Stay warm and safe everyone ….it's cold and/or freezing over most of the US. Today and most of this week.
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Monday – Feb. 23, 2015
We've realized that the Human Space Flight news distribution is duplicating efforts when there are so many sources of virtually the same material made available to you quickly and easily these days. We'd like to point you to some of the resources we're aware of and discontinue collecting and distributing this edition after Feb. 27. We appreciate your attention to the news summaries over the years, and we will continue to focus our efforts on getting NASA's missions and your stories into the media.
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HEADLINES AND LEADS
Engineers finding lessons in nearly flawless Orion test flight
December's first orbital test flight of NASA's Orion crew capsule was almost perfect, but engineers are carefully analyzing 600 gigabytes of data recorded on the spacecraft's trip 3,600 miles into space to see how future missions to an asteroid and Mars could be improved.
Stephen Hawking: space travel will save mankind and we should colonise other planets
We should colonise other planets to protect the human race, Stephen Hawking has said. Human aggression could bring civilisation and humanity to an end and space travel will give us somewhere else to go, he said.
Spacewalkers install cable for new docking adapters
William Harwood – CBS News
Astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Terry Virts floated outside the International Space Station Saturday and installed wiring needed for two new docking mechanisms that will be attached later this year for use by new Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules.
Spacewalking Astronauts Turn Cable Guys in 1st of 3 Jobs
Marcia Dunn - AP
Spacewalking astronauts routed more than 300 feet of cable outside the International Space Station on Saturday, tricky and tiring advance work for the arrival of new American-made crew capsules.
ATV Break-Up Camera Misses Cargo Tug's Final Fiery Plunge
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
Europe's ATV-5 cargo transport that was sent on a destructive atmospheric-reentry orbit Feb. 15 was unable to send imagery from an infrared camera as the vehicle broke up over the South Pacific Ocean, the European Space Agency said Feb. 20.
Video: Groundbreaking for commercial crew access tower
There was a groundbreaking Friday at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 to start building the astronaut access tower to board Boeing's CST-100 capsules atop United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.
Editorial: Hold the countdown on sale of Spaceport
Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
Spaceport America was always a long-term bet on the future. It was never intended to turn a quick buck. Still, it's been frustratingly slow getting off the ground.
MAVEN goes for a dip
Joe Latrell – Spaceflight Insider
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter is the first spacecraft dedicated to studying the tenuous Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft recently completed the first of five planned dips into the lowest section of the upper Martian atmosphere, taking samples and relaying them back home to NASA.
The Hills Have Ice... on Mars, That Is
Scientists have been hunting for evidence of water on Mars ever since they started looking at the Red Planet through telescopes. But Mars does have water, and lots of it; solid water in the form of ice locked up in its polar caps and buried under its surface. And, if observations made by ESA's Mars Express are indicative of similar processes seen on Earth, these ancient hills may also hide hidden deposits of ice.
Curiosity May Cause Evidence of Mars Life to Self-Destruct
Devin Coldewey - NBC News
Curiosity's experiments on Martian soil may be inadvertently eliminating traces of organics, British researchers reported this week. One of the compounds the rover is on the lookout for is jarosite, a mineral associated with conditions potentially suitable for life. Curiosity tests for jarosite and other interesting substances by flash-heating soil samples, watching for telltale signs of certain elements.
Europa Clipper Team Seeking Earlier Launch
Jeff Foust — Space News
The team working on the leading concept for a mission to Europa believes it can be ready for launch as soon as 2022, several years ahead of the schedule NASA officials recently stated.
NASA Europa Mission May Search for Signs of Alien Life
A potential NASA mission to Jupiter's moon Europa may end up hunting for signs of life on the icy, ocean-harboring world.
Planet you've probably never heard of
Amanda Barnett – CNN
Way out beyond Mars, but before you get to Jupiter, is a planet.
Roscosmos invites French experts to join Russian space projects
TASS, of Russia
The heads of Russian and French space agencies discussed the current state and the prospects for further bilateral space cooperation
French specialists will take part in a number of Russian promising research and applied space programmes, according to an agreement signed on Friday after a meeting between head of Russia's Space Agency (Roscosmos) Igor Komarov and administrators of France's Nations Centre of Space Research (CNES) Jean-Yves Le Gall.
What's Happening in Space Policy February 23-27, 2015
Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of February 23-27, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
COMPLETE STORIES
Engineers finding lessons in nearly flawless Orion test flight
December's first orbital test flight of NASA's Orion crew capsule was almost perfect, but engineers are carefully analyzing 600 gigabytes of data recorded on the spacecraft's trip 3,600 miles into space to see how future missions to an asteroid and Mars could be improved.
The data crunch will take much of the year, ultimately feeding into design tweaks and recommendations at a major Orion program review in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The first phase of the data analysis is nearly complete, according to Mike Hawes, Orion's program manager at Lockheed Martin, NASA's prime contractor for the crew capsule.
Hawes said Lockheed Martin, which led the execution of the Dec. 5 test flight on behalf of NASA, has given the space agency all the data recorded during the four-and-a-half hour mission.
A final post-flight report on the Dec. 5 demo mission — dubbed Exploration Flight Test-1 — will be submitted to NASA in the first week of March, Hawes said Wednesday.
Engineers are shifting from analyzing how the Orion spacecraft's systems functioned on the test flight to addressing how the capsule's performance — in areas that both exceeded and fell short of expectations — could help improve future missions.
The next Orion mission is expected some time in 2018 aboard the first flight of NASA's Space Launch System, a mega-rocket made of upgraded space shuttle technology that will blast off from launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The EFT-1 flight in December launched on a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico.
The 2018 flight is named Exploration Mission-1, or EM-1, and will not carry astronauts. The first mission with a crew is scheduled for 2021 on the EM-2 flight.
"There will probably be some continued analysis, but in my mind that continued analysis is really in terms of understanding the modifications that might be applicable to that next mission," Hawes said. "That's not so much (focusing) on EFT-1 and understanding what happened, it's more like do we need to do any changes for EM-1 and EM-2."
The EM-1 and EM-2 flights will go around the moon, and the crewed mission will be the farthest voyage by astronauts since the last Apollo lunar landing in 1972.
"Orion's flight test was a big success and what we learned is informing how we design, develop and build future Orions that will help us pioneer deep space destinations," said Mark Geyer, NASA's Orion program manager. "Taking a look at all the flight test data is a huge part of the development process and a key part off in why we flew a test flight. We have critical work happening this year, both on the data analysis and development side, to keep us moving toward our first mission with SLS."
Orion's EFT-1 test flight demonstrated a new 3D-printed vent, and an analysis of how the component performed could lead to future Orion missions flying with more parts produced with a 3D printer instead of traditional machining.
The Orion spacecraft consumed significantly less fuel than predicted thanks to an on-target injection from the Delta 4-Heavy launcher.
Hawes said officials are considering ways to add more cameras to future missions after the Orion test flight produced spectacular imagery from start to finish — including rocket-mounted cameras during launch, views of Earth from 3,600 miles out, and the capsule's atmospheric re-entry inside a ball of plasma.
"We certainly have learned you can't have enough cameras, so we're in the midst of trades on imagery right now in terms of the follow-on plan in how we incorporate more imagery," Hawes said.
One blemish on the December test mission was in the crew module's airbags, which are supposed to flip the capsule upright if it splashes down nose first.
Only two of the capsule's five bags fully inflated with high-pressure helium. Another airbag lost pressure soon after inflation, and two bags did not inflate at all.
In the case of the EFT-1 splashdown, the Orion spacecraft landed in the correct orientation, and the bags were not needed.
One earlier focus of the investigation into the airbag glitch was on threaded fittings inside the uprighting system's helium plumbing. Engineers considered whether the helium gas could escape through the threads, but Hawes told reporters Wednesday that the bags themselves may be at fault.
"Particularly on the two bags that didn't inflate, we're doing analysis now and it looks like perhaps there are problems with the bags themselves," Hawes said. "We've looked at the plumbing, we've looked at the gas supply system, and it looks perhaps like it may be issues with the bag material itself that had some small cracks develop that then prevented it from keeping pressure, but that's still preliminary."
Hawes said Orion managers have not made final decision on redesigning the capsule's 16.5-foot diameter heat shield to correct cracking problems and workmanship concerns.
The Orion spacecraft plunged back into the atmosphere at 20,000 mph — about 84 percent of the velocity it would see coming back from the moon — and weathered temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Avcoat insulation manually applied to 330,000 individual cells on the heat shield's fiberglass-phenolic honeycomb structure was supposed to ablate away during the Orion spacecraft's re-entry, protecting the underlying structure from searing temperatures.
"Every single one of those cells is filled with the Avcoat material with a putty gun, then it's cured, formed and rounded," Hawes said. "When you look at that honeycomb structure, you imagine that over this 16-foot diameter heat shield. Every single one of those gets filled with a caulk gun manually by a technician. That's one of our bigger concerns with the heat shield — just the long term manufacturing and to make it less touch intensive."
The Orion heat shield's titanium skeleton and carbon fiber skin was fabricated by Lockheed Martin in Colorado. The skeleton was shipped to Textron Defense Systems in Massachusetts for installation of the honeycomb structure and filling of the Avcoat cells.
NASA and Lockheed Martin may change the heat shield design for future Orion missions, using the same material but a different manufacturing method.
Instead of attaching the heat shield to the capsule in one piece — called a "monolithic" design — engineers are evaluating a switch to a "block" approach using several pieces.
"We knew that there some areas of the curvature that looked like they were lower strength than we had expected," Hawes said. "All of those areas survived the flight extremely well … That gives us some confidence in some of the shortcomings of what we thought about the monolithic structure. We're still worried overall over the manufacturability of the monolithic shape just because it's very hand touch labor intensive."
The heat shield from the EFT-1 mission has been removed from the capsule and prepared for shipment to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama where the leftover Avcoat material will be scraped off. The titanium base of the heat shield will then go to NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia for water impact testing, Hawes said.
Hawes said Lockheed Martin and NASA are slated to discuss the future heat shield design in a few weeks.
Stephen Hawking: space travel will save mankind and we should colonise other planets
We should colonise other planets to protect the human race, Stephen Hawking has said. Human aggression could bring civilisation and humanity to an end and space travel will give us somewhere else to go, he said.
Space represents the long term future of the human race and can act as "life insurance" for the species, Hawking said while escorting an American visitor around London's Science Museum for a prize.
"Sending humans to the moon changed the future of the human race in ways that we don't yet understand," he said.
"It hasn't solved any of our immediate problems on planet Earth, but it has given us new perspectives on them and caused us to look both outward and inward.
"I believe that the long term future of the human race must be space and that it represents an important life insurance for our future survival, as it could prevent the disappearance of humanity by colonising other planets."
Hawking made the comments after telling his guest, Adaeze Uyanwah, that the human failing he would most like to correct is aggression, which could "destroy us all". Uyanwah was in London after winning a competition to get her perfect day out in the capital.
Human aggression could bring a nuclear war that would end civilisation and perhaps the uman race, he said. Instead, humans should have more empathy, to bring "us together in a peaceful, loving state.
Hawking has warned before that artificial intelligence could bring humanity to its end.
Spacewalkers install cable for new docking adapters
William Harwood – CBS News
Astronauts Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Terry Virts floated outside the International Space Station Saturday and installed wiring needed for two new docking mechanisms that will be attached later this year for use by new Boeing and SpaceX crew capsules.
The Boeing-built International Docking Adapters, or IDAs, will allow the commercially developed ferry craft to dock at the front and top of the forward Harmony module starting in 2017. Two other ports on the Earth-facing side of the station will be available for use by U.S. cargo ships.
Floating in the station's Quest airlock module, Wilmore and Virts switched their spacesuits to battery power at 7:45 a.m. EST (GMT-5) to officially begin EVA-29, the 185th spacewalk devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction began in 1998.
This was the first of three spacewalks by Wilmore and Virts to install more than 760 feet of cabling and to attach new antennas to prepare the space station for eventual dockings by commercial crew capsules. The two additional spacewalks are planned for Wednesday and March 1.
During Saturday's excursion, the spacewalkers spent most of their time working at the front of the station at the forward end of the Harmony module where a docking port extension known as Pressurized Mating Adapter No. 2 is attached. PMA-2 is where visiting space shuttles once docked and where one of the new IDAs will be attached later this year.
After removing micrometeoroid shields from the forward end cone of Harmony, Wilmore and Virts unplugged no-longer-needed cables and installed new power and data lines to support IDA-1. All in all, Wilmore and Virts deployed about 340 feet of cable.
The astronauts also disconnected four cables from the end cone of the Destiny laboratory module that were once used to deliver power to docked space shuttles. New cables will be plugged in later to support the new docking adapters.
With all of their primary objectives completed, Wilmore and Virts returned to the airlock, ending the spacewalk at 2:26 p.m. for a duration of six hours and 41 minutes.
"Really, really nice work today," astronaut Douglas Wheelock called from mission control in Houston.
This was the second spacewalk for Wilmore and the first for Virts. With the completion of Saturday's work, 120 astronauts and cosmonauts representing nine nations have logged 1,159 hours and eight minutes of spacewalk time, or 48.3 days.
During their second spacewalk Wednesday, the astronauts will unfurl and hook up two more long cables and Virts will lubricate the grapple fixture on the end of the space station's robot arm. During the third outing March 1, they will install new antennas and cabling needed for communications between the station and commercial crew capsules bound for, or departing from, the new docking adapters.
IDA-1 will be launched this summer aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship and robotically attached to PMA-2. IDA-2 will be launched in December. But before it an be attached to the station, the lab crew must robotically move another docking port extension, PMA-3, from an unused port on the Tranquility module to Harmony's upper hatch.
As part of the station's reconfiguration, a cargo storage module currently attached to the Earth-facing port of the central Unity module, will be moved to a port on the forward side of Tranquility, freeing up the Unity port for use by visiting cargo ships. A second cargo port remains available on the Earth-facing side of Harmony.
All told, seven U.S. spacewalks will be needed to complete the station reconfiguration, requiring nearly 650 hours of crew time. Another 230 hours or so will be required for internal wiring changes and robot arm operations.
Saturday's spacewalk was originally planned for Friday, but mission managers delayed it one day in the wake of extensive troubleshooting to verify the health of critical spacesuit components known as fan/pump/separators.
The modules in question use a common motor and drive shaft to power three different components: a fan to circulate oxygen, a pump to circulate cooling water and a system to remove, or separate, condensation from the air supply and return it to the cooling water loop.
Failure of a fan/pump/separator during a spacewalk would stop the flow of oxygen to the astronaut, but an emergency backup system would give the crew member time to return to the station's airlock.
During testing in orbit, two fan/pump/separators failed to spin up and both were shipped back to Earth aboard a SpaceX cargo ship earlier this month for detailed analysis. An inspection revealed corrosion around drive shaft bearings. Engineers concluded the corrosion likely was the result of additional testing implemented after water backed up into the helmet of spacewalker Luca Parmitano in 2013.
Based on telemetry, a small amount of bearing corrosion is believed to be present in the fan/pump/separator in Virts' spacesuit. But analysis indicated it was well below the threshold that could cause the unit to fail during use.
As a result, mission managers cleared Virts and Wilmore to press ahead with the first of their three planned spacewalks. Both suits powered up normally Saturday, with no signs of trouble with either fan/pump/separator.
Spacewalking Astronauts Turn Cable Guys in 1st of 3 Jobs
Marcia Dunn - AP
Spacewalking astronauts routed more than 300 feet of cable outside the International Space Station on Saturday, tricky and tiring advance work for the arrival of new American-made crew capsules.
It was the first of three spacewalks planned for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts over the coming week.
Altogether, Wilmore and Virts have 764 feet of cable to run outside the space station. They got off to a strong start Saturday, rigging eight power and data lines, or about 340 feet.
"Broadening my resume," Virts observed.
NASA considers this the most complicated cable-routing job in the 16-year history of the space station. Equally difficult will be running cable on the inside of the complex.
The extensive rewiring is needed to prepare for NASA's next phase 260 miles up: the 2017 arrival of the first commercial spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts to the orbiting lab.
NASA is paying Boeing and SpaceX to build the capsules and fly them from Cape Canaveral, which hasn't seen a manned launch since the shuttles retired in 2011. Instead, Russia is doing all the taxi work — for a steep price.
The first of two docking ports for the Boeing and SpaceX vessels — still under development — is due to arrive in June. Even more spacewalks will be needed to set everything up.
There were so many cables that NASA color-coded them. That helped the spacewalkers only so much; they expected a lighter blue for one of the lines.
"I worked up a lather on that one," Wilmore informed Mission Control. After successfully attaching the first four cables, he added, "I've got to cool down."
Mission Control left two cables — or about 24 feet worth — for the next spacewalk coming up Wednesday. Four hundred feet of additional cable will be installed March 1 on spacewalk No. 3.
"We've got a lot of work still," Mission Control said as Saturday's 6 ½-hour spacewalk drew to a close. "We want to make sure we look after your health and get you back inside now, so we're going to claim victory here."
It was the first spacewalk for Virts, who arrived at the space station in late November. He savored the moment as he floated out high above the South Pacific. "Pretty cool," he said.
Spacesuit concerns stalled the work by a day.
NASA wanted to make certain that the suits worn by Wilmore and Virts had reliable fan and pump assemblies. Two other fan-pump units failed aboard the space station in recent months and were returned to Earth earlier this month for analysis. Corrosion was discovered, the result of water intrusion from testing.
Their suits appeared to work fine Saturday.
"I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their hard work and diligence," Wilmore, the station's commander, said once he was safely back inside.
ATV Break-Up Camera Misses Cargo Tug's Final Fiery Plunge
Peter B. de Selding – Space News
Europe's ATV-5 cargo transport that was sent on a destructive atmospheric-reentry orbit Feb. 15 was unable to send imagery from an infrared camera as the vehicle broke up over the South Pacific Ocean, the European Space Agency said Feb. 20.
The appropriately named Break-Up Camera was designed to take infrared images of ATV-5 as it disintegrated and send the data to a small terminal on a heatshield-protected portion of the ATV. The data would then be relayed to an Iridium mobile communications satellite in low Earth orbit.
ESA said what it calls a 'back box for spacecraft' did succeed in transmitting data showing that nearly 6,000 pictures were taken by the camera, in addition to information about the ATV's rotation and temperature as it fell through the atmosphere.
But while the terminal succeeded in contacting the Iridium satellite and in sending a message, further messages that would have included the imagery were not received.
ESA said it is "investigating why further data packets didn't make it through. This investigation may result in improvements, such as a backup data relay for future missions."
Video: Groundbreaking for commercial crew access tower
There was a groundbreaking Friday at Cape Canaveral's Complex 41 to start building the astronaut access tower to board Boeing's CST-100 capsules atop United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets.
Editorial: Hold the countdown on sale of Spaceport
Albuquerque Journal Editorial Board
Spaceport America was always a long-term bet on the future. It was never intended to turn a quick buck. Still, it's been frustratingly slow getting off the ground.
And that has prompted Sen. George Munoz, D-Gallup, to call for putting the roughly $220 million spaceport on the auction block so New Mexico taxpayers don't have to dig deeper into their pockets to keep it going in hopes it one day will be a linchpin in a new global travel industry.
The frustrations have mounted and the spaceport's main tenant, Virgin Galactic, is recovering from a devastating setback last October when its spaceship broke apart over California during a test flight.
While Munoz, a good steward of tax dollars, is understandably frustrated, some perspective is needed. The visionary spaceport was developed during the Gov. Bill Richardson administration and had buy-in from lawmakers. New Mexico taxpayers already have invested nearly a quarter of a billion dollars into the project.
Munoz's bill would require the New Mexico Spaceport Authority and others to come up with a marketing plan by October to sell the facility. Money from the sale would be used to pay back development bonds. Taxes imposed in Sierra and Doña Ana counties to pay for the project could be rescinded.
But there are multiple problems with Munoz' proposal.
First, the likelihood of a sale itself. The Legislative Finance Committee's Fiscal Impact Report says the number of potential buyers "is very limited" and finding a qualified buyer could take years. Because there is no privately owned, FAA-certified operating spaceport for comparison, it will be impossible to determine a fair market value. Plus it's uncertain if a private owner could negotiate an agreement with White Sands Missile Range for use of airspace.
Perhaps more important, attempting to sell would send the wrong message to the entire space industry – that New Mexico isn't open for space business. We would essentially be throwing in the towel. For a state where poverty is a huge industry, that would be a sad concession.
Unloading what Munoz and others worry is a white elephant wouldn't be cheap or a fast fix. New Mexico should stay the course while working hard to attract more users.
This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
MAVEN goes for a dip
Joe Latrell – Spaceflight Insider
NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter is the first spacecraft dedicated to studying the tenuous Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft recently completed the first of five planned dips into the lowest section of the upper Martian atmosphere, taking samples and relaying them back home to NASA.
Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's principal investigator says, "During normal science mapping, we make measurements between an altitude of about 93 miles and 3,853 miles (150 km and 6,200 km) above the surface. During the deep-dip campaigns, we lower the lowest altitude in the orbit, known as periapsis, to about 78 miles (125 km) which allows us to take measurements throughout the entire upper atmosphere."
Jakosky and his team operate MAVEN from the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics located in Boulder, Colorado.
On Feb. 10, team engineers instructed the craft to perform three burns by firing on-board rocket thrusters. They had concluded that "walking" the spacecraft down was the best way to proceed. A single burn may have sent the craft too deep into the atmosphere.
Even though the atmosphere is still very thin at 78 miles (125 km) it still puts an enormous drag on the MAVEN spacecraft. If the orbiter hits a particularly dense area of atmosphere, it could cause frictional heating and damage the satellite. Mission operators must carefully control how and when the spacecraft performs these dips.
"Although we changed the altitude of the spacecraft, we actually aimed at a certain atmospheric density," said Jakosky. "We wanted to go as deep as we can without putting the spacecraft or instruments at risk."
When the sampling was concluded, operators instructed MAVEN to perform a pair of maneuvers to return the craft to its normal operating altitudes. Operations for this dip concluded on Feb. 18. The information captured during this sample collection will be analyzed over the coming weeks. When combined with the data from the other planned sample runs and the regular mapping mission, it is hoped that a better understanding of the Martian atmosphere will emerge.
One of the key studies scientists will be looking at is the methods gases use to escape from the upper atmosphere of Mars and into space. How that outflow affects the lower atmospheric strata and its impact on the historical Martian climate is something scientists hope to learn more about using these studies.
"We are interested in the connections that run from the lower atmosphere to the upper atmosphere and then to escape to space," said Jakosky. "We are measuring all of the relevant regions and the connections between them."
While MAVEN's principle investigation team is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory of Applied Physics, it is managed through NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Several other universities assist with the program. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provides Deep Space Network support. The University of California at Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory also provided four science instruments for the mission.
The Hills Have Ice... on Mars, That Is
Scientists have been hunting for evidence of water on Mars ever since they started looking at the Red Planet through telescopes. But Mars does have water, and lots of it; solid water in the form of ice locked up in its polar caps and buried under its surface. And, if observations made by ESA's Mars Express are indicative of similar processes seen on Earth, these ancient hills may also hide hidden deposits of ice.
The image above shows an oblique view of the southernmost tip of a long chain of hills in Mars' northern hemisphere called Phlegra Montes, generated from data acquired by the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard ESA's Mars Express. The resolution is about 15 meters (50 feet) per pixel. These rounded hills are thought to have once been covered by thick glaciers during a Martian ice age a few hundred million years ago. Like Earth, Mars' rotational axis has a "wobble" that affects its global climate over long periods. While there are no glaciers in Mars' mid-latitudes today, geologic evidence indicates there once were – and the shape of the surface around Phlegra Montes hints that there could still be ice just 20 meters underground.
Aprons of debris surrounding some of the hills resemble those found in glacial regions on Earth, where subsurface ice causes material to slump downhill.
The search for water on Mars is important to scientists who are trying to figure out how Mars may have gone from a warmer, wet world to the cold dry one we see today. Learning where the water has gone and how much of it is remains liquid or is now frozen solid is part of that process.
In addition, future long-term human exploration of Mars will rely on knowledge of where any potential sources of water might be found.
Launched aboard a Russian Soyuz/Fregat rocket on June 2, 2003, Mars Express has been in orbit at Mars since Dec. 25, 2003.
Curiosity May Cause Evidence of Mars Life to Self-Destruct
Devin Coldewey - NBC News
Curiosity's experiments on Martian soil may be inadvertently eliminating traces of organics, British researchers reported this week. One of the compounds the rover is on the lookout for is jarosite, a mineral associated with conditions potentially suitable for life. Curiosity tests for jarosite and other interesting substances by flash-heating soil samples, watching for telltale signs of certain elements.
Tests conducted by a team at Imperial College London show that this heating process may cause the jarosite to break up and give off free oxygen — which can then destroy organic compounds in the soil. Essentially, the testing method could eliminate what it's looking for in the process.
"The destructive properties of some iron sulphates and perchlorate to organic matter may explain why current and previous missions have so far offered no conclusive evidence of organic matter preserved on Mars' surface," Imperial College's Mark Sephton, the study's lead author, explained in a news release. "This is despite the fact that scientists have known from previous studies that organic compounds have been delivered to Mars via comets, meteorites and interplanetary dust throughout its history." A member of the rover science team acknowledged that this is an issue, but assured NBC News in an email that the jarosite issue has been anticipated and controlled for.
"Certainly there is the potential for any sample that releases an oxidant such as O2 on heating to combust organic compounds and turn them into carbon dioxide," said Paul Mahaffy, chief of the Planetary Environments Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "This is in line with our extensive lab experiments that show that often organic compounds are able to escape on heating from a variety of samples including some that contain jarosite."
The jarosite may break up some of the organics in the soil, but it's probably not going to get all of them, and only a trace amount needs to escape to be detected.
Mahaffy also pointed out that the rover also carries a wet-chemistry experiment that avoids this particular issue. "When we have this experiment fully tested on our equipment in the laboratory and find the right sample on Mars we plan to utilize this experiment," he said.
Europa Clipper Team Seeking Earlier Launch
Jeff Foust — Space News
The team working on the leading concept for a mission to Europa believes it can be ready for launch as soon as 2022, several years ahead of the schedule NASA officials recently stated.
In a Feb. 19 presentation to NASA's Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) at the Ames Research Center, Barry Goldstein, Europa Clipper pre-project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said they are taking advantage of additional funding provided by Congress to accelerate work on the mission.
"It's our responsibility to drive as hard as we can to launch as early as we can," he said. "Our best-case scenario is launching in an opportunity that opens up in May to June of 2022, and we're holding to that."
That schedule is more aggressive than what NASA officials said Feb. 2 when they released the agency's 2016 budget proposal. That proposal included $30 million for a Europa mission, with the projected budget gradually increasing to $100 million per year by 2020.
"For the first time, this budget does assume a five-year funding profile for a mission to Europa," NASA Chief Financial Officer David Radzanowski told reporters in a Feb. 2 conference call. "The current funding profile would assume a launch in the mid-2020s."
Congress, though, has been more generous with funding for a Europa mission, appropriating about a quarter billion dollars in the last three years, including $100 million for 2015. That has allowed NASA to accelerate risk reduction work on the Europa Clipper mission design and seek proposals for instruments the spacecraft will carry.
"Congress has really been quite generous," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, in a separate presentation at the OPAG meeting. "We're forward funding a lot of work."
That included determining whether Europa Clipper should use solar panels or a nuclear-powered radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). "We had a mandate to show that if we are going to use RTGs, it was something that was required for this mission," Goldstein said.
Those studies found that solar panels could work in the vicinity of Jupiter, surviving the harsh radiation environment there as well as "cryogenic" temperatures when the spacecraft flies through the planet's shadow. The performance of the panels also will degrade more slowly than an RTG, allowing for an extended mission. Goldstein said an independent panel endorsed the team's decision to use solar power for Europa Clipper.
"Today we don't have any significant engineering risks on the baseline engineering subsystems," Goldstein said of the overall Europa Clipper design. He added, though, there will likely be challenges later, when instruments are selected and incorporated into the spacecraft.
While Europa Clipper is considered the leading concept for the Europa mission NASA plans to formally start this spring, Green cautioned that there may yet be changes to its design. He said NASA has yet to select instruments for it, and that the agency is looking at potential international partnerships, including with the European Space Agency.
Green called Europa Clipper "a proof of concept," but acknowledged it appeared more viable that alternative concepts. "There's no doubt that Clipper has popped to the top, but it's also not yet at Phase A."
Green also said it was premature to establish formal cost and schedule estimates for the mission, something he said would not come until the mission reached a development milestone known as Key Decision Point C. In the schedule presented by Goldstein at the meeting, that would not take place until May 2018.
Earlier studies, though, concluded Europa Clipper would cost approximately $2 billion, about half the estimated cost of previous designs for a Europa orbiter. That lower cost has made Europa Clipper much more palatable to NASA and the White House.
"If you think the administration is going to allow us to do a $4 billion Europa mission, you're wrong," Green told scientists at the OPAG meeting. "That isn't going to happen."
NASA Europa Mission May Search for Signs of Alien Life
A potential NASA mission to Jupiter's moon Europa may end up hunting for signs of life on the icy, ocean-harboring world.
NASA officials have asked scientists to consider ways that a Europa mission could search for evidence of alien life in the plumes of water vapor that apparently blast into space from Europa's south polar region.
These plumes, which NASA's Hubble Space Telescope spotted in December 2012, provide a possible way to sample Europa's ocean of liquid water, which is buried beneath the moon's icy shell, researchers say. [Photos: Europa, Mysterious Icy Moon of Jupiter]
"This is our chance" to investigate whether or not life exists on Europa, NASA science chief John Grunsfeld said here Wednesday (Feb. 18) during a Europa plume workshop at the agency's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. "I just hope we don't miss this opportunity for lack of ideas."
Europa flyby mission
NASA has been working on Europa mission concepts for years. Indeed, last July, agency officials asked scientists around the world to propose instruments that could fly aboard a Europa-studying spacecraft.
The quest to explore the 1,900-mile-wide (3,100 kilometers) moon got on firmer ground earlier this month when the White House allocated $30 million in its fiscal year 2016 budget request to formulate a Europa mission. (NASA was allocated a total of $18.5 billion in the request, which must still be approved by Congress.)
NASA is zeroing in on a flyby mission design, something along the lines of a long-studied concept called the Europa Clipper. As currently envisioned, Clipper would travel to Jupiter orbit, then make 45 flybys of Europa over 3.5 years, at altitudes ranging from 16 miles to 1,700 miles (25 km to 2,700 km).
The $2.1 billion mission would study Europa's subsurface ocean, giving researchers a better understanding of the water's depth, salinity and other characteristics. The probe would also measure and map the moon's ice shell, returning data that would be useful for a future mission to the Europan surface. [Europa and Its Ocean (Video)]
And now, it appears, NASA would like to add plume sampling to the Europa mission's task list, if possible. Grunsfeld urged workshop attendees to "think outside the box" and come up with feasible ways to study the moon's plumes.
If one such idea could be incorporated into the upcoming mission, so much the better. After all, the earliest that Clipper (or whatever variant ultimately emerges) could blast off for Europa is 2022 — and, using currently operational rockets, the craft wouldn't arrive in the Jupiter system until 2030, Grunsfeld pointed out. (Use of NASA's Space Launch System megarocket, which is still in development, would cut the travel time significantly.)
And there's no telling when NASA will be able to go back to Europa. (Europe is developing its own mission called the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer, which is scheduled to launch in 2022 to study Europa and two other Jovian satellites, Ganymede and Callisto.)
Grunsfeld stressed that he and other NASA higher-ups aren't pushing to turn Clipper into a plume-centric project; the core goals of the Europa mission will remain centered on assessing the moon's ability to support life, whatever comes out of the Ames workshop. But he doesn't want the plume opportunity to slip away for want of effort or focus.
"I don't want to be sitting in my rocking chair 20 years from now and think, 'We should have done something,'" Grunsfeld, a former NASA astronaut who helped repair and service Hubble on three separate space shuttle missions, told Space.com at the workshop.
Flying through the plumes?
A probe such as Clipper could zoom through the plume, which may rise as high as 125 miles (200 km) above Europa's surface; the probe could snag material using an aerogel collector, some workshop presenters said. The basic idea was demonstrated by NASA's Stardust mission, which returned particles of the Comet Wild 2 to Earth in January 2006.
Researchers would of course love to analyze bits of Europa material in well-equipped labs here on Earth, but bringing samples back is likely beyond the scope of the flyby mission currently under consideration. And it may be possible to detect biomolecules onsite, using gear aboard a Clipper-like probe, researchers say.
For example, spotting a set of amino acids that all display the same chirality, or handedness, in plume material would be strong evidence of Europan life, astrobiologist Chris McKay, of NASA Ames, said at the workshop. (Here on Earth, all life uses "left-handed" versions of amino acids, rather than "right-handed" ones.)
"If you get 20 amino acids, all with the same chirality, that would be, I think, compelling," McKay said, adding that spacecraft such as NASA's Mars rover Curiosity and Europe's Rosetta comet probe have the ability to determine chirality in sample molecules.
But collecting enough plume material to perform such analyses will likely prove extremely challenging. Indeed, it may require flying so low and so slowly that it makes more sense to send a lander down to the Europa surface through the plume, said astrobiologist Kevin Hand of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
And all of this discussion assumes that the spacecraft will be able to find the water vapor when it gets to Europa. At the moment, the plume remains unconfirmed; scientists have pointed Hubble at Europa repeatedly since the initial December 2012 detection, but have come up empty in attempts to spot it again.
So, if the plume exists, it is apparently sporadic or episodic, not continuous like the powerhouse geysers that erupt from the south pole of Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. (If Europa's plumes are continuous, they must usually be fairly weak, ratcheting up to levels detectable by Hubble only occasionally.)
The plume discovery team plans a number of additional Hubble observations through May of this year. NASA officials, and much of the planetary science community, are eagerly awaiting the results.
Planet you've probably never heard of
Amanda Barnett – CNN
Way out beyond Mars, but before you get to Jupiter, is a planet.
You read that right. There's a planet between Mars and Jupiter.
You may not have heard of it, but it was discovered in 1801 -- 129 years before Pluto. It originally was called a planet, then later an asteroid and now it's called a dwarf planet.
Its name is Ceres (pronounced like series) and you'll likely be hearing a lot more about it in the coming weeks.On its way to Ceres, Dawn spent more than 300 days taking photos of the protoplanet Vesta. These three images show Vesta coming into view as the spacecraft approached in July 2011.
Ceres is one of five named dwarf planets recognized by NASA and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The other four are Eris, Pluto, Makemake and Haumea.
But Ceres is the first of these worlds to get a visitor from Earth: NASA's Dawn spacecraft is arriving on March 6.
"Ceres is a 'planet' that you've probably never heard of," said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Ceres may be considered a dwarf planet, but it's "the giant of the main asteroid belt," Dr. Marc Rayman, chief engineer and mission director of the Dawn mission, told CNN. "It is not only the largest object between Mars and Jupiter, it is the largest object between the sun and Pluto that a spacecraft has not yet visited."
Ceres is one of five named dwarf planets recognized by NASA and the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The other four are Eris, Pluto, Makemake and Haumea.
But Ceres is the first of these worlds to get a visitor from Earth: NASA's Dawn spacecraft is arriving on March 6.
"Ceres is a 'planet' that you've probably never heard of," said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Ceres may be considered a dwarf planet, but it's "the giant of the main asteroid belt," Dr. Marc Rayman, chief engineer and mission director of the Dawn mission, told CNN. "It is not only the largest object between Mars and Jupiter, it is the largest object between the sun and Pluto that a spacecraft has not yet visited."
"We are tremendously excited," Rayman said. "We have guided this robotic probe for well over seven years on an interplanetary journey of more than 3 billion miles. Along the way we sailed past Mars. We spent 14 months orbiting and scrutinizing the giant protoplanet Vesta. ... Now, finally, we are on the verge of conducting the first exploration ever of the first dwarf planet."
New images from Dawn, taken when the probe was about 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) from Ceres, show craters and what NASA calls mysterious bright spots. Rayman said its surface is pretty beaten up and that the craters that are "scars from life in the rough and tumble asteroid belt." Why study a beaten-up space rock? Rayman said because it's a survivor -- and a mysterious one. Made up of rock and ice, Ceres may even have liquid water deep beneath its surface -- "perhaps as ponds or lakes or even oceans," Rayman said.
He said Ceres "appears to have been in the process of growing to become a full-sized planet when Jupiter terminated its growth nearly 4.6 billion years ago."
So by studying Ceres, scientists learn more about how the rest of the solar system formed. And he said, we should study Ceres because it's there -- and we need to understand the universe we live in. "We should study it because we hunger for knowledge and understanding. Grand undertakings like this nurture our spirit," Rayman said.
Rayman said that if you had learned about the solar system 200 years ago, "you would have learned that Ceres was a planet, just as people who learned about the solar system in more recent generations learned that Pluto is."
Speaking of Pluto, the most famous of the dwarf planets gets its own visitor in July. The New Horizons spacecraft is closing in for a flyby of Pluto and its moons.
This talk of planets and dwarf planets is still a little confusing, so here's the most recent tally: NASA currently recognizes eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, and the five named dwarf planets we listed earlier.
But a sixth possible dwarf planet already is on NASA's watch list.
Called 2012 VP113, it's believed to be one of the most distant objects in our solar system. On its Solar System Exploration website, NASA says the object was nicknamed "Biden" after Vice President Joseph Biden because of the VP in its initial designation. It will be up to the IAU to decide whether i2012 VP113 is a dwarf planet and whether it gets an official name.
But expect the numbers for planets in our solar system to keep changing. Mike Brown, the CalTech astronomy professor who helped discover dwarf planet Eris and who takes responsibility for killing off Pluto as a full-fledged planet, has his own tally listing more than 360 possible dwarf planets. And NASA has said there may be many more dwarf planets that we haven't found yet.
So Ceres, and its cousins, may soon outnumber the traditional planets you learned about in grade school.
Roscosmos invites French experts to join Russian space projects
TASS, of Russia
The heads of Russian and French space agencies discussed the current state and the prospects for further bilateral space cooperation
French specialists will take part in a number of Russian promising research and applied space programmes, according to an agreement signed on Friday after a meeting between head of Russia's Space Agency (Roscosmos) Igor Komarov and administrators of France's Nations Centre of Space Research (CNES) Jean-Yves Le Gall.
"The heads of the two space agencies discussed the current state and the prospects for further bilateral space cooperation, including the implementation of the Soyuz programme at the Guiana Space Centre, which has a history of 15 years," Roscosmos' press service told TASS. "After the meeting the heads of the two space agencies signed a declaration of intent on long-term space research cooperation." The press service noted that Russia and France will mark the 50th anniversary of their space cooperation in 2016.
What's Happening in Space Policy February 23-27, 2015
Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of February 23-27, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
During the Week
This is one of those weeks when so much is going on that it's difficult to choose just a couple of events to highlight. Please peruse the list below to find your own favorites.
But the others should be of interest, too: Wednesday's House hearing with the NASA Inspector General (and his counterparts at the Departments of Commerce and Justice) and hearings on the FY2016 budget requests for the Department of Transportation (including the Office of Commercial Space Transportation), Air Force (where many national security space programs reside), and the Department of Commerce (home of NOAA). Many congressional hearings are webcast (though usually not the ones held in the U.S. Capitol), so you can enjoy them live or later in archived webcasts. We'll provide summaries of as many of them as we can.
Tuesday, February 24
Tuesday-Wednesday, February 24-25
Wednesday, February 25
Thursday, February 26
Friday, February 27
END
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Wounded Warrior Project: Soldier Ride Houston
- JSC Expected Behaviors - Organizations/Social
- Reminder: ShopNASA Gift Shop Hours Feb. 23-27
- Tour and Talk on Orion Mission Ops w/ EFT-1 MC
- Toastmasters Contest - Witty and Wise - Jobs and Training
- APPEL - Communicating Technical Issues
- Lunch-and-Learn Seminar
- Pt 1: Unified Approach to Modal Reduction Methods
- Job Opportunities
- 4 Open Opportunities - NASA Employee Talent Search
- Behavioral Health & Performance Deputy Element Mgr
- Formal Mentoring Program Application Extended - Community
- Deadline This Week for AgCAS
- NASA STEM Mania |  |
| Headlines - Wounded Warrior Project: Soldier Ride Houston
The Wounded Warrior Project, Soldier Ride Houston, will be held on Friday, March 6, at the entrance to Building 1. The Soldier Ride is a unique cycling opportunity for wounded warriors to use cycling and the bonds of service to overcome physical, mental or emotional wounds. Fifty selected warriors from around the nation and of all ability levels will cycle with state-of-the-art adaptive hand cycles, trikes and bicycles that accommodate the warriors' various injuries and disabilities. Communities play a key role in making each Soldier Ride a success and help warriors gain confidence in their rehabilitation efforts. This year, 40 people from the NASA workforce are eligible to ride with the warriors (approximately a 12-mile ride). If you would like to register, please contact Lisa Gurgos via email by March 3 to sign up. Participants are selected on a first come, first served basis. The center encourages JSC team members to line up in front of Building 1 on March 6 at 8:45 a.m. to cheer on the warriors. Flags will be handed out to wave to the warriors as they approach Building 1. Event Date: Friday, March 6, 2015 Event Start Time:8:45 AM Event End Time:9:30 AM
Event Location: In front of Building 1
Add to Calendar
Alan Mather x32619
[top] - JSC Expected Behaviors
The NASA values consist of Safety, Teamwork and Integrity in support of mission success. We commit without compromise to embodying these values in all that we do. To realize these values, we have defined a set of supporting behaviors that contractors and civil servants should demonstrate every day. Underlying all four expected behaviors described to date is the fifth and final expected behavior: Be a Key Player - Think results. We encourage all team members to be engaged contributors and develop solutions. Ask yourself: - Do I respect and work within contract guidelines?
- Do I welcome the contribution of all members regardless of badge, education level or background?
- Do I seek out collaboration beyond my work groups, teams, directorate and discipline?
- Am I a catalyst for developing / maintaining a diverse, inclusive and cohesive team?
- Do I encourage active participation in all phases of problem resolution?
- Do I assure the difficult or sensitive issues are handled in a timely manner?
Effective communication is a crucial ingredient for practicing these behaviors daily. Communication is a two-way process that requires us to listen and understand at least as much as we speak. We openly share information and knowledge, focusing on quality, not quantity.
[top]
Organizations/Social - Reminder: ShopNASA Gift Shop Hours Feb. 23-27
The ShopNASA Gift Shops will be open with modified hours this week. Building 3: - Today, Feb. 23 - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Tomorrow, Feb. 24 - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Wednesday, Feb. 25 - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 26 - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 27 - 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Building 11: - Today, Feb. 23 - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Tomorrow, Feb. 24 - CLOSED
- Wednesday, Feb. 25 - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Thursday, Feb. 26 - 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Friday, Feb. 27 - CLOSED for Flex Friday
Please remember that Space Center Houston, AMC movie and Cinemark movie tickets, as well as rodeo carnival packs, can all be purchased at the Gilruth front desk. The Gilruth front desk is open Monday through Friday, 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. - Tour and Talk on Orion Mission Ops w/ EFT-1 MC
Tour and Talk on Orion Mission Ops (focusing on Exploration Flight Test-1 [EFT-1] Flight Ops related to Human Systems Integration (HSI) The event will include a tour of the Orion EFT-1 mission control room. The discussion will include topics like: overview of the EFT-1 ops team roles and operational procedures; comparison to other flight ops experiences; flight ops training overview; and HSI-related lessons learned. - Toastmasters Contest – Witty and Wise
You're invited to join Space Explorers Toastmasters for an International Speech Contest. On Thursday, Feb. 26, members will impart wit and wisdom in the club's International Speech Contest. This contest will be held during our regular club meeting time. - When: 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
- Where: Building 30A, Room 1010
Don't miss it! Jobs and Training - APPEL - Communicating Technical Issues
This two-day workshop provides the foundation for communicating technical information to a varied audience and demonstrates effective methods and strategies for presenting technical issues. This course is designed for NASA's technical workforce, including systems engineers and project personnel working on or leading project teams. This course is available for self-registration in SATERN until tomorrow, Feb. 24, and is open to civil servants and contractors. Dates: Tuesday to Wednesday, March 31 to April 1 Location: Building 12, Room 134 - Lunch-and-Learn Seminar
The NASA Early Career Scientists and Engineers Working Group is hosting another virtual seminar. This edition is "NASA Early Career Groups: How to Get Started and Recipes for Success," and will feature presentations by Garth Henning (NASA Headquarters), Yalreska Collado-Vega (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) and Billy McMillan (NASA Kennedy Space Center). If you have any questions, please contact David Smith or Aaron Burton. - Pt 1: Unified Approach to Modal Reduction Methods
Catch the webcast, "A Unified Approach to Modal Reduction Methods - Part 1," featuring Dr. Arya Majed on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at noon CST. Part 1 of this two-part series on modal synthesis methods presents a unified mathematical approach to the derivation of the modal reduction methods. The presenter provides a single mathematical tool capable of deriving all methods of modal reduction, including the more involved mixed-boundary methods. With this, the user gains an immediate level of comfort with all approaches including the more exotic methods. In addition, with the ability to now derive the method, the assumptions, approximations, application and pitfalls of each method automatically become more clear. Another objective of this presentation is to enable the engineers to develop their own NASTRAN/DMAP or other computer programs for implementing any of the modal reduction methods. - Job Opportunities
Where do I find job opportunities? To help you navigate to JSC vacancies, use the filter drop-down menu and select "JSC HR." The "Jobs" link will direct you to the USAJOBS website for the complete announcement and the ability to apply online. If you have questions about any JSC job vacancies or reassignment opportunities, please call your HR representative. - 4 Open Opportunities - NASA Employee Talent Search
There are currently four positions available for application in NASA Employee Talent Search (NETS), JSC's new lateral job opportunities tool. To view these opportunities, visit NETS under the "Employee Resources" tab on the JSC home page, or go to: https://nets.jsc.nasa.gov To apply to a position: - Visit the site
- Click on "Search Opportunities"
- View "All Lateral Opportunities"
- Select a position listed as "Open"
- Review the position
- Follow the prompts to apply
Live Labs for managers, AOs, budget representatives and Human Resources representatives interested in learning more about this tool (come and go as you please): - Feb. 23 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. - Building 12, Room 144
- Feb. 24 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. - Building 12, Room 138
- March 3 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. - Building 12, Room 138
NETS 101 for anyone: - Feb. 24 from noon to 1 p.m. - Building 30 Auditorium
- Feb. 25 from 10 to 11 a.m. - Building 30 Auditorium
Please use IE 11+, Chrome, Firefox 20+, Safari, your mobile device on-site or VPN. Promotion opportunities are still available here. - Behavioral Health & Performance Deputy Element Mgr
The Biomedical Research and Environmental Sciences Division (SK) seeks qualified candidates to support the Behavioral Health and Performance (BHP) Element Manager as Deputy Element Manager. BHP manages the segment of the Human Research Program responsible for capturing evidence to expand our understanding the psychological and emotional stresses that occur to humans during space exploration. Where these changes are harmful or prohibitive to exploration missions, BHP develops monitoring strategies and subsequent countermeasures to enable long-duration human spaceflight. For additional information on this position, please see JSC's job tool, opportunity number 72BEH-0205-1529. - Formal Mentoring Program Application Extended
There's still time to apply! JSC's Formal Mentoring Program (FMP), formally known as YODA, has extended the application window to accept applications from civil servant employees for both mentors and protégés through Friday, Feb. 27. FMP is excited to bring participants several new things this year, including reverse mentoring, interactive events, a new website and revamped application process. Visit the FMP's updated Web page to apply. *Website can only be accessed using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox* Community - Deadline This Week for AgCAS
Know someone interested in space and agriculture? Make sure they don't miss out on this awesome opportunity. Agriculture Community College Aerospace Scholars (AgCAS) is launching for Texas community college students who have an interest in space agriculture or life sciences. Participants will complete online modules to qualify and compete to attend the on-site experience at JSC. Once on-site, students will interact with NASA scientists and engineers; complete design challenges on topics related to farming and plant research, remote sensing, engineering and sustainability; and tour working facilities. The deadline to be a part of this new and exciting opportunity is Feb. 25! - NASA STEM Mania
Do you know any K-12 educators? Help them discover the sports in NASA with FREE virtual educator professional development workshops from Feb. 23 to March 19. Workshops are provided by the NASA STEM Educator Professional Development Collaborative, approved and registered providers of the Texas Education Agency, and can count toward Continuing Professional Education (CPE) hours. For workshop details, registration and more information, click here. | |
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| JSC Today is compiled periodically as a service to JSC employees on an as-submitted basis. Any JSC organization or employee may submit articles. Disclaimer: Accuracy and content of these notes are the responsibility of the submitters. |
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