Well-behaved, Young Galaxy Surprises Astronomers

Scientists have discovered a young galaxy acting in unexpectedly mature ways. The galaxy, called S0901, is rotating in a calm manner typical of more developed galaxies like our own spiral Milky Way.
“Usually, when astronomers examine galaxies in an early era, they find that turbulence plays a much greater role than it does in modern galaxies. But S0901 is a clear exception to that pattern," said James Rhoads of Arizona State University, Tempe.
It has taken the light from the galaxy 10 billion years to reach us across space, so we are seeing it when it was comparatively young.
"This galaxy is the equivalent of a 10-year-old. I can tell you from watching my kids' classes that 10-year-olds like to fidget! S0901 is unusual because it's not fidgeting, and instead is very well behaved." Rhoads is lead author of the research, appearing in the May 20 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
The discovery was made using the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.
"This is a truly surprising result that reminds us that we still don't understand many details of the evolution of the universe. Facilities like Herschel help us understand this complex story," said Paul Goldsmith, U.S. Herschel Project Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
When galaxies form, they accumulate mass because their gravity attracts vast, external gas clouds. As the gas clouds enter a particular galaxy, they fall into haphazard orbits. These disordered paths cause turbulence in the host galaxy, which can drive star formation.
To investigate the internal conditions of forming galaxies, Rhoads and Sangeeta Malhotra, also from Arizona State University, and colleagues targeted two young galaxies, one of them being S0901.
Using a cosmic magnifier known as a gravitational lens, the researchers got a better view of the galaxies than they would have otherwise. An instrument on Herschel, the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI), was then able to pick up the signature of ionized carbon, revealing the motion of the gas molecules in the galaxies. This motion was much smoother than anticipated in the S0901 galaxy. Results for the second galaxy hinted at a calm rotation too, but were less clear.
"Galaxies 10 billion years ago were making stars more actively than they do now," says Malhotra. "They usually also show more turbulence, likely because they are accumulating gas faster than a modern galaxy does. But here we have cases where an early galaxy combines the calm rotation of a modern one with the active star formation of their early peers."

Target on Mars Looks Good for NASA Rover Drilling

The team operating NASA's Curiosity Mars rover plans to proceed in coming days with the third-ever drilling into a rock on Mars to collect a sample for analysis.
The rover used several tools to examine the candidate site over the weekend, including a wire-bristle brush -- the Dust Removal Tool -- to clear away dust from a patch on the rock. The target slab of sandstone has been given the informal name "Windjana," after a gorge in Western Australia.
"In the brushed spot, we can see that the rock is fine-grained, its true color is much grayer than the surface dust, and some portions of the rock are harder than others, creating the interesting bumpy textures," said Curiosity science team member Melissa Rice of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. "All of these traits reinforce our interest in drilling here in order understand the chemistry of the fluids that bound these grains together to form the rock."
Before Curiosity drills deeply enough for collection of rock-powder sample, plans call for a preparatory "mini-drill" operation on the target, as a further check for readiness.
Curiosity's hammering drill collects powdered sample material from the interior of a rock, and then the rover prepares and delivers portions of the sample to laboratory instruments onboard. The first two Martian rocks drilled and analyzed this way were mudstone slabs neighboring each other in Yellowknife Bay, about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) northeast of the rover's current location at a waypoint called "The Kimberley." Those two rocks yielded evidence last year of an ancient lakebed environment with key chemical elements and a chemical energy source that provided conditions billions of years ago favorable for microbial life.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

NASA Honors William Shatner With Distinguished Public Service Medal

After nearly 50 years of warping across galaxies and saving the universe from a variety of alien threats and celestial disasters, Star Trek’s William Shatner finally went where no other member of Starfleet has gone before. This weekend, the acclaimed actor and director was honored with NASA’s Distinguished Public Service medal, the highest award bestowed by the agency to non-government personnel.
The honor was presented to Shatner Saturday evening in Los Angeles at his annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show, where he raises money for a variety of children’s causes. The citation for the medal reads, “For outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of discovery.”
William Shatner has been so generous with his time and energy in encouraging students to study science and math, and for inspiring generations of explorers, including many of the astronauts and engineers who are a part of NASA today, ” said David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington.  “He's most deserving of this prestigious award.”
A life-long advocate of science and space exploration, Shatner gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, commander of the starship USS Enterprise in NBC’s science fiction television series “Star Trek” from 1966 to 1969. It was a role he would reprise in an animated version of the series in 1973, seven major films from 1979 to 1994, and more recent “Star Trek” video games.
Shatner’s relationship with NASA dates back to the original series, with references to the space agency and its programs that were incorporated into storylines throughout the television and film franchises. In 1979, when NASA was ready to introduce a reusable spacecraft as the successor to the Apollo program, a new space shuttle prototype, originally to be named Constitution, was dubbed Enterprise in honor of the Star Trek universe and the work of Shatner and his series co-stars.

NASA's Spitzer and WISE Telescopes Find Close, Cold Neighbor of Sun

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered what appears to be the coldest "brown dwarf" known -- a dim, star-like body that  surprisingly is as frosty as Earth's North Pole.
Images from the space telescopes also pinpointed the object's distance to 7.2 light-years away, earning it the title for fourth closest system to our sun. The closest system, a trio of stars, is Alpha Centauri, at about 4 light-years away.
"It's very exciting to discover a new neighbor of our solar system that is so close," said Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, University Park. "And given its extreme temperature, it should tell us a lot about the atmospheres of planets, which often have similarly cold temperatures."
Brown dwarfs start their lives like stars, as collapsing balls of gas, but they lack the mass to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight. The newfound coldest brown dwarf is named WISE J085510.83-071442.5. It has a chilly temperature between minus 54 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 48 to minus 13 degrees Celsius). Previous record holders for coldest brown dwarfs, also found by WISE and Spitzer, were about room temperature.
WISE was able to spot the rare object because it surveyed the entire sky twice in infrared light, observing some areas up to three times. Cool objects like brown dwarfs can be invisible when viewed by visible-light telescopes, but their thermal glow -- even if feeble -- stands out in infrared light. In addition, the closer a body, the more it appears to move in images taken months apart. Airplanes are a good example of this effect: a closer, low-flying plane will appear to fly overhead more rapidly than a high-flying one.
"This object appeared to move really fast in the WISE data," said Luhman. "That told us it was something special."
After noticing the fast motion of WISE J085510.83-071442.5 in March of 2013, Luhman spent time analyzing additional images taken with Spitzer and the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachon in Chile. Spitzer's infrared observations helped determine the frosty temperature of the brown dwarf. Combined detections from WISE and Spitzer, taken from different positions around the sun, enabled the measurement of its distance through the parallax effect. This is the same principle that explains why your finger, when held out right in front of you, appears to jump from side to side when you alternate left- and right-eye views.
"It is remarkable that even after many decades of studying the sky, we still do not have a complete inventory of the sun's nearest neighbors," said Michael Werner, the project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. JPL manages and operates Spitzer. "This exciting new result demonstrates the power of exploring the universe using new tools, such as the infrared eyes of WISE and Spitzer."

Orion Feels the Vibe During Tests at Kennedy Space Center

Testing designed to simulate the vibrations NASA's Orion will experience during its first trip to space successfully wrapped up inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The completion of the testing marks another step forward toward Orion's uncrewed December flight that will put to the test the spacecraft that will send astronauts to an asteroid and eventually Mars on future missions.
"It was a great accomplishment for the test team in preparation for the Exploration Flight Test-1 later this year," said Rafael Garcia, the Orion Program Test and Verification lead at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "Following months of preparations and pretest analysis, the multi-point random vibration test was conducted without any major issues and was completed two days ahead of schedule."
To prepare for the vibration tests, which were conducted April 17-24, a team of NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians transferred Orion from the crew module assembly station to a special vibration stand in a portable test chamber. The spacecraft was isolated from the floor and stand on special footing. Orion's thrusters were cantilevered out so they were isolated from the test, and its windows, parachutes and drogue chutes were covered for protection.
Accelerometers and strain gages were placed around the crew module in various locations. These were used to measure simulated acceleration and strain levels on Orion's structure.
Two electromagnetic shakers, each capable of up to 4,000 pounds of force, were attached to Orion on opposite sides. Baseline vibration tests began at five megahertz and gradually were increased up to about 500 megahertz. After each test run, the shakers were relocated to different points on Orion and systems specialists checked for any changes or abnormalities in the spacecraft's structure.    
Garcia said that preliminary analysis of the test data confirmed that Orion's structure performed as predicted.
Before each thirty-second test run, Orion's avionics, batteries and electrical systems were powered up and its ammonia and helium tanks were pressurized to 200 psi.
The tests were monitored in a separate control room near the high bay, and the data after each 30-second run was analyzed to check for imperfections or defects and how the crew module performed. A flight following team in Firing Room 1 in Kennedy's Launch Control Center monitored Orion during periods of powered-up testing.
"Shut-down limits were established in case the vibrations began to exceed limits," said Trevor Kott, the Orion Crew and Service Module ground test manager at Johnson. "This kind of test can be very complicated. There's a science to finding the right balance."
During the vibration test, other instrumentation on Orion was monitored for its state of health.
"The completion of the test is a great accomplishment for the test team and NASA's Orion Program in preparation for EFT-1," Garcia said.
Orion’s first flight will launch an uncrewed capsule 3,600 miles into space for a four-hour mission to test several of its most critical systems. After making two orbits, Orion will return to Earth at almost 20,000 miles per hour and endure temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, before its parachutes slow it down for a landing in the Pacific Ocean.

Space Station Live: Gardening in Space

Paul Zamprelli, Business Director for Orbital Technologies Corp., talks about the VEGGIES experiment. The study will provide the technology to grow vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes and radishes for astronaut consumption.

Space Station Live: Destination Station: Indianapolis

Space Station Live commentator Kyle Herring interviews Megan Sumner, the media lead for Destination Station: Indianapolis. Destination Station is NASA's International Space Station Program national awareness campaign that promotes research opportunities, educates communities about activities performed on the International Space Station, and communicates the real and potential impacts of the station on our everyday lives.

Astronauts Complete Short Spacewalk to Replace Backup Computer

NASA Astronauts Steve Swanson and Rick Mastracchio have completed a short spacewalk to replace a failed Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM) back up computer. They began the re-pressurization of the Quest airlock at 11:32 a.m. EDT signifying the excursion’s end time.
The backup computer failed April 11 after a routine health check by the Mission Control team in Houston. While the primary computer continues operating flawlessly NASA managers ordered Wednesday’s spacewalk repair to ensure redundancy on critical systems. The computer outage did not pose a risk to the six crew members aboard the space station.

 The duo worked on the S0 truss which is where the backup MDM is located. The truss is located above the Destiny laboratory module and forms the center of the station’s Integrated Truss Structure, or backbone. The MDM provides telemetry and commands to truss systems, solar alpha rotary joints and the Mobile Transporter rail car which rides along the truss structure.

Swanson and Mastracchio installed a spare MDM that was housed inside the Destiny lab since April 2001 when it was delivered aboard space shuttle Endeavour. They removed the failed MDM from the S0 truss where it has been located since the truss was delivered with the MDM already inside in April 2002. The station houses 45 MDMs, 24 internally and 21 externally.
Station and SpaceX managers decided the computer failure wouldn’t impact Sunday’s arrival of the Dragon commercial cargo craft on the SpaceX-3 mission. After an engineering review of the station’s systems it was determined the station had enough redundancy for SpaceX-3 to begin its mission when it launched Friday afternoon aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
Read about the SpaceX-3 launch and docking.
A few hours earlier today an ISS Progress 53 resupply ship undocked from the Zvezda service module. It will back up about 311 miles from the space station so Russian mission controllers can test its upgraded Kurs automated rendezvous system. The Progress will redock again Friday at 8:15 a.m. to the Zvezda service module after the Kurs tests are complete.

Crew Begins Week with Cargo Transfers, Redocking and Spacewalk Preps

Expedition 39 has opened the doors to the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft that arrived Sunday morning. The crew has begun unloading the nearly 2.5 tons of cargo including science hardware, a U.S. spacesuit, food and other supplies.
Read about the SpaceX-3 launch and docking.
NASA astronaut Steve Swanson opened the hatches to Dragon at 4:01 a.m. EDT Monday. He wore goggles and a mask, required by safety procedures, to protect him from dust potentially floating inside the commercial freighter.
Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio assisted Swanson with the hatch opening. He and Commander Koichi Wakata also assisted Swanson for the first day of cargo transfers. Cosmonaut and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev sampled the air inside Dragon before installing air ducts to the new SpaceX vehicle.
One critical experiment, T-Cell Activation in Aging, was quickly offloaded from Dragon by Mastracchio and immediately activated inside Europe’s Columbus laboratory module. That study observes the depression of the immune system and other changes seen in elderly citizens on Earth and astronauts living in microgravity.

The crew now turns its attention to a Progress undocking early Wednesday morning and a short spacewalk a few hours later.
The ISS Progress 53 will undock from the Zvezda service module at 4:58 a.m. EDT Wednesday so Russian mission controllers can test its upgraded Kurs automated rendezvous system. The Russian cargo craft will fly no further than 311 miles from the International Space Station for two days before it re-docks Friday morning to Zvezda.
Wednesday’s spacewalk is scheduled to begin at 9:20 a.m. EDT and last 2.5 hours. Swanson and Mastracchio will exit the Quest airlock to replace a failed backup computer on the station’s S0 Truss.

Also known as a Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM), the backup MDM provides telemetry and commands to truss systems, solar alpha rotary joints and the Mobile Transporter rail car which rides along the truss structure.
Veteran station cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Tyurin started their morning on the ongoing Russian Bar experiment. That study researches tools and procedures to detect pressure leaks inside the space station.
 Afterward, Tyurin recharged a battery in the Seiner experiment’s photo spectral system to continue photography work for the Earth observation study. He also continued more work with the radiation exposure experiment Matroyshka.
 Skvortsov started up the Constanta experiment for before moving on to the Kulonovskiy Kristall study in the afternoon. He and Artemyev also worked to prepare the Progress 53 for its undocking.

SpaceX Dragon Heads to Space; Station Astronauts Prep for Wednesday Spacewalk

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the Dragon spacecraft loaded with nearly 2.5 tons of supplies and experiment hardware for the International Space Station’s Expedition 39 crew, lifted off at 3:25 p.m. EDT Friday from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Friday’s launch of the third SpaceX commercial resupply services mission sent the Dragon space freighter on a course to rendezvous with the station Sunday morning. Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio will capture Dragon using the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 7:14 a.m. to set it up for its berthing to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module. Live NASA Television coverage of Sunday’s Dragon activities begins at 5:45 a.m. and returns at 9:30 a.m. for coverage of the berthing of Dragon to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node.

The scientific payloads on Dragon include investigations that focus on efficient ways to grow plants in space, demonstrating laser optics to communicate with Earth, human immune system function in microgravity and Earth observation. Also being delivered is a set of high-tech legs for Robonaut 2, which can provide the humanoid robot torso already aboard the orbiting laboratory with the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside the space station.
Dragon also will deliver the second set of investigations sponsored by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the portion of the space station designated a U.S. National Laboratory. CASIS investigations on Dragon are part of the organization's initial suite of supported payloads linked to Advancing Research Knowledge 1, or ARK 1. The investigations include research on protein crystal growth, which may lead to drug development through protein mapping, and plant biology.

Meanwhile aboard the International Space Station, the Expedition 39 crew is in the homestretch of preparations for a spacewalk to replace a failed backup computer relay box in the S0 truss.  That 2 ½-hour spacewalk by Mastracchio and Flight Engineer Steve Swanson is slated to begin at 9:20 a.m. Wednesday.
The spacewalk will be the 179th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the ninth in Mastracchio’s career and the fifth for Swanson. Mastracchio will carry the designation of EV 1, wearing the spacesuit bearing red stripes. Swanson will be EV 2, wearing the spacesuit without stripes.
 Mastracchio and Flight Engineer Steve Swanson installed a new circuit board inside a spare multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) that they will carry with them outside the station to replace the backup MDM that failed during routine testing April 11. The failed unit is one of the station's two external MDMs that provide commands to some of the space station's systems, including the external cooling system, solar alpha rotary joints and mobile transporter rail car.
After the two NASA astronauts installed the new card in the spare MDM, Wakata worked with the ground team at Mission Control in Houston to perform a functional checkout of the spare.
Afterward, Mastracchio trimmed a spare thermal insulator sheet to properly fit the MDM.
Wakata also found time for station science with another session of the Hybrid Training experiment. This Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency study takes a look the health benefits of applying electric stimulation to a muscle opposing the voluntary contraction of an active muscle. In addition to providing a backup to the traditional exercise devices aboard the station, Hybrid Training may be useful in keeping astronauts fit as they travel beyond low Earth orbit aboard smaller spacecraft.
Mastracchio took a brief break from his work to talk with students at his three alma maters -- the University of Connecticut, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, and the University of Houston-Clear Lake near the Johnson Space Center.
Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin spent much of his day working in the Zvezda service module as he cleaned ventilation screens and performed routine maintenance on the Russian life-support system.
Flight Engineer Alexander Skvortsov performed another session of the Kulonovskiy Kristall experiment, gathering information about charged particles in a weightless environment.
Skvortsov also teamed up with Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev to unload items from the ISS Progress 53 cargo craft docked at the aft port of Zvezda.  Progress 53 is set to undock from the station on Wednesday, April 23, at 4:54 a.m. to test its Kurs automated rendezvous equipment. The vehicle will redock with Zvezda on April 25 at 8:16 a.m. Progress 53 delivered 2.9 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the station on Nov. 29 following a four-day journey that included a “flyby” of the station to test a new lighter, revamped Kurs system .
And after 11 days of free flight for engineering tests, the Russian ISS Progress 54 cargo ship, now loaded with trash from the station, was commanded to deorbit for its fiery entry into the Earth’s atmosphere for disposal.  The deorbit burn at 10:52 a.m. sent the cargo craft on a course for atmospheric entry over the Pacific Ocean at 11:32 a.m.

NASA's Kepler Discovers First Earth-Size Planet In The 'Habitable Zone' of Another Star

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone" -- the range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the surface of an orbiting planet. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that planets the size of Earth exist in the habitable zone of stars other than our sun.
While planets have previously been found in the habitable zone, they are all at least 40 percent larger in size than Earth and understanding their makeup is challenging. Kepler-186f is more reminiscent of Earth.
"The discovery of Kepler-186f is a significant step toward finding worlds like our planet Earth," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Future NASA missions, like the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the James Webb Space Telescope, will discover the nearest rocky exoplanets and determine their composition and atmospheric conditions, continuing humankind's quest to find truly Earth-like worlds."
Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky.
"We know of just one planet where life exists -- Earth. When we search for life outside our solar system we focus on finding planets with characteristics that mimic that of Earth," said Elisa Quintana, research scientist at the SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., and lead author of the paper published today in the journal Science. "Finding a habitable zone planet comparable to Earth in size is a major step forward."
Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system, about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four companion planets, which orbit a star half the size and mass of our sun. The star is classified as an M dwarf, or red dwarf, a class of stars that makes up 70 percent of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
"M dwarfs are the most numerous stars," said Quintana. "The first signs of other life in the galaxy may well come from planets orbiting an M dwarf."
Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset.
"Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."
The four companion planets, Kepler-186b, Kepler-186c, Kepler-186d, and Kepler-186e, whiz around their sun every four, seven, 13, and 22 days, respectively, making them too hot for life as we know it. These four inner planets all measure less than 1.5 times the size of Earth.
The next steps in the search for distant life include looking for true Earth-twins -- Earth-size planets orbiting within the habitable zone of a sun-like star -- and measuring the their chemical compositions. The Kepler Space Telescope, which simultaneously and continuously measured the brightness of more than 150,000 stars, is NASA's first mission capable of detecting Earth-size planets around stars like our sun.
Ames is responsible for Kepler's ground system development, mission operations, and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
The SETI Institute is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to scientific research, education and public outreach.  The mission of the SETI Institute is to explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe.

Astronauts Prep for Spacewalk as Mission Managers Evaluate Busy Schedule

The astronauts of the International Space Station’s Expedition 39 crew focused Tuesday on preparations for a contingency spacewalk to be conducted in the next week or so. Meanwhile station program managers and SpaceX officials are working toward scheduling dates for the next launch attempt for Dragon cargo spacecraft and that contingency spacewalk, while managing all this around the planned undocking and redocking of a Russian cargo craft next week.
Monday's launch attempt of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, loaded with nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies and experiment hardware, was scrubbed due to a helium leak on the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage. The next launch opportunity would be Friday at 3:25 p.m. EDT if the issue can be resolved.
 Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson, both NASA astronauts, spent their day preparing for the 2 ½-hour spacewalk they will conduct to replace a failed multiplexer demultiplexer (MDM) backup computer relay system in the S0 truss that assists in providing insight into truss systems, the operation of the external cooling loops, the operations of the Solar Alpha Rotary joints and the Mobile Transporter rail car.
 Swanson performed a full end-to-end checkout of his spacesuit with its new fan separator pump installed.  During the checkout, a cranky CO2 sensor was discovered and is now being investigated.
Mastracchio meanwhile gathered and configured the tools he and Swanson will use during the excursion.
Swanson and Mastracchio also participated in an on-board training session for the spacesuit “life jacket,” known as the Simplified Aid For EVA Rescue, or SAFER. Should a spacewalker become untethered during a spacewalk and begin floating away from the station, the small nitrogen-jet thrusters of SAFER would propel the astronaut back to safety.
The two NASA astronauts joined up with Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency for an audio conference with ground team that is finalizing procedures for the spacewalk.
Wakata assisted with the spacewalk preparations Tuesday as he completed a flush of the water inside the cooling loops of the spacesuits and the airlock.
 The Japanese commander also found time for station science with another session of the Hybrid Training experiment. This Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency study takes a look the health benefits of applying electric stimulation to a muscle opposing the voluntary contraction of an active muscle. In addition to providing a backup to the traditional exercise devices aboard the station, Hybrid Training may be useful in keeping astronauts fit as they travel beyond low Earth orbit aboard smaller spacecraft.

Later, Wakata helped the ground team scout out locations aboard the station for the upcoming Petri Plants payload, which will use ambient light to sprout seedlings.
Wakata rounded out his day recharging batteries for the spacewalk.
On the Russian side of the complex, Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev performed another session of the Relaxation experiment, which studies chemical luminescent reactions in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin downloaded micro-accelerometer data from the Identification experiment to provide insight into the station’s dynamic loads. The veteran cosmonaut also participated in the Seiner ocean-observation study, documenting color blooms in the oceans’ waters for the fishing industry.
Flight Engineer Alexander Skvorstov continued unloading cargo from the ISS Progress 55 cargo ship, which delivered nearly three tons of cargo to the orbital laboratory when it launched and docked with the station’s Pirs docking compartment on April 9.
A second Russian cargo ship currently at the station, ISS Progress 53, is set to undock from the Zvezda service module on April 23 at 4:54 a.m. to test its Kurs automated rendezvous equipment. The vehicle will redock with Zvezda on April 25 at 8:16 a.m. Progress 53 delivered 2.9 tons of food, fuel and supplies to the station on Nov. 29 following a four-day journey that included a “flyby” of the station to test a new lighter, revamped Kurs system.

Station, SpaceX Officials to Proceed With Monday's Dragon Launch

International Space Station Program officials, the international partners and representatives of SpaceX agreed Sunday to proceed with Monday’s scheduled launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon cargo craft on the company’s third commercial resupply mission to the orbital laboratory.
After a series of meetings and reviews of procedures, flight controllers, engineers and managers concluded that the SpaceX-3 mission could be conducted as planned without violating any launch commit criteria despite the loss Friday of a backup computer command relay box called a multiplexer/demultiplexer (MDM) that resides in the station’s S0 truss. The problem with the box, which measures 10.5 x 14.9 x 16.4 inches and weighs 50.8 pounds, occurred during a routine health check of the device. The prime multiplexer continues to operate flawlessly with no impact to station operations. This pair of MDMs provide commanding to the station’s external cooling system, Solar Alpha Rotary joints, Mobile Transporter rail car and insight into other truss systems.
The engineering teams reported to mission managers that the station possesses enough redundancy to allow the SpaceX mission to launch Monday at 4:58 p.m. EDT from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. In advance of launch, the station’s Mobile Transporter will be moved to the proper position on the truss later today and after Dragon’s launch, the station’s solar arrays will be oriented Monday to the correct angles for the scheduled capture of the U.S. cargo craft on Wednesday and its berthing to the Earth-facing port on the Harmony module. These are steps that would properly configure the station for the mission even if the prime MDM experiences a problem.
Additionally, preparations are underway for a contingency spacewalk by two of the Expedition 39 crewmembers no earlier than around April 22 to replace the failed MDM with a spare housed inside the station. Mission managers approved a plan for the preparation of two of the U.S. spacesuits on the station and the replacement of a fan pump separator on one of the suits prior to the spacewalk. That work will begin immediately. The move of the Mobile Transporter rail car to another worksite from its current location will clear the area on the S0 truss for the spacewalking astronauts to gain access to the failed MDM during the planned 2 ½ hour excursion. The station crew will also be readying the spare MDM for its staging in the Quest airlock prior to the spacewalk.

Veggie Will Expand Fresh Food Production on Space Station

A plant growth chamber bound for the International Space Station inside the Dragon capsule on the SpaceX-3 resupply mission may help expand in-orbit food production capabilities in more ways than one, and offer astronauts something they don’t take for granted, fresh food.
NASA’s Veg-01 experiment will be used to study the in-orbit function and performance of a new expandable plant growth facility called Veggie and its plant “pillows.” The investigation will focus on the growth and development of “Outredgeous” lettuce seedlings in the spaceflight environment.
“Veggie will provide a new resource for U.S. astronauts and researchers as we begin to develop the capabilities of growing fresh produce and other large plants on the space station,” said Gioia Massa, NASA payload scientist for Veggie. “Determining food safety is one of our primary goals for this validation test.”
Veggie is a low-cost plant growth chamber that uses a flat-panel light bank that includes red, blue and green LEDs for plant growth and crew observation. Veggie’s unique design is collapsible for transport and storage and expandable up to a foot and a half as plants grow inside it.
“The internal growing area is 11.5 inches wide by 14.5 inches deep, making it the largest plant growth chamber for space to date,” Massa said.
Orbital Sciences Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wis., developed Veggie through a Small Business Innovative Research Program. NASA and ORBITEC engineers and collaborators at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida worked to get the unit’s hardware flight-certified for use on the space station.
Because real estate on the station is limited, some adjustments to the growth chamber were made to accommodate space requirements. At Kennedy’s Space Life Sciences Laboratory, a crop of lettuce and radishes was grown in the prototype test unit. Seedlings were placed in the Veggie root-mat pillows, and their growth was monitored for health, size, amount of water used, and the microorganisms that grew on them.
“I am thrilled to be a member of the Veggie and Veg-01 team and proud of all the work we have done to prepare for flight,” Massa said. “Our team is very excited to see the hardware in use on the space station.”
As NASA moves toward long-duration exploration missions, Massa hopes that Veggie will be a resource for crew food growth and consumption. It also could be used by astronauts for recreational gardening activities during long-duration space missions. The system may have implications for improving growth and biomass production on Earth, thus benefiting the average citizen.
For the future, Massa said she is looking forward to seeing all sorts of “neat payloads” in the Veggie unit and expanding its capability as NASA learns more about the food safety of crops grown in microgravity.

Astronaut Mike Hopkins: Workout in Space 4

Astronaut Mike Hopkins, a lifelong athlete, worked closely with his strength and conditioning coach Mark Guilliams to develop these specially-designed workouts in orbit. Shown here, Hopkins is using the the station's treadmill and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device to perform this challenging workout -- four rounds of 200m run, 11 thrusters, 200m run, 11 shoulder presses, 200m run and 11 bench presses.

Space Station Live: Binary Colloidal Alloy Test

Payload Operations Engineer Martin Richard, from the Canadian Space Agency, describes the Binary Colloidal Alloy Test that is aboard the International Space Station. BCAT-C1 will study nano-scale particles dispersed in a liquid, known as a colloidal suspension, commonly found in such commercial commodities as paint, electronic polishing compounds and food products. These suspensions have the unique property that they will phase separate (like oil and water) and the particles will self-assemble into crystals that interact strongly with light (like opal). Photographing these samples in microgravity will allow the measurement of these processes while avoiding the effects of particles sinking due to gravity. This study will allow the development of new insights into this important material process.

Reporters See NASA's Latest High Tech Exploration Tool Before Testing

On April 9 reporters got a chance to don "bunny suits" (protective apparel that sometimes makes people look like large rabbits) and enter a NASA clean room at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. In the room is NASA's latest technology for landing large payloads on planets like Mars or Earth, being processed for shipping prior to testing next June.
NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project will be flying a rocket-powered, saucer-shaped test vehicle into near-space this June from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai, Hawaii. The LDSD crosscutting demonstration mission will test breakthrough technologies that will enable large payloads to be safely landed on the surface of Mars, or other planetary bodies with atmospheres, including Earth. These new technologies will not only enable landing of larger payloads on Mars, but also allow access to much more of the planet's surface by enabling landings at higher altitude sites.
The LDSD is one of several crosscutting technologies NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is developing to create the new knowledge and capabilities necessary to enable our future missions to an asteroid, Mars and beyond. The directorate is committed to developing the critical technologies required to enable future exploration missions beyond low Earth orbit.
NASA continues to solicit the help of the best and brightest minds in academia, industry, and government to drive innovation and enable solutions in a myriad of important technology thrust areas.
These planned investments are addressing high priority challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration. In fact, NASA's space tech team will launch seven major technology demonstrations in next 24 months.

NASA's LRO Mission and North America to Experience Total Lunar Eclipse

When people in North America look up at the sky in the early morning hours of April 15, they can expect the moon to look a little different.
A total lunar eclipse is expected at this time, a phenomenon that occurs when the Earth, moon and sun are in perfect alignment, blanketing the moon in the Earth's shadow.
Although lunar eclipses happen multiple times in a year during a full moon, this eclipse will be a particularly unusual viewing opportunity for North America. Since the Earth's Western Hemisphere will be facing the moon during the eclipse, the continent will be in prime position to view it from start to finish. In addition, the eclipse will coincide with nighttime in North America. The entire continent won't be able to witness a full lunar eclipse in its entirety again until 2019.
"Sometimes they'll happen and you'll have to be somewhere else on Earth to see them," said Noah Petro, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Most [residents] of the continental United States will be able to see the whole thing."
For those who are awake to watch the eclipse, which is scheduled to begin around 2:00 a.m. EDT and last over three hours, Petro said there would be several changes people can witness. When the moon first enters the Earth's partial shadow, know as the penumbra, a dark shadow will begin creeping across the moon. This will give the illusion that the moon is changing phases in a matter of minutes instead of weeks.
"Eventually there will be a chunk of darkness eating the moon," Petro said.


At the eclipse's peak, around 3:45 a.m. EDT, the moon will enter the Earth's full shadow, the umbra. At this stage, the Earth's atmosphere will scatter the sun's red visible light, the same process that turns the sky red at sunset. As a result, the red light will reflect off the moon's surface, casting a reddish rust hue over it.
"It's a projection of all the Earth's sunsets and sunrises onto the moon," Petro said. "It's a very subtle effect, and if any part of the moon is illuminated in the sun, you can't really see it."
Although lunar eclipses are fairly common, Petro said they don't happen every month. Because the moon's orbit is tilted, it doesn't pass through the Earth's shadow each time it orbits the planet. This is the same reason why solar eclipses—which occur when the Earth passes through the moon's shadow—don't occur monthly.
Petro said lunar eclipses are a special treat people should take the opportunity to watch, even if it is at a late hour.
"They don't happen all the time, and the sky has to be clear," Petro said. "It really gives you a chance to look at the moon changing."
In addition to being a spectacle for North America residents, Petro said NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) team would be paying particular attention to this eclipse. The LRO mission, which is currently orbiting the moon, will be plunged into darkness for an extended period during the eclipse. Because the spacecraft's batteries need sunlight to charge, it will be forced to run without recharging longer than usual.

"The spacecraft will be going straight from the moon's shadow to the Earth's shadow while it orbits during the eclipse," Petro said.
While this isn't the first time LRO has orbited the moon during an eclipse, its past orbits have allowed it to pass into Earth's shadow only for a short period. This time, the spacecraft will have to pass through the complete shadow twice before the eclipse ends. However, Petro said the team expects the spacecraft to make it through the eclipse without a hitch.
"We're taking precautions to make sure everything is fine," Petro said. "We're turning off the instruments and will monitor the spacecraft every few hours when it's visible from Earth."
Although LRO would be forced to shut down its instruments for this eclipse, Petro said other lunar eclipses are a great opportunity for the mission to study how the lunar surface cools during these events, giving insight into the materials making up the surface.
While people watch the moon change in the sky April 15, the LRO team will be ready.

Progress Departs, New Cargo Ships Awaiting Launch

A Russian space freighter filled with trash departed the International Space Station on time Monday at 9:58 a.m. EDT. The ISS Progress 54 will orbit Earth 11 days for engineering tests before finally deorbiting over the Pacific Ocean for a fiery disposal.
A new space delivery awaits its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan inside the ISS Progress 55 spacecraft. Liftoff is scheduled for 11:26 a.m. Wednesday with a docking to the station’s Pirs docking compartment just six- hours, or four orbits, later. The Russian resupply ship is delivering nearly 3 tons of food, fuel and supplies.

As a standard precaution, cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Tyurin were practicing techniques to manually dock the 55P in the unlikely event the cargo craft loses its automated rendezvous capability. The duo were inside the Zvezda service module practicing on the telerobotically operated rendezvous system, or TORU.
Commander Koichi Wakata and Flight Engineer Steve Swanson partnered up before lunch time to prepare for another resupply ship due to launch April 14. The pair of astronauts reviewed rendezvous and berthing procedures they will use when the SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo craft arrives for its capture by the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2.
 Wakata and Swanson also participated in the Ocular Health study which observes the effects of long-term microgravity on eyesight.
 Wakata also worked in the morning with NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and in the afternoon with Swanson on the Sprint experiment. The study evaluates the use of high intensity, low volume exercise training to minimize loss of muscle, bone, and improve cardiovascular function. The Japanese commander used ultrasound gear to monitor his body during the experiment.

Mastracchio worked throughout the morning collecting and storing blood and urine samples inside a science freezer. With assistance from Wakata he also measured his blood pressure.
Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev worked during his morning on the Russian VIRU experiment which explores using interactive 3D virtual manuals to train for other experiments. He participated on VIRU in conjunction with the Relaxation study which observes atmospheric reactions with jet exhaust and plasma trails caused by space bodies re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Artemyev is also still familiarizing himself with the operations of the orbital laboratory.

New Catalog Brings NASA Software Down to Earth

From the rudimentary but effective Apollo Guidance and Navigation System that landed the first humans on the lunar landscape to the code used to manage robotic missions to explore other planets, software has always been at the core of NASA’s mission successes.
When NASA develops this software, we know the code may have uses beyond the original mission. One of our missions is to ensure that the technologies we create for aeronautics and space missions, including software, have the opportunity to be turned into new products and processes that can benefit the lives of people on Earth. Technology transfer allows us to offer added value to taxpayer investment in cutting edge research and development.
Much of this NASA-developed code will be available for public use through a new software catalog starting April 10.
With over 1,000 codes organized into fifteen broad subject matter categories, the new software catalog offers a large portfolio of software products for a wide variety of applications. These codes represent NASA’s best solutions to a wide array of complex mission requirements.
“Software is an increasingly important element of the agency’s intellectual asset portfolio, making up about a third of our reported inventions every year,” said Jim Adams, NASA's deputy chief technologist. “We are excited to be able to make that software widely available to the public with the release of our software catalog.”
The technologies featured in the software catalog cover project management systems, design tools, data handling, and image processing, as well as solutions for life support functions, aeronautics, structural analysis, and robotic and autonomous systems.
Each NASA code is available at no cost and has been evaluated for access restrictions and designated for a specific type of release, ranging from codes that are open to all US citizens to codes that are restricted to access by other federal agencies.
"NASA is committed to the principles of open government," said Adams. "By making NASA resources more accessible and usable by the public, we are encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Our technology transfer program is an important part of bringing the benefit of space exploration back to Earth for the benefit of all people."

Fermi Data Tantalize With New Clues To Dark Matter

A new study of gamma-ray light from the center of our galaxy makes the strongest case to date that some of this emission may arise from dark matter, an unknown substance making up most of the material universe. Using publicly available data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, independent scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Chicago have developed new maps showing that the galactic center produces more high-energy gamma rays than can be explained by known sources and that this excess emission is consistent with some forms of dark matter.
"The new maps allow us to analyze the excess and test whether more conventional explanations, such as the presence of undiscovered pulsars or cosmic-ray collisions on gas clouds, can account for it," said Dan Hooper, an astrophysicist at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., and a lead author of the study. "The signal we find cannot be explained by currently proposed alternatives and is in close agreement with the predictions of very simple dark matter models."

The galactic center teems with gamma-ray sources, from interacting binary systems and isolated pulsars to supernova remnants and particles colliding with interstellar gas. It's also where astronomers expect to find the galaxy's highest density of dark matter, which only affects normal matter and radiation through its gravity. Large amounts of dark matter attract normal matter, forming a foundation upon which visible structures, like galaxies, are built.
No one knows the true nature of dark matter, but WIMPs, or Weakly Interacting Massive Particles, represent a leading class of candidates. Theorists have envisioned a wide range of WIMP types, some of which may either mutually annihilate or produce an intermediate, quickly decaying particle when they collide. Both of these pathways end with the production of gamma rays -- the most energetic form of light -- at energies within the detection range of Fermi's Large Area Telescope (LAT).
When astronomers carefully subtract all known gamma-ray sources from LAT observations of the galactic center, a patch of leftover emission remains. This excess appears most prominent at energies between 1 and 3 billion electron volts (GeV) -- roughly a billion times greater than that of visible light -- and extends outward at least 5,000 light-years from the galactic center.
Hooper and his colleagues conclude that annihilations of dark matter particles with a mass between 31 and 40 GeV provide a remarkable fit for the excess based on its gamma-ray spectrum, its symmetry around the galactic center, and its overall brightness. Writing in a paper submitted to the journal Physical Review D, the researchers say that these features are difficult to reconcile with other explanations proposed so far, although they note that plausible alternatives not requiring dark matter may yet materialize.
"Dark matter in this mass range can be probed by direct detection and by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), so if this is dark matter, we're already learning about its interactions from the lack of detection so far," said co-author Tracy Slatyer, a theoretical physicist at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. "This is a very exciting signal, and while the case is not yet closed, in the future we might well look back and say this was where we saw dark matter annihilation for the first time."
The researchers caution that it will take multiple sightings – in other astronomical objects, the LHC or in some of the direct-detection experiments now being conducted around the world -- to validate their dark matter interpretation.

"Our case is very much a process-of-elimination argument. We made a list, scratched off things that didn't work, and ended up with dark matter," said co-author Douglas Finkbeiner, a professor of astronomy and physics at the CfA, also in Cambridge.
"This study is an example of innovative techniques applied to Fermi data by the science community," said Peter Michelson, a professor of physics at Stanford University in California and the LAT principal investigator. "The Fermi LAT Collaboration continues to examine the extraordinarily complex central region of the galaxy, but until this study is complete we can neither confirm nor refute this interesting analysis."
While the great amount of dark matter expected at the galactic center should produce a strong signal, competition from many other gamma-ray sources complicates any case for a detection. But turning the problem on its head provides another way to attack it. Instead of looking at the largest nearby collection of dark matter, look where the signal has fewer challenges.
Dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way lack other types of gamma-ray emitters and contain large amounts of dark matter for their size – in fact, they're the most dark-matter-dominated sources known. But there's a tradeoff. Because they lie much farther away and contain much less total dark matter than the center of the Milky Way, dwarf galaxies produce a much weaker signal and require many years of observations to establish a secure detection.
For the past four years, the LAT team has been searching dwarf galaxies for hints of dark matter. The published results of these studies have set stringent limits on the mass ranges and interaction rates for many proposed WIMPs, even eliminating some models. In the study's most recent results, published in Physical Review D on Feb. 11, the Fermi team took note of a small but provocative gamma-ray excess.
"There's about a one-in-12 chance that what we're seeing in the dwarf galaxies is not even a signal at all, just a fluctuation in the gamma-ray background," explained Elliott Bloom, a member of the LAT Collaboration at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, jointly located at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University. If it's real, the signal should grow stronger as Fermi acquires additional years of observations and as wide-field astronomical surveys discover new dwarfs. "If we ultimately see a significant signal," he added, "it could be a very strong confirmation of the dark matter signal claimed in the galactic center."

Meet Space Station’s Small Satellite Launcher Suite

It used to be that building and launching a working satellite was an enormously expensive and complex undertaking, feasible only for governmental and military agencies. But the CubeSat revolution of the past decade has placed satellite technology within reach of private companies, universities and even unaffiliated individuals. That revolution has been boosted by the existence of the International Space Station, which provides an additional launching platform enabled through regular commercial cargo flights.
CubeSats are a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart and weigh less than 3 pounds.
Putting the tiny satellites into orbit from the space station isn't as simple as shoving them out an airlock. It requires a special apparatus called a CubeSat deployer. This tool places a satellite into position to be grabbed by one of the space station’s robotic arms, which places the CubeSat deployer into the correct position to release the miniature satellites into their proper orbits. At present, two CubeSat deployers operate aboard the station: the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (J-SSOD) and the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer. The upcoming launch of the SpaceX-4 commercial resupply mission, currently scheduled for August will enhance the space station’s satellite deployment capabilities with the delivery of Cyclops. This tool, also known as the Space Station Integrated Kinetic Launcher for Orbital Payload Systems (SSIKLOPS), will provide still another means to release other small satellites from the orbiting outpost.
Daniel Newswander, an engineer with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, said this addition will “fill out the quiver” of existing space station satellite deployment capabilities. The project is a joint effort of the International Space Station Program at Johnson and the Department of Defense's Space Test Program.
"Satellites come in all shapes and sizes," Newswander noted. "We were aware of several satellites that didn’t really fit into the CubeSat launchers. We are deploying a spherical satellite as well as a cubic one that does not fit in the existing launchers. We are attempting to complement the other deployers that have been developed so that the [space station] has several deployment options to choose from. We are targeting satellites in the 50 to 100 kg [110 to 220 lb] class, especially those which geometrically do not fit in the existing launchers."
CubeSats have varied missions, and this year has been a particularly busy one for deployment of the satellites from the space station. Whether looking to help with imaging Earth for weather and ground data or advancing communications capabilities, the ability to set these satellites into orbit from the space station is the first step to enabling their missions. The resulting technology developments may contribute to advances in satellite technology for commercial use while enhancing Earth observation techniques.
Camille Alleyne, assistant space station program scientist, explained: "Because of the relatively low costs to build this technology, the demand for the CubeSat deployment capability has increased dramatically. Adding this third deployer as a space station facility allows us to meet demand and demonstrates the value of the unique platform for both space research and STEM education."
Cyclops will operate from the JEM and take advantage of the airlock's existing slide table. Newswander said, "The launcher will be stowed inside the [space station] for use whenever a satellite is ready to be deployed. Cyclops is placed onto the airlock slide table with the attached satellite and processed through to the external environment. Cyclops, with its attached satellite, is subsequently grasped by the robotic arm and taken to the deployment position. Cyclops then deploys the satellite and is returned to the airlock where it is processed back through and stowed internally for future utilization. Our design utilizes the Japanese robotic arm but does have the capability to use the [station's] main robotic arm if necessary."
It took Cyclops less than two years to launch. The space station program office approved the concept in October 2012, and the facility was ready for flight by spring of 2014. "It's been very rewarding, yet challenging at the same time," Newswander remarked. "You want to move as fast as you can because everyone's excited for the capability, but you need to ensure you do it right. So it's a continual tradeoff."
Newswander described one challenge: "how do you certify something in an environment that you can't replicate on Earth?" The answer is found in a great deal of engineering rigor, analysis, testing, safety assessments, verification and quality assurance. "You focus on applying the proper engineering and safety practices and processes to the design. We're trying to maximize the usable envelope available in the airlock, which is not something that anyone has really tried to do for satellite deployments. That, coupled with the challenges of satellite deployment from an orbiting space station really pushes your boundaries."
When it becomes operational later this year, the Cyclops deployer not only will add a permanent enhancement to the capabilities of the station, but perhaps it also will serve as a model for further technological innovation. "We built something that should be up there for the duration of the station," Newswander noted. "It is designed to accommodate several deployments a year, so we anticipate that it's going to be able to handle whatever need the [space station] community requires. We don’t know if that will drive second generation designs; but, if someone comes forward in the future and takes an idea that we started off with and makes it better, we would welcome the enhanced capabilities. We consider the [space station] to be an invaluable resource not only to NASA but to the entire international community."

Take the Plunge: LADEE Impact Challenge

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft is gradually lowering its orbital altitude over the moon. LADEE will continue to make important science observations before its planned impact into the lunar surface later this month.
When will it impact the lunar surface? NASA wants to hear your best guess!
LADEE mission managers expect the spacecraft will impact the moon’s surface on or before April 21. On April 11, ground controllers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will command LADEE to perform its final orbital maintenance maneuver prior to a total lunar eclipse on April 15, when Earth’s shadow passes over the moon. This eclipse, which will last approximately four hours, exposes the spacecraft to conditions just on the edge of what it was designed to survive.
This final maneuver will ensure that LADEE's trajectory will impact the far side of the moon, which is not in view of Earth and away from any previous lunar mission landings. There are no plans to target a particular impact location on the lunar surface, and the exact date and time depends on several factors.
"The moon's gravity field is so lumpy, and the terrain is so highly variable with crater ridges and valleys that frequent maneuvers are required or the LADEE spacecraft will impact the moon’s surface," said Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames. "Even if we perform all maneuvers perfectly, there's still a chance LADEE could impact the moon sometime before April 21, which is when we expect LADEE's orbit to naturally decay after using all the fuel onboard."
Anyone is eligible to enter the "Take the Plunge: LADEE Impact Challenge." Winners will be announced after impact and will be e-mailed a commemorative, personalized certificate from the LADEE program. The submissions deadline is 3 p.m. PDT Friday, April 11.
For more information about the challenge and to enter, visit: http://socialforms.nasa.gov/ladee
“We want to thank all those that watched LADEE launch and have followed the mission these past months,” said Jim Green, NASA’s Director for Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our Moon holds a special place in so many cultures, and because of LADEE, we’ll know more than ever before about our nearest neighbor.”
LADEE's mission marked several firsts. It was the first demonstration of Optical Laser Communications from space (sent data six times faster than radio), and the first deep space spacecraft designed and built "in house" at NASA’s Ames Research Center.  It was also the first payload to launch on a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket integrated by Orbital Sciences Corp., Va., and was the first deep space mission to launch from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., when millions watched the night launch on Sept. 6, 2013.
The vending-machine size spacecraft has been orbiting the moon since Oct. 6. On Nov. 10, LADEE began gathering science data, and on Nov. 20, the spacecraft entered its science orbit around the moon's equator. LADEE has been in extended mission operations following a highly successful 100-day prime science phase.
LADEE's three science payload instruments have been working to unravel the mysteries of the lunar atmosphere and dust environment acquiring to date more than 700,000 measurements. In its previous orbit, LADEE's closest approach to the moon’s surface was between 20 and 50 km, and its farthest point was between 75 and 150 km – a unique position that allows the spacecraft to frequently pass from lunar day to lunar night, approximately every two hours. This vantage provides data about the full scope of changes and processes occurring within the moon's tenuous atmosphere.
Scientists hope to address a long-standing question: Was lunar dust, electrically charged by sunlight, responsible for the pre-sunrise glow detected during several Apollo missions above the lunar horizon? LADEE also is gathering detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere.
A thorough understanding of these characteristics of our nearest celestial neighbor will help researchers understand other bodies in the solar system, such as large asteroids, Mercury, and the moons of outer planets.

NASA’s OCO-2 Brings Sharp New Focus on Global Carbon

Simply by breathing, humans have played a small part in the planet-wide balancing act called the carbon cycle throughout our existence. However, in the last few hundred years, we have taken a larger role. Our activities, such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, are pushing the cycle out of its natural balance, adding more and more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Natural processes are working hard to keep the carbon cycle in balance by absorbing about half of our carbon emissions, limiting the extent of climate change. There's a lot we don't know about these processes, including where they are occurring and how they might change as the climate warms. To understand and prepare for the carbon cycle of the future, we have an urgent need to find out.
In July 2014, NASA will launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) to study the fate of carbon dioxide worldwide. "Right now, the land and the ocean are taking up almost half of the carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, but the future is fundamentally unknown," said Paul Wennberg, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "OCO-2 is a key to getting answers." The mission has been developed and is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Carbon dioxide is both one of the best measured greenhouse gases and one of the least measured. The emissions that remain in the atmosphere become evenly distributed around the globe in a matter of months. As a result, the average atmospheric concentration can be monitored well by existing ground stations (about 160 worldwide). The other half of our emissions -- the half that is being absorbed through natural processes into the land or the ocean -- is not evenly distributed. To understand where that carbon dioxide is going, we need precise, comprehensive, ongoing data about carbon dioxide absorption and emission by forests, the ocean and many other regions. For some of these regions, we have far too few observations.
"A research ship moves about the speed of a 10-speed bicycle," said Scott Doney, director of the Ocean and Climate Change Institute at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Mass. "Think about the size of the ocean. There's only so much research you can do at the speed of a bicycle." Oceanographers have made up some of the observational deficit by contracting with shipping lines to gather data along commercial routes. But there's little shipping in the Southern Ocean, and Doney said that's a region of high concern. "With warming, we expect big changes. The winds are changing there, and carbon dioxide uptake may change too."
On land, Earth's great forests might be the least understood areas. In northern Siberia, a region with no permanent settlements and few roads, there are only six year-round monitoring sites across seven time zones. Forests remove carbon from the air during photosynthesis and store it in wood and roots, making these forests what scientists call carbon sinks. But droughts and wildfires can turn forests into carbon sources, releasing the stored carbon back into the atmosphere. We don't know when and how often forests cross the line from sink to source.
OCO-2 will not be the first satellite to measure carbon dioxide, but it's the first with the observational strategy, precision, resolution and coverage needed to answer these questions about these little-monitored regions, according to Ralph Basilio, OCO-2 project manager at JPL.
OCO-2's scientific instrument uses spectrometers, which split sunlight into a spectrum of component colors, or wavelengths. Like all other molecules, carbon dioxide molecules absorb only certain colors of light, producing a unique pattern of dark features in the spectrum. The intensity of the dark features increases as the number of carbon dioxide molecules increases in the air that the spectrometer is looking through.
Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere are measured in parts per million, the number of molecules of carbon dioxide there are in every million molecules of air. That number is currently around 400. OCO-2's spectrometers can detect changes of one or two carbon dioxide molecules out of the 400 -- an unprecedented level of precision, and one that scientists think will be adequate to detect changes in natural sources and sinks, once enough measurements have been collected.
OCO-2 will collect 24 measurements a second over Earth’s sunlit hemisphere, totaling more than a million measurements each day. Fewer than 20 percent of these measurements will be sufficiently cloud-free to allow an accurate estimate of carbon dioxide, but that number will still yield 100 to 200 times as many measurements as the currently observing Japanese Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) mission. The measurements will be used as input for global atmospheric models. Combined with data on winds and other conditions, the OCO-2 data will allow modelers to better locate carbon sources and sinks at regional scales -- areas the size of France or Texas.
"With atmospheric carbon dioxide at unprecedented levels, our sense of urgency has only increased,” said Basilio. “What will happen if we keep emitting carbon dioxide at the same rate? The ultimate goal for OCO-2 is to provide data so that organizations and individuals throughout the world can make better-informed decisions about carbon."

James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Spectrograph Installed

In March 2014, the James Webb Space Telescope's flight Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) was installed into the instrument module. NIRSpec joins the flight Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) Fine Guidance Sensor/ Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) which are already integrated into the ISIM, making the instrument module complete.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a large space telescope, optimized for infrared wavelengths. It is scheduled for launch later in this decade. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way galaxy. Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own solar system. Webb's instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range.

NASA Radar Watches Over California's Aging Levees

One morning in 2008, research scientist Cathleen Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was flying over the San Andreas fault near San Francisco, testing a new radar instrument built at JPL. As the plane banked to make a turn, she looked down to see the Sacramento River delta, a patchwork of low-lying lands crisscrossed by levees.
Jones was using an instrument that can measure tiny movements of the ground on the scale of less than half an inch (less than a centimeter). It's called the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR).
“It struck me that this new instrument might be perfect for monitoring movement of levees,” said Jones. Checking the scientific literature, she found that nothing like that had been attempted before in the delta. She reported her idea to water managers at the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). She didn't know it, but she was at the beginning of a long-lived initiative to refine NASA technology for use in safeguarding the delta levees.
In the Sacramento River delta north of San Francisco Bay, islands, agricultural lands and communities below sea level are protected from surrounding water channels by more than 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) of dirt levees, many of which date back to the California Gold Rush. About two-thirds of all Californians and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland rely on the delta for water.
If a levee gives way, the results can be disastrous. A single 2004 levee failure created $90 million of damage and threatened the water supply to Southern California. However, the first warning that a levee is developing a structural problem can be a tiny soil deformation -- too small to be noticed by a visual inspection.
Remote sensing is a clear solution. The DWR managers had tried other remote sensing methods such as lidar, without complete satisfaction. They were immediately interested in the possibilities of UAVSAR. Joel Dudas, a senior water resources engineer with the DWR, said, "UAVSAR has the highest potential for giving us a very precise measurement at a scale that we didn't know was possible."
Supported by NASA's Applied Sciences Program, JPL and the DWR established a partnership in 2009 to begin a research project testing how UAVSAR technology could be applied for monitoring the delta levees. Since then, Jones and UAVSAR have flown a mission over the delta on NASA’s C-20A scientific research aircraft every four to eight weeks.  Each mission flies along nine overlapping flight lines that were designed to observe every levee in the 700-square-mile (1,800-square kilometer) delta from at least three directions in about three hours.
Like all radars, UAVSAR shoots pulses of microwaves at the ground and records the signals that bounce back. By comparing the data from consecutive flights, Jones can measure the rate of upward or downward soil movement in the intervening time. The instrument is specifically designed to ignore larger-scale movements (such as airplane motion) and record tiny variations that other instruments cannot identify. The team has also developed a model to support the data processing. The model incorporates land use, soil type and other factors that affect subsidence rates, allowing researchers to put the data in a context that can help water resource managers find better ways to manage the delta.
From the first year of operation, the research flights have proved that UAVSAR can locate areas of concern. That year, it detected a damaged levee that had been rammed by a ship. More recently, it spotted an area behind a levee where land was subsiding a few inches a year -- fast, but not observable by eye. The DWR added soil and continues to monitor the area.
Dudas is sold on the potential of UAVSAR monitoring to save time and money. He foresees an even more critical use if the program becomes a regular part of DWR operations -- a use that he hasn't had a chance to test because of the ongoing drought. "During high water we drive the levees, watching for leaks, but if there's a lot of vegetation or it's dark, we may not be able to see them. If we could fly this instrument during a flood, it would allow us to direct our emergency vehicles where they need to go.