• 2010 nasa special
    a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses Earth's southern Hemisphere. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow crosses the South Pacific Ocean where it makes no landfall except for Mangaia (Cook Islands) and Easter Island (Isla de Pascua).
Showing posts with label NASA's Glenn Research Center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NASA's Glenn Research Center. Show all posts

NASA Plans for Nonprofit To Manage Station Research

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LAS CRUCES, N.M. — NASA is making plans to competitively select a domestic nonprofit organization to manage experiments aboard the international space station (ISS), according to agency officials, and is expected to set aside at least 50 percent of U.S. research capacity aboard the orbiting outpost for non-NASA use.

“It’s time to start making a NASA investment in the buyers, the nongovernment end-users, so that we stimulate a future nongovernmental market,” NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in remarks at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight here Oct. 21. “That’s our objective in establishing a nonprofit organization to stimulate, develop and manage use of ISS by entities other than the government.”

Given President Barack Obama’s pledge to extend space station operations through at least 2020 and foster development of commercial space transportation systems for ferrying people and cargo there, Garver said the agency sees an opportunity to expand use of the station to non-NASA users, including federal and state government agencies and private companies.

“We don’t talk enough about why NASA requires this transportation system and how this policy is part of a broader commercial picture for low Earth orbit research and commerce with the international space station as a flagship program,” Garver said, adding that NASA expects to enter into a competitive acquisition to establish the nonprofit “very soon.”

NASA spokesman Michael Curie said NASA is in the process of drafting a solicitation for the competition, though no target release date is set. In an Oct. 22 e-mail he said the so-called Cooperative Agreement Notice would be open only to U.S. organizations.

“This will be an open and competitive acquisition of a cooperative agreement,” Curie said, adding that the initiative is directed by congressional legislation Obama signed into law Oct. 11. “Further information on the release of draft and final versions will be announced in the future.”

According to the newly enacted law, the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, NASA must enter into a cooperative agreement with a nonprofit entity dedicated to managing U.S. research activities aboard station and guarantee that national laboratory experiments have access to “not less than 50 percent of the United States research capacity allocation.” The law gives NASA until next October to make that happen.

The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated the U.S. segment of the space station for use as a national laboratory with the goal of increasing non-NASA and private sector use of the orbiting outpost for basic and applied research. NASA projects that it will utilize approximately 50 percent of the U.S. space station research facilities for its own use, including human research programs, leaving the remaining facilities open to non-NASA research, according to a November 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office titled “International Space Station: Significant Challenges May Limit Onboard Research.”

According to the newly enacted law, NASA is to provide initial funding assistance to the nonprofit group, though the law does not specify a timeline or authorize a specific funding level for the effort.

The law states that the nonprofit entity must be engaged exclusively in activities related to the management of the space station’s national lab “without any other organizational objectives or responsibilities on behalf of the organization or any parent organization or other entity.”

How to Receive NASA Television's Occasional HD Programming

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NASA TV Downlink Parameters:
Uplink provider = Americom
Satellite = AMC 3
Transponder = 15C
Orbital Position= 87 Degrees West
Transmission Format= DVB-S, 4:2:0
Downlink Frequency= 4000 MHz
Downlink Polarity= Horizontal
FEC= 3/4
Data Rate= 38.860 Mbps
Symbol Rate = 28.1115

NASA TV HD Programming:
HD Program = 105
Video PID = 82
AC-3 Audio PID = 238
MPEG-1 Layer II Audio PID =83


Getting NASA Television via Satellite:
In the United States, NASA Television's Public, Education and Media channels are MPEG-2 digital C-band signals carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation on satellite AMC-3, transponder 15C, at 87 degrees west longitude. Downlink frequency is 4000 MHz, horizontal polarization, with a data rate of 38.86 Mhz, symbol rate of 28.1115 Ms/s, and ¾ FEC. A Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) is needed for reception.

NASA's Space Shuttle Program Successfully Conducts Final Motor Test in Utah

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Final test firing of reusable solid rocket motor FSM-17 on Feb. 25 in Promontory, UtahNASA's Space Shuttle Program conducted the final test firing of a reusable solid rocket motor Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah.

The flight support motor, or FSM-17, burned for approximately 123 seconds -- the same time each reusable solid rocket motor burns during an actual space shuttle launch. Preliminary indications show all test objectives were met. After final test data are analyzed, results for each objective will be published in a NASA report.

ATK Launch Systems, a unit of Alliant Techsystems Inc., in Promontory, north of Salt Lake City, manufactures and tests the solid rocket motors.

The test -- the 52nd conducted for NASA by ATK – marks the closure of a test program that has spanned more than three decades. The first test was in July 1977. The ATK-built motors have successfully launched the space shuttle into orbit 129 times.

Flight Support Motor-17, the final solid rocket ground test motor of the Space Shuttle program"Today's test was a great deal more than the successful conclusion to a series of highly successful NASA/ATK-sponsored static tests that began more than three decades ago," said David Beaman, Reusable Solid Rocket Booster project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The project, part of the Space Shuttle Propulsion Office, is responsible for motor design, development, manufacturing, assembly, testing and flight performance.

"These tests have built a base of engineering knowledge that continued engineering development of the reusable solid rocket motor system and the continued safe and successful launch of space shuttles," Beaman said. "They have provided an engineering model and lessons learned for additional applications in future launch systems."
Mist surrounds Flight Support Motor-17 prior to a successful test on Feb. 25 in Promontory, Utah
The final test was conducted to ensure the safe flight of the four remaining space shuttle missions. A total of 43 design objectives were measured through 258 instrument channels during the two-minute static firing. The flight motor tested represents motors that will be used for all remaining space shuttle launches.

The space shuttle's reusable solid rocket motor is the largest solid rocket motor ever flown, the only one rated for human flight and the first designed for reuse. Each shuttle launch requires the boost of two reusable solid rocket motors to lift the 4.5-million-pound shuttle vehicle.

Smoke curls into the Utah skies as FSM-17 completes its successful test firingDuring space shuttle flights, solid rocket motors provide 80 percent of the thrust during the first two minutes of flight. Each motor, the primary component of the shuttle's twin solid rocket boosters, generates an average thrust of 2.6 million pounds and is just over 126 feet long and 12 feet in diameter.

For more information about the Space Shuttle Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA Announces 2010 Carl Sagan Fellows

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The Sagan Fellowship, named after the late Carl Sagan, is one of three fellowships that represent a new theme-based approachNASA has selected seven scientists as recipients of Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships in exoplanet exploration for 2010. The Sagan Fellowships support outstanding recent postdoctoral scientists in conducting independent research broadly related to the science goals of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. That program's primary goal is to discover and characterize planetary systems and Earth-like planets around other stars.

"The Sagan Fellowship identifies and supports the most promising young scholars who are passionate about the scientific search for and study of planets beyond our solar system," said Charles Beichman, executive director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "These young scientists combine interest in the fields of astronomy, astrobiology or geophysics with expertise in theory, observation, or state-of-the-art instrumentation. They are following a trail blazed by Carl Sagan -- after whom the fellowship program is named -- that may one day lead to the discovery of life on worlds other than Earth."

The program, created in 2008, awards selected postdoctoral scientists with stipends of approximately $62,500 for up to three years, plus an annual research budget of $16,000. Topics range from techniques for detecting the glow of a dim planet in the blinding glare of its host star, to searching for the crucial ingredients of life in other planetary systems.

In addition to the Sagan Fellowships, NASA has two other astrophysics theme-based fellowship programs: the Einstein Fellowship Program, which supports research into the physics of the cosmos; and the Hubble Fellowship Program, which supports research into cosmic origins.

The 2010 Sagan Fellows are:

--Diana Valencia, who will work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, to study the internal structure, composition and physical evolution of super-Earths.

--Emily Rauscher, who will work at the University of Arizona, Tucson, to investigate the atmospheric conditions necessary to achieve large-scale variability in hot Jupiters. A hot Jupiter is a planet roughly the size of Jupiter that orbits very close to its parent star.

--Lucas Cieza, who will work at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, to study the disks of gas and dust around young stars where there is evidence of planets being formed.

--Ivan Ramirez, who will work at the Carnegie Observatories, Pasadena, Calif., to develop new methods for finding planets based on chemical analyses of their stars.

--Jacob Bean, who will work at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., to carry out a sensitive search for planets around the smallest stars by carefully measuring the stellar wobble produced by the planet.

--Laurent Pueyo, who will work at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., to use adaptive optics observations to directly image planets around other stars.

--Aaron Boley, who will attend the University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., to study the formation of gas giant planets, particularly the formation and heating of large solids in the initial stages of planet-building.

A full description of the 2010 fellows and their projects, and other information about these programs is available at:

http://nexsci.caltech.edu/sagan/2010postdocRecipients.shtml .

More information about NASA's Astrophysics Division is at:

http://nasascience.nasa.gov/astrophysics .

The Sagan Fellowship Program is administered by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute as part of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

An Astronaut Peeks Out from the Space Station's Lovely New 360-Degree Window

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Cupola View: Why is this man smiling? Oh right NASA
Space shuttle Endeavour has landed safely after installing a new observation deck on the International Space Station. But the Endeavour astronauts didn't leave without first checking out the new view from the cupola window.

Here we get a view of George Zamka, NASA astronaut and STS-130 commander, peeking out from the newly-installed cupola on February 19 while the space shuttle remained docked with the space station. ISS resident Soichi Noguchi has already made good use of the cupola to take pretty Earth Twitpics with his 800mm lens camera.

Speaking of Noguchi, the astronaut also took advantage of his fresh vantage point to capture this stunning image of the space shuttle making an s-turn while undergoing atmospheric reentry on its return home.

Space Shuttle S-Turn: Sky shuttle in flight Soichi Noguchi/NASA

Besides providing stunning sights, the cupola gives ISS residents a better view to control the space station's robotic arm. That feature should come in handy, considering that NASA's new budget has extended the space station lifetime until at least 2020.

Exploration at NASA

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At the core of NASA's future space exploration is a return to the moon, where we will build a sustainable long term human presence.

As the space shuttle approaches retirement and the International Space Station nears completion, NASA is building the next fleet of vehicles to bring astronauts back to the moon, and possibly to Mars and beyond.

The first flight test of NASA's new rocket configuration to carry astronauts into space will take place later this year. Ares I-X consists of a four-segment first stage solid rocket motor, and a simulated upper stage that represents the weight and shape of the Ares I rocket and Orion crew vehicle. It will be launched in a suborbital arc into the Atlantic to collect data on its flight dynamics and parachute recovery performance.

The flight of the unpiloted Ares I-X will be an important step in confirming that the rocket design is safe and stable in flight before piloted flights of Ares I begin in the middle of the next decade.

But -- even before the launch of Ares I-X -- a critical series of ground tests will take place to confirm that the vehicle's dynamic response will respond to launch loads and vibrations the way that computer analytical models have predicted it will respond.

"While we are confident in the predicted model results and simulations, these ground tests are critical because we have no experience launching rockets as long and slender as Ares I-X," according to Paul Bartolotta, Ares I-X Modal Test Lead who is responsible for leading a NASA-wide Modal Test Team from his office at NASA's Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio.

Comparison of Ares I X and Delta IV

At approximately 14 feet in average diameter and 320 feet long, Ares I-X has a high "slenderness ratio" compared to other launch vehicles. The similarly-shaped Delta IV is about 17 feet in average diameter and 225 feet long. The Saturn V was about 33 feet in average diameter and 363 feet long. Image Credit: NASA
The test series is a joint effort between NASA Glenn; NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.; NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.; and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

At approximately 14 feet in average diameter and 320 feet long, Ares I-X has a high "slenderness ratio" compared to other launch vehicles. The similarly-shaped Delta IV, for instance, is about 17 feet in average diameter and 225 feet long. The Saturn V was about 33 feet in average diameter and 363 feet in length.

Due to its long slender shape, the Ares I-X is unique from a flight dynamics standpoint.

"We're going to be shaking the vehicle to make sure our structural models match the actual vehicle characteristics," said Kurt Detweiler, Ares I-X Lead Systems Engineer, based at NASA Langley. "This is important for determining how the vehicle will respond during flight. If the vehicle doesn’t match the analytical model, its guidance, navigation and control systems will be off," he added.

This "modal testing," which refers to measuring a target set of bending modes, will include two partial stack tests and a test of the full Ares I-X vehicle on the Mobile Launch Platform, all in the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy. Line drawing of Ares I X stack test

The first partial stack test, shown in the diagram on the left, involves only the top part of the vehicle. The second partial stack test is shown on the right. The center diagram illustrates the full vehicle, with the blue areas representing Stack 5, at top, and Stack 1, midway, on the vehicle. Image Credit: NASA


The modal tests are a planned part of the build-up and integration of the Ares I-X test vehicle. In the first partial test, the topmost segments of the Ares I-X rocket -- which will simulate the launch abort tower, crew module, service module and spacecraft adaptor -- will be stacked vertically on a heavyweight spacecraft transportation cart. Two electro- mechanical shakers will be attached at the joint between the service module (which will house the second stage motor in the fully functional rocket) and the spacecraft adaptor (which will connect the uppermost segments to the rest of the rocket). The second partial stack test consists of the interstage, frustum, and the simulated fifth segment of the first stage of the rocket.

After all rocket elements are stacked, but prior to roll out, the Ares I-X full stack test will be conducted to validate yet more bending modes and interactions between rocket elements.

A series of sensors strategically located throughout the stacks will measure the amount and direction of movement, as the shakers impose random loads to determine the rocket segment’s first several bending modes. A comparison will be made between predicted and measured mode shapes to verify the Ares I-X flight dynamics model.

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