NASA Studying Ways to Make 'Tractor Beams' a Reality

Tractor beams the ability to trap and move objects using laser light -- are the stuff of science fiction, but a team of NASA scientists has won funding to study the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis.

The NASA Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) has awarded Principal Investigator Paul Stysley and team members Demetrios Poulios and Barry Coyle at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., $100,000 to study three experimental methods for corralling particles and transporting them via laser light to an instrument -- akin to a vacuum using suction to collect and transport dirt to a canister or bag. Once delivered, an instrument would then characterize their composition.

"Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn't fanciful or beyond current technological know-how," Stysley said. The team has identified three different approaches for transporting particles, as well as single molecules, viruses, ribonucleic acid, and fully functioning cells, using the power of light.

NASA Makes Use of Historic Test Site for New Robotic Lander Prototype Tests

Today, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., began the first phase of integrated system tests on a new robotic lander prototype at Redstone Test Center’s propulsion test facility on the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, also in Huntsville. These tests will aid in the design and development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing science and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless bodies, including near-Earth asteroids. This initial test phase, or strapdown testing, allows the engineering team to fully check out the integrated lander prototype before moving to more complex free flight tests.

The team secures, or straps down, the prototype during hot fire tests to validate the propulsion system's response to the flight guidance, navigation and control algorithms and flight software prior to autonomous free flight testing. "Moving the robotic lander tests to the Redstone Test Center facility is a good example of intergovernmental collaboration at its best," said Larry Hill, Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project Manager Test Director, at the Marshall Center. "Engineers and technicians from NASA, the Army and our Huntsville-based support contractor, Teledyne Brown Engineering, have worked tirelessly over the last month to modify the historic test facility formerly used for missile testing to accommodate NASA's lander test in record time, saving NASA time and money."

"Our team has been on a record paced design and development schedule to deliver the robotic lander prototype to the test site," said Julie Bassler, Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project Manager. "We have succeeded in designing, building and testing this new lander prototype in a short 17 months with an in-house NASA Marshall team in collaboration with the our partners" Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Md., and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation in Huntsville. The flight test program includes three phases of testing culminating in free flight testing for periods up to sixty seconds scheduled for summer 2011. The prototype provides a platform to develop and test algorithms, sensors, avionics, software, landing legs, and integrated system elements to support autonomous landings on airless bodies, where aero-braking and parachutes are not options. 

NASA And Worcester Polytechnic Institute Are Challenge Partners

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.

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.

Russians Plan 26th Space Station Spacewalk

Two Russian cosmonauts will float outside one of the International Space Station’s hatchways on Monday to perform a grab bag of spacewalking tasks that outfit the Russian segment for future assembly work and support external experiments. Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Skripochka, both Expedition 25 flight engineers, will wear Orlan spacesuits and emerge from the Earth-facing Pirs docking compartment airlock around 9:25 a.m. EST for a planned 5-hour, 55-minute excursion. Monday’s spacewalk will be the fifth for Yurchikhin, who will wear the spacesuit marked with red stripes and the first for Skripochka, who will wear the suit with blue stripes.

The primary assembly and maintenance objectives of the spacewalk are to install a multipurpose workstation on the starboard side of the Zvezda service module’s large-diameter section, clean thermal insulation around the vents for the Elektron oxygen-generation system and relocate a television camera from one end of the Rassvet docking compartment to the other. Research objectives include cleaning and removing a robotics experiment known as Kontur, short for Development of a System of Supervisory Control Over the Internet of the Robotic Manipulator in the Russian Segment of ISS, from the port side of Zvezda into the Pirs airlock; installing a new materials experiment on a handrail on the Rassvet module, and collecting samples from the exterior of Zvezda and Pirs.

While Yurchikhin and Skripochka are outside the station, their colleagues inside will be in their respective Soyuz spacecraft, ready for departure in the unlikely event of an emergency. Commander Doug Wheelock and Flight Engineer Shannon Walker will be in the Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft docked to the Rassvet module, while Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Alexander Kaleri will be in the Soyuz TMA-O1M spacecraft docked to the Poisk module.Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center in Korolev, outside of Moscow, will provide primary support for the spacewalk, but coordinate activities with their colleagues in Mission Control, Houston.

NASA Selects Community College Students To Design Rovers And Explore Technology Careers At Field Centers

Community college students in a pilot program will take the first steps toward potential technology careers as they develop robotic explorers at NASA field centers. Ninety students from community colleges in 23 states have been selected to travel to NASA's Johnson Space Flight in Houston or the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for hands on experience with technology development and direct interaction with NASA experts. This week, the White House Summit on Community Colleges explored how these institutions can support a highly educated and skilled workforce. Concurrently, NASA is preparing for the culmination of the National Community College Aerospace Scholars pilot program.

The agency will bring young scholars to join agency professionals Oct. 20-22 to develop rovers to explore the surfaces of other worlds and learn more about actual careers in science and engineering. During the summer, students enrolled in the program completed four Web-based assignments that explored topics in engineering and technology. Those whose grades on the projects averaged at least 94 percent qualified to participate in the NASA field center experience, with the agency paying students' travel expenses. Students will apply what they have learned during the year to technology and design problems in consultation with NASA engineers.

"Community colleges are an important part of the academic landscape, and NASA is proud to be working with these students to continue their interest and skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "This innovative project gets students engaged in actual engineering design and production from concept to build-out that simulates the processes NASA uses in designing robotic explorers for solar system destinations. By letting them experience first-hand the challenges and excitement inherent in space exploration, we may be cultivating NASA's workforce of tomorrow."

NASA'S Shuttle Discovery At Launch Pad, Liftoff Practice Set

After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Discovery awaits the next major milestone for its upcoming and final mission to the International Space Station, STS-133. Reporters are invited to cover a launch dress rehearsal, known as the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT), scheduled at Kennedy from Oct. 12 to 15. Six astronauts are set to launch aboard Discovery on Nov. 1 for the final scheduled flight before the orbiter is retired. To attend TCDT, international journalists must apply by 5 p.m. EDT on Oct. 1 to allow time for processing. U.S. media representatives must apply by Oct. 7.

Discovery arrived at the pad early Tuesday morning on top of a giant crawler-transporter. The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at about 7:23 p.m. Monday and travelled less than 1 mph during the 3.4-mile journey. The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 1:49 a.m. Tuesday. The TCDT will provide Discovery’s astronauts and ground crews with an opportunity to participate in various simulated countdown activities, including equipment familiarization and emergency training.

To attend crew arrival, reporters must pick up badges between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405. For information about covering these events, including proper attire and meeting locations, credentialed media should visit: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/news/media.html The 11-day mission will be the 35th flight to the station and the 39th flight for Discovery. The mission will deliver and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module, the Express Logistics Carrier 4, an external platform that holds large equipment, and critical spare components for the space station. Discovery also will deliver Robonaut 2, or R2, to become a permanent resident of the station as the first human-like robot in space.

Strong Robotic Arm Extends From Next Mars Rover

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has been exercising its robotic arm since last month, when the arm was first fastened to the rover. In the long run, watch for this long and strong arm to become the signature apparatus of NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. After landing in August 2012, the mission will rely on it for repeated research activities. One set of moves crucial to the mission's success has never been tried before on Mars: pulling pulverized samples from the interior of Martian rocks and placing them into laboratory instruments inside the rover. Engineers and technicians are putting the arm through a range of motions this month in the clean room where Curiosity is being assembled and tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

"We're fine-tuning the ability to make the arm go exactly where we want it to go," said JPL's Brett Kennedy, cognizant engineer for the robotic arm. "Next, we'll start pushing on things with the arm." The arm can extend about 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) from the front of the rover body. Still to be added: the turret at the end that holds a percussive drill and other tools weighing a total of about 33 kilograms (73 pounds). "This arm is strong, but still needs to move accurately enough to drop an aspirin tablet into a thimble," Kennedy said. The titanium arm has two joints at the shoulder, one at the elbow and two at the wrist. Each joint moves with a cold-tolerant actuator, custom-built for the mission.

The tools to be wielded by the arm include a magnifying-lens camera; an element-identifying spectrometer; a rock brush; and mechanisms for scooping, sieving and portioning samples. The mission is designed to operate on Mars for a full Martian year, which equals about two Earth years. MDA Information Systems Inc.'s Space Division in Pasadena built and tested the arm, incorporating actuators from Aeroflex Corp., Plainview, N.Y. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

NASA's Shuttle Discovery To Make Its Final Trip To Launch Pad

Journalists are invited to cover space shuttle Discovery’s last move from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch Pad 39A on Sept. 20 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Six astronauts are set to launch aboard the shuttle on Nov. 1. The STS-133 mission to the International Space Station is the final scheduled flight for Discovery before it is retired. Live coverage of Discovery's rollout will air on NASA Television beginning at 8 p.m. EDT. NASA TV’s Video File will broadcast highlights of the move. Discovery's first motion out of the VAB to the pad is scheduled for 8 p.m. The shuttle's 3.4- mile journey atop a giant crawler-transporter is expected to take approximately six hours. Activities include an 8 p.m. photo opportunity of the move followed by an interview availability at 8:30 p.m. with Discovery Flow Director Stephanie Stilson. Media must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 7:30 p.m. for the rollout photo opportunity.

There also will be a sunrise photo opportunity at the launch pad on Sept. 21, following Discovery’s arrival. Reporters need to be at the news center for transportation to the viewing area by 6 a.m. Updates for events are available at 321-867-2525. To attend rollout and the sunrise pad photo opportunity, international journalists must apply by 5 p.m. Sept. 13 to allow time for processing their requests. U.S. media representatives must apply by Sept. 17. Badges for rollout may be picked up starting at 6 a.m., Sept. 20, at the Kennedy Space Center Badging Office on State Road 405. The 11-day mission will be the 35th flight to the station and the 39th flight for Discovery. The mission will deliver and install the Permanent Multipurpose Module, the Express Logistics Carrier 4 - an external platform that holds large equipment - and critical spare components for the space station. Discovery also will deliver Robonaut 2, or R2, to become a permanent resident of the station as the first human-like robot in space.

LEGO MoonBot From latest Jersey Wins Competition

A team of eighth-grade students from New Jersey has won first place for its small lunar rover made entirely out of LEGO pieces. The struggle, called MoonBots, is the mini version of the Google Lunar X Prize, which challenged teams to land an actual rover on the moon and offered a prize of $30 million. While not a journey to the moon, the student winners land a tour of the LEGO factory in Billund, Denmark. The team, called Landroids, built a four-wheeled robot accessorized with a motorized arm and a basket for gather moon samples. The miniature machine successfully maneuvered along and sampled from a lunar-like surface, prepared with craters, moon rocks and other rough terrain.

The Landroids are "very excited" about the visit to the land of LEGOs, group leader John Yeh told TechNewsDaily. The Shadowed Craters team from California snagged second place, while the Moonwalk team from New Jersey and Connecticut came in third. The competition was support by the X Prize Foundation and LEGO Group; the winners were announcing last Wednesday. Each of the opposing teams was given a set of tools to design, build and control the lunar robots. Their toolbox included motors, sensors and LEGO bricks, as well as one LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Intelligent Brick, which is a computer chip with Flash memory and Bluetooth ability that served as the robot's brain.

The teams intended the colorful mini-bots using LDRAW, LEGO Digital Designer or Google SketchUp software. The designs along with video essays and blogs were submitted to the judges. The design phase of the struggle let the teams refine their robots. The Landroids team "explored quite a few different options" before resolve on the final design, Yeh said. In particular, the team changed the design for the moon-rock-grasping arm from a complex double claw to a simple fork. "Eventually we had to give up, because moving impressive with that much mass, it was just too difficult to control the turning accuracy," Yeh said. In the final phase of the competition, the robots shaped by the top 20 teams got to strut their stuff and performed a simulated lunar mission on a LEGO mat.

NASA Announces High School Competition for Future Engineers: Teams to Design Software for Small Satellites on the International Space Station

NASA is challenging high school teams to design software to program small satellites aboard the International Space Station. The competition centers on the Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites, or SPHERES. SPHERES are bowling ball-sized spherical satellites used to test maneuvers for spacecraft performing autonomous rendezvous and docking. Three of these satellites fly inside the station's cabin. Each is self-contained with power, propulsion, computing and navigation equipment. The Zero-Robotics investigation, run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., is designed to inspire future scientists and engineers.

The teams are asked to address challenges of satellite docking, assembly and flight formation. The 2010 Zero-Robotics Challenge expands on a limited pilot program performed in fall 2009. This expanded pilot, called HelioSPHERES, will involve high schools from across the country during the 2010 - 2011 academic year. This new education program builds critical engineering skills for students, such as problem solving, design thought process, operations training, teamwork and presentation skills. The first 100 high school teams to register by Sept. 10 will be selected for the competition. Their full proposals are due by Sept. 14. Twenty teams selected from the 100 candidates will compete using simulations and ground-based testing at MIT.

The software of the top 10 winners will be sent to the station, and an astronaut aboard the orbiting laboratory will program the SPHERES satellites to run the students' tests. MIT's Space Systems Laboratory developed the SPHERES program to provide the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA and other researchers with a long-term test bed for validating technologies critical to the operation of future satellites, docking missions and satellite autonomous maneuvers. SPHERES have been used by many organizations, including other government agencies and graduate student research groups, since the program began in 2006. The satellites provide opportunities to test a wide range of hardware and software at an affordable cost.

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NASA Invites Media To View Space Station Cargo For STS-133 Mission

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will host a media event at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Aug. 12, to highlight the next hardware that will fly to the International Space Station. The permanent multi-purpose module, or PMM, will fly aboard space shuttle Discovery on its STS-133 mission, targeted to launch on Nov. 1. During the event, reporters at Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility will have the opportunity to speak with mission managers and team members involved in processing the elements for flight. Media planning to attend must arrive at Kennedy's news center by 12 p.m. for transportation to the event. Participants must be dressed in full length pants, flat shoes that entirely cover the feet and shirts with sleeves.

The module will carry a variety of spare parts and supplies to the station as well as Robonaut 2, or R2. The module will be left on the station and will be used for microgravity experiments in fluid physics, materials science, biology and biotechnology. R2, a humanoid robot created through a joint project between NASA and General Motors, was originally intended to be an Earth-bound prototype. But engineers wanted to see how it fared in microgravity, so the robot is being sent to space in Discovery's cargo bay. R2 will be shipped from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston to Kennedy on Aug. 8 to begin processing for flight. 

NASA And ESA'S First Joint Mission To Mars Selects Instruments

NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled to launch in 2016, is the first of three joint robotic missions to the Red Planet. It will study the chemical makeup of the Martian atmosphere with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity over previous Mars orbiters. The mission will focus on trace gases, including methane, which could be potentially geochemical or biological in origin and be indicators for the existence of life on Mars. The mission also will serve as an additional communications relay for Mars surface missions beginning in 2018.

"Independently, NASA and ESA have made amazing discoveries up to this point," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Working together, we'll reduce duplication of effort, expand our capabilities and see results neither ever could have achieved alone." NASA and ESA invited scientists worldwide to propose the spacecraft's instruments. The five selected were from 19 proposals submitted in January. Both agencies evaluated the submissions and chose those with the best science value and lowest risk. The science teams on all the instruments have broad international participation from Europe and the United States, with important hardware contributions from Canada and Switzerland.

"To fully explore Mars, we want to marshal all the talents we can on Earth," said David Southwood, ESA director for Science and Robotic Exploration. "Now NASA and ESA are combining forces for the joint ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter mission. Mapping methane allows us to investigate further that most important of questions: Is Mars a living planet, and if not, can or will it become so in the future?" NASA and ESA share a common interest in conducting robotic missions to the Red Planet for scientific purposes and to prepare for possible human visits.

NASA's ATHLETE Warms Up for High Desert Run

The All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) vehicle concept is based on six wheels at the ends of six multi-degree-of-freedom limbs. ATHLETE uses its wheels for efficient driving over stable, gently rolling terrain. Because each limb has enough degrees of freedom for use as a general-purpose leg, the wheels can be locked and used as feet to walk out of excessively soft, obstacle rich, or other extreme terrain. ATHLETE is envisioned as a heavy-lift utility vehicle to support human exploration of the lunar or Martian surface, useful for unloading bulky cargo from stationary landers and transporting it long distances over varied terrain.

Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are currently putting their All-Terrain, Hex-Limbed, Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) through a series of long-drive tests on the long, dirt roads found adjacent to JPL. The JPL grounds do not include an unpaved area of sufficient size for testing such a large robot over a long distance. Some of the dirt roads in the Arroyo Seco (a wash located next to JPL) are wide enough for ATHLETE, and its close proximity to JPL allows the robot to be secured in its hangar between test runs. The engineers want to test the moon rover's ability to meet a NASA milestone of traveling at least 40 kilometers (25 miles) over 14 days under its own power.

The official demonstration is slated to begin in the Arizona high desert next month. ATHLETE is a 1/2-scale working prototype of a robot under development to transport habitats and other cargo on the surface of the Moon or Mars. The ATHLETE concept is a level cargo deck carried by six wheels, each on the end of a configurable leg. The prototype stands approximately 4.5 meters (15 feet) tall and 4.5 meters (15 ft) wide and weighs about (about 2,300 kilograms (2.5 tons). The robot moves relatively slowly, with a top speed during traverse of approximately 2 kilometers per hour (1.25 mph). 

NASA's First Robotic Crew Member To Tweet From Space Station, Available For Interviews

NASA's Robonaut 2 has no voice but is ready to tell you its story in 140 characters or less. The prototype robot will travel to space this fall to give NASA a deeper understanding of human-robotic interaction. Called R2, the robot has started sending updates about its upcoming mission from its new Twitter account, @AstroRobonaut. With the help of its supporting team, R2 will document its preparations for launch and, eventually, its work aboard the International Space Station. "Hello World! My name is Robonaut 2 R2 for short," R2 and the team tweeted this week. "Follow my adventures here as I prepare for space!"

Reporters are invited to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston at 1 p.m. CDT on Aug. 4 to see demonstrations of R2 in action. They can speak with members of the STS-133 space shuttle crew, who will deliver the robot to the station, and engineers who created R2. Interested news media representatives should e-mail Brandi Dean at brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov by noon on Aug. 3. The public will get the first chance to interview the robot when R2 and its team answer questions submitted via Twitter at 10 a.m. on Aug. 4. Twitter followers can submit their questions to R2 in real time by including the hashtag #4R2 in their questions tweeted to @AstroRobonaut.

R2 will be shipped next month from Johnson, where it was created, to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final testing and packing. It will launch aboard space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission, targeted to lift off in November. Robonaut 2 was created through a joint project between NASA and General Motors that began in 2007. R2 originally was intended to be an Earth-bound prototype, but engineers wanted to see how it fared in microgravity so the robot is being sent to space in Discovery's cargo bay.

NASA Simulates Space Exploration At Remote Arctic Crater Site

NASA personnel are among a group of international researchers who are in the Canadian Arctic assessing concepts for future planetary exploration as part of the Haughton Mars Project, or HMP-2010.Scientists are using the arid, rocky environment of the Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Canada to simulate conditions that might be encountered by explorers on other planetary bodies. The latest edition of the HMP-2010 began July 19 and includes three weeks of crew and mission control activities and robotic testing.

"Explorers, such as geologists, often find themselves with a set of observations they would have liked to make, or samples they would have liked to take, if only they had been able to stay longer at a site," said Terry Fong, director of the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Our work this year is to study how remotely operated robots, perhaps even vehicles previously used for crew transport, can be used to perform follow-up work."

Using robots for such follow-up work could save astronauts from performing tedious, repetitive or time-consuming activities. Surveying a site could take hundreds to thousands of readings using ground-penetrating radar, spectrometers, or geotechnical instruments. Additionally, robots could make measurements and take pictures that complement or supplement those initially taken by humans. Mission planners speculate that in the future, there could be substantial amounts of time between crewed missions for robots to perform research work at a range of destinations.

NASA Plays Key Exploration Role In New Administration Space Policy

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden issued the following statement today regarding President Obama's new National Space Policy:"NASA is pleased to be an integral part of President Obama's National Space Policy. NASA's new direction, announced as part of the fiscal year 2011 budget, is embodied in the new National Space Policy. I would like to thank Lori Garver, my deputy, who led this policy review for NASA, and Phil Mcalister, the NASA representative, who led our working group effort.

"NASA has a key role in achieving the goals defined in the new policy. We are committed to working with other agencies, industry, and international partners to achieve national goals in exploration - human and robotic - and technology development that will ensure a robust future for the U.S. and our friends around the world.

"The new space policy sets our nation on a path to develop the next generation of capabilities we will need to live and work in space. Human and robotic exploration will flourish and bring a wealth of economic and scientific dividends. We will reach new horizons of discovery and expand the reach of humans throughout the solar system.