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

Tue Dec 15 00:03:26 CST 2015

good morning all,
 I wanted to get this off to you quickly as I hope you can share the launch with your students…The next three crew members bound for the International Space Station <http://www.nasa.gov/station> are set to launch on Tuesday, Dec. 15. NASA Television will provide full coverage of the launch beginning at 5 a.m. EST. I know this is too early for those in the US but great timing for schools overseas…I hope you can share this with your students…see it on NASA TV and the schools in the US you will be able to see a replay on NASA TV… http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv> we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, be appreciative of the good in our lives, let those we care about most know, smile & have fun! Gabe

NASA Television Coverage Set for Next Space Station Crew Launch
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/23159697140_588e3d2240_o.jpg>
In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 46-47 crewmembers Tim Peake of the European Space Agency (left), Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Tim Kopra of NASA (right) pose for photos Dec. 1 in front of their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft during a crew fit check. The trio will launch Dec. 15 from Baikonur for a six-month mission on the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA/Victor Zelentsov
The next three crew members bound for the International Space Station <http://www.nasa.gov/station> are set to launch on Tuesday, Dec. 15. NASA Television will provide full coverage of the launch beginning at 5 a.m. EST. Astronauts Tim Kopra <https://twitter.com/astro_tim> of NASA and Tim Peake <https://twitter.com/astro_timpeake> of ESA (European Space Agency), and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 6:03 a.m. (5:03 p.m. Baikonur time) for a six-month stay on the orbital complex.

The three will travel in a Soyuz spacecraft, rendezvous with the space station and dock to the Rassvet module at 12:24 p.m. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 11:45 a.m.
The hatches between the Soyuz and space station will be opened at about 2:25 p.m., and the newly arrived crew members will be greeted by Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly <https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly> of NASA and Flight Engineers Sergey Volkov and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos. NASA TV coverage of the hatch opening will begin at 2 p.m.
Kelly and Kornienko will return in March 2016 with Volkov after spending a year on the station <http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew> collecting valuable biomedical data that will improve our understanding of the effects of long duration space travel and aid in NASA’s journey to Mars.
Together, the Expedition 46 crew members will continue the several hundred experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science currently underway and scheduled to take place aboard humanity’s only orbiting laboratory.
For the full schedule of prelaunch, launch and docking coverage, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv>
Follow the space station crew members on Instagram and Twitter at: http://instagram.com/iss <http://instagram.com/iss> &  http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station  <http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station%C2%A0>
Expedition 46 Soyuz Rollout <http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUxMjE0LjUyNzA0MzgxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MTIxNC41MjcwNDM4MSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3MjM3MDAxJmVtYWlsaWQ9Zm9yZGdhYmVAbmV0emVyby5jb20mdXNlcmlkPWZvcmRnYWJlQG5ldHplcm8uY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=&&&100&&&http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/expedition-46-soyuz-rollout?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery>
In this one minute exposure, a meteor streaks across the sky as the Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft is rolled out by train to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2015 in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz is scheduled for Dec. 15 and will send Expedition 46 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA, and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) to the International Space Station for a six-month stay.

Strange Star Likely Swarmed by Comets 
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/pia20053-label.jpg>
This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet. Observations of the star KIC 8462852 by NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes suggest that its unusual light signals are likely from dusty comet fragments, which blocked the light of the star as they passed in front of it in 2011 and 2013. The comets are thought to be traveling around the star in a very long, eccentric orbit.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A star called KIC 8462852 has been in the news recently for unexplained and bizarre behavior. NASA's Kepler mission had monitored the star for four years, observing two unusual incidents, in 2011 and 2013, when the star's light dimmed in dramatic, never-before-seen ways. Something had passed in front of the star and blocked its light, but what?

Scientists first reported the findings in September, suggesting a family of comets as the most likely explanation. Other cited causes included fragments of planets and asteroids.
A new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope addresses the mystery, finding more evidence for the scenario involving a swarm of comets. The study, led by Massimo Marengo of Iowa State University, Ames, is accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
One way to learn more about the star is to study it in infrared light. Kepler had observed it in visible light. If a planetary impact, or a collision amongst asteroids, were behind the mystery of KIC 8462852, then there should be an excess of infrared light around the star. Dusty, ground-up bits of rock would be at the right temperature to glow at infrared wavelengths.
At first, researchers tried to look for infrared light using NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, and found none. But those observations were taken in 2010, before the strange events seen by Kepler -- and before any collisions would have kicked up dust.
To search for infrared light that might have been generated after the oddball events, researchers turned to Spitzer, which, like WISE, also detects infrared light. Spitzer just happened to observe KIC 8462852 more recently in 2015.
"Spitzer has observed all of the hundreds of thousands of stars where Kepler hunted for planets, in the hope of finding infrared emission from circumstellar dust," said Michael Werner, the Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the lead investigator of that particular Spitzer/Kepler observing program.
But, like WISE, Spitzer did not find any significant excess of infrared light from warm dust. That makes theories of rocky smashups very unlikely, and favors the idea that cold comets are responsible. It's possible that a family of comets is traveling on a very long, eccentric orbit around the star. At the head of the pack would be a very large comet, which would have blocked the star's light in 2011, as noted by Kepler. Later, in 2013, the rest of the comet family, a band of varied fragments lagging behind, would have passed in front of the star and again blocked its light.
By the time Spitzer observed the star in 2015, those comets would be farther away, having continued on their long journey around the star. They would not leave any infrared signatures that could be detected.
According to Marengo, more observations are needed to help settle the case of KIC 8462852.
"This is a very strange star," he said. "It reminds me of when we first discovered pulsars. They were emitting odd signals nobody had ever seen before, and the first one discovered was named LGM-1 after 'Little Green Men.'”
In the end, the LGM-1 signals turned out to be a natural phenomenon.
"We may not know yet what's going on around this star,” Marengo observed. “But that's what makes it so interesting.” Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
For more information about Kepler and Spitzer, respectively, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler <http://www.nasa.gov/kepler> http://kepler.nasa.gov <http://kepler.nasa.gov/>   http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer <http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer>   http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu <http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/>
This Week @ NASA, December 11, 2015
Space station astronauts return safely to Earth <http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-astronaut-kjell-lindgren-completes-space-station-mission-safely-returns-to-earth>
On Dec. 11 aboard the International Space Station, NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, bid farewell to crew members remaining on the station -- including Commander Scott Kelly, NASA’s one-year mission astronaut. The returning members of Expedition 45 then climbed aboard their Soyuz spacecraft for the trip back to Earth. They safely touched down hours later in Kazakhstan – closing out a 141-day stay in space.
Next space station crew prepares for launch <http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-coverage-set-for-next-space-station-crew-launch>Meanwhile, preparations continue at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch of the next three additions to the space station crew – including NASA astronaut Tim Kopra. He’s participating in prelaunch training with Expedition 46-47 Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of the European Space Agency. Launch of their Soyuz to the station from Kazakhstan is scheduled for Dec. 15.
Supply mission arrives at space station <http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-cargo-launches-to-space-station-aboard-orbital-atk-resupply-mission>Orbital ATK’s enhanced Cygnus cargo craft arrived at the space station on Dec. 9, three days after launching on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Florida. This is the first flight of the enhanced Cygnus – with its greater payload capacity. The 7,000-plus pounds of cargo delivered by Cygnus includes science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware in support of the approximately 250 science and research investigations that will occur during the Expeditions 45 and 46 missions.
Quantum computing lab <http://www.nasa.gov/ames/feature/nasa-invites-media-to-tour-quantum-computing-lab-talk-to-experts>
On Dec. 8, members of the media toured the Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory or (QuAIL) at NASA’s Ames Research Center. The Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is the agency's hub for an experiment to assess the potential of quantum computers to perform calculations that are difficult or impossible using conventional supercomputers.The QuAIL team hopes to demonstrate quantum computing and algorithms that may someday dramatically improve NASA’s ability to solve difficult optimization problems for missions in aeronautics, Earth science, and space exploration.
2015 Invention Challenge <http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/inventionchallenge/>
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory hosted the annual Invention Challenge recently in Pasadena, California. Middle and high school teams demonstrated unique devices they built to compete in this year’s challenge – the “Ball Fling Contest”. The goal of the challenge was to hit three different targets with playground balls in less than 60 seconds. Twenty-one student teams and three teams of JPL engineers and scientists were invited to compete.The competition promotes creativity, strategic thinking and improvement of science, technology, engineering and math or STEM skills.

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