Their emergencies happened hundreds, if not thousands, of miles from one another, but the captain whose vessel had become disabled near Kamalino, Hawaii, the pilot who crashed onto the Knik Glacier near Anchorage, Alaska, and the hiker who suffered a compound fracture while hiking near Merritt, Washington, all share a common experience: They were plucked to safety in the weeks leading up to the Labor Day weekend due to NASA technology.

With these rescues, the total number of people saved so far this year because of technologies NASA created for the international Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) program is 186. “We had 195 saves last year in the U.S.,” said LT Shawn Maddock, the SARSAT Operations Support Officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the agency that manages the SARSAT program in the U.S. “We’re on pace to exceed that number this year.”

“That’s the beauty of this program,” said NASA Search and Rescue Mission Manager Dave Affens. In the 30 years since the system began operations, it has saved more than 28,000 lives worldwide and 6,420 in the U.S. “Our motto here is ‘taking the search out of search and rescue,’ so we want to reduce that part to a minimum,” he added.

Although Affens takes personal pleasure knowing that his work contributed to thousands of lives saved, perhaps the one rescue that he believes most clearly demonstrates the value of space-based search and rescue system is the one involving 16-year-old Abby Sunderland, who was saved in June after floating helplessly in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 miles from Madagascar after a violent storm had damaged her 40-foot vessel, Wild Eyes. “Without NASA technology, she may have lost her life. This case was more interesting than most because we contributed to every aspect of it,” Affens said.

In the ultimate display of NASA spin-off technology, Abby’s life was changed with a small yellow device the size of a BlackBerry™. Fortunately, she was carrying a MicroPLB Type GXL handheld device — developed under a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program award to Microwave Monolithics Inc. (MMInc.) in Simi Valley, California. The company had given Abby the device before she tried to break the record of sailing non-stop around the world, previously held by her older brother.

NASA had provided Microwave Monolithics with the specifications to design the beacon, which relayed her distress signal to a SARSAT satellite, 22,500 miles away in space. When Abby activated the beacon, the satellite, equipped with NASA-developed repeater technology, then relayed the signal to the U.S. via the international satellite-aided search and rescue network now comprised of 40 participating nations. Eight minutes later, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area Command in Alameda, California, contacted her parents using information she provided when she registered her beacon with NOAA. And less than an hour later, two NOAA weather satellites, launched by NASA, used NASA technology to pinpoint her location.

“We developed the concept of detecting distress signals by the satellite, relaying it to ground stations where the locations were calculated. We then launched the distress-detection device on a NOAA weather satellite, tested the concept, and approved the system for operational use,” Affens explained.

Ultimately, a French fishing vessel, which was 400 miles from Abby’s location when the distress signal was detected, was directed to her location to perform the rescue.

Affens and his team are now developing new technology to further take the “search out of search and rescue” with new technology that is sure to increase the number of rescues and lives saved in which SARSAT has assisted, he said.

Engineers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with NOAA, the Coast Guard, and the Air Force, are developing a new search and rescue system that will detect and locate distress signals from beacons in less than five minutes. The current system, which places repeaters on weather satellites, can actually take up to an hour or more to locate the distress signal depending on the position of the satellite.

The Distress Alerting Satellite System, or DASS, will be more efficient because the repeater technology will be placed on the Air Force’s Global Positioning System (GPS), instead of NOAA weather satellites. Using the constellation of 24 GPS spacecraft operating in mid-Earth orbit, “we would be able to identify distress signals faster and with a greater level of precision,” Affens said.

The new GPS-based system is now being tested. Currently 10 of the 20 GPS satellites are flying the proof-of-concept DASS equipment and an additional 12 are planned. Goddard is testing the technology before transitioning to a final system after 2015, which will be deployed on the Air Force’s Block III GPS satellites. “The bottom-line here is that within one minute, we’ll know where the distress signals come from,” said Mickey Fitzmaurice, a space systems engineer for NOAA’s SARSAT program. “It is the future.”

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For the first time in nearly 50 years of American human spaceflight, Kennedy Space Center could be at the forefront of designing, developing, demonstrating and flying human-rated vehicles.

“We’re looking to create a robust commercial space program with multiple customers, multiple providers and multiple systems that take Americans to the International Space Station and other low Earth orbit destinations,” said Ed Mango, director of the Space Transportation Planning Office.

In May, the office sent out a Commercial Crew Initiative Request for Information (RFI). Mango, along with the office’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) Planning Lead Phil McAlister, Deputy Program Planning Manager Brent Jett and Insight Manager Scott Thurston, recently participated in a forum at NASA Headquarters to talk about common themes captured from dozens of industry responses. ESMD Deputy Administrator Dr. Laurie Leshin, Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Program Manager Alan Lindenmoyer and the Space Transportation Office’s Deputy Director Maria Collura also were on hand to offer insight.

“We have about 50 team members from shuttle, space station, Constellation, the Launch Services Program, the astronaut office, other NASA centers and contractors all coming together and melding our ideas of what commercial crew should be,” Mango said. “And we’re melding . . . it’s like making gumbo and we just started making the roux.”

If the Commercial Crew Program is approved by Congress and the White House, it would have several billion dollars within a five- year period to develop humanrating requirements, partner with commercial entities and complete design and development. The program also would include demonstration flights.

“We believe that we could fund up to four providers with that $5.8 billion,” McAlister said. “We definitely want competition. That is a key aspect to our strategy. We need multiple providers that are coming forward with innovative solutions.”

In addition to competition, will be collaboration. Thurston described more in depth about how NASA will take on a more “insight” role than its traditional “oversight” role and it’s a change that the team doesn’t take lightly.

“NASA has to re-examine what has been our traditional identity,” said Leshin, “and think about our role in a new way as catalysts of a much broader and more inclusive activity.”

Another aspect of collaboration would come from industries that are interested in performing science and research in low Earth orbit, whether on board the International Space Station or other future orbiting complexes.

Mango said because this would be the first Kennedy-led human spaceflight program, it could have quite an effect on the local economy.

“There is a door that is beginning to open to allow the Central Florida area to grow with dozens of companies, probably more engineering and technology firms, much like around other NASA centers,” Mango said.

Currently, the office is working closely with the 21st Century Space Launch Complex Planning Office at Kennedy to determine what facilities and capabilities commercial providers are looking for. For example, Mango said they are looking at ways to improve Launch Complex 39 so it can be used for multiple launch vehicles.

“We’re encouraging you all (industry) to go talk to the NASA centers, please provide them input, let them know of your needs, let them know the timing of your needs, and start negotiating pricing,” Collura said.

Jett described some requirements NASA will be looking for commercial companies to meet, including health, medical and safety. Some of those, Mango said, include life support requirements for the astronauts to be able to breathe and redundancies for emergency situa-tions, such as a backup flight control system.

The office is looking to NASA’s Launch Services Program and the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Office for guidance on how to move forward with commercial partnerships.

“We’ve learned so much over the last four years since we awarded our first COTS agreement,” Lindenmoyer said. “We let the creativity, innovation, ingenuity and flexibility happen . . . and yet, we still have to maintain our standards of safety and reliability.”

NASA also is embedding workers in the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, and vice versa so the two agencies can understand day-to-day operations and iron out future roles and responsibilities.

“We’re working with the FAA to figure out how to take 50 years of how we’ve done business, which involves a lot of requirement iterations, and merge it into the FAA’s more regulatory-type environment,” Mango said. “So in a generation or two, the FAA should be licensing spacecraft like they do aircraft today.”

So, what’s the ultimate goal for commercial crew?

“In the future, NASA will buy tickets to low Earth orbit that way we can focus more on exploration,” Mango said. “I believe there are companies in this country that can definitely do commercial crew . . . and do it well.”

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The universe is still an arcane place that scientists know very little about, but a new NASA Solar Terrestrial Probe mission is going to shed light on one especially mysterious event called magnetic reconnection. It occurs when magnetic lines of force cross, cancel, and reconnect releasing magnetic energy in the form of heat and charged-particle kinetic energy.

On the sun, magnetic reconnection causes solar flares more powerful than several atomic bombs combined. In Earth’s atmosphere, magnetic reconnection dispenses magnetic storms and auroras, and in laboratories on Earth it can cause big problems in fusion reactors.

Although the study of magnetic reconnection dates back to the 1950s and despite numerous scientific papers addressing this perplexing issue, scientists still cannot agree on one accepted model.

In 2014, NASA is scheduled to launch a satellite that will greatly increase our understanding of this phenomenon when it launches the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, a suite of four identical spacecraft that will study magnetic reconnection in the best possible laboratory – the Earth’s magnetosphere. The spacecraft will obtain measurements necessary to test prevailing theories as to how reconnection is enabled and how it progresses.

Recently, NASA and members of an independent review board painstakingly reviewed every aspect of the MMS mission, and successfully completed the mission’s critical design review. This technical review is held to ensure that a mission can proceed into fabrication, demonstration and test and can meet stated performance requirements, including cost, schedule, risk and other system constraints.

According to MMS deputy project scientist Mark Adrian of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., “This is the last hurdle before the spacecraft and instrument teams begin to build actual flight hardware.”

MMS was approved for implementation in June 2009 following a successful Preliminary Design Review in May 2009.

Dr. James L. Burch of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, will lead the MMS science team. According to Burch, “Magnetic reconnection is a fundamental physical process that occurs throughout the universe,” says Burch. “MMS will enable us to study this dynamic process in the near-Earth space environment, where it transfers energy from the solar wind to the magnetosphere and drives disturbances known as space weather.”

Goddard is the lead Center for the mission. Engineers there will perform the required environmental testing, build the spacecraft and integrate all four sets of instruments into the MMS satellites, support launch vehicle integration and operations, and develop the Mission Operations Center which to monitor and control the spacecraft.

MMS will carry identical suites of plasma analyzers, energetic particle detectors, magnetometers, and electric field instruments as well as a device to prevent spacecraft charging from interfering with the highly sensitive measurements required in and around the diffusion regions.

Scientists and engineers at Goddard have designed and will build one of the instruments – the Fast Plasma Instrument, which will measure the ion and electron distributions and the electric and magnetic fields with unprecedentedly high millisecond time resolution and accuracy.

Currently, MMS is scheduled to launch in August 2014 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL aboard an Atlas V rocket.

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New research from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope reveals that asteroids somewhat near Earth, termed near-Earth objects, are a mixed bunch, with a surprisingly wide array of compositions. Like a piñata filled with everything from chocolates to fruity candies, these asteroids come in assorted colors and compositions. Some are dark and dull; others are shiny and bright. The Spitzer observations of 100 known near-Earth asteroids demonstrate that the objects’ diversity is greater than previously thought.

The findings are helping astronomers better understand near-Earth objects as a whole — a population whose physical properties are not well known.

“These rocks are teaching us about the places they come from,” said David Trilling of Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, lead author of a new paper on the research appearing in the September issue of Astronomical Journal. “It’s like studying pebbles in a streambed to learn about the mountains they tumbled down.”

After nearly six years of operation, in May 2009, Spitzer used up the liquid coolant needed to chill its infrared detectors. It is now operating in a so-called “warm” mode (the actual temperature is still quite cold at 30 Kelvin, or minus 406 degrees Fahrenheit). Two of Spitzer’s infrared channels, the shortest-wavelength detectors on the observatory, are working perfectly.

One of the mission’s new “warm” programs is to survey about 700 near-Earth objects, cataloguing their individual traits. By observing in infrared, Spitzer is helping to gather more accurate estimates of asteroids’ compositions and sizes than what is possible with visible light alone. Visible-light observations of an asteroid won’t differentiate between an asteroid that is big and dark, or small and light. Both rocks would reflect the same amount of visible sunlight. Infrared data provide a read on the object’s temperature, which then tells an astronomer more about the actual size and composition. A big, dark rock has a higher temperature than a small, light one because it absorbs more sunlight.

Trilling and his team have analyzed preliminary data on 100 near-Earth asteroids so far. They plan to observe 600 more over the next year. There are roughly 7,000 known near-Earth objects out of a population expected to number in the tens to hundreds of thousands.

“Very little is known about the physical characteristics of the near-Earth population,” said Trilling. “Our data will tell us more about the population, and how it changes from one object to the next. This information could be used to help plan possible future space missions to study a near-Earth object.”

The data show that some of the smaller objects have surprisingly high albedos (an albedo is a measurement of how much sunlight an object reflects). Since asteroid surfaces become darker with time due to exposure to solar radiation, the presence of lighter, brighter surfaces for some asteroids may indicate that they are relatively young. This is evidence for the continuing evolution of the near-Earth object population.

In addition, the fact that the asteroids observed so far have a greater degree of diversity than expected indicates that they might have different origins. Some might come from the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and others could come from farther out in the solar system. This diversity also suggests that the materials that went into making the asteroids — the same materials that make up our planets — were probably mixed together like a big solar-system soup very early in its history.

The research complements that of NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, an all-sky infrared survey mission also up in space now. WISE has already observed more than 430 near-Earth objects — of these, more than 110 are newly discovered.

In the future, both Spitzer and WISE will tell us even more about the “flavors” of near-Earth objects. This could reveal new clues about how the cosmic objects might have dotted our young planet with water and organics — ingredients needed to kick-start life.

Other authors of the paper include Cristina Thomas, also from Northern Arizona University; Michael Mueller and Marco Delbo of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur, Nice, France; Joseph Hora, Giovanni Fazio, Howard Smith and Tim Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.; Alan Harris of the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany (DLR is Germany’s space agency and stands for Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt); Bidushi Bhattacharya of the NASA Herschel Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Steve Chesley and Amy Mainzer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Bill Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo.; Josh Emery of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Bryan Penprase of the Pomona College, Claremont, Calif.; and John Stansberry of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

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On Aug. 5, the San José copper and gold mine near the northern town of Copiapó, Chile, collapsed, trapping 33 miners about a half mile underground. The Chilean government spoke with the United States Department of State to request NASA’s technical advice related to the agency’s life sciences research activities.

On Aug. 31, a NASA team of experts arrived in Santiago as part of NASA’s commitment to provide U.S. assistance. NASA’s assistance is only a small contribution to the Chilean government’s overall rescue effort. On Sept. 1, the team began three days’ worth of meetings in Copiapó.

The NASA team includes two medical doctors, a psychologist and an engineer. Dr. Michael Duncan, deputy chief medical officer in NASA’s Space Life Sciences Directorate at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, is leading the team. The other team members are physician J.D. Polk, psychologist Al Holland and engineer Clint Cragg.

NASA’s long experience in training and planning for emergencies in human spaceflight and its protection of humans in the hostile environment of space may have some direct benefits that can be useful to the rescue. Environments may very well be different, but human response both in physiology and behavioral responses to emergencies is quite similar. Some of the results acquired through NASA’s research may be applicable to the trapped miners.

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The Italian-built multi-purpose logistics module (MPLM) called Leonardo was built to serve the same purpose as its two brothers, Rafaello and Donatello: to ferry supplies, equipment, experiments and other cargo to and from the International Space Station via the space shuttle’s payload bay. Now the module formerly known as Leonardo is on its way to a permanent assignment in space.

An MPLM is designed to be carried to the space station by a shuttle, be temporarily attached to the station to allow astronauts to float inside and remove cargo and fill it back up with items, and then be detached and returned to Earth by the shuttle.

“For many years, NASA and the Italian Space Agency have been looking at the potential of turning one of the multi-purpose logistics modules into a permanent module to fly and attach to the station and leave behind,” says Scott Higginbotham, the payload mission manager for space shuttle Discovery’s STS-133 flight. “Efforts to actually conduct the conversion got serious in the summer of 2009 when we started studies to understand specifically what modifications would be necessary to make the conversion from a temporary visiting vehicle to a permanent vehicle.”

Once the conversion plan was approved, the Italian Space Agency contracted with Thales Alenia Space, the European company that originally built the module, to perform the majority of the modifications.

There are three basic types of modifications that were performed to make the conversion from the MPLM to the PMM (Permanent Multipurpose Module),” explains Higginbotham. “The first has to do with weight. We tried to reduce the weight of the module as much as possible by eliminating hardware that we didn’t need for the long-duration stay on orbit to allow us to carry more useful cargo up to space on STS-133.”

The second set of modifications was aimed at making the module’s interior more user-friendly to the station crew members. “For example, we have modified some of the panels inside the vehicle so that they are much easier for the astronauts to open and close during a flight,” says Higginbotham.

But by far the biggest change was preparing the PMM to spend 10 years exposed to the rigors of space instead of the 10 days it might previously have been outside the protection of the shuttle during a mission.

“Probably most significantly we had to armor the exterior of the module so that it can withstand the micrometeoroid and hypervelocity debris impacts over the 10 years that it’ll be on the station,” says Higginbotham, “Rather than modify the external shields, which are made of metal, which was going to be heavy and expensive, the clever idea that both we and the Italians came up with was to install a micrometeoroid mattress, which is basically a bullet-proof vest for the station that lies underneath the metallic shield and on top of the pressure vessel.”

When the modifications are completed, the module will be loaded with the STS-133 payload and fly aboard Discovery, remaining at the station at the end of the mission. The extra space it provides will give the station’s resident crew what amounts to a giant new float-in closet to help store supplies, equipment and potentially experiments aboard the orbiting laboratory, helping the station continue its mission through the decade.

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NASA and the City of Houston have a long — nearly 50-year — history together.

In 1961, the Johnson Space Center was established, originally as the Manned Space Center, in Houston. The people of the Houston area welcomed personnel with open arms. The city was ecstatic. Space fever promptly swept the town. The baseball team was named the Astros, and the basketball team was called the Rockets.

From the early Gemini, Apollo and Skylab projects to today’s space shuttle, International Space Station and exploration endeavors, the center continues to lead NASA’s efforts in human space exploration. And the enthusiasm throughout the Houston community continues.

This year, Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker recommended that the NASA workforce receive the city’s annual Spirit of Houston Award for the iconic contributions the people have made throughout the agency’s history. The award was established in 2004 to honor Houstonians who motivated their fellow citizens with their everyday acts of leadership.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden accepted the award at Houston’s 174th Birthday Celebration August 26, 2010. Employees from Johnson, including Center Director Michael Coats, also attended the event.

“It is an honor to accept the 2010 Spirit of Houston Award on behalf of all of the men and women of NASA,” Bolden said. “Every one of us is absolutely committed to a vibrant future for exploration and improving life on Earth.”

The theme for this year’s birthday event was “Houston, We Have the Moon and the Stars!” Former astronaut Bernard A. Harris Jr. was inducted into the 2010 Houston Hall of Fame at the event.

For more than 50 years, NASA and its workforce have powered Houston and the nation into the 21st century through accomplishments that are enduring milestones of human achievement. Among those accomplishments are technological innovations and scientific discoveries that have improved lives on Earth.

“The men and women who work on these programs are dedicated professionals with a true spirit of exploration,” said Coats. “It is for them and because of them that the Spirit of Houston is alive and well. We thank you again for this great honor.”

Earlier that day, Parker proclaimed Aug. 26, 2010, as “The NASA Family Spirit of Houston Day.” The proclamation stated the “dedicated workforce reaches beyond the boundaries of the Johnson Space Center campus and makes Houston a better community at large.”

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Is this one galaxy or two? Astronomer Art Hoag first asked this question when he chanced upon this unusual extragalactic object. On the outside is a ring dominated by bright blue stars, while near the center lies a ball of much redder stars that are likely much older. Between the two is a gap that appears almost completely dark. How Hoag’s Object formed remains unknown, although similar objects have been identified and collectively labeled as a form of ring galaxy. Genesis hypotheses include a galaxy collision billions of years ago and the gravitational effect of a central bar that has since vanished.

This image, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in July 2001, reveals unprecedented details of Hoag’s Object and may yield a better understanding. Hoag’s Object spans about 100,000 light years and lies about 600 million light years away toward the constellation of the Snake (Serpens). Coincidentally, visible in the gap (at about one o’clock) is yet another ring galaxy that likely lies far in the distance.

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When astronauts venture outside of a spaceship or the International Space Station, they must wear protective space suits to keep them safe from the harsh environment of space. While inside these pressurized suits, it’s essential that they remain in constant communication with the rest of the crew in space as well as Mission Control Center on Earth.

While wearing the current space suits, astronauts wear a Communications Carrier Assembly (CCA), or “Snoopy Cap” — a fabric hat fitted with microphones in the ear area for listening and boom microphones in front of the mouth for speaking. These caps are worn under the helmet and visor that surround an astronaut’s head.

NASA is in the process of completely redesigning their space suits, with the goal of creating a brand new space suit to be used starting in 2020. Redesigned and reinvented communications equipment will be an important facet of the new suit.

Integrated Audio

NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland is working on different parts of the new space suit, including communications equipment. The Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP) is involved with testing various proposed solutions to the communications requirements within the suit.

The Communications Carrier Assembly (CCA), while effective, has some logistical drawbacks. Multiple cap sizes must be available due to the difference in astronauts’ head sizes. The caps cannot be adjusted once the visor of the helmet is in place and the astronaut is in space, which means that if the microphones shift, communication quality can decrease. The boom microphones can also interfere with feeding and drinking mechanisms during long-duration spacewalks. An additional problem is that astronaut sweat can negatively interfere with the performance of the electrical and mechanical parts in the CCA.

For several years, Glenn has performed research and development on a variety of communications technologies. About six years ago, teams at Glenn began working on integrated audio solutions to support extravehicular activities, like space walks. In 2008, Glenn signed a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) agreement with WeVoice Inc. of Bridgewater, N.J. Together, they began developing and testing an integrated audio system that is built directly into a space helmet.

“The integrated audio system is where the microphones and earphones are removed from the Communications Carrier Assembly and integrated into the structure of the space suit itself,” says Obed “Scott” Sands, an electronics engineer at Glenn, lead for Configuration II Audio under Constellation and lead for integrated audio development for the Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP).

The new integrated audio system solves many of the issues the CCA presents. As the integrated audio system is part of the actual space suit, there are no additional parts to worry about maintaining. The microphones and earphones are built into the suit, which means there are no moving parts to disrupt an astronaut’s movements or become dislodged during activity. And the integrated audio system is a universal size — no separate caps are needed for individual crew members.

Rather than one boom microphone, the new integrated audio system uses an array of microphones — currently four, but the number could increase — that are located in front of where an astronaut’s mouth is while inside the helmet. The integrated audio system features cutting-edge digital signal processing which helps the microphones overcome loss of fidelity on the outbound (speaking) part of the system.

The microphone array and associated signal processing are needed in the integrated audio system to overcome decreased sound quality. Sound quality can be negatively impacted because the microphones of the integrated audio system are positioned on the inside of the helmet — farther from an astronaut’s mouth. This makes the microphones more susceptible to interference from noise created inside of the suit as well as noise from vibrations of the spacesuit structure.

The current technology development approach to solving these problems involves processing signals from each element in the array, known as Multi-Channel Noise Reduction. This new filtering approach features technology adapted from video teleconferencing systems. Advanced filters are used for each of the array’s channels, and additional noise reduction is used to isolate the sound of speech.

Several speakers are installed in the helmet, which are designed to focus the sound towards the astronaut’s ears. These speakers also isolate other sounds so that crew members can effectively hear. This solves the issue of occasional unclear inbound communications (listening).

“This new system will provide the crew member with more freedom and increased reliability,” says Terry O’Malley, an aerospace engineer and the EVA lead at Glenn. “It also provides the system designers with increased flexibility in designing the system.”

Testing with a Torso

In order to assess the effectiveness of the new system, the conditions inside a space suit must be replicated. Then the integrated audio is tested by using a specialized piece of equipment that creates human speech. This equipment, shaped like a human torso, is called HATSMAN — Head and Torso Simulator. It is manufactured by Brüel & Kjær, a company based in Denmark.

“It listens like a person and talks like a person,” Sands says. “It’s got microphones in its ears and a speaker in its mouth, and the radiation patterns conform to international standards for mannequins that emulate human speech and hearing.”

The testing involves taking advanced measurements of the noise produced by HATMSAN and received by the integrated audio system and vice versa. This anthropometric measuring helps Glenn researchers refine their design, using data created by machines that accurately represent the needs of the humans who will eventually use the completed system.

The HATMSAN at Glenn is installed in a testing tank that is carefully designed to mimic the environment inside a space suit. It is lined with acoustic absorbing foam that isolates extra noise that the tank itself might create. Then a noise source simulates the sound created by space suits, which is generated from a recording taken inside an actual space suit. Special microphones that do not create their own static pressure are installed, which take measurements without affecting the readings.

“The biggest reason we’re in the tank is that we can create a static pressure environment that simulates the inside of the actual suit,” says Dave Pleva (DB Consulting Group, Inc.), an IT Project Analyst at Glenn who supports audio development work for ETDP.

The tank recreates the pressure inside of the suit, not the pressure of the entirety of space — because the integrated audio system is made for use inside a helmet. The positive pressure inside a space suit is about 4.3 PSI (equivalent to about 35,000 feet altitude) so the team tests with this as its base. They also explore other variations in barometric pressure. The test rig also includes an acrylic dome to simulate the helmet. The team explores how speech and sound bounce off of the surface of the helmet.

A specialized device, called Digital Speech Level Analyzer (DSLA), provides vocal tracks for use in testing. Various utterances comprise the test speech to make it phonetically balanced — including all of the patterns and pairs that, statistically speaking, would show up in the English language. Both male and female voices are used.

“We generate a signal, it goes through an amplifier that powers the speaker in the HATSMAN, and then the array picks up the speech. The array then processes the speech and sends out the process signal to the DSLA. The DSLA then does a comparison of what it sent and what it receives,” Pleva says.

The primary performance concern is speech intelligibility. Although quality of sound is also important, the main interest is that as many words as possible be successfully transmitted both ways. This can be effectively measured using the equipment in place.

“The next step would be to build an even higher fidelity version of this integrated audio system. Then we’ll do another round of these tests. Eventually, we’ll have a human being tested inside a pressure chamber,” says Dave Irimies, a computer engineer and ETDP lead at Glenn.

Advancing Technology

The ongoing research, development and testing of this integrated audio system is part of the Space Audio Development and Evaluation Laboratory at Glenn.

“Our direction is replacing the current suit on the space station and shuttle. The current certification runs out in ten years, in 2020, so… this is an opportunity to use even more advanced technology,” Irimies says. “This work is pressing forward.”

The team hopes that the integrated audio system can commence testing on the space station in 2016. The technology may also be useful for communicating inside the station as well as during space walks. There may also be the potential that the technology can help on Earth. WeVoice Inc. is currently working with the University of Pittsburg on one potential spin-off: developing a teleconferencing system using microphone arrays for operating rooms in hospitals.

The team looks forward to working together to continue testing and evolving their integrated audio system, with the goal of significantly influencing how the next generation space suit will work.

“We all challenge each other in different ways, all the time,” Sands says. “It’s a lot of fun, getting new concepts infused into space systems. That’s what NASA is all about.”

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With a desire to learn more about aerospace technology, eight teachers gave up part of their summer vacation this year to come to NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and become students themselves. The teachers visited Ames as part of the Simulation-Based Aerospace Engineering Teacher Professional Development Program with hopes of learning about technology so they could increase their students’ enthusiasm in science, technology, engineering and math.

“Enthusiasm is contagious. We’re hoping that these teachers go home with a passion for technology that they can share with their students,” said Tom Clausen, Education Specialist at NASA Ames.

Many of the teachers came to Ames from schools that were falling behind academically, and the teachers hoped to be a part of helping students at those schools learn effectively.

“Our school, Wakefieild Middle School, has been labeled as underachieving,” said Denise LaClair from Tucson, Ariz. “I want Wakefield Middle School to become one of the premiere schools in Tucson,and I want to have a role in helping achieve this dream.”

LaClair is interested in learning new techniques to help students learn and fully understand complex concepts.

“It is amazing how research is showing educators new ways of presenting material and making it relevant to students and applying that in my classroom to engage all students in discovery and learning. Seeing a student’s eyes light up with understanding, use appropriate vocabulary in context, or tell me how much they love programming the rotor in my class really makes my day,” said LaClair.

LaClair is not alone in her love of teaching. The teachers who attended the program all said they enjoyed seeing the reaction of a young student who suddenly understands a concept.

“I enjoy working with young minds and seeing their reactions when they learn concepts. I enjoy helping support my students during such an important time in their development,” said Carolyn Jones from Sahuaro High School in Tucson, Ariz.

These teachers know that the students they are teaching are our future technical work force.

“I enjoy being in a position to impact young people today who will make an impact on the world tomorrow,” said John Sterling from Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Miami, Fla. “I have a unique opportunity to change lives,” added Clara Hall Brown from Miami Central Senior High School in Miami, Fla.

These eight teachers learned about this opportunity different ways – through flyers, their principals, or friends at other schools. They came with the same motivation – to learn more about how to teach their students as effectively as possible. They left with a new understanding of how to approach technical concepts in the classroom.

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