ENDEAVOR'S OMS POD GETS A CLEANING

In Orbiter Processing Facility-2 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Endeavour’s left orbital maneuvering system OMS pod is in position on the aft of the shuttle and ready for installation. The OMS pod underwent complete deservicing and cleaning at White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico, part of the transition and retirement processing of each shuttle. Endeavour is being prepared for public display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Over the course of its 19-year career, Endeavour spent 299 days in space during 25 missions. Image credit: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
The above photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:

ROCKETS USED TO STUDY UPPER LEVEL JET STREAM

The following photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:
NASA successfully launched five suborbital sounding rockets from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream. This image was captured on March 27, 2012. The first rocket was launched at 4:58 a.m. EDT and each subsequent rocket was launched 80 seconds apart. Each rocket released a chemical tracer that created milky, white clouds at the edge of space. Tracking the way the clouds move can help scientists understand the movement of the winds some 65 miles up in the sky, which in turn will help create better models of the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage man-made satellites and disrupt communications systems. The launches and clouds were reported to be seen from as far south as Wilmington, N.C.; west to Charlestown, W. Va.; and north to Buffalo, N.Y. Image Credit: NASA/Wallops

NASA'S DAWN SPACECRAFT OBSERVES ASTEROID CALLED VESTA

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has revealed unexpected details
on the surface of the giant asteroid Vesta. New images and data
highlight the diversity of Vesta's surface and reveal unusual
geologic features, some of which were never previously seen on
asteroids.

Vesta is one of the brightest objects in the solar system and the only
asteroid in the so-called main belt between Mars and Jupiter visible
to the naked eye from Earth. Dawn found that some areas on Vesta can
be nearly twice as bright as others, revealing clues about the
asteroid's history.

"Our analysis finds this bright material originates from Vesta and has
undergone little change since the formation of Vesta over 4 billion
years ago," said Jian-Yang Li, a Dawn participating scientist at the
University of Maryland, College Park. "We're eager to learn more
about what minerals make up this material and how the present Vesta
surface came to be."

Bright areas appear everywhere on Vesta but are most predominant in
and around craters. The areas vary from several hundred feet to
around 10 miles across. Rocks crashing into the surface of Vesta seem
to have exposed and spread this bright material. This impact process
may have mixed the bright material with darker surface material.

While scientists had seen some brightness variations in previous
images of Vesta from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, Dawn scientists
also did not expect such a wide variety of distinct dark deposits
across its surface. The dark materials on Vesta can appear dark gray,
brown and red. They sometimes appear as small, well-defined deposits
around impact craters. They also can appear as larger regional
deposits, like those surrounding the impact craters scientists have
nicknamed the "snowman."

"One of the surprises was the dark material is not randomly
distributed," said David Williams, a Dawn participating scientist at
Arizona State University, Tempe. "This suggests underlying geology
determines where it occurs."

The dark materials seem to be related to impacts and their aftermath.
Scientists theorize carbon-rich asteroids could have hit Vesta at
speeds low enough to produce some of the smaller deposits without
blasting away the surface.

Higher-speed asteroids also could have hit the asteroid's surface and
melted the volcanic basaltic crust, darkening existing surface
material. That melted conglomeration appears in the walls and floors
of impact craters, on hills and ridges, and underneath brighter, more
recent material called ejecta, which is material thrown out from a
space rock impact.

Vesta's dark materials suggest the giant asteroid may preserve ancient
materials from the asteroid belt and beyond, possibly from the birth
of the solar system.

"Some of these past collisions were so intense they melted the
surface," said Brett Denevi, a Dawn participating scientist at the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
"Dawn's ability to image the melt marks a unique find. Melting events
like these were suspected, but never before seen on an asteroid."

Dawn launched in September 2007. It will reach its second destination,
Ceres, in February 2015.

"Dawn's ambitious exploration of Vesta has been going beautifully,"
said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "As we continue to gather a
bounty of data, it is thrilling to reveal fascinating alien
landscapes."

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's
Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission
science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built
the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute
for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian
National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the
mission team.

EXPERIMENTAL PAYLOADS SELECTED FOR COMMERCIAL SUBORBITAL FLIGHTS

The following excerpt is from the NASA website: 
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected 24
cutting-edge space technology payloads for flights on commercial
reusable launch vehicles, balloons and a commercial parabolic
aircraft.

Sixteen of the payloads will ride on parabolic aircraft flights, which
provide brief periods of weightlessness. Five will fly on suborbital
reusable launch vehicle test flights. Two will ride on high-altitude
balloons that fly above 65,000 feet. One payload will fly on the
suborbital launch vehicle and high-altitude balloon platforms. The
flights will take place in 2012 and 2013.

Flight platforms include the Zero-G parabolic airplane, Near Space
Corp. high altitude balloons and reusable launch vehicles from
Armadillo Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, UP Aerospace and Virgin
Galactic.

"NASA's Flight Opportunities Program leverages investment in
commercially available vehicles and platforms to enable new
technology discoveries," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's
Space Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These
flights enable researchers to demonstrate the viability of their
technologies while taking advantage of American commercial access to
near-space."

Payloads selected for flight on a parabolic aircraft are:
-- "Microgravity Health Care," Scott Alexander Dulchavsky, Henry Ford
Health System, Detroit
-- "Activity Monitoring During Parabolic Flight," Peter Cavanagh,
University of Washington, Seattle
-- "Physics of Regolith Impacts in Microgravity Experiment," Josh
Colwell, University of Central Florida, Orlando
-- "UAH CubeSat Parabolic Flight Testing," Francis Wessling,
University of Alabama, Huntsville
-- "Fuel Mass Gauging Under Zero-G Environment Based on Electrical
Capacitance Volumatric Tomography Techniques," Manohar Deshpande,
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-- "Microgravity Effects of Nanoscale Mixing on Diffusion Limited
Processes Using Electrochemical Electrodes," Carlos Cabrera,
University of Puerto Rico, San Juan
-- "Effects of Reduced Gravity on Flow Boiling and Condensation,"
Issam Mudawar, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind.
-- "OSIRIS-REx Low-Gravity Regolith Sampling Tests," Joseph Vellinga,
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Denver
-- "Parabolic Flight: Validation of Electro-Hydrodynamic Gas-Liquid
Phase Separation in Microgravity," Boris Khusid, New Jersey Institute
of Technology, Newark
-- "Non-Invasive Hemodynamic Monitoring in Microgravity," Gregory
Kovacs, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.
-- "Parabolic Flight Evaluation of a Hermetic Surgery System for
Reduced Gravity," George Pantalos, University of Louisville,
Louisville, Ky.
-- "Evaporative Heat Transfer Mechanisms within a Heat Melt Compactor
Experiment," Eric Golliher, NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
-- "Effects of Reduced and Hyper Gravity on Functional Near-Infrared
Spectroscopy Instrumentation," Greg Adamovsky, NASA Glenn
-- "Sintering of Composite Materials Under Reduced Gravity Conditions
("Cosmic" Project), Orazio Chiarenza, the Advanced Technical
Institute, Fuscaldo, Italy
-- "Boston University Student Proposal for Deployable Solar and
Antenna Array Microgravity Testing," Theodore Fritz, Boston
University
-- "Particle Dispersion System for Microgravity Environments," John
Marshall, SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.

Payloads selected for flight on a suborbital launch vehicle are:
-- "Near-Zero Gravity Cryogenic Line Chilldown Experiment in a
Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle," Jacob Chung, University of
Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
-- "Collection of Regolith Experiment on a Commercial Suborbital
Vehicle," and "Collisions Into Dust Experiment on a Commercial
Suborbital Vehicle, Josh Colwell, University of Central Florida,
Orlando
-- "Polar Mesospheric Cloud Imaging and Tomography Experiment," Jason
David Reimuller, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
-- "Vision Navigation System Technology Demonstration," Douglas
Zimpfer, Draper Laboratory, Houston

Payloads selected for flight on a high altitude balloon are:
-- "Flight Demonstration of an Integrated Camera and Solid-State Fine
Steering System," Eliot Young, Southwest Research Institute, Boulder,
Colo.
-- "Initial Flight Testing of a UAT ADS-B Transmitter Prototype for
Commercial Space Transportation Using a High Altitude Balloon,"
Richard Stansbury, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona
Beach, Fla.

The "Structural Health Monitoring for Commercial Space Vehicles"
payload from Andrei Zagrai of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and
Technology in Socorro, will fly on a suborbital launch vehicle and a
high-altitude balloon.

NASA manages the Flight Opportunities Program manifest, matching
payloads with flights, and will pay for payload integration and the
flight costs for the selected payloads. No funds are provided for the
development of these payloads. Other suborbital flight vendors on
contract to NASA will provide flights after they have successfully
flown their qualifying vehicles.

The Flight Opportunities Program, part of NASA's Space Technology
Program, is managed at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in
Edwards, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.
manages the payload activities for the program.

GENERAL SPACE CAPABILITY INTEGRAL TO ALL MILITARY OPERATIONS

The following excerpt is from a Department of Defense American Forces Press Service e-mail:
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 23, 2012 - Space capabilities have become integral to all military operations, the commander of Air Force Space Command told reporters here during a Defense Writers Group breakfast yesterday.
"It's hard to imagine what life was like before we had ... GPS providing very accurate targeting capability, military satellite communications providing all the reach-back that's needed, [and] missile warning providing cover for our deployed forces," Air Force Gen. William L. Shelton said.

The Air Force launched and maintains the 24 satellites that make up the GPS navigation system. The all-weather, 24-hour system was intended for military use, but in 1983 President Ronald Reagan made it freely available to civilians, for the public good, after a Korean Air Lines flight carrying 269 people was shot down for straying into Soviet airspace.

The first GPS satellite was launched in 1989, and the 24th in 1994. In 2000, Congress authorized a modernization effort called GPS-III that will improve position, navigation and timing services and add advanced anti-jam capabilities to the constellation.
"The biggest concern is that GPS's signal is a very weak [one]," Shelton said. "It's a spread-spectrum signal, and it is not difficult to jam. ... In fact, you can buy [a GPS jammer] online, and we're starting to see even criminal elements use GPS jamming to cover their tracks. The game afoot here is to continue to drive a no-kidding adversary to higher powers of their jammers. Once you get to a significant power level, those are called targets."

The Air Force is cranking up power on the satellites to force adversaries to use higher-power jammers that can then be found and targeted, Shelton said.
"One of the design features of GPS-III is higher power," Shelton said, "and we also can do some things with antenna technology and the way we operate our platforms to protect ourselves from jamming."
For the Air Force satellite effort, space launch -- getting satellites from Earth to orbit -- is truly foundational, Shelton said. In 2011, the Defense Department and intelligence community succeeded in all 49 attempts to launch evolved expendable launch vehicles, or EELVs, that carried satellites into orbit.
The Air Force EELV program, replacing the existing launch fleet with two families of vehicles that use common components and infrastructure, seeks to make space launch more reliable and affordable, the general explained.

United Launch Alliance, which Shelton called "the only supplier of the full gamut of launch capabilities," now handles space launches for the Defense Department, NASA, and the intelligence community -- including the National Reconnaissance Office, the government agency that designs, builds, launches and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites.
ULA, formed in 2006, is a joint venture by Lockheed Martin and the Boeing Co. that uses Atlas V and Delta II and Delta IV launch vehicles to support strategic U.S. space initiatives.

"We are very proud of our success record in the launch business, unprecedented in the history of space flight, ... but at the same time, with costs spiraling like they are, we have to take action to reduce the cost," Shelton said.
One action, he said, is to ask ULA to come in with priced options for booster cores, or rocket stages, over three to five years. "Somewhere in there," the general added, "we believe there will be a sweet spot for us."
The other action, Shelton said, is to use commercial services whenever possible, citing military use of wideband communications as an example.
"If all I'm concerned about is volumes of data moving around in space and ultimately down on the ground, commercial space knows how to do that very well and very economically," he explained. "If you look at the bandwidth coming back from Afghanistan, somewhere in the 70 percent to 80 percent range is commercial satellite communications. We've already proven in warfare that we can rely on commercial satellite communication."
But the services must be assured of worldwide capability, the general said.

"If you tell me where I'm going to fight, it's easy," Shelton said. "But if I have to protect the capability to fight anywhere, any time, can I do it commercially, or do I have to have a dedicated military capability to do that? Those are all the kinds of things we are exploring with the commercial community."

Using commercial space launch services for national security satellite launches is not an option today, he said, because the capability doesn't yet exist in the commercial world.
"A national security payload on top of a commercial asset has to be a proven capability," Shelton said. "When you're talking $1 billion for a satellite, as well as the national security capability that satellite represents, as well as how long it would take you to get replacement capability for that, you just don't want to take the risk."

Two U.S. commercial space companies, Orbital Sciences Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., have the potential to launch national security assets.
Orbital, based in Virginia, has delivered or had under contract 1,000 satellites, launch vehicles and other space-related systems since 1982. The company says it provides full-service engineering, production and technical services for NASA, DOD and commercial and academic space programs, and is supplying commercial cargo resupply services for the International Space Station.

SpaceX, established in 2002, reports that it has developed two new launch vehicles; has a manifest for light, medium and heavy-lift space launches into 2017; and has received commercial off-the-shelf funding from NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the space station.

Shelton said the Air Force distributed a step-by-step guide to certification for national security launches in October. Commercial companies, he said, "just need to give us adequate insight to [their history of] commercial missions so we can assure ourselves that no corners were cut, that we understand their process, the reliability of the components [and] their capabilities."

"Once they've proven that with a number of missions," he added, "they'll be ready to go."

MESSIER 9 STAR CLUSTER

This photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:
The Hubble Space Telescope has produced the most detailed image so far of Messier 9, a globular star cluster located close to the center of the galaxy. This ball of stars is too faint to see with the naked eye, yet Hubble can see over 250,000 individual stars shining in it. Messier 9, pictured here, is a globular cluster, a roughly spherical swarm of stars that lies around 25,000 light-years from Earth, near the center of the Milky Way, so close that the gravitational forces from the galactic center pull it slightly out of shape. Globular clusters are thought to harbor some of the oldest stars in our galaxy, born when the universe was just a small fraction of its current age. As well as being far older than the sun -- around twice its age -- the stars of Messier 9 also have a markedly different composition, and are enriched with far fewer heavier elements than the sun. In particular, the elements crucial to life on Earth, like oxygen and carbon, and the iron that makes up our planet’s core, are very scarce in Messier 9 and clusters like it. This is because the universe’s heavier elements were gradually formed in the cores of stars, and in supernova explosions. When the stars of Messier 9 formed, there were far smaller quantities of these elements in existence. As well as showing the individual stars, Hubble’s image clearly shows the different colors of the stars. A star’s color is directly related to its temperature -- counter-intuitively, perhaps, the redder it is, the cooler it is; and the bluer it is, the hotter. The wide range of stellar temperatures here is clearly displayed by the broad palette of colors visible in this image. Image Credit: NASA and ESA

VIEW OF SATURN'S MOON ENCELADUS

The photo and following  excerpt is from the NASA website:
Below a darkened Enceladus, a plume of water ice is backlit in this view of one of Saturn's most dramatic moons. Dramatic plumes, both large and small, spray water ice from many locations along the moon's famed "tiger stripes" near the south pole of Enceladus. The tiger stripes are fissures that spray icy particles, water vapor and organic compounds. The terrain seen here is on the leading hemisphere of Enceladus (313 miles, or 504 kilometers across). North is up. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 20, 2012. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 83,000 miles (134,000 kilometers) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 165 degrees. Image scale is 2,628 feet (801 meters) per pixel. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

NASA SEARCHING FOR PROPOSALS FOR HEAVY- LIFT ROCKET

The following excerpt is from the NASA website: 

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. -- NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, 
Ala., has issued a NASA Research Announcement (NRA) for advanced 
development proposals to support the nation's next heavy-lift rocket, 
the Space Launch System (SLS). 

NASA is soliciting proposals from industry and academia for innovative 
advanced development in areas including concept development, trades 
and analyses, propulsion, structures, materials, manufacturing, 
avionics and software. These efforts will focus on affordability and 
sustainability of the SLS as it evolves from a 70-metric-ton vehicle 
to a 130-metric-ton vehicle. 

"We look forward to hearing from both industry and academia on 
advanced development solutions that will enable the full capability 
of the evolved Space Launch System," said Mindy Niedermeyer, the 
evaluation team chair. "It's an exciting time for NASA. These 
solutions will create entirely new developments in space technology, 
taking humans farther in space than ever before." 

NASA anticipates making multiple awards in response to this 
solicitation with approximately $48 million in total funding. Of this 
total amount, the funding anticipated for the base year (Fiscal Year 
2013) is $22 million, with $14.5 million for the first year option 
(Fiscal Year 2014), and $11.5 million for the second year option 
(Fiscal Year 15). Total funding to be allocated to academic awards 
for this NRA is approximately $1.5 million per year. Individual 
academic awards are expected to be valued up to $250,000 per year. 
The deadline to submit proposals is May 15, 2012. 

MARS ROVER AS SEEN BY ITSELF

This self portrait from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows dust accumulation on the rover's solar panels as the mission approached its fifth Martian winter. The dust reduces the rover's power supply, and the rover's mobility is limited until the winter is over or wind cleans the panels. This is a mosaic of images taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) during the 2,111th to 2,814th Martian days, or sols, of the rover's mission (Dec. 21 to Dec. 24, 2011). The downward-looking view omits the mast on which the camera is mounted. The portrait is presented in approximate true color, the camera team's best estimate of what the scene would look like if humans were there and able to see it with their own eyes. Opportunity has worked through four Martian southern hemisphere winters since it landed in in January 2004 about 14 miles (23 kilometers) northwest of its current location. Closer to the equator than its twin rover, Spirit, Opportunity has not needed to stay on a sun-facing slope during the previous winters. Now, however, Opportunity's solar panels carry a thicker coating of dust, and the team is using a strategy employed for three winters with Spirit: staying on a sun-facing slope. The sun will pass relatively low in the northern sky from the rover's perspective for several months of shortened daylight before and after the southern Mars winter solstice on March 30, 2012. Opportunity is conducting research while located on the north-facing slope of a site called "Greeley Haven." Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.
The above excerpt and photo are from the NASA website:

AN OLD SOL FLARES UP

The photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this image of an M7.9 class flare on March 13, 2012 at 1:29 p.m. EDT. It is shown here in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength particularly good for seeing solar flares and a wavelength that is typically colorized in teal. The flare peaked at 1:41 p.m. EDT. It was from the same active region, No. 1429, that produced flares and coronal mass ejections the entire week. The region has been moving across the face of the sun since March 2, and will soon rotate out of Earth view. A solar flare is an intense burst of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. Flares are our solar system’s largest explosive events. They are seen as bright areas on the sun and last from mere minutes to several hours. Scientists classify solar flares according to their x-ray brightness. There are 3 categories: X-, M- and C-class. X-class flares are the largest of these events. M-class flares are medium-sized; they can cause brief radio blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Compared to X- and M-class, C-class flares are small with few noticeable consequences on Earth. Image Credit: NASA/SDO

STUDENTS OFFERED CHANCE TO DESIGN DEEP SPACE HABITAT

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

HOUSTON -- NASA is offering college and university students a chance 
to help design a deep space habitat. The Exploration Habitat (X-Hab) 
Academic Innovation Challenge is accepting applications for the 2013 
challenge, inviting students to design, manufacture, assemble and 
test systems for use on NASA's deep space habitat prototype. 

Past projects have included an inflatable loft for crew sleeping 
quarters, plant growth systems and sample handling tools. This year, 
students in multiple disciplines can choose projects from a variety 
of possibilities, including photovoltaic solar arrays, a workstation 
to support human-robotic collaboration or a telepresence and holodeck 
conceptual system. Students will work together on potential solutions 
to needs future astronauts might have living and working outside 
Earth. 

"Students will play a vital role in our critical early system planning 
and development," said Alvin Drew, a NASA astronaut and habitat 
systems project manager at the agency's Johnson Space Center in 
Houston. "Their designs could become the basis for the concepts and 
technologies that will make up the habitat we eventually send to 
space." 

The X-Hab Challenge is part of a continuing effort to engage and 
retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, 
or STEM, and provide a real-world challenge exposing them to 
engineering and design processes. NASA will directly benefit from the 
development of innovative habitation-related concepts and 
technologies that could be applied to future missions. 

The challenge is run by the National Space Grant Foundation for the 
deep space habitat project team at Johnson, which is part of NASA's 
Advanced Exploration Systems Program. The goal of for the X-Hab 
Challenge is to help NASA inspire the STEM workforce of the future 
and the next generation of explorers. Winners will receive between 
$10,000 and $49,000 to produce functional products based on their 
designs. Proposals are due May 2, 2012, and awardees should expect to 
deliver their product to Johnson in May or June 2013. 

SPACE ROBOTS

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) experiment aboard
the International Space Station has demonstrated remotely controlled
robots and specialized tools can perform precise satellite-servicing
tasks in space. The project marks a milestone in the use of the space
station as a technology test bed.

"We and our partners are making important technological
breakthroughs," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "As we move
ahead toward reaching our exploration goals, we will realize even
more benefits from humans and robots working together in space."

The Canadian Space Agency's (CSA) robotic handyman, Dextre,
successfully completed the tasks March 7-9 on the space station's
external RRM module, designed to demonstrate the tools, technologies
and techniques needed to robotically refuel and repair satellites.

"The Hubble servicing missions taught us the importance and value of
getting innovative, cutting-edge technologies to orbit quickly to
deliver great results," said Frank Cepollina, a veteran leader of
five Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions and associate director
of the Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "The impact of the
space station as a useful technology test bed cannot be overstated.
Fresh satellite-servicing technologies will be demonstrated in a real
space environment within months instead of years. This is huge. It
represents real progress in space technology advancement."

Before a satellite leaves the ground, technicians fill its fuel tank
through a valve that is sealed, covered and designed never to be
accessed again. The RRM experiment demonstrates a remote-controlled
robot can remove these barriers and refuel such satellites in space.

Dextre successfully retrieved and inspected RRM tools, released safety
launch locks on tool adapters, and used an RRM tool to cut extremely
thin satellite lock wire. These operations represent the first use of
RRM tools in orbit and Dextre's first participation in a research and
development project.

RRM was developed by SSCO and is a joint effort between NASA and CSA.
During the next two years, RRM and Dextre will conduct several
servicing tasks using RRM tools on satellite parts and interfaces
inside and covering the cube-shaped RRM module.

NASA expects the RRM results to reduce the risks associated with
satellite servicing. It will encourage future robotic servicing
missions by laying the foundation for them. Such future missions
could include the repair, refueling and repositioning of orbiting
satellites.

"We are especially grateful to CSA for their collaboration on this
venture," Cepollina said. "CSA has played a pivotal role in the
development of space robotics, from the early days of the space
shuttle to the work they are doing with Dextre on space station."

During the three-day RRM Gas Fittings Removal task, the 12-foot
(3.7-meter) Dextre performed the most intricate task ever attempted
by a space robot: cutting two separate "lock wires" 20 thousandths of
an inch (0.5 millimeters) in diameter using the RRM Wire Cutter Tool
(WCT). Deftly maneuvered by ground-based mission operators and
Dextre, the WCT smoothly slid its hook under the individual wires and
severed them with only a few millimeters of clearance. This
wire-cutting activity is a prerequisite to removing and servicing
various satellite parts during any future in-orbit missions.

RRM operations are scheduled to resume in May 2012 with the completion
of the gas fittings removal task. The RRM Refueling task is scheduled
for later this summer. NASA and CSA will present RRM results at the
Second International Workshop on on-Orbit Servicing, hosted by
Goddard May 30-31, 2012.

Dextre and RRM are an example of how robots are changing operations in
space. Another is Robonaut 2, or R2, a project of NASA and General
Motors. R2, the first human-like robot, was launched into space in
2011 and is a permanent resident of the International Space Station.

OFF WORLD ASTRONAUTS SEEK TO CONTROL EARTH ROBOTS FROM SPACE

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- This semester, Academy of Art University
Industrial Design students will collaborate with the NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. to design a user interface
that will allow future astronauts in space to remotely operate a
robot on Earth. A number of thesis level students have been chosen
and will use a variety of design skills to complete the project,
including storyboarding, task analysis, ideation, brainstorming,
sketching and rendering. The students’ work will be used to create
the user interface elements, including icons wireframes and glyphs.
Simultaneously the team is identifying opportunities for additional
design disciplines to be integrated into the experience. Already the
team is starting conceptual work on interior architecture, product
design, and apparel.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for students to contribute
to our country's innovative space program," said Dr. Elisa Stephens,
President of Academy of Art University. “We are constantly looking
for hands-on learning opportunities for our students so that while
they are in school, they get the real-world experience that will
prepare them for a career in their industry of choice. We are
grateful to NASA for working with us and are excited to see students
contribute to our nation’s space program."

The NASA project will require students to create storyboards that show
how astronauts in space can perform work on the ground using robots.
The students will also develop sketches and paper prototypes,
emphasizing graphical elements and other highly usable displays for
the astronauts. A group of NASA scientists will be present at the
Academy of Art University classes to work with the students and
students will also have an opportunity to visit NASA Ames during the
semester.

"Operating a robot is extremely complex and these designs we've tasked
the students with developing require both an in-depth knowledge of
engineering – and the advanced creative skills necessary to make
these designs user friendly for the astronauts,” said Dr. Terry Fong,
Director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames. “The final
products from the students will play a big role in how we think about
future astronaut-centered robotics, and we are grateful to the
Academy of Art for collaborating with us to explore the design space
in new ways."

Future human missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations offer
many new opportunities for exploration. With the limited amount of
work that astronauts can do from space, robots complement human
explorers by performing work on the ground under remote control from
spacecraft in orbit. Robots can perform tasks that are tedious,
highly repetitive or long-duration and beyond human capability.

In Summer 2013, NASA will perform an experiment in which astronauts on
the International Space Station remotely operate the "K10" mobile
robot on Earth. The astronauts will use K10 to layout a simulated
radio telescope on an outdoor terrain at the NASA Ames Research
Center. This work will require capturing images with the robot's
cameras and making measurements with other robot-mounted instruments.
The student designs will help NASA plan this and carry out this
engineering test.

NASA OFFERS NEW VIEW OF ORION NEBULA

The photo and excerpt below are from the NASA website:
This new view of the Orion Nebula highlights fledgling stars hidden in the gas and clouds. It shows infrared observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel mission, in which NASA plays an important role. Stars form as clumps of this gas and dust collapses, creating warm globs of material fed by an encircling disk. These dusty envelopes glow brightest at longer wavelengths, appearing as red dots in this image. In several hundred thousand years, some of the forming stars will accrete enough material to trigger nuclear fusion at their cores and then blaze into stardom. Spitzer is designed to see shorter infrared wavelengths than Herschel. By combining their observations, astronomers get a more complete picture of star formation. The colors in this image relate to the different wavelengths of light, and to the temperature of material, mostly dust, in this region of Orion. Data from Spitzer show warmer objects in blue, with progressively cooler dust appearing green and red in the Herschel datasets. The more evolved, hotter embryonic stars thus appear in blue. Infrared data at wavelengths of 8.0 and 24 microns from Spitzer are rendered in blue. Herschel data with wavelengths of 70 and 160 microns are represented in green and red, respectively. This image was released on Feb. 29, 2012. Image Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech/IRAM

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AIR FORCE WILL DISPLAY A SPACE SHUTTLE CREW COMPARTMENT TRAINER

The following excerpt below is from the Department of Defense Armed With Science website:

“By Rob Bardua
A retired NASA space shuttle crew compartment trainer is expected to arrive this summer at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

The CCT is a high-fidelity representation of the Space Shuttle Orbiter crew station that was used primarily for on-orbit crew training and engineering evaluations.
It was in this trainer that astronauts learned how to operate many of the orbiter sub-systems in more than 20 different classes. All Air Force astronauts in NASA’s shuttle program trained in the CCT.

The crew module of the CCT consists of a flight deck and a mid-deck, and contains components such as panels, seats and lights visible to or used by the flight crew. Non-functional switches, connections, guards and protective devices all have the same physical characteristics, operating force, torque and movement as a real space shuttle.
The museum is currently working with NASA to package the CCT for airlift to the museum via NASA’s “Super Guppy” aircraft, which routinely carries outsized loads such as missile and rocket components. After arrival, technicians will offload the CCT and place it on interim display in the Cold War Gallery, before later moving it to a new Space Gallery in the planned fourth building.

According to the director of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, retired Lt. Gen. Jack Hudson, the CCT will be a great addition to the museum.
“When the CCT exhibit is completed, it will allow the public to have an up-close and personal look into the cockpit and mid-deck areas of a shuttle and learn how astronauts trained for their missions,” Hudson said. “We also plan to build a full-scale mock-up of the payload bay and develop other new exhibits with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math to further illustrate the rich history of the Air Force’s space programs and vital Air Force, NASA and aerospace industry partnerships.”
The new Space Gallery, where the CCT will eventually reside, is a part of a multi-phase, long-term expansion plan and will house the museum’s growing space collection. The gallery will include a Titan IV space launch vehicle; Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spacecraft; and many recently retired NASA artifacts such as a nose cap assembly, landing gear strut and a variety of astronaut equipment. In addition, a range of satellites and related items will showcase the Air Force’s vast reconnaissance, early warning, communications and other space-based capabilities. Other new exhibits will be developed to showcase Air Force technologies with many unique characteristics in design, propulsion, payload capacity, human factors, communication, range, speed and operating environment.

One of the unique features of the fourth building will be the creation of dedicated, interactive spaces for learning in the galleries. Three “Learning Nodes” will provide a unique environment for lectures and demonstrations, as well as extensions of the exhibit experience. These 60-seat “gallery classrooms” will allow museum staff to facilitate new science, technology, engineering and math experiences, while guest scientists and engineers from Air Force organizations, the aerospace industry, and area colleges and universities will be invited to share their expertise. Multimedia presentations will introduce students to air and space missions and the men and women responsible for their execution. When the nodes are not in use for scheduled programs, multimedia presentations will captivate public audiences.
The Air Force Museum Foundation, an IRS 501(c)(3) organization chartered to assist the National Museum of the United States Air Force with the development and expansion of facilities, is in the process of raising the funds to meet the growing requirements of the museum. Currently, $38 million has been secured by the Foundation for the fourth building project, which is expected to cost an estimated $48 million. The fourth building will house the Space Gallery, Presidential Aircraft Gallery and Global Reach Gallery featuring cargo and tanker aircraft.

The National Museum of the United States Air Force is located on Springfield Street, six miles northeast of downtown Dayton. It is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week and is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. Admission and parking are free.”

KOI961 PLANETARY SYSTEM CONDENSED

This artist's concept depicts a planetary system so compact that it's more like Jupiter and its moons than a star and its planets. Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based telescopes recently confirmed that the system, called KOI-961, hosts the three smallest exoplanets currently known to orbit a star other than our sun. An exoplanet is a planet that resides outside of our solar system. The star, which is located about 130 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation, is a red dwarf that is one-sixth the size of the sun, or just 70 percent bigger than Jupiter. The star is also cooler than our sun, and gives off more red light than yellow. The smallest of the three planets, called KOI-961.03, is actually located the farthest from the star, and is pictured in the foreground. This planet is about the size of Mars, with a radius of 0.57 times that of Earth. The next planet to the upper right is KOI-961.01, which is 0.78 times the radius of Earth. The planet closest to the star is KOI-961.02, with a radius 0.73 times the Earth's. All three planets whip around the star in less than two days, with the closest planet taking less than half a day. Their close proximity to the star also means they are scorching hot, with temperatures ranging from 350 to 836 degrees Fahrenheit (176 to 447 degrees Celsius). The star's habitable zone, or the region where liquid water could exist, is located far beyond the planets. The ground-based observations contributing to these discoveries were made with the Palomar Observatory, near San Diego, Calif., and the W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The above photo and description are from the NASA website:

GEMINI VI ASTRONAUTS SUIT UP

Gemini VI astronauts Walter Schirra (seated), command pilot, and Thomas Stafford, pilot, go through suiting up exercises in preparation for their forthcoming flight in this image from October 1965. The suit technicians are James Garrepy (left) and Joe Schmitt. On the third attempt, Gemini VI successfully launched on Dec. 15, 1965. Once in orbit, Schirra and Stafford spent the next six hours catching up to the Gemini VII crew, consisting of commander Frank Borman and pilot James Lovell. Through careful maneuvering, Gemini VI and VII achieved their rendezvous with no relative motion between them. For the next three Earth revolutions, the two craft got as close as 0.30 meters, or about 1 foot apart. Image Credit: NASA

The above photo and excerpt are from the NASA website:

MOON SATELLITES HAVE BEGUN COLLECTING INFORMATION

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“WASHINGTON -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)
spacecraft orbiting the moon officially have begun their science
collection phase. During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a
high-resolution map of the lunar gravitational field to learn about
the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented
detail. The data also will provide a better understanding of how
Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.


"The initiation of science data collection is a time when the team
lets out a collective sigh of relief because we are finally doing
what we came to do," said Maria Zuber, principal investigator for the
GRAIL mission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Cambridge. "But it is also a time where we have to put the coffee pot
on, roll up our sleeves and get to work."

The GRAIL mission's twin, washing-machine-sized spacecraft, named Ebb
and Flow, entered lunar orbit on New Year's Eve and New Years Day.
GRAIL's science phase began yesterday at 8:15 p.m. EST (5:15 p.m.
PST). During this mission phase, the spacecraft will transmit radio
signals precisely defining the distance between them. As they fly
over areas of greater and lesser gravity caused by visible features
such as mountains, craters and masses hidden beneath the lunar
surface, the distance between the two spacecraft will change
slightly. Science activities are expected to conclude on May 29,
after GRAIL maps the gravity field of the moon three times.

"We are in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an average altitude
of about 34 miles (55 kilometers) right now," said David Lehman,
GRAIL project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in
Pasadena, Calif. "During the science phase, our spacecraft will orbit
the moon as high as 31 miles (51 kilometers) and as low as 10 miles
(16 kilometers). They will get as close to each other as 40 miles (65
kilometers) and as far apart as 140 miles (225 kilometers)."

Previously named GRAIL A and B, the names Ebb and Flow were the result
of a nation-wide student contest to choose new names for the
spacecraft. The winning entry was submitted by fourth graders from
the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont. Nearly 900
classrooms with more than 11,000 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico
and the District of Columbia, participated in the contest.

JPL manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate
in Washington. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program
managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.”

HUBBLE PANCHROMATIC VIEW OF GALAXY CENTAURIS A

“Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. Hubble's panchromatic vision, stretching from ultraviolet through near-infrared wavelengths, reveals the vibrant glow of young, blue star clusters and a glimpse into regions normally obscured by the dust. The warped shape of Centaurus A's disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. These are visible in the red patches in this Hubble close-up. At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, Centaurus A contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image. This image was taken in July 2010 with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration Acknowledgment: R. O'Connell (University of Virginia) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee”

The above picture and excerpt are from the NASA website:

U.S. BUDGET AND SPACE MILITARY CAPABILITIES

The following excerpt is from a U.S. Defense Department American Forces Press e-mail:
Official: 2013 Budget Targets Space Capability Resilience
By Cheryl Pellerin
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 9, 2012 - The $9.6 billion for space programs within President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2013 budget request will boost resilience for U.S. space capabilities but cut some modernization and other programs, Air Force Gen. William L. Shelton, commander of the Air Force Space Command, told a House panel yesterday.
Shelton testified on national security space activities before the House Armed Services Committee's strategic forces subcommittee, along with Ambassador Gregory L. Schulte, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, Gil I. Klinger, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space and intelligence, and other experts.
The president's budget request, Shelton said, "invests in programs that enhance the resiliency and effectiveness of our space capabilities, namely missile warning, positioning, navigation and timing, satellite communications, space situational awareness and space launch."

A 22 percent drop in the 2013 request from 2012 represents mainly "fact-of-life programmatic changes," the general said, along with "some very difficult budget decisions leading to cuts to some modernization programs, and restructuring our approach" to the Operationally Responsive Space Office, or ORS, and the Space Test Program.
Congress established the ORS in 2007 to shorten the space acquisition cycle while responding to urgent warfighter needs. The Space Test Program has been providing access to space for the DOD space research and development community since 1965.

The command, Shelton said, also seeks to speed the acquisition process for the Advanced Extremely High-Frequency Program, a joint service satellite communications system for high-priority military ground, sea and air assets, and the Space-Based Infrared System, a key part of North America's missile early warning and defense system.

The general said the Air Force Space Command is working closely with NASA and the National Reconnaissance Office to "bring stability and predictability to our launch programs."

Schulte told the panel that three elements are critical to the U.S. strategy in space: resilience, promoting responsible behavior in space, and energizing the space industrial base.

Examples of resiliency, he said, include hosted payloads, commercial augmentation, international cooperation and backup capabilities in other domains.
In 2008, the European Union published a draft Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities and a revised draft in 2010.

"The EU's draft is a promising basis for an international code," Schulte said.
"It focuses on reducing the risk of creating debris and increasing transparency of space operations. It is not legally binding and recognizes the inherent right of self-defense. It addresses behavior rather than unverifiable capabilities and better serves our interests than the legally binding ban on space weapons proposed by others," he added.
"As we participate in the development of an international code," Schulte told the panel, "the department is committed to ensuring that it advances our national security."
The ambassador said the United States could energize the space industrial base by allowing industry to compete internationally for the sale of satellites and technologies that are already widely available.
Today, some commercial satellite components reside on the Munitions List, a registry of items subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations because they are considered dual-use exports -- those that can be used for peaceful and military ends. The State Department strictly regulates and licenses such exports.

Last year, Schulte said, the departments of Defense and State concluded that commercial communications satellites and related components, with a few exceptions, can be moved from the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List without posing an unacceptable security risk.

The forthcoming final report, he added, will identify more items that can be safely moved.
"This approach -- higher fences around fewer items -- will require new legislation," he told the panel.

"Your support can help energize our industrial base and thereby enhance our national security," Schulte added. "Giving our industrial base new commercial opportunities is particularly important at a time of defense spending constraints."
Deputy Assistant Secretary Klinger told the panel that DOD is recapitalizing virtually all its space lines of business, "and doing so at precisely a time of sharply constrained resources and as the nation remains at war."

The department is doing the following:
- Executing oversight earlier in the acquisition process so program managers can achieve authority to proceed early and then focus their energies on program execution.
- Using fixed-price contracts, more innovative contracting and evolutionary upgrades where those make sense.

- Pursuing a block buy for the Advanced Extremely High-Frequency 5 and 6 satellite programs and developing a plan to use the savings to improve the capability of military satellite communications overall.

"This is extremely important as we plan ahead to maintain the resources to protect our seed corn of promising technologies," Klinger said. "We intend to use competition where and when it makes sense."

APOLLO 9 SPACEWALK

The following excerpt and picture are from the NASA website:


This image, taken on March 6, 1969, shows the Apollo 9 Command and Service Modules docked with the Lunar Module. Apollo 9 astronaut Dave Scott stands in the open hatch of the Command Module, nicknamed "Gumdrop," docked to the Lunar Module "Spider" in Earth orbit. His crewmate Rusty Schweickart, lunar module pilot, took this photograph from the porch of the lunar module. Inside the lunar module was Apollo 9 commander Jim McDivitt. The crew tested the orbital rendezvous and docking procedures that made the lunar landings possible. Image Credit: NASA 

VIEW OF GALAXY NGC 1483

The excerpt and picture below are from the NASA website:
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the galaxy NGC 1483. NGC 1483 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation of Dorado — the dolphinfish (or Mahi-mahi fish) in Spanish. The nebulous galaxy features a bright central bulge and diffuse arms with distinct star-forming regions. In the background, many other distant galaxies can be seen. The constellation Dorado is home to the Dorado Group of galaxies, a loose group comprised of an estimated 70 galaxies and located some 62 million light-years away. The Dorado group is much larger than the Local Group that includes the Milky Way (and which contains around 30 galaxies) and approaches the size of a galaxy cluster. Galaxy clusters are the largest groupings of galaxies (and indeed the largest structures of any type) in the universe to be held together by their gravity. Barred spiral galaxies are so named because of the prominent bar-shaped structures found in their center. They form about two thirds of all spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way. Recent studies suggest that bars may be a common stage in the formation of spiral galaxies, and may indicate that a galaxy has reached full maturity. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

NASA SEEKS RESEARCHERS IN HIGH PRIORITY TECHNOLOGY

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“WASHINGTON -- NASA is seeking proposals from accredited U.S.
universities on behalf of outstanding early career faculty beginning
their independent careers. This inaugural Space Technology Research
Opportunities for Early Career Faculty solicitation seeks to sponsor
research in specific, high priority technology areas of interest to
NASA.

Specific topic areas were selected because they can best benefit from
early stage innovative approaches provided by U.S. academic
institutions. The research will investigate unique, disruptive or
transformational space technologies or concepts.

"NASA is committed to ensuring our nation's intellectual capital
pipeline remains the best in the world, and that we bring the
brightest minds together with the best ideas to meet the challenges
of NASA's future missions," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's
Space Technology Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These
grants offer a means for NASA to capitalize on the tremendous
creativity and innovation that these brilliant individuals have to
offer."

NASA expects to award approximately ten grants this fall, funded up to
$200,000 each per year, based on the merit of proposals received.
Notices of intent to submit proposals are due March 30. The deadline
for submitting final proposals is May 3. For information on the
solicitation, including specific technology areas of interest and how
to submit notices of intent and proposals, visit:

http://go.usa.gov/P31

The Space Technology Research Opportunities for Early Career Faculty
is a part of NASA's Space Technology Program, managed by the Office
of the Chief Technologist. For more information about the Space
Technology Program and the crosscutting space technology areas of
interest to NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/oct”

STATE DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATIVE REMARKS ON SPACE "SUSTAINABILITY"

The following excerpt is from the U.S. State Department:
Sustaining the Space Environment for the Future
Remarks Frank A. Rose
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance American Center
Hanoi, Vietnam
March 8, 2012
I am pleased to join you here today to discuss space, its importance to our daily lives, and the need for international cooperation to maintain the long-term sustainability of the space environment. I’ll explain what I mean by that during the course of my talk. Of course, I speak from an American perspective, but I am also here to gain a better understanding of Vietnam’s interests in space.

As we’ve just discussed, space plays a vital role in almost every aspect of our daily lives worldwide. Space systems enable us to communicate around the world; facilitate financial operations; enhance weather forecasting and environmental monitoring; and enable navigation globally and locally on highways and streets in personal automobiles. Space also expands our scientific frontier; warns us of natural disasters; and helps us monitor arms control treaties and increase stability among nations.

Just as our use of space has evolved in the past fifty-five years since the first satellite, Sputnik, was launched from Earth, the space environment has also been transformed by actors and their actions. When the space age began, the opportunities to use space were available to only a few nations, and there were limited consequences for irresponsible behavior or accidents. Today, space is the domain of a growing number of satellite operators; approximately 60 nations and government consortia operate satellites, including Vietnam, as well as numerous commercial and academic satellite operators. This great transformation of the space environment has greatly benefited the global economy and has brought people around the world closer together, but it also presents challenges.

While it is becoming increasingly easier to access, as well as to benefit from, space is also becoming increasingly congested. Many countries and space operators have great plans to increase their space capabilities in the near future. Vietnam, for example, plans to put approximately 14 satellites into orbit by 2020, a feat which will make Vietnam the fastest growing space power in Southeast Asia. However, decades of space activity have littered Earth’s orbit with debris. As the world continues to increase its activities in space, the possibility of collisions in space also increases. This situation means we need to think carefully through how we can all operate there safely and responsibly so that we can ensure that your generation, and the generations that follow you, can also benefit from space as well. The interconnected nature of space capabilities and the world’s growing dependence on them mean that irresponsible acts in space can have damaging consequences for all of us.

You’re probably wondering how a big, seemingly empty environment like space could be so crowded that we worry about collisions. While it’s true that a lot of space is relatively empty, most of our operations are conducted close to Earth, including the operations of Vietnam’s communication satellite Vinasat 1. It is this environment that is becoming increasingly congested. The U.S. Department of Defense tracks roughly 22,000 objects in various orbits, of which only 1,100 are active satellites. That’s about 6000 metric tons of debris orbiting the Earth, and these numbers do not include the hundreds of thousands of pieces of debris smaller than 10 centimeters that are too small to track, but just as potentially deadly to satellites and manned spaceflight when traveling at speeds of up to 17,000 kilometers an hour.

Some pieces of debris are simply “dead” satellites or pieces of the rockets that got them there, but others are the results of accidents or mishaps, such as from the 2009 collision between two satellites. Some debris, however, is the result of intentionally destructive events, such as China’s test in space of an anti-satellite weapon in 2007. Experts warn that the current quantity and density of man-made debris significantly increases the odds of future damaging collisions. Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.
The international community is more reliant on space than ever and the long-term sustainability of our space activities is at serious risk from space debris, as I just described, and from irresponsible actors and their actions. Irresponsible acts against space systems would not just harm the space environment, but would also disrupt services that the citizens, companies, and militaries around the world depend on. Ensuring the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space environment is in the vital interests of the United States and the entire global community.

Improving the long-term sustainability and stability of space begins first with enhancing our shared situational awareness and understanding of what is in space, sharing information to avoid collisions of space objects, and working internationally to minimize the problems of orbital debris. To that end, the United States works with other nations, commercial entities, and intergovernmental organizations to improve our shared ability to rapidly detect, warn of, characterize, and attribute natural and man-made disturbances to space systems. Such improvements illustrate the ongoing commitment of the United States to promoting the safety of flight for all space-faring nations.

The United States also collaborates with industry and foreign nations to improve space object databases and warn of dangerous approaches between orbiting objects that could potentially lead to collisions. This is particularly important given collisions such as the February 2009 collision between a privately operated Iridium communications satellite and an inactive Russian military satellite, as well as a lot of near-collisions. To help prevent future collisions, the United States has improved its capacity to analyze objects in space and to predict potential hazards to spacecraft. The United States also provides notifications to other government and commercial satellite operators when U.S. space analysts predict that an operator’s satellite may pass within a close distance of another spacecraft or space debris.

To address the growing problem of orbital debris, the United States has expanded its engagement within the United Nations and with other governments and non-governmental organizations. The United States has adopted international standards to minimize debris that are stricter than the U.N. Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines. We are also working to develop stricter international and industry standards to slow down the accumulation of debris in space, and to develop and implement international “best practices” of responsible behavior in space that will put us all on a more sustainable path.

Finally, the United States is also pursuing pragmatic transparency and confidence-building measures – or TCBMs – to strengthen stability in space and promote safe and responsible operations in space. TCBMs are a means by which governments can address challenges and share information with the aim of creating mutual understanding and reducing tensions. Through TCBMs we can address areas such as orbital debris, space situational awareness, and collision avoidance, as well as undertake activities that will help to increase familiarity and trust and encourage openness among space actors.

Perhaps one of the most beneficial TCBMs for ensuring sustainability and security in space could be the adoption of “best practice” guidelines or a “code of conduct.” On January 17th of this year, the United States announced that it had decided to join with the European Union and other spacefaring nations to develop an International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities. In the Asia-Pacific Region, both Japan and Australia have also endorsed developing such an International Code of Conduct. In her statement announcing the decision, Secretary of State Clinton said,

“The long-term sustainability of our space environment is at serious risk. […] Unless the international community addresses these challenges, the environment around our planet will become increasingly hazardous to human spaceflight and satellite systems, which would create damaging consequences for all of us.”

The United States views the European Union’s draft Code of Conduct as a good foundation for working with other spacefaring nations to develop a non-legally binding International Code. An International Code of Conduct, if adopted, would help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust in space by establishing guidelines to reduce the risks of debris-generating events and to avoid the danger of collisions. As more countries field space capabilities, it is in all of our interests to work together to establish internationally-accepted “best practices” to ensure that the safety and sustainability of space is protected.

Today, the world is increasingly inter-connected through space, and we are increasingly dependent on space systems. The risks associated with irresponsible actions in space mean that ensuring the long-term sustainability and stability of the space environment is in the vital interest of the entire world community. As the U.S. National Space Policy says, “All nations have the right to use and explore space, but with this right also comes responsibility. […] [I]t is the shared interest of all nations to act responsibly in space to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions, and mistrust.” The United States calls on governments around the world to work together to adopt approaches for responsible activity in space in order to preserve this right for the benefit of future generations.
Thank you very much.”

THIRD KEPLER CATALOG CONTAINS 1,091 NEW PLANET CANDIDATES

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

"Since science operations began in May 2009, the Kepler team has released two catalogs of transiting planet candidates. The first catalog (Borucki et al, 2010),released in June 2010, contains 312 candidates identified in the first 43 days of Kepler data. The second catalog (Borucki et al, 2011), released in February 2011, is a cumulative catalog containing 1,235 candidates identified in the first 13 months of data.

Today the team presents the third catalog containing 1,091 new planet candidates identified in the first 16 months of observation conducted May 2009 to September 2010. These are the same candidates that the team discussed at the Kepler Science Conference held at NASA Ames Research Center in December 2011.

Here are the highlights of the new catalog:
Planet candidates smaller than twice the size of Earth increased by 197 percent, compared to 52 percent for candidates larger than twice the size of Earth.
Planet candidates with orbital periods longer than 50 days increased by 123 percent, compared to 85 percent for candidates with orbital periods shorter than 50 days.
Since the last catalog was released in February 2011, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 88 percent and now totals 2,321 transiting 1,790 stars.

The cumulative catalog now contains well over 200 Earth-size planet candidates and more than 900 that are smaller than twice Earth-size. Of the 46 planet candidates found in the habitable zone, the region in the planetary system where liquid water could exist, ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size.

The number of planetary systems found with more than one planet candidate also has increased. Last year, 17 percent, or 170 stars, had more than one transiting planet candidate. Today, 20 percent, or 365, stars have more than one.

"With each new catalog release a clear progression toward smaller planets at longer orbital periods is emerging, " said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State University in California. "This suggests that Earth-size planets in the habitable zone are forthcoming if, indeed, such planets are abundant."

Nearly 5,000 periodic transit-like signals were analyzed with known spacecraft instrumentation and astrophysical phenomena that could masquerade as transits, which can produce false positives. The most common false positive signatures are associated with eclipsing binary stars- a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from the vantage point of the spacecraft.

The Kepler space telescope identifies planet candidates by repeatedly measuring the change in brightness of more than 150,000 stars in search of planets that pass in front, or "transit," their host star. Kepler must record at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The findings are published in the "Planetary Candidates Observed by Kepler III: Analysis of the First 16 Months of Data". The catalog is available at the Kepler data archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute and can be downloaded from theNASA Exoplanet Archive.

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission's development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington "

NASA TESTS ORION PARACHUTES

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

“NASA CONTINUES ORION PARACHUTE TESTING FOR ORBITAL TEST FLIGHT
HOUSTON --
On Feb. 29, NASA successfully conducted another drop test
of the Orion crew vehicle's entry, descent and landing parachutes
high above the Arizona desert in preparation for the vehicle's
orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry astronauts deeper into
space than ever before, provide emergency abort capability, sustain
the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing.

An Air Force C-17 plane dropped a test version of Orion from an
altitude of 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in
Arizona. Orion's drogue chutes were deployed between 15,000 and
20,000 feet, followed by the pilot parachutes, which deployed the
main landing parachutes. Orion landed on the desert floor at a speed
of almost 17 mph, well below the maximum designed touchdown speed of
the spacecraft.

The test examined how Orion's wake, the disturbance of the air flow
behind the vehicle, would affect the performance of the parachute
system. Parachutes perform optimally in smooth air that allows proper
lift. A wake of choppy air can reduce parachute inflation. The test
was the first to create a wake mimicking the full-size Orion vehicle
and complete system.

Since 2007, the Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air
and ground test program and provided the chutes for NASA’s successful
pad abort test in 2010. All of the tests build an understanding of
the chutes’ technical performance for eventual human-rated
Certification.”

SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SHOWS STAR WITH TWO GAS JETS

“NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image of a baby star sprouting two identical jets (green lines emanating from fuzzy star). The jet on the right had been seen before in visible-light views, but the jet at left -- the identical twin to the first jet -- could only be seen in detail with Spitzer's infrared detectors. The left jet was hidden behind a dark cloud, which Spitzer can see through. The twin jets, in a system called Herbig-Haro 34, are made of identical knots of gas and dust, ejected one after another from the area around the star. By studying the spacing of these knots, and knowing the speed of the jets from previous studies, astronomers were able to determine that the jet to the right of the star punches its material out 4.5 years later than the counter-jet. The new data also reveal that the area from which the jets originate is contained within a sphere around the star, with a radius of 3 astronomical units. An astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun. Previous studies estimated that the maximum size of this jet-making zone was 10 times larger. The wispy material is gas and dust. Arc-shaped bow shocks can be seen at the ends of the twin jets. The shocks consist of compressed material in front of the jets. The Herbig-Haro 34 jets are located at approximately 1,400 light-years away in the Orion constellation. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech “

The above picture and excerpt are from the NASA website:

SATURN MOON DIONE HAS OXYGEN IN UPPER ATMOSPHERE

The following excerpt is from the National Science Foundation website:
"Discovery could mean ingredients for life are abundant on icy space bodies
LOS ALAMOS, NEW MEXICO, March 2, 2012—Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists and an international research team have announced discovery of molecular oxygen ions (O2+) in the upper-most atmosphere of Dione, one of the 62 known moons orbiting the ringed planet. The research appeared recently in Geophysical Research Letters and was made possible via instruments aboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which was launched in 1997.

Dione—discovered in 1684 by astronomer Giovanni Cassini (after whom the spacecraft was named)—orbits Saturn at roughly the same distance as our own moon orbits Earth. The tiny moon is a mere 700 miles wide and appears to be a thick, pockmarked layer of water ice surrounding a smaller rock core. As it orbits Saturn every 2.7 days, Dione is bombarded by charged particles (ions) emanating from Saturn’s very strong magnetosphere. These ions slam into the surface of Dione, displacing molecular oxygen ions into Dione’s thin atmosphere through a process called sputtering.
Molecular oxygen ions are then stripped from Dione’s exosphere by Saturn’s strong magnetosphere.

A sensor aboard the Cassini spacecraft called the Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) detected the oxygen ions in Dione’s wake during a flyby of the moon in 2010. Los Alamos researchers Robert Tokar and Michelle Thomsen noted the presence of the oxygen ions.
“The concentration of oxygen in Dione’s atmosphere is roughly similar to what you would find in Earth’s atmosphere at an altitude of about 300 miles,” Tokar said. “It’s not enough to sustain life, but—together with similar observations of other moons around Saturn and Jupiter—these are definitive examples of a process by which a lot of oxygen can be produced in icy celestial bodies that are bombarded by charged particles or photons from the Sun or whatever light source happens to be nearby.”
Perhaps even more exciting is the possibility that on a moon with subsurface water, such as Jupiter’s moon Europa, molecular oxygen could combine with carbon in subsurface lakes to form the building blocks of life. Future missions to Europa could help unravel questions about that moon’s habitability.

Two sensors aboard Cassini built by Los Alamos National Laboratory are expected to come into play beginning later this month, and again in April and May, when the Cassini spacecraft flies by the moon Enceladus. The moon is one of the brightest objects in our solar system, reflecting back nearly all of the sunlight that strikes it, thanks to a shimmering surface of snowy ice crystals. The moon also unleashes plumes of material from its south polar region. Los Alamos’ ion-beam spectrometer and ion-mass spectrometer may help answer key questions about the composition of these plumes."

NTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION HEADS OF AGENCIES JOINT STATEMENT

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

I
“WASHINGTON -- The heads of the International Space Station (ISS)
agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia and the United States met
in Quebec City, Canada, on March 1, 2012, to review the scientific,
technological, and social benefits being produced through their
collaboration, and to discuss plans for further broadening these
benefits by continuing to advance the human exploration of space.

In reviewing the history of ISS development and the recent transition
to a productive research and applications phase, three major areas of
success were discussed: the historic engineering achievements, the
unprecedented international partnership, and the ongoing progress
being made through science. The heads noted that human exploration of
space continues to yield valuable benefits to society and is
strengthening partnerships among space-faring nations.

The heads also recognized the new opportunities for discovery made
possible by maximizing the research capabilities of the ISS, as well
as the growth in commercial endeavors and positive educational impact
brought about by this permanent human presence in space. Biology,
biotechnology, and human physiology research are producing new
insights into human health on Earth with the development of promising
applications supporting future medical therapies. Also a wide range
of fluids and materials research yields a promising way for better
and smarter materials and production processes on Earth. Observations
captured from the ISS in the fields of x-ray astronomy, high-energy
particle physics, and Earth remote sensing hint at discoveries to
come as the ISS is increasingly used as a platform for the
installation and operation of a wide variety of instruments
supporting Earth and Space Sciences. Technology demonstrations in
environmental control, robotic servicing, and advanced
telecommunications and teleoperations are making it possible to
eventually further extend human presence in space and continue to
broaden improvements to the quality of life on Earth.

Recognizing the inspirational nature of the ISS as a human-tended
outpost in space, the agency leaders applauded its strong role in
motivating young people around the world to learn about science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. More than 40 million
students have participated in human spaceflight to date through
communications downlinks and interactive experiments with station
crew members.

Highlighting the continued growth in the international user community,
the first biannual “International Space Station Utilization
Statistics” was released. The partnership also published
“International Space Station Benefits for Humanity,” illustrating
specific successful humanitarian accomplishments in education, human
health, Earth observation and disaster response that will improve the
lives of many throughout the world.

The ISS partnership began considering long-range opportunities to
further advance human space exploration, so benefits from the ISS
program will continue to grow through future exploration missions. In
the near term, the heads of agencies committed to increase use of the
ISS as a test bed in space for the demonstration of critical
technologies and the mitigation of human health risks for exploration
as a joint effort. For the long-term, they discussed opportunities to
use the ISS as a foundation for the development of future exploration
capabilities. The ISS partnership has created a global research
facility in space that is unprecedented in capability and unique in
human history. The heads of agency re-confirmed the importance of
using the facility to benefit society today and provide a
technological basis for continued human exploration of space in the
Future.”

NASA LOOKING FOR WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS TO LEARN HOW TO LAUNCH EXPERIMENT INTO SPACE

The following excerpt is from the NASA website:

WASHINGTON -- University faculty and students are invited to join a
weeklong workshop June 16-21 to learn how to build and launch a
scientific experiment to space. Registration is open through May 1.

RockOn! 2012 will be held at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the
Eastern Shore of Virginia. The annual workshop is held in partnership
with the Colorado and Virginia Space Grant Consortia.

"This workshop provides an opportunity for participants to learn how
to build an experiment for space flight," said Phil Eberspeaker,
chief of the sounding rocket program office at Wallops. "The hope is
this experience will encourage them to participate in more ambitious
payload programs, including someday building instruments for orbital
spacecraft and beyond."

During the program, participants will work together to build
experiment payloads for a NASA Terrier-Orion sounding rocket
predicted to fly to an altitude of 73 miles. The flight will take
place June 21, the last day of the workshop, weather permitting.

"During the week, the participants will gain an understanding of what
it takes to build a basic scientific payload," said Chris Koehler,
director of the Colorado Space Grant Consortium. "Through hands-on
learning, they will learn how to develop circuit boards, program
flight code and work together as a cohesive team."

Since the annual workshop began in 2008, 150 students and instructors
have participated. It has been a successful program, with all
experiments completed on time, launched and recovered. In addition,
48 of the 50 payloads have worked as intended.

For more information and to register online, visit:

http://spacegrant.colorado.edu/rockon