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

Tue May 30 22:45:05 CDT 2017

Hi All,
 I know, this time of the year is so crazy for you…I hear about all the “boxing up” you have do and I can tell you honestly, for those of you who may not have seen this….it is a tremendous effort…it involves the teachers taking all their classroom teaching aids, for around 25 kids, that have accumulated over the year, putting them into boxes for summer storage…some who are teaching in the summer also have to set up their new classroom….it simply amazes me at how much teachers do….how much you give of yourselves, including your own money to buy supplies or fun things for the kids….I hope you get the summer off, you deserve the break while I know still being a mom taking care of her family….I can’t tell you enough how much I admire you and thank you for all you do…there is an interesting mission coming up next year to get closer to the sun…I ma sure the kids will enjoy this…on Thursday evening there is a Space X launch, 5:55 pm here which is not good timing but you can see the replay the next day on NASA TV or here: https://spaceflightnow.com still busy with school visits, always so much fun...wishing you a wonderful day...we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know, smile and have fun... Gabe

NASA to Air Launch of Next International Space Station Resupply Mission

NASA commercial cargo provider SpaceX is targeting its eleventh commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html> for 5:55 p.m. EDT Thursday, June 1. Launch coverage will begin on NASA Television and the agency’s website <https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv> at 5:15 p.m., followed by the post-launch news conference at 7:30 p.m. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will liftoff on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying almost 6,000 pounds of science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory in support of Expedition 52 and 53 crew members. The unpressurized trunk of the spacecraft also will transport solar panels <https://www.nasa.gov/feature/roll-out-solar-array-technology-benefits-for-nasa-commercial-sector>, tools for Earth-observation <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/muses> and equipment to study neutron stars <https://www.nasa.gov/nicer>. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit. It then will deploy its solar arrays and begin a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to reach the space station. When it arrives to the space station, Expedition 52 Flight Engineers Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson of NASA will grapple Dragon. Live coverage of the rendezvous and capture will begin at 8:30 a.m. Sunday, June 4, on NASA TV, with installation coverage set to begin at 11:30 a.m. If the launch does not occur on June 1, the next launch opportunity is 5:07 p.m. Saturday, June 3, with NASA TV coverage starting at 4:30 p.m. The Dragon spacecraft will remain at the space station until approximately July 2, when it will return to Earth with research and return cargo in a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Baja California. Media at Kennedy will have the opportunity to participate in special tours and briefings May 31 and June 1, as well as view the launch. The deadline for media to apply for accreditation for this launch has passed, but for more information about media accreditation, contact Jennifer Horner at 321-867-6598 or jennifer.p.horner at nasa.gov <mailto:jennifer.p.horner at nasa.gov>. This will be the 100th launch, and sixth SpaceX launch, from this pad. Previous launches include 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the unmanned Skylab in 1973, 82 shuttle flights and five SpaceX launches. For an updated schedule of prelaunch briefings, events and NASA TV coverage, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/spacex-crs-11-briefings-and-events <https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/spacex-crs-11-briefings-and-events> Learn more about the SpaceX CRS-11 mission at: https://www.nasa.gov/spacex <https://www.nasa.gov/spacex>

NASA to Make Announcement About First Mission to Touch Sun
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/spp_leavingearth.jpg>
This illustrations depicts the Solar Probe Plus spacecraft leaving Earth, after separating from its launch vehicle and booster rocket, bound for the inner solar system and an unprecedented study of the Sun.
Credits: JHU/APL
NASA will make an announcement about the agency’s first mission to fly directly into our sun’s atmosphere during an event at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, May 31, from the University of Chicago’s William Eckhardt Research Center Auditorium. The event will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website <https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv>. The mission, Solar Probe Plus <http://solarprobe.jhuapl.edu/>, is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2018. Placed in orbit within four million miles of the sun’s surface, and facing heat and radiation unlike any spacecraft in history, the spacecraft will explore the sun’s outer atmosphere and make critical observations that will answer decades-old questions about the physics of how stars work. The resulting data will improve forecasts of major space weather events that impact life on Earth, as well as satellites and astronauts in space.

Participants include:
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington
Nicola Fox, mission project scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland
Eugene Parker, S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago
Eric Isaacs, executive vice president for research, innovation and national laboratories at the University of Chicago
Rocky Kolb, dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences at the University of Chicago
For more information on the mission and agency solar-related activities, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/sun <https://www.nasa.gov/sun>

A Whole New Jupiter: First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/17-051.jpg>
This image shows Jupiter’s south pole, as seen by NASA’s Juno spacecraft from an altitude of 32,000 miles (52,000 kilometers). The oval features are cyclones, up to 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) in diameter. Multiple images taken with the JunoCam instrument on three separate orbits were combined to show all areas in daylight, enhanced color, and stereographic projection.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Betsy Asher Hall/Gervasio Robles
 <applewebdata://A79B5172-104C-4381-8C2F-674E9C5CEC84#>
Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought. “We are excited to share these early discoveries, which help us better understand what makes Jupiter so fascinating,” said Diane Brown, Juno program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It was a long trip to get to Jupiter, but these first results already demonstrate it was well worth the journey.” Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, entering Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016. The findings from the first data-collection pass, which flew within about 2,600 miles (4,200 kilometers) of Jupiter's swirling cloud tops on Aug. 27, are being published this week in two papers in the journal Science, as well as 44 papers in Geophysical Research Letters. “We knew, going in, that Jupiter would throw us some curves,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “But now that we are here we are finding that Jupiter can throw the heat, as well as knuckleballs and sliders. There is so much going on here that we didn’t expect that we have had to take a step back and begin to rethink of this as a whole new Jupiter.” Among the findings that challenge assumptions are those provided by Juno’s imager, JunoCam. The images show both of Jupiter's poles are covered in Earth-sized swirling storms that are densely clustered and rubbing together. “We're puzzled as to how they could be formed, how stable the configuration is, and why Jupiter’s north pole doesn't look like the south pole,” said Bolton. “We're questioning whether this is a dynamic system, and are we seeing just one stage, and over the next year, we're going to watch it disappear, or is this a stable configuration and these storms are circulating around one another?” Another surprise comes from Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR), which samples the thermal microwave radiation from Jupiter’s atmosphere, from the top of the ammonia clouds to deep within its atmosphere. The MWR data indicates that Jupiter’s iconic belts and zones are mysterious, with the belt near the equator penetrating all the way down, while the belts and zones at other latitudes seem to evolve to other structures. The data suggest the ammonia is quite variable and continues to increase as far down as we can see with MWR, which is a few hundred miles or kilometers.  Prior to the Juno mission, it was known that Jupiter had the most intense magnetic field in the solar system. Measurements of the massive planet’s magnetosphere, from Juno’s magnetometer investigation (MAG), indicate that Jupiter’s magnetic field is even stronger than models expected, and more irregular in shape. MAG data indicates the magnetic field greatly exceeded expectations at 7.766 Gauss, about 10 times stronger than the strongest magnetic field found on Earth. “Juno is giving us a view of the magnetic field close to Jupiter that we’ve never had before,” said Jack Connerney, Juno deputy principal investigator and the lead for the mission’s magnetic field investigation at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Already we see that the magnetic field looks lumpy: it is stronger in some places and weaker in others. This uneven distribution suggests that the field might be generated by dynamo action closer to the surface, above the layer of metallic hydrogen. Every flyby we execute gets us closer to determining where and how Jupiter’s dynamo works.” Juno also is designed to study the polar magnetosphere and the origin of Jupiter's powerful auroras—its northern and southern lights. These auroral emissions are caused by particles that pick up energy, slamming into atmospheric molecules. Juno’s initial observations indicate that the process seems to work differently at Jupiter than at Earth. Juno is in a polar orbit around Jupiter, and the majority of each orbit is spent well away from the gas giant. But, once every 53 days, its trajectory approaches Jupiter from above its north pole, where it begins a two-hour transit (from pole to pole) flying north to south with its eight science instruments collecting data and its JunoCam public outreach camera snapping pictures. The download of six megabytes of data collected during the transit can take 1.5 days. “Every 53 days, we go screaming by Jupiter, get doused by a fire hose of Jovian science, and there is always something new,” said Bolton. “On our next flyby on July 11, we will fly directly over one of the most iconic features in the entire solar system -- one that every school kid knows -- Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. If anybody is going to get to the bottom of what is going on below those mammoth swirling crimson cloud tops, it’s Juno and her cloud-piercing science instruments.” NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for NASA. The principal investigator is Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, in Denver, built the spacecraft. More information on the Juno mission is available at: https://www.nasa.gov/juno <https://www.nasa.gov/juno>http://missionjuno.org <http://missionjuno.org/> Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno <http://www.facebook.com/NASAJuno> http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno <http://www.twitter.com/NASAJuno>

Astronaut Jack Fisher preparing for a space walk…..you can see how happy he is….they love the space walks...
Astronaut Jack Fischer Prepares for Friday Spacewalk

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20170530/50d71108/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: spacex-falcon-9-upgrade-version-pad.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 64506 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20170530/50d71108/attachment.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Ast Jack Fischer Prepares for Spacewalk.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 111103 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://educatemotivate.com/pipermail/spacetalk_educatemotivate.com/attachments/20170530/50d71108/attachment-0001.jpeg>