Hope you can join us tomorrow at our monthly NASA Retirees Luncheon at Hibachi Grill at 11:30
NASA and Human Spaceflight News
Wednesday – Feb. 4, 2015
HEADLINES AND LEADS
NASA / ATK prep five-segment SLS booster for March 11 test fire
Scott Johnson – Spaceflight Insider
The next major milestone in the development of NASA's new human-rated heavy-lift vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), is scheduled to take place on March 11 — a planned test of the largest solid rocket booster (SRB) ever built for flight.
Next Year, NASA Could Get An Extra $500 Million And A Mission To Europa
Loren Grush – Popular Science
President Obama wants to give NASA's missions a big boost. Monday afternoon, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden updated the nation on the state of its space agency, noting that the Obama administration is proposing an $18.5 billion budget for NASA for the 2016 fiscal year. That's about $500 million more than the agency received for 2015.
NASA Has Its Sights Set on Europa
Phil Plait – Slate
Yesterday, NASA announced its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. This is not the actual budget it will be getting. It's basically a handshake between NASA and the White House, agreeing on what they want Congress to approve. Officials from NASA and the Obama administration have been hammering this out for a while, stressing missions and activities they like. The House and Senate have to create their own budgets, agree on those, then submit that to the president to sign.
Aging Mars rover could be shut down
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, working well past their expected lifetimes, could be shut down in fiscal year 2016 as the agency tries to balance funding for older missions and development of modernized new space probes, officials said Monday.
Exclusive-The FAA: Regulating Business on the Moon
Irene Klotz - Reuters via New York Times
The United States government has taken a new, though preliminary, step to encourage commercial development of the moon.
R.I.P. Venus Express: remembering eight years on the brink of hell
Tomasz Nowakowski – Spaceflight Insider
For one space probe, it was a hell of a ride to our "sister planet", Venus. Eight long years of studying the inhospitable world was significantly more than ESA scientists expected from the mission. The Venus Express spacecraft launched on Nov. 9, 2005 and entered the orbit of its target planet on Apr. 11, 2006, was originally planned to last for only 500 days. Due to the mission's success, three mission extensions were granted before the probe was subject to a slow death while entering Venusian hostile atmosphere this January.
FAA Commercial Space Office Seeks Budget Increase To Hire More Staff
Jeff Foust – Space News
The Federal Aviation Administration is requesting a nine-percent budget increase beginning in October for its commercial space office, whose resources have been stressed by an increase in launch activity and two high-profile accident investigations.
COMPLETE STORIES
NASA / ATK prep five-segment SLS booster for March 11 test fire
Scott Johnson – Spaceflight Insider
The next major milestone in the development of NASA's new human-rated heavy-lift vehicle, the Space Launch System (SLS), is scheduled to take place on March 11 — a planned test of the largest solid rocket booster (SRB) ever built for flight.
The SRB, known as Qualification Motor – 1 (QM-1), was built by Alliant Techsystems (ATK), and is an upgraded five-segment version of the four-segment boosters used to assist the Space Shuttle to orbit. Two of these five segment boosters, along with four shuttle heritage RS-25 liquid fueled engines, will be used to power the SLS.
QM-1 has been installed, horizontally, in a specially built stand, located at ATK's Promontory, Utah, test facility. This test version of the booster is 154 feet in length and 12 feet in diameter. The flight versions will be approximately 177 feet in length.
"What's impressive about this test is when ignited, the booster will be operating at about 3.6 million pounds of thrust, or 22 million horsepower," said Alex Priskos, manager of the SLS Boosters Office at Marshall. "This test firing is critical to enable validation of our design."
Both QM-1, and later flight versions, are expected to produce this same 3.6 million pounds of thrust.
The test is currently scheduled to take place at 9:30 a.m. (MST) and, if everything goes to plan, it should last for two minutes. That's a bit less than the time the SRB will fire when it assists the SLS in getting off of Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39B in Florida.
"With RS-25 engine testing underway, and this qualification booster firing coming up, we are taking big steps toward building this rocket and fulfilling NASA's mission of Mars and beyond," said SLS Program Manager Todd May. "This is the most advanced propulsion system ever built and will power this rocket to places we've never reached in the history of human spaceflight."
During the test, 103 different design objectives will be measured across 534 booster instrumentation channels. To help ensure the booster will meet structural and ballistic requirements, the booster will be subjected to temperatures of 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) to measure its performance at high temperatures.
"Testing before flight is critical to ensure reliability and safety when launching crew into space," said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager of ATK's Space Launch division. "The QM-1 static test is an important step in further qualifying this new five-segment solid rocket motor for the subsequent planned missions to send astronauts to deep space."
Data will be collected on key motor upgrades, including the new insulation and booster case liner, as well as the redesigned nozzle. These improvements will ensure the SLS boosters are will be safe, affordable, and eco-friendly.
"While we made modifications to our booster for NASA's new SLS, during the 30 years of the Space Shuttle Program, we also constantly monitored and improved our design," said Precourt, a four-time space shuttle astronaut.
Booster hardware and software is developed, built and tested by ATK. Together with NASA, ATK has already successfully completed three, full-scale development test firings of the five-segment booster ahead of the March 11 test.
Stay tuned to SpaceFlight Insider for continuing updates on SLS development.
Also, be sure to tune into SpaceFlight Insider on March 11 as we will be on-site, in Utah, and streaming the entire event live!
Next Year, NASA Could Get An Extra $500 Million And A Mission To Europa
Loren Grush – Popular Science
President Obama wants to give NASA's missions a big boost. Monday afternoon, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden updated the nation on the state of its space agency, noting that the Obama administration is proposing an $18.5 billion budget for NASA for the 2016 fiscal year. That's about $500 million more than the agency received for 2015.
The funds are aimed at covering the costs of NASA's ongoing, manned deep-space exploration projects, such as sending astronauts to Mars. But money is also being set aside for some new, extremely exciting ventures. The project we're most excited about is a trip to Jupiter's moon, Europa; it's a big candidate for finding potential life elsewhere in our solar system, and now that the White House has approved the mission, it can finally get started.
Of course, much of the money is focused on getting to our red neighbor first. About $8.51 billion of the proposed budget is allocated to human exploration, and a large chunk of that--$2.863 billion--will go toward the Orion Crew Capsule and Space Launch System. Dubbed NASA's "monster" rocket, the SLS is currently in development at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, and officials hope to use the vehicle to send the astronaut-carrying Orion to Mars sometime in the 2030s.
"[NASA] is firmly on a journey to Mars. Make no mistake, this journey will help guide and define our generation," Bolden said on Monday.
The rest of the human exploration budget is geared toward maintaining the International Space Station ($3.106 billion), as well as funding the space taxis that will transport American astronauts to the orbiting laboratory. Through the Commercial Crew Program, NASA awarded private companies SpaceX and Boeing with contracts to design and build crew vehicles that will ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. Under the proposed budget, the program will receive $1.244 billion for 2016, representing a $400 million increase from the 2015 Commercial Crew budget. Bolden says the increased allotment will help both companies reach the goal of operating space station flights by 2017.
Yet the really intriguing stuff lies in the budget for science, which will receive $5.288 billion. While $1.947 billion of that is going to Earth science (e.g. maintaining its SMAP satellite), $1.361 billion is going to planetary science, and that includes funding for a long-awaited robotic mission to Europa. The satellite is thought to house a vast ocean underneath its icy crust, leading many scientists to wonder if the waters are home to organic life. Although Congress gave NASA $100 million to start the design process on a Europa mission in 2015, the proposed White House budget will add on $30 million. And with NASA being an executive branch agency, President Obama's approval means NASA can now get started on the project.
As always, Congress will meddle with the president's budget request, so it's doubtful the final version will look the same as this proposal. But the suggested increase spells good news for your average space enthusiast, indicating the executive branch better understands the significance of space exploration. Meanwhile, just remember: NASA's budget still represents only half of a percent of the overall national budget.
NASA Has Its Sights Set on Europa
Phil Plait – Slate
Yesterday, NASA announced its Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. This is not the actual budget it will be getting. It's basically a handshake between NASA and the White House, agreeing on what they want Congress to approve. Officials from NASA and the Obama administration have been hammering this out for a while, stressing missions and activities they like. The House and Senate have to create their own budgets, agree on those, then submit that to the president to sign.
That last part is super important, as you'll see. In the end, the enacted budget generally resembles the earlier version, but also tends to have key differences.
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Here are some key things I want to point out.
All These Worlds Are Yours
Easily the biggest news from the budget is the request for $30 million to start planning a mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. Just getting that in the request is really exciting!
Europa is roughly the size of our own Moon, but made of ice and rock. We've known for some time that it harbors an ocean of liquid water under its surface, but we don't know as much about it as we'd like. It's a very tempting target. There are arguments that we should go to Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, instead, since that has geysers shooting up from its south pole, making sample collection easier. But Saturn is twice as far away as Jupiter, which means more time to get there and (in general) less mass in the science instruments as well. As much as I'd like to go to Enceladus, given the current state of NASA's budget, I think Europa makes more sense.
NASA has been doing a concept study for a mission called the Europa Clipper, and it's a good bet the actual mission will be based on it. The idea is not to land—that's pretty difficult and presents a lot of technical issues*—but instead have an orbital mission that swings around Jupiter and dips low over Europa's surface. The moon orbits deep within Jupiter's powerful magnetic field, and the radiation environment there is killer. Literally: A human on the surface of Europa would receive a lethal dose of particle radiation in about a day.
But that sort of mission can tell us a lot about conditions on and underneath Europa, and I think it's very much worth a shot. I'm glad NASA is looking at it. At this point, normally, I'd be throwing a bucket of ice water on all this by saying Congress has to pass this plan. But here's the kicker: Europa has a champion in Congress, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas). He's a big supporter of this mission, vocally so, and I'm pretty sure he'll stand firm for this funding.
In recent years, the White House has inexplicably been trying to cut planetary science funding, which frankly is nuts. It's one of the most successful areas of NASA, including for public support. So the interesting thing to me here is not that Congress is behind going to Europa, but that the White House is. Mind you, a few months ago, when NASA released a remastered image of Europa (seen at the top of this post) together with a video about all the cool science they could do there, it seemed pretty obvious they were prepping for this announcement.
Well, good on them. I'll note that there's money in this request for the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE, yes, seriously), a European Space Agency–led mission planned for a 2022 launch. NASA is contributing instruments to it. This could be a really nice kick-start to a new wave of outer moons exploration.
SOFIA's Choice
Europa wasn't the only good news in the budget request. I'm glad to see funding restored for SOFIA, an airplane-based infrared observatory. That was cut last year from the White House budget, and the new money looks like it will be pending a science review, but it's nice to see that in there.
There's also money for Hubble, James Webb Space Telescope, and for other projects like Near Earth Object observations and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, an ambitious follow-on to Kepler. That's all cool.
But …
Not all the news is good, of course. I was very surprised to see money zeroed out for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is still doing great work at our Moon, and especially for the Mars rover Opportunity. Oppy is probably the single greatest investment NASA has ever made, since it's still tooling around Mars after 10 years … when it was supposed to be a three-month mission. But I know this is a devil's choice for NASA, given future exploration of Mars needs that money, and the pot is limited. Funding might be found for Oppy if it's still performing later this year, so we'll see. Maybe Congress will re-fund LRO too. We'll have to wait and see.
And sigh, Education and Public Outreach; that's still a mess. Not much has changed there, from what I can tell, since from when the White House inexplicably decided to give that over to groups like the Smithsonian and the Department of Education.
And, of course, there's plenty of money to develop the Orion capsule and the Space Launch System, the monster rocket designed to carry it. Regular readers know I am no fan of SLS, and in fact wouldn't mind seeing it canceled and that money redirected to other projects. In fact, with the SpaceX Falcon Heavy ready for a demo flight this year, commercial ventures will be years ahead of NASA when it comes to putting people back in space.
NASA does have more money earmarked for commercial space, which is great. But spending billions (nearly $3 billion in this budget, all told) on a rocket and capsule with no real concrete plan of what to do with them seems like a pretty terrible idea in my opinion.
But politics being what they are, I know NASA won't cancel SLS any time soon, or ever. That's too bad.
Still, even given all that, this budget is something I can live with. It restores planetary funding, adds in some pretty cool stuff, and still gives Congress breathing room to work with. And I have to say, a Europa mission does get my heart pumping: That's precisely the kind of thing NASA needs to do! It's solid science, important work, will capture the public's imagination, and is the kind of cutting-edge technology NASA should be boldly doing.
I will be writing my Congresscritter soon about this budget, telling him what I think (essentially what you just read, but in fewer words). If you're a U.S. citizen I urge you to do so as well. This budget is just so many words until Congress approves it.
Aging Mars rover could be shut down
Stephen Clark – Spaceflight Now
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, working well past their expected lifetimes, could be shut down in fiscal year 2016 as the agency tries to balance funding for older missions and development of modernized new space probes, officials said Monday.
Facing bouts of trouble with its flash memory drive, the six-wheeled Opportunity rover marked 11 years on Mars on Jan. 24. The mission was designed to last three months.
The spending proposal released by the Obama administration Monday requests no money for the Opportunity rover in fiscal year 2016, which begins Sept. 30.
Opportunity's line was also zero in the White House's budget request last year, but NASA found funding and the mission received a two-year extension after a recommendation from an independent scientific review board.
"It's true that the '16 request does zero out funding for Mars Opportunity in 2016 and assumes that it ceases operations," said David Radzanowski, NASA's chief financial officer. "We will assess on-going Opportunity operations this summer in 2015 and potentially identify funds for the potential continuation of operations for Opportunity. This is not a guarantee that we will do that."
The rover has showed signs of aging in recent months, and ground controllers briefly lost contact with Opportunity in December. The craft's non-volatile flash memory, which stores data when the rover goes to sleep at night, is wearing out after more than a decade on the red planet.
There are limits to how many times controllers can write and erase data on the flash memory system, and engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are coaxing the rover along while they work on a potential long-term fix.
The mission's operations team has "adopted a tactic of avoiding use of the flash memory, while they prepare a software remedy to restore its capability," JPL said in a press release issued in January.
The software solution would block off the portion of the memory causing problems, allowing the rover to again use the rest of the flash system.
"Without the use of the onboard memory, it cannot store images or other data overnight," the press release said. "While operating in a no-flash mode, the mission is downloading each day's data before beginning the overnight sleep."
"The fix for the flash memory requires a change to the rover's flight software, so we are conducting extensive testing to be sure it will not lead to any unintended consequences for rover operations," said John Callas, project manager for Opportunity at JPL.
If Opportunity is healthy and still generating worthy science results, the mission could get a reprieve.
"We will look at continuing operations of those activities and finding ways to fund them if, in fact, they actually are operational by 2016, and the science value does make sense," Radzanowski said.
Opportunity reached a high vista on the rim of the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater on Jan. 6, completing the drive without the use of the rover's flash memory. Its next stop is a region named "Marathon Valley" where observations from orbiting satellites show signs of minerals that may have been exposed to water long ago.
The rover has logged nearly 26 miles of driving since it landed on Mars in January 2004, farther than any craft has traveled on another world. The Marathon Valley site got its name because Opportunity will have driven the equivalent distance of a marathon on Mars by the time it arrives.
Opportunity has sent back more than 200,000 images from the surface of Mars.
NASA last heard from its twin rover Spirit in 2010 after it got stuck in a sand pit with its power-generating solar panels tilted away from the sun. It lost power in the Martian winter, and cold temperatures may have damaged sensitive components on the rover.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is also under the budget ax. The spacecraft launched in June 2009 and mapped the moon in greater detail than any mission before.
"At some point, we'll look at its operations and identify whether we will be able to continue (operating it) in 2016," Radzanowski told reporters Monday.
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, the longest-lived mission ever to visit the red planet, is slated to receive funding in fiscal year 2016, but its budget could be cut to zero in 2017.
Radzanowski said NASA must decide whether to pour resources into aging missions or pay for construction of new spacecraft capable of more innovative scientific research.
"What you're looking at is tension you have in any activity that has operations and development," Radzanowski said. "You have to make trades between funding new activities and new development of missions that bring new cutting edge science versus taking advantage of something that's operating well and also providing good science."
NASA's Spitzer infrared observatory was singled out for cancellation in 2014 after receiving a relatively low ranking by a review panel that recommends which operating missions the space agency should keep going.
But NASA officials said two months later they found money to continue Spitzer's mission despite worries it would end.
"Whether we will continue that modus operandi for some of these lower cost operating missions going forward — zeroing them out and finding funding for them in the future — I don't know," Radzanowski said. "But it's a reflection of trying to balance development versus future operations."
Opportunity's budget for fiscal year 2014 was $14 million. LRO received $12.4 million for mission operations last year. The White House budget request would give NASA's planetary science division, which includes Opportunity and LRO, nearly $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2016.
"Could somebody else, a university, a private entity, etc., operate these missions? … I'm not saying that today we are looking at those types of options or models for LRO or on Opportunity going forward," Radzanowski said. "At the same time, the agency — I think — is open for new ways. When from an agency standpoint, we no longer have a science requirement to keep them operating, if somebody out there does want to provide funding and come to the table and continue operating, we might consider that."
NASA has signed agreements for external groups to take over aging or decommissioned spacecraft before. The California Institute of Technology, which manages JPL for NASA, assumed responsibility for funding NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX, ultraviolet space telescope from May 2012 to April 2013.
"I'm not guaranteeing that we would do it, but we would consider it," Radzanowski said.
Exclusive-The FAA: Regulating Business on the Moon
Irene Klotz - Reuters via New York Times
The United States government has taken a new, though preliminary, step to encourage commercial development of the moon.
According to documents obtained by Reuters, U.S. companies can stake claims to lunar territory through an existing licensing process for space launches.
The Federal Aviation Administration, in a previously undisclosed late-December letter to Bigelow Aerospace, said the agency intends to "leverage the FAA's existing launch licensing authority to encourage private sector investments in space systems by ensuring that commercial activities can be conducted on a non-interference basis."
In other words, experts said, Bigelow could set up one of its proposed inflatable habitats on the moon, and expect to have exclusive rights to that territory - as well as related areas that might be tapped for mining, exploration and other activities.
However, the FAA letter noted a concern flagged by the U.S. State Department that "the national regulatory framework, in its present form, is ill-equipped to enable the U.S. government to fulfill its obligations" under a 1967 United Nations treaty, which, in part, governs activities on the moon.
The United Nations Outer Space treaty, in part, requires countries to authorize and supervise activities of non-government entities that are operating in space, including the moon. It also bans nuclear weapons in space, prohibits national claims to celestial bodies and stipulates that space exploration and development should benefit all countries.
"We didn't give (Bigelow Aerospace) a license to land on the moon. We're talking about a payload review that would potentially be part of a future launch license request. But it served a purpose of documenting a serious proposal for a U.S. company to engage in this activity that has high-level policy implications," said the FAA letter's author, George Nield, associate administrator for the FAA's Office of Commercial Transportation.
"We recognize the private sector's need to protect its assets and personnel on the moon or on other celestial bodies," the FAA wrote in the December letter to Bigelow Aerospace. The company, based in Nevada, is developing the inflatable space habitats. Bigelow requested the policy statement from the FAA, which oversees commercial space transportation in the U.S.
The letter was coordinated with U.S. departments of State, Defense, Commerce, as well as NASA and other agencies involved in space operations. It expands the FAA's scope from launch licensing to U.S. companies' planned activities on the moon, a region currently governed only by the nearly 50-year old UN space treaty.
But the letter also points to more legal and diplomatic work that will have to be done to govern potential commercial development of the moon or other extraterrestrial bodies.
"It's very much a wild west kind of mentality and approach right now," said John Thornton, chief executive of private owned Astrobotic, a startup lunar transportation and services firm competing in a $30 million Google-backed moon exploration XPrize contest.
Among the pending issues is lunar property and mineral rights, a topic that was discussed and tabled in the 1970s in a sister UN proposal called the Moon Treaty. It was signed by just nine countries, including France, but not the United States.
"It is important to remember that many space-faring nations have national companies that engage in commercial space activities. They will definitely want to be part of the rule making process," said Joanne Gabrynowicz, a professor of space law at University of Mississippi.
Bigelow Aerospace is expected to begin testing a space habitat aboard the International Space Station this year. The company intends to then operate free-flying orbital outposts for paying customers, including government agencies, research organizations, businesses and even tourists. That would be followed by a series of bases on the moon beginning around 2025, a project estimated to cost about $12 billion.
Company founder Robert Bigelow said he intends to invest $300 million of his own funds, about $2.5 billion in hardware and services from Bigelow Aerospace and raise the rest from private investors.
The FAA's decision "doesn't mean that there's ownership of the moon," Bigelow told Reuters. "It just means that somebody else isn't licensed to land on top of you or land on top of where exploration and prospecting activities are going on, which may be quite a distance from the lunar station."
Other companies could soon be testing rights to own what they bring back from the moon. Moon Express, another aspiring lunar transportation company, and also an XPrize contender, intends to return moon dust or rocks on its third mission.
"The company does not see anything, including the Outer Space Treaty, as being a barrier to our initial operations on the moon," said Moon Express co-founder and president Bob Richards. That includes "the right to bring stuff off the moon and call it ours."
R.I.P. Venus Express: remembering eight years on the brink of hell
Tomasz Nowakowski – Spaceflight Insider
For one space probe, it was a hell of a ride to our "sister planet", Venus. Eight long years of studying the inhospitable world was significantly more than ESA scientists expected from the mission. The Venus Express spacecraft launched on Nov. 9, 2005 and entered the orbit of its target planet on Apr. 11, 2006, was originally planned to last for only 500 days. Due to the mission's success, three mission extensions were granted before the probe was subject to a slow death while entering Venusian hostile atmosphere this January.
"Venus Express fulfilled its original overall goals, gathered most expected data, and in fact could accomplish its objectives beyond what was originally thought by exceeding its nominal mission several times," Patrick Martin, ESA Venus Express mission manager told astrowatch.net. "It did much more than what it was planned for thanks to both a very robust spacecraft and very professional operations teams."
Welcome to Hell
Venus, one of the solar system's most inhospitable planets is a hellish place of high temperatures and crushing air pressure. The planet's surface temperature of more than 842 degrees Fahrenheit (450 degrees Celsius), is hot enough to melt lead and its atmospheric pressure is some 92 times greater than Earth's. These conditions caused earlier probes to only last little more than two hours. But even though the conditions on the surface of Venus are extremely inhospitable today, it may once have had a lot of water in the atmosphere, which is now mostly gone. The world might have even had oceans of water like Earth's.
"Venus evolution towards a kind of inferno for life is still not fully understood. How a planet so similar to the Earth in many areas, with relatively similar distance to the Sun has become such an inhospitable planet?" said Håkan Svedhem, ESA Venus Express project scientist. "This is the kind of science that Venus Express has been doing and we have been happy to have learned about our neighbor planet and uncovered some of its mysteries."
"This mission was a challenge for the main teams involved: the scientific, the planning and the operations teams, especially in what concerns the thermal constraints often brought close to its limits putting a continuous pressure over the teams and the spacecraft," Svedhem added.
Eight Years of Science
Since its arrival at Venus in 2006, Venus Express had been on an elliptical 24‑hour orbit, traveling 41,010 miles (66,000 km) above the south pole at its furthest point and to within 124 miles (200 km) over the north pole on its closest approach, conducting a detailed study of the planet and its atmosphere.
"For over 8 years in Venus orbit, Venus Express carried out a detailed study of the planet and its atmosphere with a very comprehensive set of instruments. The spacecraft and payload provided major results on the atmosphere and ionosphere, with also important conclusions about its surface," Martin said. "It found the planet may still be geologically active, with lava flows likely created no more than 2.5 million years ago and possibly even younger. Amounts of hydrogen and deuterium in the atmosphere suggested that Venus once had a lot of water in its atmosphere."
Martin revealed that the most surprising discovery for him is the "super-rotating" atmosphere of Venus: "Other findings indicated that the planet continues to lose parts of its upper atmosphere to space, and that the 'super-rotating' atmosphere has seen wind speeds increasing from 186 to 248 miles per hour (300 to 400 km/h) over the last six Earth years."
Immediately after arriving at Venus in 2006, the spacecraft recorded a significant increase in the average density of sulphur dioxide in the upper atmosphere, followed by a sharp decrease. One possibility is that the dramatic swing in atmospheric composition was caused by buoyant plumes of volcanic gases released by a large eruption and floating upward. This is one of the major discoveries made by Venus Express.
"This long mission around Venus has permitted not only a unique invaluable collection of scientific data but also long-term statistics about the planet's behavior and evolution," Svedhem said.
A Cherry on the Cake
After eight years in orbit and with propellant for its propulsion system running low, Venus Express was tasked in mid-2014 with a daring aerobraking campaign, during which it dipped progressively lower into the atmosphere on its closest approaches to the planet.
"This mission was essentially run flawlessly throughout its lifetime, and the only thing serious that happened to it was the lack of propellant to complete the raising of the orbit in November 2014, which led to the end of mission operations," Martin said. "With just a little more fuel, the mission could obviously have gone further in 2015, but having been able to perform the aerobraking last Summer was really the 'cherry on the cake' for this mission."
Svedhem admits that at a certain point and after doing some aerodrag experiments, the mission team was confronted with the possibility to do aerobraking operations to lower the orbit apocenter and thus reduce the effect of the Sun which required frequent, highly consuming propellant maneuvers. It was finally decided to leave it as an experiment towards the end of the mission since the spacecraft was not fully designed to withstand the high temperatures caused by the friction with the atmosphere.
"The opportunity came finally in 2014 when the propellant estimation was predicting the end of its life. The aerobraking experiment provided not only a unique opportunity to explore the unknown atmosphere and altitude around 80 miles (130 km) but a European premiere to do aerobraking at a planet different from Earth," Svedhem said.
Venus Express aerobraking operations were successfully executed from June 18 to July 11, 2014. After some internal discussions, the mission team and the ESA management had to make the choice between leaving the spacecraft go into the atmosphere or make a last maneuver attempt to raise the percenter with the propellant left and get a final bonus of science towards the end of 2014.
The spacecraft ran out of propellant and went to safe mode on Nov. 27. From that moment, it managed to get enough energy from the Sun to show that it was alive by sending a signal that has been detected by ESA and NASA ground stations. The last signal was detected on 18 January 2015. "We believe that the spacecraft is just about to enter into the atmosphere like a hero, holding its last breath down through its final atmosphere crossing," Svedhem remarked.
Venus in the Spotlight
The analysis of the data collected will continue being subject of study for the scientific community and will remain a reference for planetary science for many years to come.
ESA scientists underline that Venus Express has not only been a successful scientific mission but has permitted the operations teams to develop innovative processes looking at the future. "As an example it is worth mentioning the full operations automation for the last two years of the mission, the provision of almost real time web data analysis tools for anomaly investigation or its efficient planning concepts being partially re-used for the Rosetta mission," Svedhem said.
There may most likely be Venus-related mission proposals for the ESA's M4 selection this year, which is the next medium-size mission to be selected. "However, there is no guarantee that Venus will get the winning ticket!" Martin said.
FAA Commercial Space Office Seeks Budget Increase To Hire More Staff
Jeff Foust – Space News
The Federal Aviation Administration is requesting a nine-percent budget increase beginning in October for its commercial space office, whose resources have been stressed by an increase in launch activity and two high-profile accident investigations.
The FAA's fiscal year 2016 budget request, released Feb. 2, seeks $18.1 million for operations of its Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), an increase of $1.5 million above what it received in a 2015 omnibus appropriations bill that funds the federal government through September.
Most of that increase will be used to hire additional staff for the office, responsible for both regulating and promoting commercial space transportation activities. The budget increase would allow the office to increase its staff by 25 employees, to 106.
"Expansion of commercial space transportation is increasing AST's regulatory workload, while the Office's resources remain essentially unchanged," the FAA stated in its budget request. It noted there were 19 commercial launches carried out under FAA licenses and permits in fiscal year 2014, with 20 to 30 such launches projected in 2015 and more than 30 in 2016.
That increased workforce would allow the office to handle oversight of those launches and of nine licensed commercial launch sites. Adding to the workload are requirements in federal law for the office to rule on a launch license no more than 180 days after receiving a completed application, and within 120 days for experimental permit applications.
Not mentioned in the budget document is the strain AST has experienced supporting investigations into two commercial spaceflight accidents. The office is overseeing an investigation by Orbital Sciences Corp. into the Oct. 28 failure of its Antares rocket shortly after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia, destroying a Cygnus cargo spacecraft bound for the International Space Station. The office is also supporting a National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the Oct. 31 accident that destroyed Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle near Mojave, California, killing one of two pilots on board.
Shortly after the accident, FAA officials said the office was devoting "significant resources" into supporting both investigations, but declined to specify how many of its 81 staff members were working on them. The agency said at the time that it was prioritizing its resources to support those investigations.
In addition to the $18.1 million to support AST operations, the 2016 budget request includes $5 million for other commercial space transportation work. The proposal seeks to establish a new commercial space transportation safety research program, funded at $3 million in 2016. Of that funding, $1 million would go to the Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation, a coalition of universities performing research in the field, and $2 million to continue research initiated by the center.
The goals of that research, according to the budget document, include completing an assessment of the safety of various commercial space transportation technologies and a study on the breakup characteristics of advanced spaceflight vehicles. In addition, the office seeks to collect physiological data from people flying on commercial vehicles as part of the research program.
The budget request also seeks $2 million to study better ways to incorporate commercial launches and spacecraft reentries into the national airspace system, work that the FAA says today requires considerable manual effort. "As it is so resource intensive, the team struggles to keep pace with the increasing commercial space operations tempo," the FAA document says of current procedures.
END
| | JSC TODAY CATEGORIES - Headlines
- Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays
- Install the Space Station Research Explorer App
- Bicyclist and Pedestrian Close Call - Organizations/Social
- Today - JSC NMA and BALaNCE Presents Natalie Saiz
- AIAA Houston Feb. Dinner Meeting
- NCMA Feb. Webinar
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Feb. 10 - Jobs and Training
- JSC Risk Management Overview - Feb. 12
- JSC Academic Fellowship Information Session - Community
- Calling All Personnel Involved With Hubble!
- Blood Drive - Feb. 18 and 19 |  |
| Headlines - Did You Miss the All Hands? Catch the Replays
If you missed Monday's All Hands with JSC Director Ellen Ochoa, you still have opportunities to watch it on Thursday, Jan. 5, and Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on both days. JSC team members can view the all-hands meeting on JSC cable TV Channel 2 (analog), Channel 51-2 (digital high definition) or Omni 45. JSC, Ellington Field, Sonny Carter Training Facility and White Sands Test Facility employees with wired computer network connections can view the event using the JSC EZTV IP Network TV System on Channel 402 (standard definition). Please note: EZTV currently requires using Internet Explorer on a Windows PC connected to the JSC computer network with a wired connection. Mobile devices, Wi-Fi connections and newer MAC computers are currently not supported by EZTV. If you are having problems viewing the video using these systems, contact the Information Resources Directorate (IRD) Customer Support Center at x46367. Anyone with access to the internal network can click here to view the video on the JSC 2.0 site.. JSC External Relations, Office of Communications and Public Affairs, x35111
[top] - Install the Space Station Research Explorer App
You are invited to JSC's SAIC/Safety and Mission Assurance Speaker Forum featuring Sharon Goza, IGOAL Lab Manager. Have you ever wondered about the hundreds of experiments conducted on the ISS? Then make plans to attend the Feb. 4 speaker forum to learn how to install and utilize the Space Station Research Explorer App. Learn how to access current information on ISS experiments, facilities and research results through video, photos, interactive media, and in-depth descriptions. Don't miss it! - Bicyclist and Pedestrian Close Call
H.G. Wells once said, "Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race." Wells had much faith in bicyclists - they are a dedicated group; but there are rules to adhere to when riding. According JPR 1700, section 5.3.5, JSC bicyclists must follow state and local traffic rules including stop signs, red lights, stopping at crosswalks, avoiding sidewalks and yielding to pedestrians. Not doing so could cause injury and gain a ticket. Recently, a pedestrian and a bicyclist were approaching the Building 4 bridge. Seeing the fast-approaching cyclist, the pedestrian knew immediately they could not both cross safely. Stepping to the side, the pedestrian caught a foot in the metal trim and fell. Only minor injuries were suffered, but landing a foot less would have meant hitting the brick wall and a possible concussion. Let's be safe, not sorry. Organizations/Social - Today - JSC NMA and BALaNCE Presents Natalie Saiz
JSC NMA and BALaNCE Presents: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization - Natalie V. Saiz. Natalie is a collaborative leader, who is currently serving on a special assignment to building stronger teams across JSC. She has an exemplary record of service as JSC's Human Resources Director for the past 11 years. Tribal Leaders focus on building the tribe—or upgrading the tribal culture. If they succeed, the tribe recognizes them as the leader, giving them discretionary effort, cult-like loyalty, and a track record of success. Divisions and companies run by Tribal Leaders set the standard of performance in their industries, from productivity and profitability, to employee retention. Please bring your lunch. - AIAA Houston Feb. Dinner Meeting
Join AIAA Houston for our February Dinner Meeting with Professor Barry Lefer (Ph.D. of the University of Houston who will discuss "Climate Change Science & Public Policy". Professor Lefer will summarize the science and the public policy of climate change. We are not using reservations for this casual dinner event. No advance notice is required, but feel free to let us know you are coming by emailing us. Non-members are welcome. For more information please see our website. - NCMA Feb. Webinar
National Contract Management Association (NCMA) presents "Contract Administration: Hot Button Issues and Solutions" to be presented on Feb. 26. Contract administration is the blocking and tackling of federal procurement, where a great proposal, a detailed evaluation and maybe a hard fought protest change into….the Contract. This program, presented by two experienced attorneys, will look at some of the key issues involved in contract administration. Presenters will blend law, regulation and draw from their real-life experiences. - William Weisberg, Principal at the Law Offices of William Weisberg PLLC
- Joyce Tong Oelrich, Senior Attorney, Compliance at Microsoft
- Space Serenity Al-Anon Meeting Feb. 10
"Progress, Not Perfection" reminds Al-Anon members to recognize positive, incremental improvements and change. Our 12-step meeting is for coworkers, families, and friends of those who work or live with the family disease of alcoholism. We meet Tuesday, Feb. 10 in Building 32, Room 146, from noon to 12:45 p.m. Visitors are welcome. Jobs and Training - JSC Risk Management Overview - Feb. 12
JSC Risk Management Overview (JSC-NA-SAIC-RISK) is a 2.5 hour class that includes risk management concepts, topics regarding the application of risk management at JSC and a demonstration of the risk database. Class participants include personnel interested in understanding the basics of risk management. Event Date: Thursday, February 12, 2015 Event Start Time:9:00 AM Event End Time:11:30 AM
Event Location: Building 12/Room 134
Add to Calendar
Russell Hartlieb 281-335-2443
[top] - JSC Academic Fellowship Information Session
Are you interested in applying for the JSC Academic Fellowship Program and would like more information before submitting your application? Join us for an information-packed presentations on Feb. 10, 12 and 17. JSC Academic Fellowship Program Manager, Aaron Blevins, will provide an overview of the application format, eligibility, funding expectations, and more. - Feb. 10: From 10 to 11 a.m. in Building 12, Room 136
- Feb. 12: From 1 to 2 p.m. in Building 12, Room 136
- Feb. 17: From 9 to 10 a.m. in Building 12, Room 136
Target Audience: JSC Civil Servants Community - Calling All Personnel Involved With Hubble!
Calling all Personnel involved with the Hubble Space Telescope Program: If you were/are actively involved with the Hubble Space Telescope Program including: development, launch, operations, repair, etc... we would like to hear from you! This year we will be celebrating 25 years of the Hubble Space Telescope, an extraordinary achievement associated with Deep Space Exploration efforts. There will be a culminating event on Apr. 24 at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) and we would like to create a master list of all personnel involved with Hubble's legacy for possible invitation to this event. Although the guest list to the NASM event is limited, all JSC personnel will be invited to the local Hubble 25th celebrations in Apr. Please send us your contact information including: full name, email, phone number, and role on the Hubble project by COB Friday, Feb. 9. - Blood Drive - Feb. 18 and 19
Eat, drink and bring ID! You can donate blood at one of the following locations on Feb. 18 and 19: - Teague Auditorium Lobby - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
- Building 11 Café Donor Coach - 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
- Gilruth Center Donor Coach - 12:00 - 4:00 p.m. (Thursday only)
T-shirts, snacks, and drinks for all donors. Criteria for donating can be found at the St. Luke's link on our website. | |
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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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