Jan 17
ynaNASA, News Bigelow, Bigelow Aerospace, Bigelow Expendable Activity Module, Genesis 1, Genesis 2, inflatable spacecraft, International Space Station, NASA, NASA inflatable spacecraft
NASA announced that a prototype inflatable space module, designed by Bigelow Aerospace will be tested aboard the International Space Station.
The inflatable space module is predicted to play an important role in future space research and exploration. Lori Garver, NASA’s deputy administrator hailed the concept of inflatable spacecraft as both cutting-edge and affordable.
‘This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation,’ she said.
‘The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods.’
The inflatable technology also has the potential to into deep space, a quality that greatly interests NASA.
The experimental unit, Bigelow Expendable Activity Module, is designed to be launched easily as it is smaller than conventional spacecraft and then it can inflate to a bigger size when in space. Aside from being a practical solution to space research, Bigelow also hopes that the modules can serve as accommodation and workspace for astronauts while in orbit.
Bigelow had previously launched two inflatable spacecraft – Genesis 1 in 2006 and Genesis 2 in 2007. It was used to test if the spacecraft can maintain a constant temperature and pressure.
Among the potential plans of Bigelow is to create a moon base using the inflatable modules. It can be used for research as well as space hotels for companies planning to take tourists into orbit.
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News Source: www.dailymail.com.uk
Dec 06
ynaNASA, News Curiosity, InSight, Mars Curiosity, MArs exploration, Mars rover, Mars Science Laboratory, MAVEN, NASA, NASA MAVEN, nasa model, NASA spacecraft model, spacecraft models
Following the success of the landing of Curiosity spacecraft on Mars, NASA announces an extensive multi-year Mars program highlighted by a new Mars rover to be launched on 2020.
The new rover will follow the design of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) architecture, which successfully transported Curiosity to Martian surface. By basing the new rover’s design on the MSL, the cost and risk can be maintained as low as possible. The design of the new rover will be essential the same as Curiosity but it will carry a different set of science instruments. The specific payload and science instruments for the 2020 rover mission will be openly competed.
“The challenge to restructure the Mars Exploration Program has turned from the seven minutes of terror for the Curiosity landing to the start of seven years of innovation,” NASA’s associate administrator for science, and astronaut John Grunsfeld said. “This mission concept fits within the current and projected Mars exploration budget, builds on the exciting discoveries of Curiosity, and takes advantage of a favorable launch opportunity.”
The missions included in the Mars program are the 2013 launch of the MAVEN that will study the upper Martian atmosphere, the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, which will study the deep interior of Mars; and participation in ESA’s 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing “Electra” telecommunication radios to ESA’s 2016 mission and a critical element of the premier astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover.
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News Source: www.nasa.gov
Oct 23
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The Mars Rover ingest its first sample of Mars soil using the Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument of the spacecraft. It will analyze the solid sample to determine the minerals it contains.
“We are crossing a significant threshold for this mission by using CheMin on its first sample,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “This instrument gives us a more definitive mineral-identifying method than ever before used on Mars: X-ray diffraction. Confidently identifying minerals is important because minerals record the environmental conditions under which they form.”
The martian soil is about as much as a baby aspirin. Curiosity’s robotic arm scooped it out of a windblown patch of dusty sand called “Rocknest,” then delivered it to rover’s inlet funnel on October 17th. It is the third scoop of Martian soil by Curiosity. The first scoop was used for cleaning, to remove any residue carried from Earth. The second scoop was discarded because of small bits of light toned material that scientist suspected to be debris from the spacecraft, but later assessed to be native Martian material.
“We plan to learn more both about the spacecraft material and about the smaller, bright particles,” said Curiosity Project Manager Richard Cook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena. “We will finish determining whether the spacecraft material warrants concern during future operations. The native Mars particles become fodder for the mission’s scientific studies.”
Curiosity has a two-year mission on Mars. It will use its 10 instruments to determine whether the planet has ever offered suitable conditions to support micro-biological life.
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News source: www.azorobotics.com
Aug 07
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Jubilant cheers filled erupted from NASA crews in Pasedena and from everyone watching the live stream on the Internet as Curiosity, Nasa’ Mars science rover landed on Martian surface.
On Monday, August 6, 2012, approximately at 1:32, Eastern Time, Curiosity touched down in an ancient crater on Mars to start its two year expedition. Its mission is to search for key ingredients for life that the Red Planet might have.
The car-sized spacecraft model survived a complicated descent with zero margin for error. It involved the Curiosity to be lowered at the end of 25-foot cables from a hovering rocket. The successful landing marked the end of the 154 mile journey that begun on November 26, 2011.
“There are many out in the community who say NASA has lost its way, that we don’t know how to explore — we’ve lost our moxie. I want you to look around tonight, at those folks with the blue shirts and think about what we’ve achieved.” John M. Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate, said during a post-landing news conference.
After the transmitting the signals of its successful landing, Curiosity followed it up with its first pictures from Mars:
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News source: darkroom.baltimoresun.com, www.nytimes.com
Jul 20
ynaNASA, News NASA, nasa model, NASA tests, Orion parachute, Orion Space Capsule, Orion spacecraft, spacecraft model, spacecraft testing
Last Wednesday, NASA conducted another successful test of the parachute to be used on the Orion spacecraft. The Orion will carry astronauts deeper into space, farther than any other spacecraft. It has an emergency abort capability that can sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe re-entry and landing back to Earth. The parachute test is one of the preparations for the 2014 orbital flight test of the spacecraft.
The parachute test was done in the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in southwestern Arizona. A C-17 plane dropped an Orion spacecraft test model from an altitude of 25,000 feet. The Orion’s drogue chutes were deployed between 20,000 to 15,000 feet. Followed next by the pilot parachute which deployed the main landing parachute. The Orion descended approximately 25 feet per second, well below the maximum speed it was designed for.
“Across the country, NASA and industry are moving forward on the most advanced spacecraft ever designed, conducting drop and splashdown tests, preparing ground systems, designing software and computers and paving the way for the future of exploration,” said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Today’s parachute test in Yuma is an important reminder of the progress being made on Orion and its ultimate mission — enabling NASA to meet the goal of sending humans to an asteroid and Mars.”
The Orion program had been conducting extensive parachute air and ground tests since 2007. In 2014, the Orion will launch into space unmanned to undergo an exploration flight test. It will travel 3,600 miles above the surface of the Earth which is 15 times farther than the orbit of the International Space Station. The objective of the test is to understand Orion’s heat shield performance at speeds generated during a return from deep space. NASA will launch Orion in 2017.
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News source: www.nasa.gov
Jun 19
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NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft is now cruising 11 billion miles away from Earth which suggests that it is about to leave our solar system.
Researchers said that the space where the Voyager 1 is located is marked with higher flow of charged particles from beyond our solar system. Scientists suspect that the increased flow denotes that the spacecraft is about to enter intersteller space.
“The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, in a statement. “The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly,” Stone added. “It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system’s frontier.”
Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and its twin spacecraft Voyager 2 main mission is to study Jupiter, Saturn and their moons. After collecting significant finds about these space bodies, the spacecraft just kept on going studying Neptune and Uranus on their way toward interstellar space.
Currently, both spacecraft is in the outer shell of heliosphere called heliosheath, a very turbulent region. The heliosphere is made of solar plasma and solar-magnetic fields. New measurements of fast-moving galactic cosmic rays from Voyager 1 suggest that is near the heliosphere’s edge.
It is difficult to ascertain when the Voyager 1 will actually reach the interstellar space but scientists are closely monitoring cosmic ray measurements and other possible indicators like the intensity of energetic particles and magnetic fields. For now, the Voyager spacecraft will just keep on flying and exploring through space. Voyager 2 is trailing a bit behind and it is currently 9.1 billion miles away from Earth.
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News source: www.foxnews.com
Jun 14
ynaNASA, News black hole telescope, Lockheed aircraft, Lockheed airplane, NASA, nasa models, NASA telescope, NuSTAR, rocket airplane, Stargazer airplane, wood model planes
NASA wants to take a closer look at the super massive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The black hole emits high-energy x-rays that makes it difficult to observe with current space telescopes.
“The view of the center of our galaxy … is a rather fuzzy image. We think it’s much more complicated,” physicist William Craig of the University of California, Berkeley, said during a NASA press conference Monday.
In order to get a clearer view of the x-ray sky, NASA created a new space telescope called NuSTAR or nuclear spectroscropic telescope array. NuSTAR can significantly contribute in the study of how galaxies, stars and solar systems are formed
“One of NuSTAR’s primary science goals is to study … the extreme physics near black holes, where spacetime is very distorted and particles are accelerated close to the speed of light,” Fiona Harrison, an astrophysicist at Caltech and another NuSTAR team member, said during the press conference. “It will also help us understand how black holes are distributed throughout the universe.”
NASA is using an airplane to launch the telescope to lower the cost of program. A Stargazer airplane, a modified Lockheed aircraft, is used for the launch. As it reached the altitude of 40,000 feet, it will release the rocket carrying the NuSTAR and launch it into orbit.
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News source: www.popularmechanics.com
Jun 04
ynaNASA, News Houston Space Center, NASA, nasa space shuttle, space shuttle, space shuttle explorer, space shuttle model spacecraft, space shuttle models, space shuttle replica, space shuttle replica model
The life-size replica of the Space Shuttle started its journey early morning on Sunday and arrived at the NASA visitor center. The one mile road trip was originally scheduled to take three hours took twice as much time to complete. The Space Shuttle replica, known as the Explorer, was loaded onto a 144-wheel transporter.
Snags and delays hit the Explorer’s journey. First the truck and the trailer was too long to navigate the corner off the dock’s parkway. It got delayed by 45 minutes before the unhitching of the truck and maneuvering the trailer solved the problem. Next, the 78 foot wingspan of the space shuttle replica stretched over three car lanes and required workers to swing traffic lights and cut trees out of the way.
“If you look at it from here, it looks big,”Space Center Houston President Richard Allen said on Friday, looking at the replica from a few hundred yards away. “But if you start walking toward it, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. It’s a huge vehicle and I think that the enormity of that is really going to strike a chord when [visitors] come to see it.”
Spectators, numbering to over a hundred, lined the streets to accompany the Explorer in its journey. More people were waiting at the Space Center Houston for a free display of space craft models.
The Explorer was built in the 1990s using schematics and blueprints from NASA. Some of the parts including the space craft’s landing gear was used by the original space shuttle.
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News source: www.msnbc.com
Apr 23
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NASA is on its way to make history once again with the launch of the first-ever private spacecraft on April 30. NASA will oversee the launch of the Dragon cargo vessel, owned and developed by the private company SpaceX.
The spacecraft will dock at the International Space Station and will deliver 1,200 pounds of food and non-critical supplies to the ISS. The mission will last for 21 days and after that the spacecraft will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere and plunged down in the Pacific Ocean where it will be recovered and reuse.
With the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA is hoping that privately owned spacecraft like the Dragon can be used as a replacement to ferry cargo and later on astronauts to the ISS. Currently, NASA pays Russia Soyus spacecraft to transport astronauts to the ISS and it cause NASA $63 million per astronaut. SpaceX offers to carry astronauts for $20 million per seat. But no plans are set for such mission. SpaceX was awarded a contract with a minimum of 12 flights to the Internationa Space Station, but only the cargo mission has a launch date for now.
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news source: idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com
Feb 23
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Launch of the replacement Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) will be delayed at least into mid-2014 while NASA finds a new launch vehicle and fixes a problem in the spacecraft reaction wheel assemblies.
After two launch failures with Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Taurus XL solid-fuel rocket, NASA has decided to try to launch its replacement on another vehicle. Possibilities include the Pegasus XL, Falcon 9, Delta II and Atlas V, according to Jim Norman, director of launch services at NASA headquarters.
NASA pulled OCO-2 off the Taurus XL because company and government failure review boards were unable to pinpoint the precise cause for the back-to-back mishaps, Norman says. “We don’t have a root cause, so we just felt it was too high-risk to continue,” he says.
The agency and Orbital Sciences signed a bilateral contract modification Feb. 2 that terminates Orbital’s task order to launch OCO-2 under its NASA Launch Services II (NLS-II) contract. The action does not end Orbital’s NLS-II contract, which gives NASA different launch options under a “catalogue” approach.
The U.S. space agency has released a new request for launch service proposals that includes the OCO-2 mission, along with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1). Once one is awarded, NASA anticipates the normal 27-month turnaround time before launch of OCO-2, which was originally scheduled to fly in February 2013. That slipped to July 2014 because of the reaction wheel issues, NASA says.
“There will be an impact to the original OCO-2 launch-readiness date of February 2013,” the agency says. “However, we do not yet know how severe the impact will be.”
The initial OCO spacecraft, which was designed to produce global maps of carbon dioxide sources and sinks for climate-change studies, was lost on Feb. 24, 2009. The Taurus XL fairing protecting it during the early phases of ascent failed to separate as planned, and pulled the spacecraft into the South Pacific.
After that mishap, Orbital Sciences engineers modified the fairing-separation mechanism on the Taurus XL from a system using hot gas generated by pyrotechnics to a cold-gas system driven by bottled nitrogen, and made other risk-mitigation changes. But the new design also failed to separate the fairing on the Taurus XL that launched NASA’s $424 million Glory mission on March 4, 2011, sending it to a Pacific splashdown as well.
An Orbital spokesman said that while the cold-gas separation mechanism has worked on subsequent launches of the company’s Minotaur rocket, he was not prepared to comment on whether the company will rebid the OCO-2 launch. Orbital Sciences also provides the spacecraft bus for the OCO-2 mission, based on its LEOStar-2 design.
Under the NLS contracts, NASA will be refunded about 25% of the cost of the OCO-1 launch. By terminating the OCO-2 mission order a month after the Glory failure, the government will be paid back half of what it had spent for that work, according to Norman.
While specific contract figures are proprietary, NLS launches in the Taurus XL class under the catalogue in effect when OCO-1 was lost fell into the $30-75 million range. Since then the contract range has been raised to $22-114 million, NASA says.
Earth scientists still have a source of global carbon data in Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite “Ibuki,” which was launched in 2009. But the Japanese orbiter returns “more than a factor of 100 fewer observations” during an orbit, and with limited coverage over the oceans, according to NASA. Delays in receiving ocean data from OCO-2 will hamper research, since oceans are an important sink for carbon dioxide.
-aviationweek.com
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