 NASA's Mars Exploration rover Opportunity is heading back out to the Red Planet's surrounding plains nearly a year after descending into a large Martian crater to examine exposed ancient rock layers.
"We've done everything we entered Victoria Crater to do and more," said Bruce Banerdt, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Banerdt is project scientist for Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit.
Having completed its job in the crater, Opportunity is now preparing to inspect loose cobbles on the plains. Some of these rocks, approximately fist-size and larger, were thrown long distances when objects hitting Mars blasted craters deeper than Victoria into the Red Planet. Opportunity has driven past scores of cobbles but examined only a few.
"Our experience tells us there's lots of diversity among the cobbles," said Scott McLennan of the State University of New York, Stony Brook. McLennan is a long-term planning leader for the rover science team. "We want to get a better characterization of them. A statistical sampling from examining more of them will be important for understanding the geology of the area."
Opportunity entered Victoria Crater on Sept. 11, 2007, after a year of scouting from the rim. Once a drivable inner slope was identified, the rover used contact instruments on its robotic arm to inspect the composition and textures of accessible layers.
The rover then drove close to the base of a cliff called "Cape Verde," part of the crater rim, to capture detailed images of a stack of layers 6 meters (20 feet) tall. The information Opportunity has returned about the layers in Victoria suggest the sediments were deposited by wind and then altered by groundwater.
"The patterns broadly resemble what we saw at the smaller craters Opportunity explored earlier," McLennan said. "By looking deeper into the layering, we are looking farther back in time." The crater stretches approximately 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter and is deeper than any other seen by Opportunity.
Engineers are programming Opportunity to climb out of the crater at the same place it entered. A spike in electric current drawn by the rover's left front wheel last month quickly settled discussions about whether to keep trying to edge even closer to the base of Cape Verde on a steep slope. The spike resembled one seen on Spirit when that rover lost the use of its right front wheel in 2006. Opportunity's six wheels are all still working after 10 times more use than they were designed to perform, but the team took the spike in current as a reminder that one could quit.
"If Opportunity were driving with only five wheels, like Spirit, it probably would never get out of Victoria Crater," said JPL's Bill Nelson, a rover mission manager. "We also know from experience with Spirit that if Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel after it is out on the level ground, mobility should not be a problem."
Opportunity now drives with its robotic arm out of the stowed position. A shoulder motor has degraded over the years to the point where the rover team chose not to risk having it stop working while the arm is stowed on a hook. If the motor were to stop working with the arm unstowed, the arm would remain usable.
Spirit has resumed observations after surviving the harshest weeks of southern Martian winter. The rover won't move from its winter haven until the amount of solar energy available to it increases a few months from now. The rover has completed half of a full-circle color panorama from its sun-facing location on the north edge of a low plateau called "Home Plate."
"Both rovers show signs of aging, but they are both still capable of exciting exploration and scientific discovery," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for Spirit and Opportunity.
The team's plan for future months is to drive Spirit south of Home Plate to an area where the rover last year found some bright, silica-rich soil. This could be possible evidence of effects of hot water. Labels: NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Climbing out of Crater
 Reporters will have a unique chance to experience lunar life, including driving across and touching a simulated moonscape, on Monday, Sept. 8, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Lunar Exploration Workshop will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. CDT, immediately following morning briefings that preview NASA's next space shuttle mission. The STS-125 flight of Atlantis will be the final visit by astronauts to the Hubble Space Telescope.
During Monday's tour, reporters will visit NASA's lunar yard to view NASA's prototype lunar truck as it travels across the mock surface of the moon. They will be able to climb into a concept lunar lander in the Altair development lab and examine moon rocks brought back to Earth by Apollo astronauts.
Program. The Constellation Program is building America's next spacecraft and planning a return of humans to live and work on the moon.The sessions will include interviews with experts and managers from NASA's ConstellationReporters must contact the Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. Sept. 3, to register.
For more information about NASA's Constellation Program, visit: Labels: NASA Invites Media To Experience Lunar Exploration
 NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Monday awarded a contract modification valued at $34.8 million to Jacobs Technology Inc. of Tullahoma, Tenn.
The modification will allow additional support for testing and facility operation, development projects, as well as the required maintenance and repairs on wind tunnels and other facilities at Ames. All work will be performed at the center.
The cost-plus-incentive fee award fee contract will conclude July 31, 2009. This modification brings the total value of the contract, awarded in June 2004, to $123.8 million. Labels: NASA Ames Awards Contract
 NASA has concluded that corrective action is appropriate in the Government Accountability Office bid protest of Exploration Systems & Technology, Inc. NASA determined that a compliance issue requires the termination of the contract for the Constellation Space Suit System with Oceaneering International, Inc. of Houston for the convenience of the government.
NASA anticipates that corrective action will involve reconsideration of its procurement decision. The pending protest litigation is subject to a Government Accountability Office Protective Order.
NASA had awarded the contract on June 12. The spacesuit will protect astronauts during Constellation Program voyages to the International Space Station and, by 2020, the surface of the moon. The Constellation Space Suit System contract is for design, development, test, evaluation and production of equipment to support astronauts aboard the Orion crew exploration vehicle, the Altair lunar lander, and during human exploration of the surface of the moon.
Suits and support systems will be needed for as many as four astronauts on moon voyages and as many as six space station travelers. For short trips to the moon, the suit design will support a week's worth of moon walks. The system also must be designed to support a significant number of moon walks during potential six-month lunar outpost expeditions. In addition, the spacesuit and support systems will provide contingency spacewalk capability and protection against the launch and landing environment, such as spacecraft cabin leaks. Labels: NASA To Take Corrective Action In Spacesuit
 In a news conference Monday, NASA managers discussed how the agency will be adjusting the budget, schedule and technical performance milestones for its Constellation Program to ensure the first crewed flight of the Ares I rocket and Orion crew capsule in March 2015.
The Constellation Program is developing the spacecraft and systems, including the Ares I and Ares V rockets, the Orion crew space exploration vehicle, and the Altair lunar lander, that will take astronauts to the International Space Station after the retirement of the space shuttle, and eventually return humans to the moon.
"Since the program's inception, NASA has been working an aggressive plan to achieve flight capability before our March 2015 target," said Rick Gilbrech, associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We are still confident the Constellation Program will make its first flight to the International Space Station on or before that date. Our new path forward better aligns our project schedules with our existing funds to ensure we can address the unplanned challenges that always arise when developing a complex flight system."
NASA will retire the space shuttles in 2010 and had established a goal of achieving flight capability for the Constellation Program before 2015 to narrow the gap in America's human spaceflight capability. As such, NASA aligned Constellation contracts and internal milestones  against a date much earlier than March 2015 to incentivize an earlier flight capability.
As part of an annual budget process that evaluates the program's budget, schedule and technical performance milestones, NASA will be working with its contractors to discuss how program plans and internal milestones should be adjusted -- a process that will take several months and require contract modifications and associated milestone realignments. Such adjustments are not unusual for a complex development program as work matures and schedules and resources are aligned. Labels: NASA to Realign Constellation Program Milestones
 Arizona Kids and teens are set to blast their local libraries into space orbit after completing Outer Space Base, a library series of space science programs in Tucson. Nine- to thirteen-year-olds will participate in a live educational downlink with Expedition 17 astronaut Greg Chamitoff aboard the International Space Station on Friday, Aug. 15, from 1:10 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. CDT.
The Pima County Public Library is the first public library system to host a space station downlink. The downlink also will be a first for the State of Arizona.
Outer Space Base programs are the product of a partnership between the library, NASA, the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and the Mars Education Program at Arizona State University, in Phoenix.
Program participants engaged in a week-long series of hands-on programs, focusing on human spaceflight and NASA's exploration plans, in preparation for the event. Outer Space Base is celebrating the 50th anniversary of NASA by promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills among kids and teens.
NASA's education downlinks support the agency's efforts to encourage students to study and possibly pursue careers in STEM fields. These events are facilitated by NASA's Teaching From Space Office and use the unique experience of human space flight to promote and enhance STEM education. Labels: Space Station Invaded By Students From Outer Space Base
 NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center has awarded a multi-year contract to Northrop Grumman Corporation's Integrated Systems Division of San Diego for engineering and technical services in support of the center's planned operation of two Global Hawk space aircraft.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, sole-source contract is for a five-year period with a value not to exceed $25 million. The agreement covers the period from Aug. 6, 2008 through Aug. 5, 2013.
The contract supports Dryden's planned operation of the two aircraft, their associated ground control station and related systems. Technical assistance will include analysis, design support for unique systems, simulations, software development and engineering, and operational and manufacturing support as needed.
Dryden will use the autonomously operated unmanned aircraft for space missions supporting NASA's Science Mission Directorate and the Earth science community that need high-altitude, long-endurance, long-distance airborne capability.
The two pre-production Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration aircraft were recently transferred to Dryden from the U.S. Air Force, which had no further requirement for the craft. Labels: NASA Awards Global Hawk Support Contract
 NASA's Human Research Program will fund nine proposals from six states to investigate questions about the affects of space radiation on human explorers. The selected proposals from researchers in California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, New York and Utah have a total value of approximately $13 million.
The ground-based studies will address the impact of space radiation on astronaut health. Research areas will include risk predictions for cancer and models for potential damage to the central nervous system.
"The proposals funded this year using advanced biomedical approaches will lead to a much deeper understanding than has been possible in the past on how celestial radiation differs from radiation on Earth," said Francis A. Cucinotta, chief scientist for the Human Research Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The Human Research Program provides knowledge and technologies to improve human health during space exploration and identifies possible countermeasures for known problems. The program quantifies crew health and performance risks during spaceflight and develops strategies that mission planners and system developers can use to monitor and mitigate health risks.
The nine projects were selected from 60 proposals that were reviewed by scientific and technical experts from academia and government laboratories. Labels: NASA Awards Space Radiobiology Research
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