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

Mon Jun 15 06:28:14 CDT 2015

Good morning all,
 I hope you had a wonderful weekend and will look forward to the week ahead...of course, one day at a time... I know most schools are finished or will this week but I think my friends in Denmark may go through next week, not sure about Norway...hopefully, some of you will still see this and, if possible, pass it along to the kids....try to remember July 14, that is when the New Horizon's mission will reach Pluto...it is really an Historic Event as this will be the first time Pluto has been visited and the mission has already shown many amazing features about Pluto and the Kuiper Belt (A disk-shaped region in the outer solar system, containing thousands of small, icy celestial bodies. Comets that make one complete orbit of the sun in less than 200 years come from this area. The Kuiper belt lies beyond the orbit of Neptune and includes Pluto).  Maybe you can print this schedule for the kids so they can follow it at home...I know the kids are fascinated with Pluto as I get asked so many questions about it....if you can find a few minutes, try to show the lids this short (under 3 minutes) video on the mission.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XyMzPnoUmBk ...I know they will find it very interesting....I wish you a wonderful day, we have to remember to always live in the present, make each day special, let the people we care about most know, always do our best, enjoy everything we do, smile and have fun.....gabe

New Horizons Will Shed More Light on Pluto Than Ever Before
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/newhorizons_at_pluto_4-14-15.jpg>
The New Horizons mission will help us understand worlds at the edge of our solar system by making the first reconnaissance of the dwarf planet Pluto and by venturing deeper into the distant, mysterious Kuiper Belt - a relic of solar system formation. Following a January 2006 launch, New Horizons is currently about 2.95 billion miles from home; the spacecraft is healthy and all systems are operating normally. APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. SwRI leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XyMzPnoUmBk

NASA Announces Television Coverage, Media Activities for Pluto Flyby
NASA is inviting media to cover New Horizons' historic Pluto flyby in mid-July, including the spacecraft's closest approach to Pluto on July 14, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, site of the mission operations center.
Media who wish to cover the events at APL must receive accreditation from the APL Public Affairs Office by June 30. Earlier registration is strongly encouraged, as space is very limited. To apply, and for more information, visit:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/Media-Registration.php
NASA also will provide comprehensive coverage on NASA Television, and the agency's website<http://www.nasa.gov/> and social media<http://www.nasa.gov/socialmedia> accounts as the spacecraft closes in on Pluto in the coming weeks.
The schedule for event coverage is subject to change, with daily updates posted online and in the New Horizons Media Center at APL. Highlights of the current schedule, all times EDT, include:
June 16, 23 and 30
11:30 a.m. -- Mission Updates
Weekly pre-flyby updates on NASA TV will provide an overview of the New Horizons mission, the spacecraft and its suite of instruments, the July 14 flyby, and a summary of Pluto science to date.
July 7- 12
11:30 a.m. -- Final approach to Pluto; live daily mission updates on NASA TV
July 12
1 - 5 p.m. -- New Horizons Media Center opens at APL
July 13
11 a.m. - noon -- Media briefing: Mission Status and What to Expect. (live on NASA TV)
2:30 - 5:30 p.m. -- Panels: APL's Endeavors in Space and the latest on New Horizons (no NASA TV coverage)
July 14
7:30 a.m. - Media Briefing: Arrival at Pluto, Inside the Pluto System and New Horizons' Perilous Path (live on NASA TV)
At 7:49 a.m., the New Horizons spacecraft will make history as flies past Pluto, after a journey of more than nine years and 3 billion miles. For much of the day the New Horizons spacecraft will be out of communication with mission control as it gathers data on Pluto and its moons.
The moment of closest approach will be marked with a live NASA TV broadcast that includes a countdown, a discussion of images and data received thus far, and what's expected next as New Horizons makes its way past Pluto and potentially dangerous debris. Follow the path of the spacecraft in real time with a visualization of the actual trajectory data, using NASA's Eyes on Pluto<http://eyes.nasa.gov/pluto>.
9 a.m. - noon -- Interview Opportunities (no NASA TV coverage)
Informal group briefings and availability for one-on-one interviews. An updated schedule will be posted in the New Horizons Media Center.
Noon - 3 p.m. - Panel Discussions (no NASA TV coverage)
*       New Horizons mission overview and history
*       Pluto system discoveries on approach
*       Mariner 4 and Pluto: 50 years to the day
8 - 9:15 p.m. -- NASA TV program, Phone Home, broadcast from APL Mission Control
NASA TV will share the suspenseful moments of this historic event with the public and museums around the world. The New Horizons spacecraft will send a preprogrammed signal after the close approach. The mission team on Earth should receive the signal at about 9:02 p.m. When New Horizons "phones home," there will be a celebration of its success and the anticipation of data to come over the days and months ahead.
9:15 - 10 p.m. -- Media Briefing: New Horizons Health and Mission Status (live on NASA TV)
July 15
Noon - 3 p.m. -- Interview Opportunities (no NASA TV coverage)
Informal group briefings and availability for one-on-one interviews. An updated schedule will be posted in the New Horizons Media Center.
TBD -- Media Briefing: Seeing Pluto in a New Light (live on NASA TV)
Release of close-up images of Pluto's surface and moons, along with initial science team reactions
New Horizons is the first mission to the Kuiper Belt, a gigantic zone of icy bodies and mysterious small objects orbiting beyond Neptune. This region also is known as the "third" zone of our solar system, beyond the inner rocky planets and outer gas giants.
APL designed, built and operates the New Horizons spacecraft, and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio leads the science team, payload operations and encounter science planning. New Horizons is part of the New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and images, visit:  http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons or http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/plutotoolkit.cfm
Follow the New Horizons mission on Twitter<https://twitter.com/nasanewhorizons> and use the hashtag #PlutoFlyby to join the conversation. Live updates will be available on the mission Facebook page<https://www.facebook.com/new.horizons1>.

NASA, University Researchers Discuss Search for Life in Solar System, Beyond
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/m15-092.jpg>
For more information about NASA's astrobiology activities, visit: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov<http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/>
For NASA's activities in the solar system and beyond, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem

NASA Prepares for First Interplanetary CubeSats on Agency's Next Mission to Mars
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/thumbnails/image/15-122a.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-122a.jpg>
NASA's two small MarCO CubeSats will be flying past Mars in 2016 just as NASA's next Mars lander, InSight, is descending through the Martian atmosphere and landing on the surface. MarCO, for Mars Cube One, will provide an experimental communications relay to inform Earth quickly about the landing.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
When NASA launches its next mission on the journey to Mars - a stationary lander in 2016 - the flight will include two CubeSats. This will be the first time CubeSats have flown in deep space.  If this flyby demonstration is successful, the technology will provide NASA the ability to quickly transmit status information about the main spacecraft after it lands on Mars.
The twin communications-relay CubeSats, being built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, constitute a technology demonstration called Mars Cube One (MarCO).  CubeSats are a class of spacecraft based on a standardized small size and modular use of off-the-shelf technologies. Many have been made by university students, and dozens have been launched into Earth orbit using extra payload mass available on launches of larger spacecraft.
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/side_image/public/thumbnails/image/15-122b.jpg]
The full-scale mock-up of NASA's MarCO CubeSat held by Farah Alibay, a systems engineer for the technology demonstration, is dwarfed by the one-half-scale model of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter behind her.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The basic CubeSat unit is a box roughly 4 inches (10 centimeters) square. Larger CubeSats are multiples of that unit. MarCO's design is a six-unit CubeSat - about the size of a briefcase -- with a stowed size of about 14.4 inches (36.6 centimeters) by 9.5 inches (24.3 centimeters) by 4.6 inches (11.8 centimeters).
MarCO will launch in March 2016 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California on the same United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket as NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander. Insight is NASA's first mission to understand the interior structure of the Red Planet. MarCO will fly by Mars while InSight is landing, in September 2016.
"MarCO is an experimental capability that has been added to the InSight mission, but is not needed for mission success," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "MarCO will fly independently to Mars."
During InSight's entry, descent and landing (EDL) operations on Sept. 28, 2016, the lander will transmit information in the UHF radio band to NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) flying overhead. MRO will forward EDL information to Earth using a radio frequency in the X band, but cannot simultaneously receive information over one band while transmitting on another. Confirmation of a successful landing could be received by the orbiter more than an hour before it's relayed to Earth.
MarCO's radio is about softball-size and provides both UHF (receive only) and X-band (receive and transmit) functions capable of immediately relaying information received over UHF.
The two CubeSats will separate from the Atlas V booster after launch and travel along their own trajectories to the Red Planet. After release from the launch vehicle, MarCO's first challenges are to deploy two radio antennas and two solar panels. The high-gain, X-band antenna is a flat panel engineered to direct radio waves the way a parabolic dish antenna does. MarCO will be navigated to Mars independently of the InSight spacecraft, with its own course adjustments on the way.
Ultimately, if the MarCO demonstration mission succeeds, it could allow for a "bring-your-own" communications relay option for use by future Mars missions in the critical few minutes between Martian atmospheric entry and touchdown.
By verifying CubeSats are a viable technology for interplanetary missions, and feasible on a short development timeline, this technology demonstration could lead to many other applications to explore and study our solar system.
JPL manages MarCO, InSight and MRO for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Technology suppliers for MarCO include: Blue Canyon Technologies of Boulder, Colorado, for the attitude-control system; VACCO Industries of South El Monte, California, for the propulsion system; AstroDev of Ann Arbor, Michigan, for electronics; MMA Design LLC, also of Boulder, for solar arrays; and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems Inc., a Terran Orbital Company in San Luis Obispo, California, for the CubeSat dispenser system.
For information about MarCO, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco
For information about InSight, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/insight
Learn more about NASA's journey to Mars at:
http://www.nasa.gov/content/journey-to-mars-overview

View the Latest Edition of "This Week at NASA" (Published June 12, 2015)
View the latest "This Week at NASA" produced by NASA Television for features on agency news and activities. Stories in this program include:
*       Tour Over -- Expedition 43 Returns Home
*       Climate Change Projections
*       Second Flight Test of Saucer-Shaped Vehicle
*       DAWN Images Bring Ceres to Life
*       Heavy Lift Crane Back in Place
*       Jack King, "the Voice of Launch Control," Dies at 84
 To watch this edition of "This Week at NASA" dated June 12, 2015, click on the image below:
 <https://youtu.be/xv4ON7nvFO8>
Watch the Video
You also may access this edition of "This Week at NASA" at:  https://youtu.be/xv4ON7nvFO8

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