ping command. It went flying over the Internet and across the Atlantic to the ground station in England where UoSAT-12 was controlled, and then to the spacecraft," Rash says. "The spacecraft computer responded to the ping with return packets, which we received here at Goddard."

"That was one really exciting moment," he says. "The first time in history that a spacecraft had been pinged through the Internet with completely Internet-standard technologies. That was the first demonstration that began establishing that this was a feasible approach for space data communications."

That initial ping was only the beginning. The OMNI team was able to transfer files to and from the satellite, and they were even able to use a browser to bring up a Web page hosted on the satellite that showed, in real time, the data it was collecting. Ultimately, many other science mission operations scenarios were also demonstrated.

Following success with UoSAT-12, Rash and his team helped develop and experiment with the Communication and Navigation Demonstration on Shuttle (CANDOS). CANDOS was an independent experiment bolted into space shuttle Columbia's cargo bay on mission STS-107. CANDOS had its own communications system that flowed Internet protocol packets to and from the control center at Goddard.

CANDOS had the advantage of being connected both with ground stations and with NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, which meant that the OMNI team could interact with CANDOS for longer periods of time than was possible with UoSAT-12. Various advanced mission scenarios were accomplished with CANDOS, including activating a remote emergency control center via these secure Internet communications.

The excellent results of work with UoSAT-12 and CANDOS have the entire OMNI team excited for the jobs they have ahead of them.

"This is a mission-enabling kind of technology," Rash says. "It enables new kinds of missions that we could not do in any cost-effective way without it." Even though progress has been swift, "We've been demonstrating this for nine years. ... We are not done with our work yet, I think. We still have work to do."

Robert Garner
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Mars Express Probes Red Planet's Unusual Deposits

2007-11-02T23:17:00.002+05:30

The radar system on the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has uncovered new details about some of the most mysterious deposits on Mars: the Medusae Fossae Formation. It has provided the first direct measurement of the depth and electrical properties of these materials, providing new clues about their origin.

The Medusae Fossae Formation consists of enigmatic deposits. Found near the Martian equator along a divide between highlands and lowlands, they may represent some of the youngest deposits on the surface of the planet. This is implied because there is a marked lack of impact craters dotting these deposits.

Image right: This image combining a topographic map viewed obliquely (color portion of image) with a radargram of the subsurface (monochrome portion) shows features of mysterious Martian deposits named the Medusae Fossae Formation. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Italian Space Agency/Univ. of Rome/Smithsonian
+ Full image and caption

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages NASA's roles in the Mars Express mission. Mars Express has been collecting data on the Medusae Fossae Formation deposits using its Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (Marsis). Between March 2006 and April 2007, Mars Express flew over the Medusae Fossae Formation deposits many times, taking radar soundings as it went.

"This is the first direct measurement of the depth of these deposits," said Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., lead author of a new report on the findings in the journal Science. "We didn't know whether they were just a thin veneer or much thicker." The radar observations found the Medusae Fossae Formation to be massive deposits more than 2.5 kilometers (1.4 miles) thick in places. The instrument reveals the depth based on the time it takes for the radar beam to pass through the layers and bounce off the plains material underneath.

The Medusae Fossae deposits intrigue scientists because they are associated with regions that absorb certain wavelengths of Earth-based radar. This had led to them being called "stealth" regions, because they give no radar echo. However, the radar instrument on Mars Express uses longer wavelengths than Earth-based radar experiments. At these wavelengths, the radar waves mostly pass through the deposits, creating subsurface echoes when the radar signal reflects off the plains material beneath.

A variety of scenarios has been proposed for the origin and composition of these deposits. Firstly, they could be volcanic ash deposits from now-buried vents or nearby volcanoes. Secondly, they could be deposits of wind-blown materials eroded from Martian rocks. Thirdly, they could be ice-rich deposits, somewhat similar to the layered ice deposits at the poles of the planet, but formed when the spin axis of Mars tilts over, making the equatorial region colder.

Deciding among these scenarios is not easy, even with the new data. The Marsis data reveal the electrical properties of the layers. These suggest that the layers could be poorly packed, fluffy, dusty material. However it is difficult to understand how porous material from wind-blown dust can be more than two kilometers (more than a mile) thick and yet not be compacted under the weight of the overlying material.

On the other hand, although the electrical properties are consistent with water-ice layers, there is no other strong evidence for the presence of ice today in the equatorial regions of Mars. "If there is water ice at the equator of Mars, it must be buried at least several meters below the surface," said co-author Jeffrey Plaut of JPL. This is because the water vapor pressure on Mars is so low that any ice near the surface would quickly evaporate.

So, the mystery of Mars's Medusae Fossae Formation continues. "It is still early in the game. We may get cleverer with our analysis and interpretation, or we may only know when we go there with a drill and see for ourselves," Plaut said.

Giovanni Picardi at the University of Rome "La Sapienza," Italy, principal investigator of the radar experiment, said "Not only is Marsis providing excellent scientific results, but the team is also working on the processing techniques that will allow for more accurate evaluation of the characteristics of the subsurface layers and their constituent material. Hence, the possible extension of the mission will be very important to increase the number of observations over the regions of interest and improve the accuracy of the evaluations."

The Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding was funded by NASA and the Italian Space Agency and developed by the University of Rome in partnership with JPL. Italy provided the instrument's digital processing system and integrated the parts. The University of Iowa, Iowa City, built the transmitter for the instrument, JPL built the receiver, and Astro Aerospace, Carpinteria, Calif., built the antenna. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For additional information about Mars Express, see http://www.esa.int/marsexpress . For additional information about NASA's Mars exploration, see http://www.nasa.gov/mars .

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

ESA Media Relations Office 33-1-53-69-7155
European Space Agency, Paris

Catch a Comet - No Telescope Required

2007-11-02T23:17:00.001+05:30

Usually comets are challenging little no-see-um fuzzballs. To see one often requires a dark sky, a good chart or a telescope that can "go-to" the object automatically. This week there is a newly visible comet in the sky and it can be seen with the unaided eye! Last week, Periodic comet Holmes (17P/Holmes), a very faint comet far from the sun experienced an outburst and brightened a million times in just a few hours. The comet puffed up (it's still expanding), changed color and wowed viewers around the world.

Image right: Sky chart showing location of comet Holmes in late October. Image credit: NASA/JPL
+ Larger view

The Astronomy Photo of the day for October 30 (visit http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071030.html) shows the comet's current apparent size in the sky - compared to Jupiter, which you can also see in the west after sunset.

To see the comet, all you have to do is step outside and look to the Northeast. You should be able to see the "W" that is the constellation Cassiopeia - it's standing on its end. One and a half "fists" away to the right is a bright star in the constellation Perseus. You probably won't be able to see all the Perseus stars, but the bright one - Mirfak - should be visible. It marks the top of a triangle, which is about the size of your thumb held at arms length away. The triangle's lower left corner is the comet! Use our chart to the right to help find the comet.

The comet will stay with us for a while, so weather permitting, you'll get a look this week or next.

Image right: Amateur astronomer view of comet Holmes . Image credit: Gary Spiers

Media contact: Veronica McGregor/JPL
818-354-9452

Crews Continue Spacewalk Preparations

2007-11-02T23:16:00.002+05:30

Image Above: The mobile transporter (lower center) moves towards the center of the station's truss structure. Image credit: NASA

The STS-120 and Expedition 16 crews will continue to work today on the tools and procedures for Saturday’s spacewalk to repair a torn solar array. Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski and Doug Wheelock will conduct the excursion, which is slated to kick off at 6:28 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Parazynski will make the repair while suspended from a boom attached to the space station’s robotic arm, and Wheelock will assist from the station’s truss. Mission Specialist Stephanie Wilson and Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani will be operating the station’s robotic arm from the robotic work station inside the Destiny laboratory. Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli will be the spacewalk coordinator.

The Mobile Transporter has moved near the center of the truss structure to let Canadarm2 grapple the shuttle’s arm extension, the Orbiter Boom Sensor System, before handing it back to the shuttle’s robotic arm for the night. Canadarm2 will use the extension to provide support for Parazynski on the Saturday spacewalk.

+ View images from Nov. 1 Mission Status Briefing

In the midst of all the activity on Thursday, the two crews were able to take a few minutes out of their work to talk with former President George H.W. Bush as he and his wife Barbara visited the Johnson Space Center and Mission Control.

“We're so very proud of what you're doing,” he told the astronauts.

NASA Announces New Center Assignments for Moon Exploration

2007-11-02T23:16:00.001+05:30

NASA has announced which agency centers will take responsibility for specific work to enable astronauts to explore the moon. The new assignments cover elements of the lunar lander and lunar surface operations. The agency also announced work assignments for Ares V, a heavy-lift rocket for lunar missions.

Image above: Concept of Ares launch vehicles. Credit: NASA

"NASA's Constellation Program is making real progress toward sending astronauts to the moon," said Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator for Exploration Systems, NASA Headquarters, Washington. "Work on our new fleet of rockets and spacecraft, Ares I and Orion, is already well under way. With these new assignments, NASA will launch the next phase of its exploration strategy - landing crews and cargo on the surface of the moon."

Missing Black Hole Report: Hundreds Found!

2007-10-28T18:54:00.000+05:30

PASADENA, Calif. - Astronomers have unmasked hundreds of black holes hiding deep inside dusty galaxies billions of light-years away.

The massive, growing black holes, discovered by NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, represent a large fraction of a long-sought missing population. Their discovery implies there were hundreds of millions of additional black holes growing in our young universe, more than doubling the total amount known at that distance.

Image right: This image, taken with Spitzer's infrared vision, shows a fraction of these black holes, which are located deep in the bellies of distant, massive galaxies (circled in blue). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique
+ Full image and caption

"Active, supermassive black holes were everywhere in the early universe," said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Ariz. "We had seen the tip of the iceberg before in our search for these objects. Now, we can see the iceberg itself." Dickinson is a co-author of two new papers appearing in the Nov. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Emanuele Daddi of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique in France led the research.

The findings are also the first direct evidence that most, if not all, massive galaxies in the distant universe spent their youths building monstrous black holes at their cores.

For decades, a large population of active black holes has been considered missing. These highly energetic structures belong to a class of black holes called quasars. A quasar consists of a doughnut-shaped cloud of gas and dust that surrounds and feeds a budding supermassive black hole. As the gas and dust are devoured by the black hole, they heat up and shoot out X-rays. Those X-rays can be detected as a general glow in space, but often the quasars themselves can't be seen directly because dust and gas blocks them from our view.

"We knew from other studies from about 30 years ago that there must be more quasars in the universe, but we didn't know where to find them until now," said Daddi.

Image left: An artist's concept of a growing black hole. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Full image and caption

Daddi and his team initially set out to study 1,000 dusty, massive galaxies that are busy making stars and were thought to lack quasars. The galaxies are about the same mass as our own spiral Milky Way galaxy, but irregular in shape. At 9 to 11 billion light-years away, they existed at a time when the universe was in its adolescence, between 2.5 and 4.5 billion years old.

When the astronomers peered more closely at the galaxies with Spitzer's infrared eyes, they noticed that about 200 of the galaxies gave off an unusual amount of infrared light. X-ray data from Chandra, and a technique called "stacking," revealed the galaxies were, in fact, hiding plump quasars inside. The scientists now think that the quasars heat the dust in their surrounding doughnut clouds, releasing the excess infrared light.

"We found most of the population of hidden quasars in the early universe," said Daddi. Previously, only the rarest and most energetic of these hidden black holes had been seen at this early epoch.

The newfound quasars are helping answer fundamental questions about how massive galaxies evolve. For instance, astronomers have learned that most massive galaxies steadily build up their stars and black holes simultaneously until they get too big and their black holes suppress star formation.

The observations also suggest that collisions between galaxies might not play as large a role in galaxy evolution as previously believed. "Theorists thought that mergers between galaxies were required to initiate this quasar activity, but we now see that quasars can be active in unharassed galaxies," said co-author David Alexander of Durham University, United Kingdom.

"It's as if we were blindfolded studying the elephant before, and we weren't sure what kind of animal we had," added co-author David Elbaz of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique. "Now, we can see the elephant for the first time."

The new observations were made as part of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, the most sensitive survey to date of the distant universe at multiple wavelengths.

Consistent results were recently obtained by Fabrizio Fiore of the Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Italy, and his team. Their results will appear in the Jan. 1, 2008, issue of Astrophysical Journal.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

For more information and graphics, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer; and http://chandra.harvard.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html.

Media contact: Whitney Clavin/818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Gets 'Spacewired'

2007-10-28T18:53:00.002+05:30

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will use a new advanced technology network interface called "SpaceWire" that enables the components on the telescope to work more efficiently and more reliably with each other.

Image right: This is the JWST SpaceWire Protocol and Physical Layer Chips on the Multi-SpaceWire Concentrator Card. (+ View full resolution (3.9Mb .jpg)) Credit: NASA.

SpaceWire is a standard for high-speed communication links between satellite components. Originally developed by the European Space Agency, SpaceWire has been adopted and improved by a team at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) and Command and Data Handling (ICDH) engineering team has developed a small and very low power microchip that sends and receives SpaceWire signals at speeds of over 200 mega-bits per second.

The new higher bandwidth from SpaceWire enables the JWST ISIM to support the mission’s science instruments which employ 66 million detector pixels. This is the largest number of pixels ever used on a space telescope, and it will allow JWST to study more of the universe. Handling the large volume of data from these detectors presented a unique challenge for the JWST ICDH team. The development of this new network interface enables the JWST science instruments to realize their full scientific discovery potential, and will permit future NASA mission planners to consider use of more detectors with an even larger number of pixels to see even more of the universe.

Image left: The "Phy" or physical layer chip connects the SpaceWire protocol chip to the SpaceWire connector and cabling. (+ View full resolution (3.8Mb .jpg)) Credit: NASA.

"Infusing the SpaceWire-based network interface into the JWST mission enables scientific discovery by allowing the JWST science instruments to operate at very high data collection rates," said Pam Sullivan, Manager of the JWST ISIM.

SpaceWire is a standard for high-speed links and networks for use onboard a spacecraft, easing the interconnection of sensors, mass-memories and processing units. The SpaceWire standard provides many benefits. It helps facilitate the construction of high-performance onboard data handling systems, reduces system integration costs, increases compatibility between data handling equipment and subsystems, and encourages re-use of data handling equipment across several different missions.

To understand the benefit of SpaceWire, you can compare the speed of a dial-up modem to a high-speed broadband Internet connection. SpaceWire connects multiple spacecraft components on super-fast links to get a quicker result.

Goddard’s version of the SpaceWire technology has also dramatically accelerated the development of the JWST instrument electronics. The JWST ICDH team delivered the SpaceWire technology – which is packaged in a digital, low power (1.5W), high speed (66Mbps) Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) computer chip - to JWST partners including prime contractor Northrop Grumman, Lockheed, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Canadian Space Agency.

As a result of this JWST technology development, other missions are considering SpaceWire include the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-R (GOES-R). SpaceWire is also being used for technology development at other NASA centers including the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio; JPL, Pasadena, Calif.; Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. and the Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

Image right: This James Webb Space Telescope full-scale model as it appeared outside at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle, January 2007. (+ View full resolution (.8Mb .jpg)) Credit: NASA/Rob Gutro.

The benefit to other missions from using SpaceWire is a lower cost for development, a reduction of development time, better reliability, and an increase in the amount of scientific work that can be achieved within a limited budget.

Commercially, nearly every major aerospace company in the U.S. has been provided with Goddard’s technology either for projects with NASA or other government labs or for evaluation via a 90-day license. Now Goddard’s technology is being distributed free via Software Usage Agreements.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a 21st century space observatory that will peer back more than 13 billion years in time to understand the formation of galaxies, stars and planets and the evolution of our own solar system. It is expected to launch in 2013. The telescope is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

Learn More:

+ SpaceWire site
+ SpaceWire Licensing
+ James Webb Space Telescope site

Rob Gutro
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Astronauts Go to Work Outside Space Station

2007-10-28T18:53:00.001+05:30

Image Above: STS-120 spacewalkers exit the Quest airlock to begin the second spacewalk of the mission. Image credit: NASA TV

Astronauts are working outside the International Space Station for the second time during the STS-120 mission. The main objective of today’s spacewalk, which began at 5:32 a.m. EDT, is the preparation of the Port 6, or P6, truss segment for its relocation.

Parazynski and Tani began the spacewalk heading to the section where the P6 truss was attached to the Z1 truss. Once there they disconnected the umbilicals and bolts holding the two trusses together. Mission Specialists Stephanie Wilson and Doug Wheelock used the station robotic arm to remove the P6. They will place the solar array section in a temporary holding position for tonight before handing it off to the shuttle's robotic arm Monday morning.

Tani performed a couple of inspections requested by mission managers. He inspected handrails on a Crew and Equipment Translation Aid cart for sharp edges. He also inspected a rotary joint used to rotate solar arrays on the starboard side of the truss. The joint has been showing some increased friction lately, though Tani was unable to identify the cause.

Parazynski is outfitting the Harmony node with handholds and other equipment. Both spacewalkers will finish up their tasks when they install a new grapple fixture to Harmony. The station’s robotic arm will use the grapple fixture next month when it reinstalls Harmony to the front of the Destiny laboratory.

The excursion is scheduled to last 6 hours and 40 minutes. Mission Specialist Paolo Nespoli is the spacewalk coordinator, assisting the spacewalkers with their tasks.

Experience of a Lifetime

2007-10-28T18:52:00.000+05:30

On a brilliant October morning, students and teachers from six schools around the United States gathered at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch as space shuttle Discovery roared off its launch pad on mission STS-120.

Safely nestled inside the shuttle's payload bay was the Italian-built Node 2, which the students named Harmony, destined to become a permanent part of the International Space Station.

Image right: Students, teachers, parents and spectators watch in awe as space shuttle Discovery launches with the Harmony module on board. Photo credit: NASA/KSC
+ View Larger Image

But let's step back in time and explain how the students ended up at Kennedy for the launch on Oct. 23, 2007.

Last year, NASA extended a "Name the ISS Node 2 Challenge" to schools throughout the country. More than 2,200 kindergarten through high school students from 32 states took part in the naming contest.

After researching how humans live and work in space, the students were tasked with building scale models, writing essays, creating electronic scrapbooks about the module and coming up with a meaningful name.

The contest submissions were sent to a panel of NASA scientists, engineers and educators and the winners were announced at a Kennedy event in March 2007.

The name Harmony was chosen by six different schools to win the competition. This was the first time a piece of the space station was named by anyone outside of NASA.

Image left: Former NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson spoke to the Harmony naming group after their tour of the Apollo/Saturn V Center at Kennedy. Photo credit: NASA/George Shelton
+ View Larger Image

"We chose the name Harmony because our class had to work together in harmony and we thought that would be a good name," said Megan Littleton from Buchanan Elementary School in Baton Rouge, La.

NASA invited teachers and about 150 students with their parents to visit Kennedy for a grand tour of the center and to watch the shuttle launch.

Diana Winter from Browne Academy in Alexandria, Va., said she became interested in space after seeing the rings of Saturn through a telescope her grandpa had given her.

"I've been in awe of everything I've seen through the telescope that you can't really see (otherwise)."

Tanli Sun from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas, is fascinated by the immensity of the universe. "Space is so limitless and infinite and mysterious. It grabs your attention because we don't know much about it and we would like to know more."

The students agreed that the name Harmony represented the coming together of people from different countries with a mutual purpose of exploring space and working on science and research projects together.

The module also will physically connect many international parts of the space station, serving as the uniting point between the U.S. Destiny lab, the European Columbus module and the Japanese Kibo module.

Image right: Students representing their respective schools stopped by Kennedy's Web studio to talk about their experiences choosing Harmony as the winning name for the Node-2 module. Photo credit: NASA/KSC
+ View Larger Image

On the first of their five scheduled spacewalks, the STS-120 astronauts installed Harmony in a temporary position on the station on Oct. 26.

The 24-foot-long module becomes the first expansion of the station's living and working space since 2001.

The youngsters take pride in having participated in a history-making event. According to the students, they believe that everyday people should care about the space program.

Diana remarked that people never know how they'll be affected by the items NASA carries into space, like science experiments that could lead to a cure for cancer that couldn't be found on Earth because of certain conditions.

"Who knows what will happen when we go further to another planet and we figure out what's beyond what we know."

Elaine M. Marconi
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

First Known Belt of Moonlets in Saturn's Rings

2007-10-25T15:45:00.001+05:30

First Known Belt of Moonlets in Saturn's Rings
10.24.07 -- A narrow belt harboring moonlets discovered in Saturn's outmost ring is likely the result of a larger moon shattered by a wayward asteroid or comet eons ago, according to a new study led by Cassini scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

+ Full image and caption

Stellar Forensics With Striking New Chandra Image

2007-10-25T15:44:00.000+05:30

Image above: This Chandra image shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured, debris field containing elements forged in a star before it exploded.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/S.Park et al.; Optical: Pal.Obs. DSS

A spectacular new image shows how complex a star's afterlife can be. By studying the details of this image made from a long observation by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers can better understand how some stars die and disperse elements like oxygen into the next generation of stars and planets. The image shows a rapidly expanding, intricately structured, debris field that contains, along with oxygen, other elements such as neon and silicon that were forged in the star before it exploded.

+ News Release
+ Photo
+ Chandra X-ray Center




	Exploring the Invisible Universe: Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory is part of NASA's ﬂeet of "Great Observatories" along with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitizer Space Telescope and the now deorbited Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. Chandra allows scientists from around the world to obtain unprecedented X-ray images of exotic environments to help understand the structure and evolution of the universe. Already surpassing its ﬁve-year life, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is rewriting textbooks and helping advance technology. Chandra X-ray Center The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Mass., is responsible for the conduct of the day-to-day ﬂight operations and science activities from the Operations Control Center and Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) facilities. SAO also coordinates science planning for the observing program and provides user support as science products are made available to the scientiﬁc community. The CXC Web site is the primary resource for information on the Chanda X-ray Observatory mission, providing comprehensive materials such as news releases, photos, status reports, mission background materials, etc. + View site NASA Marshall Space Flight Center The Chandra X-ray Observatory program is managed by NASA's Marshall Center for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. The NASA Chandra News Web site contains selected news releases and photos highlighting Chandra discoveries and activites. + View site

You, Too, Can Be A Scientist For A Day

2007-10-25T15:43:00.002+05:30

The Ph.D. can wait for a few years! Students can have the fun of being a NASA scientist exploring the universe even before they've finished secondary school by participating in the Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day contest.

Image right: Bob Mitchell, Cassini project manager, with the students proudly showing a poster of the image they selected. Credit: NASA

Launched 10 years ago this month, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided unprecedented views of Saturn, its rings and moons since its arrival at Saturn more than three years ago. Picking out just where the Cassini spacecraft points its cameras as it tours the Saturn system is one of the most challenging and exciting parts of the science team's job. This year, the Cassini Project will share that experience with students in grades 5 through 12.

Team members have picked four possible targets for Cassini's cameras on Nov. 30, 2007. They're asking students to decide which target's image would be best for Cassini to capture.

"Just like real scientists, students will have to decide what makes one target more interesting and scientifically rich than another," said David Seidel, who manages the elementary and secondary education program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Then they'll have to explain the reasons for their choice."

To participate, students will need to learn about Saturn, its rings and its moons. Then they'll have to write a 500-word essay describing the target they chose and why they want that particular image.

Image left: The students and their teacher, Kathy Cooper, in front of a half-scale model of the Cassini spacecraft at JPL. Credit: NASA

Entries will be divided into two groups, those from grades 5 to 8 and from grades 9 to 12. There will be one winner in each group. The entries will be judged by a panel of Cassini scientists, mission planners, and JPL education and outreach specialists. The deadline for entries is midnight Pacific Standard Time on Nov. 15, 2007. All participants with valid entries will receive a certificate of participation.

Students from the schools with the two winning essays will participate via teleconference in a Cassini team staff meeting.

For more information about the Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day contest and entry rules, please visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/media/2007.html or http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientist/ .

More information on the Cassini-Huygens mission can be found at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

Docking Nears for Discovery, Space Station

2007-10-25T15:43:00.001+05:30

Image Above: Space shuttle Discovery's robotic arm with the attached boom extension is moved into position shortly after completion of the heat shield inspection. Image credit: NASA

Space Shuttle Discovery is approaching the International Space Station. Docking is slated to take place at 8:33 a.m. EDT today. Discovery’s arrival will set the stage for the next phase of the station’s on-orbit construction and a change in the Expedition 16 crew.

+ View docking animation
+ View rendezvous animation
+ View rendezvous pitch maneuver animation
+ View shuttle approaching the space station animation

Commander Pam Melroy and Pilot George Zamka fired Discovery’s engines at 5:55 a.m. to refine the approach to the station. About an hour before docking, Melroy and Zamka will guide the shuttle through a back-flip maneuver that will allow the Expedition 16 crew to photograph the shuttle’s protective heat-resistant tiles. The imagery will be sent to engineers on Earth for analysis.

After Discovery docks, the shuttle and station crews will conduct pressure and leak checks before the hatches between the two spacecraft open at 10:33 a.m. The crews will greet each other and quickly begin joint operations.

One of the first major tasks is the station crew rotation. STS-120 Mission Specialist Daniel Tani will switch places with Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Clayton Anderson, who will be wrapping up a four-month tour of duty as an Expedition crew member. Tani is scheduled to stay on the station until he returns to Earth with STS-122 later this year.

Also, preparations will begin today for the first of five scheduled STS-120 spacewalks. It is set to kick off at 6:28 a.m. Friday.

Mission Information
+ STS-120 Mission Overview
+ Harmony Node 2
+ Space Shuttle Discovery

Media Resources
+ Mission TV Schedule
+ Press Kit (9.1 Mb PDF)
+ Fact Sheet (2 Mb PDF)

Items Taken Into Space Reflect Accomplishments on Earth

2007-10-25T15:42:00.001+05:30

The Wright Flyer got only a few feet off the ground during its maiden flight in 1903, but traveled to the moon 66 years later.

A lead cargo tag that took months to cross the Atlantic Ocean from England to the nascent colony at Jamestown recently made the same crossing in minutes.

Image right: Astronaut Jim Reilly helped welcome R2-D2 and Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Star Wars to the Kennedy Space Center. The lightsaber is being taken into space aboard the real-life spacecraft Discovery during mission STS-120. Photo credit: Lucasfilm
+ View Hi-Res Image

Now a plastic handle whose sole role was to make the fictional world of Star Wars look realistic is ready to take a real trip to the stars aboard space shuttle Discovery for mission STS-120.

From pieces of history to articles of pop culture, the assortment of items astronauts have taken with them into space is as varied as the world the artifacts represent.

Most of the objects find esteemed homes when they return, such as a stuffed teddy bear that STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky took into orbit. The bear was a replica of one owned by a Holocaust survivor. The astronaut returned the replica to a museum after the flight for its collection.

Image left: The lightsaber prop that was used by Lluke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi was packed in foam and will spend two weeks in orbit. The flight helps celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars trilogy. Photo credit: Lucasfilm
+ View Hi-Res Image

For the Star Wars prop, a lightsaber handle that was used by Luke Skywalker, even the send-off was celebrated. Actors dressed as characters including Chewbacca and X-wing pilots escorted the item to an airport in California for the flight to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, where it was packed into a shuttle locker and taken to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for loading aboard Discovery.

Astronaut Jim Reilly, who flew three missions and has conducted eight spacewalks, said there is a symbolic tie between the lightsaber and the real-life work NASA does in space.

"There's a kind of a fine line between science fiction and reality as far as what we do and it's only just time really because a lot of what we're doing right now was science fiction when I was growing up," he said. "I think it's a neat link because it combines two space themes all at one time."

The lightsaber will spend 14 days in orbit on mission STS-120, but is not expected to leave the locker during the flight. It will be returned to Star Wars creator George Lucas' film company after the mission.

It will not be the first time a Star Wars-related item has gone into orbit, though. Reilly said astronauts have taken small Star Wars toys into space with them when asked.

"Toy mementos, things like a Star Wars toy that might have meant something in their life, so there are any number of things that might be just a little out of the ordinary," he said.

Image right: The crew of Apollo 11 took a swath of fabric and a small piece of a wooden strut from the Wright Flyer to moon. The Wright Flyer was the first successful powered aircraft. Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution

More solemn markers have also accompanied astronauts. For example, Reilly's STS-117 mission carried a medal earned by a World War II pilot who died in the war.

Patches, flags and medallions are routinely carried by the dozens or more on each flight, with some going on display and many going as awards to shuttle workers and VIPs.

"I think it makes it real," astronaut Rick Arnold said. "I lived in several countries and I think it's nice to be able to present one of the flags that flew on our mission to those host countries as a thank you."

Arnold has been picked to fly aboard STS-119 in 2008, and is just starting to contemplate what to take with him to mark the occasion.

"There's not a lot of room for personal items," he said.

Wedding rings and other small tokens are often taken into orbit. They are small enough to fit and large enough to have meaning. Each crew member is allowed to take about two pounds of mementos on their flight, but they must fit in a comparatively tiny area.

Astronaut Stephanie Wilson is taking a sheet of music from the Boston Symphony Orchestra onboard Discovery for mission STS-120. The music comes from Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," a favorite in the orchestra's extensive repertoire. Wilson worked at one time in a music store in Tanglewood, Mass., which is the summer home of the orchestra.

Some items never leave space, notably mission emblems like those stuck to the walls inside the International Space Station.

Image left: This cargo tag made of lead was unearthed during excavation of the original colony at Jamestown in Virginia. It is believed to have made the trip from England to the New World in 1611, and made the trip going the other way in minutes aboard space shuttle Discovery during STS-117. Photo credit: NASA

Another example is a golf ball astronaut Alan Shepard carried to the moon on Apollo 14 and hit with an improvised club.

Moonwalker Charles Duke left a portrait of his family on the lunar surface.

Thousands of signatures have also gone into the solar system in the form of computer codes imprinted on compact discs.

Whether they go into space to stay or to be appreciated anew back on Earth, the artifacts manage to find a unique home.

"When you get the chance to deliver that stuff back to your family and friends, they're really excited about it," Reilly said.

+ Listen to Podcast

Steven Siceloff
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Wirefly X PRIZE Cup 2007 and the Lunar Lander Centennial Challenge

2007-10-25T15:41:00.000+05:30

As rock(et) festivals go, this year's Wirefly X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico will bring together the public and the scientific and technical communities to explore how today's dreams become the realities of tomorrow in the realm of space exploration.

Image left: This 1964 photograph shows the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) Number 1 in flight at the Edwards Air Force Base. When Apollo planning was underway in 1960, NASA was looking for a simulator to profile the descent to the moon's surface, and of the three prototypes, the LLRV became the most important. Image Credit: NASA.

The Wirefly X PRIZE Cup in New Mexico opens on Friday, Oct. 26, where teams will compete for a $2 million Centennial Challenges Lunar Lander prize purse. Featured will be Education Day events at Holloman Air Force Base, where astronauts Cady Coleman and Anna Fisher will meet with students and tour exhibits throughout the day.

Centennial Challenges seeks novel solutions to NASA's mission challenges from non-traditional sources in academia, industry and the public. The Challenge is designed to accelerate commercial technological developments of a new generation of lunar landers capable of ferrying astronauts and payloads between lunar orbit and the lunar surface.

For more information about the Wirefly X PRIZE CUP, visit:

http://space.xprize.org/x-prize-cup/

For more information about NASA's Centennial Challenges program, visit:

http://centennialchallenges.nasa.gov/

California Wildfires Continue to Grow: NASA Images Show Fire’s Immense Size

2007-10-25T15:39:00.000+05:30

October 24, 2007 Update

Photo Credit: NASA/U.S. Forest Service
Click on an above image for full-resolution.

NASA's Ikhana unmanned research aircraft flew over several of the Southern California wildfires Wednesday, Oct. 24, with its sophisticated thermal-infrared imaging equipment peering through smoke and haze to record high-quality imagery of the hot spots. The above 3-D images were taken at 10:21 a.m. PDT over the Harris Fire in San Diego County, looking west. The hot spots (in yellow) are concentrated on the ridgeline in the left center of the photo.

The imagery is processed on board, downlinked and overlaid on Google Earth maps at NASA Ames Research Center in Northern California, and then made available by the National Interagency Fire Center to incident commanders in the field to aid them in allocating their fire-fighting resources. The mission was controlled by pilots remotely from a ground control station at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base.

+ Additional Ikhana Mission Images

California Fires in Motion

The growth and spread of Southern California's numerous wildfires is highlighted in this animation created using visible image data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-West satellite. The animation covers the period from October 21 to October 23. Images from the satellite are available every 15 to 30 minutes. Smoke plumes from the wildfires are blown due west by powerful Santa Ana winds, drifting hundreds of miles out to sea.

Play animation: + Low resolution (10Mb)
+ High resolution - streaming video

October 24, 2007 Update

NASA satellites have obtained new images of the California wildfires, illustrating the immense scale of the blazes. The National Interagency Fire Center reports that 12 large, uncontained fires have burned over 335,000 acres in Southern California. The fires have continued to spread due to the fierce, dry Santa Ana winds.

These new NASA satellite images of the wildfires show the area between Los Angeles and San Diego, California. Fire activity is denoted with red pixels. Vast plumes of thick smoke can be seen blowing out over the Pacific Ocean.

The first image was captured by NASA’s Terra satellite at 2:25 p.m. EST on October 23, 2007. The second image was acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite at 5:40 p.m. EST, just over three hours later.

According to the National Weather Service, a red-flag warning for extreme gusty winds is in effect for the Southern California area through 6:00 p.m. EST today. However, by Thursday, October 25th, the Santa Ana winds that have fueled the blazes should die out.

+ View full resolution, top image (1.2Mb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, bottom image (1.3Mb .jpg)
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response

October 23, 2007 Update

+ Wildfires audio clips for media

The scope and extent of the strong Santa Ana wind event in Southern California the week of Oct. 21, 2007, is visible in this image from NASA's QuikScat satellite. The image, obtained at about 7 a.m. October 22, depicts the wind speed (colors) and direction (white arrows) of the strong winds blowing offshore from Southern and Baja California. Higher wind speeds are depicted in green.

QuikScat, managed by JPL, measures ocean surface wind/stress by sending radar pulses to the surface and measuring the strength of the signals returned.

QuikScat Background
NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikScat spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth's oceans. More information about the QuikScat mission and observations is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/. QuikScat is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

+ View larger image
Image credit: NASA/JPL

October 23, 2007 Update

Smoke from multiple wildfires burning in Southern California, together with dust in Southern California, Baja California and mainland Mexico, swirl out into the Pacific and Gulf of California, respectively, in this false-color visible image from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA's Aqua satellite, acquired at about 7 p.m. Eastern Time on October 22. Strong Santa Ana winds are fanning the wildfires, among the most destructive in recent memory.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Experiment, with its visible, infrared, and microwave detectors, provides a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather. Working in tandem, the three instruments can make simultaneous observations all the way down to the Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3-D map of atmospheric temperature and humidity and provides information on clouds, greenhouse gases, and many other atmospheric phenomena. The AIRS Infrared Sounder Experiment flies onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

+ View larger image
Image credit: NASA/JPL
+ View Video of Fires From Space Shuttle Discovery

October 23, 2007 Update

NASA satellites continue to capture remarkable new images of the wildfires raging in Southern California. At least 14 massive fires are reported to have scorched about 425 square miles from north of Los Angeles to southeast of San Diego.

These latest images, captured by NASA satellites on the afternoon of October 22, show the thick, billowing smoke coming off the numerous large fires and spreading over the Pacific Ocean. Fire activity is outlined in red.

Dry, drought-stricken vegetation and Santa Ana winds, which can reach hurricane speeds, have contributed to the devastating effect of these blazes. The National Interagency Fire Center reports that the Santa Ana winds are expected to continue through Wednesday.

According to news reports, almost 700 homes have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate.

Today, President Bush issued an emergency declaration for seven California counties, ordering federal disaster relief to the area.

+ View full resolution image (1.2Mb .jpg)
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response

October 22, 2007 Update

Powerful Santa Ana winds have fueled more than 10 large wildfires throughout Southern California, stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This pair of images, depicting the area around Los Angeles on October 21, 2007, shows just how quickly the fires grew.

The left image, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite at 11:35 a.m. local time, shows several fires giving off small plumes of smoke. Just over 3 hours later, at 2:50 p.m. when NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead, large amounts of smoke were pouring from blazes northwest of Los Angeles. Actively burning fires are outlined in red.

In the right image plumes of smoke can be seen blowing off the coast, indicating the intensity of the winds and the presence of additional fires farther south.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, these blazes have burned over 84,000 acres since they began over the weekend. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes and a state of emergency has been issued for 7 California counties.

+ View larger images above with titles (120Kb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, left image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, right image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response. Story credit: Laura Spector, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

MISR Multi-angle Views of Sunday Morning Fires
October 21, 2007 Update

Hot, dry Santa Ana winds began blowing through the Los Angeles and San Diego areas on Sunday October 21, 2007. Wind speeds ranging from 30 to 50 mph were measured in the area, with extremely low relative humidities. These winds, coupled with exceptionally dry conditions due to lack of rainfall resulted in a number of fires in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, causing the evacuation of more than 250,000 people.

These two images show the Southern California coast from Los Angeles to San Diego from two of the nine cameras on the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument on the NASA EOS Terra satellite. These images were obtained around 11:35 a.m. PDT on Sunday morning, October 21, 2007 and show a number of plumes extending out over the Pacific ocean. In addition, locations identified as potential hot spots from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on the same satellite are outlined in red.

The left image is from MISR's nadir looking camera and the plumes appear very faint. The image on the right is from MISR's 60° forward looking camera, which accentuates the amount of light scattered by aerosols in the atmosphere, including smoke and dust. Both these images are false color and contain information from MISR's red, green, blue and near-infrared wavelengths, which makes vegetated land appear greener than it would naturally. Notice in the right hand image that the color of the plumes associated with the MODIS hot spots is bluish, while plumes not associated with hot spots appear more yellow. This is because the latter plumes are composed of dust kicked up by the strong Santa Ana winds. In some locations along Interstate 5 on this date, visibility was severely reduced due to blowing dust. MISR's multiangle and multispectral capability give it the ability to distinguish smoke from dust in this situation.

The Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer observes the daylit Earth continuously and every 9 days views the entire globe between 82 degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude. These images were generated from a portion of the imagery acquired during Terra orbit 41713, and use data from blocks 63 to 66 within World Reference System-2 path 40.

MISR was built and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. The Terra satellite is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The MISR data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.

Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL, MISR Team

+ View larger image

To Catch a Galactic Thief

2007-10-23T10:42:00.000+05:30

On Earth, thieves steal everything from diamonds to art to bags full of money. In space, gas - fuel for making stars - is a commodity worth the price of theft.

New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a distant, massive galaxy in the act of ripping off vast reservoirs of gas - the equivalent of one billion suns - from its smaller, neighbor galaxy. The stolen gas, which has become scorching hot during the heist, will likely cool down and get turned into new stars and planets.

Image right: A big galaxy is stealing gas right off the "back" of its smaller companion in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Full image and caption
+ Related: Data plot
+ Podcast: To Catch a Galactic Thief

"We may be viewing the larger galaxy in a rare, brief stage of its reincarnation from an old galaxy to a youthful one studded with brilliant stars," said Patrick Ogle of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. Ogle is the lead author of a new paper on the findings in the Oct. 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

The robber galaxy, called 3C 326 North, is about the mass of our Milky Way galaxy, and its victim, 3C 326 South, is about half its mass. They are close enough to perturb each other gravitationally and might eventually collide. Such galaxy mergers are common in the universe: Gas and stars in two nearby galaxies become tangled until they join up into one seamless galaxy. The case of 3C 326 is the clearest example yet of large quantities of gas being heated and siphoned from one galaxy to another.

"This could be an important phase in galaxy mergers that we are just now witnessing," said Ogle.

Ogle and his colleagues initially set out to study a set of distant galaxies, called radio galaxies, about one billion light-years away. Radio galaxies are named after the radio-emitting jets that scream out of the black holes at their centers. Though these jets are powerful, their black holes are relatively sleepy and don't otherwise give off a lot of energy. When the astronomers scanned 72 galaxies using Spitzer's infrared vision, they noted a handful that were quite unusual.

The most extreme of the bunch, 3C 326 North, was soaking in an enormous amount of hot hydrogen gas, reaching temperatures up to 730 degrees Celsius (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit). This gas, called molecular hydrogen gas because it contains molecules of two hydrogen atoms joined together, is a building block of galaxies, stars and planets. On Earth, it is a potential alternative fuel for cars. Molecular hydrogen gas is invisible to optical telescopes, but when it's heated up it glows at infrared wavelengths that Spitzer can see.

"Hydrogen is by far the predominant element in the universe, yet in its molecular form it has been virtually undetectable until Spitzer launched," said co-author Robert Antonucci of the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Since 3C 326 North is not busy making new stars, it is unusual for it to have this much gas. When the researchers investigated the Spitzer pictures further, they noticed what appeared to be a tail of stars, called a tidal tail, connecting 3C 326 North to 3C 326 South. That was the smoking gun they needed to realize that the pair were interacting, and that 3C 326 North was lifting the gas right off its companion's back.

"The galaxy in question appears to be stripping a large quantity of molecular hydrogen from its neighbor and heating it up," said Ogle. "The supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy is digesting a small fraction of the gas and ejecting it in enormous, relativistic jets millions of light-years long."

In addition, the hydrogen gas is hot enough to react with oxygen and form vast quantities of water. This water could potentially be incorporated into planets and comets once the gas has cooled enough to collapse and form new stars and planetary systems.

What will happen to the victim galaxy now that it is bereft of its gas? According to Ogle, the galaxy lost a lot of its fuel, and will no longer produce new stars. However, if the two galaxies do eventually merge, then what belongs to one will belong to the other!

Other authors of this paper include: Phil N. Appleton of Caltech; and David Whysong of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Charlottesville, Va.

For graphics and more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and www.nasa.gov/spitzer.

Media contact: Whitney Clavin/818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Whitney.b.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Ulysses Catches Record for Catching Comets by Their Tails

2007-10-23T10:41:00.002+05:30

When it was launched 17 years ago, scientists and mission engineers for the Ulysses project knew they should expect, well, the unexpected. After all, the joint NASA/European Space Agency-managed spacecraft was going where no spacecraft had gone before - above and below the sun's poles. But the surprises the team expected were wholly in the area of solar research - which would make sense, as the primary mission of the Ulysses spacecraft is to characterize the sun and its influence on the space environment. That was before the spacecraft met up with some of the solar system's most mysterious and beautiful deep-space nomads.

"Ulysses has flown through and acquired data from the tails of comets on three separate occasions," said Edward J. Smith of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Smith serves as the U.S. project scientist for the Ulysses mission. "No other spacecraft in history has done that."

Image right: Artist concept of Ulysses spacecraft, with the sun in the background.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Larger view

Ulysses' first cometary tail encounter occurred in 1996. Back then, comet Hyakutake was dazzling scientists and the public alike with its noteworthy appearances in the nighttime spring sky. On May 1, 1996, while Ulysses was cruising through space studying the solar wind, its data suddenly went wild for a few hours.

"As we were not looking for comets, we did not realize the significance of the data right away," said Smith. "The solar wind seemed to almost disappear and was replaced by gases not normally found in the solar wind, and the magnetic field in the solar wind was distorted."

At the time of the unexpected encounter, Ulysses was hundreds of millions of miles from comet Hyakutake and far beyond the visible tail. As their analysis began ruling out other possibilities, the science team came to a startling conclusion - Hyakutake's tail extended more than 480 million kilometers (300 million miles, or three times the distance from Earth to the sun), making it the longest comet tail ever recorded.

The once-in-a-lifetime chance encounter with a comet tail happened again in 2004 when Ulysses flew through the ion tailings of comet McNaught-Hartley. Unlike Hyakutake, comet McNaught-Hartley seemed to be at the wrong location for Ulysses to intercept its tail. By chance, an eruption of particles from the surface of the sun, called a coronal mass ejection, carried cometary material to Ulysses. Such a collision has recently been observed for the first time by NASA's Stereo spacecraft (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/stereo/news/encke.html). A movie (http://www.nasa.gov/mpg/191284main_encke_scienceatnasa.mpg) shows the disruption and reformation of periodic comet Encke's tail.

Ulysses racked up its third, and perhaps most scientifically revealing, comet tail encounter this past February when it again flew through the ion tailings of a comet named McNaught (a different comet than the one encountered in 2004, but discovered by and named after the same astronomer). The nucleus of this comet McNaught was some 257 million kilometers (160 million miles) from the spacecraft during encounter. Ulysses' solar wind ion composition spectrometer instrument, developed by University of Michigan heliophysicist George Gloeckler, found that even at such a great distance, the tail had filled the solar outflow with unusual gases and molecules. In response, the solar wind that usually measures about 700 kilometers per second (435 miles per second) at that distance from the sun, was less than 400 kilometers per second (249 miles per second) inside the comet's tail, as measured by one of Ulysses' instruments called "Solar Wind Observations Over the Poles of the Sun."

The interaction between comets' tails and the solar wind has been studied for decades. A comet's ion tail always points away from the sun, whether the body is traveling toward or away from the sun along the comet's elliptical orbit. It was this finding that eventually led in 1958 to the discovery of solar wind. The magnetism and velocity of the solar wind are so strong, the effect pushes the comet's tail forward. A paper on Ulysses' latest crossing of a comet tail was published in the Oct. 1 issue of Astrophysical Journal.

"I recall saying a few years back that the odds that Ulysses' flight path would intersect that of a comet tail were probably less likely than finding a needle in a haystack," said Smith. "Now that we have encountered three, I cannot help wondering when nature will have another one in store for us."

Smith is part of an international science team that has been working Ulysses data since its 1990 launch from the payload bay of Space Shuttle Discovery. Ulysses scans the sun's magnetic field, solar plasmas, solar radio noise, energetic particles, galactic cosmic rays and cosmic dust between the poles and the equator - imparting a more complete perspective of the sun's atmosphere. Understanding Earth's nearest star and its processes is of paramount importance, as the space weather created by the sun has a huge effect on the third rock from it and its inhabitants. The sun's gaseous outer atmosphere can create huge space storms. This violent space weather, in turn, can affect Earth's electrical grid, cell phone communications, satellite functioning, and the operation of astronauts in orbit.

"Such unique science is a tribute to the durability of the mission and the intellectual curiosity of our science team," said Ed Massey of JPL, who serves as Ulysses' NASA project manager.

The Ulysses spacecraft was built by Dornier Systems of Germany for the European Space Agency. NASA provided the launch via space shuttle and the upper stage boosters. The U.S. Department of Energy supplied a generator that powers the spacecraft; science instruments were provided by both U.S. and European investigators. The spacecraft is operated from JPL by a joint team from the European Space Agency and NASA.

More information about NASA's Ulysses mission is available at http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.gov .

Media contact: DC Agle/JPL
818-393-9011

Space Shuttle Discovery is Ready; Weather Remains a Concern

2007-10-23T10:41:00.001+05:30

The countdown to launch of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-120 mission is proceeding smoothly at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Test Director Steve Payne announced at this morning's countdown status briefing.

"At this point in the count, we're on schedule, our systems are all good and we're in great shape," Payne said, adding that the launch team is not tracking any technical issues.

Image Above: With the rotating service structure retracted, Space shuttle Discovery stands at Launch Pad 39A where it is undergoing final preparations for launch on Tuesday. Image credit: NASA TV

However, the weather forecast for Tuesday continues to pose a threat to NASA's launch plans. Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported that the seabreeze could begin developing by the 11:38 a.m. EDT launch time. There is a 60-percent chance that cumulus clouds, showers and a low cloud ceiling could keep Discovery grounded.

Because launch times are earlier each day, the forecast improves slightly for Wednesday and Thursday, with a 40-percent probability of weather prohibiting liftoff.

Discovery's crew of seven astronauts arrived in Florida on Friday and have been going through final checklists and preparations for Tuesday's liftoff.

Discovery is scheduled to return to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 4:47 a.m. Nov. 6.

Southern California Wildfires Burn Out of Control: New NASA Satellite Images Show Fires' Rapid Growth

2007-10-23T10:40:00.001+05:30

Powerful Santa Ana winds have fueled more than 10 large wildfires throughout Southern California, stretching from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

This pair of images, depicting the area around Los Angeles on October 21, 2007, shows just how quickly the fires grew.

The left image, captured by NASA’s Terra satellite at 11:35 a.m. local time, shows several fires giving off small plumes of smoke. Just over 3 hours later, at 2:50 p.m. when NASA’s Aqua satellite passed overhead, large amounts of smoke were pouring from blazes northwest of Los Angeles. Actively burning fires are outlined in red.

In the right image plumes of smoke can be seen blowing off the coast, indicating the intensity of the winds and the presence of additional fires farther south.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, these blazes have burned over 84,000 acres since they began over the weekend. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from their homes and a state of emergency has been issued for 7 California counties.

+ View larger images above with titles (120Kb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, left image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
+ View full resolution, right image (1.2 Mb .jpg)
Image credit: NASA/MODIS Rapid Response. Story credit: Laura Spector, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Heaviest Stellar Black Hole Discovered in Nearby Galaxy

2007-10-20T22:43:00.001+05:30

Jennifer Morcone
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034
Jennifer.J.Morcone@nasa.gov

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998
mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu

News release: 07-112

Astronomers have located an exceptionally massive black hole in orbit around a huge companion star. This result has intriguing implications for the evolution and ultimate fate of massive stars.

The black hole is part of a binary system in M33, a nearby galaxy about 3 million light years from Earth. By combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Gemini telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, the mass of the black hole, known as M33 X-7, was determined to be 15.7 times that of the Sun. This makes M33 X-7 the most massive stellar black hole known. A stellar black hole is formed from the collapse of the core of a massive star at the end of its life.

"This discovery raises all sorts of questions about how such a big black hole could have been formed,” said Jerome Orosz of San Diego State University, lead author of the paper appearing in the October 18th issue of the journal Nature.

M33 X-7 orbits a companion star that eclipses the black hole every three and a half days. The companion star also has an unusually large mass, 70 times that of the Sun. This makes it the most massive companion star in a binary system containing a black hole.

"This is a huge star that is partnered with a huge black hole," said coauthor Jeffrey McClintock of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "Eventually, the companion will also go supernova and then we’ll have a pair of black holes."

The properties of the M33 X-7 binary system – a massive black hole in a close orbit around a massive companion star – are difficult to explain using conventional models for the evolution of massive stars. The parent star for the black hole must have had a mass greater than the existing companion in order to have formed a black hole before the companion star. Such a massive star would have had a radius larger than the present separation between the stars, so the stars must have been brought closer while sharing a common outer atmosphere. This process typically results in a large amount of mass being lost from the system, so much that the parent star should not have been able to form a 15.7 solar-mass black hole.

The black hole's progenitor must have shed gas at a rate about 10 times less than predicted by models before it exploded. If even more massive stars also lose very little material, it could explain the incredibly luminous supernova seen recently as SN 2006gy. The progenitor for SN 2006gy is thought to have been about 150 times the mass of the Sun when it exploded.

"Massive stars can be much less extravagant than people think by hanging onto a lot more of their mass toward the end of their lives," said Orosz. “This can have a big effect on the black holes that these stellar time-bombs make."

Coauthor Wolfgang Pietsch was also the lead author of an article in the Astrophysical Journal that used Chandra observations to report that M33 X-7 is the first black hole in a binary system observed to undergo eclipses. The eclipsing nature enables unusually accurate estimates for the mass of the black hole and its companion.

"Because it's eclipsing and because it has such extreme properties, this black hole is an incredible test-bed for studying astrophysics," said Pietsch.

The length of the eclipse seen by Chandra gives information about the size of the companion. The scale of the companion's motion, as inferred from the Gemini observations, gives information about the mass of the black hole and its companion. Other observed properties of the binary were used to constrain the mass estimates.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass. Gemini is an international partnership managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.

Additional information and images are available at:

http://www.nasa.gov/chandra/

and

http://chandra.harvard.edu

+ Photo

Discovery, Harmony Ready for Launch

2007-10-20T22:42:00.002+05:30

Image Above: Commander Pam Melroy and pilot George Zamka leave the Shuttle Training Aircraft after practicing landings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The aircraft is modified to behave much like a shuttle gliding back from space. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
+ View larger image

NASA managers overseeing the launch preparations for STS-120 said space shuttle Discovery is ready for two weeks in space.

"All of our systems are in good shape," NASA Test Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said.

The extensive staff of engineers who conduct the countdown will report to the Launch Control Center on Saturday afternoon and the countdown will begin at 2 p.m.

The Italian-built Harmony module Discovery is carrying to the International Space Station is also in good shape, payload manager Glenn Chin said. The station segment weighs more than 31,000 pounds and will serve as a connecting point for laboratory modules from NASA and the European and Japanese space agencies.

Weather officer Kathy Winters pointed to some concerns that rain showers and clouds could interfere with Discovery's launch. She said there is a 60 percent chance of favorable weather at launch time. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:38 a.m. Tuesday.

Discovery's crew of seven astronauts arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Friday. They have been going through final checklists and preparations of their own for Tuesday's planned lift off.

Crew members Pam Melroy and George Zamka flew simulated space shuttle landings early Saturday morning aboard a Gulfstream business jet modified to mimic the flight characteristics of a gliding shuttle.

STS-120 is scheduled to return to Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility at 4:47 a.m. Nov. 6.

Expedition 15 Set to Return Home

2007-10-20T22:42:00.001+05:30

Image above: The crew members onboard the International Space Station pose for a group photo in the Destiny laboratory of the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

As Expedition 15 wraps up and prepares to return home, the Expedition 16 crew members are busy preparing for the arrival of space shuttle Discovery.

At a change of command ceremony Friday afternoon, the Expedition 15 crew formally handed over command of the station to Expedition 16.

Accepting command of the station from Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson remarked, "It's been a very impressive mission, and you guys have performed exceptionally."

The crews will bid their final farewells Saturday night, as the Expedition 15 crew, Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, board their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft for the return to Earth. They will undock from the station around 3:14 a.m. EDT Sunday and land in the steppes of Kazakhstan around 6:37 a.m.

Joining Expedition 15 for the journey home is spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian flying under an agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). He arrived at the station with the Expedition 16 crew, Whitson and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko, on Oct 12.

NASA TV coverage of the crew farewells and hatch closure begins at 11:45 p.m. Saturday. Live coverage of the undocking starts at 2:45 a.m. Sunday. Live coverage returns at 5:15 a.m. for the Soyuz deorbit burn and landing.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson, who joined Expedition 15 in June, will remain onboard as a member of Expedition 16, until his replacement, astronaut Dan Tani, arrives on the STS-120 shuttle mission later this month.

Our First Lunar Program: What did we get From Apollo?

2007-10-20T22:41:00.000+05:30

American plans now call for a return of humans to the Moon by around 2020. What can we hope to gain from such a program? It will be helpful to look back at our first lunar program, Apollo, and ask what we got from it, beside some 850 pounds of rock and soil – fascinating to geologists, but perhaps not to all taxpayers. I will try to summarize highlights of the payoff from Apollo.

Image right: The insignia of the Apollo Program. Credit: NASA.

What was the "Apollo Program"? There was much more to it than Neil Armstrong’s "one small step," and even more than the following five lunar landings – any one of which would have been a gigantic accomplishment. First, Apollo began with the Gemini Program, which was solely a technological warm-up for Apollo. Gemini was the first true American spaceship, with propulsion, radar, on-board computers, and extravehicular activity (“space walk”) capability. Ten manned Gemini missions were flown, developing the technological and operational capability needed for the following lunar program. However, the Gemini astronauts carried out many scientific experiments, in addition to practicing various space-flight techniques such as orbital rendezvous.

The Apollo lunar missions are now in the history books. However, there were two Earth-orbital ones, Apollo 7 and 9, that carried out experiments such as multispectral terrain photography. This uses combinations of different types of light, such as infrared and ultraviolet, that reveal things not seen using only visible light, like diseased trees or crops. This photography was a feasibility test for Landsat (launched in 1972). But there was much more to the Apollo Program. First, the Apollo hardware was used for America’s first space station, Skylab, in 1972 to 1973. The Skylab astronauts carried out dozens of scientific experiments, such as orbital sea-surface radar, and operated a solar observatory with extremely valuable results.

In 1975, the Apollo spacecraft flew for the last time, carrying out a rendezvous and docking with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft. This cooperative effort was at least one bridge across the political divide of the Cold War. In summary, the Apollo Program, properly defined, was much broader than most people realize. Furthermore, it was not enormously expensive relative to the American federal budget of the day. The several sub-programs mentioned cost a total of about $30 billion by the end of Fiscal Year 1975. To allow for inflation, a same-year comparison may help: the FY 75 NASA budget was $3.3 billion, and the FY 75 Food Stamp Program $5.5 billion.

What did we get for this $30 billion? The term “spinoff” is often used, but this tends to trivialize the Apollo results. However, here are some of the eventual results of the Apollo Program.

First, and perhaps most important: it was realized at the time of President Kennedy’s 1961 proposal that the primary motivation for sending a man to the Moon was political, not scientific. The Soviet Union at the time had a commanding lead in space flight, and was a belligerent and expansive power in the Cold War. Did Apollo end the Cold War? Of course it didn’t. But no less than Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov and two colleagues issued an open letter to the Soviet government in 1970, calling for democratization of the USSR, specifically citing the American Moon landing as evidence of the superiority of democracy. The Soviet Union did have a lunar program intended to put a man on the Moon, but as the world saw, the United States won the race.

Even if the Apollo missions had never landed on the Moon, the program as a whole stimulated projects that learned an enormous amount about our own planet, Earth. The earliest and even now one of the most productive of these projects was Landsat, agreed by even the most severe NASA critics to have been an enormously valuable program. But how can Landsat be considered a result of Apollo?

The answer goes back to the Gemini Program, whose astronauts took hundreds of high-resolution color photos of the Earth with 70mm cameras as part of terrain and weather photographic experiments. Even in 1965, weather satellite pictures were familiar, but the Gemini photos were stunningly better. Published widely, in magazines such as the National Geographic (circulation in 1966 some 6 million), they triggered interest in space photography of the Earth’s surface, as distinguished from its atmosphere.

To summarize a long and complex story: As stated by the then-director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Bill Pecora, the value of the Gemini and Mercury photos stimulated the Interior Department to propose an Earth resources observation satellite program, EROS, in 1966. After interagency negotiation, this proposed satellite became ERTS, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, managed by Goddard Space Flight Center, and shortly re-named Landsat. So Landsat really was an outgrowth of the Apollo Program, as testified to by the head of another agency, not NASA.

The Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center, was built for the Apollo Program. It was realized that much orbital reconnaissance of the Moon would be necessary for the Apollo landings. Accordingly, JSC began a broad program of remote sensing, using airborne cameras and other instruments, in preparation for the Moon. This program soon triggered enormous progress in remote sensing in general, and combined with the Gemini photography led to Landsat and soon after its foreign counterparts such as France’s SPOT (Systeme pour l’Observation de la Terre). Needless to say, the JSC remote sensing efforts were soon applied successfully to the Moon, but they also stimulated orbital survey techniques of the Earth as well, techniques that have long since expanded to many American and international programs. But this revolution in remote sensing owes much to the Apollo Program.

As mentioned above, Skylab was part of the Apollo Program, and carried out many remote sensing observations analogous to those of Landsat. However, one which was not analogous was sea-surface radar altimetry. Skylab carried a radar aimed down at the Earth, including the oceans. Microwaves do not penetrate electrical conductors, such as metals or water, and the radar return over oceans was from the sea surface. It was found that the Skylab radar over depressions in the ocean floor, such as the Puerto Rico trench, actually showed a subdued replica of such depressions in the overlying sea surface. Over seamounts – underwater volcanoes – the sea surface forms a slight mound. “Slight” is a relative term – the sea surface depression over the Puerto Rico trench is more than 20 meters (yards) deep.

The explanation for this surprising discovery is that the excess mass of, for example, a seamount, pulls the surrounding ocean horizontally towards it, thus producing a slight bulge in the overlying sea surface. The opposite effect occurs over a trench, which is a mass deficiency. The Skylab radar results triggered long-term and continuing sea surface radar surveys, which have made possible detailed global maps of the sea floor impossible by any other method. So Apollo, properly defined, helped explore the part of our own planet hidden by the oceans.

Paul D. Lowman Jr.
6 September 2007

Greeting a Living Legend

2007-10-20T22:40:00.000+05:30

Greeting a Living Legend:
NASA's Cosentino Meets Childhood Hero Buzz Aldrin

Image above: Gary Cosentino currently heads NASA Dryden's support for the flight research effort on Boeing Phantom Works' X-48B Blended Wing Body sub-scale flight demonstrator. NASA photo

Nine-year-old Gary Cosentino watched the television with awe on July 20, 1969, as two men exited an odd-looking craft called the Eagle lunar module, climbed down a ladder and set foot on the moon.

When astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first men to walk on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, it was an event that went on to inspire Cosentino, like many others, to seek out a career in aerospace. But few have had the opportunity to shake hands with one of the living legends who helped set the course of their lives.

Cosentino has now had that privilege.

"I was watching you guys when I was 9," Cosentino told Aldrin when the famed astronaut visited NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently. "That's why I'm here today. If it wasn't for you I'd be doing something else."

Cosentino, now NASA's project manager for the X-48B Blended Wing Body flight research at Dryden, jumped at the chance to tell one of his idols everything that series of events has meant to his life.

"I have always wanted to say those words to someone from that era," Cosentino reflected. "I've had a chance to meet two of them, Vance (Brand) and now Buzz. I probably would not be here today in this field, working for NASA, if it wasn't for the impression they made on me in those years when I was watching every launch."

That impression led Cosentino to pursue an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Arizona, awarded in 1982, followed by a masters in the same discipline from the University of Colorado two years later.

After a short time as a propulsion engineer for General Dynamics' Convair division, Cosentino was hired by NASA Ames Research Center near San Jose, Calif., as an aerospace engineer specializing in computational fluid dynamics. He worked on various aircraft and propulsion configurations, including design work on the subscale NASA/Boeing X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft.

Cosentino transferred to NASA Dryden January 1998 as project manager for the X-36 flight test project, and also was given project management responsibilities for other unmanned technology demonstration aircraft, including the Altus II and Perseus B. After 6 ½ years leading the planning and flight test effort for the X-45A UCAV (J-UCAS), Cosentino was then assigned to his current role with the X-48B.

Aldrin, now 77, spent about three and a half hours touring NASA Dryden and several of its current projects, including a spin in the Blended Wing Body simulator's pilot's chair. He was then treated by Air Force representatives to a tour of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, where he served as commandant of the Air Force Test Pilot School for a year after his stint as a NASA astronaut. He was in the area to be honored by the Lancaster JetHawks baseball team that evening during the ball club's annual Aerospace Appreciation Night.

"It was really an honor to meet a guy like that, who did so much and definitely charted a course for my future without ever knowing it," Cosentino concluded.

Jay Levine
Dryden Flight Research Center

Hubble Finds 'Dorian Gray' Galaxyc

2007-10-17T14:16:00.002+05:30

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found a galaxy that is the equivalent of the painting of Dorian Gray, a portrait in an Oscar Wilde novel that appears mysteriously to age.

Image above: Called I Zwicky 18, the galaxy has a youthful appearance that resembles galaxies typically found only in the early universe. Hubble has now found faint, older stars within this galaxy, suggesting that the galaxy may have formed at the same time as most other galaxies. + Click for larger image Credit: NASA/STSCI

Like the fictional painting, the galaxy I Zwicky 18 appears to look older the more astronomers study it. What astronomers once thought was a toddler galaxy by galactic standards may now be considered an adult.

The galaxy’s youthful appearance was identified some 40 years ago through observations at the Palomar Observatory. Those studies showed that the galaxy erupted with star formation billions of years after its galactic neighbors. Galaxies resembling I Zwicky 18’s youthful appearance are typically found only in the outer reaches of the universe, when the cosmos was much younger. Astronomers were thrilled that a newly forming galaxy could be studied nearby to learn about galactic evolution, which is normally only observable at great distances.

New Hubble data have quashed that possibility. The telescope found faint older stars contained within the galaxy, suggesting its star formation started at least one billion years ago and possibly as much as 10 billion years ago. The galaxy, therefore, may have formed at the same time as most other galaxies.

“Although the galaxy is not as youthful as was once believed, it is certainly developmentally challenged and unique in the nearby universe,” said astronomer Alessandra Aloisi from the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency in Baltimore, Md., who led the new study.

Spectroscopic observations with ground-based telescopes have shown that I Zwicky 18 is almost exclusively composed of hydrogen and helium, the main ingredients created in the Big Bang. Heavier elements are forged within the cores of stars and blasted into space when the stars die. The galaxy’s primordial makeup suggests that its rate of star formation has been much lower than that of other galaxies of similar age. The galaxy has been studied with most of NASA’s telescopes, including the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). However, it remains an outstanding mystery why I Zwicky 18 formed so few stars in the past, and why it is forming so many new stars right now.

The Hubble data also suggest that I Zwicky 18 is 59 million light-years from Earth, almost 10 million light-years more distant than previously believed. While this is still in our own backyard, as measured by extragalactic standards, the galaxy’s larger-than-expected distance may explain why astronomers have had difficulty detecting older, fainter stars within the galaxy until now. In fact, the faint, old stars in I Zwicky 18 are almost at the limit of Hubble’s resolution and sensitivity.

Aloisi and her team discerned the new distance by observing flashing stellar mile-markers within I Zwicky 18. Massive stars, called Cepheid variable stars, pulse in a regular rhythm. The timing of their pulsations is directly related to their brightness. By comparing their actual brightness with their observed brightness, astronomers can precisely measure their distance. The team determined the observed brightness of three Cepheids and compared it to the actual brightness predicted by theoretical models calculated specifically for I Zwicky 18’s low metal content. This comparison allowed the astronomers to determine the galaxy’s distance. The Cepheid distance also was validated through another distance indicator, specifically the observed brightness of the brightest red stars older than 1 billion years.

Cepheid variable stars have been studied for decades and have been instrumental in the determination of the scale of our universe. This is the first time, however, that variable stars with so few heavy elements were found. This may provide unique new insights into the properties of variable stars, which is now a topic of ongoing study.

Aloisi and her team published their findings in the Oct. 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Aloisi’s team consists of Francesca Annibali, Jennifer Mack, and Roeland van der Marel of the Space Telescope Science Institute; Marco Sirianni of the Space Telescope Science Institute and the European Space Agency; Abhijit Saha of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories; and Gisella Clementini, Rodrigo Contreras, Giuliana Fiorentino, Marcella Marconi, Ilaria Musella, and Monica Tosi of the Italian National Astrophysics Institutes in Bologna and Naples.

For images and more information about galaxy I Zwicky 18, visit: + Hubble site

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

Donna Weaver/Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Space Shuttle Discovery is "Go" for Launch

2007-10-17T14:16:00.001+05:30

NASA senior managers Tuesday completed a detailed review of space shuttle Discovery’s readiness for flight and selected Oct. 23 as the official launch date. Commander Pam Melroy and her six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 11:38 a.m. EDT on the STS-120 mission to the International Space Station.

Tuesday's meeting included a discussion about concerns raised by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center regarding the reinforced carbon carbon on three of Discovery's wing leading edge panels. This issue initially was brought before the Space Shuttle Program during a two-day, preliminary review held last week to assess preparations for Discovery's mission.

"After a thorough discussion and review of all current engineering analysis, we have determined that Discovery's panels do not need to be replaced before the mission,” said Associate Administrator for Space Operations Bill Gerstenmaier.

Image at Left: Discovery stands bathed in sunlight at its seaside launch pad on the day it rolled out from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Since then, it has been enclosed by the rotating service structure as launch preparations continue. Image credit: NASA/George Shelton
+ View larger image

The 14-day mission includes five spacewalks – four by shuttle crew members and one by the station’s Expedition 16 crew. Discovery is expected to complete its mission and return home at 4:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 6.

NASA Extends Operations for Its Long-Lived Mars Rovers

2007-10-16T18:08:00.000+05:30

WASHINGTON - NASA is extending, for a fifth time, the activities of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The decision keeps the trailblazing mobile robotic pioneers active on opposite sides of Mars, possibly through 2009. This extended mission and the associated science are dependent upon the continued productivity and operability of the rovers.

Image right: As it finished its second Martian year on Mars, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit was beginning to examine a group of angular rocks given informal names corresponding to peaks in the Colorado Rockies. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Full image and caption

"We are extremely happy to be able to further the exploration of Mars. The rovers are amazing machines, and they continue to produce amazing scientific results operating far beyond their design life," said Alan Stern, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

The twin rovers landed on Mars in January 2004, 45 months ago, on missions originally planned to last 90 days. In September, Opportunity began descending into Victoria Crater in Mars' Meridiani Planum region. At approximately 800 meters wide (half a mile) and 70 meters deep (230 feet), it is the largest crater the rover has visited. Spirit climbed onto a volcanic plateau in a range of hills that were on the distant horizon from its landing site.

"After more than three-and-a-half years, Spirit and Opportunity are showing some signs of aging, but they are in good health and capable of conducting great science," said John Callas, rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The rovers each carry a suite of sophisticated instruments to examine the geology of Mars for information about past environmental conditions. Opportunity has returned dramatic evidence that its area of Mars stayed wet for an extended period of time long ago, with conditions that could have been suitable for sustaining microbial life. Spirit has found evidence in the region it is exploring that water in some form has altered the mineral composition of some soils and rocks.

Image left: NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its front hazard-indentification camera to capture this wide-angle view of its robotic arm extended to a rock in a bright-toned layer inside Victoria Crater. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Full image and caption

To date, Spirit has driven 7.26 kilometers (4.51 miles) and has returned more than 102,000 images. Opportunity has driven 11.57 kilometers (7.19 miles) and has returned more than 94,000 images.

Among the rovers' many other accomplishments:

- Opportunity has analyzed a series of exposed rock layers recording how environmental conditions changed during the times when the layers were deposited and later modified. Wind-blown dunes came and went. The water table fluctuated.

- Spirit has recorded dust devils forming and moving. The images were made into movie clips, providing new insight into the interaction of Mars' atmosphere and surface.

- Both rovers have found metallic meteorites on Mars. Opportunity discovered one rock with a composition similar to a meteorite that reached Earth from Mars.

JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For images and information about the rovers, visit: www.nasa.gov/rovers .

Media contacts:
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278

Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726

Cassini Mission to Saturn Celebrates 10 Years Since Launch

2007-10-14T14:33:00.001+05:30

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of its launch from Cape Canaveral, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn is once again at the center of scientific attention. Its latest discoveries about the ringed planet are a leading topic of conversation among the nearly 1,500 scientists gathered this week at a major astronomy conference in Orlando, Fla.

Cassini rode into space Oct. 15, 1997, atop a U.S. Air Force Titan IVB. Its mission: to orbit and study the Saturnian system for four years and to put the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe in position to parachute down to the frozen surface of Saturn's Earthlike moon Titan. Since entering orbit around Saturn, Cassini's scientific instruments, powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, have returned immense amounts of new information via NASA's global Deep Space Network to the international team of scientists working on the mission.

Image right: This picture of the Cassini launch was taken by Ken Sturgill of Marion, Virginia.
+ Larger view

Scientists aren't the only ones to benefit from Cassini's voyage of discovery. Since arriving at Saturn three-and-a-half years ago, Cassini's revelations have captured the public imagination. Its spectacular views of Saturn and its realm have graced the covers of magazines around the world. Millions have followed the mission's progress at NASA's web sites http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

"With Cassini, amazing discoveries have almost become routine," says Cassini project scientist Dennis Matson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where the international mission is managed.

"Orbiting Saturn, Cassini is in the middle of the greatest natural laboratory accessible to us in space," says Matson. "With its rings, dozens of moons and magnetic environment, Saturn is like a mini-solar system, with Saturn as a stand-in for the sun, and the moons and rings like planets in formation. Through Cassini and its instruments, we are making fundamental strides in understanding the physical processes that created and govern this and other solar systems."

Some of the discoveries include ice geysers shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus and the finding that one of Saturn's rings is created from these ice particles. Recently, scientists found that material from Enceladus is also affecting the rotation of Saturn's magnetic field. And an onboard radar instrument, which sees through clouds, has been unveiling the fascinating world of Titan, the large moon with complex chemistry and lakes of hydrocarbons.

More information about the Cassini mission is available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

Media contact: Carolina Martinez/JPL
818-354-9382

Cassini Provides New Views of Titan's Land of Lakes and Seas

2007-10-14T14:32:00.002+05:30

Newly assembled radar images from the Cassini spacecraft provide the best view of the hydrocarbon lakes and seas on the north pole of Saturn's moon Titan, while a new radar image reveals that Titan's south polar region also has lakes.

The southern region images were beamed back after an Oct. 2 flyby in which a prime goal was the hunt for lakes at the south pole.

A new mosaic image, created by stitching together radar images from seven Titan flybys over the last year and a half, shows a north pole pitted with giant lakes and seas, at least one of them larger than Lake Superior.

Image right: This Cassini false-color mosaic shows all synthetic-aperture radar images to date of Titan's north polar region. Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

+ Animation and caption

Approximately 60 percent of Titan's north polar region above 60 degrees latitude has been mapped by Cassini's radar instrument. About 14 percent of the mapped region is covered by what scientists interpret as liquid hydrocarbon lakes.

"This is our version of mapping Alaska, the northern parts of Canada, Greenland, Scandinavia and Northern Russia," said Rosaly Lopes, Cassini radar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It's like mapping these regions of Earth for the first time."

Lakes and seas are very common at the high northern latitudes of Titan, which is in winter now. Scientists say it rains methane and ethane there, filling the lakes and seas. These liquids also carve meandering rivers and channels on the moon's surface. Now Cassini is moving into unknown territory, the south pole of Titan. "We wanted to see if there are more lakes present there and, sure enough, there they are, three little lakes smiling back at us. Titan is indeed the land of lakes and seas," said Lopes. "It will be interesting to see the differences between the north and south polar regions."

It is now summer at Titan's south pole. A season on Titan lasts nearly 7.5 years, one quarter of a Saturn year, which is 29.5 years long. Monitoring seasonal change helps scientists understand the processes at work there.

Image left: Cassini's radar instrument finds lakes in the southern hemisphere of Titan during the most recent Titan flyby. Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

+ Full image and caption

Scientists are making progress in understanding how the lakes may have formed. On Earth, lakes fill low spots or are created when the local topography intersects a groundwater table. Lopes and her colleagues think that the depressions containing the lakes on Titan may have formed by volcanism or by a type of erosion (called karstic) of the surface, leaving a depression where liquids can accumulate. Karstic lakes are common on Earth. For example in parts of Minnesota and central Florida there are hundreds of such lakes.

"The lakes we are observing on Titan appear to be in varying states of fullness, suggesting their involvement in a complex hydrologic system akin to Earth's water cycle. This makes Titan unique among the extra-terrestrial bodies in our solar system," said Alex Hayes, a graduate student who studies Cassini radar data at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

"The lakes we have seen so far vary in size from the smallest observable, approximately 1 square kilometer (0.4 square miles), to greater than 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles), which is slightly larger than the Great Lakes in the Midwestern U.S.," Hayes said. "Of the roughly 400 observed lakes, 70 percent of their area is taken up by large "seas" greater than 26,000 square kilometers (10,000 square miles)."

Future radar flybys will image closer to the southern pole and are expected to show more lakes.

For images and more information visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.

Media contact: Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

NASA Orbiter Provides Color Views of Mars Landing Site Candidates

2007-10-14T14:32:00.001+05:30

PASADENA, CALIF. -- Less than a year since beginning the prime science phase of its mission, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has passed a mission-success milestone for the amount of data returned.

The data-volume target of 26 terabytes, which was surpassed this week, is equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMs full and exceeds the total from all other current and past Mars missions combined.

Image right: Layers inside Holden Crater in the southern hemisphere of Mars, a possible landing site for Mars Science lab, are shown in enhanced color. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
+ Full image and caption
+ Play video

The biggest shares of the data come from two of the orbiter's six science instruments: the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars. The high-resolution camera's team of investigators, based at the University of Arizona, Tucson, today released 143 color images. The images reveal features as small as a desk. They are valuable to researchers studying possible landing sites for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, a mission launching in 2009 to deploy a long-distance rover carrying sophisticated science instruments on Mars.

The camera team is also releasing a color movie, scrolling over one candidate Mars Science Laboratory landing site in Nili Fossae, at 21 degrees north latitude and 74 degrees east latitude. The animation shows a range of enhanced colors that correspond to what Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's imaging spectrometer has determined to be hydrated clay minerals and unaltered volcanic rocks.

"The clay minerals are especially promising in the search for ancient life on Mars," UA Professor Alfred S. McEwen, principal investigator for the high resolution camera, said.

Image left: Nili Fossae Trough, a candidate Mars Science Lab landing site. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
+ Full image and caption

The color images released today were taken at or near about 30 proposed landing sites for the 2009 mission. That mission's deputy project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said, "Scientists planning the Mars Science Laboratory must soon choose the one site on Mars where we can best investigate the extent to which Mars' environment is or was capable of supporting life -- no easy task. We've intentionally waited for the reconnaissance from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to help us zero in on those places."

The orbiter's high-resolution camera has taken more than 3,500 huge, sharp images released in black-and-white since it began science operations in November 2006. The camera carries 10 red filter detectors, two blue-green filter detectors and 10 infrared detectors.

Beginning this week, images will be released in color as well as black-and-white on the camera team's Web site. The colors are false color, not the way Mars would look to human eyes. The images are processed to maximize color differences, a technique useful for analyzing landscapes.

"Color data are proving very useful in interpreting geologic processes and history on Mars," McEwen said. "The images we're releasing today include views of some of the most interesting and compositionally diverse areas on the planet."

Image right: Rocky mesas of the Nilosyrtis Mensae region. This image shows a region of science interest to which the Mars Science Laboratory rover might drive. Image credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
+ Full image and caption

The camera team developed computer software that automatically processes images from the different color filters into color images. "The technical hurdle has been that the sets of different color detectors are staggered within the camera focal plane array, and the spacecraft isn't perfectly steady as it operates in space," the camera's operations manager, Eric Eliason of UA, said.

Color is a boon to geologists who have been trying to discriminate different surface materials and their relation to the topography, McEwen said. "Color clearly identifies basic material distinctions like dust, sand or rocks, light-toned layered material, and frost or ice," he said. Color also helps geologists correlate layers in the Martian terrain. And scientists will be able to combine data from the high-resolution camera and the imaging spectrometer to make detailed maps of minerals and soil types on the planet.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and examples from the new images are online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro . All of the new images are online at the camera team's Web site, http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu , and are available through the Planetary Data System, NASA's space mission data archive. Additional information about the Mars Science Laboratory mission is at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Mars Science Laboratory missions are managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., built the instrument. .

Media contact: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Lori Stiles University of Arizona, Tucson
520-626-4402
lstiles@email.arizona.edu

Expedition 16 Arrives at Station

2007-10-14T14:31:00.002+05:30

Expedition 16 Arrives at Station

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor have arrived at the International Space Station. Their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft docked to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Zarya module at 10:50 a.m. EDT Friday. The station’s new residents and their Malaysian guest launched at 9:22 a.m. EDT Wednesday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

+ Read more about the docking
+ View launch day images

Image above: The Expedition 15 (back row) and Expedition 16 crews along with Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor gather in the Destiny laboratory to receive congratulations from mission representatives on the ground. Credit: NASA TV

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineers Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson welcomed the new crew aboard the station when the hatches were opened at 12:22 p.m. Both crews will work together for about nine days before Yurchikhin, Kotov and Shukor depart in their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft.

Anderson will remain onboard with Expedition 16 and return to Earth next month aboard Discovery on its STS-120 mission.

+ View crew daily timelines
+ Read more about Expedition 15
+ Read more about Expedition 16

Memorandum Of Understanding Between National Institutes of Health and NASA on Space-Related Health Research
+ View document (43 Kb PDF)

National Lab Report

In late May, NASA sent Congress a report that outlined a plan to use the U.S. segment of the International Space Station as a national laboratory. The report discusses possible partnerships with other government agencies and private companies to conduct research aboard the station.

+ Read More

Why Explore Space?

Completing the International Space Station, explains NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, is an integral part of the Vision for Space Exploration.

"Today," Griffin writes, "NASA is moving forward with a new focus for the manned space program: to go out beyond Earth orbit for purposes of human exploration and scientific discovery. And the International Space Station is now a stepping stone on the way, rather than being the end of the line."

+ Read More

Week 5: Space Living 101

2007-10-14T14:31:00.001+05:30

After my body "wash" the other day in 1 ½ inches of water from a dixie cup, I became very curious about how astronauts in space wash up, brush their teeth, and use the restroom.

I did a little research and found out that the space station does have a shower unit, so astronauts can take showers in space if they want to. The fact is, most astronauts don't want to. Showers don't work well in space.

Image at right: View of surface tension demonstration on board the International Space Station. The water is being held in place by a metal loop, resulting in "elastic water." Image credit: NASA

Up on the space station, the water drops are as weightless as everything else, so they just float around inside the shower. Can you imagine having to grab each individual droplet and smear it on your body to get clean? I'd get more tired from struggling with water droplets than from running on the treadmill!

I can see why astronauts and cosmonauts prefer to wash with wet towels and sponges instead. I just hope the astronauts get to use more water than I was rationed in the ELS module.

I also found out that astronauts use a regular toothbrush and toothpaste. Tooth brushing is the same as on Earth, except there is no sink to spit in, so they have to spit into a tissue.

And how DO they use the bathroom in space? I'm sure school children ask that question all the time. That's the way they think.

Here is a nice explanation from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/living/index.html:

"...astronauts have to position themselves on the toilet seat, using leg-restraints and thigh-bars. The toilet basically works like a vacuum cleaner with fans that suck air and waste into the commode. Each astronaut has a personal urinal funnel, which has to be attached to the hose's adapter. Fans suck air and urine through the funnel and hose into the wastewater tank."

So that's Space Living 101, for all you future astronauts. Still wanna go?

+ Learn More

Astronauts Finish Launch Practice

2007-10-14T14:30:00.001+05:30

The STS-120 astronauts capped off three days of exercises and training at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida by boarding space shuttle Discovery for a simulated countdown Wednesday morning. After the rehearsal concluded, the crew members flew back to their home base in Houston to complete their final preparations for the targeted launch of Discovery on Oct. 23.

Image Above: The STS-120 crew poses just outside Discovery's hatch. The astronauts are, left to right, Mission Specialists Scott Parazynski , Stephanie Wilson, Commander Pam Melroy, Pilot George Zamka, Mission Specialists Paolo Nespoli, Doug Wheelock (front) and Dan Tani. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett
+ View larger image

While the astronauts practiced for launch, shuttle program managers started two days of meetings Tuesday in preparation for next week's Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for Oct. 16.

One of the topics discussed before the conclusion of the program review Wednesday involved the reinforced carbon carbon, or RCC, on Discovery’s wing leading edge panels. In the past, there have been post-flight indications that the edges of a couple of panels have lost small amounts of their upper-level coating. Thermography, or thermal imagery, has been used to inspect the panels in order to identify any internal defects that could lead to coating loss.

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has been working with shuttle engineers to better understand the potential causes of coating loss. At Wednesday's meeting, NESC recommended replacing three of Discovery's 44 panels.

Discovery has flown at least twice with these panels in the current condition, and with no indications of degradation based on thermography. At this point, the Space Shuttle Program has determined that Discovery's astronauts can safely carry out their mission without having to replace the panels.

Mission Information
+ STS-120 Mission Overview
+ Harmony Node 2
+ Space Shuttle Discovery

NASA-Funded Earth Scientist Wins 'Genius' Award

2007-10-14T14:29:00.002+05:30

A NASA-funded scientist has won a prestigious fellowship from the Chicago-based John T. and Catherine D. MacArthur Foundation. As one of this year’s MacArthur Fellows, Ruth DeFries will receive $500,000 over five years with no strings attached. Only 24 fellows were chosen out of thousands of nominees.

DeFries uses NASA satellite data to understand the dynamics of deforestation in Brazil and changes in forest cover globally. DeFries, who is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, also uses NASA technologies to understand conservation needs on a large scale, over large landscapes. NASA funds her work through its land cover and land use change and terrestrial ecology programs in the Earth Science Division.

MacArthur Fellowships -- sometimes called "genius grants" -- are unrestricted awards given "to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction," according to the foundation's web site.

DeFries researches the consequences of how humans use the land, a career born out of a personal connection with the landscape. “I was always looking out windows, thinking about how the landscape interacts with human society and the importance of understanding the link between landscape, atmosphere and oceans.”

She says the concept of Earth system science was at the fore when she was developing her research career. “Not until the 80s or 90s did Earth system science become a new paradigm for the way we think about the function of the planet. Before, we looked at each piece – the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems, oceans – but not how they interact. Now we know how important it is to view the Earth as a system, and to understand climate change.”

DeFries is taking her time deciding how she’ll use the grant, reflecting on and fine-tuning what she has learned about the interaction between societies and the landscape. She says she’d like to use some of the money to help young scientists from developing countries explore sustainable development issues.

DeFries was in her office the day she got the call notifying her that she had won the MacArthur Award, dubbed genius awards by the media. She was given permission to tell only one person she could trust, an honor that went to her husband. “I called him to tell him about this wonderful news and he said, ‘I knew you’d get that.’”

The NASA program managers who work with DeFries echo that admiration. “Dr. DeFries’ research has been consistently innovative and highly relevant to societal concerns,” said Diane Wickland, the focus area lead for carbon cycle and ecosystems at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We are just delighted to see Ruth so honored. She is most deserving of the recognition accorded by a MacArthur Fellowship as well as the investment in future accomplishment that comes with it!”

DeFries turned the focus to her field and away from her personal achievements as she described the reactions of her colleagues and students at the University of Maryland. “Everyone is just very excited,” she said. “And they should be, because it gives some recognition that these issues are important.”

She says NASA’s vantage from space is essential to understanding the Earth system. With Earth-observing satellites, scientists can look over large areas of the Earth’s surface at repeated intervals. “The Earth observations aspect of NASA is just so crucial to understanding the functioning of the planet that we live on.”

Dan Rather Interviews NASA Goddard's Waleed Abdalati

2007-10-14T14:29:00.001+05:30

Retired CBS anchorman Dan Rather visited NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center on September 28, to interview Dr. Waleed Abdalati for his new television program, "Dan Rather Reports," on HDNet.

Abdalati, who heads the Cryospheric Sciences Branch at Goddard, studies high-latitude glaciers and ice sheets. In addition to his extensive work with satellite observations of the northern polar region, he has participated in several field expeditions to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic.

Image right: Dan Rather, left, interviews Dr. Waleed Abdalati about Arctic climate change for a segment on "Dan Rather Reports," which broadcasts on the HDNet cable and satellite channel. Click image for enlargement. Credit: NASA/Stu Snodgrass

That experience made Abdalati the perfect interview choice for a segment on "Dan Rather Reports" that focused on climate changes in the Arctic, recognized by many scientists as a bellwether for global climate change. The 20-minute segment aired as part of the show's October 2 broadcast.

The show's producers contacted Goddard's Earth science producer, Sarah DeWitt, in response to a major NASA image release about the record-breaking Arctic sea ice minimum observed in 2007.

Rather and Abdalati talked for roughly an hour in the Goddard Science TV studio about the significant shrinking of Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet, Abdalati said.

"[Rather] was extremely pleasant, friendly and knowledgeable," Abdalati said. "As the producers and camera-people were setting up, he was very personable, talking about fishing in Alaska, asking questions about my newly adopted daughter, and various other 'human' things. There was a certain sincerity about his interest in the topic that I found very refreshing and impressive. It is clear that he really cares about the topic."

In a time when most interviews are conducted over the phone just to get a few sound bites, Abdalati said he was struck by the fact that Rather flew down from New York just for the interview and to see high-definition data visualizations and animations from Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio and Conceptual Imaging Lab.

Image left: The HDNet camera crew set up in Goddard's television studio. Rather spent about an hour talking to Abdalati. Click image for enlargement. Credit: NASA/Stu Snodgrass

DeWitt and Laura Spector, from Goddard's Public Affairs Office, helped coordinate the interview. Production Manager Pat Kennedy and Media Specialist Chris Smith assisted the HDNet camera crew.

"Everyone seemed really excited to be working with him," Smith said. "But Rather took it all in stride. He was cordial to everyone and definitely at the top of his game."

Rather did not just impress Abdalati from a professional standpoint. "After watching him since I was a kid, I found the opportunity to interact with him face-to-face to be tremendously enjoyable," he said. "He really is more than a celebrity, he is an icon."

Related links:

+ View the Oct. 2 broadcast of "Dan Rather Reports" (Dr. Abdalati's portion starts at 19:24)
+ Read the story about the sea ice minimum
+ Read the press release about the sea ice minimum
+ Read more about Dr. Abdalati

Robert Garner
Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA Orbiter Provides Color Views of Mars Landing Site Candidates

2007-10-11T23:26:00.002+05:30

Cassini Pinpoints Hot Sources of Jets on Enceladus

2007-10-11T23:26:00.001+05:30

A recent analysis of images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft provides conclusive evidence that the jets of fine, icy particles spraying from Saturn's moon Enceladus originate from the hottest spots on the moon's "tiger stripe" fractures that straddle the moon's south polar region.

Members of Cassini's imaging team used two years' worth of pictures of the geologically active moon to locate the sources of the most prominent jets spouting from the moon's surface. They then compared these surface source locations to hot spots detected by Cassini on Enceladus in 2005. The new results are published in the Oct. 11, 2007, issue of the journal Nature.

Image right: Jets rising from Enceladus, seen in false color. This false-color mosaic shows the entire hemisphere of Iapetus. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
+ Full image and caption

The researchers found that all of the jets appear to come from the four prominent tiger stripe fractures in the moon's active south polar region and, in almost every case, in the hottest areas detected by Cassini's composite and infrared spectrometer.

"This is the first time the visible jets have been tied directly to the tiger stripes," said Joseph Spitale, an imaging team associate and lead author of the Nature paper. Spitale works with Cassini imaging team leader and co-author Carolyn Porco, at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

Imaging scientists suspected the individual jets, which collectively feed a plume that towers thousands of kilometers, or miles, above the moon, had been coming from the tiger stripes since the first images of the jets were taken in 2005. But this work provides the first conclusive proof of that hypothesis and provides the first direct evidence of a causal connection between the jets and the unusual heat radiating from the fractures.

To identify the jets' surface locations with certainty, the researchers carefully measured the apparent position and orientation of each jet as observed along the moon's edge by the spacecraft. By making measurements taken from a variety of viewing directions, they were able to pinpoint the jets' sources.

What Spitale and Porco found was intriguing: all measured jets fell on a fracture, but not all jets fell on a previously discovered hot spot. They conclude there are other hot spots to be found. "Some of our sources occur in regions not yet observed by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer," said Spitale. "So we are predicting that future Cassini observations of those locations will find elevated temperatures."

The scientists also report the suggestion that the characteristics of the jets may depend on tidal frictional heating within the fractures and its variation over a full Enceladus orbit around Saturn. However, more work remains in investigating this issue.

The possibility, first suggested by the imaging team, that the jets may erupt from pockets of liquid water, together with the unusually warm temperatures and the organic material detected by Cassini in the vapor accompanying the icy particles, immediately shoved this small Saturnian moon into the spotlight as a potential solar system habitable zone.

But what actually lies beneath the surface to power the jets remains a mystery.

"These are findings with tremendously exciting implications and to say that I am eager to get to the bottom of it would be a cosmic understatement," said Porco. "Do the jets derive from near-surface liquid water or not? And if not, then how far down is the liquid water that we all suspect resides within this moon? Personally, I'd like to know the answer yesterday!"

The next opportunity for answering these questions will be when Cassini dips low over Enceladus and flies through the plumes in March 2008, obtaining additional data about its chemical composition and the nature of its jets.

A newly processed Cassini image of the jets, and a map of the south polar region showing the correlations between jets and hot spots, can be found at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

Media contact: Preston Dyches 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
media@ciclops.org

Dawn Mission Status: Spacecraft Tests Ion Engine

2007-10-11T23:25:00.000+05:30

NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully completed the first test of its ion propulsion system over the weekend. The system is vital to the success of Dawn's 8-year, 4.9 billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres.

"Dawn is our baby and over the weekend it took some of its first steps," said Dawn project manager Keyur Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We have two months more checkout and characterization remaining before Dawn is considered mission operational, but this is a great start."

Image right: Artist's concept of Dawn spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL
+ Larger view

Members of the Dawn mission control team have been sending up commands and checking out spacecraft systems ever since its successful launch on Sept. 27. The first test firing of one of Dawn's three ion engines was the culmination of several days of careful preparation.

On Saturday, Oct. 6 at 6:07 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (9:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), the ion propulsion system began thrusting. Over the next 27 hours, spacecraft controllers and navigators at JPL monitored the engine's performance as it was put through its paces.

"We evaluated the engine's capabilities at five different throttle levels," said Jon Brophy, the Dawn project's ion propulsion manager at JPL. "From flight idle through full throttle, the engine performed flawlessly."

Dawn's ion engines are extremely frugal powerhouses. The 27 hours of thrusting from the ion engine resulted in the consumption of less than .28 kilograms (10 ounces) of the spacecraft's xenon fuel supply -- less than the contents of a can of soda. Dawn's fuel tank carries 425 kilograms (937 pounds) of xenon propellant. Over their lifetime, Dawn's three ion propulsion engines will fire cumulatively for about 50,000 hours (over five years) -- a record for spacecraft.

Dawn will begin its exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to so much of our solar system's history. By utilizing the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure shape, surface topography,d tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, and will seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft itself and how it orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies' masses and gravity fields.

The Dawn mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The University of California, Los Angeles is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific partners include: Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Space Agency. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.

Additional information about Dawn is online at http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

Media contacts: DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726

Expedition 16 in Orbit, Heads to Station

2007-10-11T23:24:00.002+05:30

Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor are in orbit and on their way to the International Space Station. Their Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome Wednesday at 9:22 a.m. EDT and entered orbit less than 10 minutes later. They will dock to the Earth-facing port of the station’s Zarya module on Friday about 10:52 a.m.

+ View launch day images

Image above: The Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft launches on time from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Image at bottom: Peggy Whitson (upper right) and Yuri Malenchenko inside the Soyuz during the climb to orbit. Credit: NASA TV

The Expedition 15 crew has been busy readying the station as they prepare to greet their replacements and Malaysian guest. Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov set up a work space in the Zvezda service module that will allow the visiting Shukor to perform several experiments over nine days. Flight Engineer Clay Anderson also resized U.S. spacesuits for Whitson and Malenchenko for an upcoming spacewalk. The current station crew also held space-to-ground teleconferences with their Expedition 16 counterparts to assist with handover activities.

Yurchikhin and Kotov are scheduled to leave the station on Oct. 21 officially ending the Expedition 15 increment. Shukor will go home with the two cosmonauts. Anderson will remain onboard with Expedition 16 and return to Earth next month aboard Discovery on its STS-120 mission.

Astronauts Finish Launch Practice

2007-10-11T23:24:00.001+05:30

The STS-120 astronauts capped off three days of exercises and training at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida by boarding space shuttle Discovery for a simulated countdown Wednesday morning. After the rehearsal concluded, the crew members flew back to their home base in Houston to complete their final preparations for the targeted launch of Discovery on Oct. 23.

Image Above: STS-120 Pilot George Zamka (left) and Mission Specialist Scott Parazynski prepare to enter space shuttle Discovery from the White Room at Launch Pad 39A. Image credit: NASA
+ View larger image

While the astronauts practiced for launch, shuttle program managers started two days of meetings Tuesday in preparation for next week's Flight Readiness Review, which is scheduled for Oct. 16.

One of the topics discussed before the conclusion of the program review Wednesday involved the reinforced carbon carbon, or RCC, on Discovery’s wing leading edge panels. In the past, there have been post-flight indications that the edges of a couple of panels have lost small amounts of their upper-level coating. Thermography, or thermal imagery, has been used to inspect the panels in order to identify any internal defects that could lead to coating loss.

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) has been working with shuttle engineers to better understand the potential causes of coating loss. At Wednesday's meeting, NESC recommended replacing three of Discovery's 44 panels.

Discovery has flown at least twice with these panels in the current condition, and with no indications of degradation based on thermography. At this point, the Space Shuttle Program has determined that Discovery's astronauts can safely carry out their mission without having to replace the panels.

NASA Honors Roger Chaffee With Exploration Award

2007-10-11T23:23:00.001+05:30

NASA will honor the late astronaut Naval Lt. Cmdr. Roger B. Chaffee with the presentation of an Ambassador of Exploration Award for his involvement in the U.S. space program.

Image left: Apollo 1 astronaut Roger Chaffee. Photo credit: NASA.

Chaffee's wife Martha will accept the award Saturday, Oct. 6, and present it for display at Purdue University, Chaffee's alma mater, during the halftime show of the Purdue-Ohio State football game.

Chaffee and his crewmates Gus Grissom and Ed White lost their lives on Jan. 27, 1967, in a fire aboard the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test on the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The astronauts were training for the first crewed Apollo flight. Chaffee posthumously was awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor and the United States Navy Air Medal.

Chaffee, a native of Grand Rapids, Mich., received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University in 1957 and entered the Navy later the same year.

As a Naval pilot he logged more than 2,300 hours flying time, including more than 2,000 hours in jet aircraft.

Image left: Astronaut Roger Chaffee (left) receives instruction from scientist Maxwell W. Goode at NASA's Langley Research Center. Goode is explaining the operation of the Lunar Landing Simulator at the Lunar Landing Research Facility. Photo credit: NASA. Click for larger image.

Chaffee was one of the third group of astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963.

In addition to participating in the overall astronaut training program, he was also tasked with working on flight control communications systems, instrumentation systems and attitude and translation control systems in the Apollo Branch of the Astronaut Office. On March 21, 1966, he was selected as one of the pilots for the AS-204 mission, the first 3-man Apollo flight.

NASA is giving the Ambassador of Exploration Award to the first generation of explorers in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs for realizing America’s vision of going to the moon. NASA also is recognizing several other key individuals who played significant roles in the early space programs.

Image right: The Apollo 1 crew at North American's Downey Facility during training for NASA's first manned Apollo space flight. From left to right are astronauts Virgil I. Grissom, command pilot; Roger B. Chaffee, pilot; and, Edward H. White, senior pilot.. Photo credit: NASA.

The award is a moon rock encased in Lucite and mounted for public display as inspiration to a new generation of explorers who will help us return humans to the moon and eventually on to Mars and beyond. The award is part of the 842 pounds of samples collected during the six Apollo lunar expeditions from 1969 to 1972.

NASA's Hispanic Heritage - Despite Personal Tragedies, NASA Engineer Pursued Her Dreams

2007-10-11T23:22:00.000+05:30

NASA engineer Gina Branco was only 12 when her mother was killed in an automobile accident, followed by her father's death three years later. These tragedies did not discourage Branco from pursuing a childhood dream of attending college.

Image left: NASA Dryden instrumentation engineer Gina Branco designs measurement systems for research aircraft, such as the highly modified NF-15B behind her. Image Credit: NASA/Tom Tschida.

The youngest of eight children, Branco then moved from her home in Cuernavaca, Mexico, to the San Francisco Bay Area home of her older sister. As a new immigrant to the United States, she completed high school requirements while she learned to speak English. Branco displayed an aptitude and love of math that surprised her teacher, who encouraged Branco to continue to strive for mastery in mathematics.

After high school, Gina held a full-time accounting position while attending evening courses at San Francisco State University as a mathematics major, which she later changed to engineering.

After transferring to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles on a full scholarship, she studied biomedical and electrical engineering. Branco hoped to use her education to design prostheses for handicapped individuals. Finding the quest for dual degrees too challenging, she completed a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering seven years after beginning college.

Branco applied for an engineering position at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, located on Edwards Air Force Base in California. She left her job interview with the impression that employees at the center enjoyed their work and that things really happened at Dryden. She thought the small NASA center offered a family atmosphere that promotes teamwork.

Employed for more than two decades as an instrumentation engineer at Dryden, Branco designs measurement systems for aircraft, enabling researchers to gather accurate data.

Over the years, Branco has contributed to many successful flight research projects involving modified aircraft, such as the F-104, F-16XL, F-18 High-Alpha Research Vehicle and the Intelligent Flight Control System project on a highly modified NF-15B. She is currently a member of the developmental flight instrumentation team responsible for designing and implementing this subsystem to support the upcoming Launch Abort System testing for the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle.

Branco's advice to young Hispanics is that resources and opportunities are available, if they are determined in their goals and prepared to work hard. It is not always easy, but the journey is rewarding. NASA hires individuals like Branco who are hard working, eager to learn and willing to contribute to any project.

After 21 years at NASA Dryden, Branco enthusiastically says, "No two days have ever been the same."

Beth Hagenauer,
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

Expedition 16 Crew to Launch from Baikonur

2007-10-06T23:07:00.000+05:30

Commander Peggy Whitson and Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the 16th International Space Station crew are scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at about 9:20 a.m. EDT on Oct. 10 to begin a six-month stay in space.

Image to right: Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson (right), Soyuz Commander and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko and Malaysian spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor take a break from training in Star City, Russia to pose for a portrait. Image credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

With them will be spaceflight participant Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor. He is a Malaysian flying under contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency.

He will return to Earth with Expedition 15 crew members, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov, Oct. 21. Expedition 15 launched to the station last April 7.

Expedition 16's Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft is scheduled to dock at the station a little after 10:50 a.m. Friday, Oct. 12.

Expedition 16 crew members will be welcomed by the Expedition 15 crew, including astronaut Clay Anderson, the third Expedition 15 crew member. He launched to the station aboard the STS-117 mission of Atlantis June 8. He joined Expedition 15 in progress and will provide Expedition 16 with an experienced flight engineer for the first few days of its increment.

Image to left: Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson (background) and Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko participate in a training session at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Star City, Russia. Image credit: Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

Whitson, 47, is on her second mission to the station. She served as a flight engineer on the Expedition 5 crew, launching June 5, 2002, and returning to Earth Dec. 7, after almost 185 days in space. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rice University in Houston. She began working for NASA as a research biochemist in 1989 and was selected as an astronaut in 1996.

Malenchenko, 45, a Russian Air Force colonel, is making his third long-duration spaceflight. He spent 126 days aboard the Russian space station Mir beginning July 1, 1994, and commanded the two-person station crew on Expedition 7, spending 185 days in space beginning April 26, 2003. He also was a member of the STS-106 crew of Atlantis on an almost-12-day mission to the station beginning Sept. 8, 2000. He is a graduate of the Kharkov Military Aviation School and the Zhukovsky Air Force Engineering Academy.

Anderson, 48, holds a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Iowa State University. He was selected as an astronaut in 1998. This is his first spaceflight.

Image to right: Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Dan Tani uses the virtual reality lab at the Johnson Space Center to train for his duties aboard the International Space Station. Image credit: NASA

Astronaut Daniel Tani is scheduled to launch aboard the STS-120 flight of Discovery to replace Anderson as a flight engineer during Expedition 16. Tani, 46, holds a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was selected as an astronaut in 1996 and flew on Endeavour's STS-108 mission in December 2001. He will be making his second spaceflight.

Two Expedition 17 crew members are expected to arrive next spring to replace Whitson and Malenchenko.

+ Read more about Expedition 16

NASA Honors Roger Chaffee With Exploration Award

2007-10-06T23:04:00.000+05:30

Astronauts to Ride Rails in Emergency

2007-10-06T23:03:00.000+05:30

As NASA revamps Launch Complex 39B to host the new Orion spacecraft and Ares I rocket of the Constellation Program, engineers are preparing to install a new kind of departure system to evacuate astronauts.

The agency calls it the Orion Emergency Egress System, but it is fundamentally a group of multi-passenger cars on a set of rails reminiscent of a roller coaster. Its purpose is to move astronauts and ground crew quickly from the vehicle entry on the launch pad to a protective concrete bunker in case of an emergency.

Image right: An artist's concept of the Ares I launch pad shows the new evacuation system on the right. Astronauts and ground crew could leave the capsule and ride a rail car to a bunker for protection. The path would be marked with yellow and black arrows. Credit: NASA
+ View Hi-Res Image

Similar systems have been built into launch pads since the Saturn rockets and for the space shuttle. Both earlier systems were cables running from the spacecraft’s crew ingress level to an area near a bunker. There has never been an emergency on the pad that required the crew use these systems.

For Orion, the rail car would stand some 380 feet above the ground. It will be at the same height as the hatch on the Orion capsule, which is where the astronaut crews enter the spacecraft before launch.

Kelli Maloney, the lead designer for the launch pad escape system, said a trade study showed the railcar best met NASA's requirements. Those requirements call for astronauts to be able to get out of the spacecraft and into the bunker within 4 minutes.

One of the benefits of the rail system, Maloney said, is that the track can take the astronauts directly to the bunker door. That would be a big help if one of the crew members or a ground crew member was incapacitated.

Scott Colloredo, NASA's senior project integrator for Constellation ground systems, said the group called on the world's roller coaster designers for help with the concept.

"It's obviously not a thrill ride, but we're taking advantage of technology that's there," he said.

Steven Siceloff
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center

Star System 'Just Right' for Building an Earth

2007-10-04T10:32:00.000+05:30

An Earth-like planet is likely forming 424 light-years away in a star system called HD 113766, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Scientists have discovered a huge belt of warm dust - enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger - swirling around a distant star that is just slightly more massive than our sun. The dust belt, which they suspect is clumping together into planets, is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone. This is the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our sun's terrestrial habitable zone.

Image right: This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
+ Full image and caption

At approximately 10 million years old, the star is also at just the right age for forming rocky planets.

"The timing for this system to be building an Earth is very good," said Carey Lisse, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Baltimore, Md. "If the system was too young, its planet-forming disk would be full of gas, and it would be making gas-giant planets like Jupiter instead. If the system was too old, then dust aggregation or clumping would have already occurred and all the system's rocky planets would have already formed."

The Right Stuff

According to Lisse, the conditions for forming an Earth-like planet are more than just being in the right place at the right time and around the right star - it's also about the right mix of dusty materials.

Using Spitzer's infrared spectrometer instrument, he determined that the material in HD 113866 is more processed than the snowball-like stuff that makes up infant solar systems and comets, which are considered cosmic "refrigerators" because they contain pristine ingredients from the early solar system. However, it is also not as processed as the stuff found in mature planets and asteroids. This means the dust belt must be in a transitional phase, when rocky planets are just beginning to form.

How do scientists know the material is more processed than that of comets? From missions like NASA's Deep Impact - where an 820-pound impactor spacecraft collided with Comet Tempel 1 - scientists know that early star systems contain a lot of fragile organic material. That material includes water ice, carbonates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carbon-based molecules found on charred barbeque grills and automobile exhaust on Earth. Lisse says that HD 113766 does not contain any water ice, carbonates, or fragile organic materials.

From meteorite studies on Earth, scientists also have a good idea of what makes up asteroids - the more processed rocky leftovers of planet formation. These studies tell us that metals began separating from rocks in Earth's early days, when the planet's body was completely molten. During this time, almost all the heavy metals fell to Earth's center in a process called "differentiation." Lisse says that, unlike planets and asteroids, the metals in HD 113766 have not totally separated from the rocky material, suggesting that rocky planets have not yet formed.

"The material mix in this belt is most reminiscent of the stuff found in lava flows on Earth. I thought of Mauna Kea material when I first saw the dust composition in this system - it contains raw rock and is abundant in iron sulfides, which are similar to fool's gold," said Lisse. Mauna Kea is a well-known volcano in Hawaii.

"It is fantastic to think we are able to detect the process of terrestrial planet formation. Stay tuned - I expect lots more fireworks as the planet in HD113766 grows," he adds.

Lisse's paper has been accepted and will be published in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact mission science, and project management is handled by the Jet propulsion Laboratory.

Written by Linda Vu/Spitzer Science Center
Media contact: Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Dedication and Perspiration Builds The Next Generation Life Support System

2007-10-04T01:03:00.000+05:30

Marshall Center employees are back at it -- donating time and energy -- exercising on treadmills, bikes, and other equipment to test aspects of a life support system that could someday provide drinking water to people living on the moon or Mars.

For almost 20 years, NASA engineers at Marshall have led the design and development of the International Space Station life support system, called the Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support System, or ECLSS. Looking ahead to extended moon missions when re-supply will be over 240,000 miles away, Marshall engineers have assembled key aspects of the station's ECLSS waste water processor technology to explore how this system might work on a future lunar habitat.

Image above, right: Marshall Center employees exercise on bikes and treadmills and other equipment inside a mockup of an International Space Station module to test part of the Exploration Water Recovery System life support system that could someday provide drinking water to people living on the moon. Image credit: NASA/MSFC

The Clean Water Diary
Read about the experiences of one volunteer as she participates in the Exploration Water Recovery System test at the Marshall Center. In the end, will she drink it?

+ Week 1: Do I Have to Drink It? + Week 2: A Urine Processor by Any Other Name...
+ Week 3: Me Vs. the Treadmill
+ Week 4: A Dixie Cup Shower

This redesigned hardware, the Exploration Water Recovery System, is a novel combination of proven air and water purification technologies and optimizes the treatment of various wastewater streams. The system reclaims urine and condensation from perspiration and through a series of treatment processes, creates water clean enough to drink.

"To support human life on the moon, we’ll need robust and efficient life support systems that can work well without a large amount of consumables," said Monsi Roman, Exploration Life Support Project Manager. "Our hope is to mature current life support technologies to be able minimize the amount of materials we need to bring up to space to support future crews."

For the next six weeks, Marshall will test this new hardware. The goal of this test is to examine the efficiency of the water processor to remove different types of contaminants from the waste water. NASA engineers want to determine how to increase the system efficiency and extend the life of expendables needed to keep clean water flowing.

More than 50 employees are participating in the Exploration Water Recovery System test. For the study, 20 employees exercise for an hour a day, generating water vapor through perspiration and respiration in the Regenerative ECLSS Module Simulator -- a mockup of a space module filled with treadmills, a bicycle, rowing machine and other exercise equipment. Individuals also "donate" urine as part of this test.

Image to right: The Exploration Water Recovery System captures perspiration and urine and through a series of rigorous treatment processes creates clean water. On top of the rack there are two cylinders: the one on the right "boils" water out of the solution leaving most of the contaminants behind and the other, on the left, captures and concentrates the contaminants. Further treatment processes "polish" the water, shown in the filter element in the lower left of the rack, until it meets stringent purity standards for human use. Image credit: NASA/MSFC

Before stepping into the module for a session, participants are provided with a white T-shirt to wear, a towel for drying off and a bottle of water or a sports energy drink to consume as they exercise. They weigh-in on a computerized scale, with the bottle of water in-hand. Sopping wet T-shirts and used towels are left hanging inside overnight to evaporate more sweat out of them. Participants also brush their teeth, wipe themselves down with wet towels and the men even shave -- simulating the daily routine of a station crew member -- to get every bit of moisture into the atmosphere. Participants even microwave meals inside the module to generate water vapor and the aroma from the food.

Image to right: One of the test participants, Robert Engberg, hangs up his washcloth after a workout. Sopping wet T-shirts and used washcloths are left hanging inside overnight to evaporate more sweat out of them. Image credit: NASA/MSFC

"We know this equipment can create water cleaner than water from municipal water systems here on Earth," said Keith Parrish, ECLSS Test Facility manager. "We hope we can refine the process so future crews will need fewer supplies to generate water for longer space missions -- whether on the moon or Mars."

Dauna Coulter, an avid runner and writer with Schafer Corporation supporting Marshall’s Office of Strategic Analysis and Communications, will journal her experiences participating in the test.

Contact: Jennifer Morcone, Marshall Space Flight Center

Week 4: "I'm Member of the ELS Club -- I Do My Washin' From a Dixie Cup"

2007-10-04T01:02:00.000+05:30

After today's run on the treadmill, I decide it's time to participate in the post-exercise activities the module has to offer. We are supposed to engage in some typical hygiene tasks in order to provide more "condensate" for the experiment.

I walk over to where some instructions are hanging on the wall. One sign tells you how to do a "body wash." It reads something like this:

Pour 0.55 ml of water into the beaker and then into one of the small dixie cups provided.
Immerse a wash cloth in the water until the cloth soaks up all the water. (Believe me folks, this step takes a nanosecond.)
Wipe down your face, arms, and legs with the cloth.
Hang the cloth up on the rack.

Image at right: After her run, Dauna Coulter wipes down with a washcloth moistened by a mere 0.55 ml of water. Image credit: NASA/MSFC

I do the best I can to follow these steps. I hope the cameras that monitor us are not equipped with sound, since I say things like "You have GOT to be kidding" the whole time I am "washing."

But let's get real here. I am supposed to wash my body with 1 1/2 inches of water in a dixie cup? Any desire I ever had to be an astronaut went up in water vapor at that moment.

I don't know, though -- maybe if I was a real astronaut, I'd get to use an entire dixie cup.

I later actually asked Keith Parrish, the ELS Test Branch Chief, why they were so chintzy with the water. As I expected, he told me that they are trying to "mimic" actual usage of water on the space station, and that the astronauts have to conserve their resources since they don't have an unlimited supply.

I know one thing. They had better keep teenagers out of the space program. My son uses about 100 gallons of water when he showers -- and that's when he’s in a hurry.

Just yesterday, my husband Steve called me at work to share a funny story (although he didn’t sound all that amused) about my son's strange behavior. It seems that Dan (my son) has a new girlfriend, and as always when he has a new girlfriend, he wants to lose a pound or two, muscle up, etc. He usually starts a running/weight lifting program at these times. The rigorous program he devises for himself always lasts exactly two weeks, because by then either he is pretty sure he has the girl's interest, or he has already lost her.

This time, though, Dan has added a new element to his weight-loss regimen. Steve heard the shower running for about 25 minutes and decided he had better check things out. He walked in, and there sat Dan on the toilet seat in the steam-filled bathroom, not only fully dressed, but wearing thick sweats, a heavy winter coat, and a wool knit cap.

Why, you may ask, was he wearing this getup on a hot, humid Alabama day, in a hot, humid bathroom with the hot shower going full blast? You guessed it -- he was sweating away the pounds.

No, my frugal husband was not at all amused. I’m sure that if Dan pulled this little trick on the space station, his crewmates would throw him out the hatch. He'd now be orbiting the Earth independently, and he sure wouldn't be worried about his weight any more.

But I digress. Back to my "shower."

Having used up my generous allotment of 0.55 ml of water (as opposed to Dan's 300 gallons), I hang up my wash cloth according to instructions. I'm not sure why it is necessary to hang up this almost dry cloth, but I do as I am directed.

Then I leave the module and go take a REAL shower.

Star Cluster Bursts Into Life in New Hubble Image

2007-10-03T21:09:00.000+05:30

Thousands of sparkling young stars are nestled within the giant nebula NGC 3603. This stellar "jewel box" is one of the most massive young star clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy.

Image above: This latest image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Project.
+ View larger image

NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20,000 light-years away. This latest image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas.

The image reveals stages in the life cycle of stars.

Powerful ultraviolet radiation and fast winds from the bluest and hottest stars have blown a big bubble around the cluster. Moving into the surrounding nebula, this torrent of radiation sculpted the tall, dark stalks of dense gas, which are embedded in the walls of the nebula. These gaseous monoliths are a few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. The stalks may be incubators for new stars.

On a smaller scale, a cluster of dark clouds called "Bok" globules resides at the top, right corner. These clouds are composed of dense dust and gas and are about 10 to 50 times more massive than the Sun. Resembling an insect's cocoon, a Bok globule may be undergoing a gravitational collapse on its way to forming new stars.

The nebula was first discovered by Sir John Herschel in 1834. The image spans roughly 17 light-years and was taken Dec. 29, 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Project

Images and additional information about NGC 3603 are available at http://hubblesite.org/news/2007/34.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington.

Donna Weaver/Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.