Thursday, March 5, 2015

Fwd: NASA News and JSC Today - Thursday, March 5, 2015



Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Date: March 5, 2015 at 7:43:06 AM CST
To: "Moon, Larry J. (JSC-EA411)" <larry.j.moon@nasa.gov>
Subject: FW:NASA News and  JSC Today - Thursday, March 5, 2015

JSC Today - Thursday, March 5, 2015

Hope you can join us at Hibachi Grill today for our monthly NASA retirees luncheon at 11:30.  We use the back left party room for our gatherings.

 

NASA NEWS

• Bolden: NASA Needs Russia For Launches To The ISS, But Is Preparing For 2024 Departure.

• Indiana State Park To Mark Anniversary Of Gemini 3 Mission.

HUMAN EXPLORATION AND OPERATIONS

• Officials Thank JPL Staff For Contribution To Orion's First Flight.

• Scientific American: Year-Long ISS Mission Will Not Help Mars Mission Much.

• ISS Astronauts Have Filmed A Third Of New IMAX Movie.

• NASA Images Of Seattle Highlighted.

• Pennsylvania Students Talk With Cristoforetti.

• Brazil's First CubeSat Stopped Functioning.

• Astronaut Serena Auñón To Speak At Texas A&M.

• Orbit Cafe At Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Gets Renovation.

Bolden: NASA Needs Russia For Launches To The ISS, But Is Preparing For 2024 Departure.

The Houston Chronicle (3/4, Berger, 2.28M) reports that on Wednesday, in a US House Appropriations subcommittee hearing, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made the "frank admission" that if Russia stopped bringing astronauts to the ISS, there was currently "no back-up plan to fly the International Space Station." Bolden said, "We would make an orderly evacuation." According to the article, this statement was part of "a tense 10-minute showdown with the space and science subcommittee's new chairman, John Culberson." Bolden "finally" said after being "pressed" to answer what would happen, "You are forcing me into this answer, and I like to give you real answers,. ... I don't want to try and BS anybody."

        Space News (3/4, Leone, Subscription Publication, 481) notes that Bolden did state that NASA is planning what to do if Russia took away the ISS' Zvezda propulsion module in 2024 as it is now proposing, although he did not say what those plans were. Like the Houston Chronicle, Space News said the statement came during "a sometimes-tense exchange" with Culberson. Still, Bolden said that NASA still has a "strong" relationship with Roscosmos, noting, "While our political and diplomatic relations are not very good … the indications are that the rhetoric on the political side is not the same as when you talk about space exploration." Meanwhile, even though Culberson blamed the Obama Administration for the current reliance on Russia for sending astronauts to the ISS, Bolden explained, "Had we gotten the funding that was first requested when I became the NASA administrator [in 2009], we would have been all joyously going to the Kennedy Space Center later this year to watch the first launch of some commercial spacecraft with our crew members on it." Furthermore, according to the article, Bolden told the congressmen that if NASA is given more money for the SLS and Orion programs, they would not fly sooner because "we have a program in place that calls for them to fly at a particular date and we're not going to change that appreciably with more money. ... If you gave me more money … I would buy down risk. ... When you go to SpaceX and look on their floor, there are engines all over the place. There are engines for flights they don't have yet. That's the way they buy down risk. That's the way industry does it. You put assets in place so that you can carry out a program years in advance. That's what I would do."

        Blog Coverage. David Livingston at the Space Show (3/3) podcast interviewed writer Anatoly Zak about the Russian space program, starting with its decision to leave the ISS program in 2024. Livingston noted that Zak stated that the plan was "not fixed in stone," and could be delayed further into the future depending on the ISS' status.

Indiana State Park To Mark Anniversary Of Gemini 3 Mission.

The AP (3/4) reports that Spring Mill State Park in Indiana plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of astronaut Virgil Grissom's Gemini 3 spaceflight "with daily guided tours March 21 to 23 of the park's Grissom Memorial." The park is located in Grissom's home town.

Officials Thank JPL Staff For Contribution To Orion's First Flight.

The Pasadena (CA) Star-News (3/4, Vuong, 87K) reports that Mark Geyer, Orion project manager at the Johnson Space Center, and Mike Hawes, Orion's program manager at Lockheed Martin, visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory on Wednesday to thank those at the center who contributed to last December's successful test flight, as well as tell the JPL community the lessons learned. Geyer told those in attendance, "If you think about Apollo, I didn't know as a kid, but we only visited the equator of the moon — a very small part. ... Orion enables missions to go to the rest of the moon. It enables missions to go to these asteroids. It enables missions to go to Mars, and it's the first piece to get the crew up safe and back."

        Orion Test Flight Made Possible By Automated Code Generation. Desktop Engineering (3/4, Wong) reports that Jon Friedman, aerospace manager at MathWorks, congratulated the team behind Orion's December test flight. MathWorks MATLAB and SimuLink was used to automatically generate "roughly 40,000 lines of code" for the test flight, making Orion "an exercise in software development acceleration."

Scientific American: Year-Long ISS Mission Will Not Help Mars Mission Much.

Scientific American (3/5, 2.83M) editorializes that astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko's year-long mission to the ISS will not lead to findings that will make a manned Mars trip much safer because any information "will just confirm in greater detail what we already know from several previous long-duration missions." Instead, the editors would rather NASA focus on investigating ways to create artificial gravity and "advanced space propulsion" so that astronauts experience less radiation. While part of this "shortsightedness" is due to Congress' lack of funding, NASA still needs to "take a page from the playbook of Elon Musk and SpaceX and be bolder."

        NASA Gives Virtual Lesson On Mars Missions, SLS. The Bournemouth (UK) Daily Echo (3/5, Durkin, 94K) reports that children at Hamworthy Park Junior School in the UK and Discovery Elementary School in Virginia received an interactive lesson on the future of NASA Mars missions via the Internet. David Alexander spoke to the students from NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations facility about the Space Launch System (SLS).

ISS Astronauts Have Filmed A Third Of New IMAX Movie.

collectSPACE (3/5, Pearlman) reports that in an interview with NASA's Lori Meggs, director Toni Myers said that ISS astronauts have filmed "about a third" of a new IMAX documentary premiering in 2016, tentatively titled "A Perfect Planet." Myers said that Butch Wilmore and Terry Virts are "doing an absolutely wonderful job" filming so far, sending back "beautiful images." Myers added that he hopes the film becomes "the most popular" one he has ever made for NASA.

NASA Images Of Seattle Highlighted.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (3/4, Ellison, 612K), in an article about the 30-centimeter resolution images from the GeoEye-1 and WorldView-3 satellites now available to customers, post a gallery of images, highlighting several of Seattle taken "from NASA satellites and the International Space Station."

        Blog Coverage. Jordan Valinsky at Motherboard (3/4, 10K) posts a video of the Aurora Australis ISS astronaut Terry Virts posted to Vine. Virts tweeted, "We fly closer to them, and they look very different from the northern lights."

Pennsylvania Students Talk With Cristoforetti.

The Bucks Local News (PA) (3/4, Werner) reports that students at Council Rock South connected with ISS astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti via radio. Cristoforetti said to students participating in the call about working in zero-gravity, "It's a lot of fun of course, but it means you have to adjust yourself in the way that you work. You always have to find a way to secure yourself otherwise you'll float away when you try to work. You also have to find ways to secure your work place itself otherwise if you have a bag full of stuff that's loose inside. You have to learn to work with that and not lose anything."

Brazil's First CubeSat Stopped Functioning.

The Agencia EFE (ESP) (3/4) reports that the first CubeSat developed in Brazil stopped functioning "15 days after being placed in orbit" from the ISS on February 5, according to the Brazilian Space Agency. This was due to "a failure in the system that should have deployed the antenna." The article notes that while the satellite was supposed to function for three months, those involved with the satellite valued the "experience" they gained "with building a prototype."

Astronaut Serena Auñón To Speak At Texas A&M.

The Laredo (TX) Morning Times (3/5, 35K) reports that NASA astronaut Dr. Serena M. Auñón will give the keynote at the annual Texas A&M International University Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Alliance for middle schoolers.

Orbit Cafe At Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Gets Renovation.

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel (3/4, McPherson, 794K) reports on the renovation of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Orbit Café. The restaurant now features hydroponic herbs and lettuces like those grown aboard the ISS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Headlines

  1. Joint Leadership Team Web Poll

The 2015 2.0 goal of determining our technical workforce sizing for the next few years was a runaway winner in last week's question. Voters overwhelmingly recognized the importance of this goal. Robert Lightfoot from Headquarters conducted a JSC All Hands this week to talk to us about news from the great white north. Did you attend? Waiting on news from a co-worker? Want it explained by your supervisor? Brain Kelly will be playing Burt Reynolds in the next "Smokey and the Bandit," premiering this fall. He'll be jumping a GSA vehicle over numerous creeks from what I've seen in the trailer. This week my science department conducted some DNA experiments. For question two I've taken the DNA from two celebrities and created JSC deputy directors. Which DNA mashup is the best? Shireman? Koerner? Roemer?

Genome your chromatins on over to get this week's poll.

Joel Walker x30541 http://jlt.jsc.nasa.gov/

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  1. Day Four: The NACA Scavenger Hunt

We are in the homestretch of the JSC Knowledge Office's online scavenger hunt about all things pertaining to the history of NASA and the NACA.

Today's questions give a nod to the ladies instrumental in making spaceflight happen, as well as a guy who came to be known as NASA's "Mr. Fix-It." Use all the "tools" and resources at your fingertips to find the correct answers to these questions … and stay tuned for tomorrow's last set of questions. Find out if you're a winner on March 9!

Julie Barnes-Gober x38407

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  1. Monthly Test of the JSC Emergency Warning System

The Emergency Dispatch Center and Office of Emergency Management will conduct the monthly, first Thursday test of the JSC Emergency Warning System (EWS) today at noon.

The EWS test will consist of a verbal "This is a test" message, followed by a short tone and a second verbal "This is a test" message. The warning tone will be the "wail" tone, which is associated with an "All clear" message. Please visit the JSC Emergency Awareness website for EWS tones and definitions. During an actual emergency situation, the particular tone and verbal message will provide you with protective information.

Dennis G. Perrin x34232 http://jea.jsc.nasa.gov

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   Organizations/Social

  1. March Over to a Toastmasters Meeting

As the weather warms up, get up, get out and get over to the nearest Toastmasters meeting.

Space Explorers Toastmasters meets weekly, on-site here at JSC. Members are encouraging and look forward to helping you improve your communication, organization and leadership skills.

Join us and learn more about Toastmasters - Where Leaders are Made!

Space Explorers Toastmasters meetings are 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Building 30A, Room 1010.

    • Friday, March 6
    • Thursday, March 12
    • Friday, March 20
    • Thursday, March 26

Jaumarro A. Cuffee x34883

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   Community

  1. Applications Being Accepted for Scholarship

The NASA College Scholarship Program will award multiple scholarships agencywide to qualified dependents of NASA civil servant employees. The scholarship recipients must pursue a course of study leading to an undergraduate degree in science or engineering from an accredited college or university in the United States. Applications are available online.

The application deadline is March 31.

Travis Cooley x47222

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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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