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

Thu Mar 17 03:09:10 CDT 2016

Good morning all,
 Today’s visit to Williston HS went very well…it was career day so there were numerous speakers, each giving a presentation about their career and insight to help the kids gain knowledge…I think these career days are great..I have participated in many of them and I think it is a good opportunity for the kids to get a first hand look at what they make like to do as adults…it is so important for them to be planning their careers, especially if they are in their last year of HS and still undecided….I wanted to thank Erica who helped with the students and also Yenet who was assigned as my escort for the day…I have been speaking with allot of the kids and I guess everyone is off next week for Easter Holiday or at least it seems that way…I know you all are looking forward to a little break and even if you don’t celebrate Easer, you still get some time to rejuvenate and get ready to push to the end of the school year. It also seems so strange that tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day with Easter so close to follow….so I imagine tomorrow will be a fun day with lot’s of school parties and many dressing up in green…:-) :-) so many of you make learning fun and are so active with the kids….wishing you all a wonderful day...we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, be appreciative of the good in our lives, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know....smile & have fun, Gabe

I know this is late but you can see the replay on NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html 
NASA Television to Air Women’s History Month STEM Event at Goddard
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/women-in-stem.jpg>
NASA Deputy Director Dava Newman, Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan, Deputy Associate Administrator Lesa Roe and Johnson Space Center Director Ellen Ochoa
Credits: NASA
In partnership with the White House Council on Women and Girls, NASA will host a Women’s History Month event Wednesday, March 16 that examines the role of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), featuring some of NASA’s top leaders – women in STEM. The event at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website starting at noon EDT. The program will begin with remarks from the Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Jo Handelsman. This will be followed by a panel discussion with NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman <http://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/newman_bio.html>, Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan <http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ocs/stofan_bio.html>, Deputy Associate Administrator Lesa Roe <http://www.nasa.gov/feature/lesa-roe>, and Johnson Space Center Director and former astronaut Ellen Ochoa <http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/about/people/orgs/bios/ochoa.html>. Goddard’s deputy director for Technology and Research Investments, Christyl Johnson, will serve as the moderator. Newman joined the agency in May 2015. Prior to her tenure with NASA, Newman was the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. Her expertise is in multidisciplinary research that encompasses aerospace biomedical engineering. Roe started her career with NASA in 1987 at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as a radio frequency communications engineer in the Space Shuttle Engineering Directorate. She later served in the International Space Station Payloads Office at Johnson before transitioning to NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, where she served as center director from October 2005 to April 2014. Stofan was appointed NASA chief scientist in August 2013, serving as principal advisor to the agency administrator on science programs and science-related strategic planning and investments. Her appointment as chief scientist marked a return to NASA. From 1991 through 2000, she held a number of senior scientist positions at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, including chief scientist for NASA's New Millennium Program and deputy project scientist for the Magellan Mission to Venus. Ochoa began her NASA career at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, where she managed the Intelligent Systems Technology Branch before being selected as an astronaut in 1990. A veteran of four spaceflights, she has logged more than 978 hours in space. Ochoa became director of Johnson in 2012. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv>

To my friends is South Africa…this is for you…..:-) 
South Africa From the Space Station's EarthKAM
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The remotely controlled Sally Ride EarthKAM <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/90.html> aboard the International Space Station snapped this striking photograph during a flyover of South Africa <http://images.earthkam.org/main.php?g2_itemId=522552> on Feb. 9, 2016. The EarthKAM program <https://www.earthkam.org/about> allows students to request photographs of specific Earth features, which are taken by a special camera mounted on the space station when it passes over those features. The images are posted online for the public and students in participating classrooms around the world to view. EarthKAM is the only program providing students with such direct control of an instrument on a spacecraft orbiting Earth, teaching them about environmental science, geography and space communications.The project was initiated by Dr. Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, in 1995 and called KidSat; the camera flew on five space shuttle flights before moving to the space station on Expedition 1 in 2001. In 2011, NASA and Sally Ride Science installed a new camera system in a downward-pointing window on the station. This camera system is responsible for taking and downloading student image requests.

Planetary Conference to Feature Ceres, Mars, Pluto Science Results
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/science-collage2.jpg>
NASA Dawn spacecraft, Curiosity Mars rover and New Horizons spacecraft.
Credits: NASA
Researchers from NASA and other institutions will present science results from the agency’s Mars missions <http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html>, New Horizons <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html> flyby of Pluto, and Dawn <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/main/index.html> mission observations of the dwarf planet Ceres during the 47th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 21-25 near Houston.  

The conference will take place at the Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center at 1601 Lake Robbins Drive in The Woodlands, Texas. Briefing times (all CDT) are as follows:
Noon, Monday, March 21 -- New Horizons mission media briefing  
Noon, Tuesday, March 22 -- Dawn mission media briefing
7:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 22 -- Alan Stern, principal investigator for the New Horizons mission, will deliver a lecture, “The Exploration of Pluto.” This lecture is free and open to the public.
Media may register to attend. For information including links to the program, media advisories and contact information, visit: http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/media/press/ <http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/media/press/>
Briefings will be live streamed and/or archived online. The schedule is available at: http://livestream.com/viewnow/LPSC2016 <http://livestream.com/viewnow/LPSC2016>
In July 2015, NASA’s New Horizons became the first spacecraft to fly past Pluto, observing a wide range of surface expressions and geology that raise fundamental questions about how small planets can have active processes billions of years after they formed. Results from the first year of Dawn’s exploration of Ceres mission will be presented, including new insights about the dwarf planet’s surface and composition.   The science presentations at the conference will include what researchers have learned from recent investigation by NASA's Curiosity rover <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html> of an active Martian sand dune and diverse findings from other NASA missions to Mars. The conference is presented by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in Houston. LPI is managed by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a national, nonprofit consortium of 105 leading research universities chartered in 1969 by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of NASA. USRA operates programs and institutes focused on research and education in several disciplines engaged in space-related science and engineering. More information about the agenda and other activities is available online at: http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/ <http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2016/> For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov <http://www.nasa.gov/>

Expedition 47 Soyuz Raising
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/25212929423_fbb36376aa_o.jpg>
The gantry arms close around the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft to secure the rocket, as seen in this long exposure taken on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at launch pad 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Launch of the Soyuz rocket is scheduled for March 18 <http://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/> (March 19 Kazakh time) and will carry Expedition 47 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams of NASA, and Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos into orbit to begin their five and a half month mission on the International Space Station. 

March 16, 1966: Gemini's First Docking of Two Spacecraft in Earth Orbit

On March 16, 1966, command pilot Neil Armstrong and pilot David Scott successfully docked their Gemini VIII spacecraft with the Agena target vehicle, the first-ever linking of two spacecraft together in Earth orbit. This crucial spaceflight technology milestone would prove vital to the success of future moon landing missions. Catching up with already-orbiting spacecraft also has been essential during missions to the International Space Station.

The astronauts aboard the Gemini spacecraft took this side view photograph of the Agena target vehicle at a distance of 45 feet during an inspection prior to docking. The two spacecraft were in the third orbit of the mission, above the west coast of Mexico.

Because of problems with the Gemini spacecraft control system, the crew was forced to undock after approximately 30 minutes, as the spacecraft-target vehicle combination had begun to encounter increasing yaw and roll rates <http://www.nasa.gov/feature/geminis-first-docking-turns-to-wild-ride-in-orbit>. The crew regained control of their spacecraft by using the reentry control system (RCS), and the decision was made in Mission Control to follow mission rules that dictated once the RCS was activated, the crew must be brought home. The Gemini VIII landed early in a secondary landing area in the Pacific, splashing down <http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_410.html> within two miles of the predicted impact point 10 hours, 41 minutes after liftoff.

NASA Selects Proposals to Build Better Solar Technologies for Deep Space Missions

NASA’s Game Changing Development (GCD) program has selected four proposals to develop solar array technologies that will aid spacecraft in exploring destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars. NASA’s future deep space missions will require solar arrays that can operate in high-radiation and low-temperature environments. Developing a new generation of solar power technologies that focuses on these attributes will improve mission performance, increase solar array life, and ultimately may allow solar-powered vehicles to explore deeper into space than ever before. “These awards will greatly enhance our ability to further develop and enhance LILT (low-intensity low temperature) performance by employing new solar cell designs,” said Lanetra Tate, the GCD program executive in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. “The ultimate goal of increasing end of life performance and enhanced space power applications will greatly impact how we execute extended missions, especially to the outer planets.”

 The four proposals selected for contract negotiations are:
Transformational Solar Array for Extreme Environments -- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Maryland
Micro-Concentrator Solar Array Technology for Extreme Environments – The Boeing Company of Huntington Beach, California
Solar Array for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High-Radiation Environments, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California
Concentrator Solar Power Systems for Low-intensity Low Temperature and High Radiation Game Changing Technology Development -- ATK Space Systems of Goleta, California
Thirteen proposals were received from NASA centers, laboratories, research groups, and industry in response to the Extreme Environment Solar Power Appendix <https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/viewrepositorydocument/cmdocumentid=479107/solicitationId=%7BA5919332-50AB-7345-48BB-F0C499315A58%7D/viewSolicitationDocument=1/NNH15ZOA001N-15GCD-C3.pdf> to the SpaceTech-REDDI-2015 NASA Research Announcement. Initial contract awards are as much as $400,000, providing awardees with funding for nine months of system design, component testing and analysis. After completing  the initial nine months, NASA anticipates a second phase, and may select up to two of these technologies to receive up to $1.25 million to develop and test their hardware during the second stage of the project. In the third and final phase of the project, one awardee may be asked to continue the development and deliver scalable system hardware. NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, manages the GCD program for the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington. During the next 18 months, the directorate will release more solicitations with the goal of making significant investments that address high-priority challenges for achieving safe and affordable deep-space exploration. For more information about NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate, the Game Changing Development Program and cross-cutting space technologies of interest to the agency, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech <http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech>

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