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

Tue Jun 9 06:08:11 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
 I hope everything is going great for you...I think most of the schools are finished for the year although I believe Norway and Denmark may go through the end of this week.....the time goes so fast...for all the teachers you really deserve the break, honestly, I think you have the most difficult job in the world....but also the most rewarding...some of you have written about special gifts you have received which touches your hearts so deeply and I am sure drives you to continue despite so many obstacles....I can't thank you all enough and to tell you what a privilege it is to meet you, get to know you, spend time with the kids and share a little bit of your world....I did want to get this out as there will be live TV of the astronauts departing from the space station on Thursday....maybe with the school year almost over, you can find a little time to share it with the kids... go to   http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv   we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, let those we care about most know, keep things in perspective, smile and have fun...gabe

 NASA Television to Air Return of Three Space Station Crew Members
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/iss043e174193.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/iss043e174193.jpg>
ISS043E174193 (05/06/2015) --- NASA astronaut Terry Virts (left) Commander of Expedition 43 on the International Space Station along with crewmates Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (center) and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on May 6, 2015 perform a checkout of their Russian Soyuz spacesuits in preparation for the journey back to Earth.
Credits: NASA
After more than six months of performing scientific research and technology demonstrations in space, three International Space Station crew members are scheduled to depart the orbiting laboratory Thursday, June 11. NASA Television will provide coverage of their station departure and return to Earth.
Coverage begins at 10:40 a.m. EDT Wednesday, June 10, when Expedition 43<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition43/index.html> Commander Terry Virts of NASA hands over command of the space station to cosmonaut Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).
At 6:20 a.m. the following day, Virts and Flight Engineers Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) and Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos will undock their Soyuz spacecraft from the space station and land in Kazakhstan at 9:43 a.m. (7:43 p.m. Kazakh time).
Their return wraps up 199 days in space, during which they traveled more than 84 million miles since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 24. Their return date was delayed four weeks to allow Roscosmos to investigate the cause of the loss of the unpiloted Progress 59 cargo ship in late April.
NASA Television will broadcast departure and landing activities at the following times:
Wednesday, June 10
*       10:40 a.m. - Change of command ceremony in which Virts hands over station command to Padalka
Thursday, June 11
*       2:30 a.m. - Farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled for 2:55 a.m.)
*       6 a.m. - Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 6:20 a.m.)
*       8:30 a.m. - Deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 8:51 a.m., with landing at 9:43 a.m.)
*       noon. - Video File of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
*       10 p.m. - Video File of landing and post-landing activities and post-landing interviews with Virts and Cristoforetti in Kazakhstan
When the Virts, Shkaplerov and Cristoforetti land in Kazakhstan Thursday, Virts will have logged 212 days in space on two flights, the first of which was on space shuttle mission STS-130 in 2010. Shkaplerov will have spent 364 days in space on two flights, the first of which was on Expedition 29/30 in 2011. This was Cristoforetti's first flight into space.
Expedition 44 formally begins aboard the station, under the command of Padalka, when the Soyuz undocks. He and crewmates Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos will operate the station until the arrival of NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who are scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan in July.
Kelly and Kornienko are spending one year in space<http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew>, twice the typical mission duration, to provide researchers the opportunity to learn more about the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long duration spaceflight.
For the NASA TV schedule and coordinate information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

Nation's First Operational Satellite in Deep Space Reaches Final Orbit
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/l1_dscovr_diagram.png>
This artist's rendering shows the location of the DSCOVR spacecraft located one million miles between the Earth and the Sun.
Credits: NASA
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/cme.jpg>
On June 20, 2013, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft captured this coronal mass ejection (CME). A solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of particles into space that can reach Earth within three days.
Credits: NASA
More than 100 days after it launched, NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite has reached its orbit position about one million miles from Earth.
Once final instrument checks are completed, DSCOVR, which will provide improved measurements of solar wind conditions to enhance NOAA's ability to warn of potentially harmful solar activity, will be the nation's first operational space weather satellite in deep space. Its orbit between Earth and the sun is at a location called the Lagrange point 1, or L1, which gives DSCOVR a unique vantage point to see the Earth and sun.
Data from DSCOVR, coupled with a new forecast model set to come online in 2016, will enable NOAA's space weather forecasters to predict geomagnetic storm magnitude on a regional basis. Geomagnetic storms occur when plasma and magnetic fields streaming from the sun impact Earth's magnetic field. Large magnetic eruptions from the sun have the potential to bring major disruptions to power grids, aviation, telecommunications, and GPS systemsDSCOVR will trigger early warnings whenever it detects a surge of energy that could cause a geomagnetic storm that could bring possible damaging impacts for Earth," said Stephen Volz, Ph.D., Assistant Administrator for NOAA's Satellite and Information Service.
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/aurora_noaa.jpg> An aurora as seen over the Poker Flat Research Range north of Fairbanks, Alaska, on Feb. 28, 2011.
Credits: NOAA
DSCOVR will eventually replace NASA's Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) research satellite as America's primary warning system for solar magnetic storms headed towards Earth. ACE will continue to provide valuable research data to the science community.
In addition to space weather-monitoring instruments, DSCOVR is carrying two NASA Earth-observing instruments that will gather a range of measurements from ozone and aerosol amounts, to changes in Earth's radiation budget-the balance between incoming radiation (largely from the sun) and that which is reflected from Earth. This balance affects our climate.
"DSCOVR has reached its final orbit and will soon be ready to begin its mission of space weather monitoring for NOAA and Earth observing for NASA," said Al Vernacchio, DSCOVR project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., will begin using data from DSCOVR in its space weather forecasts as soon as DSCOVR is deemed operational.
The DSCOVR mission is a partnership between NOAA, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force provided the Space X Falcon 9 launch vehicle for the mission.  NOAA will operate DSCOVR from its NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md., and process the space weather data at NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) in Boulder, Colo., one of NOAA's nine National Centers for Environmental Prediction. SWPC will distribute these data to users within the United States and around the world. The data will be archived at NOAA's National Center for Environmental Information.<https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/>
DSCOVR also hosts NASA-funded secondary sensors for Earth and space science observations. The Earth science data will be processed at NASA's DSCOVR Science Operations Center and archived and distributed by NASA's Atmospheric Science Data Center.
For more information about DSCOVR, visit: http://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/DSCOVR/

NASA Spacecraft Detects Impact Glass on Surface of Mars
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Researchers have found deposits of impact glass (in green) preserved in Martian craters, including Alga Crater, shown here. The detection is based on data from the instrument Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has detected deposits of glass within impact craters on Mars. Though formed in the searing heat of a violent impact, such deposits might provide a delicate window into the possibility of past life on the Red Planet.
During the past few years, research has shown evidence about past life has been preserved in impact glass here on Earth. A 2014 study led by scientist Peter Schultz of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, found organic molecules and plant matter entombed in glass formed by an impact that occurred millions of years ago in Argentina. Schultz suggested that similar processes might preserve signs of life on Mars, if they were present at the time of an impact.
Fellow Brown researchers Kevin Cannon and Jack Mustard, building on the previous research, detail their data about Martian impact glass in a report now online in the journal Geology.
"The work done by Pete and others showed us that glasses are potentially important for preserving biosignatures," Cannon said. "Knowing that, we wanted to go look for them on Mars and that's what we did here. Before this paper, no one had been able to definitively detect them on the surface."
Cannon and Mustard showed large glass deposits are present in several ancient, yet well-preserved, craters on Mars. Picking out the glassy deposits was no easy task. To identify minerals and rock types remotely, scientists measured the spectra of light reflected off the planet's surface. But impact glass doesn't have a particularly strong spectral signal.
"Glasses tend to be spectrally bland or weakly expressive, so signature from the glass tends to be overwhelmed by the chunks of rock mixed in with it," said Mustard. "But Kevin found a way to tease that signal out."In a laboratory, Cannon mixed together powders with a similar composition of Martian rocks and fired them in an oven to form glass. He then measured the spectral signal from that glass.
Once Mustard had the signal from the lab glass, he used an algorithm to pick out similar signals in data from MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), for which he is the deputy principal investigator.
The technique pinpointed deposits in several Martian crater central peaks, the craggy mounds that often form in the center of a crater during a large impact. The fact the deposits were found on central peaks is a good indicator that they have an impact origin.
Knowing that impact glass can preserve ancient signs of life -- and now knowing that such deposits exist on the Martian surface today -- opens up a potential new strategy in the search for ancient Martian life.
"The researchers' analysis suggests glass deposits are relatively common impact features on Mars," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "These areas could be targets for future exploration as our robotic scientific explorers pave the way on the journey to Mars with humans in the 2030s."
One of the craters containing glass, called Hargraves, is near the Nili Fossae trough, a 400-mile-long (about 650-kilometer-long) depression that stretches across the Martian surface. The region is one of the landing site contenders for NASA's Mars 2020 rover, a mission to cache soil and rock samples for possible return to Earth.
Nili Fossae trough is already of scientific interest because the crust in the region is thought to date back to when Mars was a much wetter planet. The region also is rife with what appear to be ancient hydrothermal fractures, warm vents that could have provided energy for life to thrive just beneath the surface.
"If you had an impact that dug in and sampled that subsurface environment, it's possible that some of it might be preserved in a glassy component," Mustard said. "That makes this a pretty compelling place to go look around, and possibly return a sample."
MRO has been examining Mars with CRISM and five other instruments since 2006.
"This significant new detection of impact glass illustrates how we can continue to learn from the ongoing observations by this long-lived mission," said Richard Zurek, MRO project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, provided and operates CRISM. JPL manages MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter and supports its operations.
For more information about CRISM, visit: http://crism.jhuapl.edu/ For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro

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