[Spacetalk] http://www.nasa.gov/index.html

Fri Dec 19 06:38:59 CST 2014

Good morning all,
 I'm not sure how many of you are still at school today and if so, most likely only half day....I want to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday, be it Hanukkah, Christmas, or whatever you may choose....I have enjoyed this year tremendously...I feel so very fortunate in so many ways.... visited so many schools, made so many friends with the kids, and all of it so unbelievably rewarding.... I wish to thank all of you for being so great at what you do....I really believe teaching is the most difficult job in the world....I know so many of you put in extra hours every day, often taking your school work home, buying supplies out of pocket, and genuinely care about the kids....plus so much to put up with....school "administration", State tests, parents... :) yet you continue to try to mold your class into a productive, interested, and learning group, both collectively and individually....YOU ARE SO VERY APPRECIATED, ADMIRED, AND RESPECTED...
The launch was scrubbed yesterday until Jan 6th...WE HAVE TO REMEMBER AND REMIND OURSELVES....MAYBE A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION....always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, be appreciative of the good in our lives, keep things in perspective, make each day special, smile, and have fun!!!!! Always, gabe

December 18, 2014
NASA, SpaceX Update Launch of Fifth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA and SpaceX announced today the launch of SpaceX's fifth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station now will occur no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 6.
The new launch date will provide SpaceX engineers time to investigate further issues that arose from a static fire test of the Falcon 9 rocket on Dec. 16 and will avoid beta angle constraints for berthing the Dragon cargo ship to the station that exist through the end of the year.
A beta angle is the position of the sun relative to mechanical structures on the space station. During the time of high beta angles, which run from Dec. 28 through Jan. 7, thermal and operational constraints prohibit Dragon from berthing to the station.
Space station managers will meet Monday, Jan. 5, for a readiness review in advance of the launch attempt Jan. 6. The launch postponement has no impact on the station's crew or its complement of food, fuel and supplies and will not affect the science being delivered to the crew once Dragon arrives at the station.
The launch is scheduled at approximately 6:18 a.m. EST. NASA Television coverage will begin at 5 a.m.
A backup launch attempt is available Wednesday, Jan. 7.
A launch on Jan. 6 will result in a rendezvous and grapple of Dragon Thursday, Jan. 8, at approximately 6 a.m. NASA TV coverage will begin at 4:30 a.m. Installation coverage will begin at 9 a.m.
Prelaunch briefings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be rescheduled for Monday, Jan. 5, with times still to be determined.
For an updated schedule of prelaunch briefings, events and NASA TV coverage, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/1FrjDEO
For launch countdown coverage, NASA's launch blog, and more information about the mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/spacex
For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For more information about the International Space Station, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
ALSO, check this out, hopefully you can show the kids too....it is Space X planned reuse of the first stage rocket....to save money & time.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLBIdVg3EM&feature=player_embedded

The artistic concept shows NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft operating in a new mission profile called K2. Using publicly available data, astronomers have confirmed K2's first exoplanet discovery proving Kepler can still find planets.
Image Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T Pyle
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft makes a comeback with the discovery of the first exoplanet found using its new mission -- K2.
The discovery was made when astronomers and engineers devised an ingenious way to repurpose Kepler for the K2 mission and continue its search of the cosmos for other worlds.
"Last summer, the possibility of a scientifically productive mission for Kepler after its reaction wheel failure in its extended mission was not part of the conversation," said Paul Hertz, NASA's astrophysics division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "Today, thanks to an innovative idea and lots of hard work by the NASA and Ball Aerospace team, Kepler may well deliver the first candidates for follow-up study by the James Webb Space Telescope to characterize the atmospheres of distant worlds and search for signatures of life."
Lead researcher Andrew Vanderburg, a graduate student at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied publicly available data collected by the spacecraft during a test of K2 in February 2014. The discovery was confirmed with measurements taken by the HARPS-North spectrograph of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands, which captured the wobble of the star caused by the planet's gravitational tug as it orbits.
The newly confirmed planet, HIP 116454b, is 2.5 times the diameter of Earth and follows a close, nine-day orbit around a star that is smaller and cooler than our sun, making the planet too hot for life as we know it. HIP 116454b and its star are 180 light-years from Earth, toward the constellation Pisces.
Kepler's onboard camera detects planets by looking for transits -- when a distant star dims slightly as a planet crosses in front of it. The smaller the planet, the weaker the dimming, so brightness measurements must be exquisitely precise. To enable that precision, the spacecraft must maintain steady pointing. In May 2013, data collection during Kepler's extended prime mission came to an end with the failure of the second of four reaction wheels, which are used to stabilize the spacecraft.
Rather than giving up on the stalwart spacecraft, a team of scientists and engineers crafted a resourceful strategy to use pressure from sunlight as a "virtual reaction wheel" to help control the spacecraft. The resulting K2 mission promises to not only continue Kepler's planet hunt, but also to expand the search to bright nearby stars that harbor planets that can be studied in detail and better understand their composition. K2 also will introduce new opportunities to observe star clusters, active galaxies and supernovae.
Small planets like HIP 116454b, orbiting nearby bright stars, are a scientific sweet spot for K2 as they are good prospects for follow-up ground studies to obtain mass measurements. Using K2's size measurements and ground-based mass measurements, astronomers can calculate the density of a planet to determine whether it is likely a rocky, watery or gaseous world.
"The Kepler mission showed us that planets larger in size than Earth and smaller than Neptune are common in the galaxy, yet they are absent in our solar system," said Steve Howell, Kepler/K2 project scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "K2 is uniquely positioned to dramatically refine our understanding of these alien worlds and further define the boundary between rocky worlds like Earth and ice giants like Neptune."
Since the K2 mission officially began in May 2014, it has observed more than 35,000 stars and collected data on star clusters, dense star-forming regions, and several planetary objects within our own solar system. It is currently in its third campaign.
The research paper reporting this discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.
Ames is responsible for Kepler's mission concept, ground system development, science data analysis and K2 mission operations. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado, 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 in Washington.
For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

<http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-planetary-scientists-find-meteoritic-evidence-of-mars-water-reservoir/index.html>
Meteoritic Evidence Suggests Mars Water Reservoir
 <http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-planetary-scientists-find-meteoritic-evidence-of-mars-water-reservoir/index.html>
NASA and an international team of planetary scientists have found evidence in meteorites on Earth that indicates Mars has a distinct and global reservoir of water or ice near its surface. Though controversy still surrounds the origin, abundance and history of water on Mars, this discovery helps resolve the question of where the "missing Martian water" may have gone.

 <http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/> Spot The Station
Get email or text alerts for ISS sighting opportunities near you.
> Learn More<http://spotthestation.nasa.gov>

Holiday Greetings from The Rocketman,
Give your kids a great gift. Enroll them in the 9th annual Reach for the Stars ~ National Rocket Competition. It is a fun, affordable and easy way to excite them about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Subjects.
Request a 'No Obligation' estimate before the end of this year - get locked in to 2014 prices and receive a FREE Launch Set (value $25 to $30) when you place your order.
Orders can be placed any time prior to the Competition deadline (June 30th 2015).
Just answer the questions below and we'll send your free, 'no obligation' estimate.
1.  How many competitors?
2.  What age / grade?
3.  When do you want to launch?
4.  Do you have launch equipment? (launch pad and control)
5.  Are you experienced?
Three national winners get to celebrate under an October Sky at Space Camp / US Space & Rocket Center in 'Rocket City', Huntsville, Alabama.
Go to www.TheRocketman.net<http://www.TheRocketman.net> for more info...
Wishing you light winds on launch day.
Jack & Kathy Colpas, co-directors
Helping Kids Reach for the Stars / Reach for the Stars ~ National Rocket Competition
STEM - Educational Outreach (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math)
www.TheRocketman.net<http://www.therocketman.net/>    Rocketman at SciConServices.com<blocked::Rocketman at SciConServices.com>
Phone (941) 955-3958  /  Fax (206) 350-7880

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20141219/5ff47517/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 55370 bytes
Desc: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 1.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20141219/5ff47517/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 2.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 9008 bytes
Desc: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 2.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20141219/5ff47517/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 3.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3397 bytes
Desc: Picture (Device Independent Bitmap) 3.jpg
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20141219/5ff47517/attachment-0002.jpg>