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

Sun Aug 1 08:47:02 CDT 2021

Good morning all,
  I hope everything is well,…I’m staying super busy with home, yard, and car projects, swimming, and gym... as well as corresponding with so many kids around the world…it is about 4 hours every morning and 4 hours every evening but if they take the time to write to me, I will find the time to reply…so many struggle...as teachers I am sure you see it, as parents I know you are aware of it although I think many kids hide it…so many have such lofty dreams in spite of very limited opportunities and no financial support. I admire them…encourage them, try to give them confidence, and help them to believe in themselves…I really am in awe of their determination…I have met them at school presentations, so they feel they know me as a friend, which is my goal…

 It is so crazy, many teachers in the USA are back to school this week, kids, next week…Florida is definitely having issues with the Delta Variant, we have recently had the worst day ever for new cases…there are no mask mandates, no social distancing…I am not sure what individual schools will do…the beginning of July, we were doing fantastic…since then, it has been getting worse every day…so many people refuse the vaccine…it seems much of the world is also struggling to gain control…I am not sure when it will be possible to return to school visits…if any one, in any country has any idea…please let me know… :-)

The space program continues to go forward…commercial ventures taking people "to space”…I’m ready :-) :-) I hope you shared with Wally Funk as she lived her dream, 60 years later…a major step in commercial travel to the ISS was supposed to happen on Friday but a mishap with a Russian supply ship delayed the Boeing Starliner check out trip to the ISS for Astronauts…

We have to stay positive and always be thankful… remembering to do our best, enjoy everything we do, believe in ourselves, and let those we care about most know (I always say this, we all need to take it to heart) …hugs & smiles… :-) :-)  STAY SAFE, TAKE CARE, Love ya, Gabe

TWO GREAT LINKS
Let NASA bring the Universe to Your Home: https://www.nasa.gov/specials/nasaathome/index.html
The Solar System and Beyond: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/index.html

THE LATEST FROM MARS: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov 

NASA Updates Coverage, Invites Public to Virtually Join Starliner Launch 
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/51344290465_6e8fea6af6_k.jpg>
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft onboard is seen on the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41.
Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky
 <applewebdata://1F9BF4A8-F5F6-4BF3-9AE9-DCFE09061EB9>
NASA will provide coverage of the upcoming prelaunch, launch, and docking activities for the agency’s Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) mission to the International Space Station <https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html>. OFT-2 is the second uncrewed flight for Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program <https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew/index.html>. The mission is targeted to launch at 1:20 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 3

Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. About 30 minutes after launch, Starliner will perform its orbital insertion burn to begin its daylong trip to the space station. The spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the space station at 1:37 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4. Launch and docking coverage will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app <https://www.nasa.gov/nasaapp>, and the agency’s website <http://www.nasa.gov/live>.
The spacecraft will carry more than 400 pounds of NASA cargo and crew supplies to the space station. It will return to Earth with more than 550 pounds of cargo, including the reusable Nitrogen Oxygen Recharge System tanks that provide breathable air to station crew members.
OFT-2 will demonstrate the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner spacecraft and Atlas V rocket, from launch, to docking, to a return to Earth with a desert landing in the western United States. The uncrewed mission will provide valuable data toward NASA certifying Boeing’s crew transportation system for regular flights to and from the space station.
The deadline has passed for media accreditation for in-person coverage of this launch. More information about media accreditation is available by emailing: ksc-media-accreditat at mail.nasa.gov <mailto:ksc-media-accreditat at mail.nasa.gov>.
NASA has updated its coronavirus (COVID-19) policies to remain consistent with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fvaccines%2Ffully-vaccinated-guidance.html&data=04%7C01%7Cjennifer.wolfinger%40nasa.gov%7C64afa1380e2a4518a86308d94245c241%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C637613689633650568%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=vS2bsd2X8LwjtN2V6%2FXIoBqSI0W%2FnFi3gqu4rbKMppA%3D&reserved=0>. Credentialed media will receive additional details from the media operations team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA’s Boeing OFT-2 mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern):
Tuesday, Aug. 3
12:30 p.m. – NASA TV launch coverage begins for a targeted 1:20 p.m. liftoff. NASA TV will have continuous coverage through Starliner orbital insertion.
3:30 p.m. (approximately) – Postlaunch news conference on NASA TV. Participants will include:
Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
TBD, NASA’s International Space Station Program.
John Vollmer, vice president and program manager, Boeing Commercial Crew Program.
John Elbon, chief operating officer, United Launch Alliance.
Media may ask questions in-person and via phone. Limited auditorium space will be available for in-person participation. For the dial-in number and passcode, please contact the Kennedy newsroom no later than 2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3, at: ksc-newsroom at mail.nasa.gov <mailto:ksc-newsroom at mail.nasa.gov>.
Wednesday, Aug. 4
10:30 a.m. – NASA TV rendezvous and docking coverage begins.
1:37 p.m. (scheduled) – Docking
Thursday, Aug. 5
8:30 a.m. – NASA TV hatch opening coverage begins
8:40 a.m. – Hatch opening
9:40 a.m. (approximately) –Welcoming remarks
NASA TV Launch Coverage
NASA TV live coverage will begin at 12:30 p.m. For NASA TV downlink information, schedules, and links to streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv>

Russia's Nauka module briefly tilts space station with unplanned thruster fire
 <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuRCifOtUBVfqAN?format=multipart>we have all said OOPS or awe, sh— :-) can happen in space too :-) 
 <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuRCifOtUBVfqAN?format=multipart>
 <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuRCifOtUBVfqAN>
(Thomas Pesquet/ESA/NASA)
Nauka's bumpy ride to the International Space Station <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuSCifOtUBVkkjo> didn't get any smoother after the new Russian science module docked on Thursday (July 29). A little over three hours after docking was complete, cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov were preparing to open the hatch when thrusters on Nauka <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuTCifOtUBVqypd> fired "inadvertently and unexpectedly," according to NASA spokesperson Rob Navias. As a result, the space station temporarily lost what engineers call "attitude control," which is quite rare, Navias noted. The crew is not in any danger. Full Story: Space <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDuRCifOtUBVfqAN?format=multipart> (7/29)  
 <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDvECifOtUBVdABt>  <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDvFCifOtUBVmDQe>  <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDvGCifOtUBVxbVd>  <http://r.smartbrief.com/resp/ohbdCKojllDqiDvHCifOtUBVIUhG>

NASA’s 10th Space Apps Challenge Increases Global Participation
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/space_apps_003.png>
Credits: NASA
To mark the 10th International Space Apps Challenge, the largest annual global hackathon in the world, NASA is collaborating with nine space agency partners to bring the event to even more communities Oct. 2-3, 2021.

Each year, NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spaceappschallenge.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Chqnews%40newsletters.nasa.gov%7C0d545b0153a843ee368608d952db00c8%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C637631922830470241%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2Bdh%2F3428wQ9jIhSVJOcIDSWT171AaZZMAt70Ce5kAs0%3D&reserved=0>, or Space Apps, engages thousands of people around the world to work with the agency’s open source data in a 48-hour sprint. Since its start in 2012, Space Apps has grown from 25 local events in 17 countries to more than 250 local events in 87 countries and territories. In 2020, the program engaged 26,000 people. Teams of technologists, scientists, designers, entrepreneurs, artists, and others collaborate to answer some of the most pressing challenges on Earth and in space.
“Over the last ten years, open data has been the cornerstone of Space Apps. Thanks to open innovation programs like Space Apps, the public knows that NASA’s vast data archives are freely available to browse online,” said Kevin Murphy, NASA’s chief data officer.
ESA (European Space Agency), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Canadian Space Agency, Australian Space Agency, Brazilian Space Agency, National Space Activities Commission of Argentina, Paraguayan Space Agency,  South African National Space Agency and the Bahrain National Space Agency will join NASA to extend collaboration in the Space Apps Challenge.
Space Apps inspires local communities to come together and think creatively. A panel of experts selects the winning teams, and awards include an invitation to visit a rocket launch in the United States.
Space agency partners will provide subject matter experts to judge project submissions and promote the event in their countries and regions. They also will have an opportunity to provide open data, interact with participants over hackathon weekend, record video tutorials, and help coordinate local events.
“We are really proud of Space Apps and the way the program has engaged people from all over the world,” said Sandra Cauffman, deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “Over the next ten years, we would like to work with our partner space agencies to expand our geographic footprint even more to include people from all regions of the world and populations that are underrepresented in the STEM fields such as women and girls.”
Past winners include a team of high schoolers and their mentors who created an idea for an augmented reality game that taught players about wildlife conservation and environmental preservation. Another team included a brother and sister in grade school who created a piece of music using NASA open data and homemade instruments that documented the environmental changes happening during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Space Apps is managed by NASA’s Earth Science Division <https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science>.
This year’s event will be entirely virtual. Participant registration is open through Oct. 3, 2021 at: https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/ <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spaceappschallenge.org%2F&data=04%7C01%7Chqnews%40newsletters.nasa.gov%7C0d545b0153a843ee368608d952db00c8%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C637631922830480206%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=65fLK17w3tLvDr52k3wCXOZDiJRiokGzCLLXOquAjmw%3D&reserved=0>

The Mercury 13
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/162061main_image_feature_691_ys_full.jpg>
Members of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs, also known as the "Mercury 13"), these seven women who once aspired to fly into space stand outside Launch Pad 39B near the Space Shuttle Discovery in this photograph from 1995. The so-called Mercury 13 was a group of women who trained to become astronauts for America's first human spaceflight program in the early 1960s. Although FLATs was never an official NASA program, the commitment of these women paved the way for others who followed. Visiting the space center as invited guests of STS-63 Pilot Eileen Collins, the first female shuttle pilot and later the first female shuttle commander, are (from left): Gene Nora Jessen, Wally Funk, Jerrie Cobb, Jerri Truhill, Sarah Rutley, Myrtle Cagle and Bernice Steadman.

Image credit: NASA 

NASA Perseverance Mars Rover to Acquire First Sample
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/1-pia24746-1041_0.jpg>
A light-colored “paver stone,” like the ones seen in this mosaic image, will be the likely target for first sampling by the Perseverance rover. This image was taken July 8, 2021, in the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough” geologic unit at Jezero Crater.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
NASA is making final preparations for its Perseverance Mars rover to collect its first-ever sample of Martian rock, which future planned missions will transport to Earth. The six-wheeled geologist is searching for a scientifically interesting target in a part of Jezero Crater <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/where-is-the-rover/> called the “Cratered Floor Fractured Rough <https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24596>.”

This important mission milestone is expected to begin within the next two weeks. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater Feb. 18, and NASA kicked off the rover mission’s science phase June 1, exploring a 1.5-square-mile (4-square-kilometer) patch of crater floor that may contain Jezero’s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock.
“When Neil Armstrong took the first sample from the Sea of Tranquility <https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11ContingencySample.html> 52 years ago, he began a process that would rewrite what humanity knew about the Moon,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters. “I have every expectation that Perseverance’s first sample from Jezero Crater, and those that come after, will do the same for Mars. We are on the threshold of a new era of planetary science and discovery.”
It took Armstrong 3 minutes and 35 seconds to collect that first Moon sample. Perseverance will require about 11 days to complete its first sampling, as it must receive its instructions from hundreds of millions of miles away while relying on the most complex and capable, as well as the cleanest, mechanism ever to be sent into space – the Sampling and Caching System.

Precision Instruments Working Together

The sampling sequence begins with the rover placing everything necessary for sampling within reach of its 7-foot (2-meter) long robotic arm <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-2020-rovers-7-foot-long-robotic-arm-installed>. It will then perform an imagery survey, so NASA’s science team can determine the exact location for taking the first sample, and a separate target site in the same area for “proximity science.”
“The idea is to get valuable data on the rock we are about to sample by finding its geologic twin and performing detailed in-situ analysis,” said science campaign co-leadVivian Sun, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “On the geologic double, first we use an abrading bit to scrape off the top layers of rock and dust to expose fresh, unweathered surfaces, blow it clean with our Gas Dust Removal Tool, and then get up close and personal with our turret-mounted proximity science instruments SHERLOC <mailto:https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8678/the-detective-aboard-nasas-perseverance-rover/>, PIXL <mailto:https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8759/nasas-new-mars-rover-will-use-x-rays-to-hunt-fossils/>, and WATSON <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/cameras/#WATSON>.”
SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), and the WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering) camera will provide mineral and chemical analysis of the abraded target. Perseverance’s SuperCam <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/supercam/>and Mastcam-Z <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-2020-gets-hd-eyes> instruments, both located on the rover’s mast, will also participate. While SuperCam fires its laser at the abraded surface, spectroscopically measuring the resulting plume and collecting other data, Mastcam-Z will capture high-resolution imagery.
Working together, these five instruments will enable unprecedented analysis of geological materials at the worksite.
“After our pre-coring science is complete, we will limit rover tasks for a sol, or a Martian day,” said Sun. “This will allow the rover to fully charge its battery for the events of the following day.”
Sampling day kicks off with the sample-handling arm within the Adaptive Caching Assembly <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8630/nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-gets-its-sample-handling-system/> retrieving a sample tube <https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/a-martian-roundtrip-nasas-perseverance-rover-sample-tubes>, heating it, and then inserting it into a coring bit. A device called the bit carousel transports the tube and bit to a rotary-percussive drill on Perseverance’s robotic arm <https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8994/signs-of-life-on-mars-nasas-perseverance-rover-begins-the-hunt/>, which will then drill the untouched geologic “twin” of the rock studied the previous sol, filling the tube with a core sample roughly the size of a piece of chalk.
Perseverance’s arm will then move the bit-and-tube combination back into bit carousel, which will transfer it back into the Adaptive Caching Assembly, where the sample will be measured for volume, photographed, hermetically sealed, and stored. The next time the sample tube contents are seen, they will be in a clean room facility on Earth, for analysis using scientific instruments much too large to send to Mars.

“Not every sample Perseverance is collecting will be done in the quest for ancient life, and we don’t expect this first sample to provide definitive proof one way or the other,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley, of Caltech. “While the rocks located in this geologic unit are not great time capsules for organics, we believe they have been around since the formation of Jezero Crater and incredibly valuable to fill gaps in our geologic understanding of this region – things we’ll desperately need to know if we find life once existed on Mars.”

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology <https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/>, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is the first step in NASA’s Mars Sample Return Campaign. Subsequent NASA missions, now in development in cooperation with the European Space Agency, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis <https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/> missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California. To learn more about Perseverance, visit: https://nasa.gov/perseverance <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnasa.gov%2Fperseverance&data=04%7C01%7Chqnews%40newsletters.nasa.gov%7Cd406233e4da94eb546b208d94c69d21c%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C637624839652981146%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=wMCQSblhwRSoeMpjLc%2BRljS5CnsoGUJYdHsknzVjhTg%3D&reserved=0> andhttps://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ <https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/>

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