A pioneering camera and spectrometer that will fly aboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has completed cryogenic testing designed to mimic the harsh conditions it will experience in space. The Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) underwent testing inside the thermal space test chamber at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) Space in Oxfordshire, U.K. The sophisticated instrument is designed to examine the first light in the universe and the formation of planets around other stars.

A team of more than 50 scientists from 11 countries tested MIRI for 86 days, representing the longest and most exhaustive testing at cryogenic temperatures of an astronomy instrument in Europe prior to delivery for its integration into a spacecraft.

“The successful completion of the test program, involving more than 2,000 individual tests, marks a major milestone for the Webb telescope mission,” said Matthew Greenhouse, Webb telescope project scientist for the Science Instrument Payload, at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Along with the Webb telescope’s other instruments, MIRI will help scientists better understand how the universe formed following the Big Bang and ultimately developed star systems that may be capable of supporting life. In particular, scientists hope to explore young planets around distant stars that are shrouded by gas and dust when viewed in visible light. Because infrared light penetrates these obstructions, MIRI can acquire images of planetary nurseries sharper than ever before possible. With its spectrometer, MIRI could potentially reveal the existence of water on these planets as well, informing future investigations into their habitability for humans.

To capture some of the earliest, infrared light in the cosmos, MIRI has to be cooled to 7 Kelvin (-266 Celsius/-447 Fahrenheit), which brings tough challenges for testing the instrument. Inside the RAL Space thermal space test chamber, specially constructed shrouds, cooled to 40K (-233C/-388F), surround MIRI while scientists observe simulated background stars. The tests were designed to ensure that MIRI can operate successfully in the cold vacuum of space and allow scientists to gather vital calibration and baseline data.

The MIRI team is now analyzing data from the cryogenic test campaign, completing remaining “warm testing,” and will prepare the instrument for delivery to NASA Goddard. There it will be integrated with the other instruments, and the telescope.

“Thousands of astronomers will use the Webb telescope to extend the reach of human knowledge far beyond today’s limits. Just as the Hubble Space Telescope rewrote textbooks everywhere, Webb will find new surprises and help to answer some of the most pressing questions in astronomy,” said John Mather, Nobel laureate and Webb senior project scientist at NASA Goddard.

MIRI was built by scientists and engineers from European countries, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and several U.S. institutions.

The Webb telescope is a partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

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It’s almost one-million pounds of force on the “can,” and they want to see it buckle.

Watch live TV coverage on NASA Television’s Education Channel and the agency’s website as NASA engineers test an immense aluminum-lithium rocket fuel tank on Wednesday, March 23, 10:30 a.m. EDT from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The hope is to use data from the test to generate new “shell-buckling design factors” that will enable lightweight, safe and sturdy “skins” for future launch vehicles. The test is led by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, or NESC, based at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.

NASA 360′s Jennifer Pulley will host approximately two-hours of TV coverage from the test site and interview NESC, Langley and Marshall engineers.

The aerospace industry’s shell buckling knockdown factors are a complex set of engineering data that dates back to Apollo-era studies of rocket structures — well before modern composite materials, manufacturing processes and advanced computer modeling. The hope is for the new test data to update essential calculations that are typically a significant cost, performance, and safety driver in designing large structures like the main fuel tank of a future heavy-lift launch vehicle.

The large-scale test follows a series of smaller scale tests, all aimed at reducing the time and money spent designing and testing future rockets. And by incorporating more modern, lighter high-tech materials into the design and manufacturing process, rockets will save weight and carry more payload.

The 27.5-foot-diameter (8.4m) and 20-foot-tall (6.1m) space shuttle external tank barrel-shaped test article is in place at Marshall’s Engineering Test Laboratory. During the test, the section will be sandwiched between two massive loading rings that will press down with almost one-million pounds (453,592 kg) of force on the central cylindrical test article forcing it to buckle.

Leading up to Wednesday’s big crush, the shell buckling team has previously tested four, 8-foot-diameter (2.4m) aluminum-lithium cylinders to failure. In preparation for the upcoming test, hundreds of sensors have been placed on the barrel section to measure strain, local deformations and displacement. In addition, advanced optical measurement techniques will be used to monitor tiny deformations over the entire outer surface of the test article. Research to date suggests a potential weight savings of as much as 20 percent.

The principal investigator of the Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project is Mark Hilburger, senior research engineer at NASA Langley; Mike Roberts, an engineer in Marshall’s Structural Strength Test Branch is the Marshall lead for the test.

The Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Project is led and funded by the NESC; Marshall is responsible for the test including the engineering, the equipment design, the hardware facilities and safety assurance. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company fabricated the test article at Marshall’s Advance Weld Process Development Facility using state of the art welding and inspection techniques.

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

“The Glory satellite will help us understand the interaction of what’s called aerosols in our environment,” said Chuong Nguyen, LSP’s mission integration manager for Glory.

The particles Glory will measure are small enough to float in the atmosphere and affect weather conditions by either absorbing sunlight or reflecting it. The particles can also affect rain patterns by seeding clouds and have other effects. The Glory mission is to also find out how long-lasting the effects for aerosols and how far their effects reach.
The effects of some aerosols are limited to those parts of the world that generate them. For example, cities in developing nations often produce the most “black carbon,” or soot, and it is in those areas that the effects are seen most dramatically, sometimes even in the form of health problems.

However, other aerosols including dust from the Sahara desert, reach high enough into the air that they are transported across the oceans. In the case of the Sahara, its dust has been seen in the Caribbean.
While the spacecraft will get due attention, many eyes also will be on the Taurus XL rocket that will lift Glory. The four-stage, solid-fueled rocket was last used in February 2009 to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. However, the payload fairing protecting the spacecraft during the early part of launch did not separate and the spacecraft never reached orbit.

“Glory is going to do some fantastic stuff as far as mapping out aerosols in the atmosphere, but it’s also a groundbreaker in that this is the first flight after a failure of the Taurus XL vehicle,” said Omar Baez, launch director for the Glory mission. “So we’re excited to be doing this and Glory just happens to be the science that we’re taking up with us this time.”

Compared with other rockets that have launched many hundreds of times, the Taurus XL is quite young and Baez said the trouble with the last launch is part of any new system’s growing pains.

“We’ve had a lot of work put into this vehicle so essentially you’re flying some systems that you’re well aware of,” Baez said. “They’re brand new but you know them intimately. We’ll take out those problems that we had with the failure.”

Two review boards were established to find the cause of the failure, one by NASA and one by the rocket’s maker, Orbital Sciences. When those were complete, the launch team moved ahead with changes and preparations for the Glory mission.

“There’s physically been people that have been working this one item for two years,” Baez said.

Glory is launching from the California coast so it can go into a sun-synchronous orbit to scan almost all of the Earth’s surface as part of the “A-Train” of Earth-observation satellites already in orbit.

Together, Glory, the other spacecraft already in orbit and a future mission called the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, the replacement for the original OCO, are expected to give the most complete picture to date of Earth’s climate and what makes it change.

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HOUSTON — NASA astronaut Mark Kelly will resume training as commander of the STS-134 space shuttle mission on Monday, Feb. 7. With the exception of some proficiency training, Kelly has been on personal leave since Jan. 8 to care for his wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in a Tucson, Ariz. shooting.

“I am looking forward to rejoining my STS-134 crew members and finishing our training for the mission,” Kelly said. “We have been preparing for more than 18 months, and we will be ready to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) to the International Space Station and complete the other objectives of the flight. I appreciate the confidence that my NASA management has in me and the rest of my space shuttle crew.”

“We are glad to have Mark back,” said Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “He is a veteran shuttle commander and knows well the demands of the job. We are confident in his ability to successfully lead this mission, and I know I speak for all of NASA in saying ‘welcome back’.

A news briefing will be held at 2 p.m. CST today at Johnson to discuss Kelly’s return. The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television.

Questions will be taken from reporters at Johnson, NASA Headquarters and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Participants will include:
– Mark Kelly, commander, STS-134
– Peggy Whitson, chief, Astronaut Office
– Brent Jett, chief, Flight Crew Operations Directorate

Because of winter weather conditions, Johnson will be closed until noon. However, the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 is staffed to receive calls from journalists requesting credentials.

On Monday, Feb. 7, NASA TV will broadcast video b-roll of Kelly’s first training session with his crew at 11:30 a.m. CST. Additional b-roll of his first day of training will air at 3 p.m. The training sessions will not be available for filming by news media.

Astronaut Rick Sturckow, the backup commander for the mission, will resume his role as the deputy chief of the Astronaut Office.

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The first time anyone installed a main engine in a space shuttle in 1980, it took three days and prompted a series of changes that quickly became standard practice.

“The first one, it was, ‘There’s the orbiter, go put a motor in it,’” recalled Robert “Bob” Rysdyk, a lead engine technician for Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne who helped install that first engine.

There were laser instruments galore marking off all sorts of measurements as technicians tried to set the first engine carefully inside shuttle Columbia’s aft compartment.

Rysdyk credits engineer Roy Austin with working out a simple solution.

“He actually went down to the janitor’s closet and cut two broomsticks the same length and used those to align the pump to the orbiter,” Rysdyk said.

Thirty years and more than 130 missions later, Rysdyk was part of the team that installed what’s expected to be the last set of main engines in a shuttle, this time in Atlantis. It took less than four hours and the team used the same measurements that Austin came up with when he cut the broom handles.

Two years before that first installation, Rysdyk said he had no space program ambitions.
“I was working on four-cylinder airplane engines that would fit on a desk,” Rysdyk said. “I got recruited from my next door neighbor who was an engineer out here in ’79. Literally, my application was a sheet of notebook paper with my name and what I did on it. I got a job interview and hired within a week.”

Michael Kerasotis, a quality inspector with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, came to Kennedy in 1979 as part of a summer program. He started working on the shuttle’s tiles but migrated to engine work within a couple years of Columbia’s first launch.

“This has been the longest summer ever,” Kerasotis joked. “We got a pass to come out here and see (the shuttle). I never thought I’d be working on it.”

One of the most carefully choreographed aspects of preparing a shuttle for launch involves placing three 7,700 pound main engines into the back of the spacecraft.

It takes eight people and a lot of patience.

The machinery involved starts with a cone-shaped fitting specially made to handle a main engine. Because the engines face slightly up toward the rudder, they have to be installed at an angle. So the fitting is welded to a sliding rack.

The rack and fitting are, in turn, positioned on the front of a huge forklift known as the “Hyster” for the engine installation.

The engine installer, forklift and the technicians who oversee an installation preach careful control anytime an engine is on the move.

The installer has seen very few changes since it was brought to Kennedy in the late 70s, Rysdyk said.

“Every other piece of ground support equipment has gone through a lot of changes,” he said. “That thing right there is almost exactly like it was in 1978.”

The machinery also got a lot more use than designers thought it would, although it has held up just fine. That’s because the shuttle’s main engines originally were not expected to be removed after each flight. Instead, the main engines are taken out soon after a shuttle returns so their components can be inspected closely and without the engines in the way, processing for the Orbiter is safer and quicker. The main engines for the initial five missions were inspected in-place without removal from Columbia.

“We literally in the first few operational flights after that, used up the whole design life of the engine installer,” Rysdyk said.

More than equipment changed, too. One of the most common sights during an installation process is an engineer sitting on top of the engine installer in a posture reminiscent of “Dr. Strangelove.”

“That came about by accident,” Rysdyk said.

Basically, the engineer leading the first engine installation ran out of room to stand, so he hopped up on the installer to get out of the way. Although some folks didn’t want anyone on top of the installer for fear of falling, the advantages became apparent instantly.

“Suddenly, he sees he can see a lot better up there,” Rysdyk said. “He can run the job better.”

Both Rysdyk and Kerasotis said the stress of handling the machinery regularly on tight schedules and in changing situations gives the engine teams a strong sense of camaraderie.

“There are personal sacrifices,” Rysdyk said. “Kids’ rehearsals go out the window, trips go out the window, birthdays go out the window because what’s important is that this gets done.”

Some of the launches during the early part of the Space Shuttle Program were scrubbed a few seconds before liftoff, after the main engines had ignited but were shut down for a problem. Called a “pad abort,” the situation meant a mandatory engine change at the launch pad, with the shuttle in its launch position.

“If you have a pad abort, you’re life comes to a stop except for that engine,” Rysdyk said. “There were nights when you’d come in at midnight and come out at noon. There was nothing but, ‘Get it done.’”

While the vast majority of installations have been completed in the confines of an orbiter processing facility, replacing an engine at the launch pad requires just as much precision, but in an environment that is hardly hospitable, especially in the winter.

“That flame trench works both ways,” Kerasotis said, explaining that just as the flame trench funnels fire and exhaust away from the shuttle at launch, it collects frigid air from the north in the winter and shoots it up into the bottom of the shuttle stack.

The workers endure the harsh environment because the engines are not just important, they are incredibly complex machines that are at once more than 99 percent efficient and unforgiving. In other words, the technicians know they are one of the last to touch the engines to ensure mission success and no flaws in installation.

“It’s never normal, but you get used to it,” Rysdyk said.

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NASA is seeking applications from graduate students for the agency’s new Space Technology Research Fellowships. Applications are being accepted from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of graduate students interested in performing space technology research beginning in the fall of 2011.

The fellowships will sponsor U.S. graduate student researchers who show significant potential to contribute to NASA’s strategic space technology objectives through their studies. Sponsored by NASA’s Office of the Chief Technologist, the fellowships’ goal is to provide the nation with a pipeline of highly skilled engineers and technologists to improve America’s technological competitiveness. NASA Space Technology Fellows will perform innovative space technology research today while building the skills necessary to become future technological leaders.

“Our Space Technology Graduate Fellowships will help create the pool of highly skilled workers needed for NASA’s and our nation’s technological future, motivating many of the country’s best young minds into educational programs and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” said NASA Chief Technologist Bobby Braun at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “This fellowship program is coupled to a larger, national research and development effort in science and technology that will lead to new products and services, new business and industries, and high-quality, sustainable jobs. Fellowships will be awarded to outstanding young researchers and technologists positioned to take on NASA’s grand challenges and turn these goals and missions into reality.”

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NASA awarded on Dec. 27 a 10-year contract to HP Enterprise Services of Herndon, Va., for Agency Consolidated End-user Services, or ACES.

This firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract has a maximum value of $2.5 billion and four-year base period with two three-year option periods. The contract will be managed at the NASA Shared Services Center (NSSC) in Mississippi.

The ACES contract will develop a long-term outsourcing arrangement with the commercial sector to provide and manage most of NASA’s personal computing hardware, agency-standard software, mobile information technology (IT) services, peripherals and accessories, associated end-user services, and supporting infrastructure.

NASA personnel use IT to support NASA’s core business, scientific, research and computational activities. HP Enterprise Services will provide, manage, secure and maintain these essential IT services for the agency.

The NSSC is a partnership among NASA, Computer Sciences Corporation and the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. The NSSC performs selected business activities for all 10 NASA centers.

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Curious how a device designed to produce fuel and oxygen on Mars transformed into a source of clean energy right here on Earth? The 2010 edition of NASA’s annual Spinoff publication is now available online, highlighting new innovations and notable examples of NASA technology improving everyday life on our home planet.

Spinoff provides an in-depth look at how the agency’s initiatives in aeronautics and space exploration have resulted in beneficial commercial technologies in the fields of health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, environmental protection, computer technology, and industrial productivity. These advancements enhance our quality of life while contributing to the nation’s economy through the creation of jobs and the support of businesses, large and small. They also help to inspire younger generations to explore education and careers in science, technology, math, and engineering.

“Through NASA’s work with its commercial partners, technologies that are helping us explore our universe are now also saving lives, preserving our environment and enhancing our nation’s transportation and security,” said Bobby Braun, chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Since 1976, NASA’s Spinoff publication has documented more than 1,700 compelling examples of NASA research and innovation that benefit the public every day.”

Spinoff 2010 contains dozens of examples highlighting how space technology yields innovations with Earthly benefits, including:

Algorithms developed by a NASA researcher that are enabling technology for medical diagnosis and prediction of brain blood flow-related conditions such as stroke, dementia, and traumatic brain injury
NASA-proven, drag-reducing wing modifications that have already saved commercial airlines more than 2 billion gallons in jet fuel
Inflatable antennas — developed with NASA funding — that support essential communication needs in remote areas during military operations, as well as in disaster zones
Image sensors, invented by a NASA team, that are now featured in one out of every three cell phone cameras
A groundwater remediation compound, created by NASA to treat contaminated launch facilities, now being used to clean up polluted areas around the world

Spinoff also profiles NASA’s research and development activities, education efforts and partnership successes for the year. This edition celebrates the 10th anniversary of continuous habitation onboard the International Space Station, revealing the many ways that technologies developed for the space station have resulted in public benefits on Earth.

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There’s just a little bit of time left for students to submit proposals for NASA’s “Kids in Micro-g” challenge. Students in fifth through eighth grades are tapped to design a classroom experiment that also can be performed by astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Proposals are due by Dec. 8.

The experiments should examine the effect of weightlessness on various subjects: liquids, solids, the law of physics and humans; that are expected to have observably different results in microgravity than in the classroom. The experiment apparatus must be constructed using materials from a special tool kit aboard the station. The kit contains items commonly found in classrooms for science experiments. Also, the experiments must take 30 minutes or less to set up, run and take down.

“This is a wonderful program that gives students the opportunity to have their experiments carried out in space by astronauts,” said Mark Severance, International Space Station National Laboratory Office education projects manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The students will compare the results of experiments conducted in the classroom with those conducted in the microgravity environment of the station.”

A panel of microgravity scientists, classroom teachers, NASA educators and station operations personnel will select the winner and five runners-up. Their experiments will be performed on the orbiting laboratory next spring. Last summer, astronauts performed nine student experiments aboard the space station that were selected by NASA from 132 submissions.

Included in those winning experiments was a study to determine water absorption rates of two different materials; a study to determine if blowing across the tops of bottles filled with different amounts of water would create the same tones in space as on Earth; and a study on the role gravity plays in a human’s ability to draw a picture.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/kmg_deadline.html

NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency’s website at http://www.nasa.gov.

Participants are:
-     Mary Voytek, director, Astrobiology Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-     Felisa Wolfe-Simon, NASA astrobiology research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.
-     Pamela Conrad, astrobiologist, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
-     Steven Benner, distinguished fellow, Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution, Gainesville, Fla.
-     James Elser, professor, Arizona State University, Tempe

Media representatives may attend the conference or ask questions by phone or from participating NASA locations. To obtain dial-in information, journalists must send their name, affiliation and telephone number to Steve Cole at stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov or call 202-358-0918 by noon Dec. 2.

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