Lasers From Keck telescopes Discover Quirky Star Close To Middle Of Milky Method

 The powerful Lasers from the twin Keck telescopes of the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea point to the center of the Milky Way galaxy, where scientists have establish a second star orbiting a super massive black hole. Now a day’s Scientists using the Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea have originate a second star in a surprisingly fast orbit around the black hole at the middle of the Milky Way galaxy.

The discovery, published world today in the great journal Science, may help astronomers determine if Einstein was right in his fundamental calculation of how black holes warp space and time, said UCLA physicist Andrea Ghez, organizer of the discovery group.

The shining star, known as S0-102, orbits the black hole in 11.5 years, a virtual sprint that allows astronomers to study an entire orbit for perturbations that offer clues to the black hole’s structure. Let’s before this finding, astronomers knew of only 1 star near the black hole with a very short orbit: S0-2, which completes a circuit (CKT) in 16 years. Both are in the assemblage Sagittarius.

NASA's Gravity Probe B Confirms Two Einstein Space-Time Theories

NASA's Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission has confirmed two key predictions derived from Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which the spacecraft was designed to test. The experiment, launched in 2004, used four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure the hypothesized geodetic effect, the warping of space and time around a gravitational body, and frame-dragging, the amount a spinning object pulls space and time with it as it rotates. GP-B determined both effects with unprecedented precision by pointing at a single star, IM Pegasi, while in a polar orbit around Earth. If gravity did not affect space and time, GP-B's gyroscopes would point in the same direction forever while in orbit. But in confirmation of Einstein's theories, the gyroscopes experienced measurable, minute changes in the direction of their spin, while Earth's gravity pulled at them.

"Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey. As the planet rotates, the honey around it would swirl, and it's the same with space and time," said Francis Everitt, GP-B principal investigator at Stanford University. "GP-B confirmed two of the most profound predictions of Einstein's universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research. Likewise, the decades of technological innovation behind the mission will have a lasting legacy on Earth and in space." GP-B is one of the longest running projects in NASA history, with agency involvement starting in the fall of 1963 with initial funding to develop a relativity gyroscope experiment. Subsequent decades of development led to groundbreaking technologies to control environmental disturbances on spacecraft, such as aerodynamic drag, magnetic fields and thermal variations. The mission's star tracker and gyroscopes were the most precise ever designed and produced.

GP-B completed its data collection operations and was decommissioned in December 2010. "The mission results will have a long-term impact on the work of theoretical physicists," said Bill Danchi, senior astrophysicist and program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Every future challenge to Einstein's theories of general relativity will have to seek more precise measurements than the remarkable work GP-B accomplished." Innovations enabled by GP-B have been used in GPS technologies that allow airplanes to land unaided. Additional GP-B technologies were applied to NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer mission, which accurately determined the universe's background radiation. That measurement is the underpinning of the big-bang theory, and led to the Nobel Prize for NASA physicist John Mather.

NASA Wallops position to launch military satellite into orbit

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport will be the launch site later this spring for a Minotaur rocket carrying into orbit ORS-1, a military observation satellite that is the first operationally reactive space satellite designed to support combat operations. Some 50 tourism representatives from three states were brief at Wright's Restaurant in Atlantic about the Department of Defense mission. This will be the 4th Minotaur rocket launched from Wallops. The launch will occur in May or June, Valerie Skarupa, chief of policy and strategic communications for the Department of Defense's operationally reactive Space Office, said. The correct date has not yet been set, according to NASA Wallops Flight Facility spokesman Keith Kohler.

The Operationally Responsive Space office, located at Kirtland Air Force Base, was authorization by the President and Congress and created in May 2007 to focus on meeting joint force commanders' wants quickly and flexibly. "The way we had addressed threats had changed," Skarupa said, addition the objective now is "to be more agile and resilient," including a shift to using lesser satellites with shorter lifespans and to a "plug-and-play" type modular open systems approach to given that communications and imaging satellites for military use with the eventual goal being to be capable to assemble and launch a satellite within days to weeks.

Skarupa, who was involved in the last two military launches from Wallops, praised the ability as "accurate and fast" and said the inclination angle for launches from Wallops "is perfect for the wars we have going on today." Skarupa also called the TacSat-3 satellite launched from Wallops in May 2009 "a enormous success," noting that the research and development satellite went into use for real operations in 2010. Julie Mears, marketing communications director for Goodrich ISR Systems, the British company that built ORS-1 in Danbury, Ct., also spoke at the tourism meeting, as did Vicki Cox, senior communications manager for ATK Aerospace Systems, which construct the modular bus for the ORS-1 payload in Beltsville, Md. The company also construct the bus for TacSat-3.

Cassini Finds Enceladus is a Powerhouse

Heat output from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus is much greater than was previously thought possible, according to a new analysis of data collected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research on March 4. Data from Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer of Enceladus' south polar terrain, which is marked by linear fissures, indicate that the internal heat-generated power is about 15.8 gigawatts, approximately 2.6 times the power output of all the hot springs in the Yellowstone region, or comparable to 20 coal-fueled power stations. This is more than an order of magnitude higher than scientists had predicted, according to Carly Howett, the lead author of study, who is a postdoctoral researcher at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and a composite infrared spectrometer science team member.

"The mechanism capable of producing the much higher observed internal power remains a mystery and challenges the currently proposed models of long-term heat production," said Howett. It has been known since 2005 that Enceladus' south polar terrain is geologically active and the activity is centered on four roughly parallel linear trenches, 130 kilometers (80 miles) long and about 2 kilometers (1 mile) wide, informally known as the "tiger stripes." Cassini also found that these fissures eject great plumes of ice particles and water vapor continually into space. These trenches have elevated temperatures due to heat leaking out of Enceladus' interior.

A 2007 study predicted the internal heat of Enceladus, if principally generated by tidal forces arising from the orbital resonance between Enceladus and another moon, Dione, could be no greater than 1.1 gigawatts averaged over the long term. Heating from natural radioactivity inside Enceladus would add another 0.3 gigawatts. The latest analysis, which also involved the composite infrared spectrometer team members John Spencer at Southwest Research Institute, and John Pearl and Marcia Segura at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., uses observations taken in 2008, which cover the entire south polar terrain. They constrained Enceladus' surface temperatures to determine the region's surprisingly high output.

With A-List Help, Glory Aims to Unravel Uncertainties About Aerosols

Engineers and technicians at Vandenberg Air Force base, Calif., are preparing the Earth observing satellite Glory for launch on Feb. 23. In orbit, the satellite's two science instruments will study key aspects of the climate that will help make it possible to produce more accurate global and regional climate models. Last week, a team from Orbital Sciences Corporation stowed the Glory spacecraft in a protective nose cone called the payload fairing. The payload fairing, a two-pieced and bullet-shaped part, will shield Glory from the intense aerodynamic pressures and heating that Glory's launch vehicle will encounter during its ascent.

After the successful completion of these encapsulation operations, Glory was transported to an outdoor processing tent near the launch pad. Following its arrival, engineers attached the satellite and payload fairing to the third stage of a Taurus XL, the four-stage, solid-fuel launch vehicle that will propel Glory into orbit. At first glance, the Glory spacecraft might look unassuming. At 1.9 meters (6.2 feet) by 1.4 meters (4.6 feet), Glory is neither the largest nor the heaviest of NASA’s Earth-observing satellites. The whole of the Glory spacecraft which is set to launch from Vandenberg on Feb. 23 at 2:09 a.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST) is not much taller than most people or wider than an oil barrel. It weighs about 528 kilograms (1,164 pounds), about half the weight of a vintage Volkswagen Beetle.

Despite its small size, Glory will deploy an innovative aerosol sensing instrument called the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS) that many specialists predict will produce dramatic improvements in measuring airborne particles, as well as an important sensor that will help maintain a 32-year record of the sun's irradiance. And, in Glory's case, the value of the mission exceeds that of its parts because the spacecraft will fly in formation with a group of other Earth observing satellites known as the A-Train. For most people, "A-Train" likely conjures up visions of jazz legend Billy Strayhorn or perhaps New York City subway trains rather than climate science, but the little-known convoy of satellites has emerged as a critical tool for climatologists.

Taurus XL Ready to Launch Glory Spacecraft

The Glory spacecraft and its Taurus XL launch vehicle are coming together at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as NASA gets ready to launch its first Launch Services Program mission of 2011. Researchers are looking for more puzzle pieces to fill out the picture of Earth's climate and Glory was designed to give them the pieces relating to the role tiny particles known as aerosols play in the planet's weather. The spacecraft, about the size of a refrigerator, is also equipped with an instrument to measure the sun's impact on Earth's conditions. Glory is to lift off Feb. 23 at 5:09 a.m. EST. "The Glory satellite will help us understand the interaction of what's called aerosols in our environment," said Chuong Nguyen, LSP's mission integration manager for Glory.

The particles Glory will measure are small enough to float in the atmosphere and affect weather conditions by either absorbing sunlight or reflecting it. The particles can also affect rain patterns by seeding clouds and have other effects. The Glory mission is to also find out how long-lasting the effects for aerosols and how far their effects reach. The effects of some aerosols are limited to those parts of the world that generate them. For example, cities in developing nations often produce the most "black carbon," or soot, and it is in those areas that the effects are seen most dramatically, sometimes even in the form of health problems. However, other aerosols including dust from the Sahara desert, reach high enough into the air that they are transported across the oceans. In the case of the Sahara, its dust has been seen in the Caribbean.

While the spacecraft will get due attention, many eyes also will be on the Taurus XL rocket that will lift Glory. The four-stage, solid-fueled rocket was last used in February 2009 to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. However, the payload fairing protecting the spacecraft during the early part of launch did not separate and the spacecraft never reached orbit. "Glory is going to do some fantastic stuff as far as mapping out aerosols in the atmosphere, but it's also a groundbreaker in that this is the first flight after a failure of the Taurus XL vehicle," said Omar Baez, launch director for the Glory mission. "So we're excited to be doing this and Glory just happens to be the science that we're taking up with us this time." Compared with other rockets that have launched many hundreds of times, the Taurus XL is quite young and Baez said the trouble with the last launch is part of any new system's growing pains.

NASA Awards Systems Engineering Contract For In-Space Servicing

NASA has awarded a sole source contract to Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company (LMSSC) of Greenbelt, Md., for Systems Engineering for In-Space Servicing (SEISS). This cost-plus-fixed-fee, 18-month contract has a value of $31.2 million. LMSSC will provide systems and discipline engineering support to develop and execute two demonstrations to test and verify new robotic servicing capabilities using the Dextre robot aboard the International Space Station. The Canadian Space Agency's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, or Dextre, is a two-armed robotic system designed to perform intricate maintenance and servicing tasks, which previously would have required spacewalks.

The first demonstration will use a customized payload task box, Dextre and specialized tools to robotically demonstrate refueling and repair tasks in orbit. Tasks will include locating, accessing and uncapping valves and transferring simulated liquid fuel. During the second demonstration, Dextre will test and evaluate a variety of tools, sensors and instruments to support autonomous rendezvous and capture capabilities for orbiting spacecraft systems. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is developing both demonstration payloads. These demonstrations are intended to increase NASA's technical capability to conduct robotic in-space servicing. The contract encompasses requirements definition and verification, hardware design, support of flight and ground hardware/software development, and mission planning support.

SOHO Spots 2000th Comet

As people on Earth celebrate the holidays and prepare to ring in the New Year, an ESA/NASA spacecraft has quietly reached its own milestone: on December 26, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 2000th comet. Drawing on help from citizen scientists around the world, SOHO has become the single greatest comet finder of all time. This is all the more impressive since SOHO was not specifically designed to find comets, but to monitor the sun. "Since it launched on December 2, 1995 to observe the sun, SOHO has more than doubled the number of comets for which orbits have been determined over the last three hundred years," says Joe Gurman, the U.S. project scientist for SOHO at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Of course, it is not SOHO itself that discovers the comets that is the province of the dozens of amateur astronomer volunteers who daily pore over the fuzzy lights dancing across the pictures produced by SOHO's LASCO (or Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) cameras. Over 70 people representing 18 different countries have helped spot comets over the last 15 years by searching through the publicly available SOHO images online. The 1999th and 2000th comet were both discovered on December 26 by Michal Kusiak, an astronomy student at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. Kusiak found his first SOHO comet in November 2007 and has since found more than 100.

"There are a lot of people who do it," says Karl Battams who has been in charge of running the SOHO comet-sighting website since 2003 for the Naval Research Lab in Washington, where he also does computer processing for LASCO. "They do it for free, they're extremely thorough, and if it wasn't for these people, most of this stuff would never see the light of day." Battams receives reports from people who think that one of the spots in SOHO's LASCO images looks to be the correct size and brightness and headed for the sun characteristics typical of the comets SOHO finds. He confirms the finding, gives each comet an unofficial number, and then sends the information off to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass, which categorizes small astronomical bodies and their orbits.

The SpaceX Gears Up for Orbital Flight

Space pioneer Elon Musk expect to put his name in the history books once again next week, with the planned launch and recovery of the first commercially function spacecraft from orbit. But to make this point, his closely held company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., previously has managed to overcome regulatory hurdles never before encountered by the aerospace industry. And federal documents free on Friday underscore the bureaucratic complexities and huge technical risks confronting the pioneering effort. In June, SpaceX, as the company is recognized, launched its 18-story Falcon 9 rocket and successfully flew it for more than nine minutes. It was the first privately fund U.S. rocket launch in decades.

This week's scheduled mission to launch and return an unmanned, reusable Dragon pill from low earth orbit, predictable to last for hours, poses many more challenges. Placing the vehicle into a such an orbit at speeds more than 17,000 miles per hour, then maneuvering through a fiery reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean will need a flawless trajectory, a dependable heat shield and finally, perfect operation of the superfluous parachutes, according to space experts. Based on a ground test finished Saturday, SpaceX said blastoff could occur as early as Tuesday. In an October interview, Mr. Musk said "the likelihood of us receiving everything right "may be no added than 50% on the first try. Considering the difficulty of both the launch and the reentry, he said, in the end "the possibility of mission success may be less than that."

In addition to the stake for SpaceX, the flight will amount to a unique public test of President Barack Obama's controversial effort to use NASA to fund and care for a variety of such commercial spacecraft. The policy continues to face resistance from many lawmakers, established aerospace contractors and even some Air Force officials concerned about relying too heavily on untested private rockets and spacecraft to replace the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's reserved fleet of space shuttles. But a successful reentry would propel Mr. Musk, a former Internet capitalist who has invested more than $100 million of his personal chance in the scrappy startup, further into the guide for such ventures.

Blacker Than Black

Black is black, right? Not so, according to a team of NASA engineers now developing a blacker-than pitch material that will help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements or observe currently unseen astronomical objects, like Earth-sized planets in orbit around other stars. The nanotech-based material now being developed by a team of 10 technologists at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is a thin coating of multi-walled carbon nanotubes tiny hollow tubes made of pure carbon about 10,000 times thinner than a strand of human hair.

Nanotubes have a multitude of potential uses, particularly in electronics and advanced materials due to their unique electrical properties and extraordinary strength. But in this application, NASA is interested in using the technology to help suppress errant light that has a funny way of ricocheting off instrument components and contaminating measurements. "This is a technology that offers a lot of payback," said engineer Leroy Sparr, who is assessing its effectiveness on the Ocean Radiometer for Carbon Assessment (ORCA), a next-generation instrument that is designed to measure marine photosynthesis. "It's about 10 times better than black paint" typically used by NASA instrument designers to suppress stray light, he said.

The technology works because of its super-absorption abilities. The nanotubes themselves are packed vertically much like a shag rug. The tiny gaps between the tubes absorb 99.5 percent of the light that hits them. In other words, very few photons are reflected off the carbon-nanotube coating, which means that stray light cannot reflect off surfaces and interfere with the light that scientists actually want to measure. The human eye sees the material as black because only a small fraction of light reflects off the material.

Average Class Space Missions Face Rocket Launch Concerns, Report Says

The next generation of NASA remote sensing satellites and space science probe could be loaded by rising launch expenses and delays as the agency incorporate new medium lift rockets, according to a Government responsibility Office report released Monday. The doubt surrounds 12 to 14 science missions through 2020 that have not yet received launch vehicle assignments, the government watchdog report said. NASA is finishing its use of the Delta 2 rocket, a workhorse launcher that has deliver almost 60 percent of the agency's scientific satellites to space since 1998. NASA is shifting future average class missions to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and the Taurus 2 launcher being developed by Orbital Sciences Corp. The GAO found both vehicles supply the same market as the Delta 2 and have like costs.

But the Falcon 9 and Taurus 2 are not certified to launch NASA's most costly and important science missions. United Launch Alliance has three more NASA missions on its Delta 2 obvious. Parts for producing five more Delta 2 rockets are also accessible, but there are high costs of alter and maintaining launch pads to host any additional flights, according to the GAO. The report addressed NASA's efforts to support the enduring Delta 2 flights and the agency's medium class launch plan. "NASA is taking an suitable approach to help ensure the success of the remaining Delta 2 missions by sufficiently addressing workforce, support, and launch infrastructure risks," the details said. "Nevertheless, an reasonable and reliable medium launch capability is dangerous to NASA meeting its scientific goals."

Most of the medium class missions in NASA's portfolio are Earth scrutiny satellites, which need polar orbit launches from West Coast sites at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., or Kodiak Launch multifaceted in Alaska. Neither company has an ready West Coast launch site. SpaceX plans to construct a Falcon 9 start pad at Vandenberg, and Orbital is still evaluating potential sites for polar Taurus 2 missions. The first NASA decision point is predictable in the next few months. NASA must choose on a launch vehicle for three Earth observation satellites in 2011. The missions are owing for liftoff in 2014 and 2015. NASA is predictable to settle on a rocket for the Soil Moisture Active and Passive, or SMAP, satellite by March. Other civil space missions planned for launch by 2015 and still lacking a launch vehicle assignment include the ice-mapping ICESat 2 spacecraft and the first member of NOAA's restore polar orbiting weather satellite fleet.

Grounded NASA Space Plane Poised for rejoinder

A decade after they were unceremoniously sideline, two experimental NASA space planes could be on the cusp of a staged comeback. Last week, NASA contractor moved the two, 59-foot-long X-34s from open storage to a examination pilot school in California’s Mojave Desert. There, workers from Orbital Sciences, the X-34’s innovative builder, will inspect the two robotic rocketships with an eye to flying them again. If the X-34s have detained up since their 2001 parking, they could help boost America’s tiny-but-growing arsenal of super-fast, economical, reusable spacecraft.

The X-34 program was a product of a mid-1990s space plane craze that aimed to decrease the number of rocket stages wanted to get into orbit. Over approximately a decade, NASA and the Air Force experimented with a number of single step vehicles. Some of those programs hit insuperable technical obstacles. Others confirm too expensive. By the early 2000s, nearly all of them had gone defunct. After spending $200 million, NASA shut down the X-34 program before the first flight, quote “technical risk” mostly associated to the craft’s engines. Moreover, the space agency had lost faith in the entire idea of cheap, single-stage spaceflight.

Then, in 2004, famed aviation designer Burt Rutan and aerospace firm Scaled merged launched their rubber fueled Space Ship One rocketship into near orbit, snagging a $10-million prize and show that low-cost space access actually was possible. That seemed to revive government space-plane efforts. Embattled tech reformer Franz Gayl got busy arguing on behalf of a plan to build space transport for the Marine Corps. The Air Force silently readied its mysterious X-37B “mini-Space Shuttle,” which today prowls orbit on secret errands. Now NASA could get back into the space plane game in short order, give the X-34s are still flyable.

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly Kicks Off Geography Trivia From Space

Where over the world is NASA astronaut Scott Kelly? Kelly, who will be living aboard the International Space Station for nearly six months, wants to test your knowledge of the world through a geography trivia game on Twitter. The first person to correctly identify the place depicted in his photos will win an autographed copy of the picture. Kelly began his contest at the start of Geography Awareness Week, which continues through Nov. 21. He plans to continue the game for the duration of his flight. Kelly launched to the space station along with two Russian cosmonauts, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka on Oct. 8. He is set to return to Earth March 16, 2011. The orbiting outpost and its six crew members circle Earth more than a dozen times each day, traveling more than 200 miles above Earth at 17,500 mph.

During Kelly's stay on station, he will have opportunities to see and photograph various locations on Earth. In fact, part of his job is to capture a kaleidoscope of geographic spots used for scientific analysis of our planet. "From the cupola, which is much like a bay window in a house, we are able to take pictures for many scientific reasons, but also to share with the public what we are learning about the planet on which we live," Kelly said. Kelly announced the contest Nov. 8 by posting the following update from his Twitter account, @StationCDRKelly: "Got game? Be the first to correctly name that inkblot on Earth from space." "Expanding our geography knowledge is essential to our economic well-being, our relationships with other nations and the environment," Kelly said. "It helps us make sense of our world and allows us to make connections between people and places. Space exploration is a global endeavor, and the International Space Station is the result of these connections."

The Long Voyage of Discovery

It has flown to space more than any other craft, and it has carried more crew members to orbit. It was the first spacecraft to retrieve a satellite and bring it back to Earth. It has visited two space stations. It launched a telescope that has seen deeper in space and in time than ever before. And twice it has demonstrated the United States' will to persevere following devastating tragedy, returning America to orbit following the two worst accidents in space history. Although all five vehicles that have comprised NASA's space shuttle fleet are unmatched in achievements, space shuttle Discovery is unique among the extraordinary.

In 38 trips to space, Discovery has spent 351 days in orbit, almost a full year. Discovery has circled Earth 5,628 times, all the while speeding along at 17,400 miles per hour. It has traveled almost 143 million miles. That equals 288 round trips to the moon or about one and a half trips to the sun. Discovery has carried more crew members 246 than any space vehicle. Those have included the first female to ever pilot a spacecraft, the oldest person to fly in space, the first African-American to perform a spacewalk, the first cosmonaut to fly on an American spacecraft and the first sitting member of Congress to fly in space.

It took four years to build Discovery, the third shuttle orbiter built. Named for past sailing ships of exploration, it rolled out of its Palmdale, Calif. assembly plant in October 1993 and was delivered via piggyback airplane flight to NASA' s Kennedy Space Center the next month. Discovery's first launch was Aug. 30, 1984 on mission STS-41D. That flight launched three communications satellites and tested an experimental solar array wing. The mission was commanded by astronaut Henry W. Hartsfield. On its second mission, Discovery became the first spacecraft to retrieve a satellite and bring it home. Through a spectacular series of spacewalks using the free-flying Manned Maneuvering Unit jetpacks, two malfunctioning satellites were retrieved and tucked into Discovery's payload bay for the trip home.

The (Long) Weekend Warrior: Nine Moons, 62 Hours

Taking a long-weekend road trip, NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully glided near nine Saturnian moons, sending back a stream of raw images as mementos of its adrenaline-fueled expedition. The spacecraft sent back particularly intriguing images of the moons Dione and Rhea. The Dione and Rhea pictures are the highest-resolution views yet of parts of their surfaces. The views of the southern part of Dione's leading hemisphere and the equatorial region of Rhea's leading hemisphere are more detailed than the last time we saw these terrains with NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the early 1980s.

Of the five big icy moons of Saturn, Dione and Rhea are often considered a pair because they orbit close to each other, are darker than the others, and exhibit similar patterns of light reflecting off them. These new images, however, highlight the differences between these sister moons. Both images show similar geographic regions on each satellite. However, scientists can identify differences in geological histories of the two bodies from differences in the numbers and sizes of visible craters on their surfaces. The number and size of craters on a body's surface help indicate the age of that surface the more craters there are and the larger they are, the older the surface is.

Rhea, for example, shows ancient, intense bombardments throughout this region. However, the same region of Dione is divided into distinct areas that exhibit variations in the number and size of preserved craters. In particular, while parts of Dione are heavily cratered like Rhea, there are other areas covered by relatively smooth plains. Those areas have many small craters, but few large impact scars, which indicates that they are geologically younger than the heavily cratered areas. The smooth plains must have been resurfaced at some point in Dione's past an event that seems to be missing from Rhea's geological history on this side of the moon.

NASA Awards Infrared Sounder Contract For First JPSS Spacecraft

NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has awarded a sole source contract to ITT Corporation of Ft. Wayne, Ind. The award is for the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) instrument planned for flight on the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) in 2014. JPSS is the restructured civilian portion of the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). This includes the satellites and sensors supporting civil weather and climate measurements and a shared ground infrastructure with the Department of Defense weather satellite system.

NASA is the procurement agent for these assets, and the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is the lead for acquisition for the program. This is a cost-reimbursement contract of approximately $98.6 million, with a period of performance through September 2014. Under this contract, ITT will manufacture, test and deliver the CrIS, support instrument integration on JPSS-1, and provide launch and post-launch support. The instrument will be identical to the CrIS planned for flight on the NPOESS Preparatory Project mission.

CrIS is the first in a series of advanced operational instruments that will provide detailed atmospheric temperature and moisture observations for weather and climate applications. This high-spectral resolution infrared instrument will measure atmospheric temperatures, water vapor and trace gases. Forecasters use the data in computer models to improve global and regional predictions of weather patterns, storm tracks and precipitation. This information will significantly improve climate prediction and short- and long-term weather forecasting.

NASA Awards Launch Services Contracts

NASA has announced the awards for the NASA Launch Services (NLS) II Contract. The award will provide a broad range of launch services for NASA’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration and scientific satellites. NASA has the ability to order a maximum of 70 launch services missions with a maximum cumulative potential contract value of $15 billion. The NLS II contracts are multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity, spanning a 10-year period. NASA selected four companies for awards: Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Denver; Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va.; Space Exploration Technologies of Hawthorne, Calif.; and United Launch Services, LLC of Littleton, Colo. The NLS contracts provide for a minimum capability of delivering agency payloads weighing approximately 550 pounds or more to a minimum 124-mile-high circular orbit with a launch inclination of 28.5 degrees.

The launch service provider also may offer a range of vehicles to NASA to meet higher payload weight and orbit requirements. In addition, there is an annual opportunity for additional providers and incumbents to submit proposals introducing launch services not available at the time of award, if they meet the minimum contract requirements. The NLS II contracts support the goals and objectives of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. Under the contract, NASA also will provide launch services to other government agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's Launch Services Program Office at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for program management. 

NASA Opens Space Station For Biological Research From NIH Grants

NASA is enabling biomedical research with National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that take advantage of the unique microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station to explore fundamental questions about important health issues. The NIH Biomedical Research on the International Space Station (BioMed-ISS) awards are the next step in a new partnership to apply the national laboratory to research that complements NASA's own space studies. The NIH studies include research on how bones and the immune system weaken in space. "This marks the beginning of a new era in microgravity-based research with the International Space Station turning the corner from construction to use as a new national laboratory," said Mark Uhran, assistant associate administrator for space station, NASA Headquarters in Washington.

In 2005 Congress recognized the immense promise the station holds for U.S.-led science and technology efforts. It opened the U.S. portion of the facility to federal agencies, university and private sector researchers by designating the station as a national laboratory. In addition to NIH, NASA has similar research agreements with the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Energy and the National Science Foundation. Scientists will conduct their experiments under a two-stage mechanism. The first is a ground-based preparatory phase to allow investigators to meet select milestones and technical requirements. The second is an experimental phase on the space station that will include preparing the experiments for launch, working with astronauts to conduct them on orbit and performing subsequent data analyses on Earth.

"BioMed-ISS offers a novel opportunity for gaining scientific insights that would not otherwise be possible through ground-based means," said Stephen I. Katz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NIH's National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and NIH liaison to NASA. "The beauty of this initiative is that it offers an unprecedented opportunity for benefitting human health on earth, while leveraging the American public's investment in the ISS." NIH is hosting three rounds of competition for the initiative. The first round of grants for the ground-based phase, totaling an estimated $1,323,000, has been awarded as follows: Paola Divieti, M.D., Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston: Weight-bearing activities contribute to the development and maintenance of bone mass, while weightlessness and immobility, as experienced by the astronauts and bedridden and immobilized patients, can result in bone loss and a weakened skeleton.