NASA has signed an agreement with the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) of Worcester, Mass., to manage the Sample Return Robot Challenge, one of the agency's new Centennial Challenges prize competitions. The challenge will demonstrate how a robot can locate and retrieve geologic samples from varied terrain without human control. This challenge has a prize purse of $1.5 million. The objective of the competition is to encourage innovations in automatic navigation and robotic manipulator technologies. Innovations stemming from this challenge are intended to improve NASA's capability to explore a variety of destinations in space and enhance the nation's robotic technology for use in industries and applications on Earth.
"WPI has significant experience managing robotic competitions and brings extensive subject matter expertise to the partnership, making them a great choice to manage the Sample Return Robot Challenge," said Larry Cooper, program executive for NASA's Centennial Challenges Program at agency headquarters in Washington. "We look forward to WPI overseeing the competition and bringing together innovative teams with creative problem-solving ideas." In response to a NASA solicitation, WPI submitted a proposal last fall for this partnership opportunity. The institute will begin detailed preparations for the challenge, publish rules and register competitors. The competition is expected to take place in the spring of 2012.
In the Centennial Challenges program, NASA provides the prize purse but the competitions are managed by non-profit organizations that cover the cost of operations through commercial or private sponsorships. This agreement marks the first time NASA has partnered with a university to manage a Centennial Challenge. The Centennial Challenges seek unconventional solutions to problems of interest to NASA and the nation. Competitors have included private companies, student groups and independent inventors working outside the traditional aerospace industry. Unlike contracts or grants, prizes are awarded only after solutions are successfully demonstrated. There have been 20 Centennial Challenges competition events since 2005. NASA has awarded $4.5 million to 13 different challenge-winning teams.
The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) has approved a docking system standard. The international standard will provide guidelines for a common interface to link future spacecraft ranging from crewed to autonomous vehicles and from low-Earth orbit to deep-space exploration missions. The MCB consists of senior representatives from NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency; the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology assisted by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; the European Space Agency; and the Canadian Space Agency.
The MCB is the space station's senior level management board. It coordinates the orbiting laboratory's operations and activities among the partners. "The goal was to identify the requirements to create a standard interface to enable two different spacecraft to dock in space during future missions and operations," said Bill Gerstenmaier, MCB chair and associate administrator for the Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This standard will ease the development process for emerging international cooperative space missions and enable the possibility of international crew rescue missions."
This standardization effort will ensure interface commonality without dictating any particular design behind the standard interface. The document contains the information necessary to describe physical features and design loads of a standard docking interface. The technical teams from the five space station partner agencies will continue to work on additional refinements and revisions to the initial standard. The Multilateral Coordination Board released the document to allow non-partner agencies and commercial developers to review the new standard and provide feedback.
NASA and European researchers have conducted a novel study to simultaneously measure, for the first time, trends in how water is transported across Earth's surface and how the solid Earth responds to the retreat of glaciers following the last major Ice Age, including the shifting of Earth's center of mass. To calculate the changes, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands; and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, combined gravity data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites with direct measurements of global surface movements from GPS and other sources and a JPL-developed model that estimates the mass of Earth's ocean above any point on the ocean floor. Results are reported in the September issue of Nature Geoscience.
Using the new methodology, the researchers, led by Xiaoping Wu of JPL, calculated new estimates of ice loss in Greenland and Antarctica that are significantly smaller than previous estimates. According to the team's estimates, mass losses between 2002 and 2008 measured 104 gigatonnes a year in Greenland, 101 gigatonnes a year in Alaska/Yukon, and 64 gigatonnes a year in West Antarctica. A gigatonne is one billion metric tons, or more than 2.2 trillion pounds. The smaller but significant ice loss estimates reflect the revised role that post-glacial rebound was found to play in relation to current ice mass loss in Greenland and Antarctica. Post-glacial rebound is the response of the solid Earth to the retreat of glaciers following the last Ice Age. After the weight of ice from the land surface was removed, the land under the ice rose and continues to slowly rise.
In addition, the team found that the shift of water mass around the globe, combined with the post glacial rebound of Earth's surface, is shifting Earth's surface relative to its center of mass by 0.88 millimeters a year toward the North Pole. The estimate of the shift due to rebound-0.72 millimeters per year is believed to be the first estimate based on actual data, rather than a model prediction. Wu said the shift of Earth's surface is due primarily to the melted Laurentide ice sheet, which blanketed most of Canada and a part of the northern United States around 21,000 years ago. "The new estimate of shift is much larger than previous model estimates of 0.48 millimeters per year," said Wu. "This suggests that either Earth's lower mantle must be much more viscous than previously believed, or that the history of Earth's deglaciation needs to be significantly revised."
With a loud roar and mighty column of flame, NASA and ATK Aerospace Systems successfully completed a two-minute, full-scale test of the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The motor is potentially transferable to future heavy-lift launch vehicle designs. The stationary firing of the first-stage development solid rocket motor, dubbed DM-2, was conducted by ATK, a division of Alliant Techsystems of Brigham City, Utah. DM-2 is the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor in NASA history, with a total of 53 test objectives measured through more than 760 instruments. Prior to the static test, the solid rocket motor was cooled to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to verify the performance of new materials and assess motor performance at low temperatures during the full-duration test.
Initial test data showed the motor performance met all expectations. "For every few degrees the temperature rises, solid propellant burns slightly faster and only through robust ground testing can we understand how material and motor performance is impacted by different operating conditions," said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Ground-testing at temperature extremes pushes this system to its limits, which advances our understanding of five-segment solid rocket motor performance." The first-stage solid rocket motor is designed to generate up to 3.6-million pounds of thrust at launch. Information collected from this test, together with data from the first development motor test last year, will be evaluated to better understand the performance and reliability of the design.
Although similar to the solid rocket boosters that help power the space shuttle to orbit, the five-segment development motor includes several upgrades and technology improvements implemented by NASA and ATK engineers. Motor upgrades from a shuttle booster include the addition of a fifth segment, a larger nozzle throat, and upgraded insulation and liner. The motor cases are flight-proven hardware used on shuttle launches for more than three decades. The cases used in this ground test have collectively launched 59 previous missions. After more testing, the first-stage solid rocket motor will be certified to fly at temperature ranges between 40-90 degrees Fahrenheit. The solid rocket motor was built as an element of NASA's Constellation Program and is managed by the Ares Projects Office at Marshall. ATK Aerospace Systems is the prime contractor.
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With a loud roar and mighty column of flame, NASA and ATK Aerospace Systems successfully completed a two-minute, full-scale test of the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight. The motor is potentially transferable to future heavy-lift launch vehicle designs. The stationary firing of the first-stage development solid rocket motor, dubbed DM-2, was the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor test in NASA history. More than 760 instruments measured 53 test objectives. Prior to the static test, the solid rocket motor was cooled to 40 degrees Fahrenheit to verify the performance of new materials and assess motor performance at low temperatures during the full-duration test. Initial test data showed the motor performance met all expectations.
"For every few degrees the temperature rises, solid propellant burns slightly faster and only through robust ground testing can we understand how material and motor performance is impacted by different operating conditions," said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Ground-testing at temperature extremes pushes this system to its limits, which advances our understanding of five-segment solid rocket motor performance." The first-stage solid rocket motor is designed to generate up to 3.6-million pounds of thrust at launch. Information collected from this test, together with data from the first development motor test last year, will be evaluated to better understand the performance and reliability of the design.
Although similar to the solid rocket boosters that help power the space shuttle to orbit, the five-segment development motor includes several upgrades and technology improvements implemented by NASA and ATK engineers. Motor upgrades from a shuttle booster include the addition of a fifth segment, a larger nozzle throat, and upgraded insulation and liner. The motor cases are flight-proven hardware used on shuttle launches for more than three decades. The cases used in this ground test have collectively launched 59 previous missions, the earliest being STS-3. After more testing, the first-stage solid rocket motor will be certified to fly at temperature ranges between 40-90 degrees Fahrenheit. The solid rocket motor was built as an element of NASA's Constellation Program and is managed by the Ares Projects Office at Marshall. ATK Aerospace Systems, a division of Alliant Techsystems of Brigham City, Utah, is the prime contractor.
With a desire to learn more about aerospace technology, eight teachers gave up part of their summer vacation this year to come to NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and become students themselves. The teachers visited Ames as part of the Simulation-Based Aerospace Engineering Teacher Professional Development Program with hopes of learning about technology so they could increase their students’ enthusiasm in science, technology, engineering and math. “Enthusiasm is contagious. We’re hoping that these teachers go home with a passion for technology that they can share with their students,” said Tom Clausen, Education Specialist at NASA Ames.
Many of the teachers came to Ames from schools that were falling behind academically, and the teachers hoped to be a part of helping students at those schools learn effectively. “Our school, Wakefieild Middle School, has been labeled as underachieving,” said Denise LaClair from Tucson, Ariz. “I want Wakefield Middle School to become one of the premiere schools in Tucson,and I want to have a role in helping achieve this dream.” LaClair is interested in learning new techniques to help students learn and fully understand complex concepts.
“It is amazing how research is showing educators new ways of presenting material and making it relevant to students and applying that in my classroom to engage all students in discovery and learning. Seeing a student’s eyes light up with understanding, use appropriate vocabulary in context, or tell me how much they love programming the rotor in my class really makes my day,” said LaClair. LaClair is not alone in her love of teaching. The teachers who attended the program all said they enjoyed seeing the reaction of a young student who suddenly understands a concept.
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NASA and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) will conduct a full-scale test of a five-segment, first-stage solid rocket motor at 11:05 a.m. EDT, Tuesday, Aug. 31. The test at the ATK Aerospace Systems test facility in Promontory, Utah will assess motor performance at low temperatures. The static firing of the solid motor, designated Development Motor-2, will last two minutes. This is the most heavily instrumented solid rocket motor in NASA history, with 53 test objectives that will be measured using more than 760 instruments. The motor was built as an element of NASA's Constellation Program.
It is the largest and most powerful solid rocket motor designed for flight and is highly transferable to future heavy-lift vehicle designs. To attend the test, U.S. journalists must register with ATK by Aug. 27. For information and to request credentials, contact ATK's Trina Patterson at 801-699-0943. NASA Television's live coverage of the test will begin at 11 a.m. and will broadcast a news conference at 12 p.m. with representatives from NASA and ATK. To participate by teleconference, reporters should e-mail Michael Braukus, michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov for dial-in information.
A STORRM is brewing aboard space shuttle Endeavour. The next generation in docking and rendezvous technology will make its debut early next year during the STS-134 mission, scheduled to be the final space shuttle flight. Officially called the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation, the "STORRM" system was installed Aug. 10 inside Endeavour's payload bay, where it will fly as a Development Test Objective, or DTO in other words, an in-flight experiment. Designed for use on the Orion capsule, STORRM includes the Visual Navigation Sensor, or VNS, along with an advanced docking camera. The VNS relies on a light-based remote sensing technology called lidar to provide extremely accurate data while the docking camera offers high-resolution docking imagery.
When the STORRM's two hardware components the Sensor Enclosure Assembly (SEA) and Avionics Enclosure Assembly (AEA)were lowered into place in Endeavour's payload bay, an unusually large crowd of enthusiastic agency and contractor representatives were on hand to observe and celebrate the milestone. "I'd have to say this is the most people I've ever seen come for a payload installation," said NASA's Vehicle Manager for Endeavour, Shelley Ford, as she surveyed a crowd of about 30 people vying for the best views among the myriad of access platforms surrounding the orbiter. "It's exciting that Endeavour will be contributing to the technology development for our future space program."
STORRM was developed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, which is responsible for program management, technology evaluation, flight test objectives, operational concepts, contract management and data post-processing. Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia were in charge of engineering management, design and build of the avionics, STORRM software application and reflective elements. They are also responsible for the integration, testing and certification of these components. Industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace Technologies Corp. handled the design, build and testing of the VNS and docking camera.
It was a perfect STORRM. On Tuesday, July 20, NASA and its industry partners Lockheed Martin Space Systems and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., successfully demonstrated a new sensor technology that will make it easier and safer for spacecraft to rendezvous and dock to the International Space Station. This new docking navigation system prototype consists of an eye-safe lidar Vision Navigation Sensor, or VNS, a high-definition docking camera, as well as the avionics and flight software. Both sensors will provide real-time three-dimensional images to the crew with a resolution 16 times higher than the current space shuttle sensors.
This next generation system also provides data from as far away as three miles three times the range of the current shuttle navigation sensor. "You are looking at the future of rendezvous and docking right here," said David L. Taylor, president and CEO of Ball Aerospace, as he welcomed dozens of NASA and industry engineers to the demonstration. The hardware will be tested by astronauts aboard STS-134, the last planned shuttle mission, currently scheduled for February 2011, as part of the Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation Risk Mitigation (STORRM) Development Test Objective (DTO).
On Flight Day 11 of the mission, the shuttle crew will conduct an unprecedented on-orbit maneuver; they will undock from the space station and then re-rendezvous with the station on an Orion-like approach. Five retro-reflectors, which will serve as targets for the VNS, were installed on the station's visual docking target during the STS-131 shuttle mission in May. The demonstration, held at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo. offered the STORRM team the chance to operate the flight hardware for personnel who will be supporting STORRM during the mission the astronaut crew, flight director, and mission operations personnel.
Select teachers will spend part of their summer learning about virtual technology in an effort to get their students excited about science, technology, engineering and math. A pilot summer internship program, called Simulation-Based Aerospace Engineering Teacher Professional Development, will give 16 U.S. middle and high school teachers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience with NASA's latest aerospace engineering technologies while working closely with agency technical mentors.
Simulation-based aerospace engineering relies on computer models and simulations of aerospace structures, materials, atmospheric flight conditions and system operations. The goal is to design improvements for the next generation of flight vehicles and systems, such as the air transportation system."Today, most of our scientific discoveries and engineering innovations are enabled through computer modeling and simulation," said Sharon Welch, the new business lead for education at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
"In providing these highly qualified educators with access to the latest methods and technologies, we are hopeful they will be even better prepared to develop the next generation of American scientists and engineers." Half of the teachers will intern at Langley, the other half at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Both centers employ extensive modeling and simulation tools to perform research and technology development. The two-week internships will run July 19-30.
Three NASA aircraft will begin flights to study tropical cyclones on Aug. 15 during the agency's first major U.S.-based hurricane field campaign since 2001. The Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes mission, or GRIP, will study the creation and rapid intensification of hurricanes. One of the major challenges in tropical cyclone forecasting is knowing when a tropical cyclone is going to form. Scientists will use the data from this six-week field mission to better understand how tropical storms form and develop into major hurricanes.
Mission scientists will also be looking at how storms strengthen, weaken and die. "This is really going to be a game-changing hurricane experiment," said Ramesh Kakar, GRIP program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "For the first time, scientists will be able to study these storms and the conditions that produce them for up to 20 hours straight. GRIP will provide a sustained, continuous look at hurricane behavior at critical times during their formation and evolution."
GRIP is being led by Kakar and three project scientists: Scott Braun and Gerry Heymsfield of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Edward Zipser of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Three NASA satellites will play a key role in supplying data about tropical cyclones during the field mission. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, or TRMM, managed by both NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will provide rainfall estimates and help pinpoint the locations of "hot towers" or powerhouse thunderstorms in tropical cyclones.
NASA senior managers met with their counterparts representing other space agencies at the National Harbor, Md., on June 23, to discuss globally-coordinated human and robotic space exploration. The meeting participants agreed that significant progress has been made since the joint release of The Global Exploration Strategy (GES) in May 2007. They agreed steps should be taken to coordinate a long-term space exploration vision that is sustainable and affordable.
The meeting included representatives from the Italian Space Agency, the French Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, China National Space Administration, Canadian Space Agency, German Aerospace Center, European Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, NASA, National Space Agency of Ukraine, Russian Federal Space Agency and the U.K. Space Agency.
The agencies' senior managers welcomed the development of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group's (ISECG) first reference architecture, which is focused on human lunar exploration. They agreed to expand their work to all key exploration destinations and the critical building blocks required to reach those destinations. This “global exploration roadmap” is a key part of an evolving international architecture effort.
The Task Force on Space Industry Workforce and Economic Development has launched an interactive website to encourage public comment on ways to promote economic growth and sustainability in Florida's Space Coast region as it adapts to changes in America's space program. The site offers valuable information about the work the administration is doing to create jobs in the region by fostering a more supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem.
"We consider the new interactive website an important tool to understand public concerns and challenges about the economic growth and well being of Florida's Space Coast," said Woodrow Whitlow, NASA's associate administrator for the Mission Support Directorate in Washington. "This tool and our other outreach efforts will help the task force prepare recommendations for the president that reflects the greatest needs and concerns of both the public and the area's aerospace-related industries."
On May 3, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum establishing the task force. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke are co-chairing the effort. "President Obama is committed to helping Florida's Space Coast adapt and thrive in the years ahead," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development John Fernandez.
"Having more than one string on a fiddle" is an old phase used to describe someone or something with multiple talents or uses. This expression could be used to describe NASA's avionics string testing -- a developmental testing process that allows engineers to find and fix any bugs in a system by inputting commands and scrutinizing the electronics system’s responses.
NASA and ATK Aerospace Systems of Magna, Utah, prime contractor for the Ares I first stage avionics system, currently are conducting a series of string tests at ATK's test facility in Clearfield, Utah.So exactly what is an avionics system and how is NASA using string testing to help design the next generation of solid-rocket-motor-based launch systems.
The avionics system is the "brains" for a launch vehicle, consisting of the electronics system, equipment and associated sensors responsible for controlling key guidance, launch, navigation and recovery hardware. The first stage avionics works with the upper stage flight computers and guidance systems to control the vehicle during first stage ascent and executes recovery of the first stage after staging.
The space and astronomy worlds have June 13 circled on the calendar. That's when the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the sample return capsule of the agency's technology demonstrator spacecraft, Hayabusa, to boomerang back to Earth. The capsule, along with its mother ship, visited a near-Earth asteroid, Itokawa, five years ago and has logged about 2 billion kilometers since its launch in May 2003.
With the return of the Hayabusa capsule, targeted for June 13 at Australia's remote Woomera Test Range in South Australia, JAXA will have concluded a remarkable mission of exploration -- one in which NASA scientists and engineers are playing a contributing role.
"Hayabusa will be the first space mission to have made physical contact with an asteroid and returned to Earth," said Tommy Thompson, NASA's Hayabusa project manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The mission and its team have faced and overcome several challenges over the past seven years. This round-trip journey is a significant space achievement and one which NASA is proud to be part of."
