MESSENGER REVEALS MORE HIDDEN TERRITORY ON MERCURY

A NASA spacecraft's third and final flyby of Mercury gives scientists, for the first time, an almost complete view of the planet's surface and provides new scientific findings about this
relatively unknown world.

The Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging spacecraft, known as MESSENGER, flew by Mercury on Sept. 29. The probe completed a critical gravity assist to remain on course to enter into orbit around Mercury in 2011. Despite shutting down
temporarily because of a power system switchover during a solar eclipse, the spacecraft's cameras and instruments collected high-resolution and color images unveiling another 6 percent of the planet's surface never before seen at close range.

Approximately 98 percent of Mercury's surface now has been imaged by NASA spacecraft. After MESSENGER goes into orbit around Mercury, it will see the polar regions, which are the only unobserved areas of the planet.

Many new features were revealed during the third flyby, including a region with a bright area surrounding an irregular depression, suspected to be volcanic in origin. Other images revealed a double-ring impact basin approximately 180 miles across. The basin is
similar to a feature scientists call the Raditladi basin, which was viewed during the probe's first flyby of Mercury in January 2008.

One of the spacecraft's instruments conducted its most extensive observations to date of Mercury's exosphere, or thin atmosphere, during this encounter. The flyby allowed for the first detailed scans over Mercury's north and south poles. The probe also has begun to
reveal how Mercury's atmosphere varies with its distance from the sun.

The observations also show that calcium and magnesium exhibit different seasonal changes than sodium. Studying the seasonal changes in all exospheric constituents during the mission orbital phase will provide key information on the relative importance of the processes
that generate, sustain, and modify Mercury's atmosphere.

The third flyby also revealed new information on the abundances of iron and titanium in Mercury's surface materials. Earlier Earth and spacecraft-based observations showed that Mercury's surface has a very low concentration of iron in silicate minerals, a result that
led to the view that the planet's crust is generally low in iron.

The spacecraft has completed nearly three-quarters of its 4.9-billion-mile journey to enter orbit around Mercury. The full trip will include more than 15 trips around the sun. In addition to flying by Mercury, the spacecraft flew past Earth in August 2005 and Venus
in October 2006 and June 2007.

The spacecraft was designed and built by APL. The mission is managed and operated by APL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/messenger

ESA TRANSFERS TRANQUILITY NODE TO NASA

The European Space Agency, or ESA, will transfer ownership of the Tranquility node to NASA on Thursday, Nov. 19. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host a commemorative ceremony at 3 p.m. EST.

Tranquility is a pressurized module that will provide room for many of the station's life support systems. Attached to the node is a cupola, a unique work station with windows on its six sides and top. The module will be delivered to the station during space shuttle
Endeavour's STS-130 mission, targeted for launch Feb. 4, 2010.

Tranquility is the last element of a barter agreement for station hardware. ESA contributed the node in exchange for NASA's delivery of ESA's Columbus laboratory to the station. Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, built the module.

MORE AT NASA.GOV

Atlantis 'to Launch to Station on Nov. 16

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the cargo for space shuttle Atlantis' mission to the International Space Station was moved to Launch Pad 39A overnight and will be installed into the shuttle's payload bay.

Technicians will finish testing Atlantis' waste collection system, or toilet, this weekend and ground teams are getting ready for the final part of launch dress rehearsal known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

Today, the STS-129 mission's six astronauts are involved in their final bench review of flight hardware at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and they will conduct contingency abort simulation training in the motion base simulator.

The crew will fly to Kennedy Monday afternoon for the completion of TCDT. During their two-days at Kennedy they will participate in a simulated launch countdown where they practice liftoff procedures inside the shuttle. Before returning to Johnson on Tuesday, crew members will practice emergency pad evacuation.

On Oct. 29, NASA managers announced the official launch date and time of Nov. 16 at 2:28 p.m. EST for Atlantis' flight to the space station. The only deviation to this date would be if the planned Nov. 14 launch of an Atlas V rocket from nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station is delayed. Since the Atlas team has reserved the Eastern Range for Nov. 14 and 15, this means the shuttle's liftoff will move to no earlier than 2:02 p.m. on Nov. 17.

Follow Mission

 

Panel says planned NASA rocket won't do the job

Illustration of Ares 1 Rocket set to replace the space shuttle

The committee charged with reviewing NASA's spaceflight program concludes that the Ares 1 rocket being developed to take astronauts into space after the Space Shuttle is retired is the wrong vehicle for the job.

That's because the rocket is more sophisticated than what is needed to ferry crew from Earth to orbit. Also, given the current budget, it is too costly for something that would serve as a "trucking service to low Earth-orbit," said committee chairman Norman Augustine October 22.

Augustine made his remarks during a press briefing in which the committee unveiled its final report. The White House charged the independent panel with reviewing the U.S. human space flight program because the space shuttle is set to retire next year. (The White House released the panel's summary report on September 8.

At the briefing, Augustine, retired chairman and CEO of the Lockheed Martin Corp., reiterated the committee's basic finding — that without an extra $30 billion in funding over the next 10 years, a plan to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and then send them on to Mars won't be possible.

But the final report also details the pros and cons of several different options to reach those goals, assuming the extra $30 billion is provided. The Ares 1 rocket, which would launch a new Orion crew vehicle also under development, probably won't be ready until 2017 at the earliest. That delay would not only create a seven-year gap before a U.S. craft could send astronauts into space again, but would also mean that the rocket could do little to service the International Space Station, even if the station's lifetime is extended until 2020, noted panel member Edward Crawley of MIT.

The central question, Crawley said, is not whether the Ares 1 can be built, "but if it should be built." Other options suggested by the panel would include contracting commercial firms to transport both cargo and humans into low-Earth orbit. Instead of spending extra money to develop its own transport, NASA might be better off investing in technologies that would extend human exploration to Mars and beyond, Augustine said.

However, in a press statement released just after the briefing, House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Chairwoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) disagreed. She noted that the Ares 1-Orion program is in good shape and that "we are not prepared to have our astronauts' access to space held hostage to purchases of seats from nonexistent commercial providers."

The panel also said that NASA's administrator should be given broad powers to tailor NASA's workforce — adding or laying off people as needed, depending upon the workload. In the past, Augustine said, the White House and Congress have not allowed NASA to freely expand or contract its workforce as needed.

[SOURCE: SCIENCENEWS.ORG]

NASA UPDATES SHUTTLE ATLANTIS TARGET LAUNCH DATE

NASA is targeting Nov. 16 for the launch of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-129 mission from the agency's Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.

Managers for NASA's Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate met Monday and decided to adjust Atlantis' target launch date to optimize the agency's ability to launch both Ares I-X and Atlantis before the end of the year. The same launch team at Kennedy is supporting both the shuttle and the flight test of the Ares I-X rocket, which is targeted to lift off on Oct. 27. Ares I-X is scheduled to roll out to its launch pad at 12:01 a.m. EDT Tuesday.

Atlantis' new target launch date will give Ares I-X launch opportunities Oct. 27, 28 and 29. NASA has yet to schedule Atlantis'
new target liftoff date on the Eastern Range.

The change to Atlantis' targeted launch will affect the launch countdown dress rehearsal for the shuttle's six astronauts. The
astronauts arrived at Kennedy on Monday for the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test and related training. The simulated countdown has been rescheduled to Nov. 3. The astronauts will practice emergency escape and other related training while they are at Kennedy this week and return there Nov. 2 to conclude their rehearsal work.

The agency's Flight Readiness Review meeting for STS-129 is set for Oct. 29. NASA will schedule an official launch date for Atlantis
following that meeting.

For more information about the STS-129 mission and its crew, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

[SOURCE: NASA]

NASA Opens Space Shuttle Launch to Twitter Fans

Here's something to tweet about: NASA has invited some Twitter followers to view the November launch of space shuttle Atlantis in person during a NASA "tweetup."

The tweetup, or meeting of twitterers, will be open to the first 100 people who sign up on a NASA Web site to attend the planned Nov. 12 liftoff of Atlantis from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

"This will be NASA's fifth tweetup for our Twitter community," said Michael Cabbage, director of the News Services division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. "Each event has provided our followers with inside access to NASA personnel, including astronauts. The goal of this particular tweetup is to share the excitement of a shuttle launch with a new audience."

NASA has embraced the microblogging service, and a growing cadre of astronauts is now keeping in touch with the public through Twitter. Two spaceflyers currently onboard the International Space Station - NASA astronauts Jeff Williams ("Astro_Jeff") and Nicole Stott ("Astro_Nicole") - post updates to the site.

Atlantis was rolled out to Launch Pad 39A today in preparation for next month's launch, even though NASA is still unsure of exactly when the spacecraft will fly due to scheduling constraints. Despite the uncertainty, the agency is forging ahead with plans for the tweetup, scheduled to run on Nov. 11 and 12.

During the event NASA Twitter followers will take a tour of Kennedy Space Center, view the space shuttle launch and speak with shuttle technicians, engineers, astronauts and managers. There will also be a meet-and-greet session where participants can mingle with fellow "tweeps" and the staff behind the tweets on @NASA.

Registration for the event opens at 12:00 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) on Friday, Oct. 16 at http://www.nasa.gov/tweetup. The first 100 people to sign up will be given tickets, and an additional 50 people will be put on a wait-list.

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

LCROSS ready to touch moon water

The LCROSS shepherding spacecraft attached to the Centaur upper stage.

An enterprising robotic explorer will smash into the lunar frontier Friday (9th Oct) in search of water ice hidden deep inside the darkest corners of the moon, spewing hundreds of thousands of pounds of dust high above the surface in a celestial event visible from Earth.

Just four minutes will decide the outcome of three years of preparations, four months of space travel, and a $79 million investment put into the bold mission.

Four minutes is the time that nine science instruments on the LCROSS probe will be able to directly study a cloud of dust thrown high above the moon by the impact of an empty Centaur rocket stage.

LCROSS is "a very exciting mission culminating in a real crescendo event," said Dan Andrews, the project manager from NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

The sensors will scan the debris for the chemical signature of water, providing definitive proof for a decade-old hypothesis that ice exists on Earth's inhospitable companion.

The Clementine and Lunar Prospector missions of the 1990s sensed elevated levels of hydrogen at the moon's poles. Scientists believed the hydrogen was from trapped water ice. The high concentrations were centered on permanently shadowed craters, lightless meteor impact sites that are unimagineably cold.

According to scientists, temperatures at the bottoms of the craters could be as low as -240 degrees Celsius, or -400 degrees Fahrenheit. At those temperatures, water tends to freeze instead of sublimating into gas, Colaprete said.

The time scales are just as mind-boggling.

Data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a counterpart to the LCROSS mission, have independently verified the presence of hydrogen, even hinting the potential water ice was more widespread than earlier thought.

Scientists also announced last month that three spacecraft found evidence of water in lunar regions previously thought unable to support it.

Those recent findings have set the stage for an experiment to "reach out and touch the water," said Mike Wargo, chief lunar scientist from NASA's exploration directorate.

If LCROSS proves water resides on the moon, it could be a boon for engineers in the early stages of planning for a human return to the lunar surface.

Water could not only help quench the thirst of astronauts, but also supply oxygen, electricity and even rocket propellant for the return trip to Earth.

NASA says the latest estimates predict impact at exactly 1131:30 GMT (7:31:30 a.m. EDT) Friday morning. That time could shift by a few seconds based on new navigation solutions in the coming days.

Scientists have tapped Cabeus crater for the cosmic collision, a 60-mile-wide depression near the moon's south pole.

Cabeus was the subject of a late crater switch announced last week based on a recent analysis of results from LRO and Japan's Kaguya spacecraft.

Having been drained of its propellant and safed shortly after launch, the 41-foot-long, 10-foot-wide inert Centaur has a mass comparable to a large sports utility vehicle, according to Andrews.

The two vehicles will part ways at about 0150 GMT Friday (9:50 p.m. EDT Thursday), according to NASA.

After separating from the Centaur, the shepherding satellite will fire its engines to back away from the rocket. Lunar gravity will be pulling both objects toward the moon.

The probe will open up to a distance of nearly 400 miles from the Centaur, equivalent to about four minutes of flight time between the vehicles.

That will give the shepherding satellite enough time for its make-or-break chance to detect iron-clad evidence of water inside Cabeus.

When the Centaur slams into the moon at 5,600 mph, it will excavate more than 350 metric tons of lunar regolith, throwing some of the material up to six miles above the surface and 30 miles away from the impact site.

At that altitude, the debris will be exposed to sunlight and illuminated for the first time in ages.

Scientists expect the Centaur to leave a crater some 66 feet wide and 13 feet deep.
Read More

[SOURCE: SPACEFLIGHTNOW.COM]

LCROSS Gets New Crater Target

A NASA spacecraft destined to crash into a moon crater in the hunt for hidden caches of water ice has a new target, the space agency announced Monday.

The decision means that NASA's LCROSS probe and its spent Centaur rocket stage will now crash into the large crater Cabeus, and not the nearby (and smaller) Cabeus A crater previously targeted, when they slam into the moon on Oct. 9.

Scientists pulled the lunar switcheroo based on a continuing analysis of data from recent moon-watching spacecraft. The data suggests the new target Cabeus has the highest concentration of hydrogen - an indication of possible water ice - than anywhere else at the lunar south pole.

"The LCROSS team concluded that Cabeus provided the best chance for meeting its mission goals," mission managers said in a statement.

The news comes less than a week after scientists announced the discovery of water on the moon in the form of water molecules bound to the lunar dirt.

Cabeus is a large crater about 60 miles (98 km) in diameter that sits at 84.9 degrees south, 35.5 degrees west at the moon's south pole. It has two nearby satellite craters: the 25-mile (40-km) wide Cabeus A - LCROSS' original target - and Cabeus B, which is about 38 miles (61 km) in diameter.

A small valley etched into the otherwise tall crater ridge of Cabeus should allow sunlight to shine on the ejecta cloud kicked up when LCROSS and its Centaur rocket stage crash into the moon in successive impacts. The shadow of a large hill along the ridge should provide enough contrast for Earth-based measurements of the plume's composition, NASA officials added.

"During the last days of the mission, the LCROSS team will continue to refine the exact point of impact within Cabeus crater to avoid rough spots, and to maximize solar illumination of the debris plume and Earth observations," NASA officials said.

NASA's LCROSS probe - officially known as the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite - is actually a pair of vehicles headed for what maybe one of the most watched cosmic collisions in history.

The $79 million mission launched in June along with NASA's powerful Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter as part of the agency's first new missions to explore the moon. Finding usable water ice on the moon would be a boon for future manned missions to the lunar south pole since it could be used as a resource to supply astronauts with drinking water, or split into oxygen and hydrogen to create rocket fuel.

LCROSS and its spent Centaur rocket stage have been making sweeping orbits around the Earth as they fly ever-closer to impact day. The Centaur stage will crash into the target first, with LCROSS expected to fly through the resulting debris cloud before meeting its own demise a few minutes later.

Data beamed to Earth from LCROSS during the two impacts, as well as observations from a flotilla of spacecraft and telescopes on Earth and in space, will be recorded to determine whether the two vehicles kick up any water ice among the ejecta from their successive crashes.

LCROSS scientists have dedicated their mission to the memory of the late CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite.

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet.

Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites with new craters that range in depth from approximately 1.5 feet to 8 feet. The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for
one of the orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water ice.

The finds indicate water ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway between the north pole and the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate.

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona.

Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-authors report the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science.

During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images of Mars that cover a total area greater than California. The camera team examines each image, sometimes finding dark spots that fresh, small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier photos of the same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has
found more than 100 fresh impact sites, mostly closer to the equator than the ones that revealed ice.

An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering that occurred after an image of the same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh impact site prompted a look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2009, confirming a cluster of small craters.

The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a spectrometer instrument on the orbiter to determine its composition. However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-latitude site showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This crater had a larger area of bright material.

"We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," said co-author Kim Seelos of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., "Everyone thought it was water ice, but it was important to get the spectrum for confirmation."  Read More

To view images of the craters and learn more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro

It's Official: Water Found on the Moon

Since man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called "unambiguous evidence" of water across the surface of the moon.

The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA's LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.

The moon remains drier than any desert on Earth, but the water is said to exist on the moon in very small quantities. One ton of the top layer of the lunar surface would hold about 32 ounces of water, researchers said.

"If the water molecules are as mobile as we think they are — even a fraction of them — they provide a mechanism for getting water to those permanently shadowed craters," said planetary geologist Carle Pieters of Brown University in Rhode Island, who led one of the three studies in Science on the lunar find, in a statement. "This opens a whole new avenue [of lunar research], but we have to understand the physics of it to utilize it."

Finding water on the moon would be a boon to possible future lunar bases, acting as a potential source of drinking water and fuel.

When Apollo astronauts returned from the moon 40 years ago, they brought back several samples of lunar rocks.

The moon rocks were analyzed for signs of water bound to minerals present in the rocks; while trace amounts of water were detected, these were assumed to be contamination from Earth, because the containers the rocks came back in had leaked.

"The isotopes of oxygen that exist on the moon are the same as those that exist on Earth, so it was difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between water from the moon and water from Earth," said Larry Taylor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who is a member of one of the NASA-built instrument teams for India's Chandrayaan-1 satellite and has studied the moon since the Apollo missions.

While scientists continued to suspect that water ice deposits could be found in the coldest spots of south pole craters that never saw sunlight, the consensus became that the rest of the moon was bone dry.

But new observations of the lunar surface made with Chandrayaan-1, NASA's Cassini spacecraft, and NASA's Deep Impact probe, are calling that consensus into question, with multiple detections of the spectral signal of either water or the hydroxyl group (an oxygen and hydrogen chemically bonded). Read More

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

SPIRIT Might Be Stuck For Good

Efforts to free the stuck Spirit rover on Mars have been dragging on since May and today a NASA official said the robot may never get free.

"We are proceeding very cautiously and exploring all reasonable options," said John Callas, NASA project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity. "There is a very real possibility that Spirit may not be able to get out, and we want to give Spirit the very best chance."

Callas and colleagues at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been testing ideas on a twin of Spirit at the California facility, in a pit designed to simulate the surface of Mars. It's tricky though, because of the difference in gravity of the two planets. The rover team is also refining a detailed computer model of rover mobility, calibrated with results from testing and measurements from Mars.

Spirit has certainly outlived expectations. It became embedded in soft soil at a site called Troy in early May, more than five years into a mission on Mars that was originally scheduled to last for three months. The rover team suspended further driving attempts with Spirit while evaluating how to free it.

The engineers are trying to figure out how to move Spirit while avoiding putting the rover's center of gravity directly over a rock that is touching or nearly touching the machine's underbelly. Other added tests are using a lighter-weight test rover than the one used for most of the testing this summer. A complete "dress rehearsal" test of the extrication strategy judged to hold the best chance of success is planned in the test setup at JPL before the team commands Spirit to begin driving. That test and subsequent review of its results are expected to take several weeks.

Moves by Spirit will not begin before October, according to current plans.

A dust storm that had reduced the electrical output from Spirit's solar panels by nearly half during late August still has some lingering effects on the skies above Spirit, NASA said.

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

Hubble Telescope is Back: Fantastic New Images Released

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is back in action after its most recent upgrade, with a spectacular array of new images showing off the telescope's new capabilities.

Among the first images – a closely guarded secret until today – is one of galaxy NGC 6217. The picture was taken with NASA's newly refurbished Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

This is "the day many of us have all been waiting for to celebrate Hubble's new beginning," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Hubble also snapped pictures of a group of five galaxies, a densely packed star cluster, an eerie "pillar of creation," and a "butterfly" nebula.

Scientists also released spectroscopic observations that slice across billions of light-years to probe the cosmic-web structure of the universe and map the distribution of elements that are fundamental to life as we know it.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who has provided key support for Hubble and NASA in Congress, unveiled the images at NASA Headquarters. She was given the honorary title "Godmother of Hubble." Mikulski's district includes the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, where Hubble images are processed.

Hubble's new instruments, including the Wide Field Camera 3, a new super-sensitive spectrograph, were installed on the 19-year-old telescope by shuttle astronauts during a 13-day service mission in May. The mission, which was initially cancelled in 2004 due to safety concerns after the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster, also revived two instruments — Hubble's main ACS and a versatile imaging spectrograph — that were never designed to be fixed in space.

The new instruments are more sensitive to light and, therefore, will improve Hubble's observing efficiency significantly. It is able to complete observations in a fraction of the time that was needed with prior generations of Hubble instruments.

The WFC3 was actually used to take a picture of Jupiter's new black spot — thought to have been caused by a comet collision — back in July, but the camera wasn't yet fully calibrated then. WFC3 also took new images of the Omega Centauri star cluster in our galaxy, in which the contrast between hot and cool stars can vividly be seen, and the Butterfly Nebula, for which astronomers used the new filters on the camera to see the envelope of gas expanding away from this planetary nebula.

Images taken with the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph were taken in one-tenth of the time of Hubble's older spectrograph, which will allow scientists to view 10 times as many targets or look at targets one-tenth as bright, said James Green, the COS principal investigator at the University of Colorado. Scientists hope to build a catalogue of hundreds or thousands of targets and map the distribution of matter throughout the universe.

Hubble will also be able to continue observations of Eta Carinae, one of the most massive stars in the galaxy (and actually a pair of stars), that were suspended by instrument failure in 2004, said David Leckrone, senior project scientist for Hubble at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Eta Carinae has erupted before and is expected to do so again.

Despite a few bumps in the three-month checkout, Hubble's systems and instruments are all up and running now.

NASA's new administrator Charlie Bolden was also on hand to congratulate the scientists and astronauts on Hubble's new lease on life. Bolden was one of the astronauts on the shuttle mission that deployed Hubble in 1990. Read More


[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

How NASA Would Send Humans on Mars

As the 40th-anniversary celebrations of the moon landing end, a human voyage to Mars remains a holy grail for NASA.

"We're still looking at human exploration of Mars as one of the goals of the future at the top level," said NASA researcher Bret Drake with Lunar and Mars Integration at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Having a human actually set foot on another planet would be one of the greatest adventures possible, one of the greatest monuments to history."

A crewed mission to the red planet is a daunting challenge that lies at the edge of current technological capabilities and possibly beyond. Still, NASA keeps a strategy to go there and constantly keeps up to date with new ideas.

"Mars is one of those targets of fascination that has been around a long time," Drake said.

A voyage to Mars would take a crew about 180 days. So far NASA is exploring two options for propulsion there — a nuclear thermal rocket and a chemical engine.

A nuclear thermal rocket, based off designs from the '60s and '70s, would use a nuclear reactor to super-heat a gas and blast it out the nozzle to generate thrust. "It's a very high-performance vehicle, and we think it's very safe, not radioactive at launch, but it is a nuclear system," Drake said. "The idea for the chemical engine is similar to that used on the space shuttle, liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It's a fairly well-known technology, but it's not as efficient as nuclear thermal."

To reach the Martian surface, NASA envisions an aerodynamic lander that flies down with thrusters to help it descend. The ascent vehicle that takes the crew back into space for the six-month trip home will likely rely on a combination of methane and liquid oxygen. "Oxygen is present in the Martian atmosphere in the carbon dioxide, so you can use resources on Mars to make it," Drake said.

Before the crew even gets to Mars, the plan is to send as much cargo there ahead of time as possible.

"That way we can know it's operating right before we ever commit the crew," Drake said. "A Mars mission is not like a lunar mission where you can come home at any time — once they're committed, a crew is out there for years."

By current NASA estimates, a crewed mission to Mars needs to lift about twice the mass of the International Space Station into space — roughly 1.76 million lbs. (800 metric tons) of technology. To launch the equipment, NASA plans on using the Ares V rocket, designed to be the most powerful rocket ever built and capable of carrying about 414,000 lbs. (188 metric tons) to low Earth orbit at one time.

"We're going to try to minimize the amount of assembly needed," Drake said. "The heavy lift capacity we'll have with the Ares V will allow for simple automatic rendezvous in orbit and docking of components."

The crew would ride up in one of the upcoming Ares I rockets before starting the voyage to Mars.

"Having humans in place could bring a wealth of experience and training and the ability to put into context what they see and to make real-time decisions, all things difficult to do with robots," Drake said.

The very habitat the crew stays at on the Martian surface would be sent ahead of time. "You can also do things like produce and store oxygen from resources at Mars beforehand for the crew and the ascent vehicle. You could generate water as well."

NASA envisions a crew of six astronauts for a Mars mission. "That's about what's required for the skills needed — a commander, scientist, engineer, medical officer, things like that, as well as cross-training," Drake said. "They'll need expertise in a wide range of disciplines."

Currently NASA envisions a long stay for a crew at Mars, about 500 days.

"Crew autonomy is vital, because there's an up to 40 minute time delay in communication between Earth and the crew because of the distance," Drake said. "And the crew doesn't have a capability for re-supply — they'll just have what they send ahead or what they bring with them — so when things fail, they'll have to be able to repair them. They must be self-sufficient."

To survive the voyage, air and water need to be completely recycled regularly.

"We're learning a lot on the International Space Station right now on air revitalization and water recovery," Drake said. "What's nice about Mars is that there's carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so that can help get us oxygen and water for the crew. In terms of food, we're looking at smaller systems, 'salad machines,' to grow food for the crew. Fresh food is not only good for nutrition, but good for the mind as well. A fresh tomato can really boost psychology."

"It's humanity's next step to understanding and expanding our presence outward," Drake said. "We view human exploration of Mars as being an international endeavor, most likely not limited to just one country, but probably of global scale.

Read More

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

DISCOVERY LIFTS OFF

With seven astronauts and a host of experiments and equipment on board, space shuttle Discovery completed a flawless ascent into orbit Friday night to begin a two-day chase of the International Space Station. With Commander Rick "C.J. " Sturckow at the controls, the
shuttle lifted off on-time at 11:59 p.m. EDT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew will rendezvous and dock with the station Sunday and the crew will begin transferring equipment to the outpost during the 13-day mission.

After flying up on Discovery, Nicole Stott will trade places with station resident Tim Kopra, who went into space last month aboard Endeavour. Equipment and science racks for the orbiting laboratory are riding inside the Leonardo cargo module, which is secured tightly
inside Discovery's payload bay. The module will be lifted out of Discovery and locked onto the station so the crew can transfer the gear efficiently. The treadmill named for comedian Stephen Colbert also is aboard Discovery and destined for the station.

Follow the Mission

[SOURCE: NASA.GOV]

Broken Valve Prompts Second Launch Delay for Shuttle Discovery

A broken valve on the space shuttle Discovery forced NASA to call off the spacecraft's second launch attempt in a row late Tuesday as engineers troubleshoot the glitch.

Discovery was slated to blast off at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) Wednesday morning, but a broken fill-and-drain valve associated with the shuttle's liquid hydrogen propellant system foiled the attempted launch.

NASA engineers are discussing the malfunction, which cropped up during Discovery's fueling operations at 5:52 p.m. EDT (2122 GMT), just under seven hours before launch time. Stormy weather delayed Discovery's first launch attempt earlier today.

NASA has until Aug. 30 to launch the shuttle before standing down due to restrictions on the launch range it shares with the nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Engineers are discussing how to best solve the valve malfunction and when Discovery may be ready to launch again.

NASA wants to launch Discovery by the end of August to avoid a traffic conflict with an unmanned Japanese cargo ship also due at the space station this month. If the mission is unable to launch by then, NASA can try again on Oct. 17.

Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Rick Sturckow, Discovery's STS-128 mission is slated to fly to the International Space Station to deliver nearly 8 tons of cargo, including new science gear and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. The 13-day mission was also planned to ferry astronaut Nicole Stott to the station to replace NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, who has lived aboard the orbiting lab since mid-July.

Set to launch aboard Discovery with Sturckow and Stott were STS-128 mission specialists Chris Patrick Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang. Fuglesang represents the European Space Agency, while the rest are NASA astronauts. Three spacewalks are planned for the mission. Read More

Check out the Shuttle Page at NASA.gov for more News

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

Storms Force NASA to Aim for Wednesday Shuttle Launch

NASA will take another shot at launching the space shuttle Discovery on Wednesday after unexpected thunderstorms foiled an attempted liftoff earlier today.

Discovery and its seven-astronaut crew are now slated to blast off at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT) to begin a 13-day trek to the International Space Station. The astronauts were already aboard the shuttle when NASA called off their launch early this morning.

Thunderstorms, rain and lightning were all concerns at different times during the attempted launch.

Fuglesang, who represents the European Space Agency, has been posting Twitter updates in English and Swedish under the moniker @CFuglesang during his mission training to reach out to the Swedish public. Likewise, his fellow crewmate Jose Hernandez of NASA is also "tweeting" in English and Spanish as @Astro_Jose. His first post after the delayed launch was also optimistic for Wednesday's launch chances.

Discovery has a 70 percent chance of good weather at launch time Wednesday morning, as well as for fueling later this afternoon, said Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett of the 45th Weather Squadron that watches over shuttle flight weather for NASA. Engineers plan to begin fueling Discovery's 15-story external tank at about 3:30 p.m. EDT (1930 GMT).

Discovery had an encouraging 80 percent chance of good conditions before thunderstorms rolled in to spoil Tuesday's launch attempt. Barrett told SPACE.com after the scrubbed launch try that some of the same weather patterns that led up to the storm delay today could arise for Wednesday's attempted liftoff.

Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Rick Sturckow, Discovery's six-man, one-woman crew plans to deliver a cargo pod packed with new science gear and supplies to the space station, as well as a new treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

NASA has until the end of August to launch Discovery before running into potential space traffic conflicts with Japan's first unmanned cargo ship and a Russian crew-carrying Soyuz spacecraft, both of which are due to launch toward the station in September.

If Discovery does not liftoff by Aug. 30, NASA may have to stand down to wait out the September flights, delaying its own mission to Oct. 17, mission managers have said. Read More

Check out the Shuttle Page at NASA.gov for more News

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

NASA Research Reveals Major Insight Into Evolution of Life on Earth

Humans might not be walking on Earth today if not for the ancient fusing of two microscopic, single-celled organisms called prokaryotes, NASA-funded research has found.

By comparing proteins present in more than 3000 different prokaryotes - a type of single-celled organism without a nucleus -- molecular biologist James A. Lake from the University of California at Los Angeles' Center for Astrobiology showed that two major classes of relatively simple microbes fused together more than 2.5 billion years ago. Lake's research reveals a new pathway for the evolution of life on Earth. These insights are published in the Aug. 20 online edition of the journal Nature.

This endosymbiosis, or merging of two cells, enabled the evolution of a highly stable and successful organism with the capacity to use energy from sunlight via photosynthesis. Further evolution led to photosynthetic organisms producing oxygen as a byproduct. The resulting oxygenation of Earth's atmosphere profoundly affected the evolution of life, leading to more complex organisms that consumed oxygen, which were the ancestors of modern oxygen-breathing creatures including humans.

"Higher life would not have happened without this event," Lake said. "These are very important organisms. At the time these two early prokaryotes were evolving, there was no oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. Humans could not live. No oxygen-breathing organisms could live."

The genetic machinery and structural organization of these two organisms merged to produce a new class of prokaryotes, called double membrane prokaryotes. As they evolved, members of this double membrane class, called cyanobacteria, became the primary oxygen-producers on the planet, generating enough oxygen to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere and set The stage for the evolution of more complex organisms such as animals and plants.

"This work is a major advance in our understanding of how a group of organisms came to be that learned to harness the sun and then effected the greatest environmental change Earth has ever seen, in this case with beneficial results," said Carl Pilcher, director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., which co-funded the study with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va.

For more information about the NASA's Astrobiology Program and the
institute, visit: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov.

[SOURCE: NASA.GOV]

NASA Budget Too Slim to Reach Moon by 2020, Panel Says

A White House panel charged with reviewing NASA's exploration plans has dropped any hope of sending astronauts directly to Mars and found the space agency's budget too slim to accomplish its goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.

After more than six hours of public deliberation on Wednesday, the 10-member committee overseeing the Review for U.S. Human Space Flight Plans decided not to include a plan to send astronauts straight to Mars - called Mars Direct - on its list of options to be considered by President Barack Obama because of its daunting challenges and cost.

"We think Mars Direct is a mission that we're really not prepared to take on technically or financially, and it would likely not succeed," said the committee's chairman Norman Augustine, a former Lockheed Martin CEO, late Wednesday after the televised meeting in Washington, D.C. "I really want to emphasize that we're not giving up on Mars at all."

A manned Mars mission is the ultimate goal, but shifting all of NASA's focus on getting there as soon as possible is not feasible, he added.

The committee is expected to present its initial report to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and White House science adviser John Holdren on Friday and file a final version for President Obama's review by the end of the month.

Augustine's committee is reviewing NASA's plan to retire its aging space shuttle fleet and replace it with a capsule-based Orion spacecraft as part of a larger effort to return astronauts to the moon by 2020. But NASA's current budget for human spaceflight through 2020 is not enough to cover the costs of achieving its baseline lunar goal, let alone other alternative options, the committee found.

NASA has a budget of about $80 billion for human spaceflight through 2020, about $28 billion less than projected when it first chose the Orion spacecraft and its Ares rockets to succeed the space shuttle fleet. Orion spacecraft are not expected to begin operational flights until 2015, the committee said.

Augustine said that NASA's exploration budget has been cut repeatedly since announcing the new space exploration plan in 2005, hindering its progress. Technical and other delays have also led to the current shortfall, he added. Still he and his committee were surprised none of their options fit in NASA's current budget.

Last week, the committee culled a list of 3,000 options for human spaceflight down to about seven different scenarios.

On Wednesday, committee members refined that list down to four general scenarios that include more funding. They include building Orion spacecraft for eventual manned mission to the moon, as well as options for sending astronauts farther out into deep space to visit near-Earth asteroids or the stable Lagrange points around Earth by the mid- to late-2020s or 2030.

Only one of the four scenarios includes NASA's planned Ares I rocket, the booster designed to launch Orion capsules into space. Some included extending the International Space Station's lifetime beyond 2016 to 2020.

The committee strongly favored encouraging commercial vehicles for launching astronauts into orbit and suggested setting $2.5 billion aside between 2011 and 2014 to spur development in those spacecraft.

It also included options that included spacecraft more heavily derived from current space shuttles, as well as current unmanned heavy-lift rockets like the Delta 4 Heavy and variants of NASA's giant Ares V rocket envisioned to launch lunar landers into orbit.

The potential for in-orbit refueling was cited as a key technological goal for some committee members. But adequate funding is key if NASA is to tackle an innovative, inspiring program that can capture the attention of the American public, committee members said.

"Our view is that it will be difficult with the current budget to do anything that's terribly inspiring in the human spaceflight area," Augustine said.

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]

NASA's Kepler Spies Changing Phases on a Distant World

NASA's new exoplanet-hunting Kepler space telescope has detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope's extraordinary scientific capabilities. The discovery will be published Friday, Aug. 7, in the journal Science.

The find is based on a relatively short 10 days of test data collected before the official start of science operations. Kepler was launched March 6, 2009, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The observation demonstrates the extremely high precision of the measurements made by the telescope, even before its calibration and data analysis software were finished.

Kepler team members say these new data indicate the mission is indeed capable of finding Earth-like planets, if they exist. Kepler will spend the next three-and-a-half years searching for planets as small as Earth, including those that orbit stars in a warm zone where there could be water. It will do this by looking for periodic dips in the brightness of stars, which occur when orbiting planets transit, or cross in front of, the stars.

The observations were collected from a planet called HAT-P-7, known to transit a star located about 1,000 light years from Earth. The planet orbits the star in just 2.2 days and is 26 times closer than Earth is to the sun. Its orbit, combined with a mass somewhat larger than the planet Jupiter, classifies this planet as a "hot Jupiter." It is so close to its star, the planet is as hot as the glowing red heating element on a stove.

The Kepler measurements show the transit from the previously detected HAT-P-7. However, these new measurements are so precise, they also show a smooth rise and fall of the light between transits caused by the changing phases of the planet, similar to those of our moon. This is a combination of both the light emitted from the planet and the light reflected off the planet. The smooth rise and fall of light is also punctuated by a small drop in light, called an occultation,
exactly halfway between each transit. An occultation happens when a planet passes behind a star.

The new Kepler data can be used to study this hot Jupiter in unprecedented detail. The depth of the occultation and the shape and amplitude of the light curve show the planet has an atmosphere with a day-side temperature of about 4,310 degrees Fahrenheit. Little of this heat is carried to the cool night side. The occultation time compared to the main transit time shows the planet has a circular orbit. The discovery of light from this planet confirms the predictions by researchers and theoretical models that the emission would be detectable by Kepler.

This new discovery also demonstrates Kepler has the precision to find Earth-size planets. The observed brightness variation is just one and a half times what is expected for a transit caused by an Earth-sized planet. Although this is already the highest precision ever obtained
for an observation of this star, Kepler will be even more precise after analysis software being developed for the mission is completed.

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STS 127 Astronauts Set to Leave Space Station

The Japanese Experiment Module - This Module was Installed during the Mission

The 13 people aboard the International Space Station will say their farewells and split up Tuesday when the crew of the shuttle Endeavour undocks from the orbiting laboratory.

Endeavour's seven-astronaut crew is due to cast off from the space station at 1:26 p.m. EDT (1726 GMT), marking an end to nearly a week and a half of construction work alongside the outpost's six residents.

The joint crew has been the highest population ever for the station and the largest single gathering in space by humans in history. All 13 astronauts, who represent each of the five major international partners building the station, plan to hold a brief farewell ceremony at about 10:23 a.m. EDT (1423 GMT).

Smooth mission
The shuttle launched toward the space station July 15 on a marathon 16-day mission to the orbiting laboratory.

Its six-man, one-woman crew delivered a new member of the station's Expedition 20 crew, vital spare parts and the last piece, an external experiment porch, for the outpost's massive Kibo laboratory. Five challenging spacewalks - including two tricky excursions to replace old solar array batteries - were performed.

Built by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the $1 billion Kibo is made up of three segments: the new porch, a giant laboratory the size of a tour bus, and a smaller storage attic, each of which had to be launched to the station separately on NASA shuttle flights over the last two years. Astronauts put the final touches on the Kibo lab during their fifth and final spacewalk on Monday.

Endeavour will return Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata back to Earth when it lands in Florida on Friday.

Before departing the space station for good, Endeavour will fly around the orbital laboratory in a sort of victory lap. Shuttle pilot Doug Hurley will be at Endeavour's helm during the maneuver while his crewmates snap photographs of the outpost's new look with its brand new porch. Read More

[SOURCE: SPACE.COM]