 A European scientist team working with the COROT (COnvection ROtation and planetary    Transits) have discovered an exoplanet orbiting a star slightly more massive than the Sun. Just after 555 days in the orbit, the mission has now observed that more than 50 000 stars and is adding considerably to our knowledge of the basic workings of stars.
The newest discovery, COROT-exo-4b is an exoplanet of about the similar size as Jupiter and it takes 9.2 days to orbit its star, the longest period for any transiting exoplanet ever found.
The team has found that the star, which is slightly bigger than our Sun, is rotating at the same pace as the planet's time of revolution. This is quite a surprise for the team, as the planet is thought to be too low in weight and too far from its star, for the star to have any major control on its rotation.
Light-curve of COROT-exo-4b's parent
COROT was launched in December 2006, is the first space-based mission designed to search for exoplanets. Located outside Earth's atmosphere, the satellite is designed to detect rocky exoplanets which are almost as small as Earth. The satellite uses transits, the tiny dips in the light output from a star when a planet passes in front of it, to detect and study planets. This is followed up by wide ground-based observations.
COROT-exo-4b continuously monitored over several months, the team tracked changes in its brightness between transits. They derived its period of revolution by monitoring dark spots on its surface that rotated in and out of view.
It is not known whether COROT-exo-4b and its star have always been rotating in synchronization since their formation must about 1000 million years ago, or if the star’s rotation synchronized later. Studying such systems with COROT will help scientists gain valuable insight into star-planet interactions.
This is the first transiting exoplanet found with such a peculiar combination of mass and period of rotation. There is surely something special about how it formed and evolved. Labels: COROT finds exoplanet orbiting
Digg Our News Here
->                
The Ares monthly update is a timely source of information that will be shared each month to keep readers informed about the current development status of the Ares launch vehicles, and what’s ahead for the Constellation Program. The information contained in this update will cover the major elements of the Ares I rocket and Ares V heavy lifter. This update will provide more information about the hardware being built, component-level tests now under way and the status of major vehicle reviews. Read the monthly update to stay informed about the Ares launch vehicle fleet. This issue includes information about the following:
* Ares V Design Refinements Announced (in Progress)
* Ullage Settling Motor Cast; Testing to Begin in August
* J-2X Full Scale Gas Generator Testing (in Progress)
* First Stage Development (in Progress)
* Drogue Parachute Testing (July)
* Refurbishment of Test Stands (in Progress)
* Upper Stage Panel's Production With Friction Stir Welding (July)
Ares V Design Refinements Announced
 NASA announced a number of design refinements to the Ares V rocket -- the result of a nine-month study led by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The new Ares V configuration adds approximately 16 feet to the rocket's planned height, making it 381 feet tall. The heavy lifter will use six RS-68B liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engines on a core stage and two, five-and-one-half-segment solid propellant rocket boosters. This combination will permit Ares V to send more than 156,600 pounds of cargo and components into orbit for transport to the moon and later to Mars and other destinations.
"These modifications are a natural evolution of the Ares V concept after three years of work and exhaustive assessment of more than 1,700 concepts," said Steve Cook, manager of Ares Projects at the Marshall Center. "These changes give us approximately 7 additional metric tons of lift capability ensuring a capable, versatile architecture serving our missions to the moon and beyond."
The current Ares V development phase will culminate in a Systems Requirements Review for NASA's lunar transportation architecture in 2010.
Ullage Settling Motor Cast; Testing to Begin in August
In June, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., successfully cast the first ullage settling motor for the Ares I upper stage -- a motor also designed and manufactured at the Marshall Center.
The newly designed solid rocket motor will provide a critical function for the Ares I – the first rocket in NASA's Constellation family of next-generation space vehicles -- by enabling a smooth transition from first stage engine cutoff, first stage separation and firing of the upper stage motor.
These small solid rocket motors play a key role during launch by ensuring liquid propellants are properly funneled to the bottom of the upper stage fuel tank after first stage separation and prior to J-2X engine ignition. Without this critical function, the engine could cut off or fail to start. The motors also aid in first stage separation, supplying axial thrust to push the upper stage away from the first stage at the appropriate time.
J-2X Full Scale Gas Generator Testing Continues
 The J-2X workhorse gas generator testing began at the Marshall Center in May. To date, 32 tests have been completed. The most recent of these was June 26.
The gas generator test series is an essential development program for the J-2X engine. The gas generator, the driver for the turbopumps, is the start subsystem for the J-2X engine. This test program is designed to characterize the performance, durability and combustion environment of the J-2X workhorse gas generator, and reduce risk in the design, fabrication and operation of the actual flight hardware.
Engineers continue to collect valuable data from the test series that will be used in the final J-2X designs. Additional tests are planned through September of this year.
Friction Stir Welder for Ares Production Installed
The massive, vertical friction stir welding tool was installed at the Marshall Center in April.
Invented in 1991, friction stir welding uses forging pressure and frictional heating to produce high-strength component bonds virtually free of defects. For welders, this means the process is dramatically safer -- free from flame, sparks and liquid metal. For tomorrow's astronauts, this means the rockets they'll ride to space are made with the latest in manufacturing techniques, fueling a safer journey to orbit and beyond.
The friction stir welding tool at the Marshall Center is the world's first machine of its size capable of building both NASA's Ares I and Ares V rockets. Beginning in August, engineers will begin test welding of gore-gore panels. In this test, engineers will demonstrate future Ares welding tasks by fusing eight large pie-shaped panels to form a space shuttle external tank's dome. Test welding on hardware to be used on the new Ares I rocket is scheduled to begin later this year.
First Stage Development Continuing at ATK
In May, engineers with the first stage prime contractor, ATK Launch Systems in Brigham City, Utah, cast the first inert, or inactive, motor using the new 12-fin forward casting core for the new five-segment booster. This motor will be used for vehicle ground vibration test of the fully integrated Ares I rocket at the Marshall Center beginning in 2010.
 On August 4, ATK engineers will begin casting the first five-segment development motor, a process which should conclude around August 20. The first test firing of the development motor is scheduled to occur in April 2009 at ATK's Promontory Facility in Utah.
The new motor will include all of the upgrades carried over from the four-segment booster used on the space shuttle to Ares I's five-segment reusable solid rocket motor. Upgrades include adding the fifth segment, increasing the size of the nozzle throat and a slight geometry change to the propellant. The same flight-proven case hardware used in the four-segment shuttle booster will continue to be used in the first stage of Ares.
Drogue Parachute Test is a Success
The first parachute drop test for the Ares I first stage's new 68-foot-diameter drogue chute was conducted on July 24 at the Yuma Proving Grounds. The drogue was dropped from an Air Force C-17 aircraft at an altitude of 25,000 feet, attached to a 36,000-pound drop test vehicle. Onboard instrumentation recorded the necessary data to determine the drag area of the parachute and the peak inflation loads as the parachute deploys. The successful test was the first of four planned tests for the drogue parachute.
The drogue parachute is the second chute to be unfurled in a three-stage recovery system NASA is developing for the Ares I rocket's first stage. The integrated chute system includes a pilot, drogue and three main parachutes, and is derived from the space shuttle's solid rocket booster recovery system. Parachute testing will aid in the design and development of the chute recovery system needed for the Ares I first stage booster. Larger parachutes are required because the Ares I first stage booster travels higher and weighs more than the four-segment shuttle solid rocket booster.
Refurbishment of Marshall Test Stands Continues
 Engineers began major refurbishment to the Marshall Center's Dynamic Test Stand in March, removing the roof and lowering the 144-foot-high, 71-ton door. Marshall currently is making safety upgrades to the stand, overhauling the 200-ton derrick crane and installing a new electrical power system, restoring the facility to its Apollo-era capabilities in anticipation of full-scale Ares testing beginning in July 2011. The test program is expected to take approximately one year.
Refurbishment of the Integrated Vehicle Ground Vibration Test Stand and Hydrodynamic Support Stands at Marshall are ongoing. Labels: July 2008 Ares Update
Digg Our News Here
->
 NASA completed a full-scale rocket motor test on Thursday, July 17, to further development of the Orion jettison motor, which will separate the spacecraft's launch abort system from the crew module during launch. Orion, the Constellation Program's crew exploration vehicle now under development, will fly to the International Space Station and be part of the spaceflight system to conduct sustained human exploration of the moon.
NASA and Aerojet successfully fired the jettison motor at the Aerojet facility in Sacramento, Calif. The demonstration is part of a series of developmental tests that pave the way for delivery of the motor to be used for the first full-scale test of the launch abort system at the U.S. Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late this year.
Engineers will use the test firing to verify that the motor meets specification requirements and to help define induced acoustic, vibration and shock loads caused by the motor. The successful test firing of the jettison motor increases the technical readiness of the launch abort system and is the first full-scale rocket propulsion element qualified to proceed into a system-level demonstration. The test firing also verified that the system’s design criteria and manufacturing processes are in place.
This test and others like it are critical milestones in NASA's preparations for a series of flight tests of the full Orion abort system. The launch abort system will provide a safe escape for the crew in an emergency on the launch pad or during the climb to orbit.
NASA has partnered with Lockheed Martin Corporation and Aerojet to supply the jettison motor. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., manages the Orion launch abort system design and development effort with partners and team members from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Labels: Nasa Full-ScaleTest Firing
Digg Our News Here
->
Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet environments that had the potential to support life.
One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.
"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and how diverse the wet environments were," said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.
The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8 billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have largely been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early solar system.
"The minerals present in Mars' ancient crust show a variety of wet environments," said John Mustard, a member of the CRISM team from Brown University, and lead author of the Nature study. "In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil. This is really exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."
Another study, published in the June 2 issue of Nature Geosciences, finds that the wet conditions on Mars persisted for a long time. Thousands to millions of years after the clays formed, a system of river channels eroded them out of the highlands and concentrated them in a delta where the river emptied into a crater lake slightly larger than California's Lake Tahoe, approximately 25 miles in diameter.
"The distribution of clays inside the ancient lakebed shows that standing water must have persisted for thousands of years," says Bethany Ehlmann, another member of the CRISM team from Brown. Ehlmann is lead author of the study of an ancient lake within a northern-Mars impact basin called Jezero Crater. "Clays are wonderful at trapping and preserving organic matter, so if life ever existed in this region, there's a chance of its chemistry being preserved in the delta."
CRISM's high spatial and spectral resolutions are better than any previous spectrometer sent to Mars and reveal variations in the types and composition of the phyllosilicate minerals. By combining data from CRISM and the orbiter's Context Imager and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the team identified three principal classes of water-related minerals dating to the early Noachian period. The classes are aluminum-phyllosilicates, hydrated silica or opal, and the more common and widespread iron/magnesium-phyllosilicates. The variations in the minerals suggest that different processes, or different types of watery environments, created them.
"Our whole team is turning our findings into a list of sites where future missions could land to look for organic chemistry and perhaps determine whether life ever existed on Mars," said Murchie.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Applied Physics Laboratory operates the CRISM instrument in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector.
Digg Our News Here
->
 Since 1984, each shuttle crew has travelled those nine miles, from their crew quarters to the launch pad, aboard the same vehicle. A modified Airstream motor home, the "Astrovan" as it is called has only racked up 24,000 miles in its 24 years of service. That's because it's used solely to transport the astronauts on three occasions: to the launch pad for launch dress rehearsal, on launch day and after landing.
The earlier shuttle flights had fewer crew members, so they used the Apollo-era astronaut transport van that now can be seen by tourists at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Apollo/Saturn V Center.
The current vehicle's appeal is rooted in its tradition rather than its décor. The interior's narrow-center aisle is paralleled by long benches that sport dark-blue upholstery. The seats are equipped with lift-out sections to accommodate the ventilator units used to circulate cool air through the astronauts' bulky orange launch and entry suits. Dark-gold drapes frame the windows and dark-wood paneling lines the walls.
According to Astrovan driver Ronnie King, the astronauts like the history-filled, if somewhat dated, vehicle just fine.
"We were staged to get a new one," says the 10-year veteran driver. But, according to King, word came that the rookie astronauts wanted to keep the vehicle that was steeped in the tradition of the astronauts who traveled those nine miles to the pad before them.
Employed by space shuttle contractor United Space Alliance, King is one of five drivers called upon to pilot the Astrovan. On launch day, the vehicle is the centerpiece of a motorcade escorted by security toward the seaside launch pad, and is in constant communication with the NASA test director via radio.
When it comes to launch day "they have their game faces on," King says of the crew members. "This is serious business."
As the remaining shuttle flights are flown, each successive crew of astronauts will make its way to the same shining silver van, prepared to write the next page of space history.
Digg Our News Here
->
 International Space Station Commander Sergei Volkov and Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko will install one experiment and retrieve another on July 15 during their second spacewalk in less than a week.
They also will continue to outfit the station's exterior, including the installation of a docking target on the Zvezda service module. It will help with the docking of a Russian mini research module on the space-facing side of Zvezda. That module will be launched next year.
The spacewalk, in Russian Orlan suits from the Pirs docking compartment, is scheduled to begin about 1:10 p.m. EDT. It is expected to last about 5.5 hours.
Volkov, the lead spacewalker or EV1, will wear the suit with red stripes. Kononenko, EV2, will wear the blue-striped suit.
After leaving Pirs and setting up, the first task is the docking target. Kononenko will use the boom of the Strela hand-powered crane, operated by Volkov, to move to the area at the front of Zvezda, the transfer compartment, to install the docking target.
Next they'll retract Strela and use an installed spacewalkers' ladder to move to the small-diameter section of Zvezda. There they will inspect some bolt holes to be used to place an antenna adapter, part of the Kurs automated docking system. A Kurs antenna to be installed there later will be used for the first time next year.
After moving back to Strela, they'll move a foot restraint from its boom to the exterior of Zvezda. They'll return to Pirs, get the Vsplesk experiment and move with it to the large-diameter section of Zvezda.
There they'll install the experiment, which monitors seismic effects using high-energy particle streams in the near-Earth environment. Then they'll install cabling.
Finally, they'll move to the Biorisk experiment, installed by Expedition 15 spacewalkers on Zvezda. The experiment studies the effects of the space environment on microorganisms.
With it and a tool carrier they'll move down the spacewalkers' ladder and to Pirs. The closing of its hatch marks the official end of the spacewalk.
As he did last week, Flight Engineer Greg Chamitoff will remain in the Soyuz during the spacewalk. That is part of contingency preparations for the unlikely event the Pirs airlock cannot be repressurized.
The July 10 spacewalk by Volkov and Kononenko focused on inspection of their Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft and retrieval of an explosive bolt, one of 10 that help separate the spacecraft return module from its propulsion module. The bolt will be returned to Earth for examination.
Failure of those two modules to separate on time during re-entry on the most recent two Soyuz returns resulted in ballistic entries. Those steeper-than-normal entries, while safe, resulted in high-G rides for Soyuz occupants and landings several hundred miles short of the planned area.
Digg Our News Here
->
NASA has awarded Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Inc. in Houston, a one-year contract extension valued at $42 million to provide integration services for cargo delivery to and from the International Space Station.
Lockheed Martin has held the station's cargo mission contract since January 2004. The one-year extension will bring the total value of the contract to $338 million.
The contract provides cargo packing for delivery to and from the space station, consisting of pressurized and unpressurized science and logistics carriers, assembly hardware and crew support. It also involves determining the most efficient way to pack the cargo, verifying the adequacy of the integrated carriers, packing the pressurized cargo into sub-carriers and returning the cargo to the providers once it returns to Earth. The contract also provides sustaining engineering for NASA carriers.
The extension begins Oct. 1, 2008, and is the first of two such options provided for in the original contract.
Major subcontractors include United Space Alliance LLC and Bastion Technologies Inc., both in Houston; Command Technologies Inc. in Warrenton, Va.; Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc. in Huntsville, Ala., and EADS Astrium Space Transportation, Bremen, Germany. The work will be performed at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and at the NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Digg Our News Here
->
With the roar of thousands of baseball fans, NASA astronaut Clay Anderson ran onto the field at Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, and headed to the pitcher's mound to throw out the first pitch of the game.
Anderson's appearance in Kansas City, Mo., on May 15 was the kickoff of NASA's Hometown Heroes 2008 Campaign. Throughout the summer, former International Space Station astronauts will journey back to their home states or regions to throw out the first pitch at Major League Baseball (MLB) games across the United States.
The campaign will showcase and celebrate the station's 10th anniversary in orbit. In November of 1998, the first piece of station hardware was launched into low-Earth orbit, and now, after 25 successful missions, the orbiting outpost is nearly complete.
Prior to throwing out the first pitch for the Royals afternoon game, Anderson spent his morning sharing the story of his journey to become an astronaut and what his five-month stay aboard the station was like, both with the local media and thousands of students from the Kansas City area.
"I thought it was really cool to meet an astronaut," said Megan Hansen, a fifth-grade student at Manor Hill Elementary School in Liberty, Mo. "I was really excited to get to meet someone who's been in space. It was cool to hear everything he had to say about what he saw in space, how he had to sleep and other stuff. I had lots of fun."
Hansen was the cameraperson for the Manor Hill Elementary video crew that interviewed Anderson at Kauffman Stadium early that morning before heading to class.
Anderson's next early morning stop was a live interview on the field during WDAF-TV 4's morning newscast. He then headed across town to KMBC-TV 9 to appear on that station's morning newscast.
"You know, a lot of us are a little bit star struck, because I don't believe we've met an astronaut before," said KMBC news anchor Dion Lim.
Anderson then headed back to Kaufmann Stadium and joined NASA Education Specialist Dr. Ollie Bogden at home plate, along with the WDAF-TV 4 weather team for School Day at the K.
Showcased as the largest weather class in the world, School Day at the K is an interactive, educational program involving students, teachers and parents watching from the stands and the WDAF weather team on the field. A variety of weather-related experiments were conducted at home plate to explain the science behind weather as more than 20,000 attendees watched.
The entire program was broadcast live on WDAF to an estimated 1.6 million viewers in the Kansas City area. And like the International Space Station, School Day at the K is also celebrating its 10th anniversary.
"We were thrilled to have astronaut Clay Anderson not only visit Kauffman Stadium but also play a big part in our 10th annual School Day at The K event," said Megan Stock, the Royals' coordinator of publicity. His experiences as a NASA astronaut added a new aspect to FOX 4's already successful weather program."
"The icing on the cake for the 10th year anniversary was having astronaut Clay Anderson join us to help inspire the students to continue their studies in science and math," Dr. Bogden said. "Clay did a great job of communicating to the students to do their best in everything they do, and that the possibilities of where they'll go in life are endless."
After the weather program and a quick interview with the Fox Sports Network, Anderson continued to inspire and engage both students and parents during an autograph session conducted outside the stadium. His backdrop was a 1:15 scale model of space shuttle Atlantis.
Anderson wrapped up this Hometown Heroes kickoff by throwing out the first pitch of the game between the Kansas City Royals and the Detroit Tigers, and then presented Royals' General Manager Dayton Moore with a photo of Kansas City taken from the station.
Digg Our News Here
->
|
NASA announced a number of design refinements to the Ares V rocket -- the result of a nine-month study led by the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
rocket in NASA's Constellation family of next-generation space vehicles -- by enabling a smooth transition from first stage engine cutoff, first stage separation and firing of the upper stage motor.
The J-2X workhorse gas generator testing began at the Marshall Center in May. To date, 32 tests have been completed. The most recent of these was June 26.
dramatically safer -- free from flame, sparks and liquid metal. For tomorrow's astronauts, this means the rockets they'll ride to space are made with the latest in manufacturing techniques, fueling a safer journey to orbit and beyond.
On August 4, ATK engineers will begin casting the first five-segment development motor, a process which should conclude around August 20. The first test firing of the development motor is scheduled to occur in April 2009 at ATK's Promontory Facility in Utah.
vehicle. Onboard instrumentation recorded the necessary data to determine the drag area of the parachute and the peak inflation loads as the parachute deploys. The successful test was the first of four planned tests for the drogue parachute.
Engineers began major refurbishment to the Marshall Center's Dynamic Test Stand in March, removing the roof and lowering the 144-foot-high, 71-ton door. Marshall currently is making safety upgrades to the stand, overhauling the 200-ton derrick crane and installing a new electrical power system, restoring the facility to its Apollo-era capabilities in anticipation of full-scale Ares testing beginning in July 2011. The test program is expected to take approximately one year.
